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Priscilla Shirer | God Can Restore Your Circumstances | Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer | YouTubeToText
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Summary
Core Theme
This content explores the concept of "leprosy" as a metaphor for hidden ailments, struggles, and feelings of being cheated in life, urging individuals to confront these issues with God for healing and a renewed perspective, rather than hiding them or feeling discouraged by perceived detours from their life plans.
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Help. God, would you do business with
this? I'm tired of this anger. I'm ready
to let it go. I'm tired of this pride. I
want to humble myself under the mighty
hand of God so that he can exalt me. I'm
tired of living in a stale, passionless
marriage. Lord, take it and do with it
what you will. Lord, I'm tired of being
as I was. I want to be as you can make
[Applause]
I love you, too.
And I'm so thrilled to be with you
because I'm excited. I'm sitting on the
edge of my seat to see what God wants to
say to us tonight. I love how he
prepares one message, but he by his
spirit divides it up 3,000 ways
>> so that every person under the sound of
my voice tonight will hear a word that
has been handcrafted from heaven for you.
you.
>> I believe that. I believe that for
myself as well.
So, I'm going to pray for us. But before
I do, while you are standing, I just
want to read God's word to you. If you
actually still, you know, use a Bible
with paper pages, grab it. Old school
or your iPhone, your iPad, any manner of
eye, just feel free to grab that or I
think they're going to put it up on the
screen. I want to read God's word to you
while you were standing because we are
in a house of God where I know the
leadership at this church treasures the
word of God. I pray that if this is not
your home church, you go to a church
where the leadership, the congregation
treasures the word of God, that it is
God speaking to us, that y'all, every
single time we open up the scriptures,
we ought to expect to feel the warm
breath of God brushing across our cheeks
as he speaks a present word over our
lives. It's God talking to us. And every
now and then, you ought to, even when
you're by yourself, you ought to make
yourself stand up.
>> Because if kings and queens, if
presidents walked into the room, we
wouldn't keep our seat. We would stand
up out of respect. How much more if God
is going to speak? [Applause]
[Applause]
Should we stand in anticipation of what
he might say to us? So, I'm going to
read God's word to you. I'm going to
read one verse from Luke chapter 4.
And then we're going to hop back to the
Old Testament where we're going to camp
out in 2 Kings chapter 5 for the rest of
the evening. Is that all right?
>> Luke chapter 4 verse 27
says this. Jesus is speaking. He says,
"There were many lepers in Israel in the
time when Elijah the prophet lived, but
none of them were cleansed. Only non the
Syrian." Listen to that again. There
were a whole lot of people who had issues
issues
in Israel in the church in the time of
Elijah the prophet, but none of them was cleansed.
cleansed.
Only non. And he wasn't even in the
church. He was a Syrian.
Second Kings chapter 5, I'm going to
read verse 1 through3. Then I'm going to
read verse 10 and 14. And then I'll pray
over us and then you can sit down.
Verse one says, "Now non, here's the
guy. He's captain of the king of Aram.
He's captain, captain of the army of the
king of Aram. He was a great man with
his master, highly respected because by
him, the Lord had given victory to Aram.
And by the way, Aram is Syria.
The man was also a very valiant warrior.
But dog gone it, he was a leper."
Now the Syrians, the Arameans had gone
out in bands at one point. They had
taken captive this little girl from the
land of Israel and she came back as a
captive to Syria and she was the maid
servant. She waited on Non's wife. Verse
three says, "She said to her mistress
one day as she watched her lepous master
walking around the house. I'm sure she
said to her mistress, you know, I wish
that my master were with the prophet. I
know this guy who's in Samaria.
His name is Elijah. Man, I wish he were
with him because then he would be cured
of his leprosy. Verse 10. So Elijah
sends out a messenger to non when non
finally goes to see him and he says, "Go
and wash in the Jordan seven times. Your
flesh will be restored to you and you
shall be clean." Verse 14.
So non after some poking and proddding,
he goes down. He dips himself seven
times in the Jordan according to the
word of the man of God. And his flesh
was restored like the flesh of a little
child. And he was made whole.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for your word. I
thank you, Father, that it is living and
that it is active and that it is sharper
than any two-edged sword. Lord, I pray
that in these few moments that we will
spend together over your word, that the
words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart will be acceptable to you.
Father, I pray that any assignment that
the enemy may have tonight, either to
keep me from having clarity of thought
and clarity of words, Father, or to keep
ears veiled so that they cannot hear
what the spirit would say. I pray that
any assignment would be cancelled in
Jesus' name and by his blood that has
been shed on Calvary. Speak, Lord. We
came for a word tonight. We're glad each
other is here, but we didn't come to see
each other. We came to see you. And so,
Father, we're on the edge of our seat.
speak. Your daughters are listening
>> in Jesus name. All God's women said, "Amen."
"Amen." >> Amen.
>> Amen.
Sounds like a herd of buffalo sitting down.
There's a girl named Rashida. Rashida is
has been a member of our church for a
very very long time, but I don't really
know her as much from church as I do
from different families that she would
babysit for. She was a beautiful
35year-old um woman in her mid30s, a
beautiful woman, vivaceious in
personality, engaged as much as she
could be in church life and single woman
who had a lot of time on her hands and
she loved investing that time into young
people. She enjoyed babysitting. That's
really where I got to know her. She
babysat for several members of my
family. My sister, who has five
children, would often call on Rashida to
come over and help with the kids. My
cousin, who's like another sister to us,
her name is Winter. Winter has four uh
little girls and her little girl girls
often when they were in need of a sitter
sitter, Winter would call Rashidita and
ask Rashidita to come over and babysit
for the f four girls. That's how I got
to know Rashidita because all of the
cousins, my kids, my sister's kids, my
cousins kids, all of them are very close
to each other. So, we would often
connect the dots and have playdates. So,
I would often end up in the same place
with Rashida, who might be watching one
of the pockets of the kids as all the
kids were getting together. It gave us
an opportunity, Rashidita and I, to
spend a little time together. Not much,
but little pockets of time, little
disjointed pieces of conversation as we
were rallying kids from one place to the
other. I got to talk to her and get to
know her just a little bit. That's when
I found out a little bit about
Rashidita's story. I discovered that in
her 20s and her early 30s, she was on an
upwardly mobile track in the company
that she worked for. Very, very
successful and headed to the pinnacle at
the company. I mean, she was doing well.
She was making a lot of money. She had a
lot of ambition and dreams in terms of
her um her uh position in this
particular company. And she was doing
well. She was excited about it. when she
began to feel the poking and the
proddding of the Lord. She wasn't sure
at first. It just felt like unrest. Just
she wasn't supposed to be there anymore.
And it didn't make sense because, you
know, her paycheck was what her paycheck
was. And people looked at her with
approval. They respected her. She had
already been told that she was on the
upward track. She knew she was destined
for great things there, but there was
unrest. And so, she sought the Lord
about that unrest. a woman who wants to
follow God, wants to do what he has
asked her to do, wants to be in his
will. And so, she kind of talked to the
Lord a little bit about that unrest that
she was feeling, why she didn't feel
cozy and comfortable here anymore. She
didn't quite get it, but she just wanted
to ask God what his will was. and
through the confirmation that she
received from the messages taught on
Sunday at our local church and then her
own personal Bible study and then wise
mentors and friends who helped to sort
of confirm that yeah over time it was
confirmed that yeah this this seems to
be the leading of the Lord. The only
thing was is that she didn't know what
she was headed to. Has that ever
happened to you where you kind of feel
an unrest in one place like the Lord is
pointing you in a direct in but
direction but he hasn't g you given you
specific GPS coordinates you don't know
where you're going you don't know what
the end result is going to be but
Rashidita just felt like well if God is
leading me elsewhere then where I'm
going is going to be better than where I
am now so she just stepped out in faith
she left her job waiting for God's assignment
assignment
which This is why she was babysitting
when I met her. Because in the inner
room, she decided to do what she loved.
Just kind of hang out with pockets of
kids and relieve some parents to go on
some dates every now and then. She just
thought, "I'll do what I love." And she
was fully invested in the task. By the
way, she would always come over with a
casserole of some sort made for the
family so that mom didn't have to worry
about it. She always came over with a
Bible story in tow with all of the
illustrations necessary to engage the
kids that she was going to be um that
she was going to be babysitting. She
wanted to make sure they knew some
verses before she left that she would
put to songs on occasion so that they
would have it ringing in her head in
their heads. And so two months went by,
she enjoyed it. But the two months
dovetailed into six months. Then the six
six months dovetailed into a year. still
she's waiting on God's assignment and
here she is babysitting
and then that year became a year and a
half and about the time I last talked to
her in this interim in her life um it
had been about the 2year mark and about
two years in she still loves the kids
but she's really trying to figure out
where God is
and why his next assignment for her has
not materialized yet and at this point
she's a little bit frustrated
She's a little bit evangelically ticked off
off
cuz God's taking his time. Anybody know
what I'm talking about? She's
frustrated. And honestly, she said, "I
feel like I've been cheated because I've
done what I felt like was obey God. I I
felt like he pointed me in this
direction and that I was trusting him to
take me to the next phase, the next
step, the next uh portion of my journey.
But here I am stuck in this little
interim space and I can't figure out why
I why I'm here. And she said, I just
became very authentic with God in
prayer. I was like, God, are you serious
right now?
Lord, I've been babysitting for two
years. Surely you have something more
for me. Lord, I I got to be honest with
you and tell you that I feel cheated. I
was on the upwardly mobile path. My
ambitions and dreams, I can see them
back there, but you've steered me in a
different direction. and this is not
making sense. God, I'm frustrated and
irritated and I feel cheated.
So, she said, "Lord, I'm going to ask
you to give me some clarity. I don't
know what's going on, but I need you to
either change my circumstances or change
my heart
because this doesn't look like the what
I thought it would."
She said that just a couple of days
later, she had another babysitting
assignment. That babysitting assignment
that had already been planned was with
my my cousin Winter and her four girls.
She walked up to their front door. The
front door is a wood door, but it has
glass panels in it. And so you can kind
of see a blurred glass panel. So you can
kind of see into the house. And she said
when she walked up to the door,
casserole dish in hand. And she rang the
doorbell, she could already see the four
little girls racing toward the door,
smiles on their faces, enthusiastic
because Miss Rashidita was coming
tonight. And she said that happened
almost every time that she came. But on
this day, she saw those smiles
differently. That they were eager to be
in her presence. She saw that that there
was so much meaning behind the fact that
these four girls actually wanted to be
with her that they were expecting and
anticipating whatever she was going to
bring through the door. And when the
door opened, she said they immediately
burst into one of the songs that she had
taught them on one previous time when
she was there. the verses from scripture
through those songs, spilling out of
these little girls' mouths as they
quoted and sung one after the other,
rehearsing back to her everything she
had poured into them during the time
that she had spent with them. And she
said it was while they were singing and
giggling and jumping all around her,
casserole dish still in hand, when she
first walked through the door, she said
that the Holy Spirit whispered to her
and said, "You're not just babysitting.
You get the privilege to help shape the
souls of little human beings so that
these women grow up to be mighty women
of God. [Applause]
[Applause]
She said just about that time as she's
standing there with the casserole dish
in hand, uh the mom, Winter, uh had just
gotten dressed up for the date that she
was going to have uh with her husband
and she came racing through the living
room at the last moment to grab a few
things before her husband pulled up to
pick her up and to take her pulled up
from work to take her out. And she said
that as Winter raced through the house,
she saw the casserole dish that was in
Rashidita's hand. And Rashidita said for
the first time she actually noticed the
look of relief on that mom's face that
she had provided through this little
casserole dish a bit of solace and peace
in the life of another woman that she'd
taken a little bit of the load off of
her plate. And the Holy Spirit whispered
to her, "You didn't just bake a casserole.
casserole.
You helped to invest in the life of a
woman that needs to know that I see her
>> and I've got her back.
And then she said that when her husband
walked through the door and the two of
them kissed their girls and left and
went out on a date, a date they hadn't
been on in a very long time, she said
the Holy Spirit whispered to her and
said, "You're not just babysitting.
You're making sure that a marriage stays
intact and has strength and passion and love."
She said it was a sweet evening with
those girls. And then she got back in
the car to leave when the night was
over. And she said one final time, the
Holy Spirit whispered to her and said
something she will never forget.
He said, "You have not been cheated.
Second Kings chapter 5 has a word for
anybody in the house tonight who feels
cheated. Because when you signed up for
this job, it wasn't supposed to be this
hard. When you walked down the aisle and
said, "I do." to that guy, it wasn't
supposed to be this hard. When you first
gave birth to that baby, you didn't know
that 10 years, 15 years, 21 years later,
this would be the drama that you'd be
going through in your relationship with
that child. You did not know that you
would be on this job for this long. It
wasn't supposed to be your assignment
over this much of your life. You didn't
know that you would be walking in this
season of singleness for this long. You
didn't know. And you feel cheated
because you've said yes to God. You've
obeyed him to the best of your
abilities, not perfectly, but at least
perfect purposefully. And you, like
Rashida, feel like you've been cheated,
irritated, a little bit frustrated if
you're to be honest with God because
you've said yes, but this is not what
you thought a yes would mean.
There's encouragement for you in Second
Kings. Second Kings chapter 5 starts by
telling us about a captain in the army
of Syria. He worked closely with the
king. His name was Non. I love verse one
of chapter 5 because it's basically a
resume. In big, bold, bright,
highlighted letters, we see his resume
clearly spelled out. There are accolades
and things he's appreciated for. We
learn that he is a notable man who has a
lot of people who admire him. This first
verse reads like we would like any of
our resumes to. Just in this one little
simple verse, verse one of chapter 5, we
find out that he's successful. He's the
captain of the army. He leads troops
into battles and they emerge victorious.
But not only is he successful, he's also
well respected because he doesn't just
lead his subordinates, he's respected by
them. They honor him. They esteem him.
They find joy in following his
leadership. Not only is he successful
and respected, he's also celebrated.
Those around him highly regard him. His
name is known. His level of favor with
those around him, those under him, and
those that work side by side with him is
at full capacity. In fact, he is so
celebrated and so adored that even the
king praises him for his work and for
his worth. Not only is he successful and
not only is he respected, not only is he
celebrated, he's also feared because
enemies and foes, they shake in their
boots when they hear his name. He's a
mighty man of valor. The text says he
knows how to make sure that his
adversaries are taken down. This man has
accolades. He has appreciation. He has
notoriety. He has won the affection of
all who know him. His biography reads
like the finest of resumes. But
downplayed amongst all those accolades,
there's fine print in the resume.
Down below all of the bold font that is
headlining his life, there are five
little words that changed the trajectory
of the entire story. But he was a leper.
Don't let those five little small worlds
words fool you. Just because they're
minimal, just because they come at the
tail end of that verse, just because
they're like a little tagline that's
stuck onto this incredibly immaculate
resume, don't let them seem
insignificant to you. He is a leper and
in that age leprosy was a devastating
diagnosis. There was no cure and it
would so incapacitate you over time. It
would incapacitate you causing the nerve
endings particularly in your extremities
to become numb so that they could not
feel pain and damaged again and again
and again. Fingers and toes would need
to be amputated or they would become
dislodged. You would lose your
extremities. your skin would become uh
filled with boils and soores and
eventually the fact that you would have
leprosy would completely incapacitate
you and potentially kill you. The thing
is this leprosy even though it is the
most distinguishing characteristic
really of his life it means life or
death that leprosy is not highlighted.
It is not bold bolded. It's just tucked
away and saved for the last little line.
And yet this leprosy could actually be
the death of him. He fights it at home
trying to figure out a way to keep proof
of it covered so that no one knows. It
plagues his thoughts during the day
wondering if if anybody realizes how far
gone he actually is. He is a leper and
it's downplayed amongst his accolades
and amongst all his notoriety. And yet
it is the thing that could be the death
of him. And in a groom this size, the
tragedy is that you and I have learned
how to highlight and accentuate all of
our accolades and all of the things we
want people to see and read and hear
about us. But in the fine print of our
lives, non is not the only leper who is
>> That there are little ailments. There
are hidden diseases of the heart and of
our mind emotionally and spiritually and
they are sucking the lifeblood out of
us. There is anger that is so festering
on the inside of you because of what was
done to you or the betrayal that you
face that that anger is now creating a
bitterness that is making you hardened
and numb so that you can't have any
healthy relationships in your life any
longer. There is pride that is keeping
you from humbling yourself under the
mighty hand of God. Maybe there is a
passionless marriage that is inside the
four walls of your home. Nobody's at
church knows because you've both learned
how to put on the smile and to hold
hands for the two hours that you're in
church. But when you go home, there's no
passion. There's no peace. There's no
intimacy. Or maybe it is fear that is
crippling you in your heart or a lack of
peace or financial instability or an
addiction, a habit of your life that
that nobody else knows because you've
learned how to conceal it and cover it
up when you're outside the four walls of
your home. But when you're at home,
there's a lapse in your integrity that
nobody knows about. The thing about
leprosy is that you can only hide it for
so long.
You can only leave it as the small
print, the fine print of your life for
so long because eventually leprosy
And here's the thing, our social media
outlets don't talk about our leprosy.
We don't highlight that cuz you know,
let Instagram tell it, the meals we
cook, all of the meals we cook are
gourmet masterpieces.
Let Instagram tell it. All the children
that we have raised, they are splendid
little angels. Let our social media
presence tell it. And the houses we live
in, they're all pristine castles. And
the man we married, he's a night in
shining armor. And the business we
started, it's flourishing in every way.
And the smile on our glowing, perfectly
lit faces in our selfies relay a story
of ease and peace and wellness. But I'm
afraid y'all that underneath it all,
there are some lepers in the room tonight.
tonight.
That there's an ailment in your heart
and you've just not let anybody in.
Nobody knows the thing that you're
really struggling with. And listen, I
find it interesting that non even as a
leper is still working. Okay?
Not only is he still working captain of
the army, but he's still working in
close proximity to the king.
That means not only that he is a leper,
but that he is a functional leper.
And the only thing worse than being a
leper is being a functional leper.
You've learned so cleverly how to fool
the people around you that you're able
to still function on your 8 toive job.
You're able to still get yourself out of
bed and function as a mom to these three
children or four children or two
children that you have. You're able to
still function as the wife to your
husband. You're able to still hang out
with your girlfriend, single woman, and
plaster a smile on, to act like you're
content in this season of your life.
You're you've learned how to how to be a
functional leper so you don't have to
deal with the real stuff that's going on
in your heart and in your mind. The
stuff, y'all, that makes all of the
tears fall down from our eyes late at
night when nobody knows that we're
crying those tears or that we're staying
up extra minutes, extra hours as we
wrestle with the leprosy that we know is
there. The tragedy is that we've not
only gotten good at fooling everybody
else, we've begun to fool ourselves into
thinking we're healthy healthier than we
actually are.
But that leprosy, it really is the
defining thing that could be the death
of us, just like it could for non. In
the end, his chapter, his story, his
name is known, not so much for his
accolades, not so much for what he's
appreciated, not so much for the
successes he's achieved, the diplomas on
his wall, the people who applaud and
appreciate him. It's what he does or
does not do with this leprosy that
really matters in the end. I remember
many, many years ago watching an episode
of ER.
You remember ER? Anybody in the room old
enough to remember ER?
Who does not remember ER? You know what?
>> Grey's Anatomy. Well, ER started it all.
ER started all of the medical dramas. It
was the one that kind of was the the one
that just kind of thrust that whole
genre of television shows. And I I
didn't watch all of ER, honestly, but I
caught an episode here and there. And
there's one episode that I will never
forget. There had been a horrible um
wreck and there were a lot of people
involved in the in the wreck. I don't
believe it was a car wreck. It may have
been a bus or a train, but there were
many many people who were very very
tragically hurt. They all came into the
ER almost at the same time, one after
the other needing medical attention. And
I remember that there was one particular
young woman who was bloodied and
bruised. She was unconscious. They were
trying their best to save her life. She
was wheeled in on a gurnie from the
ambulance. Everybody was racing in
around her. doctors and nurses trying to
do what they could to tend to her. Right
beside her was her best friend. The two
of them had been on a trip together and
her best friend ran right beside her.
Her best friend only had one little
scratch that she was able to show a
nurse on her shoulder. She could not
believe that she had gotten out with so
many people who had been so hurt and so
damaged. She couldn't believe that this
is all that had happened to her. And so
she's running beside her best friend and
and she's trying to get her tended to.
And every now and then throughout the
episode, someone comes over to the to
the healthy friend and basically says to
her, "Is there anything we can do for
you? Can we check on you?" And she says,
"No, please don't divert any of your
attention away from my best friend
because she's going to die if y'all
don't tend to her and all the other
people that are here in the ER. Please
divert your attention to them again."
Several moments later, someone comes
back and says, "Can I take a look at
you?" And she says, "No, don't you see?
I'm fine. I don't I don't need any help.
please put all of your energy elsewhere.
And the episode builds until at the very
very end, in the last couple moments,
this friend is standing over the bedside
of her best friend who has now just come
out of surgery and is recovering and is
going to be able to be well. She's
standing beside her friend. And in a
moment's notice, this friend who has
been healthy for the entire day
collapses to the floor. Her eyes glaze
over as nurses and doctors run in. They
check her pulse and they realize they
cannot find a pulse and her heart has
stopped beating because the entire time
she had internal damage that was
bleeding out. And because she did not
let anybody attend to her because she
didn't attend to herself,
she lost her life.
Listen, I flew over from Dallas, Texas
in the cold and the rain and the fog
because I came to attend to you sisters.
I came to ask you if you've checked on
yourself recently. I know you're worried
about her and him and the people in your
house and the kids and the folks at
Sunday school and everybody else who's
got stuff that they need you to invest
in them regarding. I came to ask you
tonight, is there a leprosy that's
bleeding you out from the inside? Is
there something that you need to contend
with? An addiction that you need to deal
with? Strongholds that need to be
broken? fear that needs to be stepped
away from hatred that needs to be
dissolved. Do you need the healing power
of Jesus Christ? Tonight is the night to
deal with yourself
before time runs out.
Non was completely successful while
being completely sick. He was outwardly
victorious while suffering from the most
tragic of vices. He was publicly
applauded while being privately agonized
over this leprosy. Luke chapter 7, Jesus
said about the Pharisees, he said, "Woe
to you. You are clean on the outside,
but you're full of filth on the inside."
He said, "You're like whitewashed tombs.
You look all pristine and whitewashed on
the outside, but you're still tombs.
Inside, you're full of dead men's bones."
bones."
Today is the day for us to look inward
and not leave in the fine small print of
our resumes the thing that really
matters. Because listen, everything
hinges on what non will choose to do
with this leprosy. The remainder of this
narrative hinges on the outcome of this
ailment. Either it will consume him and
be the death of him or it will he will
bring it out into the open and give it
to God through the prophet Elijah so
that it can be a demonstration of the
power of God in his life. The trajectory
of this portion of scripture. The part
that will go down in the annals of
history is that a man with an unccurable
disease either gets healed by God or he
does not. The chapter could end by
saying there was a man named non who had
a problem and kept his problem. There
was a man named non who had an issue, an
ailment and still in the end had that
same issue, that same ailment. Or the
chapter could end as it does in verse 15
What we know about Na non is based
solely on what he did with his leprosy.
Do you understand that for generations
to come the story will be told about you
from your daughters and your sons, your
grandchildren, your great grandchildren.
And they will talk about yes the things
you accomplished and the things you
achieved but the most stunning things
the most uh important things the most
memorable things that people who come
after you whether they are nieces and
nephews or your own children or just
people in the Sunday school class young
people that you're mentoring or folks in
the youth group of which you serve or
people on that college campus where
you're mentoring and touching the lives
of other people folks who come after us.
The story they will tell is about the
fact that they remember when we were
once lost and now we are found. That we
were once blind but they watch us be
able to see. They will take and tell the
stories about how there were ashes in
our life and our God made beautiful
thing out of those messy places. That's
the story that people will tell. That's
what leaves the mark. It's what we do
with our leprosy. It's whether we leave
it hidden and concealed behind the
veneers that we so perfectly put up on
our social media profiles or whether
we'll just bring it out to the open and
say, "Here it is. Here's the real deal.
God, would you do business with this?
I'm tired of this anger. I'm ready to
let it go. I'm tired of this pride. I
want to humble myself under the mighty
hand of God so that he can exalt me. I'm
tired of living in a stale, passionless
marriage. Lord, take it and do with it
what you will." Lord, I'm tired of being
as I was. I want to be as you can make
Y'all, this is this is the story of my life
life
on both sides of my family. My
grandfather on my father's side or his
dad, my mother's dad, both of them
changed the trajectory
of our lives.
particularly my dad's dad, his father
was an alcoholic.
He was not raised, my grandfather was
not raised in a Christian home. They
were quite antagonistic to the things of
God. And my grandfather as a long
shoreman, as he was raising my father
and his three siblings, as a long
shoreman on the shores of Baltimore in
Maryland, u he made money for his family
as best he could, hauling in fish every
day, but on the side he literally made
liquor in the basement. That's what he
did. Perpetuating the society of
addiction in which he lived there in the
urban center of Baltimore. But that's
way that's the way he put food on the
table by selling liquor out of his
basement. In the meantime, his own
family was crumbling. My grandfather and
grandmother's marriage was crumbling.
And he was doing the best he could, but
he had to work so hard he couldn't
really tend to uh the the the family as
he wanted to tend to his family. So
everything was crumbling apart until one
day on the docks on the shores there
right there uh at the Baltimore Harbor
there was a man he worked with and who
told him about a man named Jesus who
could change his entire life and that
day kneeling down right there at the
harbor in Baltimore. My grandfather came
to know Jesus Christ as Lord. He brought
all his leprosy out of the open. He told
the guy about his marriage that looked
so perfect on the outside with these
four little cute kids, but really it was
crumbling from the inside out. He told
him about his father who had been
addicted to liquor and how he, my
grandfather, was well on his way to
perpetuating that same cycle. He opened
up and came clean about his leprosy and
gave his life to Jesus Christ. And he
went home a different man.
He came home to 1110 Papa Grove Street,
the exact same house that he still lives
in to this day.
And he came into this home and for the
next two, three years, every morning at
3:00 in the morning, he would get up. He
says before my grandmother would get up
and give him, this is what he said, give
him hell for the rest of the day.
before she started wagging her mouth
about all the things she wanted him to
change. Before the day got hectic and
started started, he said he would come
downstairs and fall to his knees and he
would pray to this new God that he
didn't know well. He would open up his
the scriptures and he would read the
scriptures. Oh my gosh, y'all. I just
called my grandfather yesterday and I
talked to him on the phone. I said, "To
daddy," we called him two daddy. I said,
"To daddy, what are you doing?" He said,
'Oh, I'm just reading the scriptures.
You know Jesus is coming soon.
He's been doing it since he was in his
early 20s. He's 89 now. Reading the
scriptures and he prayed.
He prayed on his knees that the Lord
would save his family
until one morning three years in my
grandmother having given him a hard time
for three years. One of those early
mornings, she came and crept down those
little creaky stairs
and she knelt beside him
and she said, "Whatever has happened to
you to change you from who you were to
who you are now, I want that kind of
change in my life."
And so my grandfather [Applause]
[Applause]
led my grandmother to Jesus. And then
those two sat around the table with
their four children, one of whom was
Tony Evans,
and shared the gospel with their four
kids, and gave to them the gift that had
been given to my father, uh, my
grandfather, right there on the shores
of Baltimore. The entire family that day
accepted Jesus Christ as savior. And I'm
standing before you as one of his many
dozens of grandchildren and now
great-grandchildren. And my father, the
grandfather, the story that we tell of
him, what we know about him, most of
what we appreciate about him is not just
the achievements and the accolades, not
the things he's accomplished or the
successes that he has.
It's that one day
he met a man named Jesus
>> and he changed the trajectory of our
entire lives because he took a stand. [Music]
They started playing, which means I have
Listen, if you don't have a legacy like
I have, if you don't have grandfathers,
grandmothers that have done that in your
life, listen, don't get discouraged by
that. Get excited because you get to be
the one. [Applause]
[Applause]
You get to be the one to change the
trajectory of your entire life till one
day your sons and daughters and
grandchildren and great grandchildren
tell the story of a woman that came to
Radiant in 2017 gave her leprosy to God
and changed the course of their entire
lives. But y'all, that's not even the
best part of the story. The best part of
the story is that in verse three, we
find out there's a little captive girl.
A girl who has been displaced from her
ambitions, her goals, her dreams, the
comfort of her home. She has been set in
a place where she feels uncomfortable,
where she doesn't want to be. It is not
the plan that she had for her life. And
in that place, she becomes the
instrument that God uses to point
somebody to the one true God. I came to
tell somebody who feels cheated
because you're trying to figure out how
your trajectory in life that you had
planned this way because the the the the
career path that you had planned was
pointed in this direction. How did you
end up on this job? The marriage that
you had planned in your mind, how did
you end up in this sort of a union? The
the the the relationship with your child
that you first envisioned, it doesn't
look anything like that. your financial
situation. It was supposed to look like
this, but some way the Lord has allowed
it to look like this and you feel like
you've been cheated. I came to tell you
that most often when we are displaced
from our dreams to his.
Often times it looks like captivity.
Often times it doesn't look like
anything you planned, you feel
uncomfortable and you wish you were back
home. And you may not know until
centuries later in Luke chapter 4 when
Jesus is telling the story when Jesus
wants to make sure Jesus has shown up on
the scenes and in his own words he wants
to authenticate his deity and he reaches
back to a story from the Old Testament
to make sure all the people in the New
Testament know that he is who he says he
is and he has come to do exactly what he
says to that he's going to do. The
little captive girl could never have
known that she was the key to the story.
And I'm here to tell you that you
displaced captive girl. You're the key
to the story. If he has not released you
from that job, then you stay on that job
and be the light in the midst of the
darkness. If you are still in that
neighborhood and you've been trying to
move, but you can't find the right place
anywhere else. And so there you are in
that apartment, in that home that you
can't wait to break free from. The
reason you are still there is because
there you are going to be the light in
the midst of the darkness. You are the
key to the people in your sphere of
influence, knowing that there is a God
in Israel. That there is a God who is
able to perform healing in their lives.
If the Lord hasn't let you switch
churches, that means you're not supposed
to switch churches. You're supposed to
be planted in the house of God where he
has put you so that you can be his key
in the midst of that unity of believers
that are serving him. Wherever God has
planted you, he intends for you to be.
Even if you feel cheated, would you know
you've not been cheated. You've been chosen.
chosen.
You're the one,
little captive girl. You're the one.
You've been chosen by God to be exactly
where you are. University student,
you're the one.
High school student,
You are the one you've been waiting for. [Music]
[Music]
Stay where you are, not cheated with
your chin raised, knowing actually
I've been chosen.
that Rashida was driving from Dallas
Fort Worth to Waco, Texas for a conference.
conference.
Nobody really knows exactly what
happened, but about 3:00 in the morning
or so, our phone started buzzing
as we got news that Rashidita was on a
head in a head-on collision. In the hour
and 15 minutes it took her to get from
Dallas to Waco, she was in a head-on
collision and in an instant,
she went to see Jesus.
And when I heard the news,
the only thing I could think was, I am
so glad that before she saw him face to
face, she knew that he had not cheated
You know, I want to pray for you if you
were in this room
and either one of two things describes
you in this story.
Either you have leprosy that you have
not been dealing with. You've been here
all conference long and you have enjoyed
yourself, but you know there is a thread
of sickness. There is an ailment in your
heart or in your mind or in your
marriage. In your integrity, there is a
lapse of integrity. There is something
that is offkilter and you've gotten so
good at covering it up.
But you want to come clean tonight so
that you can be known not as the woman
who carried this ailment her whole life,
but as the woman who handed that ailment
over to Jesus and watched him do
something with it, make beautiful things
out of those ashes.
I want to pray for you if that's you
tonight. I'm going to ask you to stand
in just a moment. But there's another
group of you that I want to pray for.
It's any of you who are in the room and
you feel cheated.
I mean, you feel cheated. This is not
what you signed up for.
I want to pray that the Lord by his
spirit will help you tonight
to see things from his perspective when
you go back to that home, to that job,
to that neighborhood, to that university
campus, to go back with his perspective
on why he has planted you there. so that
you will know you've not been cheated
but that you've been chosen. So if you
fall into either of those categories,
there's a leprosy that needs healing in
your life or there's a change of
perspective that you want to leave here
with at the end of radiant conference
this week, would you please stand to
your feet? It would be my privilege to
take us all between the throne to the
So Lord Jesus, I bring those of us
starting with me who are standing to our
feet. Father, I pray right now in the
matchless name of Jesus Christ for
leprosy that is eating away at us,
numbing us, desensitizing us, Lord,
keeping us from living to our full
potential. Father, I pray right now in
Jesus name that you would by your
healing bomb pour out your grace and
your mercy upon every single heart. I
pray that marriages would be restored. I
pray that strongholds would be broken. I
pray that fear would dissipate. I pray
that hate would be softened. Lord, I
pray that hardened hearts would be
mended. Lord, I pray that brokenness
would be salvaged. I pray that fissures
would be restored. I pray that you would
resuscitate and breathe life back into
your daughters. Lord, I pray that we
would never we would no longer cover up
that which we need to expose to the
healing power of our great God. And we
thank you, Father, that you not only
sympathize with us in your humanity, but
that you can turn around in your power
and actually perform a healing miracle
in our lives. So, I pray for health in
Jesus' name.
Health in Jesus' name. I pray for
restoration, resurrection,
resuscitation, renewal in Jesus' name.
And then, Father, I pray for those who
are discouraged because they feel
cheated. They're honest with you right
now. Father, they feel irritated and
frustrated because life as it is going
is not how they had it planned. So, I
pray right now that you would displace
discouragement off of their lives. Would
you replace it with a cloak of
encouragement in Jesus name? Send them
out of here with a holy contentment,
Father, remembering that you are who you
say you are and that you will accomplish
through their lives exactly what you
have said that you will accomplish.
Lord, fit us with your glasses to see
our situations through your
perspectives. And we will give you all
the praise and all the glory and all the
honor in Jesus name. Everybody agreed
when they said amen. >> Amen.
Hey there. Thanks so much for watching.
I hope that you were blessed, that you
were encouraged, and that you feel like
you are strengthened for the journey
ahead. I invite you to subscribe to our
channel and also to hit that little bell
icon. That way, you'll be notified when
we have content in the future. And
praying for you that you stay
encouraged, keep your eyes fixed on
Jesus, and be encouraged as you live for
Christ in everything that you do. God
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