Priscilla Shirer | “The Perfect Patience of God” | Social Dallas

tonight to be honest really it's just a dream come true there's two ways to play these moments you know when uh people that you really look up to and revere or in your presence you can try to act cool or you can just have a fan girl moment and be like oh my goodness priscilla shire is here [Applause] not everybody knows pastor taylor in our story but we did not have a plan to plant a church this is something that god kept pushing us towards and pushing us towards and although this was not on our

plan it's been evident that the hand of god has been on it just because we were obedient but i will tell you this before i ever knew i was going to plant a church there's just people that i had on my mind that said if i ever had a church i promise you i would bring them in and priscilla shire is one of those people [Music] [Applause] i can tell you how she's a best-selling author i can tell you how she's an actress i could tell you how she's an international global speaker i could tell

you how she didn't fly in she drove in she lives here in the great country of texas i [Applause] tell you how she's incredible wife an amazing mom her sons are here two of her sons are here and even her family is here her brother and her sister anthony and crystal they're here just so honor your entire family seriously like some people have the kennedys we have the evans if you lived here in dallas we love your family [Music] i'm just so thankful that she would come to our baby church and bring the word of

the lord i want you to get your heart expected i want you to be ready not just blown away by her voice but her gift by how astute she is and preaching the word of god especially in this last season i've been blown away by watching how resilient she's been to fight a battle it's one thing to see somebody's ministry is another thing to see when they're going through pain and they still minister even in their pain they can go through the fire and not smell like smoke and give all of us hope the way

they keep standing and i've watched priscilla and her entire family do that you are in for a treat i want you to treat her like we do at the 6pm be leaned in shout her down i want her to come back okay y'all so without any further ado please put your hands together and help me thank god for the gift of priscilla sean come on social fam you can do better than that queen [Music] [Applause] hi family you all good i'm excited to be at social dallas tonight for many reasons but one of them is

that i love the word of god and i'm excited to share with you a word from the scriptures tonight so do i pray for you before you sit down what do y'all do with this church i'll just stand up the whole message lord i thank you for your word i thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword lord i thank you that in these next few moments we are going to hear a word straight from the mouth of god father we did not come to see each other we came

to see you so i'm asking you to open up the windows of heaven and come down here and see about us father we need to hear from you lord speak to us your sons and your daughters we are listening in jesus mighty name everybody agreed with me and said amen amen amen you may take your seats it's a privilege to be with you tonight and to have an opportunity to share uh god's word with you as i mentioned uh it is my joy to share god's word it is the living breathing word of god the

scriptures you know that right it's not just a book with ink on a page i'm telling you it's alive that every single time we come to the pages of scripture we ought to expect to feel the warm breath of god brushing across our cheeks as he speaks a present word over every single one of our lives so i'm expecting that tonight i want to tell you before i dive into this little little piece of scripture that i want to share with you i want to tell you that i'm grateful to be here because as pastor

robert mentioned this is my home dallas fort worth born and raised i've been here my whole life and i'm grateful to be able to minister in the city that is my home and i'm grateful to be at this church i've snuck in before and just sort of been here been a part of church been ministered to by your church by your pastor and his wife and i want to say this just before i jump in i want you all to know that every church doesn't have leadership that actually has integrity unfortunately it's a rarity to

find churches with leaders that are the same when the lights are off as when the lights are on and you ought to be grateful that the lord has situated you in a church with people that actually love jesus [Applause] it's a good thing it was about five years ago that and i've mentioned this to pastor roberts about five years ago that my husband drove my three sons to a conference in austin i didn't go with him they drove into austin and my boys know many things about me they know i'm praying for them all the

time they don't know the details of all that i pray all the time but one of the things that i'm praying constantly for my sons is that the lord would cause the trajectory of their path to intersect with key people that they don't even know in the moment are going to shift the trajectory of their perspective of their pursuits of their ambitions of their choices and i just pray that the lord would line stuff up so they happen to be in the presence of greatness when they don't even know it and about five years ago

at that conference they ended up at a lunch table my boys and i heard through the grapevine through a few people that they were sitting right across the table from pastor robert madue and here's what i need you to know pastor and taylor i need you to know that there are people praying prayers that you guys are the answer to there are people right now praying prayers and you're the answer there are people that have been praying for a social dallas and you've answered peop there are people's grandmamas that have been praying that some folks

would end up in the house of god on this sunday night and i want to encourage you to just stay faithful because if you'll stay faithful if you'll keep walking the course that the lord sets out in front of you not only in ministry but in your faithfulness to each other in marriage and in the raising of those beautiful babies that the lord has given you i'm telling you that you will continue to be the answer to people's prayers that you don't even know they pray in so lord i speak blessing over this pastor and

his wife i speak blessing over this leadership team i speak blessing over this church father i pray that the holy spirit would rain down in this church so that the entire city is shifted as a result of social dallas being in this city father i'm asking you that the whole city would be transformed because of what you do in this house thank you for letting this house be the answer to people's prayers in jesus name i pray amen amen [Applause] so i have three siblings there are four of us two of my siblings are here

my older sister crystal and then it's me then anthony we call him nene and then jonathan we call him john john john john's the youngest of the bunch he's really the biggest of the bunch but he's the baby boy and john john is married to kanika they have five children together their oldest child is the same age as my youngest child they're both 13 now kelsey is her name kelsey is a precocious sassy little thing she's a whole lot of fun to watch so much personality and we saw it when she was about one two

years old we already saw that personality coming out jonathan was sharing with me a story of something that happened when kelsey was about two and he started to notice all this personality at two years old she went over into the kitchen to the big box in the kitchen that had the food in it the refrigerator she pointed at it and said eat he picked his little baby girl up and he put her at the kitchen table in the chair where she would be able to get the food she was asking for in her little two-year-old

mind though she's just far removed from the big box that has the food in it so she begins to throw a temper tantrum she kicks her feet she wiggles her way out of the chair she stomps her little sassy self back over to the big box that has the food in it she points at it and says eat he commences to pick her up take her back over to the chair where he wants her to be situated he puts her there she commences to throw an entire temper tantrum kicks her little feet wiggles her way

out of the chair marches herself back over to the big box with the food in it and says eat he picks her up he takes her back over to the chair puts her in the chair she wiggles herself out of the chair stomps herself back across the kitchen and says eat this went on over and over and over again again and as he's reliving the thing telling me the story i can just see his frustration mounting as he told me how patient he had to try to be with this girl as he tried to get

her to see and understand that he's her father and he loves her and he's only trying to put her in the place that is the best place for her to be to receive what it is she's asking him for so i'm giggling and i'm laughing thinking about little kelsey doing this because he's telling me the story i mean i am falling out laughing i don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you are laughing about something and as you laugh mid-giggle the holy spirit stops you in your tracks and says don't laugh too

long or too hard because priscilla that sounds just like my relationship with you that i keep trying to put you in a place in a relationship in an opportunity i keep trying to situate you in a place or a position and in your little uh in your little personality priscilla you oftentimes will try to wiggle your way out of the places that i'm trying to put you in because it doesn't feel comfortable or convenient to you it doesn't make sense to you and so oftentimes priscilla you just like little kelsey will ignore me turn your

back on me try to circumvent me go the opposite direction and priscilla unlike your brother who did a good job but his patience began to wear thin after the fifth or the sixth or the seventh time priscilla the good news about my relationship with you is that my grace is sufficient for even you and i don't know if any of you have ever needed a second chance a third chance i don't know if there's anybody in the house other than me that's ever needed a 20th chance his grace is sufficient for you that you do

not have i don't have the capacity to wear god out you not that powerful somebody needs to be encouraged tonight and i drove over from the south side of town just to encourage somebody that it doesn't matter how many times you've needed a redo how many times you've needed to to to backstep just a little bit and get the forgiveness and the grace of god i came just to remind you that god's got enough patience for even you that he doesn't need a good nap before he can handle what's going on in your life we

don't have the capacity to wear god out i want to talk to you for just a few moments about the patience of god the reason why i want to talk to you about the patience of god is because if you don't have a full revelation of the greatness the vastness the boundlessness of god's patience then you will tiptoe walk on eggshells in your relationship with god because you'll constantly be worried that if i do one more thing that if i have one more misstep that if i mishear him that i'd if i make another mistake

this will be the time that he puts me on the shelf and he can't use me anymore and i can't participate in kingdom purposes the enemy wants you too afraid to experience the abundant life that he's called you to so he wants us constantly walking on eggshells worried and i came to tell you that god is not mad at you i don't know where you've been i've only know where i've been i know what i've said i know what i've thought i know my weaknesses and my frailties and my faults and it's been a revelation

that has transformed my life that god's grace is sufficient for us his patience the perfect patience of god that's what i want to talk to you about tonight there are many characteristics of god that i am endeared to like his sovereignty his omniscience his omnipresence his holiness his might i mean the list goes on and on our god has some great attributes they're like links that make up a chain of god's character all these different attributes that are links on the chain of god's character but really when i think about it the central link in

all of those chains that make up the character of god is the patience of god because if it weren't for his patience we wouldn't exist long enough to experience the the sovereignty the grace the mercy the omnipresence the omniscience we would have no experience of all of that if his patients weren't sufficient for us and so a revelation of god's patience it really does change your life now most of the time when we think of the patience of god or when we think of patience as a characteristic we think of it in terms of ourselves

patience i am naturally an impatient person can i get one witness in the house i'm an impatient person i like things to happen immediately come on let's move forward let's get it going been married for 22 years and whenever we have a situation a dilemma something that needs to be solved i've got a solution in the first five minutes we ever had the problem let's get on with it but do you know how god is god will oftentimes situate you with people whether in marriage or in your workplace or in your friendships he will situate

you with people that actually rub against you to help mature the part of you that needs developing so i married a guy who you know wants to pray about it think about it fast on it ask wise counsel regarding it lord have mercy and so when jerry comes up with a solution most of the time it's the same solution i had in the first five minutes that we ever had a dilemma now most of the time that that solution he has come up with is a good one that he has thought all the way through

because he's patient enough to consider the entire context in my relationship with my spouse spouse god is developing in me patience so the reason why he might have you situated next to that co-worker the one in the cubicle next to you that one that if she say one more thing to you you gonna knock her out that one right there the reason why you might have that hardship in that parent-child relationship or in that friendship the reason why you might have that that thing is because god is using that relationship to mature in you the

characteristic of patience so because it's something we need to be developed in we often times put that same dynamic on god we think that because we need to develop our patience that god must need to develop his too we think we have the capacity how arrogant of us to think that we have the capacity to actually get on his last nerve so god doesn't react to us at a knee-jerk reaction frustration because you just did that he is slow to anger anybody glad about it and he is great in loving kindness and his patience is

perfect one of the clearest places in scripture that god's patience is described is in first timothy chapter one it's verse 16. the apostle paul is writing and you know if you actually have an old school bible like i do with paper pages feel free to turn to first timothy chapter one if not your iphone your ipad any manner of i-ness will work in getting you to first timothy they'll also be on the screens paul is writing to a young minister named timothy and he's basically given tim instructions on how to minister well and right here

at the very top of his very first letter to timothy he begins to speak to him about the nature of the patience of god he knows up front that timothy is going to make mistakes that there's going to be hard times that there's going to be hardships that he's going to take one step forward and sometimes two steps back and so right here at the top of his letter he begins to speak to timothy he says in verse 16. yet for this reason i found mercy in order that in me as the foremost he means

the chief of all sinners in me jesus christ might demonstrate here it is his perfect patience y'all what kind of patience is it it's his perfect patience perfect which means even at that which represents its furthest extremes there is not one bit of deficiency or imperfection it is completely perfect through and through the patience of god towards you and me and paul i love how he describes in this verse who he is he says i'm the foremost i'm the chief of all sinners because he wants to make sure that just in case there's anybody that

thinks you are the exception to the rule because you know what you did 10 years ago this time you know the decision that you made you know the people that you allowed in your sphere of influence you know the addiction that you had you know what god has delivered you from and so paul says just in case you think you're the one that doesn't fit into this passage that doesn't qualify for a visitation of the perfect patience of god he says let me free you of that right now he says i'm the foremost the chief

of all sinners paul says you ain't done nothing i haven't already done your hands haven't touched anything that i haven't already touched your feet haven't gone anywhere that i haven't already gone your ears haven't heard anything your eyes haven't seen anything your mouth has not said anything i have not already said and if god's grace and mercy is so great that he could reach down into the pit that i dug for myself if his arm is not so short that he could not save me then paul says that i came to tell you that he

can save you too he says i'm the chief of all sinners and i am a witness paul says that the patience of god is perfect i love when verses start the way this verse starts because when verses start like this it tells me exactly what i need to do in my study and in my teaching verse 16 starts by saying for this reason anytime you see a transition phrase like that little bible study for a second y'all anytime you see a little transition phrase like that it tells you exactly what to do it's kind of

like seeing therefore in the scripture anytime you see therefore you need to go see what it's there for the transition is intentional because it's trying to draw connections draw some intentional dots so that you know exactly what to do paul says for this reason i have come to the conclusion of the perfect patience of god that means he's already developed a hypothesis he's developed some evidence that leads him to the conclusion that we have come to in verse 16. he says yet for this reason so i figure if just for a few minutes you and

i could backtrack up through the text and figure out what the reasons are that we'll be able to figure out how he came to the conclusion of verse 16 and in doing so i think we'll realize that he's not the only one that is a witness to the perfect patience of god i think we are too so he says here's the first reason we're backtracking up verse 15. he says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance here it is that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners says here's how you know the

patience of god is perfect he saved you didn't he he saved us you all know he didn't need us right y'all know he didn't have to make a way for us to have relationship with him it was his grace and mercy his desire to have relationship with humanity most of us are sitting in this room not because we found god it's because god found us it's because the hound of heaven would not let us go even when we were trying to run away he saved us never in a million years should we hear that phrase

and sometimes if you've been in church all your life you can hear a phrase like that that you're saved and it kind of rolls off your shoulders casually as if it's no big deal he saved you never in a million years should that be a casual comment that doesn't make something on the inside of us just want to say thank you because paul says that's one of the reasons that you know his patience is perfect okay do you know that it is a miracle that you were born okay i mean physically born that you're alive

at this time in this generation in this skin with this hair texture in that gender none of that was unintentional that is divine strategy that god organized to make sure that you are exactly who you were intended to be at this time in history for the purposes of the kingdom this is good news i'm on a little rabbit trail this is good news for anybody in the house that thinks that you might be a mistake just because your parents were surprised that you arrived on the scene they may have been shocked but god was not

before the foundation of the world he had you planned for this generation you and i have been assigned for this y'all we didn't come through 2020 all the havoc of 2020 we didn't exist at the time of 2020 on accident we've been sign for this he planned us to rise up in the spirit and the power of god right now in this generation in these bodies in this skin with this hair texture in this gender in my neighborhood in my high school on my college campus in this church he made you for this it's a

miracle there was a guy generations ago at the time he didn't know it but he was going to be your great great grandfather he just happened with seven billion plus people on the planet to run into the woman that would be your great great grandmother they came together and they created your great-grandfather then your great-grandfather with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet he just happened to run into the woman that would be your great-grandmother the two of them came together and created your grandfather and then your grandfather with the seven billion

plus people that are on the planet he just happened upon the woman that was going to be your grandmother then the two of them came together and created your father and then your father with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet at just the right time on the right day he came together with the woman that would be your mother and they created you there ain't nothing chance about that that's a miracle and if you think that it was a miracle that you were born think about how much more of a miracle

it is that you were born again again there was divine strategy involved in wooing you into a relationship with your heavenly father i've heard my own daddy describe it like a cosmic chess board that all of time and history has been a cosmic battle that has been waging between a god who loves us desperately and wants us to be in relationship with him and an enemy you do know that there is an enemy vying for your allegiance and mine so it's like a cosmic chessboard god is on one side of the cosmic chessboard and the

enemy is on the other side both of them vying for our attention our allegiance and our commitment to them and so pre-genesis 1 1 god makes the first move he speaks the world into existence and he creates adam and eve in a perfect environment perfect relationship with himself perfect opportunity to commune with him but then the enemy made a move on the cosmic chess board he slithered into that perfect environment and he introduced sin into the equation all of a sudden rebellion begin to have a ripple effect till you get to the point where cain

ends up murdering abel and they have to be removed from the garden because sin is now introduced into the equation and it seems like all hope is lost but our god never to be outdone he makes another move on his side of the cosmic chessboard somehow he causes cain he causes adam and eve to come back together again they have a baby boy named seth seth gives birth to a baby boy named enosh and i don't know what it was about enosh but genesis chapter 4 says that when enosh was born everybody began to worship

god again then the enemy made another move he introduced sin and rebellion back into the equation it proliferated across the earth so much so that the entire world now needed to be destroyed by a flood and this time it looked like for sure the enemy had one but our god never to be outdone he had another move up his sleeve and his name was noah and he said no i need you to build an ark noah said you need me to do what he said i need you to build me an ark because by your

obedience humanity will be preserved through this flood so humanity is preserved through noah's obedience as the flood destroys the entire earth and if the enemy decides he needs to make another move he introduces sin and rebellion back into the equation again it ripple effects over time till it proliferates across the earth and it seems like this time the enemy has won but our god has another move up his sleeve he goes to this little pagan town called er he plucks out of it a man named abram and he says abram i'm getting ready to change

your name and i'm going to change the gps coordinates on your destiny your name is now abraham and look up in the skies abraham because if you look up you're going to see so many stars you need to know that that's the number of people that are getting ready to be born from you i'm going to create a brand new nation of people they will be mine and i will be theirs the enemy makes another move he now takes god's people and causes it so that they now go down into egypt land 400 years y'all

four centuries of brutal slavery one generation after the other generation under the brutal uh task masters of pharaohs in egypt and they are tired and weary and worn and calling out for a savior god makes a move and his name is moses he raises up moses so that at the right time in the right way he can send him to pharaoh and he says go to pharaoh and mo i want you to tell him let my people go and so pharaoh releases the children of israel and after 40 years wandering in the wilderness and 10

miraculous plagues that induce their release they finally come through their wandering in the wilderness into the promised land that was always intended for them god's people in the place of god with the presence of god and the promises of god here they are in the promised land and it looks like the battle for our souls is over but then the enemy makes another move in the book of judges it's all about god's people being introduced to idolatry listen to me they do not turn their backs on the one true god they just station their worship

of god alongside their worship and the idols of the culture and the duplicity of the people of god's allegiance is so devastating that by the time you get to the end of the book of judges the last line of the book of judges says and everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes if that don't sound like the world in the year 2021 i don't know what does and it wasn't because god's people totally turned their backs it's just because they weren't singularly devoted to the worship of god this time it looks like

for sure the enemy has won but god has another plan and her name is ruth and ruth's life starts off pretty hard she has some devastating losses and some griefs and her struggle is hard she has to relocate to a place she doesn't feel comfortable and she is unknown but in that unfamiliar place she ends up meeting at the right time a man named boaz who is her kinsmen redeemer and the two of them will come together and they create a man named jesse and and jesse gives birth to obed and obed gives birth to

a little baby boy named david and the enemy doesn't even know it but with that one move the checkmate is already on the way and y'all then the old testament closes and there's 400 years of silence god is sitting on one side of the cosmic chess board the enemy is sitting on the other side and all of history is hanging in the balance everybody's waiting to see who's getting ready to make the next move and then the old testament closes and the new testament opens and god the father makes a move the likes of which

the enemy still to this day has never had a response [Applause] you got it [Music] he puts on flesh and basically says you know what i'm gonna come down here and take care of this myself and he lives a perfect life and he dies of substitutionary death and then three days later he is raised the resurrection is our receipt that he is who he said he is and he has accomplished for us exactly what he has said that he has accomplished [Applause] he saved you and it wasn't a quick job it was over the course

of years hundreds of years in millennia that he was maneuvering circumstances throughout time and eternity to make sure that everything lined up to where you would hear the beckoning of the holy spirit in your heart and want to resp have no choice but to respond and say yes i receive you as my lord and savior the only reason you or i could ever see clearly is because he himself opened up our eyes so that we could see [Applause] why in the world would paul bring up salvation in a conversation about god's patience because he wants

you to know that if god had enough patience to walk through the last few millennia for you that he's got the last six weeks of your life covered [Music] there is nothing you could do to wear a god like that out so paul says the first reason you got to know that god's patience and grace is sufficient for you is because he saved you but he says there's another reason verse 13. he says even though i was formerly somebody say form formerly some translations say previously even though i was formerly or previously a blasphemer a

persecutor and a violent aggressor yet i was shown mercy all right y'all paul told us in verse 16 he was the chief of all sinners he was like i'm not going to tell you all my whole sin resume you don't need all the details ain't nobody got time for that i'm just going to let you know my resume of sin is full so i don't have to give you all the details and i'm kind of glad that right off the bat he didn't give us lots of details because we you know we christians we have

a tendency to be looking at the details of other people's sin resumes and we're so caught up in what they did in dissecting it and critiquing it and talking about behind their back about it that we forget that we actually don't have time to be dealing with anybody else's thin resume because we have one of our own so i'm glad that up front he didn't blur our attention with all the details but here in verse 13 he says you know what i'ma hand you just three on my sin resume i'm not gonna let you see

all of it but i'm gonna pull down the the shade just enough to where you can just get just a glimpse he says i was a persecutor i was a violent aggressor i was a blasphemer so he gives us a handful but he says i want you to know even as you read my sin resume that there is a title at the top of my sin resume it is an all caps bold font so that you don't miss it before you read what i've done and the subtitle is this formerly [Applause] he says this is

who i was but this is not who i am anymore paul wants you to know that the proof that god is patient is not only that he saved you but also that he's changed you oh this is great news for anybody that is in the room and the people that told you they would stick with you while you change they've long since gone that friend told you she had your back while you went through that development that you needed in that area of weakness or struggle that you had she told you she'd be with you

till the end that partner that spouse that person that was covenanted to walk with you through that thing and now you're sitting here alone tonight because that mother that father your cousin and your mama them they all left you because they didn't have enough patience for what you were dealing with paul wants you to know that there is one who will never leave you nor forsake you even as you change even when you still have work to do even when i still have work to do even when i see the struggle and the the difficulty

and the weakness and the frailty of my flesh his grace is sufficient enough for us and paul says the reason why i know it is because i am not the same person that i used to be he keeps on changing me he keeps on walking with me he keeps on giving me grace he keeps on by the power of the holy spirit within me sanctifying me somebody say sanctify sanctification is the process by which you and i are molded into the image of jesus christ him saving you was your justification him changing you is your

sanctification this is when your mind starts changing your perspective starts changing your attitude starts changing your ambitions start changing you never thought you'd not want that but all of a sudden you have a distaste for it you never thought you would ever have an ambition like this because you've always wanted to do this and go here but now that thing just ain't appealing to you anymore and this is a new direction that you want to go this is the process by which the holy spirit is molding you into the image of jesus christ and i

don't know about you but i'm so grateful for the sanctifying power of the holy spirit of god [Music] because i bet if i took this little microphone off and we just started right here on road number one and we started to go all the way back through this room and then into the overflow we would be here well into 2022 talking about how we are not the same people that we used to be i don't know what your testimony is i'm telling you that i can look back on a time in my life where i

don't even recognize that girl back there that person who allowed those kinds of relationships and made those kinds of decisions and walked that kind of walk and talked with that kind of talk i don't even it seems like an entirely different individual than when i look in the mirror today and i'm so grateful for the sanctifying power of god i'm not the same person that i used to be anybody happy about that [Applause] thank you jesus i'm telling you he can change you the biggest miracle that often our god does y'all is not in our

circumstances it's in you it's i'm telling you he can change your mind i'm telling you he can make you want stuff you don't want right now listen i i there have been times in my life y'all where i've had a messed up want to i mean i wanted to do what's right the problem was my want to didn't want to do what my want to was supposed to want to do anybody [Applause] i wished i wanted to do right is what i'm saying it's it's like paul in romans 7 he describes this tug of war

he's like the desire is present within me but there's something about my body that keeps wanting to go in the opposite direction of what is the right thing to do and he is so frustrated by the time he gets to the end of romans 7 describing this war that he just says oh wretched man that i am who's gonna deliver me from this tug of war anybody know the tug of war [Applause] i'm telling you that the holy spirit of god can make your want to line up with what god wants your wants you to

want to do [Applause] [Music] have you ever wondered how popcorn pops somebody say yes i'm so glad you want to know there's a little dot of water microscopic inside each kernel of corn so when you put the little bag of microwave popcorn inside the microwave the heat is not heating up the kernel it's heating up the little drop of water that's on the inside of the kernel and as the water heats up it creates steam and the steam creates more and more pressure until finally the kernel pops open and you see an entirely different item

not because you heated up the shell but because you heated up what was on the inside of the shell listen y'all gotta be up here with a baptist towel like y'all don't play with me [Applause] listen to me y'all if you concentrate on the shell on behavior modification the best you're gonna get is something temporary and not only will it be temporary but you'll be plain old flat out exhausted but if you will concentrate on heating up the work of the holy spirit on the inside of you the holy spirit is not a ghost or

a wind or a fire or a dove he's often symbolized by those things but y'all that ain't who he is the holy spirit is the third person of the trinity not third because he's least in value just third because he's the last to be revealed to us in the pages of scripture all of the power all of the goodness all of the authority of god the father is in the person of the holy spirit and ephesians chapter 1 says that the moment you believe you receive the greatest gift you will ever receive this side of

eternity you receive the holy spirit of god okay that means now that the holy the presence and power of god lives on the inside of you and 2 thessalonians 1 13 says that the holy spirit has a phd in sanctifying you it's his work in you he's doing it right now he's molding you changing you transforming you redeeming you making you a different person than you used to be until one day you look at your sentiment resume and realize that the subtitle is formal foreign [Applause] [Applause] amen [Music] i'm trying to tell you he's got

enough patience for whatever that journey is that you've got ahead of you the place of sin or rebellion or indifference or hardness or apathy that you have in your heart right now the anger the unforgiveness the bitterness the struggle that you're having and you see no way out and you wonder if anybody's gonna hang in there with you this time you are not too too far gone that the arm of god can't reach out and find you where you are he will walk with you every single day while you change grace is sufficient for you

paul says he saved you that's your justification he changes you that's your sanctification and then he says there's just one more reason verse 12. i thank jesus christ our lord who has strengthened your salvation is your justification and your changing is your sanctification and now he's giving you some fortification he says i'm gonna make you stronger than you are right now i'm going to give you a resilience and a fortification that's going to be required if you're going to be able to weather the storms that are coming your way because listen in this world jesus

said john 16 33 you will have trouble you don't have to go looking for trouble have you noticed you just keep on living and the trouble ends up coming and finding you you're gonna need a supernatural strength for that now you know some of you may still be in your teen years or maybe even in your early 20s and maybe you haven't experienced any storms so you think life will always be like it is right now baby keep living [Applause] because the storms of life are inevitable you're gonna need some strength you're gonna need some

backbone for anybody in this day and age to actually have some integrity to actually use your social media platform and influence to be unashamed about who your savior is to not lean to the left or to the right in order to be politically correct but to decide i have made my decision as for me and my house we're gonna serve the lord [Applause] you're gonna need some backbone for that you're gonna need some resilience for that and paul says he's got enough patience to make you strong enough to be able to stand up when everybody

else caves in so i'm speaking to everybody in this room all the people my sons ages teenagers who were in this room listen you were made for this hour god has given you the strength and the resilience that you need to stand up even if you have to stand alone to be the sore thumb that sticks all the way out to have resilience and fortification and to be peculiar and an alien and a stranger to this world you've got enough strength for that i'm telling you you were made for this don't back down and don't

bend the holy spirit of god is making you strong enough for this hour some of you are in the storm of your life right now culturally collectively we've all globally we have all been in a storm y'all we haven't just been through one pandemic it's been like layered pandemics on top of pandemics there's that medical one of course but there's been a social one there's been a racial one there's been a political one layered pandemics on top of pandemics you and i are gonna need a supernatural strength for this and on top of what we've

all been through personally i know that some of you have been through the same kind of stuff we've been through loss after loss yo we have had eight losses in our family in two years back to back like where every three to four months another person in our life passed away we've had medical diagnosis after medical diagnosis where the storms of life it's like that the world just opened up over our family and there were storms that were pelting down on us and the reason why i can tell you that god will give you enough

strength to sustain you is because i'm a living witness [Music] that y'all we have been through the storm but the holy spirit reminds me that god is still who he said he is that i'm telling you my faith in him my hope in him has not wavered have i cried the tears have i been disappointed have i asked the questions yes but i've asked the questions without questioning the character of god he is who he said he is and i don't tell you that to tell you how strong i am i'm telling you there is

a supernatural strength that he'll make available to you it's a fortification it's a resilience high school student you're gonna need it university student you're gonna need it jc you're gonna need it mariah you're gonna need it ryan you're gonna need it pastor madhu you're gonna need it stephanie you're gonna need it a resilience for what it is that god has called you to and he gives it to you by the holy spirit okay he's got enough patience for that i want to know if you are in this room and you have literally felt like even

before you came here you kind of felt like you know what i'm actually too far gone for any of this to work for me because my story is different than everybody else's story the history i have the background i've come from the abuse that i've suffered or that i have rendered the hard place that i have come from i just don't know that god's grace is sufficient for somebody like me i'm telling you if that is you and you are in this room and you can just feel your heart burning within you that's how the

holy spirit speaks to you listen to me if your heart is burning within you right now and you know you need to respond and receive the patience of god for you just come down front right now if that's you don't think twice about it don't debate with yourself just just come on down [Music] [Applause] [Music] his grace is sufficient his grace is sufficient his grace is sufficient his grace is sufficient [Music] he's got your back his grace is sufficient [Music] his grace is sufficient he's got you he's got you grace is sufficient his grace is

sufficient [Music] i bet you there are some of you that maybe have never received christ as savior before then there's others of you who have you have accepted christ as your savior but you've kind of taken a little detour and you've worried about whether or not the arm of god is long enough to bring you back whichever category you fall into and pray for you tonight and i believe that the holy spirit is going to give you before tonight is over an awakening a revelation of the extravagant patience of god for you that you're going

to walk out of here not in fear and insecurity anymore in your relationship with god no tiptoeing no eggshells anymore now is the time when you're gonna live the abundant life ryan that god has called you to without fear and with complete abandon walking in faith before the lord that's what's gonna happen tonight so if you need to place faith in jesus christ if this is the first time you've ever even heard that whole salvation story what god went through for you and you want us to receive christ as savior the bible says that if

you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that jesus christ is lord he did all the heavy lifting all you have to do is receive the gift so i'm just going to pray this prayer and i want you to repeat after me if that's the prayer you need to pray it's no magic in the words this is you believing in your heart as you confess with your mouth in fact we can all pray this prayer together to build an atmosphere of faith for those who are praying it for the very first time

so let's pray lord jesus i am a sinner in need of a savior and i believe that you are that savior so today i place faith alone in christ alone to remove my sins take up residence in me in the person of the holy spirit right now in jesus name lord i thank you for those who have come into the family of god in this moment i thank you that the angels are rejoicing if you draw them in i praise your father and then lord i thank you that the rescue mission that you've been on

for our soul is evidence to the fact that your grace and patience is sufficient for all of us so i pray right now in jesus name that the blanket of discouragement that the enemy may be putting on anybody's shoulders i ask you to lift it off of their shoulders right now in jesus name i pray against every scheme of the enemy to cause there to be a distortion of your grace and your mercy i asked father that you would renew their minds right now i pray lord that you would pour out your grace upon them

your patience upon them father and give them a revelation of your love for them thank you father that right now in jesus name you are setting them free in the mighty name of jesus christ [Music] [Applause] you