Gateway Church Live | “Death” by Pastor Robert Morris | August 28

[Music] welcome to gateway church we're so glad you're joining us today whether you're joining us online or one of our gateway gatherings or here in person at any of our campuses we're so glad you're here would you lift your hands to the lord would you begin turning your hearts to him we are here to worship him god we are so grateful to get to worship you lord we turn our hearts and our attention to you we give you all the glory all the honor in jesus name amen let's worship him together [Music] my shape [Music] who could carry that kind of weight [Music] it was my turn until [Music] and [Music] come on we sing together [Music] [Music] thank you jesus into your glorious days [Music] is [Music] jesus into your glorious day you call me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] my sin was head but chains break out the weight of your glory [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] me come on if you're standing in a glorious day would you lift a shout to the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you lord thank you lord [Music] i love you [Music] that i wake up until i lay my head oh i will see of the goodness of god [Music] you have been so [Music] [Music] of the goodness god [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] of the [Music] goodness is [Music] [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] and all my life you have been faithful and all my life you have been so so good with every breath that i made oh i will see of the goodness of you god oh i will of the goodness of god of the goodness thank you [Applause] [Music] things that we thought were [Music] shine on [Music] [Music] song [Music] the oh you are [Music] oh [Music] place [Music] [Music] is for all that you've done [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] of jesus [Music] ocean oh [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is oh [Music] [Music] jesus i love you [Music] my are told oh jesus i love you [Music] my heart is [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] i have this thirst only you can satisfy [Music] i search and seek but you're never hard to find the more of you i see the more that i desire [Applause] [Music] you captured [Applause] [Music] you is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] and over oh you've been faithful to me [Music] [Applause] and i can't [Music] the more i know [Music] again [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i [Music] know [Music] i want you to die [Music] know [Music] everybody [Music] oh [Music] [Music] yes lord we need you let's just say it together lord we need you we need you yes he's pulling us closer pulling us closer what a great time of worship with you i was reminded this week we have a faucet in our kitchen that every time i turn it on brown water comes out i know that's not good right and so we had somebody come and tear down that wall and they found that the part it fit but it was never intended to be there because it wasn't made for water and so the water that was coming out was because the part had rusted and the brown was because of the rest and it made me think how often do we build up a wall in our heart and what's behind there is old and rusty and dirty and that might represent for you something in your past that you're ashamed of it might represent for you a fear that you're holding on to that might represent a piece of a relationship that is not surrendered to god finances that are surrendered to god i just really feel like we need to be reflective today and ask god to show us if there's anything in our heart whereas where rust has come to destroy where it's old and dirty because this is what's the good news is so easily as easy as that part was changed and now we have good water running through that just that easy the exchange can be made with god in second corinthians 5 17 he says therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creation a new creation the old has passed away behold all things are made new with him we are made new and we are so in need of him today because the only thing that only part in our heart that can be answered can be answered by god alone nothing else can satisfy nothing else can draw a sin nothing else can satisfy the need we have for him so i just want to ask would you pray with me right now god we just asked father that you would supply all of our needs god that you liberally in abundance give to us what we need you give compassion where we need compassion you give faithfulness forgiveness you give joy you bring peace you give faith where we need faith god we just ask right now that you would make that exchange at our heart and we would give you the things that are old and rusty and dirty and we would be exchanged with your new living water that never runs dry we will never thirst again in the name of jesus would you do that right now in our hearts amen amen we are so grateful that you've joined us today in worship and i just i just want to ask as you're turning your heart we've got a great message from pastor robert coming up but also i just want to tell you we're going to give you a little bit more time today because as a family of god here we want you to connect with the people around you so with a little bit more time today would you make sure that you meet someone new you've never met in fact if you need a little way to introduce yourself maybe tell them how long you've lived in texas or how you survive a texas summer but would you do that and online would you go to connect at 7 10 10 would you text us at connect 7 10 10 if you also want to connect with us be blessed [Music] [Music] hey everyone we're so glad you're joining us whether you're with us online or in person here are a few things 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 at 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 connect central or text connect to 7 10 10. we're so glad you're joining us thanks for being here today we get calls emails messages all the time people who watch our services online saying is there anyone here in portland oregon or atlanta georgia who loves god and loves gateway many people feel called to be a part of gateway they just need a way to connect and serve and be part of this church that they love without having to pack up and move to texas to do that [Music] this last year as our technology team pulled analytics from all over the nation and around the world we discovered these large pockets of viewers literally around the corner or right down the street from each other who were watching gateway online every single weekend yet they were doing it all by themselves so we began to really focus on how we could help people create a connected community right where they are our team got to work building a new page on the gateway website where people can connect and see that there are others right around them doing church together every single week now they can see that there's a group meeting in a home over here or a group that meets in a coffee shop right down the street [Music] well it's a natural thing to want to do this with a community of people who love each other well and who want to encourage each other life is tough and when you experience god's love and god's goodness you want everybody else to experience him also that's why we're praying that everyone in the community of st louis who doesn't know jesus or doesn't have a church home would come and experience god's love and goodness with us blank and i are so very excited about the new gateway gathering here god has placed such a vision in our heart for san antonio [Music] to lift up the name of jesus and to see people saved and healed and set free [Music] nobody has to do life alone god is giving every person an opportunity right now to be part of bringing his kingdom to the city where they are the chance to be a light when our world needs it the most [Music] i heard it said the best classroom is life it's filled with choices the truth is we don't always get it right the first time around we mess up sometimes we might not be prepared to navigate life's challenges but reality is we often learn the most from the ones who've experienced the most we learn from our friends and family our community and god's word because it really is true life is a classroom learn from life equip for life every person is going to be judged according to his his or her words every person your eternal destiny is based solely upon your belief whether you believe in jesus or not if you don't give your life to christ you're going to be punished for your bad works if you give your life to christ at the judgment you're going to be rewarded for your good works [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey everyone it's great to see you welcome every campus welcome every gateway gathering i just want to say we just saw um a little bit about gateway gatherings and so no matter where you are if you want to start or join a gateway gathering then just contact us and we would we'd love to help you any way that we can uh let me give you just a little um um update on my leg i was able to get some i was a little more um focused medical attention this week and um get a little go a little deeper so had an mri uh had not had that before just an x-ray so i told you last week it was a ruptured hamstring if there's a little bit of difference in this medically i don't want to go into all that but it's a torn hamstring um and there are three levels there's a level one level two level three level three being the worst uh they called also a mid a low level mid-level and high grade level and um so debbie told me anytime you do anything you do it great so i got the got the highest level so that i could get and um so anyway they asked me today uh you know how's your pain i said what kind of depends on when you asked me and where the pain pill is in kicking in or waning uh in that area but i'm doing well i also they also did an ultrasound because my leg has just turned black and blue and so they did ultrasound uh to check for blood clots but no blood clots so the report is good it's just gonna take a little while and so i um i was worshiping during worship but i worshiped in the green room uh just so that i wouldn't be standing during that time or walking up the steps over here but i it gave me a new appreciation for those of you who are worshiping online that maybe you're not here in the sanctuary and i just want to encourage you because i had to focus to worship in a room not in in the sanctuary and some of you many of you have experienced that probably all of you at some point have watched the service online and you can really get distracted during that time and your mind can really wonder and so i just had to myself focus i am here to worship god i am here to give to the lord and to tell the the the lord how wonderful he is so i i want to encourage you to to do that uh as you worship also just because a few people ask me i didn't really tell the details of how i hurt my leg it's it's to me it's a little embarrassing um i i bought a um a motorcycle for my 60th birthday for me that was my present to me and um and it's it's uh one of the bigger ones you know and so uh but when you come up to a red light uh i told you it's embarrassing if if it those you who know how many of you ride motorcycles i mean okay thank you okay so you know that if it begins leaning just a little it's going to go i mean you're not going to stop it uh i don't care who you are this is not going to stop it and so the first rule is to move your leg out of the way and so i moved my leg out of the way like i was supposed to but then because it was new i tried to sit it down gently and uh the second rule they say is to just let it go just let it go it has bars on it it's made for that it's called a tip over you know i actually found out that the second rule if you tip one over is to look around to see if anyone saw you tip it over that's the that's the second rule just look real quickly and see if you can get it back up before someone laughs at you but anyway that's that's what happened and so it's just one of those freak accidents that happens all of us have things like that but anyway i'm doing great and i appreciate your your prayers all right um i'm going to uh we have an elder's retreat coming up and so i normally don't say i won't be in the pulpit because our attendance goes down when i say that and i'm trusting you that you still want to hear the word of god and uh so uh next weekend we have campus pastors that we'll be sharing and uh so at the at the south lake campus uh because it's our new our newest campus we haven't launched it's the plain old campus pastor jelani it will be launching that so pastor jelani will be at the south lake campus and online and then at the different campus you'll have different pastors and then the next week is our elders retreat that um uh and so as i told you pastor josh my son has come back so he'll be preaching that weekend and you know what kind of food you get with pastor jelani and pastor josh so but then i will be back and i'm going to start a series something you've been waiting to hear called the seven churches of revelation so i'm gonna go through the seven churches of revelation which have absolutely nothing to do with the end times and so just so you you so this just so you know uh they they have to do with every generation in all times and they have to do with us and they're written even though john penned them on the island of atmos they are they are literally in red in your bible they are the words of jesus and it's jesus's message to us today and so so you'll you'll love the next series all right all right so we are concluding the series called good news and what we've done is each week we've taken a word and shown how it's without jesus coming and bringing the good news that word's really kind of a bad word um like the word condemnation now there's no condemnation in christ like the word repentance we saw that as a bad word but it's really a good word to change our minds about something and allow god to work in our heart and then last week we talked about judgment how we're punished for our bad works before christ but when we come to christ judgment becomes a whole new word and that whole new word for us is that we're actually rewarded for our good works so this week the the word is death we're going to talk about death because before christ death only had a bad connotation to it now as i thought about this i i thought i really can't say that the only definition or the only application of death is good news so i really believe god's given me a very scripturally balanced message that will help us all deal with the subject of death not only for one day what we'll face but what we face all the time with our family friends and loved ones and things like that so point number one is part of death is bad news part of death is bad news because there's a person you love that you're not going to see anymore on this earth so we've got to recognize that uh we have a some friends from high school so we've known them i've known him since sixth grade and um so i'd like sixth grade so much i i did it twice but anyway i'm i'm joking but anyway so we've known this couple they started dating in high school debbie and i started dating high school so we've known him for a long time uh her brother my my one of my best friends growing up then and then again we've known this couple for a long time her brother um got covered very severe had other complications and for the last two weeks has been very close to death and so they've been texting us updates and um on friday morning i got a phone call and i looked down and saw the caller id and i saw it was my friend and here's what i knew immediately i knew it was bad news he wasn't texting me an update he was going to take the time to call me and sure enough and he told me then that his wife's brother had passed away now they're believers his wife brother a believer so we know no more pain we know where he is we know all of that but it still hurts there's no reason for us to to try to avoid that truth but why am i saying bad news because i want to go to point two in a minute which is going to sound just a little different give us more clarification but why am i saying bad news let me tell you how death is really bad news for some people and that is for any person who dies without believing in christ it's very bad news let me show you a scripture you may have never even seen the scripture or heard this phrase before john 8 verse 21 jesus is talking to some pharisees and he said then jesus said to them again i am going away and you will seek me and will die in your sin this is a theological phrase that we are very familiar with in theological circles but most people have probably never even heard this phrase die in your sin you will die in sin where i go you cannot come in other words i'm going to go be with the father you're not going to though so the jews said to him well will he kill himself they never knew what he was talking about because he says where i go you cannot come and he said to them you are from beneath and i am from above you are of this world and i am not of this world therefore i said to you that you will die in your sins for if and now he's don't explain what it means to die in your sins for if you do not believe that i am he you will die in your sins if you don't believe that i'm the messiah if you don't believe i'm the son of god if you don't believe who i say i am you're going to die in your sins and if you die in your sins you're not going to be able to go where jesus is going which is to be with the father i i want to the the majority of people that i i speak to every weekend are believers but not everyone there are people listening that could be flipping through the channels and see me for the first time there are people who are searching for god or who grew up in some sort of a religion that tells you have to work your way to heaven or grew up in even a false religion i want to plead with you to give your life to jesus and here's one of the reasons you don't know when you're going to die you really don't know you you think you might know and you see all of these things on the on the movies where people give this um siliqui at the end of their life you know they've been shot or stabbed and they're able to give this one minute monologue you know okay um just from someone who's been close to death from from my own experience i couldn't talk i i i had lost so much blood i could i didn't have the energy to talk i could hear them talking i could hear the paramedics say i can't get a heartbeat can you get a can you get a pulse can you get a post i can't get a pulse and i wanted to say i have a pulse and i couldn't say it so i'm simply saying that death can happen in an instant and you won't have time to repent and the truth is that even if it doesn't happen in an instant this just the statistics are that if you won't give your life to jesus now you're not going to end up giving your life to jesus on your deathbed and what you need to know is that you're going to die in your sins which means you're going to be eternally separated from god but i want to just say something else that might mean something to you that maybe you've never thought about it this way you will also be eternally separated from all family and friends who are believers here's the reason i'm saying this i know people who have family and friends that are believers and they love them but they never think about you'll be eternally separated from them as well um i was doing a memorial service one time one time i was probably in my 20s and when you're in your 20s um [Music] let me see i say this sometimes you say things that later you think of better ways to save him as you get older um and uh so so uh i was it was a godly grandmother that had passed away and five of her grandsons great great grandsons i believe pardon me great-grandsons were teenagers and they were unbelievers and they they had grown up in church but they were rebellious and literally they stood outside and smoked cigarettes and made jokes and then came in and sat down together um kind of letting us all of us church people know you know we're tough and cool and um so while i was speaking i thought you know they may never hear the truth again so i might as well tell them you know and so as i shared i i just had this come to me i said in a moment we're all going to pass by the casket and i want all of you i want all of you to tell and i whatever her however they called her grandma whatever i said i want you to tell her something i want every one of you to i remember looking down at these five boys and said i want you to tell her something you know in your 20s you just go for it you know you just might as well and um so um i said if you're a believer i want you to say to her i'll see you later because this won't be the last time you see her and then i said but if you're an unbeliever i said i want you to tell her goodbye and i went like this because you're never going to see her again she's going to go to heaven and you're going to go to hell you know i just there might have been a better way to say it but one of them got saved so that that was good so so he loved his grandmother and he remembered how his grandmother told him about jesus christ and he was already feeling i don't want to live this life that i'm living and so god you said by the way i shared that one time in a in a message here at gateway i think i shared it right after it happened probably 10 or 15 years ago and a few years after that nancy briggs pastor tommy briggs wife was passing away from cancer and so debbie and i went to visit her in the hospital we knew it probably the last time that we saw her and um so when i got ready to leave you know i told tommy you know goodbye and all and i turned to nancy and i said bye nancy and she said uh-uh see you later she said don't tell me goodbye because we're going to see each other later and we will see each other later so part of it's bad news here's here's the second thing about death part of death is sad news now we've talked about bad news and good news but it's sad news and what i mean by this is it's okay to be sad when someone passes away who even was a believer you don't have to put on a happy face because you're a christian you don't have to deny your feelings i i've told more people that is they say i know i should be happy no you shouldn't you should be sad it's okay to be sad now it's it's okay also to be grateful that you're going to see this person again that's wonderful but it's okay to be sad the bible actually tells you to mourn it's good to mourn uh listen to this scripture first thessalonians 4 13 and now dear brothers and sisters we want you to know what will happen to the believers who had died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope now i want you to notice what he said here he didn't say i want you to know what will happen to these believers who have died so you will not grieve period he said so you will not grieve as people who have no hope but you can still grieve and you should grieve and if you talk to experts in this area it's a part of the healing process you you need to grieve here ecclesiastes 3 1-2 to everything there's a season a time for every person under heaven a time to be born and a time to die and then verse 4 says a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance and the new testament backs this up romans 12 15 rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep it's okay to weep when someone dies it's it's okay to be sad part of death is it's sad news this you're not going to see this person for a while on earth and here's one of the best confirmations that i've ever seen in the bible that it's okay to weep when someone dies it's the shortest verse in the bible john 11 35 it has a subject and a verb jesus wept if jesus weeps when someone dies is it okay but i want to show you why he wept i mean it's like everybody knows the shortest verse in the bible but did he really weep because lazarus died or was there another reason he wept let me show you the verse is leading up to verse 35 verse 33 therefore this is all about mary now when jesus saw her weeping when jesus saw her weeping and the jews who had come with her weeping he groaned in the spirit and was troubled i'll explain that phrase to you in a moment and he said where have you laid him they said to him lord come and see jesus wept i want you to remember the story you can read the whole chapter later it's john 11. whole chapter is about lazarus dying and being raised from the dead lazarus had died four days earlier and jesus didn't weep then he had to tell his disciples lazarus is dead he knew he was dead he didn't we he also knew he was going to raise him from the dead so it really doesn't make much sense that he would weep over lazar stein because he's going to go raise him from the dead why do we he wept because he had become a human and he saw what death did to other humans he wept because mary's heart was broken because martha's heart was broken he wept because roman says weep with those who weep he saw lazarus his family and friends and he saw how much they were hurting that's what caused him to weep because he saw they were hurting but not only did he weep something else happened that again this is a phrase that's very easy to miss if you don't go back to some definitions read that let me read again verse 33 therefore when jesus saw her weeping when he saw mary weeping and the jews who came with her weeping watch this he groaned in the spirit and was troubled he groaned in the spirit it was trouble okay that word grown in the groaned means to snort with anger that's what it means in the greek very unusual word to snort with anger i would imagine like someone going to just angry you know just just upset and then this word uh was troubled means agitated he was angry and agitated when he saw them weeping he wasn't angry and agitated that then he was angry and agitated at death it made him mad that death had entered the world through sin and death was doing this to his p his friends people he loved he loved we already told that he loved lazarus and he loved mary and he loved martha hey by the way they were angry and agitated also except they were angry and agitated at the wrong person you remember that they were angry and agitated at jesus verse 21 now martha said to jesus lord if you have been here my brother would not have died and then in verse 32 then when mary came where jesus was in psalms she fell down his face saying him lord if you had been here my brother would not have died i just want you to know it's all right to be angry and agitated death but don't be angry and agitated at the one who overcomes death be angry and agitated at the one who brought death into the world that's the one you need to be angry and agitated with and you got to be really careful with regrets that you would think that that when someone dies close to you that satan would leave you alone you'd think that satan had a little bit of respect he has none you would think that that he would think okay she you know she just lost her mother her mother was her best friend i'm gonna leave her alone for a little while no he's going to come and tell you what a bad daughter you were he's going to come and tell you how you weren't there for her at the end he's going to remind you you should have said this and you didn't say this i'm telling you don't get angry and agitated not only at god because a person died because there's a time to be born in the time to die but don't get angry and agitated at yourself it's very very easy the easiest time in the world to get angry and agitated is at death it's okay to be sad it's okay to be angry and agitated that satan just don't get angry and agitated at the devil i mean it's god or at what the devil's telling you about yourself um let me give you a funny story since i'm preaching on death i knew let me let me try to throw in something let's just let's just laugh for a minute okay all right so debbie's father he's with the lord now he's one of six brothers they're all with the lord now okay um debbie's grandfather was called d.o those were his initials for his first and middle name and but they just called him d.o well they got down after six boys you know and toward the end there they had twins and i i don't know they just kind of you know couldn't figure out you know what do we do and so they named them od and ob and i don't mean that you spell it out i mean the initials o d and ob they were asked the hospital what does it stand for they said nothing it's od and ob i don't know if they actually thought about d o and b o but b o stands for body odor so they i don't you know if they might have switched them nobody really knows where they came up with od and ob but they were twins and uh what was amazing is they actually fought alike as being uh twins uh but they uh didn't they didn't like to be told that they thought alike and they they they were they had uh they they had earth moving equipment they had some land neither one of them did that as a business but as they retired they would buy old earth moving equipment and build ponds and roads on their land and stuff like this and my cousin mark told me one time debbie's cousin i still call him my cousin he said i i sat out there one day with a glass lemonade and i watched od move a pile of dirt over here and i watched ob move it back and i watched that four times you know they just you know so but something happened to me show to show me how much they think alike at a memorial service so one of the brothers name was ronald weldon and i don't know why big name middle names are big in debbie's family you know we're all from east texas but you know people they call them you know grady wayne billy ray billy wayne billy bob bobby bob robbie you know all these everybody has a middle name and for some reason it was big to use everybody's middle name and so anyway well then they started calling him wil welding well as i came into the family being a pastor they would ask me to do a lot of the memorial services as people were going to pass away but but weldon had this pastor he was close to asked him to do it his wife asked him it didn't bother me at all obviously and then this pastor pulls out like a day before the service like he's got something but you know else to do and i think they felt a little embarrassed we can't ask robert now so they they went to the church where they were members but had not attended very much because of their age and and the associate pastor was the only one available well when he came to do the service he didn't do his due diligence you're supposed to get to know the family get to know the person and so he actually started he kept calling weldon by his first name ronald uh kept saying ronald and we all knew ronald and of course we were thinking no you didn't know ronald he's cause his name's not ronald but he kept saying ronald and then he wouldn't even use pronouns he wouldn't say he did this and he did he just kept saying ronald did and ronald did and ronald you know so then at the graveside he started it again and so i'm standing beside debbie on the other side is ob on the other side debbie and on the other side is od remember the two twins now so about halfway through this graveside of him being called by the wrong name ob slides over to me and he says to me when i die i don't care what anybody says you're preaching my service because i want to be called by the right name and then i say i'll take you okay i'll take care of it so he slides back over about three minutes later od comes over to me and says when i die i don't care what anybody tells you you're doing my service because i want to be called by the right name you talk about twins they said now the odd thing is the funny thing is that i did both their services but od you normally have two pastors and one reads the eulogy well the pastor was new at the church so he actually called him odd [Applause] all right so sometimes it's just sad it's just sad that's all there is to all right so part of death is is bad news part of death is sad news here's number three part of death is good news it's good news so remember i told you that jesus got angry and agitated so what do you do about it you know what he did about it he destroyed what was destroying us and he destroyed the person that brought death into the world let me read you the scriptures i love these scriptures hebrews 2 14 in as much then as the children have been have partakers of flesh and blood he himself that's jesus likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil and first john 3 8 for this purpose the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil jesus got so angry at lazarus's funeral of course this had been planned before the foundation of the world he decided i'm just going to destroy it i'm going to turn this bad news word into a good news word now i'm gonna i'm gonna it's amazing how god plans the the messages that doesn't mean they're perfect because i get involved and mess them up but god plans these things so remember i start this talking about the word gospel means good news so i want you to here's the last scripture that i'm wrapping up the whole series with about jesus destroying death and how it's good news second timothy 1 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior jesus christ who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the what the gospel which means good news through the good news uh this next saturday will be the one-year anniversary of my mother's death natural death spiritually she didn't die because jesus died for her she's a believer she closed her eyes on earth she opened her eyes in heaven it's that quick but it was september 4th a year ago for 18 days she was in the hospital before she passed away my father and i were talking my sister and i have talked about this she was the happiest we had seen her in years the last 18 days it was amazing she was telling us jokes she was telling us about you know funny stories she was telling stories we never heard she told us how she met you know the first time she ever saw my father she told us she was just happy i mean she was happy very happy she you know through some of some of some of the medicine she she had some hallucinations you know and um and then later she she had told me she said that she said there there i saw some snakes um crawling on the ceiling and then later she told me about that she and i had gone somewhere and i had a barn and she said what are you gonna do with all this stuff are you gonna sell it or you know what are you gonna do and and so i i didn't know what to say you know i don't know you know i was trying to figure it out and uh finally i said mom we didn't go you know to such and such city and i don't have a barn full of stuff and she said i'm probably saying some crazy things because of the medicine don't you think i said yeah i think you are i said you you even told me that there were snakes crawling with steel and she went like this other snakes are real but she was so happy she said to me one time when i was alone in the room with her and later i found out she said it to my sister when my sister was alone in the room she said i need to tell you something very important she said i want you to be okay with what's about to happen because i'm okay with it and then she told my dad just a few days before she passed away i've been waiting for this my whole life the only way you say things like that as if you know that jesus christ is your lord and your savior and you're going to heaven you know that it's good news [Music] i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and i just want to remind you that every week i ask you to ask the lord a question and the question is holy spirit what are you saying to me through this message and the lord might answer it for you in many ways some of you really have never given control of your life to jesus christ and you you actually know he's who he says he is you know he's god you know he's the son of god you know he died on a cross for your sins but you've just been going through a rebellious stage i'm asking you to repent and i'm that doesn't mean change the way you're living that means change the way you think about the way you live and let jesus do the changing for you some of you've lost someone and so during this message you might just need to kind of change your mind about the way you thought about it that it wasn't god who took the person but god received the person when death came sometimes we say god took someone but scripture doesn't support that he takes people it supports the fact that he receives people when their body wears out their physical metaphysical body so god didn't take some away from take someone away from you but he did receive that person maybe you need to change your mind about that i don't know what it is that the holy spirit wants to say to you but i just want you to let him say it to you he might say it to you today he might say it to you one day this week in your quiet time but let the holy spirit take what is bad news because as humans there is a time to die let the holy spirit take what is sad news because we're all going to go through when we lose someone that we love very much and let the holy spirit turn it into good news that jesus came so that we don't have to be eternally separated from him or from our loved ones lord i just pray you take the truth of your word today and cement this truth into our hearts and we want to tell you thank you for the gospel thank you for the good news that you came and gave your life for us so that by belief in you we can live forever in jesus name amen amen amen wasn't that a amazing message from pastor robert would you stand with me and as you do just stay in a reflective time and asking the holy spirit what he's saying and doing i'm aware when i look around the room that not one of us has not been affected by death but isn't it the kindness and goodness of god that he gives us the gift of eternal life that there is no end when we know christ isn't that good news it's good news as we go out today i just pray that your heart would be centered and set on on knowing that because we have that gift why wouldn't we want everyone to have that gift so i just asked would you ask the holy spirit to show you people in your life that you want to see on that side of eternity right well we're so glad that you've joined us today i have a couple of announcements we are starting our equip classes so if you know the mission of gateway you know we have four b's believe in jesus belong to family and then this one is become a follower and then build god's kingdom and the become a follower part is where the equip classes come in we have incredible classes at gateway wherever you are on your spiritual journey you can find a class that helps you grow in your spiritual walk so then you can begin to build god's kingdom so i want you to go out we have out in our main area before you're out there you can find some people who are going to be talking about the equip classes you can get more information also you can also go online to gatewaypeople.com equip and the great news is if you're not able to come to an equip class in person some of the classes are on zoom that's awesome or we have a library of a lot of classes that you can already watch but i want to encourage every single person to join into our equip classes because that is how we become a follower of christ that how we grow in that and then finally of course we want to connect with you if you are new here if you need to know like all the great things about gateway church please go out into our main lobby we have connect central across from the cafe but also you can text connect to 7 10 10. i just want to pray you out hasn't this been a great service it's an amazing thing when something like death can become good news right so it's amazing so let's pray together god we are so thankful that you created a way for us that death is not the end but that we get to spend eternity with you father i just am so grateful for your love and your life to us god in jesus name amen also i want to tell you i can't believe i forgot this we have altar ministers down here we want to um invite you to pray how did i forget that so as you're leaving that's i should have done that at the beginning please come down this is the thing there's many of you who've never made that commitment to christ would you make that commitment today and then also just come down for prayer there's this is a family of god where we just pray we pray that's what we do together so come on down to pray look at all the people coming it didn't even take me saying it you knew you wanted to come so go ahead and come that's right yep keep coming that's it good okay and all of you can be can be dismissed bless you [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus make our hearts your home god [Music] make yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he's coming on the clouds kings and kingdoms will bow down and every chain will break as broken hearts declare his praise for who can stop the lord almighty [Music] [Music] our god is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] him [Music] [Applause] so open up the gates make way before the king of [Music] kings is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] who can stop the lord almighty for who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] our god is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 40,400

Rating: 4.8606744 out of 5

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Id: YTl7BkNH3S0

Length: 77min 45sec (4665 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021