Wayfinders: The Hero Making Hero - TWCC 9-7-25 9:30am Service

[SPEAKER_00]: hello this is Dr. Darrell Hall pastor of the way community church and welcome to our podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today we're continuing our wayfinder series and we're going to look in the book of Luke chapter 8 at a few verses that when you first read them they may not sing like much but when you take a deeper dive we can appreciate the impact Jesus had.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: in the relational ecosystem he created with the women in me and who followed him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saw, I'm going to encourage you, grab your bibles, go into the book of Luke, chapter 8, and let's study about our hero, who makes heroes.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 8, verse 1 through 3.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Word of the Lord says, soon, afterward, Jesus began going around for one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The 12 were with him and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, who was called Magdalene, from home seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chooser, Herod's steward, and Susanna.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk today with a simple thought in mind, the hero making hero.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may be seated in the presence of the living God, the hero making hero.

[SPEAKER_00]: stories have a way of penetrating the heart and regardless of who we are aware we're from stories appeal to us in very unique ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of our socioeconomic status, our ethnicity, or what region of the world we're from.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stories have this uncanny ability to get behind the walls

[SPEAKER_00]: and to influence what we feel, how we think, and what we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's because deep down inside all of us, either believe or sincerely hope that our lives too are a story that matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me, your life is a story that matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a plaque or mini-plops.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are settings.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is characters and people that you engage with.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are issues and obstacles.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to overcome and my sincere hope and prophetic declaration as your pastor is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you walk with Jesus, you will experience an evolutionary, dynamic change as life's obstacles shape you into the person God has preordained for you to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: In my hand at a story, you will become a hero who helps other people experience goodness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Donald Miller has a book called building a story brand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says every story starts like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: A character has a problem and meets a guide.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every story, every good story starts like this, a character has a problem and meets a guy hated.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we notice intuitively because of the movies we like, the stories we tale, and retail.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it made me think of some of some of the most amazing stories I've ever heard or watched or sang on TV.

[SPEAKER_00]: And y'all know my favorite movie of all time is Lion King, the animated version, my favorite movie.

[SPEAKER_00]: a character has a problem and meets a guide.

[SPEAKER_00]: The character is symbol.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is he supposed to be king, but his dad is dead and he thinks is his fault.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he needs to meet the guide who he met at birth, Rafiki.

[SPEAKER_00]: He needs Rafiki to look at him and say, you don't even know who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll move fast as boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Correction, I know your father.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, they're my second favorite movie, Black Panther, who's the character to Chala?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is his obstacle?

[SPEAKER_00]: He now has become King II, but his father was killed and he failed to protect him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there are doubts about his readiness for something he's been preparing, his whole life to do, but he has a guide, Zuri, who walked closely with his father and who will now help him become the King he was destined to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Same as true in Cinderella.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cinderella has a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is her problem?

[SPEAKER_00]: Her problem is a villain.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what a villain does is a villain done just attack you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The goal of a villain is to make other characters feel small.

[SPEAKER_00]: So her stepmother, who is now widowed and who is the remaining wife of Cinderella's deceased father, a tax Cinderella on a day-to-day basis, and her whole goal is to make Cinderella feel small.

[SPEAKER_00]: until she meets a god, her fairy god mother, who helps her become who she was destined to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same is joined a Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy, we meet a character, his name is Joshua.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you read too fast, you will miss how central he is, until you get to the book that is named after him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joshua is tomorrow's hero.

[SPEAKER_00]: but in order to be tomorrow's hero, he needs the hero of today Moses to be a guide to him of how to interact with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that when Moses is off the same, Joshua can step fully into who he is and do with God, has called him to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Esther, if you've never read the book of Esther, I want to commend it to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's only about 10 or 11 chapters, but you will be blown away at this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: The story of Esther is about a little girl who is fatherless and motherless.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's an orphan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only is she an orphan, she is a prisoner of war in Persia.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she,

[SPEAKER_00]: is vulnerable as a result of being a female orphan prisoner of war.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God has favored her, and her physical beauty is an outward expression of her inner beauty.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has given her this as a mark of his hand upon her life, and she goes from being an orphan without mother or father, a prisoner of war in Persia, a land far away from where her people are from.

[SPEAKER_00]: to being queen of the very territory where she was an orphaned.

[SPEAKER_00]: prisoner of war, and on the way she can make that job from who she was, or who she was destined to be, is because she had a guide, a cousin who acted more like an uncle who was really like a serigate father.

[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Mordekai, a old man who took her under his wing and gave her advice to she experienced this dynamic evolution into Esther who will become Queen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the same is true for us, we, we are all characters and our stories and in the stories of others.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we meet Jesus, Jesus becomes the guide to help us become the person that God has designed us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we can accomplish something so significant that you've got to pinch yourself to see if you awaken not.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the will of God concerning you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The will of God concerning you is not to just live or regular everyday life, to waste your days, watching the time go past.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then when life is over, say, I wish I could have would have been shut up.

[SPEAKER_00]: The will of God for you is to meet Jesus in such a real way.

[SPEAKER_00]: That Jesus done just save you from your sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saves you into your destiny.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as a result of relating to Jesus, you experience a dynamic evolution that no matter what life throws at you, what happens, what doesn't happen, you will continue to evolve in a dynamic way so that by the end of your story, you are the person God designed you to be regardless of where you started at the beginning of your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're reading about in Luke chapter eight, first one, two, three.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could sing like, you know, rev, it's not a lot happening in Luke chapter eight, first one, two, three.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, bro, all you did was read that Jesus is walking from town to town.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when he's walking from town to town, it's some people with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is no miracles happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't see none fantastic.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't see him walking on water, hush on the storm, feet in the moat too.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's so special about Jesus walking from town to town with some people with him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what's special about that is, if you think Jesus was just this famous religious leader who walked around in crowds, flock to him, you miss what he was doing in playing daylight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was not just this religious celebrity who thousands of people follow, and he just wild them with miracles every now and then until his final curtain closing miracle of being raised from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not who Jesus was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was not just the son of God and God the Son, but he was intentionally saving people.

[SPEAKER_00]: to help them become the heroes who we keep it going when he was no longer on the scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: In plain daylight, while we think he was just performing miracles, he was really taking a small group of men and women and transforming them into superheroes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when he went back to heaven, the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is what Christianity was called in the first century would be in the capable hands of people who had been prepared by him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus wasn't just any for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He worked himself out of a job, so to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: He trained those around him so that they could reproduce and exceed his own effectiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he did it in playing daylight while everybody thought he was this feeding the crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just raising the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just opening the eyes of the blind.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he was doing was showing those closest to him if I can do this by faith, so can you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when I'm gone, I'm gonna put all this in your hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: And believe it or not, you're gonna be ready to carry a further, higher and better than I ever did, even though I'm a guy I saw it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the Lord wants us to know that there's so much more to us and so much more to church than just coming in and being fans of some unique religious expression.

[SPEAKER_00]: God expects what happens here to be a spark of revolution here, so that when you go out there, you'll be doing stuff that you can believe the Lord let you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will show up and be somebody's hero.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will be the answer to somebody's prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will be a resource to help them tap into the divine source.

[SPEAKER_00]: In ways that you can't even dream of today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because what happens in here is a spark in here that's supposed to start something out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all picking up what I'm putting down?

[SPEAKER_00]: So to that end for the last month or so we've been on this wayfinder series and our thing for the series has been that there is more to church and there is more to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today as we look at the story of Jesus with his closest followers, we'll appreciate that Jesus had this unique reproducible process whereby he would pick people, relate to them, prepare them, and then release them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the time he released them, they were more hero than when he first picked them.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna run it again, Jesus has his process where he would pick people, relate to them, prepare them, and then release them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody in Jesus' life, he hell with an open hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Release them, but before he released them, he prepared them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't even know they was getting ready to be heroes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before he prepared them, he related to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because before he could want anything back, all he wanted was just them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in order to relate to them, he had to pick up.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I love about the way the Lord picks.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord picks those that nobody else would.

[SPEAKER_00]: The most unlikely people.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord picks the one who tried not to be picked.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.

[SPEAKER_00]: You think, could you send on the back row on the church and you'll see you?

[SPEAKER_00]: OK?

[SPEAKER_00]: You send back there in 30 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to be a mother of the church, saying, right on the screen?

[SPEAKER_00]: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord of Pick the One Tribe, not the BP, and my bowing down your leg.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'mma just saying, that's all I'mma do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't never preachin'.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'mma just saying, that's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go home, okay, Gregory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[SPEAKER_00]: And because I know I'm unfit to carry that oil, I would rather just shrink back to do God a favor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow,

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord picks those who are unlikely, those of us who win pick our sales, I promise you, I would never pick myself to be nobody's preacher.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord doesn't just pick us, he relates to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: On to the hear me, if you've ever been in a Christian environment and you were not related to in a healthy way, that is not the spirit of Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: You would have just said, if you ever been in a Christian environment, and you were not related to in a healthy way, that's not a spirit of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit of Jesus does not use and abuse.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit of Jesus does not manipulate and exploit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit of Jesus does not take more than it gives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us are disillusioned about what it means to relate to Jesus because we've had unhealthy relationships with people who act like they represent in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's hard to differentiate between it two, especially when you've been traumatized.

[SPEAKER_00]: But everybody, Jesus picked, he related to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you mean, relate to them, rare?

[SPEAKER_00]: He just spent time with them for time saying, he loved them because they was lovable.

[SPEAKER_00]: He poured into them because they had capacity.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give to get.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't manipulate to exploit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't use them for his own personal gain.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody he picked.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just hung out with them for a couple years.

[SPEAKER_00]: He related to them in healthy ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was the best big brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Any of these 12 disciples could have met and the best man in the East women had ever seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he handled them with dignity and respect and showed them a different ethic, a different way of being, a different manner of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just by relating to them, they were revolutionized from being around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he picks, he relates, then he prepares.

[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is, with anybody to Lord is dealing with, the Lord is preparing you.

[SPEAKER_00]: for something you could never see yourself doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't ask your permission before he starts to get you ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to ask your permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to ask you, you ready?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready to be prepared?

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody ask me how I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready to be prepared?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what else?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to ask your permission for?

[SPEAKER_00]: When is, when you're ready to be released?

[SPEAKER_00]: You are, are you ready for glory yet?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes Lord, I'm ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, you're not.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he don't ask permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: He picks you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He relates to you out of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in so doing, you just start getting prepared for some.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't even predict.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then releases you and you look at yourself in the mirror and don't recognize the hero standing back at you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the whole time you doubt it, you could become who you deeply hold, you could always be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's true for us because that was also true for the men and women in Luke chapter 8 verse 1, 2, 3.

Luke 8:1

[SPEAKER_00]: I got two main points in this message.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you one today and then be as you would do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the first one.

[SPEAKER_00]: As our hero, Jesus picks and relates to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: As our hero, Jesus picks and relates to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second thing we'll look at, if the Lord says the same here in the next couple of weeks is, as our hero maker, Jesus prepares and releases us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Before he can be our hero maker, he's first our hero.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so there are many different metaphors we use to describe who Jesus is.

[SPEAKER_00]: and what Jesus has done for us that are appropriate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of my favorite is the word savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just heard Greg and the Tane in this beautiful mentally of worship saying that, that chorus savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what's interesting is that song savior is a touch or bet song.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you never heard it, savior savior, the man you saved has come to worship you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This morning, drop in the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Potrabet is on my phone right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't listened to a Potrabet album in at least six months.

[SPEAKER_00]: This morning coming to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, I tried to listen to white album and it just, one of what I needed, I said, put on Potrabet, bloody win.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we called Jesus Savior and rightfully sold.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was just prophetic.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was just having a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm back in the sorry now, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: bring it back.

[SPEAKER_00]: We call Jesus Savior and rightfully so, which is why we went to that course in the mentally, but there are multitude of scriptures that we see, that remind us of his capacity to save a ability to save.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Peter 2-9, he called you out of darkness into Marvelous Light.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 1, 21.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's gonna get birth to a son, we gonna name him Jesus, for he will save.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see that?

[SPEAKER_00]: People from their sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: John chapter 1 verse 29, I'm gonna look at this a few weeks ago, behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.

John 1:29

[SPEAKER_00]: So is right when we call Jesus Savior, because Jesus takes us out of darkness, puts us in the light, saves us from my sin, takes away the sins of the world, and it's what a Savior does.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another way to say Savior is He wrote, the church say He wrote.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that you're going to appreciate that Jesus is the ultimate hero who offers eternal and existential salvation to any of us in sin and any of us who are suffering, who come to him by faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the hero who really say it is, and he is so much a hero that Hollywood can't get away from his story arc.

[SPEAKER_00]: My kids hate when I do this, but it's so hard not to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anytime we go to a movie, I'm like, oh, y'all know what they got there from, oh, dad.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Sunday, dad.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not preaching, dad.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I know, but Jesus still fiber, listen to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's hero, who saves us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to read this group again and read this passage again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this group we read about may seem like some regular people until we really examine who we're reading about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's that soon after where Jesus began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he's doing, but look who's with him while he's doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The 12 of us with him and also some women.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is not sexist.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit of God is poured out on women and men the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about the twelfth disciples because of the rabbinical construct of that culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it don't mean he didn't have some sisters with him too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who will be in shape to become heroes for the first century church.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some women who have been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, who was called Magdalene, what that means is she's from a place called Magdalene.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if that verse was about me, it would say Darrell, who was called ATLian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, who was called Magdalene from home seven demons had gone out, all right, then verse number three.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Joanna, the wife of Chuseon, Harry Stewart, and Susanna.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus walking around from town to town and he just got people with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing God's will for his life, being the hero in the moment, but he's got the 12 and he's sisters with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's making them in the heroes too.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is all a part of the relational rhythm of just being with him while he is being great.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we go back and look at this list, we're gonna look at the people he picked, who they were before Jesus entered their life and what Jesus saved them from.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with Matthew.

[SPEAKER_00]: His name is also Levi.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who wrote the Book of Matthew, one of the 12 disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before he met Jesus, he was a tax collector.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody ain't never liked somebody who worked for our race.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you win this room and you work for the race, don't tell us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just saying, I'm a mathematician.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm kind of like a bounce or an amathmatician, put together.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm strong, I'm pretty honest with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you got to get that, get Uncle Sam's money, I'm gonna pay my taxes.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But a tax collecting is what in just because they collect the taxes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The truth is Jews didn't like tax collectors because they believed that there was a negative connotation of exploitation in the taxation.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, I didn't mean to say that that comes using.

[SPEAKER_00]: What they believed is the task collectors would take money for wrong but take a little bit off the top for them too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they saw them as thieves essentially or as Jews who sold out other Jews to get money from Jews to pay the state to pay the master to pay wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is who Matthew was when Jesus found him and look at what Jesus saved him from.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a people in this room who knows something about that, don't you?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you got good money in a bad name, it ain't long before you realize you made a false move.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew had good money, but he ain't have a good name.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he needed Jesus to save him from the emptiness of having gained the world, but lost his soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's another guy, a group of guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter and Andrew, brothers, James and John are brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: These couplets, a brothers, are both fishermen.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've just been rejected from Rabbi school, the meaning they didn't get in the college.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they go back home and they got to work the job with Daddy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus goes and find them on the boat, walking along the seashore and picks them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he saved them from was settling for good while they yearn for great.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a sound up for the good that was available to you because you got rejected when you tried to be great.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have had your ego bruised when you tried to stretch and accomplish a goal and because it didn't happen when you happened how you thought that was gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just quit and did what was always easy for you to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus will save you from good when you know deep down inside great is your destiny.

[SPEAKER_00]: He won't just let you settle for what's less than who God created you to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not talking about stuff you can have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about Purpose You Can Persuade, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then we look at Mary from Magdala.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was demon possessed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Texas, seven demons lived in her.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus delivers her from being misused and abused.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why I said, if you've ever been a part of a Christian community and you didn't feel related to and a healthy way that was not the spirit of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the spirit of Christ don't misuse and abuse, demons do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I ain't talking about nobody I'm just talking about when I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a, there's a distinct culture between what's heavenly was worldly and what's demonic.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what's worldly and what's demonic is the sign, what's heavenly is different.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says there's a wisdom of heaven and then there's a, there's a demonic wisdom, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The sign is true in the way the relational dynamic happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly folk relate to one another in one way, worldly folk and demonic people relate to people in another way.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what demons do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Demons deteriorate their host.

[SPEAKER_00]: Demons take, they still kill, and they destroy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they may show up as angels of light, but afterwards, if you feel like you've been using the bills, something worldly happened, that was not of God, Jesus delivers Mary from being

[SPEAKER_00]: Her body was not a vessel for demonic activity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was for the spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Joanna, whose life went necessarily bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she was a wife of a dude who had a real good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But when she met Jesus, Jesus saved her from status without significance.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if she was patrol to Meredith's man, because he had a good job, or I don't know if he saw her one day in the marketplace and he hauled out her and she decided to go out with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I do know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before she met Jesus, all she was known as as the wife of a man with a good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: After she met Jesus, she was known as the wife of a man with a good job who is also a daughter of the divine.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you can have status by who's on your arm but not feel significant in your soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can have status by who's on appreciate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was from the round.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh!

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate you for saying that too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all the Lord just be like, I don't even have that in my nose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But you can have status from who's on your arm, but not have significance in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you are spouse, who deeply love your spouse and they're awesome and they cue, but you still feel like some is missing?

[SPEAKER_00]: And you realize it's not them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just made me unique, more Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here when I'm saying to you, your spouse is wonderful and cute.

[SPEAKER_00]: You then marry God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, God, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

[SPEAKER_00]: Only God can fulfill the soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can have a wonderful spouse with a good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't marry Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't pull on them to fill you here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus will save you from status without significance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus will meet you in a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could be in a good and relational dynamic.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just not enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's okay to not be enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every Mary Darrell, she didn't marry Jesus Jr.

[SPEAKER_00]: For real, it's only so much I can do now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can pay the bills.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: I can grill twice a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's okay to not be enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was never meant to take the place of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she married to a dude with a good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: Means Jesus and becomes married to a dude with a good job as a woman who follows Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what all these people do is they become the wayfinders who point people to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: They become the heroes of the first century church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Luke is the same person who wrote the book of Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke and Acts is like a sequel and a prequel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They go together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though they're separate in the Bible, they were written as a part one, part two.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the saying people he's writing about in Luke, he's gonna write about in Acts as being those who carry forth the kingdom once Jesus goes back to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Joanna, Susanna, Mary, the twelfth, they're the heroes of X. They're the ones who testify, and the only reason they're testimony has weight is because they remember who they were when the lower found him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm about to shuffle this for you real quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we use this term annoying thing,

[SPEAKER_00]: It technically means to be doubts with oil because you've been consecrated for a sacred office, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But the oil is symbolic of the spirit that separated you from the beginning of the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that we are in the new covenant, every child of God is anointed.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all got the oil.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all got the spirit that separates us and consecrates us for special and divine use.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when we say anointed, what we're talking about is somebody who when they function, there's an oomph behind their function.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an auction to the function.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever say somebody who had a whole bunch of function, but then have no auction?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, ah, that ain't it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That ain't it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't go to seminary, but that ain't it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't read the Bible today, but that ain't it, I can tell.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they really want it to be it, but that ain't it, that ain't it.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we say anointing what we mean is function with auction, when you do, I feel the connection of God in your doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a key to keep functioning in your function.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget who you were when the Lord called you because the moment you forget who you were when the Lord called you is the moment you get to high and mighty to connect with people that the Lord is still calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that anybody who can testify forever?

[SPEAKER_00]: You ain't the only one who remember who we in.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember we.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help me to never forget who I was, where I was.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you picked me, you picked me

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord picks and we remember, we're intimately acquainted with this story that anchors us to the earth, that grounds us in humility and reminds us that the foot of the cross, the grounded foot of the cross is level for everybody who stands there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as this grounded person who spent time with them, people could tail when you've been with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Acts chapter 4 verse 13, I'll let y'all go in and mean to give me like four minutes.

Acts 4:13

[SPEAKER_00]: Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and begin to recognize them as having what church being with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can look at them and tell, Jesus wrote golf on you, it's some distinct about your manner of being.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you, you've been with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the people of the Lord connects us, we'll pick them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But sometimes they'll pick us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes life will pick for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll find yourself in a relational dynamic where both of you are growing in the things of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that relational dynamic is a healthy space for you to become and for you to flourish.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna leave you like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, don't abandon them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was struggling very, very, very bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Ebony and I often talk about this and we recount this with one of our sisters, Melanie and I'm just like, doing a pandemic y'all, I was a rap.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was just emotionally exhausted, spiritually exhausted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was on the counselor's couch at least once a month, every three, two to three weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the truth is, I was already struggling before the pandemic.

[SPEAKER_00]: 2019 is I was finishing my doctor, I was excelling academically, but struggling mentally.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was just exhausted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was in school for seven straight years, so I did my second

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord, it was a blessing because you're not supposed to be able to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the door was open for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was grateful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, complaining, I don't think too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, by 2019, I didn't have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I was?

[SPEAKER_00]: I was just, it wasn't good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when the pandemic hit, the Lord used the global pandemic where we was all struggling to hide how deeply I was already struggling before the pandemic hit, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So in the pandemic, it was little stuff that saved my life, little stuff, that helped me to define myself again.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the little things I fell in love with in the pandemic is devotional time with God without trying to write a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just spent time in the work every day with no sermon in my.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing I've been if in the firm in the pandemic was making a breakfast for my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if everybody's gonna be home on Zoom, I send them me get up here morning and make breakfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just made breakfast, my son's, my wife, and being able to do that to contribute value to them just helping me ground myself and find the Lord again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing I rediscovered in the pandemic was the gift of service.

[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't ever call me to be fantastic.

[SPEAKER_00]: He called me to serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't realize I had gone away from this.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I went back to the boys and girls club, started volunteering to serve him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We started something called Reach 100, what are millennials at EBC at the time, where out in the community serve him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this was just to re-ground me and the things that really mattered to me, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's something that was my wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything she was doing was saving my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: During the pandemic, every knee became a plant mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just woke up one day, and it was 132 plants in the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, girl, be you, D, G, E, T. But, what are your plans going wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I know she was sneaking plants in the house when I wasn't looking.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know she was, because I don't even remember when they showed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just remember coming down and staring one day and I was in a jungle, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What she would do though is she would get the plant.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for those of you all, when we planted this church, we gave away plants and plants.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, you don't remember that.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was inspired by her life as a plant mom at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what she would do is she would tell me, she would say, they're on this as a, this is a pack those.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd be like, okay, pack those.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a snake plant.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a farm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just pretending to like it because I like her.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, for real, yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: For real, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hold my hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I notice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the plants need more light than other plants.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the plants need more water than other plants.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the plants that grew with a plant she would do this to.

[SPEAKER_00]: How are you doing today?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she gave the path also name, Pamela.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Pammy girl, how are you doing today?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're looking cute today, girl.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, do you want to go to council with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: She started giving her plans names.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then here's what I noticed.

[SPEAKER_00]: The plant she didn't talk to for a week will be over there drooping.

[SPEAKER_00]: The plants who she gave a nine to and she water and she will walk up to and put hands on those plants will be strong and growing and flourishing and then it reminded me in a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: How to lure Jesus helps us to flourish in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will find us in the wild soil of our sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dig us out of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Read through.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had us in His grace, give us a new name, and relate to us so we can become all that God has called us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not anybody who's been picked by Jesus and who's grateful for the fact that the Lord will call you by name until you grow into your death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll call you by name.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll get close to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll talk to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: To know you, to love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: and to nurture you.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the spirit of the lower that helps us to grow to become all that God has called us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get a low to hand type of praise if you would.