 We are not forsaken, see we're gold, see we're gold Let's make sure Jesus names in Jesus name St. Mountains, mountains are moving, waist made straight In Jesus name we say, sin was head, your blood was an orphan of the good name. Now come on church, lift up Jesus right now. He was good in the tough times, he was good in the good times. When you didn't know how you're gonna make it, he was good, amen. When you didn't know how you're gonna provide for your family, he was good, amen. When you were stuck in that addiction, he was good. When you're stuck in that torment, he was good, amen. Church, amen. Thank you Jesus. Thank you right now. Church, right now, the Lord has given us a gift and that is the gift to push a revival for the nations and the way he's doing that is through the youth, through the babes. The Bible says that he was chosen the babes. When Jesus was praying to the father, he said, I have chosen the babes, amen. So, right now, I have my student with me. Go ahead and give them your your name and what school you go to and how old you are. And I'm 14 years old. JP, just tell the church how um how you came to Hungry Jen and what God has done in for your life. I started coming to Hungry Jen when I was really little. I don't even remember it. It started with my sister. She got invited to a youth service and she got saved and then I started coming on Sunday mornings and I guess the Lord really just touched my heart when I came to uh next gen camp I think two summers ago and I was just filled with the Holy Spirit and I just I never felt love like that before and John Paul guys is going to become a future leader for um Richland High School for the Unashamed Clubs. So, right now, we have eight different clubs in six different schools and the Lord is really setting a fire. We see this woke agenda in our schools these days trying to push this garbage but the Lord is pushing back with the fire of God with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, right now, we're going to push church. We want everyone's help to lift up the Unashamed Clubs to right now join JP in prayer. Lord, I just thank you for what you are doing for the youth right now Lord. I just thank you for what you are doing on the shame clubs right now Lord, that you are touching this young generation Lord, that you are giving them, that you are giving them what they need Lord, that they do not need the things of the world Lord but they need you Lord, that they need your love Lord. Lord, I just thank you that that you are touching them right now Lord, that you are touching them every high school and in every middle school, every single youth, every single youth that thinks they need drugs or alcohol, Lord, that they do not need any of those things, Lord, that they do not think the things of the world, Lord, that they just need you, Lord, that they just need you, that they just need Jesus, Lord, and they just need you, Lord. Amen, Lord. Amen, amen, church, amen. Starting with the youth, we're trying to reach into colleges. Guys, I'm a college student. I came here from Arizona. I've seen some dark things in college, right? So the Lord wants to start something new also on college students. He's not just after this generation but the next and the next and the next and the next. Amen, our God is the God of generations, right? So right now we're gonna pray that God starts a new thing in these colleges, that these colleges get saved and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, that new families and new generations and new lenient get birthed with the blood of Jesus Christ, amen? Father God, we pray right now, Lord, that you start a fire in colleges, Lord God, that you use us, Lord, that you build laborers right now for your glory, Lord. Lord, give us a boldness and a fire to reach these colleges and we come against any evil spirit in colleges. We come against the spirit of fear, of homosexuality, spirit of aversion. We come against all evil deeds in Jesus mighty name. Lord, use us and send us and equip us to reach these students, Lord God. Let these students hear the gospel and let them spread it with fire, Lord God. When we pray that you build a fire in our eugen and use us, Lord, we surrender everything to you. Father God, use us right now in Jesus mighty name to reach the lost, to reach people like me, to reach my brothers and my sisters, Lord God, in Jesus' name, to reach our children, Lord God. Lord, use us in these last days, Lord. Give us a holy spirit, strengthen and shield the protection in Jesus mighty name. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, amen. Amen. Good morning, church. Good morning, first sanctuary, second sanctuary, and those watching online. Reach your neighbor on your right and your left and watch the video on the screen. Come slash life class to take your life and your relationship with Jesus to the next level. Hallelujah, praise God. So we have come to a time of tides and offerings and I wanna read a quick word for you and then I'm gonna share a really quick little testimony from my own life. Okay, how many know that giving and tithing is a crucial part of our relationship with Jesus? Wow, that's about 5% of you, literally. Can we try that again? How many know that tithing is super important for your relationship with Jesus? If you didn't know that, I'm gonna share a little story with you and I'm gonna read from the book of Malachi now. The book of Malachi is one, there is used a lot when it comes to tithes and offerings and many people can feel like it's a bit harsh, really. God says here, yet from the, in Malachi three verse seven, yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them, return to me and I will return to you as the Lord of hosts. But you said, in what way shall we return? And then he continues and this is when he gets really harsh, God is rebuking the people of God, right? Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings? And then it says here in verse nine, something very interesting. You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me and you can continue reading verse 10 for how to solve that problem, really. But I will share my testimony about six years ago. I came back from Africa from a long season there and while I was there, okay, I didn't really have an income. So tithing of my income actually kind of disappeared during that season because I didn't have an income to tithe from and some of us might be here today and we might feel that way too that like, it's not that I'm intentionally not tithing, it just kind of happened that I was jobless for a time or I was on welfare or on disability. What is supposed to be given? Is it the growth, the net and so on and so forth? And we kind of like, it just fades away. It's not intentional, but it just happens. And the Bible says, listen to this, not every curse is from the devil, okay? Real talk. There are rules and ordinances that God has put in place. And he says, if you don't follow these things as my people, I will remove certain graces from you and then you are susceptible to attacks. And that's what happened to me. If you read verse 10, it says, when you start tithing, I will take away the devourer from you. I will rebuke the devourer. So I was a Christian, I was going to church, I was even preaching and everything, but because I hadn't had an income, it was like, oh yeah, I've tithed my lifetime already. I lived 10 years in Africa. I've tithed already of my time, my income. I'll figure it out, yeah, I'll try. So the habit was lost. Just like some of us have lost the habit of fasting. It's not like you don't intentionally don't want to fast, but it just, oh, it just doesn't happen. And the Bible actually says that when you return to the ordinances that God has put in place, he will rebuke the devourer for you. What happened to me is I didn't give my tithe and I started having an income and it was like, oh, man, it's kind of hard. I had to get back into this next month. Oh yeah, the bills just barely covered. And so one thing led to another. And suddenly I found myself not being able to have any kind of breakthrough. Everything was just weighing down. Money disappeared from throughout my fingers. Every time I made some money and it's like, hold on, where did it go? What happened to the money? And maybe you are here today and you're like rebuking. You're going for prayer line. You're going for deliverance. I need the spirit of poverty to leave me. I need the spirit of breakthrough to come into my life. And he's actually said it, how to do it. It's not that hard. Let's come back to returning what belongs to God. It's not a harsh thing. He's asking, he said, I give you 100%. Now you give me 10% so I can continuously multiply what I've given you. So I want to encourage you. I'm not here to try to scare anyone or anything, but I'm sharing my story of how that really impacted me. The moment that, it was actually my wife. Okay, my wife has been well-churched, okay? She comes from Hungry Jam. So she's like, hey, are you giving your tithing? This was when we weren't even together. She's like, are you tithing? I see you're having financial problems. I'm like, tithing? Yeah, I mean, kind of. I mean, I didn't exactly count it and stuff. She's like, start doing that. Start tithing. God is going to do something in your life. And I started doing that and instantly, money that I had less left over after tithing, but it multiplied and I had more at the end of the month. It goes against human comprehension, human logic, but that is God's logic. His ways are not our ways. So this is your chance and your opportunity to come back, put your trust in God, your provider. The He that provided the first thing, we continue to provide for you as you follow His instructions. Praise God. There are four ways to give. You can give through text, online envelope, or through the different apps here on the screen. Let's prepare our offerings right now. If you're watching us online, you can give as well. I suggest you give into hungryjohn.com slash give if you're living in other countries. Let's pray right now as you prepare your heart to give what God has put in your heart. Lord, I pray right now for every person who has come here today with a cheerful heart to give what you have placed in their hearts, Lord. I pray that as we prepare, Lord, and as we release this thing back to where it belongs, Lord, we give this offering to you, Lord, that you will multiply, that you will do what you have promised to do. We return to you in this so that you can continuously rebuke the devourer in our lives, Lord. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, and all the cheerful givers said, Amen, okay, buckets are going to be passed before you. Let's give it a cheerful heart and let's fix our eyes on the screen. It all started in March 2006 with a message I preached as a youth pastor called Raised to the Lever. That message made an impact on our kids and on myself. It became the name and the theme of our conference which happened on April 2015. We are on our way to the convention center where this year we will host Raised to the Lever conference. As I'm remembering how the Raised to the Lever started, the first Raised to the Lever, we saw already God marking those conferences with healings, deliverances, as well as an invasion of God's kingdom. There was a guy named Nehemiah. He had asthma since birth. And there on our first conference God healed them. He's still healed till this day. I remember years later on the Raised to the Lever conference there was a young lady that was brought on a wheelchair from a different state. She actually rented a wheelchair. She had an accident which rendered her paralyzed from neck down and there at the conference Jesus Christ touched her and she was healed. I can't tell you how many people have been delivered from demons, curses have been broken. Parents who brought their children who didn't believe in Jesus and they met Jesus after they encountered the power of God of healing and deliverance. Now let's go and see where this year's Raised to the Lever will begin. This is the place where the Raised to the Lever conference will take place this year. Tricellys Convention Center. Raised to the Lever conference is free of charge. Everyone is welcome, but registration is required. So go to hungrygen.com and register today for this amazing event. And I can't wait to see you at Raised to the Lever. Come on. Good morning church. How do you guys are excited for Raised to the Lever this year? Come on. We are only 54 days away. Make sure you get those days off for work from school and make sure you're there to attend and receive what God has in store for you. Amen. Amen. You can also register on hungrygen.com slash Raised to the Lever. Don't forget to sign up. Bring somebody with you because we believe that miracle signs and wonders will break out. Amen. Amen. I want to welcome everybody watching online. Everyone watching the second sanctuary. We know that distance is no barrier. And now that we've come to a time of testimonies, I believe that this testimony is going to impact you. And it's just going to bless you today. Amen. Amen. Can you please help me welcome our first testimony? Can you please share with us your name and where you're from? Eva Marcus from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Come on. Come on. Eva, can you please go ahead and share with us what God Almighty has done? But before we jump into that, go ahead and tell us a little bit of what your life was like before you came fully committed to Christ. I grew up Catholic. Not really. That's what we were called. But I grew up kind of without God because I'm striving, competition. I have three brothers. My mom was a single mom. Working three jobs, teaching us to be self-sufficient and to you don't need anybody. With that already building strong roots, which I didn't even know what that was, but setting the stage for heartening my heart, I kept going and just doing what I had to do. Seeing the broken home, just expected that was normal. Eventually, I went into drugs and alcohol in high school and started alcohol. And that just started filling the numbness and emptiness because what's the point? Let's just go to work and I didn't see anything, right? I was empty. So I started filling it with drugs and alcohol. Eventually that led to me selling drugs. I had a motto like, if somebody's not going to make the money, I'll make the money. My mom invites me to this revival. I go to a revival with my girlfriend at the time. I get called up and raise my hands, all these emotions flying and I give my life to Christ. I come out and my girlfriend at the time lights a cigarette and I'm like, did that just happen? All that I felt and that emotion, I guess not. So I fell back into the sin because I didn't know what happened, but after that moment, something changed in my heart. When I was selling drugs, it was now, I don't want to hurt those people. So all these questions started flooding me. As I started drinking and drowning, given more for another three years, but now I had this longing to get out of the hole that I had dug. So I got a CDL and started driving trucks thinking I have to be sober to drive. So I took off on the road doing that. Opportunity presented itself to go overseas to work in Iraq. Every time I'd go home on leave, I would start all over again. I'd fall back in the whole drug addiction, alcohol, permiscuity, all that stuff. One night at 2 in the morning, it was like, I'm going to die and my mom's going to have to bury me and she's going to find me on the streets. And this opportunity presented to go to Iraq. I'll say, I'll go to Iraq. I'll die over there. At least it's an honorable death. So I go to Iraq and God did that because he pulled me out of the mess and he put me around believers. What guy gave me a Bible? I went to a church with some dirt from Iraqis and the first sermon I went to, it was what I just read in the Bible. And it was like, I understand you for the first time. Like, this makes sense before you was blah, blah, blah. Right now it's you. Come on, come on, let's give Jesus a round of applause. So as I started reading the Bible, it didn't make sense but I was in a relationship for three years. His words started transforming my life. It started making me question things of what was true. Not what the people had said before in religion, not the judgment. It was what God was doing in my heart that actually started changing and shifting and wanted me to see the truth. So in that, I lost her. I said, I can't leave this relationship. You know, you have to pull it if it's not of you. He did. I get home, I go home to try to deal with that, I leave and my dad's in the hospital. He's in and out of my life. Anyway, he's gonna die. So I see him in that moment like die in front of me. His pulse stopped and all of a sudden with the relationship and my dad dying, it was like all that stuff I read for the past eight months in the Bible completely overtook me. And I realized in that moment, like I am nothing, he is everything. And in that moment it was like I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he's God and he exists and he loves me and he has this. And all this had to happen to break me because I couldn't do it any other way. He did it. Come on, come on. Now that God has transformed you completely. Can you share with us, how is life now? How do you view life? What's going on? And what has God done in you? Well, after that I came back home and I was on fire for the Lord, but I went to a church and it was like, it wasn't the Bible of church. It was like the repetition. So I was like, maybe this is just how it is. So I went to that and did that for a while and I backslid for another 10 years. Anyway, but he made it harder this time because now I hadn't get out myself and trust him but take these leaps in that trust. I never lost him in that 10 years. I knew him, but I fell back into the homosexuality. So that was the last grip. I had to finally cut that and he pulled. As soon as I did that, he made a job opportunity here. I've been here two years. He totally transformed my life all with the word, all the word doing all this work in me, right? With the conviction, the cleansing, the deep cleansing, the going in, the inner healing, all this stuff was him and the word of God. You have to read the word. But he changed me. Now I've done life class. I've done deliverance. I've been delivered rather. I've done the destiny. I'm gonna start life coaching online Monday. Come on. How good is our God, amen. Amen, amen. And Eva, can you please share with somebody here who's struggling? What is the piece of encouragement that you tell them? Maybe they're struggling with drugs or they're struggling with homosexuality. Something that you would tell them to encourage their faith. Just seek God. If you don't, I don't know, just read your word. He's gonna penetrate your life. He's gonna change you from the inside out. He wants you. You're not alone. All those things are empty. That's your addiction, drugs, everything. Pornography, TV entertainment, all that's an illusion. All that is just trying to get you distracted from him and his call for you. He loves you and he wants you to seek him because he's waiting for you. Come on, thank you so much for sharing your testimony. How good is our God, amen. Amen, I just wanna encourage every single one of you guys, get connected, get plugged in because just how Eva was completely transformed, I believe that God Almighty can do it for you, amen. Amen, with that being said, go ahead and focus your eyes on the screen as we watch a video. We welcome every person to Hungry Jan. If it's your first time coming today, visiting us, you are welcome, you are a guest in our midst. Those of you in the second sanctuary, we welcome you as well. And those of you watching us online, drop in the chat where you're watching from. Let us know where you're watching from. We are a church that has a vision and my pastor always would say to reach thousands locally and millions globally. And so church, I wanna let you know that this is not just a vision, it's becoming a reality every single week. So I wanna show you just a few little graphs just to encourage you that the Bible says, write the vision, the hychul runs may read it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. And I believe that this vision that the Lord has given to our pastor that it was passed on to us is becoming a reality. Last night, at midnight, I reached a million subscribers on YouTube. And we celebrate that as a church. It's not about numbers, but the Lord has given us a vision that we will reach millions globally. Come on. And then I found out last week also, there has been a million completions of Bible reading plans that we have produced from this church and from my ministry and almost two million subscriptions and one million people who have completed it. Some of you might not even know that you were taking our reading plan. I met some pastors who were like, hey, I just finished the reading plan at the end. I said, this was provided by Vladimir Savchik's ministry. He's like, what are you doing on your version? And, but it's part of the vision, millions globally. You know, it seemed like a yelling, screaming, young, enthusiastic people prayer. But see, whatever we pray for, what we believe for, if it's in line with God's heart, God will begin to grant us that vision. Come on, somebody. Amen. Thousands locally is coming more and more. We're standing closer and closer to reaching thousands of people for Jesus in our region. Also, I found out that on the podcast, in just last two and a half years, there has been 1,100,000 downloads that have happened of people that are just being impacted all around the world. I went to a dentist, my least favorite place in Tri-Cities, and turns out that last time when I made fun of a nurse, or not a nurse, but the lady that was telling me to pull my wisdom teeth, I guess they watched that sermon in the whole office. They shared it to the doctor, so the doctor doesn't work there anymore. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with my video. And so this time I come in and like, you know, the ladies who do that stuff, you know, they come to like, hey, can we take a selfie? And I was like, hey, I'm just here to, to endure the hardship. Please, this is not a moment for selfies. I'm like, I'll take a selfie if you'd, you know, tell me that everything is fine with my teeth and I don't have to get feelings and stuff, so or get cavities fixed. And so, but I really see that the Lord is just using hungry Jen as a tool in Tri-Cities. Who would have thought, you know, least likely people who are immigrants? I mean, I remember somebody told Pastor Greg Locke, he said, stay away from Vlad, Vlad because he's a Russian spy. I'm like, what? I'm like, how can I be a Russian spy? I've never been to Russia in my life. I'm Ukrainian, but my wife is Russian. And I don't know, she might be a spy. So I told Pastor Greg, I said, about me, I'm 100% pure. My wife on the other hand, we don't know. She's not here right now, so that's why I'm saying this. I'll get in trouble later. But what I wanted to acknowledge and I wanna honor two people, one of them, first I wanna honor my parents because I do believe, you know, one of the things that people reach out a lot of times to me and they say, Vlad, I appreciate that you are not toxic, divisive, and not into drama. And I can tell you one thing, one of the reasons that there is sense of health and integrity in my life is not because I'm awesome, but because I have awesome parents. Grandparents. And I'm grateful for that. If you come from a healthy family, it makes you a healthy person. It's easier to be a healthy person if you come from a healthy family. The second one is my pastor. People don't realize, I actually learned a lot on my preaching by translating, if you can put the photo of me and my pastor, Cassandra. People don't realize is that for a long time, I was, before Alex came to Tri-Cities, I was pastor's favorite translator. And then of course, Alex came and I was no longer his favorite and stuff. So I forgiven to Alex long time ago, the Lord healed that wound, everything is fine. But for a long time, I was translating every single Sunday to my pastor. And this is what I really, really improved and learned to translate and to also learn to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. And then the one person that I wanna just honor and most of you don't realize this there is a photo of me and sitting. And so that's not the part about me, but I want you to see the guy that's behind me right there. That's Pastor Ilya. So for the last 20 years of our ministry, Pastor Ilya has been like this, he leads worship sometimes and then he runs in to connect and saw the wires because they're broken. He would do like a preaching and right after that run quickly because one of the cameras died, we need to fix it. But literally for 20 years, Ilya has been a lot of times the brains of what's happening with the sound and the video. And we're so grateful that now God has brought other people like Tim and Colleen and others who are stepping in and take us to another level. But Ilya has been behind the scenes kind of helping with hungry Jen with what we see today that reaches thousands of people where it started for me. Really the backbone behind that was somebody behind the scenes, never took the credit, never cared about the credit. And it was Pastor Ilya. And I just wanna honor him. He preached a wonderful sermon last Sunday about inner healing and it was incredible. Amen, amen. I wanna go in today to sermon about the Holy Spirit. This Tuesday, I have a book that's coming out called Host the Holy Ghost and we will have some copies after the service in Russian and in Spanish. Also some Host the Color Ghost shirts if those of you who are interested and stuff. So we'll have it available two days before for the local people, not many of them, but I think enough for those who really want it. And so I just wanted to say from, as your pastor, I appreciate you. Thank you for believing in the vision that God has given us. Thank you for praying for us because this victory of us reaching millions of people, it's not Vlad's, it's the church's. I belong to the church, I belong to the vision of the church and this is the vision that God has given to us. Some of you may like or prefer, like man, I just wanna be in the church where a pastor just kind of stays in the church, he doesn't try to change the world and that's okay, but it wasn't my choice. All right, so if you're a little bit, maybe dissatisfied with me cause you would want me to be at every meeting that you have, I can tell you right away, this wasn't my plan. So blame my pastor. He planted that seed, I didn't believe in that. I was 13, 14, he tried to literally brainwash me by telling me God's gonna use you. You're gonna change the world, literally. I was stealing bicycles from Goodwill and getting caught. I wasn't good at anything, even stealing cause other people would steal and never get caught. I would get caught and stuff and so my uncle would put into that vision, God will use you, don't give up. And the only thing that I was good at is submission. As I would submit, I would listen, I would improve, I would change and the Lord started to use this house. He started to use this church and I really believe he's gonna make this a place that will impact the whole world. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 24 and I would like to speak to you about friendship with the Holy Spirit. Christian today operate very little in the Holy Spirit because of their ignorance concerning the Holy Spirit himself, Catherine Kuhlman said that. John 14.17, I want you to keep the verse in Genesis but I'm gonna read a few verses before. The John 14.17, Jesus says the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and he will be with you, he will be in you. Jesus says, meaning the world doesn't know who the Holy Spirit is and he says his disciples but you know him, he's with you, he will be in you. Acts 19 verse two, it says that he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed and they said to him, we have not so much heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, I believe there's four types of views that Christians or relationships that they would have to the Holy Spirit. Number one is their foggy about the Holy Spirit. Meaning we're not sure. Some people actually are afraid of the Holy Spirit because of ignorance, because they've seen some churches that they've been to that were super ultra conservative or super ultra legalistic or like I grew up. I grew up and it was a wonderful Christian Pentecostal church man set on one side, women set on the other side. The way we knew you were a Christian is if you didn't wear makeup and earrings. And the way we knew you were not a Christian is if you had earrings and makeup. And so my definition of the Holy Spirit was really a 40 minute prayer on your knees, yelling out loud and your veins are about to pop out. That was, but it was powerful. So when I came to the United States, that was my view of the Holy Spirit. There was a lot of fogginess, a lot of unclarity about the Holy Spirit. And when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, what we call Pentecostals, when we start speaking in tongues, I really felt like I got all the risk to know about the Holy Spirit. At 14, I thought I have the Holy Spirit figured out. Didn't walk in power, still watch porn, still struggle with many things, brought up because I speak in tongues 300 miles per hour. That's it. I'm the Holy Ghost man. Some of you maybe had bad experiences and you think Holy Spirit is weird. Holy Spirit is wild, but he's not weird. Some people he uses are weird, but he is not weird. He's not that crazy uncle and Thanksgiving that you wanna avoid. That's not the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is beautiful and he is a wonderful person of the Third Trinity and God doesn't want us to be foggy about him, uncertain, unclear. Some of you think the Holy Spirit is tongues. Some of us think the Holy Spirit is a dove, an experience, a trance, falling, shaking, and baking, yelling and screaming, running around with the flag, running around the church. Some of us like, that's the Holy Ghost. That's not the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit is not none of those things. The same way that Jesus is not a lamb or a lion, he is God. He could be portrayed as a lamb in certain characteristics, but it doesn't make him a beast. He's still a son of God and a son of man. The second way that some people relate to the Holy Spirit is being familiar with the Holy Spirit, meaning, yeah, I went to college. I heard about the Holy Spirit. He's the Third Person of Trinity and they could give you a doctrinal statement about the Holy Spirit. They know about him, but they don't know him personally. When I married my wife, every time she would talk about the Holy Spirit, she almost talked about a distinct person from the presence of God, the power of God, or a beautiful experience at Sunday. For example, when I would talk about the Holy Spirit, this is how I will always say, I felt the presence of God in the service. That was my way of saying, I felt the Holy Spirit. Or I would say, man, just the anointing was present today. It was never Holy Spirit as a person. And I remember one time, I listened to the way she would talk about almost like a distinct person. And I'm Pentecostal, I'm a pastor. I taught on the Holy Spirit. I read the books on the Holy Spirit, but I did not. So I was familiar, but I wasn't, I didn't know him. And that was my prayer. That really, I believe, changed my personal life nine years ago. Holy Spirit, I wanna know you personally. I don't wanna just know about you. I want to know you. Jesus says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit, that's a person, comes upon you. He is not power. He is powerful, but he is a person. He is God. And he became real to me. When he became real to me, I started to have a relationship with him. And my desire today is not that you will listen to another sermon, but that this will be almost like an introduction or an impartation for you to get to know this person on the personal level. Somebody say amen. The fourth or the third way that some people know the Holy Spirit, and this is what happened to me nine years ago, is fellowship with the Holy Spirit, is when you begin to know the Holy Spirit on the personal level, and you begin to, what Bible calls communion, fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Again, this is not just about speaking in tongues. I love to speak in tongues, like Paul, I believe we need to all speak in tongues, edify our spirit, build our spirit. But what Pentecostals many times miss, what I believe is the missing component, is the Holy Spirit is treated more like a river than a person. And it's more about an experience instead of a relationship. And we need both. Holy Spirit will provide experiences. He will provide these things that you can feel, but he is not a feeling. I get feelings from my wife and for my wife, but my wife is not chemical reaction in my brain. My wife is a person that I can know. That's why the Bible says be still and know that I am God. The Bible doesn't say be still and feel that I am God. God is not an electric power. You stick your fingers into a socket. Brrrr! That's not, the electric power doesn't have feelings. Electric power doesn't have a mind. God is not a wind. Even though he could be portrayed as a wind. The spirit of God is a person. You cannot see him, but he is as real as you and I are. And you can have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit. You know what helped me to have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit when I was just beginning that nine years ago, is this, because I remember I went to the Lord and prayed and I said, Lord, if you want me to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, why is that you called him Holy Spirit? Like, why didn't you call him a holy person? Oh my God, you are a simple man. I live on this earth. It's hard to relate to someone. I keep calling a spirit. I don't want to be talking to ghosts. It's kind of scary territory to be talking to ghosts. And why, see, Jesus came in a human flesh. You present yourself as our father. I have a dad so I can relate to that. When it comes to the spirit, if I could have a relationship with him, why is he coming as a spirit? Why didn't you give him a body? It would have been so much more helpful. And I remember the Holy Spirit spoke back to me through the scripture and he says, I gave him a body. He chose yours. He says he's no less a person just because he doesn't have a physical body you can see. Cause he says, when you die, when I die and they put me in the casket, the body will be there, but me gone. So what you see right now is not me. You're seeing a house that I live in. One day this house will get decayed and put in a casket. And when you will attend my funeral, or maybe some of you I'll probably attend yours first, you will come and see the way some of you are eating and not exercising. When you come to a funeral and you go through and you see a body, everything is there except the person. So think of the Holy Spirit as a person who chose to live in your body as his temple. He is a no less a person just because he does not have a physical body like our Lord savior did. He chose your body to inhabit. This gives you another reason to keep your body pure. Keep your body holy and keep your body healthy. This gives you another reason to cut off all the Red Bull, all the alcohol, all the weed and all the junk food. Why? Because this is not just your body anymore. It's becoming his address. He lives here. That means this better kept really good. Why? Because the Holy Spirit lives here. When they say, where does he live? Give him your address. Give people your address. He lives here. Come on, somebody. The last thing about relating with the Holy Spirit is friendship with the Holy Spirit. And that's what I wanna focus on today is you can have a friendship with the Holy Spirit. How many of you will do for friends that you will never do for strangers? You'll borrow things for friends. One of the things that we do with friends is we share secrets. Something exciting that's coming up. First people that will know are your friends. You will get influenced by your friends. You'll fly across the country to attend their wedding. You will fly across, you will drive, you will pay whatever you need to do for friends. There are things that friends have and influence in a relationship that no other person will have. You will bend backwards so that your friends get what they want. There is a this relationship that exists with friends. And Holy Spirit wants to be your friend. And we're gonna learn that today in the scripture. Are you in Genesis chapter 24? If you are, say yes. If you are not, say I'm going. Open a new version Bible app if that's helpful. Genesis 24, verse one. Now Abraham was old and well advanced in age. And the Lord had, if I can have Dan come up and just play piano. Abraham was old and well advanced in age and the Lord blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house who ruled over all he had. Please put your hand under my tie and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. But you will go to my country and to my family and take a wife for my son, Isaac. I wanna share with you from this story four things and I believe five things that will help us to develop friendship with the Holy Spirit. Number one, I want you to notice is this. He is the ruler. The Holy Spirit is the ruler of heaven's wealth. I'm gonna use the analogy of the oldest servant in Abraham's house. Abraham had the oldest servant. In fact, we don't see his name. Some argue it's Eleazar. Some argue that we don't see his name. But I think it's specific and it's on purpose that his name is not mentioned because he is the anonymous oldest servant. That's like how the Holy Spirit is. He remains anonymous, meaning he doesn't draw attention to himself. It's never about him. It's always about Jesus and it's always about bringing glory to Jesus. But I want you to notice while this servant, the oldest servant in Abraham's house was anonymous, we don't see his name. We see his power. The Bible says in here he ruled over all that Abraham had. I want you to see this about the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in book of John, chapter 16, verse 15. He says all the things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. All the things that the Father has are mine. Therefore he will take those things and declare it to you. Kaleen, if you can lower the audio, the music. All the things that the Father has are mine. Therefore he will take of what is mine and give it to you. The Holy Spirit is the ruler and the manager of heaven's wealth. Anything that has to do with power, miracles, signs and wonders, there is one person who has the keys and that person is the Holy Spirit. Miracles are done through him. God didn't create the earth without the Holy Spirit hovering. Every time we see the speaking, we see the prophetic, we see the miraculous, we see the markings of the Holy Spirit being present. The second thing I want you to write down that is this, is he is sent to find a bride. This unnamed servant is on the mission. Abraham tells him, I want you to go to my family, go to my country, and I want you to bring a wife for my son, Isaac. The Holy Spirit's task is to bring Jesus a bride. Jesus even said this of the Holy Spirit. He said, but when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. The Holy Spirit's role is to point to Jesus. Holy Spirit doesn't draw attention to himself. He puts all that attention on Jesus. There is a danger with the Pentecostalism or charismatic movement when we think that the Holy Spirit wants all the attention to be on him. When in reality, he wants all the attention to be on Jesus. Do you remember when Jesus was here? He's the king of kings, Lord of lords, but they tried to make him a king. He walked away from among them and left them. Even though he was a king, but the role he had on this earth is to die for our sins, not to sit on the throne occupied by Rome. The Holy Spirit is God, but the Holy Spirit's assignment is to point to Jesus, not to himself. The closer you get to the Holy Spirit, the more important Jesus will become to you. Catherine Kuhlman said this, the Holy Spirit is the greatest promoter who ever lived. And he promotes just one person, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit does not exist to make me famous. He doesn't exist to make hungry Jen famous. He doesn't make to promote, he doesn't exist to promote us. If I could use this plainly, maybe not super theologically correct, we don't matter. Only Jesus matters. And he is all about Jesus. This unnamed servant that Abraham sends, his number one goal is not to make Rebecca fall in love with him, but to make Rebecca fall in love with Isaac, is to bring Rebecca to Isaac as a bride. That's why the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. That's why he helps us to worship Jesus. That's why he reveals Jesus. That's why you can come to church, listen about Jesus all your life and never be saved until the Holy Spirit removes the scales and makes Jesus real to you. Jesus is not just a historical figure. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Who makes him real? Not the preacher, not the soundtrack, not the lights, and not the smoke machine, and not the church, it is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is welcome, Jesus becomes glorified. Jesus says the spirit was not given because I wasn't glorified yet. When Christ is glorified, the spirit is poured out. If you wanna have more of the Holy Spirit, you have to exalt Jesus. You have to focus on Jesus. You have to admire Jesus. You have to run to the cross because there could be no apentecost until first there is a cross. We cannot experience the dove until we embrace the lamb. Until we embrace the lamb of God, only then we can experience Jesus, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. It's all about Jesus. Come on, somebody give God some praise right now for sending His Son, Jesus Christ to our life and the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus to us. Number three, will you give Him a drink? I want you to notice in Genesis 24, 17 that this unnamed servant comes and the following happens. In verse 20, in verse 17, so a backstory. So this unnamed servant, ruler of all of Abraham's wealth, shows up on the scene. Rebecca comes with the animals to water them. And this man who carries camels, we don't know how many camels exactly, but there was a lot of camels most likely because Abraham was super wealthy. And because there was a lot of camels carrying a lot of goods in them, this unnamed servant didn't come alone. He came with other servants with him. And then Rebecca comes to the well and he has this thing, he comes to a woman and he says, can you give me a drink? In fact, let me read it to you, how it says. It says, please let me drink a little water from your pitcher. I'm so glad Rebecca was not part of feminist movement. She would have been like, excuse me? You get your own drink, boy. Mama didn't raise you well. Rebecca, she could have said, excuse me? You're a guy, you get your own drink. So she said, drink my Lord. Interesting, could he get his own drink? Of course. Could he draw water from the well by himself? 100%. Could he have one of the guys that worked for Abraham say, hey, could you fetch me some water? 100%. Why in the world is he pretending to be thirsty? Because his thirst is her test. Jesus did the same thing with the woman at the well. Was he not able to draw water from the well? Of course he could. Jesus was the water. He was the well. But when he asked woman at the well, she says, can you give me some water? It's not because he couldn't do it himself. It's not that he needed her to give him the water, it's that he wanted to have that connection and that relationship. He wanted to start that communion with her and he's asking. It's almost like his thirst is her test. When you're thirsty, you go to Jesus to drink. But if the Holy Spirit is thirsty, can he come to you for a drink? What do you mean for a drink? What do you have to offer that God needs? Absolutely nothing. But what do you have to offer that the Holy Spirit wants? There's one thing and it's your time, your attention and your affection. Look at these words. Please indicates he's not commanding. He's petitioning. Please. He's not forcing, he's not begging, but he's petitioning and he's not commanding. Let me reveals that the Holy Spirit is God. Yet he's still a person that you can grieve, reject, please hurt or make happy. Let me. And then I want you to see, he says, drink a little. He's not asking for you to give him water 24 seven, 365 days a year. He says a little, meaning I'm not asking for all of it. I'm asking you for little. And then he says this from your picture. In other words, from your calendar, from the picture of your 24 hours. I want you to hear the Holy Spirit, the person of Godhead asking a believer today, please let me drink from your picture. Now some of you think I'm taking this verse and stretching it a little bit. Let's look at the New Testament in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14. And it says the following, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I want you to notice how most of us read this verse. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion with the Holy Spirit be with you all. But that's not what it says. It doesn't say communion with the spirit. It's the communion of the Holy Spirit. He initiates the friendship as Jesus initiates the grace and God initiates the love. God gives the love. Jesus gives the grace. And most of us think, and I know what the Holy Spirit gives, conviction. If you come to the Holy Spirit, He will always remind you what's wrong with you. That's true. Holy Spirit is holy and he convicts us. But in this verse, the Bible doesn't say and the conviction of the Holy Spirit be with you always. I was afraid of the Holy Spirit in an unhealthy way because it's almost like living with my pastor. I'm like, I'm gonna like have no freedom. If I get to know the Holy Spirit, like every single moment, like in heaven it's great. But like here on earth, like he's holy and God is not, I'm human. So he's gonna always remind me of what I'm doing wrong. He's gonna always remind me of who I am not. And that is true. He convicts us. He changes us. But this verse really helped to bring me desire to know the Holy Spirit, knowing that He wants to have a communion and friendship more with me. God has this love to give you. Jesus has this grace to give you. And I want you to see the Holy Spirit has communion. He has fellowship to offer to you. Communion with the Holy Spirit. Communion of the Holy Spirit is for everyone, not only for the spiritual elite. Meaning it says this, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. It doesn't say be with the pastors, be with those who finish Bible degree, be with those that are perfect. It says with all, meaning the Holy Spirit's relationship is not for the elite, it's for everyone. It's for you and I. You may say, but I don't have a big ministry. It doesn't matter. He is available for you. Do you say that love of Jesus, love of God is not for me because I'm a stay-home mom? Absolutely not. Do you say the grace of Jesus is not for me? Why? Because I'm just a construction worker? Absolutely not. The grace of Jesus for everyone, the student, the young adult, the young professional, the stay-home mom, the single mom, a businessman, somebody who is working nine to five, somebody who doesn't have a job, it makes no difference. Grace of Jesus is for everyone. You don't deserve that grace. It is the gift from God. The love of God is unconditional. It's unfailing and it's for everyone. You don't deserve it to receive it. You don't earn it, you just receive it. But when it comes to the gift from the Holy Spirit, many of us were like, man, I don't qualify for that. I don't deserve that. I'm not good enough for that. But I wanna tell you something, that is a lie from the enemy. The Holy Spirit has a gift and he wants to give it to you. It's called the communion of the Holy Spirit. Communion of the Holy Spirit indicates it's a two-way street. Communion is not that he's only talking and you're listening because in the real relationship, if you're communicating and only one person is talking, that's not a communication. That's like domination. That's not a communication. Communication is one person talks, the other person talks. One person listens. Communication, communion is also not thou the greatest and the mighty one. Communion, I have communion with my wife every single day. I don't approach her with some big terms. Very simple language and I approach her because she is a person I have a communion with. Can we worship the Holy Spirit? 100%, he is God. But the Bible says he wants to have communion with us. What does that look like? Put yourself how disciples were with Jesus. When they woke up every day to Jesus and this is not in any way to belittle the divinity of Christ. But I think they had a relationship with him like he would have a relationship with friends. Hello, Jesus. He was God. They worshiped him, the Bible says. They called him Lord Messiah. But the regular connection, interaction they had with him was with a friend. Jesus says I'm going to go and another like me will come. And he wants you to have this relationship with you. Think of this. You can have same relationship with the Holy Spirit disciples had with Jesus. He's here right now. He's not there, he's here. Imagine being alive 2,000 years ago when Jesus is in Jerusalem. It will be wise to get a ticket, sell your house and move close to Nazareth. And build yourself a hut, somewhere close at least on the weekends to be able to see some of Jesus' preachings. And even if you're working, take some of the money and support what Jesus is doing and be as close to Jesus for three and a half years as you possibly can. Unfortunately, you were not born at that time. Fortunately for you, you're born at what Jesus thinks is a better time when the Holy Spirit came on earth and doesn't live in Jerusalem, he lives right here. You don't have to travel. All you gotta do is give him a drink. What does that mean? Give him your attention, give him your affection and give him your time. Talk to him. Ask him for help. Lean on him. Listen to him. He will speak. He is a person. Don't grieve him. He will prompt you, give you impressions. He will quicken God's word. He will lead you to Jesus. He is here right now. You can have a greater life than disciples had when they were with Jesus. How do I know that? Because after three and a half years with Jesus, they all denied him. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them, history says they died as martyrs, none of them denied him. Holy Spirit in us is better than Jesus with us physically because he wouldn't be able to be with all of us physically at once. But the Holy Spirit is in each and every one of us as Christians. Unfortunately, many of us have opened the gift of love and grace and have kept the gift of communion unwrapped, closed in and not developing their intimacy. And my desire is that we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you see the Holy Spirit as power, you will seek to use him. If you see him as a person, you will seek to know him and he will use you. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a person, as a he, not an it. The Holy Spirit is a person because his work is to carry on a person's ministry, the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a person because he has three elements of personality. He has a mind, he has a will, and he has emotions. The Holy Spirit is a person because he performs tasks only a person can perform. He speaks, he searches all things, he reveals or inspires, he teaches, he cries, he intercedes, he leads, he helps, and he has fellowship. The Holy Spirit is a person because personal feelings are ascribed to him. He can be grieved, he can be rebelled against, he can be insulted, he can be lied to, he can be blasphemed, he can be resisted, he can be put to test, and he can be quenched. He can be provoked, and he can be pleased. Will you give him water from your pitcher? Every single day you wake up and God gives you water for your pitcher. It's called 24 hours. And the Holy Spirit who lives in you, he's sent to help, he's sent to be your encourager, your advocate, your counselor, someone to help you grow in Christian life. So your Christian life is not based on your strength. That's why Christian life is hard. Christian life is actually not hard, it's impossible. But with the Holy Spirit who is there, it becomes easier because he takes the heavy load. But he's asking us today, not from much. He's asking for our time. He's asking for our fellowship. He's asking for water. As you begin to give him that, every single day acknowledging the Holy Spirit, sometimes when you feel tense, you're about to blow up, pause for just five seconds and say, Holy Spirit, help. Three words. That doesn't have to be fancy. You don't have to quote, and see and creed. Holy Spirit, help. When you wake up in the morning, welcome him. Say good morning, Holy Spirit. Why? Because he is a person. What do you do with people? You greet him. When you walk throughout your day, you're gardening somewhere or enjoying or having a workout or doing something else and you have a free moment, talk to him. He's not needy. He doesn't need you. He wants you. He can get the water by himself. So when he's asking for water, it's not because he can't get it. It's that he chooses to be involved in our life. It starts with that. What I used to do, don't practice this at home, but this helped me. I'm slow in a lot of areas. So when I was young, I would put a chair in my room where I prayed and I put a paper on it and I said, Holy Spirit sits here. So I would finish my prayer. I would sit on the chair, put the chair right in front of me. And yes, it's theologically not correct because he lives here. He doesn't sit on the chair. I get that. But for people like me, it just helps a little bit sometimes to recognize he's not just the atmosphere, our feeling, but he's a real person. And I would talk to a person, assuming, imagining with my sentified imagination that he is there listening. And I would pause and listen as he would bring it quick in the scriptures in my mind and he would encourage me and strengthen me. And after that, I got rid of the chair and, you know, don't do that anymore. And I think that year at the conference, I think we had a guest speaker that didn't show up and it was put in nerve-wracking for me. So the first chair at the conference that we had, I put a paper and I said, Holy Spirit is the most important guest at this conference. As some people got a little offended, he doesn't sit on the chair. I was like, of course he doesn't sit on the chair. This has just helped me with my poor little faith. This is not to create more criticism. And so, and we don't do that anymore or so, but at the same time, I was very nerve-wracking because five days before the conference, the preacher who was supposed to come from Africa, his visa got declined. And so he wasn't able to make it. So I was pretty nervous because now the conference rests on me. But what I did is I shifted on my best friend, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the conference rests on you. You're the most important. He didn't come. You don't need visa. I believe you came and you're gonna sit right there. And I'm gonna give you an orarium as well. The rest of my life I'm gonna honor you in Jesus' name, amen. And God moved powerfully at the conference. And I really believe the Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with us. He wants to have that drink. He wants us to give him that refreshing because he is the person. We can please him or we can grieve him. If you think that whatever you do has no effect on the Holy Spirit, that means you still view him as a power, wind, oil, and dove. Because if the wind is blowing, you can spit at it. It won't cry. Electricity, you can come and say, I don't like your electricity. Electricity is not gonna be like, oh, you grieved me. Now say that to your wife. You'll be sleeping on the couch. Well, it's not gonna work. So the Holy Spirit is not just electricity. He's a person. That's why our words, how we treat other people matters. It can grieve him. It can quench him. And what we can do things, they can please him. Apostles gathered together and they said this. It pleases us and the Holy Spirit not to lay extra burden upon the church. And so that means there are things the Holy Spirit loves and the Holy Spirit is pleased with. And it's the same things the Bible reveals to us. Can somebody say amen? Number four, I want you to notice, when she finishes giving him water, volunteer to water the camels. If you water the camels, he will give you gifts. Now I'm gonna read verse 53. When the servant brought out jewelry of silver and jewelry of gold, the clothing and gave them to Rebecca. He also gave precious things to her brother and her mother. But you will see in verse 19, when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they had finished drinking. Now I want you to notice something on the average, camel drinks from eight to 12 gallons of water daily. Thirsty camel can drink up to 30 gallons. There was more than one camel in here. So let's just assume that the average camel in this situation would drink 20 gallons of water. This is not a hose that she brought, put it into a camel's mouth. Like, okay, one hose for you camel, one hose for you camel and one hose for you. The Bible says she would go to the well and she would draw the water out from the well and bring it to the camel. And this is the interesting part. Nobody asked her. The man didn't say, hey, you did so great quenching my thirst, what about my camels? He didn't suggest to her to water the camels. She volunteered. She says, can I volunteer to water your camels? Little did she know the camel she was watering carried her gifts, carried the very gifts for her and her family. Let me speak to you for just a little moment about the importance of volunteering at the church. Come on, somebody. Camels, you gotta volunteer to water the camels. And she didn't say, hey, I'm gonna bill you $50 per hour. She just says, hey, I want to volunteer to water the camels. I believe when you volunteer at the local church, you are watering the camels. You are building the kingdom of God. And guess what begins to happen? Your own gifts begin to be activated and discovered and God begins to use you for His glory. Come on, somebody. When you volunteer serving at the kids ministry, when you volunteer serving at the camera team, when you volunteer and you come earlier and you say, I'm going to volunteer, not because I get paid, not because I want to be recognized, but because I fellowship with the Holy Spirit and I love what the Holy Spirit loves. That is the body of Jesus, the Jesus Christ. And I wanna bless the local church. I'm gonna give my best to the local church. Why? Because Jesus Christ is building a local church. It is His bride and it is His building. Therefore, I will volunteer to water camels. I just wanna speak to everybody. Rebecca, under the sound of my voice, who's been watering camels and tell you that Jesus is pleased with you and tell you even if you don't get recognized, your reward is coming because God sees your faithfulness. God sees your service. God sees a lot of gallons of water and you don't have to be pried, manipulated and pushed and you do it out of a good heart and a good Lord sees your faithfulness. Somebody give God some praise for all of our volunteers. People that come at 5 a.m. at prayer, they don't have to do that, but they say, Lord, I have fellowship with you and I wanna water some camels. People that come and serve at the kids ministry. People that come and serve at the youth ministry at the delivered in services when you could have been at home watching a football game, but you say, I'm gonna water some camels. What you don't know is those camels have gifts that you will have access to. What you don't know is you will begin to see your gifts begin to be discovered and deployed and developed for the kingdom of God. Can somebody say amen? Don't look for a place to shine on. Look for a place to serve. Gifts are received by impartation, but they are released through activation. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, he says, by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace toward me is not in vain, for I have labored more abundantly than they all do. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was in me. Work out what God has worked in. Some of our volunteers put up to 20 or 30 hours a week serving at the local church. Why? What I do here today, I don't do this because it's my job. I do this as a volunteer. Since January I decided to give back the salary and because I've worked at the church now for the rest of 20 years, my desire, that's my goal, at least until we move into a new building to water the camels. Why do I wanna do that? Because Jesus loves the church. And because the Holy Spirit loves the church and I love the church. Come on somebody. And so I feel with you today, that's why when you come to service you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because this church isn't built on the talents of few. It's built on the sacrifices of many. It's built on the contributions of many. Some of us serve with time, some of us serve with resources, some of us serve with finances, but we're all watering the camels. Not because we have to, not because we're afraid of going to hell, but because we love what God is doing at this house and we wanna serve the local church. We wanna serve the mission of Jesus Christ. Come on somebody. Nobody told her to do it. And she could have said, ah, me, I got my nails done. I got them lashes. And where's the photographer? Is somebody gonna be taking pictures? Because if this is not showing up on the church's Instagram, I am moving my little pretty nails to take that bucket of water to, what, camels? Now they drink too much. I don't wanna serve at the church. Why? Church people are just demanding. It's never enough. They have big stomachs, kids ministry. No, it's just, it's just hard. And the parking lot, nobody listens when you point and tell people. And the coffee shop, they ask you to remake the coffee. Man, it's hard to serve at the church because they got a big, big, big, big, big appetite. What are the camels? Let's water the camels, church. And we will access the gifts. God's gifts are not a words of being good. It tools for service. But who does God entrust those gifts to? People who have a serving heart. Gifts are not to make me powerful, famous. Gifts are not to make you great. Gifts are when you're tested with serving with what you have. God will add His super to your natural. So instead of just saying, Lord, give me greater power. Have you used the power you already have to serve? Some of us are saying, yeah, I will serve, Lord. The moment my hand can go like this, and everybody falls, oh, I'll be serving. What if your hand can go like this and pick something up from the ground? You know what can do that? So what if you were to use your hand to pick something up from the ground, pick a child in the kids ministry? Oh yeah, nobody's gonna fall, but the kid is gonna be standing. Let's use the power we have. Abilities we have. And as we do that to serve the local church, you'll be surprised how God begins to add more power, more anointing, more grace, visions, dreams, prophetic, words of knowledge, casting out of demons, and other things begin to be added to your ministry because you're already serving in the local church. You're watering the camels. Come on somebody, amen. The last thing I want you to notice is leave Laban. Verse 58, then they called Rebecca and said to her, will you go with this man? And she said, I will. The last thing that I wanna highlight, and this is gonna deal with the friendship with the Holy Spirit. The next level in the Holy Spirit will involve leaving Laban. John chapter 15 verse 14, it says, you are my friends, if you do whatever I commend you. So Jesus says that to his disciples. So Rebecca goes to the well, this man whom she doesn't know, says, hey, could you give me some water? Rebecca says, of course, she gives him water. The moment he finished drinking, she looks at his camel, says, hey, would you like me to water your camels? And he's like, okay, that's, yeah. She's watering the camels. He begins to put jewelry, these gifts on her. Rebecca invites this man to the house. He meets Laban, Rebecca's brother. They're hanging out, they're having a good time. And then this servant says, Rebecca, we gotta go. Where? Into the unknown. I want you to leave Laban, your brother. I want you to leave your family. And I want you to go somewhere. You don't have Facebook to check your future husband's picture. You don't even know how he looks. You don't even know if this whole thing is real, for sure, like, this is kinda risky business. This is scary to go into the unknown. Rebecca, I want you to leave everything that you know, everything that's good, not the bad stuff. This was not a club girl. This was not somebody leaving drugs and alcohol. This is somebody leaving comfortable, convenient routine, good life she lived for something that's gonna be incredible, amazing, but also super risky. And the servant looked at Laban and says, we need to go on. We can't just stay here hanging out. We need to go into her meeting, her husband, and Laban looked at Rebecca and says, would you go with that man? And she says, yes, sir, I will go. I truly believe fellowship with the spirit starts the relationship. Friendship with the spirit is only to those who are willing to follow the Holy Spirit and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. This is what I used to think, that friendship with God is because you talk to God a lot, you pray a lot and you fast a lot. And this scripture changed my perspective when Jesus says, you are my friends because you do what I say. Have you ever said this to your friends, came up to your best friend, BFFs, like, hey, just want to let you know, you're my BFF, why? You always do what I ask. They will be look at you, they're like, excuse me, I'm not your employee. In God's world, you cannot be friends with God because you talk to him. You can only be friends with God because you do what he says. In our world, you become friends by spending time together. In God's world, you become friends because you do what he says. Fellowship is good. We can talk to God, Lord, I love your Holy Spirit. Help me, awesome, praise God. Me and the Holy Spirit have a fellowship. This does not mean you have friendship. Friendship is this, when he starts speaking to you and starts asking you, telling you, hey, I want you to change that. Hey, I want you to, don't reply like that. Don't do that. When he starts telling you, hey, you got a lot of money in your bank account, what about giving it to the church? When he starts saying, hey, you know what? You've been coming to church for six months. I think it's time to start serving. Hey, be nice to your wife. He starts bringing promptings and everything. And if we ignore that, we will stay at the fellowship instead of the friendship. The cost of friendship is obedience. It's not always more prayer. It's not always more fasting. Sometimes it's the simple things. And the Holy Spirit knows exactly the things that actually cost you, your pride, your ego, and your way. Because at the level of obedience, less of you and more of him begins to happen. And so I remember there was a time where I would fast because I didn't want to do what he asked me to do. And some of us do that. We will say, no, I'm gonna pray more just so I don't have to forgive. That's what King Saul did. Saul simply said, I am going to overcompensate by offering God more sacrifice instead of wiping out Amalekites. We love to overcompensate with sacrifice where we lack with obedience. And that's why people sometimes say, what is the secret of breakthrough? What is the secret to know the Holy Spirit? It's not long prayer. It's not even long fasting. Prayer, fasting, giving is important. What is the secret to intimacy with the Holy Spirit is one, it's to obey. If you obey, you will have an intimacy with him. If you follow through with what he leads you and what he guides you. But how do you know if it's the Holy Spirit or not? You check with the Bible. You check with your spiritual mentors. But a lot of times you know that you know it's the still small voice. And usually if it contradicts your flesh, you know it's not you. It's the Holy Spirit. As you obey, you will go to the next level with the Holy Spirit. It's not just about spending hours and hours, though that's important. But if you don't obey, come on, those of you wives who've been asking your husband to take the garbage out for many days. And if he just wants to sit and talk with you, look, come on home boy, take the garbage out. We don't like those people who love to talk, but they don't do what they've been asked or they on purpose do things that you just don't like. The Holy Spirit wants us to do what the scripture tells us to do and what he prompts us to do. That deepens our intimacy with him. Amen. Hallelujah. Did you receive something today? I want you to rise to your feet. How many of you say, I wanna know the Holy Spirit more today? Just raise your hand. If you're saying I wanna know the Holy Spirit more, I wanna have a fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna talk to the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna rely on the Holy Spirit more. Maybe you're saying, you know what, I have not been giving him my attention, but I would like to start doing that this week. I'm gonna practice this week of hosting the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna practice this week. If that's you, just raise your hand. I wanna pray with you right now that the Holy Spirit will become more real to you today in Jesus' name. Disclose your eyes, whatever you're standing in the first and the second century, as well as those of you that are watching us online, the Holy Spirit wants to become more real to you right now. Jesus wants to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Today is that day where your spiritual life needs to go to the next level. Today is that day where like those servants at the wedding of Cana, Jesus said to them, put water into the water basins and it turned into wine because they did what he said. Some of you here today, you've been fellowshiping with the Holy Spirit, but you feel spiritually stuck because your next level with the Holy Spirit is not dependent on just praying more. If he was specifically instructing you to do something, follow his leading, follow his guidance. Never be afraid to go into the unknown. Never be afraid to step into the uncharted territory with the Holy Spirit. Never be afraid to leave your convenience, your comfort and to know him more, to develop closer and deeper relationship with God. Every eye closed and every head bowed. Just raise your hands to the Lord and let's begin to say, Holy Spirit, I welcome you today. Holy Spirit, we welcome you today. If you're not a Christian, I'm gonna give you that opportunity to get right with the Lord in a second, but I just wanna take a moment and just welcome the precious Holy Spirit. Allow him to touch you. Allow him to reveal Jesus, to affect your worship right now. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We welcome you right now. We welcome your presence. We welcome your anointing. We welcome you today. The gaze at Jesus. Second century. This is not a barrier for the Lord. Welcome you today. Holy Spirit, I'm gonna take your place. I've always lifted to the Lord. Come on, place your hand up on your heart right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you that the Holy Spirit will become real to every person in our church. Lord, I ask you, Jesus, that you will baptize them with the Holy Spirit, that you will immerse them in the Holy Spirit. I pray that you will take all of our leaders, all of our volunteers, all of our pastors, that you will take all of our team closer and deeper into the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray as we go about our day that we will begin to lean on the Holy Spirit, that we will begin to be filled with the Holy Spirit more and more, that we will be led by the Spirit, that he will speak to us, that he will convict us, that he will comfort us, that he will enable us to pray in line with God's will. I pray right now, Lord, that you will release greater measure of power in our witness, in our life, that the fruit of the Spirit will be developed. We will become better husbands. They will become better fathers. They will become better wives and better mothers, better students, sons and daughters, Lord. They will be a reflection of Jesus and our generation, that the fire will be kindled inside of us, that the world will see the light of Jesus. Lord, we ask you that as we become people that host the Holy Spirit, people that have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that we will go from fellowship to friendship, that nothing will be too sacred in our life, but for you, Lord, that everything we will not be afraid to lose for you. Like Paul says that I count everything as rubbish, that I may know him and to be found in him, not with my righteousness, which is from the law, but with righteousness that comes from Christ, to know Jesus, to have the fellowship of his suffering, Lord. I pray that our eyes will behold Jesus, that our eyes will worship Jesus, that our heart will adore our Savior, that the Holy Spirit will lead every step of our life, that our life will not be a result of our connections, education, strength and abilities, but the supernatural enabling of an invisible friend, the Holy Spirit. I pray that you will help us to lead our businesses, help us to lead our careers, help us Holy Spirit to create, to innovate, to make a difference in our generation with your power and your strength and ability. In Jesus' name, every head bowed and every head closed, if you're in this room, and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, maybe you're familiar with Jesus, you know about Jesus, but you don't know him as your Lord, your Savior. The Holy Spirit is sent to introduce you to Jesus, He's working behind the scenes right now, like a wind that you cannot see, but you can see its effects. He's moving on your heart, He brought you here. He wants to forgive you of your sins, through Jesus' blood. He wants you to be born again, so that He, the Holy Spirit can come and live inside of you. Today is that day where you can make the decision right now and repent of your sin. Jesus loves you so much. He died on the cross to take care of the sin problem. Not only the things you did, but who you became because of the sin of Adam. Only Jesus can fix that. He took the hell, maybe you're going through upon Himself. He was bruised for your iniquities, chastised for your problems. He carried your issues on Himself, so that today He can extend to you His grace, His mercy and love. Every head bowed and every head closed, if you're in this room, in the second room, and you would like to have a relationship with Jesus Christ through repentance of sin, faith in Him. Today you say, I need to make that decision. Maybe you walked away from God and you need to come back to Jesus. And you feel guilty because you knew this whole thing, but stuff happened and you left Christian faith. Jesus doesn't only save sinners, He restores backsliders. Today is your day. He wants to restore you. When I count to three, if you would like to give your life to Jesus, accept Him as your Savior, or come back to Him because you walked away from Him, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. That's gonna be your way of saying, I need help. I need to come back to God. One, two, three. Just raise that hand high. Thank you, see your hands, sir. Thank you, I see your hand. Thank you, I see your hand. Anybody else in the second sanctuary, just raise that hand high. If you say, I need to get right with God, I'm not what I'm supposed to be. I've backslid. I need to come back to the Lord. I need to resume, restart in Jesus' name. If you raised your hand or you wanted to, and you know that this is that day, God's been preparing and planning for you to be right with Him. I'm gonna ask you to quickly step out of your seat