SECRETS FOR SLEEPWALKERS BY PRISCILLA SHIRER
[Music]
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is a sermon from priscilla cher a woman
of fire whose teachings have blessed so
many lives stay tuned
lord i thank you for your word
i thank you father that it is living an
active and sharper than any two-edged
sword i thank you that father in these
next few minutes what you’re about to do
is open up the windows of heaven and
come down here and speak to us
father we have worshiped you in spirit
and in truth the best we know how lord
so we are praying and asking that that
worship has been acceptable to you we
have wanted to roll out the red carpet
for your spirit to come in here into
this room and change our lives lord we
are so grateful that each other is here
but we didn’t come to see each other we
came to see you
lord we need a word from you our lives
need to be touched by your presence so
at lord i’m asking that you would rend
the heavens
and come into this space
and speak
father we are on the edge of our seats
with our chin in our hands in full
expectation that you have a word for us
this morning
so father i pray you take this one
little simple portion of scripture
that you would divide it up about 700
different ways
so that every single person that’s under
the sound of my voice today will know
beyond a shadow of a doubt they heard
you speak to them today
do it lord
in jesus name i pray amen
amen
amen
[Applause]
many of uh you know that as i mentioned
earlier that i grew up in dallas fort
worth area but many of you know who
my daddy is and my mom the late lois
evans my father is dr tony evans i greet
you on behalf of he and my late mom lois
and our church oak cliff bible
fellowship church just down the street
little ways from you all
we live
we lived grew up and my parents my
father now still lives in the exact same
house where
he raised the four of us i have an older
sister named crystal then it’s me and
two younger brothers and they’ve been in
that house since i was six years old so
the exact same little house very near
the church down on camp wisdom road and
dad and mom have been in the house i
guess so now it’s been you know 40 years
or so so you know when you’ve been in a
house that long stuff
starts to collect
so i remember very clearly when i was in
my 20s at one point mom called and she
said listen
none of y’all live here no more
she said i love y’all but i’m gonna need
y’all to come get your stuff
and mommy was real clear she said now
listen i want you to know that on this
particular date which was about a month
later on this particular date i’ve
already called the people that are
coming with a truck for whatever is left
for whatever stuff y’all don’t come get
so any point over these next 30 days you
have an opportunity to come and look
through your old things and all that so
i remember the day that i made a point
to go to the house and i went up into
the attic you know the old school
addicts where there’s a pulley that
comes down from the top of the roof
there pull it down and a little ladder
folds out and i walked up into the attic
and sat down in the little attic space
that’s up there in the little house and
there were boxes there some of them had
my name on it i started opening up these
boxes
one of the boxes that i opened up had
several journals in it
so man i just had forgotten all about
these journals
so you know i kind of sat down indian
style because now i’m getting into all
the nostalgia of looking through these
boxes and i started looking through
these little journals now i have kept a
journal
i didn’t even realize it until i opened
up this box that it had really been my
entire life that i have kept some
version of a journal i’m not one of
those serious journaling people you know
those people we admire them so much
don’t we
those people who get new colored pencils
at the top of the year and a brand new
journal and she writes every day and
she’s so consistent and so in that
precious
[Applause]
that’s not me i write every now and then
you know when something happens that i
don’t want to forget i’ve done that for
my sons as well when there’s something
that has happened in their life through
the years i have a little journal for
each of my boys and and i’m just i plan
to give it to them or maybe better yet
i’m gonna give it to their wives when
they get married and say this is what
you’re getting yourself into right here
so every now and then i’ll write down
things that are happening throughout the
course of a year but i didn’t realize
that i had this first journal when i was
nine
so i sat down and i was looking to see
what the world was i thinking when i was
nine
then there was one from when i was 13
and then 18 and then 22 and man i was
looking through just the things that
were on my mind and that were happening
in my life during those seasons here’s
what i noticed
i noticed that of all the different
little details or stories that i had
written down there was a common thread
that was running through these years of
my life
that at nine years old
man i could not wait till i grew up a
few more years like my older sister so
that i could get out of the the sunday
school elementary part of church life
and i could finally be in the youth
group i wanted to be a whole for real
live teenager so that maybe then my
parents would give me a little bit more
freedom and and i could enjoy my life a
little bit more then i looked at my
teenage years and man i could not wait
till these teenage years were over where
i was living in the strict house of my
parents who actually had the nerve to
have rules and
regulations i could not wait to bust up
out of here and go to college so that i
could have some freedom and live on my
own
then i read these entries from when i
was in college
oh i cannot wait
until these college years begin to
dovetail into something more meaningful
in my life i can’t wait until i find the
guy of my dreams until i get into
married life i mean single life has been
good but i’m so ready to go ahead and be
married then i read a journal entry from
the first years of our marriage
[Applause]
there were many things that i wrote down
there but one of them sounded like this
oh lord this is so exciting that i
finally got married but i cannot wait
until we finally can have kids and move
on to that season of our life
then i had a bunch of small kids
oh lord
[Applause]
i’m tired
[Applause]
i love having these babies but man i
cannot wait until they grow up a little
bit they can take themselves to the
bathroom and strap themselves in their
own car seat i’m ready for them to grow
up
and now i’m watching my sons go off to
college one after the other
and i realize looking back over the
course of decades now
that there have been so many seasons of
my life that while i was in the season
i was too busy looking forward to
recognize the blessing of the season
that i was standing in
and what a tragedy it is
when the winds of change blow and they
blow you into the next season of your
life and it’s only then that you look
back and realize
that you were in the good stuff and
missed it while you were there
because often times when the winds of
change blow they blow you into a season
and you may never again return to the
one that you just came from
i wonder if you like i have in previous
seasons of my life i wonder if you’ve
been sleepwalking through certain
seasons of your life
just waiting for this particular season
to be over as you’re dreaming about the
future and what what is next and what
god has laid on your heart whether in
business or in family or in ministry or
in entrepreneurial endeavors or whatever
it is that he is fostering for you to do
i wonder if you’re so busy like i have
been looking forward that you’re missing
out on all the good stuff he’s got for
you now in fact there’s foundational
material that unless you grab hold of it
right now you won’t even be steady
enough to stand firm in the next season
that’s on the way
there’s character you need for tomorrow
sis
there’s fortification that’s going to be
required of you there are relationships
you’re supposed to be making now and
investing in now there are things that
are supposed to be built into our lives
that if we’re sleep walking through this
season we won’t be ready for the next
this is a message for sleepwalkers
anybody who’s not quite awake in your
life right now
anybody who’s been a little bit
disengaged just trying to wait for this
thing to be over so you can get to the
good stuff
i just drove over a few miles from my
house to tell you this is the good stuff
i’m telling you high school student be
fully present on your high school campus
i’m telling you university student be
fully present as you’re in this season
of your life i’m telling you single
woman don’t wait on the next thing
you’re in it right now
i’m telling you married woman i’m
telling you entrepreneur i’m telling you
woman in ministry even as you wait for
what my god
what god might have next don’t sleep on
what it is he has for you right now
this is the good stuff
oh have y’all i’mma get to the text but
listen have y’all been watching this as
us
[Music]
it’s too much it’s too much
listen i’m not gonna spoil it for you
because they just had the last show of
this is us the very last one in the
entire season but the whole show
as you follow six years basically six
seasons these people’s life basically
from the inception of this family all
the way through to the end of their
lives as you watch it you see these
people now in their older years and the
whole lesson of this entire series for
all these years all these ups and downs
and griefs and celebrations and losses
and and triumphs in life you get to the
end of the series and it all boils down
to
we were in the good stuff and didn’t
know it
oh y’all we gotta wake up
we gotta wake up and fully engage even
with the trouble and frustration and
struggle and heartache that we have
going on collectively in our world right
now and that i’m sure in some degree is
happening underneath the roof of your
own house just like it is in mind as we
deal with the relationships as we deal
with the decisions that we have to make
the forward movement that we’re trying
to see happen in our life and in our
journey there’s one step forward and
sometimes two steps back
even with that discouragement keep your
eyes open
because the enemy would have a sleepwalk
through this part
there was someone in scripture who knows
exactly how this feels in fact y’all
there are several people in scripture
who
had a moment with jesus and they were
too
sleepy too disengaged to actually
realize it real you remember there were
two men walking on the road to amaze to
emmaus they were so discouraged by the
crucifixion that they had just witnessed
that this guy they were hanging their
hopes on now he had been hung on a cross
and they’re so busy discussing the
details of their disappointment as
they’re walking along that the gospels
tell us a third party joins them on the
walk
and they so busy telling him about the
disappointment that they don’t even know
the person they’re walking with and
talking with is jesus the christ
or then there’s mary magdalene she comes
to an empty tomb and she’s so blurred by
the tears that she’s crying because her
savior is not where she supposed he
would be
that she doesn’t even recognize that the
man standing behind her is not the
gardener as she supposes
that’s the jesus that she’s been looking
for
all throughout the scriptures there are
people who are with him
in the season that they’re in in the
discouragement and disappointment even
as the tears fall from their eyes they
don’t even recognize he’s standing right
there
and then
in the book of genesis chapter 28
let me tell you something if you
highlight stuff in your bible this is
one that deserves to be underlined
highlighted whatever you need to do to
never forget these words that jacob
speaks in genesis chapter 28 verse 16.
then
jacob woke up from his sleep
and he said
surely the lord is in this place
and i didn’t know it
he woke up and was alerted to the fact
wait a minute god was here the whole
time
and i was unaware of it and i just
wonder if today the lord has brought us
here together for an alarm clock an
agitation to your soul to wake you up
out of your spiritual slumber and me so
that our eyes can be opened like jacob
not at the end of the story but at the
beginning of our story our eyes can go
ahead and be open so that we’ll know
surely the lord is in this place
and we’ll have a testimony that we can
tell our grandchildren oh yeah yeah girl
he was there let me tell you how i know
let me tell you the fingerprints of how
i saw him move let me show you his
footprints that were in my life and in
my story and in my history let me tell
you how i heard his voice whispering in
my ear let me tell you how the holy
spirit warmed my heart with the comfort
of his presence yeah i went through some
hard stuff grand baby but let me just
tell you how good god is not because i
heard it from somebody else
but because i have a testimony of my for
myself that surely the lord was in this
place
so come sit down on my knee and let me
tell you the good news about jesus
christ
there are tucked within these few verses
that come before verse 16 in genesis
chapter 28 there are what i call some
secrets for sleepwalkers
okay
some secrets for sleepwalkers they start
in verse 10.
then jacob departed from beersheba
and he went toward haran
and he came to a certain place somebody
say certain place
he came to a certain place and he spent
the night there because the sun had set
let’s just start right here we meet
jacob on a journey toya he’s on a
journey from beersheba headed towards
haran and i want you to know a little
bit about jacob’s journey and why he is
making this transition this is not a
transition he would have chosen this is
not one he would have preferred this
would not have been comfortable or
convenient for him or easy for him the
reason why he is leaving is because he
has duped his brother out of the
birthright and the blessing that should
have belonged to him
when esau found out what his brother has
done had done he decided that he was
going to come after him to take his life
so jacob’s mother loving him the way she
did she said you got to get out of dodge
you got to get out of town
town in order to spare your life they
had said saddened goodbyes as he left
his mother who loved him his father who
loved him and the comfortable home
environment that isaac had created for
them
jacob is leaving that which is
comfortable
he is leaving that which is familiar
he is leaving that which he loves he is
leaving that which has a stewarded him
and brought him to this particular
season of his life this is not a
transition that he’s choosing
just like the transition you’re in right
now maybe is not the one you’re choosing
it’s because of choices they made and
things they did and circumstances that
lined up in that particular way that is
now making you walk this particular
journey in this season of your life with
that child or with that spouse or with
that co-worker or with that boss or in
that particular financial journey that
you’re in you’re finding yourself on
this journey and it’s not the journey
that you prefer
jacob knows how it feels to be lonely
and isolated and frustrated and
disappointed be disappointed because
this is not what you signed up for
and as jacob is on that journey he comes
to a certain
place
there is nothing that denotes the
details of what this place would have
been we know it would have been
mountainous terrain rocky stoney ground
that’s going to be important just a
minute
rocky’s stony ground because the terrain
between beersheba and haran where he is
was headed was filled with mountains not
up plush soil and grasses but more
desert and rocks and stones and
barrenness is what he would have been
traversing through if that ain’t a word
right there
because sometimes that is the journey
isn’t it
there’s not soft soil there’s not green
grass there’s not anything plush that we
feel like we can relax into it’s just
stones and rocks and desolation and
barrenness and dryness and the lord has
allowed jacob to take this journey and
the only reason why he comes to a stop
in verse 11 at this certain place is
because the text says the sun begins to
set
he can’t see the lights of haran clearly
anymore in the distance darkness is
descending
we’ve been at that place
where darkness descends
where your hope about that dream kind of
begins to fade
where the vision that you had you could
see it so clearly at the beginning but
all of a sudden the lights are a little
fuzzy in the distance now
as you’ve literally been trying to take
one foot in front of the other to head
towards that particular destination life
happens and you come to a certain place
where you feel a sense of despair or
apathy or lethargy about that that
destination that you have in mind you
can’t see it clearly anymore
he comes to this particular certain
place and because the darkness begins to
descend he just lays down
taps out
and goes to sleep
what jacob couldn’t have known then
is what you and i can see now clearly in
the text in the context of scripture
because we have all the jewels and the
gems and the treasures written that they
could not have known in real time
and what jacob couldn’t have known in
real time is that that english term a
certain place
actually comes from an original hebrew
term that means listen
a sacred place
he couldn’t have known that this regular
run-of-the-mill mundane isolated
frustrated patch of rocky ground between
one place and the other not quite there
but not quite here this frustrating
middle ground that made him want to do
nothing else except tap out and just
sort of disengage from this entire
experience he had no idea that the
ground he was standing on was holy
ground
what we know from the entire story is
that this particular patch of ground is
where his grandfather would have been
where abraham would have built an altar
to the lord would have had communion
with yahweh the one true and living god
jacob wasn’t just in any old place this
was a sacred place this was a sanctuary
god he doesn’t know it is coming in in
the next verses god’s getting ready to
show up here he’s getting ready to see a
whole ladder with angels descending and
ascending and god is going to be
standing above the ladder speaking to
him this experience is getting ready to
mark jacob’s life for the rest of his
life and it doesn’t happen in a palace
it doesn’t happen on a platform it
doesn’t happen in a spotlight it doesn’t
happen in beersheba it doesn’t happen in
haran it happens in the nasty middle
ground the place where we just want to
disengage and go to sleep because life
is a little bit raggedy right here
this is the place that is sacred it’s a
sanctuary and if our eyes are open
if we’re just connected enough if we
keep ourselves prayerful and connected
with god asking the holy spirit to open
up our eyes so that we can see him
moving clearly before we know it even
with the run-of-the-mill middle ground
stuff that we’re going through we’ll
start taking off our shoes because we’ll
realize this is holy grail
this is sacred stuff right here
raising these toddlers this is sacred
stuff right here raising these teenagers
this is sacred stuff right here washing
these dishes this is sacred stuff right
here building this business this is
sacred stuff right here mapping out this
business plan this is sacred stuff right
here doing the marriage counseling this
is sacred stuff right here participating
in the regular rhythms of life that’s
the sacred stuff right there y’all
he’s not just in a certain place he’s in
a sacred space
that’s the first secret for sleepwalkers
that certain places
are sacred spaces
oh just ask moses
because moses is wandering around in a
wilderness for 40 years between the ages
of 40 and 80 he is just tending sheep in
a desert desolate place in the desert of
orb and this would have been a job that
would have been beneath his pay grade
and beneath his educational level he’d
been raised as the prince of egypt
he’d been raised in the lap of luxury
but because of consequences of his own
choices
he finds himself a right smack dab in
the middle of the desert doing this
tedious mundane lonely isolating job but
one day while he’s in that sacre that’s
that certain place one day he’s just
walking along being faithful to the task
at hand and a bush starts burning
and all of a sudden a certain place
is a sacred space
or maybe like haggar you know how it
feels to be misused and abused and
mistreated and cast out by the people
you were supposed to be able to trust
and you find yourself sitting in a
desolate place not because of something
you did like moses but because of
choices they made it was your parents or
your spouse or that environment that
kind of set you in this place that
you’re trying to figure out how you got
here and you wonder if god will ever be
able to find you and utilize you and
make your dreams come to fruition now
that you find yourself in the position
that haggar is in ask hagar she’ll tell
you that the angel of the lord will show
up in wilderness places
oh just ask gideon gideon will tell you
that you can be sitting under the shade
of an enormous oak tree thrashing out
wine not in a wine press but or
threshing out wheat in a wine press not
the place where you’re actually supposed
to be doing this job it’s not a
convenient place for this kind of job
but you’re there because you’re timid
and afraid because the midianites
external circumstances keep pressing in
on you so much so that now like gideon
you’re walking in timidity and fear and
insecurity and that fear has relegated
you to a place that you know is not
where you’re supposed to be ask gideon
that even when you’re hiding
the angel of the lord will come and find
you
oh i wonder if there is any moses in the
house
that you’re in that desert and you did
it to
yourself honestly you can look back and
you can see how it was the choice you
made that put you there
you knew up front before you
participated in that relationship or in
that task or walked down that road or
chose that direction or participated in
that activity you knew up front what you
were getting yourself into and so now
like moses you find yourself sitting in
a desolate circumstance that is of your
own making
oh i got good news for you moses the arm
of god is not so short that he cannot
say
and there is no pit that you’ve dug for
yourself
that the mercy of god is not deeper
still he will reach down in that pit and
snatch you up out of it
bushes burn in deserts like that moses
bushes don’t burn in palaces they burn
in deserts
or maybe you’re a haggar and you’re in
the house and you’re sitting in a pool
of disappointment because of someone
else’s choices and you wonder if god
will find you there haggar the angel of
the lord is on the way
he will never
leave you somebody listen to me somebody
needs to hear this today his eyes are on
you he knows where you are he knows what
you’ve been through he knows the abuses
that you’ve suffered he knows the way
you’ve been ignored or circumvented or
disregarded and even though it seems
like nobody else has their eyes on you
you need to know you serve a god who’s
got his eyes on you
and gideon if you’re afraid
if you’re timid
if you’ve been insecure
if you’ve been hiding
where can you flee from his presence
he will come and find you where you are
and just like gideon he’ll take you by
the hand and lead you out to a brand new
assignment
where you change the if you’ll go with
him you’ll change not only to the
trajectory of your own life and your
family’s life
gideon changed the trajectory of an
entire nation
one timid afraid man who god showed up
for
who realized that a certain place
actually is a sacred place
i gotta tell you that the only reason
why
i think the lord would allow us on this
saturday morning for our paths to
intersect like this not just yours with
mine but mine with yours
at this point in your life with what’s
going on in your details i don’t know
all your specific details and you don’t
know mine i know what’s happening with
us collectively it’s some chaos going on
out here in this this here world we’re
in
the chaos that is happening in the world
the the escalated inflammatory nature of
what it is that we’re experiencing
collectively but also the details of
what’s happening in your life and mine i
gotta tell you the only reason why i
think the holy spirit would line us up
today
is so he could tell you this space is a
sacred place
that he is still sitting on the throne
that he has not been knocked off the
throne because of all of the chaos
that’s happening and swirling around us
he’s still in charge his sovereignty is
still sure his love and kindness still
endures forever he’s still got your back
[Applause]
rest trust take your shoes off this is
holy ground
[Applause]
verse 11
y’all still with me
he took jacob took
one of the stones of that place
and he put it under his head and he lay
down to sleep
the king james version says he took one
of the pillows and he or he took one of
the stones and used it for a pillow
that’s what the king james version says
all right
now remember i told you this is stony
ground okay
there would have been all manner of
rocks and stones around him on his
journey meaning there would have been
tiny stones more like gravel that you
could just kick as you walked there
would have been medium-sized stones that
would have taken maybe two hands to pick
up there would have been boulders uh
rocks that were even more gargantuan
than this monitor sitting up here just
two three four ten times as large that
that ten men wouldn’t have been able to
lift everywhere he looked there were
hard things
there were ones that were small and
seemed insignificant there were
medium-sized ones that would take a
little bit more effort to get out of the
way and there were big ones that no
matter what he did he wouldn’t be able
to move them
so jacob is being allowed by the one
true and living god yahweh is allowing
him to walk a path that’s got all this
hard stuff
and i just wonder if there’s anybody in
the room and everywhere you look it’s
hard stuff
it’s small size hard stuff medium-sized
hard stuff real big hard stuff and just
when you get this stone out of the way
you turn around and find out there’s
another one right there and there’s one
to the east and one of the way it just
don’t matter what you do and some of the
stuff you’ve been able to take care of
on your own with your own little effort
some of it has taken a little bit longer
but you’ve been able to move it maybe
with a friend of yours or two been able
to get through that stuff but there’s
some stuff
that it don’t matter how hard you’ve
tried
it doesn’t matter how how long you’ve
tried it doesn’t matter how much you’ve
prayed or how much you’ve paid it
doesn’t seem like that big boulder is
ever going to move out of the way
jacob knows how it feels to be
surrounded by stones everywhere you look
there’s hard stuff and i don’t know
about you but when there’s hard stuff in
my path
i want to do one of two things with
those stones i either want to kick it
out of frustration that is in my way
or i want to pick it up and throw it at
the person that’s caused this stone to
be in my path in the first place
come on can i get a witness
but jacob actually teaches us that
there’s a secret
first to stones because he looks around
at all the hard things
and he finds one
that looks like it actually might be
useful
and he puts it under his head
and he uses it for a pillow
wouldn’t have been as comfortable as the
one he would have had back at home
but he looks at what he has access to
today given these circumstances and this
reality and he assumes that there’s
something useful that can be done with
all this hard stuff
he teaches us that the secret of stones
is that there’s good stuff
it’s just hidden in the hard stuff
there’s good stuff
[Applause]
it’s just hidden in the hard stuff
here’s what we do as
christ followers
church
goers christians
we pray and say
oh lord we want to see your power
lord we want to see your glory lord we
want to see your presence
and then in the next breath we pray
lord would you please keep me out of any
situation in which seeing your power and
presence would be required
we say lord i want to see a miracle but
but lord please keep me out of any
situation
in which i would need a miracle
everybody wants to see the red sea
divided but nobody wants to come 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 has to walk
around those walls
in obedience to god trusting that his
divine supernatural strategy is better
than your own
everybody wants to see god but nobody
wants to be me too we don’t want to be
in positions where we actually have to
see him
but i’ma tell you right now that when
you and i have the courage to pray lord
we want to see you he answers with
stones
and he says i’m gonna show you
how to live life knowing
that there’s good stuff
hidden in this hard stuff
i’m gonna fit you with my vision
spiritual vision with the perspective
that will angle you to be able to detect
that that even in the difficulties of
life y’all this is what the abundant
life is john 10 10. i came that you
might have life and life more abundantly
abundant life is not is is not you
waiting on or me waiting on
life to be more like skipping through a
grassy knoll with no a heartache and no
trouble and no disappointment no
abundant life is when you are surrounded
by hard stuff you’re on the journey from
point a to point b and you’re on the
patch of ground where really you want to
give up but right there in the middle of
all of that god gives you peace like a
river
god gives you joy that is unspeakable
god gives you a sense of emotional
stability when lord knows you shouldn’t
be emotionally or mentally stable and
yet god continues to stabilize you
giving a peace that is literally beyond
your understanding
you you’ve met people like that
you know your friend that you know
what’s going on in her life she’s the
she’s the one that tells you all the
things you listen to all the things oh
she has a lot going on and yet
she has peace
[Applause]
and you don’t get
how this girl can still sleep a full
seven hours eight hours at night going
through what’s she going through
you don’t get that kind of peace on your
own
but god can give it
uh jerry and i took the boys this is
several years ago y’all we took the boys
to babes chicken over in cedar hill
so we were at babes this is when it
first opened so this is a long time ago
the boys were little
and at the time my second son was
probably six years old
so we sit there and if you’ve ever been
to babes you know it’s all family style
you order the meat that you want and
then they bring out all the um
the sides to go with it
so jc is looking at the the list to see
what it is that he’d like there are
about five options for the meat
selections one of them is
catfish
fried catfish
so my son is looking at the menu all
studious trying to be all adult-like
and the waitress comes over and she says
young man what can i get for you to eat
and he said
well ma’am can i ask you a question
first and she says yes sir and he says
i’m thinking about the catfish but
is this made out of real cat
[Applause]
[Applause]
of course our response was just like
yours jerry and i the waitress we all
fell out laughing hysterically at this
boy’s question could not believe that he
asked that and as we’re laughing
hysterically he’s looking around getting
all frustrated that we’re laughing at
him he said why is everybody laughing at
my question
and i said babe it’s actually because
you’ve asked the wrong question
we can’t even give you an answer
based on the fact that you’ve asked
the wrong question
oh lord would you move this hard stuff
lord get this hard stuff out of my way
lord take this stone lord change this
difficulty get me out of this season of
life move this hardship we pray and ask
god to get the hard stuff out of the way
and then we’re mad because he’s not
answering
but i wonder if he’s not answering
because we’re asking the wrong question
what if the question is
lord would you fit me with spiritual
vision so that i can see any good stuff
that’s hidden in this hard stuff
is there anything useful that i’m
supposed to use in this to support me to
give courage to me to build character
and fortification in me lord don’t take
none of this hard stuff out of my life
until i mine it for every single
treasure that you’ve tucked within it
because what a tragedy it would be to
get to the next season
[Music]
and realize there was good stuff hidden
in that hard stuff
so jacob finds something useful out of
the hard stuff he lays his head down on
the pillow and he has a dream he sees
the latter verse 12 set up on earth and
reaching up into the heavens the angels
of god are ascending and descending and
the lord stands above it and he says
i am the lord
the god of your father abraham and the
god of isaac
the land on which you’re lying right now
jacob
i’m going to give it to your descendants
your descendants shall also be verse 14
like the dust of the earth and you shall
spread out to the west and the east and
the north and the south and in you and
in your descendants shall all the
families of the earth
be blessed
and behold verse 15 i
am
with you
the secret of certain places is that
certain places are sacred spaces
the secret of stones is that there’s
good stuff in the hard stuff
and
there is a secret of confirmation
everything that god just said to jacob
he’s standing above the ladder he is
speaking to jacob he sees the angels
descending and ascending on the ladder
which speaks to the connection between
heaven and earth that god is closer than
we think and god stands above it all and
he speaks to jacob
everything he says to him jacob has
heard before
okay
do you remember that blessing and that
birthright that he stole from isaac he
stole his brother’s blessing and
birthright two separate things
but they are all embedded within these
words
when when isaac gave jacob the blessing
and the birthright these were almost
identically the words that he spoke over
his
son and now when jacob is removed from
comfort and he’s in an uncomfortable
unfamiliar lonely patch of ground an
in-between place that feels
uncomfortable and unfamiliar god speaks
to him and when he does he does not tell
him anything new
he says all i’m finna do is confirm for
you
that i am who i said i am
and that i’m still going to accomplish
exactly what i declare to you that i am
going to accomplish
even the life right now with all this
hard stuff does not affirm my promises
i have come to confirm them to you this
is the secret of confirmation
that when life does not affirm
god will go out of his way to confirm
that if you’ll keep your eyes open if
i’ll keep my eyes open if we’ll not
become prayerless
if we’ll not disconnect from god if
we’ll not allow the hard stuff of our
life to push us away to where we stop
attending church and we stop keeping
ourselves in the word of god we
disconnect from our friends who are
encouraging and challenging us to stay
connected if we stop pray being
prayerful and being on our knees about
that situation that honestly we’ve been
praying about so long that we honestly
are just tired of praying about that one
thing if we’ll keep ourselves from
disconnecting this will be the season
when god will go out of his way to
confirm his promises for you
he’ll go out of his
way you’ll come to church on a sunday
you’ll come to the the gathering i heard
that you guys are happening tomorrow
night or sunday night at 6 00 p.m that
that you’ll come to a gathering like
that and god will go out of his way to
make sure you know he still is who he
said he is
you’ll come to church on a sunday
morning and pastor will be preaching and
he’ll open up the bible and the one
verse that he reads
you will feel like a spotlight is on you
as the holy spirit seals his presence in
your life
[Applause]
you’ll have your you’ll have your
devotions your quiet time you’ll just be
just reading something
but what it is that you read it will be
like the holy spirit takes out a divine
highlighter and causes it to leap up off
the page and grip you in your soul as
god goes out of his way to just confirm
for you
that he still got your back
when life doesn’t affirm just get ready
god’s getting ready to go out of his way
to confirm
he’s going to confirm it
he’s going to confirm it through the
word of a stranger he’s going to confirm
it through a worship song he’s going to
confirm it through a scripture verse
he’s going to confirm it as you just go
throughout your life and he just gives
you little winks from heaven that lets
you know he got you the gift that comes
in the mail the surprise email that
shows up the little nuances that god
does to just remind you that everything
he said then is still happening now
and this also is a challenge to us y’all
you don’t need nothing new listen
how many of y’all been in church your
whole life you just been in in and
around church your whole life
many of us probably 70 of us just raised
our hand you’ve been in and around you
you kind of know the scriptures you know
what it reads see and jacob’s ladder and
you heard the stuff
you don’t need nothing new
we don’t need new information
we need revelation concerning the
information we already got
[Applause]
and in these seasons
god goes out of his way
so pray lord open up my spiritual ears
open up my spiritual eyes father because
if you’re moving i don’t want to miss it
and if you’re speaking i want to hear
everything that you have come to say
and so god will use his own word to just
speak back to you
bits of confirmation he’ll use
circumstances to light up your path to
be a lamp unto your feet to help you to
know he’s still there he’s still got you
it’s the secret of confirmation and
finally god says to jacob
verse 15 and behold i am with you i will
keep you wherever you go here it is
and i will bring you back to this land
for i will not leave you until i have
done what i have promised to you
thank you lord
right after that jacob wakes up
it’s on the heels of that statement
i will bring you back to this land
i will not leave you until i’ve done
what i’ve promised you on the heels of
that jacob is startled awake
and he says god was here
god was here i didn’t know it i was
asleep i was sleepwalking through that
whole thing i missed it but but now i
realize in hindsight that god was here
it was right after god said to jacob
i will bring you back
to this land
there is a secret of
returning
oh y’all listen to me you listening
you are coming back to this land
listen
the place you’re in right now that i’m
in right now that we actually some of us
are praying hard to get out of so we can
move on to the next thing the holy
spirit of god whispers to you today and
says yeah but you are coming back
the circumstance might not look exactly
the way it does right now but listen
there are seeds we’re sowing today
the harvest of which is coming back to
us tomorrow
there are relationships we’re either
ignoring or fostering
today and the harvest of that is coming
back to us tomorrow
jacob could have never known that one
day years later he was going to be back
on this same patch of ground sitting in
the promises of god with his sons and
grandsons and daughters and
granddaughters and great-granddaughters
and nieces and nephews his descendants
spreading out to the east and the west
and the north and the south he’d be
sitting right here in this place he was
coming back to this place
and his posterity
was reaping the harvest of what jacob
sowed
i’m trying to tell you
there’s a whole generation that is
waiting on us to get serious about this
land that we’re on right now
there’s a whole listen your daughters
y’all our daughters and granddaughters
our sons and grandsons that maybe we
haven’t even met yet they are dependent
upon us waking up and realizing god is
here
because when you recognize that god is
here when you realize this is an
important place this is a sacred place
that there’s good stuff in the hard
stuff that god’s confirming his word to
me that i’m coming back here that there
are seeds i’m sowing the harvest of
which my people are going to reap in the
future when you recognize that it makes
you treat this place differently instead
of disdaining it and being disappointed
by it and completely frustrated by it
and trying to get out of it you also
realize i better take time to cultivate
it to foster it to nurture it to love it
because we are coming back here and my
people are going to reap the benefits
or the lack of benefits that i sow or do
not sow here
i’m telling you don’t burn the bridges
of the land you’re on right now
because there is a secret of returning
that you’re coming back here
i’m going to tell you this uh in closing
y’all
in the
past two and a half years
our family has lost eight family members
it has been devastating
one after the other
some of them for
it was just one day they were here and
one day they were not like just
every three to four months another
close family members family member of
ours passed away
within six months of each other i lost
my mother and then jerry lost his mother
back to back
my mother we knew she was sick and we
knew that unless god
chose to supernaturally heal her there
was no earthly answer to the cancer that
she was dealing with
so in those last couple of months in
particular the entire year of that but
the last couple of months in particular
we were all up on her
me and crystal my sister we kind of
moved into the house really to take care
of her and daddy and just be all up you
know all up in their business and all up
on
laying in the bed hanging out spending
time with her and there was this moment
when me
crystal anthony jonathan we were all
there in our pajamas
our spouses were there at that
particular time they were all in there
all of our children there’s about 14
grandchildren
and then the oldest grandchild she now
has children so there are great
grandchildren
we were all in the room together
with my mom
and at that point
sometimes she was with us sometimes she
wasn’t conscious as much but there was
this moment when we were all there
and she opened up her eyes
and saw all her people
and basically blessed us in jesus name
basically handed us a baton of faith and
said to us don’t nobody it doesn’t
matter what happens with me y’all better
not drop this baton
and in that moment watching a woman who
knew pretty soon she might be leaving
earth and entering into heaven i watched
this woman have peace like a
river and hope about the future what
manner of peace is this
that even in the faith of death it
stabilizes you even when you’re on
desolate ground like that even when
you’re in a circumstance like that that
none of us would have preferred what is
it that keeps you so anchored
you know what does
children
grandchildren great-grandchildren nieces
nephews those that you disciple
the young women that are looking at you
the people whose eyes are on you to see
how we’re gonna handle this ground that
we’re on do not back down in fear and
insecurity and quietness and silence the
enemy would love for you and i so much
to close our eyes and sleep through this
whole thing
god would say to you today ephesians
chapter 4 verse 14 awake o sleeper
and arise
the ground on which you are standing
it’s holy ground
i want you to bow your heads with me and
i want to ask that any of you who are in
this room and right now you re you
recognize it you see that you have been
sleeping through this whole season
you’ve been just trying to race through
this one to get on to the next one and
you have devalued the significance of
what god might be trying to do in this
particular season of your life
and you want to ask the holy spirit to
wake you up out of that spiritual
slumber so that you don’t miss anything
he has for you if that is a particular
prayer that you need today
please stand to your feet so that i can
pray with you
thank you father thank you lord
thank you lord
lord here we are your daughters we’re
standing we’re kneeling we’re sitting we
are in your presence lord because we
need you we need a touch from you we
need an electric shock to our spiritual
hearts to wake us up out of our
spiritual slumber we need our spiritual
eyes to be open our spiritual ears to be
opened father so that we don’t miss
anything that you have for us so father
i ask in the name of jesus christ that
your holy spirit would shake us awake
out of our spiritual slumber and would
help us father to fully engage in this
season of our life do not let us miss
anything lord every blessing you’ve come
to give every promise you’ve come to
make every bit of yourself you have come
to dispense upon us i pray for grace
upon grace and mercy upon more mercy and
glory to glory to be experienced by
every woman and man who is standing
under the sound of my voice i thank you
father that today the alarm clocks of
heaven are waking us up
thank you for agitating our souls
father i pray that any scheme of the
enemy to distract us to disable us to
discourage us i pray that that scheme
would be canceled right now
in jesus name and by his blood that has
been shed on calvary we yield ourselves
and this season of our lives to you in
jesus name everybody agreed when they
said amen
you