 Before we're gonna go into the word of God and just gonna draw a couple principles from the word of God I want us to remind us of our vision. Why we do what we do the testimonies that you just seen We play testimonies not just for the sake of testimonies We play for this we don't play only for the sake of you receiving faith and being encouraged Which this is a big part because you don't know You know Louisa's favorite line is that you don't know what to ask for unless you know what's available, right? You don't know to ask for healing if you don't know if it's available Unless you see that God can heal from all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of diseases that God can come through in any kind of Situation that God can save any kind of a person you will not have faith and Perseverance and hope to believe for your case or for the case of your relatives friends or people that you're praying for so Testimonies that we play to have a two-fold kind of a twofold Meaning or reason why we do it first is that so your faith can be built So when you encounter a hardship in your life when you encounter troubles in your life You have faith to believe that God has done it for that person God has done it for that person and that person at that Person he can do it for me. I'm no different and second reason why we play such a testimonies is So that we could have a clear vision and clear sight of where we're going and how we're gonna get there So that we concede a clearly what the vision of our church and what we're going for we are not just going for Just to have a regular church service just to do from 10 to 12 10 to whatever and Do our church mark and just leave We are striving we are believing we are going for For greater things and these are the things that we see these are the things that we're going for We are going for to see people getting healed every single service people being set free every single service people getting saved Every single service that in curable diseases every single service that we have will be healed Well, people will be set free from all kinds of nightmares all kinds of difficulties in their life And people will receive breakthrough and will live in the blessings of God that has that he has for us This is the reason why we watch such a testimony so that we can Align ourselves to the will of God so that we can just so that make sure that over time We don't lose our focus on our vision and that we strive to get where God has in store for us a man church the vision of our church Immediate vision of our church is to see a thousand people in our church is to see that on Sundays We have three or four different three four five different flows that our services will start on a nine eleven at one And then an evening service so that we see many people Many people saved in our church and I want us to keep that in mind I want us to keep that vision I want us to see that we will have right now as we have 20 30 home groups that we will get to the place in The new term that we're gonna have 300 home groups that it's not gonna be just one board barely filled But we're gonna have five or six boards that can be filled With leaders with strong men and women of faith people that have a vision people that have a fire people that have Compassion people that love God and love people. This is our vision church And this is where we're going and this vision requires you it requires your involvement It requires your dedication this vision does not work without you and me And so but a long-term vision a long-term vision says we're gonna see our church being tens of thousands of people We're gonna see we're gonna have a big great building and not only that going beyond ourselves This is not gonna be just a church, but this is a movement that we're working towards We will see many many pastors rise up in this place leaders rise up in this place worship leaders rise up in this place That I will go into different cities Different states even different countries open the churches and continue on the mission and the call of God that God has Not just for a church, but for all the churches and for the movement that God has in store for our lives amen I want to tell you that this vision requires you it requires your involvement It requires your passion your love for God and your love for people You have to understand that this vision is not for the sake of vision This vision is not for the sake of good news church and because pastor was silly and pastor Lord came up with such ambitious vision So we all have to get on board for it this vision is is there because This vision is big and great and this vision requires all of us because there is a demand for this vision It's not because we want to achieve fame and glory that all comes as a response to the call and to the vision Just like there is a demand for medicine and doctors This is it's a it's a given. It's inevitable demand that you can't just escape The world has a shortage of medicine and good doctors So there is a demand today in this world For people like you and me they can rise and answer the call of God to begin to mentor people begin to witness Begin to share the gospel begin to pray for people begin to cast out demons Begin to help people in their life in their situation. You have to understand that everything big Starts little don't be intimidated by the size of your home group Don't be intimidated by the size of our church Don't be intimidated by the size of your beginnings because every great Man and women of God started with small started in significant every great company in the world today that we see Started out of garage started out of the basement started small. Don't be afraid to start small You might have a great vision burning in your heart. You might have These dreams and visions and even that wishful thinking to become someone great, but you say how am I gonna achieve it? How how am I gonna get that? There is no way. I'm in nobody. I don't have the connections I can't do this that I don't have these certain skills You have to not be afraid of a big vision of great goals because Everything great everything big starts with little say everything big starts with little and so if we answer the call of God in our lives God will arrange our way for us to achieve the things that he has called us to achieve. Amen. I want us to look at four stages of personhood and We're gonna talk more a bit about you becoming a mentor you becoming a leader You taking a step to become an answer to this world to the demand that this world has first stage that we see in life is a stage of a baby One thing about baby a characteristic about babies a baby is completely dependent on its parents the baby is Completely dependent and needs to be taken care of There are people here and we were gonna discuss this four stages There are people here that are in these four categories There are people here that just barely got saved and they're really they're really babies in a Christian walk with God and their Relationship with God and they need to be taken care of they need spiritual parents They need spiritual guidance. They need to be spoon fed if I can say that They need to be guided and we need people God requires people God needs those people that will take on That responsibility of being a parents and taking a baby and maybe if you just came to church and you feel like oh man There's so much to learn so many things to do, you know, it gets intimidated You see people that know so much. Don't you worry about it? It's normal to start off as a baby. It would be weird if a person got you know of a child is born and starts running around that just Pray for deliverance so The point is that it's okay to start out the baby. It's okay to start out being needy It's okay to start out being dependent on somebody. So if you got saved here recently Last couple weeks a month or so You first thing that you need to do is you need to find spiritual parents meaning you need to find leaders You need to find mentors you need to get plugged in in the home group So that you can begin to grow in God you can begin to grow in character You begin to grow in your destiny that God has for you. Amen second stage is youth Youth we can characterize youth is that they're starting to take care of themselves But they still need to be watched over Youth sometimes they get rebellious. They're trying to discover who they are youth is a stage and a season in life Where character gets developed? So as you're gonna begin to grow in God Those those of us that home group leaders those of us are gonna become leaders We have to understand that as person gets stronger in Christ they go through school of leaders They get that our job as who as as home group leaders our job is mentors Is not to just abandon them after three or four months that they got saved and feel like oh They got it all together finally they got the basic doctrines of the Christianity You know they learn how to pray a little bit they learn how to read the Bible and just abandon them No, we need to be just like parents of the youth They they take on a little bit different role and they teach them how the teachers teenagers how to start taking care of themselves How to begin to be more independent and and they guide them they watch over them now They don't control every step of their way, but they guide them and watch over them This is a stage where their character begins developing and so maybe some of you on that stage where you feel like you know Your your your mistakes are being pointed out every single day every time you meet with your leader You know there's new thing that you got to work on be patient You have to go through this stage where your character is being developed This is stage of youth where you are growing they're growing pains involved Third stage is a stage where you become a man or become an adult This is stage is where you become independent When you become completely independent and you can begin to take care of yourself now a your your leader and your pastor Doesn't have to remind you. Hey make sure you read the Bible. He doesn't have to remind you. Hey make sure that you spend Make sure you spend time in prayer make sure you tithe make sure you Reach out to others you become a person that you are able to take care of yourself You are an independent person and you are a person that is able to provide for yourself and so I Want to speak to those people and I know we have quite a few those people that find themselves in this category You've been coming to church for six months or longer And you kind of game to the place or for most part you don't need to be reminded to read your Bible You don't need to be reminded to pray You don't need to be reminded to come to church. You kind of got those things down. You already somewhat independent you already on your own begin to pick up some different books you listen to different podcasts and You are able to take care of yourself and congratulations. You've gotten mature. You've gotten to this point There's more growth for you to do. This is not the last stage But I want to talk to those people and I want to encourage you and I want to challenge you to go to the next step Next step is fatherhood or father being a father This is a step when you're able to take care of yourself and not only that you are able to take care of others See all of us in life We grow up physically we Physically we go through these stages and So is physically so is spirits and mentally we also Must go through these stages and sometimes it's sad to see where person physically Gets to the stage of fatherhood But they're still acting like a child emotionally mentally There's they haven't grown they haven't gone through the stage where they matured when they allowed people to work on their character They have not even become a man where they can begin to take care of themselves and they become but they're already Physically they're already fathers and it's devastating people suffer family suffers kids suffer because Because of these things because a father plays more video games than the child himself Okay, that just shows that they that a person has not Develop hasn't gone through the stages and so these qualities don't really necessarily relate to our age Because a person can be in their youth in their teenagers, but they can already be mentoring somebody they could ready can be helping somebody to get To get stronger with God to challenge them So these don't necessarily relate to the age they relate to emotional mental and spiritual development and so Those of us that are have been in a church Coming to church or you've been Christian for some time and maybe you came from another church and and you know You feel like this is your home This is a place where you can be plugged in be involved I challenge you and I encourage you and I implore you is that let's begin to move from stage to stage Let's begin to come from a stage of youth into an adulthood into manhood Let's begin to if you're on that stage, let's not stop there. Let's go further Let's begin to help people to get to the place where they're at What where you're at? You know a lot of the biggest excuse people have Those that have been coming to church for some time for six months or a little bit longer And they already got a little bit established in their walk with God the biggest excuse people have is well I don't know as much as pastor Vlad as pastor was still I don't know as much as these leaders I don't have answers to everything. I don't feel like I'm qualified The thing is is that you don't have to be qualified and what is qualification really we constantly growing All you need to do is to be to help people to get to the level at least where you're at If God sets you free from drugs help other people share your testimony Help them to get to the place help them to guide them in the direction where where God can use you to help them to Be set free from drugs. God sets you free from certain addictions from low self-esteem God God healed you God helps you to abandon your bad friends a bad company and Now your life is progressing going and moving forward Help others to do that and as you help others to do that God will put people in your way. God will challenge you God will give you grace to grow up and to move on to the next stage in life a Lot of times people come To me and sometimes people that especially those that been in church for some time they come and say well I have been I feel like I'm stuck I feel like I can't pray. I feel like I can't read the Bible. There's no motivation. I can't Move forward and just feel like I'm just stuck in my relationship with God usually the answer is and And I begin to point out to them is that you stop serving you stop helping others to grow in Jesus You you lost the passion to help others to grow up and begin to Get to the place where you at and I challenge them to begin to serve once again to begin to find people That they can put a life into and next thing you know they're next thing You know that I hear the reports from them is that you know, they got their passion back They got their excitement for life back. They got their prayer life back They got their motivation to read the Bible to begin to you know Just just this life and fulfillment came in life It's because when we get stuck at the youth level or we get stuck in a place where we just became mature It's all about us. We will quickly begin to stagnate and regress. We're gonna get to Go backwards But if we're gonna go further if we're gonna go into the fatherhood stage when we begin to pour our lives out We will receive a deep satisfaction and God will help us in our lives. Amen The the references for scriptures, I'm just gonna put up on the screen and you guys can take a look at them at home It's John 17 from 6 to 19 our You don't have those okay, John so if you can write it down John 17 for verses 6 to 19 and first Samuel 1 21 through 22 so first scripture is a prayer of Jesus It's right before Jesus is gonna be crucified and be leave this earth Jesus is praying for his disciples and Jesus is saying to the father that I have kept all of them that you've gave me That I have done everything that I can I revealed my Revealed you to them. I've given what you've given me. I gave it to them. I Know all of us here that we want to be like Jesus. We want to mimic Jesus. We want to Be more like Jesus. This is the goal of Christianity really. This is the goal of us Christians is to be more like Jesus And here we see Jesus is about to leave this earth and he's praying to the father said father. I'm giving them back to you What you've given me He's saying that I've given that word that you've given me I'm giving it to them that I said everything that you told me to do I told them to do everything that you've given me. I'm giving them. I'm wondering today that Most of us are already and we're able we have things that God has given us Can we pray the same pray that Jesus prayed and said Jesus Everything that you've given me you given me a revelation. I shared it with somebody you given me a testimony. You healed me I I shared it with somebody you set me free. I shared it with somebody God I pray for this and this and this person because I've done all that I can I've shared the gospel with them Could you please take him and do what you can do now with them? This is the goal of us as a Christian every single day to be able to be able to come to God say God Yesterday I've done all that I can I've talked to this person. I've talked to that person I disciple this person I consolidated these people in my home group Could you now please do what I can't do? Could you please now touch them? Could you please lead them? Could you please change their lives? We must do what we have to do. You have to understand a discipleship and mentorship is not up to Jesus It's up to us Jesus said therefore go and make Disciples of all nation. He didn't say that go and I'll make the disciples and you take care of them. No, it's an opposite You go make the disciples and then like Jesus says God I've done everything you can here there for you Here are there for your service our job as Christians is to raise other people up to become a mentor become a leader Raise people up and then present them to Jesus say Jesus. I've done everything you can now Please use them for your service and then we see Jesus leaves disciples They kind of backslide a bit, but they kind of find their way back and now we are where we are at because Jesus poured into the 12 and now Christianity is the largest religion in the world don't underestimate small beginnings every person That you come in contact impact their life somebody said that When you come in contact with a person leave them better than you found them so In the scripture second scripture of Samuel is that when God when Hannah she was Bearing and she didn't have a child and she asked God God if you give me a child I'll dedicate it for you, but interesting thing is that first she and verse 21 and 22 First she raised the child to a certain age and then she gave it to God for the service When new believers come to church when new people get saved It's our responsibility to nurse them to raise them up to make them disciples and so that they can be of service to God It's our responsibility say it's my responsibility Say it's my responsibility to raise a disciple for Jesus Now for things for reasons why we should take on a role of mentorship Why we should be a leader? Why we should have a home group and why we should impact and pour our lives into people first reason Number one is that there is a great need for you. There is a demand for people Like you yes you the one that still has issues. Yes, you the one that still has Some mistakes that you're making. Yes, you the unperfect one the one that you feel like it's not qualified Jesus Sorry, not Jesus the world and Jesus has a need of you Matthew 937 says the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few It's not that There's not enough people to be saved. It's not that enough people there is not enough people to be impacted Jesus said it's ready. It's it's it's actually desperately asking wanting He said it's just not enough people that say yes, Lord here I am send me and go and do the job First reason why we must become mentors why we must become people that take on a fatherhood role and begin to mentor important To others is because this world is sick and dying This world is corrupt. There's sin abounds in this world There is pain and suffering and you have the answer. It's like a doctor that's sitting on HIV vaccine or on cancer vaccine and never Distributing and dying with it knowing that he has the answer to such a big epidemic and problem in the world Well, let me tell you cancer and HIV and all other and curable diseases have nothing Have nothing on the problem that people face on inside with their heart and their emotional issues and their eternity at stake No doctor physical doctor can fix a soul and they can't fix somebody's eternity But you and me carry The answer for eternity We can impact somebody's lives for eternity. It will depend some lives of people would depend on us Whether they're gonna be for eternity with God or eternity condemned without God It's our responsibility. It's my job and it's your job and God is looking for people like you and me to answer the call Reason number two is that we owe it to God Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1 from verse 14 and 16 he says that I am in debt To preach the gospel to Gentiles and to Jews Why Paul why do you say that you're in debt? It's because he realized That God saved him That without God he was nobody and that God by his mercy reached out and changed his life And he says how can I not? Do the same thing and return the favor what God did for me? Think about it. Somebody went out of their way to reach you Somebody went out of their way to pray for you. Somebody went out of their way to invite you to church Somebody went out of their way To bless you to speak a good word for you. It's your responsibility to return that favor It's your responsibility. God saved you by his grace. You owe it to God and you owe it to people. You're in debt to Priest the gospel number three Life is too short and eternity is way too long Bible says in Matthew 6 19 In 20 do not stir up the treasures on this earth because this treasure thieves can rob it more Moth can eat it Anything can happen with it But stir up treasures in heaven which nobody can steal from you. You have to understand regardless. It's all good It's all good that we are striving and reaching To achieve best things in life to live in a great house big house expensive house to have a nice car To have great things in life It's all good and God wants to help us with it It's all good to have really nice things to dress really nicely to have prestige in life to have influence and and and have Great influence in life. It's all those all of these things are great and God desires us to have those things He wants us to be on top and not the bottom. He wants us to be the head and not the tail He wants to he wants us to lend to the nations Not just hey, here's 20 bucks. You know give it to me later Lend to the nations and to never borrow It's God's desires for us to be in the top, but you have to understand we have to keep the main thing is the main thing We have to keep the perspective We have to understand that this life is way too short and this life is not even a dot on a scale on a line compares to eternity We have to understand is that when they bury us six feet under We can't take our family with us. We can't take our kids with us. We can't take our cars our homes We can't take our possessions. We can't take nothing with us only the things That we've done for christ and the things that we've done for people that will count at the end When we stand at the white throne of God, and we begin to receive our rewards What is god gonna say to us? Is he gonna say you're selfish and you're You're you you you concentrate it and you focus you are crying about these pitiful small things that don't even matter And you wasted your eternity And so many people could have been touched by you so many people could have been Could have been saved because of you so many people could have been impacted so many widows can be Comforted and helped so many orphans could have been fed and dressed if only you would have kept your focus on the main things Life is to short friends. Whatever we do in life Whatever try to achieve in life. We're all gonna leave you behind and we must focus on the main things and And our point number four It protects our life and attracts blessings to God Blessings of God and Psalm 41 one and two says this God blesses those who are kind to the poor and helpless He helps them out in their own troubles. He protects them and keeps them alive He publicly honors them and destroys the powers of their enemy a lot of people want to quote this promise for their life and And and and oh God's gonna help me to defeat my enemies God's gonna honor me God's gonna do all these great things But you have to understand a lot of the promises of God are only for those That answer is called Only for those that begin to put others Before themselves only for those that that say yes, lord I'm gonna be an answer to those that are dying to those that are struggling to those that are poor To those that don't have anything to eat. I'm gonna mean answer to those that are sick I'm gonna mean answers for those that are oppressed and possessed by demons This promise of great blessings of God is to those that answer the call I want to tell you is that every person that genuinely goes after God serves God and serves people Every person that genuinely cares and serves other people is never in shame Bible says I never have seen righteousness for sakin and his children begging for bread There is provision in the call of God. There's a provision and blessing protection And honor when we live for God and live for people When we begin to take care of God's business God's kingdom God begins to arrange our ways somehow somewhere just things come together, you know There was a there's a there's one man in the village. He wasn't He wasn't any, you know, he was just a simple man He was a farmer and but everybody knew him and everybody liked him because everywhere he go He would fix things. He would come to your house and he would swing the door Or in the house or um gate door and he would hear a squeak So he would come and oil it up and and make sure it doesn't squeak He would see something broken. He'd see a fence broken. He'd come and fix the fence He wouldn't even ask people for their permission. He would just he would be just a kind of a man going around Places and fixing things and doing what he can He was a very simple man didn't have much that he could offer but he offered whatever he could offer It was his skill at one moment in his life something happened that his house caught on fire and All his possessions and everything got burned And so that man was devastated But because he invested his life in the other people the whole village came together and they built him a house They bought all the things that was burned down And they restored him and he had bigger Bigger house better things new things in the house. They bought him a car And he was better off before than he was after why? Because he chose all his life. He was investing other people I want to tell you when you invest into people when you invest into the kingdom of god with your finances With your skill with your time with your effort with your smile with which is which is words of hope to others Whatever you so you shall reap god says god cannot be mocked You know, I remember the story of and I've shared that and I just kind of quickly mention the story of of my parents You know, um when we were in russia's missionaries My dad opened a rehab center for people because there's a big epidemic going on with drugs and all kinds of things Back there and we opened our home and we hosted those drug addicts as they were recovered. They stole from us They literally cleaned their house out multiple times Um and some people got set free some didn't some ran off. Uh, they were just using us But uh, you know revinding 15 years later We in our family we got a big devastation, you know, my my My brother david those of you that know his story. He got straight on drugs and he just you know, he went Completely south, you know, he to the point he started using drugs that he lost his mind He would talk to himself. He forgot how to write. He forgot how to tie his shoes I had to tie his shoes and one time when I was taking his to court and he couldn't even sign a paper On the in the court where he had to sign off because he completely forgot all these things drugs messed him up so bad You know, and it seemed like god, what is all this? God, what happened to all those things when we helped all these people god What happened what happened, you know, what happened to those? Prayers that we prayed for these drug addicts this time We took him in our house and we we fed them we clothed them and and they stole from us They robbed us and we still took care of them god What happened to all these times, you know, it seemed like almost seemed like all of those things were forgotten But it was not you know, god used the man completely that would never even think 14 years ago Some men from Africa that took on my brother david as his own son. He prayed for him. He mentored him He set him free by god's grace and returned him home a year later completely sane completely normal When people hear his stories, they don't even believe it because he doesn't even look anything like that person he was This is exactly the scripture comes who says that That what I just read from psalm that god blesses those who are kind to the poor and helpless He helps them out in their own troubles. See just because we're christians Just because we're righteous just because god is on our side That doesn't mean that we're not gonna face troubles But god promises us that every time we'll face troubles. He will rescue us. He'll rescue those that'll rescue others. I challenge you today Especially those that come to our church Step up to be a mentor step up to help somebody To give somebody a word of encouragement step up to to uh to change somebody's life pray for them This is the biggest thing you can do impact their life for eternity And I want to promise you one thing is that god will never leave you he'll arrange your life He'll bless your life and When you go to heaven, you're gonna have your hands full Of the things that you've done Unearthed for him for other people and presented to god said god. This is what I've done for you I lived for eternity. I didn't live just for temporary things. Amen