Zoe Women's Conference - Jackie Hill Perry

are you gonna say how are you Saints yeah y'all always trying to make me emotional with that last segment I don't really appreciate it any time you start paying people mortgage I want to cry if they wouldn't give you some free toilet tissue and paper towels I would have went there I just would have because that's the most expensive thing in my house I don't know about you told the tissue and paper towels it just cost millions of dollars I barely made it but I'm here and I'm grateful I literally just hopped out the car and got here and my breath probably stinks but you know it be like that sometimes you know that's why y'all low rare and I'm up here you ain't even got smoke God is so gracious and kind to you um I'm gonna get straight to it I just want to talk about God today if that's okay with you because I know it's typical of women's conferences in particular where we can hear a whole lot about us and I think that's valuable I think that's valid I think we do need to learn and understand us but we are limited in our understanding of us if we are limited or shallow or surface in our understanding of God and so for me I guess my heart today is to just sit on him to just rest and learn about him and dissect him which will then thrust us into a place where we can then walk out our identities well so let me pray first so I can do this right and not be a heretic all right God you are transcendent you yourself are one-of-a-kind you are the most one-of-a-kind being that exists God you are you are big and you are smart and you are immutable and you are holy and you are timeless and you are sinless and you are you are just everything we cannot be I'm thankful God that you have given us the opportunity to know you this one-of-a-kind God I'm thankful God that you have even given us minds to be able to understand you even if it's a little bit at a time I'm thankful God for it I pray Lord that this time would be glorified and I pray that this time would be exalting I pray that people would see you and learn you and hear from you I pray that you would convict where there needs to be conviction that you would encourage where there needs to be encouragement I pray that you would lift the veil off of eyes people who think they know you and don't I pray God that you would show them the truth god I pray that you would say where there needs to be salvation I pray that you would use me however you see fit I pray that you would use us even as we say Amen say that our speaking tongues even without interpretation I pray God that you would do your thing pray that you would speak in Jesus name Amen I once heard a really wise woman say that in our culture today that faith is can I get a hand help my god I feel like preaching and this just ain't a preacher mic this is just this is one of them chant talking mics and this ain't this ain't a TED talk but in the meantime while we wait I once heard a wise woman say that faith is counter cold y'all was on it praise God look at you the Bible says be ready in another season there you are I heard a woman once they don't that sound better that faith in our culture today is counter cultural and I think that that's true because ever since Adam ate from the fruit unbelief has been our default we are born trusting in everything but God whether it be our feelings or our money or our jobs or whatever sinful people are experts at putting their faith into unfaithful things considering our society as it is now thing that we are continually grieved by whether it be the way people understand sexuality or our identity our bodies or whatever the case may be everything that we see people falling into is a product of unbelief all of the sin and idolatry in our world is simply because people don't want to trust the those who choose not to ascribe to a biblical sexual ethic they have two problems with God that they don't want to believe one they don't want to believe that God is wise and all that he has told us to do with our bodies - they don't want to believe that God is good and all that he has told us to do with our bodies how they understand sexuality is a product of their unbelief or unwavering view of God you have people who might have a lot of money got a lot of coin in the bank and so they choose to put their faith or their hope in their money because they don't believe that God Himself is the sustainer of all things that every thing that they have has actually come from him and even then that these green things are this coin or your cheque does not define who you are but rather the person in whose image you are made then you have people you have people who are champions of autonomy these are the kinds of people who delight in having a supposed freedom to do as they please what it is that they don't trust about God is they feel like because God's commands are restrictive that they should not be obeyed but the funny thing about that is as though God's commands might be restrictive they are actually protection that God has told us to what not to nuke do not just because he's some meaning but because he is a good father trying to warn us of all the things that would keep us from joy we have a hard time with faith because we have a hard time with God if you're in the church you've probably noticed that unbelief exists there - unbelief is not just a worldly reality there are Christians all around us who at one point might have believed that God was wise and all that he said and good and all that he did and they believe that what he has commanded of us is worthy to be obeyed but now because of trials or some other reasons they don't love God like they used to their zeal for God has turned into rebellion their high view of Scripture has turned into academic skepticism their crucifixion of the flesh has moved backwards into submission to the flesh and God forbid you tell them that they're going the wrong way they'll look at you like you crazy judgmental narrow-minded the flesh will come up with all kinds of ways to demonize biblical wisdom so that it can do what it wants without having to deal with the conscience being so loud Christians that are falling aren't mad at you they're mad at what you're reminding them all which is the truth ain't it crazy that when you are walking in unbelief the one thing that can set you free is the one thing that you don't want even in the world even though the chart the world doesn't trust God and some of our Christians are having difficulty trusting God and drifting from trusting God that's interesting if I was a different kind of preacher I would think it's the Holy Ghost but it ain't if we're honest with ourselves if we lay aside the delusion of strength if we just survey our hearts we know that we're all not too far from falling - some of you just got to hear the right song and you're gonna fall flat on your back and that's the metaphor the Bible says if you think you are standing firm take heed lest you people fall for one simple reason they stop trusting God the fight to stand firm is the fight of faith the fight to just believe that everything that God has said about himself is true the crazy thing is though because falling away from the faith happens when people stop having faith it's easy to think that you haven't failed solely because of your own ability to believe let me explain some of you might be the kind of Christian that say I have to fell into sin because I read my Bible all the time and I go to church and I do whole 30 and you call whole 30 fast and so I'm good hold 30 is the craziest thing in the world y'all can't even eat peanuts ain't even almond joys and paydays why would I want to do that God ain't in that [Applause] that kind of logic would actually qualify as unbelief - because that line of thinking doesn't acknowledge the truth that the only reason you are still standing was because God himself has given you the means to your legs ain't that strong since so in a space where there is unbelief everywhere where there is unbelief in the church where there is unbelief in the world where there is unbelief in us what hope do we have how do we resist the temptations that are calling us by our names but also how do we not glory and our own Christian efforts for the reason we have stood this long who should we trust in to keep us from falling I think the last two verses in Jude has the answer if you have your Bibles turn to Jude 24 and 25 it's the little book right before revelation and nobody ever reads and I have a Bible study on it coming out October 1st just in case you want to get it hello small plug let me move on the verse says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling yeah I'm excited already and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God I are seeing you through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory Majesty Dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen geez Jude is a very short letter it was written by Jesus's brother to a group of Christians that were a lot like us they had people around them that were sexually immoral greedy unjust they were people who would call themselves Christians that were teaching doctrines that were unchristian they were the kind of people that you get on Instagram and they got the picture they Bible open with a coffee cup and they look cactus plant but the caption is off the caption a right normally I got friends worse like this picture was so long I was about to like this picture but this caption I can't affirm that I can't like this I'm sorry these are the kind of people they were around and Jude was exhorting the godly folks in this church to contend for the faith in a climate of faithlessness and because people were drifting away from the truth left there right naturally these Saints would end up discouraged and think that they themselves could potentially fall so in the conclusion of his letter Jude writes this doxology doxology is a short hymn of praise that pushes their minds and their hearts not to remember themselves but to remember who God is and what God will do they didn't need to know how great and how amazing and I awesome they were they needed to worship he says in verse 24 now to him who was able to do what keep you from stumbling remember when I told you that your legs ain't that strong says this is why I said it because the reason any Christian is still a Christian is because Christ is keeping them don't be so Hardy as to think that you still love God because you that tight have you read the Old Testament people of faith have a very hard time staying faithful you got Israel who one minute their acts and God to deliver them out of Egypt and then when they get to the wilderness they want to go back to Egypt just cuz they're hungry it's crazy how the body will make you want to be a slave again to a place that you wasn't even happy in then then you got David knew one minute it's laying Giants with a rock and the next minute he is slaying one of his soldiers to cover up his own sin then you got Peter Peter who has the nerve to ask Jesus hey can I walk on water with you bro and there one piece of wind comes and Peter forgets who's in control of the waves not only that at before Jesus's crucifixion Peter was axe hey do you know this book this do I'm paraphrasing the hood terms by the way do you know this God talking about Jesus and Peter denies Jesus he doesn't deny it once or twice he denies him three times but the beautiful part of that whole story is that Jesus already told him it would happen and when he told him it would happen Jesus said ultimately that his faith though he might fall his fall wouldn't only be a momentary foam why he says safe has demanded to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail Jesus kept Peter even when Peter didn't even want to be kept Jesus prayed a prayer that ensured that Peter would stay strong even when he felt weakened according to jouvert 24 Jesus is doing the same thing for you now that's being kept by God meaning that you sit back and do nothing and watch you know fixer-upper all day no HGTV you know well I don't know what happens when you get over 30 HDTV just becomes your nickel only I don't know what that is we go to Ikea for fun you see that I didn't go by that's just like looking at it being kept by God does not mean that you be lazy about the practice of sanctification God told us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling not work for meaning put into action what God has already begun in you meaning read his word fellowship with his Saints pray but know that it is God who was working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure it is his power that is the fuel behind all of your Christian efforts so that when you do make it to glory you won't pat yourself on the back and take the crown off your head and glory in it as if it was yours but you'll take it off your head lay it at Jesus's feet because you recognize he is the only reason that you made [Applause] even if everybody around you don't want to stay in their place God can keep you in yours the text says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before his glorious presence with great joy what what Jude is using he's playing with contrasts God is able to keep you from falling and God is able to present you blameless meaning he's able to keep you from going low and he's able to keep you standing blameless means without blemish Jude when you read his letter uses a lot of Old Testament to teach and hear the imagery of being without blemish would immediately take their minds back to what God required of his people and their sacrifices before Jesus Crane and Deuteronomy God told his people that if they sacrifice anything with a blemish or a defect that it would be a detestable thing to him because God himself was without blemish Jesus had no defects no stains no sins he needed to confess no sins he needed to be forgiven of God wanted his people to sacrifice to him that which was representative of himself but we all know that it's easier to find a spotless lamb that it is to find a blameless first anybody born after Adam is automatically blemished so that puts us in the predicament if we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory then that means none of us are blameless and if none of us are blameless then how in the world will God accept us how would we be able to approach his throne without the threat of rejection how can we know that on the day that we see his face he won't see all of our sins and do to us what is expected of a holy God which is to remove whatever it is that is unclean from his presence this is the part or you thank God for Jesus because Jesus became the ultimate sacrificial lamb had no blemishes or defects and Jesus died for folks who were blemished because of their sexual baths folks that were blemished because of their treatment of their spouse folks that were blemished because of all kinds of items like money and drugs and drug czar and drugs folks that were blemished because of their self-righteousness folks that were too proud to even admit that they were blemished what Jesus is deaf did is that it made a way for us dirty folk to be able to come to God and be made clean that no matter what we did even if it was yesterday or right now because that thought you might have had in your head but listen next you that's a blemished thing that no matter what we did and when we did it however long we did it we are made righteous purely by faith meaning that the perfect life that he lived was transferred to us so that when God looks at us he does not treat us as an unclean thing but he sees us as his children and it is because of Jesus that Jew can tell God's people that one day they will indeed be presented before God as if they have never done anything in their entire life Amazing Grace how sweet the sound and when they stand when we stand before God what does Jude say what is the kind of God we will see look at verse 25 it says he is the only God we're gonna walk through this text I don't know if y'all knew that meaning that there is none like him none competing with him none that can compare to him God being the only God is significant because unbelief will have you out here living like there are many gods that's what idolatry is by definition it is when you esteem or give something other than God although the affection that God deserves when we start to idolize stuff it isn't that we lost our faith is that we've misplaced it is that there is this thing or this person you have expectations for that only God could actually fulfill you are assuming that this created thing can be to you what the creator has already said he's always been so when the easiest examples I can muster up it's Christians who might find themselves in a sinful sexual relationship some people are not having sex outside of marriage purely on the basis of lust many people are having sex outside of marriage because they want comfort they believe that this sin will give them the comfort that they so desire but the problem is is that God is the source of all comfort how do I know well then 2nd Corinthians 4 it says that God is the God of all comfort not sex not man not pornography not ministry but God is the God of all comfort therefore I what you have to do is you have to take your mind and your affections and your heart and your faith off of this thing and put it back on the person who are what he said he has it God can be the only God for you he is the only one who has everything that you need only God can be God for you everything else is far too limited too fat fragile too temporary too incompetent too inconsistent too weak too human idols can't make nobody hold because I don't make nobody if God made you then surely he is the only one that can truly satisfy you this God is the God that will keep you from stumbling Jude also says that this God is our Savior when people are when you tell people that God saved you do you know what you're saying to be saved is to be to be delivered out of a place of danger and delivered into a place of safety before God saved you then you have to ask yourself what was our ultimate Lee in danger of well because God is holy he must touch sin and because we are sinners he was going to judge us so what we were in danger all was the very wrath of God but in Romans 5 he Paul says something spectacular he says that God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore God we have now been justified by his blood touch this much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God what does that mean when God saves you he saves you from God for God that's what salvation is salvation is the work of Jesus by which he delivered you from the dangerous wrath of God and into the safety of God's mercy so when you call Jesus your Savior know that you are calling to mind the divine rescue plan of God because all of that wrath and all of that fury was reserved to you that was reserved for you was poured out on the son and because of grace he got your judgment and you got his peace and we didn't even ask him to do it but he did it without our permission Jude says that God is our Savior plural don't miss that Jesus saved you Jesus saved me that means Jesus saved us it's easy to get caught up in the personal and individual nature of faith that we missed the glory and encouragement that comes from understanding the communal nature of our faith God is the savior of many that means that you are never alone there are so many people that you can give God glory with so part of working out your salvation is actually to guard yourself from isolation and continuing to press into community and I know it's hard I know it's awkward the Saints are irritating but remember the passage that said he who began a good work in you was written to Christians so the same hope that you have for yourself for God to finish you is the same kind of encouragement that you need to have for your sister who might be struggling another thing is a lot of times we as Christians we prayed this prayer we say God make me like you I want to be like you Father I want to be I just want to look like you I want to be like Moses where my glory shines from my face I want to do that let's put some lotion on and there you got it I like you know one of the ways you can look like God as being in community God is a triune God God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit God himself has never been alone so it is when you isolate yourself from other people that she looked the least like God so if you want to be like God being community like God has always been now to him who was able you gonna remember this when I leave now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory in Exodus 33 Moses actually see God's glory God put him in the cleft over rock and allowed his glory to pass by so in one sense that means that God's glory is perceivable it's something that you can see it comes out from him most times manifesting is light such as in revelations 21 how it talks about we don't need no lightbulbs or no lamps because God's glory will be our son glory is something that characterizes God but glory is also something that we can give to God to give God glory is to give God honor honor shows up in a heart that reckons with the fact that God created everything and that God sustains everything and that God died for people who were considered irreverent people who glory in created things like their relationships in their job and their intellect and their money and their sexuality but now because he has been merciful and gracious they are people who live to give Him glory because people who have been saved by God knows that he deserves it look at what he's done he saved us look at what he's doing he's keeping up look at what he's going to do he's going to present us blameless what logical thing else is there for us to do but to give God glory you don't even understand the miracle it is for you to actually want him to be glorified that's not even natural to us we want all the glory and we want all the honor we want all the praise but in God salvation of us he actually changed our affections and made our highest joy his honor where we become glad to worship God what we want people to share in this glory people look at us crazy when we say that God is good when we're suffering but that's what salvation does because you see the goodness of God even when you're in pain because God loved us first we love him back and because we trust him and because we love him we want him to be glorified Jesus says or Jude says in verse 25 to this God is also Majesty our God is a king God rules over everything he always has and he always will and sometimes it can feel like our culture is out of control because it is it's a high mess the god of this world Satan is prowling around like a lion seeking people to devour between the media certain political policies and agendas murder is happening inside and outside of the womb even in our homes there are discards in our marriages weird and awkward tension between us and our parents frustration with our children because they won't do we after we then said it for the 12-time god please help us get patience my lord there is so much going on but even if the world is out of control even if our life feels out of control we still have a king who is completely in control and I know you're clapping but I want you to believe that when you go home this is easy but when everything is chaotic we have to trust that he is actually in control beyond this moment beyond these clouds a king that is still on the throne where there is no person or any circumstance that will make him get up he is always raining even if it doesn't feel like it we cannot allow our affections or our site to determine what God is doing in heaven Jude says to the only God our Savior be glory Majesty Dominion and authority God's Dominion speaks to the power that God has to govern and do whatever it is that he decides God's Authority speaks to his sovereign rule over all things so imagine a God who not only has the ability to do whatever it is that he pleases like creating the universe with the breath of his mouth but he's also a God who has the right to do whatever it is that he flees is like have mercy on whomever he chooses we don't have the mental ability to understand that kind of power there are a lot of people in our world today who have the ability to do certain things especially people in positions of authority and because of sin these people use their power to oppress people who don't have as much power or agency as they do but even if those people have the power to do those things and never meant that they had the authority why because there is a higher authority that presidents and all these other people are submitted to or subject to and that is God this God upholds everything by the word of his power this God holds all things together this God created heaven and earth in this same God and doing what he had the power to do and the Dominion to do became a whole baby think about that and he lived as both God and man and to one day the people who had borrowed power used it to crucify him but they didn't realize that God was behind the scenes the whole time that they were only doing what God who has absolute dominion was allowing them to do and that God who has absolute power was letting them do jesus said no one takes my life from me but I lay down on my own accord how because he had the Dominion and the authority to do it this all-powerful and this all authoritative God used his power to do what to serve you Jesus Christ though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself a being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself to the point of death even death on a cross if you haven't figured it out yet why God deserves all of this praise and that should have helped you many people in our world in our church they don't want to live under the authority of God and the Dominion of God because they don't believe that it's actually a good thing as some of you in here but they believe that too because you have an off view of God you have off view of submission but when you see God as good and that's right and that's just and that's consistent and as holy holy meaning that he cannot sin and if he cannot sin that means he cannot sin against you God's motives are always good unlike our daddies unlike our friends people who trust God know that under his Dominion and under his authority is the safest place we could ever be Jude says to the only God our Savior Jude through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory Majesty Dominion and authority then he gives us some timeframes for how long how long should this plays last well actually self how long has God deserve glory how long has God been majestic how long has God had majesty how long has God had dominion how long has God been worthy when you ask yourself this you recognize he's had only that before time again why because in Genesis 1:1 it says that God created the heavens and the earth meaning that God is eternal God was here before time was therefore so are his attributes that's why we can give Him glory for who he's always been but what about now now is the contention we have no problem praising God for what he did back then yeah I see what you did with them Lord I've seen it but what about now is he still the only one where their worship is he still the only one worthy of glory is he still a king with power and authority well the way Malachi 3:6 is set up it says that God does not change that's why you can say we can give him all this glory before all time and now who God was before time is who God is today and because he cannot change and will not change he will have dominion and power forever this is our hope because if we serve the God who was like us how would we be able to trust that he wouldn't change his mind when we're presented before him if God was fickle like us what hope would we have that he wouldn't keep his word if he didn't have power in the future how would I be able to pray with confidence how will we be able to trust that this world will actually pass away and that all this suffering and injustice won't keep going when it can seem like the devil is setting up shop how could we trust a God we'll have the authority in the Dominion to put this due to his place the unday unchanging nature of God means that we can praise him now for what he has been and what he is and what we know he will be the immutability of God that's the fancy word to describe it means that to put my trust in him is to put my trust in a rock that is solid and a moveable all of us nobody like what it's like to feel or to trust somebody that changes like the wind we know that we get it but you can know that God is the most unchanging thing in the universe I think some of our difficulties with trusting God I tweeted about this this week is that we project onto God where other people have done for us and so if my daddy wasn't there I projected on to God that he won't be there if my mama abandoned me I projected on to God that my mama abandon me if my husband don't listen to me I projected on that we project these human attributes onto a unhuman God God is unlike anybody we have ever met in our entire lives and because of that we have so much reason to trust him because he will remain faithful to himself which is a holy and a good God the fact that we can praise God now for being glorious and majestic means that I don't have to believe the lie that God has changed just because my circumstances had that would only apply of God was like us we change because of external pressures God does not God does not so an infertility or in bad parenting not bad parenting we're all bad parents Loki I'll be feeling terrible oh my god I I know she gonna have to go to therapy but can we limit how much she has to go to therapy for me no it's inevitable let me get back to my point the unchanging nature of God means that what in whatever circumstance I have there is always means for me to praise so in infertility and in parenting that means I can say to God be glory in difficult marriages and in singleness that means that I could say to God be majesty and depression and fear and anxiety that means I can say to God the Dominion when I'm tempted to be who I used to be and do what I used to do when people are looking at me crazy because I've decided to take up my cross and die I say to God being Authority because we know I feel like you turn me down I don't know why you did that I grew up in the Pentecostal church we like to you know to boom Isaiah let me do it like this because we know that's nasty I don't know about this is on people just be smitten in it just be all over the place I'm sleepy you know because we know our God will always be king but Majesty Dominion and authority we can say with full assurance till the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory Majesty Dominion and authority before all time and now and forever and Jude ends by saying amen amen means yes or so be it it means that you agree with what has been said a man is not a cliche it is it's not a cute thing that we use to end prayers to say Amen is to say I agree so some of us are amazing things that we don't even believe so we're lying the last word of Jews doxology is so much more than how we use it by saying it it means that we are certain that what has been said will happen it means that you are in full agreement with your heart and your mouth that God is all of the above and more a man is not just a word that you say it's a word that you say by faith so when he says to God be glory you're a menace yes I believe it when he says to God be majesty you say yes I believe it's a godly Dominion yes I believe it even when everything looks crazy when it looked like he ain't got the Dominion when he looked like he and got the majesty when it looks like I am king of my own throne I say Amen because I believe that it's true by faith we have a lot of people in our world that will say Amen with their mouths but there is no Amen in their hearts but if you are trusting in Christ and you believe that he is who he says he is that I know that because God is going to keep you your Amen will last now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before his glorious presence with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory Majesty Dominion and authority before all time and now and forever and the church said [Applause]

Channel: The Life Church

Views: 280,345

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Keywords: women's conference, the life church, memphis, empowerment, jackie hill-perry

Id: FAmrXQtUcKo

Length: 39min 24sec (2364 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 30 2019