Pastor Robert Morris – Light – More Than Words

okay turn please to Luke chapter 11 and if you want to Luke 15 we'll go there see that just be a few pages or a few clicks however you get there you know by the way our notes are remember I told you a new version and I'm gonna actually show you I'll tell I want to walk you through a little thing probably on the next series how to do it I'm going to show you how to do it as soon as I learned how to do it and so but you can actually go to the notes dock gateway people.com and that write notes dock gateway people come and it'll they're my notes are right there so and then you can open it up in you version if you want there alright so this is the last message in the series more than words when we're talking about the Bible is more than words and the title this message is light we've talked about how the Bible is bread so it's nourishment to us how its water that's the breath of God how there are symbols and there are spiritual symbols they're spirit we need spiritual sight because this is a spiritual book written by a spiritual being to spiritual beings I hope you can go back and listen to some of these messages but this weekend I want to focus in on that God's Word is light and we'll get over to Luke 11 in a moment let me show you this scripture I think all of you are familiar with it this comes from the longest chapter in the Bible by the way psalm 119 verse 105 your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path now just think about that even though it's a famous verse your word the Word of God your word is a lamp to my feet so that I would know how to take the next step and it's a light to my path so that I would know which path in life you want me to take the next path you want me to take I find that in the Word of God so let me tell you three things about life all right here's number one why light dispels darkness light dispels darkness all right so let's take a little poll every campus every affiliate church everyone watching online or our own television let's take a little poll all right and you can answer in the affirmative by raising your hand if this has ever happened to you how many of you at some time in your life have ever been walking across a dark room maybe it was in the middle of the night and maybe you had to get up to go to the bathroom maybe that you don't have to do that yet but you will twice but anyway but let's just say how many of you who maybe you're going to the kitchen and get a snack I don't know but maybe if you how many of you have ever been walking across a dark room and stubbed your toe tonight yeah look at all the clumsy people that attend Gateway Church okay weren't no no we're not clumsy it we did it because we didn't have light right if we had simply had think about it a lamp to our feet our I like to our path we witnessed stubbed our toe right okay think about the analogy we are walking we're supposed to walk in the spirit but we are walking in a dark world would you agree with that so how many Christians are stumbling because they're not using their land they're not using their light and so they stumble so again light dispels darkness it takes it away you need to know that there's no struggle between light and darkness now we are in a struggle with darkness as believers but God is not in a struggle with darkness the light the light is not having a fight with darkness you walk in a room and turn a light switch on and see if there's a struggle there's no struggle the light is not saying if I could just push a little harder I get this darkness to leave the darkness leaves immediately right when you turn the light on let me show you a scripture that many people have seen in the negative we'll get to Luke 11 a minute this is in John chapter 3 John 3 verse 20 says for everyone practicing evil hates are literally stays away from the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed now so many times we read the Bible and the negative light but I don't want you to read it that way I want you to think about this if you're if you're caught in darkness many people stay away from the word don't want to read the word because they don't want what they're doing to be exposed but this is that's not what this horse is talking about if you're caught in a darkness the wood the what you would think is the last thing I want to do is read the Bible no the first thing you will do is read the Bible because light dispels darkness and it says that his deeds may be exposed listen that that means that your your deeds would be demolished by the light think about um gosh I was thinking about this so how many of you will not get this illustration because of your age but when our cameras used to have something called film a while back Debbie and I had a conversation with one of our grandchildren and he could not understand what film was he couldn't understand it he couldn't even understand and you took it somewhere and you couldn't and you couldn't see your pictures until you got him back you could take a picture and why didn't you just use your phone bat-ball no well our phones had cords on them back then you know so okay so but think about film and remember how film it's it's developed in the darkroom and remember if you see this on TV or something someone opened the door and they say oh you exposed the darkness you exposed the field of darkness and you ruin it listen to me if there's darkness in your life expose it to the light and it immediately goes away I want you to think about this if you've seen if in your mind if you've taken pictures of dark things of negative things maybe immoral or sexual things expose it to the light it will ruin that film well y'all hear that's really a good illustration that was really good so let me show you let me show you Luke 11 this is where Jesus now is talking about this Luke 11 verse 33 no one when he has lit a lamp puts it in a secret place or under a basket but on a lampstand that those who come in may see the light the lamp this is important of the body is the eye in other words what you look at is how light or darkness gets into your body therefore when your eye is good or when you're looking at good things your whole body also is full of light but when your eye is bad or you're looking at bad things your body also is full of darkness think about all the darkness that our I see every day I I actually took for this message I tried to do something for an illustration I opened up just Yahoo I just opened up and I was going to count how many of the articles were either about murder or immorality someone getting killed or someone committing immorality and I got so discouraged I stopped counting I couldn't but it was over it was what I stopped I had already gotten the 7 out of 11 so the majority were about that can you imagine and you know and we open it because we want to read some fun story something good but we got all these articles about the edits just darkness how many hours do we spend reading darkness and darkness is entering through the eye it's entering our body can you imagine if you spent the same amount of time or more reading light and letting like getting your body I was counseling with the guy one time and we were talking about lust and overcoming lust and he said Robert you just don't understand how many things I've seen that I can't get out of my mind now the pictures that I've seen the movies that I've seen the things that I did that I actually did that I saw that I shouldn't have seen you don't understand first of all I said to him I do understand because I'm human too and I have a past like you your past I understand those things I said do you really want to get free you remember Jesus said to the man that was laying do you want to be healed that's a very important question because there's a lot of people in bondage that they kind of want to but they don't want to exert the effort so I said do you really want to get free from lust he said I do so ok here's what I needed to do I showed you the scripture in Luke 11 I told him I said you darkness has entered your bodies full of darkness it's full of it because you've looked at it but I need you to look at like now so I said for 30 days and we're not gonna meet again for 30 days for 30 days I want you to read the Bible 30 minutes a day that's all I need 30 minutes a day then there are 260 chapters in the New Testament I told him to start reading in mark I've learned to tell people where to read because they'll say you know they asked me a lot where do you read I used to say to him well on the inside you know just but there if there are some good places to start to read I remember I let a guy to Christ one time and I said before you go to bed I want you to read the Bible some like he said where I said anywhere and the next morning I said where jury he said I read the book a job doesn't need one so they said it didn't help me much though okay so so I said start in Matthew just start in Matthew and just read the Bible for thirty days in and if you read about 30 minutes a day you'd read it in too much you'd read them who have spent two months if you read 30 minutes a day so he did that he comes back to me a month later and he says you won't believe the difference he said it is amazing how lust has been driving driven out of my mind and how much more I think about God and godly things then I saw him about six months later and he said I have to tell you what happened my wife and I went to see a chick flick that's what real men call those types of movies a chick flick and and it was the love story and you know and so they said but he had this one scene in it that what shouldn't have been in there that they just I don't think I don't know why they put him in but they just put it in and he said here's what happened he said what used to attract me was repulsive to me I was repulsed but because of the life that was in it he said I didn't want to look at any more please hear me read this book read this book it has the power to change your life so number one it dispels darkness here's number two white reek others lost things if you lose something it's very simple you get alight because you need to find it right you can't find it in dart in the dark place you need the light if it's under your car if some to the sea you get a flashlight under the couch wherever it is you're gonna like Jesus tells this story about a woman who lost something he tells it in the middle of two other stories one about a shepherd who lost a sheep remember who the shepherd is and who the sheep are were she and he tell us about a father who lost a son the prodigal son but he tells right in the middle about a woman who lost a coin something valuable he's please hear me all three of these are talking about people they're all talking about people because people are valuable to God so here it is Luke 15 verses 8 through 10 or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not like a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds him and when she's found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I found the peace which I lost now remember I told you all of these are talking about people right look at the very next verse likewise in other words here's the interpretation of the allegory I just used I say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents okay so we're gonna get back to people but what if you lose your job what do you do I'm telling you why the lamb go read the word of God read God's Word what if you lose your relationship what if you lose an investment you know what what if you lose your integrity somehow you did something that you never thought you would do what what if you lose your reputation anytime you lose something why the lamb okay but let's talk about people there is a natural leaving and cleaving that happens with children there's a natural progression when a child begins to become an adult and in essence there's a little bit of a losing of control that you've had over that child and you have to begin trusting that that child is going to make the right decision I don't know how many of you been through this but it's it's it's a it's a traumatic time because all of a sudden you realize you can't just say don't do that you have to hope he or she makes the decision on his or her own see so one of the major decisions that a child when he when he becomes an adult will just say or she is a mate the cheese they ever made he with all three of our children we asked them for the right to speak into their lives during this time because that's a very important decision we said we know you better than anyone else we even joked about it we said we've known you since you were born that's how long we've known you and we know the gifts that you have and we know the personality you have and you might meet someone who might even be a good person but your personality and her personality will never get along and we know these things so we asked each of them will you give us the right to speak in your life now by the way to give you some wisdom we asked them when they were 10 and 13 when they didn't know any better you know we don't wait till they're 18 ask them well okay ask them when they're young and they're like oh yeah sure dad that's fine with me can we go fishing now okay so so we made a covenant with them and we gave each of them a ring making that covenant that that they would walk with us through this process okay so our son James was pursued by girls he never and he never cared about it never cared at all until he met the girl he's married to now Bridget didn't care a lot when he met her but before that he didn't care he wanted to hunt and fish he would go to school and come home around Christmas with like 10 or 15 Christmas presents from girls girl for just giving presents yeah I've never seen anything like it in my life firstly and but he didn't care and that was great he never pursued them but they pursued him so when he was in high school a girl was pursuing him a nice girl not a bad girl a church girl a Christian girl nice girl but I just didn't have peace that she she was the one or that it was time because he wasn't like sixteen years old and I just thought this is too serious this has started to get too serious so I started praying God what I do now I'd look for the Word of God for God to speak to me you need to know God will speak to you through his word so I said to him one morning I said lord I need I need a word and in my daily Bible reading that day I read on fasting and so I said well maybe I should fast for 40 days some sort of food like meat I like meat a lot so for me that's a fast Debbi fast broccoli when she fasts but anyway so I'll fast something like that and then as I got to thinking about fasting and I kept thinking about it because I'm reading it and I thought you know fasting separates us pulls us back from the pleasures of the world so that we can hear God better and I begin to think about my son and this this young lady aren't they need to pull back from the world so they can hear God and so I got this idea and this is from the Lord nothing it was so I said to both of them I want I'm going to ask you to do something because y'all are starting to get serious and both of you want to know if it's God's will because you're both Christians you both love God so I want to ask you to fast 40 days from each other no dating no phone calls no texting no emails nothing no conversation for 40 days because you'll be able to pull back let me give you a little exegesis if you don't mind me use that word again of Hebrews 4:12 it says the Word of God is living and powerful and it divides between the spirit and the soul listen what that means the soul is your mind you're willing your emotions your mind and your emotions you and your will you make decisions based on what you think and what you feel did everyone catch that your mind and your emotions what you think and what you feel and that's how we make decisions that's how our will decide something but the bible does it divide the soul it divides between the soul of the Spirit let me say another way it divides what we think is right what we feel is right and what really is right do you get that it divides between what we think and feel is right but what is right so I said to them I need you to pull back because you're too emotionally involved so fast for 40 days so they both agreed this was on a Wednesday on Saturday she called him and they were not supposed to call her talk for 40 days and he had been napping he was working late at night at that time and would get off way late in the night going to college and she called and he was napping and so he just answered the phone said hello and she said hey and he just immediately he's very principled so when I said 40 days he was going to be 40 days so he said we're not supposed to be talking and she said well what your father doesn't know won't hurt him and he said goodbye and hung up the phone then when he came downstairs he said to me dad it's over well I won't be seeing her anymore and I said well what happened so he told me and I said well what do you think about that he said well I got to thinking if she won't respect you she's not gonna respect me and then I said to him yet you have no now James is a man of few words okay and so that I sent to him well so how are you gonna break up with her he said I said goodbye so I said well that's not gonna work with a woman she's gonna mean more words than that let me just help you back okay all right okay so like recovers lost things here's number three light shows the way it's a lamp to my feet and it's a light to my path it shows the legs now I don't need a she'd raise your hands because it'll be like the death rate that'll be a hundred percent you know but have you ever had a decision you need to make of course you have you ever need to know whether to buy a home or not is this the home God has is this the school district for our children is this the college what college should show our children go to what job should I take what decisions sharing like what spouse should are married you know I mean all these that we all have decisions the Bible talks about general and specific revelation general and specific revelation there's the general revelation of God and then there's the specific the general revelation of God is how to be married the specific Reville Reville is a revelation of God is whom do you marry and can God give you specific revelation of course he can't but I'm telling you God can actually speak through this word so what I want to do is show you how to get a word from God from God's Word and it's just so take me just a few minutes it's real easy I'm gonna show you how to get a word from God from God's Word all right let me give you an illustration and then I'll tell you how to do it alright when we were buying the land for the South Lake campus it's over a hundred and eighty acres on the freeway across from the town square with an exit the first Christ we recorded was 25 million we got it for 12 million it was phenomenal bill we've actually sold some to a hotel and to a developer and made a lot of money off of so it's been phenomenal what God's done but right when we were about to close on the land they called Pastor Tom Lane who was doing the negotiation for us and they said we've note we just with our attorneys went over the contract and notice that the mineral rights are in the contract and we're not giving we're pulling the mineral rights out and so he said well I'll need to talk to pastor Robert so he called me and said they won't take the mineral rights out what do you say I said I need a word from God so I went to the Lord and said God I need to work I need to work well when I started the church there were two chapters in the Bible God gave me Genesis 35 and Deuteronomy 11 and so I've read those chapters maybe hundreds of times and so the Lord said to me read Deuteronomy 11 again now I hate to say this but I had a thought come to my mind and I thought well I know what Deuteronomy 11 says and the Lord answered my thought and said so do I the reason I'm saying that is if God tells you to read a scripture he knows this book better than you do he knows so I went to read Deuteronomy 11 I'm just reading all day I'm thinking yes yes I know I've read this yes yes yes and then he said I'm about to give you some land and he said and that land is yours the grain is yours the wine is yours and the oil is yours and I called Pastor Tom back and said you tell him that all is ours and it's a deal breaker and I was passing up a deal on a hundred and eighty acres on 114 if they didn't stay said no but I had a word from God they called back in a couple hours and said okay we'll give you the mineral rights now here's what's amazing when we went to close sign the floating papers they have a closure that works for the company and the guy was looked at the contract and said to me can I see the question how did you get the mineral rights and so I said well you do you really want to know he said yeah I said well I pray and God gave me a verse and God said that all was ours he said well I mean takes and I'm a Christian so I understand that it's funny taste some he said I've been doing closings for this company for 25 years and the parent company of this company that owns his company is hunt all company and in 25 years this is the first property they've ever given the mineral rights to God with God knew so let me tell you how to get a word from God's word all right okay so three word words remember these three words praise prayer proclaiming praise prayer proclaim first of all enter God's presence with praise a psalm 100 interstates for Thanksgiving and his courts with praise so enter God's presence with praise okay again that's Psalm 100 verse 4 endurance gauge with Thanksgiving coming to his courts with praise so put some prayer me worship you build your new worship CD that you're getting for free but your worship CD coming to God's presence the next is prayer now here's what I want you to pray about pray about what you need to pray about pray about whatever you need to pray about and I want to ask you to do something right your prayers just write them just write your prayers you might even write Lord I'm gonna write my prayers because pastor Robert asked me to do you know him no I don't know you can write what I just write your prayers alright if you know him you know how he is you know so just write your prayers right but I need to pray I need to know about this job that's what I'm trained right your prayers and then proclaim Pro clay is read God's Word now you say where where'd I read God's work let's say that you're praying about marriage you're a marriage situation think about any verses or any chapters or eating stories let me say that that might be better because you might not know that the book of the chapter think about any stories of marriages in the Bible read about Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca Jacob and Rachel Boaz and Ruth there's a marriage in the Bible Jesus and the church it's in Ephesians 5 so just read some passages about marriage now let me give you again an exegetical principal members to Jesus is to draw out of the passage eisegesis is to read in the passage I've had people tell me before God gave me a scripture but that scripture is not congruent with the hold of the Bible so God didn't give you that scripture so you have it has to be congruent with the rest of the Bible but let me give you another exegetical principle about the Bible okay everything the Old Testament is true it all happened every bit of it even Jonah in the world it all happened everything in the New Testament is true it all happened the Bible is true it's a factual book but when we talk about exegete again as a rule the Old Testament has allegorical principles the New Testament has applicable principles so let me say that you the Old Testament has allegorical principles and assessment applicable Grizzles let me tell you what I mean in the Bible says that Sarah called Abraham Lord okay that's allegorical you don't have to call Jethro Lord okay you don't have to call your husband Lord the application of me as you should respect your husband that's the application or y'all follow me now just for full disclosure debbie does call me Lord just to let you know just let you know so early at least I think she does I think she does because there are many many times that I do something trying to help around the house and she says Lord so I think I think I think she's calling me Lord okay all right so all right so just read something so my daughter years ago was trying to decide whether to go to oru by the way her husband is a graduate of oru but she's trying to decide whether to go so I was going up to speak for a pastor named Willie George he used him for some of you her older he used to do golf he was gospel bill on television okay so I was going to speak for him which is in Tulsa and dr. mark Rutland was the president of oru this is before we had the Kings University and so we I had my office call Mark's office and said hey pastor Roberts coming up he'd like to tour the campus and if you got a few minutes meet with you and he said yeah I'd love to so we took the lane Debbie and I we toured the campus we went met with dr. Rutland he talked to us for a little while but then he turned and just started talking to Elaine and it was so clear and so godly he was saying what do you want to do she said I really think that God's calling me to speak and the right kind of like my dad does and so he says well that's great how are you gonna prepare for that she said your dad he said your dad is a theologian in the body of Christ and he prepared so how are you going to prepare to be able to write books that people will want to read and to be able to preach and teach messages people are gonna want to hear there will actually help people how you gonna prepare and so he starts talking to her and it was so clear and so on the way home I said to her so what do you think she said I think I'm supposed to go I soul that's great but that's not good enough you can't just think you're supposed to go I said you have to pray and you have to get a word from God and then this is what she said to me she said well I thought you were gonna do that for me by the way a lot of people think that a lot of people think that someone else is supposed to get a word for them but we all have a personal relationship with Jesus and it'll mean more to you if you get the word directly from God so I said sure no it doesn't work that way sugar I said because in a few months or said right now you faint you're supposed to go but in a few months when you have two papers due and a test you might not think you're supposed to be there but if you have a word from God you know you're there so I told her how to get a word from God praise prayer and Proclamation so she went away and prayed came back I said did you get a word from God she said I got a word from what I know what I heard God so I said well tell me about it so she was riding her prayers she worshiped then she wrote her prayers so she wrote down four statements here's the first thing she wrote then she said I I believe that oru is an open door for me I believe God has opened the door for me to go to oru it's an open door then she wrote she thought about when dr. Rutland spoke to her and she thought it was so clear and she remembered make a clear sound first Corinthians 14 says if a trumpet makes an unclear sound and so she literally wrote I felt like dr. Rutland's voice speak was like a trumpet it was so clear she writes us down then she wrote down I think I'm supposed to go down to Tulsa now the reason I'm telling you that is on the way back she said I think I'm supposed to go down to Tulsa to me and so I said to her well sugar let me help you a little bit with what you just said I said when you live in Texas you don't go down to Tulsa you go up to Tulsa because Tulsa is north of Dallas and the reason I said this is because she she's not real good with geography I know many people are she was one time at a young adult event and one of the questions was name a country and she named London so anyway so I said it's up okay so she wrote down I think I'm supposed to go down to Tulsa and and then she marked out down because she remember a conversation put up that's important all right up then the last statement she wrote was oh I think I'm supposed to go up to Tulsa but I don't know what's going to happen next she had met Ethan and she didn't know what God was saying she was so she said I'm wondering what am I supposed to do after that after oru what's next and then she just wrote all of a sudden she just wrote this statement I'll put it up so you see it and if she was like God speaking to her I'm going to give you a revelation that on the 4th will be the first of many new things for you now I need to explain to you why she put the fourth the reason was she if she if she decided to go it was the spring semester she had to be there on January 4th so that's why it was 4 so I'm gonna give you a revelation that on the 4th will be the first of many new things for you now then she remembered ok God's supposed to give me a scripture my dad's to go to your mother she and she saw the word revelation and looked she underlined it she thought there's a book in the Bible revelation and then all of a sudden it just jumped out here for and first so you got 4 revelation 4:1 you see that and she thought I wonder if it's that easy and so she opens her Bible to Revelation 4:1 remember the four statements okay she said I think Oh ru is an open door I think dr. Rutland voice was like a trumpet I think I'm supposed to go up there but I wonder what's going to happen next revelation 4:1 says this after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying come up here and I will show you the things which will take place after this [Applause] she said I think I got a word from God this book is more than words and it will change your life if you'll read it I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I want you to just take a moment and just ask the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit what are you saying to me through this message obviously I think God's talking to us about reading the word obviously but he might be talking about something else maybe there is an area of darkness in your life I please hear me don't feel bad because of that because we've all looked at darkness darkness has entered all of us because we've looked at it somehow we've seen it we've read it it's in the news all the time but don't feel bad about it let's just expose it to the light let the light take care of them here's what we want to do we want to have one more worship song at every campus and if you need prayer for any area of your life any area of your life we want to pray with you so in just a moment at every campus we'll stand when we start the worship you're gonna see other people coming to the front and we're gonna have leaders here at the front so if you need prayer for any area of your life you just come to front I want to make something very clear you don't have to be a member of Gateway Church to come for prayer okay if you need prayer just come to the front you won't be the only one I promise and just let us pray with you okay Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person from every campus that needs prayer in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Love, More Than Words, light

Id: CFf6mAgQdQs

Length: 38min 54sec (2334 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018