 who's ready to praise the Lord here in the house of God come on we want to welcome each and every single person we're gonna give God all the glory man because he is due exactly that can somebody say amen hallelujah let's praise him let's sing all together here we go wandering into the night yeah a one in a place to hide this weary soul yeah this vagabond and i try we sing and i try with all my mind i just can't win the forcing all together and just when i am free yes i am free come on let's sing yeah lost another one i am free come on come on how many guys believe that our god is faithful we serve a faithful god amen it's in every season our god is unchanging amen he is never failing because our god he is a just god he is a good god amen so why don't we just lift up our hands and we're just gonna continue to give him all the glory hallelujah we give you the glory god he's unto you god all praise unto you to join the song long long before i to raise our voice uh and and earth uh your mercy we sing your mercy without end and our king could play be in throne we sing so be in throne and all through this life we sing and all through this life Jesus be Jesus be come on sing all together we sing and unto you the slave and lift our voice with ever singing where you deserve the glory come on every hand lifted in this place we sing you are worthy of it oh yes you are worthy night and day come on one last time we sing yes here i am to give you praise this is the reason why we get together is to co-operate lift up our voice lift our voices lift our praise and our worship to the king of kings who's worthy to receive it this morning listen it out say here i am to worship here i am to say that next 30 seconds lift your voice open up your lips open up your mouth and begin to thank him begin to worship him begin to honor him let it flow out of your heart let the praises let thanksgiving let worship come out of your heart right now for the king of kings to the one who saved you to the one who redeemed you to the one who healed you who set you free who delivered you he's worthy of your worship right now he is worthy of your praise right now in jesus' name come on for next 15 seconds begin to praise him begin to lift him up begin to worship him oh jesus we thank you for being good to us it is your goodness that keeps leading us back to you it's your grace that you've shown us god it's the mercy god that you show us every single day and even this morning your mercy is new over our lives god we're grateful we're thankful god we never want to take for granted god even the very breath that you've given us right now god we glorify your holy name together with all the believers around the world with angels and higher god we sing praises to you we give you worship and adoration that you are worthy of we are grateful god for being wonderful for being good to us in jesus' name we pray in church of god said amen let's put our hands together to a wonderful jesus in this place today is a wonderful time to be in the presence of god it's a good day to start the week but today is also a special day because today our very own pastor Vlad has his birthday well his birthday was yesterday but we're celebrating today so let's put our hands together for jesus for his life and let's celebrate pastor Vlad today you know in Ephesians chapter four verses eight bible says that when jesus ascended he led the captives and he said and bible says that he has given gifts unto men and then few verses down it begins to list the gifts that he has given us and it's apostle prophets evangelist teachers and it's pastors okay so the gift of jesus to you and i is this fivefold ministry which one of them is pastors and so this is why as a church we must honor those people that serve us those people that god has placed into our lives because they are a gift to you bible also says that pastors there are watchers over our soul to make sure that we live a godly life to make sure that we live a life that is worthy of a pursuit of jesus to make sure that our lives you know at at the end of the life we actually make it to heaven and so jesus has given us pastor Vlad he's given us pastor Lana he's given us to us as a church as a gift and in this first prayer before we pray for him i want you to come with this attitude before the lord and i want i want you to honor god and say tell god thank you for the gift thank you for pastor Vlad thank you for pastor Lana thank you for giving them patience because you all need a lot of patience you just don't know it thank you for giving them love and compassion thank you for putting them as a watchers over our soul thank you for giving them the anointing to serve a minister to us thank you that every week you're giving them the word that feeds our soul that corrects rebukes us that edifies and builds us they are a gift to this house they are a gift to you so before we pray for them i want us to honor god for giving them to us okay so just next 30 seconds a minute i don't know if you ever prayed this prayer before but you're gonna pray today i want you to say lord i thank you for pastor Vlad and Lana i thank you for their commitment i thank you for their devotion i thank you for giving them to me as a gift lord i value them as your gift i honor them as your gift right now open up your lips and begin to pray begin to pray father we thank you for pastor Vlad and Lana father we thank you for this gift that you've given to our church lord they are a gift we recognize that lord we thank you lord for their lives we thank you for their commitment to the gospel to the cause and to the mission father we thank you lord for their love and patience and kindness god over this house for this house lord we thank you god for the anointing that you placed in them god for the gift is that you placed in them god that they release to your body god here in this local body and the body worldwide god every week in and week out god we thank you for the commitment and their service god we thank you for their devotion god to you and to your cause and your mission and your purpose and what you've called them father we recognize this gift in our house we recognize god that you've blessed us with this special gift and first and foremost before we pray a blessing over their life father we want to honor you for this gift lord and we want to promise you god that we will honor this gift that you have given it to us in Jesus name we pray in Jesus name we pray right now I want us to stretch our hands toward pastor Vlad and Lana and in this prayer I want you to pray I want you to pray heavenly blessings over their life I want you to bless them with your best prayer with your best words that you can bless them just release that your words they matter your words have power right now send forth your word together with the spirit of god as he gives you the anointing to pray and let's bless our pastor let's honor them because the best thing you can do for them is pray for them cover them in your prayer the best thing you can do that the highest expression of love someone said is your prayer for that person so right now send a lot of love send a lot of prayer their way let's begin to bless them in Jesus name father we pray for pastor Vlad we pray for pastor Lana we pray god for their god for their life lord we pray god that you will bless them abundantly lord beyond and above god everything god they even desire or want lord father we pray lord for their health pray we pray god that they will be healthy and that they will be strong we pray god that their minds will be sharp lord the minds will be got focused on you lord and they will be able to have a clear lord ear to hear what you have to say lord that they will lead them and guide them father I pray lord for their finances I pray for covering over every part of their life of their other over their finances lord that enemy will have no access to their life lord we rebuke the devourer for your sake lord and may they be blessed beyond god that their wildest imagination god not so they will be blessed but they will become a blessing ever more in Jesus mighty name father we pray over their ministry god we pray for their lord for the anointing to increase over their life for their authority to increase over the life lord for the influence to increase over the life lord I pray god that the new measure of supernatural god will be released over them god that they will be able to serve you and the people even more because I know god that's their desire lord they don't desire things for themselves they desire things for your kingdom lord may you grant that desire of their heart lord lord may this year gonna be a year where they see more healings more deliverance may this year will be a year god where they equipped a body of Christ here and worldwide even more god may this year god they will see lord double the salvation that they've seen god in the previous years lord may this year will be the sweetest year that they ever had in the mighty name of Jesus lord we pray for them we bless them and their future generations to come in Jesus mighty name we pray in the church then amen amen come on let's honor pastor vlad and lana let's give him animal plus I encourage you church every day every day commit to praying for pastor vlad and lana even if it's 30 seconds let's cover them in prayer let's cover them by the blood of Jesus and the fire of the holy ghost and let let our prayers always be on our lips and our mouths for them in Jesus name amen all right now we pray now we're gonna sing happy birthday I know it wasn't planned but what kind of birthday celebration it is without actually singing a song I don't know if you guys want to help out no I'm not I quit this job long time ago let's say you guys took over all right anyways ready three two one happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear pastor vlad all right let's put our hands together I'm trying to include pastor lana in it but it's pastor vlad's birthday today in minutes anyways pastor vlad and lana we love you we bless you made the Lord prosper you and bless you with many many blessings from a pastoral team from leadership team we love you guys we appreciate you and the best is yet to come amen come on come on let's focus our eyes on the screen fortunately the church has become a destination but the church is supposed to be a gas station a gas station where you get fueled up your destination is your world your platform is your career it's not your destination destination is the holy spirit movie at your workplace at your family dinner this education calling requires anointing career gives you every retirement calling gives you eternal reward so many people want to know their specific calling I always tell them if you give your attention to your general calling your specific calling will manifest in God's time come on let's put our hands together for Jesus turn to your neighbor tell me at the right place at the right time God is in this place and he's gonna do something awesome for us this morning I just want to encourage you with the scripture that comes from Proverbs 11 25 and it says that a generous person somebody say a generous person will prosper those who refreshes others will be refreshed themselves how many guys know that generosity is not tied to possessions right and you guys met some poor people who are very giving and generous right yes and how many people met wealthy people that are just stingy as they get you know so this is show us it's not a possession that we acquire to become generous but it's an attitude of the heart the generosity is not tied to that generous person you guys met some that means that it's not tied to our possessions but the attitude of the heart so when we come before God it's the at the thankful heart says God I thank you for what you've done for my life I want to honor you with my finances with my provision whatever that you've given to my life I want to be a blessing to you amen in Luke 6 38 talks about give and it shall be given to you press down shaken together will be poured into your lap so that as we give we can never out give God in our lives because he'll always give you more back than we can ever do that to him amen church so I want to encourage you this morning to be a generous person be a person that is a blessing bible talks about says be fruitful then multiply so it's first become us of being that generous person before we acquire those possessions that many of us were looking for believe that God is our provider for all of our needs in Jesus mighty name amen there's many ways that we can give today and then some of those ways are behind my behind the back you can give through envelopes you can give through Venmo cash up whatever it is and as we give as we're given to this building project that we have going on believe that the ground that we're sowing into is a good ground amen thousands of people will be saved through this place he'll deliver pastors are going to be raised up this is a ministry that saves thousands locally and millions globally amen church and this is what we're given to I want you to take your phones your envelopes your money whatever you're going to give through right now let's begin to pray and ask God God I am a generous person God I thank you for what you've given me and I just bless you back I honor you back for what you've done for my life Lord we we thank you for this grace of giving Lord we thank you that you've given us the ability to do what we're doing right now some of us that that have jobs some of us who are stay home father some of us who have businesses some of us who are still studying who might be in school Lord we ask you that you bless the work of our heads Lord that in every era of our life like Joseph when they saw what he did they said God was with them Lord as he gave us he was father a prudent father and all the things that he did Lord that we reflect Christ's character through our giving through our walking through our talking in every area of our life in Jesus name Lord as we give bless the work of our hands in Jesus mighty name we pray and everybody said amen amen the baskets are going to come around as we watch a video in a world filled with distraction and chaos there is peace that's found in the presence we want to invite you for three transformative days of prayer and fasting Monday through Wednesday our prayer room is open at 5 a.m. on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday and on Wednesday we're going to close it off at 6 a.m. with corporate prayer whether you're a first-timer or a longtime member we encourage you to decide today to partner with God on this fast will you join us will you join us that's the question how many of you guys are excited to join this fast second sanctuary and those watching online how many of you guys are excited yes I hear it I believe it but it's more important to know that it's not something that we have to do but we get to do so many testimonies have came in from people outside of our local church that join us for fasting and their life starts to transform miracles start to take place so I encourage you guys to pray and believe that these next three days are going to be of life transforming for you who's excited for that amen and with that we're going to come into a testimony that we have here live with us so if y'all can help me welcome Brian to the stage Brian can you share with us what God did what God was doing in your life before you came to actually encounter him what was your life like growing up okay so I grew up in a split denomination home my parents were both Catholic growing up and my mom split from the Catholic church when I was about three years old and she joined the SDA church and so I grew up very much in church Saturdays Sabbath school Sunday Sunday school and growing up I had a pretty good foundation of what faith looked like and what church looked like but I did not have a relationship with the Lord and so throughout I was I was homeschooled from from kindergarten through sixth grade until middle school I had a group of friends for the first time that really started to influence my outlook on life and how I how I thought about the world and the through through them the the enemy started planting seeds of doubt of my identity and so you know people started questioned how I looked how I sounded like and those traits that they point out in me were more feminine they were masculine and so started to plant doubts of identity in my mind you know who am I who was I meant to be who am I now and started to feed lies of of homosexuality of sexual identity and through middle school and high school I started to question more and more who I was finally in 2015 in my senior year of high school the enemy got to me and he told me the lie that if I just come out to my friends my family that the depression the anxiety the the doubts that I had in my mind would go away and I believed it because you know we hear all these stories you know online and through my friends and stuff like that of that happening so that's what I did I came out to my whole class in a program called the every 15 minutes program in high school I was a part of a program where I was on stage in front of hundreds of people my parents were there they told me I had to write a letter basically in that scenario I was I was pronounced dead because of drum driving and we were reenacting this whole thing and I had to write a letter from my dead self back to my parents basically telling them goodbye and when I regretted life regrets all that stuff in that letter I came out to my parents and to my host in your class after that I had like maybe a couple weeks of peace and then all that doubt all that anxiety all that depression just came flooding back 10 times worse for the next couple years I suffered with that all while living that lifestyle in 2016 during that whole time I had a really good friend named Lena and she introduced me to hungry Jen she started to invite me to church eventually I gave in and I went to a youth service and that service just wrecked my world no idea I had no idea church looked like this I had no idea that people were so accepting I didn't know you know people were so loving and the community was was so thick here and the atmosphere when I walked into the sanctuary for the first time I felt the tangible presence of something that I later learned with the Holy Spirit and so I was I was wrecked from then on yeah let's give God a praise and then went a couple more times and then Lena invited me to my first race to deliver conference I had not given my life to the Lord yet during this time she invited me I missed the initial conference but there was a Monday night volunteer service that she snuck me into and Apostle John she was ministering at the time and we were in the very back row I came up because my friend was like hey let's let's go up together and so we did and that was the first time I experienced deliverance I fell to the floor back then we didn't have as many catchers as we did now I fell hard apparently but like everyone testifies later it's like falling on pillows because the Holy Spirit just has you and I felt tangible peace in my mind in my heart for the first time and I left that night totally wrecked so what's your life like now those doubts that anxiety that depression that confusion where are you at now I do not doubt in my mind who I am anymore the identity of a child of God has has been a part of me ever since I gave my life to the Lord in 2016 I got baptized December of 2016 here and from then on I have never dealt with depression or anxiety like I did yeah so totally delivered of that the you know temptations will still come right but I have this foundation in my relationship with the Lord and my identity in Christ is so rooted because of this community that when those doubts come when those temptations come I'm like no because this is so much better than what I was what I was experiencing so Brian now you've been delivered you've been set free from that tell us what are you doing at hungry Jen what are you involved with what are you a part of so right now I lead parking lot for the for the second service I am involved I was involved with media ministry for the longest time but now I'm also a part of young adult ministry I'm one of the leaders for young adult ministry along with KC and that has been an amazing experience if you're a young adult here come to young adult hangouts first Friday of the month every month get plugged in it's amazing and lastly Brian can you share with us a word of advice for someone who's in that situation where they think anxiety and depression it starts there but the enemy gets a hold of their identity what would you tell them what would you encourage them whenever you have doubts about who you are always seek to find truth and it God will place people in your life to point you to the truth which is Jesus Lena my friend was that catalyst in my life and God will always send people or something in your life to point you in the right direction when when you have a sense of what truth is follow it and it will eventually lead to him thank you so much Brian for sharing your testimony I just want to share two quick things with that it started as anxiety and depression and the enemy tries to come in and steal your identity but as he mentioned that the point number two is community without community with community you have to have that positive community the community that's hungry that's holy spirit led and just after God because his first community is what encouraged him for his identity crisis but once he finds hungry Jen when he finds that true identity the truth the light in the way his life was transformed so I encourage everyone here if you don't have a community if you don't have a life group get plugged in because that will make a huge difference and God will use that person that group in that community to change your life and I who believes that your life can be transformed amen I believe it so now if you guys all can please watch the screen for a video come every person that's visiting us today for the first time those of you in the second sanctuary and those of you can we give a round of applause to everybody on youtube on facebook first time guest let us know in the chat where you are watching from and don't forget to share this broadcast send this to somebody right now because I believe that today God's gonna rock their world in Jesus name amen you saw a beautiful recap of what happened last week of what happened with our vbs what happened with over 70 people that gave their life to Jesus in the park we love this so much we want to move the whole church to the park every Sunday how awesome would that be right and just get all of us rebaptized every weekend but it was just incredible incredible time I had the opportunity to be in New York and in Charlotte minister there our team right now Zach and Ivan our ministering also somewhere in the United States touching people's lives past the record is going to be gone this few days during this week ministering at the deliverance conference and then we start our crusade in the Philippines something that i'm asking for all of your prayers we're going to go to four different cities one of them is going to be manila it's one of the largest enclosed auditoriums and it will have 10 000 youth first day second 10 000 youth the second day third 10 000 youth the third day three days in a row and that's going to be another conference before that and two more conferences after that and it's all going to be packed in about five days and so ask the Holy Spirit so he can give me the strength and our team so that we can slay for Jesus amen amen so thank you for your prayers and that's why we're starting this week with fasting how many of you excited to get back to summer days are becoming a little bit shorter now the sunrise is five minutes later and now it's a good time to come back into that i want to invite all of us to practice that next three days it will be our deliverance prayer this coming saturday so our deliverance service we're believing for notable unusual crazy miracles we're believing for deliverances to begin to take place like we've never seen before and forgot to use our ministry use our church to use each and every one of us to bring a change in people's lives amen amen let's put our hands together for the Lord for everything that he is doing everything that he has done and everything that God is about to do in our ministry especially this coming week i'm going to conclude my series called breathing room today with a message that i will title the secret place first time that i talked it was about a few weeks ago and i talked about the spiritual parts of depression and anxiety and feeling like you don't have a breath with the message called spirit of python a spirit that i believe wants to squeeze the life out of us the second message that i preached about is about margin and that is that we all have to create and preserve spaciousness in our schedule in our heart and in our life because good things god things cannot flourish if we don't have margin in our life and today i'm going to finish it we're talking about the importance of having a secret place i heard the story about patemkin village it was named after gregory patemkin a russian nobleman he was supposed to colonize cremia but failed due to money problems in 1787 to impress the empress kathryn the great and to hide his failure he created a fake village with happy people farm animals along her tour route and once she passed the villagers were quickly moved further down for her to see them again making it look like it was prosperous and well populated actually today pumpkin patemkin pumpkin patemkin village is actually a churn that is used in the world to describe people who have a facade designed to hide their undesirable reality in other words patemkin village is a phrase anytime somebody pretends to be something they are not and with the rise of social media and the rise of us as humans trying to repair our reputation look better than we actually are have you ever seen people who have an amazing instagram photo and you met them and you're like you're lying and some of you maybe were dating or were maybe connecting with somebody on social media and then you went on a date you're like that's not you you know i had a license id photo what i had no beard every time i would go to the tri-city airport the the security will look at me they're like like second time third time and i was like sir this is me it's just not updated your reputation is like a photo but your character is your face we live in the generation today that portrays themselves one way but in reality is totally different it's like that rotten apple where we hide the rottenness away from people we hide the inner world away from people we hide it from social media we hide it from our family we hide it from our church and we try to portray and present the best part of us to the world and sometimes neglecting the inner world that we have when i was in the ukraine we had this thing you know we had relatives or family members or neighbors visiting the house regularly and we were five kids and so you know kids who ruled the house turned the house into let's just say it wasn't neat my mom she loves things to be very clean she's very very much into things being organized and all of that and so we would run the house like crazy everything is just turned upside down and sometimes mom would tell us you know neighbors or relatives are coming clean up the house and so and of course we wouldn't clean the house we would wait until she would say now and then when she says now this is when we cleaned the whole house in two minutes and how we cleaned that house is we took everything that you could see and hide it under a place as you can't so we put stuff under the beds we put stuff under the couches and so everything looked really clean really fast because we didn't actually clean it we hit it and so many times when people become christians there is a pressure gets your life cleaned up there is a pressure change your behavior and what typically happens anything that's quick doesn't actually we actually don't fix anything we hide stuff and we build a pretend version of us hiding the real us behind the parts nobody can see in the old testament there were two stories they were contrasted they were like intervined one of them was rehab and the other one was akon rehab was a prostitute living in jericho she faced immediate doom akon was a soldier who had a promising future rehab she saved her family and her life akon destroyed his family and his life and there was one thing that they did akon was hiding something from jericho and rehab was hiding someone from israel let me ask you a question what are you hiding because every person is hiding something every person is hiding someone and what you're hiding today will determine where you're going to be tomorrow you can fool your parents you can fool your pastor you can even try to fool yourself but there is one thing you cannot fool someone you cannot fool and that is god and god says what i see happens in private i will reward publicly which means if you want to change your public life down the years all you have to do is set up your private life in a way that it will create a result a harvest into your future but there is a drive in our generation and i'm guilty of this as well there's a pressure to impress men by making yourself appear one way instead of impress god by saying i'm going to be like rehab i cannot maybe change my past and my future but i can change what i'm hiding today and i'm going to hide me two spies one spy is the word of god and the other spy is prayer i'm gonna hide me righteousness i'm gonna hide me purity i'm gonna hide me being a good husband and being a good father and then down the road what you're hiding today will change who you will be tomorrow you want to change your character you want to change your future there is no quick fix quick fix what it lends you is in the place where all the bad gets hid not healed god doesn't want us to hide our trauma he wants to heal it god doesn't want us to hide our addiction he wants to remove it he doesn't want us to be presentable he wants us to be changed and that change takes time can somebody say amen those who've been a second sanctioned online drop that emoji say amen open with me right now to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 10 and it says the following that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of god so what i want to do today is take this verse and break this verse into three main components that i believe will help us to develop a secret place when i say a secret place i mean a time and a space in our life where we have a time with god when we spend time with jesus every christian either lives in a secret place or in the secret sin if we live in a secret place we will not live in a secret sin but if we live in a secret sin it's a matter of time we will have a public scandal a public demise where everyone will find out and our goal today is to live in such a way that somebody has to lie to convict you of crime because your life inside and outside is the same consistent and pure amen if you take notes and i encourage you to do so those of you watching us online and those of you who are here you can post some things that the lord is speaking to you share them with your friends on instagram more on facebook it's completely fine we are a church that believes in digital evangelism amen i'm not hearing back from you guys today you guys are you guys all right oh this came in already too heavy you're like whoo he's going after secrets already secrets secrets place amen the first thing i want to share with you is our walk is as important as our work i want you to notice what paul is saying here that you may walk worthy somebody say walk worthy those of you in the second sanctuary say walk worthy when i say to the second sanctuary you guys repeat the same they just help them out let's do it again those of you in the second sanctuary say walk worthy turn to your neighbor say walk worthy of jesus walk worthy this means that our walk and in the scripture when it speaks of walk it means our life is as important as our work i turned 37 yesterday and as i was meeting with some people the day before i mentioned something that when i was younger i wanted to be successful as being a preacher i wanted to be successful as a speaker i wanted to be successful as a pastor as i started to grow older and get closer to jesus i started to recognize that i want to be a better follower of jesus than i am a leader for jesus and secondly i want to be a better husband than i am a pastor because ultimately if i'm not a good follower of jesus and if i am better leader than i am a follower in the eyes of the world i'm successful in the eyes of jesus he wants me to walk worthy more than work for him better and same thing when it comes to relationships you know the world may see oh he's a pastor he's a speaker but at the same time ultimately the real human being the kind of a person i am isn't witnessed by likes follows or how many lives get impacted it's really how my wife is is she experiencing me not she's not experiencing me as a speaker she's she experienced me as a good husband because my walk is more important than my work how i live is more important than how i preach because ultimately my life is my greatest sermon but the same thing applies to you the same thing applies to every man and every woman in this room right now and those of you online is that your walk is as important as your work the bible clearly states we may walk worthy of jesus christ not worthy of our job not worthy of our calling but worthy of jesus christ this means that my identity doesn't come from my work it comes from my walk it comes from my worship it comes from who i am in jesus christ that's more important than my performance that's more important than my income that's more important than what people think of me who i am in jesus is more important than my grades my degree or my reputation in school in college or in the community who i am in jesus is more important i remember one time i went to be with the lord for about few days and and i really felt a holy spirit was impressing on my heart he says i want you to know vlad you're not a demon slayer you're a disciple and i kept writing that in my notebook for like a whole page i am a disciple that's my identity casting out demons is not my identity that's an assignment because for eternity i won't be casting out demons i would be jesus's disciple so your identity is something that will last for eternity your assignment will change when you die but your identity is the same and i want you never allow your assignment to hijack your identity never allow your success to become your identity because if success is your identity failure will be your demise but god wants us to walk worthy of jesus christ this simply means that who i am doesn't come from my appearance who i am does not come from my accomplishments accolades or my age it comes from jesus christ there are people who can't work there are people who are handicapped there are people who are crippled should their identity now be linked to their infirmity absolutely not they're as valuable should they be exterminated from this earth because they don't provide any value absolutely not because their identity doesn't come from their work it comes their worth comes from the fact they're made in an image and likeness of god even if for the rest of their life they cannot walk or lift anything with their hands and they're as valuable in the eyes of god as a ceo as a pastor or anybody else because walk worthy of the lord paul tells us this will free us from the pressure this will free us from the need to be driven by the culture if we live our life being anchored in who jesus is in us and who we are in him instead of what we're doing for him can somebody say amen paul tells us in Corinthians second Corinthians first Corinthians I apologize chapter 3 and verse 12 the following and he says now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold silver and precious stones wood hay and straw paul in this verse is talking about us building on things he says Christ is the foundation and then he breaks all of the material that christian build with christians build with into two categories I want you to watch this gold silver and precious stones is found underground wood hay and straw is found on the ground gold silver and precious stones are rare wood hay and straw are common gold silver and precious stones are expensive wood hay and straw is cheap in comparison to gold silver and precious stones gold silver and precious stones put them through the fire and they become more precious and more pure wood hay and straw put them through the fire and they get burned and paul is saying every christian is building something with something on jesus christ that means that when you're building your family when you're building your business when you're building your ministry when i'm building my career when i'm building my life on jesus I have an option to build with gold silver and precious stones or with wood hay and straw let me ask you a question the kind of life you're building the kind of material you're using today can it endure fire is it built out of your secret place or you're just building out of your gifts and skills connections and degrees and you constantly forsake your secret place now you're still doing stuff that's big and impressive and maybe even your account is full you're healthy and everything but you're not building your life out of a secret place and the reason why is because it costs a lot it takes time there is a cost that's involved in that and it's easier to simply say well I don't have time for the bible I don't have time for prayer I don't have time for fasting I am busy be I need to go and do stuff because I am in school I got kids I got so much stuff and so I'm still building my life on Jesus but building my life without him for him on him without him building my life for Jesus building my life on Jesus without Jesus with my education with my connections with my abilities and with my gifts which do come from Jesus and at the end the bible says God's fire is gonna go through everything we build what will come out of that this is not a message of condemnation this is a message of correction I want to invite you today to live your life your work should come out of your walk come on somebody are you with me that means that our public life should be rooted in our secret place as christians our worship is the root system for our work not the other way around amen and that's what paul tells us he wants us to build that kind of life with these kind of materials paul tells us the second thing is not only we should walk worthy of the Lord but I want you to notice the second thing is he says fully pleasing him come on those of you in here in the second century say this witness say fully I can't hear you fully pleasing him so not only who I am comes from Jesus and my walk is more important than my work but secondly I have to discover the win God decided the win God decided fully pleasing him one of the reasons we don't live out of our prayer we don't spend time with the Lord every single day is because our win hasn't been discovered we decided it we decided what win looks like for example in basketball the win is you have to score more points than the other team in football you have to carry the ball into the touchdown and get more points than the other team in life what is the win how do you know that you're winning how do you know that you're successful now the culture will give you a definition of win and that is this have a degree get married young or older get children get a house be successful have a retirement and make sure that you do better than your neighbors and if you have little issues with your daddy make sure you do something to prove your daddy he was wrong and you're right and if you access you'll never amount to anything make sure that what you do is to prove them they're wrong and you made it self-made man what is your definition of win because your definition of win will either drive you to a secret place where you discover what god decided as a win or it will drive you into success at the speed where you will run over your children your family your mental health and your physical health try health trying to reach to that win that the world has given you the bible says you can win the world and run over your soul because when the world decides your win you don't need a secret place you just need to run fast and be successful but paul tells us to be fully pleasing to jesus christians win the win for the christian is not to be successful is to be pleasing to jesus which means what is the pleasing to him how do i know if i'm pleasing to him there's only one way to know go to the secret place secret place becomes a necessity if your winning is defined by jesus being pleased if winning is not defined by jesus being pleased prayer will always be a burden prayer will always be like i don't have time for this man he just why do i need to do that but when your definition of winning is jesus being pleased you have to meet with your boss every time to get new directions for life you gotta meet with him to know is he being pleased am i doing all right how am i am i winning or am i not winning you have to meet with him regularly because he decided your win you simply are discovering it when i was on my vacation but before that me went with my wife i remember when the lord challenged me about something about this whole breathing room finding space margin in my life and in prayer i felt the holy spirit challenged me he says your definition of win doesn't line up with mine and i said lord you know what my win is you know what my definition of success is i want many people to meet jesus i want to reach the world and thirdly i want to maximize everything you place inside of me he said where do you find that definition in my life in the gospels he said i didn't reach the world i didn't travel very far i died at 33 but in john chapter 17 this is what jesus said john chapter 17 verse 4 and this is what i want us to catch because this is a conviction for me and i believe the lord wants it to be conviction for you i have glorified you on the earth i have finished the work you have given me to do how can you be at 33 not be married not have children not build a house retirement center or see grandchildren and say this i've finished the work you called me to do jesus knew the work he was called to do and he finished it that means your assignment is finishable your work on this earth is finishable god's work is not because it will continue when you and i die but if we begin to take on the work that is not from god but begin to say well these are my dreams as a child i always wanted to do that that's great but now your dreams have to go through sanctification process of god's will your dreams have to go through the garden of gethsemane we're not what i want but what he wants and there is a liberty in god deciding my win because it is finishable because god knows as a finite human being he gives me a small part to play in his plan on this earth i play that part and god says good and faithful servant come on in into the stuff and then i'm going to have a next generation take on from there it's not on you it's on me and you're playing a small part stay connected to me so you keep discovering whether you are pleasing to me or not amen john chapter 17 i want you to notice what he says i've glorified your name meaning i didn't live for my name i didn't live for my glory i didn't live for my potential and i remember when i prayed this prayer and this was recent this is fresh after oven and i said jesus i'm so sorry because i have lived my life trying to make the most impact on the world but from now on i'm going to live my life with one goal to be fully not partially fully pleasing to you and if one day i get locked up in jail for the cause of christ like so many christians do and i cannot write cannot preach cannot do anything and they cut my tongue out and i cannot do anything but in there is what i'm gonna be pleasing to you like john the baptist did couldn't minister anymore ministry tanked but jesus's view of john wasn't look at that failure his church shut down his view of john the greatest prophet that was born why because god doesn't measure by the standards of this society god decides my win i have to discover that win and stay close to him to stay true to that win then i need a secret place because i don't know if i'm winning or losing if i don't know god i said lord from now on my win is not going to be to pass to the largest church to have a biggest online presence but to please you now the fear but what if i do that and and god won't use me as much as if i would just try to work something that's on him jesus says my goal was to glorify your name and i did that i finished the work you gave me and then he says few verses down verse six he says and i've manifested your name to your disciples meaning i've raised some people as you called me i was in a small group i led a group i had a group of men or women that are disciple yeah they're not necessarily like Spartans so powerful violence you know powerful men but you know god i'll pass them on to you when i go you take care of them and then the spirit came and these little cathedrals all built are built in their name and they shook the world jesus glorified jesus finished the work and jesus raised other people what does your win look like you know that win cannot be found by your dreams don't consult your past your traumas or your desires you have to go to the secret place and say lord i want to please you hebrew chapter 12 and verse one it says the following since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us let us run somebody say run run with endurance the race that is set before us and i want to look at verse two looking unto jesus that means he decides my finish line i don't run so that i can compete with another brother another sister i don't run so i can win with my siblings or i can prove my dad that he was wrong and i was right i don't run in such a way that i could be a successful man i want to leave a legacy that that's not the point i run looking unto jesus the author of hebrew says why because my race i'm not trying to see am i running faster than you are you running ah you're 32 and you're not married when i was your age i already have five kids well you you're just going to college i already finished my masters what you're still trying to get into ministry look i already have ministry see my race is not your race i run the race said by god for me and i'm not looking over to see how far you are we're not competing i'm running looking unto jesus not looking unto you come on somebody amen and the third thing that i want to highlight in colossians chapter 1 verse 10 look at this verse again that you may walk worthy of the lord somebody say walk worthy somebody say fully pleasing so walk worthy meaning my life supposed to be greater than my work my identity in crisis in jesus secondly is that fully pleasing meaning i have to define my six redefine my success some of you this will change everything about your life if you simply do this one thing redefine what success looks like and align it with fully pleasing jesus instead of all of these other things and if your idea is like man but if i focus on that i'm just gonna not be good at this and that or you'll be surprised how much god's grace is gonna empower you to live your life in the way that pleases him and the last thing i want you to notice is it says in here being fruitful somebody say be fruitful in every good work let's practice this again say be fruitful in every good work this word fruitful in every good work so walk worthy be fully pleasing to jesus so what do i do with my work what do i do with my dreams my passions my business my uh my my company what i do with that how do i do that stuff do i just stop it and go and hide to be with god that's not what paul is saying he says in the area of a work i have to be now this is the word i would have used successful i would have used effective efficient um better than other people have enough to cover my bills paul uses this word he uses a gardening mixes gardening with the factory because work is i toil i grind fruitful only exists in the area of gardens a baby is the fruit of the womb which is the result of intimacy so anything that has life produces fruit and then work is just just you just working and paul's saying be fruitful in every good work point three abiding leads to abounding in other words paul is saying you are a human being not a human doing in other words strive to live like a human being not a machine we make machines but many of us live like machines machine derives its value from its work if my phone stops working i will not be carrying it with me every single place to give it love and affection if my phone stops working there are few things will happen to it either i'm gonna throw it somewhere or i will take a hammer and punish it but i will never be carrying it in my pocket the phone that's not working because it's worth is zero to me because it's worth it's connected to its work my phone doesn't have feelings my phone has to work all the time and if it doesn't i don't care about it's oh i'm overwhelmed excuse me there's no such a thing is overwhelmed you gotta work because machines they work all the time humans can't work all the time we have to sleep we have to eat we have blood if if phone needs power humans need blood they need air they need oxygen we are living beings and paul says be fruitful meaning you're a human being trying to do a human doing you're not a human doing trying to be a human being meaning be fruitful learn to abide because fruitfulness comes from abiding abiding leads to fruitfulness that means i must spend intimacy with god i must have a secret place because my good work whether it's my business whether it's my company whether it's making products or making service it has to flow out of my secret place when i spend time with this in the secret this is not like god saying oh i want you to spend all your time here and never do any work because i'm so envious when you leave this place and you go and work god isn't like that god is saying when you spend time with me i will begin to now cause fruit to flow out in the places of your work in the places of your school in the places where maybe it's hard for you to pass that test and god says there will be a grace that i will begin to sap that will flow through your branches and you will begin to be fruitful the world will call you successful the world will call you lucky by me and you know you're just fruitful why you're fruitful because you're abiding you have intimacy amen in the first and second century versus the third century there was this martyr versus monk christianity first two centuries the ideal model christian was the one who was dragged and killed by lions persecuted kicked out of work they honored these people in fact when christians became christians believers in jesus they knew their models like today we see these youtube pastors we see these famous authors we're like man that's that's the man of god we see these people who heal the sick cast out demons they're like man that that's i honor that in the first and second century your models were martyrs so those who died for jesus they were the model of what it's like to live for jesus in fact little people young people always saw their future one day to achieve that honor for the lord by dying for him after the second century the persecution subsided and what started to happen is christians were no longer than constant in came christians were no longer being murdered a shift took place and who is the model christian it started with a guy named abba arsenius he was well educated roman senatorial of senatorial rank he lived in the court of emperor theodosus he tutored his children and while he was still living in the place abba arsenius heard god's voice tell him this he actually know he prayed this to the lord he said lord lead me in the way of salvation and the voice came to him and said arsenius flee from the world and you will be saved having sailed secretly from rome to alexandria and having withdrawn into a quiet desert arsenius prayed again he said lord lead me in the way of salvation and again he heard the voice arsenius flee be silent pray always for these are the sources of sinlessness from third century onward there was a rise of what they call them desert fathers it started with arsenius who left into the desert and then the the most famous church father desert father was anthony the great and this is what they lived by this is what the wisdom of the desert was run into the secret place meaning run into the desert number two spend time in silence in number three pray solitude silence and prayer the reason why they were doing that wasn't because they wanted to just escape life it's that they wanted to reconnect with god and there was so much business and craziness around them many of these church fathers including one of them is anthony the great anthony the great was one of the first monks was born in 250 in the village of coma at the age of 20 he inherited a lot of money he gave all of his wealth and took a life of loneliness solitude in the tomb he had beasts attack him demons come and torment him and even had temptations in his mind he would overcome them and then lived a life there are books written supernatural things that they did how god used them to heal the sick and drive out demons and anthony the great lived to 105 years of age impacting christianity differently than the martyrs in part of the world today people die for jesus the world you live and i live in we have to embrace monastery and what i believe is this we have to live like monks in the marketplace in our marriage we have to not necessarily leave into the desert because in tri cities we are in the desert but we need to leave every single day for a short moment to be with our father so that we practice living out of our monastery if i could say there's an image here of a monk and a nun walking in the streets happy but they're living a different life each one of us god calls us into the desert god calls us to spend time with him every single day think of yourself as a spiritual monk who lives in the marketplace who runs a business leads your family but you have those moments in the secret with god moments of silence solitude and prayer moments of being in god's word moments of speaking in tongues moments of being renewed and refreshed and out of that place you serve if you're a mother think of yourself as a nun meaning you come and you're loyal to jesus you're in love with jesus you love jesus more than you love your husband and your children and you have those moments they could be 10 minutes 15 minutes 30 minutes or an hour you can reconnect and out of that place you leave you lead and you bless your family and somebody say amen you know why many of us don't live that life is because the Protestants when the Protestants came in Martin Luther actually was one of them one of the first things that Martin Luther did is actually make fun and destroy the idea of being a monk and he said those people they run away from the world which is true some of them went into the extreme he says we don't need that we're all saved by grace through faith we don't need that kind of lifestyle and i think the healthy balance is between both we need that lifestyle and we also need to live out of that lifestyle every single day because if we only live just by faith but we don't actually spend time with our father we don't experience that renewing and that replenishing we can't be fruitful in every good work we will become people who are not renewed and not living out of our secret place one person came to Martha mother Teresa and she said the following spend one hour a day in adoration of your Lord and never do anything you know is wrong and you will be all right in Matthew chapter 5 and i'm going to read last verse Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16 excuse me look chapter 5 and verse 16 so he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed Jesus didn't live his life in the wilderness he lived his life out of that wilderness wilderness is a dry place wilderness is an empty place wilderness is a quiet place Jesus his life was busy sometimes they didn't have time to eat and he would sneak in and go often into the wilderness and pray he would come back out of that place disciples would say we already have a meeting prepared and Jesus says no we're going to a different town because i got new new directions let me ask you a question have you found your wilderness do you have your desert maybe it's an empty place that's the place you need in the busy times in the noisy world we all need a silent place where we spend with God where our phones are turned off where notifications are not coming through and we have that moment like Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness so he can be fruitful in every good work if we don't have that three things will happen number one we'll be dying on the inside number two people around us will be starved and number three is we will grieve the Holy Spirit Paul says in Colossians 110 he says to be fruitful in every good work and to increase in the knowledge of God i've noticed when i am busy instead of fruitful i don't get to know God more as years go by i get to know more about God but i don't get to know him more intimately if i live my life without the secret place without this wilderness what begins to happen number one the outside world gets bigger than my inner world and sooner or later the outside is so heavy the inside is so empty and this is what we call the burnout experience disconnect and i trade the inner world for the illusion of momentum success exciting things happen praise god and then when all of that is done i'm empty because those things they have a way to them your inner world cannot be sustained by those things they can only be sustained by the presence of jesus and if there is no secret place your success will collapse on the emptiness of your soul you've seen what happens in tri cities when the winds are strong and the trees you drive next morning and you see these trees that have big branches and shallow roots and they're churned they're fallen and a small root system because the the branches were wide the roots were shallow it caves in if you wouldn't be a spirit to have a soul it would never work like that if you and i would be a machines who cares but because your spirit your inner world cannot be neglected without heavy repercussions the second thing if i don't spend time in a secret place if you and i don't spend time in a secret place we can be successful on the outside but we will not be a blessing to our families because we will come in and give them scraps leftovers because all of our best was given to business to success of course it's for them it's to provide for them and all these excuses that we make but ultimately and even when we are sitting at the dinner table our mind is not there was somewhere else always gone always busy because chasing this dream i need to prove something there is this wind that i have to achieve and running over your own children all the time running over your own spouse and then we reach to the top and realize we sacrifice at the altar of our success everyone else for whom we said we're doing this for and there's no one there to enjoy it with us it's better to go slower in a secret place and to have your family to have your children and to have your sanity have your mind and lastly the Holy Spirit who wants to be our friend he is grieved when we don't talk to him when we don't see him when we are constantly high by high by high by high by and Sunday morning high five but there is no connection this is not God is some lonely little person who just gets upset nobody talks to him not like that is that he's a loving father who wants a communion he wants exclusivity to you he wants you to be available to him exclusively and if there is no moments where you talk to him and you spend time with him that intimacy is broken and even if we are successful we achieve whatever that we're set on to achieve could we be in danger of arriving in a place where we say we cast out demons in your name heal the sick in your name build churches in your name finish degrees in your name did things in your name wrote books in your name we did all these things and Jesus will say but I don't know you we met we just never saw each other Martha Martha you're worried about many things but there's one thing that's needed and Mary has chosen that good thing if there's an ache in your soul saying you know what you're talking to me I want to invite you to a three-day fast tomorrow Tuesday and Wednesday you know what fasting is it's to stop everything and say Lord get me back Lord draw me and I will draw myself to you call me and I will follow I will come and seek your face maybe your path to a secret place has grown with weeds I'm going to ask you to clear that path and come to meet with your God he's been waiting there for you maybe you feel like you've committed sins that you're so guilty you've broken the promise to God you used to do that but you you walked away from that remember when Adam fell into sin Genesis 3 9 after that the Bible says God called to Adam and said Adam where are you find that interesting God didn't say Adam how could you do that Adam why did you do that means God was still waiting for Adam in the last place they met even though Adam made a mess Isaiah one it says come let us reason together and if your sins are like scarlet I'll make him as white as stone if you fall into secret sin and got into that habit maybe of the things you got delivered from the things you got healed of and you're afraid of shame to go back to the father and you're saying man he won't he will punish me he already did that a thousand years ago he's waiting to forgive you he's waiting to embrace you and he's waiting to restart you again renew you again the secret of your life and mine is our secret place it's our relationship with him he already did everything he built the bridge all we have to do is say yes and walk into that you may think prayer takes time it will save you time and I want to invite you I want you to fall in love with Jesus more than you love the church more than you love anything else about Christianity because the main attraction of Christianity is not it's coffee shop Sunday morning music or it's good-looking pastor Vlad the main idea of our church the one that we love the lover of our soul is Jesus how can you love someone you don't spend time with the first commandment is not thou shall go to church on Sunday morning the first commandment is thou shall love the Lord thy God the first commandment is not even thou shall read the bible every day no the thou shall love the Lord thy God meaning he wants relationship and he wants loving relationship this is not about some discipline this is not about you clocking in and clocking out God isn't keeping ours he just wants us and that's what the secret place is is it we are a spirit that have a soul that live in the body we live and grind and all of that and he says walk worthy of me and he says live your life with a different definition of win seek to please me and then he says be fruitful in every good work so you can increase in the knowledge of God many Christians go to church for many years and with time what they increase in is anxiety weight death but not the knowledge of God and I'm not talking about knowledge about God oh I learned something new today some of the things you shared were pretty cool that's not a knowledge of God that's the knowledge about God it's so that we can get to know God personally privately amen God isn't looking for more fans or even followers he's looking for friends he's looking for people that will spend time with him and get to know him on a close and intimate level amen I want you to rise to your feet those of you in the first and second sanctuary for those of you who say this word was for me I feel the Holy Spirit calling me back to the secret place I've abandoned that place I got too busy I got distracted but I want God to recalibrate me every head bowed and every eye closed if you're saying this is me I kind of lost the track of that I lost that connection and I want God to restore that to me right now I want you to raise your hand if you're saying hey this is for me today I need to come back to that secret place I need to come back to that secret place just tell that to the Lord right now say Lord restore me Lord renew me those of you in the second sanctuary I want you to just ask the Holy Spirit as you raise your hands right now and say Lord I surrender to you Lord I yield to you right now standing just get on your knees before God Mr Jesus I am sorry Jesus I'm coming back Jesus I'm returning I want to please you I want to walk worthy of you we get to pray to the Lord now that you will rekindle the love and the passion for Jesus like we've never known before I pray for a divine encounter even this week as we're going into prayer and fasting even this week as we're coming into morning prayer five or six a.m. for the next three days I pray that you'll reset us spiritually I pray that you'll rekindle us emotionally I pray for those that feel tired burned out want to throw down the towel and say I can't do this anymore I'm just too too too hard for those that maybe have fathers that have turned their hearts from their family and turned their hearts only to success and business and and things of this world or maybe those who fell out of the emptiness of their life got drawn to numbing mechanisms and medicating themselves with alcohol and pornography and others I pray right now that you would draw us to you God Spirit of God I pray that you will draw us to Jesus I pray that we will fall in love with Jesus again and again as though it happened just today I pray that the love that we had in the beginning that it will grow today that we will not be those people that it says that in the last days their love will grow cold I pray that hungry Jen will carry the mark of hunger for God passion for Jesus not just for miracles not just for deliverance not just for community and world impact but for Jesus I pray that our pastors and our leaders will be medley in love with Jesus I pray that our worship team I pray that our workers and our volunteers our members will be in love with Jesus live their life out of the desert out of the wilderness out of the secret place like Jesus did stamp our hearts with eternity stamp our hearts with passion for you God renew our life let business not be the mark of who we are but fruitfulness let us abide let us remain let your words remain in us in Jesus name every head bowed and every eye closed for those of you who've never fasted never prayed maybe and you're new to our church I want to invite you to prayerfully consider taking next three days bringing your bible here for morning prayer doors open at five all the way till about nine and just come or you can do that at home for those of you who felt like your passion for God was lost this would be a good moment to take few days too fast and if you can't do all three days just do one day stop and then do another day stop but if you can do all three days go for next 72 hours and just tell God one thing say Lord I just want more you more than food you more than food as we're preparing for the prayer line as we're preparing for what God's gonna do next weekend but most importantly we're preparing for what God wants to do in our heart today every head bowed and every eye closed if you're in the first or second sanctuary or watching us online and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior perhaps you backslid you walked away from Jesus forsaking your Christian faith and today you came to this service I want to give you an opportunity to get right with the Lord I want to give you an opportunity to repent of your sin place your trust in Jesus and to be saved if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you would like to come back to Jesus when I count to three I'm going to ask you to raise your hand that's going to be your way of saying I want to surrender my life to Jesus or I want to come back to Jesus one two three let's raise that hand high thank you thank you thank you in the second sanctuary as well just raise that hand high thank you see your head if you raised your hand I'm gonna ask you to do something bold in the first and the second sanctuary I'm gonna ask you to step out of your seat and come right here and meet me in the front just step out of your seat and just come and meet me in the front church can we give them a round of applause right now you take this just come God bless you God bless you God bless you come the second sanctuary as well just make your way forward if you're watching us online right now God bless you anybody else I saw few few more hands that were going up just make your way forward we're gonna pray with you right now if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ if you want to come back to Jesus just make your way forward right now we would love to pray for you if I can invite some life group leaders right now especially the youth life group leaders the life group leaders that are not scheduled to serve today just make your way forward we're gonna pray God bless you guys come come come just just look look at me right now just just come over here just face me yeah yeah we're gonna pray together right now amen the second sanctuary we're waiting for you just make your way forward there are pastors they're gonna meet you right now if you're watching us online you can drop that in the chat I want to be saved I want to give my life to Jesus are you coming too okay are you coming too okay God bless you bless you come we'd like more life group leaders to step in for those of you guys I want you to stretch your hands like this we're gonna pray together right now same thing with the second sanctuary say this out loud with me say Lord Jesus Christ I am a sinner I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for all my sin I repent of my sin wash me with your blood cleanse my heart fill me with the Holy Spirit I promise to follow you all the days of my life in Jesus name amen and right now we're gonna take you to the room and just pray for you just a little bit more and so just follow Danny right now Danny wave your hand church can we give them a round of applause in the second sanctuary just make your way forward to the center right now for those that were scheduled to serve today I want you to step in right now forward the pastoral team and the ministry team that was scheduled to serve today if you can step in right now to the altar and we're gonna start praying in just a moment if you are in this room and you came you need prayer for anything we have a team right now that's gonna be ready to pray for you all we ask you that you step into the center aisle when the service comes to an end and then just come up the Brian is gonna guide you say the same thing will happen in the second sanctuary and you will receive prayer