Ministry, Worship & an Update from the Elders

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Good morning.

Welcome to Gateway Church.

I hope you're ready to worship.

Listen, I want to say this up front.

We have children's ministry for those that are in uh six years old and under.

And if um we're gonna be sharing some sensitive information in this service, is what I'm trying to say.

And so I want to give you time.

If you want to take your children to children's ministry, you've got time to do that.

We're gonna go into worship for just a few minutes.

Then I'm gonna be back to give you a kind of an outline of where we're headed with this service.

But I'm gonna tell you, we need the presence of the Lord to carry us through today.

It's gonna be an incredible service, but this is one of those times where we're praying, Holy Spirit, come.

Would you agree with me?

Would you pray that with me?

Let's enter into worship together.

Feel comfortable, just stretch your arms high as we sing this out.

Let's invite the presence of the Holy Spirit not just into this place but into our lives today.

Come from this place and fill the spirit, your glory, God is what our hearts love to become by your presence, conflict your comes to be comfortable.

Say that again to be by your presence.

If you feel comfortable, just lift your hands to the Lord right now.

Lord, we love you, we love you, we love you.

With all of our hearts, we love you.

And Holy Spirit, we ask right now for a fresh infilling of your spirit, Lord.

We ask for fresh breath, for fresh oil, for fresh life.

We're so grateful for our relationship with you, but even more than that, we're grateful for your relationship with us.

And we receive fresh breath today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Just remain standing for just a moment.

You know, there are seasons in life, there are times when you have to turn the page to the past and times when you turn the page to the future, and there are times when the Holy Spirit meets you at a crossroad, and you really do need fresh vision and fresh life and fresh breath.

You need those things.

And this service is going to be much like that.

So I was thinking through where we are as a church.

I got to thinking about walking down a highway and seeing those mile markers, and you know this mile represents this and the next mile represents that.

But there's a time somewhere on that path where you say to yourself, Life will forever be different from here forward.

And joy begins to come back in your heart, and hope begins to come back in your heart.

And you breathe that fresh breath and you say to yourself, I'm gonna be okay.

And that's what I really sense this weekend's all about.

A time where we are gonna be able to turn a page and step into the future and say to ourselves, we're gonna be okay.

We're gonna be better than okay.

So let me tell you.

Yes.

But here's what we're getting ready to do.

We've waited all summer for an inquiry, and it's here, and the elders are gonna come in just a few moments and read the findings, and and uh after that, Pastor Max Ocato is gonna come.

He's gonna pray for us and gonna have a pastoral moment, and then we're gonna go back into worship.

We've heard it said and we believe it's a prophetic word for our church.

The healing that we're going to need is gonna come from the presence of the Lord.

We've always been a presence of God-driven church, but in worship, God's Spirit comes and he meets with us in individual ways, and he takes us where he needs us to go.

And so we're gonna go back into worship and we're gonna believe God together today for the turning of the old page and the turning of the new, that we would by the Spirit of God be able to step into this fresh season here at Gateway Church.

I have to tell you, I have a lot of expectancy in my heart.

And the joy of the Lord is getting stronger and stronger each day.

And I really believe that the Lord's up to something sweet, something good, something solid, something we need.

Fresh breath in Jesus' name.

Well, before we go there, would you just turn and greet those around you?

We sure do love you.

God bless you.

Welcome to Gateway Church.

And um I missed a real great opportunity, I believe, to just take a minute and acknowledge our live production team.

I've been going to this church for 18 years now, and I believe that was probably the first issue I have experienced with production or live production or technical issue.

And I just want to acknowledge we come to church, and behind the scenes, there's a number of people that are working to make sure that everything goes well, and they don't get a lot of recognition.

I do just want to take a minute and recognize our live production team.

I also want to take uh a minute as well and acknowledge that um our campus pastors, and they're watching right now, they have done an amazing job these last four and a half months.

It's been a very tumultuous time, I understand, uh, for all of us, but our campus pastors have carried the weight of this with amazing strength and leadership.

And um, and I just I do want to acknowledge we have an amazing uh staff here at Gateway.

Uh the three of us have had the opportunity to work with them more than we ever imagined we would.

And and we have been very impressed.

There is amazing people on staff here at Gateway, and I want to recognize them as well.

As you all know, back in June of this year, Gateway Church engaged the law firm Haynes and Boone to conduct an independent investigation related to the childhood sexual abuse of Cindy Clemenshire by our former senior pastor, Robert Morris.

Haynes and Boone has completed their work, and their findings have been presented to the members of a subcommittee that was formed to receive and act on this information.

This subcommittee of the board is made up of myself, Kenneth Fambrough, and Dane Minor, who are sitting here behind me.

They also continue to serve as elders of Gateway Church.

Today I'm going to share with you, as members of Gateway Church, a summary of the facts that we have learned.

First, what happened to Cindy Clemenshire was heartbreaking and vile.

And we denounce sexual abuse in all of its forms.

And we feel deep sorrow for those who have been victimized by such despicable actions.

But I do want to take a minute and acknowledge her bravery in coming forward and telling her story to bring awareness to this issue.

She has countlessly, she has impacted countless lives.

And because of her courage, the three of us in particular, have had several people come up to us and tell us that they had their own stories where they were victims.

And Cindy gave them the courage to come forward and seek help.

And so we continue to pray for healing, not just for her, but for those who have been abused that are part of our family.

Over the years, Robert Morris shared his version of this story, that he was unfaithful in his marriage while in his early 20s.

And according to his version, Robert confessed his sin to apostolic leaders in the late 1980s, many years before Gateway Church was formed.

He stepped down from ministry for two years and then was restored back into ministry with the blessing of those same apostolic leaders.

We as a church knew what our former senior pastor shared publicly, and many people, including myself, simply believed his version of the story.

But on June 14th of this year, Cindy Clemenshire shared her story publicly, clearly stating that she was the one referred to in Robert Morris' story that he had described as a sexual affair.

And contrary to Robert's version, Cindy was not a consenting adult, but rather a child of twelve and a victim of sexual abuse.

Furthermore, she shared that the sexual abuse happened on multiple occasions over four and a half years.

And on the same evening of June 14th, Robert Morris directed Gateway employees to release a statement that intended to minimize the severity of Cindy's claims in a final attempt to conceal the truth.

And as you know, our Gateway family was rocked by these revelations.

Over the next 48 hours, the elders were able to independently verify critical elements of Cindy's story, enabling us to move forward and swiftly confront Robert Morse.

And when we insisted on meeting with him, he immediately resigned.

But despite his resignation, we knew that further investigation was needed.

And we knew that we as elders did not have the objectivity or the qualifications to properly investigate.

So Haynes and Boone was chosen because they are deeply experienced with conducting internal investigations, and this inquiry had to be truly independent, meaning it was conducted by a law firm with no prior connection to Gateway Church or any individuals involved.

They were given full access to our staff and internal communications.

But we also knew from the beginning that this report would have certain limitations.

A number of senior leaders had transitioned out of Gateway over its 24-year history.

And we had no power to compel anyone to participate in this investigation if they chose not to.

And to date, we've had six individuals who have declined to meet with Haynes and Boone, one of those being Robert Morris.

Haynes and Boone briefed this subcommittee, and we want to share a summary of the facts that we learned from their investigation.

For starters, you should know that none of us on the subcommittee had ever heard of any sexual abuse allegations against Robert Morris until June when Cindy Klemeshire shared her story.

Haynes and Boone's specific task was to conduct an independent investigation into both the conduct of Robert Morris, but not limited to just Cindy Klemeshire, and what was known and when by various individuals who have served in leadership throughout Gateway's history.

Our church cooperated fully.

Haynes and Boone was very thorough and diligent in their work.

And during the course of their inquiry, Haynes and Boone collected 780 gigabytes of data.

They reviewed thousands of pages of documents and emails, and they interviewed more than two dozen individuals.

In total, hundreds and hundreds of hours were expended on this investigation.

Confidentiality agreements, where they had been in place with former employees and relevant, were released.

And as I said before, there were six individuals who refused to cooperate with Haynes and Boone in an in-person interview.

We are relieved to share with you that in the course of their investigation, Haynes and Boone did not learn of any other allegations of sexual assault by Robert Morse.

No other abuse by him has been reported or uncovered by Haynes and Boone.

And at this time, to our knowledge, there are no other victims of Robert Morse beyond Cindy Clemenshire.

However, we want to be very clear to those of you sitting here today, and to those of you who are with us, who are not with us, but who may hear and read of our comments.

If you or anyone you know is a victim of sexual abuse by a current or former leader of this church, and you have not felt comfortable sharing your story, we ask that you please do so.

You can go to the police first, and if it's information that you believe we as leadership of Gateway need to know, you can contact us directly at connect at gatewayelders.com.

Your email will be held in the strictest of confidence.

And to anyone out there.

If you were a victim of sexual abuse as a child, I want you to know you cannot consent to sexual abuse or sexual activity as a child.

No child ever can.

Don't let the belief that it was consensual stop you from coming forward.

We want to create a culture where individuals feel safe reporting abuse and any other serious issues.

We learned from this investigation about what elders knew before June 14th, 2024, and what actions they took or failed to take.

And we now know that there were elders and employees at Gateway who knew before June 14th, 2024, that Cindy was 12 at the time the abuse began.

Additionally, we also learned there were other individuals who were notified in the years prior to June 14, 2024, about allegations of abuse, but they failed to inquire further.

In other words, there are two groups.

There is one group of individuals that knew without a doubt that Cindy Clemenshire was twelve when the abuse began.

And there is a second group who knew of allegations of sexual abuse by Robert Morris, who had enough information that they should have led them to ask more questions, but they did not.

Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at this church.

As a result, we have decided to draw a very bright line here based on biblical and moral standards and our values as a church family.

And we can report to you that as of today, no individual in either group serves as an elder, is employed by, or works at Gateway Church.

They have been removed.

Many of you may be wanting more specific details.

You need to know that Gateway Church is currently the target of various pending and or threatened litigation matters, including financial demands that we have received from Robert Morris, which to be clear we are rejecting.

And you also need to know that Gateway Church is currently and fully cooperating with an ongoing criminal investigation, the details of which we cannot share at this time, and it prohibits us from saying more.

We can share with you that the church nor its current leadership are subjects of this criminal investigation.

These past four and a half months have been a difficult and challenging time for us as a church family.

But it's also shown amazing strength and beauty.

And the time has come for us to look ahead.

And today we are making a decision on the things we will do as a church to be better.

As Pastor Levi said last week, which I loved, our pain will not be our template.

So, in practical terms, we're working diligently to review our internal systems to make sure that all of our ministries and operations carry the highest standards for excellence, integrity, and safety.

And we have examined our governance processes here at Gateway, and the truth is that the events of the last few months have demonstrated that there was a massive governance failure, an accountability failure here at our church.

It was a failure of culture.

And we must be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that our culture allowed the truth to be buried for four for far too long.

When a church becomes centered around one pastor alone, it's lost its way.

And unfortunately, we have come to the realization over the last few months that at some point in the past, the culture here at Gateway became one where power was centralized, and the leader at the top was surrounded by people who wanted to protect him, some of them at all cost.

This unchecked leadership approach goes precisely against the scriptural instruction given in Mark 10, 42 through 44, where Jesus instructs us to serve one another just as he came to serve and not to be served.

There are things that we as a church can and will do in the coming days and weeks and months to ensure that we have a culture of accountability where something like this can never happen again.

And we must accept that this was a massive governance failure, and we must be proactive in providing strong and independent governance by implementing checks and balances on future pastors and church leaders.

So in that spirit, we are working currently to make significant changes to our church's bylaws.

And this is still a work in progress, but I do want to mention a couple of specific areas of interest where we are making these revisions.

First, we will no longer have apostolic elders at this church.

We have concluded that this office of apostolic elders as designed did not and does not work for us.

We have already eliminated this office.

Second, we will no longer have staff members serve as elders at Gateway Church, with the exception of our future senior pastor and potentially an executive pastor, but both of them would serve in a non-voting capacity.

We believe that the voting members of the Board of Elders should be comprised of only individuals who are not employed by the church and who do not ultimately report to a senior pastor.

We must bring independence and objectivity to the eldership.

And it has been lacking in the years past.

Some of you are wondering if these governance issues or failures carried over to the church's finances.

And I don't want to spend too much time discussing our finances today, but I would like to summarize a few points for you because I believe they are important.

I can state clearly and definitively that Gateway Church does in fact have audited financial statements for the past 19 years using independent outside auditors.

And according to these audited statements, and contrary to what has been alleged by former employees and in online rumors, Gateway has averaged approximately 19% in giving to global missions.

I would like to say that again.

$200 million.

We won't know, we can't know this side of heaven the impact that those dollars have had, and no doubt there will be people in heaven as a result of those gifts.

Thank you.

Thank you to you for your generosity.

I do want to address that there have been questions and rumors about the finances in this topic.

And I did mention a few weeks ago we are going to hire an independent accounting firm to perform some very specific and focused forensic work to ensure that our accounting was done correctly.

And I will report back to you when that work has been completed.

It is amazing to me that God, in his infinite wisdom, decided to use a collection of imperfect people organized in an imperfect institution as his way to spread the gospel.

Yet that's what he does.

He uses his church to spread the gospel.

As I was driving into church yesterday and preparing for this message, Psalms 92 came to mind as verse 12 and 13.

It says, Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall still bear fruit in old age.

They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright.

We must learn from the mistakes of our past, or we will be doomed to repeat them.

And an honest assessment of our church reveals that like so many churches today, we became too metric-driven, too focused on a single individual.

We also became less relational, and we moved away from the original intention of church.

And this is perhaps the defining problem of churches today.

And we must reject the temptation to measure a church's success simply on attendance and giving.

Metrics, while good, do not accurately measure the health of a church.

We must be a church focused on making disciples of the nations and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

We also need to be a beacon of light in our communities, especially now.

So when I survey the evidence that was presented to us a few weeks ago, I am shocked that this story did not come out sooner.

There were emails in 2011 sent to a number of people, including some media outlets, with Cindy's story.

I believe in his wisdom and his mercy, he's using this timing for us as a church to have it reset.

He has graciously given us the opportunity to refocus as a church and return to him.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I believe he's doing a transformative work here at Gateway.

And it reminds me of the Israelites being in bondage in Egypt.

And for far too long, the Israelites had become uncomfortably comfortable with their circumstances.

But God had other plans for them.

He had plans to move them to a new home.

And as a church, God is moving us to a new place.

Our theology and beliefs are not changing.

But I do believe that God is calling us to change how we practice our beliefs.

And as a church, we need to be about making disciples of the nations, which is much more difficult to measure.

This house needs to be a place where everyone feels welcome and that they can experience the love of Jesus.

Church needs to be more than just attending a weekly service.

It needs to be about doing life together as a family in groups.

I know that you've experienced and seen this difference over the last four months.

I have.

When you come to our worship nights or the community nights, there's a real sense of family in this place.

My wife and I have a saying around our house that we say progress over perfection.

And I believe in these in that same idea as it relates to this transformation that the Lord is taking us through.

Just as he guided the Israelites, so will he guide us in this season.

One step at a time.

Progress.

And just as he guided them as a nation, so will he guide us as a church family.

We will get through this transformation together.

I am so thankful for this church.

And I truly believe and know that our best days are ahead.

We are healing as a church family, and we are rebuilding our foundation with the instructions of our Lord Jesus that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And we must love our neighbors as ourselves.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gateway Church family.

Thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for your belief in Gateway's future.

Thank you for your prayers for us as we navigate these waters.

Thank you for the sweet notes that we've received from you.

Thank you to those of you that have come up and told us that you're praying for us.

There is no way the three of us would have gotten through the last four and a half months without your prayers.

And we believe that God has entrusted us with an important part, us, the church, an important part of building his kingdom.

The three of us do endeavor to be good stewards of that responsibility, and we commit to you to look to him as we do this.

And we look to him for his guidance as we serve you.

May God bless you and may God bless this church.

We are now going to move into a time of ministry.

I want to invite Max up.

He's going to lead us in a time of healing as a church family.

I do want to encourage you.

I know in my heart there is purpose in this season.

And if there is purpose, I believe God is behind it.

And I believe that our best days are ahead.

Thank you.

I would imagine that there's a variety of emotions in the room.

There's a heaviness all the way to the other side of the spectrum where there's hope.

And I would imagine many of you, I know I am, trying to live in the tension between the heaviness and the hope.

Many times as a as a pastor, I've been called to the home of someone whose family is experiencing a grief of a sudden death, maybe an accident or something unexpected has happened.

And you walk into the house, and the house just feels like it's it's everyone's in a fog.

No one knows what the next step is.

No one knows where to turn.

No one knows how this happened.

And it's just a stunning.

Churches can pass through a season like that.

As a church, we have experienced a sudden trauma, unexpected.

You didn't see this coming.

You didn't.

And uh there's a sense in which we feel uh how can we move forward?

How can there be a new day?

How can we ever reclaim those days that we that we long for?

If you're experiencing that, I acknowledge that.

That is a legitimate emotion.

That is a legitimate emotion.

It doesn't mean you lack faith, it doesn't mean you're void of courage, it does mean you're a human being.

And you've also been deeply hurt.

Hurt.

It's hard to be hurt by anyone, but when you feel hurt at church, the place that we long to find safety and affirmation, it's it's it's a challenge.

I understand that.

I do.

And I pray that that the wonderful healing power, the Holy Spirit, who is called our comforter, the one who comes alongside, that he would bring comfort to you at this moment.

That he would bring healing to you.

I so deeply appreciate your elders.

And I I add my name to that long list that most likely includes yours that says, thank you to them.

Thank you for uh being a pastoral presence that makes hard decisions and leads the church and protects the church.

And I've wondered what I could say to you to help you have hope that the best chapter of Gateway has yet to be written.

What can I say?

I've wondered.

Is there a word, is there, is there some way that I could that I could perhaps convince those of you who are who are so, I don't know, angry, hurt?

Is there some way we could reach back and say, no, there is hope?

And and the answer, at least to my heart, is found in this passage.

If you'd like to follow along, it's not going to be on the screen, but it's a well-known passage from Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Matthew 16, chapter 13.

I'm sorry, verse 13.

Matthew 16 and verse 13.

It reads like this When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am?

Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

And he said to them, But who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and he said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The promise of Christ is that his church will prevail.

The promise of Christ is not that his church will never struggle.

In fact, knowing that the church is God's ordained institution to be the courier of grace and hope in the world, we should expect that the church would be attacked.

We should expect that Satan's schemes would target the churches and the universal church that is tasked with bringing hope and love.

We should not be surprised, should we, when a church passes through a time of challenge, because it is the church, you, that has been commissioned to carry hope and love and grace into the world.

And so my word to you is that the church will prevail because Jesus said the church will prevail.

It will prevail.

And it will prevail because we believe, as Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

This morning at one of our area Starbucks, I don't know what prompted the server to say to me what she said.

Maybe she, maybe I look like a preacher.

I don't know.

I said, How are you?

And she said, Well, I'm not doing too well.

She said, I'm working seven days a week and I'm really tired.

And I said, Well, God bless you.

God bless you.

He'll give you the strength.

And she said, and I'm afraid to die.

She just said that.

She said, I'm afraid to die.

I said, why?

And she said, I don't know.

I said, Do you know about heaven?

And she said, Yes.

And knowing today's text, I said, Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?

And her eyes filled with tears.

No one else was in Starbucks, by the way.

That wasn't holding up anybody.

It was just me and her.

And she said, I do believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

I think that's how she said.

I do believe it.

I said, Do you know that the Bible teaches us that Jesus said, if you'll confess my name on earth, I will confess your name in heaven.

And I said, the moment you said that right there, Jesus turned to our heavenly Father and confessed your name.

And she went, Oh, really?

I said, then you have absolute assurance of eternal life.

And then she handed me my coffee.

This is what Jesus wanted.

Is a collection of people, a quorum of people who will say what Peter said.

I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

So my message to us as a church family is that's it, right there.

Jesus said, I can build on that.

I can build on that.

You are Peter, the rock, and I can build on a rock of faith.

A rock that says, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

So the question of the morning is this do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?

Do you?

That's all Jesus needs right there.

That's all he needs.

He doesn't need a particular pastor.

He doesn't need a particular style of worship.

He doesn't need a building.

He doesn't need a particular gathering of people who have deep pockets.

He really doesn't.

He may bring all of those, but all he needs is a quorum of people, a collection of people who will say deep down in their heart, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

That's all he needs.

And I believe he has that here.

We have been through a horrible four and a half months.

Each one of us, I can remember where I was when I first heard this news last June.

You can too.

But ask him to begin bringing into your heart this happiness, this conviction that he and he alone is the one building the church.

Okay.

He is.

And because he is.

We can have faith that the best days of getting away.

You're the King of kings.

You're the Lord of Lords.

You're the master.

You're the one building the church.

And this particular congregation has been wrong.

We know you're a good shepherd.

We know you care for your sheet.

We beg you, Lord, to begin writing a new story.

To turn that page.

To take us into that new station.

To continue to grant strength to the elders of the church.

To grant healing to the members of the church.

And to grant grace to all who have been struck by the hurt in a sense of betrayal.

We believe in you, Lord Jesus.

And now we worship you.

In the midst of it all, we worship you.

We praise you.

In the name of Christ.

So let it be used.

So let it be us.

We're waiting here for you.

We're waiting here for you.

You're the Lord all creation.

Still you know my heart, the author of salvation.

You've loved us from the start of God.

After all these years, we're still waiting.

With our hands.

Your faithfulness is true.

All we need.

Isn't that amazing?

So just as the we play and the musicians play, can we do that for a moment?

We're just gonna wait on him.

Is that okay?

Just we're not gonna do a song.

Just gonna play.

This is usal.

Okay.

Waiting on you.

You deserve the glory.

You are worthy of it all.

And you are worthy of all.

You are worthy of it all from you.

Let us return to the Lord.

But he has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us.

He has injured us, but he will bind our words.

After two days he will revive us.

On the third day, he will restore us.

That we may live in his presence.

Let us acknowledge the Lord.

Let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises, he will appear.

He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.

You know, back in March of this year, a lot of the songwriters here on the team, we got together.

We felt compelled to write a song around that scripture.

Little did we know what was coming.

But it was almost in preparation for today.

We have this song that came out six months ago.

You can sit down and you can stand up and you can we're just gonna sing this over here and today.

Come let us return until we lost our way, we help you.

Come let us return until come let us adore the one.

Come let us adore the one there's a bacon in the none of you.

Come let us adore the one we love.

Isn't he?

Isn't he beautiful?

Isn't he?

Isn't he wonderful?

Keep it good in his loving church forever, keep it good, in his loving church forever for every generation, it's faithful and truly, it's good, it's always good, it's always good.

He's always good.

Jesus, you're the first love in our comes.

Jesus, you're the first love in our hearts.

Lord, let you fight love.

Jesus, you're the first love in us.

In his loving judge forever.

He is good in his loving choice forever.

For every generation, his faithfulness remains.

He is good.

He is always good.

Let us return to the Lord.

Here in your presence, we are alive.

Beauty for ashes, darkness to light.

Come, let us return to the law.

We are broken, he will rest return.

He is always good.

He's always good.

So come with us, return.

We lost the way we loved you.

It could be that the ordeals of the last few months have been further compounded because of the personal challenges that you're going through.

I feel like you really need a touch of Jesus Christ on your life today.

If that's you, I'd love to pray for you.

It'd be a great honor of mine.

I would ask you to leave your seat and come and stand here and let me pray for you and remind you of the great promise of Jesus.

He said, Come unto me.

All of you who are weary and heavy laden.

And I will give you what?

Come unto me.

He says, I've got that word circled in my Bible because it's a good reminder that healing happens when we come unto him, in his presence, asking for his help, for his healing.

Come unto me.

It's a good thing to go to a counselor, it's a good thing to go to a therapist, a good thing to go to a pastor, but none of them can do what Jesus can do.

So we come unto him, inviting him to speak his words of healing and to reach out and touch us.

Would anyone like to be prayed for today?

Is there anyone?

Please come to the front of your mind.

As Trey said, a place where everybody is welcome and everybody is brought into the presence of Christ.

He so longs that his house would be a house of prayer, a place of healing.

My heart is especially heavy this morning for the young people who have weathered this storm or weathering this storm, and I'm praying that there would be no lingering cynicism upon your heart.

But that you would someday look back and say, you know, the Lord got us through that.

He got us through that time, and the church was even greater afterwards.

And that this would become a testimony in your life.

That's my prayer for you.

It is.

Amen.

He gets his people through tough times.

So let's extend a hand toward these who have come forth.

Let your blessing, O Lord, be upon these, your children.

Your blessing.

Don't hold anything back today.

What you intended to give, but you consider doubling it, tripling it.

Let there be unexpected downpours of strength and faith.

Let there be such courage that where there was a sense of fear, it's gone.

It's gone just like that.

Because of you, Lord Jesus.

Speak words of healing over your people.

Oh Lord Jesus, you high above in the throne, deep in the realms of the universe, would you just speak a word of hope over everyone here and let it fall upon our ears?

We stand against the devil, who even now is plotting and conniving to take us away from you.

He must leave because we have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We are paid for.

We are secure.

And we ask you, dear Father, let your hand a blessing, let your hand a blessing be upon.

Let's all pray.

What if you declare a word that you would like to speak over to these people?

Maybe it's hope, maybe it's life, maybe it's forgiveness, whatever you sense.

Would you say that word out loud?

Again, I'm I've never done this, so let's see if it works, okay?

But let's all do you have a word that you would like to just speak over to the whole church?

Why don't we just say it out loud over and over and over together?

We don't have to hear it.

It's our pra understand it.

It's our prayer to the Lord, and he will hear.

So speak your word, please.

Just keep speaking it.

Speaking it.

You're an ambassador of Christ.

You have been called to declare hope over people.

Let there be hope.

This is a new day.

A new day.

Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

I declare rest.

A deep rest for the soul.

A deep rest.

Please, Lord.

Please, Father.

Right now.

Please make words.

Please, Lord.

Endurance.

Confidence.

Joy.

We're going to be okay.

We are.

We're going to be okay.

We're going to be stronger because of this, aren't we?

We're going to be stronger.

Have you ever gone through an experience you didn't think you'd get through, and then you get through it and you say, wait, I'm better because of it.

Raise your hand if that's ever happened to you.

I'm raising both hands.

That's happened to me so many times.

I know it's it may be hard to imagine, but we'll be better because of this.

We will.

We'll be stronger.

And the Lord Jesus will be glorified.

Amen.

Amen.

I forgot what's next, Martin.

Mark.

Love you, Pastor Nice.

Thank you for that word.

Come on.

You know, the word that I heard that I just felt like the Lord gave me was victory.

And I was just reminded, this battle belongs to the Lord.

It's not a battle that men have to fight, but we, you know, because we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we know who our trust is in.

Our trust is in the King of Kings, the great Aham, the Lord of Lords.

Amen.

And so I speak victory over this church in Jesus' name and over everybody in this building.

Because the battle is the Lord's.

Amen.

And he's big enough and he's strong enough.

If you agree with that, say yes.

The rock on which I stand when everything around me is shaken.

I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus.

So I would now he won.

Amen.

He won.

I still got join us.

I got a piece that makes no sense.

So I won't be laughing.

King Jesus.

No.

But all things are possible with you, King Jesus.

Come, can we shout his name in victory?

Rain Klu.

My house was built on you.

And I said, You I'm gonna make it on you.

Let's give him praise.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to seven ten ten or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.