You Can Be Satisfied (Lisa Harper)

you fat move like dance. I thought he's only been a believer for a short period of time, because that's that's some BC rhythms from before Christ rhythm right there, brother. But the first time, really, I want like I need a little bit of training between service. My my baby can dance, but mama ain't got no rhythm. The first time I got to come be with y'all, I was so excited because you have taught me. I've learned so much about Jesus through your house. And I thought, surely

Pastor Stephen has got me confused with Lisa Bevie. Now, I don't know if y'all know who Lisa Bevie is, but a woman can preach where about the same age, but she has much more authority than I do. And she wears leather pants a lot of times when she preaches, and I thought, uh, oh, to keep up the charade, I might have to wear leather pants to elevation. And when I wear leather pants, it sounds like ducks are

being killed. So I'm not quite as lean as the other Lisa, and I thought, oh, this is gonna be so uncomfortable. So I was thrilled to find out that they lowered the bar, that they actually knew. I wasn't that Lisa. And so to get to to get to be with y'all. Now, it's pure grace, y'all. It's pure grace that I get to come back and run hard towards Jesus with this house. I love me some elevation deeply,

deeply respect. That's my cousin right there, so deeply respects what God has done and is doing through your house, through pastor Steven Holly, the whole team here. I just I'm in the middle of a forty day fast on sugar, and when Chunks called me, I was like, I'm gonna get some sugar after all, baby, I get to go to Elevation. Not too many sweeter houses that I've been to in the world. I do want to make just a couple of qualifications before we dive into the message.

The first is I'm a spitter, and so I'm so sorry. We're just gonna call it a baptism. E fam y'all can breathe a sigh of relief that you're not in the room. I will not sprinkle you, but anybody with about fifteen feet y'all just plan to get wet. And then my second qualification is for the tech tech team. This is the first time I've been to Elevation that I actually have a title. They always have to make up a title for me. I'm creatively challenged, but I

have a title. So for those of you who are enneagram ones or threes or eights, y'all are note takers, I know you are. Heaven forbid. Here's the title. The title for our message this morning is Mick Jagger was wrong. You with me? Mick Jagger was wrong. I'll explain that in a minute. I even have a secondary title, Bruce

Springsteen was right. Mick Jagger was wrong. Bruce Springsteen was right. Now, for those of you gen zers who don't know who's Sir Jagger or the Boss who they are, y'all need to rectify your spotify because they're two of the best. But theologically Mick Jagger was wrong, and light of that title, we probably need to pray before we dive into God's word. And so since we've loosened up a little bit on the restrictions, and y'all are sitting next to your beloved,

reach out and touch them. If they're not your beloved, don't grow. But let's pray. Those of y'all who are listening to this online and you're driving, please don't close your eyes while you pray. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Lion and the Lamb, the Lily of the Valley, Mighty God, wonderful counselor Messiah, Oudai, the Christ, the Anointed One. Jesus. Thank you for your mercy, Thank you for your compassion, Thank you for your accessibility.

Thank you that what we saying was not just inspirational. Thank you that you actually do meet all of our needs according to your riches and your glory. Thank you that you stick closer than a brother. Thank you that we can cast all our anxiety on you because you care for us. Thank you, Jesus that when you ascended into heaven is sit at the right hand of God the Father, you did not leave us as orphans. That even during those seasons when we feel missed or marginalized,

your presence is palpable. Thank you that when we look back over our lives we don't see you are back, that you are present, that you left us your holy Spirit, who even this morning reminds us that we have the right to call the God who breathe the universe into existence. Dad. Thank you, Thank you, thank you, and thank you for your word. As Chris said, we need it. Lord. Sometimes

we forget it's a love story. We forget that we can find ourselves on these paper thin pages, and we can find over and over and over and over again that you're a God who condescends to embrace his people. That you're not a far away, unibrowed librarian. You're an up close, personal, compassionate savior. Jesus, we ask for more

of you this morning. We asked that you would give us eyes to see more clearly and ears to hear louder and hearts that would really believe, really believe that you love us, Teach us what it is to know that, to rest in that, to live out of that reality. We ask these things Jesus, by the power and authority of your name, and we ask it for your purposes. A men and a men. I feel so close to y'all and so affectionate with y'all because you have become like a family of cousins for me, Holly has become

just a dear, dear friend. I don't like standing next to her because her waist is about the size of my ankle. But other than not wanting to stand in close physical proximity, I love Holly, and so I feel safe enough to tell y'all a story that I have never told before publicly, because it's a story that is, well, it's just a little too revelatory. It's about one of my most recent blind dates gone horribly awry. For those of you who've been here before, you might remember that

I'm old and single. I'm fifty seven, My husband is lost and won't stop to ask for directions, and do you have a daughter? By the miraculous kindness of God, I got to bring my baby girl home from Haiti the year I turned fifty and she was four, so I went through menopause and motherhood at the same time. But we don't have a baby daddy, and so I actually told her one day. I was teasing with her and we were talking about prayer request, and I said, baby, it's okay for us to pray for a baby daddy.

I said, you know, God brought you to me, but it'd be cool if we had a daddy with skin on in our house. And she went right to her little Christian school and gave that as a prayer request, got met in the drive through pickup line by the headmaster, who was not at all pleased that I told a kindergartener to make her prayer request. I need a baby daddy, so anyway, be careful, be careful who you use that terminology with. But I've gotten so content that I really

have kind of stopped even thinking much about marriage. And part of it is I lost all my estrogen after menopause, so it's just like life for the most part, is really good, except I can't wear pants with zippers anymore. And so I was explaining this to a friend recently. I was telling her how excited I was because I've been dreaming about a John Deere tractor for about fifteen years.

We live out in the country south of Nashville. I got a little tiny farmat five acres, and I've just been jones in for John Deere and I finally found one that was used on sale, and I was just so fired up about this John Deere tractor. So I'm telling this friend of mine, who's much more mature in her walk of faith, of how I just I feel like I'm finally content because I got my John Deere.

And she said, Lisa, you need help, And she began to lecture me about the fact that I I wasn't praying about marriage again, that that I wasn't praying for a husband, And she lectured me so effectively that she finally manipulated me into signing up for a three month trial membership with a Christian online dating organization. Please hear me, I'm not dissing them. I've seen the advertisements. I've seen

the cute couples gazing adoringly at each other. Maybe some of y'all met through online dating, which is a cult, but other than that, I know it can work. I know it can work. And so she said the reason that I wouldn't even try it was because of my pride. And I thought, well, you know, my prides got me in trouble before past tim and so I thought, she's probably right. I'll sign up. It was only seventy nine

dollars for three months, and I thought, that's good. You know, it's about Starbucks, you know price, I can do it. So I sign up, and for some reason, I'm set up with a lot of men who live in their mother's basements and are unemployed. Not that there's a thing wrong with that, nothing at all wrong with that, but my preference would be preference, just preference would be a man who who doesn't live with his mama, because we're in our fifties and and you know, if he had

a part time job, that would be cool. And so I was really excited that one of the men I was matched with had had a full time job and had a place he lived by himself. So I thought, this is amazing. Well, we start, you know, just communicating back and forth on email, and he had sent a picture, but you know, we all lie on our pictures more

over fifty anyway, you should see my filters. Yeah, when Colleen takes pictures, I'm like, please stand on a ladder so I can you have So I'm like, you know, I don't care if he doesn't have to have hair money, as long as he you know, doesn't live with his mama. And so he was super witty, and I was like, oh, man, this is awesome because humor is just Humor's it for me? Humor's like wits, like an aphrodisiac. I'm like, man, this is awesome. I like this guy and ladies aim in

me on this. He could spell. That's amazing. I mean to get a guy and guys, I love men, Please hear me. I'm not trying to throw shade at y'all. It's just a lot of times on email, guys are less than grammatically correct. And so if you get a guy who's witty and he can spell, I'm like, oh, my goodness, is light Romeo with you know, amazing? And so I thought, I'm kind of starting to feel myself kind of lean toward this fella. And so he sent me an email that happens in online dating. That is okay.

Let's move to the next step. Let's meet face to face, and I was like, well, I would love to you. That would be a delight. And then he sent me a disclaimer. It's rather lengthy disclaimer, and I won't tell you everything in his disclaimer, but I will tell you he explained. And this part didn't funny, so hear me.

He explained that he had extreme social anxiety and so he did not leave his home, that he worked from home, that he had not left his home in years except for rare occasion, and that I mean that that's not funny. That kind of broke my heart. And then he said he was also very hesitant to ever leave his home because he really really loved his pets. I love my pets. I mean I do. I have two dogs. I don't have, you know, a T shirt with air picture on it

or anything. Don't sleep with him, but I love my dogs. I really love my dogs. And so he went on to explain he loved his pets Nean thirty eight cats, and I was like, well, you know, I mean, I really want to be open. I don't want to be too picky, but Missy, my little girl is allergic to cats, and I'm very much an extrovert, and so I thought to stay inside all day with that many cats, I don't think I can do it. I don't think, you know, miss, he'd be sneezing, I'd be bored. I just I don't think.

Probably this is a match made in heaven. But I wanted to be really careful about telling this guy probably, probably this isn't going to go anywhere, because I thought I don't want to be unkind or say anything that would be offensive to him. I was thinking about it all afternoon. I was really kind of worried as to how to explain to this fella. Because you don't leave your home and because you're a catboy, it's we're probably

not going to connect. And I had to go to my doctor because I had bronchitis and a double air infection at that time, and my doctor gave me. He gave me some pretty strong steroids, and then he gave me Ambient because he said, Lisa, the steroids are going to keep you from sleeping, so you're gonna have to take Ambient tonight. And y'all may be able to guess the rest of the story. I took Ambient. I've only taken Ambient a few times. Last time I took ambian. I am signed up for a coffee club that I

couldn't get out of it. It had an ironclad contract, and I almost bought a condo and cabo because I get real liberated when I'm on Ambient, and so I took that ambient and then I forgot what I did next. So I can kind of I can kind of identify with people who party too much, because those few little ambients I've taken in my life have just sent me

right to the edge of appropriate behavior. I woke up the next morning after this sweet man's missive, and I woke up in a panic because my iPad was next to me in my bed and I just had this oh, and I thought, I think I messaged him while I was ambient Loopy, and so I, just as quick as I could, went to that you know, Christian online dating app, and I went to my scent messages, and sure enough I had messaged him the night before when I was out of my mind, and I wrote him a dear

John letter that was that had bad grammar, and at the end of the note I said, as I was basically saying goodbye, I said, maybe someday I'll be able to sit on your lap, y'all. I meant to write, maybe someday I'll meet your cats, and I don't know. To this day, I am like, I am old, have not dated him forever. I am not sleazy. I do not say some things like that. It was some kind of horrible, ambient fueled Freudian slip. I meant to say,

maybe I would meet his cats. And when I saw it there blinking on my screen, maybe someday I'll send it, I just went. I just I pinnicked. I got completely out of the dating app. I've never been on one since. I was like, oh, this is just so awful, and I had to tell my friend I'm never doing it again. I said, I'm never It was so awkward. Maybe not as awkward as you know, renting a plane to fly a banner one eight hundred and five A eight please call Lisa for a date, but awkward nonetheless. And I

said that just doesn't do it for me. I said, we were sharing stuff about ourselves, but we were sharing it digitally. I said, even if we had sent pictures, they would have been filtered. I said, that's not the kind of relationship that I'm craving. I want to face to face relationship. I want a real relationship. I want an authentic relationship. I want them to be able to

see the spanks poking out of my stretchy pants. I want that kind of Guys, if you don't know what they are, don't google it because you can't unsee it. But I want intimacy. I want to be known. And the older I get, the more I crave that With Jesus, I don't want I don't want a superficial relationship with Jesus. I don't want to just accrue information about Jesus. I want intimacy with Jesus. If you brought your bibley, you have your phone, turn to Genesis chapter one. You'll know this.

I've actually heard Steven preach on this multiple times. Chapter one, verses twenty six and twenty seven. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created

him male and female. He created them those verses are what we get the theology Imago Day from Imago Day comes from two Latin words meaning image and God. And what this basically means is every single one of us here in South Carolina, listening online in South Africa, every Epham, everybody outside of the family of God, every single human being, regardless of ethnicity or gender, or age or status socioeconomically. Everyone was made in God's image. They beare his thumbprint.

That means they are inherently worthy of dignity and respect and compassion. It also means we were wired for relationship because God makes it clear in Genesis One that he fashioned us after himself. He's a trinitarian god. God the Father, got the Son and got the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine says, only the Christian God is a perfect community unto himself, and we were made in that image. That means we were hard wired for relational intimacy. We were hardwired for intimacy.

We were not hardwired for social media. We were not hardwired for distance. We were not hardwired for filters. We were not hardwired to curate who we are so someone else will approve. And I'm not dising social media I'm saying, I think we've become content with what we were not made to crave. I think we call intimacy what is really merely information, both about each other and about God. A. W. Tozier puts it like this. For millions of Christians, God

is no more real than he is denied Christians. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle. R. Springsteen says it possibly better. He says, everybody has a hungry heart. Everybody has a hungry heart. Blaze Pascal who have a massive platonic crush on and can't wake to hug in heaven. He was a brilliant physicist, philosopher, and theologian in the eighteen sixteen hundreds.

He says it best, there is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God, the Father made known through Jesus Christ. I'm in the latter stages of a doctorate, and so I have been reading voraciously because I get graded on that. And I've been reading a lot of papers about the spiritual condition of post

post postmodern society. And one of the things that both theologians, scholars and sociologists sociologists that's a hard work, socio smart people have noted is that there has been an uptick in spiritual curiosity, so that in this era, I would say, the modern era, there has been an increased curiosity about spiritual things. The latest survey, I said, said that has been increased dramatically as a result of the pandemic. Because of the isolation, people are going, I want to have

an encounter with something or someone transcendent. But those exact same polls, those exact same PhD papers and dissertations point to the fact that contentment is at an all time low, all time low, that most people feel missed, Most people feel like, no matter how many likes I get on Instagram, I still feel like nobody really knows my heart. We weren't made for that, y'all. We were made for more

than what most of us are living in. Information about God is a really, really poor substitute for intimacy with God. I love this book. I built my life on this inscriptated revelation. But I'm telling you, if all you know is this as a rule book or a textbook or an ancient tomb with morality tales. Goodness, gracious, you're not going to have intimacy at its core. This is a love story. At its core. This is about the compassion of God. Turn to John four. I know you know

this story. You've read it a thousand times. If you were raised half Baptists like me, you have seen it. Flannel Graft John chapter four. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees has heard, Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only as disciples. He loved youd and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass. That's actually not a great

English translation. He didn't have to pass. He chose to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sikhar, near the field that Jacob given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, weird as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. If you are comfortable writing in your bibles, those of you have brick and mortar bibles, and those of you who don't own a brick and mortar Bible, this is because I'm old. But let me bring an old sister

word to you. If your only Bible, hear me, if your only Bible, because I know most of the times we don't bring our Bibles to settings like this. I'm so happy you have your iPads and your phones. But if you don't have a brick and mortar Bible somewhere in your home, in your apartment, that's like an old man in short shorts. That's sad. You need a brick

and mortar Bible. And I'm telling you as an older sister, those of y'all who still have tight skin and high metabolisms, there will be seasons in your life when you go I got to be close to the promises to remember him. I need to go back through the pages of my Bible and see the notes I made in my Bible and go, oh, he was there, he was there, he

saw me. So no shame, no condemnation. If you're new to the Family of God, if you don't know Jesus yet, you're still just kind of circling the church wondering if this is true. Please talk to somebody in your EPAM, somebody here in brick and Mortar Elevation and just say I'd really love to be hooked up with a Bible, because we would love to get you an actual brick

and mortar book to take home with you. But if you're comfortable writing those underscore underscore that Jesus was sitting by the well, I'll come back to that in just a minute. It was about the sixth hour. That means it was blazing hot because it was the middle of a Middle Eastern day. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a

drink for his disciples. He had gone away to the city to get chick fil a. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is that that you you asked for a drink from me, a woman from Samaria. I won't go into great detail, but most of you know that Samaritans were considered half breeds in the most goodness, the most misunderstood, most demeaning way, because they were half jew

and half Assyrian. When Israel was defeated and Northern Israel was carried away by the Assyrians, Assyrian warriors married Jewish widows they'd killed their husbands, and they didn't do that because they loved them. They did that to further subjugate them under water down Jewish lineage. And so a Samaritan was considered by a jew to be just way way way, way way way down on the social totem pole. And

there was even mishnah. There was even application of Torah the Jewish Bible that said, if you have a Samaritan in your home for a meal, you've heaped coals of judgment on your family's head. So the persecution of Samaritans was like the persecution of some persecuted people groups we've seen in our era. So this woman saying, how in the world would a guy like you talk to a girl like me? And Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God verse ten, and who is it that

is saying, do you give me a drink? You would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Well, they go on to have this beautiful discussion about theology, which again was highly unlikely. This is in the first century. This is the era in history that women were considered lower than a second class citizen, whether they're Samaritan or not. One of the most common rabbinic proverbs during the first century was better that tora be burned than read by

a woman. Woman wasn't even allowed to engage with the Jewish Bible. Women weren't allowed in the part of synagogue where teaching happened. They could go to the other part and cross stitch and share recipes, but they couldn't be in the part where they were talking about how God loves us, how he meets all our needs. Another rabbinic proverb was thank the vow Jehovah, who did not make

me a woman. And so it's highly unlikely for you to have a conversation with a Samaritan, even more unlikely for a rabbi to have a theological conversation with a woman. And yet here's Jesus. He always turns culture upside down. Here's Jesus join to someone everyone else would ostracize or marginalized had it's this conversation with her, and y'all remember later on in John four he talks to her about worship.

And I know y'all have such amazing musical worship. Here Chris could probably he could probably stand up and recite all of John four it's one of those kind of orthodox walls about worship. It's foundational. But it's even better than we read in the Black, White, and Red, because when Jesus talks to this woman about worship, do y'all remember any other facts about her besides the fact that she's a Samaritan? You'll can talk about exactly she's been

married multiple times. Anybody remember exactly how many times? Five times? And what's her current living conditions living with a man who won't do her the dignity of marriage. Perhaps had cats, we don't know for sure, but she's living with a man. She's living with a man who won't marry her. Now, I've heard from my earliest memories in church, I started

going to church when I was in utero. My mom was there every time the doors were open, and so from my earliest memories, I remember this story, and I remember this woman always being castigated, not for being Samaritan, but for being sleazy, because goodness gracious, I mean, it's like she got marriage mixed up with Cinco demayo im and she just gets married over and over and over again.

And so she's castigated, even in modern evangelical culture, as being a woman of loose morals, y'all, we've gotten it wrong. If you study Judeo Christian history and culture in the first century, it's highly unlikely for a woman to be married twice because once a man gave a woman a certificate of divorce, it was also a label of shame. Rabbi Hellel, who preceded Jesus. He died I think five years after Jesus was born, but one of the most

authoritative rabbis in Jewish history. Rabbi Hellel had such a disregard for women that he taught Jewish men it is okay, it is okay with God for you to divorce your wife if you don't like the way she cooks. That's in Mishnah. They get to divorce their wives. And once they divorce her, what that man has said to his community is she's not worth it. Pick somebody else. She's not worth it. She's been married and divorced five times. No Jewish man is going to marry a woman who's

been divorced rarely once, but two times three times. There's no way. That just flies in the face of first century Jewish protocol. What modern conservative theologians assert is that not only did she not have loose morals, it's much more likely that she was beautiful with a tremendous character. That's the only thing that would justify men being willing to take the unnecessary risk, because they could have slept with her but not given her a certificate of marriage.

And yet five guys said, she's worth it to me. She's worth it to me. So stop and think she's castigated. One of my favorite theologians believes we can't prove this until we get to Gloria met her, but believe she probably struggled with infertility because that was also a reason to divorce a woman. So stop and think she's been taken for test drives over and over and over again.

Can you imagine at twelve when she got married the first time, which was common in their culture, and so for the first time in front of her friends and family, she says, I do. There's no way she would think at thirty, I'm going to have been married five times and then I'm going to be living on the outskirts of men with a guy who drinks and beats me, because otherwise I would starve or else be sold as a slave. There's no way she considered that her lot

in life. It's so interesting how other people's assumptions often cause us to step back from not only intimacy with each other, but intimacy with God. This woe is completely completely ostracized. She's at the well heat of the day. We know all those parts of the story. We just didn't know that she may be innocent of the gossip that has milinded her. Jesus engages with her. He has an intimate conversation with her. He doesn't give her a meme that's, you know, inspirational. He doesn't give her a

WWJD bracelet. They have an intimate conversation and he talks with her about worship. Y'all, there are ten words in the Greek translated into the word worship. Ten words in the Greek Jesus, Jesus one. It's pross cnuo, so often translated in Bibles as to bow down, But it's better than that. Pross in Greek means to move toward anybody. Guess what qunua means means to kiss, means to kiss. Stop and think about her story. She's been married five times.

Every time she hopes, maybe he'll see beyond my flaws. Maybe even if I can't have a baby this time, he'll still say I belong to him. He'll still love me. Maybe if I burn his burrito, he won't kick me to the curb. Maybe, just maybe this love will last. And it never does. And she finds herself dried up in her thirties on the outskirts of town, and she meets this man named Yashua, and he looks into her eyes.

He doesn't ignore, he's not condescending to her, and then he essentially says, if you'll move toward me with your kisses, you won't be thirsty for affection anymore. So intimate. It's so intimate we tend to read scripture as punitive. God is holy, perfectly holy. He gives us parameters for holy lives. I give Missy parameters. When I first brought her home from Haiti, I told her that she had to hold

my hand when we're in the target parking lot. And I said, baby, you have to hold my hand because you're little, and so when other cars drive past, they can't see you, and so if you're not holding my hand, they could run over you accidentally, and you would be a pancake. And she said, oh, what a pancake, mama. And so I took her home that night and I made pancakes for dinner and I flipped a pancake under her plate. She's like her mama. She loves her some carbs.

And as she was eating that pancake, I said, baby, that is a pancake. And that's what you'll look like if you don't hold my hand. Walking into target, I said, you'll get flat and she said I'll get flat and I said you will and she said, well, I get dead and I said you will. Was that being a hateful, cruel mama? No, I love that kid than I can wrap words around. I love her more than I knew I had the capacity love. God changed the topography of my heart through becoming her mama. I adore this child,

but I am determined to keep her safe. I'm going to protect her. I want her to live her best life. We are not created by a unibrow librarian who's just waiting to step out of heaven and smack us over the head with a Bible. We were created by an up close, personal redeemer who longs for real relationship with us. You know, when John explains that she's the first, the very first evangelists to instigate a citywide revival. That's in

verse thirty nine. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, So the whole town is changed by her testimony. And then John says that she says, he told me everything I ever did. Do you think she said that with her head bowed in shame. It was amazing because he knew what I knew. That's how we tend to think God relates to us. That he goes Lisa, I know sometimes in your singleness, you've had naughty thoughts and you're tempted to watch sex in

the city. That's not how he relates to me. That's not at all. He is holy, and he even disciplines me because I need it, But he does it with such kindness. He puts his hands on the side of my face and he says, look at me, I what you crave. You think that guy on some social media site if he said I'm okay, you're a little fluffy and you're old, but I'll marry you and i'll love your daughter, you think that would satisfy you. Honey, It won't because you were made for more than that. If

he has a husband for me, hallelujah. If y'all have older brothers who are employed, hallelujah. But you know that's not my hope anymore. That's not my hope. My hope is intimacy with Jesus. I want to be able to say, like this woman, he knows everything about me, and he loves me unconditionally. When you reveal your sin to Jesus, it's not because he doesn't already know it. It's for our good. It's for our healing. When we reveal our sin to him and he goes, I know, honey, I know.

We go Oh, he still loves me, and he knows that Jesus knows us completely and yet still loves us unconditionally. Turned to the end of the book to John chapter twenty one to bring you up to speed those of you who haven't heard this story. Peter, who is one of the original twelve Disciples. He's the one I identify with the most because he's always stepping in it, always make mistakes, always doing stuff before he prays about it. He is just like caffeinated ad d and this close

to being a prodigal. Every day of his life just a stinker for Jesus. And I love that the stories we read, y'all, these are not perfect paleo kind of spiritual people. I mean, there are people who eat too much sugar and who struggle and sometimes say bad words in traffic. And I'm not justifying sin. Sin separates us from God. If sin was no big deal, Jesus could have just done attention. Sin is a big deal, But his grace is greater still. He's a kind God, He's

a good God. Y'all remember the story. You remember the story. You remember that Peter throws Jesus under the bus at the point of Jesus' most urgent, poignant need. It's just prior to the cross. And first Pete falls asleep outside the garden of Guessimone, and then Peter denies that he even knows Jesus. He's afraid he's going to get caught up in the uproar and maybe he's going to be martyred as well. And he panics and he goes, no,

I don't know the man. I don't know the man three times, and then he throws in expletives to convince the crowd. Y'all know this well, the next time he meets Jesus after throwing Jesus under the bus. Basically, it's the coolest story because the first time Peter meets Jesus, he's fishing, doesn't catch any fish. It's repeated, it's it's the exact daja vous moment. It's so sweet. He's fishing same light. John calls it Sea of Tiberius for political reasons.

It's the Sea of Galilee Lake. Gonna see it. Pete's back out on a boat. He's fishing, hasn't caught anything. A stranger appears on the shore and says, have you caught any fish? And he says, nope, not a one. He says, throw your nets to the right side of the boat. Same exact thing as Luke five. They throw the nuts the right side of the boat. Fish begin a catapult into the net. I mean, Pete, even as slow as he was, you know, Pete went. This feels familiar.

Something about this feels familiar. And then he recognizes it's Jesus. Now, remember the context, Remember the context. Last time he saw his savior, he has betrayed him horrifically. This is the next time. It's a week and a half later, only a week and a half. You'd think that Pete would go, I need to back the bus up. I need to get in a twelve step program. I need to go to John mac twell conference. I mean, I need to get myself to gether before I engage again with Jesus.

That's not what he does. Instead, he dives out of the boat. Scholars tell us they're only about one hundred yards from shore. I mean, he could have waited two or three minutes, but he doesn't. He can't wait to get up close to Jesus, even though he's carrying horrific betrayal. But he knows what he'll find with the fee of Jesus. He knows he'll find mercy because he's spent three years with Jesus, even though he totally messed up. He knows

he'll find mercy he gets to Jesus. You remember the story, Jesus eats a fish to show it really is me. I'm not a mirage. And then they have a conversation. Do you remember the last conversation, Pete, how with Jesus. It's when I was real familiar conversations in church, Jesus says to Peter John twenty one, He says to him when they had finished breakfast, Simon's son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him,

Feed my lambs, he said to him. Second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, feed my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said it the third time? Do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know everything, You know that I love you. Now y'all have heard why Jesus posed the question three times? Why have y'all heard Jesus pose that question three times?

Talk about louder exactly because he denied him three times. We're almost always taught that it's kind of a biblical quid pro quo that because Pete denied him three times, Jesus kind of resets Peter's faith by asking the quote, Oh, y'all, it's so much better than that. We cried at Superico last night talking about the love of Christ over this one passage that we tend to miss so often. We miss the compassion in God's word. The first time, Jesus asked Peter the question on the heels of one of

the world's biggest betrayals. He says, Simon, son of John and Pete, do you aga payo me? Three words in the Greek for love. Aga payoh means sacrificial love. You love him more than anything? Fialao is a brotherly kind of facebook friend kind of love. And then eiros is what I never get to experience. That's a frisky kind of love. And so Jesus says to Peter, Peter, do you aga payem? We just translate them all love. It's so much better, It's so much more intimate. Do you

I could pay me? Do you love me more than anything? Pete says, Lord, you know me? You know I just threw you under the bus. You know I totally blew it. You know I fail you. You know I love you like a friend on my best day. That's all I've got. Second time, Jesus says Peter, do you I could pay me? Do you love me more than anything? Do you love me with a sacrificial love? Have you laid it all down? Are you living what you sing every Sunday at elevation, No, sir, no, sir.

You know me, Jesus. A week and a half ago, while I was flinging the fort and telling people I had never seen you in my life. You know me, Jesus. You know how fickle my faith is. You know how many times I've messed up. You know me, Jesus. You know I flail you on my best day. All of God is a brotherly kind of love. Third time, our Savior. Don't you imagine Pete now, just kind of staring at his feet, you know, probably wearing chocko's and that Middle

Eastern sand. He's hot, he's grimy, just staring at his feet, thinking I am the worst of the worst. And I

imagine Jesus. I don't know for sure, but I always get pictures in my head when I read these true stories, and I imagine Jesus grinning, and I imagine him taking his hands that have recently had spikes driven through the wrist, and I imagine him just taking that rough fisherman by the face and tilting his attention up toward him, looking deep into his eyes, those eyes that at that point thought, no one's ever gonna look into my soul again, because

all they'll find his failure and Jesus saying, Pete, do you filail me? Peter goes Lord you you know me, and jesusays no, I know you and Peter right now, that's enough. I'm not kicking you off the team. I'm naming you team captain. I'm going to build a new Testament Church on your shoulders. Peter, I know you, and I love you. I love everything about you. Y'all, we've been deluded into thinking that our performance activates and accelerates

intimacy with Jesus, and it doesn't. Intimacy with Jesus is not accelerated. It's not activated by our performance, by our deservedness or lack thereof. It's his kindness. He closes the gap, He pursues us. Most of what it takes to have intimacy with Jesus is just recognizing you can't make it by yourself. One of the reasons I love Peter so

much is my faith has been solidified in failure. Twelve years ago, I lost everything that mattered to me two primary relationships, one to death, and I was diagnosed with cancer, which at first looked very serious, all in the same week, and I've always been one of those girls who preaches grace, but I don't really believe it. For myself, it's been like what soap. It's been hard for me to hang on too, and so I talk about it. I can thrown across the cup about it. I can even give

you the Greek about it. But I am in the corner of my heart thought that I definitely wasn't good enough for God, and I actually wondered if God was enough for me. I thought, if I don't have somebody with skin on, I'm not really sure I can make it. And I lost hope and I got to a point of such deep desperation disappointment. I lived in a little cottage south of Nashville by myself that I remember waking up one morning and thinking, I've got Ambien from a

time I was sick. I'm going to take to Mbian. Not because I want to die. I was too afraid of the mess I'd leave behind for people. But I just can't be conscious. I just don't. I just want don't want to wake up and remember that I don't feel like anybody really knows me, and I don't feel like if they did, they'd really love me much less Jesus, and he spoke to me during that season more clearly than he has ever spoken to me. I don't know if it was an audible voice. I would by myself

it certainly felt audible. But he said, Lisa, you've been running your whole life. You've been running scared your whole life. So I'm going to take you to the basement and I'm going to sit there with you in the dark until fear doesn't own you anymore. I had already been to seminary the first go around. I could pose that I had intimacy with Jesus, but most of the time that's all it was. I was running scared, and I had a lot of information about God, intimacy with God

I just couldn't hang on to. And it was there in the dark. It was there, this smack dab in the middle of my failure, my ineptitude, that Jesus held me, and I learned how to be held. I learned to lean against his breath breast and quit trying to perform for his affection. Nine weeks ago, I was hospitalized with COVID and I had a very very severe pneumonia, and the first night I overheard too medical personnel. They didn't

know I could hear. They thought I was unconscious. I just had my eyes closed because I was so so tired. And I overheard them lamenting the fact that they didn't think they could stabilize me. And I knew I was in trouble based on the numbers. I knew that I couldn't breathe. I didn't realize how close I was to death, and I thought, oh goodness, gracious, I'm about to die. And I'm fifty seven and I have an eleven year old daughter, and I certainly didn't want to die. But

y'all the presence of Christ in my hospital room. He was palpable, and he held me again, and I wasn't afraid because leaning into him is who I am now. He's my hope, he's my breath, he's my joy, he's my love. He's the reason I get up in the morning. I've been long winded. Some people wish I didn't get my breath back after that pneumonia, and I apologize for going a little over, But I want to actually end with a question. The last thing you say was I

shall not want. In Mark chapter ten, Jesus encounters a man who's been totally missed. He doesn't have intimate relationships. He's blind, he's ostracized. He's alone in the dark, and Jesus puts Easter on pause. He's walking to Easter and he stops and he says, bring him to me. He's that kind. He is that kind. He would pause everything for you. It's not a corporate grace that you're experiencing. At elevation. He sees you, he knows you, he loves you.

He sings to you in the dark. You may not feel it, but he is closer than your next breath. And he says to Bartimaeus, what do you need? I shall not want. Some of are gonna sing that I am gonna walk out of service this morning, and you're gonna get in your car and you're gonna feel overwhelmed by disappointment and loneliness. You're gonna go back to your condos and your apartments, and you're gonna say, I'd love to be with a guy with cats. I'd love to

have somebody who pursues me. I'm tired of carrying the weight of my life by myself. Now ask God to bow your heads and close your eyes again. If you're driving listening to this, obviously, stay alert, but I would ask you the same question, what do you need from Jesus? What do you need from Jesus? A veneer of relationship with Jesus is not going to satisfy your soul, our

soul's crave intimacy. He created us that way. He created us to long to be held, to long to be seen by him, to have ongoing conversation with him every day, to walk with him. What do you need from Jesus? Thank you for joining us special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you

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