1. "Is that your life right now? You know you're planting a seed But all you see is dirt Well, what's happening is He is working And even though you don't see it He's still working And if you keep going back One day it's going to spring forth And bust forth a seed of harvest Hallelujah Just because you don't see it Don't mean he's not working He's working He's working, he's working He's working" [51:23] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "The battle is not yours the battle belongs to the Lord and the Lord has never never never lost the battle Wow glory never lost the battle never will lose the battle never never never you won't lose your mind you won't lose your mind this won't take you out look towards the hills from which comes your help all of your help comes from the Lord who created you who created you who created the heavens and the earth it's not by power not by might but by my spirit says the Lord" [01:03:05] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Your struggle is God's strategy to get you to your established destiny don't manipulate the struggle for in manipulating the struggle you manipulate the strategy I'm gonna say it one more time your struggle is God's strategy to get you to your established destiny here's the key thing it's already established it just waited for you to get there so the struggle you may be going through God's going to somehow use that as a strategy because we understand as believers all things work together for the good of them that love him" [01:09:32] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "He says, as I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you. Mama, daddy, God says, as I was with my other leaders, as I was with Mary and Joseph, I'm going to be with you too. Somebody need to hear that today because you think the Lord is not with you. You think God is not with you. You know, God is with you. Like Job said, when I went forward, I couldn't see him. When I looked behind me, I couldn't sense him. I looked to my left and my right. I could not perceive him." [01:17:30] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Some of you are going through some turbulence right now. And you have made up in your mind, this thing ain't going to work. It ain't going to come together. I'm telling you, you're going to make it if you do not quit. I'm closing right here. He says this here. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Somebody say everyday kind of success." [01:20:07] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




6. "You want your stuff right now, but you think it's on this side. But it's on that side. Oh, God. Watch this right here. My wife said, you better preach faster. Watch this here. He said, take these people across this Jordan River. So that tells me one thing. Sandwich in between where he is at and where he wants to be is a problem. The Jordan was the problem. He said, if you could get across this problem. If you could get across this Jordan." [01:22:12] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




7. "He didn't say stand in the valley. He said, yea, though I walk through the valley. Somebody need to start walking today. Walk, walk through your trouble. Walk through your pain, knowing that God is with you. Can we give God a praise for his word on today?" [01:23:16] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

He's able. He's able to fix it. He's to restore your peace. Come on, somebody. He knows how to make a way out of no way. He knows how to build a bridge over your troubled water. Come on, somebody. He knows how to restore your sanity. He's able. He's amen.

Right before I jump right into the word, can you just take about 30 seconds in your own personal space? And let's give God the best praise that you can. Let's give him the best hallelujah. Let's give him the best thank you, Jesus, that we can. Come on. Let's give God a praise in this place for his goodness, for his mercy, for his kindness. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. He is Jehovah Shalom, your peace. He is Jehovah Tishkenu, our righteousness. He is Jehovah. He is Jehovah Shama, our healer. He is the great God in this place. And that's just who he is.

Right before you take your seat, as they were saying that last part, "Even when I don't see it, You're working." And as you were singing that, I thought about when we plant a seed in the ground. You plant that seed in the ground, and you don't see anything. You're watering, the sun's coming, and you don't see nothing. You're working, you're looking, you're going back every day, and all you see is the dirt. But you know you're planting a seed. But all you see is dirt. Is that your life right now? You know you're planting a seed, but all you see is dirt.

Well, what's happening is He is working. And even though you don't see it, He's still working. And if you keep going back, one day it's going to spring forth and bust forth a seed of harvest. Hallelujah! Just because you don't see it doesn't mean He's not working. He's working. He's working, He's working. And then she said, "He never stops working." He never stops working. There's no slumber, there's no sleep. He never stops, He never stops, He never stops. He never stops working. Never stop.

Come on, right before you take your seat, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you take your seat, prophesy to two people. Just simply say, "He never stops working. He never stops working. He never stops working." I know some of you are questioning because it doesn't look like it and it doesn't feel like it, but don't be moved by what you see. Be moved by what you believe by faith. Somebody needs to encourage themselves. He never stops working. It ain't over. It ain't over. It may look like it's over, but it ain't over. The battle is not yours; the battle belongs to the Lord. And the Lord has never, never, never lost the battle. Wow! Glory! Never lost the battle. Never will lose the battle. Never, never, never. You won't lose your mind. You won't lose your mind. This won't take you out.

Look towards the hills from which comes your help. All of your help comes from the Lord who created you, who created you, who created the heavens and the earth. It's not by power, not by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord. By spirit, by spirit, by your spirit, by spirit. I didn't hear God say, "I'm stirring somebody up this morning." God is troubling somebody's water right now. Something's moving on the inside of you right now. And leave you alone. You're in the presence of God, the grace of God touching you, healing you, restoring you, fixing you, putting peace in your mind. The peace of God that surpasses all of our understanding. Let it guard your heart.

For He will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him—not stayed on your problems, not stayed on your pain, not stayed on your struggles, not stayed on Facebook—but He'll keep you in perfect peace whose mind is focused on Him. Give God one more praise in this place today. Whoa, whoa, whoa! This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me, and the world can't take it away. Come on, somebody!

I don't know, but I hear somebody say they are in a fight for their life. Listen, the battle, the fight is already fixed. In the end, you will win if you don't quit. Come on, somebody! In the end, you will win. You will get the victor's spoil. Come on, somebody! You will inherit the fruit of all that God has set out before you. The battle is not yours; the battle belongs to the Lord. I won't be moved by what I see. I won't be moved by what I feel, but I'm going to be moved by what I believe. And I believe the report of the Lord. His report says you are the head and not the tail. His report says you are above only and never beneath, that you're the lender and not the borrower, that you're blessed in the city, blessed in the field.

You got to know in this season what the word of God says about you because there's a lot that's going on right now, and it will steal your joy, it will steal your mind. But you got to get a revelation on the word of God in the midst of all the chaos you may be experiencing right now. Can we give God one more hand clap of praise? Thank you!

And y'all expect me to preach now. I said this before, and I'm going to just prophesy the same thing to the whole church. I've said this to a couple individuals, but I just speak this word to the whole church: your struggle—because I'm going to say this here—more people are going through than will ever admit it and that you will ever know. More people are broken and hurt right now than you will ever know.

We have been taught and trained, you just do what you're supposed to do, and you just look. But I want to tell us by the day that your struggle is God's strategy to get you to your established destiny. Don't manipulate the struggle, for in manipulating the struggle, you manipulate the strategy. I'm going to say it one more time: your struggle is God's strategy to get you to your established destiny. Here's the key thing: it's already established; it just waits for you to get there.

So the struggle you may be going through, God's going to somehow use that as a strategy because we understand as believers, all things work together for the good of them that love Him. You are called according to a purpose. So your struggle that you may be going through, God's going to use that as a strategy to get you to your established destiny. Don't manipulate the struggle, for in manipulating the struggle, you might just manipulate God's strategy for getting you to where He's trying to get you. Can we give God a praise for that on today?

Let me do this right here. My message is all just going to go a whole different way. But let me just end this service for the next—just give me 10 minutes. If I get 12 minutes, it's fine. Stay where you are. Just don't check out right now. Give me 12 minutes.

Joshua chapter 1. And don't open your Bible. Just go to the church website. All my notes are on the home page. But I just want to read Joshua chapter 1. And this is going to be my close-out message for this series that we've been in for the past four weeks called "Own Your Life Now." And I'm just going to end it talking from Joshua chapter 1, verses 1 through 9.

The idea of the message today was going to be stepping boldly into God's purpose. As you begin to own your life—not next week, not next month, not next year—but own your life now. You need to step boldly into God's purpose for your life. And look what it says here in Joshua chapter 1, beginning in verse number 9.

It says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' aide, 'Moses, my servant, is dead.' Let me stop there for a moment. In Deuteronomy, the last chapter of that book, Joshua and the children of Israel, they were in mourning. They were in the wilderness, mourning over the loss of their fearless leader, Moses, who had been—Joshua himself had been working with for years. Moses passes away. They now find themselves in the middle of a wilderness, weeping over what was.

Have you ever been there before? Weeping over what was? God gave them 30 days to weep over Moses' death. And then we get to Joshua chapter 1, verse 1. It says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord said to him, 'Moses, my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land that I am about to give to the Israelites.'"

Let's stop there for one moment. Some of you would think that God could be insensitive in this moment here. He's mourning over the loss of a leader, someone that he was very close with. But God says, "Hey, Joshua, get up. Take these people to the other side."

And the reason why God needed for Joshua to get up—not just because there was an assignment to be fulfilled, and it was—but also if he would allow Joshua to mourn over Moses too long, he would have become paralyzed. He would have become sick, stuck, and not only would Moses have been dead, but the vision and the purposes that God had planned for the children of Israel through Moses, and even now through Joshua, that would have died as well.

Listen, I believe some of you have been in mourning yourself. Maybe not a physical death, and maybe it is somebody physically who passed away. I don't know the specificity of your particular mourning, but I do believe I'm speaking to some people today who have lost something of value, something of significance—that thing which once had life no longer has life, and you're mourning over what was.

And for some of you, you're mourning over what was because you can't even imagine that there will be a what will be after this. Sometimes we mourn over things so long that we miss the future possibility of what can be. I do believe this here. I do believe that people do need to mourn. I do believe that mourning is a natural process or should be, or it is a natural process of our human experience to mourn over what was—whether it was a loss of a dream job, or maybe you had to leave a city or a town and you lost relationships, maybe a physical death.

You're going to mourn what was because a lot of human connections were tied to that. But God says to Moses, "Moses, I can't let you mourn over this too long because you won't be able to fully take ownership of your life if you allow your emotions and your feelings to get the best of you."

God wasn't being insensitive to Moses' situation. God understood there was a purpose that still needed to be fulfilled. You know, every time that we eat food, our body—if you leave here today and eat some steak and potatoes and some vegetables—what your body's going to do is take that food and it's going to break all that food down. It's going to go through a metabolization process.

And what's going to happen is as you're processing that food, your body's going to break it down into two piles: a waste pile and then a pile that all the nutrients from whatever you ate is going to be put in a second pile. And at some point, your body's going to release all of the garbage that cannot add any value to your body.

Do you know there are some people, unfortunately, who cannot release certain toxins in their bodies, and it stays in their body and it actually hinders them in a negative way? This also happens emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. We don't know how to metabolize and process and get those things out of us. It stays in our body and it creates sickness in the body.

We've got to learn how to metabolize and process. We've got to go through the mourning process because I learned if you never mourn over what was, you'll never be able to embrace what will be. If you never mourn over what was, you'll never be able to properly embrace what will be—the potential of what can come next.

He says this here, "I will give you every place." And I'm not trying to teach this sermon the way I would have originally taught it today. I'm teaching it in the context of the move of the Spirit that took place in here today. "Your territory will extend from," he said, "I will give you every place where you set your foot. As I promised Moses, your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the river Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the Mediterranean Sea in the West."

He's telling him, "I'm going to give you your from here to there." Do you know that God? All of us are here to there. You have to know God, "Where is my here to there? What things you have put before me that I can own that belong to me?"

And then he tells him, "When you get to those places, no man will be able to stand against you." Listen, when you discover your purpose and what authority you have and what range God has given you, the devil cannot mess with you. When you know your territory, when you own your lane and own your field, the devil can't touch you because God has already given you—from Pooler to Savannah, come on, somebody, to Hinesville. When you know your territory, you can claim everything that God has promised you.

And I believe for some of us, we need to discover, "God, where's my here to there?" Now, for some of you, that's who's your man? Who's your woman? Who's that person for me? For some of you, that dream job, that career—whatever the specificity or whatever you believe God has given to you—you need to know, "Where's my here to there?"

And for some of you, the reason why some of the stuff is not working out for you and the enemy is winning is because you're in the wrong field. You're in the wrong territory. Now, am I saying that even when you're in your own territory, you won't have a battle? Absolutely not. You will have battles even when the land belongs to you, and those you will win. Come on, somebody!

So when you know you're here and there, even when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will lift up a standard against them. And in the end, you won't have a battle. You won't have a battle. You won't have a battle. You won't have a battle.

Let's give it a few more minutes. I just want to end this service here. He says, "As I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you." Mama, daddy, God says, "As I was with my other leaders, as I was with Mary and Joseph, I'm going to be with you too."

Somebody needs to hear that today because you think the Lord is not with you. You think God is not with you. You know God is with you. Like Job said, "When I went forward, I couldn't see Him. When I looked behind me, I couldn't sense Him. I looked to my left and my right. I could not perceive Him."

Have you ever been in a situation like that where it seems like God is nowhere around? Then Job says, "When He has tried me, I'm going to come forth as pure gold." Job understood that sometimes the teacher is silent when the student is testing. You think God walked off? No, God is still right there. The teacher is, "Shh, take the test, shh."

And listen here, a good teacher would never give a student a test that they had yet to prepare the student to pass. If God is silent with you right now, it's because He's qualified you to pass this particular test. Come on, somebody!

And He said, "Just as I was with Moses when he was testing, I'm going to be with you when you are going through your test." And I love the fact that He keeps going on and says, "Be strong and courageous." He says, "Because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them."

He says again, "Be strong. Be strong and very courageous." Why does He keep saying this several times in one small breath? Because He understood something that Joshua was going to face was going to bring fear and intimidation in his life. And He said, "Hey, Joshua, I'm telling you in advance, before fear comes, I want you to be strong and very courageous."

I'm going to tell somebody right now, as you go through your process, go through your test, be strong. Be of good courage, He said. But as I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you as well. And here's the funny thing: you think you're going to fail. You think you're going to lose. But I'm telling you, you have anxieties for no reason right now.

Anybody ever been on a plane before and you thought it was going to go down? You thought that was the last trip for you? You already prayed and said, "God, if this plane don't make it, please forgive me for all my sins. I'm sorry." You been there before? But the plane made it safely.

Some of you are going to be there. Some of you are going through some turbulence right now. And you have made up in your mind, "This thing ain't going to work. It ain't going to come together." I'm telling you, you're going to make it if you do not quit.

I'm closing right here. He says this here: "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go." Somebody say, "Everyday kind of success." Come on. Now, you said that last week. Say, "Everyday kind of success."

This is what God wants to give you. He wants to give you everyday. As a matter of fact, you're just going to be calm in it. "I got everyday kind of success." Come on, somebody! And listen, that's not arrogance. That's confidence in the God that you serve.

Because too many of you walk around wondering and hoping if it's going to happen. Will God? No, you have confidence in Jehovah Jireh, your provider. He said that you may be successful wherever you go.

Verse 8: "Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous and do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Let me end this message by saying this here: Do you understand anything about those first nine verses of scripture that I just read to you? After God had just told Joshua in Deuteronomy to get up and take these people across this Jordan. Imagine this here. He says, "Get up and take these people." Go read chapter 2, chapter 3. He began to tell Joshua what lands and regions and what possessions he was going to inherit, what he was going to get.

But guess what? Everything that belonged to him was on the other side. You want your stuff right now, but you think it's on this side. But it's on that side. Oh, God!

Watch this right here. My wife said, "You better preach faster." Watch this here. He said, "Take these people across this Jordan River." So that tells me one thing: Sandwich in between where he is at and where he wants to be is a problem. The Jordan was the problem. He said, "If you could get across this problem. If you could get across this Jordan."

I don't know what your Jordan may be, but we all got a Jordan that we got to cross. And here's the funny thing: many of you want to go around it. But the word of the Lord for you today is, you can't go around this one. You're going to have to go through.

But He made you a promise: "I'm going to be with you just as I was with Moses." You can't go around this one. You got to go through. Am I talking to somebody right now who's going through something? Come on!

What He said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." See, He said, "Yea, though I walk through." Too many of you are not walking through the valley; you're standing in the valley. You have stopped. You have become paralyzed. Something as you were walking through and you were okay, something paralyzed you. And now you're stuck and you're afraid.

And watch this: you're taking pictures in the valley. And those pictures are becoming memories in your heart. That wire up here. And now you got it. They've now become strongholds that you got to now cast down.

He didn't say stand in the valley. He said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley." Somebody needs to start walking today. Walk, walk through your trouble. Walk through your pain, knowing that God is with you. Can we give God a praise for His word on today? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

I'm going to stop right there. Let's just end this service right here. This word bless anybody on today? Did it? Yeah. Did this service bless anybody?

I would say this whole service. Let me pray. And just a quick reminder: we have our town hall meeting today at five o'clock. And for those that don't know what that is, we have an open church meeting. We sent out a survey a few weeks ago for anybody that had any pain points, questions. As this church keeps growing, we know people could feel like they're being left behind; they could get overlooked.

So we did a survey getting the posts of our church, got a lot of feedback. And so today at five o'clock, me and Pastor David are here to read some of the questions to me. I'll get a chance to answer those questions. I really want to encourage you, if you call Hope City Church your home, you want to understand why we worship the way that we worship, why we teach the way that we do, why we do certain stuff the way that we do.

I really want to encourage you to be here on today to kind of understand the heartbeat, the DNA that’s really being curated through some of the comments and the concerns that some of you guys have had. I'll go so far to say questions and comments such as, you know, me being the senior pastor here, that I don't like the older members anymore of Hope City; I only cater to the new babies here. And that's definitely not the case.

And so I want to address some of those things tonight. And I get it, as a church is growing, people could feel overlooked. I mean, just as one service right now, you see I'm standing there shaking hands. Trust me, I get it.

But watch us here: you're in a growing house. God planted you here. So guess what? He didn't plant you here just to be a member of Hope City. He planted you here to help. Some of y'all got gifts and callings on the inside of you that I can't do by myself.

So you thought you was coming to a 15-20 church just to speak to me and leave. And God said, "You don't want to came here. You don't want—you said you like to worship. You don't want—you said you felt the Spirit when you came. You don't want—you said your family is changing."

So God has planted you here. Now you got to figure out, "God, how do I get involved in this thing that just happened to be growing?" Amen, somebody? I think a lot of you get a lot of great things locked up on the inside of you—great potential that can make a big difference here.

So tonight, if you love me as your pastor, particularly those who filled out the survey, I want to see you tonight at five o'clock. It's only going to be 60 to 75 minutes. It will not be long, but I promise you, particularly those who may be visiting, who've been visiting off and on, this would definitely be a good time for you as well to kind of get some behind-the-scene insight on what's happening here at Hope City Church and to also hear some of the questions or the comments that were made in this survey.

I promise you it's going to be a very interesting night. And so all staff, all dream team leaders, all dream team members, I really want to encourage you to be here on tonight. Make it your personal business to be here tonight.

Let's pray. And again, our second campus launch, as we already know, is going to be happening in January. Our Pooler campus will take place. Our next interest meeting will be on November the 17th—that's a Sunday—here at six o'clock at the building. For those that's going to the Pooler campus or even interested in knowing more about the church or about the Pooler campus, our next meeting will be six o'clock, November the 17th, here at the building as we get more vision and direction on the launching of the Pooler campus that's coming in this January.

Let me pray for you. Father, we thank You. We thank You for this service. We thank You for the way Your Spirit, Your presence moved in this place on today. Father, I believe that all types of healing took place, God. Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, God. People were helped on today through this worship experience, God. And we thank You, God, for being in the midst of it, God.

God, like one of Your psalmists said, "Lord, You can do anything to us, God, but whatever You do, don't take Your Holy Spirit away." So we thank You for Your presence, God. Maybe someone is saying today, "Pastor Corey, I needed this word today."

Today, I know church, but I don't know Him. I've shaken your hand, but I have yet to shake God's hand. I got good religion, but I don't have a personal relationship with this God you're talking about. I want to know what it means to be saved. I want to know what it means to give my heart to Christ. I want to know what it means to be born again.

Or maybe you're saying, "Hey, I already made that decision. I already have assurance and confidence that if I take my last breath on this side, I will enter into the presence of my Creator. I'm sure with that. I don't have any concern with that. But I do need a church—a church that teaches the word of God in such a way that I can take it and apply it to my life. A place where I can experience the presence of God. A place where I can connect and grow in my faith. I believe I can hear God's voice here. I believe my family and my faith can grow here at Hope City."

If you're here, we'd love to have you to be a part of what God is doing here at Hope City Church. So if you're in this place, I'm not going to call you up. I'm not going to call you out. But I do want to know who I am praying for. So on the count of three, if you want me to include you in on this prayer, just simply slip your hand up for a second, and you can bring it back down.

On the count of three. One, two, three. Will that be one? No pressure, no problem. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand as well. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand as well. I see that hand. I see that hand as well. God bless all of you.

And just do me a quick favor. Just right where you are, everyone all over the building, extend your hands towards heaven. And repeat this simple prayer with me if you will. Say, "God, thank You for sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins. I also believe He rose from the grave with all power in His hand. Say, 'God, I ask You now to forgive me of any and every sin that has separated me from Your love.'

Now say, 'God, I don't fully understand what all this means. But I do believe with Your presence, Your Spirit living on the inside of me, I will become the person You desire me to be. So I ask You now to fill me with the power and the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, You are welcome to live in my heart for the rest of my life.'

Father God, Your word declares any man being Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. I declare those that prayed that prayer for the very first time in faith, Lord God, that God was spiritually separated from You. Or God, even those that were in a physical separation, God, from a church body.

I declare everything they lost prematurely. They're moving into a season of recovery and restoration, God. And You will restore everything that the enemy stole prematurely. And I declare that every yoke, every chain, every stronghold that has attached itself to their life, that those things are falling off now, and who the Son sets free, they are free indeed. In Jesus' name I pray.

Let's give God a praise for every decision made in this place today.