Blessed Are The Gentle // October 4, 2020

[Music] thank you for joining us for our online service here at hope church in las vegas nevada we are honored that you are tuning in and we believe that god is going to use this service in your life and the lives of many others in las vegas the west and the world at hope church we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we believe that a jesus follower abides in christ connects in community and shares in the mission if you're watching this we would love to connect with you if you'd like to find out more about who we are please visit [Music] hopechurchonline.com again thank you for worshiping online with us today we hope you enjoy the service hey hope church my name is mel and i want to thank you for taking the time to watch our online worship service today if this happens to be your first time joining us welcome to hope church here at hope we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we would love the opportunity to get to know you better go ahead and text new to hope to 94090 after you hit send you'll get an immediate response from our team with a link to a short form for you to fill out so we can do just that before we continue with our service there are three things we want you to know about today number one our worship team hope creative over the last few months has been writing and releasing worship songs for our church family to enjoy and share they just released even then original and remix you can stream both versions today on apple music spotify google play amazon music and more here is the second thing we want you to know about if you are a jesus follower and have not been baptized we want to help you take that next step the next opportunities to get baptized are just around the corner on october 6th and 20th at 6 pm if you would like to get baptized or receive more information text the word baptisms to 94090 and our team will be in contact with you the third and final thing we want you to know about today is we have an app go ahead and search hope church lv in your app store and give it a download our mobile app is a great place for you to stay connected with hope on the go we have daily devotionals to help you spend time with god all of our sermons are on the app so you can watch or re-watch your favorites again and during today's gathering you can request prayer or take notes during the sermon so if you don't have the app download it and if it's been a while since you've logged on open it up today during the sermon before hope creative leads us in worship let's read psalm 100 4-5 together ready one two three enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise give thanks to him bless his name for the lord is good his loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations [Music] what's up hope church for those of you in the room and for those of you joining us online we're going to sing a song today about god's sovereignty would everything around us may seem out of control when everything around us is is not solid especially now in 2020 we know that god is still sovereign he's still in control and he's still on the throne so let's sing this together all that glitters gold [Music] [Music] the illusion of [Music] you hallelujah you're the god who's in control hallelujah christ alone is still seek your presence hallelujah you're the god who we can trust your heart [Music] truth [Music] so we're left with [Music] hallelujah [Applause] [Music] so if we oh every moment oh [Music] hallelujah you're the god who's in control hallelujah christ alone is still a hope so when we cannot trace your hand we can trust your heart [Music] [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the sweetest friend but holy trust in jesus my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and i righteousness not trust the sweetest frame but holy trust in jesus [Music] through the storm he is lord when darkness seems to hide his face iris on his unchanging grace [Music] my is [Music] [Applause] oh is [Music] [Music] dressed in his right justness alone for this stand before the throne hallelujah seen christ alone cornerstone weak me strong in the same is love through the storm [Music] [Music] lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] each week as a church we worship god together in numerous ways we have already spent some time today worshiping god through music and in just a few moments we are going to worship god through praying together and studying his word but right now we are going to worship god by honoring him with our resources in proverbs chapter 3 the bible says honor the lord with your wealth and from the first of all your produce from that verse we discover that as followers of jesus we are to give first to the lord out of every source of income and we believe that as we place god's kingdom as our first priority in everything he will faithfully meet every need that we have so i want to encourage you on this first weekend of the month to give first to the lord by investing financially through hope church for the sake of the mission there are multiple ways you can give and you can see several of those ways on the screen church family thank you for being such a generous people at hope we value the opportunity we have to pray together so in each of our gatherings we set aside time to seek god in prayer so let's continue our service today by praying as a church family this weekend marks an event that forever changed las vegas we refer to it simply as october 1. this past thursday evening was the first of october and during our service we gathered together as a people and we just spent time praying we wanted to take time and remember those that lost their lives families that are still struggling to this day those that were at the event at the shooting and were affected and still experience trauma and emotion and also to pray for our first responders and our law enforcement community october 1 was a dark day in las vegas but it was a day when the first responders and those who serve our community in law enforcement shined we saw them at their absolute best and so we want to take some time and pray for those that have been affected those that are still being affected and in particular tonight we want to today we want to pray for our first responders and our law enforcement community and i want to use a verse of scripture to kind of guide us as we pray it's found in isaiah chapter 41 verse 10. it says do not fear for i am with you do not anxiously look about you for i am your god i will strengthen you surely i will help you surely i will uphold you with my righteous right hand you hear the promises in that verse that god is with us that he will strengthen us that he will uphold us we can trust our god so i want to take a few moments and i want us to pray for those families and for our men and women that serve every day in our community as first responders in law enforcement because let's be honest right now it's a tough time for people that are serving our communities in those arenas and we have men and women in our fellowship who love jesus who every day lay their life on the line to serve and protect this community and we want to pray for them this weekend so let's pray together today god we bow before you and we first of all just want to thank you for who you are lord as we read that verse of scripture we're reminded that you are our help you are our strength you uphold us you are ever present with us and i want you to just there as you're watching this i want you to take a moment and just thank god for who he is thank him for being our strength and our help and our sustainer and being an ever present god and lord we also today want to pray for those that have been impacted by october 1. but we want to pray for families who lost loved ones 58 people that lost their lives god we pray for those families today lord i know this weekend is a difficult weekend for them as they live relive some of the trauma and the emotion and i pray that your grace that your presence that your strength would just guard their hearts and minds in christ jesus lord i pray for those that were wounded those that were at the event god we have those in our church who were impacted emotionally and physically god we pray for them that you would sustain them and lord also today we want to pray for the men and women who serve our communities first responders and in law enforcement would you just take a moment right now as we're praying and would you just thank god for the men and women who lay their lives on the line every day specifically those that are brothers and sisters in christ we have hundreds in our church who serve in these arenas and would you just pray for god's protection god's blessing and god's favor on them lord we ask you to watch over them we ask you to bless them we ask you to protect them and lord we also want to ask you today to continue to move in our city in response to october 1 god we saw many people come to faith in christ all across the valley we saw you move in power in churches and we ask you to continue to do that lord even today as we open your word god would you speak to us would you move among us it's in the name of jesus we pray [Music] amen you must learn to trust god in all things he is jehovah rohi he is the lord our shepherd so whatever you are in need of from god wait on him trust him word of god says they that wait on the lord shall renew their strength they shall melt up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint wait on the lord trust him he is our shepherd jehovah rohi and he will lead us i want you to just repeat this after me the lord is my shepherd the lord defender behind me defender behind [Music] i'm [Music] no weapon can harm [Music] just lift your voice to the lord and say [Music] hallelujah [Applause] oh [Music] through the mountains [Music] [Music] gives me assurances to [Music] [Music] i face [Music] i [Music] am you believe you've got the victory in jesus i want you to shout this right now come on let's sing together your spirit your spirit is within me so i will walk in your peace [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] away [Music] oh just proclaim it one more time hallelujah i am not alone come on sing it out y'all [Music] i am hallelujah god we trust you we know that you are with us you are jehovah rohi you are the lord god our shepherd you are in control and you guide us you lead us besides still in quiet waters you allow us to rest in you and know that your sovereignty your sovereignty [Music] is allowing all things to work together for good even those things that we cannot see those things that may bring fear and doubt and worry god you are still sovereign in the midst of it all and you are causing it all to bring glory to your name and to work for good to those who love you [Music] so we thank you that your spirit lives in us that we can walk in peace trusting you thank you we thank you i pray for pastor vance now would you speak through him with your word pierce our hearts would you transform us that your presence fill our lives and we will give you the glory in jesus name amen amen in the 1500s the most commonly held belief about the universe was that the earth was the center of the solar system in the mid-1500s most many experts and scientists believed that the planet that we inhabit was the hub if you will of the entire universe to take it a step further most believe that the earth was constant meaning the earth stayed in one place and everything else in the universe revolved and orbited around the earth max lucado in a book writes about it this way he said until 1543 we earthlings enjoyed center stage fathers could place their arms around their children point to the night sky and proclaim the universe revolves around us it's a very commonly held belief but the book that i'm holding and this is actually obviously not an original copy this book was released in 1543 by a man named nicholas copernicus and nicholas copernicus was one of the first to reveal to the world that the sun and not the earth was the center of our solar system and this discovery was revolutionary it led us to understanding not only was the earth not the center of the solar system the sun was the earth was not constant we we then later learned the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours and it orbits around the sun in the solar system every 365 days and yet even with copernicus's book and this revelation for the next 50 years many people still denied that truth and i know what you may be thinking pastor why are you giving us an astronomy lesson right well here's why i want us to understand and recognize that the society that we live in has wrapped its heart around an equally false narrative and here's the narrative we believe everything revolves around us as human beings particularly as individuals in the united states of america we believe that the world revolves around us a quick snapshot of our culture reveals a self-serving convenience pursuing i'm first it's all about me i'm the center of the universe way of living and one of the reasons today that our society is so divided is because of our deep-rooted desire for individual rights and i'm not saying whether you're on the right or the left it's the same we have a deep-rooted desire for our individual rights that is largely born out of this mindset i want what i want and i really don't care how it affects you to be honest you have to look no further than this week's presidential debate that more resemble two pre-teen boys fighting over who should be first in the lunch line than it did world leaders discussing substance with civility and dignity as honest as i can be as i watched that event i was never more grateful for the truth that paul wrote in philippians chapter 3 when he said for our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a savior the lord jesus christ we are citizens of another kingdom here's what that means ultimately this world is not our home and this world is not our hope and that's why in the new testament particularly in the gospels when jesus described what it meant to follow him it was anything but what we see in today's culture as a matter of fact when jesus taught in the sermon on the mount he opened his mouth and began to call his followers to a radical and altogether different way of life than what they had seen in culture as a church family we are walking through the opening section of the sermon on the mount called the beatitudes we opened this a few weeks ago and i gave you a definition of what a beatitude is i'm going to put it back up here on the screen but before i read it i want to remind you when jesus went up on the mountain and began to teach his disciples these beatitudes the text opens saying when jesus saw the crowd he looked out at society he looked out at humanity he saw the chaos he saw the confusion he saw the hurt and he pulled his disciples up on a mountain and in response to what he saw he began to speak to them this radically different way of living and here's what we define the beatitudes as eight radical declarations of kingdom living what we're reading is jesus in contrast to the backdrop of the world describing what it looks like for the kingdom of god that's really our home as believers to be fleshed out in our lives eight declarations of kingdom living resulting in contentment in the midst of the chaos so if you have your bible i want you to open it to matthew chapter five and we're going to continue our journey i'm going to start reading in verse number one and we'll read down to the beatitude that we're going to discuss this weekend when jesus saw the crowds there it is he saw the multitude he saw what was going on in culture in society he went up on the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him he opened his mouth began to teach them sing he began to speak these radical truths about what kingdom living looks like we've already looked at verse three blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven last weekend we looked at verse four blessed are the poor excuse me blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted this weekend i want to focus on verse 5. blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth read that last beatitude with me out loud you ready one two three blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth and again this weekend i want to do the same thing we've done the last couple of weekends i want to answer the question what does it mean to be gentle and then look at how that expresses itself in our life today so let's start by asking the question what does it mean to be gentle the word that jesus uses here is the word gentle in our translation that we read in many other translations it's translated with the word meek blessed are the meek gentle and meek the words that are often used to translate this greek word that jesus uses here means something very different than the way we use the word in the english language today as a matter of fact if you go and open up one of my favorite websites i use it all the time it's called one look dictionary.com it's just onelook.com and what it does it's a dictionary site where you can go and get the definition of a word from about 50 different definitions and i'm kind of a word nerd so i like onelook.com so i went to onelook.com and i typed in the word gentle what is the definition of the word gentle here are some of the definitions of that word soft delicate calm kind mild docile easily handled if you go to onelookdictionary.com and try to understand what jesus was saying you could walk away and think jesus said blessed are the wimpy right because that's the way we understand oftentimes this word gentle the word meek is honestly even worse when you look up the word meek on onelook.com that dictionary site here's the way that word's defined deficient in spirit or courage not strong cowed and that word means frightened into submission by intimidation to the world meekness is weakness and gentleness is the quality that means you are everybody else's doormat so if we just understand this verse blessed are the gentle with our contemporary understanding of gentleness we might think that jesus here is asking us to be wimpy have no backbone to be a doormat that everybody gets to walk on is that what jesus meant when he said blessed are the gentle well obviously not the word gentle that jesus uses is a greek word that's only used four times in the entire new testament one of them we read right here in matthew chapter five two other times that it's used it's used to describe jesus himself and i would submit to you today that jesus was not weak and jesus was nobody's doormat so if this is a word that's used to describe jesus then obviously our contemporary definitions do not capture the meaning of this word the word gentle here is a word that means strength or power under control it means not demanding one's own way in a selfishly assertive way it means to not be overly impressed by one's own self-importance it means strength under control one writer stuart briscoe defined it this way he said the word gentle means yieldedness let me try to help you a little bit more understand it this word gentle was the word in the greek language used to describe a horse that had been broken think about that our youngest daughter faith is now 16 years old but about five years ago when she was 10 11 years old she took for about a year and a half horseback riding lessons nothing will test your faith as a father like watching your little blond-haired beautiful ten-year-old daughter sit on the back of a beast that literally could destroy her i mean this horse is massive and she took horseback riding lessons for about a year and a half and in taking horseback riding lessons she learned much more than just how to ride a horse she also learned how to care for a horse and so i didn't go as often as her mom did her mom took her to all the lessons i went a few times and one of the times i went and she was doing the thing with the horse you know she did her riding stuff and then when she finished it was her job to take the horse and brush the horse down and make sure there was nothing in the horseshoes and here's this little girl and this massive horse and she's poking it and prodding it and this horse is just doing every i'm sitting there thinking this horse is literally about to crush you because it had all the strength of a wild stallion and yet now it yielded all of that strength to the control of a little 11 year old girl who with a little prompt could get that massive animal to do whatever she wanted it to do gentleness how does this apply to my life last weekend i gave you a definition of this idea of mourning remember what we said here i'll put it up here just to remind you mourning is a brokenness before god born out of truth revealed through my fellowship with him when we spend time with him when we grow in intimacy with god we become more aware of who he is his holiness his character his greatness his righteousness and we become broken before him as we realize who we are and how far we are from what he has for us one expression of brokenness when we're broken before god just like that horse brokenness produces gentleness so let me give you a definition of gentleness it's the overflow of brokenness before god expressed in my surrender to him and my submission to others it's not that i'm weak it's not that i'm soft it's not that i'm wimpy but having been broken before god i've now come to a place where i've yielded i've surrendered the control i'm no longer the one in control i'm no longer the one with my hands at the wheel because of being broken before god we surrender the control of our lives to jesus and listen whenever there is real surrender to jesus this way it always manifests itself in radical submission to others this way if what has happened in my life vertically is real you'll see it expressed in the way i relate to others horizontally if what i say has happened between me and jesus isn't changing the way i relate to you then what i said happened between me and jesus wasn't what i thought it was gentleness strength under control so what does it look like for this to be practically lived out in my life well again we could probably say many things i'm gonna limit it to two why do you always limit it to two well two reasons number one it's about as high as i can count number two that's all you're gonna remember anyway all right so two number one gentleness is demonstrated as i surrender the control of my life to jesus and don't miss this moment by moment when you and i come to know jesus when we became a christian wherever that moment is for you maybe you were a child maybe you were a college student maybe you were an adult maybe you were in a church service maybe you were at a crusade maybe you were watching something online maybe a friend shared the gospel with you whenever it was when you came to know jesus what happened is there was a moment of surrender you realize that you had sinned against god and that your sins separated you from god you realize that you were not god and that god was god and you surrendered the control of your life to jesus that's why in romans chapter 10 the bible says whoever will call on the name of the what say it out loud if you know it the lord that's important he didn't say whoever shall call on the name of the savior will be saved he said whoever shall call on the name of the lord will be saved the way to salvation is to realize jesus is lord jesus is god it's a moment of surrender by faith where i surrender the control of my life to jesus but here's what i want you to understand surrendering to jesus is not a once done event in our lives it happens over and over i would say daily but it happens more often than that paul described it this way in romans chapter 12. look what he said i urge you brethren by the mercies of god to present your bodies a read it out loud living and holy what do you hear that it's a little bit of an oxymoron a sacrifice usually is something that's what it's dead right you sacrifice that you put it on the altar it's dead but he says we are living sacrifices you know the problem with a living sacrifice it can crawl off the altar how often do you and i surrender and then back pedal off the altar and we have to come to another moment of sir i'm not saying we weren't genuine we gave our life to christ i'm just saying our flesh is real and every moment of your life for the rest of your life you will struggle with this thing of being a living sacrifice and moment by moment gentleness as we're bro that's why this thing of spending time with god is so important it's in time alone with him that we get broken and one expression of brokenness in our lives is surrendering again the control of our lives to jesus that's why paul said in first corinthians i die daily you see whether you know it or not or whether you're willing to admit it or not our will is constantly at war with the will of god if you believe that say amen if you don't repent get honest and say amen our will is at war with god's will and as i'm broken before god it manifests itself in a yieldness meaning a a moment by moment surrender listen today there was some stuff in me that my flesh was warring against the will of god some days some moments i win the battle in victory and dependence on christ and surrender other moments i don't i choose to sin and then i get in the presence of god and in brokenness god breaks me again and i make a fresh surrender maybe what needs to happen for some of you this weekend is a fresh surrender of the control of your life to jesus listen you're not the one with your hands on jesus is not your co-pilot jesus is the plane the pilot the air the universe and everything else [Applause] so first of all gentleness is demonstrated as i surrender the control of my life to jesus moment by moment here's the second one where i want to spend the rest of our time gentleness is demonstrated as i submit to others in my life another word to describe the yieldedness required through gentleness is submission towards god a good word is that expresses gentleness is surrender i'm surrendering control but as i relate to others the best word i know in scripture to describe what gentleness this humble gentle spirit looks like is the word submission submission is a gentle spirit demonstrated outwardly it's why paul when paul was writing in ephesians chapter 5 and he gave the command in verse 18 for you and i to be filled with the spirit to be filled with the spirit is this same idea of yielding control to the holy spirit being filled with the spirit is not some emotional dance that you do to be filled with the spirit is to surrender the control of your life to the holy spirit of god so that the holy spirit of god is now controlling you in ephesians 5 when paul gave that command to be filled with the spirit he gave five expressions of what it looked like when we are filled with the spirit the fifth of those i'm going to show you is ephesians 5 21. now don't miss this paul said be filled with the spirit be surrendered to the control of the holy spirit and he said when you do here's what it looks like bring me that bottle of water teddy thank you sir it looks like being subject to one another in the fear of christ being controlled by the holy spirit manifests itself in submission to one another john stott writes about it listen what he says now the very notion of submission is out of fashion today it's totally at variance with contemporary attitudes of permissiveness and freedom almost nothing is calculated to arouse more angry protests than the talk of subjection ours is an age of liberation and anything savoring of oppression is deeply resented and strongly resisted how are christians to react to this modern world we're to react in submission now let me qualify it submission is not a biblical justification for oppression submission and oppression are not the same thing oppression is a wielding of control from the outside and it usually manifests itself and cruel and you unjust treatment oppression is a sinful way of relating to others that says i am more important than you submission is a yielding of control from the inside submission is a christ-like way of relating to others that says you are more important than me let me give you a couple of applications of this idea of submission first of all as christians we should stand against oppression in all forms this is part of having a gentle spirit whether it's spousal abuse child abuse ageism bigotry racism classism xenophobia we are not we are not to be or allow others to be in society dominated or oppressed there's no place in christianity for a demanding spirit of superiority that manifests itself in the oppression of others that's why in proverbs the writer of proverbs said it this way in in proverbs 31 listen to these verses speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves ensure justice for those being crushed yes speak up for the poor and helpless and see that they get justice this attitude that i'm describing of submission is not one that allows oppression to exist in society but it is an attitude that means as christians we should demonstrate christ-like submission at all times this is not a submission that's a cowering response to an outward force it's an inward disposition in response to the work of the holy spirit that produces a brokenness on the inside let me read you another quote from john stott listen what he said sometimes a person who claims to be filled with the spirit becomes aggressive self-assertive brash you ever seen any of that on social media listen but the holy spirit is a humble spirit and those who are truly filled with him always display the meekness and gentleness of christ it is one of their most evident characteristics that they submit to one another probably the most defining section of scripture that i know that exists in the bible to explain what submission to one another looks like is found in paul's writings in philippians chapter 2. i want to put these verses up here on the screen i want you to listen what he said paul said do say that out loud say it one more time do what now in the greek language this is a unique word it's actually a compound word it literally means it's the word not and one put together with a negative it means do not one thing do not one thing from what selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind listen what he says regard one another as more important than yourselves do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interests of others why is this the big deal listen what he says last have this attitude in yourselves which was also in christ jesus do you hear what this is describing this is describing christ's likeness what it looks like for jesus to live his life through you means nothing from selfishness nothing from empty conceit always considering others more important than myself not looking out just for my interest but also for the interests of others can i be real transparent i believe the whole bible is the word of god amen the whole bible is the word of god but listen if we just live out this just that just just three verses out of 66 books of the bible if we just let jesus do this the world would say what is that it's radical but here's what's happening in the midst of what's going on right now we're becoming just like the world we sound like them we argue like them we complain like them we gripe like them we criticize like them and they're looking for something different and jesus saw it and he brought his disciples up on a mountain and he said blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth so let me give you a defining statement about gentleness as it's expressed through our lives let me put it up here gentleness towards others means in every way i relate to you i consider you more important than me let me ask you a question how would this simple reality change every relationship in your life now don't misunderstand this is not a statement of value it's not that somebody else is more important we are all equally created in the image of god we all have unique purpose and value because we've been created by god this is not a statement of value it's a statement of submission i'm choosing because of christ in me and because it's who jesus is i'm choosing to relate to you in a way that you are more important than me here's the problem unfortunately we often relate the exact opposite way in every way i relate to you i consider me more important than you what if we live this out i can tell you one thing that happened immediately twitter go out of business this attitude of gentleness it's counter cultural we're taught stand up for yourself you do you watch out for number one take care of yourself or nobody else will jesus said blessed are the gentle blessed are those who live moment by moment surrendering the control of their life to him and the expression of that outwardly as they live moment by moment in submission to others relating to others considering them more important than ourselves and the bottom line is this is simply who jesus is read the gospels this is jesus as a matter of fact it's how he described himself look at matthew 11 29 jesus said in matthew 11 29 take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart you hear it take my learn from me jesus said i am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest the world says you do that you adore matt everybody's going to walk over you you'll never get ahead jesus said it's just the opposite blessed are the gentle they're the ones that are really going to inherit the earth so when we look at jesus's life we understand we see it in this text jesus saw people jesus served people jesus sacrificed for people and that's really what it looks like let me give you three statements christ-like submission sees people christ like submission sees people it communicates attention and value submissions list submission listens more than it speaks christ-like submission serves people it looks to meet needs in the lives of others identifying a need and finding joy in meeting it christ-like submission sacrifices for people it means i'm willing to give up something i value for the benefit of others if we begin to live allow christ in us listen it's in response to brokenness as we're before him god begins to break us and when we experience that brokenness the outward manifestation is surrendered to him submission to others last question and i'm done what's the promise to those who are gentle did you hear what he said blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth i think it communicates a couple of things first of all it's satisfaction today do you hear blessed blessing what does that word mean we talked about it a couple of weeks ago it's being filled to the fullness it's being satisfied in the fullness of god the world says watch out for yourself to get ahead jesus says be gentle and you'll be blessed your cup will be full there's satisfaction today here's the other thing there's security in the future hear what he said blessed are the gentle they will inherit the earth here's what that means it is true this world's not our home but there's coming a world that is our home and the way christ in us is fleshed out as gentleness and he says man those who are gentle they will inherit the earth what if what if we as christians in the midst of a hostile divided election season what if the defining characteristic of our lives was in every way i relate to my co-worker my neighbor my boss my spouse my children my friends and every way i relate to them consider them more important than me blessed are the gentle what a great message from pastor vance today gentleness is something we all need especially in our current times and as pastor vance challenged us today to walk in the gentleness of christ and the result being satisfaction and inner joy in our lives but also discovering unshakeable joy to live for others we can only do that when we have a relationship with god through jesus and watching this message today if you're thinking you know what i don't have a relationship with god that's okay you're not alone we talk to people all the time who don't have a relationship with him and we're always here to help so right now if you know you don't have a relationship with god please know he wants to have a relationship with you today and here's how the first step is admitting that we sin this is usually a pretty easy step for most of us as we usually have some friends or family members who remind us that we've done something wrong against them or we feel bad for doing something wrong against them ourselves this first step is us admitting to god that we sin we mess up and we are in need of him to heal us of this the second step is believing that god made a way to take care of our sins because of our sins we can't have a relationship with god who is sinless god knew that and he created a way for us to have a relationship with him that plan was jesus god became human in the body of jesus and he walked this earth living a perfect sinless life then jesus paid the penalty for the sins of every person who had ever lived was living at that time and for all of us who would ever live by dying on the cross taking on himself the penalty of all of our sins so that we would not have to pay for our own sins then after jesus was buried he rose again three days later forever defeating the power of sin and death over all of those who believe in him the third and final step after admitting that we sin and believing that god sent jesus to pay the penalty for our sin is to confess him as lord of our life this is an issue of surrender it's saying to god i'm surrendering my full control over my life to you god because i believe you know what's best for me more than i know what's best for me and that's it admit you're a sinner believe that god sent jesus to pay the penalty for your sin and surrendering control of your life over to god rather than having it over yourself if you'd like to do that today simply pray this prayer in your heart after me pray lord i admit i mess up and i'm a sinner i don't have a relationship with you but today i believe that you love me i believe you paid the penalty for my sin by dying on the cross and i believe you rose again from the dead three days later giving me freedom from sin and eternal death today i confess you as lord or or boss of my life i give you full control of my life because i believe you know what's best for me today i want to begin a relationship with you amen if you prayed that today we believe you entered into a relationship with god for the very first time and we'd love to know about that and give you some resources on how you can know god more and grow in your new relationship with him if you would text jesus follower to 94090 we have someone who will connect with you to answer any questions you may have and give you resources on how to grow in your new relationship with him also we understand there may be some things going on on in your life and we have a team of people that would love to pray for you you can send us your requests by texting pray for me to 94090 and we'll be sure to pray for you as well just before we conclude our service our team is going to lead us in one final song i cast my mind to calvary where jesus split and died for me i see his ways [Music] [Music] his body bound and drenched in tears [Music] still [Music] oh [Music] [Music] the son of him is [Music] yes foreign of white the blazing sun will pierce the night and i will rise among the saints my gaze transfixed on jesus face come on let's sing that again tonight [Music] church the lazy on jesus [Music] [Music] oh we forever see [Music] thanks again for watching our service today online the service you just watched was recorded on thursday night if you're able to join us in person we would love to have you you can rsvp to our in-person gatherings on thursday at 6 30 pm and sunday at 8 30 am and 10 30 am starting on monday at 10 am at hopechurchonline.com welcome back we will see you again soon and have a great week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Hope Church LV

Views: 566

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: hopechurchlv, hope church, hope church lv, church

Id: Oy1PMrv-bXs

Length: 73min 33sec (4413 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020