Nothing Can Stop the Church of Jesus | Pastor Joakim Lundqvist

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You are, yes You are. Hey. If a simple song can please Your heart, I'll sing it. If a humble spirit's what You want, I'll bring it. Make all I am an offering, a living sacrifice. I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. God, I'm so thankful I can't say it enough. Every beat in my chest, every breath in my lungs, all of my life and all of my love, I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. Oh, hallelujah. Yeah. Oh. I have searched the world. I know there's nothing left. For Your faithful love endures now and forever. From now until eternity, my song will be the same. I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. God, I'm so thankful I can't say it enough. Every beat in my chest, every breath in my lungs, all of my life and all of my love, I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. Oh, hallelujah. I was blind but now I see. I was bound but now I'm free. Jesus, You have rescued me. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. Before the battle's ever won, before the answer ever comes,

it is finished, it is done. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I was blind but now I see. I was bound but now I'm free. Jesus, You have rescued me. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. Before the battle's ever won, before the answer ever comes, it is finished, it is done. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. I'm so thankful I can't say it enough. Heavy in my chest, heavy breath in my lungs. All of my life and all of my love. I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. Hallelujah. I was blind but now I see. I was bound but now I'm free. Jesus, You have rescued me. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You. Before the battle's ever won, before the answer ever comes, it is finished, it is done. I just wanna thank You. I just wanna thank You.

I just wanna thank You, God. Thank You, Jesus. You're the answer. Yes, You are. And I'm gonna praise You for all You have done. And God, I'm so thankful. I can't say it enough Every beat in my chest Every breath in my lungs All of my life And all of my love I'm gonna praise you For all you have done Hallelujah Hallelujah And so we thank you, thank you Lord You know as we're singing these songs of of gratitude, songs of thankfulness I wanna just read this in Colossians 3 It's in verse 15 it says And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts For as members of one body you are called to live in peace and always be thankful Let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives Sing songs and hymns

and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts And whatever you do or say do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through him to God the Father And I just want us to, if we could just take a moment and just fill this room with gratitude If we could just think of one thing that you're thankful for right now in this moment Even if it's just that you woke up today or whatever it's in your life If we could just take a moment and just reflect on the things that we're thankful for So right now let's just fill this room with gratitude God we just give you thanks God we give you honor Lord we give you praise Lord I thank you for every good and perfect gift that's in my life Lord every good and perfect gift in our lives God and we point it back to you in praise Lord we thank you that we don't just praise because something good has happened for us but we praise you because you have already done it

Lord because you are on the throne So Lord we just give you honor Yes we give you praise today Lord We fill this place with gratitude to you Jesus How thankful we are Oh how thankful we are So I exalt thee I exalt thee I exalt thee Oh Lord I exalt thee I exalt thee I exalt thee I exalt thee Oh Lord Come on we lift it up I exalt, we sing I exalt

thee Do you belong to glory Do you belong to praise Oh I exalt thee Oh Lord I exalt Oh I exalt thee We praise you Lord I exalt I exalt thee I exalt thee Oh Lord Come on one more time we sing I exalt thee I exalt thee I exalt thee I exalt thee Oh Lord

Yes God We praise you, Jesus. Yeah, come on. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We turn our eyes on you, Jesus. Our hope, our peace. The King of love had given up his life. The darkest day in history. There on a cross they made for sinners. For every curse His blood atoned. Thank you, God. One final breath and it was finished. But not the end we could have known. For the earth began to shake. And that veil was torn. What sacrifice was made? As the heavens rolled. Come on, church. This is our response. Say. And all hail King Jesus. We say. And all hail the Lord. Amen. Remember. And all hail King Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

And all hail the Savior of the world. Yeah. Oh, we cry out here. Lord of all. Oh, we sing there was a moment. Come on. There was a moment when that sky lit up. A flash of light breaking through. Yeah. When all was lost, He caused a turn. Come on, don't you know? The King of life was on the mountain. Yeah. For in a dark, cold tomb is where our Lord was laid. Just one breath, He lives forever. Oh. And we forever say. Oh, we say. And all hail King Jesus. Oh, come on. You have our soul. All hail the Lord. Amen. Remember. And all hail King. Oh, look for His wonder. And all hail the Savior. Oh, is it easy? Yes. All hail King Jesus.

And all hail the Lord, the Savior. Oh. And all hail King Jesus. Yeah. And all hail the Savior, Lord. Hey. Yeah. Oh, I sing it. Full of wonder. Full of awe. Oh, let every knee say. Let every knee. Come bow before the King of kings. Let every tongue. Come on, church. Lift up your shout. Let us join with all. We say. Oh. You are, you are. Singing, oh. He is worthy. He is whole. We cry. We cry out. Oh. Jesus. Singing, oh. Oh, come on. Church, we declare.

All hail. Say. And all hail. Jesus. And all hail. He is. ♪ Oh, oh heaven and earth ♪ ♪ And all hail Jesus ♪ ♪ Come on, and all hail the Savior ♪ ♪ We sing, we sing, and all hail Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, he is healer, he is peace, he is mercy ♪ ♪ Oh, and all hail heaven and earth, and all hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ And all hail, oh praise the name, oh praise the name of the Lord, my soul will say, oh praise his name ♪ ♪ In every season of the soul for endless days we will sing your praise, oh praise the name of the Lord, oh praise the name of the Lord ♪ Come on Church, one more time. Let Your voices say. Oh praise, oh. He is worthy, he is holy, yeah. For endless days, for endless days we will sing your praise, oh Lord, oh Lord. What an awesome God He is, yeah, oh Lord, oh. He is worthy, he is worthy, oh Lord, oh Lord, our God. Come on Church, give Him your praise. We worship you Jesus, we clap with many claps, hey. Hallelujah. Well it sounds like you came to worship today. Woo, wow. You know what happens when you do that, right? You know, Jesus taught the disciples to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And when you praise God like that, you open the heavens and heaven begins to touch earth. And that's exactly what's going on right now. Heaven is touching earth.

Can we thank the Lord for His presence? Lord, we thank you for your presence. Thank you for your presence. Woo, wow. Well we're going to have a little family time right now if you don't mind. We're going to dedicate some children to the Lord. So would you just be seated for just a moment. And as these children and their parents come to the platform. You know, I just want to remind us of Psalms 127.3 that says, Children are a heritage from the Lord. An offspring, a reward from Him. I don't know if you've ever thought about your children that way. They're a reward from heaven. They are a reward from God. They really belong to the Lord. And they're on loan to us to steward and to raise and to train and to disciple and to send them out into the world to be a testimony of the Lord Jesus. And if you think kids are awesome, wait until you get grandkids, right? Come on. Somebody say yeah for some grandkids. But we're going to dedicate these children to the Lord. And what we're doing here is we're believing God with these parents. These children are going to be filled with the Holy Spirit from an early age. You know, the Bible says John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, right? So we're believing that they're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They're going to be taught the things of God. They're going to be familiar with the presence of God. And as they grow up in the presence of God, one day when they understand the cross, they're going to be born again. They're going to be saved.

And they're going to have a direction given to them and an assignment from the Lord given to them. It's a great thing we're doing today as we dedicate these children to the Lord. So I want you to just extend your hands toward these children. And we're going to call their names before the Lord. Lord, right now we just call out Eva to you and Liam to you and Caden and Adilee, Lord. We just ask for your presence to be on them. And just let the Holy Spirit cover them and protect them. Lord, we lift up Leo to you and Allison to you and Brisbane and Asher. God, let the presence of God just come all over them. Lord, we even pray over all these children right now that every generational curse and every generation of disease be broken off them in Jesus' name. We lift up Maya and Levi and Ezekiel and Max. We lift up, Lord, Ian today in Jesus' name. Ian to you in Jesus' name. Charlotte and Eden and Joseph and Liam. Lord, let your presence be strong upon them. We lift up Jensen and Waverly and Micah and Natalie and Nathan, the prophet Nathan. Lord, we just lift up these children right now. Father, we pray. In the name of Jesus, that your protection would be upon them all the days of their life. And Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that even their gift and calling, their gifts and calling, that if they would begin to know them at an early age, Lord, I just recognize right now and speak blessings over these children, that they'd be able to hear your voice, they'd be able to see in the Spirit, they'd be able to know you, and that God, you'd use their lives mightily in the name of Jesus. Now let's pray for these parents. Father, we thank you for the promises that you've given these parents. Lord, you told us to train up our children in the way that they're to go, and when they're old, they'll not depart from it. And Lord, we pray right now for wisdom on these parents.

And Lord, even in those dark times, even in those questionable times, even in those difficult times, Lord, I declare over these parents that they are called of God to be the parents for these children. And you're going to equip them, you're going to give them wisdom, you're going to give them knowledge, and they're going to know what to do. And Lord, I thank you for these parents, and we speak blessings over these parents as well today in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen. Amen. Somebody shouted, amen. Lord, thank you for these children. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Well, I'm going to ask all of us to, let's stand to our feet again. We've got just a few minutes here to have some family time, and by the way, we've got Pastor Yorkum and Maria in the house today. So excited to have them home. They are family. He's my taller brother, but he's my younger brother. You know what I'm talking about. Well, why don't we just have some family time for just a moment? Why don't you turn and greet those around you? God bless you. Welcome to Gateway Church. So great to be back home. Ah, praise God. Oh, we've been missing you so much. Praise God. Look at this.

Thank you so much. We love you. Gateway, we love you. Thank you. You know, we, Maria and I have been missing y'all. We've been praying for y'all. We learned to say y'all here. And more than anything, we love the new day that God has given to this church. The new direction, the new chapter. Love Pastor Daniel and Tammy and everything that God is doing. Praise God. We're so excited. We're your biggest Swedish cheerleaders at a distance, but I'm never going to be a guest speaker in this house. Can I say I'm home? I just did, so I guess I can. We're so excited. You know, this place will always have such a big chunk of our hearts because something happens to your heart when you're in the trenches together. Something happens in your heart when you walk through a difficult season and come out on the other side. And speaking of coming out on the other side. That is my message title for this morning. Nothing can stop the church of Jesus. Nothing can stop the church of Jesus. Now as we approach such a theme, we first of all have to define what is the church? Now we can talk for ages about that. And if you ask random people around your block, they'll come up with different replies, right?

Some will say it's a building. Some will say it's an organization. Some will say the church is that place down the street. Sorry, Texas, that place down every street. Some people might say it's a thing happening on Sunday morning. But let's go to the OG version. Let's read what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter one from verse 18 about what the church really is more than anything. Paul writes, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe. The power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet, praise God, and appointed him, Christ, to be the head over everything for the church, which is his body. Which is his body. Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Paul echoes this, Lennon, in Colossians chapter one, verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church. And my goal and my hope, my dream for this morning

is that you will leave this house later on more excited and inspired than ever before to be part of the capital C church, one of God's greatest inventions, which is his body. Now, some Christians I hear say things like, well, I love Jesus, but I don't really care much for the church. Honestly, you can't really say that. You can't love the head, not the body. You can't embrace the head, not the body. They're one person, right? Just let me give you an example. Maria, my beautiful wife and I, we actually celebrated our 39th anniversary yesterday. And I so married up, by the way, I so married up. And by the way, girl, I love you so much. I love you so much. And sometimes it's weird because I'm here in the spotlight and you're not, but if people could only know that I couldn't have done a fraction of what I'm doing without your support, your prayers, your love. I love you so much, girl. Love you so much. However, when I proposed back then, if I would have said, Maria, I wanna marry you, but can I just marry your head? Because I love your head, but I don't really care about the rest of you. That would not have gone down well, I tell you. That there would have been no anniversary

because there wouldn't have been a wedding. All there would have been is a broken nose and a concussion, that's it. Because you can't separate the head and the body. It's all one person. The body of Christ is part of Christ himself. Now, obviously, there's a strong individual perspective to Christianity. Obviously, you are a child of God in your own right. For example, the verse in the New Testament that speaks about how we obtain salvation, Romans chapter 10, verse nine, is one of the most individualistic verses in the New Testament. It says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's you, your, your, you. Meaning you can only be saved as an individual. There's no such thing as collective salvation. We don't get saved as a group, as a church, or because we happen to be born into a certain family. Sooner or later, you have to make up your own mind and make your own decision. But the thing is, that as you do, the Holy Spirit will take you kind of out of your me perspective and give you a new, beautiful we perspective. Because when Jesus taught us how to pray, he didn't teach us to pray my Father who art in heaven,

but. Our Father, why? Because now we're part of a we, part of a body that we belong to together. And that is one of the most beautiful things in the world. And this is why I really hate, sorry, church. I really dislike a certain phrase that some people use. You say things like, where do you go to church? Where do you go to church? You say, I go to Gateway, or I go to the First Baptist of the Second Methodist, Third, I don't know, somewhere. Honestly, friends, you don't go to church. You go to restaurants. You go to see a movie. You can go to Stinking Disney World. But you don't go to church. You belong to a church. You're part of a church. The church is you. You can't go to yourself. And this is the perspective that we need to understand. We are the body of Christ together. So what is the body of Christ? What is our common calling? I'm glad you asked, because I was just getting there. One thing that we're called to be and to do is the church is the feet of Jesus. The feet of Jesus, because the feet are on the body. So we are called to be the feet of Jesus

and go out into all the world and share the good news about Jesus. Let's read Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18. This is a very special verse because it's the very first time that Jesus explains and reveals this incredible, capital C, church vision, the body of Christ to his disciples. Now, Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus responds, Matthew 16, verse 18. And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock, on what you just said, on the rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Lord and the Son of God, on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, will not overcome it. Can we say amen in this house? I still remember, Gateway, when I was brand new in Christ, I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 16 and I started reading the Bible and I read the Swedish equivalent of your King James. And I really struggled with the language. I thought, does God really speak this way? But I realized that in order for me to get to know God, I need to get through this. And I still remember the first time I read these verses, like Matthew 16 and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And for some weird reason, my understanding of it was that, oh, this is great.

This means that when the gates of hell attacks us, attacks the church, then we will prevail. We will be able to survive. But then later on, way later, I realized it's a big foundational Swedish revelation right here. Gates don't really run around, do they? Gates don't really attack people, do they? You see, my mindset was that the gates were playing offense and the church was playing defense. So when hell attacked us, we would be able to prevail. They would not be able to overcome us. But I realized, hey, gates are pretty much fixed. That means that the church is the moving part in this equation. Ta-da. Which means that the whole mindset really is that the church is playing offense and the gates are playing defense. And not only that, their defense is falling apart. It's breaking up. As long as the church are the feet of Jesus, as long as the church will keep expanding and marching and winning new territory, the gates of hell will never be able to overcome the attacks of the church. Can we make some noise in the house of the Lord? And you heard me go into a little bit of sports lingo here, offense and defense. You know, spending more time in the U.S. Now, I have been introduced in these past four years

to your favorite sport. And I love it. I think it's a great sport. I think it's a great game. I just have one little concern. The name. Of the game. Because you call it football. And I'm sure you're aware that in Europe, we have a game. That we refer to it as football. to ask football, and you refer to it as soccer. But let me tell you why. Let me tell you why, Gateway. We call it football because it makes sense. Whereas American football, on the other hand, oh, how can I put this? Okay, let me put it this way. The word football is a combination of two words, foot and ball, neither of which really relates very much to your sport because you play like 90% of it with your hands, and it's not even a ball, is it? It's like a lemon-shaped object. Your sport should be called American hand lemon. That would be the perfect name. But anyway, so I've been here a whole lot. I've seen games of American hand lemon. I've learned the rules of American hand lemon, and I really love American hand lemon. But let me tell you one thing. One thing that dawned on me quite late

is that I realized that, oh, in American hand lemon, there is one team that's doing the offense and a completely different set of dudes doing defense. I didn't know that because I come from a soccer mentality where it's the same 11 guys doing the whole thing. And so, oh, they changed the team. So you got professional offense and professional defense. And that got me thinking because I think that the church had been playing professional defense for a bit too long. The capital C Church had taken a position of professional defense, and because we have done for a long time, we have developed a defense mentality, and eventually even a defense identity. And when you develop a defense identity, you feel that everyone's attacking you and everyone's after you, and your only sole goal is survival. Oh, the devil is after us again, and here comes the principalities and the powers, and look what the media is writing, and look at the secularization of society. Oh, we better hold on to ourselves so we won't get killed. And then we withdraw, and all we do is like post weird apocalyptic conspiracy theories on Facebook, and complain about the sinfulness of the world, complain, point out how sinful the world is. They already know that. And we attack our brothers and sisters, and all of a sudden we go so far away

from our initial calling of being the feet of Jesus. But you know what I've seen all over the world right now? I see the church of Jesus rising up again like never before. I see the church of Jesus starting to roar because the Lion of Judah lives inside of her. And I've seen the church of Jesus rising up to receive the second coming of Jesus Christ. That is the church that you and I are part of, and we're never so healthy, and we're never so inspired as when we are the feet of Jesus. I remember many decades ago now, we were coming to the end of the Soviet Union. I don't know how much you know about this, but the Soviet Union was a communistic experiment of trying to seal off this incredible, big, huge landmass, basically a continent, and try to erase God inside of it. They blew up churches, they took an end to Christmas. You were not allowed to celebrate Christmas. They banned the Bible, basically trying to get Jesus out of the scope of these people living inside of it. For 70 years, this experiment went on and on and on. But then four years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, God gave our church in Sweden a prophetic word saying the Soviet Union will open up for the gospel in four years. And we started giving, we started training missionaries, our young people started learning Russian, and we started recording Bible teaching on videotape. Anyone old enough to remember videotape? We subtitled it to Russian, and we just got prepared

because we dared to trust God that in four years' time, the Soviet Union will collapse. And then sure enough, four years later, bam, the Soviet Union cracked open, and all of a sudden, we were ready and able to go. And I'll never forget how we flooded that area of land with all our young people, and how we just preached the gospel to everything that. moved and we encountered this incredible hunger in the Soviet people because you can try to get God out of the picture but you can't get the God-shaped whole of the human heart away. And as a result of us running into the Soviet Union and being the feet of Jesus, right now today we have over 400 World of Life churches in former Soviet Union. And I still remember the process kind of brought so much health to our church because we're never as healthy as when we are truly the feet of Jesus. And let me tell you this, Gateway. When we are the feet of Jesus, when we reach people for the gospel, when we're doing what we're supposed to do, then God will pay our bills. God will pay our bills. I don't know what God is up to here, what he will speak to this church to do in the future, but let me just be a voice of encouragement. Whatever God calls you to do, as long as we keep moving, as long as we're playing offense, as long as we're the feet of Jesus, God will pay the bills. Amen. A few years ago, maybe seven, eight years ago, we had an incredible like influx of refugees, Muslim refugees into Sweden. The terror of the ISIS, if you remember, were horrible and so many people escaped the Middle East and many of them arrived in Sweden. And we were completely caught off guard as a nation because we just had one or two weeks notice. And all of a sudden this wave of tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants flooded our nation. And God specifically told us as a church to act in fear, sorry, act in faith rather than fear. And we started ministering to these Muslims and we started giving them food and medical care and help in any way we can. But more than anything, we told them that God so loved the world that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And during the course of one and a half year, we actually prayed in our local church alone with 900 Muslims who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The only problem, and I rarely tell this side of the story, was that again, we had like so little

warning, so little time to prepare. We basically just had to let go of everything and just run into this open door for the gospel. But we didn't have this in our budget and our money was quickly running out. And obviously me being in charge of the whole thing, I got all these departments asking, money is running out. But we just dared to believe that if we are the feet of Jesus, if we're playing offense in our nation, in our city, God will pay the bills. And God opened up for supernatural provision time and time again. One of the most funny ways he did was that one day I got a call from a guy from the UK, from England. And I've never met this guy. I didn't know who he was. But he said, hey, I'm following you on Instagram and I've seen your posts on how you reach out to the Muslims. And obviously you being a Christian and you being a Christian church, I didn't really see that coming. Why would you even intervene, interfere with the whole Muslim situation? And I said, well, actually we don't see them primarily as Muslims, but as fellow human beings in need right now. So we just want to be the feet of Jesus. And he said, so we just want to be the feet of Jesus. And he said, hmm, that's interesting. Can I come over to Sweden, fly in and have lunch with you on Thursday? Talk some more about this. And I said, yeah, yeah, sure. So while we were on the phone, I was Googling flights. I said, there's a 945 from London Heathrow. I can drive down to the airport, pick you up. It's just 20 minutes from the church and we can have lunch. And he said, uh, no, I'll just think I'll use my private jet. Still had no idea who this guy was. So I said, Oh, okay. I'll just pick you up with my private car, I guess. So I picked him up. We had lunch. We talked for an hour and a half. And then he, then he went home. No promises made, but sure enough, next week he sent a donation for 1.5 million US dollars because God will pay for the bills when we are the feet of Jesus. And when we are playing offense in our societies. Secondly, the church is also the hands of Jesus. The church is the hands of Jesus. And what did Jesus do with these hands? Matthew 8 is one of many examples. When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make Me clean. Jesus reached out of his hand and touched the man, reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. And immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

Now the hands are on the body, but the hand still needs to be stretched out, reached out and put even on the untouchables of society. This man was a leper. Nobody in their right mind would touch him, but Jesus did. And now we are the body of Christ. And we are supposed to lay our hands on this society, on our neighborhoods, on our cities, and distribute the love and also the power of Jesus Christ. A few years ago, I was teaching in one of our Bible schools, the Word of Life Bible schools. This one is in Kolkata, India. And I was teaching for several hundred young people that were studying the Bible. And I heard a story from their Bible school. I was unaware of this, but see our Bible school in Kolkata is situated in an area with huge rice fields. So the vast majority of people living there are working, harvesting rice from the fields. Now doing that is a very dangerous job because there are poisonous snakes in the fields. And if you get bitten by one of these snakes, you're gonna be dead in less than an hour. And the nearest hospital is two hours away. So basically being bitten by one of these snakes is a death sentence. So one of these days, a guy who was working in one of the fields

started screaming and yelling, he had been bitten by a snake. And he screamed out in pain, but also in anguish, knowing that he would be dead within an hour. But then now we had Bible school students in the fields and they ran up to him and they laid their hands on him, just like Jesus laid his hand on the sick. And this Hindu man was immediately healed and he lived. And after that happened, the rumors spread across the fields that there are Christians around and they have the power in the name of Jesus to heal diseases. So now, whenever somebody was bitten by a snake in the rice fields, they didn't even aim for the hospital, they aim for the Bible school. So the Bible school now has a little bell and whenever it rings, the sessions stop and everybody runs out and prays for whoever's brought to the Bible school. And they had a clear count of exactly all the people they'd been praying for, who instead of died, were completely healed and lived. And to date, when I was there, they had prayed for 147 people who had been miraculously healed from this snake bite. And I thought to myself, what can be more Christian than this?

Our calling is to be the hands of Jesus and go out there and neutralize the poison of the serpent. Can we say amen in the house of the Lord? But you know what? It doesn't have to be the other side of the world. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as praying for snake-bitten people. It can just be the ordinary things. We use our hands to minister to our fellow man, to minister to society. And actually, when I look back at my time with you, Gateway, one of my memories that is so clear, and I love it so much, was when I was doing a food distribution at the Grand Prairie campus. It was like six, seven months ago, I guess. And I went there, and cars came in, and we were just loading food into these cars. And I ended up on the potato station. 15-pound bags outside in Texas. And I was wearing jeans for some reason. The first hundred bags were okay, but it was hard work. Also, you guys have trucks. So it's not like putting something in the back seat. You have to get the sack up and hurl it into the truck bed.

You don't understand. In Sweden, when we see a truck, we go, oh, look, there's a truck. And then we come to Texas, and it's like, oh, look, Maria, there's not a truck over there. It's an actual sedan. Wow. But my point is this, even though it was hard work, and even though it was super hot, I stayed for hours and hours and hours to get to the food. And I was so happy. I was so happy. Because I loved every second. Why? Because I got to be part of being the hands of Jesus. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. Distributing food to needy people and you never feel more alive than when you are part of the And I was so happy. church. The capital C church and its local expression, ministering to regular people because we are the hands of Jesus. Amen. Finally, I want to close with this one. We are the feet of Jesus being the church. We are the hands of Jesus, but we're also the heart of Jesus. The church is the heart of Jesus. And what is the heart of Jesus all about? We see it repeatedly in the life of Jesus. Matthew 9 verse 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 14 verse 14, when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 20 verse 34, Jesus had compassion

on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him. So Jesus did not just walk out to meet the needs of needy people. He did it from a heart full of compassion. And if there's anything that should be found in the church of Jesus, the body of Christ, it's the heart of Jesus. The attitude of compassion. Friends, this world doesn't need another pointing finger at them. They don't need more judgment. They have an awareness on the inside that they're not doing well, but they need that compassion that urges us to be the feet and be the hands of Jesus. And I just want to share one story with you from history. I mean, how could I not share a story with you from history as we come to the close of this message? And before I pray for you, I came across a story a few years ago and I love it so much. The story is about a girl called Mary Slessor. Now, Mary Slessor was born in 1848 in a Scottish city of Dundee. She was born in the slum. Her father was a shoemaker, but because of his alcohol addiction, he lost his job and eventually passed away as a result of his addiction. So from the age 11, Mary, who was the oldest child, had to start working in a mill, 14 hour shifts. And when she was a teenager, she was the sole breadwinner of her entire family, supporting her mother and all of her siblings. Now, Mary could easily have identified as an outcast, as a victim, having been dealt the most horrible hand possible in her life. But Mary came to Jesus in her late teenage years, and she started to read the Bible and go to church and she realized that even though she was bad off, there are people who are even worse off, because there are people around who haven't even heard the gospel of Jesus. So in her mid-twenties, Mary boarded a ship and went to Nigeria as a missionary. This little girl from the slums of Dundee, Scotland, is now stepping out to be the feet of Jesus. And she comes to a certain area of Nigeria called Okolong. And as she arrived in Okolong, she didn't do like most missionaries did at the time, try to learn, like for the local people to learn English. She learned their language. She stayed among them. She lived with them. She loved them, and her heart was touched by the compassion of Jesus Christ. So she learned their language, and also she learned their ways and their traditions. And one of the things that happened that concerned her was that in the tradition of this local group of people, if you had twins, that was a sign that these babies are cursed. So that, you know, you should have one baby. If you have two, there's something wrong. So whenever a woman had two twin babies, she would go out in the jungle and leave the babies in the

jungle for them to perish. And so Mary started walking around in the jungle every single day for hours and hours and hours, finding the abandoned twin babies and bringing them home, and she adopted them as her children. Eventually, she became the mother of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children. And the people of the area in Nigeria saw this, and they responded to her because they saw her love and her compassion. And they started to open up, and they eventually gave her more and more influence, and finally... They crowned her the Queen of Okoyeong. Can you imagine this little girl, fatherless girl, who worked 14-hour shifts as a child, all of a sudden is now considered a queen in Nigeria. And she uses this influence to abolish slavery, to fight for the rights of women, to rescue children, to found schools, and to preach Jesus all over this area. I've got an actual picture of her right here. That's her in the middle with some of her babies, some of her children. And you might say, oh, she looks a bit worn out. But here's where we shouldn't confuse the church with Hollywood, friends. Because in Hollywood, it's just about surface. It's just about looking good. But in the kingdom of God, it's all about serving. And it's about being good to others. And that's all that matters. And I love this story. Because maybe you're here today, you can identify with it. Regardless of where you come from, how many failures you have in your past, what kind of deck of cards this world gave you as you came in, you don't have to identify as a victim. You can actually be restored. And you can be a source of blessing. You can be the feet of Jesus. You can be the hands of Jesus.

And you can be the heart of Jesus. And friends, if you come to Scotland today, and you look at their £10 bills, the equivalent of a $10 bill here in the US, on it, it's not the face of a president or a king. You'll see the face of Mary Schleser right on that bill. You see behind her head, there is an image of her as a child, as a girl working in the mill. And even if we turn the bill around and look at the back of it, there's a map of all the cities, the towns and the villages that she influenced for Jesus, that turned to Jesus Christ because of her, and also her with all the children that she adopted. And I would just love for this story to be an inspiration for you. As we leave this church today, let's leave inspired about being part of the Capital C Church. And with a new commitment that we will be the feet of Jesus, the hands of Jesus, and the compassionate heart of Jesus. Would you just sit in the presence of God for just a moment and allow me to pray for you? Would you just close your eyes, open your hearts, and hold your hands out, ready to receive the Holy Spirit's encouragement into your life. Right now, Father, I pray for this beautiful church that Maria and I call home, one of our homes. And I thank you, Father, that today through your Word, you're reminding us to be your body, to be your church, to be the feet that will go where no one else will go, to be your hands reached out to touch and to heal,

and to bring hope and inspiration everywhere we go, and to be your heart, Father, that constantly beats with the compassion of Jesus Christ himself. And Father, just as Mary Slessor lifted up all these babies, I also pray specifically that this church will always lift up the next generation, care for the next generation, be a home not only for the present church, but for their children and their grandchildren. I pray for the upcoming youth con, Lord, because I feel in my heart that you're about to pour out your Spirit upon the next generation of this house in a very, very special way. May it happen, Lord. And may we never, ever forget that we are your body, the feet of Jesus, the hands of Jesus, and the heart of Jesus. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Can we make some noise for Jesus? Thank you so much, Gateway. We love you. Thank you. What an incredible message. You know, I couldn't help but think, as he was telling us the story about Mary Slessor, that in this room there are those of you, the call of God's on your life. God has something special for you to do. And as I thought about how many of us are here today,

there's got to be someone in this room that, even though there's a call of God on your life, you've never really entered into a relationship with Jesus. He has all these things waiting for you. But yet you've never said yes to Jesus Christ. You never let him save you. You've never let him forgive you. You've never let him come into your heart. And as a pastor, I want to help you. with that. I wanna help you and lead you in a prayer where you can pray and ask Jesus to forgive you and cleanse you and save you. And I wanna pray that with you in just a moment. But before I do, I'd like to know if that's you. And if you'd say, Pastor Mark, that's me. I've never really given my heart to Jesus and I'm ready to do that. You see, I believe the Lord has orchestrated today even in bringing you here, touching your heart because you don't just get saved when you want to. The Bible says the Holy Spirit draws you and today's your day. If you'd say to me, I want you to pray with me. I want to be included in this prayer. I just want you to lift your hand wherever you are in the auditorium and say, that's me. I wanna pray that prayer. I wanna receive Jesus. I wanna give my life to the Lord.

I see your hands. I see several hands. Thank you. Thank you for just being bold and being honest. I wanna help you. We wanna help you as a church. So we're gonna pray this prayer with you out loud. And then after we pray this prayer together, we'll have a prayer team down here at the front. We'd love for you to tell them that you prayed this prayer today because we wanna help you not just pray the prayer, but know how to walk with the Lord and get to know the Lord. We call it next steps. We wanna help you with that. All right, let's pray this prayer together, everyone together. I want you to start it by saying, Heavenly Father, thank you for your love for me. Thank you for the plan you have for my life. And today I accept Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. And Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me, ask you to cleanse me, ask you to come into my heart and save me. Use my life for something special. In Jesus' name, amen. Can we thank the Lord for those who just prayed? I'm gonna ask our prayer team to come. And as we stand our feet right now,

we want to just tell you, we believe in what Pastor Yoakum taught today. We're the body of Christ. We can lay hands on the sick. We can believe God with you. For God to do what only God can do. So if you have a prayer need, we're gonna have a prayer team here. We're gonna go back into one song for just a moment. If you don't need prayer, I want to ask you to worship. And there in the balcony, if you need prayer, there'll be prayer partners at every door. We're just gonna go back to one song. If you need prayer, come forward, then I'll come back and close the service. Come on, let us pray for you. ♪ Put my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in you ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, and I will not be shaken ♪ ♪ I will put my life upon your love ♪ ♪ It is a firm foundation ♪ ♪ I will put my trust in you ♪ ♪ You alone, and I will not be shaken ♪ ♪ Holy, there is no one like you ♪ ♪ There is none beside you ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes in wonder ♪ ♪ Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and me ♪ ♪ In your love to those around me ♪

I know there's so many needs in this room and we really do care about what you're walking through. We wanna be the body of Christ. We wanna be the hands and the feet of Jesus in your life in every way you would let us. If you're walking through a time right now, maybe a season in your life where you know God needs to do something and if he doesn't do it, it won't change. Maybe you're walking through a relational struggle or a financial struggle. Maybe you have a health crisis. Would you let us pray with you for just a second? Wherever you are in the building, if you just hold your hand up boldly for just a moment, those around you are just gonna reach over and touch you on the shoulder and we're gonna pray together as a church. We're gonna be the body. We're gonna be the hands and feet of Jesus for just a moment. If that's you, just lift your hand, keep it up long enough for someone to see it and if you're not close enough to them to reach over and touch them, leave your seat, make your way to them and put your hand on their shoulder and let's believe God together right now. Holy Spirit, we ask in the name of Jesus that you would move upon everyone with their hand up. God, if it's a relational.

We ask that you move right into the middle of that relationship and begin to bring healing if it's financial God We ask you to make a way give them a new job open the door do something Supernatural in their finances and in their health and in the areas of their life God we declare if you don't show up nothing Changes so father let your presence come right now through our hands through our faith through our family Through the through the hands and the feet of Jesus the body of Christ. We ask it in Jesus mighty name and everyone said Amen, let's just thank the Lord for his presence for his goodness for his love Two quick announcements before I let you go this coming Thursday night is our night of worship How many of you know God has used gateway worship around the world? Do you know that God has really used gateway worship? We have some new songs and time of worship that are coming up We're recording this coming Thursday night right here at the Southlake campus. It'll be at 7 p.m For more information on that you can scan the QR code on the screen And then the last announcement is this our youth conference is coming up July the 15th 16th and 17th and to register your student or even to register your grandson Granddaughter, there's the QR code once again, you know, we we had something good happen during kovat We all learned how to use the QR code, right? So take your phone if you don't have your phone with you you can get information about both of these events out in our lobby there at guest central and Did I say that right guest central? We have changed the name of that so many times Right behind that back wall right there is a group of pastors in a room They will meet you and answer any question that you have about gateway. Hey, we love you. Thank you for coming this weekend God bless you. You're dismissed I This means We have We've Don't Just service Us