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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation

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Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.

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Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective

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Speaker 1: to see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Amen, Well,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Elevation Church. On behalf of Pastor Stephen and

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Speaker 1: our family. I'm so happy that you're joining us. Type

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Speaker 1: it in the chat. Let me know where you're joining

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Speaker 1: us from. We have people joining us from all over

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Speaker 1: the world all weekend long. Let's see, We've got Melissa

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Speaker 1: from Michigan. We've got Eric from Kenya, Joel is joining

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Speaker 1: us from Mississippi, Hazel from India, literally all over the world.

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Speaker 1: I just love it. I love worshiping with Elevation Church.

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Speaker 1: It's an amazing part of what I get to do

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Speaker 1: with my life. And I know you're grateful that too. Hey,

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Speaker 1: shout out to Faith Verdick. If you don't know her,

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Speaker 1: she is the woman who gave our pastor life and

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Speaker 1: today is her birthday. So Faith, if you're watching, speak

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Speaker 1: for all of us when I say thank you. You

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Speaker 1: are one special woman. You deserve an extra crown for

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Speaker 1: raising Stephen Ferdick and not killing him, because I now

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Speaker 1: know what it's like to raise teenagers. And so thank you.

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Speaker 1: We all thank you. Are your kids all set E

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Speaker 1: kids online? How many of you are grateful for E

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Speaker 1: kids Online? I know it's not the same thing as

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Speaker 1: dropping your kids off, but at least they're watching something

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Speaker 1: that's wonderful, and that's teaching them about God and giving

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Speaker 1: you just a minute to be able to worship together.

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Speaker 1: How many of you are grateful for our worship team?

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Speaker 1: I just love our church. I love how they lead

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Speaker 1: us every weekend. But if you're like me, elevation worship

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Speaker 1: is not just something that you watch on the weekends,

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Speaker 1: but it's a sound that's coming out of your home.

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Speaker 1: The songs and the sermons and the stories of this

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Speaker 1: church are getting me through this season, and I know

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Speaker 1: they are too. How many of you were with us

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Speaker 1: last week when my husband preached about the plot twist?

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Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, my husband is not preached on

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Speaker 1: Father's Day in like a decade, and I was just

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Speaker 1: thinking last night that apparently, in addition to all of

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Speaker 1: the special anointings that are on pastor Stephen's life. He

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Speaker 1: also has a special Father's Day anointing. Am I wrong?

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Speaker 1: If you saw that message, you know how incredible it was.

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Speaker 1: And if you missed it, you need to go back

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Speaker 1: and watch it. It It was called plot Twist. I think

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Speaker 1: it's in my top ten. I have a lot in

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Speaker 1: my top ten, but I think that was in my

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Speaker 1: top ten. I just love how God speaks to me

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Speaker 1: every single time the Word is preached on this stage,

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Speaker 1: and today is going to be no exception. My dear

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Speaker 1: friend Lisa Harper will be bringing the Word and this woman,

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Speaker 1: this woman can preach, and I'm not gonna lie. I

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Speaker 1: love a good girl preacher, and Lisa is one of

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Speaker 1: my favorites. Lisa and her daughter, Missy, live in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Speaker 1: They drove down here to be with us this weekend.

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Speaker 1: So get ready because this woman knows the Word of God,

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Speaker 1: and every time I'm around her, I want to read

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Speaker 1: my Bible more and i want to be a better Christian.

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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna stop talking. I hope you're having a

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Speaker 1: great weekend. It's a great weekend here in Charlotte. Would

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Speaker 1: you help me welcome Lisa Harper to the stage. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're trying so hard to hug responsibly. I was thinking

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Speaker 1: driving here. We drove here yesterday from Nashville, Tennessee, and

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Speaker 1: I was just thinking about the breath. Y'all can sit down.

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Speaker 1: You're so darling at home. I know you're already sitting

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Speaker 1: down half the hollar, like vegged out and stretching pants

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Speaker 1: on the couch. But I was thinking about the breadth

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Speaker 1: of elevation, what God has done in a really short

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Speaker 1: season to take the gospel all around the world, and

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Speaker 1: I thought, that kind of trajectory, I think it's almost unprecedented.

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Speaker 1: It's obviously miraculous God has authored the favor that he's

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Speaker 1: given elevation. But I thought, you don't get that broad

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Speaker 1: without having really really deep roots. And I love that

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Speaker 1: woman right there because she's got really really deep roots.

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Speaker 1: And you may only see her in a stream. You

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Speaker 1: may only see Holly on a screen. But I've been

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Speaker 1: through a couple of valleys in the last ten years,

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Speaker 1: and Holly Ferdick was one of the first person to

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Speaker 1: text prayers to speak life to me. So I am

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Speaker 1: delighted to be back in this house. I always come

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Speaker 1: here with just a little bit of trepidation is I

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Speaker 1: too watch Stephen Ferdick every weekend, and so some of

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Speaker 1: you are like, oh, you've got to be kidding me.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Holly made me sound good, but I am

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Speaker 1: no Stephen Ferdick. This is going to be like a

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Speaker 1: mule at the Kentucky Derby. But hang with me, because

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Speaker 1: I think God has something for us, if nothing else,

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Speaker 1: he has something for me. Because Chris, I have been

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Speaker 1: waiting with baited breath. I don't even know what that means,

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Speaker 1: but I've been so excited about being led in worship

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Speaker 1: live by y'all. I know what Pastor Stephen said last

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Speaker 1: week is true that as Christ followers, we carry the

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Speaker 1: church in our hearts and minds, and so the church

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Speaker 1: is open as long as you and I are open

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Speaker 1: to the working person in the Holy Spirit. But I've

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Speaker 1: just got to be honest with y'all and tell you

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Speaker 1: that my heart has been in a really stinker prodigal

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Speaker 1: season lately, and every time it sees the Zoom logo,

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Speaker 1: it just kind of crosses its arms and refuses to listen.

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Speaker 1: I miss corporate worship. As soon as y'all started, I

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Speaker 1: just thought, I just I just feel like I want

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Speaker 1: to sink into this one to marinate in this It's

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Speaker 1: it's been incredible to be here with y'all. This has

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Speaker 1: been a less than lovely season. I don't have to

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Speaker 1: remind y'all of the reasons why, but I'll start with homeschool.

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Speaker 1: I love my kid. For those of you who don't

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Speaker 1: know my story, I became a mom the same year

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Speaker 1: I went through menopause at fifty through the miracle of adoption.

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Speaker 1: And my kid is the most amazing child in the

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Speaker 1: world except for years, of course, that's a tie. But

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Speaker 1: but homeschooling full time once COVID caused schools in Tennessee

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Speaker 1: to close, that was that was that was a faith opportunity,

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Speaker 1: And I do have to confess that once I watched

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Speaker 1: Tiger King and countadate as biology for her. But I

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Speaker 1: I brought a two minute video that I want to

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Speaker 1: show y'all just this proof in case there's any truancy

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Speaker 1: officers in Epham all over the world. I bought proof

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Speaker 1: that we actually did have classes. This was an al

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Speaker 1: fresco class we had on etiquette. Just a little short,

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Speaker 1: two minute video. They'll show you what went on during

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Speaker 1: school at our house during COVID nineteen am, I, how

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Speaker 1: did you make that trashy noise again? Oh? The that noise? Yes, ma'am.

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Speaker 1: You put your you put your teeth, your top teeth

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Speaker 1: over your bottom lip, and then you like force air

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Speaker 1: out of one side, like blow a little more air

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Speaker 1: and just out of the side, like honey. I think

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Speaker 1: you're too sweet to make trashy noises. Maybe we should

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Speaker 1: sing a song, I willship song. Maybe we should sing

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Speaker 1: a worship show. Which one do you want to sing?

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Speaker 1: Probably Jesus with dension, good grace. Oh I love that one.

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Speaker 1: Okay you started peace? Oh dan Ah savags in his blood.

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Speaker 1: That's a good one. It is a good one. I

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Speaker 1: love it. How does the chorus go of that one?

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Speaker 1: I actually think that is the chorus and Jesus our salvation,

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Speaker 1: our reathomtion. What comes after is in his blood jeezesus

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Speaker 1: blood of it? Right? Friend forfu ish keen do come?

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Speaker 1: That's what comes to us to that. I love that, tutor,

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Speaker 1: I do too. That's better than making those bad, trashy noises,

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Speaker 1: isn't it it is? Do you think you're sweeter than me?

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Speaker 1: I think so. Of YouTube, most of y'all are probably

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Speaker 1: sweeter than me. And have not been tutoring your children

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Speaker 1: and breaking when noises. It's been a long three months,

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Speaker 1: and I just my hats are is off to you

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Speaker 1: if you have been singing worship tunes like my kid

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Speaker 1: instead of making trashy noises like me. But to be

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Speaker 1: really honest, I'd like to kick you in the shins

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Speaker 1: if you haven't suffered at all over the last three months,

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Speaker 1: because it has just been a rough go of it.

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Speaker 1: And again, I don't have to remind you of why

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Speaker 1: it's been rough. I know we've all been dealing with

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Speaker 1: our own kind of rough in our little corner of

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Speaker 1: the world. We had an especially intimate difficult thing happened recently.

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Speaker 1: Someone in my immediate family committed suicide nine weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: and his death just ripped the fabric of our lives.

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Speaker 1: And over the last two months, I just feel like

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Speaker 1: some of my hope has been leaking out of those holes.

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Speaker 1: I just have had a harder time than normal hanging

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Speaker 1: on to hope. It's been almost like wet soap. I'm

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Speaker 1: just having a hard time hanging on to it. And

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Speaker 1: my hope, my prayer is that none of you are

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Speaker 1: having to gree the loss of a loved one on

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Speaker 1: top of everything else that we're slogging through. For those

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Speaker 1: of you who have, I'm so sorry if you're dealing

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Speaker 1: with the loss of a loved one. Please please please

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Speaker 1: put some of those details in the chat, because we

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Speaker 1: would love to pray with you and for you. But

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Speaker 1: regardless of what's been shoplifting your hope lately, I think

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Speaker 1: all of us can agree that that at least some

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Speaker 1: measure of our hope has been threatened in the last

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Speaker 1: couple of months. And so I thought it would be

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Speaker 1: so appropriate, so prudent, prudent, maybe not for you, but

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Speaker 1: certainly for me to do a deep dive in scripture

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Speaker 1: and try to recover some of the hope that these

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Speaker 1: circumstances have shoplifted. And so I want to talk before

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Speaker 1: we dive into scripture. If you're on the couch and

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Speaker 1: you've got a Bible at your house, get up off

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Speaker 1: the counts and grab that pumpy and come back, because

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Speaker 1: we're going to be in the Bible. If you have

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Speaker 1: kids in the room, I want to reiterate what Chad

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Speaker 1: said about sending them over to kids YouTube, because it's

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Speaker 1: going to get a little hot in here pretty soon.

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Speaker 1: So I want you to be careful to not have

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Speaker 1: anybody under thirteen in your living room. Just send them

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Speaker 1: off for YouTube. Don't let them watch Tiger King like

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Speaker 1: I did with my child, because now I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be paying for therapy later. But anyway, before we dive

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Speaker 1: into the text, our first text is going to be

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Speaker 1: at the very big beginning of the book, I want

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Speaker 1: to remind us all that we get our New Testament

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Speaker 1: from Greek and the Greek concept of hope. The Greeks

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Speaker 1: pronounced hope. It's transliterated elpis, but it's pronounced l piece,

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Speaker 1: which I think that's cool. That peace is kind of

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Speaker 1: in the Greek idea of hope. But the Greek concept

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Speaker 1: of hope was not an objective assessment. They didn't look

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Speaker 1: around at their circumstances and go, oh, here's what justifies

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Speaker 1: my hope this season. It was actually a subjective experience.

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Speaker 1: They looked back over their lives and if there was

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Speaker 1: proof of hope in their backstory, then they said, I

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Speaker 1: will be expectant about future hope. If they could look

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Speaker 1: back to tangible hope, they said, then I know there

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Speaker 1: will be proof of hope. There will definitely hope in

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Speaker 1: the future. Let me explain it like this, COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: has effectively swaggered into my house like Dennis the Rock Johnson.

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Speaker 1: And evidently the Keto boy in my mind was a

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Speaker 1: much weinier crop pants wearing Wayfish guy because the rock

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Speaker 1: just killed Keto up in our house. And as a result,

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Speaker 1: I have had an extreme uptick in carb consumption. And

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Speaker 1: as a result of that, I definitely am am up

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Speaker 1: about nineteen due to COVID, And so there is a

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Speaker 1: very real probability that I'm going to faint up in

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Speaker 1: this elevation house this morning because these banks are cutting

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Speaker 1: off my circulation. I shouldn't have done that, because if

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Speaker 1: I did that harder, you could lose an eye. But

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Speaker 1: here's the deal. Here is the positive thing about my

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Speaker 1: expansive tragedy. I saved pictures from last fall and last

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Speaker 1: fall I was really doing good on a low carb

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Speaker 1: life plan, and so I saved pictures of when I

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Speaker 1: was actually wearing pants with zippers. So I have a witness.

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Speaker 1: I have a tangible testimony that it is possible for

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Speaker 1: me to wear pants that do not have an elastic

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Speaker 1: waistban Can I get a witness? Are you with me?

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Speaker 1: There is tangible proof in my past that I could

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Speaker 1: go there again. Hope is not based on now, not

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Speaker 1: for christ followers. I love pastor seement Stephen sermon last

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Speaker 1: week on plot Twist. I loved that one. It's probably

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Speaker 1: in my top ten two Holly, I will never again

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Speaker 1: look at the geographical phrase Samaria and the New Testament

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Speaker 1: without thinking of his wordplay, his application some area, there

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Speaker 1: will be some areas will be reluctant to go through.

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Speaker 1: I love that. But the thing that I resonated with

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Speaker 1: most of all was when he talked about generational wells.

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Speaker 1: When he talked about generational wells, because what was implied

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Speaker 1: was that we will not have to worry about dying

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Speaker 1: of thirst in the now because there was ample provision

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Speaker 1: in our history. And that's where we're going to go

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Speaker 1: this morning. We're going to start at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the book. So if you brought the book, turn to

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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter three. Now before we get there, John Michael,

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Speaker 1: will you throw me my glasses out of my purse,

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Speaker 1: they're in a blue case. Before we go there, we'll

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Speaker 1: be in Genesis chapter three beginning when verse twenty one.

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Speaker 1: I want to give you just a quick review you

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Speaker 1: probably know this, But at this point, at the very

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Speaker 1: beginning of redemptive history, the Creator, Redeemer, Father God has

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Speaker 1: already breathed the universe into existence out of nothing. And

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Speaker 1: after he looked at the sea and the sky and

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Speaker 1: the stars, all the creepy crawleys and eaters and elephants,

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Speaker 1: he said, something's missing, And so they got together. And

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Speaker 1: that's not a misspeak. Genesis one twenty six and twenty

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Speaker 1: seven explains to us that our God is in us.

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Speaker 1: He's a trinitarian god, God the Father, God the Sign,

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Speaker 1: and God the Holy Spirit. It says, God has an us, Augustine,

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Speaker 1: Saint Augustine, I'll have huge crushes and all the dead guys,

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Speaker 1: I have to be platonic about them because they're dead

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Speaker 1: and gone. I only have platonic crushes about living theologians.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, Saint Augustine says that only the Christian God

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Speaker 1: is a perfect community unto himself Genesis one, twenty six

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Speaker 1: and twenty seven. Then let us make man in our image.

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Speaker 1: We were hard wired for a relationship. That's why when

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Speaker 1: some of y'all miss get together with your epham, you go.

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Speaker 1: I just didn't have a great week we were hard

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Speaker 1: wired for relationship. That's a whole nother story, but we'll

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Speaker 1: go there soon. Sorry, I'm tinkling, and not just because

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Speaker 1: this thinks. So God then breathes man into existence, and

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Speaker 1: then God takes a nap. I think it is so

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Speaker 1: stink and cool that our father God created Rest modeled

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Speaker 1: Rest in Genesis chapter two, y'all, that's before the fall.

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Speaker 1: The fall happens in Genesis chapter three. That means Rest

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Speaker 1: was not some divine accommodation for human weakness. Rest was

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Speaker 1: part of his perfect gift. Us. Isn't that good as

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Speaker 1: a whole other sermon? So anyway, He's created the heavens

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Speaker 1: and the earth. He's created man, he's taken a nap,

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Speaker 1: wakes up really refreshed from his nap, looks around and goes,

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Speaker 1: something is missing, something beautiful is missing, and he creates woman.

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Speaker 1: And that's where the story starts getting sticky because a

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Speaker 1: lot of people then put hierarchy in the story. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lay it here too long because I

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Speaker 1: don't want to take the heat. I want Stephen to

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Speaker 1: take the heat. But the Hebrew word used for woman

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Speaker 1: is easier. It's translated helper in our Bibles. You know

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Speaker 1: who else describes himself as an easer fourteen times in

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Speaker 1: Genesis God, Man and Woman. And that was never intended

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Speaker 1: to be a hierarchical relationship with suppression and with oppression.

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Speaker 1: I was always intended to be a mutual, helpful relationship.

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Speaker 1: Not going to go there because Eve does drop the ball,

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Speaker 1: because soon after she's created, she gets deceived by this

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Speaker 1: really rotten, slithery fruits salesman named Satan, and she takes

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Speaker 1: a bite out of some of his rotten fruit, and

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Speaker 1: the trajectory of mankind has been downhill ever since. We're

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Speaker 1: joining the story right after she has rebelled against God

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Speaker 1: and hooked up with the fruit salesman Genesis three, chapter

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Speaker 1: twenty one. And the Lord God made for Adam and

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Speaker 1: for his wife garments of skin and clothe them. Then

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Speaker 1: the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like

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Speaker 1: one of us, and knowing good and evil. Now lest

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Speaker 1: he reach out his hand and take also over the

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Speaker 1: tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the

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Speaker 1: Lord God send him out from the garden of Eden

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Speaker 1: to work the ground from which he was taken. He

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Speaker 1: drove out the man, and at the east of the

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Speaker 1: Garden of Eden. He placed the Cherubim in a flaming

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Speaker 1: sword that turned every which way to guard the way

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Speaker 1: to the Tree of life. Now, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: y'all get mental pictures when you read the Bible. Mom

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Speaker 1: was Baptist, Dad was Pentecostal. So I'm Babtcostal, which means

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Speaker 1: I love to wiggle in worship, but I have no rhythm.

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Speaker 1: And so I've heard all these stories since I was

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Speaker 1: teeny You've seen most of them flannel graft. And when

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Speaker 1: I used to hear that story as a kid, I

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Speaker 1: immediately got a mental picture of Adam and Eve. I

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Speaker 1: pictured Adam as being very lean, and this is way

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Speaker 1: before Peyloa, when it was cool for guys to be lean.

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Speaker 1: He was just kind of a lean, weak looking man,

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Speaker 1: stringy hair extensions, and kind of threw his own wife

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Speaker 1: under the bus. You know, I didn't need the fruit

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Speaker 1: she did. And oh, cover my junk. I mean, he

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Speaker 1: just he just he. Adam does nothing for me. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't blow my skirt up. And then Eve, I think

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Speaker 1: of her as the woman I don't want to be

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Speaker 1: because she's I mean, let's just face it, she's trashy,

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Speaker 1: you know, she does exactly what God tells her not

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Speaker 1: to do, and that's after she's paraded around nude. I

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Speaker 1: mean she is trashy. So I picture her like the

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Speaker 1: trashy girls that hung out of the skating rink and

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Speaker 1: town I grew up in in central Florida. So I

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Speaker 1: picture her with kind of an ac DC tube top

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Speaker 1: and Daisy Dukes and like, you know, really bad hair,

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Speaker 1: and she's got tat since she's only, oh, I don't know, fifteen,

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Speaker 1: I mean, she's just you know, this girl is rough,

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Speaker 1: bad news. So when it says God drove them out

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Speaker 1: of the garden of Eden, my first response used to

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Speaker 1: be good riddance. You know, he's a sissy and she's trashy.

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Speaker 1: Good riddance, And I kind of pictured him just booting

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Speaker 1: them out of glory. Y'all. That's not at all the

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Speaker 1: contexts of Genesis three. That word drove out comes from

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Speaker 1: the Hebrew word garosh. I can't pronounce it well because

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Speaker 1: I don't get enough gutturle in my throat, but it's garash,

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Speaker 1: and it's used redemptively in Exodus twice. For the moment

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Speaker 1: this season when God drove his people the theocracy of

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Speaker 1: Israel out of captivity toward the promise. Like us, they

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Speaker 1: were about as smart as sheep, so they had gotten

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Speaker 1: really comfortable in captivity. God had to rock them out

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Speaker 1: of a rut to get them from captivity to the promise.

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Speaker 1: The word is he's in nexus twice, totally redemptive context.

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Speaker 1: They're not being hurt, they're not being ushered toward their

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Speaker 1: own death. They're actually being ushered toward their own freedom

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Speaker 1: and life. But it says they were driven out toward

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Speaker 1: freedom away from Egypt, redemptive context. And then in First

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Speaker 1: Samuel chapter twenty one, that's after David he's running away

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Speaker 1: from Saul. Remember Saul was the first king of Israel.

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Speaker 1: He was a narcissistic nut job, was really jealous of

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Speaker 1: David because David had more followers than him, and so

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Speaker 1: he's trying to kill him, and so David flees for

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Speaker 1: his life and he ends up fleeing into enemy territory.

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Speaker 1: Remember who their arch enemy was. Gonna talk back, you're

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Speaker 1: still social distance and spit. Let's go Philistines. So he

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Speaker 1: finds himself in Philistine territory, finds himself standing before the

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Speaker 1: King of the Philistines, the King of goth this first

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Speaker 1: Samuel nineteen, if you want to check me. And when

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Speaker 1: he stands before the King of goth he realizes, oh goodness,

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Speaker 1: it's gracious, I'm wearing Goliath's sword. Do you remember who

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Speaker 1: Goliath was. I mean, he was like the big dog

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Speaker 1: daddy of the Philistines. You remember, He's this probably eight

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Speaker 1: foot man. When David before he'd even started using you know,

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Speaker 1: claton or anything for his skin. Is that for girls?

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Speaker 1: Or is that for acne? Is it for acney? Oh? Allergies?

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Speaker 1: That's right. I was trying to do an acne medication.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't pull one fast enough. So anyway, before David's

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Speaker 1: even gone through puberty, he ends up killing Goliath, you

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Speaker 1: remember the story, with a slingstone and slingshot stone, whatever,

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Speaker 1: and so he kills the giant. Well, from that day forward,

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Speaker 1: David is enemy number one to the Philistines. He utterly

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Speaker 1: humiliated them. Now Here it is years later, and he's

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Speaker 1: up in the middle of Philistine standing in front of

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Speaker 1: the King of the Philistines, wearing Goliath's sword. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you talk about waving a red flag in front of

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Speaker 1: a bull. I mean, surely he is about to get

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Speaker 1: his own head cut off. And that's why David starts

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Speaker 1: to feign madness. And he did what no other Israelite

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Speaker 1: man would do. He drooled in his beard. And by

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Speaker 1: feigning madness and dribbling in his beard, which was a

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Speaker 1: huge no no for Orthodox Jewish Men in that era

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Speaker 1: of history. Gath, the men of Gath, the soldiers of

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Speaker 1: the king of Goths, say we need to let this

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Speaker 1: guy go. Otherwise, an innocent, crazy man's blood is going

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Speaker 1: to be on your hands, and it says, and thus

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Speaker 1: David was drove out. You see God's merciful sovereignty there.

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Speaker 1: He's about to get killed and God drives him out

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Speaker 1: for his own good for survival. It's immediately after God

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Speaker 1: rescues him from the King of Gath the David writes

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Speaker 1: Psalm thirty four, one of my favorite psalms, where he says,

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Speaker 1: those who look to the Lord, their faces are radiance.

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Speaker 1: They'll never be covered with shame. He's just totally shamed

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Speaker 1: himself by drilling in his beard, pretending to be a madman.

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Speaker 1: God uses that drives him out from certain death, and

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Speaker 1: immediately after that he says, my face will never be

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Speaker 1: covered with shame. Because of how you drove me out

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Speaker 1: to victory God. It's in that same psalm that we

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Speaker 1: get God is close to the broken arty. He's near

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Speaker 1: to us when our lives feel crushed, which is just

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Speaker 1: a theme verse for this season in our world and

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Speaker 1: the world at large. So now when I think of

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Speaker 1: Genesis three, I don't think of a girl on a

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Speaker 1: tube top. I think of our gracious God taken his

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Speaker 1: kids by the arms and redemptively ushering them out of Eden.

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Speaker 1: Not because he's a unibrowed librarian and is about to

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Speaker 1: smack him over the head with the Bible, but because

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Speaker 1: he knows what they don't, and he knows that they

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Speaker 1: come back and they eat from the tree of Life,

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Speaker 1: they will be forever frozen in Eden, forever separated from

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Speaker 1: the intimacy with Him that they were created for. So

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Speaker 1: he begins to drive them out, heard them toward recreating

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Speaker 1: the intimacy that he had fashioned them for. It's such

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Speaker 1: a redemptive passage, y'all. There is so much hope in scripture.

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Speaker 1: When people tell me the Bible is boring, I'm like, no,

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Speaker 1: you may have sat under a boring Bible, teacher. The

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Speaker 1: Bible itself is not boring, nor is it punitive. This

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Speaker 1: is a divine love story. It's filled with hope. Okay,

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Speaker 1: head to the right, and if you can prove to

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Speaker 1: me that you've actually been spending your quiet time in numbers,

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Speaker 1: specifically numbers chapter twenty seven, I will send you twenty bucks.

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Speaker 1: Not that we advocate betting here at Elevation, but I

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Speaker 1: want to take you to another passage. And this one

424
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: is just stunny. It's just one that we usually skip

425
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: over because it sounds like it's one of those boring

426
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: Old Testament passages. Isn't it funny how so many of

427
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: us think of the God of the Old Testament as

428
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: like this angry autocrat and the God of the New

429
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: Testament as Jesus with brettgirl hair extensions, like all warm

430
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: and fuzzy. You know, if that is true, then Genesis one,

431
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 1: twenty six and twenty seven isn't. If that's true, then

432
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: God is bipolar. It's not true. Drives me nuts when

433
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: people say, well, Jesus said in the red letters, I'm like,

434
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: he didn't say the black letters, because last I know,

435
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 1: it's Godfather. God's said and got the Holy Spirit. But

436
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: when we stop stepping onion, based toes Okay numbers twenty seven.

437
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: Then drew near the daughters of Zilofah had the son

438
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: of Heafer, the son of Gilead, son of Maker, and

439
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: a lot of other words. The names of his daughters

440
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 1: were Mila, Noah, Hogla. Now I need to stop there

441
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 1: for just a minute, because I know a lot of you,

442
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 1: especially you younger mamas, really want to name your kid's

443
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 1: biblical names to impress your small group. Don't be working

444
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 1: with Hogla, Hogla. That's just hard. That's not a good name.

445
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,440
Speaker 1: It's in the Bible, but it's not a good name.

446
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: Don't replicate that name. Hogla, Milka and Tirza. And they

447
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: stood before Moses and before Elizer, the priests, and before

448
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the

449
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: tent of meetings, saying, our father died in the wilderness.

450
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: He was not among the company of those who gathered

451
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 1: themselves together against the Lord and the company of Karab,

452
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 1: but died for his own sin. And he had no sons.

453
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: Why should the name of our father be taken away

454
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: from his clan because he had no son? Give to

455
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: us a possession among our fathers. Brothers. Now you better bet.

456
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,280
Speaker 1: At this point in ancient history, everybody who's watching this

457
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: take place start equipping out their cell phones. They're like,

458
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 1: I Am going to instant story this because they are

459
00:27:57,720 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: just about to be fright into a great spot of oblivion.

460
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 1: Because at this point in ancient history, women had basically

461
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: the same value as a good milk cow. Women were

462
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 1: regarded as chattel, something a man could own, and the

463
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 1: law of the land was primogeniture. Primogeniture, if you remember

464
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: from high school or college, history, meant that the firstborn

465
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 1: son inherited all of his father's estate upon his father's death.

466
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 1: That's what reigns during this period of Israel's history. And

467
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 1: so these daughters of Zilofah had they have the hut

468
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 1: spot to go against the law of culture, come before

469
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: Moses and the high Priest and go, we think we

470
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: should get daddy's land. You just imagine all of Israel's

471
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 1: like they just assume the lightning bolt is just about

472
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: to come out and fry these cheeky jacks. But that's

473
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: not what happens. All this is stunning. I so want

474
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: to read this to my militant friends who are burning

475
00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: their bras and tell them that floppiness is not necessar.

476
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 1: Moses brought their case before the Lord verse five, and

477
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zilofah had

478
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance

479
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 1: among their father's brothers, and transfer the inheritance of their

480
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: father to them. And you shall speak to the people

481
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: of Israel, saying, if a man dies and has no son,

482
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. Y'all.

483
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: What that passage that we tend to skip over says

484
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 1: is that our creator, Redeemer is not some autocrat or

485
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 1: a massagynist to enjoy is punishing his people, But instead

486
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: he has always been actively redeeming culture. He's always been

487
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: actively restoring the dignity that others have stolen from his

488
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: image bears. This book is filled with generational walls of hope, y'all.

489
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: Just over and over and over again, guys, if you'll

490
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: stay with me for just one mo more second, I've

491
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: got one more estrogen passage, but I'll be fast. Deuteronomy,

492
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: chapter twenty two, Verse twenty eight. If a man meets

493
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 1: a virgin who's not betrothed and seizes her in lies

494
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 1: with her and they are found, than the man who

495
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: lay with her shall give to the father of the

496
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 1: woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife.

497
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: Because he has not violated her, he may not divorce

498
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: her all his days. Now, I don't know if you

499
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: really heard what I was saying in the ESV there,

500
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: but that is nasty town. I mean, that is just

501
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: awful if you read it at first glance without the

502
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: sociohistorical context. Because what that is saying is a young

503
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: woman who has been violated by a man. That sounds

504
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: like that young young man bribes her daddy and then

505
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 1: she has to marry her violator. So it sure sounds

506
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 1: like God is advocating the insult be added to injury.

507
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: You have to understand the context, y'all. Any text in

508
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: this love story can be used as a proof text

509
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: that is not true if you take it out of context.

510
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: In the context, God's people have just come out of

511
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 1: Egyptian captivity, where they have been under what we could

512
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: call the first iteration of Sharia law and the culture

513
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: that they had been in for four hundred years, said

514
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: that any young woman twelve and over who was not

515
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: married or betruthed was vulnerable to be violated by any

516
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 1: man who so chose. And the consequence of the man

517
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: who violated her is, guess what, a nothing, not a

518
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: slap on the wrist, not a traffic violation. And so

519
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: one of my professors at Denver Seminary, I love this.

520
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 1: He puts it like this. He said, So God steps

521
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: over the fence of ancient culture, and he says, you're

522
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: not going to violate my baby girls anymore. Have you

523
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: ever wondered why girls in this era of history got

524
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: married at twelve? This is why you ever wonder why

525
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: women don't go alone to the well. This is why

526
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 1: he says, from now on, any of you idiots who

527
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 1: are even thinking about violating one of my daughters, here's

528
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 1: the deal. If you do so, you will set up

529
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: a four oh one k for her through her daddy. God.

530
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 1: This is unheard of. Women were now even allowed to

531
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: hold property at this time in history. He says, you'll

532
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:24,200
Speaker 1: set up an account soci'll be financially independent. Then you

533
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: will give her your name, not to reviolate her, but

534
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,280
Speaker 1: to begin to restore some of the dignity you stole.

535
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 1: And then if you do not take care of her

536
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: and provide for her for the rest of her life.

537
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,760
Speaker 1: You're liable to get stoned by the rest of the community,

538
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: big boy. I heard this passage quoted about a year

539
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: ago in a blog by a woman who is trying

540
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: to prove that God is a massagist, and I thought,

541
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: you've missed the whole thing. The whole point of this

542
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: is that God has always been in the process of

543
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 1: redeeming clue, of restoring the value that other people have

544
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: stolen from us. This is a book of hope, y'all.

545
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: There is hope on every page. We don't always mine

546
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: it correctly because we read the Bible lazy. We want

547
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: something we can tweet instead of something that we can

548
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 1: chew on. But the Bible is filled with hope. I'm

549
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: close to landing. Just two more passages. Head to the

550
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: right to Matthew's Gospel to Matthew Chapter eighteen. And some

551
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: of you, how many of y'all are eights on the enneagram?

552
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: Eight's on the inneagram. My guess would be some of

553
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,959
Speaker 1: you eights are very familiar with this passage. If you're

554
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,720
Speaker 1: a female eight, you've probably cross stitched it. It might

555
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 1: be hanging on your wall Matthew eighteen, beginning in verse fifteen.

556
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 1: If your brother sends against you, go and tell him

557
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: his fault between you and him alone. If he listens

558
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: to you, you have gained your brother. But if he

559
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 1: does not listen, take one or two others along with you.

560
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: That every change may be, that every charge, excuse me,

561
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 1: may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

562
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to

563
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: the church, Tell it to everybody. Go ahead and get

564
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 1: on EPAM and just just blow the news everywhere in church.

565
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 1: And if he refuses to listen even to the church,

566
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 1: let him be to you as a gentile and a

567
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: tax collector. When I was in high school, we had

568
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 1: a youth pastor for a season who was really, really passionate,

569
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: and he used to wave his Bible around like this.

570
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 1: When I was in my twenties, I tried to imitate

571
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: it and I hit a woman upside the head with Genesis.

572
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: I just went out of my Bible and hit this

573
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 1: woman in the head. I was like, I'm sorry, I'm

574
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: so sorry. They never invited me back. But he would

575
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: swing his Bible around quote from Matthew eighteen, and you

576
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 1: would tell all of us in the youth ministry that

577
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: we were supposed to go and verbally confront, better yet

578
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: assault our friends who were partying after football games or

579
00:34:52,200 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: smoking pot, or were still engaged in heavy petting. So

580
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 1: I'm older than the median of elevation, But can I

581
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 1: get a witness? Did any of y'all have a pastor

582
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 1: who used the phraseology heavy petting? Do you remember, Holly?

583
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: And it confused me, I mean confused me a lot.

584
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,880
Speaker 1: I remember being at this kind of fire and Brimstone revival.

585
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: This was the late seventies. I was in middle school

586
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: in central Florida and a pastor got up and started

587
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,799
Speaker 1: swinging his Bible around. Veins were popping out, and he said,

588
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 1: any of you who've been involved in heavy petting wants

589
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 1: you to come to the altar and repent, you know.

590
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 1: And I'd come there on the van with our little

591
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,880
Speaker 1: First Baptist church. And I was nervous because I was

592
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: afraid the van would leave me because I didn't really

593
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,279
Speaker 1: always believe Billy Graham when he said they'd stay. But

594
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: I sat there and I thought, half I half I.

595
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: I mean, I love our beagle. We had the sweetest

596
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:56,879
Speaker 1: beagle named smoky, and I thought, have I just inadvertently

597
00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: like rubbed her fur the wrong way or maybe pet

598
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:03,799
Speaker 1: her with a little bit too much? Wait? Have I

599
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 1: caused my dog canine injury? I don't know. This verse

600
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: has been used, y'all to shame teenagers who struggled with,

601
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 1: you know, frisky feelings. I think since the beginning of

602
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: Baptist time anyway. It's also been used to justify ecclesiastical expulsion.

603
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: In other words, this passage Matthew eighteen has been used

604
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:34,720
Speaker 1: as the sole passage to justify kicking people out of church.

605
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: Do you hear me? Now? I want to take just

606
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:41,879
Speaker 1: a second here, because I'm not advocating for anarchy in church.

607
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: I'm really not for church to be a healthy, thriving community.

608
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 1: There have to be parameters. This is not just crazy town,

609
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 1: and so we need spiritual leaders, we need people holding

610
00:36:56,560 --> 00:37:01,439
Speaker 1: us accountable. But I really think that when we take

611
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 1: this verse as the proof text to kick people out

612
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,160
Speaker 1: of fellowship, I think we're missing the main point Jesus

613
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,440
Speaker 1: was making. It's right there in front of us, and

614
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: I've missed it my whole life. I am fifty six

615
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: years old. I have a master's in theology. I'm two

616
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 1: years away, god willing from having a doctorate and redemptive hermaeutics.

617
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:27,480
Speaker 1: I have studied my behind off because I'm single and

618
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:29,800
Speaker 1: it's the only way I get any kind of endorphins.

619
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:36,000
Speaker 1: And so I've got scads of books on exit Jesus

620
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 1: and catology and redemptive hermonutics and socio historical contexts. But

621
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: it wasn't until this last summer I was sitting in

622
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 1: a class listening to a professor unpacked the redemptive thread

623
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:55,800
Speaker 1: in Matthew eighteen that I went Jesus. It's Jesus speaking,

624
00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 1: and Jesus says, treat them as taxs and gentiles. How

625
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 1: did Jesus always treat tax collectors and gentiles? I mean

626
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 1: Matthew's writing it. Matthew was a tax collector before he

627
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: encountered Jesus, and Jesus said, come be a fisher of

628
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,600
Speaker 1: men with me. Might change your Facebook status. You're going

629
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,280
Speaker 1: to be an evangelist, but you were a tax collector.

630
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: Do you remember Luke nineteen? If you don't remember it,

631
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: right off, Hannah about you? You sang Luke nineteen, There

632
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: was wee little man, and a wee little man was

633
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:34,520
Speaker 1: he member, Zachias climbed up in a sycamore tree to

634
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:38,080
Speaker 1: meet Jesus. Y'all, he was the CEO of the IRS

635
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:44,839
Speaker 1: division in Jericho. It was implied by Doctor Luke that

636
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: Zachias got filthy rich by padding to what he was

637
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:53,320
Speaker 1: assessing his Jewish countrymen and then skimming off the top

638
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: before wiring those funds to erme. I mean, this was

639
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: not just a tax collector. This was a tax cotor

640
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: without scruples. And yet when Jesus meets zach do you

641
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: think he calls them out for his duplicity. Now he

642
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 1: invites himself over for dinner. And after Zach and Jesus

643
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:16,760
Speaker 1: hang out, do you remember Zach's response, I'll give half

644
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 1: of what I own to the poor, half of what

645
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 1: I own to prison ministry, and to orphans and Uganda,

646
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:28,719
Speaker 1: and to feed the homeless here in Charlotte. I'll give

647
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,440
Speaker 1: half of what I own. I'm so happy to trade

648
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 1: in my billey for a smart car. And anyone whom

649
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:41,280
Speaker 1: I'm defrauded, I'll repay them four times what I initially stole.

650
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: Treat them as tax collectors and gentiles. Remember Genesis, well,

651
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 1: when God says to our great great Granddaddy Abraham. Through you,

652
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 1: all of the nations of the earth will be blessed.

653
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 1: They'll all meet Jesus. The promise goes all the way

654
00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 1: back to the beginning. It's fulfilled in the working person

655
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. Paul said, my whole ministry is so

656
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:09,279
Speaker 1: that gentiles will come to know Jesus. Two thirds of

657
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: the New Testament is about outsiders being drawn into the

658
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: unconditional love of our creator redeemer. Treat them as gentiles

659
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,319
Speaker 1: and tax collectors. Do you really think he intended that

660
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 1: to be punitive, y'a. We used the Bible as a club,

661
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,840
Speaker 1: and it was never meant to be used as a club.

662
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 1: It's true, it's authoritative. There are parameters for abundant life

663
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:38,040
Speaker 1: in here. This isn't a joke, but it's not punitive.

664
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: We're going to land in Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter four, verse twelve.

665
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: Any of you who grew up in church, hoighly, I

666
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: know that you could quote this one backwards, because it's

667
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: one of the first verses that we learned when we

668
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: are growing up. If you've listened to pastor Steven for

669
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: any length of time, you've heard this verse, you've heard

670
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: this whole book preach Hebrews, Chapter four, verse twelve. For

671
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: the Word of God is living an active sharper than

672
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: any two edged sword, piercing to the division of the

673
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 1: soul and the spirit of joints and of marrow, and

674
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Again, this

675
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 1: is one of those passages I used to swing my

676
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 1: Bible around in the twenties, in my twenties, not the twenties,

677
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 1: I'm not that old, but I would use that passage

678
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: basically to guilt people into being in a Bible study.

679
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:29,240
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until recently that I started really looking

680
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 1: at that verse and I thought, oh my goodness, now, y'all,

681
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 1: let me qualify this because I'm probably going to step

682
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:40,359
Speaker 1: on some toes. I am a Bible banger through and through.

683
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 1: I believe in the veracity and the authority of that

684
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 1: text from cover to cover, God willing, I will spend

685
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 1: the rest of my life talking about what's between those

686
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: leather bound pages. I love this book. It's not just

687
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,759
Speaker 1: a book to me, it's life. To me. Everything I've

688
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 1: ever needed for life in Godliness I find on these pages.

689
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 1: It's not a textbook. It's not a rule book. It's

690
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 1: not a collection of benign morality tales. This is life, Gus.

691
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 1: But I took that verse out of context in Hebrews.

692
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:17,320
Speaker 1: I thought it was all about the Bible. Do you

693
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 1: remember when Hebrews was written, Colleen, You'll know between sixty

694
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 1: and seventy a D between sixty and seventy eight D

695
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 1: is She's not uh huh uh huh. Do y'all also

696
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 1: remember a D. A lot of people think that's after death.

697
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 1: It's actually Latin and o domini the year of Our

698
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,439
Speaker 1: Lord b C is before Christ. Do you know they've

699
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:38,279
Speaker 1: changed the history books now and b C is now

700
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 1: BCEE before the Common era, And instead of it being

701
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: a d Ano Domini the year of our Lord, it's

702
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: ce Common Era. Just a little side note. Interesting how

703
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: everybody's starting to throw Jesus out of history, and yet

704
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: Jesus is the foundation of the history of hope anyway,

705
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:02,240
Speaker 1: wit and written between sixty and seventy AD. Between sixty

706
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,040
Speaker 1: and seventy eight, there were very few other epistles, New

707
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: Testament epistles we've now called books being circulated. The very

708
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 1: first collection, loose collection of most of the New Testament

709
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: books was in two hundred. The very first formal collection

710
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,839
Speaker 1: of all twenty seven New Testament books is in three

711
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: sixty seven I think AD. That was by and I

712
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:32,560
Speaker 1: think something anathemas or anaphasia or something some mix of

713
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:36,480
Speaker 1: those terms. And then it was formally canonized into the

714
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:38,880
Speaker 1: very first New Testament of the Council of Hippo in

715
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:42,360
Speaker 1: three ninety three AD. What do all those boring historical

716
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: facts me means that right here, when this pastor is

717
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: encouraging his sheep, because his sheep, like us, were really tired,

718
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: and his sheep, like us, were running out of hope,

719
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 1: and he said, I want you to remember that Jesus

720
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 1: logos Greek Jesus. That word is used in John one

721
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:03,680
Speaker 1: in the beginning was the word, and the word was God.

722
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 1: The word was with God. This is before we had

723
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:11,279
Speaker 1: inscripturted text. He's saying, Jesus is sharper than a two

724
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:14,959
Speaker 1: edged short soord, Jesus knows the motive of your heart,

725
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: and Jesus knows you're running out of hope. Jesus. It's

726
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,839
Speaker 1: all about Jesus, y'all. When we segregate the God who

727
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 1: loves us from inscripturated text, it becomes punitive when we

728
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 1: realize this is all about Jesus. This is the generational

729
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: well from which we can draw hope. In the driest season,

730
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:41,480
Speaker 1: you look back and go our creative redeemer has always

731
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:47,040
Speaker 1: been in the process of restoring the dignity that has

732
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 1: been stolen from us, of redeeming the mistakes that you

733
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:55,040
Speaker 1: and I have made, oftentimes against each other. I can't

734
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 1: even mention Hebrews without thinking of something that happened recently.

735
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: I was speaking at a conference for people who were

736
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 1: in addiction Recovery from Addiction conference, and I have never

737
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 1: struggled with alcohol or drugs or opioids, but I identify

738
00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:18,799
Speaker 1: as a recovering addict because one of my favorite theologians,

739
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 1: a guy named doctor ed T. Welch, wrote a book

740
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,120
Speaker 1: called A Banquet in the Grave, and in that book

741
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 1: he said that all addictions are ultimately a disorder of worship.

742
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: In other words, if you don't put Jesus in the

743
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: biggest hole in your soul, you'll run to the wrong

744
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: things of the wrong people. So I thought, I'm at

745
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,759
Speaker 1: home with these recovering addicts. And it was on a

746
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 1: Friday night. Then it went through Saturday Friday night, there's

747
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 1: this woman during worship who came up front. And this

748
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: church wasn't quite as wiggly as we are here at Elevation.

749
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: It was a little more, a little less demonstrative, and

750
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 1: so she was the only woman upfront, only person upfront,

751
00:45:55,920 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: and she was completely oblivious to any body else about

752
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:03,759
Speaker 1: six seven hundred of us at this conference. She was

753
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:07,720
Speaker 1: just dancing and dipping and twirling, and I found myself

754
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: distracted by her as we were singing. I thought, I'd

755
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:16,040
Speaker 1: love to hear her story, because in my experience, people

756
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 1: who were able to kind of step outside from that

757
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 1: world most of us live in where we're afraid of

758
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:26,400
Speaker 1: what anybody else thinks. People who out operate independent of

759
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 1: other people's approval usually have these incredible backstories. And I thought, man,

760
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:33,480
Speaker 1: I'd love to know her story, and so I was excited.

761
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: The next morning, I went to the sanctuary early because

762
00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:38,759
Speaker 1: I was teaching that morning, and I went in early

763
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:40,880
Speaker 1: just to pray and prepare her. And she was in

764
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 1: there with the only two people in the sanctuary. She

765
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: was up front. So I walked up and I introduced

766
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,280
Speaker 1: myself to her, and she said her name was Joyce,

767
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:50,279
Speaker 1: and I said, Joyce, I just want to thank you

768
00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,480
Speaker 1: because I was trying to focus on Jesus, but I

769
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: got distracted a few times by you last night. I

770
00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 1: was just really undone by how un restricted you were

771
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 1: dear in worship. I mean, it was just you and Jesus,

772
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 1: and I'm not quite that free yet. So I really

773
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 1: loved the model that you set before me. And I said,

774
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 1: it also made me wonder what your backstory is, because

775
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:19,359
Speaker 1: that kind of praise usually comes from someone who's been

776
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,319
Speaker 1: delivered from a lot. And she said, oh, yes, ma'am,

777
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: I've been delivered, and she launched into this story that

778
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 1: could have come from cable. I mean, just horrible backstory

779
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:36,279
Speaker 1: of abuse. And she was a hardcore addict and alcoholic

780
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 1: for about thirteen years, and then she met Jesus, and

781
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 1: Jesus just invaded every dark corner of her life and

782
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 1: she became just a passionate follower of Jesus Christ was

783
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:54,000
Speaker 1: involved in addiction ministries and celebrate recovery had really impacted

784
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:58,160
Speaker 1: her community, and I thought, you know, I mean, that's

785
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: why she dances like that. Well later on, just maybe

786
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 1: twenty minutes later, I'm standing up on stage sharking my message,

787
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: and I look down and Joyce is just sitting right there,

788
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, my goodness, she's got such a

789
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:13,839
Speaker 1: great voice, because as soon as she introduced herself, I thought,

790
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 1: she is like a three pack a day smoker. Shut it,

791
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: U gravelly awesome voice. And I thought, I'm going to

792
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 1: get Joyce to read from the passage I'm reading. I

793
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: happened to be in Hebrews, and so normally I will

794
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:27,760
Speaker 1: warn people if I'm going to ask them to read

795
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 1: something that i'm doing, you know, I'll tell them ahead

796
00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: of time. Even in our Bible study. I'm like, is

797
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:33,719
Speaker 1: it cool if I ask you to pray today? I

798
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:37,720
Speaker 1: don't like to, you know, shock people, And so normally

799
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:39,880
Speaker 1: I would have asked Joyce, but at this point I hadn't.

800
00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:41,879
Speaker 1: Just I was so overwhelmed by how much I loved

801
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:43,399
Speaker 1: her story and she's sitting right there, and I thought,

802
00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: we've got to use that voice. So I jump off

803
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:47,880
Speaker 1: stage and I go, y'all, this is my new friend, Joyce,

804
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:50,280
Speaker 1: and I just love her heart and I love her voice.

805
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:52,040
Speaker 1: So she's going to read the text for us today.

806
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 1: And Joyce kind of looked a little flustered, and then

807
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: she took the mic, and she read the passage, tripped

808
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: over a few of the words in the beginning, but

809
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:01,480
Speaker 1: then you know, got a great even read the passage

810
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:04,280
Speaker 1: and everybody clapped politely, and I was like, dange Joyce,

811
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:06,920
Speaker 1: I go up and I finish well. Maybe four hours

812
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:08,840
Speaker 1: later the conference is over. I'm in the back of

813
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: the room and Joyce comes up and just kind of

814
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 1: sheepishly says, miss Lisa, I need to tell you how

815
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 1: you having me read that passage impacted me. And I

816
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:22,480
Speaker 1: was like, oh, man, you know, I'm sure sure I've

817
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:26,080
Speaker 1: somehow stepped on a bruise where she's afraid of reading

818
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,160
Speaker 1: in public or something. I so should have asked her.

819
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, Joyce, I'm so sorry if I

820
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 1: wounded you, and she says, no, no, I need to

821
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:34,439
Speaker 1: tell you a little more of my story. She said,

822
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:37,800
Speaker 1: I told you that God had healed me of alcoholism,

823
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,040
Speaker 1: and then I've been clean for a long long time,

824
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,360
Speaker 1: been sober for a long long time. She goes, what

825
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: I didn't tell you was that nine months ago I

826
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: fell off the wagon. And she said, nine months ago

827
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,280
Speaker 1: I was engaged to be married only guy I ever trusted,

828
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 1: And she said two weeks for the wedding. I found

829
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 1: out he'd been stepping out with my best friend, and

830
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: she said, I was just devastated, and so she said,

831
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:02,280
Speaker 1: I turned back to Jack Daniels to drown my sorrows.

832
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: And she said I spent the weekend after I found

833
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: out he stepped out on me. She said, I was

834
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 1: just drunk as a skun all weekend. And she said

835
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 1: when I sobered up on Monday, I came into church

836
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: where she had been on staff, and she said, I

837
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:18,320
Speaker 1: told the leaders. I said, yeah, I fell off the wagon.

838
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,400
Speaker 1: I told them why, and she said they were really

839
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:26,000
Speaker 1: really gracious, but then they were also very very sober

840
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: in how they followed through, and they said, we can

841
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: no longer have you on staff because of you having

842
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 1: that mistake, especially since you work with addicts, and so

843
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:40,120
Speaker 1: they asked for her letter of resignation. She left staff,

844
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 1: and she ended up leaving that particular church because she said,

845
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 1: even though I wanted to stay there, I wanted to

846
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:47,800
Speaker 1: walk it out. She said, Lisa, every time I walked

847
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:49,919
Speaker 1: in the sainctuary, I felt I had a scarlet leather

848
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 1: a for alcoholic on my chest. And she said, I

849
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:54,440
Speaker 1: just couldn't do it. So After a couple of months,

850
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 1: I moved my membership to another church across town. She said,

851
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,640
Speaker 1: I didn't tell you this morning, and that this is

852
00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:05,839
Speaker 1: the church that I was asked to resign from. And

853
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:09,320
Speaker 1: she said, and last night was the very first time

854
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:13,920
Speaker 1: I stepped foot in the sanctuary again. And I said, oh, Joyce,

855
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry because I thought, here I've ruined what

856
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:23,439
Speaker 1: God had shaped to be this precious homecoming. And she said,

857
00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:27,400
Speaker 1: oh no, no no, no, you didn't ruin anything. She said, Lisa,

858
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:29,520
Speaker 1: you couldn't possibly have known that. When I was a

859
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 1: little girl, I was illiterate. My mom didn't send me

860
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 1: to kindergarten. And on the first day of the first grade,

861
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:41,200
Speaker 1: I walked into a little school in Appalachia and the

862
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:43,840
Speaker 1: teacher was a new teacher, didn't know my story, and

863
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 1: she called on me to read and she said I

864
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 1: stood up, and she said, I can still remember how

865
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 1: bad my legs were shaking because I didn't know any

866
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:55,279
Speaker 1: of my A, B, and c's, much less how to

867
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 1: string them together. So she said, I just looked at

868
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,400
Speaker 1: those letters on the page. They were like hieroglyphics, and

869
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: I just recited something I had heard from one of

870
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,360
Speaker 1: mom's soap operas, hoping that somehow the line I spoke

871
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,479
Speaker 1: was close to what was in this book Little Jack

872
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:14,800
Speaker 1: and Jane Primer. And she said, all the kids started dying, laughing,

873
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 1: and they all started calling me stupid. And she said

874
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: that name stuck all the way through high school graduation.

875
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:23,719
Speaker 1: So she said, I learned if I was ever going

876
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:27,760
Speaker 1: to speak out loud, say anything in public, in school

877
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 1: or at work, she said, I would obsessively go over

878
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:32,880
Speaker 1: every single word that I was going to read or

879
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,279
Speaker 1: I was going to speak, because I was so nervous

880
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 1: about ever speaking publicly. She said, But when you called

881
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:45,959
Speaker 1: me out of seven hundred people, you called me by name,

882
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 1: and you said, I want Joyce to read, she said,

883
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,920
Speaker 1: it's like the heavens rolled back and God himself said,

884
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:59,760
Speaker 1: that's my girl. Listen to her. And she said, today

885
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 1: this place of same has become a place of honor

886
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 1: to me. Don't y'all want to be a little more

887
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 1: like Joyce? Don't you want to be so undone by

888
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 1: the redemption and our story, by the redemption and the

889
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:21,200
Speaker 1: stories behind us, that we can't help but express some

890
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:23,479
Speaker 1: of that hope to the world around us, a hope

891
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: that's world that's desperate for hope, y'all. Can you imagine

892
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 1: not knowing Jesus in the season. Can you imagine how

893
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:35,359
Speaker 1: hopeless some of the precious image bearers that you rub

894
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:38,359
Speaker 1: shoulders with, not really now, but you rub shoulders six

895
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 1: feet away from now are. People are dying for real hope,

896
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: and we have it. If you walk with Jesus, we

897
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:51,239
Speaker 1: have it. You may have forgotten it, you may have

898
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:56,480
Speaker 1: misplaced it. But the reservoir of hope for Christ followers,

899
00:53:56,719 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 1: it's bottomless. We can alway reach into generational wells. There

900
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:09,560
Speaker 1: are millions in here and draw living hope, Peter says,

901
00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 1: living hope, not stagnant hope, living hope. Shall just close

902
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:17,319
Speaker 1: your eyes and bow your heads, and when you sit

903
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 1: for just a second, wherever you are, and if so

904
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 1: many of you are in your cars, you're maybe at

905
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 1: work watching a laptop, you're at home on the couch,

906
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 1: still a little bit grumpy that it was me and

907
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:35,799
Speaker 1: not Stephen, would you just sit for a minute and

908
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:39,960
Speaker 1: ask God to open your eyes to the hope that

909
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 1: is already yours. Ask Him to give you the grace

910
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:52,719
Speaker 1: to lean back into the generations of hope that we've

911
00:54:52,760 --> 00:54:59,640
Speaker 1: been forged from the eternal hope we're walking toward. Jesus,

912
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:02,440
Speaker 1: we can fester you this morning, as your sons and daughters,

913
00:55:02,520 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 1: that all too often we look like that passage and

914
00:55:05,640 --> 00:55:10,120
Speaker 1: proverbs that says, hope deferred, hope delayed makes a heart sick.

915
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:14,000
Speaker 1: And Jesus, some of us feel just flat heart sick

916
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:17,479
Speaker 1: this season because it's been harder than usual to hang

917
00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 1: on to hope. And so we need you, keen, Jesus,

918
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:25,520
Speaker 1: we need your Holy Spirit to quicken our minds and

919
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:30,600
Speaker 1: our hearts. To remind us of our history, redemptive history,

920
00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:34,320
Speaker 1: the history that you have woven us into, the history

921
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:38,200
Speaker 1: that you've always been actively a part of, redeeming, restoring,

922
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 1: setting captives free. Oh Lord Jesus, remind us that there's

923
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: no room for dry bones in our hearts, no room

924
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:55,880
Speaker 1: for dry bones. Thank you, thank you, thank you for

925
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 1: this reminder that you see us. You've always seen us,

926
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 1: you've always loved us, you've always been actively in the

927
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:09,560
Speaker 1: process of calling us home. Teach us what it is

928
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:15,800
Speaker 1: to rest in your hope. We will be so careful, Jesus,

929
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:18,759
Speaker 1: to give you and you alone the honor and the

930
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:22,560
Speaker 1: glory and the praise for what you do this day

931
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: in June twenty twenty, Thank you for joining us. Special

932
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,520
Speaker 1: thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.

933
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,799
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You

934
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:37,280
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now

935
00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:41,640
Speaker 1: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information

936
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:45,319
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You

937
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:47,400
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends. You can click the

938
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 1: share button, take a screenshot and share it on your

939
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:52,719
Speaker 1: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again

940
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 1: for listening. God bless you