I Have Decided To Stand On The Promises of God | Pastors Adam and Rebecca Peterson

So before we jump in today, I want to take a minute and welcome our online family. Hey, online family, we love you. Let's go! We're grateful that you are here today. Let me encourage you, get out your notebook, take some notes, lean in today, let God speak to your heart, and then maybe you know this or maybe you don't, but every single week, we stream online to hundreds of prison facilities all across the US. So can we put our hands together for the men and women who are joining us in correction facilities? And the same goes for you, lean in today, take some notes, we believe that God is gonna speak a word to your heart this morning. So the decision that we're making today, and really, we wanna make every day of our lives, is this, that we want to stand on the promises of God. Come on, how many of you know this book right here is filled with promises of God? And what we're gonna do today is look at these scriptures, not all of them, because we would be here all, all day if we were looking at the promises of God, but we're gonna look at some of them, how they apply to our lives, and how when we decide to stand on these promises, to cling to them, to hold to them, to get them in our heart, and in our mind, and in our lives, it changes the direction of our lives.

So we are going there today, lean in, it's gonna be so, so good. Psalm 145 says, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises, and faithful in all he does. Let's go. This is who we serve. And what this means is when he says it, he's gonna do it, that he is trustworthy, that his word can be trusted. And so what we're gonna be digging into today is how God's promises apply to our life, but not all of God's promises are the same. And so let's get a little bit of groundwork before we jump in this morning. Some of the promises of God are what we would call somewhat conditional, meaning that God says, if you do this, you get to receive this. And so it's God inviting us to take part in what he's wanting to do in our life. Some of God's promises throughout his word were for a specific time. They were for a specific nation, a specific person, and so they might not necessarily be a promise that we're grabbing hold of right now, but they are showing the character and the nature of who God is. There's other promises in his word that are prophetic promises

that we've not seen happen yet. You can read a lot of these in Revelation, where Jesus has given his promise of how he's gonna return and what he's gonna do when he comes back. These are promises that we get to cling to that we're gonna see happen. And then there are amazing promises all throughout God's word that are for God's sons and God's daughters that we get to claim every single day in our life. And so it's important for us to know the differences between the different types of promises of God so that we know what they are, we know how they work, and we know how they apply to our life. So just a reminder, 10 o'clock, we're a hollaback church, okay? Meaning as God speaks through us in his word today, feel free to shout, yeah, amen, uh-huh, that's good. Because we wanna respond to the word of God, amen? That's a good start. All right, so here's the really good news, you ready? God is a promise-making God. Here's even better news, he's actually a promise-keeping God. Meaning if he said it, he is going to do it. Three thoughts today that we wanna share with you. Thought number one is this, the promises of God are p-p-p-p-powerful. Amen! There is nothing more powerful than a promise from God.

There is nothing more powerful than a word from God spoken over your life. There is nothing more powerful than his words. Luke 137 says no word from God will ever fail. That means whatever he says, he's gonna be faithful to do it. We're gonna actually see it happen. And his promises are powerful because his words don't fail, and his promises are powerful because they are backed by his power. He is the God of the universe, the God who breathed life into man, who created the heavens and the earth and the stars and everything in between. And so when he speaks, his power is backing his word. His power is backing every single promise that we read throughout his word. And so if he says it, we can believe it. He has got a track record of keeping his promise. He has proven himself again and again and again. His word is unbreakable. But if we don't choose to know these promises in our life, if we don't choose to dig into God's word and to begin to know them and memorize them and know the promises that God speaks over our life, when we walk through hard seasons and when we walk through loss or heartache or struggles, if we don't know God's promises, we'll actually begin to speak some things over our lives to help get us through.

Because you need something when you're walking through a hard thing in your life, right? You need something to cling to. You need something to carry you through. And if you don't know his word, you'll start to speak some things over your life that are not backed by the power of God's. And so maybe I'm walking through something hard and I might start saying things like well man God I'm trusting you. So life should just be good and easy, but that's not truth. That's not what God's Word says That's not a promise from God. So instead I've got to get in God's Word and read things like John 16 33 It says I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world. You will have trouble This is a promise. It's not a great promise. It's a hard promise, but this is a promise from God You will have trouble, but here's the good part of that promise take heart because I have overcome the world And so I can try to speak truth over my life, but it's not backed by the power of God It's not gonna sustain me and it's not gonna help me and said I'm gonna cling to truths like this that know man God's power actually backs this up because Jesus has conquered it all And so that is the truth that I get to cling to or my might start saying things in life Well, man, this is really hard, but I guess God's just not gonna give me more things than I can handle. Well, that's not truth That's not the truth of God's Word So again, that's just gonna be something that might make me feel better, but there's no power backing it up instead I've got to get in God's Word and read things like Psalm 55 This says cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you and so what this scripture is saying This is a promise from God that hey, you're gonna have some burdens in your life you're gonna have some really hard things that you walk through and it's gonna be more than you can handle and so you've got to Place it on the Lord and let him be the one that strengthens you and sustains you you have to know The truth of the Word of God and you need something that's got some power backing it up And so when we know God's promises and when we know that he's a powerful God that's gonna back up the things that he says It's what we need to push us through life. It's what we need to cling to It's what we need to sustain us. It's what we need to survive our life You need the power of God in your life and you need the promises of God in your life. So get it in

His Word and know the truth of the promises that he speaks over you Come on, raise your hand if you've ever broken a promise you made to somebody All right, if your hands not up, we'll work on that. You got a lying issue Raise your hand if you have ever had somebody break a promise that they made to you The reality is this a promise is only as strong as the person who's making the promise so so if you Look to me as your pastor and you might pass around him Do you promise me this and I give you my word like you're believing me because of who I am and who I have been To you, but you if you have somebody that's unreliable, you're not gonna believe them when they say that So there's this really amazing verse in Hebrews chapter 6 where God is referencing Abraham and it says this when God made his promise to Abraham Since there was no one greater for him to swear by he swore by himself I Grew up in the 90s Okay, and in the 90s as a 90s kid, you know We were outside all the time because our parents didn't care apparently and they had never knew where we were and air tags weren't a Thing and all that and so we would be out and we would do something and you know you would ride your bike or whatever and jump over like this ramp and we used to jump ramps and stuff and I would jump Ramp and I'd be like I Joe I cleared that car and they're like you promised. I guess I did it They're like swear to it You like I swear man. I did it and they were like swear on your mama's grave I'm like, I swear on my mama's grave and then they swear to God and I wasn't allowed to swear to God Maybe you're not either but God swore to God. So if God swore to God then maybe we can swear to God I don't know God did it. I'm not God. So maybe we'll just let him do it God said there's there's I'm gonna make a promise to you and you want me to stake my claim on it I can't I can't put it on anybody else. So I'm gonna put it on me I'm gonna swear to my name My character who I am and when I say it you better believe I got the power to back it up Amen God is such a good God how many of you when you make a promise what you're really saying is I'm

Guaranteeing that I'm gonna come through on this thing that I'm saying I'm gonna do but if you want to take it a step further You know what you can do You can make the pinky promise Come on, anybody know anything about the pinky promise. Do you know where the pinky promise originated? 17th century Japan They would make a pinky promise meaning this I am swearing by this finger right here on my hand that if I don't do it You can chop it off Yeah, you're gonna double think that pinky promise you make next time like I like that pinky man I don't want to lose that thing. This is the Lord going I'm willing to stake my entire reputation That the character that I have of faithfulness of goodness of strength and power that when I Say something you better believe it will come to pass because the promises of God are Powerful and so hear me Very clearly right now, if you're walking through something that feels impossible, there is good news. You can't overcome the impossible, but there is a God who is more than powerful to do it. Thought number two this morning is simply this, the promises of God are personal. This week, I asked ChatGPT a couple of questions. If you're not familiar with ChatGPT, it's like an online AI thing where you can ask it any question, and it's gonna just scour the internet and give you answers, and so I love to do it. It's like, it's so fun to me. So I asked ChatGPT, how many promises are there in the Bible? Thousands, thousands of promises.

It listed some of them out, and then it said, do you want to know what the most repeated promise in God's word is? And I'm like, yeah, because I have a sneaky suspicion that I might already know what it is. And so this is the promise that's the most repeated in God's word. I will be with you. Did you know it? I did. Way to go, let's go. I'm so proud of myself. I don't know a lot, but I knew that. So this is the most repeated promise all throughout God's word, said in many different ways, in stories, promises given to people, but this is the common theme when it comes to the promises of God, a very personal promise of the presence of God, that he will be with you, that he will walk with you, that he will carry you, that he will sustain you, that he will be with you. And so when we are walking through things in our life, we have to know that there is a personal God who is intimate, who is caring, who is walking with us in every single season,

because we're gonna face some really personal problems in our life, right? We're gonna face some really hard things that are very difficult, and so if we are going to have problems in our life, we need a personal God who's gonna give us promises that can come against the problems in our life. We need the promises of God to be able to come in the moments when it seems like we don't know what to do, there's no way out, we don't know how we're gonna figure this out. We need personal, I don't need a vague promise, I don't need somebody else's promise, I need a personal promise from God to come against the things that I'm experiencing in my life. And so maybe you've got a problem that says this, that I am alone. Raise your hand if you've ever felt alone. Raise your hand. You're not alone. All of us, right? That we have these seasons in our life where we feel like I'm alone, I gotta figure this out all on my own. So we need a promise to come against that problem. Hebrews 13 five says, I will never leave you or forsake you. This is a personal promise for you

that when you feel like you're alone, when you feel like you have to figure it out all on your own, you need to know that you have a personal God who is with you and isn't gonna ever leave you. Or maybe your problem is, hey, I have to provide for myself. Like I gotta take care of myself. Nobody else is gonna do it. I gotta figure things out on my own. I've gotta be my own provider. Well, if that's how we feel, then we have a problem and we need a promise. And the promise in Philippians 4 19 says, my God will supply every need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. This is a promise from God that if we are struggling and we don't know how to provide and we don't know what God's gonna do and we don't know how a way is gonna be made, we've gotta know that we have Jehovah, Jireh, our provider who is gonna supply all of my needs. Or maybe your problem is that I'm anxious. This is a problem that I think all of us face in our life. Come on, show of hands if you've ever had some anxiety in your life. Yeah. Anybody feeling anxious about the world right now? Yeah.

I got 99 problems, but a promise-keeping personal God ain't one. Come on, somebody. Come on. If you know, you know. So maybe the promise or the problem is that you're feeling anxious, that life is overwhelming, that your circumstances are hard, that the weight of the world is overwhelming and is causing such great anxiety in you, that is a problem, which means we need a promise to cling to in the middle of our problem. Well, Philippians 4 says, "'Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, "'by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, "'let your requests be made known to God.'" And here is the promise. "'The peace of God will guard your hearts "'and your minds in Christ Jesus.'" If you have a problem in your life, you need a promise to cling to, because if not, we're just gonna cling to our problems, and that's not gonna help sustain us, that's not gonna get us through. And so if you're feeling anxious right now, you need the promise that God is going to be your peace, and his peace is gonna protect your heart, his peace is gonna protect your mind

against the lies from the enemy, his peace is gonna protect your mind against your own thoughts and your own lies. If you have problems, you need God's promises. That is what is going to breathe a life over you, and that is what is going to carry you. So if you read the Bible cover to cover, you're gonna see that God will. interact in a personal way with personal people. So he went to Noah and he said, I'm gonna flood the earth, go build a boat, and I'm gonna save you and your family. That was personal. And then when Noah, when the water receded, he looked at Noah and he goes, and now I'm never gonna do that again. And that promise was for all of us, right? He looked at Moses and he said, Moses, go to Pharaoh, because Pharaoh has my people in slavery. And Moses is like, I don't know, I don't know, who am I, who am I? And God's like, I'm gonna be with you. It's that promise, that repetitive promise, that personal promise, I'm with you, Moses. You're not going on your own strength, you're going in my strength, and I'm already telling you, I'm promising you, I'm gonna let my people go, it's already done, I just need you to go on my behalf. And God led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery to what?

The promised land. Because he's a personal God of promise. So all throughout scripture, Noah, Moses, Joshua, Dave, like the list goes on. He's a personal God, and so he would give this personal promise to these guys. He didn't give it to us, but because it's recorded in scripture, we can apply it to our situations. We can apply it to our lives in the personal way that God needs to be that for us. So Psalm 119, you're gonna love this verse, it's so good. It says, remember your word to your servant. This is the psalmist basically saying, hey, don't forget what you said to me, God. To which God's like, I didn't forget. I think the psalmist is really looking at himself going, I need to remember your word to me. And he goes on to say, why do I need to remember your word? Because you have given me hope. That's what the promises of God do. The promises of God give you hope when life feels hopeless. When you're in a situation, when you're in a trial, anybody wanna just admit, maybe you're walking through something difficult right now, any hands wanna be honest in here, all right? Yeah, yeah, when you're walking through something, what gives you hope is God going, I'm with you. You're not alone. I'm gonna give you your strength.

All that anxiety you feel, you can give it to me and I'll exchange it for peace. Easier said than done, but it's a promise that is available to you if you want it. You're giving me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this, that even in my suffering, here's what brings me comfort. Your promise preserves my life, meaning I'm suffering, but I'm gonna make it. I'm suffering, but this isn't the end. I'm suffering, I'm walking through some of the hardest days of my life, but God, I'm gonna make it through this because you're with me, you're here. I'm remembering your, because it's personal. He's not a distant God up in heaven going, oh, yeah, I hope you hear me. God's like, no, I'm with you. I am literally right here. I am your father. So then we go to an earlier psalm and it says this, this is a promise. The Lord is, not will be, he is, close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit. So let me say something that's not gonna get a single clap from the five of y'all that just clapped for that, okay? 2026 is gonna be some of you's hardest year you've ever walked through.

In 2026, this year, some of you are gonna get a diagnosis that is not gonna be good. Some of you, a loved one is gonna get a diagnosis that's not good. Some of you are gonna lose somebody close to you, somebody you care deeply for. And in that moment, you're gonna feel brokenhearted. You're gonna feel crushed. And how are you gonna make it through one of the hardest moments of your life? The Lord is close. Listen. I might not feel it. I might not see him. I might go, God, I don't know where you are, but I'm not gonna go off of what I feel in this moment. I'm gonna go off of what I know to be true from your word, because you have said it and I believe it and it's personal that if I'm walking through something that's breaking my heart, you're with me. You're right here and you're not leaving, you're not walking out, you're good, you're strong. This is the God we serve. And my encouragement to you would be to grab a hold of every promise. I would go to old Chat GPT. If you never have it, you're gonna have some fun with it. You can literally tell Chat GPT, I got broccoli, celery, and carrots in my refrigerator.

What can I make for dinner? And you're gonna hit a nasty dinner, but it'll give you something. If you're still eating celery, you got issues, but that's a whole nother point. Go to chat GP and just say, can you give me as many promises from scripture? Go to Google and then print it out and put it somewhere. Because what you need is the remembrance. Because when you're walking through it, you're gonna forget. God is a personal God. One personal promise, let me just say this and then we'll move on. One personal promise that God gave us when we started Rise Church, many personal promises he gave us, but one he gave us is that we will be a church that reaches families. And here's what I mean by that. Hold your applause that none of you clapped for. Here's what I mean by that. Not only are you gonna reach immediate families, like we're gonna reach a mom and a dad and then their kids, we're gonna reach siblings. So you're gonna come and then your brother and sister potentially are gonna start coming. Your cousins are gonna start coming. An aunt and an uncle, a grandparent, a grandchild are gonna start coming.

And we've seen that play out. Just show of hands, anybody have extended family that come to Rise Church in here? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. That's a promise that God gave us. How many of you have extended family that you would love to have them come to Rise Church? It's a promise that God has given us, so don't give up on those extended family in your life. When you invite them, be like, man, God promised it to Pastor Adam and Pastor Rebecca. I'm a part of Rise Church, I'm in on that promise. You better believe it. Get them to Easter, baby. It's gonna be good. Promises of God are powerful. Not just powerful, they're personal. But point number three is a big deal, come on, this is it. Promises of God require faith. So this is what I was talking about in the open, talking about the different promises of God, that some of them require faith. And that doesn't mean that God is being this conditional God like, hey, I'm only gonna give it to you if you do this. No, it's an invitation for God to say, hey, I am inviting you to participate in what I wanna release in your life. And so God's not like, hey, I got strings attached to this or do this and maybe I'll give it to you.

No, he is saying some of these promises require your faith and God wants you to participate. It is an open-handed gift that God is wanting to give you. He's like, just trust in me and have some faith and receive what I wanna pour out in your life. Hebrews 11, six says, without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. This is telling us that faith matters. Faith matters when it comes to God. Faith is what's gonna lead us to receiving from him. Faith isn't something God is demanding from us, but it is the relationship part of all of this. That God's saying, if you have faith in me, you get to have a relationship with me. You draw near to me, I'm gonna draw near to you. You seek me, I'm gonna meet you and I actually have some promises that I wanna pour out. He's talking about a relationship here with his sons and with his daughters and he's saying these promises are available to those of you who choose to have a relationship with me and choose to put your faith in him. So me and him, we are stuck together, whether he likes it or not. We have entered into a covenant. I know you do. We have entered into a covenant relationship,

which means we have a trusting relationship with one another. We've got a trusting relationship. We love each other and so that means that whatever he has is mine. He's gonna provide for me, he's gonna love me, he's gonna care for me, he's gonna be there for me. What are you gonna do for me? I'm a lot of work, you know, I'm a lot of work and so he's got a lot he's gotta take care of here, but we are in a trusting covenant relationship with each other, therefore I get to receive what he's gonna give me. It's the same with God. We're in a covenant relationship with him. When you said yes to him and you put your faith in him, he's like, I got everything that I wanna pour out for you. I've got blessings, I've got everything. So my promises, the promises that he has for you, you put your faith in him, they're now, they're yours. Everything in him is yes and amen and so he has promises that he wants to pour out to you. The only thing you have to do is put your faith in him and you get to receive the blessings from God. Hebrews 6 talks about Abraham and how Abraham believed in the promise of God, that God had spoken over him, that he would be the father of many nations, yet Abraham was old and he was childless and so God is speaking this promise over him that made no sense, that Abraham

could not actually see happen and so Hebrews 6 says, we do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit what has been promised. That's good. And so this is talking about Abraham, that even though he wasn't seeing what was happening, he had faith that God would actually do what he said he would do and it probably seemed at times like God had forgotten about him. He's just getting older. year by year yet Abraham had faith that he knew God would do what he said he would do and so in Romans we continue to read about Abraham and it says he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but he was strengthened in his faith and he was fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he said he would do that God had the power to do what he had promised and so while Abraham waited month after month for God to fulfill what he had promised to him he was strengthened in his faith and it was his faith that ushered in the promise of God and so some of you have been waiting month after month year after year for God to fulfill some promises that he has spoken over your life and it's hard in the waiting but if we can look to Abraham's life it was in the waiting season that God strengthened his faith if you asked Abraham right now would your faith be where it is had you not walked through that season but God wanted to strengthen his faith and when the promise came it wasn't like he was like oh man I didn't know if that was ever gonna happen he was like no I believe that God would actually do what he said he will do and so while you are waiting let's let God strengthen our faith and let's believe that his promise be fully persuaded that if he said it we will see it happen amen amen I'm gonna invite pastor Jonathan to come up as we close things out if you're a parent grandparent aunt uncle I'm gonna give you a pro tip right here when a kid

walks up to you and they ask you for something never say yes to them don't do it okay and if you're a teenager in here sorry always say maybe or we'll see because the moment you say yes to them they're gonna hold you to that man and they're not gonna let you forget it my kids walked up to me this was last year at some point they're like dad can we go get sushi one day and I was like yeah I'll take you and it was in that moment that I knew I made a big mistake because they were like when I was like oh maybe next weekend and then next weekend rolled around and I couldn't take him because we had something going on maybe next weekend and that turned into a lot of weekends and they started to get angry and they said some mean stuff about me to you dad's a liar he promised six months went by before I was finally able to take those jokes yes and I and if you're like you're not a great parent I cook them to get sushi it's not cheap people okay and when I did I finally was like all right we waited a while we're going to get all you can eat sushi all right we when we threw down it was awesome and so here's what I want to say to some of you in here today and you're not gonna like this just because I tell my kids yes doesn't mean I have to do it when they want me to do it so let me say it like this the promises of God don't always work on our timeline so he said it and the tendency we have is well you said it I want it today you said it I want it tomorrow and man I I wish God worked like that and sometimes that is the case sometimes it's not so what do you do in the waiting you have faith and you just keep preaching to yourself this is who he is this is what he said he said he's for me he said he's with me he said he said no weapon formed against me will prosper he said I'm I'm victorious in him he said he's my provider and you just keep calling on who he is and what he has said you walk in faith we waited and prayed for ten years that a promise God gave us ten years for it to come to pass some of you have been praying for something longer than ten years some of you have been praying for something for ten weeks but it feels like ten years ten years did we struggle in those ten years yeah did we question God yeah did we doubt yeah did we wrestle yes but we just kept

getting up going but I know you said it'd be true so even though I haven't seen it yet and I don't know why God like why wouldn't you just answer this it's the promise you gave me why do we have to wait for it I don't know why I don't have the answers to that it's way above my pay grade ten years and then God answered that prayer I'm telling you something it actually built more faith in me He maybe would have done it within 10 weeks. I can't explain that. So show of hands, how many of you are walking through something right now, and you got a promise from God that you're waiting on? You got what you're waiting on? Yeah. Isaiah 60, 22. At the right time. When's the right time? I don't know. I don't know. But at the right time. This is God speaking. I the Lord. I'll make it happen. If I've spoken it, I'll make it happen. Would you stand to your feet?