You’re Worth It (Lisa Harper)

Goodness gracious. If I had any estrogen left in my body, I would have shot straight out at that point. Um, I'd like to take just a moment, a moment of silence for those of you who are grieving the fact that pastor Holly and pastor Steven are not preaching this morning. When I was here last summer, um, I got to go out, some people were being baptized. And so I was meeting people and I met a saint who had driven 30 hours. It wasn't a Volkswagen bus, but it could have been driven 30 hours because their whole family just wanted to come here. Holly or Steven preach. And I was just like, I'm so sorry. Um, I'm so sorry. You have an old white woman from Nashville, Tennessee. Um, who just, I don't know what it is about elevation, but I always feel inclined to wear leather here. So there will be a lot of perspiration and squeaking going on in the next few moments. Um, but I, I, they could have anybody y'all could have anybody from across the world would be honored to get to be in this house. And, um, and I'm not sure why other than your friendship and your grace chunks that I get to come every year. But this is the highlight of my daughters and I, your, we love, we claim you as cousins, even though, um, some of you might think differently in a few moments. Um, so we need to start with prayer, reach out and touch that saint next to you. That's not rhetorical. Touch them, touch them appropriately. Men, if you're sitting next to a woman, I've heard it said that tea. Is that right? If she's cool, if she's hot, just be very, very careful. This is a Leviticus kind of prayer. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Thank you. I was so reminded last night of what a gift it is that we still exist under the common grace of free worship in this country. So Lord, I pray that, um, for all of us, the things that have become, uh, just wrote to us, getting to drive to church on Saturday or Sunday and not worried about, uh, hiding, uh, not worried about being arrested. Oh Lord, what a glorious gift. It is that you allow us to come together to your house, to bring you the first fruits of our attention and our affection, uh, freely. Lord, forgive us when we are quick to complain and slow to say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for 250 years of freedom of worship. We are so grateful. We are so grateful. We are so grateful. And Lord, sometimes we are so dumb and so preoccupied. And so Lord, for those of us who've come into this house of faith and our minds are distracted or tired and our hearts are numb or just barely put one foot in front of the other. Lord, we pray through your spirit that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that would be pliant to understand at an even deeper level, what it means to be your beloved sons and daughters.

Lord, we pray that you would re amaze us this morning. Just as Holly said, pastor Stephen is being re amazed as he has time to just marinate in the truth of who you are, who you've called us to be. Lord, would you quicken us to, would you quicken us this morning? Lord, would we, um, would we leave this building, uh, just more than ever convinced of who you are as a perfect, holy, transcendent God who chooses to be close to us and more than ever, uh, secure. And the fact that on our worst day, you said, you, you matter to me. You're beautiful to me. I still can't quite conceive of the fact that I was the joy set before you as you walked to the cross. Uh, so Lord, I need your spirit to pierce the places in my heart that I agree with that man and Mark's gospel. I believe, but Oh, King Jesus, help me in my unbelief. Do that for all of us this morning, Jesus. And we'll be careful to give you and you alone all the honor and all the glory and all the praise for what you do, uh, in this living room this morning. We love you, Jesus. We need you Jesus. We ask these things by the perfect authority of your name. Amen. And amen. I thought with, uh, I thought with last night being so historic, I would start with a historic tale of my own, something that's very rare. And so I'm not going back 250 years. It wasn't quite that long ago, but I'm going to tell you about my last good date. And, uh, It was quite some time ago. I came to Nashville, Tennessee from Florida to work for an athletic ministry called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Graham, you know, FCA. And so I ended up being set up with a lot of athletes because I had some friends who were the guys played in the NFL. I didn't have any World Cup guys friends back then because they have cute legs and those little shorts. But anyway, sorry, that was ungodly. Y'all can strike that from the record. Although it is kind of Song of Solomon-esque, right? We can leave it, we can leave it, it's in the Bible. So anyway, one of my friends who worked for the NFL

said, Lisa, I have got the perfect guy for you. He loves all the old dead theologians you love. He reads C.S. Lewis. He's a really good guy, really serious about his faith. He plays on the line. And when he said he plays on the line for an NFL team, he just had me at plays on the line because I'm not a small girl. And I really want to date or possibly marry, if you know someone between 55, I'll go younger, I'm 62 and death, somebody who's bigger than me. I just, sometimes I get set up with really tiny men. And I'm like, hi, I'm Lisa from the large planet. So I was like, he plays on the line, that means he's a biggin. So I was real excited. And so I'm not gonna tell you his name because you can Google him and spoil alert, he married someone else. But it was a good thing, just stay with me on the date. Are you still with me on the date? Okay, so we start talking on the phone, no Zoom, no FaceTime. All I had seen is him from the distance on ESPN. And I knew he was a biggin. And I won't tell you the team he played for, but it's north of here. We started talking, he had a great voice. You know how voices are just, you go, I can just kind of sense a little bit of their heart

because their voice is connected to their heart. And then after two weeks of courting, he called and said, hey, Lisa, our team, rhymed with Hilly, it's north of here. He said, our team, we're playing the Falcons. And I know Nashville's about four hours from Atlanta, but if you would be willing to drive to Atlanta, we could meet face to face. I'd love to meet you face to face. And I was like, well, that would be great. And so our meeting was a week away. So I went on a fast. And then I bought like a really cute new outfit. Are any of y'all, I'm 62, any women over 50? Okay, do y'all remember when like giant shoulder pads were in? So anyway, I bought this pink dress for feminine with like football player shoulder pads because it's so in back then. And I drive from Nashville to Atlanta and we didn't have any Buc-ee's back then. I had to stop at a rest area to fruff my hair. And I get to the stadium and he said, one of the other wives, an NFL player's wife, she'll meet you at will call to bring you up to the wives section. I was sitting in the wives section. Do y'all know any NFL wives? They are tiny, just tiny, tiny little women. They're beautiful, but so petite.

And so this tiny girl came and met me and she takes me up to the wives section. So we're up, I don't know, we're like on the 50 yard line, just a few rows up. And I come up and all the other teeny girls were very kind to me and I was the only brunette. And so I'm meeting all the tiny blondes. And then I look out on the field, the game hadn't started yet. I look out in the field and there he is, my date. And he has his back to me. And I don't know how to say this in church, but those pants are awesome. And I'd never until that point liked football pants. And suddenly I just love those little pants on a big man. And so he turned around and I'm like from here to where y'all are in the theater seats. I'm about that far away. He turned around, but y'all, it was like a love story. It's like, our eyes met and I was like, I love him. And the game started and he did really, really well. He made a couple of key blocks and the team that rhymes with Hilly beat the Atlanta Falcons, sorry if you're a Falcons fan. And then one of the teeny girls said, hey, we'll just call him Bill. That's not his name. She said, hey, Bill would like to see you before they fly back to Hilly. And so if you'll go with us, the team,

that was about, I don't know if they still do this, but that was back in the day when all the players would shower and change into suits, not pajama pants, actual suits, and then they'd get on a charter bus and then they'd go to the airport and get on a charter flight and go back to whatever town they were from. And so she said, he actually wants to see you because now we've still been 50 yards separated. She said, he wants to meet you face-to-face before he flies home. And I was like, okay. So I traipsed down with all the teeny tribe down. to it's like in the belly of the arena and all of a sudden all the players start coming out you know they're just big guys and they all smell like polo and um and they all start boarding the bus and then here comes bill and he comes right if i can't use you chunks you're not a good product he comes right up to me i mean i mean like right up to me and he goes hey and then he picks me up he picked me off my feet and i was like this is like this is glory this is just glory i expected jesus to come through and the white horse and it was amazing look to the east he picked me up and then i don't remember what he said because i was in a coma and then we talked for like three or four more minutes and then they made the announcement the bus is about to leave guys you've got to get on the bus we're going to the plane and he goes just like this he goes wait right here as if i was going to leave i'm like i'll be here three months from now just standing right here it's all downhill from now for me it was just i was like okay and he goes wait right here he turns around and the let's the bus is right here and then nfl coach and y'all would know this nfl coach he's dead now but he was a big deal and so this nfl coach he's standing on the stairs bill's right where you are chunks and and bill starts talking to the coach bill has his back to me and the coach is facing me from the stairs and he keeps kind of looking around bill's shoulders he'd be like so i knew they were talking about me they talked for like i don't know three minutes and then the doors of the bus shut and bill comes like this

i know i know and the bus is driving away and guys are hanging out the windows just ragging him saying things like she's already got you reptiles and you hang on to the ball bra i mean they're just ragging him he he is completely oblivious to the teasing only has eyes for me comes up to me i'll never forget what he said he said lisa i hope it's okay if you let me ride with you back to nashville i just told coach that i really wanted to spend this time driving back to nashville to you because that would give us four hours face to face to get to know each other and i'll get a hotel in nashville then i'll take a commercial flight in the morning to go back home to hilly because i told coach you're worth the fine you're worth the fun has anybody ever said that to you oh yes he did oh yes he did we've just been singing about it oh yes he did the god who breathed this universe into existence looks at us on our worst day when we're not singing elevation songs when you're saying something that's not in the bible in traffic he looks at us even in that moment and says you are worth the fine that is the gospel that is the gospel when that man who barely knew me ascribed worth to me he said you are worth the merciless teasing of my teammates you are worth the lack of physical rest that i will experience driving with you through the night back to nashville you are worth a hefty monetary fine from my team in the nfl you are worth so it cost him to subscribe worth to me i have a definition for the word worth you probably know this worth tells us the value the importance and or the usefulness of something however when worth is used in a predictive used as a predictive adjective i didn't pay much for my doctorate when it's used as a predictive adjective as in you're worth the fine it is entirely subjective that means worth as it is proclaimed is based on whoever is proclaiming its value in the context of that football player he decided i was worth the fine in the oh so biased perspective of our creator redeemer he has ascribed worth to us and he says our worth is predetermined turn to psalm 139 you'll know this many of you i hope memorize this when you were kids it's one of my favorite of the songs The 150 Psalms, P-S-A-L-M-S, were originally written as songs, S-O-N-G-S. So this is like God's Spotify list, these 150 songs in the middle of the Bible. And this is how David starts this song. You have searched me, O Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, O Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It blows my hard drive. It is too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise in the wings of the dawn, if I settle in the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. Listen to this. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mama's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. In other words, our worth precedes any accomplishment or merit on our behalf. Long before your daddy had a wink in his eye, our creator redeemer predetermined that he would subscribe priceless value to you. There's nothing we earn. We just sang that, but I think for most of us, we can sing it. We can say it, but to grasp in a world that says you're only as valuable as your last performance in a world where we are entirely judged by how we perform and how much we produce. It is really hard for us to wrap our dinky human Ryan minds around the concept that this perfect, holy, Trinitarian God ascribed invaluable worth to us before anybody would have said we were worth anything. We hadn't done anything yet to be considered worthy. And yet David makes it clear before any of us breathed our first breath, our heavenly father said worse. I'm ascribing worth to you. Flip forward to the book of Isaiah. I love Isaiah's prophecy. And Isaiah underscores this idea of predetermined worth and priceless value that God ascribes to us. Isaiah 43, but now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel, do not fear for I've redeemed you. I've summoned you by name. You are my When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your savior. I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead, since you are precious and honored in my sight. And because I love you, I give people in exchange for you nations in

exchange for your life nations. So that's God's scales. We just got back from two weeks in Europe. And while we were there, we were at the tower of London where the jewels of London are kept. And then we went to where the jewels are kept the crown jewels in Scotland, in Edinburgh. And of course, you've got the guards with the fuzzy Q-tip black hats. We kept trying to make them laugh and they wouldn't. They're guarding those jewels, the crown jewels of the UK. Those are priceless, estimated by historians to be priceless, but that's just the jewels of the country. That's not the land. That's not the gross national product. That's not everything that Scotland or England or Ireland, that's not everything. And God said the entire nation, not just the jewels. I'm not just exchanging you for a Tiffany bracelet. You are more valuable to me than entire nations with all their wealth. Right before I came out here, because I'm always a hot mess, just looking for a blooper reel to begin. I was in the restroom trying to make my hair look, not look like roadkill on this humid day. And I thought, oh, I need some lotion. And I squirted. lotion in the bathroom and just sit shot straight all over me. Just gobs of white on my pants, on my, on my shirt, on this, on my arm and my watch. And I was like, you just can't take me anywhere. I mean, you just can't. I'm just a walking Yehu. And yet the, the God, the only true God, the God of the universe, transcendent, holy, Trinitarian, perfect, perfect in and of himself. He didn't even need relationship with us. He chose for us to be his treasure. He's perfectly sustained by fellowship with each other. Augustine, one of my favorite old dead guys. I have a crush on him too. Augustine said only the Christian God is a perfect community unto himself, perfectly sustained, perfectly satisfied. And yet he chose for us to be his treasure. Yeah. And he said, you're worth so much to me. I'll give entire nations in exchange for you. So our worth is, our worth is predetermined. It's not, there's no earning on our behalf. Our worth is priceless. We are invaluable from God's estimation. And then if you'll head to the right to Ephesians, one of my favorite passages in all of the new Testament, our worth is permanent. Ephesians one, beginning with verse three, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his side and love he predestined for us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure, some translations say good pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace,

which he has freely given us in the one he loves. Where it reads pleasure or good pleasure in your Bible that comes from the Greek word, eudokia. Eud involves good and eudokia is thinking. So in other words, when God set his affection on us, he didn't do it out of pity. Our salvation is mercy. Our adoption is affection. So the King of all Kings didn't look at us and go, oh, she's such a Yahoo. She's old as dirt. She lost a little weight with the help of and now she's all creepy. She ain't got no man that poor girl. Let's just, let's love on her a little extra. Cause she probably doesn't think she's worth it. That is not the disposition of our creator redeemer. He looks at me when I've got lotion all over my leather pants and he says, isn't she beautiful? It was my good thinking to adopt her. Y'all even the word adoption and first century context. It's crazy that Paul uses it in our relationship with God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit, because in this era, no parents would adopt an infant. An infant. There's too much risk in that parents in Greco Roman culture only adopted an older adolescent or an adult. Why is that? Y'all can talk back. I'm not a pastor. Why, why do you think they would only adopt somebody who was older? Exactly. Because you had, you had proven potential. They could see their GPA. They could see how hard they worked at Chick-fil-A after school. They could see this kid has promise. And by the way, girls are never adopted in this era of biblical history. Girls are not adopted because girls had no financial value other than producing an heir. And so baby girls are rejected, but there's a possibility. If you are a young man who has promise that a couple will adopt you and say, we'll give him our name. We'll make him an heir. The most famous older adoptee from this era is Octavian. And I know most of y'all like me just examine your eyelids in high school history, but you remember he's the very first Roman emperor. Do you remember who preceded Octavian? I know y'all did Julius Caesar. So Julius Caesar was not the first emperor of Rome. He was a military hero. He was a dictator. He adopted his nephew. He adopted this kid named Octavian at the, it was actually his great nephew at the age of 18. Because Octavian He showed promise. And so Julius Caesar adopted Octavian and said, I will give you my name.

And so after Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Octavian fought and became the very first emperor. He changed Rome from a republic to an empire. He became the very first Roman emperor. The Senate, that's kind of much like our Senate. The Senate, maybe not as much polarization, but anyway, their Senate said, we're gonna name you Augustine. Augustus means one who is revered. And he said, I'm gonna take my adopted dad's last name as my first, because I wanna be attached to Julius Caesar's renown. So his name went from Octavian to Caesar Augustus. First emperor of Rome, now we all think Caesar is a title. It originated as a surname. And then he went a step further, because the Roman Senate, because Julius Caesar was such a great leader, they named him Dewey. We would say D-V in Latin, but their Vs are pronounced as Ws if you're a redneck American. Dewey Phileas, son of God. So Octavian, because they had named Julius Caesar a god, that's what Octavian called himself. I am Caesar Augustus. I am Dewey Phileas. I am a son of God. Little bit arrogant, right? Do y'all remember the crucifixion account?

There's a Roman centurion. And all he did was watch Jesus die. Wasn't in a Bible study, wasn't in a home group, didn't follow Jesus, wasn't Jewish. But he was there at the crucifixion. Y'all remember this story in Mark's gospel? I think it's in chapter 15. He watches Jesus die. That's all he sees. He doesn't see him raise Lazarus from death back to life. He doesn't see him walk on water. Doesn't see him turn water into wine. All he watches is Jesus suffer. And when Jesus dies and says it is finished, that Roman centurion says surely, surely he is Dewey Phileas. He is the son of God. Do you know the coins in his pocket at the time were inscribed to promote the Roman Caesar as the son of God? Y'all, the context in our Bibles drives me nuts when people says the Bible's boring. I'm like, no, you're a lazy reader. This is so much better than Yellowstone. This is like epic. So it makes sense that Caesar Augustus Octavian was adopted because he had promise. He had potential. That makes sense. That was very uncommon.

What was more common was this practice that they still practice. They just don't call it this in my little girl's village in Haiti. It's expositio. Expositio comes from the Latin root exponere, meaning to expose. What was most common in the era Paul was writing is expositio, which meant if you had a little girl, and you already had one, so you didn't need a spare, or if you had a son who was born deformed with something as minor as a cleft palate, you could take them to the edge of town and leave them so that they would die in the elements. They still do that in my baby girl's village in Haiti. That's why you rarely, rarely in a developing nation that struggles with poverty. It's interesting. You usually won't see a child with cerebral palsy or an extreme deformity because it's too hard for them to feed their healthy kids. And so they still practice taking unwanted or deformed or medically challenged children, infants, to the edge of town and leaving them there. Do you know what Christians became known for at the latter part of the first and second century? Christians became known for, and actually vilified for this, that we would go and rummage through trash dumps to find discarded infants,

and we would adopt them as our sons and our daughters. We became known for that. Do you know the first brick and mortar churches in that era? Small, informal affairs. Always had a basin outside the front door of the church so people could go by and drop off an infant. Because even as early Christians, we understood this isn't okay. It's not okay to take an innocent, beautiful, worthy, valuable baby and put them in a trash dump. up. The Christians would race the slave traders to try to get the little girls so they wouldn't be put into prostitution. Do you know, we were in Italy two summers ago doing a strips of trips of Paul to her. And I saw this, I think it's called, uh, uh, Ruato, uh, day Ruato day Triteria. Suddenly I have this craving for pasta. Um, let me see what it's called. It's called, uh, uh, does anybody speak Italian? Ruato day Travatelli, Travatelli, a Ruato day Travatelli. Y'all were wanting Italian now too. Aren't you? We'll go to North Italia after lunch. Um, I have a picture of a Ruato day Travatelli. This is all throughout Italian archaic. Okay. See bottom left. See that little box that actually is a concrete cubby and it's on a cylinder. It rotates. So you can come at night to the outside. That was an ancient church. You can come to the outside and that little Ruato day Travatelli will be open and you can put your baby in there anonymously, knowing that somebody on the other side of that wall, probably a nun will take care of your baby. So even early Christians understanding that all people have value, it impacted architecture. Ruato day Travatelli. Here's the deal for Paul to speak to this audience of young Christians in Ephesus and say, God, the father, son, and Holy spirit thinks you are so worth it, but he didn't just save you. He has actually adopted you as firstborns as co-heirs and you won't sit at the kiddie table or on the porch. You will sit to the right of Jesus, the son in a position of honor. Y'all that was so counter cultural in their understanding. That would be like a UNC grad rooting for Duke or Drake and Kendrick Lamar writing a song together

or Travis and Tay having a tiny wedding. I mean, that's just, that's not gonna happen. That doesn't happen. We, we read Ephesians and most of us are like, oh, that's good. That's not, I kind of like that. I like when pastor Steven preached on that. We don't get the gravitas of the God of the universe saying you are mine. I didn't just save you. You're my kid. Y'all can diss me on social media. It hurts my feelings a little bit, but you diss my baby girl. I'll come find you and cut you in ribbons. And I know Holly and pastor Steven feel the same way about Elijah and Graham and Abby. I mean, these are my kids. For God to say, we aren't just people he had to save because we're train wrecks who couldn't save ourselves. For God to say, there's so much more than worth the fine to me. I'm actually adopting them into my family. And you know, according to rabbinical law, you can disinherit a biological child, but you can't just inherit and adopt a child. So he's saying it's permanent. He is saying, I have ascribed this value you haven't earned to you. I've named you as priceless. And it's permanent, honey. It is absolutely permanent. I used to spend a lot of my free time volunteering at an organization in Nashville, a couple of organizations actually who help women who are in recovery, addiction recovery. And I don't do it as much now because of Missy and I just don't have as much time as a single mom. But if you would set me up and I could get to the baby daddy, I'd have more free time. Just saying the onus is on y'all. But I used to spend a lot of time volunteering. I still get to do it a little bit, but I love, love, love, love, love getting to spend time with image bearers who are coming out of any type of addiction because the gratitude is palpable. There's just something about being incarcerated that strips your pretense. You don't have to have some loud preachers say that God loves you even though you haven't earned it. They're like, I get it. I mean, I know I didn't do anything to deserve this unconditional love. He has lavished on me. And anyway, those of y'all who are, I know we've got some elevation campuses and y'all don't. have quite as much physical freedom as we do. Some of y'all are still incarcerated. And you didn't know that this whole team here, they talk about y'all like y'all are in the room. You are family. You fit here. We love you. This is not pity. We honor you. We can't wait to actually be face to face with you to pray and to worship. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We love y'all. Y'all are not outside campuses. You are in the house campuses. Thank you so much for

listening today. The good pastors will be back next week, so stay tuned. But I used to spend a lot of time with those girls. And one Thanksgiving they said, Miss Lisa, would you spend Thanksgiving with us? And I was so honored. They asked me to spend Thanksgiving with them. I was like, oh, I'd be delighted to. And they said, we actually have so much extra. Do you know the best job that my friends could get out of when they stepped out of the halfway house into more freedom was at Chipotle. I ate at Chipotle all the time because Chipotle will hire women who have federal offenses on the records who've come out. So that was the best job they could get. Oftentimes it was cleaning hotel rooms. So for them to say we have so much extra was counter-cultural. And they said, we want to take our extra and we want to just put together a Thanksgiving feast. And then so many of our friends are still home insecure. They don't have a place to live tonight that we want to go all over Nashville and find our friends who don't have homes and serve them meals. And I was like, yeah, I'd love to be part of that. And so I helped to make this feast. Somebody had donated 150 of those, you know, the styrofoam takeout trays. We actually had 175, but our goal was 150. And we had turkeys with stuff from all over. And so we were just humming. We're in this kitchen, 800 square feet is the size of their government subsidized apartment. And there were like 13 of us in there putting together these meals. We are singing, we are dancing. I have no rhythm, but I have a lot of enthusiasm. We're singing, dancing, getting these meals together. When it was all said and done, when we ran out of meat, they said, let's count it. We had 172. So I was like, that is epic. So I said, let's pray and thank God for the extra. And then we'll go distribute these. So we had this major Pentecostal prayer. And I was like, don't call me pastor. And for anybody else in Nashville, I'll get eviscerated, but they all call me pastor. And so, but don't call me pastor. That P is, whew, that's polarizing. So anyway, we prayed. And then we said, amen. I was like, okay, what's the plan? And they're like, well, we haven't planned any further. And I was like, well, y'all, and they're like, one of us have our license. Our license haven't been reinstated yet. So we don't have cars. I'm like, well, y'all, and they're like, will you help us? I was like, well, yes. So I've got an SUV because prophetically, I thought God would give me a man and I would fill it with kids. And so we piled my car with like 130. There's one other car. We had just boxes of food all throughout my car. One of the girls got in my car. Another girl was in the back and we started driving around

kind of sketchy parts of downtown Nashville, looking for people who might be hungry. And our goal was not just to give somebody a meal, but was to look in their eyes and have a conversation, hopefully sit with them while they ate. And the most memorable of those 130 or so meals we gave away was the first and the last. The first was a train wreck because I chose them. And we're driving down by Vandy and there's just this kid dressed in rags. And so I assume he was housing insecure. And so I hopped my car up on the curb and I was like, Hey baby, she probably gram your age. And we just punking. And I was like, Hey baby, we've got some extra food. He was so offended. And then I saw the Prada shoes, but it was rags. The rest of them was rags. So I thought he was homeless. And so he was really offended. So that was memorable. We got an earful from him because he wasn't hungry. And then we had all kinds of meals in the middle, but the very last guy was my favorite. We had talked with a fella who was living behind this building and he said, we'll run up the road. And when you see a little half concrete wall, the guy who lives in a cubby behind that, his name is cricket. He's a friend of mine. Go see if you can find cricket. And sure enough, we found this man named cricket, precious, precious, precious 20 something year old man. And we had, as the sun was setting on Thanksgiving, the, I mean, it was communion. It was one of the best meals I've ever shared with other Christ followers. And then, you know, we said goodbye and I didn't think I'd ever see him again. And two weeks later I was back in that same area because I'd gotten lost. And I was trying to figure out how to get back to the interstate. And I recognized the street sign. And I thought, oh my goodness, this is where we were two weeks ago at Thanksgiving when I got to meet cricket. And I thought, I wonder if he's still here. So I pretended like I was a UPS truck, hopped my car back up on the curb again, started walking around, and ran into this young man who looked like he had been living outside. And I said, sir, excuse me, my name is Lisa, and I'm looking for a man who used to live in this area named Cricket.

And he said, Lisa, I'm Cricket. And living outside for a couple of weeks can change your appearance. And I said, Cricket, I'm so sorry, I didn't recognize you. I said, I don't know if you remember two weeks ago, and he goes, I remember, it was Thanksgiving. And I said, well, I found myself back in this neighborhood, and I just felt this strong inclination to stop by and see you, and to tell you that God sees you, and he thinks you're worth it. And I don't know why I said that. Sometimes I'll say things because of prayer and Holy Spirit, and sometimes it's insecurity or it's Celsius. You know, sometimes you go, I think that was the Lord, and it might be, and it might not be. But I said, I think, I think it was Holy Spirit who impressed me to say, you're worth it. And as soon as I said that, he just bent over and began to sob like a baby. And he kind of pitched himself in my arms. And even though I'm not as petite as Holly, he was a tall guy, it was hard for me to hold him up. I mean, he just put the whole weight of his body in my arms. And I mean, he was just sobbing. And the only thing I could think to do was pray. And when I'm nervous, oftentimes I'll pray scripture.

I'll pray the Word of God, this love story we call the Bible. And so I just begin to pray, Psalm 139. Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. Every word you know before it proceeds from my mouth. You hem me in behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle in the far side of the sea, even there your right hand will hold me. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. David goes on to say, for I'm wonderfully and fearfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was it hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before even one of them came to be, long before you met Brett, long before y'all had a baby, long before you entered ministry. He said, this is my worthy son. He's so amazing. And that's all I could think to pray over cricket when I got to verse 18, because after that David gets mad and that's when he says, do I not hate those who hate you? And it gets a little grumpy. And so I finished the prayer at verse 18. And when I did, it's like it gave cricket just enough wherewithal to stand back up. And he looked me in the eyes and he had no alcohol in his breath. His eyes weren't bloodshot, just completely clear. I just think he was just in one of those thin seasons. And he looked me straight in the eyes and he goes, Lisa, you have no idea how much I needed to be reminded that I have worth. And I said, yes, sir, I needed that reminder today as well. And we hugged and I drove away, a daughter and a son from completely different stations in life, different ethnicities.

And I stopped at a 7-Eleven at the end of the street because I couldn't drive anymore because I was crying so hard. And I just pulled my car over and I said, God, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. Forgive me that because of my station in life, sometimes I forget what an extraordinary miracle it is to be your daughter, to be adopted into your family. You didn't just rescue me from the trash heap of my decisions. You didn't just leave me in a concrete cubby to become someone else's responsibility. You said, she's my daughter and she's worth everything to me. Even the sacrifice of my only son, the worth, the worth you and I care about. Gary, if we could walk in just the minutest understanding of the miracle that that is, y'all, it would change the trajectory of our lives. Quite possibly, it would change the lives of the people we get to rub shoulders with, these precious, precious image bearers around us, so many of them who think I'm not worth anything, because that's what I've been told my whole life. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? We're gonna close this family meeting with a prayer. And I know I haven't earned the right. I'm so grateful Stephen and Holly allowed me to come. I haven't earned the right to ask you a question, but I'm going to anyway.

I'm gonna ask all of you to raise your right hands. I promise I'm not signing you up for a coffee club or anything. Just raise your right hands. The reason I do that is so you won't hear a hand go up next to you. Sometimes we can be a little nosy in church. And for those of you who maybe have been wounded in church, I want to assure you that you're safe at Elevation. You're serious, serious about the love of God here, but you're not gonna be judged. So everybody, right hands up. And would you just open those beautiful poems that God designed? Just spread that hand wide open. Now, if you're in a place in your life, a season in your life, or this may be the story of your whole life, where the idea of being, having value, intrinsic value, the idea of being loved unconditionally by God, the idea that the God who breathed our universe into existence looks at you and says, I am so proud of this one. This is my son. This is my daughter. They're worth the fine to me. If that's hard for you to wrap your mind around, hard for you to hang on to, maybe you would be so honest as to say, I don't really believe that.

Would you close that beautiful hand into a fist? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, thank you, thank you, thank you for your honesty. Can I ask you for just a moment more to keep your hands raised? Don't look around out of respect for the saints around you, but there are hundreds with fists in the air. Beautiful, not defiant, beautiful, tired fist in the air. Kind of reminds me of the Statue of Liberty. Give me your tired. Give me your tired. Give me your hopeless. Give me your hurt. Give me your wounded. Give me your abandoned. Give me your no one ever looked at you and said, you are worth the fine. I would walk across cut glass to get to you. You are precious to me. I'll exchange nations for you. Those of you with your fist raised, we're gonna pray and I'm gonna ask you if Holy Spirit prompts, would you pray this prayer of salvation? Pray this prayer of maybe for the first time or for the first time in a long time, just leaning into the wide open arms of the God who is ascribed to value to you. You're not a disappointment to him.

You're not an interruption to him. He didn't save you because it's in his job description. He saved you because it was his eudokia, his good thinking to set his favor on you. You're not an afterthought. You were the first thought. One glance of your eyes, you captured his heart. Pastor, would you come and pray for these image bearers, some of whom have yet to believe their worth? Father, we thank you for the word that was spoken over us today, God, to know that we were the joy that was set before you. We thank you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation resting in this place today. Lord, would you open up our eyes to see ourselves the way you see us, God? For those with their hands up and a fist right now, God, Lord, we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would just continue to minister as your word becomes alive in their hearts, God. Oh, what an incredible manner of love that you have lavished on us that we would be called children of God. For someone in the room today, you've never made a decision to receive the gift of God's grace. I wanna give you that invitation right now. You can put your hands. down for just a moment. If you've never made a decision to place your faith

in Christ, when I count to three, I wanna give you the opportunity to throw your hand up in the air. The last one was private, but this one's public because we wanna celebrate what God has done in your heart. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross and rose again so that you could be forgiven and have new life. If you wanna receive the gift of His salvation today, when I count to three, slide your hand up in the air and do it boldly. I wanna celebrate your new beginning on three. One, two, three. Shoot your hand up, hold it up high. Come on, I see you there. God bless you. God.