Robert Morris – The Family Of God – Blessed Families

all right I want you to turn to John chapter 8 in your Bibles and we're finishing up the series blessed families next week I'll do a Christmas message and then we'll have our production and our candlelight service the next two weekends after that but this is the last message in the series blessed families now if you're at the South Lake campus you don't know if you notice if the other campuses but the stage is a little higher it's because of our Christmas production and so I feel a little bit farther away and I'll have to really to try to spit on you guys so I have to really go for it here but they tell me this stage can actually just kind of spin you know where it spins around so if that happens while I'm preaching please keep listening and I'll just come back around alright so it'll it'll work out so we've been in this series called blessed families and I couldn't leave this subject without talking about the ultimate blessed family and that is the family of God the family that by His grace Titus says it this way not by works of righteousness which you have done but by His mercy he saved us by His grace we've all become a part of this family now but we were raised in another family now I'm not talking about your biological family I'm talking about a spiritual family we were born in the family of Adam and Eve after the fall and now we've been born again into the family of God think about Moses who was a Hebrew and yet he was raised by an Egyptian family that didn't know God was a pagan culture and society worshiped many false gods and then he finds out wait a minute this isn't your real family and Hebrews 11 talks about how he chose them not to be called the son of Pharaoh's wife not to associate with that family anymore and I'm we're not talking about Egyptian people were bad or anything like that we're just simply talking about they didn't know God so he was raised in that family and all of a sudden he finds out no I'm not a member of that family I'm a member of this family he had to retrain himself so I want you to follow this example because I didn't get save till I was 19 years old for 19 years even though I was in a a Christian home still I was in the family of the world and then came to Christ and found out why I belong to a new family and this is really good family so I want to talk with you something about that so we'll get to John eight in a minute but let me read you a few scriptures before we get there Ephesians 2:19 says now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners this is specifically speaking to Gentiles you're no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God this word household is actually referring to family matter of fact I read this and I just my daily reading today in the New Living Translation and it says the word family you're now members of the family of God and what I'm hoping is throughout this message it dawns on you what it means to be a member of the family of God and on me as well here's Ephesians 3 verses 14 and 15 for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named sob Alma needs to Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth those have already gone on to heaven and those on earth have been named we got our name from Christ were called Christians they were first called Christians in Antioch but they were Christian the word Christian means christ-like like Christ so we get our name we now have the name of God in the course like like you you marry in their family and your last name changes see that that's this is just kind of exploding in me right now to think that I've got God's name and I'm part of his family from now when when all of our when our two sons and daughter got married we talked with their future spouses before the mayor and we said you're marrying into a family and this family has a name and this name is associated with the kingdom and so you need to understand some things because people are gonna recognize you now because you're a part of this family and I remember we were talking about it I can't remember which one said but one of them said because they were they brought up a story about Josh so let me tell you I guess the story first so you'll understand because it's something that we joke with Josh about all right so josh and my oldest son he'll be planting the church in Austin you know in January but about ten years ago he worked in our media department and he did the video commercials that you see that's what he's jobless so he never preached from the platform nobody really knew him or recognized him because he he was in the video Department of the church and so one morning he's on his way to church and he's running a little late and so he's going a little faster than he should and so he gets pulled over and the officer said to him do you have any reason for driving fastest this morning and he said well and it's written law a good reason obviously but I'm late for work and the police officer said where do you work and he said uh Gateway Church and then the officer looked down at his driver's license and saw his last name and he said man I can't give my pastor son a ticket so when we were talking to those marrying into the family then they'll say you know it's a joke does this mean I get out of tickets you know so I hope so no I'm kidding you no no it doesn't mean that doesn't mean that Ethan all right here goes so here's what it does mean no here's what it means to marry ends the family of God all right so here's number one we are born into a family of unconditional love when you get saved you're born into a family of unconditional love by God and by others from God and from others okay so let's let's address this for a moment the others though are our brothers and sisters in Christ and they're still human so there are times when brothers and sisters don't act in unconditional love I understand that but there's never a time that your father does it God loves you unconditionally this truth it it took years for this to dawn in my life it took years for me to figure out because for those 19 years you live in the world before I could before was for me before I got safe it was conditional love it was performance-based love but not in the kingdom of God it's unconditional love last week pastor Jimmy Witcher is here preached a great message out of John 3 and RIT referenced the greatest verses a Bible verse 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life okay that's unconditional love for God so loved the world the world here let me read to this Romans 5:8 says it this way but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners while we were still sinners Christ died for us that's unconditional love in other words God didn't wait to see if you would straighten up and fly right to give his son he gave his son while we were still sinners while we were still mocking him and spitting on him and nailing into a cross that's it's unconditional you can never do anything that would cause God not to love you Romans hey nothing I'm convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God not life not death not principality or power nothing in heaven or earth nothing and nothing you do please hear me you can't blow it bad enough for God not to love you no matter what you do no matter if you blew it this last week or yesterday God loves you you'll never get away from the love of God I told our children when we were young a little expressive you know what it's thinking half and Elaine the microphone we'll just we'll find out here if she learned it or not so when my children were young this is my daughter Lea well my children were young I would say every night or most most nights I would say how does daddy love you and what do you say with all his heart no matter what forever and always that's right this year the question mark at the end no forever as that is I saw a dancer okay say it again how does daddy love you with all of his heart no matter what forever and always that's right and then I would say and how does God love you with all of his heart no matter what forever and always you get it ital my kids they could say it all the time how does daddy love you with all his heart all of his heart never holding anything back no matter what you ever do and forever and always I'll never stop loving you and how does God love you that's the way God loves you this this would change our life if we could catch this God loves us unconditionally there's a little verse in Luke 6 that's a favorite verse to me I have lots of favorite verses you'll notice when you hear me preach but that's one of my favorite ones you know you're kind of you're probably thinking I don't understand why that one's favorite well let me just tell you Luke 6:35 for he is kind to the unthankful and evil he is kind to the unthankful and evil now before an image of a person comes to your mind that you think yeah God is kind to the unthankful and Eve okay before an image comes to your mind look in the mirror cuz I haven't always been thankful and I haven't always done the right thing but he's always been kind always I have a friend of mine that called me one day and he's a great guy and he said hey I'm having some problems with my son I want your counsel I said okay he said well he's failing out of college and I just got phone call that he's in jail for a whole bunch of unpaid parking tickets and I'm thinking about going down and picking him up and taking him back to college taking his car away from him so he can't drive until he pays all the parking tickets so I just kind of feel like it's time for some tough love and there there are times for tough love but I got this sense in my spirit I said you know I think this is a time for unconditional love he said what do you mean I said I think if you ought to go down and pick him up pay all of us finds all of us tickets is about don't take me back to college take him home with you and tell him I want you to know that everything's paid in full you never have to pay me back for it and I feel like that there's something going on in your life right now and I haven't been listening to you and I'd like to ask you to forgive me for not listening to your heart and I'd like for us to talk about what is in your heart and his son started crying and he said dad I don't know what to do but I just feel like you're kind of pushing me in a direction he said well what do you want to do he said I don't know he said could I just maybe his dad traveled a lot he said but I just travel with you for a few months and just talk some he said yeah let's do that so after a few months his son said to him that I've decided I know what I want to do they said what do you want to do by the way what his father does is actually helps in presidential campaigns in Central and South America he's helped over 20 people get elected to the presidency in countries he's on CNN and Fox News and MSNBC and all that you know it's a a commentator he said like to do what you do but I think I'm gonna have to go back to college to do that so he went back to college got his bachelor's degree and his master's degree and now he works with his dad totally changed now I know there's time for tough love I understand that there are times also to say your debts been paid and I love you and I want to rebuild our relationship so we're born into this family of unconditional love here's number two were born into a family of unmerited favor we're boring into a family of unmerited favor adopted portly adopted into a family and the reason I said adopted because this is important because the Bible refers just says born and adopted so I'm gonna really focus on in a moment that God had opted us were adopted into a family of unmerited favor now that's the definition grace it's completely unmerited we didn't deserve it look at this word adopted though Ephesians 1:5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself Galatians 4 6070 because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts cry out and this is the spirit of his son in a crime out abba father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ ok first of all I want to just key in on this phrase Abba Father it's in Galatians 4 Romans say but it starts in mark 14 the first time it's ever mentioned Jesus said it and he said he sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father Abba Father what is ABBA mean Abba is the Aramaic word for father most of you might not know this well might I don't know it's most of you but many of you might not know Jesus spoke Aramaic at that time the language of the day was Aramaic and there were three languages spoken Jesus time Hebrew Aramaic and Greek most time Greek was used for writing there were 10 cities that we know spoke Greek the end the Decapolis deca meaning TN city polish mean cities ten cities the ten Greek cities spoke Greek some other regions spoke Greek and the Bible New Testament was written in Greek some Jewish people spoke Hebrew they say about 20% of people at that time Jewish people spoke Hebrew but it wasn't spoken that language today was Aramaic jesus spoken Aramaic so Abba is simply the Aramaic word for father that's what it is and Jesus is the first one never uses these Father here in the Greek is the father in other words it has the article v in front of it even though it's not translated that way it's faux patre so the father here's what he was saying I think he was saying father in the language that he spoke father the father I think what Jesus was saying was you're not only the father you're my father and he was making it very personal and then Paul writing in Galatians and in Romans says and now you can also call him father he's not just the father he's not your father you remember one of the first things Jesus said after the resurrection he said to Mary go tell my disciples I am ascending to my father and your father from now and he's your father let look at this verse first grant second Corinthians 6:18 I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughter says the Lord all night has it ever really dawned on you that you're a son or a daughter of God that God is your father you realize what that means now I know it's difficult for some because you had a bad father and if you did I'm very very sorry about that and what I'm going to talk about that in a moment if you had a bad biological father but the true father a loving father a protective father a providing father a giving father an unconditionally loving father and the father of all the father that holds everything that speaks and creates is your father I'm telling you I'm hoping that it just keeps like just your revelation just keeps how much I love God I am I am a child of God now I grew up with a good father and my father owned the company I worked for the company but I never saw myself really as an employee because I was the son of the owner of the company I knew it when I drove up to the building my name was on the building - was my last thing now I didn't get paid like he did but I still knew who my father was and I knew when I walked in yes he was my boss but he was my dad - I grew up with that knowing that a funny story would go to college and then come back and work full-time at the company during the summers and the first day back one summer there was a new foreman and we were all in this trailer kind of like you see these trailers on job sites and we were having lunch and some of the most the guys probably in there knew that my dad owned the company but this new Foreman didn't know he'd come home you know I was at college and so we're sitting in there and my dad drives up and this Foreman says well here comes mr. big I probably shouldn't have done this but I said so who's mr. big they said all JP that was my dad's initials JP mr. Morris he said he owns the company and that's what this Foreman says he thinks he runs things around here but actually I'm the one that runs things around here I said that's good to know so my dad stuck his head to the door and said hey to everyone how you guys doing so good maybe he turned to me and he said hey since it's your first day back from college I wanted to see if you wanted to go to lunch son I said I'd love to dad have you ever watched color drained from someone's face it's cool I told this guy said you might call him mr. big I call him dad he was really nice to me the rest of the summer episode listen your dad is more than the owner of the company he's the owner of the world and the universe and all that dwell therein he owns it all that's your dad now go shock you with this though you might not know who your dad was before you got saved you know who your dad was before you got saved sacred or some you're thinking yeah I always thought that no no not that not your biological father your spiritual father let me show it to you straight from Jesus this is Jesus John 8 verse 38 I speak what I've seen with my father and you do what you've seen with your father they answer instead Abraham is our Father jesus said if you were Abraham's children you would do the works of Abraham by the way you what the works of Abraham were to believe in Jesus they believed Jesus you say wait he says abraham believed God it was killing him you know who that was that was the son of man that came and met with him and told him your wife's gonna have a child that was Jesus he believed Jesus that's the works of Abraham but now you seek to kill me a man who's told you the truth which I heard from God which is what do you did with Abraham Abraham did not do this in other words when I told him the truth he believed me you do the deeds of your father then they said to him we were not born to fornication we have one father God jesus said if God we're your father you would love me then verse 44 he makes it real clear to him you are of your father the devil so for 19 years not my earthly father but my spiritual father was Satan and he was abusive and he was angry he was a tormentor he was an accuser come on you know what I'm talking about if you listen if you were born in a bad family you need to know something everything bad that ever happened to you was Satan and I'll tell you something else too if you were born in a good family everything bad that ever happened to you was Satan but say father every all your AR all your fear all your insecurities all your inferiority or your rejection or your guilt all your bitterness or your impurity I was all from the father you used to have but you now have a good father and you've been adopted into this new family we have some friends here in the church that adopted a girl from another country she wasn't a baby when they adopt her she was a girl living in an orphanage he brought her home first of all she was surprised because she had her own room couldn't even fathom having her own room been in the orphanage or her whole life they told us this story that a few months after she'd been living with him they discovered that when she would help him clean the table at night she was actually taking food up to her room and hiding in a room because she didn't know if there'd be food the next day and then they bought her some really nice clothes and one day they were looking for a one of her nice dresses to wear and mother said we're sure worse this dress little girl picked up the mattress that she had hidden a dress under the mattress as she didn't know someone would steal her nice dress say she'd been living in a different family she was adopted in a new family but it took her a long time to get used to the new family or y'all follow me this is the way it is when we get saved here's the third thing were transferred into a family of unearned blessings transferred into a family now here's what I used the word transferred Colossians 1:13 says for here s he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son now because we're doing that family let's just say it another way he's transferred us from the family of Darkness we all used to live in a family of darkness he's transferred us into the family of his son we've been transferred into a new family and it's a family a blessing remember you've got in Genesis 3 the fall before Genesis 3 1 & 2 Genesis 1 basically the creation of everything Genesis 2 kind of reveals the creation of man and woman Genesis 3 the first spark to fall and then the curses after the fall then Genesis 4 Cain killing his brother Abel sin house shows that how sin affected the family immediately Hey but in Chapter 1 after God creates Adam and Eve the very first thing he did did you know the first thing he did verse 28 then God blessed them first thing he did was blessing right after the fall the first thing God does is he lets them know the curses that they brought on themselves now he doesn't curse him he lets them know you've now brought these curses on yourself by the way the last word of the last sentence of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament is cursed look it up for yourself the very last word in the Old Testament Malachi 4 6 is cursed the first word in the first sentence of the first sermon in the New Testament is blessed blessed is those blessed are those 4 poor in spirit save them saying Jesus comes to remove the curse here here's the way Galatians says equations 3 verse 13 and 14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith okay so the blessing of Abraham here's the blessing he God appears to Abraham in Genesis 12 says leave your family leave your family and go to another land that I'm gonna show you and it's a land forming milk and honey do you know what part of the curse was the land is not going to produce for you he comes to Abraham and says let me take you to a new land I don't know how many of you have ever been to Israel but it's amazing to see all the desert around it and then this land that is so fertile it's not cursed to you now you still have to plant your seed yourself to water it but it's now blessed just like that girl that got adopted do you realize how many Christians don't understand this you are not living in a cursed family anymore you are living in a blessed family and God is your father he's chaste at all God's your father and he adopted you into this new family it's unearned blessings you didn't earn him you work but you don't earn him he just blesses you but you've been adopted so let me just remind you for a moment about adoption okay so you can be grateful by the way let me read one more scripture because I just I couldn't leave this series without reading the scripture Psalm 68 verse 6 God places the lonely in families so no matter no matter what your marital status is no matter how young or old no matter what biological family you came from you're in a new family now you don't have to ever be lonely again because God places the lonely and family sits the family of God so let me remind you about being adopted give you an example the children don't adopt the parents the parents adopt the children now this is an important theological truth but because you need to know something you did not adopt God into your life God adopted you you didn't choose God by the way either you chose to believe but you didn't choose God God chose you now Jesus says it very clearly as a cyclist you did not choose me I chose you God chose you before you ever chose him and that's that's good for me because I had a lot of rejection around I was never chosen you know how you used to divide up the interview some of you might know my pain right now you know how I used to always hate when they said hey we'll just divide up and choose teams oh great there's only the last one chosen I just knew it and by if you were an athlete I hate you so you're I just just just to clarify how I feel about you just just so you know so then I always be standing there with one other person does anyone can anyone relate to this one other person just me and one on this one other you know I'm just standing there please God please don't let me be why is one chosen finally they'd say something like this alright we'll take Robert y'all can have the girl thank God for the girl but that's not the way God chose you he chose you first but in adoption you don't you don't line up the parents and say to the little boy now Johnny wish mommy and daddy do you won't and Johnny said well see I don't that Mommy and I want that daddy doesn't work that way the parents choose the child but here's what happened remember whose child you were before you became God's self so God came to the adoption agency the orphanage of the world he pointed down at you and said said little girl right there don't that little girl right there and Satan what said something like this oh you know I don't know how she got mixed in with the rest of them but you can't have that little girl right there see that little girl it's my little girl God said but not with that little girl and God move what kind of a father he was and God knew that he abused you he said I want that girl right there but Satan would have said something like this oh you want that girl all right I'll tell you what I'll tell you what make a deal with you I'll give you my little girl if you'll give me your little boy your only boy but just so you're we're clear about this let me tell you what I'm gonna do to your son I'm gonna beat him I'm gonna spit on him and I'm gonna nail him to a cross until he dies now you still want that girl and our father said yes I want that girl right there and you're in a new family I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes I want you to just take a moment and just ask the Holy Spirit what are you saying to me and some of you might just want to tell the Lord thank you God thank you for choosing me thank you for adopting me out of the family the spiritual family and for some of us even the Bible yes I mean you might feel like even the biological family gave them thank you God I'm a part of your family now what's God saying to you we want to pray with you every service the the altars have just been packed it just indicates to me that God's doing more than I know what all he's doing during a message or through a message so I just want to encourage you if you need prayer for any area of your life to be your finances could be health could be a job could be marriage situation family situation could be an inner healing situation from abuse could be something to do with your biological family I don't know but if you need prayer for any area of your life no matter which campus you attend we're gonna have one more worship song as soon as we stay on you just stand up step out and start heading toward the front of that campus and we're gonna have people at the front of every campus and every overflow room to pray with you if you need prayer and obscure me you know I for you a member of Gateway Church come for prayer you're not a big bad sinner if you come for prayer we're all humans we all need prayer we'll never go to church and not give prayer because you're ashamed don't ever be ashamed of asking for prayer we all need prayer and there gonna be other people coming you'll see as soon as we stand up you'll see people walking toward the front so if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up you just stand up we're gonna have one more worship song you just stand up and step out to come to the front let us pray with you Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus right now that needs prayer in Jesus and amen

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Love, Blessed Families, The Family Of God

Id: V_skPQlPFKg

Length: 34min 10sec (2050 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2018