Can I Have a Do Over? | Pastor Jeremy Foster

i'm excited about what god's gonna do over the course of the next several weeks uh we're watching a new series called do over and then on the fourth weekend of of january we will celebrate six years as a church and y'all better get ready because we're gonna party like it's 1999. y'all remember how hard we party in 1999 um i'm kidding that's just a song and uh anyway we're gonna have a great time and i'm excited about all that god's gonna do and we're launching a new series called do over turn to your neighbor and say do over you ever just needed a do-over you ever just needed a moment where he was like [Applause] you ever been talking to somebody like i just wish i wouldn't have started this conversation wouldn't it be cool if you had a little button like you're in the middle of conversation like nope click and it just rewinds you and when you see them they're like hey you're like no and you just keep walking or like or like are like remember like somebody asked for your number ladies and you gave it to him you just wish yeah i just wish i would have done that that's why you need to memorize uh domino's number that's messed up but it's funny my daughter's actually memorized the rejection hotline number that's y'all did i'm sorry i'm telling on you that's messed up hey guys if you ask for a girl's number and she's like yes one eight eight eight that ain't the real number okay that's the rejection hotline is real thing but but sorry don't google it i don't know i don't know yes google it okay they're both like yes google but there might be multiple numbers and one of them might say bad things anyway don't google it all right take it from pastor i don't have no idea what i'm talking about but anyway these moments where you just wish you know i just wish i could get in bed and just start the whole day over well you know you you can't but you can have do-over on purpose you can't have do-over on mistakes you can't have do-over on failures and mess-ups why because of god's grace and god's mercy aren't you grateful that it's called the good news you ever been around somebody who just wants to tell you bad news you won't believe what happened this week in idaho i'm like yeah i won't that's why i don't want you to tell me i don't watch the news now some of you are like and we have newscasters in our church and i watch y'all i don't i don't that's the lie i don't watch y'all either i love y'all and i want you to keep doing what you do but i just don't i read the news that way like i'm reading it i'm just like no i'm not read i just read it to stay up to date because i don't want to know bad news i just want the i want the good i just want the good because i need i need good grace in my life and and this year i want you to understand this no matter how many mistakes you've made no matter how messed up you've been no matter how bad 20 can y'all be honest right now how many of y'all 20 20 was just just hard on you just raise your hand so she didn't even raise her head she was like i'm just slapping mine together it was all bad this is hard but here's what you get you get a do-over i can't give you a whole different year than 2020 but god can give you a do-over and when you make mistakes some of some of us we live this life we're like well you don't understand the mistakes that i've made when you make mistakes i need you to understand it's like god's donut shop you ever been to a donut shop you ever seen how they make them and they're just over there making donuts and then they put them on the little thing and at krispy kreme we used to go to this place called crispy creek some of y'all know and they would just put a little crack like they're just be going through and crack would be just i don't know that's not true it's the first sermon of the year new year and i've already referenced correct i apologize for that if you're brand new i'm the real pastor and it this is it this is it's not getting better there's not like an older guy coming out there's there's not like an older guy in a suit coming out like okay youth pastor move i'm it we got fun this weekend but but it's like they keep as you eat them they just keep making them ah well that's that's just like mercy you keep making mistakes and god keeps making mercy he has a purpose and a plan for your life do you know that he knew your life the end from the beginning here's what it says in jeremiah 1 5. it says before i formed you in the womb i knew you everybody say new in the hebrew that word is is yadah which means a deep friendship what does that mean that means god had a deep friendship with you before you were even formed in the womb and he will spend your entire life attempting to reconcile that friendship back to him what does that mean i want you to look at me right now and you focus on me if you're online you're gonna need to type this in the chat because i want you to get it and i want you i wanted you to let it sink in god wants to be your friend some of you are like but you don't know me because i was in the club last night and god was there too he was watching you he was very disappointed in your dance moves they are bad they're all bad i believe some of you are like that's not scripturally accurate well you're just gonna have to deal with it all right if ephesians 2 10 says for we are god's masterpiece we means me i am god's masterpiece he has created us anew in christ jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago what does that mean god had a good plan before you ever got here and and nothing you do is going to mess it up some of you're like yeah but you don't know the mistakes i've made do you understand the will of god operates like a highway have you ever been on the highway or the interstate and you and you're following ways or you're following uh google maps or whatever and it and it gets mixed up you've been where it gets especially at an interchange and you're supposed to go one way and then all of a sudden it flips because it thinks you've gone another way and then you get off and you're like it's like you're not supposed to be there and you're like ah and you get frustrated you ever been frustrated like that and then what do you do you just pull over and die on the side of the road ah i quit i'm getting out you kick the car and start walking no you you go to the next exit you do a ue you get back on listen your life might take some detours but god's will will always find a way and he'll always say this way just come right this way it might have to take you through a gravel road you might go off-road a little bit go through a creek jump a ditch but you're gonna get back to where god has called you to go why because he has a master plan if you're his masterpiece don't you know he has a master plan but what happens when god zigs and i zag and i kind of lose my way and now i feel like completely given up and now i'm just leery of trying again and you say that you can have a do-over and i appreciate that jeremy but you don't understand the mistakes that i've made and how messed up and our lives often times are literally live designed to fail and it makes us just want to quit it makes us not want to try again let me ask you a question online you can answer this with just a hand emoji at our campuses just raise your hand how many of you in 2021 you have new year's resolutions look around that's less than half the room i watched the lady right over here go nope like she was like yeah not this year i just can't fail again why don't we why don't we all make new year's resolutions why not some of us are like yeah and others of us on day one you were like yeah but it's day three and you've already failed some of y'all were gonna eat right remember that two days ago i found a meme that describes how i feel right now show them i mean i want a hot body but i also want tacos and we live in houston and there's little trucks that sell tacos airware and if you don't know if you live somewhere else in the world i love you god bless you i pity you because in houston we eat better food out of trucks then y'all eat out a restaurant i'm just gonna say it's just you can put any neighborhood they don't even have to speak your language we have a truck that comes to this campus every now and then vietnamese folks make tacos that happens and i don't know where they learned it from but there's some anointing on them them little nami street tacos come on somebody they just changed your life right there that just they have a website and people follow it to find out where they are we love tacos so much in houston we will chase them down they ain't stationary tacos run for us and we go after them oh y'all i want to do right i do i want to eat right it's my wife's fault no it is sitting right there born on the second day of the year [Music] it's her 29th birthday y'all come on girl i love you happy birthday i really don't know how old she is she's lied to me for years i can't find a birth certificate i don't know i just know i married a younger woman love you she was born on january 2nd which is like a curse in our home because what day are you supposed to start doing good on january 1 right and then it's her birthday and you can't be a jerk and be like we're getting all the sweets out of the house we're throwing everything away we're not having anything here's a lettuce cake happy birthday [Applause] no i don't want to sleep on the couch or outside or at your house we try we try to you know what's funny to me about resolutions is we spend from thanksgiving to cr we literally eat our way from thanksgiving to christmas we're like oh that's pecans yes whatever i don't pineapple upside down i don't know what that is but yes it's upside down i'm fine with that whatever it and then and then leftovers some and some of y'all are judging you're judging you're like i don't eat leftovers well you are wrong you're you're theologically wrong even jesus commanded them to pick up all the leftovers after he fed the 5 000 because jesus likes leftovers i could preach that right now your life might feel like a leftover but he has not left you over come on somebody calm down that was that was it make it play faster trying to make it plain it's also a little funny that was funny but no we spin like we'll eat anything we'll go i've caught myself at the fridge just looking you ever done that just like i wonder what's in there i wonder what's in that that little tupperware container and then i'll say well hey what's that don't know smells decent you think it's still good don't know i'm gonna try it i'm gonna put it in the microwave and only uh only heat up half of it wonder wonder about that like microwave only heat certain places weird and we'll just eat it and just eat in there and say i'm gonna change i'm gonna change all this behavior all of it bring me some more pie and then on you know december 31st the biggest party day of the year you say i'm not drinking anymore tomorrow i'm like yeah that's cause you drank it all tonight they have to make new alcohol cause you drank all of it you're like at 1201 i'm not drinking anymore bring me the shots it's like what are you doing with your life right now you're literally forming bad habits so you can try to break them in one day and then when we fail and we mess up and we make a mistake we wonder why our entire lives are oftentimes designed to fail and here's what's crazy this happens in every area of our life i'm going to have a great marriage i'm going to work on my career i'm going to work on my hopes and my dreams later because right now i just want to do what i want to do and we make mistake after mistake after mistake and here's what happens ultimately here's what we begin to say we begin to say stuff like thanks jeremy i appreciate you saying all that that's really cool but you don't understand i've made a mistake so it's just not me i don't know that i could have a do-over because i've made so many mistakes or i'm too old or i'm too young or i'm not educated or i don't have enough money or i have too much money or i don't have enough talent or i have too much talent or i'm this or i'm that any number of excuses and we stop believing we stop walking in faith we stop acting in faith we stop trusting that god can and we begin to ultimately alter our own destiny if god hasn't quit on you why are you quitting on you if god hasn't given up on you why are you giving up on you but you don't understand it won't happen for me this is just my life why do we do this here's why we do this i'm gonna give you a little science i'm gonna drop a little science on you bill nye here we go it's all a fear response everybody say fear put it in the chat fear i want you turn to your neighbor and say you're afraid some of y'all didn't turn because you're like i'm not afraid of anything but you you were born with two fears babies only have two fears their first fear is the fear of falling that's why when you're holding a baby and you make a quick movement the baby goes have you ever seen that it's like now listen don't do that if you have a baby you're like hey let's try that don't that's just mean you should go to jail the fear of the fear of falling they're born with a fear of falling and they're born with a fear of loud noises they're like hey the baby's like same response jesus i mean that's the same response a little rigid body ah freak out no every other fear is learned and over time you develop these fears why because of experiences you have an experience you become afraid of something you have an experience you become afraid of something you have an experience you become afraid of something and then you have a fear response and everybody knows what the fear responses are it's fight or that's right and and that changes there's actually another one we'll tell you about in a second it's fight or flight or there's another one okay but the typical response is fight or flight that means i'm ready to fight or i'm ah and it changes over time because whenever i was younger my fight response was way stronger like i was ready all the time i was like go nothing between you and me but aaron opportunity you feeling froggy son jump let's do this we gonna throw hands i'm ready the older i got i'm not i'm not ready i don't i run now i run i practice running i used to practice fighting i used to do seven bag workouts i used to i used to muay thai kickbox at russell jones school of kickboxing in baton rouge louisiana and we had these bumper stickers that we kept on the back of our trucks because russell made us keep them on the back of our trucks and they said we will fight anyone anywhere anytime no we will not i've instructed my wife baby i love you back in the day she could your wife ever pick a fight for you that you didn't want to be in like i remember one time we're in walmart and there's a dude that's like stairs she's like you're gonna let him stare i was like hey bruh hey hey hey he's like not even looking at us he was like i was looking at the banes over there i was like alright well you better look at the bane son now she's like you're gonna let us look i'm like yes hello sir how are you i am a pastor this is my wife jennifer will you give us the opportunity to run before you attack fight or fly there's another one though and it's called freeze fight i'm gonna fight for my vision i'm gonna fight for my dreams i'm gonna fight for what god's called me to do or when i make a mistake i'm gonna run or i'm just going to get in a holding pattern and that's where some of you are with your marriage sitting right next to your problem right now just look straight ahead just look at me look at me don't look at them don't don't be like you are the problem you are 20 20. happy old year and we freeze and we get stuck in these patterns that are not good for us and so what happens when something attacks your purpose or something that attacks god's plan to your life you have a decision to make i'm going to fight i'm going to flight or i'm going to freeze and i want to tell you the option is i'm going to fight i'm going to fight for my vision i'm going to fight for what god's called me to do i want to fight for my marriage i'm going to fight for my family i'm going to fight for time with god i'm going to fight for the vision that god has created us to have in this church and this i'm going to fight for to see god do something great in your family i'm not going to run from it i'm not going to be afraid i'm going to stand there and fear but the challenge is we condition ourselves to do that in every area of our life we try to eat right we'll eat right we'll eat right and then one bad thing happens you had that happen i'm gonna eat right and then something happens your boss gets onto you or something happens in finances you get a bill and you're like you open the refrigerator you just grab some oreos how many y'all like oreos you say that oreo spirit is strong can i tell you something right now when i said you go to the refrigerator and you grab some oreos if you keep your oreos anywhere else in your house and not in the refrigerator there's less anointing i'm not that's not even in my notes i'm telling you if you have oreos don't put them in the cupboard or the pantry they go stale in there they don't really but you should put them in the refrigerator because when you chill those things a little bit i mean this and then they have them in rows you know why they have them in rows for ocd people that's one it's a trick some of you are ocd and you eat one and you're like oh no i have to eat another oh no oh no it's incomplete i don't know and there's three rows it's spiritual father son holy spirit these three are one come on somebody [Applause] didn't have you ever have you ever been and you can't have what kind of psycho eats oreos without milk come on i mean hello if you eat oreos without milk don't tell me don't tell people you go to hope city that's weird we have you ever and for whatever reason i drink when i eat oreos i eat i drink the milk out of a mug i don't know why i just feel i feel boozy put the mug and i dip them and i always i always babe you know i always discipline myself i'm like i'm only going to eat six and i get a paper towel because i'm gonna waste a plate because they're gonna be gone in 30 seconds i just line them up and just and then i close the pack back it's so easy to open sin and i put it back in the refrigerator and i sit there and then i make a miscalculation and i drink too much milk and i still have oreos left you all do that and then you're like i got to get more milk and then i get more milk and then i have more milk than i have oreos so i have to get more selfish cycle of sin and then once you've done that you're like my whole year's done i'll eat better next year and we completely quit on our plan if you're taking notes write this down a single failure is not a final failure just because you made a single mistake doesn't mean it's a final mistake god will give you a do-over with his grace and his mercy and his love and his forgiveness aren't you grateful that we serve a god who has grace and understands it you know i want you to understand this life is a series of failure and recovery it's true you don't have to amen that it's true life is a series of failure and recovery in fact you proved it walking in here today you ever thought about walking you know what walking is it's controlled falling thank you thank you mom for that really loud awkward laugh [Laughter] i'll be better next weekend when you when you're walking think about it if this foot doesn't come out what happens face plant oh come on that foot saved me save me again notice this controlled falling sideways i can do it this your whole life every day you spend showing yourself that if i fall i still can step if i fall i still can step and guess where i'm falling i'm falling forward right now and some of you need to realize that if you'll trust god and let him help you with your steps he will order your steps and you'll be able to fall forward into your purpose listen can i tell you this when you started when you start i'm i'm preaching good on a sunday when you started walking when you first started you weren't good at it like your first steps weren't late and your dad was like oh baby look he born with swag that didn't happen he was like boom and everybody celebrated and as you got older what'd you do you got better and but you still stumble right how many of y'all know as good of a walker as you are i mean you could be a good walker you could be a mall walker you got the hips you get your arms in it i just literally threw my hip out of socket but you can still you can still you can still fall it happened to me this week remember that babe i'm getting out of the truck and i just stepping up on a curb and said curb was a little higher than regulation city of houston and my foot hit it and i was like and turned it into a little dance move my wife was like what was that it's like this you know it's a whole little thing that kids are doing learned it she was like ah i think he just almost fell and i was like okay i almost fell and she died laughing which is a problem in our marriage i'm gonna laugh when i fall it's not very kind you know what i didn't do i didn't go i've fallen this is so dumb i quit i've given up i'm never walking again bring me a stroller and push me to this door and some of us are begging god for a spiritual stroller because we fell down no get yourself back up and keep walking god's giving you the ability to fail forward because you get a do-over somebody shall do over you get a do-over god knows that destinies are defined by day-to-day decisions we tend to think in big terms but god deals with small starts david nobody even knew david was when god calls david god was the only one who cared about david david's own dad overlooked him when the prophet came to his house and said the next king's going to come out of the house of jesus go come out of your house bring me your sons he's like all right i got all the sons i got all the sons about david nah we're just going to leave him out there he wasn't forgotten he was thought about and looked over and god never looks over the looked over god has a purpose and a plan for you gideon was obviously the weakest in his family the weakest in his tribe the weakest in his clan and he knew it and everybody else knew it but god showed up and said you are a mighty man and gideon said you are crazy no i am not why would god call him a mighty man because god doesn't call you where you are he calls you where you're going and he stands over there where you're going to be and says come on i've got something great for you you may not be able to see it right now but as many times as you stumble i'll give you a do-over until you walk into your destiny don't quit on god because he hasn't quit on you he has not quit on you so why do we stop it's all wrapped up in one phrase and i want us to say it out loud and if you're online i want you to type it and this is going to be profound and it's going to be life-changing and some of you are going to be like why fact some of y'all get that emoji ready look emoji ready online because it's gonna blow your mind y'all ready one phrase two words are the reason why you quit and why you don't ask god for a do-over and why you don't ask your life for a do-over and your wife for a do-over and your husband for a do-over and you're family for a do you know that we have this little thing don't we we look at each other and go hey can we we just do over all right we just have a door and that means we just start over there's one reason why you don't say it with me say my past i'm gonna say my past put it in the chat my it's my past it's all wrapped up in one thing my past my past failure and pain and inadequacy and friends and family and i'm not good enough and i'm not strong strong enough i'm not smart enough and it'll take too long and it's too much and it's overwhelming jeremiah even wrote about it it's all throughout this scripture there were great people who were held back by their past jeremiah was one of them he dealt with some pain and lamentations literally the book means lamentations means a weeping a sorrow lamenting things i wish hadn't have happened it's the book lamentation more of us need to read lamentations and here's what he said in lamentations three he said i remember i want you to notice this because your memories will mess you up he said i remember my affliction everybody say my affliction i remember my affliction which is which is which is problems i remember my wondering everybody say wondering i remember the bitterness and the gall and i well remember them and my soul is downcast within me so he talks about three things we're gonna talk about him here real quick okay the first thing he says is my affliction which is my problems i remember i remember which means it's already happened i remember my everybody say past problems my past problems problems means there are things beyond your control so it's not i it's my past problems there's things that have happened before that i wasn't able to control it just happened it was a tragedy it was a job loss it was something in my family i i remember the first deep deep sense of loss that i felt i was 17 years old when i got the phone call in the basement of an old church that we were going to and the phone call came in on a pay phone and my mom answered the phone and then she said jeremy she was crying she said get on the phone and i got on the phone and they told me that my best friend my cousin shiloh had died in a tragic car accident and i remember just dropping the phone and leaving it hanging and running out in the woods because there was nothing i could do it was a problem that i couldn't solve here i am all these years later still with me it's my past problem so do i never get in another relationship because something beyond my control hurt me in that one that's where some of us are stuck remember you freeze fight flight or freeze the second thing that he talks about is his wondering he said i remember my wondering which in context i i believe he's talking about his past mistakes everybody say my past mistakes like things that i wish i would have done different you ever had those you ever talk to somebody say i live my life with no regrets that's somebody who's not very smart because we all have them we all have regrets things that i wish i wouldn't have done and then things that i wish i would have done in the short term you're going to have more things that you wish you wouldn't have done i wish i wouldn't have eaten that extra taco but in the long term of your life your your your wish i would have dones will outweigh your wish i wouldn't have done is by 84 things i wish i would have tried mistakes that i made that i just wish i wish i could go back and do that different maybe it's even a secret mistake you got this fear of being caught and the guilt is weighing down on you it's just so heavy like i just wish i wish i would have made that mistake my wonderings my mistakes my my mess-ups in the past are holding me back i'm stuck in the past i can't even get to my present because i constantly look at my life through the rear-view mirror and then finally he talks about bitterness and gold and if you read this in context he says i remember well the bitterness and the gall and if you read that you study those words i believe that bitterness i i couldn't find anything else other than this it can only come from another person like somebody hurts you intentionally or unintentionally and then you decide to be bitter about it and so the third thing is your past relationships somebody in your life hurt you whether it was intentional or unintentional they hurt you and it hurt and it sticks with you and you become bitter about it job had dealt with this too job 19 19 he says all my intimate friends detest me those i love have turned against me you ever been in that situation where nobody likes you that's a hard place to be so how do we overcome our past problems and our past mistakes and our past relationships here's what you have to do it's very very very deep get ready you have to get past the past so powerful jeremy it's amazing here's what he said remember this okay now remember we're a context church so i don't want to just cherry pick one verse of scripture i want to make sure that our follow-up with context so here's what he says i remember my affliction i remember my wondering the bitterness and the gall i well remember them and my soul is downcast within me yet everybody say yet this is a little conjunction that means i'm not finished yet this i call to mind so i have these memories and now i force my mind to think about something else i call to mind therefore i have hope because of the lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness great is your faithfulness great is your faithfulness morning by morning new mercies i see there's something powerful about knowing that i'm not fighting for victory i'm fighting from victory i'm not living for love i'm living from love here's a clue as bad as your life may get as hard as it may be as far as you may fall when you land on rock bottom you still land on victory you still land on love you still land on grace and mercy somebody bang your hands together right now because god is good and he loves you he said yet this i call to mind yet this i call to mind so there's three things i want you to call to mind i want you to do number one you have to refocus your mind you have to refocus your mind how do i do that that simply means don't dwell on it learn from it don't dwell on it learn from it romans 12 and 2 says let god transform you into a new person by changing the way you think turn to somebody next to you and say get rid of your stinking thinking some of y'all just been wanting to say that just stop thinking the way you're thinking what are you stinking thinking transform you into a well i can't just be a new person well according to romans 12 and 2 you can and it doesn't start with your actions the problem with some of us in resolutions is we're trying to change our actions before we change our mind we're binging ourselves on bad habits and then thinking that one decision i'm just gonna change i'm gonna change my actions no no it has to start here and the only way that it starts here is if it starts here and i give it to him and let him begin to recreate me number two number two you have to release your past you have to release your past you cannot be defined constantly by your past you gotta release it a few years ago um we jen and i took a trip to new york and as we were going to new york we were leaving houston and it was like 72 degrees here and so it was like 20 degrees there and so i had to get a coat and um and some of y'all know like sometimes i'll put like a little instagram challenge out and so i went to the store and i was trying to buy a coat and i put up an instagram challenge on which coat that i should get and these are the coats that were the options and so which one of y'all which one do y'all think i should get which one okay all right so i'm gonna show you which one i got with this little video right here show them i'm showing my video it's cold i'm glad i got my snoop dog jacket i got my i got my girlfriend i got my girlfriend a ninja what up ninja new york is cold this ain't houston baby and houston baby it's called have my soup dog jacket and the only reason i got it i've never worn it again i just got it because i liked it now because people voted for it so i got it and it's never been called enough in houston to wear that if you wear that in houston you will die and um and so so we went to new york and listen i like new york i like i just we walk like 17 miles a day and i feel good i'm walking i'm like hey look there's little italy i want to go to little let's just walk she's like you want to get a cab i'm like no let's walk we just we will walk oh look at chinatown let's just i just want to go down hello all the smells and the people i just want to walk and then she's then everything changes when she says oh there's a store husbands where you you feel me like i'm good in the street but when when my foot crosses the threshold of the store my whole body's like you cannot go oh and i'm like and i'm just looking for a chair but new york department stores are too cool for chairs okay so you can't find one and they had no cell service and no wi-fi why it's new york i don't know why but the building is too big there's no cell service and i just i'm just following my wife around just following her i'm finding ways to rest my body she's like do you like this i'm like yes so do you like this like yes she's like i hate this i'm like yes i was following around for like 25 minutes i'm following him he's following her his father's just following her she turned around and it wasn't hurt i've been following this lady for 20 minutes and she thought i was stalking her she's like walking my staff like help you know she had no cell service so finally she charged her she's like sir i'm like oh my bad i'm so sorry jennifer now has forsaken me i'm like looking for it she's all the way across the store like looking through a rack like do you like this she's still talking to me and i ain't even there that's how attentive but i didn't sit down and quit just cause i followed the wrong person for a while i grabbed a hold of her coat and i said wherever thou goest i will go and nine people shall be mine people and i watch she's like i'm going to the bathroom i'm like me too i ain't gonna lose you again girl if you've been following the wrong person and the wrong plan tie yourself to jesus this year and don't turn loose he has not quit on you so don't quit on him he's got a plan for you listen if you need some scriptures to help you remember to forget here they are isaiah 43 18 forget the former things do not dwell on the past that's the word for you but you don't understand my pain that's the word of god forget it don't dwell on it learn from it and move past it psalm 103 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us i just want to take this moment right here and say thank you jesus for not judging us all the time based on our transgressions you don't hold it against us you forgive us and you cleanse us hebrews 8 12 says i will forgive their wickedness and i will no longer hold their sins against them so it's up to you say it's up to me put it in the chat it's up to me romans 3 22 god says he will accept and acquit us declare us not guilty if we trust jesus to take away our sins and we all can be saved we all can be said yeah but what about me other mistakes that i've made i promise you there's bigger sinners in the past of this world than you and god forgave them so he can forgive you we all can be saved in the same way by coming to christ no matter who we are or what we have been like insert hand clap there that's good to know so what do i do the third thing and the final thing is you have to at some point renew your heart let's renew your heart how you can't do it on your own you can't just decide to renew your heart ezekiel 36 26 say he says i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you i will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh that's the miracle of a real honest authentic relationship with god is you coming to him and saying i'm a broken mess i'm not who people think i am i'm i'm a mistake waiting to happen some of us have impostor syndrome you ever studied that imposter syndrome no matter how successful you get or how good people think you are you know who you really are well guess what god knows who you really are and he chose to love you anyway while we were sinners christ died for us what does that mean you have access to his love and his mercy and his grace and his forgiveness you have access to brand new thoughts you have access to a brand new year you have access to a brand new heart you have access to radically change your life from the inside out with the help of the creator of the world you actually can return your heart to the manufacturer and let him fix the defects but you have to choose to do that proverbs 23 and 12 says apply or by say apply apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge growth doesn't come from learning growth comes from application some of us have a lot of head knowledge but it hasn't gotten into our heart because we haven't actually done it how do i apply this how do i how do i do this i'm going to tell you how to get a quick start to your year because jesus dealt with this as well he had learners that followed him but they weren't growing they were just learning but they weren't growing the disciples are following him around and in the book of matthew a father brings his son to the disciples and he says my son is vexed he has seizures he throws himself into the fire can you heal him and the disciples said absolutely why because they had learned they watched jesus and they tried to do it and it didn't work and so the father brought his son to jesus himself and he said lord have mercy on my son matthew 17 15. he has seizures and is suffering greatly he often falls into the fire into the water and i brought him to your disciples but they couldn't heal him that's that's a bad day and jesus gets upset you don't think jesus gets upset he gets upset and he says you unbelieving and perverse generation that's strong unbelieving and perverse generation and he's not done he says how long shall i stay with you how long shall i put up with you bring the boy to me and jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment and then the disciples are like that was awesome you think we should talk to him now no verse 19. then the disciples came to jesus in private and said why couldn't we figure that out why couldn't we drive that demon out they were smart it's like when remember you were a kid you wanted to ask if you could go to a friend's house you had to gauge how mama was like if mama was mad don't ask mama now wait till mama's 11. hey can i go to johnny's house i guess so they waited till jesus was like cool again and then they said jesus why couldn't we drive the demon out and he said because you have so little faith truly i tell you if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move nothing will be impossible for you and then in the king james version the new king james version verse 21 says this kind doesn't go out except by prayer and fasting i want you to notice what happens because this is clue in this is important because our church is getting ready today to enter into 21 days of prayer and fasting focused prayer and focused fasting why are we doing that because there are some things that will not be removed from your life and will not be dealt with without it why because you are unbelieving and perverse well not me well if the disciples who had walked and talked with him for three years could be unbelieving and perverse i'm pretty sure you could too judgey judgerton at some point you've got to realize you ain't got it all together i'm unbelieving and perverse what does that mean unbelieving means i'm too far from god perverse means i'm too close to the world that what does prayer do prayer gets me closer to god what does fasting do it gets me further from the world what is fasting is that where we walk really fast for the next 21 days no i mean you can a little weird you can go to hope city.com 21 days and and and we have all the resources but fasting is simply pushing away from something like food or maybe it's dr pepper or you're saying i'm going to give up coffee for 21 days you're going to be real mean for about the first four days but i'm gonna give up i'm gonna give up something why so that i can remind myself that i am not in in charge i have given him control of my life and maybe it's social media you say i'm gonna take a step back from social media i'm gonna i'm gonna push something back so i can get closer to him and then i'm going to spend the time when i was doing that i'm going to spend that time praying and talking to god unbelieving and perverse prayer and fasting so for the next 21 days here's what i want you to do whether you're watching online you're around the world you're part of the hope city family sit in the room i want you to get audacious with your faith for the next 21 days we're going to end the fast and we're going to end that season of prayer and fasting on our uh on our sixth anniversary every day on all of our social media platforms we'll be putting out videos and devotionals and you can go online and sign up and and follow all that stuff to get all of that and we're going to get fired up but here's your homework i want you to go home and i want you to write down 10 things that you're praying god will do in the next 21 days and i want you to believe in i can tell you one of the things that i'm praying for god give us wisdom as we prepare to break ground on the silos help us to know what to do because we know that that piece of property is going to be a it's going to be a lighthouse for the world and we believe god's going to do great things from there so help us to know that's what i want one of the things i want hey lord help us to know the direction for our church i have things for our family i have things for our marriage i have things for my children get audacious get wild let your faith go and trust that god is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to power that's at work on the inside of us you have to do it we've got a devotional for you you've got everything that you need a friend of mine several years back he was in college and he was in a math class it was a really hard math class it was a new professor and at the end of the semester the the professor looked at him he said hey i've made a mistake he said i did not realize how hard i had made this semester and all the students started nervously laughing and he said so for the final i'm going to give you a gift i'm going to make it an open book take-home test because there's so many formulas he said i i got to looking at it he said i i can't even remember all the formulas he says i'm going to make it open and they were all just like if you've ever been in college and kip said he went home he meticulously took the test he said even open book take home was so long so hard he said they turned all their their papers in he said the next week they came back to get their grades he said the teacher came in professor came in and he slammed the test down and he said i'm appalled because more than 50 of you failed the test he said it was an open book take-home test you had the formula you just didn't do the math okay can i tell you this it's an open book take home test you have the formula let's do the math in 20 21. let's rely on his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness and his love and let's keep getting back up every time we get knocked down every time we make a mistake a just man falls seven times but he rises up again let's trust that god is able in 2021 and not rely on our own strength because he loves us with a love that cannot be defeated let me pray for you across all of our campuses and those of you online lord we trust you right now in this moment no matter the pain no matter the heartache no matter the challenges no matter the fear no matter the frustration no matter the anxiety we trust you even when we can't track you we trust you we yield ourselves to you right now with nobody looking around if you know this is you and you desperately need a do-over right now search your own heart search your own soul and you would say i need to do over whether you're watching online or in the building online you can just put up the hand emoji in the building nobody looking around if that's you just lift your hand say that's me i need a do-over thank you hands all over the room thank you thank you thank you i see you right in the back here's what i want you to know the do-over is free for the asking but you got to ask the bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that jesus christ is lord and god raised him from the dead you'll be saved if we confess our sins the bible says he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness but you have to ask and listen it's a whole lot less about the words that you're saying and about the position of your heart when i position my heart towards him and i say god i believe in you and i believe that you are able it changes everything so i want us to pray this prayer you can pray it just like me or you could pray it in your own way but i want us to pray it all together will you pray with me all across this world pray this prayer jesus you're the only one who can save me i've made too many mistakes i've messed up in my past and my past has plagued me but today i'm going to release it into your faithful hands and i'm trusting you with my pain my heartache my failure and all of my mistakes i believe you're the son of god i believe you died on a cross and you rose again so that i can have eternal life so in this moment right now i'm giving my life to you and i'm asking you jesus to save me baptize me with your spirit give me your joy and your love and your mercy and your grace and i'm asking you jesus to be the lord of my life in jesus name amen come on let's give him an ovation of worship

Channel: Hope City

Views: 37,046

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, new year, inspiration, do over, church, houston church, funny pastor

Id: JkMmo-HJ9j8

Length: 48min 10sec (2890 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021