 So many people were here for the School of Mentorship. We've started this school for people who are learning about their faith at 8 o'clock. At the same time there were classes for the teenagers who are learning about faith. And at the same time there were classes for those who want to learn how to mentor others. And so we are really excited. If you missed last Friday you can still make it this Friday. You have to come out because we believe in the church that you have to teach people and then they become. Amen. Nobody is born mentoring. Nobody is born successful. We're all born naked, crying and wanting food. But then we learn how to be successful and how to be great for the glory of God. Can somebody say amen? And so it's so exciting. Last Sunday we had a prayer line. Awesome things happened. You know this weekend there's a Halloween and I see such a big hunger in our generation for the supernatural. With the horror films coming out every single weekend. Some kind of a horror film every single weekend is out. And it just shows to us how hungry our generation is for the supernatural. Unfortunately they feed themselves with the supernatural that only destroys them. That promotes fear, death and darkness. And we are responsible as the church to present Jesus as the one who heals the sick. Saves the soul. Defeats the devil. And churns your life from nobody to somebody in God's kingdom. Can somebody say amen? That is really what the vision about home groups. That is really the vision about services and prayer in the mornings is all about that kind of a Jesus. You know there was one lady that we were praying for. As you see we have this prayer lines on Sunday. And then when we see that the case is taking longer. We just put them aside and Alex comes and finishes them. And so Alex was praying for this lady from Oregon. And then we stayed up with him till 2.30. Everybody all of you guys already went to eat a nap on Sunday. And we were still already that python wasn't coming out. And then the lying spirit wasn't coming out. Then some other demon and this lady acted twisted. And her husband who is very traditional goes to Baptist church. He said I've never seen anything like this. And he said and I've never seen my wife. He said she crazy. But this is different crazy. And it was so beautiful. He's with the Bible shoving it in her head. And so out, out, out. Three hours. I'm like God bless that husband. See you have to, if you want to get your supernatural stories. Come to our prayer lines. Don't watch that weird stuff. Don't hang weird things or present the devil. Don't represent the devil. God calls us to cast them out. And if you ever see what happens with those people. How tormented they are. You'll never want to celebrate death. You'll want to celebrate life. And help the hurting people. Amen. And so we are so excited for what God is doing in our church. We know the best is surely yet to come. Amen. Without further ado, let's open our Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 1 and verse 42. And when he brought him to Jesus. And now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Sifas, which is translated a stone. I want to speak today a message that will be titled from read to rock. Word Simon means a read. And Peter means rock or stone. Jesus meets Peter. And when he is introduced to Jesus, he calls himself Simon. And Jesus right away says, I don't like that name. And he acts so bossy. Usually parents give you the name. And here Jesus meets Peter and says, I don't like that name. I'm going to change that name to a rock. We're giving names at birth. Our names change when we get married. Our names change when we get adopted. Or people get divorced. But God has a tendency of changing people's names. This happened with Abraham. This happened with Jacob. This happened also with Peter. This happened with other men in the Bible where God came into their life and he changed their name. Why did Jesus change Peter's name? You know, we see that Peter's name meant read. Read means unstable, inconsistent, shaky. Peter's life was a symbol of that name. And Jesus knowing that the reason Peter's life is inconsistent is because Peter's name is like that. And he goes ahead and changes Peter's name and then we see eventually Peter's life was changed. Jesus by changing a name demonstrated a powerful lesson. That there is power in your words. There is power in calling someone read for 30 years and then they act like read. There is a power in calling somebody stupid. And then they will act stupid. Or clever. And then they will act clever. This scientist in Japan, his name is Masuru Itomo. He was born in 1943 and passed away last year. He did a very interesting study where he took water and he took two bottles of water and into the one bottle he spoke, I love you, you are beautiful. And to the other bottle, he said, you're ugly and I hate you. After a few months, he called photographers and called people and put those both bottles under a microscope. And this is what they've discovered. They saw that, if you can go to the one where it says the crystals. And they saw that the water where he spoke, I love you, it was so crystal clear. The one that he said, I thank you, he spoke to water. And to the one that he said, I hate you, this is how it looked. It's as though it was polluted. It was reacting to his words. This was a scientist. This wasn't a Christian man. Then he went on and actually did the same thing to rice. And what he did with rice is he took a little bit of rice in one bottle over my microphone. And then he said, I love you, I love you. He spoke to another bottle of rice and says, I hate you, you are ugly within 27 days. This was the picture. The rice he said that I love you became even wider. The one he said, I hate you, turn dark. There was a lake, there was a dam there where he lived and the water was polluted and the water was contaminated. He invited one of the priests to pray over the water. And after that, this is what happened. The water before prayer looked like this. After prayer on the microscope, it looked like that. Now you can debate these pictures and say these were fabricated. And this experiment was false, but he was a doctor. You can read his books. You can read his studies. He's very famous in Japan. The point being is that water responded to the power of words. 60% of the world is water. More than 60% of your body is water. When you're looking at your neighbor, you're looking at the body of water. If you don't like what you see, change it. Call them differently. The people, your friends, your family members, the people you want to see change, they are like water. If you call them, they will respond. So Jesus looks at Peter and he doesn't like what he sees. So what he goes here, he changes his name. So from now on, everyone will call Peter the way Jesus called Peter. And eventually we see later on, Peter's life begins to change. Because his name was changed. Amen? If you're taking notes, write this down. Jesus will change your name in order to change your nature. Jesus will change your name in order to change your life. Jesus wants to change a vision of who you are. An image of who you are. A dream of your future. A picture of expectation of who you are. And by that, he can change your life. Jesus cannot change your nature if you don't allow him to change your name. Every single person here has a name. And I'm not talking about that name that you were called with. Even though our physical names that we have, they were given to us by parents because maybe parents like that name or maybe because it meant something. But the name that you were called with every single day. Loser or winner, ugly, chunky, clever, beautiful. Never amount to anything. The name you give to yourself, I don't succeed at anything. Nothing ever works for me. That's just my lot in life. That kind of a name produces the life that you will eventually live. And for Jesus to change your life, he goes head first and changes your name. Peter didn't act differently. Peter didn't improve. But Jesus changes his name. And then his nature was also altered. Did you know that up to a thousand, a hundred years ago, we did not have last names? People only had first names. Even in the Bible, if you read Abraham, you don't read Abraham with the last name. Nobody in the Bible had a last name. Everybody only had a first name. Last names were invented a thousand, a hundred years ago in Europe. And this is how they decided last names. You will learn something very new about your last name today. They had four categories by which they decided last name. The first one was, if you can go ahead and put it on the screen, your occupation. So this is where we get John Cook. This is where you get John Miller. I have no idea what subject supposed to mean. But this is where you actually get your by occupation. The number two reason the way you would know your last name is by your location. This is where you get John Overhill. John Brook. If you are Brook, that means someone, your relatives lived by the Brook. Another reason why they, how they will give you your last name is they would give you by, by your connection to someone. For example, John, John's son. If they couldn't come up with anything to call you, they would call you Johnson. That means that you were John's son. And the last characteristic by which last name would be determined, would be a characteristic of your name. So John Small. Or John Big. Or John this and that. And so this is how your last name was created. But I want you to notice that everything was based not on your future potential, but on your behavior. That is how people give names. They give names based on how you behave, how you act and what is happening to you. Jesus comes and sees Peter's behavior, which is nothing to write home about. Which is not a good behavior. Peter is inconsistent. Peter has commitment issues. Peter is like, yo, one day he's up, another day he goes down. And Peter, Jesus gives Peter a new name. And he says, listen, your name is going to be a rock. But I don't act like rock. I don't look like rock. I don't have an attitude over rock. Jesus says, no, rock is who you will become. And I give you a name based on who I want you to be, not based on what I see. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. Can somebody say amen? God calls you by your future, not by your past. God calls you by your name, not by your sin. In the Bible there was a man named Jacob. And Jacob had a very interesting life also. And when his youngest son was born, Benjamin, there was a verse there that says, And so it was, as her soul, his wife's soul was departing, for she died, that she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin. So Jacob is seeing his favorite wife, Rachel, give birth to the last son, Benjamin. And because births were difficult, she dies in the process. Her pain was so severe, she names her little baby Ben-Oni, which means a son of my sorrow. And the father saw that, and when she passed away, he says, No, I will give him a new name. I respect my wife. But his name is going to be Benjamin, means a son of my right hand. Why does Jacob change the names right on the spot? Because out of everyone in this world, Jacob knew. When I was born a trickster, because I tricked my brother out of the womb, came out first. And my mom called me a trickster. I end up living like a trickster all my life. Every place I went, I tricked people. I lied to people. My life was a reflection of the name my mom gave me. And yes, she gave me that name because of my behavior, not knowing that name became a limitation for my future behavior. And Jacob looks at his son and he says, I know, Rachel, you've been through some very hard times, but this son is not going to live up a curse that you have placed on him. And he says, before he even grows up, he won't even know the name Ben-Oni. I'll give him a new name, Benjamin. And when you see Jacob's Benjamin's life, you always see one thing. He was always close to his dad. His life reflected his name. The name Jesus gives you will determine the nature he'll produce in you. He cannot change your life if he doesn't change your image of yourself. He can change your future if he can change your dreams, if he cannot change your goals, if he cannot change the vision that you are carrying today in your heart. Amen. Number two, I want you to write down that do not lose a vision of the rock when you're going through your read moments. Simon means read. Peter means rock. Jesus calls him rock when he's still acted like read. Jesus calls him strong when he acted weak. He comes to a girl's house who is dead and they're crying over her already. And Jesus says she is asleep. They're ridiculing Jesus because Jesus does not call things the way they are. He calls things the way he wants them to be. He looks at the dark place without form and he says let there be light. Our God does not waste words to describe a situation. He uses his words to create a new situation. God calls things which are not as though they were. He said to the weak, be strong. He said to the sick, be healed. He says to those who are defeated, be victorious. And when you receive that, this is where your life begins to change. When you go through your read moments and everybody does, never lose the picture of the rock. When Peter was called with a new name, you would think the next day anointing will hit his life. And Peter was going through a caterpillar to a butterfly. Yes, he went through the caterpillar to the butterfly, but that took three and a half years. We know that Peter had a lot of read moments. He came out of a boat like a rock. Take two steps, sunk like a reed. He said, Jesus, you're the Messiah. That was a statement of the rock. And when it's later, he said, Jesus, you shouldn't obey God to go on the cross and save the world. That was a statement of the reed. Peter's chest and said, I'll never deny you. An hour later, a reed falls asleep when Jesus is praying. You saw this life of always inconsistent. He had read moments, but Peter was still called rock. Because God says it, that does not mean everything in life will line up right away. If you keep that vision properly, it will line up in a matter of time. Can somebody say amen? I have this. How many of you guys have used this before? Those of you who are listening on the podcast, I have a puzzle box here. When I was younger, we used this as well, and you open the box, and next thing that happens is that this box is full of a lot of pieces. These pieces in themselves mean nothing. These pieces in themselves do not hold a picture. And if you simply take them and you put them out, you will actually be confused. You will take one piece out of it, and you will recognize that this, you can't do much with it. And that's how life comes. Life comes in the box of broken, unconnected, isolated pieces. But when you come to Christ, Christ always gives you the picture of what he put in the box for your future to look like. When you come to Jesus, he doesn't give you a puzzle folded together. I know the preacher can say, if you come to Jesus, he will fold all your life in one sense. No, he will give you a picture of all the broken pieces, how they go together, and how they become that vision that Jesus gives, you can somebody say, man, and it's so important in your life when you have bunch of broken pieces, shattered pieces, talents and gifts that you do not see how do they fit. When you feel like your life, how do I put my life together? The most important thing about life is not the pieces you got in the box. It's the image of how your life is supposed to be like. And many people, this is what they do with this. When they come to church and the pastor says, through Christ you are healed. Yeah, right, they throw that away. Through Christ you can do anything. Yeah, right, you don't understand my life. This is how my life looks like. I don't need this pastor. I need somebody to assemble this. Well, you can't assemble this without this. If you don't have a vision, you won't have a life. You won't have a change in your life. If you don't have a picture of what it's supposed to look like, all of these pieces in your life, they are simply meaningless. For us, morning prayers is a piece of our vision. Friday night school of leaders is a piece to a vision. One by one, every home group is a piece to the vision. Every single message is a piece to the vision. Every time we sacrifice our finances, it is a piece to the vision. What is our vision? Our vision is to see thousands of people serve Jesus. And our leaders have to keep this picture clear and cut in front of them every time they pray. Because sometimes a home group looks just like this. When a home group is done and you're so discouraged because nobody came. And those who came, you're like, I wish they wouldn't. Sometimes you're inviting your family member or your friend. And they do not want to come and you're like, you know what? I've been praying for people and I'm so not successful in bringing people to Jesus. And you lose the picture that you are going to be a successful evangelist. God wants you to remember. He placed inside of you all the pieces you need to fulfill your destiny. But He also gives you a vision. And you got to keep that vision clear and cut right in front of your eyes. Amen. I read a lot of books about people who have visions and they see those visions come to past. And it always inspires me and challenges me to see that to be a reality. All of our home group leaders, one of the biggest challenges I inspire our home group leaders and myself to first be dreamers. We have a walk into Martin's office and you will see a paper and there says my goal for this year, five home groups. Three home groups are released and there you see on the bottom two more home groups that are going to be released by the end of the year. You talk to my wife and she will tell you in the beginning of the year, Holy Spirit put it in her heart. She will have 12 home groups. She says this is what I'm praying for. Sometimes no one shows up to the home group. It does not change the fact that God has given me the picture. That's why in our offices and everywhere you see those 50 slots. Why? Because we keep a picture of what our life is going to be like in next few years already in our mind. We pray for it, we keep it and then we assemble the pieces as the Holy Spirit helps us as we stare at the picture. Amen. Don't lose your sight. Don't lose your vision of the rock when you're going through your read moments. When your life seemed to not make sense. When the pieces don't go together. I always tell young men if they're in debt to their eyeballs. I tell them you have to make a list on the refrigerator in the mirror. Your debt smaller to your greatest and put something on the top. I will take you down. Create another list that says all of my debts are paid. Look at that every single day. When you look at that list, every single day tell that list. You're going down. That's what I did with my debts and I'm debt free and you can do that with yours. But if you're only trying to assemble things without a clear picture, you will be discouraged, disappointed, take all of this and throw it away. Same thing happens if you want to see your family come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to have an image, you have to have a vision, you have to have a name. You have to see how it's supposed to be in your spirit. Jesus Christ takes you from read to a rock. Yes, it's painful sometimes. But remember this. If you don't allow Jesus to take you from read to a rock, you will never stay as a read. Because Satan comes and he wants to take you from read to weed. He doesn't let you stay read. The moment you say this is too hard. The moment you say I don't want to dream. I don't want to pray harder. I don't want to believe for anything. Satan comes along and he says, well, since you do not want to go higher, let me take you lower. People don't stay as reads. People become weeds. Remember Judas? Judas comes to Jesus to betray him. And Jesus, I mean, that's a foe. A foe is walking right up to Jesus. And Jesus, instead of calling Judas an enemy, the Bible says he calls him a friend. You can act like a foe. Jesus still sees you as a friend. Always sees you higher than the way you act. Always sees you higher than the way you feel. Always sees you higher than the way you behave. Jesus looks at him. He comes to betray him. And Jesus says, friend, why did you come? He lifts him higher always than Judas acts. But Judas chooses to stay on the level of the read. To stay on the level of his issues. No, I don't want to go higher. This is too hard. I already made the deal. My life is so comfortable. And their devil comes and says, Judas, since you didn't want to go up to the level. Go up to the level of being Jesus's friend. Let me bring you shame. Guilt, condemnation. Judas accepted. He no longer was read. He became weed. Satan came and says, well, with that, let me bring some suicidal thoughts. He brings suicidal thoughts. Well, since you're already thinking that, why don't just end your life? And you see, Judas did not just remain as a betrayer. He became suicidal. You don't simply stay as read. When you become a prisoner of your reality, you're not a prisoner of your reality. Satan kills his prisoners. Satan doesn't keep them in prison. He chokes them in those prisons. That's why I want you and me, all of us together, choose God's dream. God's vision. Choose to snap reality out of the bondage in your life and run with God. If nobody came to your home group, still keep an image. You will have 12 of them. Put those 12 cups. And if you're meeting in Starbucks, God bless you. Buy 12 cups of coffee and invite me afterwards. If your family is not responding and they're not serving Christ, speak life. In your mind, see them serving Jesus. The further they're rejecting Jesus, while keep increasing your dreams, well, that means they might be pastors in the future. Always have a vision that is not consistent with your reality. Give room to the Holy Spirit to move. In one youth group, one youth pastor had this brilliant idea of bringing people and showing them an illustration. He wanted to show them the power of partnership. And he wanted to show how they should treat one another. And he said, imagine that we have a boat. And in the boat, we have only 11 seats. But he puts 12 people in a circle and puts 11 seats there. And he says, well, one of you guys have to jump from the boat so that the rest of the people can be rescued and that the boat won't drown. And there was this unattractive girl in that youth group who was always isolated. And nobody ever talked to her. And she was out of shape. And she didn't put on makeup. She didn't take care of herself well. And nobody really liked to talk to her. And they all, as a group, huddle up. And then this girl was there. And they said, well, we can't let him jump off the ship. We can't let her jump off the ship. We can't let them jump off the ship. And the only person that has to jump off the ship, they didn't want to say it, but they wished she would. Her name was Mary. And Mary recognized they're trying to call her name without calling her name. She says, I'll jump. They said, no, no, no, you don't have to. We can find someone else. And she asked them, give me one reason why I don't have to jump the ship. And there was this silence. And not one of them could give them a reason. Next day, Mary jumped the ship. And every single one of them recognized the vision they had of Mary and how they confirmed that vision when she asked them the question, why I shouldn't jump? And nobody could say anything. Satan came to that vision. He added another layer and didn't just leave her on the level of depression. I am nobody. Nobody loves me, but brought her to the level of suicide and death. Christ will take you higher, but don't for a moment think Satan will let you stay on the same level. He wants to drag you lower. That's why you can stay in the middle too long. You gotta climb up higher with God. Always push further with God. When you reach your dreams, set them higher because Jesus will take you from read to a rock, but the devil wants to take you from the read to something nastier and something worse. Can somebody say amen? Write down point number three and I'm going to come to conclusion. Keep close to the rock in spite of read moments. When you are inconsistent, when your life seems to not fall together, when your dreams seem to linger, there is only one secret. And that secret is we mentioned not to lose the vision, but the second side of that secret is also as important. Don't ever lose your closeness with Jesus Christ. What changed Peter was the fact Peter stayed as close to Jesus even when Peter wasn't acting like he was supposed to act. Peter still was around Jesus. When your life doesn't fall the way you expected it to be. When your character doesn't change as you thought it should be. When certain weaknesses keep resurfacing in your life, the greatest mistake you can make is to take that as a cause for you to stop coming to morning prayers, stop coming to Friday night prayers, stop coming to church and saying, you know what, since I am not acting the part, I'm just going to take a break until I change my ways. You know, I've tried to clean my house many times. I was never able to clean a dirty table with a dirty rag. You can't clean up your life on your own. You will only make a mess of it. You can't get better by leaving the church. You can't get better by saying I won't go to home group. I won't read the Bible. I am too guilty. I am too ashamed. I won't go to prayer. I will just walk away from Jesus because I am so undeserving. You will never become the rock until you are close to the rock, the rock of ages Jesus Christ. You will never see changes in your life until you allow him to be around you and then his grace will begin to cover you and change your life. The way all of us have been changed is not because we've done some secret. People sometimes come to me and they said, how do I overcome pornography? And they want me to tell them some kind of a secret software that they can install and download on their subconscious that will cause them to resist temptation. There is no secret. Some people think, well, if I just come to the prayer line, all of my character is going to be changed. Yes, a lot of demons will be gone, but please understand for you to become who God wants you to become, you can only be by being to someone who calls you to be the person. It's not going to be on your own. It's not going to be somewhere with your buddies. It's not going to be just simply saying, you know what? I'm going to skip prayer. I'm going to skip Bible reading. I'm not going to listen to podcasts. I'm not going to listen to these things, but I'm going to hope and wish God will take my dreams and make them into reality. That's not going to happen. Your dreams will begin to fade away, not because it is God's will. It is because there is no fuel for those dreams since God is the source. Amen. You know, I have a glove in my hand, and this glove is completely useless if it's not on my hand. It will lay here. It will rotten here, and it will remain here. The glove goes on my hand. What my hand does, my glove does. The glove begins to wave. The glove begins to lift. The glove begins to wash. The glove is active. The glove begins to help. The glove begins to shake hands. The glove begins to do everything. The moment I remove this glove out of my hand, this glove still remains a glove that is completely useless. Jesus said, without me, a glove, you can do nothing. And with me, you can do everything. Your number one goal in life is not to work on your character. It is to stay as close to Jesus as you can, even when your character is a mess. To stay as close to Jesus as you can, even if all demons are haunting you, even if you're still fighting, even if your life is still depressed and hard and difficult. And then you will see the picture Jesus put in the Bible become the reality of your life. Can somebody say amen? Let me tell you about a man named George Mueller. George Mueller, he was a very powerful missionary. He cared for a thousand, ten thousand orphans personally with his organization. Established 117 schools which offered education to 120,000 children. They said he had a documented 50,000 answers to his prayers. Well, what he prayed for, he always prayed specifically so that when he would receive an answer it will not be a mistake and for a coincidence. He prayed specifically and there's documents indicating 50,000 prayers that were answered. And at the end of his life they asked him, George Mueller, what is the secret to this successful life of 10,000 orphans establishing 117 schools. He changed his city so much that he received complaints that poor people were living better than middle class. That's a good accusation to have in your life. And this is what he said. He said, I am nothing. It is better for me to be nothing. But in Jesus all things are possible. This is a man who lives a life to live. Some of you will have an answer to one prayer like I'm a successful saint. You run to Catholic church to make you a saint. This man had 50,000 of them but the secret of them is he knew this. Without Christ I can do nothing. Without Jesus I am nothing. And I know this is a simple message. But our dreams, our vision changing our life is only possible when we are close to him. Some of the chorises said She said By blood I am Albanian. By citizenship I am an Indian. By faith I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling I belong to the world. As to my heart I belong entirely to Jesus. Those are the people that make a difference in the world. Who make their life aim to be as close to Jesus as they can. And their dreams become fueled by the power of Jesus instead of their own strength. The prophet, the prophet, always quotes comes from a man named Matthew Henry who was alive a few hundred years ago and this is what he said the best man in the world holds his integrity no longer than God upholds him in it. You are like a stick. If God doesn't hold you by default you'll only fall. You can't hold yourself. You cannot transform yourself. You cannot make your visions become a reality. Keep a vision in front of you and stay close to the one who gave you that vision the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. Amen.