I want to speak to you today the message that will
be titled, living in the limbo. In the limbo means in a forgotten or ignored state, place or
a situation. In an uncertain or undecided state or condition. A condition between two extremes.
I recall having a conversation with one person. It was a a male. A married person that was
married and I will just change about two details in the story to disguise the identity of
the person. There was children that was involved and this person was extremely happy. In fact,
extremely ecstatic. He said, I am honestly the happiest I've ever been in my life. So I'm
thinking he got a promotion, or a job and he said no, I have an affair. And I was like, okay
and he's like, you know I have this very boring marriage and I found the solution for my boring
marriage. I have this side chick and she's so exciting. She's hot, we like everything that I
used to have, I have now this and then I have this thing at home that is stable, secure. I love
my wife but I also like this thing on the side. Is it wrong for me to be happy? he asked. I
said of course not, and I'm like, does your, this girl on the side, is she okay with you
being married. He's like oh she's totally cool. I said, so what is your question to me? He
says, how do I get my wife to get on the board with this thing on the side? He said,
can you help me to help her to understand I want to be happy. I was like wait,
you're coming to me to help you? I'm like, did you tell your wife yet? Of course no,t he
says. I want to get the proper preparation, I want to be. I'm like and how do you think I
can help you to get your wife on board, that she should be. I was like, just go ask her maybe,
she's completely and she will be okay with it. He's like, oh I know she won't be and
I said, why wouldn't she be? I mean, she seems to want you to be happy right? He says,
I just want to be happy. This thing on the side I like because there's kids there. I want to
have a home to come to that's safe and stable but I also want the excitement. I want the
passion, I want the enthusiasm that this other thing offers to me and so how can I have both
of both worlds? I said well go ask your wife. Of course when he asked her that, he had
to sleep in a different house.Things didn't necessarily work out but when I was listening
to him. As dumb, as foolish, as immoral as all of that sounds, I wonder how many of us
have an exactly same approach toward God. You know the devil doesn't mind you dating God. God is jealous about you flirting with the
devil. In fact in James it says the following, James chapter 4 verse 4. It says adulterers
and adulteresses. He's not talking about people cheating on their spouses. He's talking
about Christians and He says, do you not know that friendship, watch this, it
doesn't say that cheating on God, just the friendship. You're not even flirting,
just the friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God and then verse 5. I want you to see the character
of Jesus, the character of the spirit of God. It says, do you think that the Spirit says in vain,
the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. The devil is not a jealous devil. Devil is a
corrupt devil he's a bad devil but one thing devil does not have. He's not jealous. God is, and God
is the only one that has the right to be jealous. For example, if you are cheating on your spouse
the other person is not jealous because most likely they're cheating on theirs. So they
don't have a right to expect all of you for them because they're not giving all of them to
you. Your spouse has the right and entitled to jealousy. Why? Because they gave themselves
to you, they expect nothing less in return. You are not worthy of them, if you're not giving
all of you to them. That's why Jesus says in Mark, He says if you're gonna love somebody else more
than me, He says you don't deserve me. If you don't take up your cross, He says, you don't
deserve me. You're like oh I always felt like I don't deserve God. No, no this is not about
your sin. This is about unwillingness to fully surrender to Him when He, being God, did not owe
anything to us, fully surrender Himself to us. Jesus says, I deserve it and He says, and if you
don't do it like that you don't deserve Me. I'm not saying you won't go to heaven. I'm not saying,
I can't forgive you of your sin but if you want Me you have to be worthy of Me. I'm not expecting
perfection, I'm not expecting just religion, I'm not expecting self-righteousness. What
I'm expecting is your full surrender to Me. Living in the limbo, sitting on the fence,
what does it mean to sit on the fence? When you are on the fence, you got
the best of both worlds. You can on Friday be in the club, on Sunday be at the
Church. And of course you don't want to lose God, because I mean who, I mean we want to believe
in God but also you don't want to lose the fun. So we want to keep the both world's at bay and
many of us this is what we do. We don't enjoy God fully because we have sin and we don't
enjoy the devil fully because we have God. So we're sitting on the fence and are not hurt. bleep that out. Our heart hurts. We're not getting the full of neither
worlds and after a while it's uncomfortable. Guys it's only been two minutes. It's not
comfortable trust me, it's not comfortable, and then you really have to learn to
balance everything. So God forbid you fall from that fence and you usually don't fall
into God, you fall into the other side, Living on the fence means you have enough of
God that you don't enjoy the world, and you have enough of the world that you don't enjoy God,
and for many of us we're like well you know what, why doesn't God get on with the program. That
I want to have both worlds. Well if you're so clever and smart why don't you today, when you are
drinking your coffee or something after lunch have your neighbor spit into it. It's only what, just
a little bit, the rest of it is clean and keep drinking it. It just has a little thing in it. It
spoils the drink see a little bit of the devil, a little bit of sin spoils our relationship with
God and God yearns jealously. Come on somebody the devil does not mind. The devil does not mind
if you put a little bit of God into whatever you're doing but God does mind if you put a
little bit of the devil in whatever you are doing. My dog does not have a problem if I put a little
bit of human food into his bowl but my wife will have a problem if I will put dog food into hers.
If I bring a little bit of dog's food and put it into her plate and say, babe just ignore
the other one, just focus on the good stuff, don't focus on the dog's food. She's going to
say no, I can't eat that anymore. Why? Because that's exactly how many of us feel every walk
every day, there's like ugh, this is not good and God looks in heaven. He says why can't you just
go either to one side or to the other side. So let's read few verses to see that this is not just
a fun illustration. In Joshua 24:14 now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth
put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the
Lord! I want you to notice that God is calling us not just to have a relationship with
him but to have a reverence for him. He says to fear the Lord. And then he's not just
inviting us to believe in the Lord. Watch this, He's inviting us to serve the Lord. Demons believe
and they're going to hell. They're still demons. We're called to serve the Lord. And then
I want you to see verse 15. When you begin to make the decision as a man in the house
especially, it says and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord. Let me just pause for
a second. What is the evil. Heart. Boring. Well one of the reasons why it's boring is
because you've been sitting on the fence. I remember I told that man, I said, one of the
reasons your wife is boring to you is because you're expecting 100 benefits with the 50 input.
One of the reasons Christianity is boring is that because you're trying to get full-time benefits
being a part-time Christian but what would happen if the full-time Christian will give himself to
the Lord. He will experience full-time benefits. For those of you who are working at your job, you
cannot get full-time benefits on a part-time pay. You have to be a full-time worker if you want
the medical, if you want the insurance and all of that. There are benefits in Christianity. We
hear about, it we read about it, we study about it and we're like, why am I not getting it? maybe
I'm just not too spiritual? No, no my friend. If you are sitting on the fence, if you are dating
and flirting with some chica on the side, your wife is not going to be attractive,
your husband is not going to be exciting, there will be no passion. Not because
they're bad. It's because you're divided. And that's why he says, if it's too
hard, if it's evil to serve the Lord, if it's evil to come to night prayer
on Friday. Wwhhaat? Night prayer? If it's evil to tithe. Wwhhaat? It was
completely fine to to smoke your money. It's completely fine to spend it on weed. It was
completely fine to spend it on the strippers. It was completely fine to spend it
on drugs but now if it's too evil to give yourself entirely to God then this is
what I have from the word of the Lord. It says choose for yourself this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods on which your father served that were on the other side of the river
or the gods of Amorites in whose land you dwell. So God is saying this if this is too hard, too
evil, then God is saying please jump off from the fence and go serve the other side, so
at least you can indulge it to the fullest. You owe it to yourself to either enjoy God fully or indulge in sin fully. Don't try to get both of
the worlds because otherwise something will hurt and they will be always at discontent with God
and with the world. Choose one and go with it. For those of you who like but I don't wanna, I
wanna choose both. What if your husband will say the same thing about you and his ex-girlfriend. No
that's wrong. Why is it wrong? It makes him happy. It hurts me. Well the same thing God
says about a relationship with you. It hurts Him. He's a jealous God,
He loves you so much it hurts Him. Somebody with me. And then he says this. As for
me and my house, watch this, if you begin to make the decision to say you know what, I'm not going
to the other side. I'm not just going to sit on the fence. Me, and then, this is the amazing part,
you will always have somebody who will follow the decision. When you start praying your children
will start praying. When you start going after God your children will start going after God.
Your spouse will follow. As for me and my house. It's not just going to be you, your co-workers
are going to get on board, your friends will get on board. It will not just be you. It will be you
and your house. It will be you and the next five years of your life. It will be you and the next
50 years of your life. As for me and my house. Is there anybody in this house who made a decision
to give their life fully to God? is there anybody in this house who made a decision to run after
God? 100 percent give Him some praise right now. Jesus! Jesus! First Kings chapter 18:21 Elijah
challenged the people. How long are you going to sit on a fence? That's a message translation.
How long are you going to sit on the fence. If God is real God. I want you to notice
what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, believe him, they believed in God.
But they also liked little Bael's. They didn't, this is not atheism, these are
not agnostic people who didn't believe in God. They believed in God. They read Torah,
they just simply also liked little Bael because it was culturally acceptable
and everyone around them had Baels not God and so they had both Bael
and God and Elijah comes in and he says, how long are you going to sit on this fence?
He says, isn't something hurting already? He says you're trying to get the best of the both
worlds and he says if God is a real God he says, follow him, if it's Bael follow him. God is not
dissing on other gods that you are attracted to. He just says do me the honor of either following
me or do me the honor of completely unsubscribing, unfollowing. This is what many of us do. Do you
follow some people on instagram that you muted? Raise your hand if you have instagram and you
have people that are muted but you follow them? Come on, come on, be honest. Okay
I might raise two of my hands. Okay now the second hand, did you mute me? I'm
just kidding. I'm just kidding. What does that mean? That means, I follow you because I
don't want you to know if you ever use the software that tells you who unfollowed you. I
don't want you to know that I don't follow you but I also don't want to see you. That's exactly
what we do with God. I follow but I mute Him. Meaning I don't want to see you but I also don't
want you to get hurt that I'm not following you. And that's exactly where Elijah comes and he says
you're following Him in a sense that you believe in Him. You're still the nation of Israel he says.
You just muted Him. You don't see His stories, you don't see Him on your feed, you don't, you're
not interested in Him. And he says I want you to jump off of this fence and he says listen,
just unfollow Him for His sake. He doesn't need an app to know that you're not really following
Him. He knows your heart. He knows where your allegiances and your affections comply. I just
want to challenge today, if you're sitting on the fence and you're a Christian. If you're coming and
checking out Christianity today, some of this just applies to us. My desire is to electrocute this
fence today. So for everybody either fall on this side or fall on that side. We rather have people
who are either making a decision to follow God and those people, because see, we give a bad name
to Christianity because one, we don't enjoy it. So we can't talk about it. We have to
be forced to tell other people. Why? Because we don't enjoy. Why? The drug
addicts don't go to university to sell drugs because they smoke their stuff, and when you
smoke it, you sell it easier because you like it, then you tell other people about it and we
are these Christians who go and they sell hope without smoking it. In other words without living
in it, without enjoying it, without tasting God, that He is good and then we have to be told to do
it. We become a bad testimony about Jesus. It's almost like the Lord is saying, He says hey, let's
just go all the way in. Oh He says, do Me a favor, just go to the other guy if that's what you really
want. Go to the other guy and then just serve him. So the first point that I mentioned is if we
want full benefits of Jesus we need to stop being part-time Christians. Sitting on the fence means
this I have enough of God that I don't enjoy the world and I have enough of the world that I don't
enjoy God and I just have to make up my mind. Do I want to enjoy God but go all the way or do I
want to indulge in sin and go all the way there? And God is not saying don't do the other one.
He just says make up your mind today and that's what Elijah is saying. Of course God wants us not
to go to the other side okay, don't get me wrong. So I don't want to be like, oh my gosh, pastor
told me to go and sin. No, I'm just saying what Elijah is saying to Israel. He says make up your
minds. Nobody said a word. Nobody made a move, but in Hungry Gen we're going to say yes. We're going
to go, go after God and we're going to make a move we're going to go after God. If you believe that
give the Lord a clap offering, come on. If you're watching us on YouTube right now, come on, I want
to see that clap offering emoji. Let us know that you're engaging and you're connecting. Number two.
Jesus is worth everything you're afraid of losing. Jesus is worthy of everything you're afraid of
sacrificing. I'm gonna lose my friends, I'm gonna lose my reputation. Maybe you're going to say,
I'm going to lose my fun, I'm going to lose this or lose that. Jesus is worthy of everything
you're afraid of losing. He's worthy of it. He sacrificed His life for you. He gave His
place in heaven to be on earth to die on a cross and He is truly worthy of everything you're
afraid of losing. There is a fear of loss. One of the reasons we stood on the fence and I want to
be compassionate right now to all of us fence sitters because to some degree I have areas of my
life that honestly I like to sit on the fence too. One of the reasons we sit on a fence
is this. Is we are afraid of losing the other side. We are afraid of losing. It's
one of the reasons why a lot of young men would cohabitate with their girlfriends but not marry
them because they want to keep their options open. Afraid of commitment. Why? What if in case some
other better model comes out on a discount price. I'll just get rid of this one and move on come on.
Let's just just be very honest sometimes people are afraid of, even girls, people are afraid of
commitment. Why? Because I don't wanna lose my freedom, I don't wanna lose my this and my that
and then in relation to relationship with the Lord it's the same thing. I don't wanna lose my
life, even though Jesus clearly clearly states, He says if you follow Me, He says, I want you to
lose your life. Why? Not so that you're dead. It's so that I can give you the life that I promised
you, but the problem is the holding on to this life and then saying Lord can you give me yours.
And Jesus says, I can only give you as an exchange so can you give me. No Jesus, but I still want
to keep mine but can you give me Yours on the top of mine? Jesus says, that's not how this works. I
can't put this new shingles on the top of your old shingles. I need to rip the old shingles off and
then I'll put the new shingles on. That is the way how the renewing, how the remodeling of our life
works and there is a fear in each every one of us. There's that fear inside of me and the fear inside
of you. It's a self-pity it's the thing where we pity our flesh we pity our little desires, our
little sand castles, when God invites us to Disney and we got this little sand castle over there.
We're like no, but this took so long to build. This is so precious, this is so good and this is
so tender and so touchy and God says let me take you to something that is greater than you've
ever seen. I am your creator. I made galaxies, I made the birds, I made the oceans, I made the
oxygen, I wired the systems, digestive system, the bones and everything in your body. I know
what fun is. I know what joy is. I'm not a dumb God. I'm not a religious God. I am not a Christian
God. I am God of all Gods, I am Lord of all Lords, I am the King of all Kings. I am the Maker and I'm
the Alpha and I'm the Omega. I'm the beginning and I am the end, I am the rose of Sharon and I am
the lily of the valleys. I'm the living bread, I'm the living water, I'm the great I AM. I know
you from the inside out. I have the joy that you only dream about. I have the life you only
dream about. Come to me I will give you that, but the Lord is saying there is a price. You
know what the price is? Give me your life I'll give you mine, amen. I flew to Ukraine with
my wife and this was the first time that I flew first class overseas and I can tell you, if you
fly first class overseas God will speak to you. He spoke to me. This is what He said. In the first class, same airplane, same airplane as the people who were sitting over there
on the row 58 by the bathroom. Same plane. I didn't pay for the first class tickets, I was very
fortunate that the friend who invited me, he used his miles to pay for the first class ticket, so
it wasn't, I didn't even ask for that. He just, he was very gentle, very kind.10-hour flight, we
come in, you have a full bed in the first class. Before you even take off they give you socks.
They give you all kinds of like flip flop slippers. You have a toothbrush, toothpaste. You
have these very expensive earphones. It's almost like another kingdom out there. They separated
the righteous from the unrighteous. I literally felt like the wicked and the holy people. You
walk in, people treat you differently over there. Before we even take off, would you like
some beverages? Water with ice please. No sir, we have all of this. They bring a snack,
there's a person that cooks just for you there. So we're sitting there. It's a beautiful
experience, to be able to sleep for 10 hours. And then they brought the meal and I was on the fast.
Honestly people asked me what was the hardest part about the 40 day fast. It was the flight to
Ukraine and the food they brought to my wife. I was in Ukraine, saw Ukrainian food didn't
tempt me as much. When I saw that food next to my wife from the first class,
you know the food, it talked to you. I had to rebuke the devil to not want to taste
that food. Glass not them paper cups. I'm talking about glass cups, everything and this is what
dawned on me. This is where the revelation, the difference between the first class and
the economy we're going to the same place. We got the same pilot and the same airplane,
we just both play paid a different price. One person after the 10 hour flight says my back
hurts. The other one says man this was the best flight of my life. One person sat on the fence and
says this and that hurts and the other person says man I'm living the best life. Both in Christ. Both
going to heaven. Both have Jesus as their pilot. Now don't get me wrong I'm humbled now I fly
only economy everywhere else okay. I want to ask you a question today? Is your Christianity
uncomfortable? Is your Christianity, difficult? Is your Christianity, now you're glad that you
don't have to walk on the ocean, you're flying, you're just glad that you're saved. But there
is a part in Christianity. There is a place in Christ. It's called the first class delta. Delta
one and you don't have to be better than others, have more Bible education. There's just only one
small price and this price is called your life. when you give it at first it seems like
oh this is so high. Jesus is worthy of what you're afraid of giving up for Him and then the benefits come and the benefits
outweigh the price and when they do that, you become a testimony, the fragrance of Jesus.
Not some, please forgive me, a fart of Jesus. Not a skunk of Jesus. When you walk around
and be like,ever since I became a Christian, I can't do this, I can't do that,I can't do that
.You're sitting on the 57th row by the bathroom. You're going to heaven but literally everything
stinks about your Christian life. God wants you to be a fragrance, that when you talk about
the Lord, when you live your life for the Lord, people say I want what they have because you're
a delta one. You are first class because you gave your life for Jesus. He's living His life through
you. Somebody give God some praise right now if you want the abundant life. If you want a new
life. If you want the life that is victorious give God some praise right now. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We give you praise Jesus. Give us your life,
give us your life God the life that is abundant, the life that is victorious. God we lay our life
on the altar we want the first class Christianity. Hallelujah! Thank you God. Thank you Jesus. Thank
you God. Praise you Lord. Number three. The best way to stop sin, is to fully surrender
to God. What some people call a radical, others see as simply a replacement of the prior
allegiance. Galatians 5:16 It says, I say this, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Now i want to appeal to all reason. When we were in the world a lot of us
were without the degree, professional sinners, committed sinners and extremely good at it. The
consequences of our sins we're still paying for it. Our credit score is still bad, the premium on
insurance is still double of what could have been. Still seeing a counselor or therapist from the
things that maybe we went through, things were done to us. But many of us, when we went into the
world against the counselors in schools advise, against our parents against, the scriptural
advice, that we knew it's going to hurt us. We knew that we're going to get an unwanted
pregnancy. We knew that we are we can get a sexually transmitted disease. We knew that we
can get addicted. We knew all the negative side effects but when we went into the world, can we
just be very honest at this holy church today. We did it all the way. On Friday night you
didn't care about your sleep cycle. No, you party until you had no more strength to stand
on your feet and when you didn't have any strength you always had people bring you home and you never
cared how about my sleep. When you paid, you paid all the way. You went all the way. So now that we
came to Jesus, there comes this self-preservation. I want to preserve myself, I want to save myself,
I want to build my life and so, we become this thing where we feel like Jesus is going to make my
life so much better. He's going to take the bad, He's going to give me good but my friend. I
want to disappoint you first to let you know Jesus's number one concern is not to make your
life better. He wants to give you a different Lord before He gives you a different life. When
Jesus, through Moses went to Pharaoh in Egypt he said this to pharaoh. He says, let my people
go that they serve Me. I find it interesting that not once Moses said to Pharaoh, let
my people go because their life is hard, let them go because that's not right
social justice. You're not doing it right, you're mistreating them. Where is their value. All
of these things are right. He says let them go. Why? So that they can serve Me. Now for those
of us who, and i believe in social justice, the Bible talks about it but God wasn't trying
to make their life better at first because if that would have been the case. He would have never
led them through three days of hunger right after their deliverance. God's concern was to give them
a better Lord before He gives them better life. If you get sold on this thing, if I come to
Jesus He'll make me a better life. You will be disappointed with the first stages of your
Christian walk. Jesus is not interested first in giving you better life. He's giving you a better
Lord but this is the challenge I have because i think, if I come to Jesus He'll fix this, He'll
give it to my boyfriend or give me a new one. He'll give me a car. He will take care of this,
take care of that and when we come in and none of that happens and except we get God. And we are
like God ,uh, where's the stuff and God says you got Me. No, but you told me about the stuff and
Jesus first doesn't do the stuff, he does himself. So but what we want is, we say Lord get rid of
the devil so that I can do what I want. See if you get rid of the train tracks for the train the
train can do what it wants. It just it won't get anywhere. You need tracks. The tracks is the Lord.
You can't be your own Lord you have to accept Him as the Lord but some of us want hHm as a spare
tire. We want Him as an insurance card just in case there is hell. I don't want to gamble like
that. The Lord doesn't want to be an insurance card. He doesn't want to be a side chick. He does
not want to be a spare tire. He wants to be your Lord. That's why there will be a disappointment
with Christianity. Everything you read about this , you'll be like what, these people became
a Christian they lost their job, some of these people they lost their life, some of these people
they got thrown into jail. Man I don't want that kind of Jesus. You're missing the big point. He
doesn't just first give life, He gives different Lord because life for Him is doesn't end when
you breathe your last. There is life in eternity but even on this earth He will take you through
promise to promise land but He wants to give you a new Lord. He wants to be your Lord and for
those of us who hashtag rebels who hate authority. Ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do kind
of a people. We're gonna have to destroy that and submit to Jesus. He wants to take the Devil
out who was your monster and put the Lord in who will be your Master. He wants to take you out from
being a slave and make you into a son. Oooh but please understand, Jesus does not do good being in
the trunk. He wants to be a Lord in your life. The best way to overcome certain sins, is not to ask
God to remove them but ask God to replace them. If you spend 400 in cigarettes say Lord deliver
me and 400 is what I'm going to give to church. Why is it wrong to give to God what you used to give to the devil. He won't give
you lung cancer that's for sure. if you spend Friday nights (dances) Your goal is not Lord deliver me. Why, So now
on Friday nights i can study for my exam. Lord deliver me so on Friday nights my church has
prayer and we don't do that, we do this and I'll do that. Don't ask God to remove something you're
not interested in Him replacing it because that's what He's interested in. He wants to replace what
He removes. That's why the Bible says, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. It's
interesting it doesn't say where the addiction is not, there is freedom. God doesn't think it's
freedom if He removes it unless He replaces it. In reality what that means, until He is my Lord
in the area I was bound in, I will never have real freedom. Just because I'm not smoking, laying
around or hanging out with those, maybe they do or addicted to something or I need to go gamble all
of my money. Just because I'm not doing the bad, God's definition is I'm not truly free until
He takes the place the enemy used to control and so that's why full surrender makes sense if we
truly want to be free. And the last thing I want to share with you is, someone is currently living
in revival but unfortunately it might not be you, it might be our sin. I want you to see what
Romans chapter 7 verse 9 says, I was alive once. Maybe you're in this room today and you were alive
once. Perhaps you used to be a Christian on fire for God. Maybe when you knew very little you had
very little responsibilities perhaps when it was just the time, can I take you back right now,
can we hit rewind, can we go back to that time when you just got saved. When you were alive
once. I'm not talking about you were going to heaven but I'm talking about you were spiritually
alive once. Like you found the Bible exciting. It wasn't because you were dumb, you were alive and
it's not that now you have more degrees than the thermometer so the Bible is boring. No, no, you
were alive so the Bible became alive. Christianity wasn't boring, it wasn't because Christianity
is boring, tv is boring if you don't turn it on. It was on you were alive so it was exciting.
He says, I was alive once. But I want you to see this, he said without the law, but when the
commandment came, now we know this speaks of the power of the law not bringing life but bringing
death. How religion doesn't give life but death, but Jesus brings life. But I want you to give a
spiritual application. When the commandment came, commandment is a good thing. Commandment is not
a bad thing but when the commandment came it says this, sin revived and I died. What if your
commandment is your marriage, marriage came. Paul is not saying commandment is bad,
he actually says commandment is holy, its that something else came in that was
good, not a bad thing. Business came, ministry came, influence came,
popularity came, a boyfriend came, a girlfriend came. What is your commandment? What
is that thing that came into your life, that now, you don't have that which you used to have.
Instead you're just living in a limbo, sin revived, netflix revived,
amazon video revived, sipping saints drinking. It's not about the drink but I'm
not getting drunk. It's kind of crazy because nobody actually gets drunk without drinking
first but we'll leave that to another side. Alcohol revived. I just smoked, I heard Charles
Burgess smoked I heard person said one time. You're not Charles Burgess okay.
Something revived. Maybe browsing through, they're not naked girls, they just lack proper
clothing, they're Victoria's who have no secrets. And you're looking through, you're like no
but I'm not looking at the pornography. I'm just kind of looking at the stuff. F-bombs, cuss
words are now completely, it doesn't bother you, like you're just so desensitized it doesn't even
hurt. Before you'll hear like, uuhh ,turn around, and now its like it's completely normal. Something
revived and something died, but why, something came in that's good. Commandment came, I died. So
someone's currently living in revival in your life in your household. My question is this, who is
having revival in your life you or that thing? Mhmm, this is good. I remember last year in
December and I'm preaching to you, please understand, I preached this to myself and hit
myself with this more than I share this with you. We were fasting last year in December and this
verse really reshaped, realigned certain things. Certain things came to my attention personally
in my own life as a believer, not as a pastor, as a believer and I started to notice,
I said, I was alive. The word, was, means I'm not very alive right now. I remember a
time where I loved God more then I love him today, which means I backslid. I'm not talking about
that I need to pray always every year more, but it's that that passion for Him and if I give
a very honest analysis on my own heart and I said, honestly the time when I had nothing, I loved God
way, way more. I didn't know if He is going to pull through i didn't know that He will honestly
give me the things that I have today. I honestly, He gave me nothing at the time just Himself. He
seemed to be enough. He was enough to stain these carpets with my tears. He was enough to grab a
slurpee on Friday night and not having, you know a nice car, not having a car at all, borrow somebody
else's car. Not having a church building and come and just press in and just be with God and so
now the commandment came. Beautiful wife came ,a house came, responsibilities came, speaking
engagements came, books came, being known came, viral videos and ticktok came and I'm just
describing kind of my situation. Other stuff came, friends came and so that came and I kind of
noticed that because you've done it enough, you know how to fool yourself. Because the best
actors aren't in hollywood, they're right here. We know how to put an act. We know how to raise the
right hand at the right place. We know how to say the right stuff because after a while, when there
is no life inside the acting becomes a profession and then you use enough scripture to
make you feel better and I call this the greasy grace. When we simply believe
the grace, you can do whatever you want, God just loves us all. Yes of course He
does but that grace is greasy my friend and this doesn't set us free. And i remember
during that fast i started feeling, I'm like man there is a revival happening in my household,
but you know who has that revival? it's not Vlad at that time. It was netflix. It was having
a revival man. I was tithing every month to it and it was taking a lot of my time and i
was like man i don't want to spend every night in church. I mean why would I want to lose my life
even though I sing about it every Sunday. Lord I want to give you my life but of course we don't
say lies, we sing them. Mhmm. I was like Lord what you want me to give up my Friday night for
what all night prayer meeting. I was like, we got church, we don't need to pray like that anymore.
You have church, you don't have a Carmike theater. But you don't have that revival that I have for
you but it's not why we're fasting and praying and pressing. He says look you are giving and
I'm just going to be very transparent with you and also show what I probably should have not
been doing, is that and I look at that stuff and I see that it's not just watching things.
I'm not against watching a movie or something but there comes a point where you're
no longer watching you're medicating. When you're no longer watching, you're already
numbing something that's hurting and after that whichever you get obsessed with very soon, it's
that which begins to oppress you. Obsession always leads to oppression and then you begin
to notice I'm bleeding, I am numbing myself but I am so scared of what would my life
would look like if I would give myself like that to the lord. It's not that I don't have
an area of my life that I am giving myself to, but what would happen if that, would have been
given to the Lord. And I remember during the fast there was this word that came in. Somebody
has a revival, it's just not you Vlad. I want you to have revival. God says I want to revive you.
I want the other thing to go to sleep. I want the other thing to be boring and uninterested. You
know what really hurt me during the 40-day fast. Two days into it I'm sitting in a group of pastors
and I'm telling them about John Wick movies, Jason Bourne and I know these guys literally
more than I know the disciples of Jesus Christ. Embarrassingly to admit and I asked Ben
Fitzgerald, I said you know John Wick and Matrix? John Wick 4 and Matrix 4 is coming
out on the same weekend. He said John what? I said Wick. You know John Wick. it's in the
Bible. He said what is John Wick? I said, you don't know who that guy is? That theater and
the movie ? Actually as you know who John Wick is, and he looks at me. Now Ben Fitzgerald has
his own obsessions and I won't mention his sins here. That's for him to mention his
sins okay, he's not the holy man of God, we're all sinners. He has his obsessions
and I won't touch about his right now and he mentioned that and something dawned
on me. I said if somebody will put a gun to my head right now and tell me to mention
the 12 names of disciples I will stumble but I know when the next John Wick movie is coming
out and I know that and honestly I got embarrassed right there. And it's fine you know i'll spin
it through something else and but I left and the Holy Spirit just really convicted me and he
says, it's interesting, he says John Wick has a revival in your life. Matrix has the revival,
other stuff He says but I want to have that place, I want you to know about angels, I want you
to know about My voice the same way you know about hollywood, I want you to know the Holy
Spirit. And so we started Friday night prayers and honestly it's really to replace whatever
thing that's numbing us. Some of you might not be in that season right now, where this
connects with you but if your butt it hurts, if your Christianity sucks and you really feel
like man i'm sick and tired of sitting on the 57th row. There has to be something better, why are
other people keep talking about this life that I'm not seem to living. I can tell you there's
just only one secret. You don't have to be a better person, you just have to be a dead person
who surrendered to Christ and you can do that, overcome the fear of loss. Just honestly
I give you a challenge. Just this year, just give one year, not your whole life, just
one year, test God in this. Say Lord in one year I will take what's numbing, medicating, what I
know is not pleasing to You and I will give that time and I will give my life to You and I will run
after You like I did when I was in my early stages and then look back at that year. Next year in
January and see where your life is, did you move to the first class, are you still there and
then make a decision will you continue or not? When me and my wife made a decision to give a lot
of our finances away we did it for one year to see where would our life be. I knew where our life
would be if we saved like we were saving and in that one year not only our finances changed, our
ministry changed. I look back, I am so glad I did not set an offense in the area of extravagant
generosity. When we felt a call to go this year and to fast more than we ever done before, the
40 days seemed like 40 years when you were in it. Now looking back it passed like a breath, it
passed just a quick thing and looking back I am so glad that I did not choose to be afraid of going
further in church. I want to challenge you as your brother in Christ, as somebody who's together
in the trenches with you fighting with the flesh fighting with the devil. Who has troubles, who has
passions and who has desires and who also has sin sometimes in their life. I want to
challenge you could we run after God? let's just go after God. If He is real God let's
go after him. Let's share Jesus. Some of us are so politically filled right now, about vaccines,
about the democrats and the republican. Who needs that nonsense. We need God we're Christians. We're
not republican or democrats, we're not following the donkey or the elephant. We follow the
lamb we need God and we need to run after him. Follow me as I follow Christ, follow your brothers
and sisters as they follow Christ. What would this year look like if you would first prosper
spiritually? What would this year look like if you will have a revival spiritually like you
had six years ago ?What will this year look like if you would love God now that He gave you things,
the way you loved him when you had nothing and you were not sure if you're gonna make it. I was
alive once but the commandment came. I don't want my marriage, prosperity, ministry, influence and
impact to become the thing that kills my passion for God. I want it to be a fuel and my passion
that makes it bigger and larger now that I know that God is faithful, I want to trust Him more,
now that I tested that God is good I want to love him more, now that I tasted that God is faithful
I want to serve him more. Come on somebody.
