Four Perspectives On Leading Yourself | Dr. John Maxwell

good morning oh it's so good to be here worship was amazing hello do you do you have worship like this every week oh my when you when you go to heaven you're going to want to come home on the weekends aren't you huh i've come to conclusion i've been with you all weekend and been with your leaders and had a great time i i've come to the conclusion there's no place like this place anywhere near this place so this must be the place huh hope city i love the title because you're giving hope and as i was listening to jeremy talk about what you're doing around the world you're i mean you're you're hope city for houston but your hope city for the world and this is just very exciting for me to be here with you i love your pastor okay now i know leadership i've written a book or two on it i know leadership and i hang with a lot of leaders and i want you to understand i think you know this already but if you don't know this my name's john i'm your friend if you don't know this i'm here to tell you that in jeremy you have one of the great pastor leaders in the world and he's right here at hope city unbelievable and and he has great parents i mean st paula motivating mark i mean i'm telling you just i mean i mean he ought to be good after you read after you see his parents you think you ought to really be good you really ought to be good and and so to be with you today is an honor i love i love mentoring him sean epstein is here sean i love you this john these are like these are like my sons to me i mean they really are i just pour my life into them and they they're just the finest finest leaders and i'm just so privileged i mean my whole life now is pouring i'm 74. my whole life now is just pouring into young leaders like them and because this is where this is maxwell mall a math this is maxwell math you pour into leaders and they add value to others they multiply and so to be able to be with you sean and to be with you jeremy i love you too and i i'm going to read you something you're you're so young first of all you're just young you're gosh it's i look out it says a church full of kids i mean i mean you're just young and what's sad is you don't get wisdom till you're 65. i mean some of you got a long wait you got i mean it's going to be a long time see when you're young god gives you energy but no wisdom and then when you're old he gives you wisdom and no energy he's got a great sense of humor doesn't he i mean he just really does and so i'm going to help you i'm going to help you understand life because you're just too young to understand life and we all ask questions about life and and so but i'm going to read this to you and in two minutes you're going to understand life and i'm going to give you wisdom and you're just going to walk out here this is going to be huge for you in fact look at your neighbor and say you're about to understand life tell them that you're just about to yeah oh that was good in fact look back at him and say why do you think i brought you here today yeah hello so so here we go here we go on the first day god created the dog and god said sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anybody that goes by i'm going to give you a life span of 20 years the dog said that's too long to be barking give me 10 years i'll give you back the other 10 and god agreed so on the second day god created the monkey he said entertain people do monkey tricks make them laugh i'll give you a 20-year lifespan and the monkey said how boring monkey tricks for 20 years i don't think so the dog gave you back 10 years so that's what i'll do do okay god agreed on the third day god created the cow god said you must go out in the farmer out in the field you get all day long suffer under the sun have calves give milk to support the farmer i'm going to give you a lifespan of 60 years and the cow said that's kind of a tough life you want me to live for 60 years just give me 20 and i'll give you back the other 40 and god agreed so on the fourth day god created man god said eat sleep play mary enjoy your life i'm going to give you 20 years man says what only 20 years i'll tell you what i'll take my 20 and then add the 40 that you gave the cow and the 10th you gave the monkey the 10 that you gave the dog that makes 80 years okay and god agreed so that's why the first 20 years we eat sleep play i see the trainer coming [Applause] i love this [Music] the next 40 years we slave in the sun to support our family and then for the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren and for the last 10 years we sit on the front porch and we bark at everybody to go spy oh [Applause] you've just had life explained to you okay get ready let's take some notes i want to give you four perspectives about possessions biblical teaching about how we handle our stuff and the reason i'm doing this lesson is because as you know you're in a very important time in the the life of hope city and and this is a time where we all can become a vital part of seeing god do an incredible miracle not only here but around the world but your perspective about your possessions your stuff and my stuff our perspective is going to determine how we respond and um perspective is is vital in a person's life how we how we view things is how we do things and so when a person gives me their viewpoint i already know what course of action they're going to take and so how i view my stuff how i view my possessions is going to determine what i do with those possessions how you do it's it's we all are going to follow our perspective and i want to give you four perspectives three of them coming out of the story of the good samaritan and then there's a final fourth one i'll give you after the story but you know the story of the good spirit i'm going to read it here in a moment but an attorney came to jesus one day and he asked a question who is my neighbor and the response of jesus really was the response of the good samaritan story let's go in reply jesus said a man who was going down from jerusalem to jericho when he was attacked by robbers they stripped him of his clothes beat him and went away leaving him half dead and a priest happened to be going down the same road and when he saw the man he passed by on the other side so to a levite when he came to the place and saw him pass by the other side it's interesting we'll stop here for a moment jesus wanted to make sure that we knew that both the priests and the levites saw the man so it's not like they passed him and he just wasn't visually in their eyesight he wants to make sure two things they saw him and then they passed to the other side of the road they didn't go to the other side of the road why did they go to the other side of the road because because they saw the man that was robbed okay that we're talking about perspective here so let's go on with the story but a good samaritan a samaritan as he was traveling came where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him he went to him and bandaged his wounds pouring out oil and wine then he put the man on his own donkey and brought him to an end took care of him the next day he took two danarai and gave them to the innkeeper look after him he said when i return i will reimburse you for any extra expense that you may have and then jesus asked the attorney which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell in the hands of the robbers and the expert in the law said replied the one who had mercy on him and jesus said go and do likewise let's look at four perspectives number one is the robber the robber's perspective is very simple what is yours is mine and i'm going to take it he saw this man going down to jericho from jerusalem and basically he said i'm going to rob him i'm going to take what is his and i'm going to make it mine. and when i talk about the robbers perspective we all kind of look at each other and say well john won't need to take long here because we're not robbers i mean we you know we're we're certainly a grade above the robber for sure i'm assuming you're not beside a robber i mean if you if you aren't certain you can kind of look again and just check you know if you've kind of sent your art just raise your hand and you know point or no but i want you to know that although we want to distance ourselves from this robber's perspective that what is yours is mine and i'm going to take it i just want you to know that we all have a little robber in us we really do we're born in sin and if you don't think you have a little robber in you think of your toddlers they're born robbers i mean have you ever ever understood and witnessed the property law from a toddler's perspective i mean when a toddler i mean you watch a toddler here's here's how they see possessions if i like it it's mine if i can take it away from you it's mine if i had it a while ago it's mine if i say it's mine it's mine if it looks like mine it's mine if you're having fun with it it's mine if you lay it down it's mine [Music] if it's broken it's yours we've got every one of us have this selfishness you know i i was talking the other day about the difference between selfishness and significance and i said neither one they're they're not compatible at all and i was talking about selfishness is all about us and significance is all about others and and i literally had a person come up to me afterwards and and said i know you just talked about selfishness he said i just want you know i'm not a selfish person and i smiled i said well okay you're delusional of course we're selfish we all have that little selfishness inside of us come on if you don't think you're selfish the next time somebody takes a group picture of you and your friends when you look at that picture i see the train coming who is the first person you look for in that picture come on me and if you look good you say great picture great send it to me send it to me say it to me and if you don't if you don't if you don't look good you say oh come on let's do it again let's do it again let's do it again let's do it again you determine the whole picture based on you let's go to perspective number two you're so good you're so fun to teach oh my gosh he's got a clock down here and tells me i have 16 minutes and 57 seconds you know what i mean i mean i'm just getting started and he's doing this to me like it's like we're at cape canaveral or something and we're in a countdown you gotta but i mean what kind of a schedule is this you've got here whatever i i mean i mean i'm mentoring jeremy and i i went to his bible study yesterday and he had a 30-minute bible study well in 30 minutes i was just getting started and those men were just digging in and smells bad i've been looking around i think there's a fire alarm or something going off and i mean a 30-minute bible study i said well you got a study here now you got a service here jeremy as soon as this is over we're meant i'm doing some more mentoring we're going to get the out of him what do you think hey man let's get the out of here oh my goodness oh dad you never taught him that did you you never he never learned from you no no no i told those men next week who's gonna pass out pink bibles for you guys oh lord my name my name's john and i'm your friend perspective number two come on the second perspective okay we're not the robber we got through that we're not the robber no no we're above that let's look at the second perspective this is the perspective of the priest in levite what is mine is mine and i'm going to keep it you see when they saw the man in need that was robbed they didn't feel any need to help him because they said well i i feel bad for that i shouldn't have happened oh i wish i wish he would have been robbed but after all what's mine is mine and i'm going to keep it and they in fact they made sure they kept it they went clear to the other side selfishness i have a friend and we were talking and and he just gave me a great story that just really connects with this what is mine is mine and and i'm going to keep it he said he had a 12 year old son he said he loves mcdonald's fries don't we all i mean there's just nothing quite like mcdonald's fries just smell them when we get to heaven we'll have mcdonald's fried no calories in them no calories in fact it'll be health food you'll have to you'll have to take fries every day to keep the doctor away yeah it's going to be healthy and so he took his son he couldn't drive himself so he took his son got him a big pack of fry sat down at the table with him he's talking to his boy and and he's smelling these fries he's looking at these fries and finally he did what any of us would do at a table he reaches over i mean he said my gosh i think i need to have a couple of those myself and he reaches over and he's just about ready to pick up two or three fries out of that pack and his son grabs his dad's hand and pushes it away he said no no you can't have any of these fries he said these fries are mine and he said john i pulled my hand back and i looked at my boy as he said as the father i thought immediately three things number one he doesn't understand where those fries came from i'm the source i drove him to mcdonald's i went to the counter i paid the money i got the price without me he has no fries i'm the source he doesn't understand i'm the source number two he doesn't understand i can take those fries from him in fact he said i was thinking about doing it right then i just reach over and say if you're going to have that kind of attitude you don't get any fries and boom i'm going to take those fries from he said he said he doesn't understand i'm not only the source i'm in control i can take those fries from him or he said if i want to i can go back up the counter and i can order 30 packs of large fries i can go back to the table and i can dump them on him and i can bury him in french fries as soon as he talked about burying him in french fries i thought oh my god what a way to go how did how did maxwell die fry's avalanche we tried to rescue him three times and he pushed us away well i mean what a way to go he said he said my son doesn't understand i'm the source he doesn't understand i'm in control he said the third thing he doesn't understand is that i don't need his fries i can get my own price i could leave him alone at the table and go back over there and i can order a big pack of rice i can sit down and i can have my fries and he can have his price i don't need his price and he said then i thought of as a father i don't need his fries but it would certainly be nice to share them with him and he said that's exactly how god thinks about us when we get selfish with our possessions and say wait wait wait wait a minute these are mine what's mine is mine and i'm going to keep it we forget that god's the source we have nothing without him every good and perfect gift comes from above we don't even forget these he's in control he can take those fries from us we forget he doesn't need our fries isn't it amazing what amazes me about god i mean honestly if i were god i would do some things a little different than he does i mean the god who created the heavens and earth i've always wondered why god would use us why he would want to include us i mean if i were god i think a lot of times i just look at us and say i'd rather do it myself but he chooses to use us he chooses to use you i mean he can do the miracle but he uses i mean when he when he wants to multiply the loaves and fish he's got to find a kid that would give him a few loaves and few fish to work with i mean when jeremy talked about the the you know lazarus and and and and unwrap him and and move the stuff you see it's amazing this infinite god he he uses us and so when we have this attitude this perspective that what's mine is mine and i'm going to keep it it's the wrong perspective now we're going to go to third perspective we've we've left the watch what's yours mind i'm going to take it and what's mine in mind i'm going to keep it the good samaritan gives us now he gives us a higher level i i think hope city is filled with good samaritans i know you're feel free you prove it's all been proven when he gave all the stats of all the people you're helping around the world that's good samaritan perspective see and a good samaritan perspective is what is mine is yours and i'm going to give it i love that he looked at the man who had been robbed he didn't know who that man was but he said oh i've got a responsibility here i need to go over and help him and he literally took his wine his oil his bandages his time and he went over there and he just started he started rapping out now let me say something about the priest levi the good samaritan they had three things very much in common they had three similarities one is that they all saw the problem jesus says they all saw him they all had an opportunity to help and they all had a reason not to help and let me tell you something when you are selfish when you're living in this world that what is mine is mine and i'm going to keep it the reason you're selfish is you don't want to be inconvenienced i mean if you stop to help the guy you're going to miss lunch in jericho and so selfish people they never want their agenda to be incoming it's kind of like well this is my these are my plans and this is my these are my possessions and and and the priests and levites they had a selfish perspective their perspective was if i do stop what will happen to me and their answer was i will be inconvenienced and the good samaritan says if i do stop if i do not stop what will happen to me and he said if i don't stop i'm going to get a hard heart i'm going to get a selfish heart i'm going to get a calloused heart and a callous life and if i don't stop i'm certainly not going to help him but if i do stop it's going to it's not going to help the robber it's going to it's going to change me now three perspectives so far there's one more that's not in the story i'm going to give it but it's the overarching biblical perspective this is just a perspective of possessions from this one story what's yours is mine i'm going to take it it's mine is mine i'm going to keep it which mine is yours i'm going to give it but there is a level a life-changing transformation level about possessions that i just passionately desire for you to move up to today today and this will change your life so look at the person sitting beside you and say don't miss perspective 4. don't miss it don't miss it don't miss it now let me just stop here for a moment the reason i had you do that is because i've been watching you now as cape canaveral time has been going down i've been watching you i've been watching and i've noticed that you're very sharp you're you're with it you're leaning and you're taking notes you're you're just catching it you're just you've got it and i love that but but what i've noticed is the person on your left is not quite as sharp as you are they're they're just a little slower honest to god they're just yeah oh it's amazing you noticed it too didn't you you know i mean i'm looking at you some of you yeah oh yes oh yes oh my god i noticed it so so so this this fourth point is so important look at that person you know that's a little slower than you and say it's okay i'll help you go ahead and tell them that it's okay i'm going to help you i'm going to help you is this fun huh all right we're ready now i'm going to help you perspective number four i really want you to move up to this level this will change your life number four i'm going a little slower we're doing it for the person on your left are they ready yeah that's it okay okay perspective number four what is mine is not mine and i'm going to manage it this is a whole different level when i look at my possessions the first thing i understand is my possessions aren't mine they're gods they're not mine it's not my stuff psalm 24 1 the earth is the lord and everything in it the world and all who live in it it's not mine now the moment that i realize that my stuff my possessions are not mine everything changes in my perspective about them you know when i was having fun with you a moment ago and talked to you about the person on your left i looked over here a little bit to my left and like my friend jerry texted me between services and he's here and i didn't know he's going to be here and he wanted to go to lunch and i haven't seen him for a while so i said okay i'll you know we'll do lunch and then i remembered that you know jerry's a little cheap it's okay i have a few cheap friends and so he's going to expect me to pay for the lunch and then i look because then i realize that all my stuff is in the car because i'm supposed to be after a while going to the plane and the whole process and so i don't have any cash and so i got to thinking while i'm talking to you and since we're really getting acquainted and becoming friends i thought maybe somebody would like bring me a hundred dollars and and then i could you know i could pay for the lunch and and you know in it now that's the reason i mentor that boy right right there right right there's the reason and i know well i got to finish this message anyway okay see where was i oh shoot okay i was on perspective before okay okay now i want to go on but you're all just looking at me like what just happened john just needed a hundred bucks and jeremy runs up there and gives him a hundred bucks and why did jeremy give him a hundred bucks and and even a more important question you should be asking yourself why didn't i bring 100 bucks well let me explain something to you the reason jeremy was so quick to bring me the hundred dollars is before the service i gave him i gave him this one hundred dollars and i said jeremy during my sermon today i'm going to ask for a hundred dollars and would you just bring back to me what is mine even the person on your left can get this one you see he's so quick to bring it to me because he knows it's not his money and when you and i start trying to get cheap on god we start resisting and pulling back and said well no i that seems like a little a little bit too much can i tell you the reason you have a battle giving money is because you think it's yours it isn't yours it's his all you do is manage it and so when i came this weekend to serve you and to love you and to add value to your church and to be with my beautiful friend jeremy i came with a heart to help you and then i sat in a couple of sessions tonight i saw the silos and i thought oh my gosh what a great place i mean whenever you want to describe where your church is all you got to do is say silos and everybody in houston says got it got it i mean and can you imagine the marketing was silos if you feel low go to the silo [Applause] just just give me a week just give me a week could you just give me a week because you just i just i i i caught the vision and i told jeremy last night i said jeremy i know i came out to serve you and love you and help you and add value to you but i got to be a part of this i got to be i want to make a commitment i i want to in fact after being here i want to join this church i live in florida hello hello i mean i said i i said i got i can't just come and speak for you i gotta i gotta i gotta give you some money and he said thanks for your gift and i said i remind oh my gosh it's no problem it wasn't my gift anyway it's god's you see i'm just i'm just i'm just the pass along boy i'm just a pass along boy you see god will only give to you what he knows flows through you i just i'm just the delivery boy i'm just i'm just passing it on yeah and it's incredible i mean if you if you had an overnight package you wanted to send to a friend and you took it down to the delivery place and you gave it to them called your friend the next day they didn't have the package you went to the delivery place and you said you didn't get my package to my friend the guy said oh oh i thought that was for me oh my gosh i took that home is that for you you're just the delivery boy i'm god's delivery boy and you're god's delivery girl come on now you're you're hey he he just blesses you with possessions to turn it around and pass it on to him this is a beautiful thing and i now i came to bless you and now i'm going to get a blessing that's so stinking selfish i'm going to get a blessing i came to bless you but now i'm putting i i'm taking some of god's money and managing it and stirring and i'm putting it in the into hope city and i'm going to be part of this when when this building is spilled out there and thousands of people's lives are being changed i'm going to go by there and i'm going to be so stinking proud i'm going to say i got a part in there i sowed seed over there huh oh yeah you can hey you can run back you can share your friendship i'm part of the silo investment organization oh it's beautiful i just love jeremy's approach i love the fact that he just shares with you what the need is and then he trusts god to speak to you i love that that's a that's what i call a spiritual mature approach he doesn't have to work it up and he doesn't have to kind of move it up a little bit and kind of work motivate you he just basically says here's where we are and here's what the need is and and and and we don't have a billionaire so we need all of you to help and every one of us are going to be a have a little peace in this incredible kingdom work and so what i want to do if you allow me is i'd like to close in prayer and i'm going to pray that god will take you to level four hmm how many of you want to be level four come on oh i love this i love this lord you see the hands that were raised you see the hands are cabinet these people are obedient people they're in love with you and they're in love with the what god is doing in hope city and they're in love with the fact that you would choose them that you would choose them to be a part of something bigger than all of us and so i just asked god that that you'll just take them to level four that they'll they'll graduate from good samaritan school and they'll just go one level up higher and just say i got it i got it what's mine isn't mine it's all yours god but i'm going to steward it and i'm going to manage it and i'm going to pass it on and i'm going to be i'm going to be a river not a reservoir make every one of these people rivers lord rivers hope city rivers and just flow through them and bless them and lord as they make their commitments i pray you will bless their home their family their health put a hedge around them keep the devourer from them and i would pray that you would take them in 2021 to a spiritual level like they have never been before because they all of a sudden realize you are the source and it's all yours and they're just having a little part in the kingdom and they're passing on so bless them in the name of jesus i pray and everybody said god bless you i love you thank you very much god bless you hey uh we'll let we'll let dr john maxwell be a member of hope city won't we actually we kind of need a church grandfather would you do that i can be your papa papa john house hat huh i'm in i'm in thank you very much love you too man the original papa john come on guys give him a great big hand i love you you can be seated i just so appreciate him he takes me further faster every time i'm with him you could be seated that's john trying to go down the stairs back there i'm grateful that uh that he was with us he had a he has a kind of a bum leg if you don't mind don't anybody go anywhere i see some of you guys moving towards the doors if you'll just wait that would help me a lot um this is we haven't gotten to the most important moment of the service and the most important moment of the service is we give you an opportunity to give your life to jesus that's that's where that's what this is all about i love that we give you an opportunity to sow in be a part of giving towards what god is doing and and i i feel more confident and unapologetically telling you we can't do it if you don't if you don't do it god gives me vision i've got huge v you know what i don't even really need any help with vision i got it anthony miner anthony michelle you are doing an incredible job with our missions team anthony came to me the other day we're feeding 50 000 people we're out there my kids are out there my son gunner was hurling cliff bars into the back of people's trucks we had to change him from chips because he was throwing chips in there and killing the chips we're like this cliff bars you can you can't destroy those things and anthony came up to me and i said dude you're doing such an incredible job he said i can't wait till we have a dream center so we have a dream center where we're serving our community where people are coming in and out of here every day all day i said anthony i can't wait till we have six dream centers or 12 dream centers i'm telling you the vision for our church is massive but your generosity controls the pace at which we accomplish what god has placed in our hearts so i'm asking you to pray about it and do what the lord has laid in your heart and i will tell you this i won't tell you the exact amount but i will tell you that dr maxwell it's not when he said he's going to sow in he is he is he has quickly become one of our most significant donors he's given a very very generous gift this week so thank you dr maxwell [Music] i'm messing me up that i was 12 watching him teach and he's so in the into our vision now that's pretty awesome so i just thank you i will ask you to pray just grab this card and and pray over it i'm asking you to grab it pray over it those of you who are online if you're watching online this church has blessed you i'm asking you to sow in to pray about what god would have you to do make a one-time commitment to help us break ground and then make a two-year commitment say all right by faith we believe this is what god's gonna have us to do i believe god's gonna bless us i didn't even wanna do cards a couple of years ago when we did the silos campaign in fact i told the church i was like we're not gonna do cards and then the bank was like we kind of need to see the cards the commitment cards i was like oh we're going to do commitment cards i'm not super great at this but what i'm super great at is understanding that without this we don't do what god has called us to do it's going to take us actually going all in and this is an opportunity for you to say i want seed in the ground for what god is doing i don't want to just be a taker i don't want to just be a consumer i don't want to just have a consumer mindset i actually want to sow in i want to be a part of the foundation of building this thing so for years to come i'll be able to look to it and say i'm a part of that i was in the room god used us god used our family and i can tell you this he will bless you and it makes so much sense that he left the hundred dollars up here makes so much sense here's why because dr maxwell's told me this he's told me this unforgettable generosity changes everything and you can never out give god and he said i want to be he told me this he said i want to give the way that god gives and he showed me a year ago i had the opportunity to be with him it was his birthday and i know he likes mot blanc pens so we bought him a mop block pen and a mont blanc uh journal which i mean it was it's a pretty good gift a little logo makes it worth the money i told jen i was like this is a really good gift who gave it to him he was so gracious and then i saw him again at the end of last year at a little conference this is small there's 40 of us in the room and he was talking about unforgettable generosity and he said my friend jeremy did something very unforgettable for me he got me a blank pen he said my favorite pen and he got me a mop blank journal and he said what a great gift and he said he has no idea that i don't use a journal i was like awesome thanks doc and he said so i thought what should i do with this journal he said so jeremy will you come up here i walked up there and he handed me the journal and on every page front and back he had written me a note it took him six months to do it and on the back page he had written down all the things that his father had taught him and it just said i love you john and he said this is the first edition only edition john maxwell original and it's yours and i just burst into tears and it was amazing and then he turned and he said this is how god gives when you give to god god thinks of a way to out give you because he will not be undone when you give god goes oh no i'm not going to owe you i'm going to pour something in you press down shaken together and running over so trust me get in on what god's doing and here's why we'll boil it down to this very very simply because it's changing lives three weeks ago i preached everything that i could i preached as hard as i could i walked upstairs and when i went upstairs our team played a little video when they played the video it wrecked me because it is the reason it is my why this is my walk all the time so i want to play it on this weekend they were like we've already played that videos like i don't care we play it again i don't you want to know why i do what i do why we work why we serve while we love when we give it's for jose take a look at this i was atheist i lived that atheist lifestyle me and my brother my dad told us to um go get food like he wanted to stay with my mom because he wanted to talk to her i thought it was going to be like a small talk so me and my brother went to go get food and when we came back i saw my mom crying with a with a bruise in her eye i seen the police come like they started knocking on the door i saw my dad in handcuffs and i was like i started like crying because i thought i would never see my dad again whenever he had to go to court and that he would have faced 20 years in prison [Music] i try to get away from that pain so i started hanging out with other people and they they brought me into drugs and i like i started doing drugs with them like almost every day i'll skip class just to do drugs to try to get away from the pain but it just made things worse i started to build a hatred for god i started to blame god for literally everything and that's whenever i started to even fall into satan's lies thinking that he would be there for me when i found out about hope city it was my aunt and uncle they invited me and my mom to church and me i didn't want to go to church even when i would see people like raising their hand i'd be like why would you do that bro like this because you look dumb doing it like me being messed up i was like that when pastor germany was speaking about god and his love it just showed me that no one's perfect and that god sees you as just his child they were giving out prayer books i saw that a prayer about god being there for us and then when i got home i put it to the side i started to feel like guilty and i felt like i wanted to go back but i felt like i wasn't good enough to go back for him i was even hit like hitting up like plugs for like for for high doses of drugs i was close to ending things and i had the pills in my hand and i remembered that prayer about god's love god's forgiveness that he doesn't care about my past and so when i saw that prayer book in the side i was like no i'm not doing this i said that one final prayer i was like god if you're really there forgive me please i'm sorry for doing this but i just can't do this life no more and i felt god speaking that saying that it's not over yet and i said yes to him finally completely whenever i was watching the service that they were bringing hope city back i was really excited i was like let's go finally i get to be experience this i want to experience god's atmosphere with other people that love him i got like chills and when they started singing i started to raise my hand i started singing and i started crying they talk about baptism water baptism i was like mom you gotta come over here i'm excited i'm about to get baptized i was stepping into the water my mom was watching and i went once i went down felt that water and came back up and i raised my hand because like i'm i'm new that's like i can't ever forget that day because that's the best day of my life because god really oh my gosh because god really did change me i was the person that rejected him he picked me up again and made me his child grew a stronger relationship with god i got to know god more i got to be around people who love god more at the hopes it was just like a church but now hope city is like a family

Channel: Hope City

Views: 92,119

Rating: 4.8894768 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, john maxwell, dr. john maxwell, leadership, inspiring, houston silos, hope city silos, hope city houston, hope city jeremy, jeremy foster hope city, john maxwell hope city, john maxwell jeremy foster, giving, church giving, leadership principles, leadership lessons, hope, sermon, generosity, perspectives on leading, john maxwell quote, inspiring sermon

Id: S7VD-RcpfxQ

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021