Gateway Church | July 4 | Matthew Hernandez

a happy fourth of july welcome please stand with me psalm 150 says let everything that has breath praise the lord i am guessing today that when you walked into church right now you've got breath inside of your lungs the word says let everything that has breath praise the lord something happens when we praise when we worship when we're singing we're not just singing words to a screen just to hear ourselves sing when we praise it shifts our perspective from the things that are going on in our life the great things the hard things that we're facing whatever it is it shifts our perspective up to a king who is holy who is mighty who is good and who loves us so we're gonna do today as we sing as we worship let's give praise to a god who is so good who is so loving and who is here in this place with us come on let's sing together [Music] is [Music] let it [Applause] [Music] name in the rise and it changes [Music] [Applause] [Music] you cannot survive [Music] god we praise you [Music] let faith [Music] fearless [Music] oh [Music] this is what freedom feels like this is heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you come on sing it again we'll watch forever oh is [Music] [Music] [Music] you're foreign a worthy king you're such a worthy king [Music] so we praise you god [Music] melody and anthem i have always known a song that's always been in me all glory and honor dominion and power to you a million angels fall face down on the [Music] my heart can't help but sing with all of heaven forever [Music] [Applause] the lord memorized by every heart [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is forever [Music] forever forever is [Music] there before the throne of grace majesty before my eyes i let it take my breath away a million angels fall face down on the floor all too echo help us [Music] is [Music] forever [Music] you're such a worthy king [Music] you're such a worthy king oh just to know you god [Music] or just to be in your presence just to be in your presence [Music] it's all because of jesus [Music] it's all because of jesus [Music] that we could know such a freedom that we could be with you god in your holy presence [Music] let's sing this chorus again one more time in awe of god that a million angels fall in his presence worshiping him for his holiness and the fact that because of jesus we get to know we get to have relationship with god we sing together a million angels fall face down on the floor all too echo is the lord our heart can't help but sing with all of heavy roar forever echoes sing it again say a million angels a million angels fall [Music] our heart can't help but sing with all of heaven roar [Music] forever [Music] [Music] i don't want to miss the beauty [Music] the greatness of your love i don't want to lose of being in your presence of knowing such a friendship to be with you my god [Music] everything i am [Music] i throw into your hands i just want my life [Music] tethered to your heart i just want my soul to ever stand in all of you tethered to your heart and what more could i desire [Music] everything [Music] i just [Music] i just [Music] i just [Music] tethered to your heart to your heart oh tethered to your heart [Music] oh [Music] draw foreign closer take me deeper i wanna be where you are [Music] [Applause] just tell him say draw me closer [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] my god i just [Music] foreign [Music] tethered to your [Music] oh you know in our house right now we find ourselves in kind of a new territory where we don't have small children anymore we have big people young adults in our house and navigating these waters is teaching me new things and we had a situation this week that just like profoundly spoke to my heart and one of my children was faced with a disappointment that was really an adult disappointment a big one and it was a loss and it was heavy and it was hard and i'm thinking gosh this is real this heartache is real my husband was out of town so we sat and we talked and there were tears and i had tears and it was just one of those moments that felt so heavy and i was just like god i don't i don't really know how to navigate these waters i need you and in that moment my child looked at me with tears in their face and they said can i can i just sleep in your bed tonight this human bigger than me just saying can i can i sleep in your bed tonight i just need to be close and in james the bible tells us that draw near to god and he will draw near to you and i wonder how many of us when we walk through heavy waters we try to shoulder it on our own strength right we try to handle it we muscle through these moments when god's heart is to just just would you just draw near to me and there's so much comfort there there's wisdom there there's there's everything we need in his presence and he's here in this moment so whether you find yourself on a mountaintop moment and it's an amazing highlight of life where you're at right now or maybe it's a valley season or somewhere in between god's heart is always that we would draw near to him that we would come close and he'd provide everything we need because we literally can't do it without him so as we go back into this this chorus i want us to just connect our heart with that reality that god's asking us to draw near to him and would you be as brave as one of my kids and say i just i just want to get as close as i can to you because i need you can we do that let's worship in these take me deeper i wanna be where you are i wanna be where you are draw me closer take me deeper [Music] i wanna be where you are draw me closer take me deeper i wanna be where you are [Music] tethered to your heart and i just want my [Music] i just want my life i just want my [Music] tethered to your heart and i just [Music] god that's our prayer today we just want to be wherever you are we're so grateful that in these moments god you are present you are real we didn't come to check a box came for an encounter with you [Music] so lord we're here our hearts are open our lives are open in these moments would you speak to us would you challenge us would you change us god because we need you and we're so grateful that you're here in jesus name amen amen are you so glad you're here in the house of god today i know i am and we're so thankful every time we get together to worship but especially when we have a day where we get to celebrate our independence and our freedom as a nation so i want to wish you a happy independence day if you're watching online we're so glad that you're here joining us but god's here and he has something in this space for us today and we're so so thankful that you'd be here and if you're new and you're just coming maybe this is your first week maybe been coming for a few weeks we'd love the chance to come alongside you and help you with some next steps and the way that we ask you to kind of connect with us is to text the word path to 94 000. and each time i get to sit down with someone over a coffee and i feel like god just gives me this beautiful gift and i'm like lord you send you send amazing people i have to i have to admit you guys are some incredible people but we love to hear your story we love to hear where you came from and one of the ways that we can do that is if you text the word path to 94 000. so do that if you're new we'd love to connect with you and hear more about you and help you find your next steps here and then i have a couple quick announcements number one we are getting ready to launch our fall season of life groups and we have some rock star life group leaders in this house we have some incredible life groups but we need more and we know you're out there so we're looking for some new life group leaders if you're a connector of people and you love to gather them we'd love to get to know you we'd love to talk to you and see if leading a life group is a good option for you so there's a qr code on the screen you can take a picture of that and it'll lead you or you can go to our home page at gatewaylife.com and you can find out how you can take some next steps potentially lead a life group and connect some people it is one of our my favorite things we do here and so we'd love to have you be a part secondly this is for everyone you're invited to july 17th our next monthly love this city and we have an incredible day planned we have several outreach opportunities that you can be involved with and if you have kids you can invite them in it is going to be an ongoing thing that we do where we as believers as disciples of jesus it's not just something that people have who have a heart for people get to do it's something we all get to do here because that's what we do as followers of jesus so you're invited to be a part we have some cool things planned for july 17th one of them's community night a movie night at our tempe campus there's a massive screen they'll be inviting the community to join us but we want you to be a part of that so go to the qr code right there or go to our homepage at gatewaylife.com and sign up to be a part because we want you to not miss what god is doing through those outreaches and each and every week we do create space for us to get to know the people around us because like i said y'all are pretty awesome so if you would take the next moment to get out of your seat find someone you don't know ask them the question on the screen and if that question you don't like you can always ask them if they're cheering for the suns or the bucks in the finals and maybe they're hopefully no brawls break out here but go sons and get out of your seat find someone you don't know and let's take some time to connect [Music] well good morning gateway church how we doing this morning so good it is good to be here with you i do want to say hello to anyone who's watching online and our friends over at the tempe campus we are so glad that you're with us this morning on our independence day weekend so uh you guys are like you guys are the the true church goes you're gonna come to church on a holiday it's amazing uh it is so uh it is so good to be here with you it's good that you are here as well my name is matthew and i am a pastor at gateway church over in our dfw uh metroplex area in dallas texas area and uh yeah thank you it it it feels like family already being here and my hope over the next few moments is that not only can we feel like family but i hope that we become fast friends uh and i hope that we can just have a conversation this morning uh centered around the life of jesus and the life that he has called us as followers of jesus uh to live and so my wife and i were talking on the way over here on the plane right over here just the gift that it is to be here with you guys this morning i'm such a fan of your pastor and your team and i'm such a fan of you guys as a church and what god is doing here and so i just consider this a gift so thank you for allowing me the opportunity just to share with you guys over the next few moments like i said it is independence day weekend it is 4th of july and i just think of where we're at as a country and and how far we've come as a nation this great nation and yet how far we have to go as well we have come so far but you know just like me that we have a long way to go as well and i think about my my life in my own journey in the process that i find myself in as a disciple of jesus and i and i think of how far i have come in my own journey and yet how far i still have to go in what eugene peterson calls the long obedience in the same direction i know there's times in my life that it has felt very long in this obedience and sometimes the same direction feels monotonous in my life but it's so good and it's so rich this life of jesus and i don't know where you find yourself in this journey of faith i don't know if you have been a follower of jesus for five days or if you've been a follower of jesus since you were five years old i don't know where you find yourself in but i do know this i do know that no matter where you find yourself on this faith journey whether you just newly accepted christ maybe you are don't even know where you stand on this faith journey and a friend brought you here this morning and just said hey listen i'll buy you lunch if you come with me to church i don't know i don't know what that looks like but i do know that we're all here in this room and at our tempe campus or for those that are watching online i do believe that god has something for us this morning and so my prayer for us as fast friends is that we can lean in to what god has for us this morning if you're taking notes go ahead and write these two passages of scripture down you can turn there if you have your bibles we're going to be in the book of john chapter 15 and the book of mark chapter 12. uh if you're new to church and you brought a bible that a friend gave you or you brought one on the way over here like where is that it's going to be somewhere towards the back of the light the latter half of your bible but that's okay if you don't have your bible that the scriptures are going to be here on the screen as well also if you are taking notes the title of the message this morning is what gives you the right what gives you the right and if you want you can write it in all caps to make it extra aggressive uh this morning let's pray god i thank you so much for this morning i thank you for the gift that we all have to live in this great nation god god i pray over the next few moments you take these ordinary words that i'm about to speak and holy spirit i pray that you just breathe life unto them and it's in your resurrected name i pray amen some friends of mine have a podcast that i like to listen to on a regular basis and one of the things about this podcast that they have is they have some very interesting and dynamic people that they interview phenomenal pastors authors speakers uh teachers and and one of the things that they do at the very end of this podcast that i love is is they will often ask if if something were to happen and all of your life's work was erased whether it be all of your messages all of your books your teachings whatever it may be all of your life's work was going to be a race what's the one thing that you would want to remain what's the one message the one book the one piece of work that you have that you've created that you would want to remain that will just it's kind of your life message and i love this question that they asked because it always uh it always kind of stumps the people of like oh man if if i could only pick one thing what would that be well here in the book of john that we're about to turn to in john 15 this is one of jesus's last messages that he speaks before he goes to the cross it's one of his last messages and what i love about this book is that in scripture everything matters everything is important every detail every placement of a story it matters and so when we look at the life of jesus after he's done his ministry and he's about to go to the cross the one thing that he wants to leave his disciples his followers all who are listening and even us here today is this message that we find in john chapter 15. you guys may have turned there already i told you to do that earlier and i didn't do that myself but we're going to read in 15 we're going to read verse 12 jesus says this my command is this love each other as i have loved you greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends you are my friends if you do what i command i no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business instead i have called you friends for everything that i learned from my father i have made i have made known to you you do not choose me but i chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so whatever you ask in my name the father will give you this is my command to love each other go ahead and turn with me to the book of mark chapter 12. we're going to start in verse 30. one of the teachers in jesus day he asked jesus a question he's basically asking him hey of all the commandments which one do you deem the most important and jesus says this in first in verse 30 this is his response to that question it says love the lord your god with all of your heart with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength the second is this love your neighbor as yourself there is no commandment greater than these so we have jesus in john chapter 15 giving one of the last messages he's about to speak before he goes to the cross one of the last things that he wants to leave his people is for them to love one another and then we have a teacher back in the day a religious leader back in the day asking jesus of all the commandments which one do you deem the most important and jesus says love the lord your god with all of your heart all of your mind all of your soul and all of your strength and love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these it feels like one of jesus's life messages was for us to love one another was for us to love our neighbor as ourself and it seems very simplistic if i'm honest it feels very basic my soccer coach growing up always used to say hey matthew just stick to the basics simplicity is genius but oftentimes although it seems so simple it's actually very hard if it was that simple i think our world would be a much better place don't you think if it was so easy for us to do and for us to grasp things would actually be a lot more easier in the world that we live in today it's actually quite hard and oftentimes the thing that i find about this message that jesus has given us to love one another or to love our neighbor as ourself the hardest thing for us to grasp oftentimes is how can we love our neighbor as ourself if we don't truly love ourself i think the problem with this message that jesus has given us is not so much the loving the neighbor part we can do that but how do we truly love our neighbor as ourself how do we extend grace love and mercy to those around us if we don't know as followers of jesus how to fully live in the grace love and mercy that jesus extends to us every single day see oftentimes we we talk about when jesus says i have come to give life and life more abundantly we often think that abundant life happens somewhere somewhere else when we die that that's when we get the abundant life but jesus came to offer us that abundant life right here and right now and i believe we step into the fullness of the abundance that jesus has called us into when we experience and we walk in the grace love and mercy that he has so kindly given to us that he gives to us on a daily basis it's hard to love our neighbor as ourself it's hard to extend that grace the full grace if we can't experience it fully for ourselves see we can't give to our neighbor what we don't have for ourselves a glass can only spill what it contains and so if we don't fully understand that or have grasped that or are walking in the fullness of it then we can't fully extend it to the people around us either to the people in our own homes our communities our workplaces our schools wherever we find ourselves in john 19 we read john 15 and john 19 we have jesus on the cross and scripture says as he's hanging on the cross that he he bows his head and he lifts his spirit and he says it is finished see jesus came to do what adam could not do jesus came to redeem and to restore jesus came to show us what the father was like jesus came to teach us a new and a better way to be human and he hangs on the cross and he says it is finished all of that grace all of that love all of that mercy is for every single one of us every single one of them every single one of us here in this room or online or at our tempe campus it is for us that he extends to us on a regular basis about 2018 i was sitting in my counselor's office and as our session was coming to a close he takes off his glasses he places his his yellow notebook to the side he uncrosses his legs and he leans forward and he looks me in the eye and he says matthew i feel like you have a problem with the cross i was like no no jeremy i i don't i don't i don't think that i do he said yeah buddy i think that you do which immediately i'm like one don't tell me i'm wrong uh two jeremy don't call me buddy uh three how dare you and i said um obviously i had me have some trouble with pride we're working that out too and counseling um but he said he said no i i think you do and then he says this what gives you the right and the audacity to live as if the cross wasn't good enough for you he says it's arrogant and it's borderline heretical and just that statement alone hit me like a ton of bricks and before i could even give a response he's like and that concludes our session and you can go out and see cindy and she'll schedule your next appointment in the next couple weeks i was like awesome jeremy you are one of my favorite people right now not at all i remember driving home and i was so irritated my soul was irritated because those words felt like sandpaper to my soul because he was right i looked at times in my life and seasons in my life where i had lived as if the cross wasn't good enough for me that it was good enough for the person on stage at church or was good enough for my my wife or my kids or for my friends it was good enough for everyone else but it wasn't good enough for me and i had to think about how prideful and arrogant that statement was and so when i think about us in this room and in the room you find yourself in are we living a life as if the cross wasn't good enough for us and i hope over the next few minutes that we can walk out viewing ourselves just how god views us and taking god at his word and living in the abundance that he offers us so freely right here and right now you know in the book of genesis those of you who've been in church for a long time you're familiar with this story it's in in genesis chapter one we we know the story god creates the heavens and the earth he creates man and he creates woman he creates the animals and the trees and all of creation he creates and then scripture says that god looks down on all that he created and he calls it good the first word spoken over all of humanity all over me and all over you is god's saying it's good and that we know the story in genesis 3 in my bible the on the the the the heading on it says the fall in genesis 3 basically god creates all the heavens and the earth it creates man and woman and he tells them hey you can eat from you can basically free roam of all of this that i have created you can eat of anything you want but i'm gonna ask you this this tree over here hey stay away from this tree don't go near this tree and we know the story they like they zero in on this tree it's like my son when i'm like hey buddy hey please don't jump on the couch and he's like give me this couch because he's like jumping up and down like yeah yeah that couch awesome you're great listener they zero on this tree and we know the story they take a bite from the fruit and it's in that moment that sin enters into the world god's perfect peace his perfect shalom has been disrupted and scripture says that they run and they hide and that god comes down from heaven and he says he's he's wandering the garden looking for adam and he says adam where are you which i love this detail about this story by the way because it it doesn't tell of a story of a god who's sitting up in heaven with his arms crossed thinking i told you what are you thinking you messed up now adam no the scripture the detail that that god wants us to know that the writer wants us to know is that god wanders the garden asking where are you he's not pointing his finger he's asking a question and scripture says that adam and eve come out and they say we were we were hiding ourselves because that we were we were naked and and god asked this question that is so profound he looks at them and he says who told you you were naked which i believe that the deeper more spiritual question that he's asking is who shamed you who lied to you whose other voice have you been listening to that has caused you to live beneath the story that i have written for you that i am writing for you who has called you to live less and the reason why i believe that we are telling this story now in 2021 is because this adam and eve story is not a story that happened it's a story that happens their story is our story we've all taken a bite of the fruit we've all fallen short we've all messed up we've all known what god has called us to do and then yet we do the opposite their story is our story but what i love so much about this story is this is the redemption of god is what jesus did for us on the cross see genesis 1 happened genesis 3 happens and what god and jesus did for us on the cross was to come and redeem and restore all that happened in that story see oftentimes what i have found in my own life and in people that i talk to you is often times we begin our story in genesis 3 where sin enters the world where the fall happened but friends i've read this book and our story actually begins in genesis 1 where god looks down on all that he's created and he's called us good why do we begin our story in genesis 3 when our story begins in genesis 1. see i believe that when we shift our perspective that yes genesis 3 is true but the truest thing is genesis 1. see oftentimes we have say that we say this in our life i've said this many times before of i'm a sinner saved by grace i'm a sinner saved by grace and although that is true friends i believe the truest thing about me and you this morning is that we are saved by grace and we sin that we are saved by grace but yet we still sin one i believe is true but the other i believe is the truest thing about us because it goes back to the root of who god says that we are the identity spoken over us as men and women as children of god that we're good that he calls us good my hope and prayer for us this morning is that we will begin to live our life like our story begins in genesis 1 and you may say well matthew you don't know my story you don't know what i've done you don't know what i did last night you don't know the argument that me and my spouse got into before we came to church this morning you don't know the things i've done or the things that i've said and although that may be true i may not know your story but i do know that god does and yet he still has a plan and purpose over your life i think of the story of peter in scripture many of you may be familiar with this story but jesus tells peter that he's going to deny him three times and peter is like no not me god not me i would jesus i would never do that there is no way i'm ever going to do that and we know the story the story goes that sure enough peter denies him three times the messiah the savior the person he has spent the past several years with and peter denies him and after jesus is crucified and after the resurrection scripture says that jesus is with the disciples on the beach and he pulls peter aside i can only imagine this moment the guilt and the shame and the embarrassment that peter must find himself in as he's walking with jesus the person that he denied that he swore he would never do and jesus pulls peter aside and he says hey peter do you love me peter says yeah yes lord i love you jesus feed my sheep hey peter do you love me yes lord you you know that i love you tend to my lambs hey peter do you love me peter says lord you know all things these things you know all things you know that i love you jesus says feed my sheep three times peter denies jesus and three times jesus affirms peter hey peter do you love me great let's forget all that we've got work to do hey peter do you love me we've got work to do peter do you love me we've got work to do are you gonna partner with me in the ongoing creation in the world or are you going to continue to live in the past because we have work to do friends can i just be the friend from dallas texas to remind my gateway family here that as long as there is breath in your lungs it doesn't matter what you did five minutes ago or five years ago it doesn't matter your past what matters is that there's breath in their lungs and that you were created by a holy god on purpose and for a purpose and church we have work to do can you imagine what would happen if we went to our workplaces taking god at his word when jesus says it is finished can you imagine if we lived like we actually believed it some of us are still so caught in our guilt and our shame i think of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery scripture says that she's caught in the very act of adultery which i have some questions for the people that caught her what were you doing like you ever read scripture you're like whoa whoa that's a little weird not gonna focus on these guys here strange she's caught in the very act of adultery they drag her in front of people she's naked and they drag her before jesus and they say hey jesus the law says to stoner but what do you say the scripture says jesus kneels down the scene and he's writing something in the sand scripture isn't really exactly clear what he's writing but it does say that he says let he who cast the first or let he who is without sin cast the first stone and one by one these men holding the stones begin to drop them and they walk away jesus looks at this woman and he says woman where is your accuser says they're gone he says well neither do i accuse you go and sin no more when i read that story i think so much about this woman who was probably embarrassed who was naked in front of all of these people the embarrassment the shame that she must be feeling and and jesus says hey just go and sin no more i think god okay jesus what but she's naked like what about her nakedness but i believe that if jesus could free her from her shame that her nakedness would be irrelevant in that moment because she is free from her guilt and she is free from her shame i think that there are many of us in this room that god wants to free us from the guilt and the shame of our past so that we could live in the abundant life that he offers every single one of us see we can't live in the fullness of what jesus is calling us into until we make peace with our past peace with ourselves and receive the grace and the forgiveness that god extends to us so that we can do what jesus calls one of the greatest commandments and to love our neighbor as ourself see i believe forgiveness is actually the easy part it's accepting that forgiveness and moving on that's the hard part but i believe that we as a church we still have work to do one of my favorite things as a dad is to put my three kids to bed when they were younger we did this a lot more often we we do it from time to time now but what i love about bedtime is is not just after they go to bed that my house is a whole lot quieter when they're sleeping um it's our bedtime routine it's after they've brushed their teeth they get their pajamas on we say our prayers and and we bless them before they go to bed at night but one of my favorite things is getting the last words that we get to speak to them as as mom and dad as we get to speak life into our kids i get to tell parker and sloan my oldest daughters my son roman my youngest boy we got to tell our girls hey you're the best big sisters in the world roman you're the best little brother in the world they uh they do chores and so we're like hey you're the best dishwasher in the world hey the way you do those cartwheels or those back handsprings or those cheerleading moves you're the best at it in the world and we're just pumping them up we're just hyping them up as parents but what i love is i get to look at my kids and i get to tell them i am so proud of you and i am so proud to be your dad that there's nothing that you can do that's gonna make me love you any less and there's nothing you can do that's gonna make me love you anymore i love you and accept you exactly as you are and the thing about this bedtime routine is whether my children have had good days or whether they've had bad days some of you parents in here know exactly what i'm talking about about these bad days lord jesus help us all we know those bad days no matter if they've had a good day or a bad day what we tell them at night always remains the same that we are so proud to be their parents that we are so proud of them and there's nothing that we that they can do that's going to make us love them any less nothing they can do that's going to make them make us love them even more because we want no matter the day we want our kids knowing that they live in a place where they belong they're accepted they're valued and most importantly that they're loved see some of the things that happened during that day maybe they were disobedient maybe they talked back maybe they had to get sent to the room a few times maybe there was some discipline that had to take place maybe those things are true but i want the last word spoken over my kids before they go to bed is the truest thing about them is that they're good is that they're loved and is that i'm proud of them some of us in here this morning need to hear those words spoken over us this morning and i believe that if we lean in and if we listen god is speaking that to every single one of us what i found often times in my life is that this grace this love this mercy that we talk about often times when i'm sitting with with people who aren't followers of jesus or who are who aren't a part of the the the church the the capital c church uh they they don't have any kind of spiritual life whatever it may be often times when i'm talking to them about this grace they don't have a hard time believing it they're kind of like man that feels like too good to be true if you're serious i want some of that i can think of countless conversations over lunches or copies that i've had where people are like if you're for real then i want some of that if that grace applies to me i'm all in often times non-believers don't have the problem with grace often times it's christians who have the problem with grace the sad thing is i've seen is not only do we have a hard time for it ourselves but we do have a hard time accepting it for others the gift that 2021 has brought us is a lot of cultural phrases a lot of fun things i say that um tongue-in-cheek but one of the things that is big in 2021 right now that i keep hearing a lot i heard a lot about in the beginning of the year is this phrase cancel culture you guys familiar with uh with that my mom likes to talk about it a lot on facebook this phrase cancel culture everyone's getting canceled nowadays and and what i've seen through social media is the the majority of people that have this issue with cancer culture often times is followers of jesus and i totally get that but if i'm honest with you church that the times that i first heard about console cancel culture before it was actually labeled that i heard about it and i felt it in the church oh see that that uh that person yeah yeah they uh they're kind of doing their own thing right now and so they're not really allowed in our community group at the moment canceled oh i don't really agree with the way my brother or sister in christ is living and so i'm gonna choose to disassociate myself with them for a little bit they're canceled or i really can't believe that person has those political views i thought they loved jesus canceled and so although it's been a phrase that has become popular in 2021 i was very familiar with what it felt like and what it looked like to be cancelled especially by other christians and when i look at the root of the problem it's the fact that those who are canceling others don't know what it's like to fully live in the grace and love and the mercy that jesus has for them they don't know what it's like to truly walk in the love that god has displayed over them so they have a hard time loving their neighbor as themselves we give no grace i'm not saying there doesn't need to be accountability but friends what i'm saying is there always needs to be grace see when we as followers of jesus choose to withhold grace from other people we are no different than the older brother in the prodigal son story who refused to go inside that party who refused to take joy in his brother's return he withheld grace what makes us any different than that person when we choose to withhold grace from other people if i can be so um direct with my friends in here this morning not only what gives us the right to live to live is if the cross would wasn't good enough for us but what gives us the right to withhold grace and love from our neighbor and and treat them as if the cross wasn't good enough for them we have no right friends and that's what i want to share with you in the most loving way possible if a question that i would ask you that i would ask for you to ask yourselves in this moment if you can just take a deep breath and think of the the people in your life think about your community think of your own life and ask yourself that question what gives me the right see if jesus can free us from our shame and free us from our guilt and if we can live in the abundance that jesus has for us then i believe and we will start to see when we walk in that fullness we will start to see heaven on earth what i love about the jesus story is that jesus didn't come just to teach us how to get to heaven right he wasn't like hey guys like hey let me let me tell you what you got to do to get out of here someday this is an evacuation theology no no he was like hey let me teach you how to live right here and right now let me teach you this new way to be human let me teach you how to walk in the abundance that my father has offered to you and when we walk in that abundance when we walk in that fullness when we walk as forgiven followers of jesus and we extend that to the world around us then we get to show people what their looks like here lord let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven not only are we image bears but we get to show people of glimpses of heaven by the way that we live our life what kind of glimpse are we showing them of our heavenly father there's this quote that i love by a pastor named rich velodis and he says this he says adam and eve hid behind a tree naked and covered in shame jesus hangs on a tree naked and conquers shame the cross of jesus is actually the great reversal are we stepping into that great reversal church are we stepping into the freedom that jesus extends to us what's holding us back from the life that jesus has called us to step into because if it's your own self it's your own unforgiveness against yourself i believe jesus wants to free us of that this morning scripture says that that that god cast our sins as far as the east is from the west scripture also says that his mercy is new every single morning so let me ask you something friends are you receiving those new mercies every single morning because they're available to you if we take god at his word those mercies are available to you every single morning and lord knows i need them on a daily basis are you receiving those because just because they're available to you doesn't mean that you're receiving them my prayer is that every single morning we can receive those new mercies oftentimes the thing that holds us back is our own unforgiveness we continue to remind jesus of the sins that he's already forgotten as i begin to close i end with this story brennan manning in one of his books he tells this story of this woman who in her town she was seeing visions of jesus and and the story goes that the archbishop in the town he hears about this story and surely we can't be having that so he finds out where this woman lives he goes to see this woman and he he says hey there's rumors around town that you've been having visions of jesus is that true she says yeah that's true he says okay the next time you have one of these visions i want you to ask jesus the sins i confessed the last time i went to confession can you do that for me she said yeah i can do that some time goes by and and and the rumor starts circulating again that she had once again been having visions of jesus and so this archbishop gets to be he gets uh upset and he goes to see this woman again he says hey people around town are talking are you having these visions again she says yeah yes i have he said do you remember our agreement do you remember what we talked about she said yeah i remember and the story says that the woman takes the archbishop's hand and hers she says i asked jesus the sins you confess the last time as you went to confession and he said i don't remember i don't remember friends he doesn't remember so why do we live our life oftentimes reminding him of the things that he's often forgotten because i think if jesus can free us from our shame our past our nakedness will be irrelevant and when we as followers of jesus as disciples as we travel this long obedience in the same direction that we can bring heaven to earth by loving our neighbor as ourself if we truly love ourselves the way that god loves us if we can see ourself as the way god sees us when he looks down on creation and he says it is good church let's take god at his word this morning let's believe the creator of the universe and let's take him at his word and let's live our life as if we believe it amen god i thank you for every single person in this room i thank you for the story that you have written for their lives the story that you were writing for their lives god i thank you that my friends in this room that they were created by a holy god on purpose and for a purpose god that as long as they have breath in their lungs their story is not over holy spirit i pray that you remind them that they are loved by a heavenly father that you look down on your beautiful creation and god you call it good that the very thing that could be holding us back to live in one of the greatest commandments that you have given to us god is often ourselves so free us of that this morning god god i pray that our monday morning looks different because of the freedom that you've given to us today on sunday [Music] god that no matter where people may be watching whether they're at our tempe campus or online god that they can hear the words of their heavenly father speaking so clearly and evidently into their life saying this is my beloved son and this is my beloved daughter in whom i am well pleased may they walk their days out knowing the creator of the universe god that you're pleased with them that you call them yours god we belong to you [Music] god today we choose to walk in the abundance you've offered to us we walk in that freedom and god we walk in your grace love and mercy so we can extend that to others and it's in your resurrected name i pray church we all said amen [Music] you stand with the me that i faced [Music] this one [Music] is [Music] me [Music] is [Music] everyone's out on [Music] on me [Music] is [Music] is cause your love never fails [Music] your love you know in this moment i think it's so interesting that the last like five weeks that we've been together and we've met that there is a a theme i don't know if you caught it but god is giving us the opportunity to seize the identity that jesus paid the price for us to have we've been hearing it week after week and and it's interesting these people haven't like planned their messages but you can see the holy spirit has and it's it's interesting because we can come into these environments and we can hear the truth and our heart can be turned towards the truth and it can begin to resonate but there has to come a moment when we say i choose to believe i choose to receive the identity and the grace that you have for me and i love the question that he asked when he said are you living beneath the story that that god's written for you and you might be here today and that may be true you know there's a story that god's written but you're living an identity that's beneath the one that he has for you so i'm inviting our altar ministry team to come out because i believe in this moment whether you're watching online or you're here in this space this is an opportunity for some of us to to actually say yes because we can know it here but they call it that 26 inch journey where it moves from our head to a reality in our heart that we can live from and so if that's you today and you're sensing god tug and this could be the moment where you actually step into that identity that he has for you and that grace that's waiting for you to walk out not just grace to be saved but grace to live day in and day out with him it's here and available and we have our team here ready to pray with you so step out of your seat come and pray or maybe you're walking through something in life that just feels heavy and hard and you need someone to agree with you in prayer that's what we're here for you don't have to do life alone so if that's you i'm going to pray a prayer of blessing as we're dismissed but if you're feeling that tug or you're walking through something heavy don't leave carrying that let's let today be the day of change and hope and future and identity and living the story that god has for you to live does that sound good it is so good thank you matthew for that word it was a good word right it was [Applause] all right let me pray a prayer of blessing of you lord i just thank you for each person in this space lord as we sit in the truth that you have been repeating and whispering and and shouting over us for several weeks god would we allow it to permeate our hearts that the sons and daughters of god would step in to who you've called us to be and as we walk out these doors we commit in our heart to walk to live to love from that reality this week this day this moment the reality that we're yours the grace that you have for us and i ask you to bless each and every one of these humans that you brought here we're so grateful for them and i just thank you for the work you're doing in this house in jesus name amen well you're dismissed we love you celebrate big today your freedom we'll see you next week

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 162

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, tempe churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, matthew hernandez, gateway young adults, what gives you the right

Id: uZt_J_FyptQ

Length: 76min 8sec (4568 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021