Love Hard Even When It Is Hard | Elevation Church | Lisa Harper

Well, if you don't know me, I'm Holly Furtick, and I'm so glad to be worshipping with you here this morning. Welcome, welcome at all of our locations. Lisa Harper is here. How many of you would agree that we've had some really great preachers every weekend, bringing the Word of God, speaking to us? I'm so thankful that we come to a church where every week, we know that we can show up. If we could just get here, God's gonna speak. And today is no exception. Lisa Harper is back to the Elevation stage for a second time. First time is a guest, second time is family. So we're excited to have our family back with us here this weekend. Her daughter is here, Missy. They have come all the way from the country of Tennessee. And Lisa, she's gonna bring an incredible message. I already heard it one time last night, and I'm excited for you to hear it. She is an incredibly gifted Bible teacher, preacher, author, and she's also one of the funniest people I know. So you're in for a real treat. She travels the world, and I'm so excited to have her here with us today on the Elevation stage. Will you help me welcome Lisa Harper?

Thank you, Holly. I really, oh, please sit down, please sit down. Thank you. I cannot overstate what an honor it is to be here. This is my second time, and Holly graciously invited me to be with some of the women in the church two years ago. And every time I get to be at Elevation, I just weep during worship. And it's not just that I'm menopausal and my emotions are kicked up. It's that the presence of God is so tangible in this place, and I'm just undone to get to be here. Very undeserving of the platform, but so grateful to get to be here. And then to get to be here on baptism Sunday, that just slayed me. Just slayed me. I love that you do it in the house. I love that it's a family meeting instead of formal and removed. I got to baptize my little girl in the Jordan River two months ago. We were going to Israel, and Missy told me, she wants to be baptized. She's nine. And I said, "Baby, that'd be great." And what I hadn't taken into consideration is we came to Israel from Australia. So we got there a day and a half after the group we were with, and we missed the normal baptismal site. Which some of you have been to Israel, it's on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it's beautiful, and you've got the white robes, and the water's clear, and it's real picturesque. It's a really great and so worthy moment. And we missed that baptism site. When we got there, it was the southern part of the Jordan, and that's where there's a lot of agricultural runoff and just a teensy bit of sewage, and the water's really brown. Now, historically, that's where John baptized Jesus. That's historically where the Israelites went into Cana, and that's historically where Elijah went up to be with Jesus. So it's a really cool biblical site, but it's really trashy as far as the water. But I was like, "We're in Israel, and she said, 'The Jordan,' and this is the Jordan." And Missy was like, "No, ma'am." And I was like, "Oh, yes, ma'am." And so I kind of had to shove her a little bit. And I'll show the next group the picture, 'cause it's just comical. I think there will be therapy in light of this baptism. But I told her, "Baby, this is like one of the most amazing points in your life because it's when you recognize that you go down as an old person, you come up alive to a whole new truth." I said, "Outwardly, it's just a sign of this inward miracle. It's incredible." So to get to be here and see that. If I had half a brain, I'd just pray and we'd be done, and we'd all go to Denny's. But I've never been accused of having half a brain. And so we are gonna dive into a story in the book of Acts this morning because I've watched a lot of the pastors you've had come in this summer, was just undone by Pastor Steven's message on "When the Battle Chooses You." And then I watched Roberts, and I watched Pastor Daniels. And I feel like there's this theme God has been weaving through Elevation, eFam, and all the other locations of spiritual maturity, kind of in this summer of "Be All In" for the sake of the gospel. So I want to stay in that theme. But in order for me to stay there, I need y'all to help me. So reach out and touch somebody. Gentlemen, if you feel weird holding hands with a guy you don't know, you can just awkwardly pinkie grip. But we're just gonna. And y'all don't have to be that Pentecostal. You don't have to reach across the aisles, that's too hard this early in the morning. But let's pray to that end. Let's pray that God will have his way in this place, that he will actually illuminate our hearts and minds, that we will become more fully alive to the gospel, to the call he has on our lives.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. King Jesus. This Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, the author and the perfecter of our faith, a lily of the valley, the Alpha and the Omega, wonderful counselor, Almighty God. This Jesus, the Christ, our Messiah. Jesus, thank you that when you ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God Almighty, you didn't leave us as orphans. Thank you that you left us your Spirit and this love letter called the Bible. Lord, we pray that you just have your way through your Spirit in this place and all the locations and all the family rooms and the coffee shops and the places where eFams are meeting all over the globe. Lord Jesus, have your way in your Spirit that we would see you more clearly, that we would be undone by the gospel, that just like these friends of ours that got baptized, that there would be a washing this morning, that some of the things that have been buried or numb in our hearts, that we would feel brand new and just be alive to the gospel. So Jesus, we can't accomplish this on our own. We recognize we're desperate for your Spirit. We pray for your Spirit. We pray you would accomplish this by your power and authority and for your purposes. Lord Jesus, we ask this, and all of God's sons and daughters said, amen.

Before we dive into the text, I want to tell you a story that happened recently to illuminate where we're headed. And it has to do with motorcycles. So I should probably qualify this because I know a lot of church people don't like motorcycles. But I grew up half Baptist, Mom was Baptist, Dad was Pentecostal. And so the prodigal in me has always wanted a reason to wear black leather pants. And I grew up riding motorcycles, dirt bikes. My dad had a ranch. And then when I turned 40, I made this little plan. I am still single, never been married. My husband won't stop to ask for directions. But at 40, I had a plan. And I decided if I didn't get a husband that year, because it's a pivotal year, you know, 40, and you start to lose your metabolism. So I needed something positive. I just said, "If I didn't get a husband, I was gonna get a Harley Davidson." And so that was my first big bike, and I've been riding ever since. And wearing leather pants, even though it often sounds like ducks are being killed. But when I brought Missy, my daughter, home from Haiti through the miracle of adoption, I thought, "You know what? I don't feel good about putting Missy on the back of two wheels just because of other drivers and distractions." I just, there's inherent risk in motorcycles. So I thought, "I don't feel comfortable. I'm not gonna ride anymore with her on a bike." But it really bummed her out because motorcycles are the main form of transportation in Haiti. So she would see the bike every time we walked through the garage, and she'd go, "Moto, moto, Mama moto." And I thought, "You know, I don't feel comfortable putting her on a hog, but maybe I could get a bike that is a little safer." And so I found online through Craigslist, always scares me that I'm gonna meet a murderer, but actually, I met a really nice guy in Chicago who was selling a Honda Goldwing with a dauntless sidecar. And Sophia, motorcycle people actually have a pig. Yeah. So I bought that because, you know, it's three wheels, you can see us coming, it's obviously safer than two wheels. And we had a blast on this bike. I did the whole weird thing. I don't do all the, you know, matching Mommy and Me outfits because I'm just too old and that's too sad for Missy. But we did do matching leathers. And I mean, we just, we had so much fun with it. Until one day, we were riding the bike. I live in the boonies about 20 miles south of Nashville, Tennessee. And this blue Ford truck, flying a rebel flag in the back, drove up beside us and threw Coke cans at us and yelled expletives. Because where I live in Nashville, Tennessee, some people do not think straight-headed mamas should have curly-headed kids. And I'd prepared for that when I was bringing Missy home from Haiti as well as I could. Spent a lot of shoe money on therapists who specialize in transracial adoptions. Got the Chris Rock hair special. And actually didn't just rent it, I have the DVD. I mean, I did everything I needed to prepare for this. It's a good one, ain't it, Autumn? That's like one of the best movies ever. I mean, don't, don't rent it and send Holly mean emails 'cause there's a few little, little exciting words that aren't in the Bible in that DVD. But anyway, it's great about kind of the sole microcosm of hair. So I did everything I could to prepare, but I was not prepared for some of the vitriol that has come our way. And so I was really stunned when these guys threw Coke cans and yelled expletives. It went right over Missy's head. She didn't even realize it was directed at the fact that I have straight hair and she has curly hair. But then a couple of weeks later, we were back on the bike in the same area on this country road, Carter's Creek Pike, south of Nashville. And I saw in my rearview mirror the same truck. And so I kind of tensed up because I thought, "Uh oh, we're out here on this country road. It's just Missy and me in this motorcycle. We're totally exposed." And sure enough, these guys in the blue truck up the ante. And they pulled up right next to us. I had slowed down considerably. And they began yelling really unkind things, including the N-word. And then the driver edged the truck into my lane and forced me off the road. And it was scary. We were fine, we weren't hurt, but it was really alarming. And I thought, "You know what? I've got to explain this to Missy now because it didn't go over her head this time." So I went straight home and sat her down and I said, "Hey, baby, I want to explain to you what just happened when those guys yelled such ugly things to us and forced us off the road." And she was like, "Mama, why did they do that?" And I said, "Well, baby, some people have really little lives, and they choose to surround themselves with people who are just like them and look like them and talk like them and think like them. And I said, sometimes their lives are so small that their hearts get small because their hearts don't have room to grow. And I said, sometimes people with really little hearts are really dangerous. And I said, so baby, I want to talk to you about what we do when we're around people who have really little hearts like those guys in the truck. I said, do you know what we need to do?" And where I was gonna go is I was gonna talk about being alert. I was gonna talk about just always kind of having your antenna up when you're in a place where you don't see a whole lot of faces that may look like your face, how you just have to be aware, not to be bitter or resentful, but just to be aware. And so I said, "Do you know what we need to do, baby?" And she goes, "Oh, yes ma'am. We need to help them have bigger hearts." And I was just like, 'cause that wasn't where I was going. But once again, it's like the Holy Spirit used my kid to go, "Let me teach you something here, Lisa." And what he's been teaching me through the last few years, through the conduit of my child, are two truths that I think are where God has Elevation. Because y'all are growing up. You know, Ballantyne is three years. A lot of y'all have been together for 15 years. You got people who've been running hard toward Jesus for a long time, and I feel like y'all are about to go into fifth gear. You're maturing spiritually. And here's the two truths that God is teaching me through Missy that I feel like are pertinent to all of us, especially in light of where y'all have been this summer. The first one is that being liked is not a prerequisite for being loving. Being liked, being popular, being accepted has nothing to do with sharing the love of Christ. The second thing I feel like I'm learning is as apostles of Christ, as ambassadors of the New Covenant, as men and women who have been undone by His mercy, it's incumbent upon us to love hard, even when it's hard. To love hard, even when it's hard, that we don't demand reciprocity from culture. There's this misnomer, I feel like, in American evangelical circles nowadays, that we have to have power and acceptance in order to really express the gospel. And I'm like, that's not biblically defensible. Nowhere in the Bible do you see that Christianity, that our faith in Christ, is dependent upon political power or being accepted. Actually, usually it's contrary to that. Usually the gospel, the people who share the gospel in Scripture, our ancestors, usually they were oppressed, and it was that oppression and opposition that actually stirred their spiritual fervor. They actually kind of rose to the occasion when culture oppressed them. That's part of spiritual maturity. It's loving hard when it's hard. Doesn't matter if your preferred political candidate is in office. It doesn't matter if people like your Twitter feed. It doesn't matter if people at your work think that you're really all that. None of that matters. What matters is while we were still sinners, He lavished mercy and affection on us, and we should be so undone by what sent us under the water that we can't help but share the gospel with people around us.

I was on a plane recently, and I've got where I hate flying. And I do it all the time. And I was excited because it was a short flight, so I knew that I wouldn't have to suffer for long. And they had just announced the boarding door was closing, and the only empty seat on the whole plane was between me and the guy next to me reading The Wall Street Journal. I was like, "Yes!" Because I can't see it, but I'm convinced there's a tattoo on my forehead that says, "If you are a very, very large man with very, very poor hygiene, please sit next to me and please take my armrest as your own." Because it happens every time. And so it's like, score! Finally have a flight where I have a little room and I can stretch out. Right as they were closing the door, this woman gets on the plane. And so I look at her with kind of a Christian dirty look. So it's like, really? Come on, man. I thought I was gonna have the seat empty. I don't have the gift of mercy like Holly. But this woman comes on, and she's just kind of smiling. You can tell she's a talker from 50 feet. And I don't talk on planes. I mean, I don't want to share the four spiritual laws. I don't, I want to read a deep theological journal, like People magazine or the Pottery Barn catalog. And I just want to have my space. And so this woman gets into my space, and she's real perky. And I thought, "Honey, I'm a lot older than you, and I am not gonna make eye contact." Because I've learned if you make eye contact on planes, then that's just, "Please, let's have a conversation." So I said, "Nope, not doing it. I'm older than you." And so I kind of nodded like an almost Christian would, and then I turned my attention back to Brad and Angelina. And then the flight attendant came through and started taking our drink orders. And both of us, at the same time, ordered ginger ale. I don't even like ginger ale, but for whatever reason, I always order ginger ale on planes because, you know, as a Bible teacher, you can't get a margarita. So I have to get ginger ale. Anyway, this girl and I both get ginger ale. And when we said ginger ale, she went, "Me too!" And I went, "Oh, crud." I broke my rule. We just bonded over ginger ale. And the minute we made eye contact, she went, "Hey, my name's Heather." And I was like, "Of course it is." And so we started to talk. Mostly she talked, and I just kind of nodded. And I thought, "You know, my quiet time alone with the Lord and people is ruined." And then they made the announcement because it was a short flight that we're about to land in Atlanta. And she got real serious when they said we were gonna be landing in a few minutes. And she turned to me and she said, "Lisa, may I ask you a personal question?" And I was like, "Sure, Heather, you can absolutely ask me a personal question." She went, "Do you know Jesus?" And I said, "I do. I actually do know Jesus." And y'all, the look of disappointment that crossed her face was just so precious that I real quickly went, "But not very well. Not, not very well." And so she spent the whole rest of the flight witnessing to me and just encouraging me in the importance of getting in small group and prayer and spending time in God's Word. And I was just like, "That sounds awesome." And so we land in Atlanta, and she said, "You know, before we separate, would you mind if I lay hands on you and pray?" And I was like, "No, that'd be awesome." And so we get off the plane, and she stands in the gate area, lays hands on me, and prays a prayer that I really needed. And she walked away, never knowing that I was actually going to teach at a conference and was a Bible teacher. And I thought, "You know, she just couldn't help it. She couldn't not share the hope that lies within her." Y'all, if our lostness would inform our love, if we would remember what He saved us from, we'd all be a little bit more like Heather. We would be compelled to share the hope that lives within us, even when it's hard, even when it's awkward. And that's what we see in Acts. And y'all know this story. This story happens immediately after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. Y'all know that after He was resurrected, He spent 40 days in His redeemed, restored, shouldn't say redeemed, He didn't need to be redeemed, but His restored body and here on earth before He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father. And in those 40 days, He had 100 corroborated encounters with people. And the very last encounter He has before He goes to mediate for us in glory is right here in Acts chapter 1, verse 6. It says, "So when they had come together, these are this motley crew of Christians at this point, they're number people, theologians differ, but it's somewhere around a hundred and ten, very, very small group at this point. When they had come together, they asked Him, they asked Jesus, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, the Father has fixed by His own authority.'" Interesting. They're saying, "Will it get easier?" Is what they're saying. They're saying, "Will you assume an earthly throne so we don't have to be oppressed anymore?" Because at this point, we're sticking out like hot dog vendors at a vegan festival. I mean, everybody hates us. Our kids are being beaten up on the way home from school. We're being murdered. We're being marginalized. And so at this point, are you gonna occupy a literal throne so the going gets a little bit easier for us? And He says, "No, it's not gonna get easier for you. He says, 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.'" And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, matter of fact, he wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts together. So they're like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. So if you are one of those saints who's in the habit of reading through the Bible in a year, when you get to the end of Luke's Gospel, vault over John, come back for John later, but go straight to the Acts of the Apostles because the literary symmetry there is just amazing. He's a great storyteller. But what he tells us now is there is this indicative statement from Jesus to His followers that they will receive power. And there is no qualification here. And the power comes from the speaker. It is this really strong in the Greek imperative. It actually means in the original phraseology to grasp or to seize. And again, the initiative lies with the speaker, not with a hearer. What I'm trying to say is this is an irrevocable call. Doesn't matter if you're a healthy eight or a wobbly three with a carb-addicted wing like me. When you said Pastor Steven didn't eat buns, I was like, "I got his buns right here." I mean, golly, that sounded terrible. I meant I will eat the bread he doesn't eat. Lord have mercy, Holly, that was awful. That's not what I meant. Obviously, this is not scripted. I hope you did not pay much for your ticket this morning. Anyway, I don't think Jesus would have called himself the bread of life if we were supposed to be all paleo and stuff. That's what I was trying to say. But this call He gives His followers, "You will receive power. You will be my witnesses." It wasn't dependent on personality type. Didn't depend on what you were on Enneagram, whether you're an extrovert or an introvert. It didn't depend on your past. We will get into more of that in a minute. It's irrevocable. If you've put your hope in Jesus, whether your parents are Pentecostal and you're comfortable jumping pews, or this is your first time in a gathering of faith, or you're an eFam in a bar because you're just not so sure about these crazy Christians, if you put your hope in Jesus, you will receive power, and you will share the hope that lies within you. It's an irrevocable call. Of course, we mature in boldness in the way we share the gospel. But if you put your hope in Jesus, at some point, there's a little Heather in you. At some point, you can't not share the hope that's within you.

What we see in the book of Acts is they share it even when it's hard. They're not just on a plane next to a grumpy frequent flyer who isn't very friendly initially. They're actually being murdered and martyred for their audacious claim that Jesus actually connects them with Jehovah. But it's not based on keeping 613 Torah laws. It's actually based on recognizing your neediness, that you can't keep the law, that you can't make it by yourself, that you are desperate for a Savior. And for preaching that they're getting killed. Flip over to Acts 8, because one of the most gruesome martyrdoms that's actually spelled out in the book of Acts is Stephen's death. I don't know if Stephen's parents named him after this Stephen, but if they did, it would have been a good naming. Stephen was stoned to death for telling his Jewish friends, "Y'all, it's about Jesus. It's not about the law. He loves you so much that He came and He laid His life down for you." And for that sermon, a mob rallied around Stephen with stones, and they literally, not figuratively, literally stoned him to death in front of his friends and family. Big rocks, landscape kind of rocks, and they threw them at Stephen until he died of physical death. I mean, gruesome kind of death. And the guy who supervised this murder is the guy who goes on to, after he encounters Christ, to write 2/3 of the New Testament. It's one of the reasons I tell you, your past does not dictate your future. Your past doesn't even limit how God is gonna use you. Because at the very beginning of Acts, Pete is the one who preached the first two evangelical sermons wherein 8,000 people got saved. This was less than two months after Pete threw Jesus under the bus and vehemently and vulgarly denied that he even knew the Christ. Y'all may know him as Peter, but I like to call him Pete because I know him. Peter, who by all human accounts had completely, completely sabotaged his own future as a spiritual leader. Pete is the one that Jesus said, "I now am gonna call you a rock, and I'm gonna place the New Testament church on your frail shoulders." Paul, who right here is approving the execution of Stephen. This is before God blinds him on the road to Costco. It says, "And Saul," because that was his BC name, "and Saul approved of his execution. Acts chapter 8, verse 1: 'And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging.'" Original word there in the Greek, which is what the New Testament was written in initially, Greek and Aramaic, that word ravaging means to destroy with an intent to kill. So again, this wasn't, they're not dismissing him on Twitter. I mean, this isn't, "Well, they were mean to me and they blocked my call." That's not what this is. This is, "They are intent to destroy me and my family." That's what's happening in 1st century Judea, that area in Israel. But Paul was ravaging, trying to kill the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now, humanly speaking, what even therapists would probably tell us would be wise at this point to do is to kind of tone it down a notch. You know, when they turn the heat up, it's best to just kind of, kind of back up a step or two. Like, don't be so vocal, don't be so loud, just kind of go on the down low a little while, you know, don't keep any receipts or anything, but just be real careful. I did that for all of you under 40. I'm real proud. I know the word receipt. Obviously, it went over like the two guys in rapper gear. But anyway, humanly speaking, it would have made sense for these early Christians who are being marginalized and murdered to just back the bus up until the environment was a little more open to evangelism. And y'all, that is the exact opposite of what they did. They didn't mute the miracle. They couldn't not share the hope of the gospel. And they shared it in really tough places. Because after Stephen was murdered, Philip, one of his best friends, goes to Samaria. He doesn't go to an easy place. He doesn't go to, you know, outskirts to Charlotte and stay in a really nice hotel and get a massage and have a steak before he shares. Guys, he goes to enemy territory and shares the gospel. It says the gospel, they're so undone by this story that God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son. Then it says many got saved, and says there was much joy in that city. Verse 8. Now, if I was Philip, and I had been that faithful, I would feel like I have earned myself a Frappuccino and, you know, a spa visit, mani-pedi. I've earned something because I was really faithful when the going got tough. He doesn't stop there. He actually turns up the heat of his own testimony because he goes from sharing in Samaria. What he does next, y'all, is just shocking if you understand the context of this second half of the first century culture. It says in verse 26 of chapter 8, "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise and go toward the south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert place." And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit, the Paraclete, said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." Now, if you read between the lines of those verses, the angel tells Philip, "I want you to go in the middle of the day." Phraseology there at the beginning of verse 26 says, "I want you to go in the heat of the day. I want you to go at the most uncomfortable time of day." I told y'all we were just in Israel. If you've ever been to the Middle East in the middle of the day, that's like when your Spanx stick to your body. Gentlemen, you don't need to know what Spanx are. What you do need to know is when we take them off, it's dangerous because it's like putting a butter knife to biscuit. Can y'all need to be careful. If your wife's wearing Spanx, you need to give her some privacy when she's peeling those puppies off. But anyway, it's a super uncomfortable time of day. And he says, "I want you to go at the most uncomfortable time of day. Then I want you to take the route that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza." We just did this on the tour bus. It's like not even a secondary route, it's a tertiary route. In our culture, it would be a dirt road, kind of tumbleweed strung kind of place, weird place to scatter divine seed. So he says, "I want you to go in the heat of the day. I want you to take an uncomfortable route. And I want you to go to a eunuch." Now, I don't know how many of you have been studying Deuteronomy 23 much in your quiet times, but in Deuteronomy 23, in the ceremonial law, Jews were taught that a eunuch, a man who was born without all of his equipment, that eunuchs were not allowed to fully participate in worship. Now, what was common in this culture is that little boys from poor families would actually be castrated, and wealthy families would then hire these little boys because they assumed if a male was made a eunuch by surgical options, that it would make them more submissive. That's what we do nowadays sometimes to cows. It makes them a little easier to tame. It's, I won't get into that for PETA. But anyway, I can't imagine as a little boy having that happen to you. And that's likely what happened to this eunuch. And because of what had been done to this man, he's not allowed to come to church, not allowed to worship according to the ceremonial law. So Philip, who's seen his best friend get stoned, goes to the Samaritans, the arch enemies of God, and pulls a Heather, shares the hope that lies within him, and then he gets saved. And he doesn't stop there. He goes at a really uncomfortable time, down a really uncomfortable road, to a man that everybody else has marginalized and ostracized and ignored. And you know how he goes? This slays me. Spirit of God says, "Will you go?" And he's like, "Good night, God. I mean, I've been really faithful already, and this is really hard. I need to go back to my eGroup and I need to like have some margins because I am three and I work too hard." That's not how he responds. Instead, when the Spirit of God says, "I want you to go at a really uncomfortable time, down a really difficult road, to a man nobody else will even acknowledge exists," you know how he responds? He runs. And he ran and he ran. I just want you to think about your own life and just look over this summer. So let's just say from Memorial Day to now, when have you figuratively run toward somebody in your life to share the gospel? And I mean, anybody could be somebody you like. Could be somebody you really enjoy being around. When's the last time that your heart was so excited about sharing the hope that lies within you that you ran to someone to share Jesus, to talk about Jesus, to say, "I just can't not tell you about the way He saved me"? Now, let's take it a step further. When's the last time you ran to someone nobody else was running to? You when's the last time you ran to somebody who was marginalized, stigmatized, somebody who does not at all agree with you politically? I'm in seminary in Denver, and I'm the dumbest person in the doctoral program, but there's a few things I'm able to hang on to. And one of them is what one of my professors said recently. I told Holly last night, it's just filleted me this season. He says things I can't understand. Brilliant man. He's on the translatory team for the NIV, fluent in Greek and Hebrew, but he dumbs things down enough to where I can get it. And he said this: "If it doesn't preach in Sudan, it shouldn't preach in America." And I just went, "Wow." If it doesn't preach in Sudan, it shouldn't preach in Charlotte. If it doesn't preach in the neighborhood you're not comfortable to, it shouldn't preach in yours. When's the last time you ran to somebody who doesn't think like you, doesn't look like you, maybe doesn't even like you? Philip ran. Y'all, if we're growing in maturity, growing in our awareness of what a miracle it is that God, who breathed the universe into existence, actually delights in us. Song of Solomon 4:9 says, "With one glance, one glance of your eyes, you captured my heart." You know, I didn't believe that for years. I grew up really, really broken. Broken family, a lot of abuse. When I was a baby, I used to rock myself so hard back and forth in the crib that my crib would jump out of the casters, and there were dents in the drywall on either side of the little room I was kept in. A therapist told me years later, "Lisa, you know, that wasn't just because you were a wiggly kid. It's because you were self-nurturing." With all the chaos, after my dad left us, there was a lot of sexual abuse. After that, there was more sexual abuse. I was so stinkin' broken in my 20s and 30s. I knew Jesus. I'd come to Jesus in a church much like Elevation. I knew Jesus. But here's what I thought: I thought Jesus delivered me because He felt sorry for me. I didn't think He delighted in me. I thought, "There's no stinking way a God like that could actually delight in a damaged girl like me." As God has lifted the layers of shame off me, and I've become more and more understanding of my own lostness before I encountered the Christ, I can't help but share love to other people. It doesn't matter if they like me or not. It doesn't matter if they're Republican or a Democrat, or black or yellow or purple or spotted, or southern or northern, or African or Haitian. They're my family. They're my brothers and sisters. Every single person we relate with bears the image of God. Missy and I had the privilege of going to South Africa two months ago. And when we went, we were going with Hillsong Church. I love very much. I know y'all love Hillsong. And we were going to a conference in Cape Town. And I asked the people I was with if I could go to Guguletu. And Guguletu is a township that is on the outskirts of Cape Town. It actually was formed by South Africans who are from rural tribes who came to work in Cape Town, and they wouldn't let them live in Cape Town because of their skin color. So they ostracized them to this little two and a half square mile area that became a township of Guguletu. And a lot, a lot, a lot of violence happened there during the regime of apartheid when they segregated people based on how much melanin they have in their skin. And I love the ministry of Nelson Mandela, and I'd read a lot about the history of South Africa. I'd read about how in 1986, seven young men from Guguletu who are anti-apartheid activists were murdered by Cape Town police, ambushed and murdered. And then not long after that, right in all the turmoil after apartheid was defeated, a young white woman named Amy Biehl from Stanford, an American woman, was in Guguletu, and she was murdered. And white slurs were uttered by the mob when four boys murdered her. They pardoned the policemen who killed those seven precious boys in Guguletu, which we still see things like that happening now. And so, you know what Amy Biehl's family chose to do to the four youths in Guguletu who had killed their daughter? They pardoned them. And now two of those, they had been boys, now they're men, they work for the non-profit that Amy Biehl's parents started in her memory. And so I said, "I just want to go there. I want to go be in a place where there's been such violence, but yet the hope of restoration." And they were like, "Lisa, are you sure?" And I said, "No, no, no. I want to. I want to go to Gugs. I really want to go to Gugs." And so we got to worship at Hillsong. They have a church they planted in Guguletu. It's 98.6% black African and considered the 15th most violent place in the world. Really wonderful, very exciting place. And I went with Missy, and I had the privilege of sharing the gospel in church that morning about a hundred, hundred and fifty people. And there was one woman I could tell the entire service who was not pleased with me. And I thought, "I'm not sure, but I've said it. It may just be the virtue of the fact that I don't have enough melanin in my skin." But I thought, "I might want to talk to her after service, and I'm just gonna try to get to know her." So after service, I went and sat next to this beautiful woman and I said, "Hi, my name is Lisa." And she said, "Yes, I know." And I said, "Your countenance reflects that you've either done something that offended me, or there is animosity between you and me." And she said, "I just can't figure out why you're here. Just can't figure out why you would come here." And I said, "Well, that's my daughter right there. I said, she's Haitian, which means her DNA is from West Africa. So the way I figure it is, you're family to me." And then I said, "Hey, Missy, come here, baby." Now, if y'all exploit my kid, I'll cut you. But I can exploit her on behalf of the gospel. And so I said, "Come here, baby." And I said, "Missy, this is your auntie." And Missy goes, "Okay." And she hugs this woman. And then immediately said, "Do you have gum in your purse, Auntie?" And as my child ran away, this woman just began to weep. And she said, "I've never had somebody like you embrace somebody like y'all." Isn't it time we change the way Christians are perceived? Isn't it time we love hard, even when it's hard? Isn't it time we run to the unlikely and the marginalized? Aren't you ready to risk a little more because we just can't not share the hope that lies within us? Would you put your hand as JJ comes up? Would you just put your hand on that beautiful image bearer next to you, that man, that woman, that kid? And as JJ comes up to close us, would you pray for them? If you aren't comfortable praying out loud, that's totally cool, but would you just briefly pray? Lord, quicken their heart. Give them the grace it takes to love hard, even when it is hard. To remember their own lostness. To remember the love You lavished on them while they were still sinners. Oh, Lord, let there be an awakening in this place, a quickening in this place, a revival that starts with all of us because we run to the people that God has placed around us to share the hope that lies within us.

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