Gateway Church Live | “But Where Is He Going?” by Pastor Joakim Lundqvist | September 26

[Music] so [Music] well welcome to gateway church and welcome to global impact weekend i love this time of year i don't know if you know this but i was in the global department here at gateway for almost 10 years and what you're doing around the world through gateway church is impressive and so exciting i also want to welcome those of you who are in our gateway gatherings and those of you watching online you're in for an incredible treat for gateway global weekend so i want to introduce these worship leaders they've come in from all around the world and they're going to be singing in some of their own languages so i want to introduce them to you over here to the left is uh ewan and sian chow from taiwan make them feel welcome and then right here is madison serving and also pastor david moore from gateway [Music] this is ingrid rosario from from houston actually but she'll be singing in spanish and then next to her is shawnee ferguson from israel she'll be singing in hebrew then pastor rige from kenya he'll be singing in swahili and then this is a gilbert hossipian he is from iran and of course at texas we say iran iran he'll be singing in farsi and then there on the end that is anapalabasa from brazil shall be singing in portuguese please make all of these phil welcome let's worship [Music] man together you were my only friend out of the grave you called my name you made me alive again [Music] [Music] [Music] won't let me go you love i saved my soul [Music] left behind used to be lost [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that i could go nowhere is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] always hold it on [Music] thank you lord thank you god lord you are welcome in this place we want to exalt your name we want to lift you up you are the highest you are the greatest there's no one like you jesus all the appraisal [Music] worthy of every song we could ever say worthy of all the praise we could ever bring worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you join us in lifting up the name of jesus everybody jesus the name above every other name jesus the only one who could ever say worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] [Music] show me who you are and fill me [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] oh me who you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] my trusty [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] worthy is the lord [Music] holy is the name of jesus there is no one like you [Music] lord you hold office [Music] you hold all things you hold me to [Music] you breathe life over drivers you raise up the deadlines you make flowers grow [Music] worthy can you take a moment just to begin to declare the worthiness the holiness of god if you're comfortable lift your hands if however let's just begin to express worship in this place let's let it flow out of us like a river come on god's presence is here he's holy he's worthy god there's no one like you you're exalted we praise your awesome great name oh we lift off [Music] authority you have a wisdom and strength [Music] faithful lord [Music] thank you jesus worthy worthy you are so [Music] you are so good [Music] me [Music] issues [Music] ocean and love worship we will give to you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to [Music] your face [Music] [Music] i [Music] oh um [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a man [Music] [Music] his faith be upon [Music] generations [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] heavy cities [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on kurt this gift got praised and his place he's for you he is for you oh there's something about that song it just speaks so deep inside of us why it's because it's the father's blessing back on us you know it came out of numbers chapter six and the background story in numbers chapter six is that the children of israel had already come out of egypt they'd been out of egypt about two years but they still had a slave mentality they they were free inside but they didn't know it and they were walking around and they were out in the wilderness and time was hard and the future was uncertain and they needed a word from their father and god spoke to aaron and said i want you to speak a father's blessing over them and he said to them the lord bless you the lord keep you the lord make his face shine upon you i mean are you feeling what he's saying to him he's saying i'm going to keep you in the middle of this wilderness and when and when you walk into the room my face is gonna light up it's gonna shine over you much like mine does when my grandsons walk in the room you know what i'm talking about that's what happens when you walk in the room the father starts shining as he looks at you interesting about this song it was released publicly one week before the covid pandemic hit our nation [Music] god once again was trying to say to his kids i got you you're going to be all right i put my blessing on you my face shines on you i'm giving you grace i'm giving you peace and it wasn't just for us here in the u.s the song was recorded in over 140 languages it went around the world in just a matter of weeks because the lord is saying to the body of christ everyone in every tongue and every nation you're going to be all right the father's blessings on you can we thank the lord for that isn't that good that's just good but we're so glad you came to worship with us today once you turn and greet two or three people around you god bless you welcome to gateway church [Music] hey everyone we're so glad you're joining us whether you're with us online or here in person here are a few things that you need to know a lot of great things are happening at gateway here are a few ways you can get involved right now to check out all that's going on visit gatewaypeople.com also you can follow us on social media and join your campus facebook group if you'd like to give today you can visit gatewaypeople.com and click on the give tab use our mobile app or give it one of the offering boxes at any of our campuses we have so many amazing opportunities for you to grow connect and be encouraged for more information visit us at central or text connect to 7 10 10. we're so glad you're joining us thanks for being here today i don't think that people at walmart are crazy i think when we go to walmart we become those people i think soon as you cross a threshold three teeth fall out suddenly you got on house shoes you like where these house shoes come from i didn't even know i had i don't even like teddy bears where these teddy bears come from oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] i grew up in a jewish home but not as a believer and i came to faith a few months before my bar mitzvah at the age of 12. and from that moment on i just knew that my calling was to be a part of not only the spiritual restoration but also the physical restoration of the nation of israel ezekiel 36 really lays out a very clear three-step plan of the lord he says first he'll bring back the outcasts of israel physically into our land which he's done and then he will soften our hearts when we're there and then he will pour out his holy spirit on us and so we believe with all of our hearts that right now we're in the season of softened hearts in israel and so the way we're preparing the way for the lord is by doing everything we can to bring the topic of yeshua into the day-to-day conversation of the nation the tifa project is an israeli ministry that we were part of founding in 2009 our heart is really to see not only the israeli body of believers built up and functioning in the fullness of their calling but also to see the people of israel served in areas of critical need with excellence but always completely openly in the name of yeshua we have three ministry departments right now first we serve needy believers families that are in acute financial crisis throughout the nation with financial aid and financial counseling second we have a dental department we operate two full service dental clinics providing full service dental care to the needy in the nation of israel and our third department is about promoting and facilitating adoption and foster care our connection with gateway has been critical to accomplishing several different ministry objectives i know uh historically gateway gave to one of our dental clinics when we were first established in the dental ministry and then just recently we had a dream in our hearts at the end of 2020 which wasn't a great time to be raising funds but we realized there's a huge need in israel for emergency shelter homes for children there wasn't any messianic jewish emergency shelter home in the nation and gateway gave a gift that really got that off the ground for us it was one of the first gifts we got was the largest gift that we had and because of that within just a few months time we were able to raise all the funds we needed to purchase the house to renovate it to furnish it we understand that god's called us to this vision but he's not necessarily going to accomplish it all for us we actually have to partner with him in fleshing this thing out then all of a sudden you get an amazing partner that you never thought you'd be partnering with like in our case gateway church and we'll cast a vision and all of a sudden here's this funding to make the vision happen we can just run with it so gateway is doing that not only with us but with many ministries in israel and many ministries around the world and just you might not see your name on it always but just know that you're giving and what you're doing is helping us to take huge steps forward and conquer territory for the lord and countries all around the world gateway and resurrection church are standing side by side to pray and serve the people of lebanon we are feeding the hungry together serving the poor providing medication and education for many the trauma training curriculum that gateway provided for us is a wonderful tool to help those traumatized to experience healing and the filling of the holy spirit because of the devastating economic crisis the massive explosion coveted 19 and the political unrest and corruption many people are hopeless and in despair there is a daily power outage food medicine gas and diesel shortages a woman told me i lost everything and everyone but i met christ and this is because of the love of the church the thirst is great and no one can meet the need of those people like christ and the people are turning to him for redemption for salvation and restoration and the church has a great opportunity to be christ in the midst of pain chaos and darkness [Music] word of life moscow is is a church with around 6 000 members and we have meetings in different languages we have around one and a half thousand kids in the youth ministry after the breakdown of the soviet union i believe there is a divine time for russia there were three generations of leaders and pastors and churches they lived under the communist rule many were persecuted and they were of course praying for russia and i still believe we are living in that time when god's grace is upon this country it's very easy to speak with people about god and we see all the time people coming to the church we keep on starting churches we have around 300 churches in our network and that amount is increasing every year so we really feel that it's harvest time not in a general sense but it is really a time of grace for russia i really believe that russia is a huge country it's 11 time zones that's almost half the world we work from the very far east to the very far west there's so we can continue to plant churches and reach out further into this great and beautiful nation church started in 2005 just about 16 years ago god really gave us a heart for the unchurched and so we began to teach our people this and by god's grace we've seen some amazing transformation over the years as our people have understood what it means to be a fearless influence loving jesus and changing the nations i believe that this is the church's greatest opportunity at least in my lifetime i think that kovit has opened doors that it may look like it has closed doors but it's actually open doors for the gospel like never before and in these difficult times we as a church have had to step up to to be present for our community and through the gift of gateway and and some generous friends and also our members who are very generous we were able to feed somewhere in the range of 6000 families for several months it's like god is opening up the new roman roads of today through the internet even using technology to reach people who would never have been reached just because now we are all at huge technology and we're excited as a church to be jumping onto it one of our desires is to go into the places that formerly sent us the gospel uh europe was a major mission sending force to africa and we believe that our time has come as the african church to go out to those places where the gospel is no longer believed in or preached and to take the gospel there and we're committed to start a mission force a a movement of churches starting in berlin and we'll cover the whole of europe a season has come when the gospel must go from every place to every place and that we're excited to be alive in a time like this when god is moving in such powerful ways so there is definitely a revival of god happening in this part of the world and we can't wait to just see people go out i really believe in the next few years we're going to start seeing missionaries going out like we never have seen before as god just begins as this fire that we're experiencing here begins to spread to other parts of the world [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] fundamental [Music] foreign [Music] i got involved with the send as an organization which really is a global initiative to call young people into the great commission and bring the great commission as the centerpiece again of our faith and so i really believe uh brazil is poised to be a powerhouse when it comes to mission sending nation today brazil is the second largest mission center nation behind the usa when we fell from the lord we need to go to brazil and we decided to take a big leap of faith and just go for the biggest stadium in sao paulo city and that's an 80 000 seater and to our surprise when we open registration it sold out in six hours beating that stadium's record which was held prior to us to coldplay and youtube and when we saw that the great commission is beating the biggest rock bands in the world we knew we were on to something and we asked the lord what's next and the lord told us you go for another stadium and that stretched our faith even more we went across town got another stadium another soccer stadium which filled up in four days and we said lord is there anything else and the lord said go for a third stadium and we went to the capital of brazil brasilia and on february 8th 2020 simultaneously spread across three different stadiums 150 000 young people average age 24 years of age 117 nations represented in those stadiums plus 2.2 million people watching via live stream to hear a mobilization for the great commission the center piece the story was go and make disciples of all nations and at the end of the day we had more than 22 000 young people committing i am willing to go to be trained and be sent to four missions and right there it was such a joy to be part of something that we believe was historic because god was rising up across the nations another global missions movement [Applause] [Applause] [Music] would would you uh would you just stand up and let's give god glory for what he's doing all over the world thank you lord thank you thank you and be seated i just i was looking up at the even this sanctuary and i just thought 21 years ago it was just debbie and i and 30 people in the living room and the reason we had 30 people is we had a pregnant woman we killed her twice and uh it's just amazing and you know that that's better than any news channel you'll ever watch it's what god's doing around the world and it's really like the ninth plague in egypt if you remember the ninth plague it was a it was darkness dark it's getting darker and darker in the world but the children of israel the people of god had light in their dwellings it's getting lighter and lighter in the church and there's a revival that's going on around the world and here's the great thing we get to be a part of it when we started the church years ago i told the elders i have a different vision for missions than i've heard i've heard some people doing something similar but instead of like getting um you know jim and mary out of the congregation who have a call to missions and they may be wonderful people but sending them to a country and then trying to learn the language and the culture and they're americans another country and maybe 30 years later they 100 people to christ i said why don't we go to to the countries and find out who's already doing it in that country that are indigenous to that country the apostolic leaders and just say to them how can we partner with you and how can we help you and now we have partners in over 80 countries around the world like what you've just seen and you hear these three words a lot around here we say at gateway because of you and obviously we're giving glory to god but god moves your heart and you have a choice and because you give we started day one giving 10 of everything that came into the church it wasn't designated to some ministry or a building fund or something 10 of all undesignated funds what we call the tithe we started giving that to missions and then we raised it in the third year to 15 so 15 of every dollar you give goes out of this house overseas or somewhere even a mission here in america like embrace grace or something like that you've heard about many many here in america but mainly overseas and we god has connected us with really modern day apostles that are winning their nation and and we're just saying to them because of the generosity of gateway church we have millions of dollars available if you need something you let us know if you have a need and so they'll come to us when there's a crisis and like feeding one one there said 300 000 meals and we're able to just provide the resources for that and of course our partnership goes beyond that we send pastors there for conferences and things but we've been able to provide think about this for i think at least the last five maybe the last 10 years kevin might know better over 20 million a year right to over 20 million a year to missions comes out of gateway church i mean it's just incredible what you do so i want to say thank you and uh thank you very very much and so global impact is just a little synopsis it's one of my favorite weekends of the year hearing it incredible to hear people from different nations worshiping god so we have a special special blessing today he was here two years ago uh joachim lundqvist from sweden so you may remember he's just a great man of god but he is an apostle and i want you to understand that and receive that apostles didn't die after the first centuries jesus when he ascended gave five gifts jesus gave these gifts these are gifts of the holy spirit apostle prophet evangelist pastor and teacher and we have apostles today so this is like having a paul come speak to us and and we are so grateful god has linked us with apostles all over the world and what we do is we just partner with them when the refugees were coming out of iraq and syria and they were going up into europe uh joachim pastors word of life church get this so they have 700 churches in europe and so they just opened their doors and so when these many muslim uh refugees came into the city it was the christians that took them into their home and that fed them and that showed them kindness and they couldn't figure out why christians were treating them that way and so multiple thousands of them got saved because of that and so this is one of our partners and right now we're doing this with afghani refugees coming out we're partnering again with joachim and others around the world so he's going to share the word with us i want you to welcome a modern day apostle jorgen lundqvist you all come come on up here buddy hello gateway oh wow thank you you may be seated no pressure there paul is going to speak to you today we are so excited to be back with you and pastor robert and debbie i just want to honor you for thank you for inviting us but even more than that thank you for being amazing world-class people and world-class leaders there is a reason why pastors and leaders from all over the world are looking to pastor robert and to gateway for inspiration and encouragement and impartation the vision of this church the global perspective is second to none so thank you so much for taking that place and being such a blessing let's honor our leaders right here and also church like you heard i want to extend a special thank you because uh right now actually we are working in afghanistan uh to to care for and bring the gospel to the afghani refugees but also make sure that our afghani brothers and sisters are kept safe from the persecutions of the talibans and thank you again pastor for having contributed so generously to that course we absolutely love you i respect you so much well friends as you hear this one is not from texas okay the word of god is being brought to you with a swedish accent today and i hope you're going to be all fine with that if you didn't know it's sweden which is not switzerland by the way two different nations okay sweden is a frozen nation right up in the north of europe were governed by two princesses called elsa and anna and they of course reside in the castle of ikea maybe you heard about it on top of that sweden is also one of the most secularized and socialistic nations in the world but you know my bible says that where sin abounded grace would abound even more amen grace would abound even more and by that grace we've been seeing the holy spirit move and do an enormous work in our nation sweden and also out from our nations to europe to central asia to former soviet union india and so many other places and actually that perspective of reaching out is what i want to share with you today if you brought your bibles would you please turn with me to matthew chapter four and we're going to start out right here right now with a very well-known passage of scripture verse 18 in matthew 4 says and as jesus was walking beside the sea of galilee he saw two brothers simon called peter and his brother andrew they were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen come follow me jesus said and i will send you out to fish for people follow me from that moment those two words have echoed throughout history he is the same yesterday today and forever so he still calls us using those two words follow me and of course we respond we pray yes lord i will follow you for the rest of my life and we think i have decided and so on so forth but there is one question a lot of times we fail to ask but where is he going and that's even kind of a relevant question hello if you're going to make a lifelong vow to follow someone it's quite relevant to know where that person is going because wherever that person is going to end up that's where you're going to end up if you mean business with following that person right i remember the first time i met the beautiful girl that is now my wife and i was 19 years old at the time and i came into a saturday night service in the church and there was a girl on stage called maria and she was leading worship that night and the quality of worship that god received from me that night was not very good to be honest i was not so much doing this i was more doing that but you know what even though i saw how beautiful she was and even though i saw the hand of god upon her and i saw her love for jesus just shining out from her i did not propose to her that night right why because i didn't know where she was going huh but then in the coming weeks and months we talked and we spent time and we shared hearts and praise god it turned out we were heading for the same destination we wanted to build god's church all over the world to the maximum of our capacity so we said hey let's do this thing together and we're coming up on our 35th anniversary and i love you more than anything honey [Music] but again it's all about understanding where he is going so is there a scripture that answers that question yes it is and it's found in luke chapter 15. luke chapter 15 contains three parables all giving us the same spiritual principle this is very unusual normally in the teaching of jesus he would share one parable to illustrate one spiritual truth only a few times in the gospel of matthew alone will he share two parables with the same basic point but luke 15 is the only time that he will share three parables to underline the same spiritual truth it's like okay here you go one parable now if you missed it two parables and if you're really stupid here comes the third parable underlining the same truth luke 15 verse 4 parable number one suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and lewis is one of them doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it parable number two verse eight or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one doesn't she light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it parable number three a bit longer so i'm just gonna summarize it the prodigal son a father had two sons one of them left the household lived in sin for some time ended up in a pigsty which is where sin always will lead you but then came to his senses and decided to go back to the father's house and apply to become at least a slave or a servant in the father's house but when he comes the father runs up to him and restores him completely three parables okay let's make a quick another uh another analysis and now let's look at these three parables and see what they have in common okay all i'm speaking in my second language here okay i'm doing my best if you're annoyed by the dialect i will ask you to come to preach to me in swedish in at word of life and the laugh will be on me okay okay so all these three parables have a few few things in common something is in the wrong place something is in the right place and there's a person representing god so in the first parable the person representing god is the shepherd something is in the wrong place one sheet and something is in the right place 99 sheep second parable the person representing god is a woman something is in the wrong place one coin something is in the right place nine coins and in the third parable god is represented by the father something is in the wrong place one son something is in the right place one son well he was in his father's house but his attitudes were all messed up just like some christians but that's another message so the big question here now is which one of these two categories wrong place or right place gets god's full attention let's back up to the first one the shepherd leaves the 99 in the desert and focuses completely on that which is in the wrong side i'm so thankful this was not a swedish shepherd because the swedish shepherd would have gone well at least i got 99 could have been worse but there's something in the heart of this shepherd that cannot stand the fact that even one single sheep that is his belonging his possession is lost in the wilderness somewhere second parable the woman sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds it the full attention is toward that which is in the wrong place and finally the father as the son returns he says that when he was still far away the father saw him and ran up to him and embraced him and restored him to the point where the other son was even jealous the father's attention was turned completely to that which was in the wrong place so what is jesus trying to tell us my friend is sharing the answer to the question where is he going he is focusing completely on that which is in the wrong place he is going to find the lost sheep the lost coin and welcome back the lost son or daughter and on his way he looks over his shoulder and his eyes meet mine eyes and your eyes and he says follow me not only to church on sunday but follow me even though that's included but follow me to find the lost sheep follow me to find the lost coin follow me to welcome back the lost son and daughter that is what following him is all about to change our priorities and change our perspectives till we come to the point where we realize there's no higher or more holy calling as we spend time in this world than finding that lost sheep that might be a neighbor of yours going through a horrible divorce finding that lost coin that might be an afghani refugee on his way to texas right now hoping that there will be good people here and that finding that lost son there might be somebody lost in the jungles of africa without having heard the gospel so far that is jesus's calling to you and me follow me to seek and save that which is lost and when we start taking him at his word when we start realizing this is the original version of christianity this is the original original invitation that is given to you and me there are no limits to what can happen i i want to share a story with you about two two guys from back home okay they these two guys are marcus and daniel right there marcus is the one with the glasses and daniel is the other guy and at the time of this story marcus was 16 years old and he just came to a service where i preached basically the same message as i'm sharing with you and marcus to marcus this was kind of a bit of a revolution he says man i get to get my act together i need to redefine what it's all about to follow jesus and he made up his mind that weekend that on monday when i come back to my high school i'm going to open my door to the school and i'm gonna walk up to the first person that i see and invite that person whoever that might be to a prayer meeting in my house that night this is a huge step for a swede because you see swedes don't talk to one another i'm just letting you know because you guys are like world champions of social interaction you talk to one another all the time a swede will freak out the first time he's in the u.s he will go into an elevator and there will be an american there and the american guy will say hey what's up and the swede will think what do you want from me why are you referring to an app on my phone you know what why are you what are your intentions here so for marcus to just go up to a random person inviting that person to a prayer meeting was a huge step so monday morning marcus comes to school opens up the door and the first person he sees is daniel the two have never met marcus goes straight up to him and invites him to the prayer meeting and daniel accepts because there was one tiny bit of information that marcus had left out and that was the fact that it was a prayer meeting daniel was 100 convinced that he was invited to a party so that afternoon he puts on nice clothes and puts on some eau de cologne to impress to the ladies or the party and he shows up at the given address he presses the doorbell and a mother opens the door and elia goes alert alert alert what is a mother doing at a party and he's taken him to the living room and there are 10 people around the table one has a guitar one has a tambourine [Laughter] daniel goes what what's going on here because like most swedish teenagers daniel has zero understanding or experience of church or christianity nothing so anyway he sits down and somebody said now let's sing and everybody sings for a while and daniel goes oh okay we're doing this okay yeah sure and then somebody says now let's pray and people start praying and daniel just go what in the world is going on he says i'm not going to pray but then he hears his own mouth starts speaking and he hears him say himself say would you please pray for my grandfather who's got cancer and only a few months left to live where did that come from and the whole prayer group of course jumps at the opportunity and they pray for daniel's grandfather and a little bit later the whole thing comes to an end and down daniel walks home thinking that was the weirdest party i've ever attended in my life one week later his mother calls him in school overjoyed daniel they've taken new x-rays on grandpa and the cancer that would have killed him within months is completely gone [Music] daniel says when did they take the x-rays turns out it was the day after the prayer meeting daniel calls marcus saying we need to talk marcus brings daniel to our church word of life first time he's ever been in a church building he sits on the balcony hears the gospel he lifts his hand he opens his heart and he accepts jesus christ as his lord and savior [Music] this was some years ago and since daniel has attended one year in our bible school six months in our mission training and is now a full-time missionary in the red light district of bangkok thailand and marcus is a full-time missionary in china you have no idea people what you're setting in motion when you start following jesus to seek and save that lost sheep that lost coin or that lost son let me just share one more story with you then i want to pray for you i want to share an experience i had a couple of years back when i felt the lord the spirit of the lord asked me to study the story of the titanic disaster and i was a bit confused because i didn't really know what i was about to find many of you will know the basic story how this huge ship set out from southampton in great britain in 1912 2201 persons on board heading for the united states but in the middle of the night one of the days during the cruise it hit an iceberg and it started to sink and i read book after book not really knowing what i was looking for but then i came around the story about the life the lifeboats on board titanic and you see every one of the lifeboats on board titanic was built to hold 70 people they could provide salvation for 70 each in a case of an emergency but the thing was that the first half of all the lifeboats that were lowered into the ocean throughout the course of the three and a half hours that it took from the impact until the ship disappeared under the surface the first half were only half full or less they had like 30 people on board or 35 or even one had 12 people with 70 seats available why was that because people were waking up too late didn't understand the danger they were in initially and then when the ship went down finally something happened that was later referred to sometimes as the second disaster of the titanic and that was the fact that the lifeboats did not return to pick up the survivors that had ended up in the water even though all over the the area there were screams of terror and anguish from those who were left in the water and there were so many lifeboats in the water with seats available still they did not return they were satisfied with the fact that they were saved and even though there were seats available in the lifeboats they rode away instead of rowing back to pick up another sheet another coin or another sun and i heard the voice of the spirit in my heart say this could be one version of end time christianity if you only focus on yourself and your own stability and security and comfort if you row away from the scene of the disaster instead of turning around and following jesus to that which is lost and my heart was so heavy and i was so burdened and even though we were working with missions 24 7 i repented i said god i don't want that mentality in my life in my movement there must be another version in the story somehow and i went on studying and then i found that other version in the life of one of the passengers a man named john harper he was a 42 year old preacher from scotland on board the titanic to go to chicago and preach at a big crusade and lead people to christ and with him on board he had his six-year-old daughter annie jesse who was the apple of his eye his only child and we know that john and annie jesse were among the very first people on board to realize the danger they were in after the impact because annie jesse harper six years old is registered as one of the passengers in one of the first lifeboats but her father john was not and the people in that lifeboat would later testify as to how the john came running with annie jesse in his arms how he held her kissed her forehead looked her deep in her eyes and said i love you more than anything honey and then gently lifted her into the lifeboat and made sure she was safe and then he started running back on the ship and john harper ran from door to door of the cabins pounding the cabin doors calling out at the top of his voice if you don't know jesus get to the lifeboats now if you don't know jesus get to the lifeboats now and i started to understand his perspective he realized that if i die tonight i know where i'm going but if you die tonight without knowing jesus and the salvation that is found in him and him alone you might face eternal separation from god he was running for hours screaming at the top of his voice document documented by hundreds of survivors and lifeboats were going down all around him and he could have gotten into any one of the lifeboats and we would not have blamed him but he didn't he ended up being one of the hundreds of people in the water that night after the ship went down and as he looked around in the water and seeing the lifeboats disappear and realizing every single one including himself would only have minutes to live in the freezing cold water he changed his battle why and he started calling out at the top of his voice believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved and hundreds of people later testified that beyond and above the voices of anguish and screams of terror that night was the voice of one man proclaiming believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved to his final breath and god only knows how many people heard the gospel in the very last seconds and minutes of their lives and ended up in heaven rather than in eternal separation from god and the spirit spoke to me and said i need a whole new generation of john harper's i need a whole new generation of john harper's people who will follow to find the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son people who will partner with me even at the expense of their own comfortability and their own security and safety and if we can raise up a generation of john harper's young and old across the world jesus will have exactly what he needs to bring the gospel back stronger than ever in every single nation and on every single continent because we know that there's lifeboats available people his name is jesus and there's still seeds available in that lifeboat praise god praise god now if there's something in your heart that wants to respond to this simply saying to god god i want to recommit to following you in this brand new perspective i would love to pray for you before i close would you please stand to your feet all over the church gateway and let's just lift up our hearts and lift our hands if you want to and just make a commitment today that we will be a john harper generation we will not row away from the scene of the disaster we will follow jesus to find the lost sheep the lost coin and the lost son and daughter lord jesus we thank you we thank you that you went to seek and save that which was lost and father as you call us to follow we will follow to find the lost sheep we will follow to find the lost coin and we will do all we can to welcome back the lost son or daughter father we pray that in this selfish season in this individualistic time of history that we will not be swept away by the spirit of this world and roll away in our lifeboats but that we will turn back and that our battle cry forever will be believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved bless every heart recommitting bless every soul father all my brothers and sisters as we look into your loving face and as we commit our lives yet again to follow you wherever you are going in jesus name we pray amen can we thank the lord for that message just remain standing if you would [Applause] i heard the holy spirit during that message say something to me that i i didn't hear the last two services and i want to make sure we don't miss this moment [Music] but god's been speaking to some of you about surrendering to full-time ministry he's been speaking to you about another nation he's been speaking to you about changing your vocation or maybe changing your educational direction and surrendering to the ministry if that's you we we want to know we want to pray with you we want to help you we want to get you connected to the global department we want to get you connected to the king's university we want to get you connected to get you on the right path to head in that direction i surrendered a full-time ministry when i was 17 years old and i've never looked back tons of other things i could have done with my life thought i was one time headed to nashville not realizing that one day i would go there to follow my daughter and play with grandkids god had a total different plan and right now he's speaking to some of you about that plan i want to pray for you second of all i want to pray for those of you who you've never made jesus christ the lord of your life there's room in that lifeboat for you and all that god's asking you to do today is confess jesus christ as your lord and get in the lifeboat he's got a future for you but you're going to have to turn your heart and your life over to jesus so would you bow your heads with me for for just a moment longer and right there in your seat would you just tell the lord lord i give my life to you to follow you whether you're surrendering today to full-time ministry or you're surrendering your heart to the lord for salvation will you just say to him right now i believe that you're the lord and i give you my life to follow you [Music] would you whisper this prayer to him just say father in the name of jesus forgive me and cleanse me i declare jesus christ as my lord and my savior in jesus name would you just look up here at me for a moment we want to give you an opportunity to respond to that prayer at the end of the service there'll be a prayer teams down here they'll pray for you concerning anything they'll pray for you concerning your health your finances your future and they'll be down at the end of the service when we dismiss but another thing you could do is if you prayed that prayer with me and you're one of these that i'm talking to you can you can text the word connect to 7 10 10 and follow the prompts and someone will contact you and help you with your next steps okay all right i'm going to ask our prayer team to come on down and make yourselves ready and while they do that i've got four announcements for you so stick with me for just a minute longer first one's this if you've prepared a refugee welcome kit and you have it here today you have it your car you haven't turned it in you can turn it in the lobby if you didn't bring it today you want to do that we'll we'll also accept those next weekend you can bring those with you as we get ready for refugees coming from afghanistan and possibly some coming from our southern border you know we can get negative about that or we can get ready to share the gospel with them amen we're the church we ought to do things differently and we're going to love the people we don't even have to go to the nations god's bringing the nations to us what a plan what a plan god knows what he's doing i'm about to preach i better stop let's go to the second announcement secondly if you want to know more about gateway global there's a booth and some folks out in the lobby they'll introduce you to that talk to you about that about upcoming trips and partners that we have in the field and then if you want to get connected to gateway church we have a special room over here next to the cafe and we call that connect central they'll be pastors and leaders there the next weekend this will be a great opportunity for you to bring someone to christ next weekend michael jr will be here he's a full-time comedian slash evangelist and it's a great way to bring your neighbors your friends and those to hear the gospel for the first time and then last but not least if you can't get enough of jesus anybody in the room that just can't get enough of jesus we're going to have a night of worship tonight six o'clock right here so if you want to come for our night of worship do that if you need prayer for anything come forward otherwise you're dismissed god bless you have a great day [Music] you

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Length: 78min 30sec (4710 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021