Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer - When It Feels Like God Is Doing Nothing

hey well good morning you may take your seats it's a privilege to be with you again to have the opportunity to be at design for life i love gathering with you i love the lindell so much i love this incredible church that sponsors this conference and the amount of prayer you can tell can't you that they've already been praying for us planning for us that they didn't just throw this together last night there's been a group of people that really have been on their knees asking god to meet us in this place and and so i celebrate that and i wonder even if before we jump into just a few simple thoughts i want to share with you today i wonder if you join me in celebrating the lindells and celebrating james river church and celebrating the volunteers everybody who's been paving the way for us we are so grateful we're so grateful no small task i mean how would you feel about hosting 10 000 women at your house [Laughter] lord jesus thank you for this morning thank you that we get to be in your presence in worship thank you that we get to be amongst the people of god in your presence father but also i thank you for your word i thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword lord i pray that in these next few moments that we have together over a simple portion of scripture that you would do what only you can take this one simple message would you divide it about six or seven thousand different ways so that every single person in the room will know they have been in the presence of god this morning that they heard your word we're expectant lord we're your daughters we're sitting on the edge of our seat to hear what it is that you will speak to our hearts it is in jesus name the matchless name of jesus christ the name at which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess it is in that name that we pray come on let the daughters of god say amen amen as savannah mentioned to you just a moment ago i am um the mother of three boys that is my full-time job trying to feed these people i have giant children i've got three giant boys 14 uh he's getting returned 15 in a couple weeks and then i have a 13 year old and i have a 9 year old and y'all they are just big big old boys um my 14 year old is six two and wears a size 14 shoe so i'm just trying to feed them that is my whole life mission is to try to figure out a new way to cook chicken for dinner every day so that i can get enough food into their bellies and it is our joy to rear them and raise them me and jerry i was thinking about something that happened with jude and i our youngest jackson jerry jr and jew jude is our surprise boy uh we still don't know how jew got here and i've told you this before but when i had him he was our surprise boy and we named him jude on purpose because that's as close as i could get to revelation because it is finished it's over it's the end of the line and i was sitting on an airplane with jude we would happen to be sitting looking out the window that was right over the wing of the airplane and i could see my little boy he must have been about seven or so at the time i could see him just sort of pensively staring at the wing of the airplane and considering it thoughtfully and finally after a few moments he looked back over at me and he said mom how do they get that thing to stick on the plane how do they get that thing connected how do they make it stay well i looked back at him and answered the only way i knew how um i said but buddy you can ask your uncle vaughn jerry's brother their dad's uh brother is uncle vaughn and vaughn happens to work in the airline industry that's what he does is he connects the wiring and the veins that makes the pieces of the airplane stick together so this was kind of a little teachable moment i was having with jude i said listen when we get back home you got to talk to your uncle vaughn because he can explain this to you it's really actually pretty exciting i'm sure he can he can try to make sure you understand the nuances of how the wing gets on the airplane and i thought i'd take it a step further this conversation and i said to him jude do you know that when you grow up you can be anything in the world that you want to be you do know that right like you can do exactly what your uncle vaughn does when you grow up if you want to you know if you want to be a doctor you can be a doctor if you want to be a lawyer you can be a lawyer if you want to be a singer you could be a singer you are you have so much potential and you can do exactly what your uncle vaughn does when you grow up if you'd like to 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 [Applause] you know where you have that moment your heart gets warm your kid does something and it just makes you want to melt and say baby just whatever you want what do you want i will do it for you today and then in the next moment it all comes crumbling down has it ever happened so i looked back over at my boy and i said well buddy what does mama do i had expectations about what his answer could be i didn't know if he would say mom i would love to tell people about jesus i didn't know if he'd say i'd love to write when i grow up i didn't i didn't know exactly what his answer would be but he looked back at me and he said mom i want to do nothing when i grow up just like you you do nothing all day every day you do nothing [Applause] i said buddy you see them clean clothes you got on today how do you think you got those clean clothes or you know how you eat a homemade meal on a fairly regular basis how do you think those meals are getting cooked he was like well you know that's just like regular mom stuff i said buddy do you know how every now and then i have the privilege to stand in front of a group of of people and share god's word and and that means i have to study first you know every now and then there's a new book or a bible study and and i have to write that thing and he said yeah but you're just sitting behind the computer all day every day doing nothing now i share this next part with you just to make a point i hope that at least many of you will know me well enough to know that i just really want to make a point by sharing this part with you yesterday or or the day after i had this conversation with jude i thought the timing was interesting that our publisher emailed me send me an email to keep me updated on something that she knows that i don't normally keep keep myself updated on she wanted me to know that a little book i had written called fervent several years ago she wanted me to know that that book was on the new york times bestseller list and that it had won several awards that's what she emailed to tell me she knows that you know when you're trying to feed three boys you ain't got time to keep up with such things and so she emailed me to let me know that i appreciated the email but i could only chuckle when i read it because i immediately thought back to my conversation with jude the day before that while i was doing what to him looked like absolutely nothing i was actually crafting something that hopefully had amounted to something that had blessed people's lives and i thought to myself how often it is that i consider my relationship with god in the exact same way that i feel like god is doing nothing that i'm praying and he's not hearing my circumstances are not changing i look at the details of my life and i feel like he is absolutely doing nothing all day every day disconnected from my life when all the while most often when we feel like god is doing nothing y'all he is crafting chapter after chapter with the story of your life that he's fully engaged and fully invested in the details of all of our everyday living he is never not doing nothing i believe in the sovereignty of god somebody say sovereignty god's sovereignty is one of his characteristics that i am most intrigued by there are many but i love thinking about the sovereignty of god when you get a grasp on it it really does give you a sense of rest and peace and stability in your life god's sovereignty is his overarching orchestration of all that happens in time and eternity god's sovereignty means that god existed before time began that is pre-genesis 1 1 because y'all know the only reason why there was a genesis 1 1 was because god was already there so that he could say let there be and there was he was in eternity past he has been there and done that he has seen all of time from the beginning of the spectrum of time genesis 1 1 all the way through to the end of time which you and i have not yet yet seen and he has already been into eternity future the entire spectrum of eternity and time he's already been there and done that but sovereignty does not just mean he's seen it all sovereignty means listen that the whole thing is in the palm of his hand sovereignty is what lets us do what psalm 46 10 says be still chill out relax and know that i am god providence is his overarching control of the throes of the universe i'm sorry sovereignty is his overarching control of the throes of the universe but within that big umbrella of his sovereignty there is providence providence is the working of the details of your life and mine when we feel like he's doing nothing when we feel like our days are just filled with regular eight to five things or when we run into tragedy or difficulty providence is knowing that god is orchestrating the details of our days and our lives and our encounters and our opportunities that he's actually ordering our footsteps providence is jeremiah 29 11. i know the plans i have for you i've got plans that are designed to give you a hope and a future providence is ephesians 2 10 that we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand providence means you can trust god with the stuff of your life because he's orchestrating it all i love god's providence as seen throughout scripture that he shows up everywhere even in the most unlikely places even in the places when he seems and the seasons of our life y'all when he seems most distant or most disengaged that we can trust that when we can't trace his hand we can trust his heart that he's there fully present fully engaged fully invested in the details of our life that's what we get from scripture because he's everywhere even in the books of the bible you know in esther the name of god isn't even really overtly mentioned and yet he's there in the book working and orchestrating all throughout the scriptures from the beginning to the end it reminds us about the sovereignty and the providence of god right from the very beginning in genesis you always see that he is the breath of life in exodus he shows up as the passover lamb in leviticus he is our high priest in numbers he's the fire by night in deuteronomy he's israel's guide in joshua he's salvation's choice in judges he is israel's guard in ruth he's the kinsman redeemer and first and second samuel he's our trusted prophet in kings and chronicles we see him as sovereign in ezra he's the true and faithful scribe in nehemiah he's the one who rebuilds walls and he rebuilds lives and esther he is our courage in job he's the timeless redeemer in psalms he's our morning song in proverbs he is our wisdom in ecclesiastics he's a time and a season in the song of solomon he's the lover's dream and isaiah he's the prince of peace in jeremiah he's the weeping prophet in lamentations he's the cry for israel in ezekiel he's the call from sin in daniel he's the stranger that will show up in your fire in hosea he's the forever faithful and joel he's the spirit's power in amos he's the strong arms that carry in obadiah he's the lord our savior in jonah he's the great missionary in micah he's the promise of peace and mayhem he's our strength and shields in habakkuk and zephaniah he's the one that brings revival in haggai he restores anything that has been lost and in zechariah he is our fountain and in malachi at the end of the old testament we see him as the son of righteousness rising with healing in his wings and that's just who he is in the old testament amen because you give them a little time wait about 400 years and then in matthew mark luke and john you'll find out he's not just god now he's your messiah and in the spirit-filled book of acts he's the reigning fire from heaven in romans he's the grace of god corinthians he's the power of love galatians he's freedom from the curse of sin in ephesians he's our glorious treasure in philippians he's the servant's heart in colossians he's god and the trinity and thessalonians he's our calling king in timothy titus and philemon he's our mediator and our faithful pastor in hebrews he's the everlasting courage in james he's the one who will heal you when you're sick and first and second peter he's our faithful shepherd in john and jude he's the lover coming for his bride and in the revelation in the very end he was and is and will always be the first the last the beginning and the end amen the scriptures remind us that he is always there woven throughout every story and as debbie was so beautifully unwrapping for us the mystery of god that sometimes it sounds to us regular old girls like us it sounds so big and so grand and so beyond us that we tend to disassociate our regular lives from that mystery we can't imagine that a regular housewife like us or a corporate woman like us or that a single woman like us or a teenager in high school or college student in university you can't imagine that someone with regular skills and regular talents and and who lives in a normal neighborhood and works on a normal job you can't imagine that you could fit into that mystery and i came to tell you that the details of all of our regular lives are threads in the great grand huge miraculous glorious mystery of our great god that there's nobody here that's removed that is too far gone that your story doesn't count in that mystery there is a story in scripture i think they're gonna put it on the screens i'm gonna read several portions of first samuel chapter 9 to you because this is not ever to me more clearly seen than in this one little portion of scripture about the life of saul saul the one who would be the king of israel his story starts this way in first samuel chapter 9 i'm going to read several verses throughout this chapter listen verse 9 says now there was a man of benjamin whose name was kish that verse goes on to to list all the lineage of kish and then it says at the end of verse 1 that he was a benjamite a mighty man of valor verse 2 says and he had a son whose name was saul listen to saul's resume he was a choice and handsome man there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of israel he stood from his shoulders up taller than any of the people verse 3. now the donkeys of kish saul's father was were lost so kish said to his son saul take with you one of the servants and arise go and search for this donkey talk about a mundane regular ordinary old task verse 15.

now the day before saul's coming the lord had revealed this to samuel the prophet he had told samuel verse 16 about this time tomorrow i'm gonna send you a man from the land of benjamin and when he shows up you shall anoint him to be prince over my people israel and he shall deliver my people from the hands of the philistines for i have regarded my people because their cry has come up before me verse 17 when samuel saw saul the lord whispered to him hey this is the one it's the guy i spoke to you about this one shall rule over my people verse 20 2 through 24. then samuel he took saul and his servant he brought them to this great hall he gave them a place at the head of those who were invited who were about 30 men and samuel said to the cook hey remember that portion that i told you to set aside yesterday verse 24 this is the time bring it out set it before saul and samuel said here is what has been reserved somebody say it's been reserved for me here is what was reserved set it before you and eat because it has been kept for you until the appointed time it's amazing to me how sometimes it's just donkeys that are connected to destiny sometimes it's just the most regular mundane assignment that we don't even recognize in the moment is actually the pathway to something bigger and grander that the lord has allowed us to be included in the story that he is crafting in this generation i have a tendency you have a tendency to despise the small things the small little errands that we've been requested to run the needs that arise in a regular daily life like yours and mine in this case there is a man named saul he has been described as distinct among all the people he stands head and shoulders above them all he is more handsome than them all if he were to uh be on instagram we would definitely be following him because he had perfectly lit selfies verse 2 tells us and shows us his selfies he is choice he is handsome his resume is one for the record books and yet what is going to connect him to his god assignment to his part of the mystery that the lord is allowing his thread to be connected with and the bigger story that he has for his people will not be how choice he appears in verse two it will be a simple mundane errand that he's asked to run in verse 3. i love that verse two and verse three are so closely connected to each other you know i believe in the inerrancy of scripture meaning that i believe every t is crossed every eye is dotted as it should be i not only believe that there are no errors in the scripture i actually believe that the placement of the the books of the bible as they are and the verses as they are the chapters as they are that those are inspired as well and so when i come across two verses that do something either contrasting or comparatively that draw my attention i lean in carefully to see why the lord would have placed these two particular portions of scripture that closely connected to each other that's why i'm drawn to the fact that in verse 2 we see saul's resume and in verse 3 we see a simple aaron that he is humble enough that he is willing to submit all of the grandeur of verse 2 to be willing to run this mundane ordinary errand in verse 3.

it occurs to me that in most of our lives we are riding on the coattails of our verse 2.