How God Answers Prayer | Pastor Jeremy Foster

welcome to hope city uh i feel i feel great today i feel like god is up to something and uh i believe that i have a word for you on this weekend i believe god's gonna do something great and do something powerful in our lives and we're gonna answer we're going to answer a burning question today but first i want to start with a statement i believe there's power in prayer i believe when we pray something happens how many of you believe there's power in prayer you believe there's power believe there's power in prayer how many of you believe that god answers when we pray god answers when we pray and you know everybody prays everybody prays even atheists pray i've been on a plane before and that plane started hitting a bunch of bumps they were no atheist on that plane everybody's like if anybody hey anybody help me you all pray and we believe and if you're in church you probably believe that god answers prayer now here's another question i want you to think about it and raise your hand if you believe it how many of you believe that god always answers prayer some of you are like i don't that might have been a trick question i really don't know because there have been some times that i prayed i don't think he had anything he heard me so in order to answer that question let's go to the word of god jeremiah chapter 33 33 verse 3 says call to me and i will answer you somebody say he will come on shout he will all right so this is a promise from god call to me and i will answer you and show you great and mighty things fenced in and hidden which you do not know do not distinguish and recognize have knowledge of and understand so today we're going to unpack this idea that god always answers your prayer turn to your neighbor and say always some of y'all didn't say it because you don't believe it but by the end of this persuasive speech today i believe that you will believe that god always answers your prayer because he cannot lie and according to his word when you call to him he will answer your prayer and do you know can i just tell you right now we need prayer more than we've ever needed prayer right now today we need prayer more than we've ever needed prayer i'm not even in my notes right now is it okay if i just kind of go off on a little tangent right now okay let me believers now if you're not a believer in jesus or you're not a christian or whatever this may not apply to you just stay with me just hang out just chill we're good i'm glad you're here christians please stop saying we should be better than this our world should be better than this should we we should have gotten better by now really world's not christian news flash america's not either hashtag america man simmer down chief i'm kingdom before i'm anything we haven't gotten better humanity hasn't gotten better right i'm not wrong i'm right humanity has not gotten better but we're more technologically advanced exactly we're more technologically advanced we haven't gotten better we found new ways to sin we found more advanced technological ways to sin we haven't gotten better so don't let it shock you when the world does crazy stuff and when wild stuff happens the only answer we have is consistent submission to a holy god pray and then do what god has called you to do how do we do that love one another show up for each other i can i wish i could fix everything i wish i could i wish i could make statements on everything i can't i looked at it this week i looked at everything that i need to make a statement on this week there's hundreds of things three thousand children die a day without clean water a day every day you don't have clean water there are so many things racial division in our country we should be better than that should we not without jesus it's not going to happen we have to consistently kneel to the throne of the king of our kingdom i am a citizen of a country but can i tell you i am also a citizen of a kingdom and his rules apply more than anything else and i've got to show the fruit of the spirit in everything that i do so i'm begging you church this week show some love to somebody show some empathy to somebody listen to somebody without talking i'm preaching good on a sunday i'm preaching good right now i'm telling you the answer to this world's problems is the love and the mercy and the grace of a holy god but can't we do more than that yes we can but it begins with prayer and when i pray and when i talk to god then the fruit of the spirit shows up in my life i can't have the fruit if i don't have the root and the root is prayer and a divine connection prayer is humanity's connection with deity out of which the love and the joy and the peace and the patience and the goodness and the gentleness and the kindness and the faithfulness and the self-control comes wouldn't it be great if we all had all of that think about that how good would that be just on instagram oh i'm all up in your cornbread today think about that love and joy and peace and patience and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control you're dismissed god bless you have a great week all of that comes out of a relationship with god so can i tell you this week instead of getting angry and frustrated and there are plenty of things to get angry and frustrated about let's go to the heart of god and then less outpour love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control and then we can change the world not just for causes or issues but for christ and we can bring his kingdom on earth god let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven on earth as it is in heaven there's power when we pray and we know this it's all throughout the scripture paul and silas get thrown in prison for preaching you ever got in trouble for doing the right thing like it's one thing to get in trouble for doing the wrong thing right you get pulled over you're going 12 miles over the speed limit and the officer asks you a rhetorical question he says you know why i pulled you over and some of y'all lie you're like i have no idea you know your cruise was set on 72. you know it was because you said it on 72. and now most of y'all you're like hey you got me bro i know i i was being i'm sorry have mercy on my soul you know can you do something where won't go on my insurance where is y'all out you ain't gonna take a class is there anything to do man some of y'all already taken all the classes you can take i know y'all but but when you're not doing anything wrong like they're preaching the power of jesus they're being faithful and they get thrown in prison for doing the right thing now if anybody had a reason to complain be aggravated upset angry mad paul and silas did because now they're in by the way they were beaten before they were put in chains so they're beaten and thrown into prison now if anybody had a reason to go god why this is so dumb be angry they had a reason they get in prison but that's not how the story goes paul looks at silas is going to say i got an idea silence goes we need something this is bad they're going to kill us paul goes we should sing solace goes another idea anything else in there but they begin to sing they begin to praise they begin to worship they begin to pray and as they begin to magnify the lord and exalt his name together the foundation of the prison begins to shake and all of a sudden an earthquake happens in that one spot and all the prison doors come open and all the prisoners are set free but none of them leave the jailer's getting ready to kill himself because he's afraid that he's failed and paul looks at him says hey bro don't kill yourself we are all here he says what must i do to be saved he says believe on the lord jesus christ the jailer is saved all his family is saved it's a crazy powerful moment that all happened because they didn't complain because they pray there's something powerful that happens when we pray turn to your neighbor say it's powerful now now that's the that's the gospel side of it that's the bible side of it but there's also been scientific studies done on prayer dr randolph byrd a cardiologist at san francisco general hospital did a randomized double blind study on 393 patients in which the patients nor the doctors or the nurses knew which group of the patients were being prayed for and which were not so they prayed for them for a period of days and at the end of those days they checked on the status of all of the patients and the results astounded the scientific community here's why because because the men and women who were prayed for needed fewer drugs spent less time on ventilators and overall fared better than those who weren't prayed for we don't always understand it but here's what we know there is power in prayer turning in every say there's power and prayer so here's my question why is it that god doesn't always answer the prayer the way i want him to answer the prayer because pastor while ago you said he always answers prayer and i know for a fact he don't because i prayed god gave me a promotion and now i'm praying for a new job some of y'all you prayed for your relationship and and you're on your ninth marriage but hey if you own your ninth marriage there's a common denominator that is funny right there my grandmother was married nine times god rest her soul and all nine of my grandpas god bless them all i don't even know some of those dudes they came and went so fast my lineage just goes my family tree's all over the place that maybe you pray that god that god would heal someone and they passed how do you how do you reconcile that well the scripture that i go to most when i'm talking to somebody about this is isaiah 55 and verse 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the lord as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts sometimes god has already answered and we just don't see it sometimes he does it in a different way and we don't always understand it sometimes i say god i need provision and he gives me a promise sometimes i say god i need a way out and he and he gives me a word sometimes i say god i need substance and he gives me a seed he doesn't always answer the way that we want him to but that doesn't mean that he hasn't answered the problem is when he doesn't answer the way that we want him to answer we get frustrated about it he ever got mad at god because you gave him choices and he didn't choose one of your choices how many are good test takers raise your hand if you're a good test taker oh and you're proud of it too or you're like yeah i'm pretty good pretty good now where's the rest of y'all at where's my people at you're just not good at it come on i see you so welcome to hopes welcome home those other people some of y'all like okay i'm gonna sit next to you up and take notes off of you today oh you wrote that down you know what he said but i guess it was good because you what scripture was it i cause i don't know i don't even know isaiah is in the bible huh i see y'all some of y'all even taken up she's like hey can you text me all that i see you back in the day take a test like whenever you would go take a test like if if it was if it was multiple choice like you had a chance right like if it's multiple choice i got a one in four chance of maybe possibly perhaps getting the answer right if this fill in the blank i'm just dumb i got nothing like i'm just going to i got nothing unless you have a gospel teacher and you just put jesus in all the blanks be like because he is the answer to every question and just hopes you're like oh that boy is he's dumb as a rock but what that's good i'll give you an a the challenge with some of us is is we we look at god and we don't want fill in the blank test and god's tests are always filling the blame we want multiple choice and we're the one who give him the choices god you can answer it a b or c god's like d none of the above because he doesn't always do it the way that we want him to do it so how should we pray it's a good question the disciples actually asked that question of jesus lord teach us to pray it's a great question they could have asked any question lord if it was me i probably wouldn't ask that question because i'm not that smart i just said something like lord teaches thou me to walk on water because i mean come on that would be awesome right any party you're ever at like hey man can you go give me something yeah you just walk across the pool like oh you gotta invite the earth lord teach me therefore how to turn water into wine because they never a party you won't be invited to right you're the one rolling up with dasani you know what i mean they're like bro you brought this on his buddy's like oh no watch this bro i'm sorry that's too much lord teach me to turn it into cult 45 all right okay that's it's enough guys come on come on we're in church don't don't do that don't if this is your first time i'm the real pastor guys i uh this is as good as it gets matthew chapter six here's jesus's answer to teach us to pray matthew chapter six verse nine he says this he says when you pray say this now i want you to i wanna i want you to watch this we're kind of gonna walk through this prayer now here's what i believe i believe the lord's prayer is a recitation it's something you should learn how to recite but only not because you should pray that prayer but only because it teaches you how to pray it actually shows you sections of prayer the lord's prayer shows you how to pray in blocks it's really really powerful the first block starts with worshiping god watch this our father in heaven hallowed be your name so your first two or three minutes in prayer ought to be just god i love you i worship you i lift you here's a good way to pray if you don't know how to pray you're like i don't know how to pray like i want to pray a long time but i can't pray a long time and and truthfully a lot of us go through that when i say us me i'm add okay i'm like the lord oh look at that over there so one of the ways that i use it i used to teach young people to do this and i still do this every now and then i don't always get all the way through it but use adjectives go through the go through the abcs and use adjectives to describe god god god you are awesome god you are bold you are brave you are cat-like i don't know i don't know i don't know guys come on come on our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven the first two verses of the lord's prayer are all about him yielding to him you're in authority it's your will whatever you want to do then it's give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors do not lead us into nation but deliver us from the evil one and notice how it ends it's bookended with submission for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen prayer is not a wish list it's about submitting my will to your will so that you get the glory oh god but i wonder how many of our prayers read like this lord i need you to do this please and thank you when if you really want to pray and you want to pray powerful prayers bookend whatever your request is with god i worship you god i lift you god i magnify you here's what i need god i give you glory it's all about your will it's all about your way and let's bookend it with submission and when you do this god will usually answer in one of four ways god always answers prayer turn to your neighbor say always answer his prayer okay first if the request is wrong god will say no wait what we don't like the word no unless we're saying it but we're good at it right why do you think the kids oftentimes their first words are dad that mama and usually no why because they hear it so much we like to say it so much we don't just say it once we say it twice no no nobody says yes yes you say no no to your dog you say no no to your kids y'all say no no to your husband you do know that sometimes you get wild no no no no no and you wonder why a kid looks at you says no we're never saying no to me why because we like to say no we just don't like it when no is said to us but the truth is sometimes we have wrong requests sometimes we're overzealous in our request for god and we want to bend god's will to our way this happened in the scripture the disciples made wrong requests of jesus jesus brings peter james and john to the mountain of transfiguration it's a powerful moment moses and elijah appear it's amazing and this is simon peter's response matthew chapter 17 verse 4 then peter answered and said to jesus lord it is good for us to be here like it's powerful moment moses and elijah shows up jesus face shines this wild and he says if you wish let us make here three tabernacles one for you one for moses one for elijah it's such a good idea what do you think jesus jesus doesn't even say anything he just turns around and walks down the mountain some people's like ah okay all right why why would jesus not honor that request it sounds like a really good idea right let's honor this moment let's build a monument let's build a tabernacle for you for moses for elijah but jesus had bigger things to do and he knew that i think about the time and construction nowadays back then it was multiple years longer than it takes us now to build tabernacles jesus death burial and resurrections already happen simon peter should be preaching on the day of pentecost but he's up on a mountain building a tabernacle that doesn't even matter so it was a good idea but it wasn't a god idea i wonder how many of us are trying to twist god's arm on a good idea that's not a god idea and if you're not careful you'll be up on a mountain building something good that god's already walked down the mountain and doing something different so let's follow god when he says no and accept it and be okay with it oh i'm preaching good on a sunday right now sometimes sometimes your requests are selfish how many of y'all have ever prayed a selfish prayer some of you are lying right now you're not raising your hand you're like yeah we pray selfish prayers oh god if lord i need you to do this and when you pray that it like hurts a bunch of other people can i ask you a question if god answered all of your prayers would anybody other than you be blessed oh one thing is on fire today listen to this and we're not the only ones this is this this is awesome james and john come to jesus mark chapter 10 verse 35. now listen i i love to like just creatively interpret the scripture here so think about this then james and john the sons of zebedee came over to jesus and they spoke to him they said teacher we want you to do us a favor and jesus says what is your request can you imagine how much patience he had to have can you imagine being the answer and having to listen to dumb questions all day long they replied it's not a big deal lord but when when you sit on your glorious throne we just want to sit in places of honor next to you one of us on your right the other one on your left we're not asking for much but just don't elevate anybody else other than us now we don't want to be as high as you we just want to be right below you just a little bit and jesus says to them you you don't even know what you're asking which should have been enough but then he goes on and says are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering that i'm about to drink are you able to be baptized with a baptism of suffering that i must be baptized with it's not like he's not been very truthful with him he's been telling him i'm gonna die it's gonna be hard it's gonna be treacherous it's not an earthly kingdom it's a kingdom in your heart he's telling all this stuff and then he uses the word suffering twice and here's their answer oh yes we are able the book of matthew says they even sent their mom to jesus jesus my boys are real good boys they'd be perfect on the left and on the right they look real good up there with you it's just it's a really bad request and it was not honored in fact they actually just drank of the cup of suffering and both of them died hard deaths but they died giving glory to god sometimes the request is just wrong sometimes it's crazy look in the book of luke chapter nine this is this is insane so jesus goes through samaria on his way to jerusalem um israelites and sumerians didn't really samaritans didn't really like each other and so the samaritans got mad that jesus was going to jerusalem verse 53 says but the people of the village did not welcome jesus because he was on his way to jerusalem and when james and john saw this they said to jesus lord should we just call down fire and burn them up lord you want to make us some holy s'mores out of these folks and jesus rebukes them what is wrong with you aren't you glad god doesn't answer all of your prayers can you imagine if you had the ability to call down fire from heaven there'd be cars burning all over i-10 right now a person driving in the fast lane who should never be in the fast lane you'd be like right now i use my car on fire bless you come to hope city i mean it's very clear the book of garth brooks chapter one verse 3 some of god's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers some of you like garth brooks then after the book of acts let's google it it's a really good book if the request is wrong god will say no number two if the timing is wrong god will say whoa just just whoa we don't like woe sometimes i'd rather know than woe just tell me no don't tell me wait none of us like to wait you're not born with patience it's cultivated you ever got mad at a fast food restaurant because they weren't fast you ever needed y'all i and listen the one that's you can get least angry at is chick-fil-a you get at least angry at chick-fil-a unless you try to go on a sunday you ever tried to go on a sunday you get mad at them because they honor god you know what i mean but i was at chick-fil-a the other day and the lady was super sweet she was like my pleasure my pleasure my pleasure can you pull up right over there and what i was like why y'all are chick-fil-a i'm a pastor this is not the will of god i don't want to wait on a chicken sandwich but i didn't say that i was like sure okay we don't like we don't like to wait but the truth is sometimes the timing is wrong and the challenge with some of us is we've been forcing our way into places that aren't even ready for us and that we're not ready for it just wait remember a few years ago i was on a plane i remember where i was going i was going to preach a conference or something and i remember the pilot coming on he was like ladies and gentlemen please put your seat backs and tray tables in there upright in lock position the flight attendants are gonna get the cabin ready for landing we'll be on the ground at about 10 minutes and 10 minutes came and went and 15 minutes came and went 20 minutes came and went we were not on the ground it was like bruh i got some places to be i got to preach my man put us on the ground and then he came on he was like ladies and gentlemen if you look out your right side window you'll see a storm off to the right and that is right over the airport and so it's not safe for us to land right now hey i'm good with that bro i am so good to wait right because i'd rather be jeremy foster late then the late jeremy foster come on that's dumb it's done but thank you thank you i'll be here all week some of us are trying to force our way into a place that's not ready for us and if you force your way into place that's not ready for you it can destroy your destiny be okay with whoa turn to your neighbor and say whoa it's okay to get a woe just wait when jesus after the death of barrel and the resurrection we're actually in the period of waiting right now that the disciples were in death the burial and the resurrection had happened the ascension had happened jesus had gone up in heaven he's amazing and he said go and perry in jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high it's an amazing promise i'm going to send the holy spirit he said i'm going to send the comforter go and wait 500 people are there and jesus says sins oh like here he goes it's an amazing moment and a few days later when the holy spirit comes there's only 120 left there were 500 that watched him ascend can you imagine that dude just goes up into heaven that's awesome go wait in jerusalem i'm gonna do it we'll go away and they can't wait and they miss out on this promise and only 120 get the promise i wonder how many of us would have actually waited on the promise and you know what they did while they waited they prayed they had a prayer meeting so when god tells you to woe just keep praying just keep trusting just keep believing in him because you didn't get a no just keep just keep praying so when god the timing is wrong god will say whoa number three if you are wrong god will say grow how many y'all know you're wrong a lot raise your hand no you're wrong a lot especially if you're married husbands y'all know how raise your hand if you know you're wrong some guys have been married for a while and he'll raise their hand they just know baby i see that hands up the younger guys are like i don't know about that that couch is cold bro don't pick a fight where they ate one baby i'm wrong i know i'm wrong most of the time i'm wrong and you're right when i say most of the time i mean all the time that's right we don't like to be we don't like to be wrong though right i don't like for anybody tell me hey you're wrong you need to grow that's why it's why that veterinarian was also a taxidermist he had a sign over his door said either way you get your dog back i'm kidding don't write that down don't tell that joke does that's dumb we don't we don't like to grow we don't like we don't like to be told you're wrong can i tell you all this most of the time i have no idea what i'm doing nervous laughter from the saints i mean i'll lead a large church one of the fastest growing churches in american history is hope city and and man i'm i'm hey man no no don't clap cause i'm only a six-year-old senior pastor i'm like a big-headed toddler y'all you ever seen those toddlers whose heads are too big they just that's hope city right there like i don't know so you know what i need i need a lot of people coaching me i need a lot of people telling me hey hey oh don't do that go over here yes sir i do that i have a lot of people in my life who help me do the things that we do hey they helped me grow i have incredible in our last service i had our trustees we're sitting in here i'm so grateful for our trustees two of our trustees were in here todd brock and tim wilkins sitting here and i'm grateful for those guys todd and his personality's a little bit more alike or we're just like ah let's go tim is an engineer he's standing there we're like tim where are you at he's like i'm taking notes because nobody wrote that down tim keeps the minutes for the meetings we we have minutes it's so cool you realize our cfo her name is trish bailey she's amazing she's brilliant with money aren't you grateful that we have a brilliant money person and you know what she has the power to do she has the power to say no she says it all the time to everybody on staff and she giggles sometimes when she says it she says no i'm playing she doesn't love you trish i won't point you out you know you know even when people come in and they're like hey pastor said we need to spend this she goes no well pastor said well pastor knows the process and if it hasn't gone through the process it's a no isn't that awesome that i'm not the only one in charge and if you celebrate that you have a pastor who doesn't lead by himself why are you trying to lead your life by yourself and get mad when god says hey grow hey you need somebody to help you with your marriage you need somebody to help you with your finances you need somebody to help you with your life this is why we want you to be in a group why because you need somebody who can look at you and go hey man you need to grow the problem is sometimes we label helpers as haters because we don't want anybody to tell us what to do and tell us how to grow but you need somebody to teach you oh man i'm preaching good honest sonny james 5 and 16 says confess your faults to jesus and pray to jesus that jesus can heal you because the effectual prayer to jesus that's not what it says it says confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effectual fervent look at this right there on the screen the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much confess your faults to who why because they can help you grow because when i confess my thoughts only to jesus but never to anybody else who's keeping me accountable i need somebody look at me go hey bro this is the tenth time you've told me about that failure in your life let's work on that let's work through let's work through some things let's help get you some coaching i don't know what i'm doing y'all have you ever heard of imposter syndrome some of you never heard of imposter syndrome imposter syndrome happens to all of us and it usually happens when you reach or achieve some measure of success and you have this moment we've all had it or most of us have had it if you've achieved no success in your life you might have never had actually you have this probably a lot and here's imposter syndrome if anybody knew who i really am if anybody knew that i have no idea what i'm talking about they'd be blown away and you feel like i shouldn't be here anybody ever felt that i shouldn't be here i had two psychologists come up to me at the end of last service and say thank you so much for saying that because people deal with it all the time and these are two doctors and they looked at me and said we deal with it all the time i was like oh thank god because in this circle right now that we're talking i'm the dumbest one in the circle phd phd idiot you know phd phd add right i mean come on i got an adhd that's what i got hello i didn't have to go to school to get it i was born with the gift sometimes it's good to say i don't know what i'm doing i need somebody to help me grow because i want to do what god has called me to do and if it takes somebody helping me then i want to why do you think we have a growth track because we want you to grow it says it in there we put a th on the end grow we want you to grow go through growth track what is growth track you can do it online for our online family or you can do it in person at any of our locations it's a two-step process where you begin to discover your purpose because god created you on purpose with a purpose do you know why so many people lose their way because they lost their why when you find your why you find your way and you begin to grow into the things that god has called you to grow into so let's recap if the request is wrong god will say no if the timing is wrong god will say whoa if you are wrong god will say grow and when everything is right god will say let's go turn to your neighbor and say let's go let's go turn to somebody else say let's go don't you like it when god says let's go let's go and more often than not god's saying let's go when i aligned my will with his will he said come on let's let's go it's usually right after he says let's go he usually says he really just sends you out on you let's go god's got a good plan for you i love this verse jeremiah 29 and 11 says for i know the thoughts that i think towards you says the lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and hope god has good plans for you but can i tell you this now buckle your seatbelt cause you need to hear this but it might freak you out a little bit you will probably never know the perfect will of god for everything in your life you're welcome it's something you'll be like god i just want to know your perfect will and you just give me your will and i'll just go on and do it and that's not how it works can i tell you this god wants you to know him more than he wants you to know his will and sometimes we want to know his will more than we want to know him i've never seen somebody miss the will of god who was consistently seeking it get as close to god as you can and then do what he places in your heart because you won't always know his plans jeremiah 29 and 11 some of our favorite verse i love it for i know the plans that i have for you i know the thoughts that i think but i want you to read it he says i know the thoughts i know the plans not always you in fact rarely you you just got to get close to him and follow and stay close to him because if he told you everything some of you wouldn't pay the price that it takes to get to where he's calling you to go you'd settle for discount rack dreams god is there a goodwill version can i get a secondhand dream could i get a secondhand vision because i don't want to go through all that but if i'll stay close to him god will do amazing he'll say let's go let's go okay pastor that's great but how do like you said he always answers and i still have prayers and i don't think he's answered he always answers he said call to me and i will answer you so how do i know he'll answer it it's found right here in philippians 4. okay so if you don't get anything else get this philippians 4 6 says don't worry about anything that's a mouthful right there instead pray about everything now i did research on this word in the greek this word everything i did exegetical hermeneutical research on this and it literally means everything it took me a long time what do you mean pray about everything everything pray about everything and you're going and you're coming pray about everything you you ever been around one of those old saints who prays about everything oh lord just help us to have a good day oh lord we thank you jesus my mom's like that oh you should annoy me to death oh lord i love you oh god i praise this all our goodness oh god help us right now oh lord help us to get a good server at the restaurant oh lord help us to witness to somebody today oh god give us an opportunity talk a hot oh god i'm like why my mother prays over parking places pulling to walmart oh god give us a good parking lot six people back out people aren't even ready to leave like martha we hadn't even paid for this we're shoplifting i don't know randy we gotta go pray about everything tell god what you need and then thank him for what he's done what does this mean this means don't worry about anything okay god i'ma worship you i'm gonna give it to you here's what i need god i'm trusting you with this and i'm just gonna thank you for everything you've done i'm just gonna bless your name i'm gonna magnify you god i'm gonna exalt you i'm gonna lift you and i'm gonna live for your glory and if you never do another thing for me you put breath in my body you saved me you gave me righteousness when i didn't deserve it he gave me grace when i didn't deserve it he gave me mercy when i didn't deserve it's hard to be mad angry upset and worried when you're worshiping god now listen here here's what i want you to understand here's the kicker if you do this verse seven if you do this do what don't worry about anything pray about everything tell god what you need thank you for all he's done here's the kicker if you do this you will everybody say i will you will experience god's peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in christ jesus king james version says it is the peace that passes understanding so here's what i need you to understand sometimes more often than not the answer is peace he's already answered your prayer he's just given you peace in the midst of the storm sometimes he doesn't deliver you out of the storm he climbs into the boat with you and rides out the storm with you it's old saying sometimes he sometimes he calms the storm sometimes he just calms his child this is how you can look at people in your life who are believers who love jesus and you see them go through a tumultuous time going through all kind of things and and they have a smile on their face and they're somehow okay and you say how are you okay and they say i don't know i shouldn't be okay but i've given it to god and god has given me his glorious peace it'll guard your heart and your mind as you live in christ jesus and here's the problem though we don't always want peace we want understanding and we constantly fight for understanding and we get frustrated we say things like i don't understand it why this why now why here why me this is the best way i can explain it to you picture it like a nascar track and there's two cars on the track one of them's called peace and one is called understanding and as much as you cheer for understanding peace passes understanding and peace gets to the finish line first this means understanding may never cross the finish line i may never understand it and so if all i'm doing is putting all my money on that understanding car and i better understand it i better know why i better know when i better know how then i'll never celebrate but if i put all of my money on the peace card okay i'm just gonna trust the i'm at the finish line i don't understand i understand it's way back there but i'm celebrating because i have the peace of god that guards my heart and my mind as i live in christ jesus so my prayer for you is not that you would understand everything or that you'd have all the answers that you want my prayer for you is that you would have the peace of god that will guard your heart and your mind in christ jesus amen that's what we want that's what we need and that's my prayer for you today i'm gonna pray for you and then our campus pastors are gonna come and they're gonna close out this moment lord i thank you for each and every person under the sound of my voice i pray that right now in this moment god you would give us peace that passes understanding help us lord to take a deep breath and stop trying to figure it all out because there are some things that we just won't understand but we'll give it to you we'll put it in your hands and we will let the peace of god guard our hearts and our minds as we live in christ jesus and when we have your peace god i feel your peace permeating this atmosphere right now god breathe on us lord and when we have your peace then we can worship you then we can glorify you then we can lift you up then we can say god it doesn't matter what happens i just trust you even when i can't track you i can't doubt you because i know too much about you so i'm gonna give you glory i'm gonna give you praise and i'm gonna give you honor in jesus name come on let's lift up the king of kings and the lord of lords on this weekend god bless

Channel: Hope City

Views: 27,372

Rating: 4.9370904 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, houston church, houston pastor, praying powerful prayers, how god answers prayers, does god answer prayers, praying to god, does god hear me, does god listen, hearing god's voice, voice of god, holy spirit, voice of the holy spirit, how to pray, praying bold prayers, asking god, what should I pray, how do I pray, is god listening to me, steps for prayer, easy prayer, talk to god

Id: Q2KBhRNxEXc

Length: 43min 17sec (2597 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021