Church of God | Rodrigo Vargas

It doesn't matter how messy your present is or what troubles you have or what doubts may weigh in your heart. Jesus loves you right where you are, where you sit, where you're watching in that cell. And He loves you too much to leave you where you are. And I believe today He's taking you somewhere. And this includes every man and woman that is incarcerated and watching us through the Panda Wap Union. You say, "Can you help me? Welcome! Her union prison campus!" Yes, sir! We love you out of sight, but never, never out of our hearts. And what we've been talking about, Holy Ghost, revival, is when the Spirit of the Living God... See, there are many gods, but we serve the Living God. Amen? I wish I had a church that could get hyped for the Spirit of the Living God, when the Spirit of the Living God descends on His church. There are three things that happen, repentance. There's an overwhelming sense of repentance. There is redemption. People are redeemed in their true ownership of that God owns them and creates some of their mass pieces. And then there's reconciliation. And we've spent the last two weeks diving into reconciliation. I'm going to finally finish that original sermon that I started three weeks ago today. We first talked to you about the first thing I talked to you about was answering the question who am I? And then the second thing we did, we addressed being a child of God. Last week it was all about your identity and your significance as a child of God today.

I want to talk to you from the title, "Been the Church of God, the Church of God." Now I want to be very specific because I'm not talking to you today from acting like or attending A or assimilating to, but actively becoming the Church of God. Because as the Church of God, I'm going to give you your three points right away so you can follow along. You've been called, you've been chosen, and you've been consecrated. You've been called as the Church of God. You've been chosen to be the Church of God, and you've been set apart, consecrated to be the Church of God, the parable of the Prodigal Son gives us a beautiful picture of reconciliation. And I taught you that when the Father put on the Signet Ring, the Family Signet Ring, that it was instantly restoring the lost Son back into the family, but it gave them immediately his authority. It positioned him as a son immediately. Let me tell you something. He didn't have to go through a probationary period. He was immediately given all the authority the Father had. All the Father had was his. When we're baptizing the Holy Spirit, this is how I ended my sermon, is you are sealed. By God and in God. This is important, when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are baptized. You are baptized and sealed by God and in God. Sealed as his, Jesus, God the Father adopts us. And this is what Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 4, 2 Corinthians 1, all declare that the Holy Spirit is the seal of sonship. In fact, in Romans 8, it picoes on, Paul goes on to say that we are not just heirs of God, that we are co-heirs with Christ. I think you need to shout there because I don't think you realize that everything that belongs to Jesus that is being going to get to Jesus is going to be given to you. And so today, we're going to go back to how we began this sermon series at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit blows in the upper room in a mighty rushing wind.

I wish I had time to teach you all about the mighty and rushing wind because that in itself is a powerful sermon. Tungs of fire descends on these people and they began to preach the gospel immediately. Peter, the once failed disciple, now a dedicated disciple stands up and he teaches three things and we saw this, repentance, redemption and reconciliation today, I'm going to read to you what a redeemed picture of reconciliation looks like. When Peter himself, full of the Holy Spirit, begins to preach, and he quotes the great prophet Now this is Peter preaching these words, but he is quoting a prophecy that Joel wrote. Acts chapter two, verse 16, and if you could stand for the reading of the Word of God. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel, Peter says. In the last days, God says, "I will pour out my spirit on all people. "Your sons and daughters will prophesy. "Your young men will see visions, "your old men will dream dreams. "Even on my servants, both men and women, "I will pour out my spirit in those days, "and they will prophesy. "I will show wonders in the heavens above "and signs on the earth below blood and fire "and billows of smoke. "The sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood "before the coming of the great and glorious day "of the Lord." In other words, before he returns. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be safe. Father God, we thank you for this word.

We thank you for Peter preaching these words that today in 2026, September 6, 2026, as we get ready for a revival week, you are reviving our faith with full authority, with reconciled identity, Lord. Today, moving this place like never before. And Lord, if you need me, if you need to say something, and it's not in my notes, Lord, I give you Holy Spirit, full authority to take over, have me say it. If you want me to cut something out, cut something short, Lord, you have full authority to tell me to stop there and continue with what you want to say. Most importantly, open the spiritualized spiritual ears and the hearts of the people that need to hear this message. And I pray this in Jesus mighty name and the church of God said, amen amen amen, you may be seated. When the Holy Spirit comes, this is a reconciled picture. When the Holy Spirit comes upon his church, it is wicked. And it's not just some people, it's not just the overly spiritual people. Come on, can anybody, can I get an amen for all of the overly spiritual people? We need them, they start the spirit, okay? Everything's spiritual. But listen, the spirit of God, when it descends on a church, it awakens the whole church.

And it says here in this passage, Peter is saying that Joel said that prophecy will be had and his visions will be had and dreams will come and miracles and signs and wonders and salvation and deliverance. I came to tell you that it's gonna be sons and daughters. It is gonna be men and women. It's gonna be the young and the old. It's gonna be, come on somebody. It's gonna be the black and the white. It's gonna be the Latino and the Asian. It's gonna be the Arabs and the Jews. Come on, somebody, we need revival, baby. (congregation clapping) But I wonder, I wonder this week. I wonder if I have a church. I wonder if God's church is alive. The question we gotta answer today is are we living called chosen and consecrated? It's time that we stop separating the secular from the sacred because your whole life is sacred to him. That's what consecration means. Consecration means to be set apart for a sacred purpose. And so, if you're separating your work life with your spiritual life, then you're probably not fully consecrated. If you're separating like the way you handle things at home, men, if you're leading your home with an iron fist, but come to church and talk about being blessed and highly favored, you might not be consecrated.

We're talking about being fully consecrated because God's church is called. We've been called. You didn't just get saved because, yes, he loves you. He's gonna save you. But after he saved you, he called you. A reconciled person with the baptized, being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus told Peter the following. This is how we know you've been called because he told Peter on this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not overcome it. The gates of hell, that means that, I don't know if you pictured that because a lot of times we read that passage and you're thinking, oh yeah, I got that. He just told me he got the keys of the kingdom and he got the keys of the kingdom. And he's like, oh yeah, no devil can come. But that's not what the passage says. I wanna give you a different perspective. I wanna give you a different picture. I wanna give you a different way to view that. It says that the gates of hell shall not overcome it. It says that you are an offensive people, not a defensive people. A lot of y'all have been praying to defend yourself and you need to be praying to attack that strong goal. You need to be the supreme to attack that fortress

that's been built in your house. You need to attack the altars that's on the street. You can walk anywhere. I promise you, if we were to walk into the two witch stores that sandwich us, they would know that the presence of a yaw way was there. They'd know that the higher God, that the God that rules their gods was in the house. And they'd immediately want you gone. Because their juju would be gone. That's what it means. I don't know who needs to hear this, but some of you have been blaming the devil for things that you've been blaming demons and spiritual attacks. But I came here to tell you, that gates of hell shall not prevail it. When a people, but here's the problem. When a people truly repent, truly repent, they are forgiven and saved immediately. By faith, grace by faith. But they also don't go back. You can't go back. You can't go back to your favorite sin. When a people are fully redeemed, that means that there was an exchange. You were paid by a price. And the price was Jesus's blood. Jesus's blood was what redeemed you. There was an exchange between heaven and hell, where you used to be owned by the devil,

and now you're owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that happens, you are immediately welcomed into God's family with open arms. I wish I had a church of redeemed people that welcomes all people with open arms, no matter who they are or what they've gone through or what they presently look like. Come on now, because that's when a church becomes alive. When a people are reconciled, they live as God's children and become God's church. And nothing can overcome it. What God has destined for his church shall not be stopped. I know someone needed to hear that today. Come on, somebody. Somebody needed to hear that. Because maybe you walked in today and that divorce has overcome you. That financial situation is overcoming you. Maybe it's that depression, that anxiety, that past, that sin you think that God can't forgive, the sin you keep going, they shall not overcome you. You came in here today where the Spirit of God is, where full authority is, where all is a power is, where you got a bunch of people that believe and walk and live as coheirs and Christ. And we're saying in the mighty name of Jesus, we plead the blood over that, it shall not overcome you. That's what that means.

Joel chapter two, verses 28 through 32, was written 800 years before Pentecost. And it has the same family language as Luke 15 and Acts chapter two, but it also has one word. All three passages have one word that I particularly was drawn to, servants. Men and women are like servants. I think it was, I'm pretty sure it was Christ. I said, I did not come to be served, but to serve as a ransom for many. In the last three weeks, we breezed right over this passage and never really honed in, never lasered in, never really focused on when he said in Luke, but his father said to the servants, say with me, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house. The servants are always gonna get the finest choices for the visitors. For those that are coming back to God, we're gonna get the finest of choices. I should have brought my anointino, but what my anointino is the finest of presses. We buy a very specific olive oil that is the finest of presents. It's very expensive. It is the first press. It is the finest and most purest of press Y. We believe that when you anoint, they deserve the finest of robes. It says that he tells the servants, quick, quick, quick. Get a ring for his finger.

Hold on, Pastor Rock, are you telling me? It wasn't the father that put on the ring. It was the servants that put on the ring. You need to hear what I'm saying. It was the servants that put on the ring. It was the servants that put on the robe. It was the servants that put on the sandals, and it was the servants that killed the calf. And he says, we must celebrate with a feast for this son of mine was dead and has now returned. He was lost and now is found. And Luke ends it with, and the party began. I like that part. How many of y'all party people? Right? I always try the time to go to a party. I always try the time. By the way, if you ever invite me to a party, I'm gonna show up a little late, 'cause I'm gonna show up right around the time the food is being served, because that's when the party begins. I ain't trying to sit there. You know, you get to a party and you're all hungry and you're drooling like Baba's is going everywhere. And you're like, man, when's that party gonna be ready? I wanna go there when the guy in that side's all right there. Right? And the women have already got their plates. This is the ladies he first, right?

But if the ladies meander, well, you don't wanna eat. I guess you're on a diet. I go ahead and get my, get in my line. It's the servants that prepares what I'm telling you. It's the servants that welcome. It's the servants that are glad and it's the servants that are celebrating. You have been called as servants of God's church to prepare, to be glad, to celebrate. That's why I'm telling you, I didn't know, you know, I talk to some people today. They like to tell me, yeah, we're gonna be here all week. We're excited and all this stuff. We got, listen, we got visitors coming from all over the place this week. Revival nights, Tuesday night, it starts with prayer. Wednesday night, we got my boy Jeremy preaching. Thursday night, I got my boy Mecom preaching. And Friday night, I got my boy Brandon preaching. We got gas worship, I mean, it's every night, y'all. Except Monday, but tomorrow you get to sleep in, get all your rest and get all your chores done. And then you don't wanna miss it. I'm not pressing you because you gotta attend. I don't want you to miss it. It's okay if you don't, I get up real early. It's okay, the Lord will give you supernatural sleep. The point is that's the point of revival. It's to get stirred in the spirit and my life changes forever.

You wanna be in the house this week. Now you need to know this culture of the servants. Because this servants came into a house as an indentured servant. In other words, they probably needed to go to school. And so their parents were poor and they couldn't pay for school. So the rich man, the master would say, well, you come serving my house and I'll pay for your school, I'll buy you clothes and I feed you and you live in my house. But there's a time that it expires, right? Whether it's 21, 22, 23, whatever the ages, whatever they negotiated, that time has come. And sometimes those servants would be so endeared by the master, by the father of the house. Now I realize these people came from broken homes, they're poor, probably dad was gone, maybe mom was a widower, he was an orphan. You don't know, you never know. But what they did was once they became an adopted son of the house, I taught you this on adoption, but they would do something very specific to show people that they were now servants of our sons of the house. They would stick an all an earring in their ear. And so that's how you knew, oh, he's one of the, he stayed past this term. What I'm trying to tell you is he stayed

as family by choice. He made the choices that, and you can find this in Deuteronomy 15 and Exodus 21, it'll tell you all about that. That's why it's funny, I find it funny, some of these Latino religious people, they get on my Instagram, and he goes, (speaks in foreign language) And he's like, bro, didn't you read Deuteronomy 15 and Exodus? They're just religious people. But here's the part I wanna hone in on. These servants would remain. I'm taking you somewhere. I'm taking you, they would remain by choice. Now, what is the likeliness that the word who was in the beginning that was there with the word in the beginning and became the word and dwelt among flesh actually knew the word found in Deuteronomy 15 Exodus 21 when he talked about remaining. I find it rather fascinating that Jesus uses servant language as well as family language and using language like remaining me and I and you. You have been called, what is to remain, to dwell, to be immersed. Now, I showed you something absolutely amazing last week that even when Jesus was baptized in Matthew three that the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove and God the Father from heaven was heard saying, this is my son, whom I love with him I am well.

Please, you remember that? But John the Baptist gave this testimony when he said, I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and watch this, what does it say? Remain on him, I love that part. And that's not Matthew by the way, don't look it up. I don't know what they're doing back there but they miss felt reference and it's not Matthew. (audience laughing) Reference. Anytime we aren't living on mission. Anytime we aren't servants of God. Anytime you go to work and you wanna tell your boss a little piece of your mind instead of being a servant of God. Anytime you come home and your wife don't piss you off a third time this week and you aren't a servant of God. Anytime you get home and your kids got toys everywhere and you care more about a clean house than a house full of joy, you aren't remaining. You aren't on mission, are you with me? Remaining in Christ gives us our true identity as children of God. Remaining in Christ gives us a sense of significance that the world cannot give you. Remaining in his word, remaining in his Holy Spirit and watch this, remaining in the body of Christ. And I get there are some churches that are cults, there are some churches that are weird, there are some churches that are abusive,

there are some churches that are religious but I gotta tell you that the chances of that happening are slim to none and it's usually just the negatives that get reported. No one ever talks about the church that is thriving, the church that is growing, the church that is serving even though they're 80 people, the church that is broke but they still gather in a home. They never talk about those things and so the body of Christ must be cherished because it is God's body and we should honor the bride. And this will give you a desire to know God. See, a lot of you are living in chaos, a lot of you are living in the time of a lot of hurryness, a lot of busyness, a lot of calendar. You got a lot of things, you're going from one appointment to the next appointment. You got this going on, you got that going on, I heard someone, we got something every day this week and you got this going on, you got it, but the Psalms 46 says, be still and know that I am God. Well, you can't know that he is God if you don't find a place to be still. You got to be the most spiritual thing to do is learning how to be still. I know that I want to solve that problem. As a matter of fact, I was telling the pastors earlier this morning is I want to go and solve that problem but I know I need to go in my office and be still before I can become sensitive

to the spirit of God. Because this is not just to know about God, I want you to know God and there's a difference. This is why we read the word of God. This is why we study the word of God. This isn't simply to know more information about God, to know more facts about Jesus. It isn't so that we know information and knowledge to impress the people in our lives. We don't study the word just to know more about God. We study the word to know God, to look like Jesus, and to live like His church. That's why we need to do those things. I want you to know God. I want you to know God's heart. I want you to know His character. I want you to know God's values. I want you to know His precepts and His promises. I want you to know His ways. I want you to know His voice. I want you to know what pleases Him. I want you to know what grieves Him. I want you to know what He loves and what He desires. This is why we pray. Because prayer is what we should do first. We pray first, not last. We say here at Union Union. It isn't something we go to when all else fails. We involve God in everything, minute by minute, moment by moment, decision by decision.

We pray over everything. We pray through everything. We pray in everything. Prayer isn't simply asking God to do something for us. Prayer is communion with God. It's fellowship with the Holy Spirit, with the presence of God. It's learning to know His word. Because I mean, I got red marks all over my Bible here. Right? But they don't do me any good. If they just stay red and they don't become red in my heart. It doesn't do me any good to scratch notes on this and to highlight these words, if they're not highlighted in my spirit, I'm trying to preach to you this morning. I'm trying to get you to get to a place that where every problem, every news outlet, everything you see, you see the Word of God in it. That you don't have opinions like the world. That you have opinions of the Word. That when you see the things that are on the internet and you see the things on social media, I don't know if you know that social media is in business. Did you know that? They're in business. You know what their business is? To get your attention. And you know what the greatest form of attention is?

Division. You know what the Word of God is meant to do? It's meant to grab your spiritual attention. And you know what it's meant to do? To bring you spiritual unity with the body of Christ. Learning to know His Word, hear His voice, and most importantly, respond to what He tells you. Don't just, don't just, I want you to go to connect groups. But don't just go to connect groups. Don't just collect good Christian books. Don't just listen to the podcast. Don't just take sermon notes. Don't just underline your Bible with cool little pens and write in the margins like Pastor Sarah likes to do. Apply the Word of God to be the church of God. My wife has the greatest penmanship I've ever seen. I think that's, that's kind of how she got suckered me in. I said, if this woman writes this pretty, everything she does is pretty. Everything she does is pretty. My God, I can't wait. Hey, glory to God. She sent me a note. And I was like, good Lord, she's cute. And she writes beautiful. I done hit the jackpot. I had weird, they had to have pretty feet. She got pretty feet. And they had a good penmanship

and they had to knock cuss or smoke. Even though I smoked in cuss and I got ugly feet. You know, I guess I wanted everything I didn't have. You know what I'm saying? But she writes all over her margin. She has those margin bibles. I just love looking at the Bible and saying, oh yeah, that's what God's telling her. But I also know that what's most beautiful about her is she applies that to become that Word of God. (audience applauding) Because knowing God requires more than just the ritual of writing in your Bible. It requires more than the religion and it requires more than a spiritual experience. It requires more than a spiritual experience. transformation. So you could be a fat Christian. Oh, fat-ass Christian, living like hell. You know all the word. Can't love nobody. Jesus isn't looking for perfect people. Thank God his passage. He's still working on my language, you know? God bless him. Pray for your passage. He looking for disciples. He's looking his church to do what he says. When you start living this way, something begins happening. You stop trying to manufacture significance and identity and purpose and meaning that you begin to live like you know what you know, that you know that you know your significance is being a job of God and are an integral, you're an integral part of the church of God. I have to be involved. I must be involved. I will be involved. Slowly and consistently day by day, trouble and triumph, sickness and health, storm and stillness, problem and peace,

your life starts to become a little bit more like Jesus. Because God's church is chosen. Now this takes us right back to Luke 15. There's something fascinating happening in the house. The servants are glad they're full of joy. They're celebrating. They're preparing to celebrate. But the older son, who's chosen, he was mad. He was resentful. He was bitter. He was angry. He was frustrated. Some of you are chosen and you're mad, bitter, resentful, angry, frustrated. Some of you have evicted mentality. How come that always happens to me? Why is that always my fault? And if you're honest, that's exactly where you may be with God today. You have read, you have studied, you have prayed, you have fasted, you have served, you have tied, you're faithful to your connect group and Sunday mornings yet lately, God, it feels like God hasn't even given you a goat for your troubles. Hasn't even given you a goat for your troubles. Don't be like the older son because you see, he simply didn't understand. Here's the interesting. He lived in the father's house. He ate with the father every day. He spoke with the father. He heard the father's heart ate for the son that was missing. And yet he didn't know the father's heart. It is quite possible to sit in church every Sunday to read the Bible to pray. Hey, to pray in tongues to know all the spiritual things and in depth and tie them pray and fast and not know the father's heart. It is quite possible. We see it here with the older son. Because it's not simply to do that is you got to become the word of God. I love what the father does. He doesn't look dear son. You have always stayed with me and everything I have is yours. I need you to hear me on this. You have been called by God and you have been chosen by God. And here's the part is everything he has is yours. It's yours. He

gave you keys. What do we see? You've got the keys of the victory. In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray. Oh, we like the soul. But when the problem comes, that's when you see it. That's when you see when they bad-stab you, when they betray you, when they do you wrong. In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray. Come on now. Because I told you that he gave you keys of the kingdom. He gave you power and authority. You are co-heirs with Christ. Peter who preached the message at Pentecost said that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Joel and that he said that God promised to his followers a spirit that's for all people, for all ages, for all races, for all backgrounds, for every nation, for every tongue, and for every tribe. When we give our lives to Jesus and we receive, maybe that's the problem. Is you've given your life to Jesus and you haven't received welcome, been baptized, and your best friend and his name is the Holy Ghost. You are chosen. God's Church is chosen to be the light of the world. Jesus says like a city on a hill. Peter knew this and many years after Pentecost, after planting churches and evangelizing all around the world, he declares his truth, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. In other words here, look, you have been chosen by God in Christ. You are priest kings of your homes. You are a nation that's set apart, God's special possession that you may declare, that you may declare. In other words, you can't declare if you don't believe the previous. There is a prerequisite. If you're not living like the before the comma, then you can't declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

So I wonder if I got a church today that is walking around declaring with every problem, with every peaceful moment, with every trouble, with every trial, with every sickness and with every healthy moment that he has brought you out of darkness into a wonderful light. I am sure Peter thought back to the time they went to Caesarea, Philippa, and there in the midst of the Baal idol worship and the Moloch structures and pad worship and happening, right? That Peter said, hey, look, I'm giving you the keys of the kingdom and I will build my church and no evil, no devil, nothing will be able to stop it. Do you know what Jesus was doing in that moment? He was consecrating his church to overcome the devil, hell, and all evil. See, God's church is consecrated. It's been set apart for a sacred purpose. We are going to welcome. We are going to escort the Lord when he returns. Okay? Hey, here, let me give you some theology because there's a lot of theology being thrown out on whether Jesus, you know, Israel's a chosen people. Let me tell you something. When I read the scriptures, it says that his disciple, his church is going to welcome him back. Ain't nobody other. It's his church. Now, if you're Jewish and you gave a lot to Jesus, you're part of the church. His church is his prized possession. His church is his everything. His church is the bride of Christ. Jesus sits on the throne all authority. I'm quoting scripture, all authority has been handed to Jesus. Jesus is the king of kings. Jesus is the Lord of lords.

Jesus is the head of the church. I can go on and on. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to get in that argument. I'm going to be ready for what he returns because I know I'm part of the church and I'm going to live like the church and I'm going to preach this gospel and I'm going to make some disciples and I'm going to be escorting them back. Look at the servants of Luke 15. The moment the lost son comes home, they immediately be prepared, participate in the celebration. Why? They knew the father's heart. See, we can tell children of God are servants of their father's house because they know their father's heart. This is God's house. When I come here and I'm having a tough day, I come here. This is just the building, but our faith and the spirit of God here has made it God's house. And so I come here. I sit here, I pray here, I walk in between the chairs and pray over them. I clean up all the messes y'all leave and it's a lot. I've never met a more messy people and I lived with four children in my house at some point, two of them teenagers. I walk into some rooms and it's like, oh, this is my teenage gray here. The servants watch the father wait every day by the road. They heard him talk about his son. They heard him pray about the son. They heard him cry about the son. They heard him talk about how he longed for his son to be reconciled and while the son was way off and he began to run to them, the servants saw and the house begins to move. The servants of the house, when they see God moving,

Ooh, we gotta get ready, it's about to go down. It's about to, that's why some of my more spiritual mature people, they know when the spirit of God is moving like during the song, everybody was singing, I closed my eyes and I can hear angels singing along with y'all. There was, there was people on the front row ready. They were like, bitch, they're looking around. Who's someone's gonna fall out in the spirit? Because they, the house begins to move. Get the rope, get the ring, get the lechon. Hey, (speaks in foreign language) This time celebrate, this is the week of our house. We start moving, don't sit around, get involved. You wanna be part of the servants that's getting the fighting cat ready. Woo, yes sir, I'm gettin' the rings, I'm gettin' the robes, I'm gettin' the sandals ready. Get involved, don't miss a night. Where'd the gear proudly let everybody know? Because our father is wanting to reconcile Houston, Texas. He's gonna be bein' right here in Spring Branch. We've been called to what Paul says, the following, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Live. So you've received the calling, you've been chosen in God. What matters to Jesus matters to us. Everything I preach to you, everything I teach you,

every connect group we have, every event that we host has all one singular focus that you know him and be faithfully convinced that he knows you, that his heart becomes your heart. What breaks his heart begins to break your heart. What brings him joy begins to bring you joy. What matters to him begins to matter to you. This is the moment we begin to live consecrated lives. Set apart just like, oh, Paul said this in Romans 12. When he said, present our entire lives before God as a living sacrifice. Because God's church is consecrated to be the ministry of reconciliation. That's what Paul told us, that we are a ministry of reconciliation. We are a ministry, we apply the word of God to people, the gospel to people, so that they can be reconciled. In other words, connected back to God. I love how the word of God is so perfect and it overlays over itself. The interconnectedness is incredible. It has so many hyperlinks in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, 40 different writers, three different cottages, three different languages, over thousands of years in separation, and yet it fits perfectly because just that Joe prophesied, Jesus taught Peter preach. Paul disciples us through his epistles. It has one singular focus pointing back to Jesus. Hey!

We were prophesied a savior, a spirit to be baptized in. We were given that spirit to be reconciled. And once we have all of this, we start living cold, chosen, consecrated to be a ministry of reconciliation. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the whole world to himself in Christ. We gotta get 'em all. Muslim and Jew. Buddhist and Hindu. Come on out, we gotta get 'em all. Not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. You know what an ambassador has? Authority. The ambassador, the American ambassador to Nigeria, to Ghana, carries President Trump's authority to speak to your president. You carry the authority. And here's the part you're missing. He gave you the authority to speak on behalf of the King of Kings against that problem, against that relationship, against that struggle. I hope someone's finding breakthrough against that spirit that keeps tormenting you at night. As though God were making his appeal through us, my God, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. When we have been reconciled to God, we begin to understand, we begin to embrace and live out why Jesus left us here. Because we are here to preach the gospel and make disciples.

In a period, we're not, listen, next week is not about an event, it's not a concert, it's not about amazing speakers, which all of that is amazing. It's about preaching the gospel and making disciples. The calling of the church is not simply to be liked by everybody. It is simply to be agreeable. It isn't simply to fit comfortably into the culture around us. We are called to love our neighbor, not fit in with our neighbors. And one of the greatest ways we can love our neighbor is by telling the truth about Jesus. Don't sugarcoat it. We preach the gospel. We introduce people to Jesus. We call people to repentance and faith. And then we walk with them as they become disciples who make disciples. And I need you to understand something about this calling. Sometimes your calling will be uncomfortable. Sometimes your calling will be unconventional. Sometimes your calling will be inconvenient. God loves the inconvenience, the people of God. Sometimes your calling will be unpopular with culture. Sometimes loving somebody means having a conversation you'd rather not have at the moment. Sometimes obedience means walking into places you would rather not go at all. Sometimes preaching the gospel means speaking truth when silence would be easier. Sometimes we're just going to be asked to do things we don't want to do. But people who have truly been reconciled to God understand that we have been given a ministry of reconciliation and that we are reconciled so that we could participate in seeing others and reconciled and we celebrate and we're glad in it. We were reached so that we can reach somebody else. We were discipled so that we can make disciples. We were given the good news so that we could preach the gospel. This is our calling. This is our assignment.

This is why we're still here known by God, transformed by God and sent by God. And when you know the Father's heart, his mission becomes your mission. His mission becomes your mission and this week maybe you thought about just posting on social media but now you're realizing I'm going to have to make a personal invite. I'm going to have to text some people, I'm going to have to call some people, I'm going to have to bribe some people because you know that the moment they walk in here, they're going to meet God and they're going to be reconciled to God and that would make the difference. So union, who are you? We are the Church of God, called chosen and consecrated, not acting, not attending, not assimilating, becoming what he has already sealed us to be and maybe today you've been like the older son, bitter, not knowing the Father's heart. I believe the spirit of God is asking to come and be reconciled to him. Maybe you've never come home at all and today God is moving in your heart and he's asking you to come home to him. Maybe you're wondering, pastor, I'm going through my own things. Maybe you should. [MUSIC PLAYING] Our father is running on the streets of Houston, the Reconsile Houston, Texas, and he's calling you to run with him. I feel like some of us want to. We really want to. We feel it. But there's a lot of things in our minds and our hearts. We, we, we, you don't know what I've gone through. I keep hearing that in the spirit. It's sad. We have the saying in my house is that you don't know, it's that you don't know. You don't know what it feels like. You don't know my situation.

You don't understand. I feel that we need a moment of ministry. A moment for God to touch you. Because I believe if he touches you, I believe if he meets us here right now in this moment. The first thing I want to do is right there where you sit, brow your heads and close your eyes. I want to allow God to move in your hearts. And if you've never come home, maybe this is your moment. I want to come home. I want to, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God that he lived and suffered, died from my sins and he was buried when I'm third day, he rose again so that I may be risen back to life. If that's you, I want you to shoot up your hand real quick so I can pray for you this. Yes, Lord. Thank you. I want to pray for you and just for me, just for your hands now. I want to tell you something. I feel that there's a moment, there's a special moment happening in the mighty name of Jesus. I spoke to me while we were worshiping the song and why everybody was singing that song. And I heard the angels that there are some of you that have a lot of plans this week, but there's a move happening in your spirit. I don't want to, I don't want to pass it up and I'm not here to demand anything of you. But I literally saw people saying, I'm calling in sick this week because this is a priority. I saw people say, hey, I'm going to be in to work late because this is a priority. I saw people saying, you know what? I can deal with four hours of sleep because this is a priority. I saw people telling people from across counties and cities and state. I don't know what it's going to take for you to get here, but you need to get here.

I saw it in the spirit. They're moving because when the father's house begins to move, things begin to move. The spirit begins to move. The atmosphere is shaped. I began my prayer as there's an atmosphere that's changing in here. And so right now in this moment as we, let that, let that, let that, let that, let that. I hold them. I hold them in my hand. You hold it in your hand. ♪ The name of Jesus I play ♪ ♪ The Lord of heaven I proclaim ♪ ♪ Everywhere I've been formed I can't see ♪ ♪ It must break in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Think of play over and say in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know, I know ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ The Lord is here and the Lord is ♪ ♪ It must go ♪ ♪ Every key to every victory ♪ ♪ I hold ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I pray ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I can't give my prayer partners up here, and I believe this is going to be a moment of ministry. So if you need prayer, if you need that healing, if you feel the Spirit of God moving in your soul, in your spirit, go ahead and come up to the front. Father God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for this divine appointment you have given us. Lord, be with us this week as we go into this week with a great expectation, with great faith, Lord, with lots of prayer, Lord. Expected you to show up, Lord, we know that you are faithful, but we're asking for a fresh and filling, for a fresh wind, for a fresh fire, and for something amazing that we can live out what the Scripture says, that you will do exceedingly, that you will do abundantly, that you will do more than we ever imagine our dream of, and I pray this in Jesus mighty name. [Music] [Music]

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