 You live something, you breathe, and something that impacts people's lives. And that's my desire today to do in this place, to share something from the heart, preferably from the heart of God, and something that will help us to live closer to Jesus and fulfill our destiny in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your Bible, let's go to Matthew chapter 21. And it's a famous story that you probably have read many times. You might have not seen it in this light as you're going to see it today. Matthew chapter 21. And you can put up my little graphics of who I am, I guess. If you are posting on social media, you can hashtag VladHungryGen. I have Twitter, Instagram, except Snapchat, because I'm too old for that and stuff. But I have all of that stuff. And if you have one of those social media links, you can follow me. And we can be hashtag friends. In Jesus' name. Matthew 21. And I am going to actually read the story of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. And I want you to read it and pay very close attention, because every place where you see word donkey, and maybe you're reading a King James version, you're not going to see word donkey, you're going to see word ass. Switch from King James in Jesus' name to new King James, because it's just the harder. But in a place of donkey, I want you to see yourself and we're going to see how this applies to our life. And I believe the Holy Spirit is going to speak to us today in Jesus' name. Matthew 21 verse 1. Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to bephige at the mound of olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a cold with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them and immediately he will send them. And this was done that he might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, a lowly and sitting on the donkey, a cold and a fall of a donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the cold and laid their clothes on them and he and set him Jesus on them. And a very large multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who follow cried out, saying, Hosanna to the donkey. Blessed is the donkey that comes in the name of Jesus. That's not what your Bible says, correct? I'm just following if you're reading or not. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying who is this? This is our goal, amen. That our city will be moved, saying not who you are, but who is this? Jesus, amen. Does anybody agree with that? Anybody wants that for Charlotte? Anybody wants that for your city? That the city will be moved, saying who is this? And verse 11. So the multitudes said, so it's not just one person that said this, means the whole city now knew that this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. To get to verse 10 and verse 11, which is what we pray for, it's our desire, it's the will of God that verse 10 and verse 11 happens in every city, that revival comes to every school, that revival comes to every family, that revival comes to every region, that people will ask not who won NBA championship yesterday, which was pretty obvious it was going to be gold estate, that people will ask who is this? And the multitude will respond, this is Jesus, the son of the living God. Come on somebody, amen. This is our passion, this is our desire, and this is our goal, this is why we fast, this is why we pray that the name of Jesus will be exalted in our streets. We may not be able to bring revival to the whole world, but at least the world we are in, we want to see revival. I might not be able to bring revival to Middle East and to Africa, India and Siberia, but I want in the world I live in, in the world I have my zip code in to have revival, can somebody say amen? I want to be the carrier of Jesus Christ in my generation and in my city, amen, amen. So before I go into preaching, I know we have people from different churches where maybe it's not okay and normal for somebody to scream on the top of their lungs, and maybe it's not okay and normal for somebody to say amen, but I want to teach you for tonight, I want you to forget the church you came from, and I want you, if I'm preaching good, I want you to help me out. I will preach faster and shorter, amen, so you just help me out. If you agree, you just say amen, if you're like, you can't just say amen, it's against the rules of how you grew up, just nod. I will see that as a confirmation you're with me in Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. God is good and all the time, amen, amen. I want to share with you tonight, I'm breaking free. I just finished yesterday writing a book that will be released at the end of August that will actually look just like this, so I just wanted you to give a little appetizer. It's been on my heart for a very long time. It's a journey of my personal freedom, journey of the freedom we've experienced in our church, from addictions, demons, curses, and other things, and it will be released on our conference at the end of our internship, and so I'm really excited for that. But tonight, I want to share something from the story of the donkey that I pray the Holy Spirit will be able to communicate to each one of us, including myself. As I'm going to preach to you, I'm preaching also to myself, amen. I'm in the same thing together with you. I want you to buy your head and close your eyes. Let's just open up in prayer, precious Holy Spirit. We've gathered here today. We're not here to hear a man. We want to hear your voice. We're here to learn at your feet. We want you, Holy Spirit, to have the freedom to shatter things that need to be shattered and build things that need to be built. I come against every spirit of distraction. I come against every spirit of heaviness. I come against every spirit of slumber. In Jesus' name, and I commend you, you have to exit right now. Every distraction that has to end right now. And I pray that you will give us ears to hear and eyes to see, and a heart that's open to your move, God. A move to what you want to do next in our life today, God. I pray that every rebellious and stubborn thing in us, God, is going to die today, and the only things that you wanted to live in us to live in us today. We ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus, and everybody said, amen, amen, amen, amen. Come on, let's give Jesus a round of applause. Amen. This is incredible story because in this story, this donkey that was born, this donkey was prophesied years and many, many, many hundreds of years before the donkey showed up. Imagine being a donkey where your birth and your existence is not a coincidence. It's part of God's plan. And you have four legs, and you have a penis-sized brain. You're not developed. You can't go to school, but sovereign God has spoken about you through prophets. Your existence here is actually was his plan, and you're just a donkey. Now, if God had a plan for a donkey's existence, don't you think he has a plan for your existence? If God had a prophecy about donkey, don't you think he had about yours? I want you to write down point number one. If I mentioned point number one, if you could be just a little bit more quicker. Okay, so yeah, if we can make it black, just the whole screen black for just the point so that it'd be easier to see. Your birth was a part of God's plan. I want you to point to yourself and say this with me. Say my birth, come on say it like you mean it, say my birth was a part of God's plan. Chant to your neighbor, say you're not an accident. Chant to your other neighbor, say you are part of God's plan. God used your parents to bring you here, but he is your original and first father. He created you. He thought of you. He just happened to use your parents and their love story or lack of the love story, whichever case you came from to bring you into this world. You didn't come from your parents. You came through your parents. Somebody say amen. Now, don't go tell your parents that tonight. It's not going to be good. You might end up sleeping on the streets. But God only used your parents to bring you into this earth and sometimes he used perfect parents. Sometimes people have no parents at all, but you have to understand your existence was God's idea before there was a sparkle in your mother and your father's eyes. God thought of you before you came on this earth and you're not an accident. You are not just a result of a love between a man and a woman. You are a result between God and you. One mother was a Christian. The father was an atheist. The mother looks at the daughter and says, listen, honey, we came from God. The daughter's eyes shine. She says, praise God. We came from God. She goes to her father. The father says, don't listen to this garbage. We came from monkeys. You came from monkeys. The daughter's confused. She's going back to her mother, say, Mom, I don't get it. You say we come from God. The father said we come from monkeys. Where do we come from? The mama says, honey, it's simple. I told you where my family came from. He told you where his family came from. You came from God. God only used your parents to bring you here and if maybe you've never met your parents or maybe your parents, God forbid, stuff happened and they're divorced and maybe you don't have a contact with your father or with your mother, I gotta tell you this is that your destiny is not dependent on your father or your mother. God only used them to bring you here. God was the one behind this whole idea. Don't blame them. Don't look back on that. Simple. Look at the fact that you were God's plan and you were God's idea. You're not an accident. You're not just a coincidence. God didn't just say, you show up and say, oops, let's find something for her or for him. Let's create a destiny. No, before anything of that, God already had a plan. God already had a destiny. Somebody say amen. A lot of us, the way we are today is because of people who loved us or because of people who didn't. If you are successful, I can almost guarantee 90% of the time you have a mom and dad who loved you. If you found yourself on drugs, not in all cases, but in many cases, you grew up in a home where there was no father. You are a result of those who loved you or those who didn't. And I grew up in a home where I had mom and dad. They're most amazing parents in the world. I've never seen my dad fight my mom. I can't say that about my mom. He's a Ukrainian woman. And Pentecostals. Jesus, a mercy. Their marriage was great and partially because my dad knew how to submit to his wife. Oh, my mom will hate me. I think they're watching. But they're incredible parents. I've never seen my mom or my dad raise their voice against each other through stuff with each other. They had a perfect marriage. But my dad grew up from his father where affection wasn't practiced. You know, especially in the old school traditional Slavic family, if I provide for your needs, put something on the table, take care of you and put a roof over your home. I love you. I don't say I love you. I don't hug you. That stuff is for the American families. We mean business in here. We don't talk. We do. And if I do, that means I do. And if I didn't kill you, that means I love you. That's how love is. And I was completely fine with it. Until a little bit later, I always craved my father's approval. I craved that affection. He was present. But his approval, I knew that I wasn't my dad's favorite partially is because I wasn't able to do what my dad does. My dad is an expert in fixing things. My dad has like magic powers to fix things, microwaves, dishwashers, engines, transmissions. He's a genius. He walks in the room, stuff starts working, walks out, stops working. I've seen this many times. You can ask my cousin, I'm not making none of this stuff up. My dad is a genius. He's a smartest man I've ever met. He can quote you a poem that has 12 stanzas he learned in fourth grade today without stumbling. He can tell you things about universe. And he never went to college. This guy is a genius. And I'm not like him. I can't fix things. I break things. And I remember that I saw that in my dad that when I became a preacher, my dad was happy, but I didn't feel that he was proud. And people in the city knew already about me, but I felt that from my father. Again, it wasn't his notion to create that, but I felt that. Being at the age of 24, I remember when the straw broke the camel's back. My dad went to shop at Lowe's. It's his favorite store. And as he was getting things out, the girl there, Nicole, is her name. She knows about our ministry. And she saw my dad's card and she says, oh, are you the father of Vladimir? And my dad says, yes, yes, I'm the father of Vladimir. He comes back home and tells us the whole story. He says the girl, the cashier at the Lowe's, she recognized my last name. Now I know how the story is going to end. I know why she recognized his last name because of me. So I'm hoping my dad is going to finally, after like many years of me preaching, he's going to say, you know, I'm so glad, Vlad, you're part of our family. What you're doing makes a difference. People know you and everything. I just wanted, I don't care what people say about me. I just wanted to hear that from my dad. And my dad takes the whole story and spins it at the fact that his last name is awesome. He said, and she had a great memory and I was so glad. And I'm sitting, my mouth is open. I'm waiting like a bird. Drop me a crumb dad. Tell me you're proud. She only knows you're last name because I'm doing something good with my life. I'm not selling dope. I'm selling hope. I'm doing something good. And my dad is standing there and he just spin there. And the whole family gathering finished. Everybody went home to their rooms and I'm sitting, I'm still living at that time with my parents. I'm sitting on the couch and I'm crying. 24 year old man who's a youth pastor but feels like I can touch the world of my own dad. It feels like that. I'm not saying he meant it, not at all. It's not his fault. That's the way he grew up. But there was something inside of me that craved that. My dad is building a home. And so I'm hoping that, you know, I'm going to go and help him by helping him. I'm going to get more brownie points. The only problem is that he asked me to cut tile. And it's a nice tile. Every piece of tile I took, it broke in my hands. And I remember excruciating pain when my dad kicked me out of his own house where he was building a Sivlad. Please leave and go do whatever the thing that you do but just don't touch the normal tile because you're going to break all of it. And I felt like anything I touch, I can't please my dad. I can't win his affection and his approval. And I'm already married 25, 26. I had rides with my dad that would last maybe an hour sometimes. And it was awkward silence for a whole hour. I can talk to everyone about anything. I can't talk to my dad. And I knew it wasn't his fault. He's the best dad I could ever ask for but something was in me. And I'm going to tell you something that happened that fixed or started to fix that. It was a Japanese restaurant. My wife's idea, it was sushi place. And sushi places have the worst kind of appetizers in the world because they don't have appetizers. It's a plate this size and has six leaves that they picked from the backyard of the restaurant and has a little syrup that they drop on those little leaves. And that's about all. I'm used to the appetizer from Olive Garden. After you eat the appetizer, you don't order anything because it's unlimited, bottomless, breadsticks and salad. I mean, it's an appetizer. You can feed your whole Ukrainian family that has 10 kids. Correct? So there I am sitting in this restaurant and I saw the guy come in with an appetizer. I looked at that and I'm mad at my wife and I said, babe, I told you we shouldn't go restaurant Olive Garden right there. You can eat actual appetizer in here. It's for pictures and nothing else. It doesn't make you fool. And she told me something that later on Holy Spirit used. She says appetizers are not meant to make you fool. They're meant to wetten your appetite for what's to come. And next morning in prayer, the spirit of God said something that broke things off of my life and it's going to break things off of your life tonight. He says I sent your dad as an appetizer not to make you satisfied, but to make you thirsty for the real love that never ends. And that's my love. He says some parents come as the salad at Olive Garden. Huggy, smoochy kisses and I love you and many emojis and all of that little thing. And some parents, they're like that Japanese appetizers. It's just enough leaves to provoke within you a hunger. An appetizer was never meant to be the meal. God never will allow, listen to me very carefully young people, God will never let anyone in your life to take his place. He will cause people to only wetten your appetite for his reality. And if sometimes the absence of your dad or your mom only provoked the hunger, it's God's purpose so you will seek his face. I realized my dad is the seven leaves. He's supposed to only quicken that I will expect more out of God and less out of my dad. Because what I did is I expected more out of my dad and less out of my family father. I went to prayer, don't get me wrong, I depended on God, but I really needed things from my father and things switch. What I depended on my dad, but I really needed things from God. I went to God and I say God, I am broken man. No, I don't do drugs. No, I don't do this and that, but God, I'm a shattered. If you don't fill me with your information, I will chase it in preaching. I will chase it in comments and followers and accolades. I will chase it in money. I will chase it in other things. God, if you don't fix me, I'm a dead man. And God's presence started to fill that void. And I no longer, please forgive me or if you don't understand what I'm going to say, I no longer needed my dad to say anything. I no longer needed to impress him and I no longer needed that from him and something different happened. It was in California at the revival. One conference I was speaking and after the conference, I get a text message from my dad and now my parents are Ukrainian, so as you can imagine they're on text, they call. To get a text message is a miracle in itself. And when I read the text message, my dad, it was from my dad, not from my mom. And my dad says this, he says, me and your mother, we watched the service. And he says, we were both in tears. He said, you have no idea how much we're proud of you. That you're our son. And we want to tell you that you're our biggest dream come true. And they just, he just literally showered. When I read the text message, a lot of youth, maybe 300 youth and I remember I was on the stage. I broke down like a kid. People thought it was the glory of God. It wasn't, it was the glory of God, but and I remember just literally bawling my eyes out because I no longer needed that. I already received it from another father and little did I knew what was holding my dad's release of affection was the fact that I didn't get it from God. When I got it from God, something released in him. My dad built a second house, crazy part. My tile skills improved. I wouldn't break a tile. I tried to break a tile and I couldn't break the tile. Me and my dad became close friends. He would call me for advice. I would call him for advice. Our relationship repaired when I stopped looking to him as my abba, but I looked to God and received the reformation and realized my dad is an appetizer. God is my main meal. See God used your dad and used your mom to bring you here and he used them to quicken within you. He wanted to use them as an appetizer so he can introduce himself to you, but some of you, you're mad at your dad. You're mad at your mom because see you're expecting the steak from them, but they only have six leaves. The only reason they give you six leaves, that's what their mama gave them too. Don't be mad at them. Eat the six leaves, thank them for it and expect the real meal. Don't leave the restaurant. Don't leave the church. Don't leave God. Wait for the real meal. Wait for his love. Wait for his affirmation. Somebody say amen. Somebody who knows that God loves you, give God a shout of praise right now. Come on somebody, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. God's love is the main meal. Your parents is just the appetizer. You can just go on your phone today, change their name. My appetizer. When they call you and if your parents are amazing, put bread and sticks and salad, but my appetizer, but God is the real meal. When you're married, your wife is the appetizer. God is the real meal. Come on somebody, amen. I want you to see that God brings this donkey, has a plan for this donkey before the donkey is even underserved. God only used other sources, but he had a real plan. I want you to see the second thing, if you can put a second point up, is that before, I'm going to stir it together on the count of three, one, two, three, devil binds those God plans to use. I want you to see this, not only the donkey had a prophecy, but when Jesus tells disciples to go bring the donkey, we find the donkey not in a chapel worshiping the Almighty God. We find the donkey being tied and being bound, and Jesus commissions disciples and says, I want you to go and loose that donkey. Why? Because if God plans to use you, I'm going to give you a confirmation that God has a plan for your life, that devil typically will find out God's plan for your life before you do, and he will chain you up. Your chains is another confirmation. God had a plan for you, because devil doesn't bind those God doesn't plan to use. He will chain you up with insecurity. Sometimes he chains you up with drugs, sometimes he chains you up with violence. For some people he chains them up with porn, with some people he chains them up with cigarettes, with others with weed, with some with alcohol, with others it's with lust. Satan finds whatever chain that you will be more susceptible to receive, when he chains you up, it's actually already a sign. God has a plan for your life. It's just when God comes to your life so that you will not be able to respond to God because you're so shacked up. You're so shattered and broken in your mess that when God says I want to use you, you say, God, I can't hear you. See, God wanted to use David to kill Goliath. That's why the lions and the bears were attacking him. Lions and the bear are not there because you're a bad shepherd, they are there because God has a plan. Demons attack Jesus in the wilderness before he casts them out in a synagogue. I genuinely believe when the enemy seeks to attack you, it's because the enemy usually, devil is not the smartest, but he's also not the dumbest. He's been in the search long enough to know one thing he can smell when God wants to do something. When God was planning to raise, is this one better? Oh, okay. You know, before Moses, if we can lower it down, before Moses came in on the scene, devil was already killing babies. Why? Because devil has a good sense when God is up for something. Devil can smell it from afar when Moses is about to be born and he starts killing babies. If the devil is after you, I can give you a prophetic word from the Lord. It's not because you're a bad person, it's not because you were born on the bad side of the tracks, it's because he smells something fishy about you, something God is planning to do with your life and he wants to shack you up, he wants to bind you, he wants to chain you up. You know, my mother had a difficult birth when I was born. They were told that I'm not going to be born alive, but my grandma who has 16 children, she went to start praying and says, I don't take that, doctors report as reality. God gave her a prophecy, everything will be okay and the doctor says everything will be fine. But during the birth, there was a damage to optical nerve in my body and because of that, I developed a problem, a little problem with my eyes. I can see perfectly out of four siblings and both parents, I'm the only one without glasses. I can see stuff that I probably even shoot and see sometimes and stuff. I see really, really good. I don't have a problem with vision. But as I was growing up as a teenager, as a little kid, when you have, you know, like stuff like this with your eyes, as a kid, it doesn't matter because all the kids are cute. You see those fat kids on Instagram? Cute is baby ever. That is the fattest baby ever. That's not a cute baby. How do I know it's not a cute baby? Because if you would look like that, nobody would say you're cute. They would call you fat. But when that fat baby who has roles literally all over hanging, when that fat baby has roles in high school, no longer is that baby cute, correct? Because whatever is cute in kindergarten is no longer cute in high school. And I remember that in high school, I started to become aware of the fact that I am deformed. I'm handicapped. That I am something is wrong with my face. I'm not normal. I'm not good enough for people. In Ukraine, they gave me a nickname that had to do with my eyes. They didn't call me by my name. They called me with a nickname that described my facial expression. And I accepted that as norm. I was bullied, pushed around, and that was normal. In America, remember, I became so aware of my insecurities and my appearance that I became extremely socially awkward. I can't tell you from the age of 13 to about the age of 17, a one birthday party where I stayed at least till the half. I would show up at birthday parties even though my friends and I would leave. I felt awkward with people. People always felt awkward with me. I was the victim kind of a person. I didn't want to push myself on anybody and I couldn't relate with people. I didn't have close friends. My grades were garbage. I couldn't do good at school. And I was even skipping a class that had half of this amount of people sitting here because I was abnormally shy to stand in front of a group of people. I was scared of people. When people would meet me, the first question they would ask is not, what is your name? They would ask, what happened to you? And to me, it communicated this, everyone only sees one thing, you're messed up. So I knew killing myself probably is not going to be a good idea. I wasn't sure what I'm going to end up. So I said, but if God will kill me, it's his fault. So I secretly, I didn't plan it, but I secretly started to wish and secretly pray that God will cause an accident in which I will die. Because the world, I didn't, it's not because I was a bad person. I just did not, I knew the world would be a better place with me not in it. I was bound up like that donkey, every part of me. And I would go to church and sit in a suit. It's just like this. The preachers would get up and say things like, God has a plan for your life. And it would go in one ear and the other way. I'm like, if I would give you my face, you will never say that. I was mad at God. Why did he make me like this? Why did he allow this to happen to me? What did I do, God? Did I offend you? Did you know I'm going to do something bad to you? Why did you not let Hitler be born like that? He would have never become a Hitler if he would let him be born like that. God never answered those prayers. And physically speaking, I'm still the same person, but I cannot tell you what God did. God sent into my life a pastor, my uncle, who layer by layer started to unwrap these chains off of me and he started to speak life into me. And he started to say, God will use you. I remember I'm listening to him and I'm thinking, he's making stuff up. He has no idea. I have no desire to be in ministry. I have no desire to do this stuff. I'm not good enough in this. He would put me on purpose on this stage in a very place that's a place of my weakness. It's a place where I feel little like needles are poking me. And he would push me there. He would challenge me because I want you to see this donkey was not loosed by Jesus. He was loosed by his disciples. See, when God wants to set you free, not always he'll come down from heaven. He will send you a man or a woman. Sometimes he'll send you a rehab center. Sometimes he'll send you a conference. Sometimes he will send you a mom or dad. He will send you a sermon on YouTube. He will send you a book. He will send you prayer. He will send you fasting. He will send somebody or something in your life. Somebody say a man. And he sent in my life a pastor who started to remove those lies. I didn't believe in myself. I didn't believe God had a plan for my life. And he started to speak honestly. Those words fell on deaf ears. But they fell somewhere in my subconscious. And slowly and slowly one rope after another start being removed. When I look back now and I see people's lives are being impacted in every single day. I receive more than one message of people all around the world who say I wanted to commit suicide. I was going through a difficult time and I stumbled upon a sermon. And I want to tell you something. I want to say big thank you. Little did I knew that 16, 18 years ago, devil knew I'm going to be dangerous. And he wanted to tie me up. He wanted to mess my identity completely up because I did not know God's plan. He did. And tired he was squeezing me. It's because he knew something is coming and he can't control it and he can't stop it. See the devil knows more about your future than you do. And when he's tidying you like this, he's crushing you. It's because he knows you will be unstoppable once God gets hold of your life. Your chains is a confirmation God wants to use you. A point number three is that God will use disciples in your life. God will use people in your life to bring you freedom. A lot of times what we do is we want God to supernaturally deliver us. We want God to remove our insecurity. We want God to remove our drugs. We want God to remove our fear. We want God to come in and just bam. And you wake up you're like hallelujah I am free. But usually that's not how it happens. God sends Johnny and Peter. God sends James. God sends John. God sends someone in your life or something in your life. And if you become obedient to that, you will begin to see the results of freedom in your life. I wish I would tell you it was the prayer of some anointed preacher. It was my pastors. Constant, constant, annoying words into my life. You will speak at large conferences. You will pray for the sick. The church is going to be big. People are going to be used. You guys are going to prophesy. You guys, I remember a little, I was like pastor, you're like a broken record. I'm like, do you even believe in half the things you say? I'm like, don't you see I got caught stealing a bicycle at the age of 14 from Goodwill on Saturday. I'm no good at this stuff. I'm horrible. And you keep saying this stuff. And then pastor would do it publicly. Sometimes we would have a conference. He would get us up and we're like 13 year old standing there like, you know, like fobs, safe, afraid of the bull and stuff. So oversized stuff and just standing there and pastor would stand there 15 minutes. And he goes out and we just standing there like, when you see, we're like, we're embarrassed and everything. Little, little did we know every single those words that he spoke, God used that man to start it to bring freedom, to start it to bring change. Sometimes God will use a conference. Sometimes he will use a service like this. Sometimes he will use a sermon. Sometimes he will use a book. Sometimes he will go on seven day of fasting. He will use the fasting and things that all the men of God did. Lay their hands on your head. Nothing happened in that fast six will snap something. Listen, never put a God in the box in how he wants to bring freedom in your life. When you are desperate, when you are at the point of no return, God will find a way to bring you freedom. Somebody say, amen. Any free people we have in the house tonight. Come on, anybody who experienced that freedom, can you give God some praise right now? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. When I was younger, I always said, this is the only way God delivers. If you do this, this, this, this, the older I grow, I realize God can set people free in the most unusual and unique ways. Some of the people in our team and some of the people even on this team, the way God bring that freedom is different in the way he did it for other people. But the most important thing is there is a God and he wants to use things to bring freedom in your life. Can somebody say amen? Amen. So number three, I want you to look at this again, is that discipleship delivers and guides. So when the disciples of Jesus brought freedom to the donkey, I want you to notice this. When they removed the ropes around the donkey's neck, when they untied it from whatever it was tied to, they dealt with the owner, calm him down, say, everything's cool, homey, relax. We're not going to kill the donkey. It's Jesus who needs it. You heard of Jesus, that's him. He's going to use that. And next thing that happened is the Bible doesn't say that they let the donkey go where the donkey wanted to go. They took the donkey and they didn't sit on that donkey. They didn't beat the donkey like Balaam. He did it to his donkey because she was seeing more things in his spirit than he was, so much for being a prophet, quote unquote. And so they didn't simply told the donkey, hey, there's GPS. Find your way to Jesus. Good luck. If you need any problems, hit me up on WhatsApp and Viber. I'll be available. They didn't do that. The Bible says that they stood right beside the donkey, most likely, and they brought, meaning they led the donkey all the way to Jesus. Now imagine you being a donkey. You spend your life being tied around a pole and you got these cool people that came and they finally freed you up. You're like, this is cool. This is awesome. And then you finally tasted a little bit of freedom only to find out now you're under control of two guys who supposedly brought you freedom. You're like, man, I went from one bondage to another. What was the difference between living there and living here now? These guys are quote unquote controlling me, not letting me do what I want to do. They're telling me what to do, bossing me around and all of this stuff. When God sets you free, he doesn't give you a ministry. He gives you mentors. Write that down. When God sets you free, he doesn't give you ministry. He gives you first mentors who at first will seem like they are controlling your life. It's only because you still have a lot of ego and pride that needs to die. When that dies and you stop being spoiled a little brat and you snap out of your immaturity and you grow up, you will be realizing those mentors, your parents and your pastors, they were never controlling your life. They were protecting your life, shaping your character and guiding you closer toward your ministry, your destiny and happy marriage. Because when you're 12, you think your parents are idiots and when you're 25, you think they're heroes. Amen? And when you're 35, you think they're like godly. They're the best thing in the world. What happened? At 12, you're stupid. At 25, you grew up and at 30, you're mature. That's all it is. But what happens is when we get freed, God right away doesn't let us go. If God lets you go to do what you want, you're going to destroy your life. A donkey on the streets of Jerusalem is a target for people who want to cook steak. A donkey roaming around say, hey yo, what's up? Just got freed. What's anybody doing tonight? Want to chill? Want to hang out? Finally free? Want to breathe the fresh air of Jerusalem? Yeah, except there are guys who cook that donkey and they will barbecue that for their friends. Because when you're a donkey and you are free, meaning you do what you want, you're a target. And God sends people who walk besides that donkey. See when the Lord in my life and until this day, he had my parents and he had my pastor who were walking beside me. I mean my pastor up to last year micromanaged my sermon and corrected every sermon that I preached. I mean I did not exaggerate one word that I just said. Corrected every sermon. As of today, I have typed sermons 800 about 80. That's 880 corrections. Some corrections lasted from five minutes, some two hours. And some were explicit, clear. And I'm talking about things like the hair, why you're talking too much, why you're laughing too much and all this stuff. And I'm thinking my pastor, I am 26 years of age, our youth group is growing. I get invited to preach at the conference. You don't get invited to preach at the conference. And young people love my sermons. I'm connecting with them. I'm not trying to please you. I'm trying to serve them. You don't know my approach. I'm thinking in my head and pastor is chopping, chopping, chopping, chopping. And it almost felt like sometimes he was trying to control my ministry. When in reality, he was trying to shape a ministry. And I had to say, sir, yes, I will get better. I will improve. I will improve. Then God gave my parents with whom I lived till 24. My American friends always made fun of me. And they said, you'd better live with your parents. I had a rental property. And I said, you live in the rented apartment. I just, I like to clown on people. Sometimes you clown on me. It's my thing. And then I said, well, it's funny part is that when you get married, you're going to move back with your parents because you broke like a joke. I'm like, I'm sitting my money living with my parents. Plus the Bible says leave your father and your mother when you have a wife to cleave. Not when you reach 18. So I'm like, I'm actually more scriptural than you are. Anyway, and if you are here and you think it's completely not cool to live with your parents, hey, God bless you and stuff as long as you're not broke. But and so I would live with my parents. And the most annoying part of living with my parents at being a youth pastor is when I walked into the house, my title will get left in the backyard. Like they didn't care I was a youth pastor. Nobody, nobody adored me in the house. There was no red carpets. My siblings didn't call me Reverend Ladd. It was always this, and my parents, I'm 24. They're expecting me to be home by nine o'clock or 10. I'm like, I got a nation's to disciple world to save. I got a nation's to shake. And my dad's like, where are you? It's 10 o'clock. I'm like, dad, I'm about my father's business. You gotta be home in 10 minutes. And I was like, my parents, what is this? So one time, I have this bad problem till this day, but God gave me my wife. So she helps me with that. I don't care about what I wear. I absolutely have no idea how to match clothes. I don't care about clothes. I just whatever I put on that just what I what I walk in. And I had this blue, extra large sweatpants. They were they were for the gym. I used them for the gym. I used them to mow the lawn and I used them to go to church. Why? Because I don't care about clothes. I just put them on and just walk it. And plus I felt like I was Gigi Jakes. Gigi Jakes in old videos had this like long, long pants where you walk and he's like, they walk with him. And I love them. So I'm a young man, live with my parents, have a camera, take your camera, have my own car. I really have like a property. So I'm like, I'm a successful young man, plus I have a ministry. And it was Thursday night. I got my Bible ready to go to church and preach. And of course I put out, you know, like a nice shirt, church shirt. And I put out my blue, large sweatpants and Sunday Ukrainian shiny pointy shoes. So I walk out and literally, not only doesn't match, but those pants, they're just not good. So I walk out and my dad says, where are you going? I said, you've been in our church for so long. You don't know what I'm going to taste. There's the night I'm going to church. I'm a youth pastor. He said, not in those pants. I said, yes, in those pants. Have a little attitude. And I'm so, I walk off the house. So I walk into my car, I sit down. And in my mind, I'm like outraged against my dad, because he doesn't see as God sees, God looks at the heart. My dad's only looking at the pants. It's just the old school tradition of Pentecostal thing is not dying fast enough in him. And I'm sitting there. I'm about to put a keys into the ignition. And I hear still small words. You know that you know, that you know, that you know, like when God, you know, kind of speaks very, very quiet, almost, almost, almost easy to miss. But, but, but it's, it's right there. Just like this quiet. So my first reaction, you know, young foolish and if you could, if you could devil in Jesus' name, get out of here. I give you a word in the scripture right here. It says, God looks at the heart. I put the key in the ignition. I start the car. And it says again, lad, just go change your pants. I realize I'm like most like, it's not the devil. It's probably high chance it's God. And I said, Lord, you know, I can't. The reason why I can't is because if I walk back into my house, my dad is going to see me humbling myself. And he's not going to embrace me like a father embraced the prodigal son. He will stand there and give me that, you know, that Russian look. It's about time you learn rose in this house. That kind of like proud, arrogant look, like he conquered me like that, like I'm like his victim or something. And I said, God, you know, I can't. I'm like, I'll do anything for you. I'll die in India for you. I just cannot live to see my dad, see the thinking he's better than me. He's superior. He conquered me like I am his dabicha, like I'm his victim. And I felt that God said, lad, the only reason I want you to change your parents is I want you to feel that. I want you to die because you're an arrogant, spoiled brat. That's who you are. And I felt that God wanted me to die to myself. You know, at that moment, it felt like if he would cut me into million pieces, it wouldn't hurt as much as to get up from my car, go to my parents' house and change the pants that didn't even match. Change the pants. They don't even like do, you don't even wear those pants to church because it just doesn't fit in that environment. And so I decided to do that. I said, Lord, I'm going as, as a lamb led to the slaughter. I'm going to die for you today. The house and God just said, just ask you one thing. Just ask you one thing. If you could make this easier, give my dad a die, let him go to the bathroom. So he doesn't see that. I will sneak quietly in. I will get out. I will do whatever you want. I'll apologize. I just don't want him to kill me with that look. My God did not answer my prayer. My dad did not have a diarrhea. He just sit there and know my dad didn't say, well, great son, I'm so glad you're gonna, you know, be humble. No, my dad says, it's about time you learn. He says, what kind of a youth and my dad just going out and I'm like, Vlad, zip it. Don't open your mouth because, you know, you can catch a fish with its mouth closed. And so I'm like, and I just walked. I changed and God moved that youth service. But honestly, you know what happened in that incident? I realized is that God puts people around us when we are young, no matter how much anointing you think you got, no matter how much degrees you got, no matter how much knowledge you got, no matter how much experience you got, no matter how much English, you know, no matter how much traditional your parents are in old school, no matter how much of that God puts that, not about your clothes. It's not about your makeup. It's not about the curfew. It's all about the shaping of your character. And when they say, don't bring that, don't date him, don't talk to her, it's not control, it's protection. Because in a place I live, when it rains, you wear an umbrella. Your parents and your pastors are an umbrella. They protect you from stupid decisions, things you don't see. People that you date, people you fall in love with, they see things you don't. Six, seven months later, you will, but it will be too late. Somebody say, man, I want to tell you something. If you are here right now and you had a beef with your father and your mother, when you are in their house, you have to obey them, everything they say, unless they're telling you something that's sinful. If you are in their house, when you are out of their house, write this down. When I am in their house, I obey. When I am out of the house, I honor. Word obey means action, honor means attitude. So when you are in the house, you have to obey. Why? Because you are in their house. Even if you are 30, that means if you're 30 in their house, you say, well, I'm 30. Well, you're in their house. If you think you're old enough, then get out and move out. But if you're still living with them, if they tell 10 o'clock, if the spirit is moving tonight till 11, you better get up and go home. Why? Because God honors, and the only out of 10 commandments God attached a blessing to, it's not when you worship Him, when you honor your mom and dad. God didn't even say, I'll bless you if you don't worship idols. He said, I'll bless you if you honor your father and your mother. You know, in our world today, we live in, and the big sin is like getting drunk, and it is, it's bad. But when Noah was drunk in the New Testament, God didn't see that as a super big deal compared to his son's dishonor of him. In God's world, dishonoring your father and mother is worse than getting drunk. It brings a curse on your life. When you live in your parents' house, they put a curfew, they ask you to do laundry. Listen, you want to get a blessing of God, I'll give you a key. Less fasting, more obeying. Less degrees, more respect for them. Oh, I want to find my destiny. Let me remind you, the first king of Israel wasn't looking for his destiny, Nevin took a course in the whales, or yales, and took a course, I want to be a king. You know what he did? He ran errands for his dad, and when he ran errands for his dad, his destiny found him. David wasn't looking for being a king. He simply brought cheese to the captain, and ran errands for his dad, and destiny found him. Don't look for your destiny. Obey your father and your mother, honor those God bless you, and you will be surprised how you step into your destiny, and your destiny will find you. Come on somebody, come on somebody, let's give God a round of applause right now. Thank you Jesus. When I live under the roof of my parents, I obey. When I am out of the roof of my parents, I honor. What does that mean? It's my attitude. It means I highly speak of them. I always honor them, even if I disagree with them. Even if they may not like certain choices that I make right now, because I go to a different church, I live with my spouse, and she or he wants maybe, you know, different kind of car, different kind of a pet, different kind of a house, different kind of a vacation, and the parents say, oh, you're wasting time, and everything. Even in then, I still have to honor them. Jesus obeyed his parents until 30, and then from 30 to 33 he honored them. How do I know that? Because when he was hanging on the cross and nails went through his feet and through his hands, and mama was standing there, he was arranging housing for his mom, because in the Jewish culture, the older son has to take care of his elderly parents. There was no retirement homes. So Jesus knew he doesn't have an older son because he's dying. He says, hey, Johnny, could you take my mama, and that she can live with you? And mama, could you go with Johnny? Jesus is arranging housing for his mama at the cross. Who do you think you are, that you can disrespect your father and your mother? You're even not better than Jesus, because if you are like Jesus, you will honor your dad and mom. Come on somebody. Are you with me guys? I'm sharing real stuff today. And so I want you to see that the donkey had a purpose on the plan. I want you to see that the devil, you know, changed. They bind us before God can use us. And then Jesus puts discipleship, meaning pastors and parents and both sides to help us go further in our destiny. And I want to bring this message to the most important thing that I want to share with you, and I want to finish and bring this message toward an altar call. And if you can put up the fourth point for us. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, he will use you. If you are the Lord of your life, you will use him. I want you to see this. Disciples are bringing the donkey to Jesus. And Jesus sat, somebody say sat. Everybody say sat. He sat on the donkey. That means, may I use this chair? Jesus didn't walk beside it like disciples. Jesus didn't walk behind it. Jesus didn't walk in front of it. He sat on it. He became the Lord of the donkey. That means he let it where he wanted to go. He controlled the donkey. And this way, Jesus let the donkey whatever he wanted to go. Donkey didn't say, hey, Jesus, I don't like Jerusalem. Last time I went there, didn't end up with it. Well, not going there again. The donkey didn't say, that's a long walk. My feet are hurting. You don't see the donkey complaining. You don't say, donkey, hey, Jesus, can we step by for some ice cream? Been always wanting to get that Jerusalem ice cream over there, that on that corner over there have always been heard people talking about it at ice cream. You don't see the donkey giving Jesus orders. You see Jesus leading the donkey where he wants to go. I'll give you a secret of how to be led by God. And I'll give you a secret of how to be used by God. Forget about being led by God. Forget about being used by God. Focus on one thing, that Jesus is the Lord, not a friend. See, Judas had Jesus as a friend and demons entered him. Judas called Jesus a friend, but never once Judas called Jesus a Lord. Many of you, Jesus is your homeboy and that's your problem. Jesus is not your friend. If he first has not been your Lord. Many of you, you have Jesus as your savior. That's the problem. It will get you to heaven, but it will not change your life on earth. For your life on earth to change, he has to not be a savior. He has to be your God. If you want him to use you, he has to be your king. He has to sit on you. And what he wants, you do. You don't have a life after that. It's not what you want to do. It's not your plans. It's not your ideas. Oh, but I want to build my life. Well, that goes second. Everything else becomes second because he sits on you. You don't sit on Jesus, he sits on you. Many Christians, this is what happens when God sets us free from our junk. He sets us free from our sin. He sets us free from things that hurt us in reality. We never wanted Jesus. We wanted to be free from pain. And when he gave us the freedom from pain, we do what we want to do. We always wanted to do what we wanted to do. It just, we got stuck in some issues that hurt us deeply. And Jesus is a means to our goal, which is for us to sit on our throne. And we used God. And we said, God, lead me. God can't lead you if you are on the throne. You got to get off of the throne. And you got to go on the cross. And he has to sit on the throne. If you want Jesus to use you to impact your world, forget about him using you. First settle this. Who is on the throne of your heart? I'm not asking you who is Jesus. Is he your saviour? Because I bet he is. I'm not asking if he is your healer. I bet he is. But many of us, and I'm guilty of this first and foremost, I've done this more than I can count. I actually did not want God to have more of me. I just wanted to be free from the pain and the shame and the guilt and the struggle of my sin. Not so that he could be the owner of my life as the sin used to be. Israel didn't want God. They just wanted to get rid of Pharaoh. And when God got rid of Pharaoh, they got what they wanted, which is what? To be free and worship the cow. Moses, his goal wasn't freedom. His goal was God. And he said, God, I can serve you and the Pharaoh at the same time. God gets rid of Pharaoh so God can take a place of Pharaoh. Did you know God never wanted to get rid of Pharaoh? He just wanted to replace him. God doesn't want to get rid of your sin. Only he wants to replace your sin with himself. They mean if you were hooked on drugs and you did it every day and you spent 600 bucks every single month on drugs, then God says, well, if you've been faithful to something that hurt you so much, abused you so much, ruined you so much, I can only imagine how faithful you will be to me if I will love on you, cherish you, if I will heal you, if I will restore you, but see when God delivers you, you think it's because he wants you to be you now. No, no, no, no, no, he doesn't want you to be you. He just wants to take the place of drugs, but you want to take the place of drugs now. You want to be you, you want to be your life. And that is the biggest mistake we make. It's when God sets us free. When God delivers us, when God heals us, when God encounters us, this is what we do. We get busy and listen to me very carefully, because this is a word for somebody. We are wanting to be busy, building our life from the ashes Satan destroyed it from, because we're seeing the friends who never got into that kind of a mess. They're so way ahead of us, and you got to catch up. You're realizing the biological clock is ticking, you're 27, you're 29, and you don't even have, you need to repair your credit score. You got to get a car, you need to quickly go to college. Jesus, come on, speed this thing up. If you really wanted to build your life, you should have got into sin in the first place. Stop thinking about building your life. Stop that nonsense right away. You're no longer going to live a normal life after you've been wrecked by sin, or by a Savior. You will never, ever be normal again. Forget about normal. But I want to be like other people. You should have thought about that before you met Jesus, or before you met the devil. If you met the devil, or you met Jesus, you can never be normal again. Never normal again. Come on, somebody. You know how I know that? I look at Samson, because when Samson met Delilah, and he says, if you cut my hair, I will be like every other man. Well, the problem is every other man wasn't blind, and every other man wasn't walking in circles, treading millstone. Samson cut his hair. Did you know what happened? He never became like every other man. He became blind. He became bound. And he became dead. Why? Because if you met sin, or you met a Savior, you will never, ever be like everybody else. You will either adopt quickly and say, Lord, I am dead to my sin. I am dead to myself. And I'm alive to you. And if you want me to live my life without a degree at this point, if you want me to live my life serving for the rest of my life, Lord, you will be done, not mine. If Jesus died at 33, and you want me to die at 37, Jesus, you will be done. But I'm no longer doing what I want to do. If you ever snap out of that idea, and start becoming somebody that I just want to be me, I just want to find my identity, I want to utilize now me and my gift, and you don't give Jesus the Lordship over your life. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. You will go from one bondage of sin to something that's worse than sin. It's called selfishness. You're still in bondage. You're still in prison, and your life will become a puppet of the devil. You will still be a victim controlled, and you will only use God when it helps you to advance your real goals. But God is a means. If He doesn't answer one prayer at your time, you will drop Him like a hot potato, and move on to witchcraft or anything else, because your goal has never been God. Your goal has been you. And cross of Jesus kills, not only sin, it kills me. It crucifies me. No longer I. I can't use ministry to advance me. I use ministry so I can know Him. And He uses me to advance His kingdom. And if that means tomorrow He takes it away, if that means He shrinks it to zero, your will be done not mine. Because I am His servant. I am not His master. I don't give Him orders. I take orders. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm going to live for you. Amen. I want you to switch your mentality today, and give Him the Lordship of your life. Amen. Some of you, the season that you are in will change if you will get what I'm saying right now. When Joseph, there was this revelation that came to me. When Joseph was a prince of Egypt, he was on this high chair, and people were suffering and famine. People were struggling. And they came to Joseph, and they gave him money. He gave them bread. No more money. They gave him livestock, animals. He gave them bread. They gave him land. He gave them bread. And they have said, we have nothing else to give. And I want you to see this. Joseph said, give me you. I want to own you. And the Bible says, when they sold themselves as sphero slaves, I want you to see this. Joseph no longer gave them bread. He gave them seed. See, when you stop giving God stuff, and you come and say, God, I'm giving you myself. God no longer gives you just miracles or answers to prayer. He flips your world upside down. Because now, he is in control. He pushes the pedal to the metal in your life. You're actually his uber. You're actually his taxi. He is the one that gets in a city all through you. You are now, you, before you pray, God, I want to hear your voice. When your life is no longer yours, and you say with Paul, no longer I, but Christ lives in me. He no longer just gives you little bits of answers. And people get answers and leave God. But when you get him, because you gave him yourself, he begins to guide you. He begins to lead you. And I want you to see this. Famine ended when they gave themselves. As long as you give God stuff, there will be spiritual famine of selfishness. But when you give God yourself, if he does not answer another prayer for the rest of your life, you have him as your goal. You say, Lord, I got you. You got me. We're cool. Famine ends and God gives you a seed. No longer did Israelites gave ever, and excuse me, no longer did Egyptians give everything back. After they got a harvest, they didn't give him all the stuff. They only gave him 20 percent. But when they gave 20 percent, they felt that Pharaoh was generous with them, letting them keep 80. They didn't feel that they were generous with Pharaoh by giving him 20. See, when you give God everything yourself, you give 10 percent, you feel grateful. He lets you keep 90. When you are yourself, you give 10 percent, and you give with this, what are they doing with my money? Why? That means that you're still giving God stuff. Give him yourself, get over it, die. It's so much easier to live after you're dead. It's hard to tempt a dead person. It's hard to offend a dead person. You can poke him with needles all day you want, no response whatsoever. Same response, nothing. Why? Because a dead person, you're going to die physically. Before you die physically, die to your ego, die to your selfie, die to yourself, die to that part of you. I'm going to tell you, it makes so much easier to be in church. You give God fasting and prayer, and you feel grateful. Another person fasts one meal. They walk around like they gave their whole life to God. But you walk completely different perspective, and you see different things happening in your life. You know why? Because your perspective changes when your life is genuinely not your own, in your own mind. If the Lord leads on your heart to empty your account and give it to His kingdom, now I'm not saying you, but like, yeah, it will pinch a little bit. But you will say, Lord, when I die, I'm not going to take my money with me. At least I can send it ahead of me to heaven, amen. I'm going to sacrifice, I'm going to give my life, and you will see you actually will enjoy your life more. You will enjoy your church more, you will enjoy Christians more, you will see less hypocrisy, you will see more good in people. You will see that when people offend you and hurt you, they're like tractor, they went over you, and then after that they plowed your field. Now you can plant some good seeds and actually flourish in your Christian life. When a grain seed dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus says in Revelation that if you want to overcome Satan, you have to love your life unto death. If you want to live, you got to die. I want to tell you something today. The hardest thing to die, to be free from is not your sin, it's not even drugs. It's when you are free, when your life is beginning to turn around for you to die to yourself, and put yourself on a cross, nail yourself over there, not physically, but I'm talking about your ego, your pride, and say, Jesus, you are the Lord of my life. My goal is not to become successful. My goal is not to become famous. My goal is not even to be anointed. Jesus, my goal is to be yours, and for you to be mine. Jesus, use me as you want to use me. I promise, I will not use you. I'm not going to manipulate you, God. I'm not going to use you to get what I want, and when I get it, I leave you like a napkin in a garbage. I wish I would tell you, I've seen so many people. As of last month, I gave six cars away in the last four years. So many of those people in the beginning, they never came to church after they got a breakthrough, because they never wanted God in the first place. The God was a method, they needed to get him out of their hole. It saddens me, because in a matter of three, four, five months, they're back in the same hole as they were before, and the Bible says usually seven times more. If you get rid of your sin, but you don't surrender your life to God, and don't serve God as you served your sin, you create a vacuum for which you will invite demons, you will never know what to do with them. The selfishness will corrode your character and destroy your life. Your best protection and antidote against that is to do one thing, is to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and to do that today. Amen. I'm kidding. But seriously, what are you waiting for? Just subscribe.