Discombobulated by Divine Bias | Lisa Harper | Gateway Church

summer reminds me of a lot of things last night I live out in the boonies about 30 minutes south of Nashville Tennessee and I sat in a chair and I watched fireflies for about 30 minutes and I thought oh this feels like summer to me and then I was in a friend's neighborhood last weekend and they still have ice cream trucks and I was like oh this just makes me so excited I want to put on stretchy pants when I hear the ice cream truck sound it makes me so happy I love the smell of people grilling hamburgers you you you got to love summer summer also reminds me of school because six years ago I started a doctorate and the only way I could do it in residency was to go spend part of the summer in Denver where I went to Seminary at Denver Seminary and so school is part of my Summers I'm trying to finish a doctorate so pray for me you may want to lay hands on me I think I'm the dumbest person in my doctoral program having a hard time with my thesis but I loved classes in the summer as an older uh woman of faith I love to learn more about Jesus and and I just love going to school in Denver in the Summers because if I had a bad day I could go out and look at the mountains and I would be so encouraged and there was one moment I had at the end of my academic time class time uh two summers ago I was in my second to last class in my doctorate I was sitting in my class I always got there early and my professor Dr Brad straight came walking in there were just 10 of us in this class and all of us are older because usually it takes being older to be willing to go back to school because the pain from earlier school has dissipated but we're all older we're in this class I'm there early and Dr straight comes walking and he gets the podium just like this he kind of shuffles his papers and then he comes down from where he's standing and he walks right down to where I'm sitting and it made me nervous because I got in trouble a few times when I was in high school for talking too much and skipping and then one of the seniors turned me in and that was back when principles could hit you with a paddle and didn't have to worry about litigation so you know my rear end started to tingle when he came away and came walking down by me and then he came straight up to me Professor straight and I was like oh shoot this doesn't bode well I'm probably in trouble and then he stopped and I know Sandy and so don't try this at home we've practiced this Sandy job is a dear friend and I told her I was going to do this so don't worry I might spit on the you though a little bit you know I'm a spitter he came right down to me like I'm doing to Sandy and Dr straight put his hands on the side of my face and then he said Lisa do you know that you're God's favorite and I was like so I was like this is just awkward this is super super super awkward and there's nine other students and I feel weird and he's singling me out and I don't think I wrote a very good paper and I've always struggled a little bit with an orphan Spirit my dad left when I was a kid and there was some abuse in my backstory and so I just kind of want things to be like everybody to be at peace but I don't want to be singled out and so I was like because I didn't really know what to say and he would not look away he went Lisa kept his hands on the side of my face do do you know that you're God's favorite and y'all you could have cut the tension in the room with a knife it's like we're in a classroom and and you're a PhD like aren't you Crossing some kind of propriety lines or isn't there like a a law about this nowadays this just feels he did it like five times and by then I was just like people can probably see you know when you know there's a balloon above your head saying I feel really awkward this is odd I feel so awkward everybody's staring at me this is so awkward and finally I realized if I don't say yes even if I'm telling a little white lie if I don't say yes he's not going to leave it's why they used to sing just as I am 47 times at the end of services when we were growing up they're like if we sing it enough you'll eventually somebody will come forward so we can go to lunch I thought I'm going to have to say yes I know I'm God's favorite so after the fifth time I was like yes sir and he goes Claire goes to the next student do you know you're God's favorite he does it to all nine of us and we're all kind of like well 10 of us I was the 10th and then he goes walks back up to the podium he goes today we're going to talk about the immutable favor of God that God loves us unconditionally all of us and we are all his favorites and because you receive the absolute favoritism of God does not mean you get a smaller piece of the pie and I thought dang that was a good prop that I was really good we're God's favorites we're comfortable with favor Miss and I were at the mall yesterday with a friend and she told me there's this great cupcake place at the mall that I hadn't tried I don't know if y'all have it here I think it's called Sally's cupcakes and they're good but they're like $45 a piece so we go in the Sally's or whatever the cupcake place is and she gets a cupcake and then I just felt guilty cuz you're standing there and I thought okay okay I'll get a cupcake and then I asked Missy my daughter's 14 she's here she is I brought her home from Haiti the year I turned 50 that's her hard to tell she's adopted that is the biggest chunk of my heart right there um and by the way I adopted her as a single woman so if you're over 60 and employed um I'm looking for a baby daddy but anyway um Missy Missy said she didn't want a cupcake and I was like score because I didn't bring you know my gold card and and then as we're checking out this really sweet girl who was working behind the counter came walking up and she smiled at Missy and she said baby just in case she want a cupcake later and she handed her a cupcake in this pretty little bag and as we're walking out the door my friend Michelle said now that's favor favor we're comfortable with favor favor is an extra cupcake favor is a good parking spot at the Galleria favor is good weather when you rented a place in Galveston because you're not bougie enough to go to 3A that that's favor we're comfortable with favor as church people but I bet you a nickel if Holy Spirit was personified tonight and he put his hands on the side of your face and said do you know that you're God's favorite I know your wife so I can pick on you too most of us would get a little uncomfortable that means the god of the universe sees us without spanks gentlemen if you don't know what that that is don't Google it you won't be able to unsee it nothing in our lives is hidden from him he sees everything and he still says you're my favorite our Human Condition says that we can only be somebody's favorite if we deserve it deservedness is part of The Human Condition You deservedness earning God's favor it's not biblically defensible it's not in there what Dr straight was trying to model for us is true every single one of us we're his favorites every single one of us it doesn't matter if you're in a good season or a bad season doesn't matter if you're in your stretchy pants or your zippered pants doesn't matter if you just fuss at your child or you've been blessing them it doesn't matter if there's no divorce on your record or there is divorce on your record if you're walking with Jesus stumbling toward Jesus you're not only in the family of God you're his favorite I'm 60 years old I've been walking with Jesus since I was five I still have a hard time hanging on to that it's kind of wet soap for me it's just it's slippery it's the foundational wall of our Christian Orthodoxy but emotionally as human beings it's hard for for us to hang on to the fact that God says you are so beautiful to me I want to spend every moment of every day with you what's your favorite color and we we see him as Divine but to see him as the one who calls us his favorites that is that even okay as a Christian is that reverent I believe it is if you brought your Bible turn to the beginning to Genesis he started telling us this story in the very beginning Genesis 48:8 when Israel and sometimes uh some of the names in scripture can be confusing Israel in Genesis chapter 48 is also Jacob Jacob one of the the great Saints in the Old Testament um made some mistakes along the way but Jacob and so he's also called Israel this is Joseph's daddy don't you worry about the baby uh I told y'all when I was here in January I love the sound of babies in church and when people don't and give mam or dads dirty looks I always pray they'll get hives because babies should be celebrated in church part of it is becoming a mom late in life but don't worry one bit about the baby I have a little bit of add anyway when Israel slash Jacob saw Joe's Sons he said who are these Joseph said to his dad these are my sons dad whom God has given me here and he said bring them to me please that I may bless them now the eyes of Israel SL Jacob you still with me remember his son Joseph that has the coat from Bon all the many colors coat Jacob's one of the Patriarchs Joseph his brothers got jealous and they threw him in a pit and then he was sold into slavery and then remember Pharaoh's wife tatted on him about something wasn't true cuz she made a pass at him and he didn't text her back and so she lied and he got thrown in prison y'all remember the story so Joseph who because of his Integrity winded up becoming the number two guy in all of Egypt God reconciled him to his family Joseph is now coming back home from Egypt he's a grown man he has two sons of his own his daddy Jacob his eyes are dim with age said who are these kids you're bringing into my house I can tell their boys cuz I can smell them from here my nephew lived with us for a while and he moved in when he was 19 and I was like my goodness he smells different than Missy just a beautiful beautiful smell you boys have after you play basketball now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see so Joseph brought them near him and he kissed them and embraced them and is and Israel Jacob said to Joseph I never expected to see your face face and behold God has let me see your Offspring also then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the Earth and Joseph took them both Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him and Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim who is a younger and his left hand on the head of manasse Crossing his hands for manasse was the first born and he blessed them and said the god before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless these boys and in them let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth when Joe saw his dad laid his right hand on the head of ephra IT displeased him and he took his father's hand to Move It from ephraim's head to Manasses head and Joseph said to his father not this way Dad since this one is the firstborn put your right hand on his head but his father Jacob refused and said I know I know I know exactly what I'm doing Joe he also shall become a people and he also shall be great nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of Nations so he blessed them that day so here's the deal during this ancient period of culture they existed under this this traditional cultural law of of a primogeniture and that just means the firstborn son is the one who gets all the blessing so if you're second born too bad so sad you do not get the inheritance the firstborn son is the son of the favor he's the dad's favorite so in their culture and this is still the case in many Semitic culture in their culture that the Patriarchs that be a grandfather or a dad or in the case of their deaths an uncle would pray blessing on the firstborn son and he would lay his right hand on the firstborn son because the right hand in biblical narrative is the hand of blessing the right hand is the hand of favor that's why you'll never read in Scripture that Jesus sits at the left hand of God the Father it's always the right hand even today I I was in Israel right before the fighting broke out when I'm with my Jewish friends it would be Unthinkable for them to greet me with their left hand that's dishonorable the right hand is the hand of Honor so Joe comes home from Egypt he comes to his aging dad who says I can't believe I get to be reconciled with you and my grandsons I would like to pray a prayer of blessing he crosses his arms and y'all those of Y how many inogram eights do we have in here I think the inogram is a bit of a cult but it's still a good tool if you're an inogram 8 if you're type A if you're firstborn I brought a word for you it's actually a double word it comes from the Greek it's called a Hax legon I paid a lot of money for my doctoral classes so I want to show off and give you two words that I remember Haack leamon it comes from the Greek it means this was said once what that means is this this when Abraham crosses his arms it only happens one time in all of scripture this is the only time a blessing was given and the blesser purposely intentionally crossed his arms so as to put the right hand on the second son it's so Unthinkable that Joseph himself says Dad I knew you had cataracts I didn't know they were that bad you're blessing the wrong boy and Jacob says boy I know exactly what I'm doing I know exactly what I'm doing I'm blessing your second son the point God is making in this story is there's no firstborn and secondborns in the family of God there's no firstborns and secondborns we are all his favorites in your family of origin maybe you were made to feel less than maybe you have an orphan spirit because of the love you are desperate for that you didn't receive from the very beginning of this love story we call the Bible God is rewriting our history he's saying you're firstborn you're firstborn you're firstborn you are all my favorites I will never lay my hand of blessing on one and not give it to another if you're in Christ you're not only in the family you're my favorite I love that he crossed his arms I love that the second born was probably so discombobulated he didn't know what to do I'm not less than it's not about my gender it's not about my place in the family it's not about my personality I'm your favorite too yes you're my favorite one of my mentors former Pastor Scotty Smith he said Lisa so many Christians are like Cinderella with amnesia we hear the story and we forget we the one he wants we're the chosen one we're the favorites and because God knows we're a little slow on the pickup this theme is it's just go gone over and over and over again in scripture you'll see this theme of us being his favorites that God is leveling that human understanding of of deservedness and hierarchy and over and over again he says no no no no you're not you're not the last you're the first you're firstborn your favorites head over to second Samuel similar story similar theme I love this story in David's story this is toward the end of David's Reign you know he became the the second king of Israel they had Saul The People's Choice for a king and then there was David he was God's choice for a king he was anointed by Samuel when he was just a kid still had clear cell dots on his face out tending sheep they forgot him didn't even bring him into the line line up of potential Kings and you remember Samuel said is there not one more and they said oh yeah we've got a seventh grader tendon sheep bring him bring him to me I'm taking the tiniest bit of Liberty with the Hebrew here but doc can clear it up for you if you'll go to school bring him bring him to me and he sees daav and he says this is the one this is the one God has chosen to become the king of Israel and then there's over 30 years between his anointing and his appointing what made David a great king was he spent a whole lot of time in dark caves so many people these days want platforms and I'm like the platform will kill you if you don't have time in the dark with god um that's a whole another sermon but anyway David David was a great king he stumbled a little bit but this is later in his Reign David says chapter 9 ver1 is there still anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake you remember Jonathan and David were BFFs they started out playing t-ball together ended up being on the Jerusalem football team together double dated at prom they were besties but remember Jonathan's dad was the first king and he was a narcissistic Nutter and he hated David because David was a folk hero and people used to sing the song Saul has killed his thousands but David has killed his tens of thousands y'all grew up half Baptists like me too and have heard these stories right seen him flan onraed and so Saul hated David and Saul tried to kill David and johathan said David because you are like a brother to me and I know my dad's kind of two sandwiches short of a picnic I'll text you if I find out he's trying to kill you again I don't believe it's yahweh's will that my dad murders you and that's exactly what happened later on after they made that vow they're both very very young men most Old Testament Scholars think they were still teenagers after they make that vow Jonathan finds out his dad indeed does have another murder plot and he lets David know and that's when David escapes with his life kind of by the skin of his teeth and begins this sojourn this time away from the city that he love the place where he'd eventually be king because Saul was trying to kill him so fast forward many decades he's now the king and he gets nostalgic and goes is there anybody left I can bless Jonathan died with his Nutter of a father Saul in battle many many many years before and so he's been dead a long time and David just goes is there anybody left whom I can bless in light of that vow Jonathan and I made that we'd always have each other's backs now there was a servant of the House of Saul whose name was Zeba and they called him to David and the King said to him are you Zeba he said I am your servant and the King said is there not still someone of the House of Saul that I might show the kindness of God to him Zeus said to the king there is still a son of Jonathan he is crippled in his feet so what happened was when Jonathan and Saul were killed tradition in that ancient era is that whoever the next king was coming into power power he would kill anybody related to the previous King so as to ward off any potential coups considered political wisdom it's also genocide and so the people who were related to Saul assumed that when David was coming in to take over as the king of Israel second king of Israel that they need to make themselves real scarce because it wasn't going to go well for them of course that wasn't the case but they were afraid David would try to kill him and there was a nanny carrying Jonathan's baby boy mbth it's hard to pronounce so I always call him Bo carrying bo bo is a toddler she's trying to hi tail it out of the palace before David's Entourage comes in and she was nervous and probably slipped on the tile and she dropped the baby and it broke both of his ankles and so Zeba the servant says to David yes Jonathan actually had a little boy and years ago when they were fleeing Jerusalem The Nanny dropped him broke his ankles I heard he's still a he lives in a place called Low debar do youall remember what low debar means barren place so just imagine this man now in his 30s as a child he was the grandson of the king probably you know had a nanny with a degree from some fancy School in London had all of his little onesies hands smocked mama shoed at the Galleria probably at Neiman's and now he's ostracized middle of nowhere Oklahoma you know sorry I think y'all have a church there he's in the Dust Bowl he's in a government subsidized apartment he's sitting in a lazy boy with duct tape on the arms watching QVC him and his life is Barren David says go get him so this Emissary of the King goes to load a bar to the barren Place knocks on the door can you imagine Bose's reaction when he opens the door and goes oh snap somebody from the king is showing up bringing a message that the king wants an audience with me dig is up they found me they're going to bring me back to Jerusalem and they are going to kill me because my granddaddy was a Nutter who tried to kill the king so my backstory is so broken and so Jerry Springer I mean this is it for me this is the end I can imagine him trudging back to Jerusalem thinking it's over for me they bring him in front of King David and D David says MTH and this is my imagination scripture doesn't clarify this but I I like to think he looked like Jonathan don't you I like to think that David went oh my goodness he looks like his dad my best friend and mbth sees the king and you know what he does he doesn't go I'm your favorite he does what I did he gets nervous and then he actually gets down on his knees and says to David what would a king like you want with a dog like me and David says Get Up Bo he says I made a vow with your dad which means you're now my son which means you will always sit at my table that doesn't mean he's coming over for burgers and to play Pictionary and then they flick the lights and he has to leave after three hours table in biblical narrative is you're part of the family you're in you're not leaving you can bring a U-Haul you are in and the end of that chapter I love the very last verse it says and meth always ate at the king's table come up and he was crippled in both feet in other words he wasn't fixed he was still a mess he still didn't deserve to be the favorite but he was always right there at the king's table God says over and over and over again this love story you're not just mine because I sent Jesus to deliver you your mind because I Delight in you from the very beginning you've always always been my favorite that's a theme we see in Romans chapter 8 when Paul says we're coair with Christ we have Holy Spirit who reminds us we have the right to go call God what creator of the universe Divine Sovereign King all that's true but that's not what holy spirit says you have the right to call him dad and just like B you get the best seat at the table coair with Christ in other words you're firstborn you get all the inheritance you're the favorites you're not the ones who have to duck your head because you know you don't really fit and you're just happy to still still sit at the Kitty table at Thanksgiving even though you're 38 he says no your favorites your first borns summer also reminds me of Camp um I grew up going to Camp Christian Camp started going when I was in the eighth grade didn't want to go but my mom just kind of gently manipulated me and um and I mean I ran smacking to the grace of God um singing Kumbaya having fires saying I would never ever again put an alcoholic beverage in my slurpie at Burger King after a football game I mean I just fell hard for Jesus I repented even though I was a kid I'd already started to make some bad choices because is I never felt like I fit and so whatever people were doing I would just do what they did so that they would like me and uh I fell in love with Jesus hard when I was a young woman at summer camp and I loved everything about Christian summer camp I grew up in Central Florida so this was at a camp in Florida not here not Pine Creek Al I've heard amazing things about that in Gateway there's only one thing at camp that I didn't love that has scarred me for life and it was called the Sati Hawkins dance um those of y'all under 40 don't know who stie Hawkins was because of litigation but STI Hawkins is what we used to celebrate when those of us who have the potential of discounts at McDonald's were younger and that was when they would switch traditional gender roles and the girls would invite the boys to a dance and so at this Christian Camp on the very last afternoon of camp we had a s Hawkins day race so they would line up all the girls in Camp on one side of the soccer field and then all the boys would be in the other side of the soccer field field so there'd be like 250 teenage girls all lined up and 140 or 50 scared skinny teenage boys who've been forced there by their mothers and when some sadistic Christian college kid blew a whistle all the girls would chase the boys and then whoever you caught you took with you to the dance which is why we struggle being submissive gentlemen um you give us mixed messages um but we would take them and it wasn't a dance either we weren't allowed to dance it was like super serious Christian Camp we just stood around in the camp cafeteria but they called it a dance and so this one summer camp I was 13 and I mean the the it boy of Camp Jeff McGarvey um he's married to a beautiful lovely woman and lives in Florida now but Jeff McGarvey when I was 13 ooh he I got a little non-church there for a while Pastor I'm sorry I'm old but I still have a drop of estrogen left in me just woo he was just it so he was like the Brad Pit or the the Denzel Washington or the Bono I mean he was just it and so we're all lined up the boys are on that side and I mean all the girls like probably half of them are talking about they're going to chck face Jeff McGarvey they're going to try to catch Jeff McGarvey now normally I'm a windbag so normally I'd be talking too but this one Saad Hawkins race I'm just standing there grinning because I have a secret because Jeff McGarvey had come by my cabin about an hour earlier and I knew him his mom was my piano teacher and he asked for me and my camp counselor was like Lisa Jeff mcy is waiting he was wearing these log sporti tennis shorts and still remember and he had hairy legs which was cool cuz a lot of them hadn't gone through puberty yet so he was just so cute and he had kind of an afro and he's outside the the cabin and he's kind of doing his Chuck Taylor in the dirt his neck was all splotchy when I walked out he was like hey uh I was just wondering if uh we have the race if I mean you know if if you want to chase me I wanted to tell you I'd let you tag me and I was like okay so the camp counselor Blows the Whistle and y'all like probably a hundred girls start taking chasing Jeff but he was really athletic and he gets away from the girls and he had told me if you'll stand over by the laundr map by where we would wash our clothes at camp in the snack store I'll let you tag me so I just walk over by the laundromat and the snack shop which I loved anyway and here comes Jeff flying up through the woods and he was like and I was like and that night y'all it was like a wedding Jeff cuz he was it I was wearing a peach Kiana knit dress and Jeff wore an ice blue polyester suit with a vest and uh we stood in the cafeteria and he was such a big deal that everybody filed in and greeted us like we were like the couple and I grinned so big standing next to Jeff that my cheeks started to cramp I just I couldn't believe it I still love the memory because it was the last really good date I've had but like my cheeks were just like little hard balls I was just like he picked me he picked me Jeff could have had anybody there's girls who are so much prettier and sweeter and come from better families and don't have all the mess I have but he picked me that's the gospel that's the story over and over and over and over again he picked us he picked us your's favorite you may not be anybody else's favorite which is why it's hard for you to believe that the god of universe says that's my son that's my son that's my girl isn't she beautiful that's my girl Pastor Mark is going to come up and wrap up this family meeting but um pastors of the other campuses if I could ask for one more favor um don't switch yet to your campus stay live for just a second more uh pastors get ready um and Pastor Mark you can come up Sir um I know I haven't earned this right I know I'm a guest in this house and so thankful to be one um may I ask you to just bow your heads and close your eyes not to be religious to be respectful for the other Saints in this place and the Saints on your campuses who maybe it was a stretch for them to come to church uh maybe they've been wounded in church or by Christians and I'm going to ask everybody to raise their right hand hands so you won't hear hands go up around you so it won't be threatening and and open your right hand like just spread your hand out if you have never felt like a firstborn if it's hard for you to imagine the god in the universe putting his hands on the side of your face and saying you're my favorite would you just close your hand into a fist so pastors can see who they have the privilege of praying with and for tonight because we're going to pray that there's no orphan Spirit left in this house when we dissipate we're going to pray that this is the beginning of you leaning more fully into the Embrace of God you believing that Jesus says oh man I'd go back to the Cross all over again for this one this one is worth it to me just keep your hands raised and those of y'all who who would just honestly say pastor we pray for me that I'd begin to believe bigger that I'm God's favorite keep those hands in a fist so they can see the Saints they have the privilege of praying for

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 15,726

Keywords: gateway church, robert morris, gateway worship

Id: 2jCY1jOuw8o

Length: 36min 19sec (2179 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 10 2024