Priests and Kings | Rodrigo Vargas

What's good, Houston, Texas, let me hear you out there, come on now. What a wonderful day to be in the house of the Lord. Listen, if this is your first time, like Pastor Sarah said, you are our special guest, but more than that, I believe you're an answered prayer. For we always pray for God to bring us those people that are searching for the truth, found in his gospel, and in the name of Jesus. We union Houston began as a church 10 years ago, and we exist to connect people to God with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel says, and this is our culture, that regardless of your past, regardless of your present problems, amen? And regardless of what doubts may weigh in our hearts, Jesus loves you right where you are, and loves you too much to leave you where you are. So I believe that today God is moving mountains, that God is breaking strongholds. I believe today He's breaking chains. I believe today there's a shift in the atmosphere, amen? I believe and I prophesy that today someone walked in one way and will walk out another today. You will increase in authority and in power, amen? This includes all of our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated and watching us through the prison, through the pando happening. You need to use it, can you help me welcome our union prison campus?

I need you to hear that. Listen, we can't see you, but you're never out of our hearts. The end is our sermon series where we're walking very slowly through the book of Revelation. I think we're walking slowly, but we're also walking through the most important part of the book of Revelation, the very beginning because it sets the tone for the rest of the book. We've been learning that the end isn't just about how the Bible ends. It's also about Jesus revealing himself to His church, but also today I'm gonna start unraveling. He's preparing us for His return and ultimately listen to this. This is the truth for today. Ushering a new beginning, an eternal kingdom where we rule and reign along with King Jesus. Can I get an amen? That's the book of Revelation is that we rule and reign, but before we rule and reign, we gotta prepare. Before the day Jesus calls His church to be ready, He prepares us to be ready. That's one of the central themes, central messages of the book of Revelation to prepare for His return. He not only calls us, He prepares us

because He loves us. He gives us eternal truths to guide on how we are to live today in light of this eternal kingdom. Now last week, I told you that to understand the book of Revelation, we have to read it with the right lens. Am I right? You remember I talked about my 10 millimeter lens? Well, I wanna show you this first pick is taken with a regular 35 millimeter lens. And you can see it, you can see the subject. It's my boy Josh, he's singing worship, I believe. And you can see clearly what we want you to see. But this next pick is my 10 millimeter lens. And this is, you're gonna see the same picture taken from the same spot, but you see a fuller picture. That's what we've been doing. That's what we'll continue to do today, amen? When we see revelations with this 10 millimeter lens, with the right lens, it's not a book, it's not a book meant to produce fear and doom, but rather a fuller picture of Jesus writing us a love letter in which he reveals himself and prepares us for his return and what comes next. So without further ado, let's reread last week's verses. Revelation's chapter one, verses four through eight. As always, would you stand as we read the word of God in the house of the Lord, amen? John, Jesus is telling John right to the seven churches that are in Asia, graced to you in peace from him,

who is, who was and is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him, in all tribes of the earth, will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega Jesus tells John, who is and who is and who is to come, the Almighty. Father God, we thank you for today, and we thank you for this letter. We thank you for what you're about to reveal to us. In the mighty name of Jesus, I ask the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the living God, to move in this room, to be the teacher, the edifier, the convictor, the one that brings us out from darkness and reveals to us the truth in light of your word. Holy Spirit ministered to those that are carrying heavy burdens, administered to those who are suffering, ministered to those that are feeling pain and grief, Lord, today we ask the great surgeon, the great physicians to be in the room and to spiritually operate on our souls. We need to hear from you, we desire to hear from you, we yearn to hear from you, Holy Spirit, would you speak to us and more importantly, help me deliver this message that you have impregnated my spirit with. And I pray this in Jesus mighty name and the church said, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, you may be seated. Well, we couldn't do it last week, so today we are going to complete our sermon, and today this week we're going to go ahead and complete the statement. I'm talking to you from the title, priest and kings. Heavy emphasis on the king part is our main focus today. Last week we saw that in verse 6, Jesus didn't just save you, he commissioned you. And these words come right out of Exodus 19, 6, where he says, "I have made you priests

and kings." This is not a new concept Jesus is introducing, he is reminding the new covenant believers that his promise is still true, that his commissioning is still, and in fact, before you were ever called royalty, you were love and free. You were given a crown that was bought with his blood. And so Jesus Christ, this is important for today's message, and Jesus Christ is Lord and King. What does that mean, especially you that grew up in church? We have this idea, oh, Jesus is Lord, right? Yes, King Jesus, and we love it in the worship songs, and that's amazing, but what does that actually mean? Let me give you some theological scriptural background to what that means, Lord means he is master, that he is your master, that he is the owner of your soul and your lives, that you are, take this out, a slave to Jesus. I can prove it. Paul so many times when he writes, he says, a bond servant to Jesus, a slave to Jesus. He understood what it is to have a Lord, a master. Now why is he a master? Why is he your owner? Well, he bought your rights back from Satan. That's why. See, this is scriptural. If you're hearing the gospel for the very first time, I need you to understand what exactly Jesus did. The gospel says the good news is Jesus went willingly to the cross and he died and he shed his blood, but it was to purchase you back from the enemy. Well, why do you have to do that? Because the enemy owned you. In fact, if you don't know Jesus and you haven't fully given your life by faith to Jesus, you're owned by Satan.

And here's the truth. This is the hard truth. Your destiny without that step of fully surrendering to Jesus, you end up in eternal damnation. But Jesus has already done the work. He's already gone to the cross. He's already shed his blood. He's already resurrected. He's already paid it in full. Now this is called salvation. And the only way to get there is by faith. You're giving grace by faith. But then there's an interesting thing that we learned last week and I repeat this week. He commissions you. He commissions you so that you no longer live the way you got into the mess where Satan owns you now that he is your master and he is merciful and he is graceful and he is He is commissioning you to walk out as a disciple in the kingdom of God. And you don't wanna know what that's called. That's called sanctification. Now sanctification, that's a heavy word that just means you've been set apart. You've been marked as holy. You know, so many times people give their lives to Jesus and they say, my life got worse. I wanna tell you why your life got worse and the moment you gave your life to Jesus is because you've made Mark totally and the enemy wants what he wants owned. But today I'm going to equip you. I'm gonna undergird you.

I'm gonna equip you with some weapon that's gonna take back the power and you're gonna be able to fight back and protect yourself. I don't want you to ever, I don't want us to ever forget who we belong to. I belong to the one who commissioned me because he is eternal, he is full of the spirit and he is already victorious. In fact, the scripture says here is that he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Now I want you to put up in in that statement where it says the ruler of the kings of the earth. Now we spent our time on that first word, priests. A priest is sanctified. He's set apart for a sacred purpose. Holiness isn't isolation, it is a consecration. It's not pretending to be perfect. It's becoming broken bread and poured out wine for the one who is holy. We said that a priest doesn't serve his comfort, he serves his God, you remember that? But remember I left off with the problem that we have most Christians leave like neither. Neither a priest or a king. Priests are never ever casual about holiness and I don't know what's happened in the West, but we are casual about our holiness. We deem in our minds that it's okay to come to church, read scripture and continue to smoke weed, pop pills,

drink, fornicate, masturbate, watch support, gossip, lie, cheat, steal, you name it. It doesn't work that way. In the Old Testament I told you, you walked into the holy of holies, you walked into holy, you weren't ready, you were zapped. Well in the New Testament, we don't get that, but I do think something happens. You zap your intimacy with Lord. You zap the authority he's already given. You use that the power you have in scripture. You zap your own morality. Now I read to you from a letter that Peter wrote, his first letter, and in the second chapter in verses nine through 10, he says he's telling the church, but you are a chosen race. Now I chose this version, this particular translation, because in most, not most, not most popular translations, this, the word that is said is you are a chosen nation. Or a chosen people, am I right? But I did some study, and the actual Greek word is he says, and I need you, everyone, everyone, and we're a very diverse church, and I love this, right? But so many of us are of ethnic backgrounds, and we're so proud of our heiresses that we forget, that we've been chosen a race. And that race has nothing to do with where your great-granddaddy or where you're laying from or your motherland is, it has nothing to do with it. You were chosen, you were chosen to be a race.

This is ground shifting, this is paradigm shifting, because this takes you away from all the things that the world says about you, your ethnic background, your race, your creed, your traditions, and it puts you right back into a royal priesthood. This is the next phrase, he says, a royal priesthood, a consecrated people group nation, a special people for God's own possession, which has been, I put there, purchased. See, for you to have a possession, you need to have purchased that possession, am I not right? So you've been purchased, and we just gave you biblical theology that you've been purchased by the blood of Jesus, and if he is Lord and Master, and you're his bond-serving, you're owned by him, then you're a special person. You're God's own possession, a special people. It's interesting to me that these days there's so much conversation about God's people. When I read scripture over and over, whether it's the book of Revelation, or Ephesians, or Galatians, or 1 Peter's here, second chapter, I see that the most important people on earth so that you may, so that you may. In other words, you have a choice. He's not forcing you. I learned this watching a show that I'm not going to recommend because it's not appropriate, probably. But it's a famous book, I will just leave it at that.

And in the book, the whole book's thesis is written on a word, an Old Testament word by the word Tim Shell. And Tim Shell has this idea that you have the choice to choose good or evil. In fact, when we talk about Cain and Abel, Cain had the choice, and he made his choice from his free will. This is what we're talking about here is that you may proclaim the excellence. In other words, you have the choice to not proclaim or to proclaim. And I hope today that you all walk out with the choice of, I shall proclaim, that wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous life. Now watch this, once you were not a people at all, but now you are God's people. Again, he reiterates that we are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Today I want to deal with our kingship. While I was in Palestine, I had dinner with Pastor Nihod of Immanuel Evangelical Church of Bethlehem, the very birthplace of Jesus. There's a church there that is very much like ours. And he told me something that impacted me in a very powerful way. This is a man who has a very high apostolic anointing, and he sat there sternly and told me, this is a spiritual battle, like with his finger on the table.

Israel and the present government does not want us to obtain this land and live in this land. And the rest of the religions that are out here wish to get rid of us. So we understand something that we wish the West would understand. We cannot afford to leave our homes without the full armor of God. Church, I believe that is one of our biggest challenges today. We not only leave the house without our armor. Many of us are living without a single piece of the armor on. Now, the key word here is full armor. You need all of it. And when we live without having the full armor, not even a single piece, we begin to make bad decisions. And let me tell you what bad decisions breed. They breed consequences, suffering, pain. And then we come to church on Sunday because we have an amazing community and we have an amazing worship. And we have amazing people who have the power of prayer. And we think a Sunday in worship with Pastor Rod preaching or Pastor Sarah preaching or Elsie leading worship or Ty leading worship or Devin leading worship or Kenneth leading worship and brother, Pastor Fabian praying for me, a pastor Edith praying for me. It's going to fix it all. Oh, we expect someone in our connect group because they're so generous and so loving to bail you out yet again.

I'm going to tell you the truth here. I came today to tell you the truth. You need your own armor. You need your own armor. Paul, in fact, says put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes. I'm going to tell you something here, a very simple theology when it comes to this Bible verse is you cannot take a stand against the devil if you don't have the full armor of God. I know you got a sword. I know you got a shield, but you ain't got to help it. And you ain't got the shoes of peace. You cannot stand here. Let me tell you something. This also doesn't say that the devil doesn't have schemes for you. In fact, it insinuates that he does have schemes for you and the only way to stand is to weld the full armor of God. Now, Paul goes on to describe every piece. You can go ahead and read it on your own. And he tells us to pray on all occasions and listen to how he ends this exhortation. Please pray for me. Please pray for me I make the right business decision pray pray for me that that he you bless my business well can I ask you something that oftentimes we ask for these things and we haven't stewarded what he's already given us but pray pray pray pray for my business that I just started well you were to like to work when you worked for someone else well what makes you think God's gonna

bless your business? God God bless my finances but you don't talk well why would God bless your finances if you don't trust them with your first attempt? Listen Paul says please pray for me but he doesn't ask for a promotion he doesn't ask for elevation he doesn't ask for support he doesn't ask for provision he doesn't even ask for protection here's what he says that whenever I speak the words may be giving me that I may fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel that he is asking to be prayed for that he is preaching the gospel fearlessly fearlessly and listen he ain't in America he isn't a place in the land in Asia where it is hostile towards the gospel full of pagan we we we have all kinds of criticisms about oh my god I can't believe they're doing this I can't believe they're doing that have you ever for once thought what it was like to live in these pages and what it was like and then he says for which I am an ambassador in chains pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should that's the word ambassador now he's chained to a Roman guard and Paul calls himself an ambassador of a greater kingdom here he says in therefore we are ambassadors for Christ this is the second time this is used okay God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20 a king or a queen under the king has nothing to prove and nothing to fear ambassadors find their greatest fulfillment and joy in living out there God given purpose and mission representing Christ here's what we're talking about kings are ambassadors called to represent and not to rule over ourselves he made us a kingdom of kings and queens that means you carry royal authority listen to my heart very carefully a king or a queen that serves under the king represents his sovereign they are not free to act like they want to act listen to me listen to me people that they are not free to act out on emotions on feelings on your opinions that they are not free to act like the rest of the world they are not free to do that they shouldn't speak they shouldn't talk feet feel and most important they shouldn't live like the rest of the world he says later on in first Peter 2 a peculiar people you know what that means it means that you're a little bit different they represent what says the ruler of all kings is that not what Jesus says and revelations one that he is the ruler of all kings on earth he is the king of king and the lord of lords he later on reveals that title of himself so the question i come to you today is are you representing your sovereign that purchased you back from death and hell

in a manner worthy of royalty and we all have areas that we need to show up because this person an ambassador doesn't build their own throne they they don't build their own empire they don't build their own business they don't of the one who sent him. In fact, Ephesians 1 says that this authority is a measurable power far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and above every name that is invoked in the present age and in the age to come. So this is where I have to be honest with you, where I see as a pastor, as a leader in God's church, as a person that's traveled to the Middle East, been in different places in the world, Honduras here. Some of us are way more political than you are personally, let alone royal. We say more publicly about our politics or what politics were against than we do about our royal bloodline. I want to tell you something I changed how I think. I want to tell you about a man I met in Egypt. He was assigned to be our driver to drivers around. His name is Emile, a brother in Christ and wonderful human being. As we were driving, I need to give you some context here. You know, in the Middle East, they have a very unique culture. Anytime they get a president, right, they're going to post up pictures of them everywhere. I'm sure you saw this during the Iraq war Saddam's picture everywhere. That's not just dictators. It's wherever their president is. They put, they slap him around and he wears a suit and he always wears sunglasses and he faces this one. I don't know what he's looking at, but I guess to the future, right, when they take a picture of him and I couldn't understand what the words were saying, but I was like, that must be the president. That must be the president. It's not said, hey, I see, I keep seeing these posters and this man all over the cities with these fresh Carrera shades and I asked him, is this the president? He said, yes, he is a good ruler. Hold up, hold up, hold up with me. Ruler. He literally used the word ruler. Now, I was trying to wrap my head and I let my mouth do a little bit, I would go a little bit faster than my mind could process what he was saying. So I asked him the dumb American question. What party is he from? True story. And then he looked at me and said something I can't get out of my spirit. He said, only you Americans worry about such things. As a follower of Jesus Christ in Egypt, we are not afforded that. We are either given a good ruler or a bad ruler. And we pray for both so that his church may continue to grow despite who is ruling. Church, let that mess your spirit up and let you walk out of here. Different.

Different means you are not going to continue to do what you used to do before you walked in here. A believer with seemingly no power, no vote, to change anything, no political is fear than most of us. Because his allegiance has already been settled. He didn't need the ruler to be his guy. He just needed Jesus to be Lord. Now, let's go back to the text because Emil was standing on a gospel truth that we read. He believes Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth. Understand that when John wrote this letter, it was 95 A.D. when the Emperor Domitian who demanded to be addressed as Lord and God. Okay. Yet John here writes that Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth. Can I tell you what that's called? He was imprisoned for treason. He's on Patmos, imprisoned for that sentence of treason. Most of us because of political biases couldn't authentically write that because it isn't what we've been living out. Jesus over the Empire and they did it, let me tell you something, it wasn't 10 years, it wasn't 20 years, it was 300 plus years, they did this. They would die before they would call Caesar Lord. Yet here we are free, comfortable and we've completely reversed that and flipped that the wrong way upside down. What we've done is we wrap our gospel in a flag or a party. We tried to isegit, listen to this, isegit political views into Scripture instead of exegit the way you're going to vote. We are louder about our politics than our Jesus. We give Caesar what belongs to Christ. Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you, I sit on the sidelines and observe, okay? For all my people that are on the right, previous to 2024, from 2020 to 2024, all you did was ridicule a man who was frail dying every day. His mental capacity wasn't there and instead of praying for him, you sent out memes, you called him out, you incapacitated, this that in the third, right? And I'm gonna be real with you, I'm gonna be straight up with you, okay? Instead of just saying I don't agree with her politics, the next candidate, what we did was made fun of her salads of sentences that made no sense. Just say I don't understand what she's saying and you move on, but you chose the pig. Today, we live in a different atmosphere. It doesn't matter what this man does. It doesn't matter what this man does. This man may have bring up, I don't know, some cure for cancer, be like, oh I'll bet you there's

something behind that. Listen, listen, this is who we are. That's the reality, is we're idiots. And I think Jesus is looking down, be like they don't get it. I'm gonna tell you something I prayed when I was in Palestine and I hope I don't decimate the church when I tell you this. Me, Pastor Steve and the V. Paul Buchanan, which is our bodyguard, we sat there on the mount of of temptation at the foot of it at the Jericho walls and we said Lord, send us good old-fashioned persecution because we need to see this church grow. And that's what I believe we need. We need good old-fashioned persecution. We need some of our liberties robbed. We need some of our freedoms robbed. I didn't get a single amen for that one. I didn't expect it. I want to tell you something very plainly. The church and his believers should bow to no earthly groan, not left, not right. Now I'm not telling you how to vote, but I will, I also don't want to make a mistake and leave you like not hanging in the air. I'm not voting for anyone that is for abortion. I'm telling you right now, my spirit cannot vote. I don't care who they are. I'm not voting for that person. I don't care what they look like. I don't care what they sound like. I don't care what they dress like. I don't care what their background is. I don't care where they came from. They could be special ed. I'm not voting for them. I'm voting for the one that's going to preserve human life. At the same token, I'm also probably going to vote and consider a candidate that is willing to take away the death penalty. I'm not voting for anyone. I'm being, I'm putting myself out there. I'm not voting for anyone that is pro-Muslim. No one, I'm out. You're racist. Call it whatever you want, but I saw Muslims from all shades and colors back in the Middle East. It ain't got nothing to do with anti-Christ theology. I'm not voting for them. I'm not voting for anyone that is socialist. I'm not voting for anyone that is socialist. You can make a case for capitalism. I'm not saying that I'm pro-capitalist. What I'm saying is I'm not voting for anyone that has a smidgen of socialism. Why? Because I came from a country that socialism was destroyed with. That's why. But I'm all. I don't have a guy to be honest with you.

I have views, biblical views, and values, and I vote on them, and I'm not a fanboy of human beings. What I'm preaching to you is the way you live when Jesus Christ is Lord. The question you have to ask yourself is, who is your Domitian? Who have you called Lord? Who got your allegiance over Jesus and what he deserves? Because I wanna tell you something, your citizenship is not red, and it's not blue. You don't need a green card. You don't need a work pass. You don't need an H1B visa. Our citizenship is in heaven. (congregation applauding) Philippians 3-20 says, "But our citizenship is in heaven, "and from it we await a savior." Do you see how scripture, what did I say? We're waiting for him. This is what we're waiting for, our king to return. My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus says in John 18 to Pontius Pilate. Here's how a king under the king actually lives. They represent three titles. You ready? They're found in verse five. We represent the faithful witness. How do you do that? You testify.

We represent the firstborn of the dead. We carry resurrection life inside of you. And let me tell you something. Resurrection life means you don't continue to live the way you did before you met him. We represent the ruler of kings. So we answer to a higher throne than any throne on this world. We bow to no earthly throne, only to our king in heaven and his name is Jesus. I have a saying, this cross will only come off with my head. I hope one day every single one of you can live your faith that way because that's how these men live their faith. An ambassador has a mandate. Did you know that the ambassador to whatever country of the US is, he represents the president. In this day and age, he represented a king. Now, he has all the authority, listen to how it works. An ambassador has all the authority and power of the president and he stands on for an in fact, at the embassy of a foreign country. You can be in Russia, you can be in North Korea. They have an embassy in North Korea. The moment you walk through the gate past the United States Marine Corps, you are on US soil. The moment you walk in through those doors. Are you catching what I'm saying? But here's what I want for you. The moment you walk in through your doors at your home,

may it be the same thing. May it be the same thing. The ambassador has a specific mission but they never move outside of the mandate. Listen to what I'm saying, is he is free to choose. Remember, we talked about that, but he knows who he represents and he knows the power and authority he wields. So he never steps outside of that. He stays in the mandate. See, for us, the mission is a kingdom mandate to conquer human hearts and make disciples. We do this by preaching the gospel and making disciples. It's the only thing we're mandated to do. That's not my job. My job is to shepherd people, right? To shepherd you, it's all of our calling. It's all of our doings. I cannot do this what I'm doing today without the body of Christ. The body of Christ is an assembly. Let me teach you what the word for that assembly is called. Echlesia, which where we get the word, echlesia. We're an echlesia of priests and kings. Let's put it together. He made you priestly, set your part, set you holy. He made you royal, carrying his authority, but hear me out, Union Houston. This is only effective spiritually when we walk in his word.

[BLANK_AUDIO] I waited three weeks for this thing. Keep these words and you will succeed and prosper. That's what he told Joshua. Guess what Joshua did? Succeed and prosper. Young people. Young people, look at me. Joshua succeeded his parents. He did more than his parents, but you know how he did it? He stayed in this word. I got you all, parents. This is where the holiness that we talked about should start to make sense. Because holiness is never about retreating and hiding. It's never about hiding from the world behind the church walls. It's never about biblical holiness doesn't pull you out of the world. It sends you into it with authority and purpose to serve God, not your interest, to put him on display. Like a city on a hill the scripture says. Here's the whole thing in one line. God never sets you apart from something without setting you apart for something. He sets you apart for something. He sets you apart from sin for the mission. The priest is cleansed as a king or queen. They are sent for what? To proclaim his excellent mercies so that those that watches are not a people can become a people. I told you, we come back to how holiness actually works. So here it is. In the Old Testament, the word for holiness, kadosh, kadosh, in fact, the Holy Spirit in

is called the ruakadosh, the ruakadosh, kadosh. It means to be set apart for a sacred purpose. In the New Testament, that word is hagios. It means a life marked by spiritual purity, moral integrity, and consecrated to God. Under the Old Testament, holiness was demonstrated through outward consecration and obedience. There was a lot of rituals. They had to burn incense, throw ashes, burn cows, you name it. Under the new covenant, this is the beautiful part. You ready? We're made holy through faith in Jesus Christ. Isn't that great? Come on now. We're made holy. We get to live like priests, the kind that used to do all this stuff, obedience and outward rituals. We get to do it by faith. But here's the second part of that. Faith is never passive. It's never passive. Real faith moves. Real faith grows. Real faith obeys. Real faith transforms. Real faith produces fruit. Real fruit in your life will be seen and looks increasingly like the king of kings. We aren't made holy by works, yet genuine faith will always produce a holy work. And the holy work he's commissioned you to do is the great commission. Or go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

That word, therefore, is sitting on the authority of the first before it, because he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So when he says go, he's handing you authority to go do it. He didn't say wait. He didn't say wait till you learn some more. He didn't say wait till you get this right. He didn't say wait till you, he said go. He didn't say go, argue online. He didn't say go and say this. He said to go, and now Pastor Sarah's word, and my word, come together. Because endurance was never the destination, it's the conditioning. You don't put a soldier through root camp so he can survive. enduring God is building a disciple he could send think about those believers in the Middle East a sliver of the population that I shared last week surrounded Palestine is the most pressured place in the world you got Israeli Jewish settlers coming in and kicking you out of your house and you got to pray every day God don't send them my way don't send them my way don't send them my way and yet when they when you drive and you go and the Muslims look at you they look at you with eyes of like man watch out they're not sitting on survival mode they're not waiting for comfort they're not waiting for someone to free them they are on the front lines and you know what they're doing they're preaching the gospel and making the sample whatever it may cost them they're still doing it meanwhile we're free we're resources we're safe we have so many things that we could be doing and we do nothing with it nothing with it you didn't I want you to look at our city Houston is one of the most Hispanic cities in America it is the harvest field for Spanish speaking people all around us who need the gospel in their language to break barriers go therefore to all nations when I see that and God's been pestering me it doesn't always mean get on a plane and buying it plain ticket buy a hotel room go out there sometimes the nations come to us so here's the vision I'm casting over

this house today we're launching a third service you've heard me talk about a Spanish experience won't said vision a fine y'all but I can't take our lap on y'all a room a room where the person who's been sitting in the back translating in their heads for years but they love this place I know we've talked right finally gets to hear Jesus in their own language so that their heart and soul may grow amen now here's what I wanted to tell you this is not a spectator launch this is an ecclesia mandate it's where I need priests and kings to activate and say you know what I need to get involved it doesn't happen without you I need builders I need servers I need givers I need worship people I need a hospitality I need tech people I need prayer partners I need greeters people who will stop consuming and start carrying the authority they've already been given if you've been looking for where your priesthood and your kingship get to put to work this is it this is your field now let me show you the difference that we talked about last week the lukewarm will always consume the lukewarm will always want to hand out the political will always argue there's no way around it doesn't matter then entitled always want to be served but the disciple he goes he serves he gives sometimes out of something they don't even have your holiness fuels the mission your allegiance aims the mission and dying to your entitlement is what finally frees your hands to carry this authority listen to what he says in Acts 1 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses the one who made us priests a king left us with the mission he is a returning king king of kings and lord of lords according to revelations 19 and when John sees them in glory he's wearing crowns I want to show you the three crowns before we leave he's wearing a crown of thorns and according to Matthew 27 29 that word is Stefanos so if your name Stephanie your name is crown the crown he wore for you he's wearing that he's still wearing that the curse of the ground by the way Genesis 3 18 he says that you will work by the thorns well God took a thorns made of Man, I wish I had a church that could celebrate that.

Oh my goodness. We ain't got to wear that crown anymore. The crown of glory. According to Hebrews 2-9, he, Stefanos, same word, crowned with glory and honor. The risen and exalted Christ. The crown he wears now is the crown of glory. And then he's wearing a crown of many diadems. Diademma is the word in Revelation 19. On his head are many crowns. This is the crown he wears when he returns. This is not a wreath. You win. This is a royal crown of absolute reign. He wears thorns so that you could be a priest. He wears glories so that you could be a king. And he's coming back with diadems to rule. And he's bringing with him his priest and his kings with him. I don't know about you, but I want to be in that return. So I don't want to live lukewarm. I'm not going to bow to Caesar. I don't want to sit in entitlement. You know what I want? I want to go represent the king and go into the world and let him know. For that you need a consecration. I've got, if I can give my prayer partners up to the front, I've got three altars. That specific places where you could pray. The first one, if you've never truly given your life to Jesus, I want to do that in just a moment, this is your moment. You've been watching from the outside.

You've been investigating. But I want to tell you that I told you at the beginning of the sermon, the blood of Jesus bought you. And that crown he wears is enough for you right now. And all you have to do is say, I believe Jesus died for my sins. You've been lukewarm, political, entitled, living like neither a priest or a king. Come, repent, and ask God to fill you with the fire. The fire that sets you apart to be an ambassador of his gospel. Number three, if you're ready to stop surviving as a Christian, just existing. And you want to be sent to pick up his mission? This city? If you're feeling like you're being pulled towards the Spanish experience, come and tell one of these prayer partners, and God will send you. Because the question I came to ask you is, will you live as the priest and king? He made you, and will you go and represent him in your workplace, in your homes, in your play places, in your gym, in your coffee shops, on the street you live. Would you stand with me? I need you to bind your heads and close your eyes for just a moment. Just settle your mind. Just silence what we've been thinking. And I want to give an opportunity for that person that has never said yes to Jesus. Jesus bought you back from Satan. For that transaction to take place, I told you in the sermon, all you have to do is believe, but I need to tell you what to believe. You should believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was born in a virgin, and he lived a holy life, pure, innocent, sinless, but he lived, suffered, and died for your sins. He was crucified and his blood was shed, and he was buried, and on the third day he rose again. And when he rose again, he proved that you have new life when you come to Jesus.

So if that's you, why don't your heads close your eyes? Don't want to look it around them. Would you shoot up your hand so I could pray for you? Just shoot up your hand. There you go. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Father, God, we thank you. We thank you for your word, most importantly, we thank you for your spirit. Lord, I gave it all. Now I hand it to you. Would you minister to your people for the reluctant person that wants prayer but doesn't want to be seen getting prayer, Lord, moving them? Just have a move out of the chair, just come and get prayer, because something amazing is going to happen. That stopping them is the enemy stopping them from their future, from their anointing, from their calling, Lord. Jesus thing come on church give God praise of the word of the Lord that is gone forth Hey, prayer partner is gonna be up here as we dismiss just as passion rocks said Don't be afraid to come up for prayer in those three places of altar that he talked about Receiving Jesus and being able to be bold within your faith come up for prayer for those things Until then if you've made a decision for Jesus and seeing yes, we want to know that stop by the connections point here We want to get a free Bible in your hand and clear the next steps of your journey of faith Until then I want to say to me the Lord bless you and keep you may he shine his face upon you May he be gracious to you may he give you peace and show your favor this week God bless you I'll see you next week You You I I

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