Recognize Your True Identity In Christ | Pastor Robert Morris Sermon

there's a war that's going on against our children today and if anyone should be helping them discover their identity and if you want to just know the bottom line is that their identity is that they were created with with certain inalienable rights by their creator they were created equal they were endowed with these rights and they are children of God if they'll believe in Jesus Christ that's their identity we're going to begin a a new series it's a 4-week series and the name of the series is what's my purpose and this is probably one of the most frequently frequent questions I get asked especially from young people is what's my how do I know my purpose how do I know why I'm here and so I'm not going to answer that for you today and I'm not even going to answer it for you during the four- we series because only God can answer that for you but I'm going to give you some things that God wants to do in your life so that you can find out what your purpose is and I want to make a statement about your purpose uh and that is your purpose I put this on the screen is not made up it's prayed down so you don't make up or come up with with whatever your purpose is you pray it down and this is a great time because in this series this weekend we're starting our 21 days of prayer and fasting and I I say this every year I'm asking you just to fast however the Lord leads you you know I had one uh person say to me I'm going to fast uh the internet for 21 days some of you just thought oh no i' I'd rather fast all food but um but just something a fast the reason we do a fast is it reminds us that we are consecrating that time to the Lord and to push into the Lord so I I really want you to pray about and come up with something you could fast could be just be desserts and that could be a sacrifice for you but something we're also beginning this weekend our devotional so 21 days of devotion all right and so I want you to think about that as well um and then I'm grateful that we're celebrating this weekend Martin Luther King day as we prayed at all of our campuses a moment ago and that's something that's to me it's amazing we're starting this weekend and that should be something that's always on our prayer list is for Unity in the body of Christ and unity in our nation so we can pray about that all right so this series about what's my purpose um back in the spring I heard my daughter Elaine preach a message on David at at Gateway Houston and I called her and said I want you to preach that at Gateway and we set it up for November and then in the summer during my study break is when the lord gave me parts of this series and told me to preach this uh and it would start in October and what I didn't realize was that she was going to come at the end of the series and and she had four points about David the field uh the palace the throne uh the field the palace the battle and then the throne those four points actually go along with the four messages in the series it's like the Holy Spirit planned it out so you could go back and listen to that message if you didn't get to hear it but I'm going to come about this from a little different perspective and that is I'm going to take you back to the very beginning of Gateway Church and that's not the first uh service that we ever had that's the prayer Center that uh was at Shady Grove Church which is now our Grand Prairie campus um and I was there for a day of prayer and fasting and that's when God spoke to me about planting Gateway Church and the Lord said I want Gateway Church to reach all generations to be a church of all generations and generations I've heard defined as 40 years or 70 years or 80 years all sorts of things but the Lord defined it for me that day uh differently and so I'm going to explain that to you and and and go into these these four areas all right but we'll do one a week um and it'll all makes sense to you uh at the beginning of a series you have to lay a foundation so if you if you've never preached a series just in case you ever do um you have to lay a foundation so that's what I'm doing so the Lord told me about I want the church to be a church that reaches the Abraham generation Isaac Jacob and Joseph and he defined it that way to me and I'm I'm going to show you how you defined it and I want to just you to think about this like this past Christmas we had those four generations at our home we had Debbie's mother her father's uh already in heaven we had my father and my mother's in heaven so we had that generation we had Debbie and I we had our grown sons and daughters there and their families and their and then their children so we had children parents grandparents and great-grandparents everyone follow me so I'm I'm that's the way I'm defining it all right so the Joseph generation for me and I'll put these on the screen so you can see them would be under 20 in other words our children under you so this is something God said to me I've never shared this with the church never shared this with the church uh I've shared it with our elders and our staff but never with the church we were to be a church church that focused on the Joseph generation or those under 20 children youth and then the Jacob generation would be 20 to 40 those 20 to 40 starting their families getting out of college starting their careers uh uh getting having getting going in the teenage years need a lot of prayer for that time you know things like that and then the Isaac generation be those 40 to 60 uh kids beginning to move away away from home get married becoming empty nesters things like that and then the Abraham Generation 60 and older so everyone following me so when I turned 60 a couple years ago the Lord told me you're beginning a new season and he gave me a word for that and he reminded me of this and I began to pray then about well I wonder if there's a word for the Isaac generation and and then the Jacob and this thing started taking off in me and then at the elders Retreat I was telling the elders I said I've got a word and of course they all begin with the same letter because that's the way God speaks we all know that to preachers that is so um so I've got a word for the Abraham generation the Isaac and Jacob and I'm telling the elders this I said but I don't have a word for the Joseph generation that would encapsulate what's in my heart and one of the elders after came up and said hey I I have a word I might just to submit to you and it begins with the same letter and I want to submit you and it's the word identity so the title of this message is identity and each week I'll just take you through one of these now please let me explain that this isn't um uh that God only wants to do this when you're under 20 but he would like to but there are some people in their 50s that still haven't discovered their identity so uh in in other words these will cross over age limits all right so um there's something so in my heart about how the enemy is fighting this under2 generation with their identity and so so I've got uh three points for you all right um and um the first one is uh you have a spiritual war now this is no matter what what age you are we're in a spiritual war Ephesians 6:12 says for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood in other words we don't wrestle against human beings so your war is never with a human whether the person saved or lost it's never with a human but against principalities against Powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual host of wickedness in the Heavenly places so the first part of this verse is so important because I'm going to talk about something today that you need to know that I'm not talking about people who have a different belief than I do or than the church does or than we do okay I'm not talking about people right now I'm talking about that the the enemy is going after this younger generation and going after their identity so I want you to think about the identity confusion right now that Satan is trying to put on the younger generation uh and I even want to talk about but not in a in an attacking way please hear my heart about people who might believe this but gender confusion if you had told me 20 years ago that someone would be confused about his or her gender I wouldn't have believed you that there's no one uh in in a in a labor and delivery room there's no one when a baby's born that's confused about that person's G uh agenda I mean I don't I'm not trying to get graphic here but it's obvious what gender that baby is so think about I'm not again I'm not talking about people I'm not talking about people who hold this belief I'm talking about Satan is going after this next generation and if Satan's going after him why isn't the church going after this generation why aren't we going after and this is something that's SP the heart of the elders and and we're I'll be rolling out some things that we're going to be doing financially to be able to reach this generation but uh it it is it's it's it's crazy you know that that that even behind our backs and when I say behind our backs because it it came as a surprise we found out that our schools were teaching things that were cacy I heard this comedian talk about it so you got to know that this was a comedian um and she was of Indian descent and she said her six-year-old came home from school and said Mom I have to go back and tell them how I identify and what my pronoun is well it's 6 years old I don't even think they've covered pronouns yet how would a six-year-old know so now you got to remember she's a comedian okay and she's of Indian descent she said you go back and tell them you identify as an Indian and your pronoun is Doctor that's pretty so so don't get mad at me okay I didn't say I'm just telling you what a comedian said and I thought it was funny because how's a six-year-old know what his pronoun is you know and then Debbie show me this thing on on uh Instagram where this guy talked about that his son you know decided he wanted wanted to be a pirate and so they were going to see if the hospital you know would cut off one of his hands for a hook and would cut off a leg for a peg leg you know well that's how crazy it is some of the things being said what if the next week he wants to be a surgeon what if he wants to be a cowboy what if he wants to what if he wants to what if he sees Dak press throw a Dak Prescott throw a touchdown he wants to be a dear God we pray for the Cowboys right now I'm joking but I'm serious lorda right okay how does a six-year-old know what he wants to be I'm just simply saying there's a war that's going on against our children today and if anyone should be helping them discover their identity and if you want to just know the bottom line is that their identity is that they were created with with certain inalienable rights by their creator they were created equal they were endowed with these rights and they are children of God if they'll believe in Jesus Christ that's their identity we uh we I'm talking about you know six-year-olds and uh so one of our grandchildren is six and when he was about a month before he turned six uh Elaine picked him up at kidney Garden along with the rest of the kids and on the way home he starts crying and uh he said and Elaine said hey buddy what's wrong and he said you missed my birthday and this was about 3 weeks or so 3 to four weeks before his birthday and she said no your birthday's not until next month he said no my birthday was today and you missed it and you know so she had to talk to him and talk him through that and a few weeks later later they had his birthday and she said now do you understand that today's your birthday he said yes and about a month later though she picked him up to school and he's crying and she said what are you crying about he said you missed my birthday and she said you had your birthday last month he said yeah but I had another one today he's had nine birthdays this year last year he had nine okay I'm simply saying I mean we we we don't we don't let our children vote uh until they're 18 we don't let them drive until they're 16 we don't let them drink until they're 21 why would we let them make a decision that could mutilate their bodies for the rest of their lives that's that's why that's why we have parents so there I just want you to know point one is you have a a spiritual war there's a war going on no matter what age you are here's point two you have a spiritual purpose you have a spiritual purpose Romans 1:1 Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God now just let's read it again Paul a servant a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set part to the gospel of God let me let me just put it this way he's what he's saying is what I am is a servant of Jesus what I am a servant of Jesus look look I'm going to put it on let's put that on the screen there what I am is a servant of Jesus what I do is I'm called to be an apostle and how I do it is I preach the gospel see what we all are we're all servants but he had a purpose and his purpose was to be an apostle and then he told us how he did it it it's so simple uh my I'll tell you what my purpose is I know what my purpose is and God told me this years ago my purpose is to help people know God by teaching the Bible That's how simple it is I teach the Bible that's what I do I teach the Bible um it is so uh important to me that I say know to a lot of things so that when I stand up here you get the Bible in a way you can understand it and I've actually taken criticism over the years because you know Pastor Robert doesn't come to this thing and he doesn't come to this thing and you know he doesn't do this he doesn't do that he the reason is you don't some of you may not realize I spend 20 to 25 hours on every message plus leading being a church this size plus being a leader in the body of Christ so I know that if you're not going to get a message that I just threw together in a couple of hours it's going to take a long time the other thing is I'm not putting down a pastor who doesn't spend as much time because a lot of pastors um they have to marry everyone bury everyone counsel everyone visit everyone so they don't have time there there are thousands and we know this for a fact thousands of pastors that use my outlines I'm glad they do I I'm like their research assistant it's fantastic but this is something God's called me to do because I know my purpose it keeps me on track I I say no to some things I I've worked on my purpose I've worked on gestures I I watch myself I learn I I have jokes timed out in my sermons to keep you from falling asleep your attention span if you didn't know it is 4 minutes and 30 seconds and I know that and so I I have worked on this craft this gift that God's given me this skill to be able to do what I do and it's not just Gateway Church but there are millions of people that are going to hear this message in every country in the world I mean it's with thatb me and I were flipping through the channels a while back and and there I was you know I'm on 67 times a week on 11 different networks and I just said to her isn't it amazing that right now right now I'm preaching in every nation in the world right now right now so so I'm my your purpose keeps you on track and then you get better at your purpose and you work on your purpose like when I was young you know I I I like titles that are catchy and I uh was preaching at a men's deal one time and I came up with this catchy title um and i' I've never done it again I've never used this title again and I'll tell you why in a minute I came because I'm telling men their responsibility according to the Bible and I I the title of the message was it's not your wife's fault and basically I was saying quit blaming your wife you have responsibility in your home and if you do what you're supposed to do God will take care of her you know it's not your wife's fault well I Debbie was saying what are you preaching at the Men's Conference I said I'm preaching it's not your wife's fault she said I like this title she said tell me your message and so I go over my message a lot with her and so I was going over it and you know things like that well a few weeks later at that time I was driving a truck and Debbie had used it the day for to go pick up some uh piece of furniture or something and put it in the back well I get in the truck and as soon as I get in it it's it starts dinging at me that it's out of gas you know and so I'm going to the gas station I get about a block from the gas station and it runs out so these men actually were got out and helped me push the truck up you know to the gas station and up a hill I'm my dad but um anyway uh we get the truck we get it filled up with gas I got home and I said to her um did was the truck uh beeping at you yesterday when you were driving she said yeah the whole way so did it ever enter your mind to you know put some gas in I said I ran out of gas today you know what she said it's not your wife's fault so I've never used that sermon title again it's a horrible sermon title I would not would I would not do that if I were you the point is I know what my purpose is my purpose is to teach the Bible the whole reason I use humor and illustrations is so that you'll hear the Bible because that's what'll change your life so you you have a war and you have a purpose and here's number three you have a spiritual identity you have a spiritual war you have a spiritual purpose and you have a spiritual identity now as I I said um uh Elaine preached on David and this is before I even knew this but I want I'm going to use David as a backdrop you know throughout this message when he's fighting Goliath 1st Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul let no one lose hard on account of this Philistine your servant will go and fight him Saul replied you are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him you are only a young man I'm trying I want to encourage you if you're only a young man or a young woman this is David most theologians believe he was 17 when he fought Goliath 17 in verse 42 when the Philistine looked about and saw David he disdained him because he was only a youth okay how did David killed this giant well yes he did some practical things he learned how to use a sling that's practical but how did he have the confidence well if you know anything about David he was a worshipper and before before he fought Goliath he was a worshipper as a matter of fact that was chapter 17 in verse in chapter 16 of 1st Samuel verse 16 it says let us find a good musician to play the heart that whenever the tormenting Spirit troubles you that's Saul there was an evil spirit a tormenting Spirit troubling him he well the good musician will play soothing music and you will soon be well again so how did they know that this probably 15 to 16y Old then was such a good worshipper because when they'd pass the field they'd hear him worshiping so how did David come to know the Lord is my Fortress and my rock a strong tower in whom I trust how did David know that because he entered the presence of God I'm just giving you a a key to knowing your identity no matter what age you are but especially if you're a young person don't let anyone look look down on your youth because God has a purpose for you but the first purpose for you is to understand your identity and your identity is in Christ but the only way you're going to know that is to get into his word and his presence and the more you get into his word and his presence the more you're going to understand that when a a giant comes at you you're going to say you come at me with a sword and a spear but I come at you in the name of the Lord God of Israel and you'll be able to defeat any giant that comes against you because you've been spending time with the Giant Slayer New Testament says it this way 1 Timothy 4:12 don't let anyone look down on you because you're young don't let anyone look down I I want to say to all of our young young people you're important at Gateway Church you've always been important at Gateway Church God spoke to us from the very beginning when I was the only one in that prayer Center there weren't any Elders there weren't any staff there was no one else I was the only one in that prayer Center when God said I want you to plant a church and call it Gateway Church and he said that I wanted to be a church that ministers to all generations to those over 60 to those 40 to 60 to those 20 to 40 and those under 20 it it's amazing to me that the last two speakers that have stood in this the last and two out of three that have stood in this pull pit have spoken I mean guest speakers so these two spoke about the Next Generation and I got a little clip here it's less than a minute but last weekend if you didn't hear Sammy rod RZ he spoke just part of his message was almost the same wording that back in December Jensen Franklin spoke and by the way I want to commend you on something you know one week we had in in December we had Max Luc and the next week we had Jensen Franklin and if you couldn't tell they're from different backgrounds but I'll never put someone in the pull pit that I don't know I've known them both personally for years and I know they're men of God and and Max has this kind of um he has a delivery that might be familiar to the delivery of the pastor where you used to attend church or grew up with and Jensen has a delivery that might be familiar to the one where you grew up with or you attended but what I love about Gateway Church is we're not looking at the package we're listening to the Holy Spirit and I just want to commend you for that don't don't don't ever dismiss the person or think about the the wonderful women of God that we've had even this last week at First Lisa Harper don't ever dismiss the package because of age ethnicity or gender ever ever because God has something to say to us I just want to show you a clip of of of Jensen now we're getting right into the I'm just showing you a clip so you got to understand they're both really wound up when they're saying this and we're jumping in so don't don't let that bother you right so they're wound up but I want you to listen to the holy spirit this is what the Holy Spirit was saying the Gateway through the last two guest speakers that were here so w watch this this can't be happening to our home because it's time for the church to get loud again it's time for the church to say Satan you can't have my family you can't have my marriage you can't have my children but I heard the Lord say in my spirit to believe for a 10,000 Soul teenage youth Revival your sons will be there your daughters you I don't know how God's going to do it Generation Z will not be The Lost Generation your children will not go to hell your children and your children's children will have an encounter with the Risen Savior our children will be saved let's believe God for our children our children's children where whatever age you are let's believe God and Jensen said the Lord spoke to me this for Gateway Church a t 10,000 souls in 2024 10,000 Souls with with with with the with the influence and the reach that we have with not just our campuses but online and through television we could see 10,000 young people come to Christ so I want you to believe with me but I just want to share just a personal illustration about identity I got saved in 19 and at 20 years old I I it had not been quite a full year since I got saved it had been 10 months I was already preaching in larger churches and things and and I joined the staff of James Robinson who's one of our Apostolic Elders who was preaching Crusades uh if you you see him now on television James and Betty and they do a lot of help uh help with Nations uh drilling water wells and feeding and things like that before that though he was doing a lot of large Crusades like Billy Graham and um so I would go in and do school assemblies and and invite kids to the Crusades and I would do F School assemblies but I would talk about drugs alcohol morality things like that not about uh Christ but and then I would meet with the athletes and cheerleaders and talk to them about coming and inviting the whole school and we would have a lot of teenagers come to the Crusades and then pretty soon I was speaking in Crusades myself when I was 20 21 22 years old you know and uh I but I was given the title of associate evangelist with James Robinson and again if you don't if you didn't know he was in that Crusade era it'd be like associate evangelist with Billy Graham you know so to be in in your early 20s and be given that title uh it kind of went to my head you know and to go into you know coliseums you know 10,000 seek coliseums in your early 20s and they're packed you know it started going to my head and uh so when I was 25 I had to step out of minut Ministry and get some things straight in my life and of course one of the things the root was was Pride you know um but the what I did was I I went back to James's Ministry and became the morning supervisor of the prayer center from 5:00 a.m. until 2: p.m. I didn't even know 5:00 a.m. existed before that um and that's when I had to be at work I had to be there before for that you know um but over the whole the prayer Center but over some other areas also was James's son-in-law Terry Redmond and so on Sunday mornings we people would come volunteers would come because James was main was own all during the week but Sunday mornings was a big time and we would answer the phones and pray for people and so toward the end of it Terry was beside me and I was there other people you know and this lady said to me on the phone Your Voice Sounds Familiar and um she said I feel like I I've heard your voice somewhere um she said are you a preacher or you know and so I said to her well I am I'm an associate evangelist with uh James and she said oh yes I've heard you preach and I've seen you on his program and so when I hung up Terry had taken his phone off the hook which like if you had to go to the bathroom or take a break and then it would just go to another phone and someone else would answer the call and he said hey take your phone off the hook for me and I want to ask you something and so I said okay and so he said why did you tell that lady that you were an associate evangelist with James and I said well you know when I when I left you know staff uh here James told me I could you know continue to use that title and you know he said no no I I understand he said I'm not talking about the validity of the title I I understand you still have that title I'm wondering why did you feel the need see you need brothers and sisters in your life this is what church is about he said why' you feel the need to tell her you were an associate evangelist with James and I said well she you know she said she recognized my voice and all and I said I guess I just thought it would would bless her you know and uh then I said you know James Terry is James Robinson's son son-in-law and so I said don't you ever tell anyone that calls in that you're james' son-in-law and Terry said no and I said well don't you think it would would bless them like to know that they actually were talking to James Robinson's son-in-law and Terry said to me well then they're being blessed for the wrong reason and he said if my prayer does bless them then something's wrong in my life but in me being related to someone who famous blesses them that's the wrong reason and he said Robert I'm I'm proud of you that you know you stepped out of ministry to get these areas of your life straight but he said I think God wants to take you back to that motel room when you got saved before you were an associate evangelist for James Robinson and he wants to teach you that you're a child of God and that's the highest calling you could ever have and I've never forgotten that and to this day it doesn't matter how many people I preach to it doesn't matter a new book or anything like that I'm a Christian and you're a Christian and I'm just trying to show you some things that the Lord has shown me need to help you my identity is that I'm a Child of God you have to get this in your life no matter what age you are but he'd like to get this in your life when you were young like David let me just tell you one more thing about David just to shock you you ever read the book of Psalms do you know what the word Psalms means songs songs who wrote most of the Psalms not all but who wrote most of them David did you know that some of the Psalms were written when David was 11 to 14 years old I want to say to our young people don't let anyone look down down on you because you're young because God has a purpose for your life I want you to Bow your heads and close your eyes thank you I want you to just do like we do every weekend and just say holy spirit what are you saying to me and again I'm in that Abraham generation but I still have to know that my identity is not in what I do it's in who I am and who I am like Paul said is a servant of Jesus Christ I may be called to be an apostle or to be a prophet or to be a teacher or something like that but who I am is a servant of Jesus Christ Christ so what's God saying to you let's at the beginning of the year put our identity back in being children of God and let's as a church take these next 21 days and pray for our children and youth let's go to war because Satan's going after him so we're going to go after him Lord I want to tell you thank you thank you thank you when I was 19 years old you changed my life in that motel [Music] room and I'm so grateful God and Lord I want to come in agreement with this word that you spoke through your servant Jensen Lord will you give us at Gateway Church this year 10,000 teenagers come to Christ come home get on fire for God however you want to do it Lord we pray for a Revival our nation needs a Revival and wouldn't it be great if it started with the Davids at 17 and 11 and 14 and the Joseph's who got a dream when he was 17 and the Marys who got pregnant with Jesus many you believe when she was 14 years old Lord we pray that you'll do something in the Next Generation and the next and the next and in our generation in Jesus name amen hey everyone I'm Pastor Robert and thank you so much for watching my YouTube channel be sure to share what God is teaching you in the comments below so that might encourage others and click the Subscribe button and then tap the Bell icon so that you'll be notified every time a new video is posted and don't forget you can watch full episodes anytime right here on my YouTube channel thanks again for watching

Channel: Pastor Robert Morris

Views: 61,475

Keywords: pastor robert morris, robert morris, robert morris sermons, pastor robert morris sermons, what's my purpose?, find your purpose in god, find your identity, find your identity in christ, how to find your identity in christ. expectation arena, how to find your true identity, reaching the next generation for christ, identity crisis, pastor robert morris 2024, robert morris sermons 2024, whats my purpose in life god, faith, god, jesus, rm76, r7m6, pr76m, r67m, 76rm, gateway church

Id: M298PW25etM

Length: 40min 52sec (2452 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2024