Ravi Zacharias - Raised To Run

thank you please be seated thank you thank you so much maybe if I leave now I can tell my wife I've got a standing ovation when I finish so this is really kind of you but Robert those words mean a lot maybe most of you may not be aware of what your church has already done and what your pastor and your leadership team have already done just about a year and a half ago when I was in Indonesia and talking to a businessman and the Lord laid a burden on my heart and frankly I didn't want a new burden I was quite happy to be doing carrying the burdens that I was and yet the burden to reach the thinker the skeptic the university student the person was asking the hard questions and so he decided about a year ago June to fawn to form the Institute of apologetics and contemporary thought I act and it was going to be a tall order in three phases first the obtainment of the building then the refurbishing of it at about five ten days before Christmas we purchased the building in Atlanta Georgia it's about 125,000 square foot nearly five floors of it it's a beautiful building and we're now going to start the build out and the refurbishing we could never have done it without the encouragement of your pastor Robert Morrison of Koza Steve behind it and Kevin and all of you pastor Kevin those of you who support this work you may never hear the extension of your arms and how you enable people like us where itinerants we cover the globe I'm on the road for about 240 days a year it's not easy I would love to proverbially just hang up my skates you know and say enough of moving at this high speed the mob just spent two weeks at home I never traveled between the 15th of December and the 31st of December I give it completely to my wife my children and grandchildren and I just began a few days ago at the passion conference and now this and you do it with a little bit of a tear in your eye you know you say I wish I just stay on at home and continue to have a daily routine rather than Criss crossing around the globe but God's placed a burden on our heart he placed a burden on all of our hearts and ours is to reach the skeptic to reach the adversary to read the to reach the solid thinker and so pastor Robert thank you really thank you on behalf of our whole team and Steve and the generosity of your elders and all who made it possible it's the biggest thing we've ever done have cost me a lot of nights sleep after we've done it but in the middle of the night I wake up and say Lord you brought us to this spot you better help us as we move forward last week I was speaking at a passion conference in Atlanta a live audience was 40,000 university students representing representing over 40 countries and 115 universities that burden was laid on pastor louie giglio heart in Atlanta Georgia and what a man of God he is and just to be able to stand up on that platform and you know what I don't like crowds that size years ago I spoke at Promise Keepers 260 thousand and I've never recovered from that I didn't want to do this either I'm much much more this about it you know this is OK at least I can see you back there but I can't see their eyes and can't see their faces I'm not sure whom I'm talking to but we did it and what a moving of God through the other speakers and being there so just to say to you what a delight keep doing what you're doing I wish it weren't so far from Atlanta or we'd be driving here every Sunday morning ourselves to attend this service I want to express my thanks as I begin and what I want to do is minister to you tonight from a message entitled raised to run raised to run and if you have got your Bibles I'd like you to turn to Genesis 25 although I think they'll have it up on the screen let me read these verses for you from verse 19 to verse 28 this is the account of Abraham's son Isaac Abraham became the father of Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebeca daughter of Bethuel di remain from paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the aramean Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren the Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant the babies jostled each other within her and she said why is this happening to me so she went to inquire of the Lord the Lord said to her two nations are in your womb can I stop right there for a moment if this were being written by a secular person in our time they'd probably be saying to products of conception are in your womb two substances are in your will says no two nations are in your womb and two people some within you will be separated one people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger but the time came for her to give birth there were twins twin boys in her womb the first to come out was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment so they named him Esau after this his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel so he was named Jacob Isaac was 60 years old when Rebecca gave birth to them the boys grew up in Esau became a skillful hunter a man of the open country while Jacob was a quiet man staying among the tents Isaac who had a taste for wild game loved Esau but Rebekah loved Jacob that line there basically spells the trouble as it was going to begin when you're a father and a grandfather and you watch little ones grow up the second time around my daughter once Naomi who's a mother of three and every time I look at her I get tired the oldest is four and then she's got two below below them in age and she said dad what's the difference between having a child and a grandchild I said I'm not sure I can answer your question but I can just tell you this when you're a parent all of your emotional energy is spent in worry and care and all of the stuff that goes on from morning to light you're expending that amount of energy you have most of it on worrying concern when you're a grandparent most of that energy is spent on enjoyment the worry and the trouble you leave to them and when they when they leave your home at about 7:30 at night which is kind of a blessing that they go to bed early my wife and I just sit and stare at each other and say what just happened here and we spent the rest of the hours cleaning up but you know you watch those little ones and you see the imprint of God on a little life as the Bible says to the mouths of infants and babes you have ordained praise it's not enough to just go and play hide and seek one time you got to do it about 20 times because God's infinite capacity is poured out in a little child's ability to exalt in the monotonous they do the same thing again and again and again do it again do it again do it again some time ago my little grandson Jude I don't know where he gets the vocabulary from but he sure can talk one day he asked me Papa what is the meaning of sophomoric and I sounded sophomoric and tried to explain it to him but he saw his mother scurrying around the house looking for her car keys now he's a wee little one my good friend James Robison is here James and Betty their precious friends they were such a vital part of this whole project - in the procurement of this building he knows they know Naomi well they've ministered to her over the years she was she's just full of energy and she stopped for a moment and said I must be losing my mind and young Jude walked up to her and said mommy whatever you do please don't ever lose your heart because I am in there now who taught that little one there who told him to say that well that come from when my daughter Sarah was only two we were crossing over from Jordan across the West Bank into Israel never forget it here was nineteen seventy seven and at that time you cross over the Allenby bridge I'm sure many of you here have done that you'd spend about two hours standing in line and people are restless Sarah was being held in Margie's arms and we'd prepared her for a long day she was a little over two and at one point she just looked around and of course the Israeli soldiers of our armed to the teeth out there she didn't know any better she looked at one of these soldiers and said excuse me sir do you have any bubble gum he was stunned he took off his gun and gave it to a colleague and came over to Marga and put his arms out to Sarah and she went to him he took her into a back room I now began to get worried and he came back five minutes later with a tray three glass of lemonade on them one for little Sarah one for my wife one for me and he waved us over put us in his Jeep took us to a taxi stand and we were on our way through Jericho into Jerusalem Sarah earned her whole keep in that one question what is it that disarmed a man like that what is it that caused a man just for a moment to forget the intensity of his role to keep guard was the voice of a little child and the innocence of that little child who had no clue what was really happening and so when God looks at Rebecca and says to her two nations are in your room you see we live in time which is a punctuation calibration of change for us but God is unchanging he lives in the eternal now we often think we can accelerate the march of history by doing things in a way that probably even ought not to be done and so when these boys were reverberant the womb and she was told what their destinies were going to be Rebecca thought she'd give God a hand you know and moved this thing along a little faster than God had in mind God works at appointed times and in those fulfill months of those times God works and God does his marvelous bidding so these two boys are born and you can see the difference right from the beginning one is going to be an outdoorsman a hunter the other is sort of going to be a quiet pensive type of personality the father was the hunter type and so he went for Esau as a preferred person and personality and the mother was looking at Jacob because she had been receiving she had received the word of what the future was going to be like ladies and gentlemen we come as a packaged unit we cannot be carved up that's the meaning of the very word individual we cannot be divided up we come as composites we are unique and when God fashions and frames us in our mother's womb it is for a distinctive imprint on your life and mine I sit here and listen to the musician sing and I marvel at voices like that when I finished speaking people ask me if I've got a cold no I haven't this is a natural Nat King Cole voice that I have you know it's always husky but I listen to music leather and as a well be wonderful Lord if you'd given me a little bit of that so that I could wake up every morning and just sing to myself and not get bored with my own voice here's what FW Boram are my favorite essayist says brilliant brilliant essay called the sword of Solomon may I read field three or four paragraphs FW Boram was an Englishman who ministered in Australia and New Zealand died in the late 50s he was also the favorite essayist of Ruth Graham Billy Graham's wife she and I often exchanged volumes on boram's essays over fifty-five volumes of brilliant essays I think the greatest greatest English essayist that I have read man of God who passed her just three churches and one of his books he dedicates to the three elect ladies so it's so beautiful with language but here it is the sword of Solomon great was the wisdom of Solomon for he demonstrated one day more vividly and dramatically than it had ever been demonstrated before the utter unreliability of mathematics on the higher planes of human experience there is a sense I suppose in which twice won our to a sense in which two and two are for a sense in which many other propositions of this kind are partly if not wholly true it is difficult to see how merchants and accountants another and well-meaning people could go back to their desks and counting houses if their faith in these arithmetical conclusions was seriously shaken I hasten to say therefore that there is a plane a plane of reges and Ledger's and cash books on which these propositions are approximately sound but if you rise some that plane to a loftier one you will find at once that they are quite untenable they simply will not work solomon proves it of the city gate once and for all it may be true that half a sovereign and half a sovereign make one sovereign it is obviously untrue that half a baby and half a baby make one baby let the sword do its deadly work let it cleave this baby into two parts and half a baby plus half a baby will represent but the grim and gruesome mockery of a child two halves of a baby make no baby at all on this higher plane of human sentiment and experience the laws of mathematics collapse completely when for example a man distributes his wealth among his children he gives you each a part but when a woman distributes her love among her children she gives it all to each of them I do not believe that any man who has once fallen in love will ever be persuaded that one and one are only two he looks at her and he feels that one plus one would make a million I do not believe that any happy couple into this well sweet shelter whose home a little child has come will ever be convinced that two and one are only three life has been enriched a thousandfold by the addition of that one little life to theirs and I'm absolutely certain that no pair from whose clinging and protecting arms their treasure has been snatched will find comfort in the assurance that one from three leaves two in the great crises of life once faith in figures breaks down hopelessly in the great crises of life once faith in figures breaks down hopelessly I'm at Marquee 1966 I was only 20 married her in 72 six years later we're married now for 43 some years my life was totally enriched in ways that numbers will not fully Express I know you share the same in the experience of Yola of euro manse and the families that you raised in the great crises of life once faith and figures breaks down hopelessly there's a reality here of an indivisible 'ti and the parents made three blunders blunder number one they played favorites one preferred one the other preferred another you see two of the great longings of the human heart one is for glad of what the glue the greatest longing is for acceptance and then the greatest fear is for rejection greatest longing is for acceptance the greatest fear is for rejection and then when you come to that acceptance you want to be accepted not just because of what you can do but how you see this individual as of intrinsic worth essential worth not given by state or government but given by the fact that God himself has made you imago Dei in the image of God our secular world today is cruelest cruelest with children when we think of the millions that we obliterate in the womb I shudder to think of what we will say to God they tried to eliminate his very son as well I wanted to do away with him we stand before God and say to him why did you allow so much suffering so much cancer so much this so much hepatitis so much that what will we say to God if God says you know what I sent a whole lot of people into your world to help you find cures for these you wouldn't even allow them into your world what would we say then and I just say to you the parents may have meant well but the carving up of the favoritism was the first blunder that was really made you know Leighton Ford Billy Graham's brother-in-law was put up for adoption as a baby and it was a long story told me this story personally was sitting in an airport and talking you don't need to go into the details but it was some 40 years later he tracked his mother down does a long story she had very little choice at that point I think but he tracked her down plate was born in Canada and I think he's somewhere in st. Catharines or Chatham or something like that and he got into the car on a snowy day he'd connected with her she was shocked and he drove and drove all these miles and the snow had fallen it just a cop it of white and the trees were just glistening with that snow he didn't know he's going to find the house but as he was approaching the neighborhood and slowed down he noticed an older woman standing outside under a tree and he pulled over and realized she was looking for him he pulled into the driveway and he looked at her and he said I'm Layton and the mother couldn't handle it she hadn't seen him since she'd handed him over as a little baby and Layton told me when he was leaving and gave her a big hug he said I hold nothing against your mom I just want you to help me with one question what best can I do for you she said just love me just love me because after all the years of what she'd done and the struggles of wondering where he was who he was and what had happened to him she had no idea he was a worldwide evangelist and had married Jeanie Billy Graham's sister and was touching the globe with those message we have no idea what goes on but I just want you to know you are made in an indivisible way God has put you together your DNA is unique thank him for the way he has made you and tell him to take away the rough edges and sharpen the finer points and be a blessing to the world as only you can be in your unique way nobody can replace you secondly there was a breakdown of communication when he saw married the wrong when he saw married the wrong person it says twice in Scripture in 26 34 and 28 6 in Genesis that he didn't know how much he'd upset his parents by doing that but somewhere the communication had broken down I have realized in my own life how important it is to talk to your kids at the right time and to say the right thing especially in terms of marriage who you marry and I will say this as bluntly as I can you make either a heaven or hell on earth depending on the person you marry because you see that's one relationship from which you can never take a vacation it's there it's a hundred percent commitment there's no vacation from it and leader bring you the greatest thrill or be the greatest heartache Esau ended up in those miserable relationships and said he didn't know how much he'd hurt his parents find the right time say the right thing thirdly and quickly they taught him through deception they taught him through deception the mother made him go and take hold of that blessing in a way the way he had to deceive his father in order to claim that blessing and what did she teach her son you do this in your own way in your own time surreptitiously you'll gain it by deceit there are actually there's actually one major religion in the world where deceit is a virtue I'll let you guess which one they praise deceit it's virtuous if you can deceive especially the enemy and make all kinds of pretenses so that you can get exactly what you want deception and contract deception and treaties deception is a virtue it's a virtuous thing if you can deceive the person you're trying to overcome because all of life in that system is or is a war it's a it's a struggle and so they go forward with that virtue of deception there's a story told somebody is wrote to me recently and a little boy told is dead would you please go with me tomorrow the school is having a small gathering so the father says how small he says the principal you and me I used to be invited to a lot of those small gatherings my father I didn't have the courage to tell my dad if I weren't sick by then he'd make me sick at that point this father is called up by a principal in India and told yo sir because the son was being suspended constantly so the father said why are you always suspending him he said because he's stealing things so what is he stealing pencils pens erasers paperclips reams of paper from the Earth from the school and say says I don't know why he would do that I could bring all of those things from the office for him and as soon as he said that he realized what he'd done he'd put his imprint upon his son and trained him to think that way and so it goes from favoritism to the breakdown of communication to deception and more boys on the run Jacobs on the run and he knows he's going to run for a long time to come but while he's running he sets this pillow down with a stone for it's for his pillow and he sound asleep and God speaks to him in a dream and when he wakes up from that dream he said he was going to call that place buy it ale the house of God he didn't know God was there even while he was running your first step when everything has gone wrong or things have gone wrong your first step will always begin in communion with the Living God communion with the Living God you know if you're told to meditate and sit in chant mantras and look inwards and all of that then you have just got a capital I the reason in the pantheistic worldview they don't really pray technically they cannot pray they have to meditate because they are part of the ultimate reality there's no I you there's only one big capital I so they look inwards there's union with the impersonal absolute that's the goal not so in the Christian faith this communion with the Living God and there I tell you the judeo-christian faith is the only combination of teaching which calls you to communion with the Living God in pantheism it's Union in the other major monotheistic you will never ever think of talking about communion with God it would be a blasphemous statement to them but God calls you and me to break that bread and to drink that cup and to do that in remembrance and me Christ in you the hope of glory that indwelling presence that came and tabernacled in the world offers to tabernacle within you you and I are the Temple of the Living God communion with God and he says you know what I didn't know God was right here this passage influenced the great poet Francis Thompson who was a drug addict was on opium though given a genius mind and applied to Oxford was turned down two or three times because he couldn't shake his opium habit he would live in two places at Charing Cross hanging out with the losers and the lost buying his drugs selling pencils bootlaces and all of that to buy the drugs to keep that habit going as an addict at night he would wrap his dead dirty raincoat around him in the chill nights and sleep by the river 10:00 in Tim's Charing Cross and Thames Charing Cross and Thames he's the one who wrote I fled him down the nights and down the days I fled him down the arches of the years I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my mind and in the midst of tears I hid from him under running laughter a Down Titanic blooms of fear up visted hopes I spread running from those strong feet the strong feet that followed after but one of his greatest piece of poetry was called the kingdom of God he wrote this or world invisible review thee a world intangible we touch thee or world unknowable we know the in apprehensible we clutch the desert or to find the ocean an ego plunge to find the air do we ask her the stars in motion if they have rumour of the their not whether healing systems darken or our been immed conceiving sores the drift of pinions would be hearken beats on our own clay shattered doors the angels keep their ancient places touch but a stone and start a wing does he does your estranged faces that amidst the many splendored thing but when so sad thou canst not sadder trying upon thy source or loss shall shine the traffic of jacob's ladder' between heaven and sharing cross the a in the night my soul my daughter cry clutching heaven by the hems lo Christ walking on the water not of gannett but Thames imagine that same imagery of the latter was given in the New Testament as well as the Son of Man and the angels ascending and descending communion with God God will track you down no matter how far you run if you will only pause long enough to know he is nearer to you than you realize they talk about the hiddenness of God we need to talk a lot more about the obvious nosov God he's here and he's like the Hound of heaven keeps following you following you following you I can guarantee you that this room will they will never end with testimonies tonight if we open up the microphone to see how God met us in a place where we never ever dreamed he would catch up with us of all the places I never dreamed of meeting God was on my bed of suicide when I was 17 years old he followed me right to that bed whenever I go to Delhi I always rent to taxi alone and I go and park in front of the hospital it used to be called Wellington Hospital then it's not quorum not Lohia hospital or something like that I park in front of that and I just look in there and I said Lord this we're all heaven when I was just seventeen God is following if you're running from him today stop he's got a ladder towards you and he wants you to look up and know he's trying to get you to commune with him communion with God secondly reunion with his brother you know he's running from Laban his father-in-law's messed up there to all kinds of things happened out there and now he's arrived made up somehow and he's running but he's all the story is quite intricate and now he's got to meet up with Esau he saws the hunter Jacob wasn't quite with muscles like watermelons and so he's going to meet up with Esau and you know in India they say never go empty-handed to visit a friend and even more so visiting an enemy you always have something in your hand they always bring you sweets in Hindi they say muévete muévete hakama in the mouth sweet mama should being a big tray of sweets and oftentimes the larger the tray you say oh oh what apology is coming now you know what's going on but that's probably exaggerated they do it at all of their festivals they do it to be courteous half of my suitcases wait when I go overseas his gifts to people my mother brought me up that way and I do have some regrets because I arrive with all these gifts and sometimes see I forgot my socks or my pajamas or something because it already weighed so much and so this boy's got all the gifts he's sending ahead to he saw he's softening him up before he gets there when he meets up with he saw in Oriya so says to him at that at one point or he says to Esau when he saw forgives him you know what he says I see in your face the face of God he'd betrayed him he cheated him and now when he says he sees in he saw the face of God here's the important thing that I think you and I need to remember and it is this that first he had seen his own heart because he'd prayed to God and said I'm not gonna let you go until you bless me and God said what is your name why he thought God knew everything he doesn't even know his name and I know because when he stole the blessing from a blind father he lied about who he was yeah that whistle is right now he is before an all-seeing God and God says alright I'll do I'll be out bless you who are you he says you've got me my name is Jacob God says I will make a great nation out of you this nation will never be great until it recognize the sin that is in our own heart and cause ourselves truthfully as sees us that is the first step in any revival and any turning to when we see our hearts the way God sees us the arrogance that we see today the hubris the pride the know-it-all and the mole we think we know the motion belated we get on the world scene only when we acknowledge before God how we can impoverished we are can God really turn to start helping us communion with God reunion with your brother I want to challenge you is there somebody with whom you're at loggerheads today it's only one thing you can do get a hold of that person and so look I'm sorry what am i my part isn't this you tell me what it is I will take the blame and I want to rebuild this relationship have you ever sat at a table where two hostile people are trying to make up try going to the Middle East today and be a bridge builder my goodness we sat across the table five of us from one of the sheiks I won't name him who spoke at Yasser Arafat's funeral was such an angry man and the Archbishop of Canterbury who took five hours sitting across the table talking to him at one point I just want to close my ears and say we are really not here just to listen to you we're hoping you leave and give us a little bit of a hearing the anger like a volcano of fire and brimstone spewing out until one is willing to say I'm sorry let's talk let's build we will always be killing each other for land and position and power and prestige the tensions in the Middle East go back for millennia after millennia because of the logic of unforgiveness communion with God reunion with the brother and lastly the transference of the trust to the next generation you know there comes a time I wrote this down one day and I told it to my son I said someday comes a time in life when the energy needed to perpetuate the convictions held in a family demand the strength of a younger mind and I repeat that for you there comes a time in life when the energy needed to perpetuate the convictions held in a family demands the strength of a younger mind for those of you who are in your younger years here and your values have come to you from your parents who love God and who serve God it'll be your responsibility to perpetuate those convictions and carry them forward vitally important that you carry the torch and carry the flame forward so when I looked at those thousands of young university students there's a tough world what are we seeing in politics today what are we seeing we're seeing the proverb product of the 70s and 80s of the Ivy League school radical liberalism that's what it is the radical liberalism we're all establishment is to be thrown away and the extreme left position is to be perpetuated you see if we go into politics we only talk about right and left we forget there's an up and a down that's what God calls you and me too to the up and the down and we must transfer the trust to the next generation whether you're doing it at the dinner table or whether you're doing it while you're watching a ballgame or whether you're doing it by the side of a loved one and there and their bedside you know even as I even as I'm speaking to you my mother-in-law's 96 years old she has four daughters my married to her daughter Margie number two Margie would have actually been here but she wanted so much to come as well but she's in Toronto because her mother 96 was hit by a car three days ago and is now in bed in a pretty bad way pretty bad way but you know for a mother to be that senior in her years and see her daughter standing around the bed to love her and be there for her Margie didn't even bat an eyelid she packed her bags and the next morning she was on a plane from Atlanta and she went to Toronto one of the doora they're all around they're young people you have a responsibility what did they say child his father to the man you become the parents of the next generation and this generation Jacob gathered his family around and instructed them and passed it on communion with God reunion with brothers transference of the trust I want to close with a prayer by Michelle Quist the French mystic I want you to give me your undivided attention it's a powerful prayer I have fallen Lord once more I cannot go on I will never succeed I'm ashamed and I don't dare look at you Lord and that I've struggled for I knew you were right near me bending over me watching but temptation blew in like a hurricane and instead of looking at you I turned my head away I stepped aside while you stood silent and sorrowful like the spurned fiance who sees his loved one carried off by his rival when the wind died down as suddenly as it had arisen when the Lightning ceased after proudly streaked in the darkness all of a sudden Lord I found my self alone ashamed disgusted with my sin in my hands this sin that I selected as a customer selects us purchase this sin that I've paid for but cannot return because the storekeeper is no longer there this tasteless in this odious and the sin that now sickens me that I once wanted but I want no more Lord I imagined sought played with fondled for a long time and I finally embraced while coldly bypassing you I embraced that sin my arms outstretched my eyes and heart irresistible drawn this sin that I've grasped and consumed with gluttony it's mine now but it possesses me as the spiderweb holds captive to fly it's mine sticks to me flows in my veins fills my heart it has slipped in everywhere as darkness slips into the forest at dusk and fills all the patches of light I cannot get rid of it I run from it like the master of an unwanted and mangy dog but it catches up with me and rubs joyfully against my legs everyone must notice it I'm so ashamed Lord that I feel like crawling to avoid being seen I'm ashamed of being seen by my friends I'm ashamed of being seen by you Lord because you love me but I forgot you I forgot you because I was thinking only of myself and one can't think of several persons at once one must choose and I chose but now your voice your look your love they hurt me they weigh me down they Rae me down more than my sin lord please don't look at me like that because I'm naked and dirty down and shattered with no strength left I dare make no more promises to you I can only stand bow before you come on son look up isn't it mainly a vanity that is wounded if you loved me you would grieve but you would trust me do you think that there's a limit to my love for you do you think for a moment I have stopped loving you but you still rely on yourself son you must rely on me ask my pardon and get up quickly you see it's not falling that is the worst but staying on the ground if you've fallen and you're sitting here saying Ravi that's me I've stumbled I've embraced sin and away in our dreamed of doing it and like that unwanted a mangy dog it rubs up against my legs fills in my heart like darkness fills the patches of my lighter dusk if you've got that reality in your mind God's telling you to get up you know what's even better he gets you up he gives you that energy just like Ezekiel son of man stand up and the Spirit of God entered into me and stood me up God will give you that you could be a man or woman of God as he is designed you to be if you will only trust him and believe that he wants to make your life the best for which he intended as you begin this new year will not make a new start and I'm going to pray with you father you've spoken to us tonight I have no doubt Lord I'm equally certain you have spoken on the other meetings here knowing just your servants who have ministered your word never returns empty but accomplishes that for which it was sent forth how can I thank your father for giving me the privilege of standing on the platform behind the pulpit of this great congregation you have blessed me and blessed my life through these men and women we thank you for it Lord and you know that comes from our hearts but most importantly father tonight there are those who need you individually and ladies and gentlemen I don't want to weigh make this long I don't want to make this long but if I'll take just one minute if God has spoken to you and you know you have to do business with him are not planned on doing this but I think I'd like of just one minute you stand up where you are and I'd love to close this meeting in prayer for you as you take this stand yes god bless you let's god bless you see several standing right on the back and upstairs on my right here further on my right right don't be fearful you're standing before the sovereign Lord who can transform your heart would you do that you do that if you're nervous to stand alone just tell the person next to you will you please stand with me I need to get things right right now just stand up quickly take another 30 seconds more thanks thankfully waiting I want to talk especially to young men will you begin this new year with a commitment that you're going to be a pure-hearted young man for God because I believe this world so desperately needs to look at young men who honor God and who honor the strength that God has given in them stand where you are if you're a young man needing to get right with God god bless you sir god bless - yes god bless you god bless you anyone else before I pray father I thank you for these were standing pour out deep conviction and in proportion to that the assurance let them meet you where they are Lord if they don't know you meet tonight be the night they find you as their Savior if they do know you but wandering afar off let them come in repentance to return to the father's house god bless Gateway may its best years be ahead plus its leadership thank you so much for their worship team how beautiful a job they do in bringing us to your feet with resounding praise may a Holy Spirit make this a great year 2016 and greater years ahead thank you once again for the honor you've given me to be here in Jesus name Amen god bless you and my brother thank you so much

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway Church, Pastor Jack, Southlake, Texas, DFW, Lord, God, Jesus, Christ, Church, Pastor Robert, Robert Morris, Raised To Run, Ravi Zacharias

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Length: 45min 57sec (2757 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2016