 I want to talk to you this evening about the Lamb of God. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how evil or wicked you believe your sin to be, you can be forgiven and you can be washed clean. And God is not rejecting you. He's calling to you this evening and wants you to repent. That means to turn away from your wrongdoing. And God's Holy Spirit is working in your heart even now. I stand here as a preacher of the Scripture, a messenger of the gospel. Your guilt, your sin, can be washed clean. There is no sin that so stains that the blood of Jesus can't wash you clean. There is no sin that so stains that God's forgiveness cannot purify you. But it requires that we humble ourselves, acknowledge our wrongdoing, and turn to him. Go with me. Genesis chapter 1, we are going to take a look at the creation of man. You've heard various different philosophies and theories regarding how humans came into being. One that's being popularized right now is the idea that we were created by an intelligent alien species. They're getting closer now, at least their own intelligent design. People talk of things like reincarnation. People speak of things like the universe causing us to come into existence by its own will. But the Scripture reveals the truth about where you came from and who you are and the purpose of your life. Don't trust in my word. Trust in God's word. Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, we'll read several verses here. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female, the Scripture says, created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveeth upon the earth. You, my friend, were created to reign with God. You were created for dominion. You were created to subdue the earth. I don't know what culture is telling you. I don't know what your parents told you. I don't know what you told yourself. But you were not created to live in depression. You were not created to live with anxiety. You were not created to live with drug and alcohol addiction. You were not created to live in confusion. You were not created to live in sin. You were created to have dominion with God. God created you. God formed you after his own image, the scripture says. We were created to love God and be loved by him. We were created for the purposes of knowing God. Genesis chapter two, verse seven, tells us specifically how he formed man. The Bible here says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. God breathed his life into you. That breath you breathe is borrowed. The life you live is borrowed. The existence you have, the experiences you have, all of them, gives from God. Sometimes we rebel against him. I should say more often than not we rebel against him. We shake our fists, the creator. And even if you say that you don't believe in him, even if you say you don't think God exists, you know deep within your heart that he does. We don't want anyone telling us what to do. We want to live by our own standards, live in our own will, do all things our own way. We accuse God of being a tyrant. We accuse him of being petty. We accuse him of being judgmental and hateful. But let me explain it to you this way. Let us say, for the sake of an analogy, not in reality, an analogy, that I offered to buy you a vehicle of your choice. Now some of us have different needs. If you're a young single man in here, you say I'll take the Ferrari or the Lamborghini, or what's the one you like, the Nissan GT-R? I don't even know what that looks like, but you've showed it to me several times. I don't have it in my head right now. If you're a parent with an excessive amount of children, you're looking for the SUV or maybe the van, and maybe you have a long commute that you take to work and you say I'll take the hybrid or the Tesla. And let's say that I offered to you to pay for this vehicle, in full. And then I said to you, not only am I gonna purchase this vehicle for you in full, you'll have no payments, but I wanna also make sure that I cover the insurance for the next 25 years. And then I say, I wanna cover all the fuel costs for the next 25 years. And then I say, I wanna cover all the maintenance that you'll ever need in that time that you own it. I have just one rule, please make sure to not take it off road and obey all the laws. That's all I require of you. Now imagine the individual being given that offer and saying, how dare you tell me what to do with my car? I wanna take it off road. I wanna disobey the law. I wanna run through red lights. You tyrant? Now we laugh, but that's exactly what we do to God when it comes to our lives. He gave you breath. He gave you existence. Your breath with which you curse him is sustained by his mercy. And then we shake our fist back at God. I don't wanna be told what to do. I don't wanna be under your control. And all he asks is that we live by his standards, which by the way are for your own good. He doesn't just set rules down because he wants to make you miserable. He sets rules down and gives you boundaries that you might have life and life more abundantly, that you might have unhindered fellowship with his goodness, that you might know the way of peace and love and joy and connection with God. James 1.17 says, every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God is much bigger than religion told you he was. God is much bigger than the person who offended you is. God is much bigger than you've imagined him to be. We fit him, at least we try, into our little neat boxes, not realizing that he is the giver of life. He is the one who offers to you that peace, that joy, that love, that purpose for which you so desperately seek. Now in Genesis chapter three, we see that after man is created, he rebels against God, tempted by the devil, but deciding upon his own to turn away from God's standard. Genesis three, one, go there if you have a Bible. If you don't, I want you to just listen to the story here. It's the story of how man fell. As we just read a moment ago, man was created for dominion. Man was created in God's image. Man was created pure and holy and righteous by his own will, the exercise thereof. He turned from that standard. He violated his own nature. Genesis three, one, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. The woman replied, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. Verse four, you won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. Verse six says the woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. Now I believe here that it's not necessarily that they suddenly realized that they were naked but rather that their nakedness in their corruption became something entirely different than it was before. The moment they turned from God, now they come into corruption. You look around at the world and you ask yourself, how is it that things are going the way they're going? You look at the confusion, you look at the division, the perversion, the moral decline, the chaos, the wars, the sickness, the disease, we live in a fallen creation. And the reason that the world has the problems that it does today is because of sin. Sin is the sickness of the soul, out of which all evil comes. Sin has permeated our globe. And in permeating our globe, it's caused many to be separated from God. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 59, verse two. And this is God speaking to his people. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you. He will not hear you. Now if we go back to Genesis chapter three and we read verses 23 and 24, we see that Adam and Eve were banished from the garden or banished from what they knew to be the presence of God. Romans 5, 12 says this, wherefore as by one man's sin entered the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. What is the scripture saying here? It's simple. Adam and Eve, the first to sin, caused death to enter. But we are partakers of that death, not because of what they decided, but because of what we decided. Their decision to rebel against God only made sin a reality that could be chosen in this world. But every single one of us have chosen rebellion. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This is not to say that we're all being blamed for Adam and Eve's sin, then God would not be just. Rather, this is saying that like Adam and Eve, we too have chosen rebellion. And for those who are outside of Christ, this means separation from God. This is why you live in confusion. This is why you sense something missing. This is why there is no peace. This is why there is no purpose. You've disconnected from the source of life himself. Now, in the Old Testament, that was before Jesus came, we see that God had a temporary system in place by which man could be connected to him. And in the Old Testament, back before Christ came and gave his life for our sins, man would offer various different types of food offerings and animal sacrifices. Man would observe various different dietary restrictions and certain traditions and wear certain things at certain times and there was a whole system in place that man had to follow in order to just come close to keeping that connection with God. But it was a placeholder. Leviticus 4, 35 says, and he shall take away all the fat thereof as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the Lord. And the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed and it shall be forgiven. So here we see that presented to the Lord was this spotless lamb, this pure creature that would act in the place of punishment and temporarily, at least, connect man with God again. The Bible tells us plainly that this was just a temporary solution because as we know, man is rebellious and even under this old system, we couldn't keep it. God didn't fail, but we did. And it was this strict way of living. The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse one, the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifice under that system was repeated again and again year after year, but they were never able to provide cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time and their fillings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year, for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now, if you jump down just a few verses below, here's what the Bible says concerning Christ. For God's will for us was to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar, day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. And he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19 puts it this way, for as much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by traditions of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a land without blemish and without spot. What does all of this mean? It's simple. Jesus Christ, who is God, came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. You and I, on a daily basis, struggle to overcome certain temptations. And even if we don't act out on those temptations, every so often a thought may slip in that we entertain for just a little too long. Or perhaps if we were to magnify via a projector over this room, the thoughts that were running through your mind, I wonder how many in this room would run out of here in embarrassment for what they thought in just the past five minutes. Or if we could see your life recorded, played before us on a screen. How many moments in your life would cause you shame and embarrassment and fear? Yet Jesus in all his life never sinned once. Perfectly sinless in action, perfectly sinless in attitude, perfectly sinless even in his own thoughts, not once. He is the perfect land. And this is why he had to die. When they crucified Jesus, they didn't crucify him because of the sins he committed. When they crucified Jesus, they crucified him ultimately by God's sovereign will for the sins that you and I commit. So that when we place our faith in the cross, when we receive that gift of salvation by simply believing, we experience what is called the great exchange to where God looks at the cross and he sees your sin so that when God looks at you, he sees his son perfect, holy and righteous because of your faith. The gospel is not come to church every Sunday and maybe you'll make it into heaven. The gospel is not stop doing those shameful deeds and maybe you'll make it into heaven. Though I must clarify, as Christians, we must stop doing shameful things. And the people said? So this is not a sloppy grace message by any means. In fact, if you have no desire for holiness, it's probably because you never really met Jesus. Just telling it to you plainly, he changes your nature. But the reality is that you don't make heaven because of what you do. You don't get to heaven because you did enough good deeds or because you stopped drinking or because you stopped partying or because you didn't necessarily act upon every impulse and whim or because maybe your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. It's not a scaling system. One wrong act, one violation of his holiness and that is enough to be banished from the presence of God. That's how holy he is. You see, if it was complicated, I promise you we would mess it up. It's simple and we still do sometimes. But what is the gospel? What's the good news? The good news is that I can receive Christ's righteousness. I can have his record counted toward my life. When God looks at me, I can have it as though he's looking at Christ in all his perfection. How? Only believe. Abraham believed God. He was counted to him as righteousness. Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine tell us that we receive salvation by grace through faith. It's not of our own works so that we cannot boast. Isaiah 118 says this. And I want you when you're listening to this to listen to what God is really like because you may be sitting in this room and you've been beaten down by religion. You've been told over and over and over again of this impossibly high standard to keep and that if you don't keep it, to hell you go. And again, I emphasize I'm not saying that you mustn't live holy. You ought to live holy. What I am saying is that when we become born again, Christ's record becomes our record. And God gives us the ability to live holy. In other words, I don't do good works to be saved. I do good works because I'm saved and I'm so thankful. But religion may have told you otherwise because here's what the unbeliever thinks. Well, if I have to keep a perfect standard which I'm not going to do anyway, I might as well have all the fun I can here and now. But I'll tell you this. This is what God says to you. I want you to listen to the heart of God in this portion of scripture here. Isaiah 118, God says, come now and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God desires to cleanse you. God desires to embrace you. God desires to accept you. All that separates you from God as your sin. So it is by believing on the work of Christ. It is by putting our faith in what he's accomplished that we receive this gift of salvation. If you've ever gone in for a medical procedure, a surgery of some sort, you didn't stay up the night before studying a textbook on how to perform the surgery. You didn't perform the surgery on yourself. You couldn't have. We lack the knowledge and if we have the knowledge, good luck with doing that through all the pain. No, when you go to see the surgeon, you have something wrong, there's an issue. All you have to do is put yourself on the table. You don't come out of the surgery saying, what a great job I did. Here's the procedure I used. You see, we don't even comprehend for the most part what exactly it is that's being done to us. We just have faith that that doctor, that surgeon is gonna do the right thing. My friend, Jesus is the surgeon of the soul. When you come to him, it's not up to you to figure out how he does it. I don't know how, I still to this day don't understand fully that miracle of salvation. I know he gives me a new nature, how he does it, I don't know. But you have to surrender. You have to put yourself on the table and say, okay Lord, I surrender now. And perhaps you have been running from God. And by that I mean, you've been hearing the truth of his word. You know in your heart that you need peace with him. You know that your life is not right. You know you're separated in your sins. And there's this fight going on inside of you even now. And everything in you is wondering, how is this even possible that I would connect with him? Or perhaps you're wondering, how could God truly forgive me? He doesn't know what I did. I promise you he does. You may think that you've gone far. So far that he cannot reach you. You may have tried it on your own strength and in your own ability. You may have tried it religion's way to perform your way to salvation while never knowing if you've really made it or not. You may have gone to church, liked what you've experienced or not liked what you've experienced. You may have come to him only to go back into the world. But all that's here is this moment now where the Holy Spirit is drawing you to Jesus. And you have a decision to make tonight to receive this free gift of salvation and have peace with God or to reject Jesus and remain in your sins. You may be saying, well, I don't know if I'm gonna get it right. What if I mess up? You probably will, we all do. But we don't accept that, but the Holy Spirit works with us making us more and more like Jesus day by day all the while securing you, holding you. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. You can do one of two things this evening. And this is for those of you watching online as well. You can do one of two things this evening. You can ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit. Walk out those doors, turn off that live stream. You go back to your car. You'll be driving home and you'll carry that weight, the guilt, the shame, confusion. And you'll be saying within yourself, I should have responded, I should have responded, I should have responded to the gospel. And you'll be lying in your bed tonight wondering where you'll spend eternity. You'll be lying in your bed tonight wondering how you might connect with God. My friend, if I know one thing, it's that you need to respond when the Holy Spirit is calling you to respond. Or number two, you can respond to Jesus tonight. You can repent of your sins, accept this free gift of salvation, believe on the Lord Jesus. And you'll walk out of this room here tonight. Something will have transformed in you. Something will have changed. You're going to leave here and that step is possibly gonna feel a little bit lighter. If your bank account balance was low when you leave here, it'll probably still be low. If you had problems in home, in your home, maybe with a spouse, maybe with a child, you'll leave this place and maybe you'll probably still be facing that issue. It's not going to change really much there yet. But you won't be facing it alone anymore. And you're gonna leave this place and the sin that stained you will be no more. That guilt will be gone. The shame will be gone. The burden will be gone. And you'll lie in your bed tonight with peace in your heart and joy in your heart and love in your heart. And you'll say, I'm so glad. I'm so glad I said yes to Jesus. You see, when you finally do come to Jesus, the only regret that you'll ever have is that you didn't do it sooner. So tonight, come to Jesus. I'm gonna make an altar call. This is for those of you present in the room now and those of you watching online. If you're watching online, I want you to respond online in just a moment. If you're in this place and you know that your sins have separated you from God, you're not right with him. You don't have peace, not with God. I want you to respond to this altar call by raising your hand in just a moment. Actually, no, I'm gonna ask you to stand. I'm not gonna turn down the lights. I'm not gonna ask others to bow their heads. Just the moment I'm gonna ask you to stand. Don't worry about whether or not the person next to you responds because they're not gonna be standing with you on the day of judgment. Don't worry about what your friends will think. Don't worry about what your family will think. Don't worry about being judged or embarrassed or ridiculed because it's just you and Jesus now. You want Jesus. I want you to stand to your feet right now. You wanna receive this gift of salvation. I want you to do one more thing. You're standing right now. I want you to come out of your seat and make your way to this altar right now and come and face me. And church, can we welcome them as they come? If you're ready to give your life to Jesus and you're watching online, I want you to type it in the comments section. Type, I'm ready. I look down at this altar and I see young and old. I see generation to generation. I see every tribe, every tongue, every nation, man and woman, boy and girl. They're still coming. They're still coming from the back, from the sides, never gets old. It never gets old, does it? Guys, how many times have we seen this? And it never gets old. It never gets old. Now listen to me. Serving Jesus doesn't guarantee you health, wealth and happiness. He'll bless you financially in seasons, yes. And I believe that Christians should be blessed in that area. I believe in healing. I believe God will heal you and give you a miracle. I do, I truly do. But listen to me now. He's not promising a life without trials. Serving God is not a magic ticket that gets you out of all the troubles you'll ever face. You're going to have trials. In fact, many of them will get worse because of your decision that you made here right now. I know it seems like an interesting thing to applaud, but here's the thing. It's because we know in those seasons, he's near. And it's those seasons of difficulty where we sense the presence of God the most. Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. That's his promise. I need you in a prayer. There's no such thing as the sinner's prayer in the Bible. You won't find the sinner's prayer. What you will find are sinners who pray. And the Bible says that we confess, that confession coincides with the experience of salvation. This does not mean that there's just a list of words that we can read, a special prayer that we can recite and then suddenly experience the magic of salvation. No, my friend, it's just simply truly coming to Jesus and saying, this offer you made, I want that. And I believe that you are the Son of God and I believe you completed the work needed to save me. I'm gonna put my faith in what you did and truly put your faith in what he did and you do that, he will transform you. We don't try to transform ourselves so that God accepts us. It's not how it works. God accepts you and because he's accepted you, that begins the transformation. But it's only through our faith in Jesus. That's it. But you're gonna have to live this out. You can't just come up here, say this prayer and go back to the way you were living. If you do that, you didn't mean it in the first place. This is a life transformation. This is a lifelong commitment. This means following Jesus, never looking back again. Your friends, many of them will turn on you. Your family, many of them will mock you. But what he promises is this, no matter what you face, he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. No matter what's happening in the world around you, no matter the things that come against you, there's faith and joy and peace and love within you because of the presence of God. Are you ready tonight? Are we ready to agree with our brothers and sisters this evening? Or I should say, are soon to be brothers and sisters. This is the miracle of salvation we're about to witness. I want all of you down at this altar. When my daughter wants me to pick her up, she puts her hands up like this. She doesn't do it as much as she used to, but every now and then, just pick your hands up like this and I want you in your spirit to be saying, pick me up, God. And I want you to say this prayer after me. Say this prayer after me. Just the pad, please, no keys. Say, dear Jesus, I come to you today as a sinner and I ask you, Lord, to forgive me of my sins, to wash me and make me clean. Today, I reject the world. Today, I reject sin. Today, I reject the devil and I turn to Jesus. I want you to continue to pray with me and you watching online. Pray this as well. Say, Jesus, I believe. You are the Son of God. And I believe you died on the cross for my sins. And I believe you're sitting at God's right hand. Jesus, say it to Him. Say, Jesus, save me, forgive me, be my Lord, my Savior, my God, my King, I follow you now. And I believe that today I am now and forever, born again in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Church, will you stand to your feet all across the room and will you just give the Lord a hand of praise for this great harvest of souls that we experienced here this evening? I wanna sing something simple and I want you to make it your prayer. It's simple song, I surrender all. Hands lifted, eyes closed. Can we sing it with them, church, our new brothers and sisters? And you just gave your life to the Lord. I want you to type two simple comments in the comment section. Two simple words I should say, born again. Just type those two simple words. Let it be your public declaration of faith. This is something that you've decided to do that will transform your life. And you've just stepped into something way beyond even what you can imagine. I want you to type those words in. Born again, as I look at the comment section now, I see various different people commenting, many saying they're ready to pray this prayer. I surrender all in Jesus' name. I think there's just about, I wanna say a 30 to 60 second delay, but maybe you'll be able to see it. I can, they see it on the screens if I show them. The comments here, are they able to see that? Can you guys all see that here? Okay, so watch this, hold on, watch this, watch this. I surrender all. I surrender all. There's that slight delay and then watch. This is one of my favorite things to see. I can always see it on my phone, but I've always wished there was a way we can show it to you. Tim, how long is that delay? It'll be worth it, I promise. Harvest, it's about a two minute delay, so it'll come in the next 30 seconds or so. Like I love Jesus, I surrender all. Look at those prayers though. This is what I get to see from my perspective. You can see how I'm so moved when I begin to see the comments. Like there, Alan says, welcome brothers and sisters, angels in heaven celebrating. Glory to God, he says, living as it is in heaven. All to be my blessed savior. There's one born again. They'll start coming in here, I surrender all. Yes, amen. I'm ready, someone else says to receive Christ. Born again, there's another. Born again, praise God, I surrender. Born again, born again, born again, born again. Born again, born again, look at this. Are you seeing this? Born again, born again. It's still going. So when we talk about a harvest of souls, my goodness. And it'll go on like that. It'll actually go on for usually a couple hours after the stream is done. I kid you not, it goes on for a couple hours after the stream to Jesus belongs the glory. I wanna do one more thing. You're up here at this altar. I want you to just do a little 180 here and face the congregation this way. One more time. Can we welcome our brothers and sisters? What can you say after something like that? What can you say after something like that? To God be the glory. I could, I'm not going to, but like if we ended the service there, I'd be full, you know? That would be, I always think of those words. When Jesus talked about having food that they knew nothing of, just this sustenance and doing the will of the Father. That right there is worth everything. I know so because it was worth everything to him. It's worth everything. The pressure of ministry, the heresy hunters. God bless you if you're watching. That right there, worth it all, worth it all. And to Jesus belongs the glory. You may be seated this evening. I wanna share something with you that's very important. Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter nine. 2 Corinthians chapter nine. I'm gonna begin reading at verse number six. 2 Corinthians nine verse six. Remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully. Verse eight comes with the promise. And God will generously provide some of what you need. Oh, I'm sorry. What does it say? And God will generously provide all you need. That's what it says. Then you will always have everything you need. Now let's stop there, look up at me for a second. This right here, this one phrase I believe encapsulates the idea of the biblical idea of financial fruitfulness. Watch this now. Then you will always have everything you need. That's a big promise in and of itself, but it's only the first half. You will always have everything you need. Not sometimes have some of the things you need, but always have everything you need. And plenty left over to share with others. That is my favorite part. Because when it comes down to it, you the people of God here present and watching online, you love to give, you're generous. People come to you often because you're the one who gives often probably more than you should in terms of yourself and your time and your emotions. And that generosity in you was put there by God. Now of course, sometimes people take advantage of it, but you were created with that generous nature just like your heavenly Father. And so the scripture here is describing this reality we can all know so that we can have all our needs met and then plenty left over to share with others. You know what biblical prosperity is? When you can say to that one who can't afford groceries, I'll cover you this week. Do you know what biblical prosperity is? It's when you can look at that pastor who wants to start that orphanage and you can say pastor, we can send the money over to start that orphanage. Do you know what biblical prosperity is? It's when you can say to those who are hungry, I'll buy you a meal. Those who are naked, I'll buy you some clothes. The children with no home will get you a home. That's biblical prosperity. The Bible goes on to say, as the scriptures say, they share freely and give generously to the poor. This is describing you. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In other words, the resources that you have were given to you by God. He gave you what you needed to sow. Continuing now in the same way. Now watch what the Bible says here because many believers just glossed right over this. Two things to note. He will provide and increase your resources. So not just meet the need, he wants to increase you. And then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. You're saying, brother David, is that the prosperity gospel? Well, certainly not the poverty gospel. And I think, why do people get so mad at that? Do you want to be defeated? You want to claim the promise of being broke? Now, we understand it's not all about resources and I must also add, I understand why some people are hesitant. Yes, of course, this message has been abused, grossly abused, and it's been used for manipulation and greed and gain, but that doesn't make it any less true at its core. Just because some people can take the truth, twist the truth, pervert the truth, manipulate with the truth and abuse the truth, doesn't mean the truth still isn't the truth. So we understand, no, the gospel is not all about health, wealth, and happiness. And no, we don't serve God for material gain. That's not at all why we serve him, but that doesn't mean that God hasn't made these promises in his word concerning finances. The Bible says, yes, you will be enriched in every way. Why? So you can always be generous. Guys, we don't give to get. That would be the prosperity gospel. We give so that our resources are increased that we might give even more. That is the biblical way to look at this. And so this breakdown of scripture is talking about finances. You ever noticed you could talk about almost anything in the church today except for money? It got real quiet. So I know I'm right on the right track here. It's true. You could talk about, well, you could preach on sin. You'll offend some, but they'll say it's in the Bible. Go for it. You could talk about keeping a healthy body. It'll offend some, but it's in the Bible. Talk about it. You could talk about some of the contradictions to the current culture. And you could talk about it. They'll cheer you on. It's in the Bible. Don't compromise. The moment you talk about finances, don't, don't, don't mention that. Why? It's because there's this little part of our flesh that likes to hold and doesn't wanna release. And yes, as I said, many have been burned in the past. But again, I emphasize the scripture is still true. That as you begin to sow, you reap. Now, I mentioned earlier in the service that you do not sow for your healing. And the people said, you do not sow for your deliverance. And the people said, why is that? Because I can't sow apple seeds and reap strawberries. It's the law of sowing. You sow that seed, that type, and you reap that type. The biblical principle is sowing and reaping finances, not sowing finances to reap a healing. And so I want you to hear from the Holy Spirit for yourself. I want you to be a cheerful giver, not given to pressure, not given to manipulation, but rather someone who says, I am generous. I am for the gospel. I wanna see the kingdom advance. And I believe that as I continue to put God's kingdom first that he will bless and increase me, not so that I can consume it for myself, not so that I can be selfish with it and self-centered with it, but so that I could make an impact in the lives of others for the sake of the name of Jesus. That is why we give. When we first started this ministry, the Lord started it, I should say. When I first responded to that call, things weren't necessarily the best in terms of finances. Steve, you remember those days of us having to pay our staff in pizza? And even that was like my hand was shaking with the debit card when I paid for the pizza. And sometimes it was hamburgers and french fries. And every so often, if we were in a great season, we could get soft drinks. And so I remember just saying, okay, Lord, I'm gonna do the best I have with what you've given me. And I want you to increase us not so that we could be greedy and live lives of luxury, just I wanna see this ministry reach more people. I mean, you look at this crowd today, there wasn't always like this. It was, we were lucky if we could get 12 people to show up for a service. But God began to bless the ministry. And I'll never forget we started with just one video camera. Some of you have heard this and it's a story I love to share because it encourages and inspires. I was given by my youth pastor, his name is Eddie Vargas. He actually still pastors here in Southern California. And he was my youth leader at the time. And I remember he came to me and he gave me the Sony VX 2100. I'm a camera geek. Since I was seven years old, I was fascinated with broadcast technology, lighting and cameras and you name it, that kind of equipment. And so he gave it to me in this nice leather bag, lenses and how many cinematographers and photographers do we have in here who know what I'm talking about? Okay, so you can bear witness with my spirit. It was a bag with lenses and cameras. And I was just like, we've made it. This is the Lord's blessing. We're in the season of promise. So we use that camera to the best of our ability. I would film different teachings and I would never show those teachings today because I wasn't as polished. It would take me like an hour to do a one minute promotion. It was really bad. But the Lord spoke to me and he said, I want you to take that camera, that son Isaac whom you love. He said, I want you to sew it into a ministry. He gave me the ministry. And if I were to name that ministry today, at the time, they were just starting with us too. We were all starting kind of at the same time. But if I were to mention that ministry now, maybe I'd want to say half of you would know, at least half would know exactly who I'm talking about. But at the time they weren't doing media. They weren't doing anything. And the Lord said, sew it. And so the first reaction was to make sure it was the Lord. How many times have you rebuked the Holy Spirit only to find out it was the Holy Spirit? God, is this truly you? Confirm it through fire from heaven? No, okay. And I just kind of clutched that bag. I didn't want to release it. And finally I just said, okay, this is the Holy Spirit. I went to lunch with the pastor and I set the bag on the table. And I slid it across the table and I said, God told me to sew this into you. And he just kind of opened it and looked at it. He goes, you know, our ministry has been praying about doing media. And I was just waiting for a confirmation from the Lord. He said, this is confirmation. I'm like, yeah, okay, that's great. But I don't have a camera now. What do I do? No, but in all seriousness, I was happy to see that. And I walked away and I said, okay, Lord, you do what only you can do. We were believing for more equipment so that we can do local cable television at the time. Wasn't even national network yet. It was just local cable. And I'll never forget after I sewed that camera, this man comes up to me and he comes up to me and he says, I didn't even like you. You know, when you sew, God will even make your enemies pour into your bosom. He comes up to me and he has a stack of $100 bills. I thought he was like a drug dealer that got saved. And he hands it to me and he says, this is $14,000. I want you to go and buy the equipment that's been on your heart to buy. So we get it. And now we're celebrating. I said, Lord, this is the season. This is the new day. And after a few, I want to say a good year or so of using that equipment, the Lord says again, I want you to sew the equipment. You see, at every level that you go, God will test you and your heart at that level. And some of us, remember when we were desperate and we sewed and now that we're doing okay, we still sew on the same level as we used to be. It got quiet again. We still sew it from that place, even though God has increased us. And because of that, we stay where we are. Because as you give, that's when he increases your resources. Why? Because he knows he can trust you with it. And so I remember, I gave away all the cameras, but it wasn't just cameras this time. It was cameras, lighting equipment, microphones, soundboards, video boards, even the cables. The Lord said, give the cables away. And we sewed. And then we were saying, Lord, I want to believe to go on national television. And there's an open door. Network was giving us free airtime if only we could produce at that level. They said, if you can produce this high quality content, like at this level, we'll put you on for free. I said, okay, Lord, only you can do it. And so we were raising the funds. It didn't quite all come in. And then I get a call from a gentleman in Northern California, a businessman. You know how every one of these stories always includes a businessman? Well, I found one. They're real, they're out there. People who love the sew into the kingdom. And so this man calls me and he asks me, how big is your faith? I said, it's pretty big. I just sewed a bunch of camera equipment. I'd say it's pretty big right now. He says, then what am I about to tell you? I said, you're about to tell me that you're gonna send the check that's gonna cover the rest of our studio costs. He goes, hmm, it is big faith. He says, we're sending the check. It's gonna be there overnight. You'll get it by the morning. God will send you people who believe in you like that. This isn't why I shared the story, but that man's actually here this evening. He's right here. Pastor Paul, good to see you. You probably don't know. I share that story at probably every service we do. And that's what the Lord did. And so now I challenge you to hear from the Lord. The costs of these events, guys, are now in the hundreds of thousands. They're in the hundreds of thousands. And we don't want to profit off of these. It's not the goal. We want to at least make enough. I believe God could take us over the top, yes. But our heart is simple to just keep doing these events. To take from what we're doing here and put it to the next event. You know, we're having to look now at arenas. And this is, I know, I know. It's a massive step of faith that we're gonna have to take next year. We have to decide are we gonna keep turning people away or are we gonna start switching to arenas? I wanna know that we can step through that door and God's gonna use you, the people of God, to do it. You know, whenever God is getting ready to bless a ministry, he prepares the people who support that ministry for a blessing. And I believe that as God increases us, he's also increasing you, you watching online. And I'm asking you this evening, not for a special magic number, no such thing. I'm not asking you to respond to pressure, to guilt, to give because you feel bad. I'm not asking you to give because you wanna healing or deliverance. Jesus will heal you either way. Jesus will deliver you either way. I'm asking you to stand with us. This is where we began, Southern California. And we're asking that the support would come in. So you're here, you wanna know what these things cost each event, each event, guys, is in the hundreds of thousands. New York was 400, 500,000. Florida was 300, 400,000. This one is just about $300, $400,000 if I'm correct on that. But they're getting bigger and bigger and more and more expensive and we wanna keep doing them for free. So how many of you will say, I'll hear from the Holy Spirit tonight and do what I can? Will you raise your hand? And you're watching online, I'm asking you. All I ask is that everyone does their absolute best and just stretch your faith a little. Stretch yourself just a little bit beyond and say, we're gonna stand behind this ministry, not so we can get, but so that we can give. Can we have the ushers, please? Take the envelopes now and begin to pass out the envelopes. And if I could even have an envelope, please, that would be very helpful. Thank you, Isaac. Easton, can you come onto the platform, please? I wanna show them just kinda how this functions here. You watching online, there's gonna be a link that comes up at the bottom of the screen. It's right there, it'll help to instruct you on where you can give, just click it. We accept currencies from all over the world. If someone's into crypto, we now accept crypto. Any way you wanna give will pretty much have it. Come on over here, Easton. This right here, those of you here present, they're on the envelope is this QR code. What you're going to do is take your phone out, hold the phone's camera over that QR code and then a link will appear, you click that link and it's gonna take you right where you can give. Thank you, Mr. Lay. It's gonna take you right where you can give. Now, if you're writing a check, make it payable to David Hernandez Ministries. It's not going to me personally, it's going to the organization. And as I said, all this goes into the general fund. We just wanna keep doing these events. We just wanna keep doing these events. As you fill out that envelope, I'll just tell you a little bit how our ministry functions for accountability's sake. You're watching online too. These events for now, because I'm believing by faith, they will start to break even and bring in even a surplus. These events for now have yet to break even. Now, the ministry's not in trouble. We take a surplus from the media ministry. We take a surplus from the book sales and so forth. And that's how we can continue to hold these while still having a ministry that's very financially stable, very financially strong. In fact, the ministry to this day is still completely debt-free. Everything we do is operated out of wisdom and good stewardship. We have a great team who oversees the resources. But these events have yet to break even. And everyone keeps telling me, you have to charge. You have to charge. I said, no, God, if this is a test, Lord, I wanna pass it because we're gonna continue to not charge for these events. And even further, we covered the parking for the people here. We cover your parking. Why? You say, why do you do that? And this is as you're still filling out the envelope. Why do we do that? Because imagine that single mother who's bringing her daughter who is sick and they drive to this venue and they spent their last $20 on gas just getting to the service believing for a miracle. They heard it was free to enter and so they drive up hoping to get in. And then she finds out there's a $20 parking garage and it's the only place she can go. I wanna avoid that scenario at all costs and scenarios like it. We wanna remove all barriers between people and the word. And so I believe by faith we're gonna completely cover these events. I believe by faith that there will be generous people who say, we're gonna stand with you and just as you're giving out of faith, we're gonna give out of faith. Let me just check in on you. How many of you are still filling out the envelopes? Will you just raise your hand? Okay, just a few of you. So the way the ministry functions is very simple. We go around the world hosting these events and we function on free will offerings. This is where you give as the Lord leads you. There are people in this room who feel connected to what we're doing, who believe in what we're doing and you're the ones who support this and we thank you for that. And as I said, we gotta go larger and larger. The venues are only getting bigger and bigger and it's exciting but it's also gonna stretch all of us a little bit more. Some of you were with us. How many of you were with us when we were in the church just when we would do it at the Elevate Church? Just wave at me. You were at Elevate Church, okay? How many were with us when we then moved to the bigger building which was all the sanctuary, okay? And now the rest of you are here with us tonight. You're at the next chapter and one day I'm gonna be saying this is just the bottom section of the stadium and we're excited about that but we need your support. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pass the buckets around now and then I'm gonna pray after we pass the buckets the ushers have asked me to speak a little more and give them a little more time to pass these guys. Let's go ahead and pass the buckets. Just go ahead and put that down all the way. This way we can move on to the next portion of the service which I'm very excited about. Don't wait for a man to lay hands on you. Don't wait for a special moment per se. As we begin to worship in the next few minutes the presence and power of the Holy Ghost is gonna come on this room so strong that many of you will feel like electricity moving through your body. Others will feel like heat, some feel like a weight of God's presence. I'm not saying that to try to suggest it to you. I'm saying it to prepare you because we've literally had people run out of the building terrified not knowing what was coming on the room. The fear of God hit them. Before God Almighty, I'm not joking. They've run out of the room because of the fear of God that comes upon them. What we are about to experience is holy. And I'm believing tonight's your night for a miracle. You watching online as well. Thank you all for your giving. I'm gonna pray over that gift in just a moment once the buckets are passed. And I wanna pray with you online too, those of you who are giving. Jesus, we give you honor. Hey, I'm curious. How many of you are monthly partners? Would you just stand up if you're a monthly partner? Look around the room, guys. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your support. Now, Patrick, are we good on the buckets now? You still need a little, okay, they need a little more time, guys. Let all things be done decently and in order. And I think we're good. Next time, we'll have to figure out a different system for tomorrow. This, I don't wanna do this tomorrow. But I do appreciate all of you and your giving. I know I'm just as excited to get to the next portion, but the larger the crowd, the longer this takes. Jesus, we honor you. Let me pray over those of you who've given. Father, I thank you for each and every individual who's participating in the act of worship that is giving. And I pray, Lord, that you would cause them to come and to increase, such as they've never known. That they might continue to fund your gospel. Increase them, Lord. Increase them, I pray. We come against every attack of the enemy on their finances. We break the power of debt in Jesus' name. Father, even in the next few weeks, let them come into unexpected miracles in the areas of their finances. Lord, even this coming weekend, let them come into unexpected miracles in the area of their finances. In Jesus' name we pray.