 I'm going to continue my series today called towels and titles. We will talk about a way out of burnout. A lot of times anxiety, depression or discouragement comes from three sources. It comes from Satan. The Bible says the spirit tormented soul. Sometimes people experience demonic attacks and they experience burnout, disappointment and discouragement and they need deliverance. Sometimes it comes out from sin. The scripture says when Samson committed sin, the power left him. You feel depleted. You feel empty when you commit sin. You feel guilty. Anybody experienced that? Okay, we all did. I saw something like, not really. And there's a third way that this could be experienced is through service, where you can serve and experience discouragement. The scripture says that power left Jesus when he was touched by a woman. Sometimes you can experience fatigue and emptiness even because you serve a lot and people get experiencing burnout and discouragement. Some of you are coming from different churches. Some of you come from different ministries where you've encountered forces of darkness. You've encountered people. You've encountered ministry and today maybe you are discouraged. You are burnt out of ministry and that could be the case. Now the freedom or overcoming those things will come differently for different people. Some people need to seek medical help. Some of us we just need to get right with God. Again, some of us you know we need to be delivered if we are bound by some demonic things. So we need to repent if we find ourselves in some gripping sin. And today that's where I'm gonna talk about today. If you have your Bible let's go to Acts chapter 6 verse 1 and down. If you didn't bring your physical Bible you can open the U version Bible app and all the notes are on there. If you search under more and events they will be there as well. Acts chapter 6 verse 1. Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And then verse 7 says the following. Then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were added to the faith. The early church when they met at first in book of Acts chapter 2 they were praying they were united they were seeking God and after a short time the Holy Spirit came like a rushing wind. The power of God came. People were saved by thousands kind of like our vision. Thousands locally and millions globally. They were influencing the different parts of that world because people were there at the festival and then brought the gospel to those parts of the world. The church grew. With it came a lot of responsibilities. With it came a lot of teams, ministries and apostles in here reached a point where one of the widows from a particular culture were being neglected in their receiving of the food or charitable work. They gathered together with the apostles and what touches me is that Peter and the rest of the apostles they did not see this problem in the church as just a leadership or administrational problem. They saw this problem as a spiritual problem. They saw that this practical problem had spiritual roots and the spiritual roots were this that the church in fact the leadership has abandoned prayer and the word of God. Now it's a strong statement to say that Apostles abandoned prayer. But don't take my word for it. It says this. It's not good that we should leave the word of God. It tells me Apostle Peter and the apostles have been busy doing ministry so much that they left the word of God. They preached it. They studied it to preach it. They didn't study it to eat it. They read it so they can find sermons but they didn't read it so it can find a word for themselves. They prayed so God can give a blessing to the ministry but they didn't no longer prayed so just to be with God. How do I know that? Because it says later on verse four it says we will give ourselves continually meaning prayer. They stopped giving themselves to prayer. Prayer became just a quick little thing. Let's just pray before the service. Let's just pray that God will bless the Sunday service, bless the conference but to be with God continually that was abandoned. I want to tell you something today. Number one ministry or doing things for God is more spiritual than we realize. It requires spiritual strength. It requires spiritual power and that power is found in our relationship with God. And as church as our church grows if you feel discouraged by serving God if you feel worn out as a Christian if you feel depleted if you feel like you are numb to the presence of God worship is going on and you just you just you just numb to it. This whole thing is like a routine another Sunday. The word of God lost its appeal to you. Remember you are in a spiritual battle. This is not just security kids ministry cameras what we do is more spiritual than you'll realize. For me preaching leading worship or whatever ministry that we do is way more spiritual than I give credit to. And therefore for me and you as ministers of God we must have a spiritual resource in Jesus so we can flow some ministry can flow out of our relationship with God. Amen. I remember one time the Lord convicted my heart from book of Esther where he said that Vashti was in the palace but the king invited her to be in the presence and she she says I can't go because I'm busy. She was doing a feast with the women. Contrasta with Esther Esther was never invited by a king to go into the king's presence. Esther went without invitation. I don't want to be like Vashti where God has to beg me to come into his presence. I want to pray when I get invited meaning I don't feel like praying. I want to read the word when I don't feel like reading the word meaning you don't get invited you don't feel that the drawing of God God doesn't bang like it hits you or like convicts you like it hits your heart or something. You just do it because you love his presence. Esther she loved the Vashti she loved the palace. Esther she loved the presence. A lot of times we say things like oh well you know if I'm just going to be only God-minded I'm going to ignore the my calling and my purpose. Honestly Esther saved a nation. Vashti lost her crown. If you're not going to put the presence of God my friend above the palace this is the palace. Serving at the church is the palace. Running a life group is the palace. Going through growth track being in kids ministry serving coming early staying late is like the palace. We are busy here and that is good but the presence of God is the most important thing. When we put God's presence first my friend something begins to happen. It refuels our passion for Jesus. Out of that we will serve God. Out of that we will serve God and not get weary and not get tired because he becomes our source. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will walk and not get tired. They will run and not get weary and not only that they'll reach a season in their ministry. Well they will soar with wings like eagles. See right now some of you are walking and maybe you're tired. Learn to wait upon God. See some of that the world will tell you you need to sit down. You need to wait upon God. The world will say stop running after God but the word says wait upon God because after walking you will be running and after running you will be flying. See some of us we say but I'm walking with God and I'm so tired. I'm walking in my ministry but I'm so tired. Listen God has greater speeds for you but in order for you not to lose your sanity, not to lose your family, not to lose your health, not to lose your good not sleep. You have to learn that your walk, your running and your soaring has to be fueled by waiting. Waiting. Waiting upon God. In Mark it says the following. I'm sorry in Luke chapter 10 verse 40 it says the following but Martha was distracted with much serving and she approached him and said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone therefore tell her to help me and Jesus answer said Martha Martha you are worried and troubled about many things but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. Martha is a beautiful example of a Christian who is serving Jesus and who is worried, troubled, complaining, distracted, blames Jesus for not helping them, blames other people because they keep dropping the ball and then they feel really bad for themselves because nobody else is helping them and they're the only ones serving. If you ever felt like that Martha is your friend. Martha is a perfect example of that. I felt like that many times the more you serve God you're gonna feel like that. God you're not helping me. God people are keep dropping the ball. God I don't like myself and Jesus stops her and he didn't say Martha let me help you with the lunch. Let me help you with the sandwiches. He says Martha, Martha he says the problem is not the ministry Martha the problem is this you're putting progress over my presence we're all progress driven we're supposed to be presence led but the problem is many of us our personalities are Martha's like when I read this I'm like Martha I got you I feel you because that's I'm like that I just want to make sure everything is right for the church for the kingdom of God and sometimes I'm so focused on the progress that honestly I miss the presence now I know he's with me I know how to quickly Martha should have a Honda quickly I know how to appeal like I'm spiritual but at the same time if on the outside I'll appear spiritual but on the inside I'm worried depressed I can sleep at night I'm disappointed I don't like people I feel like God it doesn't have my back then something is wrong that means I have placed progress above his presence when you put his presence above progress he will help you to put people above projects because see when his progress is the main goal people is a means to help me reach that goal you're supposed to help me build the church if I am all about progress but if I am about the presence we're not building the church we're building you you're the goal not the project and you are growing as we're building the projects as we're building intership as we're building life groups as we're building ministries we actually are you are being built and therefore you hold the value not the projects and as we put people about projects God puts peace about pressure when you put God's presence above your progress God will help you to put people about projects and he will help you to put peace above the pressure if you feel there is pressure if you feel there is tension in your heart if you feel like you're depleted you're discouraged you're not feeling good yourself you you just by yourself you're just not good here and you're looking at people and you have problems with people and maybe you and God you just you're not there where you're supposed to be can I just encourage you today do two things enjoy his presence and eat his word watch this enjoy his presence I didn't say to pray I said enjoy him it's wrong not to enjoy God if you don't enjoy God you will always endure ministry ministry will be a burden if God's presence is not a blessing you've got to learn to enjoy God I'm not talking about coming to see some people come to prayer to seek God FYI he was never lost God doesn't want you to seek him in your secret place God wants you to enjoy him there's nothing wrong with seeking him the scripture says to seek the kingdom of God there's nothing wrong what we're seeking involves he's already there and I just want more of him it changed my prayer life when I started to go to prayer to be with him not to find him I realized he's already there and he wants to be with me and I enjoy God I enjoy his presence can I encourage you some of you you stop seeking you stop being with the Lord because you fell you made a mistake and you feel like God doesn't want to meet with me no more God doesn't want to see me no more don't skip your time with God because you tripped God still wants to be with you in fact when Adam committed sin God and Adam had these moments together in the cool of the day God would come and come to Adam and God saw in a high definition of what Adam did right there I think all the angels were like hovering and watching how Adam and Eve committed sin and they're like oh man they did it yep uh-huh and I felt like God was looking at his appointment next day to come and meet with Adam I God could have easily said you know what I'm not going to meet him why he blew it you know what God did God went the next day to be at the same place where Adam and him would meet together and the only question he had is Adam where are you I slept God so I can't I couldn't come why because I watched seven hours of TV the night before I was trying to medicate myself God I looked at something on the computer I should have never looked at and I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed God I fell back into my old patterns and things I testified that I was delivered for I fell yesterday so that's why I didn't show up I am hiding God and God says so you fell I thought friends trust friends with stuff I thought we have a relationship I thought you could trust me not just with your success but with your faults I thought you could trust me with your guilt I thought you could trust me with your sin I thought you could trust me with your weakness Adam where are you John where are you the day that you skipped because you slipped God is saying why you think you can overcome on your own you think by staying away it can get better you end up hiding from God but if you show up to your time with God you will hide in God God will cleanse you God will heal you God will forgive you God will restore you God will give you a guilt free consciousness that your neighbor say don't skip that your neighbor say don't skip when you trip when you trip don't skip when you trip don't skip when you trip don't skip I slept this week and Tuesday I think came home and I was so tired I true nun some kind of a TV show for the life of me I can't remember what I watched five hours nonstop like an attic glit glit to a TV I watched five hours of TV I felt so guilty afterwards it felt like I just killed somebody I went to sleep really late and before I went to sleep I told myself I can't go to prayer tomorrow what kind of a pastor am I why did I do now I understand some of you for this is not your sleeping this is your successful night you're like that's that's sleeping that for me it was it was something that I had no business I wasn't watching because I wanted to see something I'm not against movies or TV shows the problem is that I was medicating I was trying to know it I was trying to put a bandaid on something I was just honest I was just tired that day and instead of getting a rest I just glued myself to TV it didn't make me feel better and next day I remember like yesterday I woke up I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday I woke up next my alarm went off 445 and one voice says you can't go meet with God look what you did I was like oh yes I can and I'm going to tell him about it I always want beat the devil to God and to explain everything from my side because the devil is going to have his own version devil's going to make me look bad I come to God and say God I don't know what happened I honestly that's exactly the way that came and I said God I lost it I don't know I don't know God what happened I bought my eyes out for a few minutes and I said God just just please forgive me and God said I'm glad you came here before the accuser did because when you come to God he'll restore you when you don't come to God the devil will make up a story he will start spreading rumors and he will build guilt and condemnation in your life you will not get better it will only get worse I just want to challenge you if you want to grow in God's ministry if you want ministry not to be a burden to you find his presence to be a blessing to you make his presence number one priority enjoy God somebody say enjoy God I'm not talking about just keeping prayer I'm enjoy God but another part of it is this is eat from his word the bible says that Mary was sitting at his feet and listening to his words I found this personally for myself so refreshing not to read the bible to find a sermon but to read the bible to find food for a guy like me who preaches and who runs his mouth for living it's easy to look for a sermon everywhere my wife knows I find sermons in bathroom I find sermons everywhere it's easy to read it for a sermon but you have to understand this I can fool you I don't fool me if I'm hungry nothing is worse than a chef dying in the kitchen out of hunger nothing is worse than somebody who appears to people that knows it all or tries to teach the word but he himself is dying out of starvation an adjustment I made on my personal walk with the Lord is to read less of the bible but read it more and not to read it to get information but to eat it to find food even on the weekends where I don't have like my devotional time but I still have time and I struggle with that too in the weekends because I'm like Lord I feel like Monday to Friday I have this you know when you go to a restaurant and you you take your food to eat like you sit down to eat how you call that dining in that's my devotional life but in the weekends I feel like I do drive through it's fine because it's still same food just eating in the chair just drink it just read it in my bed read it in my couch and it's fine sometimes I get my coffee I sit down and I enjoy it sometimes I get it through drive through it's still same coffee I want to encourage each one of you develop and the relationship with God what it feeds you you don't have to follow my pattern you don't have to wake up in the morning you don't have to do it in the evening but I can tell you one thing if emotionally you don't have peace if mentally there is the storm is not calm if you're waiting up on God doesn't cause you to run walk and fly without deep consequences to your health and your emotions because of ministry you are not receiving from God you're doing some kind of a religious activity it benefits you no more and you're stuck in something you need to break out from and receive from Jesus Peter and apostles we're seeing the widows are complaining about the food problem and everything and Peter says well wait let's let's go back they're complaining but we're now receiving from God we've abandoned the word of God now we're still preaching great sermons they get good views on YouTube we still we still pray before the service we still pray after worship yeah scream and yell and everything we still know that stuff but Peter says we have left the word of God and we have left the prayer and he says let's pull back when your distribution is suffering maybe it's because your devotion is not doing good sometimes our overflow our outflow our our expression of what's coming out of us is struggling we need to go back and say what is coming into me is the Lord pouring into me it's easy to blame the ministry for everything it's easy to blame the church for everything it's easy to blame people for everything it's easy to blame but sometimes we have to take a pause and say you know where is my relationship with God it's easy to blame your husband for everything the economy your boss for why you're feeling like that but honestly people have been in jail beaten and stripped naked and we're singing songs how could that be possible because something switches when you find your source in Jesus you get peace you love people and you prioritize his presence over everything else in life find your pleasure in this presence find your pleasure in his word find your pleasure in eating from his word not just reading the bible in being in his presence because somebody say amen I want to invite you church we're coming back to prayer as a church Monday through Friday doors are open for prayer Monday through Wednesday in the evening doors are open in the war room an hour and a half before the service in the war room there is a prayer that's going on between the services there is a prayer that's going on our church prayer is switching to Friday morning at six now here I want to welcome you now you don't have to come to church to pray do it at home do it at the park walk with God develop an intimacy with God have that time with Jesus can somebody say amen and that's what I see the way to overcome discouragement I see the first thing is I need to come to Jesus Jesus says come to me all of you who are heavy leaden and who are weary who are tired he says come to me and I will give you rest you're exhausted by ministry exhausted by expectations exhausted from life it's too heavy come to Jesus it's very simple be with Jesus eat his word he says this I'll give you peace and he didn't say I'll solve everything but I'll give you peace first well there's a second dynamic to it and we see it here apostles not only they said we're gonna come back to prayer we're gonna put prayers number one we're gonna put the word of God as number two they said this and I want you to write this down if you're taking notes number two is new seasons require new systems new season requires new system so in this case apostles realize they can't be involved in every ministry in the church they have to delegate they have to empower they have to in order to have time for prayer they have to remove something from their schedule can I remind you prayer doesn't take time prayer saves time when you spend time with God the things that would take you five hours could take you five minutes spend time with God but in here he says that you know what we're not going to be involved in in the food ministry no more directly we're going to appoint appoint Saul and Saul she leads our food ministry is going to run that food ministry we're going we're not going to be involved heavily now in this ministry we're gonna let other people do that you have to change your system when you reach a new season of your life otherwise this is what will happen in Matthew chapter 9 verse 19 Jesus says nor do they put new wine into old wine skins or else the wine skins break and the wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined they put new wine in new wine skins and both are preserved the second reason why many people in ministry get burned out the first one is their devotional life shrinks but their ministry grows the first reason is this God works through them but he stopped working in them that's the first reason when God's work through you becomes bigger than God's work in you you're gonna come to you're gonna come you're gonna be burned out the second reason is this is when you reach a new season but you're still the old you the way you think the way you operate is old you i'll give you an example from the ministry example our church was always small for a very long time after a while you develop a stinking of a very small church pattern this thinking is a stinking thinking this is how it typically works when the pastor cuts the grass in church pastor picks up the garbage closes the church first one to come last one to leave and that's the churches most of us grew up in and we love that because you know where he lives you come to him anytime you have a problem he did your kid's wedding he baptized you did the baby shower he does every single thing the only problem with those churches is this they never grow but everybody loves the pastor he's not a pastor he's more like a puppy everybody loves him his goal a lot of times and i'll tell you how it kind of happened with us at first it's fine nothing wrong against small churches we were very small for a long time but i started to recognize the pattern of our thinking was not right a goal of a pastor is not to be liked by people is to lead people it's not to be a puppy that everybody loves and everybody has at all the meetings he's not just always a friend he's supposed to do what god called him to do and the moment the church becomes a little bit bigger than 60 or 70 people next thing that happens a pastor has to change people has to change when our church started to grow about two years ago i took a course on purpose of what to do when you reach 200 people in the church because i started to recognize i don't know how to lead a church bigger than 60 people i needed to change i needed to delegate i needed to create systems and structures in the church where everything doesn't depend on me where things are delegated and things are given to other people i need to change how i take care of my body i needed to change how i prepare my sermons i needed to change and then the church will begin to change as well and i learned a lot of things through that still learning to apply them because it's not difficult and you must understand in every season of your life you have to learn that your system can be the problem for your emotional bankruptcy the bible says a wine is spilled wine skins are broken meaning your emotions can be broken your health can be broken your family can be even broken because you're coming into a new season but you're still having the habits the way you spend your time the way you spend your schedule and your money like you did when you had nothing saying yes to everything i remember before i said yes to every invitation everywhere they invited me to speak i said yes today there's more invitations that come in one week they used to come in one year i can't say yes to everything if i don't have boundaries i will have burdens when you are in the new season you have to have new boundaries meaning you have to have more knows than yeses because your yes can only be as powerful as you know and many people step into a new season they don't know how to say no they say yes to everything they're burned out trying to keep everybody happy at the end they don't even want to live but they keep this image that everybody likes me i'm trying to teach our staff also i'm like when i ask you to do something you need to have your boundaries meaning you need to know how much that's gonna take and respond back instead of saying yes yes yes yes to say do you want me to do that first or last i like what mariana said we asked her to do a growth track and she says let me go in first and study it let me find out how much time that's gonna take and then i'm gonna tell you if i'm able to do it or not because she read a book called boundaries most people i'm gonna tell you the response yes yes not even know how much it takes not even know anything and they say yes to everything then at the end they're burned out hating ministry hating people and not liking themselves who's problem you step into a new season but you still have an old system new system requires your boundaries the more boundaries you have less burdens you will have means you have to think differently you have to approach things things differently when i became the lead pastor three years ago and on sunday mornings we started to have two services you know today we're developing new structures in the church like developing a board of trustees and our bylaws we supposed to have them but um the board was supposed to have it but just the church kind of grows and we still operate it like a small church where you kind of everything goes as goes and you know and it takes a little bit of pain because i don't like those systems i don't like those structures i don't like to bring lawyers to check all of our stuff and and companies to audit our stuff we just want to do stuff as the spirit leads but the problem is that we are now in the new season where we're going to be a mega church we're going to be a church of thousands of people and we have to start thinking we have to have systems and structures of a thousand member church come on somebody are you with me amen lastly because peter prioritized prayer and the word of god he changed the systems he says we're gonna delegate more work we're gonna do less so that we can do more things that god called us to do this is what god does in response i believe when you change your approach to god and you begin to ask god which systems in my life are broken which systems need to be updated the way i spend my time the way i spend my money some of you you stopped working out because your season has changed for example now you have kids you don't have time for it you need to adjust some things some of you you stop seeking the presence of jesus because you got married and your spouse don't want to pray and you're blaming them for why you're not praying but in reality your season has changed you just need to find a different system to do the same thing that you did before some of you you used to do certain things when you were at a different season and now the season has changed and you're trying to do it the same way you did it then it's not going to work you're in college you're not in high school no more that means the way you used to seek the lord the way you used to be with god probably is not going to work now you have to develop a new system in the new season otherwise your wine will spill your skins will blow and god promises if you adjust your structure if you adjust your lifestyle if you put his presence first and you change the system and how you do things i believe this is what the lord promised this is what happened to them and i believe this is what's happening it's going to be happening to our church and i prophesied that over your life today in jesus name verse seven then the word of god spread i believe as we're raising more leaders as our church is developing even a structure even as systems are being established life group leaders team leaders different things even with our building we're probably going to have a new building we're going to have maybe one more service their things are going to be changing i believe this is what will happen the first thing is we will have a global impact somebody say global impact the word will spread people will hear about the word of god from our ministry all around the globe i believe more people will be saved more people will be healed through the word of god spread through media number two it says the number of the disciples multiplied greatly so it's not just decisions but disciples people who became the followers of jesus multiplied greatly what does this mean that means the impact increase somebody say impact increase meaning you begin to increase in your impact we will increase in our impact more lives will be changed it's not just going to be programs but lives will be changed the stories like jonathan the stories like we've seen this morning where people were given the life to jesus people were healed the stories like it happened before there will be increase of the impact now we are going to see more people travel through our ministry and impact other cities and other states than ever before today our pastors in california speaking you know in a few weeks there will be different ministers from our people who will be speaking at different places leading conferences and it's going to be increasing of the impact whereas before i would travel once a month now it's going to be five six people that will travel and bring a greater impact to the kingdom of god impact will increase and lastly and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith this tells me is that new territories will be reached new territories now you don't have to be a very devout bible scholar to know that priests were very difficult to reach even for jesus in fact priests gave jesus one of the difficult time on this earth not only they condemned made fun of him called them with names but priests were not necessarily part of his fan club priests they didn't like jesus and the crazy part is they had a lot of influence and a lot of authority these were like the mayors the governors senators of that day these were very influential people and jesus had no influence with them in fact jesus always had bad run ins with them imagine jesus the son of god did not see a lot of them getting saved but watch this apostles reached a season where not only in board of god spread not only disciples were being multiplied watch this people jesus couldn't reach they reached so many of them it says great many priests were reached i believe mayors millionaires actors famous people will be in our church lawyers doctors teachers people with more degrees than a thermometer people who teach in universities people who lead universities people who have great talents and recognizable by the world people that some people will come only to take a photo with them in church will be here but i'm gonna tell you one thing we are not going to be chasing fame apostles never prayed for priests to be converted they were helping widows to get their food and the lord spoke to me and that's what i want to speak to you if you take care of the widows i'll bring the priests if you take care of the people i entrust to you i will open doors with the people other people chase if you put your my presence first and you begin to adjust your systems into the new season that you are in adjust your schedule adjust your perspective god says i have something for you i will spread the word of god through you not your name but my name will be spread through you not the people will know more about you but they will know more about me through you and i will give you the opportunity to be a part of this somebody say me i will increase your impact meaning there will be more tangible answers that are only from god and thirdly i believe that for our church i will open doors no man can open i will bring people that other people chase not because you were chasing them but you faithful in the verse one with the widows i will entrust you with the priest in the verse seven my god things others couldn't reach people will ask you how did you and you will say i just was make sure the widows are fed i kept my prayer life i tried to stay full in my heart with god tried to love people that god sent and god just created the connection god just opened the door god just gave me that phone call god just allowed that email god allowed that opportunity somehow my resume ended there my video ended up somewhere out there my music track ended up my book ended up there somehow my testimony ended up there somehow some way but it's never somehow some way there is a god in heaven and see he's looking at people who mind their business and are faithful with what he's giving them that life group that he's given you that that opportunity that you teach the kids zone that opportunity that you're greeting people that you're holding a camera that you're guarding the facility you might say what does this has to do with anything god looks at your faithfulness with the widows and verse one there is new opportunities that exist for your business there is new opportunities that exist for your relationships there is new territories god wants to open that you will look back and you say you know what to god be the glory for the great things he's done you know something happened a few months ago we had a david digga with us and david digga came and i knew that david digga is very close with pastor benihin now i grew up listening as a young man to benihin read his book and i was really always wanted to meet him before he dies and uh and i knew two people that know him close um but at least it looks like on photos that they know him close and uh and i was trying to you know through them maybe to meet him and then david digga came and i know that david digga actually knows him very close and so i came from europe at the time and when i was in london i preached at this conference and they blessed me and my wife very generously and part of my my thing with god is that i give a portion of everything that they give me to my pastor this is my deal with god i just blessed my pastor and then the other one is i bring to church and then the other one anytime i have extra me and my wife will look for people who have tangible needs and we we bless them so we did all of that and then i had this portion for my pastor was a large sum of money and when david digga was here i remember i had this thought coming into my mind and please forgive me i'm just being very transparent like what if i give that to david digga like he can maybe make a connection with me and benihin i'll give it to him as a seed with an expectation from god for the connection it's a thought okay i just had a thought and i told my wife about it and you know my wife she's like i'll rebuk you satan she's like she's like that's that's not from god i knew it wasn't from god nothing wrong with blessing david digga i think that if i would have had on my heart or had the extra resources i should have could do it and there's nothing wrong with it but to give with an expectation to have a connection is manipulation and i remember i made a decision i said but if i give it to my pastor my pastor doesn't know benihin do i want david digga to open the door or do i want god to open the door now i'm not saying not to take opportunities and not use common sense and uh so me and my wife made a decision saying you know what god told us god put on our heart to bless our pastor he didn't put on our heart to to do that to david digga we know our pastor so we brought him we blessed him uh david digga left home a few weeks later he sends me a text message he said hey i just want to let you know i sent pastor benih this photo he sends me the photo and i said you can't even where did you get that photo it's of of our people holding good morning holy spirit he says he would really like to meet you guys and i ignored it i was like great awesome thumbs up but i didn't think of anything of it we're driving from portland i get a call text message david digga text sends me a text message he says could you pull over i'm thinking okay i'm like yeah i've been was driving i said i can you uh can we pull over and i get a face time benihin is on a face time i said oh hi pleasant surprise yeah i will pull over so we started to talk and you know he introduced himself i introduced our ministry mentioned a little bit about him and then he said vladimir you know i want you to come to our youth service on monday this was saturday and i said sir i'm there so you know i go in there on on monday and you know it's very difficult to to get into that facility and then to be seated in the front is also very difficult i never chase for the front david digga did it for me set in the front and then you know some of you saw the broadcast there are things that are not in the broadcast where he invited me over before the broadcast to share who i am and in front of his audience and then during the speech which that service went viral it was most viewed service that he's ever had because that's when he confessed him renouncing prosperity gospel so it went viral and i happened to share a few thoughts right there in that service some of you saw the little feature thing and then you know he had me pray and then at the end you know we met with him and then you know we're going again in two weeks he's asking us to come again and uh and i really even when i was there with him i didn't invite him to the conference i didn't i just simply said he talked and talked showed him few photos looked at that and he said he said i'll be there and i'm like i didn't invite you yet but all right all right we'll we'll make it happen i'm sure we can move few things now i understand some of you listening to this and you're like you met with the heritage i understand some people in our church you know you don't like the guy i understand that i want to explain to you once and we can explain this a lot of times not every person that comes to our church we agree with everything about for the life of me i don't even agree with my wife on everything i don't agree with the lifestyle of Solomon that could lend you in jail today i still read book of problems i had people message me and they said if you don't remove this and this and this speaker from your youtube i will unfollow you i said just as long as the keyboard doesn't hit you back yeah number one i said those people didn't bring our church any harm but they did this and this outside i said i will remove their videos if god removes all the stories from the man who failed in the bible once god edits the bible i will edit our youtube channel he did not edit the bible god left some things on purpose i want to tell you the man of god that come to our church they're men first they make mistakes now i'm not saying to blindly follow leaders or people who teach that jesus is not the way and don't teach the bible but there are things we don't agree with and everything we don't share certain perspectives even within our church there are people who don't see eye to eye we focus on the big picture and so and i share this story as this was just my dream my example and i believe that god opened the door and the way he did it is that because he tested me in faithfulness to something that i didn't see was significant but to god small things mean big things i want to challenge you whether it's in your family whether it's in your business or whether it's in your ministry be careful from not doing the small things but only chasing after the big things there is a god in heaven he can open doors no man can open don't cut corners don't sleep your way to the top don't cut your corners to your destiny listen to god's voice do what he says even if it feels like there is no connection how is giving my 10% can help me in my business it's not it's god who honors obedience how can taking quiet time can help me with my discouragement and my anxiety and all that stuff somehow god says if you wait on him he will cause you to run and walk and not get weary and tired god is the god of miracles he will take your radical obedience churn it into ridiculous miracles come on let me say that again radical obedience into ridiculous miracles radical obedience into ridiculous miracles if you believe in that give god some praise