Jeremy Foster | First Conference 2019

Man.

What an honor to be with each and every one of you, especially Pastor Robert and Debbie Morris.

What a blessing to be with you guys and uh and all of our campuses.

Let's just welcome everybody and we're glad all of you guys are with us.

What a blessing to be a part of this.

Now, I won't take long, but Pastor Robert, I don't think I've told you this story.

I told it to the men's conference.

How many of you guys were at Men's Summit?

We had a great time.

Yeah, it was fun.

And uh I the first time that we actually spent some time together, um, we were in in the green room and we were eating together, and you said a word, and you said while we were talking, Pastor Robert said, I'm a grammarian.

Which is another word from really, really smart.

And um, but I was in the process because you guys fed us and you fed us, you fed us fajitas, and there were chips and salsa in there.

And I was trying to be like, you know, when you're in a room where you're a little nervous, you don't want to eat too much, right?

But it's chips and salsa, you know?

And so I'm just like, I'm like just eating.

And he said, I'm a grammarian, and I couldn't hear it because I was crunching.

You know what I mean?

Like when you're crunching, like it's really loud in your own ears.

And I heard Gremlin.

I heard Pastor Robert say he was a gremlin, and uh I didn't get it, and he looked at me and he could-you were so kind.

He looked at me and he knew uh this kid doesn't understand what I just said, and uh so he he proceeded to explain it to me.

He said, A grammarian is someone who studies grammar.

And I said, I got that, and then me just being me, I said, I got that.

I thought you said a gremlin, and then we just laughed about it, and so all that to say, guys, I can't believe I'm here.

Um what an honor.

Come on, let's give it up for Pastor Robert and Debbie Morris.

What a blessing! You got amazing pastors, and I will tell you this, I'm gonna jump right in.

I will tell you this.

Um, it was uh amazing last year during your sickness.

Um, I think the enemy tried to take you out.

It was a scary moment, and and to watch what happened with uh with this church, so the first mobilization happened with you, you begin to pray for your pastor, and not just a little bit of prayer, not just uh a text thread that went out.

I'm talking hundreds of people showed up at church and started praying, and pictures started circulating on social media, and before too long, if you didn't know that uh your pastor, and this is not just me buttering him up, this is something I really felt today while I was praying in a hotel room.

If your pastor is a general in the gospel, and uh and so before too long, it wasn't just the United States of America praying, it it's the it's the whole world praying for one man, praying for the power of God.

And and God not just showed us his power, he rose Pastor Robert up, and something amazing happened.

I think the whole world began to see the power of prayer, but I also think that Gayway church went beyond something.

It went, it went, it's like a line of demarcation.

Now I'm just gonna kind of go off script here if it's okay, but it was kind of like a line of demarcation.

Like this church has been unbelievable for a long time.

Pastor Robert's been amazing for a long time.

Um, there's been been a very powerful gifting on this church for a long time.

And I think God went great, boom, reset, and something new is happening.

I don't think it's a mistake that you just came out with a book called Beyond Blessing.

I think this church is now beyond where Gateway was, and you're going into a new place, and that's that's what I'm preaching tonight.

Now, I I gotta tell you, I wanted to bring like a conference message that I've preached a lot, like a lot of times, and get up here and preach it without notes and just like know all the funny phrases and all the perfect moments and quote scriptures uh from memory because I preached it so many times, not because I have it in memory, and make you guys think that I'm super smart.

But the Lord dropped something in my spirit, and uh, I've only preached this one time and it was at home, and I feel it so strong for this church.

I feel like Gateway Church, those of you, all of our campuses, those watching online, you call Gateway home.

You guys are at a threshold of a promise, and you've gone a long way, and God's getting ready to take you across this threshold into something new, and you get to choose, and and choices are all throughout the Old Testament, all the way into the New Testament.

God gives his people a promise and he gives them the opportunity to choose whether or not they're going to walk into that or not.

And and we understand choices.

How many guys have kids?

You have kids, raise your hand.

You got kids?

That's a lot of people with a lot of kids.

How many of you were raised by strict parents?

Raise your hand.

You're raised by strict parents, and you're in church, see?

So you can't be mad at them, right?

How many guys ever got a spankin' when you were a kid?

Just raise your hand, you got a spanking?

Some people are excited.

That's what you're very strange.

You're a weird person here.

This campus is it.

You guys spankin'?

I never got a spanking.

You guys are lucky, I got a whooping.

It's a big difference between a spanking and a whooping.

And uh a spankin' is like, ow, a whooping is like I can't feel my legs.

And um, it's this moment, and it's what it is.

My my mom, uh, my mom, very strong, powerful women in prayer, might be watching online.

Uh love you, mama.

Um, my mother, my mother could say full and complete sentences through clinched teeth.

Some of you moms have that spiritual gift as well.

Nobody else understands what they're saying.

Like, my buddy would be standing next to me, and my mom would be like, He was like, dude, what is she saying?

She says, She said, I'm gonna die, and you're gonna die too if you keep standing here.

But as a parent, there were things that my parents said to me whenever I was a kid that I said, I will, I will never say that.

When I have kids, I will never say that.

One of those statements was was because I told you so.

Do you ever say, I'm never gonna, I'm gonna explain it to my kids.

I'm gonna take time with them, I'm gonna tell them this is why I dad.

And then you have kids, you're like, be quiet because I told you so.

And then it feels so good, and you're like, oh, that's you try it on your wife and you sleep on the couch.

It's weird.

Um, that's a personal story.

Uh my dad used to say this phrase to me, and my my dad's country.

We're country people.

And my dad would say something like, If you don't straighten up, you ever hear that?

Did you ever get beat because you went?

Oh true story.

Sorry, dad.

He'd say, if you don't straighten up, sometimes he'd say, if you don't straighten up and fly right.

I don't even know what that means.

If you don't straighten up and fly right, then we're not gonna go here.

We're not, if you don't, we're not, he would say.

If you don't do this, then we're not gonna.

And there were opportunities that I missed out on because my father had a plan for me, but my behavior kept me out of the plan that my father had for me.

I made a choice not to go where my father had prepared for me to go because I wanted to do what I wanted to do, not what he wanted me to do.

Now it did not stop me from being my father's son.

It didn't change how much my father loved me, it just changed the plan that my father had for me.

And this is what I want us to understand.

Walking into a new year, God has a great plan for you.

And when you grab a hold of it and say, All right, I'm ready to go all in, and I'll do whatever you want me to do, God, withholding nothing.

You can have my finances, you can have my family, you can have my marriage, you can have my relationships, you can have all of the stuff that maybe I've been holding back.

I'm ready to go all in.

It opens up this door of favor.

Now, grace and mercy goes without saying.

Aren't you grateful for the unmerited grace of God that there are no works that you can do to earn grace?

Come on, let's clap our hands for that.

That's a blessing.

Thank you, God.

Your salvation is not a result of your works, but works should be a result of your salvation.

And I love that we're in a church that has preached the power of the word of God for so long.

And I believe that God's calling us.

And I gotta tell you, I'm I'm a little nervous, and we talked about it in the green room, and and Pastor Robert said, Don't be nervous.

And I said, I want to not be nervous, but I'm nervous.

Um, sorry if that's in disobedience, but um, but I but I but I believe and I want to bring this to you with care and with concern on the stage that I'm on, and and recognize where I'm at and the heaviness of what I'm saying, but I believe that I'm at Gateway First Conference with a word designed for you, designed for this church.

And God is saying, I have bigger plans than you could ever imagine, and you're not sitting in whatever campus you're sitting in by accident.

You didn't just show up here and just come and just check it out.

God designed a moment for you to be here because he has something amazing for you to do.

And I'm gonna give you some things that I believe are gonna help you on that journey.

We're gonna jump in Joshua chapter one to give you a little context.

Moses has just died.

He's the last of a previous generation.

Uh Joshua's the last, Joshua and Caleb are the last of a previous generation that had grabbed a hold of a promise that for some reason um the rest of that generation could not get a hold of.

They had a promise, they just couldn't hold on to it.

And so this entire generation dies off in a desert, and Joshua is speaking to a brand new generation, and he says something to them that's so relevant to us, and I believe relevant to many of you right now.

In fact, he tells them to do something that they've never had to do because they've been wandering in a desert for 40 years, and he gives them instructions they've never had before.

And I believe it's gonna be I believe it's gonna be powerful for somebody here because I believe that there are people under the sound of my voice that have been stuck.

Turn to your neighbor and say, I'm stuck.

Some of y'all didn't do anything, you're so stuck you can't even admit it.

You're like, I'm not saying anything.

Joshua chapter one.

Then Joshua issued instructions to the leaders of Israel to tell the people to get ready to cross the Jordan River.

They've never been told, get ready.

And they're getting told, hey, get ready, something new is about to happen.

In three days, we will go across, we will conquer, and we will live in the land which God has given us.

And I believe that after all of these years of God doing amazing things in and with and through this church, and through your pastor, and through you, that God wants to do something brand new.

And it is a massive honor for me to be able to tell you that, hey, I think everything that God did is amazing and stands alone, but he desires to do something new.

And this is a theme you find all throughout the scripture.

One of my favorite verses of scripture is Revelation chapter 21, verse 5.

Revelation 21:5

It says, And the one seated on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

Then he said, Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.

I don't like it just because the words rhyme, which I think it's awesome.

I make all things new.

Write this down.

These words are faithful and true.

Yaya.

Um, it's written by John, Lil John the revelator.

What?

Um, calm down.

Martha, who's little John?

Uh, don't Google it, Gary.

Um I didn't know if that joke would work at Gateway.

It did.

Yeah.

Um, I'm home, baby.

Um I love it because it's the last chapter in the last book of the Bible, and God is saying, you know, all that stuff I've already done was amazing and awesome, but I'm gonna do something brand new because God loves new.

It's the theme of the very first miracle that Jesus does.

You ever thought about that?

Jesus' very first miracle, I gotta tell you, Pastor Robert's probably studied it for years.

I just kind of threw it away for a long time.

The water into wine.

It's a really cool party trick.

I mean, think about it.

You know, when the disciples asked Jesus, they got a chance to ask him a question.

They said, Lord, teach us to pray.

Some people said they should have said, Lord, teach us to turn water into wine.

Therefore, we will never not be invited to the party.

Thank you, Lord.

Um, they Jesus turns water into wine.

So here's the premise.

I won't read it to you.

I'll just tell you the story.

Jesus and his mom, apparently, we don't know who else with them, maybe some other people with them.

They get invited to this wedding, and when they get to the wedding, Jesus' mom, Mary, kind of freaks out a little bit.

She's like, Oh, Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Are you praying, Mom?

What's happening right now?

Jesus, Jesus.

They're out of wine.

Oh, they're out of wine.

And Jesus says, Okay.

And I've studied it.

Like the worst thing that could happen was like it's embarrassing.

And maybe if you go deep into the law, the the bride's family may have could sued the groom's family in a like a weird like use of some kind of strange life.

Like that, it's not really, I mean, it's a big deal for embarrassment, but Mary is like overplaying it a little bit, like just free, like Jesus.

And he looks at her and he says, Woman.

He said, It is not my time yet.

Now, let me tell you the difference between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Paula, the mother of Jeremy.

Because if your boy had been the son of God and my mom had been married, my mom would be like, Excuse me, don't you call me woman.

Father God, you better get your boy right now.

I'm gonna kill him.

You're gonna have to raise this dude twice.

You better quit playing with me, Jesus.

Jesus says, Woman, it's not my time.

And she's like, Okay, and walks over to these servants and says, You see him?

Whatever he tells you to do, which means you come up with your own plan.

Whatever he tells you to do, you do it.

And they're like, Okay.

And Jesus is like, mama.

This none of that part is in that dialogue, it's not actually in there, but it's close.

The New International Jeremy version.

And um, then he goes over and he tells the servants, and he says, Look, he says, Take some water out of these pots, uh, dip it up, and take it to the governor of the feast and give it to him.

You gotta imagine being that servant.

Like, I'm gonna take some nasty water and bring it to, like, okay.

And it and it and water turns into wine.

I mean, like it's the like wine, water into wine.

It's like the lady who was driving too fast and she had a bottle of wine in the car, and the state patrol pulled her over.

He was like, Look, you can't, like you're driving around with a bottle of wine.

She was like, Dang, it ain't wine.

And he was like, What is it?

She said, It's water.

And he says, Give it to me.

She gives him, he smells it, he pours it out, he goes, ma'am, it is very obviously wine.

She's like, Ah, Jesus, did it again.

Come on, fight.

He's a good guy.

Ah, I'm sorry, Pastor Robert, I don't have anything to do with my message.

That's just funny.

But here's, I get to study, I get to study in this, I get to study in this story and think about it.

Like when you when you actually look beyond, because the Bible, here's what I believe the Bible means what it says, it says what it means, and it usually means something a little bit deeper.

As you get to looking at this, not only is Jesus honoring his mom, but he's also showing his purpose through this small miracle.

He could have done anything, he could have been like zing, and all everybody has new wine, but he doesn't do that.

He decides to take the old water pitchers that have been used for foot washing, because that was the mode of transportation, your feet took your sandals off, people washed your feet, and then they dumped that nasty water into these pitchers, and now here they are.

And Jesus says, Take take some of that water that you know, the nasty, not usable, gross water that nobody would think has a use for anything else, and dip some of that and take it through the judgment process through the governor of the feast, and I'll turn that old into new because I can take the broken and make it beautiful.

And we find Jesus' purpose in his very first miracle, and it's a unique picture of how much he loves to make old things new.

We find the theme all throughout the scriptures: Psalm 96 and 1.

Sing a new song to the Lord.

Let the whole earth sing to the Lord.

Sing a new song.

And we like to sing.

You like to sing.

You may not can sing.

Don't try out for gateway worship.

We love you.

It ain't your gift.

My mama said I could sing.

Your mama lied because she loves you.

But we love to sing.

You sing in the shower.

In fact, I can sing a part of a song and you can finish it.

And I hadn't even told you, we hadn't even rehearsed all campuses.

I could just start singing, Sweet Caroline.

Never look so good.

Okay, y'all been in the club.

That's the club version.

That's that's it.

We're doing, we got our work cut out for us here at Gateway.

You know the song.

Why?

Because it's an old song.

But the scripture says sing a new song.

And my concern is that many of us are coming into a new year singing an old song.

Fighting the same battles, dealing with the same stuff and trying to do it the same way.

And God is calling us to do it a new way, to do it a little bit more all in.

In fact, some of us have been a little bit reticent to go all in, to go and just jump on a team and serve in the church and get in a group and give and do what God's called us to do.

I promise you this if you'll listen to me, if you'll just do for one year, just do what Pastor Robert tells you to do.

Just it's not hard.

This is not a real complex church.

Just the simple things.

Get connected, give, serve.

I wonder what would happen in your life.

I can promise you at the end of the year, your life wouldn't all be roses and butterflies and perfection.

But it'd be so much better than what it is right now.

If you'd stopped trying to figure it out yourself and let a holy God, the one who knows you, the one who created you, the manufacturer of every part of your life, if you would let him have some input.

I believe that God's doing something amazing.

And the challenge is oftentimes we get stuck on the same.

This is where we find the children of Israel.

Right before Joshua takes the reins.

They've been delivered from hundreds of years of captivity.

God shows up and he shows out, he delivers them in spectacular fashion.

Ten plagues.

The Egyptians actually pay them.

They give them all kinds of stuff.

They give them silver and they give them gold and they give them all their precious stuff to just leave.

Here, leave and take, take all of our precious stuff with you, which tells me God won't only deliver you, He'll use the enemy to finance your freedom because that's how good God is.

He has a way when there is no way.

When you can't figure it out, he's already got it done.

And then they get to the Red Sea, and we know the story, or maybe you've seen the movie and they're stuck and they don't know what to do.

And they say, Oh, we're gonna die here.

You've brought us out to die.

And Moses goes to God and he prays, and then he stretches out his hand over the Red Sea, and the Red Sea parts, and they all walk around, millions of them walk across on dry ground, singing, don't stop, believe.

It was amazing.

Journey was there.

Play that's part's not true.

Just taking my liberty with the word.

And then God provides manna from heaven, their clothes grow with them, and somehow they get comfortable in a place that they aren't called to.

I wonder how many of us are comfortable where we are.

And I wonder what God's wanting to take out in your life.

I wonder when I said, What are you comfortable with?

What came to your mind?

Sometimes we'll sacrifice our calling for our comfort, and we'll grab whatever we can see when God has a bigger vision for us.

We were on a road trip not long ago, and I had five kids, and uh at that time I didn't have my two boys.

I had uh I had uh three girls, and my youngest girl was probably about four at the time, and we went in the gas station, and uh, we were just walking around, and as we walked out, we walked out, I looked down and I heard Jillie, and she's giggling, she's just giggling, and I look down and she has something in her hand.

I'm like, I know that I didn't pay for anything to be in her hand.

Dear God, my daughter is shoplifted from this store, and we will not abide the curse of criminalism.

We're gonna go back in there right now.

I'm gonna march you back in there.

You're gonna tell them you're sorry, and we walk back in there, and I said, Let me see it.

And she holds it up.

It's potted meat.

Like, I'm like, if you're gonna shoplift something, let's get a Snickers or some MMs or potted.

Like, number one, you can't even open that.

You know what I mean?

She gives it back and she cries.

And I thought about it.

I wonder how many of us are holding the hand of the Father who has in his resources everything that you need, but because you can't see it, you're just grabbing whatever's in front of you.

I don't want to get addicted to provision.

I want to walk into promise.

I don't want to live on whatever's available.

I want to say, God, I'll sacrifice whatever I need to sacrifice right now to get where you have called me to go in my marriage, in my family, in our ministry, in our church.

God, I'm ready to go all in.

And if you're ready to go all in, there's a few things you need to know, and I'm gonna tell you.

If you're taking notes, write it down.

Number one, this won't be easy.

And if you wrote that down right, this won't be easy, dash, but it'll be good.

And put like three or four O's in there.

Good.

Be good.

Because anything great has to go through challenges.

Won't be easy.

You ever been hungry?

You come home hungry?

Like you come home, like you get home, and you forgot to stop at God's chicken.

You forgot to stop at Chick-fil-A, God's Chick, whatever.

You could same thing.

You forgot, or you forgot to stop at Whataburger.

That's an anointing on that place right there.

What a God, whataburger.

Um, you forget, you forget to stop, and then you're like, all right, I'm not gonna get back out and go back out.

I'm just gonna eat something here at the house, right?

And then you start walking around in the house and you realize that nobody in your life ever grocery shops, right?

And so you're just like you walk in there, you're in the pantry, and you're like, all right, some chips, you start eating some Cheetos, and they're a little bit stale, but you're eating them, you know, and then you're like, oh, popcorn.

So you cook some popcorn, you burn it a little bit, you eat around the burn parts, you eat like a half-eaten little Debbie cake that somebody rolled back up and put a clippy on.

Like what?

Like either eat it or throw it away.

Like why?

And then you're like, I don't know why they would do this, but you're eating it, and then you eat, then you eat some old Halloween candy that you find somewhere down at the bottom, you know, and then you have a stomachache, right?

You're filled, but you're not fulfilled.

Right?

I'm filled, but I'm not fulfilled because I just I ate whatever was available, whatever was in front of me.

And this is why many of our lives are in a challenge.

Because whatever relationship was in front of me, whatever quick fix was available, whatever was right there, whatever, I didn't even have to have any faith for that.

I just grabbed that off the shelf and went with whatever was in front of me.

And I'm telling you, some of us are asking God for a hot pocket blessing when he specializes in crock pot anointings.

If you'll let something simmer for a minute and trust God with it, get in his word, fast.

You ought to fast at the beginning of this year.

And I'm not talking about running or walking.

Fast.

Zen.

I'm talking about saying, all right, God, it may take some time to find your plan.

It may take a minute for me to dig this out, but I'm gonna trust you.

I may have to hold on to a marriage that I think is already letting go, but I'm gonna trust you because you know what you're doing when I can't figure it out.

I may got kids that are far from you, but I'm not gonna let go of praying for them, and I'm gonna pound the ground every night until those babies give their lives to Jesus, and I begin to see the promise and the fruition of what you gave me come to pass.

This won't be easy, but it'll be good.

You think it was easy for Miss Debbie to post on Instagram and on Facebook, hey, they know he doesn't have a pulse, we gotta pray.

Wasn't easy for people to come up and walk around and give their time and pray in the lobby of this church.

It's real easy to look at somebody and go, I'm praying for you.

It's a whole different thing to get on the ground and pound the ground and give up your time.

But God's looking for a group of people, and guess what?

He found it already in this church.

You've already seen an amazing miracle sitting right here on the front row.

I think God's just getting you ready for what he's going to do.

It's the reason it's called gateway church.

Because there's a threshold right here, and we're walking through what God has called us to.

Sorry, I sometimes scream a lot.

That hurts my throat.

Number two, you can't stay here.

Turn to somebody next to you and say, You can't stay here.

Now, if you looked at your husband, that don't that's not about the house, that's different.

You can't stay here.

I can't stay here.

We gotta go where God has called us to go.

I can't stay where I am.

Well, I don't have the provisions to go beyond here.

Yeah, you do.

You've already got everything that you need, and it's right here.

You just gotta start trusting him and speaking in faith.

Start speaking in faith and and and then start talking in faith and walking in faith.

I love what I love what Joshua says to the children of Israel.

He says, In three days we will cross the Jordan, we will conquer, and we will live in the land that God has given us, not is going to give us, not just promised us, it's already ours.

But we're gonna have to saddle up, walk in, and take it and live in it.

And I believe that there are many of us who just have to make a decision.

I can't stay here.

I can't stay here.

This has been great, Pastor Robert.

I'm so honored.

I can't I look, I'm embarrassed.

My jacket, I told you it didn't make it through the dry cleaners.

And so I look like the brawny paper towel man up here preaching at first conference.

I looked at my daughter before I went up.

I was like, Dad looks like the brawny paper towel man.

I apologize.

I'm embarrassing our family.

But I believe God got me here for a reason.

I mean, I mean, the unbelievable Nick and Derwin and Irwin and Derwin.

I thought about changing my name, but what an awesome conference.

All these amazing speakers and pastors, and then here I come, and I believe it's an honor for me to be here, but I believe that God wanted to end this thing on a note saying, hey, it's not over, it's just beginning, and you cannot stay here, you cannot be satisfied, you cannot just be happy with where you are.

I'm content, but I'm not satisfied because I believe that God has more for me to do.

And when you hear me, this young preacher up here frothing and screaming and hollering and pushing you, maybe you push it off and say, Wow, that's good for our church.

I'm not preaching just to the church, I'm preaching to you.

I'm preaching to you.

Preaching to you.

You can't stay here, you can't stay the way you are.

Yeah, but I've been this way for a long time.

But God can do greater things exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that's at work within us.

So at some point, you gotta shake yourself out of where you are and say, Okay, let's go.

And that's the third thing.

I just want you to get ready.

Turn to somebody next to you and say, get ready.

Just gotta get ready.

We gotta get ready.

We gotta get ready.

Stop waiting.

The challenge with many of us is we're we're just stuck.

It's ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, and you never fire.

You gotta get ready, and then you gotta at some point go.

Stop wasting time on things that don't matter.

You ever been stuck in traffic?

I know you have.

It's the Dallas area.

This is you guys' spiritual gift.

Traffic.

You ever been sitting in traffic and just you're you're waiting forever and you're like, God, why?

God, why?

These people, where did you get your license?

You get them at Walmart, like you're mad at people.

And then as you get as you get closer, you realize there's some like blue flashing lights, and you're like, oh, it's a wreck, oh, God help them, you know.

And then as you get closer, you realize it ain't even on your side of the interstate.

It's all it's all the way on the other side, but all these people in front of you are rubber neck, and they're slowing down, like, I wonder what's going on over there.

You're like, just go, just go.

And then you get up there and you're like, Well, I wonder what's going on.

Never underestimate your ability to slow down for things that you should not slow down for, to stop for things that don't actually have anything to do with you looking at somebody else, judging your life on somebody else's life, looking at Instagram and judging your marriage based on what somebody else's marriage looks like, judging God's ability to do something in you based on your ability to fail.

See, there's no way that God could ever use me.

The challenge is He's He's not looking for perfection.

His son Jesus has already covered that.

He's just looking for you to be available, for you to be focused.

How many of you guys are multitaskers?

Raise your hand.

Not true.

No such thing.

Dr.

Taylor, Dr.

Jim Taylor says what people think is multitasking is actually serial tasking.

Rather than engaging in simultaneous tasks, you are in fact shifting from one task to another to another in rapid succession.

And I wonder how many of us are doing that with God.

We're multitasking God into our all of everything else that we have to do, and you've really got to put him at the middle, you got to put him at the center.

Here's what David said in Psalm 27 and 4.

He said, One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

One thing.

So in 2019, at first conference, what if you didn't come up with resolutions this year?

Maybe you did.

That's awesome, but most of you probably didn't.

What if you just came up with one thing?

And you said, My one thing is to have the presence of God at the center of everything I do, the center of my marriage, the center of my family, the center of my singleness, the center of my life, my hopes, my dreams.

Jesus at the direct center of everything I do.

And finally, I'll tell you this.

Once you've understood that this won't be easy and you can't stay here, and you got to get ready.

The fourth and final thing I want you to remember at first conference this year is that you have a promise.

You have a promise.

This is a real simple message.

But this is the thing the enemy attacks more than anything.

The enemy will tell you, Pastor Robert has a promise, but not you.

You somewhere along the line negated your promise.

You negated God's ability to reach you.

Somewhere along the line, you've done too much, you made too many bad decisions, you made too many wrong choices.

Here's what I know about the gift and the grace of God.

You can be off on some crazy country road in your life, have made all kinds of mistakes.

And when you give yourself to Him, you can find an on-ramp out in the middle of a field to the will of God, and God can do something, He can make a way where there is no way.

You have a promise.

You've got a promise.

He'll never leave you, He'll never forsake you, He's gonna be there.

Life's gonna be hard.

I wish it wasn't.

I want to be one of those pastors that tells you it's just gonna be perfect, but it's not true.

It's gonna be hard, but God is good and He's gonna be with you.

He's gonna be with you.

I'm a product of pain and heartache.

And at some point, you got to cowboy up and just decide, I'm going all in.

The children of Israel had a promise, and they knew that they could either live in provision or they could cross into promise.

And if I stay in provision, manna falls and my clothes grow with me.

When I cross into promise, I gotta fight, there won't be any more manna.

But when I'm in the promise, God is not under any responsibility to provide if He's given me the ability to plant.

And now I can see more than provision, I can see promise come forth out of the ground.

I can see giants fall that a previous generation never dreamed would fall.

I can see miracles happen that people didn't believe would ever happen.

Why?

I've got a promise, and I'm trusting God, and that's exactly what they did with the presence of God in front of them.

The priests with the ark on their shoulders stepped into the Jordan or the descender.

That's what it's called.

It's flown at about it's a flood stage.

It's typically about 185 feet wide.

At flood stage, it's twice that.

It's flown at about 10 miles per hour.

And they're standing in front of something impossible.

You ever been standing in front of something impossible?

And God says, step, step, step, step.

And the water stopped when they stepped.

I wonder what God is ready to stop.

That he's waiting on you to step.

I'm ready to step.

Okay.

I'm going all in.

I'm going to trust him this year.

I'm going to give you faithfully.

I'm going to serve faithfully.

I'm going to prioritize God faithfully.

We typically at our church start the year with prayer and fasting.

There's something about prayer and fasting that prioritizes God at the beginning of your year, at the beginning of your week.

There's something powerful about it.

And I remember in my life, I'll tell you the elevator version of my story, of my testimony.

And that is simply this.

When I got married, I love my wife.

She's amazing.

My wife's very first memory was of abuse.

At the age of four years old, my wife was abused by a family member.

And it started a cycle that lasted for 18 years.

Abuse in her life.

When we met, I didn't know anything about this.

In fact, she didn't even call it abuse.

She didn't know what to call it.

It was just a cycle.

It was called normal in her life.

And when we got married, abuse began on the honeymoon.

Except for this time, it wasn't coming from a man.

The one who had been abused became the abuser.

So I know what it felt like to put on makeup on my face and wear long sleeves in the summer because violence was in our home.

We had two babies, one of them sitting on the front row here in the first two years of our marriage.

And then she left and said, You'll never see your kids again.

And for 27 months she was gone.

Thankfully, we were able to pass the kids back and forth.

I had them for a week and she had them for a week.

And all kinds of people came and told me, hey, God's with you, God's gonna be there.

And my response was, Where is he right now?

I had no hope that our marriage would be restored.

But I trusted God.

Why?

Because I got a book full of promises.

I got a book full of promises.

And at the end of 27 months, I didn't know that she had been on an extended fast.

She didn't know that I had been on an extended fast.

But at the end of 27 months, she knocked on my office door with tears streaming down her face and said, I don't want to be this way anymore.

I love you.

And I cannot tell you how much God has changed that girl.

She ain't the same girl.

And we're 18 years in.

We got five kids.

Don't you tell me that God can't take something that's broken and make it beautiful if you trust him with the process and give him everything you've got.