TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, June 5, 2022 | Make Waves Series | Facetime With God

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Join me in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 29. I'm going to read from the NLT, see if you're pulling it up on a phone or a device or a Bible out. I'm choosing that translation because I think it just really helps to articulate what it is that the Holy Spirit has put in my heart to share with you today.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

According to this specific passage as an anchor text. Jeremiah Chapter 29 verse 11 for I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster. I want you to notice that they are plans for good and not for disaster. God says, I want to give you a future and I want to give you a hope.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And in those days, when you pray, I will listen. If you will look for me whole heartedly, you will find me. It's kind of unique there that he's implying that if you try to seek God half heartedly, you're not going to find him, but wholeheartedly you'll find him. I will be found by you. And I really want you to see this because this will be important to the conclusion of this message.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I will. Your captivity. I will restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again. To your land. Three things I will end your captivity. I will restore your fortunes, and I will bring you home again. Those are the kind of plans that God has for you. And I want to talk to you about it today.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Father, I ask you to help me to preach. Help me to teach. Help me to share your word. I ask God for an anointing that's rich and real, real. Help me God to yield your sword with skill fullness. Show me where to pierce, somewhere where to heal. Let it be done in Jesus name in this church said Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Could you help me preach for just a minute and just look over somebody? Just tell them God's got plans. God's got plans. Maybe we could make it a little more personal. Maybe just say to them, God has plans for you. Has plans for you. This verse Jeremiah Chapter 29 verse number 11. I've found in 23 years of full time ministry that it's actually a passage of text that a lot of people are very familiar with.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There are several people that have chosen this verse as their life verse. It may even be a verse that you have on a post-it note in a highly visible place It could be that it's a verse that you've got on a wall hanger somewhere. It might even be a verse that you just speak over your life or you pray over your life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, I would encourage that with this verse, because I believe that the most potent prayer that you will ever pray is a prayer that's connected to a promise of God. In Jeremiah 29. 11 is a promise of God. He's saying to you, I have plans for you, and they are plans for your good not plans for a disaster.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's important to note that because so many people have a doomsday view of God, it's not hard to find somebody that views God through a lens that sees him as this divine entity that's just waiting to beat everybody up and beat everybody down. And release a bunch of wrath through angry judgment. But when you really start to see God correctly, you'll even view his throne of judgment differently.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

For instance, we're all going to stand before the throne of judgment someday. And that's not a moment where God gets to show us all how angry he is and pour out all this wrath. That's actually a moment where we will get to see how much love God actually has. Because if you wind up on the wrong side of God's judgment, it is no one's fault other than your own because his plans for you was not the disaster called hail.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

His plans for you were the good thing called heaven. Can I get an amen from somebody that gets a good plan? He paid for it through the love of Jesus Christ. But what we have to realize, and I think it's already been alluded to and you're probably catching hold of is that just because God has a good plan for you does not mean that you are in sync with it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So so you have to bring yourself into sync with God's plan. Think of it like this. The other day, my phone was malfunctioning and they instructed me to turn it off and to turn it back on. That did nothing. Still wouldn't work. Still wouldn't function. So then they asked me, Have you recently sync your phone with your computer?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I said, What's that? And then I called my teenager, and my teenager came in and sent connected my phone to my computer. Once that connection took place, the thing that wasn't working suddenly started working Because of the downward download that transpired in that sinking. So, so many of us I think, feel like our lives are a disaster.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And we're not pleased with our lives. And some of us would even say it feels like it's been a long time since anything good happened. Is it possible that the reason that you find yourself in that scenario is because you are out of sync with God's plan for your life? There may need to be a reconnection between you and God So one more time, tell somebody God has plans for you and plans So let me give you some really simple instructions about how to make sure that you are in sync, that you are in step, that you are walking out your life according to God's plans.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Really simple but really important. And these are just a handful because ultimately Scripture is full of them. But, but, but but one way that you can make sure that you're in sync with God's plans for your life is to call upon the name of the Lord. And then what happens? You get the good plan of salvation. So if there is any uncertainty about your eternity, all you have to do is call upon the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And he says that you will be saved. That's a good plan for your life. But you can only come into sync with it if you are willing to call up on the name of the Lord. The book of Isaiah says it this way. It says, Wait up on the Lord and you shall renew your strength. You shall mount up with wings.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

This Eagles, you shall run and not grow weary. You shall walk and not faint. There's a lot of people that feel like they are finding many of us feel like we are weary, and most of us feel like we have never truly soared to our potential in our life. Why does that happen? Because we are out of sync with God's plans.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We have not waited on the Lord to experience our strength being renewed according to His power. But when you make that decision that if need be, I'm going to wait on the Lord. Then it puts you in sync and you get the benefit of His plan. A good plan. Renewed strength soaring to new heights, not weary, not finding another passage talks about how that if you have two paths to choose, make sure that you choose the narrow path because it leads to life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And if you choose the broad path, you'll actually discover that it leads to destruction. So it's important that when you're making decisions in your life that you don't choose broad stuff in regards to interpreting Scripture, that you don't live in the gray areas of Scripture, but that you choose the narrow interpretation of Scripture because that's what actually leads to life, that there will be boundaries on your life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There will be limitations on your life that God puts there for your benefit and for His purpose to be fulfilled. There's another passage. It's in the book of James. It talks about how that if we will ask God for wisdom, He will give it to us liberally. Here's the point. God's got a good plan, but you don't have to go through life confused.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You don't have to go through life with that wisdom. But the only way you get in sync with that plan is you've got to ask for that wisdom. It doesn't just happen by default. And sometimes we'll talk to the doctor, we'll talk to the lawyer, we'll talk to the psychologist. But we never actually have a conversation with God about the fact, Hey, Lord, I could use some wisdom right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

These are just a handful of things. Here's one more lead, not to your own understanding.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Why? Because God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. And when you start getting the wisdom of the Lord in your life, if you start trying to put it through rationalization and through your own understanding, you're just going to wind up in the ditch anyway. Because rarely is it ever going to make sense to me. And you why God said do what God said do.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So you don't lean to your owners saying that's how you stay cinct up. Cinct up. When you start getting cinct up, your life starts to look like what Psalm 23 describes the way Psalm 23 describes it is The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want anybody ever heard that. It sounds like a pretty good plan, doesn't it?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

When's the last time you lived a section of your life where you actually did want something? But when you come into full sync with God, He actually describes the Lord is my shepherd. So because I'm in sync with Him as my shepherd, He is leading me, he is guiding me, he is directing me. I shall not want. He lead with me beside steel waters.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Sound like a good plan. He restores my soul for his namesake. And so and yet do I walk to the valley of the shadow of death? I don't have to fear any evil because he is with me, his rod and his staff. They comfort me he anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. And when I look in the rearview mirror, I discover that goodness and mercy are the things that are following me. It's an incredibly.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Good point, but it does not happen by default. At some point you got to leave your path.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And sync up with God's plan, and when you sync up with that path, you'll discover that there's things that happen that don't even make sense when everybody else is freaking out because it feels like we're in the valley of a pandemic and the shadow of death is hanging over an entire planet. You'll stand there with your back like a trail and testify decree and declare, The Lord is my shepherd.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I shall not walk. And though I walk to a valley I will not fear this evil because He did not give me the spirit of fear.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He gave me power, he gave me love, and he gave me a sound mind. And even when I start to feel confused, he'll anoint my head with.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Oil and my cup will run over you don't even worry about your enemies because you know the moment you see enemies, you start to testify. God's about to make a table for me. There's a feast coming my way because he decreed Blessed are ye. When men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

From my namesake. He told you that the weapons of your warfare are not carnal through man's hands, but they are mighty to God for the pulling down of strongholds. He told you there will be a battle and there will be a war. But you will have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. Your loins will be guard with truth, your feet will be shot with the preparation of the gospel.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In one hand you will have the shield of faith and the other and you will have the sword of the spear. Why? Because you're in sync with God's plan. So you stand there and you tell the devil to shoot your fiery darts.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'll stand here behind my feet and testify. If God be for me.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Who can be against me?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's a testimony of God's plan for your life. And so right now, if you're in a disaster and you feel like you're wrestling with depression and you've reached a point where that suicidal thoughts describe your private time, I came to tell you God's got plans for you and the only reason you're dealing with any of that nonsensical thought process is because you're out of sync with his plan.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So. So when I say something like, call up on the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. When I say something like, wait up on the Lord and you shall renew your strength, when I'm making statements like that, those are all scriptural. The first ones from the Book of Romans, the second from the book of Isaiah.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We talk about lean, not you don't understanding. That's the Book of Proverbs. Where am I getting these things from?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The Bible? Two of you get an A-plus in the Bible. So. So I'm going to be in sync with God. What do I got to be connected with the Bible? The word of God. It's so simple. And yet most of us, the only time we read the Bible, if we come to church at all, is when somebody is standing reading the anchor text let me prove it to you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Statistics now show the Pew Research Center report said of American Christian Women 66% only read their Bible once a week.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Men are even worse we only read our Bibles. 58% of us are all that read the Bible even once a week.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

That means that over 40% of Christian men never touch a Bible even once a week. It tells us that over 30% of Christian women never touch a Bible even once a week, think about that. How, how, how could we be in sync with God's plans if his plans are rooted in Scripture and we never connect the cable to Scripture, and then we wonder why our lives are a mess and why everything feels like a disaster.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And instead of living with this incredible expectation, we live overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. And I just really feel like I'm under a mandate from heaven today to come with the function of the Holy Spirit and testify to somebody. You don't have to keep living in a disaster zone all you got to do is to come in sync with God's plan.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now, when maybe now we're dating there was this thing called a Nintendo 64 and we spent several days playing this game called Cruisin, the USA and it was a racing game and you would maybe be in San Francisco, maybe you would be in New York, but you would race in these cities. And what would happen is you wanted to go as fast as you possibly could because you wanted to win.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But if you were going too fast or if you didn't know the path correctly, you would wreck. And what would happen when you would wreck the screen would shift from the wreck right back to the center of the road. And then the car would completely regenerate with no dents.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

No damage, and you would take off again as though there had never been a wreck. So the other day I was playing a racing game with this younger kid and the car wrecked, and when it put my car back in the road, it didn't even put it in the center elected to the side. And as it started to regenerate, it left all the dance, it left all the damage, it left all the problems.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I said, I don't like this game. Give me cursing. You are saying, man, because I believe in a God who that when you call out in repentance, we'll give you the offer to me for a regeneration that takes up the dance, that takes up the damage and makes the old things pass away because he makes all things new again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He'll make you a new creature in Christ Jesus. And some of us, we need a regenerative moment. We need a moment with God where God pulls us out of the wreckage. God pulls us out of the ditch. God pulls us out of the curve that we took too fast and gives us an opportunity to have a fresh start and get this thing headed in the right direction one more time.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And some of you, that's exactly what God set you up for this morning. And that's why you've been distracted 14 times while I've been preaching. It's because the enemy does not want you to hear or to understand that you have been under the enemy's hold up to this point, out of sync with God's plan. But God is about to take you and shift you and renew you if you just give Him the opportunity.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Your life doesn't have to be a disaster. I don't care what you lost. I don't care who don't speak to you anymore. I don't care what everybody's saying. About you and how the people you grew up with are reviling your name here, there, and everywhere else. When God gets through with you, they'll stay and look at you and call you a new creature.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

 

They have decreed that you're a marvel. It won't even make sense to them how you got back on your feet and how you're proving everybody wrong. Because they said this and they said that and they said you was never going to amount to anything. And they said, you but what they say versus what God says is two entirely different things.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And you can keep believing what their plan is, or you can finally decide that you're going to believe what God's plan is.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

That's why your phone keeps buzzing in your pocket because the enemy does not want you to sync up with God's plan. It's the reason that you're sitting here thinking about what you're going to order at Cookout or KFC or McDonald's when you leave, because all you can think about is what the enemy keeps trying to pull you towards so that you don't come to the awareness that this mess, this ain't God's plan that's why there's so many people that settle for disaster because their mom and dad told them they were an accident.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so now they're just living their life like, Well, I'm an accident. I guess this is the best I'm ever going to do. I mean, I guess I wasn't even supposed to be here to start with. Before you were formed in your mother's womb, God knew you that's what makes abortion wrong.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You are not the idea of your mom and dad. You are the idea of God. And He.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Knew you before he decided.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

To allow you to be conceived and he knew you with a plan.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

From start to finish. So this verse that we've been talking about, Jeremiah 2911. What I want you to understand is that God actually gave this verse initially to a bunch of people who had wrecked, see, the Israeli people they were serving God, they were doing pretty good, and then they wrecked. They started being disobedient to what God wanted for them.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They, they stopped paying attention to His Word they actually developed idolatry. And so then these Babylonians show up and they start fighting against the Israelites and they defeat the Israelites. And what Scripture bears out is that God actually allowed them to lose the battle because they were out of sync with his plan. And he allowed the defeat to try to get their attention that it was not his plan.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And even though they were in captivity and even though they were dealing with disaster, they still wouldn't wake up. And they just keep on pursuing the list of their flesh on the list of the wrath and the proud of life. And they keep ignoring God's word. And finally, God shows up through Jeremiah. And this is what Jeremiah says in verse 11 chapter 29, Hey, God wants you to know I know the plans I have for you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They are plans for good and not for this disaster. Their plan is to give you a hope and to give you a future. And in these days, if you will pray, I will listen. Watch this. If you will just look for me wholeheartedly. Lee, stop giving me a half hearted deal. If you will wholeheartedly pursue me, you find me and we can get out of this disaster.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Then this effort last part of that verse says it this way. I will end your captivity. I will restore your fortunes. Then I will bring you home again. What God saying is all the captivity. God's saying if you'll just come wholeheartedly back to him in full fledged repentance, he says, I'll put a stop to this captivity. It can't rule your life anymore.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You no longer be under the bondage of this dictator that's been telling you what you've got to do. And when you have to do it, I'll set you free from the consequences of sin. But you got to come back to me wholeheartedly and sync up with my plan. And oh, by the way, when you get in my plane, you better come to understand I'm going to restore your fortunes.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Everything the enemy took from you he's going to have to give it back to you seven times more. You're going to get your deed back.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You got it. You're going to get it all back.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And he closes it by saying. You get your home back. You get your home back. You get your home back. Doesn't resonate with everybody. Oh, but there's somebody I'm talking to this morning. You just like to have your home back.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You'd give everything you've got just to get your home back.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

 

Isn't it amazing how sometimes disobedience brings captivity cost us our fortunes it makes us feel like home is so far away can I be transparent this morning?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

OK, I'll skip that part and share something I'm never told publicly.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Or enough will make sense to you. This will be my third time this morning. I was asking mainly coming down the road every time I say I don't even know if people understand what I'm trying to say.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to try to explain it, but I feel like somebody just needs to hear it. To try to come to that place of realizing God's got a plan despite your mess up so here's the deal. Seven years ago, I got really tired of was worn out. We lived really close to the church office that we were using at that time, and I'd go home five or 6:00 in the afternoon, and usually by 8:00 I was back and many times I'd stay till one or 2:00 in the morning.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I I don't think people sometimes understand in the realm of church just the level of administration that's required, especially as things grow and all the operational needs and and I would so often feel like I was just drowning in that. And when I would get home, I couldn't really engage with Mandy or the kids because I would feel this pressure of all this, this paperwork and all these things.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's got to be done. All these people have got to be called back and all these emails, it's got to be sent and all these people, it's got to be followed up with and all these text messages. I've got to reply to and all these things and and I just started wanting a place to just feel like I could get away from it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

At least when I went home and I grew up in Hillsborough, I love curls, bro. So it's my favorite place on Earth. There is there is no place that I would rather be at any time than feels broken. Tacky. And so we started looking for a place that might be for sale. We found a home that was very reasonably priced and many prayed about it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And here's how we make decisions. We will go apart from one another and we pray, and I'll ask the Lord to give me a number and she'll ask the Lord to give her a number if we get back together and those numbers match then we know that we're supposed to proceed. If they don't, we either cancel the procedure or we keep praying God back together.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The numbers matched. We contacted those people, the realtor, and we said We'd like to make an offer, and we actually met at the site of this home. When they came back, they came back 30 $500 more than our number and they stepped out and told us, You know, that's as low as I could go and it wouldn't be any lower, et cetera.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We just needed to think about it. So we walk around the house and we're talking and we're praying and we're trying to make sense of it. And we walk into the kitchen and there is this incredible refrigerator, like it was the Cadillac of refrigerators. In fact, it was the refrigerator that we had been wanting for a long time, but just felt like it was kind of outside of our price range.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And and it was a $3600 refrigerator and it was brand new and we looked at each other and we're thinking we're 30 $500 apart. That's a 30 $600 refrigerator. We got our deal. There was only one problem in the prayer time and in getting the numbers, God never said anything about a refrigerator and so what happened is we rationalized through our understanding what didn't make sense about God's actual plan.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So we went back, we shook hands, made the deal, signed the paperwork. When we took possession of the house, true story. The first thing we did, we ran to the kitchen to celebrate our refrigerator. I think we were going to put ski in RC in it it was gone and I called the realtor and I said, somebody has stolen our refrigerator.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And she said, Oh, no, I'm sorry, it's been a misunderstanding. The refrigerator was not included in the sale so what? It was nothing against the sailor. This is the truth in the purchase agreement. It's clearly stated all of the appliances except the refrigerator. But I was so excited that I didn't even read it and just signed it and I started to get second thoughts immediately.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But about a year later, we were living in that house and there was this hardwood floor and it started to have a rise in it. And in a call, multiple people can come look at it, nobody come look at it. Finally got tired of waiting on people. And so at 8:00 on a Saturday night, I went in there with a skill saw and I cut out a section of that floor so I could check what was going on.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

When I did this, there was no subfloor underneath it. It had fallen through. And so I reached down. I went all the way to the dirt. Well, I thought, I need to go a little further to see what's going on. I went about 300 square feet now, still going. By the time I went further, I actually stood up about the 400 square foot and I fell through the whole floor.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It collapsed underneath me. And so what happened is we realized we had termites and joists, right? And again, it was nothing to do with the cellar. They had contracted a termite inspector. I had signed off on that termite inspector. And what actually happened? The termite inspector was saying he couldn't get underneath that section of the house. And somehow I had overlooked that to y'all better business people than me.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I understand but now 900 square feet of that home was gone.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The main floor, all of the living space gone. We packed out parts of it in shovels, scoop shovels, the termites had eaten soldiers, dust I called the insurance company and they said, We're sorry, sir, you don't have that kind of insurance. It don't cover termites.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I had a problem. I had a major problem. Our floor was down to the dirt for four months. We live with the main living space, having no floors in it, trying to build it back personally because we couldn't afford to have it all done. I would come home from work and I would work on it and I would work on.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And we tried to build it back and we tried to build it back in. And for four months, my kids slept on a couch in an outbuilding, and we lived out of a microwave and a little toaster oven because we couldn't get to the appliances because everything was collapsed.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

By the time we got done with that. And I don't even believe in that we had completely maxed out every line of credit we had. We had maxed out the lock, we had maxed out every credit card we had, and we were drowning in that circumstance. And it felt like a disaster felt like we were captive, felt like we had lost every realm of possibility.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We had or prosperity. We had it. It felt like we weren't even home and I went out to an office building and I sat down and I was trying to make sense of all of this. And I was seeking the Lord and and I kept thinking back to that 30 $600 refrigerator and the day I went against God's will because I rationalized it and I started repenting and I went before God and I knew it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It seems like such a small mistake, but had become such a big mistake.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I stopped blaming everybody else. And I just blame myself. God, I messed up. And now I'm really embarrassed in front of my wife. And I and I really feel like I've just made a mess of even our future for our kids. And God, I do not know how to clean this up. I do not have the financial means to make this right.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I saw Cruise in USA and I saw the car wreck, and then I saw the car get regenerated right in the center of the path without a dent and without a dean and without any damage. And I started asking the Lord God, I'm asking you somehow, some way, regenerate this thing and bring it full circle.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I was sitting there and all of a sudden I got an idea I had never had before, and it was an idea for a business and I sat down and I felt like the Lord was sinking me up to something like he was downloading something to me. And I started crafting the business plan. And after I crafted the business plan, I put together a pricing sheet and I started writing stuff on that pricing sheet that I thought there is no way anyone will ever pay me this for this service.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

From there, we launched a consulting business we sent it out to people that out of state, different states, people that have been seeking service. And we just got the first person that signed a contract took the highest number on the sheet. And the next thing I saw happen was in a month we made more than we used to make in a year.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And then we went through a period of time through that business. We made more in a week than we used to make in a month. And then all of a sudden we had days that outperformed weeks. My point is this I made a mistake. I reacted I completely messed up but when my hands went in the air and repentance all of a sudden the disaster started to be replaced by a plan that God had all along.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I would never have discovered it. I would have never have considered it, and I would have never even given thought to it if I had not wrecked something. And there's those of you that the pandemic wreck some stuff. There's those of you that your life and the choices you've made, it's wrecked some stuff. And the only reason I'm giving you my story in my story is because over the last few months and last few years, we have been able to give more than we ever thought we would be able to give we have been able to do stuff for our kids that we never thought we would be able to do.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And we've been able to acquire more than we ever thought we would be able to acquire. And it's all because we put something in a ditch but out of the ditch on the other side of repentance comes God's plans. And I think somebody just needs to be lifted out of the disaster this morning. And that's my encouragement to you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's come out of the disaster. Stop settling for the ditch so we're going to play some music. Yeah. I don't know what you think about my testimony. I all I know is this. You can have one, two but you're going to have stop licking your wounds and blaming everybody else and making all the excuses and finally repent before God say, God, I need something to be made right one of the worst mistakes I ever made about that house is I looked at my wife in the middle of hell breaking loose, and I said, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't wanted this house.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Some of you have said I wouldn't be in this mess if that person hadn't have I wouldn't be in this mess if that company had that individual at that church hat in that preacher hat, that stop thinking with a disaster mentality.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I walked in to get an exam done the other day for medical purposes, and when the lady asked me how I was doing, I said I'm blessed more than I deserve. And she looked up at me and she said, Where did you come from?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I said, Ma'am, I'm from South Central Kentucky. I was about 2 hours from home. She said, They talk about that down there. It's true story. They talk about God down there. I said, I don't know about the rest of them, but I do and she said, Sir, you have no idea she's there. But it comes in this room. She Louis has a disaster mentality.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

A disaster mentality. I said, Well, honey, I ain't here to be nothing but a blessing because he's the author and he's the finisher he's the first. He's the last. And I don't even know what she will need. Although you about to stick into him, he's going to find. But I'm going to tell you this. I'm blessed coming and I'm blessed go.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I'm the head, not the tail. And every enemy that raised his hand against me shall be smitten by the Lord. My God, he's for me. It doesn't matter who or what can be against me. And even when I put it in the ditch, she's the God of the second chance. The third chance, a grace. It is sufficient.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

A hand that will reach further down than you can reach up. I regeneration and I'll make all things pass away. Then everything become new again. And even when a 30 $600 refrigerator causes you a bunch of problems of it, I can't help nobody this morning every head bowed, every hour closed. This is my encouragement for you. Some of you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

 

You grew up in church. You know right from wrong, but you have never had a true sinking with God's plan for your life. The result of that is, is that you're now uncertain about your eternity. You don't know if you died, if you would go to heaven. That's a problem. And that's not God's plan for your life. And the Lord right now, in the name of Jesus, wants to settle that plan for you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He wants to give you a grace that is available only if you call upon him nobody can do this for you. It doesn't matter if your mom and dad were saved. Doesn't matter if your grandma and grandpa never missed a church service. You got to have this experience personally. And my encouragement to you right now is if you need this moment with God, if you need to call upon him, if you need salvation, if you need his good plan for eternity to be put into your life, then right now just lift that hand I want you to keep that hand up.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Not so. Not so. I can see it now, so a church can count it. But so you and God can have a moment. What you're doing right now is the same thing. As somebody does when they're in a pool or they're in the ocean and they're drowning and they're trying to get the attention of a lifeguard. You're way even towards heaven.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You're letting God know I need you to get me God. I got a disaster situation right here. Father, in the name of Jesus, get a hold of them. Bring salvation into their life. May they see the work of your cross. May they call out upon the power of your blood. May they know what it is to experience the renewal that only Your Grace can bring right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

God, right now. Let it be done, Father. Let it be done. Somebody else. You need to rededicate your life to God. It's not that you've never known God. It's just that you've wrecked. You've wrecked it. You've wrecked the relationship. Bad decisions, disobedience, hanging out with the wrong people. You just need a do over. You need a fresh start.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You need that cruise in the USA moment. All the dance dings and damage taken out. He can do that for your soul right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Father, in the name of Jesus, hear their prayer, hear their confession. God, they're talking to you like they talk to their very best friend right now. Because that's who you are and that's what you do. God do what only you can do.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Do what only you can do thank you, Father. God, there's somebody else. I felt that's every location I've been at today. Teenagers you're risking your life. Your parents don't even know how wrecked you actually are. You're not even sure if your friends really get it, but, you know, you've put it in the ditch. There's some damage as a result of decisions you've made and are making, and the damage is only going to get worse if you don't get a breakthrough.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Right now is your moment to invite God to give you that fresh start come on. Quit playing games with God today. Get the fresh start right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Right now there's men under the sound of my voice. You led your family into decisions, some of them, or even just personal decisions. But they've affected the family. It's a mess. It's a disaster. You need God. You need him to bring you out of captivity. You need him to restore your fortunes. And you need him to make it home sweet home again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Come on, invite the fresh start.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Sync up with him, sync up with him.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Sync up with him.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

God to thank you for grace, Jesus name. I want to share one more thing with you. And then we're going to have a time of response and prayer. Yesterday, we needed a water house, and I called my daughter over to the side and I said, Natalie, I need you to go to the opposite side of the property and up in the corner, you're going to see that there's a little short black water hose.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I need you to go get that and bring it to me about a minute and a half later, my phone's ringing. It's face time and Natalie is on the opposite side of the house looking at a 50 foot long garden hose. That's red. And she said Is this the one you want through face time? We were able to resolve the issue.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Don't you wish you could face time with God where it's like, I'm getting the plan? I feel like I've heard the instructions, but there's still a few things that are cloudy. One things that God says he'll do is that he'll give his people dreams and visions and when I look back to the download that happened in my life, that completely changed everything for me.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Indiana, it was a direct and I'm talking about that breakthrough. I share it with you, man. It was a direct result of a dream and a vision. It was like getting face time with the Holy Ghost and realizing I'm supposed to do this, this, this, and this. And when I do these things, everything's going to fall into place.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I believe God wants to give you dreams and He wants to give you visions. And if that stretches you a little bit, it's just going to stretch you because it's Bible. It's the Book of Joel, chapter two. And he says in the last days, that's one of the things he's going to do with his people. And some of you don't know how to raise your kids because you don't know the plan that God has for your kids.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But if you'll start seeking him for dreams and visions, he'll show you the plan and you'll be able to keep him from the harm. All because you got instructions, blueprints. That's going to build in and what God wants to build. So what you.