 Our ministry is gonna grow bigger, but our roots have to go deeper One time we had a windstorm in tri-cities and as I was driving to church I saw a little tree in the trailer park over here that was really bushy and really nice and beautiful But it was flipped over and the root system was was about maybe one foot in it was wide But it wasn't deep and therefore the tree started to grow bigger Larger but because the roots never went deeper a small storm and tipped over that tree like crazy And for us to see what I'm declaring for right now and what I'm confessing for some people Maybe find that proud find that offensive or anything. That's that's your your thing But for us, this is God's height. This is God's potential for us and all of these things even now going into two services I mean for crying out loud graduating from high school getting your own license and getting your own job paying your own taxes Getting a girlfriend getting your own place getting children or getting married and getting married first and then getting children Getting your own mortgage What happens is anytime your life enlarges your responsibilities get bigger your relationship has to get deeper The problem with us as people is that many times our responsibilities get bigger and Root system remains the same and therefore a small trauma a small disappointment. It tips us over We go into depression we go into alcohol we go into other things for some people is they glue themselves to Netflix Others they just literally get addicted to eating some get addicted to this and that why because our root system Supported us well when we lived with our parents in middle school But now that we have our own kids our roots can no longer sustain the weight of Responsibility of adult life and so I want to I'm not gonna preach today. I'm just doing an introduction For the roots to go deeper personally, I found three habits that have helped me for my roots to deepen as My branches expand the first one is you have to fast if you want to last fasting Allows you to last in whatever you start to do Have you noticed many people start with a passion for Jesus and with time that passion dies out The only way to increase the hunger spiritually is to put yourself through hunger physically And I'm not talking about the hunger where you don't have the money to eat. That's that's that's not the same I'm talking about the hunger where you choose Not to eat so you can focus on spiritual things for those of us who grew up in church or now are getting accustomed to church It's possible to be so around the Christianity that you become numb To the beauty the majesty and the awe of who God is It's kind of like a person who works in the chocolate factory Starts hating chocolate Because you see it all the time you eat it all the time and after a while you become you you grow with this taste I preached 39 times last year in this church and 59 times outside of our church not including about 26 times in schools and internships. I can tell you one thing I can preach in my sleep and After a while you become numb You like the person who's done is so many times you preach is so many times You've been hurt and disappointed by people and everything and it's just so easy to go through the motions And what helps me to reset my spiritual life so that I am as on fire for God today As I was when I was 16 years of age and I just discovered the Holy Spirit is fasting if you want to last you got a fast So I challenge you this week was so beautiful to see so many people of our church We starting this movement where once a month we take first three days of the month to fast It resets something in your spirit I've met people who've done it for the first time in their life this this week and this is a lot It's so much easier than I thought I didn't die I feel so much better my spiritual senses are sharper people who thought that I'm gonna they're gonna throw up blood the next day They said everything was fine actually lost roles that I've been trying to lose by working out They said it works magic Because when you obey God God will let you last if you fast The second decision that practically I take is this is In order to overcome Overwhelmness I have to avoid Overweightness Now let's get sensitive in order to overcome being overwhelmed It's very practical. You have to avoid being overweight When you are overweight Physically, I'm not talking about some spiritual sense right now. It's very practical physical when you are overweight Physically what it does is it begins to affect your emotions? It begins to sap your energy your physical energy and it begins to actually even your physical body the structure of your body Is not wired you may say it doesn't matter. I know who I am in Christ You're 100% right your weight doesn't determine your worth But your body Cannot handle extra weight because your knees start to suffer your back starts to suffer You're back and your knees and the structure of your body doesn't get the point that that who you are in Christ It it feels the more weight and he begins to give in and after that goes in so many other things For myself as a Christian I'm just sharing something for my life and I want to share it with you so that you apply that also in your life You are a soldier in the army of Christ not a mall cop You see mall cops and if you hear your mall cop, you're amazing. I Am referring to someone who's a mall cop from a movie that I saw. Okay. I am not referencing to you. Okay Mall cops are not trained for warfare They're trained to guide people to the restrooms in case there's something they call for the police if you are in the military There are people here today. You're in the military You're sharp your fit in the military. You're prepared for war in The mall you're prepared for fun Many people the reason why spiritually and even physically the struggling is because they're physically not fit That's one of the things and I know you might come to church today You like I came to hear about Jesus and you're talking to me about being fit because this affects other areas of your life You have to be able to have less weight or just enough weight physically so that you can do what you need to do in life without pain Imagine putting a trailer of A semi truck on your two-door Honda How far you gonna get not very far you will destroy the car anytime we carry extra weight What it does is it begins to affect our spirituality and begins to affect our calling we lose our energy and your biggest Contribution to your family and to your marriage and to your society and to your work is your energy. It's not even your skills It's your energy and you lose that energy and therefore this is the year well We all have to take our health very seriously. I am not an expert in this that's for I'm not gonna talk about it anymore My beautiful wife is gonna come in in just a moment and she'll talk a little bit more about health I struggle with weight I Do after I got married until my marriage everything was fine when I got married things just shifted I Got corrected numerous times by my pastor saying Vlad You got a belly sticking out you can't do that You're a preacher your soldier in the army of God and the first time I heard that I was offended because of like You know people should we should look to to Christ not to our appearance and everything But see we're not just having Christ here We're having each other here And so and I started to take my health seriously started to take a little bit more seriously And then I started to realize that my eating habits were were a whack You know, I drink didn't drink enough water. I didn't exercise I ate more than I consumed that I burned and I started to realize that I was addicted to sugar and and all of these things What they do is they begin to affect every area of your life Amen For those of you who are struggling with overweightness or struggling with you know getting rid of that that extra weight and stuff So this is not to hurt you or discourage you This is to motivate you to listen to overcome that you will be able to have energy and Strength that you didn't have before this is God's will for this year for your life You may not be able to be like someone else, but be the best you the God credit you to be and the last tip for myself and that is Focus more on education Then entertainment the Bible says I pray that you will prosper and be in good health as your Soul prospers Your soul goes bankrupt if you spend your free time on entertainment Many times for Christians entertainment is escapism From the pressure of life now There's nothing wrong with having little outlets in life where you enjoy yourself where you relax the problem What is when the pressure is so strong that you actually create a coping mechanism and you glue yourself? Not because you like to watch action stuff, but it's because you just like to run from the reality and Though there's nothing wrong in itself to watch an action movie or go and watch a game or play a video game There's nothing wrong with that what it does is that if it takes your time from educating yourself by reading Listening on other things that becomes devil's foothold in your life If you still have time to read and to educate yourself then that is good Have some fun go play golf and you know watch some movies and do all this stuff But if you don't have time to read you don't have time to be on the reading plan And you complain that for the past 20 years as a Christian never read the Bible once But your Netflix history shows the two movies a day and bunch of TV shows that have 10 or 15 Seasons you have plowed through like a fateful plower You got a problem Amen I Remember I met with the young teenage leaders and then I asked them how many times they've read the Bible from beginning to land and many of them Young people already. I'm like you guys have kids wives or I mean what what's happening? Why you don't have time they're like we're so busy and I asked them to do something that was so powerful For those of you who have Android phones I'm not sure if you have that feature I said open up your iPhones open to settings on the setting There's this feature called battery they look on the battery and Then it shows up with what did you spend your time on the phone in the past 24 hours? You click beside it a percentage and then you click another button beside it That says last seven days and I asked them could you show me and I saw one person's Two three hours a day on Facebook The other person's you know two hours a movie app and as you see where your time went and the iPhone shows it to you if You're not being educated and you're being entertained your soul is bankrupt very soon So will be your bank account Very soon so will be everything you touch will be bankrupt on the average CEO reads from four to six books a month On the average a person that works for CEO reads two books a year Why because as employees we entertain ourselves people who are wealthy they educate themselves and for Those of you who finished high school and finished a degree got a bachelor's or a master's You have you will have the biggest challenge because you will feel like you're done with school as long as you're breathing you're in school You got a constantly educate your soul Educate your mind don't leave your life in 2018 entertaining yourself enlighten yourself. Can somebody say a man? You know, I look over my life every every season of my life where I was overwhelmed. I didn't take care of my health I didn't live a life of fasting and I avoided learning I Avoided reading and so I really want to challenge you this year new year new you is not going to come because you get a new Prophecy you have more prophecies. You can save China with the amount of prophecies you got But there will be no shift if you don't learn to read more Watch more sermons Read the Bible Slowly, but surely Watch how many steps you take every day drink more water less sugar More Jesus the Bible does not say Jesus is a great coke or a great Pepsi. He's a living water Water my friends water drink water Amen I'm very grateful because my wife. She is the one that always helps me in the area of health I am if I would be left to my own devices. I would eat cake for lunch dinner breakfast and during the night I love sweet stuff and about two months ago We came from Massachusetts and I started to notice a fatigue I started to take more naps than I should and I feel more tired and so she told me gave me a prophetic word She's a Vlad until you cut off sugar She said you just gonna get fat discouraged And she said you just you just he's a couple. I'm gonna love you still he said but you are gonna love yourself And something just happened. I've heard this statement from so many people myself included by something happen Honestly, I believe Holy Spirit did something in my heart. I made a vow. That's it. I'm gonna drink coffee I'm not gonna give up on coffee But I will drink coffee without any sweeteners and and ever since then it's been another time I started to see increase in energy. I started to see how I feel I mean my face a little bit shrunk and stuff so in the past two months and but most importantly One discipline always leads to another one. I started to watch how I eat a little bit better It started to be more consistent in in fitness and in exercising I started to become more consistent even with reading books and and so many other things You start with one decision where you discipline your flesh and it will lead to another decision and to another decision and to another Decision there's no magic here. There's no secret pill Some of you saying well Vlad it's easy for you. You come from that family. Yes Jeans they affect us, but honestly excuses will never help us to progress in life Period. Thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things Click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it And remember the best is yet to come