 come on somebody let's rise for our feet hallelujah come on who's excited to be in that I just want to wish everyone a early merry Christmas come on turn to your neighbor say happy early merry family tuning in online we welcome you come on who's ready to praise and worship today come on we're exalting Jesus the name above every name praise he disturbs the highest praise he is the king of kings and the lord of the highest praise we worship the king of kings and the lord of lords the bible says his hand is not too short to save he created the galaxy he made he made everything you see out of nothing something to make something but he made everything out of nothing he is worthy we are celebrating Christmas this is your our Christmas service we want to welcome everyone that is watching us online on zoom on facebook on youtube we worship Jesus in this place you know this is a season of miracles this is a season of rejoicing as you see we have many lights on the stage you know god is the greatest light you know that when we come to heaven the bible says god is light in him no there's no darkness there's no darkness in god so as we're celebrating Christmas as we're celebrating the birth of christ understand that he has come as that light the light to the world to shine upon you to give you a hope to give you a future to give you something that you can anchor yourself to he came to give you salvation he came to give you everything that he has you know in the salvation package there's not only the forgiveness of sins but there's also healing there's also deliverance there's also breakthrough there's also life abundantly amen we know that the thief comes to steal kill in the street and destroy but Jesus has come to give us life and we celebrate his birth i don't know what you're going through you know there's as people are celebrating the birth of Jesus christ there's some people that are going through tough seasons in their life maybe they lost a loved one maybe they're uh their sickness in their body that they're battling maybe they're battling addiction maybe they're battling torment whatever it might be i want to tell you Jesus can give you life Jesus can be born in your heart a touch from Jesus can change your circumstances you know as i was ministering on friday somebody testified that they felt fire on their on their ears they had ringing on their ears and that ringing just left a touch from god by his spirit just that thing was left another person was testifying that they they had cancer in their breasts and all the pain left they still need to be verified by the doctor but they confessed that it just was gone a touch from Jesus can change your circumstances and right now as the worship team sings another song i want to open up these altars what are you going through in your season of life are you battling sickness are you battling defeat torment addiction what i don't know what it is but christmas is a joyous celebration and god can bring breakthrough in your life from one touch the pastoral team is ready to lay their hands on you the bible says they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover it's a promise from god so as the worship team plays another song if you're going through a tough season in your life and you need someone to stand in the gap to pray with you to believe with you we are ready we are ready to do that for you you can go ahead make your way up to the front you don't have to be a member of this church to receive prayer you just come up and receive so come up right now as they're singing and we will lay hands and pray and believe god to do what only god can do in jesus mighty name amen that are watching us online i want you to stretch your hands towards the screen i want to pray face face the state people of god i want you to stretch your hands towards the screen there's many people are going through tough seasons in their life they're believing for breakthrough in their body breakthrough in their family salvation healing and deliverance let's as a church agree for them in jesus mighty name restoration over your body i speak to that body part be healed in jesus mighty name i speak restoration over that family member that lost the one that one that needs to be saved holy spirit i ask that you would draw them the ones that they're believing or racing over that body restoration over that i speak healing over those hips i speak healing over that organ in jesus mighty name over that liver that kidney in jesus mighty name i commend the arthritis to leave that body arthritis be gone in jesus mighty name i speak healing over that body every cancer and tumor be gone in jesus mighty name peace is christ let the anointing of the holy spirit locate that case let the fire of the holy spirit locate that case let there be joy and gladness in that heart in jesus mighty name receive that touch from the lord in jesus mighty name we speak life to every viewer right now father locate their case locate their case whatever they're going through right now in jesus precious mighty name come on church what can we lift up our hands can we lift up our hands and give god the glory father we we celebrate you in this place we celebrate you that you're here by the spirit we celebrate you god we give you the highest praise we worship you we worship you we worship you we worship you we praise you in jesus mighty name those that are watching us online we welcome you on facebook youtube and zoom right now go ahead greet your neighbor tell them you're glad to see them if you're visiting for the first time i want to say welcome welcome welcome we're a family we love one another as you're finding your seats pastor casey will come up and and speak to your church who has been blessed already we've came to a time of offering now there's many ways to give and so before i give you an update on our building i just want you to go ahead and to start preparing your offering right now so we have you can text any amount to 84321 you can go to the church center app for those watching online you can go to hungry gen.com slash give and you can also click on that qr code but to give you an update on our new building fund we're at 364 thousand dollars raised hallelujah hallelujah we still have a goal of 3.2 million but inch by inch little by little we are getting there right progress is progress amen so i want to share with you something that i heard the other day and it's about the difference between physical hunger and spiritual hunger so physical hunger the more you go without food the hunger you get right now when it comes to january a lot of us are going to be pretty hungry but this is an aspect of then going into the spiritual realm when it comes to hunger now you have this hunger in the spirit in the spirit but if you don't feed yourself the hunger doesn't increase it actually decreases as christians as people who are sold out for jesus we need to continue to to feed ourselves to ask the lord to increase our hunger and this includes giving so just to share a quick personal testimony of what the lord did in me about a year ago is that as as i got the offering report last year i really felt in my spirit to to to make a goal that for every year that i'm here on this earth to increase my giving every single year now there's an aspect to where i had a personal goal of after five years ago on to college i wanted to make six figures now the lord said why don't you start tithing and giving as if you're already making that happen and i will then meet you where you're at so that was four years ago and he has already done that so as i have given him yes praise god for that praise god for the blessings as i have given him my heart as i sought first the kingdom god yours it's already yours and he increased it in the physical amen you may be here today saying god i don't have a lot to give you here right now but as you start to sew as you start to acknowledge that as you seek first the kingdom everything else will be given to you that there is peace that will come and meet you right where you're at when it comes to giving but it starts with that acknowledgement and with that desire to increase your hunger spiritually amen so let's go ahead and let's grab let's have our our tithing offerings our our seed in our hands as we pray for a blessing over it lord i just pray right now in jesus my team god you know exactly where your child your children are where their finest is god i just pray lord that you blessed it god they might not want they might not have a lot to give you today lord but we pray for an increase of what they can sew into the kingdom in jesus my team god i pray lord right now that every single financial every single financial stronghold be broken so that it may be released to your kingdom god i just pray lord right now in jesus name for a blessing for peace to come over every single financial situation god i pray lord that in jesus my team as we surrender to you as we increase our desire to be spiritually hungry god you meet them exactly where they're at in jesus mighty name amen please put your eyes on the screen for a video hey hungry jen and our extended family i want to invite you to a 21 day fast forward challenge what we would call fasting this coming years fasting will be based on matthew 17 21 this kind does not go except by prayer and fasting i believe that our issues stagnations limitation and delay and disappointments god wants us to break through fasting and prayer now it will start on january night through january 29th we will provide spiritual motivation encouragement as well as practical health tips during this fasting on our social media platform now there are five fasts you can choose from to do for 21 days the complete fast which is no food only water the liquid fast which is no food but water and juices the daniel fast which is no meats no sweets no dairy but fruits and vegetables and water is acceptable the partial fast from sunrise to sundown or one meal a day and non-food fast meaning fasting from from tv social media caffeine which is recommended for pregnant nursing people or people with one medication as well as children and so i want you to prayerfully consider joining with us and starting the year right starting the year humbling ourselves disconnecting from the world and connecting to god picking up the cross denying ourselves and seeing breakthrough in the areas what we really want to see breakthrough as a church as the ministry and as christians god wants to do a new thing in this coming year so as you put god first in the year through humbling yourself through fasting watch god come and surprise you with his breakthrough good morning church how many of you guys are going to be fasting along with us in the beginning of the year yes half hands raised all right still thinking about it we understand well good morning church turn to your neighbor and say hey i'm so happy i'm staying sitting by you not standing sitting by you we have come to the time of testimonies i want you to get your heart ready to receive the lord wants to touch you today amen those that have come here if this is your first time those that are tuning in if it's your first time or if you've been coming god wants to touch you where you're at today amen if there's sickness in your body if you're believing for a breakthrough or whatever it may be the lord wants to meet you where you're at at this very moment amen so get your heart ready to receive uh there's this lady that we're going to have her join us on zoom her name is ana and she was touched at the race to deliver conference and before we have her join us what i would like to do is show you a video clip of what took place at the race to deliver conference now what you're about to see for those that maybe this will be your first time or maybe you might not understand what's happening she's receiving prayer and at this very moment the light of god is touching her body and is exposing the darkness that is operating behind the scenes in her life and why we do this and why this happens is because the enemy is a deceiver he loves to steal kill and destroy and the way he does that is by hiding and when the light of god comes it exposes his tactics his strategies and it gives god the glory because at the end of it he sets the captives free amen set her free from a specific spirit spirit of death that was operating in her life so let's go ahead and fix her eyes on the screen as we are about to view what took place you unclean spirit what is your name how did you enter this person how did you enter this person stop screaming how did you enter this person what have you done to this person you spirit of death what have you done to this person you tried to kill her every week every way you made a great mistake to let her come to this place you've been captured she doesn't belong to you you spirit of death Jesus has defeated you on the cross and right now he wants you out be free in the mighty name of Jesus Christ be free in Jesus name in Jesus name that's it in Jesus name you are free in the mighty name of Jesus thank you thank you lord get up what is your name what is your name have you tried to take you on life yes yeah when was the last time we tried to take you on life a few weeks ago yeah where are you from i'm from brazil from brazil you came all the way from brazil no i've been riding you're riding riding okay but you're originally from brazil yes okay i believe Jesus that you're free walking your freedom in the name of Jesus thank you come on and then powerful testimony here we have uh ana with us right on zoom let's just give her a hand of applause for joining us all the way from california riding hi ana thank you for joining us once again ana can you just tell us a little bit before of what took place at the race to deliver conference how did you hear about it and what took place once you got there yeah um so i have heard about race to deliver through um facebook i i remember seeing a little ad and i i saved hunger jen and i saved their little um i saved the channel and i remember watching the channel throughout all of this time like for about a year and i had been looking and seeking the lord about freedom and just wanting more of him and just wanting a greater connection with him and when i realized that there was something blocking me i was like lord what do i do and i was talking to a friend and hungry jan came to my mind and i was like i'm gonna go and that's when we decided to go and drive from california drove 10 hours um and drive and go and i remember thanking uh oh lord like i hope that this is actually gonna work i hope that there is freedom but i never realized the life changing um moment that was gonna come from that wow come on well we're so happy that you came tell us as uh pastor vlad man of god was praying for you what was taking place uh what we just saw just a few seconds ago uh where the screaming and um the spirit of death that was operating in your life tell us what was taking place then and how is your life like right now yeah um so while he was praying i remember just feeling like there was something trying to hide within me wow and it was like um i really felt like it was trying to hide within my identity it was it was something like i had to break up with and um as i was praying to break up with it and just like be done with it i i was like you're not gonna hide i'm gonna start yelling and as i started yelling it actually took over me and it was really powerful and i just felt like this heaviness that was like went from my my shoulder and went down to my arms and as this happiness left it was honestly the the most beautiful moment in my life like i had never felt that way before i had never felt that freedom um or i felt god's love in like this whole new way and it was just so beautiful for me um to feel that because i'm right now in ministry school and i see people encountering god all the time and for me it was really weird that i was not able to and at that moment it finally felt like the lip came off and i was able to come to god come praise jesus amen can you tell us a little bit uh of how you're doing now outside of experiencing the presence of the lord and encountering his love tell us what it was like the the huge contrast where that spirit of death was operating in your life and what it's like now can you tell us a little bit of the difference yeah um it it's interesting because i i used to think like oh a spirit of death would want me to make me kill myself but that was exactly what it did in a sense because i woke up every day and i thought living was a burden and i didn't want to be alive and i just thought oh i'm alive again like here's another day you know like how movies and tv will tell you like oh you're just alive it sucks and for me i actually started like learning that being alive is great and it's amazing and it's a gift and with that uh it took like a learning curve i feel like i'm still in that learning curve of just liking to be alive and uh loving to be alive and waking up in the morning my first thought isn't like oh man i'm alive again there's another day that is gonna be not great but here's my thought of wow i'm alive thank you god like this is amazing and um throughout my life like i had adhd and i had all of these problems reading i had all of these problems um connecting with god in different ways and even like keeping my room clean i couldn't keep my room clean like i couldn't um keep things organized and the lord just shifted all of that like with freedom it came all of that like my room is now clean at all times and i can keep a schedule organized no that's fantastic like all of these things that i had taken on so much as identity i realize now we're just a spirit and now this freedom has opened my eyes to see just the more of the lord wow wow anna thank you so much for sharing what truth come on anna just real quickly could you tell anybody that maybe is uh you know experiencing certain things that are very similar but maybe they've uh the heaviness or depression and they've made it normal they said this is just a part of me what would you advise someone that's saying this is just a normal this is part of me this is who i am what would you tell them right now um i just say just go go for deliverance um i have ever since i've come back from um hungry jen at my house we started like a small deliverance ministry where we pray for our friends yeah we we start delivering them and the lord has just been moving so beautifully and to me i i just think like there is more there is freedom i would say if you're feeling like oh man i'm just like this and everything is not great like that is not you that is not what the lord has for you and if you have even an inkling of things could be better they will be better and come on go towards the lord he'll he'll get you there come on anna thank you so much for sharing we really appreciate you god bless you see you on the next service were you guys encouraged and blessed by that testimony amen god is so good and he is so faithful so as we said in the beginning of the testament is keep your heart open the lord wants to touch you today before you leave amen just be ready and as we have a pastor vlad come and share us uh the word have your heart ready to receive what the lord wants to deposit into your spirit today amen let's give him a warm welcome as he comes on up thank you merry christmas amen you guys didn't sound very happy about christmas okay uh well good day good morning maybe that will go better uh we welcome everybody online watching us on zoom on youtube and facebook um go ahead and let us know where you're watching from hit that thumbs up comment spam the chat like subscribe and uh and everybody who is who came out today to church on this wonderful sunday morning let's give a round of applause to everybody that's first time here also those watching us online you are welcome if you're coming for the first time to hungry jen welcome we're glad that you are here we love jesus we know that jesus came the bible says to bring light into this world he came he told pilot to bring the truth to this world he came he said to give us life and more abundantly jesus came to destroy the works of darkness so that's why we show deliverance because jesus does deliver people still today this is not a some kind of a fake show this is real people who get tormented by real entities and these real entities get removed by the power of jesus amen jesus still heals people today and the bible says he also came to forgive us of all our sins and he came to call us to repentance so jesus is not just a way to god he is the way the truth and life we don't know when he was born and it doesn't matter he never told us his birthday but he told us the purpose for his coming and so what i like to tell people it doesn't matter when it matters why he came now christians later on repackaged christmas they made it into a holiday this was used to be a roman pagan celebration for sun god and christians just repackaged it and started to celebrate the birth of christ this doesn't make christmas pagan it just simply means that christmas was not something that christians for first 300 years celebrated until christianity became a national religion now some of you may argue and say well we shouldn't celebrate christmas come on don't be so debbie downer but let's just say that you are a debbie downer and you're like i'm against christmas a hundred percent i can't worship today because i saw christmas trees here on the stage and so um imagine you went to a foreign country and you adopted a child and the adoption agency said we don't have the paperwork and we don't know when this child was born so you take the child home the child grows up and say hey listen kiddo we're not going to celebrate your birthday why we don't know when you were born like you wouldn't do that right now the bible doesn't tell us to celebrate jesus's birth so we don't have to celebrate it we do celebrate his coming though the angels told us that there is a joy in his coming he says the joy will be unto all people so we do celebrate that jesus came whether he came in december for some of you he didn't come on december 29th or some of you he came to you on april 9th so that's where he came to your life but he came on this earth he was born of virgin mary and he lived a perfect sinless life and he died on the cross he didn't die as because he did anything wrong he died in our place and he rose again three days later and he started what it is known today as christianity he started it through love he started it through forgiveness and he told us something very narrow-minded and controversial that we are bad people who need forgiveness and that's offensive because we think we are good people and god is a bad god who needs to change because he allows bad things to happen in this world and all of that but we are such a good people jesus brought a different gospel and that is we are actually bad and we need forgiveness redemption and salvation and god is actually good and he's not responsible for evil but there is a bad evil and devil and jesus came to conquer it so here's my kids ministry lesson some are like that's too simple because it is a profound gospel because it has power to change our life amen amen but today what i want to do is i want to take this message as we have already worshiped and um and by the way thank you so much for leading us and the worship team leading us into the presence of god amen wonderful beautiful environment if you have your bible let's go together to the story that is usually read around christmas time the story of the wise men now as you're going to matthew chapter two i do want to remind you that wise men traveled around 800 miles in this story it took them around two years from the time that they saw the star the people who study this they tell us that it took them actually about two years so the time that they arrived in bethlehem jesus is about already two years old so the idea that wise men came to the manger is actually not scriptural because the bible says they came to the house not to the manger and they didn't come to nazareth they came to bethlehem and so that we know that they came to already a place where jesus was living now at this time bethlehem is a very small town of 1500 citizens they only had about 20 children there were two age two and down and half of those children were females not males so the massacre that happened in this little town though was tragic it wasn't thousands of kids because there was no thousands of kids present in bethlehem it does not make it less tragic nevertheless so wise men they come to jesus they've been following this star and it took them many years because remember they didn't have airplanes they didn't have they traveled and probably camels we don't know for sure there is no mention there was three of them we don't know how many of them were there it could be five it could be 20 so there was just a group of these scientists group of these people that study stars they were not necessarily wise men because they were wise and they were smart they studied the stars and they probably knew something about the prophecy of daniel and they did their calculation they followed this supernatural phenomenon in the sky and they follow this star it goes they go to jesus and that's where the religious people are at they're asking questions about the king that is to be born and in the verse two of matthew two if you are there let's read together it says that where is he who had been born the king of the jews for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him i want to speak today concerning how worship can bring personal change in our life while it is important to believe god to change our children our country our cities and our environment and we stand for that and god wants to bring change to our surroundings but god's number one goal i believe before ain't changing anybody is really changing us first as much as i believe god comes to restore marriages but he first comes to save individuals that are married because the problem is not marriage the problem is the people that are married if people in the marriage will be fixed the marriage will take care of itself so the problem is not with the world now the problem is with the people that live here it's because if we are fixed everything else will mostly take care of itself there still will be evil in the world but a lot of that evil will be suppressed by the people who are changed that's why when you're flying you know one of the things that they'll tell you is that in the case of cabin pressure in case cabin pressure changes the masks will drop and then put on the mask on yourself first and then take care of the passengers and so even the sewer desks in the airlines know that we need to take care of you first so jesus came to save us from our sins he came to rescue us and to change us first when it comes to worship you might say how is that relate to my personal transformation how does that affect me personally i have few thoughts i want to share with you from this if you're taking notes we're not taking church i want you to write the first thing down is that worship is the only thing we give to god that he first didn't give to us what does that mean nothing you offer to god really is yours for example if you give him your life it's actually his if you come and you say lord i'm gonna give you my youth my teenage years the scripture says the times are in his hands if you give him your body he's the one that created us out of the dirt of the ground if you offer him your spirit the bible says he breathed his spirit into the body and you became a living soul if you offer god and you become so generous you say lord i'm gonna give you all of my possessions the scripture says all silver and gold is mine so you can't bring anything to god that didn't start with him giving it to you except one thing that god never gave you and that is worship because god doesn't share worship he doesn't give worship to no one and this is the only gift you can offer to god that god first did not offer to you i want you to look at these wise men they came to see jesus they have not been fed by jesus through the multiplication of bread lazarus wasn't raised who maybe was their relative they didn't experience deliverance from evil spirits they didn't experience healing of physical illness or infirmity the only thing they've seen is a physical phenomenon in the sky and they follow that phenomenon and i want you to see not out of the curiosity to see the king they said very clearly our motive and our goal is simple we want to come to worship the king it's not enough to just see him we came to worship him and i believe that wise men still seek him and wise men still worship him any wise men we have in this house you might not be an astrologist you might not know about the stars but you know the one that made them and his name is jesus and did you come here to worship him come on somebody drop that in the chat if you love jesus if you come to worship jesus give the lord a clap off for him right now hallelujah yeah now i want to remind you that wise men didn't come to worship mary i'll take a just a small little pause we love mary we just don't worship mary okay they didn't also come to worship worship some of us we don't worship mary but we worship worship we love our preferences over the presence of god we love the style of worship more than we love the surrender that worship is supposed to be i'm guilty of that myself so i'll volunteer as a as the one that struggle with this while it's easy to point fingers at catholics and say you know you guys really make mary bigger than than she is a lot of us we like we like actually the idea of worship more than the what the worship is supposed to do and how it's evident because when our favorite song goes in our hands go up when it's not as favorite song usually our hands go in our pocket and we're like well i'm waiting for the right tune i'm waiting for the spirit to hit me you know because in reality i'm not here to worship i'm here to just i like worship so much instead of what worship represents so i want to remind you when wise men came to worship there was no band in that house there was no a guest singer from the maverick city like we have today there was no ryan controlling the lights and making the mood just smooth there was nobody drumming things there was no beautiful piano that is playing behind and there was no lad screen where you can read the words but what was there is worship as much as we love singing as much as we love the sound as much as we love the lights worship is not about the songs it's about your surrender worship is not about hymns it's about hymn worship is not about preference it's about your pursuit of his presence come on somebody give god a clap offering right now worship him like you know he deserves to be worshiped the first mention of word worship in the bible is in genesis chapter 22 and abraham is offering his son and genesis 22 verse 5 you know we see that abraham he tells his son let's go yonder and worship you would think like awesome who is going to be the singer what songs are they gonna sing but you don't see a singer you don't see a microphone you see a knife and an altar you're like oh lord i don't want to yonder and worship that kind of way what is worship biblically speaking worship is your obedience to god it expresses itself in singing clapping dancing shouting it expresses yourself in bowing but the heart of worship is obedience to god so when we're saying right now about worship i don't necessarily mean that you lift your hands and sing a song though that is good and that is very important and we need to grow in that what i mean by worship is biblical definitional worship when samaritan woman asks jesus where should we worship our father said this you jews say this and jesus says the time will come where those who worship he didn't say they will worship with the track he says they will worship in the spirit and in the truth and he says the place won't matter the preferences won't matter what will matter is your spirit meaning your your heart what will matter is right here what's happening right here your life being surrendered to god personal transformation does not happen without worship and worship does not happen without surrender worship does not happen without obedience the second thing i want to highlight and that is let's go to verse eight and he sent them to bethlehem so he in here is hered saying go search carefully for the young child and when you have found him bring him back bring back word to me that i may come and worship him also the second truth i want to highlight about worship that will relate to our personal transformation and that is anywhere there is genuine worship there will always be a counterfeit i am harassed with dms on instagram every single day at least five vlad do you know you have a fake account is this your account and i'm thinking as a precious people if you're messaging me already and you know this person messes you from nigeria asking you for my orphanage and give you my whatsapp number that starts with the nigerian area code and you are in doubt and i already posted million times and i'm exaggerating million times not million maybe just few tens of times that i do not ask for donations that it's not me but you know why people make fake accounts of me because i exist and because i am little bit known on instagram any time you have people that genuinely worship god the devil will always foster counterfeit and the world refuses to worship god because they say there are fake christians but fake christians are the proof that there are real christians fake christians fake worshipers are the confirmation that there are genuine believers genuine worshipers wise men caused a fake follow fake worshipers in a way that somebody wanted to worship now in pretense there could be no counterfeit worship if there is no real worship and so don't be discouraged by somebody not in this church they're not sitting on your roll i can assure you they're probably sitting right behind you i'm just kidding they're not in this room probably but there's always going to be a counterfeit anytime you see a real worship so i just want to give you a pastoral encouragement don't be distracted by a counterfeit worship don't be distracted when you come and you know somebody they're faking it or their life is not real don't let them steal your worship you press in if you're the real deal don't let them distract you somebody give god some praise how would you know somebody is not real is it because they're passionate hype and sometimes we're like oh they must be fake because they're too excited that doesn't mean they're fake but i look at herit and i see a few things one is that actually he did not want to go to worship he wanted everybody else to go and do the work for him i feel like fake worship is people who actually don't want to pursue god but they're so comfortable being where they're at and they do not want to pursue him another thing i want you to notice is that herit personally was very bad to people he killed people now in that culture when you're a king you could kind of do pretty much anything you want but it still doesn't change the fact that killing people is bad and some of us were like man we don't do that anymore but you know some of us have done more damage with our mouth than herit probably have done with his our mouth our tongue doesn't have bones but it can break bones it's very powerful we can hurt people with our mouth we can hurt people with our words abel and kane is an example of that one was a genuine worshipper and the other one was a fraud fake counterfeit and one of the signs you know a counterfeit worship is how they treat people after they worship abel we know he was killed by kane kane was a worshipper but he killed his brother herit was a worshipper he says i will go and worship him and then he ends up killing babies if you are hurting abusing mistreating and dealing with people in the way that doesn't honor christ your worship is a counterfeit because god does not want us to only worship him and be nasty treat people horrible lie cheat mistreat and be a nightmare in our own home and people can't walk or stand or be around us because we are a ticking bomb another part about herit that i want to highlight that highlights a counter worship is not only that he was really bad with people that were close to him but when he did not get his way that jesus he pretended to worship he sought to destroy counter worship is the one that only worships god until stuff hits the fan they are the seed in the ground the sprouts but when the sun comes up they scorch and die their faith is only alive until a problem happens they can't explain a prayer is not answered a sickness is not healed a breakthrough did not come and then this god that i said tell me more about him i want to worship him where is he live because i want to kill him how many people have renounced their faith not because they found something in history or they found something in psychology that disproves the existence of god it's more that they found something in their own history in their own life where they did not get their way every person in this room has had things that didn't go your way not one person here has had everything go their way if your idea of god is he's some genie that will make all of your dreams come true then you're not worshiping him you're just using him as a means to fulfilling your dreams now i will tell you right the way god will fail you why because he is not somebody you use he's somebody you worship you will miss the most important part about this life is that it's a warfare and in warfare there are casualties there are trials and there are tribulations and god doesn't own you an explanation why because he owns you he is the master and the lord of the universe i remember when i was confronted with me not getting my way when i was a teenager you know it dawned on me how um my physical appearance was and i blamed it on god i mean you're a teenager that's what you know what to do you blame it on somebody so i felt like god was responsible why couldn't he prevent me from being born like normal people my life now is very challenging because god made a mistake so i went from worshiping god not i didn't renounce him but i'm gonna i'm gonna be very honest with you i really had a difficult time to reconcile his goodness and what's happening in my life you may say so how did you overcome that well i realized god doesn't exist for me i exist for him i realized this life is 70 years and he never promised in this book that everything will go my way he promised he'll never leave me and he promised that his son will be the way to him and that if i follow him even if i don't get my way as long as i am on his way everything is gonna be all right and no all of my prayers did not get answered all of my wishes did not come true but honestly god has surprised me beyond my wildest dreams and so what i want to challenge you today is don't be like hered when wise men disappointed him and did not come and he didn't get his way he went bananas and start killing children don't go from i trust in god i love god oh something bad happened that's it i renounce god i leave god i can't reconcile how bad things can happen to good people first of all it happened once and he volunteered bad things don't happen to good people because we're not good people well we are surprised is how come good things happen to bad people like us but jesus was good and bad things happened to him because he volunteered to die for me so when we begin to think about our life in the in the in the lens of the gospel we are grateful for the good things but if you see god as a little thing that you control and you manipulate you honestly will act like hered you'll worship on sunday but god forbid things don't go your way on monday then what happens is you will seek to disown disprove god but it still doesn't change he's still the king the fact that hered wanted to get rid of jesus jesus was still the king and in fact it was hered that died not jesus and jesus still reigns and jesus rose from the dead amen counter worship god cannot personally fix us if we don't genuinely worship him hered was a great man in fact history calls him hered the great you can google him hered the great he was the guy who did a remodel for jerusalem's temple he was not a jewish man not necessarily a worship of jehovah yet generous man i mean imagine elon musk donating 10 million dollars to pay for hungry gents building not being a christian but giving us the money i mean that would have been great we would have probably been praying for his salvation and his uh twitter and stuff so that's how hered was he was at that day the guy he rebuilt this jerusalem's temple remodeled it it was the second temple he took care of the remodel that wasn't his religion he gave a face lift for jerusalem that's like cleaning up jerusalem that's that's a jewish city he builds about seven fortresses and one of them is masara some of you who will ever go to visit israel i would encourage you to include masara as part of your visit it's close to the dead sea it's incredible humongous beautiful fortress hered built he built a stadium hered was a great hered in the sense that he was building great things but hered privately was also a great failure he had 10 wives and that's not one of his failures because in that day kings had a lot of wives so that's not what i'm referring to but hered had issues today he would be diagnosed with a mental mental illness but at that time that was just pretty much part of his personality he killed people whom he didn't like for example he killed his favorite wife because he was he was suspecting that she was trying to overthrow him then he killed her two sons which is his two sons that were supposed to inherit the throne he kills them he killed few of his uncles and few of his cousin few of his cousins he also killed his mother-in-law one time he went for a swim with the high priest in jericho and they played rough in the pool he strangled him and the priest high priest drowned so when you see right now that hered giving an order to kill children please understand that was part of his personality that was normal for him in fact around this time so four ad or some debate that it's one one bc or four bc so about the time that jesus was born is when hered died one of the things that hered did is that he gathered the most prestige jewish men most renown men in israel he gathered them in jericho he kept them there as he was dying and gave an order to execute them when he dies so that everyone will mourn for those famous people in this way the history will say everyone mourn for hered because he knew nobody would want mourn his death he was so paranoid he was living in such a big fear that while he had greatness on the outside he had terrible difficult bad mental illness almost borderline like not healthy on the inside and incredible part is that while he was so paranoid so scared he still masked himself with pretend's worship i wonder how and what is happening deep inside of every person who pretends to worship how much of that sometimes we actually mask a real problems that are happening on the inside but see this is what happens when you worship for real god begins to take your problems and he brings progress in your life he begins to change your life because you can't remain paranoid when you worship god will give you pieces that are paranoia you may come in worried god will give you blessing instead of your worry when you come in insecure god will give you confidence instead of insecurity when you come in burden with the family problems god will unburden you and give you the joy and give you the peace instead of your burden emotional trauma emotional trauma maybe what was happening to you when you were a child when you come to worship and you strip the fakeness and you say god here i am lord i want to be real with you and you tell god what happened god will begin to disinfect your wounds and turn your wounds into scars and your scars into stars come on somebody fake worship will only put a cover a bendate on something that is disinfected i don't know well who abused him what happened to him and what demon or generational curse was operating in his life but i do know that if you walk into the presence of jesus and you be like wise men and you lay prostrate and you worship him your life will never be the same it might take six months it might take six years but it will start a process of your personal transformation god does not want you to be just a great hermit who builds a great house a great business a great career and who has a great family but you are a nightmare to live with god doesn't want that god doesn't want you to be a person who has a fat bank account but you also have a big depression god doesn't want you to be a person who simply has a great influence in the community and everybody who refers to you by sir or doctor or ma'am but in reality when you go to sleep you can sleep at night without taking 12 pills god wants your private life to shine god wants your personal life to be healthy god wants you to sleep at night like a baby god wants you to have a peace of mind god wants you to have a joy in your life god wants you to sing in the storm god wants you if paul and silas were singing in jail that you will rejoice in your trial and in your tribulation but to do that you have to be healthy on the inside you can't be healthy without his presence you can't be healthy if you don't worship amen number three worship bends our will so not only worship is what i bring to god that god has not given to me number two is not only when i begin to worship i will experience or i will encounter fake worshipers and in order for me not to encounter these fake worshipers i have to stop being one and my goal is not to change how i treat people first my goal is to come and full surrender to god as my king not as just my bendate not as a means to an end but as genuinely worship him something will begin to happen my heart will begin to change god will take away the paranoia god will take away the fear god will take the anxiety and then you will walk out being different i want you to see what wise men did when they came into the presence of jesus and this is verse 11 and when they had come into the house see this is what herit missed herit got to the verse eight i would love to worship him but verse 11 is where the true worshipers come to verse 11 is what happens on monday morning in your house verse 11 is what happens on tuesday in your private room and verse 11 is this when they have come into the house they saw the young child with mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him i want you to notice now this is a common jewish thing to do before the kings some people still do that in other countries where in front of a royalty dignity you don't just bow you actually fall that is their way of worshiping deity worshiping divinity worshiping supreme sovereign being so they came and this think about this this is not a king sitting this is a baby lying kind of awkward you know when it's like a baby and you're you're worshiping the bible says they felt that this wasn't like this wasn't like though this is actually falling down the bible says this they fell most likely underneath and they went and went like this or they lie prostrate before baby jesus can i encourage you to worship even if your understanding and experience of god is in the baby stages even if you come into your room and you don't feel the mighty glory in fact maybe you feel nothing you can still worship god don't wait for god to zap you with power and for you to go and feel it and get electrocuted and start shining and gold dust and angel swinging in your living room you can worship even if your measure of god's manifestation is in the young baby you can still worship in that but something happens with this is what worship is worship is bending your will our problem with character is that our will is too stiff our problem with character is we are stuck up stubborn i say we i didn't say you we are like that and the older you are the harder it is to bend we fight over you know where we should eat where we should vacation you know should we go to the first service the second service and a lot of times it's the clash of wills in relationship it's the clash of wills in ministry no i don't want to do it you're not gonna tell me what to do our will is very stiff and very stubborn see what worship does is worship bends your will if you don't bend your will in worship life will break your will in crisis life will crush your will and when you bend your will and you're saying lord not my but your will be done lord i'm not here to be cute lord i feel like i am right and my wife is wrong but god right now this is not about me or my wife i'm here to worship you and jesus you are my king jesus you are my royal king i praise you i honor you and as you worship something happens your will becomes flexible so when you come out of that worship experience you are pliable with your children you are pliable with your circumstances and you're like a palm tree you don't stand you bend and when you bend during the storm you won't break during the storm and when the storm passes you will go right back up the bible says when the storm hit job's life job fell and worship maybe a storm has hit your life maybe your children are not serving god maybe your spouse served divorce papers to you maybe you just lost a loved one during this holiday or maybe you're looking at what's happening with your business and you're noticing your hemorrhaging and you're bleeding money and you're not sure what to do next and the last thing you want to do is to waste time praying because you need to be investing time and planning i want to tell you something god wants to take control of your life but you need to surrender your will to god and one of the best way that is done is when you get alone with god and you lie prostrate not physically but emotionally and you say god my life belongs to you i don't know what the future holds 2022 was rough i am scared of 2023 but god i know you're still on the throne whether it was during pandemic or whether it's 2022 or 2023 whether inflation is high or whether my family is crazy oh lord even i am crazy but you're on the throne and i will lie before you lord i will worship you lord i will honor you lord i will praise you lord though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil even if i walk through the fire you will be with me even if i walk through the storm you will be with me even if i walk through rejection you will be with me god and i will praise you i will worship you lord i will honor you lord i will lay my life at your feet jesus come on somebody raise your hands right now and just begin to worship him come on take next 60 seconds and say lord i worship you in the face of uncertainty in the face of crisis in the face of financial famine in the face of inflation in the face of uncertainty in the face of fear in the face of worry in the face of doubt in the face of my own hurt and my own pain i will worship you in the face of unpaid bills i will worship you in the faith in the face of the report from the doctors that I am not getting better Lord I will praise you in spite Lord I will praise you in the midst Lord I will praise you in spite of that storm Lord I don't understand Lord I have many questions but my questions will wait Lord my why will wait my worship asked to have a way come on 30 more second just lift up those hands right now even if it's your first time just try it just try it you raised your hands against your problem before but now you can raise it to God is the Lord I give you my problem what I give you my situation those of you on zoom just lift those hands up right now this is your way of surrender this is your way of yielding this is your way of yielding the Bible says and then they open their treasures verse 11 and they presented him gifts sometimes if you're going through a very challenging season and this year probably has been the most difficult year you've ever encountered you're struggling with sleep you struggling maybe with children and maybe you're struggling with your finances and maybe your relationships are hanging on a thread or maybe like Herod world on the outside is actually so great but your world on the inside is so empty please stop pretending this won't save you this next season saying I will worship won't get to anywhere but actually worshiping come to God give him your pain I'm not saying just right now I'm saying tomorrow every day life will deal you at deathly blow you get into your room and you vent to God you get on your knees and after you finish whining after you finish venting some people say I don't know how to pray you know how to complain you know how to pray start with complaining tell everything that's on your mind pour out your soul God is not nervous and it's not your therapist he's better than that he can handle your problems and then after you do that give me some microphone after you do that begin to and this is where the transformation happens it's not only when you give God your pain it's when you give God your treasure what is treasure treasure is the things that are due to you right now pain is one thing treasure is your heart treasure is your dreams treasure is your business treasure as a man it's your pride treasure is your way and when you get to the point in worship where God not only has your trash but he has your treasure God will transform you some of us come and we vent our problems but we don't give God our possessions and for some people possessions is not the money in the bank account not the extra car in the driveway that's not that's not what I'm referring it's that I'm right it's that my will it's what I want my dreams my own happiness who's gonna care for my happiness who's gonna protect my heart I'm gonna set up boundaries nobody's gonna hurt me I'm gonna lie leave this relationship I'm gonna leave this church I'm gonna quit job why because the world is against me my poor heart everybody's attacking my poor heart that's your treasure your heart is your treasure when you spend more time defending your heart instead of surrendering you will never experience true transformation by God I'm not saying you won't be protected from mean people but sometimes you can cause more pain to you than your worst enemy I don't trust me I don't so when I come into God's presence I don't want to protect me from you I know you can hurt me I can hurt me worse than you so I have to give God my treasure that means my dreams my savings everything I have is safer under the shadow of his wings they're under my own grip and control and that's called surrender and that's called yielding give him your treasure for some people that treasure is your savings account for some people that treasure is your child you give God you just doesn't mean you get rid of your child it simply means you let go of the control and you say Lord this child is yours and you will start start sleeping cuz you're not sleeping every night you worried about your child you're not God your child doesn't respond to your calls anymore God can still get their number give God your child of land my spouse left me they're not calling me hiring a private investigator won't solve that but if you go into your private place and you say God I surrender my spouse to you Lord this is my treasure them this this imaginary incredible dream that I had that we will grow all together and I see that this is this is slipping through my fingers and God I give you this dream right now I give you my future right now something will happen God is better I take care of you know what's gonna happen last the Bible says when they gave their treasures they go to sleep and that night God gave them direction there are people in this room you're waiting for direction from God right now what I do who do I marry why do I keep failing in relations why do I keep failing what do I do a lot I need to know what to do you have a consular you pay a specialist to guide you and nothing wrong with that but there is a place that you reach in God where even if you're not wise naturally and you surrender where during the night or during the day God providentially will guide your steps the Bible says and in the night the Lord warned wise men this was above their education this was above their smartness and their cleverness God wants to guide you in 2023 God wants to guide your business in 2023 God wants to guide your family in 2023 God wants to guide your personal happiness in 2023 he wants to protect you from Herod's he wants to guide you to your place but I want to warn you today don't take personal guidance into your own hands let it be in God's hands let him guide you as you worship as you worship I'm gonna invite two kinds of people to the front right now number one if you're in this room and you have not given your life to Jesus maybe you're visiting us for the first time and you're not there where you're supposed to be with God you don't have a relationship with Jesus maybe you spend your life pretending today Jesus wants to call you forgive you of your sin and give you new life maybe you're in this room and you walked away from Jesus he wants to give you a new life how many of you in here was saying oh Vlad I'm not sure what I would spend eternity if Jesus were to come today I don't know what I would be I would like to give my life to Jesus today I would like to come back to Jesus maybe you backslid when I count to three just raise your hand one two three just raise your hand he's saying I want to come back to the Lord thank you I see your head thank you see your head thank you see anybody else who's saying hey today is that day if you raise your hand I'm gonna ask you to do a bold step I want you to come forward right now and stand right here just come just come right if you wanted to raise your hand you did just come forward just come stand right here come stand on this side come if you brought a friend with you and they want to give their life to the Lord just just come with your friend just come and stand on this side of me come there's more people I know that the Lord is waiting for you just come come on this side anybody else there's no pressure but I'm inviting you don't be like Harriet who says yeah I'll do it one day go like wise missus no I'm gonna go right now I'm gonna go to Jesus it's about your heart it's not about just coming to the front but if your heart is already responding just make your way forward make your way forward I see people coming I want to do a second call and that's gonna be on this side and I'm looking already at people people who are bawling and people who are crying already because this message is specifically for you you literally hit a grinder in the last few months and God is about to take you to the next season but something is dying and something is being broken off of you and you need to survive this season and you can only survive in worship you can only survive in God's presence if you've been going through hell you've been going through a most difficult time and you've been holding on on your own and you're not been surrendering and the Lord is calling you today and saying you know what I want to carry your life you don't need to carry this burdens I can carry them for you I'm gonna ask you to come forward on this side and just get on your knees before Jesus and just lay everything at this altar I'm not promising everything will change I'm saying something will change inside of you just run to the front on this side just come on this side right here and just get on your knees before the Lord this is not before anybody and just tell God the way it is just fill this side of the altar allow the Holy Spirit your financial burdens belong at the altar your family burdens belong at the altar your fear of future belong at the altar your heart will get sick physically if you carry that you will have sleepless insomnia if you carry that life is too difficult it will break you to pieces but if you bend in worship God will protect your heart and you will get out of this hellish season into a new season unbroken and unscarred but protected by God you don't have to do life alone you can do it on your knees you will stand taller if you do that you need if I can invite the pastoral team let's begin to pray for the people that are coming here I want to lead you guys in the prayer of salvation and we're gonna pray for you stretch your hands like this say this out loud with me and everybody watching us on livestream say Lord Jesus I am a sinner please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your blood I surrender my whole life to you and from this day forward I promise to follow you as you show me how I believe you are the Son of God who died on a cross for me fill me with your spirit be my Lord be my Savior Jesus name let's begin to pray for them right now and then we can pray for these people as well let's worship church our service has come to an end for those of you who pick up your children you be free you want to remain in worship you can worship for people moments but God bless you we will see you again in two weeks because next Sunday is our service online and this Saturday is a Christmas Eve service God bless you have a wonderful Sunday but we're gonna stay time and minister to these people right now