 I want to speak today on the message that I will title it a holy hangover. We will finish the series on anointing where we want to talk about what happens after great mount and top experiences. When people sometimes have great moments with God and then after those great moments with God they tend to hit these valleys or they tend to hit this emotional vacuum, emotional low from emotional high to emotional low. For those of us who have been in the world before or who have consumed alcohol and before you got saved or maybe even after you got saved and you still struggled with that you know that in the world they have this thing called the hangover. The hangover is the symptoms is when you get a headache next day you start throwing up you feel dizzy because you've consumed too much of alcohol. It means you had too much fun the night before and next morning you're trying to recover. Now excuse me if that is offensive to some of you to compare that to a spiritual terms but I do believe sometimes when we hit this emotional highs with God whether it happens on the service whether it happens on the conference or it happens at some kind of a retreat or it happens at the internship or maybe you get away for something and you experience this you fast for a week or fast for a few days and you experience this emotional highs and these things that you feel so great and you feel like this will never end. Many times every single person understands we have to come down from this kind of experience to a real normal, mundane life. Amen? When disciples went to the mountain with Jesus and the Bible says his face was transfigured and his clothes were shining and this is what Peter said say master can we build three tents here so that we can stay here? See it's always our desire when we hit an emotional high to say God I want to stay there. I believe the reason why many people are addicted to drugs is because our generation is not addicted to drugs but addicted to a high. And even when we get to church you know we experience the high we say that you know there's no high like the most high you know we feel the Holy Spirit we feel the presence of God but the Bible says a righteous man doesn't live by his high he lives by his faith and when Jesus' face stopped shining he still was powerful. I want you to know something even when the face of Jesus does not shine Jesus is still reliable. See when you experience a mountain top experience everything comes alive the word of God becomes alive Jesus becomes alive there is something special about Jesus now Jesus is always special but in our heart in our emotions many times it kind of seems like a main day in Jesus like an everyday Jesus but it's everyday Jesus that raised Lazarus from the dead it's his clothes when they were not shining that they healed a woman with an issue of blood it's this Jesus whose face wasn't shining he came and the demon possessed boy he rebuked the demon and the Bible says the boy was restored. Your everyday Jesus is very powerful and he doesn't need to shine to be great. Can somebody say amen? Can somebody say hallelujah? I want to encourage each person today to learn how to enjoy the highs and not to stay in the lows I want us to learn how to enjoy the mountain tops because the reality of life is this the paradox of life is this you experience seven years of plenty and seven years of famine and it's not a curse sometimes that's the reality you experience this thing where you got enough fire to wait for the bridegroom and he comes late because his wash probably was broken and you don't have enough fire because now you only had fire for him to come on time but one thing with God is that God is always on his time not ours that means you always have to have a stamina and have enough extra when God doesn't come on time when things don't go your way and when things when you don't emotionally feel good to still and life is a roller coaster you have to sometimes sit tight buckle up and enjoy the ride hallelujah Jesus is powerful even when he doesn't shine it's not just the Monday mornings that I'm referring to right now it's the seasons in life where we go from great highs to seems like great lows sometimes when we experience healings through us and then we experience just weeks where we cannot get one person healed saved and in that moment this is where the enemy works over time to try to wipe us out sometimes our spiritual batteries begin to kind of die out and today what I want to do is I want to just share with you three things that will really help from the scripture of how to get over a hangover a holy hangover I'm going to look at the prophet's life who I believe is one of the greatest prophet in the history of the world and of the Old Testament his name is Elijah Elijah had an experience Elijah was a brutal prophet a ruthless prophet he came to the one of the worst time that Israel has ever had Elijah came to a season where an Israel was ran by a witch who didn't worship God and who had prophets of Baal she literally had witch doctors and witches on the payroll of the government she had so many of them they brought the whole demonic demons ruled the Israel during her reign she was so powerful full of demons that prophets of God couldn't stand she killed prophets for living and Elijah decided to mess with her he saw the Israel was so numb to the witchcraft and to the so numb being desensitized by her spells that he wanted to wake her and wake them up and the way he woke them up he just simply opened his mouth and he said guys there will be no rain because I said it and then he asked God to help him find food so God had ravens deliver him some meat every morning and every evening and water and after three or something years or after some time that the brook dries up ravens died probably God sends him to the widow and Elijah survives through the widow and Elijah literally put himself in this situation to wake people up and then God tells Elijah I want you to go show yourself to Ahab and I will send the rain I want you to see something God does not tell Elijah to do a showdown on Mount Carmel God says just show up and I'll bring the rain Elijah doesn't want to just show up Elijah comes to Ahab and he said listen bring all of the witch doctors on this mountain and we're going to do a contest God didn't ask him to do a contest but see when you're on fire for God you go beyond what God asks you to do you're like Jesus I want to glorify your name at whatever cost it takes now you have to understand a witch doctor would have never agreed to gather in front of a country that already accepts them to prove themselves unworthy of the challenge that means these guys and historically it's proven have had success in bringing fire from heaven on whatever object they wanted to see they wouldn't meet with Elijah if they had no experience in this the first miracle happens with Elijah is when he neutralized their power they lost the reception with the demonic kingdom and they were cutting themselves the Bible says dancing and prophesying but there was no one who answered why because Elijah neutralized their frequency and they couldn't bring the fire and Elijah the Bible says that he pours water on the altar and something great happens God's fire comes and doesn't just show it consumes even water and everything and everyone gets underneath and says the Lord is God the Lord is God Elijah uses the momentum takes the soldiers takes all the witch doctors and kills them talk about revival Ahab stands there says well new God came into town let's follow new God Elijah tells Ahab get on your chariot go and there's gonna be rain now remember God says he'll send the rain there is still no rain Elijah goes on the mountain prays for seven times God sends a cloud the rain begins to come and it seems like finally I have had a breakthrough there was one person one person who rained on Elijah's parade have you had everything go great and one comment or one person one thing at a job just one thing and that one thing starts a domino effect of everything starts going wrong okay never happens to us maybe we're not anointed as Elijah but it happens to every one of us the Bible says the next day he gets an email from Jezebel and Jezebel says and she delivered it probably through post office or UPS certified signed this says this in one day I will kill you now if Jezebel really wanted to kill him she wouldn't send a messenger out of sending an assassin she's good at killing we know that her resume is full of people as she killed but she wasn't interested in killing Elijah she wanted to scare Elijah and she did it so good because you see a guy who literally could close heaven stand against hundreds of witch doctors and bring fire down raise the dead a guy that people were scared of a guy who Holy Spirit could take in one place and secretly placed into another place and nobody will know where he's at a guy who had ravens ravens don't even give food to their children and they shared their food with him a guy who walked in such a great power got scared because of a message now she didn't punch him she didn't hit him she didn't inject him she only send him a message to kill him and the bible says he started to run he became so discouraged that the scripture says he did not want to live the revival was quickly forgotten the fire was forgotten the ravens the brook everything was forgotten and Elijah prays this prayer he says Lord take my life I'm done I don't want to do anything I'm tired of this people are never gonna change no matter how many miracles we bring they still do their thing it's never enough everybody's dead I'm alone I am done and Elijah has a hangover he's sick he's emotionally destroyed and he literally already has a headache from all of this that's been happening and I want you to see three things Elijah that could help us when we have an emotional hangover first of all is Elijah goes to God and I would say that it's a presence of God Elijah goes to God he runs to the mountain where God met Moses he runs to the mountain where God met Israel before the first thing we all must do is we have to go to God if you can't go to God drag yourself to God if you can't drag yourself to God crawl to God if you can't crawl to God find four friends that can bring you to God but don't stay where you staying the problem the problem happens with us is this is that we stay in the place where we got the bad message or the bad news we cook it we just review it and what Elijah started to do he I think walked 120 miles and then he left his servant and walked for 200 miles to get to the mountain where God was one of the things that I personally like to do is when things when I feel like a bottom fall some under my foot and just emotionally I am not with what I'm at I go to two places mentally God visited me and I felt like God met me personally and revealed himself to me it happened upstairs in the office at 12 during a Wednesday when I was in high school I was fasting and skipped that day and I went to fast upstairs I go literally to the place and I stand there and I say God I feel like you left me but last time we were here and you called me in this place the second place that I like to go is to the Winko parking lot where I felt like God gave me a vision for the ministry I stuck my car there and I said God I felt like you called that 16 year old boy and I am that boy today sitting here and saying God if you brought me to this I believe you'll bring me through it but I need your help something happens emotionally when you go back to the place where you got saved when you go back to the place where you met God you recharge your energies and your memories begin to just be stimulated with those feelings not with the feelings of discouragement but the feelings where you met God and begin to feel God because somebody say amen one of the reasons we have to go to God is because the devil will use our success to lower our identity to the level of our success if he succeeds in lowering your identity to the level of your success now at first nothing wrong with that you feel great when you begin to look at yourself and you look at your business family you look at your kids and you see you know what they are doing great and you look at yourself and you see you know what everything is good but it's a trap because the second step is this he will use a mistake a failure a problem put a magnifying glass on it and says that is who you are if he can get you to get the good things to define you it's only a trap on this path where he will use the bad things to refine you he will put a magnifying glass on the small little word from a witch and say listen this is who you are and then everything good that God did begins to lose its appeal why? because who you are comes from whose you are not what you've done and not what you have accomplished somebody say amen somebody give God a shout of praise you belong to the Holy Spirit you are washed by the blood of God Holy Spirit lives in you can somebody say amen I am who God says I am good things in life don't make me who I am the love of God makes me who I am I want you to remember this for the rest of your life you are always greater than your greatest success because you were worth dying for you were worth sending angels to be your bodyguards you were worth Holy Spirit not taking residence in the royal palace in England but royal palace inside of your body you have a citizenship in heaven you might not have an American passport but you have the greatest passports of all passports you have a passport that will pass through eternity the passport of heaven you have your name written in the Lamb's book of life when you allow success to determine who you are the devil got you on the trap and because of what happened at Carmel Elijah felt great but see that is a trap the compliments of people if they go into your head the criticism of people will go straight into your heart at first your head gets swollen and then your heart gets broken because it's the devil's trap your identity is not linked to what people say about you even to what circumstances say about you maybe your family fell apart maybe your health is falling apart that is not who you are you are a spirit you are loved by God and your relationship with God is not just for what God can do through you your relationship with God is because God is madly in love with you and that's why when things fall apart we go back to God and say God this is all I have I have you you are my everything God you loved me when I had ministry and you loved me in my mother's womb when I was the most defenseless being on this earth you loved me and you called me before any of my days were on this earth and God you are my source I build my house on the rock not on a sinking sand my friends when things get tough when things get rough or when things get good don't let them define who you are compliments from people are like a gum you chew it and you spit it away what God says about you is a bread it feeds you when John the Baptist had the greatest revival the Bible says and I know it's a general statement the whole Judea came to John the Baptist people were getting saved Romans were getting saved people were getting baptized he was on the peak he was on the time magazine like in our days this guy had the most followers he was the top dog of that day God just moving Jesus got baptized in John the Baptist this is how great it was and at the peak of that they came to him and said John who are you are you Christ? he said no are you Elijah? no are you one of the prophets? no are you a successful preacher? no who are you? he said I am prophet Isaiah said I am means he said I am not defined by the crowds that I attract I am defined by what God says many many many years ago about me in few months John the Baptist went from powerful preacher to the powerful prisoner and start going through his emotional withdrawals and Jesus said this about John he says you know that John is still the greatest prophet ever born to a woman up to now why? because when you anchor who you are in Christ whether you are on the top or on the bottom you remain in Christ Herod can take your hair off but he cannot take your identity he can take away your ministry but he cannot take the grace and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit body first wife can blackmail you and she can destroy your resume and your reputation but she cannot take the presence of the Holy Spirit from your life the Holy Spirit can tarnish your reputation but they cannot tarnish your love and God's love for you can somebody say amen can somebody say hallelujah can we take a moment and give God praise for always being with us for always being on our side for never abandoning us for never siding with our critics come on somebody give God a shout of praise hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus we take our seats hallelujah when things go down we go to God and we remind ourselves who we are is in God period you can write this in your notes is that the noise of the world gets silenced in the whispers of God the power of God stirs you the presence of God stills you the power of God changes our actions the presence of God changes our hearts the power of God it changes what we do but the presence of God causes us to be and many of us when we live only in the power of God instead of the presence of God we live on this high but it's the whispers of God when they come they neutralize everything that people say they neutralize what the circumstances say maybe people are talking about you all of that literally loses its appeal why because you feel the small still voice of God that says I love you it says whatever you've been through you don't have to explain it you just trust me because I got you in the palm of my hand and that will keep you and get you through can somebody say amen it got through Elijah and it will get you through as well in Jesus name the second thing that happened to Elisha and this is going to go through this very quick is that Elisha God physically strengthened Elisha and the second thing that needs to happen and this might seem very shocking to some people here health I want us to read this verse and it says the following chapter 19 verse 5 not only Elijah was in a spiritual battle he was also in a physical fatigue it puzzles me that God's angel did not give him a scripture but some burritos some tacos little soda probably sanctified and tell him go back to sleep and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights he told him go back to sleep Elijah slept it off woke up he gave him some more food and drink and told him go back to sleep sometimes the best thing you can do on your worst day is take a nap I want you some of us say this is demons we are dealing what are you talking about Jesus on the worst time when he was in a boat he had thousands of demons and the bible says disciples were all night working working working worked up and Jesus slept because he had so much peace that he could sleep in the storm he was the only one able to stop the storm because you can only give what you have you can't speak peace if it's inside of your storm and one of the best ways you find peace is if you take a nap if Jesus took a nap so should you this topic is very interesting to me so please hang in just for a minute I'm going to tell you about famous nappers President John F. Kennedy ate his lunch in bed and then settled in for a nap every day oil industries that John Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office the richest man in America who was gone already Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps less at night French Emperor Napoleon was not shy about taking his naps he indulged in them daily Thomas Edison was very embarrassed to admit he took he took naps but he practiced this ritual daily Winston Churchill afternoon nap was non-negotiable he believed it helped him to get twice as much done each day President Ronald Reagan famously took naps as well and was criticized for it quickly I want you to write down what will happen if you take this spiritual exercise one it will restore your alertness and National Sleep Foundation recommends a short nap of 20 to 30 minutes for improved alertness and performance without leaving you feeling drogy or interfering with the night time sleep nap prevents burnout taking a nap is like a system reboot it relieves stress and gives you a fresh start a nap heightens your sensory reception according to Sandra in author of take a nap and change your life napping can restore a sensitivity of sight hearing and taste napping can improve your creativity by relaxing your mind and allowing new associations to form in it a nap reduces a risk of heart disease listen to this very carefully did you know that those who take a midday nap at least three times a week are 37% less likely to die of a heart disease working men are 64% less likely if they take a nap it's true according to 2007 study published in archives of internal medicine a guy from hardware school he said who let us study he said taking a nap can turn out to be the most important weapon in fight against mortality and last one is the nap makes you more productive I want you to see something here you may just skip through this but Elisha wasn't suicidal just because as Jezebel was on his case he hasn't been sleeping well he hasn't been eating well and physically no matter how spiritual you are remember this you can only go spiritually as far as your physical body will take you your physical body has more effect on your emotions than even your spiritual life if your physical body is constantly ignored you drink coffee at night watch stuff at night you get a little bit of sleep you don't discipline yourself you don't exercise you don't drink water next thing that happens is that you can rebuke Jezebel until you lose your voice but you need to learn how to do what Angel gave Elisha you need to learn to take naps some of us need to sleep less and take more naps and we feel more alert we feel more alive and we feel better we have a day to begin with coffee in the beginning the bible says a day begun with a night that means a rest is what begins your day not coffee if you don't get a good rest a coffee cannot replace that coffee can substitute for a little bit but at the end of the day if your life is constantly ignoring and damaging your physical body you will pay for it spiritually the spiritual fight will feel more stronger and more natural I practice this a lot when I feel that just for two hours or an hour and a half we're praying here and I'm just praying and I cannot break through there were times I just go upstairs for 20 minutes set up my clock knock out I wake up and literally I feel like God came into the room you feel so much better you feel so much stronger you go back into prayer and then in five minutes you just feel completely different and there is nothing wrong with that emotions can somebody say amen and I want you to write down the last thing is that Elisha received three new assignments or purpose for his life not only Elisha he got physically restored because he took a nap twice and he ate angels food but Elisha heard God God encouraged him God strengthened him and we see that after God strengthened him God gives Elisha what I love about our God he never rebuked Elisha for being discouraged if I would have been God I would say pull yourself together boy you just brought fire you just had people bow to the name of God you are such a great prophet why are you crying over here stop this self pity party get yourself together get out of here go do something more for Jesus but God gently comforts him and says Elisha I want you guys to see this you've been focused on the nation and that's good you have a global vision good but you don't have a legacy because you didn't raise a generation and God gives him instructions and I want you to see this very carefully God does not tell Elisha to have crusades or even miracles God tells him to anoint three ordinary guys instead of him Jehu and one more guy and if you study Bible you find out that Elisha only did one assignment he only raised Elisha he didn't even anoint Jehu and didn't even take care of the other guy but because he anointed Elisha raised one guy see he did crusades all his life he went against the kings he was trying to change the revolution in a country but God says Elisha you have to have a global vision and you've done it great you have a global local strategy and the local strategy is you have to raise next generation so now stop with the crusades raise one man so when you die your work can continue and it so happens that the guy he raised was so much more powerful than Elisha and the guy that he raised Jehu took care of the Jezebel and ended the dynasty of witchcraft it's not just global vision which we have to have it's a local strategy write this down we think global but we act local if we act local without thinking global we get discouraged but if we think global and we don't do anything local we will also hit a road block I love what Andy Stanley said your greatest impact in the world may not be the impact you make on the world but who you raise the greatest contribution to the kingdom of God may not be something you do but someone you raise I love this about our church because I believe that our church beautifully exemplifies this because not only we have a vision for the nations we have a vision for the world but our pastor knows that this vision is not something we pray about we have to practically begin to position young people and begin to be a local strategy for that vision to come to past and we are thankful for that can somebody say amen and in this message I just want to take a moment and honor our pastor and thank him for that not just the vision they are giving to us but also giving us that local strategy of using us of raising us up giving us that vision locally for us to be those elishas who will continue that vision let's honor our pastor for that and I want to bless him as well thank you so much for that thank you and your wife thank you amen church we may take our seats I want you to see right now this is not just about what we do globally but it's also what we do locally if you want your spiritual life to go to another level you don't need to do less you need to be more focused in what you are doing stop doing something can get you into depression you were not created to do nothing you were just created to do one thing and for Elijah it was to raise Elisha right now as we are coming to a time this is my motto this is my kind of thesis how I live I want to do for one what I would wish to do for everyone Jesus impacted masses but he discipled only few Jesus impacted the world but he only discipled few people we will as a church we will pray for masses we will see million people come to know the Lord and everything but at the same time the way we make the most impact is at the same time we have to be the people who will take few people under our wing and begin to pour into them and then our spiritual life begins to reboot again reboot again can somebody say amen the vision that we are coming to this message is very practical when the summer ends we want to take a moment and we want to release 70 host groups what is host groups host groups is when average people who come to church businessmen stay home moms people who maybe work in the gym work in the coffee shop whatever your position in the community is that you begin to bring people to your house who you typically go and hang out with you don't bring them to church maybe because you already invited them they don't want to come to church and it's fine you bring them to your house we play this alpha course there and you create that fellowship for just two and a half months and in those two and a half months you believe for the most impact you don't have to mentor them you just simply there to facilitate the conversation you don't have to be a member of our church to do it it can be men and women it could be just men or just women it could be in Spanish it could be in English and you don't have to do it all your long it's just two and a half months we cannot pray for a vision globally without doing something locally and I'm praying for that today we've been praying for over the last two months for God to begin to raise up people in our church you can do it in other cities you don't have to be in tri-cities to do that you can do it over Skype you can do it over internet it's about becoming a host this coming fall you may say me I came for the first time in church today you yes me but I am not even saved just a few minutes I'll give you that opportunity me but I don't know much about Bible you don't have to know much you just really have to have a place where you can bring four to five people and next month each service will give you little tips on how you can do that every person should do that in our church and next two months in those months from September till Thanksgiving we're gonna see the greatest harvest of souls being impacted through this vision guys I believe in this so much that you know it was my birthday yesterday and during birthday I received gifts and I'm thankful to God for wonderful generous people who bless me but last week in the beginning of last week I felt in my heart that because of this vision that we have for the fall our internship is doing so good people are being impacted right now through social media through different venues, power evangelism but I don't want this to stop when fall hits when the fall comes I want this to go to another level and the Lord kind of placed on my heart and he said Vlad I want you this week on your birthday to do something that you haven't done before my goal each year is to give one car away and I've done that this year we emptied me and my wife, we emptied the accounts and just blessed a wonderful person from our church with the car and stuff so and the Lord said you know what place I felt just in my heart for this vision I want you on your birthday give another car away as I got well if you give me the money I'll get you the car and I gave that decision I said Lord I'm gonna do that the first time God provided for someone he wasn't provided for his bills he provided for his sacrifice you know and God blessed me with yesterday and today I'm gonna bless one person with a car in the church partially because I've been praying for this and I've noticed this person faithfully who came to our church God delivered this person and this person now is working it's part of our internship and this person is currently going through some things they got a job they have a license but if you have a license you need the car correct it's our dream to have every person in our church own the car and own the home Amen this is not for the show I don't do this stuff for the show it's before God and secondly because it's my birthday I have the right to bend the rules just a little bit because typically we don't allow people personally to give to people but I hold the microphone so today I'm gonna make the inception and so and Ella we're gonna bless you with the car bless you welcome to tri cities welcome to hungry generation unfortunately we can't do that to everyone we will one day when everybody else starts picking up on this habit of giving more on their birthdays than just receiving but we'll get to that but I believe guys in the fall as even I took this sacrifice I believe that you will take a step of faith and simply say lord use me in this fall to impact few people around me for two months I'm not asking for three years I'm not asking for a lifetime commitment I'm asking for a second week of September until Thanksgiving that you just give God a shot and say lord it's awesome what you're doing through power of evangelism but God you can use me you can use me