Robert Morris – The Priority Of People

I have these kind of standalone messages so if you want to turn to Luke 15 and later we'll be in Luke 19 I want to share with you a message that I feel like the Lord gave me called the priority of people the priority of people this last week I met with dr. rice Brooks you might not recognize the name dr. Brooks wrote a book called God's not dead they became a movie and their budget for was like 1.5 million to do the movie and it's done over 120 million in revenue now that's not the that we're not talking about a financial factor I'm trying to say how many people have gotten to see the movie and then they did another one God's not dead - and now there's a third one coming out in serious he told me this last week he said we're gonna be like Rocky we're gonna have God's not dead really God's not dead now God's never died you know easily so we're gonna just keep on going with it so so there'll be another one this spring that'll come out I think it'll be a different title though so but dr. Burks wrote his doctoral dissertation on the gift of the Evangelist Ephesians 4 talks about the gifts of Jesus we talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit we believe in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit but we also believe the gifts of Jesus which are the apostle prophet evangelist pastor and teacher we seem to focus much Lee today on the pastor and teacher mostly on those but dr. Bruce talks about the Evangelist so he's going to be here at first conference and then he's going to be coming back for four Saturdays throughout the year to train people in the gift of the Evangelist and I some of you have that gift and we want to help identify that gift you and you and and help you operate in a gift but let me say this about that some people are have the gift of intercession not everyone does some do but we all pray would you agree with that okay so some had the gift of an evangelist but we all witness so I really have something my heart about God stirring us up again for the Lost stirring us up again for lost people and seeing lost people to Christ so this summer is well my study break is when the Lord started speaking this message to me that I'm going to share with you today and let me tell you how I started speaking to me it's gonna shock you we were all the family was around you know we have three kids who are married so that's six grown children and eight grandchildren and we were talking about Texas about the blue bonnets about the Hill Country when you just talking about the blue bonnets in the Hill Country pretty soon you're gonna talk about the blue bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls and then you're going to talk about Luckenbach Texas and if you don't want Luckenbach you're gonna talk about Willie Nelson so this is what we were doing that was very spiritual on our family vacation we start till not Willie Nelson and Fay our favorite Willie Nelson songs and my favorite Willie Nelson song again I have three grown children in the marriage law six children two of them had never heard my favorite Willie Nelson song so my point is we were talking about that I went to bed you know how you have a song going through your mind you were always on my mind and I started thinking what's always on my mind let's always on your mind you know if we had the ability you know we have television cameras here if we had the ability to point a camera at you and what was on your mind came up on the screen okay relax we don't have that technology okay we don't have that technology but if we did for some of you would be family and sometimes during different seasons it's different things that's kind of always on your mind right okay so it could be your family could be your business is struggling it could be a health situation could be your marriage you know could be things like that but if we if we pointed a camera at Jesus and it would come up on the screen what would come up on the screen people people were always on his mind and again as I say we go through different seasons when you fell in love again since we're talking about Texas you if you were in Texas when you fell in love it was either Bubba or Bertha when my son was young Jane's I've told you before he's a fisherman fishing was always on his mind he got up early on Saturday mornings he watched every fishing show but he learned how to fish he could catch fish matter of fact a man in our church took him fishing a while back and they were catching some and he James said can we go to another part of the lake I saw on the way out here and the guy said you know what I remembered your stories about James being this great fisherman so I said okay so he said we went to another part of the lake and I said James I don't think I've ever seen anybody fishing over here and James went like this mmm and then he called this fish and then he called this fish and then he caught this fish and he called eight fish like that and the guy said to me I thought it's funny the way he said he said Robert I just wants to know I've never doubted your stories about James but I'll never doubt him again so when he was young fishing was always on his mind but you think about just think about it with me for a moment Jesus everywhere he went what was on his mind people people matter of fact he said two fisherman who had fish on their mind you've had fish on your mind you're gonna have people in your mind for the rest of your life I'm gonna change it and we'll change your mind Mark 6 verse 34 says in Jesus when he came out saw many people and was moved with compassion towards them because they were a sheep not having Shepherd he began to teach them many things we were talking to elders this last week I said my life purpose is to teach God's work that's my life purpose to teach people God's worth the reason I love to teach God's word is because I love people it's not that I love teaching I love people I love helping people I love to teach people you know I don't love to teach dogs you know or cats I'd hate to eat cats you know teach a cat you know lease a dog would look at you like he's kind of interested you know but uh so anyway even on the most difficult day of Jesus's life on the cross he had people in his mind think about it he had his mother's welfare on his mind he told John to take care of his mother he's nailed to a cross he has his mother on his mind he has the thief beside him on his mind he has the people who nailed him to the cross on his mind because he said the famous prayer father forgive them let me just take the pronoun them and replace it with the noun father forgive these people they don't know what they're doing so why did Jesus have people on his mind so much why well I've got I got three reasons of course you knew I'd have three so I got three reasons here's the first reason the heart of the father jesus knew the heart of the father better than anyone ever had would you agree with that he knew the heart of his father everywhere he went he's trying to reach people you know when we started the church I started with a motto that still our motto today it's not a vision statement our mission statements just a motto we're all about people and in the early days and some people question me and say well shouldn't we be all about God I said we are all about God but if we're all about God then we should be all about what God's all about the gods all about people everywhere Jesus went he we focused on people every time he thought that the Pharisees were placing a higher value on something rather than someone he would correct them a you know they placed a high value on the law here's what he was saying hey guys the law people weren't made for the law remember the Sabbath was part of law people are made for the Sabbath to Sabbath made for people he just sees that she's always trying to bring him back to the father's heart the reason we gave that was to get people it's all about people one time Jesus was denied passage through Samaria I hope you remember this but here's what his disciples said you almost call down fire on him Lord here in essence is what he said you don't know the heart of my father very well do you I wouldn't be the heart of my father one of the famous parables that he tells is the parable the prodigal son there actually it's actually one part it's one third of one big parable the lost coin the lost sheep and lost son here's what precedes it here's Luke 15 if you if you were there your Bibles verse 1 then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying this man receives sinners now put in parentheses people say Jesus never never bothered him what kind of people they were if they were people he was interested he receives people and he eats with them so he spoke this parable them and again it's a three part parable here's what he was saying with all of your learning you don't have a clue about my father's heart I'm making with people I'm talking with people I'm trying to help people that's what it's all about it's not all about your rules and regulations it's about people so he tells the the parable of the lost coin the lost sheep and lost son he says everybody rejoices when they find what they were looking for and he says this right straight out he says I'm telling you all of heaven rejoices over one person their repents so it's not just we're all about people we're all about every person we have a little saying that we've been saying around here at the staff this year prioritize the person sometimes when you're all about people you can be so focused on the event that you're having with hundreds of people you forget the one person that's trying to talk to you right there so we've been saying the staff prioritize the person every person is valuable I've told you this before so but I'm gonna tell you a little new something new that happened this week to me you have this Tuesday I I've had a difficult time understanding most of my life why anyone would love me I don't I just because of some things in my life my background I just had a tough time and so I've said to Debbie many many times why do you love me and she'd say well because you're good husband and a good father well what if I were a good husband and a good father would you still love me and you know so I remember one of these nights we were going she'd say well because you're kind well what if I weren't kind you know I saw just she you know you just can't win when you're persons dealing with I just couldn't figure it out I remember Debbie finally said to me because I do shut up and go to sleep so I was telling dr. Henry cloud about this this week many of you know dr. Henry cloud is a life coach and a piece of psychologists too so he's he's trying to help me get uncrazy you know so so I was telling him about I said I've just always had this thing it's just difficult for me to understand why Debbie loves me or why God loves me why anyone would love me and he said to me just this Tuesday so I can tell you why God loves you because he's loving and I don't know why at my age and and pastoring as long as I have it never hit me like that he said Robert God loves you because he's loving them because you did something just he's just loving he just loves I just want you understand Jesus knew that his father loved [Music] so everybody went that's why he was had people as one here's the second reason I think he had people as mine every went the react he knew the reality of eternity he knew the reality of eternity better than anyone who'd ever lived Jesus said things like this Matthew 25:46 this is Jesus speaking and these will go away into everlasting punishment everlasting but the righteous into eternal life Luke 16 23 so on to rich man Lazarus it says in hell and in torment he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus is that okay Abraham was a real person that lived Lazarus was a real person live and he sees hey see he's this he's talking about a man who live he said there was a certain rich man and there was a certain beggar he didn't make this story up this isn't a parable he's talking about a real person and Jesus said in Hell he walked around more than any other person I want you to think about this more than any other religious leader ever talking about an impending eternal destination and judgment for every person if you cut that out of the Bible you'd have to cut out a lot of Jesus's words bassy continued to talk about eternity and everlasting punishment and eternity with God and eternity without God it's it's it's something that if I believed it and I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek because I know we do believe it but if I believed it as much as Jesus believed it it would cause me to live differently when I speak with neighbors it caused me to live differently when I speak with someone I just mean on the street if I really believe that that person is gonna be separated from God for all eternity we need we need to be reminded of this this is why Jesus did everything he did because no houses no bank accounts no land makes it to the other side there's only one thing that makes it to the other side and that's people people last forever there's a good tweet if you only good tweet people last forever it's only thing lasts forever and Jesus knew that it caused him to change his travel plans and go through Samaria to talk to the woman we've been married five times it calls him to tell a rich young ruler the truth it calls him to weep over a city because he knew that there was eternity on the way you know when we give God takes our giving and he uses it to help people you you probably already know we told you we're helping with Hurricane Harvey and hurricane Irma now with Maria in Puerto Rico and with the earthquake in Mexico we're we are on the ground almost I mean within days with resources finances materials water food all that but that's because of you I don't I don't know if you ever even thought about this it was all over the internet about churches saying we're taking up a special offering we're taking up a special offering and you're thinking well are we tame the special offering we don't have to take a special offerings because you give on a regular basis so we set it aside in an account so when there's an emergency we respond immediately you understand saying so thank you for your giving so if there was a and and if you won't by the way if you want to help more we got a businessman in our church it's filling up a who's who built houses in the Metroplex here he's filling up a whole 18-wheeler with lumber and sitting down there he just do it himself but if you want to coordinate somehow it's like relief dot gateway people dot or relief talk gateway feel like are so if you want to help you know but we're on the ground in all four of those situations but I want you thing like this how much money have you sent ahead Jesus said you know store up treasure I mean Jesus said it so you better think about it so what does your bank account look like financially that's one thing you know but what if there were other accounts like for serving in the church well some of you say well I can't give like a businessman I can't load up an 18-wheeler and I give my tithe but it's not very much but but you volunteer so what is your survey account look like it could be overflowing it could be more than than some businesspeople what what is your praying account look like what is your loving account look like Kevin here's what here's the one who I'm talking about what is your witnessing an account look like now I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad because I'm thinking about this myself what is our leading people to Christ account look like how many people are in heaven yes because we give and because we pray and because we love and because we serve but how many people are gonna be in heaven because we personally led them to Christ I think we've got to come to that point where Jesus where Jesus you know told go out and compel them to come in I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves go and go right now their eternity is coming you never know when he turn to these what happened for some person so go right now when I was used to do revivals we do a youth night we'd have free pizza you know that night and and then I would meet with the kids about 5 or 5:30 and I would say ok now there's a record that I set that I don't think any of you can break but it's how many kids you can get in one car now these weren't kids that get these were teenagers so junior high high school and I said I I had this guy in the church let me use I was their church he let me use his Oldsmobile do any of you remember old Flo bills ok they used to be like 40 feet long you know and and so so I got like 17 young people in the car so I just do this just out of my own pocket I just you say hey yeah if you if you whoever brings the most tonight gets a $50 bill and if anyone breaks my record you get a hundred dollar bill here was the reason I was doing it because it was if I could get him there they could hear the gospel and it could change their eternal destination I knew it so I remember one meeting we were I think we're in Georgia and they started talking hey a guy beat you record yeah beat your record so we went out I mean they're piled in they have to be in the car for me to count them you know so they're hanging out there everywhere and so they you struck dark story of the car and it was 17 I said well you tied my record but you didn't beat it and he said I'm not finished you walked around open the trunk six guys got out of the truck [Applause] okay but why did I do that because there really is a heaven there really is a hell and this is why Jesus had people on his mind everywhere he went and here's the third reason that he had people as mind is because he knew the potential of people better than anyone he knew the potential of people that look at a Luke 19 a few pages over from Luke 15 verse 5 says when Jesus came to place he looked up and saw him and said to him Zacchaeus may Kayson come down for today I must stay at your house so he made hasten came down and received him joyfully but when they saw it these ones always complaining about him being with sinners they all complained saying he's gone to be a guest with a man who's a sinner I can I say something here do you realize how radically inclusive Jesus was rich poor well-known forgotten hurting healing black white brown different races different tribes different nations different ethnicities he included everyone we need to be the same way doesn't matter where a person comes from or what a person's gone through we need to see him like Jesus saw this is a person but the Jesus died for then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord Lord Lord I give half my goods to the poor and I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation I restore fourfold okay who else could have seen generosity in a greedy person Zacchaeus Jesus everyone saw him as greedy Jesus saw him as generous he saw potential what if this person can meet me he'll go from greedy to generosity who else could have seen purity in a prostitute Jesus Mary Magdalene who else could have seen boldness in a bumbling disciple Peter and Jesus saw it alright y'all following me okay I got it I got a really good question for you who else could have seen the potential in you but Jesus you know what Jesus thinks when he looks at people here's what he thinks all things are possible with this person and my power that's good isn't it all things are possible and no limits with this person I don't care what his background is what he's been through what he's been in bondage to does it matter with my power he can do anything I wanted me to do no limits hey here's here's one about me who could have seen a preacher in a little boy who had a speech impediment I've told you this before when I was young I couldn't pronounce my arms and you know if your name is Tom Lane it doesn't matter when your name is wobba Louis won that funny League this is leave me as a good friend of mine who's been a Hollywood producer for 50 years or whatever produced the Olympics and produced presidential inaugurations and anyway so he helps with our university and we have a night we have a night the thing that's Tuesday night where we give an award out every year and least come to help us that were giving it to Kathie Lee Gifford who's been a good friend of the Kings University if you didn't know so it just wasn't that funny I just wanted you to know so I listen it doesn't matter what the person's in bondage to once they make Jesus he can take care of it he saw potential in people better than anyone he treated people differently than any religious leader had ever treated him that's why they wanted to be around him think about this Jesus Christ God's Son came to earth and the sinners wanted to hang out with him that's how non-religious he was there's a statistic when your pastor you can only learn all these surveys and statistics there's just a statistic that I don't want gateway church to become I don't want any person to become this that it tends hear the statistic is the longer that you're saved the less you witness and the less you lead people to Jesus I would think it'd be the opposite I would think the longer you know Jesus the more you'd want to talk about him but we've got to get to that place about a week ago maybe a week and a half Debbie and I stopped to get gas at a place and we were coming in about a two hour drive and stopped to get gas went to the bathroom and I wanted to get you know something to drink and so I went in so she went on back out the car and I was at the counter to pay for some peanuts and root beer or something and so the lady in front of me though was counting out pennies and dimes and nickels and 1/4 she bought a dollar and 32 cents worth of gas and the holler and 32 cents so I walked out and I said to him after they got their dollar 32 cents as a man and a woman I said can I could I buy you a tank of gas and they said oh yeah and then I you know I carry hundred all her bills give to people I only had one left in my wallet if I I told everyone I got in the car I said I wish I had four or five I would have emptied my wallet she said you did empty your wallet he gave him everything you had I was all you had so I pulled the hundred dollar bill out and gave it to him also I said let me I want to give you this too and the guy said why are you doing this I said I used to be on drugs I was really messed up there was no hope for my life and a guy told me how much God loves me the Jesus died on the cross for all of my sins and then if I'd give him control of my life he'd changed my life and I gave him control and he changed my life and the reason I do things like this is because I want everyone to know and I want you to know the two of you I want you to know that God loves you Jesus died on the cross for you if you'll give him control of your life you'll change your life and they both started crying and hug me I want us to be a people even more than we are like Jesus here's what you might be thinking but you say Jesus had people whose money were but I'm not Jesus yeah but he's in you and you have his mind according to Scripture let's always on his mind people guess what we have the mind of Christ we have the mind of Christ so everywhere we go people are gonna be on our minds I want you to bow your heads - close your eyes don't you just take a moment and just like we do every message and just say holy spirit' what are you saying to me through this message you know a few weeks ago I said unless said let's ask the Lord to put people on our minds to invite to church I don't want us to just do that for four weeks wants to just keep doing it Lord put people on our minds to buy a tank of gas or to reach out to or de minister to or to invite to church or to help them through a family situation to witness and hopefully Lord to eventually lead them to you we willing to pray for you maybe you're one of those persons here at say on I'm the one that needs prayer today maybe we need prayer for a family situation or marriage or children or job situation or financial situation or health situation if you need prayer let me let you know that this it's normal to ask for prayer at church that's normal okay that's normal so in just a moment we were going to all stand in a moment every campus every overflow room and when we stand we're gonna have people at the front of every campus every room if you need prayer for any area of your life you just come to the front of the room where you are and just say them it's one of the leaders here I need prayer and tell them what you need prayer for okay if you're going to see other people coming you won't be the only one but you ought to probably have it in resolved in you if I am the only one or the first one I'm going cuz I need prayer so you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up every campus you just step out just come the front of the room where you are the campus where you are let us pray for you all right Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus that needs prayer right now in Jesus name Amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 67,829

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Pastor Robert, sermon, Dallas, Texas, Southlake, relationship, Jesus, God, Honor, love

Id: z4_1oo5Un7A

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 30 2017