Always Give thanks to God for the things He is yet to do for you. when you pray and there is no answer don’t panic. wait for His timing He might be planning something good for your life.

[Applause]

and the holy spirit said to me that’s

just like you and me priscilla

because i’m behind the scenes

orchestrating and crafting the chapters

of your story all the while you think

i’m doing nothing you point an

accusatory finger at me wondering where

i am and why i’m not hearing your

request and why i’m not moving in the

way that you would like me to move

you’re assuming that i’m sitting back

passively ignoring you where all the

while i am busy making a story out of

your life the likes of what you can’t

imagine

praise the lord

praise the lord o my soul i will praise

the lord while i live

i will sing praises to my god while i

have my being some trust in princes and

some trust in mortal man and whom there

is no salvation but not us not tonight

we trust in the name of the lord our god

how blessed is the one in whom the god

of jacob is their helper whose hope is

in the lord his god the one who made

heaven and earth the one who made the

sea and all that is in them he’s the one

who gives food to the hungry he is the

lord that sets prisoners free he is the

lord that opens the eyes of the blind he

raises up those who are down he is the

lord who loves the righteous he is the

lord that protects anybody that feels

like a stranger he is the one that

supports those that might be fatherless

and the widow he sorts the way of the

wicked the lord will reign forever

he is our god

oh zion o church to all generations we

ought to praise the lord for it is good

to sing praises to our god it is

pleasant to praise the lord he builds up

his people he gathers the outcasts of

israel he heals the brokenhearted he

binds up their wounds he counts the

numbers of the stars he gives all of

them names that’s basically his way of

saying if i can control the entire

universe i’ve got your life covered

that’s what he said

great is the lord

abundance is his strength sing to the

lord with thanksgiving sing praises to

our god praise the lord jerusalem praise

him in the house tonight for he has

strengthened your bars and your gates he

has blessed your sons and your daughters

he brings peace to your borders he

satisfies you with real good things he

makes sure his word runs very swiftly he

scatters the frost like ashes who can

stand before him because our god is good

so praise the lord

praise the lord from the heavens

praise him from the heights

praise him all ye angels praise him all

you hosts praise him sun and moon praise

him highest heavens praise him waters

that are above the heaven let even those

people praise the name of our great god

praise the lord sing to the lord a new

song praise him in the congregation let

israel be glad in her maker let the

godly ones exalt in glory tonight praise

the lord praise god in this sanctuary on

broadway in times square

tonight praise the lord

praise him in the mighty expanse

praise him for his excellent greatness

praise him with the trumpet sound praise

him with the harp and the liar praise

him with the timberland with the dancing

praise him with the stink stringed

instruments in the pipe praise him with

the loud symbols praise him with the

resounding symbols let everything

that happened

come on y’all let’s praise the lord

tonight

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

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

church tonight is what you did

take your seats if you can i want to

tell you what a privilege that it is as

anthony has already said for us to be

here with you tonight to have an

opportunity to lift up the name of jesus

because he’s worthy to be praised y’all

even with what you wrote down what you

need prayer for what’s hurting your

heart what’s ailing you what what needs

to be answered even with the miracle you

require what you need to know is that

your god

is still good he’s still sitting on the

throne and the truth is

even if he never did one more thing

i mean seriously y’all

if he never did another thing on our

behalf

if he doesn’t answer this request

exactly the way that you’re hoping he’ll

answer this request the truth is he has

already done enough

but the great thing about our god

is that he invites us to make our

requests known

he invites us to give to him the desires

of our hearts and then he invites us to

trust him with the answer

so i’m so excited to pray with you

tonight because we get the privilege

tonight not only to very specifically

and boldly approach the throne of grace

with every single request that has been

written down and even those that are

still tucked away in the quietness of

your heart even those of you that i know

are on the other side of the screen your

request we want to cover those tonight

but the great thing about our god

is that not only can we present our

request trusting him

but at the end of every prayer we can

say lord do this do what i’ve asked

or

do something better

[Applause]

because seriously the truth is he is the

god of ephesians 3 20 and 21.

he is the one that does immeasurably

more than you can ask and listen if you

can’t ask it because you can’t your

brain can’t even come up with the right

words to vocalize what it is you’re

trying to ask for he says that’s all

right just think it and i can do past

that

so we can boldly bring all of our

requests

to the throne of god tonight trusting

that he is a great big god who still

does great big things

i believe

that god works miracles anybody

i’m talking about flat up flat out

jaw dropping straight up can’t explain

it

miracles

will you stand back and go i don’t know

you

know that kind of stuff

we’re going to pray about that tonight i

love that we have a god that allows us

to do that in even this setting that any

place is a sanctuary where god can meet

us i love this unique opportunity that

we have to be in this place where many a

celebrity many a talented person many a

gifted person has stood on this platform

many productions have taken place and in

a place where people have been

celebrated for their gifts and their

talents on this kind of a platform i

love that in this place today there is

only one celebrity and it’s nobody on

the stage i love that

i love that the celebrity is jesus

christ

[Music]

man i can’t tell you how that takes the

weight off us there’s just no pressure

for us up here because we ain’t trying

to impress you how about that

we’re gonna have a good time tonight in

the presence of the lord

my um i will tell you more about them

later but my three sons you might see

them sort of around and about that we

kind of all dive in together in ministry

as anthony said he’s my younger brother

and just in case you wondered everything

he knows about music he learned from me

anyway

[Applause]

and um my husband is here as well we

have three sons um they’re 14 12 and

eight

jackson is our oldest and then jerry jr

and then jude jude is our surprise baby

jude that’s why i named him jude because

that’s as close as i could get to

revelation

[Applause]

because it is finished that’s it that’s

the end of the line jackson jerry jr and

jude and jude and i were sitting

together on an airplane and he was

seated over the wing our seats were

directly over the wing of the airplane

and so he was sort of just looking out

at the wing of the plane and there we

were suspended in midair flying to our

destination and i could tell he was

mesmerized by this whole concept that

this tube of steel is in the air holding

us up and that um this this wing is

connected to the plane he was sort of

just dissecting this entire this entire

situation and as he looked over the wing

he looked back at me

and said mom how do they get that wing

on this plane

and i said buddy i got to be honest with

you i have no idea i have no idea how

they get that wing on the plane i don’t

know how it works but i have an idea for

you jude you have an uncle their dad’s

brother uncle vaughn he works in the

airline industry he actually works in

the business where they they make all

the veins and the wiring that connects

the different parts of the aircraft so i

saw this as a teachable moment i said

you should talk to your uncle vaughn

when we get home and it’d be a great

opportunity for you to learn something

and then i said to him you know what

you can be whatever you want to be when

you grow up do do you know that you can

do whatever you want to do like if you

want to make airplanes like your uncle

vaughn when you grow up you can so

totally do that if you’d like to and as

i said that to him i said buddy you can

be anything you want to be in your life

anything you want to do you can do it he

looked back at me and he said mom

i don’t want to do what uncle vaughn

does when i grow up i want to do what

you do when i grow up

you know it’s one of those moments where

you’re just thinking baby what do you

want whatever you want i’ma give it to

you

[Applause]

oh but wait for it

because i looked back at him and said

buddy

what does mama do

now i had expectations about what his

answer was going to be at least some

framework about how he might respond

lord i’d love to or mom i’d love to

share the lord with people mom i’d like

to write mom i would like to do a myriad

of different things maybe that he could

have said

but he looked back and he said mom

i want to do nothing just like you

you do nothing all day every day you do

nothing

i said buddy you see how

like the clothes you’re wearing right

now are clean how do you think that they

actually get clean he said well that’s

just like washing that’s no big deal i

said but you eat every day you eat

actual food how do you think it gets

cooked that’s what moms do that’s no big

deal

and i said but you know every now and

then there’s a book or there might be a

bible study there’s even there was a

little film a little movie remember it’s

been we spent like three months maybe

that what do you think i’m doing he’s

like you just sitting behind the

computer all day just doing this you’re

doing nothing

i laughed and then i thought in that

moment right after the conversation

how much that is like my relationship

with the lord

in fact there was confirmation of that

because the very next day and i only

share this with you to make this point

but the very next day after that

conversation with jude

my publisher sent me an email they sent

an email to tell me about something that

they know i never know because i’m

keeping up with three sons they said

priscilla we just want to let you know

that fervent um a little book that i had

written we want you to know that it’s on

the new york times bestseller list it

actually won a few awards they said that

to me in the email and all i could do

when i looked at it was chuckle because

it was just the day before that my son

said to me

that when i was doing to him to what

looked like an amounted to nothing

that is exactly when i was crafting

something that hopefully would be a

blessing to people’s

lives and the holy spirit said to me

that’s just like you and me priscilla

because i’m behind the scenes

orchestrating and crafting the chapters

of your story all the while you think

i’m doing nothing you point an

accusatory finger at me wondering where

i am and why i’m not hearing your

request and why i’m not moving in the

way that you would like me to move

you’re assuming that i’m sitting back

passively ignoring you where all the

while i am busy making a story out of

your life the likes of what you can’t

imagine

i came to encourage somebody today

that there’s a chapter that is being

written right now with your story i’m

talking about right now in that

difficulty right now in that valley year

of your marriage right now in that

trouble in your finances that difficulty

on your job that hardship with your

co-worker i’m talking about that one

co-worker the one that if she says one

more thing to you you go knock her out

that one

there is a chapter he is crafting

a manuscript he’s writing

that one day when we see him face to

face

we’re gonna see the story that he was

telling

and every single crown we get we’re

going to turn around and place it right

back at his feet

and say thank you lord for this

privilege that we had to live a life

a life in relationship with you

and so even with these hardships and

even with these hurts we pray and we

pray in gratitude we pray in

gratefulness in advance thanking him for

the answer that he will give us that is

simultaneous to what we’ve asked for or

the answer that is so far beyond our

capacity to even comprehend and pray

that we trust him for something that

that has so much generational ripple

effect the likes of which we may never

see in our grandchildren and our great

grandchildren and our great great

grandchildren i’m so glad for the

prayers of a grandmother and a great

grandmother and grandfather in my life

who prayed some stuff that y’all they

didn’t get to see the fruit of their

prayer

but how glad i am that they trusted him

to do what they were asking or something

better