The Crowned Church Series pt. 1 with Pastor Cesar Portillo at Victory Outreach Port Elizabeth

Sermon Transcribed:

Amen. And we're going to be starting a journey. I don't want to say a series because God's word is a journey. The Bible says that it's living and active sharper than a double edged sword. It's alive. We're going to be going on a journey. I'm asking God to crown our church.
That we would be a church that he could, he could sense his worship, he could sense his love. But more than anything that God would crown this ministry with grace, with mercy, and with power. Do you believe we need that? Come on somebody.

So I'm going to ask you to go ahead and turn your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to be reading a lot of Bible the next 8 weeks or so, okay? That means that it's, it'll be great for you to bring your Bible. I want to encourage you to bring your Bible. We're going to dive into the book of first Corinthians. Keep in mind, Victory Outreach, we're not a church only. We're a ministry that's going to have a base here so that we could send out churches all over the Eastern Cape for Jesus.

So because of that, I'm not just trying, I'm not just trying to preach to you a topical message on, you know, very important things. I want you to be able to. Mature and we're believing that God's word, it's able to expedite and accelerate your calling. If you're called to be a pastor, if you're called to be a pastor's wife, if you're called to be a preacher, if you're called to be a missionary, if you're called to be a teacher, if you're called to be an evangelist, listen, if we can't raise those people up here, then we're missing the mark.

So because of that, we're not just here to just give you a good message. What we're here to do, we're here to teach you God's word. Somebody say amen. First Corinthians, and we're talking about being the crown church. This is part number one. Huh, and what does that mean? Listen, we are the crown church because of God's ability.
Not because me and you have great abilities. Matter of fact, what does that mean? And I want to say this, the second slide here. God, you know, God's, what we need to know is that God calls not only the, the righteous, but God calls the crazy, God calls the carnal, and God calls the corrupt, and through His power He crowns them with wisdom and grace.
See, I want you to know that God is doing something supernatural even in this ministry here. It's obvious. It's obvious. Not because of the numbers or the lack of numbers. It's because of what we're, what our target people are. We're not coming here just to gain an audience. We're coming here and God has called us to reach some of the most unruly people in Port Elizabeth.
I'm talking about us. Come on somebody, but you know, what makes it so special is that God has always, and I know that maybe you were perfect before you came to Christ. I know that maybe you were a good person. You were, you know, like, like, like, for example, my wife, she's not, she was never a gang member. She was never a drug addict.
She was never, but you know what in her heart, she needed Jesus. She was raised around it. Her mom was a heroin addict and, you know, died of heroin. But she was, she was herself, she was never like that. But inside, you know, she was called to the ministry that would be able to have a compassion for hurting people.
Is that okay with you? See what I'm trying to say is that we, we, we say that we're the crown church because God still calls the crazy, the carnal and the corrupt, which some of us, maybe you used to be that. Come on, somebody. See, what I'm trying to tell you is that we're speaking about a letter, a supernatural letter written by a theologian named Paul to one of the most unique churches in the Bible.
It's the book of Corinth, 1st Corinthians, and I, I always say the book of, the, the, the, the Church of Corinthians was God's crowned church. Why? Because God had to have immense mercy because they were very, very crazy. Mmm. I, I always say they're God's, they're God's crown church because, you know, God had, had a lot of mercy because they were immensely crazy.
I'm making up words here. Hello, somebody. See, I want you to know that the, the, the, the city of Corinth itself was considered to be the golden city.