 In Matthew chapter nine verse 35 it says, then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in every synagogue, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. You know, that's what Jesus was doing. We as a church, we believe that one of the things that every person needs is they need the power of God in their life. They need miracles. There are problems we come in contact with that honestly human intellect, colleges, college degrees, our human connections, our skills and our abilities are powerless. But the power of God is what can solve those problems because somebody say amen. Somebody say we need power. We need holy power, holy spirit power, power that heals the sick, power that drives out demons, power that stops nightmares cold, power that delivers people from sexual addiction, drug addiction, but we need power that breaks generational cycles. We need power that cures people mentally, emotionally and physically. We need power that sets people on the course of righteousness and power to live a God the life. Somebody say we need power. And the Bible says Jesus went around all cities. See every city needs power of God. Every village needs the power of God. Whether it's in a Western country or somewhere in India, Africa or Asia, everybody needs the power of God. And Jesus is not just somebody who teaches the gospel, he demonstrates the gospel. The Bible says he preached, he taught and he healed and diseases and sicknesses among people. But then in verse 36, it says the following and when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them. So in the verse 35, the Bible says he heals the sick. He that casts out demons, he moves powerfully in power. And we as the church, we recognize that church has to be a place of power. One of the things that we have a vision for is that within few months, it might happen in few weeks, but that's our dream this year is to open a church. When we come to the point of opening the church service on Sunday night, to open a power service, where the prayer line for deliverance, where the healings will be taking place and where a lot of the things that we sometimes don't have time in the morning services to happen in the evening service because people need power. And we need to be a church and you have to make room for power. You have to make space. You can't just kind of expect the power to come. There has to be a room that we make for God. And so begin to pray for those services. It will happen on Sunday night. It will be power service. It will be Holy Ghost power service. Amen. It doesn't mean that our Sunday morning services, it doesn't mean that our Sunday morning services, they have to lack power. But because of the structure and because of the things that we have, we realize that we need to have a special service where it will be a power service because people don't just need power. People also need pastor. Somebody say pastor. So people don't just need miracles. They also need the message. And the Bible in here, it says that Jesus looked at people. It says that he wasn't just teaching people. He wasn't just healing people, but he was also preaching the gospel and teaching. So he was healing, but he was preaching. Preaching is when you scream and teaching when you're quiet. And so we need to have both. Can somebody say amen? We need to have, when you preach, scream. In other words, and then when you talk normal. And so when you come in and it's too loud, it's because it's preaching. When you come in and it's like too many points, it's because it's teaching, okay? So Jesus was screaming and then he was also had three point sermons. And then he was also healing. So people don't just need power. People also need pastor. Somebody say pastor. Pastor meaning they need preaching, something that fires you up and they need teaching, something that feeds you. So preaching fires you up, but the teaching feeds you. We need both. We need teaching and we need preaching. Now some of you, you only like preaching. You only like if somebody's screaming and yelling at you. Because you used to maybe grew up in abusive home where the only time you heard something is when it was screamed at you. And so that's why you like preachers, you know? And then some of you, you know, you grew up in a functional good home where people were speaking to you. So you don't like to come to church. You're like, why is he screaming? What is wrong with him? And so because you like more of a teaching, that's why all the people you listen to during the week, all the people you read are more teachers and that is good. But we need preaching, teaching, and healing. Because people need power and people need pastor. We need miracles, but we also need message. Somebody say amen. But I want you to see what Jesus says in here, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, for they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. These people already had power and they already had pastor, but they had no pastors. They already had miracles and they had a message. They had no mentors. And the Bible says he looked at this crowd who were being healed, who were being screamed at and who were being taught with three point sermons. And he looked at them and I want you to see, he didn't look at them with joy. He didn't look at them with a sense of accomplishment. I did it great. I preached a great sermon. People loved it. People were healed. Awesome testimonies were collected. Awesome. The Bible says he looked at the multitudes with compassion. He felt bad. And he says, because they were, watch this, they were not goats. They were not pigs. They were not dogs. They were sheep. Meaning these were the people who already believed in him. These were the people who already had pastor and they already had miracles. They had power experience and Jesus looked at them and he says there's something else they all need. He says, and because they don't have that need, man, they are sheep without a shepherd. How could Jesus, the shepherd say that? When he's the shepherd, you will say, well that contradicts. Jesus says, I am the great shepherd because see, he wasn't their personal shepherd. You can't be a personal shepherd to 5,000 people. Come on, you can't father 5,000 children. You can maybe lead a 5,000 employee company but you can't mentor 5,000 people. You can't do that up close and Jesus knew that. I physically cannot shepherd all these people. That's why he says they're fed, they're being ministered to, but they are weary and scattered. He doesn't say they are sick and bankrupt spiritually. Meaning they got the food, they got the miracles, but they are lacking direction and they are lacking personal inspiration to live their life on point and on purpose. And because of that, they don't have shepherds. And then Jesus says that harvest is plentiful. So he switches the whole thing. He says, not only my kingdom lacks these mentors and these shepherd-like people, but he says, when I raise more shepherds and more laborers, more leaders, he said, not only they'll help the sheep, they'll also reach the harvest that is not even reached yet. So people need power, people need pastor and people need pastors. Now you may say, well, I go to a church, I have a pastor, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about somebody who knows you. I'm talking about somebody you know. Somebody who notices when you don't come to church, somebody who invites you to a cell group, somebody who knows what's happening with your life. You're like, well, that's what I have LAT for. Well, the problem is the moment it reaches more than 20 people, LAT can't do that. And our church is more than that. And so even Jesus couldn't do that because he wouldn't have compassion on them. If shepherding meant you can reach 5,000 men with one microphone and one sermon, Jesus looked at them and says, I can heal, I can preach and I can teach, but he said, I cannot mentor because it requires personal. And we can't get personal with 5,000 people. And therefore they are weary and they are scattered. Maybe your Christian life looks like that. You're like, man, I got the word, I come to church, but I feel weary. I feel like I don't have a sense of direction in my life because see, you need not only miracles, you need not only message, you also need mentors in your life. And so the one day you can be a mentor to someone else. You need to be minister too. You say, no, I'm fine. No, yeah, you're not sick. Yeah, you're not hungry, but are you weary and scattered? Is your life all over the place? Does your life has a sense of direction of why you exist as a Christian? And that's one of the reasons we have this process of discipleship, where you go from believe to belong, from belong to build and from built to become. Become what? Not famous, not known, but become who God wants you to become. The fisher of souls, the winner of souls and maker of disciples. God wants us to take that process. Our goal in church is not to make church of members or church even of volunteers is to be a church of disciples and eventually church of laborers in his harvest field. That's why Jesus simply said here, he says, pray to the Lord of the harvest. And I want you to notice what he did not ask us to pray for. He didn't say pray for more leaders. He says pray for more laborers. Because we have leaders. We need laborers. Laborers in what? Laborers of love. Because Bible keeps saying this one word all throughout the scripture. We see in Hebrews 6, 10 and 1 Thessalonians 1, 113, it says to be laborers in love. Because you can have a title of leader but what we really need, what the church really needs is people who labor and love, who intentionally and purposely give their life for someone else, reach out to someone else, it helps somebody grow in Christ, create an environment in their home where other people come in because you can slap a laborer, label of a leader and anyone but to have a heart of a laborer, a laborer of love, my friend, that takes the work of the Holy Spirit because love is labor. Love is not a feeling. It's work. And for those of you who are merit, say amen. When you were dating, you thought love is just simply fuzzy feelings. Well, that was in love, that was infatuation. Real love is when you roll up your sleeves, it's buying flowers, it's saying nice things, it's apologizing, it's taking out the garbage, it's biting your tongue when you wanna spill your beans. It's labor, that's why love is labor. Amen, amen. When our church started in the beginning, our church was started by our pastor, Pastor Vasily, with a vision to reach to the lost people. Our pastor, he was a missionary in Russia for many years where he started churches and when he came to United States, people did not tell him or he didn't believe in the fact that the mission of Jesus needs to be reached even in the United States by people like us. For most of the people of my background who come to the United States, their first thing is to preserve their faith and keep their children and their family from being contaminated by American culture. My pastor had a completely reverse theology. He thought the only way you preserve them is if you send them into it. And from the beginning, he was training us to go into schools. I remember my Russian friends would go to schools to get degrees. We went to school to get people. We were like recruitment agency, spreading flyers. I didn't even think about my classes. Like for reals, I only was thinking about where can I post the flyers about the services? Classes were like, oh, that was just, oh yeah, that's right. We have to do the homework. And the interesting part is I had A's, the people who went there for grades barely could make up a C. And so, and we were from the beginning trained almost like these agents of the kingdom. You don't go to school. You use the school to get the mission of God in it. You're there to hijack the culture. You're there to bring the message of God. It worked. Now we didn't reach a lot of people. At least we didn't get contaminated by the world. And so parents, I just wanna encourage you, don't set the bar too low for your children. Don't pray for your children. Say, Lord, just keep them away from sin. That's not what Jesus says. I'm sending them into the world. Begin to have a vision that is higher and God will keep your kids away from sin as a bonus. The world should be praying, oh God, keep our children away from these Christians. Fears should be praying, oh, that's right. There's no God. And so whoever is there, keep our children away from Christians. Why? Because they got a youth group. Because they got an amazing program. They can invite my kids and they can get them saved and sanctified and free for the glory of God. Come on, somebody. Fast and light, you're shoving religion down somebody's throat. No, bringing life. If people can still dope, we sell hope. We bring the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have a mission. And so while we were mission-minded, I really believe you're either a missionary or a mission field. If you're not winning the lost, you're lost. Spiritually, you're lost. It might be you're serving God but you're weary and scattered. And so I passed it from the beginning. Barely, I barely spoke any English. This is why we exist. We're gonna bring the lost. We're gonna go into the streets. We're gonna evangelize. We've done a lot of radical, crazy stuff. The protesters, they stand with signs. 16 years ago, that was us. Oh yeah, big signs. We were not protesting but we had signs. Huge signs, humongous signs. I remember standing on one side and Ilya was standing on the other side. Humongous sign. I was talking about prayer for tri-cities, revival for tri-cities. It wasn't raining when Noah was building the ark. Like, very dislike, like this life-threatening quotes and car washes for one simple reason, not to raise money so that we can give a flyer to invite people to church. And we did a lot of invitation but not a lot of people came to church. It was very discouraging and very disappointing. The culture of our church at that time, we did not know how to do it better. And somehow when few people would come, they would leave. It was very difficult for people to come and stay in our church when everything was in the Russian language with translation and the translation that we did, it was still with the Russian flavor. Everything, we pretty much brought a Russian church in America hoping to convert people both to Christianity and Russianianity. Russianianity. It was difficult. It was very, very difficult. With time we started to learn. We've grown. We've changed so much. Bryson and Brittany remembers that. We've changed so much. The church you see today, some of you would have never came second time 20 years ago. Never. You would have left a really bad review. Praise God that there was no reviews on Facebook and Google at the time for the churches. It was very difficult. We started to change slowly. The changes we've applied, for example, one of those things is today you see an English service. That wasn't the case 20 years ago. Today you see people coming to church and coming second time. Now remember when we saw people coming for three times in a row, how big of a deal it was for us. That somebody who did not speak Russian would come back again and again. The biggest breakthrough for us at that point was when somebody got saved and got water baptized and they were not Russian. You guys have no idea how big deal that was. And then when they went through the membership classes and they became a life group leader, for us it was like a pride thing. It was like we were showing off our poster boy right here. Brittany, Bryson, like white people are in our church. Please forgive me for the racial remark. That's how we saw it. Like American people are actually like joining our church. It's like a validation from heaven. We're real. We're gonna make it in this culture. It was not easy. It was very, very difficult. We fought because of a culture difference. The way people perceive us, being a minority in this country, having an accent, not understanding the culture really well. It wasn't easy, but we fought. We said we're gonna change whatever we need to change within us, how we present ourselves, how we project ourselves for one simple purpose. We wanna reach our community for Christ. We are not in Africa. We are not in Russia. We are not in Asia. We are in the United States. This is our community. We have to change so that we can bring change. I remember when a huge breakthrough that happened when we started to have not only our leaders who were Spanish or Hispanic American or other cultures, but when we had the staff and we had people on our staff who were not just Russian, it was such a big breakthrough. For some of you guys, you see this as normal. I wanna tell you something. For us, it was a price. For us, it wasn't normal. We dreamed of that. Today, more than half of our staff is not Slavic people no more. We no longer speak in Russian. There was half coats, you know, where we say something behind somebody's back. We did that though in the beginning. I remember Pastor Kim one time and asked Bryson to leave so he could speak to us in Russian so we don't have to translate. Bryson, we explain later. That has changed. Today we have a board of trustees and most of them are not Russian people. Today, people within our church are married within Russian and Hispanic and American and other different cultures are marrying within each other. I wanna tell you something. It took a very long time to get to this point but it was intentional. None of it happened by accident. Every church culture is either built by default or by design. Every pastor has a vision but you must understand vision is eaten by culture. Culture eats vision for breakfast. Culture of the church destroys the vision. You can have a vision for miracles but if the culture of the church is not built for that that's why when we have a vision the next thing we had to do for a long time and that's exactly what I'm doing with this sermon right now is reinforcing the culture because in culture miracles happen naturally. In culture people get brought to Christ naturally. That's why in Jamaica they grow bananas but you cannot do that in Alaska. Why? Because of the climate. You can preach a sermon in Alaska. Bananas won't grow because there's no climate, there is no culture and before there was just no culture in the church where new people were welcomed, where new people were attended to when they had a process to go through and they felt like part of the church and we had to build that with our sermons, we had to build that with our personal examples. We had to build that by cutting sacrifices and removing certain things and even asking certain people not to stand in front of that door because they look like holy scanners. Ripped jeans. What is that? Culture is very important. One of the things that we started to do first on our youth service and I'm just giving you a little background of where we are as I'm leading it into this message. We started first on Wednesday nights. This was our youth night at the time. As we made a decision that I used two stories from the Bible to drive this one big point, to create a place where people can belong even if they don't believe. And I used the story of Lot and Sarim. When Lot saw a first-time guest approaching the parking lot of Sarim, he quickly ran to them, he took their name, he took their number, invited them to the house. He washed their feet, offered them something to eat. He treated them like VIPs. Little did he know they were angels. Sarim, when they saw the first-time guest, they wanted to violate them, abuse them. And this is what I taught to our team in the beginning in the youth ministry. I said, there's two ways we treat first-time guests. We attract them or we attack them. We either saw them or we lot. There is no middle ground. And I know the church will say, well, we're not attacking new people. I remember one pastor told me, he says, well, I'm not against them coming. The doors are open, we don't lock our doors. The way we attack new people in church is by indifference and judgmental attitude. How did the older son attack the younger son? By not wanting to come into the house he was in. The father was invitational. The older son was indifferent. And we started to teach our team the way you attack people is not by going physically attacking them, it's by ignoring them. When somebody walks into the church for the first time, if you ignore them, you're attacking them. Why? Because they already feel pressure not knowing anybody. And you just add it to that pressure by pretty much passing them by and talking all the way to your friends and to your family members. When I get invited to your house and I knock on the door, you don't scream from the inside your laundry room, hey, it's open! I'm your guest. You're gonna quickly run to the front door and you're gonna open. And you're not gonna say, yeah, make yourself at home. There's a couch with a remote control. If you want a burger, it's in the fridge. Why? I'm just watching a Netflix show in my room right now. Nobody would do that because if a first-time guest comes to your house, you will stop what you're doing, even if it's a cost to you. And you're gonna take that person, put them on a couch. You're gonna spend time with them and you're gonna walk them out of the house. And when they walk out of the house, you're gonna breathe a sigh of relief. And now you go about your normal business. And this is where we started to teach our church, our youth ministry. And the reason why I'm sharing this is because this needs to be retaught again to our whole church. If you call this church your church, one time to your friends, this is your house. Every person that walks into that door whom you have not seen is your guest. It's insulting to have people come to your house and treat them indifferently. We don't have visitors in our church. We only have guests. And these guests are the true VIPs. And my friend, if this is your house, the person sitting behind you, the person sitting in front of you, and three people sitting beside you are the people you have to be allot to. Invite them over to your life group. Ask them their name. Find out how they heard about the church. You have to be like the father to the prodigal son. When he saw the son from afar in that culture, older men did not run like that. The Bible says he forgot about the culture. He ran to the parking lot because the son was in the parking lot. He ran to the parking lot. That's why I said parking lot ministry is the most important ministry in the church. Yeah. He did not wait in his office and say, I will see when the son will come in. I will see if he comes to the altar. I will see if he goes through the altercal room. I will see if he comes next week. I'm gonna monitor his progress. The father ran to the parking lot, hugged him, kissed him. Now, we wouldn't have to do the kissing part. You can high five somebody. You can stretch your hand and ask them for their name. You don't have to do the kissing part, but you can show affection and show interest. And that son started to repent. He was broken and the older son stood on the side and he was watching. I'm gonna tell you one thing. One of the reasons why many people don't get saved is because when people do come to church, many of us hinder them from coming to get saved because we don't show invitational welcoming attitude. Welcoming attitude. We don't take responsibility. Some of us don't evangelize at all. At least in the church, make those that somebody else evangelizes welcome. I'm gonna speak straight and this is a family talk. For those of you for the first time, this is the talk you would get if you come back. But today, this is not for you. This is for your neighbor. I wanna challenge us. Why? Because the culture of the church is built by what we value and what we teach and what we model. We've opened the VIP room where we give extra attention to the first-time guests. One of the reasons why is because we don't wanna be a sodom. We want to be lot. The strangers will become angels. The people who come for the first time as strangers, they become brother. When Lewis came for the first time and stood there and got saved, he was a stranger. Today, he's a relative. Why? Because anytime you treat strangers as VIP, they will be angels. They will become your close friends one day. They could become billers and leaders of this church. And I wanna give each person right now a responsibility. If this is your home church, if you became a member and you're coming here today, I wanna challenge you. This is your responsibility. To help us create a place where people belong. Even if they don't believe. Let's be a place like father, like older father, like the father to the younger son. When we come in, we embrace people, we welcome people. That's why we got a golf cart where it's not out yet, in few weeks it's gonna be out. That's why we bought the little signs and that's why we offer all of those things. People say, why so much? This is not about a show for us. This is about one thing, is we really want people who are far from Christ to feel a little dose of God's love before they even hear the message that even if they trip over our service, that they will be captured by our love. They might not get healed, but they will have to be loved. We're gonna make it impossible for them not to be loved. And one of the biggest hindrances to us loving people is us feeling like, I didn't do anything wrong. That's not your standard. Indifference is bad. We're called to show attention, to be inventational. Not just to settle with the fact I didn't look give anybody a dead look. I didn't give anybody a stare. I didn't, you know, condemn anybody. I didn't walk away from somebody. I didn't go like this. No, no, no, no, my friend in the kingdom, that's not your success story. Your success story is to meet, is to invite, and to bring somebody in, because somebody's saying, man. And the reason why I'm sharing this today is because we need to keep on, as the church gets bigger, we need to keep on this culture of invitation in our church. People are not looking for a friendly church. We used to think when we were building our youth ministry, one of the things that we had to teach our young leaders is this, is people are not looking for a friendly youth group. They are looking for friends in the youth group. One of the biggest problems that we can have as Christians is this, is when you meet 10 people, but you never really meet met anyone. So we tell our people, and I'm gonna share with you, our people today, don't meet 10 people, meet one person for 10 minutes. Don't meet many, meet one. Let's not become a friendly church. People are sick of those churches, because everybody's high by, hey, how you doing? You know, like you go in the trailer, hey, how are you? Once I wanted to stop and tell them everything that's going on. You know what, I'm not doing good right now. My life is actually really, really difficult. I see people are being polite, and I understand that I respect them. People, when they come to church, they're not just looking for a friendly church, they're looking for a friend. Let's be those friends, by simply taking time to be with one person, instead of saying hi to every single person, meet every person's name, and the moment they walked away, we're like, what was his name again? I know you can't do that to everyone, but it should never stop us from doing that to someone. Can somebody say amen? In the conclusion, I wanna share with you just two thoughts. The second stage of spiritual growth is belonging. That belonging includes life class, life group, and freedom weekend. Life class is where we really feel like you can belong. You can build relationships, where you can take your next step with God. Life class, which is gonna happen during the second service, is kinda like our simulation into the vision of the church, into the church life. We don't like to call it membership, we like to call it like partnership or being a part of, but it's also a part where you can become a member, where you can find a place to serve, where you can then go to freedom weekend. You wanna say, what is freedom weekend? It's from nine to about three. We do it about twice to three times a year, where we take people through inner healing, we take people through baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's really like a spiritual, very deep spiritual retreat. We don't offer that to the public. We only offer that to people who are in the church. The reason why is because people who receive that deep freedom, if they are not anchored in the church, it will do them no good, actually it'll work against them. So we want people who go through that, after that go into destiny training so they can be discipled and to be people who are going to make a difference for God. With that said, the two thoughts I wanna share in the conclusion is the first one. Some people will never believe until they belong. One of the reasons we are building a culture, and I'm preaching about this right now, and I know this is not a financial message or maybe it seemed like a spiritual message, but one of the reasons we are creating a culture of belonging in our church is that some people will never believe unless they belong. In fact, Jesus Christ did not invite his disciples to believe in him. He invited them to belong first. You don't see Jesus coming to disciples and says, come and believe in me. He says, come and, meaning come and be with me. For first few years, they didn't even believe because when he rose from the dead, he convicted them and rebuked them for lack of their belief. And so Jesus didn't seek to make people believe in him. He first made room for them to belong before they believed. And I believe this is the principle that works in the church. A lot of people are not gonna believe until they first belong. So we have to allow them to belong instead of saying, well, unless you believe, I don't wanna know your name. There is a verse in John chapter 11 verse 39 it says the following. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha the sister of him who's been dead said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days. Lazarus is dead. Martha and Mary saying, Jesus, can you do a miracle? Can you do something when he was sick? Jesus comes late. He's buried already four days. He stinks and Jesus comes. And I want you to see this. Jesus does not raise Lazarus until he asks people who love Lazarus to remove a stone. I believe when people come, there are stones they have against God. There are stones they have against Christians. And a lot of people before they trust in God, they'll test you. They'll see how you'll treat them. They'll see how you will talk. Will you come in and genuinely care for them? And I believe that God a lot of times waits before he sends his word, Lazarus. Before he told Lazarus, he told people remove the stone. So I wanna ask us today at church, remove indifference to every person who you don't know in church. Remove the thing, well, I'm not a social person. You just, I like to stay to myself. Jesus is saying, I'm about to do resurrection. I'm about to bring revival of salvation to church. I'm about to do miracle signs and wonders. Like, yeah, I want that, sign me up, Lord. And he says, there's a role you have to play. It's a very simple role. You don't have to do the lifting of the resurrection. I just want you to move the stone. But Lord, those people, there is a stench. But Lord, I don't know them. Lord, but they're different skin. But they're different age. But God, they got tattoos. They got earrings in places. People shouldn't put earrings in. Lord, but they smoked. I saw in the parking lot. He threw away a cigarette. Lord, but there is a smell of alcohol out of their mouth. But Lord, I know them. They were divorced. And Jesus says, do you want a resurrection? Yeah, remove the stone. Remove indifference. Give people a place to belong. You may say, does that mean we approve of their sin? Listen, Lord, there's nothing to do with that. It's about showing love. It's about showing kindness and helping people to belong before they believe. Jesus did not raise Lazarus from the dead until people did a little bit of work. And that's what we taught in our youth ministries. Guys, God is gonna save people. But we are gonna have a little work to do. And that is this, when worship is done, at the end of the service, we don't go to our instruments, but we go to new people. When pastors, we don't hide in green rooms, but we go to people. Why? Because we are called to remove the stone so that God can raise the dead. Amen? The second point, the last point is, even if they don't need to belong so they can believe, they do need to belong so they can become. Some people will never become if they don't belong. Lazarus gets raised from the dead and then Jesus sends people to him again. This time is different. He says, remove the grave clothes. And I believe when people get saved, they need people around them to know their name, to know their number, to know what's going on with them. Why? Because there's a lot of ropes of fear, rejection, shame. Every person has that. That those people, Jesus raised them from the dead, but Jesus did not remove the ropes. And a lot of times we feel like, well, you know, the preacher is the one that's preaching. He needs to be the one to go and removes everybody's ropes. People don't need the preacher. People need you and I. I preach here, but when I step down from there, I'm a normal Christian, just like everyone else. And God will use me. God will use you to remove a robe of loneliness, to remove a robe of rejection, to remove a robe of condemnation, shame, guilt. God will use you to remove the robe. He will raise them, but He will use you to remove the robe from them because they cannot become unless they belong. Can somebody say amen? You know, Jesus Christ was a son of God, yet He needed earthly parents to help Him to grow up. Jesus Christ had a calling on His life to save the world, yet He needed normal, not super, hyper, ultra-spiritual parents. Joseph was not a priest and Mary was not a prophetess. They were average Joe of that day. They were not super spiritual, but they were good people. And guess who God put His son in? Now, God did not need Joseph so that Jesus can be born, but He needed Joseph so Jesus can grow. If Jesus needed mom and dad who were earthly parents, my friend, every man and a woman who get saved in our church and need somebody around them and you might not be able to speak in tongues a lot or do this and that, but can you love, can you care and can you connect? And if you can do that, God will use you to help them become. Can somebody say amen? Last thing I wanna share and we're gonna pray. Isaac and Ishmael in the Bible had the same father, but Isaac and Ishmael had a different destiny, even though they had the same father. The reason they had two different destinies is because they had a different mother. Every Christian has the same father, but every Christian has a different destiny. Some Christians never fulfilled their calling in life because every Christian, though having a same father, they don't have the same mother. They don't have the same nurture. They don't have the same care. Some Christians get saved by a father, but they are discipled by culture. They are discipled still by their old friends and therefore they no longer become Isaac, they live like Ishmael, even though God is their father. And there are some who get saved here and they have God as their father, but they have allowed Sarah, they have allowed the new covenant, they have allowed the life groups, they have allowed mentors and believers to come around them and to raise them. Please understand, my friend, we don't need to help them to belong so they can be saved, but if we want them to become Isaac instead of Ishmael, God will need a Sarah. God will do the miracle of birthing, but we're gonna have to do the process of becoming and belonging, creating that family culture in their life. Because everything that's born out of Abraham can be destined to be an Isaac, unless they have a different mother. And Ishmael attacked Isaac. Ishmael went and did crazy stuff. Isaac was blessed by God. One of the reasons we wanna create a place of belonging, one of the reasons we push cell groups so hard is because we want people who get saved, not to be Ishmaels, but to be Isaacs. We want people to be like Jesus, who had a great calling, a fully God and fully man, but Mary and Joseph helped. They were not Moses and Joshua, but they protected Jesus, they gave him his name, and they helped him to grow until about 30 years of age, and then he went on on his own. God can use you to be a Mary and a Joseph to somebody's life. Some of you, you will disciple people who will change the world. Some of you will have people in your cell group who will go and plant churches and start that, but I wanna tell you something, we are called here to build a culture where people belong before they believe, and even if they don't need to belong, they come and they're like, you know what, I'm good. My daddy never hurt me. My daddy was always there. I don't need nobody to shake their hand to me and talk to me so I can feel belong. I belong in the church no matter what, but they still need to feel like they belong so they can become Isaac, so they can become disciple makers, so they can become a father and a mother to somebody else, somebody's Amen. That's our culture, and the reason I'm talking about that today is because I want to reinforce this culture. I want each one of us to take a part of that. This is not Vlad's church, this is your church. This is our church. Let's make this a place where it's not just friendly, but where people can find friends. Let's make this a place where there is no indifference, but there's a sense of invitation. We don't attack new people, we attract new people. Let's make it a place where you can belong before you believe. Let's make this a place once you believe, you're gonna have to belong, why? Because God has a purpose for you so you can become a disciple maker. Let's make this a place where we help people to take the next step in God in Jesus' name. I want us to rise to our feet. Before we pray for healing, I wanna give an invitation to anybody that's watching us on live stream or anyone in this room, for people who maybe don't know Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. I would like to give you an invitation today to surrender your life to the Lord. Every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're in this room and you have not given your life to the Lord, you haven't surrendered your heart to Jesus. Maybe you walked away from God or perhaps you've never had a relationship with the Lord. Maybe your friend invited you today and you listened to the service and something inside of you resonated. There's a conviction of the Holy Spirit that you need to get right with God. You need to surrender your life to the Lord. Perhaps your life is a mess or maybe your heart is just so empty and void because there is no peace, there is no forgiveness. The Bible says it is appointed for a man to die and then there's a judgment. We will stand before the Lord and we will give an account for our life. None of our good works will ever be enough to earn salvation. My friend, no matter how many times you go to church, you did your confessions and you prayed your rosemaries, none of that will get you saved. Only Jesus gets you saved. If you would like to give your life to Jesus today and you're saying, I would like to commit my life to God. I would like to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I would like to be born again. I would like to repent of my sins today. I would like to start a new life with God. When I count to three, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand as high as you can and I would like to pray with you. If you're watching us on live stream, you can comment below. I would like to get saved and our moderators will stay right now with you and pray for you. One, two, three, raise your hand high. If you're saying, I would like to get saved today, I would like to give my life to the Lord today. Raise your hand high and I'm gonna pray with you and I'm pray that Jesus will come into your heart, forgive you of your sin. Pray this prayer with me. Say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your precious blood. I come the way I am, but I believe that you will give me a new heart and you will transform me from the inside out in Jesus' name. If you prayed that prayer and it's first time, go to hungrygen.com slash VIP. Fill it out so that we can know so we can follow up on you and stay in touch with you.