Best of Priscilla Shirer: Your Purpose, Armor of God, Power of Living Holy | TBN

you've been thinking this is not enough gifting this is not enough talent it's not enough money it's not enough i don't have enough and jesus is whispering in your ear tonight your conscience is not the voice of god but your conscience is like this wiring that helps this microphone amplify my voice the the conscience is the microphone that the holy spirit uses to help you hear the voice of god the one thing that opens up our eyes is god's spirit on us and if you want if i want god's spirit on our lives then we got to decide to live [Music] so jerry and i my husband and i we've been married nearly 20 years now i can't believe that and we have three sons that we are raising they are giant they are giants y'all my 15 year old is six foot two inches tall his 14 year old brother is six foot two inches tall um their nine-year-old brother is coming up right after them they are some big boys and one of the things i do for these boys in fact you should know that my full-time job is feeding the boys that is my full time job i am trying to figure out any which way i can differently to cook chicken for dinner every single night just like y'all that's exactly what i'm doing so we just do sports and everything with the boys they're growing up so quick so one of the things that i have done since my oldest was five i started when he was five um i went to uh ross dress for lest in the back hand corner left hand side there is a one row that has books and journals and those sorts of things i went and i grabbed um three journals hardback journals they were just little little um with the little spine spiral spines nothing real fancy 4.99 i picked one for each boy i've had it ever since my oldest was five and at that age i started to record a journal for them i do not write in it every week or every month or even um you know just on a regular basis it's just when something happens i don't want to forget or they say something that's really interesting or i see the hand the handiwork the fingerprints of god in their life in some way i kind of write it down my goal is to have a collection of writings and thoughts and and love letters really to my boys about their life that i hand over to them when they're you know mature enough to appreciate it or better yet i might just hand it over to their wives and say girl this is what you're getting yourself into right here and because my oldest will be 16 next month i was looking through his journal and came across the story from when he was five i read it with fond memories because it was the little journal entry i put in there about him losing his first tooth he had wiggled that tooth and wiggled it he couldn't wait for it to come out and the reason he couldn't wait for it to come out is because we had told him that when your tooth comes out the tooth fairy will come she will come and she will replace the tooth with a treasure so he could not wait finally the tooth came out and that is my boy still to this day that that has never been eager to go to sleep but that night he dove into bed at bedtime he could not wait he put the tooth underneath the pillow he laid his head down and he was he was trying to go to sleep but every three to five seconds he would look under the pillow to see if anything had happened finally he did fall asleep we let some time pass and then about three o'clock in the morning or so the six foot two 250 pound tooth fairy that i sleep next to every night he got up he went upstairs and he replaced the tooth for a treasure in the morning i knew in jackson and at the time we just had jackson and jerry jr i knew when they got up i knew i could hear it i could hear the excitement the squeals i could hear the stomps on the floor i could hear the eagerness and enthusiasm because the tooth fairy had come and left the treasure they bounded down the stairs into the room jackson's fists were both clenched closed he ran up to me and said mom the tooth fairy came she left me a treasure i said buddy let me see what she left you opened up one hand and it was a package of gummy bears which was a big deal at the time because that was his favorite snack he opened up the other hand and it was five dollars [Applause] now i don't know what happened when y'all were growing up but i grew up in the days of dimes and nickels can the church say amen so you know i'm trying to be excited for the boy [Applause] but really i'm annoyed about this whole five dollar situation and my husband can see that i am troubled and you know if mama ain't happy [Applause] nobody's happy after jackson left the room jerry came over to me and he said priscilla don't worry he said do you remember that last month was jackson's fifth birthday he said do you remember that we had all of the family over still to this day we do that when one of the boys has a birthday we invite the whole clan over grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles everybody comes to celebrate he said do you remember they all came most of them had cards and then those cards were five dollar bills he said do you remember we took all those five dollar bills and we put them in a birthday drawer in the kitchen he said this morning at 3 a.m i went right inside that birthday drawer dave ramsey would be so proud of us that's good financial stewardship right there is what that is [Applause] so that morning really what i had witnessed was my little boy getting excited about treasure that actually already belonged to him treasure that he already had he just didn't know it i came to tell somebody that there is treasure hidden in these earthen vessels i came to tell you that by god's spirit there is gift and there is power that has been entrusted to you that is available to you available to me as daughters of the most high king you need to know that even if you do not believe what the scriptures declare to be true about your treasure if you don't believe that you've been forgiven or that you already have the victory or that the enemy is already underneath your feet that there is no condemnation for those of us who are in christ jesus or that you have been made competent by the spirit of god i came to tell you that even if you don't believe it the enemy does he knows who you are what ashamed it would be for him to know and us not to so it's time for us to open up the drawer and start pulling out the treasure the treasure we've been ignoring the treasure we've been calling insignificant the thing that we've said is not enough not valuable lord if i could just be like her lord if i could just be like that if i could just have a bit more of that if i weren't me then lord i'd be enough he says uh-uh you have enough you just haven't opened up the drawer pull out the treasure there is a story in scripture that is going to be very familiar to you it's the one that the lord has been using in my own life to remind me about how he will compel me and he will compel us to open up the drawer and reach in and pull out the treasure and see what it's like when he uses what he has already entrusted to us luke chapter nine verse one and two says this and he called that's jesus he called somebody say he called he called the 12 together and he gave somebody say he gave he gave them power and he gave them authority over all demons and to heal all diseases verse two and then he sent somebody say he sent he sent them out he called them he gave him treasure and then he sent them out verse 10 says and then when they returned to him they gave an account to him of everything they had done and taking them with him he withdrew by himself to a hill called bethsaida the multitudes were aware of this verse 11 says so they followed jesus because you know wherever jesus went a crowd was sure to follow they weren't quite sure he was the messiah but what they didn't know was that when this man showed up blind people could see what they knew is that when jesus showed up the lame could walk and the death could hear the dead were being raised so wherever jesus was they came the crowd followed and welcoming the multitude jesus began speaking to them about the kingdom of god and curing those who were in need of healing verse 12. so the day starts to come to a close and the 12 come to jesus and say now jesus you're gonna have to send this multitude away they've got to go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging they got to get something to eat jesus come on now here we're in a desolate place verse 13 jesus said to them uh-uh you give them something to eat they said jesus we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless perhaps you let us go and buy food for all these people because you know we're not enough as we are right now there were about 5 000 men scholars say the reason why luke specifies men is because there were women and children too so there were probably about 15 000 hungry people that day jesus said have them recline to eat in groups of about 50 each so they did so had them all recline and then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven he blessed them and then he broke them and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude and verse 17 says they all ate they were all satisfied and just so you know how satisfied they were they went by and picked up all the leftovers cause there was overflow in this story we meet a hungry multitude a multitude that is placing a demand they have a need there is a lack that needs to be filled and most of the time when this proportion of the scriptures is looked into the multitudes who we concentrate on the five loaves and the two fish and how they were satisfied with it but just for a few moments tonight i want to talk to you about the 12 disciples those who walked with jesus and talked with jesus those who were in close communion with jesus those who would come out on a friday night to be in the presence of jesus amongst the people of jesus i want to talk to the disciples of jesus the disciples on this occasion had been called to jesus by jesus they were having a conversation with each other jesus entrusted them with power and authority and then he sent them out i love that this uh gospel is one of the synoptic gospels the synoptic gospels are those that tell there are three of them matthew mark and luke these three tell some of the similar stories in a similar tone in a similar way so that we're able to get more layers to the story i love the gospels in that way they give us layers just like if someone were to offer you a chocolate cake but they gave you options you could have a one layer chocolate cake or a seven layer chocolate cake which one you gonna choose seven every single time because the more layers there are the more rich and delectable the experience becomes mark chapter six is a layer of chocolate cake for us it tells us that this is the experience when jesus called the disciples to himself and then he sent them out in pairs do you remember two by two into the neighboring towns and communities they were supposed to teach and preach and perform miracles that would authenticate the deity of jesus christ mark chapter six our layer of chocolate cake tells us that they expended themselves y'all they were busy from sun up to sundown they were about the task of doing what it was that jesus had assigned to them they wanted to be diligent about it so much so that when they came back to jesus they gave an account to him and jesus recognized their exhaustion he saw that they were tired in fact jesus himself commented that they didn't even have time to eat because they had been so busy they were depleted and they were tired and they came back to jesus and they gave him an account for how they'd handled the assignment that he had entrusted to them if you're a believer in jesus christ you got an assignment and don't let anybody tell you that your assignment isn't ministry just because it happens to be in a corporate setting mother of small children who's chosen to stay home with those kids don't let anybody tell you that a ministry every single time you make that chicken for dinner and you set it on that table and you teach those kids a bible verse before bedtime don't let anybody tell you that that ain't ministry corporate woman when you sit around that boardroom table and you're the only one that has a set of ideals that lines up with the truth of scripture at a table with those who are thinking and acting and planning in a way that is left of god's word don't let anybody tell you that you around that boardroom ain't ministry that's ministry high school student college student you're the only student that stands for truth when your professor says this is the way it is and you say no that's not the way it is don't let anybody tell you as the light on that college campus that you are not in ministry every single one of us has an assignment and the day is coming when we're gonna have to give an account and here's the thing you don't know when that day is my 38 year old cousin 38 four small children the day is coming and you don't know the day or the hour neither do i when we're gonna have to stand before him and give an account for how we handled what he had entrusted to us i'm asking you tonight how are you handling your assignment because young women if you think that you're young because of your age listen to me if you're 20 but you only have until 30 you're pretty old if you're 50 and you're going to live until 100 then you're pretty young age is just a number my friend and you and i cannot qualify young or old base births based on our our birth date it's based on our death date and since we don't know when that day is that i implore you sisters by the mercies of god to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called because listen i don't know about y'all but when i see him face to face i'm looking for a well done i'm looking for well done when i see him he will not ask me how many instagram followers i had he will not wonder whether or not folks liked my post he will not be interested in whether or not my selfies were perfectly lit he will ask me did i know his son and then i will give an account so the disciples they come and they give an account to jesus i wondered if there was a recipe for effective ministry because if these guys were willing to come and look jesus in his face and give an account i figured there might be a recipe for us for effective ministry i'm interested anybody interested there are three ingredients to the recipe luke chapter 9 verse 1 it says he called them he called them and his calling superseded any personal ambition that they had they laid down whatever they were going to do because they heard the call of god beckoning them to do something else the beautiful thing about that entire picture is that all of the glory of god the father all of the glory of heaven was packaged in human flesh jesus wanted so much god the father wanted so much to make sure that he could speak and so that humanity could hear that he left his throne in glory put on flesh so that the disciples could hear his call and in the same way he has given us the holy spirit so that each and every one of us have the privilege to hear the calling of god on our lives the conviction the unction the pressing the fire that is shut up in your bones sending you in a particular direction heed the call of god on your lives then they were not just called i love so much that before he skips to the third ingredient in the recipe sending them i love that before we get to the third one there's that second one he did not just call but then he gave them power and authority it means that what he was calling them to do he was simultaneously equipping them with supernatural power to be able to pull it off so it's good news for anybody in the room that you feel like you've got a dream that is way over your head you've been called to do something you don't have the money for you don't have the time for you don't have the patience for you don't have the gifting for you don't have the talent for you don't have the connections for the good thing and the great thing about our god is that he does not call people who are already equipped he calls you and then for the people that say yes he equips them with what they need for the calling he entrusted them with power and authority and can i tell you why this is important this is important because in order to accompl and accomplish supernatural tasks you have to have supernatural capacity in other words you can be the most talented person in the world but if you go in your own strength and power you still won't be able to accomplish the god calling on your life it requires what it is that only god himself can give to you to accomplish the task oh the enemy hopes you will go in your own power he hopes you will think you are flashy enough and savvy enough and talented enough and impressive enough so that you will no longer lean on god instead of leaning to your own understanding but it is not by power and it is not by might it is by the spirit of god and some trust in horses other folks trust in chariots but not us we trust in the name of the lord our god so he called them and then he entrusted them he gave them some treasure and then he sent them he's the one who did the sending resist the urge to send yourself to do something that it is not yet time for because just as important as our calling is that is equally as important as the timing is in which that calling is outworked in our lives and if you go too soon you might if you if you give birth too soon to that which god is trying to produce through you you might abort what it is that he's trying to accomplish in you the spiritual backbone the fortification that he was trying to establish in you so that you could handle the spotlight when it hit you because listen that spotlight that you may be craving if it hits you and you have no character it will burn you to a crisp so he called them he entrusted them he sent them out and they returned to him and gave an account they were tired the disciples had been given it everything they had and i know there are some of you in the room and you would admit that you haven't done it perfectly but man you've sure been purposeful you've been intentional about this marriage you've been giving it everything you've got you've been intentional about that teenager you've been giving that kid everything you've got this toddler that has this specific vent or this specific issue that you've been doing everything you can going to see every expert that you can reading everything that you can to be the best that you can as a mother single mother you've been giving it everything that you've got working the jobs that you've got to work to keep food on the table you've been giving that business that ministry that endeavor everything that you have and you the disciples are tired the good news about jesus is that when the disciples come to him tired he does not say go away from me and get yourself together come back and then i can use you he says come away with me in other words listen the cure for your exhaustion is intimacy with jesus that's the cure y'all i'm saying i agree take the holiday take the vacation tell them you need a little sabbatical you got to step back for just a little bit you need a little margin in your life take the holiday but don't take a holiday from jesus don't take the sabbatical from your relationship with the lord prayer shouldn't exit your schedule because these are your rest days you still need to be the deer that pants after the water your soul has still got to be replenished and can only be replenished when you have intimacy with him and you're trying to figure out lord you told me that i was going to be replenished you told me that i was going to refresh you told me that you had something that you wanted to give to me why would you take me here to this place where i'm being pressed down by a multitude of issues and concerns and frustrations there's something overwhelming me that is bigger than what i feel like i have the capacity to handle why would you bring me here this tells us that the story of the feeding of the five thousand is not just about the five thousand it's also about the disciples it's not just about the multitude getting fed it's about the disciples being fed physically spiritually emotionally and it tells us that the five loaves and the two fish are the gift to the multitude but it's the multitude that's the gift to the disciples because the multitude is what's going to make them have to finally open up their drawer pull out the treasure that they would have otherwise ignored place it in the hands of a multiplying master who's gonna show them what it looks like when he takes their little bit and makes it a lot there is no replenishing like watching god multiply your loaves and fish i came to tell somebody who's got a multitude pressing on you in your marriage or in your finances or in your health or in your parenting or in your singleness that thing is weighing down on you that means that there is a drawer waiting to be opened that means there's some treasure waiting to be unveiled when you take it out finally when you stop ignoring it when you stop circumventing it when you stop acting like god hasn't given you everything you need when you will finally recognize this little bit this little gifting this little talent this little time this little money this little dream this little vision that this is all i need if i'll just pull it out and entrust it to the hands of a multiply master can i just show you real quick what the disciples did just real quick because i think it's interesting because it's so us they said to jesus in verse 12 send the multitude away [Applause] and here's the thing that's so us see we don't just say it we pray it [Applause] we pray away what we don't even recognize is the gift he has given us to press us into opening up our drawer so if you pray for your multitude to be taken away and in god's sovereignty he has left it in your life that means there's a drawer there's a drawer stop start looking for a drawer if there's a multitude that means there's loaves and fish somewhere in your life that is supposed to be entrusted into the hands of god so we pray away did you realize in verse 12 they are wishing away what in verse 11 jesus welcomed jesus welcomed what they're wishing away so the disciples say get get this multitude away they don't even know they're praying away their miracle everybody wants to see the red sea divide but nobody wants to be the one that comes face to face with a red sea everybody wants to see the walls of jericho come tumbling down but nobody wants to be the one who has to walk around those walls in obedience to god to trust him to shout prior to seeing one brick fall if there is a multitude that means there is a miracle okay so praise the multitude or they ask for the multitude to go away and jesus he doesn't go for that so when he doesn't they he doesn't go for that the disciples have another solution this is us too send the multitude away jesus says and they say well send us away then you see it they said send us to the surrounding towns and villages so that we can go and buy more accumulate more get more because as we are is not sufficient so send us somewhere else so we can get better and be better suited to this multitude because as we are is not enough it has always been the tactic of the enemy to get us to think that we are not enough as we currently are that what we currently have is not sufficient for the task that is before us but if the lord has allowed that multitude into your experience that means that as you currently are with the entrusted treasure the power the authority that he has given to you you've got everything you need if you just pull out what he already has entrusted to you in fact in mark chapter six our layer of chocolate cake we find out that he says to the disciples well what do you have he asked them that question he says what do you have and then he doesn't even give him a chance to answer he just immediately responds and says go and look he said it like that go and look he said it like you would tell your kid if the month i mean the week after christmas they came to you and said mom i'm bored you would say well what do you have and then before you gave them a chance to respond because you could already tell that the response they was going to give you was going to get them in trouble so you didn't even give them a chance you just say you would say to them go and look because if you'll just look you'll see that the thing you're complaining about is something you already have access to if you will go and look moses you will see that everything you need to do what i've called you to do it's in your hand it's that rod that common rod that has always been right beside you but now i'm gonna infuse it with my power if i can just get you to go and look moses pick the stick up put it over the red sea you will see that it will make the red sea divide like a solid wall go and look david yes goliath is right there but if you'll go look down by the stream i've already provided five smooth stones that will be everything you need to take that giant down go and look spend all of the energy that you're spending complaining spend that energy going to look for what god has already given us access to so they pulled it out all right jesus you're gonna do something with this they say okay here you go and they put it in his hands everything changes when you put your five and two in the hands of jesus everything changes when you stop speaking negatively about it and just trust it into the hands of g when you just take that little dream that he has entrusted to you and you give it back to him and you say don't look like much right now but i'm putting it in your hands and the great thing about our god verse 16 says is that he took the meager gifts of man he didn't look at their little bit and say come back when you've got more uh a holy divine almighty powerful god a god who does not need us or our loaves and fish when man gave it to him he received it and looking up to heaven he blessed it y'all you don't need more you just need god's blessing on what you've already got you don't need more you just need god's blessing on your five and two girl that's all you need you know what his blessing is it's his favor y'all favor is what makes the scales balance over in your favor favor is what makes things a little bit unfair on your behalf favor is what opens doors that nobody can shut favor is what puts you in positions that nobody can take away favor is what sets you before kings and queens the favor of god is what you want on your life on your five and two looking up to heaven he blessed it then he broke it and he kept giving it to the disciples and it kept going and it kept going and the 12 didn't understand how the little bit they had they had in the beginning had become so much and their entire multitude the whole burden was satisfied and when everybody was satisfied oh somebody say satisfied oh victoria i wish we had time tonight girl satisfied this is not some you know happy meal sort of situation here this is not a number one on the burger king drive-thru this is sunday afternoon i'm talking about old school sunday where your mom started to cook on saturday night and the yeast rolls were rising and the macaroni and cheese was bubbling and the sweet potatoes were all gooey on the stove and ever the sweet tea was going the roast you know she started the roast on 200 the night before and let it simmer all night long y'all are getting hungry aren't you i know listen do you remember how when you came home from church the next day you ate that and the only thing you could do after that was that's all you could do that's why jesus said go ahead and have the people recline have them get in a posture of expectation that i'm getting ready to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that they can ask or think satisfied sunday afternoon kind of satisfied that's what he does and they were so satisfied y'all don't even sit down just stay standing listen they were so satisfied this is how you know how good the meal was there was leftovers they started going around picking up the leftovers y'all and guess what there were 12 baskets full one basket for each disciple to take home as an overflow of the grace and the blessing of god i want to pray for any of you who are in this room and you've got a multitude weighing on you you gotta i mean that thing is burdening you down and you've never considered the fact that you've already got what you need you've been thinking this is not enough gifting this is not enough talent it's not enough money it's not enough time i don't have enough and jesus is whispering in your ear tonight you got enough just give it to me i'm gonna multiply it i'm gonna blow your mind with what i'm gonna do if you just trust it to me anybody got a specific multitude that you need prayer in regards to just go ahead and raise your hand we're going to pray right now in jesus name victoria will you come up with me please just as a pastor in this house would you just be present in this moment so we can pray over god's people lord right now we entrust every single woman who has her hand raised in particular we entrust every single one under the sound of our voice lord to your love and care we thank you that you are sovereign over their lives father we thank you that there is nothing that is in our experience right now that is not first passed through your fingers and since we know you are good and that you are kind and that your mercy endures forever then father we believe that if you've allowed this multitude there's something in this multitude we don't want to miss and so father i pray right now that you would change our perspective so we can see in this multitude what you have for us don't let us miss it for anything in the world lord and then father i'm gonna pray over our five and two i ask right now in jesus name whatever the five loaves and the two fish are that you have entrusted to every single woman i pray that you would give a holy courage and a holy boldness that would compel us to open up the drawer and pull it out and entrust it to your hands father god i do pray that if this multitude has anything to do with the enemy lord if the enemy has assigned an attack on any woman or her family i pray that his attack would be canceled in jesus name and by his blood that has been shed on calvary but lord if this multitude is of you then right now in jesus name i thank you for it in our lives come on and thank him for it i thank you for it and then father we're going to go ahead and get in a posture of abundance we're going to start living and praying and acting like people who believe that you are the god of ephesians 3 20 and 21. you can do above all that we ask or think in jesus name i cannot even begin to tell you how excited i am to be here thrilled finally to be at passion this is my first time being at passion i i'm the new kid on the block thank you for making the new kid feel welcome it is a privilege to be a part of what god has already been doing through this movement for these years these decades that god has been sowing seed into the lives of of you y'all don't even know what it is that the lord has in store you can't even imagine i'm trying to tell you that whatever is in your mind right now about what god might do with your life it is too small for what he's actually planning to do too small you cannot fathom what god has in mind for you the reason why i can say that with that much boldness is because while there are 30 plus thousand of us that are gathered together in these three arenas and then those that are on the other side of the screen in their homes thirty thousand sounds like a big number unless you consider the fact that with seven plus billion people on the planet the fact that he'd let us be the ones that are recipients of what he's done over these last few weekends really it's just our last few days really it's just a drop in the bucket 30 000 sounds like a lot but in the grand scheme of all the people that could have been here y'all he chose us that means he intended for you to know you're an arrow that your expectation is that you're getting ready to go places the likes of which you could never imagine oh i like y'all y'all talk back to me i go to that kind of a church where they talk but you know i go to the kind of church where if the preaching gets really good to us we might throw something at the pastor a shoe a baby anything might go flying up there y'all are my people y'all came to have church so i have three boys um it's a little bit scary to me that they are nearly it will be very soon in the next few years will be about your age three sons the distinguishing characteristic about my boys is that they are giants they are huge boys my 15 year old is six foot two inches tall he wears a size 14 men's shoe my 13 year old is about six one he wears a 13 men's shoe and uh they tower over me i have a nine year old who's coming up in the ranks with his brothers they are tall boys somebody can help me feed these people and one of the distinguishing characteristics about or what makes their size work for them rather is that they do love sports so whatever sport is sort of in season that's what we're playing at the time my second son for a lot of years he's into basketball now but for a lot of years baseball was this thing and i enjoyed that i enjoyed baseball season i liked going out there for spring ball i liked spring ball because you go sit in the cool of the evening while your kid is practicing i remember all those years of of little league when he was just coming up and we'd sit out there in the cool of the spring evening under the lights of the bleachers watching and practice and enjoying just uh that that whole atmosphere i like spring ball so much the only problem with spring ball is that it is going to become summer ball and i don't know what happens where you live wherever you're coming from but i can tell you in dallas texas which is where i still live where i was born and raised in dallas texas in the summertime it doesn't warm up slightly it gets hot i'm talking about slap your mama hot that kind of hot the kind of hot where you feel like the sun must be mad at you about something like you did something to the sun and the sun is trying to get you back all summer long that's what it feels like and you're sitting out there at a game trying to enjoy your kid's game and it really still is okay when there's just one game the problem is that at the end of every season there's a tournament so you got to be out there on a thursday at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and noon and 2 p.m and then depending upon how your kids team did you're gonna have to come back on friday at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and then they give you a little lunch break but you got to come back for the 2 p.m game the 4 p.m game and then if your kid's team had the nerve to do well you got to come back again on saturday for the 8 a.m game and 10 a.m and noon and two and man you're sitting out there under the blazing sun trying to be happy that your kid is doing well really you're wondering if it's ever okay to pray they lose so you can go home i will never confirm nor deny that i have ever done that but i will tell you that we were sitting out there at a tournament so several years ago sun was blazing we were so excited for the lunch break just because that meant we would be able to go to a restaurant where there would be air condition and ice water that actually had ice in it we got refreshed we came back we drove our suv up into the parking lot opened up the back of the suv so that we could pull out all the gear that we needed to go to the next game in the tournament we were three days into the tournament hot sweaty they were doing well we were trying to be excited about it ready for the next game i was walking behind my son to get from where we had parked the car over toward the dugout where the next game was going to be played and so i gathered up all the stuff you know the ice chest that you have and the um the umbrella that you might have to go over your head and you know the water bottles the the backpacks the the baseballs the mitts all that stuff and i was following behind my son my second son jerry jr is a fairly gregarious personality he's outgoing he's excited for a challenge so i could see that in his step as i followed behind him i could see a skip in his step his chin was up his shoulders were back he was excited about the next game and i got to tell you he's pretty good in baseball he has a natural knack for it i remember at 10 years old was the first time he got a good hit and sent it sailing over the fence line at 10 years old and i think it's partly because of his size just a lot of power behind the swing a great as a first baseman so we were really excited about his success in baseball and and i watched him as he kind of hopped and skipped over to the next game just excited about the next challenge in the tournament but because i was following behind him i had my eyes glued on him and i could see when something changed i could see that as we took the short walk from where we'd parked the car over to the dugout i could see that his shoulder started to hunch over and his head hung down i could see that that that skip that had been in his step had changed he was kind of walking like he was nervous he was wringing his hands a little bit i saw that he was looking around his eyes darting and looking a little bit sketchy i was trying to figure out what happened to my boy it was a short walk from where we parked the car over to the dugout and all of a sudden his countenance had completely changed so i started looking around trying to figure out what was going on why did he look so insecure and fearful all of a sudden i realized that as we were going toward the dugout we were walking past some kids from another team they were all laying on the grass underneath the shade of an oak tree getting ready for the next game as i passed them i could see this was the team we were about to play next kept walking and i kept getting a look at these boys and when i looked at them i realized what my son's problem was we had faced this team before we had faced them earlier in the season and when this team had played my son's team earlier in the season they had annihilated us it had been a complete embarrassment a complete upset this team right here y'all they were serious baseball players but we had to walk right by them to get to the dugout as we walked past there were two players they were talking to each other one was whispering to the other i think he thought he was whispering but we could hear him he leaned over to the other one and he said there goes that big kid from the red sox team is he the one that hit the ball and it went over the fence yeah he was the one at first base the one that caught any of the outs that we got in the game that was him so that's jerry shire when my boy heard his name crossed the lips of the opposing team members those shoulders that had been hanging down all of a sudden i watched him pop back again i watched his chin go up i watched him get a little swag back in his step as he headed over toward the dugout in fact we had to bring him down a few notches before the game started it's amazing really how your countenance changes when you really overhear and understand what the enemy thinks about you when he sees you coming it doesn't mean that the challenge goes away it means that in the face of it you're different your stance is different because you recognize that when the enemy sees a daughter or a son of god coming his way he's shaking in his boots not because of you but because of the holy spirit of god that lives on the inside of me i came to tell somebody today that even if you don't believe what it is that the word of god declares to be true about you you need to know that the enemy does he knows that every single thing that god's word declares to be true about you every word that has been declared over you in these last few days of this conference even if you're not convinced about it the enemy is he knows that you have been forgiven he knows that there is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in christ jesus he knows that you have been given the victory he knows that you have been made competent by the spirit of god he knows that there is therefore now no condemnation for you or for me no shame no guilt he knows that you have not been given a spirit of fear but a power and love and of a sound mind and y'all he knows that in the end we win and i'm saying what ashamed it would be for the enemy to believe more about your potential than you do what ashamed it would be for us to go out of here with all of this inspiration that we have been given this investment of god's word that he has gathered us together over the course of these days to worship in spirit and in truth and to hear his word declared true over our lives what a tragedy it would be for us to walk out of here and still live like we were before we came through these doors so what the enemy will do is scatter challenge in front of your life because listen you're going back home to challenge y'all do know we going back home in a little while right and don't we wish we could wake up to this every single day don't we wish that we could have god's word spoken over our lives with this much authority and power every single day and be in the presence of leaders who can lead us into the presence of god and worship every single day like this but the reality is we're going back home the challenges of your university campus the challenges of your home your relationships your friendships on your job those challenges will be sprawled out in front of you when you get home and let me tell you something what the enemy hopes is that the sight of them will cause you to shrink back in so much fear and insecurity that you'll never step up to the plate of being who god has called you to be listen if you place faith in jesus christ i hope you know that the enemy understands he cannot destroy you he knows his chances are over of destroying you so he is going to spend the rest of his time and the rest of his energy just trying to discourage you trying to distract you so that you'll shrink back in fear and insecurity and not step up to the plate and be who god has called you to be it is at least in part to this end that the apostle paul gives us a passage of scripture that has become a lifeline for me in fact i was talking with christine yesterday chris and i have known each other for a very long time very close friends and she was asking me what i was going to speak on and i had several thoughts of directions that i was leaning toward but in the end we as we were talking the question came up if there was only one thing you could say to them if there's only one message that you ever have the opportunity to tell these students these young people that will be gathered together on this occasion what would that message be and there was one thing that immediately popped into my heart and my mind for you at the end of this year's passions passion conference it's the words of the apostle paul he writes them in the book of ephesians listen let me just tell you quickly before i read this passage you got if you if you've not read the book of ephesians you're gonna have to read the book of ephesians y'all listen it's it's like for real the apostle paul y'all know he was a bad boy he gave us most of what would become the new testament letters written to first century believers that now disciple us and help us to mature as believers and as the body of christ and scholars say that of all of paul's writing really the cream of the crop the cherry on top of the cake is ephesians because in the book of ephesians y'all he just spends the first half of the book just rehearsing who you are as a daughter or a son he wants to make sure you step up to the plate rise to the occasion of who you've been recreated in christ to become those of you who place faith in jesus christ last night who stood to your feet at the end of pastor louie's message and you placed faith in jesus listen the old has gone and the new has come you're a daughter you're a son and you have full rights and privileges that have been granted to you the apostle paul wants you to know what is the hope of his calling and choosing you he writes in the first and second and third chapter about the treasure that you have he wants you to know about the mercy that has been lavished upon you the grace that has been given to you he wants you to know that if you've been rejected by everybody else you've been hand-picked chosen and adopted by the one true god he wants you to know that if you've dug a pit of sin for yourself that is so deep you can't find your way out of it that the mercy of god is so great and so grand that it can reach down into any pit and snatch you up out of it once and for all in fact paul gets so worked up that by the time he gets to the middle of the first chapter he bursts out in a prayer and he says i'm praying that the eyes of your heart would be open so that you would just know what is the hope of his calling and choosing you and after going over and over and on and on about the lavishness the richness the grace the mercy the goodness the adoption that has been poured out over us the forgiveness that has been granted to us he's trying to figure out how do i close this letter to make sure they step up to the plate how do i put an exclamation point on passion 2018 to make sure that what god has given them they don't hand over to the enemy as soon as they walk out the door and the apostle paul writes these words to us in ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 10. he says finally you be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might he says put on the full armor of god so that you may be able to stand firm against the scheme somebody say schemes against the schemes of the devil he says we wrestle not we struggle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are in the heavenly places he says so therefore you might as well just go ahead and put down all the weapons of this world that aren't working for you anyway and take up some weapons that actually have some power he says take up the full armor of god so that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm he says you ought to just stand firm therefore in these few verses of scripture the apostle paul begins to introduce to us a concept that has not been at least in the context of thus far in church development at that time had not been as overtly described as it is right now in paul's letter he brings up the topic of spiritual warfare he says you have an enemy he says i want to make sure that it's loud and clear there are other places in the old testament and throughout throughout the new york where we can infer that we have a spiritual unseen battle going on but this is the first time that an author comes right out and says you have an enemy and he is scheming against you that when you leave this place in just a little while when i leave this place in just a little while you need to know that there is an enemy he is against you he is not for you he plans to do anything and everything in his power to stir up challenge in your life enough to cause you to shrink back and not rise up and stand firm in the victory that you have been given in christ jesus that's why the apostle paul says stand firm because you have an enemy an enemy that wants you to think that just because he is invisible he is also fictional he wants to be chalked up to nothing more than a caricature a cartoon picture a myth a a character for a kid's nursery rhyme he doesn't want you to recognize the influence that he has over your life possibly to to cause you to never walk into the full expression of god's grace and goodness in your life he is sinister he is a master illusionist and he is a deceiver and he hopes to cleverly disguise himself behind life's most pressing problems to where you will forget he is even there he wants you to point fingers at him or at her at your boss at your parent at that particular professor or your r.a in your dorm he wants you to think it's that advisor or it's that financial problem anything flesh and blood because he knows as long as we're looking at the flesh and blood we will direct all the wrong weapons at the wrong culprit we'll think our money will work we'll think our rationale and logic will actually work we think that the diploma we're about to to achieve and receive we'll think the diploma will be work worth it we'll think that the connections will work anything natural cannot take care of the supernatural when your problem is unseen and spiritual you need weapons that work in that realm so the apostle paul says you got to know first of all that your enemy is not the person you were sitting next to today that your enemy is not your parent at home your enemy is not that professor that is difficult to work with your real enemy is not your boss on your part-time job your real enemy is unseen he is hoping y'all that we will forget he's there he is the master deceiver so there's a little church around the corner from my house in dallas i've been taking my kids there since they were little to harvest festival that's basically this church's answer to halloween so we will go there for harvest festival and this church has a good old-fashioned trunk or treat does anybody know what i mean when i say trunk or treat okay all right so trunk or treat for those of you who are not clear on what that is that's when members of the congregation volunteer they volunteer to bring their cars into the parking lot on harvest festival night so that they can open up the trunk of their car so you go into the parking lot all the trunks are open and each person has basically crafted a carnival game or some sort of fair game out of the trunk of the car so kids line up one trunk after the other they play whatever the game is and then most of the time whether they win or lose the person that owns that car gives them a whole bunch of candy and sends them home we're always so grateful so we stand in line one car after the other waiting on bags of candy and we play one game after the other a few years ago the biggest line the longest line at the carnival wasn't behind the a car it was behind the bed of a truck it was really clever a huge truck had been parked in the parking lot and they'd put a step ladder right at the bed of the truck so that a kid could walk into the bed of the truck they had attached a top which was about the same size as the bed of the truck they had attached it to the side of the truck cut six holes into it put some fabric some drapery over it and out from those holes every few seconds a puppet would pop through they gave the kid a huge plastic mallet and the job of the kid was to run up and down the inside of the bed of the truck as he tried to hit the puppets on top of the head it was a homemade whack-a-mole game is what it was and it was the longest line me and jude at the time he was like four jude is my youngest me and jude are standing in line we're waiting on our turn behind us there's another kid he's with us his mom he's probably four or five as well and y'all he was hysterical because he was annoyed at this whole situation and he was making sure she knew it he was first of all annoyed because mom i don't understand why i got to stand in this long line didn't we come to the carnival to have fun this ain't fun standing in line ain't fun i have an idea mom how about this how about i go play all these other games while you stand in line and hold our place and then when it's our turn i'll come back and join you in life but he was not only annoyed about the line the four-year-old was also annoyed because mom i don't even understand this game why in the world would i waste all my energy running up and down the inside of that truck to hit the puppets on the top of the head if when i hit them on the head they're gonna disappear but then they're just gonna come back as soon as i hit them on the head what's the point of this game so everybody in the line is laughing hysterically because this four-year-old this five-year-old is talking so much about all of his frustrations finally he gets so frustrated that he works himself into a frenzy to where all i saw out of my peripheral vision was a four-year-old flash running past me as he ran forward and he grabbed the drapery off of the table top and pulled it clean off underneath there were three adults with puppets on each hand that day we all got a good laugh but we also got a good lesson there is always something you can't see influencing what you can and if you spend all of your time your energy your effort trying to hit at what you see popping up in your life you're gonna be so frustrated and by the way exhausted because as soon as you take care of one thing another one is coming back unless you do what the apostle paul says pull back the curtain and let the enemy know we got our eyes on you and we're gonna use some weapons that actually work back there behind the curtain y'all i wish i had learned this when i was 18 19 20 21 years old that that person that physical problem isn't really where you need to invest your energy pull back the curtain use the weapons that actually have power the apostle paul wants you to know that the tactics of the enemy are serious business and so he uses a specific word to describe them he says schemes listen to me he knows your weaknesses he knows how to dangle what carrot at the right time in the right way to make sure you are snagged in particular have you ever wondered or found curious that that particular carrot is always dangled in front of you when you are most tired when you are most vulnerable when you happen to be most hungry most alone most weak that particular carrot the one that wouldn't mess with your friend because it's not her deal it's not his deal he's not enticed by that but the one that entices you always shows up at the right time y'all that's not coincidence that's a scheme the enemy is trying to derail you he's trying to make sure that you don't walk in a manner worthy pleasing of the lord that you come in here but then you don't go out of here the purpose to live for the glory of god he's trying to trip you up not only for his own benefit but because he does not want you having access to everything that you are privy to as a rightful heir to the king of kings and the lord of lords it's a scheme so if he's got tactics we need tactics the apostle paul outlines them for us i'm just going to read them to you because he says in verse 13 you need the full armor and here's what they are verse 14 he says make sure that your loins are girded with truth then he says you need a breastplate and the breastplate is called righteousness and then he says in verse 15 you got to have something for your feet if you want any hope of being able to move forward successfully so your feet need to be shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace and then not only that but he says there are some flaming missiles of the evil one that he fully intends to send sailing into your path you're going to need a shield and the shield is your faith and then you know there are lies there are strongholds that he's going to try to erect in your mind you're going to need something to protect your mind he says you need a helmet and the helmet is your salvation but not only that he says that you are going to need a sword really a dagger of the spirit it was about 18 inches long or so the one the apostle paul is referring to you need a dagger so that when the enemy is all up in your space you've got something close at hand to make sure that he stays at bay you need a dagger of the spirit and the dagger is called the what the word of god but y'all he doesn't stop at those six can i just say that there is one more in 18 verse 18 traditionally it's taught as six i really believe there are seven pieces of armor because in verse 18 he says pray it says pray [Applause] not like you know a prayer or a day to keep the devil away not like a prayer over your meal just because that's what your mama did and your grandmama did and that's what you're supposed to do not something quick and casual fervent prioritized prayer y'all you can't have victory if you don't pray do you hear what i'm saying to you prayer is the key that unlocks the resources of heaven so that they can be unleashed on planet earth prayer is the key he's actually given you to get all the good stuff down here because i don't know about you but i don't want to wait to get to heaven to experience all that god has for me any bits of heaven he plans to give me on earth i want it right now prayer accesses the bits of heaven he intends to give you now and prayer listen prayer is what pushes the kingdom of darkness back it's what pushes it back that's why jesus said my house shall be called not a house of good preaching not a house of good singing not a house of great spotlights and production not a house of great cafes i hope you have all of that enjoy it but jesus said at the end of the day my house better be called a house of prayer because spotlights and fog machines and great singing and great preaching that won't necessarily push the kingdom of darkness back but when my people who are called by my name when they will humble themselves and when they'll pray he says then i'm gonna hear from heaven i'm gonna heal the land the enemy will have to bend the knee at the name of jesus in prayer so pray there's one other piece of armor i couldn't get by without talking to you about it for a few moments y'all still awake everybody again it's in verse 14. he says put on a breastplate called what righteousness righteousness jerry and i live in a fairly rural part of dallas fort worth we like it that way close enough to the city we can get there quick but it's quiet and lazy we live on a little two-lane sleepy road somebody's got some horses over there there's some cows over there and one of my closest friends lives across the street that's why we like it because she's got a pond in the front of her property so i'll get the boys and the two fishing poles i bought on sale at the local walmart i have a tackle box too that i got on sale there because and you know we need things we need extra hooks because the boys always lose the hooks extra bobber thingies you know because we need extras of those i also have gloves in the tackle box because y'all know i don't mind going fishing but i ain't going to actually touch no fish so we walk across the street with whatever hot dog meat we've got left from the week because you know we're professional fishermen so our hot dog meat is our bait we walk across the street we stand in this little cove underneath some trees and we fish just right there most of the time just a little sun perch stuff like that we can catch quick in an hour we can catch like 10 or 12 fish just a little quick easy little fishing trip every now and then though i'm feeling adventurous what that means is is that we will get into my friend's little row boat they bought on craigslist it's metal it's not a big deal it's just a little it's seaworthy it can hold us up that's all we need i'll swim we'll uh row out into the middle and we'll fish from there every now and then but i always think twice before i do it and here's the reason because in order to get in it we first have to turn it over they leave it upside down as they should to drain water while nobody's using it so i gotta turn it over to get in it and what i do know for sure is that when i turn this thing over something is either gonna hop out from underneath it something's gonna waddle out from underneath it or worst of all oh something's gonna slither out from underneath that boat because the environment under there is moist and damp and perfect for critters do you know what i've noticed every single time we turn it over something comes out and never once have i had to write a golden sealed invitation and send it into the brush nearby to invite the critters to come and join us at one o'clock today you're welcome never once have i had to invite them because the environment created by the upside down boat is invitation enough righteousness is right side up living that invites the sunlight of god's favor and blessing upon your life unrighteousness is upside down behavior that is out of alignment with the truth of god that you've been sitting underneath for the last few days it's behavior that is out of alignment with the truth of god to where you don't have to invite the enemy and come and make himself at home in your life you just keep living upside down and the environment created by upside down behavior is invitation enough listen to me you can pray against the enemy till you're blue in the face but if you and i leave passion and we do not walk in holiness we do not live in a lifestyle that is in alignment with the truth of god we will have wasted our breath in prayer paul says somebody's got to live right it's flat out straight up holiness it's holiness it's a word that our our grandmothers and our grandfathers back in the good old days when you went to church and you sat on a wooden pew it's before some churches became so pre-seeker sensitive i remember y'all i went listen i'm off track listen i went to a church and they said we are a pre-secret sensitive church and so we actually want to sort of uh in a way they said dull down the actual literal name of jesus just so we can get people in first then we will we will be more direct later on i said oh you have invited the wrong person because there used to be a day in time where it was just black and white where there were fewer gray areas and tolerance yes come as you are but don't stay as you are holiness brothers and sisters i implore you by the mercies of god to walk in a manner worthy of this calling by which you have been called that every bit of truth that you have received this weekend to align your lifestyle to it to not determine that you will still dig your heels into the ground and live immorally or speak immorally or do the things habits and lifestyles and choices and relationships that you know are outside of alignment with the truth of god turn the boat right side up so that you can invite the favor of god on your life the apostle paul says righteousness is your breastplate the roman army in the first century they had many pieces of armor as you know but the breastplate would have been one of the most critical the reason why was because it obviously protected the most vital organ they had their heart the heart is the lifeline for your physical well-being all of the blood flow the vitality the energy that you need to function in every level of your life comes from the vitality of your physical heart what the physical heart is to the physical life your spiritual heart is to your spiritual life all of the vitality the energy that you need to be who god has created you to be to have fervency in your prayer life to follow him with passion and with fire to read the bible and not just be ink on a page but you hear his voice speaking to you to have clear reception between you and the holy spirit you need a vital spiritual heart that's why if i were your enemy more than all else i'd be after your heart because one shot to the spiritual heart will wipe you out your spiritual heart is comprised of four things your mind the way you think your emotions the way you feel your ambitions what you purpose to do and your conscience your conscience is not the voice of god but your conscience is like this wiring that helps this microphone amplify my voice the the conscience is the microphone that the holy spirit uses to help you hear the voice of god so if i were your enemy i'd be after your heart because if i could get to your heart that would mean i would have automatic access to your mind now i could tinker with your thinking i'd have automatic access to your emotions i can mess with the way you feel and make sure they're out of alignment with the truth of god i can mess with your ambitions to where what you want to do is totally out of alignment with what god wants you to do and more than all else i'd want to make it sure i have a shot to your heart so that i can short-circuit the wires between you and the holy spirit now you can't even hear god speak to you because you didn't have a breastplate on the apostle paul says holiness is your breastplate holiness blocks you from a full frontal attack of the enemy holiness keeps the enemy at bay to where when he comes looking around for some people that he can infiltrate some upsell inside down environments that he can fester in he can't find that with me or with you because we've chosen right side up living aligning ourselves with the truth of god breast place in place securing us against the schemes of the enemy holiness is your breastplate i came to tell you to live right i came to tell you not to just have heard all of this to go home and live in accordance with it be ye holy not by your power not by your might but by the spirit of god there is no relationship you're in that if it is out of alignment with the truth of god that the holy spirit himself won't help you to sever so that you can walk in holiness there is no lifestyle you are living that is too uh that you're too wound up in that you can't break free from no matter how you feel in this moment you can walk in holiness there is no way you have been speaking no addiction that you have no habit that you have been festering in your life that you have been harboring in your life that the holy spirit won't empower you to break free from so that you can walk underneath the banner the favor of holiness in your life be ye holy y'all listen listen back in our grandma and our grandparents days great-grandparents they wanted to honor god more than they wanted to impress people see the problem with instagram and twitter and social media if there's a problem y'all the problem is we want this we want to be impressive and if i'm worried for our generation it is that we are impressive but we don't have breastplates on it is that we have the applause of people and our selfies are perfectly lit and we have a whole bunch of friends and a whole bunch of instagram likes and people are following us and the enemy is thrilled because we have sacrificed holiness on the altar of impressing people you gotta live for the applause of heaven you gotta decide i will not be politically correct before i will choose to be holy i will not be impressive before i will choose to be holy i may not be the the person that everybody wants to be around i may not be the most impressive but what i will be is holy because a time is coming y'all where we are gonna see our savior face to face and when we see him he will not ask us how many instagram followers we had he will not ask us how many friends liked our post he will not want to see the selfies that we took when we see him face to face he's going to ask us did we do business with his son jesus christ and then and then we're gonna give an account and i don't know about y'all but i'm looking for well done [Music] i want a well done i want jesus to look at me and say you did the thing girl not because they bought the books they bought the bible study they saw the movie no you did the thing because you honored me whether with an audience of one or an audience of 30 000 you honored me yes i came to tell you brothers and sisters walk with integrity be in the dark who you are in the light everything that your god has entrusted to you over these last few days the enemy does not mind he doesn't like but he doesn't mind that you heard him he didn't mind you came here what he minds is if you leave here and live by what you heard [Music] praise your father [Music] if you're here [Music] if you're in this room stay standing if you're in this room or one of the other arenas that were at home and you know you are living in a way that is out of alignment with the truth of god your breastplate is not in place you are open to full frontal attack by the enemy because you haven't girded yourself with holy living and maybe you're in a situation where you've been trying to live right but by your own strength and power you just can't seem to pull it off and you need the holy spirit to do what he does to set you free to empower you to rise up in victory to step up to the plate and hit a home run for the kingdom of god [Music] y'all remember y'all remember in the lion king [Music] simba's messing with the hyenas and he's like where and they're like seriously and he does it again and they're like you got to be kidding he does it again [Music] and they're like no you'll never take us down you're too weak you're too small you're too puny by yourself he tries it one more time he lets out his best roar but it sounds like something big and giant and it echoes off of the mountains nearby and the enemy enemies go running away not because he was the roar but because his daddy had come up behind him and mufasa had let out a great roar the roar of the father is behind you walk in victory in jesus name amen [Applause] so glad to be with all of you listen don't even take your seat yet let me just let me just go ahead and read god's word over you while you're standing is that all right i think every now and then we ought to just stand up when god's word is read just to remind ourselves who's talking to us listen to luke chapter 2 verse 21 through about verse 32 or so when jesus was about eight days uh were completed he was circumcised his name was then called jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived and when the days for purification according to the law of moses were completed that's about 40 days after jesus was born or so so he's 40 days old they brought him into jerusalem to present him to the lord every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the lord and they came to offer sacrifices according to what was said of the law of the lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons and behold somebody say behold come on y'all say behold and behold there was a man in jerusalem this guy's name was simeon and he was righteous and devout and looking for the consolation of israel and the holy spirit was on his life [Music] and it had been revealed to him by the spirit that he would not see death until he had caught sight of jesus so he came into the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child jesus to carry out the custom of the law simeon saw him he recognized that this little baby was jesus christ he gathered the baby up in his arms he blessed the child and he said lord now you can let me depart in peace i don't have to see anything else i haven't yet seen this guy perform one miracle lazarus hadn't been raised from the dead the sick have not yet been healed deaf ears haven't yet been opened i haven't seen any of that but once i've caught sight of the savior lord he says you can let me depart in peace because my eyes have seen your salvation which you've prepared in the presence of all the people he's a light of revelation to the gentiles and the glory of thy people israel thank you for letting me see jesus lord open up our eyes so that we can see you lord open up our spiritual ears so that we can hear you god we are sitting on the edge of our seat because we are anxious to see how you will introduce reintroduce yourself to us today lord i'm so grateful that all of us is here but we didn't come to see each other we came to see you so lord come we're your daughters and we want to see you in jesus name everybody agreed when they said amen give somebody a high five before you take your seat [Applause] i'm so grateful and i'm so honored to have an opportunity to be here with you and to share in god's word i believe in the power of the word of god i i do parent uh chris just told you three sons they are giants i just have giants walking around my house my nearly 16 year old is six foot two inches tall his 14 year old brother is the exact same height they both wear size 14 men's shoe my youngest son his name is jude so i've got jackson jerry jr and jude and we named our third son jude on purpose because y'all that's as close as i could get to revelation because it is finished that is it it's the end of the line and they're giant somebody come help me feed these people that's all i do is try to feed the boys and i remember this particular weekend because i was in memphis tennessee there were very little at the time and i remember being very very tired on this particular trip i could not wait to get to the location in memphis tennessee so i could get to the hotel i'd had an early flight and was very excited to be at the hotel early so that i could immediately go and get in the bed and go to sleep early that night i was so happy to have that opportunity and so i arrived in memphis tennessee was picked up at the the airport driven by a sweet woman who had come from the church where i was going to be at their conference she'd come and pick me up took me to the hotel and it was about 7 30 in the evening i was so happy she said would you like to go out to dinner first i was like oh no i get to go into this hotel room all by myself and have the bed all to myself i could not wait so i laid down watched a little something on television i think in about 8 30 i mean i was out i needed all those hours of rest except that around 3 a.m or so i was jarred awake jolted awake by a train that started to go by right outside the back of the hotel there were train tracks that were just a few feet behind the hotel the conductor was sitting on the horn the entire time that all of the cars of the train went by i was jolted awake and i went immediately to the window and looked outside and i saw how close that that train actually was and then you know you have to kind of sit there and wait for the whole thing to pass and this wasn't a small train this was one that goes on and on and on finally it passed and i tried to get back to sleep but really couldn't nestle down into a good sleep i knew i had to be up really early in the morning so i couldn't sleep real well but did my best got up in the morning the sweet woman from the church came picked me up i got in the car didn't say anything about the train had a great long day at the at the church at the conference and then could not wait to get back to the hotel so that i could try to get a good night's sleep this was gonna be the night that i got all my good hours of sleep in before having to go home the next day and so i laid down in the bed about 8 30 9 o'clock in the evening fell into a very deep sleep until 3 a.m in the morning when a train went roaring by the conductor sitting on the horn the entire time that the train went by this time i was jolted awake went and looked at the train outside the window and i thought i can't wait for the sweet woman from the church to come pick me up so that i can tell her about this train that is passing by right outside the door or outside the back of this hotel so when she came i sat down in the car i said thank you so much for picking me up i gotta ask you about this train i described to her how at three o'clock in the morning for the last two nights this train had gone roaring by in the back of the hotel as i explained it to her i felt bad for her because it was like it was occurring to her dawning on her like she was reminded about this train that comes through their community her eyes were as wide as saucers and she said priscilla i am so sorry i i totally forgot about that train and she said the reason why is because those of us who live in this community have gotten so used to the sound of the train that we don't even recognize it anymore that train comes by two or three times a week every week and we paid little attention to it because we've lived here so long that we've gotten so used to the sound of the train that when it comes we don't recognize it we've been desensitized to the train in this community it occurs to me that those of us who live particularly in this part of the world where we have been overwhelmingly blessed by the presence and the power of god among us we're here in this country you and i can go on a saturday to a christian's women event like this one or we can go to a christian bookstore when we can pick up any bible in any translation in any language or we can turn on christian radio and listen to gospel if you like that or contemporary christian music if you like that we have options available to us could it be that we have lived in this neighborhood of blessing for so long that when the train of god's glory wants to fall in an unusual way when he wants to show up in power and in glory that we have become so used to it that we don't even recognize his blessing anymore that we've become so desensitized to god's presence among us that it doesn't cause us as it always should for us to fall to our knees in adoration our arms outstretched and worshipped that god would visit us in this unique beautiful way lord help us to never be desensitized to the train of your glory and in the old testament or in the new testament rather in the book of luke luke's gospel i love so much because luke writes about people who encounter the train of god's glory in the person of jesus christ he gives a story after story encounter after encounter of jesus meeting with people and transforming their life he included a handful of these stories so that you and i would be not only reminded of their encounter with jesus but recognize that they are not exceptions to the rule they are examples for us of the encounters that we should also expect to have with jesus and listen this should be your goal not just hearing about him but experiencing him that should be your goal like your appetite should be wet your heart should hunger for more than just a knowledge of who jesus is you ought to come to the place i ought to come to the place in my relationship with the lord we're more than anything else we want to see him with our own eyes we want to hear his voice with our own ears that the same god who divided the red sea in the old testament the same god who raises lazarus from the dead in the new testament the same god that did those things we don't want to just celebrate it in the lives of other people we want to stand in line to have an encounter with god like that ourselves luke writes about encounters because he wants to wet our appetite to have an encounter with jesus christ because listen y'all we have wasted our time if all we've done is come here on this satur saturday to applaud what jesus did yesterday i'm so glad about what my god has done yesterday but i want to see him today anybody interested i want to see him in my own marriage and in my own finances and raising my kids and on my job and in my ministry i want to see and encounter the power of the almighty living god that's what today is about it's to make you hungry again it's to whet your appetite again it's to not let when the day ends something to end in your life but really to launch you forward to a brand new beginning and an adventure with jesus christ so luke writes about encounters and he writes during a time when the nation of israel is experiencing national depravity and decay they have been oppressed by oppressors who have come in and stolen from them much of what they valued they are living in a in a place of oppression and a praise of destruction and luke writes to them during this time when their nation is in trouble and i don't know if if you've noticed or not but our nation is in trouble we are living during a time of moral and social decay and decline like never before and listen the more god is marginalized the more he's segmented to the periphery of society the more he is completely ignored or disregarded the more we will continue to see an influx of chaos and an influx of destruction in our nation but luke doesn't just write to people who have national trouble luke is writing to people that have individual personal struggles they've been waiting on a hero to show up they've been waiting for the kingdom of god to be at hand they've been waiting for the prophecies of all to come to floridian that there would be a messiah a savior who would come and rescue them from all that they've been experiencing nationally but also the things that they have been experiencing personally so i know our nation is in trouble but i didn't really come to talk to you today about what's happening in the white house i want to talk to you about what's happening in your house underneath the roof of your home the trouble that might be happening in your marriage the thing that causes the tears to fall down from your eyes in regards to your kids or your finances or your health or on your job or in your ministry you like the children of israel like me been waiting on a hero somebody who can come in and speak life to the dead places and refresh the dry places of our life luke is writing for people who need an encounter with a god like that and i just want to tell any of you that might be in a struggle personally underneath the roof of your own house and the landscape of your own house and you're in a struggle you're in a time like luke writes to where man things are just plain old flat out difficult i just want to suggest to you the possibility that sometimes sometimes your difficulties are less about the enemy being against you and more about god wanting to show you what it looks like when he's for you sometimes the stuff that you were facing the stuff that i'm facing that are difficult it's less about the enemy being against you and sometimes it's just about god allowing a stage to be set in your life to where when he shows up you will never ever doubt again that you've had an encounter with jesus so the children of israel need an encounter with a messiah they need an encounter with jesus christ and finally jesus arrives on the scene after 400 years of silence between the old testament and the new testament jesus arrives on the scene after centuries of waiting after prophecy desiring to be fulfilled jesus shows up on the scene their hope has finally been fulfilled but here's the tragedy when he comes he does not come as they supposed he would he is not on a throne he is not riding a white horse he is not coming in power and vengeance and authority that they had mirrored in their oppressors that they had pictured that their messiah would come in no he is born as a baby all of that deity and authority and miraculous working power that they longed for was packaged in the skin of humanity and a small human at that this is not what they wanted it's not what they recognized it wasn't the expectation they had built up in their heads so when he came they did not recognize him when he showed up because he was not in the package that they had pictured in their minds he didn't come in the package they had prayed for he had come in a different way because he did not meet their expectations when he showed up they did not recognize him in the passage that we read jesus is being brought into the temple he is being carried uh by his mother mary joseph is along for the ride as well they have come with jesus about 40 days old into the temple they are in a religious gathering where people have come to perform their religious duties and all the people who are gathered that day are in the presence of the one they prayed for and do not know him when he comes would you please notice that they're not just anywhere they are in the temple and still don't recognize the presence of god i want to suggest to you that it is possible to be at propel and not see jesus i want to tell you that it is possible for you to be in your church every single sunday which i pray you are but you can be in your church and not have an encounter with jesus i want to tell you that i'm so glad many of you are in bible study stay in bible study but you can read a verse a day to keep the devil away until you are blue in the face but if you read the scriptures with a hardened heart with your eyes not open you can be filling your days with the duty of religious activity and never catch sight of the lover of your soul never have an encounter an experience with jesus all these people were in the presence of jesus christ and did not know him when he came because oftentimes many times when the lord comes to minister to you to speak into your life's circumstances he will come in a way that is not the way you expected why because his ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts as high as the heavens are above the earth that's how high his ways and his thoughts are above our own and what i attempt to do what you often attempt to do i'm sure is to dumb him down so that his ways match our ways his thoughts match our thoughts we want him to answer our prayers the way we've prayed them we want the solutions that work out in our minds to be the solutions that will be best given the scenario that we see given the prayer requests that we've prayed but y'all sometimes we pray for growth and he answers with rain sometimes we pray for oak trees and he answers with an acorn and when the answer comes for your marriage when the answer comes for your parenting when the solution that god listened today god is going to give some of you solutions and divine strategies for things that are happening in your life and on your job and in your finances the struggles that you're facing and i'm saying when he answers if the answer does not come in the package that you have expected will you miss it because you want your way not his way and so jesus he comes and he's in a pool of religious people and they do not recognize the presence of god near them now i want to open up a little parenthesis here before we jump to a specific person that i want to draw your attention to he's the only person in the text who actually sees jesus but i want to open up a little parenthesis because you may have recognized that luke went into a whole lot of detail to sell us something about the texas one thing i love about luke is that he gives us details i like all the juice and all the details out of the text so that i can get a full picture painted of what's happening in the story and luke wants us to know that that mary and joseph are coming for the ceremonial dedication of their firstborn son that's what everybody did they would come to jerusalem particularly during this time when they had a newborn son to present their newborn son to the lord get the picture of this the lord in this case is being presented to the lord and they come in and luke writes and tells us exactly what they have with them other than the baby jesus says that mary had two turtle dubs or two pigeons for her sacrifice now that wouldn't really be of interest except that we know from leviticus from the sacrificial system that had been set up divinely mandated by god in leviticus that when someone came to make their sacrifices they did need two animals to be sacrificed one was a pigeon or a turtle dove the other was supposed to be a lamb that they were supposed to bring a lamb with them but we find in luke's gospel that he's made sure we know mary and joseph do not have their own lamb luke chapter 12 tells us or leviticus chapter 12 tells us that there was a caveat for why someone would not bring a lamb to be sacrificed there's one little verse luke chapter 12 verse 8 or so that says if someone could not afford a lamb if their financial resources were so that they could not buy for themself a lamb to bring into the temple to be sacrificed there would be an exception made for them they could bring two turtle doves instead of one turtle dove and a lamb they could just bring two turtle doves but that was a symbol of the fact that they were insufficient in some way they did not have the finance finances to buy their own lamb which means when mary and joseph came on that particular day with their two turtle doves in tow people would have automatically looked at them and recognized them as a couple who had insufficient funds as a couple who was inadequate in some way as a couple who had lack and who had knees i wonder how many people turned their noses up at the couple who could not afford their own lamb i wonder how many people ignored the poor couple who didn't fit in with everybody else who had been able to purchase their own lamb i wonder how many people did not get an opportunity to have an encounter with the baby jesus because they ignored the people who had him carried in their arms i want to speak to who anybody who's in this room and you've ever felt excluded or ignored from the click of people who have the money to buy their own lamb they drive the car and they live in the house and they're able to to communicate or to experience life in a certain way that that man you just can't afford maybe you've got lack financially or you've got lack emotionally you have lack relationally you have poured everything out and you find it that you've got insufficient funds in some way in your life and you can't afford what it looks like everybody else can afford and you've been ignored or ostracized people have turned their noses up at you can i just tell you that sometimes you don't need to have your own lamb when you can carry the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world in fact the lamb is most often best experienced in the lives of those who have insufficient funds in fact i think it is our affluence that keeps us from actually having an encounter with the living god we've become so used to being able to bless ourselves that we don't have a real authentic relationship with the blesser we are so affluent we have prosperity particularly in this part of the world where listen if you're poor in this country you're rich in other countries and here where we've been able to sustain ourselves where we know where our next meal is coming from where we choose from a closet full of clothes as to what clothes we're gonna wear to a particular event where we might have financial struggles everything is not perfect but we still have our daily needs met it is sometimes in our affluence because our arms are so full of the lambs we have bought for ourself we actually don't even have room we don't have margin to have an intimate ongoing relationship with the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world lord forgive us when we've turned our noses up at people who don't have all of the external markings of affluence in doing that we have missed out on the blessing of having a relationship with the people who often have the most intimate relationships with jesus christ because sometimes y'all those people are not in the in the spotlight they're the ones behind the scenes sometimes those are the people that are not in mega church churches they're in store front churches sometimes there are the people that are not the ones on the platform with the microphone in their hands they're the people that volunteer their time to clean up in a sanctuary like this to sweep up after us they're the people who volunteer their time to be in the sunday school teaching our second graders and third graders so that you and i can enjoy an opportunity like that lord forgive us when we ignore those people and clamor after the people whose gifts happen to put them in the spotlight but we ignore those people who are who are uh in intercessory prayer who are on their knees in the secret quiet places the lamb of god tucked within their arms having an intimate encounter with him but we ignore them because they don't look like us or dress like us or drive what we drive or live where we live so if you've ever been that person the text speaks to you today that it was mary and joseph who did not have what everybody had but they had what everybody else didn't have and so they come into the building nobody recognizes that jesus has arrived except one person luke writes at the top of the passage he writes and behold somebody say behold come on y'all say behold any time an author in the text writes that word it isn't a throwaway word it isn't something that you just need to skip or skim over quickly anytime you read behold in the text the authors trying to tell you lean in put your chin in your hands just in case you kind of fell asleep during all the minutia and the fine details that led up to this moment this is when the author wants you to open up your eyes and sit up straight because there's somebody he wants you to meet he says behold there was a man named simeon and when no one else recognized the presence of god when god came near there was one guy who did and if in this room today there are only going to be a handful of us who actually have an encounter with god i'm talking about where we hear his voice when we our hearts are set aflame by the holy spirit when you when we get some some uh direction for the purpose that he has for our life if they're gonna be a whole lot of us who have an experience today but only a few that actually encounter the living god that i don't know about you but if there's only going to be a few i want to be one of them anybody so luke says pay attention because there's one guy that's going to show you how to have your eyes open so that you aren't just in the religious place but so that you encounter a holy living god he says there's a man named simeon he's righteous devout and he's looking for the consolation of israel his eyes are open peel to the horizon waiting for jesus in whatever package he chooses to come waiting for an encounter with the long-awaited messiah and then he gives us at least the one there are many throughout this text but the one characteristic of his life that i believed opened up simeon's eyes to catch sight of god that will open up our eyes to catch sight of god he says at the bottom of verse 25 he says and the holy spirit was upon him luke says simeon's eyes were opened to catch sight of god because god's spirit was on him the holy spirit is the greatest gift you will ever receive this side of eternity the moment you place faith in jesus the moment you received jesus as your personal savior i don't know if you knew it or not but you received in that moment the greatest gift you will ever receive the holy spirit of god and the holy spirit is not a ghost or a wind or a fire or a dove he is often symbolized by those things but y'all they ain't who he is the holy spirit is the third person of the trinity not third because he is least in value just third because he is the last to be revealed to us in the pages of scripture but all of the fullness all of the power all of the authority all of the greatness all of the grandeur of god the father is in the person of the holy spirit which means when you place faith in jesus christ and the holy spirit takes up residence in you that now means that all of the power all of the glory all of the grandeur all of the greatness of god the father now lives on the inside of you ephesians chapter 1 says the moment you believe you receive the holy spirit with promise you are not waiting on the holy spirit you have the holy spirit right now you did not receive the holy spirit in installment plans you can't give away a person in parts all of the holy spirit you ever gonna get you got the moment you got saved now we need to be filled by god's spirit as we yield to his conviction in our life in obedience as what is happening in us becomes an outward expression as our behavior is modified as we are sanctified somebody say sanctified that means as we are molded into the image of christ jesus so that we start to think like him and talk like him and walk like him and behave like jesus jesus behave we need to be filled by god's spirit but when you got saved listen to me you received the holy spirit of god god's spirit is in you the benefit of this is all of the fruit of god's spirit is available to you that means that that there is gentleness that you don't have in your own natural ability for that person or that problem that now you are able to have that is beyond your own natural capacity because the holy spirit what he does is help us to live beyond ourselves when we've come to the end of our patience you know with that one co-worker that one that if she says one more thing to you you gonna knock her out that one the holy spirit is the one that gives you patience when your patience has long since run out the holy spirit is the one who gives you self-discipline so that you have discipline in areas where you know left to your own natural desires and propensities you would not have discipline in that area of morality or that area of gluttony you wouldn't have discipline but now because the holy spirit lives on the inside of you you can live beyond your natural capacities anybody excited about that the holy spirit gives you fruit so that you are able to have more than what you would have if left to your own but you don't just get his fruit you get his gifts the holy spirit gives you gifts through which you can edify the body of christ he turns what would have maybe possibly been just a talent into a gift that actually causes what you do or what you craft to actually get to the hearts of the people that you are singing to or speaking to or dancing for or writing to those people now don't just read words on a page that you wrote now the words are like fire shut up in their soul it changes their heart it renews their mind it accomplishes spiritual purposes in their life so listen if you're a writer well then write do your best work but in the end what you're praying for is that god's spirit will anoint your words with power and with fire to affect people for the glory of god don't just speak ask god for fire on your message don't just dance perfect your craft but in the end what you're looking for is not just talent what you want is a gift and there's no amount of manufacturing that can give what only the holy spirit can give so when the holy spirit takes up residence on the inside of you and on the inside of me at the moment we are saved we have the privilege of having relationship with jesus christ having relationship with god having communication with him because of the holy spirit that lives on the inside of us that if when god sent his son jesus to die on the cross if when we received that gift we got a ticket to eternity and that was all we got just that we knew we were saved from death hell and the grave and we got to experience eternity with jesus christ listen if that's all we ever got out of this salvation deal that would have been enough for us to celebrate for the rest of our days but when that might have been enough for us it wasn't enough for him amen he said no i'm gonna send you the holy spirit so that i don't you don't have to wait to get to heaven to experience heaven but so that you can have a little bit of heaven right now while you're here on planet earth i'm going to give you myself in the person of the holy spirit so that you will see what it's like to walk with me and talk with me and have friendship with me and an ongoing relationship with me that is what it means to have the holy spirit but luke says that simeon did not just have the spirit in him it says that the spirit was upon him this tells us that there is a difference between the spirit being in you and the spirit being on you i want to live a life that invites the presence of god's spirit on me i know he's in me but i want the kind of life that is a magnet that calls down the grace the favor the anointing the presence of god upon my life i want to live in such yielded surrender to him that not just is he in me that's a gift that all of us get who place faith in jesus christ but i don't just want him in me i want him on my life i want the evidence of him on my life i want it so that when i do something or say something or participate in something or pray over something i want it so that when i walk away people don't just say priscilla was here i want them to say no god's presence was here that only happens when the spirit of god is on you and so if you want to mother your kids in such a way that you leave the imprint of god on those kids the spirit can't just be in you he got to be on you if you want to be the wife that god has called you to be single woman if you want to be the kind of single woman that god has called you to be if you want to be the kind of employer or employee that god has called you to be if you want to walk with purpose in the way that god has called you to then thank the lord that god's spirit is on you but i'm asking that god will allow it there to be 2 000 women who leave this place today at the end of the day and god's spirit isn't just in us but god's spirit is on us where we are marked by the presence of god where when people encounter us there's something unusual something distinct something that they cannot touch or taste or communicate with their five physical senses there's an intangible that is on their life where when the employer is looking to give the promotion it's not that your resume says you are the most qualified out of all the candidates but there's something about you that they just can't put a finger on that's called the spirit of god being on you it's called favor favor is what opens up doors no man can shut favor is what puts you in places you know you don't have no business being in favor is what sets you in positions that you know you aren't qualified for say favor is what makes it so that you are exactly where you're supposed to be to accomplish exactly what it is that god has set for you to come it's it's what qualifies you when you don't have the degree and you don't have the diploma you don't have the connections you're just where god has opened up a door for you to be and even though people might talk badly about you or try to push you out of that place you cannot be moved not because you manufactured your way there but because god's spirit has placed you there god's spirit on your life is what makes it so that you don't have to market yourself because you've already been marked by the presence of almighty god oh i want god's spirit on me and can i tell you this are you listening there is one thing that attracts the presence of god to rest on our lives and it is holiness plain old flat out old school holiness i implore you sisters by the mercies of god to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called that if you come if i come into this room and we celebrate till we are blue in the face and we wave our hands and we read the scriptures and we worship but we walk out of here and we live in a way that is incongruent with everything that we've heard here today if we do not choose to walk in a way that honors god we will have wasted the time that we have spent here and if there is something that breaks my heart for my own generation and the generation coming up after me is that social media has made it so that we are more interested in impressing people than walking holy before our god we are more interested in being perfectly lit than we are in making sure that we're laying up treasures for ourselves in heaven lord help us when because of our hubris because of our arrogance because of our pride we are more interested in receiving the applause of people than we are of making sure that we will receive the applause of heaven but a day is coming y'all sooner than we think we're going to look our savior in his face where we're going to see him face to face and when we see him he will not ask me how many instagram followers i had he will not wonder how many people liked my message on twitter what he'll ask me is number one did i have a relationship with his son jesus and then i will give an account you will give an account and i don't know about y'all but when i give an account i'm looking for a well done not because i necessarily please people but because he is pleased with my life and the one thing that invites the favor of god on our life like simeon that will open our eyes to see him more clearly so that we don't miss him when he comes into our circumstances trying to speak to us to answer us to make himself a parent in our lives the one thing that opens up our eyes is god's spirit on us and if you want if i want god's spirit on our lives then we got to decide to live holy i implore you by the mercies of god to lay aside every sin every hindrance anything that is keeping you entangled so that you cannot run with endurance the race that is set before you any relationship separate at the past so that you can walk holy sister any addiction any habit any lifestyle choice that is keeping you from being free and walking in victory in jesus name let it go by the power of the holy spirit so that he can rest on your life going to church is good but it's not enough do in your bible study oh it's great but it's not enough if you want god's presence on you marking you making you distinct and different from the people around you then you've got to walk in a manner worthy of the lord be ye holy it's not perfection it is a call to yield to the power of the holy spirit in you so that you do not give way to all the desires of your flesh what it means is that you have not chosen as a lifestyle an attitude or an action that you already know is displeasing to god you know up front that you've already got on your calendar after this is over a place you're going or a person you're seeing that you know you don't have busy any business being in relationship with but you've already scheduled sin into your calendar i'm saying walk away from everything that is keeping you from having the biggest most amazing blessing you can have on your life and that is god's presence marking you all up on you setting you apart girl for his purposes and with his power evident through your life if you are in this room and you are in chains in some area of your life where you've tried the 12-step program you've tried to walk away from that illegitimate relationship you've tried to not live this lifestyle because you know that it is out of alignment with the truth of god but everything you've tried in your own power has not set you free so that you can walk in holiness and have god's presence resting on your life i believe that before this day is over those chains can fall off of your life that you can decide that i'm gonna live holy so that i can have god's favor like simeon so that my eyes can be opened because i want to see my god i want to hear his voice i want to have an experience and an encounter with him if you are in this room and you know you're not walking in holiness you know there is an area of your life whether in attitude or an action i mean god's asked you to forgive that person and you have dug your heels in the ground you have refused to forgive or in your actions where you were literally doing something participating in something engaging in something and you've dug your heels into the ground you've ignored the little pricks of the holy spirit asking you to walk away from that or to participate in that you've you've ignored it and you know you are not living holy before the lord and you want to get that strike today so that we can all be women who honor god in our attitudes and in our actions and invite the favor of god on our lives listen if you are in this room and you know holiness is the call that god has given to you this morning would you please right now in this holy space just rise to your feet if that's you if you need freedom in a specific area of your life we're going to walk out of here a holy band of women who want god's favor on us don't be embarrassed don't be ashamed listen ain't nobody got time for that this is the moment where we say god we give ourselves to you a living and holy sacrifice we present our bodies to you we present our minds to you we present ourselves to you lord a living and holy sacrifice do with us what you will we surrender the area of life that is our area of bondage the area we've been holding back the little cove we've kept from your fingerprints being upon it we surrender that to you if you want freedom in jesus name this is your moment stand to your feet you don't have to go home the same way you came girl you don't have to think the same you don't have to act the same you don't have to be in bondage like you are and have been we can change that by god's spirit today lord jesus i looked up every single sister who was standing underneath the sound of my voice and i pray right now in jesus name that you would give them a holy boldness and a courage to surrender to you every area of their life that they've been holding back sister would you picture that area where you know you need to ask for forgiveness i'm gonna ask you to just put your hands out in front of you cup cup those hands in front of you like you're holding that thing picture it in your hands right now the scripture says that if you confess your sin he's faithful and just to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness picture that in his hand in your hands ask the lord to forgive you ask for for his forgiveness and only when you are ready you lift up those hands as if you were yielding it finally completely to him and you lift up those hands and surrender give it to him just let it go lord every attitude every action every little hidden place in our life lord every bondage lord every illegitimate relationship every immorality father everything that is not like you we give it to you right now in jesus name lord i pray that if there is a bondage a shackle on somebody's life that is demonic in nature lord i pray in jesus name and by his bloodshed on calvary that you would cancel every demonic assignment against these women and against their families lord i pray that you would by your holy spirit break the shackles lord loosen them help us to hear the shackles falling off right now in jesus name and lord i pray that we will walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which we have been called father i pray that you would enable us by your spirit to no longer walk by the flesh but to walk by the spirit so that we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh lord i pray for freedom in jesus name i thank you for galatians 5 1 that says it is for freedom that we have been made free therefore we will stand firm and no longer be subject again to any yoke of slavery that is in our life we are free in jesus name and it is in the matchless name of jesus christ that everybody agreed and said amen amen at tbn our mission is to use every available means to reach as many individuals and families as possible with the life-changing gospel of jesus christ thank you for helping make the gospel of grace go around the world without you we couldn't do it god bless you

Channel: TBN

Views: 1,556,544

Keywords: priscilla shirer, priscilla shirer sermons, priscilla shirer armor of god, hearing god's voice, armor of god, spiritual battles, hearing the voice of god, identity in christ, god is preparing you, intimacy with god, 5 loaves and 2 fish, lakewood church, the holy spirit, not against flesh and blood, christine caine, propel women, holy spirit, prayer, god's voice, voice of god, holiness, change your life, tbn, trinity broadcasting network, t8b2n6, 8t2b6n, tbn826, 826tbn, faith, hope

Id: tQ991xiq_oA

Length: 128min 17sec (7697 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 17 2022