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Hey, friends, I'm Brittany west, and you're listening to the Grove Podcast. These are such special days as we prepare our hearts for The Grove Conference 2024. We were so blown away by all God did in our lives last year that we believe he is going to do the immeasurably More as we gather on April 12th and 13th, it's with that expectation that we bring you a special episode today. This session was our final talk from The Grove Conference 2023, delivered by none other than our friend, Brooke Liggettwood. She very carefully and artfully unfolds the unique detail of Scripture and how not one word is idle or unnecessary. As women of the Grove, we believe deeply in the power of being rooted in Jesus and his Word. Our heart is that women everywhere would be rooted in God's Word, bringing the ultimate freedom to their lives. We pray this message encourages you to learn to see the love language that is the word of God. Brooke is going to dive deep into Scripture in these next few minutes, so plan to return to this episode again. But for your first listen, grab a pen, your notebook, and your copy of Scripture to hear what God would want to reveal to you through His Word. This is going to be super. So encouraging. Let's hear from God together.

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So I do believe the Lord pointed me to a place in Scripture to share. So to the best of my limited ability, but with a heart fully surrendered, I will humbly offer you now what I feel he has given me to share. If you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Psalm 22? Let's open a window in it and see what we might see through it. While you turn to Psalm 22, I'm going to read from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, verses 33 to 35. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, eloi, Eloi lema sabaktanai, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we acknowledge and thank you for the immense and beautiful work that your spirit has done in us already. We pray, Lord, in these last moments that we have together, that you would complete what you have begun for this moment and that you would give us the grace, carry it, and steward it for the circumstances and the lives to which we return from here. I thank you for each one of my beautiful sisters in this room. And we stand in awe of your wisdom, of your holiness, of your affection, and of your great Mercy speak to us. We pray and be glorified in all in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Eloi, Eloi lema sabachtanai. Those words in Mark 15 are the same words that we find in the opening verse of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's widely accepted that Jesus words spoken from the cross here, when he spoke those words that he was pointing to. Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is often called the Psalm of the cross, and it is also a Messianic psalm. In this Messianic psalm, David is accurately describing what Jesus will experience on the cross 950 years before it happens. Pretty amazing. Psalm 22 from verses 7 to 8 parallels Matthew 27 with the mocking and insults heaped upon Jesus on the cross. It's even specific enough that it describes the way that the mockers shook their heads as they insulted him. Isn't that amazing? 950 years before it happened, David describes the way that people shook their heads as they mocked Jesus on the cross. Psalm 22:16 says, they pierced my hands and feet, specifying the act of crucifixion, which was that very particular Roman torture. Psalm 22:17 says, they stare and gloat over me. It describes the spectatorship that we can also see at the cross in Matthew 27:36. And Psalm 22:18 parallels Matthew 27:35 and the casting of lots for Jesus's garment. And amidst all of these really vivid descriptions of Christ's gruesome suffering and sacrifice on the cross, there is something in this Messianic psalm that Jewish hermeneutics call a remez, which just means a hidden message or a hidden treasure. So the remez in this Messianic psalm we find in verse 6 of the 22nd Psalm. This is what it says. It's weird, but I am a worm and not a man. Scorned by everyone, despised by the people. Don't you think that's like a little bit weird that Jesus on the cross, he could have said anything. But he says he points us to a psalm which says, I am a worm, not a man. If we investigate this further, we start to unpack the ramirez, the hidden treasure. So everywhere else in Scripture that the Hebrew word for worm is used, it's the Hebrew word rimah, which means worm. But in Psalm 22:6, the word for worm that is used is not ramah. So every other time in scripture we see the word worm, it's ramah. Except in Psalm 22:6, where the word is tola ath. So tola ath is a word for worm, but it's a word for a specific species of worm called the coccus ilycus, also known as the crimson worm. As he hung on the cross, suffocating in agony, his lungs filling up with fluid, his sinews and muscles atrophying, let alone the emotional torture of the mocking and the heaped insults and the grief of his friends on the outside, Jesus could have said. He could have said, I am the light of the world. He could have said, I am the firstborn over all creation. He could have recited that beautiful poetry that we read in job 38. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand, who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know who stretched a measuring line across it, on what were its footings set? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? He could have spoken any of these words pertaining to himself, but instead he pointed us to the seemingly obscure messianic psalm in which we find this Remez. I am a worm, not a man. I am a tola ath, a crimson worm, not a man. But Jesus, as we know, knew the Scriptures inside and out. And when he pointed us to this text, it was no accident. So what is it about the Taula earth, this specific species of worm that he might have wanted to use to show us something about himself? Here's some things about the crimson worm. The crimson worm, the Coccus lichus, only lays eggs once in her entire life. And when her time has come, the crimson worm inches her way up a tree and. And adheres her body to the wood of the trunk. As she takes her position and chooses to press her body against the wood, she forms a hard, crimson colored shell which welds her to the tree's surface. Her choice is made. It is permanent. And this is the position in which she'll spend the rest of her natural life. It's there, under her body, under that distinctive, protective crimson shell, that her children are born. And then the most peculiar thing happens. The children of the tola earth begin feeding on the living body of the mother. For the next three days, I am a tola earth, a crimson worm, not a man. And then, after three days, the tola ATH dies. She gives up her life. And as she dies, how interesting also that Jesus pointed us to a species of worm that is a mother. As she dies, one of the most profound events in all of nature takes place from the body of the mother, a blood red substance begins to flow that stains the wood to which she has been attached. The crimson worm has a single purpose in climbing that tree. There's a picture of what a tree looks like after the crimson worm has been on it. The crimson worm has a single purpose in climbing that tree. Sacrifice. The only way for her children to live is for her to die. She willingly climbs the tree, knowing that she will not come down alive. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. Jesus said in John 10:18, I lay it down of my own accord. We're going to come back to the Tola earth in a minute. Second Corinthians 4, 7 says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Years ago, when I was walking through a season that felt a lot like this passage in Second Corinthians, a song bubbled up in prayer. It's called New Wine. And the words say this in the crushing, in the pressing. You are making new wine in the soil. I now surrender. You are breaking new ground. So I yield to you into your careful hand. When I trust you, I don't need to understand. Make me your vessel, make me an offering, make me whatever you want me to be. I came here with nothing but all you have given me. Jesus, bring new Wine out of me. New wine is symbolic of a greater measure of the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a picture of harvest, of fulfilled promise. And new wine is also the ultimate representation of the new covenant. Jesus showed us that when he took the cup and said, this is my blood poured out for you. He used this cup as an image of the blood that would be shed on the cross. Soon after, he led his disciples in that holy meal. But he also used it as an image of our communion with him, the means by which we are reconciled to this holy God. His blood shed this new covenant. The taking of the wine or the cup is also a participation in his blood. And in Hebrew, the word for new wine is t rocher, which translated means wine from grapes that have just been crushed. So it's a time sensitive description. New wine is from t rocher is from freshly pressed or freshly trodden down grapes. For us, that means the wine that we're speaking of is the wine that's produced right here, right now, in this season, in this room, in this present or recent or present crushing in our lives. As I speak to you today, I find myself in another one of those pressing seasons, as I'm sure many of you are also in right now. I'm not speaking to you from the other side of it yet I'm speaking to you from right in the middle. And so, in this present crushing, in this present pressing, I must ask myself a question. What is the Lord's invitation to me? Maybe we can ask it of all of us, of ourselves in this room. What is the Lord's invitation of us in a season like this? What is the crushing and the releasing of the new wine for? Praise God, because Psalm 22 has more for us here. That Messianic psalm that opens with these words, Jesus cried from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And identifies with this very specific species of insect. In verse 6, I am a worm, a tola earth. Not a man is describing this Jesus of ours, this one who was willingly fastened to a piece of wood, staining it with his blood as he gave his life so that his children could be born. And so with the cross before us today, what is our response? Psalm 22 ends with this verse. In verse 31, they will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn, and he has done it. The Amplified says it this way. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born, that he has done it and that it is finished. But here's the thing, and this is the picture I believe that the Lord would leave us with today. I am a tola ath, a crimson worm, not a man. Why this worm? After three days, as we've learned, the crimson worm gives haba life. And that blood red substance begins to flow. But it doesn't just stain the wood to which the worm adhered itself willingly. It stains the children that have been made alive by her sacrifice. That's where the crimson worms get their name. They are born translucent or white. But when they feed on the living body of the mother and are made alive by this sacrifice, as that substance begin to flow, they are now stained blood red for the rest of their lives. Alive because of the death of the one who gave them life. Yeah, it's good Christian. Christian is a word that's super loaded, probably super triggering for a lot of people. Christian is not a word that describes someone who listens to a certain radio station or can quote John 3:16 or has a plaque from Hobby Lobby on their mantel. So if you do, bless it. But the word Christian means little Christ for the purposes of this image, little worm, I am a Christian, which means that I am now a blood stained, blood bought disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are indeed a Christian, you are also a blood stained, bloodborne disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what that means is that even as I am crushed by the blood of the Lamb and the power of the Holy Spirit, I declare, like it says in Psalm 22:31, Christ wins, that he has done it and it is finished. That my life and your life, even in pieces, can shout the Gospel. Because we have been birthed and stained and marked by a price this precious. And the team can join me if you want to join me. Psalm 22:31. Again they will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn, he has done it. It is finished. The reason that we can stand here and declare that today is because people thousands of of years before us took up this mantle. And even with their life in pieces, and even with their seasons of crushing and pressing as blood stained and blood bought disciples of Jesus, they declared to a people yet unborn that he has done it, that the work is finished and that the atonement is sufficient. And that forgiveness is available to all who would call on the name of of Jesus. And the same invitation is ours today. That even when our life is in pieces, when there is a present or recent crushing, that the new wine that the Holy Spirit will pour through our life is for the testimony of his grace, for the proclamation of this resurrection life that we are invited into. So in a moment Jordan is actually going to come and she's going to begin to lead us in that song New Wine. And I wonder if we can just pause for a moment as she does so, and just take a moment to sit in that for a minute, to consider the reality that even in our crushing, maybe even especially in our crushing, our lives can brim with the new wine of the power of the Holy Spirit. I wonder if where the enemy would seek to label someone by your old sins, or make you feel cornered by shame, or twisted up with guilt, or held back by doubt, that today you would apprehend again that you are a gorgeous little worm, that you have been stained and marked by the blood of the one who sacrificed all to give you life. Maybe for some we have disqualified yourself from the call of God, or from a life of impact, or even Just sometimes from the possibility of joy. We think I didn't deserve that. I'm too far gone for that. I've come to remind you that the only qualification that matters is this, that you are a blood stained, blood bought disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a beautiful little whim. You, you bear his name. You are stained with his life giving blood. So why don't we stand to our feet and Jordan's going to begin to lead us. And let's just begin to fill this room with the sound of surrender. Let's consider the cross, consider the price, consider the power. I'm going to read that scripture one last time from 2 Corinthians. But we have this treasure and jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Let's pray and then just begin to allow the Lord to speak to you, to seal something in you, to just sit with you and surround you for a moment. So Lord Jesus, we thank youk for the tola earth. We thank youk, Lord, for your masterful storytelling, for that even in that moment of agony youy had the intention and the deliberacy with your dying breath to point us toward this image of you as a mother, which is incredibly powerful. But we thank you Lord, for your voluntary ascension of the cross. We thank you that you chose to stay there. You adhered yourself to that surface and you gave up your life. Your blood was shed so that your children could be brought to birth, so that we could be made alive. And not just be made alive, but be stained with your precious power with the marking and the anointing of your Holy Spirit. And so we pray, Lord, in these next few moments, would you just remind us again of the price which was paid for us? Would you open a new space in our revelation of you to accept experience this part of who youo are and this part of youf love in a fresh way? And would you'd help us, Lord, to decide right now that yout blood is enough? Your blood is enough. And with that qualification alone, we are invited to step into the Holy of Holies, to receive the full freedom that yout bought for us, to take all of the forgiveness that yout offer and to walk in the fullness of your love and power while we walk this earth, so that our lives may proclaim to a people yet born that he has done it, that you have done it and the work is finished. So we love you Jesus. Speak to us and seal your work in these next few moments. We pray in Jesus name.