I am | I am the Gate

[Music] hey canvas my name is phil and i just want to let you know we are excited to have you with us this week we'll be getting started in just a few minutes wherever you're watching from today we trust you'll experience god in a life-changing way you may be chilling on your couch hanging out a campground vacationing or simply joining us online as a physical campus is far away from where you are no worries make yourself comfortable and grab something to drink we'll get started in a few minutes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hey if you're new to canvas we encourage you to check out our canvas.church website and our canvas church app you can also check out the link that's dropped in the comments section in the group chat this gives you links to give to the ministry of canvas places to serve information on canvas and access to our canvas team during our gathering you can chat with our online host you can express what you're feeling through emojis and you can join us in worship wherever you're watching from if you'd like prayer we have a prayer icon that you can click on and it'll send a prayer request to our team and we'll have that house pray with you right there [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we're about to get started to get the most out of our online experience we encourage you to engage with us today let's get ready for the gathering so [Music] good evening church let's stand together we have a great night plan tonight we got baptisms we got a great message from pastor kevin and we get to give god the glory he deserves come on let's put our hand together and let's get ready to worship [Music] put your hands together [Applause] come on [Music] as nations rise and fall [Music] kingdoms once strong now shaken we [Music] your trust in the name of jesus oh we trust the name of jesus we are the only [Music] [Applause] forevermore you are victorious you are the only king forever almighty god we lift you higher [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we bring our expectations our hope is anchored in your name the name of the name jesus jesus you are the only king forever almighty god we lift you higher you are the only king [Music] you are the only king forever almighty god will lift you higher you are the only king forever forevermore you are victorious [Music] you're victorious over our lives there's nothing hidden from you so we submit to you as king jesus we we give you our strongholds and you say you are lord over our lives jesus we exalt you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] the name of jesus from nature the name of jesus from each ranger you are the only king forever almighty god we lift you higher you are the only king forever [Music] you are the only king forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and lindsay and i don't know if you know but we're outside on the patio out here because we have baptisms coming up right after this gathering we are absolutely pumped we're excited about it it is so much fun the water is a nice warming i think it was 99 degrees so uh if you haven't been baptized and you've been thinking about it and you're like oh i forgot to sign up guess what you can still sign up just come right out to the lobby we got people out here we want to get you baptized we got a bunch of people that are doing it today so make sure you come out and get baptized we want to celebrate with you we want to celebrate with everyone as a shout out loud that jesus has made all things new in their life definitely it's a decision that you will not regret so if you're feeling that nudge get out here we want to celebrate with you well if you're new to canvas we want to say welcome we're so glad that you decided to join us we have a team at our info station in the main lobby who want to meet you get to know your name we even have a gift for you that's just our way of saying thanks for being with us tonight well part of our culture here at canvas is to fill out a connection card we believe that truth demands a response and one of the easiest ways to respond to the truth of god's word is through filling out that connection card so grab one from the seat back in front of you or scan that qr code on the feedback yeah and it's so much fun we appreciate everyone that fills that connection card we read those every single week so make sure you fill that out but what we're going to do right now is we're going to continue worship and we're about to sing a song and part way through the song we're going to sing god wake us up wake us up wake up our city wake us up and so let that be our prayer as we continue worship because may we be awakened to the people that you want us to invest in may we be awakened to the relationships that we need to men may we be awakened to the people that are all around us let's continue and worship now come and move in this place [Music] cause you see what you can do oh god wonders your power has no end the things you've done before in greater measure you will do again [Music] all things are possible [Music] is [Music] [Music] you've already [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] i will trust you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] people [Music] [Music] i can't oh [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you've already [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come awake in this [Music] [Applause] [Music] how do you guys know that god is moving in our day in our time amen he's moving every strong humble criminal and as we worship as we declare and lift up the name of jesus i gotta tell you that changes things in the atmosphere darkness flees chains hit the ground breakthrough happens when we declare that jesus is lord when we lift up his name he moves things change our god has already defeated sin and the grave and he's ready to move in this place right now come on let's receive what he's doing come and move [Music] we feel you moving in this place [Music] i feel it in this room holy spirit move cause when you have your way something has to break tear down every light you said the wrong thing right is when you have your way something has to break but something has to be [Music] [Music] is when you hide away you said the wrong thing right you see our hearts you can fix this jesus [Music] right now [Music] [Music] right [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] jesus come on let's ask him to just soften our hearts and open our eyes to what he wants to change in us [Music] i believe that you will do it right now [Music] right [Music] [Applause] [Music] believe [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] line [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] [Applause] what you will do is [Music] [Applause] [Music] something [Music] is [Music] cheers it's just soaking us breasts [Music] to peace you make [Music] jesus jesus you make the darkness [Music] you make the darkness [Music] you make the darkness [Music] jesus jesus you make the darkness jesus is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus jesus [Music] is is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] my canvas i i hope you as we're singing those songs and we're proclaiming those words i hope you think about what you're proclaiming the powerful name of jesus but when we sing those songs let the truth of what you're singing increase your faith empower you to sing even bolder that there's no fear in the name of jesus that's why we're in the middle of a series called i am we're talking about the name of jesus and what he proclaims to be in fact the very first verse that i'm gonna read today talks about the power in the name of jesus so here's what i want us to do there's power in that name there's healing in that name there's freedom in that name and as i pray they ask the lord to open our ears and open our hearts and to touch our feet to go and to live out that which we're going to talk about while i'm praying over these just next 30 seconds if there's something in your life that you need jesus to touch you need jesus to heal you need jesus to strengthen i just want you to whisper loud enough you can hear yourself whisper it jesus and he knows exactly what you're talking about you just do that when i'm praying so father in this place of worship we acknowledge that you are the way the truth and the life and in this moment we whisper the name of jesus because at the name of jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are lord at the name of jesus fear must leave in the name of jesus the sick are healed in the name of jesus the hopeless find hope and so father i pray that as we whisper that as we pray that as we lift up your son's name to you now may we have ears to hear you speak back to us may our hearts be open to hear you speak to us that you would look inside and find what we need to know and then give us feet to chase after the name of jesus i pray and everybody said in the name of jesus amen hey man go ahead and have a seat everybody it is great to be back i have been traveling all over i think in the last three weeks um i've spent like three nights in my own bed i've been traveling been in florida for a while we did a great a conference down in florida i went on a big long jeep drive though i didn't get to take my jeep because it was in the shop i had to have a chevy pull it to the shop for me one of the lowest moments of my life ever but that's getting fixed and we've just been all over the place i've been in spokane i went on a i went on the the worst backpacking trip of my life you know my brothers and i do an adventure every year together and we my brother picked a hike this year it was the hardest hike i've ever been on and i stared death in the face i'm going to talk a little bit about that next week because i'm just going to need the therapy process of it and you're going to be there to help me and so and that's next week's message um but um one of the things i have done and and i don't know if you've been doing what i've been doing but i've been able to catch canvas the last three weeks online and we're in the middle of the i am series this is week four this is my first time though preaching in this series we've had three other communicators and i just got to tell you i am so blessed um personally by the last three weeks of from jared and stephen and wes weston they do a great job communicating uh canvas we're blessed blessed best blessed by these communicators but i've been watching them online and i'm going to tell you if you've been watching online or if you've been sitting here if you're a little bit like me just a little you have been completely distracted by the words on the screen behind me like the minute the preaching gets boring you're trying to find words and i've found a whole bunch of them and i'm coming back here to show this to you like okay you raise your hand this is just a moment of honesty here but like if you're watching online it cuts off right here so the entire time i've just saw the word egg the entire time someone's raise your hand if you saw the word egg yeah and then and then i'm rica there's certain parts where they're getting serious i see the word whoa okay and then i'm like whoa and then the word porn shows up and i'm like oh my goodness woe porn you know and then there's the name pat where did i see the name pat i'm like oh pat woe to pat he's watching porn i mean my that's not true if your name's pat don't feel guilty unless you should and um and so my whole brain this whole time right while people is preaching i'm sitting here looking at these words and then some of you that are not as dignified as i am what you're doing is is you see you see cuss words oh my goodness how many of you saw that raise your hand yep going to hell you are okay hilarious we're all sitting here learning about the great i am but no one's listening we're all trying to find words now that's what you're all doing no one's even looking at me right now you're like what other words what other words are there's a whole bunch there's the word read upside down going up there there's the word ice ice baby okay just ice but that's where my mind went well stop focusing on that we're gonna jump right here i i want to i want to jump into our key verse for the series of this i am series while you're looking for words and here's some words that you should be looking at and it says this but these are written so that you may continue to believe we're talking about the i am statements that jesus made and he's saying hey these words are written these statements are that you will continue to believe that jesus is the messiah the son of god and that by believing in them when we when we talk about what we're going to talk about today another statement that jesus says i am when we believe in the truth of what we're talking about today you will have life we're not we're not preaching something shallow today we're we're preaching something that's going to bring life in fact we're going to use the word an abundant or satisfying life why by the power of his what and his name is what in the name of jesus that's what we're preaching about that gives us life this this is the heart of this series the heart of this series is to discover who jesus is why is there power in this name why is why is he so important and my hope and my prayer is is that you discover the reality of who he is that he would make himself known to you as we walk through this text we're going to be in john chapter 10 that the truth of it would jump off of the words and and into your hearts not that you would here's not my heart am i i don't want you just to know the facts of jesus i don't want you just to know the intellectual um reasoning of jesus i want you to know him as your friend i want you to know i want you to know him as your lord i want you to know him as your savior and so jesus in john chapter 10 in fact two weeks ago we were in john chapter 10 um and and jesus is explaining to the crowd that was around him who he was and he was trying to get them to understand who he was declaring himself to be so that they would believe in him and experience true life and in john chapter 10 verses 1 he begins to explain who he is and here's what he says in john chapter 10 verse 1 he goes i tell you the truth anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief or a robber but the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep let me just explain this right here when you read that we'll come back to this in a second you know when i was growing up i would always when i was probably about eight i would always climb through the window of my of my bedroom it was it was close enough that i could just jump in and i saved a lot of time from walking all the way down it ticked off my parents they're like why don't you use the door you're scuffing up the window seal you're not supposed to go through the window use the door that's why we have them well here's here's jesus talking the same thing it sounds like my parents here's what he's saying he goes hey if if anybody's coming over the wall of the sheep pen it's a thief or a robber they're they're up to mischief they're up to something because otherwise you use the gate and then he goes on and he says this going on to the next part the gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out and after he has gathered his own flock he walks ahead of them and they follow him why because they know his voice and going on there it says as we continue on or is that the last one they won't follow a stranger they will run from him because they don't know his voice have you ever had a conversation with somebody and they're sitting there talking to you and you're really trying to understand what they're saying and when they get all done you have no idea what they just said that's often how my conversations go with my wife and i'll be just like what my daughter right now is in the process of she's an emerging author she's right she's she's she's writing all of these um fantasy books she's very into describing these worlds and how they work and she draws maps and she has these characters she develops and she wants to tell me all about them and so we'll be sitting there and we'll be having a conversation and she'll be telling me about this world that's all in her mind and she's created it and and this person is fighting with this person and she's going on i'm just listening and and then she'll ask me a question about everything she just told me and i'll say honey i have no idea what you're talking about and i tried to listen i tried to understand but i just don't get it the reason i say that is because this is exactly how the people felt when jesus told them what i just read you they were like uh what gay sheepfold keeper following i mean we get the shepherd what are you talking that's what's going on you see it in verse six because in verse six it says exactly that check out verse 6 it says this those who heard jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant so he explained it to them and that's where the message is going to go what did we just read and jesus starts over and says the same thing listen i'm telling you the truth jesus and when he gets ready to explain verses one through five he's about to blow their mind in a very powerful way and i want you to hear the truth of of what jesus is about to say to the people now it's not it it's not like too hard to grasp in fact you might have heard that first part and you connected some of the dots we we can see it's easy to see that jesus is the shepherd there and jesus the shepherd if you if you know the voice of jesus um you recognize it if you recognize the the sheep recognize the voice because why why would the sheep recognize the voice of the shepherd because they have a familiarity with the shepherd the sheep recognize the voice and they follow the voice of the shepherd because they've spent lots of time together there's there's relationship there there's familiarity there there's understanding there in fact um two weeks ago wes preached on on verse 11 of john chapter 10 where jesus in explaining what i just read says i am the good shepherd it's really easy to capture that jesus is the shepherd in this illustration and that if you have relationship with jesus you're gonna know his voice that's easy to come to now often what would happen in this in this time when they would take care of sheep and the shepherd would take care of the of the sheep after they had grazed all day long after they had eaten at nighttime they would bring all this all the sheep to a pen and sometimes it would be a cave or sometimes it would just be a rock wall but what they would do is they would put them in this protective place and then there would be a gate and that each sheep would go through the gate and the shepherd would look at each sheep as he goes in you can see an illustration of this where they were counting the sheep and they counted only 99 sheep and one was missing that's the parable of the lost sheep because that made sense because it was customary that the shepherd would check out every sheep as it would come through the gate into that place of safety in the pen and and what they would do is he would he would look at the gate in fact i have a gate right here that will that will be sort of a model for this that the shepherd would would get the gate open here and then the sheep would line up and they would make their way and then the shepherd would look at each sheep and he would examine the sheep and if the sheep needed water or the sheep didn't need needed more food he would make sure that that sheep before it went into the pen before when into the place of safety was taken care of he would also look at their health if there was a wound on the sheep maybe the sheep when it was out in the pasture eating had had gotten caught in a thorn or rubbed his leg and bleeding or there was a problem he would take oil and he would dump oil on that sheep on the wound to help be a salve to that wound in fact you might even recognize that concept through psalms chapter 23 where jesus where the the author there david says the lord is my what shepherd and in in verse 5 says he anoints my head with oil there is this process that as the as the sheep would come in they would examine them and make sure that they were they were healthy they were good they they were fine and then they would go through and they would go through the gate and then they would be secure behind the gate you would close it and then nothing was going to be able to get in or go around and then there would be the rock walls on each side or if it was a cave this became the place of safety inside of that so to come to the conclusion of what we just read verses one through five that jesus is the good shepherd's the right conclusion but here's the thing that i want you to realize it's not the only conclusion there was more that jesus was saying he was saying that he's much more than just the good shepherd even though that is what he was saying because in the very next part after he says i tell you the truth as he gets ready to explain this story this concept to all those that were listening to him and the idea that i want you to get today is this right here he says i am the gate for the sheep you're like what see that the people are listening and they're like you're the you're wood you're like you're you're you're you're you're the gate it's a powerful statement i want us to see i am the gay because often how we interpret this is i am the gate is that he's the answer to heaven that's not what he's saying he's not saying i'm the gate to heaven he's actually saying something much more profounded and much more deeper see here here's the key part the shepherd when they were out in the field taking care of the sheep when they would find that rock place to hide the sheep in the shepherd would lay down in front of the opening of the cave and the shepherd became the gate nobody could go in and nobody could go out of that place jesus is saying i am not only the shepherd i am the gate the shepherd would lay down right in front of the way that means the sheep couldn't leave without stepping on the shepherd and when they would step on it the shepherd would realize it and he'd kick the sheep back in well unless he was peter then he just rubbed the sheep back in he was making sure the sheep goes in and he would he would prevent the animals wild animals from attacking or thieves or robbers from coming in to steal or to kill the sheep because the rock wall would prevent them from climbing over they'd have to go through the gate and what jesus is saying here is i am the gate i'm the protector i keep you safe i keep you from harm what jesus is saying when he says i am the gate he's saying i am your protector i keep you safe in fact we see that in the very next verse as jesus continues to explain it because he really doesn't want to hide this from us he wants us to know this because if we know this it deeply affects the way we live our life watch this next part here's what he says in the next verse all who come before me were thieves and robbers all who came before me were thieves and robbers but the true sheep did not listen to them yes he re-emphasizes this i am the gate those who come in through me will be saved they will come and go freely and will find good pastors now the thieves and the robbers that jesus is talking about at this time is probably the pharisees of the time it's also false messiahs that had come there were many false messiahs that came before jesus that would declare that they had the answer to eternal life the only problem is when you would follow them you'd find yourself in bondage you find yourself what you thought would lead to freedom in the very opposite of it in captivity of their ways and of their trials in fact that's where a lot of the pharisees were at you follow the pharisees teaching you found yourself in captivity of rules and a religion that was a heavy weight upon you and jesus is saying no no no no those were thieves and they were robbers they they stole your freedom and they stole your joy and they they stole your your your joy and turned it into despair they promised freedom but they gave you bondage and so what jesus says is yes i am the gate those who come in through me will be saved and then there's this interesting phrase right here and they will come and go freely and you will find good pastors jesus is saying i am the gate i am the way of protection i am the way of salvation and then he makes this powerful statement i want to spend most of the rest of my time looking at this he says they will come and go freely because here's what jesus is saying at this and he's speaking this very same concept to us today if you want to know jesus the one that makes fear flee the the one that causes mountains to be moved the the name of jesus that causes the sick to be healed if you really want to lean into this spot because here's what he's saying here's who jesus is he he provides for them he provides for them he leads them as as the gate he's the one that leads them out to the pasture so that they can be fed and that they can have water and they can spend the day grazing this is this is jesus i am the gate they pass through me freely to go and and eat and live life and then and then not only does he provide for them we could use the term jehovah jireh the god that provides but then he brings them in at night through the gate as as as he is the gay so through him as he looks and studies and makes sure they're healthy and then he protects them he provides them who would not want a god that will will take care of you and then at the same time protect you he he's he's not just a god that's a a distance he's not a god that's a far away when he says i am the gay he is right here in this world with us walking with us protecting us guiding us he shows us he shows us when danger could become one of the concepts that i really like about jesus being the gay is is i love that when when we come through this and he makes sure that we're we're good we make sure that we're we're safe he's also looking to see if there's any thistles maybe that we would have picked up you know sometimes we pick up thistles in life when maybe it's a little bit of bitterness that has grabbed into our heart because someone did something to us that we don't like or somebody said something to us and that that thought is just continuing to spin in our mind jesus is saying i am the gate and so as you go through the gate into his name and believing in who he is in relationship with him he's he's examining you and he's pointing out things in your life because he loves you and he's going ooh ooh you got a thistle in your do she have paws or hooves see i knew you were from montana you would know yeah so he looks at their claws oh no their paws and and they're hoofs these are morphed sheep that i'm talking about okay they're from the movie walking dead okay so they they're they're zombie sheep no he he he sees he sees their the thistle in their hooves he sees the bitterness in your heart and he goes that needs to be dealt with that's not going to be good for you tomorrow that's not going to be good for you in the long run that's going to affect your relationship that's the gate he looks over us in fact one of the good things that we could do is maybe determine somewhere in your day where your gate moment is where you say lord examine my day that's a good healthy practice maybe it's when it's driving home from work it's your gate moment where you're just saying jesus will you look at my life well anything that you need to anoint oil on anything that's going to affect my day tomorrow that that i might have drifted that i might not even know that i picked up that's going to be effective where's your gate moment maybe it's when you lay down at bed at night and before you fall asleep before you turn on that cpap machine you just take a moment they got here any anyway in me that needs to be examined and jesus sort of whispers to you i am the gate and then he speaks to you out of relationship why because he's for you he's the gate to protect you and then he goes on to verse 10. verse 10 is fascinating because it says this the thief's purpose listen to the contrast of these two the thief's purpose is to steal and to kill and destroy i'm going to talk about the thief here in just a second the thief's purpose this is satan a better term i think you could use is this is the adversary satan and his demons they have one purpose and you are the attention of their purpose it's not to steal your money and it's not to destroy your home it's to steal and kill and destroy you that's the demon's purpose that's the adversary's purpose you know that we were in a battle and then and you're the target of the battle satan wants to destroy you and then you contrast that with jesus and this is what he's saying to all those people that are trying to understand who he is he goes my purpose jesus's purpose for your life is to give them a rich to give you a rich and satisfying life i want to break this concept down can i tell you a little bit about your adversary my adversary our adversary hates you he hates that you're here right now he hates that you're watching online everything about you is disgusting why because you're created in the image of god you are the term imago dei you are in the image of god satan hates that you're on the image of god you know sometimes i think we can think that there's like two teams there's satan teams and there's god's team and that's false thinking do you know that satan would never even want you on his team why because you're the imago day every time he would see you he would realize that's what he's not and he hates everything you are he doesn't even want you on his team you know what he wants to do he wants to use you to destroy you and destroy as many people around you as he possibly can why he loves it when you're bitter and it just leaks out of every pore why loves it when we when we do things that we shouldn't do that hurt our body and hurt our hurt ourselves like it destroys the immogle day the image of god say loves to destroy us and he's brilliant satan ain't stupid he's been studying humanity for years and years and years and years this is my personal opinion he can 99 of the time guess what you're gonna do next it's called human nature it doesn't even have to read your mind it's human nature so he sits there and he's cunning we gotta understand his purpose because we're in this battle like it or not it's happening and you're like well i don't like it that's fine it's happening i don't believe it okay it's still happening i'm not gonna listen to it okay this is the world we live in satan wants to destroy you make you miserable and he's smart you know what i think satan's never going to do he's never going to put like a big sin in front of you so like when you walk and be like oh that's horrible he's not going to do that he's going to put something that's beautiful in front of you that looks good that every angle you look at it is like good okay i'm not talking about like a person there if you're just well maybe it is but you look at what is it there's a little bit of twisted something in the center and he goes oh enjoy enjoy enjoy and so you enjoy and he's like he's like oh the other thing you gotta know about your adversary he's patient so he just sits there and waits come on enjoy it like if i can get you from here to here you're on your way to here and here's where i destroy you and then he goes you know what you're pretty comfortable doing this now let's add a little bit more right here you ever heard of the frog in the boiling pot gets warmer and warmer satan's the master of that he just gets you one little step oh it's all good and great one little step it's all good and great one little step it's all good and great one little that's going wonderful it's all good and great why do i hate everybody it's going here why do i feel all alone and life is so terrible sorry way back here why because he's cunning he puts traps in front of us that are hard to see he's smart and he knows human nature what he does he likes to keeps us distracted let's just talk about his his ways so we know what we're battling against saying less that keeps us distracted if i if i can get you just distracted of the things that are going on in your life you're just going to be running here and there and here and there and here and there trying to put out all these fires in your life you're gonna have no time to even have a relationship with god let alone dream of what your life could be so what happens is you just live in this dysfunction of being distracted by all the horrible things that are going on in your life and so you make this functional decision after dysfunctional system or or decision and here's what we do know dysfunction leads to what dysfunction which produces what this fun and when you're in that cycle satan doesn't even have to work with you he just sits back and goes go for it set the cruise control because we just get stuck in this cycle of dysfunction and the adversary is like you know i'm going to come back to you later you're great at screwing up your own life i'm gonna go screw up somebody else's he's an idiot because he hates you and he hates me and he wants to destroy us and then we're stuck in this cycle of dysfunction all of you ever been there but i certainly have and you're stuck in this cycle of dysfunction and then you're like i'm just a horrible person i deserve to be here mission accomplished because he knows in that process you'll just destroy your life and in the process of destroying your life you'll destroy other lives around you and then he keeps you worried or anxious it keeps you worrying about all these things if i can get you thinking about what about what about what about what about what about what about you're not thinking about jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus let your fears see satan's satan's plan is that your fears be bigger than your prayers let your fears be bigger than your jesus and when your fears are bigger than your jesus he can just sit back and watch the show and one of the best strategies is he loves he loves when we compare he loves when we compare comparing is the greatest peace dealer there is now what does comparing sound like satan whispers in our ear it's not fair that's his favorite phrase it's not fair because the minute you realize it's not fair you're offended and then you start thinking about yourself and woe is me and you've just become the center of your own life jesus get out of the throne there i am it's not fair that's satan's strategy a satan's strategy and again i'm going to come back to his purpose because i want you to hear his purpose is to steal your life to kill your life and to destroy as many people along the way as you can aren't you glad you came to church today i think we need to know who our adversary is but then there's another side of it my purpose jesus says now it starts to get good this is why you get excited about jesus see when you look at satan you're like dude bummer but when you start talking about jesus and you realize that this life is for you he goes my purpose has come so that you can have a rich and satisfying life i like that phrase now we hear rich and we're like come on if that was true i love jesus where's the doe okay i know my bigger guy he's not talking about rich in finances and you know there are some pastors that have taken that verse completely out of context i don't know if you've ever seen them on tv i throw things at them people write checks to them don't ever do that they're like if you give money you give money to jesus you're going to be rich that's a mockery of god and that's shameful and that that is that is wrong also what we do though is satan's strategy that was the swing the pendulum and so we hear this this idea of give give give give give and you'll be rich rich and it's an extreme they take to a truth and they move it to an extreme satan loves to move in extremes so what we do is we swing the pendulum all the way the other way well forget the church i'm never given a dime to the church because you're a bunch of thieves and that is just as wrong that is just as much of a mockery that is just as much as shameful because now you're not honoring god with your finances you're just as guilty over here as you are over here we what we do though it's human we just swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and then what we want to do is we want to say god who are you and he's saying i am the gate what do you mean by i am the gate he goes if you follow me if you come into me if you live my ways then i will give you a rich and satisfying life and by rich he means relationship there is something so powerful about a rich relationship with jesus you've heard me say this of many many times i'm gonna i'm gonna say it again and that is this i believe that believers in jesus should be the most confident people on the planet we should we should be the most confident people on the planet in fact i'm not i'm going to double down here when you spend time with god when you spend time with the with the shepherd when you spend time with the gate you become confident because he takes care of you out here and he protects you in here and you become confident because you know he is with you in fact here here's a here's something i don't get in my mind and that is insecure christianity it's an oxymoron those two words cannot go together you can't be an insecure christian there's something wrong with your faith if you're an insecure christian let me break it down a little bit because some of you are like hello i got some insecurities now let me talk about it maybe you're a brand new believer and you're just like i'm just trying to figure this thing out i'm insecure about even the bible like where do you start i get that i get that just don't stay there start spending time with god yeah we get why some of you who are believers in jesus like well i'm still trying to earn my forgiveness that's just going to lead to insecurity i i i just some of us were like you know what i'm going in the pen i ain't ever coming out i'm staying in here because he's my protector and he says go into all the world and you're like shut up i'm staying no i'm just going to be a little christian in my own little world right here praise the lord insecurity and he's like no no it's time to go feed i don't want jesus to inspect me i'm staying out here there's no way i'm going through that gate i don't want him to know what's going on in my heart he already knows he just wants to tell you if you let him i think people with insecurities that dominate their life hear me they allow their insecurities and this is where it's an oxymoron because we're always going to struggle with insecurities we're human we have to navigate those but check this out when we allow our insecurities to have a greater voice in our life than jesus's declarations we have a problem the czech engine light has gone on in our hearts our faith has an engine problem when we allow our insecurities to have a greater louder voice than jesus's declarations over our life check engine light is on in your heart there's a place for your faith to grow when when you're forgiven but you're still wallowing in your past check engine light is on your faith needs to grow when when when you're when you're when jesus declares that you're a child of god but you still feel like an outsider of the family of god insecurity check engine light is on when when jesus declares that you are more than a conqueror but you walk around in life like you're a victim and defeated it's an insecurity check engine light is on when jesus declares i am with you and yet you feel so alone and abandoned by god check engine light is on because you're allowing your insecurities to have a louder voice than jesus's declarations over you and hear these what he says that you are forgiven in the name of jesus when you confess you are my child you are more than a conqueror and i am with you and how do you handle this how do you get your confidence to grow you spend time with jesus i'm going to tell you something canvas church we need to spend more time with jesus we need to spend more time with jesus i find too many insecure christians we got to spend time with jesus because the more time you spend with jesus the more you begin to believe the declarations over your life that he's made how do you do that you spend time worshiping you spend time in his bible reading it you spend time just sitting listening to it there's a theme that we've been preaching throughout this year and here's what it is spend time with jesus there's something powerful about presence we need to find ourselves in the presence of god or we'll fall victim to the schemes of satan and he's coming after us i want to be in the presence of god i want to recognize his voice because i want to be a sheep so when he says go i follow him we're not playing a game the matter that we're in the middle of is life and death eternal life and eternal death and jesus is declaring to you with his arms open wide i am the gate come to me spend time with me and i will lay in front of you and i will protect you and i will warn you and i will comfort you and when you love me i will feed you i will take you out and my relationship with you will be rich and not only will it be rich it will be satisfaction it will be satisfying my purpose my purpose is to give you a rich and satisfying life and i get ready to close with this satisfaction and back in psalms 23 it says the lord is my shepherd i shall not want wes did so well in communicating that you know what the word satisfying means what is what does satisfying even mean here's what the greek says it's beyond what you can imagine in fact that the liberal translation it's more than more than think about that's what that's what satisfaction means it it is beyond what you could ever even think or imagine it's it's more than more than that's the literal translation when you come to jesus and you live all the way in with him and he is your gate and he is your shepherd and you believe him in the i am statements here's what he's saying when you spend time with me you will have a rich relationship with me and it will be more than you even think it's going to be it's going to be more than more than and you will find peace and joy not something you talk about but something you experience and know there's a great video of a individual that knew jesus and her son knew jesus and they walked in obedience to what jesus asked them to do and the joy that it came with it let's watch this video hi i am dawn navarro and i've been coming to canvas for almost eight years i was raised in a christian family so i kind of knew god from the get-go when i got baptized recently here at the church i had um it was my second time i had gotten baptized before and i was in a really dark place at the time actually when i did get baptized but i did it i i'm like okay god you know this is what we need to do you know i need to be baptized i need to be in the word more and so my son who's been wanting to be baptized for a long time sebastian he's always talked to me as like mom i want to get baptized but i can't get up in front of that church and i'm like whenever you're ready i'll go with you i i'm ready to do it again anyway i felt my heart i needed to do it anyway but i thought i'll be there with my son and we can do it together and i would be there to support him this easter we were there and he happened to meet some friends that were getting baptized and i thought oh my goodness that that little nudge you know that pastor kevin always speaks up you know you get that nudge let's do this you know get up and do it listen to what god's saying and so i just grabbed my phone and i texted him and he was sitting up with his friend and of course his place was filled and i'm like i'm going to say it do you want to go are you ready you want to get baptized and so all of a sudden my phone just hold my phone and it vibrates and i look down he's like let's do it and i just started crying and i'm like handed my phone to my friend i'm like can you video this i'm going to go get baptized with my son and then i'm running out of the door in the corridor and he's standing right there and i just grabbed him and hugged him and i'm like this is happening [Music] come on isn't that awesome [Applause] there's nothing there's nothing like a relationship with jesus when you choose to follow and do what he asks you to do there's a connection card in front of you take it out we're gonna take a moment to fill this out then we're gonna sing a worship song and then we're gonna make our way right outside and um we have seven people that are gonna get ready to get baptized tonight um it might be even more than seven and maybe you maybe you need to do that maybe you're sitting in the pen back here and the gate just turned to you and said uh it's your turn to get baptized and you're like i'm staying in here no not tonight this is your moment this is when your faith has actually because if your faith has no action you have no faith maybe this is the moment where you said okay i'm not playing a game here i go [Music] it's freaky you just stepped on the gate come on but you walk in a rich relationship and it's gonna be more than more than it's gonna be beyond what you ever imagined maybe you're here and you've never given your life to jesus that's the first place to start maybe mark that box right there i choose to follow jesus i'm falling for the ways of satan but i want a name i want the name of jesus over my life that every knee bows to that satan has to flee from maybe it's the second one here i don't recognize god's voice it's time to spend time maybe it's the third one i live under the guilt of shame and not the joy of freedom insecurities are stealing you and you need to allow god's declarations to be louder than your insecurities and then lastly have a life that's rich and have a life that's satisfying would you stand with me let's pray father we declare that what we've just heard is true because your word is true and the truth sets people free and so father i thank you that you sent jesus to be the gate to point out areas in our life we need to come over to give us declarations so that are there they can trump our insecurities and that we would walk in obedience to what the shepherd's voice says and one of those areas is baptism and so father i pray that we would not be people who listen and walk away but we will be people who listen to the shepherd's voice and we do what the shepherd says in every area of our life i pray in jesus name amen hey we're going to sing a worship song if you need to get baptized and it's something you haven't done since you made a decision to follow jesus this is your moment just walk while we're singing just walk right out those doors well i mean we have people ready to help you you go right out these doors there's a big sign that says baptism we have we have shorts for you shirt for you underwear for you we got it all we might even have a bra okay we're set don't don't let don't let something stupid stop you from doing what god wants you to do come on let's worship him [Music] you [Music] no [Music] oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] always tell me [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] here's what i love as we get ready to go out and watch people declare the name of jesus as their lord as their savior and as their friend the enemy might be powerful but greater is he that lives in you that he that lives in the world in the name of jesus we can be victorious and i want you to know him and i want you to love him and i want you to allow him to be the gate in your life to protect you to lead you to guide you and it will lead to a rich and satisfying life let's go celebrate everybody out there if you're watching online we're going to take a pause and then come right back so stick with us you'll see the baptisms thanks everyone for coming [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] do not have this either [Music] [Music] [Music] all right whoa sorry i didn't mean to make everyone go death that's my fault i kept telling them turn me up and then i'm too loud now come on in come on over outside actually we got lots of room over here get guys get in closer we got lots of room come on up come on up we want to feel the energy here come on up get close here you won't get too wet i promise hold on a second if you're online we're going to get started with baptisms here in a second we're not quite ready yet we're going to let everyone get in here come on in guys we got plenty of room over here if you can see my tall arms on our long arms we're over here come on over [Music] come on up come on up [Music] [Music] all right we are looks like we got everyone here we're about to get started you guys excited to see people get baptized oh [Music] you know what i almost believed you are you guys excited to see people get baptized there we go there we go we are pumped we have before tonight we had seven and now we have nine let's give it up we got nine people two people decided this evening that it was time to go public with their face so we're gonna start out let's give it up for jess come on in jess let's give it up for jesse's gonna get baptized wow all right there we go all right up next we have samantha let's give it up for samantha [Music] [Music] [Music] all [Music] right congratulations samantha all right let's get we have a whole entire family getting baptized so we're going to give up we're going to start with cynthia come on cynthia come on up [Music] is a mom leading by example we've got family coming in after her we're so excited let's give it up one more time for cynthia [Music] whoa all right [Music] up next we have casey getting in the tank let's give it up for casey [Music] casey's gonna have his wife alyssa and then their kids cooper and lila coming in so let's give it up for the whole family absolutely incredible casey and alyssa we're so proud of you guys doing this with your family we're gonna start with casey first and then we'll go from there [Music] that's awesome [Music] all right alyssa [Music] all right we got cooper next cooper's rocking this fresh haircut it looks like [Music] all right way to go cooper [Music] and here's lila look at all that smile right there let's give it up for lila [Music] all right we'll give them a second here as the family clears out [Music] all right well we have liz getting in the tank and she's following that nudge that she felt today so let's give it up for liz [Music] all right [Music] all right liz way to go [Music] all right liz we're so proud of you let's give it up one more time for liz [Music] all right and our last one of the night emily let's hear it for emily [Music] all right congrats liz well everyone thank you so much for all of you that are here on castle thanks for coming and celebrating with us so many people have gone public with their faith if you want to get baptized we have baptisms happening on saturday and sunday as well so i know some of you are feeling that nudge still you need to follow that nudge and get signed up but other than that we got gathering saturday and sunday online we love you guys and you guys have a great night we'll see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Canvas Church

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Id: -Sks75UMgok

Length: 88min 53sec (5333 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021