Press On | Pastor Jeremy Foster | Hope City

we all go through hard seasons we all go through challenges the past few weeks i've kind of been on this apostle paul kick and uh just just loving um i love how he how he handled challenges and situations how many of you going through a hard time right now you're going through a hard time just raise your hand if you're going through a struggle it's okay it's okay some of y'all can't even raise your hand some of y'all were like i literally saw a lady back there go a plan okay that was not true it was a guy i just um want to call you out sir but i saw you ah we're glad you're here we all have we all have challenges we all have struggles um that's not that's not anything new if you ever hear a pastor a preacher teacher leader who's a christian tell you hey when you give your life to christ everything becomes easier they've never given their life to christ when you give your life to christ it becomes a little bit of a challenge the enemy's going to fight you but here's what i want you to understand you're going to go through hard times the bible says it reigns on the just and the unjust so that means it doesn't matter how good you are how bad you are you have good days you have bad days i would just rather have every day with my hand in the nail scarred hand of an overcomer named jesus than days without him amen he's just good but you're going to go through hard times and paul went through in philippians 3 13 the world english bible i like this translation it says this brothers i don't regard myself as having yet taken hold now you have to understand at this point paul is thought of as a pretty solid guy he went through some challenges he went through some pain he actually had a really really really bad past some of you guys can relate to that um his past was worse than most of yours because he actually incentivized killing christians he was trying to quell this rebellion that was coming up against um the teachings in the synagogues and he felt like it was it was going to overthrow what they had built and the torah and in fact what he didn't understand was jesus didn't come to overthrow the law he came to fulfill it and and as paul got a revelation uh it became more evident to him that he was on the wrong side of the fight because sometimes you can think you're doing something for god and you're really just doing something for yourself or you're or you're just misguided and listen good ideas are not always god ideas so make sure that you're following a god idea not just a good idea i want the favor of god on everything that i do and i want to make sure that i'm inside of his favor and paul paul understood this and so he also understood that when i'm in the favor of god when i'm doing when i'm doing the right thing i'm still going to go through hard times and he gives us such incredible framework of how to walk through it brothers i don't regard myself as having yet taken hold i love that phrase we'll talk about it in a second but one thing i do forgetting the things which are behind and stretching everybody say stretching everybody say it like they say did you ever stretch in the morning you're like ah and somebody tries to talk to you and you try to answer you're like but you can't stop the stretch because it's such a good stretch that if you stop the stretch then you just will have a really really bad day i need to complete the stretch stretching forward to the things which are before i press on the challenge with some of us is we've never stretched all right you can't build muscles well if you don't stretch you'll tear something you'll hurt yourself i press on turn to you never say press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus i love paul because he was so clear that he didn't have it all together and that's one of the things that you need to do you need to admit i don't have it all together turn to your neighbor and tell them i don't have it all together if you watch it online put it in the chat in fact just put this in the chat it ain't me it ain't me hey it ain't me you ever had somebody like bro that was amazing you're like hey it ain't me that wasn't me i have people tell tell me all the time you have built an incredible church and i literally smile at him like thank you but it ain't me now i'm not just saying oh it's all god god uses people i talk about the team all the time but we have an incredible team we have an amazing team aren't you grateful for the team that we have the staff that we have we have an awesome you'll give our staff a great big hand all our campers they do a great job our dream team come on somebody i love our dream team so it it it ain't me at some point you got to admit i don't have it all together now now that's easier said than done paul was really good at it paul was the one that said i'm the chiefest of sinners i love paul thank you god for giving us paul to write so much of the new testament i mean he listen the judgy christians it's so hard for them to get past some of paul's statements paul's like i trust don't you love it in romans he says i try to do right and i do wrong anyway i'm like paul you are my boy give me up top literally that's the one i want to meet after i meet jesus in heaven i want to up top high five elbow fist bump bro hug the apostle paul cause he learned hey i'm gonna admit that i don't have it all together first corinthians 10 12. it says so if you think you're standing firm be careful that you don't fall what's he saying hey don't be so full of yourself that you think you've got it all together to only realize you don't now this sounds right like i'm getting amens i'm getting that's right that's good it's it's almost stating the obvious have you ever been around somebody who just states the obvious can i just i i just this is not even in my notes this is not even a part of the sermon today hey the next time you record your voicemail message you don't have to say leave your name and number after the tone aren't we past that like if i have to tell you to do that you shouldn't be using the phone my favorite is when somebody leaves a message and they ask you a question if you're one of the question askers on the message stop it hey jeremy it's tom how you doing well tom uh it's a voice message so i can't answer that obvious my dad and my dad is in the room right now i didn't know you're coming to this service i love you papa my dad is a master at stating the obvious he is whenever i was a kid i would be i this is just tell me if this is not true it's true story and you can call me you can stand up and say liar if this is not true this is true and mother if you do mom will be like hey sit down cause she knows i would be in the living room vacuuming i'm talking vacuum i'm in the living room with a rainbow back if you remember the rainbow that you had to pull it around it had the water if it tilted over the water got out the old ones you know and it would ruin the carpet so i'm in there you have to be careful and i was i'm i'm intense like i want all straight lines if i'm a vacuum remember the carpet that you know it's got a little bit of like like a little bit of a shag so i want all the straight lines and and my dad would come and be like hey hey hey turn that off [Music] so the airplane turbine turned off and my dad looked at me and said hey i want you to help your mother clean up this house today am i lying am i i'm not true he said truth i mean hey one of the worst beatings i ever got is i looked at him i was like i i'm not helping her i'm just taking the vacuum cleaner out for a walk and dad i love you you're you're still bad at this like three weeks ago i i didn't know you were gonna be in this service three weeks ago we were on the way to my house going to my house i have the address memorized right before he got to my exit my dad went you gonna get off right here i said thanks pop man without you i'd be in california man i i'd have just driven for days i love you dad so much y'all give my dad a hand i love you bob the problem is this sounds this there are things that sound obvious like hey admit that you don't have it all together it sounds obvious but a lot of us actually ignore the the biggest things in our lives that are blocking the blessings the the test that should have become your testimony became the hindrance from you moving forward the thing that you should have looked back on and said man that was the hardest time of my life and the greatest season of growth just became the hardest time of your life and it never turned into the greatest season of growth i wonder how many of us are sabotaging our future success because of a current problem we won't identify and deal with right now we keep putting band-aids on bullet holes our self-esteem issues our addiction issues our anger issues lust of the flesh lust of the eye the pride of life listen the first step to victory is actually knowing who the enemy is the enemy is oftentimes not not the people that you think the enemy is listen remember we're not fighting one another can i just talk to the christians for just a minute those of you who are professing christians please stop stop calling out all the other christians we hey the kingdom we don't need you to do that well i'm just playing devil's advocate he has plenty you have been called to be an ambassador for christ and i meet people who feel like it is their god-given calling to to to on social media call everybody out i had a guy one time i've never preached about this we may not use this one for the podcast um i had a guy one time hey pastor call me out publicly on social media i'm talking pour into me publicly on social media i'm just ripping me to shreds it was awesome i felt so encouraged by him i was like ooh i bet he's going to have a strong church that one hit harder than i meant for it too so i i reached out to a couple of guys and i called him and he picked up the phone i was like hey man he's like who is this it says jeremy foster he said what do you want i said i just want to talk to you man because apparently you hate me he's like i don't hate you you're just in opposition to blah blah blah blah blah i won't even tell you what it was about it wasn't even about scripture it was about how how we were doing church he didn't he just didn't like how we were doing church and i said look man it sounds like you're really really mad at me like you're just real mad and he's like i am i'm i'm ticked off from blah blah blah whatever and he was being really aggressive and i said hey look if if you want to meet in the parking lot we can do that hey i'm sorry the lord is working on me i'm not paul said it i have not i have not yet arrived i'm striving for the goal of the prize of the high calling i ain't there yet okay i said if you want to meet in the parking lot we can do that that's what you need to do we can throw hands if that's what needs to happen i said but i also need you to understand you're in you are in opposition to the word of god and how you came at me i want you to notice there's nobody else on this phone calls you and me but you came at me publicly i've come to you privately to handle this and you know what to his credit he broke down he said you are absolutely right i apologize i will delete that comment today i was like don't worry about our team that's already taken [Music] hey there's a big chance you can't even find me because we have blocked you sir but but some of us have so many anger issues we're dealing with everybody do you realize he was pointing such a finger at me but he was in the midst of opposition to the word and how he even did it you realize sometimes you can be right and wrong but if you don't actually admit it and deal with it can i tell you this he wasn't my enemy i didn't call him into the parking lot notice that i want you to pastor's calling out another pastor that's not what i don't want to fight any other pastors because some of them way tougher than me that's true some of y'all could just put you down real easy but but you also never know you never know you ever picked on somebody you're like whoa i just don't even you just don't know so we just don't mess with people right we just love them i've told you this marines have a saying kill them all let god sort them out hope city has a saying save them all let god sort them out amen but he's not he's not the enemy that person that you think is the enemy your wife let's look straight ahead right now your husband your brother your dad your mom your sibling your manager that that's not the enemy satan is the enemy he uses people but he's the enemy you got to get clear who you're fighting first peter 5 and 6 says listen i want you to understand too many times the enemy lives in our promises and we don't even know he's there so humble yourselves under the mighty power of god and at the right time he will lift you up in honor i love that give all your worries and cares to god for he cares about you stay alert watch out for your great enemy the devil that enemies your great enemy singular the devil he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour you have an enemy you listen here's my my challenge is when you're in a situation you have to admit i need help i need help that's when we have groups you need to get in a group that's when we have freedom you need to go through a freedom group what is freedom is freedom because how many of y'all know believers who are saved and not set free come on somebody [Applause] you you've got it but the first step is admitting i'm having a challenge a few weeks ago jessie yelled for me she's on the other side of the house she yelled for me dad and i could tell it was it was not a hurt yell it was a scared yell and at that point i go into cyborg mode i'm like you know i'm running towards the other end of the house y'all think i'm playing i gunned up i was on the other end of the house i was ready because it sounded like somebody was trying to mess with her and i got to the other in the house said what's going on she goes somebody's tapping on my window right now and i was like well somebody's facing the diet i know enough about texas law let them come inside first i have said that all right i will pop a cap and then pray later hey man i i i'll pop a cabinet but like all right let's meet you fix the medium so let's give your life to christ right now guys i don't know what's happened to this service i apologize it this will not be the podcast but um i sat there and i listened and i could hear it duncan i could hear something hitting the window but it was sporadic and i started laughing she was like what are you laughing at like it was a little bit maniacal like she was like are you facing to go crazy on somebody i was like nah jess listen i was like she was like what is it it's not raining i was like i know and i reached over and i turned her light off that was right up against the window and all of a sudden the bugs stopped hitting the window i said jesse it was it was bugs she was like thanks dad i figured that out and we laughed about it but here's what i love about it i love that when she didn't know what it was she didn't understand the nature of the threat she just knew it wasn't something she understood she knew who to call and she exposed her fear to the one who could help her with it and the challenge is some of us have bugs tapping on the window and we're acting like we're fine but we're filled with fear when if we just give it to god he could walk in and turn that light off and go that's all it was you don't have to worry but some of us have lived with worry for so long because we don't know who to run to we don't know how much we should share we don't know who to be honest with and at some point you've got to admit god i do not have it all together i don't understand listen he'll tell you what you need to be concerned about what you don't need to be concerned about he's already told us what to do with our concern cast all your cares on him because he cares for you who do you run to in a hard season paul was so clear he said i just don't have it all together the second thing that he said he said i forget what is behind so i don't i don't want you to let your failure keep you from your future don't let your failure keep you from your future sometimes all we focus on is the mistakes anybody got a a piece of paper that i can borrow just yeah you've got one who who's just a piece of paper just a white piece of paper can you just bring it to somebody just pass it up to me that's no that's perfect thank you so much does anybody got a a a pen lim that's not that's an ipad pen thank you very much but i love how your spirit you were like if this would work all right hello everybody talk amongst yourselves somebody's alarm just went off you can turn that off okay so here's your pin thanks man appreciate that okay can you help me you're going to probably stand what do you see smiley face smiley face all right anybody else well look at what do you what do you see step up here what do you see smiling face smiley face okay say that again smiley face smiley face london i like it it's from london all right um yeah okay so if you could all can see it if we can zoom in on it i know we can't we probably don't have that capability can we get as close look okay guys back out now you can see my pores i had no idea we had that capability to get that close and keep going back that's awkward i don't wear makeup guys so um so there's a little smiley face on here and and so when i asked you what what do you see you said it's my face and i ask you where you see somali's face okay so we are trained to look at the smallest thing and focus on the smallest thing when really there's just there's just barely a little smiley face there but there's a sea of white paper around it we focus on the smallest things often times in our lives the pain of my past my mistake the a chat a repetitive sin habit in my life a challenge that i have constantly i wrote this quote down because it's one of my favorite quotes as you travel down life's pathway may this ever be your goal keep your eye upon the donut not upon the whole she really laughed at that no but there's something missing in the middle what happened to the middle why do you think they sell donut holes because people were like what happened to the middle okay here's your donut holes okay because we're so focused on something that's missing god is more interested in your future than he is your failure and paul said i forget the things that are behind how could paul have made it through working with christians you have to understand when paul walked in there were people that were in pain when paul walked in because he was the one who incited the rebellion against their family member he was the one who held jackets while their dad or their brother was stoned he was the one who was saying kill them and then paul walks in as a brother how could he walk into a room knowing that he's going to confront a family that he had had something to do with someone in their life being persecuted he had to learn i i have to forget that stuff that's not who i am it's who i was listen there's a difference between guilt and shame guilt says i was wrong shame says or i did something wrong is what guilt says shame says i am wrong it's me and paul is saying hey have you ever had somebody say hey shame on you at some point you guys said shame off me i'm not gonna receive that shame that's not who i am don't focus so much on the you ever watch that show uh american pickers some of y'all haven't seen it um obviously i don't even know if it's in uh if it's on anymore but there was this show there was these two guys and they would go to these these junk collectors houses and they would try to get them to get rid of some of the stuff that they had hoarded and so i mean you would go into some of these places and they just had barns they had acres of stuff and often much of it was highly highly valuable and i remember watching this episode and they walk in and then they interview you know they would interview and and so they're talking to this old man and they're walking around and they're going well what about this and it's like a broken tricycle and the guy's like well i might use that i'm talking acres of barns and they would walk up and they would ask about something else this old picture on the wall and said well what about these well i i think i'm gonna hang on to that i might use that he kept saying i'm gonna use that and then they cut away and and and the guy who's part of the company he says he says what we're trying to do is that we're trying to get him to get rid of one thing if we can get if we can just buy a piece of junk from him for a decent amount it will start an avalanche and he'll turn loose of more things but if we can't get him to get rid of one thing he'll never sell anything i wonder what the one thing in your life is that you've been hoarding you've been holding on to and god's saying hey if you'll give me that piece of your past i will redesign your future but at some point you've got to let go of it stop being a collector of things that keep you from going where god has called you to go at some point i wonder what's a symbolic connection to your old life that you're hanging on to that you need to actually walk away from maybe it's a present job that's not in line with what god's called you to do or maybe it's the passionless purposeless a way right now that you approach the job that god has placed in your life the career that god has placed in your life maybe it's maybe it's constantly holding your spouse's past against them and using it every time you can listen at some point we've got to let go of the old paradigms the small ways of thinking that keep us from going into what god has called us to go into and listen if god has called you to go into greatness there are things that won't make it into your future and there are people that won't make it into your future jim rohn said you'll have the combined health attitude and income of the five people that you hang around the most i love saying that and then watching you as i say it jim rohn business guru said you will have the combined health attitude and income of the five people you hang around the most some of you are like ah i play it but think about that not not the five podcasts that you listen to the most not the five authors that you read the most the five friends that you hang with single people side note this is why it's so important to marry the person that god wants you to marry that god has brought into your life because you marry a person you could be hey that's going to be one of your five come on he counts just look straight ahead it's fine listen at some point you have to and and now don't get it don't get it twisted you need to make peace with your past don't make peace with your problem or you'll never actually progress some of us make peace with our problem and we say well this is who i am it's who i've always been it's who i'll always be and god can't progress you because you can't see yourself beyond where you are right now and i promise you this god does not look at where you are and and i have scripture proof for all of it just look at the life of jacob god does not look at where you are he looks at where he is calling you to go and he calls you from there he says hey i'm here and i've got great things for you keep walking into the great things that i've created for you but if you're not careful you will stop yourself because you don't believe that god could do anything good through you because you've made too many mistakes hey it's time to get past the past paul said forgetting the past i press on i keep going and that's the that's the final thing that you've got to do is at some point you just got to press on turn to your neighbor and say press on put it in the chat press on i got to press on i gotta press on now that doesn't mean that i never quit anything i was raised i didn't even plan on preaching about this dad i really did it's not in my notes but i was raised in an environment that said hey hey we don't quit fosters never quit we don't quit we don't give up we don't give in we don't quit we don't say can't well i can't i don't understand what you're saying my dad would say can't i don't speak cantonese you understand they don't quit but but some of you actually need to quit there are some things you need to quit because because there are things that you will push yourself in and you say well i'm already in so i might as well keep going no no some things god hadn't called you to do that you need you need to quit that you need to quit and so i'm giving you permission to stop today so some of us are so we are we have we have had this one dream and in the middle of trying to accomplish this dream you realize this is not god's dream for your life so it's okay to quit i'm probably not going to say this to the next service because it wasn't even in my notes but somebody needed to hear that today hey it's okay it's okay that doesn't mean you're not pressing on for the things of god it just means you're getting your life realigned with the actual things of god and you're pressing on in the right direction because pressing on in the wrong direction doesn't help anybody you got to press on ralph waldo emerson one of my favorite quotes he said this that which we persist in doing becomes easy to do think about that that which we persist in doing becomes easy to do not that the nature of the thing has changed but our but that our power to do has increased what does that mean that means if i pray every day prayer will get easier for me if i study well i don't understand the bible well get a version that you do and the more and more i read the bible the more and more i'll understand it's the same principle of math the more i do it the more i learn how to do it the more i put it into practice the better i'll get i'm going to press on i'm going to press in the challenge is we learn to settle with mediocrity in every area of our life in our in our marriages in our careers in our hopes and our dreams and even in our relate a relationship with god the greatest danger to the american church right now is not that we'll renounce our faith and so we'll settle for a mediocre version of it and not actually go all in and do what god has called us to do but at hope city i'm gonna push you i'm gonna drive you because i believe that god has called you to something greater and if you're here under the sound of my voice and god has a great calling on your life don't stay where you are press on press in if we're not careful we'll stop growing why do you think we have growth track because we want you to grow you can go through growth track at all of our campuses it's a two-step process that helps you discover the purpose that god has created you for we believe that you were created on purpose for a purpose god had a purpose in mind for you no not me never me no god placed you on purpose he specializes in placement he puts you in the family that you're in he put you in the career that you're in he puts you he gives you this surrounding so that you can be effective for the kingdom where you are don't write yourself off you got to grow everybody say i got to grow i've talked to people before they felt intimidated they had imposter syndrome if you don't know what imposter syndrome is google it many people who have any modicum of success feel impostor syndrome i've talked about it a few months ago i feel impostor syndrome often because i didn't do this but there are people who think i did and they're like bro whoa you built a killer church which is kind of an oxymoron i didn't i half the time when i'm up here i don't feel like i'm worthy to be up here i don't feel like i know what i'm doing i have to study really hard people people people are like bro you're just such an extemporaneous speaker no no almost all of it is in my notes man i got notes look at that i got pages and notes and it's even highlighted i have to use colors what color is it okay that's the one i'm going to next [Music] that doesn't stop me from growing i'm i'm in the room oftentimes and i'm with phds and high-impact theologians i just ask them questions and then they ask me something i tell them stories i'm the dumbest i am the dumbest guy in most rooms i go in from from an educated perspective i just man i'm just like wow i'm in awe but does that mean i don't go there no no i go there because i grow there i want to grow in situations and environments the challenge with many of us is we've stopped growing paul was so strong i i believe the reason why he consistently told people hey i'm not i'm not all the way there it's so that he could hit him with a baseball bat later on because he does in hebrews 6 he says this so let us stop going over the basic teachings about christ again and again let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in god come on guys he's saying come on and some of us that's the level that you're at and you need to just put your faith in christ but some of us have been living for god for years and haven't grown hebrews 5 he preceded all that verse 12 he said this you've been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others let that sink in there's some of you who've been believers so long man i just i don't even have time to preach how much i feel today i the priesthood of the believer god has called you to represent and be an ambassador not just me please do not i just don't love what we've done in the american church with the idol idealization of pastors and the idolization of pastors i am not the voice of god the voice of god is the voice of god i am a vessel just like you are a vessel and we are all called to be used to do great things for the kingdom of god please don't discount yourself in that practice you've been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others you ought to lead a connect group you ought to be on the dream team he's getting quiet in here instead you need someone to teach you again the basic things about god's word you think i'm tough listen listen to paul you're like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food for someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right solid food is for those who are mature who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong all right i wonder how many of us have kept ourselves from getting what god has called us to get because we're too spiritually immature to receive it how many of y'all have kids raise your hand if you have kids you have kids you know that they live at different levels right when they're little they on a little level right my son gunner has all access to two drawers in the kitchen he can go into those drawers at any point and get out any of the plastic cups or plates or somewhere that's in those two drawers but if he opens up any other drawer or door in the kitchen he is admonished no no no son no he just turned four this week he thinks he's a big boy now it's funny how he went from being him i'm the baby i'm the baby he's like i'm a big boy he's he still drinks out of a plastic cup because as much as he screams he's a big boy he ain't a big boy i know i know christians like that i'm a big boy but you're still drinking out of a plastic cup [Music] you know we've got fine dining we got we have fine china in our house the gunner has no access to why because he would break it as soon as he got it and he would feel bad about it and it would be a mistake whose fault would it be mine it'd be my fault for allowing him to have something that could hurt him the reason why god can't give some of you the things that you want to receive that you desire to receive that he has actually promised to give you is because you haven't grown into a level yet where he could actually trust you with the fine china blessing so we're just bottle believers in sippy cup saints at some points we have to grow into what god has called us to grow into and go where god has called us to go and i believe that this is your year to walk into what god has called you to walk into don't excuse yourself out of it because of your pain and your mistakes and your mess-ups and your failures god can see past all of that and if he could use the apostle paul don't you think that he could use you in spite of your mistakes and in spite of your mess-ups that's what grace is god went to the end of your life and said all right cool i see everything that you're going to do and i'll pay for that aren't you grateful for the grace and the mercy of god that just allows you to keep getting up and pressing on somebody needs to press on today today is your day to press on would you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment if you know that you are far from god hey i'm far just just saying i'm just far from god just i just just lift your hands that's me i'm far from god thank you hands hands hands hands hands thank you i'm far from god i desperately need you jesus [Music] i want us to pray this prayer across all of our locations just lift your voice with me jesus [Music] i'm far from you and i admit i don't have it all together i need your help i believe you're the son of god i believe you're the one true god i believe you rose from the dead so that i can have eternal life so in this moment right now i give you my sin i give you my mistakes i give you my past and i'm asking you jesus to be the lord of my life in jesus name amen come on let's give him an ovation of worship god

Channel: Hope City

Views: 31,187

Rating: 4.9854546 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, jermemy foster, hope city houston, jeremy hope city, jeremy city houston, local church, sermon, jeremy foster sermon, elevation, steven furtick, press on, inspiring sermon, jesus, biblical teaching, bible lesson, paul the apostle, bible, houston church, church online, sermons, paul

Id: 2NoJn05snV0

Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021