Father, I just thank you for today. I thank you so much, God, that you are the “Pearl of Great Worth.” Lord Jesus, you are King, and we love you. Father, I ask that you would pour out your presence in this place, that as we come to your Word, that you would draw all men to yourself. That you would draw your people close to your heart, that you would take us home. Take us back to the house of praise, take us back to the house of love, take us back to the house of the Father. We thank you, Father, for your precious Son Jesus who has made a way this day, and we praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We’re just so blessed to be here together today. I would like to talk about a God destined church, amen? See, the Church of God was never meant to be just a quieted place of emptiness, and a quieted place of quiet souls that come in and out. We were destined to be something great. The Church of God was destined to follow God, to come into the house of the Lord, and to declare His goodness— to declare His glory, and to show the world that He is alive today. Amen?

And you know, we’re in such a unique time in the world today. It's a time for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say that it’s a time for violence, it’s a time for the darkness. No, I want to declare today that the Word of the Lord is that now is the time for the Church of God to rise up and come into the destiny that God has called us into.

I believe right now God wants to bring His Church to become all that she was meant. You see, the Church was destined way before time to be a people that would be among nations, that we would be a nation among nations who would belong solely to the Lord our God. It's where our race doesn't matter, our social status doesn't matter, our class, our abilities, what we can or what we cannot do does not matter. The only thing that matters is that we are new creations in Christ Jesus that have been born again into the family of God. Amen?

We are to be a people, church, destined to follow the Lord, to do the great things that he has called us to do— to live in the favor of the Lord Jesus Christ. God desires to pour out His Spirit on each and every one of us so that we would do one thing: that we would do the work of the Kingdom of God. Will you step into your destiny today? Do you know what it is that God has called you to do? Church, altogether, do we see what God has desired for us as the body of Christ to be doing, what we were meant to do in this life?

Some have mistaken the Church to just be a building. Some have mistaken the Church to be about just getting in and getting out, doing a little bit of religious service and then going back to normal, just forgetting about the message— no transformation, nothing different, no stepping into what God has meant for us or for our families. No need to come back and return to the God that we have turned from; just go on, pay your dues and go about. Many believe and consider the Church to be like every other program in the world, where you just come and feel a little bit good about yourself, a little self-help. But that is not the Church. You see, the Church is not a building, the Church is the people of God. The Church are those God has hand-selected from before time to do His work. The Church is a people that God has built for Himself, literally to be His hands and to be His feet in this life.

We, as the Church, are destined to demonstrate the power of God in our life. We were meant to be distinguished by a life of power. We’re meant to be distinguished from all others by the walk and the life that we live through God. Our lives are distinguished, Church, by being those who carry a hope that cannot be defeated. Our lives are distinguished by being people who live in holiness unto God. You see, our children were destined for greater things than just doing what everybody else is doing. We and our families were destined for so much more than just trying to get by in this life; we were called to serve the Most High God. We were called to serve the living God.

Do you hear His voice today? Church of God, there is something happening right now worldwide. There is something that God is doing, and He is calling us to step into the destiny that He has called us to from the beginning of time. Amen?

So, what is this destiny that God calls us into? I want to read from first Peter today. If you have your Bibles, we’re going to be looking at first Peter, chapter two, verses nine and ten. We have two verses today, and as we turn there... This is a really incredible chapter. I know we read this this week. Peter is talking about how Christ came, and how some rejected Him and sealed their destiny to perish. They sealed their destiny to live in separation from God. But now, Peter is talking about the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that to those who look to him, to those who come to the Lord, our destiny is different. We are destined for something great, amen? So, what is it that God calls us to? What does He destine us to do? Let’s read the first half of verse nine. It says: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession.” And we’re going to stop right there for a second, because the first thing that God destines us for, for the Church, is we’re destined to be God's chosen people.

Chosen from before time. Chosen for what? You see, we are chosen to believe. In the Old Testament, we’re very familiar with the people that God had chosen, Israel. He chose Israel to believe in Him. They were going to be the ones who trusted God to be their provider, to be their Savior, to be their King. It was going to be through their living, through their lives, that God has chosen them to show the world of who He is and what He can do. They were to be a people to literally trust God for everything, unlike all the nations that were around Israel. There were other nations that did not trust in God; they trusted in their horses and their chariots. Other nations trusted in the gods of their pride, their riches, their evil and darkness, but Israel was going to trust in Yahweh. They were going to trust in the Most High God! And as God's chosen, they were going to know that Israel was not a normal people. They were God's chosen, special possession. Are you hearing today, Church? We are not just to be a building. We are not just to be people that come in, and come and go. We are to be His precious possession. We are to be those who would rise, that we would demonstrate to the nations and to the world that God is alive.

From Israel the world would know that God was the one and only ruler. He was the one true God that rules over the nations and the universe, and He was powerful in His people, and to those who trust in Him, they would also find salvation and hope. Hallelujah! They would know that there is a God who lives and His name was Yahweh, and that He was there for his people.

I ask today: do you believe today? Do you believe in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the one who has called you and chosen you to live for something greater, to live for His kingdom? Now, we know what happened to Israel. They forfeited so much of what God had, because they rejected the way of faith that God had given them. What was that way of faith? They rejected the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Jesus was the promise. God said, “I'm going to send my Messiah. He's going to bring the fullness of my blessing. He's going to do something. He’s going to bring my house back. He’s going to bring those who are lost and broken, and bring them back to the house of the Lord.” He was going to restore the praise of God! He was going to do something spectacular! But what happened? We know that they crucified Him. It's because Jesus, when He came, turned everything around.

His message wasn't exactly what they expected. Although they expected the Messiah to come, He didn’t come the way and He wasn't what they expected Him to be, for many of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders of that day expected that when the Messiah would come, they would now receive all their honor. But see, the message of Jesus was, “If you want honor in my Father's kingdom, then you have got to go low. You’ve got to be a servant in the Kingdom of God, and I will lift you up.” The leaders of that day thought, “Now, we’re going to rule over the Romans. We’re going to rule over the nations.” But instead, Jesus proclaimed, “My Father has come, not that you would rule over anything else, but that His throne would be situated on the throne of your heart. That He would rule in man and woman once again, and that they would be ruled by the power of the Almighty God. And that they would rise up and defeat all the darkness, and shatter the power of hell, that only God can do in the heart of man.”

The Lord Jesus came to do a spiritual work in the depths of our heart, but Israel couldn't let go of themselves; they could not let go of religion. What are we holding onto today? What is holding us back from stepping into our destiny? And I want to say today, hallelujah, that through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is calling men and women back to Himself, to believe, to be those that God has chosen. Jesus has opened something up to us that has been hidden for ages, that now today, the choosing of God was no longer going to be limited just for the Jewish people, but He would now open the door for the Gentiles. For you and I, a people that were once far from God, ignorant in sin and in darkness, to now come home and to be brought into the family of the Almighty God by the precious blood and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Despite the rituals of the Jews— all the religious worship— we are brought in by something greater. We are brought in by our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe Him to be the entrance unto our God. You see, Jesus in us fulfills all the requirements of the Jewish law. He fulfills all the requirements of the Word of God because He is powerful in those who trust in Him. You see, the Jews? They sought to attain it all by their flesh, by their rituals. But, hallelujah! We don’t seek it through a ritual, we are finding it through faith and through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts.

Christians are chosen by God, chosen to carry His presence. This choosing is a work of God's grace that brings an awakening. He awakens us to believe. He awakens us to faith. He awakens us to arise. It's the grace of God that causes us to find the One, for our eyes to see the One, the God that we weren't even looking for— to find God.

The Scriptures say that we were lost, that we were dead in our sins and in our transgressions. We were at one time living at enmity with God, against Him in every way, going our own route. Yet, He called us out of darkness, and into the light, that we would now step into a destiny, that we would find a destiny with God; that we would trust in Him and He would be our King. No longer trusting in the world, no longer trusting in horses and chariots, in money and jobs and things, but trusting in God. I think of when the Lord Jesus had called me to Himself. I was destined to perish. I was destined for drugs, I was destined to be in the gang. I was destined for jail. I was destined to die in the streets, but God called me by His power to believe in His name, to believe that He can save me, to believe that He can transform me to live for His glory.

Now I can say, “God has destined me to live for the sake of Him, and to take others with me.” Has God awakened faith in you today? Has God awakened belief in you to rise up, to come out of the destiny of perishing with this world, and to now be destined to live as heirs in the throne of God, destined as a king's sons and daughters, to live in the glory of the presence of God? You see, when God chooses you, hallelujah, you become his precious possession. You are his. You see, through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are bought and we are purchased. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, the work that He's come to do, He’s come to break the work of the devil in our lives. He has come to set us free. He's provided a people for Himself through the working of our great Savior, Jesus. You see, when you understand this, it will change you. If we understood that we were God's possession, everything in our life would be different.

Just imagine if we understood that we belong to God... Imagine if we taught our children that they belong to the Lord and no one else, that they belong to the family of God. Imagine that no other demonic influence would any longer be able to possess us, to overtake our hearts. Imagine that all the fleshiness and the carnal thinking would no longer be able to possess us because we have been called to be possessed by one thing: the Holy Spirit, the power of the living God. Those God chooses aren’t to be possessed by this world, or by anything else, but simply by the power of God. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he illuminates. He brings a light into our minds, and it causes us to see Him as the King of all. It awakens faith, and it causes us to believe in the one and only God who is able to deliver His people.

We are chosen. We’re chosen to be priests. He says a “royal priesthood.” You see, we are called to be priests that are clothed in Christ. Now, we remember the priests of old, the old Jewish priests, were required to wear certain garments, right? Certain gems and stones. They even had certain head coverings, and they were chosen to do the priesthood of God a certain way. They had to wear certain things.

But we, too, are also chosen priests. But I want to say today, we are not the priests who wear the old garments of religion. There were those garments that they changed on the outside, but didn't change the inside. We are called, as the Word of God says, to be clothed from on high, to be clothed with the Lord Jesus. We are to be clothed in him. Our minds, as priests of God, are to be clothed and consumed not in carnal thinking. We’re not supposed to be thinking in the flesh, we’re not supposed to be thinking like the rest of the world; we are to be clothed in the mind of Christ. We are to think differently. We are to see differently. What have you been wearing, priests of God? What is it that God is calling us to throw off today? Have you been clothed in garments of religion? Are you clothed in the garment of pride and in darkness? Then I want to say, hallelujah! Today, call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus, and have His mind shatter all the powers of hell that we have been clothed in this day, to be clothed as a priest of God. God is calling us to be clothed and ready, and able to do the work and the will of God. And this is done by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’re to be priests, priests who carry God's heart. Today, many preach from pulpits all across our nation claiming to be priests of God, yet lacking His heart. Their heart is for man; their heart is to satisfy the goal of man. Where every Sunday, people come in and out of buildings and just make sure that they keep it convenient, keep it going, and just keeping everything people-friendly. All the while, God's heart is beating for a people that he wants to call to Himself. Week after week, people come and go, and they leave the same— with their hearts beating for the world, and everything else but God. And His anger burns to get such mediocre Christianity because all that it produces is an empty people who come and go. They give their dues on Sunday, but they go back out without urging for more, without a desperation to seek God, without some conviction of sin— lost and dead. But God has chosen us to be priests who carry the heart of the Lord.

As priests of old in the temple, we tend to God. We tend to God's brokenness that breaks over sin every day, His heart that breaks over our sin. His heart that breaks that the children of God have not come home yet. His heart that breaks that He is looking for people that would serve Him day and night. We are called to be those who minister unto our God, saying “Father, here we are, let us have your heart, let us tend to it, and let us serve you and no other.”

He’s to be honored in our lives, as the priests of God, and it begins right here in our own hearts. It begins in our own homes, making sure that prayer is a must in our household, making sure that each and every person is in the truth— that our children are in the truth, and if they are not, then Father, I will begin to pray. Father, I will be the priest of God that will begin to go on my knees, and I will seek your heart, and I will pray, and I will seek you, God, until the day that my household all comes home to be in your presence.

We’re called to be priests who stand on behalf of others. We’re priests that come to the house of the Lord weekly. We get refueled together. But when we walk out these doors, we are walking out in order to start another altar, that when we go home there's gonna be another altar risen to the Lord in the store, at home, at work. You see, there should be a fragrance in our offices at work. There should be a fragrance on the school bus. There should be a fragrance everywhere we go as priests of God who know who we are, who have committed ourselves to give an answer for our faith, to always know the reason, and always be attractive in our walk. When we walk in faith, when we are the priests of God, and when we are walking as the ones He has chosen us to be, we will draw others in by the faith that is at work in our hearts. You see, the priests of old used to keep a fire burning. That fire in our lives is the flame of our belief in the Lord Jesus, and as we continue to breathe on that fire, and as it burns brighter and brighter and brighter, I'm telling you, somebody is going to show up. Somebody's going to come from afar. Somebody’s going to see in the darkness that there is still hope, that there is still life, and the priests of God are going to bring in His people.

We were destined to be a light— destined to be a lighthouse in the dark world. The Bible speaks about God's people being so pure in the faith that we would be able to stand on behalf of those covered in darkness, those in wickedness, and we would be able to stand on their behalf, and God would hear as we begin to pray for others.

He calls us to be a holy nation... a holy nation. What does it mean to be holy? It means that we will be a nation set apart from all other nations.

In the Scriptures, we know that so many nations had come against Israel, and they came against the people of God. Those nations all represented enmity against the Lord. Today, those nations still exist spiritually, whether it be sin, unbelief, addiction, fear, religion, and even pride. But the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to say today, is calling us out of those nations. He is calling us out of the darkness! He is calling us out of pride. He is calling us out of wickedness and into Him. It's time to allow God to get rid of the evil in our hearts and in our minds, and to bring to Himself pure people for his use. See, it matters that each and every one of us would step into our destiny with God. We weren’t destined, Church, to be shackled in chains. We weren’t destined to be held down as foreigners in a nation. We were destined to break every chain. We were destined to be free, free to come into the house of the Lord. To be holy is to be distinguished. How will we be distinguished among the other nations? I’ll tell you how. We are distinguished by the power of God in our lives.

What is the power of God? I’ll tell you about the power. It’s where the man who could love not anybody but himself, who was touched by the Lord Jesus Christ, now has learned to love the Lord your God and to love his neighbor as himself. I’ll tell you about the power of God. It's the man that hated his wife. It's a wife that couldn't get along with her children. It's the household that was broken where, now, God comes in. And now they’re loving each other. People are rising in the power of God, the darkness is breaking, and children are coming to serve God. That's what God does: He brings us into the family. Where one of us is hurting, yes, we all share each other's sufferings, but we lift each other up. Where one is rejoicing, we are all rejoicing. We are destined to be the family of God, distinguished among the nations in unity, and by each one of us carrying the light of God in our lives. This is what God has called us to do, this is what we are destined to be: a chosen people of God. How blessed are we today to be called by the Lord? And I want to say, a distinction is about to be made, and God is distinguishing His holy nation. He is distinguishing his people from those who are not his people. Will we be found ready? See, we are destined to be the chosen priests, the holy nation, those who are called to serve God. Amen?

Secondly, we are destined to be used by God. Let's look at verse nine again, the second half. It says: “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness, into his wonderful light.” You see, we are called to be used by God, destined to declare His praises. And we've been hearing so much about that, but what does it mean to declare His praises? What are we shouting, what are we saying? Is it just a song, is it just music? I want to say that the praises of God are more than just a song. The true meaning of that word, “praises,” is to reveal something. It's God's character, and it's His power. We are to declare the praises of God. We are to reveal God's power. We are to show the world His character and to declare who He is.

See, we are destined to declare a praise, and by this praise we reveal the character of God. Today, a lot of people have their own image of God. If we were to go to anybody, and we were to ask someone and say, “Who do you think God is? What do you know about God?” each and every person would have their own opinion and their own thoughts about who they thought God was, apart from what the Scriptures say. If you think about it, we create our own God. Even many Christians today claim to know God and follow him, yet have no clue of his will; they have no clue of the working of his Word. They have no clue of the working of the Spirit of God in this life, but Church, we have been called for so much more. We have been called to reveal the character of God in our lives by the way that we live, and the power that he gives.

We were destined not to be blind to who the Father is, but we were destined to know God. We were destined to know Him who saves those who call on His name. To know Him is eternal life. See, if we don't know the Lord— if He has not revealed Himself— then we are yet dead in our transgressions. But the message of the Gospel says this: “repent today and turn back to God.” The Lord Jesus has come to do a work. He has come to bring us back for one thing: to know the Lord, to know the Lord, to know the Lord! Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the strong man boast in his strength, because all of it is meaningless. But if somebody’s going to boast, let him boast this, that he knows and he understands the Lord. Amen, amen. Thank you, God. By this praise, fruitfulness is brought forward. It's in the Church that the fruit of God is supposed to be produced, the fruit of God's character. What is that fruit? Many of us know it. It’s love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, self-control; and unless we are seeing these things in our lives, then we have not demonstrated the character of God that he's called us to give and to show.

And this all begins in our own homes. Is there a love for one another? Is there a love for our spouse, that they would be in Christ? Is there a love for our children, that they would be following the Word of the Lord? Is there a love for those that are surrounded, our brothers or sisters, that they would be in Christ? In our moments of disagreement, do we lose self-control or do we stop and seek the Lord in all that we do? See, we are destined to bear the fruit of God. We are destined to bear the fruit of repentance. We are destined to be those who would be disciplined by God, so that He can instruct us and lead us in the way He's called us to go. This is true worship. We declare His praises by our lives. We declare the praises of God by worshiping Him with our decisions, by worshiping Him with our attitudes, with our choices. As the bride of Christ, that's what we are. The bride of Christ is to produce fruit. As the Lord Jesus enters into our minds, as the Lord Jesus enters into our hearts, there is an abundance of fruit. There is something different that begins to happen, that we are destined to bring forth, to declare the praises of our God. Will you declare His praises today?

See, Jesus comes into the barren land that once couldn't produce fruit. He comes into the desert. Are you barren today? Are you fruitless today? Is there something in you that says, “God, there's deadness here. There's no water moving through the land?” Then call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and let Him produce something new in your lives this day. Let Him produce something new in your mind. Let Him do what only the Lord Jesus Christ can do. We've been destined to reveal the power of God in our lives.

You see, Christianity today, is very easy. We can go on the internet, and I find that there are dozens and dozens of different concerts, and different fun things happening all across the world and in our nation. But the thing is, there’s lots of singing, there's lots of dancing, there's lots of gathering, yet there's still no power over darkness. Many sing, many dance. They listen to a quick message, but then go back home unchanged and unmoved, unable to overcome the evil thoughts, unable to overcome their sin and come out of the darkness.

But see, Church of God, there is power. There is power in the Gospel, because we are destined to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who turn, who repent and turn back to Him, there is power. There is power to overcome. There is still power as God dwells in His people. There is still power as God dwells in those call upon His name, where even though the sin and darkness come in, even though the enemy comes in like a flood, there may be mourning for a night, but hallelujah— the darkness is about to be broken! The light is about to shine, for He reigns. We are to declare the praises of God amongst his people, to declare the power of His righteousness. You see, as God delivers you— and I believe somebody might be delivered today— I truly believe that as God delivers you, we each become a weapon of righteousness.

When God delivers you, He gives you right standing. Hallelujah! He makes you righteous. And I want to say, the Word of the Lord says that the prayers— of what? A righteous man— availeth much. Watch out for the one that's just been made righteous in the sight of the Lord Jesus! Watch out for the one that’s just been delivered. They’re about to begin to pray, the earth is about to shake, the nations are about to tremble because we are going to declare the praises of our God. As God moves, we move. As God speaks, we speak, and we are able to demolish the strongholds of evil reasoning. We’re able to tear down every argument, every mindset, that sets itself up against our God, and to stand with His armor to demonstrate His power.

God has called us to declare His praises, to show His power to this world. He says that He calls us out of darkness into His wonderful light. We are destined to live in the light. In a day where violence is elevating, we look around and see that people seem to be growing colder. The darkness seems to be rising and rising, and some of our hearts may shake and tremble at that. Is there light? Is there still light today? I want to say that there is light, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “I am the light of the world, that he who trusts in me shall never walk in darkness, but shall be in the light.” As we walk in the light, we are able to distinguish the darkness. We’re able to approve of what is of God and what is not. So many live in darkness today. So many live in the darkness of their minds, in the darkness of their flesh, and they’re ruled by this darkness, stumbling. They cannot see. There's no way for them to please God; they cannot satisfy him. And we, as the Church, are to rise out of the darkness and into the light. See, we are destined to come into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is light. He is light Himself, and we are to overtake the darkness. That light within us, this little light of mine, we are going to let it shine, because it is able, and God is powerful. We are to live as children of the light. This is why we can't be in between, darkness and light do not mix together; they never will.

Our light must overtake the darkness, and it’s only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Has he become the light of your heart? Is He the light of the world for you? Has His light entered into our minds? We have been chosen to declare His praises. This means we live in the light, declaring it, coming into the darkness that others will be awakened by our shout, that others will be awakened by our prayer, that others will be brought into the light as we live and walk with God.

I, myself, remember living in the dark waters of this world. I was destined to perish. I remember not being able to see. I remember stumbling over my own feet, no way to understand God. I remember being in sin and darkness, but hallelujah! Then came the light. The Lord Jesus, the perfect fisherman of men, began to draw me into the light of the Gospel. No longer destined to be in darkness, but now me and my children and my family are destined to be a people of light, never again to go back, never again to go back to the darkness but to shine forever.

Today you, too, can come to the light. Today you, too, can allow the Light of the World enter into your heart. Church of God, we have been chosen to be used by God, but we cannot remain in darkness. He says, “If you look to me, I call you from the darkness into the light.” Today is the day for the Church of God to come out of the world, to come out of sinfulness, to come out of the darkness, and to come into the destiny that God has called us to live.

Finally, we are destined to be chosen, we are destined to be used by God, and we are also destined to be blessed. Let’s look at verse ten. It says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Church of God, we are destined to be blessed— blessed to come home, blessed to come home to the Father. See, we were once not a people of God, far from knowing him, far from understanding the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe today God is calling a son or daughter home. I believe today He’s about to wake somebody up to truly be blessed and to come back to the house of the Lord with all of their heart, all of their soul, all of their mind, and their strength.

You may be saying today, “But listen, I’ve already been in church. Matter of fact, I’ve been here for a long time.” Yes, but maybe your heart has not been settled with your God, maybe you have not come home in your heart, maybe not come home in your mind. Today is the day. Today is the day to return; today is the day of salvation. This is what the blessing is, Church: the blessing is to come to the Father. The blessing is that God would draw us to the Son, that He would draw Him back to Himself. Jesus said, “only the Father can draw man to me.” How deep, how great is God's love that he would be drawing man to Himself. How great is God when he draws you? You see, it’s irresistible when God begins to draw you. He draws you to Himself. You know, so much flesh today has hindered this blessing from the Church of our nation. Today, in the American church, man has attempted to draw people in by their own methods, man has attempted to draw people in by their own programs. But I want to say the power of God is moving once again today, to draw man in one way, the only way, which is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you hear his voice today, will you hear the voice of the one we love calling, saying, “Come home!”

Do you hear his voice saying, “No longer will you live away from me, but I’m calling you, who were once not a people, to now be my people.” Are you far from him today? Then come into the blessing of God. This blessing was once limited to only the Jewish people, but now has been extended to a people who were on the outside. As Gentiles, we were part of a whole other household. We were part of this world, destined like the rest of the world to perish, to suffer, to be in darkness, but by the working of the Lord Jesus Christ, today we are blessed! We are blessed to come into the family of the living God, by the working of what he had done at the cross. See the blessing that was upon Abraham is now yours and it is now mine, by faith. We, by faith, come into the family of God. No longer in darkness, but now in Christ where there is no Barbarian, there is no Greek, there is no Black, there is no White, there is no rich or poor. There is only one thing— he who is a new creation in Christ Jesus, who has been born from above.

We are the Church. We do not forget the blessing of God in our lives. We don’t forget the barrenness that we have all come from. We don’t forget the darkness of this world; we understand the true blessing, which is to be with God. We are blessed to receive mercy. He says that one time you were “a people who had not received mercy, but now you will receive my mercy.” I have to say that if it had not been for God's mercy in my life— if it hadn't been for his patience, if it hadn't been for his long-suffering in the waiting, if it hadn't been for his mercy— I would not be here today. For many of us, we would not be here today.

And Paul says in Romans nine, that he called us from whence we were born. It is not by human effort, is not by our own working, but it is by the great mercy of God, and by the coming of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. His mercy is taking us from the destiny of hell and darkness. His mercy has touched somebody like me that was in the street, that was in the darkness seeking to be in every gang, that was looking to do whatever the drug dealer did— one that was lost, not looking for God, broken, and dark. And then one day, His mercy had touched my life, and He said, “Jeff, I’m calling you home. I’m calling you out of the darkness and into my wonderful light.” Will you rise in the mercy of God today? There is a blessing in the house of the Lord. I stand today as one thing, I stand as an object of God's great mercy. I am blessed. We are blessed, and that is the Church of God. We are to be blessed, Church. We are to be full with the mercy of God.

If we were to stop for a moment and think of all the bad decisions that we made in our life, if we were to stop for a moment and think of all the evil wicked things that we've said, all the brokenness that we've had, and all the things that we shouldn’t have as a result of our sin— even God's mercy! God's mercy. I think some of us today probably shouldn’t even have our marriage. Some of us today can say, “Man, I should not even have my children, let alone my home.” But His mercy is so great that even the punishment of our sin, He has spared us and been so merciful, that we would be restored today. That we would be one with Him. That we would rise. Have you received the mercy of God today? Have you been blessed? Have you been blessed to come home? Maybe your mind has been in utter confusion, maybe you've been stuck in rebellion, maybe you're still dead in your transgressions, and seems to be no way out. The religion hasn't cut it, the job hasn’t cut it, the money can't do, all the friends that you clung to just don't seem to be helpful— none of it can transfer you out of the darkness into God's blessing, into His light. Then, I want to say, today, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the mercy of God; He is the one that takes us home.

The Lord Jesus alone is the only one that can change our destiny, allowing us to be blessed, for us to come home. Those who call upon his precious name can be blessed— we can be free to serve the living God, not only looking forward to eternity with him, but even now having a hope that cannot be shattered, having a hope that cannot be broken, the hope that we will serve God, and that we will walk in His light, and that we will have His blessing.

It's time today for a blessing. This blessing of God is a blessing that wakes us up. We are in a very special time to be blessed. It isn’t later, it's now. Something is happening right now throughout the world. God is doing a work in his worldwide Church, and I want to say He is awakening His people. He's awakening the Church to no longer be in the slumber of the world, to no longer be all about this world’s business, but to come back home, to be blessed, to return to the Father. He wants to wake us up. There’s an alarm being sounded off even now. Will you take hold of your destiny, Church? Will you take hold of what God has called you to do? Will you take hold of the call of God to serve Him, and let go of every other hindrance?

Will you let go of this world, and come into the true blessing that is being poured out right now? Will you open up to receive God's blessing? See, this blessing is for us to be empowered. The time has come for the restoration of the Church. The time has come for the restoration of God's holy name in His people. The time has come for us to walk into our destiny. The time has come to break away from all that we've been doing. The time has come to get out of the place that we've been forever, and to come into a new place with God. It’s time for us to allow God to transform us. We need His power. He said that, “in the last days I'm going to pour out my spirit.” Church of God, we are in the last days, and there is a blessing of God's favor, there is a blessing of God's power, that He is so ready to release right now.

And this blessing is for the Spirit to come and do a work in our lives. This blessing is so that the Spirit of God would draw us back to the Father— the Spirit of God that would get our minds straight, the Spirit of God that would bring our hearts back to where they’re supposed to be, with God, with His Church, with His people. This blessing is for today.

Will you allow God's power to come back to the Church? Back to as the days of the Apostles, as the first Church? They moved in the power and the blessing of God. The blessing is this today: his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one that has been chosen by God. He is the great High Priest. He's the answer to all of our ailments. He is the blessing. If Christ be in you, you are truly blessed. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into our destiny. It's time today, Church. It's time to come back to what God has meant for us as a whole, as His people. And you may wonder, “What is this all about?” We are destined to be with God, we are destined to be with the Father, not just in heaven… now. We are to be mothers and fathers that would carry a legacy, that we would carry a destiny that would go on, that our children would take it up. It wouldn't stop, but the baton would be passed for generations upon generations upon generations destined as a holy nation, a people for the Lord.