The Rhythm of Rest | Rhythms | Pastor Daniel Groves | Hope City

pastor jeremy kicked off our new series called rhythm last weekend and i want to unpack rhythm this week but we're going to be talking about the rhythm of rest everybody take a deep breath but don't breathe too heavy because you're going to panic the people around you just be real now take a deep breath in it's a miracle you're even breathing it's a miracle you woke up again today and you're breathing which is proof that god's not done with you yet come on you've already survived 100 of your worst days and you're still standing so come on rest in the lord knowing just that that he's still fighting for you so last week pastor jeremy talked about rhythm he did this really cool illustration with the drums and talked about how the downbeat of the drums syncopates everything so we can add melodies and we can add other musical instruments but it all is built around the beat the word rhythm actually means the definition is a strong regular repeated pattern of movement or sound so when we listen to a song and we experience a song or we watch a movie and we hear this amazing soundtrack there's a sequence a movement a flow there's a rhythm to the movement and as a beginning it has an end and it continues though ultimately moving forward and we can see all throughout the bible that god is always on the move so we're going to talk about rhythm for just a moment god is always on the move two-thirds of his name is actually go that's a little cheesy but anyways and he has always lived up to this attribute one of the most fascinating things about god's god's movement is the consistency in his direction that he always moves forward this this is why that he is far more interested in your future than your past and your past is a part of your story but stop looking back because you're not going that way any anymore in the rhythm of life god is saying listen everything you do just keep moving forward and we believe during this series as we unlock different types of rhythm as we unlock movement in our lives we are praying and believing that you guys will find your stride and that you won't keep striving you ever just you find yourself striving just kind of just kind of going through the motions almost cruise control i have a friend who ran the boston marathon barefoot i'm like why you could have put on crux or something and he was talking about just speed and aerodynamics he couldn't walk for two weeks afterwards i'm like okay i could have seen that one coming but he talked about as a marathon runner you can't strive or you'll wear yourself out where's all the runners out where's everybody you run on purpose i only run someone's chasing me i don't i told my wife i was thinking about getting calf implants so i look like a runner i want people like he obviously runs look at his caps uh okay where's all the runners that wave at me if you're okay we're very very cool so how many are wear hocus those are like the best running shoes i hear okay cool guy in the back two hands and a foot lifted he's a hoka rep no no he was talking about as a marathon runner you have to find your stride he said i'll syncopate my steps to my breathing patterns and i have to find my stride or i can't get to the end because if i'm striving i'll wear myself out completely do it in my own strength and our prayer during this rhythm series is that you will find your stride so that you don't constantly live in a state that seems worn out we also are going to get to a point in the series where we recognize and we believe that god is working in our lives even if we don't feel or see it because spiritual growth i want you to hear this spiritual growth can be slow sometimes it's one small step at a time but here's the other reality and i think that sometimes this is a misconception god is not in a hurry we are so just so you know god is not in a hurry and this is why we we end up tired and stressed and anxious and disappointed because i believe so much of the time our attention is focused on our own strength and all the noise and uncertainty around us and there's a lot of it right now but the reality is we have to learn the rhythm of resting in the lord the bible says in matthew 11 28 this is jesus's words come to me all who are weary and burdened watch this and i will give you rest so today i pray that you will surrender your timeline in favor of god's sustaining peace in his supernatural rest our prayer during this rhythm series and today again we're going to be talking about the rhythm of rest we pray that you find your stride if you're taking down notes write that down i'm going to find my stride come on i'm going to get my groove back like stella come on this might be baby steps for some you may take a giant leap whatever you do just keep moving forward and remember that the only direction designed for us as king's kids as sons and daughters of the living god is ford hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 says this and let us run with endurance now that sounds like like fast no no endurance isn't talking about speed this isn't a sprint running with endurance is that marathon it's that stride it's locking into the grace and the pace of the holy spirit and the assignment that's on your life let us run with endurance the race god has set before us we do this by keeping our eyes on jesus and with all that said we're also in the middle of 21 days of prayer how many guys have jumped in and you're a part of 21 days of prayer come on 11 of you this is super successful so far now how many all have been praying come on you've been intentional amazing and it's not too late we're only a weekend you can still jump in we're giving you resources every day you can go on our instagram our hope city facebook page we put a different devotional up there every single day you can go we're giving you the tools here's the reality make this a priority because if you have time to complain about it you have time to pray about it and we talk a lot but it's time to get intentional with our prayer life it's time to get intentional with our future and the assignment that god has on our lives i love what andy stanley says he says you don't just end up drifting in a good direction you prioritize yourself there so look at the person next to you and say make room for prayer come on let them know and here's the truth as we unlock and we talk about this rhythm of rest last weekend pastor jeremy kicked off week one he talked about restoration and he talked about healing i encourage you to go back to the archives and watch last weekend and follow along and take down notes but this weekend as we talk about the rhythm of rest i want to unpack this a little bit because the truth is we all struggle a little bit how many all like you love to sleep like it's a big deal to you like like my sweet spot and this is true my sweet spot's about five hours like my wife's like five hours now my wife i don't know how many other moms are like this my wife gets her second wind about quarter till uh midnight every night she gets the kids down she's like hey you want to watch a movie i'm like it's 11 40 5. i'm good for 15 minutes we can just watch three trailers if you're good to watch three trailers i'm good she gets her second win but she's a sleeper she used to enjoy we used to just when she would sleep she's like if i could get nine ten hours and then we have four kids that's just not possible anymore but how many all like to sleep because more was all the okay cool so we're going to be talking about rest there's some physical sides of that but then we're also going to be talking about resting in the lord so here's a few rest components rest is a necessary component to restoration pastor jeremy last week talked about how the first part of restoration literally is rest rest is a necessary component also to preventing trauma pastor jeremy last weekend unpacked trauma and trauma bonds rested people react with clarity because there is more in their social spiritual and emotional tank rest is in the ten commandments somebody like thou shall not steal there's kill in there no number four is remember the sabbath literally god is saying hey this is a day of rest at hope city our staff we take mondays off this is a day of rest because we believe that when we give god this one day of rest he'll give us six days of supernatural strength so we honor that as our sabbath during the week is that monday for us medically the quality of your rest determines the pace of your healing think about it a doctor will say you need to go home and get some get some rest medically determines this pace of your healing is based upon the quality of your sleep rest is triune because we are triumphant spirit soul and body rest is not netflix or merely sleeping in real rest is a calculated targeted restoring of your spirit your emotions and your physical body but here's the reality you can be rested physically and completely spent emotionally and then you'll find yourself unbalanced you'll find yourself falling into brokenness and it messes with your joy it messes with your strength it messes with your peace i remember a few years ago this pastor called us and said hey i want to bless like 12 pastor friends and we're going to do this big it's a check-in checkup sort of marriage uh thing with a therapist and my wife and i are all about that my wife's a counselor and she's like let's do it he's like we're gonna talk about unpack some blind spots and so he sent us these tests the tests were two hours and you had to use a pencil and you just circle in those little dots and it was like how do you resolve conflict do you like dark chocolate i'm like what how much ice cream do you eat i'm like wait a minute is this what are we doing right now so there's like 300 questions it took forever i was like texting my friend matt i was like do you think you could come do this test jack he's like no you've got to do the test so about a week later he had the results and he met with us and he said first let me just tell you this therapist he said first let me tell you you guys have a very healthy marriage i said thank you and he said uh there are a couple blind spots i'm like really i didn't expect that he's like he loves chocolate i'm like okay that you did put that in there he goes no here's the thing you are very driven he said you probably don't need caffeine i said ah sleep about five hours an hour to wake up i'd have five shots of espresso amen but but but no the truth is i'm very driven i have an on switch and an off switch that's it i'm on and he said the reality is you don't know how to rest it was frustrating i'll be honest something you don't know me 300 premium questions that i was circling in but the reality is i didn't understand what rest was i was just driving and waking up 120 mile an hour all the time and he said i want to prescribe something to he pulls out his little doctor pad starts writing a prescription i say hey man i know i got some ocds and i need to sleep but i'm good and he rips it off and hands it to me and it says silent solitude three day retreat he said i want to encourage you to go take a three-day trip that is just in complete silence and solitude where you say nothing you don't even pray out loud you're just quiet and you rest so i called a friend of mine like this is crazy i definitely don't want to do this and he was like man i got this cabin up in michigan up in the upper peninsula it's beautiful you should just come up so i flew in and i got in there and i'll be honest the first 10 the first 10 hours i was like because here's the truth i'm old enough to know what it's like to not have technology and there's this thing we used to talk about it's called boredom how many has ever experienced that the new digital natives are like boredom is that when my wi-fi isn't working and my gram doesn't load in like three seconds i'm like how many likes did i get it's like that except multiplied by a lot more like it's just a lot so the first 10 hours i was super bored i was like but i couldn't make any noise and then about 25 26 hours in i started feeling the weight of it about 36 hours in the clock hand the hand on the clock was like quick it was so loud i was like how do i remove can i just break the clock like how do i but i ended up finding my rhythm and i remember sitting down in the chair and opening up the bible i ended up reading over 90 chapters in the bible clearing my throat sounded loud like it was unbelievable for three days i just i spent in complete silence and solitude in the presence of god and the lord began to download some things to me and as i leaned in and i recognized the importance of entering into this place of rest he began to renew and restore and do some healing in me and put stitches where i've been putting band-aids and i'm literally living in the harvest of those three days even now i'm still leading out of that place i'm still being a good husband and a good father out of that place and the truth is when i leaned in and chose to really rest and find that rhythm of rest god was able to really get my attention because here's the truth i want to say this i've said it before god is always speaking the holy spirit is always speaking but the truth is we allow so many distractions and so much stuff filling our calendars and distracting us and mudding the waters of our ability to listen we don't realize he's always speaking so my wife's like i think you should go and i remember calling my friend he's like you know jesus did this so it's in the word mark chapter 1 verse 35 watch this very early in the morning this is what compelled me to actually go while it was still dark jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed because y'all here's the truth it's only getting noisier and the noise of this modern world almost makes it uh uh impossible to hear the voice of god it drowns out the true input that we need most and that's the voice of god in our lives and the truth is that type of rest we're talking about is only found in his presence if you want to find rest if you want to unlock the rhythm of rest in your life some of y'all are going to have to stop watching the news so much turning it on too much the constantly negative news all the time just the fear is everywhere you're gonna have to get off social media some of y'all are living on tick-tock some of you are living on the instagram you're literally going if you go to your iphone i can't speak to the droid friends you're still welcome here but you're still welcome i just can't speak to this but on the iphone it tells you your screen time that's a little sobering you're like i didn't spend nine hours a day on my phone some of y'all are gonna have to turn off social media you're gonna have to turn off toxic voices in your life because what ends up happening is watch this it robs you of your ability to be present with god it robs you of your ability to be present for other people it robs you of your ability to be present in all that is good and true and still beautiful in this world and it robs you of even being present for yourself some of you are like daniel that's amazing that you were able to go up to the u.p and do a little three-day find myself retreat i can't do that i have no margin in my calendar but you can be intentional every day you can be intentional we give you tools here at hope city and we give you the first 15 challenge five minutes in worship five minutes in word five minutes in prayer every day god can do more in 15 minutes than you can do in a lifetime but the truth is it's not about quantity it's about that quality time in his presence you want to rest get in his presence every single day let's talk to my friend josh who's on our team here we were talking about how a lot of times maybe subconsciously we don't even know that we we step into rest and we don't even realize it like when you come home maybe you have to wear a uniform or maybe you're a business person you got to wear a suit when you walk into your house you don't just leave what you were wearing at work on all day you don't just walk in and be like i'm literally just gonna wear this and go straight to bed now some of you you walk in and your pjs are already sitting there you like jump in a onesie right when you walk in the door because the truth is you you disconnect from what has been stressing you out you disconnect from work you are casting off what you were wearing that day and almost like placing a coat on a coat rack true rest is found when you allow god to hold the weight that you've been carrying the bible says in first peter 5 7 that we are to cast all of our cares this is literally like taking off the stress and replacing it with a garment of praise all your anxieties all your worries all your concerns once and for all on him for he cares about you with deepest affection and watches over you very carefully so i was raised in a house that would say because we were a lot of self-starters startup businesses and we were driven all the time and my grandpa would say i'll rest when i die how many ever heard that before i'll rush when i'm under the ground and we i kind of had this misconception that rest was laziness but i've learned in the rhythm of rest that rest is a power move pace is proof of maturity and when you pace yourself and you recognize that god is with you and fighting for you there is a rest in knowing that you don't have to do it in your own strength and here's the truth the wind is rarely at our back making life easier the truth is it's usually in your face making you stronger so you have to have a pace and you have to find your stride so that you can continue to get stronger god gave moses a directive and gave him some clarity on the assignment that he had for him and he told him he said listen my presence is going to be with you and inside of this covering of my presence you will have rest exodus 33 14 says the lord replied my presence will go with you and i will give you rest we talked about sleeping earlier how many are nappers like you like to nap like it's a big deal okay cool cool so i'm not a big napper like my wife yesterday was like hey you need to take a nap i'm like what are you talking about she's like you're kind of snappy you should take a nap i'm like you're snappy you go make me a sandwich she's like you go make me a sandwich and then you go take a nap so i made her a sandwich and then i went got in bed so the truth is when it comes to napping uh there's there's the naps that are a little like you didn't get enough of a nap and then there's the balance of like well there's too much like for me like a 30 minute power nap i'm good like if i can doze off on a plane i'm good but if my wife's like he needs sleep and like she did yesterday and woke me up 90 minutes y'all i woke up like a different person i didn't even know my name like i just was fussy and just up 90 minutes just too much and then you got people that are like oh saturdays i love naps i i slept for four and a half hours i'm like you should've just slept into the next day that's not a nap you that's called night you were sleeping like they're doing a sleep study on you that is a but as a parent uh my my wife and i recognize as parents of our four kids when they need a break so our two-year-old you can tell i'm like either he's tired or he's manifesting a demon there's something going on this gets his kid in bed and so we'll say fox you got to go to bed he'll be like no nappy he doesn't want to take a nap but as soon as you lay him down because we as his parents me as his father and jackie is his mom we know when he needs to take a nap we know when he needs rest pastor jeremy last weekend reference psalms 23 i'm gonna tie all this together watch this the lord is my shepherd verse one i lack nothing verse two is huge he makes me lie down in green pastures he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside quiet waters and he refreshes my soul verse two is key it's all about rest he makes us lie down he knows as a father like i do with my kids what we need when we need to close your eyes for just a moment at home cinco woodlands west houston close your eyes nobody's nobody's gonna take your stuff just close your eyes just rest i want you to just take a minute just take a minute and just breathe just rest from it some of y'all are so consumed by tomorrow and so consumed by your to-do list and so consumed by checking the boxes and so consumed by crossing t's and dot and eyes you haven't even taken a moment just to rest god today i pray that the power of your spirit like a blanket of peace would be going to wrap each and every person up in your rest god that we would unlock the spirit of rest would be unlocked today in our lives our families that we would leave better and refresh today in jesus name somebody say amen psalm 62 1 verse 2 says truly my soul finds rest in god my salvation comes from him he is my rock and my salvation he is my fortress i will not be shaken and i want to say this for a moment because maybe last month during the relationship series maybe during strings attached how many all enjoyed strings attached like it was awesome and maybe you walked out excited and refreshed and fired up and maybe you left and you realized there was some healing and some blind spots maybe you left kind of burdened maybe you left shaken and maybe you left with some anxiety i just want to encourage you to rest don't try to make these life altering decisions in a moment but rather rest in the lord and allow god to comfort your worries directly i think that's one of the most amazing things that we have in the love of our god it's like the love from a daddy to a daughter a father to a son that he meets you where you're at so there was a lot of great information a lot of things that were encouraging a lot of things that revealed some blind spots and some areas that you needed stitches and healing in but the truth is god will meet you where you're at so i just want you to be encouraged as we continue throughout this rhythm series to rest in the lord and allow the holy spirit to bring you peace directly the bible says in isaiah 61 3 i mentioned a moment ago it talks about replacing heaviness replacing the burdens of life with a garment of praise and when you really begin to walk in this rhythm of rest you'll also start walking in your purpose there was a season in my life uh where i was anxious about everything like i was pretty pessimistic i'd wake up on monday and be like ugh another week but honestly i was kind of raised that way my mom loves mondays there's a lot of optimism in my family but the truth is i kind of had a half glass empty i kind of had a pessimistic approach i kind of had a negative approach the reality is i started realizing that my focused attention was on my condition my struggles my stress and i was making it all about me and the bible says in philippians chapter four verse six and seven it says do not be anxious about anything i was anxious about everything it says do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god verse 7 and the peace of god i love this which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds and jesus we encourage you all here at hope city to take down notes so if you have the ability to take down notes uh pull out your device and get ready to write this down if you've already been taking down notes amazing if you want to if you're old school and you just have a piece of paper elbow the person next to you and borrow an eyeliner just take down those but i want you to write this down because i think this is huge and it's heavy but watch number one we have to stop walking in our condition and start walking in our position you want to unlock the rhythm of rest in your life recognize that you're a daughter and a son of the living god god doesn't look at you and call you damaged goods and fragile it does not mean that you are free from flaws and weaknesses we all deal with them but the truth is he calls you a daughter he calls you a son and there's one fundamental way that i want to unpack here just for a moment about how we can walk in our position and not our condition it doesn't mean you're not going to have struggles and storms and issues but there's this old uh there's this old adage and i remember my mom would tell me she'd be like buddy buddy you're letting this bother you too much you need to let it just roll off you like water off a duck's back i'm like okay riddler what are we talking about all those country things but the reality is this a duck has an oil in its feather it's feathers so when it rains it's like built-in rain-x and it just beads up and rolls right off of them see when you wear the whole armor of god every day and you put on that spiritual armor not real armor you put on real armor you'll go to jail but spiritual armor every damn we're going to unpack it when you put on that spiritual armor every day you can walk in your position no longer your condition ephesians chapter 6 says this in verse 13 through 17 therefore put on the full armor of god so when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist the breastplate of righteousness in place with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace 16 in addition to all of this take up the shield of faith for which we'll extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one 17 and take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god see every day when you put on the armor of god the one i want to focus on today because we're talking about rest is the feet readiness the feet of peace that you put on literally when you put on the armor of god and you put on the feet of peace it literally empowers you to walk in a spirit of rest so when you walk into a room the atmosphere changes because you have been with jesus again you're walking in your position you're not walking in your condition when you wear that armor of god every day the power of god's spirit is present with you and ultimately through you does anything that we pick up when reading the gospels matthew mark luke and john in the new testament is that jesus was rarely in a hurry can you imagine a stressed out jesus like think about it like he walks in he's like to mary magdalene like where's my hummus maggie can you imagine he's like hey i wanna i wanna come pray for you to be healed but i gotta jump on a plane and do a ted talk over in jerusalem like yeah but i don't have time but here's uh my assistant judas's card he'll i'll help you now it was the opposite jesus was actually intentional with everyone in every moment and when we look at the steps jesus took we also noticed that he didn't always take or actually never took the fastest route except when he walked on the water that was the time that he was like i got to get to the boat no no but he went out of his way and we see it all throughout scripture he went out of his way to minister to the one whether it was the grieving mother in luke 7 the samaritan woman at the well in john 4 jarius's daughter in mark 5. in mark 10 when he came across and walked by and stopped to heal blind bartimaeus or matthew chapter 9 verse 20 when he got in the way of the woman with the issue of blood's uh storm he got in the way of her storm and just came by her patch just got in the way of her struggle and her situation and she was completely made whole jesus didn't try to fit more in because he remembered why he was here he walked in his purpose he walked in his position the bible says in luke chapter 4 and when it was the day he departed and went over to a desolate place and the people saw and came to him they kept they kept him from leaving he said to them listen i must go preach the good news of the kingdom of god to other towns as well and he said this line for i was sent for this purpose see jesus did more than just walk with purpose he walked in his purpose and he gave us a great example to follow so i'm going to ask you this question are you walking in your purpose are you walking in your purpose because if you're so stressed and you're so full of anxiety and you have no peace and you're just surviving life how can you really walk in your purpose that's why here at hope city we say it all the time we want you to know god not as a religious experience but in relationship wants you to find freedom so that god can heal restore and deliver you once you discover your purpose because we believe that every single person has a purpose on this planet and then ultimately we want you to make a difference but the truth is we are in such a hurry so much of the time that we miss moments that god had for us and we miss out on moments that we were supposed to maybe help somebody else see out loud i want to walk in my purpose come on let me hear you say it let me say this this is going to be for somebody everything is not a part of your assignment some of y'all are just busy and it's not your business i'm gonna say it again not everything is a part of your assignment that's why you're so tired you're so busy all the time your calendar is filled but it's none of your business and i want to encourage you today my wife and i do this all the time we sit down frequently we talk about things that we can eliminate on our calendar and things that we can eliminate that's not connected to our assignment but this comes with prayer and the leading the directive of the holy spirit that's why 21 days of prayer is so important god will pull weeds and you can allow him to pull some weeds which makes room ultimately for some seed and i believe this month if you will lean in god will unlock some amazing things because somebody say amen bible says in isaiah 28 16 therefore says the lord behold i am the one who is laid as a foundation a stone a tested stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation watch this and whoever believes so we build our life we build everything that we do here in christianity here at hope city is built on the rock it's built on the foundation of jesus whoever believes will not be in haste the definition of the word haste is hurry urgency excessive speed you know that one person that just they're always walking really fast all the time did you notice at the olympics this year there's actually a speed walking competition this is unbelievable i was with pastor jeremy he walked so fast we were at this restaurant the other day i couldn't catch him like he he's shorter than me but he walks in like 20 miles an hour like he was so i was like pastor james i'm trying to catch here it was unbelievable but a lot of times that's that's me and our relationship like jackie and i it should be like why are you such a hurry the movie doesn't start for 20 more minutes i'm like we got to get there the truth is i started recognizing in different areas of my life when i'm talking about the rhythm and the pace and the stride in my life i asked myself this question i told my wife last night i said is my pace does my pace reveal that i'm resting in god or depending on me does my pace my calendar my urgency my inability to sit down and just color with my five-year-old does my pace represent and look like i'm resting in god or am i depending on me because i've learned in my life over the past 20 years of ministry i've learned that when i rush it i ruin it when i rush it i get in the way that's why i've learned to pause pray and be patient that's a word for somebody and when you walk in the rhythm of rest and grace you will find your stride and you'll start noticing that your life will begin to come into alignment i just got brandy tires put on my wife's uh yukon the other day and they did a nice alignment on it and when you rest in the presence of god when you lean into the presence of god when you lean into things like this 21 days of prayer and in january when we do 21 days of prayer and fasting you're going to lay down the oreos when you lean into his presence it's almost like a supernatural alignment you lock into the rhythm of rest alignment determines assignment assignment starts with god alignment starts with us so number one we're going to stop walking in our condition and start walking in our position and another way to unlock the rhythm of rest in our lives number two we have to this is tough we have to relinquish control proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 and 6 says trust in the lord with a little bit of your heart it doesn't say that trust in the lord with a few things no it's just with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding and in all of your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight the truth is we have to live open-handed the truth is if you want to stop being so stressed and worn out and overtaken and overwhelmed you have to live a life that's surrendered you have to live a life that relinquishes control and when we truly find this rhythm of rest we begin to walk in this it's also a walk of faith because faith requires us to relinquish control to release the burden to place the confidence and expectation in jesus not ourselves and here's the truth the pressure is then off of your shoulders because you recognize i can't fix this i can't restore this i can't deliver this i can't even level up only god can do this and when you begin to lean into his presence and you begin to release the struggle and the control i pray right now i don't know who this is for but if you struggle with control issues you haven't been experiencing because statistically when you struggle with control issues you struggle with rest my prayer this weekend is that you would release that relinquished control and enter into a rhythm of rest last but not least as we bring us in for atlanta number three this is huge just gonna mess with somebody we have to allow god to mess up our plans [Music] i heard the saying you want to make god laugh tell him your plans because the truth is i'm not talking about god's plan for your life i'm talking about like god i know you are you know smart enough and big enough and you created everything you shaped me molding me in your image and you told the water where to stop and the sun's the star in the moon i get all that but i got it i'll take care of this one no no the truth is we're talking about god's plan for your life proverbs 16 9 says in their hearts humans determine their course like oh my god i've got it figured out no no but the lord establishes their steps and when we follow our own plans we get things out of sync things just don't connect right when we get in the way what ends up happening is we mess up that syncopation that rhythm there was there was um there was a season where i was i'm always i've always been driven we've talked about that but right before uh right before a massive decision i was about to make i was just dealing with a lot of heaviness and anxiety and i went to my parents and i was like hey i really feel like everything i've been working so hard for is my next step and my mom's like daniel i don't i don't know if this is god's plan for your life i'm like yes it is so some of you didn't know but i so in high school i played basketball i was going overseas to play ball i had an opportunity right out of high school to go overseas and i was fired up so you all didn't know i had to like i had it like that so i go to this worship night the night before i'm supposed to fly out and the pastor gets up in front of like 2 500 college students and he's like there's somebody in the room right now and you do not have direction and god wants to align some things in your heart and you and he took us to that verse proverbs 16 9 in their hearts humans determined their course but god has not been leading your steps i want you to get out of your seat and come meet me down here right now so i'm like there's 2 500 other college students we're all confused you know what i mean y'all this is a true story i got out of my seat no one else moved i'm like oh so you're very oh you're super safe oh so you really know the voice of god nobody else has struggles i was the only person true story i go all the way to the front the pastor said wow god would stop this entire service for you but here's the truth i would not be standing here today if i wouldn't have stepped out in that moment i allowed god to mess up my plans and i went to the front and god called me in that moment i literally felt the lord say i've called you to do evangelism through worship all you have to do is get in the way of people's storms and point them to me and god literally began to show me what was next i ended up going to bible college i stepped into a whole different plan it was it was his plan so afterwards i go to this restaurant and i'm hanging out with friends i was like guys i think i'm going to wait i don't think i'm going to go overseas i think i'm going to go to bible college i i feel like all of this has been me but god showed me some stuff tonight so on our way out my friend's like i think i know those girls when we go when we start talking to them and they're like oh yeah we were at the united worship true story the girl's like oh aren't you that guy that needed deliverance i'm like no direction i needed to she's like it's cool i'm like no i needed direction ah so last friday 22 years ago last friday my wife and i took a pic in front of a place called cheddars because 22 years ago i met a girl at cheddars and 17 years later on that night we got married 17 years later we're married four kids i didn't get married on that night we met on that night so we were like wow god did a lot on that day that was 22 years ago it was jackie it was her first weekend at college we met that night and we ended up on the journey together at the same church together and god messed up my plans and now 17 years later four kids later look at what god has done i'm here in houston texas at hope city because god god messed up my plans this verse is for somebody proverbs chapter 3 verse 6 through 9 says listen for god's voice in every thing you do everywhere you go he's the one that will keep you on track watch this don't assume you know it all that's where my issue was then it says run to god another translation says cling to god stand your feet with with me if you would god today my prayer if you'll lift your hands towards heaven in the words of our savior jesus again in matthew 18 with your eyes closed come to me all who are weary who carry heavy loads who are carrying burdens and i will give you rest god i pray today that you would unlock rest in marriages god that you would unlock rest in broken places that you would unlock rest in hopeless situations that you would unlock rest in the middle of that diagnosis that you would unlock rest in the middle of that anxiety that depression that insecurity and concern that you would unlock rest in the middle of that that noise and uncertainty that fear that timidity and concern god i pray that you would unlock rest god replace panic attacks with rust replace that hopeless feeling with rest replace that that noise of what if the doctors say it's cancer what if the doctors say it's this with supernatural rest that says i'm the great physician i'm the healer god i pray that the power of your spirit would meet every person where they're at here at west houston cinco the woodlands online god i pray for a spirit of rest the reality is it says to run to god in his presence is everything you need in his presence is all the peace all the clarity all the perseverance the fight the joy the wisdom everything you need when you need it the rest the rhythm of rest is found in his arms and nothing else nothing else nothing else we'll do i just want you nothing else [Music] nothing else nothing else will do [Music] [Music] nothing else nothing else come over you lift your hands and declare i just [Music] with you come on [Music] my [Music] come on even more shout it out [Music] so start walking in your position not your condition start relinquishing control and for somebody i know this hit for somebody you need to allow god to mess up your plans because you've just been getting in the way and you've been overwhelmed with stress and anxiety and concern but find that rhythm of rest today as god begins to unlock clarity and purpose in your life with every eye closed just for a moment if you're in the room at cinco at woodlands watching online you're at west houston you said daniel here's the truth i've never experienced rust because i don't know jesus the bible says in romans 10 verse 9 and 10 that when we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart that jesus is lord you will be saved everything changes any time jesus got in the way of anybody's storm we talked about it today their story changed or maybe you're hearing you say daniel the truth is i got caught up in the prodigal life and i fell away today's the day that i want to rededicate my life i'm going to count to three here at hope city we will never embarrass you it's god's job to change you but we want to walk with you so that you can be discipled if you want to experience true rest it's found in the foundation of jesus one i want to give my life to jesus two i want to rededicate my life three if that's you would you lift up your hand hands are going up all over west houston i know they're going up right now at cinco the woodlands come on lift up your hand lift up your hand it's at you daniel today's the day today's the day our moderators right now on our online campus you can say yes to jesus they're going to walk that out with you right now yes to jesus right now all right i want everybody to pray this prayer with me 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 thank you for forgiving me thank you for restoring me as i enter in to your supernatural rest from this moment on i'm gonna live for you for you are my father you are my savior and you are my lord in jesus name amen

Channel: Hope City

Views: 4,754

Rating: 4.9745221 out of 5

Keywords: Jeremy Foster, Hope City, pastor jeremy, jermy foster, jeramy foster, hope city church, daniel groves, houston church, hope city houston, pastor daniel groves, beard pastor, rhythms, rhytms, rhythyms, rhythms of rest, sky daddy, hope city daniel, hope daniel groves, sermon, inspirational, sermons, message, church, pentecostal, miracles, signs, wonders

Id: DB7JAW5dyII

Length: 42min 45sec (2565 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021