Join us for online services with Priscilla Shirer and our Hillsong East Coast Team. We’re excited to offer church exclusively online live at 10AM every Sunday available for streaming On Demand. Chat with us live and watch together as a family.

welcome to hillsong east coast church

online

if you’re joining us for the 10 a.m

service welcome we’re glad to have you

we’d love to see you in the chat tell us

how you’re doing let us know where

you’re watching from

service will be made available to watch

on demand so you can send this link to

your family and friends

so they can join you this month at

hillsong

we are celebrating hispanic heritage

month national hispanic heritage month

traditionally honors the culture and

contributions of both hispanic

and latino americans as we celebrate

heritage rooted

in all latin american spanish-speaking

countries today

my friend karen has joined us and is

going to pray for us in spanish and

karen you’re from panama right

iglesia vamos juntos

necessity

amen let’s worship church

there’s a grace when the heart is under

fire

another way when the walls are closing

in

and when i look at the space between

where i used to be

and this reckoning

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there was another in the waters

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died for me there is another

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[Applause]

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there is

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holy mackerel

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oh

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oh

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is

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is

[Applause]

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foreign

there is no other name but the name that

is

all the things

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is

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me

i know

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[Applause]

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me

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cause i know

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[Applause]

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cause

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i need you more than anything

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you make of me

so help me

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is

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i need you more than words can’t say

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let your thoughts

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until be father’s will is done

in me

so help me god

breathe on my weakness

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is

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[Applause]

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[Applause]

is

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[Applause]

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my

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oh

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[Applause]

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is

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is

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spirit lead me where my trust is without

boys

let me walk upon the waters

wherever you would call me

my faith will be made stronger

in the presence of my savior

cause we really be one of my trust is

without borders

let me walk upon

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wherever

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my

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[Applause]

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[Applause]

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and keep

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i am

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mine

thank you team i hope that you enjoyed

that incredible time of worship and i

have the privilege of introducing right

now who is going to be

preaching to us and i am excited she is

a phenomenal

wife mother preacher author and i am

talking about the one and only

priscilla shire and she is family not

just here on hillsong

east coast but really hillsong all over

the world and every time priscilla steps

onto a stage or onto a screen

you are going to be blessed by it and

she just has a phenomenal gift of

teaching the word inspiring people and i

believe that today is going to be no

different so get out a notebook

sit down focus in this is about to be an

incredible time we are praying that god

is about to speak to every single person

right now enjoy this word hey there

hillsong new york family

i’m thrilled to be able to have an

opportunity to be back with you you know

the only thing i regret is that i’m not

back with you like for real that we’re

not all together

but man so much has gone on in the last

year and yet look here we still

are god is still good he’s still

faithful we’re still being fed by the

church

whether it’s online or however it comes

to us it’s just a testament to the power

of god that it is not contained

to brick and mortar that we can still be

ministered to and so the fact that

i’ve been invited to participate with

that today in your life feels like a

gift to me

we love jerry and i my family we love

you all so much

so to carl and laura and the whole team

listen i want you to know that we’re

grateful that you’ve included us in your

ministry

and i want you to know that i’m praying

for you your whole church um y’all are

right in the middle of

a real hot spot when it comes to

everything that is happening in our

culture

and i want you to know that we’ve been

very mindful of you thinking about you

and asking god to give you clarity to

give you protection

and to give you provision in ways that

man you’re going to look back on

and recognize the fingerprints of god

and what a beautiful testimony he’s

giving you

during this time so again i’m praying

that what i have to share today as

simple as it is

will be an encouragement to you that

it’ll be exactly what god

wanted to say to you today to give you

the the encouragement that you need to

buoy you up you know

so that for what’s coming in the next

week or two or

several months or what you’ve even been

through

it gives it some frame of reference some

perspective

that there’ll be hope attached to it um

as a result of what he wants to share

with us

and i’m praying listen i want you know

i’ve been praying for you that the soil

of your heart has been tended to receive

the seed of god’s word today this is the

thing we don’t know

while we’re going through certain stuff

in life the crisis that we faced

the surprise diagnosis or phone call

that you got

the betrayal that you experienced the

hard time you’ve had in relationship

dynamics

as they’ve all changed so much for us

and our families and our friendships

sometimes we don’t even recognize that

god is using those

to make our hearts softened that without

those dynamics our heart would be

hardened

and wouldn’t be tender enough to

actually have this seed of his word

planted deeply and firmly so that’s what

i’ve been asking

been asking god to soften the soil of

our heart so that we can hear him

and i mean really hear him so that our

lives are transformed

so let’s pray together and see what it

is that god wants to say to us

lord i thank you i thank you that your

word is living

active sharper than any two-edged sword

lord i pray that in these next few

moments you would do what you do

take these simple thoughts drill them

deeply down into our souls

make us different after we hear your

voice today in jesus name i pray

amen amen my niece’s name

is karis we’ve called her care bear

since the day that she was born

you know she’s a grown woman with

children now and i still call her care

bear uh but karis when she was little

i remember on this one occasion she was

at my parents house so her grandparents

house we were all there hanging out

and she was running around in the

backyard and this stray dog came

out of nowhere the dog was barking

and in her mind this dog was incredibly

vicious

and was getting ready to attack her we

were a little bit older so we could see

that the dog really wasn’t that big

and the dog really wasn’t going to do

any damage he was probably just hyper

and active and excited to see some

humans in the backyard that day

but takerus at three years old really

small

that dog looked vicious and so she was

running away from this dog in terror

now you know the more you run the more

the dog thinks you want to play

so the dog is chasing her and chasing

her more frantically and more feverishly

and barking more loudly and the more all

of that escalated

the more fear was wreaked in karis’s

heart

so she ran she ran and my dad her

grandfather

saw the chaos outside walked outside

onto the back patio

opened up his arms so that karis would

be able to run directly into his arms

so she ran as fast as she could ran

directly into his arms

and he scooped her up and once he

scooped her up

she was now high above the ground level

where the dog was

she looked down at the dog looked back

into the face of her grandfather

looked back down at the dog looked back

up into the face of her grandfather

over and over again tears streaming down

her face

finally she was able to compose herself

and wipe them away as the dog continued

to bark

and she looked down at the dog finally

and said nae

now everything changed because she was

in her father’s arms

and she was looking into her

grandfather’s

face everything changes based on what

you are

looking at that’s the challenge i have

for you today

what are you looking at because listen

there’s so much to see

when you scroll past your twitter feed

when you scroll through your instagram

feed when you watch the news whatever

channel you

tend to watch no matter where you are

your vision is centered you’re gonna see

and look at things that are vying for

our attention

and some of those things when we give

them our attention they cause

discouragement to settle in on us i mean

you can literally

feel it the anxiety like a cloak

weighing you down

burdening you keeping you up at night

making the tears fall from your eyes

if you look at your problems too long in

your personal life

or the struggles that we’re facing

collectively in our culture

and in our world if you look at them too

long they’re gonna make the tears flow

from your eyes they’re gonna make your

heart

palpitate they’re gonna keep you from

being able to have a sense of stability

emotionally and mentally in your life so

i

ask you again what are you looking at

what are you giving your attention to

doesn’t mean avoidance

doesn’t mean denial it doesn’t mean

awareness of the realities that you were

facing

in your relationships or in dynamics

that we’re facing

culturally it doesn’t mean you’re not

aware it just means that you give

not just the same amount of attention

but you give an

escalated prioritized amount of

attention

that you are looking at who your god is

the promises that he has declared and

his truth as he has written it down in

his word

i’m asking you where have you been

looking

what have you been giving your attention

to maybe so much of the struggles that

we’ve had

to have a sense of peace and stability

and ease is because we’ve been

fixing our eyes on the wrong thing

the writer of hebrews would put it this

way fix your eyes on jesus

he’s the author he’s the finisher of our

faith meaning

he is still sovereign he is still in

control he’s still seated on the throne

he still is who he said he is and he can

still do everything that he says

that he can do nothing that is happening

in your personal life or mine

in our culture or yours nothing that is

happening is outside of the control of

our great god

but you might forget that if you keep

looking at the chaos swirling around you

you’ve got to be intentional so do i

about meditating on the truths of god

about looking into them and finding out

what are his promises that he declares

to be true

about my family about my health about my

son

about my daughter about my church about

my country

about my culture that i live in what has

he declared to be true

i’m gonna meditate on this more

than i meditate on everything else where

have you been fixing your eyes

there is a story in scripture that i’m

continually drawn back to i have been

for years

in fact in second chronicles chapter 20

if you still use a bible you know a

bible with actual paper pages

and you want to turn back there with me

you can otherwise your iphone your

ipad any manner of ines that you have

available to you you can get to second

chronicles it’s in the old testament

there’s a first chronicles but also a

second chronicles

and in second chronicles chapter 20

there is a verse that leaps out at me

every time i see it

part of the reason it leaps out at me is

because i’ve underlined it and i

underlined it back

in 2010 okay so i have several things

that i’ve underlined throughout

this bible that my parents gave me when

i was about 17 years old

different color highlights different

color underlines and

i i just value this bible so much

because it’s actually like a little bit

of a track record

of my relationship with god back in 2010

for reasons i don’t know

i underlined this verse i can’t remember

what was happening

but i put the the date right beside it

it was december

of 2010 about 10 years from where we are

right now 10 years ago and i underlined

this verse

it’s a verse that still speaks to me as

poignantly today

as it did back then and listen if you

underline stuff or highlight stuff on

your electronic bible or your paper

bible

this is a verse that deserves to be

emphasized

second chronicles chapter 20 verse 12.

king jehoshaphat prays and says

we are powerless god before this

great multitude who are coming against

us

we don’t know what to do but

our eyes are on you

i’ma read it again jehoshaphat prays

he’s honest

and he says because of this great

multitude we are

powerless and we don’t know what to do

but lord this is one thing we do know we

do know where we’re setting our

eyes our eyes are on

you jehoshaphat was the king of judah

and he was a good king he was known for

revering god he was known for

leading people into relationship with

god he was known for acting resolutely

and trying to get everyone under his

jurisdiction to honor yahweh

as the one true god in fact what’s so

interesting

is that that is actually what comes

right before this segment of scripture

in chapter 20

where we’re going to find out what made

jehoshaphat have to pray like that

what made this king who had so much

power at his disposal

who had tactical teams at his disposal

who had weapons and

armor at his disposal what is it that

would make a king

that great call out to god and say i am

powerless

and not only am i powerless i’m plan

less

this multitude this army this trouble

that i’m facing

is so chaotic and so overwhelming and so

disparaging that i know i am powerless

in the face of this multitude what would

make a king

pray like that right before chapter 20

where all of that unfolds the last line

of the previous chapter

the verse that came right before that

tells us that jehoshaphat

acted resolutely and he was upright

now listen i think that’s interesting

that the verse that

comes right before all of this chaos

unfolds in chapter 20 is a verse telling

us

that this king has made a decision to

act resolutely and to honor god

now if this don’t tell us about the

schemes of the enemy i don’t know what

does

because i can tell you right now as soon

as you make the decision to honor god in

some area of your life

as soon as you decide that you’re going

to be resolute in your

integrity that you’re going to honor god

in the tithes and offering

that you’re going to offer the

forgiveness that the spirit of god is

telling you

to offer that you’re going to lead your

family in the ways of the lord that

you’re going to honor your commitment

to be in the word of god on a daily

basis as soon as you

like the king of judah determined to act

resolutely you can know

that chapter 20 is on the way and in

chapter 20

there is a multitude that is going to

come against you

a scheme of the enemy to try to water

down the resolution that you were making

and in this day and age you need to know

that the enemy is scheming against you

and against me particularly right now as

the people of god

because more now than ever our light

needs to shine

now more than ever we need to be salt so

that people can

taste and see that our god is good he’s

going to try to water down our

resolutions

so jehoshaphat makes this resolution and

the very next

chapter chapter 20 he finds such a great

multitude coming against him

that he admits i feel like i’m powerless

i feel like i don’t even have a plan to

be able to handle

this army this multitude that has come

up against me but this

i do know my eyes lord are going to be

on you so follow me back up to the first

verse of chapter 20 and you’ll see what

was happening in jehoshaphat’s

experience

it says now after this after what

jehoshaphat’s resolution to honor god

right after that resolution it says that

the sons of moabite

and ammon together with the men unites

came to make war against jehoshaphat now

let’s just let that sit right there for

a moment

we’ve got not one army not two armies

but three armies that have chosen to

come up against

jehoshaphat the moabites the ammonites

and the minionites now what you should

know is that two of those armies

judah had faced before two of them

weren’t new

the moabites and the ammonites were two

people groups

that judah had faced previously you can

find record of it throughout the old

testament

those two particular enemies that had

come up against

judah they had made war against them

before in other words

judah knew about the strategies of those

two particular enemies

they had faced them before they had

probably studied their tactical

plans they were aware about these two

enemies

and so had it just been these two armies

that had come up

against the king of judah i wonder if

verse 12

would have ever been uttered i wondered

if jehoshaphat would have ever said lord

i don’t have the power

god i don’t have a plan but my eyes were

are on you

i wonder if it was just those two would

jehoshaphat’s prayer

not have been as fervent as specific

i wonder if he had been as intentional

about

focusing on yahweh and having his eyes

secured to yahweh

if his circumstances had not been quite

as dire

because he’d face these two enemies

before just like those enemies

you’ve faced before you know the ones

that honestly if you just pay a little

bit of attention you can see them coming

because they’re nothing new

you know the trouble you had in your

marriage in year two now you’re dealing

with it in year

twenty it ain’t nothing new it’s just an

escalated version of the same

difficulties you were having before

or that child now you know he’s 15 and

the stuff you’re dealing with

at 15 really when you think about it

it’s the same stuff you were dealing

with when they were three

it’s just an escalated version of the

exact same issues

or the anxiety that you face this is not

a new anxiety

it may be attached to a new scenario but

honestly if you look back

you can see that this is the same kind

of anxiety that overtakes you

about these kinds of issues and you’ve

been dealing with this for the last

decade or so

if we are careful and if we are watchful

and if we are mindful we can actually

see that the enemy ain’t that creative

the enemy

has always come to steal to kill

and destroy and if we’ll just take a

moment we’ll be able to detect where his

fingerprints are

where he tries to stop us or discourage

us or to cause us to think

that we are defeated even though he

knows he can never defeat us if we are

sons

and daughters of the most high god have

you paid attention

about the enemies the issues the

dilemmas

the schemes the tactics that the enemy

has been trying to use against you

because if you and i will look carefully

we’ll see

that he’s been trying to trip our child

up in that way for a long time

he’s been trying to trip our marriage up

in that same way

in different varied forms but that same

general direction for a long time

he’s been trying to discourage us in our

ministry or in our careers or on our

jobs

culturally and collectively he’s been

trying to trip us up in that same way

for a long time these

ain’t new enemies and when you are

facing the same

enemy over and over again that means you

should be

girded you and i should be prepared we

should be

proactive about making sure we can stand

firm against that scheme of the enemy i

was thinking about this in relation to

my son

jc he’s my second son i have three boys

jackson is the oldest

jerry jr is my middle son we call him jc

and then

jude is my youngest they’ve been with me

to hillsong new york many many times

and my second son had an allergic

reaction early on in his life to the

change in seasons and you know

we’re in texas so around the fall and

coming out of winter into the spring

we could have 40 degrees one day and

then you know 78 degrees

degrees the next day it just fluctuates

and goes up and down

and he was having um allergies and

related to that but it seemed to be more

than allergies

it was something with his bronchial

tubes his respiratory system just was

not responding well i took him to the

doctor

and she said yeah his bronchial tubes

are definitely inflamed

but she said i really don’t want to

label him an asthmatic because i think

it’s something that really we can get

under control but she said priscilla

here’s what i need you to do

i’m going to give you a a breathing

system so that he can have

treatments at home he’ll give you a

little a little um antibiotic that

you’ll put inside of this little

breathing system you’ll put it on his

nose and and put it

in the mask and have him breathe through

it so that he can ingest this medication

into his bronchial tubes and she said

priscilla

don’t wait until he’s wheezing to do it

do it proactively meaning if you can see

because the meteorologist is telling you

that the weather is getting ready to

change suddenly we already have enough

years

enough track record with jc’s health to

be able to know

in advance that if the weather’s going

to shift suddenly

he’s going to have a bronchial reaction

to it so priscilla

if you as a responsible parent will be

mindful of the weather changes and will

proactively give him

this um preventative medication

beforehand

it will keep his lungs or his bronchial

tubes from spasming in the way they’ve

been spasming in the past

it would be irresponsible parenting for

me to know

how his bronchial tubes are going to

react and not prepare

proactively think about the ways

that the enemy has been seeking to take

advantage of you in the past

think about the ways he’s tried to make

you feel unstable or he’s tried to

infringe upon the sanctity of your

marriage think about the ways

he’s trying to trip your son or daughter

up because of the weaknesses that they

already have in their flesh or the

tendencies that they may have

think about them and pray to that end

search the scriptures for the promises

of god in regards to that specific issue

post those promises in your home so that

you can have

your whole family alert to what god says

in that regard

paul says ephesians chapter 6

put on the full armor of god so that you

can stand

firm against the schemes of the enemy

what are some things that you were

facing that honestly when you think

about it it’s like these

two enemies that jehoshaphat’s judah was

facing

they’re nothing new we’ve faced these

enemies before

so for jehoshaphat two of these were

common enemies

so the reason why in verse 12

jehoshaphat likely says i’m powerless

and i’m plan less i can’t even come up

with a plan even if i had the power

i wouldn’t have the insight the

knowledge the discernment

the wisdom to be able to figure out a

plan to stand against this multitude

the reason why he says it is because of

this

third army it’s the minionites it’s the

alliance and the merging of all

three of these difficult situations

these

armies these multitudes coming against

them

all at one time that’s what

causes him to say i’m powerless that’s

what causes him to say i can’t even come

up with a plan

the reality is that for many of us

it’s not just the pandemic it’s that the

pandemic was piled on to a time in our

life where we already were dealing with

our own problems

it’s not just the isolation it’s the

isolation

layered on top of the issues we were

already dealing with it’s not just the

virus it’s the virus

piled onto the fact that we felt like we

couldn’t get victory

before any of this started it’s not just

the new army it’s that we were already

dealing with other ones when the third

one showed up

so now we feel like we’re surrounded on

all sides

kind of reminds me of the children of

israel in exodus chapter 13

right after they’ve been freed from

egypt they come up against the red sea

it’s not just the red sea that actually

causes the problem

it’s that pharaoh and the egyptian army

are coming up behind them

and scholars say that there would have

been so many thousands of them that they

would have spanned out around the

west and the east side of the children

of israel as those refugees

tried to escape to the promised land so

it wasn’t just that the red sea was in

front

it’s that pharaoh and his army were

behind and besides so they were

surrounded on all sides i know that you

know how that feels because i know how

it feels

it’s when you’ve got a struggle in this

part of your life and then another one

pops up on this side of your life

and then just when you feel like you’ve

taken care of that one then this one

pops up

and then just when you got a little bit

of a handle on that one then this one

pops up

and then when your personal life is a

little bit settled today then culturally

something strikes up in our country or

in our culture

or in our world or in the life of a

friend

and all of a sudden you’re surrounded

all over again and in the face of all of

that

surrounding calamity and chaos

sometimes we can say exactly like

jehoshaphat did

now i can admit i’m powerless

i do not know what to do but here’s what

we can say

even when we are powerless and even when

we are plan

less we can say i don’t know what to do

but this i do know

my eyes are gonna be fixed on you

fixing your eyes on jesus when you’re

surrounded

is what i believe is one of the benefits

it’s one of the outworkings

of god’s purposes when he allows his

children to be surrounded by difficult

circumstances

i always hesitate to say when god has

caused something i’ve heard folks say

maybe that god

has been the cause of some of the

negative things that we’ve been facing

in our country and in our culture and in

our world i always hesitate to say what

god

is or is not doing but this i do know

everything that happens in your life in

mine in my country

in yours in my culture and in yours

everything that happens has to first

pass through the fingers of god

before it ever enters in into our

experience so whether or not god caused

it

i don’t know but this i can say with a

sure

level of certainty he has allowed it

and if he’s allowed it that means it’s

going to be for your good and it’s going

to be for his glory

that means there’s something that is

supposed to be birthed out of it

if we’ll just pay attention and keep our

eyes fixed on jesus

not only will us keeping our eyes on him

like charis

keeping her eyes on her grandfather was

able to give her a sense of steadiness

and security and stability even though

trouble was still

um in her sphere of influence not only

will it keep you stable

but it will allow you to see that there

is a good god

who is still seated on the throne who

has not been displaced

from his position of omniscience and

omnipresence

and sovereignty and complete control he

is not surprised by the things that have

surprised us

why would he allow them we may never

know on this side of eternity

but what we can know is that our god is

good that he is faithful

and if nothing else all of the chaos

that is swirling around us

and the multitudes that we are facing in

our midst they

may make us afraid as they do with

jehoshaphat in

second chronicles chapter 20 you’ll see

jehoshaphat say i’m afraid

i don’t know what to do but

you can make the commitment that your

eyes will be on jesus

change the way you handle this situation

it’ll change the way you face the

difficulty

it’ll change the way you wake up each

day instead of being hopeless like so

many others

and they are now questioning their faith

and they are doubting who

god is when you keep your eyes focused

on the character of god

when you refuse to allow yourself to

question

who god is you can ask questions of god

without questioning god do you see the

difference in the little nuance there

ask your questions i’ve got mine i’m

sure you’ve got yours

but you and i can ask questions about

our situation

and about all of these multitudes that

we are facing without questioning

the character of god keep your eyes

on jesus jehoshaphat says my

eyes are fixed on you and if there is

one thing

that being surrounded on all sides is

supposed to do in our lives

it’s supposed to refocus our attention

so that since we’ve tried everything

else and since we’ve run to all these

other resources

and we’ve found them lacking that there

is no solution that

they’re not powerful enough that they’re

not calculated enough that they’re not

diligent enough that they are not

able to stand up against this great

multitude that we are facing

finally this kind of difficulty is the

one that makes us drop to our knees

and look to the hills from whence cometh

our help do you realize

this is what he’s been after all along

refocusing our priority

our attention calling us back to him

calling us back to a fervent fresh fiery

relationship with him

where we don’t just you know read a

verse a day to keep the devil away where

we don’t just

say a casual prayer because it’s what

we’re supposed to do where we don’t just

tune into online services

because it’s what we’re supposed to do

since we can’t go to

actual church anymore the least i can do

is give god this hour

of tuned in fellowship with him on a

sunday it’s got to be about more than

that

jehoshaphat says my eyes daily

are now going to be fixed on you that’s

intentional

it’s deliberate it’s proactive

it means that you are making it a

priority to meet with god over the

scriptures

in a time when so many people are

choosing now

to trust the opinions of everyone else

they’re choosing to hear and lean into

and

look to everyone else as the source of

truth this is the time

when the sons and daughters of god fix

our eyes back on the truth of god’s word

that we cultivate friendship with god in

prayer

that we remind ourselves that the holy

spirit of god lives on the inside of us

so that we can have

insight and revelation and walk in

wisdom

and discernment and integrity all the

days of our life i don’t know what the

army is

that has surrounded you i don’t know the

multitude

that has surrounded you i could tell you

the multitude that’s surrounding me

and second chronicles chapter 20 verse

12 reminds me that when i

am surrounded when i feel powerless

and when i can’t even come up with a

plan because stuff has gotten too thick

for me to even come up with a plan this

is the one thing i can do

i can make sure my eyes are focused

on jesus i want to be

vulnerable with you for a moment and

tell you

that since i last saw you in person

uh there has been so much that has

happened in my life

difficult stuff i feel like i’ve been

surrounded on all sides kind of like

jehoshaphat was explaining a few moments

ago

surrounded by difficulty obviously

there have been so many things that have

surrounded all of us globally

but even before we got to 2020 can i

just tell you that the 18 months leading

up to it were particularly trying and

difficult for

me and for my family it started a couple

of years ago when

my uncle my dad’s brother passed away

and then six months later my cousin

winter

she was not just my cousin she was my

best friend she suddenly died

at 37 years old left a husband and

four young girls she was fine

we were planning to go to the movies the

next day as a matter of fact i still

have the boxes on my phone as we were

boxing each other back and forth

about what movies we were going to go

see together the next day

and then suddenly she had a malfunction

of the heart and her heart stopped

beating and she died

six months after that my aunt my dad’s

sister so this is the same side of the

family she passed away

three months after she passed away my

uncle james

her husband died

we were just trying to catch our breath

reeling from all the losses

in our family when just several months

later

another cousin in her 30s

passed away from a mass that they found

in her chest

just a couple of weeks after she started

coughing and realized that there was

something that even needed medical

attention

she left a husband and two small

children

and then all of this time my mother’s

health had been ailing

it was a diagnosis of cancer a rare and

aggressive form of cancer that had come

out of nowhere my mom was an

extraordinarily

healthy 69 at the time 69 year old woman

she still went to the gym she ate right

she was healthy and active and

we had a great relationship our whole

family and

the doctors told us that there was a

cancer that they had found there was

nothing they could do about it we tried

everything that we could but in december

2019 we could see that my mother’s

health was rapidly

declining just about the time when my

mom was

getting to her 70th birthday december

1st of 2019

right around those days as we were now

taking care of my mother pretty much day

and night my sister and i sort of moved

back in

we’re there during the nights and there

during the day

right about the time that december

rolled around and we were all focused on

her

my grandfather my father’s father

who we affectionately called to daddy he

passed away at 90 years old

and so i remember right there at the

beginning of december celebrating my

mother’s 70th birthday

at the same time i was jumping on a

plane my husband and i

to rush with my father to go see his

father before two daddy

passed away our beloved grandfather and

then having to be there to funeralize

him while half of us siblings stayed

home with my mom

to take care of her and so it was just a

juggling of emotions and

hardship and struggle we felt surrounded

on all sides

and then it would only be about 30 days

later

on december 30th 2019 that my mother

would slip away to eternity

while her four children and my dad were

all surrounding her

we funeralized my mother a week after

she died

and it would be a week later that i

personally would have to go into surgery

for them to remove the upper lobe of my

left

lung because of something that they

found there that had to be

taken out and the only way to get it was

to remove the whole lobe

of my lung that took us into january of

2020 when i had that surgery

and then while still trying to even get

my breath back reeling from that surgery

and then the losses especially the loss

of my own

mother then of course for all of us

the pandemic hit civil unrest

racial unrest bubbled up to the surface

in our country the political climate

became

more adversarial the chaos was swirling

around us if there’s

ever a time in my life and i’m sure in

your life as well

that we feel like jehoshaphat where

we’re surrounded on

all sides that time is right now and

here’s what i came to tell you

that the solution and the encouragement

is tucked away in elijah’s prayer admit

that you are powerless

god i can’t do it i can’t have emotional

stability

and security i can’t even take care of

my own physical

body i can do the best that i can but

still even when i’m doing the best that

i can

there are inner workings of my physical

frame that only you can tend to

so father even with the best that i can

do in my relationships or in my finances

or being an instrument to be used in

culture for your glory

and to stand up for righteousness and

justice i can do the best that i can do

but father i recognize that against an

army like this

with everything i see happening on my

twitter feed and my instagram feed on

social media on the news channels

that i’m watching with enemies like this

i admit like jehoshaphat did

i am powerless against this great army

and not only am i powerless but god i am

playing

less i don’t even i don’t even have a

plan

the highest heights of my wisdom

can’t even figure out how to handle this

difficulty i’m having in my personal

private life

or in the culture and country in which i

live father i am powerless against this

great multitude

and i don’t know what to do

but here’s what i can tell you my eyes

my eyes are on you

here’s what i wonder i wonder if that

is what he’s been after anyway

a church whose eyes are back on him

not the programs not the buildings

not even the services collectively

gathering physically like we’ve grown so

used to

and of course we’ll come back to at some

point but i wonder

if this is the time where he wanted to

shake us awake out of spiritual

complacency

and draw us back to him get your eyes on

me

he calls out to the church to you and to

me

let’s look back to jesus the author

and the finisher of our faith he is

still

where our help comes from one of my

favorite movies in recent years was

the incredibles 2. i like the

incredibles the first one

and the second one but i gotta tell you

if you didn’t see the second one

you must because it was really good and

in this one elastigirl

you know the wife she kind of comes up

to the forefront just a little bit and

so do the children

they are all using uh mr incredible

elastigirl and their kids

those kids are all using all their

superpowers that they have to stand

against the evils of the day

and at one point elastigirl in true

mother fashion she’s worried about her

kids there are just too many demands on

them there’s too much they’re having to

do

they’re they’re basically having to grow

up real quick and

mature in their super power skills real

quick and she’s worried about them

and she says to her husband in a sweet

moment

she says to him but they’re just kids

mr incredible looks back at elastigirl

and says

yeah but they’re kids with power

whether or not they choose to use that

power is up to them

but they sure do have access to it

listen to me yeah you’re a child but

you’re a child

of god you’re a child with

power and that power is found when our

eyes

are fixed on jesus

lord i thank you that you are worth

looking at

i thank you that the answers that we

need in our personal private lives

and collectively as a church and as a

globe the answers we need are

found in you father by your spirit would

you give us

the tenacity would you give us the

discipline

would you give us the encouragement to

look to you

and you alone you are where our help

comes from

in jesus name amen

thank you so much priscilla that was an

incredible life-changing message i don’t

know about you but i couldn’t take notes

fast enough i wanted to let you know

about our marriage workshops that are

starting this month if you’d like more

information about how to sign up or

you want to know about how to join a

connect group or pray with the pastor

today please head to the link below

in church thank you to everyone who’s

giving we cannot make church happen

without you

you can go ahead and click on the link

in the description if you’d like to give

today

we love you church see you next sunday

holy spirit of the world

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in the presence of

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is

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of my savior’s

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presence

holy spirit

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oh

um

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[Applause]

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so

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in your life whatever’s going on right

now god’s eyes

are on his promise for you and for your

life

and for your resource as well

so let’s take a hold of this covenant

promise

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whatever this next record was going to

be it needed to be something that

belonged to

this generation what young and free has

always been and that’s

young people loving god and seeing the

kingdom of heaven

on earth all we want to do is bring

songs that the youth can run with then

it becomes

their anthem so we decided let’s record

at summer camp

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that’s the most true expression of our

youth a record for our youth group and

by our youth group

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is

hey let us know if any of these ring a

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bell

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oh hey hey bye

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sorry

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so

all right does anyone have any prayer

requests we actually have a prayer

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request

thanks to technology it’s now easier

than ever to contribute when it comes to

giving

here’s how download the hillsong usa app

on your smartphone

after opening the app select your campus

then select give online and then tabs

and offering

now you can enter the tithe amount you

can even activate the reoccurring giving

options

this will allow you to give a regular

preset amount automatically

you can select weekly bi-weekly monthly

or the beginning and middle of the month

and even select the day of the week that

you’re giving is processed

thank you for investing into the lives

of others

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i was searching for something

something

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i can’t make sense

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without

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need jesus else i need your love

i need your love i don’t want anything

else

i need your love

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i won’t take you for granted

how could i go without

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i don’t want anything else

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all right i need every voice

is

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i need your love

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is

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[Applause]

woof

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this is

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is

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is

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[Applause]

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is

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[Applause]

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to streets

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heavenly

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[Applause]

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lift your voice to the sky

praise the lord

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[Applause]

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he is

left behind have you ever seen such

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he is

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is

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see me

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is

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lift your voice to the sky

praise the lord

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you