Christianity Is More We Than Me — Lisa Harper

ready for a sword drill and I move partly because I'm 62 and I can't see y'all and that just feels too far away and so I like being up closer and I'm a storyteller and I'm a spitter and I'm sorry. I don't mean to but it will fly when I get excited so y'all are going to have a little bit of baptism going on. If you're Pentecostal it will be very light, it's not going to encourage you because it's not going to be a full dunking but if you're Presbyterian this will be just enough to get you going. But we're going to be diving in, first new test mount, old test mount going backwards but I want to start with a story before we dive into the divine story and your braids are so on point. Wait, boho, goddess? I like them a lot. Missy just got braids, fresh braids on Monday. She got some fresh braids on Monday. Y'all don't know, anybody else have braids, twist, takes nine hours. Like I have almost lost my salvation up at Missy's slum but I've learned how to parent. I mean there's nothing like going where a woman, an urban salon, woman gets her hair done to find the gospel, that's not where I'm going. Sisi Winans, any of y'all heard of Sisi? Sisi Winans is a friend, if you have not heard of Sisi, I'm not sure you're saved. She is just like gah, Lee, Jeepers, Adele's got nothing on Sisi Winans. She can sing and Nashville we'd say she can sing. And I used to be part of a women's conference called Women of Faith. This is a long time ago before a lot of y'all were born but we would go to arenas, kind of like Vukon only, not as cool. All women, a lot of elastic waist pants, we've gathered together in these arenas and you spent two days with Bible teachers and worship. So again, similar to Vukon just a long time ago. Well during one season, I did that for about 15 years, during one season, Sisi was a musical

artist on Friday night and it was just like goodness gracious, if you're not encouraged after that, you need an EKG, she just, it's like she transports you right to the feet of Jesus. Unbelievable. Well I was on the front row, we were in Denver and Sisi's singing, she's going to town, the stage is pretty elevated and I was wearing boots but they were real heavy like these shoes and about maybe two songs in, didn't y'all grow up going to urban church? Okay, you remember, if something's epic, you throw your shoes, do you remember that? Well you lily white people, you don't know this but I identify because my baby's from Haiti so I wish I grew up in urban church and so I grew up in a stiff white Baptist church but I've been healing ever since and so Sisi's like three songs in, it's so extraordinary that I unzip my boot and I just throw it up on the stage and it landed right behind Sisi, Sisi knew exactly what I was doing, y'all know, y'all know when I, I mean that's just like, that's sustaining ovation and so, but the other 15,000 pale women had no idea what I was doing was Sisi just bends over and starts dying laughing as do the people who are singing four, I'm just going to take off both my shoes and so, because it's going to be holy up in this house and so, so anyway, Sisi starts laughing, her team starts laughing, I'm down on the front row and all of a sudden I see this huge commotion in security and all these big old guys who are packing come down to the front row, I'm just going to spend the Lord and I start to get arrested because they think that stupid lady up front is like a stalker and trying to kill Sisi Winans and I was like, no, no, our team, our security team had to come in and go, no, she's actually not a stalker, she's teaching after Sisi, she's the dumb bottle teacher after Sisi and Sisi got so tickled and I said, I was trying to say, I love her and I'm kind of with her, now I don't know if she would claim me the way I claim her, but this is a family of faith, baby, this is what we do, we get up behind each other, we love each other, we say I'm with her, yeah, we have gotten so stinking stiff in first world evangelical culture that we've forgotten this in a country club, this is family, this is family and the Bible if you're reading it right, some of y'all are new but if you're reading it right, this is not stiff, this is not a museum piece, our God is holy, but holy is really different than segregated.

This is family, all throughout, all throughout this divine love story we call the Bible. It's holy, I've studied it for 40 years. I love the Bible. But y'all, it's not stiff. We're stiff, 'cause we're sinners and we still care what people think about us. This, this is a thesis on liberty. And throughout this divine love story, that the point of the story is a perfect holy, the only true God condescends, sends His Son so that we can have a relationship with Him. That's the main story. But the secondary plot is that Christianity is more about we than me. The privatization of Christianity is not theologically sound. I'll prove it to you. Turn to Genesis 1. Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Do you remember where God's people were when He gave them this word? Sometimes when we read this chronologically and don't worry about the baby, I pick a mom with a year of 50. So when I hear babies in church, it sounds like a miracle to me. Drives me nuts when I see Christians give parents with a new baby, a dirty look.

I always pray they'll get hives. So this is, this is Genesis 1. Remember what's going on in Genesis 1. God's people have been in captivity in Egypt for a long time. They've just been rescued out of captivity. So they think like slaves. All they've experienced is captivity for 400 years. They think like slaves. God rescues them out of captivity. He sets them into a completely new place on the way to the promised land. And He gives them this story right after they've been rescued out of captivity. So just imagine two to three million Jewish people who've been enslaved. So they're always ducking their heads. When I first brought Missy home from Haiti, she would duck her head if I reached my hand up to play with her hair or to touch her face because she had been beaten so much of the orphanage. So it was normal for her to wince. So just imagine that's where God's people were. They've winceed for 400 years. The Egyptians would use slaves if the whips, if the slaves weren't productive. And they would weave pieces of pottery into those leather straps so that when they whipped those slaves, it would cause the flesh to tear on their back.

So the oppression that was experienced by slaves here in our country, similar just a lot longer. So horrific. So they think like slaves, they feel like slaves. They've been taught that if you're not productive, you get killed or your children get killed. And then God rescues them. They don't know how to live free yet. And so the first story he sets in front of them is he rewrites their history. The Egyptians have told them, you're not worth anything if you're not productive. And God is raw. The Egyptians taught them that the sun was the God. So just imagine if all day, every day, you go outside, 18, 19 hours a day, children started working as Hebrew slaves as soon as they were weaned, so three to four years old. And there's no work from home, there's no time off, there's no remote. So 365 days a year, sometimes certain Egyptians would honor Shabbat, sometimes they wouldn't. So let's just say, at least 300 days a year, you're working 18 hours a day under the brutal Middle Eastern stun. I grew up in Florida, I know what it is, I have my thighs stick to my seat. You have not experienced sun unless you've been in the Middle East. I've spent a lot of time in the Middle East, it's hot.

So in that context, God gives them this story. He talks about, I set the sun in place. I set the sun in place, sun it in God. The Egyptians told them that when the sun went down, a giant snake came up and ruled the night. So just imagine the terror as a slave, you'll be beaten, possibly killed if you don't produce. And there's no love between you and the pantheon. There's a son who beats you mercilessly. So it changes the story, then you read the beating of Genesis and you go, "Oh my goodness." This is less about creation than it is about a good God who's trying to teach former slaves. You're not slaves anymore, you're children. You're not slaves anymore, you're children. Not only are you children, you are beloved children. So he gets to 126 and 27 and he says, "Let us make man an hour image after the likeness, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the sea." That creeps on the earth So God created man in his own image and the image of God. He created him male and female He created them. Do you hear what God is saying there? He's saying you have inherent Dignity You're not slaves your children. You're not slaves your children regardless of your of your ethnicity regardless of your age Regardless of your gender you have inherent dignity. You bear our Image and ours critical there in Genesis 1 26 and 27 God says I am a community unto myself God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit Sometimes we mistakenly assume that Jesus comes on the scene in the gospels. No, that's incarnate Christ Comes on the scene in the gospels, but Jesus has always been a part of our Trinitarian creator Redeemer

I heard a podcast recently in this young woman who I used to know from ministry circles, but she's now completely Separated from biblical faith. She said she no longer believes the Bible is divine She says it's decent literature and she said if you want to read the Bible for inspirational purposes My advice to you is just read the red letters in the New Testament because that's the only time Jesus spoke And I thought oh you precious precious moron. That is not the only time Jesus spoke He's been there since the very beginning that's incarnate Christ, but he's been speaking since the beginning As Pentecostals and some of you who are new to view you might not know if you're Pentecostal or not I grew up baptocostal my momma's baptist to the bone see yep We wiggle you probably have more rhythm than I do baptists want to dance, but we have very limited rhythm And then my dad was assembly of God so I'm kind of baptocostal But sometimes if you've got a little bit of costal we are so deluded We think Holy Spirit came on the scene in the New Testament in Acts chapter 2, right? Pentecost yep, Holy Spirit is the very first verse of the Bible Very first verse Genesis 1 1 is Holy Spirit in other words our God the only true God is and us So we don't have an angry unibroud white hair paternal guy in the Old Testament with a 50 pound Bible just waiting to smack us over the head and Then Jesus with Hairston's in the New Testament hugging lepers and dancing around in a white gauzy robe That is not good theology. That's new not who our God is our God is not bipolar our God is a Trinitarian side Trinitarian God God the father God the son God the Holy Spirit Saint Augustine I have crushes on all the old dead theologians Saint Augustine says this only the Christian God is a perfect Community unto himself and to think context they've been treated like slaves live like slaves been beaten for 400 years They've just been rescued out from Egypt. They've come through the Red Sea They've seen people swallowed up by the sea and they're sitting in the sand of cyanide. Do you think they're like? Whoo-hoo wave and pom-frons They're they're traumatized They're oh oh my heavens to Betsy. That's why they went we want to go back Because I know I know how to live as a slave

It was hard, but I understand that this Liberty. This is kind of scary. I don't understand this So the first thing God does is God says I'm gonna reframe your identity You're not slaves your children and you're not individuals You're a family You're a family and Right after he says you were made in my image every single one of you have inherent dignity you're my favorites, and he says I want y'all to do this together I Want y'all to be together. I want you to effectively throw shoes for each other I want you to say that one's my sister. That one's my brother 98% of the imperatives and that's just a fancy word. I learned in seminary It means when God tells us to do something 98% of the imperatives in the New Testament are Set in the context of community now some of y'all how many of y'all said you're gonna read through the Bible in a year in January Okay, and you didn't want to raise your hand cuz you burned out Leviticus, didn't you? Hard man is hard to read through the Bible in a year So we're gonna catch up and all of your Bible readings because I've got Imperatives where God tells us I want y'all to do this together. You're not alone and you might feel alone, you're not really alone. You're actually together, you got somebody behind you. These are the 59 imperatives, I'm gonna go faster. Are you ready? Here we go, they're all in the Bible. This is where God says I want you to do life together. Be at peace with each other, mark 950. Wash one another's feet. You might want to put more on the screen at the same time. Love one another, faster, faster, faster, faster. Love one another, love one another. Be devoted to one another, honor one another above yourselves. Live in harmony with one another, love one another.

Stop passing judgment on one another, except one another then, just as Christ accepted you. Instruct one another. Great one another with Holy Kiss, I love that one. Don't worry about the baby. When you come together to eat, wait for each other. Have equal concern for each other. Great one another, Holy Kiss, another good one. Y'all please set me up with your uncles. Great one another with Holy Kiss, serve one another in love. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, you will be destroyed by each other. Let us not become conceited, provoking, and being each other. Carry each other's burdens. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other, speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In humility, consider others better than yourselves. Do not lie to each other. Bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Teach one another. Admonish one another. Make your love increase and overflow for each other. Love each other. Encourage each other. Encourage each other. Build each other up.

Encourage one another daily. Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Encourage one another. Do not slander one another. Don't grumb her against each other. Confess your sins to each other. Pray for each other. Love one another deeply from the heart. Live in harmony with one another. Love each other deeply. Offer hospitality one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Great one another with a kiss of love. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Y'all, he knows we're not the sharpest tools in the shed, so 59 times, those are called the 59 imperatives. 59 times he says, "I want you to do life together." This is a family, and we've gotten so consumed with hierarchy and social media has just exacerbated that, that we're looking at what people look like and how big their platforms are and how much favor they have. And let me just tell you, compare leads to despair.

Compare does not lead to community. And the Bible is wholesale about community. It is more about community than it is about ethics. This is not a rule book. This is a book on relationship. It's first about our relationship with God the Father. And then if you put your hope in Jesus Christ and you're adopted, do you know adoption in the era that Paul used it in the first century Greco-Roman culture? Do you know babies weren't adopted? Do you know why babies weren't adopted? Because they couldn't prove their potential. The way God wove me into Missy's story after her first mama Marie died and by no, no deservedness on my behalf, only God's kindness. I got to become Missy's second mama. They did not do that in Paul's culture. Women were actually not adopted because we didn't have enough value and couldn't produce enough financially in that culture. Only adolescent or young adult males were adopted. And they were adopted based on their potential to increase the value of that family because they would be heirs when a male air couldn't be produced. And Paul gives all this one another talk and a culture that has been taught hierarchy. You've got to achieve, you've got to perform, you've got to get to the very, very top. And then once you get it top, you better fight like crazy or you'll tumble off that pedestal.

And even as Christians in first world culture, we tend to live like that. And sometimes even the songs we sing and the places we go are all about me, me, me, me. And I'm like, oh, the Bible is not about me. The Bible is about we over and over and over again. The Bible is about I want you to love each other. The very last commandment Jesus gives us in John 1334. He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. I'm giving you a new commandment. Do you remember what the commandment is? Love each other in a culture that is so divided by politics, by hate, by performance. And I'm talking first century. Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. All the divisions we have now, they're not created by politicians, they're created by people, then I'll have peace, then I'll have hope, then I'll have contentment. I'm like, nope, nope. You won't have any of what you hope for as soon as you consider others as more highly than yourselves, as soon as you go, how are you doing? Hey brother, I like your shoot fire locks. I almost said braids, and I knew he was one who probably kicked me in the shins. As soon as you begin to see each other as family, that's where your hope comes. Yeah, this is not a self-help kind of thing.

I didn't learn this in yoga class. It's God. It's God who says, I want you to love each other. And then the world that devours each other, the world that creates hierarchy. The world that doesn't understand my empire is flat. Then the world will look at your families that are so diverse, but really genuinely love each other, black and white, young and old, male and female. Then the world will look at y'all and go, oh, that's actually transformational. That's actually what I'm longing for. I wanna belong to something bigger than myself. Turn backwards to Leviticus, 'cause you see this over and over again. I know some of y'all think Leviticus and you're like, ooh, isn't that all about scabs? Nope, much better than scabs. Leviticus chapter seven. And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice on 11 loves mixed with oil. And 11 wafers smeared with oil. Loves of fine flour, well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving, he shall bring his offering with loaves of leaven bread. And from it, he shall offer one lo from each offering

as a gift to the Lord. He shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. Now I want y'all to be honest. Was anybody encouraged by that? I know, it sounds awful, doesn't it? Y'all, we have got to bring a little more grit to reading God's word. We have become such lazy readers. We want Instagram, we want Instacar, we want you to encourage me with one word and I don't want to have to work for it. The Bible is a love story. It's extraordinary. This is not stiff, it's not a museum piece. It's just we don't bring much sweat equity to reading God's word, we just want to be babies and just get some inspirational mantra for the next week. Oh my heavens, when you unpack what he just said in Leviticus seven, it can change your life. He tells his people when you're bringing an offering of gratitude, let me give you the parameters by the way, Leviticus, the whole book is an invitation. They live in a time period where the pantheon of little G gods is what they've been taught. They've been taught, if you don't appease the little G gods, they will kill you.

The reason they had orgies on the high places is because they believe their orgies would titillate the gods who had to be above them and if the gods were titillated and they got jiggy with it, then what happened when the gods got jiggy with it would be rain and their crops would grow. So they abuse babies with horrific sexual abuse because they thought this is the only way we could get rain in our crops to grow goodness gracious. Can you imagine living under that kind of fear and trauma that the gods are trying to kill you? So over and over and over again, our God, the only true God is dismantling those lies that evil and he's going, not only do I love you, but one of the ways you'll experience my love for you is how you love each other. I've called you to be family. I've called you to be brothers and sisters, not slaves, not hierarchical people competing. I've called you to be together. So he says, when you come to my house with a Thanksgiving offering, so let's just say your third quarter earnings are better than you expected. Let's just say you and your wife, you and your husband had a healthy baby after years of infertility. Let's just say keto worked for you. Actually, while we're on the subject, do you notice God talks about bread all the time?

How many of you are on low-carb Miami diets? They're from the devil. I just love that Jesus calls himself the bread of life instead of the kale of life. Come on, somebody, we get to eat carbs and call it holy. So he says, when you come into my house and you're saying thank you to me. So whatever reason you came to church this morning, if you had any gratitude in your life, I want to tell her, my kid just gave his life to Christ and gave the kids. You know you get so excited to come to the house of God and go, "This prayer thing kind of works." Good stuff is happening. God is for us, not against us. God says, "When you're in that place and you want to come thank me, you come with meat." In the context of Leviticus 7, if you had bank, you brought a cow. If you were like me and you didn't have quite as much coin, you brought a sheep or a goat. I'm not going to give you all the time to Google this. Anybody grow up with cows? Anybody grew up with your dad was Farmer Rancher. All right, sir. When you butchered a pretty good-sized cow about how much edible meat do you get? My grandfather used to have like 200 cows. Yes. Yes, sir. He didn't gave the meat because he grew up with so much. Right. He used to take them by him to the best area where the field was. Yes. And then we let them be there the whole day because the way how they eat, that grass, right? Right. Exactly. Around like a 5 B.M. We'll move them over to babies. Right.

So five to six hundred pounds of edible meat from a big cow. Yeah. So five to six hundred pounds. And if you brought a sheep or a goat because I didn't have, well, I had a dad who did have some cows, but he didn't do good management, so we didn't have a lot of money. But so you bring a sheep or a goat, even a sheep or a goat if you butcher them. It's about 30 to 40 pounds of edible meat. Wow. So God tells us people, you come to me for Thanksgiving, you got to bring meat. So either beef, mutton, or goat, right? Got a lot of Haitians here like my baby. Y'all know goat is good. Americans panic, but goat is some good meat. You bring goat, you bring sheep, or you bring beef. And you bring a whole bunch of bread. You bring unleavened bread, so you bring pita and focaccia or focaccia. And you bring puffy bread. You still with me? This is in the Bible. I'm not making this up. So you bring about 50 loaves of unleavened and leavened bread. And you bring either five to six hundred pounds of beef or 30 or 40 pounds of goat or mutton. You still with me? Then if you remember what I just read, because this is why it drives me nuts when people say the Bible is boring. I'm like, no, you're lazy. The Bible isn't boring. The Bible is life-giving. God says to his people, here's what you do with that meat. Here's what you do with that bread. And you put the awful, so delivering the kidneys, you put that on the side of the offering plate.

It gets burned up. That's the aroma that goes to God. Basically you're saying, God, the best I have is yours anyway. I'm a steward, not an owner. And then you give the priest a couple of steaks and a couple of loaves. She's still with me, that's how they ate. That's priestly meal plan that God provided. Then he says, I'm going to reread it because y'all are going to think I'm making this up. This is in the Bible Leviticus. He says, and the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for Thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. Did you hear that? Yeah. So let you got to eat it all. So let's say you and I go together because you're my cousin. And we've got, what's your name? Mary. Hey, coz. So cousin Mary and I go to the temple and we're so excited because something good has happened to us because we have a Pinterest business and we've made some extra coin. So we go and we bring a goat and we bring you and I bake bread, right? And we do the sacrifice to the God says it and then we give it to the priest and then you and I have 25 pounds of goat. You have to eat before the sun comes up. Now I can eat. These are stretchy leather pants. I can eat. I can eat 25 pounds. Now stop and think if I brought a calf, Mary and I done really well in her business. And I've got four to six hundred pounds of beef to eat. What is God telling his people? You got to have a party.

You got to have a party. You got to have a barbecue. When you come to say thank you to me, I want you to have a backyard barbecue baby. And now stop and think you've got 500 pounds of beef. That's not just your inner circle of friends. That's your sending text to people on the other side of town going, I'm going to be in trouble with my Heavenly Father. If all this meat, they don't have refrigeration. So you're like, y'all, come on, come on. Somebody's gotta eat this meat. So y'all are like, I don't know. I don't know these people. They're in this crazy church called Vue, but they invited, I don't know. There's free tacos, there's free brisket. And you go all the way across town and you go, why did they invite us? And other people there go, they're thanking God because they have a healthy baby. Do you see the evangelism here? Do you see when you're doing Christianity in community, the concentric circles of people going, wow, what a good God. There's a teleological arc, fancy word that means the narrative is moving along purposely. So God can show us something and we're not the sharpest tools in the shed so that when we get over here in the New Testament, we go, oh, oh, there was purpose to that. Acts two, turn to Acts two, this is us. This is what God told, Pastor Rich and Don Shiree.

He wanted this gathering of saints to look like in South Florida. This is us. Acts chapter two, you'll see the teleological arc. It is epic and they devoted themselves, Acts two, verse 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs of being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord listened to this and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved, added to their number because they were doing Christianity as we, not just me, y'all, this is it, yoga. This is not Eastern mysticism. I'm not pulling an Oprah on y'all. I'm saying the Bible is wholesale about relationship, wholesale about relationship. Some of the women I have the undeserved privilege of spending time with, of having relationships with are women I meet through a recovery ministry in Nashville. One of my favorite scholars says all addictions are ultimately a disorder of worship.

It's good in it. So I've never lost my teeth to meth. I've never struggled with crack or alcohol, but because of what I used to run toward, mostly abusive men and carbohydrates. When I felt sad, I consider myself a recovering addict until Jesus fills the biggest hole in your soul. You will run to the wrong things. You'll run to the wrong people. So don't look down your nose at somebody who has different consequences. All of us are either recovering or potential addicts apart from Jesus Christ. But I love going to church with my friends who are in recovery because if you've ever met people in recovery, there's just very little facade. It's hard to be pretentious when you're incarcerated. And so I have two rules when we drive to church. And one rule is I pick half the music. They pick the other half. And I said, y'all, you can listen to anything as long as it's not nasty. And it isn't derogatory toward women. And so we usually listen to the comadors. I introduce them to Vue worship, elevation worship, and then they like the comadors. And then my other rule is cigarette smoke. I don't like to smell cigarette smoke, but almost all of them smoke cigarettes 'cause it's how they're getting out of meth and crack.

So I said, you can smoke in the car. Just roll down the windows. So we come humping up to the church parking lot with the ball, she's a brick, bum, bum, bum, bum, house, smoke, billowing out the windows. And you can tell people see me, the old white Bible teacher getting out of the car and they're like, it's Lisa backslidden. Because that's kind of my posse sometimes I go to church with. And I was in that place, in church, not that long ago. And this person looked at me and was so flustered by the company I came in with. And she said, who are these people? In other words, Lisa, they don't look like you, talk like you smell like you dress like you. And I didn't want to say, these are my friends who are in recovery from a halfway house. And so I just looked and I went, this is my family. (audience clapping) You know, my family's kind of Jerry Springer anyway. And my daughter is a beautiful Haitian. Oh, how glorious it is to look at people who don't look like us, who don't talk like us, who've been raised different from us. But because of Christ, they're my sister and they're my brother. And this is my family. That's church, y'all. That is church. (applause)