Priscilla Shirer - The Perfect Patience Of God

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Tonight, to be honest, really is just a dream come true.
There's two ways to play these moments. You know, when
people that you really look up to and revere are
in your presence, you can try to act cool, or
you can just have a fan girl open and be like,
oh my goodness, Priscilla Shire is he not? Everybody knows

(00:32):
Pastor Taylor and our story, but we did not have
a plan to plant a church. This is something that
God kept pushing us towards and pushing us towards. And
although this was not on our plan, it's been evident
that the hand of God has been on it just
because we were obedient. I will tell you this, Before
I ever knew I was going to plant a church,
there's just people that I had on my mind. I said,

(00:53):
if I ever had a church, I promise you I
would bring them in. And Priscilla Shire those people. I
could tell you how she's a best selling author. I
could tell you how she's an actress. I could tell
you how she's an international global speaker. I could tell

(01:15):
you how she didn't fly in, she drove in. She
lives here in the great country of Texas. Tell you
how she's an incredible wife, an amazing mom. Her sons
are here, Two of her sons are here, and even
her family is here, her brother and her sister, Anthony
and Crystal, they're here. Just so honor your entire family seriously.

(01:40):
Like some people have the Kennedy's, we have the Evans.
If you lived here in Dallas, we love your family.
And I'm just so thankful that she would come to
our baby church and bring the Word of Lord. I
want you to get your heart expected. I want you
to be ready, not just blown away by her voice,

(02:02):
by her gift, by how astute she is and preaching
the word of God, especially in this last season. I've
been blown away by watching how resilient she's been to
fight a battle. It's one thing to see somebody's ministry.
It's another thing to see when they're going through pain

(02:22):
and they still minister even in their pain. They can
go through the fire and not smell like smoke and
give all of us hope the way they keep standing.
And I've watched Priscilla and her entire family do that.
You are in for our treat I want you to
treat her like we do at the six PM be

(02:43):
leaned in shout her down.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I want her to come back.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Okay, y'all, So without any further ado, please put your
hands together and help me. Thank God for the gift
of Priscilla. Shall come on, Social Family, you can do that.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Whoo whoo, Hi family, y'all good.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I'm excited to be at Social Dallas tonight for many reasons,
but one of them is that I love the Word
of God and I'm excited to share with you a
word from the scriptures tonight. So do I pray for
you before you sit down? What do y'all do with
this church? I'll just stand up the whole message. Lord,
I thank you for your word. I thank you that
it is living and active and sharper than any two

(03:45):
inch sword. Lord, I thank you that in these next
few moments we are gonna hear a word straight from
the mouth of God. Father. We did not come to
see each other.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
We came to see you.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
So I'm asking you to open up the windows of
heaven and come down here and see you about us. Father.
We need to hear from you, Lord, speak to us,
your sons and your daughters. We are listening in Jesus'
mighty name. Everybody agreed with me and say Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.
You may take your seats at the privilege to be

(04:18):
with you tonight and to have an opportunity to share
God's word with you. As I mentioned, it is my
joy to share God's word. It is the living, breathing
word of God. The scriptures. You know that, right, It's
not just a book with ink on a page. I'm
telling you, it's alive. That every single time we come

(04:40):
to the pages of Scripture, we ought to expect to
feel the warm breath of God brushing across our cheeks
as He speaks a present word over every single one
of our lives. So I'm expecting that tonight. I want
to tell you before I dive into this little piece
of scripture that I want to share with you, I
want to tell you that I'm grateful to be here because,

(05:01):
as Pastor Robert mentioned, this is my home, Dallas for
Worth born and raised. I've been here my whole life,
and I'm grateful to be able to minister in the
city that is my home. And I'm grateful to be
at this church. I've snuck in before and just sort
of been here, been a part of church, been ministered
to by your church by your pastor and his wife.

(05:23):
And I want to say this just before I jump in.
I want y'all to know that every church doesn't have
leadership that actually has integrity. Unfortunately, it's a rarity to
find churches with leaders that are the same when the

(05:43):
lights are off as when the lights are on. And
you ought to be grateful that the Lord has situated
you in a church with people that actually love Jesus.
It's a good thing. It was about five years ago
that and I've mentioned this to Pastor Roberts, about five

(06:05):
years ago that my husband drove my three sons to
a conference in Austin. I didn't go with them. They
drove to Austin. And my boys know many things about me.
They know I'm praying for them all the time. They
don't know the details of all that I pray all
the time. But one of the things that I'm praying
constantly for my sons is that the Lord would cause

(06:30):
the trajectory of their path to intersect with key people
that they don't even know in the moment are going
to shift the trajectory of their perspective, of their pursuits,
of their ambitions, of their choices and I just pray
that the Lord would line stuff up so they happened
to be in the presence of greatness when they don't
even know it. And about five years ago at that conference,

(06:52):
they ended up at a lunch table. My boys and
I heard through the grapevine through a few people that
they were sitting right across the table from path Robert Madou.
And here's what I need you to know, Pastor and Taylor.
I need you to know that there are people praying
prayers that you, guys, are the answer to. There are

(07:14):
people right now praying prayers and you're the answer. There
are people that have been praying for a social Dallas
and you've answered. There are people's grandmamas that have been
praying that some folks would end up in the House
of God on this Sunday night. And I want to
encourage you to just stay faithful, because if you'll stay faithful,

(07:37):
if you'll keep walking the course that the Lord sets
down in front of you, not only in ministry, but
in your faithfulness to each other, in marriage and in
the raising of those beautiful babies that the Lord has
given you, I'm telling you that you will continue to
be the answer to people's prayers that you don't even
know they praying. So, Lord, I speak blessing over this
pastor and his wife. I speak blessing this leadership team.

(08:01):
I speak blessing over this church. Father. I pray that
the Holy Spirit would rain down in this church so
that the entire city is shifted as a result of
social dallas being in this city. Father, I'm asking you
that the whole city would be transformed because of what
you do in this house. Thank you for letting this
house be the answer to people's prayers. In Jesus' name,

(08:25):
I pray, Amen, Amen. So I have three siblings. There
are four of us. Two of my siblings are here,
my older sister Crystal, and then it's me. Then Anthony
we call him Niini, and then Jonathan we call him
John John. John John's the youngest of the bunch. He's

(08:47):
really the biggest of the bunch, but he's the baby boy.
And John John is married to Kanika. They have five
children together. Their oldest child is the same age as
my youngest child. They're both thirteen now. Kelsey is her name.
Kelsey is a precocious, sassy little thing. She's a whole

(09:11):
lot of fun to watch so much personality, and we
saw it when she was about one two years old,
we already saw that personality coming out. Jonathan was sharing
with me a story of something that happened when Kelsey
was about two, and he started to notice all this personality.
At two years old, she went over into the kitchen

(09:32):
to the big box in the kitchen that had the
food in it the refrigerator. She pointed at it and
said eat. He picked his little baby girl up, and
he put her at the kitchen table in the chair
where she would be able to get the food she
was asking for. And her little two year old mind
though she's just far removed from the big box that
has the food in it, so she begins to throw

(09:54):
a temper tantrum. She kicks her feet, she wiggles her
way out of the chair. She stomps her little sasas
heimself back over to the big box that has the
food in it. She points at it and says eat.
He commencess to pick her up, take her back over
to the chair where he wants her to be situated.
He puts her there. She commences us to throw an
entire temper tantrum, kicks her little feet, wiggles her way

(10:15):
out of the chair, marches herself back over to the
big box with the food in it, and says eat.
He picks her up, he takes her back over to
the chair, puts her in the chair. She wiggles herself
out of the chair, stops herself back across the kitchen
and says eat. This went on over and over and
over again again. And as he's reliving the thing telling
me the story, I can just see his frustration mounting

(10:37):
as he told me how patient he had to try
to be with this girl, as he tried to get
her to see and understand that he's her father and
he loves her, and he's only trying to put her
in the place that is the best place for her
to be to receive what it is she's asking him for.
So I'm giggling and I'm laughing thinking about little Kelsey

(10:58):
doing this, says he's telling me the story. I mean,
I am falling out laughing. And I don't know if
you've ever been in a situation where you are laughing
about something and as you laugh mid giggle, the Holy
Spirit stops you in your tracks and says, don't laugh
too long or too hard, Because Priscilla, that sounds just
like my relationship with you, that I keep trying to

(11:20):
put you in a place, in a relationship, in an opportunity.
I keep trying to situate you in a place or
a position, and in your little uh, in your little personality, Priscilla,
you oftentimes will try to wiggle your way out of
the places that I'm trying to put you in because
it doesn't feel comfortable or convenient to you, it doesn't
make sense to you. And so oftentimes, Priscilla, you, just

(11:41):
like little Kelsey, will ignore me, turn your back on me,
try to circumvent me, go the opposite direction. And Priscilla,
unlike your brother who did a good job, but his
patients begin to wear thin after the fifth or the
sixth or the seventh time, Priscilla, the good news about
my relationship with you is that my is sufficient for

(12:01):
even you. And I don't know if any of you
have ever needed a second chance, a third chance. I
don't know if there's anybody in the house other than
me that's ever needed a twentieth chance. His grace is
sufficient for you that you.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Do not have.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I don't have the capacity to wear God out you
not that powerful. Somebody needs to be encouraged tonight, and
I drove over from the south side of town just
to encourage somebody that it doesn't matter how many times
you've needed to redo, how many times you've needed to
backstep just a little bit and get the forgiveness and

(12:46):
the grace of God. I came just to remind you
that God's got enough patience for even you, that he
doesn't need a good nap before he can handle what's
going on in your life. Don't have the capacity to
wear God out. I want to talk to you for
just a few moments about the patience of God. The

(13:06):
reason why I want to talk to you about the
patience of God is because if you don't have a
full revelation of the greatness, the vastness, the boundlessness of
God's patience, then you will tiptoe walk on egg shells
in your relationship with God, because you'll constantly be worried
that if I do one more thing, that if I
have one more misstep, that if I mishear him, that

(13:27):
I if I make another mistake, this will be the
time that He puts me on the shelf and he
can't use me anymore, and I can't participate in kingdom purposes.
The enemy wants you too afraid to experience the abundant
life that He's called you to, so he wants us
constantly walking on eggshells, worried. And I came to tell
you that God is not mad at you. I don't

(13:50):
know where you've been. I've only known where I've been.
I know what I've said, I know what I've thought.
I know my weaknesses and my frailties and my faults.
And it's been a revelation that has transformed my life
life that God's grace is sufficient for us. His patience,
the perfect patience of God. That's what I want to

(14:11):
talk to you about tonight. There are many characteristics of
God that I am endeared to, like his sovereignty, his omniscience,
his omnipresence, his holiness, his might. I mean, the list
goes on and on. Our God has some great attributes.
They're like links that make up a chain of God's character.

(14:32):
All these different attributes that are links on the chain
of God's character. But really, when I think about it,
the central link in all of those chains that make
up the character of God is the patience of God,
because if it weren't for his patience, we wouldn't exist
long enough to experience the sovereignty, the grace, the mercy,

(14:53):
the omnipresence, the omniscience. We would have no experience of
all of that if His patients weren't sufficient for us.
And so a revelation of God's patience it really does
change your life. Now. Most of the time when we
think of the patience of God, or when we think
of patience as a characteristic, we think of it in
terms of ourselves patience. I am naturally an impatient person.

(15:18):
Can I get one witness in the house. I'm an
impatient person. I like things to happen immediately. Come on,
let's move forward. Let's get it going. Been married for
twenty two years, and whenever we have a situation, a
dilemma of something that needs to be solved, I've got
a solution in the first five minutes we ever had
the problem. Let's get on with it. But do you

(15:40):
know how God is. God will oftentimes situate you with people,
whether in marriage, or in your workplace or in your friendships.
He will situate you with people that actually rub against
you to help and mature the part of you that
needs developing. So I married a guy who you know
wants to pray about it, think about it fast on

(16:00):
it asked, why is counsel regarding it? Lord to have mercy?
And so when Jared comes up with a solution, most
of the time, it's the same solution I had in
the first five minutes that we ever had a dilemma.
Now most of the time that solution he has come

(16:21):
up with is a good one that he has thought
all the way through because he's patient enough to consider
the entire context. In my relationship with my spouse, God
is developing in me patience. So the reason why he
might have you situated next to that coworker, the one

(16:43):
in the cubicle next to you, that one that if
she's say one more thing to you, you're gonna knock
her out. That one right there. The reason why you
might have that hardship and that parent child relationship, or
in that friendship, the reason why you might have that
that thing is because God is using that relationship to
mature in you the characteristic of patience. So, because it's

(17:04):
something we need to be developed in, we oftentimes put
that same dynamic on God. We think that because we
need to develop our patients, that God must need to
develop his two We think we have the capacity. How
arrogant of us to think that we have the capacity
to actually get on his last nerve. So God doesn't

(17:27):
react to us out a knee jerk reaction frustration because
you just did that. He is slow to anger anybody,
glad about it, and he is great in loving kindness,
and his patience is perfect. One of the clearest places

(17:48):
in scripture that God's patience is described is in One
Timothy chapter one. It's verse sixteen. The apostle Paul is writing,
and you know, if you actually have an old school
Bible like I do with paper pages, feel free to
turn to One Timothy chapter one. If not your iPhone,
your iPad, any manner of iEMSs will work in getting

(18:10):
you to One Timothy. They'll also be on the screens.
Paul is writing to a young minister named Timothy, and
he's basically given tim instructions on how to minister well.
And right here at the very top of his very
first letter to Timothy, he begins to speak to him
about the nature of the patience of God. He knows
up front that Timothy's gonna make mistakes, that there's gonna

(18:33):
be hard times, that there's gonna be hardships, that he's
gonna take one step forward and sometimes two steps back.
And so right here at the top of his letter
he begins to speak to Timoth that he says in
verse sixteen. Yet for this reason I found mercy in
order that in me as the foremost, he means the

(18:53):
chief of all sinners. In me, Jesus Christ might demonstrate
here it is his perfect patience, y'all, What kind of
patience is it? It's his perfect patience, perfect, which means
even at that which represents its furthest extremes, there is
not one bit of deficiency or imperfection. It is completely.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Perfect through and through.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
The patience of God towards you and me and Paul.
I love how he describes in this verse who he is.
He says, I'm the foremost, I'm the chief of all sinners,
because he wants to make sure that just in case
there's anybody that thinks you are the exception to the rule,
because you know what you did ten years ago this time.

(19:41):
You know the decision that you made, You know the
people that you allowed in your sphere of influence. You
know the addiction that you had, You know what God
has delivered you from. And so Paul says, just in
case you think you're the one that doesn't fit into
this passage, that doesn't qualify for a visitation of the
perfect patience of God, he says, let let me free
you of that right now. He says, I'm the foremost

(20:03):
the chief of all sinners. Paul says, you ain't done
nothing I haven't already done. Your hands haven't touched anything
that I haven't already touched. Your feet haven't gone anywhere
that I haven't already gone. Your ears haven't heard anything,
your eyes haven't seen anything. Your mouth has not said
anything I have not already said. And if God's grace

(20:24):
and mercy is so great that he could reach down
into the pit that I've dug for myself, if his
arm is not so short that he could not save me,
then Paul says that I came to tell you that
He can save you too. He says, I'm the chief
of all sinners, and I am a witness. Paul says

(20:45):
that the patience of God, it's perfect. I love when
verses start the way this verse starts because when verses
start like this, it tells me exactly what I need
to do in my study and in my teaching. Verse
sixteen starts by saying, for this reason, anytime you see

(21:05):
a transition phrase like that little Bible study for a second, y'all,
anytime you see a little transition phrase like that, it
tells you exactly what to do. It's kind of like
seeing there for in the scripture. Anytime you see therefore,
you need to go see what it's there for. The
transition is intentional because it's trying to draw connections, draw
some intentional dots so that you know exactly what to do.

(21:28):
Paul says, for this reason, I have come to the
conclusion of the perfect patience of God. That means he's
already developed a hypothesis. He's developed some evidence that leads
him to the conclusion that we have come to. In
verse sixteen, he says, Yet for this reason, so I
figure if just for a few minutes, you and I
could backtrack up through the text and figure out what

(21:51):
the reasons are, that we'll be able to figure out
how he came to the conclusion of verse sixteen. And
in doing so, I think we'll realize that he's not
the only one that is a witness to the perfect
patience of God. I think we are too. So he says,
here's the first reason we're backtracking up verse fifteen. He says,

(22:12):
it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. Here it
is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Paul says, here's how you know the patience of God
is perfect. He saved you, didn't he He saved us.

(22:45):
Y'all know he didn't need us, right, y'all know He
didn't have to make a way for us to have
relationship with him. It was his grace and mercy, his
desire to have relationship with humanity. Most of us are
sitting in this room not because we found God. It's
because God found us. It's because the hound of Heaven

(23:09):
would not let us go even when we were trying
to run away. He saved us. Never in a million
years should we hear that phrase. And sometimes if you've
been in church all your life, you can hear a
phrase like that that you're saved, and it kind of
rolls off your shoulders casually, as if it's no big deal.

(23:29):
He saved you. Never in a million years should that
be a casual comment that doesn't make something on the
inside of us. Just want to say thank you, because
Paul says that's one of the reasons that you know
his patience is perfect. Okay, do you know that it
is a miracle that you were born Okay, I mean

(23:52):
physically born, that you're alive at this time, in this generation,
in this skin, with this hair texture, in that gender.
None of that was unintentional. That is divine strategy that
God organized to make sure that you are exactly who
you were intended to be at this time in history
for the purposes of the kingdom. This is good news.

(24:14):
I'm on a little rabbit trail. This is good news
for anybody in the house that thinks that you might
be a mistake. Just because your parents were surprised that
you arrived on the scene, they may have been shocked.
But God was not. Before the foundation of the world,
He had you planned for this generation. You and I
have been assigned for this, y'all. We didn't come through

(24:37):
twenty twenty, all the havoc of twenty twenty. We didn't
exist at the time of twenty twenty. On accident we've
been assigned for this. He planned us to rise up
in the spirit and the power of God right now,
in this generation, in these bodies, in this skin, with
this hair texture, in this gender, in my neighborhood, in

(24:58):
my high school, on my college campus, in this church.
He made you for this. It's a miracle. There was
a guy generations ago. At the time, he didn't know it,
but he was going to be your great great grandfather.

(25:20):
He just happened, with seven billion plus people on the planet,
to run into the woman that would be your great
great grandmother. They came together and they created your great grandfather,
then your great grandfather. With the seven billion plus people
that are on the planet, he just happened to run
into the woman that would be your great grandmother. The
two of them came together and created your grandfather and

(25:42):
then your grandfather. With the seven billion plus people that
are on the planet, he just happened upon the woman
that was going to be your grandmother. Then the two
of them came together and created your father and then
your father. With the seven billion plus people that are
on the planet. At just the right time, on the
right day, he came together with the woman and that
would be your mother and they created you. There ain't

(26:06):
nothing chance about that. That's a miracle. And if you
think that it was a miracle that you were born,
think about how much more of a miracle it is
that you were born again again. There was divine strategy

(26:30):
involved in wooing you into a relationship with your heavenly father.
I've heard my own daddy describe it like a cosmic
chess board. That all of time and history has been
a cosmic battle that has been waging between a God
who loves us desperately and wants us to be in
relationship with him, and an enemy. You do know that

(26:51):
there is an enemy vine for your allegiance and mine.
So it's like a cosmic chessboard. God is on one
side of the cosmic chess board and the end to
me is on the other side, both of them vying
for our attention, our allegiance, and our commitment to them.
And so pre Genesis one one, God makes the first move.

(27:14):
He speaks the world into existence, and he creates Adam
and Eve in a perfect environment, perfect relationship with himself,
perfect opportunity to commune with him. But then the enemy
made a move on the cosmic chess board. He slithered
into that perfect environment, and he introduced sin into the equation.
All of a sudden, rebellion begin to have a ripple

(27:35):
effect till you get to the point where Cain ends
up murdering Abel and they have to be removed from
the garden because sin is now introduced into the equation
and it seems like all hope is lost. But our God,
never to be outdone, he makes another move on his
side of the cosmic chess board. Somehow he causes Cain.
He causes Adam and Eve to come back together again.

(27:58):
They have a baby boy named Seth. Seth gives birth
to a baby boy named Enosh. And I don't know
what it was about Enosh, but Genesis chapter four says
that when Enosh was born, everybody began to worship God again.
Then the enemy made another move. He introduced sin and
rebellion back into the equation. It proliferated across the earth,
so much so that the entire world now needed to

(28:20):
be destroyed by a flood. And this time it looked
like for sure the enemy had won. But our God,
never to be outdone, he had another move up his sleeve,
and his name was Noah, and he said, no, I
need you to build an arc. Noah said, you need
me to do what he said.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I need you to.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Build me an arc because by your obedience, humanity will
be preserved through this flood. So humanity is preserved through
Noah's obedience. As the flood destroys the entire earth and
the enemy decides he needs to make another move. He
introduces sin and rebellion back into the equation again, ripple

(29:00):
effects over time till it proliferates across the Earth. And
it seems like this time the enemy has one, but
our God has another move up his sleeve. He goes
to this little pagan town called Er. He plucks out
of it a man named Abram, and he says, Abram,
I'm getting ready to change your name, and I'm gonna
change the GPS coordinates on your destiny. Your name is

(29:21):
now Abraham. And look up in the skies, Abraham, because
if you look up, you're gonna see so many stars.
You need to know that that's the number of people
that are getting ready to be born from you. I'm
gonna create a brand new nation of people. They will
be mine and I will be theirs. The enemy makes
another move. He now takes God's people and causes it

(29:44):
so that they now go down into egypt Land four
hundred years y'all, four centuries of brutal slavery, one generation
after the other generation under the brutal task masters of
pharaohs in Egypt. And they are tired and weary and
worn and calling out for a savior. God makes a move,

(30:10):
and his name is Moses. He raises up Moses so
that at the right time, in the right way, he
can send him to Pharaoh. And he says, go to Pharaoh,
and mo, I want you to tell him let my
people go. And so Pharaoh releases the children of Israel.
And after forty years wandering in the wilderness and ten
miraculous plagues that induce their release, they finally come through

(30:33):
their wondering in the wilderness into the promised land that
was always intended for them, God's people, in the place
of God, with the presence of God and the promises
of God. Here they are in the promised land, and
it looks like the battle for our souls is over.
But then the enemy makes another move. In the Book
of Judges, it's all about God's people being introduced to idolatry.

(30:56):
Listen to me. They do not turn their back on
the One True God. They just stationed their worship of
God alongside their worship and the idols of the culture.
And the duplicity of the people of God's allegiance is
so devastating that by the time you get to the
end of the Book of Judges, the last line of

(31:18):
the Book of Judges says, and everybody was doing what
was right in their own eyes. If that don't sound
like the world in the year twenty twenty one, I
don't know what does. And it wasn't because God's people
totally turn their backs. It's just because they weren't singularly

(31:39):
devoted to the worship of God. This time. It looks
like for sure the enemy has won. But God has
another plan. And her name is Ruth. And Ruth's life
starts off pretty hard. She has some devastating losses and
some griefs, and her struggle is hard. She has to
reloclick k to a place and she doesn't feel comfortable,

(32:01):
and she is unknown. But in that unfamiliar place, she
ends up meeting at the right time a man named
Boaz who is her kinsman. Redeemer and the two of
them will come together and they create a man named Jesse,
and Jesse gives birth to oh Bed, and o Bed
gives birth to a little baby boy named David. And

(32:23):
the enemy doesn't even know it, but with that one move,
the checkmate is already on the way. And y'all, then
the Old Testament closes, and there's four hundred years of silence.
God is sitting on one side of the cosmic chess board,
the enemy is sitting on the other side, and all

(32:45):
of history is hanging in the balance. Everybody's waiting to
see who's getting ready to make the next move. And
then the Old Testament closes and the New Testament opens,
and God the Father makes a moved the likes of
which the enemy still to this day has never had
a response. You got it. He puts on flesh and

(33:18):
basically says, you know what, I'm gonna come down here
and take care of this myself. And he lives a
perfect life, and he dies of substitutionary death, and then
three days later he has raised. The resurrection is all
receipt that he is who he said he is, and
he has accomplished for us exactly what he has said

(33:40):
that He has accomplished. He saved you, and it wasn't
a quick job. It was over the course of years,
hundreds of years in millennia, that He was maneuvering circumstances

(34:00):
throughout time and eternity to make sure that everything thing
lined up to where you would hear the beckoning of
the Holy Spirit in your heart and want to respond,
have no choice but to respond and say, yes, I
receive you as my Lord and savior. The only reason
you or I could ever see clearly is because He
himself opened up our eyes so that we could feel.

(34:25):
Why in the world would Paul bring up salvation in
a conversation about God's patience because he wants you to
know that if God had enough patience to walk through
the last few millennia for you, that he's got the
last six weeks of your life covered. There is nothing

(34:51):
you can do to wear a god like that out.
Paul says, the first reason you got to know that
God's patience and grace is sufficient for you is because
He's saved you. But he says there's another reason verse thirteen.
He says, even though I was formerly somebody say formerly

(35:17):
some translations say, previously, even though I was formerly or
previously a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor. Yet
I was shown mercy. All right, y'all. Paul told us
in verse sixteen he was the chief of all sinners.
He was like, I'm not gonna tell y'all my whole
sin resume. You don't need all the details. Ain't nobody

(35:39):
got time for that. I'm just gonna let you know
my resume of sin is full, so I don't have
to give you all the details. And I'm kind of
glad that right off the bat he didn't give us
lots of details, because we, you know, we Christians, we
have a tendency to be looking at the details of
other people's sin resumes, and we're so caught up in
what they did and dissecting it and critiquing it and

(36:00):
talking about behind the back about it that we forget
that we actually don't have time to be dealing with
anybody else's sin resume because we have one of our own.
So I'm glad that upfront he didn't blur our attention
with all the details. But here in verse thirteen he says,
you know what I'm gonna hand you just three on

(36:23):
my sin resume. I'm not gonna let you see all
of it, but I'm gonna pull down the shade just
enough to where you can just get just a glimpse.
He says, I was a persecutor, I was a violent aggressor.
I was a blasphemer. So he gives us a handful.
But he says, I want you to know, even as
you read my sin resume, that there is a title

(36:48):
at the top of my sin resume. It is in
all caps, bald font so that you don't miss it
before you read what I've done, And the subtitle is
this Formerly, He says, this is who I was, but

(37:14):
this is not who I am anymore. Paul wants you
to know that the proof that God is patient is
not only that he saved you, but also that he's
changed you. Kevin, Oh, this is great news for anybody
that is in the room. And the people that told

(37:34):
you they would stick with you while you change, they've
long since gone. That friend told you she had yelled
back while you went through that development that you needed
in that area of weakness or struggle that you had.
She told you she'd be with you till the end.
That partner, that spouse, that person that was coven in
it to walk with you through that thing. And now

(37:55):
you're sitting here alone tonight because that mother, that father,
your cousin, and your mamma, them, they all left you
because they didn't have enough patience for what you were
dealing with. Paul wants you to know that there is
one who will never leave you nor forsake you, even
as you change, even when you still have work to do,

(38:17):
Even when I still have work to do, even when
I see the struggle and the difficulty, and the weakness
and the frailty of my flesh, His grace is sufficient
enough for us. And Paul says, the reason why I
know it is because I am not the same person
that I used to be. He keeps on changing me,

(38:37):
He keeps on walking with me, He keeps on giving
me grace, He keeps on by the power of the
Holy Spirit within me, sanctifying me. Somebody say, sanctify. Sanctification
is the process by which you and I are molded
into the image of Jesus Christ. Him saving you was
your justification, Him changing you is your sanctification. This is

(38:58):
when your mind starts changing your perspective starts changing your attitude,
starts changing, your ambitions, start changing. You never thought you'd
not want that, but all of a sudden, you have
a distaste for it. You never thought you would ever
have an ambition like this, because you've always wanted to
do this and go here. But now that thing just
ain't appealing to you anymore. And this is a new

(39:20):
direction that you want to go. This is the process
by which the Holy Spirit is molding you into the
image of Jesus Christ. And I don't know about you,
but I'm so grateful for the sanctifying power of the
Holy Spirit of God. Because I bet if I took
this little microphone off and we just started right here

(39:41):
on Road number one and we started to go all
the way back through this room and then into the overflow,
we would be here well into twenty twenty two talking
about how we are not the same people that we
used to be. I don't know what your testimony is.
I'm telling you that I can look back on a
time in my life where I out, I don't even
recognize that girl back there, that person who allowed those

(40:05):
kinds of relationships and made those kinds of decisions and
walked that kind of walk and talked with that kind
of talk. I don't even it seems like an entirely
different individual than when I look in the mirror today.
And I'm so grateful for the sanctifying power of God.
I'm not the same person that I used to be.
Anybody happy about that, who, thank you Jesus. I'm telling you,

(40:38):
he can change you. The biggest miracle that often our
God does, y'all, is not in our circumstances. It's in you.
I'm telling you. He can change your mind. I'm telling
you he can make you want stuff you don't want

(40:58):
right now. Listen, there have been times in my life,
y'all where I've had a messed up want to. I mean,
I wanted to do what's right. The problem was my
want to didn't want to do what my want to
was supposed to want to do. Anybody I wished I

(41:19):
wanted to do right, is what I'm saying. It's like
Paul and Roman seven. He describes this tug of war.
He's like, the desire is present within me, but there's
something about my body that keeps wanting to go in
the opposite direction of what is the right thing to do.
And he is so frustrated by the time he gets
to the end of Roman seven describing this war, that

(41:40):
he just says, oh wretched man that I am, Who's
gonna deliver me from this tug of war? Anybody know
the tug of war? I'm telling you that the Holy
Spirit of God can make you want to line up

(42:01):
with what God wants. You'll want you to want to do.
Have you ever wondered how popcorn pops? Somebody say yes,
I'm so glad you want to know. There's a little
dot of water, microscopic inside each kernel of corn. So

(42:22):
when you put the little bag of microwave popcorn inside
the microwave, the heat is not heating up the kernel.
It's heating up the little drop of water that's on
the inside of the kernel. And as the water heats up,
it creates steam, and the steam creates more and more pressure,
until finally the kernel pops open and you see an
entirely different item, not because you heat it up the shell,

(42:48):
but because you heated up what was on the inside
of the shell. Listen, y'all gotta be up here with
a Baptist towel like y'all l la, don't play with

(43:11):
me listen to me, y'all, If you concentrate on the
shell on behavior modification, the best you're gonna get is
something temporary. And not only will it be temporary, but
you'll be plain old, flat out exhausted. But if you

(43:36):
will concentrate on heating up the work of the Holy
Spirit on the inside of you, the Holy Spirit is
not a ghost or a wind, or a fire or
a dove. He's often symbolized by those things, but y'all,
that ain't who he is. The Holy Spirit is the
third person of the Trinity. Not third because he's least
in value, just third because he's the last to be

(43:56):
revealed to us. In the page of a scripture, all
of the power, all of the goodness, all of the
authority of God the Father is in the person of
the Holy Spirit. And Ephesians chapter one says that the
moment you believe, you receive the greatest gift you will
ever receive this side of eternity, you receive the Holy

(44:17):
Spirit of God. Okay, that means now that the Holy
the presence and power of God, lives on the inside
of you. And second, Thessalonians one thirteen says that the
Holy Spirit has a PhD. In sanctifying you. It's his
work in you. He's doing it right now. He's molding you,

(44:37):
changing you, transforming you, redeeming you, making you a different
person than you used to be, until one day you
look at your resume and realize that the subtitle is
for more for amen. I'm trying to tell you he's

(45:20):
got enough patience for whatever that journey is that you've
got ahead of you, the place of sin or rebellion
or indifference or hardness or apathy that you have in
your heart right now, the anger, the unforgiveness, the bitterness,
the struggle that you're having, and you see no way out,
and you wonder if anybody's going to hang in there

(45:41):
with you this time. You are not gone too far
gone that the arm of God can't reach out and
find you where you are. He will walk with you
every single day while you change, because grace is sufficient

(46:01):
for you. Paul says he saved you. That's your justification.
He changes you, that's your sanctification. And then he says,
there's just one more reason Verse twelve. I think, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, who has strengthened me, your salvation is your

(46:26):
justification and you're changing is your sanctification. And now he's
giving you some fortification. He says, I'm going to make
you stronger than you are right now. I'm going to
give you a resilience and a fortification that's going to

(46:46):
be required if you're going to be able to weather
the storms that are coming your way. Because listen, in
this world, Jesus said John sixteen thirty three, you will
have trouble. You don't have to go look for trouble.
Have you noticed, You just keep on living, and the
trouble ends up coming and finding you. You're gonna need

(47:08):
a supernatural strength for that. Now. You know, some of
you may still be in your teen years or maybe
even in your early twenties, and maybe you haven't experienced
any storm, so you think life will always be like
it is. Right now, baby, keep living, because the storms

(47:30):
of life are inevitable. You're gonna need some strengths. You're
gonna need some backbone. For anybody in this day and
age to actually have some integrity, to actually use your
social media platform and influence, to be unashamed about who
your savior is, to not lean to the left or

(47:50):
to the right in order to be politically correct, but
to decide. I have made my decision. As for me
and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. You're gonna
need some backbone for that. You're gonna need some resilience
for that. And Paul says He's got enough patience to

(48:13):
make you strong enough to be able to stand up
when everybody else caves in. So I'm speaking to everybody
in this room, all the people, my son's ages, teenagers
who were in this room. Listen. You were made for
this hour. God has given you the strength and the
resilience that you need to stand up, even if you

(48:34):
have to stand alone, to be the sore thumb that
sticks all the way out, to have resilience and fortification,
and to be peculiar and an alien and a stranger
to this world. You got enough strength for that. I'm
telling you you were made for this. Don't back down
and don't bend. The Holy Spirit of God is making

(48:56):
you strong enough for this hour. Some of you are
in the storm of your life right now. Culturally, collectively,
we've all globally, we have all been in a storm. Y'all.
We haven't just been through one pandemic. It's been like
layered pandemics on top of pandemics. There's that medical one,

(49:19):
of course, but there's been a social one. There's been
a racial one, there's been a political one layered pandemics
on top of pandemics. You and I are gonna need
a supernatural strength for this. And on top of what
we've all been through personally, I know that some of
you have been through the same kind of stuff. We've
been through. Loss after loss, y'all. We have had eight

(49:41):
losses in our family in two years, back to back,
like we're every three to four months, another person in
our life passed away. We've had medical diagnosis after medical diagnosis,
where the storms of life. It's like the world just
opened over our family and there were storms that were

(50:02):
pelting down on us. And the reason why I can
tell you that God will give you enough strength to
sustain you is because I'm a living witness that y'all.
We have been through the storm. But the Holy Spirit
reminds me that God is still who he said he is.

(50:26):
That I'm telling you my faith in Him, my hope
in Him, has not wavered. Have I cried the tears,
have I been disappointed? Have I asked the questions. Yes,
but I've asked the questions without questioning the character of God.
He is who he said he is, and I don't
tell you that to tell you how strong I am.

(50:48):
I'm telling you there is a supernatural strength that he'll
make available to you. It's a fortification, it's a resilience.
You're gonna need it. University student, You're gonna need it. JC,
You're gonna need it. Mariah, you're gonna need it. Ryan,
You're gonna need it. Pastor Madou You're gonna need it. Stephanie,

(51:09):
you're gonna need it. A resilience for what it is
that God has called you to, and he gives it
to you by the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
Okay, He's got enough patience for that.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I want to know if you are in this room
and you have literally felt like even before you came here,
you kind of felt like, you know what, I'm actually
too far gone for any of this to work for me,
because my story is different than everybody else's story, the
history I have, the background I've come from, the abuse
that I've suffered, or that I've rendered, the hard place

(51:44):
that I have come from. I just don't know that
God's grace is sufficient for somebody like me. I'm telling you.
If that is you, and you are in this room
and you can just feel your heart burning within you,
that's how the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Listen to me.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
If you're her, heart is burning within you right now
and you know you need to respond and receive the
patience of God for you, just come down front right now.
If that's you, don't think twice about it, don't debate
with yourself. Just come on now.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
His grace is sufficient, his grace is sufficient. His grace
is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. He's got your back.

(52:53):
His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
He's got you, Please, got you. Grace is sufficient.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Grace is sufficient.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
I bet you there are some of you that maybe
have never received Christ as savior before. Then there's others
of you who have. You have accepted Christ as your savior,
but you've kind of taken a little detour, and you've
worried about whether or not the arm of God is
long enough to bring you back. Whichever category you fall into.
I'm gonna pray for you tonight, and I believe that

(53:32):
the Holy Spirit is gonna give you before tonight is over.
An awakening, a revelation of the extravagant patience of God
for you, that you're gonna walk out of here, not
in fear and insecurity anymore in your relationship with God,
no tiptoeing, no eggshells anymore. Now is the time when
you're gonna live the abundant life ran that God has
called you to, without fear and with complete abandon walking

(53:56):
in faith before the Lord. That's what's going to happen tonight.
So if you need to place faith in Jesus Christ,
if this is the first time you've ever even heard
that whole salvation story what God went through for you,
and you want us receive Christ as savior, the Bible
says that if you confess with your mouth and you
believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord. He
did all the heavy lifting, all you have to do

(54:17):
is receive the gift. So I'm just gonna pray this
prayer and I want you to repeat after me. If
that's the prayer you need to pray. It's no magic
in the words. This is you believing in your heart
as you confess with your mouth. In fact, we can
all pray this prayer together to build an atmosphere of
faith for those who are praying it for the very

(54:38):
first time. So let's pray, Lord Jesus. I am a
sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that
you are that savior. So today I place faith alone
in Christ alone to remove my sins. Take up residence

(55:02):
in me in the person of the Holy Spirit. Right now,
in Jesus' name, Lord, I thank you for those who
have come into the family of God in this moment.
I thank you that the angels are rejoicing. If you
draw that in, I praise your Father. And then, Lord,

(55:25):
I thank you that the rescue mission that you've been
on for our soul is evidence to the fact that
your grace and patience is sufficient for.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
All of us.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
So I pray right now in Jesus' name that the
blanket of discouragement that the enemy may be putting on
anybody's shoulders, I ask you to lift it off of
their shoulders. Right now, in Jesus' name, I pray against
every scheme of the enemy to cause there to be
a distortion of your grace and your mercy. I ask
Father that you would renew their minds. Right now, I

(55:55):
pray Lord, that you would borrow your grace upon them,
your patience upon them, and give them a revelation of
your love for them. Thank you Father, that right now,
in Jesus' name you are setting them free in the
mighty name of Jesus Christ.