It's the thoughts that count - Pastor James Hooper

``That's not God knew even if the circumstances around your birth were suspect, it wasn't the idea of one of the participants to be involved in that, you still are planned by God. Amen. Because he has designed you, he has made you specifically for being born into that circumstance because he knew what he put inside you. He knew that there would be things that you would face that others would never face, but that you would be able you face that he put uniquely inside of you the elements that it takes to make it through that. You will not only survive it, you will thrive, and you will blossom. [00:44:51] (53 seconds)  #BornOnPurpose

But that same man on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had come upon him stood out onto a balcony where there was thousands of people that heard the noise of a rushing mighty wind and they were they heard the people, all the people in the upper room praising God in their own languages and Peter got up said, this Jesus that you crucified, you won't talk about getting confrontational. He got his backbone then because he had an encounter with the holy spirit. His whole perspective changed. He knew he was about the father's business. We can have our perspective changed if we have an encounter with the father. [00:24:55] (43 seconds)  #BoldByTheSpirit

If that's not your worldview, you have a skewed viewpoint, you have a skewed perception when you enter in, so we're having to learn to change how we perceive things in our life because when we start changing our perception, when we start changing the expectations that we enter into a situation with, when we look at the context differently, when we look at the culture differently, when we change our worldview, we will be able to change the way we approach and things will change in your life. Change your thinking and things will change. [00:15:51] (50 seconds)  #ShiftYourWorldview

If you think that you are inadequate, you're gonna keep messing up things. If you think that you are unimportant, you're gonna keep skulking around acting like you're If you think that nobody wants you around, you're gonna act that way and you're gonna portray that. On the converse, if you think you're more important than you really are, people are gonna see that and they're gonna be repulsed. There is confidence, you can have confidence, but you have confidence in who God made you and who you are, not arrogance. [00:16:53] (39 seconds)  #ConfidenceNotArrogance

Perception is not reality. Okay? Perception is not reality. Now perception, this all through some study, I consider myself an amateur psychologist, I have no degrees, I just love the mind and the way it works and so I am very pragmatic. Those of you that know me know this, but those of you that don't, you're learning something. I am very pragmatic. I believe that we have the scripture and some of you may think these next few sermons aren't holy enough because there's not enough scripture in them, but God has given us insight into the way our minds think. [00:03:20] (46 seconds)  #PerceptionIsNotReality

Y'all seeing the the the pattern here, he had an encounter with God. He had an encounter with this burning bush and God spoke to him out of it and he said, yeah, you're right, you were supposed to be delivered but you took it upon yourself, but now I want you to go to pharaoh and tell him I've heard my people's cry and I want you to let my people go. And he felt I mean, he was the boss man back forty years ago. He was gonna handle it himself, now he says, I don't speak good enough. I don't speak good enough, won't you send somebody else? He said, okay, take your brother Aaron with you, he can speak but you go and you because you're the man. Moses' perspective was changed because he had an encounter with God. [00:33:26] (46 seconds)  #CalledDespiteDoubt

Oh, thy will be oh, no. No. No. God told him, he said, want you to go to Nineveh and I want you to tell them I'm gonna destroy them. And Jonah said, oh no. No no no. He said, because I know you God. I know you. If I tell them that you're gonna destroy them, they're gonna repent and you're gonna forgive them and they need to die. I hate them. So I'm gonna go I'm gonna go to Joppa. [00:25:55] (26 seconds)  #RunningFromMercy

Because if you don't ever lay on the bed, you can't see the stains on the ceiling. You can't see the cobwebs over it because if you got your head down here, you don't see the stuff here. And if you get in the bathtub, you don't if you don't ever get in the bathtub, you can't see how cruddy those handles are underneath. You can't see. You have to get from the guest perspective. You have to change your perspective to see it how somebody else is gonna see it. That's why I do it because I wanna see what they're gonna see because I won't see it unless I get where they're gonna be. [00:37:40] (37 seconds)  #SeeFromTheirView