 So you can write down the information, and I'll bless all of you who came here tonight. And what? Your time, my friend. Look, greet him. Give him a hand and applaud. God is good. And all the time. Amen. We'll try this side. God is good. And all the time. I can bring my microphone a little bit up because I can't hear myself. And amen. It's so good to be here. Perfect. Thank you. And it's a blessing to be here. I've been here a long time ago. Some of you guys were still in elementary school. I'm already old. But it's good to see a lot of new faces. And Val took over now. And stuff is so. So it's really, really awesome. And what the Lord will be doing tonight. And what the Lord is doing. And you guys have an awesome choir. We also came with the choir. We just need microphones. And then we can also, we brought a whole crew. And so all the people from Tri-Cities, we can stand to your feet. This is everybody from Tri-Cities including your Roman. Let's give them a round of applause. Now. Yeah, you guys take your seats. There's only about a few of them that are married. The rest of them are single. Ready to mingle. And that is the ultimate reason and purpose. For some of them coming here. But at the end of the day, some of you guys are very young. I'm looking at some of you guys are very, very young. And so God's time is the best. Amen. It's like in that church one pastor was trying to raise money for the building project. And he said that whoever will donate a thousand dollars to the building project, they'll choose next Sunday, next three hymns in the church. Hymns is songs. And so this lady, she gave a thousand dollars. And the pastor says, so which three hymns you want us to sing next Sunday? She said, I want him, him and him. You never know. I'm also really happy here. My wife has left a few days before me. And so I came also to pick her up from Tri-Cities, from Vancouver. I've been married to her for a thousand, three hundred, fifty-nine days. And it's been an adventurous time. And some of you can use the calculator to divide there by how many years that is. But I'm really, really blessed to be with her. Let's give her a round of applause as well. She's a phenomenal painter and just a very wonderful, wonderful person. But she can paint so much better that I could ever preach. And when she was fifteen, I think her painting was one second place in France and third place in South Africa and stuff. So she's a phenomenal, phenomenal person. If you have Instagram, follow her right now. And if you are today, you came with the phone and you have a cell phone with you, because I'm noticing that everybody has no books. I want you to get your phone out. And after you add Hungry Generation on Facebook, I want you, after that, find notes on your phone. Everybody, get your phones out, including you. And so, get your phones out. I want you to go to notes on your phone. And every single service that we do on the youth, we really encourage every single young person to write everything down. Something that stands out to you that you take notes. The reason why is because the currency in the kingdom of God is attention. You know, most of you and us, young people, we broke like a joke. That means we can't pay much when the offering basket comes in. You know, there's not much. But there's one thing that you can pay to God in the church. It's called attention. That's why we say pay attention. Because attention is something you pay. And the amount of attention you put in is the amount of the blessings of God you will get out. Amen. It's like in flying. If you ever flew in a plane, you know that there is a first class and then there's the rest of us, economy, called broke people. You know, and the difference between first class and the economy, well, if you never flew the first class, you have no idea of the difference. But you may say, well, it's the same plane, same flight, you know, same pilot, same thing, same distance. They're not flying faster than us. They're not flying faster than you, but they sure enjoying a lot more leg room and so many other things that you're there wish to have. Only for one reason. Not because these people are special and not because the pilot is racist and so he puts you on the back and he puts these like people in the front. No, it's only because of one thing, they pay more. Same flight, same experience, same flight, same pilot, same distance, same speed, different price, and different experience. You can be sitting in the same church, same preacher, a same sermon, a same everything the same, but a person besides you pays more attention and they get out more than the person besides you, who's the simplest sister, scrolls through Facebook whenever they're bored, scrolls through Snapchat, hey, this is me a church and all this stuff. And then they get out and nothing happened and the other person besides you walks out and they're free from depression, they're free from back pain, or they're free from this or that, why? Because when you pay attention, God rewards. Somebody say amen, amen, amen. And so just really want to challenge you, did you take notes? I do that myself. When my pastor preaches, I take notes. And some things like he says God loves you. I write that down. Sometimes you forget. And so you don't have to write. Some people like, well, it's not deep enough. Excuse me? What we mean by saying it's not deep enough means it's not confusing enough. And so most of us are looking for a confusing sermon because we're like, well, I had no idea what he said, but it sounds so interesting. That is not the point. The point is you write down things the Lord wants to speak to your life and he wants to do that. And when you do that, another reason it helps you to pay attention, amen. And so this is just a small instruction. That in a youth service, because it is young people, our attention's been a little bit slider larger than the goldfish, which is three seconds. And so when we write things down, it helps us to pay attention. As a young person, I'm very young, a little bit older than some of you. But through my little small fragile life, I've experienced few simple lessons from the Lord. And one of them is, before we go into the Word of God, I just wanted to throw it out there for you. With God, your plan A will not probably work. The plan that you have for your life, this perfect plan, who you're going to marry, what you're going to live, what you're going to do, the calling you're going to pursue, you have to understand what the Lord is the most likely, the things that you plan for are not going to happen. The plan A might not work, but always God has, sometimes, plan Z. And God's plan Z might be so much better than your plan A. Things I planned at 16 and things that I planned for at 17 did not really happen, but the things God had in plan were so much better than the things I had planned. And I'm so great, there is more than one letter in the alphabet. Because most of us think, if my A doesn't work, the world ends, I'm committing suicide walking out of this life. That's it, my life is over because she got married to someone else, he got married to someone else, or because that position is taken, or I couldn't get hired at this place, or you know, there's so many youth, I wanted to be a youth pastor, there was already a youth pastor, I wanted to be a worship leader, and you guys have like 25 worship teams here, and so everybody's taken, everything is taken, already my life is over. Listen, there's other letters in the alphabet, and God can go from A to B to other until he finds yours, and sometimes the Z is better than A when you get to Z. Somebody say amen. And you have to understand one more thing, as young people, is this, is that, you have expectation of life, you have expectation of God and of calling, and you must understand, Jesus will not meet some expectations that you have. When he does not meet some expectations that you have, trust him to exceed them. When Jesus had a friend named Lazarus, and Lazarus was sick, fever, dying, things are hard, and there is no good medicine, no medical insurance, and no doctor around who knows what to do. And Lazarus is dying, but he has Jesus, and he texts Jesus, is Jesus, I am sick, could you come and help me? And Jesus sees the text and ignores it. No reply for three days, and three days later Jesus comes and is seeing, and Lazarus is gone, he is buried, everybody already went home, and Lazarus is gone, and Jesus shows up and say, hey, am I late? They say, yeah, you are late. And so they were disappointed in the fact that Jesus didn't come to heal him. But see, what I love about Jesus is that when he doesn't meet your expectations, I can trust for him to exceed them. Because Jesus comes to Lazarus' tomb and says, yes, I did not heal you, can I raise you from the dead? Because the resurrection from the dead is greater than healing. Which means sometimes the Lord will on purpose not give you something, and you cry about it, you weep about it, oh, I got it, and after all that is done, God comes in and he says, I can exceed the expectation I did not meet in your life. Well, some of you get it, that's fine, and stuff. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. You will know after you had about 27 or 28. And everything that you thought doesn't happen the same way, but then you trust in the Lord and he just derails it and leads your life in such a way that you look back and you say, only God deserves the glory. If you have your Bible, go with me to Psalm 92, Psalm 92 and verse 12 until the end. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon and those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in the old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. If you're taking notes, you can write the title of this brief talk. It will be called The Palm Tree. The Palm Tree. You are the Palm Tree. I am the Palm Tree. And as you finish that, could you just say this brief prayer out loud after me? You can just be seated, but you can just pray this out loud after me. Say, Lord Jesus, open my heart to your word. Everybody say, Lord Jesus, open my heart to your spirit. Lord Jesus, open my heart to your faith. Amen. The Palm Tree is a very unique tree because, well, first of all, it's a tree. It's not an iPhone. It's not an iPad. It's not a car. It has a very interesting relationship with the soil. Every tree needs the soil in a very amazing way. A tree cannot live without soil. Every tree gets sustained by the soil, and every tree does not take breaks from the soil. It lives in the soil when it's winter, and it lives in the soil when it's summer. It lives there during the day, and it still lives there during the night. The first thing I want you to know about the Palm Tree, and if you're taking notes, you can write this down, the Palm Tree is rooted in the ground. The Palm Tree is rooted in the ground. Now, this is pretty obvious, and I don't think any of you have thought this was deep, which is completely understandable because it's a dumb moment. It's a half course. Yeah, the Palm Tree is rooted in the ground. That's pretty obvious. That's a Palm Tree. But if you think about it, how important, how powerful that is, it's actually very powerful that God chooses to compare you to a Palm Tree, not to your phone. Your phone is connected to the charger only when your phone has this battery thing on the right top corner, and it goes red. You don't connect your phone on a charger all the time. You connect your phone to the charger only when it's not charged, and then you go up to use it, and then you charge it, and you discharge it. And many people's relationship with the Lord is just like the relationship of your iPhone with a charger. On Sunday, you come in, and you got charged up. You walk out, and you feel good. You feel great. You're charged. Well, after you walk out from the door until next Wednesday, whenever you have service, the battery goes down. And sometimes it goes so down that you come out dead. It's pretty obvious the way some of us worship. Completely depleted. Battery gone. And hopefully by the end of the service, the battery got restarted again, and that's how we live our life. Up and down. Charged, not charged. Charged, not charged. And God says a righteous man is not like an iPhone with a charger. He said a righteous man is like a palm tree. That means he doesn't get connected to the ground to be disconnected. He is connected to the ground permanently and always stays connected. In Book of Genesis, it says that God in the beginning, when he made the earth, he made the sun, the light and everything. And then it says he spoke to the ground and he said, let ground produce the trees and the plants. Indicating that the trees and the plants were not made by God. They were made by the ground. God spoke to the ground so that the ground will produce the trees. And because the trees came from the ground, the trees need the ground to live. The trees live in the ground and without the ground, the trees die. Amen? Yes? Nobody get it? Okay, yes, okay. Then the Bible says God goes further and he speaks to the sea. And he says let the sea produce all kinds of living creatures in the sea, indicating that God did not make the fish, but God spoke to the sea so that the sea will produce the fish, all of the living creatures in the sea, indicating that the fish and all of the other fishes that they need to see, they live in the water and without the water they die. Amen? And then the Bible says God goes in and he speaks to himself. He said let us make men in our image and in our likeness. And why is he doing that? So that man will have an example of the way trees came from the ground, the way fish comes from the sea and man comes from God. That means man's relationship with God is similar to the fish relationship with the water and the trees relationship with the ground. Fish does not just swim in the water like you. Bubble, have fun, go take a shower and walk on a solid ground. The tree does not go into the soil on the weekend for two hours. The tree lives in the soil every single day and God allowed that to happen to give you and I a clue of how a relationship between us and him supposed to be. That's why Paul says in him we move, in him we live and in him we have our being. Your relationship with God must be rooted. God's relationship with you is consistent. Does that mean that we have to go and pray all the time? Paul says pray without ceasing. Does that mean I have to be on my knees all the time to be in the relationship with God? No. But before I was married I was dating my beautiful wife. She was not my wife at the time. She was just a beautiful single girl from Vancouver and what I would do on Friday after I would finish with my duties at my job I would get into a car, drive three and a half hours to Vancouver, go to Albertsons which was really close to her house, look for flowers on the sale and they were in good condition. And after that I would go and buy a card that also looked very nice and I hoped that it had a little sale. I would rip the sale sticker off, sign the card in the car, put the perfume on because I knew it's trick. The girls don't care how you look, they care how you smell. And so I would come in with roses in the car, knock on the door, put the best smile, the best attitude on, walk in and welcome and try to win her heart. And for two hours we would go in the park, we would walk. It was a memorizing, just mesmerizing experience. After that I would drop her at her apartment, get into my car, drive three and a half hours on this stupid 82 or 84 that highway and drive back home and this happened for about six months. Okay? And after that, but once we got married, something happened. My relationship with her, though even when she was here for three days, but I am with her, though she was not with me physically. It's completely different. Marriage and dating are so completely different. It's no longer just bringing flowers on Friday for two hours. It's living. Yes, I still do the flowers. Yes, we still go out, but it's different. We live. I sleep with her. I live with her. And even when she's not in the house, we are together. See, some of us date God. And Sunday, you put on your best clothes. You do your hair. You bring your tithe and offering and you look over and you're like, man, I hope there will be a discount today during the tithe time. We would walk in and after two hours we walk out and we feel like my God time is over. The date is done until, of course, the next service. God doesn't want, remember, God was never looking for a date. God was always looking for a bride. God is looking for a wife, not for a date. And his God wants to live with you. He wants to breathe in you and he wants you to live in him because somebody say amen. Somebody say praise the Lord. So the palm tree is a tree. It's rooted in the ground. I want you to notice a second thing about a palm tree is a palm tree with stands abuses. A palm tree with stands abuses. What does that mean? That means that unlike other trees, if you take a knife or an axe and you chop the bark of other trees, all of the bark, you remove the bark from the tree, the tree will die. Because every tree that we have in the garden, its life is in the bark. And removing the bark would render the tree lifeless. Palm tree actually, interestingly enough, the life of the palm tree is not in its bark. It's in its core. Meaning if you remove the bark, now it still will not be comfortable. It will not be pretty. But the tree will live because it has life that comes from the inside, not from the outside, and allows it with stand and overcome abuses that people will do to it, him or her. The secret of the palm tree is this. As there is a Christian, you through life will get hurt. It's not if it's when. It's not if it's if you have already been. If my Savior, fulfilling the will of his Father, came back after the dead and showed his disciples scars on his hands, scars on his feet, and scars on his side. If he could not get through the will of God without getting hurt, good luck. You won't. You will get hurt. And the reason we don't have scars today, it's not because we've never been hurt. It's that we have not been properly healed. Everyone in here gets hurt. Everyone in here will get hurt. A palm tree will overcome the hurt. A palm tree will have the scars like Jesus and say, look, because the scar says I've been healed. The wound says I've been hurt. The wound says this is what people have done. Look what my mom have done. Look what my dad have done. Look what that guy, the girl has done. But the scar says look what God has done in spite of what people have done. A palm tree has a power to withstand abuses. Wounds that are neglected become wounds infected. When the wounds become neglected and you say, I feel this hurt. I feel this pain. It will go away. Next thing that happens, you develop an infection. You hate men. You'll never get married. I'll never have children. I will never. There is word never or always. That means there is a wound that's been neglected. And you may say, oh, but look how unfair life is. Listen, come to Jesus and tell him and he will tell you, if I could not get through 33 years of life being perfect, serving God perfectly, and I could not get through it without acquiring this, what do you expect out of life? But my scars is to prove to you that you can touch them and they don't hurt no more. You know why? Because when people gave me those, when I was hanging on the cross and in the middle of my pain, I didn't say, once I come back, I kill you, your children, all of your Pharisees, you bunch of, ah! He did not do that. The Bible says in the midst of the highest, deepest emotional, physical and mental pain, he pronounced the words and he turned the wound into a scar. He said, Father, forgive them. They have no idea what they're doing. When you allow forgiveness, you allow God to take the wound, turn it into a scar and take the scar and turn it into a star. Palm tree overcomes abuses. There was an Rwandan genocide. There was one girl there who had a big family and these army men came in and mercilessly started to kill her village and she was with some 14 people in her family, gathered in the house and these men came, they took her family, all of it, dragged it outside and she was among hiding, she was a little girl, she was hiding amongst them and they shot every one of them right in front of her. Because one of the older members was standing in front of her, when he got shot, he fell into her, they did not see that she was being covered by him and she wasn't killed. What they did is they buried all of them, including the girl who went numb because of the shock. She's buried there for 13 hours alive. Other family members came back later, 13 hours later and started to dig through the dirt and they find all of them dead and they find this girl who wakes up in the shock of 13 hours being buried as a child and seeing all some 15 members of her family shot in front of her eyes, something developed within her, hate, bitterness, no trusting to people. She moved to Europe as a refugee and she lived her life, she started to develop sicknesses left and right, her spine started to hurt, her headache started to come, nightmares started to come and she was in her fault. She didn't treat them right, she didn't find a proper cure, she thought that if I hold on to this hate, this will help me to stay alive because if I forgive, they will go off and they will be free from this and I don't want to let them be free from it until she comes to one meeting and this pastor, Peter, is talking about forgiveness and she sits there with this angry face thinking if you would have a clue what was done to me, to the front, not to repent but to tell the preacher of what she's been through and that she has every reason in this world not to forgive. And he told her, he says, yes, I don't understand you but I can tell you of a man who does and he was healed, you are not healed and God wants to heal you emotionally. She goes down her eyes, she said, I will forgive. He leads her in this prayer. She surrenders her hate and forgiveness in that very instant God heals her spine and heals her headaches. She goes back to Rwanda, marries a man. Now she's a pastor's wife of a 3,000 member church and every one of the men who murdered her family, she led to Jesus in jail. Why? Because a palm tree overcomes abuse. You may have been hurt. You will be hurt. And some hurts, I'm not talking about sexual abuse. Some hurts, I'm not talking about just verbal abuse. Some hurts might be just by not getting the affirmation from your daddy, from your mama. I know what I'm talking about. I grew up in a perfect home. My family, my parents are amazing. I've never seen my dad hurt my mom. Well, I can't say that for my mom. But my mom, she's the aggressive one. She's the fire one. I think I got it from her. And so she's the one that she's very kind, very loving towards us, the children. And my parents, they've been married for over 26 or 28 years. And so they're wonderful parents. But there's something that I always craved. I did not know I craved that as a young man. Is that I wanted to have affirmation from my dad. I heard preachers talk about that and I thought, weak sauce. Affirmation. I don't need dad to tell me he loves me. I know he loves me. Until there was a moment, I still can describe to you every single thing in the room and how I felt at that day. It was about five years ago. We lived on this street, Kubota. My dad, it was the evening, Friday night, my dad comes and he went to Loves. And during Loves, he was getting some tools or some material. And the girl who was there, I think her name is Nicole, she recognized my dad's last name. We have a local TV show where my sermons are preached there. And she knew about me or my life from before. And so she recognized the same last name. She says, I know the person with the same last name. She was indicating that she knew about me. And my dad says, what is his name? And she says, well, his name is Vlad, I think. My dad's like, oh, well, that's my son. So here's my dad on Friday night, comes to me with this happy news. Up to this point, I would say that I didn't really feel like I've ever heard my dad say, son, I'm proud of you for what you're doing for God. I knew that he was, but he would never tell me. So here I am expecting my dad. This is the moment. At the age of 23, my dad is going to tell me, because I mean, he's been waiting for 23 years to tell me. He's proud of me. He was on the couch. He says, hey, son, I said, and those interesting incident happen. My mouth gets open. Like somebody's about to give me a million dollars. I am so happy. I'm like, so excited. This is my dad. This is not somebody saying your sermon touched me. God healed me when you preached. This is your dad. This is really what you're doing for. And this person recognized the last name. And I'm like, he's like, well, it was so awesome that they saw my last name. I was like, and? He's like, well, this was really great. And I got the tools. I thought they'll give me a discount for it. I was like, and? Well, it was good. I was like, that's it? That's all you're going to say? And in the back of my mind, I didn't say to him because it would be embarrassing on 23 years old. I'm like, you're faster. And here I am crying because my dad doesn't tell me he's proud of me. I mean, I'm not going to be a weak sauce until my dad left. And I actually, embarrassingly, to admit, I started to cry because I realized I'm carrying inside a wound. And my dad doesn't realize he's hurting me by not letting me know that what I'm doing, he's okay. He's proud of me. And this wound, I started to carry. I was aware of it. So I protected it. I did not want it to get into something stupid that other people tried to do. But I knew I had it. But this really got, I would say, fixed during my time with my wife when we went to sushi. Disclosure. I was not a big fan of sushi. I go to sushi because of my life, love for wife. My wife loves sushi. Sushi restaurants are the biggest insult to human race. And I will explain why. In the restaurant, before they give you the meal, they will bring you an appetizer. Sushi places have a mocking way of feeding you through appetizers. In this particular Japanese sushi place, they brought a big plate. When they sell the plate, my stomach leaps for joy because I saw big plates in Olive Garden. Free of refills. So I'm excited for the appetizer. And then when the big plate came, I almost fainted because I saw seven leaves with some weird sauce spilled over it. I thought it was decoration. And so I said, what is this? They said, well, this is appetizer. I said, appetite what? Appetizer what? I said, I'm like, appetizer? So I ate those seven leaves. And I said, I am more hungry looking at this plate. I said, what is this madness? And my wife says, well, that's the whole point. They're trying to not feed you but get you ready for the meal. I was like, yeah, but that's wrong. As I have this picture, I am praying in my prayer and the Lord brings this to my mind. And he says, Vlad, your parents' love is an appetizer. He said, it's never meant to satisfy you. It's only meant to wake up an appetite for my love. He said, you're looking at your dad and your dad gave you so much but you're counting the leaves and you said, I am still hungry. He said, I will never allow your dad to love you so much that will cause you not need my love. I will never let your wife, your husband, your teacher, your fiance, I will never let no one love you so much that at the end, when God's love comes, you say, I am full. Could it be instead of cursing the seven leaves with a weird sauce on it, you can say, God, I thank you for the seven leaves. My parents did the best they could but they didn't do enough. Why? Because you wanted me to have room for you. You know, our problem is we expect too much out of people which causes us to expect too little out of God and we become too frustrated. And in that prayer, I would say, my wound, it didn't get healed completely but something happened and now when I feel like I don't get that, I snap in my mind I can receive them from the Lord because this is an appetizer. And my wife, she's a fantastic big appetizer but she's not the main meal. If she's the main meal then she has to be God. If she's God, that means she has to be omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. And if you don't know what those three words are, they're fancy words for saying everywhere present, all knowing and all powerful. She cannot be that. If I try to make her out of God, she will die in a first second and I will be frustrated. But if she be the best appetizer and my father becomes the heavy meal, then my wife is happy because what she gives, I appreciate. What I give, she appreciates and my God is happy because I come to him with a hungry stomach. God is not happy when you come to him not wanting him. God is not happy when you come to him and you had everything in life. God wants to be wanted but he can't be wanted if everything in life is handed over to you. That's why in life, you won't have everything you want so that you can receive them from the Lord. Somebody say amen. So the palm tree is rooted in the ground. The palm tree withstands abuses. Number three, if you're taking notes. Is everybody still with me? You have a little bit of room for a little bit more? Are you guys done? You just want to pray? A little bit more? Okay, let's do a little bit more. So the third thing I want you to write down is the palm tree breaks every chain as it grows. The palm tree breaks every chain as it grows. When the trees are young what they do usually to cause the trees to grow straight I've done that in my own little pitiful small garden is they would put a little stick around the tree is they would put a rope around the tree and tie it to a stick so that when the tree grows it grows straight instead of growing crooked. And sometimes the owners forget to remove the rope and typically not all, but typically the tree will let the rope grow inside of the tree and some of you have seen this sometimes in apple trees where the tree is bigger but there will be this bend in the place where there is a rope because the rope was there. And so there will be this because the rope was there so the tree will make room for the rope and will cause the rope to grow inside of the tree. This will never happen to a palm tree. A palm tree is a tree that if you put the strongest chain on this earth around it as a palm tree is young as the tree begins to grow it will never allow the chain to grow inside it will break the chain the chains don't grow inside they break the lesson for us is this the issues that you have the struggles you are encountering as a young Christian they may have a hold on your life but as you grow in your relationship with Jesus they will break the most important part is not to let these chains become a part of you but to distinguish you from what you struggle you are not a sick person wanting to be healed you are a healthy person fighting sickness you are not a weak person trying to get strong you are a strong person fighting weakness you are not a poor and pervert trying to get pure you are a pure person fighting lust you are not a person who says I have an issue no no no the issue should not have you you should distinguish you from what you struggle God wants to set people free and many times God sets people free in an instant but there are times the freedom only comes as you grow in him we've seen through the grace of God in our church just two weeks ago a lady named Jasmine from California she is originally from Fiji she came to our church for prayer as a baby she was dedicated to Satan because her parents and grandparents were witch doctors she describes in her experience at night a being would come to her in a physical form take her by her feet and begin to torment her almost every single night at times this being will speak drag her out of the bed and beat her and torment her on the floor her husband said many times when he slips with his wife he feels and he senses that there is he can see it but he knows there is someone else laying in bed between them she's a married woman and she is a pastor's wife two weeks ago she came for prayer during prayer as the prayer was being offered immediately the demon spoke out to her like all the stuff that you see in the Bible where the demon says you are the son of God that's exactly the same way she begins to convulse her body begin to move like this it came through the great father who has done this and this and that and next thing that happens is when the demon was cast out the woman immediately collapsed like breathless on the floor she gets up and she says I don't know what happened but I feel so much lighter and it's been two weeks and she said after that that being never came again Jesus is able to set people free right away it might happen visibly right away when the person just on the floor rolling and vomit comes out and we've seen a lot of these even in particular young girl at age of 17 when she came to her church during one of the prayer lines few months ago and then at the age of five she was dedicated to satan, American girl named Willow and her finger was cut as a sign of blood covenant with the devil and right in the middle of prayer as we were praying she begins to uncontrollably shake and finally begin to throw things until six men had to hold her down she bruised one of the men's ribs and 16 or 20 minute battle to just remove that evil spirit and then the girl gets up and says what happened to me I don't know what's going on God is able to deliver can somebody say amen nothing is impossible to our God and some of you think well demons do only happen in Africa look at your own backyard when it comes to pornography when it comes to cigarettes when it comes to masturbation when it comes to all of these things these things are demonic chains that satan wants to put around our life but there are freedoms that don't happen in prayer they happen as you grow there are some things in your life that you will not be free just by coming and the pastor pouring a bucket of oil on your head but you will be free as you like a palm tree you begin to grow grow grow and the chains don't become part of you break and you begin to grow in the name of the Lord can somebody say amen Jesus said you will know the truth what is the truth Muhammad said I'm the prophet of truth Buddha said I'm the seeker of truth Jesus said I am the truth the truth you know what Jesus is saying when you know me you know who he was speaking to the Bible says to his disciples and you know what they replied just like same thing what you would reply we are not in bondage to know and Jesus says did you forget Egypt for God's sake did you forget a Roman Empire you're in bondage to right now see the worst part about spiritual bondage is when you're in it you're completely oblivious and you don't know you're in bondage until you're free when you're in bondage you think this is normal you think watching porn once a month is normal because you find out all your friends do it you know that Jesus did not look at pornography which means pornography is not normal you realize other people struggle with this and it's normal but Jesus says no no no he says as you know me the truth I will set you free when you like a palm tree begins to grow something will happen the chains say then put around you as a younger Christian you couldn't beat them you went to one prayer you fasted you produced I can't get through I can't let Jesus as you grow as you grow as you grow these things will begin to break out of your life somebody say mad I noticed how little chickens are born it's a very interesting story if you have chickens in your house you can maybe give me your experience as well but how they're usually born is that the mama chicken produces an egg in the nest and then she comes and she sits on the eggs for about 21 days and as she sits on the eggs what she does with that is that she provides a heat and something electrifying that comes from her body that causes the little chicken inside of the egg to get bigger bigger bigger bigger and then there comes a point where you actually could almost see the chicken inside of the egg but the shell is still there it's about like a 20th something day and this is the moment you're so anticipating and you're like man I hope she's gonna help them to break from the shell and when I was younger I wanted to help the chicken because I knew they did not know about the father's love and they did not know how they should love their children like to help him come out from the shelves so I knew that they did not have the revelation little hammer and come and break the egg just break the shell so they will have little help I mean come on everybody appreciates help once in a while until my daddy told me he says don't do that he says that's how God designed it and that's how it's supposed to be and as I would watch this as a little child it would register in my mind and now I know something about the Lord the Lord there will be issues in your life shells in your life that you will come to church you will come in the word of God and as you begin to grow and there will be particular things like God I need to really just be free I'm just so sick and tired of it and it would seem like God touches every area of your life except that area and it seems like God touches every other person and when it comes to you he just moves quickly why? and then you're convinced I'm cursed you're convinced he hates me I know because I stole a gum from a friend he still cannot let it go you're convinced he really pays back for something but actually you know what God is doing? God wants you to keep sitting in the nest called church and his word and keep sitting under his presence why? because as you grow he will see you break the shell that you want him to help you break because somebody say amen somebody say amen I want to challenge you today don't stop growing keep growing in your relationship with Jesus because as you grow there are things that will break in your life only as you grow the last thing and we're gonna come to prayer the first thing we said the palm tree is rooted in the ground the second thing we said the palm tree overcomes abuses the third thing we said is the palm tree breaks chains as the palm tree grows and the last thing is the palm tree during the storm bends and therefore it doesn't break you probably I'm not sure whether you guys have big winds in the Portland area where we come from we have really big winds and these winds what they do is they break the trees who are stubborn there are trees that are stubborn means that they face the storm on their own and they face the storm telling I'm gonna beat you I'm gonna overcome you I'm gonna challenge you and then they break sometimes after a big wind you drive to work or you drive to coffee shop or something and you see like one tree broke and you see another tree completely just tossed on the road and these are the trees who during the storm do not have the capacity and flexibility to bend a palm tree has a very unique flexibility inside of it is that when the storm comes it bends sometimes it bends so crazy that if you watch on the news during some of the tropical storms like who is gonna break because it literally almost the top of the tree almost touches the bottom and you feel like it will snap but the reason why it doesn't snap is because it has the ability to bend and because it bends during the storm it doesn't break during the storm and when the storm passes which they all do it goes right back up when the storms happen always they come to all people in all shapes and forms to the righteous and to the unrighteous but not all people handle their storms the same way some people handle the storms saying I will get through this on my own and they put their eye in the way and next thing that happens two, three months later four months later if the storm goes longer and they break some throw away the Bible and walk away and says you know what this is what happened to my mom she passed away we all prayed for healing and this didn't happen well I really thought that God is gonna came in here but it didn't happen and the storm is gone that incident is long gone but they are still broken whereas other people can go through that and when the storm is over and they go right back up why because in the storm they try to stand through the storm they try to bend through the storm and as you bend you don't break ask Job and he will tell you that a storm came into his life a hurricane, a tornado came in it was so huge it was so big what I love Job for is the Bible says the first thing that he did he went the Bible says and he bowed down and he worshiped he bent it was 40 something chapters storm kept going, going, going and when the storm left which they all do and the last chapter you see Job goes phew most of people this never happens I want to tell you something every storm you will ever have in your life will never be eternal they will all pass but after the storms pass if during it you bend you will go right back up if during it you break and you try to weather it something will happen is that you will break and the storm is over and you become a broken person I know this from my own personal experience some of you, you heard my testimony some of you haven't and I will repeat it for those of you because some of you have not had it, did not hear it before when I was born during my birth there was complications with my birth and because of that I was in the hospital for two years as a little baby and I was going from one sickness to another and there was heavy problems in my eyes the doctors told my parents that my optical nerve is damaged meaning that I might have problems with my eyes I might have problems with my head and I might not be in my right mind as I grow up which was a very fearful report to my parents because I'm the oldest of five I have two brothers and two sisters but then after two years I eventually parents said that I was brought home and everything seemed fine with me and everything seemed fine with my eyes until a little bit later as I started growing up they started to notice that my eyes are not like straight like one eye is a little bit smaller than the other and this part is a little bit weaker and they started to take me to the doctors and they realized that when I look up one eye looks up and the other one does not move and because they wanted to kind of protect me from going through feeling shameful and everything they gave me one surgery at the young age I had one surgery in Ukraine to the United States they offered me a second surgery and both of these surgeries made a very small dent in my problem but didn't really solve it because of my optical nerve damage I have extreme sensitivity to the sun in my head which means anytime the sun goes up I would have extreme migraine headaches and because one of the eyes is smaller than the other anytime as a teenager I would get met by somebody the first question they would ask me without asking me my name is what happened to you which was the same way as if you would take a knife and just stab me because a person who is insecure and who is extremely sensitive to their physical appearance at the age of 14 having pimples and the security is below zero and the first thing people notice about you is not your name and they don't know who you are but they only see your eyes and they think that you went through some kind of an accident you were deformed or maybe crippled maybe mental perhaps and then they choose you on inside when you grow up with that and at the top of that you have headaches it's very hard to understand how God can love someone have a plan for their life when you present it with that at the young age I was convinced God had a plan for everyone in the world including Hitler except me I was convinced that God has a destiny for every person in the world except me I was convinced inside I will never be married because I am simply an accident on this earth God made everyone he came to me he said oops there was a little problem let's keep him there until he dies once he gets to heaven everything will be right and therefore at the age of 13 and a half I started to contemplate suicide I started to ask God for things that God can do in my life what I could be either murdered in a car accident because I did not want to take my own life because I knew that's going to be bad or if an accident could happen in this way I could still go to heaven and I could leave this earth I felt like I was a burden to anybody I came in contact with I had no gifts I had nothing good to offer to anyone and nobody ever wanted me and I was convinced of that when it came to prayer it was hard for me to believe God had a plan it was hard for me to believe God loves me because I had questions I knew in my mind if God could heal me of my eyes this would be God's way of proving I made a mistake and I still love you so I went to every prayer I could find so God can heal me I laid my hands and this is your day with pastor Benny Hinn more times than you can count I found oil because if my pastor didn't have enough anointing I thought maybe if I could try on myself that didn't help me I had a demon and so I tried to cast out even or do some even deliverance because I was convinced if I could get healed of my eyes I will be a normal person who will have a plan for their life at the age of about 13 and a half and 14 this started to weigh down deep in my soul where in my freshman year at the keyboarding class I skipped keyboarding class because I was embarrassed to stand in front of group of 25 students for three and a half minutes so I skipped the class I was so shy that if a person walked by I would run and hide I was convinced I was an accident I would come from school almost every day every other day I would lock myself in the room and I started to just little cry and wind to God why did you make me like this why did you make me like this why can't you take this pain and these problems away from my life and as I would whine and complain and grumble and ask all these questions I would always end on the part of saying it's beginning to feel the presence of God and I would feel the presence of God in such a good way that I would begin to worship that God I just complained to and I would enjoy that so much that after a while I became addicted to complaining because this was my way to the presence of God I even forgot that I have a problem and now it's as though I come to prayer not necessarily to cry about my problem and my issue and complain but because I found a high I could never find I never did drugs but I found something here and the way it got me there is through complaining and grumbling and after a few years I felt like the Holy Spirit through other people kind of taught me you can get to my presence without screaming and complaining to me you can straight get into my presence and next thing that happens the headaches that I had they were gone and today my eyes are not healed one day they will you know what got healed? everything and my eyes today become the greatest testimony for the glory of God I got married and no one asks me what happened to your eyes nobody, do you know why? because I don't care about it when I stopped caring about it everybody else did and most people don't even notice that, why? because I don't notice it and that is completely gone I still have the same eyes but I completely different spirit because when the storm during the storm I learned a very valuable lesson is that if you bend and you begin to bend in worship and you begin to bend in your seeking the presence of God something happens this thing passes by and God raises you up and the things they were supposed to break you and things that the devil says oh wait oh he believes those lies he will die he's not going to make it and God says wait wait if he's going to come to me I will mess him up for good and he will go right back up and the devil is a liar and his plan was defeated I want to tell you God can use you too some of you your problem is you too gifted you're convinced you're special you're convinced you walk around with this attitude I am something did you know that the middle letter of word I or word sin is I the middle letter of word pride is I and the middle letter of word Lucifer is I any time I is the center of your life you are in sin, in pride and following Lucifer you know what's going to happen when we fall, when we have this issue I, I that's why for some people it's harder to bend because of I harder to bend because we have always why but if we worship instead of putting our I or Y in the front God is going to cause the storm to pass away and we're going to rise back up for the glory of God I want you to rise to your feet