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

Priscilla Shirer speaks at Lakewood Church on TBN’s Praise, the 2018 Passion Conference, and the Propel Women’s Conference for TBN’s Praise. Listen as she teaches the importance of wearing the armor of God, living holy, and trusting that God has you where you’re meant to be today, and will lead you to where you’re meant to be tomorrow. This video was brought to you by TBN Networks®. SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/TBN/feature… Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) – Sharing the Word of God to all the nations of the World! TBN is the world’s largest religious network and America’s most watched faith channel. TBN broadcasts programs hosted by a diverse group of ministries from traditional Protestant and Catholic denominations to Messianic Jewish, Non-Profit Charities, Interdenominational and Full Gospel churches. TBN also offers a wide range of original programming and faith-based films. #tbn #priscillashirer #armorofgod #purpose 0:00 Intro 0:38 RIght Where You Need to Be 37:55 Armor of God 1:21:29 Holiness Will Change Your Life

you’ve been thinking this is not enough

gifting this is not enough talent it’s

not enough money it’s not enough i don’t

have enough and jesus is whispering in

your ear tonight

your conscience is not the voice of god

but your conscience is like this wiring

that helps this microphone amplify my

voice the the conscience is the

microphone that the holy spirit uses to

help you hear the voice of god the one

thing that opens up our eyes is god’s

spirit on us and if you want if i want

god’s spirit on our lives then we got to

decide to live

[Music]

so jerry and i my husband and i we’ve

been married nearly 20 years now i can’t

believe that and we have three sons that

we are raising they are giant

they are giants y’all

my 15 year old is six foot two inches

tall

his 14 year old brother is six foot two

inches tall um their nine-year-old

brother is coming up right after them

they are some big boys and one of the

things i do for these boys in fact you

should know that my full-time job is

feeding the boys that is my full

time job i am trying to figure out any

which way i can differently to cook

chicken for dinner every single night

just like y’all that’s exactly what i’m

doing

so we just do sports and everything with

the boys they’re growing up so quick so

one of the things that i have done

since my oldest was five i started when

he was five um i went to uh ross dress

for lest in the back hand corner left

hand side there is a one row that has

books and journals and those sorts of

things i went and i grabbed um three

journals hardback journals they were

just little little um with the little

spine spiral spines nothing real fancy

4.99 i picked one for each boy i’ve had

it ever since my oldest was five

and at that age i started to record a

journal for them i do not write in it

every week or every month or even um you

know just on a regular basis it’s just

when something happens i don’t want to

forget or they say something that’s

really interesting or i see the hand the

handiwork the fingerprints of god in

their life in some way i kind of write

it down my goal is to have a collection

of writings and thoughts and and love

letters really to my boys about their

life that i hand over to them when

they’re you know mature enough to

appreciate it or better yet i might just

hand it over to their wives and say girl

this is what you’re getting yourself

into right here

and because my oldest will be 16 next

month i was looking through his journal

and came across the story from when he

was five

i read it with fond memories

because it was the little journal entry

i put in there about him losing his

first tooth

he had wiggled that tooth

and wiggled it he couldn’t wait for it

to come out

and the reason he couldn’t wait for it

to come out is because we had told him

that when your tooth comes out the tooth

fairy will come

she will come and she will replace the

tooth with a treasure

so he could not wait

finally the tooth came out and that is

my boy still to this day that that has

never been eager to go to sleep but that

night

he dove into bed at bedtime he could not

wait he put the tooth underneath the

pillow he laid his head down and he was

he was trying to go to sleep but every

three to five seconds he would look

under the pillow

to see if anything had happened

finally he did fall asleep

we let some time pass and then about

three o’clock in the morning or so the

six foot two 250 pound tooth fairy that

i sleep next to every night he got up he

went upstairs and he replaced the tooth

for a treasure

in the morning i knew in jackson and at

the time we just had jackson and jerry

jr

i knew when they got up i knew i could

hear it i could hear the excitement the

squeals i could hear the stomps on the

floor i could hear the eagerness and

enthusiasm because the tooth fairy had

come and left the treasure they bounded

down the stairs into the room jackson’s

fists were both clenched closed he ran

up to me and said mom the tooth fairy

came she left me a treasure

i said buddy let me see what she left

you opened up one hand and it was a

package of gummy bears which was a big

deal at the time because that was his

favorite snack he opened up the other

hand and it was five dollars

[Applause]

now i don’t know what happened when

y’all were growing up but

i grew up in the days of dimes and

nickels

can the church say amen

so you know i’m trying to be excited for

the boy

[Applause]

but really i’m annoyed about this whole

five dollar situation and my husband can

see

that i am troubled

and you know if mama ain’t happy

[Applause]

nobody’s happy

after jackson left the room jerry came

over to me and he said priscilla don’t

worry

he said do you remember that last month

was jackson’s fifth birthday

he said do you remember that we had all

of the family over still to this day we

do that when one of the boys has a

birthday we invite the whole clan over

grandparents and cousins and aunts and

uncles everybody comes to celebrate he

said do you remember they all came most

of them had cards and then those cards

were five dollar bills he said do you

remember we took all those five dollar

bills and we put them in a birthday

drawer in the kitchen he said this

morning at 3 a.m i went right inside

that birthday drawer

dave ramsey would be so proud of us

that’s good financial stewardship right

there is what that is

[Applause]

so that morning

really what i had witnessed

was my little boy getting excited about

treasure

that actually already belonged to him

treasure that he already had he just

didn’t know it

i came to tell somebody that there is

treasure

hidden in these earthen vessels

i came to tell you that by god’s spirit

there is gift and there is power that

has been entrusted to you that is

available to you available to me as

daughters of the most high king you need

to know that even if you do not believe

what the scriptures declare to be true

about your treasure if you don’t believe

that you’ve been forgiven or that you

already have the victory or that the

enemy is already underneath your feet

that there is no condemnation for those

of us who are in christ jesus or that

you have been made competent by the

spirit of god

i came to tell you that even if you

don’t believe it the enemy does

he knows who you are what ashamed it

would be for him to know

and us not to

so it’s time for us to open up the

drawer and start pulling out the

treasure the treasure we’ve been

ignoring the treasure we’ve been calling

insignificant the thing that we’ve said

is not enough not valuable lord if i

could just be like her lord if i could

just be like that if i could just have a

bit more of that if i weren’t me then

lord i’d be enough he says uh-uh you

have enough you just haven’t opened up

the drawer

pull out the treasure

there is a story in scripture that is

going to be very familiar to you it’s

the one that the lord has been using in

my own life to remind me about how he

will compel me and he will compel us to

open up the drawer and reach in and pull

out the treasure and see what it’s like

when he uses what he has already

entrusted to us

luke chapter nine verse one

and two

says this

and he called that’s jesus he called

somebody say he called

he called the 12 together and he gave

somebody say he gave

he gave them power

and he gave them authority

over all demons and to heal all diseases

verse two and then he sent somebody say

he sent

he sent them out

he called them

he gave him treasure

and then he sent them out

verse 10 says and then when they

returned to him they gave an account to

him of everything they had done

and taking them with him he withdrew by

himself to a hill called bethsaida the

multitudes were aware of this verse 11

says so they followed jesus because you

know wherever jesus went a crowd was

sure to follow they weren’t quite sure

he was the messiah but what they didn’t

know was that when this man showed up

blind people could

see what they knew is that when jesus

showed up the lame could walk and the

death could hear the dead were being

raised so wherever jesus was they came

the crowd followed and welcoming the

multitude jesus began speaking to them

about the kingdom of god and curing

those who were in need of healing verse

12.

so the day starts to come to a close and

the 12 come to jesus and say now jesus

you’re gonna have to send this multitude

away they’ve got to go into the

surrounding villages and countryside and

find lodging they got to get something

to eat jesus come on now here we’re in a

desolate place

verse 13 jesus said to them

uh-uh

you give them something to eat

they said jesus we have no more than

five loaves and two fish unless perhaps

you let us go and buy food for all these

people because you know we’re not enough

as we are right now

there were about 5 000 men

scholars say the reason why luke

specifies men is because there were

women and children too so there were

probably about 15 000 hungry people that

day

jesus said have them recline to eat in

groups of about 50 each so they did so

had them all recline and then he took

the five loaves and the two fish

and looking up to heaven he blessed them

and then he broke them

and he kept giving them to the disciples

to set before the multitude and verse 17

says they all ate

they were all satisfied and just so you

know how satisfied they were they went

by and picked up all the leftovers

cause there was overflow

in this story we meet a hungry multitude

a multitude that is placing a demand

they have a need there is a lack that

needs to be filled and most of the time

when this proportion of the scriptures

is looked into the multitudes who we

concentrate on the five loaves and the

two fish and how they were satisfied

with it but just for a few moments

tonight i want to talk to you about the

12 disciples

those who walked with jesus and talked

with jesus those who were in close

communion with jesus those who would

come out on a friday night to be in the

presence of jesus amongst the people of

jesus i want to talk to the disciples of

jesus

the disciples on this occasion had been

called to jesus by jesus they were

having a conversation with each other

jesus entrusted them with power and

authority and then he sent them out

i love that this uh gospel is one of the

synoptic gospels the synoptic gospels

are those that tell there are three of

them matthew mark and luke these three

tell some of the similar stories in a

similar tone in a similar way so that

we’re able to get more layers to the

story i love the gospels in that way

they give us layers

just like if someone were to offer you a

chocolate cake but they gave you options

you could have a one layer chocolate

cake or a seven layer chocolate cake

which one you gonna choose

seven every single time because the more

layers there are

the more rich and delectable the

experience becomes mark chapter six is a

layer of chocolate cake for us it tells

us that this is the experience when

jesus called the disciples to himself

and then he sent them out in pairs do

you remember two by two into the

neighboring towns and communities they

were supposed to teach and preach and

perform miracles that would authenticate

the deity of jesus christ mark chapter

six our layer of chocolate cake tells us

that they

expended themselves y’all they were busy

from sun up to sundown they were about

the task of doing what it was that jesus

had assigned to them they wanted to be

diligent about it so much so that when

they came back to jesus they gave an

account to him and jesus recognized

their exhaustion

he saw that they were tired in fact

jesus himself commented that they didn’t

even have time to eat because they had

been so busy

they were depleted and they were tired

and they came back to jesus and they

gave him an account

for how they’d handled the assignment

that he had entrusted to them

if you’re a believer in jesus christ

you got an assignment

and don’t let anybody tell you that your

assignment isn’t ministry just because

it happens to be in a corporate setting

mother of small children who’s chosen to

stay home with those kids don’t let

anybody tell you that a ministry

every single time you make that chicken

for dinner and you set it on that table

and you teach those kids a bible verse

before bedtime don’t let anybody tell

you that that ain’t ministry

corporate woman when you sit around that

boardroom table and you’re the only one

that has a set of ideals that lines up

with the truth of scripture at a table

with those who are thinking and acting

and planning in a way that is left of

god’s word don’t let anybody tell you

that you around that boardroom ain’t

ministry that’s ministry

high school student college student

you’re the only student that stands for

truth when your professor says this is

the way it is and you say no that’s not

the way it is don’t let anybody tell you

as the light on that college campus that

you are not in ministry

every single one of us has an assignment

and the day is coming

when we’re gonna have to give an account

and here’s the thing

you don’t know when that day is

my 38 year old cousin

38

four small children

the day is coming and you don’t know the

day or the hour

neither do i when we’re gonna have to

stand before him and give an account for

how we handled what he had entrusted to

us i’m asking you tonight how are you

handling your assignment

because young women if you think that

you’re young because of your age listen

to me if you’re 20 but you only have

until 30 you’re pretty old

if you’re 50 and you’re going to live

until 100 then you’re pretty young

age is just a number my friend and you

and i cannot qualify young or old base

births based on our our birth date

it’s based on our death date and since

we don’t know when that day is

that i implore you sisters by the

mercies of god to walk in a manner

worthy of the calling by which you have

been called

because listen i don’t know about y’all

but when i see him face to face i’m

looking for a well done

i’m looking for well done

when i see him he will not ask me how

many instagram followers i had

he will not wonder whether or not folks

liked my post he will not be interested

in whether or not my selfies were

perfectly lit he will ask me

did i know his son

and then i will give an account

so the disciples they come and they give

an account to jesus i wondered if there

was a recipe for effective ministry

because if these guys were willing to

come and look jesus in his face and give

an account i figured there might be a

recipe for us for effective ministry i’m

interested anybody interested

there are three ingredients to the

recipe luke chapter 9 verse 1 it says he

called them

he called them

and his calling superseded any personal

ambition that they had

they laid down whatever they were going

to do because they heard the call of god

beckoning them to do something else

the beautiful thing about that entire

picture is that all of the glory of god

the father

all of the glory of heaven was packaged

in human flesh jesus wanted so much god

the father wanted so much to make sure

that he could speak and so that humanity

could hear that he left his throne in

glory

put on flesh so that the disciples could

hear his call and in the same way he has

given us the holy spirit so that each

and every one of us have the privilege

to hear the calling of god on our lives

the conviction the unction the pressing

the fire that is shut up in your bones

sending you in a particular direction

heed the call of god on your lives

then they were not just called i love so

much that before he skips to the third

ingredient in the recipe sending them i

love that before we get to the third one

there’s that second one he did not just

call but then he gave them power and

authority it means that what he was

calling them to do he was simultaneously

equipping them with supernatural power

to be able to pull it off so it’s good

news for anybody in the room that you

feel like you’ve got a dream that is way

over your head you’ve been called to do

something you don’t have the money for

you don’t have the time for you don’t

have the patience for you don’t have the

gifting for you don’t have the talent

for you don’t have the connections for

the good thing and the great thing about

our god is that he does not call people

who are already equipped he calls you

and then for the people that say yes he

equips them with what they need for the

calling

he entrusted them with power and

authority and can i tell you why this is

important this is important because in

order to accompl and accomplish

supernatural tasks

you have to have supernatural capacity

in other words you can be the most

talented person in the world but if you

go in your own strength and power

you still won’t be able to accomplish

the god calling on your life it requires

what it is that only god himself can

give to you to accomplish the task oh

the enemy hopes you will go in your own

power

he hopes you will think you are flashy

enough and savvy enough and talented

enough and impressive enough so that you

will no longer lean on god instead of

leaning to your own understanding

but it is not by power and it is not by

might it is by the spirit of god

and some trust in horses other folks

trust in chariots but not us we trust in

the name of the lord our god

so he called them and then he entrusted

them he gave them some treasure and then

he

sent them

he’s the one who did the sending

resist the urge to send yourself

to do something that it is not yet time

for

because just as important as our calling

is that is equally as important as the

timing is

in which that calling is outworked in

our lives and if you go too soon you

might if you if you give birth too soon

to that which god is trying to produce

through you you might abort

what it is that he’s trying to

accomplish in you

the spiritual backbone the fortification

that he was trying to establish in you

so that you could handle the spotlight

when it hit you because listen that

spotlight that you may be craving if it

hits you and you have no character it

will burn you to a crisp

so he called them

he entrusted them he sent them out and

they returned to him and gave an account

they were tired

the disciples had been given it

everything they had

and i know there are some of you in the

room and you would admit that you

haven’t done it perfectly but man you’ve

sure been purposeful

you’ve been intentional about this

marriage you’ve been giving it

everything you’ve got

you’ve been intentional about that

teenager you’ve been giving that kid

everything you’ve got this toddler that

has this specific vent or this specific

issue that you’ve been doing everything

you can going to see every expert that

you can reading everything that you can

to be the best that you can as a mother

single mother you’ve been giving it

everything that you’ve got working the

jobs that you’ve got to work to keep

food on the table you’ve been giving

that business that ministry that

endeavor everything that you have and

you the disciples are tired

the good news about jesus is that when

the disciples come to him tired he does

not say

go away from me and get yourself

together

come back and then i can use you

he says

come away

with

me

in other words listen

the cure for your exhaustion

is intimacy with jesus

that’s the cure y’all

i’m saying i agree take the holiday take

the vacation tell them you need a little

sabbatical you got to step back for just

a little bit you need a little margin in

your life take the holiday but don’t

take a holiday from jesus

don’t take the sabbatical from your

relationship with the lord prayer

shouldn’t exit your schedule because

these are your rest days you still need

to be the deer that pants

after the water your soul has still got

to be replenished and can only be

replenished

when you have intimacy with him

and you’re trying to figure out lord

you told me that i was going to be

replenished you told me that i was going

to refresh you told me that you had

something that you wanted to give to me

why would you take me here to this place

where i’m being pressed down by a

multitude of issues and concerns and

frustrations there’s something

overwhelming me that is bigger than what

i feel like i have the capacity to

handle why would you bring me here this

tells us that the story of the feeding

of the five thousand is not just about

the five thousand

it’s also about the disciples it’s not

just about the multitude getting fed

it’s about the disciples being fed

physically spiritually emotionally and

it tells us that the five loaves and the

two fish are the gift to the multitude

but it’s the multitude

that’s the gift to the disciples

because the multitude

is what’s going to make them

have to finally open up their drawer

pull out the treasure that they would

have otherwise ignored

place it in the hands of a multiplying

master who’s gonna show them what it

looks like when he takes their little

bit and makes it a lot

there is no replenishing

like watching god multiply your loaves

and fish

i came to tell somebody who’s got a

multitude pressing on you

in your marriage or in your finances or

in your health or in your parenting or

in your singleness that thing is

weighing down on you that means that

there is a drawer waiting to be opened

that means there’s some treasure waiting

to be unveiled

when you take it out finally when you

stop ignoring it when you stop

circumventing it when you stop acting

like god hasn’t given you everything you

need when you will finally recognize

this little bit this little gifting this

little talent this little time this

little money this little dream this

little vision that this is all i need if

i’ll just pull it out

and entrust it to the hands of a

multiply master

can i just show you real quick what the

disciples did

just real quick because i think it’s

interesting because it’s so us

they said to jesus in verse 12 send the

multitude away

[Applause]

and here’s the thing that’s so us see we

don’t just say it

we pray it

[Applause]

we pray away what we don’t even

recognize is the gift he has given us

to press us into opening up our drawer

so if you pray for your multitude to be

taken away and in god’s sovereignty he

has left it in your life

that means there’s a drawer there’s a

drawer stop start looking for a drawer

if there’s a multitude that means

there’s loaves and fish somewhere in

your life that is supposed to be

entrusted into the hands of god so we

pray away did you realize in verse 12

they are wishing away what in verse 11

jesus welcomed

jesus welcomed what they’re wishing away

so the disciples say

get get this multitude away

they don’t even know they’re praying

away their miracle

everybody wants to see the red sea

divide but nobody wants to be the one

that comes face to face with a red sea

everybody wants to see the walls of

jericho come tumbling down but nobody

wants to be the one who has to walk

around those walls in obedience to god

to trust him to shout prior to seeing

one brick fall

if there is a multitude that means there

is a miracle

okay

so praise the multitude or they ask for

the multitude to go away and jesus he

doesn’t go for that so when he doesn’t

they he doesn’t go for that the

disciples have another solution this is

us too

send the multitude away jesus says

and they say

well send us away then

you see it

they said send us to the surrounding

towns and villages so that we can go and

buy more

accumulate more get more because as we

are is not sufficient

so send us somewhere else so we can get

better and be better suited to this

multitude because as we are is not

enough it has always been the tactic of

the enemy to get us to think that we are

not enough as we currently are that what

we currently have is not sufficient for

the task that is before us but if the

lord has allowed that multitude into

your experience that means that as you

currently are with the entrusted

treasure the power the authority that he

has given to you you’ve got everything

you need if you just pull out what he

already has entrusted to you

in fact in mark chapter six our layer of

chocolate cake we find out that he says

to the disciples

well what do you have

he asked them that question

he says what do you have and then he

doesn’t even give him a chance to answer

he just immediately responds and says

go and look

he said it like that go and look

he said it like you would tell your kid

if the month i mean the week after

christmas they came to you and said mom

i’m bored

you would say

well what do you have

and then before you gave them a chance

to respond because you could already

tell that the response they was going to

give you was going to get them in

trouble

so you didn’t even give them a chance

you just say you would say to them

go and look

because if you’ll just look you’ll see

that the thing you’re complaining about

is something you already have access to

if you will go and look moses you will

see that everything you need to do what

i’ve called you to do it’s in your hand

it’s that rod that common rod that has

always been right beside you but now i’m

gonna infuse it with my power if i can

just get you to go and look moses pick

the stick up put it over the red sea you

will see that it will make the red sea

divide like a solid wall go and look

david yes goliath is right there but if

you’ll go look down by the stream i’ve

already provided five smooth stones that

will be everything you need to take that

giant down go and look spend all of the

energy that you’re spending complaining

spend that energy going to look for what

god has already given us access to

so they pulled it out

all right jesus you’re gonna do

something with this

they say okay

here you go

and they put it in his hands

everything changes

when you put your five and two in the

hands of jesus

everything changes when you stop

speaking negatively about it and just

trust it into the hands of g when you

just take that little dream that he has

entrusted to you and you give it back to

him and you say don’t look like much

right now but i’m putting it in your

hands and the great thing about our god

verse 16 says is that he took

the meager gifts of man

he didn’t look at their little bit and

say come back when you’ve got more uh

a holy divine almighty powerful god a

god who does not need us or our loaves

and fish when man gave it to him

he received it

and looking up to heaven

he blessed it

y’all you don’t need more you just need

god’s blessing on what you’ve already

got

you don’t need more you just need god’s

blessing on your five and two girl

that’s all you need

you know what his blessing is it’s his

favor

y’all favor is what makes the scales

balance over in your favor

favor is what makes things a little bit

unfair on your behalf favor is what

opens doors that nobody can shut favor

is what puts you in positions that

nobody can take away favor is what sets

you before kings and queens the favor of

god is what you want on your life on

your five and two looking up to heaven

he blessed it then he broke it and he

kept giving it

to the disciples

and it kept going and it kept going and

the 12 didn’t understand how the little

bit they had they had in the beginning

had become so much

and their entire multitude

the whole burden was satisfied

and when everybody was satisfied

oh somebody say satisfied

oh victoria i wish we had time tonight

girl

satisfied

this is not some you know happy meal

sort of situation here

this is not a number one on the burger

king drive-thru this is sunday afternoon

i’m talking about old school sunday

where your mom started to cook on

saturday night and the yeast rolls were

rising and the macaroni and cheese was

bubbling and the sweet potatoes were all

gooey on the stove and ever the sweet

tea was going the roast you know she

started the roast on 200

the night before and let it simmer all

night long y’all are getting hungry

aren’t you i know listen

do you remember how when you came home

from church the next day you ate that

and the only thing you could do after

that was

that’s all you could do that’s why jesus

said go ahead and have the people

recline

have them get in a posture

of expectation

that i’m getting ready to do exceedingly

abundantly above and beyond anything

that they can ask or think

satisfied sunday afternoon kind of

satisfied

that’s what he does

and they were so satisfied y’all don’t

even sit down just stay standing listen

they were so satisfied this is how you

know how good the meal was

there was leftovers

they started going around picking up the

leftovers y’all and guess what

there were 12 baskets full

one basket

for each disciple

to take home

as an overflow of the grace and the

blessing of god

i want to pray for any of you who are in

this room and you’ve got a multitude

weighing on you

you gotta i mean that thing is burdening

you down and you’ve never considered the

fact

that you’ve already got what you need

you’ve been thinking this is not enough

gifting this is not enough talent it’s

not enough money it’s not enough time i

don’t have enough and jesus is

whispering in your ear tonight

you got enough

just give it to me i’m gonna multiply it

i’m gonna blow your mind with what i’m

gonna do if you just trust it to me

anybody got a specific multitude

that you need prayer in regards to just

go ahead and raise your hand we’re going

to pray right now

in jesus name victoria will you come up

with me please just as a pastor in this

house would you just be

present in this moment so we can pray

over god’s people lord

right now we entrust every single woman

who has her hand raised in particular we

entrust every single one under the sound

of our voice lord to your love and care

we thank you that you are sovereign over

their lives father we thank you that

there is nothing that is in our

experience right now that is not first

passed through your fingers and since we

know you are good and that you are kind

and that your mercy endures forever then

father we

believe that if you’ve allowed this

multitude there’s something in this

multitude we don’t want to miss and so

father i pray right now that you would

change our perspective so we can see in

this multitude what you have for us

don’t let us miss it for anything in the

world lord

and then father i’m gonna pray over our

five and two i ask right now in jesus

name whatever the five loaves and the

two fish are that you have entrusted to

every single woman i pray that you would

give a holy courage and a holy boldness

that would compel us to open up the

drawer and pull it out and entrust it to

your hands father god i do pray that if

this multitude has anything to do with

the enemy lord if the enemy has assigned

an attack on any woman or her family i

pray that his attack would be canceled

in jesus name and by his blood that has

been shed on calvary

but lord if this multitude is of you

then right now in jesus name i thank you

for it in our lives come on and thank

him for it

i thank you for it

and then father

we’re going to go ahead and get in a

posture of abundance we’re going to

start living and praying and acting like

people who believe that you are the god

of ephesians 3 20 and 21.

you can do above all that we ask or

think in jesus name

i cannot even begin to tell you how

excited i am

to be here

thrilled

finally to be at passion this is my

first time being at passion

i i’m

the new kid on the block

thank you for making the new kid feel

welcome

it is a privilege to be a part of what

god has already been doing through this

movement for these years these decades

that god has been sowing seed into the

lives of

of you

y’all don’t even know what it is that

the lord has in store you can’t even

imagine i’m trying to tell you that

whatever is in your mind right now about

what god might do with your life

it is too small for what he’s actually

planning to do

too small

you cannot fathom what god has in mind

for you

the reason why i can say that with that

much boldness

is because while there are 30 plus

thousand of us that are gathered

together in these three arenas and then

those that are on the other side of the

screen in their homes

thirty thousand sounds like a big number

unless you consider the fact that with

seven plus billion people on the planet

the fact that he’d let us be the ones

that are recipients of what he’s done

over these last few weekends really it’s

just our last few days really it’s just

a drop in the bucket 30 000 sounds like

a lot but in the grand scheme of all the

people that could have been here y’all

he chose us

that means he intended for you to know

you’re an arrow

that your expectation is that you’re

getting ready to go places the likes of

which you could never imagine

oh i like y’all y’all talk back to me i

go to that kind of a church where they

talk but you know i go to the kind of

church where if the preaching gets

really good to us we might throw

something at the pastor

a shoe a baby anything might go flying

up there

y’all are my people y’all came to have

church

so i have three boys

um it’s a little bit scary to me that

they are nearly it will be very soon in

the next few years will be about your

age three sons the distinguishing

characteristic about my boys is that

they are giants they are huge boys my 15

year old is six foot two inches tall he

wears a size 14 men’s shoe my 13 year

old is about six one he wears a 13

men’s shoe

and uh they tower over me i have a nine

year old who’s coming up in the ranks

with his brothers they are

tall boys somebody can help me feed

these people

and one of the distinguishing

characteristics about or what makes

their size work for them rather is that

they do love sports so whatever sport is

sort of in season that’s what we’re

playing at the time my second son for a

lot of years he’s into basketball now

but for a lot of years baseball was this

thing and i enjoyed that i enjoyed

baseball season i liked going out there

for spring ball i liked spring ball

because you go sit in the cool of the

evening while your kid is practicing i

remember all those years of of little

league when he was just coming up and

we’d sit out there in the cool of the

spring evening under the lights of the

bleachers watching and practice and

enjoying just

uh that that whole atmosphere i like

spring ball so much the only problem

with spring ball is that it is going to

become summer ball

and i don’t know what happens where you

live wherever you’re coming from but i

can tell you in dallas texas which is

where i still live

where i was born and raised in dallas

texas in the summertime it doesn’t warm

up slightly

it gets hot

i’m talking about slap your mama hot

that kind of hot the kind of hot where

you feel like the sun must be mad at you

about something like you did something

to the sun and the sun is trying to get

you back all summer long that’s what it

feels like and you’re sitting out there

at a game trying to enjoy your kid’s

game and it really still is okay when

there’s just one game

the problem is that at the end of every

season there’s a tournament

so you got to be out there on a thursday

at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and noon and 2 p.m

and then depending upon how your kids

team did you’re gonna have to come back

on friday at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and then

they give you a little lunch break but

you got to come back for the 2 p.m game

the 4 p.m game and then if your kid’s

team had the nerve to do well you got to

come back again on saturday for the 8

a.m game and 10 a.m and noon and two and

man you’re sitting out there under the

blazing sun trying to be happy that your

kid is doing well

really you’re wondering if it’s ever

okay to pray they lose so you can go

home

i will never confirm nor deny that i

have ever done that

but i will tell you that we were sitting

out there at a tournament so several

years ago

sun was blazing

we were so excited for the lunch break

just because that meant we would be able

to go to a restaurant where there would

be air condition and ice water that

actually had ice in it

we got refreshed we came back

we drove our suv up into the parking lot

opened up the back of the suv so that we

could pull out all the gear that we

needed to go to the next game in the

tournament we were three days into the

tournament hot sweaty they were doing

well we were trying to be excited about

it

ready for the next game i was walking

behind my son to get from where we had

parked the car over toward the dugout

where the next game was going to be

played and so i gathered up all the

stuff you know the ice chest that you

have and the um the umbrella that you

might have to go over your head and you

know the water bottles the the backpacks

the the baseballs the mitts all that

stuff and i was following behind my son

my second son jerry jr is a fairly

gregarious personality he’s outgoing

he’s excited for a challenge

so i could see that in his step as i

followed behind him i could see a skip

in his step his chin was up his

shoulders were back he was excited about

the next game and i got to tell you he’s

pretty good in baseball he has a natural

knack for it i remember at 10 years old

was the first time he got a good hit and

sent it sailing over the fence line at

10 years old and i think it’s partly

because of his size just a lot of power

behind the swing a great as a first

baseman so we were really excited about

his success in baseball and and i

watched him as he kind of hopped and

skipped over to the next game just

excited about the next challenge in the

tournament

but because i was following behind him i

had my eyes glued on him and i could see

when something changed

i could see that as we took the short

walk from where we’d parked the car over

to the dugout i could see that his

shoulder started to hunch over and his

head hung down

i could see that that that skip that had

been in his step had changed he was kind

of walking like he was nervous he was

wringing his hands a little bit i saw

that he was looking around his eyes

darting and looking a little bit sketchy

i was trying to figure out what happened

to my boy it was a short walk from where

we parked the car over to the dugout and

all of a sudden his countenance had

completely changed so i started looking

around trying to figure out what was

going on why did he look so insecure and

fearful all of a sudden

i realized that as we were going toward

the dugout we were walking past

some kids from another team they were

all laying

on the grass underneath the shade of an

oak tree getting ready for the next game

as i passed them i could see this was

the team we were about to play next

kept walking and i kept getting a look

at these boys

and when i looked at them i realized

what my son’s problem was

we had faced this team before

we had faced them earlier in the season

and when this team had played my son’s

team earlier in the season they had

annihilated us

it had been a complete embarrassment a

complete upset this team right here

y’all they were serious baseball players

but we had to walk right by them to get

to the dugout

as we walked past there were two players

they were talking to each other one was

whispering to the other i think he

thought he was whispering but we could

hear him

he leaned over to the other one and he

said

there goes that big kid from the red sox

team

is he the one that hit the ball and it

went over the fence

yeah he was the one at first base the

one that caught any of the outs that we

got in the game that was him

so

that’s jerry

shire

when my boy heard his name

crossed the lips of the opposing team

members

those shoulders that had been hanging

down all of a sudden i watched him pop

back again

i watched his chin go up i watched him

get a little swag back in his step as he

headed over toward the dugout

in fact we had to bring him down a few

notches before the game started

it’s amazing really how your countenance

changes

when you really overhear and understand

what the enemy thinks about you when he

sees you coming

it doesn’t mean that the challenge goes

away it means that in the face of it

you’re different your stance is

different because you recognize that

when the enemy sees a daughter or a son

of god coming his way he’s shaking in

his boots not because of you but because

of the holy spirit of god that lives on

the inside of me

i came to tell somebody today that even

if you don’t believe what it is that the

word of god declares to be true about

you you need to know that the enemy does

he knows that every single thing that

god’s word declares to be true about you

every word that has been declared over

you in these last few days of this

conference even if you’re not convinced

about it the enemy is

he knows that you have been forgiven he

knows that there is therefore now no

condemnation for those of us who are in

christ jesus he knows that you have been

given the victory he knows that you have

been made competent by the spirit of god

he knows that there is therefore now no

condemnation for you or for me no shame

no guilt he knows that you have not been

given a spirit of fear but a power and

love and of a sound mind and y’all he

knows that in the end we win

and i’m saying what ashamed it would be

for the enemy to believe more about your

potential than you do

what ashamed it would be for us to go

out of here with all of this inspiration

that we have been given this investment

of god’s word that he has gathered us

together over the course of these days

to worship in spirit and in truth and to

hear his word declared true over our

lives what a tragedy it would be for us

to walk out of here and still live like

we were before we came through these

doors

so what the enemy will do is scatter

challenge in front of your life because

listen you’re going back home to

challenge y’all do know we going back

home in a little while right

and don’t we wish we could wake up to

this every single day

don’t we wish that we could have god’s

word spoken over our lives with this

much authority and power every single

day and be in the presence of leaders

who can lead us into the presence of god

and worship every single day like this

but the reality is

we’re going back home

the challenges of your university campus

the challenges of your home your

relationships your friendships on your

job those challenges will be sprawled

out in front of you when you get home

and let me tell you something what the

enemy hopes is that the sight of them

will cause you to shrink back in so much

fear and insecurity that you’ll never

step up to the plate of being who god

has called you to be

listen if you place faith in jesus

christ i hope you know that the enemy

understands he cannot destroy you

he knows his chances are over of

destroying you so he is going to spend

the rest of his time and the rest of his

energy just trying to discourage you

trying to distract you so that you’ll

shrink back in fear and insecurity and

not step up to the plate

and be who god has called you to be

it is at least in part to this end

that the apostle paul gives us a passage

of scripture that has become a lifeline

for me

in fact i was talking with

christine yesterday chris and i have

known each other for a very long time

very close friends and she was asking me

what i was going to speak on and i had

several thoughts

of directions that i was

leaning toward

but in the end we as we were talking the

question came up if there was only one

thing you could say to them

if there’s only one message that you

ever have the opportunity

to tell these students these young

people that will be gathered together on

this occasion what would that message be

and there was one thing that immediately

popped into my heart and my mind for you

at the end of this year’s passions

passion conference

it’s the words of the apostle paul

he writes them in the book of ephesians

listen

let me just tell you quickly before i

read this passage you got if you if

you’ve not read the book of ephesians

you’re gonna have to read the book of

ephesians

y’all listen

it’s it’s like for real

the apostle paul y’all know he was a bad

boy he gave us most of what would become

the new testament

letters written to first century

believers that now disciple us and help

us to mature as believers and as the

body of christ

and scholars say that of all of paul’s

writing really the cream of the crop the

cherry on top of the cake is ephesians

because in the book of ephesians y’all

he just spends the first half of the

book just rehearsing who you are as a

daughter or a son he wants to make sure

you step up to the plate rise to the

occasion of who you’ve been recreated in

christ to become those of you who place

faith in jesus christ last night who

stood to your feet at the end of pastor

louie’s message and you placed faith in

jesus listen the old has gone and the

new has come

you’re a daughter you’re a son and you

have full rights and privileges that

have been granted to you the apostle

paul wants you to know what is the hope

of his calling and choosing you he

writes in the first and second and third

chapter about the treasure that you have

he wants you to know about the mercy

that has been lavished upon you the

grace that has been given to you he

wants you to know that if you’ve been

rejected by everybody else you’ve been

hand-picked chosen and adopted by the

one true god he wants you to know that

if you’ve dug a pit of sin for yourself

that is so deep you can’t find your way

out of it that the mercy of god is so

great and so grand that it can reach

down into any pit and snatch you up out

of it once and for all in fact paul gets

so worked up that by the time he gets to

the middle of the first chapter he

bursts out in a prayer and he says i’m

praying that the eyes of your heart

would be open

so that you would just know what is the

hope of his calling and choosing you

and after going over and over and on and

on about the lavishness the richness the

grace the mercy the goodness the

adoption that has been poured out over

us the forgiveness that has been granted

to us he’s trying to figure out how do i

close this letter to make sure they step

up to the plate

how do i put an exclamation point on

passion 2018 to make sure that what god

has given them they don’t hand over to

the enemy as soon as they walk out the

door

and the apostle paul writes these words

to us

in ephesians chapter 6

beginning in verse 10.

he says

finally

you be strong in the lord

and in the strength of his might

he says put on the full armor of god

so that you may be able to stand firm

against the scheme somebody say schemes

against the schemes of the devil he says

we wrestle not we struggle not against

flesh and blood but against the rulers

against the powers against the world

forces of this darkness against the

spiritual forces of wickedness that are

in the heavenly places he says so

therefore you might as well just go

ahead and put down all the weapons of

this world that aren’t working for you

anyway and take up some weapons that

actually have some power he says take up

the full armor of god so that you may be

able to resist in the evil day and

having done everything to stand firm he

says you ought to just stand firm

therefore

in these few verses of scripture the

apostle paul begins to introduce to us a

concept

that has not been at least in the

context of thus far in church

development at that time had not been as

overtly described as it is right now

in paul’s letter

he brings up the topic

of spiritual warfare

he says you have an enemy

he says i want to make sure that it’s

loud and clear there are other places in

the old testament and throughout

throughout the new york where we can

infer that we have a spiritual unseen

battle going on but this is the first

time that an author comes right out and

says you have an enemy

and he is scheming against you

that when you leave this place in just a

little while when i leave this place in

just a little while you need to know

that there is an enemy he is against you

he is not for you

he plans to do anything and everything

in his power to stir up challenge in

your life enough to cause you to shrink

back and not rise up and stand firm in

the victory that you have been given in

christ jesus that’s why the apostle paul

says stand

firm

because you have an enemy

an enemy that wants you to think that

just because he is invisible he is also

fictional

he wants to be chalked up to nothing

more than a caricature

a cartoon picture a myth a a character

for a kid’s nursery rhyme he doesn’t

want you to recognize the influence that

he has over your life possibly to to

cause you to never walk into the full

expression of god’s grace and goodness

in your life he is sinister he is a

master illusionist and he is a deceiver

and he hopes to cleverly disguise

himself behind life’s most pressing

problems to where you will forget he is

even there

he wants you to point fingers at him or

at her at your boss at your parent at

that particular professor or your r.a in

your dorm he wants you to think it’s

that advisor or it’s that financial

problem anything flesh and blood because

he knows as long as we’re looking at the

flesh and blood we will direct all the

wrong weapons at the wrong culprit

we’ll think our money will work we’ll

think our rationale and logic will

actually work we think that the diploma

we’re about to to achieve and receive

we’ll think the diploma will be work

worth it we’ll think that the

connections will work anything natural

cannot take care of the supernatural

when your problem is unseen and

spiritual you need weapons that work in

that realm

so the apostle paul says you got to know

first of all that your enemy is not the

person you were sitting next to today

that your enemy is not your parent at

home your enemy is not that professor

that is difficult to work with your real

enemy is not your boss on your part-time

job your real enemy is unseen he is

hoping y’all that we will forget he’s

there

he is the master deceiver

so there’s a little church around the

corner from

my house

in dallas i’ve been taking my kids there

since they were little

to harvest festival that’s basically

this church’s answer to halloween

so we will go there for harvest festival

and this church has a good old-fashioned

trunk or treat

does anybody know what i mean when i say

trunk or treat

okay

all right so trunk or treat for those of

you who are not clear on what that is

that’s when members of the congregation

volunteer

they volunteer to bring their cars into

the parking lot on harvest festival

night so that they can open up the trunk

of their car so you go into the parking

lot all the trunks are open

and each person has basically crafted a

carnival game or some sort of fair game

out of the trunk of the car so kids line

up one trunk after the other they play

whatever the game is and then most of

the time whether they win or lose the

person that owns that car gives them a

whole bunch of candy and sends them home

we’re always so grateful

so we stand in line

one car after the other waiting on bags

of candy and we play one game after the

other a few years ago

the biggest line the longest line at the

carnival wasn’t behind the a car it was

behind the bed of a truck it was really

clever

a huge truck had been

parked in the parking lot

and they’d put a step ladder right at

the bed of the truck so that a kid could

walk into the bed of the truck they had

attached a top which was about the same

size as the bed of the truck they had

attached it to the side of the truck cut

six holes into it put some fabric some

drapery over it and out from those holes

every few seconds a puppet would pop

through

they gave the kid a huge plastic mallet

and the job of the kid was to run up and

down the inside of the bed of the truck

as he tried to hit the puppets on top of

the head it was a homemade whack-a-mole

game is what it was

and it was the longest line me and jude

at the time he was like four jude is my

youngest me and jude are standing in

line we’re waiting on our turn behind us

there’s another kid he’s with us his mom

he’s probably four or five as well and

y’all he was hysterical

because he was annoyed at this whole

situation and he was making sure she

knew it

he was first of all annoyed because mom

i don’t understand why i got to stand in

this long line didn’t we come to the

carnival to have fun this ain’t fun

standing in line ain’t fun i have an

idea mom how about this how about i go

play all these other games while you

stand in line and hold our place and

then when it’s our turn i’ll come back

and join you in life

but he was not only annoyed about the

line the four-year-old was also annoyed

because mom i don’t even understand this

game why in the world would i waste all

my energy running up and down the inside

of that truck to hit the puppets on the

top of the head if when i hit them on

the head they’re gonna disappear but

then they’re just gonna come back as

soon as i hit them on the head what’s

the point of this game

so everybody in the line is laughing

hysterically because this four-year-old

this five-year-old is talking so much

about all of his frustrations

finally he gets so frustrated

that he works himself into a frenzy to

where all i saw out of my peripheral

vision was a four-year-old flash running

past me as he ran forward and he grabbed

the drapery off of the table top and

pulled it clean off

underneath there were three adults with

puppets on each hand

that day we all got a good laugh but we

also got a good lesson

there is always something you can’t see

influencing what you can

and if you spend all of your time your

energy your effort trying to hit at what

you see popping up in your life you’re

gonna be so frustrated and by the way

exhausted because as soon as you take

care of one thing another one is coming

back unless you do what the apostle paul

says pull back the curtain and let the

enemy know we got our eyes on you

and we’re gonna use some weapons that

actually work back there behind the

curtain y’all i wish i had learned this

when i was 18 19 20 21 years old that

that person that physical problem isn’t

really where you need to invest your

energy pull back the curtain use the

weapons that actually have power

the apostle paul wants you to know that

the tactics of the enemy are serious

business and so he uses a specific word

to describe them

he says

schemes

listen to me he knows your weaknesses

he knows how to dangle what carrot at

the right time in the right way to make

sure you are snagged in particular

have you ever wondered or found curious

that that particular carrot is always

dangled in front of you when you are

most tired

when you are most vulnerable when you

happen to be most hungry

most alone most weak that particular

carrot the one that wouldn’t mess with

your friend because it’s not her deal

it’s not his deal he’s not enticed by

that but the one that entices you always

shows up at the right time y’all that’s

not coincidence that’s a scheme

the enemy is trying to derail you he’s

trying to make sure that you don’t walk

in a manner worthy pleasing of the lord

that you come in here but then you don’t

go out of here the

purpose to live

for the glory of god he’s trying to trip

you up

not only for his own benefit but because

he does not want you having access to

everything that you are privy to as a

rightful heir to the king of kings and

the lord of lords

it’s a scheme

so if he’s got tactics

we need tactics

the apostle paul outlines them for us

i’m just going to read them to you

because he says in verse 13 you need the

full armor and here’s what they are

verse 14 he says make sure that your

loins are girded with truth then he says

you need a breastplate and the

breastplate is called righteousness and

then he says in verse 15 you got to have

something for your feet if you want any

hope of being able to move forward

successfully so your feet need to be

shot with the preparation of the gospel

of peace and then not only that but he

says there are some flaming missiles of

the evil one that he fully intends to

send sailing into your path you’re going

to need a shield and the shield is your

faith and then you know there are lies

there are strongholds that he’s going to

try to erect in your mind you’re going

to need something to protect your mind

he says you need a helmet and the helmet

is your salvation but not only that he

says that you are going to need a sword

really a dagger of the spirit it was

about 18 inches long or so the one the

apostle paul is referring to you need a

dagger so that when the enemy is all up

in your space you’ve got something close

at hand to make sure that he stays at

bay you need a dagger of the spirit and

the dagger is called the what

the word of god

but y’all he doesn’t stop at those six

can i just say that there is one more in

18 verse 18 traditionally it’s taught as

six i really believe there are seven

pieces of armor because in verse 18 he

says

pray

it says pray

[Applause]

not like you know a prayer or a day to

keep the devil away

not like a prayer over your meal

just because that’s what your mama did

and your grandmama did and that’s what

you’re supposed to do

not something quick and casual

fervent

prioritized prayer

y’all you can’t have victory if you

don’t pray

do you hear what i’m saying to you

prayer is the key

that unlocks the resources of heaven so

that they can be unleashed on planet

earth

prayer is the key he’s actually given

you to get all the good stuff down here

because i don’t know about you but i

don’t want to wait to get to heaven to

experience all that god has for me any

bits of heaven he plans to give me on

earth i want it right now

prayer accesses the bits of heaven he

intends to give you now

and prayer listen prayer is what pushes

the kingdom of darkness back

it’s what pushes it back that’s why

jesus said my house shall be called not

a house of good preaching

not a house of good singing

not a house of great spotlights and

production not a house of great cafes i

hope you have all of that enjoy it but

jesus said at the end of the day my

house better be called a house of prayer

because spotlights and fog machines and

great singing and great preaching that

won’t necessarily push the kingdom of

darkness back but when my people who are

called by my name when they will humble

themselves and when they’ll pray he says

then i’m gonna hear from heaven i’m

gonna heal the land the enemy will have

to bend the knee at the name of jesus in

prayer

so pray

there’s one other piece of armor i

couldn’t get by without talking to you

about it for a few moments y’all still

awake everybody again

it’s in verse 14.

he says put on a breastplate

called what

righteousness

righteousness

jerry and i live in a fairly rural part

of dallas fort worth

we like it that way close enough to the

city we can get there quick

but it’s quiet and lazy we live on a

little two-lane sleepy road somebody’s

got some horses over there there’s some

cows over there

and one of my closest friends lives

across the street that’s why we like it

because she’s got a pond in the front of

her property

so i’ll get the boys and the two fishing

poles i bought on sale at the local

walmart i have a tackle box too that i

got on sale there because and you know

we need things we need extra hooks

because the boys always lose the hooks

extra bobber thingies you know because

we need extras of those i also have

gloves in the tackle box because y’all

know i don’t mind going fishing but i

ain’t going to actually touch no fish

so we walk across the street with

whatever hot dog meat we’ve got left

from the week because you know we’re

professional fishermen so our hot dog

meat is our bait

we walk across the street we stand in

this little cove underneath some trees

and we fish just right there most of the

time just a little sun perch stuff like

that we can catch quick in an hour we

can catch like 10 or 12 fish just a

little quick easy little fishing trip

every now and then though i’m feeling

adventurous

what that means is is that we will get

into my friend’s little row boat they

bought on craigslist it’s metal it’s not

a big deal it’s just a little it’s

seaworthy it can hold us up that’s all

we need

i’ll swim we’ll uh row out into the

middle and we’ll fish from there every

now and then

but i always think twice before i do it

and here’s the reason

because in order to get in it we first

have to turn it over

they leave it upside down as they should

to drain water while nobody’s using it

so i gotta turn it over to get in it and

what i do know for sure

is that when i turn this thing over

something is either gonna hop out from

underneath it

something’s gonna waddle out from

underneath it or worst of all oh

something’s gonna slither

out from underneath that boat because

the environment under there is moist and

damp and perfect for critters

do you know what i’ve noticed every

single time we turn it over something

comes out and never once have i had to

write a golden sealed invitation and

send it into the brush nearby

to invite the critters to come and join

us at one o’clock today you’re welcome

never once have i had to invite them

because the environment created by the

upside down boat is invitation enough

righteousness

is right side up living that invites the

sunlight of god’s favor and blessing

upon your life

unrighteousness

is upside down behavior that is out of

alignment with the truth of god that

you’ve been sitting underneath for the

last few days it’s behavior that is out

of alignment with the truth of god to

where you don’t have to invite the enemy

and come and make himself at home in

your life you just keep living upside

down

and the environment created by upside

down behavior is invitation enough

listen to me you can pray against the

enemy till you’re blue in the face but

if you and i leave passion and we do not

walk in holiness we do not live in a

lifestyle that is in alignment with the

truth of god we will have wasted our

breath in prayer

paul says somebody’s got to live right

it’s flat out

straight up

holiness

it’s holiness

it’s a word that our our grandmothers

and our grandfathers back in the good

old days when you went to church and you

sat on a wooden pew

it’s before some churches became so

pre-seeker sensitive

i remember y’all i went listen i’m off

track listen i went to a church and they

said we are a pre-secret sensitive

church and so we actually want to sort

of

uh in a way they said dull down the

actual

literal name of jesus just so we can get

people in first then we will we will be

more direct later on i said oh you have

invited the wrong person

because there used to be a day in time

where it was just black and white

where there were fewer gray areas and

tolerance yes come as you are but don’t

stay as you are

holiness

brothers and sisters i implore you by

the mercies of god to walk in a manner

worthy of this calling by which you have

been called

that every bit of truth that you have

received this weekend to align your

lifestyle to it

to not determine that you will still dig

your heels into the ground and live

immorally or speak immorally or do the

things habits and lifestyles and choices

and relationships that you know are

outside of alignment with the truth of

god turn the boat right side up

so that you can invite the favor of god

on your life the apostle paul says

righteousness is your breastplate the

roman army in the first century they had

many pieces of armor as you know

but the breastplate would have been one

of the most critical the reason why was

because

it obviously protected the most vital

organ they had their heart

the heart is the lifeline for your

physical well-being all of the blood

flow the vitality the energy that you

need to function in every level of your

life comes from the vitality of your

physical heart what the physical heart

is to the physical life your spiritual

heart is to your spiritual life all of

the vitality the energy that you need to

be who god has created you to be to have

fervency in your prayer life to follow

him with passion and with fire to read

the bible and not just be ink on a page

but you hear his voice speaking to you

to have clear reception between you and

the holy spirit you need a vital

spiritual heart that’s why if i were

your enemy more than all else i’d be

after your heart

because one shot to the spiritual heart

will wipe you out

your spiritual heart is comprised of

four things your mind the way you think

your emotions the way you feel your

ambitions what you purpose to do and

your conscience

your conscience is not the voice of god

but your conscience is like this wiring

that helps this microphone amplify my

voice the the conscience is the

microphone that the holy spirit uses to

help you hear the voice of god so if i

were your enemy i’d be after your heart

because if i could get to your heart

that would mean i would have automatic

access to your mind now i could tinker

with your thinking i’d have automatic

access to your emotions i can mess with

the way you feel and make sure they’re

out of alignment with the truth of god i

can mess with your ambitions to where

what you want to do is totally out of

alignment with what god wants you to do

and more than all else i’d want to make

it sure i have a shot to your heart so

that i can short-circuit the wires

between you and the holy spirit

now you can’t even hear god speak to you

because you didn’t have a breastplate on

the apostle paul says holiness is your

breastplate

holiness blocks you from a full frontal

attack of the enemy

holiness keeps the enemy at bay to where

when he comes looking around for some

people that he can infiltrate some

upsell inside down environments that he

can fester in he can’t find that with me

or with you because we’ve chosen right

side up living

aligning ourselves with the truth of god

breast place in place securing us

against the schemes of the enemy

holiness is your breastplate

i came to tell you to live right

i came to tell you not to just have

heard all of this

to go home and live in accordance with

it be

ye

holy

not by your power not by your might but

by the spirit of god

there is no relationship you’re in that

if it is out of alignment with the truth

of god that the holy spirit himself

won’t help you to sever so that you can

walk in holiness

there is no lifestyle you are living

that is too uh that you’re too wound up

in that you can’t break free from no

matter how you feel in this moment you

can walk in holiness

there is no way you have been speaking

no addiction that you have

no habit that you have been festering in

your life that you have been harboring

in your life that the holy spirit won’t

empower you to break free from so that

you can walk underneath the banner the

favor of holiness in your life be ye

holy y’all listen

listen

back in our grandma and our grandparents

days

great-grandparents

they wanted to honor god more than they

wanted to impress people

see the problem with instagram and

twitter and social media if there’s a

problem y’all the problem is we want

this

we want to be impressive

and if i’m worried for our generation

it is that we are impressive

but we don’t have breastplates on

it is that we have the applause of

people and our selfies are perfectly lit

and we have a whole bunch of friends and

a whole bunch of instagram likes and

people are following us and the enemy is

thrilled because we have sacrificed

holiness

on the altar of impressing people

you gotta live for the applause of

heaven

you gotta decide i will not be

politically correct before i will choose

to be holy

i will not be impressive before i will

choose to be holy

i may not be the the person that

everybody wants to be around i may not

be the most impressive but what i will

be is holy because a time is coming

y’all where we are gonna see our savior

face to face

and when we see him he will not ask us

how many instagram followers we had

he will not ask us how many friends

liked our post

he will not want to see the selfies that

we took when we see him face to face

he’s going to ask us did we do business

with his son jesus christ

and then

and then we’re gonna give an account

and i don’t know about y’all

but i’m looking for

well done

[Music]

i want a well done

i want jesus to look at me and say you

did the thing girl

not because they bought the books they

bought the bible study they saw the

movie no you did the thing because you

honored me

whether with an audience of one or an

audience of 30 000 you honored me

yes

i came to tell you brothers and sisters

walk

with integrity

be

in the dark

who you are in the light

everything that your god has entrusted

to you over these last few days the

enemy does not mind he doesn’t like but

he doesn’t mind that you heard him he

didn’t mind you came here what he minds

is if you leave here and live by what

you heard

[Music]

praise your father

[Music]

if you’re here

[Music]

if you’re in this room stay standing if

you’re in this room or one of the other

arenas that were at home and you know

you are living in a way that is out of

alignment with the truth of god your

breastplate is not in place you are open

to full frontal attack by the enemy

because you haven’t girded yourself with

holy living and maybe you’re in a

situation where you’ve been trying to

live right but by your own strength and

power you just can’t seem to pull it off

and you need the holy spirit to do what

he does

to set you free to empower you to rise

up in victory to step up to the plate

and hit a home run for the kingdom of

god

[Music]

y’all remember

y’all remember in the lion king

[Music]

simba’s messing with the hyenas and he’s

like where and they’re like seriously

and he does it again

and they’re like you got to be kidding

he does it again

[Music]

and they’re like

no you’ll never take us down you’re too

weak you’re too small you’re too puny

by yourself

he tries it one more time

he lets out his best roar but it sounds

like something big and giant and it

echoes off of the mountains nearby and

the enemy enemies go running away not

because he was the roar but because his

daddy had come up behind him and mufasa

had let out a great roar

the roar of the father is behind you

walk in victory in jesus name amen

[Applause]

so glad to be with all of you listen

don’t even take your seat yet let me

just let me just go ahead and read god’s

word over you while you’re standing is

that all right i think every now and

then we ought to just stand up when

god’s word is read just to remind

ourselves who’s talking to us

listen to luke chapter 2

verse 21 through about verse 32 or so

when jesus was

about eight days uh were completed he

was circumcised his name was then called

jesus

the name given by the angel before he

was conceived and when the days for

purification according to the law of

moses were completed that’s about 40

days after jesus was born or so

so he’s 40 days old they brought him

into jerusalem to present him to the

lord every firstborn male that opens the

womb shall be called holy to the lord

and they came to offer sacrifices

according to what was said of the law of

the lord a pair of turtle doves or two

young pigeons

and behold somebody say behold

come on y’all say behold

and behold there was a man in jerusalem

this guy’s name was simeon and he was

righteous and devout and looking for the

consolation of israel and the holy

spirit was on his life

[Music]

and it had been revealed to him by the

spirit that he would not see death until

he had caught sight

of jesus

so he came into the spirit into the

temple and when the parents brought in

the child jesus to carry out the custom

of the law simeon saw him he recognized

that this little baby was jesus christ

he gathered the baby up in his arms he

blessed the child and he said lord now

you can let me depart in peace i don’t

have to see anything else i haven’t yet

seen this guy perform one miracle

lazarus hadn’t been raised from the dead

the sick have not yet been healed deaf

ears haven’t yet been opened i haven’t

seen any of that but once i’ve caught

sight of the savior

lord he says you can let me depart in

peace because my eyes have seen your

salvation which you’ve prepared in the

presence of all the people he’s a light

of revelation to the gentiles and the

glory of thy people israel thank you

for letting me see

jesus

lord open up our eyes so that we can see

you lord open up our spiritual ears so

that we can hear you god we are sitting

on the edge of our seat because we are

anxious to see how you will

introduce reintroduce yourself to us

today lord i’m so grateful that all of

us is here but we didn’t come to see

each other we came to see you

so lord come we’re your daughters and we

want to see you

in jesus name everybody agreed when they

said amen

give somebody a high five before you

take your seat

[Applause]

i’m so grateful and i’m so honored to

have an opportunity to be here with you

and to share in god’s word i believe in

the power of the word of god i i do

parent uh chris just told you three sons

they are giants i just have giants

walking around my house

my nearly 16 year old is six foot two

inches tall his 14 year old brother is

the exact same height they both wear

size 14 men’s shoe

my youngest son his name is jude so i’ve

got jackson jerry jr and jude and we

named our third son jude on purpose

because y’all that’s as close as i could

get to revelation because it is finished

that is it it’s the end of the line

and they’re giant somebody come help me

feed these people that’s all i do is try

to feed the boys and i remember this

particular weekend because i was in

memphis tennessee there were very little

at the time and i remember being very

very tired on this particular trip i

could not wait to get to the location in

memphis tennessee so i could get to the

hotel i’d had an early flight and was

very excited to be at the hotel early so

that i could immediately go and get in

the bed and go to sleep early that night

i was so happy to have that opportunity

and so i arrived in memphis tennessee

was picked up at the

the airport driven by a sweet woman who

had come from the church where i was

going to be at their conference she’d

come and pick me up

took me to the hotel and it was about 7

30 in the evening i was so happy she

said would you like to go out to dinner

first i was like oh no i get to go into

this hotel room all by myself and have

the bed all to myself i could not wait

so i laid down watched a little

something on television i think in about

8 30 i mean i was out

i needed all those hours of rest

except that

around 3 a.m or so

i was jarred awake jolted awake by a

train

that started to go by right outside the

back of the hotel there were train

tracks that were just a few feet behind

the hotel the conductor was sitting on

the horn the entire time that all of the

cars of the train went by i was jolted

awake and i went immediately to the

window and looked outside and i saw how

close that that train actually was and

then you know you have to kind of sit

there and wait for the whole thing to

pass and this wasn’t a small train this

was one that goes on

and on and on

finally it passed and i tried to get

back to sleep but really couldn’t nestle

down into a good sleep i knew i had to

be up really early in the morning so i

couldn’t sleep real well but did my best

got up in the morning the sweet woman

from the church came picked me up i got

in the car didn’t say anything about the

train had a great long day at the at the

church at the conference and then could

not wait to get back to the hotel so

that i could try to get a good night’s

sleep this was gonna be the night that i

got all my good hours of sleep in before

having to go home the next day and so i

laid down in the bed about 8 30 9

o’clock in the evening fell into a very

deep sleep until 3 a.m in the morning

when a train went roaring by the

conductor sitting on the horn the entire

time that the train went by this time i

was jolted awake went and looked at the

train outside the window and i thought i

can’t wait for the sweet woman from the

church to come pick me up

so that i can tell her about this train

that is passing by right outside the

door or outside the back of this hotel

so when she came i sat down in the car i

said thank you so much for picking me up

i gotta ask you

about this train

i described to her how at three o’clock

in the morning for the last two nights

this train had gone roaring by in the

back of the hotel as i

explained it to her i felt bad for her

because it was like it was occurring to

her dawning on her like she was reminded

about this train that comes through

their community her eyes were as wide as

saucers and she said priscilla

i am so sorry i i totally

forgot about that train and she said the

reason why is because those of us who

live in this community

have gotten so used to the sound of the

train that we don’t even recognize it

anymore that train comes by two or three

times a week every week and we paid

little attention to it because we’ve

lived here so long that we’ve gotten so

used to the sound of the train that when

it comes

we don’t recognize it we’ve been

desensitized

to the train in this community it occurs

to me that those of us who live

particularly in this part of the world

where we have been overwhelmingly

blessed by the presence and the power of

god among us we’re here in this country

you and i can go on a saturday to a

christian’s women event like this one or

we can go to a christian bookstore when

we can pick up any bible in any

translation in any language or we can

turn on christian radio and listen to

gospel if you like that or contemporary

christian music if you like that we have

options available to us could it be that

we have lived in this neighborhood of

blessing for so long

that when the train of god’s glory wants

to fall in an unusual way when he wants

to show up in power and in glory that we

have become so used to it that we don’t

even recognize his blessing anymore

that we’ve become so

desensitized to god’s presence among us

that it doesn’t cause us as it always

should for us to fall to our knees in

adoration our arms outstretched and

worshipped that god would visit us in

this unique beautiful way lord help us

to never be desensitized to the train of

your glory

and in the old testament or in the new

testament rather in the book of luke

luke’s gospel i love so much because

luke writes about people who encounter

the train of god’s glory in the person

of jesus christ

he gives a story after story encounter

after encounter of jesus meeting with

people and transforming their life he

included a handful of these stories so

that you and i would be not only

reminded of their encounter with jesus

but recognize that they are not

exceptions to the rule they are examples

for us of the encounters that we should

also expect to have with jesus and

listen this should be your goal

not just hearing about him but

experiencing him

that should be your goal like your

appetite should be wet your heart should

hunger for more than just a knowledge of

who jesus is

you ought to come to the place i ought

to come to the place in my relationship

with the lord we’re more than anything

else we want to see him with our own

eyes we want to hear his voice with our

own ears that the same god who divided

the red sea in the old testament the

same god who raises lazarus from the

dead in the new testament the same god

that did those things we don’t want to

just celebrate it in the lives of other

people we want to stand in line to have

an encounter with god like that

ourselves

luke writes about encounters because he

wants to wet our appetite to have an

encounter with jesus christ because

listen y’all we have wasted our time if

all we’ve done is come here on this

satur saturday to applaud what jesus did

yesterday i’m so glad about what my god

has done yesterday but i want to see him

today anybody interested

i want to see him in my own marriage and

in my own finances and raising my kids

and on my job and in my ministry i want

to see and encounter the power of the

almighty living god

that’s what today is about

it’s to make you hungry again

it’s to whet your appetite again

it’s to not let when the day ends

something to end in your life but really

to launch you forward to a brand new

beginning and an adventure with jesus

christ so luke writes about encounters

and he writes during a time when the

nation of israel is experiencing

national depravity and decay they have

been oppressed by oppressors who have

come in and stolen from them much of

what they valued they are living in a in

a place of oppression and a praise of

destruction and

luke writes to them during this time

when their nation is in trouble

and i don’t know if if you’ve noticed or

not but our nation is in trouble

we are living during a time of moral and

social decay and decline like never

before and listen the more god is

marginalized the more he’s segmented to

the periphery of society the more he is

completely ignored or disregarded the

more we will continue to see an influx

of chaos and an influx of destruction in

our nation

but luke doesn’t just write to people

who have national trouble luke is

writing to people that have individual

personal struggles they’ve been waiting

on a hero to show up they’ve been

waiting for the kingdom of god to be at

hand they’ve been waiting for the

prophecies of all to come to floridian

that there would be a messiah a savior

who would come and rescue them from all

that they’ve been experiencing

nationally but also the things that they

have been experiencing personally

so i know our nation is in trouble but i

didn’t really come to talk to you today

about what’s happening in the white

house i want to talk to you about what’s

happening in your house

underneath the roof of your home

the trouble that might be happening in

your marriage the thing that causes the

tears to fall down from your eyes in

regards to your kids or your finances or

your health or on your job or in your

ministry you like the children of israel

like me

been waiting on a hero

somebody who can come in and speak life

to the dead places and refresh the dry

places of our life luke is writing for

people who need an encounter with a god

like that

and i just want to tell any of you that

might be in a struggle personally

underneath the roof of your own house

and the landscape of your own house and

you’re in a struggle you’re in a time

like luke writes to where man things are

just plain old flat out difficult i just

want to

suggest to you the possibility

that sometimes

sometimes your difficulties are less

about the enemy being against you

and more about god wanting to show you

what it looks like when he’s for you

sometimes the stuff that you were facing

the stuff that i’m facing that are

difficult it’s less about the enemy

being against you and sometimes it’s

just about god allowing a stage to be

set in your life to where when he shows

up you will never ever doubt again that

you’ve had an encounter with jesus

so the children of israel need an

encounter with a messiah

they need an encounter with jesus christ

and finally jesus arrives on the scene

after 400 years of silence between the

old testament and the new testament

jesus arrives on the scene after

centuries of waiting after prophecy

desiring to be fulfilled jesus shows up

on the scene their hope has finally been

fulfilled but here’s the tragedy when he

comes he does not come as they supposed

he would he is not on a throne he is not

riding a white horse he is not coming in

power and vengeance and authority that

they had mirrored in their oppressors

that they had pictured that their

messiah would come in no he is born as a

baby

all of that deity and authority and

miraculous working power that they

longed for was packaged in the skin of

humanity and a small human at that this

is not what they wanted it’s not what

they recognized it wasn’t the

expectation they had built up in their

heads so when he came they did not

recognize him

when he showed up because he was not in

the package that they had pictured in

their minds

he didn’t come in the package they had

prayed for

he had come in a different way because

he did not meet their

expectations when he showed up they did

not recognize him

in the passage that we read jesus is

being brought into the temple he is

being carried uh by his mother mary

joseph is along for the ride as well

they have come with jesus about 40 days

old into the temple they are in a

religious gathering where people have

come

to perform their religious duties

and all the people who are gathered that

day are in the presence of the one they

prayed for and do not know him when he

comes

would you please notice that they’re not

just anywhere

they are in the temple

and still don’t recognize the presence

of god

i want to suggest to you that it is

possible to be at propel and not see

jesus

i want to tell you that it is possible

for you to be in your church every

single sunday which i pray you are but

you can be in your church and not have

an encounter with jesus

i want to tell you that i’m so glad many

of you are in bible study stay in bible

study but you can read a verse a day to

keep the devil away until you are blue

in the face

but if you read the scriptures with a

hardened heart with your eyes not open

you can be filling your days with the

duty of religious activity and never

catch sight of the lover of your soul

never have an encounter an experience

with jesus all these people

were in the presence of jesus christ and

did not know him when he came

because oftentimes many times

when the lord comes to minister to you

to speak into your life’s circumstances

he will come in a way

that is not the way you expected

why because his ways are not our ways

his thoughts are not our thoughts as

high as the heavens are above the earth

that’s how high his ways and his

thoughts are above our own and

what i attempt to do what you often

attempt to do i’m sure is to dumb him

down so that his ways match our ways his

thoughts match our thoughts we want him

to answer our prayers the way we’ve

prayed them

we want the solutions that work out in

our minds to be the solutions that will

be best given the scenario that we see

given the prayer requests that we’ve

prayed but y’all sometimes we pray for

growth

and he answers with rain

sometimes we pray for oak trees and he

answers with an acorn

and when the answer comes for your

marriage when the answer comes for your

parenting when the solution that god

listened today god is going to give some

of you solutions and divine strategies

for things that are happening in your

life and on your job and in your

finances the struggles that you’re

facing and i’m saying when he answers if

the answer does not come in the package

that you have expected will you miss it

because you want your way not his way

and so jesus he comes and he’s in a pool

of religious people and they do not

recognize the presence of god near them

now i want to open up a little

parenthesis here before we jump to a

specific person that i want to draw your

attention to he’s the only person in the

text who actually sees jesus

but i want to open up a little

parenthesis because you may have

recognized that luke went into a whole

lot of detail to sell us something about

the texas one thing i love about luke is

that he gives us details i like all the

juice and all the details out of the

text so that i can get a full picture

painted of what’s happening in the story

and luke wants us to know that that mary

and joseph are coming for the ceremonial

dedication of their firstborn son that’s

what everybody did they would come to

jerusalem particularly during this time

when they had a newborn son to present

their newborn son to the lord get the

picture of this the lord in this case is

being presented to the lord

and they come in and

luke writes and tells us exactly what

they have with them other than the baby

jesus

says that mary had two turtle dubs or

two pigeons for her sacrifice

now that wouldn’t really be of interest

except that we know from leviticus from

the sacrificial system that had been set

up divinely mandated by god in leviticus

that when someone came to make their

sacrifices they did need two animals to

be sacrificed one was a pigeon or a

turtle dove the other was supposed to be

a lamb that they were supposed to bring

a lamb with them but we find in luke’s

gospel that he’s made sure we know mary

and joseph do not have their own lamb

luke chapter 12 tells us or leviticus

chapter 12 tells us that there was a

caveat for why someone would not bring a

lamb to be sacrificed there’s one little

verse luke chapter 12 verse 8 or so that

says if someone could not afford a lamb

if their financial resources were so

that they could not buy for themself a

lamb to bring into the temple to be

sacrificed there would be an exception

made for them they could bring two

turtle doves instead of one turtle dove

and a lamb they could just bring two

turtle doves but that was a symbol of

the fact that they were insufficient in

some way they did not have the finance

finances

to buy their own lamb which means

when mary and joseph came on that

particular day with their two turtle

doves in tow people would have

automatically looked at them and

recognized them as a couple who had

insufficient funds as a couple who was

inadequate in some way as a couple who

had lack and who had knees i wonder how

many people turned their noses up at the

couple who could not afford their own

lamb i wonder how many people ignored

the poor couple who didn’t fit in with

everybody else who had been able to

purchase their own lamb i wonder how

many people did not get an opportunity

to have an encounter with the baby jesus

because they ignored the people who had

him carried in their arms

i want to speak to who anybody who’s in

this room and you’ve ever felt excluded

or ignored from the click of people who

have the money to buy their own lamb

they drive the car and they live in the

house and they’re able to to communicate

or to experience life in a certain way

that that man you just can’t afford

maybe you’ve got lack financially or

you’ve got lack emotionally you have

lack relationally you have poured

everything out and you find it that

you’ve got insufficient funds in some

way in your life and you can’t afford

what it looks like everybody else can

afford and you’ve been ignored or

ostracized people have turned their

noses up at you can i just tell you that

sometimes

you don’t need to have your own lamb

when you can carry the lamb of god that

takes away the sins of the world

in fact

the lamb is most often best experienced

in the lives of those who have

insufficient funds

in fact i think it is our affluence that

keeps us from actually having an

encounter with the living god we’ve

become so used to being able to bless

ourselves

that we don’t have a real authentic

relationship with the blesser

we are so affluent we have prosperity

particularly in this part of the world

where listen if you’re poor in this

country you’re rich in other countries

and here where we’ve been able to

sustain ourselves where we know where

our next meal is coming from where we

choose from a closet full of clothes as

to what clothes we’re gonna wear to a

particular event where we might have

financial struggles everything is not

perfect but we still have our daily

needs met it is sometimes in our

affluence

because our arms are so full of the

lambs we have bought for ourself we

actually don’t even have room we don’t

have margin to have an intimate ongoing

relationship with the lamb of god that

takes away the sins of the world lord

forgive us when we’ve turned our noses

up at people

who don’t have all of the external

markings of affluence in doing that we

have missed out on the blessing of

having a relationship with the people

who often have the most intimate

relationships with jesus christ

because sometimes y’all those people are

not in the in the spotlight they’re the

ones behind the scenes sometimes those

are the people that are not in mega

church churches they’re in store front

churches

sometimes there are the people that are

not the ones on the platform with the

microphone in their hands they’re the

people that volunteer their time to

clean up in a sanctuary like this to

sweep up after us they’re the people who

volunteer their time to be in the sunday

school teaching our second graders and

third graders so that you and i can

enjoy an opportunity like that lord

forgive us when we ignore those people

and clamor after the people whose gifts

happen to put them in the spotlight but

we ignore those people who are who are

uh

in intercessory prayer

who are on their knees in the secret

quiet places the lamb of god tucked

within their arms having an intimate

encounter with him but we ignore them

because they don’t look like us or dress

like us or drive what we drive or live

where we live

so if you’ve ever been that person

the text speaks to you today that it was

mary and joseph who did not have what

everybody had

but they had

what everybody else didn’t have

and so they come into the building

nobody recognizes that jesus has arrived

except one person

luke writes at the top of the passage

he writes and behold somebody say behold

come on y’all say behold

any time an author in the text writes

that word it isn’t a throwaway word it

isn’t something that you just need to

skip or skim over quickly anytime you

read behold in the text the authors

trying to tell you lean in put your chin

in your hands just in case you kind of

fell asleep during all the minutia and

the fine details that led up to this

moment this is when the author wants you

to open up your eyes and sit up straight

because there’s somebody he wants you to

meet

he says behold

there was a man named simeon

and when no one else recognized the

presence of god when god came near there

was one guy who did

and if in this room today

there are only going to be a handful of

us who actually have an encounter with

god i’m talking about where we hear his

voice when we our hearts are set aflame

by the holy spirit when you when we get

some some uh direction for the purpose

that he has for our life if they’re

gonna be a whole lot of us who have an

experience today but only a few that

actually encounter the living god that i

don’t know about you but if there’s only

going to be a few i want to be one of

them anybody

so luke says pay attention because

there’s one guy that’s going to show you

how to have your eyes open so that you

aren’t just in the religious place but

so that you encounter a holy living god

he says there’s a man named simeon he’s

righteous devout

and he’s looking for the consolation of

israel his eyes are open peel to the

horizon waiting for jesus in whatever

package he chooses to come

waiting for an encounter with the

long-awaited messiah

and then he gives us

at least the one there are many

throughout this text but the one

characteristic of his life that i

believed opened up simeon’s eyes to

catch sight of god that will open up our

eyes to catch sight of god he says at

the bottom of verse 25 he says and the

holy spirit

was upon him

luke says simeon’s eyes were opened to

catch sight of god

because

god’s spirit was on him

the holy spirit is the greatest gift you

will ever receive this side of eternity

the moment you place faith in jesus

the moment you received jesus as your

personal savior i don’t know if you knew

it or not but you received in that

moment the greatest gift you will ever

receive the holy spirit of god

and the holy spirit is not a ghost or a

wind or a fire or a dove he is often

symbolized by those things but y’all

they ain’t who he is

the holy spirit is the third person of

the trinity

not third because he is least in value

just third because he is the last to be

revealed to us in the pages of scripture

but all of the fullness all of the power

all of the authority all of the

greatness all of the grandeur of god the

father is in the person of the holy

spirit

which means when you place faith in

jesus christ and the holy spirit takes

up residence in you

that now means that all of the power all

of the glory all of the grandeur all of

the greatness of god the father now

lives on the inside of you ephesians

chapter 1 says the moment you believe

you receive the holy spirit with promise

you are not waiting on the holy spirit

you have the holy spirit right now you

did not receive the holy spirit in

installment plans

you can’t give away a person in parts

all of the holy spirit you ever gonna

get you got the moment you got saved

now we need to be filled by god’s spirit

as we yield to his conviction in our

life in obedience

as what is happening in us becomes an

outward expression as our behavior is

modified as we are sanctified somebody

say sanctified

that means as we are molded into the

image of christ jesus so that we start

to think like him and talk like him and

walk like him and behave like jesus

jesus behave we need to be filled by

god’s spirit but when you got saved

listen to me you received the holy

spirit of god god’s spirit is in you the

benefit of this is

all of the fruit of god’s spirit is

available to you

that means that that there is gentleness

that you don’t have in your own natural

ability for that person or that problem

that now you are able to have that is

beyond your own natural capacity because

the holy spirit what he does is help us

to live beyond ourselves when we’ve come

to the end of our patience you know with

that one co-worker that one that if she

says one more thing to you you gonna

knock her out that one

the holy spirit is the one that gives

you patience when your patience has long

since run out the holy spirit is the one

who gives you self-discipline so that

you have discipline in areas where you

know left to your own natural desires

and propensities you would not have

discipline in that area of morality or

that area of gluttony you wouldn’t have

discipline but now because the holy

spirit lives on the inside of you you

can live beyond your natural capacities

anybody excited about that

the holy spirit gives you fruit so that

you are able to have more than what you

would have if left to your own

but you don’t just get his fruit you get

his gifts

the holy spirit gives you gifts through

which you can edify the body of christ

he turns what would have maybe possibly

been just a talent into a gift that

actually causes what you do or what you

craft to actually get to the hearts of

the people that you are singing to or

speaking to or dancing for or writing to

those people now don’t just read words

on a page that you wrote now the words

are like fire shut up in their soul it

changes their heart it renews their mind

it accomplishes spiritual purposes in

their life so listen if you’re a writer

well then write do your best work but in

the end what you’re praying for is that

god’s spirit will anoint your words with

power and with fire to affect people for

the glory of god

don’t just speak

ask god for fire on your message

don’t just dance perfect your craft but

in the end what you’re looking for is

not just talent

what you want is a gift

and there’s no amount of manufacturing

that can give what only the holy spirit

can give

so when the holy spirit takes up

residence on the inside of you and on

the inside of me at the moment we are

saved we have the privilege of having

relationship with jesus christ having

relationship with god having

communication with him because of the

holy spirit that lives on the inside of

us that if when god sent his son jesus

to die on the cross if when we received

that gift we got a ticket to eternity

and that was all we got just that we

knew we were saved from death hell and

the grave and we got to experience

eternity with jesus christ listen if

that’s all we ever got out of this

salvation deal that would have been

enough for us to celebrate for the rest

of our days but when that might have

been enough for us it wasn’t enough for

him amen he said no i’m gonna send you

the holy spirit so that i don’t you

don’t have to wait to get to heaven to

experience heaven but so that you can

have a little bit of heaven right now

while you’re here on planet earth i’m

going to give you myself in the person

of the holy spirit so that you will see

what it’s like to walk with me and talk

with me and have friendship with me and

an ongoing relationship with me that is

what it means to have the holy spirit

but luke says

that simeon did not just have the spirit

in him

it says that the spirit was

upon him

this tells us

that there is a difference

between the spirit being in you

and the spirit being on you

i want to live a life

that invites the presence of god’s

spirit

on me

i know he’s in me but i want the kind of

life that is a magnet that calls down

the grace the favor the anointing the

presence of god upon my life i want to

live in such yielded surrender to him

that not just is he in me that’s a gift

that all of us get who place faith in

jesus christ but i don’t just want him

in me i want him on my life

i want the evidence of him on my life i

want it so that when i do something or

say something or participate in

something or pray over something i want

it so that when i walk away people don’t

just say priscilla was here i want them

to say no god’s presence was here that

only happens when the spirit of god is

on you

and so if you want to mother your kids

in such a way that you leave the imprint

of god on those kids the spirit can’t

just be in you he got to be on you

if you want to be the wife that god has

called you to be single woman if you

want to be the kind of single woman that

god has called you to be if you want to

be the kind of employer or employee that

god has called you to be if you want to

walk with purpose in the way that god

has called you to then thank the lord

that god’s spirit is on you

but i’m asking that god will allow it

there to be 2 000 women who leave this

place today at the end of the day and

god’s spirit isn’t just in us but god’s

spirit is on us

where we are marked by the presence of

god where when people encounter us

there’s something unusual something

distinct something that they cannot

touch or taste or communicate with their

five physical senses there’s an

intangible that is on their life where

when the employer is looking to give the

promotion it’s not that your resume says

you are the most qualified out of all

the candidates but there’s something

about you that they just

can’t put a finger on that’s called the

spirit of god being on you

it’s called

favor

favor is what opens up doors no man can

shut

favor is what puts you in places you

know you don’t have no business being in

favor is what sets you in positions that

you know you aren’t qualified for

say favor is what makes it so that you

are exactly where you’re supposed to be

to accomplish exactly what it is that

god has set for you to come it’s it’s

what qualifies you when you don’t have

the degree and you don’t have the

diploma you don’t have the connections

you’re just where god has opened up a

door for you to be and even though

people might talk badly about you or try

to push you out of that place you cannot

be moved not because you manufactured

your way there but because god’s spirit

has placed you there god’s spirit on

your life

is what makes it so that you don’t have

to market yourself because you’ve

already been marked by the presence of

almighty god

oh i want god’s spirit on me and can i

tell you this are you listening

there is one thing that attracts the

presence of god to rest on our lives

and it

is holiness

plain old

flat out

old school

holiness

i implore you sisters by the mercies of

god

to walk in a manner worthy of the

calling by which you have been called

that if you come if i come into this

room and we celebrate till we are blue

in the face and we wave our hands and we

read the scriptures and we worship but

we walk out of here and we live in a way

that is incongruent

with everything that we’ve heard here

today

if we do not choose to walk in a way

that honors god we will have wasted the

time that we have spent here

and if there is something that breaks my

heart for my own generation and the

generation coming up after me

is that social media has made it so that

we are more interested in impressing

people

than walking holy before our god

we are more interested in being

perfectly lit

than we are in making sure that we’re

laying up treasures for ourselves in

heaven

lord help us

when because of our hubris because of

our arrogance because of our pride we

are more interested

in receiving the applause of people than

we are of making sure that we will

receive the applause of heaven

but a day is coming y’all sooner than we

think we’re going to look our savior in

his face where we’re going to see him

face to face and when we see him he will

not ask me how many instagram followers

i had

he will not wonder how many people liked

my message on twitter what he’ll ask me

is number one did i have a relationship

with his son jesus

and then i will give

an account

you will give an account

and i don’t know about y’all but when i

give an account i’m looking for

a well done

not because i necessarily please people

but because he is pleased with my life

and the one thing that invites the favor

of god on our life like simeon that will

open our eyes to see him more clearly so

that we don’t miss him when he comes

into our circumstances trying to speak

to us to answer us to make himself a

parent in our lives the one thing that

opens up our eyes is god’s spirit on us

and if you want if i want god’s spirit

on our lives then we got to decide to

live

holy

i implore you by the mercies of god to

lay aside every sin

every hindrance anything that is keeping

you entangled so that you cannot run

with endurance the race that is set

before you

any relationship separate at the past so

that you can walk holy sister

any addiction any habit any lifestyle

choice that is keeping you from being

free and walking in victory in jesus

name let it go by the power of the holy

spirit so that he can rest on your life

going to church is good but it’s not

enough

do in your bible study oh it’s great but

it’s not enough if you want god’s

presence on you marking you making you

distinct and different from the people

around you then you’ve got to walk in a

manner worthy of the lord

be

ye

holy

it’s not perfection

it is a call to yield to the power of

the holy spirit in you so that you do

not give way to all the desires of your

flesh

what it means is that you have not

chosen as a lifestyle

an attitude or an action that you

already know is displeasing to god

you know up front that you’ve already

got on your calendar after this is over

a place you’re going or a person you’re

seeing that you know you don’t have busy

any business being in relationship with

but you’ve already scheduled sin into

your calendar

i’m saying walk away from everything

that is keeping you from having the

biggest most amazing blessing you can

have on your life and that is god’s

presence

marking you

all up on you setting you apart girl for

his purposes and with his power evident

through your life if you are in this

room and you are in chains in some area

of your life where you’ve tried the

12-step program you’ve tried to walk

away from that illegitimate relationship

you’ve tried to not live this lifestyle

because you know that it is out of

alignment with the truth of god but

everything you’ve tried in your own

power has not set you free so that you

can walk in holiness and have god’s

presence resting on your life i believe

that before this day is over those

chains can fall off of your life

that you can decide that i’m gonna live

holy so that i can have god’s favor like

simeon so that my eyes can be opened

because i want to see my god i want to

hear his voice i want to have an

experience and an encounter with him if

you are in this room

and you know you’re not walking in

holiness

you know there is an area of your life

whether in attitude

or an action

i mean god’s asked you to forgive that

person and you have dug your heels in

the ground you have refused to forgive

or in your actions where you were

literally doing something participating

in something engaging in something and

you’ve dug your heels into the ground

you’ve ignored the little pricks of the

holy spirit asking you to walk away from

that

or to participate in that

you’ve you’ve ignored it and you know

you are not living holy before the lord

and you want to get that strike today so

that we can all be women who honor god

in our attitudes and in our actions and

invite the favor of god on our lives

listen if you are in this room and you

know holiness is the call that god has

given to you this morning

would you please right now in this holy

space just rise to your feet if that’s

you if you need freedom in a specific

area of your life we’re going to walk

out of here a holy band of women

who want god’s favor on us

don’t be embarrassed don’t be ashamed

listen ain’t nobody got time for that

this is the moment where we say god we

give ourselves to you a living and holy

sacrifice

we present our bodies to you we present

our minds to you we present ourselves to

you lord a living and holy sacrifice do

with us what you will we surrender the

area of life that is our area of bondage

the area we’ve been holding back the

little cove we’ve kept from your

fingerprints being upon it we surrender

that to you if you want freedom in jesus

name this is your moment stand to your

feet

you don’t have to go home the same way

you came girl

you don’t have to think the same you

don’t have to act the same you don’t

have to be in bondage like you are

and have been we can change that by

god’s spirit today lord jesus i looked

up every single sister who was standing

underneath the sound of my voice and i

pray right now in jesus name that you

would give them a holy boldness and a

courage

to surrender to you every area of their

life that they’ve been holding back

sister would you picture that area where

you know you need to ask for forgiveness

i’m gonna ask you to just put your hands

out in front of you cup cup those hands

in front of you like you’re holding that

thing picture it in your hands

right now the scripture says that if you

confess your sin he’s faithful and just

to forgive you your sin and to cleanse

you of all unrighteousness picture that

in his hand in your hands ask the lord

to forgive you

ask

for for his forgiveness

and only when you are ready you lift up

those hands as if you were yielding it

finally completely to him

and you lift up those hands and

surrender

give it to him just let it go

lord every attitude every action

every little hidden place in our life

lord

every bondage lord every illegitimate

relationship every immorality father

everything that is not like you we give

it to you right now in jesus name

lord i pray that if there is a bondage a

shackle on somebody’s life that is

demonic in nature lord i pray in jesus

name and by his bloodshed on calvary

that you would cancel every demonic

assignment against these women and

against their families lord i pray that

you would by your holy spirit break the

shackles lord loosen them help us to

hear the shackles falling off right now

in jesus name and lord i pray that we

will walk in a manner worthy of the

calling by which we have been called

father i pray that you would enable us

by your spirit to no longer walk by the

flesh but to walk by the spirit so that

we will not fulfill the desires of the

flesh lord i pray for freedom in jesus

name i thank you for galatians 5 1 that

says it is for freedom that we have been

made free therefore we will stand firm

and no longer be subject again to any

yoke of slavery that is in our life we

are free in jesus name

and it is in the matchless name of jesus

christ that everybody agreed and said

amen

amen

at tbn our mission is to use every

available means to reach as many

individuals and families as possible

with the life-changing gospel of jesus

christ thank you for helping make

the gospel of grace go around the world

without you we couldn’t do it god bless

you