 I want us to go to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 17 and we will read 18, 19 and verse 20. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love. Somebody say love. Somebody say love. Chant the neighbor say you got to be rooted in love. Chant the other neighbor say you got to be grounded in love. Being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the width, the length, the depth and the height. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the goodness of God. And let's read one more verse, verse 19 and this is the verse that all of you, verse 20, all of you know. Now to him who is able, somebody say God is able, is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power. It doesn't say the power that is in God, it says the power that works in us. Point to your safe, say in me. Say the power that works in me. In Jesus' name, amen. I want us to understand today as Christians is that when people open their life to sin, they open their life to curse. When they open their life especially to the things that are evil, the demonic influences, they open their lives to also demonic influence, which Bible calls curse. Many times we must understand that curses don't die like people. When people die, curses don't. Curses get passed on to the next of kin. Just like inheritance, for example, if you have a very large house, a lot of nice cars, and when you die, your house doesn't die, correct? We're not like in the Pharaoh times, when the Pharaoh would die, they would kill all of his servants, everything and buried with him so that he will have somebody to be with in the paradise. Weird idea, but they did that. So when you pass away, your house, your car does not pass away. Your car and your house gets passed on to who? Next of kin. So is with blessing and curses. It doesn't die with you, it gets passed on to someone else. But the way curses and blessings usually work is not just that bad things started to happen to people or good things start to happen to people, is that the person begins to think in such a way that they begin to make decisions that will cause them to be in the places and have things in their life that reflect blessing or curses. For example, Solomon, the wisest man the Bible says and he is also the richest man. He begins to, toward the end of his life, worship idols, worship demons, because of his wife's which he had too many and so he begins to do that. And the Bible says when that begins to happen, he opens his life to the devil because he worships the devil. And there was a prediction made concerning Solomon's life and this was the prediction that the kingdom that you have, the 12 tribes like the 12 states, there is going to be a large portion, 10 of them is going to be taken away from you. You're going to suffer a loss because you're worshiping the devil. And so Solomon lives, everything is fine and Solomon dies, but the curse he opened his life to because of worship of the devils didn't die with him. His son becomes a king and the Bible says that his son doesn't know anything about this. He doesn't know that there's a curse hanging on his life, that he's going to suffer loss, he's not going to have the whole kingdom. And as he's starting his kingdom, he invites all of the people, his fathers, consulers, and his Stooges, his guys, the guys he grew up with, he went to school with, and the guys he plays ball with. He invites all of them to the table, says, guys, I'm a king, what should we do? How should we rule this country? And so the older guys were like, hey, your dad had so many construction projects, like the whole temple, we love the temple, but we had to pay for it. Your dad was so wealthy, but came from our taxes. Could you be kind to lower the taxes a little bit and stop building stuff? We're tired. And so he listened, I was like, okay, it makes sense, that's good, that's good. And he comes to his guys, you know, they go to Starbucks together, his Stooges, they get together, so what do you guys think? He's like, hey, dude, you got to prove yourself to them, you got to show you're tough, you got to be a boss, tell them who you are, increase the taxes, give them more projects, and then they will obey you. And so that's exactly what he did. He comes up to them, he said, hey, guys, I want to let you know that I'm a leader, I'm the king and I'll do whatever I want, and I'm going to increase the taxes. And 10 tribes said, buy now, and they left. And then he tried to restore the rest of the 10 tribes and nothing worked. Here's a man who had good options and bad options, and he chose the bad option because he was under influence of a curse that was lingering from his father, who opened his life to the devil. We must understand the way blessings and curses work. They work through this mechanism that makes decisions called your mind. For example, if your parents are married, your grandparents are married and none of them are divorced, what happens? There is this blessing that is hanging on your life, not necessarily that you get married and everything becomes easy. It's just you begin to think about marriage differently than somebody who grew up in a family where everybody's marriage falls apart. You know, I look at my family, my parents and my grandparents on both of my sides, and the way the marriage is in my parents' marriage and the way my grandparents' marriage is. You know, that there was a stable, there was love, there was understanding, never seen my parents throw plates at each other or knives or anything. It's mom says, that says, yes ma'am, key to every successful marriage. And I look at my grandma, you know, it's the same thing and so I discovered the secret. But the issue is that when I look at marriage to me, there is this mindset that comes from the parents and the grandparents, which is how the blessing works is that when you get married and marriage goes bad, you can have a new marriage with the same spouse. You don't have to have a new spouse to have a new marriage. And so when that is deeply embedded into your mind, see what you don't realize is that blessing that is generational is deeply connected to your mind. It's not just something you think whatever you want to think and God just, you know, bless your whole family and they're just going to come upon you. And if you run from it and think differently, God is going to hunt you and bring you back. That is not how this works. And so is with the curses. When you grew up in the family, when you grew up in an environment where everybody thinks bad, everybody thinks wrong, but everybody thinks always this way. And you realize that that's how devil acts. And you come to church and you begin to fill your mind with the word of God and say, you know what? I love them. I love this and I love that. But God's word says something else and I will think different. I will force my mind. I will bend my mind to think on the word of God. Something begins to happen. That curse, that force, that failure, it cannot work in your life. It begins to malfunction. Why? Because your mind is now regulated and controlled and dominated by something else. Satan cannot rule our life effectively without ruling through our mind. And God cannot flow in our life effectively without flowing through our mind. How we think matters. That's why David says in Psalm, he says, anoint my head with oil. Touch your forehead. Say, Lord Jesus, anoint my head with your oil. Say, Lord Jesus, open my mind to your word. Say, Lord Jesus, O Holy Spirit, let my mind be your channel in Jesus' name. Amen. The verses that we read today give us a framework of how a mind of a Christian should work. How a mind of a Christian should work. I will give you just three simple blocks from this scripture to help us think how God wants us to think. It's a process. It's a lifelong process. It doesn't happen over one day or it doesn't happen over one night. All of us are in the journey what we are learning and growing. In the verses 17, Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, he said that I want you to be grounded and rooted in love. And then it goes on to say, I want you to comprehend all the depth and the width and the height and the length to know the love of Christ which passes understanding. It's interesting how God says, I want you to know the love of God which is more than you will know. Write this down. The number one, know that God loves you more than you know. That is the foundation of a miracle in the mind. Unless you're taking notes, I don't want you to be on the social media, let's just pay attention. Know that Christ loves you more than you know. The foundation of your mind has to be unfailing love of God. Everyone here probably have heard and everybody here somehow in their mind already maybe have the information that God loves me. But it has to become aha moment for you. It has to become a revelation inside. The love of God cannot change you as long as God has it inside of him. The love of God can only change you when you begin to know it and experience it. If I have a barrel of cold, good water, purified water next to you and you are thirsty, the water being close to you cannot quench your thirst. The water has to be inside of you. The presence of water in this room does not make you not be thirsty. So it's not the presence of water that kills your thirst. It's when the water goes inside of you, that's when your thirst is gone. Many people think if God loves me, all of my problems will be over. Know if you don't know it. If you don't know he loves you, all of that love can do nothing for you. If you don't know deeply, experimentally, on the level of your mind and on the level of your heart, that God truly, genuinely loves me, me today. Not only when I'm good, but also when I make mistakes, he loves me. Even when he disciplines, he still loves me and he disciplines out of love. When you know God's love, something begins to happen. Your mind has these roots called thoughts, subconscious. It begins to go into the soil of the love of God and receive its nutrients. And your thinking processes, the way you think, the way you make decisions, the way you speak, begins to be inspired and begins to be influenced by the fact you are loved. You're able to give love to others. You're able to be confident and secure, even if you don't look as great as others people. You're able to be confident and walk with your head up, even if you might not be as great as someone else. Why? Because your roots are receiving proper nutrients from the love of God. Your mind can never properly function if it's not based on the foundation. God loves you. God loves you. I know that for most of you, this is as coming as information. And honestly, there's very, very little I can do right now to make it into a revelation. Without Holy Spirit, you won't know it. Because the Bible says the Holy Spirit pours out the love of God into our heart, meaning Holy Spirit turns information into a revelation. I remember being on subway in Ukraine two weeks ago. When this revelation, I knew God loves me. I grew up hearing God loves me. I preached God loves me. But something happened in Ukraine. There was few messages that happened there that impacted me on a very, very deep level. I cannot explain. In a subway in Ukraine, I remember reading the verse John 3.16. And that part, what it says, for God, that word so loved the world. It started to just melt the fears that I had. It started to melt. The word so loves that even the things I've done and the things people have done to me that may be growing up not being lovable or not receiving enough love. God so loves, not just loves, but that soul started to sink in. I remember in subway reading that verse. And all of our guys were just there, but they were not realizing that at that moment drops of just divine love started to penetrate my heart. That God is for me. God thinks good stuff about me. That God loves me. God is not against me. That God genuinely cares about me and he thinks about me. And the way I look in the mirror and how much money I make and how many friends I have and how I perform, all of that actually matters. Nothing! God so loved the world. You know, it didn't say, it didn't say God so loved the monks, the priests, the Pope Francis. It didn't say God so loved the pilgrim. It says the world. If it would have said the church, I would have doubted that because maybe I'm not part of it. But the world I fit right in. And that word so, it just hits something inside of my spirit. Where after that, something begins to change in my heart. I cannot explain. I'm not saying I'm a brand new person, but my roots started to get wet no longer with how much I love God. But it came a revelation. God loves me. You may say, what about other scriptures where God says, I will find you. I don't know about those scriptures. I know that is the scripture that must become a foundation of your thinking. That's why Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, be rooted. Not where God says vengeance is mine. He says, be rooted and grounded. Not where God says, I'll find you. I'm a jealous God. Be rooted and grounded in this. For God so loved the world. That is supposed to be your foundation. Know this. God loves you more than you know. You will never know exactly how much God loves you. Because the moment you know a little bit more, God says, my love, there is still so much more. You will never know. This gives me so much confidence when I pray. This gives you so much confidence when you pray. This gives you confidence to pray for the sick. This gives you confidence to witness to people. And this gives you confidence. The greatest thing is this is to live a Christian life with your light in your face. With the life of God in your heart. Why? Because you are loved. Amen. God so loved the world. And then, you know, there's a lot of people who tell you that I love you. In this world today, everybody smiles. This is a beautiful part of this country. Everybody smiles. In my country, people don't smile. I found out one of the reasons some people have crooked teeth in Ukraine, but that's beside the point. But in the country I came from, people just don't smile. Everybody just has this very mean look. You come to the United States, everybody smiles. But we all know one thing. How many smiles we gave to people? They're purely, purely pathetic and fake. We just smiles like, get off of my face. Move on. We're like, move, move, just hurry up. Hi, good to see you too. Love you too. Just move, move. So I can keep doing what I was doing. And sometimes when you read God loves you, you're like, yeah, I said that to so many people. But you did, you gave nothing. God said, my words are not cheap. I backed it up. Anytime you doubt God's love, because maybe you think it's just words. Well, God backed it up because after that goes the backup, goes the proof that he gave his only begotten son. God's love is not just words. God is not just very colorful, colorful with his words. Like there's some guys that are very romantic. They can, they can stalk so sweet in a text message. And then when they see the person they meet for coffee, they just forget the English language. They forget the obvious words they cannot communicate. They cannot, they don't know how to do anything. And so many times people think God's is the same way. He's in heaven. He just sends these beautiful messages, messages, messages. And then God shows up. What do we do? No, God proved his love. Anytime you doubt God's love, there's a proof. So you will have no doubt. Can somebody say amen? The healing of our mind begins to happen. When it begins to accept the fact that God loves us. And that truly satisfies us. Every love people give you will never be enough. People's love for you will never be enough. God never meant for people to replace God in our life. I remember when I had to learn that, you know, I have the most amazing parents in the world, mom and dad. But they're not God. They are not God. And their love for me is never supposed to replace God. And I had to learn that the hard way. When I was expecting a certain things, and I'm one of those people, you know, I don't communicate properly. If I want something from you or not giving it to me, I'm going to go cry about it. Worship God about it, but not going to tell you about it. You know, and there were a few moments in my life, and my parents probably have heard it, when I was yearning to hear those words. You know, I'm proud of you, son. One particular event was when I went, my dad went to Loves. I shared this story in other places except our church. My dad went to Loves one day, and there was one cashier who was working there, and she looked at this card, and she recognized the last name, and she knew me. And so she said, hey, I know your son. He preaches on TV, and she just started to say all these nice words. So my dad comes home. I remember this was on Kubota. I remember how that was. I can describe every single thing. This was a very vivid moment of my life, because my dad comes and he says, hey, hey, I got to tell you something. I met this girl, and she said that she knows you. And I'm like, what does she say? You know, here's me. I'm living my life, you know, waiting for my dad to tell me I'm proud of you, son. And he did that, but he just wanted to hear more. It's just never enough. Right? It's just never enough. You don't hear it enough. You just eat every single day. And so, because I always felt that my dad wanted me to be something else than a preacher. And here my dad comes and sits on the couch. He begins to describe, and my mouth jar open. I'm listening like a thirsty man in the desert of Sahara. I said, so what does she say? And he said, well, well, she said, it doesn't matter what she said. The interesting part is that she remembered you. And it's just so awesome that she remembered my last name. I was like, what does she say? It doesn't matter what she said. What matters is that she remembered his last name. And that left no problem. That did not know. I started to weep because I was unrealized. I wanted that, just the hug, I guess, and that little, you know, American thing. I love you son. You're proud of you. And next morning, I went to prayer. And I remember sitting in prayer and I said, Lord, really? I said, God, I have the most amazing dad and mom in the world. But at that moment, Holy Spirit revealed something to me. He said, I will never let your parents love you to that degree which will make me unnecessary in your prayer. Guys, God will let people love you. But that will never replace God. You may have the most beautiful, most awesome parents, spouses, but you must understand. You must be rooted and grounded in the love of God. Not in their love for you, not in your love for them, but in the love of God. Can somebody say amen? Somebody say praise the Lord. Come on, put your hands together for Jesus for this awesome love for us. And he loves us, and he loves us all the time. And I want you to notice that Apostle Paul continues to say that after we know the love of God, he says, I want you to begin to think, if you can read that verse, put up the verse. He says that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think. Verse 20, according to the power that works in us. I want you to notice that God is saying he is able to do exceedingly above all beyond what we ask or even think. So here is God saying that I can think higher than you. I can do more than you. So the first component of our walking in a new mind is constantly remember God loves you. The second one that I want us to remember is this, is that God wants us to think higher than our circumstances or think on the level of your belief, not your fear. Think higher than your circumstances. It's as though God is saying that I think I am so much higher than your circumstances. I want you to think higher than your circumstances. Each one of us are surrounded with circumstances. Each one of us are surrounded with the things around us, and God wants you to think higher than those circumstances. God wants your mind to always be higher, because the Bible says that we have to meditate on the Word of God. We have to meditate on it day and night, and the Word of God is so much higher than sickness. God's Word is so much higher than any problem. Amen, Michael? God's Word is so much higher than any poverty, amen? God's Word is so much higher than any depression. God's Word is so much higher than any anxiety, and Michael can say amen. God's Word is so much higher than anything we face. And so God is saying since I am higher than your circumstances, since I can do more than your circumstances, I want your mind to be on the same plane with me. I want your mind to be on the same plane with me. Have you noticed that the way even the Lord designed our head, that our head is on the top? God did not put your brains to be under your soles or your feet. God did not put your head somewhere in the middle. God put your head to be the top, so that you're always, in your mind is always higher than anything else. But sometimes that's the only physically, but in every other area, our head is over under our feet. Many times our mind is always under our circumstances, and we say things like that, oh my mind is so overloaded, my mind is so overwhelmed. It's as though we threw our head and threw it on the ground, and we're walking, and what's on the top? Problems. God wants your mind to be on the top, not your problems, can somebody say amen. God wants your mind to be on the top, not the demons that are seeking to attack your life, can somebody say amen. When your mind is on the top, something begins to happen, a miracle begins to happen. I think I've shared a story before of two men in England who were diagnosed with a disease that will eventually make them paralyzed and unable to walk. And one of those men, he accepted that diagnosis and said, okay, I guess that's who I'm going to become. And the other man says, no, I reject that, and I will not accept this, I will learn how to walk, and I will learn how to run. Eventually that disease accelerated in both of their bodies, and they became paralyzed. They were not able to walk. And so one man being paralyzed started to exercise and begin to walk, and he fell, and people made fun of him, and they said, nobody can walk with this disease. But he kept trying and trying, and finally he learned to kind of walk with a very big limp. As he was walking, he said, I'm going to go even do more, I'm going to run. Well, they said that's impossible. He started to run. And he was running and running and running until one day, he always had a mind bigger than in circumstances. At that point, at that time, nobody has ever beat a record of running a mile under four minutes. This has never been broken in the whole world history. They even have released bulls and had guys in red running, and had bulls running and hurting runners so they can break a four mile, four minute mile record. They've done everything and nobody could break it. And this guy who's supposed to not walk all his life says, not only I'm walking and running, I am going to break a world record of running a mile under four minutes. He believed in it. Of course they said that's impossible. Doctors have done a study where they said, humanly it's impossible, and if you will run a mile under four minutes your body will die. He still didn't believe it because you're running about 15 miles per hour. And he put his mind above that. He says, I can do it. He says, I was supposed to be paralyzed and the doctor says I shouldn't be walking. So if they're saying this, maybe I should just rise above it. On this particular day in May 6th, 1954, Roger Benningster, this is the exact moment and that is him. He broke a world record of running a mile under four minutes. The amazing part is 40 days later, another man breaks the same record. And in that year, 24 people broke that record. Today, high school students break that record. He no longer has the record because somebody already broke that record of running a mile in three minutes and some 40 some seconds. It just shows how somebody said it's impossible and everybody believed it and somebody says, I'll think higher than that. See, God says, I am higher than your thoughts, but if God is higher than our thoughts, our thoughts should be higher than our circumstances. And somebody say amen. If God is higher than your thoughts, your thoughts should be higher than your circumstances. Somebody say amen. Somebody say, think higher. Somebody say, think higher. You got to think higher. If you're living low, think high. If you're eating low, think high. Never think on the level of your feelings. Don't think on the level of your circumstances. If things are the same, think higher. If a guy can do it with running, you can do it with God. You can do it with the Holy Spirit because somebody say amen. We always have to rise higher. I remember reading a story about a man named Charles Darrow and he was the man who lived in Pennsylvania and he was a retired and retired unemployed man. And the reason why he was unemployed because stock market crashed during the Great Depression time and he had no money. His family was struggling. He had young children and they were struggling and they were being so poor that it was just depression, we're just getting into his mind. And he was a man who had a very interesting mind. He always kept his mind occupied even when he had no work. And so what he did because he lived in Atlantic City, he drew a map on the kitchen tablecloth of Atlantic City, went down to the local stores because nobody would be hiring, so he asked them for some cheap material, cheap wood and cheap cloth and came home at night and him and his wife and the kids played a game of what it's like to be wealthy. It was just a game. It was just a game so that they can keep their minds off of the fact they're poor because they had other poor friends in the evenings, other poor people would come and say, what are you guys doing there? Hey, we're playing rich. We're pretending we're rich. They said, can we play with you since we poor like you? Oh, you're welcome. And everybody starts playing a game where they can become rich without any work. Until those friends started to win at the game and they said, hey, would you mind if you sell us a game for $4? He said, I don't mind at all. He would sell a game and make another one, sell a game and make another one. Until he went to this company who produced games and he said, hey guys, I have this amazing game that helps poor people feel like they're rich. Would you buy it? They looked at his game and they found 52 fundamental errors and they said, your game is too long, too stupid, too complicated, rules are too bad, your game is bad. He didn't get discouraged. You know what he did? He printed 5,000 of those games and started asking each store, hey, would you mind having a game that helps poor people feel rich? And some stores would buy it, some stores won't. Until one person who bought the game, who was actually a daughter of the very guy who rejected that game. He looked at him and he says, what are you doing? He says, oh, this game helps poor people feel rich. He said, this is, and he just watched her and he just ridiculed her, made fun of her until he kept watching. He says, wow, this is actually very interesting. He brought the guy back. He said, I'll buy your game. And this guy started to receive royalties within a very, very short time. He became a millionaire. He is actually the wealthiest man who made the most money from a game that most of you have played a game called Monopoly. 52 fundamental errors. The point is this, a man chose to think above circumstances. He could have become a man who says, I'm broke like a joke. I should live and I should settle. He said, my mind is going to be higher. My income is here. My mind is going to be higher. Amen. And the most amazing part is we have the word of God. We're not just sitting here trying to put some positive thoughts in your head. So you walk around and if you struggle and just think better, think higher. No, no, we're talking about think higher because God is even higher. Think higher because God is even higher. Can somebody say amen? Let's put up the verse one more time, verse 20. And this is the part where it says, God now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly. Now most of us, when we hear this verse in the religious context, this is what we think it means. And God will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think. But it doesn't say God here will do. It says God is able. He's not obligated to do it. God is able. But it doesn't say he will do above what you think or ask. Well, that's discouraging. But let's read at the end. It says who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think according to the power. And I always kind of thought it meant according to the power that is in God. But it says in here, according to the power that works in you and in me. What does this mean? That means Almighty God has all the power, all of the grace. He says I can do more than you think and fantasize. But I can only do in your life according to how much you yield to my working inside of you. What that means is this, if God says if I can change you on inside, if I can cause you to think positive, to think that you're loved, to think that nothing is impossible, that is the window through which I can move and no more. You have a car. Now, how many of you have the fastest car? Who has the fastest car here? Boy, did you have a fastest car? No. How much did your car go? What's the fastest? 180? Is that what I'm not thinking of? That's how much you're going. Huh? I'm not thinking 180. Anybody has a car that goes more than 180? 210. Anybody has a car that goes faster than 210? 160? I was like, you know which city is it? 160. My goodness. 210. Okay. So, Ilya's car goes 210 miles. That's a lot. Now, should I ask that question? What is the fastest you have went on your car? Let's just assume. Most likely, I'll actually, Ilya probably have maxed that. Most of us here have a car that probably doesn't go more than 180. And most of us here have never went over 90 or 100. That's pushing it. Everybody with me? Everybody still with me? Okay. If you wait, let me say yes. I want you to notice this. Your car goes only as fast, not as the manufacturer made it to go. But as the owner pushes the gas pedal. Your car does not go as fast as the owner, as the manufacturer made it to go. It only goes as fast as the owner chooses to press the pedal. That means each person here still has so much more that God can do through us. And it depends now not on God, but on allowing Holy Spirit, the power within to change us on the inside. Make us think better. Make us hope better things. That we constantly expect good things. That we constantly think light instead of darkness. Think miracles instead of problems. That we think opportunities instead of obstacles. That we think on the level that is higher than our feelings, higher than our circumstances. And God says, that allows me to act in your life. Amen? Amen. Did you receive something tonight?