Desperate for Jesus Women's Conference - The Promise - July 24, 2021

it's about generations to come this is about a legacy saying i know who i am i'm a child of the king i am a kingdom woman not based on my situation but based on my position you have an arranged authorized legal accrued literal unconditional everlasting yet my lord eternal official relationship with the king you are covered [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus welcome to desperate for jesus we're so glad that you're joining us and we invite you to praise and worship our god who is he is indeed a promised keeper [Music] through history [Music] your love will never be unfaithful you'll never walk out on me you'll never walk out on me i have no reason to doubt you cause who you've been you've always been and though the future's still unfolding with everything that i've seen how can i not believe [Music] my heart [Music] [Applause] miracles and victories [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] victories your goodness in the land of the living that's what i tell myself y'all right here right now [Music] i'll see your goodness in the land of the [Applause] [Music] you know the ending from the beginning know [Music] [Applause] victories [Music] right here [Music] [Applause] me [Music] right here you can do it right here right now cause you know my end from where i started from work [Music] [Music] are you ready to worship let's worship some more together [Music] hallelujah dr tony evans thank you so much for allowing me to come we agree that there's no one like our god none compares to him and we freely bless him we freely worship we freely give him glory oh lord our lord how excellent is your name your name is strength your name is power a strong time makes me safe lord how excellent is your name your name is strength your name is power a strong tower makes me safe [Music] [Music] everybody cry everybody lift your voice nobody you're amazing [Music] is strong enough to fight for me there's nobody [Music] you're my glory you're my glorious everything yes there's nobody like you you are a keeper who wouldn't have a god like this who would a child forgot like this all [Music] who wouldn't [Music] you're a healer provider sustainer hold on i want it love you we love you we love you we love you christ save y'all abundantly oh we i mean y'all better see it [Music] [Applause] nobody like me nobody [Music] and we're crying oh [Music] for the world today [Music] nobody likes [Music] yes lord none compares to you we're under an open heaven [Music] we declare miracles signs and wonders you are the god of miracles signs and wonders and we bless you for [Music] it yes lord [Music] an open heaven where is glory shall be revealed where the sin seeks out shall he we are under open heaven we are under it in heaven [Music] where is overflow where the broken shall be made home we run [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] no [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we are [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we are [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] just to give you grace [Applause] [Music] do anybody believe in miracles [Music] [Music] is [Applause] foreign [Music] enemies [Music] i believe i believe in miracles [Music] open up heaven [Music] [Applause] [Music] open up heaven heaven yes lord yes lord oh my gosh oh my gosh there there are a handful of people that can take me to the throne like that for real like i can count them on one hand and miranda she has this way of marrying um technical excellence with a heart for worshiping god and you just she's out the way and i was all the way in the in the inner port holy holy and her her music is a constant constant rotation on my playlist if you have not downloaded her music and you haven't just made that available to you on a regular basis you are doing yourself a disservice because she is a breathtaking example of just the power of the holy spirit moving in someone's gift to introduce them to jesus christ thank you miranda so i'm still a little bit hanging in the worship moment but we want to keep this thing going and have jan greenwood minister to you and the wave that we just got off of of worship is going to carry you right on into the next wave of the word of god can't wait for you to hear this word from [Music] thank you so much for that kind introduction i so appreciate my friends priscilla and crystal what an honor it is to be in the house today i love this congregation and on and off over the years i've just had the privilege of coming in and i can't tell you i have sat in the audience here many times and been blessed so it is such an honor for me to share with you today uh desperate for jesus is such an important conference it has such a volume and voice around the world of course a gift from dr louis evans to all of us so thank you so much today as i was preparing i was really thinking a lot about like the season of my own life my husband and i have recently been married 37 years and not too long ago our youngest 21 year old moved out of the house and we became empty nesters and wow that's great a lot of fun but i did sort of begin to think like we don't have anything to talk about we're not talking about who's picking up what student how are we paying for that school where are we going from here and we just began to realize like we had sort of lost a little bit of emotional connection and so after 37 years we thought well why don't we get a little marriage counseling now i'm a little ashamed to tell you after 37 years we've never been to marriage counseling i don't recommend that i would suggest you go early it would have been very helpful to us but mark and i set off and we went to see an older gentleman as a counselor and he listened to us for a couple of minutes you know sort of took inventory of our complaints and uh the very first thing he did was he said to us i want to help you learn to connect again so we thought okay we're going to talk about our business right but instead he put us in two chairs face to face uh you know knees facing a little ways apart now you have to understand we're a little unhappy with each other at this moment so it's it's not great fun to stare your husband in the eye when you're unhappy with them and so we were asked if we would begin by just looking at one another and for 60 seconds we were required to use our five senses and to say what we saw or heard or felt or thought or smelled and so this is really awkward so of course i had to go first because i always have to go first and so i would say i see the window right here i feel my feet on the floor i feel the weight of my hands in my lap i smell nothing like it was so awkward and so 60 seconds is a long time for you to talk about your five senses while he's staring at me but the good news is then it was his turn 60 seconds mark greenwood has to say to me this is what i see this is what i hear this is what i feel this is what i sense and in a few minutes we just begin to laugh because it is so incredibly awkward but you know laughter is great medicine right so once we started laughing my next 60 seconds were a little easier and i was to exaggerate then you know i'm like i can see the hair on your coat collar and i can see the picture behind you and we began to exaggerate and laugh and get a little more comfortable but the third 60 seconds we were asked to move from our natural senses to really our supernatural senses he said jan now in the next 60 seconds i want you to tell mark what you see and what you hear and what you feel and what you sense well immediately the rim got kind of heavy quiet right have you ever had the atmosphere change in a moment so we're talking the atmosphere changes the tears begin to roll down my face i can't be mad i have to be open and honest and i began to say what i truly saw and felt and heard and he did the same now this was not my idea of marriage therapy it's not what i thought he was going to do y'all i thought he was going to help mark and about because he was going to tell mark what he was doing wrong and needed to do better and he was going to tell me i was doing a great job so we wrapped up he said i want y'all to practice that and come back next week so we came back the next week we really didn't say much about it during the week we did not practice so we came back to week two he literally sets the chairs out says get in the chair this time i think mark had to go first and now i'm a little bit annoyed because you know we're paying good money and not i'm thinking we're not accomplishing anything but because we are paying them and we yield and so we do this exercise it doesn't take as long this time we quickly get more to our emotions i think the thing that i learned in this process was not so much about what maybe marriage therapy is for other people but that for mark and i this man taught us how to authentically connect again when we were hurt or distant or disconnected you see i came to realize in that moment that i could not actually be present with my husband if i could not get present you see when you use your senses to center yourself it's kind of actually a therapy technique to help you when you're high stressed or high anxiety or maybe your mind is spinning and you can use this technique they call it grounding in the therapy field to calm yourself to get centered but there's such a beautiful mystery about what the centered soul can do to become present with another person today i want to use this very same technique and i want to talk to you about how to practice the presence of god in a very similar way once he said to me that day jan you can't be present with mark if you're not willing to be present you know i heard it in the spirit and i just had an image of god one day i was thinking about this idea that i needed to if i wanted to be present with god how could i um if i wanted to practice the presence of god how could i be present well i got to get still and i just saw god in just this very simple image of mathematics i am not a mathematician so i might misspeak this but uh you know god is eternal right he has no boundaries of time so every day is time to him the past the present and the future you could draw god as a line in geometry so a line in geometry actually has no beginning and no end you know it's the line with the arrows on both sides right now there are some points on the line that can be called endpoints there are like markers in god's line so i think a lot about the scripture is like all the stories in the scripture are like pinpoints on this line they're moments but god himself is eternal he is not it does not have a starting place or an ending place and he's not bound by the present you see god is with me all the time but it's important for me to become still in time in order to enter his presence if he's aligned guess what i am i'm a line segment i have a beginning and an end and it's a pretty tiny line in comparison to the line of god right i have a moment in time where he has breathed into my being and he's caused me to be alive and it's only in this lifetime that i can connect with him there's only a moment right now this moment today where we can enter the presence of god so today i was thinking about i just think it's so important to know how to enter the presence of god and this illustration has helped me so much over the past couple of years i can't tell you how many times i felt like i really really needed to experience god to sense him to have more than a mental acknowledgement because i do know he is with me all the time but i don't always feel like i'm with him and so this exercise has helped me i've done this in my car and in my shower pretty much anytime i'm by myself and i can use this it will slow my breathing it will focus my mind and if i can get present i promise you there's just this sense in which you can slip into the presence of god now as i use this illustration i thought a lot about a beautiful story from the bible that you're probably really familiar with uh in my growing up days it was called jacob's ladder right genesis 10. uh today i'm going to use verse 22 through 20 oh 10 through 22. sorry about that i'm going to use genesis 10 22. but you might know the story of jacob slider from childhood teaching or vbs or maybe you don't know it and today i want to share with you the story of the gateway to heaven that happened to jacob when he became present so in this story we find jacob at a really important moment you know jacob is a young man he's just come through a season of incredible sin to be honest he's partnered with his mother to lie to his father and he's stolen from his brother he's basically stolen a blessing from his father the firstborn's inheritance he's basically stripped his brother by deceit deception falsehood of every rightful thing he's stolen it and it actually says uh in chapter 27 in verse 41 it says from that time on so from the time that this happened esau his brother hated jacob because their father had given jacob the blessing and esau began to scheme i will soon be mourning my father's death then i will kill my brother jacob now jacob's mother who is also a deceiver hears esau's threat and she is afraid for her favored son's life and so she goes to his dad and she begins to persuade jacob and basically jacob decides to sin pardon me isaac decides to send jacob back to his father's homeland to the homeland of abraham and the purpose is to separate him from esau so he won't get killed so now here he is he's been sent away by his parents to preserve his life he's walking along with the weight of his sin with the process of his sin and he gets to this certain place i love the scripture says meanwhile he left beersheba which was home and he traveled toward haran which is where his grandfather had come from and at sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and he stopped there for the night jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep as he slept he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven and he saw the angels of god going up and down the stairway at the top of the stairway stood the lord and he said i am the lord the god of your grandfather abraham and the god of your father isaac the ground you are lying on belongs to you i am giving it to you and your descendants your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth they will spread out in all directions to the west and to the east excuse me to the north and to the south and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants what's more i am with you i will protect you wherever you go one day i will bring you back to this land i will not leave you until i finished giving you everything i have promised you then jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the lord is in this place and i wasn't even aware of it but he was also afraid and said what an awesome place this is it is none other than the house of god the very gateway of heaven so how do you begin to practice the presence of god well first of all you have to find you have to find the presence of god now sometimes you get to find the presence of god by purpose like i've been taught now trained now to center myself to find to the presence of god but in jacob's case he was like mr sin running afraid he's got to be in high anxiety he's alone in the wilderness he's on his way from one place to a place he doesn't know there's got to be a lot of like his heart beating fast i don't know that jacob was like pursuing god i think he was running from his consequences but yet that day he found the doorway to heaven now i love that it says you know he came upon it so god can bring you to the doorway to his presence he comes upon it and it says that he simply took a rock and laid his head upon it now i don't know about you anybody here got a stone in their life that you just can't shake yeah me too yeah i've got some stones in my life when i say a stone what i mean by jacob stone whose stone is that he's a deceiver a liar a cheater he's under the threat of death this is a stone he cannot shake right it's like his backpack it goes everywhere that he goes it carries him everywhere that he uh advances he cannot shake this stone and in effect this night he finds a yes an earthly stone but it's as if he laid himself on his stone he simply stopped he was tired he was fatigued and he had to rest so he laid his head upon that stone so i would just submit to you tonight that maybe there's a place in your life where you're carrying a stone what's your stone what's the thing you can't shake for me the stone i carry these days is a stone of combating for my health i am a 12-year breast cancer survivor i'm a walking miracle i'm not sure why i'm still alive and the thing about this stone is even thank you thank you yes i agree praise be to god but i don't know why this stone is a part of my life but i don't get to just lay it down right every day i have to contend for my health and my life this stone goes with me everywhere and sometimes i just get tired and so what i have to do is i have to take the stone and i have to lay it down and put my head on it i have to stop wrestling it stop fighting it and i have to enter into a stage of rest you have to find the doorway to heaven and a lot of times you are running from the very stone that might lead you into the presence of god you know we don't like to lay down and rest because we are afraid of our own sin we are pushed by our own anxiety we don't like the thoughts that come to us when we pause and grow quiet we don't want to center because we don't want to face the stone i want to encourage you that your stone can be a gift from god the very thing that jacob created by his own sin became the blessing the stone in your life you don't have to run from it but you need to lay your head on it so that you can find the stairway to heaven so i want you to find it jacob sort of at the end of his strength that's much like me at the end of every many days i come to the end of my strength i must lay down and rest the way you endure a stone in a hard place is you learn to bring it into the presence of god and to rest once you lay your head on the stone you're gonna have to surrender to it you know that surrender and submission are themes of the christian walk and they are included in this process of finding the lord jacob rests he yields when he goes to sleep in effect he gives up his control and i wonder about you are you ready are you ready to lay your head on the stone and surrender your control have you come to the end of your self-uh protection or your self-promotion or your self-planning and have you just gotten to the place where you're like i'm going to have to lay on this stone and whatever comes will come now this is a good place to be because you know surrender is like i don't know like a roma to the holy spirit he's very attracted to submission to surrender he's actually attracted to trust and faith and the person that's turning their attention to them and in this place what will happen to your stone is pretty miraculous as you surrender your awareness of your earthly problems will begin to disappear and you will begin to sort of ascend into an awareness of god sometimes you ascend because you go to sleep you let go and you rest right but we also we let go and enter his presence the things that are worrying us we stop wrestling with we sort of forget that we have this stone and we begin to have eyes to see something we've never seen before now jacob looked up and he saw the ladder and you might have noticed the angels were coming and going up and down i think this is the work of the kingdom this is literally how heaven works the prayers go up and the angels come down the work of god is going up and down up and down and it is happening in the supernatural heavenlies right jacob gets a revelation of how heaven works and so again a loss of consciousness of the natural and to focus onto the work of heaven he's gaining revelation and understanding and then finally by the way you have to experience it this is so important you can't just surrender and then try to be all logical about what you're seeing it was a dream it was a revelation and by the way he did get a direct word from god he's laying on the stone the scripture makes me think of him looking up and father god comes to the top of the stairway and speaks down now jacob has just stolen all the promises of abraham do you know that and here comes god in his most sinful state in his most broken moment and god himself speaks from heaven and begins to affirm for him that the thing he's stolen he's going to give to him now i think a little bit about jacob and esau and the way it might have been to carry the weight of the promise of abraham you know the whole thing about how your lineage would be so many uh so much as the sand that's a lot of work and so a lot of pressure but yet he has this experience he opens his eyes he sees the ladder and the angels and he hears god speak in this place jesus he has an encounter a revelation and he receives a promise how many of you are looking for a fresh promise from god i know i am i need a word from god yes maybe i need him to restate a promise he's given to me before maybe he needs to just speak into who i am but that encounter when god speaks directly to jacob it changes him forever when he wakes up he says wow i'm i'm literally at the gateway of heaven and i did not know it today you can know it you can know because of the the death burial and resurrection of jesus and because you have received christ and the holy spirit comes to live in you you can actually have a revelation of the cornerstone you know if you ever thought that jacob laid his head on his stone but actually what he found out was that he laid his head on the cornerstone jesus christ the foundation that others have rejected the rock of our salvation he is the what you lay your head on and if you will take your stone and exchange it for the cornerstone you can lay your head down and enter the presence of god now this is a powerful principle and something so important for you to remember because you know he didn't just call himself the cornerstone he also said you're a living brick he called you a rock and he places each of you in the body of christ but each of us we are not laid on our own shoulders we're not laid on the shoulders of our pastor we are laid on the cornerstone on jesus christ himself and finally the last thing jacob did is that he marked the stone as a memorial so he took the stone of his life and he stood it up and he made it a memorial he poured oil all over it and he designated it as a reminder that this was the place where he encountered god well you are marked with the stone the cornerstone and you are anointed with the holy spirit you are a walking memorial stone you are a reminder to yourself to your family to people that do not know you that you are an indicator of the presence of jesus and a marker of the doorway did you ever think that god allows you to have a part in being the doorway you carry jesus you carry the doorway to the presence of god and you because of his blood and because of his death and burial and resurrection we have been told inner boldly come quickly the veil was torn we are wide open to god we have an open invitation to enter the holy of holies our position is so superior to jacob's so as you begin to think about how can i connect maybe you're going to connect with a relationship that's broken a child that's lost a co-worker that you're struggling with a spouse i want to encourage you to use the simple tools of your fives of your five senses but i want you to know you carry within you so much more than those natural skills you have the very presence of god in you you mark the doorway to heaven i want you to find it i want you to submit to it i want you to experience it and i want you to mark it so let me just pray for you as we go out today father i thank you so much for the miraculous work of jesus christ in our life i thank you lord that we are new testament believers we have the vantage point to have experienced your revelation and your revolution and father today i pray that you would cause us all to be able to enter your presence more freely that we would have a greater understanding of how close you are to us and that lord as we connect with you you would fill us with your spirit you would mark us god by your word and that lord we would become attractive to other people that they might find the gateway to heaven through us in jesus name i pray amen [Music] [Music] oh my gosh i am so excited to have a girl chat with you guys and i love the vibes here this place is the cutest yeah so if you guys had to choose one thing hair makeup or nails to do which one would it be definitely nails definitely nails i don't mind doing my hair i don't mind doing my makeup but i always mess up my nails always i think for me oh it has to be my hair yeah like if i can have good hair all the time that's like the best life i think i completely agree with you um and also for me doing hair is like kind of like how i relax so when i feel like some type of way i'm just like okay i'm going to do my hair what about you uh definitely my hair yeah i feel like your hair can just set the tone you know if your hair your makeup or your hair your face you know yeah absolutely yeah i'm going to be showing you three quick summer hairstyles for box braids so the first one is a half up half out you want to grab two sections in the front of your hair and pull it to the back and tie it [Music] the second one is a ponytail but to spice it up you want to add two braids in the front [Music] and then the third hairstyle is the same but you want to add a bun for the back if you don't want your hair on your neck and i'm taking one section of the braids and twisting it like that and you can do it counterclockwise or clockwise and you just want to twist it around like that now you're ready for the summer time with the three quick hairstyles that i gave you we have those days where we're just kind of like uh you know maybe i'm not like feeling myself what are some insecurities that you guys kind of like have about yourself in terms of like beauty going through middle school and like going through teenage years your body's changing so it's kind of like that's kind of been my biggest insecurity that i've had to work through is like learning to love myself and like learning to love my body and learning to love who i am in my body uh when i was younger i struggled with my curly hair and i remember going to my mom asking her like why is my hair curly like why can't i have straight hair and so i went and i had a relaxer in fourth grade i would probably have to say body image like you too i mean i've been bigger i've been super skinny i've been pregnant i've been like flabby after the baby i feel like i've been all the things and what's really kind of helped me you know through that is knowing okay you know it's okay to have an accurate view of myself like if i'm bigger i'm bigger like and to acknowledge that and to say okay like lord what do you want me to do with my body you know am i bigger because i'm not honoring you like with what i put in my mouth or my skin here because i'm putting too much focus on working out and trying to look perfect because that's wrong too there's a lot of pressure on us to take care of our outer appearance and to look a certain way so like how do we know when to draw the line whenever i've noticed that my focus has shifted so if my focus is not on god anymore if my focus is on how i look or how other people are perceiving me or you know how i'm coming across then to me that's always my red flag of okay i'm not focused on god i'm not focused on what i should be and the times i feel like when i felt most great about myself it's not because i've looked the best or because i've you know done the most things with my hair makeup and nails it's been because i am focused on god and i think that that doesn't mean that you neglect yourself it just means that you view your body as your temple and it's okay to adorn it every now and then yes it's definitely okay to take care of yourself so that you feel good about who you are [Music] [Applause] today i'm going to be showing you guys a little bit of my skincare routine i'm gonna use this damp washcloth to get my face a little bit moist my first step is to get a little bit of cleanser we get all the dead skin off we get all the dirt off throughout our day now your face is all clean and after that it kind of depends on your skin but personally i put on some acne treatment because everybody gets a little acne don't worry about it it's okay and it just helps make the face look a little bit more clear and ends up getting all those nasty little red bumps away pretty easy and then my last step is my moisturizer once i give my touch a moisturizer it just refreshes my face it makes my face look a lot more rejuvenated and it just finishes off my skincare i hope you guys enjoyed bye i think we all agree but what are these action steps what do you guys do to anchor yourselves in god i think those affirmations like i am beautiful i made fearfully and wonderfully i deserve love because god gave his son for me and that's the biggest love i ever know i just try and read the bible when i'm feeling like that or i try and find bible verses that make me feel loved and make me feel worthy because at the end of the day god's word is him speaking to us yeah we're constantly bombarded with lies about who we are and so for me it's been daily saying okay if i'm gonna get bombarded i'm also gonna bombard myself with the truth and sometimes that does not feel good because the truth like is friction up against like our sinful flesh and so i think that it's okay to recognize when you're not in line with what god's word says so whether that's in how you feel about yourself or how you're treating others or how how much you're putting on makeup to cover up your your flaws um i think that it's really important or it has been for me of the how to keep myself angered in god women of every age older women younger women alike need to understand the gift of the promise the promise of jesus christ the promise of eternity and the promises that are in god's word and if you are watching and you're one of those younger women we want you to know that we're so glad you're here and we're so excited that you are watching this on your own or maybe your mom and your auntie and your grandma and made you watch but however you ended up here we want you to understand that the wisdom that you are gaining right now even though you may not it may not register with you how much wisdom you're gaining that you are making an investment in the rest of your life by listening to god's word and by focusing on his promises we're glad you're here and we're excited for you to remain and continue to get that wisdom for the rest of our day together today i was just thinking as you said that you know we grew up in the era where mama and grandma and him was like you gonna be a youth group even if the women the adult women were doing something we were always a youth group and whatever the youth were doing we were doing it yep and you know even even the way that we had that that section of our conference shot in the beauty shop how much stuff do you remember listening to your mama and them talking about why you were getting your hair done or washing dishes around sunday afternoon listening to them talking and they didn't think we were listening but we heard everything they said just being around women with wisdom like you're being today is a blessing for you for the rest of your life you won't recognize it till you get a little bit early but older but trust me you will value these times that you really got to just absorb in what women were discussing and how they were talking about what god was doing in their life you know what they're going to start saying instead of their mama in them it's gonna be like you know crystal and priscilla in them yeah it's us we're the older ones we're your internet aunties internet aunties that's what's happening right now okay listen stay tuned because all of us are getting ready to hear from an incredible woman we've actually come to know her probably just in the past couple of years or so that we've become acquainted with her through some personal introductions but mostly because god really has set the stage to catapult her message and her ministry for such a time as this she has such a unique voice that god is using so incredibly poignantly right now to speak to the issues that are happening and people are facing in culture so you are not going to want to miss any word from dr anita phillips here she is [Music] hi i'm so happy to be here and have the opportunity to talk to you about something that means so much to me and before we do that i always have to pray no matter how quick it is so i'm about to do that father god thank you for this opportunity to share the word with your people father god thank you for this again opportunity for me to turn pain into your purpose in my life i'm so grateful for it in jesus name amen it means so much to us to be able to take what we've been through and allow god to turn it into something to help another person and that's why i'm a trauma therapist because what i've been through a lot of trauma and i don't want to miss the opportunity to talk to you today about something we don't talk about at church enough mental illness i'ma say it again i would like to talk to you about something we don't talk about at church enough mental illness we talk about mental health but we don't want to talk about mental illness we're getting real good talking about self-care and bubble baths and sabbaths and all of those things and that matters it matters to take care of ourselves but this topic of mental illness is still a little bit stressful in the body of christ because it's like we don't know quite where to put it is a spiritual problem is it psychological problem is emotional problem is it a biological problem and we're trying to figure out where things go wrong so that we can fix them but it's a much bigger issue than any one area of our life and i want to dig into the word of god about it today the reason that mental illness is so important and has been a source of pain in my life is because i was raised in a pastor's family with an older sister who had a severe mental illness when i was about six years old for the very first time she and i were sharing a bedroom then little girl room and she woke up in the middle of the night just screaming at the top of her lungs just these blood-curdling screams and i woke up too of course and i'm just like valerie valerie you know what's wrong and she's staring at the bedroom door and she said there's demons in our door there's demons standing in the door and so i waited and i prayed because six years old trust me i knew that you're supposed to pray about that and my father finally heard her screaming and he came running and he grabbed her and comforted her and prayed for her until she calmed down and she didn't see them anymore and so it was natural for us as a christian family to feel like this was a spiritual attack and we prayed about it and it's dealt with and that was it but a few days later it happened again and a couple weeks later it happened again and then it began to happen so often that i would have to in the middle of the night as that little girl make this difficult decision do i hide under my covers and hold my breath and pray until my dad comes or do i run through the door to get him sooner but there might be demons in the door and so this question about mental illness and faith has been being asked all my life i remember one time walking into a room and seeing my mom she was weeping crying because my sister's mental illness had continued to worsen and by the time she was in her tweens and early teens she had started running away from home sporadically just running away and my mom didn't know where she was and she was weeping and she said anita one don't be discouraged by my tears greatest gift she ever gave me i don't understand what's going on but god does and he's a good god but she also said i know that something is wrong with valerie but i just want to understand it in my bible and that question that my mom had went into my heart and that's the reason that i went into the field that i went into i wanted to understand everything there was that the world thought they understood but i also wanted to understand it from the word of god so i'm going to share with you quickly today some of what i've learned because so many christians are struggling with mental illnesses and more than ever and some of you are struggling don't even know you have one i'm just going to toss that out there because somebody in the room right now was like i wish so-and-so was here to hear this honey don't worry about so-and-so being here to hear this you here to hear this the lord put you in the space just say it check your own posts too often we're pointing the finger but you don't realize that what you think is your personality well i've just always kind of been a down person i'm sorry but maybe depression has been dogging you all your life well i've just always been nervous maybe that's an anxiety disorder and we don't like those labels but we can't get better if we don't name things and so the first thing i want to do is point out that the word of god makes it okay for us to have emotions before we even get to illness let's talk about emotions our culture has lied to us and told us that our minds matter more than our hearts but that's not what my bible says my bible says that out of my heart flow all the issues of life yes and you're like well no the bible says as a man think if so is he no the bible says as a man thinketh in his heart so is he we have done everything we could do to ignore emotions but jesus came in the body not only to reconnect us with god but to have a human experience hebrews 4 15 says that we have not a high priest who cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities not the thoughts he experienced every feeling that means no emotion is a sin because if it was a sin to have an emotion then jesus would have sinned but it says he felt everything we felt so that means that your emotion can't be a sin you're welcome because some of y'all are running around here treating anxiety do not be anxious like it's the 11th commandment and it's not no emotion alone is a sin but because we have stigmatized emotion when emotions get even bigger and sometimes become chronically negative and painful in a way that defines mental illness we are really upset because we feel weak just for being emotional we definitely don't want to be ill so then how can i as a christian who if i have the fruit of the spirit which is peace and joy and love and all that be upset and certainly how can i have a mental illness well the first way that we can have a problem is the fact that we are still in human bodies when we gave our lives to jesus did anybody get a notice that they wouldn't die did anybody get a memo that said you will live forever no because your body is still corruptable your body is still falling salvation didn't stop your body from being fallen so it does dumb stuff it gets sick and it does things with regard to how we feel emotionally as well and so your body is imperfect so that means that anything can happen so let's get that straight but then why am i not able to just think my way out of my feelings why i'm not able to just use my mind in order to fix it my mind and my prayer well guess who didn't who wasn't able to do that either paul and so if you ask me where in the bible mental illness is i'm going to show you let's go to romans chapter seven y'all know it by heart some of you that's the i do what i don't want to do i shouldn't do scripture you know y'all know that one y'all know that one man that's that one but i'm gonna read it anyway all right starting at verse 18 for i know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good i find not for the good i would i do not but the evil which i would not that i do now if i do that which i would not is no more i that do it but sin that dwell within me let me stop right there because so often the question is is this person have a mental illness or are they just convicted because they've been sinning is it are they just depressed because they've been sinning they haven't been praying enough they're not hearing the voice of god and so we connect with sin with mental illness but an act of sin is not the only way that sin is in our lives some of us are suffering from the consequences of other people's sin we call that a trauma people who have sinned and in their bad behavior have done something that damaged you and that is another way that sin affects your behavior and then we have sinfulness it's just the fallen nature of humanity and our fallen nature does some sometimes it shows up as personality and you love to talk about your personality y'all oh i'm an enneagram 278 i'm the hgtp you love to talk about your personality types right but all you're doing is identifying the patterned way that you behave as a fallen creature that's it this is not a revelation it's not your calling we as mental health professionals have been watching fallen people do the same thing over and over and over and over until we were able to categorize it i mean really think about it there's 16 types in the mbti myers-briggs and there's nine enneagram types and all that really says is that you are so predictable [Music] that of a billion people in the world there's only nine options for how you're going to behave and then you find it out you're like yes that's me and you're so proud about it sweetheart all that's doing is showing your flavor of fallen that's all and you rush to the strengths but you skip over them weaknesses you rush to the talons but you skip over the growth recommendations because you just want to be confirmed that it's okay to be how you are let me not get off let me not get off track [Music] but if you really want to populate a prayer list take all the growth recommendations and weaknesses of your personality type put that on your war room wall pop let's see how that goes but because we're not willing to see our messiness we definitely aren't often willing to see our illness but all your personality type is is the starting line from here to your journey to look like jesus that's what your personality type is this is my starting line and now i go from here to there and everybody is trying to move in the same direction which is to be conformed to the image of christ and some things you'll be more naturally good at you'll do things that look more like jesus naturally and some stuff you won't but our goal is to look like jesus not to just be a patterned manifestation of what the fall left us with that's so good other topics so anyway mental illness what happens with this law is what paul was talking about so let me get back to the chapter let me get back let me get back so i just finished off with saying sin dwelleth in me verse 21. i find then a law that when i would do good evil is present with me for i delight in the law of god after the inward man in other words god is in me i love him i love his law but i see another law in my members that word members literally means body parts so that means there's another law in my body that's warring against the law in my mind that's what paul says in verse 23 and then he says and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members so paul is describing a battle between his mind which is what he's trying to do voluntarily and a law in his members his body so that means since your brain is a part of your body and your nervous system is a part of your body your brain and your mind are not the same thing and when we equate our mind with our brain we miss what paul is trying to tell us that there's a war happening law in my mind law in my body but paul says the most important thing right after that he says it brings him into captivity now if paul two-thirds of the new testament knocked off at the damascus road saul to paul paul says that it is bringing him into captivity i'm definitely going down and some of y'all are going down there is no way that i'm not going to be taken captive there's no way that some days i won't want to be anxious but my body will win there's no way that some days i don't want to see things that aren't there or hear things that are not there or have insomnia nightmares and ptsd flashbacks but my body will win paul was losing the battle at times but what's even double interesting about that is that paul tells us elsewhere in scripture that he was like a pharisee touching the law blameless now how could paul be blameless and also being taken captive ever wonder about that i don't personally think that paul was talking about acts of sin because it's hard for me to believe that paul was blameless touching the law he never broke a rule and then after he came to know jesus he started partying it it just doesn't make sense to me i believe that paul was talking about an internal battle yes yes i believe paul personally was talking about his own anxiety and we know paul has some issues with anxiety that's why he preached about it so much if you've ever known a preacher let me go and tell you that number one topic is going to be what they go through [Music] and paul's no exception and so he's going back and forth with this war and he's saying sometimes he loses when my sister would see things that weren't there and hear things that weren't there the law in her member was winning when that depressive episode comes in knocks you down in bed for three weeks the law in your member is winning but that doesn't mean you don't have the law of christ in your mind there's nowhere in here where paul asks for forgiveness he says oh this body of death who will deliver me and then in the very next verse romans 8 1 he says but come on now there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit you've been quoting that without the rest of the second half of chapter seven so paul just told me that my body can sometimes defeat my mind but i still am not condemned my body can sometimes take me captive but i still belong to god my body can sometimes take me captive but i can write two-thirds of the new testament and change the course of history for souls all over the world while my body is sometimes defeating my mind if paul can do that then your anxiety problem doesn't stop you from being who god called you to be if paul can do that then that depression can't stop you that ptsd can't stop you what do we do we know that the body is falling but in my mind i serve the law and some people's law in their members is stronger than yours i got a law in mind but the law and my sisters was nuclear and so she struggled so much of her life and she became addicted to drugs and she spent 35 years desperately addicted to street drugs and when she finally got clean at the end of her life and we were so grateful to have her back and one of the conversations we had she said i took the drugs because they were only things that made the voice quiet see you're looking at folks and you're judging them but you don't know how they got where they are you don't know what battle they are fighting and i can't tell you what it meant to me at the end of her life to be able to pull out romans 7 and say valerie you have always had jesus residing inside of you your body was taking your mind captive but it never stole you from christ [Music] i can't explain what it meant to show this to my mother and to my father so that we could understand that a mental illness doesn't mean no more salvation your struggles don't mean no more salvation that there is no condemnation but now what do i do well let me give you some practical advice when you are in a war and you want to win how do you strategize to overcome what is fighting you you can weaken the law in your member so it won't be able to fight you as hard would you like to know one of the ways you can do that therapy come and see us we have been studying member law for a long time psychology is nothing more than the study of the pattern behavior of fallen man that's all and we've been studying it for a minute and we went to school and we got training and we had supervisors and we were tested and now we're here to help you understand how that law works so you can undermine it and make it weaker which increases your chances of winning the war it's not just talking it's more than that and there is a space for you and it doesn't make you less of a christian it makes you wise because a war is not just weapons wars have strategies and so therapy is a strategy medication might be a strategy if you're willing to take a medication for your headache [Music] all you people of god got excedrin in your pocketbook right now tylenol in your purse right now and when that headache hits you you're not gonna call jesus one time you're gonna snatch that tylenol out your bag swallow three even though the recommended dose is two and go on with your day but if someone needs a medication to balance their brain you gonna tell them they need to pray harder with etc in your purse now with nyquil in your cabinet right now with cheesecake in your refrigerator right now that you use to feel better because no person ever said i'm so depressed today i would like a piece of boneless skinless chicken said nobody ever so if you don't think you're using the chemicals of food to alter your mood but you also ditty about somebody taking some medication i'ma need you to repent right now because you've been manipulating the law and your member on your own for a minute that's good there is no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus mental illness is nothing but a manifestation of the law in your members targeting your mind and some people are taken chronically captive but if that's you if you're listening right now i want you to know that jesus loves you you are useful to the lord you still have a calling you still have a purpose you still have things to do on his behalf in this earth you are not useless or less valued you are loved and there is help for you there's prayer there's praise there's the word of god there's connecting with your brothers and sisters in christ there's also therapy and medication and exercise and good diets do all of the things fight spiritually fight emotionally fight fight biologically don't pick one come at this war with all that you have because the enemy would desire to steal your purpose by making you embarrassed but i rebuke that now amen and i thank god for the army of people he's raising up who have been hiding because of this suffering hiding because of depression anxiety panic attacks bipolar disorder schizophrenia schizoaffective disorder i call all the names because there is no name that's higher than the name of jesus and so i can say any name i want his name is still higher and whether god heals you or he makes his grace sufficient for you to walk through that for your whole life you will be a testimony in the mighty name of jesus don't forget that you heard me say it i love you so much and god loves you more i knew it girl i knew she was gonna break it down yes i mean it's all the way down it's one of those uh talks where you have to take notes because she is giving you such gold yeah every time i hear talk that's what she does and i think that's one of the things that we should do and that's one of the benefits of it being virtual that you can go back and listen to it again and take it in bite-size pieces and really pray through what it is that the lord is challenging you with convicting you with and how he's redirecting your life as a result of what you've heard mm-hmm don't let it just pass through let it marinate on that for a little bit and go right go back and rewind it if you need to absolutely we want to take a minute here right now in our program to just pause for a moment and give you what we think is an invitation and an opportunity we want to point your heart toward giving in this moment i remember something that actually my sister told me i was still in high school at the time she was in college and i remember that there was a friend of yours who you met in college she was a church girl that she went to school with at texas a m university and she said something to you that you repeated to me that she never went into a church at the time there was no virtual stuff it was going into the church she never went into a church even if it wasn't her home church or it was just a conference she was attending or an event at someone's church without sowing a seed into that ministry she just felt like it was her joy her privilege her responsibility to sow a seed into good soil and that that obedience really did open up the windows of heaven of god's um i hate to say blessing because some people take that to mean that he's just going to pour out money on you yeah it's not a slot machine it is out of reverence to what it is that god is doing and prospering you and your soul and prospering you in your spirit and fortifying you and strengthening you for the days that are ahead that's why we honor him with our with our with our time our talents and our treasures so we get a lot of letters and emails and comments from people that say please give us an opportunity to give those are the people that see and recognize that it is actually an act of worship and they want the opportunity they don't want the opportunity to pass them by without having a chance to sow seed we want to give that you that opportunity as well crystal talk a little bit about the ministry that our parents started more than four decades ago and just what it looks like when someone donates to this ministry and contributes to what desperate for jesus is doing in their lives today well you have to understand that this ministry for desperate for jesus being on a screen for you is something that we've been doing for a really long time our church has been putting on desperate for jesus and in addition to that the urban alternative has been sharing the messages of our dad dr tony evans around the world for decades and so both our church and that ministry are partnering together to bring this event virtually to you but those ministries do more than that it's not just about our women's conference there's outreach ministries at our church locally where there is services for people who are homeless or they're struggling because they've lost their jobs there are ministries that reach out to prisons there's ministries that are always looking at our church not just to serve the people in our church but in our community and the same is true of the urban alternative we've partnered with public schools to provide mentoring in the public school system to help other churches and other areas around the country learn how to serve their communities like we're serving ours so it's so much bigger than just a women's conference and when you give today you're empowering both our local church and the national ministry to do more of what we've been doing already for years and to be able to bring this conference back to you again and again as much as we can absolutely this has been fun i mean 2020 has not been fun in 2021 you know tricked us we thought we were all going to get over and then 20 21 say gotcha but i mean but the reality is is that it has also provided in the midst of all the hardship because 2020 and 2021 have been hard yep it's been hard for us personally many of you may or may not know we lost our mom at the end of 2019 and so 2020 in the midst of all the chaos we've spent that year grieving and continuing though to do ministry because that's what our mother and our dad put into us but in the midst of all of that there's been this awesome opportunity this wonderful blessing to pivot uh and share this conference with you which we've never done before so we're grateful for that opportunity and want to invite you to partner with both our local church and the national ministry to continue doing the work that we've been doing so when you give a gift of any amount we are going to just count it as a privilege to be able to bless you in return with some promises from god that we're going to give you they're going to be on little slips of paper so that you're able to or cardboard stock actually something really pretty you want to be able to display it and see it yeah and meditate on the word of god in front of you i have something like that actually on my bathroom counter it's a little wooden block and i've just got every now and then i switch the cards out that just sit there and it's a different promise of god those have been hand-picked and curated for you by a team of women at our church that really thought what would it be that we could give to these women who are with us for desperate for jesus that can bless them after this this conference is over so we're going to give that to you um just to say thank you for your contribution um if you're able when you contribute 50 or more then we're not only going to give you the promises of god right and the desperate for jesus bag i didn't say that yes because y'all know we girls like a good tote bag you got to have a good tote bag but also we're going to put something in it that's important and special to me it's a bible study on elijah he was the premier prophet of the old testament and i've had the privilege of spending the past couple of years honestly i'm just writing and studying and thinking about elijah and earlier this year that resource came out and i've had the privilege of going through it now with so many thousands of women and we want you to have a copy of it as well so not only would you get the workbook but you'll also get an opportunity to download all of the digital teachings that go along with the bible study so that you can have that to continue to equip you and to encourage you in your walk with the lord so we're excited to give that to you as well i mean and there are a lot of things we could have put in the bag or to share with you through the mail when you're giving but we picked this resource because priscilla is an off can i just say for just can i just talk about you while you're on the screen priscilla is an awesome bible teacher and she has devoted her life to the men she has devoted her life this is her her life's work really is to teach the word of god um you always talk about him just a girl with a sword in my hand you know the bible and i love how you dive deep into the word and how you value the word of god and how you teach it and you study that diligently to do that but i have a question for you why elijah i mean yes yay i'm your big you are older than me yes i'll leave that there i'll let you marinate in that today okay okay so that means you have to do what i tell you to do okay and they have to answer my question okay all right so why elijah right now why elijah right now well let me let me answer that question by saying that that i was supposed to be finished with that book with this book two years earlier okay we had so many honestly traumatic experiences that happened in our in our life over the past two years that it kept getting delayed it kept getting pushed back i kept having to ask for extensions one after the other and so honestly in my mind it was really delayed and off schedule and all of that and then it ended up ended up finally being published and coming out january of 2021 on the heels of 2020. the whole narrative of elijah is based on this man who is the lone voice calling people back to an allegiance to the one true god when the culture is on a steady steep decline away from um honoring yahweh as their one and true and only god if there is ever a time in history where people needed to be believers needed to be be reminded that we are the ones who were being called upon probably on our high school campuses and university campuses and in our office buildings and neighborhoods to be the lone voice that is bold enough and that is unapologetic and unashamed to stand flat-footed on mount carmel and say choose ye this day who you're going to serve and so that's that's what it's all about and so i've kind of learned through the years that god's delays are actually him just derailing you on to his time with his timeline and allowing things to line up with stuff you don't even know is happening is going to happen or is happening in other people's lives i love how he does dovetails all of that and so that's why elijah now it wasn't my plan but i do believe it's god's plan well i'm curious of all the things that you talked about because i know that when you study the word of god to teach the word of god you are basically imparting what god has been teaching you and i know that there are lots of lessons that are there but many of them were because those were your takeaways your personal applications to your life so if you had to just quickly share like the most important takeaway or the most timely takeaway for you if you had to pick one that was that ministered the most to you as you prepared to share that bible study with other people what would that lesson be well one of the surprise lessons of elijah's narrative comes in the story of this this man who often times he's skipped over by some commentators or some writers when they're writing about elijah they don't spend a whole lot of time on him because he just peeks his head out just a little bit his name is obadiah a different obadiah from the one that the old old testament book is named after this guy worked for king ahab so he had a secular job and he's on a regular eight to five day in his regular secular job he's just doing his assignment but he's doing it well and with excellence uh the scripture describes him as a man who feared god who did his work well not obviously because he was trusted by the king to have an assignment on that particular day an assignment actually that would have been one of the most important at the time given the fact that there was a drought king ahab sent this guy out to go look for some grass for their cattle he's like the whole sustenance of our entire kingdom depends upon whether or not we can find some grass for our cattle to feed on so this guy obviously had built up enough rapport and trust with the king that the king sent him out on that assignment so here he is doing this secular job and on this day because he showed up at his post god sends elijah to cross paths with him on this occasion obadiah is the one who takes elijah and introduces him to king ahab so without this key player being at his post elijah who represents the power and the presence of god amongst the people there would have not have been a sturdy bridge over to king ahab who represents the godless consciousness of an entire culture the bridge in between those two wasn't someone in full-time ministry wasn't someone with a microphone in their hand wasn't somebody with the spotlight it was somebody who just showed up at their post to do their regular eight to five job he was the surprise of the story for me this reminder that the regular rhythms of life it will just show up to what it is that god has assigned to us in the next 24 hours of our day no matter how mundane those assignments look like show up and wash the dishes show up and change the diapers show up and parent the teenagers show up and answer the phone calls return the emails um prepare that project that you have um for your your job or your career that you're working towards do what it is that god has called you to do in that moment and you have no idea how you if you'll be at your post me if i'll be at my post we are going to actually be the bridge that brings people together from mount carmel experiences where the heavens open up and god rains down fire all of that happened because obadiah was at his post willing to do his job hello somebody you know you know you went into speaker mode i wanted to speak you went into crystal teases me because she said y'all feel it it was a transition she just shoot she used to kind of like i don't want to answer the question then she's like thus saith the lord it's like it just happens it just happens that is such a good lesson and i remember that and thinking that that was the same oba diet yeah you know that's why you have to study the word because those are the little things that you notice when you dive in and those gold nuggets of lessons that god has for us are in there you know i i think about um mom and uh there is you know you you this jacket is hers you were mentioning that earlier yes i'm wondering why you have heard because you told me to take it that's why i have it you said crystal you should you should take this i changed my mind it's too late okay so i wanted you to know that as we have slowly you know as i mentioned my mother passed a year and a half ago and as we've slowly very slowly taken our time just to go through things to remember pictures and where did she wear this and where did she have that one of the surprise memories that we have stumbled upon is in the hallway closet in the back of the luggage behind the coats there still is a flannel board and that reminded us of how we were little girls uh all of us when we were little my mom used to pull out the flannel board with the and some of y'all don't even know what that is folks to listen to you right now to like felt it's like a material on a board that you can take pictures that have another material on the back and stick it to them yeah it'd be like the equivalent of a magnetic erase board okay and they used to sell these books where you could have all of these little people and she would bible bible stories by putting those on the flannel board and so when you hear us talking today about the bible the seeds of those stories came because my mother was faithful at her post [Music] teaching her children god's word and this was not what she imagined no this was not what she imagined she was just being faithful on her post when she served alongside my dad in ministry at our church and at the urban alternative because he credits her with building that ministry she was at her post she will say she never wanted to be a pastor's wife she was at her post starting desperate for jesus and women's ministry pouring her life into that she was at her post and so we are so grateful for the investment that our mother made alongside of our dad for all the things that you see from us in ministry today and if you had ever have ever had an opportunity to come to our church what you'll see are a whole bunch of women some of them are here today me and crystal's been real nostalgic as we've been looking out and just seeing women that we have known our entire life this church is filled with women who got the runoff of watching a pastor's wife lois evans just be at her post and as a result of that now we've gotten our whole lives to see women who have been at their post to see women who've been diligent and faithful and serving god not for a spotlight but just serving him because they want to honor him they want to hear well done and they want god's glory to be displayed on their life as wives as mothers as single women career women ministry women the whole gamut we've gotten to see that and much of that is attributed to the influence and the example like even from afar people would just see mom and her life was just an example desperate for jesus was her idea it was her love child it was her gift to the women of initially of oak cliff bible fellowship church and now to you as well so we want to honor her today with you this is our mom dr lois evans [Applause] [Music] no matter how busy our lives were we sat around that dining room table and had devotions or just discussed today with our kids and then as they got older and got more involved in activities then it became less and less that we were able to sit around the dining room table every day but still it was our focus of investing in our children and i would just say get people in your life as you invest in the gifts god's giving you see we change your focus these are not just kids they're gifts from god you know i dealt with fear years ago and pastor first started traveling but my devotional life was dealing with fear so i stayed in the psalms for years until god delivered me if there's an area of challenge in life whether it's submission or any other area in your life that's where you spend your devotional time one thing that's riveted home in my heart is the word shalom when jewish people said shalom to each other it was not just happies it was them looking at each other and saying have well-being have all of god's character have forgiveness have love they were saying that in that one word shalom you've got the press through your pain if even you can't sing a song find something to sing and press through your pain i know i recommended a therapist but you still have to do some stuff sing your way through praise your way through put them stick up notes all over the place with scriptures do what you need to do to get your joy back you have to really get in touch with women that are in touch with god's word so you need to get with women of god that will use god's word to mentor you and you have to make that intentional it's not going to happen by osmosis you have to make it intentional to find women that will invest in your life we were just starting today this is what i think is one of the highlights of all of our time together and that's when we get to get together with all of us for a panel discussion and i love that we you just got to see a glimpse of our mom right as we're coming into this because this was one of my mom's favorite parts of the whole thing don't you think crystal dad 100 yes she enjoyed this she if she were here she would be seated right next to my dad we'd grill them with a whole bunch of questions and our guests as well and this is where we get to kind of dig into their lives a little bit see what the lord is doing in their lives and also just extra layers of things that god is teaching them that they want to share with all of us so first of all could you all please help me to welcome our guests back today dr anita phillips and then we have jan greenwood and the pastor of oak cliff bible fellowship church doctor i want to sit on your lap so badly another time i want to cuddle daddy i love you so far he's such a good dad dad we're going to start with you okay i'm going to ask you this question and then this is going to be the same question dr anita and miss jan that's coming right to you afterwards the year that you've had i want to ask you with the past year what's been the hardest part of the past year for you personally and then what has been sort of a surprise maybe something that's brought levity and joy unexpectedly to your life over the past year so two things hardest thing most difficult thing about all the changes that have taken place but then also what's just given you surprising joy well the hardest thing is of course is adapting to the loss of your mate of of 50 years and so that's the toughest thing and then doing it right as you're entering into a pandemic so you know you've got layers happening at the same time the most rewarding thing has been uh getting yours my grandson jackson's college scholarship for football at liberty yeah and being involved in that process yeah that dad has been one of those grandfathers that's all up in it trying to make sure his grandsons are set for college and and ready for the next season of life so you're a good grand you're a good dad and you're a good granddad thank you okay anita tell us a little bit about what's been the hardest for you this year and then what's brought you surprising joy and levity in your life this year i think really it's one in the same in that we were empty nests for about four months and then my kids came home for the pandemic and so we were just starting this might have been a little longer i guess maybe six months we were just starting to settle into that and then they showed back up and so it was a little bit difficult first i had to let go of where we thought we were headed but also to decide how do i interact with my adult children now that they're back in the house and what boundaries do we need and how do i make sure that i'm treating them well while also taking care of me because my kids had their own emotional needs this was a big disruption for them and so they both had to graduate online my son from college my daughter from high school they missed um end of the year events and it's just all the things that mean so much at that age and to see them struggling to get through that emotionally taking care of me well enough to take care of them that was i think probably the hardest part but the greatest joy of it was that i feel like we got this incredible foundation for our adult relationship that we would not have had that's good and maybe maybe we we rushed them out too fast i really felt like we poured things into them this year my husband and i that if we hadn't had the opportunity i don't think they'd be as well prepared now as they are launching out wow and so i'm so grateful to god to have been able to have grown up spiritual conversations with them and grown up emotional conversations growing up conversations about our marriage and our lives that you don't tell your kids when they're small um to really prepare them to walk forward and what god has for them so that was a that was a real joy and i'm grateful for that opportunity thank you yeah that's great well i had a i had a repeater a returner but the thing that what i would say was most difficult for me which was made more difficult by covid is my mom is in a nursing home and i'm an only child and i saw my mom six times last year and uh just coping with the lack of control the unknown the fact that i have to really believe the people i'm you know authorizing are actually handling her kindly she fell and broke her hip went to the hospital had surgery was returned to i never never engaged face to face and i think for me the hardest part about that is just the tremendous guilt i just was coping with the guilt of that a lot and my mom i actually you know i've been seeing her again lately and it's just a blessing of god i'm not saying this is good for her but she doesn't really have a sense of how long all that was so i think the pain was very sharp for me i was cutely aware but i'm not sure she was as aware i'm sure every day you know what i'm saying so that was the hard part is just caring for someone that i could not care for and feeling tremendous responsibility for me i would say the greatest joy has been the extended time and my home i am an only child i'm very extroverted but i'm really introverted i like a lot of alone time and i was just so exhausted and my husband he is a vagabond y'all he wants to play every saturday and you know we had kind of gotten into a pattern where i would be angry because i needed to rest i needed to do the laundry or you know clean the house or whatever was on my mind and mark wants to go somewhere and i can remember it about three months once one morning i was sitting out on my back porch looking at my pretty flowers and i had the thought when my husband comes to me on saturday morning and says what are we going to do this week i'm not going to be angry i'm rested like something clicked i wasn't angry with him i hope you hear me but it was like just desperate for recuperation and it took me about three months of being home less travel less communication less demands even even the giving up of the care of my mother like all those things came off and at about three months i felt like i had sabbath and i was able to work from home during the week so i was still getting my home time and then on saturday morning i started i know my husband has been like hallelujah she will go play with me i am trying to maintain that rhythm in my marriage going forward i think it's one of the best gifts i've gained is an appreciation for how my husband was sacrificing at the consequence of all the demands of my life and that i have only i can monitor my fatigue or recovery so that i have emotional width to play like i'm always saying you know i have so many things i need to do but when you play you actually lay aside all your responsibility and give the day so we don't we don't do that enough do we just i'm not very good at it yeah yeah and my husband he says he works to play right and i work to think i'm making a difference you know i'm very holy and he's very fun so he's lightening me up that's great yeah thank you miss dan i appreciate that crystal well i think that that's a a great segue into discussing more about what we want to hold on to in this season i think we're at this pivotal point where as people start to feel more comfortable going out into the world and seeing people a lot of us have decisions to make about what we've done differently in the past year that we're going to intentionally continue into the year to come and so i'd like to hear from dad is there anything that you're like going into this next year this is something i've learned or that i've adopted that i want to keep going with because it's been good and then of course anybody else who wants to share in that regard well having to adapt to ministering in a different way we've had to recalibrate how we look at ministry and how we do ministry so they're features of how we used to do ministry that i think will be long-term adaptations for how we do service how long service is what we do online versus what we do in person so i think the recalibration of church ministry and the things related to that will have long-term consequences coming out of of the covet season what about you well i was just thinking before i answer that question i was just thinking but what about you personally dad you're talking about ministry in the church but you just as a man um a father a grandfather like how do you think your life is shifted and you're like i actually want to maintain that or not go back to the way things were in a certain way in your life well uh the more increased focused time with the grandkids i think that's probably on the personal level uh that's the the part of family that i focus on because of my generational view that you want to have a generational influence your children's children proverbs 13 22 so so giving intentionality to their investment because they're getting older they're going becoming independent so that would be a gift to them but also a gift to y'all from me to them long term yeah i think for me i i have a very strong no anointing on my life meaning that i have the capacity without guilt or fear of missing an opportunity to say no to things that don't line up um with maybe what our priorities are in a particular season or something so i kind of already had that no reflex but what the last year did for me was it solidified for me that that really you really do not have to carry the world on your shoulders like the world's going to keep going the sun is going to rise the next day that i don't have to be at everything i don't have to carry everything i don't have to do everything and that rest really is okay and a lesson that i really learned from mom that i saw obviously exemplified in all of our experiences this past year mom would always say to us you guys have to stop and smell the roses and her point was basically that life is short so you got to enjoy this thing kind of what you were saying you have to take deliberate opportunities to say no to all the responsibilities and obligations and things that kind of consume your time so that you can have margin for yes to things that you actually just enjoy and that are fun for you and so i think that just confirmed that crystal over the past year and i want to just continue that as my boys are now going off to college and all that stuff just continue making margin for the things that jerry and i together and that me as a woman that we would just enjoy in life so you know for me i feel like i was able to increase my joy in joy you know our brains the way that we work as fallen human beings we tend to give about five times more emphasis to negative things than we do to positive things and so very often a good thing doesn't get the due credit and things got so rough this last year that i became extra intentional about enjoying all joys and i feel like i'm almost at the point where i can have equal where the impact is at least equal instead of the negative things taking up all my attention oh there's a problem and then i'll just be like problem solve problem solve problem solved but it was so dark for a while that i just started running into joy just running into joy and i want to maintain that i don't want to go back to being the master problem solver all the time i want to be as happy about the good stuff as i am frustrated about the bad stuff yeah so that my life is not out of balance okay and so yeah and describe when you say running into joy what does that practically look like for someone that really would like to make that shift in their life yeah but they don't know how to proactively engage in the joyful things in life how to do that when something good happens stop and pay attention to that moment call someone and tell them about it post about it text somebody about it a lot of times we're like oh phew so glad that worked out and then you just move on to the next problem literally stop think about how long you've been waiting for this thing to appear pay attention to what your body's doing feel the butterflies get excited you know go out and have that special cup of coffee or buy yourself a card if you have to just do anything to celebrate be intentional but i think the biggest thing is telling someone because our joy is multiplied when we connect with people and communicate and then they're excited for us and that makes it extra real and very often we'll share our problems we'll ask for prayer but we don't call and say guess what i got accepted to this program guess what my kid finally learned to tie their shoes guess what my son did his own laundry guess what and and those little things when we celebrate them we realize how many there are yeah and so pause tell somebody and then throw a celebration about even the smallest thing and it will actually make it bigger can i just say that's great but i agree with that i understand that i have been practicing that there's just one problem i have been celebrating regularly with chocolate says let's not talk about dark chocolate have been celebrating look like months on end all of 2020. i call it 20 20 20 20. it's the 20s 20 20 20 i'm wearing yeah i'm holding i need to find an alternative celebration i'm with you on that chocolate almonds for the win uh anything else i know you talked about playing with your husband is there anything else that you want to keep yes one of the things that i feel like god did for me this year is he caused me to re-measure what he values so i just feel like he keeps whispering to me jan less can be more and i care more about the one than i do about the thousands you know i used to think i'd get there and be like look all those thousands of things and he'd be like here's ten great stones jan and but then i imagined i got there and i was like you know i did so good and he's like here's your one stone and i'm like what and he's like well i did the rest so there's a there's a recalibration that's happened for me to be content in my limitations sort of what you were saying priscilla where i just cannot do not only can i not do i don't actually want to do at the capacity that i had before but if i'm faithful and can hear when he speaks to do it and then do that that he actually is pretty happy for me to go play yeah he doesn't really need me to work as hard as i thought i was supposed to work so i don't know there's a working in the embracing of my limitation and my trust that he is putting what energy i have what influence my voice has to steward the message but let him have the impact and let it go yeah so it's been a big help for me that's great so good um i wanted to kind of shift topics and jump to um as a pastor pastors wise pastor of women and minister you've been for so many years you guys have dealt with women it's a women's conference so women who are in very hard relationship dynamics um in our prayer time last night we prayed for different categories of prayer and because of time we didn't actually have an opportunity to pray over marriage that's one of the categories we didn't get to but most of the requests we get are from women that are in hard marriages they're not there's no friendship there's no passion there's no peace they don't feel fulfilled in their relationship or they feel taken advantage of so um it's really a broad question dad i don't have a specific one but as a pastor what would you share to a wife that is in a very very difficult situation i'm not speaking necessarily of abuse because that's that's a different conversation i'm just talking about a woman who is very unfulfilled in her marital relationship i would love any of you who have something to share with that woman how does she navigate the weeks and months and years ahead in in this sort of difficult scenario that she may be in whatever those specific dynamics look like well again short of something uh catastrophic is abuse of any kind i think an expectational shift needs to occur and that expectation of shift says i'm going to get as much out of my marriage that i can get but i'm not going to expect that my marriage will fully satisfy all that i need so then because she shifts that expectation she begins to look for things that would fit play that would fit things that would fulfill her distract her encourage her reinforce her so that her tolerance for what is unfulfilling in the marriage is increased supported in health because of other positive input she's getting from the things that do fulfill her yeah that's good it is so wise it's very wise it's hard it's very hard there's a lot of women that are really struggling particular that's that was a a great answer i'm wondering about i know it's the women's conference you're speaking to the women but what expectation do we maintain in the marriage like what do we shift but what expectations do we not shift because this is the reality of what god has called marriage to be and our husbands should be sort of held accountable for their role in our house so what expectations would you say we not budge on that a wife shouldn't budge on well she should be continually respectfully encouraging and challenging her husband to fulfill his biblical needs toward her and the family because to the degree that he does that she can even enhance her ability to be the kind of wife that he desires so why don't you help me to help you to be happier [Laughter] do either of you want to add anything to that before we move on i feel like that's such an ongoing yeah it's an unspoken so often unspoken and i feel like in the church we say to women you know you should get in a bible study you should be in a group yes like you should do all those things maintain your personal spiritual life but i love what you're saying dr evans which is if i will work on my own heart and finding my deep contentment in christ if i have a spouse that is for whatever capacity whether by intention or inability i can become stable because of the lord in me and because i have a life i have i have love and relationships and things that bring me joy without disrespecting or disassociating from my spouse and i just think you're what you said about expectations just rings so true with me when you've had a negative cycle for so long your expectation is that it will forever be negative and it is so easy to get into that but beginning to put your eye and your heart and your expectation upward and outward and like grow myself i don't know relieves to me the stress of that and if you can ever shift your eye from the lack of your husband sometimes you can see your own places that need development and you can give him more room to to grow himself beautiful i'd like to think that i gave mark some grace for the lord to speak or to direct and in the same way me right that he didn't always have to tell me how i wasn't doing well that the lord had enough of my attention and focus that he could speak to me that's great thank you so much [Applause] expectations i feel like you might have something to say yeah well ask the therapist um she thinks i think looking at where your expectations have come from are really important marriages are systems so we the tire can't get mad at the at the oil tank because it's not right together we're all working right and so you can't separate it out so that it's just him and not me or just me and not him marriages are systems and we pick people who give us the opportunity to solve problems that we would like to solve very often from our childhood the relationship we saw between our parents or didn't see between our parents and now we're trying to kind of psychologically work that out so i think if someone's been unhappy in their marriage for a really long time i would encourage you to talk to a counselor make some space to dig into where you are emotionally and how you got there there may be some areas that you can heal that would shift the makeup of the space and it's okay to take responsibility for that if he sees you getting better in counseling he might join you and maybe some marriage counseling can happen a lot of times men are more skeptical about marriage counseling than women but if they see you changing and it's affecting you they may actually join you because getting that outside input is really really useful i of course agree with with pastor evans t are you defining yourself as something more than a wife because your dissatisfaction with other areas of your life may actually undermine your marriage so going out there go get that degree finally go you know um get that job that you were excited about don't do the laundry today whatever's making you mad it's just like don't believe that that's the word don't do it he never helps me with anything well then don't you do it either let's see what happens you know great be willing to break the rules within the confines of the holy ghost of course you know i think be willing to break some rules we live with this i can't and i have to and it's never true it's never true we don't even have to die by the grace of god we go straight into life after life i mean we don't have to do anything we choose or we choose not to you choose to change this or you choose not to you choose to complain about the same thing or you choose to take action it may not feel like a choice and the choice may be between a rock and a hard place and you don't like either one but we are choosing and so that morning you wake up and say i am choosing this we can begin to make a different choice wow did y'all feel speaker mode did y'all feel that happening she went in and speak we were talking about speaker mode when somebody starts feeling passionate they just go in that's awesome it's awesome okay well we only have a couple more minutes so i want to ask you um i actually really have two more questions and i know we're running short on time but i have to ask this question because i think it's so important and then give us a short answer if you can and then i'll ask you a more quick one sentence question this question is because so many folks have been in this situation over the past year intense grief after grief after grief loss of one kind or another whether it's loved ones or loss of their health or whatever what insight can you offer about what the grieving process has taught you dad um as you've experienced it yourself and how that has informed the way maybe you would counsel someone now that's maybe different than you would have said before all the loss you've experienced and then dr anita as well from just that clinical side of how to grieve well and move through that um healthfully how would you help anyone who's listening that's in that situation well for me it underscores the principle that relationships are more important than religion you know you you're you're in uh ministry full-time you're always doing the work of ministry but when relationships are interfered with with the realities of life then all the work you were doing does not seem to have mattered as much so putting relationships at a higher level than formalized ministry is under is is emphasized in that season i would say absolutely agree with that because we do and we clinicians call co-regulate which means we we work through our emotions in relationship with other people so we need to try not to isolate recognize that grief is a process not an emotion but it involves all three categories of the heart emotion sadness fear and anger allow yourself to feel all of them there are stages but they are not linear throw out all of the stuff you've heard and just recognize that sadness anger and fear are going to rotate at different levels at different times talk to people about it be willing to feel it and that it will change at different points in your life so i'll just say this really quickly if you think of this as the loss my finger right here is the loss you're going to go through phases of life where you're far from that grief and then some aspect of your life will hit it again bop and you'll think oh my gosh i thought i was better i thought i was healed you were but this is a new loss and so you know your beautiful mother your wife um that loss and then here and then she wasn't here for the kids graduation and that's different that's a new loss and then not here for that wedding that's a new loss and so often when we hit that new loss we think i haven't healed and then you get frustrated thinking i thought i was further along within that you have healed from all there was to heal from but there will be new pain and don't think that you've fallen backwards or you're not trusting god or you didn't actually heal because there's a new pain grief is cyclical like that the question is will i cycle up or will i spiral down but either way it will come around again so let's be intentional and one final quick question i'm going to start with you miss jan and then we'll just go all the way around here crystal you included all right the question is what is one of the latest books that you have read that you would say everybody needs to get their hands on this book it could be a spiritual book a theology book or it could just be like a great fiction book so we kind of always close with this question what's either your favorite book or a recent one that you read that you like y'all got to read this book well i just read a book by my friend her name is katie reed and i'm going to butcher the title a little bit but it's about uh martha in amer martha in a merry world and really the book is about embracing a martha makeup or mentality but also not missing the one thing that mary uh did not miss which to me that's been part of my practicing the presence of god is that mary was present martha was present too but she was working and so i have been really impacted by that and just enjoyed so much the um that the illustrations that i could relate to it's helped me a lot with the author again katie reed katie and it's martha in a merry world martha and a merry world you're going to want to write that one down okay dad what about you well one of my all-time favorite books is a book by jody dillo final destiny it's it's a very thick theological book but it deals with of how our salvation is comprehensive in its application both in time and for eternity so i i love uh i love final destiny now it used to be called reign of the serving king reign of the servant kings title changed the foundation final destiny by jodi dillo okay crystal yeah i've been sitting here thinking what is the book that i've read and honestly i just have a chronological bible a new living translation easy to read and i've been reading through that starting with the new testament with the boys so just reading the bible in a different order in a different translation or paraphrase has been fun just to read through with no deep study required just reading you're not reading my study bible i've been referencing your study bible don't worry the whole world is reading it okay dr anita you all right so i'm in trouble here because my nerdiness is about to show i can't remember the last time i read a whole book because i read research articles all the time so i'm going to give you the one of my favorite all-time books and it's called why sin matters by mark mcminn he's a christian psychologist and i love it because it digs beyond sin as just what we do right or wrong to really talk about what it means to be fallen and what it means to fall into the love of god as a result and i think we don't give enough attention to what it just means to be a fallen human being even as we strive to be reshaped into the image of christ um it lifts a lot of condemnation and just opens space to be renewed so thank you all so much chris i want to add a book though that you you will know the author too because i've actually been listening to this on audiobook it's called the body keep score you know who that author is van der kolk it's really hard to say i hope i said that right it's a little bit academic but what it's what it does though is explain to you how your physical body gives you representation of the trauma that you've experienced in your life and it teaches you how to pay attention to what your body is telling you about how you're interpreting life and i think the year that we've gone through the last year and a half for sure a lot of us may not even be aware of how our physical bodies are have attached to and have absorbed all of the trauma from the last year tell us the name again the body keeps score the body gets schooled that's a good read will you all please help us to thank our guests on the panel today dad it's always good this is the only time we get to see you during desperate for jesus conference so thank you so much for being here y'all pastor evans thank pastor evans our lone millions and you're going to want to you know stand up and stretch on the other side of the screen whatever you need to do to get ready because you are not going to want to miss what we have coming up next starting with miranda curtis here she is god get the glory out of our lives [Music] in my life be glorified be glorified in my life be glorified be glorified say in my life that's our hearts cry in my life cry in my life in my life you've got the glory you get the praise you take just wanna say thank you daddy you get the glory give it to him lord you get the grace [Music] i just want to say thank [Music] yes you are [Music] we just [Music] [Applause] [Music] we just want to thank you [Music] i just want to say thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we just want to say thank you you get the glory the glory the glory the glory the glory the glory [Applause] open up your mouth and give him glory you're wonderful you're amazing [Music] we freely praise you we freely worship we really bless you [Music] oh thank you [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] you get the glory long [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you can praise him right there oh thank you [Music] in my life be glorified be glorified [Music] [Music] be glorified god receive our offering [Music] receive our offering and if that's your best praise i'll leave you alone but if you could just a little longer just give him the glory that no one else is due he's amazing and we freely worship you we thank you for being our portion and we appreciate you for being our strength [Music] [Music] you are my strength [Music] strength [Music] is that your testimony reaches me you are my strength strides like nowhere [Music] you lift me up you lift me [Music] you lift me you lift me you are my hope [Music] and it reaches to me you are my peace peace like no other peace like no one it's in pursuit of me and in the fullness of your [Music] power grace your holy name you lift me [Music] [Music] you lift me you lift me you lift me you lift me you lift me oh thank you lord you [Music] straight like no other [Music] reaches to me reaches me me [Music] reaches me it reaches to the highest mountain and it flows to the lowest valley the blood the blood the blood the blood the blood it reaches to me [Music] it cleanses me washes me [Music] reaches [Music] to the highest mountain and it flows [Music] [Applause] [Music] it gives me strength from day [Music] to day you can lift your hands right there knowing that it will now [Music] praise the lord i am so grateful for miranda curtis oh my goodness me too a little a little hollow with a lot of jesus and grace with every note it's crazy that's exactly right it's the kind of music that you listen to and it really doesn't invite you into an experience with the holy spirit with the presence and the power of god i'm so grateful for that and as she was singing i was thinking to myself our mother would have loved today she would have been on her feet throwing her hand that's right that's that kind of singing that's exactly right and my mom already listened to miranda curtis but we never had the opportunity to have her here at our church and as a part of our conference while mom was still here but she i know she's already delighted she's in heaven right now going thank you they finally had miranda finally had miranda curtis thank you so much your ministry has rolled out the red carpet for us to now hear the word of the lord you want to introduce our speaker yeah jan greenwood is here again with us to dig into the word for us to receive that so get your pen get your paper and be ready to record the lessons that you're going to learn from jan greenwood well i just have to say i'm not really sure if i can go on that was amazing thank you so much miranda wow the worship of the lord is so powerful thank you crystal and priscilla for the introduction i'm really excited to get to share with you one more time this afternoon so can you take a breath can you go with me one more time i want to speak with you this afternoon about one last word of encouragement for you and i want to talk to you about waiting on the promises of god when i was preparing for today's message i did read the key verse from our conference which i know you know ii peter 3 9 where it says the lord isn't really slow this is the version i'm reading you know says god is not slow about his promise as some might think and i kind of giggled when i read that passage because to be honest i tell god all the time he's slow i feel like sometimes god is slow am i the only one so you know i think i'm big britches enough to tell the lord you are being really slow i've waited a long time maybe there's something in your life that you're waiting for and it just feels like it's become hopeless or maybe it's something that you've actually had to let go of and we just can't sometimes understand why why is god making us wait of course this very famous verse of yours says no he's been patient for our sake it's for us because he does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent now we know this passage is so uh speaks directly to the idea of salvation that god is not in a hurry to bring the final day because he wants everyone to have an opportunity to repent and receive his son but if you also listen he says jan i am patient for your sake i do not want you to be destroyed but i want you to repent now this began this helped me begin to think about well if god is so insistent on waiting and even jesus our own lord had a season in his life of waiting right you know at the age of 12 his parents found him in the temple and he said to them you know why are you looking for me i'm about my father's business jesus knew his call as early as 12 and yet he goes home and it says in the scripture that he simply went home and obeyed his parents and the result was that he grew in stature and faith intelligence stature favor with god and man if jesus needed a period of waiting then maybe i need to learn the value of waiting so why does god ask us to wait today i want to share with you a very famous scripture one maybe that's the first one that might come to your mind when we talk about waiting i'm going to be sharing with you out of isaiah 40 the very famous passage about you know how we'll run and not grow weary but i want to show you a couple of things within this scripture that i think will be very helpful to you in explaining why god asks us to wait and then actually like getting yourself in a position to wait with grace you know the word wait if you look it up in the webster dictionary it's like this idea of staying in one place i wrote down it feels like when i'm doing nothing or i'm being asked to give up i think about waiting rooms how many of you have been in a very tense waiting room there's a lot of tension anxiety fear and a lot of lack of control this is not the kind of waiting that our god asks us to do our god waits with a towel in his hand right he waits while we're in a journey we're not to be passive or to give up but rather you and i are to be waiting with intention with anticipation with a steady hopeful ear tuned to his voice i think it's more like waiting tables now i don't know about you but i waited tables in college and i worked really hard to pay attention to what the people at my table wanted because i only got to work the sandwich lunch slack the sandwich lunch session and all my tips that was my spending money for my whole college career so i wanted to get a great tip for waiting tables anyone who's ever waited tables will tell you it is hard physical work and it requires dealing with cranky people and so the idea of being a waitress of coming to the table prepared to serve this is the kind of waiting i want you to embrace can i read to you isaiah 40. do you mind if i read you like a chunk of scripture and then i can come back and break it up i'm going to read beginning in verse 12 but um sorry no i'm going to tell you about from 12 to i'm laughing because even though i can see my words i can't see my numbers anymore so i think it says verse 25 from 12 to 25 there is this ongoing word from god and my little heading above this section says the lord has no equal and throughout these 12 to 25 verses god is basically saying who advises the lord who is it that comes and gives me counsel who is it that can count the grain of sand who is it that knows the number of animals on a hill and uh who can compare themselves to god and he's just exhorting over and over it reminds me of the passage in job where god is saying to job like you know who can who do you think you are in comparison to me have you done these things there is this process in this evolution of god exalting and explaining how great he is how understanding he is how wise he is how really he is god and we are not verse 25 opens with it says to whom will you compare me who is my equal ask the lord now i think that's a pretty serious question for jan greenwood who wants to tell god that he's slow when i want to boss god around and begin to talk to him about his timing i have to ask myself to whom jan will you compare me and just hearing those words who is my equal i begin to sort of settle myself down maybe maybe he knows more right maybe he's not late maybe there's something more going on it says in 26 look up into the heavens who created all the stars he brings them out like an army one after another calling each by its name and because of his great power and incomparable strength not a single one is missing i want you to remember that his incomparable power his um his great power his incomparable strength my point number one is that waiting on god reveals his divine power and strength if we didn't have to wait on god we'd think he was a vending machine and we would treat him as such pretty soon we would think we are god and he was our servant but when we have to wait yes when we have to wait we begin to become humble in our spirit we begin to become aware yes we become aware that there might be more going on in the room have you looked at those stars have you thought about his infinite strength and power in the waiting sometimes i lose perspective and i get my eyes on the problem and i start whittling that problem and working it whittling it working it whittling it until i'm so convinced that god is not interested in fulfilling the promise that i begin to think he is not good or he doesn't care that's a lie and i need to rehearse for myself to whom jan will you compare me because i want to have a greater understanding a revelation of his divine power point number two i love this verse in verse 27 let me read you the verse and i'll tell you the point it says so he's just said not a single thing is missing and then he says oh jacob he could say oh jan oh jacob how can you say the lord does not see your troubles oh israel how can you say god ignores your rights i have said these very things to god i have accused god of behaving like man and of being less than partial to me when i read this verse i want to repent oh jan how can you say the lord does not see your troubles or that you can say that he ignores your rights it goes on to say have you never heard have you never understood the lord is the everlasting god the creator of all the earth he never grows weary or weak no one can measure the depths of his understanding no one can measure the depths of his understanding as i was processing a little bit about how impatient i become with god i just was reminded of being pregnant i've had four children for which i'm extremely grateful and my first child i had difficulty becoming pregnant so i had a two and a half year period of trying to become pregnant and then finally conceiving and anybody who has waited on a child of adoption or birth knows what i'm talking about it seems endless it seems as if the time will never come to begin and then it seems the time will never come to end right and in pregnancy the most amazing thing is happening i remember being totally shocked that my body had a supernatural overriding power to take care of that baby if i fed it jello it would feed my baby right if i dieted myself silly i gained weight right the body takes a master control of the promise that's in my womb and day by day moment by moment as i ate and slept and worked and dreamed and waited the promise was growing in me this is much how i see god these days he has a promise for you and sometimes we're so busy middling with that problem that we begin to think he's slow when what he's doing is he's growing the promise in your womb throwing it i just want to remind you that women this is kind of all girls so i'm going to tell you this you know your womb is a mark of your purpose it is secret it's not open to the public view and it's not available to access but only given by surrender the lord never forces your spiritual womb he never makes you take a promise but if god gives a promise and you receive it and then you're surprised that there's a wait it's as if you think you're going to have a baby in 24 hours god has something growing in your womb he has a promise in your womb today and it is in the waiting season and i just want to remind you that when babies come early there are problems we don't want our babies to um miscarry we don't want our babies to come prematurely why because it's hard on the baby it's hard on you yes but that child has to enter the world with a fight right sometimes you're trying to get god to prematurely deliver your promise when if you will wait it will come at the right time yes and come healthy and by the way the mother who goes to full term is much more likely to recover and be able to sustain the life of her child right there is a reason that he makes us wait and when you are pregnant i love this too it makes me think about uh he uh he never grows weak or weary i was often weak or weary while i was pregnant and while i had four under five yes i was tired says no one can measure the depths of his understanding y'all sometimes i just don't understand and this is when faith begins to operate when you can wait in faith so i'm not waiting and not growing that baby i'm feeding i'm sleeping i'm taking my supplements you know i'm buying a crib i don't know whatever it is that that looks like for you maybe your baby is a dream maybe you're in the middle of bringing back to life something in your life that's died and you are in the middle of nurturing that dream these are very very important seasons of waiting so point number two when you wait sorry i didn't make this point i talked right around it i told you i'd come back and tell you the point point number two let me just give it to you now point number two is that when you wait it teaches you to abide in the presence of god sorry yes it teaches you to abide because much like a pregnant woman you must wait you must wait and anticipation so sorry about that i'm laughing at myself and also it says i was thinking about you know god could have just delivered all his promises in one big swoop he has all the power to do it he could have just decided made a decision like just treated us like robots but this issue that he has of desiring intimacy with us is because it's not just about his power but it's about how he gives power to us i'm going to pick it up in verse 29 it says where it's very you've heard this so many times he gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless even youth will become weak and tired and even young men will fall in exhaustion but those who trust in the lord will find new strength they will soar high on wings like eagles they will run and not grow weary they will walk and not fake my final point is that god wants to give you power and strength but i have to explain to you that in order to really receive godly power godly strength it's just an implication that your strength has to be stripped away your power has to be exhausted i don't know about you but i'm pretty much a performance girl all my life i worked really hard to be accepted or to lead or to make my parents proud or i don't know to get the next raise or promotion and i wanted really with all my heart to serve god well i told him one day i want to make him famous let me make you famous and i felt god's snicker he was like i am famous thank you i thought my motives were so right but i was in a pattern of perpetual performance if if someone didn't receive me or i didn't get the promotion i thought i deserved i would just buckle down and work harder if something was happening in the room and i didn't appreciate the way the other person was behaving i would take authority in the room and set the atmosphere you know i was just so full of pride and self-performance i had no idea i thought my motives were right but it wasn't until i was broken physically emotionally and spiritually that i began to learn how weak my strength is and how powerless i am without the holy spirit i want to encourage you in this season of your life to learn to embrace your weakness now i don't mean that i want you to give up and lay down what i mean is i want you to accept the fact that some days you just are not enough you're not strong enough you're not wise enough you're not going to hang in there long enough it's not up to you your power your strength will fade if nothing else happens to you you will age god bless you you know i told you earlier i have been a cancer survivor i have to count every birthday is a blessing with the realization not everybody gets to get a year older right okay but with every year i find my body a little bit more tired a little achiever and i'm just saying to my husband the other day goodness gracious this getting old is not for wimps it takes a spiritual power to love living when your body is decaying you see your body is a depreciating asset your tent right you knew that somewhere around 20 it stopped getting better and it started going downhill and it is a depreciating asset and you can take care of it and extend it and you should rejoice in it but this body is temporary and it will yield so even if you are of strong mind or strong character there will be a point where weakness will come to you maybe weakness has already come to you i find many friends who've been weakened by divorce or bankruptcy i have a friend who lost two sons this year i have a mother who's walked for 70 sorry that's wrong 59 years with type 1 diabetes she's weak there's there's a beauty in my mother's weakness that it took me a lot of personal pain to understand so i want to say to you your weakness is something for you to understand and embrace i want you to learn to be weak in the presence of god and to experience the power that isaiah 40 spoke to you about that you would run and not grow weary how could that be right that you would rise up on wings like eagles to me that's a picture of resurrection i can't tell you how many times i have been so tired and so weak that all i could do was lay down i couldn't make myself do better i couldn't make myself be better but in a couple of days here it would come and the resurrection power of jesus would rise up there's resurrection in you if you will wait for the power of god so there's a lot of purpose in the waiting if you've been despising the waiting i want to say i understand it is still so hard on me even when i remember i have to still rehearse who can give counsel to god he's the only one jan who never grows tired he never gets weary he has understanding so far beyond me do i trust him do you trust him it's okay if you're still learning to trust him it means the faith that is in your spirit is growing stronger god has purpose in the waiting he does not want you to be destroyed by your own effort or lack of repentance and by the way he wants your life to be a beacon of salvation to other people he wants other people to see you wait like a waitress with a hopeful expectation and a heart to serve so that they would be drawn to the one who set the stars in place to the one who put the timing to the one who offered his son to the one who arose if your waiting opens the door for another person's entry into the kingdom of god i promise we will get to the great day and you will say it was worth it it was worth it let me bless you i'm so proud of you because i believe you want to wait well so lord i thank you that you would give us the task of waiting and that you're so patient that you would allow the waiting to do its full work in us so lord some in the room today are waiting for very very important promises maybe they're waiting heartbroken or ill or lacking i ask you to come today and out of the storehouse of your strength and your power that you would pour over them as they wait upon the lord you would renew their strength in jesus name amen every single time i hear jan greenwood speak it just blesses me and it marks me because the reason why is not because of just what she's saying it's because we've seen her live a life that backs up what she's saying so when she talks about waiting on god we've watched her wait well we've watched her develop a prayer life that is strongly she's the kind of woman you want to lay hands on you and pray over you because you she has a testimony she's walked through some stuff with the lord and the only way that a woman like that that has been through what she's been through the struggles she's had the health challenges the spiritual struggle all of the things that we've watched her walk through and go through the only way you can is if the holy spirit of god is living on the inside of you and is strengthening you and empowering you so that you can be sustained through everything that's happening so this just seems like to me crystal a prime opportunity to ask that question to everybody who just heard that message about waiting on god it's impossible to wait if you don't have the power of the holy spirit of god helping you and the holy spirit of god is a gift that's given to you given to me any of us who place faith in jesus christ ephesians chapter 1 says we receive the greatest gift we will ever receive on this side of eternity and that is the spirit of god himself so we want to ask you are you a believer in jesus christ do you have the holy spirit that is god's presence living on the inside of you it is impossible to live well without the power of the holy spirit of god so if you know that you've never made a decision to place faith in jesus like you've participated in church honey you've been at every conference you've read every book you've done all the things but that's not what i'm asking i'm asking have you accepted christ's blood shed on calvary for the remission the removal the payment for your sins if not then what a great day to become a part of the family of god we would love crystal and i as sisters that's about to say biological sisters but we got a whole group of sisters that are in the house today we can't wait to pray with you in fact we'll pray out loud to build an atmosphere of faith for you even if you're by yourself in your home right this minute and you're gonna just hear yourself praying it just know you got a whole host of women that are here and then even virtually that are going to be praying this along with you okay so you just repeat the words after me the bible says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that jesus christ is lord in that moment you are saved and god's spirit takes up residence on the inside of you okay so we're going to pray it all together and you join us let's pray lord jesus lord jesus i am a sinner and i'm in need of a i'm in need of a savior and i believe and i believe that you are that savior that you are that savior so today so today i place faith alone i place faith alone in christ alone in christ alone to remove my sins to remove my sins take up residence in me take up residence in me in the person of the holy spirit in the person of the holy spirit right now right now in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name then jesus come on y'all let's celebrate all the women that are now a part of the family of god we're so excited for you if you just took that first step to walk into your life with jesus christ we're excited for you if you've been walking with jesus christ and this has presented another opportunity for you to commit your life and to analyze your life based on the word of god that is being shared this weekend to say am i really walking according to the power of the holy spirit in my life but i have to tell you that one of the things that you need to know new believer or old believer is that that power is most activated when you are walking according to the word of god you have to open up your bible you have to read it for yourself because all of the conferences and the bible studies in the books are wonderful but the holy spirit is in you which means that you have to read the word of god for yourself and we want to help you with that and so one of the things that we want to make sure that you do is to make sure that you have registered for the conference because if you're just watching this whether it's the weekend of the release or after go to dfjconference.com because we want to make sure you have the information to jump into a devotional that we've prepared for you it's a 10-day devotional that will walk you through the promises of god when you sign up you will get emails every day for 10 days that will walk you through the promises of god and you can do that and do it again and do it again we want to help we don't want you you just come and get excited and enjoy the music and enjoy the special guest and and the word and however you do that at home by yourself or maybe you've invited a friend or two we want you to take this forward the next step and to get into god's word for yourself so make sure you go to dfjconference.com uh to register for this conference even after the conference has aired it'll be there for you and that 10-day devotional will walk it'll be free and it'll walk you through the promises of god so you can take steps forward based on what his word says it's amazing when you learn the word of god for yourself and apply it believing that what he's put in the word for you is true the devotional that i'm talking about if you're watching this the weekend of the conference will begin august the 2nd so you can catch it august 2nd anytime after that and know that we have prepared that devotional with you in mind to launch you forward or to the next level in your life with jesus you were going to talk about something else i was like the outreach because there's some outreach opportunity that's it well i guess dr anita phillips is next then oh yes dr anita phillips okay what do you want to say about dr anita phillips she's amazing she is amazing she takes what people know from years of study dr anita takes the technical excellence the educational excellence and the experiential excellence of having been a counselor a therapist who is focused on trauma she takes all that but she is a child of a child of a child of pastor after pastor after pastor in her family and she's a pastor's wife and church honey is what dr anita does so she takes so she takes all of the information that you can sit with people who understand the educational aspects of the brain and how it works and she marries that honestly what god has already said because don't we know that whatever we discover educationally we just figure out how to put thoughts around it what god has already said but to merge the two together she has such a unique and excellent way of doing that yes and it helps us to figure out based on god's word what the science is behind how we think and how we engage our emotional life to line up with what god's word tells us absolutely so if you have not already jump on your instagram feed or something you need to follow dr anita phillips so that you can be constantly fed by her but right now get ready to hear from and receive a word from dr anita phillips thank you so much for having me i am so excited to be here and i'm just going to spend a few minutes i hope freeing you from some weights and so can we pray real quick father god in the name of jesus help us to bridge the gap today between where we are and where we want to be in you between who we are and who we want to be in you father god and let us do it drenched in the cover of your love in jesus name amen amen amen well i love this conference theme we're talking about promises and i am all into the promise of god and let me just go ahead and read that verse to you real quick even though i know you've probably heard it already ii peter verse 3 chapter 3 verse 9 the lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness instead he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance that sounded so nice didn't it he's so patient with you he wants to want you to perish i'm old school so i'm going to read that in the king james version because it makes me feel a little bit better in the king james version it says the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us word not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance i listen to this verse and i hear it in two parts one part is supposed to be us christians in the beginning we're already in the house and we're waiting on the promise but the big promise is being delayed because god is wanting not to let any sinners get away and when he says he's long suffering like that is actually a love term that word translates to mean long in spirit he can go long in the spirit without losing heart and then when he said he's not willing that any should perish that word willing actually means it has filled with an affection and a desire i'm not willing to give you up this is a love verse this is a romance story this is god saying i am so in love with every single person i don't want to miss out on you it's a labor of love so i understand the niv but and god bless the makers but that hope he is patient with you no he's in love with you he's in love we're desperate for jesus but he's desperate for you and he's waiting and waiting because he's crazy about you this labor of love and i'm so grateful for it because even though i am certainly saved been for a long time sometimes i feel like i'm living in the second half of the verse any other christians like yeah you're waiting for the promise but you're also trying to go ahead and get this repentance thing right because you got some stuff in your life that just seems to be sticky does anybody know what it means to be saved but still sticky and it's like god when is this thing going to stop sticking to me your word says to lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets me it's easily besetting me but i'm not easily laying it aside it just seems to be here over and over and over again i don't know if that's happened to you but it's definitely happened to me if anybody has been a labor of love for jesus baby i am a labor of his love and i'm so grateful for it because some stuff it just seems like it's so hard to get it right and i wonder god how do i handle this what do i do i've been in this position so many times god has delivered me from so many things from an addiction to anxiety god has shown up for me and at my lowest point i remember asking god just kill me i'm never gonna get this right just just why don't you just can we get a lightning bolt or something let the car accident come i know i'm not gonna i didn't want to commit suicide but i didn't i was so done with myself and god spoke to me so clearly on that day he said i don't want to kill you i want to heal you changed my life forever and so i began to ask him god what is happening in this gap where we want to come to this repentance because we're coming to forgiveness god forgive me god forgive me god forgive me god forgive me forgive me for falling into that mess again forgive me for gospel and forgive me for sleeping with somebody that i'm not married to forgive me for this addiction forgive me for my bad attitude forget any i know it's nobody but anyway and and all this and we're getting forgiven but it's the repentance part and that phrase come to repentance actually means to make room that word come means to make space for to make room for and in repentance it means to change your purpose so how do i make room for a different purpose and that's different than just trying to do something different or to not do something again so how do i make room for the purpose well first i understand what's messing me up so i want you guys to go with me real quick to second corinthians chapter seven verses nine and ten it says now i rejoice not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death there's some confusion about what kind of sorry i need to be and unfortunately too often in the church leaders department heads parents have tried to help you not commit an act of sin by making you sorry the way the world wants you to be sorry too often we have you shame as a tool to get you to behave and maybe you get the behavior right for a while but your heart's so broken that's the problem so how do i go from this sorrow that the world gives from just feeling bad about it to be made sorry when i hear that it's like i have become the problem i have become the thing i've been made sorry not that i am sorry but i'm made into something sorry how do we bridge that gap so that we can make room to change our purpose because right now the purpose is often behave properly do everything right don't feel bad don't think a bad thing don't do a bad thing and this after this last year that we've had so many people have fallen into old ways of feeling better because they were overwhelmed by the situation and so now not only have we had a difficult year but folks are living under condemnation because you made some backsteps prayer life may have fallen off some of that word reading fell off but also it's some of your joy and you're like i really work to have faith for this kind of joy and now where's my joy emotionally i'm just like not there and you're wondering if it's a spiritual failure and so we're trying to fix everything but god wants you to understand something bigger how do i get from made sorry to that godly sorrow i can tell you as a therapist as a trauma therapist who's a christian there's three main reasons that christians come to me and it's because they can't stop doing something that they know they shouldn't be doing they're in some kind of pain emotionally or physically and they don't understand why they can't get out or they're so embarrassed about some aspect of their life that they can't talk to anybody else about it that's how they feel and those are the three ways that we're gonna break this thing where we're gonna go from being made sorry to making room for a new purpose the first thing that i want to tell you to do to bridge that gap in your life is to connect your behavior to your brokenness we rarely connect our behavior to our brokenness i've survived a lot of trauma that's why i'm a trauma therapist i was raped at 14 years old it changed the way that i interacted with the world and the way that i saw myself as a woman and so i engaged in many broken behaviors after that but until i recognize the extent to which my behavior was related to my brokenness and then stopped hating myself and started letting god love me that started to make the difference one of the problems is you don't know how to connect a dot from your brokenness and your behavior now your behavior and brokenness may have been different you may not be able to stop snapping at your spouse but have you ever stopped to think about the extent to which there was nothing in your home and it broke you because you didn't grow up listening to peaceful communication and you didn't learn that so it shaped you differently and now you're snappy and you think oh gosh i just need more patience i need some rest i need something no something actually broke you when that divorce happened and that day that you came home and found out that your father was never coming back and you didn't see him for a decade and now you think everybody's going to leave you so you leave them first and you're trying to figure out why you can't keep a relationship correctly but you don't believe it has anything to do with that you're just the way you are that's sexual abuse and you're wondering why your emotional life and your sexual life are disconnected it don't have anything to do with that do you know that some of the adult symptoms of childhood abuse be it sexual emotional or physical include bad money management bad relationships difficulty keeping a job insomnia diabetes heart disease you have no idea the extent to what your current life is connected to your broken path and so you're punishing yourself when god wants to heal you you got to make room to change your purpose from being perfect to being loved the second thing you need to do after you connect those dots you have to disconnect pain from punishment i cannot tell you the number of christians who come to me convinced that the pain that they are in is punishment for something they're trying to figure out what did i do wrong what did i do wrong why am i still anxious why am i still depressed why can't i get this feeling off of me why can't i fix this i had someone ask me recently she is suffering with fibromyalgia and for people who don't know that's a nervous system condition where your body is just in constant pain even though there's no damage to your body and so we look at it to try and understand some of the emotional factors and she's struggling with fibromyalgia and she said to me i've forgiven everyone i've done all the forgiveness i'm not holding grudges to anyone why do i still feel this way she was still looking for a deficit to explain her pain honey your pain is not necessarily punishment and when we are convinced that that is who god is that's his primary character that he is sitting up there his job is to punish us when we fall short then we continue to punish ourselves and so we start to hate ourselves but you can't hate yourself better no matter how mad you get at you no matter how you hate you you cannot hate yourself whole it's not god that's not who he is we've been taught too often that punishment is his primary function but it's not true and your pain is not necessarily an indicator that you have done something wrong so i'm sparing you some prayer closet time where you're asking each time that you're on your knees i am saying to you you can stop asking god to show you what you've done wrong pain is a part of this fall in life our bodies do dumb things and that's how we end up in painful situations sin permeates this world and fallen things are happening but that doesn't mean that you have done something wrong release that god wants to love on you in that space the third thing that i advise people to do to bridge this gap is to lay down shame tell somebody what you're struggling with james 5 16 says what confess your faults to one another and then pray for each other that you may be healed now i think that word fault is important in some translations it says confess your sins but god forgives my sins but this scripture's talking about getting together with another person and healing we have to stop looking at it just as an act of sin that i did wrong but my sinfulness my fallen nature confess these things that are false and then asking people to pray with me that begins the healing process because it's not you're not overcoming shame just because you tell one person and demand they keep it a secret the key is to take the power away from the secret so you don't have a secret anymore but in order to do that we need to be in communication and connection with other women who love us with other women who know god with other women we trust you can't fix this by yourself we pray to god to forgive our sins but we pray with each other to heal us this intersection of forgiveness and healing is the tender place where this labor of love is happening but the reason we're missing out so often is because we've only done the forgiveness part but not the connection and the healing part what would you say to someone right now about that area of your life if you weren't afraid what would you say about the heaviness you carry because of what your child is doing or involved with and the guilt that you feel that you haven't been the mother that you needed to be what would you say if you were going to be honest about the depression that has been dogging you for months and you've read your bible and you praised as hard as you could and it still seems to be there and you don't want anyone to know what would you say if you were gonna be honest what would you say if you were gonna tell that story from your childhood and ask that person to pray with you to begin your healing journey what would you say i want you to confess confess confess confess but not in the condemning way that we're used to hearing that word i want you to tell what's happening with you to someone right now if you're all alone i want you to write it down and then read it out loud and then text it to somebody pick up a phone call somebody i want you to speak out the thing that weighs the most because that is how we begin to make this shift from being sorrowful as the world wants us to be embarrassed ashamed defeated that part is so dangerous proverbs 15 13 says that by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken and so what you don't realize is that while you are going through this sorrow from the world you're trying to get spiritually stronger but it's actually breaking your spirit because it's not the same as the sorrow we receive from god that moment when we say oh my goodness when god said to me i don't want to kill you i want to heal you godly sorrow came over me because i realized i am in the relationship with a god who is deeply in love with me and i'm hurting his feelings that's different that's different but if you don't recognize the extent to which god desperately loves you you will spiral in this shame that the world gives and continue to be the christian who's both waiting for the promise and trying to make room to change their purpose wondering if you'll miss the promise because you don't feel like you've found repentance god's not mad at you he's not mad at you he's in love with you he died for you he's waiting for you he's overwhelmed with affection toward you he's not losing heart this is a romance story between him and you and all you have to do is fall into his arms and if you mess up again tomorrow guess what just fall into his arms there's so much rebuilding to do we've been through a very difficult 18 months or so and for many of you the difficulties are persisting you may still be grieving the loss of a loved one you may be traumatized from having been sick you may be having nightmares and can't sleep well and you're wondering why you're confessing scriptures over it and you can't get it right and you're feeling like you're not trusting god he's there for you and there's nothing that you can do to decrease your value in his eyes i think we struggle with that because it's easy for other people to decrease their value in hours someone does something and you're just like points lost oh i thought i could depend on them for x and you start wrapping it up and pulling back and we get confused that god is like us but he is not us he is not human he don't need to lie he doesn't need to rank he doesn't need to protect himself from you like you're trying to protect yourself from other people he died on the cross arms stretched wide stripped down vulnerable seen he doesn't need to protect himself he's confident in his love and even if you never return it it won't reduce it for him but return it return it so that we can go from the sorrow the world gives to godly sorrow because when you embrace that kind of love that's when you begin to have the testimony that you need that's when you'll be able to stand up like i do all the time and share all your messy stories because i am so deeply loved what [Laughter] it changes everything and i wanted to change everything for me for you if you don't know jesus man i really want you to hear this message that there is nothing you have ever done to disqualify you from how much jesus is obsessed with you he's standing at your door right now he's that ex that won't go away he's tossing rocks at your window and sitting on your front steps when you get home from work he's that in love with you and i want you to take the opportunity right now to just say jesus i receive your love it don't have to be a whole long thing just jesus i receive your love if you've known him for 10 years 20 years 30 years but you've never really received his love i want you to say it jesus i receive your love everything goes from there father god i thank you for this opportunity to talk about your love thank you for adoring me thank you for pouring your love over me so much that it can run off on other people i thank you for the souls that are being saved right now as people are falling into your love all over the world father god i thank you for wrapping your arms around them and showing them who you are father god i thank you for sending other people to confirm exactly how much you love them put your words in the mouth of other people and for those who know you father god i thank you that they now know you better because they have understood that you are so in love with them and nothing can change that in the mighty name of jesus amen and amen whoo that was amazing dr anita she brings it every single time every single time i'm so glad that for the first time our church has gotten to experience dr anita phillips yes we are excited to have her here her ministry and her message is one that i hope people will keep going back to over and over again because she has a relevant word for writing and it's unique like her training her expertise bringing that and merging that with the gospel just a unique position that she has absolutely did you were y'all blessed today were y'all blessed in the house today by me to philip and we really hope that you were too by the whole day i can't believe we plan we think about this we pray about desperate for jesus then all of a sudden we're at the end of the whole day we're at the end and it's over it's over except that because it's virtual hello now it's not over no it means that you have an opportunity to watch it through again and re-watch it watch it again see what it is that the holy spirit's going to say to you again through the worship through the word that you've heard and then also share it with your friends because it's going to remain available and i know there are a lot of people who couldn't watch it in real time today but they can watch it sort of on demand as their life opens up and they have opportunity to so just make sure you're telling all your people your cousin your mama them let them know that that's what for jesus is available for them your cousin and your mama and them all of them all them yes amen we also know that um this benefit that we've all had to be a part of desperate for jesus virtually has come because uh the church oh ocbf oakland bible fellowship our church we've grown up uh in and that we have been ministered to over the years by our dad dr tony evans in combination with the urban alternative the national ministry arm for my dad and his messaging all over the world have come together to partner to produce this event it doesn't mean it was free just because it was free to you and so i want to ask that if you have been blessed by this and you want to sow into the ministry that has put this conference out there for uh this content the messaging the speakers uh jan greenwood miranda curtis to be a blessing to you you can do that by going to dfjconference.com for a gift of any amount any amount because we know that it's tough times and we know that maybe what you'd like to do is not what you are actually able to do right now any amount we'd like to send you a gift in return it's a desperate for jesus bag and then we put promise cards cards with scripture on them to remind you of god's promises because if you're like me you may know what they are but sometimes refreshing them and having them on your front lobe somebody say front having them on your front lobe where the holy spirit can access those because you've been marinating and meditating on them currently are helpful and so we'll put some promise cards in there for you so that you can go over the promises of god in scripture for you if you are able to give more a gift of 50 or more we'd like to add to that and put priscilla study in there for you the study of elijah she's recently taught on that will include a study guide and then the information that you need to access the virtual teaching so if you want more priscilla taught last night if you want more priscilla you can have that given to you in that dfj bag for a gift of 50 or more but we're just grateful that you're here and we know whether you can contribute or not our prayer is that well it's not our prayer we know that this has been a blessing to you our prayer that it will continue to be a blessing to you in your life as you live out the rest of this year so here's the deal as we close what you need to know is that this is not like a one-off thing we've said that before but we have been doing this locally at our church desperate for jesus has been happening since 2004. can you believe that we started this in 2004 there are women that are right now sitting in front of us some of them have actually been to every single one since the year 2004 um or most of them if not all of them and we've had the privilege we started this with our sweet mom way back then and we've done it every year since and we're doing it again next year that's what you need to know is that it should already be on your calendar sis you need to know that on july 22nd and 23rd of 2022 can you believe i cannot believe 2022 we are already planning we're already preparing for the people that are going to be here to serve you whether in the word or in worship we're praying we're planning we're already meeting and talking about how to make sure that this event continues to be a blessing to you now that we get to be this global family of desperate for jesus so we want to invite you already we hope today and last night has been incredible for you we hope you've been blessed and we hope that as you leave this event now and move on with the rest of your day your weekend and your weeks ahead that you see and sense the presence and the power and the peace of god in a way that will mark you forever thank you so much for joining us we're looking forward to seeing you next year [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 217,882

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Length: 193min 43sec (11623 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021