Latest / High Level Wife Podcast with Chelsey Holm / Have We Lost Our Awe? Ready for the Smoke!

Transcript

Have We Lost Our Awe? Ready for the Smoke! · High Level Wife Podcast with Chelsey Holm

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the High Level Wife Podcast.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Chelsea, home, your hostess, and here we do Marriage God's Way.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're we're we're not doing our espresso shots today.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing a full-length episode because I have some time before my daughter comes out from tumbling, and this is when I was doing my recording.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But last Sunday, something deeply convicted me because we celebrated baptisms.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We got to watch testimonies of lives transformed by Christ.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: We sang songs about the goodness of God and his forgiveness and what he's done.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we heard Psalm 32 preached that our sins have been forgiven.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: But there was little visible response.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then later, the pastor shared that his two sons made it to state and meddled in track, and the room erupted in applause.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately I was like, And I couldn't help but ask myself, why are we so quick to celebrate human accomplishment, but so slow to celebrate divine redemption?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that reveal about what moves our hearts?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't misunderstand me that this isn't about clapping, right?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about Baptist versus charismatic conversation.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about whether you raise your hands or say amen.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like I grew up mostly in the Baptist church, so I understand different church cultures.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my best friends in high school, she went to a Pentecostal church.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was very different from my Baptist experience, right?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the issue isn't how we respond, the issue is whether we've lost our awe.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have an awe for the Lord?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because throughout scripture, God always produces a response.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not one encounter with the living God leaves someone unchanged.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have Moses in Exodus 3 with the burning bush, he removes his sandals because he's standing on holy ground.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 6, he sees the Lord high and lifted up, and his response is woe is me, immediately aware of his own sinfulness.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 1 falls face down.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation 1 falls at Jesus' feet as though dead.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Peter in Luke 5, miraculous catch of the fist, depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Mary in John 12, she pours out expensive perfume.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: She gets her tears overwhelm and she washes his feet with her hair and her tears in worship.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10, he cries out loudly and he refuses to be silent.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: David in 2 Samuel 6 dances before the Lord with all of his might, so much so that his wife saw him from her window and was disgusted.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But who cares?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do what we do because we're here to please man.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to please God.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, different personalities and different expressions, but the same reality that encounter with God always produces a response.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a common thread here, and the response isn't always loud, right?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, as I just walk through, it's falling or weeping or silence.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: More often than not, I saw that it was falling on their face and crying out in praise, right?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And repentance, shouting, singing, lifting hands, generosity, surrender, obedience.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it is never casual.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: No one encounters the holiness of God and simply says, eh, that was nice.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was pretty nice.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, pretty good sermon.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I like the music.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, most of it.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really like that one song you sang.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 32.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: David isn't celebrating circumstances, he's celebrating forgiveness.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one whose transgiven transgression is forgiven.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Pause there.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: David's greatest joy wasn't success, and he had lots of success.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: He literally took all of the promised land.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't wealth, it wasn't victory.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was that God removed his sin.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So then ask yourself if forgiveness is our greatest blessing, and we could end with just receiving that gift and be considered utmost blessed.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't it our greatest celebration?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because heaven has a response.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: In Luke 15, there are three stories about the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And every single one ends with celebration.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Heaven celebrates salvation.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do we?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or have you been a Christian so long that you have lost the awe of God?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you just received your gift of salvation and said, Sweet, but you have not developed the pursuit of God in response to his first pursuit of you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: The throne room in Revelation 4 through 5.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is bored, nobody is checking the time or thinking about where they're gonna go for lunch or what they're gonna eat, nobody's distracted.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The only response is holy, holy, holy, worthy is the Lord God Almighty.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Faces down, casting their crowns, constant worship.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because they see God rightly.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we become familiar with holy things?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's our problem.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've shared in a previous episode there was um in the Old Testament the guy was his name, Uriah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, that's not the guy, that's who David, David Bathsheba, all that.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, what was his name?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uziah?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uzzah Uzzah maybe I think that was his name.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But he's the one who reached out to grab the ark as it was falling, and he died instantly on the spot.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to look at that and be like, oh, but he was trying to do the right thing.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, that that ark, you have to understand, it was actually housed in like held in his household.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he would have seen it every single day.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to wonder did what is holy become familiar to him and common to him?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that when it was falling, he reached out and grabbed it and completely forgot that this is the Ark of the Covenant.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's our problem.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not rebellion, it's familiarity.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've heard the gospel thousands of times.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: We've sung Amazing Grace hundreds of times.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: We've heard about the cross, about forgiveness, about baptism, about salvation, but so often we've stopped marveling and the miracle hasn't become smaller.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Our wonder has.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: God hasn't changed.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have forgotten to ask him to show us your glory.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Hebrews 12, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the two sons of Aaron that brought their own strange fire to God and it consumed them because they did not do what the Lord commanded.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: They did what was right in their own eyes, and they were immediately consumed.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: But when we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, our God is that consuming fire.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Notice God isn't really looking for songs.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Good gravy almighty.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I love me a good song, and I want to lift my hands and praise Jesus.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But he's looking for hearts filled with reverence and awe.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love to sing, but half the time when I'm worshiping, I'm crying.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sing.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I sound terrible.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, like, you know, it's not good, okay?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not good.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not there for that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: That that I'm not there to sound good.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like there were days when that was the case, but that's not the case anymore because I want to know God as he knows me.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know his heart.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know how he thinks.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know how he uh acts, how he works.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know everything about him that I possibly can.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I can never know the full depth and width and breadth and height of his unsearchable ways, but man, old man, I am going to spend my life searching, searching his immeasurable goodness and greatness and holiness.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is a heart question, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't asking, did you clap in church on Sunday?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's asking what actually moves you, what gets your loudest praise?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: What captures your excitement?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: What naturally stirs your affection?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the football game on Sunday?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that getting more of your attention without distraction than God Himself?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because what moves your heart reveals what you've learned to treasure.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is it your kids in their sports?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are you like out there cheering them on?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not bad in of itself.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've seen some videos on Instagram of me.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Heard me going, right?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I cheer even louder for the Lord and respond to Him.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's an overflow.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I get to love my kids because God first loved me.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's an overflow of His love for me that I get to show to them.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe this week, don't ask yourself, how should I worship?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Should I lift my hands for this part?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Should I clap along for this part?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's everyone else doing right now?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But instead ask, have I lost my wonder?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Does the gospel still leave me amazed?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Does forgiveness still humble me?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Does baptism still move me?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Does hearing that someone surrendered to Christ still cause joy to rise within me?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or have holy things become ordinary?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now my challenge to you, go read Psalm 32, Isaiah 6, Luke 15, Hebrews 12, 28 through 29, Revelation 4 and 5.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you don't have to read them all in one sitting.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: But go read them, study them, pour over them, and ask the Lord, where have I become familiar with your holiness?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Have I lost my awe?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Restore to me the wonder of my salvation.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Teach my heart to treasure what heaven celebrates.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember in Acts when Peter just gave this awesome portraying of the gospel, and people were so moved to repentance.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: They were convicted and repented, and they all wanted to be baptized, and it was like 3,000 people.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have that?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have that or have we lost that?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or have we never had it in the first place?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And God is inviting us in to pursue him as he has already pursued us.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So again, the issue isn't our expression, it's our affection.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And encountering God always produces a response.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the question isn't do you clap?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, does God still move you?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: What gets your loudest praise often reveals your deepest treasure.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is it your kids or your favorite sports team or something else?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Heaven celebrates what we've become familiar with.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: The miracle isn't that we've heard the gospel a thousand times, the miracle is that it's still true.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And worship isn't manufactured emotion, it's the natural response to rightly seeing God.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe we don't need louder churches.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe what we need is actually deeper awe and understanding of God's holiness so that we respond appropriately.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will see you on the next episode.