Child of God | Rodrigo Vargas

Got it. I would be remiss to tell you that I know there was a more than one person That has made a decision for Christ. I was watching those baptisms and wondered I wonder if it's my time now Can I tell you that's your sign? It is your time Don't delay that in the book of Acts as soon as they gave their lives to Jesus. They were baptized What's holding you up? What's holding you up? Well, what's good Houston, Texas. How's everybody doing? Excited I Want to welcome all our first time guests. I want to tell you that you're not just an honored guest here today You are an answered prayer and we love that you are here. We want you to know to relax Don't worry. We exist to connect people to God through the gospel of Jesus and that gospel Regardless of how it's been presented to you is one that says that right where you sit or right in the dorm or wherever you may Be watching God loves you regardless of your past your problems and your doubts. He loves you, but but His power so powerful that he's not gonna leave you where you are. He's moving you. He's transforming you We just saw evidence of that. I believe that day is today for some of you and this includes every man and woman who is watching That is incarcerated and watching us through the Pando app union Houston. Can you help me welcome our union prison campus? It's my favorite part I Love that they love you and it shows that what we can't see you But you're in our hearts and we can't wait for the day that you join us You know as we as we continue In our Holy Ghost revival sermon series You know, we've been talking about the evidence of revival when when God's Spirit Desense mightily on a community a neighborhood a city There is a great amount of I taught on first week amount of repentance There's a large amount large hearts harden hearts and sinful hearts come to the Lord and repent before him There's a large amount of rent that is what revival it is. Yes, there's signs miracles and wonders But there is a great large amount of repentance. The second thing we talked about is there a sense of redemption people that were once lost Have been found people that were blind can see people that were dead are now alive in Christ Is in fact pastors Steve brought us to Luke 15 one of my favorite parables in the entire Bible and talked about that Redemption and then last week. I didn't even get to point one talking about reconciliation that when the Holy Spirit descends on a place When the Holy Spirit of the living God comes and awakens the saints of God and the people that are out there looking for him There is a sense of reconciliation

He reconciles us to God and most importantly, he reconciles us to each other in fact I love to study the 1906 Azusa Street Mission and Revival 1906 was a very racially tense tense time and in this church That used to be a barn stall a horse stall These people gathered and they were white affluent Mexican a lot of Mexican. I lived in LA. I grew up in LA a lot of Mexicans The black folk came from central South Central LA and they all gathered and they were Reconciled to each other they became brothers and sisters in Christ Minister ministering out and they poured out into the street. They didn't just hang out here They they poured out into the street and that's why I was called the mission and revival They poured out into the street and they began to reconcile the city of LA so much So that if you go back and you can find them LA Times wrote Articles for years about this crazy move of God Don't you think we need that again in America? We need it. Why not us and why not now? Because when we are reconciled This is what happens We begin to understand who we are that's when I started talking about last week The the title of last week's several was who am I and and and the Holy Spirit reconciliation answers The greatest question of our soul is who am I who are we? Are we what the world tells you you are or are you what God says you are and the only way to truly have a sense of Reconciliation is for you to have that holy ghost that holy spirit inside of you with the assurance We're gonna talk a little bit about that the assurance that you're his that you're his My point that I only point that I got to which was just like a Note I wanted you to take is reconciliation is being made right with God and each other Now we were in Luke 15 But today I want to read The pot the parable in its entirety because I only took four verses last week And I want to get the full weight of what Jesus is really teaching and by the way There are so many layers to this Luke 15. It's not even funny. Look next week

We're gonna touch yet another layer of what Jesus is actually teaching So let's turn to our bibles and the the parable of the lost parable is actually the entire chapter of Luke 15 There's the lost coin the lost sheep and the lost son We are focusing in on the lost son because the testimony of this church is that I was that lost son a suicidal drug addict Two and a half miles from here a broke and disgusted and bankrupt owing people money And I gave my life to the Lord and the Lord a welcome me in just like you see this father Welcoming in his son. So would you stand with me as we read the word of God and it begins in verse 11? Where he says there was a man Who had two sons? I love this language because he talks about a man who has two sons There's family language immediately in this parable. The younger one said to his father Father give me my share of the estate In other words that the estate was already his There was a share already coming to him. He just simply demanded his share right now So he divided his property between them the sons Not long after that the younger son got together all he had now. He had all his possessions He had all his money. He had all all he had and he set off for a distant country And this is very similar to what we do is we come to God we find God we feel God near us we feel God has forgiven us and God has blessed us and we take those blessings and We think we've worked for them instead of him blessing us with them And we go off and we set off to do our own thing without the father's guidance But there he squandered his wealth in wild living after he had spent everything there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country. He was a foreigner He was no longer a son in a house He's an immigrant in a foreign land and he hired himself out Who sent him to his fields to feed pigs? If you know anything about Jewish cultures is Jewish people don't mess with swine and Here he is not just messing with swines. He is living with them. He is feeding them. He is smelling them He is touching them. He longed to feel his stomach

With the pods that the pigs that he was so hungry that he was willing to eat what the pigs were eating But no one gave him anything in other words He came to his senses at this point This is where he came to his senses and he said to himself in my dad's house everyone eats good And here I am starving. You know what? I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna apologize because I have sinned I've messed up. I did this wrong and I'm not longer worthy to be called your son another He never said he wasn't a son. He said he wasn't worthy to be called the son Have you ever felt that way you messed up so bad? You're not worthy to be called something and we can all identify Because I am a son. I can live like a hired servant as punishment. This is what he right reasoned in his head But then it continues, but while he was still a long way off his father saw him And this is God any time we decide to come back to him God has filled with compassion that this is a word for some of you today He he sees everything He sees everything you've done Pastor Mekon said it best he oh you can't hide anything from and the day you decide I'm done with this his heart is filled with compassion for you And so he runs to his son He throws his arms around him even though he smells like swine Body order alcohol. God knows what else he smells like and he holds them and kisses them The son said to him father. I have sinned against heaven and against you I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father said to his servants now watch the father He turns around and he talks to the servants. I think I'm gonna talk about the servants next week. Quick. Bring the best robe. That's what God does. When you decide to come home, he's gonna put the best robe on you. He's gonna put the best robe, he's gonna put the best he can find to put on you.

And put it on him. Put a ring on his finger. Now why would God ask to have a ring put on his finger? Today, we are going to see why. And sandals on his feet. Bring the fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. The older son is, I told you last week there was Pharisees listening to Jesus, okay? The older son we're gonna see is the Pharisees, but I want you to lean in. Sometimes we're the older son. Sometimes we look at the advancement of someone else and we wonder, well, how come the pastor didn't do that for me? How come so and so leader didn't ask me to do that? We become the older son if we're not careful. And this is the danger here. And so the older son was in the field when he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on, your brother has come home, he replied. And your father has killed the fat and calf because he has him back safe and sound. The older brother became angry and refused to go in. He refused to forgive his brother and he became resentful at the father's grace.

I wonder if anybody here has ever become resentful at the grace of God is given someone else. So his father went out, here's the key. The father didn't leave him resentful. If you're in here and you've struggled like the older brother, I'm here to tell you today in the presence of God that he's gonna go out to you and he's gonna speak to you and he's gonna tell you and plead with you. And he answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you. Sometimes that's how we see the way we do our life with Jesus. All these years I've been serving you. All these years I've been tied into you, right? You know, all these years I've been praying the same prayers and you haven't even given me a young goat. So I can celebrate with my friends. This is oftentimes a trap generous people get into. They're so generous that they feel God has to be generous to them all the time and answer all their prayers. And here's what we find ourselves. Sometimes we tell God that even though he's blessed us with an entire house, a family, a career, education, we say you haven't even given me a young goat or the little prayer I asked for you. This is hitting home, but when his son, but when this son of yours has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you killed the fat and calf. My son, the father said, you're always with me and everything I have is yours. We're gonna spend time on that next week.

But we had to celebrate and be glad. We had to celebrate and be glad. We had to celebrate and be glad. We had to celebrate and be glad because these brothers and sisters of yours was dead, but now they are alive again. They were lost, but now have been found. So father, God, I thank you, Lord, for the timeliness of this, this passage, what you've been teaching us, the revival you're stirring in our hearts, Lord. Holy Spirit, be with the people and speak to them. Let them be touched by you today and help me deliver this message, the same way you delivered it to me. And I pray this in Jesus' mighty name and the people of God said amen, amen, amen. Jesus tells us a parable about a man. You're gonna see it's not the only parable Jesus tells about a man and two sons. I believe Jesus and everything I've read, he does this as a way to contrast two different types of children, two different types of believers or two different types of created beings, okay? Now, why would he do this? Why is Jesus doing this? Because nothing communicates better than reconciliation than a father and a child restoring what was once broken. Nothing speaks reconciliation more than a father and son restoring the broken relationship.

A father and his children. He's talking about God and his children. Today, I'm gonna talk to you from the title child of God. That's what you are, a child of God. But there are two different types of children of God. There's the younger brother and then there's the older brother. Regardless, you're a child of God for today. We could potentially say there are children of God out there that don't recognize the father, that's the lost, okay? And there are those that have walked away from God and rejected God, those are runaway kids. But ultimately God, the scripture tells us that God created everyone, therefore, we're gonna be talking about a child of God, a father and two kids. The younger one asked for his share of the estate. And this young man, like so many of us, found his identity in the wrong things. He, being a son of a wealthy estate owner, he began to envision himself. He began to identify himself as a man of great wealth. And he began to identify with what he had. How many of us go through life identifying with what we have? In other words, some of you think I'm not there because I don't have fill in the blank. And that's exactly what happens next, is he goes to what many of us do when we find our identity in the wrong thing.

You know what he ends up doing? The same thing that happens to us. He ends up spiritually, physically, emotionally, psychologically, financially broke and bankrupt. And he squanders everything he had, irresponsibly, unworldly, wild and the wrong things. And we find this son now in a pig pen. The church, I need you to hear me out, I need you to hear me out wherever you may be watching, in your pods, in your cells. We have to come to the end of ourselves. We all are gonna need for us to truly be reconciled with God. We will all need a pig pen experience. We have to come to the pig pen of our spiritual lives in order to come to our senses, to come and recognize this is not working. I've gotta go back home. Just like the son, we have to come to that tired place, that place where you're starving. Remember, that's how we ended last week. Tired of doing the same thing in our own strength. Starving for the spirit of the living God because the spirit of the alcohol won't work anymore. The spirit of that weed won't work anymore. The spirit of the porn won't work anymore. The spirit of more money ain't gonna work no more. The spirit of more position and out of accolades and titles and things won't work anymore. We finally come to our senses

and realize that money won't do it. Success won't do it. Sex, alcohol, drugs, pills, the gurus, the yoga, the, what do they call the acupuncture? The therapist, and I'm not knocking. If you see a therapist, I'm telling you right now, the therapist is only gonna point you back to God. God is the one that's gonna do it. The therapist ain't gonna do it. The doctors ain't gonna do it. The seminars ain't gonna do it. The books ain't gonna do it. It's gonna be God. All those things God has placed to point him back to him. None of it will ever satisfy the way God satisfy. Now, none of it will ever satisfy the soul But sometimes we have to come to the end of ourselves, like to come to our senses. We sometimes get to the end of ourselves and we don't turn back to God. Why? Well, some of the obvious things is pride, right? But I've discovered one specifically in America in the West is y'all are spoiled. We are spoiled. We are entitled privileged, snuck-nosed children of God. Yeah, we are. And listen, just talk to Pastor Sarah for a little while about her trip to Honduras.

How some of these believers live, y'all are privileged, entitled, snuck-nosed children of God. And so we reason, I'm gonna Google it. Some of the older folk has, they have found, they've moved on, the older Hispanic people have moved from Google to Shai GBT. Oh, Shai GBT knows everything, okay? Shai GBT knows everything. I admit, look, I have friends, I'm like, oh man, they send me a long text and I was like, that fool just shai GBT that texting me. I know he did, bro. Ain't no way he speak that well. You know, because we reason in our minds, okay? We reason in our minds and we reason in our minds because we think we can find the answer by ourselves. And so we end up looking in places like, you know what, a little porn ain't hurt nobody, right? Hey, hey, hey, look, I work real hard, I'm really stressed out, I'm gonna drink this little old cocktail to wine down, to take the edge off. You know, we tend to think that the doctors gave me these pills. You know, the doctors gave me these pills. They told me I got this condition, right? And I need them. The key word here is you need them is your addiction. You don't need nothing. Because I'm gonna tell you something, I see the, I don't know what it is.

I guess ADHD and anxiety. I see it, I got anxiety, I need a synox. You know what's funny? It's just incredible. And on do that, they don't got anxiety. 'Cause they ain't got recallis. They don't got ADHD, okay? They gotta, hey, look, we gotta do what we do. They don't have ADHD, they're multitaskers. Hey, put him on everything, bro. That'll take care of ADHD. And just give him everything to do. We're spilled, spoiled, privileged, entitled us, not knows. And we're like, I need this pill. No, you don't. I don't know. They're gonna take this clip. They're gonna say all kinds of things about me. I don't care. I believe in the power of this word. I believe in the power of God. And I believe that if I come to a conviction, and I speak from experience, I was addicted to anti-depression pills, and Xanax, and all that crap. But when I came to the end of myself, guess what? I don't need it anymore. I don't need a depression medicine.

I don't need the anxiety medicine. I don't need it no more. I've had to sit with people that I love dearly, and want some go through withdrawals of years of drug abuse. I'm gonna tell you something. All that drugs you're doing ain't gonna help you. It's destroying you. It's destroying you. I've yet to meet. Hear me out, and hear my heart on this. I've yet to meet a healthy 99-year-old still leaning on Adderall, Vicodin, Oxy, Xanax. Doesn't exist. You wanna live? You better get off. But when you're finally tired of it, I can't force you. Even what I just said is gonna piss you off. You won't get offended and but her, but it won't change you. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna say it. Here's what's gonna change when you tired. When you've tried it all, when you've tried it, and you finally want revival for your soul. That's when it's gonna happen. That's the moment you come to your senses just like the son and you come back to the father

because you may know the father, but you're not with the father. And the moment he decided to get to the father, he heads home and he's reconciled. See, reconciling our identity as children of God is what the Holy Spirit does. It reconciles our identity as children of God. When I am not a child of God, I need those things. I need more money, I need more sex, I need a certain look, I need to lose weight, I need to gain weight, I need to put on pounds, I need to love, I need gray hair, I need to need gray hair, I need to cut my beard and I shut my beard. Like I'm not knocking any of those things you wanna do. Okay, I need lip filler, am I hitting? I need a BBL, I don't. Don't get it twisted, I don't need a BBL. This, none of these things are your identity, it's what the world is trying to tell you that you need to be, to be whatever it is you made up in your mind, but when you come to God, when you come as a prodigal, come back home, you're reconciled and you realize, I'm a child of God. That's what my wife says, I said this all the time. She likes to give, we give these a premarital that is like, you know, sometimes a lot of people have body image problems. I look at her as, I'm a child of God. I am fearfully and wonderfully,

I ain't got nobody image problems, look. Hey, this little roll, I got this little handle, God loves that roll right there. You know, I ain't got no problems. In the same way that I am making light of something I dearly believe you've got to come and be made right with God and begin to find your identity as a child of God because reconciliation gives you a whole new true identity, the true identity you've been given. Jesus is telling us that the father was waiting even while he was still far away. The father was waiting and had compassion for him even while he was doing the wild living. Jesus is painting a picture of what the gospel is, that the work of the gospel is the work of reconciliation has already been done. We have to go to the reconciliation to accept it. We've got to walk towards the reconciler. It's all right, you've already been reconciled. We've got to testify of it, which is what we did today, that that is a testimony that you've been reconciled as a child of God. Our lives should tell of God who loves the world so much that he gave his only begone son. My question is, is that how you're living? Because he gave his son as a sacrifice for anyone. And I mean anyone, anyone that believes in that will be saved to be reconciled to God and to each other. Here's the key word in reconciliation is the others part because we love to be say, oh, I'm reconciled with God,

but it's harder to be reconciled to others. The children of God live, reconciled to others, they not beefing with each other. I talked about last week's suspicions in reservations. I don't want to. There's something weird about sister, Susie Joe. Why she always got breath mints on. I bet she's she drinking alcohol in the parking lot. Right? Instead of beefing with people, we should be reaching them for Christ. As followers of Jesus, when we aren't reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ, you know what Jesus says we are? Hypocrites, hypocrites. It's one of his favorite words to say, hypocrites. When you don't live in such a way that the world can see, you've been reconciled. So they see your Jesus T-shirt. They see your Jesus sticker. But then when you open your mouth and you gossip, they're like, oh, I don't want that Jesus. Here's something that is not in my notes and I feel like I need to say it, okay? You've been in a room with people gossiping, right? If you don't say something, okay, one day they're going to talk about you. And I know you think, yo, if they had the stones to talk about you, talk about someone else, they're going to have the stones to talk about you.

they're gonna talk about you. Okay? The way we love, the way we serve, the way we have joy over things instead of criticizing, judging. We got to be careful where you don't become hypocrites because the hypocrites here are the Pharisees. Now the whole reason Jesus is telling this parable actually begins all the way back in Luke 14. I'm setting you up because I'm gonna talk about Luke 14 in the next coming weeks. I believe that that's the the passage the Lord has given me to deliver on our birthday. September 13th after a week-long revival. How many of y'all gonna come to revival nice? Hey I need you to tell. Listen if you're visiting, if you got friends in other churches, tell them to come. We're stirring the whole city. We want them to go back to their churches. Fill of what God is doing in this house so that the revival can stir all over the city. This is a city event. But the whole reason that Jesus begins to tell this Luke 15 parable is because in Luke 14 he's eating out of Pharisees house. He's very prominent Pharisee and he's eating with them and he's teaching them and he's talking with them. He's eating with them and the people because the Pharisees weren't listening to them but the people were. You know what kind of people? The sinners were listening. They were hanging on every one of his words and those same words irritated the Pharisees so they did what they decided to do was as Jesus left that house they decided to follow him to see if they could find fault with them and what they found was that he was sitting with tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners and they began to judge him. And so instead of Jesus giving them the time of day Jesus tells them this parable and essentially what he's telling them is you're the older son in this story. If we're not careful, if we aren't careful with our private life with the Lord, if we aren't careful to prioritize our holiness, our purity, we can fall right into the person that is this older son acting like a Pharisee. Luke 15, 30, it says that when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fed cat. Any time we refuse to be reconciled to our spiritual family, to our spouses, to friends, family, our children, or the lost, we become this older son. We become this older son and that older son has a hardened heart. We

talked about hardened heart and you know what the son didn't get? That he was a son as well. That's the part he didn't get. The older son was a son as well. And you know what the father tells him? He tells him the following words, "Son, everything I have is yours." And that's what God is telling us that when we come into his house, when we come into faith with Christ, everything he has is ours. And so if he wants to give something to someone else and he wants to bless someone with something else, and he wants to give greater grace to someone else, that we shouldn't be competitive about it, that we shouldn't be comparing about, that we shouldn't be criticizing, that instead we should be like, "Man, we get to bless another person." Everything I have, but why do we get that way? Because we don't truly believe that everything he has is ours. Because there is a true reconciliation. Reconciliation is when we truly know and we live as children of God. Here's the revelation I had. Both sons fail. Both sons fail to realize that everything they ever needed or wanted to be a son, to be significant, to be successful. What I says was in the house. It was already in the house. And what happens is the same thing that we do. We don't recognize, we don't believe it's already in the house, and we go looking for it somewhere else. Do you know why there's so much church shopping going on these days? Because we believe that there's a move of the Spirit over there, and it's not happening in my house, so I'm gonna go over there to see if I can catch some of that Spirit. I've got news for you. It's already in the house. It's already in the house. You don't have to go looking somewhere else. You don't have to go looking for what God I know I'd rather repent than resent. The one who finally realized he was well off as a son came to his senses and came home. The other became bitter because he was privileged, entitled, and spoiled. He became judgmental, cold, hard-hearted, and even resented his own father for the mercy he was given his own brother. It benefits us this week to spend some time to reflect on the ways that we have done this, that we have resented the mercy God has given someone else. Jesus tells us another parable about two sons. Remember I told you? It's not the only parable. Watch this. One was asked to go work and said he wouldn't go. But then he changed his mind and he went to work. The other said a lot like us, "Yeah, I'll go. I'm excited. Yes, I'm in. I'm all in.

I'm all in. Put me every week, right? Oh, I'm all in on that tired thing. I'm all in. Put 10 percent. What's my check or 10 percent? I'm all in." We don't like to hear this, but then he didn't. A lot of us say, "Oh, we're in Lord. We're in. We're all the way in. I trust you with everything." And then when things don't go the way you want them to, when you want a little sleep, when the Texas game is a little bit more important than the Sunday morning where people are coming to Christ, this is when we say, "Ah, I'm not going to go today. I'm not going to go today." You have more fear of your job than you have honor for your father's house. This is the not so sexy, important things that our preachers got to say. Because we want revival, right? I want the streets of Houston, Texas to be filled with the gold of the Holy Spirit all over, and then people get saved and healed, and just amazing things will happen. But I'm going to tell you something, is when people start acting like, "It's in the house?" And I'm going to say, "Yes, and my yes is yes, and my no is no, and the world's going to get no, and the kingdom is going to get yes." Jesus said that the first Son did the will of the Father, and then said something sobering that we ought to use to examine ourselves this week. Matthew 21 verses 31 through 32 says, "Truly I say to you, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterwards change your minds and believe him." This is dangerous for us because sometimes we see the change in others, and I teach my God's all time, "Don't ever do this." You see the change in someone, and you're like, "It's probably fake." I don't play with the Holy Ghost that way. I don't play with the Holy Spirit, okay? I'm going to trust people till they fail me. And you know where I got that method from? Y'all want to know where I learned that method from? It wasn't a pastor. It was right off the gospel. That's how Jesus did it. I can prove it. His name is Judas. He believed and loved them all the way to the day. He failed them. To the moment he failed them. Because I know one thing, I need you to own this the way I own it. My past is not who I am. Hey, my pain does not tell me what to do. And my troubles aren't punishment, or some kind of thing God's put on me because I failed to do something, or thought something dirty, or all any of that nonsense. No, it's not. It is not because my dad would do me like that. I do not have self-worth issues. I don't have self-esteem issues. I don't have body issues. I have confidence issues. But I'm also not arrogant about it. I just know, and I'm sure, A saint's, profits my prophetic people. You don't need to defend God.

We don't need to defend God. In fact, he defends you. I was threatened over the last few years multiple times. Pastor Fabian asked me one day, "How come you don't worry?" I said, "Bro, I don't need to defend myself. God got me." And he was blown away. He was fuming. "Y'all, like this man, you can fry an egg on his head." And he hadn't said a word, but he was sitting behind me and I could feel his breathing. He's like a bull. And I'm like, "Hey, he's yelling at me like I did something wrong." And I'm like, "Bro, I don't need to defend myself. God got me. God got me." "Hey, look, hey, listen, I don't need to protect God. God protects me. I don't need to provide for God. He provides for me." Do you see the order of things? And sometimes we get into that place where we need to provide for God. We need to protect God. We need to defend God. But for him to do that, for him to do that, watch this, I got to be reconciled to him and I got to be reconciled to others. So maybe it's not punishment, but it's a lack of protection because you haven't been reconciled because in Matthew 5, he tells them that before we bring an offering to receive the blessing that you must go to be reconciled to one another. In the Lord's prayer, he says you've got to forgive others the same way he forgives you. Do you see there's a pattern here that the Lord is presenting for children of God?

Now next week, I will talk a little bit more about without forgiveness. But this week I need you to pray and meditate that reconciliation as a child of God and not as a product of the world. The second thing about reconciliation is something called significance. Significance. I have a question for you. It's actually your point. Have you found your significance? I'm going to challenge you a little bit. Because I can feel your little brains going. Right? And I found my significance. You're sure. You're ready to approach me after service to tell me, Pastor, I know my significance. My significance is go little children in Africa. My significance is to wash feet on the streets of Houston. You're a significant. I want to challenge you a little bit. Because I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to reconcile your significance because the chances are is that what you think makes you significant in other words makes you important. That's what significance means. What gives you meaning isn't Jesus. The likliness of this. You probably begin with things like your career. Your job. And you spiritualize it. Well, I work in an industry where I serve you. I've heard it all.

I've been around doing this for a little while. I've heard it. I serve in the industry. And what I do is I share Jesus with everyone I serve. I'm a nurse and I've got healing hands. It's great. I love it. But that's not your significance. Some of you, it's your business. I've got this and what I do with my business, everybody gets a little card with Jesus fish on it and QR coordinate FC and I send them a link. I developed an app to do this and I've got a website that does that and I've got a ministry that does this. We've got talents. We've got education. We've got knowledge. We think all these things gifting and anointing makes us significant and I've got to tell you your passion, your provision, your accomplishments. It's not your significance. By the way, none of these things are bad. you have an education, you have a gift and anointed, a passion, a vision. There's nothing wrong with that. I want you to have those things. The question is where do you find your significance? Because your significance should be seen in those things and not the other way around. And maybe we can even make it more spiritual. Maybe your significance is found in your faith. I feel like, yeah, that's me. What you know and believe about Jesus. Because that's where I was. Some of you, it's what you do for Jesus. How you live for Jesus. How much you serve Jesus, how much you love, how much you worship Jesus. Am I getting close church? You want to know what the problem with all these things are? You want to know that only there's only one problem with all these things. You. The entire list is about you. See, I told you I was going to challenge you a little bit. The list is still about you. What you know, what you believe, how you love, where do you go, how you live, how much you love, how much you read, how much you pray, how much you love to pray. It is possible to take faith in Jesus and somehow what says make it about us. Our significance becomes wrapped up in performance for Jesus instead of our relationship with Jesus. So let me give you what I believe a reconciled significance is. Significance is found in simply being known by God. That's it. That is all.

My significance comes before my title, before my gifting, before my annoying team, before my positioning, before my accolades, before my ministry, before any assets. I may have any properties, any accomplishments, any fame, any influence, before I've accomplished anything. I am a child of God because I am known by God. And when that becomes the foundation of your significance, everything else begins to flow from the right place. Because when you know that you are known by God, you no longer have to perform to prove that you matter. You know that you matter. You don't have to build something to prove that you matter. You know that you matter. You don't have to impress people to prove that you matter. You know that you matter. You don't even have to impress God. You belong to Him. He's already impressed with you. The parable says in verse 22, give Him a ring for His hand. This wasn't any ring. It was the family signet ring. And if y'all have a family signet ring, I have a family signet ring. Has a crest, has the Vargas last name. This was very similar, but it had the crest of the family. And this specific thing is he places this family signet or seal on the son's hand. This was a way of the father saying to him that you've been restored to the family. But more importantly, that signet, that seal, when you wrote a letter, you put, remember they used to, kids, people used to write letters. Okay, I didn't slide into Pastor Sarah's DMs. I slid her a note. You know what I'm saying? I like those days. Those days were fun. You got to get your penmanship up. Well, back in those days, you wrote a letter and so nobody sees it. You folded it and you put a wax, And what that seal did was that those words carried the authority of the house. And if the son had a ring that he could speak for the father, listen what I'm about to tell you, I'm dropping some spiritual dance for you. When the son was given that anything he said on behalf of the father had the same authority as the father. Now I'm about to read you something we all need to embrace. In fact, I believe some of you are going to find breakthrough in this truth today. Because Ephesians chapter 1 says that when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the Holy Spirit which is the guarantee of your full inheritance, the full share of the estate. Ephesians chapter 4 says that he says you were sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. Second Corinthians chapter 1, God has put his seal of ownership on you and places Spirit in your heart as a deposit. Guarantee in what is to come.

You need not fret, you need not stride, you are his, you have a seal. The father put a signet ring on the son's hand and God has praised his Spirit upon you. You are sealed, you are owned, you belong, you're a child of God. But there's more. The father and Jesus was being baptized said the following. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. And at that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son whom I love with whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3, 16 through 17. So, let me ask you a question I leave you with. Are you living like a child of God? Who are you? Not who the world says you are, not what your feelings say you are, not what you identify as, not your past, not your pain. Who does the father say you are? Don't brush this away, sit on him, because what I just taught you, he says you are his child. And everything you've been starving for, everything you're chasing in that far off country, whatever that may be, it's in the house the whole time in his house. Next week, I'm going to talk about the crazy part of the prodigal world. Everything he ever needed and wanted was already in the house. Maybe today you've been the younger son long way away, living in a pink bed, and you're ready to come home today's the day. Maybe you're the older son in the house, a bitter, resentful, cold. Either way, the father is running towards you today, and he's embracing you to come home, to come be reconciled, to be made right with him, and with others that you don't have to perform anymore. You don't have to impress anymore, that all you have to do is come and be his. Would you stand with me? Prayer partners up at the front, don't leave here without getting a touch from God, especially with a heavy word like today, I believe sons and daughters are being reconciled. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to look in around the room, and this special moment that God has ordained for us, I want to invite you to come home. Coming home means that you believe in your heart, this is a decision in your heart, that's it. Stop rationalizing, stop reasoning, I want you to slow down your brain a little bit, slow down your heart, and just say no I'm all in, I'm all in. Jesus have all of me. It means that you believe Jesus is the Son of God that he lives, suffered, and died for your sins, but when we repent, that's what he died on the cross for. And that's already done.

He's already done that for you. He was buried on third day he rose again so that you may be risen to new life, just like these people that came out of the water. And if you want to make that decision today, right now, in your heart, you're making that decision, I want you to, without thinking, shoot up your hand. Go ahead, shoot up your hand. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. I think there's a few more. There's a homecoming in this place. There's a homecoming in this place. Father God, we thank you for the homecoming. Father God, we thank you for the prodigals. Father God, we thank you for what you're doing in this place. Continue to stir the fire, give us fresh wind, and fresh fire, and I pray this in Jesus mighty name. - Come on church, do we thank God for His word, for calling his sons and daughters back home.