Nick Hall | FIRST 2018

let me just say what an honor it is to be here tonight anybody excited to be here tonight come on yes we're here we're together man we're putting first things first they man man I can't think of a better place to be right now than in church crying out to God praying saying God would you revive us would you revive us man I'm so thankful for pastor Robert I'm so thankful for this family for this church I'm on the road right now on a nationwide tour actually with a daughter of this church I'm out with carry job and Cody Carnes and we're going all over the country we had about 30,000 young people this weekend come out at different events we were in Grand Rapids Michigan Louisville Kentucky and Charleston West Virginia and we had over 4,000 young people respond to the gospel this weekend does anybody excited about that I think that's good news that's not fake news that's good news now might I tell you in the 1970s there was a movement kind of an uprising going on and a lot of people felt like it was the end of Christianity as we know it it was the time of drugs sex and rock and roll and yet in the midst of that age in the midst of that era there was kind of an undercurrent of hope light was breaking into the darkness and a lot of these hippy started to get saved they called themselves the Jesus people movement any Jesus people in the house tonight all right I see you you look groovy it's good man and these Jesus people started getting saved left and right in fact there's stories of people coming home from work on the west coast where this whole thing was kind of really exploding but people would come home from work and in their backyard where there was a swimming pool bunch of hippies would be in there swimming and they would say what is going on they're about to call the cops but they didn't they said what are you doing and they said you know what man we just got saved and gots moving in our lives we read in our Bibles we should get baptized we saw you had a pool so we found c'mon now in the 1970s the largest gathering of the Jesus people movement happened right here in dallas-fort worth in 1972 two giants of the past era Billy Graham and bill bright the two big bills as I like to call them they came together and said now neither of us are big enough to do it alone but what if we rallied the church in America to come behind the next generation and so they booked out the Cotton Bowl and a hundred thousand young people gathered to be trained and equipped to reach a nation for Jesus now some of those young people they came all the way from North Dakota now you know God is moving in Texas when people from North Dakota come now I got to tell you that because I'm from North Dakota I know it's a common vacation spot for y'all so I want you to try to pay attention right now okay now North Dakota's a rural state six hundred thousand people in our entire state but you see this call for revival in a Jesus people movement was so loud and so compelling that there was a Bible Camp Director in Western North Dakota that got all fired up and he said I got this beat-up old Bible Camp bus and I'm gonna go around and flyer every country church I can find and I'm gonna convince moms and dads to let their kids come with me to Dallas Texas to be a part of this revival these young people came to Texas but let me tell you the biggest thing that happened during that gathering was not what happened at the gathering it was what happened after the gathering just as I would say the greatest thing that's happening at the first conference is not the first conference it's what's going to happen after the first conference you see some of those young people they went back to North Dakota on fire for Jesus they said man we're going to take the gospel to our schools we're going to take the gospel to our workplaces we are going to shake North Dakota with the gospel some of these students were from University of North Dakota they said we're gonna pray on something big we're gonna be bold we're gonna go for it they said we're gonna book out the biggest venue on campus sits about 2,000 people it'd be like Jerry World in North Dakota they booked this thing and they said we're gonna bring in the best speaker we know our favorite speaker from Expo 70 to a guy by the name of Josh McDowell they booked it out Josh came they saturated the campus they invited everybody the venue was packed and God moved students came forward lives were changed why that story is so meaningful to me is because my dad came to that event not Expo 72 know he was out drinking but as a result of what happened there that came back home to North Dakota my dad walked forward surrendered his life to Christ and my family has forever been changed as a result now I'm here tonight because we need a fresh movement of God in our day we need a fresh outpouring of boldness in our day pastor Robert mentioned together 2016 we got a picture hundreds of thousands of young people came on the National Mall now let me just tell you real quick the authorities they did not believe young people were gonna come you know why because they didn't believe that there's young people in America that loved Jesus and want to follow Jesus not only that but they didn't believe they were going to come because the hotel rooms weren't booked and the airplanes weren't booked and we said listen you don't quite understand young people they're not coming by plane and there's certainly not booking money or $300 hotel rooms if they are in a hotel room there's 16 of them staying in that room but most of them are coming by Honda Civic and they're gonna be sleeping all night on that National Mall but let me tell you they set an infrastructure for a hundred thousand people on the National Mall they fenced it in come lili gave us only two entrances man it was set up to fail from the beginning they were like there's no hope for this generation but you know what happened when we opened the gates at 9:00 a.m. over a hundred thousand young people poured in right away their infrastructure was blown at 9:00 a.m. they said we don't know what to do we better open up more gates now by the time it got to be two three four hundreds of thousands had come and they actually shut it down they shut it down like five hours early now they said it was because of the heat but man it was five degrees above average in Washington DC now young people have this thing he meant we always say as young people if the cops come and shut down your party that's a good party so I like to tell everybody that the young people in America know how to throw a good Jesus party and man this party is just getting going it's just getting going now tonight I don't want to talk about boldness we're gonna look at Luke chapter 11 and then we're gonna end at mark chapter 2 I want to pray and then we're gonna get into God's Word are you ready because man this is the Living Word tonight is anybody ready for the Living Word tonight every night I stand up in these arenas and I tell these young people man if you open this book your life will not be the same you show me a person with a broken-down Bible I will show you a person that does not have a broken-down life I say man don't say God's not speaking to me with your Bible closed if you want to hear God's voice open your Bible and read out loud let's pray God would you speak to us through the power of your Holy Spirit and would you emboldened us to move because God we know the faith without works is dead and so God we pray that tonight would be a night of action it would be a night of conviction it would be a night of change that we would not stay the same but as the Apostle Paul said that we would be compelled by your love and sent out God with the spirit of urgency it's in G name we pray and all God's people said Luke chapter 11 I'm gonna read it says one day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished one of his disciples said to him Lord would you teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples so jesus said alright I'll teach you to pray he said when you pray pray like this say father hallowed be your name your kingdom come give us each day our daily bread forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who sins against us and lead us not into temptation then he said to them as he continued this teaching on prayer he said suppose one of you has a friend he goes to him at midnight and says friend lend me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I don't have anything to set before him then the one inside answers don't bother me the door is locked my kids are in bed I can't get up and give you anything jesus said I tell you though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend yet because of the man's boldness they boldness because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs so I say to you Jesus says asks they ask says ask and it will be given to you seek say seek seek and you will find knock say knock knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened Luke chapter 11 verses 1 through 10 Jesus teaching on prayer now we were students up in North Dakota about 10 years ago and we kind of had this urgency in our heart if you guys ever have this feeling after you're saying great worship like we just sang and maybe it's here at South Lake or one of the other campuses tuning in or on Daystar and you get all fired up your emotions are going your hands are out stress you just feel something burning in your heart you know and then you read these verses about miracles and movements and and then you look at your life and you're like what something is not connecting here the dots just it's amazing power miracles and this is like my kids you know or school or just whatever your day-to-day routine is and we're just like God we want you we need you in fact we were moved to action by the situation's that surrounded us and that's often what it takes isn't it it takes a hard situation to wake us up a couple kids committed suicide on our campus drinking was all around us students are dropping out of the church dropping out of school all kinds of destruction we said we got to get together and pray because it seems like everywhere in God's Word when there's a hard time people pray and then God moves it's almost like it's always the lifeline and so we said we got to start praying we started to come together and pray and say God would you change us you see we came together to pray for all of them but as we came together to pray for them we realized that of all the people that needed Jesus on our campus we were the first ones in line you see so often we come and we pray about all those messed up people and God reminds us no you are the messed-up one because you have the truth and you're doing nothing with it and before God brings revival to them he needs to bring revival to me and as we begin this year we're saying God start here move me God don't let me be the same I don't know what you but I'm sick of looking back and saying those were the good days in my faith those were the moments when God was moving no no no those were great but this is going to be better closer further more fire more joy more vibrancy more worship that we want you we need you friends we can't afford to say the same we cannot afford to stay the same we were praying for our friends we were praying for our campus and we were praying for revival we started the same we started to get these recipe cards I brought recipe cards from my mom's house and I was like we made them fancy now we call it key five but we just had five friends and we come and we would just pray we had all been a part of prayer meetings where it was basically a Christian gossip meeting you know where you come to pray and you get around and gossip for like 45 minutes and then it's like 50 minutes 55 minutes like oh yeah we got a price then you close in prayer you know at the end of your meeting and we're like we don't want to do that let's just come and we're gonna pray so what we did is we read one chapter from the book of Acts then we spent the rest the time praying and then by the end of the meeting we would challenge each other about our five friends we say how's it going with your five how's it going with your five how's it going with your five you could not come to the prayer meeting and not talk about your five because we all had people in our life that needed Jesus and I don't know about you but I need accountability because if I'm not held accountable I will be selfish and I won't think about anybody but me we were all praying for five we were praying for boldness we were praying for God to move and there was one girl in our group her name was Jenna and Jenna had three names filled out two blanks she's like guys I only have three people I know that needs Jesus and she just feels so guilty like man I'm doing something wrong because clearly I'm on a campus with unbelievers and I only got friends for three of them and God I'm just praying that you would show me a couple other people we lay hands on Jenna we're praying for God would you send her God there's people all around the harvest is plentiful the workers are few God you've called us what would you do it one we chin it comes back to personally guys I think I know what God's call me to do I think God's call me to get a job as a missionary well you're gonna go be a missionary she's like no she's like guys any job as a missionary job she's like God it doesn't easy so guys it doesn't matter what job you have we're all missionaries wherever we are we said that's create Jenna but whoa you should be a priest to talk more you say good stuff she's a quiet girl well like Juno where's God calling you to work Genesis I feel like God's call me to go work at the northern we said what no you're not from North Dakota so you don't understand the context but let me just tell you the northern is our strip club in Fargo North Dakota now they often call these places gentlemen's clubs I don't know why because there ain't no gentlemen there but we're like uh Jenna Hosea you know we're pretty sure God doesn't want you to be a stripper she's like no you guys are idiots like we know she says guys who is loving those girls she said I saw an opening they need a cook at the northern I can cook we're like holy but you can't go there they're sinners there you can't didn't no you cannot will you for sure can't sell your parents we didn't know what to do so you know we did we pray it all the more in fact we started moving our prayer meeting to the northern not inside outside outside some of you guys know outside we started a prayer walk the northern once a week God would you move God would you move God if your college either there make it clear below we don't want our sister going into this awful place one week we're finally done praying with God we're gonna pray around this place seven times God and we're gonna pray that the walls fall down and God if the wall so fall down we're sending Julianne Wallace in fall down Jenna went to work at the northern she come back to our prayer meetings man I tell you when you are on mission when you're out of your comfort zone when you're living a bold life when you're stepping out in faith man there's an urgency in your prayers isn't there I mean you start to need the body we're coming together and Gina's coming some ways just like weeping like guys I can't do it it's so awful the things that are happening and these girls are so broken the situation's are so hopeless I want to quit I just got to get out of there and we feel like you can't quit June of God's called you that's called you there Jenna we're like laying hands on a relational look we all got your schedule on our phones we're covering you with prayer to the spirit is on you God's moving Jenna we're all laying hands they're all crying that would you do it your sword happen those girls start to come to our church services and those girls started to get saved you know we didn't tell them right away but little later like you can't be a stripper anymore this is sanctification the clothes stay on listen Stan I don't want to tell you I believe this in 2018 God's call for you is to be bold say bold say bold say bold now I was thinking about this often we think of boldness as it relates to leadership boldness is not leadership okay boldness is not strength we think oh that person's bull pastor Robert he's below there Billy Graham he's bolder this person's bull you think all these big people are bold no no boldness is not limited to impressive people boldness is what God's people look like when the Holy Spirit indwells them and they begin to take that step of faith now we're calling a generation I got a ladder up here and kind of our our slogan this year is move closer we're calling a generation to move closer we've been saying man we want students sharing their faith and we want students being disciples of Jesus we want to move closer to Jesus we started to think about this you know faith is this all-in journey out a ladder any guy's ever climbed a ladder I think most of us have my little boy he's five learning how to climb I'm trying to teach him say true it when you climb a ladder you got to have both feet on and both hands on how many guys know you don't climb a ladder like this does not work well some people though young people are like they think faith is like your Sunday Friday no you see faith is an all-in journey it's moving closer and then he step is scary each one of us are at a different place none of us are more important none of us are better God doesn't have favorites he loves you he calls you he wants to use you his call for you is to move closer you say oh god I don't know if I can do it I don't know if I can do it God but I'm gonna trust in you instead of in my flesh I'm gonna take that next step and I'm gonna take that next step it's moving closer but see here's the thing about moving closer to Jesus every step closer in faith is to step closer to people who need Jesus they aren't two different steps you don't move closer to Jesus one day and then move closer to people who need Jesus the next day know every step closer to Jesus is to step closer to the people who need him because that's where Jesus is you see some Christians think no no I'm not one of those evangelists people that share their faith I'm not one of those people that goes out and talks to other no no no that's for pastors and professional Christians no listen Matthew 28 Jesus gave us the Great Commission it's not called the good suggestion right Jesus did not say if you feel like it no Jesus said hey I want you to follow me you don't even need to focus on sharing your faith and doing doing doing you just need to focus on following Jesus are you following Jesus that is the question the ultimate question for all of us you see boldness if I was to give a definition I'm gonna throw it up boldness is a willingness to take risks and to try something new it's a willingness to take risks and try something new and let me just tell you this as it relates to boldness let me just say this God's best it's not limited to a few people God's best is limited to those who are willing say willing willing to be bold you guys have that grandma or Auntie nobody knew who they were but man they had fire man if you get my mom praying for you you better watch out the Thunder is coming nobody knows their name but man there's power let me tell you boldness is what spirit-filled life looks like boldness is what a spirit-filled life looks like let's go back to Luke chapter 11 Luke chapter 11 let me just stop at one second Luke eleven the disciples come to Jesus one time in the Gospels and they asked him to teach them to do something only one time they asked him to teach us to do this think of all the awesome things Jesus did just think what would you ask Jesus teach me this thing like Jesus would you Tisci to do the bread and fish thing Jesus would you teach me that whole raising the dead thing come on every college campus I'm on it's always the same he's just that water too wide come on it'd be the life of every party Oh what up boo boo boo boo boo yeah never mind but the disciples see Jesus the fuel behind his life is his intimacy with the father is his prayer life is his connection is that I don't know what it is but they said Lord would you teach us to what to pray she says okay I'll teach you to pray and he gives us three points three points in Matthew or Luke 11 verse 9 he says to ask to seek and to knock and I just added ask boldly seek boldly knock boldly in 2018 God is calling you to be bold God is inviting you to be bold God is inviting you you you you you on the video you on your laptop you overseas he is inviting you this isn't a message for them this is for you this is for me to be bold it's going to look different for all of us but the beauty of it being different for all of us is that this is about you and I taking ground man I'm sick and tired of the church being so focused on playing defense we are so worried about what they are doing oh we got to play safe we got to be careful oh no they're doing it have you heard their music have you watched their movies oh my goodness it's so scary have we forgotten the God that we serve man it is time to start playing offense it is time to take ground it is time for a church that is full of the Holy Spirit and it's willing to step out in faith we gotta be bold Hebrews 11 says without faith it's impossible to please God I would say without boldness it is impossible to please God it's not normal it's not easy it's not safe but this is God's call for you he wants you to get uncomfortable he's calling you to get to that place where you need Jesus he's calling you to get to that place where the only explanation is that was God man how often has somebody said to you man you are too bold you know what your problem is you're too bold if that's what people are telling you this message isn't for you you maybe need to turn it down a notch put the shofar away listen our problem most of us isn't that we're too bold it's that we're too safe we're too conservative we're too boring we're too cheap we nickel and dime God we throw our treasure to everything else young people always say man Nick Christianity is boring Christianity is boring Nick what are you doing over there that's boring but come on have you read your Bible Christianity is not boring your church might be boring your parents they're probably boring but Jesus is not boring so you think the disciples were hanging around with Jesus huh fed 5,000 boring Lazarus raised from the dead so boring they're gonna kill us boring it's not boring Bible is not boring the Bible is full of radical people who actually were ordinary people who actually were messed up people who actually were pretty cowardly people but they stepped out in faith I know a bill build a boat doesn't rain for 40 years that's crazy hey Josh we'll go Marsha around that City that is nuts hey Abraham at 70 years old I want you to leave everything and go to the place I will show you later can you imagine if your auntie uncle grandpa grandma called you up in service you pick up the phone you go out the back pick up the phone you say auntie what's going on I heard a voice what did it say uncle it said to leave everything and go to the place I'll show you later we would put them in a home but in the Bible that faith I mean it's not that something was wrong then something is wrong now like that our first instinct is that's crazy that's something wrong with us not like if your uncle calls you if your auntie calls you and says I think I'm supposed to sell it all and go overseas and spend the rest of my days giving my life for the gospel we should not think not nutty nut nut nut that should not be what we think we should be thinking man how is this ever logical apart from the Spirit of God who in their right mind would ever do that unless God is doing something man young people are saying Christian he's one man we're nickel and diming it man we got all this stuff and there you go I'm going all-in let's do it big forget it to it this is mine listen I'm telling you God owns all the nickels and it's time for a church to be like thank God God yeah we listen I'm just telling you guys we cannot afford to play it safe safe is what got us here Jesus says look you want to know how to pray I'm gonna show you how to pray I'm gonna throw this quote up by Francis Schaeffer says this one of the greatest sin justices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative Christianity is not conservative but revolutionary he wasn't talking about politics by the way Christianity is about being all in some people see what we're doing at pulse I mean we're almost going broke every week literally we're like man we're gonna book the stadium you know where the Super Bowl is in February we have that stadium booked in May we want to fill it with young people who need Jesus we don't have the money for it we don't know how it's gonna happen but you know what we believe that the message of Jesus belongs on the biggest stages in the world and we want to grab the attention of this generation you know what people say people say that's radical faith that's radical Christianity sterner no that's biblical Christianity this is not radical Christianity question is are we following Jesus Luke 11 Jesus says this is what prayer looks like this is what boldness took so he says ask ask he says you wonder what prayer looks like you got to think of this this guy think about if you have a friend anybody can invite can you imagine if you have a friend anybody can you imagine having a friend if you can't imagine that then come talk to me afterwards and we'll be besties okay but Jesus says you want to know how to pray I want to tell you a story about prayer imagine a person who has somebody come over to their house and they don't have food to offer them now if you're a type-a organized person like you're like I can't even imagine it because I'd have to have everything ready me I'd be like what Domino's you know is no big deal but they didn't have Domino's back then and Jesus is like man somebody comes to your house mill a night asking for you to take them in you take them in but you need food to offer them because that was the cultural thing to do so he says you do three things number one you ask they ask if you have something in your life that you know is in accordance with the will of God then your biblical mandate is to bring it before God in prayer say God I need your help here my nephew my son my daughter my friend my family they need Jesus and God I need your help God this job situation I need your help God my faith Lord I feel you calling me to take that next step God and I'm terrified so would you help me the first step is to ask say it again say ask but some people stop there we stay right on our asks we don't even move we don't even move jasc ask ask ask ask Jesus don't just ask you got a Sikh you got a Sikh in fact in James it says when you ask you got to believe in that doubt again if I'm coming in accordance with what I know is God's heart I come with boldness and say God my city needs Jesus God and this isn't just my problem this is your problem God this is your name on the line says ask for it then seek it out so you need food you start to seek man where can I get food dot Domino's is closed the grocery stores closed Whataburger is closed what am I gonna do start seeking it out seeking it out seeking it out and seeking I mean that's praying that's fasting that's getting in God's Word it's seeking out is hard how many guests those seeking can be hard seeking can be a hard place you might be seeking for some time but man I want to tell you that God is worth the journey that God is worth the pursuits God is worst at all and man you say in that place to my god I don't want to just ask for it God I want to put feet to these prayers and I want to seek it out Jesus says don't just ask for it don't just seek for it he says you got a knock for it now knocking is when it gets personal that means there's a door that means it's involving somebody else Jesus says when you come knowing that you're according to God's will come as somebody who is wanting food in the middle of the night now Jesus says in the middle of the night is trying to get kind of a radical response right they didn't have electricity they don't avenues to middle of the night this isn't middle of night people are sleeping the middle of the night right imagine somebody come into your house at midnight at 1:00 in the morning now again when I talk to college kids I have to change this up because if say midnight or 1 a.m. to them they're like what's the big deal don't play video games ramen is in the cupboard no no I gotta say to them imagine somebody come to your house at 6:00 a.m. right and they're like oh you wouldn't dare never but Jesus is trying to drive home a point you asked for it and you seek it out no matter how crazy it seems this is the widow in Luke 18 this is the stories of people saying give me justice give me a miracle god save my city you stand at that door and you knock Jesus says it's not because of friendship that the person will open the door even if I met pastor Roberts store and he knows to me and I show up at 1:00 in the mornings like Nick number one I don't think I'm gonna have you preach again and number two you know you're nuts he's like get out of here come on I don't want to call the cops but she says listen if your common for something that you know is on the heart of God then you come and you don't leave that door you say I'm not leaving this door I'm not gonna stop knocking until you open this door I'm not gonna give up because I know that you want my generation to know you ask seek knock ask seek knock ask seek knock listen you are not too old you are not too young you are not too inexperienced you are not too short too fat too poor too weak too sick or too lost so those that feel too old look at Abraham so those that feel too young look at simha thee so those who feel too experienced look at the disciples so those who feel too short Zacchaeus to pour the Widow's mite too weak the boy with the fish and loaves too far-gone the demon-possessed man too unworthy rahab too sick the woman was bleeding listen listen stop living by your limitation and start living in God's revelation this is not about you this is not about you this is about him this is about his agenda his mission his calling this is about taking that ground taking that steps ain't God I want to trust you for my neighborhood God I want to trust you for my family God Lord I want to know you more god I'm gonna get in your word God I'm gonna pray god I'm gonna seek you God Lord don't let me settle don't let me settle it's taking a step by step by step and listen I don't want you to miss this tonight I'm not telling you I'm not telling you hey guys you got to try harder you got to be better you got to be more spiritual that is not what I'm saying what I'm saying tonight is that there is a God in heaven who sees you right where you are and he loves you just as you are and he knows you just as you are he knows about your addiction he knows about your sin he knows about that hidden part of your life he knows about the regret you carry with you he knows about the pain and the feeling as if God can use everybody else but not me you feel like you keep getting passed over listen this is not a message for everybody else this is a message for you and the good news of the gospel is that Jesus he sees you in your point of need and the good news the gospel is that Jesus lived in the life we couldn't live and he died the death that we deserved on that cross and he conquered your sin your death your guilt your pain and Jesus is alive tonight does anybody believe that in this place and he promises us the holy spirit to anyone who would call out to him and tonight God leaves heaven once again through his spirit and will meet you right where you are if you'll just cry out to him his boldness his fire is for you this isn't about you trying harder to be bold this is about you surrendering to the Holy Spirit the same spirit that transformed those cowardly disciples and turned them into the soldiers that changed the world bow your heads with me right now I'm gonna invite the campus pastors to come up wherever we are right now as we pray if you're here and you believe that you need a fresh start this year you need boldness in your life I want you to stand right where you are you're just saying man I don't want to keep going this way I want Jesus I want to be stepping out I want to take that leap I want to know you God I don't want to nickel and dime it anymore God I'm all-in right now you stand where you are if that's you just as a sign of saying God first things first God my heart is yours Jesus we love you we need you we surrender to you we believe you died on the cross for us God would you forgive us of any sin of any double-mindedness God of any secret lives god we repent in the name of Jesus we believe you died on the cross you rose from the grave and we're inviting you to fill us with your spirit of power and boldness and that you would propel us forward into that next step that next future God that we would take ground with you in Jesus name and all God's people said amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 9,696

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Keywords: Christmas, gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, FIRST, 2018, Conference, Nick Hall

Id: U80WLrTK-Gg

Length: 42min 38sec (2558 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018