Created to Create

Hi. This is Dave Olson.

I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.

I hope the following message, challenges and courage's and

ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.

I know there's some people have wondered why?

Why did you why did you paint the background black?

Why, you know different people have different tastes and so

forth. Well one of the reasons we

invested the money in this was that our live broadcast really

had a hard time catching the the speakers on the on the stage and

so there's a lot of busyness behind us.

It wasn't as bad live but on the broadcast it was it was very

busy. And and then the lighting if you

noticed that there I would step into places and I would

disappear whoever was up here and that's not good if you're

having trying to do a live broadcast for people to

disappear while they're speaking.

And so also the new lighting also captures the color very

well on on broadcast because we really do feel like in the

coming days online church and and frankly satellite locations.

Where we just pipe in video is going to be what God's going to

have us doing. Believe in the coming days that

there's I believe there's no more crisis on the horizon.

I'm a good news preacher, but I'm telling you, I believe that

there's going to be some challenging times ahead and I

believe that hard times for the world provide opportunities for

the church and we want to be prepared.

We want to seize those opportunities and so we want to

get the word out. So we're preparing for that with

the setting, but there's also another dimension to that and

that is the whole idea of creativity.

Creativity is an expression of the nature of God, it really is.

I was thinking about this story so I looked it up this morning.

I had heard this sometime back and I said about a thousand

years ago, Prince Vladimir the Great.

He was known as he was a pagan Monarch in Kiev had decided that

he needed to find a one religion to unify the Russian people.

And so he sent these delegations all over the world.

Looking for the The religion that would unify the people of

Russia and they, they went to their then known world and they

found, you know, they investigated a number of

religions. They found some that were very

mystical, they found some that were very authoritative, and

exercise, great power and fear in the people, there were some

that were very logical religions, but there was a

delegation that came back from the Byzantine capital of count

Constantinople and they came back with this report.

They said the beauty of Christianity gripped us.

They said, they took us to the places they worship and the

philosophy and the, the the worship of Christianity was what

gripped them so much. So that they said, when they

took us to where they worship, we can never forget the beauty

of that place and what was going on there.

They said we understood that God dwells among men.

The interesting thing was that that became the open door for

Christianity and to Russia, Vladimir the Great said than

Christianity is going to be our religion.

And for many centuries, Christianity was in Russia was a

stronghold. Russia was a stronghold for

Christianity. And we know in recent days there

has been tremendous Revival that has swept Russia and Kiev in

particular even Bill buyers that will be coming next week.

He's Add some powerful Ministry in Russia and especially in

Kiev, he's got some tremendous stories of God visiting that

Nation, but I find it interesting that the open door,

What attracted them was not the ethics, not apologetics, but the

Aesthetics of Christianity, the beauty of Christianity.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't often think from that

perspective, about the beauty of Christianity, I came to Jesus

through Through another route, I came to Jesus through some great

desperation from a broken life. But there is something about the

beauty of Christianity, that is alluring.

And God is the great Creator. A matter of fact, the whole, the

whole witness of scripture starts with this little phrase

in the beginning, God created one of the expressions of God's

nature is God Is Creative. And one of the expressions of

his nature in US is that we're to be creative every one of us

in different ways. But every one of us have gifts

and those gifts are to be Expressions Avenues through

which the nature and character of God are communicated to

mankind. We need to understand that

because some of us allow our gifts to kind of be laid aside

because they don't necessarily match the gifts that we usually

think of, when we think of Christianity but God will often

operate through creativity. Matter of fact, I want to say it

was c.s. Lewis.

He had this phrase, he said truth and God is too vast to be

summed up in mere words. That's why he gives us symbols.

Well, that's really interesting. That the truth of God Is So

vast, it can't be reduced to Mere words.

But, in fact, I would propose to you.

That's why part of the way that God communicates with us, is

through the narrative passages of scripture, through the

gospels through acts, through much of the Old Testament, their

story form and much of Jesus teaching was not over didactic

teaching didactic is at the idea of setting someone down and

teaching them truth overtly line upon line precept upon precept,

principle on principle rather Jesus would teach through Ooh

story form because often story will bypass the the defenses of

what we already believe in capture our heart.

And so story form is one of the most powerful ways in which

people can learn. That's why, you know, writing

fiction that is rooted in reality, is a powerful way to

communicate truth. That's why movies are very

powerful, our family with the last couple Christmases.

We've had this tradition, we watch this wonderful Christmas

Trilogy called The Lord of the Rings.

And man has a guy love that, that movie.

I mean, there is so many allegories for Christianity.

In that my poor family. I got to stir, they'll say Dad,

we know be quiet, be quiet. I'll see you there, boy.

That reminds me of this. Yeah, I know, Dad, just be

quiet. But there's so much Rich

allegory written by a Christian man.

And he wrote that as a not, as not as accurate and are not as

evident in allegory of c.s. Lewis's books, many of his, you

know, The Chronicles of Narnia. Now, c.s.

Lewis and the writer of The Lord of the Rings were were Pals.

They would sit around and discuss Theology and discuss

their literary Pursuits, but both of them were able to

communicate great truth through story form.

Now, there is, there are streams of Christianity.

That will tell you that you shouldn't get your Doctrine from

the Tired of passages. They'll tell you, you shouldn't,

you shouldn't drive, your God, your Doctrine from the gospels

or from the book of Acts, you need to derive your Doctrine

from The Narrative. I mean, from the deductive

passages you know the Epistles and that's the only safe place

to really derive your Doctrine. Often, those individuals are

cessationists, it's cessation is streams that will tell you that.

The problem is they divorce themselves from some very

insightful truth. And one of the ironic things is,

the didactic passages themselves tell, you all scripture is

inspired and profitable For What doctrine including the narrative

passages. So the very past, the very ones

that they tell you, you should isolate your Doctrine to tell

you that you can also go to the others to learn Doctrine.

And so that the experience of these men and women of God in

written form, our provide us, tremendous insight into the ways

of God. If you not noticed.

I've been visiting a kind of hitting on this a number of

times lately, but this whole thing is really gripped.

Me, as of late, how God wants us to know his ways.

Not just his Works. He doesn't want us just to stand

and observe what he did in history, but he wants us to

understand the, why behind the what God wants to bring us into

his counsel. He wants us to understand his

ways so that we can intercept him.

When we understand his ways, we can cooperate with his ways.

If all we understand it is works, we just sat stand and

watch him work, but we can't participate.

But when we understand his ways, we can step into them and we can

partner with heaven. And one of the ways in which we

do that is reading the narrative passages.

The Narrative passages reveal how God interacts with men and

how men who moved the heart of God interacted with God, and we

can find some valuable truth, so that we can do the same.

That we can be people who move the heart of God, and we can

step in the way of God and be used by God.

And so it's very, very important.

But those narrative passages are they?

There's some creativity to those because there's a lot of

allegory, there's a lot of symbolism.

And again I said this a number of weeks ago that there are

there's the overt primary interpretation of a passage,

like the narrative passages, the gospels, the primary message of

the gospels is that that was a historical event that happened

and we can build our life on that historical event.

And, but underneath the historical event are principles

that we can pull out of there. And underneath those principles

are allegories that we can build those principles on.

Now, we should never have an allegory that doesn't line up

with the overt teaching of scripture.

Every time we pull out a symbolic allegorical, meaning

out of a passage, it needs to be tied and anchored to other

passages so that we make sure we're staying on track.

But God, hides himself in these ancient stories and allegorical

symbolic form. And it's beautiful to see.

Matter of fact, the early church fathers, some of them were very,

very big on the typology of scripture And so we look at some

of these Old Testament passages and we miss much of what God is

wanting to tell us if we don't understand that.

God speaks through narrative and allegories God is very creative

and God wants to work through us.

One of the you can put it this way.

Creation is God's art and art is our creation.

But art comes in many different forms.

There's different ways in which God wants to express himself

through you. And this pulls us right into the

hole. So the New Testament subject of

spiritual gifting. I find it fascinating that the

Apostle Paul was the one who received the revelation of the

body of Christ and spiritual gifts, Peter mentioned spiritual

gifts one time, but after that, there are no other New Testament

authors that Speak of spiritual giftings, the way that Paul does

Paul began to observe the body of Christ.

And he recognized that there were certain people with certain

spiritual abilities. And by the spirit of God, the

Lord began to show him that there are categories of

giftings. It's not just that the random

gifts but there's categories of giftings that tend to show up

again and again and again, and Paul begin to categorize these

under the leading of the spirit and he began to name the what

those It's were and so we have these three different categories

of spiritual gifts. There's the gifts from the

father in Romans 12, the gifts from the spirit, and First

Corinthians 12, and the gifts from the Sun, and he fission is

Isaiah 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. But Paul recognized that, these,

there were patterns of behavior and giftings and Grace, that

would manifest through people's lives.

And so, if we study the word, we can begin to recognize those

patterns in our lives. And those those gifts are

Avenues through which Grace from God, comes through us, and

touches other people, spiritual gifts.

My spiritual gifts are not for me there for you.

Your spiritual gifts are not for you.

They're for me. And so I receive a gift of grace

through your life and you receive a gift of grace through

my life, and that's what makes us the body of Christ.

That's why when Paul speaks of the body, the the context is

always spiritual gifts. And whenever he talks is

spiritual gifts, the context is the body, they're one in the

same context because what, assigns, you your role in the

body of Christ. Is your gifting.

We're not a bucket of Knuckles. We're not all one.

One type of member of the body. We Have different gifts and when

we bring them together, we get the whole picture.

We are the body of Christ. And so there are different

elements of God's character that he wants to express through us

through the grace gifts upon us. For instance, the the gift of

hospitality, that is a spiritual gift, you know, that get the

gift of hospitality. A matter of fact, scripture says

that an elder must be hospitable. you must be

exercising that Mark of maturity in your life if you're going to

be an elder, And that Holt the whole idea behind Hospitality of

the Greek word that we translate hospitality is a compound word.

It's Philo where we get the word, you know the Philadelphia

the City of Brotherly Love. It's a type of love, it's

brotherly affection, warm affection.

The other word is Nexia where it's the root word of when

people have a fear of strangers. The word of come to me about the

time I lay down in my recliner back home today.

But anyway, it's it literally means the love of strangers.

It's exactly the opposite of racism.

It's exactly the opposite of alienating, the alien of putting

people at arm's length, it's this thing that opens up the

door and draws people in And so it's trying to make the outsider

family. That's what Hospitality

literally means in the Greek and that is the mark of a mature

individual, or an elder in the body of Christ that we have

eyes, that were always looking, is there an outsider here?

And we want them to feel at least momentarily while they're

in this house that they are family that they belong to us.

And really that gift in and of itself is the summation of the

gospel because God is always looking to make orphans sons and

daughters and it begins with you.

And I expressing the gift of hospitality releasing that Grace

from our through our life, that they feel welcomed those few

moments when they're around us. So this thing of of hospitality

is very, very important and it's a mark of the, the nature and

the character of God. And if a church, if a group of

people are not hospitable than there's something of the nature

and character of God that is sorely.

Missing they are misrepresenting God And so this whole thing, the

gift of hospitality is a way that God can take that facet of

his nature and express it through us.

And so it's a way for you and I to be creative.

My wife is has got a gift of hospitality.

I'm telling you. We've got our storage room is

full of different decorations. I'm going to be very busy, the

next few days has we're going to pack up Christmas.

I don't know what she's decorating for next but she she

is a master at it and I mean our home, it's got the Garland

hanging everywhere and the big ribbons and it's beautiful.

I came, I was walking through the living room this morning,

With my cup of coffee, I looked at on the Hearth of the the

fireplace. And there was this Garland into

these little twinkly lights and all that, that's beautiful.

But she loves to do that, because we have family in and it

makes them feel welcome. They love the beauty of it and

that is an expression of God's nature.

When I became the pastor, the shit.

Well, matter of fact, before I came to pastors Church, Kathy.

And I attended Heartland for, I want to say, six, seven years

before we became the pastor's 20 years ago.

And so we were, we were working with Teen Challenge.

And we were a part of another church in the region and helping

out there, and Pastor Callaway. My predecessor had reached out

and asked, if we'd come and help.

And so I was going to, no, matter of fact, he had resigned

by this time is what it was. He had resigned, and he had

pulled me aside and said, Guy to follow me.

And I thought man, I've got 14 years in Teen Challenge.

I've got a lot invested in this, I need to hear from God, and so,

I set told my boss, I said I'm going to go away and fast for

three days and I was going to ask the Lord about this and I'd

committed to a three day fast. Well, after the first day

already have my answer, I was so bummed because I thought I

already committed to two more days.

So, but as I'm praying about it, the Lord spoke to me very

clearly. And this is what he told me.

He said, he said, it needs to be, I know this sounds very

Unspiritual at first hearing too many of us because of the way we

think of spirituality but he told me it needs to be clean,

uncluttered and classy, that's what he said.

That we want a spirit of Excellence that is expressed to

the through this house because God is a god of excellence and

he does everything decently and in order and there's Beauty.

And what God does Steve Jobs was the guy who invented the iPhone

and one of the things he did as he merged functionality with

beauty. They say that a lot of people

still have the old boxes from their iPhones and their iPads

because they can't bring themselves to throw it away.

The, the packaging is so beautiful.

They think I'll use it somehow and they've got these old boxes.

How many of you have a box of an old?

I see. Look at it.

Steve Jobs merged function and beauty.

Well, what Steve was doing was what God already did Francis

Schaeffer, the great Theologian and philosopher.

He's gone to be with the Lord but he was a brilliant thinker

and he pointed out how airplanes functional airplanes are

beautiful. He said you can't create an ugly

plane that will fly. Now you could paint it to look

ugly but the fact is the symmetry of that plane in order

for it to be able to match the laws of aerodynamics.

Dynamics it in and of itself is beautiful.

Because in nature functionality and Beauty, go hand-in-hand, And

when things no longer function, they become ugly.

I was thinking about this very thing as we're watching that

great Christmas Trilogy, Lord, of the Rings.

I mean, some of those enemies. They're ugly.

There was watching us last night and my daughter Eliza says she

was talking about one of these. These enemy beings.

She said, his head looks like cauliflower, it really does.

I mean these ugly horrendous beings?

Well, why did they create them that way?

Because they understood evil defiles, and it makes things

ugly and righteousness makes things.

Beautiful. So much so that the scriptures

speak of the beauty of holiness. Holiness makes things.

Beautiful it redeems. It brings it into its original

condition, its original purpose, It's part of God's design.

And if we're to be the people of God, we cooperate with that in

different ways. God will bring Beauty through

our lives. Some people, it's through the

beauty of music. But music was God's design.

It's not a mistake that the enemy Satan himself was the

worship leader of heaven and he has harnessed music for great

evil but music can also bring great good.

Every one of us have experienced where a song comes on and all

said, and the spirit of God inhabits that song we feel the

presence of the Lord. But that Dynamic is not isolated

to music. God will come through different

ways, different forms of creativity that God will visit

us, and express himself to us. And so, creativity is a mark of

the nature of God. There's a reason that human

beings are creative because we are made in His image.

The first time in scripture want to say it's Exodus chapter 31,

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

matter of fact. Let's look there.

The first time in scripture, the Bible ever talks about the

spirit of God being upon someone.

Is in regards to an artisan. It's in regards to an artist a

Craftsman, the spirit of God being upon that to me.

That's fascinating, that's in the book of Exodus.

Now, we already had, we've already seen Enoch who was went

to be with the Lord without dying?

We already have Abraham. We already have Joseph.

We already have all these different characters in The the

Book of Genesis. But it's not to we get to Exodus

and God is going to erect a place for his habitation.

Do we hear him use the phrase? I have put my spirit Upon him.

Here it is verse 1 of Exodus. 31.

The Lord said to Moses CI of called, by name bezalel, the son

of URI, the son of Earth of the tribe of Judah, and I have

filled him with the spirit of God.

First time that phrase that that description is made in the

scriptures. And what is he filled him with

the spirit of God, for, with ability, and intelligence and

knowledge and all craftsmanship? He Anointed to be creative.

I think more of us need to get a grid work for that.

We need to get a grid work for being anointed, the spirit of

God being upon us with all intelligence, You should Stand

Out Among all the other people at your job, because the spirit

of the Lord dwells within you. You are the person with the

answers for that company. We see this throughout

scripture. Joseph gets thrown in prison.

Next thing, you know, he's running the prison.

Why? Because the spirit of God was

with him. You see it again and again that

a man's gift will make a room for him and bring him before.

Great Men proverb says But we need to cooperate with that

gift. And we must not Reserve gifts to

what I'm doing or what the worship team did.

This morning there is spiritual gifting to communicate through

words. The teaching of the word, there

are spiritual gifts to lead people in worship, but it goes

far beyond that. There's there's the spiritual

gifts for Council to be the answer to to be that person of

hospitality that makes People feel wanted whenever they come

around you, and that is part of the anointing.

And so, we see this with bezalel.

So he says, I have filled him with the spirit of God.

And with the ability, and intelligence and knowledge, and

all craftsmanship, why to devise artistic designs to work in

gold, silver, and bronze, and cutting of stones for setting

and carving wood into work in every craft and behold.

I have appointed with him a holy herb.

The Son of a Hisham ack of the tribe of Dan and I have given to

all able men. The ability that they may make.

All I have commanded of you. So God said, I commanded you to

make something and now I've gifted men and women to pull it

off. And if you read through this,

passage, what what God is, speaking to Moses about is a

beautiful place to worship and God even dead are designated how

they were to make the incense so that the smells would be

inviting to people as they come in that they would they would

encounter these smells within the temple and those smells will

reserved for temple. Use and God knew that people

would want to replicate them because of the It was a certain

recipe for that fragrance and he said it is, it is dedicated to

the Lord. People can't use this recipe in

anything else other than worship of me.

And if they do they need to be separated from the people of

God. They're going to be kicked out

of the church, so to speak. To me that's that's fascinating

that God, cared about the smell the fragrance, the carvings the

colors, the weavings, all of that was to enhance the worship

of him. Now, all of us know that you can

get so caught up in the trappings and lose the Lord in

the midst of it. It was sometime back, we were in

a in a meeting. I don't even remember the

setting, but I remembered a story.

I'd heard many, many years ago. And it was of a Russian prince.

Not the same one that I spoke of earlier.

But it was a Russian prince that was born and and that the royal

couple had longed for an air and had tried to get pregnant tried

to get pregnant. Finally, she conceived a child

in this little baby was born. And so they were going to have a

big celebration because this would The heir to the throne

this newborn baby and so they invited a lot of the aristocracy

to come to the capital to the palace and they were going to

celebrate the life of this child and and it was very cold, of

course, it was rush. It was that time of year and so

they were all putting their big fur coats in this one room and

they were just celebrating. And finally, someone said, well,

where is the baby? Can we find it?

And lo and behold the baby had been buried underneath?

The Furs and was killed. And in the all the celebration,

the baby was lost underneath the celebration.

It's a vivid reminder that that can happen in churches.

We can go get so into having the coolest song and the most

creative way to speak a sermon that we lose Jesus and it all

And we've always got to be careful of that.

Jesus has to be the center, but the fact is that Jesus wants to

be worshipped in every way possible.

I appreciate John coming up here and times he will, he will paint

or draw. Well, we worship and that is a

form of worship. And he's, he's capturing the

heart of God in a picture. I've known of people to get

healed looking at pictures God will come through the at the,

the Avenue of our creativity, and we've got to be careful that

we don't lose the Christ child underneath the trappings of our

celebration, but the fact remains that in scripture, God,

dictated to Moses, he wanted to be worshipped in beauty beauty,

that would Hanson enhances worship.

And we want to be a church that cultivates people expressing who

God is through the grace on their life.

Whether it's an ability to sing an ability to draw, you know,

Brad Strickland built some stuff for us.

I think some of these trees. He's using his gifts to build

things and all of that is worship.

We've got to come against the lie that says there's the sacred

and then there's the secular as if we divide life into two

forms. Well, we do our our sacred thing

on Sunday and we might even come on Wednesday night and do a

little sacred stuff, but the rest of the week is dedicated to

the secular the, you know, Make a check.

So we can spend a check so we can make a check.

So we can spend a check and then we die. all of life is sacred,

all of life is his Faith this morning when you got up here and

how you transition, it was exactly what I was feeling.

I felt like Jesus wanted to claim his Dominion of fresh this

morning over our lives. When we sing that song, yours is

the kingdom. It's not talking about some far

off, Place known as the kingdom of God.

When the scriptures talk about Kingdom, the Greek word is bass

Alia, and it literally means his right.

To rule, it's not a place. It's not a realm, it's his rule.

It's his legal right to exert his authority.

And when we cry that out, were declaring his right to rule over

our life. It's an expression of our

surrender to him. Yours is the kingdom, and he

wants to lay claim to every facet of our life.

There are areas of creativity that some of you have yet to

surrender, to Jesus. Not out of, not out of

unwillingness be, but out of a lack of value, for what God has

placed within you. There are ways that God can flow

through you, through your creativity, and your abilities

that you need to recognize. I don't know why, but Heartland

has attracted a lot of chiropractors, as of late, the

last few years, we got a lot of chiropractors.

I'm telling you the grace of God and healing can flow through the

hands of a chiropractor and the hands of a masseuse.

Do you feel the glory? When I said that?

Hallelujah, a good massage, Hallelujah.

But there's that that's just one expression.

God, God can flow through us. And we need to understand that

if you're gifting your ability is not public speaking or public

singing that doesn't leave you outside the camp as a spectator.

A mere Pew potato get it Tater spectator few potato anyway.

It doesn't it doesn't have a hook won't dad jokes from the

pulpit it doesn't it doesn't leave.

A view on the outside merely watching what's going on.

Every one of us have gifts in our life that God put within us,

and he wants to express himself through us.

And he wants to give you creative ideas.

To do things in new ways and express him and and fresh

perspectives that people haven't seen before.

And it's part of the nature of God to be creative and he has

put that within us, you know, children are very, very creative

from birth. There are ways that they measure

creativity and a child as opposed to, you know, more of

the the the logic versus the more intuitive creativity and

they find that little children are very creative but they begin

to lose that as they. Begin to move up through the

ranks of our educational system. I personally don't believe

that's because they were intended to lose that and that

there's some more creative people out there and some are

less creative. I believe that our educational

system has a tendency to kind of work that out of people and

there's some stubborn people. Some free thinkers that tend to

hold to their creativity and spite of it, refer to Faith

here. Again, this morning I've always

been so intrigued by her and her sisters, her mom and dad raised

them and Such a unique way and they're all very creative.

They really are and expresses itself through their Hospitality

as well as the way that they operate in music and a lot of

other ways. I believe one of the reasons

they were able to retain that is because of the way they were

educated. And we want to maintain that in

our children. Those those of you that are

homeschoolers, make sure that you continue to cultivate the

creativity in your children because that is an expression of

the nature of God. And it doesn't matter if they

have artistic ability and than the narrow sense in which we

usually think that's that God will reveal himself through

their creativity. In other ways, they may be the

creative person that finds new ways to do Computing or new ways

to build Bridges. Has or whatever.

But we want to pull on heaven and allow his grace to flow

through our lives. I'm telling you this stuff is

important because what happens when we don't have a vision for

this, then we don't bring the kingdom to the decision-making

table. We're limited to our own

understanding and our own intellect and we keep our

Christian stuff for church. We expect God to show up in

worship, through spiritual gifts in worship time, but we don't

expect him to show up through spiritual gifts in the boardroom

where we have a word of knowledge or a Word of Wisdom

that we can become the answer to the problem, and God can push us

to the Forefront, so that we can serve.

Well, And so I'm telling you creativity.

Is an expression of the nature of God.

In the beginning God created and what he created were, other

creators. That, that is part of our

nature. And if we ignore that, if we

stifle that, we literally stifle part of the character of the

nature of God. The church should be the one

with the answers and we should be the one that a writing the

best stories. See, writing the best songs and

let me just say it not. Every story has to be overtly

Christian to come from God anymore than every song has to

be overtly about Jesus to communicate truth.

Because an allegory comes in and gets around your defenses.

By speaking, about truth, and an emotional way that can grip your

heart. And you find we've all

experienced the negative side, the evil side of that, maybe

you're more holy than me. But there have been times where

I've watched a movie, and I find myself rooting for something

that I would never condone. And I catch myself thinking, I

need to turn a channel. I just endorse that behavior.

Especially being a guy, kill him, kill him, you know, it's

like I'd kill that guy who ho ho that's not me.

It's that spirit of God because I was taken in by a story, The

Power of story, The Power of creativity, the power of symbols

in the power of typology and and narratives.

And all of that is a way that God wants to come in and speak

to his people. And so we want to be a people of

Excellence. We want to be a people of

creativity, we want to pave the way for this next Generation to

be more creative. And so you may think well the

stage I don't know if I like it black.

Well it's it's a way to make the way for more creativity.

Amen. And it's going to give us a

better picture when we when we do our live broadcasts, our

livestream, Let me just throw a couple of other thoughts out to

you before we, we close here this morning.

It's interesting that in the beginning, God created, when God

created the heavens and the Earth we've talked about this

before God created them simultaneously because they were

never intended to function separately.

We are created to be Spiritual Beings.

Most of us understand God, created the heavens and the

Earth, we say, well yeah, God created the Earth for man.

But what were the heavens for himself?

No, Solomon said, even the heavens, the highest Heavens

cannot contain them. God was already in existence

when he created the heavens. I've heard people preach this

and I think I have two, I've had to repent.

That the spiritual realm, the heavens are more real than the

earth because their Eternal, and the Earth is temporary, but

that's not true because the heavens had a beginning.

Now, what was God's existence before?

I don't understand it, that's beyond my pay grade, okay?

I don't know what God was doing, how, what he was occupying

before that, but I can tell you this, that in the beginning, God

created the heavens and the Earth he created.

Them simultaneously and he created them both for you.

And I that we are to be beings that are engaging both the

Physical Realm, and the spiritual realm all the time.

So God created a habitation for man but then when God turns

around and anoints man for creativity, it's so that man can

create a habitation for the Lord.

And in a very real sense, creativity is the Avenue through

which God and habits us. the way that God is released from us, is

through the various forms of spiritual, gifting And so you

need to understand that you can create something that God will

inhabit your gift when exercised under the anointing is an Avenue

through which God can come. It's a whole nother subject, dig

it out for yourself or maybe we'll get into it some other

time. But let me close with one other

observation from, this passage, listen to what it says.

I have filled him with the spirit of God, with the ability

and intelligence and knowledge of all craftsmanship to devise

artistic design to work in gold, silver, and bronze, and cutting

stones. For setting carving wood to

work, with every craft whether we put a premium, whether we put

an emphasis of value on those things, God clearly did So much

so that the spirit of the Living, God partnered with the

frail, human being to accomplish those things.

And then he did this and behold, I have appointed with him.

A holy herb. He gave him a partner in his

creativity. My brother Christopher and I

were discussing this in the last few days, it was interesting.

He was we were looking back on when Christopher first met.

Bob Phillips, one of our former pastors Bob was pastoring, down

in Houston and Bob, we had, we had observed Bob's Ministry from

afar for many years. I bought some of Bob's books and

tapes. I mean back, 25 30, 35 years

ago, I went to Times Square where Bob was cope.

Pass room with David Wilkerson and bought.

Some of his material was just really impacted by it.

So when we got a chance to meet Bob, it was a it was we were

honored to do that and Bob came to Heartland to hear lave

Heartland, he and Lathan wanted to meet and so he came when

Randy Clark was here. And and Bob, and I really

connected heart to heart and I asked Chris Bryce, did you get a

chance to meet? Bobby said?

Yeah but he said, frankly it was awkward.

I don't think we really have. There's not a connection there.

It was. You ever met someone you really

wanted to meet He felt awkward about it.

Am I the only one you go up there and you think that was

awkward, you know? Why did I say that?

It was one of those. And so the next night there, the

front of the sanctuary was right in front of these two, weird

little holes on the wall here and this was what was known as

The House of Prayer back here and so Randy Clark was going to

do an impartation time. All the leaders went in the back

room and Randy starts praying for him and Christopher gets a

word for Bob. Filner Philips gives that word

to Bob. They fall into each others arms.

And Bob said, I love you so much.

We're connected gears my my business card.

Let's stay in touch and they became Inseparable in the

spirit. Christopher and Bob, it was

weird. The day before, you know,

there's no connection is kind of awkward.

I frankly, he was saying and insinuating.

I don't know if I want to talk to him again.

It was so awkward and now they're fast friends.

They would he'd travel down there and visit Bob.

And they were just became Connected together.

So Christopher one day calls Bob and I thought, man, he felt

prompted to call him calls him and Bob said, hey, I'm just just

left one meeting a stepping into another meeting with a bunch of

ministers. Did you need anything know how

you doing? I'm doing good.

And well, Chris from glad you doing good, I'll call you next

week. Love you.

Hangs up. And as soon as he hangs up

spirit of God falls on Christopher and tells him, this

is what I want to do in the meeting.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. Bob's meeting a Christopher's

like He just told me he's, you know, busy lord said call him.

So he calls a bob picks up and he said, Bob all, I'm telling

you is that the Lord just told me.

This is what he wants to do. Boom, boom, boom.

Next week, Bob calls him and said I released everything you

said it was powerful. God did ever all four things.

You said he was going to do in those meetings.

Matter of fact, I told the people I don't know what the

problem is a connection between Houston and Ohio, but I had to

get the message via Iowa. And the other thing, Christopher

told Bob was that there's a connection between you and lafe

headland. And there's still that

connection with Christopher and life.

Christopher was when we were in Colombia.

This last time, I'm going somewhere with this.

Okay, follow me. I'm going to I'm going to share

with you seriously, a very valuable principle.

We were in Colombia and I I'm in, I'm down the hall in my

hotel room and I hear Christopher.

I know his sound. I could tell he was getting

touched by the Lord problem was. So did everybody else in the

hotel? It's a Sunday afternoon.

He's got his noise cancelling headphones on.

I hear this. Oh oh Jesus.

So I listened to that for about 10 minutes, so I forgot I want

in on it, you know, he's going to wake everybody up.

I can't sleep, I might as well get on and I'd pound on the

door. He didn't open the door yet his

nose cancelling head phones on. Well, what it was, was, his wife

was in a meeting with life. And in passing, when life was

leaving, he just said Beth, he said, there's a lot of doors

about to open for Christopher. There's a shift coming and

there's doors going to be into open.

So two days later. She texts.

Christopher Christopher's in his hotel room, after a very busy

week of ministry. And he's trying to watch on his

phone, the Vikings game, which they did win, by the way glork.

I felt the anointing anyway. He is soon as he reads this, the

spirit of God falls on him. So here he is Days.

Later through a text gets this word in the spirit of God falls

on him. He's visited.

So Christopher was telling me what happened when he got

touched. So he said, yeah I talked to

Levi other day and life. I told him what happened in

Colombia as soon as we started talking about spirit of God.

Came on me again. We began to talk about how we

need to play very close attention to those

relationships. Some of you have relationships

with people that when you get together and you start talking

about Jesus, he shows up there's an added dimension of his

presence that marks those meetings between you and those

people, and it's consistent. There may not be every time but

you recognize what? When when I talk to them when we

get together, there's something of the Lord about.

I get a phone call from them or I get a text.

I would propose to you that that's what this passage is

talking about. That bezalel had the spirit of

God, come on him. But God said, I also put my hand

on another guy to partner with him.

And there are times where God will give you Partnerships in

your creativity and whatever you're called to and we need to

pay very close attention to those relationships because

those relationships are highly significant.

When I was just when I just got and saved, I was barely, barely

saved. Barely out of Teen Challenge.

I was a 19 year old kid, and I went to this little bible school

with 14, students, little school, and just south of st.

Louis Missouri. And I needed to work to get my

wife through school. So I was working in their

daycare and in their kitchen at this church, And the lady I

worked for she was, she ran the kitchen.

She began to disciple me and she would give me these David

Wilkerson newsletter. She say you, sit down, I'll wash

the dishes. You need to read this boy.

And that lady became my spiritual mother.

And there were so many times where she would say things to

me, and the spirit of God would come upon me or we, I'd be

crying out to God about something and we'd meet for

coffee and she would answer all my spiritual questions.

Just, I wouldn't even ask him. She'd say, you know, I was

thinking about this the other day and every question I had

been answering there was such an anointing that would come again.

And it wasn't till years later. She told me, she said, they'll

she had two daughters and she It asked the Lord for a son, and

the Lord said, I'll give you one and when I arrive lord said

that's the sun I promised you. That lady.

So invested in my life. But it was marked by the spirit

of God. There was a partnership in the

spirit. We're still in touch.

Got a text from her this morning.

Happy New Year. She's my mama.

And there are relationships that some of you have, when you guys

begin to talk, it's, it's very close.

It's like when Mary went to see AB Elizabeth, you remember

Elizabeth was pregnant and and and I want to say it was the

sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.

Mary has a visitation from an angel.

So what does she do? She goes looks up someone else

that had a visitation someone else sets carrying a

supernatural thing and when she walked in her baby jumped,

There's people in your life that when you begin to talk about

your baby or they talk about there's years jumps because

there's something connected and what she was caring would

prepare the way for what Mary was carrying.

There's these Partnerships that God will bring in your life that

will enhance the gifting on your life and you need to be aware of

it. You need to have an awareness

because it will take you farther down the road.

You will never have all Need just between you and Jesus.

There are going to be significant relationships that

God will put in your life and it will be marked by the spirit of

God that when you discuss things when you meet there, there's

there's a life that's imparted, there's Revelation, that's

imparted, there's understanding that's imparted.

When Christopher and I were talking about this, I thought of

this this one leader that it doesn't attend here than in the

region, and when we get on the phone, it's like I told him, I

said, I'll get inside. I don't usually have I get off

the phone and I write down what I said because It's like man.

I never thought of that. I need to remember that.

And I took note of that because there's something about that

relationship that is very important.

There's a Synergy that begins to happen.

And you need to be aware of the relationships that God puts in

your life. Because one of the, one of the

primary resources that we need to learn to Steward really.

Well, are those key relationships There's, there's

that such a thing, as stewarding and growing, a key relationship

guard. Those things because often our

Destinies are connected. There's something that they

carry that we're going to need down the road.

There's something that they're going to impart to us and vice

versa. Our callings in our Destinies,

in our, what God's hand upon her, life are connected with

other people, and we need to be aware of that.

Because if we're not aware of it, we can miss it.

We can neglect. Those very, very important

relationships. So, let's land it there.

It's five. After once you go ahead and

stand, I want to pray over you. This morning, I'm going to ask

you to Bow your head. Father, we're asking you right

now. Lord, that you would highlight

those. Those significant relationships.

As feel prompted from the Lord this morning.

We need to be aware, some relationships are seasonal.

You can actually outgrow a relationship.

It doesn't mean you need to end the relationship, but the role

shift. There are times there are,

sometimes there's people that you were fathered by you end up

fathering because they did a good enough job to make it.

So, and we need to understand, we need to know the signs of the

times and therefore, know what we should do.

You know, the context of that passage the sons of Isaac are

understood that they needed to throw themselves behind the

davidic regime and say goodbye to the Saul regime.

That's what the context is. It was, who are we going to

follow in this season? Who are we going to throw our

gifts behind And there are times where God will bring new

relationships into your life that are significant.

And there's others that aren't, as significant anymore, doesn't

mean you have to neglect those relationships, but you need to

be aware that God will bring important relationships in your

life and when you understand them, you can move in.

You can transition into that new season much quicker by pulling

on those relationships because in those relationships are

resources that God wants to release to your life.

Sometimes it's Revelation, sometimes it's other things.

And so father I ask God that you would brood over us and Lord you

would make us aware. Father asked for a heightened

sensitivity. God, unawareness of those key

relationships for this season. Lord that we would understand

our personal time and our corporate time and therefore

know what we should do. Now Lord, we just dedicate this

this year to you, as we stand on the threshold of 2023, we thank

you for your goodness to us and Lord.

We thank you that regardless of the tumult that is lies before

us. Lord.

We stand strong in you. You are our Rock, are strong

tower, And Lord, we ask that in the coming days that we would

shine we would be the bright and Shining answer to those around

us in Jesus name, amen, thanks for listening to our podcast.

If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you

can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on

social media. If you'd like to support the

Ministries apartment church, you can do.

So at Heartland Church, online.com give And Lord, we ask

that in the coming days that we would shine we would be the

bright and Shining answer to those around us in Jesus name,

amen, thanks for listening to our podcast.

If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you

can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on

social media. If you'd like to support the

Ministries apartment church, you can do.

So at Heartland Church, online.com give