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

well if you don't know me I'm Holly Furtick and I'm so glad to be worshipping with you here this morning welcome welcome at all of our locations Lisa Harper is here how many of you would agree that we've had some really great preachers every weekend bringing the Word of God speaking to us I'm so thankful that we come to a church where every week we know that we can show up if we could just get here God's gonna speak and today is no exception Lisa Harper is back to the Elevation stage for a second time first time is a guest second time is family so we're excited to have our family back with us here this weekend her daughter is here Missy they have come all the way from the country of Tennessee and Lisa is she's gonna bring an incredible message I already heard it one time last night and I'm excited for you to hear it she is an incredibly gifted Bible teacher preacher author and she's also one of the funniest people I know so you're in for a real treat she travels the world and I'm so excited to have her here with us today on the Elevation stage will you help me welcome Lisa Harper thank you Holly I really oh please sit down please sit down thank you you I cannot overstate what an honor it is to be here this is my second time and Holly graciously invited me to be with some of the women in the church two years ago and every time I get to be at Elevation I just weep during worship and it's not just that I'm menopausal and my emotions are kicked up it's that the presence of God is so tangible in this place and I'm just undone to get to be here very undeserving of the platform but so grateful to get to be here and then to get to be here on baptism Sunday that just slayed me just slayed me I love that you do it in the house I love that it's a family meeting instead of formal and removed I got to baptize my little girl in the Jordan River two months ago we were going to Israel and Missy told me she wants to be baptized she's nine and I said baby that'd be great and what I hadn't taken into consideration is we came to Israel from Australia and so we got there a day and a half after the group we were with and we missed the normal baptismal site which some of you have been to Israel it's on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and it's beautiful and you've got the white robes and the waters clear and it's real picturesque it's a really great and so worthy moment and we missed that baptism site when we got there it was the southern part of the Jordan and that's where there's a lot of agricultural runoff and just a teensy bit of sewage and the waters really brown now that historically is where John baptized Jesus that's historically where the Israelites went into Cana and that's historically where Elijah went up to be with Jesus so it's a really cool biblical site but it's really trashy as far as the water but I was like we're in Israel and she said the Jordan and this is the Jordan and Missy was like no ma'am and I was like oh yes ma'am and so I kind of had to shove her a little bit and I'll show the next group the picture cuz it's just comical I think there will be therapy in light of this baptism but I told her baby this is like one of the most amazing points in your life because it's when you recognize that you go down as an old person you come up alive to a whole new truth I said outwardly it's just a sign of this inward miracle it's incredible so to get to be here and see that if I had half a brain I'd just pray and we'd be done and we'd all go to Denny's but I've never been accused of having half a brain and so we are gonna dive into a story in the book of Acts this morning because I've watched a lot of the pastor's you've had come in this summer was just undone by Pastor Stevens message on when the battle chooses you and then I watched Roberts and I watched Pastor Daniels and I feel like there's this theme God has been weaving through Elevation eFam and all the other locations of spiritual maturity kind of in this summer of be all in for the sake of the gospel so I want to stay in that theme but in order for me to stay there I need y'all to help me so reach out and touch somebody gentlemen if you feel weird holding hands with a guy you don't know you can just awkwardly pinkie grip but we're just gonna and y'all don't have to be that Pentecostal you don't have to reach across the aisles that's too hard this early in the morning but let's pray to that end let's pray that God will have his way in this place that he will actually illuminate our hearts and minds that will become more fully alive to the gospel to the call he has on our lives Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus King Jesus this Jesus the Lamb who was slain the author and the perfecter of our faith a lily of the valley the Alpha and the Omega wonderful counselor Almighty God this Jesus the Christ our Messiah Jesus thank you that when you ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God Almighty you didn't leave us as orphans thank you that you left us your spirit and this love letter called the Bible Lord we pray that you just have your way through your spirit in this place and all the locations and all the family rooms and the coffee shops and the places where eFam's are meeting all over the globe Lord Jesus have your way in your spirit that we would see you more clearly that we would be undone by the gospel that just like these friends of ours that got baptized that there would be a washing this morning that some of the things that have been buried or numb in our hearts that we would feel brand-new and just be alive to the gospel so Jesus we can't accomplish this on our own we recognize we're desperate for your spirit we pray for your spirit we pray you would accomplish this by your power and authority and for your purposes Lord Jesus we ask this and all of God's sons and daughters said amen before we dive into the text I want to tell you a story that happened recently to illuminate where we're headed and it has to do with motorcycles so I should probably qualify this because I know a lot of church people don't like motorcycles but I grew up half Baptist Mom was Baptist Dad was Pentecostal and so the prodigal in me has always wanted a reason to wear black leather pants and I grew up riding motorcycles dirt bikes my dad had a ranch and then when I turned 40 I made this little plan I am still single never been married my husband won't stop to ask for directions but at 40 I had a plan and I decided if I didn't get a husband that year because it's a pivotal year you know 40 and you start to lose your metabolism so I needed something positive I just said if I didn't get a husband I was gonna get a Harley Davidson and so that was my first big bike and I've been riding ever since and wearing leather pants even though it often sounds like ducks are being killed but when I brought Missy my daughter home from Haiti through the miracle of adoption I thought you know what I don't feel good about putting Missy on the back of two wheels just because of other drivers and distractions I just there's inherent risk in motorcycles so I thought I don't feel comfortable I'm not gonna ride anymore with her on a bike but it really bummed her out because motorcycles are the main form of transportation in Haiti and so she would see the bike every time we walked through the garage and she'd go moto moto mama moto and I thought you know I don't feel comfortable putting on her on a hog but maybe I could get a bike that is a little safer and so I found online through Craigslist always scares me that I'm gonna meet a murderer but actually I met a really nice guy in Chicago who was selling a Honda Goldwing with a dauntless sidecar and Sophia motorcycle people actually have a pig yeah so I bought that because you know it's three wheels you can see us coming it's obviously safer than two wheels and we had a blast on this bike I did the whole weird thing I don't do all the you know matching Mommy and Me outfits because I'm just too old and that's too sad for Missy but we did do matching leathers and I mean we just we had so much fun with it until one day we were riding the bike I live in the boonies about 20 miles south of Nashville Tennessee and this blue Ford truck flying a rebel flag in the back drove up beside us and threw coke cans at us and yelled expletives because where I live in Nashville Tennessee some people do not think straight headed mamas should have curly headed kids and I'd prepared for that when I was bringing Missy home from Haiti as well as I could spent a lot of shoe money on therapists who specialize in transracial adoptions I got the Chris Rock hair special and actually didn't just rent it I have the DVD I mean I did everything I needed to prepare for this it's a good one ain't it Autumn that's like one of the best movies ever I mean don't don't rent it and send Holly mean emails cuz there's a few little little exciting words that aren't in the Bible in that DVD but anyway it's great about kind of the sole microcosm of hair so I did everything I could to prepare but I was not prepared for some of the vitriol that has come our way and so I was really stunned when these guys threw coke cans and yelled expletives it went right over Missy's head she didn't even realize it was directed at the fact that I have straight hair and she has curly hair but then a couple of weeks later we were back on the bike in the same area on this country road Carter's Creek Pike south of Nashville and I saw in my rearview mirror the same truck and so I kind of tensed up because I thought uh oh we're out here on this country road it's just Missy and me in this motorcycle we're totally exposed and sure enough these guys in the blue truck up the ante and they pulled up right next to us I had slowed down considerably and they begin yelling really unkind things including the n-word and then the driver edged the truck into my lane and forced me off the road and it was scary we were fine we weren't hurt but it was really alarming and I thought you know what I've got to explain this to Missy now because it didn't go over her head this time so I went straight home and sat her down and I said hey baby I want to explain to you what just happened when those guys yelled such ugly things to us and forced us off the road and she was like Mama why did they do that and I said well baby some people have really little lives and they choose to surround themselves with people who are just like them and look like them and talk like them and think like them and I said sometimes their lives are so small that their hearts get small because their hearts don't have room to grow and I said sometimes people with really little hearts are really dangerous and I said so baby I want to talk to you about what we do when we're around people who have really little hearts like those guys in the truck I said do you know what we need to do and where I was gonna go is I was gonna talk about being alert I was gonna talk about just always kind of having your antenna up when you're in a place where you don't see a whole lot of faces that may look like your face how you just have to be aware not to be bitter or resentful but just to be aware and so I said do you know what we need to do baby and she goes oh yes ma'am we need to help them have bigger hearts and I was just like cuz that wasn't where I was going but once again it's like the Holy Spirit used my kid to go let me teach you something here Lisa and what he's been teaching me through the last few years through the conduit of my child are two truths that I think are where God has Elevation because y'all are growing up you know Ballantyne is three years a lot of y'all have been together for 15 years you got people who've been running hard toward Jesus for a long time and I feel like y'all are about to go into fifth gear you're maturing spiritually and here's the two truths that God is teaching me through Missy that I feel like are pertinent to all of us especially in light of where y'all have been this summer the first one is that being liked is not a prerequisite for being loving being liked being popular being accepted has nothing to do with sharing the love of Christ the second thing I feel like I'm learning is as apostles of Christ as ambassadors of the New Covenant as men and women who have been undone by His mercy it's incumbent upon us to love hard even when it's hard to love hard even when it's hard that we don't demand reciprocity from culture there's this misnomer I feel like an American evangelical circles nowadays that we have to have power and acceptance in order to really express the gospel and I'm like that's not biblically defensible nowhere in the Bible do you see that Christianity that our faith in Christ is dependent upon political power or being accepted actually usually it's contrary to that usually the gospel the people who share the gospel in Scripture our ancestors usually they were oppressed and it was that oppression and opposition that actually stirred their spiritual fervor they actually kind of rose to the occasion when culture oppressed them that's part of spiritual maturity it's loving hard when it's hard doesn't matter if your preferred political candidate is in office it doesn't matter if people like your Twitter feed it doesn't matter if people at your work think that you're really all that none of that matters what matters is while we were still sinners he lavished mercy and affection on us and we should be so undone by what sent us under the water that we can't help but share the gospel with people around us I was on a plane recently and I've got where I hate flying and I do it all the time and I was excited because it was a short flight so I knew that I wouldn't have to suffer for long and they had just announced the boarding door was closing and the only empty seat on the whole plane was between me and the guy next to me reading The Wall Street Journal I was like yes because I can't see it but I'm convinced there's a tattoo on my forehead that says if you are a very very large man with very very poor hygiene please sit next to me and please take my armrest as your own because it happens every time and so it's like score finally have a flight where I have a little room and I can stretch out right as they were closing the door this woman gets on the plane and so I look at her with kind of a Christian dirty look so it's like really come on man I thought I was gonna have the seat empty I don't have the gift of mercy like Holly but this woman comes on and she's just kind of smiling you can tell she's a talker from 50 feet and I don't talk on planes I mean I don't want to share the four spiritual laws I don't I want to read a deep theological journal like People magazine or the Pottery Barn catalog and I just want to have my space and so this woman gets into my space and she's real perky and I thought honey I'm a lot older than you and I am not gonna make eye contact because I've learned if you make eye contact on planes than that's just please let's have a conversation so I said nope not doing it I'm older than you and so I kind of nodded like an almost Christian would and then I turned my attention back to Brad and Angelina and then the flight attendant came through and started taking our drink orders and both of us at the same time ordered ginger ale I don't even like ginger ale but for whatever reason I always order ginger ale on planes because you know as a Bible teacher you can't get a margerita so I have to get ginger ale anyway this girl and I both get ginger ale and when we said ginger ale she went and I went and I was like oh crud I broke my rule we just bonded over ginger ale and the minute we made eye contact she went hey my name's Heather and I was like of course it is and so we started to talk mostly she talked and I just kind of nodded and I thought you know my quiet time alone with the Lord and people is ruined and then they made the announcement because it was a short flight that we're about to land in Atlanta and she got real serious when they said we were gonna be landing in a few minutes and she turned to me and she said Lisa may I ask you a personal question and I was like sure Heather you can absolutely ask me personal question she went do you know Jesus and I said I do I actually do know Jesus and y'all the look of disappointment that crossed her face was just so precious that I real quickly went but not very well not not very well and so she spent the whole rest of the flight witnessing to me and just encouraging me and the importance of getting in small group and prayer and spending time in God's Word and I was just like that sounds awesome and so we land in Atlanta and she said you know before we separate would you mind if I lay hands on you and pray and I was like no that'd be awesome and so we get off the plane and she stands in the gate area lays hands on me and prays a prayer that I really needed and she walked away never knowing that I was actually going to teach at a conference and was a Bible teacher and I thought you know she just couldn't help it she couldn't not share the hope that lies within her y'all if our we lostness would inform our love if we would remember what he saved us from we'd all be a little bit more like Heather we would be compelled to share the hope that lives within us even when it's hard even when it's awkward and that's what we see in Acts and y'all know this story this story happens immediately after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ y'all know that after he was resurrected he spent 40 days in his redeemed restored shouldn't say redeemed he didn't need to be redeemed but his restored body and here on earth before he ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father and in those 40 days he had 100 corroborated encounters with people and the very last encounter he has before he goes to mediate for us in glory is right here in Acts chapter 1 verse 6 it says so when they had come together these are this motley crew of Christians at this point they're number people theologians differ but it's somewhere around a hundred and ten very very small group at this point when they had come together they asked him they asked Jesus Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel and he said to him it's not for you to know the time or the seasons the father has fixed by his own authority interesting they're saying will it get easier is what they're saying they're saying will you assume an earthly throne so we don't have to be oppressed anymore because at this point we're sticking out like hot dog vendors at a vegan festival I mean everybody hates us our kids are being beaten up on the way home from school we're being murdered we're being marginalized and so at this point are you gonna occupy a literal throne so so the going gets a little bit easier for us and he says no it's not gonna get easier for you he says but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight Luke who wrote the Acts of the Apostles matter of fact he wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts together so they're like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back so if you are one of those saints who's in the habit of reading through the Bible in a year when you get to the end of Luke's Gospel vault over John come back for John later but go straight to the Acts of the Apostles because the literary symmetry there is just amazing he's a great storyteller but what he tells us now is there is this indicative statement from Jesus to his followers that they will receive power and there's no qualification here and the power comes from the speaker it is this really strong in the Greek imperative it actually means in the original phrase reality phraseology to grasp or to seize and again the initiative lies with the speaker not with a hearer what I'm trying to say is this is an irrevocable call doesn't matter if you're a healthy eight or a wobbly three with a carb addicted wing like me when you said Pastor Steven didn't eat buns I was like I got his buns right here I mean goly that sounded terrible I meant I will eat the bread he doesn't eat Lord have mercy Holly that was awful that's not what I meant obviously this is not scripted I hope you did not pay much for your ticket this morning anyway I don't think Jesus would have called himself the bread of life if we were supposed to be all paleo and stuff that's what I was trying to say but this call he gives his followers you will receive power you will be my witnesses it wasn't dependent on personality type didn't depend on what you were on enneagram whether you're an extrovert or an introvert it didn't depend on your past we will get into more of that in a minute it's irrevocable if you've put your hope in Jesus whether your parents are Pentecostal and you're comfortable jumping pews or this is your first time in a gathering of faith or you're an eFam in a bar because you're just not so sure about these crazy Christians if you put your hope in Jesus you will receive power and you will share the hope that lies within you it's an irrevocable call of course we mature in boldness in the way we share the gospel but if you put your hope in Jesus at some point there's a little Heather in you at some point you can't not share the hope that's within you what we see in the book of Acts is they share it even when it's hard they're not just on a plane next to a grumpy frequent flyer who isn't very friendly initially they're actually being murdered and martyred for their audacious claim that Jesus actually connects them with Jehovah but it's not based on keeping 613 Torah laws it's actually based on recognizing your neediness that you can't keep the law that you can't make it by yourself that you are desperate for a Savior and for preaching that they're getting killed flip over to acts 8 because one of the most gruesome martyrdoms that's actually spelled out in the book of Acts is Stephens death I don't know if Steven's parents named him after this Stephen but if they did it would have been a good naming Stephen was stoned to death for telling his Jewish friends y'all it's about Jesus it's not about the law he loves you so much that he came and he laid his life down for you and for that sermon a mob rallied around Stephen with stones and they literally not figuratively literally stoned him to death in front of his friends and family big rocks landscape kind of rocks and they threw them at Stephen until he died of physical death I mean gruesome kind of death and the guy who supervised this murder is the guy who goes on to after he encounters Christ to write 2/3 of the New Testament it's one of the reasons I tell you your past does not dictate your future your past doesn't even limit how God is gonna use you because at the very beginning of Acts Pete is the one who preached the first two evangelical sermons wherein 8,000 people got saved this was less than two months after Pete through Jesus under the bus and vehemently and vulgarly denied that he even knew the Christ y'all may know him as Peter but I like to call him Pete because I know him Peter who by all human accounts had completely completely sabotaged his own future as a spiritual leader Pete is the one that Jesus said I now am gonna call you a rock and I'm going to placed the New Testament church on your frail shoulders Paul who right here is approving the execution of Stephen this is before God blinds him on the road to Costco it says and Saul because that was his BC name and Saul approved of his execution Acts chapter 8 verse 1 and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles devout men buried Stephen and made a great lamentation over him but Saul was ravaging original word there in the greek which is what the New Testament was written in initially Greek and Aramaic that word ravaging means to destroy with an intent to kill so again this wasn't they're not dismissing him on Twitter I mean this isn't well they were mean to me and they blocked my call that's not what this is this is they are intent to destroy me and my family that's what's happening in 1st century Judea that area in Israel but Paul was ravaging trying to kill the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now humanly speaking what even therapists would probably tell us would be wise at this point to do is to kind of tone it down a notch you know when they turn the heat up it's best to just kind of kind of back up a step or two like don't be so vocal don't be so loud just kind of go on the down low a little while you know don't keep any receipts or anything but just be real careful I did that for all of you under 40 I'm real proud I know the word receipt obviously it went over like the two guys in rapper gear but anyway humanly speaking it would have made sense for these early Christians who are being marginalized and murdered to just back the bus up until the environment was a little more open to evangelism and y'all that is the exact opposite of what they did they didn't mute the miracle they couldn't not share the hope of the gospel and they shared it in really tough places because after Stephen was murdered Phillip one of his best friends goes to Samaria he doesn't go to an easy place he doesn't go to you know outskirts to Charlotte and stay in a really nice hotel and get a massage and have a steak before he shares the guys he goes to enemy territory and shares the gospel it says the gospel they're so undone by this story that God loves us so much that he sent His only begotten Son then it says many got saved and says there was much joy in that city verse 8 now if I was Philip and I had been that faithful I would feel like I have earned myself a Frappuccino and you know a spa visit mani-pedi I've earned something because I was really faithful when the going got tough he doesn't stop there he actually turns up the heat of his own testimony because he goes from sharing in Samaria what he does next y'all is just shocking if you understand the context of this second half of the first century culture it says in verse 26 of chapter 8 now an angel of the Lord said to Philip rise and go toward the south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza this is a desert place and he rose and went and there was an Ethiopian a eunuch a court official of Candace queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure he had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot and he was reading the prophet Isaiah and the Spirit the Paraclete said to Philip go over and join this chariot now if you read between the lines of those verses the angel tells Philip I want you to go in the middle of the day phraseology there at the beginning of verse 26 says I want you to go in the heat of the day I want you to go at the most uncomfortable time of day I told y'all we were just in Israel if you've ever been to the Middle East in the middle of the day that's like when your Spanx stick to your body gentlemen you don't need to know what Spanx are what you do need to know is when we take them off it's dangerous because it's like putting a butter knife to biscuit can so y'all need to be careful if your wife's wearing Spanx you need to give her some privacy when she's peeling those puppies off but anyway it's a super uncomfortable time of day and he says I want you to go at the most uncomfortable time of day then I want you to take the route that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza we just did this on the tour bus it's like not even a secondary route it's a tertiary route and our culture it would be a dirt road kind of tumbleweed strung kind of place weird place to scatter divine seed so he says I want you to go in the heat of the day I want you to take an uncomfortable route and I want you to go to a eunuch now I don't know how many of you have been studying Deuteronomy 23 much in your quiet times but in Deuteronomy 23 in the ceremonial law Jews were taught that a eunuch a man who was born without all of his equipment that eunuchs were not allowed to fully participate in worship now what was common in this culture is that little boys from poor families would actually be castrated and wealthy families would then hire these little boys because they assumed if a male was made a eunuch by surgical options that it would make them more submissive that's what we do nowadays sometimes to cows it makes them a little easier to tame it's I won't get into that for PETA but anyway I can't imagine as a little boy having that happen to you and that's likely what happened to this eunuch and because of what had been done to this man he's not allowed to come to church not allowed to worship according the ceremonial law so Philip who's seen his best friend gets stoned goes to the Samaritans the arch enemies of God and pulls a Heather shares the hope that lies within him and then he gets saved and he doesn't stop there he goes at a really uncomfortable time down a really uncomfortable road to a man that everybody else has marginalized and ostracized and ignored and you know how he goes this slays me Spirit of God says will you go and he's like good night God I mean I've been really faithful already and this is really hard I need to go back to my eGroup and I need to like have some margins because I am three and I work too hard that's not how he responds instead when the Spirit of God says I want you to go at a really uncomfortable time down a really difficult road to a man nobody else will even acknowledge exists you know how he responds he runs and he ran and he ran I just want you to think about your own life and just look over this summer so let's just say from Memorial Day to now when have you figuratively run toward somebody in your life to share the gospel and I mean anybody could be somebody you like could be somebody you really enjoy being around when's the last time that your heart was so excited about sharing the hope that lies within you that you ran to someone to share Jesus to talk about Jesus to say I just can't not tell you about the way he saved me now let's take it a step further when's the last time you ran to someone nobody else was running to you when's the last time you ran to somebody who was marginalized stigmatized somebody who does not at all agree with you politically I'm in Seminary in Denver and I'm the dumbest person in the doctoral program but there's a few things I'm able to hang on to and one of them is what one of my professors said recently I told Holly last night it's just filleted me this season he says things I can't understand brilliant man he's on the translatory team for the NIV fluent in Greek and Hebrew but he dumbs things down enough to where I can get it and he said this if it doesn't preach in Sudan it shouldn't preach in America and I just went wow if it doesn't preach in Sudan it shouldn't preach in Charlotte if it doesn't preach in the neighborhood you're not comfortable to it shouldn't preach in yours when's the last time you ran to somebody who doesn't think like you doesn't look like you maybe doesn't even like you Philip ran y'all if we're growing in maturity growing in our awareness of what a miracle it is that God who breathed the universe into existence actually delights in us Song of Solomon 4:9 says with one glance one glance of your eyes you captured my heart you know I didn't believe that for years I grew up really really broken broken family a lot of abuse when I was a baby I used to rock myself so hard back and forth in the crib that my crib would jump out of the caster's and there were dents in the drywall on either side of the little room I was kept in a therapist told me years later Lisa you know that wasn't just because you were a wiggly kid it's because you were self nurturing with all the chaos after my dad left us there was a lot of sexual abuse after that there was more sexual abuse I was so stinkin broken in my 20s and 30s I knew Jesus I'd come to Jesus in a church much like Elevation I knew Jesus but here's what I thought I thought Jesus delivered me because he felt sorry for me I didn't think he delighted in me I thought there's no stinking way a God like that could actually delight in a damaged girl like me as God has lifted the layers of shame off me and I've become more and more understanding of my own lostness before I encountered the Christ I can't help but share love to other people it doesn't matter if they like me or not it doesn't matter if they're Republican or a Democrat or black or yellow or purple or spotted or southern or northern or African or Haitian they're my family they're my brothers and sisters every single person we relate with bears the image of God Missy and I had the privilege of going to South Africa two months ago and when we went we were going with Hillsong Church that love very much I know y'all love Hillsong and we were going to a conference in Cape Town and I asked the people I was with if I could go to Guguletu and Guguletu is a Township that is on the outskirts of Cape Town it actually was formed by South Africans who are from rural tribes who came to work in Cape Town and they wouldn't let them live in Cape Town because of their skin color so they ostracized them to this little two and a half square mile area that became a township of Guguletu and a lot a lot a lot of violence happen there during the regime of apartheid when they segregated people based on how much melanin they have in their skin and I love the Ministry of Nelson Mandela and I'd read a lot about the history of South Africa I'd read about how in 1986 seven young men from Guguletu who are anti-apartheid activists were murdered by Cape Town police ambushed and murdered and then not long after that right in all the turmoil after apartheid was defeated a young white woman named Amy Biehl from Stanford an American woman was in Guguletu and she was murdered and white slurs were uttered by the mob when four boys murdered her they pardoned the policemen who killed those seven precious boys in Guguletu which we still see things like that happening now and so you know what Amy Biehl's family chose to do to the four youths in Guguletu who had killed their daughter they pardoned them and now two of those they had been boys now they're men they work for the non-profit that Amy Biehl's parents started in her memory and so I said I just want to go there I want to go be in a place where there's been such violence but yet the hope of restoration and they were like Lisa are you sure and I said no no no I want to I want to go to Gug's I really want to go to Gug's and so we got to worship at Hillsong has a church they planted in Guguletu its 98.6% black African and considered the 15th most violent place in the world really wonderful very exciting place and I went with Missy and I had the privilege of sharing the gospel in church that morning about a hundred hundred and fifty people and there was one woman I could tell the entire service who was not pleased with me and I thought I'm not sure but I've said it may just be the virtue the fact that I don't have enough melanin in my skin but I thought I might want to talk to her after service and I'm just gonna try to get to know her so after service I went and sat next to this beautiful woman and I said hi my name is Lisa and she said yes I know and I said your countenance reflects that you're I've either done something that offended you or there is animosity between you and me and she said I just can't figure out why you're here just can't figure out why you would come here and I said well that's my daughter right there I said she's Haitian which means her DNA is from West Africa so the way I figure it is you're family to me and then I said hey Missy come here baby now if y'all exploit my kid I'll cut you but I can exploit her on behalf of the gospel and so I said come here baby and I said Missy this is your auntie and Missy goes okay and she hugs this woman and then immediately said do you have gum in your purse auntie and as my child ran away this woman just began to weep and she said I've never had somebody like you embrace somebody like y'all isn't it time we change the way Christians are perceived isn't it time we love hard even when it's hard isn't it time we run to the unlikely and the marginalized aren't you ready to risk a little more because we just can't not share the hope that lies within us would you put your hand as JJ comes up would you just put your hand on that beautiful image bearer next to you that man that woman that kid and as JJ comes up to close us would you pray for them if you aren't comfortable praying out loud that's totally cool but would you just briefly pray Lord quicken their heart give them the grace it takes to love hard even when it is hard to remember their own lostness to remember the love you lavished on them while they were still sinners Oh Lord let there be an awakening in this place a quickening in this place a revival that starts with all of us because we run to the people that God has placed around us to share the hope that lies within us thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube channel but don't stop here join the eFam our online extended family and join us live every Sunday subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this with a friend you can also support the ministry by clicking the give Now button to help us continue to reach people around the world for Jesus Christ thank you again for watching God bless you

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 478,828

Rating: 4.8992205 out of 5

Keywords: elevation church, elevaiton church lisa harper, lisa harper, elevation church love hard even when it is hard, lisa harper love hard even when it is hard, elevation church lisa harper love hard even when it is hard, love hard even when it is hard, love hard, spiritual growth, lisa harper sermons 2019, elevation church sermons, elevation church sermons 2019, 2019 sermons, spiritual growth sermons

Id: FJhVbZKJ64w

Length: 43min 15sec (2595 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2019