You’re Worth It | Lisa Harper | Elevation Church

I have an exciting announcement. Elevation  Nights is back this October the 9th through   the 18th and we might be coming to a city near  you. So if you are in Kansas City, Memphis,   Birmingham, San Antonio, Lubbock,  Dallas, Oklahoma City or Houston,   we want to invite you to come and  worship with us. I am telling you,   there is nothing like being in an arena full  of other Jesus lovers. It is such an amazing   night. Elevation worship is going to be there.  Elevation Rhythm is going to be there. Pastor   Steven is going to bring a powerful word that is  going to speak straight to your heart. So, if you   are near any of those cities, grab your tickets,  invite your friends, and we will see you there. Goodness gracious, if I had any estrogen left in  my body, it would've shot straight out at that   point. 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, 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've been. Driven   30 hours because their whole family just wanted  to come hear Holly or Steven preach, and I was  

just like, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you have  an old white woman from Nashville, Tennessee."  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.  They could have anybody. Y'all could have anybody  from across the world, who would be honored to get   to be in this house. 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 daughter's and my year. We love,   we claim you as cousins, even though some  of you might think differently in a few   moments. 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's 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. 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 for all of us,  the things that have become just rote to us,   getting to drive to church on Saturday or Sunday  and not worried about hiding, 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 freely. Lord, forgive   us when we are quick to complain and slow to say  thank you. Thank you for 250 years of freedom of   worship. 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 putting 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 Steven is being re-amazed as he has time  to just marinate in the truth of who you are,   who you called us to be. Lord, would you quicken  us, too? Would you quicken us this morning? Lord,   would we leave this building 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 secure in  

the fact that on our worst day, you said, "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.  So Lord, I need your spirit to pierce the places  in my heart that I agree with that man in 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 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. Amen.  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 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 who  played in the NFL. I didn't have any World Cup guy   friends back then, because they have cute legs in  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. 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, in death — somebody who's bigger than me.  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 big'un." So I was real excited. And so I'm not   going to tell you his name because you can Google  him, and spoiler 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 it was a big'un,  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 a really cute new outfit. Are  any of you all... I'm 62. Any women over 50? Okay,   do you all remember when giant shoulder pads  were in? So anyway, I bought this pink dress   for feminine with 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 fluff 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 you all know any NFL wives? They are tiny, just 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 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 on 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 from here to where you 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,  ta-da. 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,  Bill would like to see you before they fly back   to Hilly." That's not his name; we'll just  call him Bill. And so if you'll go with us,   the team — 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. They're  

just big guys, and they all smell like Polo. And they all start boarding the bus, and then   here comes Bill. And he comes right up to me. I  can't use you, Chunks, you're not good in front.   He comes right up to me. I mean, right up to  me, and he goes, "Hey." And then he picks me up.   He picks me off my feet. And I was like, "This is  glory. This is just glory." I expected Jesus to   come through in the white horse. I mean, 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 three or four   more minutes, and then they made the announcement,  "The bus is about to leave. Guys, you 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. I was like, "Okay." And he goes,   "Wait right here." He turns around, and the bus  is right here. And an NFL coach, and you 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 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, "Uh, uh." 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  wrapped tighter than you hang onto the ball,   bro." I mean, they're just ragging him. 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 fine. 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 and the NFL. You are   worth..." 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 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, memorized this when you were kids. It's   one of my favorite of the songs. All of 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 are there; if I make my bed in the depths,  you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn,   if I settle on 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 am 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 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, "Worth." "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 have redeemed you; I have summoned you by  name; you are mine. When you pass through the   waters, I will be with you. 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 crown jewels are   kept 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, and  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  not look like roadkill on this humid day,   and I thought, "Oh, I need some lotion."  And I squirted the lotion in the bathroom,   and it just shot straight all over me, just  gobs of white on my pants, 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 yaho.  And yet 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.  And He said, "You're worth so much to me, I'll  give entire nations in exchange for you." So   our worth is predetermined. 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 1, 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 sight. In love he   predestined 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. Eu involves good, and dokia 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 yaho. She's old as dirt. She  lost a little weight with the help of Mounjaro,   and now she's all crepey. She ain't got no man.  That poor girl. Let's love on her a little extra  

because she probably doesn't think she's worth..."  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 in 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. There's too   much risk in that. Parents in Greco and 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 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're 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 you all,  like me, just examined your eyelids in high   school history, but you remember he's the very  first Roman emperor. Do you remember who preceded   Octavian? I know you 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 going to name  you Augustin." Augustus means one who is revered.   And he said, "I'm going to take my adopted  dad's last name as my first because I want   to 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 Divi. We would say DV in Latin,  but their Vs are pronounced as Ws if you're   a redneck American. Divi Filius, 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 Divi Filius. I am a son   of God." Little bit arrogant, right? Do you 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. You 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 Divi Filius. 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? You all, the context in our Bibles  drives me nuts when people say 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 1st and 2nd 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. 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 Trips of Paul tour, and I saw this. I think it's   called a ruota dei trattoria? Suddenly I have  this craving for pasta. Let me see what it's  

called. Does anybody speak Italian? Ruota dei  trovatelli. Trovatelli. A ruota dei trovatelli.   Y'all are wanting Italian now too, aren't you?  We'll all go to north Italia after lunch. I have   a picture of a ruota dei trovatelli. This is all  throughout Italian architecture. 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 could come to the outside,   and that little ruota dei trovatelli 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. Ruota dei trovatelli. 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 that 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.  That's not going to happen. That doesn't happen.  We read Ephesians, and most of us are like,  "Oh, that's good. That's nice. I kind of like   that. I liked 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. 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, "They're so much more  than worth the fine to me. I'm actually adopting   them into my family." And according to rabbinical  law, you can disinherit a biological child,  

but you can't disinherit an adopted  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  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. That 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 preacher say that God loves you   even though you haven't earned it. They're like,  "I get it. I know I didn't do anything to deserve   this unconditional love he has lavished on me." And 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 need to 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, "Ms. 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 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 their 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 countercultural.  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 the styrofoam  takeout trays. We actually had 175,   but our goal was 150. And we had turkeys. We had  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 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. In front of  anybody else in Nashville, I'll get eviscerated,"   but they all call me Pastor. And so, but don't  call me Pastor. That P, woo, 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,   "Well, none of us have our license. Our  licenses 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 130. There was 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 in 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 hump my car up on the curb,   and I was like, "Hey, baby." She probably,  Graham, your age, just punkin'. 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 him 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, "Well, 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, it was communion.  It was one of the best meals I've ever shared with  

other Christ followers. And then, 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 a 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,   humped 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. Sometimes you go, "I think that was  the Lord," and it might be, and it might not be.   But I said, "I think it was the 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. He  just put the whole weight of his body in my arms,   and 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 began 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 have 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 on 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 am wonderfully  

and fearfully 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 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 on 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 you and I carry, 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 going to close this family meeting with a  prayer. And I know I haven't earned the right.   I'm so grateful Steven and Holly allow me to come.  I haven't earned the right to ask you a question,  

but I'm going to anyway. I'm going to 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. We are serious, serious about the  love of God here, but you are not going to be   judged. So everybody, right hands up. And would  you just open those beautiful palms 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 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? Hey, 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 going  to pray, and I'm going to 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 has   ascribed 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 in 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 want to 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 want   to give you the opportunity to throw your hand  up in the air. The last one was private, but this   one's public because we want to 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 want to receive the gift  of his salvation today, when I count to three,   slide your hand up in the air and do it boldly.  Want to 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.

Hey, thank you for watching the Elevation Church  YouTube. I want you to subscribe. That way you   can know when we go live and post new content.  Make sure to leave me a comment. Let me know what   spoke to you today, where you're watching from,  and what we can pray for you about. And if you'd   like to support the ministry financially, you can  click the give button now and help us continue   reaching people around the world for Jesus  Christ. Thanks again. I'll see you next time.