Get in The Zone | Pastor Jeremy Foster

and let's give all the mama's a great big hand where you at mamas come on come on moms raise your hand where you at moms raise you just turn to a random mom and say you're doing a great job you're doing a great job you're here you might be a hot mess but you're here glad each and every one of you guys are here my name is Jeremy and all of my wife Jennifer we get the honor being able to Pastor y'all this is my wife Jennifer happy Mother's Day baby girl great Mother's Day already I've got to sleep a whole two extra hours thanks to this man right here that's awesome no I hope all of you ladies feel celebrated on this Mother's Day as well and a quick little story for you guys Jillian our seven year old daughter just full of personality she comes home Thursday from school and I greet her at the door and I can tell she has something you know behind her back and she's really excited about it and so she looks at me and she's holding stuff behind her back and she said is it Mother's Day yet and I said no baby you have a few days to go and she's like but can I give you my stuff and I said sure so she pulls out three little homemade cards and mom's having it like having it you know those homemade cards are the best I wouldn't give anything for these little cards like not even a Louie Vuitton purse I would take those cards okay I had you in Louisville Tom but I got you a card girl I think I should get a gift from each child I don't know we love those little homemade cards we really do I really wouldn't give anything for them and so I opened up the cards and the first one said mom you were so pretty you're so sweet I love it when you dance with me and then the other car was mom you were so smart you were so sweet I love it when you read to me and then I opened the third car and none of it made sense and I looked at Dealey and I said Julie what is this car she said copy from some boy in class really is all you can think of but you know what if you guys were to look at that card you always just see a bunch of incorrect spelling a bunch of coloring outside the lines a bunch of scribble but to me when I look at that card it's a priceless piece of art that I wouldn't take anything off and you know what you may feel like you came in to church this Sunday morning just a hot mess you know you always scribbling outside the lines you just can't get it together and you're like you don't know where I was last night I really don't feel like I should even be here today but you have a Heavenly Father who was just so thankful for you and when he looks at you with all your insecurities and all your problems he just smiles at you like a mother and like a father would because you are a priceless piece of art to him and we are just so grateful that you are here with us this Sunday men man come on and we have a little something for you guys bring it on a happy Mother's Day to Jennifer I love my girl where are we okay well coming from this side all right my girls come on over here and get your flowers baby girl can you say happy Mother's Day but turning the other way all right give her a great big hand y'all love you better girl I love I love my mom my mom is watching online today y'all give her great big ham mama I love you and I'll tell you this I don't know I don't know about you but I think mom's maybe have a handbook or manual but they all read from because they all say the same thing I wrote down some things that my mom said and what's hilarious is in every service people can finish these okay you may not go finish the first one I'll start my mom used to say this to me all the time she would say if you're too sick to go to school you're too sick to play outside anybody's mom said that too okay some of you Millennials you're like I don't know what are you talking about outside is a place out it's out of doors is to go play in this place called the woods it's true grouped together the woods my mother used to say your father's gonna hear about this when he gets home anybody ever and dad would come home clueless he be like hey everybody smell your mad if you can't say something nice if I want your opinion a lady in the last service said I'll tell you what it is I thought that was great I took notes on that I've had it up to I'm sick in I'll treat you like an adult some of y'all haven't heard that one before you like oh that's a good one I'm gonna write that down if you don't stop crying I'm gonna give you something to cry about like you already did I'm bleeding over here and then my all-time favorite this is gonna hurt me and that's not true we're spankin I ever got my monster this is gonna hurt me worth more than it's gonna hurt you and I said well let me hit you and then it hurt me worse than it I still walk with a limp right there on the left hip but my mom not only taught me how to obey she taught me how you know she taught me how to to mine and she taught me how to be a good fine upstanding citizen my mother also taught me how to pray my mother taught me Scripture and I'm grateful for that not everybody had a mom who did that and my mother I honor her give her one more big hand I love you mama thank you my mother taught me she taught me a verse of scripture and it became my favorite verse of scripture proverbs chapter 3 verses five and six says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths how many of you want God in on the decisions that you make I want God in on the decisions that I make and my mother taught me that because she knew how important the will of God and the ways of God are in our lives especially as we get older we go through all kinds of decisions you have to make decisions in your life everything from where are we gonna go eat today husbands how many of you have ever gotten that question sweetheart where do you want to go eat and what do we know we know she doesn't really care where we want to go eat she just needs a multiple choice for her to decide come on somebody from those kind of decisions which aren't really really super important to the decisions like where we gonna go to college where what's my major gonna be where should I take this job or not take this job should I marry this person um once I'm married when do we have kids and how many kids do we have and should we send these kids that we have to military school you don't I mean that the decisions dilemma and here's the thing we know that we need God's input on these decisions here's here's what the Word of God says the Word of God Psalm chapter 139 verse 16 says all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be what does that mean that meant before you were ever born God had a plan for your life say he had a plan for my life it's good for you to remember that God has got a plan and he has a purpose for your life and the best way to live life is surrendered to the will and the ways of God James chapter 4 verse 13 says now listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city we'll spend a year there carry on business and make money why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow this is not against planning this is against planning without the will of God in mind he says what is your life you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes instead you ought to say if it is the Lord's will then we will live and do this or do that so what this is teaching us is to live the will of God first because it's challenge for us is we're supposed to walk by faith and not by sight but more often than not we walk by feelings and not by faith if it feels good I'd do it if it feels right I go for it if I got a good feeling about it and the challenge with that is oftentimes I can feel good about something and think it's a good decision when it's not really a God decision we have a multitude of filters that we filter through decisions through one of them I like to call it the if this then that decision filtered if this happens then that then I'll do that if I get the call back on this job I'm gonna take it if she says yes then we're gonna get married if this then that and that starts when we're kids for me it started on the basketball court whenever I was a kid we said this little basketball goal in our driveway and I would say something like if I make this shot that girl's gonna go out with me brick okay all right let me try together and then as you mature a little bit spiritually you you use the flippin point method of making decisions like alright god I need a word from you so I'm just gonna open your Bible I'm gonna open I don't really want to study I don't to read a whole lot don't really understand it I just wanna flip an opening point you ever done that how many of you guys have done that raise your hand raise your hand oh you guys are honest that's a whole bunch of it's like the guy who who flipped it open he turned immediately to first chronicles 19 4 says so haneun sees david's on boys shaved their beards cut off their garments at the buttocks and sent them away he was like that's not no that doesn't work someone to try to get got I'm gonna give you another chance and he turned to Luke 1037 it says go and do likewise none of that works so I would encourage you not to use the flippin point method there's a better way and we're gonna get into that today in fact I'm gonna give you a foolproof way to find and follow the will of God we're in a series called hey Siri and if you use that Siri option on your phone if you have an iPhone there's an option on there you can just hold the home button down and ask Siri anything and she has an answer for almost everything would it be nice if there was an app like that for God okay god what's your will on this how many of you would get that app if you had that well here's the thing is you have that app you just have to know how to use it and I'm gonna give you a foolproof way to get the will of God in your life this weekend and my hope is that you'll plug these six questions that I'm going to give you in to every decision and I believe that a radically changed your life but first before we jump into that practical step I want to I want to lead you through a little bit of a theological step that I believe is gonna help you understand the will of God we talked about it a little bit last week and I kind of want to give you a recap the will of God in the scriptures talked about in three ways it's talked about as the sovereign will of God the moral will of God and then the personal will of God the challenge is we oftentimes don't want to know a lot about the sovereign will of God or the moral will of God I just kind of want to know the personal will of God but without the sovereign will of God the moral will of God you rarely find the personal will of God here's how God's will works it works kinda like a golf course any golfers here and you may like to play golf anybody ever played putt-putt just raise your hand then you you kind of understand or maybe you've seen golf on TV so this is a beautiful golf course and I want you to think about the will of God like the fairway okay so the fairway is that is that green spot that's closely mowed that's kind of the zone that's kind of where you want to hit the ball you want to kind of be in the zone you don't want to end up over here that's called the rough even though it doesn't look too rough even though it looks like a nice place to go and sit like over there by those trees yeah I wanted like god I like this green space but I'd really like to just go over and sit by the trees and sometimes that rough area calls to you because it looks good it feels good it sounds like it ought to be a place in fact other people have set up camp over there but that's not God's best for you sometimes we hit it and we're trying but we end up kind of going the wrong way and we end up in a hazard we end up in the sand or we end up in the water we end up somewhere else here's what I want you to know none of these places you can't recover from it just makes it a little harder God wants you to get in the zone so in order to understand where the zone is you have to understand what the sovereign will of God is and just as a recap the sovereign will of God is things that God's already gonna do he's already decided it and it doesn't even need your input judgment is coming God's gonna judge the earth he's gonna judge each of us based on our actions at the judgment seat of Christ we're all gonna face the great great white throne judgment it's just going to happen and you can't pray it away like Oh God please Lord let me escape judgments not gonna happen no matter how hard you pray even if you pray with an English accent it's not going to happen it's like God hears the King James Version better than anything else like it's not gonna change his sovereign will because these are the things that God is going to do simply because he's God here's the cool part about it and the part that fires me up about the sovereign will of God is he uses people to accomplish his sovereign will when he wanted to send his one and only Son to die for all humanity to rise again on the third day there by purchasing hope and salvation he looked for a person he looked for a girl named Mary and he said I'm gonna use you to accomplish the sovereign well you mean I can position my life in the zone in such a way that when God's looking for someone he can choose me to do something great in this world absolutely that's why we started this church because God's up to something in the world and we want to be a part of it cat's-eye you why you're here some of you think you're here because someone invited you or you saw it on social media or maybe your mom bribed you and she was like listen the only thing that I want for you to do is come to church with me you're like oh do I have to wear a jacket and you don't I I wore one for you and your boy wore cufflinks today because it's Mother's Day we literally went and picked these up at Walmart guys come on you boys not bougie at all I don't care it doesn't matter how you got here the reason you're here is because God's up to something in the world he's doing something in the world and we have positioned ourselves to be in the sovereign will of God God wants to do something great in your life if you'll position yourself to get in what he's already doing then there's the moral will of God this is much easier to understand than the sovereign will of God because the moral will of God is pretty much thou shalt not like you don't have to pray Lord should I steal this cupcake or not God's like no like that's obvious it's crazy to me the stuff people pray about them like Lord I believe that man is supposed to be my husband my child he is someone else's husband currently but Lord you can change all things no that's you'd be shocked at the stuff I've heard that's not the will of God okay that's that's outside of the moral will of God and if I'm not careful I'll be praying for the personal will of God while I'm living outside of the moral will of God some of us are somewhere over here in the rough or in the sand or over in the trees asking God about about a job like Lord should I take this career move and God's like listen I would love to answer that question but I need you to make the simplest to get back over here in the zone and follow my moral will to get inside my sovereign will so that I can begin to reveal my personal will t-this is the theological stuff that you need to understand now now once we're in the sovereign will of God and obeying the moral will of God he begins to open the personal will of God to our lives and this is important now before we jump into the six questions I want to give you a two question pop quiz okay you had no idea there was gonna be a test today not only is there a test there's also a pop quiz yeah it's Mother's Day ha ha my good mom's proud all right I'm gonna give you two questions that you can ask yourself and I think you ought to ask yourself these questions daily these will help you position your life inside of the moral will of God and the sovereign will of God here's the first question what am I doing that I should not be doing it's kind of a simple question what am i doing right now did I just kind of know I shouldn't be doing think about it how many of you have kids you have kids because you can't ever done something and you're like why why did you do that and what do they say I don't don't know yes yes you did no yes you did no I didn't why did you do it I don't know why why and then you say something like you know better and they go I know I'm sorry what were you thinking and then they say I wasn't what's wrong with you we say what's wrong with you and then as adults we go and do the exact same thing oh that kind of hurt and you got to know God's going come on and here's here's our answer I just wasn't thinking well what would happen if you started thinking about it what am i doing now that I just know like I know better than this you know what I mean what I know better I do better but if I kind of gloss over and don't think about it I'll do dumb things that's human nature you want to do dumb things you may not even realize you may say if I looked at you and said you want to do dumb things you would say no I don't want to do dumb things but if I pointed out a red button and said don't touch the button what do you want to do what will happen if I touch it listen I can't tell you everything just don't touch it okay you're born with this ability I'm never going to my granny's house whenever I was a kid and there was the the ugliest vase of plants I've ever seen ever in my life my grandparents house was like a museum and you couldn't touch anything everything apparently was worth a million dollars even stuff that looked like I wouldn't buy it for a dollar at a yard sale I couldn't touch it and there was this one vase of flowers they weren't even real flowers then every time we walked in the door my parents or anybody that was with who say hey don't touch that don't don't touch that and as a kid what did I want to do I want to touch that I want to in one Sunday afternoon we came home from church and as they walked around the corner I finally got a chance at it and my aunt Debbie walked around the corner and she snapped a picture of me doing this right here that's me I know thanks mom for dressing me like that I appreciate it I had to have the Red Hat cuz apparently I was a part of the Bloods I don't know I used to be a now I'm covered by the blood just come on somebody guys calm down come on don't laugh at stuff like that's ridiculous look at my face like I grabbed it it's it's the funkiest plant you've ever seen I mean look at it it's terrible and what I'm going on all right check it away it's ridiculous it serves no purpose I just wanted to grab the boy I didn't know what I'm going to do with it like I can't play with it I just want I just want it and some of us do that exact same thing what are you doing right now you just kind of know this is not helping me in any way shape or form this is not good for me it's not blessing my life it's hurting my life what am i doing right now that I shouldn't be doing here's what the Word of God says my mom taught me this verse the scripture when I was young I'm so grateful she did it's a powerful verse of scripture that has many layers way beyond what I'm going to read to you today Psalm 139 23 says search me O Lord know me test me see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me back into the way everlasting hey God find me over here in the rough find me in the sand and help lead me back God is not looking for a reason to kill you he's looking for a reason to save you and he found one and the reason that he saves you is because he loves you and he loves you so much don't you think he'll help you when you admit I need it I need help second question on the pop quiz is what am I not doing that it should be doing if God has a sovereign will and he's doing amazing things on our earth why wouldn't I want to be involved in that here's what we believe the sovereign will of God for your life is we believe that God's called you to do four things he wants you to know God he wants you to find freedom he wants you to discover your purpose and ultimately he wants you to make a difference on this planet but the first step begins with knowing God what does that mean that is just me meeting God that means knowing God having a friendship or a relationship with God and we do that every weekend and we've had thousands of people give their lives to Jesus since the inception of this church they know God but we don't want you to just know God we believe it's the sovereign will of God for you not just to know him but for you all to also find freedom how many of you know believers who are saved but not set free some of the meanest people you'll ever meet especially on 290 in traffic you know I'm a Christian it's when we don't have hope city bumper stickers follow me to hope see there to be bites in the parking lot right now there already is y'all try the park out there get out of my way I'm trying to go to church all right fine freedom I didn't walk in god bless you brother good to see you okay just like my mother whenever we used to walk in the church she'd have me and my brother on either side and she'd be just giving moms moms can flip like that you just like that mama be she be I'm telling you right now I do because they can talk through clenched teeth and kids understand everything they're saying nobody else says it sounds like to everybody else but to us we know if you straighten up right now praise the Lord brother god bless you so good to see ya you're gonna die it's like mama what about the 10 commandments you know if we're not careful we will live a saved life but not a free life so you need somebody in your life who can help you that's when we have over 600 groups throughout our hope city churches that allow us to meet in groups and learn from one another and then we want you to discover your purpose because we believe that God called you on purpose for a purpose God didn't save you just to take you to heaven if he saved you just to take you to heaven he'd kill you right after he saved you you get saved I gave my life to Jesus dead I'll tell you what right now churches with graveyards right next to them always freak me out just a little bit I'm like what are you guys doing in there I don't know God saves you for a purpose and we want you to discover that purpose and your purpose doesn't always look like my purpose your purpose is different I'm grateful that all of our hope City campuses have amazing worship teams incredible singers amazing musicians they do an incredible job but let me tell you this not all of you are called to sing it's true my mama said I could sing your mama lied you can't say your mama loves you too much to tell you God called you to something different and you need to discover what it is and it's important we have a two-step process called growth track that you can walk through each step and you can discover at all of our campuses on every weekend what your unique god design is we give you a personality test we give you what we call a spiritual gifts test that helps it's just between you and God nothing you share with everybody else but it just helps you discover what your personal calling is your purpose is and then ultimately we believe it is God's sovereign will for you to make a difference in the life of somebody else cuz here's a clue it's not all about you God's called you to change the life of somebody else and if you're not careful you will climb the ladder of success only to discover that you have leaned it against the wrong wall and you will find no fulfillment until you are directly helping somebody else's live at all of our campuses we have thousands of volunteers and we call them the dream team and they are amazing you ought to give them a great big hand they crush it they load in they load out they go on mission trips they serve the homeless they do first Saturday serve we have people up in Kingwood serving and the flooding up in Kingwood we're mucking out houses again helping people up there and helping pastors up there and that's because of your generosity and your kindness and I'm grateful for our team and I would tell you this talk to anybody on our dream team and ask them how has your life changed since you started serving the purpose that God has called you to and they won't tell you my life has become perfect with no problems that's not true they will tell you man my life has become so much more fulfilled what are you not doing that you ought to be doing alright now imma jump through these six questions real quick here's what I want you to do I want you to write them down so if you're not taking notes take ye therefore some notes because you won't be able to remember this and later on you were like God I want to know your will he's gonna be like hey remember those six questions you're gonna like no I don't need something like si should have wrote it down that's in first Colossians it's not true it's not first am i in a right relationship with God am I where I need to be with God am I in the rough or am n the fairway am I in a right relationship with God am i doing my life God's Way or not I'm not doing it the world's way the Bible says in Romans chapter 12 verse 2 do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world what's the pattern of this world do what makes you feel good do what you want to do you deserve it that's the world's way that's not the best way for your life I promise you we've got 50 60 70 year-old people in here who have lived their life that way and they're in that turn right now saying that doesn't work the way of the world doesn't work don't conform any longer to the power of this world but be transformed how by the of your mind what does that mean let god in on the decisions then you'll be able to test everybody say test that's what these six questions are test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will so the first question is simply am I to write your right relationship with God and we're doing it God's Way or my way second question what does the Bible say what is the Word of God say about this and some people would say like the bottle like you talk about the Bible like I don't understand the Bible like I don't read the dust not that I don't know that the Lord I'm God is not a man that he should not lie henceforth fourth with Romeo Romeo wherefore I don't understand it it freaks me out do you know I run into more people who don't open the Word of God because they're afraid they won't understand it and we have never had more easy-to-understand versions of the Bible at our fingertips than we have right now you ought to open the Word of God in your life on a daily basis download the YouVersion Bible it gives you a daily Bible verse you want to read it every day and if that's where you start awesome go for it some people are like well I can't read a chapter a day you don't have to know where in the bible does it say go ye Thoth and read a chapter a day or thou shalt burn it doesn't say that you got to start somewhere just start somewhere here's what the Word of God says psalm 119 I love this your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path honey lamp for my feet and a light to my path showing me where I am and where I'm going think about that think about the Word of God as they light let me ask you a question all campuses how many of you guys have a flashlight right now if you have a flashlight turn it on and hold it up turn it on and hold it up turn on your flashlight hold it up look around lights going up lights going up look at that look at that look at that okay you can turn them off and put it out cuz it'll just get weird think about this question think about this question twelve years ago how many of you guys have a flashlight if you have a flashlight turn it on and hold it up nooo-body you didn't carry a flashlight around you didn't walk up to somebody and go hey man can you shine your over here they're like I don't have a flashlight why didn't you carry your like cuz I'm not a nerd like think about that question just 12 years ago hey can you shine your light over here what are you like 12 years ago like I mean what do you do it was a dumb question but now because of these neat little devices that we have in our hands called a cell phone they added this flashlight feature to it and you use it all the time my wife's like hey can you get something out of my purse dear God I need the flashlight I look into the black hole I can't find anything if there was a toddler hidin in there I couldn't find him but you use a flashlight all the time think about it you get up in the middle of the night you got to go to the kitchen and what happens somebody moved the kitchen like you're running into walls and stuff in your tongue your wife's like what are you doing somebody might catch on you know and now you just it's sitting right there beside your bed right your phone because you're never without it right first thing you do in the morning see if somebody's emailed me see if somebody's Instagram be see if somebody's Facebook me see if somebody's texted me here's what I want to encourage you to do before you go digital go scriptural everyday let the let the word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path and as often as you use that flashlight feature on your phone think about using the Word of God every day in your life oh that's good preaching today number three this is awesome so get ready for it here it is what would Jesus do yeah simple number WWJD not what would Jeremy do what would Jesus do and I'm gonna give you a real simple scripture to filter decisions through this is good for you this helped me it smoked me but it also helped me James chapter 3 verse 14 but if you Harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth bitter in what's bitter envy and selfish ambition bitter Envy is opening up your social media and looking at somebody else's post and liking it but hating them because you wish you had their life better indeed yeah who's that lived the life I wish I had the family they also had the opportunity they just have more opportunity and I guess so eat up with bitter envy that I never even look at what I have and the blessings that I have because I'm looking at what you have and wish that I had what you have and then selfish ambition selfish ambition is hard to decipher but here's selfish ambition I want you to succeed I want you to do well but if it's between you and me it's gonna be me because I'm gonna step on you to get wherever I need to go bitter envy and selfish ambition a lot of us are like that and we don't even look at the truth of that it says such wisdom does not come down from heaven but as earthly unspiritual of the devil tell us how you really feel James for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder and evil on every evil practice I want you to notice this but the wisdom that comes from heaven isn't bitter envy and selfish ambition I got to get mine I got to get there first it's all about me here's what it is it's pure it's peace-loving it's considerate its submissive its full of mercy and good fruit its impartial and sincere think about that think about the decisions that you make are they impartial are they sincere is there good fruit are they considerate of others other than yourself that word consider it means to consider who are you considering in the decisions that you make is it okay if I just preach to you today let me help you understand this I have watched dads and moms make decisions based on their career and not their family I watched families be locked into church doing great in small groups crushing it close to God dad gets a career opportunity somewhere in another city and decides I'm gonna take it I'm gonna follow that doesn't really pray about it because it looks good and it feels good and it is it's a part of his dream but it's not a part of God's dream and he gets the raise and he gets a career jump and he gets the career boost and loses his family because he didn't consider who does this effect other than me we ought to think about that in every decision number four I love this one have I sought godly counsel have us found someone in my life who loves God and loves me and values me more than they value my friendship you got to be careful who you ask people questions from some of us just ask you anybody hey what do you think they don't care about you remember they're envious and have selfish ambition their motives aren't pure that's like the guy who is standing there next to a dog on the sidewalk and another guy comes up and says hey man's your dog bite it's like nope he reaches down here to pet the dog and the dog just latched onto his hand drew boys like dude I thought you said your dog didn't bite he said that ain't my dog that's a dumb joke but there are some people that we're asking questions of who aren't even considering us they're only considering them you got to have somebody who really cares about you all of us have heard this before buh buh I could've told you she was crazy well why didn't you Oh cuz you know man I value our friendship more than a value you so I don't want to lose friendship by telling you the honest truth I want somebody to be honest with me hey can I tell y'all something I love being able to pastor here it is an honor capacitor this church but I don't pastor by myself do you know what I am NOT the BL CL end all authority at our church my word is not gospel I have pastors specifically for pastors who oversee me one of them is my father Mark Foster another one is a pastor in Shreveport Louisiana Pastor Mark Briggs then in Arkansas Pastor Rick Bizet you guys have heard Pastor Rick Dees that before and then my pastor Pastor Chris Hodges I'm grateful for all of them who have authority over my life because I believe if you need a pastor I need a pastor too and it takes for pastor me and as the pastor of this church I don't leave this church by myself we have a Board of Trustees and I am on that board and I am a non-voting member of that board which means I can come in and say guys I think we ought to do this and they could say no and I could say Oh me whenever we went to put a contract on on the on the silos property aren't you guys fired up about the solemn fires me up when we went to put a contract on the silos property that was after months and weeks and hours and days of talking of voting of talking about it and looking at it and getting other people involved we didn't just go make a unilateral decision aren't you go out I don't leave this church by myself well are you or not okay good I'm United to be super glad but you should be glad if you don't want me to lead our church by myself why are you leading your life by yourself nobody's speaking nobody tells me what to do and that's the problem nobody in your life knows you and knows you everybody needs somebody who knows them and knows them KN Oh W and in tho I want somebody who knows me this may tell me now get godly counsel proverbs 11:14 says where no counsel is the people fall but in the multitude of counselors there safety number five do I sense God's peace do i sense God's peace in my life listen I don't want you to just use one of these I want you to use all six of them as you make decisions do I sense God's peace Jennifer and I have a phrase we say this we want to follow peace in every decision if we don't feel peace we back up and we look at it and we talk about it sometimes it takes us a minute to realize we don't feel peace we feel a lot of confusion and the Bible says God is not the author of confusion one of my favorite verses of Scripture is Jeremiah 29 and 11 it says for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future a literal translation says here's what God says I will give you peace so God's plan and peace go together now this is important because I can mess this one up with my feelings and just because I feel good about something doesn't mean that it is good just because it's a good decision doesn't mean it's a god decision do I feel the peace of God about this listen it can look right it can sound right it can feel right take it walk right they can talk right and still not be right and you usually know it's that nagging feeling that I mean everything looks good on paper it just doesn't feel right when you get that back up think pray get godly counsel look at the Word of God talk to somebody about it ask yourself am I in the right relationship and then follow peace and number six if I only had three minutes to preach how to preach this one right here is it my will or is it God's will is it what I want or is it what God wants because often times we are trying to wrap God's will around our will and we're saying Lord if you'll just do this whenever the disciples asked Jesus they said teach us to pray here's what he said when you pray pray this our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven notice it's all about him before it ever gets to me it's your kingdom come it's your will be done it's your hallowed name it's about you God then about me inside of your will the challenge with many of us is we pray me first God second and I would encourage you to flip that is it my will or is it God's will listen I want to tell you this your boy likes law Elvis music okay I do I like it how many guys like Elvis anybody Elvis fans you like like a little bit of Elvis oh hey yeah yeah hey yeah I like Elvis I do but since my baby left me papa I found him okay listen up play some altar music routine thank you actually love Elvis when Elvis died there were about 300 Elvis impersonators in the world now thousands you can't even count them they're like a gang it's got a mental picture it's kind of funny sad Barnsley sorry I could keep going but I'm wrong Elvis had tons of hits sold millions of albums they've calculated that Elvis currently has over a billion fans in the lifetime of his music over a billion fans and he gets new fans every day new people here at almost music and like it you just don't get more successful than Elvis was but yet we find that Elvis wasn't fulfilled Elvis was raised around church and here's what his daughter said in a Reader's Digest article she said Elvis never came to terms with who he was meant to be or what his purpose in life was he thought he was here for a reason maybe to preach maybe to serve maybe to save maybe to care for people and that agonizing desire was always with him and he knew he wasn't fulfilling it so he'd go on stage every night so he didn't have to think about it and that's one of the saddest stories this guy who's I mean think about it everything you could ever want all of the success yet there was this pool that's why he constantly find Elvis going back to the gospel songs going back to those old church songs there was a draw in him a desire in him that was never met as heartbreaking but it doesn't have to be that way because God has placed on the inside of you a desire to do his will and he has a plan for you if you'll just stop following your own plan and your own will and your own desire I promise you God will fulfill you in a way that the world never can and the peace of God that passes understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus but at some point you got to say all right god I yield my life to your will and when you do it'll blow your mind how God uses you to do something amazing many years ago there was a revival service and there were two teenage boys who that revival service and the problem was these two guys are kind of unruly one of them had been kicked out a youth group not long before for causing problems they were disruptive they just weren't your typical Church kids they came to this revival service and when they when they came to the reserve ival service the ushers met them at the door and they said there's there's no more room in the service was slammed full not like our services are no more room in this service and one uh sure says hey guys I think I could find you a seat if you're willing to sit up close to the front I got it I think I got a spot I could put some chairs if you're willing to do that said yes sir so he took this uh sure awesome guy just takes him down there and sits him down get some seated in their spot so you guys okay see you sir okay and that night these two boys unruly a little bit rebellious not the guys you'd think of to be in church both of them gave their lives to Jesus that night one of his name was Grady Wilson the other one's name was Billy Graham and the whole world knows who he is because God so powerfully used this man that we've seen millions of people's lives changed through life one guy one teenage boy who gave his life to Jesus here's what I want you to know I don't know if you're gonna be the next Billy Graham or if you're gonna be the usher who finds a seat for the next Billy Graham what I do know is that nobody in here is without a purpose God has called you for a reason on purpose for a purpose and he wants to make a difference through you if you'll just say yes lord I thank you for each and every person under the sound of my voice I pray that you would strengthen our hearts strengthen our minds help us in this moment to open our hearts to your call to your plan to your will to your desires for just a moment I want to tell you this here's what the Bible says the Bible says all of us are born in sin and shapen in iniquity that means broken promises like you want to do well and you mess up all of us can relate to that like I'm gonna do better and then you don't I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna live right and then you don't all of us are born that way Bible says the wages of sin is death somebody's got to pay for our sins and God knew that so he sent his son Jesus to do that very thing to die on a cross to stay in a tomb for three days and to rise again to pay for salvation for all of humanity and all you've got to do Bible says you believe in your heart you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised him from the dead you will be saved listen to me his word says when you acknowledge him he will acknowledge you and there's somebody under the sound of my voice at one of our campuses watching online listen on a podcast here in the room you know you haven't placed Christ in the priority place at the center of your life you know that first question am I in a right relationship with God you know that answer is no but you want to make it yes this weekend here's what the word says when you acknowledge him he will acknowledge you so I'm gonna give you an opportunity I'm gonna count to three and when I get to three if you want to say I want to put my life in the hands of Jesus I want to put Jesus at the center of my life the Bible says when you acknowledge him he will acknowledge you so I want you to do that if you don't mind just bow your heads for just a moment so it's just between you and God 1 2 3 bang just put your hand up hands all over the room thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you can we all pray this prayer together voices lifted Jesus you're the only one who can save me so in this moment right now I'm asking you to save me forgive me of my sins I believe you're the son of God and you rose from the grave to give me eternal life so in this moment I'm making you the center of my life and I'm asking you Jesus to be my lord in Jesus name Amen come on let's give him an ovation of worship god you're good

Channel: Hope City

Views: 19,487

Rating: 4.9171596 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Houston, Hope City, Hope, Christianity, Jesus

Id: TQoPU5ytfyU

Length: 45min 29sec (2729 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2019