It's Got No Hold | Pastor Brad Straarup | Hope City

i'm grateful for this guy that i'm going to bring to you this weekend if you haven't heard him i've already heard this message once and you need to hear this message it it it shook me today it's a powerful powerful word from god and if you're tuned in you're tuned in for a reason and uh this guy can not only preach the paint off the walls he's a phenomenal leader and uh all of the behind the scenes stuff goes through his hands he is our deputy chief of staff that is his title which is the most awesome title ever i mean if you have to have a title i'm deputy chief of staff does that mean you have a gun i might um i don't know but uh brad sharp came in as our student pastor and quickly just did yeah many of you guys know brad he's phenomenal and uh he has a heartbeat for the kingdom he loves jesus deeply he loves his wife deeply he loves people deeply so right now would you give him a warm hope city welcome brad straub i love you come preach bro [Applause] [Music] come on hope city why don't we just take a moment and give jesus a shout that only he is worthy of come on he is worthy of all the glory he's worthy of all the honor he is worthy of all the adoration y'all i'm so excited to be able to be with you guys here today and you can go ahead and take your seats but before you do i need you to find yourself a neighbor and say this it's about to go down it's about to go down it's about to go down before we jump into that i just want to take a moment and thank two incredible people and that's how pastors posted jeremy and jennifer aren't y'all grateful for our pastors you know one of the things i've learned about them is not only do they preach the word they live the word and there's so many times over the last couple of years my wife and i have gone through some of our best moments but also some of our most challenging moments and through that all they've been with us they've been challenging us they're challenging us to love jesus and challenging us to fast and challenging us to pray and challenging us to do things that we don't even want to do you know just a whole bunch of things in fact the other day process jeremy challenged me and he was like hey bro i think you need to work out and i was like i don't know what you mean by that statement he was like you need you need to work out and i said okay fine i was like we'll work out and he said okay cool he said uh come to my house and i went there and then he said here's what we're gonna do we're gonna start with seven minutes of cal aesthetics and i was like i don't know what kind of food that is but i'm down he said it wasn't a food it's a body weight workouts and i said okay that's fine you know i'm 190 pounds this is gonna be easy and then he insulted me and he said hey bro just go at your own pace what do you mean i'm not gonna go to my place i'm gonna go at your place if i'm working out with my boss i'm gonna go at their pace and then i realized that that was a really bad idea because i thought i got this and then i very quickly realized i i don't got this because about three minutes in i could taste the blood on my throat and i was like oh dear lord like what i'm like we're only three minutes in and after that there was so much more to do y'all you know it's bad with the next day i'm trying to wash my hair in the shower and i cannot bring my hand up and i have to do one if y'all ever have to you're like what do i what i have to do to try and get my hand up so he challenges me in places that i didn't want to be challenged but were incredibly grateful for them hey for those of you who don't know me like wasn't jeremy said my name is brad and i get the honor and privilege serving here at hope city along with my wife paige and here's the thing we have an incredible family i have two beautiful kids i try to bring them into kids ministry but for some reason they didn't let me check them in so i brought a picture instead this is my family it's my wife paige that is me believe it or not i got into a fight with some bleach and it won um but on the left i have my golden doodle named sushi and on the right i have my burner doodle named saki and we are those weird people that you know name our dogs after raw fish and rice which is probably more than you ever wanted to know about me but the reason i show you that picture is because the statistic says you'll like me if i show it so that's what i'm i'm trying to trying to do real quick are you all ready for the word if you're i want you to take out your notebooks and your bibles i've been wrestling with god this week about the word that you would have me bring you know every time that you preach you want to make sure you're able to come and you want to be inspiring and insightful and hopeful and all of that that good stuff and as i was praying i felt like god said to me brad this week what i need us to do is we need to do some heart surgery i was like okay he said i think we need to do some heart surgery a couple of years ago my dad was cycling and while he was cycling he started realizing that he wasn't quite performing the way that he felt like he needed to perform he felt sluggish he felt slow he felt like something was holding him back and he went to go visit a doctor and what the doctor said to him is you have a condition and it's called atrial fibrillation which means that your heart is beating out of rhythm and because it's beating out of rhythm you're you're not getting the power that you need you're not getting the oxygen that you need and we're going to have to do a form of heart surgery and how many of you know when you're getting heart surgery done it needs to be slow it needs to be steady it needs to be precise and sometimes coming out of it it can be painful but here's what i can say my dad coming out of that is now in the best condition of his life he is freer than he's ever been and the condition that once held him back is not holding him back anymore and i felt god say that's a prophetic picture for what i want to be able to do today because there's some people that have walked in this place and you're feeling sluggish you're feeling slow you're feeling like things are taking you out you feel like things are holding you back and god is saying we're gonna do heart surgery today and the things that are holding you back will not hold you back any more i'm on assignment here today to talk to anyone who's stuck anyone who feels like you can't do the things that god has called you to do because something is holding you back and i believe that we're going to step into hebrews 12 which says this therefore since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let's throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let's run the race set before us fixing our eyes on jesus the founder and the perfecter of our faith y'all i'm getting free today i'm getting free today let's throw off everything that hinders i wonder what's hindering you i wonder what's holding you back maybe it's that desire to be wanted liked accepted popular to be accepted by your co-workers or your family or your friends and you put on a mosque because you think that's the version of yourself that you need to be only to find that once you get the popularity you think you so desire you not have to keep that mask to keep it up maybe it's not that maybe it's an addiction that you had in your life and you want to be able to move forward and you want to be able to lead and you want to be able to lead your family and you want to be able to lead in the things of god but every time you do the enemy reminds you of the thing that you've been trying to get free from all this time but you can't maybe it's not an addiction maybe god has been calling you to be generous to live a generous life but every time that you do you're so obsessed with the american dream we have this heart issue and we're so concerned about profit that we put profit before god what's hindering you today i don't know if it's fear i don't know if it's lust i don't know if it's anxiety i don't know if it's the desire to be certain about everything but today i want to talk about that thing about that thing whatever that thing is i want to talk about that thing i want to talk about that thing that is holding you back that thing that has you bound that thing that steals you focus that thing that is destroying your marriage that thing that is stopping you from stepping into god's best that thing that you're trying to get rid of only to find that that thing has a hold on you that thing that makes you try and act in a specific way to make you feel a specific way only to find that once you get the feeling that you thought you desired it was nothing at all and it did not satisfy what's that thing because i want you to understand something that there is a god and he has a plan that he has for your life and there is a race that you need to run but the third thing you need to understand is this there is an enemy there is an enemy and he is out to get you he is out to give you hot issues he's out to get you bound he's out to get you broken and here's the challenge he's good at it he's good at it and i can tell you i have felt it this week i have felt it over the past couple of months there are certain things in my life that the enemy has been trying to use to keep me back there are certain things in my life that the enemy has been trying to use to take a foothold in my life but i'm saying now and i'm declaring this over your life no matter what it is that is hindering you no matter what it is that has you bound no matter what it is the insecurity the fear the thing that is keeping you back today we're going to say that by the end of this we are going to walk free in the name of jesus from the things that are holding us back and we're going to be able to say that those things have no hold on us so if you're taking notes i want you to write down this title it's got no hold the anxiety that you feel it's got no hold the worry that you're feeling it's got no hold the addiction that you're struggling with it's got no hold find yourself a neighbor and say it's got no hold it's got no hold on me that worry has got no hold on me that fear that addiction the plan of the enemy it's got no hold it's got no hold and if you have your bibles i want you to open up to matthew chapter four and that's gonna be the text that is gonna show us someone who is the ultimate defeater of the things that try to keep us back and his name is jesus and it's a case study for how the enemy often tries to entrap us in our lives how he tries to enslave us and if we're not careful we let him but jesus refuses to take hold of that which tries to take hold of him let me give you some context to the scripture jesus has just been baptized by john the baptizer and the heavens have opened and as they opened the holy spirit came down in as a dove and the lord god said this is my son in whom i am well pleased this mountaintop moment it's amazing jesus gets baptized in the very next verse he gets sent into the wilderness doesn't that feel like life i mean in one moment i'm getting baptized and in the next moment i'm like where am i go from a mountaintop to a valley experience man one moment i am in church singing jira you are enough and the next thing monday comes and it kicks me in the teeth my god you're still enough it's what happened to jesus and we pick it up in verse 1 and it says this then jesus say then jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil yo this is free it's name through the sermon i want you to notice who let him into the wilderness the spirit you see so often in my life i think any time i go through a challenging situation it must be the enemy that led me into it could it be that this past season in your life the challenges that you're facing the things that you're focusing was actually god who allowed you to enter into a challenge that ultimately he can produce in you the fruit of perseverance maybe what you've been walking through has been trying to create the character in you that you can fulfill the calling that he has on your life don't mislabel your season don't mislabel your season so after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry no kidding and the tempter came back and said to him if you are the son of god till these stones to come bread i want you to know this he twists and taunts jesus and his identity because 40 days earlier god said this is my son in whom i am well pleased now 40 days later satan is saying if you really are the son of god here's the thing i've learned about the enemy his tactics don't change much he's still doing that if you are the brett if you're the son of god if you are a child of god why are you still struggling if you're a child of god what why is that happening to you daughter if you are a child of god why is he leaving you you're a child of god why did he walk away from you why did he reject you see he'll make us start to question our identity and then we start searching for something to put our trust in and the second we're in our most vulnerable space he gives us something temporary with which we would put our trust in like bread jesus take some bread or your job or your family or something else but jesus refuses to take hold and jesus says this it is written say it is written he starts quoting scripture up in this place man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god you see why would i trust in something temporary when i can focus on something eternal like god why trust in bread i don't need bread i don't need anything when i have god so then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple and watch this this is pretty interesting verse six if you are the son of god he said throw yourself down for it is written he will command these angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone you'll see that satan knows scripture satan knows scripture the challenges sometimes he knows scripture better than us so he can twist and taunt the words of god and we don't even know it if the word is our weapon and our enemy knows our defense plan better than us how do we expect to move forward in the things of god we have to know the word so jesus son says it is also written do not put the lord your god to the test again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed them all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor all this i will give to you he said if you bow down and worship me but jesus said away from me satan for it is written worship the lord your god and serve him only i'm not gonna place my trust in a physical thing i'm not gonna place my trust in an emotional thing i'm not gonna place my trust in a philosophical thing when my trust can be in god see but the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion the bible says and he is looking for things that you want he's looking for your desires he's looking for the things that you seek most and he is trying to use those exact things to enslave you so the things that are supposed to become the blessing become the thing that is our burden god is trying to get us to this place where we say it's got no hold you see in the things that you're facing in your life that scripture gives you the solution that you need to move forward but when god revealed it to me y'all he didn't use that scripture he used the situation amen and it was a bad situation so my wife and i for those of you don't know our story we've been married now four years we in fact this week celebrated our anniversary just getting started so we just celebrated four years and it's been great it's been amazing but the start of our marriage was not that easy okay you see because my wife and i got married and we had this amazing wedding and it was great and then we went on honeymoon and that was great and then we came here to houston and that was great and we were going through possible control and i had some officers walk up to me and say sir can you walk with me and i was like dope i'll walk with him everything's fine and then they start questioning me and very quickly i realized that this isn't going the way that i thought it was going to go and they say something i never thought i'd hear they say sir i'm so sorry but we're gonna have to send you back to south africa and i was like okay i'll talk to my wife and they're like nope so i said well what do i get and they said one phone call so i called my wife and i was like babe it's gonna be fine they said it's gonna take a couple days don't worry about it stay stay here it's gonna be okay and we went back to south africa and days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and months turned into years and years turned into over two years frustrated with god god what are you doing i thought you said there's something that you want me to do i thought you're calling me the ministry i thought i was supposed to step forward man god you're really messing up your plan i thought you're just i thought you're smart you're really messing up your plan and i was like what are you trying to do in this place and i got so frustrated and it was in that season though that god started speaking to me it was in that season that he started giving me some scripture he started giving me some messages it was in that season that he told me brad i need you to work your weight and i was like oh i like that because sometimes it's in our waiting seasons that god is going to produce the fruit and that's needed for us to do what we're called to do and i was like that's amazing and then i got tired i got tired and then god started speaking to me about something else and he gave me it's already happened how sometimes all we need to see for his present faithfulness and his future faithfulness is looking that he's been faithful in our past and if he's been faithful then he'll be faithful again loved it it's amazing then i got tired i got to this point where i was like y'all i prayed standing up i prayed on my knees i prayed on my face prayed on my back i was like i don't know how else to pray i fostered just about everything in your life that you can fast and i was saying god what prayer can i pray to manipulate you to move on my behalf god what do i need to say for you to hear me why won't you hear me why won't you move i thought i'm trying to do this your way all along but why am i still in this place what are you trying to teach me god gave me a scripture which is what he does because he speaks through his word he's like go to excess 32 fine i want to talk to you about what's going on in my life okay verse one when the people saw that moses was so long in coming down the mountain yes thank you lord you are taking so long oh i received this word from the lord you are taking so long jesus the people gathered around aaron and said come make us gods who will go before us so moses was on mount sinai busy getting the ten commandments and he was taking a while so it seems and it says as for this fellow moses who brought us out of egypt we don't know what happened to him like we have no idea where this guy is and aaron said well take off the gold earrings that your wives and your sons and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me so all the people took up the earrings and brought them to aaron he took what they had handed to him and they made it into an idol cast in the shape of a car fastening it with the tool then they said these are your gods israel who brought you out of egypt sick what does that have to do with anything god how does that help me i mean these guys are silly i mean this is kind of stupid it's like why would you do that god just brought you out of egypt he just split the red sea i mean he every day you wake up and there's food on the ground what more could you want everything that you have is needed but they decide no no no i'm not going to serve the god who did that let me just pick something on my body let me just pick something that i'm holding and let me make that into a god i was like god that's so silly why would you show that to me they made an eye god i don't do that walk into my house i don't have a buddha snatch i don't have any idols god i have i have no idols in my life and god said well the reason your happiness and your emotions are so affected by the season is because you have something else sitting on the throne of your heart brad you have heart issues you see because whatever sits on the throne of your heart determines your thoughts your desires your emotions your will your intellect it determines everything so if what is on the throne of your heart every time i make you wait you start getting despondent and worried could it be that you are trusting more in the uscis than you are trusting in me you see because the fruit of the spirit is love peace patience joy kindness gentleness but that's not what you're showing because every time i change the plan you're frustrated something else is driving you what's driving you you understand something the holy spirit leads demons drive what's driving you what's determining your thoughts your emotions your will you're trying to argue with god and then i felt like he said well where did they get the gold i don't know okay i looked for it apparently it's in the bible exodus 12. it tells you where they get the gold says the israelites did as moses instructed and asked the egyptians for articles of silver and gold for their clothing the lord had made the egyptians favorably disposed towards the people and they gave what they asked for so they planted the egyptians hold up so what happened was they got a gift from the egyptians and they took the gift that was given and they made it into a god when gifts become gods there's a whole sermon just in that when gifts become gods what are the gifts that god has given you what are the good things that he's given you in your life that you have chosen to trust in more than you have trusted in him you need to understand when the blessing that has been given blinded to the blesser it is no longer a blessing but it is in fact a curse when gifts become god so brad could it be that you're focusing more on my promises than you are on me and could it be that you're so focused on the dream the desire the goal the thing that i have given you that when i choose not to give it in your timeline you become frustrated something else is driving you something else is sitting on the throne of your heart you have heart issues but that's the thing we want to talk about that thing that thing sitting on the throne of your heart but you're like by brad you don't understand man i don't have any idols i don't have any okay so let's define it idols is this anything that takes the place of god or takes our focus off god now it's not always bad things it can be good things as well it's a mixture of it it could be your it could be money family your spouse job your boss chasing off to happiness the desire for certainty it could be our identity anything that we put on the throne of our hearts is an idol so watch the throne what's on your throne what are you thinking about more than anything else what are you making time for more than anything else you wouldn't take five minutes to feed your spirit but you'll take five minutes to feed something else you won't wake up 15 minutes early to say god what do you have for me instead i'm going to search social media to see what that has for me see proverbs 4 23 says this guide your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life whatever sits on the throne of your heart will determine the course of your life it determines your thoughts your emotions so if money is on the throne of your heart then money is going to determine how you act how you feel and i can control you by manipulating money maybe it's not money maybe it's your identity and what you want to do is you want everyone to see you in a particular way so you put yourself on the throne of your heart now you're walking around trying to get affirmation from everyone else to believe something about yourself that you don't even believe so they start affirming you and you start noticing that you still feel empty inside it's almost like you're a glass with a hole and no matter how much they try and pour encouragement in you you can't receive it because you don't even believe it about yourself so you're trying to fill yourself up with something else that'll never satisfy it's like drinking salt water only to find that in the end you're more thirsty than you began with what is on the throne of your heart i was so anxious in that season but it's because i allowed anxiety to take a seat allowed anxiety to take a seat in my life and it's kind of like this balloon on this balloon there's a bunch of things that the enemy will often try and entrap us with is that fun pride your boss friends your family your spouse arrogance lust comfort work money entertainment bitterness fear certainty anxiety religion these are the things the enemy wants you to place your trust in so what starts happening is he's trying to use these things to entangle you so when you're growing up your teacher says you're never going to be worth anything and instead of going to god for what he says about you you decide to go to work i'll prove it i'll prove i'm worth something i'll show so you start centering your life around something else other than centering your life around god now the effort that you've been placing to get work to the place that it is maybe you get a promotion now that effort is the effort that you need to continue using to keep you there now your life is getting even more built around us it is getting bigger and bigger in your life and it is the subject of your focus maybe it's not work maybe it's that addiction and we start making time for it we might take one make won't make time for our spirit but we'll make time for it to such a point where we're actually making time for our addiction we're planning events around it and it starts getting so big that instead of focusing on dealing with it i have to focus look how big it is i have to focus on hiding it it's my family i don't know the identity that i'm supposed to have before jesus so instead i decided that i didn't have a great family life so i'm going to take my entire life i'm going to pour it into my family and when my kids are doing good i feel good and when my kids are doing bad i feel bad you're saying all i have to do is take a hit at your family and it completely affects your identity because you spent your entire life building around something that wasn't god what's on the throne maybe it's popularity so you a teenager and you lose the values that your parents said that you need to have and the values that god said that you need to have so that people can like you only to find that eventually they don't and now you're stuck with something that you never thought you'd have what are you building your life around here's the challenge about this balloon it's empty there's nothing that can sustain it so in a second the enemy just has to come and the functional savior that you spent all your time believing in is now gone and now who are you [Applause] so we all have it i don't know what it is for you but the question is it's not do we have it we have it but what do you do when you have things that are sitting on the throne for some of you it might be one thing some of you might be many things they're stacking they're like sitting on each other's laps on the throne of your heart there's so many things that we need to what do you do in the things that are on you well scripture actually tells us first thing that i see when i look at the scripture with jesus is that we have to identify the idols matthew 4 verse 3 said this the enemy said if you are the son of god tell these stones to become bread notice this he didn't tempt him with money he didn't tempt him with the great house right he didn't tempt him based on what he felt he needed or what he wanted but he tempted him with what he needed the most in that moment what am i trying to say the enemy knows your bait he knows what he needs to bring in front of you so you start fighting with your wife and the next thing you start noticing your co-worker at the office hello you decide man i'm not going to be so angry anymore but then every car on i-10 makes it their personal mission to cut you off while you're trying to get insurance that i can come and i can praise god and say yes bless you brother praise jesus but everyone's cutting me off the enemy knows your bait the bible says in matthew 10 verse 16 that we i am sending you out like sheep among wolves therefore be a shred of snakes and as innocent as doves ephesians 2 verse 10 the bible says that we are gods masterpiece created anew in christ to do the good things that he planned for us long ago that means this that we are masterpieces created by god and we are children of god so when the thing in my life doesn't work out the way that i need to who am i i am a child of god when i have intellect what am i i am a child of god when i lose my intellect what am i i am a child of god when i have that position what am i i am a child of god when i lose that position whatever i am a child of god you have to identify what it is in your life the second thing you need to do is you need to determine what the word says matthew 4 verse 4 jesus said it is written jesus quoted the word and like i said the challenge is the enemy knows the word better than us now here's the thing you can go to a christian bookstore and get something on fear i don't think that's bad but don't spend your entire life quoting someone else's word as a substitute for quoting the word jesus said this it is written but so often in our lives we can't say it is written because we don't know what is written we don't know what is written so when satan comes to us and starts twisting the words of god we don't know what to say but as we get into our bibles and as we got as we start understanding the things that god wants to do in our lives at that point the enemy can come to you and he can say you are nothing and we can say no enemy that's not true because it is written that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world he's gonna say you're gonna have no purpose that's not true because it is written for i know the plans i have for you declare the lord plans to prosper you plans to give you a hope and a future he's going to come and he's going to say you're not going to make it out alive and you can say that's not true because it is written that the lord is my shepherd and i shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me besides still waters he restores my soul though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will feel no evil for you are with me your right and your staff they comfort me you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemy you anoint my head with oil my cup flows over because surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life you got to know what the word says the next thing you need to do is you need to obey it we're not changed by the word that we hear we're changed by the word that we do here's the thing often god's word don't make no sense ask noah hey i need you to build an ark there's gonna be this thing called rain have you ever seen any rain you don't understand that when it comes to god understanding isn't always required but your obediences understanding isn't always required but your obedience says the next thing you need to do is you need to be able to let others in jesus face those temptations by himself but you don't have to and that's why this week we've just launched all of our groups and today you can sign up for a group you'll get in a group let someone else in the bible says in james 5 it says therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for each other that you may be healed your what is in darkness continues to grow you need to be able to bring it into the light and the final thing you need to be able to do is you need to be able to surrender you need to be able to give it to god repent god i'm gonna give it all to you and often what you'll find is when you put god in his rightful place he's able to give you the thing that you wanted but now you know how to handle it this week yo i was battling anxiety the entire time and i was so worried and i was so fearful why because of this message i was like i want to preach that i want to preach something fun everyone's all about idols and i was so nervous and i was like i can't get a well done from them i need to get a well done from god [Music] you see but i'm so nervous and i'm so anxious and i thought god said to me why i want to do good why because i want them to think i'm good why because i don't believe i am [Music] i don't believe i am so nervous so anxious [Music] george meyer is a phenomenal communicator and when they ask her have you ever been nervous she says i don't get nervous why don't you get nervous or if i'm nervous that means i'm thinking about me i'm not thinking about me i'm thinking about them [Music] god have i got so messed up that i've been putting myself i've been putting this on the throne of my heart over and above you i've been putting my identity and my image on the throne of god more than i put you two years ago god told me this lesson well i gave up social media because i realized that i was using it to fulfill something in me that i thought i was missing y'all i have never been more free i don't care about my following i don't care if you follow me or if you don't you can try but no there's no posts go ahead i don't care you see because what god started revealing is the thing that i wanted more than anything else in the world the idol that i had in my life is i wanted you to like me in many ways this mic i was using this to prove my identity and i said god take it i don't want it and it was in that place that god started fixing on my heart issues i realized i had some problems here and brad said brett i need to be able to help you here's the thing brad i need you to identify the things that are in your life that you're holding on to like this mic i need you to identify it and i need you to determine what the word of god says about these things what it says about your identity and i need to be able to obey that and as i did i let people in and i said i can't do this by myself i need your help and then i had to surrender and let it go and at that point god said you will hold no idols at that point when i refuse not to take hold of what took hold of me god set me free so here's the thing i don't know what you're holding on to i don't know the things that have you down but after clearing up your life we'll be able to step into hebrews 12 which says this therefore since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw everything that hinders i'm getting free and the sin that so easily entangles and lets us fix our eyes on jesus the founder and protector of our faith who to put a joy set before him entering the cross that we may be free [Music] [Music] oh i [Music] [Music] one more time [Music] you are [Music] come on can we with our hands lifted as the sign is surrendered you're watching online if you're in the room what's what's driving you man that's such a powerful word it's driving you compared to what's leading you father right now we begin to release anything in our lives that's not of you anything that's a distraction anything that's an idol anything god that we have been putting at center or our focus instead of you holy spirit right now we lean into your presence and god we ask right now would you just shift your posture from this to this and just do it more open-handed god right now in this position of surrender we ask that you would remove anything and everything remove these weeds and replace it with a seed as we put our focus our attention and our affection on you jesus and we give you praise god i thank you for miracles i thank you for breakthrough i thank you for deliverance i thank you for restoration i thank you god as we surrender all of these areas we lay them at your feet that this would be a game-changing moment in the story of our lives in jesus name come on kiss somebody give god praise now come on praise him like he's already healed and delivers you amazing can we also give pastor bradstar up a hand for preaching such a powerful word amazing y'all can be seated briefly and we're gonna be landing this plane but if you're here today and maybe the word that was spoken into the house maybe you're watching online maybe you said daniel man i needed this today and the truth is i don't know jesus as my as my savior i i don't know anything other than what i know because i don't know him and here's the reality the answer always begins with always ends with jesus the foundation of all of this the whole balloon blowing up illustration where we've redirected maybe our attention to something else that's a temporary fix jesus is the one that will fully restore you i feel like so many times in our lives we've treated the presence of god like a painkiller almost like an ibuprofen to a headache here's the reality he wants to heal your entire life he wants to heal your entire past your present your future your family and i believe that god is at work today so if you're watching online if you're in the room and you say daniel i want to know jesus as my personal lord and savior maybe you used to and you you fell away and you want to rededicate your life today listen here on the is it the 30th of may is that where we're at right now on the 30th of may 2021 this can be a game-changing history-making moment where the thumbprint of god is about to put his thumbprint on your life and mark you for the rest of your life here's what it takes all it takes is surrender with every eye closed just for a moment if you're watching online you can say yes to jesus daniel today's my day i want to surrender my life today or i want to rededicate my life i'm going to count the three we will not embarrass you god's job to change you but it is our job to walk with you and help disciple you so that you can ultimately become who god has called you to be we want you to know god find freedom discover your purpose and make a difference one i want to give my life to god two i want to rededicate three if that's you would you lift up your hand boldly come on man hands are going up all over the room come on wave at me if that's you you say i want to give my life to jesus today i want my identity to be in jesus today i want my focus and my attention amazing you can put your hands down come on i'm looking in the balcony anybody else wave at me before we pray anybody else before i see you over here my friend thank you so much incredible come on hope city can we give everybody a hand that's about to pray this prayer today now listen we don't pray prayers here at hope city for symbolic purposes we pray because romans 10 verse 9 and 10 says confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that jesus is lord and you will be saved everybody who lifted their hand or maybe you didn't feel comfortable with lifting your hand but you're gonna pray this will everybody in the room pray this prayer and watching online come on say jesus it's me i've been living for me and it hasn't worked from today on i choose to live for you every mistake every sin every struggle i surrender it all i confess you as my father my savior and my lord i'll live for you the rest of my days in jesus name amen come on hope city can we give everybody a hand who just surrendered now come on heaven's rejoicing can we rejoice a little bit louder than that yeah

Channel: Hope City

Views: 14,675

Rating: 4.9409285 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jeramy foster, hope city church, jeremy foster, jeremy foster hope, hope city jeremy, brad straarup, south africa, south african preacher, inspirational, sermon, houston church, local church, it's got no hold, balloon sermon, sermon illustration, inspiring

Id: Y4rTxzdub3o

Length: 43min 39sec (2619 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021