Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer - The Kind of Life That Stirs Revival

((music playing)) hey you may take your seats it's been a phenomenal day hasn't it phenomenal day the entire weekend has been phenomenal that god has met us in this place i want to encourage you before we jump into god's word for this final session i just want to encourage you tomorrow to be planted in the house of god can i do that for a second i want to encourage you that whatever your home church is what we have experienced over these last few days was not intended to take the place of sunday morning tomorrow make your pastor so glad that he sent you out to this place that you go back refueled filled planted ready to worship in spirit and truth and add to what god is doing in your house he has placed you in your local church for a reason if you're staying and hanging out in the area i'm so excited that i'll be at james river so if you want to join me there i'll be there i'm so excited to be there and to be in the church tomorrow i'm excited about what god is going to do in all of our churches for his glory i'm looking forward to just a few more moments in the word of god i've asked the lord to put a little bit of an exclamation point or at least a good you know period there at the end of this sentence he's been writing over the last few days let's pray and ask him to do that lord jesus i thank you for these few moments that we will spend in your word speak father we're eager to hear in jesus name amen i want to tell you about a professor he was a professor of theology in the 1940s in europe and he had a group of university students that he wanted to take on a field trip of sorts his name was professor orr o-r-r he wanted to take these students on a field trip so that they could maybe see and encounter some of the things that they had studied that he wanted to take them to the home and the workplaces of great theologians of old one of them being john wesley john wesley was one of the one of the great reformers of the church so much of the doctrine and the theology upon which the church rests to this day john wesley and others like him contemporaries like him they really did work through a lot of that scriptural content and helped the church to be in a state of health theologically so you and i have benefited from folks like john wesley and so professor orr took his theology students so that they could see john wesley's home on this particular occasion and of course these theology students they loved excuse me the idea of this pardon me they loved the idea this because they had studied john wesley his stuff and his theology and his life and so they went to his home they walked into his home and they saw the kitchen that john wesley would have eaten at the kitchen table that he would have sat at they went into his study they looked at at the desk where he would have sat and where he would have gotten some work done and they marveled at some of the books that were still there preserved um on his shelves and they just sort of ran their fingers over those old spines just sort of excited about that that literature that was there they looked at some of his notes that were written hand-written some of them had been preserved still on the desk john wesley's desk after they left the study they went up the stairs to the bedroom the most intimate dwelling of john wesley and they walked inside of that room and they walked as they kind of filed around they walked around the outer side of the bed and when they came around the outer side of the bed professor orr pointed out two very well worn patches that were marked into the carpet in the flooring there in john wesley's bedroom professor orr remarked to the students that those two patches in the carpet where where john wesley when he would get up in the morning would plant one knee and then the other into this spot on the carpet where he would be not just for a couple minutes a day but several hours where he would bend the knee before god his hands outstretched in prayer asking that the lord would bring revival to the church of jesus christ where he prayed day in and day out week in and week out month in and month out that god would bring a revival that would sweep through not only his part of the world but that would sweep through america that he wanted that he wanted the holy spirit to rain down in so much power and authority that people in mass would come to know jesus christ as lord it was the prayers of john wesley and his contemporaries that really did compel the first and great revi first and second great revivals of the 1900s to sweep through our country where people in mass were coming to know jesus christ as lord it started with two patches on the floor in a man's bedroom sort of like what lisa was describing earlier today just one person choosing to bend the knee before god the students just kind of filed through the bedroom just taking note of everything that they saw there they then left the bedroom they walked back downstairs got back onto the bus so that they could go to the next stop on their tour that they had that day when the professor got on the bus he counted to make sure that all his students were there before he left and he realized one was missing so we walked back into the house into the kitchen nobody was there and he walked into the study and nobody was there and so he walked back up the stairs and he says that before he even crossed the threshold to go into the bedroom he could already hear that someone was inside so he crossed that threshold he went into the bedroom he walked around the outer side of the bed and there with each of his knees planted into the exact spot where john wesley had worn patches into the ground there was one of his students with his hands outstretched praying do it again lord lord would you do it again and would you please start with me professor orr went over to him rested his hand on his shoulder and said hey the students are on the bus it's time for us to go come on and rising from his knees billy graham went and joined the rest of the students on the bus that day i'm so glad that along the way in history there have been some folks who dared to ask god for revival who dared to be the ones that said that what we've experienced this encounter that we've had with god what we've seen it do god's presence do in the lives of other people we want to see that sweep further and wider and bigger and broader we want other people to come to know the lord and i just wonder what would happen if 10 000 sisters in springfield decided to be the ones with knees planted and arms outstretched that that we've decided to be the ones not to be selfish with what we've experienced in here but to be the ones to pray and ask god to ask god to sweep revival through this country in which we live that his spirit would spread far and wide to every tribe and every tongue every culture every background every race every denomination would know the power of the holy spirit he's been far too good to us over the last three days for us not to want other people to know a little bit about this god that we serve there's a portion of scripture that i want to draw your attention to in which we see revival happening it's in the book of mark in mark chapter one just a couple of things i want to point out to you that are going to help you and i to leave this place in a few moments and be stirrers of revival be people who cause other folks appetite to be wet for a little bit of what we've experienced mark chapter one i want to just point out two little simple verses to you and then we're going to look through portions of this chapter together mark chapter 1 verse 28 says this and immediately the news about jesus went out everywhere into all of the surrounding district of galilee listen to that again immediately the news about jesus went everywhere verse 45 the last line of verse 45 says and they were coming to him from everywhere that sounds like revival to me that's what we're after we want people coming to jesus he says if you lift up the light i will do the drawing if you will exalt my name through your life if your lifestyle will reveal the power and the grace and the glory of god if you just live according to the power that i have given you by god's spirit that lives on the inside of you you lift me up i'm the one that will draw people to myself so that folks will be coming to him from everywhere i saw these two little verses or these two lines really in mark chapter one and i wanted to know what was it that was happening in the first chapter of matt mark that compelled people to come to jesus in this way i figured that if you and i could take a little walk through the first chapter of mark you and i would leave with some instruction on the kind of life that stirs revival is everybody okay with that as i look through mark chapter one it occurred to me that the entirety of this chapter really is about about jesus it's a it's a day in the life of jesus christ and if there's going to be any example for us to follow if there is any life that is exemplary enough that you and i would want to emulate and model a life like that person i think that person would be jesus christ and it turns out that mark chapter 1 is about jesus christ there are things that he did things that he said ways that he interacted with other people where when he did it it started revival it compelled people to turn their attention to him there are many characteristics throughout this chapter i figured we could just take two or three of them for just a few moments this afternoon everybody okay with that are y'all still awake would you just pinch the woman's pinch her shoulder and say girl get up get up the very first characteristic the first characteristic about jesus christ that i wanted to highlight to you today so that we can emulate these characteristics of our lord it's found in verse 21 mark 1 21 it says this and they meaning jesus and the disciples they went to capernaum and immediately i mean as soon as they got to capernaum they just got off the airplane immediately on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and he began to teach verse 21 tells us that jesus and the 12 disciples on this day they took a little journey by foot of course probably they took this trip they entered into capernaum and it was immediately that on the sabbath day there was a need somebody needed to teach jesus walked into the synagogue i want you to get the picture here there would have been a crowd of people not only there to listen and to hear and learn but there would have also been the regular teachers that were in the house that day the folks that people would expect and anticipate to carry the burden of the teaching on that that occasion because they usually did the scribes the pharisees the sadducees the religious literate leaders the people that had the knowledge the intellect they'd studied it their whole lives nobody knew about this jesus that had come out of nazareth they weren't sure exactly about who he is or what he could actually do what they did know was that the sadducees and the pharisees these were the people who usually carried the burden of teaching on the sabbath day in the synagogue but here's the characteristic that we see of jesus that on this day he walks into the synagogue in the place where humanly speaking he would have been outmatched that he would have been the underdog he would have been the one that people pointed to as unable and unsuited for the task that was at hand and yet we do not see jesus in this moment where he has not had time to prepare he hasn't gone and gotten the seminary degree he has not studied for this particular task he just walks up and in the power of the holy spirit that rests on him he demonstrates what it's like to have supernatural ability do you know what's going to compel people to come to this god that we serve it's when you go back home or back to your job or back to that organization where you know the task to which you have been assigned you're the underdog you're not as smart as they are you don't have as much skill as they do you don't have as much talent as she does and yet somehow by the power of almighty god that marks your life you do not shrink back in fear and insecurity passing off the task to somebody else but you believe that if god has called you to it he's gonna equip you for it and you step into the gap and you fill the space and the power of almighty god when the world sees us operating y'all with supernatural ability the world will take note that there's got to be a god that we serve that is giving us this kind of confidence not confidence in our own flesh but confidence in the power of god to operate in our weakness y'all one of the main ways we're gonna see the power of god in our own experience i'm talking about where the this god that was powerful enough to divide the red sea in the old testament powerful enough to raise lazarus from the dead in the new testament one of the ways we're going to see this god of the bible leap up off the page and actually experience him in a tangible real practical way in our lives do you know when that happens it happens when you're in a position that you're in over your head it is beyond you you know you're not capable you don't have enough time you don't have enough money you don't have enough patience you don't have enough ideas you don't have enough creativity you're not gifted enough talented enough and yet you excel by the power of god it's when he takes you into a position where you know you can't do it in your natural resources and he gives you his resources to complete the task here's the trouble with us when we're compelled to do something for which we know we are outmatched we let fear talk us out of doing it which means we let fear talk us out of an opportunity to experience god i want to compel you and encourage you that if you've been shrinking back in insecurity from a task to which you know you have been called but you've been passing it off to somebody else who you think is more suited for the task i want to ask you to consider the fact that that exact opportunity is the way he plans to demonstrate his power through you it's the way he intends for everybody else in your office to want to know about this god that you serve it's the way he intends for the people that are on your university campus or or are in that organization or that ministry in which you're involved this is the way where he will draw attention to himself he will glorify himself when we step into the places for which we are not capable in our own natural talent and ability have a friend who puts it this way we pray for miracles but then in the next breath we pray and say lord please keep me out of any situation in which a miracle would actually be required anybody everybody wants to see the red sea divided but nobody actually wants to be the one that's face to face with a red sea everybody wants to see the walls of jericho come tumbling down but nobody wants to be the one who actually has to walk around those walls in obedience to god's word we want to see miracles but nobody wants to be in a place where we have to see miracles when you've been compelled to do something for which you know you are outmatched but you know god's spirit is compelling you to do it anyway this is your opportunity to see the power of god on display if he's called you to the red sea that means he intends to divide it if you'll just show up hold out your rod and expect that great supernatural things are on the way ((music playing)) jesus demonstrates supernatural ability and this is exactly what the apostle paul said the apostle paul said y'all i've learned to boast in my weakness he says i don't just tolerate my weaknesses i actually get thrilled about my weaknesses he says when i'm in a position where i know i am weak where i know i'm not skilled enough or talented enough i've been placed into a position i've been given a promotion i've been given an opportunity that for which i have not trained i did not get a degree in that i don't have enough connections for that i just am not excellent enough in that trade to really excel in my natural talent paul says when i'm in a position like that he says i get the most thrilled because my weakness is a platform for the strength of god to be put on display do you know if we pray and say lord i want to see you if that's your prayer if over the course of these three days we've spent together if you have at any point pray god i want to see you i don't want to just read about you and i don't want to just hear about you i don't want to only celebrate the testimonies of other people who have seen you show up in their lives i'm grateful for their testimonies but if you can do it for them i want you to do it for me i don't want to just hear about you god i want to see you i want you to know when you pray that prayer most of the time he answers by putting you in a situation for which you are ill-prepared and outmatched his answer is okay be weak so i can be strong this trait exemplifies our god that jesus in this scenario stepped into a position where humanly speaking he was outmatched surrounded by people who were more skilled for the task and yet jesus christ entered the synagogue immediately without preparation and just did the thing that was his assignment to do in that moment i have as i mentioned to you guys before i got these three boys and they love sports i mentioned that they are really big boys and that works for them with sports i remember when they first fell in love with sports i remember the exact day that it happened it was a christmas day now let me tell you a little bit about christmas at at our house christmas christmas at our house up up until recently it's changed now because they're older but for the longest time this was my christmas mo i would go to the dollar store and i would pick them just two or three things out for christmas morning at our house and the reason i did that is because my children have grandparents are there any grandparents in the room today any grandparents we want you to know we love you listen we need you to keep doing what you do because every christmas around noon or so the entirety of my family we all go to my parents house my parents still live in the exact same house that they raised us in it's a small house really but all four of us my siblings and i the four of us all of our spouses all of our children so there are like 30 of us that are piled into this fairly small house and we're just all on top of each other in our onesies for the day you know celebrating christmas and that is where my children get the loot so for the longest time what i did was go to the dollar store i decided to milk that as long as i could you know until they realized that what they were getting went worth nothing and i'm the kind of mom also that would not just get the thing from the dollar store but what i would also do is let's say it had parts to it like it was a bow and arrows well i would un-package it and then i would wrap the bow on the arrow so that it just seemed like a lot of stuff you know and they were thrilled i milked that for a long time so they would open up this stuff but one christmas jerry decided to splurge and what jerry did was he went to an actual toys r us and he got this baseball machine it was just this little um toy baseball plastic machine that would catapult baseballs out at a certain frequency and a certain velocity and a kid would stand there with a plastic helmet on and a plastic bat waiting for the ball to come out and swing at the balls as they came out so the boys opened up this gift i didn't even have my youngest son at the time the oldest must have been like five and then i had a three-year-old and they were so excited and you know how it is on christmas morning they don't care that it's six o'clock in the morning they want you to put that thing together right away they don't care that it's freezing outside you gotta go outside to play with the toy and so there we were standing there with our robe on freezing as my three-year-old who is my more gregarious outgoing son he was so excited he put the helmet on he was ready for those balls fast and furious to come flying out of that machine he could not wait and so there he is as we're standing in our robes and he's at least swinging at every single one so thrilled about this whole experience his older brother my oldest son he's more reserved he's a little more cautious it's his personality and he's standing back and he's watching this whole thing he's watching that ball coming out all fast he's seeing it come out as frequently as it did and he's standing over there going i can't i can't do this i said buddy yes you can don't you worry about it you're going to be able to do it you'll be just fine he said no mom i can't do it i said yes baby you can do it he said no mom i can't do that it's too fast i said buddy you can do it i'm trying to encourage him no mama i can't do it yes you can and you gonna do it cause it's six o'clock in the morning i'm out here in my robe you gonna do it today so finally i get him there at the at home plate so to speak and i put that helmet on and i get the bat in his hand and he's just watching the hole there on the machine waiting for the ball to come out and he's just sort of shaking waiting for that ball to come out and i felt so sad for him i wanted him to calm down and enjoy the experience and and i wanted to tell him something that i knew i wanted his five-year-old brain to get that while i was getting him set up at home play his father who loves him had gone behind the back of the machine that re has a little flap you can open up the flap it reveals some gears the gears can be adjusted to accommodate and to be uh situated so that they match the capabilities of the person who's standing at home play so the reason why my boy didn't need to be afraid was not because he was so skilled and talented it was because he had a daddy who loved him who had already gone behind the scenes he had already orchestrated things so that my boy was set up to win if only he'd just step up to the plate and trust that his father was on his side ((applause)) the reason why you have no reason to be afraid is not because of your skill or your talent it's not by power and it's not by might it's by the spirit of god and you've got a daddy who loves you he's already gone behind the scenes listen i need somebody to hear this while you've been at this conference he's already been on your job he's been in your home he's been in the hearts of other people orchestrating details aligning events so that he can just get you to step up to the plate you'll realize when you do that you've already been set up to hit a home run every single time jesus demonstrates for a supernatural ability but not only that it's something else in this passage that i want to point out to you it says in verse 22 of mark chapter one they all who were gathered they were amazed at his teaching and here's why for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes i love this so much they were not just amazed at what he did they were amazed at the way he did it because the scribes the pharisees the religious leaders they were good teachers too the people that were gathered that day y'all they had heard good teaching before and yet there was something that set this teaching apart from all other teaching even if people weren't weren't sure about jesus they didn't know if he was the messiah they didn't know all about this kingdom come business they didn't know about repent the kingdom of god is at hand the redeemer of the world has come they didn't know all about that about that they weren't convinced about all of that but what they did know was that when this jesus showed up blind people could see that's what they knew what they knew was that when this guy showed up deaf ears could hear and the lame could walk the dead were raised and what they knew was that every time this jesus showed up every time his speech spoke his words were dripping with an authority that brought people to complete awe think about how you'd feel if jesus were your bible study teacher jesus had what the scholars did not they were more learned they had more uh they had more finesse they possibly had more uh training humanly speaking but jesus had what they did not have he not only demonstrated supernatural ability he demonstrated supernatural authority he was marked by the presence of god do you know what is going to separate you from everybody else on your job everybody else on that campus everybody else in that organization you might have the exact same skill but what will set you apart is that you are marked by the presence of god this is what separates us it's what makes us unique it's what makes us different that the favor of god is on our lives that's what it is y'all it's favor somebody say favor favor is what makes things unfair favor is what gives you an unfair advantage favor is what opens doors that no man can shut favor is your advantage god's presence hanging heavy on you marking you so that when you go in for the interview they're not sure why they're drawn to you over that person who might have more skill and more talent has more degrees but there's something about you and what it is is that you've been in the presence of god it's supernatural authority it's the marking of us by the presence of our god y'all this is what moses described in exodus chapter 33 they were on the way to the promised land and yahweh is disappointed at the children of israel because they keep complaining despite all god has done for them he's disappointed he says y'all go ahead to the promised land i'll send an angel with you but i'ma hang back and moses says in exodus chapter 33 15 [laughter] in exodus 33 15 moses says we're not going to the promised land without you we don't want the promised land without your presence he says because what will mark us what will make us different what will make it so that all of our enemies know we are set apart and distinct unless your presence go with us basically your presence is what sets us apart we don't want your promises we don't want milk and honey if we don't have the distinguishing characteristics that causes us to have a shield a protective covering that fortifies us and protects us from all others it is the presence of god and your public life will only ever be as powerful and as successful as your private prayer life because that's where the presence of god grows mightily and grows strong in you if the only time you are in the presence of god is once a year at the design for life conference i'm so glad you've come but that ain't good enough if the only time you are soaking in the presence of god is once a week at your home church i'm so glad you go but that ain't good enough if the only time you're in the presence of god is once a week at bible study i'm so glad y'all are in bible study but that ain't good enough you've got to have a daily ongoing encounter and meeting with the presence of god so that his presence becomes your daily portion his presence is what sets us apart i was in target um the other day because i believe uh i mean it's target you know ((applause)) sometimes i will tell my husband that i have an errand that i need to run because we have some things we need to get for the house what i really mean is that i'm going to go to our local super target that has a starbucks right up in the the front of the store and what i really mean is i'm going to that starbucks to get my favorite hot drink and then i'm going to meander aimlessly around the women's section for two hours i will pick up some eggs and milk on my way out but really i'm there just to hang out in tarjay so i was doing this i was doing this exact thing it was my night out at target and i walked to the starbucks to order my favorite hot drink as i usually do and the barista looked back over the counter at me and she said i am so sorry but we are we are out of hot drinks today is this starbucks she said yes ma'am i'm so sorry but one of our machines is broken we don't have any hot drinks i i thought it was hysterical that i could be at starbucks and there'd be no hot drinks i thought it was so funny that i immediately tweeted it i am at starbucks right now and they ain't got no hundreds ((music playing)) immediately folks started tweeting me back one person tweeted back and said i just drove through burger king and they were out of burgers [laughter] ((applause)) somebody said we just went to dunkin donuts and they had no donuts somebody said i just went to a little restaurant called el pollo loco and there was no polio my husband texted me later on and he said i just went to that little gas station around the corner from our house there was no gas at the gas station today and just as ridiculous and absurd as it kind of seems to us that there would be a starbucks with no hot drinks or a dunkin donuts with no donuts or a burger king with no burgers or el pollo loco with no polio that is as ridiculous as it should be for there to be a person who names the name of jesus christ who's supposed to be a carrier of the presence of god and he is not marked by the very thing they're supposed to carry ((music playing)) the presence of god is what sets us apart it is what makes us distinct and different from all else jesus not only had supernatural ability y'all he had supernatural authority in him all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form there's one other thing i wanted to show you i think it's important jesus has a busy day after this he's very busy actually healing and teaching and preaching and at one point in mark chapter one it says the whole city is at his door i mean people are clamoring for the attention of jesus christ and here's what it says here here is how jesus responded to all of the needs all of the being pulled back and forth the tug of war of different demands different people's expectations of him on this very busy day it says in mark chapter 1 verse 35 and early in the morning while it was still dark he rose and he went and departed to a lonely place and he was praying there jesus he demonstrates for us that to be stirs of revival we not only have to be women that have supernatural ability and supernatural authority but we're gonna have to have some supernatural priorities that even when the whole city is at our door when there's a need at church there's a need at work there's a need with this group of friends there's a need even over here everywhere people are pulling at us and tugging at us and our schedules are busy and full and replete with things to do there's gonna have to be a woman who has some supernatural priorities so that we put first things first so that we build margin into our lives so that early in the morning if that's the best time for you what that symbolizes is priority wherever you need to put it in your life so that you have prioritized intimate time with the father jesus knew even if everybody is knocking at my door i'm not going to let everybody else's expectations of me determine what i do with my time i'm going to have some supernatural priorities i'm going to put first things first and keep the things that are most important to my father i'm going to make sure those things are also most important to me jesus demonstrates supernatural priorities i heard a friend of mine once say that he was an incredible bowler that he uh not only loved to bowl but that he was very good at bowling i don't know much about bowling but if you do then you know the near impossibility of what i'm about to describe because he described to me that most every time he bowls he bowls a straight 300 every single time i said you got to be kidding me 300 isn't that a perfect score he said yep most every single time that's what i bowl i said are you serious he said yep i promise you he said however most of the time i'm bowling with my kids so what i do is walk most of the way up the lane until i'm directly in front of the pins and i bowl from there and i get a 300 most every single time but when i back up to regulation distance then error increases because i'm further away error increases with distance the further you are from god in your personal private connectedness with the father the increase for distance has multiplied or the the increase of error has multiplied exponentially in your life the closer you get the more connected you are the more possible it is for us to live lives worthy of this calling because after this private meeting with the father jesus is going to choose to go in an opposite direction than where the crowd thought he should go even his most close companions the disciples would say to him jesus do you see all these people do you realize you can demonstrate your glory and your power to all of these people this can be the time where you show them that you are who you say you are and that you can do what you've been saying you can do let's take advantage of this but jesus having spent time with the father he realizes that what everybody else thinks is a good plan for him isn't necessarily the father's plan for him he goes an entirely different way because he has supernatural priorities he's heard from the father and he knows the direction to go do you know the remarkable thing about jesus humanly speaking his life here on planet earth the remarkable thing about him is not only that he did the father's will that was amazing but the remarkable thing is that he did the father's will and nothing else he didn't get distracted by all of the good things that everybody else thought he should be doing because do you know that every good thing isn't a god thing for you and that so many of us spend so much of our time and our energy on good things that when the god thing comes around we don't have any energy left we can't do what god has asked us to do because we've expended ourselves somewhere else i want to encourage you my friends to have supernatural ability and supernatural authority and supernatural priorities and when we do we will find that we become stirs of this revival this revival that we felt in this room the reviving of our spirits the re-awakening of our connectedness with god when we go out from this place and we live with supernatural ability not by our might and not by our power but by the spirit of god and when we live with the favor of god in our lives not resting in our laurels but resting in his favor that is upon us and when we have supernatural uh priorities when our friends see that when they're busy doing everything for everybody but we say you know what give me a moment so that i can meet with my father to get some clear direction for me and my children and my spouse and my family and my career when they see us prioritizing our relationship with god when we lift him up in these ways people will be drawn revival will be stirred a match will be lit fire will spread folks will want to know who is this god that these women are serving and then they'll say bobby i'll have what she's having