Go with me to Matthew chapter 14 and this is
the miracle that's been recorded in all the four gospels. You probably have heard it in the
Sunday school and you have probably have taught it yourself and so, we're going to look at this
scripture right now, how it applies to the vision of our house and how it applies to the role you
can play in this vision. Matthew 14 and verse 13, When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by
boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on
foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude. I want you to notice
if you believe underlining the Bible is not sin, Jesus sees multitudes. He sees nations, He
sees the world. God is not a little God. God is not trying to just build a religion. He
is the creator of heaven and the earth and He loves every human being and every human being
has a value in His eyes. They are made in His image and likeness and He loves everyone.
Now, my grandma has and she is right here, grandma Maria. Everybody say Hi to Grandma
Maria. She's looking awkward, she's like She has 16 children, one husband and I have to
make that, my grandpa already passed on to glory and imagine my grandma's 16 children
going on a vacation. They didn't do vacations though. So I'm just saying imagine
because at the time, when they grew up, this was not possible and imagine my grandma
going with 16 children on the vacation. On the way back from the vacation, they realized
halfway through it that five kids are missing. Lost them somewhere on the rest area. Imagine my
grandma looking to my grandpa and saying not a big deal, we still got 10 here. Good success rate
actually. If you look at the percentage level, 5 out of 15, I mean still good
number majority is still with us. Now, it's funny but no parent will ever
look at their family through percentages Why? Because you don't do math on kids, every
one of them matters. In fact, if you would only lose one kid out of 15, what you would do is you
would create a chaos, right. You will go back. Your schedule will be thrown out of the way, out
of the window. You will try to find that one kid. Why? Because I mean we even do that with wallets.
You lose a wallet and you go and turn the house over look for a wallet right. We do that with car
keys and we do that with children. So I want you to notice that when God looks at the Tri-Cities,
He does not think and look at Tri-Cities through math, oh 10% goes to church, hallelujah, we're
winning Jesus. No God looks at Tri-Cities and even if one person does not know Him, one person
is hurting and suffering, God will leave the 99 and go for the one. So God loves you so much
and you may say, I don't want God. I don't want to be with God, please understand, He doesn't
have the luxury of looking at our city through percentages. He loves every single human being
because they are made in His image and likeness. Every human being that is far from God
today that lives in sin, please understand, I know we have advancement in technology, I know
we have advancement in science, I know we have advancement, our phones are smarter, our cars are
faster, everything is better but sin is still sin. Sin did not change to becoming less sinful. The
devil has not stopped being less devil. Demons have not stopped tormenting people. Sickness
still hurts people. Depression still hurts people. Addiction still destroys people whether
they are poor or rich, homeless or millionaires, sin is still the same. Demons are still the same
and God is still the only solution and His Son Jesus Christ and therefore when God looks at our
generation, when He's looking at you right now, when He's looking at you right now, and hundreds
and thousands of people, He is moved with compassion because He's a father. What you call
in our community, oh they're gay people, they're trans people, oh they don't love God people.
They don't want to do anything with God, they're rebels, they're heathens, they're deconstructed.
See, we have the ability to label people. When you're a parent, you don't label kids. You
hurt for them. You bleed for them. You suffer and I want us today to not have a view of a
Christian but have a view of the Father toward our city and not to think like disciples that the
Bible says Jesus had compassion on the multitudes. Jesus why? Because that's exactly why the father
and the mother would go back to wherever they left their child and look for one. That's exactly
what you would do when you lose a wallet, that's exactly what you would do when you
lose keys, you go and you look for that stuff. The Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes for one. The
Bible says, He saw the multitudes. The scripture says, He had compassion on the multitudes and then
thirdly, He healed the multitudes. Your therapist, your doctor, medication, they all have their
limits, only the Creator can fix what is broken. Only Jesus. What you heard today, He can deliver
the captives. You can have a program on your computer that tries to control your urges but
only Jesus can help you be delivered from them. You can go to a psychiatrist to help
you deal with your feelings but only Jesus can help you to find forgiveness in
spite of all of that and maybe you're here today and the world can help you to manage
your sin, only Jesus delivers us from it. I want to challenge you today to let you know
that Jesus is not outdated because advancement in technology, advancement in medicine and
advancement in everything, I mean the stuff that how amazing that the stuff we have in our
world today with cars and technology and science is incredible. None of it have come closer one
degree to solve the sin problem. None of them. There's only one name that can do that and that
is Jesus. You can have a fast car, you can have a smartphone and still be in need of Jesus Christ.
Why? Because none of that can fix a problem of sin and I want you to notice this that Jesus heals the
multitudes, He has compassion on the multitudes and He sees the multitudes. There's one more thing
He cannot do without His disciples and that is He can't feed the multitudes without them and so
disciples come to Jesus with this brilliant idea. If we go to verse 15, we're going to
do a little bit Bible reading today. Verse 15 says, When it was evening, that
means its getting late. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a
deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into
the villages and buy themselves food.” Great idea Jesus, we tired. Jesus, it's been enough and
this is Pasco, our Sanctuary fits 200 people, we can't do anything more,
send the multitudes away. Let's wait for the new building. So I want to
speak just briefly into our church right now. We have to be very careful that we don't
make our Kennewick building into an idol by postponing Revival until we move into
Kennewick. We have to be very careful that we don't allow new people to come to know Jesus
because we're waiting for the new Kennewick building to be finished. From now until next year
Christmas, in this year and a half or two years, we can see thousands of new people being healed
and delivered. Jesus is not in heaven and saying, oh I'm gonna hold on with healing. I'm gonna hold
on with deliverance and I'm gonna hold on until you guys finish building. And many times, we have
this attitude, I'll be honest with you, I relate with disciples because I would be like saying
Jesus we really can't do anything right now, because we don't want to do like a fourth
service. We're tired with three services, doing one more is just exhausting. Jesus also
there is no other place we can rent because we checked out Pasco High district and they're
not available for us to use their facility, we went to Kennewick High School District but you
know it's going to be a nightmare with children's church and all of this stuff so there's just
Jesus, we just need to, could you keep the people away from our church for the next two years
until we get into a new building. But see Jesus doesn't think like that. We have to understand
is that that's how we think, why? Because we love Mediocrity. We love convenience. A guy was fishing
one time and every time that he caught a big fish, he put it back into the lake. A guy next to him
was fishing. Noticed that so he had a question, Why do you do that? So he came up to him
and he said, Listen I've noticed you, you're fishing but you're throwing all the
big fish into the lake. What's the problem? He says, oh it's a very simple problem.
At home, I have a small frying pan. So he's like if the fish doesn't fit the frying
pan. I have to put it back into the lake and the guy's like well have you ever thought about buying
a bigger frying pan. He's like no, it's way too expensive and that's how many of us are. We simply
postpone what God wants to do to another season. Why? Because we have a small frying pan. Now, in
the beginning, we're saying no Vlad we don't have a small frying pan, we have a small facility
but see the problem is not a lot of times with facility, the problem is with our mindset and
the problem is with our convenience. If you're taking notes, write a few things down, one of
them is there is no compassion in convenience. Compassion will take you out of convenience and
convenience will take you out of your calling. Anybody who's ever done parenting you know one
thing, convenience cannot be your number one goal. You can't raise children in convenience.
Children will create inconvenience because you cannot have compassion if you're
addicted to convenience. So what happens is when we want to fulfill the calling of God
in our life as a church or as Christians, we must understand there's going to be a cost and
a lot of times, the cost is not you dying on the cross and many of us are like man, I'll die for
Jesus. Can you endure inconvenience for Jesus? Because Jesus isn't asking you to be nailed
to the cross today He's just asking you to endure a little bit of inconvenience and
for disciples that inconvenience was simply, ah we're gonna miss our bedtime and that means
we're gonna stick around with people for about five more hours and we really want to go home.
I really want to hit my pillow. I really want to have my mom cook my food. I really don't want
to stay with these people for another four hours, it's a little bit of inconvenience that I have
to endure and Jesus's compassion causes Him not to be addicted to convenience. Convenience is not
bad but please understand, don't let convenience rob you from your calling. You cannot fulfill your
calling and live in convenience. You cannot have compassion and be addicted to convenience. You
cannot be mature and be addicted to convenience because the first thing the love of God will do in
your life is to break you out of your convenience. I don't want to park at The Seventh-Day
Adventist Church. Convenience issue. We don't want to have another service in a gym.
I don't want to sit in the service and watch the guy on the screen. Convenience problem. It's
interesting, I just got a testimony right here of a person who watched the video last week about
homosexuality, he was a Christian, married to a gay man, going to church, watched the video and
God convicted him so much he left this comment and reached out to me personally and got divorced
with his homosexual husband, the next day. A video If our ministry touches the world through video,
God can use even the video to touch people's lives but see for a lot of us, it's not that God can't
move, it's that there is a small frying pan called a limited mentality but this limited mentality
is pushing hearts of Jesus into Jesus you have to conform to my convenience. Jesus please reduce
Your big vision to the level of my comfort. Jesus come on, You got to consider my feelings. What would happen if Jesus would have
chose convenience instead of the cross? What would happen if instead of becoming an embryo, growing in the womb of Mary, being
delivered and growing, learning to walk, the God who made feet learns to walk. The
God who made the globe, learns to sleep and do all of this stuff. What would happen
if Jesus would say that's not convenient. The cross, that's not convenient. I am so glad He
didn't choose convenience, He chose my salvation. And therefore today if I have to embrace a little
bit of discomfort to express His compassion to a dying world which means if I need to come in a
little bit early, if I need to go a little bit later, if I need to give all my resources,
I would do it with pleasure. Why? Because compassion cannot live in the heart addicted to
convenience. I cannot fulfill my calling if I am addicted to convenience. I have to be in love with
Jesus Christ and His heart has to impress mine, stretch my heart and even if I don't care about
souls, I spend my life at the feet of Jesus and Jesus pours out the love of the Father into
my heart by the Spirit and I begin to think of souls and I begin to think of the price I can
pay so that I can have the compassion of Jesus, stretch my heart and so I can see revival
through my life today. I'm preaching to myself. Can somebody say, Amen. Not to the part that I'm preaching to myself but to
the part about convenience. Convenience says, ''There are many obstacles."
Compassion says, "This is an opportunity''. This is an opportunity. There is a loss. There
is a cost of overcoming challenges that we have on our way but Church there's also a greater
cost of a lost opportunity of seeing miracles, young people being raised and us, in a year
and a half seeing hundreds of people going from darkness to light, going from sickness to healing,
going from being demonized to being delivered. Pastors who left ministry, people who
deconstructed from Christianity finding their faith again because we refuse to be addicted
to convenience. The big idea at the root of all of this exists this that what the church is, the
church is about you or is the church through you to the world. Because if the church is about me,
then it's about my convenience. But if the church is about His vision then I have to be willing if
necessary lay my convenience at the altar and pick up His compassion for the world. So while we are
going into a fourth service because right now, we have no choice and we feel obligated to Jesus
to live out His mission as a church in these last days to reach more people for Him. The other part
I have a feeling, I could be a hundred percent wrong so I'm just gonna say what if the fourth
service will also be the fifth service in the gym. What if before we move into a new building, we
will have another campus in Richland, next year. What if when we move into the Kennewick
building, there will be a Pasco campus, Richland campus and Kennewick.
What if something new is happening. See the devil showed up at the Grammys
and God showed up at the University. Woke garbage showed up at our movie theaters so
did Jesus Revolution and Come Out in Jesus Name, next month. It's almost like God is saying, God
is flexing His muscles and saying, I'm gonna raise faceless nameless, I'm gonna raise young people.
I'm gonna fill them with power and in this hour, in this day and age, they will make a difference.
There's a lot of churches that have multi-campuses around the United States but our church, I'm not
saying we're better which is different and there is a hunger for the move of the Holy Spirit, for
deliverance, for the miracles with Bible teaching, with discipleship that's around the world.
We're meeting these people everywhere today, what if all this is a setup for launching a Bible
College online for people to be discipled and open their homes like in the Bible for revival where
these services that we have here will not only be streamed to a gymnasium somewhere in Richland
but to somebody's home in California, somebody's home in Toronto, somebody's home in Texas and then
these homes could become hubs and then they could become campuses. We were given prophetic words
when we only had 20 of us here that churches will be started like popcorn. We laughed at
that and we looked at that word like Sarah did when Angel of God or the Lord says, you will
be pregnant. She was like, haha that was funny. And God made her seed laughter. Isaac means
laughter but not in the mocking laughter but in the laughter word this was impossible but it
became possible. What if God is setting us up and preparing and maybe we wouldn't think of these
ideas ourselves but sometimes when God presents a problem, He allows the problem that comes in
and there is no other solution except you have to explore something that is innovative,
something that is different and God says, I can do a miracle with that. You thought this
was an obstacle but actually it's an opportunity. You thought this was a limitation but actually
it's an invitation for Me to do something that I always wanted to do. I wanted you to get to your
bottom so that I can get all the glory, use your five loaves and two fish to multiply My power, My
effectiveness, My glory and to touch the world. Amen. And so what begins to happen then is
disciples say of course, we don't want to do it and Jesus says verse 16. “They do not need
to go away. You give them something to eat.” An one of those mornings this is the verse that
threw the bottom off of my feet, it wrecked me where I felt the Lord say, I'm not concerned
with your building. I'm concerned with people. I will give the funds for the building but that
building is a tool, that building is not the goal. They do not need to go away meaning, we can't
tell people honestly, forgive me for the language I'm going to say, you guys can go to hell
or come back until we get a new building. God doesn't want us to think like that. They
do not need to go away, you find a solution. You find an answer. So God throws the challenge
to us because a limitation is time for innovation. It's time for it's an invitation. God is saying we
can work together. I can figure out a solution. So what can we do. So there are three things I want
to leave you with. Number one is I already have mentioned this, alluded to this earlier is that
our limitation is actually an invitation for God to do a miracle and God can do this miracle if
we submit this instead of make excuses and maybe you're here today and you have limitation, you
have lack of this, lack of that, not enough of this, not enough of this, not connected, not
having enough resources, I don't have enough money, I wasn't born in the right tracks, whatever
the excuse is and that's what the excuse I said, our Sanctuary is too small. Nobody's renting,
we can't find any other place and then you know when we were in Colombia kind of calling Pasco
district, Kennewick district, calling different churches, seven-day adventist churches as well
because they don't meet on Sundays looking at everything and then I remember, me and Ilya looked
at each other and we said, wait we have a gym, it fits 200 people, why don't we use it. I
mean it's not ideal nor did five loaves and two fish was ideal but it was enough for Jesus
to do something and when we started to pray and say okay what if this limitation is actually the
Lord inviting us and say think outside of the box. What if your personal limitation right now, what
would happen if instead of you come up with an excuse why nothing can happen in your life,
you actually find some faith and you say, I can't do it. This is not enough to meet the need.
This is not enough but it's actually just enough in the hands of My master. What could He do with
it. I know what I could do. Absolutely nothing. Eat and I'll be hungry again in two hours
and if you're a teenager, in 30 minutes. But what could Jesus do with it?
I will never know until I try. And the Bible says this, we have here only five
loaves and two fish only meaning, it's not enough. Again it's not enough for us but it's enough in
the hands of Jesus, that's one of the reasons why in two weeks from now, the first Monday and
Tuesday and Wednesday we will go into a three-day fast as a church. Why? Because every territory
we go physically, we first go spiritually. This is God's work. Jesus wants to
advance His kingdom, it's not about us. Notice this about these buildings if God could use
a university at Asbury, He can use our gymnasium, He can use this auditorium, He can use us,
can somebody say Amen. The second thing I want you to notice is verse 18. Very short
verse, Jesus says “Bring them here to Me.” So the first thing I mention is that our
limitation is an invitation for God to do a miracle. The second thing that I want to mention
and that is stress does not produce supernatural, surrender does. Stressing over the fact that
you have very little, complaining over the fact that God didn't give you enough, comparing your
little with somebody else's, feeling inadequate doesn't produce miracles,
tears don't produce miracles but you know what produces miracles not
complaining but surrendering what you do have. It a 100% is not enough but God isn't looking for
a lot. Supernatural is God adding His super to your natural and God never compares your natural
with your neighbor's natural. He says, yours is enough if you surrender it to Me. The little
that you have is enough if you give it to Me. The little time that you have, the little talents
that you have, the little gifts that you have if you give it to Me then I will do the rest. Now,
one thing that I want to highlight here is this. Jesus did not tell the boy because in John chapter
6 it says, it was the lad who had the five loaves and two fish, it wasn't the disciples. Jesus did
not tell the boy to go and feed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish. Jesus told
the boy to give those loaves and fish to Him and He's the one that did the miracle. Something
I want to highlight to people that are serving at the local church, people that are giving the local
church and people that are giving of their gifts and talents, it's important that you realize you
are not serving people when you're serving people, you're pleasing God. Let me say that again,
when you're serving people, you're pleasing God. If you miss the God component in serving
people, you will always be disappointed. You bring it to God first. When
we gave our funds to the building, it was into the building. Come on, we
know that better, we brought it to God. When we show up here and we serve on the
parking lot, when we serve in the kids ministry, when the worship team serves very early, we
are not doing it for people. We're first and foremost doing it for God. So when people will
not like it, when people will not receive it, it doesn't throw us off, we will continue to do
it. Why? Because it's God we're seeking to please. Now, if you're doing it only so that
you can impress people, please people, serve people and they will take a bite out of
your loaf and say this is not cooked really well, you will get discouraged. You say look at these
people, they don't like what I have. I got church hurt, that's it, I'm deconstructing. I'm walking
away from Christian faith. Why they just did not accept me. The church did not provide a place
for my gifts to shine. The church did not treat me well, other people didn't treat me well and the
hurt begins to build up. Why? Because you miss the component that it goes to Jesus first. Jesus does
something with it, gives you back in a broken form and then you give it to the people. I've been in
ministry in the full-time ministry for 20 years and I can tell you one thing and you guys can
testify, everybody who's been in the church for a long time, the church is full of imperfect
people. Church is a place where it attracts immature people and one of them is you. One of
them is me who are in process of sanctification. Church is full of people just like your family.
Crazy one. That's always the church just a larger one. Imagine your crazy family multiplied by a
hundred, that's what church is a bunch of crazy people. Now, they look all nice on Instagram
and they look all nice on Sunday morning, that's why some of you are afraid to go to a
small group, so they don't find that you're crazy. And some of you, you're afraid to go to a
small group, so that you don't find out who else is crazy because if you're crazy, they're
crazy, we're gonna have a really a lot of crazy. But see what keeps you grounded in the church
is if you fix your eyes and giving you five loaves and two fish, not to Peter, not to John,
not to Bartholomeo, not to other disciples and not to the crowd but you bring it to Jesus
and say Jesus, it's You I'm giving this to. Lord, I'm preaching to please you. Lord I'm
guiding cars in a parking lot to please you. Lord I'm emptying my bank account to please you for
the building fund. Lord I suffer for you. Lord I'm doing this for you. Use me for the people Lord but
it's you that I'm trying to please. When Jesus was dying on the cross, may I remind you in the Garden
of Gethsemane, He didn't say Father I can't wait to get beaten. Father, could we make this goal
faster? I can't wait to get whipped. No, He didn't say that you know why? Because He didn't want to
die. You know why He did to please the Father. I don't believe that He did just because
He absolutely loved to be beaten, He did it because He really wanted to honor and
to fulfill His Father's request. So I want to challenge you sometimes, ministry will get you
to a Garden of Gethsemane where you honestly don't want to do it, where your motivation fizzles
out and the reason why it fizzles out is because the motive that fuels motivation is wrong. What
is the motive, to be seen, to explore my gifts, to touch the world. All of that is great until
you reach Garden of Gethsemane. All of that is great until the very people you're trying to
please don't seem to appreciate, acknowledge and honor and the devil fills your mind with
thoughts, drop it, it's not worth it, do you know you're not even doing anything worthwhile.
Nobody appreciates it, nobody's rewarding it but see if you keep going back on your knee and
you're saying what Jesus did, Father it's not My will but Lord is that what You want me to do if
the answer is yes, I will gladly take the cross. I will gladly deny myself and I will walk after
you Jesus, serving the world for you Lord Amen. So this vision that Jesus has, we have to look at
what we have is enough for Jesus to use. Secondly, we bring it first to the Lord. You bring your
gifts to the Lord. Some of you brought your gifts to the church but you didn't bring it to God.
You came to church and you want Vlad to notice you and he did notice you. It's just there's
nothing I can do. You have to bring it to God but I want him to notice it. No you don't. Because
it is God who will take the little that you have and He will break it and He will sanctify it
and He will return you back that thing and then now it will begin to do miracles,
it will begin to change people's lives Amen. The last thing I want you to notice is
that Jesus takes the bread, He multiplies it, gives back the disciples and I want you
to see this in verse 19. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, He took
the five loaves into fish looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves and gave it
to the disciples and disciples gave it to the multitudes and they all ate and were filled and
they took up twelve baskets full of fragments that remained. Now, those who have eaten were
five thousand men besides women and children and the last thing that I want to share with
you and that is this is that God will increase what we have, He will multiply what
is given away not what is stored away. When Jesus blessed the five loaves and two
fish, they still didn't multiply. He only broke them. They only multiplied when
the disciples gave those loaves away. You can be gifted and anointed and you can be
called by God and that calling will not increase until you serve, give, exercise. For example, all
of us have muscles. Some of us, they're buried under deep layer of tons of other substance
that even fasting couldn't break through. You don't come to God and say Lord, give me
muscles. You typically go to the gym and you exercise the muscles that you have and they
increase. When you receive the Holy Spirit, when you receive the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, a lot of you already have received gifts you don't even know you have. They're just
buried under the layer of excuses and laziness. They're buried under the layer, I don't have
what it takes. I'm just not, my body is not made like this. I'm just you know just my body
and you keep blaming your body but in reality, if you're only seeing cheetos and you don't see
the gym, don't blame your body. It's your choices. Same thing with spiritual. Exactly same thing
with ministry and spiritual gifts. People say exactly the same thing, ah just God didn't give
me enough gifts. I'm just, God didn't call me to be that. But in reality all of that is just bunch
of excuses. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, if you are speaking in other tongues, if
you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you already have so much more in you than you
realize but it's like a muscle, you don't just come and say Lord, give me more because it's
okay pray for you, you got another prophecy, it's like same thing as you saying okay I'm gonna
subscribe to a fitness instructors and every night I will watch fitness videos. Therefore I'm going
to have bigger muscles by watching fitness videos. So you watch the first day, you watch 20
fitness videos, after that you just feel worse by yourself. The second day, you're depressed
and the third day, I am not wired to be fit. Because you don't become fit by watching
videos, you become fit by exercising. You don't become powerful when God breaks the five
loaves and says look at you, have it. Yeah, I gave you five, you gave me ten but because you broke
it. Jesus, I need a miracle not for you to break it. Yes but multiplication does not happen when I
break it. It happens when you give it. I blessed it, you can multiply it by releasing it but if
you bury that talent in the ground, it will remain one. If you store that in your savings account,
you will only get an interest rate of your bank's account but if you begin to give away, you will
begin to see the increase and multiplication. People sometimes ask well how do I
grow in my spiritual gifts. My friend, you have to start with little. If the little
that you have, Hey I can help with children. Do you know how much help we need in
children's ministry. For those of you who may be like oh but I'm too anointed for
children's ministry. Well that's a problem but Pastor you don't understand, I have a gift,
a powerful gift that means you can guide cars in the traffic. No no no, I need something bigger
than that. Well you can do that in the lobby then guide people in the lobby. No I need something
with the podium. See then you're not looking for a dark place to shine in, you are looking
for a place that has light so you can shine in. Light does not need well-lit stage. Light lights
up the dark places. You are a light. Your gift is an answer to somebody. You need to find a need
and fill it, water the Bible says that those who believe out of their innermost will flow rivers
of water that means that God is looking for you to have an outlet not just to have an inflow. Many
Christians have become bottles, they received from God. Jesus broke it multiplied blessed it and give
it and they're not seeing any results because the water has to come out but I want you to notice
it's the water that's coming out not rocks. If you notice rocks are stubborn. A rock comes into
the room and says, if you don't open the room, the door my size I'm not getting out. That's how so
many people are. They come in they're like, I can only do this in the church and that's it I only
have this gift. I have this education and I have this gift. I cannot do anything else really like
you can't like sweep. You can't like clean. No. See the Bible says what will flow out
of you is water. Water is flexible. It's fluid. You don't have to open
the door for water, a crack will do, that means that we have to be flexible to serve
where the need is. I started on the worship team, thankfully they kicked me out. But I
would not know that leading worship wasn't part of my gift until
I wouldn't get into that room. I've tried other things. People sometimes say how
do you get better at preaching by preaching more, studying more and preaching more. When I
was in my younger days as a youth pastor, most people don't realize I preached at
least about three times a week. People's like yeah but I want to preach three times a
week, nobody's giving that to me, jail does. Homeless shelter does. Parks don't have signs says
don't preach. YouTube does and a lot of us what we do is again we're like rocks, stiff, if you
don't open the door, nobody loves the gift, nobody allows that. No no just give what you have, where
you can give and it will begin to grow and it will begin to multiply and then God will begin to open
opportunities and God will begin to bless you and give you His grace and so instead of coming to
church and saying is there a room for my gift, you simply say is there a need I can serve in.
I want to grow the church not just grow my gift. I'm not here to use the church to build my name.
I'm here to use my name, my gifts, my resources to build the church Jesus died for. Come on somebody.
The gifts will grow, the gifts will multiply, the anointing will increase if you will begin to
give of yourself up. A few years ago, we went to Israel with our team and we went to a dead sea and
Dead Sea is beautiful if you've never been to Dead Sea, I would encourage you at least one time in
your life to go into it or put a lot of salt in your bathtub and pretty much it could be a Dead
Sea. A dead sea is it 30 miles long, nine miles wide. Its shoreline is 1300 feet below sea level.
Seven million tons of water evaporates every day. Salt content is 10 times saltier
than the oceans of the world. Now, Dead Sea is so salty that only bacteria
can survive there. It's the lowest point on earth. You can float but nothing can grow
there. Plants can't live there, fish die. Why? It looks beautiful. On the outside, it looks
good. You can have so much fun in it but there's no fruitfulness in it. Now, River Jordan flows
into the Dead Sea but nothing flows out of it. There's another sea in Israel. It's called the
Sea of Galilee. We hear miracles about it. The Sea of Galilee is different. The Sea of Galilee is
smaller but it has life. It's 13 miles long, seven miles wide. It's the largest freshwater lake.
20 types of fish live there. See, Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and it flows out. Jordan
flows into the Dead Sea and it doesn't flow out. One has so much salt, everything dies and see some
of us are the salt of the world, we're too salty, we're so salty only bacteria lives in us and one
characteristics we're not volunteering, we're not serving, we're not giving. Statistics says that 20
percent of the church does 80 percent of serving. Only twenty percent of the church is responsible
for eighty percent of all the giving. So that tells us church I want to invite you today
not just to be someone that others can float in but be something that grows life. Begin
to serve. I want to invite you to begin to serve. Don't preoccupy yourself, what gift
you have. Look for where there is a need, we have too many people trying to discover their
gift and too little people trying to deny their selfishness and build the kingdom of God. Your
gift will become evident with time. When I was started at 13, I wasn't looking for my gift. I
was just looking for an opportunity where I can help. It started with folding chairs and setting
up our sound system, early before the service but that's what the need was. It was later on that
the gift started to become more apparent. Other people spoke into it. Don't start right away with
what are my gifts is, where is the need. Now, some of you may be starting with the place but I don't
have a passion for it. Well you're old enough to do something that you don't like and put a smile
on it. You're not a baby. So sometimes there are things you will do not because you like it but
because there's a need. Every parent knows that. Every husband knows that, every wife knows that
and so if there is a great need, we look for the need not for the passion and then you will find
the passion and hopefully later on, you'll do something that you're super passionate about.
As this new service is starting in few weeks, I want you to prayerfully consider those of you
who come at 10 am service and you love HungryGen, you just not connected really anywhere and of
course, I know you got 20 million reasons, I forgot about them or maybe you feel like you don't
have anything to offer, I want you this year. Do you want to make some
progress, stop making excuses. Put those excuses aside and humble yourself
and say you know what, I'm gonna serve once a month. You know what, I'm gonna go
to a small group and yes there's a danger, I'll warn people in a small group, crazy might
show up. So be patient but you will grow. You will become a better Christian. The world will become
a better place because of you. There are some of you here today and you always talked yourself out
of giving because well you just don't understand, I have so much debt and have so much stuff and
so much really excuses what if you would give God the little that you have, watch
Him multiply it, watch Him multiply. You know last year before our generosity
Sunday, a few months before that pastor Ilya, Paul we're meeting and Paul presented how much
the building would cost gave me almost like a little heart attack and then we looked at how
much money we raised last year for 11 months for the building which was 137,000 dollars
but we needed 3.5 I felt sick to my stomach because I knew that you know we have a problem. So
I went back home and I really felt that hopeless, what can we do 3.5 million and we barely, we're
not even scratching the surface and we don't want to go into this hyper mode of fundraising.
I don't like that, we're a local church and I was like God, people have given all they could.
There's nothing we can do God, you have a problem And after I finish complaining, felt a
still small voice ask this one question, what do you have? I said God,
what does this have to do with me? You have a problem God and we don't talk about me,
whatever I have is not enough plus okay just FYI, it's not enough. He says, yeah it's not enough
to pay for the building but it's enough for you to obey Me and I can do something. I said, God
it doesn't make sense in my head if I give what I have, it still won't solve the problem and God
says, you're giving it to Me not to the building and I remember when I presented to my wife and
you know my wife first was also very hesitant as I was and then I let it kind of marinate because
you know the Holy Ghost kind of knows how to talk to people and stuff and then few months later,
I remember my wife looked at me and she says you know what, I think we have to take our five
loaves compared with our need at the church it's not enough. She says but we have to do our
part and we have to trust for a miracle that we will see as we give our best, we believe for a
miracle. This is going to be a miracle, there's nothing short will do. Interestingly, that Sunday,
first Sunday of December as we took that step and gave what we had. Now, it didn't seem fair it
because this was our lunch. This was our savings, we prepared for it for ourselves, we didn't plan
for somebody else to eat it, us and looking at that little lunch leaving our hands, it did feel
death and a funeral. You know three services later somebody else gives exactly the same amount.
Two weeks later somebody else gives the same amount and in two and a half months, we raised
800,000 dollars for the building in two months. God started to move upon people. Right here,
I'm holding a letter from a businessman who donated an LED screen outside. People who
started to come even from outside of town and including Tri-Cities could don't even go to
our church and said, I will help with painting. My company will take care of painting, you
buy the paint. What I started to notice is this is it started a domino effect. I'm not
saying, I did anything because it was simply an obedience with what you have to God. See God is
responsible for your miracle. You're responsible for your obedience. God is responsible to
do a miracle in your finances but you're responsible to do a miracle of obedience. When
you say God, I trust you with the little. Lord, I give you the little. I'm not gonna stress out.
I am not gonna be walking in depression. I am not gonna live this year in anxiety. I will give you
what I have and I will trust you for what I need. I will give you what I have and I will trust
you for what I need. Come on somebody. This is a word for somebody. I will give
you what I have and I will trust you for what I need. I will give you my
children. I will give you my broken marriage. I will give you my broken past
Lord, I will trust you for the future. God is gonna do it for HungryGen and God is going
to do it for you in Jesus name. God is going to do it for you for those of you watching us on live
stream because this is the year of miracles. This is the year where we take limits off of God. This
is the year where God will open the floodgates of heaven. This is the year that we're gonna see
prodigals come back home. This is the year, we'll see marriages being restored and addictions being
broken, sickness is being healed in Jesus mighty name. Barren wombs will be opened, blind eyes
will be opened, deaf ears will be opened where God will take limits off of our church, where
God will take us to a level we only dreamed of. He's the God of miracles. Somebody shout, Amen.
I want you to place your hand upon your heart And say Lord help me to be obedient, whatever
that is help me to be obedient. Miracles is Your specialty, obedience is mine. Come on just tell
it to God. Maybe you're believing for healing, maybe you're believing for deliverance,
maybe you're believing for a breakthrough, maybe you're believing for a husband or a wife,
maybe you're believing for this harvest and you say this is not possible. There is no way this
is going to happen, leave the miracles to God, promise Him to be obedient. Just tell
Jesus, say Jesus, I will be obedient. Miracles is Your job, obedience is mine.
I will serve where you want me to serve. I will love. I will forgive. I will give.
I will be molded to your image Jesus. Promise Him you're obedience right now, promise
Him to obey, promise Him to do what He asked you to do, He will turn water into wine. He will turn
your debilitating disease into a healing report. He will take those cancer cells and turn it into
a healing report. Only God will do what God can do but God says can you give me the loaves, I will
see the masses but could you provide the loaves. Could you give Me the little bit of faith that
you have. Could you give me this problem right now into My hands, I will do a miracle. But I ask you
for your participation. I ask you for your faith. Hey! Thanks for watching this video. If you
enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you, would you help us and hit thumbs
up, so that it could help more people to discover this video. It costs you nothing but
it can go a long way to help with the algorithm as well as if you're not subscribed to our
channel, hit subscribe, click on the bell, so that you can be reminded each time that we
upload videos. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you're interested in
learning more about Hungrygen, our internship, our conferences, deliverance and so many
other things go to hungrygen.com for more information and as always, remember, 'Better
is not good enough the Best is Yet to Come.'
