Greater For Your Neighbor | Jeremy Louison

Good morning, Union, Houston. It looks different in here. It looks a little different in here. It's good to be in the house today. So thankful. Listen, before we get started, I want to give honor where honor is due. And thank your pastors, Rod and Sarah, for having me. Come on, y'all. Yeah. Very thankful. Father, let every word I say be from your throne of grace. From this point forward, I must decrease so that you may increase. May the blood of Jesus cover us right now. Lord God, open our hearts to your word and open your word to our hearts. That we may not leave here like a transaction, but we may leave here transformed. Lord God, if we came for any other reason but to experience you, we rebuke that in Jesus' name. And everyone said amen. So good to see you guys. So good to be here. I finally got a chance to come down where it's not 1,000 degrees. So I'm really excited to be here. I know you guys are in your series called Greater. And I got to watch Pastor Rod's sermon last week on Greater. If you guys don't know me and you're like, I don't know who this is, I'm your black uncle. OK, let's just going to rip the Band-Aid off. If you're like, oh my gosh, I got a black uncle. Hey, you can call me Blunko if you need to. And so I know, Pastor, we're in a series called Greater. Because the world has set a standard of what greater is. And the world says to be greater, you must pursue your desires.

Hold on. Before I get into the message. Those who got baptized, I don't know where you are. I hope if you're in this room or not. I want to let you know you didn't just get baptized by yourself. You got baptized into a family of God. When you raised to life, you said, I'm putting to death my loneliness and aloneness. And I'm coming to life in Christ into a family. Amen? So I want to let you know you didn't just get baptized by yourself. You got baptized into a body of believers. And we're for you. And we're cheering you on. And we're praying for you. And though you got baptized once, there's another baptism that can happen every day. And it's by the Holy Spirit, should you want it. And that one you don't got to get wet for. You can get baptized by the Holy Spirit Monday morning, Monday night, whenever you want them. So don't wait. Don't wait. Don't be like, oh, man, I want to get baptized again. Wake up tomorrow morning full of the Holy Spirit and say, Holy Spirit, do something in me today that I didn't even think about doing yesterday. That's the inward transformation part. And so I know you guys are in a series called Greater. And I'm finding that you ever notice that anytime man pursues greater on his own, it always makes a mess. You ever notice that? Anytime man pursues greater, it's on his own, in his own desire, in his own flesh. They always make a mess. We always make a mess when we want to be great on our own, when we want to elevate ourselves, when we want power. Why do you think racism exists?

Because man, oh, I'm popping off the top early right now. We're just ripping off the top early. You want to know why like racism and stereotypes and all this division exists? It's because someone decided they want to be greater on their own. And so we see that. This is not a new thing. So what does it look like today? People here want to be greater today. You want to know how we want to be greater? Well, my political party, I know y'all have been like, who's this guy? He's coming in swinging. I always come in swinging, y'all. Come on, somebody. That's what we do. We want to be greater in our own eyes. So we support things that gives us this fake identity that it's made us greater or it's made us better. And yet when we pursue those things, we don't understand we're pursuing a golden calf and dying on the inside. And we relinquish our kingdom identity for an earthly desire of greater. And then we wake up while we're so tired. Maybe it's because we pursue an earthly greater. And the Lord says, let that decrease. Let that die. Cause my greater will give you everlasting joy, everlasting peace. So when bombs are dropping out of the sky, you don't got to fret when the bills ain't being met, you don't got to worry because it says greater is he that is in him than he that is in the world greater was built into you, baby. When you accepted the Holy spirit, greater filled you up. But the trick is, is that sometimes we want to be greater by ourselves. And I want to, I want, I want you guys to hear me today. When I've been reading through a lot of the old Testament and I realized a lot

of the wickedness of man is because they want to be greater on their own. And when you're greater on your own and you're greater by your own flesh, you know, people start dying. That's extreme. I know it's extreme. And you're like, what do you mean when you are greater in your flesh and you are greater by yourself, you are killing people around you that you don't even know your family starts dying. Maybe not physically, but spiritually your finances start dying. Your joy starts dying. Do you know when man pursues his own desire, when man pursues his own desire, it starts killing the influence around you. It's a biblical. Where is it in the Bible? Look at the old Testament. I could just walk you through the old Testament. If you look at the book of Exodus, what do we see? Moses is dead. Surely God doesn't care about us anymore. So let us pull up a golden calf. Let us make an image. And that's what we do is when we don't see God's greater, we make an image that we can see with our eyes. Tower of Babel, men pursuing their own desire. Let us make a monument for ourselves. And what does God do? He comes down, he changed the language and scatters them all. Look at the, I mean, look at the Kings of Israel. See, you have to understand when you pursue your own desire by yourself, you're killing a nation.

You're killing the next generation. It always happens that way. When I pursue selfish gain and I want myself to be great and not the kingdom advancement, I'm killing the next generation. What happens with the golden calf? Like I said, it says you guys, some of you guys know the story. They made a golden calf for themselves. If you remember it, Aaron and her, Moses on the mountain, Aaron and her there. And they say, Hey, go to your families and take from them gold and silver that we may melt it. When you're pursuing your own desires, what do you do with your family? You take from them gold and silver when you're building your own desires. When you're building your own vision, what do you see? And you're like, pastor, I ain't got no worry about, I ain't got gold, I ain't got silver, but sure. You'll take time from them. You'll take it from them. Well, I got to go build this. I got to go do that. I got to go do this. So you take it from them and then they melted it. And then we know God says, Hey, they've sinned greatly against me, so they have to melt it back down. And then he tells them to eat it. But then afterwards, because they're so wicked and rebellious and they started worshiping false God, God tells two of them, Hey, strap swords to your sides and go throughout the camp and slay the ones who are evil. You know how many people died that day? Three thousand. Because two leaders decided to turn away from God and look to the idolatry of men.

And you may say, but pastor, I don't have any kids right now. You keep on living the life that you're living, making yourself great and not doing the kingdom work. Those around you will begin to die. Spiritually dying, physically dying. There's death that happens all over the place. But I want to encourage you as well, because I want you to see, I had to bring it there because I need you to understand what's at stake. I need you to understand that it's not just your life. You're when you got baptized, when you said yes to Jesus, what you said is my life is not my own to him. I belong. Come on. Where's my worship leaders to you? Right. My life is not my own. I belong to someone. I give myself. I give myself away. Come on. Come on. Some of y'all know it. Sing. Y'all know, y'all know the song. Some of y'all have ugly cried to that song, snotting everything. You did all that snotting and crying and then you ignored the planning center request. God doesn't have a problem with you being great. God, I mean, Pastor Ralph talked about it last week. God doesn't have a problem with you being great. When James and John went to Jesus, you guys want to know why they went together?

Y'all, I'm going to teach y'all some stuff because your pastor's been learning, okay? I've been in the waiting room, you know? You know? The reason why James and John went together and then they brought their mom with them, you want to know why they went together? What is established in the witness of two? Testimony. So they came together. So they said, hey, let me sit on your right, let me sit on your left. Did Jesus say, how dumb are you to ask? No. He goes, first of all, you don't know what you're asking. But second of all, if you want to be great, serve. If you want to be great, serve. I think a lot of us, the reason why we're not great is because we don't serve others, we just serve ourselves. So you can't be great if you're just serving yourself. That is not the kingdom. Jesus didn't come to be served, but to serve, right? So he reestablishes what greatness is. He goes, hey, not only am I going to be great because I'm doing it, but I came to serve. I came to pour out. And then what did he also do? He taught us how to do it. He taught us how to do it. What does it say in Matthew and Mark? In the book of Matthew and Mark, there's a teacher of the law, and they come to him, and they say, teacher of the law, what is the greatest commandment? What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus quotes Old Testament.

It's called, in Hebrew, it's called the Shema. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And then he goes, the second one, and then this is where Jesus remixes it a little bit. And he goes, the second one is greater. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And then he goes, the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. This is not in my notes. I don't preach from notes a lot anymore. You know what the Lord showed me one time? What happened on the mountain of transfiguration? The law, Moses, and the prophet, Elijah, hung on to Jesus in that. It says the law and the prophets hang on to these two things. You see, for some of us, the reason why we don't like. See, in Hebrews, it says the same thing. It's a rebuke that the writer puts out. He's like, you guys have gotten the custom of not gathering together, of not being together. You guys have made that a habit, and I want to shake you loose today. Listen, in your household, you need to make church not an option. But little Jimmy plays basketball. He's probably not going to make it to the NBA. Let me just rip that Band-Aid off for you. He won't. Listen, you're like, yeah, but they're going to be athletics, and they're going to be great, and they're in gymnastics, and they're in soccer, and they're in football. Guess what? All of them have to stand before God and give an account for their life. I can guarantee you, God is not going to ask him, what did you do with basketball? What did you do with sports? He's going to ask you, what did you do with the kid that you prayed for, and that you fasted for, and that you couldn't conceive?

And then I gave them to you, and you took them to basketball, and you took them to soccer, and you took them to everything else but me. What did you do with them? Because then your kid's going to have to give an account. They've got to stand before God, just like all of us. And he's going to go, what did you do with what I gave you? I gave you a church family when you were cutting yourself. I gave you a church family when you were in addiction. I gave it to you. That's why I'm telling you, you weren't just put in water by yourself. You were raised to life with a family. You were raised to life with a family. We cannot make the gathering of the brethren optional, because I can tell you, our Muslim friends aren't doing that. They're not doing that. Call to prayer is not optional for them. And here we are, week in and week out. Pastors, day in and day out, pouring themselves out, giving themselves to the work of the kingdom, and yet we say, I don't want that. I don't have time for that. If you don't have time, Lord. enough you can gain the world but you lose your soul it's true you know how easy it is to gain the world get a couple likes get a couple followers get a couple people slide into your DMs and then lose your soul in the process and then it was funny is like we make church a last resort when it should be a first priority we make gathering together a last what's crazy to me is that we have all look at all this screens and lights and music and back all of this available to us the kingdom is right in your hands and we look at it and we're like I'll just get it next week but the Bible says Jesus is whoa to you because your life

may be demanded tonight it's gonna be demanded tonight but yeah here we are I'm like oh I can't serve let someone else do that yeah I really believe when we get to heaven there's gonna be like a pile of stuff behind Jesus and he's gonna be standing in front of you and you'll be like what's all that behind you that's a lot I really believe he's gonna look and be like yeah that's every time I called you to serve and you made no time for them like these are all the blessings I was trying to give you on earth really this is what I was trying to bless you on earth with friends family freedom you see if you want to be greater you have to serve together we have to serve that's why we're called co-laborers in Christ some of you guys you think you're just cold church sitters no we're co-laborers in Christ some of y'all just want to be seen we don't want to see you like that we want to see you serving we're here to encourage you and I challenge my churches every week people come into my church and they said sometimes y'all don't know what you're saying and it's grace on you you'll be like oh my pastor wasn't feeding me it wasn't his job to feed you I know some of y'all didn't amen that's okay cuz some I'm gonna jack up some of y'all's a theology this Bible says that he is there to equip you he's there to equip you you see some of y'all think pastor rod is a hibachi chef like he's trying to throw shrimp in your mouth no no he's not there to feed you he's here to equip you what does equipment mean he gives you the tools so Monday morning you can cook Monday night you can cook Tuesday morning you can cook Wednesday morning you can cook your kid starts acting like hell I'm gonna cook it up come on come on he's giving you tools for you to cook we have so many malnourished believers because they don't know how to cook and it's not saying you gotta cook a six-star meal sometimes you gotta start with ramen and it'll work from there some of you some of y'all like I can make the best eggs you've ever that's okay you're cooking you're cooking I promise you I really I'm trying to get out of place as a pastor when people tell me like oh my pastor wasn't feeding me it's just like no you weren't cooking he gave you all that you needed you get the recipe it's like when your kids like mom dad there's

nothing to eat and you look at the fridge and you're like she mean I spent a thousand dollars at Costco what you mean that's like a gift you give yourself when you turn 30 I've got a Costco membership I got four gray hairs plucked in I was like I gotta update my Costco membership Jesus says it in John 1513 he says greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for a friend you can't tell me you love your brother or sister if you're not laying down your life some of you guys are like what do you mean I got to take a bullet for them nope you just got to put out a chair for them what do you mean I got to go to their house maybe you got I got a cook for them maybe as the Spirit leads whatever you do you lay down your life you think tithing is just paying bills you're laying down your finances you think serving is just filling up time slots you're laying down your schedule what does that mean you are killing those idols and you're saying finances you're not my God Yahweh Yeshua's my God and so I'm laying my finances to see God meet me where I am I'm laying down this idolatrous schedule to see the Holy Spirit move in you here's a crazy one y'all not gonna like I'm laying down my family to serve the kingdom so that another family who can't see Christ can see them through my family that's laying down your life that's laying down your desire right sure hey sure you can go do it by yourself you can be bad and bougie all by yourself but I could tell you this it's crazy how even creation knows not to be by themselves even creation knows that's where you get the term wolfpack because they roll together that's where you get Alliance pride because they roll together and it's crazy as humans we think we're smarter but we don't even know that we need to roll together when people tell me people like y'all Christians be saying crazy things I can have church at home no you can't your house stink your kids are running around making a mess I could watch this online no you can't you can't you gotta get in the house you have to start putting in your kids in the posture of Jesus is not an option for this household when I got baptized yeah I got baptized physically in a pool but I baptized this house cuz you y'all some of y'all know you got a

mama who's laying oil on your face while you were sleeping you just wake up and you're like Crisco your mom is like that's all we got that's all we got it don't matter look at it put seasoning on you you gotta hear me you can't do this life you can't be greater alone you can't be greater alone tell your neighbor turn to your neighbor now and say you can't be greater by yourself and to other neighbors say I need you you can't be greater alone here's here's what it says it says it in James y'all with me this morning I'm speaking to someone this morning if you have an issue you can email me at rod at Union Houston calm go ahead and send the email me and Rod have our mailboxes set up the same where if it's a complaint email it goes to the trash for some reason this is like you ever find how easy it is to critique when you're not in it it's easy to sit on the outside and critique when you're not a part of it it's easy to sit and be like look at what they doing look at what look at the music the music so loud I call you a crusty Christian you crusty Christian why you ever see a cookie that's in the oven too long what does it get hard and crusty you see the fire is meant to refine not to burn out that's what's crazy to me is that like we our culture we've traded personal relationship and personal discipleship and personal stewardship for a podcast for an online preacher well do you hear what this guy said I don't care what this guy said you have a shepherd who's available to you come on y'all don't know some of them are grifters and then they're like hey you want freedom by my course and yet you got pastors you're like come to my house for free I cooked for you for free you got this like you got people men and women leaders all over this room he'll be like yeah I'll take the time and spend time with you but you want to send me an Instagram video of what you believe the theology is yeah you got men and women right here who spend time with the word and spend time with the spirit but you want to hold some contempt and you just got into the faith but you know more and Bible says you need to humble yourself and submit yourself because then I will lift you up and do time but some of us were so arrogant in our own right and we think just because someone's got a camera phone

and thousand followers that they're saying something hey let me pull the dupe out they ain't really saying much ain't really saying much but yet there are people here who want to lock arms with you and say hey let's storm hell together for your child let's storm hell together for a job let's storm hell together for your identity Let's storm hell together because freedom belongs to you and I'm with you. I'm fighting with you. I'm standing with you I'm praying with you. I'm fasting with you. You are not alone. You are not by yourself You did you were not brought into a family solely you were brought into a family together together But James says it He says if you look at James 1 he says 113 says when God attempted me no one should say God is God is tempting me for God cannot be tempted by evil Nor does he make nor does he tempt anyone but each person is tempted when? When they're dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed Of course, yeah. Oh that church is bigger and they got cooler things so So See it's our own desires that we're like that we have to wrestle with but some of us were so biased in our own favor We're so biased and be like well this they're doing this and this doing this and I don't care what other churches are doing Because my question is like where did God call you? Don't be fooled by the glitz and glam because there's a lot of whitewashed tombs out here Because what you earn can't go when you earn so you might as well pour it out right now Leave it out right here. Put it all out right here. Don't wait. Some of y'all like I'm just waiting Uh-uh, this ain't double Dutch jump right in Yeah, my sister's no they'd be like This is an after desires conceived it gives birth to sin And then when it's full-grown it gives birth to death Desire gives birth to sin You ever notice when you want something so bad

You will compromise yourself to get it Some of y'all are sleeping with people right now because you want to be loved so bad That you compromise your morals to get it So bad because you don't want to be lonely and the Lord is like I don't want you to be lonely But I want you to be alone with me Some of us are right now we're at jobs that we hate Because we have this desire to make more money. I want to make more money I want to make more money and you compromised Sunday because you want to be alone. I don't want you to be alone So you can't have the job and you compromise Sunday because you want to make more money and now you're at your job by yourself and you're like I feel like i'm making all this money, but i've got nothing left inside of me Oh listen We all have desires We all want to be great, but you can't be great on your own This is where you get brothers and sisters and you say hey They're asking me to do this. My job is asking me to do isn't it? Yo, yo, hear me hear me. Isn't it crazy that we'll come to someone like pray for me for a job? And then the job will be like, yeah, we got a job for you, but you got to work sundays and we'll be like great So wait, you're going to sacrifice what god has for you on sundays just to be at a job See, I told a lot of my people you need to set the standard in the beginning I'll give you what I need to give you But my sunday belongs to the lord That's time I get to spend with my family And they're like, well, what do you mean? I go to a church named union houston. You've seen the pastor with all the tattoos. He drives a little crazy around this city But I get to serve my family See don't don't just look for a job and just take it because you need it You know what you do god is this where you have me right now And you're like wait and god or something what I love about god is that he'll be like yes no or wait Yes, no or wait

The worst answer I hate getting is wait I'm, like come on I need an answer right now And then the holy spirit goes but those who wait on the lord they will soar Anyone ever make a rush a hasty decision Right and you want to know when we make hasty decisions by ourselves By ourselves We make hasty decisions Some of y'all know what i'm talking about because you got that ikea furniture in your house right now like I wish I didn't buy that It's sitting there half put together you're like why why did I rush You know who you are But your desire gives birth to sin and then if we go to james 4 It says in james 4 it says what causes fights and quarrels Among you don't they come from your desires that battle within you you desire but you do not have so you kill you desire so you do not have so you kill and some of us are in the room and you're like pastor I'm not a murderer I haven't killed anybody yeah you have you desired a promotion so you slandered your co-worker and you killed their reputation hmm come on come on you we've all done it I don't know why they get the job I do they job anyways I do all for y'all's job so we kill we kill and then we say well Lord I haven't said so that's what it says it says so you kill you covet but you cannot get what you want so you quarrel and fight you do not have because you don't ask God here's the crazy part it says when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives you ask with wrong motive anyone ever pray a prayer that even when you're done praying you're like what I pray for that some of y'all are praying for a Ferrari right now your license is jacked up what you need a Ferrari for go ahead be humble and praise the Lord in your Ford Focus amen thank God I'm listen I had a car one time where it was driving on prayer I had to touch Shundi thank God it's a Hyundai so Lord make this move in Jesus name you ask what wrong motives so that

you can spend what you get on your pleasures I want y'all to say this with me I am a kingdom builder therefore I'm a conduit I am a kingdom builder therefore I'm a conduit if the blessing just ends with you it's not that great of a blessing you are a conduit so when you are blessed with something it's good to put a righteous pause then say Lord what do you want me to do with this that's how you kill pride because if you like me sometimes you get a little bit of money and you already spent it on the Amazon wish list and you're like done I could order this all today but what if there was a holy pause to say Lord what do you want me to do with this who do you want me to bless and then it goes right through you to someone else and then you ever hear that when someone's like you don't know how much I needed that now there's a double blessing at play you got blessed because you were humbled and you gave what you wanted to someone else and God is like I'm gonna bless you both kingdom economy doesn't work like earthly economy the earthly economy says take take and get all that you can you know he all know the the weird phrase you do you there's a build your own kingdom kingdom economy says I lay it all down for his kingdom and I don't have to worry about what I'm looking for because he's gonna take care of me so I just need to live by a kingdom agenda and when I live by this kingdom agenda he's going to take care of all of my knee what did what did Jesus say seek first the kingdom and then all these things will be added to you that is a addition verse he is saying I will give you more when you put the kingdom first you want to know why some of us are struggling right now is because we put the kingdom second your life never works when the kingdom is second that you why because you are out of alignment he says seek the kingdom seek the kingdom first and all these things will be added and the more you walk with the Lord and the more you serve your brothers and sisters the things you think you wanted you no longer have a desire for because it begins to align with his kingdom there are things and that's called immaturity right some of us just it's just immature Christianity it was immature in our faith and that's okay it's okay to be immature is not okay to stay immature

that's not okay when especially when people say like that's just who I am no that's who you chose to be that you made a decision to stay that way well I hate the curse people don't mean it as a curse but it's a curse in my head Wednesday, they're like, never change. What you mean, never change? I got to change, day by day, moment by moment. You can't spend time with Christ and not help but change. Or you ever get in an argument with someone? And y'all ever heard this line? I don't know who that was. That wasn't me. Who else was it? Who put that hole in that wall? Sure wasn't me. Let's go. I don't know why I threw that. That wasn't me. Listen here, Casper the Friendly Ghost, it wasn't him either. What you mean? What you mean it wasn't me? See, we want to divorce ourself from our actions when we don't like what we see, but that's who you are. This is why it's important to be in community, because you know what community does? Brother, that's you. And I get it, because that's in me too. But let's walk together so that we know how to grow in the spirit together. Let's walk in alignment with each other. I'm not judging you.

I'm not calling you out. I'm calling you up. See, but some of us, we got deceived into believing that I could do this all by myself. And yet your Savior, the Jesus in which you claim, didn't do it all by himself, literally rode with 12 dudes who got denied from a rabbinical lifestyle. He chose all the outcasts. And then when he was carrying his cross, didn't even carry the cross by himself, he fell down. And a random stranger was called to help him. And then when he rose in all power, he rose by himself. And he didn't keep it to himself. He showed himself living and breathing and moving and he was a part of a frish fry. And he sat there and he went to Thomas. He goes, go ahead, touch it. I dare you. And then when he ascended, he didn't ascend in secret. He ascended in light of everybody. And he told everyone, the way I'm rising in front of everybody, I'm coming back for everybody to see me. This is why it says, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. So you're either going to bend willingly or you're going to bend forcefully. But that knee is going to bend. That knee is going to bend and that mouth will confess.

So that's why I'm telling you, it's better to live a life together than to live I'm telling you, it's better to live a life together in the community of believers. Because guess what? We are all on bended knees serving the king. You're not by yourself. See, some of y'all, it's just like I hear those Christians and it just bothers me. I'm like, how could you say that? Jesus, I'm going to tell y'all, some of y'all, your mama told you, you so special. You so special. You're special, but you're not unique. You're special, for sure, but you're not unique. Because there's a person sitting right next to you who has the same default looks that you do. They got nose, they got ears, they got mouths. You're special, but you're not unique. But you want to know what makes us unique? You see, God didn't call us to uniformity. We don't all have to look the same. He didn't say, you're baptized to be in uniform. Like, oh, y'all got to wear the same things and dress the same way and sound the same. No, no, no, we weren't baptized into uniformity. We were baptized into unity. And the beauty of the church, the beauty of the church is that if you look around the room right now, there's different nations and different tribes represented

here. So if you don't like your neighbor now, you better start liking him. You see, the enemy thought he won because he thought he could divide the church. But he doesn't know. It's just a long loss. You're about to, like, it's written. He's going to lose. He has lost. He lost. Like, Jesus made a public shame of him on the cross. And he thought he made a public shame of Jesus. And you see, when Jesus says, when he breathed his last breath, some of y'all understand that's where multiplication happened. It was the breath of multiplication because the spirit that dwelled in him now lives in each and every one of us. It was a breath of multiplication. So here's what it says in Ephesians because Paul's writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, right? Verse chapter 4, he says, as a prisoner of the Lord, then I will not be a prisoner of the Lord. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Do you want to know why some of us are solo Christians? And I would even say maybe not even Christians, is because you're not living a life worthy of the calling. This is why some of you guys can't sleep at night,

because you know what God called you to, but you don't want to live it out. You still want to smoke what you want to smoke, be sleep who you want to sleep with, gamble how you want to gamble, and Paul is saying live a life worthy of the calling. I'm gonna tell you this, I'm a man with a purpose. Do you want to know the people I can't hang around? People with no purpose. Y'all seen Harry Potter, people with no purpose are like dementors. They're just sucking your soul, like every time you get away from them, you're like, I feel like I'm about to die. Don't raise your hand if you are that person, but we're asking you to come to life today. Live a life worthy of the calling. Live a life worthy of the calling. You have to understand called people come together, and we call other people. That's what we do. We can't help it. We can't stop it, because we saw what Jesus did for us, and we're like, you don't have to be by yourself. You don't have to stay by yourself. Come into this family. It's not perfect, but we're trying to be holy together. Live a life worthy of the calling you have received, and then he says, be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Testify, baby. You heard her, she went, aye.

Aye. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. This is why it's crazy when people form their mouth to say the silliness of, I can't go to church, because there's a bunch of hypocrites there. And I look at them, and I'm like, there's a hypocrite right there. It says to bear with one another in love. We got to, this is a room of imperfect people serving a perfect God. You have to bear one another in love. Are we going to mess up? Yes, but so did you. Are we going to fall short? Are we going to bang up against each other, and this is like, this was uncomfortable in this conflict? Yes, but guess what? We're going forward together. I feel like God is like a good parent. He's like, if y'all don't work it out here, I'm going to make y'all neighbors in heaven. You're going to wear that big t-shirt together, and that's what you're going to walk around in heaven. And then people are going to know like, oh, okay, you didn't like each other on earth? Yeah, yeah, that was me. That was me. Bear with one another in love. I'm sorry I'm going over, and Pastor Sarah said that, because Pastor Ross is not preaching,

we might end on time. And I was like, oh, oh, oh, like that meme, like, oh, you know? I just love the Word of God. I love preaching the Word of God, not because I like to hear myself. I like preaching the Word of God, because I spend time in the presence of God. And so what you're hearing is an overflow of my prayer life and my study. And listen, I'm not, in no way is this platform, these platforms were never meant to elevate a person. It was meant to elevate the presence of God, okay? So yes, God has called me to preach and to teach and to lead and to pastor. But if you look at the book of Nehemiah, Ezra the prophet, it says they built a wooden platform. And from there, he read the word of the law. It wasn't to elevate Ezra the prophet, it was meant to elevate the words of the Lord. And so any of you guys who are pursuing this platform, if you don't spend time in the presence, kill the platform. This platform don't mean nothing. I don't need this platform to spend time in his presence. So anyways, I'm sorry. It says verse three, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. I told this to my church, God did not call us to be peace keepers.

Peace keepers are poor managers of the kingdom. Why? Because peace keepers are avoid, they want to avoid conflict. If this is conflict, you're like, I'm keeping the peace. Some of you guys right now, you have a problem. Have so much high blood pressure and stress is because you're just being a peacekeeper Jesus said on the beatic blessed are the peacemakers What does peacemakers mean that means sometimes i'm called to get in the middle of the conflict You have to understand. I want you all to understand the words of god when it says that jesus made peace between man and god He was a peacemaker. He stepped in the middle of conflict between man And god he became a representative of man while being fully god and he made peace with his death on the cross So that's why it says the bond of peace takes a little bit of conflict It takes conflict. Some of us would just want to be peacekeepers And I know all of my introverts. You're like, I hate this message. I hate this message. I hate this message But you know, it's true. You've been peacekeeping for too long You've been peacekeeping for too long Be a peacemaker. It takes effort. It takes work. It takes time It sees the disparity it sees the brokenness and it goes i'm gonna step in the middle of this thing Because I want to see god work in between all of us The world doesn't need peacekeeping christians. They need peacemaker christians Be a peacemaker in your house Be a peacemaker with your family And you're like i'm a peacemaker with my family. No, you've been avoiding your uncle for years be a peacemaker Keeping the bond of peace You see I think for some of us we just received this weird theology that says i'm going to avoid the problem And then i'll just deal with it later and we never deal with it Who's here full of the holy spirit?

Raise your hand. All right, all 10 of us The other y'all i'm glad i'm preaching to y'all. All right, who here has the holy spirit Oh, okay. There we are That's guess guess what since you've raised your hand. Here's the grand prize. You have the power to be a peacemaker Now you can't avoid it Now if you avoid it, there's gonna be conviction in you because you're like, oh I raised my I did raise my hand Keeping the bond of peace Do you want to know? When the enemy attacks guess what he attacks first the church If I can get them divided If I could get them thinking being a republican is better if I can get them thinking a democrat is better If I can get them thinking that each political side has more party if I can elevate them in their own desires to have power Or have influence I can divide them but as believers we can say you dirty Nasty devil. We serve one god. We have one baptism We read one bible. We are saved by one blood. We are saved by one name It is not the name of trump. It's not the name of biden. It's not the name of any political party It's only in the name of jesus. Do all those things come down? Okay, I need y'all to start to get over your idolatry of political parties every time every four years We think oh if we vote this person, it'll it'll be better. Guess what? It's worse It's worse But we could do what jesus did What did jesus say? Because some of y'all be stressing out during voting time. What did jesus say? Whose image does this denarius have? Caesars so give to caesar what belongs to caesar? Some of y'all really make a political part of your identity And yet you got the power of the living god that raised jesus christ from life dwelling in you But you want to choose something lesser

Give to caesar what belongs to caesar? So what belongs to god? Whatever is made in his image I'm giving y'all the word today Some of y'all if you want to email me go ahead email me jeremy at pioneer church.com and tell me I don't like that You talked about politics, okay So Email me i'll respond i'll even i'll get on a google meet with you and be like listen This is what the bible says. You gotta be ready because i'm just gonna point to the scripture the entire time I'm from brooklyn. That's how we do Come on As a philosopher in memphis once said I ain't ducking no smoke Back back to the text You know why I love you too much and let you stay where you're gonna stay And so, if I got to create a platform for communication for you to see Jesus in the scriptures, I'm going to do it. You want to know what the world is struggling from? Immature Christians who just want to drink milk all day. It's time to get into the meat. It's time to get into the word and say, uh-uh. So, I ain't ducking no smoke. Bring it my way. It says, verse four, there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And the church said, amen. I came today to let you know that greatness is not fulfilling your desire.

Greatness is getting before the Lord and saying, God, how do you want me to serve your people? How do you want me to walk in community and walk in step by those also being filled by the spirit? That's great. You want to be great? Serve. But don't do it alone. Serve humbly. Serve faithfully. And I'm not telling you to get burnt out. I'm saying get burnt up. Get burnt up in the spirit. Read your word. Spend time in prayer. Spend time studying. Stop looking at all these files that lead to death. Look at the word that leads to life. You know how many people are like, oh, I read all these files. And I know it may be important, but I'm like, yeah, but this gives life. This brings life. That talks about death, but this thing shows me how to deal with them on Monday. It shows me how to love my neighbor. It shows me how to love my brother and sister. So if you spend more time in files than you have in your word, that's the problem. Leave them alone. Walk.

You got people all around you. You got people, all the leaders. Who are leaders in your house? Raise your hand. Come on, if you're a leader, yeah. Look, look, you got them all around you. Everywhere you turn your head, find someone and say, hey, disciple me. In Memphis, we say, cut on me. As iron sharpens iron, so we must sharpen one another. If you want to be greater in the kingdom, if you want to see God do something in you that you've never seen before, humble yourself and walk in community. Do you guys receive that word today? Raise your hand. I mean, stand up all over the room. I want to pray. We didn't talk about this, but listen. I'm going to do it my way. I see we got prayer partners and leaders in the front. If today's your first day at Union Houston, I don't care what you sniffed last night. I don't care what you smoked last night. I don't care what you drank and who you slept with last night. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day where you can turn your life over to Christ. When you come up and you stand with one of these leaders, they're not God, but they're a child of the most high God. They look like their father.

So what they're up here to do is they want to pray a prayer of salvation with you. The power isn't in them. The power is in the spirit that comes out of them. So today, you can turn your life over and say, God, I surrender all, my family, my business, my hope. I surrender all. And I give you my soul. But if you're in this room and you've already given Jesus your life, but somewhere along the road, you make community an option, today's the day. The Bible says to repent. Repent. God, I'm sorry that I've made your children, your house, your family third in my life, second in my life. Lord, show me the rhythm of walking in community. Repent. Because then, after you repent, you'll see what God does in and through you. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I'm going to pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, in the name that's above every other name, in the only name that there is freedom, in the only name that demons tremble, in the only name that hell quakes, we ask you, Lord Jesus, for those who are going to lay down their life in salvation today, for those who are turning from their wickedness, and they're turning from their depravity, and they're turning toward Jesus,

I pray that they come down here and receive salvation in Jesus' name. But I also pray for the brothers and sisters in Christ who have abandoned your house, but they're coming back. They're coming back today. And so, Lord God, we repent from making your house second, and we thank you for it. And let your spirit come without limit in Jesus name and everyone says Come on, Trish. Can we give God praise for his word that has come to us?