Priscilla Shirer: Set Up to Win

Sherri's is there people who love the Lord they live for the Lord and they love the Word of God and so what comes out of them is really a part of what's in them it's a part of their DNA and so I am so excited to have on a Sunday morning at James River church for the first time Priscilla Shire would you give it up for priscilla shirer summer - James River Church a men amen well hi y'all it's so great to have an opportunity to be with you this morning we really love this church so much and love what God is doing in this house and through this house particularly obviously with the Women's Conference which is the reason why I have the privilege to be here this weekend and then a couple of years ago I was also at the Women's Conference and to just see what God is doing and how he's growing it not only in numbers but growing it's reaching its potential and it's anointing God's favor was there so powerfully and beautifully all weekend long and I kind of just wanted to take a second before we go on to this message to echo the encouragement that you've been given ladies to register early for next year for several reasons one of them is that I don't know if you've noticed all notice or not but in the venue this year in the arena's there was only like a couple of rows at the very top that were left open it was almost completely full and this is just your first year in that arena which means that there are lots of people coming in from outside of your city and the state even in coming in for this incredible movement it with this particular conference and it's a good thing but if there is one negative side to that it could be that they all register first and the women of James River don't actually get a seat and that would be a tragedy for you all not to be able to be there front and center so please do register early because we are so excited about all that God is doing in your church and doing through that incredible ministry and I also want to tell you that Jerry and I are very impacted by your pastors by the leadership of this church the entire team of leadership of this church amen I want y'all to know that in the privilege that we have of traveling to many different churches and being the privilege of being with many different ministries that that sometimes it's not the case that you were with leadership that actually has integrity that are the same people in front of folks that they are when nobody's looking sometimes that's not always the case and so you all need to know it this church that everybody ain't got it this good and that to have leaders that genuinely love the Lord and love you it is a blessing and so we honor your pastors and we honor the leadership team mrs.

Kirk thank you for inviting us I want to pray with you and then I want to share with you a few simple simple principles from Scripture that I pray will impact your life as much as I have found that they have impacted mine let's pray Lord Jesus thank you so much for this privilege that we have to be in your presence and that we have to hear your voice through the word what I pray that you would do what only you can would you take this one little simple message would you divide it a couple thousand different ways so that every single one of us will hear from you Lord we're glad that each other is here but we didn't come to see each other we came to hear from you so God would you please open every spiritual ears and help us to be attentive to your word we are your servants and we're listening in Jesus name everybody agreed and said Amen as was mentioned Jerry and I have three boys Jackson is our just about 12 year old and then Jerry jr. is our 10 year old and then we have a little surprise one we still don't know how he got here he is our just about six year old and four days he'll be six years old he's looking forward to that sixth birthday we named him Jude and we named him Jude on purpose because that's as close as I could get to revelation because it is finished at the end of the line well I got Jackson's very junior head little sweet dude and they are our boys I will tell you one distinguishing factor about our boys is they are just big boys my 11 year old already wears a size 12 men's shoe that's what size he's in I know my husband only wears a 13 and our 11 year old is in a 12 and my 10 year old even were in a pen and a Half Men shoe their little brother is not far behind and they're just big guys and one of the ways that have worked out well for them is in sports they do enjoy sports kind of whatever is in season we just are playing and there are a couple of them that haven't really figured out their nips yet they like sports but they haven't figured out what their thing is going to be when our second son has Jerry jr. loves baseball we call him JC and JC has been involved in baseball for probably five years now or so it's just it's just his thing and I got a brag on them a little bit and tell you that he actually he's got a knack for it he's really a very good baseball player and I think that his size helps them out quite a bit he's already able to when he gets a good hit he hits the ball over the fence line for his home runs and he's great at first base he makes lots of great stops and lots of good outs of the first baseman so we're pretty proud of him as a baseball player and we enjoyed the baseball season we're in Fall Ball right now spring ball will be later on next year and in the fall obviously the weather is nice and cool we go out for practice in the evening and when we're out at practice Jerry or I whoever takes them it's kind of nice sitting outside the breeze is blowing same thing in spring ball you go outside and in the spring and the evenings it feels nice outside the games are a family affair on Saturday morning it's cool outside feels good the problem with spring ball though is that spring dovetails into summer now I don't know what happens in Missouri in the summer but in Texas mid to late summer it gets hot like ungodly hot where the Sun is no longer your friends and it's just beating down brutally upon you and you're sitting out there at the game that sometimes is not first thing in the morning it's at high noon or one o'clock when the Sun is in the middle of the sky and you're sitting there trying to cheer your kid on but you're sweating bullets from the fitness sweating running down your shirt your jeans and your doing hot out there and it really still is variable when there's just one game but the problem is at the end of spring ball there is a tournament a series and so you're going to be out there on Thursday and you're going to play that first game and if your kid does good then the team goes on to the second game that day and then if they do one of the second game they will probably play a third game as they do well on Thursday then they move on to Friday's series of games and if they do well on Friday they come back on Saturday and if they do well on Saturday they come back on Sunday some of you are not in your head because you have kids in Little League you know exactly what I'm talking about and you're sitting out there trying to be happy for your kid but you're wondering if there is ever a time that it is okay to pray your kid loses so you can go home can I just get one witness they might know I'm talking about and I will neither confirm nor deny that I have ever done that but I do recall last summer being outside it was extremely extremely hot my husband bought this huge outdoor kind of tent thingy from Dick's outdoor sporting outdoor goods and we were sitting out there under the tent but still it was brutally hot and we're sweating and they played two games that morning it was finally time for a break so we were glad to have a little break we went into the car to a restaurant for some air conditioned and we sat there drink some cool water a some some salad something cold so that we could just cool off and we felt refreshed as we went back to the baseball diamond for a believable of the third game that day and as we took all the gear out of the car to walk over toward the dugout where my son my son's team was going to be playing I watched something happen to my son now he's normally a fairly confident gregarious young man and I watched him his chin had been up in excitement and enthusiasm about this next game as we marched over but if countenance change his shinmin had been up all of a sudden as we got closer to the baseball diamond his chin began to hang down I watched him start wringing his hands wiping them on his clothes because they were sweating and I watched that chest that had been poked out in confidence all of a sudden it was kind of hungover and I could not figure out for the life of me why in the world his countenance could change so dramatically from just the car to the dugout so I kind of looked around as I was carrying that big bag of stuff I looked around to figure out what was going on and then I spotted what I thought the problem might be there was a huge tree and underneath the shade of the tree lay the team members that were on the team we were about to play I got a good look at these team members and when I looked at them I realized that these guys were a part of a team that had faced my boys team earlier in the season and when this team had played my French team they had annihilated my son's team earlier in the season I mean it had been a complete upset it was embarrassing these boys had worked these ones were serious baseball players you know the kind of have those furious parents it was that kind of team these boys you know they were the kind that when their parents gave birth to them they immediately right there in the hospital put a mint on one hand and a baseball on the other serious players and so we were getting ready to play this team all over again and I watched my boy in security and started to overwhelm him as he realized this was the team that we were about to play but as we passed closely by them we overheard two members of the team talking to each other they thought they were whispering but they weren't doing a great job so we heard them as we walked by one leaned over to the other and said there was that big that big kid from the other team do you remember him yeah he's the one that hits the ball and it went over the fence you mean the one that was that first base the first baseman the one that caught the outs that was him the kid leaned over and said yeah that's Gerry Shire when my boy heard his name crossed the lips of the opposing team members all of a sudden that chin that was down all of a sudden it went back up again his chest poked back out all of a sudden he got his swag back in fact we had to take him down a few notches before the game started because it really is amazing how your countenance can change when you really understand what the enemy thinks about you that no matter what the challenge is that you have ahead of you when you really understand and believe every single thing that the Word of God declares to be true about you it changes the way you face the battle it changes the way you face the enemy when you understand that every time the enemy sees you coming he is shaking in his boots because you have a daughter or a son of God you are a threat to everything that he is trying to do so no matter what your challenge is today whether app in your marriage or in your finances are in your singleness or on your job or in your ministry no matter what the challenges that you have to that is that you have to face you need to really understand that the enemy believes every single thing that the Word of God declares to be true about you that even if you don't believe you are victorious the enemy does even if you don't believe that you have been forgiven the enemy is completely sure because God's Word declares it to be true that you are free that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus you might not believe it but the enemy knows beyond any reasonable doubt that he is already under your feet he knows that he can form a weapon against you but that it will never prosper he is very clear on the fact that because 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 says that you've been made competent by the Spirit of God that you are totally capable to handle anything that may come your way even if we don't believe it the enemy knows beyond any reasonable doubt that in the end we win y'all what a tragedy it would be for the enemy to believe more about our potential than we do what a tragedy it would be that when you face the difficulties that come with life the next game that you've got to play the next bat you have to swing the next hurdle that you have to get over on the journey of your life what a tragedy if we get to the hurdle and we shrink back and fear or discouragement when when the enemy knows beyond any reasonable doubt that if we ever just really step in to all that God has called up and commissioned us to be as daughters and sons that that we could cross any river we could get across any hurdle we by the spirit of God's power can get around and across anything that comes our way and move forward to the destiny that God has for us and so I want to offer encouragement for anyone that is in the room on this wet Sunday morning and there is a hurdle in front of you you like my boy are are seeing this intimidating circumstance that is in your path and you're wondering how in the world you're going to ever be able to get across this or through this or around this so that you can move forward toward the destiny that God has for you there is encouragement for anyone in this room that finds themselves and that sort of predicament from a group of people that know exactly how that feels the children of Israel had just been released from slavery for 500 years nearly of slavery in Egypt they had just been released after ten miraculous plagues they're on the journey with God just like you and I are they are headed toward the promised land the land flowing with milk and honey that was representative of the place that would have God's power and God's presence and God's favor with them consistently and constantly they are on the journey with God but on the way they come across a little problem called the Red Sea a hurdle they're going to have to get over so that they can get on with their lives I want to find out how they handle that problem it's good help us and instruct us on how we can handle ours if you have your Bible and you want to turn with me to Exodus chapter 14 if you still actually use a Bible with paper pages like I do or you can use your iPhone your iPad any manner of i-ness just flip on over to Exodus chapter 14 I believe they may have it on the screens as well for us to see how the children of Israel handle the Red Sea Exodus chapter 14 verse 13 and 14 Moses says to the people do not fear stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will somebody say he will which he will accomplish for you today for the Egyptians whom you sing today you will never see them again forever the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent that's good isn't it listen to that again Moses says to the people while they're still looking at the Red Sea that they have to see no miracle yet they don't know how it's going to be divided they can't figure out how in the world they're ever going to be able to move forward on their journey with God Moses looks at this discouraged people and says to them do not fear cause ain't nobody got time for that stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will somebody say he will he will accomplish for you today for the Egyptians whom you've seen today you will never see them again forever the Lord will do the fighting for you if you'll just keep silent Moses look to the children of Israel in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles he looks at them and he gives them for instructions for instructions that I want to share with you but before I do I want to make sure that you did not miss the fact that embedded within these little two verses that have these four instructions for those of us that need to get across hurdles in our life embedded within these two verses there is a declaration of victory that the promise of victory is already there he doesn't say that God might give us victory today that we're going to hope that maybe possibly we'll be able to have victory today he said that he will accomplish this victory on your behalf he sent to the children of Israel that you need to change your vantage point completely you are not getting ready to fight for victory you are fighting from a place of victory you're already in a position that is victorious it changes the way you face the battle when you understand that the victory has already been given to you that there are some things in Christ Jesus that are already done the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen and it changes everything when you realize the victory is already yours you see everything from a different perspective and so Moses is not getting ready to give them instructions that will help them create the victory or manipulate for the victory he is only going to tell them the four things they need to do so that they can just lay hold of the victory that is already theirs the Lord says to us this morning on this Sunday morning that if you will do these four things these four things will allow you to lay hold of the victory he's already got planned for your life the first thing he says is be fearless he says do not fear then he says be still stand firm then he says be watchful see the salvation of the Lord and then he says be quiet I thought for just a few moments you and I can look at each of these four things these four things that are so simple they sound so simple but they can be hard to inscribe on our hearts and implement in our lives but if we'll make a decision to do it we too will see how to get across the red would be a Red Sea circumstances of our life and move on to the victories that the Lord has planned for us the very first big instruction that Moses gives to the children of Israel and that the holy spirit gives to us today is that we ought to be fearless he says do not be afraid so important if this issue of fear that over 300 times between the Old Testament and the new over 300 times God's people are commanded in some form or fashion do not be afraid it's said in different ways be fearless do not be afraid fear not over and over and over again we have daughters and sons of the Most High God are commanded to choose fearlessness now it makes sense that Moses would need to give the children of Israel these instructions makes complete sense remember they had just come out of brutal living for 500 years they had been completely traumatized and brutalized they are just days out of that situation days out of that circumstance they want so desperately to get to Canaan and they want so anxiously to get away further and further from Egypt and the captors and on their way there they come across this Red Sea and yo when they looked across the Red Sea they could not see the shoreline on the other side and when they look to the right they could not see that there was any land for them to go around and when they look to the left they saw more of the same it seemed to them that they were completely blocked blocked in on the front to make matters worse Pharaoh's heart was hardened all over again he decided to get his homeboys and to come after them so Pharaoh and his army came up on the rear so now they're blocked in the front and they're blocked behind but the problem is not only that they're blocked in front and behind but scholars say that Pharaoh's army would have been so vast that they also would have spanned out around the east and the west side of the children of Israel so not only do they have a problem in front not only do they have a problem behind there's also a problem on both sides in other words they are completely surrounded in a group this size I bet there are some of you sitting in this room and you know how it feels to be completely surrounded because you just took care of this problem only to turn this way in your life and realize there's another problem waiting on you then you took care of this one only to turn this way and realize this another one here and then you turn this way only to realize there's another one here everywhere you look it just seems like you are surrounded on all sides the children of Israel know exactly how you feel and it makes sense when you are surrounded on all sides that fear would well up within you and seek to to paralyze you and you from from moving forward or from moving on in your life which is why Moses had to say to these people the exact same thing that the Holy Spirit has to say to us in our own personal life circumstances do not be afraid it does not mean you won't feel the fear it means you will choose not to wallow in the fear that you feel it don't mean it does not mean that fear and intimidation and insecurity might not well up within you it doesn't mean that they will knock on the door of your life but it doesn't mean that when they do you will not open the door and invite them in and tell them to stay a while and make them some tea and crackers and have a party with them it means that you don't make friends with the fear that you feel it means that every time that fear welled up on the inside of you you take every thought captive to the authority of Christ that you find the promises of God that apply to that with you of which you are afraid and you speak God's Word over your circumstances y'all this life that we are living yo that's not a playground this is a battlefield don't you know there is an enemy who is after your destiny he knows that on the other side of that thing that you are afraid of is milk and honey so he's gonna do everything he can to so you that you never want to move forward toward that thing that you are afraid of because he knows that on the other side of that is the promised land that's got your name on it but you got to make a decision not to be afraid but you won't let fear hamper you or her throughout the progress of your life listen I want you to know that when I am trying to discern God's will in my life let's say there are two things Jerry and I are praying through what do we do how do we move forward which options should we take if there is one option that I'm not interested in I mean I just don't like that I'd rather do this over here I just don't want this when I pray through it and I think through all the reasons why I don't want this particular option if at any level even at the root if I find that it has anything to do with the fact that I'm afraid of it or I'm intimidated by it or I don't think I'm capable enough or insecurity if any of that is wallowing down at the bottom of my reason why I do not want to do something I automatically assume that the enemy must be behind that because you see God does not give a spirit of fear now our God hears him the gift gives a giving business he loves to give his children gift but one gift gift you will never find coming from God it will never have a bow on it with a with an oath and God saying hey I got a gift for you one gifts you will never find coming from God his fear he doesn't do it but power love found mine that's God okay so if I discover that the spirit of fear is attached to something in my life and I know that God does not give fear then I automatically assume that it must be the enemy behind that fear and if the enemy is working that hard to cause me to steer clear of that thing it must be because he knows there is something in that thing he does not want me to have and I don't know about y'all but when I find out that the enemy is behind something it causes the holy indignation to rise up on the inside of me because anything and everything that the enemy does not want me to have that's exactly what I want to have and so I begin to pray and I say Lord why is the enemy working so hard to cause me to steer clear of that thing if there's something in that thing or on the other side of that thing that have to do with your destiny for my life or blessings for my life Lord don't allow me to fear clear of the things that the enemy wants me to just simply be afraid of my friend don't be afraid cross that red sea on the other side is the promised land don't allow the enemy that the joy of causing us to be so paralyzed that he causes us to steer clear of the very things that he knows are best for our lives I remember I remember when my boys began to love baseball I remember it so clearly because it was it was a unique Christmas for us and I'll tell you why up until very recently I told the women this at the conference this weekend up until very recently this is how we did Christmas I went to the dollar store and bought each of my kids a couple little things from the dollar store and I did that for a couple of reasons number one I decided I was going to milk that as long as I could as long as they didn't know that those things weren't worth nothing I was going to do that as long as I could and I'd put them underneath this little three-foot tree we have just in the last couple trees a couple of years gotten a you know a real Christmas tree because the boys were all bigger than the three-foot tricky co-ed and so we've just kind of graduated up just a little bit the boys are just now you know they're starting to in the last few years discover that the Dollar Tree thing the Dollar General Store stuff is not really what they want to see under the tree but I did that you know for several reasons and one of the reasons is to that my children have grandparents can somebody say Amen about noon on Christmas Day every Christmas day as long as I can remember after we had a little Christmas at home myself and all of my siblings and all of our children we all go to nonny and Poppy's house my parents and that is where my kids get the loot amen are there any grandparents in the room any picker we want you to know we love you you just keep doing what you do we appreciate it so that's where my boys get the goods at grandparents at their grandparents house but on this particular Christmas it was a unique Christmas because I had gone to the dollar store and I got a couple things put it under the Christmas tree but that Christmas Jude wasn't even with us yet was just my oldest two boys I think they were like five and three years old Gary decided he was going to go to Toys R Us and get them one real gift so he got them this little plastic baseball machine it was a machine that catapulted baseballs out at a certain frequency and a certain velocity just little plastic baseballs and your kid stands there with the plastic helmet on little plastic baseball and waits for those balls to come out well of course you know how kids are as soon as they opened up at seven o'clock on Christmas morning they want you to put it together go outside it's cold you're in your bathrobe every were seven in the morning outside watching them play this game and my normally very gregarious outgoing son you know he's standing there with that little helmet on he's three he's at least swinging at every single ball that comes flying out of that chute and and his older brother who's a little bit more reserved and a little bit more cautious he's standing off to the side he's watching these balls come out mom I can't do that I said buddy yes you can you can do it it's going to be so fun it's almost your turn no mom I don't think I can do that no bowling balls are too bad you can do it no mom I can you can do it and you're going to do it because it's seven o'clock in the morning I'm out here in my bathrobe it's cold out here you don't do it so finally at his turn he stands there I'm getting that the helmet all put on him and everything and I get set up he's standing there with the bat and he is horrified at the thought that the ball is going to come out of that hole I felt so bad for him he was so insecure and and so unsure of himself and I was just wishing I could get his little five-year-old brain to understand something that I knew what I knew is that while I was getting his helmet on his dad had gone behind the machine and had opened up this little flap that reveals some gears the gears could be adjusted and manipulated so that the frequency and the velocity of the balls was matched up to the capability of the person that was standing at the plate so the reason my boy had no reason to fear it's because he had a daddy who loved him who had already gone behind the scenes and had already orchestrated the event so that he was fed up to win can I tell you why you have no reason to fear you have no reason to fear because y'all we have a daddy who loves us right now as we're sitting in this room he has already gone behind the scenes of your life he is orchestrating events and circumstances and people and people he is connecting the dots so that all you have to do is say yes Lord in obedience and step up to the plate of God's will for your life and every single time you do that in obedience you will hit a homerun not because you're so great but because you have a daddy who loves you and who is great and who he is working on your behalf and on my behalf do not be afraid the second thing that that Moses says is listen listen not only do you need to not be afraid he says I want you to be still some translations of that verse the one I read to you says stand by others say stand firm and still others say stand still I want you to notice the two parts of the command the standing part and the stillness part just so we're clear I've got a problem with both of these the standing part and the Phyllis and the reason why I have a problem with it is because I want you to put yourself in the situation that the children of Israel rid surrounded the Red Sea in front of them an army coming up behind them and Moses the best you've got is stand still don't you see that we've got some swords here available to us mow don't you want us to pick up one of these swords and and go to battle against the children of Israel Moses you do realize we've got a bow and some arrows here we can set them on fire on the ends and go ahead and send them sailing into enemy territory Moses we've got some wood here wouldn't you like us to get this wood and start to chop it up so that we can bind it together and build a raft so that we can get across this body of water motive the best you can come up with a stand still seems like such a passive command in the midst of such active circumstances seems like it makes absolutely no sense to us that this would be what you want us to do to handle this unbelievably difficult scenario that we are finding ourselves in Moses you me you don't want us to lean to our own understanding as to what makes sense to solve this problem you want us simply to plant our feet and to stand firmly and to trust and have confidence we don't even know what God or if God is going to do anything the best you can come up with is just standing in your situation whatever it might be the Holy Spirit says to you today the solution that is coming to your mind as the most rational way that you would handle the circumstance or the way that your experience tells you is the way to handle the circumstance is it always necessarily the best way sometimes your solution is found in just standing firmly on the promises of God and believing that what God says is exactly what he will accomplish in your life and that he never has nor will he ever need our help to bring solution in the circumstances of our life He is God y'all all by himself he does a very good job at being God so sometimes you have to do what seems like the most passive thing not nothing but spending I know it sounds passive but when you think about it there's nothing passive at all about standing when you're busy you've had a busy busy day tiring when you get home if you're like me you take your shoes off you go into the living room and you don't stand you find a place to sit down don't you you sit down because you want to take the weight off you want something else to carry and support and sustain you standing actually requires the the molecular structure of your muscles to begin to to work it requires a decision of your mind your brain has to send a message down into your joints and your muscles and your bones to cooperate there has to be some strength involved to hold up the skeletal structure of your entire body when you think about it passives are outstanding actually sounds passive but if you have the most active things that you can do because it requires every single aspect of your body to stand up it's going to require a decision of your will a results in the midst of circumstances when you're looking at a red senior maybe a fearing or discourage what's discouraged by what's coming behind you it's going to take a deliberate intentional decision of your will to plant your feet on the promises of God to not be swayed to the left or to the right but to decide that I'm going to believe that everything God has declared to be true of me my circumstances this circumstances of things that I hold dear I'm going to believe and trust that everything God says is true standing not passive it's active requires a decision or resolve to plant your feet and stand can I tell you what makes mix Church powerful especially a church like this one a Bible teaching Church where we you are being fed the description a in and day out week in and week out what makes it so powerful it's not that we're in here celebrating it clapping for it waving our hands to it all of that's nice but what matters is whether or not we actually walk out of these doors and our Monday is transformed because we're standing on what we heard on Sunday what matters is whether or not our Tuesday and our Wednesday and our Thursday and our decision making on Friday and our choices on Saturday whether all of that is restructured whether the way with a filter through which we deal with the problems of our life whether we see it completely differently because what we heard is implemented in our lives throughout the rest of the week that's when you stand it's when you recall what God has said to you and then you plant your feet and believe him there's a young lady that interned with our ministry for a summer her name was Katie Katie was a wonderful young woman from Baton Rouge Louisiana Baton Rouge Louisiana is a small pretty small in comparison to Dallas small town and the airport there is pretty small don't know if you've never been in it but it's a small airport and she hadn't really traveled a whole lot in her life anyway but when she had it was in and out of Baton Rouge so when she moved to Dallas T and turned with us for the summer we travel a lot and we travel out of dallas-fort Worth International Airport I don't know if you've ever been in the dallas-fort Worth Airport but it is a monster Airport if you want to get to your plane you first just have to know which terminal you're going to we have five a B C D and E you got to first know which terminal you're going to then each terminal has about thirty to thirty six gates at each terminal you got to know what gate you're going to that would be confusing enough except that most of the gates have a Part A and depart B so you might be going to terminal a gate 33 B on one occasion actually the first occasion that Katie was traveling with us there were five of us the boys me and Jerry and then Katie's so six altogether we drove up to Terminal D so that we could get ready to fly off I think to Los Angeles and we drove up to the airport got out at terminal D we all got in line for security we checked our bags already we were now going through security so we could board our flight somehow all five of us got filtered into a different Lane than Katie so Katie's going through security over there we're going through security right here and for some reason our line was quick all five of us got all the way through security before Katie did so we're all standing on the other side of security and Katie's still on the back side and and she shrugged her shoulders she doesn't know what's going on with her line and why it's taking so long so Jerry decides to just send her little text he send her a text and said Katie we will meet you at gate 22a now remember we're in terminal D he says we'll meet you at gate 22a now when you come through security gate 22a was right there we could see it we went ahead and took the kids to the gate got them all settled we waited for Katie they started to board the flight I decided to go ahead and get the kids on so while we're waiting for Katie we got the kids filtered on and we we decided to put our baggage in the overhead compartment get the kids all buckled in and all settles and we're wait for Katie Gerry sends her another text she does not respond we knew she had gotten the text about meeting us at gate 22a she had she had responded to that so we knew she'd gotten that we're waiting for her now other people are boarding the flight and and we can't we can't find her and she's not there she's not responding we know we we believe she's going to miss the flight because now the last person has gotten on the plane we even start to hear them call her name over the loudspeaker you know you late when they start calling your name over the lousy they are about to close the door of the airplane finally at the last second y'all Katie comes running down the jet bridge walking down that little small narrow aisle way of the plane she is sweating bullets her hair is plastered to the side of her face she settles down into her chair and she wipes her sweat and she buckles up and she looks up just in time to find the five of us looking back at her like this we said Katie what in the world happened she said well I saw that Jerry told me to meet y'all at gate 22a but I just assumed that he meant gate a 22 so I got on the airport train that takes you to all the other terminals in the entire Airport when I got to gate a 22 I realized I weren't there so I had to get back on the airport trying to take me all the way around the entire Airport to come back here she literally almost missed the flight and I remember if Jerry's listening to explain what happened he responded to her with something I will never forget he said to her Katie if you would have just believed that exactly what I wrote is exactly what I meant I could have saved you so much time so much energy so much sweat if you would have just believed that exactly what I wrote is exactly what I meant how many sleepless nights an extra sweat and extra frustration and irritation going all the way around how much would it save us if we would just believe that what he says to us he needs and we need to plant our feet and stand on it y'all can I just say sometimes we have become too smart for our own good we tried to craft and create and manipulate and maneuver what God is saying instead of just taking him at his word and if he says he is for you he means I'm for you no one can be against you the weapon might be formed but there's no reason to fear because it just won't prosper whatever he says he means so be fearless and be still the third thing that Moses said to the people is to be watchful he put it this way see the salvation of the Lord now the reason why this one is very interesting to me this bit of instruction is because if you were anything like me you'll know what I mean that when I'm in the midst of a circumstance that I don't particularly care to be in a hurdle that I have to get over or a red sea that I have to get through somehow the last thing I want to do is open my eyes and look at the problem I want to close my eyes and sleep through it I want to pray through it I want to hurry through it I want God to get rid of this whole red sea so we can move on with the Promised Land stuff I don't really want to hang out here and see it and make friends with it I want to get through it real quick Moses says the exact opposite to the children of Israel he says don't close your eyes while you're here standing here at the Red Sea we they have no idea yet that God's going to divide it in just a little while they don't know about the miracle while they're staring at the problem Moses says resist the urge to close your eyes and miss it he says open your eyes and be watchful right now even while you're yet praying for God to do a miracle in your marriage in your finances on your job in that situation open your eyes and see that there is so much God is already doing don't miss out on what's happening today while you're waiting for what God might do tomorrow you'll want to see what God does tomorrow as well but in the meantime keep your eyes open to see the little details of God's work in your life he wanted the children of Israel to see and never forget what it looked like when he stepped out to the edge of that body of water and held out his rod over the Red Sea he wanted always remember what give me what it looked like when the expression on the faces of their toddlers as they're toddlers saw God's miracle begin to unfold he wanted them to never forget the expression on the faces of those little little people in their lives or but the way that the hands felt of their elderly those soft hands as they grabbed grandma and grandpa's hands to walk them across the body of water he wanted them to never forget the details he wanted them to see what their sandals feet look like when they didn't collect any mud on the bottom of them because they were walking across on dry ground he wanted them to always remember what it felt like when that heats wind started to blow slowly at first but then gained more and more and more momentum as it began to become a fierce Gale that was able to divide that body of water he wanted them to remember the details of God's miracle and realize that there was so much to be grateful for God about not just a big miracle but a bunch of little miracles along the way and what if you're waiting on God to do the big thing and you miss all the incredible little things he's doing in the next 24 hours so yeah keep praying keep praying for your marriage keep praying for him to divide the Red Sea keep praying for a beautiful thing to happen in your and your on your job or in your finances or with your child keep praying for the big miracle but while you are praying keep your eyes open for what God is doing today be watchful you know why you should be watchful many reasons but one of them is because y'all it makes you grateful it keeps a smile on your face while you're yet on your knees praying about the whole Red Sea thing it keeps a smile on your face because you're aware that oh God's doing that Oh God did this to ya I still got a big prayer request on my plate but in the meantime let me just tell you God to verse and God did there's a God did this you keep gives you a track record with God and as you build this track record with God of being aware of what he's currently doing in your life as you build that track record it means that the next time you face a new red sea you'll face it with much more confidence because you'll be able to look back at the track Rickard that maybe you wrote down of all the things that you're grateful for that God did the last time and it builds the space on the inside of you because you remember the same God who did that is the same God who will carry me through this so be fearless be still be watchful and finally Moses's be quiet he says guard yourself against complaining close your mouth to negativity do you know that life and death are in the power of your tongue do you know that out of this mouth we can speak blessing or we can speak cursing you got to choose which one you're going to allow your mouth to be an instrument for I remember that I was telling a friend of mine named Lisa something that was going on in my life it was a difficult circumstance and I was trying to give her the details of this difficult circumstance because she's a prayer warrior I knew she would pray with me through it she would give me wise counsel regarding it so I was just trying to give her the details so that she could she could you know give me wise counsel and as I was giving her the details I'm about halfway through my story she stopped me she held out her hand she stopped being she to hang on for Scylla I'm so sorry but you're going to have to start over you can have to start from the top of the story and say it all again I said why she said because I don't really like your word choice it sounds too negative so stop right there start over and let's take it from the top I said excuse me she said I want you to start over he said the reason why Priscilla the reason why you need to choose your words wisely is because you do know that the enemy seeks to form a weapon against you but most often the material that he needs the instruments that he needs to form the weapon he does not have until you hand it to him and every negative word out of your mouth is a handed tool to the enemy to construct the weapon that he intends to use against your life on the flipside the word says he watches over God watches over his word to perform it so she said Priscilla you got to decide do you want to give the enemy something to work with or God you choose you've got to make a decision will you speak blessing over your husband or your wife or what you speak person over your child that yes is very much in reality struggling in that particular situation maybe your adult child yes but are you going to speak blessing or cursing over your finances your jobs your ministry yep it's tough it's difficult you're having a hard time okay I got it but are you going to speak blessing or cursing you decide are you going to give the enemy something to work with or God and then a fearless steadfast watchful silent bunch of Hebrews they saw a miracle of a lifetime in fact when Hollywood did the movie The Ten Commandments years ago it took Hollywood 18 months to figure out how to simulate what our God did in a split second and he did it for a people that were fearless steadfast watchful and 
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