Hi. This is Dave Olson.
I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.
I hope the following message, challenges and courage's and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
I know there's some people have wondered why?
Why did you why did you paint the background black?
Why, you know different people have different tastes and so
forth. Well one of the reasons we
invested the money in this was that our live broadcast really
had a hard time catching the the speakers on the on the stage and
so there's a lot of busyness behind us.
It wasn't as bad live but on the broadcast it was it was very
busy. And and then the lighting if you
noticed that there I would step into places and I would
disappear whoever was up here and that's not good if you're
having trying to do a live broadcast for people to
disappear while they're speaking.
And so also the new lighting also captures the color very
well on on broadcast because we really do feel like in the
coming days online church and and frankly satellite locations.
Where we just pipe in video is going to be what God's going to
have us doing. Believe in the coming days that
there's I believe there's no more crisis on the horizon.
I'm a good news preacher, but I'm telling you, I believe that
there's going to be some challenging times ahead and I
believe that hard times for the world provide opportunities for
the church and we want to be prepared.
We want to seize those opportunities and so we want to
get the word out. So we're preparing for that with
the setting, but there's also another dimension to that and
that is the whole idea of creativity.
Creativity is an expression of the nature of God, it really is.
I was thinking about this story so I looked it up this morning.
I had heard this sometime back and I said about a thousand
years ago, Prince Vladimir the Great.
He was known as he was a pagan Monarch in Kiev had decided that
he needed to find a one religion to unify the Russian people.
And so he sent these delegations all over the world.
Looking for the The religion that would unify the people of
Russia and they, they went to their then known world and they
found, you know, they investigated a number of
religions. They found some that were very
mystical, they found some that were very authoritative, and
exercise, great power and fear in the people, there were some
that were very logical religions, but there was a
delegation that came back from the Byzantine capital of count
Constantinople and they came back with this report.
They said the beauty of Christianity gripped us.
They said, they took us to the places they worship and the
philosophy and the, the the worship of Christianity was what
gripped them so much. So that they said, when they
took us to where they worship, we can never forget the beauty
of that place and what was going on there.
They said we understood that God dwells among men.
The interesting thing was that that became the open door for
Christianity and to Russia, Vladimir the Great said than
Christianity is going to be our religion.
And for many centuries, Christianity was in Russia was a
stronghold. Russia was a stronghold for
Christianity. And we know in recent days there
has been tremendous Revival that has swept Russia and Kiev in
particular even Bill buyers that will be coming next week.
He's Add some powerful Ministry in Russia and especially in
Kiev, he's got some tremendous stories of God visiting that
Nation, but I find it interesting that the open door,
What attracted them was not the ethics, not apologetics, but the
Aesthetics of Christianity, the beauty of Christianity.
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't often think from that
perspective, about the beauty of Christianity, I came to Jesus
through Through another route, I came to Jesus through some great
desperation from a broken life. But there is something about the
beauty of Christianity, that is alluring.
And God is the great Creator. A matter of fact, the whole, the
whole witness of scripture starts with this little phrase
in the beginning, God created one of the expressions of God's
nature is God Is Creative. And one of the expressions of
his nature in US is that we're to be creative every one of us
in different ways. But every one of us have gifts
and those gifts are to be Expressions Avenues through
which the nature and character of God are communicated to
mankind. We need to understand that
because some of us allow our gifts to kind of be laid aside
because they don't necessarily match the gifts that we usually
think of, when we think of Christianity but God will often
operate through creativity. Matter of fact, I want to say it
was c.s. Lewis.
He had this phrase, he said truth and God is too vast to be
summed up in mere words. That's why he gives us symbols.
Well, that's really interesting. That the truth of God Is So
vast, it can't be reduced to Mere words.
But, in fact, I would propose to you.
That's why part of the way that God communicates with us, is
through the narrative passages of scripture, through the
gospels through acts, through much of the Old Testament, their
story form and much of Jesus teaching was not over didactic
teaching didactic is at the idea of setting someone down and
teaching them truth overtly line upon line precept upon precept,
principle on principle rather Jesus would teach through Ooh
story form because often story will bypass the the defenses of
what we already believe in capture our heart.
And so story form is one of the most powerful ways in which
people can learn. That's why, you know, writing
fiction that is rooted in reality, is a powerful way to
communicate truth. That's why movies are very
powerful, our family with the last couple Christmases.
We've had this tradition, we watch this wonderful Christmas
Trilogy called The Lord of the Rings.
And man has a guy love that, that movie.
I mean, there is so many allegories for Christianity.
In that my poor family. I got to stir, they'll say Dad,
we know be quiet, be quiet. I'll see you there, boy.
That reminds me of this. Yeah, I know, Dad, just be
quiet. But there's so much Rich
allegory written by a Christian man.
And he wrote that as a not, as not as accurate and are not as
evident in allegory of c.s. Lewis's books, many of his, you
know, The Chronicles of Narnia. Now, c.s.
Lewis and the writer of The Lord of the Rings were were Pals.
They would sit around and discuss Theology and discuss
their literary Pursuits, but both of them were able to
communicate great truth through story form.
Now, there is, there are streams of Christianity.
That will tell you that you shouldn't get your Doctrine from
the Tired of passages. They'll tell you, you shouldn't,
you shouldn't drive, your God, your Doctrine from the gospels
or from the book of Acts, you need to derive your Doctrine
from The Narrative. I mean, from the deductive
passages you know the Epistles and that's the only safe place
to really derive your Doctrine. Often, those individuals are
cessationists, it's cessation is streams that will tell you that.
The problem is they divorce themselves from some very
insightful truth. And one of the ironic things is,
the didactic passages themselves tell, you all scripture is
inspired and profitable For What doctrine including the narrative
passages. So the very past, the very ones
that they tell you, you should isolate your Doctrine to tell
you that you can also go to the others to learn Doctrine.
And so that the experience of these men and women of God in
written form, our provide us, tremendous insight into the ways
of God. If you not noticed.
I've been visiting a kind of hitting on this a number of
times lately, but this whole thing is really gripped.
Me, as of late, how God wants us to know his ways.
Not just his Works. He doesn't want us just to stand
and observe what he did in history, but he wants us to
understand the, why behind the what God wants to bring us into
his counsel. He wants us to understand his
ways so that we can intercept him.
When we understand his ways, we can cooperate with his ways.
If all we understand it is works, we just sat stand and
watch him work, but we can't participate.
But when we understand his ways, we can step into them and we can
partner with heaven. And one of the ways in which we
do that is reading the narrative passages.
The Narrative passages reveal how God interacts with men and
how men who moved the heart of God interacted with God, and we
can find some valuable truth, so that we can do the same.
That we can be people who move the heart of God, and we can
step in the way of God and be used by God.
And so it's very, very important.
But those narrative passages are they?
There's some creativity to those because there's a lot of
allegory, there's a lot of symbolism.
And again I said this a number of weeks ago that there are
there's the overt primary interpretation of a passage,
like the narrative passages, the gospels, the primary message of
the gospels is that that was a historical event that happened
and we can build our life on that historical event.
And, but underneath the historical event are principles
that we can pull out of there. And underneath those principles
are allegories that we can build those principles on.
Now, we should never have an allegory that doesn't line up
with the overt teaching of scripture.
Every time we pull out a symbolic allegorical, meaning
out of a passage, it needs to be tied and anchored to other
passages so that we make sure we're staying on track.
But God, hides himself in these ancient stories and allegorical
symbolic form. And it's beautiful to see.
Matter of fact, the early church fathers, some of them were very,
very big on the typology of scripture And so we look at some
of these Old Testament passages and we miss much of what God is
wanting to tell us if we don't understand that.
God speaks through narrative and allegories God is very creative
and God wants to work through us.
One of the you can put it this way.
Creation is God's art and art is our creation.
But art comes in many different forms.
There's different ways in which God wants to express himself
through you. And this pulls us right into the
hole. So the New Testament subject of
spiritual gifting. I find it fascinating that the
Apostle Paul was the one who received the revelation of the
body of Christ and spiritual gifts, Peter mentioned spiritual
gifts one time, but after that, there are no other New Testament
authors that Speak of spiritual giftings, the way that Paul does
Paul began to observe the body of Christ.
And he recognized that there were certain people with certain
spiritual abilities. And by the spirit of God, the
Lord began to show him that there are categories of
giftings. It's not just that the random
gifts but there's categories of giftings that tend to show up
again and again and again, and Paul begin to categorize these
under the leading of the spirit and he began to name the what
those It's were and so we have these three different categories
of spiritual gifts. There's the gifts from the
father in Romans 12, the gifts from the spirit, and First
Corinthians 12, and the gifts from the Sun, and he fission is
chapter 4. But Paul recognized that, these,
there were patterns of behavior and giftings and Grace, that
would manifest through people's lives.
And so, if we study the word, we can begin to recognize those
patterns in our lives. And those those gifts are
Avenues through which Grace from God, comes through us, and
touches other people, spiritual gifts.
My spiritual gifts are not for me there for you.
Your spiritual gifts are not for you.
They're for me. And so I receive a gift of grace
through your life and you receive a gift of grace through
my life, and that's what makes us the body of Christ.
That's why when Paul speaks of the body, the the context is
always spiritual gifts. And whenever he talks is
spiritual gifts, the context is the body, they're one in the
same context because what, assigns, you your role in the
body of Christ. Is your gifting.
We're not a bucket of Knuckles. We're not all one.
One type of member of the body. We Have different gifts and when
we bring them together, we get the whole picture.
We are the body of Christ. And so there are different
elements of God's character that he wants to express through us
through the grace gifts upon us. For instance, the the gift of
hospitality, that is a spiritual gift, you know, that get the
gift of hospitality. A matter of fact, scripture says
that an elder must be hospitable. you must be
exercising that Mark of maturity in your life if you're going to
be an elder, And that Holt the whole idea behind Hospitality of
the Greek word that we translate hospitality is a compound word.
It's Philo where we get the word, you know the Philadelphia
the City of Brotherly Love. It's a type of love, it's
brotherly affection, warm affection.
The other word is Nexia where it's the root word of when
people have a fear of strangers. The word of come to me about the
time I lay down in my recliner back home today.
But anyway, it's it literally means the love of strangers.
It's exactly the opposite of racism.
It's exactly the opposite of alienating, the alien of putting
people at arm's length, it's this thing that opens up the
door and draws people in And so it's trying to make the outsider
family. That's what Hospitality
literally means in the Greek and that is the mark of a mature
individual, or an elder in the body of Christ that we have
eyes, that were always looking, is there an outsider here?
And we want them to feel at least momentarily while they're
in this house that they are family that they belong to us.
And really that gift in and of itself is the summation of the
gospel because God is always looking to make orphans sons and
daughters and it begins with you.
And I expressing the gift of hospitality releasing that Grace
from our through our life, that they feel welcomed those few
moments when they're around us. So this thing of of hospitality
is very, very important and it's a mark of the, the nature and
the character of God. And if a church, if a group of
people are not hospitable than there's something of the nature
and character of God that is sorely.
Missing they are misrepresenting God And so this whole thing, the
gift of hospitality is a way that God can take that facet of
his nature and express it through us.
And so it's a way for you and I to be creative.
My wife is has got a gift of hospitality.
I'm telling you. We've got our storage room is
full of different decorations. I'm going to be very busy, the
next few days has we're going to pack up Christmas.
I don't know what she's decorating for next but she she
is a master at it and I mean our home, it's got the Garland
hanging everywhere and the big ribbons and it's beautiful.
I came, I was walking through the living room this morning,
With my cup of coffee, I looked at on the Hearth of the the
fireplace. And there was this Garland into
these little twinkly lights and all that, that's beautiful.
But she loves to do that, because we have family in and it
makes them feel welcome. They love the beauty of it and
that is an expression of God's nature.
When I became the pastor, the shit.
Well, matter of fact, before I came to pastors Church, Kathy.
And I attended Heartland for, I want to say, six, seven years
before we became the pastor's 20 years ago.
And so we were, we were working with Teen Challenge.
And we were a part of another church in the region and helping
out there, and Pastor Callaway. My predecessor had reached out
and asked, if we'd come and help.
And so I was going to, no, matter of fact, he had resigned
by this time is what it was. He had resigned, and he had
pulled me aside and said, Guy to follow me.
And I thought man, I've got 14 years in Teen Challenge.
I've got a lot invested in this, I need to hear from God, and so,
I set told my boss, I said I'm going to go away and fast for
three days and I was going to ask the Lord about this and I'd
committed to a three day fast. Well, after the first day
already have my answer, I was so bummed because I thought I
already committed to two more days.
So, but as I'm praying about it, the Lord spoke to me very
clearly. And this is what he told me.
He said, he said, it needs to be, I know this sounds very
Unspiritual at first hearing too many of us because of the way we
think of spirituality but he told me it needs to be clean,
uncluttered and classy, that's what he said.
That we want a spirit of Excellence that is expressed to
the through this house because God is a god of excellence and
he does everything decently and in order and there's Beauty.
And what God does Steve Jobs was the guy who invented the iPhone
and one of the things he did as he merged functionality with
beauty. They say that a lot of people
still have the old boxes from their iPhones and their iPads
because they can't bring themselves to throw it away.
The, the packaging is so beautiful.
They think I'll use it somehow and they've got these old boxes.
How many of you have a box of an old?
I see. Look at it.
Steve Jobs merged function and beauty.
Well, what Steve was doing was what God already did Francis
Schaeffer, the great Theologian and philosopher.
He's gone to be with the Lord but he was a brilliant thinker
and he pointed out how airplanes functional airplanes are
beautiful. He said you can't create an ugly
plane that will fly. Now you could paint it to look
ugly but the fact is the symmetry of that plane in order
for it to be able to match the laws of aerodynamics.
Dynamics it in and of itself is beautiful.
Because in nature functionality and Beauty, go hand-in-hand, And
when things no longer function, they become ugly.
I was thinking about this very thing as we're watching that
great Christmas Trilogy, Lord, of the Rings.
I mean, some of those enemies. They're ugly.
There was watching us last night and my daughter Eliza says she
was talking about one of these. These enemy beings.
She said, his head looks like cauliflower, it really does.
I mean these ugly horrendous beings?
Well, why did they create them that way?
Because they understood evil defiles, and it makes things
ugly and righteousness makes things.
Beautiful. So much so that the scriptures
speak of the beauty of holiness. Holiness makes things.
Beautiful it redeems. It brings it into its original
condition, its original purpose, It's part of God's design.
And if we're to be the people of God, we cooperate with that in
different ways. God will bring Beauty through
our lives. Some people, it's through the
beauty of music. But music was God's design.
It's not a mistake that the enemy Satan himself was the
worship leader of heaven and he has harnessed music for great
evil but music can also bring great good.
Every one of us have experienced where a song comes on and all
said, and the spirit of God inhabits that song we feel the
presence of the Lord. But that Dynamic is not isolated
to music. God will come through different
ways, different forms of creativity that God will visit
us, and express himself to us. And so, creativity is a mark of
the nature of God. There's a reason that human
beings are creative because we are made in His image.
The first time in scripture want to say it's Exodus chapter 31,
matter of fact. Let's look there.
The first time in scripture, the Bible ever talks about the
spirit of God being upon someone.
Is in regards to an artisan. It's in regards to an artist a
Craftsman, the spirit of God being upon that to me.
That's fascinating, that's in the book of Exodus.
Now, we already had, we've already seen Enoch who was went
to be with the Lord without dying?
We already have Abraham. We already have Joseph.
We already have all these different characters in The the
Book of Genesis. But it's not to we get to Exodus
and God is going to erect a place for his habitation.
Do we hear him use the phrase? I have put my spirit Upon him.
Here it is verse 1 of Exodus. 31.
The Lord said to Moses CI of called, by name bezalel, the son
of URI, the son of Earth of the tribe of Judah, and I have
filled him with the spirit of God.
First time that phrase that that description is made in the
scriptures. And what is he filled him with
the spirit of God, for, with ability, and intelligence and
knowledge and all craftsmanship? He Anointed to be creative.
I think more of us need to get a grid work for that.
We need to get a grid work for being anointed, the spirit of
God being upon us with all intelligence, You should Stand
Out Among all the other people at your job, because the spirit
of the Lord dwells within you. You are the person with the
answers for that company. We see this throughout
scripture. Joseph gets thrown in prison.
Next thing, you know, he's running the prison.
Why? Because the spirit of God was
with him. You see it again and again that
a man's gift will make a room for him and bring him before.
Great Men proverb says But we need to cooperate with that
gift. And we must not Reserve gifts to
what I'm doing or what the worship team did.
This morning there is spiritual gifting to communicate through
words. The teaching of the word, there
are spiritual gifts to lead people in worship, but it goes
far beyond that. There's there's the spiritual
gifts for Council to be the answer to to be that person of
hospitality that makes People feel wanted whenever they come
around you, and that is part of the anointing.
And so, we see this with bezalel.
So he says, I have filled him with the spirit of God.
And with the ability, and intelligence and knowledge, and
all craftsmanship, why to devise artistic designs to work in
gold, silver, and bronze, and cutting of stones for setting
and carving wood into work in every craft and behold.
I have appointed with him a holy herb.
The Son of a Hisham ack of the tribe of Dan and I have given to
all able men. The ability that they may make.
All I have commanded of you. So God said, I commanded you to
make something and now I've gifted men and women to pull it
off. And if you read through this,
passage, what what God is, speaking to Moses about is a
beautiful place to worship and God even dead are designated how
they were to make the incense so that the smells would be
inviting to people as they come in that they would they would
encounter these smells within the temple and those smells will
reserved for temple. Use and God knew that people
would want to replicate them because of the It was a certain
recipe for that fragrance and he said it is, it is dedicated to
the Lord. People can't use this recipe in
anything else other than worship of me.
And if they do they need to be separated from the people of
God. They're going to be kicked out
of the church, so to speak. To me that's that's fascinating
that God, cared about the smell the fragrance, the carvings the
colors, the weavings, all of that was to enhance the worship
of him. Now, all of us know that you can
get so caught up in the trappings and lose the Lord in
the midst of it. It was sometime back, we were in
a in a meeting. I don't even remember the
setting, but I remembered a story.
I'd heard many, many years ago. And it was of a Russian prince.
Not the same one that I spoke of earlier.
But it was a Russian prince that was born and and that the royal
couple had longed for an air and had tried to get pregnant tried
to get pregnant. Finally, she conceived a child
in this little baby was born. And so they were going to have a
big celebration because this would The heir to the throne
this newborn baby and so they invited a lot of the aristocracy
to come to the capital to the palace and they were going to
celebrate the life of this child and and it was very cold, of
course, it was rush. It was that time of year and so
they were all putting their big fur coats in this one room and
they were just celebrating. And finally, someone said, well,
where is the baby? Can we find it?
And lo and behold the baby had been buried underneath?
The Furs and was killed. And in the all the celebration,
the baby was lost underneath the celebration.
It's a vivid reminder that that can happen in churches.
We can go get so into having the coolest song and the most
creative way to speak a sermon that we lose Jesus and it all
And we've always got to be careful of that.
Jesus has to be the center, but the fact is that Jesus wants to
be worshipped in every way possible.
I appreciate John coming up here and times he will, he will paint
or draw. Well, we worship and that is a
form of worship. And he's, he's capturing the
heart of God in a picture. I've known of people to get
healed looking at pictures God will come through the at the,
the Avenue of our creativity, and we've got to be careful that
we don't lose the Christ child underneath the trappings of our
celebration, but the fact remains that in scripture, God,
dictated to Moses, he wanted to be worshipped in beauty beauty,
that would Hanson enhances worship.
And we want to be a church that cultivates people expressing who
God is through the grace on their life.
Whether it's an ability to sing an ability to draw, you know,
Brad Strickland built some stuff for us.
I think some of these trees. He's using his gifts to build
things and all of that is worship.
We've got to come against the lie that says there's the sacred
and then there's the secular as if we divide life into two
forms. Well, we do our our sacred thing
on Sunday and we might even come on Wednesday night and do a
little sacred stuff, but the rest of the week is dedicated to
the secular the, you know, Make a check.
So we can spend a check so we can make a check.
So we can spend a check and then we die. all of life is sacred,
all of life is his Faith this morning when you got up here and
how you transition, it was exactly what I was feeling.
I felt like Jesus wanted to claim his Dominion of fresh this
morning over our lives. When we sing that song, yours is
the kingdom. It's not talking about some far
off, Place known as the kingdom of God.
When the scriptures talk about Kingdom, the Greek word is bass
Alia, and it literally means his right.
To rule, it's not a place. It's not a realm, it's his rule.
It's his legal right to exert his authority.
And when we cry that out, were declaring his right to rule over
our life. It's an expression of our
surrender to him. Yours is the kingdom, and he
wants to lay claim to every facet of our life.
There are areas of creativity that some of you have yet to
surrender, to Jesus. Not out of, not out of
unwillingness be, but out of a lack of value, for what God has
placed within you. There are ways that God can flow
through you, through your creativity, and your abilities
that you need to recognize. I don't know why, but Heartland
has attracted a lot of chiropractors, as of late, the
last few years, we got a lot of chiropractors.
I'm telling you the grace of God and healing can flow through the
hands of a chiropractor and the hands of a masseuse.
Do you feel the glory? When I said that?
Hallelujah, a good massage, Hallelujah.
But there's that that's just one expression.
God, God can flow through us. And we need to understand that
if you're gifting your ability is not public speaking or public
singing that doesn't leave you outside the camp as a spectator.
A mere Pew potato get it Tater spectator few potato anyway.
It doesn't it doesn't have a hook won't dad jokes from the
pulpit it doesn't it doesn't leave.
A view on the outside merely watching what's going on.
Every one of us have gifts in our life that God put within us,
and he wants to express himself through us.
And he wants to give you creative ideas.
To do things in new ways and express him and and fresh
perspectives that people haven't seen before.
And it's part of the nature of God to be creative and he has
put that within us, you know, children are very, very creative
from birth. There are ways that they measure
creativity and a child as opposed to, you know, more of
the the the logic versus the more intuitive creativity and
they find that little children are very creative but they begin
to lose that as they. Begin to move up through the
ranks of our educational system. I personally don't believe
that's because they were intended to lose that and that
there's some more creative people out there and some are
less creative. I believe that our educational
system has a tendency to kind of work that out of people and
there's some stubborn people. Some free thinkers that tend to
hold to their creativity and spite of it, refer to Faith
here. Again, this morning I've always
been so intrigued by her and her sisters, her mom and dad raised
them and Such a unique way and they're all very creative.
They really are and expresses itself through their Hospitality
as well as the way that they operate in music and a lot of
other ways. I believe one of the reasons
they were able to retain that is because of the way they were
educated. And we want to maintain that in
our children. Those those of you that are
homeschoolers, make sure that you continue to cultivate the
creativity in your children because that is an expression of
the nature of God. And it doesn't matter if they
have artistic ability and than the narrow sense in which we
usually think that's that God will reveal himself through
their creativity. In other ways, they may be the
creative person that finds new ways to do Computing or new ways
to build Bridges. Has or whatever.
But we want to pull on heaven and allow his grace to flow
through our lives. I'm telling you this stuff is
important because what happens when we don't have a vision for
this, then we don't bring the kingdom to the decision-making
table. We're limited to our own
understanding and our own intellect and we keep our
Christian stuff for church. We expect God to show up in
worship, through spiritual gifts in worship time, but we don't
expect him to show up through spiritual gifts in the boardroom
where we have a word of knowledge or a Word of Wisdom
that we can become the answer to the problem, and God can push us
to the Forefront, so that we can serve.
Well, And so I'm telling you creativity.
Is an expression of the nature of God.
In the beginning God created and what he created were, other
creators. That, that is part of our
nature. And if we ignore that, if we
stifle that, we literally stifle part of the character of the
nature of God. The church should be the one
with the answers and we should be the one that a writing the
best stories. See, writing the best songs and
let me just say it not. Every story has to be overtly
Christian to come from God anymore than every song has to
be overtly about Jesus to communicate truth.
Because an allegory comes in and gets around your defenses.
By speaking, about truth, and an emotional way that can grip your
heart. And you find we've all
experienced the negative side, the evil side of that, maybe
you're more holy than me. But there have been times where
I've watched a movie, and I find myself rooting for something
that I would never condone. And I catch myself thinking, I
need to turn a channel. I just endorse that behavior.
Especially being a guy, kill him, kill him, you know, it's
like I'd kill that guy who ho ho that's not me.
It's that spirit of God because I was taken in by a story, The
Power of story, The Power of creativity, the power of symbols
in the power of typology and and narratives.
And all of that is a way that God wants to come in and speak
to his people. And so we want to be a people of
Excellence. We want to be a people of
creativity, we want to pave the way for this next Generation to
be more creative. And so you may think well the
stage I don't know if I like it black.
Well it's it's a way to make the way for more creativity.
Amen. And it's going to give us a
better picture when we when we do our live broadcasts, our
livestream, Let me just throw a couple of other thoughts out to
you before we, we close here this morning.
It's interesting that in the beginning, God created, when God
created the heavens and the Earth we've talked about this
before God created them simultaneously because they were
never intended to function separately.
We are created to be Spiritual Beings.
Most of us understand God, created the heavens and the
Earth, we say, well yeah, God created the Earth for man.
But what were the heavens for himself?
No, Solomon said, even the heavens, the highest Heavens
cannot contain them. God was already in existence
when he created the heavens. I've heard people preach this
and I think I have two, I've had to repent.
That the spiritual realm, the heavens are more real than the
earth because their Eternal, and the Earth is temporary, but
that's not true because the heavens had a beginning.
Now, what was God's existence before?
I don't understand it, that's beyond my pay grade, okay?
I don't know what God was doing, how, what he was occupying
before that, but I can tell you this, that in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the Earth he created.
Them simultaneously and he created them both for you.
And I that we are to be beings that are engaging both the
Physical Realm, and the spiritual realm all the time.
So God created a habitation for man but then when God turns
around and anoints man for creativity, it's so that man can
create a habitation for the Lord.
And in a very real sense, creativity is the Avenue through
which God and habits us. the way that God is released from us, is
through the various forms of spiritual, gifting And so you
need to understand that you can create something that God will
inhabit your gift when exercised under the anointing is an Avenue
through which God can come. It's a whole nother subject, dig
it out for yourself or maybe we'll get into it some other
time. But let me close with one other
observation from, this passage, listen to what it says.
I have filled him with the spirit of God, with the ability
and intelligence and knowledge of all craftsmanship to devise
artistic design to work in gold, silver, and bronze, and cutting
stones. For setting carving wood to
work, with every craft whether we put a premium, whether we put
an emphasis of value on those things, God clearly did So much
so that the spirit of the Living, God partnered with the
frail, human being to accomplish those things.
And then he did this and behold, I have appointed with him.
A holy herb. He gave him a partner in his
creativity. My brother Christopher and I
were discussing this in the last few days, it was interesting.
He was we were looking back on when Christopher first met.
Bob Phillips, one of our former pastors Bob was pastoring, down
in Houston and Bob, we had, we had observed Bob's Ministry from
afar for many years. I bought some of Bob's books and
tapes. I mean back, 25 30, 35 years
ago, I went to Times Square where Bob was cope.
Pass room with David Wilkerson and bought.
Some of his material was just really impacted by it.
So when we got a chance to meet Bob, it was a it was we were
honored to do that and Bob came to Heartland to hear lave
Heartland, he and Lathan wanted to meet and so he came when
Randy Clark was here. And and Bob, and I really
connected heart to heart and I asked Chris Bryce, did you get a
chance to meet? Bobby said?
Yeah but he said, frankly it was awkward.
I don't think we really have. There's not a connection there.
It was. You ever met someone you really
wanted to meet He felt awkward about it.
Am I the only one you go up there and you think that was
awkward, you know? Why did I say that?
It was one of those. And so the next night there, the
front of the sanctuary was right in front of these two, weird
little holes on the wall here and this was what was known as
The House of Prayer back here and so Randy Clark was going to
do an impartation time. All the leaders went in the back
room and Randy starts praying for him and Christopher gets a
word for Bob. Filner Philips gives that word
to Bob. They fall into each others arms.
And Bob said, I love you so much.
We're connected gears my my business card.
Let's stay in touch and they became Inseparable in the
spirit. Christopher and Bob, it was
weird. The day before, you know,
there's no connection is kind of awkward.
I frankly, he was saying and insinuating.
I don't know if I want to talk to him again.
It was so awkward and now they're fast friends.
They would he'd travel down there and visit Bob.
And they were just became Connected together.
So Christopher one day calls Bob and I thought, man, he felt
prompted to call him calls him and Bob said, hey, I'm just just
left one meeting a stepping into another meeting with a bunch of
ministers. Did you need anything know how
you doing? I'm doing good.
And well, Chris from glad you doing good, I'll call you next
week. Love you.
Hangs up. And as soon as he hangs up
spirit of God falls on Christopher and tells him, this
is what I want to do in the meeting.
Boom, boom, boom, boom. Bob's meeting a Christopher's
like He just told me he's, you know, busy lord said call him.
So he calls a bob picks up and he said, Bob all, I'm telling
you is that the Lord just told me.
This is what he wants to do. Boom, boom, boom.
Next week, Bob calls him and said I released everything you
said it was powerful. God did ever all four things.
You said he was going to do in those meetings.
Matter of fact, I told the people I don't know what the
problem is a connection between Houston and Ohio, but I had to
get the message via Iowa. And the other thing, Christopher
told Bob was that there's a connection between you and lafe
headland. And there's still that
connection with Christopher and life.
Christopher was when we were in Colombia.
This last time, I'm going somewhere with this.
Okay, follow me. I'm going to I'm going to share
with you seriously, a very valuable principle.
We were in Colombia and I I'm in, I'm down the hall in my
hotel room and I hear Christopher.
I know his sound. I could tell he was getting
touched by the Lord problem was. So did everybody else in the
hotel? It's a Sunday afternoon.
He's got his noise cancelling headphones on.
I hear this. Oh oh Jesus.
So I listened to that for about 10 minutes, so I forgot I want
in on it, you know, he's going to wake everybody up.
I can't sleep, I might as well get on and I'd pound on the
door. He didn't open the door yet his
nose cancelling head phones on. Well, what it was, was, his wife
was in a meeting with life. And in passing, when life was
leaving, he just said Beth, he said, there's a lot of doors
about to open for Christopher. There's a shift coming and
there's doors going to be into open.
So two days later. She texts.
Christopher Christopher's in his hotel room, after a very busy
week of ministry. And he's trying to watch on his
phone, the Vikings game, which they did win, by the way glork.
I felt the anointing anyway. He is soon as he reads this, the
spirit of God falls on him. So here he is Days.
Later through a text gets this word in the spirit of God falls
on him. He's visited.
So Christopher was telling me what happened when he got
touched. So he said, yeah I talked to
Levi other day and life. I told him what happened in
Colombia as soon as we started talking about spirit of God.
Came on me again. We began to talk about how we
need to play very close attention to those
relationships. Some of you have relationships
with people that when you get together and you start talking
about Jesus, he shows up there's an added dimension of his
presence that marks those meetings between you and those
people, and it's consistent. There may not be every time but
you recognize what? When when I talk to them when we
get together, there's something of the Lord about.
I get a phone call from them or I get a text.
I would propose to you that that's what this passage is
talking about. That bezalel had the spirit of
God, come on him. But God said, I also put my hand
on another guy to partner with him.
And there are times where God will give you Partnerships in
your creativity and whatever you're called to and we need to
pay very close attention to those relationships because
those relationships are highly significant.
When I was just when I just got and saved, I was barely, barely
saved. Barely out of Teen Challenge.
I was a 19 year old kid, and I went to this little bible school
with 14, students, little school, and just south of st.
Louis Missouri. And I needed to work to get my
wife through school. So I was working in their
daycare and in their kitchen at this church, And the lady I
worked for she was, she ran the kitchen.
She began to disciple me and she would give me these David
Wilkerson newsletter. She say you, sit down, I'll wash
the dishes. You need to read this boy.
And that lady became my spiritual mother.
And there were so many times where she would say things to
me, and the spirit of God would come upon me or we, I'd be
crying out to God about something and we'd meet for
coffee and she would answer all my spiritual questions.
Just, I wouldn't even ask him. She'd say, you know, I was
thinking about this the other day and every question I had
been answering there was such an anointing that would come again.
And it wasn't till years later. She told me, she said, they'll
she had two daughters and she It asked the Lord for a son, and
the Lord said, I'll give you one and when I arrive lord said
that's the sun I promised you. That lady.
So invested in my life. But it was marked by the spirit
of God. There was a partnership in the
spirit. We're still in touch.
Got a text from her this morning.
Happy New Year. She's my mama.
And there are relationships that some of you have, when you guys
begin to talk, it's, it's very close.
It's like when Mary went to see AB Elizabeth, you remember
Elizabeth was pregnant and and and I want to say it was the
sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
Mary has a visitation from an angel.
So what does she do? She goes looks up someone else
that had a visitation someone else sets carrying a
supernatural thing and when she walked in her baby jumped,
There's people in your life that when you begin to talk about
your baby or they talk about there's years jumps because
there's something connected and what she was caring would
prepare the way for what Mary was carrying.
There's these Partnerships that God will bring in your life that
will enhance the gifting on your life and you need to be aware of
it. You need to have an awareness
because it will take you farther down the road.
You will never have all Need just between you and Jesus.
There are going to be significant relationships that
God will put in your life and it will be marked by the spirit of
God that when you discuss things when you meet there, there's
there's a life that's imparted, there's Revelation, that's
imparted, there's understanding that's imparted.
When Christopher and I were talking about this, I thought of
this this one leader that it doesn't attend here than in the
region, and when we get on the phone, it's like I told him, I
said, I'll get inside. I don't usually have I get off
the phone and I write down what I said because It's like man.
I never thought of that. I need to remember that.
And I took note of that because there's something about that
relationship that is very important.
There's a Synergy that begins to happen.
And you need to be aware of the relationships that God puts in
your life. Because one of the, one of the
primary resources that we need to learn to Steward really.
Well, are those key relationships There's, there's
that such a thing, as stewarding and growing, a key relationship
guard. Those things because often our
Destinies are connected. There's something that they
carry that we're going to need down the road.
There's something that they're going to impart to us and vice
versa. Our callings in our Destinies,
in our, what God's hand upon her, life are connected with
other people, and we need to be aware of that.
Because if we're not aware of it, we can miss it.
We can neglect. Those very, very important
relationships. So, let's land it there.
It's five. After once you go ahead and
stand, I want to pray over you. This morning, I'm going to ask
you to Bow your head. Father, we're asking you right
now. Lord, that you would highlight
those. Those significant relationships.
As feel prompted from the Lord this morning.
We need to be aware, some relationships are seasonal.
You can actually outgrow a relationship.
It doesn't mean you need to end the relationship, but the role
shift. There are times there are,
sometimes there's people that you were fathered by you end up
fathering because they did a good enough job to make it.
So, and we need to understand, we need to know the signs of the
times and therefore, know what we should do.
You know, the context of that passage the sons of Isaac are
understood that they needed to throw themselves behind the
davidic regime and say goodbye to the Saul regime.
That's what the context is. It was, who are we going to
follow in this season? Who are we going to throw our
gifts behind And there are times where God will bring new
relationships into your life that are significant.
And there's others that aren't, as significant anymore, doesn't
mean you have to neglect those relationships, but you need to
be aware that God will bring important relationships in your
life and when you understand them, you can move in.
You can transition into that new season much quicker by pulling
on those relationships because in those relationships are
resources that God wants to release to your life.
Sometimes it's Revelation, sometimes it's other things.
And so father I ask God that you would brood over us and Lord you
would make us aware. Father asked for a heightened
sensitivity. God, unawareness of those key
relationships for this season. Lord that we would understand
our personal time and our corporate time and therefore
know what we should do. Now Lord, we just dedicate this
this year to you, as we stand on the threshold of 2023, we thank
you for your goodness to us and Lord.
We thank you that regardless of the tumult that is lies before
us. Lord.
We stand strong in you. You are our Rock, are strong
tower, And Lord, we ask that in the coming days that we would
shine we would be the bright and Shining answer to those around
us in Jesus name, amen, thanks for listening to our podcast.
If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you
can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on
social media. If you'd like to support the
Ministries apartment church, you can do.
So at Heartland Church, online.com give And Lord, we ask
that in the coming days that we would shine we would be the
bright and Shining answer to those around us in Jesus name,
amen, thanks for listening to our podcast.
If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you
can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on
social media. If you'd like to support the
Ministries apartment church, you can do.
So at Heartland Church, online.com give