Priscilla Shirer: Remember God's Promises and Hold on to His Peace

y'all I can't imagine anything we need more right now than peace and Grace and we don't need it in measures that we can provide for ourselves we need it in Divine proportions that only God himself can pour out upon [Music] us when I was going off for college I'll tell you this and then we're going to pray when I was going off to college I remember for a graduation gift my parents threw a graduation party for me and a friend and people came over you know they had gifts for us and I remember that you know most of the people who were at the party were not our friends they weren't the other 17 and 18 year olds they were my mama and them friends cuz those are the people that had the stuff to help us to go ahead and get to college with you know something in our pockets so my parents friends were there one of the ladies that we have known um for so many years now she I remember gave me a book Promises of God was the name of the book and I remember opening up the bag and thanking her for the gift but feeling a little bit deflated like like for real thank you so I did take it to college with me and I remember having it there I remember putting it on my desk and then over time throughout those years in college it would get packed away as I came back home for the summer and then it would come back out into the room but it would be further and further down in the drawer you know of stuff that was layered on top the busyness of college life and I remember during all of those college Years you know doing what college students do by the time all the gifts that you may have gotten to go there run out then you're scaming around with all your friends for every nickel and dime and dollar you can find to go and buy a little meal with your friends here their hang out over there and so you're just searching what for whatever you can find I remember so many days like that until one day in my last year of college I remember that I was looking through one of the big drawers in my room and I looked down and realized that that book was in the back sort of pressed up in the corner of of this drawer so I reached back there under all of this stuff and I reached back there and I pulled this little book out and kind of smiled thinking about Mrs Holt who had given me that book and I cracked it open for the first time and out fluttered a check the whole time that I had been scringy whole time there was something accessible and available to me but I had to open up the book and every time we open up the book y'all we find out about treasure we didn't know was there so we don't have to to to live below our spiritual means anymore we can operate according to the inheritance that has been given to us and so it feels like a gift to me a privilege every time I open it up personally but the privilege that it is to do it with you um is a joy tonight and I'm praying that God will speak to you as clearly as he had to has to me encouraging me through this little portion of scripture let's pray Lord I Thank you so much for your word that it is living and active than and sharper than any two-edged sword I pray father that you would give me a clear mind and I yield my mouth and my words to You Lord to do with it what you will father I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be acceptable to you in Jesus name I pray amen second Peter is where you're headed if you've got your Bible maybe you still actually use a Bible with paper Pages like I do all old school and stuff or your iPhone your iPad any manner of eyess can take you to Second Peter chapter 1 that is where we're going to be and In this passage of scripture we meet Peter the bonder servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ this is that that Peter the one who you know the kind of lead disciple whose name continues to show up all throughout the gospels he has written to us a couple of Epistles that end up being letters that you and I can glean from and he says in 2 Peter 1:2 through 15 therefore I will always be ready to remind you of these things even though you already know them and you've been established in the truth which is present with you verse 13 and I consider it right as long as I am in this body in this Earthly dwelling to stir you up to wake you up to awaken you and how I'm going to do it is by way of reminder knowing that the laying aside of my Earthly dwelling my body is imminent as also the Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me verse 15 so I'm going to be diligent that at any time after my departure you're going to be able to call certain things to mind Peter says my whole goal is to remind you of some things I want to stir you up I want to wake you up by way of reminder one of the things that sometimes becomes a little overwhelming to me as a parent are the reminders it's that I end up having to say the same thing over and over and over again it's the redundancy that gets me sometimes we have a couple of things that I've been telling my boys since they were very little they are getting ready to be 19 17 and 13 years old now and the same thing I was telling my 19-year-old when he was one seems like the exact same thing that I'm telling him right now like sir when I talk to you the response back to me is not yeah - I can't handle that I need you to put a handle on that yes ma'am yes sir I'm still telling him that after all these years one of the other things that happens in our house is that when the boys wake up in the morning or when they return home from something like they've been at practice or school or something like that and they come home before they move about their life and about their day they have to come to me and their dad and they have to ask a question is there anything that I can do to help you just have to ask the answer might be no it might be yes but you do indeed have to ask most of the time the question looks like this is there anything I can do to [Applause] hell but a lot of times the question doesn't even come out like that I just don't get the question at all so I find myself having to search for the boys the same boys I've been telling this since they were very little and reminding them to ask the question and I keep telling them this is to your benefit do you realize you're going to be a husband one day and it's going to bless you to bless your wife by asking her this question I'm trying to help you and I'm trying to make sure I have daughters-in-law who rise up and call me blessed [Applause] reminders when we're telling somebody the same thing over and over again but the reality is when we think about our own life and our own experience the stuff that has stuck with us over time are the things we've been reminded about things that have become habitual the reminders have actually dug a rut of routine and habit into our life so that we don't even recognize sometimes the kinds of decisions that we're making or the words that we're saying or choosing not to say the kind of relationships that we choose or don't choose that a lot of that has stemmed from the reminders that we've been given I remember my mother telling me when I was growing up Priscilla it's not what you said it's how you said it your mama told you that too reminders she would say it over and over and over again and at times when we hear something that we've heard before in the season of life that we're in at that point that exact same statement or exact same directive or bit of destruction it hits us completely different because we're at a sensitive place in our life or we're at a hard place in our life or our mind or our heart has been turned in a different direction and so reminders are necessary because they give us a 3D perspective of a particular a particular Insight or a particular principle Peter believes this obviously because he says that the way that I want to stir you up wake you up alert you to the things of God and to what it means to grow spiritually and to live a Victorious life and to grab hold he's writing about in this book to grab hold of everything that God has planned for you the way for me to get you on that track is to stir you up by way of reminder now this is interesting to me because you know this is Peter we're talking about Peter Peter is the one who actually traveled with Jesus for three and a half years this is a guy we're talking about who walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus this guy witnessed the actual Transfiguration of Jesus this is the one who washed jesus' feet at the Last Supper this is Peter the one who denied Jesus three times but then knew what it was like to feel the grace and the mercy of God reach out to him and restore him after that Devastation this is Peter who saw the empty tomb this is Peter who saw the resurrected Jesus this is Peter who after the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit Peter would be a leader of the church which was at Jerusalem Peter did missionary work and preached Jesus as the Christ for the rest of his life and when it comes time for him to write this letter he says I don't want to stir you up by telling you anything you have not already heard before after everything I've seen with Jesus and the Walking With Jesus the discipleship with Jesus the friendship with Jesus I'm telling you that the things you have likely already heard are the things you just need to be reminded of because if you'll be reminded of old things instead of constantly trying to come up with new things then you'll realize that the treasure that you've been looking for you actually already have access to so he says I'm getting ready to stir you up but I'm going to do it by way of reminder and so from the top of that chapter he just starts reminding you of things he just starts calling them out one after the other and we're just going to take a few of them a handful of them to be reminded of tonight so that we can be awakened so that we can be encouraged and challenge to remain alert aware and reminded of these truths that he wants to share with us the very first one is in the very first verse at the top of the chapter he writes Simon Peter a bond servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith as the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ if you read it too quickly you'll miss the reminder that he has tucked away and embedded within this verse he says hi I'm Simon Peter and just so you know I'm a bonder servant and a Apostle of Jesus Christ and I am writing to those who have received the same kind of Faith as ours Peter says let me be clear I have an intended audience for this letter I am writing to those who have received a certain kind of Faith a faith that has come to us through one channel through one means he says it's through the righteousness of our God whose name is Jesus Christ the first reminder comes to us here as he challenged es us to consider And to clarify the content of our faith he says make sure your faith is the same kind of Faith as ours the reason why he needed to remind the people that he was writing to and by the holy spirit is because one chapter later if you read it you will find that he starts detailing the fact that there were false teachers that were rising up within the church and they were they were preaching a twisted version of the good news they were watering down the purity of the Gospel they were introducing twisted heresies and even denying the singular deity of Jesus Christ and so in this second chapter of this same book he begins to detail how the way of Truth was being slandered by people were who just were introducing slight perversions and hints of manipulation added opinion and philosophies to the purity of the Gospel so Peter right here at the top of the letter he says I want to remind you that there is a faith that is the same kind of Faith as ours and it is the faith that comes through faith alone in Christ alone to redeem you from your sins Peter cuts through the lies and the errors and the efforts to malign the Purity and the power of the good news of the gospel and he says I ain't messing around with this faith of ours I've walked with him I've talked with him I've seen his miracles I've heard his voice I saw him suffer a gruesome death and become a ransom for all my mankind so I came to remind you that there is no other way that W through which you can be saved except through this one who is indeed the Christ our faith he came to remind you is in Christ and Christ Alone the reason why this is such an important reminder y'all is because we are living in a culture and in a day and age where it's a very similar scenario to what he was describing we are in a time when the culture around us is seeking if you look closely to water down the gospel in a culture that is seeking to generalize God so that he is one of many options instead of a singular unmatched entity without comparison and with no counterparts Peter says I've come to remind the women of awaken tonight that there is our great salvation and that salvation comes by no other name and through no other way except through Jesus Christ so he's stirring you up by way of reminder that the gospel y'all is still the good news it has not changed because our savior has not changed and listen to me you are going to have to be incredibly Discerning in this day and age you're going to have to have a keen spiritual ear and listen to what you were being fed through your social media feed and on through your screens and even as you sit in the building on some Sundays in some spaces you need to make sure that what you're hearing is actually what it is that Jesus says he says I'm I'm just challenging you in this day and age where everybody's just seeking to add little hints and cleverly devised tales and a popular opinion and that which is politically correct that you're going to have to tune your spiritual ears to make sure this right here is the same kind of Faith as ours just because someone says it passionately and charismatically and didactically if it adds to or takes away from the purity of the good news then it is not the same kind of Faith as ours and then after you yourself after we ourselves sisters have had our own discernment tuned in our spiritual radar up to make sure that we have balanced everything against the truth of the word of God we are also going to have to be clear and confident and unashamed and unmoved in our own salvation you are living in a day and age where you're going to have to have some boldness to be clear about who your savior is you're going have to have some spiritual fiber some spiritual fortitude you're going to have to have some spiritual meat on your bones in order to stand up and be unashamed about the good news of Jesus Christ to use your influence to use your social media platform young people who are in the room I mean I'm still young but I'm just [Applause] saying that I'm just saying that if you are in your 20s in this room the Lord has given you unmitigated influence in a way that previous generations did not have have and it's going to take some boldness and some courage to be willing to stand alone separate from many in your peer who will refuse to have integrity and who will not cave under the pressure of the culture to stand up without shame and say there is only one name by which men and women can be saved and that is the name of Jesus Christ you're gonna have to be bold the holy spirit is gonna have to give you some courage you're going to have to be fortified because it will not be at times politically correct it will not be popular you will not receive the Applause you will be unfollowed but you have to be like Paul and say it is by grace that I have been saved and I am constrained the love of God constrains me he's done too much he's saved me too from too much he's redeemed me too radically for me to add to or take away from this good news this gospel that has saved my Soul Christ alone it's Christ Alone y'all it doesn't matter how clever the culture becomes with adding to and trying to morph a new set of ideas and ideals and philosophies we have to be clear on who our savior is the means of the Gospel is actually quite narrow Christ alone but the scope of the Gospel is very broad it is for everyone from Every sphere of life not to some but to all not to One Nation not to one political party not to One race not to one religious sector but to every breathing human being the salvation of our God through Jesus Christ has been extended do you know the Great Lengths that God has gone through to win you do you know what a miracle it is that after where we've been and what we've done after the rebellious heart that we had the times that we turned our back on God the times he came looking for us and we kept diverting his his advances toward us the fact that we're sitting in this room tonight in relationship with him do you know what he did to woo you to himself even when you wanted to run the Hound of Heaven would not let you go and I mean if we had time to tell the story if we had time for me to just take this little microphone off and start right here on the front row and just go down one by one all throughout this room all the way into the furthest region of this Sanctuary time would not allow us enough opportunity to tell the stories of how we were far away from him but he came and he found us and he loved us and he called us to [Applause] himself and this love story between you and he you do know it did not just start at the time of your birth it started before the foundation of the world that he already had you on his mind and he was already looking and watching and waiting for the opportunity when he knew in his sovereignty and omniscience that he was going to have to redeem Humanity to himself he was already planning for you okay I want you to think about this I want you to think about what a miracle it is that you were born I'm talking about physically born in this day in this age in this generation in that body in that skin color with that hair texture with those facial features with your personality it is not by chance you are not a surprise to God your parents may have been surprised God was not he was not in the heavens saying oops that one SLI past me nope he planned for you which is Little Rabbit Trail here the reason why you can be confident in who you are in that skin with that hair texture in that body is because you have been fearfully and wonderfully made with that personality with the way your mind is wired and the creativity that you have or don't have you don't have time to be comparing yourself with her and what she has and what she can do God made you as you for a reason he did it strategically and intentionally it's a miracle your birth and mine and by the way not only is the is who we are a miracle but the time in which we live has been strategically designed and defined by God meaning you and I didn't come through 2020 on accident he didn't mistakenly set you in this decade on accident that your lifespan and mind was situated in this generation on purpose because there is a testimony you're going to have that you're going to tell your grandkids and your great grandkids about the faithfulness of God he made you for this in other words your great great grandfather with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet he just happened to intersect lives with the woman who would be your great great grandmother they came together and had your great-grandfather and then with the 7 billion plus people that are on the planet your great-grandfather just happened at the right time in the right generation in the right year on the right day to intersect lives with the woman who would be your great-grandmother the two of them came together and created your grandfather and then with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet he just happened to intersect lives with the woman who would be your grandmother and then the two of them came together and created your father and then your father with the 7 billion plus people that are on the planet he just happened to intersect lives with the woman who would be your mother and then the two of them came together and they created you there ain't nothing chance about that that's the Divine hand of God orchestrating circumstances and orchestrating scenarios and the movements of people in different times and days and generations to make sure that you would be born for such a time as this and if you think then that it's a miracle that you were born how much more of a miracle is it that you were born [Applause] again since before time began God's been orchestrating stuff to make sure that he could win your allegiance to himself I've heard my dad describe it as a cosmic chessboard God is sitting on one side of the cosmic chessboard and the enemy you do know there is an enemy who is also been vying for your soul vying for Your Allegiance vying for your attention he's been on the other side of the cosmic chessboard God made the first move he put Adam and Eve Perfect People in a perfect environment perfect relationship to himself perfect opportunity to have Rapport and cultivate a deepening friendship with God but then the enemy made a move he slithered into the garden and introduced sin and now culture uh devolved to such an extent that Cain ended up killing Abel and now that perfect relationship was infringed upon because sin was introduced in the garden they were separated in relationship with from God and it seemed like all hope was lost but our God never to be outdone he made another move he caused Adam and Eve to come back together again they had a baby boy named Seth and Seth gave birth to enosh and I don't know what it was about enosh but Genesis chap chapter 4 says that when enosh was born everybody started to worship God again but then the enemy made another move he introduced sin back into the equation and it proliferated so much so that the entire Earth had to be destroyed by a flood and this time it seemed like for sure the enemy had won but our God never to be outdone he made another move on the cosmic chessboard and his name was Noah and he said Noah I need you to go build me an ark Noah said do what he said I need you to go build me an ark because it's going to rain and through one man's obedience mankind was preserved the enemy made another move so that sin and Rebellion proliferated through the hearts of mankind once again even after the flood and it seemed like all hope was lost but then God made another move he went to a little Pagan town called ER and he plucked out of it a man named Abram and he said Abram I'm going to change your name and I'm going to change the GPS coordinates on your destiny I'm going to send you to a brand new land and he said look up in the Stars Abraham you will see as many stars are in the sky that's the number of descendants that I'm going to give to you I'm going to create a brand new group of people they will be my people and I will be theirs then the enemy made another move now God's people went down into Egypt captured 400 years of brutal slavery and it seemed like this time for sure there was no hope they would never come out of this slavery but then God made another move and his name is Moses and at just the right time he raised Moses up as The Prince of Egypt and he told Moses Mo go tell Pharaoh let my people go and after 10 miraculous plagues and 40 years in the wilderness they came into the promised land the people of God's promise in the place of Promise where his presence and and blessing has been promised to them the land flowing with milk and honey but by the time you get to the end of the Book of Judges the enemy has now introduced idolatry so much so that listen to me the children of Israel did not have to turn their back completely on Yahweh they just set idol worship cultural idol worship alongside their worship of Yahweh so they had one foot in idolatry worshiping the idols of the culture and one foot of Allegiance worshiping God and it denigrated the culture so much so that the last book y'all of the the last line of the Book of Judges says and everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes if that don't sound like America in the year 2021 I don't know what does and it seemed like all hope was lost but then God made another move and her name was Ruth and Ruth's story got off to a rough start but then at the right time Ruth met her kinsman redeemer and the two of them came together and had a little baby boy named OED and OED gave birth to Jesse and Jesse gave birth to a little baby boy named David and with that one move the enemy didn't even know it but the Checkmate was already on the [Applause] way and then the Old Testament closes and there's 400 years of Silence God is on one side of the cosmic chessboard the enemy is on the other side and nobody makes a move for 400 years all of history and humanity is hanging in the balance waiting to see who's going to make the next move and then the New Testament opens and God makes a move the likes of which the enemy still to this day has never had a response for he basically puts on flesh and says let me come down here and take care of this myself he lives a perfect life and he dies a substitutionary death and three days later he's resurrected from the grave and he offers salvation once and for all for you and for you and for you and me do you realize what he went through for us how dare we be ashamed of a Salvation like that and so Peter says I came to stir you up by way of reminder today that you would never forget there is a certain kind of faith and that faith comes through righteousness in Christ Jesus found in Christ and Christ Alone he's got another reminder for those of us who have that kind of Faith he says that's who I'm writing to verse one those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours he says verse two here's your second reminder Grace and peace be multiplied to you not only has he came to come to remind you of the same kind of Faith but he wants to remind you of a multiplication of peace and of Grace this makes me happy because I like God's math you see a few verses later around verse five Peter's going to start talking about addition he's going to tell us to add to our faith moral Excellence add godliness add kindness add love he starts to tell us the things that we need to add to make sure that we are growing up spiritually and maturing in our faith so he's about to talk to us about addition but before he ever gets to us regarding what we need to add to our faith he tells you right up here in verse two God's working in a completely different set of metrics he's going to multiply to you he's going to multiply Grace and peace they are not added they are multiplied an exponential explosion of peace to to you and grace to you y'all I can't imagine anything we need more right now than peace and Grace and we don't need it in measures that we can provide for ourselves we need it in Divine proportions that only God himself can pour out upon us peace do you know what it is peace is the capacity and the potential for calm in the midst of chaos peace is an internal anchor of stability in the midst of unhindered instability that swirls all around you peace is the capacity to remain steady when everything around us is completely unsteady peace in the midst of a storm there is a storm if you have not noticed that is Raging around us and it doesn't matter what your personal concerns may or may not be right now in this particular moment we want to tell you though if you personally are not going through a storm we just want to tell you how happy we are for you but for the vast majority of us who are in this room we are in one of three places we're either right smack dab in the middle of a storm on our way into a storm or on our way out of one because it's the nature of the life in which we live Jesus himself said it in John 16 he said in this world you will have trouble you don't have to go looking for storms y'all just keep living the storm is eventually going to come and find you in one way or another but even if personally you're not having the the heavens open up over you and the hurricane the rains the floods the difficulties of Life are not pressing in on you right now personally all of us collectively have been in a storm because we have not just been through and still going through one pandemic y'all there have been layers of pandemics upon pandemics there's been a medical one yes but there has also been a political one there's been a racial one layers of pandemic upon pandemic and in order for us not to succumb to anxiety and fear or cave to hopelessness and despair the only way a Jalin can come before us and say I've lost this person and that person I have suffered this difficulty and this difficulty but I could still come up with a smile on my face still serve the people of God and still serve the house of God and not succumb to bitterness or resentment or skepticism about the goodness of God is if there is an anchor in her soul the peace of God anchors you in your soul it's a supernatural peace that he multiplies to you and Peter says I want to remind you that if you have received the same kind of Faith as ours then you can know that that kind of anchoring peace is is going to be multiplied to you Jesus said in John 14 my peace I leave with you I give it to you in Spade fools not as the world gives it because they give it sparingly and they give it temporarily with condition but not this peace that I give this is the kind of Peace Philippian 4:7 that passes all understanding you know these kind of people it's the friend that you have or the person that you work with and and she's your girl you know what she's going through she's filled you in on the trouble that she's had and the struggle that she's going through and the calls she just got from her kid school or the tragedy that has just happened or the financial struggle that she's been under under or the doctor's diagnosis that's just called you've been privy to all that information and yet she keeps getting up every day she keeps showing up she still has a sense of calm she still has a bit of a smile on her face she's not ignoring her reality she it's not denial she's very aware of it and she needs to deal with it but at the same time she's able to stay steadfast unmoved this is a supernatural kind of Peace it's a peace that makes you go huh because it passes all understanding but not just peace that is Multiplied to you Grace says I'm going to multiply Grace to You Grace is God's unmerited favor on your life that's what it is it is God being free to do everything he wants to do for you because of what Christ has already done for you Grace is the goodness of God dispensed to you that you do not deserve that you could not repay and that you cannot earn Grace is of course the basis of our faith y'all but there is not only a Grace that saves you there is also a Grace that sustains you this is what I call a Grace for grown-ups this multiplied Grace is the grace for grown-ups it's the grace that actually meets you in the details of your days and The Darkest Hours of your night it meets you in your struggles and your strife and your difficulties and your daily decisions it's a Grace that if peace anchors you Grace is actually an engine that motivates you and encourages you and sustains you it's an uplifter and a keeper it's a second wind that keeps you moving forward with honestly you would have caved a long time time ago Grace gives you inspiration to keep going it sustains you when everything around you is not changing the difficulty is staying the same but somehow God gives you a Grace that keeps you moving forward when the marriage is still hard and the finances are still low and the babies are still not sleeping through the night and the adult children are still living in a way that is outside of the way that you raised them to live and the relationship with that person is still strained or your heart is still broken or the business is still flailing when your needs are still seemingly unmet and unattended there is a Grace for grown-ups that can be your keeper y'all I don't know that I have ever in my life had personal testimony of this quite the same way I do now we've all as I said corporately been through a whole lot of stuff but y'all the last two years of our my life our life as a family has been devastating in the past two years we have lost eight family members back to back it started off with the loss of of my one of my closest friends and my biological cousin she actually was a member of this church and one day we were planning to go to the movies I still have the voicemails from her trying to organize our her kids coming to my house to hang out with their cousins while we went to the movies that's what we did together hang out at the movies over hot buttery salty popcorn and a good Coke and one day we're planning to go to the movies and the next day at 38 years old her heart just stopped and that loss started a string of losses in our family one after the other ending with December 2019 right before the the pandemic began in December the same month my grandfather died my father's father the beginning of the month and at the end of the month December 30th my mother died eight months later my mother-in-law died in between those two deaths the doctor saw something on my left lung that needed to be removed and the only way they could remove it was to actually take out the entire left lobe upper lobe of my lung so a week after my mother's funeral I had to go have that surgery one thing after the other and I don't know if you've ever had a season of your life where you look back on it and you realize Grace sustained me through that that it had to be grace that it had to be something Supernatural that we've still had our minds regulated that we have still kept our faith and our trust and our hope in him he is indeed a Grace giver and he extends Grace for folks going through grown-up situations like you and I are facing he gives a Grace for grown-ups so I want you to know that there is a multiplied piece and I want you to know from my own personal testimony that there is a multiplied Grace that has been extended to you Paul the Apostle talked about it a little bit in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 he said there's this Thorn In My Flesh ooh if I could get rid of this Thorn my life would be so much easier and better and he prays he asked the Lord to get rid of the thorn because that's what we do Lord if you can change this situation this thing that's poking me it's uncomfortable it's bothering me if you could get this out of my life then everything would be fine Jesus or God heard the prayer he prayed three times that the thorn would be removed and God in his sovereignty and and his goodness and his grace to us sometimes does not remove the thorn listen to that again somebody needs to hear that that God's sovereignty that God's goodness that God's love for you has not been misplaced just because the thorn remains in your life he said to Paul no I'm not taking away the thorn because it's by this Thorn it's because of this Thorn that you're getting ready to learn that my grace is sufficient for you in other words the multiplication of of Grace is tied to the hard things that we are facing that sometimes the Lord allows it because you'll never see the multiplication without it so if you're praying Lord take away this Thorn Lord change this difficulty the thing that you wrote down on those cards that we wrote Our requests down on earlier and turned them in and you're praying and the Lord in his goodness and sovereignty chooses not to take away the thorn then we begin to know we are growing up in our faith and maturing a little bit spiritually when instead of completely caving in hopelessness or bitterness and resentment against the Lord that the thorn remains we instead sit on the edge of our seat with our chin and our hands in holy anticipation that if he's allowed the thorn to remain that must mean there is a multiplication of Grace that's on the way so Peter says I came to stir you up by way of reminder that there is the same kind of Faith as ours but also there is a multiplication of Grace and peace that is coming to you and God 2 Corinthians 98 says is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed Paul has reminded us about the same kind of Faith he has reminded us about the multiplication of peace and Grace and finally he reminds us that there are magnificent promises for anything and everything that you face in verse three he says seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his glory and his Excellence his divine power he says and his precious promises have been given to you for everything that you need for life and for godl please don't miss the two layers of living that he addresses right here everything you need not just to live but to live in a way that honors God he's given you everything you need for that for both layers not just to keep getting up out of bed in the morning but actually to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called he's given you enough Grace for that he's given you promises for that he has given everything you need to be able to sustain you to not just live but to honor God in your living to not just live not just keep on waking up every day but to face your day with a Measure of Faith and Hope and spiritual maturity everything you need to engage both of these layers of living you have already been given even if you don't see proof of it and even if based on your current level of lethargy or apathy or indifference or lack of energy you feel a little discouraged because you feel like this cannot be true for you Peter says that's why I came to to remind you that everything you need you already have y'all my boys two of them are him here with me tonight some of y'all probably saw them outside they were helping um many of you come bring your bags in earlier tonight but my boys are are gargantuan they're huge and they just keep getting bigger and I look at them now with all these muscles popping out and their voices are all deep and they're walking around with their shirts off it's nasty shs I'm looking at all of that manliness walking around and everything that they needed to become who they currently are and will be they already had at the moment of conception when they were in my womb and we did that first ultrasound six or seven weeks in it just looked like a little little nut a little ball of of like an acorn very very small everything though that they would de develop into was already there to the extent that I cultivated and and um took care of the new life that was on the inside of me that was the extent to which they would be able to completely flourish but everything that they are now they already had everything that you need you already have right now the new life of God is on the inside of you in the person of the Holy Spirit do you realize that the DNA of God himself is pulsing on the inside of you and as you cultivate and keep healthy the life of God on the inside of you everything that you will become everything that you need to be sustained through the hardships and the difficulties and the struggles and the joys the ups and the Downs of life everything you and I need we already have do you know that in the scriptures there are over 8,000 promises that daughters Sons and Daughters of God have been given access to over 8,000 but most of them he did not put in our hand he put them in our reach which means you have the opportunity to experience God in the way that that promise confirms that you should but it's not just set in your hand it's in your reach that as you trust him as you believe him as you walk with him as you remain connected to him as you deepen your friendship with him then you begin to see that outworked in your life Peter says somebody needs to be reminded today that according to Colossians 2:10 you are complete in him the enemy wants to dull you in that regard and me he wants to make us think that we need to go outside of Christ outside of what he has given us to find completion and so we become codependent in relationships and we become addicted to substances and we go outside of our relationship to God to find stuff that he has already given you access to but every every treasure that you need it's already there if you'll just open the book there will some things will come tumbling out of the book some Treasures some insights some details some strengthening power will come tumbling out for you so that you will know that everything you need to become and to be who God has called us to be as women of God you and I have already been given access to Peter says I just stopped by awaking to stir you up by way of reminder to remind you of the power and the purity of our faith to remind you of the multiplication of peace and Grace and to remind you that the Magnificent Promises of God are yours for anything and everything that you face amen amen amen amen amen

Channel: Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer

Views: 406,869

Keywords: priscilla shirer teaching, priscilla shirer message, priscilla shirer bible study, priscilla shirer sermon, priscilla shirer sermons, priscilla shirer peace, god's promises, promises of god, gods promises, peace, peace and grace, grace, god’s promises, how to stand on god’s promises, declaring god's promises, remember god’s promises, storms of life, life’s storms, overcoming trials, trust god, how to trust god, christian motivation, bible, jesus, god, p2s4b, gb2ps, 4p2sm, 1psg6, sp61g

Id: RiQd4gRol1Y

Length: 46min 53sec (2813 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024