Beautiful For The Situation | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

Psalms chapter 48, I love David. David is a simple man. He is not a man with a lot of degrees, and you can sense this when he writes. He's a beautiful writer, but he's a simple writer. I think this is why many of us turn to the Psalms, maybe late at night or when you don't know where else to turn, the Psalms always seem to work. Because of their simplicity, they are very effective with most of us. And David writes in verse one, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation. Everybody say beautiful for situation. They underline that because that's the title of my message. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. Everybody say Mount Zion. We're not talking about the road or the Baptist church. As great as they are, speaking of a mountain in the city of Jerusalem, and it goes on to say on the sides of the north in the city of the great king, God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Beautiful for her situation. I don't want you to judge me too harshly by what I'm about to say. I was a young man, I was 18 years old. And in Bible college, we had a professor that was just a specimen of a man. I mean, tall, built, his head of hair, his physical feet.

I mean, this guy had dressed to the nines. I mean, there wasn't this guy, he could sing, he could preach, he was charismatic. He would walk in the room and light the room up. And I remember one chapel that he was doing, he was talking about his wife and he looks down at the front row and he says, actually, honey, why don't you come up here? And I'm just gonna tell you a story. And I'm just gonna tell you what I thought. I thought, man, this guy, I mean, he's the man. I'm guessing that his wife's like a smoke show, right? I mean, I'm just thinking she's gonna be a knockout and she takes like five seconds to get up out of her seat. And she waddles to the platform. I said, don't judge me, I'm going somewhere. He has to reach down and help her walk up the stairs. Literally, it was like one of those. She gets on stage, she's out of breath, like trickling sweat, raggy clothes, wiry hair, no makeup. And I'm looking at him and I'm looking at her. I'm looking at him. And I'm looking at her and they just don't match. And then he kisses her on the head and says, she's beautiful, isn't she? And I was like. You see, I saw the contrast, but he remembers the first time he saw her. He remembers their first date, their first kiss.

He remembers the day that he said, I want you to be my wife. He remembers the wedding. He remembers the honeymoon. He remembers the announcement of the first child. He was there when she gave birth to the first one, the second one, the third one, the fourth one. When he looked at her, he saw the sacrifice. He saw the late nights that she would be up with sick children. He saw that she was there to encourage him when he was up and there to encourage him when he was down. When he saw her, he saw the sacrifices. He saw all the effort and the work that she had put in for him to be where he was. She was beautiful for the situation. I judged what he had learned to cherish. And when David says those words, she's beautiful for situation, he's speaking about something specific. And he's talking. about how many times we have those same immature eyes that I had as a young man, when we look at the church. Some speak of the church with contempt. Some measure her and find her wanting. Some look at her and say she's not as she ought to be. Yet here we are, having outlived every skeptic for the last 2,000 years, the church still stands in failing times, she still lives in dying times,

she'll be raptured in times of destruction, and she will reign in times of ruin. And she's not perfect. As I talk about her, maybe you even see the contrast. Maybe even during this message, you'll hear me talk about her beauty, and you'll be saying, but I see the flaws, I see the deficiencies, I see the blemishes. And it is true, she's nothing like her Savior, who is altogether wonderful. But yet, he looks at her, and he says, isn't she beautiful? Beautiful for situation. In the Song of Solomon, it mentions the groom and his qualities and his characteristics. It says that he's ruddy, radiant, dazzling. He's the chiefest among 10,000. His head is like gold, his hair is black like a raven, his eyes like a dove, his cheekbones are mentioned, his lips, his strong hands, his strong body, all of that, and I'll leave out the details. It might get a little inappropriate as she lists out all the details of what a specimen of a man that he was. She even mentions his abs, like he has a six-pack abs, and she says, he's altogether lovely. And then all of a sudden, it turns to her, and the bride says, don't look at me, look away. And she starts to mention her skin because of working out in the sun, and the heat had become blotched and flawed.

And she begins to mention the scars, and she says, look away, and the bridegroom's answer was, you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes. In other words, he said, all it took for me was just one wink. You see, he doesn't see the flaws the way that we do. He doesn't see her deficiencies the way that we do. He sees the cost that she has paid to belong to him, and she is beautiful for situation. The Bible speaks in pictures. Paul often speaks of people and places in the Old Testament and he uses them, though they're historically accurate, he uses them allegorically. He says that these things that we read about are like veiled representations of something deeper. And we know what this is like. We know how to talk allegorically. We say things like, I'm drowning in debt, but you're not drowning. Climbed a ladder of success. There's no ladder. She's light as a feather. You've picked up a feather. She's heavier than that. I was tickled to death. You're still breathing. Well, in scripture, the same principle operates. And so Paul will reach back and mention names like Hagar. And though she was a real woman, he says she represents being in bondage.

He'll point back to Sarah and say she represents the promise. She represents freedom. He reaches back to people like Esau who would represent the flesh. Jacob, who would represent the spirit. And then he mentioned cities like Jerusalem or Mount Zion. And these things speak of the church. And whenever you think about an allegory, you have to get the natural first, and then you get the spiritual. If you don't understand the natural, you miss the spiritual. Jesus told Nicodemus, how is it that I've told you earthly things and you do not believe? How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And so when you read about Jerusalem or you read about Mount Zion in scripture, it's ultimately to point us to something that is true about God's great church. David said she's beautiful for situation. Well, the real Jerusalem or the natural Jerusalem sits on a mountain plateau. It's 3,300 feet above the Jordan plain, 3,800 feet. 500 feet above the Dead Sea. It's higher than any other capital city in history. It has no seaport, no major caravan crossroads. It's not the hub of commercialism. Its beauty is not in its architecture or its trade routes.

Its beauty is simply in its elevation. It's set over all the other landscape from that which is around it. It's not part of the world below. So first the natural, then the spiritual. When you begin to think about the natural positioning of Jerusalem and then in the city limits of Jerusalem, there stands Mount Zion. When you consider it in the natural, now you understand Psalms 125, they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed and abideth forever as the mountains are around about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people forevermore. Jerusalem was the place God chose to put his name. It was a city of sacrifice. It was a place of worship and praise and prayer and intercession. It was a city given to the glory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And within that city sits Mount Zion, which was an unshakable, immovable mountain and that speaks of God's people and his church. But the problem with the situation exists that if you wanted to get to Jerusalem, it was an uphill climb. If you wanted to get up to Mount Zion, even more so, it was an uphill climb. There was no easy access.

It demanded effort and time and energy and pain. If you wanted the benefits of going to Jerusalem, you had to endure some burdens that you would encounter on your way there. It wasn't easy. It wasn't comfortable. It wasn't designed by God to be that way. It wasn't a pain-free place, but it was beautiful for situation. You still don't get it, okay? Your nose, some of our noses are less attractive than others, but your nose is not the most attractive part of your body. My wife, Sarah, to me has the cutest nose I've ever seen. But the first time I saw her, I still remember two moments just seared on my brain when my blood pressure rose and my heart started going like this. I still remember those moments, and I can promise you it had nothing to do with her nose. I didn't go and tell my friends, man, that girl, that nose. Boys don't sit around and talk about girls' noses. Yet your nose has a special placement above your mouth. Now, if you judge it too harshly, you would say that's the worst place for the nose. I mean, the nose is not, I mean, surely God maybe could have put it on the hip or something. I mean, have you ever had a sinus infection? Have you ever had a cold

and all that is right by your mouth? But yet every bite of food has to pass under it. Your nose contains roughly 10 million receptors that can distinguish one cent out of 10,000. Your nose being placed where it is has saved your life more than you will ever know. It has stopped you from eating bad food and spoiled meat before it ever reached your mouth. And it's not beautiful because of how it looks, it's beautiful because of where God placed it. It is beautiful for situation. And the church is the same way. You could easily be like the bride in Song of Solomon and say, don't look at her. She's got flaws, she's got issues, she's got weaknesses. She's not always pretty to look at, but she has saved more lives. She has spared more misery and displayed God's manifold wisdom more than any other place on earth. She is beautiful for situation. In Ephesians chapter three, God begins to speak about how the church is His showcase, His display case. Talks about how she was a mystery hidden from the ages. Speaking about the Old Testament prophets, though they foretold her, they never got to live in the church age. It was a mystery that God. God would begin to speak to them about,

they didn't see it, they didn't experience, they experienced creation. They got to look around like we do today, they got to look at God's six days of creation, it's beauty, it's diversity, it's complexity, it's precision, it's artistry, it's variety. They got to see that part of God, but the part of Him that was not yet revealed, we don't get until the church age. And all of a sudden we see a whole nother part of God's wisdom and nature. We get to experience in the church how salvation is displayed, divine protection, healing, deliverance, redemption, forgiveness, peace, joy, the hope of glory, the indwelling of the spirit, and how it's all done through the outworking of God's grace. The Old Testament saints never saw this mystery, it was veiled to them, but it has been unveiled to us and we are standing in it. And Paul in Ephesians 3 says, unto him be glory in the church of Jesus Christ throughout all the ages. And the reason we have to be cautious to miss her beauty is because we know that the devil hates the church. And the reason the devil hates the church is because it's the place God shows to display and showcase his manifold wisdom to principalities and powers.

It is the place that God shows to show us parts of who he is and what he can do that he'd never shown before. Even in this service right now, you can look down on her and say, I just don't see it. I just don't get it, I don't see it. There's this wrong and there's that wrong and there's this problem and there's that problem. But he looks at her and says, isn't she beautiful? You see what most people don't understand, it's the problem that comes with her situation. That there's a cost to climb. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? Only he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. The point is God knows the climb is expensive. He can see you pass by 10 way easier churches to get in and out of. But every now and then, I'm not saying there's not a lot of great churches there are, but God just every now and then takes a church and he makes it a city on a hilltop. He just takes a church and he puts it on a mountain and he just begins to show his manifold wisdom. He begins to show how God is a generational God. He's a transgenerational God. He begins to show how you don't have to just have the old church and you don't have to have a young church, but the young and the old can climb up together. You can have a church that can be multicultural,

multiracial, you can have a church that can have different ethnicities. You don't have to have black church and white church, you just have just God's church. You can have a church that is multi-economic. In other words, it's not just the poor church and it's not just a rich church, but you got the wealthy and you got the broke and you got them all in the same place, worshiping the same God. And it is the manifold wisdom of God being displayed. But the danger is to look down on her. In Jude verses nine and 10, the writer is dealing with people that have an inaccurate appraisal of the church. And he uses the example of how even Michael, the archangel, though he was at odds with Lucifer, the fallen archangel, the Bible says that he did not give railing accusations against him. It was obvious that Lucifer had fallen. It was obvious that Lucifer was not who he was created to be. But the Bible says Michael just simply said, the Lord rebuked you. In other words, I'm not going to touch it, I'll let God deal with you. I'll let God deal with you. I'm not him, I didn't create you, I'll let him deal with you. And he parallels that to those who in arrogance and recklessness begin to speak, the Bible says,

of those things that they don't even know about. And it goes one step further, that they say things that even the angels refuse to say. You see, you gotta be careful because there is a spirit that tries to bring the church down. People that say there should be no cost to the climb. They connect church to the world and just in their view of it, that this is like a customer service place, right? There should be no demand. This is Amazon. I wanna click on what I click on and have it same day exactly like I want it. But the church isn't designed to be Amazon. It wasn't set there. That's not her situation. That's not her placement. She's Jerusalem. And then beyond that, she is Mount Zion. And the church is a place that Jesus Christ is king and servant king. And we come into Mount Zion with our gifts and our talents and our intellect and our resources and our time. And we come in with that to serve her, to make her better. We don't come in to do anything other than to say, how can I be a blessing in God's great church? And the first step is you've gotta make a decision. This mouth will not curse what God has blessed. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. When you change her placement, you forfeit her beauty in the eyes of God. It's like taking your nose and putting it on your big toe. You can bring it down there. You can talk about that's how low it should go. But God still says she's beautiful for her situation. In other words, keep her on the mountain. The church is not God. It is not his throne. We look nothing like him. Jesus is all together, lovely, but she is not to be brought down to guard your heart, to not be too harsh on her, especially when he looks at her and says, she's beautiful, isn't she? You see, I believe when God sees his church, I'll just talk about this one. I believe he sees the faithful. I believe he sees those who sacrifice and give. I believe God sees the Hills Kids workers that wake up early in the morning, many of them working service after service. I believe God sees the parking lot crew when it's not beautiful weather and they got raincoats on or it's subzero temperatures

and they're out there helping. I believe God sees the singers and the musicians, some of them getting up five in the morning to get here and they're here till three in the afternoon. I believe God sees the set up and tear down teams at our locations waking up in four in the morning to make sure that all that is needed is where it needs to be for people to come to church and it's an uphill climb for them. There's a cost to it for them. I believe God sees the ushers and the specific things that they have to deal with week to week. I believe God sees the safety teams and all the things that they have to be looking for. I believe God sees the intercessors up early in the morning praying for the church and praying for what God is doing. I believe God sees the youth workers every Wednesday night who many of them, hundreds of them took four or five days off work to go into a nowhere place, hot, sleeping on just a nothing mattress, can't get sleep, teenagers everywhere constantly. I believe God sees that. Somebody would just say, I just see a vape pen that I heard about one Wednesday night, but God sees that at midnight, you have young people in a parking lot with the radio turned up, not listening to the world, but listening to worship and praising God. No one asked him to do it, but they're there praising and worshiping God.

And I believe God looks at that and says, she's beautiful, isn't she? I could list team after team after team and outreach after outreach after outreach, but yet if I got to the end of it, after about 30 minutes of telling this thing and that thing, what it would come down to is I could say, we're still incomplete. The church is flawed. She's limited. But he says, she's beautiful, isn't she? She's beautiful. for situation We are not like him one day we will be but until then Keep her on the mountain She's beautiful for situation Which means there's a price to pay in the climb Every meet it means you have to refuse the invitation to bring her down You have to be wary of the armchair quarterbacks that are out there and You have to accept she's nothing like him But he still calls her beautiful See God had to deal with the Apostle Simon Peter when it came to this issue And I'm just guessing if the Apostle Simon Peter had to kind of have a moment where God checked him we might Acts chapter 11 you might remember the story he has this vision and inside of this vision God begins to show him and it's a vision of the church, but in this vision he sees wild beasts Bible says all kinds of creeping things

fowls of the air And God begins to tell Simon Peter. This is my church This is what I want my church to look like and you know what Simon Peter says he says it's unclean It's unclean I Think it should look better than this. I think it should be cleaner than this. I I think it should be more together than this And you know that really is kind of a picture of the church. We got some wild beasts Some creepy things Some fowls of the air When Simon Peter says it's unclean. God says don't you call? My church unclean He says what I have cleansed You do not call common It's not common In Genesis 3 After man fell God said I've got a plan and it's in the seed of a woman Satan you'll bruise his heel, but he'll crush your head The prophets foretold her The law foreshadowed her The young Virgin Mary was conceived conceived the child by the Holy Spirit He was born He was dedicated at eight days old Raised in the home of a carpenter At age 12 we see him confounding the scholars At age 30 we finally see him come up on the scene He walks out of the wilderness down to the River Jordan to be baptized for three years We see him heal the sick raise the dead preach to the multitude and the masses lives a sinless life Makes his way to Jerusalem that uphill climb

They would beat him Crucify him His blood would be shed Not normal blood Perfect blood that would be sprinkled on the altar As he cries out it has finished the veil That separated us from God was torn from top to bottom It was placed in a tomb On the third day he rose again from the dead For 40 days he appeared with many infallible proofs He ascended to the right hand of the Father The angel said in the same way you saw him ascending. He's coming back again Ten days later in an upper room in Jerusalem He poured out his spirit like a mighty rushing wind and the New Testament Church was born And what God has cleansed you don't call it common She Is beautiful For situation Isn't she beautiful Isn't she beautiful You got to see her the way he sees her you got to have his eyes Not that young 18 year old Punk's eyes who hasn't lived an ounce of life yet. Come on. When you give your life to something, it's noble and noteworthy, it will cost you. And I just showed up today to say thank you to every single person in this church. That you serve, and you love, and you give, and you show up, and you do it week in and week out.

And many times, it's an uphill climb. But she's beautiful for her situation, because of you. Let's stand up to our feet. Every eye closed, every head bowed. One of the most beautiful things about the church is that the Bible says the spirit and the bride cry out, together come. And so with every eye closed and every head bowed, that's what's going to happen. No man can come to the Father unless he's drawn by the Father. No one can say Jesus Christ is Lord apart from the spirit of God. The spirit of God has to move on a person's heart. Only the Holy Spirit can change someone's life. But the spirit and the bride together give the invitation to come. And maybe you're here today, and you'd say, Marcus, I'm not right with Jesus Christ. You're not serving God, you're not living for Him, you're not honoring Him, your life is not pleasing to Him. You're living for self, you're living for sin, you're living for this world. But you showed up today and the Holy Spirit's been working on your heart. The Bible says Jesus stands at the door of your heart and He knocks, and our only job is to be open. To say, Jesus, I don't want you to stay on the outside, I want you to come on the inside. But what a lot of people do is they say, I can't do that.

It's a mess on the inside. I gotta clean everything up on the inside. But you don't get good to get God, you get God to get good. You let Him come in and see the mess. He's not afraid of the mess. He's not gonna go to heaven and talk to all the angels about how messy it was. The Bible says He wants to come in and dine with you. He wants a relationship with you. And you can't hide the mess any way, He already knows. But if He stands at the door of your heart, only you can open your heart. Only you can say, I'm not gonna push you away, I'm not gonna reject you, I'm not gonna slam the door, I'm not gonna lock you out. Only you can make the decision to say, God, I want you in my life, I want forgiveness, I want a new beginning, I want a fresh start. And if you're here or at any of our locations, and you'd say, Marcus, I want Jesus Christ to forgive me, I want to be cleansed, I want to be washed, I want to be made brand new on the count of three. If that's you, lift your hand as high as you can. One, two, three, throw that hand up as high as you can. God bless you, I see that hand. God bless you, I see that hand. God bless you, I see that hand. God bless you over here, I see that hand. Throw it up, and if you can't keep it up,

it takes me a little minute. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God bless you right there. Anybody else? Anybody else, you say, Marcus, I wanna get right with God today. God bless you. Let's all put our hand on our heart. I want us all to pray this together. Say, Jesus, I believe that you're God's only son. That you died on that cross to pay the price for my sin. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me and wash me. But you didn't stay on a cross, and you didn't stay in a grave. On the third day, you were raised back to life. And I'm asking now that you raise me up into a brand new life, a life of purpose, a life where I'm living for you, and doing everything that I can to honor you. In Jesus' name, we all said amen. Can we give the Lord a good hand clap? Thank you.