Priscilla Shirer: The Mercy of Our Great God

good one and y'all it is such a privilege to be able to be with you and to just take the short drive over from Dallas where we live to come and be with what we consider to be our Austin family if that's all right with you we just kind of love to be here to serve you we want you to know how much my husband I hope my husband and all my boys have three boys they're all going to be joining us in the second two services that are coming up after these two and what you know how much a privilege it was for us to serve yesterday at the Boys and Girls Club and how much of a privilege it is to serve you today in these Sunday services we have such an esteem for your pastor and miss Laurie and the entire pastoral team the Shepherds that God has given you at this church you need to know that that every Church and God is good they really don't and so God has given you such a blessing listen we said to Pastor yesterday or Friday knowing that they would be out of town all day yesterday and that their trout would get them up early in the morning they'd have to leave to come back late last night Jerry and I said to them listen we want you to know that we want to literally serve you on Sunday so man if you guys want to just be in bed on Sunday morning let us come and serve the congregation and give you guys a little bit of rough and passage elk I looked across the table at me and went why do why would we want to do that we actually like going to church we like being with the people of our church and you know there are some pastors we don't actually like people which is hard to minister that way you know that's a problem so you've got Shepherd to love you they love the church they love the house of God they love serving you and on top of that they are folks of integrity and character and honesty who love each other love their boys their family and they love the house of God that is something to celebrate y'all that is something to celebrate and so it is our honor and privilege to serve you I want to say hello to the Anderson mill campus and the celebration online those of you who are joining us that way in the North auditorium as well it is a privilege to have you joining us we are all in one big room together you are with us in this room and we're excited to see what God's Word is going to say to us because I believe in the Word of God anybody believed in the Word of God I believe it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and that every single time you and I come to the pages of Scripture together we should actually lean in and feel the warm breath of God rushing across our cheeks because y'all the book is alive the Holy Spirit causes it to applies to something that is happening in your life and now that's what he does he takes one message and divides it three four thousand five thousand different ways so that by the time we all leave here we each know we have heard the voice of God I'm expecting nothing different than that this morning let's pray together Lord Jesus thank you so much for the privilege that I have today under the leadership of this incredible church to serve your people I pray now that you would do what only you can that is take one simple little message divided up Lord however many ways you need to so that everybody hears from you expecting Lord that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be acceptable in Jesus name Amen I've got three siblings an older sister and two younger brothers my youngest brother the baby of the bunch does what baby brothers do when he comes to my house now as an adult he comes over he quickly says hello and then heads directly to my refrigerator he walks over opens it up and starts foraging around in the refrigerator and the last time he was there just a couple of weeks ago he was over foraging through the refrigerator and he was reminded of something I guess while he stood there in front of the refrigerator that he wanted to tell me about I have three little boys my youngest boy is the exact same age of his oldest child Kelsie is four years old my little Jude is four years old and so we often swap stories particularly about those four year olds he was reminded of something that happened in Kelsey's life when she was around two that he wanted to tell me about so he said Priscilla I'm that Kelsey went through the semen of her life where whenever she was hungry she would come to the big box in the her pimia kitchen that had the food in it she would point and say EEP so he would then walk over to Kelsey took her two-year-old self up from in front of the big box with the food and it'd take her over to the table since we're down into her booster seat so that he could get her some food and put it in forever being now far away from the place that to her represented where the food was she threw a fit a temper tantrum cry the river appears wiggled her way right out of that booster feed back on to the floor walked across the kitchen in front of the big box where she wanted to be and said heat so he would pick her up put her back in the booster she would throw a temper tantrum cry rivers of Tears squiggle her way out of the chair go back over in front of the box and say he they would do this over and over and over again and he laughed about it if he was telling me about it but what he said was the last time it wasn't funny I had to have so much patience with this girl as I tried to get her to understand that where I was putting her was the place she needed to be to receive what she was asking me for that she could not get through her mind that that the position she wanted to be and was actually not the best place she needed to be to receive the blessing that she wanted and I was laughing and giggling as I thought about my little precocious and sassy little niece and you know I don't know where she gets all that sassiness from but I was laughing as I was thinking about my little curly-haired niece and thinking about how she was she was in that scenario with her father and as I did go listening to this story I'm telling you the Holy Spirit knocks on the door of my heart and said don't laugh too loud honey that's you for so how often is it that I try to put you in the place you need to be to receive even a thing you're asking me for and I'm trying to set you in the right place in the right environment around the right people in the right season of life in the right position to get what you need to fulfill the destiny for my life that you keep fighting me fulfill the same amount of patience even more patience and your little brother has to have what if two-year-old daughter that's how much patience and beyond I've had to have with you I wonder if there might be anybody in this room who needs to be encouraged about how much patience God has for you that God doesn't need a good nap before he can handle you my friend but if you're anything like me maybe a little stubborn or maybe you've just ignored God's directives or you've gone your own way you think what think that maybe you have made too many paths bad decisions you have been in situations or circumstances or relationships that that you know has been outside of God's best for you that maybe you might be sitting here today and the enemy's got you believing that God's patience has run out for you that maybe he's put you on the Shelf that he cannot or will not use you for his glory that you have run way past the grace or the mercy from God that is available to you I want to encourage you today I want to just speak to you plainly and simply about one of the foundational characteristics of God that honestly if you and I get a grasp on it it will change our entire lives most of the time when we think about the character of God we think about the overt powerful characteristics his sovereignty and his omniscience and his omnipresence and all those things are amazing we look in the Bible and we think about how he was powerful enough to cause the Red Sea to divided the Old Testament in the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down or in the New Testament how he was capable of raising Lazarus from the dead and those things are to be celebrated but there is a flip side of the coin that I want to talk to you about today not only how powerful God is but I want you to flip that coin over and think today for just a few moments about how patience got it about the fact that his long-suffering endures forever that you cannot outrun the grace of God that you cannot do anything that puts you outside of the reach of the mercy of our great God that he is long-suffering his love endures forever I want to talk to you about this because in my own life and in the lives of some people I've been running into recently met some folks who have been kind of tiptoeing in their relationship with God walking really gingerly and carefully because they feel like oh man if I just do one more thing if there's one more misstep if I hear God wrong and move in a direction that I find out wasn't necessarily what he had for me man I feel like if I just do one more thing it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and puts me outside of the reach of God's graces and His mercy and the enemy would have us be so saddled down with that type of feeling that we never live abundantly and freely and fully in the grace and the mercy that is available to us so I think a message like this one today literally can sit somebody free y'all because it can cause us to stop thinking that that we are bound by the thought that we might outrun the grace of God now we can just leave live lavishly and fully and freely knowing that His grace is sufficient for us our God is patient towards you you've not outrun it patience is an internal characteristic that is honed and matured in the soul of a human being humanly speaking it's a characteristic that most of us need to be developed and matured over time I don't know if you will agree with me but for me patience is something I just I need to work on I am naturally an impatient person I mean I like things to happen I like them to happen quickly can I get one person to just say Amen I'm so glad thank you so much and do you know the way that God helps us to develop patience in our life as human beings he causes us to be in scenarios where we have to wait so what happens if he causes you an impatient person who likes to make quick decisions to happen to get married to the kind of person who takes 24 48 72 hours to make decision I won't say any names Jerry Shire but what God does if you put you in scenarios like me where man is there is a problem I have come up in the first five minutes with what should be the solution it might not be the best solution but we got a solution on the table where my husband he needs to think about it pray about it ask wives counsel on it fast about it sleep on it for just a little while lord have mercy anybody married in my husband anybody know what I'm not yes and then you know sometimes when he finally comes up with the decision it is did that same decision that I thought of in the very first five minutes of the problem but Jerry Jerry's going to make some sound wise well-thought-out calculated decisions because he takes the time so what the Lord does is he puts us in scenarios with people you know that co-worker the woman that sits right next to you that if she says one more thing to you you go Nakhla else he puts you in scenarios where you have to learn patience so since we have to learn how to be patient as human beings we often put that criteria as well on God we feel like patience is something with him that you've got it you've got to mature in that it's not perfected because we're so used to looking at it from human eyes we forget that because he is God patients just finished to his character he doesn't have to develop or grow in or mature so that he can handle all the stuff of your life and mine patience when you think about it is the most central link in all of the characteristics that make up the chain of God's character when you consider it patience is the most foundational and central of all of us but the links and the change and the reason why is because if he were not patient you and I wouldn't exist long enough to get to the Grace and the mercy and the omniscience and the omnipresence amen it's because he is patient towards us that we get to experience everything else that he is that's why Exodus 34 says he is slow to anger and great in power he is powerful enough to restrain himself from giving us what we rightly deserve his power is not only seen in what he does do his power is seen and what he chooses not to do he's patient towards you and towards me and one of the clearest places in the scripture where the patience of God is described is in the book of 1st Timothy if you have your Bible and you want to flip over there with me or your your iPhone your iPad any manner of is just flip on over to first Timothy however you want to get there and there is a verse of scripture that I want to read to you again it is one of the clearest representations and scripture of the patience of God it is Paul as he writes to this young preacher and helps them to kind of launch and form the ministry that God is going to give to him and of all of the important things that he wants to teach this young preacher he wants to tell him about how perfect and unchanging and unflinching God's patience is toward him he knows a lot that Timothy is going to make some mistakes along the way so he wants to tell him upfront how patient God is towards him by the Holy Spirit's power he wants to tell us today as well 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 16 and yet for this reason Paul writes I found mercy in order that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate 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 so much because Paul says let's be clear his patience isn't good it isn't just great it isn't it isn't even awesome or amazing his patience is perfect there is not one little teeny thread of it that is in any way imperfect it lasts long enough it does enough it is enough because it is perfect and Paul says listen I am a demonstration of how perfect it is he says if you've ever wondered whether or not God can handle you and your stuff would you please just take a look at me and all my stuff and if God can handle me Paul says I'm telling you God's got your back Paul says I am before most he means the chief of all sinners he's saying you not got anything I haven't done you haven't gone anywhere I have not gone your eyes haven't seen anything your ears haven't heard anything your hands have not participated in anything I have not already participated in you have not been Paul says it a ditch that gives deeper than the one I have dug for myself and I promise you if Jesus Christ has enough patience to handle me and all my drama he's got you in all your drama he says I'm a demonstration of how perfect God's patience is I love that in this one verse Paul doesn't give us a full descriptive resume of all of his sin I love that because if he had given us a full description line by line of everything that he was entailed in his sinful life you and I might be so distracted by his sin resume that we would forget we've got our own sin resume we don't have time to look at anybody else's sin resume is there right because we've got too much to pay attention to in our own lives in other words Paul's not the only one who is a demonstration of how perfect God's patience is if the truth be told and we were to take a microphone and just start at the front of this room pass it around this entire auditorium into the other auditorium here at the South Campus and then to all of you who are watching online and Anderson no I mean if we just went around we would be here well into the evening through the rest of the week and the month maybe we should get out of the 100 degree weather before we would come out of the building because we took enough time to go over our own sin resumes honestly by the time we got to the end of it we would see we are a demonstration of how perfect God's patience must be he starts the verse with these words for this reason I love one verses start like this it's kind of like when a verse starts with the word therefore anytime there is a word therefore in scripture you need to see what it's there for because it is there for a reason the same thing with with these words for this reason he means to put you upward to some verses he has already written because basically he's saying I have already listed for you some reasons that have caused me to draw the conclusion of how perfect God's patience is towards you so I thought that what you and I could do for just a few moments was would be to backtrack up just a couple verses and see what reasons he pointed out I think that is you and I see these reasons in Paul's life we're going to see that they are also in up ice as well I've got four reasons for you that he describes in these verses that lead up to verse 16 the first one is found in verse 15 so we're just going to go upwards backwards through the text verse 15 says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners there it is right there Paul says if you've ever questioned whether or not God is patience for you and what's happening in your life in the year 2013 if you're ever wondering whether or not he can handle all the stuff that you got going on in your life would you just remember that he has saved you the patience that was required for him to make sure you came to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and that you are now on your way to heaven ever to be eternally separated from him the patients that had required for him to arrange all of that if that in and of itself isn't enough to describe to you and to display to you how lavish his patience is Paul says I don't know what is Paul says you know why I'm a demonstration of the perfect patience of God because he saved me now listen I want you to think about all that went into you being alive right now in this generation one of the greatest generations of the history of the world you and I have the privilege to live in where there are great Bible teaching churches on pretty much every corner that you can go to you and I have the privilege in this generation to turn on Christian radio stations in Dallas we've got one that's for more traditional music if you like that or more contemporary music there's an entire other radio station and there are Christian bookstores where you and I can go in and buy any Bible in any translation in any language that we would like there are more Bible study resources that have been created for believers in Jesus Christ in this day and age than ever before you and I live in a blessed privileged raishin and age don't for a second my friends think that that is by chance you need to know that your great-great-grandfather the seven billion people that are on the planet he just happened to find the right woman that would be your great-great grandmother they got together and your great-grandmother was born and then your great-grandmother with these seven billion plus people that are on the planet she happened to find the exact right guy that would be your great-grandfather they came together your grandfather was born and then your grandfather was the seven billion plus people that are on the planet he happened to find your grandmother they came together your father was created and then your father with the seven billion plus people on the planet he just happened to find the woman that should be your mama then the two of them came together and I hope this not too aggressive but all the millions of sound the exact right one came to meet with that head so that you would be created my friend there's nothing happened Stan's about that but God of the universe thought of that years and years and years ago and had you planned for the year 2013 in fact even if you're visiting here for the first time and you're sitting here and you're still trying to figure out how in the world you got here you need no hide you got it you're trying to figure out how your friend that drugged you here kicking and screaming got you into the sanctuary you need to know that you might not know how you got here but Jeremiah 1:5 says before the foundation of the world he had this day planned on the calendar of your life he has orchestrated events to cause you to be here right now in this time you know what's an even bigger miracle than your physical burst your spiritual birth it's a bigger miracle and I'll tell you why the reason is because the enemy of this world works overtime to keep the hard the hearts hardened of human beings the eyes blinded so that no matter how much you tell somebody about Jesus some of you have family members like this or friends like this you're telling them you're telling them you're telling them but no matter what you say they cannot respond their hearts just seem to get harder and harder every time first Corinthians chapter four says because the enemy of this world works overtime to keep them blind so that they cannot see which is why as we tell people about Jesus we also have to be on our knees praying and saying Holy Spirit will you soften their heart when you lift the veil from their eyes so that they can see Jesus Christ clearly so the very fact that you responded when someone told you about Jesus is a miracle it means the Holy Spirit was already working on your heart before the person ever said Jesus out of their mouth figure to your us or to your hearing and so my friend you need to know that not only did you orchestrate their physical birth you need to know that he orchestrated your spiritual birth in fact it started at the very beginning of time I want you to think about time and history like a big chessboard with the enemies sitting on one side and the god of the universe sitting on the other and so God makes a move he creates Adam and Eve and they are in unity and fellowship and perfection with him but then the enemy not to be outdone he makes a move he slithers into the garden and he caused sin to enter into the world and as a result Cain kills Abel and it looks like the enemy has the upper hand but our God not to be outdone he's on the other side of the chessboard and he makes another move he causes Adam and Eve to come back together so that they have another baby named Seth and Seth has a baby named Enoch in Genesis chapter 4 it says that when Enoch was born everybody began to praise and worship God again but the enemy not to be outdone he makes another move he causes sin and rebellion to seep back into the hearts of mankind but God not to be outdone he goes to a little town called Ernie raises up this man called Abram and he said to him listen I'm going to make of you a great nation and so it looks like God has the upper hand but the enemy not to be outdone he makes another move and he causes sin and rebellion of seatback into the hearts of man and he causes this people that have been marked by God Israel he causes them to up to be transferred into Egypt and they're enslaved for 400 years and it looks like the enemy have jumped me up for him but our God not to be outdone he makes yet another move on the cosmic chessboard and he causes a baby to be born named Moses and Moses will be raised as the Prince of Egypt and then at the right time in the right way he would go to Pharaoh and say you let my people go and after 10 miraculous plagues they would go through the wilderness and into finally the promised land but the enemy not to be outdone he makes another move and listen by the time you get to the end of the book of Judges it ends this way the last slide of the book of Judges says and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes sounds like our country right now doesn't it but our God not to be outdone he goes to a little town called Moab and he raises up a woman named Ruth and Ruth meets a kinsman redeemer after tragedy in her life she meets a kinsman redeemer and they give birth to a baby named Obed and Obed give birth to Jesse and Jesse gives birth to a baby named David and with that one move the enemy doesn't even know that the checkmate is already on the way and their sin and rebellion and the unity among God's people and between God's people and himself has completely broken and the Old Testament closes and it looks like the enemy has the upper hand he is sitting on his side of the chessboard where they smirk a devious smirk on his face because it looks like he is one when the Old Testament comes to a close and there are 400 years of silence they both sit on either side of the board and all of humanity waits to see who's going to make the next move and then the New Testament opens and Jesus Christ enters the world God makes a move that the enemy will never and have never been able to recover from Jesus Christ hinders the scene a hit is checkmate baby the victory has been won once and for all and he did all of that for you if you've ever wondered whether or not God can handle what has happened in the last year of your life would you consider that 2,000 years ago and beyond he started the process of making sure that you would be able to come into relationship with him and if he can handle from the beginning of time until now he's got the last six months of your life covered he's got enough patience to handle whatever you're dealing with in your life positive if you've ever wondered whether or not God's got enough patience would you just remember and he saved you Paul says there's another reason and that reason is found in verse 13 and 14 he says even though I was formerly somebody say formerly formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor yet I was shown mercy yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief I love that first line he says even though I was formerly a blasphemer violent aggressor and a persecutor so Paul now gives us three specific things that are on his sin resume he says I'm going to tell you these three but he says before I lift them to you I want you to know that those things are what used to describe me formerly key word they are not who I am anymore he says you want to know why I am a testament of how patient got it not only because he saved me but because he changed me salvation was my justification but the fact that he's changing me that's my sanctification it means he is loading me into the image of Jesus Christ he doesn't leave me in the state I have always been in Paul said the man that I was when I first met Jesus on the road to Damascus some years ago the man that is standing before you right now is not that same guy anymore I don't think the same thoughts I don't do the same stuff I don't want to look at and participate in the same things it doesn't mean I'm perfect it just means I'm not the same person that I used to be I'm so glad y'all but I'm not the same person I I'm so glad when I look in the mirror today but it's not the same Priscilla I was five years ago and when you and I become believers in Jesus Christ you get the greatest gift ever known to mankind the Holy Spirit takes up residence on the inside of you listen the Holy Spirit is not a ghost or a wind or a fire or a dove he's often symbolized by those things but that ain't who he is the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity not third because he has least in value in some way just third because he's the last to be revealed to us in the pages of Scripture but all of the fullness all of the holiness all of the grams are all of a greatness all of the authority all of the power that is in God the Father is in the person of the Holy Spirit and if you're a believer in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit lives in you that means all of the folders all of a grandeur all of the greatness all of the power all of the authority of God the Father now lives on the inside of you and listen to this of all of the things that the Holy Spirit does in our life because there are many things the Holy Spirit brings us comfort guidance but one of the main things 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 13 says that his job in us is to sanctify us that's his work I mean that stuff is that's his business that's what he does he changes you now we cooperate with him when we yield to the prompting the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we are in the Word of God renewing our minds we cooperate but it's not your job to change yourself it's the Holy Spirit's job to mold you and to change you which is why you sit in those movies that you used to sit in before salvation and all of a sudden man if something just feels uneasy about seeing those images on the screen it's because he's working on you it's you're in the same pool of gossip you used to be in on your job and Randy used to join right in but now you just feel like maybe you need to back out of that because you feel uneasy that's God's work in you it's when you're in a fight with your spouse and men who cannot work wait to get the last word and all you're doing but right before you do you feel something of the inside go you might win this little battle but you'll lose the war if you say that that's the Holy Spirit's work changing you transforming you making you a different woman a different man than you used to be Paul said if you ever have questioned the patience of God in your life you better think about the fact that you have not only been saved but you are being changed he is patient enough with you to walk with you day in and day out as you take one step forward and two steps back another step forward and two steps back as you walk this journey with God your friends might not hang with you your mama might have had enough of you your spouse might even leave you my friend but there is one who will never leave you nor forsake you will walk with you every single day of your life as you are being changed and transformed and that is our great God he's patient enough for that have you have you ever wondered how popcorn pops somebody say yes I'm so glad that you want to know every little kernel of corn has a microscopic amount of water on the inside of the kernel so when you take a bag of microwave popcorn you put all those kernels inside of the microwave the heat from the microwave is heating up the microscopic dot of water that is inside every single kernel so as the water heats up it begins to create steam and the steam begins to press against the shell and it gets harder and harder until finally it it pops this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in your life you've got the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you and no one can see it but you know it's there and so as you heat up the presence of God in your life through the reading of God's Word and prayer and attendance and assembling with the family family of God in obedience to him as you heat up the Holy Spirit's work in your life he becomes begins to overpower you so much so that eventually you pop up friends and your body starts to look a completely different way than it used to you start thinking different and doing different things and walking differently and speaking differently not because you changed from the outside in but because you change from the inside out and he has enough patience to hang with you through the transformation process he saved you justification he has changed to sanctification but that's not all Paul says there was another thing in my life that has happened that speaks to the patience of God verse 12 says I think Jesus Christ our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into service Paul says I can't believe this one can't believe it Paul says after my history after all I've done he is putting me in the service I can't believe it he saved me he changed me and now he is using me for his glory I can't believe somebody like me could be used by God I mean not after all I've done not after all the places I've been not after all that I've seen I cannot believe it and can I tell you that I feel similarly I guess to the way Paul does I can't believe that God might use me for his glory and and I don't even mean as much in this setting I enjoy ministry love it it's my privilege to serve the body of Christ but I don't even mean as much here when I say I can't believe God would use me I think mostly about the smaller spheres of influence that God has me in for example married to a man that God has given me and has given me to him and my goal of his wife is to encourage and to serve this man so that one day when Jerry sees Jesus face-to-face he gets to hear Jesus say to him well done my job is to help make sure my man hears a well done I can't believe God would entrust me with that when I look at these three little boys that God had given me I mean have you ever been sent home from the hospital with a baby and you think are you sorry sure so God has given me these three boys that are going to be raised up to be warrior men for the kingdom or I will spank their butts oh you don't love Jesus you gonna serve him with your whole heart too but I can't believe God would entrust me with that and do you know what the enemy would want the enemy would want for you and for me - so downplay the significance of the pools of influence he has placed us in that we don't even recognize the fact that God has strategically placed us in that location to be used for his glory so he wants you to think that you're just in that neighborhood by chance mm-hmm he has positioned you between those two neighbors for his glory he wants you to think you just happened to get that job because that's just a job you have and he puts you in that office for his glory the location that you are in my friend is the exact place he has patiently placed you to be used for his glory he has saved you there's your justification he has changed you there's your sanctification and he's using you in that specific location for his glory Paul says finally I think Jesus Christ our Lord verse 12 because he has strengthened me Paul says he saved me he changed me he's positioned me and he strengthened me she gives me enough strength to handle this location that I'm in even though I feel like I cannot do what God is calling me to do as a wife as a mom as a single woman as a single man as a businessman career man ministry woman as even though I feel sometimes I'm overwhelmed Paul says I'm so glad that I serve a God who continually strengthens me who is patient enough to keep giving me every day the brand new mercies I need to do what He has called me to do Paul says he's got enough patience for me I'm a demonstration of it and I am a demonstration of the patience of Gotha knee says listen take a good look in the mirror because you are - there is nothing you've done no place you've been no where you have travelled that it puts you outside of the reach of God if he was patient enough to say you and to still be changing you and to be using you for his glory and giving you strength every single day to make it to the end of the day if he has enough patience for that then you need to know he's got your back today to the end of your days you never again have to walk in bondage wondering whether or not this straw will break the camel's back and God might be done with you she's got too much patience for that I want to pray for you because I want to ask the Lord to set anybody free in this room that might need to be reminded about how God's loving-kindness endures forever and that it is a banner of love over your life and that you no longer ever again have to question whether or not God is done with you or it's put you on the Shelf I want to pray that God would set somebody free today so as you bow your heads and close your eyes and pastor Paul I know you're going to take over the service there and Anderson mill I want to pray for those of you who are online and at the other campus and here just praying that you would see and sense and know beyond any reasonable doubt the patience and the endurance that God has over your life so you can be free be free if there's anybody who the enemy has used the fly specifically against you that man you have been walking on eggshells and you want to be free today as your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed if that's kind of you and you needed to hear this simple word about God's patience today would you just raise your hand because I'm going to pray that that chain would be broken over your life just keep your hand up all over even online just keep your hand up and I'm going to pray for you Lord Jesus I thank you for my brothers and sisters that are all over that have their hands raised right now lord I thank you that your banner over us is love I thank you Lord that that's the way we attribute patience to human beings that they run out of patience but they're intolerant that they can't stand with us over a long period of time I thank you that you are not that way toward us God that you endure with us forever lord I pray right now that any shackles of shame or that the enemy has tried to place over these believers when I am praying that that shackle would be broken right now in Jesus name and by his blood shed on Calvary what I pray for freedom Lord that you would lose these women lose these men to just live in the full abundance that you were deem them for and Lord we thank you in advance for the great victories we will see achieved in every single life because now we know