Promise in the Problem | Pastor Jeremy Foster

hey if you're new welcome to hope city my name is jeremy and it's honor to have you and i'm excited about what god's doing at our church we we started a series a couple of weeks ago called stuck in the middle turn to somebody next to you say i'm stuck some of y'all been wanting to say that to that person for a long time nervous laughter not me stuck i'm stuck turn to somebody on the other side say i'm stuck put it in the chat i'm stuck in the chat y'all could actually be really honest those of you guys online y'all can actually tell us like exactly what you're stuck in because nobody really knows uh who you are and they'd have to like look at your name and all that stuff and you could even change all of that but you just if you're in the chat just tell them what you're stuck in tell them what you're dealing with because we have a whole digital dream team that'll be praying for you aren't you grateful for the dream team and the digital dream team online right now serving thousands of people but i'm stuck and if you if you if you research that concept of being stuck in the middle it's all throughout the scripture people being stuck just stuck what do you do are you you you're stuck daniel was stuck in the lion's den all night can you imagine that i've been faithful i've been good i've been doing the right thing i've been praying i've been taking a stand for god you're gonna let me stay in here all night why because god had a purpose turn to somebody next you say god always has a purpose turn to somebody on the other side say god always has a plan but it's hard for us to it's hard for us to see that when we're stuck the three hebrew children are thrown in to the burning fiery furnace and they are stuck they got thrown there they didn't go there of their own volition they got stuck somebody say i'm stuck and when you're stuck it's hard to know what to do next i got stuck this week in the text as a preacher joke thank you for four of you liking that joke john chapter 11. man i started seeing layers in the scripture i'm not going to be able to get through this whole sermon today i can just tell you that right now but i am going to continue it next week john chapter 11 verse 1 we're going to read several verses here and i'm going to preach through the text and uh and so make sure that you take notes on this i think it will help you uh because i start god help us to see layers in the scriptures because there are things that the bible here's what i believe the bible always says what it means it means what it says but it usually means something a little bit deeper and if you look at it long enough it'll say something more to you how many have been studying the bible for years and you read a verse of scripture and then all of a sudden you see something that you've never seen in it that happened to me all week in john chapter 11 and john chapter 16. so i'm going to bring out to you what i feel like was good for me so god please help me not to mess this up because it was really good this week so if it's not good for y'all then it's not his fault or the worst fault it's your boy's fault so here's the bible tells this story now a man named lazarus everybody say lazarus lazarus was sick he ever just been sick like it's just a bad day it's a bad week maybe last year was just a bad year it was just a hard hard year he's sick he was from bethany the village of mary and her sister martha now the bible gives us context of who these people are this mary whose brother lazarus now lays sick was the same one who poured perfume on the lord and wiped his feet with her hair why does the bible tell us this because it's telling us hey they've got history with jesus they're not just they're not just acquaintances these are people he knows have you ever have you ever run into somebody that you know you should know but you don't remember knowing them they're like hey and you're like hey like you meet their enthusiasm they're like hey you died you're like i'm so good how are you guys because you don't know if there's other people involved with them or not or they say your name hey jeremy you're like hey man my favorite is whenever people act like like they they just call you on it they're like hey you remember me don't you wish you could just be honest be like no my dad taught me a long time ago and he just taught me i watched him do it he would say yeah help me which i think is that's a beautiful way of being sweet and saying no i have no idea these people these people have history with jesus so the sisters sent word to jesus lord the one you love is sick hey jesus lazarus is sick and in these days you didn't just call somebody or text somebody you had to send words somebody had to go find jesus wherever he was he didn't have his location services on we didn't know where he was we had to ask around like hey where's jesus lazarus is sick so this is a process like it it would if you're in those days if you're sending word to somebody to say hey your boy is sick it's serious like even now if somebody texts you and says hey i'm sick can you pray for me that's serious but what if they show up at your house like hey your friend is really sick that's a severe sickness and when he heard this jesus said the sickness will not end in death come on thank god for a good word from god no it is for god's glory so that god's son may be glorified through it now i'm not going to preach on this but if you want to know the purpose of everything it's found right there in this sentence it is for god's glory so that god's son may be glorified through it you want to know what god's will for your life is it's right there it your life is for god's glory so that god's son may be glorified through it so if god is getting glory in your life and your pain and your situation and your heartache and your and your suffering and whatever it is you're going through if god is getting glory you're in the will of god if god is not getting glory check yourself before you wreck yourself all right it says that also in second corinthians chapter two check yourself before it doesn't say that this verse this next verse of scripture just is confounding to me the con the construct of it is con confounding to me the the the way that it's translated now jesus i want you to listen now i'm going to read it to you i want you to listen to it and i want you to listen for the things that make you go huh you remember things that make you go hmm this is some of y'all don't remember the things that make you go all right so when he heard that lazarus was sick he uh stayed oh i'm sorry verse five this this is the whole part you gotta read verse five and six together now jesus loved everybody say he loved now jesus loved martha and her sister mary and lazarus so when he heard that lazarus was sick uh he stayed where he was two more days oh okay uh okay jesus cool cool cool like he's real sick jesus oh you oh okay uh uh yes sir you go okay you'll stay there for a couple more days cool cool cool the view is nice you like that okay that it doesn't make sense in fact the little coordinating conjunction right there so tells us what he's getting ready to do is because of what he just said he loved him so much so he loved because he loved them he stayed where he was that don't fit with us does it husbands how many of y'all know your wife says hey i need you in here and you say i'll be in there in a minute how many of us know what a minute means hey it could be a long time and if it's real urgent like get in here right now what do you do open the bathroom door go in close the bathroom door lock the bathroom does not need to use the bathroom come on somebody all right this is valentine's weekend i'm telling all of our secrets husbands how many of y'all been to the bathroom before you ain't got to go to the bathroom you're just hiding come on that's why you got magazines in there right yes and then you carry your phone now you don't even need a magazine you just sit down i'll be i'll use the bathroom you ain't using about you using the bathroom as an office okay let's be real jesus doesn't doesn't do he doesn't even feel the urgency how many of you have needed god to show up and he didn't like god i need you now and he's like i'll be there in a minute no no now no okay uh uh two days give me a couple days he doesn't even tell him he just says we're gonna go this way no jesus i need you to understand the seriousness of my situation has anybody's actions ever cause you to doubt their authenticity like you know i thought you were who you said you were and now because okay i have a lot of kids and i have a lot of kids and my last two are boys and i have jackson and gunner jackson is five and gunner is three and last year we got a pool we got a pool put in and how many of you know the greatest deterrent to kids drowning is teaching them to swim and so last year when we got the pool we taught our gunner and jack both of them to swim and they're gunner's decent he's three he's decent swimmer jack's a pretty good swimmer um both of them uh we would let them practice in the deep end and all that stuff dad be out there with them and so and i'm grateful that we did that because last week it was a little chilly the pool is closed and in all of his clothes gunner fell in the deep end i thought y'all would be a little bit more shocked than that you're like okay cool next rest of the story cool thanks pastor you're just preaching come on so he fell in the deep end all right thank you for your concern fake concern and uh and here's what's amazing jack reached down grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out of the pool thank you thank you that's you can stop now that's missed it school's response fine whatever pull him out of the pool and it was amazing it was awesome and so when jennifer got home um when she got home she walked in the house gunner came running up to her and he ran right up to his mom and he said mommy he said jackson saved my life and we were like awesome and she turned to jack and she got down on one knee and she said bob she said you saved gunner's life you're a hero and he looked at her and he went i might have pushed him in too the hero was the villain also this dude was like hey i'm fishing to save you but first wham this is what it looks like in the text like what is jesus what is jesus doing here verse 8 now i want you to notice so i want you to notice the disciples response now you notice what they say lazarus is sick it's going to be bad he's sickened to death and jesus says this sickness will not end in death and and here's what the disciples say but rabbi a short while ago the jews there tried to stone you because he has already said all right let's go back now after two days let's go back to judea but rabbi a short while ago the jews there tried to stone you and yet you were going back lord we're concerned greatly for your safety you ever had somebody look like they were really concerned for your safety but jesus knows they're not really concerned for his safety their concern for theirs because they're like hey you're going back which means we'll be with you and last time i checked we ain't the stars of the show so we're going to die first right because how many of y'all know the secondary actors always die jesus answered the weirdest answer it doesn't really honestly if you don't if you don't read into it's hard to make sense of why why was he speaking like this they said lord you're worried they're going to kill you and jesus says are there not 12 hours of daylight anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble for they see by this world's light it is when a person walks at night that they stumble for they have no light thanks jesus that's awesome riddle i appreciate you talking about the light and the night and the sun and all that stuff but they gonna kill you what was jesus saying jesus knew that they were more greatly concerned with themselves than they were with him because they were thinking temporally they were thinking in the earth's terms and so he was talking to them about the earth's terms so when you walk during the day you don't worry because you can see where you're going but at night you can't see where you're going you're a little bit more nervous and what he was trying to get them to understand is you are not walking according to the world's terms you are not walking with the light of the sun you are walking with the light of the sun so if we go into a dangerous situation i don't want you to worry because who you are with is greater than what you are going through and if you will trust that i am able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think according to the power that's at work on the inside of you then we can walk anywhere you can go through anything we used to sing this song i got power that you can't see god is living inside of me i can face any enemy cause god and me make a majority when you are with god it's a majority no matter what giant you face somebody ought to start worrying more about who is with you than what you are going through jesus always has a purpose the problem is we are so self-focused sometimes you've been riding with somebody who's driving a little too fast and you're like that was real strong yep over there she was like yeah on the way to church and you look at him you're like hey you better slow down you go get a ticket but what you're really saying is hey i don't wanna die in the car with you this is what the disciples are saying but they don't actually see his purpose how many of y'all know the issue is not the issue you ever been arguing with somebody you realize what we are arguing about is not really what we are you ain't really mad about that why do you always want to eat the tacos it ain't about the tacos is it sweetheart that's about something you mad about something deeper and jesus is trying to help them understand that he has a purpose for them and this entire story and we'll expand upon it probably a little bit more next week i'm really trying to will myself not to tell you what the lord has revealed to me um so we'll do it next week but there's a whole deep the whole point of the story is not lazarus being raised from the dead the whole point of the story is to prepare the disciples for ministry because he's getting ready to hand these 12 guys the prop the whole point is he's giving them the purpose for the propagation of the gospel so that it'll transcend generations and then in 2021 we will still be declaring the name of the lord and it's very important that they get it and as important it is that they get it it's important that you get it somebody in your generation somebody in your family somebody in your circle depends on your revelation of who god is and the understanding of your purpose that's why why why are you so screamy today i don't know i'm fired up why because you have a purpose turn to somebody say you have a purpose when you live a purposeless life you will never be fulfilled why you think our church does not we do not have if you're new to hope city we don't have 333 different programs you can be involved in we do four things four we want you to know god find freedom discover your purpose make a difference boom done we know god on the weekends okay no god they want you to find freedom everybody say find freedom we do that in groups and you can join the hundreds of groups that we have literally all over the world in person and uh uh virtually you can join a group you find freedom in a group how do i find freedom in a group because all of a sudden you have somebody who can look at you and go hey how you doing about that thing and y'all can talk about it then we want you to discover your purpose how do you discover your purpose go through growth track what is growth track it's the track where you grow we it's the easiest title we can think of growth track we want you to be on a growth track we want you to hang around people who grow and you discover your purpose in growth track god has a purpose and if you're just walking through life trying to do whatever it is you do and you don't have a god-given purpose it doesn't matter how much money you make how much position you get how many relationships you have you will never be fulfilled until you are fulfilling your god-given purpose and when you fulfill your god-given purpose money doesn't matter as much all the relationships don't matter as much so um i'm gonna preach on a valentine's day hey where's all the single people at single people raise your hand marriage is not your purpose i'd drop it right now if i didn't have some more things to say marriage is not your purpose but if you live as if it is when you get it she just said it she said and i ain't going to be right you want me to have him bring you a mic are we just going to preach this together okay i don't know i mean it's a conversation now like when you're preaching back to me if there are punctuations you talking too much okay i'm just i'm playing i'm just kidding with you that was funny it actually helped me and ain't gonna be right first samuel chapter two okay i thought god anointed me to pray whatever if i live for something that is not my purpose and i get it what happens all of a sudden i'm disappointed in the thing that i have because it does not bring me what it could have never brought me in the first place so make sure that our priorities are on the right thing or you'll be unhappy with everything in your life listen all marriage is is it's a partner to help you pursue the purpose of christ period that's it all business is is it's a partnership to help you pursue the purpose of christ that's it all your giftings and all your talents and all your relationships and all your friendships are a partner to help you pursue the purpose of christ and the quicker you get that the happier you're going to be all right go through growth track and then get on the dream team all right verse 11. after he said this he went on to tell them i love this jesus is getting poetic our friend lazarus has fallen asleep but i am going there to wake him up and his disciples like well lord if he sleeps he'll get better because they didn't understand that jesus had been speaking of his death but his disciples thought that he meant natural sleep so then jesus got a little frustrated and looked at and said he's dead lord if he's asleep shouldn't we just let him sleep a little bit and he'll feel a little better with a little nap he did you ever been around somebody who just doesn't get it like you try as hard as you can to say it the way that they can understand it that they can and they just just don't get it you ever been to starbucks and give them your name listen my name is jeremy okay everybody say jeremy you i mean some people call me pastor some people call me pj but i don't require any of that just jeremy it's fine i'm fine with jeremy it's good i'm okay with it you call me whatever but just jeremy but there are people who call me jeremy now i mean i'll answer to be like hey jeremy i'm like what's up because i know what you're saying right jeremy but in coveted world that's i don't want to be called jeremy okay i sanitize okay all right jeremy right but jasmine is a totally different name that ain't even i'm not even that's not even me when you go to starbucks you never know what they're gonna put on your cup i found this just yesterday i was looking at these names and you don't you have no idea what these names are okay but they put auntie on on this guy's cup his name's andy you got to know they were late this one down here says alien this that's ariel this one says angry her name was ingrid and maybe it fit i don't know maybe she was angry and they were like you angry all right this is my favorite evan and kitten that's yvonne and kristen but whatever it is like you know evan and her friend kitten whatever it is what it is hey listen if you're a starbucks barista stop it we know what you're doing you play too much all right okay am i right name is chris and they're calling you something different it just doesn't make sense so they don't get it and jesus says this so then he told him lazarus is dead now what jesus says we'll pick this up a little bit later next week but it's so powerful and so rude jesus says lazarus is dead and for your sake i'm glad i wasn't there jesus a little angry jesus should we get should we get you a donut or something like that he says i'm glad i wasn't there so that you may believe but let us go to him i love this next person sometimes i feel like this guy then thomas also known as didymus has to add something jesus he's die he's dead let us go to him and thomas said let us also go that we may die with him it's like no no dummy that no you got to know they left some of the stuff that jesus said to him out right can you imagine if you had jesus's expressions you got to know he just looked at him was like father why out all the billions of people i picked you i already struck out with judas and now it didn't say that but that just makes me laugh they don't get it why don't they get it why don't you get it why don't i get it here's why if you're taking notes write this down when you're stuck in the middle it's hard to see the miracle when i'm stuck in the middle of a hard situation it's tough to see that god could do anything good through this and guess what nobody likes the middle right nobody likes the middle listen i like southwest airlines as much as the next person but it gives me anxiety to fly on southwest you know why because i have to pick my seat and i'm always in like the e group like the last one's on the plane and all this left is middle seats and i get anxiety i'm like no oh no i like i like to sit on the aisle where's all the aisle people at you like to sit on the aisle seat i'm like you're excited about like whoa more excited than a worship service whatever all right all right where's where's the window seat people the windows see people you're like oh very excited about the one that's weird very excited we get excited at home city window see if you're online on the chat just let us know i'll or window okay but listen i'm not even gonna ask you if you love the middle c because we don't want to see how weird you are nobody's like ooh ooh middle you know i'm talking about like if i used to have a truck i used to have a truck with just a bench seat it was just one seat didn't recline just and when my buddies got in the truck they always tried to let the other dude in first why because i want to sit i don't want who wants to sit in the middle nobody also because my buddy would duck down and i'd put my arm around my friend it's just weird um i used to rodeo we'd drive up to rodeos like that and the guy in the middle will be punching you um nobody likes nobody likes the middle c nobody likes the middle of pain and uncertainty and heartache and challenges and many of you are here right now and you're in the middle and it's uncertain maybe it's a job loss or an unexpected death of a loved one or a rebellious kid or some type of challenge in your marriage that you just can't seem to overcome loss of a friendship that you never thought you would lose financial hardship and challenges maybe your dreams are dead maybe it's you're in the middle of sin and you cannot see your way out of it all of us are stuck in the middle of something here's what i would tell you you will never not be in the middle of something life is the middle it's the dash between two dates your birth date and your death date you are in the middle can't you be more positive i am positive that you are in the middle of something right now even jesus said hey listen the middle is coming john 16 33 and this is where the layer in the scriptures has come alive to me in the past few weeks we said this jesus says i've told you these things everybody say these things i've told you these things so that in me you may have peace so he tells us hey here's your promise you're going to have peace and here's where it's going to be in me period in this world you will have trouble period but take heart i've overcome the world i love that and we love to preach from that perspective i've overcome the world and a lot of times that's when we use like preacher cliches like he's already overcome the things that you're coming over come on somebody but it's really hard it's hard to live because when you're in the middle it's hard to see the miracle i've told you these things what things what things did he tell them go back and read the context of john 16. he spends almost an entire chapter telling them the hardship and the heartache and the tough times and the frustrations and the pain that you're going to go through so if pain in your life is freaking you out you haven't talked to jesus enough you want to know how to make it through the middle the key to making it through the middle is talking to jesus before you get there that's a good preaching right there why because most of us have a crisis-based relationship with with jesus we hide our bibles behind a little little glass in a little red case that says break in case of emergency hello and he will show up in a crisis but you will get through a crisis a whole lot better if you know how to walk and where to go and whose hands you're holding as you walk through it this is important for us to talk to jesus but i want you to notice this i want you and i wish i had time to preach it to you but but jesus gives them a promise to help them through the pain he says in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble he gives him a promise then tells him about pain the same thing happens he knows it's going to be hard same thing happens with lazarus watch this lazarus is sick come quick verse 4 when he heard this jesus said this sickness will not end in death um come on no it is for god's glory so that god's son may be glorified through it wow that's so good but you gotta know a couple days later it felt real weird to be the one walking up to jesus being like hey oh remember that time you said um this sickness will not be under dude oh he died you gotta know they argued with who was to go tell jesus you tell him i ain't telling him man can walk on water at me well i'm not telling him anything yeah you talking you're done hey uh jesus uh love you so much man it's been a blessing to me and my family um remember thomas is such a doubter um your friend lazarus died what do you want to eat for lunch you got to know it shook their faith jesus boldly stood and said this sickness will not end in death yes he died jesus why would you say i'm not gonna die why would you say it's not gonna be painful why would you say it's not gonna hurt why would you say all this but that's not what he said he didn't say he wouldn't die he said it wouldn't end in death the problem is we focus on the problem and not the promise and when i focus on the problem all i see is the problem but you have to remember what he said is greater than what you're seeing right now where you're going is greater than what you're going through so keep on going don't stay where you are look listen at some point you've got to stop doubting in the dark what god already told you in the light he said this sickness will not end in death what does that mean death might be a part of it but it's not the end and it's not over until god says it's over last time i checked he is the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me shall not die he said look at the construct listen look at the construct of the text john 16 33 listen i want you to notice this this is what's important to learn how to layer in the scriptures i want you to learn how to do this i want you to look at it and then look at what the word says and then look for something deeper watch this john 16 33 i've told you these things so that in me you may have peace everybody say peace everybody said that's a promise put it in the chat there's the promise there's a promise right there there's the promise everybody say promise all right period in this world you will have trouble if i say trouble everybody said there's the problem okay so now we have a promise we have a we have a problem but take heart i have overcome the world everybody say there's the miracle the middle always has a promise on one side and a miracle on the other and your job is to not stop where god told you not to stop it's just to keep going until you get to where god has called you to go the reason some of us are stuck in the listen to me the reason some of us are stuck in the middle is because we're staying in the middle on our own volition we just want to be in the middle we like the middle we're frustrated in the middle some of us wouldn't be able to be comfortable without some fear anxiety doubt and depression you ever notice listen study it in psychology there are people who are addicted to chaos in their relationships do you know why that's how they feel loved i'm preaching good to you right now because some of you whenever you were a kid there was only chaos in your home and that's how you felt loved because somebody like made you feel bad and they came and hugged you and that's how you show love at some point you got to be delivered and you got to be set free of that can i tell you this hey at some point when you're an adult you have to deal with childhood trauma it'll or order creep into every relationship that you have you got to realize if you focus on the promise of the problem it keeps you stuck in the middle when i'm focused on the promise that god gave me why just look at the construct of the verse the promise is here then here's the problem and then here's the miracle the promise propels me through the problem to the miracle the promise becomes fuel for my faith you have to turn your fear into fuel for your faith to keep you moving forward god never said that you wouldn't have any fear he just said i didn't give you that so if god didn't give you that don't focus on that focus on what he gave you and what he gave you was a measure of faith to get through the problem to the promise so just keep going turn to somebody and say just keep going somebody shout i'ma keep going focus on the promise not the problem and martha does something here that's so unique and i'll preach more about it next weekend she says lord if you would have been here her brother wouldn't have died you ever been mad at god it's okay to be honest because he already knows you can hide it from other people but you can't hide it from god if you're mad you might as well tell him really well what's he going to do he's going to heal you he's not going to strike you with a bolt of lightning he already knows you're mad when when you're mad at god get closer to him because that's the only way that he can heal you then if you take it out of his hands martha says even now lord verse 11 verse 22 but i know that even now god will give you whatever you ask what is she saying well i'll tell you what she's not saying she's not saying raise my brother from the dead right now now we see that on this side of the miracle and say maybe that's what she was asking but jesus then said your brother will rise again she said well i know at the end at the resurrection and the life and jesus is like no no no you wanted me to heal him you think it's over now but i want to raise him from the dead can i say that again you want him to fix your before it dies and he wants to completely resurrect it after it's already dead who gets the glory if it's fixed before it's dead maybe you maybe maybe well i don't know how that happened it just happened hey like i'm the luckiest man in the world like this is crazy how this happened no no when it's dead all you can say on the other side of that is but god i can tell you where i was and i could tell you where i am and i don't know how i got here but the grace and the mercy of a holy god and only god can write my story would we even talk about mary martha and lazarus had lazarus not have died he let them be a part of an amazing miracle so if you'll become partners with pain sometimes to produce the purpose that god has called you to get a little comfortable with some suffering suffering all throughout the scripture we don't like to talk about it a lot but you're going to go through hardship you're going to go through challenges if you'll just keep going and here's what she's saying lord it's not about what i want it's about what you want it's not about what i see it's about what you see it's not about what i planned her brother died and she's so bad at jesus that she gets really close to him and she doesn't take the problem out of his hands can you imagine if she'd have walked up to jesus and said jesus you should have been here i don't believe in you anymore get out of here get away from us don't come near the tomb it's offensive for you to even bear you said you love this you said you loved your life you get away from here what would have happened then your surrender to allowing jesus to do what he wants to do in your situation unlocks his power to do so but when you are unwilling to get the problem in his hands he's forced to let you deal with it yourself here's what she did she said i don't like this it's painful it's not fun and it's still yours and she had no idea that the dreams that he had for her were way bigger than the dreams that she had for herself so sometimes the greatest thing that you can do is let your dream die in the hands of god let your hope die in the hands of god let your relationship and your business and your family and all of the things that you want die in the hands of god so that he can reshape it into what he purposed it originally to be which is always going to be better than what you planned for anyway peace is found in perspective he said i've told you these things so that in me you may have peace in who in me in christ in my situation no no in christ you know you have no idea what i'm going through right my marriage is tumultuous lord i'm in a single season i don't even understand i don't know how to get out of this i'm frustrated i'm aggravated it seems like everybody's having weddings and everybody's in love and i'm so sick of it i don't even watch romantic comedies anymore because they're hopeless you don't understand my kids and my finances are i'm addicted to drugs or i have a secret sin habit that i've told no one about oh it's hopeless there's no way listen in your own situation there is no hope and there is no peace but there was never promised any peace in your problem the promise of peace is in christ alone can i just say something right now and it's something i've been mulling over for a long time i'm just so nervous about how the 21st century church accentuates pastors and i love pastors and i'm friends with a lot of pastors and i are one but i am not the hope my words are not the peace of god please don't supplement reading the word of god with watching a sermon clip on instagram at some point turn off what everybody else is saying about him and get in it for yourself and let him speak directly to you because in him is life in his words are life you got to plug into jesus you got to you realize you have a direct line to the son of god you ain't got to go through me and you ain't got to go through a prayer team and you ain't got to go through a group to get to jesus you can talk to him all by yourself there's a power in knowing you mean i have direct access to the throne of the living god and the bible says i can boldly go before the throne of grace what does that mean i can be dirty and i can be messed up and i can be dressed the wrong way and i can be so so mistake riddled with my own fears and my own sins but i can still walk into the throne room of my daddy and say god i desperately need you i've made so many mistakes and nobody believes in me but i know that you love me and i trust you with my life will you take this pain will you take this sin i want to exchange this spirit of heaviness for a spirit of worship and joy and adoration because you alone are worthy you alone are worthy you stand with me all across the room i want to pray for you you have direct access but you have to decide you have to decide a few years ago i got on a plane i got a plane when i got on a plane um i was sitting in the aisle seat and there was and this lady came down y'all know whenever you're on a plane and you see people coming you got a couple extra seats you're like lord please just i would be fine if it was just your angels next to me god if there's nobody here just some really tea tiny people who don't say anything and you know whenever you see the family with the children get on the plane and y'all know cause i've been that family i see how y'all look at us we get on the plane we got 87 kids we're taking up the whole back half of the plane we get on people like and then when we go by they're like sometimes i'll walk by their seat and they'll go and i'll go oh thank you and they're like i'm like i'm just i'm kidding have a good day this lady got on the plane and she had her little daughter with her daughter was like four or five years old and she looked like a sweet enough kid and i was like okay hey and so she set her little daughter in between us so she little girl sit here and then momma sat on that side and i just like hey i made the mistake hey how you doing and started a hours long conversation and the little girl was fine until we took off and we took off i don't know what happened to her but she she jumped on an emotional roller coaster and didn't get off of it until the plane landed she went through every emotion with me she developed a love-hate relationship with me in that moment like at one point she punched me in the face true story and her mother was like we not do that and i was like no never do that and i promise you like five minutes after she punched me in the face i turned around and she kissed me on the mouth i was like no we don't do that we don't kiss strangers finally there was like a little lull and i pulled out the noise cancelling headphones you turn a little switch on right there i can see you i can hear the keyboard but i just can't i can't see you like i can't hear you laugh or i see some of you you know what i did i didn't turn on music it's connected to my phone and i turned on ocean's relaxing surf and you know what i did i looked at that little girl and i went i closed my eyes i reclined my seat half a centimeter and i could hear that sound because mine has seagulls in it and i was there y'all i saw it i saw the water i saw the beach i said i was there i was i was still in the situation but i was gone and some of us have to learn how to find the peace of god in every situation because here's what i want you to understand you have the ability to establish a bluetooth connection with the word of god that says hey in my situation i'll have no peace but jesus said in me you'll find peace so that no matter what i'm in i'm able to tune out the world i'm able to tune out every voice i'm able to tune out all the pain i'm able to tune out all the heartache and i'm able to plug in directly to the peace and the grace and the mercy of a holy god who can speak peace even in the worst tumultuous situations and i can find a reason to praise him no matter what's going on around me so at some point use what you already have to establish a connection to a god who has already conquered it's up to you sit down for just a second i want to pray for you and then daniel's going to come out lord i thank you for each and every person under the sound of my voice right now i pray that you would strengthen their hearts i pray that you would help them walk through everything that they're walking through lord i know god i know that you're able if you're in here maybe you're on the chat nobody looking around for just a moment but you are in the middle of something very painful just lift your hand right now lift your hand thank you honesty all across room hands all across the room lord i thank you for the people that you brought here today that inclement weather could not keep them away i pray that you would give them peace and give them strength in the midst of pain strength in the midst of the struggle to know that you are with them right now god i pray in this moment phil is so strong that you would just whisper in their ear i am with you that even in this situation and you may not deliver us out of every situation but you have promised to be with us in every situation and we trust you and we give you praise and we give you honor and we give you glory in jesus name come on let's give him an ovation of worship right now that only a king is worthy of come on you can praise you can praise him you can praise him better than that come on the presence of god is in the room come on amazing do this just let's take it one step further for just a moment just close your eyes for a moment first peter 5 7 when pastor was preaching what a great word good pastor jeremy hand wow and i love the i love two verses that go back to back first peter 5 6 says to humble yourself from the mighty hand of god verse 7 of first peter 5 he says to cast all your cares on the lord when pastor jeremy had those headphones on and he was just connecting to the heart of god can you do that just for a moment before we land this plane and everybody's going to go home and hunker down eat hungry man dinners and hot pockets this week well you just got some i feel i feel this strong that there's some of you that when you walk out you walked in with heaviness and you're gonna walk out replacing with a garment of praise isaiah 61 3. so right now can you do that can you just begin to cast some of y'all need to forgive some people that will never say sorry and that's going to unlock freedom in you some of you all need to get healed from something that cut you because you've been bleeding on people that did not cut you and i just feel like as pastor jeremy was going through that today you've been caught in the middle the problem and the promise and i feel like god wants to reveal his promise of restoration and healing in your life right now so if you want to lift your hands right now you can just cast those cares right now right now if you're watching online just begin to cast your cares on the lord i'm telling you there's healing in this moment we're going to look back a year from now two years from now three years from now say i remember it was february 12 february 14 2021 i got set free healed and delivered in jesus name somebody give god praise come on awesome look at me real quick if you walked in today and maybe you're like daniel this was exactly what i needed the truth is i don't know jesus as my savior the reason we do all of this is to point you to jesus we want you to love god love people change the world we want you to find freedom you do that through jesus i want you to find hope and his name is jesus and if you walked in and maybe something in your heart was just convincing you of the fact that there's more to life than the way you've been living it you say today's the day that i want to surrender my life to jesus the truth is the answer always begins with and always ends with jesus maybe you got caught up in the prodigal life and you've fallen away maybe you've been away from church for a while somebody convinced you to come back today or you're watching online you say i used to know him i used to walk with him but i don't any longer today's my day i want to rededicate my life close your eyes just for a moment search your heart do you know him do you have that bluetooth connection that coveted connecting point that pastor was talking about with the savior of the world have you fallen away have you lost that connection and you want to rededicate today i'm going to count to three we will not embarrass you i promise you no one's going to harass you this is between you and jesus right now i want to give my life to jesus one two i want to rededicate my life when i hit three if that you lift up your hand three you're talking about me and hands are going up all over the room just lift them up lift them up if you're online right now you can type yes to jesus come on wave at me if that's you you can put your hands down anybody else before we pray i'm looking all over the room i'm telling you there was a significant shift that happened today in worship all the way throughout and i feel like god got your attention today wave at me anybody else before i see you my friend thank you it's going up everywhere amazing here at hope city we don't pray a prayer for symbolic reasons we pray because romans 10 verse 9 and 10 it says confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that jesus is lord and you will be saved from our hope city worship team to our production team everybody in the room can we pray online pray with me now 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 i lay every mistake and all my shame at your feet and i ask for your forgiveness i've had a lot of problems but today because i found you i have the promise today on i'll live for you you are my father you are my savior and you are my lord in jesus name amen

Channel: Hope City

Views: 33,553

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, pastor jeremy foster, houston church, houston, local church, church, inspirational, sermon, sermon on promise, promise in the problem, lazarus, lazarus sermon, inspiring pastor, inspiring sermon, inspirational sermon, hope city houston, hope city jeremy, miracle

Id: M6AoCPRX0N0

Length: 48min 11sec (2891 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021