Key Ingredients | Pastor Chris Kouba

That song reminds me of Acts chapter 4, verse 12.

Acts 4:12

I want to read it to you.

It says, and there is salvation in no one else.

For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

This isn't like abracadabra, you just speak the name of Jesus and stuff just happens.

That's not what we're saying and not even what we're implying, but make no mistake about it.

If you want to see breakthrough in your life, if you want to see addictions broken in your life, if you want to see the curse of sin that is over your life to be changed, you can't accomplish it by being good.

You can't accomplish it by speaking other names.

It only comes when you speak the name of Jesus.

And the reason is because Jesus came to this earth.

He lived a perfect, sinless, obedient life.

He died on a cross as a sacrifice, not as an example, but as a sacrifice for you, as a substitute for you.

And then the Bible says, we're going to celebrate it corporately in two weeks, that he rose from the dead, thereby defeating the power of sin and the power of death.

And so it allows us to be able to celebrate these six who got baptized and literally visually showed us that we identify with Christ and are united with Him, His death, His burial, and His resurrection.

And we can, as David said, are raised to walk in newness of life.

I hope that you're ready to experience that today.

I don't mean that in a mystical way.

I mean that in the fact that we do believe that you can actually experience life change.

There is hope that can be found in Jesus.

And so today, as we open up his word, I want us to be ready to hear from him.

Before we do that, I want to just add my word of greeting to Pat's earlier.

My name is Chris Cuba.

I get the privilege of being the lead pastor here at United City.

I want to make sure to mention two things to you that are in your seats that you can just hopefully had a chance to see.

The first one right here is this little card that looks like this.

I'm going to be referring to it later in our services, but I just want to go ahead and give you a heads up as to what it is.

It is our desire that we as a church would actively and constantly be praying for people that don't know Jesus.

We believe that that name of Jesus is something that everyone needs to be able to speak and they need to believe and they need to have on their hearts.

And so therefore, we want to ask that you would war with there's an opposition.

The eyes of the world have blinded the minds of unbelievers, is what the Bible says.

And so we want to pray that God would open up their eyes to be able to see the beauty of Jesus like we do.

And so, therefore, what we're going to ask you to do is just to write down the names of people that you know that don't know Christ.

This could be a family member, this could be a friend, this could be a co-worker, this could be somebody that is in school with you in your third period class, whatever it is.

Would you just write down their names and put this in your Bible or in some place where you will constantly see it and be prompted and reminded to pray for them that they would begin to know Jesus?

So we're just going to ask that you do this.

This right here is an invite card that we're going to give to you.

There's more outside in the lobby.

Uh, we have also uh yard signs that we're encouraging you to grab on your way out, as well as a stack of these, and we're encouraging you to give these out to as many people to invite to our Easter services.

We got a lot going on Easter weekend, Good Friday.

We've got a service at 6 o'clock.

Uh we want to encourage you to be a part of that.

It's a special uh Lord's Supper service.

And then Easter Sunday morning, we have three services, excuse me, four services.

We've got 8 30, 10, and 11:30 in English and at 1 o'clock in Spanish.

All right, it's gonna be pretty exciting.

Uh and so help us get the word out, and you can do that by just taking one of these invite cards, not only in your seat, but also out in the lobby and spreading the word about Easter services.

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

I want to take this opportunity to greet all of the men and all of the women at all of our correctional facilities.

We are so grateful to have this chance to bring this message to you.

Pray for us.

In fact, there's an opportunity if you want to.

We've got a special Good Friday baptism service at one of the correctional facilities that's located in Atascasita that we've just partnered with.

Brand new opening door that God has opened up.

We're gonna be doing a baptism service on Good Friday.

So if you're interested in that, contact David Humphrey.

He's gonna be leading out on the way on that.

Pretty exciting how God continues to move.

Our mission statement here at United City is everyone every day crossing every divide to live united in Christ.

Everyone, every day crossing every divide to live united in Christ.

This is not meant to be a slogan, something that maybe you hear and could remember, and oh, yeah, I remember most of that, and eventually you can maybe repeat it as well.

It's not just meant to be something that is on the website there prominently displayed instead.

It is our desire that the mission statement of our church would be the definition of who you are.

You live that way.

That every day you're thinking about how you can cross divides that exist in order to live united in Christ.

This series we've been in called Kingdom Culture.

Uh, we've been looking, the key verses of this are Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, and we've been looking at this passage that's been kind of walking through to us how we are to live, think, and act differently whenever we are part of the kingdom of God.

Romans 12:1

And we are to not be conformed like everybody else, but instead we're to be transformed, we're to think differently.

It's supposed to then lead us to know what to do and to live differently and to accomplish.

Romans 12, 2 says, God's good, perfect, and pleasing will for our lives.

We've talked about what this looks like in many different capacities.

One, how do you relate to people that are inside?

How do we relate to people in the church?

How do we relate to people that are on the outside, those who are opposed to us?

We've talked about how do you relate to authority, those in a in the government, if you will.

We've talked the last couple of weeks, it seems to be this maybe gonna come up that you could have people who believe in Jesus, who follow after him, who claim that he has saved them, who disagree.

How do you deal that?

And so therefore, Romans 14 has helped us know how we live even when there's disagreement.

And this morning in Romans chapter 15, the last teaching portion of the book of Romans, this is the principle that I want you to see today.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

It's this in kingdom culture, you seek unity.

In kingdom culture, you seek unity.

I want to give you this morning five ingredients that are mentioned that, when brought together, help us achieve the unity that God desires.

It's in our name, it's in our mission statement.

This is a big deal for us.

And so, in light of that, how do we actually go about achieving it?

Because when these ingredients are brought together, it allows us to be a place that is not just countercultural, not being conformed but being transformed, but it allows us to be a body of believers that is so attractive to the world they actually want what we have.

Let's begin reading in Romans chapter 15, beginning in verse 1.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

It says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

First thing I want you to write down, the first ingredient in order to achieve unity is this.

It needs to have a welcoming culture.

It needs to have a welcoming culture.

Romans chapter 14, the whole idea was between the weak and the strong.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

We're introduced to that again here in verse 1 of chapter 15.

And the idea is how do these two groups get along?

Both are believers, both have convictions, yet they can also disagree.

This means that at times we're not all gonna get along about everything.

This is important because it shows us that you can achieve unity without uniformity.

You can all be going in the same direction, but you don't necessarily all say the same thing or look the same way or have the exact same appearance.

That you can be different yet still unified, which is good news because whether you realize it or not, we're a bunch of collection of people who are not all the same.

We come from different generations, we come from different backgrounds, we come from different situations and different past stories.

Yet God has allowed in his providence to weave all of these various stories together so that we have conviction, but we know what we do with our convictions.

As Dave talked about last week, what we do is we don't take our convictions and make them primary.

We instead we hold strong to our convictions, but when needed, we allow grace to override those convictions.

We don't give them away, but what we do is we defer.

Just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean that it's always right to do it.

Sometimes you lay aside your freedoms for the sake of something else, for the sake of someone else.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.

Philippians 2:3

Listen to what uh it says.

It says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

You see, the whole goal of this in Romans chapter 15, look at verse 7.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

It kind of leads us to this point.

It says, Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

For the glory of God.

You see, one of the key ingredients for us to live as a kingdom culture is not to think first about those who are here, about how my rights are primary, about how my preferences are what should be, but instead for you to begin to think instead about those who are not here.

How do I welcome people in the same way that I have been welcomed by God?

Let's just think this through a little bit.

If I had to guess at your house, you've got your seat.

If you don't have your seat, maybe your parents have their seat, or maybe your dad has their seat, all right?

They've got their seat at the table, the kitchen table, they've got their seat in the living room, they've got their seat, that's kind of their spot, right?

And if you were to invite someone over to your house and you were trying to be a gracious host, and that person unknowingly sits in your seat, can I tell you what you would not do if you're trying to be a gracious host?

You would not go to them and say, excuse me, you're in my seat.

But you all have your specific spot, and it's gonna be weird if somebody is sitting in your seat, but because you defer to them, because you put their needs over your needs, you instead allow them to sit in quote, your seat, because you know when you have guests in your home, you defer to your guests.

Here's the problem.

Many of you in church, you got your seat.

You got a seat.

You want to know how I know you got a seat?

Because I know when you're not here.

Because you sit in the same seat every single week.

And so therefore, I can look out, and if I don't see you in your spot, if I don't see you in your seat, then guess what?

I know something's up, something's going on there because they're not in their particular seat.

Yet here's the problem.

It's playful and it's fun, but here's where it becomes an issue is all of a sudden when we make our seat so primary that it's more about preserving our seat than it is about being open to guests who may need my seat.

Folks, you know this.

If somebody comes and sits in your seat, here's what you're thinking, man.

I better get her earlier next week so they can be reminded that that is my seat, that is not their seat.

They're not allowed to be sitting in my seat.

It's it's playful and it and it's fun, but let me just give you a couple of practical applications for this.

Don't be the guy that sits on the end of the row.

All right?

Now we're we're packed out in here, all right?

We have people that are gonna come in all throughout the service, and so therefore, we may need some of you to actually serve to help as ushers, to help greet people, to help get people to an open seat.

And so, therefore, if you're sitting there and you've got a bunch of open seats next to you, don't be that guy where you're having to stand there and people are constantly walking over you.

That's not welcoming to guests.

Put yourself in a situation to where you also, if you see someone sitting by themselves, you take the initiative to go over to them and ask them to come and sit with you.

Figure out ways that you can go and meet people who you may not know and interact with them and greet them, knowing that you don't necessarily know their story, but you don't want that story to be alone.

If you're in your group, finding a situation to where you can go.

I would love for this to be said about United City that whenever you come and you visit United City and you're a guest, you leave here saying this, man, those are the friendliest group of people, and I don't know what groups are, but I got invited to four of them.

Where you're just kind of like fighting over, hey, come to my group.

Like you're inviting people to come and be a part of what your group, tell them when it meets, invite them to be a part of that specific ministry.

How about a situation this past week in my group?

We had a guest.

You know what most of us did when that group, that guest walked in?

We just looked at her like, who's that person?

And no one knew who she was, right?

And we just sort of looked at her over and over again.

Can I tell you what it would be better?

Is if somebody goes, if you know that there's a guest, you go and not only meet that guest in your group, but then you walk up and you introduce that guest to all of the other people that they don't know.

Please hear me.

Our desire and goal, and we talk and think about this a ton, is that we at United City, you would come and from the parking lot, although when you walk in the doors, whenever you come and sit down, and whenever you go into your group, and whenever you experience all the ministry of this place, you think it's the most welcoming place that you possibly could be.

But please know this: it is not the responsibility of the staff, and it is not the responsibility of the signage to achieve that.

It's a responsibility of you.

That you would be a welcoming people that creates a welcoming culture.

Let me tell you why this is so important.

Keep reading in Romans chapter 15, go to verse 4.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

It says, For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.

That through, I encourage you to underline this in your Bible, endurance, underline that word endurance.

And through the encouragement, underline that word encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

And encouragement, grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.

The second ingredient of unity is this idea of letting the Bible speak.

Letting the Bible speak.

That welcoming culture I mentioned to you, which is so important, we we kind of use this phrase here at United City that we're better together.

You can probably see in this idea here a phrase we also use quite a bit here, which is the idea of the Bible speaks.

You see, you can be the most welcoming church in existence.

You can have the most incredible greeters in the parking lot.

You can walk in the door and feel welcomed and loved on.

You can have somebody that encourages you to go to where you're seat.

You can have people that walk up to you and they can greet you.

You can go into your group and it can be the warm, most loving, friendly group of people that you've ever been around.

However, if you do all of those things and you do not open up, you do not read, you do not study, you do not sit under, you do not orient your life around the Bible.

Please hear me.

All you are is a very nice club.

And at the end of the day, we have no desire to be a very nice club.

We want to be a church that is about the Bible.

We believe that it should be a welcoming culture because we believe that the unity that that creates allows someone to have the life-changing message of Jesus that is found in the pages of Scripture.

But make no mistake about it, we're not here to give you motivational talks.

We're here to open up God's word to preach it faithfully.

And the Bible says in Acts, the whole counsel of God.

It's important, those two words.

I believe it's so strategic that it uses those because at times in our lives, when it comes to God's word, we're gonna need the first thing, which is endurance.

Now, I'm not saying endurance, like, man, I how much longer are you gonna preach?

How much longer do I have to sit through this?

Like, I gotta endure this.

All right.

Hopefully, you don't feel that to be the case.

What I mean by that is this is that there's certain times when God's word is meant to sting.

It's meant to hurt.

2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, listen to what it says.

2 Timothy 3:16

It says, for all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

What this means is that if you're going to a church and all they're doing is telling you how special that you are, you're going to the wrong church.

Instead, there's times when the endurance of the Bible is meant for our good.

Meaning, this there's times when you're going to be corrected, you're going to be reproved, it's going to be a part of the process of training you in righteousness, which is why you need to make sure those times, whenever you're like, ah, you're kind of stepping on my toes, that you expose a little bit more toe.

That you instead allow the loving kindness of God's word to be something that you endure.

Again, not endure because you're trying to just like gut it out, but instead endure because it is for your good.

Here's the other side of it.

Other times it's encouraging, it's endurance and encouragement of Scripture.

Folks, please hear me.

The promises of God's word are something that you are to glean, that you are to sit under, that you are to listen to because your feelings are gonna tell you one thing.

Your feelings are gonna tell you that anxiety needs to overcome you.

Your feelings are gonna tell you that God doesn't have control, your feelings are gonna tell you all of these lies.

Here's what Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6, or excuse me, verse 8 says it is the Lord who goes before you.

Deuteronomy 31:6

And he will not leave you or forsake you.

Do not fear or be dismayed.

We want to be a church that is built around both the endurance and the encouragement of God's word, holding both equally high in value, recognizing that that is the key ingredient for us.

To let the all of the Bible speak.

Look again with me in verses 5 and 6.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

So when we hear God's word taught and we allow all both aspects of it, what's the result?

That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The third ingredient for achieving unity is we worship like heaven.

We worship like heaven.

You'll hear us say this about corporate worship gatherings.

There's something very significant that happens when we worship together.

Have you experienced it?

I'm just telling you, I I was gone last week.

Uh I was on uh some vacation and had a chance to watch online.

It was awesome.

We I really am very proud of our church and the way that we uh do in terms of our streaming and just the the opportunities that we have for that.

And it was just awesome to be there.

But man, I missed it.

We're baptizing seven people.

K Park's baseball team.

God's doing something so cool at K Park High School right now, it's just absolutely incredible.

Praise God for that.

May it happen over and over and over again at all of our schools.

We baptized uh a uh a football player and A basketball player today in our services from K Park High School.

And may God do that at Summer Creek.

May God do that at Huffman High School.

May God do that at New Caney and Porter.

And just for us just to see the impact and the power of one kid who gets invited to church, who gives his life to Jesus, and then it just boom.

God begins to move.

It's just, it was so great and amazing to be able to see.

But just think about one of the things that we do at the church that is very weird if you really considered it.

If you're not a church person, the fact that we all come together and we all sing is super weird.

Think about that.

You don't do that in any other setting in your life.

Think about that.

Like you may get together, like at your business or something like that, or maybe even at your school.

Like you may all get together and you all hear someone stand up on a stage and they give a performance or they give some sort of speech.

That's somewhat normal, but you never get together in your company and sing together.

Never, you never do that.

Think about that.

Now you may go to a concert at some point, and what do you do whenever you go to the concert?

I went to the rodeo, right?

And so at the rodeo, whenever I was there, they were not there to hear me, right?

Instead, we were all there to hear the performer that was singing out there.

Now, I sang along and other people sang along with them, but at the end of the day, the focus was on their performer performing at the concert.

It wasn't on everybody collectively singing together.

Yet here's what the Bible says: if we know the encouragement and the endurance of the scriptures, the result is in verse 6, look at what it says again.

Together with one voice, we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the result of this is that we all get together and we sing.

There's a couple of things that are worth noting here.

First of all, it's it implies, first of all, that we're together.

Please hear me again.

I was there last week.

I was watching online, uh, and that's great.

And we have put that option in place.

We put a lot of time, effort, and thought to it, and we want to make sure that that option is available to you.

And if you're traveling or if you're finding yourself sick, or if you find yourself physically unable to be here, praise God that you can still be a part of United City by joining us online.

Here's my fear.

Along the way, the online option has turned into a replacement for people.

And let me just tell you, it ain't the same.

Hebrews chapter 10 is pretty clear about this.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

In fact, verses 24 and 25.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Here's what I would say.

If you can physically be here, I would implore you to be here.

I'm not trying to get on to you if you're watching online.

I did it last week.

Please hear me.

It's a great opportunity and it's a great option.

But I would also tell you this I think too often, though, we make our Sunday morning church decision on Sunday morning instead of making our Sunday morning church decision on Saturday night.

And I'm just saying, Sunday morning church is a Saturday night decision.

And we need to rearrange our lives and rearrange our schedules in such a way where we prioritize the gathering and don't let the option of the online replace the gatherings together.

Because here's the thing I was there last week, I was watching online, I was not singing at the top of my lungs like I do when I'm at the service.

Okay?

It would have been weird, it'd have been a little bit awkward, it'd have been different.

But it says here in verse 6 that we are to sing together.

What this means is this is that if you don't know the words, just learn the words and then begin to sing.

How many of you, if you had the opportunity to go in front of the president of the United States or the governor of our state, or you had the opportunity to go in front of some sort of royalty, would go into that meeting with your hands in your pockets like this?

How many of you, if you had the opportunity to be at a very important meeting with somebody who is in great authority in your life, of a principal or somebody who is your boss or some potential great client, and you would show up distracted, you would show up disheveled, and you would show up late.

Yet that's exactly what some of you do each and every week when it comes to church.

It isn't all just about expressiveness, but it certainly isn't not expressiveness.

What I found is that as I engage in worship, my posture helps prepare my heart for what it is that I'm trying to hear.

Yet so many of us are just doing this.

Like, do you really think we're gonna get to heaven and be like, man, this is it's okay?

I mean, the lights are a little weird over there.

What are they wearing?

That's kind of odd.

What is that?

Like getting our phones out and scrolling as though somehow that could be better?

We say this all the time here at United City that everyone has a next step.

And what we mean is that we don't believe anybody's ever arrived.

So let me just ask you when it comes to this topic of worship, what do you need to do in order to align yourself to become more engaged?

I'm not trying to act like you gotta have, you gotta lift your hands and do whatever, but I am trying to say this it's it can't be this.

It can't be this.

How do you engage?

How do you let your heart begin to connect with the fact that we have the opportunity?

No other setting in your life are you gathered around a bunch of people and singing, yet this is exactly what God says He wants from us.

For some of you, it means you need to get here a little bit earlier so that way you're not just ramming that car in as fast as you can in the parking lot and just rushing in here as quick as you can, and it basically takes you a song and a half before you even have your heart settled down.

For some of you, do you need to find yourself a different seat so that people aren't walking past you nonstop and therefore distracting you the entire time as they make their way to their seat?

Please hear me.

It's just as distracting for them as it is for you.

Is it possible that some of you may need to say no to that tournament so that you can say yes to being present with God's people?

Trust me, it's gonna be hard.

But I believe that this is what God wants is that we would fight for the corporate gathering in every single way.

Worship like heaven.

Let's keep going.

Verse 8.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

As it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

And again it said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people, and again praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.

And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.

The fifth ingredient of a church that achieves unity, number four, is making lost people matter.

Making lost people matter.

Paul goes back in my Bible, it's kind of indented here, he's quoting a bunch of Old Testament passages.

We've seen throughout the got the book of Romans that there's this constant discussion about the Jews and the Gentiles and their relationship.

Because ultimately what we found is in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, it says the gospel was first given to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

Romans 1:16

And so this idea is like, how does this kind of thing work?

Because your assumption was that this was a a Jewish faith and you had to become Jewish in order to follow after God.

But but he says that in Jesus he broke down the walls of hostility.

We talked a lot about this in 9, 10, and 11 and really all the way through at the beginning.

And he shows us that basically his heart all along, by quoting some of these Old Testament passages, was that all along his plan was that the Gentiles were gonna be able to be a part of his plan as well.

And so he's showing his heart for the nations by doing this.

That it's not just about the insiders following him, but it's also about those who are considered on the outside following him.

The way that that looks like for us is this we wanna be a church that also is about the nations.

Uh it was mentioned there, Pat said, that we we just had a trip come back from Peru.

We've got another trip that's gonna be going to Brazil.

Our desire and prayer is that 500 people in the next five years would go on a mission trip of some kind.

We've got two groups going this week to Fort Worth.

We've got a church plant that we partner with that's having a preview service, their very first one tonight that we are partnering with.

You're gonna be able to hear from him in the future.

We've got a group that's gonna be going to Las Vegas, not only to work with Haydn, but another pastor as well, another church plant that we're connected to.

We're gonna be taking trips to uh Puerto Rico this summer.

We've got another trip going to Longmont, Colorado, the church plant that's up there.

A new partnership we're gonna let you know about is two church planners in Los Angeles that we're connecting to through Sin Network.

You're gonna hear from one of them this summer on our church planner weekend.

We got plenty of opportunities, is my point, for you to go to the nations.

We have plenty of opportunities for you to be able to go into this nation and to be able to share the gospel.

Let me just tell you where my experience has been when I got some feedback from those that went on the trip to Longmont and those that went on the trip to Peru, they're different.

Because when you prioritize those who are far from Jesus, your heart gets more in line with what Jesus wants.

Which, of course, then begs the question what does he want for you?

This is why I'm asking you to write down the names of people that you know that need to know Jesus.

This is why I want you to prioritize those who are lost.

We say this a lot at United City, and we don't mean this to be offensive, but we certainly mean it to be, we say it to be clear.

The most important people at our church are the next 100.

And that doesn't mean you're not vitally important.

What we found, though, is that whenever you prioritize those who are far from Jesus, who need to have a relationship with Him, you get more fired up than you've ever been before.

We don't believe discipleship and evangelism are competing interests.

What we do, though, see is a lot of churches who make discipleship a great focus at the exclusion of evangelism.

Believe it or not, not all churches want to grow.

I don't understand that.

We instead believe that if you lead someone to Jesus Christ, your heart for discipleship grows up immediately.

That's been my experience.

I'm meeting with a couple of guys right here.

I had the chance to lead these guys to the Lord last year.

And can I tell you it's one of the most exciting things that I have each opportunity to do is to personally disciple these guys that are just now walking with Jesus.

I love them.

I'm grateful for them.

I'm grateful to see how God's moved in their lives.

It's one of the most exciting and thrilling things.

And I long for you to have that same experience too.

And it happens whenever you prioritize the lost.

A lot of churches can do a lot of great things, they can have really good welcoming ministries, they can be really, really good about preaching the Bible, and guess what?

They could care less if anybody lost comes to Jesus.

We don't ever want to be that.

We want to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that is lost people coming to know Jesus.

Romans 10, 13 through 15 says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written?

I love this.

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

That's not talking about me, that's talking about you.

Our mission is clear.

We exist for those who are not yet here.

If you want to join the heart of God, then the way we say it is lost people matter.

Look at the last verse of his teaching section, verse 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The final ingredient that is listed here for a church that is unified is this.

It is hope-filled with prayer.

Hope-filled prayer.

Can you hear the prayer being prayed here?

Fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

He's first of all praying for provision, that God would so fill us up with hope.

It would lead to joy and peace in our believing.

Can I please?

I don't know, I don't know how you could come to United City in the last month and not see the way that God is moving in our baptistry alone and not be filled with all hope and joy and peace and believing.

The fact that 11 girls got saved last night at Girl World.

There is something that is powerful.

Whenever we gather together, we open up God's word, we worship with our voices and sing together in unity, and we allow our hearts and our minds to be so overwhelmed by what God is doing, it leads us to be filled up with all hope and joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

This word abound carries different ideas, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9, other places as well, which basically says this that you're so full, you're like overflowing.

2 Corinthians 8:9

You see, what God desires is for you to be a person who comes to United City and be able to experience the greatness and the goodness of our God so that you walk out of here, and all you're talking about is not United City, but you're talking about the God that United City serves.

Like you're not gonna believe what God can do in your life.

This is what he's done in my life, this is what he's done in my friend's life, this is what he's done in my small group's life, this is what he's done at Gurl World, this is what he's done in Peru, this is what he's done in Longmont, this is what he's doing in all these other churches.

I don't even know where they are, but guess what?

We get to be a part of all of that, and may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

To those that are hurting today and broken, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

To those who need healing, to those who are sinners, to those who have been sinned grievously against, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Do you need Jesus?

Do you need his hope?

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes all across this room?

If you're watching me online, I want to invite you to do the same thing right in the stillness of where you are.

Would you just give me a few more minutes?

Please, no one be shuffling and moving around.

It's just so important.

Do you know that hope?

Do you have that hope in your life?

Can I tell you that that hope fills you with joy and peace?

It doesn't mean everything's perfect, it doesn't mean all the circumstances are just exactly as you wish they would be.

But what it does mean is this is his presence is with you.

And the greatest need that you have, which is your sin, has been paid for at the cross.

Do you know Jesus?

If today you want to enter into a relationship with him, and I want to invite you just to pray a simple prayer of faith.

Dear God, I I want to know you.

If you're joining me online, do the same thing.

Just pray this right where you are.

I believe that Jesus died on a cross for my sins.

He rose from the dead.

And I want his hope.

I want his joy.

I want his peace.

Would you save me?

Would you forgive me of all of my sins?

Continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

If you just prayed that prayer with me and you're in the room in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to stand up.

I'm gonna ask you to come forward.

If you're online, there's a little prompt that's gonna be there.

You see next.

It's the number 55498.

You just text that number, follow the prompt.

Let us follow up with you.

There's some of you that already have a relationship with Jesus, you've already followed after him, but you've allowed so much discouragement, so much bitterness, so much stuff to counteract that.

You're not on mission, you're not following after him, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

And so today, what you need to do is recommit your life.

Say, God, I'm coming back.

I'm coming back to you.

I commit to make the main thing the main thing.

And I want to be about what you're doing, not only here in this place, but I want to be about what you're doing in my life.

Others of you need to come and join United City Church, as you can tell, we're gonna be a church that is on mission.

We believe that God has called us for something so much bigger than ourselves.

We believe He has strategically placed us in a location in an area of Northeast Houston so that we can do great things for the kingdom of God, not for our sake and not for our glory, but all for his name.

And so, therefore, if God is calling you to be a part of this body of people called United City, would you come and would you lead the way today?

Maybe others need to be baptized.

We had two baptized at our last service, these six that are here today.

God is moving in every literal age group of our church.

Man, it was so amazing to see a dad and his young adult daughter getting baptized at our last service.

It was so incredible just to begin to see these girls and to see this players getting baptized today.

Maybe that's your story.

As you can see, we're gonna celebrate what God's doing in your life.

If you've given your life to Jesus, we want you to express it publicly through the testimony of baptism.

Come forward and let us schedule your baptism.

Maybe others need prayer today.

You've got a need that is on your heart that is heavy, you've got an appointment coming up that has been very burdensome to you.

You've got a child that is wondering, you've got a sin issue in your life that you need to confess.

Whatever it may be, our team is here, they're ready to receive you.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments.

Call people to yourself.

Lord, lead people to respond to you.

It's in the name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand up?

And as you stand, our team is up front, ready to receive you online.

You respond there as well.

Come on.

Come on, man.

Keep coming.

Let's just pray together.

Father, we do come before you and we thank you.

We thank you, God, that you're moving in our midst.

God, we thank you, Lord, that you're moving in places like Peru.

You're moving in places like Colorado.

Lord, you're moving like places in our worship center.

God, whether that's last night, whether that's this morning, whether that's tonight, at a kid's event, God, just we thank you.

We recognize, Father, that this is a work of yours.

And so, Father, we we ask that you would do even more.

Lord, I pray that you would allow us as a people to not only be thankful and grateful for how you're moving, but God, you would also lead us to be a people who seek this unity that we've talked about.

God, that we wouldn't be just like everybody else.

That we could be transformed.

We could have a new way of thinking.

God, it can lead us to live in such a different way where we accomplish and we do your good, perfect, and pleasing will in our lives.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen and amen.

We're so grateful for so many who have come forward and are still here.

I just want to quickly, before we get dismissed today, just want to introduce to you officially uh to Amos Rivera.

Amos has been our worship pastor for the last month, but I realize you don't know his family.

So we want to make sure you get a chance to be able to meet his whole crew.

So we're gonna ask uh the crew to come on up here and have a chance to be able to be introduced.

Uh this is Rachel, his wife.

Uh this is Zelena.

Levi, Ezra, and Ellie.

Let's give it up for them and let's celebrate the five.

We are so grateful for this crew.

We're so excited for hey, pray for them.

They need to sell a house in Dallas.

So pray for that.

Let's pray that we could get that thing sold and they could get here fully transitioned and moved here.

But we're just thankful for y'all.

Thankful to see how God's gonna use you here in our midst, thankful for already what you've done, but also just to see what's gonna take place in the future.

If you want to get involved in worship and production ministry, can contact uh Amos and let him have the opportunity to be able to talk with you through that.

God is growing our team, God's been adding to it, and we're very, very excited to see what's gonna happen in the days ahead.

Uh hey, I already mentioned to you uh about Easter, 6 o'clock Good Friday, uh, and then 8 30, 10, and 11:30 on Easter Sunday, and 1 o'clock in Espanyol, help us get the word out.

There's yard signs as well and invite cards out there.

Let me close our services by just speaking this over you today.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Thank y'all for being here.

Y'all have a great Sunday.

Take care.

What an incredible message.

Hey, if you made a decision today to give your life to Jesus, we'd love to know about it.

We'd love to celebrate with you.

We'd even love to pray with you.

And so if you made that decision, will you text next to 55498?

And someone from our team would love to follow up with you.

In the meantime, I would love to pray with you even right now as God continues to do things in your heart moving.

And so, Jesus, we love you so much.

We say thank you for the truth of your word.

Thank you for still showing up in people's lives and still doing only what you can do.

Jesus, I pray that you continue to heal hearts and heal lives.

Uh, bring peace to minds.

And Jesus, once again, just do what only you can do.

It's your name praying.

United City fam, this has been an incredible service.

It's been so fun worshiping with you.

Hey, to stay on the know on everything going on in the life of our church, we'd love for you to follow us on Instagram and on Facebook to stay up to date on everything happening.

And we'd love to see you either in person or online right back here next week.

Services are at 9 30 and 11.

We hope you have a fantastic week, and we'll see you soon.