 heard this this story once a father came to his son and told him that if he will get his grades up and if he will start reading the Bible and cut his hair that he will get in my car so a month later the son comes to his father and says that hey dad my grades are up I got ace I've been reading my Bible and concerning my hair he said well Moses Elijah and Jesus had long hair his father said well Moses Elijah and Jesus walked you're not getting your car it's kind of too late to use that on my brother already because my parents already got in my car but nevertheless the Church of Jesus Christ is the oldest institution that we see today for the past 2,000 years Jesus Christ has been building his church the church has a membership of 2.1 billion people that's the largest bigger organization than any organization any business or any country in the world it's growing rapidly every single day 60,000 people become converts to Christianity that's faster exponential rate than any other thing in the world or even a disease every single day 11,000 people get infected with HIV-AIDS that doesn't even come close with how many people get infected with hope the Church of Jesus Christ is a force on this earth it's the influence it's the instrument that God is using in this day and age to advance his mission to advance his purpose you know we are right now in the time of elections where a lot of emotional things a lot of hateful words a lot of people of our families are very tense many times you bring up word Trump or Hillary and and the conversation goes into a completely different realm but I want to tell you something no matter who becomes the president we understand one thing governments don't change people church does government as great as it is and its purpose and everything but we must understand that the government cannot do what Christ called the church to do you know the countries have come and the countries have been gone great companies have risen and great companies have fallen even right now we are in the world where Google or Facebook where Apple is on the top of their game but you know that they were not on the top of their game 50 years ago they were not here a thousand years ago which tells me even our great nation the most powerful nation in the world and the nation to be proud to belong to a nation that I'm happy I'm a citizen of but this country has been here for about 300 something years it has not been here for 2,000 years it wasn't great for 2,000 years but church was church was great when Nero was an emperor church was thriving and growing when Hitler rose up when Stalin rose up when communism was fascism were all kinds of isms rose up and said we'll stop them out we'll show the last Christian in the museum and we'll show the last Bible in some kind of a crazy library but listen all of them died all of those things ended and the church is to marching and moving forward the point being is that it's great to have a business it's great to be a politician but never ever underestimate the power and the influence of the local church in the world you living in today because our founder is Jesus Christ and he's not in heaven trying to do puzzles or directing a choir Jesus is not in heaven taking an eternal map Jesus is in heaven and his one concern is how to build and how to extend his mission on this earth through the local church we believe that the local church is made out of imperfect people like you and I and if you ever find a local church that is perfect please don't join it because you'll ruin it if you ever think the local church has a lot of hypocrites I have a news flash for you there is a room for one more a local church is not the perfect body of people but it's still the best choice God has on this earth to advance his mission and his cause of reaching people to himself it's what he has chosen and I am eternally indebted to God to be able to be a part not just of the local church here but of the global church in the world to be a play a small part and you and I being a home group leader bringing other people to Jesus helping out in the ministry coming to morning prayers sending our ties you know reaching out children through Yogi Bear through the television program that we have and through different ministries that we want to see thousands locally and millions globally through that what we're doing is are playing a small role in this historic and this amazing movement that started 2,000 years ago and it's not ending when Google goes out of business and it's not gonna end when our nation will go down it will not end with my death or your death it will not end with destruction of this building and it will not end even if they'll start putting Christians in jail because even today Christians are being stumped in other countries and the church keeps marching on because it's bigger than you and I behind it has the power of the Holy Ghost and it has the mission the mission of the church is not to keep the Christians happy it's not babysitting club but we entertain the saints it's not a museum for the believers it's the hospital for the lost we're not an insiders club who have our own little clique and our own little christianese we are a boat we are a on the mission of seeing people who do not know Jesus who are far from Jesus get to know Jesus can somebody say amen with that said I want to speak today about cleaning or being committed to church I think was Rick Warren said he says if I would believe that politicians can change the world I would become a politician and he said this to pastors he says pastors please don't ever downgrade from your calling to become a president he said the greatest calling is not to rule a nation but he says is to serve people and the best way to do that is to change their heart not just to give them some kind of a loss that might not even affect their lives but to change their lives their hearts through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ no senator no governor listen no one in this world without Jesus can change someone take someone's urge to smoke even the great programs that we have today and when we went today to see you know Brian's graduation and there was the all the policemen sitting there all the great men the judges and everything and Brian had the opportunity to share his story in front of everyone there were people who recovering and then they asked if anyone who knows Brian can get up and say a few things and I had the opportunity and Brian's sister had the opportunity to get up and to speak and just mention a little bit about his testimony and but what touches me is this is that no one see you can ban adultery but you cannot remove adultery out of a person's heart without the power of the Holy Ghost see we can ban murder we can ban homosexuality we can ban behavior but no one can change your heart through a law or through legislation that can only be done through the power of the Holy Ghost the power that is operating through the local church people like you and I can somebody say amen a local church is not buildings it's not brick and stone it's not pulpits and preachers local church is the body of believers gathered with the same mission to make Jesus who is invisible to a human eye become real to a human heart and you and I are the church say I'm the church if you have your Bible we will go to book of Ruth chapter 1 verse 14 and I will take the parallel between Ruth and us and Naomi being the church Ruth chapter 1 verse 14 then they lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother in law but Ruth cloned to her and she said look your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister-in-law but Ruth said in treat me not to leave you or turn back from following after you for whatever you go I will go whatever you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God where you die I will die where you will be buried and there will I be buried the Lord do to me and more so if anything but death parts you and me and when she saw that she was determined to go with her she stopped speaking to her the story goes like this is that Naomi with her husband moves to a nation of Moab and there her two children two sons get married to these two girls one of them was Ruth the other one was Orpah and then because of we don't know why but the father dies and two of the sons also die so Naomi realizes she has no connection to stay in Moab plus the nation of Israel is gotten a really good they recovered from their recession things are going better she decides to go back she comes to her daughter-in-law and she tells them I want you ladies to stay back home you know go back to your houses get married and just God bless you let's keep in touch on Facebook and want both daughters right away say oh no we're gonna go with you you know I mean she's their mother-in-law she's not their mother you know you're not gonna follow your mother-in-law you know you usually follow your mother or your father usually clean to them not to your in-laws especially if you're in-laws just need a little bit of Jesus and if you're married do not say amen right now not a good idea but this is an in-laws this is not one of those people you want to clean to especially they're going to a different country where they come from and so the both daughters they right away begin to pretend they're like oh we want to go with you we love you so much we're gonna miss you and Naomi knows just just a lot of you know baloney and she says come on guys stop crying just go back and one of them is like okay okay since you insist I'll just go back and the other one Ruth says I'm not going anywhere now my question was where was Ruth's mother why was she not cleaning to her mother why was she cleaning to someone who was not her mother it was her mother-in-law but she was cleaning to her and she says I'm not going anywhere it wasn't because Naomi had money it wasn't because Naomi had houses it wasn't because Naomi had a great business plan it was just because she was cleaning to her some something inside of her was connected to Naomi she says I'm not going anywhere without you I'm gonna stick with you your God's gonna be my God your people will be my people whatever you go I will go where you die I will be buried as well I am with you and Naomi realizes this girl is persistent she says okay fine let's go and so as they begin to go they come into a nation of Israel and this is where Ruth meets a guy named Boaz it's interesting because Boaz was actually a son of a very famous lady in the Bible Rahab Boaz's father was Salman Salman was one of the spies who went into Jericho to spy out the land and he happened to stay in the ladies house named Rahab and when God rescued Rahab a Salman you know decided to just propose to Rahab and get married to her and they have a child named Boaz I want you to see something very interesting because Boaz and Ruth we see both of these people come from messed up families but both of their lives get radically changed because they changed at their location because Ruth connected herself to Naomi we don't see Ruth's life ended up in shambles but we see Ruth's life ending up in something where she gives birth to a great great king eventually and things change when you cling to church number one what happens generational curses and we break generational curses when we cling to church when I say cling to church I am not talking about what Ofra did yes I clean when things are good but the moment things are hard or I casually clean means means I come on prayer lines I come every other week I come when I'm not busy I'm that's not kind of cleaning cleaning is when you attach yourself to the mission and the purpose of the church when you get involved in the things that your church is involved in what this does is that the family you come from begins to matter not because you have a new family the family you come from begins to matter not because you begin to have a brand new family inside of you that is connected to Abraham I just returned from Ukraine and I had the opportunity to meet my grandpa my father's dad and me and my brother and my grandpa who was not looking at the camera my grandpa he is 90 years of age actually his wife says he's 93 but while they debate I'll just stick with the lowest one 90 my grandpa told me a little story and I kind of started to appreciate the power of generational blessings my grandpa was when he was a child he had leprosy and he wasn't a believer his parents were not believers and when Christians came into that little village that they lived in Christians prayed for him though he wasn't a believer and he received total healing which resulted in his father which is my great grandpa he gave his life to Jesus because of healing of his son and he eventually because the gospel wasn't allowed to be preached in the parts of Ukraine he was sentenced to jail for the preaching of Jesus and my great grandpa he went to jail his name was Lazarus he went to jail after he came back because he had poor nourishment in jail and because he was beaten and other things he quickly died and my grandpa he became a pastor in that little village and he was a pastor for many decades and then came my dad who followed Jesus Christ and then came yeah I just say I just said I in Russian oh my goodness two weeks of Russian is coming out I was looking and reflecting on my family I was reflecting on the family of my parents and on the families of people that come to church and I see God's blessing in marriage I see God's blessing even in finances and in health and I was trying to ask my grandpa and as he was talking I was trying to see what is the secret of God's blessing on the family tree that we are in was it because we're the smartest was it because we're the most best-looking was it because we're such a financial gurus and had nothing to do and I saw one little thing that goes through all of the people who have a generational blessing is they have this undying commitment to a local church to the point they go to jail for it this whole idea that I slept in on Sunday or we had a picnic on Sunday or was a family brunch so I'm not gonna go to church that didn't exist in our family you were never asked do you want to go to church on Sunday that's not a question it was always we are going to church on Sunday we as children were never the center of the family God was the center and we as the family worship him and God's blessing begins to rest on the family that makes God's kingdom and God's church as the center instead of little bambinos that run in the house as the center of the family when you teach children they are the center of the universe you will suffer when they get it when they get it that they're the center of the universe and they begin to make you be their slave their boss be their slave everyone be their slave because they are the center of the universe newsflash the Sun is the center of the universe not them God Jesus is the center and when we make God's kingdom the center we begin to have generational blessings when we make hobbies when we make and all of these things are awesome fishing trips and endless literally 27 vacations that always happen on Sunday when we make that the center something begins to happen not generational blessings begin to come but we see according to the generations just crippled one generation crippled another generation and crippled another generation as statistics says that if you come from a family where your father was an alcoholic your chances of being abusing alcohol is 10 times more than someone who didn't abuse alcohol it's already been proven and we all see that there are certain things are passed on in genes for example certain characteristics certain hair color even some of you you know if you come from a Hispanic family there is a resemblance of that you're not gonna look like Asian you know if you come from a Slavic family or a Russian family you're not gonna look Mexican we have these certain genes that we cannot change and this is what they found that was very interesting is there is this particular gene epigenetic which is on the top of our genes and they say that they have done a study where this gene means that just because a gene has been passed down it does not need to be activated it is affected by our decisions environment and experience what they found is this certain genes for example like drinking divorce negativity depression that might be running in genes running in the family and they found this to be true that these genes are laying their dormant waiting to be activated and they can lay dormant and become dead by three things your decision your experience and your environment means if you put yourself in an environment contrary to how you grew up your life can completely change and continue to change and children's life will continue to change and you will be completely different person because of that because cleaning to church breaks generational curses can somebody say man no wonder God told Israel get out of Egypt God did such a great miracles he could have changed Egypt 20,000 times but see if you are stuck in some kind of a bad place you can't expect God to change that place God takes you from a bad place to a good place and the good place is this church that's why God told lot get out of Sarum that's why we see God tell disciples stay in Jerusalem see some people say I'm gonna go back to my old life where I came from I'm gonna move back maybe what I was I'm gonna stay home and worship God I don't need to go to church and a God will bring his blessing there listen God is not gonna bless disobedience God does not bless mess God blesses place where he ordained for you to belong in the house of God in the kingdom of God in the mission of God because somebody say amen when you choose to make God's kingdom I'm not just talking about make sure every Wednesday night you are here on your phone make sure that every and every Wednesday night that you are here so you're texting or you're here to get connections get hookups that's not what really is gonna change it's getting cleaning cleaning to the vision when pastor is preaching you're taking notes when the worship is going on you're worshiping when the morning prayer is open and you're not praying at home you're saying you know what I'm gonna come and pray if it's 10 minutes but I'm gonna pray if they're saying we need to give to the kingdom of God I'm gonna give to the kingdom of God if I have free night I'm not just gonna download myself with bachelor red or game of thrones I'm gonna go help with the yoga bear can somebody say amen clean to the church generational curses begin to be broken when we connect ourselves to the church number two go into the church or clean to the church develops our character it's interesting because when Ruth came upon Boas is filled both Boas sit said this about Ruth he said everyone knows in Israel you are a virtuous another translation says a worthy woman and then when people were talking about Boas they said ah Ruth is so lucky she got a worthy man it's interesting how worthy people attract worthy people and worth less people happen to attract just that how did Ruth become worthy person was she born worthy no how did Ruth become worthy she became worthy because Boas said I heard you followed your mother-in-law into this land when you begin to clean to church something happens your character begins to develop when your character develops it changes who you are when you change who you are listen up all single people you attract who you are you don't attract your fourth dimension you attract your character if you're a jerk you can you can hope for a model listen only another jerk manipulative coming your way you cannot because a person who is worthy will smell unworthy person million miles away and you will say they won't fall trap to your beautiful makeup or your wonderful muscles or your little rims on the car listen people like that they smell worthy person really quickly and God is not gonna punish them by giving someone who has not been working under character the best way to work on your character is to stay committed to a local church why because sooner or later we are gonna wrap shoulders and one of us are gonna get offended how are you gonna develop your character we're gonna have problems why because you and I are different why because you and I see different you grew up different I grew up different we have a different vision that you might like or not like different preferences and when you begin to stay in church and begin to be committed to something bigger than your opinion or your preference your character begins to get in shape your worth begins to change your integrity begins to change and like a magnet you attract people just like you who are changing the last thing we need is people who refuse to change we need to send them out to other countries send them out to other people bless your enemies with them let your enemies be married to them let your enemies have them as your as their children never in your camp never in your zip code people who are changing are the best people they're easy to be married to they're so easy to raise as children they're so easy to have us home group leaders they're so easy to have as employees or employers they're so easy to do business with because there are people who recognize their mistake and they say you know what I'm sorry I wasn't writing this we cannot grow our character if we don't cling to church a lot of people they this how they cling to church they come to church they said this is church is so awesome they begin to praise the church when I see people praising our church I get scared because that tells me they're on the honeymoon and the honeymoon is gonna get over and when it gets over the way they praise their church is the way they're gonna curse our church because every church has its faults and that means they haven't found ours yet when they found out that everybody is very friendly in our church but also every single church has its challenging people it's challenging things and every single church no matter how great it is it will cause certain offenses if Jesus is church cause 75 72 leaders to leave 72 leaders these were not followers leaders to leave listen Jesus was the pastor and 72 people says we're fed up we can't take this no more he's like we favor only Jesus will have a church well you would leave most likely if that could cause that that tells us that Jesus no matter church you join you gonna have to sooner or later work on your issues but what we do is instead of working on an issue we switch churches and we stay in church long enough till we find the issue or people find our issue and we keep hopping hopping hopping and guess what grows our inability to change that is the only thing that grows and then you see we hop the same way from relationships we hop the same way from business opportunity we always hop hop hop hop hop and God Bible says that we have to be planted in the house not hopping from a house to a house now I understand sometimes people move from one church to another sometimes there's different preferences but if that's been happening every six months for the past six decades somebody has a problem and I don't think that's the church point number three clinging to church attracts the favor of God in your field of work when Ruth started to cling to Naomi they came to a place of Israel where Ruth started to go on the fields and gather grain the first field she went on was the field of Boas and when Boas met her the Bible says that Boas told his workers and said I want you to leave to Ruth handful on purpose meaning you guys will gather grain and I want you to begin to drop it on purpose why because she's behind you and she will start collecting it without gleaning it favor begins to follow your life in the area of your employment or your income when you cling to church I strongly believe that our commitment to the local church opens the doors of heaven to bless us in the area of finances I strongly believe God wants to bless your business God wants to bless your hobby God wants to bless your income-making machine and cause things to happen on purpose means favor of God where other people work harder for it and things just come easier why because it came hard for you to cling to church see for Ruth to cling to Naomi wasn't easy when her other sister-in-law left when it didn't seem like she had a reason to cling to her mother-in-law the only reason was her husband and he was gone and so she had to take a step of risk and when she was cleaning to Naomi and God saw the sacrifice that she paid and God says guess what I will give you favor in the area of your work God wants to bless you in the area of your work with favor when you cling to church can somebody say amen number four when we cling to church God opens doors for our relationship with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit came upon the gathering of believers not an isolated once when we are casually connected to church we come whenever we want we come whenever we feel like we have a little throat the throat hurts we went to work we went to Walmart we went to watch a movie we went to taco truck and then Wednesday night I couldn't make it why my throat hurts excuse me devil is a liar when we use excuses our family night which what we means is that everyone in the different room watches a different TV show on Netflix and this is what was the family night I can't come to church because your family is getting together and there's important to for family to get together but a lot of people use different excuses to avoid and to mistreat and we have to understand this is when you begin to constantly mistreat you miss on your relationship with the Holy Spirit to go deeper actually on the opposite you become exposed to the demonic attack on your life people say I don't need to go to church to believe in God 150% but you need to go to church to grow closer to the Holy Spirit and you need to go to church to get protected from the attacks of the devil because you can sit at home and wave your bumper sticker or your cross or your crucifix to the devil all you want but if you are not in the body of Christ the enemy begins to attack you if you look at how wolves attack sheep they wait for the sheep to get isolated from the herd I remember when I was in Africa on the Safari and I was watching how lions will attack zebras they didn't attack the herd those zebras are not as powerful as lions but every lion knew you cannot attack a herd of zebras what they would wait is they would wait for the young zebra who always stayed behind and a lot of people live like that is they try to stay behind means everybody's going getting involved you're like I'm just gonna come and check it out and I'm gonna sit on the side and that's how the lions of the devil and the demons begin to attack those kind of people that's why I'm encouraging you listen if you are gonna commit yourself to something commit yourself a hundred percent when you lived in the world you didn't go to the world and to the church you went a hundred percent into the world when you commit yourself to God you will see the changes and the results in your life claiming to go to church without being involved in the church will do no good to you how many of you here have a gym membership a lot no how many of you actually go to the gym you have membership a lot less hands another question how many we actually work out in that gym because I see some of you you only take pictures claiming to go to hungry generation but not getting involved is like going to a gold gym sitting on the beautiful leather couch scrolling through Facebook two hours later says I've been to the gym you're still the same size you still have the same calories they were not been burned but they just went deeper into you you can sit in church on the back you can sit in the church on the front scroll through snapchat and say I've been to hungry generation my life has not been changed you're fooling no one clean the church and you will begin to sense the Holy Spirit touch you you begin to feel the Holy Spirit speak to you you will sit like Brian sits and have all of his felonies all of his debts paid off and not only that but helped a lot of other people you will sit like other people who today do not have addiction to a particular sickness reticulated addiction because they got free because they pay attention to the Holy Spirit you'll be like Brian who will have no more back pain and you'll be able to run why because the benefits of the Holy Spirit will touch your life when you clean when you get connected when you get alert when you get involved when you get immersed and planted in the house of God as somebody say amen and the last thing is that cleaning the church causes cleaning the church today will nurse your children tomorrow when Ruth clung to Naomi came a time when Naomi took Ruth's baby it was all bad and the Bible says Naomi was nursing the child did you know who named Ruth's baby it was the community you know most of us those of you who have babies you don't let the church name the baby like even the wonderful lady here who apostle John she named her baby and and she named her give her middle name of apostle John she but the first name we name it we don't let no one name our babies Ruth went to her community and community said the name of your baby will be all bad she says great awesome why because Ruth was involved in a community not by herself and guess who nursed her baby the very one she was clinging to you want church to raise giants love the church if you gossip about the church if you talk trash about the pastor if you constantly criticism the church wasn't good the church wasn't good don't do not do not think for a moment your children will love the God whose house you criticize you may not understand everything you might not even like certain preferences you might not like certain ideas that are presented not talking about theological but just preferences you have to understand you have to always in your house publicly show your honor and appreciation to the church and to the leadership why your children are listening they will not love the God whose house you constantly make fun of and criticize but if you are like Ruth you cling to Naomi there would be a time when that Naomi will take your children and will nurse them when this kind of ministry will begin to take your children and through Sunday school through youth ministry through home groups and you begin to see your children are not just not smoking drinking and get high your children are beginning to serve God healing the sick they have big dreams and big aspirations why because the church you're connected to will be the church they will begin to raise them up and Naomi raised up a father of a king she raised up generals church will always raise up great and mighty men I remember what Richard Bonke said this he said a Christian believer needs a church just as the candle needs a candle stick a tree needs soil an electric light bulb needs a socket without a candle stick a candle cannot stand without soil a tree cannot grow without a socket electric bulb cannot shine neither can you without fellowship a Christian can neither stand nor grow nor shine in the conclusion if you've been coming the hungry generation and you consider this to be your church I ask you that you get committed we have services on Sunday Sundays are not your day off it's your day to worship God it's your day to be in church we are Friday night prayers you're asking God to deliver you from sin perhaps coming to night prayer instead of the club will help these night prayers are not for people who have nothing to do these night prayers are not for people who are retired and they're just do not have any friends and they only go to church to see another person we are just like you we have school we have family children assignments work business we don't come to prayer because we have nothing to do we don't come to prayer because we don't have burdens we come to prayer because we understand life on this earth will always come to an end the Bible says it is appointed for a man to die and then the judgment when we're gonna give an account to God we understand why we live and commit ourselves to church and to the kingdom of God is we will give an account to God and I hope your accomplishment is not gonna be like the man who went to the rock record of genious record who ate an aeroplane 36 bicycles and who ate some big plastic thing and he ate metal and he eats all kinds of weird things and that's his accomplishment I hope your accomplishment is not gonna be just I got a dog I got a truck I got a house and I got 27 credit cards and I maxed them out your accomplishment has to be I save souls I start home groups I give money I help the church I help the kingdom of God and when my heart beats its last and it will I will with anticipation look forward to meet the man who died for me and I lived for him we have home groups home groups are not for loners home groups are for you home groups are for me if I have a home group and I am in the home group so you need a home group as well we have school leaders on Friday night where you can learn more about your Christian faith and that's for you as well these morning prayers that are open from five in the morning Monday through Friday tomorrow's gonna be open these morning prayers are not for people who are weak it's also for people who are strong for people who are righteous and for those who are sinners to get closer to God there's ministries that we have we give tithes to our church because we believe in what we're doing we believe in the kingdom of God and that involves you as well we have Sunday school we have nursery we have Yoke Bear we have video department we have other departments that you can be involved they don't sit on the sidelines get involved usually this is what happens in the church 20 percent of people do 80 percent of work that means 80 percent of people are sitting under butts is coming here and saying it's about me me and me if you feel like you plateaued in the church do you know how not to plateau in the church do something grow if you feel like you come and not be feeling the worship no more well last time I checked worship wasn't about you it was about him if he feels good about it we worshiped well maybe you come and you say just not been getting spiritually fed maybe you're spiritually overweight you spiritually need to do a little bit more exercising because in China they take one one page of New Testament one page and they built 5,000 member church and raised the dead with one page of New Testament you're over educated and you know a lot more than what you're practicing already begin to exercise what you learned begin to put into practice and you will quickly see every single service will be fresh to you because you're not just here to receive you're also here to serve I know that this is maybe a sharp for some of you maybe if you're coming for the first time this message wasn't for you it was for your for the person that invited you you're welcome to come in here this message is for us as believers let's rise up let's snap out let's grow up and let's let's do great things for the kingdom of God does somebody say