Priscilla Shirer

Amen.

It is a privilege to have an opportunity to be with you, to come to this place that I want you to know my family and I just consider our home away from home.

And so it is a gift for us, Pastor and Miss Debbie, to be invited to be a part of what God is doing through this incredible church.

I hope, and I know you all do here, but I just want to bring it up here for just a second.

I hope that you all recognize the incredible leadership that God has given you in this church.

I hope you realize.

I hope you know that every church ain't got it this good.

God has blessed you, not only in your senior pastors, but in the entire leadership team, such integrity that they're the same people when the lights are not on them as they are when they're here in front of you.

That is a gift, y'all.

And so it is my privilege, my husband's privilege, to serve alongside and to partner with what God is doing at this church.

I'm excited to dig right into the word of God because I believe in the power of the word of God.

Anybody believe in the power of the word of God?

And I do believe in the power of God's word.

Not only that, but I'm also excited to dig into God's word as quickly as I can because they told me that I have about 40 minutes, and y'all need to know that at the church, the kind of church I go to, that's just enough time for the introduction.

So I'm excited to dig right in and see what it is that God is going to speak to all of our hearts tonight.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Thank you that in this holy moment, Lord, we get to hear you speak to our hearts.

God, I'm asking you that you would not let one single person under the sound of my voice be able to escape this room without knowing they have been in the presence of God.

Lord, open every single spiritual ear to hear exactly what it is that you have come to say.

Lift veils from blinded eyes so that we can see tonight.

God, set somebody free in this place tonight.

We believe that you can do it, Lord, and we were expecting nothing less.

In Jesus' name, everybody shouted and said, Amen.

I have uh three siblings.

I have an older sister, her name is Crystal, and I have two younger brothers, Anthony Jr.

and uh Jonathan Evans.

We call Jonathan John John because he's the baby of the bunch.

And while they are my baby brothers, they're, you know, my baby brothers.

Uh, especially my younger brother, John John.

He played in the NFL for just a little while.

He's a big dude.

And he comes over to my house, no matter how big my baby brothers get.

Even now, as adults, when they come over to my home, they do what baby brothers do when they come to your house.

Immediately go right to the refrigerator or the pantry and start foraging through it for whatever it is that they can find.

The other day, John John was over, he's digging through the refrigerator as he does.

And um as he went through the refrigerator, he was reminded of a story that he began to tell me in those few moments.

He said, Priscilla, I don't know if I ever mentioned to you this little season of Kelsey's life.

Kelsey is his oldest child.

She's four years old, my niece.

She is a curly-headed, precocious, sassy little girl.

I don't know where she gets any of that from.

He said, Priscilla, I don't know if I ever told you or not, but when Kelsey was two, she had this habit.

She would, when she was hungry, go over to the big box in the kitchen that had the food in it, and she would point at the big box with the food and say, Eat.

So I would go grab my little sweet two-year-old and I would take her across the kitchen, sit her down in the booster seat that was at the kitchen table so that I could prepare her to eat.

But in her two-year-old toddler mind, now she was just separated from the big box that had the food in it.

So she would cry a river of tears and stomp her little feet and wiggle her way out of the chair, stomp her way back across the kitchen in front of the big box that had the food in it.

She would point at it and say, Eat.

So he said, I would then go pick her up, take her back across the kitchen floor, sit her in the booster seat.

She would cry a river of tears, she would throw a temper tantrum, wiggle her way out of the chair, stomp back across the kitchen floor, point to the big box that had the food in it, and say, Eat.

So he said, I will go get her, pick her up, take her back across the kitchen floor, put her in the booster seat.

We would go through this over and over and over again, John John told me, as I tried to get Kelsey to understand and realize that where I was putting her was actually where she needed to be to receive what it was she was asking me for.

That she was actually fighting against me when all I was trying to do was put her in the right environment so that I could give to her what it was that she was requesting.

And so I began to laugh out loud as John John's telling me the story, because I could just picture my little niece Kelsey doing this.

I mean, I could just picture her throwing that temper tantrum and marching her way back across that kitchen floor.

And as I laughed that day in the kitchen thinking about my niece, the Holy Spirit stopped me in my tracks and said, Priscilla, don't laugh too long or too hard, because honey, that would be you.

Anybody ever been laughing about something and then the Holy Spirit talks to you?

How many times has it been that God has been trying to put us in the right place, in the right position, around the right people, in the right environment, really to set us up to win?

But we fight against him.

We ignore his instruction, we walk in the opposite direction.

And as I thought about that, and how many times God has had to endure with me and be long-suffering toward me and patient toward this little hard-headed girl right there in the kitchen on that day, I became more than ever grateful for the patience of God.

Anybody grateful that God is patient?

I am grateful that God has not, nor will He ever give me what I deserve.

I'm so grateful that the wages of my sin and my rebellion and uh my ignoring of God's instruction, the wage was death, and I don't have to pay the price for my own sin.

Thank you, Lord.

I'm grateful that He's patient.

I want to talk to you for just a few moments tonight about something that can literally set you free to live the abundant life that you and I, as believers in Jesus Christ, have been called to live.

Because listen, the enemy would have it so that you and I are so worried and concerned that maybe God has had just about enough of us.

That we've messed up too many times, that we've made too many mistakes, that 2013 was too bad for God to be able to use us in 2014, that the enemy wants to cripple us just enough so that we we don't understand and realize the breadth and the depth and the height and the length of God's patience towards us.

He knows that as long as you and I are walking on eggshells in our relationship with God, nervous and afraid and scared, that if we just say one more thing or do one more thing wrong or miss God one more time, that God might have had enough of us, and this might be the time he puts us on the shelf and never uses us again for his glory.

The enemy knows that as long as you're walking on shake eggshells, you will never get around to experiencing what John 10 10 declares is available for God's children, and that's abundant life.

You can't live abundantly when you're afraid.

And so a revelation of the patience of God toward you can set you free.

When you really fully understand that His grace is sufficient for you.

That it doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done or how bad last year was or the mistakes you've made or the last 10 years or the last 20 years, no matter what has happened up until this point, the slate has been wiped clean, my friend.

Forgetting those things which are behind us.

We press on.

So I want to talk to you about the patience of God.

It's a simple little characteristic of God that oftentimes we don't hear very much about, we don't read very much about, we consider it every now and then, but I have not in my life heard very many uh specific teachings just directed at the patience of God.

And I want to talk about it because most often when we think about the power of God, we think about how God's power is demonstrated.

So we automatically go to instances like in the Old Testament where he was powerful enough to cause the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down, or he was powerful enough to cause the Red Sea to divide, or in the New Testament, how he was powerful enough to raise Lazarus from the dead.

We think about how his power is demonstrated.

But I want you for just a few moments tonight, on this last night of the first conference, to think about the flip side of the coin of God's power.

Because God's power is not only seen in what he does, God's power is also seen in what he chooses not to do.

God's power is not only seen in what he releases, God's power is also seen in how he restrains himself from giving us what we rightfully deserve.

Oh, it takes power for that.

Because I want you to think about that toddler or that teenager, that that man, they keep asking you that same question.

This is the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth time.

You've had to give them the exact same answer.

And I want you to think about how it's so easy for us to become impatient and frustrated with that child or that friend or that spouse or that person that just doesn't seem to get it.

But God doesn't grow frustrated like we grow frustrated.

He doesn't have a knee-jerk reaction uh born out of uh impatience that he has to to the instances that are going on in our life.

Listen, it does not matter what you do, you don't have the capacity to wear God out.

He doesn't need a good nap before he can handle what's gone on in your life and in my life.

He is God.

Everything you need, God already is.

So I want you to think about patience because most of the time when we think about it in a human sense, we think of our impatience, our propensity towards impatience.

Now, I don't I don't know about you, but I will tell on myself tonight.

I am generally speaking an impatient person.

Can I just get one witness in the house, please?

Okay.

I'm so glad I'm not alone.

I'm an impatient person.

I like to come up with solutions for problems as quickly as we possibly can and get on with it already.

And do you know, for impatient people like me, most of the time the way that God trains us in patience and grows and develops this characteristic in our life is that he puts us in scenarios where we have to wait.

So, he allows you to marry somebody.

Lord have mercy.

Help me, help me.

Help me, Lord.

See, here's the deal with me and Jerry.

When we have a problem that we have to solve, I have, in the first five minutes we ever had the problem, come up with a solution for the problem.

It might not be a good solution, but we got a solution on the table.

Let's get let's get to it.

Oh no, not my man.

Jerry Shire has to think about it, pray about it, fast on it, sleep on it, ask wise counsel about it.

Help me, Jesus.

So, so so I got five minutes down, we're ready to go, mm-mm, 24, 48, 72 hours later, he may come back to me with a solution.

And can I just say that most of the time the solution he comes up with is the exact same solution I had in the first five minutes, we never had a problem.

Y'all know I'm in trouble when I go home, right?

I'm in so much trouble.

Honestly, most of the time, when Jerry has made a decision, it really is a good decision because he's thought through, he's patient enough to think through all the consequences of this decision we're about to make.

He's patient.

And in this dynamic, God trains in me patience.

The reason why you sit next to that coworker on your job, you know the one, the one that if he or she says one more thing to you, you're gonna knock her out.

Anybody?

Anybody?

The reason why the Lord allows dynamics like that is because in that dynamic you are learning patience.

So since patience is an attribute that has to be matured and honed in the soul of a human being, we put those same dynamics on God.

We think that he has to grow in his level of patience or that he might not have enough patience for what's happened in our life or where we've been or what we've done or the bad decisions we've made, the bad relationships we were in, that he uh might have um a level of patience that we can outdo by our actions, but but we can't wear God out.

The essence of all that patience was ever meant to be, God already is.

He is completely perfect in his level of patience.

In fact, when you think of all of the characteristics and the attributes of God that make up the chain of God's character, so every link in the chain of God's character, his omniscience and omnipresence and his sovereignty and his holiness and all of the things that make up the chain of God's character, when you really think about it, central to all of those things, the most important and primary of all of those characteristics really is the patience of God right there in the center.

Because if it were not for the patience of God, we wouldn't exist long enough to get to the grace and the mercy and the omniscience and the omnipresence, right?

It's because he is patient toward us that we really get an opportunity to experience him.

I love it.

It's put so clearly in Exodus 34, it says that he is great in power.

And aren't we glad that he's slowed to anger?

His grace is sufficient for you.

It doesn't matter what has gone on in your life up to this point, he is not through with you because, my friend, you can't wear God out.

He's got your back.

One of the clearest places in scripture where God's patience is talked about is a real simple passage of scripture I want to draw your attention to tonight.

It has begun to speak to me so beautifully about how patient and extravagantly grace-filled our God is toward us.

And is in the New Testament, in the book of First Timothy.

If you have your Bible, if you actually still use a Bible with paper pages like I do, or if you have your iPad, your iPhone, any manner of eyes, just flip on over to 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

1 Timothy, chapter 1, the Apostle Paul.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

You all know this at this Bible teaching church, that the Apostle Paul is speaking to a young preacher named Timothy.

And he is giving Timothy lessons on life and ministry, and he knows right here at the onset of all that he wants to instruct Timothy with that a message on God's patience is gonna be so important.

Because Timothy's young.

Timothy's gonna make mistakes along the way.

There are going to be some missteps and some mishaps, just like there will be for every single one of us.

And he wants Timothy to know right off the bat that God's patience is there, awaiting all of those mistakes, all of those missteps, that God's grace will be sufficient for him.

And so the apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 16.

1 Timothy 1:16

And yet, for this reason, Paul says, I found mercy.

In order that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate, here it is, his perfect patience.

What kind of patience is it?

His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life.

I love this verse so much because Paul is so plain, so clear.

He says, let's let's let me just make sure you understand the kind of patience God has.

It's not just a good patience, it's not a great patience, it's not an awesome level of patience.

His patience is perfect, which means when you go to the furthest extremes of that which represents the patience of God, even at the furthestmost points, you will not find one bit of uh diminishing returns, one bit of imperfection.

There is nothing that you can find that is outside of perfection in that which is the patience of God.

And Paul says, just in case you're unsure, just in case you think you might be the exception to the rule that maybe you you have worn God out because of what's gone on in your marriage or in your singleness or the financial decisions that you've made or the things you've gotten caught up in that you never intended to.

Just in case you're unsure, Paul says, Would you please take a look at me?

Because I'm a demonstration of the patience of God.

Paul says, I'm the foremost.

He basically means you ain't done nothing I haven't done.

He's basically saying, You haven't gone anywhere, I have not already gone.

You've not seen anything I haven't already seen.

Your ears, they have not heard anything, my ears have not already heard.

You have not dug a pit for yourself that is any deeper than the pit I have been in before.

And Paul's here to tell us tonight that if Jesus could reach down in that pit and pull him out of it, Paul says, I promise you he's got your life covered.

Paul says, I'm a demonstration of how great and grand and vast and full and lavish and extravagant and boundless the patience of God is toward you.

You can't wear God out.

Paul says, For this reason.

I love that the verse starts this way, for this reason.

It's like the pastor said that stood up here just a few moments ago.

Anytime you see the word therefore in scripture, it's kind of like a therefore.

Anytime you see therefore, you've got to see what it's there for.

And Paul writes at the beginning of verse 16, for this reason.

Which means there are some reasons.

It means that there are some things he's already written, there are some things he's already said that led him to the conclusion of verse 16.

He didn't just come up with verse 16 out of thin air.

He listed some specific reasons that he wanted to make sure you and I grasped that led him to the conclusion as to why God's grace is so extravagant and perfect toward us.

So I figured for just a few moments tonight, you and I could backtrack up just a few verses to see what these reasons were.

Because I figure if you and I can see what these reasons were in Paul's experience, before we leave tonight, we'll see that Paul is not the only person that is a demonstration of the lavish patience of God.

Actually, there are a room full of illustration of how grand God's patience is.

The first reason is found in verse 15.

So, y'all, we're just gonna backtrack up a few verses and go dig out these reasons.

Verse 15 is where the first reason is found.

It says, it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world, and here's the reason, to save sinners.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

This is the very first reason that Paul lists.

The very first one, the most important, seminal, primary one that he wants to draw our attention to.

This is the one he says that out of all the other reasons should cause you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has enough patience to handle anything and everything that might go on in your life.

He says, and here's the reason: he saved me.

Paul can't believe it.

He says, He saved me.

And I'm the foremost, I'm the chief of all sinners.

I have done everything there is to do, and he still saved me.

There was a price that I was gonna have to pay for my own sin, and and he loved me enough and cared about me enough and was gracious toward me enough to pay that price on my behalf.

Paul can't believe it.

That he saved me.

I want you to think about what a straight up, flat out miracle it is that you and I are saved.

That we have a relationship with, that God made a way for us to have a relationship with him.

I want you to think about that for a second.

You know, because he knows us and all of our foolishness, but he still wanted to make a way to have a relationship with us.

Y'all know he doesn't need us, right?

He chose to have a relationship with us.

So when someone asks, which seems to be a very valid question, an unbeliever, when they might ask, and and skeptically, they're concerned because they don't know how a God who is supposedly so good could only make one way for people.

To come into relationship, and they think that's unfair with all these different cultures and personalities and people in different settings?

Why is it that a God who's supposedly so good would only give one way for people to be in relationship with him?

It doesn't make sense to them.

And while that's actually a good question to ask, it's not really the right question to ask.

The question is not why would such a good God only um allow there to be one way?

The question is, why would such a God who is so holy give any way for us to have a relationship with him?

The fact that he has given us a way should be enough to cause us to want to get down on our knees with our hands outstretched and say, Thank you, Lord, that I get to have a relationship with you.

Thank you, Lord, for this salvation.

Paul says, if you're ever wondering if God was patient enough, is patient enough for your life, would you remember that He saved you?

Y'all know there are about 7 billion plus people that are on the planet.

So the fact that you happen to live right now in this day, in this age, in this generation, in the year 2014, where there are gatherings that are happening like this one at local churches where thousands of people come night after night after night to hear the good news of Jesus Christ preached with clarity and authority and to worship God in spirit and in truth.

The fact that you and I get to live in this day and age and generation, which is a height for the church of Jesus Christ throughout history.

The fact that you and I get to be here, it's a miracle.

You might have surprised your parents, my friend, but you didn't surprise God.

He was not in the heavens going, oops, that one slipped past me.

He had this planned.

High school student, university student, he wanted you here now.

It's a miracle that he pulled it off.

I'm telling you, the fact that you're born, that you were born, and that you live in this day and age, it's a miracle.

Think about it.

Seven billion plus people on the planet.

Your great-great-grandfather, with seven billion plus people on the planet, happened to find the right woman that should be your great-great-grandmother.

The two of them came together and created your great-grandfather.

Then your great-grandfather, with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet, he just happened to find the woman that should be your great-grandmother.

Then the two of them came together and created your grandfather, and then your grandfather, with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet, he just happened to find the woman that should be your grandmother.

Then the two of them came together and created uh your father.

And then your father, with the seven billion plus people that are on the planet, he just happened to find the woman that should be your mother, and then your father and mother came together, and this is a little graphic, but with all those millions of sperm, the exact right one happened to connect with that egg so that you would be created.

My friend, there's nothing chance about that.

That's a miracle.

That's a miracle.

That's the divine strategy of God orchestrating our existence.

You're here on purpose.

And if you think it's a miracle that you were born, I want you to think of how much more of a miracle it is that you were born again.

There has been a battle being waged in the heavenly for in the heavenlies for your soul since before time began.

The enemy has been waging war for your soul from the beginning of time.

I love how my father describes it.

It's like a cosmic chessboard where the enemy is on one side and God is on the other, and both of them have their minds set on winning you and me over.

And all of history, God has been waging this battle to make sure that you and I could just be saved.

So God made the first move.

You remember in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, he creates Adam and Eve in a perfect setting, perfect environment, perfect relationship with himself.

Genesis 1:1

But the enemy not to be outdone on the other side of that cosmic chessboard, he makes a move and he slithers into the garden and he causes sin to enter the picture so that finally Cain kills Abel, and it seems like everyone will always be separated from God.

But our God, never to be outdone, he makes another move.

He causes Adam and Eve to come back together.

They give birth to a baby boy named Seth.

Seth gives birth to a baby born named Enosh, and in Genesis chapter 4, it says that when Enosh was born, everybody began to worship God again.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

But the enemy not to be outdone, he made another move.

He caused sin and rebellion to enter into the hearts of mankind and proliferate across the earth so much so, so that the entire world needed to be destroyed.

And it really seemed like the enemy had won this time.

But our God never to be outdone, he had another move up his sleeve, and his name was Noah.

And he said, Noah, I need you to build me an ark.

Noah said, Build what?

He said, I need you to build an ark because it's gonna rain.

And Noah didn't quite understand, but he said yes, and he obeyed, and mankind was preserved because of one man's obedience.

But the enemy made another move.

He caused rebellion to seep back into the hearts of mankind again, and it proliferated across the earth.

But our God, not to be outdone, he had another move up his sleeve.

He went to this little pagan town called Ur, and he found a man named Abram, and he raised him up out of obscurity, and he changed his name, and he changed his destiny and he changed his purpose, and he created a brand new nation out of him called the nation of Israel, God's people, the church.

And he said, I'm gonna stamp my blessing on these people and my favor on these people.

My name will be a banner over them, and I will protect them and provide for them.

But the enemy had another move of his slave.

He caused God's people now to go down into Egypt.

Do you remember?

400 years they're in captivity under Pharaoh, and it seems like they will never experience freedom again.

But our God, never to be outdone, he had another move of his slave, and his name was Moses.

And Moses was raised as the prince of Egypt, and then at the right time, God sent Moses back to Pharaoh to go tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

And after ten miraculous plagues and 40 years in the wilderness, the children of God finally came into the promised land, the place that represented the power and the provision and the favor of God, the land flowing with milk and honey.

But the enemy, he wasn't done yet.

He made another move.

And he caused sin and rebellion to enter into the hearts of God's people.

Now God's people turned their back on the one true God and they began to worship idols.

By the time you get to the end of the book of Judges, the last line of the book of Judges says this everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.

Kind of sounds like America in the year 2014, doesn't it?

But God, not to be outdone, he had another move.

And her name was Ruth.

And Ruth had a lot of issues and chaos in her life.

There was a lot of struggle there at the forefront.

But towards the end of the book of the Ruth, you find that she meets this guy named Boaz.

It's her kinsman Redeemer.

And Ruth and her kinsman redeemer come together and they have a little baby boy named Obed.

And Obed gives birth to Jesse.

And Jesse gives birth to a little baby boy named David.

And with that one move, the enemy doesn't even know it yet, but the checkmate is already on the way.

Already on the way.

And the Old Testament closes, and y'all, there are 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

God is on one side of the cosmic chessboard, the enemy is on the other, and all of history is waiting to see who is gonna make the next move.

And then the New Testament opens and enters Jesus Christ.

It is the move that the enemy still to this day has never ever had a response for.

And listen to me.

He did that for you.

Paul brings up salvation in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15.

1 Timothy 1:15

He brings up salvation as a reason that you and I should believe that God is patient toward us.

Because he wants you to understand that if the Lord could orchestrate events, that if he had enough patience to make sure that things were aligned over the past few millennia, then don't you think he's got the last six weeks of your life covered?

That there is nothing you nor I, thank you, Jesus, could ever do in our lifetime that could wear God out.

He was patient enough to save you, my friend.

It means he's patient enough to sustain you.

And so I don't have to know all of your stories.

You don't have to know my story, the details of my story, but what we can know is that no matter what our story, his grace is sufficient for us.

But that's not the only reason.

Paul's got another reason.

Remember, we're backtracking through 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

The second reason is found in verse 13.

Paul says, even though I was formerly, somebody say formerly, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy.

Paul said, I'm the foremost.

He just said, I'm the chief, like the chief of all sinners.

I I've just done more than you.

He didn't give us his sin resume.

He didn't list out a bunch of details as to why he's the worst.

He just said, Trust me, I'm the worst.

But now we get to verse 13 and he gives us a few details.

He starts to give us a few things on his sin resume.

He says, I'm a I was a persecutor, I was a violent aggressor, and I was a blasphemer.

So he lists three things on his sin resume.

I'm so glad that right there at the very beginning of all this, he didn't give us the details of his sin resume.

Because we we we might have been tempted to spend so much time looking and dissecting and analyzing Paul's sin resume that we would forget we actually don't have time to look at anybody else's sin resume because we got our own sin resumes.

We have our own stories of deliverance.

We never have time to be consumed with somebody else's resume, we've got our own.

Can somebody say amen?

But now Paul gives us a few details, just three of them in verse in uh chapter or chapter one, verse 13.

A few details.

It's like he's given us a little bit of the resume, but right at the very top of Paul's sin resume, he wants to put a big, bold, all caps subtitle for you to read.

He wants to make sure that before you see any of these details on the resume, you don't miss the title of his resume.

And the title is formerly.

He wants you to know that this is who I was, but it's not who I am anymore.

Because the proof of God's patience toward us is not only that he saved me, but also that he changed me.

It's that I'm not the same person that I used to be.

That when I look in the mirror now, thank you, Lord, I don't see the same woman that I saw five years ago.

That she thinks different thoughts, that she has different ambitions, that she's headed in a different direction, that she has different interests and passions, that she doesn't talk the same, she doesn't walk the same, she doesn't want the same things, not because I've changed myself, but because when God lives in you, he does the hard work of changing you.

The greatest gift you will ever receive, my friend, is the Holy Spirit of God.

And do you know that at the moment you accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit of God took up residence in you?

Do you understand that 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's not who he is.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, not third because he's least in value, only third because he's the last to be revealed to us in the pages of scripture.

But all of the fullness and power and glory and authority and grandeur of 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 fullness and the grandeur and the authority and the power of God the Father now lives on the inside of you.

That's good news.

That's good news.

And here's the thing: one of the Holy Spirit's primary purposes, 2 Thessalonians chapter 113, is that he sanctifies you.

Somebody say sanctify.

Sanctification is the process by which you and I are molded into the image of Christ Jesus.

In other words, he does the hard work of helping you to be who you've always wanted to be.

I don't know if you have experienced this like I have, but it's exhausting trying to change yourself.

Anybody?

It's just a lot of hard work.

And not only is it exhausting, it's also temporary.

Lasting change has to take place from the inside out, not the outside in.

And you can't do that for yourself, but God does it for you.

Now we cooperate with him by renewing our minds with the word of God, by fellowshipping with other other believers like you're doing tonight, by being on our knees before God, by heeding the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We cooperate with him, but his business in you, his job description, he has a degree in helping you be like Jesus.

That's his work in you.

His best work is in changing God's patience.

So Paul says the reason why you can bank on the fact that God's patience is sufficient for you is not only that he had enough patience to save you, but that he's got enough patience to change you.

That your friends might not stick with you long enough for you to change.

Some of you have been betrayed in this room because you have a spouse that left you before you could get that thing together.

They didn't stick with you like you thought they would while you changed.

You need to know that no matter whoever else has left your side, there is one who will never leave you nor forsake you.

He will stick with you while you change, my friend.

He's got enough patience for that.

And he changes you from the inside out.

Lasting change.

Have you ever wondered how popcorn pops?

Somebody say yes.

I'm so glad you want to know.

So inside every kernel of corn, there is a microscopic dot of water.

So when you take a bag of microwave popcorn and you put it inside the microwave, you're not actually heating up the shell.

You are heating up the little microscopic dot of pop of water that is inside the shell.

So as every single one of those microscopic dots of water begins to heat up, it creates steam.

And then that steam begins to gain more and more pressure and it presses against the shell.

And finally, there is so much pressure inside of that kernel of corn that it pops.

Now it looks completely different on the outside.

Not because you did anything to the outside, just because you heated up what was on the inside.

And when you heated up what was on the inside, now the outside looks completely different.

This is exactly what God does in your life and in mine.

He is in there.

You can't see him, but he's there, my friend.

And as you heat up the work of God on the inside of you, as you are in prayer, as you're bathing yourself in the word, as you're around other believers in Jesus Christ, you heat up his work and he begins to press and press against this shell of ours until one day you just pop right open and you're not even, you don't even look similar to the kind of person you used to be.

You've been changed from the inside out.

In fact, what's so interesting about those kernels of corn, y'all, is that before that thing pops, you never knew that all of that could be housed in that little bitty shell.

Can you imagine the potential that is just on the inside of us, longing to be released, that will be released as we yield to the Holy Spirit on the inside of us.

He changes us.

He's got enough patience for that.

But not only that, there's one final thing.

Paul says, verse 12, this is the last reason I want to give you tonight.

He says, I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who is considered, or I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, verse 12, who has strengthened me.

There it is.

He has strengthened me.

Paul says, He saved me.

That's a justification.

He changed me.

That's sanctification.

And now I can count on him to strengthen me.

That's fortification.

That everything you need to be who God has called you to be, he has promised you he will strengthen you and equip you to handle.

There is nothing that is coming up in your 2014 that God has not already gone before you and paved the way.

There is nothing that you're going to face.

You and I are gonna face some stuff in 2014.

There is nothing we're going to face that He has not and will not equip us to handle in our lives.

He is your strengthener.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Paul says, I've got a God who saved me, I've got a God who changes me, and I've got a God who strengthens me, who gives me the fortification that I need to handle what is happening in my life.

He's got enough patience for that.

You do know, my friends, that everything you need, God already is.

Everything that will ever come your way, your God already is.

You do not have to look for it outside of our God who is described to us within the pages of these scriptures.

The scriptures tell us from beginning to end, everything that God is to with us, the question is not whether or not He is those things, the question is whether or not we will believe them and lean on them.

But all the strength you need, your God has given you.

And the scriptures make it clear.

Because in Genesis it says he is the breath of life.

In Exodus, he is the Passover lamb.

In Leviticus, he is our high priest.

In Numbers, he is the fire by night.

In Deuteronomy, he is Israel's guide.

In Joshua, he's salvation's choice.

In Judges, he is Israel's guard.

In Ruth, he's your kinsman redeemer.

In 1st and 2nd Samuel, he's your trusted prophet.

In Kings and Chronicles, he is sovereign.

In Ezra, he is the true and faithful scribe.

In Nehemiah, he's the one who rebuilds walls and rebuilds lives.

In Esther, he is your courage.

In Job, he's the timeless redeemer.

In Psalms, he is your morning song.

In Proverbs, he is your wisdom.

In ecclesiastics, he's a time and a season.

In Song of Solomon, he's the lover's dream.

In Isaiah, he is the prince of peace.

In Jeremiah, he's the weeping prophet.

In lamentations, he's the cry for Israel.

In Ezekiel, he's the call from sin.

In Daniel, he is always the stranger that will be in your fire.

In Hosea, he is the forever faithful.

In Joel, he is the spirit's power.

In Amos, he is the strong arms that will carry you.

In Obadiah, he's the Lord our Savior.

In Jonah, he's the great missionary.

In Micah, he is the promise of peace.

In Nahum, he's our strength and our shield.

In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, he brings revival.

In Haggai, he restores that which that was which was once lost.

In Malachi, he is the son of righteousness that is rising with healing in his wings.

And that's just who he is in the Old Testament.

In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he's not just your God.

Now he is your Messiah.

In the spirit-filled book of Acts, he's the reigning fire from heaven.

In Romans, he's the grace of God.

Corinthians, he's the power of love.

Galatians, he is freedom from the curse of sin.

In Ephesians, he's our glorious treasure.

In Philippians, he's the servant's heart.

In Colossians, he's God and he is the Trinity.

In Thessalonians, he's our calling king.

In Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, he's our mediator and our faithful pastor.

In Hebrews, he's the everlasting courage.

In James, he is the one who will heal you when you are sick.

In 1st and 2 Peter, he is our faithful shepherd.

In John and Jude, he is the lover that is coming one day for his bride.

And in the revelation, in the very end, when it is all over, said and done, he was and will always be the first, the last, the beginning, and the end of the coming king.

We want to thank you for your patience toward us, your long-suffering nature toward us.

We want to thank you, Lord, that you are everything we will ever need to be sustained in this life.

Thank you for 2014, Lord.

Not because we're grateful for everything that will happen in this year, but because we are grateful for the God who will sustain us through it.

And so, Lord, in advance, we say thank you.

We devote this year to you fully and completely.

Grateful for your patience, grateful for your grace, and grateful for your love toward us.

In Jesus' name, everybody shouted and said.