Priscilla Shirer - Strengthened by God (12/28/2025)
Summary
Priscilla Shirer teaches on God’s perfect patience from 1 Timothy 1:16, using Paul’s testimony as the «foremost» sinner to demonstrate that no one can out-sin God’s grace. God’s patience frees us to live the abundant life without fear of wearing Him out. Reasons for God’s profound patience: (1) He saved us—a miracle despite our rebellion; (2) He changes us through sanctification; (3) He uses us in our specific spheres of influence; (4) He strengthens us daily by His Spirit. We cannot escape His longsuffering love—He is committed to our transformation and empowerment.
Introduction: Enemy’s Lie About Grace
And so if the enemy can get us to thinking that we might be able to out-sin the grace of God, that in some way we’ll be beyond His reach, if he can get us to walk gingerly in our relationship with God, then we’ll never experience the Abundant Life that He’s called us to. We’ll never be willing to just throw our head, hearts, and hands back and say, «Anything you want for me, I’m willing to go.» And I realize, Lord, that it might not always mean that I’m perfect; I won’t be perfect. But thank You that Your grace is sufficient for even my mistakes, my mishaps, and my wrong choices.
So I think that a revelation of God’s patience—listen, y’all, it can literally set you free. A revelation of the fact that God has enough patience for you and for me can cause you and me to finally live the Abundant Life that we have been called to. Patience, when we think about it—when I think about it—is a characteristic in the soul of a human being that really has to be matured over time. It’s one of the reasons we need the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit causes us to be able to develop these characteristics. And let me tell you, I need help in the patience department! Does anybody need help in the patience department?
Personal Impatience and Marriage Illustration
All right, I am naturally an impatient person. I like for things to be fixed kind of quickly. Whenever there’s a problem, I come up with a quick solution. It might not be the best solution, but I just love the fact that there’s a solution on the table. Let’s just get on with this and get it done. And do you know the way that the Lord helps us to grow in our level of patience? He most of the time will put us in scenarios where we’ve got to wait.
So He causes you to marry somebody—Lord have mercy—who takes 24, 48, 72 hours to make a decision. Help me, Jesus! I’m the type that as soon as there is a problem, man, I have figured out a way we can solve this thing and move on with our lives. My husband, on the other hand, has to think about it, pray about it, fast on it, seek wise counsel regarding it, sleep on it. Help me, Jesus! And do you know most of the time—most of the time—when he comes up with a solution three or four days later, it is actually the exact same thing that I thought of in the first five minutes that we had a problem.
One thing Jerry will do, though, is he will make good decisions because he’s thought it all the way through. So in this relationship, in this scenario, God has in me patience. The reason why you sit next to that coworker on your job—the one that if she says one more thing to you, you’re going to knock her out— is because He knows that dynamic is going to hone in on your patience. So don’t be pointing at the person next to you!
Because patience is something you and I need help with, we tend to put that same dynamic on God. And we think that because we get frustrated with our kids when they ask us the same thing three, four, five, ten, twenty times, or with that coworker who we have a low tolerance for, that because we get fed up, God must also get fed up with us just like we do with others. We think that patience is something He must need to grow in as well in His relationship with us, because that’s what we need. But you need to understand that patience is not just a characteristic that God has at His disposal; the very essence of all that patience was ever meant to be—God is completely and entirely patient. He is not growing in His level of patience; He is the all-patient one, my friends! He is God, fully and completely, and He’s not applying for the job; He’s got it covered.
In fact, when you think about all of the things that make up the characteristics of God—His omnipresence, His sovereignty, His omniscience—when you think about all of the links in the chain that make up the character of God, really, His patience is the most central and important of all the links. When you think about it, because if it weren’t for His patience, we wouldn’t exist long enough to get to the grace and the mercy and the omniscience and the omnipresence. It is because He is patient with us; He is slow to anger (Exodus 34). That’s the reason why we get to experience the greatness of our God! One scholar put it this way, and I love it so much: he said it is the patience of God that held our sinful hands and led us to the doorstep of His mercy, so that we could enter in.
It’s God’s patience that allows us to experience His kindness and His greatness. He is a bottomless pit of patience; it is overflowing, limitless, and boundless. You cannot out-sin the grace of God. There is nowhere you’ve been, and there is nothing you’ve done that causes you to now not be beautiful to our great God. He loves you with an everlasting love! Somebody say, «Everlasting, everlasting!» His patience is sufficient for you. You cannot wear God out.
Key Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:16
There is one place in Scripture that I want to direct your attention to today—not in the maps! There’s actually one scripture I found that we have not covered yet throughout the course of our weekend, and it’s in the book of First Timothy. So if you have your Bible, and you want to turn there with me to First Timothy, Paul the Apostle is writing to this young minister as he’s getting started in life and ministry. He wants to tell him some things to help him along the way, and of all of the guidance that Paul wants to give Timothy, he wants to tell him about this patience thing. He knows that Timothy is going to have a long road in front of him. Yes, there are going to be mistakes and mishaps along the way, and so he wants him to know right up front, «Listen, God’s got your back, Tim. You need to know that God’s patience is on your side. He is for you; He is not against you.»
And so he shares with him, among the many things that he wants to say to Timothy in First Timothy, he shares with him a message about the patience of God. First Timothy 1:16, Paul says, «And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate—here it is—His perfect patience.» What kind of patience is it? His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life! I love this verse so much because Paul wants to be clear here. He says, «I want you to understand the kind of patience we’re talking about here.» When we’re talking about God’s patience, it’s not a good patience; it’s not even a great patience; it is a perfect patience. Meaning even when you go to the furthest extremities of God’s ability to be patient with you, there is not one little bit of imperfection even along those outward edges. He has a perfect level of patience toward you, and Paul says, just in case you’re wondering, and just in case you need clarity on how much patience God must have for those whom He loves so dearly, just in case you’re curious, Paul says, «Take a look right over here because I am a demonstration.»
He says, «If you’ve ever wondered how perfect God’s patience is, and whether He can endure with you and your life and the details of all that has gone on in your existence, you don’t have to look much further than me.» Paul says, «If He can put up with me, I’m telling you, He’s got your back.» Paul says, «I’m a demonstration.» He calls himself the foremost of all sinners. He says, «You ain’t done nothing I haven’t already done. You haven’t been anywhere I have not been. Your eyes have not seen anything; your ears haven’t heard anything; you have not touched anything; you have not participated in anything. There is no pit deeper that you have been in than the ones I have been in.» Paul says, «Take a look over here; I’m a demonstration of how perfect God’s patience must be.»
He says, «You never have to wonder again if you just look at me how perfect God’s patience must be.» And he starts that verse with this phrase in the NASB (New American Standard Bible) that I’m reading from. He starts it with this phrase: «Yet for this reason.» I love that because anytime you see a phrase like that, «For this reason, » in the Scripture, it’s almost like seeing the word «therefore.» Anytime you see «therefore» in Scripture, you need to see what it’s there for, because it is there for a reason. So he says, «For this reason, “ which means there are already some reasons he has listed that he wants us to be aware of. There are some things that caused him to come to this conclusion in verse 16 about how perfect God’s patience must be.
So I thought for just a few moments today you and I could look back just a few verses—we’re going to kind of backtrack so that we can see what the reasons are. I want to know what makes Paul such a demonstration of the patience of God, because if you and I look closely at what these reasons are, not only do I think you and I will see that Paul’s not the only demonstration of how patient God is, but I think it’s also going to free us up. Because when we recognize and see His patience already demonstrated in our lives, it will cause us to want to live completely and fully and abundantly.
Reason 1: God Saved Us (Justification)
So I want to point out these reasons to you; is that all right with you this morning? The very first reason is found in verse 15, so we’re backtracking up one verse. He says, „It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all.“ Paul writes the very first reason that he wants you and I to know why God’s patience is so profound, so boundless, and so abundant, and so limitless: he says, „If you’ve ever wondered whether or not God’s got enough patience for you, would you remember that Christ came into the world to save sinners?“
He says, „The very first reason that tells us that God has enough patience to handle anything that could ever happen in our lives is just this one simple fact: He saved you!“ He saved you! Y’all, it is a straight-up miracle that we’re saved! I mean, we should never let the fact that God’s Spirit lives in us and that we have the gift of spending eternity with God roll off our shoulders casually, as if it’s no big deal. The fact that you and I know Jesus Christ as Lord is a miracle beyond any miracle you will ever experience in your life! The only reason why any of us ever come into relationship with God is not because we were looking so hard for Him; it’s because the Hound of Heaven was looking for us!
It’s because despite our rebellion, despite the fact that we had turned our backs on God, despite the fact that we had chosen our own way, despite the fact that we refused Him time and time and time again, He caused our hearts to be softened, so that when someone came to us and said the name Jesus Christ, we wanted to respond and say yes to Him being our Savior. That wasn’t by chance, my friend; that’s a miracle! Do you know that the enemy of this world works overtime to blind the eyes of the unbelieving, so that they cannot see clearly? He hardens their hearts. You might have somebody like that in your life—a family member or a friend—and you consistently share the good news of Jesus Christ with them, but it seems like over time, the more hardened they become to it.
Does anybody know what I’m talking about? That’s because the enemy is all about trying to keep as many people as he can from responding to the gospel, which means when you and I evangelize, it can’t just be about what we’re saying out of our mouths. It also has to be about being on our knees and praying for the Holy Spirit of God to soften their hearts, so that they will respond. It is a move of God that brings people into the kingdom, which means the only reason why anybody in this room—the 1,000 people the other night who gave their hearts to Jesus Christ—you need to know it’s because He brought you into this place, the Hound of Heaven!
It’s not because your girlfriend bought you a registration fee, my friend; it’s because the Holy Spirit had this night on the calendar of your life, this weekend on the calendar of your life. It’s because He was looking for you! And so when you and I respond to the good news of Jesus Christ, when we see the cross of Calvary, and it’s not just two pieces of wood put together anymore, but we see our sin that was born by a loving Savior who didn’t have to pay the wages, but He chose to pay the wages for our sin, and we respond and say, „Yes, Lord!“ That’s because He is working a miracle in our lives, my friend!
M. Joyce said it so well the other night: she said that even our physical birth is not a chance occurrence. I mean, the fact that you and I live in this day and age and generation—there’s nothing chance about it, y’all! We live in the most blessed day and age and generation, not only for the Church of Jesus Christ but specifically for women. There has never been a time in history where you could call a women’s meeting and 20,000 women just show up because they want to know the things of God—not by and large like this! There has never been a time when you could just go into a Christian bookstore and find Bible study resources by women for women, not like this!
There has never been a time where you could just walk down your street—at least in Dallas, Texas—and on every corner, there is another church that is proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ! In our city, we’ve got two Christian radio stations, not just one—one with gospel music if you like that, another one with contemporary Christian music if that’s what you prefer! You can find any Bible in any translation in any language that you would like! Don’t ever take for granted that you and I happen to be born in this blessed day and age and generation, getting to serve the body of Christ. That’s not by chance, y’all; that’s not by chance—He planned it! You and I aren’t in this room by chance; He planned this!
I mean, think about it. With the 7 billion plus people that are on the planet, your great-great grandfather just happened to find the woman that would be your great-great grandmother. The two of them came together and created your great-grandfather. Then your great-grandfather—with the 7 billion plus people that are on the planet—he just happened to find your great-grandmother, and the two of them came together and created your grandfather. Then your grandfather—with the 7 billion plus people on the planet—he just happened to find the person that should be your grandmother. And then the two of them came together and created your father, and then your father—with the 7 billion plus people on the planet—he just happened to find the woman that should be your mother, and the two of them came together.
And this is a little graphic, but this is a women’s conference: the millions of sperm, there was the exact one that met up with the egg at the exact right time to create you! There ain’t nothing chance about that! Your physical birth is a miracle, my friend! Hallelujah! And if your physical birth and my physical birth is a miracle, then how much more of a miracle is it that we were not just born but that we were born again? That’s a miracle!
Think about the patience of God that was required from the beginning of time to make sure that centuries later you and I would come into relationship with Him. Think about the endurance that He exhibited when He was just waiting for you. When we were on His mind, when He hung on Calvary’s tree, the love that was extended toward us even then. Do you know you’ve been on His mind since before Genesis 1:1? Before time began, you and I were on the mind of God, and there has been a cosmic battle in the heavenlies that has been taking place and has been working itself out throughout history. There has been a battle between God and the enemy for your soul, my friend!
I want you to think about it like a giant chessboard, and you’ve got God sitting on one side, and you’ve got the enemy on the other side, and they are both vying for your soul. So Genesis 1:1 opens, and God makes the first move. He creates Adam and Eve in a perfect scenario with perfect fellowship with Him. But then the enemy, not to be out, he decides to make a move. He slithers his way into the Garden; he causes sin to enter the scenario and into the hearts of man. Before you know it, Cain kills Abel, and now murder is on the scene, and it seems like everything will always be separated now from a holy God.
But our God, never to be out, on the other side of that cosmic chessboard, makes another move. He causes Adam and Eve to come back together, and they give birth to a little baby named Seth. And Seth gives birth to Enosh, and Genesis 4 says that when Enosh was born, everybody began to praise God again. But the enemy, not to be out, makes a move. He causes rebellion to seep back into the hearts of mankind—it proliferates across the Earth so much so that the world has to be destroyed. But our God, never to be out, makes another move. He finds this guy named Noah, and He says, „Noah, go build an ark.“ Noah says, „Build a what?“ He says, „I want you to build an ark.“
And so Noah obediently builds an ark, and mankind is preserved as a result of his obedience. But the enemy makes another move, and rebellion seeps back into the hearts of mankind; it proliferates across the Earth. But our God makes another move, and He goes to this little pagan town called Ur, and He finds a man named Abram, and He raises him up and says, „I’m going to change your name and I’m going to change your destiny, and I’m going to create a brand new nation out of you called the nation of Israel. These people are going to bear the stamp of My name, and My protection and My vision and My favor will always be upon them.“
The enemy, not to be out, makes another move. He causes now the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, to go into Egypt, and for 400 years, Pharaoh had them completely bound, and it looked like the enemy had won. But our God, never to be out, makes another move. He finds this little baby boy named Moses, and He causes Moses to be raised as the Prince of Egypt. Then at the right time, He sends Moses to Pharaoh and says, „You go tell Pharaoh to let My people go.“ And after ten miraculous plagues, they are released from captivity. For 40 years, they are in the wilderness, but then they come into the Promised Land.
But the enemy wants to make another move, and he causes now the children of Israel to turn their back on Yahweh, the one true God, and they begin to worship idols. By the time you get to the end of the Book of Judges, the last line of the Book of Judges says this: „Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.“ Kind of sounds like America in the year 2013, doesn’t it? Sounds like exactly what Dave was teaching us yesterday morning!
But our God, never to be out, makes another move. He goes to this little town called Moab, and He raises up a woman named Ruth. Ruth has tragedy in her life; she has chaos in her life, and it looks like no good will come of it until she meets her kinsman redeemer. She and her kinsman redeemer have a baby called Obed, and Obed gives birth to Jesse, and Jesse gives birth to a baby boy named David. And with that one move, the enemy doesn’t even know that the checkmate is already on the way—doesn’t even know! Amen!
And as the Old Testament comes to a close, y’all, there are 400 years of silence. And God is on one side of the chessboard; the enemy is on the other; and there it is completely silent. And all of history waits to see who’s going to make the next move. And then the New Testament opens, and God makes a move that the enemy to this day still has not had a response for. Jesus Christ comes and He dies on the cross for you and me, and the victory is sealed once and for all! Amen! Praise the Lord!
And He did that for you, and He did it for me. And if He had enough patience to have you on His mind and in His heart since the beginning of eternity, I want you to always remember that He’s got enough patience to handle you while you’re here in time and history. If He had enough patience to handle the last couple millennia, He can take care of the last six weeks of your life! My friend, there is nothing you can do to escape the long-suffering nature of our God! He is not mad at you; He’s not mad!
Reason 2: God Changes Us (Sanctification)
But y’all, that’s just the first reason! Because Paul does have some more reasons. He says if you’ve ever wondered about the patience of God, you can’t just look at the fact that He saved me! Paul said, „But there’s another reason, “ and the next reason is found in verse 13. So we’re still backtracking through these verses. He says, „Even though I was formerly—somebody say ‘formerly’—even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy.“
Now when Paul first told us in that verse 16, he first told us that he was the foremost of all sinners, that he was a demonstration of how patient God must actually be. When he first told us that, he didn’t give us details on his sin resume; he didn’t map out all the things he’s ever done. He just said, „Trust me, I’m the foremost.“ And you know what? I’m kind of glad he didn’t give us details, because if Paul would have spelled out for us everything on his sin resume, we might have been so distracted by his resume that we forget we got our own resumes! We actually don’t have time to look at anybody else’s sin resume because, listen, we are ourselves our own demonstration of how patient God is!
Because listen, if I were to take this little microphone and we just passed it around this whole room with all of us, man, we’d be here into the next year going over all our resumes of how God has rescued and delivered us! Hallelujah! But in this verse, verse 13, he does give us three things he labelled for us—three things that are on his sin resume. He says, „I was a blasphemer, I was a violent aggressor, I was a persecutor of the Church.“ He says, „That’s who I was!“ There were three things.
But before I label these three things, Paul says, „Before I tell you some details about my sin resume, I want to put a big old headline right here at the top of the page just so that we’re clear. Before I give you any of these details, I want you to know that these things—they are who I used to be; they are not who I am anymore!“ I was formerly—somebody say „formerly!“ In other words, Paul says, „The reason why I’m a demonstration of the patience of God is not only because He saved me, but because He changed me. Because He didn’t leave me in the state I was in, because He’s molding me and changing me and remaking me so that I am a different person today than I was yesterday.“
I love so much when Miss Joyce had the mannequins up here on the stage because she pointed out so clearly that God comes and indwells us. We are made brand new on the inside! You remember the spirit over here? We are brand new on the inside. But then, listen to this: we don’t have to do the hard work of changing ourselves, because the Holy Spirit—one of His jobs, He’s got many jobs on the inside of us—He guides us, He comforts us, He encourages us, but 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says He also sanctifies us.
Sanctification is the process by which we are made into the image of Christ Jesus. It means when this part of us begins to spill over into the mind, will, and emotions part of us, it causes us to not want stuff we thought we always wanted, causes us to want stuff we thought we would never want. He causes our likes and our dislikes to completely change so that we are—when we look in the mirror—not the same person that we used to be! Hallelujah! I’m so glad for the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, y’all. I’m so glad that when I look in the mirror today, I don’t see the same person that I saw five years ago! I’m so glad that the thoughts I had, I don’t have anymore! I’m so glad that the ambitions I had are not the ambitions I have anymore! I’m so grateful that God can take anybody and make them a brand new person!
I wonder if there’s anybody discouraged today who’s wondering if you can ever change? Listen to me: the Holy Spirit’s work in you, His delight in you, is to be patient with you as you change. You’re a demonstration of the patience of God, Paul says; not only because He saved you—that’s your justification—but because He’s changing you—that’s your sanctification! Sanctification, where He chips away at everything that doesn’t look like Jesus.
A sculptor was once asked, as he stood in front of this huge stallion that he had carved out of rock, and an admirer was standing near looking at this stallion that had been carved out of this huge block of rock that was sitting over here. The admirer just asked the artist, „How in the world do you do this? How in the world do you take a big piece of rock like that and make it look like a stallion?“ And the artist stood there for a moment, with his chisel in hand, and he just thought about answering that question. Finally, he responded and said, „Well, actually, it’s pretty simple. I just chip away at everything that doesn’t look like a stallion.“
This is what the Holy Spirit does with you and with me—chips away at everything that doesn’t look like Jesus. And then He causes us to be conformed to the image of Christ. It takes patience for that, but He’s committed to walking with you every step of the way. He doesn’t abandon us during the transformation process; He hangs with us, walks with us. The reason why He hangs with us, listen to me, is because He’s the one doing the work. Listen: if you try and I try to change ourselves, we will be tired—exhausted, y’all! I’m telling you, there is nothing you or I could do to change ourselves.
But listen, we’re beautiful enough to Him! We are His masterpiece; we are His workmanship! It is His goal as the artist to hang with us long enough until we look just like Jesus! It is His work in us; His best work, His finest work is you! It’s you! His patience, His longsuffering nature endures with us forever; you cannot wear God out!
Popcorn Illustration
Have you ever wondered how popcorn pops? Somebody say yes!
Yes! I’m so glad you want to know. So when you have a kernel of popcorn, that hard little shelled kernel of corn, inside every kernel is a microscopic drop of water. And so when you put a bag of microwave popcorn into the microwave, what the heat in the microwave is doing is not actually heating up the shell; it’s heating up that microscopic dot of water that is inside the shell. So that that microscopic dot of water begins to create steam, and the steam begins to press against the shell. And as it continues to heat up, it presses more and more powerfully until finally it just pops!
The outside looks completely different from the inside—not because the outside was heated up, but because what was on the inside was heated up! So this is what happens: the Holy Spirit is on the inside of you. And if you try to heat yourself up from the outside in, you’re working against the dynamic of what the Holy Spirit was designed to do. But as you cooperate with the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, you, by renewing your mind with the word of God, fellowshipping with believers in Christ, being obedient to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, remaining filled by His Spirit every single day, as you do that, you heat up the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. And He begins to press and press against the shell of your body, so much so that eventually, you just pop!
And you look completely different than you used to look! So then you come home from the conference, and your family goes, „Who’s that? Who is that?“ But not only do you look completely different, but I don’t know about y’all—movie popcorn is my favorite snack of all time! Put some butter and some salt on that, and I’m just happy! Thank you, Jesus! Put a Coke with it? Ooh, girl!
So when you come home, not only do you look different. But y’all, we are fed to a lost and dying world that needs to see our God as good! So He changes us, and He’s patient enough for that. He’s going to hang with you through your transformation process as you are delivered and set free, and grab hold of all that you’ve been taught this weekend. And spend the next days, weeks, and months going over the notes that God has given us as we listen to this teaching and praying over it, stewing over it, and talking about it with our friends who were here as we grow.
Listen, your friends might not hang with you, but God will hang with you! Your mama, she might not have hung with you, but God will hang with you! Somebody’s spouse—they couldn’t hang with you till you changed. There is a God who will never leave you nor forsake you; He’s with you through the change, my friend! He’s got enough patience for that!
Reason 3: God Uses Us
Paul says if you’re wondering about whether or not you can count on the patience of God, always remember that if He was patient enough to save you (justification) and patient enough to change you (sanctification), He’s got your back every single day for the rest of your life!
But that’s not the only reason. Paul says it’s not just that you’re saved, and it’s not just that you’re changed, but there is another reason, and the next reason is found in verse 12. So we’re still backtracking through these verses. He says, „I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.“
Paul says now this one, I can’t believe it! It was a miracle enough that He saved me, and it’s a miracle enough that He’d hang with me long enough to actually change me. But I cannot believe, Paul says, that He would actually use me for His glory! I cannot believe! Not only that there’s been justification; I can’t believe there’s been sanctification! But now God is patient enough to put me in a specific location to be used for His glory! Paul says He’s put me into service, and Paul cannot stinking believe it!
I mean, after his history, his past, where he’s come from, what he’s done—he cannot believe! Neither should you or I! I’m going to tell you that I cannot believe God would use me to accomplish anything for His purposes! I cannot believe it! And when I say that, let me tell you that I don’t necessarily just mean on this platform. This is a privilege and an honor, but when I say I can’t believe God would use me for His purposes, I mostly mean in the smaller spheres of influence that God has placed me.
I’m talking about, like, being a wife to my husband. My goal is that when Jerry sees Jesus face to face, Jesus looks at him and says, „Well done, Jerry!“ And God has entrusted me to support and encourage this guy enough so that when he sees God, he gets the applause of heaven. I can’t believe God would entrust me with that! Then I look at these three little humans God has given me!
Have you ever left the hospital and gone, „I’m sorry, are there instructions?“ Excuse me? What? Does anybody know what I’m talking about? So I look at these little boys, who will grow up to be warriors for Christ, or I will spank them! But y’all, I look at these little boys, and I can’t believe God would entrust that He would allow me to partner with Him in the shaping of these little souls.
And y’all, here’s what I’ve found: what I’ve found is that the enemy is trying to get you and I—all of us—to discount the significance of the locations where He has placed us. He’s trying to get all of us to think that the location we’re in, the small spheres of influence to which God has called us, aren’t important! So what the Church—unfortunately, Capital C Church—what the Church has done is applaud and admire the gifts that require a microphone and a platform, while at the same time demeaning those that are behind closed doors that nobody ever sees.
And yet the best, most impactful ministry, y’all, it’s not only what is happening from this platform! It’s the person that loves the Lord enough to be one-on-one in discipleship across a table at Starbucks, faithfully and weekly, with that person who needs to grow in their relationship with God. It’s the mama that recognizes that being around that dinner table with her family and sharing just a simple verse of scripture with her children isn’t insignificant—that she’s raising up the next generation of those who will be Christ followers! It’s the single woman who sees this season of her life as an opportunity to just be gung-ho for God, going every which way she can to take every opportunity she can to serve the Lord!
It’s the pastor’s wife who sees these same 40 or 50 people they’re serving week in and week out, who is becoming discouraged because she thought it would just look different than this when she decided to marry this guy. She thought life would look completely different! It’s the person that sees the significance of those 40 or 50. It’s the Bible study leader who’s holding that Bible study in her home, and she’s got those five people that have been coming faithfully for five years, but she thought by now there might be more that would be a part of this ministry!
It’s the person who does not discount the sphere of influence that they are in! What the enemy wants you to do is think that the place you are is insignificant to the plan of God. So then, like Andy Stanley told us, he causes us to look elsewhere and go, „But if I only had that! If I was only in her location! If I was only able to do what she is able to do!“ And all the while, as we are looking outside of our own sphere of influence, we are simultaneously downgrading the value of where God has placed us.
And listen, y’all! On the stage of life, there is a role you have been given to play! And if you and I are trying to play somebody else’s role, who in the world’s going to play you? Who’s going to play you?
Rashada’s Story
There is a girl in my church; her name is Rashada. Rashada is 35 years old, and Rashada really sensed that God was calling her away from her job. This was two years ago. Good job, benefits, you know—regular salary! And she was on the upward scale in her company. And so she just was excited about it, but she just, over a period of time, really sensed conviction that she needed to leave that job.
So out of obedience, after some time, she did! And she just expected that what that would mean is that God had something kind of, you know, bigger and better for her, and that she was just waiting on that to materialize. And so she just took some jobs as a babysitter along the way. That’s really how I know her. I don’t know her as much from church as I do from babysitting! My sister has five children; my cousin has four children; we all live within a 10-mile radius of each other. So Rashada would help babysit Crystal’s kids and then my cousin Winter’s kids, and I knew her mostly from that, because I’d go over with my kids so that all the cousins could play.
And me and Rashada would talk all the time, and she expressed the fact that she was really battling with this whole babysitting thing because she loved it—she actually loves kids and loves doing it! But after a year went by and then a year and a half went by, she was really discouraged because she just felt like, „You know, I thought the next thing would have materialized by now!“ So she said, „Priscilla, I’m discouraged.“ And she said, „Honestly, over time, I have really felt like I’ve been cheated by God somehow! I mean, I obeyed and did what He said, but here I am just hopping around to different families! I love it, but I’m still doing it! It’s been a year and a half!“
She said, „I feel a little bit cheated.“ And if the truth be told, there are many of us in this room that feel cheated, too! Because we’ve obeyed to the best of our knowledge; we have done what God has asked us to do, and yet it hasn’t turned out the way we thought that it would! And if we’re honest, like Rashada was, we feel just a little bit cheated by God! And she said, „So, Priscilla, I prayed a lot about this. I said, ‘Lord, I need You to show me what’s up here. I’ve done what You’ve asked me to do, yet I feel kind of cheated by You, and I need you to give me clarity! ’“
And she said, „Priscilla, I kid you not, after I was praying about that, I went over to a family’s house to babysit as I normally do. She said, ’I had a casserole in my hands that I had baked up for that family that night.’ And she said, ‘When I walked up to the front door, before I rang the doorbell, I realized something was really different this time! It’s almost like the Lord was giving me spiritual vision so that I could see everything that was happening that night, not from my perspective, but from His perspective! ’
She said, 'I rang the doorbell; the kids all ran up to the door and answered the door, and when I walked in, the smiles and the look on those kids' faces weren’t just that „I’m happy to see you, Miss Rashada“ kind of smiles. It was like an invitation from God to invest in the lives of these little people! And she said it wasn’t only that; when I handed the casserole to the mom, she had had a crazy, frazzled day, and the look of relief on that mom’s face showed me that I was being such a blessing to this woman’s life.
And then she said, 'The kids started spouting out these Bible verses to me—they were the Bible verses I had taught them the last time I babysat them! And they were all eager asking me, ‘What’s the next Bible study lesson you have for us today, Miss Rashada? They could not wait to sit down and get the Bible study from her! ’ So she realized that she wasn’t just telling them stories, but she was literally investing in the lives of what would later be spiritual giants! ’
Then she said, 'The husband and wife, they went out for a date; they hadn’t had a date in a long time. They went out for a date, and it occurred to me that night—it had never occurred to me before—but it occurred to me that night that I was literally helping to build a strong marriage! ' She said, ‘Priscilla, that night I realized that I hadn’t been cheated but that I’d been chosen! Chosen by God for this! ’
I want to tell somebody today: you haven’t been cheated, my friend! He has not cheated you; He has chosen you for the location you are in! He has specifically designed the dynamics of that location in your home, in that high school, in that university, on that job! He has specifically created that dynamic and then set you down inside of it to be His representation in the midst of that circle, my friend! Don’t let the enemy cause you to discount the location where God will use you!
Reason 4: God Strengthens Us
Paul says God is patient because He saved me, because He changed me, because He’s using me, and finally, in verse 12, „I thank Christ Jesus our Lord because He has strengthened me!“ You know what the good news is about this whole weekend, y’all, is that when Miss Joyce goes home and Mr. Dave goes home, and I fly back to Dallas, and Andy Stanley flies back to his home, when we all leave each other, that God doesn’t just go with one of us and is not enough for all of us! That He is omnipresent! That He is as much with you as He is with me!
That the Holy Spirit of God is with us, listen, to strengthen you! That in the location God has planted you, He’s not just going to set you in that location and then back off and say, „Well, I hope you do all right over there.“ The Holy Spirit actually walks with you! Do you think He loved you enough to die for you, but then doesn’t love you enough to walk with you? Do you think He loved you enough to ransom His own Son on your behalf, but then doesn’t have enough love for you to continue to strengthen you every day of your life? You do not leave this place in just a few hours; you don’t leave this place alone, my friend. You are strengthened by our great God!
It is His patience that caused you to be saved, causes you to be changed, causes you to be used for the glory of God, and it causes you to continually be strengthened every single day of your life! God’s Spirit in you strengthens you to steady you for anything that might come your way! Miss Joyce said it again, I said it before, and I’m going to say it again to you: He does not call you to do anything for which He does not simultaneously give you the anointing and the strength to handle the task!
He does not call you to do anything that He does not at the exact same time infuse you with the grace to handle it! He does not ever call you or I to participate in any task, in any location, to do anything, to put our hands to any plow that He does not at the exact same time give us the anointing and the power and the strength and the grace and the wisdom and the discernment to handle the task that is at hand! The joy of the Lord is your strength, my friend!
Closing: Tooth Fairy Story
I’ll tell you this in closing: when one of my boys, my oldest son, lost his first tooth, I’ll never forget it. He was turning five, and he had been waiting on those suckers to fall out! I mean, he had just been wiggling that thing, trying to get it loose, because he could not wait! Because we had told him that when this tooth falls out, there will be a tooth fairy that will come in the middle of the night! She will exchange that tooth for a treasure! So he could not wait!
And on the day that it fell out, he was so unbelievably excited. I have never seen that boy go to bed fast ever in his life! Still to this day! But he ran to his bed, and he went to sleep—or he tried to go to sleep—every 60 seconds he would look under the pillow to see if anything had happened! Finally, he fell asleep, and about 3:00 in the morning—no, no, he fell asleep earlier, but about 3:00 in the morning, the 250-pound, 6’3» tooth fairy that I sleep next to every night got up, went upstairs, and exchanged the tooth for a treasure!
I knew exactly when Jackson got up in the morning; I knew it because I just heard chaos upstairs. He was so excited because there was something under his pillow! He bounded down the stairs and ran into our room, and he had his two fists clenched closed. He said, «Mom, the Tooth Fairy came!» And he opened up his first hand, and it was a package of gummy bears! He was so excited!
Then he opened up the other hand, and it was $5! Exactly what happened to dimes and nickels? So my husband could see the stunned expression on my face, because you know when mama ain’t happy! So after Jackson ran off, my husband said, «Babe, don’t worry!» He said, «Do you remember last month was Jackson’s fifth birthday?» I said, «Yeah!»
He said, «Remember we always have our family over on the kids' birthdays? And last month when they all came, they all brought cards with them, and in those cards were $5 bills for his fifth birthday! He said, ‘Do you remember we took all those $5 bills and we put them in the birthday drawer? ’ Well this morning at 3:00 a.m., I went right over to that birthday drawer, got one of those $5 bills out, and put it inside this pillow!» That’s good financial stewardship right there is what that is!
But here’s the thing: I watched my boy get so excited about treasure that he really already had! Y’all know what this weekend has been about? About reminding you about treasure you already have! The responsibility you and I have now is to go home from this place, open up the drawer of God’s strengthening Spirit on the inside of us, and live like the beautiful, treasured women that we are! You don’t have anything new, my friend; it’s just you’re going to release what God has already given you the moment you came to know Him as Savior! Amen! Amen! Amen!