hey
well good morning you may take your
seats it’s a privilege to be with you
again to have the opportunity to be at
design for life i love gathering
with you i love the lindell so much i
love this incredible church that
sponsors this conference and
the amount of prayer you can tell can’t
you that they’ve already been praying
for us planning for us that they didn’t
just throw this together last night
there’s been a group of people
that really have been on their knees
asking god to meet us in this place and
and so i celebrate that and i wonder
even if before we jump into just a few
simple thoughts i want to share with you
today i wonder if you join me in
celebrating the lindells and celebrating
james river church and celebrating the
volunteers
everybody who’s been paving the way for
us we are so grateful we’re so grateful
no small task
i mean how would you feel about hosting
10 000 women at your house
[Laughter]
lord jesus thank you for this morning
thank you that we get to be in your
presence in worship thank you that we
get to be amongst the people of god in
your presence father but also i thank
you for your word i thank you that it is
living and active and sharper than any
two-edged sword lord i pray that in
these next few moments that we have
together over a simple portion of
scripture
that you would do what only you can
take this one simple message would you
divide it about six or seven thousand
different ways so that every single
person in the room will know they have
been in the presence of god this morning
that they heard your word
we’re expectant lord we’re your
daughters we’re sitting on the edge of
our seat to hear what it is that you
will speak to our hearts it is in jesus
name the matchless
name of jesus christ the name at which
every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess it is in
that name that we pray come on let the
daughters of god say amen
amen
as savannah mentioned to you just a
moment ago i am um
the mother of three boys that is my
full-time job
trying to feed these people
i have giant children i’ve got three
giant boys
14 uh he’s getting returned 15 in a
couple weeks and then i have a 13 year
old and i have a 9 year old and
y’all they are just big big old boys um
my 14 year old is six two
and wears a size 14 shoe
so i’m just trying to feed them that is
my whole life mission is to try to
figure out a new way to cook chicken for
dinner every day so that i can get
enough food
into their bellies and it is our joy to
rear them and raise them me and jerry i
was thinking about something that
happened with jude and i our youngest
jackson jerry jr and jew jude is our
surprise boy uh we still don’t know how
jew got here
and i’ve told you this before but when i
had him he was our surprise boy and we
named him
jude on purpose because that’s as close
as i could get to revelation
because it is finished it’s over
it’s the end of the line and i was
sitting on an airplane with jude we
would happen to be sitting looking out
the window that was right over the wing
of the airplane and i could see my
little boy he must have been about seven
or so at the time i could see him just
sort of pensively staring at the wing of
the airplane and considering it
thoughtfully and finally after a few
moments he looked back over at me and he
said mom
how do they get that thing to stick on
the plane
how do they get that thing connected how
do they make it stay
well i looked back at him and answered
the only way
i knew how
um
i said but buddy you can ask your uncle
vaughn jerry’s brother their dad’s uh
brother is uncle vaughn and vaughn
happens to work in the airline industry
that’s what he does is he connects the
wiring and the veins that makes the
pieces of the airplane stick together so
this was kind of a little teachable
moment i was having with jude i said
listen when we get back home you got to
talk to your uncle vaughn because he can
explain this to you it’s really actually
pretty exciting i’m sure he can he can
try to make sure you understand the
nuances of how the wing gets on the
airplane and i thought i’d take it a
step
further this conversation and i said to
him jude do you know that when you grow
up you can be anything in the world that
you want to be you do know that right
like you can do exactly what your uncle
vaughn does when you grow up if you want
to you know if you want to be a doctor
you can be a doctor if you want to be a
lawyer you can be a lawyer if you want
to be a singer you could be a singer you
are you have so much potential and you
can do exactly what your uncle vaughn
does when you grow up if you’d like to
he looked back at me and he said mom i
don’t want to do what uncle vaughn does
when i grow up i want to do what you do
when i grow up
[Applause]
you know where you have that moment your
heart gets warm your kid does something
and it just makes you want to melt and
say baby just whatever you want what do
you want i will do it for you today
and then in the next moment it all comes
crumbling down has it ever happened
so i looked back over at my boy and i
said
well buddy
what does mama do
i had expectations about what his answer
could be
i didn’t know if he would say
mom i would love to tell people about
jesus i didn’t know if he’d say i’d love
to write when i grow up i didn’t i
didn’t know exactly what his answer
would be
but he looked back at me and he said mom
i want to do nothing when i grow up just
like you
you do nothing all day every day you do
nothing
[Applause]
i said
buddy
you see them clean clothes you got on
today
how do you think you got those clean
clothes or you know how you eat a
homemade meal on a fairly regular basis
how do you think
those meals are getting cooked he was
like well you know that’s just like
regular mom stuff
i said buddy do you know how every now
and then i have the privilege to stand
in front of a group of of people and
share god’s word and and that means i
have to study first you know every now
and then there’s a new book or a bible
study and and i have to write that thing
and he said yeah but you’re just sitting
behind the computer all day every day
doing nothing
now i share this next part with you just
to make a point i hope that at least
many of you will know me well enough to
know that i just really want to make a
point by sharing this part with you
yesterday or or the day after i had this
conversation with jude i thought the
timing was interesting that our
publisher emailed me send me an email to
keep me updated on something that she
knows that i don’t normally keep keep
myself updated on
she wanted me to know that a little book
i had written called fervent several
years ago she wanted me to know that
that book was on the new york times
bestseller list and that it had won
several awards that’s what she emailed
to tell me
she knows that you know when you’re
trying to feed three boys you ain’t got
time to keep up with such things
and so she emailed me to let me know
that i appreciated the email but i could
only chuckle when i read it because i
immediately thought back to my
conversation with jude the day before
that while i was doing what to him
looked like absolutely nothing
i was actually crafting something that
hopefully had amounted to something that
had blessed people’s lives and i thought
to myself how often it is that i
consider my relationship with god in the
exact same way that i feel like god is
doing nothing
that i’m praying and he’s not hearing my
circumstances are not changing i look at
the details of my life and i feel like
he is absolutely doing nothing all day
every day disconnected from my life when
all the while
most often when we feel like god is
doing nothing y’all he is crafting
chapter after chapter with the story of
your life
that he’s fully engaged and fully
invested in the details of all of our
everyday living he is never not doing
nothing
i believe in the sovereignty of god
somebody say sovereignty
god’s sovereignty is one of his
characteristics that i am most intrigued
by there are many but i love
thinking about the sovereignty of god
when you get a grasp on it it really
does give you a sense of rest and peace
and stability in your life god’s
sovereignty is his overarching
orchestration of all that happens in
time and eternity god’s sovereignty
means that god existed before time began
that is
pre-genesis 1 1 because y’all know the
only reason why there was a genesis 1 1
was because god was already there so
that he could say let there be and there
was
he was in eternity past he has been
there and done that he has seen all of
time from the beginning of the spectrum
of time genesis 1 1
all the way through to the end of time
which you and i have not yet
yet seen and he has already been into
eternity future
the entire spectrum of eternity and time
he’s already been there and done that
but sovereignty does not just mean he’s
seen it all
sovereignty means listen
that the whole thing is in the palm of
his hand
sovereignty
is what lets us do what psalm 46 10 says
be still
chill out relax
and know that i am god
providence is his overarching control of
the throes of the universe i’m sorry
sovereignty is his overarching control
of the throes of the universe but within
that big umbrella of his sovereignty
there is providence
providence is the working of the details
of your life and mine when we feel like
he’s doing nothing when we feel like our
days are just filled with regular eight
to five things or when we run into
tragedy or difficulty providence is
knowing that god is orchestrating the
details of our days and our lives and
our encounters and our opportunities
that he’s actually ordering our
footsteps providence is jeremiah 29 11.
i know the plans i have for you
i’ve got plans that are designed to give
you a hope and a future providence is
ephesians 2 10 that we are his
workmanship created in christ jesus for
good works which god prepared beforehand
providence means you can trust god with
the stuff of your life because he’s
orchestrating it all
i love god’s providence as seen
throughout scripture that he shows up
everywhere even in the most unlikely
places even in the places when he seems
and the seasons of our life y’all when
he seems most distant or most disengaged
that we can trust that when we can’t
trace his hand we can trust his heart
that he’s there fully present fully
engaged fully invested in the details of
our life that’s what we get from
scripture because he’s everywhere even
in the books of the bible you know in
esther the name of god isn’t even really
overtly mentioned and yet he’s there in
the book working and orchestrating all
throughout the scriptures from the
beginning to the end it reminds us about
the sovereignty and the providence of
god
right from the very beginning in genesis
you always see that he is the breath of
life in exodus he shows up as the
passover lamb in leviticus he is our
high priest in numbers he’s the fire by
night in deuteronomy he’s israel’s guide
in joshua he’s salvation’s choice in
judges he is israel’s guard in ruth he’s
the kinsman redeemer and first and
second samuel he’s our trusted prophet
in kings and chronicles we see him as
sovereign in ezra he’s the true and
faithful scribe in nehemiah he’s the one
who rebuilds walls and he rebuilds lives
and esther he is our courage in job he’s
the timeless redeemer
in psalms he’s our morning song in
proverbs he is our wisdom in
ecclesiastics he’s a time and a season
in the song of solomon he’s the lover’s
dream and isaiah he’s 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’s the stranger that will
show up in your fire in hosea he’s the
forever faithful and joel he’s the
spirit’s power in amos he’s the strong
arms that carry in obadiah he’s the lord
our savior in jonah he’s the great
missionary in micah he’s the promise of
peace and mayhem he’s our strength and
shields in habakkuk and zephaniah he’s
the one that brings revival in haggai he
restores anything that has been lost and
in zechariah he is our fountain and in
malachi at the end of the old testament
we see him as the son of righteousness
rising with healing in his wings and
that’s just who he is in the old
testament
amen
because you give them a little time wait
about 400 years and then in matthew mark
luke and john you’ll find out he’s not
just god now he’s your messiah and 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’s 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 the trinity and
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’s the one who will heal you
when you’re sick and first and second
peter he’s our faithful shepherd in john
and jude he’s the lover coming for his
bride and in the revelation in the very
end he was and is and will always be the
first the last the beginning and the end
amen
the scriptures remind us that he is
always there woven throughout every
story
and as
debbie was so beautifully unwrapping for
us the mystery of god that sometimes it
sounds to us regular old girls like us
it sounds
so big and so grand and so beyond us
that we tend to disassociate our regular
lives from that mystery we can’t imagine
that a regular housewife like us or a
corporate woman like us or that a single
woman like us or a teenager in high
school or college student in university
you can’t imagine that someone with
regular skills and regular talents and
and who lives in a normal neighborhood
and works on a normal job you can’t
imagine that you could fit into that
mystery and i came to tell you that the
details of all of our regular lives are
threads in the great grand huge
miraculous glorious mystery of our great
god
that there’s nobody here that’s removed
that is too far gone
that your story doesn’t count in that
mystery
there is a story in scripture i think
they’re gonna put it on the screens i’m
gonna read several portions of first
samuel chapter 9 to you
because this is not ever to me more
clearly seen than in this one little
portion of scripture about the life of
saul
saul the one who would be the king of
israel
his story starts this way
in first samuel chapter 9 i’m going to
read several verses throughout this
chapter listen
verse 9 says
now there was a man of benjamin whose
name was kish
that verse goes on to to list all the
lineage of kish and then it says at the
end of verse 1 that he was a benjamite a
mighty man of valor
verse 2 says and he had a son whose name
was saul
listen to saul’s resume he was a choice
and handsome man there was not a more
handsome person than he among the sons
of israel he stood from his shoulders up
taller than any of the people verse 3.
now the donkeys of kish saul’s father
was were lost
so kish said to his son saul
take with you one of the servants and
arise
go and search for this donkey
talk about a mundane regular ordinary
old task
verse 15.
now the day before saul’s coming the
lord had revealed this to samuel the
prophet he had told samuel
verse 16
about this time tomorrow i’m gonna send
you a man from the land of benjamin and
when he shows up you shall anoint him to
be prince over my people israel and he
shall deliver my people from the hands
of the philistines for i have regarded
my people because their cry has come up
before me verse 17 when samuel saw saul
the lord whispered to him hey
this is the one
it’s the guy i spoke to you about
this one shall rule over my people verse
20
2 through 24.
then samuel he took saul and his servant
he brought them to this great hall he
gave them a place at the head of those
who were invited who were about 30 men
and samuel said to the cook hey remember
that portion that i told you to set
aside yesterday
verse 24 this is the time bring it out
set it before saul and samuel said here
is what has been reserved somebody say
it’s been reserved for me
here is what was reserved set it before
you and eat because it has been kept for
you until the appointed time
it’s amazing to me
how sometimes it’s just
donkeys that are connected to destiny
sometimes it’s just the most regular
mundane assignment that we don’t even
recognize in the moment is actually the
pathway to something bigger and grander
that the lord has allowed us to be
included in the story that he is
crafting in this generation i have a
tendency you have a tendency to despise
the small things the small little
errands that we’ve been requested to run
the needs that arise in a regular daily
life like yours and mine in this case
there is a man named saul he has been
described as distinct among all the
people he stands head and shoulders
above them all he is more handsome than
them all if he were to uh be on
instagram we would definitely be
following him because he
had perfectly lit selfies
verse 2 tells us and shows us his
selfies he is choice he is handsome his
resume is one for the record books and
yet what is going to connect him to his
god assignment to his part of the
mystery that the lord is allowing his
thread to be connected with and the
bigger story that he has for his people
will not be how choice he appears in
verse two it will be a simple mundane
errand that he’s asked to run in verse
3.
i love that verse two and verse three
are so closely connected to each other
you know i believe in the inerrancy of
scripture meaning that i believe every t
is crossed every eye is dotted as it
should be
i not only believe that there are no
errors in the scripture i actually
believe that the placement of the the
books of the bible as they are and the
verses as they are the chapters as they
are that those are inspired as well and
so when i come across two verses that do
something either contrasting or
comparatively that draw my attention i
lean in carefully to see why the lord
would have placed these two particular
portions of scripture that closely
connected to each other that’s why i’m
drawn to the fact that in verse 2 we see
saul’s resume and in verse 3 we see a
simple aaron that he is humble enough
that he is willing to submit all of the
grandeur of verse 2 to be willing to run
this
mundane ordinary errand in verse 3. it
occurs to me that in most of our lives
we are riding on the coattails of our
verse 2. we want people to be impressed
with the way we appear on social media
we want to be savvy and flashy and we’re
hoping that that will sustain us and
carry us and include us in the bigger
plans of god that if we’re gifted enough
if we’re talented enough if we stand
head and shoulders above everybody else
or at least appear to
that will be what includes us in the
plan of god but in saul’s story it’s not
verse two it’s verse three
his willingness to run a simple errand
that connected him with the promises of
god
i want to ask you
if you’ve been turning up your nose at
the mundane regular things that god has
set before you to do
i want to ask you if you’ve ignored the
simple details of your life the errands
that you’ve got to run the dishes that
need to get done you know the laundry
that you washed and you dried but it’s
just dumped out on the dining room table
waiting for somebody to come and fold it
the dinner that needs to be cooked the
assignment that needs to be written the
details that need to be crafted
throughout the regular course of your
day just to make life work day in and
day out sometimes we turn our noses up
at those errands not realizing that
sometimes it’s the donkeys that lead to
destiny
sometimes it’s the simple errands that
we that we want somebody else
to take care of because we were made for
bigger and better things
we’re riding on the coattails of our
verse too and we don’t even realize that
that verse two is not the connection
it’s not what god is looking for it’s
the one who’s willing faithfully and
diligently to say yes sir to the
assignment that is in front of them to
do listen to me you want to know what
god’s will is for your life that’s the
question we have what is god’s will for
my life i want to know what god wants
for me to do and what we really mean
when we ask that question is that we
want to know what he has for us for the
next 20 years isn’t that what we want to
know we want to know 20 years from now
what his will for our life looks like
and most often when we want to know what
god has for us for 20 years from now his
response is if i can just get you to be
obedient for the next 20 minutes we’ll
be on our way somewhere
[Applause]
elizabeth elliott said you want to know
god’s will here it is
do the next thing
that is god’s will
you’re here
in this conference
be fully here
because guess what
here you are
be fully and engaged and invested in the
task that it is at hand instead of
trying to so busily we so visibly with
our ambitions are trying to climb some
ladder trying to look a certain way and
in doing so we miss out on the beauty
and the bounty of the the regular
mundane ordinary tasks to which he has
assigned us we miss out on the character
that it’s supposed to build in us the
backbone it was designed to fortify in
us the humility it was supposed to
develop in us we miss out on it because
we think that mundane task couldn’t be
for me because i’ve got some verse two
stuff going on i’ve got some
importantness about me some giftedness
some potential in me and i want to use
that and so i’m just going to wait till
god calls me to bigger and better things
so we ignore the donkeys not realizing
that the donkey is connected to your
destiny
just waiting he’s just waiting for
somebody to be willing
to do the next thing
to do what he’s called us to do i am
stunned y’all at how many divine
occurrences throughout the course of
scripture were connected to regular
ordinary people who were willing to do
regular ordinary things
i’m drawn to rebecca who was just going
to a well to draw water a regular
ordinary daily sometimes more than once
daily assignment it would have been a
taxing duty for her to have that water
on her shoulders day in and day out
drawing enough to meet the needs of her
family but on this one particular day
she goes to do this mundane task in
obedience and diligence and by the way
she doesn’t go upset and mad and
frustrated and with the wrong attitude
to do the task she goes with an attitude
of willingness humility and generosity
she has no idea
that on this day that regular assignment
that regular mundane detail is going to
lead her to the meeting of her spouse
because on that day abraham has sent a
servant saying look for the one who the
lord will send to marry isaac she’s just
going to draw water from a well
or joseph he has no idea when he’s in
prison a circumstance that he does not
particularly care for that he does not
want to be in he has no idea that even
while he’s there his willingness to use
his gift to interpret the dreams of two
people two years later his willingness
to do that would literally be the key
that unlocks the prison doors that set
him free
in exodus chapter one a mother who’s
just afraid for the life of her little
baby she has no idea that when she just
does the best that she can and she
crafts a little basket for him to set
him a sail on the nong river so that
hopefully he will find some safety she
has no idea that just in being the best
mother that she can that she is sending
off a man named moses who will be raised
as the prince of egypt and who will
become the deliverer for the children of
israel
and then there are some shepherds in
luke 24 these shepherds are out just
doing what they do just tending a flock
of sheep they have no idea that while
they sit out under the star lit sky that
this will be the day when they’re just
about the business of doing the ordinary
task at hand they have no idea that this
is the night that the sky will break
open and the heavenly host will announce
the arrival of jesus christ the lord
if he’s asked you to tend sheep y’all
tend the sheep
if he’s asked you to go to the well and
draw water well then you go to the well
and you jaw draw water whatever it is
he’s called you to do come on y’all we
got to do it with all of our mites
we do not know
that if saul’s father lost this donkey
because of neglect
because he was not doing what he needed
to do and lost his donkey he wasn’t
responsible and lost the donkey we don’t
know if it was because of neglect or
just because life happens because some
things like that just occur we do not
know the details of why the donkey is
lost i love that that detail is left out
because then i can just make it broad
enough for all of us to consider the
fact that that there are some burdens i
know in a group this size you’ve been
asked to bear and some of it is just a
reality of the life that you’re living
right now the season of life that you’re
in that this this bucket of water you’ve
been asked to carry is heavier than you
expected it to be in this season this
errand you’ve been sent on to chase this
donkey is taking longer for saul it did
it took him through three different
provinces and took much longer than he
anticipated in fact he got so frustrated
at how time-consuming this was he
actually wanted to throw in the towel
you can read there in that chapter he
wanted to give up and just go back home
and it occurs to me that in a group this
size there are some of you that are
bearing some mundane ordinary life tasks
and really it’s not as a result of just
life some of it has happened because of
the neglect of other people in your life
that your spouse really isn’t pulling
his weight that your mom or dad have
dropped the ball that your co-worker if
that co-worker you know that one
co-worker that one that if she says one
more thing to you you go knock her out
that one
man if she just pull her weight you’d
have less to bear it occurs to me that
in a group this size there are very many
of us
that are burdened with tasks
that because of someone else’s neglect
we are carrying more than we ever
thought we we would or that we think we
should
and yet
saul was willing
and because he was humble enough to just
say okay it doesn’t matter why the
donkey got lost but i’ve been tasked my
father has asked me to go find the
donkey so i’m going to be willing to do
the mundane assignment to wash the
dishes again
to change yet another dirty diaper
to go back up to the school to meet with
the teachers about my teenage son or
daughter
that i’m going to be the one who will
faithfully study who will faithfully be
in god’s word whether or not there is an
audience listening to hear what it is
that my bible study produces that i’m
going to be willing and diligent to
write the lyrics to this song whether or
not there’s a recording contract on the
other end
that i’m going to be diligent to put pen
to paper and write this blog post that i
feel like the lord has given me whether
or not anybody comes to my blog and
actually reads it because i’m not doing
it to impress people
i’m doing it in surrender and humility
to my great god
what has god called you to do
do it
do it
your god assignment
is waiting on you when you walk back
home tomorrow
it’s what’s right in your house
it’s what’s right on your job
the job that you’ve been trying to leave
for the last year and for some reason
the lord won’t move you on
the neighborhood that you’ve been trying
to get out of you’ve been trying to buy
a house in this neighborhood but the
lord for some reason keeps you in this
neighborhood those deals keep falling
through and you just can’t move and
you’re hemmed in on every side you can’t
figure out why the lord won’t let you
move on to that organization or leave
this church to go to this church he’s
got you hemmed in in this place where
you are that is where he wants you to be
and if you’ll be faithful to the task
that is at hand in this season in this
place you’ll be amazed how that
particular donkey is designed to lead
you to your destiny
because saul could never have known
that the lord had gone before him
that he had already whispered his name
in samuel the prophet’s ears
he had said to him there is someone
coming i will point him out to you when
he gets here if saul will be humble
enough faithful enough to go on the
assignment that he has been given
mundane regular
ordinary assignment if he’ll do it he
will intersect his path with yours and
when he shows up i’ll make sure that you
know it’s him i need somebody in the
room to know that god has already
whispered your name to somebody
he has already set this is what
providence is y’all providence is when
the lord goes before you and lights up
steps you don’t even know you gonna take
yet providence is when he goes before
you to set up answers to problems you
don’t even know you’re gonna have
providence is when he makes provision
for you when he’s whispered your name
somebody needs to know in the room there
is an employer that already has your
name on their hearts there’s already a
spot that is in need of your gifts and
your talents and what you can bring to
the table it’s waiting on you if only
you’ll do what he’s put in front of you
to do today you will be on the right
path to intersect with the divine plan
that god has for your life and for this
generation
do you know in first corinth uh first
chronicles chapter 16
it says that the lord is looking for
something
it says that the lord is looking
it boggles my mind that he’s looking for
anything that our god could be looking
for anything it says that god is on the
lookout he’s looking he’s trying to find
somebody whose heart is wholly his who’s
fully surrendered and submitted who’s
not trying to be impressive and
applauded by the people who’s not so
arrogant and needy and has so much
hubris that they’ll only do the things
that
that put them in the position of verse
two he said i’m looking for some verse
three people some folks that can just go
ahead and take my assignment whatever it
is for them he says in first chronicles
chapter 16 verse nine i’m looking for
those kinds of people when i find them
he says i’m going to lend my strong
support and my strong favor to anybody
whose heart is wholly mine
i don’t know about you but i’m after the
strong support of god anybody
i want his favor on my life more than i
want to impress people
forgive us lord
when we’ve been more interested in verse
two
standing head and shoulders above the
rest
having more followers and and more
friends and more applause than all the
rest forgive us lord for making
everything so whitewashed and clean and
perfectly looking in our life that we
have forgotten we were not made to
impress people we were made for the
applause of heaven
do you know most of the people that we
admire
most of the people y’all at least
me i’m sure i can get a witness in the
house about this but
most of the folks that we really want to
be close to and
i mean like women that have gone before
us women that maybe have walked the road
a little bit longer than us
the people who i want to sit at their
feet and just listen for a little while
and hear what they’re saying and what
they’re thinking and where they’ve been
and what they’ve done
what attracts me to them
is not because they were impressive
what what attracts me to them
is this quality right here that’s what
draws us in it draws us in that they
stayed the path as bobby houston would
say
they stayed the course like how’d you
how have you been married for 54 years
what
you raised your your kids and they’re
doing well you got grandkids now i want
to sit at the feet of women like that i
want to know
what tell me about your story they might
not have the most notoriety they might
not be impressive to people but what
they did was chase whatever donkey that
the lord put in their life to chase they
were on a mission to be obedient to god
no matter what that looked like
and the reason why we’re drawn to people
like this
the reason why we want to know about
them and we want to be connected to them
is because this characteristic of
humility and willingness to do what is
assigned to us that characteristic is
more like jesus
than almost anything else
because jesus
being in the form of god
did not regard equality with god as a
thing to be grasped
but taking on the form of a bond servant
he humbled himself
he humbled himself even to the to the
point of death on a cross y’all he
emptied out himself and you and i are
often so full of ourselves that we can’t
do what it is that god has called us to
do we’re so busy climbing up the ladder
we get to the top of the ladder of
success only to look down and realize
that jesus is still at the bottom
washing feet
so what have you been asked to do
the beautiful mystery of god in our
generation
requires that you and i
do what he’s called us to do
his providence makes it so that none of
those ordinary things are disconnected
from his glory being displayed
it’s leading you somewhere it’s taking
you somewhere to a divine intersection
and when saul showed up
samuel said hey i got a meal for you
i didn’t just cook it yesterday i didn’t
just cook it five minutes ago actually
yesterday so we were making this meal
and i already told the cook
put some aside
so saul come on over here sit at the
head of the table and he says to the
cook listen do you remember that meal i
had reserved somebody say it’s been
reserved
i need somebody to know that you are not
delayed you are not behind even if you
think you’ve wasted a few years and
you’ve not been on the mission that god
has compelled you to be but you feel
like you want to go home and go ahead
and put your hand to the plow and stay
the course and get back in the game i
need you to know there’s some good news
today what god has for you has been
reserved for you it’s got your name on
it it’s been put off to the side just
waiting for you to show up and when you
do it’ll be placed in front of you to
enjoy
i want to tell you uh in closing
there’s a woman named karen
abercrombie
you all know karen abercrombie as miss
clara
in the movie war room
[Applause]
karen abercrombie
karen abercrombie is a real actress
that’s what she does for a living it is
her craft she went to school for it
karen abercrombie came up with the in
the ranks with other um actors and
actresses who if i said their names you
would know all of them she went to
school with them she lived in la with
them they have all now won oscars and
climbed the ladder and um are in
magazines and she came she came up in
the ranks with these same contemporaries
and she explained to me how through the
years she has sat back and been so
discouraged because she watched them get
all the parts for all of these
blockbuster movies she watched them
continue to excel in their
in their craft and in their field and
she just felt so left out
matters got worse when she would turn
down roles that she was offered because
as a person of faith she just didn’t
want to say that
and she didn’t want to do that
it just didn’t gel well with her she
felt conviction about certain things so
she would just say no her agent she told
me when she was in los angeles her agent
thought she was crazy that she would
turn down some of those roles for which
now other people were gonna get awards
and recognition but she just couldn’t do
it so she just said no
matters got even worse when her husband
needed to move out of los angeles for
work he moved into charlotte north
carolina and
anybody that is in the field of acting
knows if you’re serious about it you do
not move out of los angeles to charlotte
north carolina
and there she sat in charlotte and you
know what she just said okay i’m
discouraged i’m disappointed this is not
what i had planned for my life but you
know here i am so she started an acting
school and she just started teaching
young people who wanted to be thespians
and who wanted to know about the craft
and the skill of acting and then she
just kept auditioning for small roles
and doing things that she could she just
was faithful
with what was in front of her her
husband her son
the students that the lord had given her
little did she know
that there were some movie producers out
of all the places in the world where
they could have filmed a movie there was
just something about a little suburb 20
minutes outside of charlotte north
carolina called concord where they
decided it would be the best place to
film a movie called war room
and i remember
when we started shooting i arrived two
weeks early
and we sat in a casting room with the
directors and the writers of the film
and they said to me priscilla we need to
pray we need to pray because
the heart and soul of this movie
is this miss clara character and we have
audition
person after person woman after woman
and we can’t find anybody to capture
this role will you pray with us
that god somehow will providentially
bring the right person at the right time
to fill this position we grabbed hands
together y’all two weeks before we
started and we asked god to bring us a
miss clara
the last resort
for the writer and the director was to
send word
to send word throughout the churches in
charlotte
if there’s anybody that would like to
audition for this role we’d love to see
them we’ve tried every which way we can
the traditional ways to find an actor
and we cannot so please let us know if
there’s anyone in your church a couple
of days later
karen abercrombie with a wig on
dressed in a big robe
waddled in
in her 70-something year old way she’s
in her 50s but she waddled in
as miss clara
and they knew immediately she was the
one
when war room
began to influence people the way it did
on such a broad scale we were not
anticipating that we’re so grateful that
the lord
really galvanized his people in all
walks of life
toward the power of prayer when that
happened and it began to spread
far
and wide ms clara karen abercrombie
called me up one day with tears rolling
down her face and she said now i realize
i realize why the lord didn’t let me do
all of that because what she discovered
is that the directors of the film any
actor they hired they would look back at
their resume if there was anything that
would compromise the integrity of their
role in this film they would not hire
them no matter how good they
were so she said to me priscilla
i realized that this
was reserved for me
and even if the lord had to move me out
of the place i thought i needed to be
to move me to an obscure little city
which was the place i needed to be i’m
so glad that i didn’t resist i just went
where he asked me to go and i just did
just faithfully serving in her church
and there was word that she
that it was her time to receive what was
reserved for her
i want to tell you
that some of you when we leave this
conference uh tomorrow we still have so
much more that the lord wants to impart
to us but i’ma tell you right now that
when you go back home the question on
the table is going to be will we do
the regular everyday stuff we’ve been
asked to do trusting that his
providential hand is maneuvering and
orchestrating and aligning and preparing
for us what he has for us our will in
our hubris and our arrogance our pride
will we shrink back from the regular
stuff of life expecting something
different or something more i believe
that the lord is preparing a table for
anybody in this room who’s willing to
say
yes lord