Grace for Your Journey: Sermons of Survival in the Wilderness

Contents

The Dedication

Words of Witness

Introduction

The Prologue: My Testimony

1

I’m Left With This?

2

Where Do I Go From Here?

3

Fill Me Where I Am

4

Between Dusk and Dawn

5

Look Again

6

It’s In Me… Come See!

7

Meet Me in the Water

8

I’m Desperate Enough!

9

There Is Purpose in the Pause

10

I’m On The Other Side of This

Author’s Closing

The Dedication

My principal dedication goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who without His direction, protection, presence, forgiveness, and favor, I would not be here. It is because I trust in and rest on Him alone that I am able to survive what can seem like the most disastrous wilderness situations. For His never-ending love, grace, and mercy, I honor Him in every area of my life.

To my mother, Josie Gilbert and my son, Jordan Irby, the two of you have been my rock throughout every transition of my life. Without your constant love and continued prayers, I would have lost it a long time ago. Thank you for loving me in and through my wilderness experiences.

To my Desert Babies (Deid Fam)—You were the best congregation that a Pastor could ever ask to lead and to cover. Your hunger for the Word and your dedication to those Joy Night sessions and in listening to me counsel and to preach (sometime fuss) was priceless. Your presence in my life at a very dark hour pushed me to remember who I am and what I am supposed to be doing for God. You helped me more than you will ever know. Seeing God’s transforming power in your lives during our deployment was all I needed to know that God was still with me and that He still had His hands on me. I love you dearly! You are forever with me.

To Bishop-Designate Avery Kinney, Apostle Dana Davis, and Elder Marvin Echols—As brothers in ministry, you were a true Godsend at a critical season. I thank you for your counsel, your comforting and encouraging words, your brotherly protection, and your unyielding belief in me when I wanted to give up. Without reservation or judgment, you stepped in and applied much needed balm to push me from pain to promise. For that I honor your presence in my life. You are the brothers I never had and I love you with the love of the Lord. You are AWESOME!

Words of Witness

When Elder Michele Irby asked me to offer a comment for her new book, Grace For Your Journey: Sermons of Survival in the Wilderness, I was immediately struck by how apropos a title that was for a book by Elder Michele. If there is anyone who has been repeatedly touched by the hand and favor of God in difficult circumstances and has overcome each time, it is Elder Irby! She is a gifted, funny, authentic woman of God who has been anointed to preach, teach and LIVE in such a way as to draw the Not-Yet-Saved to Christ.

Reverend Stephen A. Tillett

Asbury-Broadneck United Methodist Church

Annapolis, Maryland

"I praise God for Elder Michele Irby—a woman equipped with resilience to get through any challenge. She empowers those who share in her presence with a unique strength that can only come from the Lord. Her triumphs over trials that have come to overtake her have let the devil know without a doubt, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Setbacks have pushed her forward. Victory is her middle name. Elder Irby has the fortitude to weather life’s inevitable storms with her faith and courage intact. She had a choice—get up or give up? You will be encouraged and enlightened—you will be blessed beyond measure as you turn the pages of this book and find that you, too, can stand when standing seems impossible. There is a WORD for your life, your living, and your love for God Who will continue to mold you and shape you according to His perfect design. Can God? God Can!"

Minister Carol Owens Ford

Washington, DC

www.carolowensford.com

In the past few years that I have known Elder Michele Irby I have witnessed her going through many struggles both in ministry as well as in her personal life. I’ve been impressed with her tenacity to survive and still be the woman of God that she is destined to be. I’ve seen the enemy intensify his attack on her, but she continued to stand firmly in God and in His grace and mercy. It is not always what we go through so much as it is how we come out as did the Hebrew boys coming out of the furnace with no smell of smoke. I believe that Elder Michele has been in the furnace several times in her life and the enemy has turned up the intensity of the heat on each occasion, but this woman of God continually steps out and into her next level of the anointing. The evidence is in her awesome handling of God’s Word.

Dr. Mattie Price

Training to Reign Ministries

Albemarle, North Carolina

Elder Michele Irby is a woman of faith who sincerely knows what it is like to experience the grace of God. She stays within the pages of the Bible when she ministers and provides practical life application to the preached Word. You won’t be disappointed with what you read within the pages of this work.

Elders Marcus and Gail Moss

Believing In The Power Ministries

Fort Washington, Maryland

Knowing Elder Michele Irby for more than 25 years, I have watched as she has been prepared and equipped to answer the call of God in her life. Elder Irby’s journey in life along with her ministry and writing style will take you step-by-step through the fruit of the Spirit to help you get the most out of your life. By paying attention to your journey with God, you’ll be able to remain positive as you interact with your family and friends; have peace regardless of the pressures of life and relationships; experience joy even when facing difficulties; find the strength to come through on your commitments; and get control over bad habits. As you walk with Jesus, your life will be more exciting and fulfilling every day in every way as you are exposed to her preaching and teaching ministry. Elder Irby’s passion for God won’t let up nor die down. She is on fire for the Lord and God has favored her with His love through her gift of writing as she shares her heart with every reader. This book will help to usher you into the presence of The Lord with reverence and love.

Elder Marvin E. Echols

Jacksonville Community Church, Inc.

Jacksonville, Florida

For the past 20 years, I have watched with interest the personal and spiritual development of Elder Michele Irby. I have been especially impressed with her love for the Scriptures and her quest for truth. These two are not always synonymous, but in Elder Irby’s case they are. Elder Michele’s life is a testimony of God’s redemptive grace and, as a result, her message is saturated with restoration, reconciliation, and redemption. She recognizes that her identity is truly grace-based. Though on her journey, life has tried to break her spiritual wings, but every time she has recovered and ascended to a place in God higher than before. Elder Michele Irby is a fine example of God’s grace lived out loud!

Bishop-Designate Avery D. Kinney

Perfecting Word Ministries

Capital Heights, Maryland

I have known and heard many women orators, however, I have never experience anyone quite like Elder Michele Irby. She ministers with grace and ease as she powerfully dissects and delivers the Word of God. Eloquent yet dynamic; persuasive yet bold is how I would describe Elder Irby’s ministry. She is a wonderful example of the delicate balance of a successful career woman and a confident and compelling Woman of God.

Dr. (Apostle) Dana Davis

Kingdom Dominion Ministries International

Charlotte, North Carolina

Introduction

There is much that can be said concerning the need for one to open their heart and spirit while they are in a season of lack or struggle, and allow God to minister to them through someone else. After all, we know what we need and when we need it better than anyone else, right? Despite my perception of what I believed to be the best remedy for my woes, I have come to realize that my thought process can be way off and that there is a need for me to position myself to hear from God through whomever He wants to use and however He wants to use them.

I know how frustrating it can be to be sitting in a hard place in your life and needing a specific Word from God that will either immediately transform your situation or translate you from a place of dryness to a place of refreshing. Praying for relief became the order of the day, but in the scheme of things God was going to have His way regardless of my desire to escape the desert places and find rest on the mountaintop. Questions of Why, Lord? and How much longer, Lord? and How much more am I be expected to take? plagued my mind and heart as I awaited the restoring power of God to give me peace in the midst of tumultuous times and seasons.

It was in my waiting that God opened up my soul more than ever and I postured myself to hear what He was saying to me. While a Pastor of a small group of people in North Carolina, I found myself in some hard places personally, emotionally, mentally, financially, and spiritually. I knew that I was doing what God told me to do… "feed my sheep," but the storms that arose as a result were at times confusing, given my obedience to the call placed on my life.

The messages that God had breathed into my spirit were designed especially for me and I was permitted to share them with our congregation and with others when I was given the opportunity to minister outside of the arena of the pulpit. Looking back in hindsight, I can hear my own cries in the wilderness—cries of desperation, restoration, refreshing, and healing—needing God to step in and strengthen me through each storm until my transformation came.

With this, I have been given the privilege to share some of these sermons of survival with you. These sermons, while simplistic in approach (no Hebrew, Greek, or exegetical dissection—just straight talk and encouragement), became a lifeline of strength, peace, and a fortification that would ultimately lead me through some tough times in my life, in my marriage, and in the ministry inclusively.

I pray that these messages will become a source of power and strength for you as well as you stand fast and trust God to carry you through to victory in your life’s struggles. Every situational example won’t be found within these messages because each message will expand itself differently each time it is read by you individually. I believe that each message will take on a life of its own to speak to you where you are. It is my prayer that God will grant you grace for your journey . . .

Blessings… Elder Michele Irby

The Prologue: My Testimony

I know that you will probably think that I am crazy for asking you this but, here goes. Have you ever watched the sitcom the Golden Girls®©? It is a show that chronicles the lives of four single women who became roommates by circumstances surrounding their station in life as widowed senior citizens. One woman, Blanche—the sensual and vivacious owner of the house—needed to keep up the mortgage payments and posted a Roommate Needed sign in the local grocery store. Another Woman, Rose—the down home depiction of innocence and gullibility—was in need of a place to stay since losing her own place and she ran into Blanche as she was perusing the announcement board at the grocery store. Dorothy—the organized, self-confident, level-headed voice of reason—was the other roommate who lived with Blanche and had to bring her elderly, yet witty mother, Sophia, to live with them after some mishaps at the Shady Pines Nursing Home.

At any rate, one of the all too familiar lines that the mother, Sophia, often used when making one of her many points of wisdom was Picture this… Sicily… Well, now is my opportunity to take a moment