Plain and Simple | Rodrigo Vargas

What's good Houston, Texas. Let me hear you out there. Yes, sir, yes, sir, and for all of you that are givers, tithers, I want to say thank you. We cannot do what we do without your giving, including yesterday, our vision party for our Spanish experience was a great success because of your giving. Our community outreach is successful because of your giving. We have childcare for single moms that want to have a connect group during the week because of your giving. We have a police officer on site so that you're safe on Sunday because of your giving. Can I get an amen? So I want to bless you today and say that if you are giving, may God multiply your gift and open up the storehouse of heaven over you. Amen? First thing I want to do is I want to welcome all our new visitors. I want to tell you that if you're here, you're not just an honored guest. You are actually an answered prayer. We want you to know that you didn't use to exist to connect people to God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that gospel says that it doesn't matter what your pastor looks like. So relax. Don't worry about you. So do I. And it doesn't matter if you brought mess into the house, that's all right. I brought my mess into a house one time. And lastly, if there's a little bit of doubt in your heart, I have enough faith in Jesus Christ that He'll sway you the right way because He wants you to know that the gospel says it loves you right where you are. And not only that, He loves you too much to leave you where you are. And I believe He's moving you forward today. This includes every man and woman that is incarcerated and watching us through the panda

wab. He helps me welcome our union prison campus. We love you. We can't see you, but you're never out of our hearts. And I want to thank you for your giving because it's because you're given that we are able to reach those men and women that are incarcerated. Well, I've been praying for this moment, for this sermon series, for well over a year, to be honest with you, union, I want you to say the name of the series with me, the end. I know what some of you did when you saw that, you braced yourself because when people hear, hear the word of God being preached about the book of Revelation, you think of a few things, fear, beasts, dragons, blood moves, my right, the end of the world. This is why the sermon series is called the end, on top of which it's the very last book in our Bible. It's the end of the Bible. They think it's a code that we have to crack, a puzzle you have to solve or a nightmare that you have to survive. However, I want to tell you what this book is in this series, plain and simple. That's not what this book is, it never has been that. Revelation is actually a lover, it's a letter of assurance, it's a description of our inheritance that already has your name on it. And before John says anything about the beast or the bowls or the trumpets, he opens his mouth in the first 3 verses and today he is going to make things plain and simple, plain and simple. This series, the end is not due, the end is where the beginning starts. So I want to start this sermon series, beginning the end if you will, with the end of our Bible. I want you to open up to the book of Revelation chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, because this is the only way to properly do. So would you stand for the reading of God's Word? And this is amazing, I got progressive glasses, so I can read my Bible right here, I don't have to use the big words in my notes.

Can I get an amen? Oh, praise God it's a- Some of your translations may say from, but the actual Greek is of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants in some translations it'll say bond and serve it, the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John. And John bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. He bore witness to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that He saw. So you saw some visions, we're going to get into that sooner or later. This is important for you today, blessed is the one who reads out loud. The words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. Let's pray for the God we thank you. We thank you that you loved us so much that you sent an angel to John to assure us that no matter what, we are good with you, that no matter what, you will take care of us. That no matter what, Jesus still wins, and that no matter what, we still get our inheritance. In the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, I ask you to give us a new fresh revelation on this book, erase any religious thought, teaching, doctrine, theology that we may have adopted over the years. Lord, remove the fear in the room for this is a beautiful letter of your love for us. Holy Spirit, help me deliver that which you have given to me. Keep my mind clear, my spirit clear. I repent of all things that I may have done or said that are wrong and come to in this place with a clean conscience before you, Lord, professing that you are Lord, King, and Savior. And would you help me? Help me along the way as I do the very best to honor your name to the people of God. Pray this in Jesus' mighty name and the people of God said, amen, amen, amen, you may be seated. Now, you need to know that Jesus has a very clear intention behind this letter. To us, this letter is to us, through y'all, but it's to us, and it isn't to strike fear

into us, in fact, it's to fortify our faith, to let us know no matter what, we're going to be okay, and making our victory in Him plain and simple. This letter is really plain and simple. So let's attack some questions that may be on your mind. Why do we avoid it? Why do some people avoid it? Well, if I'm going to be honest with you, most people that avoid this letter, it is out of fear, and the fear is because they don't truly believe they are right with God. In other words, hear me out, and I want you to hear because this applies more than just to the prophetic word that's being delivered today, this is about your faith. Any time you have a problem, is this someone, anytime things don't go your way, you think you've fallen out of graces with God, you're going to avoid this letter. You're going to think it's fear. You're going to think it's doom. You're going to think it's over. In other words, sometimes they still have sin. Now you can be saved and still be harboring sin. Now you're not, you're saved, but you may need to repent. simply, I'm not safe. In other words, you still got a word to be safe, right? If you miss on Sunday, you're not safe. If you forgot to tie, you're not safe. If you got to pray before you ate, you're not safe. No such thing. Those that are saved in fear, sometimes it's still because they still entertain sinful natures. Okay now, okay now, some people are saved. They love the Lord. They're in here on Sunday, praising the Lord, shouting them down, clapping it up. But they still have sinful natures. What do I mean by that? They're using grace like it's a credit card. They want to continue to fornicate, and they want to continue to masturbate, and they want to continue to watch porn, and they want to continue to flirt with girls, and flirt with guys, and slide into DMs, and they want to continue to pop them pills, and they want to continue to smoke that weed, and they want to continue to get intoxicated.

Well yeah, when we continue to lie, cheat, steal, gossip, gossip, gossip, my God, then yeah, you're gonna fear this letter because you realize you still entertain sinful natures. Well that escalated pretty quickly didn't it? Yeah. But I'm trying to really dispel the fear that you fear over this letter. Yet others, which is most of us in the room, can I tell you what's missing? We lack the scriptural knowledge, the inability to understand, and to we lack biblical literacy, and because you lack biblical literacy, you're gonna lack spiritual prowess. Let me tell you something. I'm a spiritual person. I get it. There are many spirits. When someone says, "Oh I worship, I believe in God." There, first time you're gonna hear this from this pulpit, there are many gods, but there is only one most high God, and his name is Elohim, Yahweh. There are many gods. Anybody, any witch can tell? I believe in God. I'm sure she does. Her God may be somewhere else besides the throne. Are you with me? And so when people say they're spiritual, it's not enough to have spiritual prowess. In fact, to have true biblical spiritual prowess, you need to have biblical literacy. And then we lack spiritual maturity to what? To believe every word that's written in this Bible. We have to believe it all entirely, completely. Nothing left unsaid. If it says I shouldn't, that I'm not going to. If it says I should, that I'm going to. If it says it will, then it will. That's how it is. I'm not here to negotiate with a maker of the heavens and the earth. I'm not here to the one that knew me before I was born. I'm here to follow and be led by the one that knit me in my mother's womb. I'm not here to be loyal to my ancestors, to the you ancestor people. They can kiss my butt. I got a king that knew me before my ancestors. I'm not here. Listen, I'm not here to this any indigenous or tribal people. But listen, I know a God that came before the tribes that came before the indigenous people. I'm here to follow him. I have to have this constant conversation with my mother. She's sold their indigenous people. It's still witchcraft. They didn't know God, so they made a God. They made witchcraft and they worship the heavens and the skies and the earth and the elements. It's witchcraft. But for some of us, it's hard to separate our ethnic culture from our kingdom identity. And then you're going

to hear this. I want you to take this as power. And so what these people do, let me tell you what, let me, maybe this is you. How many of you have a favorite Bible verse you look to quote over yourself? Come on now, just one person? We're doing a terrible job. Y'all need to get in connect groups. And I said, We take a Bible verse and we isolate it, and then you use it like a cheat code. If we're going to use a Bible verse, right, and you want to use it for all its blessing, please pull out the entire sword. You need the entire sword for it to make sense. Pastors also avoid teaching in Revelation, so they don't want to rock the boat and make people uncomfortable. Well, you got to pass that doesn't mind making you uncomfortable, because I want to make you powerful. So why do pastors weaponize it? Let's talk the real, real. Why do pastors weaponize? Because they are religious and do not possess the fruit of the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit has to do with their spiritual maturity. So leading people to Christ with charity, love, compassion, and long suffering is too much for them. So they get lazy, complacent, and they try to control their people with fear. Some have been tainted, and this is the majority of Western church. They've been tainted by theologians putting theologians above Jesus Christ in the Word of God. And in my opinion, some of these theologians had nefarious intentions. I don't have a problem telling you, one of which I believe John Darby had nefarious intentions. I don't have a problem saying that, because I'm not a John Darby follower. I'm a Jesus Christ follower. I'm a follower of the Word of God, not some guy's idea. And still others, can I tell you the Bible tells me, yet others are false teachers. Now remember, how much we've talked about false teachers? We did mention false teachers a bunch. So why does this be conspiracy? Because this is one of the big things of us Christians, we love to entertain. How many of y'all like entertaining conspiracies? I love entertaining conspiracies, you know? I mean, they're fun. They're not the gospel. Conspiracy are easy to entertain, then put into practice, discipleship. A role is not to entertain conspiracies. A role is to be a disciple. And when you are a disciple, you keep watch. That's all Jesus told us to do. He can go to John 14 through 17. You know what, keep watch, keep watch, keep watch. He kept saying, keep watch. He never told you, hey, decide for the code.

You know, start a podcast. He said, keep watch. Now, I want to tell you something, revelation, this is amazing. Revelation has the most old Testament saturated references in the entire new Testament, plus countless references to the New Testament letters written across different regions, across the Middle East and Asia. Look at that. This is all the references to the entire Bible going all the way back to Genesis. We're talking about thousands. Chapter one, alone has 395 references. The heaviest verse has 44 references. And today's reading has in three verses, it references 42 different Bible verses. Isn't that incredible? But we avoid it. It's too skinny. This letter is as this water. Okay, the issue is some people see this glass half full, right? And some of y'all see this half empty. You see, it's all about perspective, right? It's all about how you hold this up, how you view it. So what is this letter? What is this letter? Without the right information, this could be a glass of a lot of vodka. And if I drink it, what's going to happen to me? I'm going to get intoxicated, isn't it? Where am I recovering people? Hey, man, woo, woo. Yeah, we don't need that no more. We got the Holy Ghost. Hey, if I start drinking this, and for many of us, if I take a sip, But that's what happens when you drink the Word of God with the wrong perspective and intention. You're going to get intoxicated in your own religion. But if this is the right amount of water, which is eight ounces, listen. It is refreshing, microplastics and all. Let me tell you something. This is what the sermon series is all about. It is clearing up what is what and what it's for. So let me tell you what the first thing you need to know is this letter shows us that no matter what happens, we are blessed. It says it right there in the text, blessed is the one. We are blessed because we are saved because we have the spirit of the living God living inside of us, guiding us, teaching us, comforting us. We are blessed that Jesus left us this letter of assurance of our victory over the devil, Satan, all the demons.

It is blessed because it shares with us our inheritance. Now we'll get to the part where we rule the earth with him. That's part of our inheritance. After all, princes and princes says in the kingdom of God, John is writing this as he is exiled. Cultural context. Can we talk cultural context because it's important to how we read this passage. John is exiled. Now why is he exiled? He's a prisoner. Some of you, I mean y'all had a rough week this week. I know my bro had a rough week. And I'm going to tell you where John on Patmos, you see how kind of perspective changes things. John is exiled on an island called, he's a prisoner and he's been shoved off to an island called Patmos. Why? Because the growing government had banished him from preaching the gospel and making disciples of Jesus. In fact, here's what he says in verse 9, on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, I've been in prison. On the account of, this is why I'm here, I'm in shackles, I'm away from everyone. They've tried to shut me up because I preach the Word of God and I give the testimony of Jesus Christ. John is the oldest living apostle and he wrote this letter around 95 AD and why is this important? His words are important because this is during what's called Domitian rule, okay? And who he demanded, Domitian demanded people address him as Lord and God. And so when John is going around preaching and writing about that, Jesus is the Lord of Lords and the kings of kings, that he is the ruler of all kings, this caused quite a bit of persecution and tribulation in John's life. Are you with me?

I wonder if you have that in your life. Because you see, that for us comes the first thing we need to do. There is a dire reflection we must have. So who is your Domitian? Who is your Domitian? For some of you, it's your favorite sin. It's that time you roll up and smoke up when nobody is watching. That's your Domitian. Who is your ruler? Pornhub? Sharing your favorite gossip with your girlfriends? What is it? For everyone. Some of y'all, some of y'all, y'all heard the part where we give and you're like, "That's my money." Then the New Testament, y'all, the New Testament don't have a tithe for God to read Matthew 23, 23, like everyone has a ruler. Jesus alone deserves our only allegiance. You can see clearly from John's text that he makes his political allegiance to Jesus alone. That's my position. Jesus is the only one that gets my vote. Jesus is the only one that says, "Hey, let's go." "Hey, Jesus is the only one I'm going to go with." Jesus is the only one I trust. He writes to real churches in real cities with real people that have real problems. yet somehow 2,000 years later is like our churches today. The letter is filled with a revelation prophesied thousands of years before Jesus ever came around. That they would have been very familiar with

because it was part of Jewish scripture. Now remember, he's writing for these churches, John is Jew, he's writing to other Jewish apostles that became Christians, the early Christians of newsflash, early Christians were all Jews, right? It's not until Paul starts opening up to Asia and the Arabs and the Middle Eastern start coming around and the Gentiles, right? But in the early days, they were all Jews. And so the Jews taught the Middle Eastern people and the Asiatic people and the Ethiopians and the Egyptians. Hey, this is what Jewish scripture says. And these people were familiar when Daniel said, when Ezekiel said, oh, you know, they're drawing back, can I tell you what they have? They didn't have a lack of biblical literacy. This is what I said a few minutes ago. We lack biblical literacy. The first thing we need to know and I wanna address because this is one of my pet peeves is, oh yeah, this is my pet peeves. That's good. We're gonna use this as a sermon illustration, okay? Open up your Bibles real quick. And I want you to go to the very first chapter where we read. And I want you to read the top of that chapter. What is the name of that letter? I'm sorry? Is there an S at the end of that letter? No, there's no S.

It's the book of Revelation, not revelations. But most people think it's the book of revelations. No, no, no, no, no. It's revelation, not it. That's right. We need to drop the S because we think that when he starts talking about the beast and the seven headed and the corns and y'all are like, ooh, and the Trump is ya. It's one revelation, one single. Now you need to know, I'm about to say a word that's gonna change the way you see the book of Revelation. This is one unveiling of Jesus Christ to his church. That's it. The Greek word apocalypsis, and in fact, in Spanish, this book is called apoglypsis, means to unveil. That's what it means to uncover. In other words, it's always been there. I'm just removing the veil, and I'm showing you, Jesus didn't come telling John some, no. Jesus pulled back a veil, a spiritual veil, opening up into inter-dimensions, showing John down a timeline, think of a sci-fi movie. He's looking down a loophole and showing him all these things. It's one, one unveiling. Now, we see this in scripture when Paul says, but their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the old covenant. What's wrong with it says, that same veil remains un-lifted. What is Paul talking about?

Because only through Christ is taken away. It's only Christ that can unveil these things. It's why we pray in the name of Jesus. It's why we ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us in the name of Jesus. Only Christ can reveal unveil things to us. The second thing is, verses one through three are a prologue. What is a prologue? Prologue is nothing more than a preview. For those of you that are readers and you're reading a book, you ever get a book, and it has a prologue, it's giving you a preview. By the way, the prologue is not the introduction. An introduction sometimes that's more about how the book came to be. The prologue sets the scene. It gives you like, hey, here's what's to come. So the rest of what is written is Jesus being revealed to his church. Then now in the age to come, including the dragons, including the beast, including the false prophets, including the antichrist, all of it is one revelation. Jesus, John's opening words, strip away the fogs before anyone can turn this into a code-cracking session. Okay, before you start doom-prepping, I'm gonna get our doom-preppers. of my closets. Your boy's gonna eat at the end of the world, you heard me? And I'm Latino, I can survive all rising beans for years. John tells the church plainly that this letter is a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate

victory of the cross, the tomb, and the age to come, that's what it is. The end is not doomed, it's the prophecy of a new beginning, it's the new earth, it's the new heaven, it's the new Jerusalem. It's when Jesus and his glorious church will come and rule the earth the way it was always supposed to be governed by God's law and God's love. I'm gonna show you this. How was this supposed to be governed, God's law and God's love? This letter is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. The word of God is God's law and the testimony of Jesus, can you say it with me, is God's love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, God's love, Jesus. God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's law is God's word, it still applies. God's love is Jesus Christ, are you with me? You got to know this when you're reading this, we are talking about a generation that not only first hand experienced the resurrection of Christ Jesus, but also watched the church flip the entire world upside down by preaching the gospel and making disciples of Jesus. Everywhere they went, they made disciples of Jesus. So when John and these churches hear these words, they cherish them and they abide it in them. And it behooves us that we do the same thing. This isn't John's speculation or some conspiracies coming up. Sure, there will be signs and things described that were completely impossible for the people of that time. Again, I tell you, they still believed it wholeheartedly. Yet they are more relevant today and we doubt them more. We're cynical about it. They blasted the silver horn in Jerusalem last Friday for Rasha Shana.

You might be wondering, why is that important Pastor Rod? Well, I'm not biblically illiterate and I know my scripture. That tells me that it is the first time in hundreds of years that trumpet has been blown and it signifies that they're about to start sacrificing animal sacrifices in thousands of years for the very first time in Jerusalem. At the end of the book, a few chapters later, guess what happens? There's sacrifice of animals. So you tell me to tell me the first century Jews didn't see sacrifices of animals. Now today, we're about to see it and we have more doubt today. We need help. We need help. And the help you need is spiritual help. Your heart needs to change. Your heart has been hardened. Your heart, like Paul says, has been veiled, hardened to the truth of God. And I want to tell you that this entire sermon series is all about knowing the truth of God. It is a revelation of Jesus from Jesus. That means that the word that he gives us is of hope, faith, love. And more importantly, it's victory. Plain and simple, the entire letter is revealing to God's people his church the followers and disciples of Jesus Christ about the truth of Jesus and his church. We will explore some things along the way that are catastrophic and troublesome. I'd love to tell you that we're going to be raptured before tribulation. Scripture is not clear on that for me and I'm not going to teach something that is not clear to me. Some other fool can go and get on a pulpit and double down and stick his heels down on something he's not sure of just because some idiot a hundred years ago decided to write it in a book. I am not. I'm going to go on scripture.

and victorious church, amen? The word says that the follower of Jesus, even when we die, we shall live. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life and whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And that's what's important. So now, what do we do with this letter? What do we do with it? What do we do with all this that we've just learned? What do we do with all this information that we read in this letter? What exactly did Jesus intend for us to do? Well, I'm gonna show you that it's right there in those three verses. Blessed is the one. Jesus wants you to be blessed. And I'm not saying that some prosperity gospel stuff. He does want you to be blessed. He wants you to be blessed in the city. He wants you to be blessed in the fields. He wants you to be blessed when you're going. He wants you to be blessed when you coming. But here, he wants you to be blessed in the valley. And he wants you to be blessed in the mountain top. He wants you to be blessed in poverty. And he wants you to be blessed in prosperity. He wants you to be blessed when you're sick. And he wants you to be blessed when you're healed. He wants you to be blessed.

Plain and simple, this letter is a letter of a revelation of a blessing. In fact, the prophets of the Old Testament, even though they had to deliver a difficult word, they were unveiling what they were given, they felt they were blessed, even though some of them were torn in half. That's part of the Bible we don't like to read. Jesus said himself, the prophets came and prophesied, and you killed them. Who was he talking to? The Pharisees. The Pharisees, do you know what the Pharisees had? Watch this. The Pharise had all, they had all the knowledge of the Word of God and did not have the Spirit of God. In other words, they had God's law, but did not have God's love. And you can't identify. You can't be unveiled unless you have both. Even though at the time it may have not felt that way, it was every single one of those prophecies, they felt it was blessing, because every single one of those prophecies, you know what it did? It gave us Jesus. So the Scripture says, praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual, say it with me?

Blessing in Christ. I keep asking the God that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and, oh my God, so that you may know him better. It ain't so that you get a seven-figure salary and so that you know him better. And when you know him better, you will be well here. You will have knowledge, you will have vision, you will have discernment. In fact, I want to tell you something. This is something I learned in seven years school. In the book of Revelation, there are seven blessings. It's funny how no one teaches that, right? There are seven blessings throughout the book of Revelation. Okay, today we encounter the first one, but it has three parts, today's blessing. So the first thing you need to do is, bless is the person who reads it, allowed. We, we, when I read it, we were blessed. Read it, study it, meditate on it, journal it, write it on the tablets of your heart. Keep it in your mind, on your lips, day and night. This is why, this is why we encourage you, you got to breed your Bible, you got to get up in the morning. Don't leave, men, I know you're busy. I know you work a long hours. But bro, let me tell you something, if you was a Roman soldier and you had to go to the field of war, right?

Would you take a dull sword with you, or a sharp sword with you? Because some of y'all are getting up, and the enemy is waiting for you outside your doors. And if your sword ain't sharp, if you ain't got the word of God and you, if you ain't been prayed up, if you ain't praised up, I'm gonna tell you something, you're easy pickings. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. That is in Jeremiah 31, 33 and Hebrews 8, 10, 8, 10. Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart, Proverbs 3, 3. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Maybe that's your problem. You have not stored up the word of God enough in your heart so that you might not sin. And so you go out in the world and it's easy. 'Cause she's fine. Let's keep it 100. She's fine, but that ain't your fine. Beauty is beauty. Beauty is beauty, right? Hey, look, I know he's sexy. I know it. I know it. Look, he got a six-pack. This profile says Jeremiah 29, 11. Hey.

[ Laughter ] Stored up in your heart so that you might not sin. Blessed is the person who reads the word of God for they will see revelation as an encouragement. And they will see revelation in every word that they read of the word of God. But walk to the one who doesn't, for they will feel the pains of trial. And tribulation. Maybe this word is for some of you right now. Because every time you have a trial, a problem, or a tribulation, you feel God's out to get you. Whoa to you, because you don't have the word of God in you. Now, let me tell you something, this is important because we don't live in the first century. And the sands of time are running out. The signs, I keep sight of the times. Y'all think the straight of her moose is about Iran having nuclear weapons? It's biblical, baby. It's biblical. It's already been written. You just got to know your word. It's in there. Keep watch. Blessed is the one who hears it. I love this part. Blessed is the one who hears it. This is why you should prioritize Sunday morning. Let us not forsake the gathering of the people. You need to be in church.

Eat church. Hey, come to the 930 service before you go hang out with the family. I know some of y'all got family got a bit. Tell them, I can't start my week without the word of God. I need to hear the word of God. I need to be in the presence of God. I need to be because I'm tired of doing life the way it was. Hey, look, night of worship. Look, we have plenty of night of worship. I know there's not a lot of, but every song we sing is biblically accurate and it fills up. It's the word of God. When we sing it out with all the angels and everyone in the place, there's something supernaturally happens where we're encouraging and we're straight than Tuesday night. Pray, you're having a rough week. Say, you know what, I'm canceling Tuesday night. I'm going to Tuesday night. Even if I have to hear other people pray, I'm going to sit in the presence of God and I'm going to hear the word of God. Well, you need to be in a connect group. You know what I heard? I heard this morning that we had more people in connect groups during our summer season than we have now. Come on, I know that we need to be in connect group because that's how you're going to hear the word of God. That's all we do. We don't have, listen, we don't have connect groups that bowl. That's out of the churches. They're not worried about the Jesus coming back.

We are. We're not just worried about Jesus coming back. We're preparing for Jesus coming back. And we're trying to get every person that doesn't know Jesus to know Jesus so they can wait with us. Are you with me? This is about discipleship. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10, 17. You need to hear the Word of God. You can't get it from your parents, young adults. It's time to grow up. I know your parents got faith and I know they pray for you. And that's good. But you need your own faith. Listen, some of y'all, you got to pray in grandma. So you still out there playing around, taking connect group, not serious, not reading your Word. Listen, your grandma can't do this for you. Some of you, you need to hear this. Your wife can't do it for you. Your wife can't do it for you. The sole mandate of the church is to make disciples. The first thing Jesus told his very first disciples were, "Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of people, disciples." In fact, I want to clarify any misgivings. I'm not saying that I'm going to teach you how to live a blessed life, the powerful life, a life without trouble or pain. Those are false gospels because Jesus was clear on this matter. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow

him, Matthew 1624. The Word of God is medicine to our broken world. Proverbs 4, 20 through 22, Proverbs 17, 22, Psalms 107, 20, all tell us His Word is healing. Jesus said things like, "Get up, take your mat, and walk." He told people, "Don't be afraid." He told people, "Be clean." He told people, "Be freed from your suffering." I think many of us need to inscribe those truths in our heart today. Someone, he said, "Get up. It's time to get up. Stop blaming your pain. Stop blaming your past. Stop blaming your sin. Stop blaming and wallowing in your victim mentality. Get up. The last thing is, blessed is the one who keeps it. Anyone can remember a verse. Anyone can memorize a verse. Anyone can use a single verse, but only a disciple keeps it. Only the faithful keep it, in the good days, in the bad days. I love what King David says. I will exalt the Lord at all times." Let me tell you something about King David. He had some really tough days. He was an adulterer. He was a murderer. He lost the son. His son raped his daughter. The other son murders the rapist. Then the son tries to overthrow him, and even in those days, you know what King David said,

"I will exalt the Lord at all times." You know why? Because he kept the word in him. What it means to keep it, it means to practice what it says. You have to put into practice what God is revealing to you in Scripture and in your prayer time. You know how many times I've heard, "Oh, the Lord told me," and I didn't listen. Whoa, to you. Now there's grace in that, but whoa, to you. You're creating problems for yourself. If anyone that knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is a sin for them. James 4 17, you want to know why we're so afraid of the lives. You want to know why we aren't growing. You want to know why you have resentments instead of forgiveness. You want to know why you judge people. You want to know why you're stagnant. You don't do what you should. That's why. I love you too much, not to tell you that. Oh, that's not you. You don't have an issue. You listen to God every time. You do what he says all the time, huh? Do you? Pastors? Leaders? Well, that's incredible because Paul says in Romans 7, "That which I want to do, I do not do, and what I want to do, I do not do." My God, you're more powerful than Paul. What a mess we live in.

This is the reality. We live in Paul said, "Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me." Paul is telling you, "Hey, this is real." For in my inner being, I delight in God's heart, but I see another law that's working me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that worked within me. Who will rescue me from the body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, Paul says, who delivers we through Christ Jesus our Lord. Come on now. [APPLAUSE] And Christ gave you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you, to guide you, to give you discernment, to give you conviction, and conviction doesn't feel like offense, conviction doesn't feel like condemnation, conviction is what it is, and we turn it into offense and we turn it into condemnation because you're so in love with that sin, if you simply yield, you know what that means, just give the way to Him. He will tell you what to do. You know what this is called? Obedience, not by force, not like the religious churches like, you know, they took the offering. You know, religious churches, Brenda, I'll tell you, let me see your W, too. You ain't never going to get your ass, oh, yeah. Am I right? They got to show you, they got tithing boards, yeah, and it shows you, at the bottom, who's not tithing, that's by force. I want you to yield to the Spirit of the living God because He does a much better job. He does a much gentler job. He is more graceful. He moves more, but His convictions are powerful and they may not be comfortable and they may not be convenient, but can I tell you, it may not be what you wanted. It may not be what you planned. Some of you have been convicted.

I love talking about this because I have several couples that I've married this way. I've preached on people shacking up and born again and I've buried a bunch of, right there in that hallway, out there in the foyer, out there, you know, signing marriage licenses. And I love that about our church because there are people that are yielding to the only Spirit and then there are some of you in here living in sin. And you know, "Oh, I'm going to do it right," and we're practicing celibacy, but y'all know when two pretty people get together, right, and they can't keep their hands off each other. You know, I've been there, come on now, because you want or have a plan in your mind and the whole time God is saying, "Bro, if you just grow some nuts and stop doing things the way you want to, and you follow me, I will bless you 50, 60, 70 years of marriage, but you're messing up. You're blocking your old blessing. Blessed is the one who keeps it. Don't get it twisted. I believe anyone who reads the Word of God, hears the Word of God and keeps it, may have to make some difficult decisions, but I also believe it's protection. Watch this, it's provision and it is prosperity. I can prove it to you. You see, I live by this Word of God, I trust that whole heart of it, every last word. Some of you are struggling financially, I get it, I understand, I've been there. In fact, the first two years after I came out of that rehab tool and have miles away from here, me and my family, you know what we did to save money? We stayed our butts at home. We drove very little and we ate spaghetti and rice and beans just about every night to pay our bills. But you know what? It didn't change. It's the moment I found the church that God told me, "This is your church." And I read Malachi 310 that says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this," says the Lord almighty and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there will not be enough room to store it. My life changed. Now, I didn't do it for the blessing because I still had hard days ahead. I did it because I was convicted. I did it because I was grateful that he had brought me out of that rehab and I wasn't relapsing, I wasn't craving a single conviction brought me out of poverty. You know what the part I left out on? I owed $1.5 million and I owed the IRS $98,000 and in two years I might ate spaghetti and rice and beans, but you know what? I didn't have to pay the $1.5. I restored my credit and I How? I put that into practice. I'm going to say this, and I need you to hear my heart. Some of you say I can't afford to die. I'm a single mom. I'm living paycheck to paycheck. You don't understand. My wife hates it when I say this, because she's got a lot of mercy for people. It is my conviction. After I read this and after I pray, you cannot afford not to die. The sooner you trust God with your finances, the sooner you will see that He is going ahead of you. The Bible, the Word of God tells me so. And by the way, we're going to start showing you testimonies of people that have come out of departivity strictly on a tithing truth and conviction.

Lastly, I want to remind you with the Lord God, I want to leave you with this. That what the Lord God told Joshua when he was delivering the people of God into the Promised Son of Canaan. You know, by the way, the land was filled with giants. It was filled with enemies. It was filled with people, cannibals, and wickedness. But he tells Joshua, you're going to go in there. Now imagine God sending you into a place full of flying bullets. And he tells you this, keep this book of the law always on your lips meditated on day and night so that you may be careful to do everything in it. Be careful to do everything in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. I know the end of that story. Joshua conquered the land. He slayed the giants. He wiped out the cannibals, right? In fact, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God in Obey at Luke 8, 11, 28." Let us encounter the revelation of Jesus from Jesus with a new set of spiritual eyes. And as we learn each week, let our lives be blessed. But more importantly, when we read it, when we hear it. And for you today, you keep it. For those who choose to cherish these words will truly live victorious lives. Would you stand with me this morning? I've got my prayer partners coming up here.

I want to be able to pray if you're one of those people struggling through finances. Let them pray over that. I believe God's on the move today. I think He's doing something powerful. I think He's going to honor not just the Word, but His promises to take care of you. I think He wants to show you that He will bless you. And with every head bound, every eye closed, no one looking around the room. I'm going to give you an opportunity today to say yes to Jesus. What you're saying yes to is that Jesus is the Son of God, that He lives, suffered, and died for your sins. And all you have to do to receive the salvation of Jesus Christ is that you believe that not only did He die for your sins, but He rose from the dead on the third day. And when you believe this truth, you are risen back to life. If that's you, I want you to shoot up your hand real quick. Shoot up your hand so I can pray for you. Shoot up your hand, yes, Lord Jesus, yes. That's it, that's it. Let them go up, let them go up. Father God, we thank you today for the Word. We thank you that you're revealing truth to us, that you're revealing conviction. But most importantly, I pray a blessing over these people as they read here and keep your Word this week.

You speak to them so they can see that you truly are a blessing, Lord, and Savior. Church, can we thank God for His message today? That He does want us to live a blessed life. Listen, before you leave,