Gateway Church's Podcast
Rick Bezet
Rick Bizette is pastor of New Life Church in Little Rock in Conway, Arkansas. They actually have four locations. And there are some people that keep up with how churches are growing and why they're growing. And it's not just how, but why they're growing and what they're doing. And there's a list that comes out every year, the 100 largest churches in America and the 100 fastest growing churches. And last year, Rick Bizette's church was the fastest growing church in America. So they are winning a lot of people of the Lord. He's no stranger to us. And you are in for a tremendous blessing from the Lord right now. Will you warmly welcome Pastor Rick Bizette. (audience applauding) - Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, don't sit down. Now let's give the Lord a hand. If you love him with all your heart, please go for it. (audience applauding) I love it. All right. Before you sit down, I want to ask you to turn to somebody that looks like they've never high-fived anybody in church and let them have it right now. Come on, all around this place. (audience applauding) Yes. I absolutely love being here. I love the worship here. I love the teaching here. I like the staff. If you like Gateway Church, give the Lord a hand right now. (audience applauding) And this place, great place. Love it. In fact, if you don't like this church, something's seriously wrong with you. (audience laughing) And I really sense God here and I like the integrity. I got to walk on the grounds of the new building today. And God's presence is there. I know you're excited about going to that place. I believe God's hand is on this church. We actually prayed that over the grounds. The scripture clearly says that when God's hand was with them, that many came to believe, I believe many people are going to give their hearts to the Lord in this congregation. Can I have an amen on that? I believe that. I am from Arkansas originally from Louisiana. I'm a Cajun, which basically means, all right, three of you. Yeah. (audience laughing) A Cajun basically means we'll eat anything that lives in a ditch, isn't that right? (audience laughing) That's what it means. (audience laughing) But now I live in Arkansas. I love my wife. I've got four kids. This really happened to me. Every now and then I hear another pastor that'll say this. But I was at Walmart one time and I had four kids with me, all four of my kids. And an older lady came up to me and she said, "Honey, are those all your kids?" I said, "Yes, ma'am." She goes, "You must really like kids." I said, "No ma'am." I got four kids 'cause I love my wife. Let me clear that up right now. (audience laughing) But I really do love my kids. I love family. And God, man, I don't know where you are in your family, but the Lord can turn a home around in a second. Still to this day, one of my favorite things to see happen is to walk into a home where there is no hope for the marriage and to see God move. I don't know if you know this, but one word from God. One moment with the Spirit of God can turn you around forever, isn't that right? And I love to see it. And I remember though that we've made a lot of mistakes. I've mentioned some of the mistakes the last time I was here. The one in particular that I remember is my four-year-old son was going around as the pastor's son, telling everybody that he was the pastor's son so he could leverage that for an extra cookie and all that in kid life. And my wife and I, we had enough of it. So he said, "Hey, that's not the way we do life around here." And in fact, don't go around, tell everybody you're the pastor's son. Just tell everybody that you're Tanner. That's good enough right there, Tanner. He said, "All right, I got it. He didn't like it, but he understood." The next weekend a lady went up to him and said, "Aren't you the pastor's son?" He had a dilemma. And he looked at her and he said, "Well, I thought I was, but my mom said I'm not." (audience laughing) How many do you know that that created a problem? (audience laughing) A major problem. We almost split the church on that one right there. I wanna talk to you guys tonight about the importance of keeping God first. 'Cause I don't know about you. I don't wanna have a strong start. I wanna have a strong finish. And the beauty is, the beginning of every year, if you align God right and you just, you lay before him all the things that you wanna work on and you get honest and authentic with him and in his presence. I believe you can have a strong year and each and every year you can grow. I don't believe for a second that the peak of our relationship with God has to be behind us. Are y'all out there? I believe we can grow and I don't know what you're up against. I don't know how difficult your life is right now. I believe we can go through the word tonight and find out how to keep God first. From time to time, I'll meet somebody who used to have God first and somehow they removed him. Years ago, I was a professional golfer. From the time that I was three years of age, up until the time that I was 22 years of age, that was really all I did almost every day. And I turned to be a professional golfer right out of college and a businessman came up to me and he said, "I'll sponsor you." And I went out there, but I knew that God wanted me to be in the ministry. And I was rebelling against that and running from that. And one day I signed a contract to go to Asia and play on the Asian tour. And I knew that I wasn't supposed to do that. And then I was up against, I was in a tournament and the only way to get out of that contract was to be injured and my golf ball was up against the root. And I knew it was a difficult shot and I hit the shot and when I did it broke the club, broke my wrist and the club swum up and hit me in the head and knocked me out. And still to this day, that's how God has to speak to me. And, but I haven't played golf in a long time, but I still like to go. And my wife, she could tell several years ago that I was burning out a little bit and not completely, but I needed to rest. And so she hooked it up where I could play golf at one of the nicest golf courses that you could imagine. And when I walked up to this place that day, I could tell that this was a different zone than I commonly live in. I mean, you should have seen their golf carts. They had satellite dishes and, I mean, they had everything and I had my little carry back. And the T counter actually, where they actually decide what time you tee off, they actually told me that I teed off at the wrong time. They made a mistake. So I carried my bag over to this T box, the first hole in a golf course. And when I walked up, they looked at me and they could tell that I wasn't designed or scheduled to play with them. And what I found out was that two of them were millionaires and one of them was a billionaire with a B. Now, turn to somebody and say, that's more money than your mama's got. Come on, tell them that. And I walked over to them. I said, "Hey guys, I'm supposed to play golf with you." And when I did, they all looked at me, but the boldest guy, the most wealthy man there, looked at me and he said, "You're not supposed to play with us, boy. You've made a mistake." And I said, "Well, maybe I have, but I'm here now. It's only three of you, you can play with me." He said, "No, you don't want to play with us, boy. I can tell by looking at you that you're scared." And I said, "Man, I'm not scared at all. I just want to play golf." He goes, "You want to gamble?" And I said, "Well, so I was thinking, maybe I should take him for a million and repent on the way home." (audience laughs) That's what I was thinking. (audience laughs) And, but I didn't. And he said, "I said, I don't want to gamble." He said, "The reason you don't want to gamble, boys, 'cause you're scared." And I said, "Well, sir, I'm just going to go ahead and let you know that's just not true." And he said, "All right, hit the ball." So I hit the ball and on number 70 box, he started telling jokes using God's name in vain and saying, "Jesus Christ." Now, I don't have a lot of pet peeves, but that's one of mine. How about you? And I was at the Circle K once and somebody dropped a bag of ice and he said, "Jesus Christ," and all that. And I just couldn't tell. I said, "Man, leave Jesus out of it. Say Buddha or something, but leave Jesus out of it." And when I got to the checkout counter, the guy there said, "That Buddha thing," you said, "I like that a lot." (congregation laughing) I said, "That's 'cause you're a Hindu," or whatever. (congregation laughing) And so this guy was cussing and I felt the Spirit of God tell me to stare at this guy. Now I didn't want to do that. He didn't look so hot, as for sure, and I didn't like him. But I felt like the Lord wanted me to, and I looked at him and for about a minute, we had eye contact, and then he looked away. Well, I was walking down the fairway and I saw these golf carts going over the hill, and I noticed that Ben, the billionaire, was not in his car. And then I heard some steps behind me and he came up to me and we had the most unusual conversation that you could ever imagine. And he looked at me and he said, "Boy, are you a preacher?" And I said, I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "Well, shut up and listen to me." He said, "How long have you been a Christian?" And I told him, he said, "Shut up, I'm still talking." It's real hard to talk to somebody when they tell you. (congregation laughing) And he goes, "Boy, I'm gonna tell you something right now. "God called me to be a preacher when I was 15 years old. "You hear me? "Yeah, I hear you. "Shut up, boy." (congregation laughing) He said, "But boy, I've run from God "and I'm tired of running from God, "and I want to give my heart to the Lord." He said, "You pray with me?" I said, "If you let me say something." (congregation laughing) So anyway, it's a long story, but I prayed with that guy and I led him to Christ. And on the last hole, the last tee, the last green, we got through putting, he looked at everybody, he said, "Everybody shut up and look over here." And they did. He said, "You see that boy right there? "I like him, he's a preacher." And I kind of bowed up, like. He said, "That boy led me to Jesus." And that joke I was telling y'all, "God's name in vain? "I'm gonna tell you right now. "Don't ever tell anybody that. "Y'all shut up getting a car, you do, boy. "Get in the car and y'all go home." (congregation laughing) But this man was telling me, we were walking down the fairway. He said, "God called me to do something great "when I was 15 years of age. "And I've run away from the call of God, "and what God wants from me, all of my life." This man is probably in his lower 70s. And when I got home, I was telling my wife about that. And then it hit me, the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler had everything. But he knew that he needed God. And he ran towards the Lord, and he got into presence of God. And he said, "I wanna follow you, you're amazing. "What is it that I need to do?" And the Lord laid it out. And then he had another conversation with God, and God said, "If you wanna be first around me, "if you want me first in your life, "this is what you need to do." And he clearly told him what he needed to do. But the man couldn't take it. So the Bible says that he walked away from God with his head down, in fact, maybe depression. And he walked away, and when I thought about that, it hit me, "What was this rich young ruler's name? "Where did he get his money? "Where did he go when he left? "We don't know anything about this guy, "except that he walked away from God with his head down. "But if he would have said whatever it is that you want, "God, that's what I'll do." He may have written two thirds of the New Testament. He may be a household name. And I believe that God is asking all of us to put him first in our lives so we can finish strong. Listen, these are crazy days that we live in. And I can't think of a better time in all of our days to put Jesus first. Can I have an amen out there? Not too long ago, I had a chance to go and visit with Dr. Billy Graham. I was speaking in chapel there to their staff, and when I was done, a man came up to me, and he said, "Would you like to meet Dr. Billy Graham?" And I said, "Let me pray about it." Okay, it was that count. And he said, "Well, it's gonna take some time to work on it." And for about three months, they worked on it, and then I ended up flying in, and I got to meet with Dr. Billy Graham. And it was clear to me because of his staff that he was dying. He actually even told me that he was dying. But we drove up to his home, and out in my heart, I was skipping a beat or two, and I walked into his living room, and then his sitting room, and Dr. Billy Graham was there. We had an incredible conversation, but at the end, he said something that turned my life upside down. And I don't know if it'll do the same thing for you, but I asked him if he would pray for me, if he would pray for our church, and he said, "Yeah, I will, but I want you to pray for me." And I said, "Sure, Dr. Billy Graham. "I'll pray for you, but how do you want me to pray for you?" And this is what he said. He said, "Prayed that I've finished the race." I was thinking, "This is Billy Graham. "He's already admitted that he is about to die. "I think he's got this wrapped up. "But the reason why he mentioned that "is because when you've had close encounters with God, "and you've been in his hands, and you've been around him, "and you've heard his voice, and you've been in love with him, "I'm going to tell you, there's a craving that goes with that "for you never to lose that relationship with him, "even until the end. "And God wants to be in close proximity to you. "You can see it reflected even in the 10 commandments. "The very first commandment is, "please don't have any other gods in front of me. "The second one is, don't have any idols. "You can see the God, they're not haphazardly put together. "You can see that God wants to be close to us, "that he wants to be in relationship with us, "and through the years, I've seen so many people "that had the edge of God in their hand drop it, "and fall away. "And I believe it's because they took God "out of the first slide, the rightful place. "Are y'all out there? "And even one time in the New Testament, "in the Book of Revelation, the Lord was speaking "to one church, and he said, look, I'm proud of you, "you have incredible endurance, you have purpose. "I appreciate that about you. "But there is one thing that I hold against you, "and that is that you have lost your first love. "I just want to ask a quick question to all of you. "How many of you would say that you were at the peak "of your relationship with God? "Don't raise your hand or anything, "just get honest about that. "And this is what he said to them. "He said, look, you've lost your first love, "and then he said, go back and do the things "that you did at first. "Now, I don't know if you can relate to that, "but I'm married, and I love my wife "now more than ever. "But there are times when we've lost our edge of love. "Our first year was difficult. "And I remember even just a few years ago, "it wasn't the best year that we've ever had. "But I know that when you're dating your wife "and you're courting her, it's incredible. "The love, and you're looking at her, "and you just tell her you love her. "A man will talk on the phone for a long time. "I mean, no, that's difficult to do. "And she'll look at you and blink at you like, "I love you. "But after a while, you know it changes it. "You know whatever. "In the beginning, you know, a man will pick up stuff. "He'll open the door for her and say, get in. "After a while, when love leaves, "she's lucky to get both feet in the car "before he drives away. "In the beginning, he's picking up stuff. "I'll get it. After a while, he's watching TV, "and he sees her picking up something. "He said, 'If you drag it on the other side, "it's a lot easier to get across the room.' "And you can see that it changes. "In the beginning, a man looks at his wife, "and he knows the scripture says to give your life up "for your wife like Christ. "He gave his life up for you. "But after years, you know, you just remember, "why I've submitted to the husbands, "and we'll put it on the refrigerator. "Find it very interesting how the word of God "can read us. "It tells a man to love his wife "like Christ loves the church. "And then it says to love your wife like you love yourself. "It doesn't tell a woman to love her husband "like she loves herself. "Because a woman, they don't love themselves. "But a man, we love ourselves. "But a woman can, they can be a perfect person, "stand in front of a mirror and find something wrong. "But a man can be ugly, with hair on his back. "Whassup?" (audience laughing) And God knows, God knows. But it doesn't just tell a man to give his life up for his wife, it tells women they must respect their husband. God knows he made a man and he knows that a woman has to give him respect. Because when he becomes one with her, the dad loses the ability to be the number one to encourage her in his life. And so does the best man and so does everyone else. That's the reason why God says no ladies. If you want to know how to take care of your husband, you got to respect him. And even in the Book of Proverbs, it tells a woman, a joyful woman, a godly woman, she smiles at the future, a man loves a woman with joy. I've never met a man yet. It said, "I just want to marry a mean, depressed chick someday." But in the beginning, you know, you're in love with God, in love with your spouse in the beginning of dating, and then you lose it. But some of us, we've lost it with our all with God. And I was thinking about a shepherd, a shepherd. I don't know if you've ever studied the role of a shepherd, and there's a lot to talk about there. But I noticed a few years ago that a shepherd will carry around. It's not uncommon. They don't do it all the time, but from time to time. They'll carry around a pouch with an apple in it. And as they're walking around, every now and then, they'll reach into their pouch and they'll put the apple right behind them, and it's the sheep that's closest to them that gets the fruit. But we also know that a shepherd is one that-- and your pastor is like this, and your staff. The Bible says that a shepherd is one if he has 99 that is strong, and one is weak. They're thinking about the one. All of our lives, we're either going to be the one that's always running, that the shepherd has to look for, or we can be the one that's so close to him that we get the rewards, man, that we get the fruit of the spirit, that we get to grow. If you see the heroes of the faith, you can clearly see the reason why they were able to conquer what God asked them to do is because they stayed in a relationship with God. How do you think Noah built a boat 500 miles away from the nearest body of water? For decades, he built this thing. How? Because God encouraged him to do so. He kept the Lord there. How do you think Moses was able to go and get the 10 commandments? Don't you think he read them? Raise your hand if you think he read them. Well, of course. And one of them said, "Thou shalt not commit murder." And Moses was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian with a knife, but he still came down. Why? Because God was close to him, and he had confidence in his relationship with God. Mary, we know that it could have cost her her whole life based on the assignment that God gave her. But she took the assignment and was really willing to go through the shame and the agony of it all just because she was close to God and she saw his heart. And even at the very end, at nine months pregnant, she had to ride on a donkey for three months. I've talked to pregnant women here at nine months pregnant. No, I'm sorry. I just want to ride on a donkey for three days. And even the ducker lady doesn't want to do that. So I'm saying that how is it that you're going to be able to finish what God has for you? How are you going to do that if you're doing it alone? And so what I felt like we could do is to talk about this whole challenge of bringing God into the first place in your life. Raise your hand if you want that in your life. Because it is God's original intent. Adam and Eve, every day, they walked around with God in the cool of the day. That's the kind of relationship I want. And then one day, the enemy came about. He could not stand the fact that they were walking with God in the cool of the day. He still doesn't like it. So he showed up, and he actually started speaking to them and appealing to their desire to be closer to God. He said, hey, if you really want to get closer to God, if you want to be more like him, then do this. And he tricked them. But after they fell, they hid from God. When they needed God the most is when they were hiding from God. I mean, I don't understand a lot of times it's when we're at our peak of our relationship with God. And everything is going right. Adam and Eve, they had it all. I mean, Adam had-- he was the best-looking man in the world. He was the best-looking woman in the world. He was never late from work. She never burnt anything. There was no in-laws, no clothes. They had it going on, man. They're in the garden. And the presence of God with them every day. Now why is it, though, that some of us, we lose our edge? And I'll tell you right now, in this fasting and prayer time that you are seeking after trying to hear from God for the year, I want to challenge you to do something. Don't fast this year and seek after God because you think it's the right thing to do. Don't open up the word this year because it's good if you do an evil if you don't. Don't worship God because it's good and evil if you don't. Don't avoid compromise because compromise is evil. No, worship God with all of your heart because you want more of God, the spirit of life. Avoid compromise in your life because you don't want to destroy the life of God that is on the inside of you. Even in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12 and verse 2, it says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Everybody say the name above every other name, Jesus. And then it says, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy, everybody say joy. He went, one translation actually says for the joy he by the means of to destroy shame, he went to the cross with joy. I'm gonna tell you right now that is an all out effort to be in relationship with us. I grew up in a church that forgot about that. I grew up in a church where they hated everybody. In fact, to go there, you had to hate people. That was the only way they'd let you in. And my Sunday school teacher hated me. She hated her old class. She would always say, be Zett, hell is hot, and that's where you're going. That's what she would tell me all the time. And she was teaching on the 10 commandments one time. And I said, golly. And she said, that's a form of God's name in vain. Hell is hot, hot, hot, hot. Her finger was like 30 feet long. I was thinking, if she knew what my dad was saying at home, she'd really be mad. She talked about hell like she was born and raised in hell. But they all hated each other, and they would sing about the joy. Come on, what I like about this church is the joy. I get around Robert, and he has joy. He has integrity, he has a love for God, he's sincere. I love that about the staff here. Don't ever lose the joy of the Lord. How do you keep that by being in close proximity to him? In fact, this church that I grew up in, they would sing about joy, but they didn't have it. We've got the joy, joy, joy down in our heart. And we would all say literally, I promise. Where? Down in our heart. Where? Down in our heart. And as a kid, I was thinking, I've seen joy, and it don't look like that. But I would tell you, I don't believe that God wants us to wait until we get to heaven. To walk around with a relationship with him. I know we have to do it by faith. One day when we get to heaven, we won't have to exercise any faith. I look forward to that. But I believe that the same desire that God has to be in a relationship with us for eternity, he would like to activate it right now. And we get to heaven and we see how big he is, how much he loves, how awesome he is, his presence. We're gonna think back to these days, and we may just think, why didn't I go for it more? Why didn't I dream more? Why didn't I worship him with more intensity? Why didn't I love my wife more, and raise my kids with the love of God? So I've thought about that, and I was going through some different scripture, and I thought, man, let's land in Hebrews. If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 19, and we're gonna have a blast talking about some of the key words in this passage of scripture. I'm gonna be reading out of the NIV, and it says, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence, everybody say confidence, to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God. How? With a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, and having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold on swervingly to the hope we professed for he who promises faithful, and let us consider, very important, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. When you're close to God, write this down if you're taking notes, when you're close to God, you will approach him with confidence. Everybody say confidence. I wanna ask you, how is that going? Because if your prayer life is dry, there's a good chance that you don't even know how much God wants to be around you. In fact, as a pastor, the biggest deterrent that I have seen in people's lives and their faith is a whole fact that they forget how much God loves them. Condemnation, it drowns people out. Paul said there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, but yet there is. So is the scripture lying? No, it's just illegally attached to you. It doesn't have to stay there. You can do something about it, but as long as you are forgotten that God wants you to have confidence in walking into the presence of him, then you'll probably be reluctant to do so. In Hebrews chapter four and verse 16, it says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence." Want you to think about different people in the word that have blown in. In fact, you may be here right now, you may be listening in on Daystar, and perhaps you might have committed adultery recently. Maybe you're involved in such a stronghold and a type of sin that you think there's no way you can get out of it. In fact, you may even believe that God is mad at you and he doesn't even want a relationship with you and that your best days are behind you, that it's too late. Well, I'm gonna tell you right now that's simply not true. In fact, the last time I was here, I was identifying two different people in the Bible where you can see the way that God wants to grab ahold of you and bring you back into a relationship with him. 'Cause if you look at Peter and you look at Judas and what they did, it really wasn't that much different. I mean, you had one who betrayed and one denied, but it really wasn't that much of a difference. And after Jesus rose from the dead, he wanted to talk with the disciples, but he knew that Peter was discouraged. So he spoke to a lady and he said, "Hey, go and get the disciples, "I wanna communicate with them and get Peter too." Why did he say Peter? Because he knew that Peter thought that it was too late for him. And I am totally convinced that if Judas would have not committed suicide, that he was said, "Hey, go and get the disciples, "don't forget Peter and get Judas." But he checked out too quick. You know, so many people, they just feel like there's just no way that God wants to hang out with me. But when you get back into a place where he's the number one person or the end of the number one slide, and what happens is you get your confidence back and sort of like Peter, the Lord looked at him and said, "Peter, do you love me?" And Peter did not say, "Yes, I do love you, Lord." No, that's not what he said at all. What he actually said was, "You know that I love you." That's an upgrade. Some of you are worshiping God a while ago and you were saying, "Man, I love you, God. "I love you, God." That's one form of worship. But what's really intense worship is when you realize that God is totally confident that you love him. And Peter here he was talking with God, with Jesus himself. And he was able to say as he looked into the eyes of Christ and he said, "You know that I love you three different times." I mean, just look at like the woman who was caught in adultery by the religious community. They grabbed her and brought her to the feet of Jesus and they knew the law that she should have been stoned. That's exactly how a religious person still wants to deal with sin, but not Jesus. But if you look at the two different groups, you have Jesus and you have the religious leaders, they both wanted the same goal. They wanted this woman to sin no more. But the way the religious leaders wanted to do it was to kill her and the way Jesus wanted to do it was to forgive her. How many like forgiveness a whole lot better? And so Jesus looked at her and he actually looked at them first and said, "All right, let's kill her. "Throw some rocks." But let's do it this way. Let's let the one who's without sin cast the first rock. And we know he wrote something on the ground and one by one they left. Well this woman, you can imagine how she was travailing him, weeping and scared. And he looked at her, she could tell that maybe they had walked away, but she probably wasn't 100% confident and he looked at her and he said, "Woman, where are your accusers now?" And she looked around and she said, "They're not here." And he said, "Neither do I accuse you." But what he said after that is the most important part. Well he said after that is, "Go and send no more." I mean he said, "I don't accuse you either. "Now go and send no more." If he would have accused her and then told her not to send any more, I am totally convinced that she would have. If he would have said, "Woman, where's your accusers now? "They're gone." Well, you are a loser. I can't believe what you did. Now get out of here and go send no more. Loser! She would have went right back into a life of sin. But you know what, I am totally sure that lady didn't go back into a life of sin. Because she met the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and a person that loved her more than anybody else. Look, God is very good at forgiving people. I mean he went all out, we call it good Friday but it was a very difficult Friday for him. And he went all out on the cross. You may say, well it was the nails that held him to the cross. No, it was his love for you. And when you read scriptures like Jesus said in John chapter 14 and verse five, he said, "If you love me, you will obey my commands." A lot of people read a verse like that and they think that it's read this way or should be read this way. If you love me, you will obey. If you love me, you will obey. But it's actually, I believe Christ is saying, if you love me, you will. If you love me, you'll grow. If you love me, we'll get closer. If you love me, God wants us close to him for a major reason because that's where he leads us. God doesn't have a loud and abrupt voice. It's a very still and small voice. He doesn't yell in the Old Testament, it wasn't in the thunder, it wasn't in the fire, it wasn't in the earthquake. It was actually in the whisper. And in the New Testament it describes how he's a still small voice. That's the way he communicates. In my family, we are loud, the beazettes are loud. Anybody loud around here? I mean, we eat loud, we laugh loud, we talk loud, everything we do is loud. But I have one child, her name is Grace, and she's a whisper. And so whenever we're doing our life, every now and then out here, it's a whisper, it's a whisper. And we'll have to stop what we're doing, and we'll go, Grace, what do you want? I just want to say hello, and then we'll do our life. (congregation laughing) What have I learned from that? You have to stop everything you're doing. You hear somebody who whispers. God could speak extremely loud, but he has chosen to be a still small voice because he wants you close to him. That's where he likes the relationship. And Hebrews 1035 says, "So do not throw away your confidence." Number two, if you keep him close to you, you will dream again, dream again. Years ago I took my son out fishing, and he had never caught a fish before, and he was three or four years of age. And so I decided I was determined. We're gonna catch a fish, and that's the way it goes. So an hour went by, nothing. Nothing was happening. Another hour, nothing. But my son didn't care, he was just throwing rocks. So he went over, and he was throwing rocks, and laughing, and singing, but I was still trying to catch a fish for my son. And when he wasn't looking, I caught a fish, and I reeled it in real fast, and I put it on his hook. I could tell he didn't know what was going on. So I put it on his hook, and I let it out, and I went over like a manipulator, and I said, I said, Hunter, I believe you'll catch a fish now if you come on over. Okay, Dad. So he went over, and he grabbed his rod, and he said, what does feel different? And he reeled it, and he caught it. Well, the next day, I said, Hunter, what did we do yesterday? He said, we went fishing. I said, well, did we catch anything? He said, well, you did, and then you took it off the hook, and then I got it. (audience laughing) What? I said, you knew that the whole time? He said, yeah, I said, you didn't act like it. You acted like you were having a blast. He said, Dad, I was having a blast 'cause I was with you. I'm gonna tell you right now that you can have a relationship with God that is so pure and so strong, that as long as you're with him, and some of us, we've lost our dreams, and the scripture craves for us. You can tell Joseph was a dreamer, and his brothers could see it on him, and in fact, when he was a long ways off, his brothers looked at him and said, look, Joseph, they didn't even say Joseph. They said, look, the dreamer is coming. Could y'all look here for a minute? People that live around you, they can tell if you're dreaming or not. That's the reason why I like to be around this church. The dream this church has, I'm a big dreamer. We're dreaming big dreams in Arkansas, but the dreams that this church has, I've never seen anything like it, and I believe it's gonna happen, but it's gonna take some other dreamers as well, and I believe that God, the best days for you, are ahead of you. Can I have an amen? And I believe that God has assembled this team together. It's like the sovereign hand of God is on this church, but there's a few different types of people that are here. We have some that are here that you used to dream, but you're not dreaming now. People can tell they live with you. They can spot it on you. Some people, they blower their dreams to wherever their faith is now. They got hit a few times, and they were dreaming big, and now they're not dreaming big at all. And in fact, we have some people they have backwards vision. Their dream is behind them. Always related to this, the way that my wife draws a car. She never uses the mirrors, the rear view mirror. If you get in her car still to this day, you can see your feet in her rear view mirror. It's the weirdest thing. And I always say, "Baby, you ought to use the mirrors. "It'll help you." She goes, "I don't need the mirrors. "I'm not driving that way, I'm driving that way." (audience laughing) And I always say, "Well, that's a terrible driving principle, "but it's a great kingdom principle." And then some of you though, and you can tell when you have a friend who is dreaming, you can tell, especially you can tell when they're dreaming dreams for God. And I'm gonna tell you what God is dreaming about. He's dreaming about souls. He's dreaming about souls. Years ago when I was a youth pastor, and I was really trying to establish the desire that God had to win a soul. And they would not get it. I mean, this youth group, we weren't winning anybody to the Lord. And so I heard this idea, and I actually did it, and I had a baseball bat in front of the church, and I said, "You see the baseball bat? "It costs about a hundred dollars, "and in my hands it's worth about a hundred dollars." But in Sammy Sosa's hands, or whoever was the greatest batter at the time, it's worth $15 million a year. It just depends on whose hands it's in. And then I gave the bat away. And I held up a golf ball. I said, "You see this golf ball? "It's golf ball's worth $3 in my hands." And I named the number one golf for the time, but in his hands it's worth $20 million a year. It just depends on whose hands it's in. And I held up a football. I said, "You see this football? "It's worth like $150 in my hands." But in the hands of Troy Eggman, it's worth like $25 million a year, or whatever the facts were. And I held up two nails. I said, "You see these two nails? "They're worth about 30 cents in my hands." But in the hands of Jesus, it's worth your life. I believe that we go to church and we're sitting by people that are discouraged down and out, that have lost their way. And if we forget about the value of a soul, we're gonna lose them. And I believe that God wants us to care about people. And in fact, every sermon that I ever preach, including tonight, I always look around and try to find somebody that looks like they're hurting. And I learned this a long time ago. It was a man who was in the mall and he had fallen away from God. And when I saw him, he hid from me. And I saw him hide behind a petition. It was a, and my first thought was, the anointing that is on my life is convicted him of his sin. I'm embarrassed to say that. But the second thought from God was, "No, he's hiding from you because you don't love him." Then I started running down the mall and I found him hiding behind a petition. I said, "Hey, man, I saw when you was hiding." He goes, "I'm not hiding." I said, "No, I saw you." You kind of ducked behind the petition. "I'm not ducking." I saw you, bro, you ducked. Okay, I ducked. I said, "But I know why you did." And I explained to him what the Lord just had showed me. And I remember when that man came back and gave his heart to the Lord and reestablished a desire and a relationship with God. And number three, when you put God in the rightful place, you will never be intimidated by others. Never be intimidated by others. Could y'all look here for a minute? Some of you are so insecure, full of fear. You walk into a room. There's three or four people in the room and they're laughing, you assume they're laughing at you. If God gives you an idea, you won't do it. That's the reason why he can't speak to you anymore. 'Cause you're afraid as phone calls that we've never made, businesses that we've never started, ideas that came from heaven, but we were captivated by fear and paralyzed. And I believe the spirit of God, if you'll put him in the rightful place, will breathe life on you again and you won't be intimidated by others. Can I have an amen? Then number four. And this is where I've really been trying to go all night. If you keep God in the rightful place, authenticity will drip off of you. I've asked myself many times, why is it that God's hand is so strong? And I'm not trying to lift up a person, but why is it that God's hand is so strong on Robert Morris? And I'm gonna tell you right now, it's because of how authentic he is. And I believe that this is who God is using back in the day, 10, 20 years ago, the people that God were using, it was people that always acted like they had it together, that they never had a bad day, never made a mistake, they would hide those mistakes, but not now. God is using those that are sincere. In Hebrews, chapter 10, the verse that we just read, it says, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart." Everybody say that with me. "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart." Could y'all look here? When I was in Bible school years ago, it shocked me the way that they were training us back then. I'm sure it's still happening some now, but they would teach us never to get close to people, never to act like you're having a bad day, that if people got close to you, you would lose the anointing, they would teach us to walk in during praise and worship and sit away from the people, never to have a phone number where they could get in touch with you, even the staff, even an associate pastor, just staying away from people. You just always had to be the spiritual leader. In other words, they were teaching us not to be real. And I remember when I was in Bible school, it was like, "I'm not gonna have any friends, "I'm not gonna have one friend." And I remember reading the staff that after 10 years of being in the ministry, most pastors do not have one person they call a friend. Now, I remember debating about it with different deans in the school, but they stood ground and they said, "No, you can't live like that, Rick. "We've tried it, it doesn't work." And so I got out of Bible school. And Michelle and I already told you, our first year in marriage wasn't so good. And one day we got into an argument. Raise your hand if you've ever been in an argument with your spouse. Okay, good, I'm glad I'm on it, the only one. We got in an argument and this was our first year in which she said something that offended me. And I yelled at her, I'll never forget it, but I yelled at her, I said, "Michelle, shut up." Just like that. I had to speak that weekend to a church of 10,000 people. I mean, I was on the staff of this church and I was scheduled to speak that weekend. And so I didn't have time to deal with that. So I went into my office to pray and how many of you know the Lord wasn't anywhere around. And so I knew what I needed to do, but ego was in the way and I didn't wanna go in there and apologize to her and it's very, very complicated for me. But finally I just gave up and I went in there and I said, "Michelle, when I looked into her eyes, "I could tell that I heard her. "The woman that I love more than anybody else." And I looked at her and I said, "Michelle, "I'm sorry what I said to you. "Will you forgive me?" And we made out, I mean, made up, it was awesome. And I went back into my office and I was seeking the Lord. Do y'all track with me? This is as punchy as I'm gonna get tonight. When I went back into my office, the Lord spoke to me and said, "I forgive you and so does your wife. "But I want you to tell the whole church "a night what you did." I remember thinking, 'cause I was trained, you can't do that. So I told God, I said, "God, you don't know anything "about ministry." (audience laughing) You can't do that. And I actually did. I spoke that night to the church and I looked at them and I told them what I did. And for the first time in my life, I felt the anointing of God grab ahold of me and walk with me. The Bible says, "Draw near to God with a sincere heart." If you wanna know, the main reason outside of the power of the Holy Spirit, outside of the integrity and the core values of this church, I'm gonna tell you what's going on around here. People around here are sincere. And when I call them on the phone, if I need to talk to a friend who's sincere, I'm calling somebody of this church. When I get around your pastor, he doesn't just talk to me about fluff. If he's going through something to say, pray about this with me, sincerity. And I believe this is what God is doing in all of us. In the book of Acts, we all want the power. Raise your hand if you want the power of God. I mean, but it says every day they met together. Every day, what? If you looked that up in the Greek, it actually means every day. (audience laughing) Why? Because they liked each other. It says they ate with glad and sincere hearts. Every day. The sincerity of God with them and then the power of God followed. I'm closing out, but I just wanna say, as some of you, you're traveling through life at too high of a speed at Mach 2. Not developing relationships and nobody knows what's really going on. You may have checked out a long time ago, but nobody knows. How many enduring relationships have you ever built while traveling at Mach 2 without being sincere? And I just wanna encourage you, in 2010, let this be a year where you get up every day aiming for a sincere relationship with God and you have a friend that you can be at accountable to that you can open up with 'cause I believe that this church has a lot of great things to do for God. Let's get the edge in our hand and let's make a difference. If you believe that, give the Lord a hand. Come on, all around this place. (audience applauding) All around this place. (audience applauding) And then number five, when you put God first, you will change lives. I just wanna ask right now, as you look around, just look around at this place. Just look around at the value of a soul, the people that are around you. I believe that God has assembled this team, this church, for such a time as this. But I do believe that some of the people that are here right now, they do not have the edge in their hand. In the Old Testament in Second Kings, chapter six, they were building a Bible school, they were chopping down trees, and one guy lost his cutting edge. And when he lost his edge, he did the right thing. He called Elijah up and he said, "Elijah, I got a problem, I've lost my edge." And Elijah said the right thing. He said, "Where did you lose it?" And I just wanna ask you, where is it that you've lost it? The scripture says in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24, let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. Everybody say encourage one another. Say it again, encourage one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. I'll never forget this particular man that was at our church who fell into adultery. He was involved in a small group, and the men found out that he was involved in adultery. And they found out that it was on Friday night, if I'm not mistaken, like two or three in the morning, he would come home from this relationship. And the small group, what they did is they decided to go and camp about his front door and lawn chairs, and they would actually get around in a circle, just pray it and talk it in. And when he would come in, he would get out of his car and see them there. Two or three Friday nights. Can you imagine what that was like? He just came from an adulterous relationship. He gets out of his car and his friends are at the front door. And when he walked up to them, they didn't say, "What are you doing, man?" They just said, "Hey, bro, we'll pray for you. "You need to get some sleep. "Go on inside and get you some sleep." The next weekend they did it again. How many of you know it didn't take long before that guy got ready with God? (congregation laughing) I believe with all of my heart that you can stay involved in this church for the rest of your life and never really get involved, and you'll probably be okay. But I'll give you my words, you'll never be as strong as you could be. And in fact, Gateway will probably be all right if you don't get involved, but it will never be as strong as it could be. And I believe that God is asking all of us to put our hands to the plow together and look around and pay attention and ask what we can do to make a difference because the Lord doesn't wanna do it without you. Are y'all out there? - Yes. - And the Spirit of God is with us, and I believe He will give you your edge back. If you believe that, give the Lord a hand. Come on, everybody, together. (congregation applauding) Love it. Love it. Let's bow our heads and pray. (congregation murmuring) No one looking around? So I'll go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I just wanna thank you for this place. Thank you, Lord God, for the way that your hand has directed people together. But right now, Lord, I know that there are some that are hurting here. I know that there are some that are discouraged and they've been faking their relationship with you or perhaps they've just assumed that you don't want them back. All around the room, if you're here right now and you cannot say with total confidence that you are right with God, I wanna give you a chance to be. Maybe you've never been with the Bible calls being born again. Perhaps you have been, but you need to rededicate your life to the Lord because you've wandered away. Maybe you're here and you have no confidence and no power in your relationship with God and you need the Lord to fill you with his spirit so you can go and conquer everything that he's calling you to do. Maybe you're here right now and you've lost your dream. You know that God has a big plan for you, but somehow you lost it along the way. No one looking around? I'm not gonna embarrass you or point you out, but if that is you, I wanna ask you all around the room. If that is you, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand until I see your hand. Come on quickly, I see it, I got it, I got it, I got it. I got it. Okay, there's people everywhere. In fact, I'm just gonna go ahead and ask all of you that raise your hand to stand if you don't mind. Just stand up around us, it's true. And everybody seated and standing, say this prayer with me. Everyone say, "Lord God, "I thank you for this conference. "I thank you for your word. "I thank you for your promises. "And I thank you for the cross. "You went all out for me. "And then you rose from the dead. "I thank you that you left your spirit for me. "And I commit my life to you right now. "From this day forward, I call you Lord. "Forgive me of my sin, forgive me of compromise. "Everything that I've done to grieve you. "I ask you to be number one in my life. "Again, I thank you for this conference, O my God. "And I'm going for it this year. "It's worth it to serve you in Jesus' name. "Amen, amen, thanks. "God bless, get away." (audience clapping) [BLANK_AUDIO]