House of Praise | Rodrigo Vargas

What's good you syntaxes, let me hear you out there. Y'all are hyped up this morning, man. After last night, this morning is incredible. By the way, if you missed last night, you missed an amazing event. Let me tell you something. You need to have FOMO, okay? Hey, listen, if this is your first time with us, we want to say that you're not just a special guest, but you're an answered prayer. That God brings into the house, those that are looking for God, those that are looking for a community. So if you're here today, you're an answered prayer. We believe that God has brought you here. We want you to know that you didn't use to exist and connect people to God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that gospel says that it does not matter what your past looks like, is that interested in what you've done, is that it doesn't matter what your problems may be, and it doesn't matter what doubts may be in your heart. The gospel of Jesus says that He loves you right where you are, but He also loves you too much to leave you where you are. And that includes everyone who is incarcerated and watching us through the panda wack, you didn't use to think that you helped me welcome our Union prison campus.

We love you guys, even though we can't see you, you are never out of our hearts. And we can't wait for the day that you walk in through those doors. Heart of Houston, every November, I take a month, maybe a few weeks, to share the heart of this house and cast vision for the following year, for the year ahead, for all the things that God wants to do in the following year. Now, 10 years ago, God used our yes to plant Union Houston in spring branch. Amen, we didn't have much. Just a few families in our living room with lots of faith and a willingness to say yes to God's calling for the heart of Houston. That's why the sermon series is called the Heart of Houston, spring branch is known as the heart of Houston. And God has proven it himself faithful. So we provided faith, God provided faithfulness, and our yes has become a church, a family, a growing footprint across our city. We've witnessed his faithfulness through our growth, maturity, and the lives transformed by Jesus. And you will hear of some of those this month. But can I can't, I can't hear to tell you, God isn't finished yet. God is not finished and he's calling us

to enlarge our yes. Many years ago, in 2018, I was prophesied by a prophet, me and Pastor Sarah, we were at a prophetic meeting, and they prophesied Isaiah 54 to over us. And they came up to us and they said, the Lord has telling me that you need to enlarge the place of your tent to extend, to lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. A few weeks later, me and Pastor Sarah went to a conference. This was back in the days when Pastor Rod attended conferences. Hate conferences now, conferences are for the birds. I got everything I need right here in this book. Amen. And we were walking through the hallway, and there's a man by the name of Jacob Arranza. He is a church father in Louisiana. And he began speaking to me and Pastor Sarah and in the middle, he's very prophetic. He says, I got a word for you too. And he began to say, the Lord is saying to it enlarge the place of your tent, to lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, that God is about to do something, and he's going to enlarge your church. And whatever it is you think you have yet to do, don't worry, be faithful, and God is going to do it. You just gotta stretch yourself, amen? But here's the danger for us as a church.

We can become so focused where we're going that we forget Lebronis here. And even a growing and healthy church can experience what I like. losing sight of what matters most. Last week I shared how Jesus actually corrected a church who had vision drift. You remember this? He told the church in Ephesus to what? To return to the first things. Why? Because I'm gonna contextualize this. They were so busy praying, serving, worshiping, doing good works. They were so busy that God enlarged their families. And just like Pastor Susan said, the families began to have kids and the businesses began to grow and young people started getting married. This has all happened here at Union Houston. But then what happens is that as those things come into play, we slowly drift away from the first things. We cannot allow God's blessings, our growth, success, to distract us from the one who made it all possible. And he is calling his church to come back to the first things. So this month I found that as if God was telling me, tell the church to come back to the first things, we're gonna lean in to Ephesians, to rediscover what are these first things that Christ was talking about?

We're gonna find out who we are in Christ, what he's done for us and why he's united us to do the good work of connecting people to God. Because before we enlarge our yes, we must reconnect with our why. Would you stand with me as we read the word of God? And we're gonna begin at verse three in chapter one of the book of Ephesians. And I'm gonna give you some context, some history. I'm gonna give you, I tried to not get too geeky with the Greek with it this week, but there is a lot of Greek language here that is important. But I honed in on what I think is most important for us today. Amen? All praise to God. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Let me say it another way, and another transition says we are united in Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do. And he gave him great pleasure. So we praise God, here we go again. He's praising God again. For the glorious grace he has poured out on us

who belong to his dear son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. He has showered us his kindness on us along with our wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ, which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan that at the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. Everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united in Christ, we have received an inheritance from God. In other words, we have become God's own inheritance for he chose us in advance and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God's purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the good news that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own. Can I ask you a question church? Who is God's chosen people? We are. This verse here tells us we are God's chosen people.

You were marked in here. guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so that we would praise and glorify him. God, we thank you. We praise you, glorious Father. We ask you that you give us the spirit of wisdom, understanding and revelation. Lord Jesus, we thank you. We ask you to enlighten the eyes of our heart so that we may know you better. That we may understand the riches of the inheritance and the incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same power that you exerted when you rose Jesus from the dead, seated him at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every name that is invoked in this age and in the age to come. And you made him the head of us, your church, that you may feel him with everything in every way. Holy Spirit help me deliver this word you have given me. And I pray this in Jesus' mighty name and the people of God said, Amen. Today I want to tell you that we are a house of praise. We are a house of praise. Praise be to God, praise to the glorious Father, all praise and glory to the Father. That is what a house of praise should be singing, declaring, living. But what is praise? Because a lot of y'all think all praise is what we just did, right? We just sang, jumped around, right? Praise fundamentally is an active, vocal and often public expression of reverence and gratitude towards God. Now here's some key things though. Praise is God-centered, it is not self-centered. Let me say it to these people over here because y'all are not paying attention. Praise is going to be God-centered, not self-centered. It ain't about the song that I like, it ain't about the singers that I like, it ain't about the worship team that I like, it is about the God that I love, the God that has saved me, the God that has all power, it is God-centered. Two, it is physical and vocal. Listen, some of y'all just stand around there and move your lips. Look, it's got to be physical and vocal. You got to raise your voice. You got to clap it. You got to raise your hand. I know you think you're tough with your hands crossed over,

but you're tougher to the spiritual realms when you raise your voice and you say Jesus. It declares God's truth and God's character. It's got to do both, okay? Because you can't have, God doesn't exist where there's only truth. Listen, I'm trying to preach to you that praise happens true and proper, worthy praise happens when God's truth is declared along with God's character. Compassion, merciful, graceful, loving. In the four, this is more important one for y'all. It's an act of the will. Can I tell you this? It's not dependent on your situation. It's not dependent on how broke you are. Hey, look, it's not dependent. Okay, can I tell you? Maybe some of y'all are in your dorm right now, you're in yourself. Maybe you're in the seg unit and all you got is a tablet and you might be wondering, "I'm going to pass the ride." You don't understand? I'm on 23 hour a day lockdown. And they were chained up, and yet they chose. It was an act of the will to say, I praise the God that has saved me. You need a praise of where you are. Let them, let your cellmates think you're crazy where you're in there, praise it up. (congregation applauding) You got a will to mind. Some of y'all got demons going on in your head. Stopping you, you look stupid, you look this, this, that, the third, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, cut the noise in the name of Jesus. You got a will, your mind, to praise him. Hebrews 1315 says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice, a praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. That is a mouthful that should be something that defines our lifestyle. It should be a continual life of praise.

Praise and worship sometimes are intertwined, sometimes are confused, but they are interrelated. Now, I'm gonna teach you something today that you may not know, but praise is a declaration of what God has already done, okay? Praise is what we do when we give thanks to what he's already done. He's already saved us, he's already provided for us. He's already healed us, he's already healed our mom, our dad, our cousin, are you with me? He's already done it, so we gon' praise him. I might be broke, but I got praise in my lungs. (congregation applauding) Worship is the adoration, I like it, especially. (speaking in foreign language) Adoration of who God is, I love him for who he is. I'm gonna bow before him because of who he is. He is the name of all names. He commands the Lord of hosts. He stations angels at my house, on my front door, and my back door. I'm gonna bow to him. Psalms 100 says, "Listen, shout with joy "and worship with gladness, but in verse four, "it says the following, enter his gates with thanksgiving. "Go into his course with praise. "Give thanks to him and praise his name." We're talking about becoming a house of praise. A house of praise acknowledges what he has done. And if he's done it, then what we have is in ours.

It is. Now, I want you to remember that energy as I cut on you in a few minutes, okay? 'Cause I like the energy in the house, okay? A house of praise declares his goodness by giving of themselves to God for the work of God because of what he has done and who we believe who he is because of who he is. And because of who he is, we believe he will do it again and even more. Now, some people have picked up on this and lived this lifestyle and they see a life of prosperity. They see a life of increase. They see a life of blessings. But some of us sometimes hit roadblocks. Some of us are still holding onto things. Dare I say, some of you still have satanic altars in your heart. We'll talk about some of those. Now, how much more is he gonna do? He's gonna, well, Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 says that he will do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. That's how much more. I'm taking it right out of the same book. I'm not even deviating yet to another verse. Paul does something incredible here though. This is why I love this. Why I read all those verses. Did you know that every single word I read today

out of the scriptures is one sentence. It was one sentence, verse three through 14. Paul wrote one sentence. One stroke, one sentence, one song giving one thing. It was his praise break in prison where he was saying, "Look what God has done." And so what happens is he's almost painting a picture of what the Christian life should be, that it should be a stream of worship. Paul, he's sitting in prison, just like you, chains on his wrist, and he writes the longest sentence of praise in the New Testament. See, because praise isn't dependent on your circumstances. Praises all about what he's already done. Now Paul gives us three things to praise him for. He said he blessed us. You guys that? Let me give you a second point, he chose us. And that's worthy of praise, and he lavished us. And when a people come to understand that he's blessed, chosen us, and lavished us, then we can become a house of praise that shares the gospel with the entire world. Paul starts with who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Some of y'all are begging for God to bless you, and he said he's already blessed you with every's. He blessed us with the gospel. That's what the gospel says. Paul starts with praise.

Now I love it because Paul always gets a bad rap that he's always chewing people out, right? He's always like, y'all need to tell the women to be quiet and don't tell the men to do this, and husbands do that, all right? But here Paul hasn't given a single command. He hasn't told us to do anything. All he's done is praise, praise. He looks up to the sky while he's in prison, chained up to blocks. And he says, all praises be to God, the glorious Father of Jesus Christ. Before Paul tells us to do one thing, he praises God for what he's already done. I want you to think about that for a second. Let that hit you because he is in jail. And I'm not talking about TDC. You heard me? These are dunchies, he was in. You know, I noted something here that as I read the scriptures more and more, and I got all my reds, kitchen, scratch and highlight and all that stuff here, there's not a single word that he will bless me. I'm waiting for the blessing. I know he will, but he said he's already blessed us. He's done, he's finished, finito. Why? 'Cause it was settled at the cross and the resurrection. He blessed us. He, Paul understands theologically,

he's already blessed me with salvation. And because of salvation, the Holy Spirit has given me every spiritual blessing. Not some, not the leftovers, not the ones that go to the special Christians. I know there's some of you in here that think there are special Christians. Donsons, you're a special child of God once you come to believe in Christ. Every single believer I'm here to tell you has the right to become a child of God and gets blessed with every spiritual blessing. In Christ, that's how you get it. In Christ, not in your performance. Some of y'all are busy refining your Christianese at home. Yeah, y'all laugh, but y'all know some of y'all. Oh, I'm over there. I follow all the Christian info. Oh, my old algorithm is Christian influencers. Well, good for you. You're not gonna get it in your performance. You're not gonna get it in your knowledge. You're not gonna get it. Listen, Harry, you're not gonna get it in your bank account. It's not in your zip code. It's not in what side of the hood you in. It's not on how good you are or how good you're weak. Paul's phrasing in Christ is the key to understanding this. I wondered and I thought about it. I was like, why?

In Paul's world, this is why it's important. In Paul's world, the king stands for his people. So the king represents and he stands for his people. And so whatever happens to the king happens to the people. And so if the king won, the people won. And because Jesus won, we have won. His victory got us counted as our victory. I'm giving you the context of why Paul is writing. So if that's true and we believe that and we clap for that, why is it so many of us are living, complaining instead of praising? Why is it we crumble instead of worship? Come on now. We complain about everything, right? The prophetic people in the house, those of you that hear the voice of God, you go two days without hearing the voice of God. Oh my God, the Lord left me. He was tired of telling you the same thing over and over. You're not doing it. Hey, you know what? I'm going to leave him alone for a little while. Listen, something happened. Oh, the devil's out to get me. Look, bro, the devil got bigger fish to fry. OK. He got bigger fish to fry. You heard me? Listen, listen. He's here.

Remember the will? You got to will yourself to be like, I know I just got laid off, but I'm going to praise him because I know he's got a better child for him. [APPLAUSE] You know, the state of Texas has a list. Some of y'all going to go home and start looking this up. Watch this. Y'all ready for it? Y'all want to know a secret? The state of Texas has a website. You can Google this. Unclaimed property list. The unclaimed property-- you know what the unclaimed property list is? You can go on there. You can Google. You can put your name in there. And you will find out some dead relative somewhere. Left you some bank account, some property, some stocks, some bonds. You know what I'm saying? And there are millions of dollars that are right now in unclaimed property at the state. Real money, properties, checks, nobody has ever cashed. Property is no one's ever claimed. Think about that. That's pretty wild, isn't it? And here they are. They're working two jobs and cutting coupons,

shopping at Aldi, right? Y'all know, bro, people buy at Aldi. You know what I'm saying? Hey, you coming to my house? Every product in my refrigerator is from Aldi, baby. Shoot. You better-- you better get back, you know? Stretching groceries, right? They over there praying for a breakthrough. And the whole time, they got millions of dollars in some account that's just waiting to be claimed. And far too many Christians, far too many of you, are living the exact same way. You're saved. You got salvation. You got spiritual blessings, and you're living like a beggar. You over here talking about God bless me. Bless me, bless me, bless me. God be with me. And God's looking at you, be like, what are you talking about? I already did. I am with you. My son, my daughter, all you've got to do is claim it. Bangers ask for what they don't have. But a beneficiary receives what has already been written in his name. Which one are you going to live like? You have to decide today, which one are you going to live like? Because blessings isn't something you chase, it's something you live out of front.

You live out of blessings. Now, I want to say this, not in my notes, but I think it's important. You will never know how blessed you are until you know who you are. So the first thing you've got to discover about yourself is who does God say you are? And after you figure that out and you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you will realize how blessed you are. This is where it gets good. I've been talking about Abraham. I've been kind of looking at the life of Abraham and you know, I've got lessons that I've got that have to do with dreams and vision. Yesterday I shared with our Spanish-speaking community about the vision and the dreams that God has given you and how God's elevating us and giving us. But by the way, listen, I encourage you, you want to get in on this. There's something special about that happened. But one of the things I told them was that in Genesis 12 to God tells Abraham, God gives Abraham a vision. You will be a blessing. He didn't just bless him. He declared that he would also be a blessing. What I'm trying to tell you is bless people, bless people. Believing that you are blessed, praising, becoming a house of praise is fuel to bless others. When you really believe he has supplied everything you need, you stop hoarding and you start sharing.

You stop competing. Listen, ladies, you stop comparing single ladies. I know you want to be married. The time is ticking. Stop comparing. Their life is not your life. It's Instagram. It's you don't know the story behind their glory. You don't know their pains. You don't know anything they've gone through. You don't know the prayers they've had. Listen, just remember, be blessed. What if we started contributing instead? You see, you stop living afraid. So many of you are afraid of not having enough. It won't be enough. I love you. My wife is an old soul. Listen, my darling wife, you would have thought she was a great depression child. You heard me? See, look, don't waste that. You know, hey, look, she's like, no, no, no. Okay, nope, that's not in the budget. She's always afraid it's never gonna be enough. You know what my response to all that is is? It'll be fine. And listen, I come to a place where I'm not afraid of any more of if it's not enough. I know it'll always be enough

because I got God. Now I gotta be faithful to God, you heard me? You know, I gotta give him his portion. I gotta be faithful to his calling. I gotta be faithful to his word. I gotta be faithful to his spirit. Now, you heard me? You can't give away what you know you can never run out of. You can't give away also what you don't believe you have. Listen to me, this is the difference between a property mindset and a prosperity mindset. This is the difference between a scarcity spirit and a spirit of wealth. Which one would you like to have? Because it all hangs on what you believe. Are you blessed or are you not? And I'm not talking about the dollar amount. I'm talking about the amount of faith you have in your heart. And maybe you're struggling right now. Maybe you're struggling right now. You'd be like, "Pastor, you don't understand. "My money's funny. "I get all that. "I've been there. "I know what it's like to eat spaghetti three times a week. "I rock a well frito two nights a week." You know what I'm saying? Like, we know how to skim. Don't worry about, they talk about doomsday. You think that's gonna stop me from eating?

Look here, I got a rice tucked up in an airy closet you could think of, baby. God, that's that thing. Look, that's exactly when you're at a broke place. Listen to me, I'm about to unlock something for you. When you are broke, when you are struggling, when you are going through a financial crisis, that's exactly when you need to activate. done and watch him open doors. But once he blesses you, you got to get that stingy spirit out of you because you got to become a blessing. You got to start blessing. You got to start giving. You got to increase your giving so that it becomes a time, not the fact that you call it a tide, doesn't make it a tide. No, time is 10% of what you made. Pass the ride. That's old testament. That's a mosaic law, right? Right? Anybody? Let me, let me get all the theologians in the room. That's the old, that's the mosaic law. Okay, great. Well, the tide didn't start with the Moses. It started with Abraham. It precedes the law. Hear me out. And if it was, okay, let me play your game. Yeah, it's old testament. It's the mosaic law. Okay, so is thou shalt not murder and thou shalt not commit adultery. Am I right? Did those go away too? Oh, no, they didn't. In fact, Jesus said, if you hate, you murder. If you lust, you're an adulterer, what do you think he says about the tide? You see what she gave? She gave everything. And in Matthew 23, 23, Jesus gets into it with the Pharisees and where everybody says, Jesus never taught the tide. In Matthew 23, 23, go read it for yourself. He ratifies the tide by saying, you tithe even down to the smallest amount, but you forget mercy and compassion for what's more important is mercy and compassion without forgetting the tide. So I'm challenging you today. This is where you need to pray. God, if I'm blessed, I'm going to trust you with my blessed. You need to start praying for someone. You need to start encouraging people. You need to start forgiving those people that you know you should have forgiven because blessed people, blessed people. And that's true praise. Praise is the declaration of what he has done. That is important for a house of praise. Why? Because he chose us to share this gospel. He chose us. He says he chose us in him before the creation of the world. Let me tell you something, before your parents knew you, before you were born, before your ethnicity, some of you are like,

oh, yeah, you know, you know, my boy Kenneth over here shaking his head. He's African. He's a regal prince from Ghana over here. Before God chose him to be a prince in Acra. Some of you are, I'm Latino. I'm Salvador Daniel and all this. Hey, bro, before you were Salvador Daniel, before you knew Jesus, before the world was even created itself, he chose us. That's what the scripture says. This is what many theologians talk about predestination, right? But here's the truth that I've come to understand through scripture, and it's quite simple. He chose us, he chose us, began in the heart of God, okay? He had us in mind. In other words, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Thank you. And through him, all things were made, and not a single thing was made. Ah, and he chose Jesus to save mankind of anything we have done, but what he has. That's what he means by he chose us, that we can't save ourselves, that he didn't save us for our own sake, but because he wanted to say, we couldn't save ourselves, so he saved us. That's what that means. We live in a world that rejects people based on numerous characteristics, whether it's what they look like, whether it's what they've done, what the record looks like, what their skin color looks like in some places, right? What their background is, we do a number of things, but the good news says, before you ever existed, God looked down at you and said, I want them. Not because you were good, not because you were amazing. In love, He predestined us for adoption, it says. To sonship, these are important words. In His will and good pleasure, Jesus says, in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you. I want you to let that land. You didn't earn a spot on His team. You were chosen, He picked us for what? Adoption. Now, in the Roman world, a father held absolute power over his children. A son couldn't own anything. It was the fathers until the father passed. With whatever he received belonged to his father. So when an adoption happened, this was a serious step.

There was a ceremony before the magistrate and a hearing. And what happens is the following. Once finalized, the adopted son had every right of a legitimate son in the new family. Same as the natural born ones, same as that. But they had the forfeit rights to their old life. Every day paid, every wrong, white, as if never existed, but they had to deny their old life. Every debt, every label, every, you'll never amount to anything gone. So stop going back to that label. Stop going back to that lie. You are not a guest in the house of God. You are not a servant hoping to be tolerated, hoping to get scraps. You're a son. You're a daughter. You're a responsibility in the house of praise is to be a blessing because you're already blessed. Now here's the tension. And I'm not going to skip it for you. But chosen is not the finish line. Chosen is the starting line. And you decide whether you step into it or not. Just like we weren't chosen for anything we've done. We also weren't chosen for our own sake. Our salvation is a vital stage on something way bigger that God had planned. And just like he chose, God chose Abraham to be a blessing

to all the families in the world. Can I tell you, I came here today to tell you he chose us to share the gospel with our city. He chose us to share the gospel with our lives with everyone that we can encounter in this city. We weren't picked to sit on some fancy Saint Museum and look good and know a whole bunch of facts about Jesus and read a whole bunch of books. Watch a whole bunch of podcasts and go to a whole bunch of conferences and gather all this information. He wants you to share the gospel with everyone you come in contact with, to be the salt and the light, to that jerk waitress that she just pissed you off. You're supposed to be salt and light to that, to that co-worker you can't stand. You're supposed to be the salt and light. You're supposed to be a city on a hill telling people, this is where the hope of glory lives. In your office, in your neighborhood, in your families, in your classrooms, children, wherever you may play, wherever gym you may work out at, you are to live on purpose by sharing the gospel with your life, more than with your mouth. I'm here because someone shared the gospel with me. His name is Joey, my spiritual mentor. Somebody shared the gospel with you. Somebody invited you here. Somebody didn't keep it to themselves.

'Cause if they had, I wouldn't be here. Somebody was chosen to share it with us. We've been chosen to share it with somebody else. We're launching a Spanish service union in Españor. [APPLAUSE] But I want to tell you something. I'm going to need you. I'm counting on you. I need you to come back to the first things. Union of family, for those of you that were around 10 years ago in my living room, and the vision parties, the launch day, I need you to come back to those first days. What does that mean? I'm asking you. Your Sundays are going to be long. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. One servicers. Y'all know who you are? You need to become two servicers. We want to pray. We want to be a blessing, right? This is a sacrifice. Leaders, I know you don't speak English. I don't need you to speak English. I'll pair you-- yeah, Spanish. I'm my bag, Kayla. Bad, bruh. I'll be thinking the other way around. I'm already inactivated. I'm going to need you to partner up with someone.

73%-- I'm busy on 73%. 73%. 73% of spring branch, Spanish-speaking owner. 90% don't attend church. I was talking to Veronica. She's teacher back here, the school back there. She has parent-teacher conferences, sits with the moms, children, whose dads have been deported. 73%. 90% need Jesus. She gets to hear how they're struggling to put food on the table. 73%. 90% need Jesus. I was here yesterday, and I was sharing the vision for our Spanish services. And we have some leaders that came from Spring Spirit, part of our church here. And they walked up to me, and they say, hey, we have a group. I met with them last night. It's about 40 women, mostly single moms. Why do you suppose they're single moms? All need. Jesus. They need a community. They need what we have. Young people, your lunch is going to be prolonged an hour and a half more. Worship team, I know I've already heard. Pastor Andre over here making the case for you.

Y'all are going to-- I'm telling y'all. Y'all are going to be overwhelmed. Y'all are going to be overworked. Well, God's going to get the glory, and your lives will be blessed. [APPLAUSE] I'm not sugar-coating anything. I'm telling you right now, we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Why? Because he chose us, and he lavished us with the power of the gospel. He lavished us with his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. We just took communion. Redemption describes someone from a situation they could never get out of on his own, a penalty, and can never repay, and now has been redeemed. That's what redemption means. Paul is secretly telling underlying the story of the Passover, where a people were enslaved, and God passed over them. You know, we were enslaved, too. Satan, through sin, was our slave master. But Jesus came in at the cross and snapped that, and brought us back into the light. And the price for that was in gold or silver. It was blood, the blood of his son. He didn't just manage our debt. He removed, that redeemed.

The riches of his God's grace that he lavished on us. Verse 7, lavished. That word lavish means to overflow. There's so much-- so let me ask you something. He's not talking about a drizzle. He's not talking about a sprinkle. He's talking about an overflow. Would you say you're living? That's a deposit and a guarantee for your future inheritance. God's grace isn't by measure, it's not rationed, it's lavished. We're talking about power. What do we do with that? Is it advice, counsel? Or something greater? Because the Word of God said it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. The power of God. That's what you're carrying and that's what we've got to carry to everyone in our neighborhood. Because this thingy house can't be a house of praise. A forgiven people, forgive people, and a blessed people, blessed people. And a house of praise shares the gospel with its city. I love how the mystery Paul talks about is not a puzzle but it's something that was hidden for a long time and now is revealed. That mystery is that God's love was never for just one people or for the entire world. And His plan is to bring everything under heaven and earth together under His name. In Paul's world they live the divided world, Jew and Gentile, Greek, barbarian, strife, intention. I wonder if you relate to that in America. We live a divided world but God blessed, chose, and lavished us with His plan for what? To share His gospel with the world around us. That is the plan.

When you walk the streets of Spring Branch, they're Spanish, English, Korean, Vietnamese, illegal, and legal, resident and citizen. And you know what they all need? They all need Jesus the same. And God has revealed to us a plan and that plan is now to live in Spring Branch or to be planted in Spring Branch but in Christ. There are two different addresses, a human address and a divine one. Jeremiah told the exile, "Seek the peace and prosperity of the city." And that's exactly what we intend to do here at Union's Houston. Because God still says that about Houston and it has many people in the city. People that haven't heard the gospel, people who don't know that they have every spiritual blessing waiting for them, people who think they'll be picked last, people who need to hear the word "forgiven." So when the gospel says "us," it means "us." Houston is home to one of the largest medical centers in the planet. If you ask any one of those heart doctors, they'll tell you that a heart that only holds the blood is a heart that dies but a blood, a heart that pumps life into the rest of the body is a heart that tells me. That's the vision I'm giving you today for being a house of praise, not a building but a people and every part of it must become a house of praise so that we can make his name known in Houston. Can you stand with me? We have prayer partners up at the front. If you have prayer for anything, don't leave without getting a touch. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to give you an opportunity, an opportunity to say yes to Jesus, to hand your heart over to Jesus. What does that mean? We come to believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God, just like we read today, and that God chose us in him. He came to live, suffer, and die for our sins, and when he rose from the dead on Thursday

we saved from death and hell but we are risen to new life in Christ if you want to make that decision today if you want to make that decision want to take that step from the from the place of darkness into his marvelous light he's been waiting for you maybe you got up this morning didn't even know why you came here but it was for this moment your heart's been softened the spirit of God you felt in this place but now there's a decision time would you buy your heads and close your eyes for just a moment if you want to make that decision of your heart today just raise your hand shoot it up real quick shoot it up shoot it up there you go father God thank you God we thank you hands are raised bless me welcome me be with every prayer partner here every person that comes up here feels your touch gets an answer from you and feels the warmth of your love I pray this in Jesus name come on church give God praise of the word of the Lord that has gone forth