Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Dancing over all these graves Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA April 18, 2004 Main Scripture texts: Galatians 2:20 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. I was smitten by a line in a new song the praise team introduced a few weeks ago: "It's time we started dancing over all these graves." The title of the song is, I Want The Joy -- that is, "the joy of the Lord." The phrase, "The joy of the Lord," only appears one time in Scripture, in Nehemiah 8. The people were grieving and weeping because they they were grieving over their sin. Nehemiah told them to stop and celebrate instead, because God had forgiven them! For us who live on this side of the cross how much more is that true! Let's say you are riddled with guilt and shame. The devil reminds you of all the bad things that you've done and then says: "You call yourself a Christian? Don't kid yourself." Here's God's response from 1 John 2: [I]f anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. "Living by faith" is choosing to believe God -- forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward the future to which God has called you in Christ. God says that He loves you so much Jesus died for your sins. He says you are his adopted child. He says that in all the problems and pain of living in a fallen world, you are more than a conqueror. You and I must train our minds to think about ourselves the way God thinks about us. We must live with a biblical mindset, a biblical worldview. We must see ourselves, and the world we live in, through biblical eyes -- and then act accordingly. When we do that, we are "dancing over all these graves." The joy of the Lord will come down it will be our strength. Supporting texts: Nehemiah 8:10 | Galatians 5:22-23 | Philippians 3:13-14 | John 8:31-32 | Luke 11:28 | Jeremiah 31:34 | Isaiah 43:25 | 1 John 1:8- 2:2 | 1 John 5:13 | Philippians 4:4 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here. (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of the sermon summarized above is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 040418a: Dancing Over All These Graves. © 2004 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us