Transcription
If you have your Bible, would you go together with me to Gospel of Matthew 12:43, 44, and 45?
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest, and finds none. Then he said, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it shall be with this wicked generation.
HungryGen's vision is to lead people to encounter God daily. HungryGen's values are things of how we treat each other. One of those values is health. One of those values is forgiveness. One of those values is trust. But HungryGen also has something. So all these define our culture. It's called unique characteristics. Unique characteristics are kind of what makes HungryGen, HungryGen. It's things like prayer and fasting. It's things like reaching the lost. You know, in first service, we had over 10 people give their life to Christ. It's who we are. We are all about souls. HungryGen is also all about making disciples. It's why we have life class. It's not just about being a believer on Sunday morning. It's being a disciple. We're also all about reaching the next generation. We're not just saying this. We're putting our money where our mouth is at, and we're walking through it, reaching schools, and currently 12 schools in the state of in our area, and then 20 in our state, and as well Oregon. We're also into thousands locally and millions globally. It's not just about the local church here. It's about being a hub that launches churches that will be planted by men and women that will be released out of this house and go to or all around the world. Amen.
But there's one thing characteristic of HungryGen that you must know about. And we don't talk a lot about it anymore because it's part of kind of who we are. We all know it, and we do it. And if you're new, this might be a little bit strange, but this is not strange. It's a ministry of Jesus. And that is confronting the demonic. And one of the things that we like to say as part of our characteristics is that everywhere Jesus went, He healed the sick. He preached the kingdom and cast out demons. Deliverance is part of discipleship. Believers can be in bondage, but deliverance is the children's bread. Deliverance involves casting out demons, breaking down mental strongholds, receiving inner healing. We don't counsel demons; we cast them out. Amen.
In Everett, I did a teaching that will show up on YouTube this week concerning the foundations or how to know your call to the ministry of deliverance. I shared seven signs that you're called to the ministry of deliverance. I shared also four different ways people view deliverance, and then pitfalls of the ministry of deliverance. I will not repeat that message today. But if you want to learn more, this will be the message to check out on YouTube this week. But I want to go further today from that message and tackle a little bit of the topic on eviction notice to the enemy.
In just last week, we saw it on the news where a 14-year-old freshman in Kennewick, Washington, was arrested after a TikTok tip was exposed to plan an attack in Kamiakin High School. A police seized 24 guns from his home, along with a color-coded school map, marking targets and weak spots, like shooting through library windows. Investigators found a manifesto describing a massacre, notes on tactical gear. This is a 14-year-old boy having a manifesto, notes on tactical gear, even videos of a teen walking through school plotting the attack. This did not happen in Chicago. This did not happen in some other cities where a lot of mass shootings happen. This happened in our own backyard, right there in Kennewick, where we have our clubs. Another student, also 14 years of age, was arrested as an accomplice. Both had disturbing histories of violence, threats, online ties to past shootings, and obsession with massacre. This was more than teenage curiosity. These boys were being whispered to by something darker.
Just a month ago, some of you have seen it, where Robin Westman, a transgender teen, entered a Catholic school in Minneapolis armed with weapons and manifesto. And there's an image of a sketch of a demon in the mirror, grinning and speaking to this man, and giving him instructions, and then eventually this man begins to act on this demonic entity and causes death to other people.
What I want to communicate today to all of us is this, is the spiritual world is real. Demons are real. They hate people. But they cannot hurt people until somebody lets them in, so that they could set their levels or their operation from the inside of a human being to execute their vicious plans.
God has two main things for you. When you become a Christian, your heart gets transformed from a garbage can to a temple. Your heart is no longer a collector of sin, garbage, worldliness. Your heart becomes new. And God makes your heart new. Not only so you will feel good about yourself. God makes your heart new so that this could be His house. Because God does not dwell in messy, dirty places. He dwells in temples, and He wants to make you new. In fact, in Jeremiah, it says, "I will give them a new heart, and I will dwell in them." So God's plan is this: I want to give you a new heart, and then I want to move in and live in you. God is not looking for a weekend's visit. God is not settling for some kind of a one-night stand. He doesn't want just intimacy. He wants relationship. He wants this covenant with us, and He wants to live in us. So when somebody asks me where does God live, I give them my address because He lives here. He lives in your heart. He lives in your mind. He lives in you. God takes residence in us. Amen.
Now, when He lives in us, two things happen. One, when God comes to live in us, He changes us on the inside to be more like His Son, Jesus Christ. And secondly, because He lives in us, now He can move through us. So you're no longer a jerk for Jesus, but you're now a blessing to other people. You love your spouse, you love your children, you love your co-workers, you love your neighbors. Everywhere you go, Bible calls it, we dispel the fragrance of the kingdom of Jesus. So we're loving, we're generous, we open our home to other people. We help other people. We go out of our way to help other people. Why? Because the God that lives in us changes us to be more like Him. And then through us, He sets up operation for the world to spread His fragrance around us. So the more Christians we have, we are like salt. We are like light because the kingdom of God sets up its headquarters in our hearts, and God's kingdom spreads through us, bringing healing, bringing hope, bringing good news, bringing love, bringing joy, bringing good things to this world.
Demons and Satan, you have to understand one thing about them is he's a copycat. He doesn't create, he duplicates. Satan, he takes what God does, where God moves into His creation inside, to change them and to move through them. And he does exactly the same thing. These demons, they are homeless spirits. They're looking for a home. They're looking for a host. They're looking for a dwelling place for two main reasons. So they can desecrate you, and they can destroy through you. Demonic indwelling is satanic graffiti on God's masterpiece. When demons get inside of a human host, a human body, it is to vandalize God's beautiful image. They get in to desecrate, to make it dirty, to make it broken, because demons cannot attack God. So what they want to do is they want to vandalize His creation, because they want to vandalize His image. They want to corrupt that image as much as they can. But that is only the first step. The second step is Satan cannot kill. Satan cannot destroy. Satan cannot just on the outside go into school and kill teenagers. Satan cannot go into a mother's womb and kill a baby. He can't have direct access to that. He needs to get inside of a person to set up his headquarters and begin to funnel his thoughts and his ideas through our thoughts, so that we can execute his agenda on this earth. So we do the killing, we do the hurting, and we do the messing.
When a man opens a door to lust and then adultery, he's not only desecrating God's temple, he now hurts his wife, hurts his children. He's like a terrorist strapped with a bomb. He's not just hurting himself and breaking his intimacy with God. He's hurting those closest to him, thus fulfilling the very agenda of the demonic kingdom. Demons are copycats. They want to indwell so that they can desecrate. They want to indwell so they can set up their base of operations on this earth. Notice what's happening in our schools where young men are going up and shooting up other students. Where people are getting in a car and driving straight into the church and setting churches on fire. Satan wants to spread his chaos and his mess, but he needs a host. He needs a dwelling place. He needs a place to set up his operations. Demons have an insatiable desire for a human host. That's why what I want you to see is when Jesus was casting out a demon out of a man, the scripture says in Matthew 8:31 that the demons begged Him, saying, "If you cast us out, permit us to go into the herd of swine." Demons are not looking only to influence. They are seeking to indwell. Why? Because they are homeless spirits. They loath in dry places. They crave an indwelling. They are like invasive species. Without a host, they shiver. With a host, they thrive.
Have you noticed what we read in Matthew 12? It says, "When demons go out of a person, they go through dry places looking for rest and finding none." And then these demons say, "I will return to my house, and that's where I will find rest." See, demons are so wicked. They're so vicious and they're so horrible. They find rest in your misery. They find rest in your torment. They are resting when you're hurting. It's such a twisted mentality that they have, and they can't change. And they are looking for a human host. That's why you're currently being hunted.
Now God's Spirit says, "I want to make My dwelling in them. I want to change them to make them more like My Son, Jesus. I want to spread the beauty of My kingdom through them in the world that they enter." And there are these vicious, venom-like entities who are looking for a host. They are like flies right now. And it's cold outside. They're trying to get inside. These flies are like those demons. And they're not just looking for comfort and for a place to live in. They're looking to desecrate the image of God, to vandalize the image of God in you. And then so they can set up their operation to spread their evil through you, first to your family, and then to those near to you. And then maybe even they could succeed in having you become an instrument of destruction for your workplace, for your streets, for your school. And then you destroy yourself through that, and then they could destroy others through that. We will make the devil homeless. There will be no resting place in our life for him. There will be no resting place for demons in our life, in Jesus' name. Can somebody say Amen?
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is holy. Demonic indwelling is a counterfeit. God indwells to sanctify. Demons indwell to desecrate. Demonization is demonic vandalism on God's image. It's not just about torment. Please understand, it is about vandalizing. It's about putting graffiti on God's beautiful image. Demons do not just want to torment you. They want to turn you into an instrument of torment for others. I've seen countless families where brokenness, tears, fatherless children, where you see eventually trauma and pain that goes in, and you will always find an individual who gave themselves up to evil, opened themselves up to the invasion of what is not holy, what is not godly. And not only they were tormented and hurt, but as a result, they produced children and families that are now tormented and hurt because of that. And that is demonic, twisted agenda.
God wants you to leave a legacy of love. God wants you to leave a legacy of joy. God wants you to leave a legacy of a sound mind. God wants you to leave a legacy of a happy wife, godly children, and that cannot happen because you're a good person. That can happen when Jesus gives you a new heart, and by His Spirit, He transforms you into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, and you allow the Spirit of God to move through you. Deliverance for us is about making demons homeless.
Matthew 21:12-13, it says, "Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of money changers and the seats of those who sold doves," and He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you made it a den of thieves.'"
Now, people always argue, can a Christian have a demon? Most of you who've listened up to this part of this message, you would agree demons are bad, Holy Spirit is good. But most people click off and they say, "Well, I don't have to worry about it because I prayed a prayer and Jesus lives inside of me, and there is no way in this world these demons could ever come in and take an indwelling." And here at HungryGen, we've seen that the mainline version of the topic on deliverance is not actually real in reality of practical dealing with people, and it's also not theologically actually accurate. The word for demon possessed that we get in our King James, New King James Bible, the original Greek word for that is better translated as demonized. It's mentioned, I believe, over 13 times in the New Testament. Every time it's mentioned, it carries this idea that a person is influenced or controlled in various degrees by an indwelling demon. I'm going to say that again: influenced or controlled in various degrees. That's why in some cases it says that a woman came to Jesus and said, "My daughter is severely possessed." And so, of course, the word demon possessed carries a lot of trigger points for us because it connects us to exorcist movies and it connects us to a scary, gory kind of weird stuff. So, we as Christians avoid using that word. Instead, we say non-Christians are demon possessed, Christians could be demon oppressed. And I understand whatever helps us to swallow it better. But biblically speaking, the word the New Testament uses is demonized. It's to be under influence or control to various degrees by an indwelling demon. This is not referring to a demon being on the outside whispering things, being on the outside tormenting you, or being on the outside tempting you. So Jesus did not cast demons off of people but out of people. And so people who would argue to say that well Christians cannot have demons, the reason why I believe that is dangerous is because Christians who do have these problems have nowhere to turn to because from the pulpit they are already being silenced and condemned to suffering silently and quietly. That is not the stance at this house.
Now, do I fully understand all of that stuff? No, I don't. I also don't understand how a brown cow can eat green grass and produce white milk. I drink milk. So not every single thing is fully understood. But this is what I want to challenge you with, and I kind of have just a few questions, and this is not necessarily to attack anybody but attack a view that I believe silences people into suffering. And this is what it says is when you're saved all the demons are instantly gone. But where does it say in the Bible that when you get saved demons are gone? Is there one instance where a person got saved and instantly all the demons were gone? Why did Philip cast out demons in the book of Acts chapter 8 after he talked about the gospel? They heeded his message and then he cast out demons. So if they heeded his message and they got saved, that means there will be no more need to drive out any demons because people should be delivered after they heed the message. Jesus said to His disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Why did He tell us to cast out demons if by preaching the gospel and people accepting the gospel, the demons are gone? Why did the demons never left the room when Jesus came into the room, but instead they manifested? We see Jesus casting demons out.
Now people would say, "Vlad, I understand, but how do you reconcile the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in me?" Therefore, the Holy Spirit cannot share a room with anything else. How can you also reconcile where the Bible says within us dwells the flesh, and within the flesh, according to Galatians chapter 5, nothing good dwells? When you read the list of everything the flesh does, I'm going to tell you one thing: it's pretty much the same list that demons do. And your flesh is still there. And when your flesh is not crucified, which many Christians experience that, how do you reconcile the Holy Spirit still coexisting with that ugly part of you? It does happen. So the presence of the Holy Spirit doesn't automatically cause the flesh to disappear. Nor is the presence of the flesh cause the Holy Spirit to evaporate. There's a conflict that happens, and you begin to either yield to the Holy Spirit or you yield to the flesh.
If Christians cannot have demons, how come they can have sickness, which the Bible says sometimes could be demonic? If Christians cannot have demons, how come Satan filled Ananias's heart in Acts 5 after he was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 4? People say, "What about Judas?" You know, Satan entered Judas. Well, Judas wasn't a real Christian. I guess you can be an apostle and a follower of Christ for three years, cast out demons, and be part of it, but not be a Christian. I believe Judas was following Jesus the best of his ability, but he opened himself up to the demonic influence. First, Satan put a thought into his head, and then the Bible says Satan entered into Judas, which we have to be careful what we agree with because what we agree with sometimes can give access to the enemy.
If Christians cannot have demons, why did Jesus say deliverance is children's bread? If Christians cannot have demons, why did Paul say when we yield to anger, we give place to the devil? Let me ask you a question: where does the devil go when you give him place? Your neighbor's yard. Like ask yourself a real question. I remember, you know, the Bible is very clear. "Do not give place to the devil." That is given to Christians. Where does he go if you give him place? Well, he goes somewhere on the top of my head. Well, the Bible doesn't say not to give him a place on the top of your head. The word "place" there is the same word that is given when the Holy Spirit comes and fills us. "Do not give him place" tells us this, that Christians can potentially open their door to the enemy. Demons view a human body, a human soul, like a house. A house has doors. And Christians still have the ability. They shouldn't, but they have the ability. They shouldn't do that, but they have the ability to expose themselves to the demonic spirits.
Last Monday, so this was about six days ago, I was interviewing Don, who was here last Sunday to speak, and for some weird reason, we had an influx of flies in the gym where we were recording the interview. It's almost like hell unleashed, all of them. At first, I thought it was two, cuz I'm interviewing and these flies, they seem to like make it a personal target to sit on my head. I don't know what smell that they were attracted to that I had. And I'm sitting and Don is speaking, and I cannot focus. I'm literally in the back of my head I'm thinking, "I wonder if I can curse them so they can die." And so I am, I'm just going to be honest. I pulled out and I said, "In the mighty name of Jesus, I break their wings so that they don't fly." And I was like, "Lord, freeze them. Freeze them. Kill, like, Lord, squash him." And then I'm thinking, "Okay, if that doesn't work, I'm just going to like go like this while he's speaking." And so while he's speaking, you know, and I, and then from two, there was about seven, and then they start landing on him. I was so frustrated. They were so annoying, and Don was so good, like he, I mean, you know, when he went through 40 surgeries, I think, you know, seven flies is not a problem. He's just sitting there, he's talking, literally they're like landing right here, landing right here, and I'm sitting, and I'm so frustrated. I'm frustrated at the team. I'm frustrated at flies. I'm frustrated at the lord of flies, the devil. I'm frustrated at everybody. So, after the first interview, we had one more interview in the afternoon. So, I went home and, because Mark recommended one time when the fly sat on me, you know, recommended a fly killer. I actually have an electric fly killer. So, I brought that to the next interview, and I went for the next five minutes, and I said, "I will show you guys what's up." And I started looking for them. Those are sneaky creatures, you know. Just because you got a little fly over there, you know, they were disappearing. So, we decided to put some sticky things so they will fly into it and find themselves stuck. We caught about three, and I'm thinking, "Okay, this is good. The next interview is going to be fine." We're sitting for the next interview, and I think we had maybe like 15 of them, and I was like, "Flies, we didn't invite you to this interview. I do not want you at this interview." Did you know what got them inside? Now, I blamed the youth. It was Sunday night. Youth opened the door. But then they told me, "Vlad, it's not the youth. It's the adults on Sunday morning." And then they told me, "It wasn't the adults or the youth. It's because it's cold outside." And somebody told me they're mating. And so, I guess they're trying to get inside to get more babies. I was like, "I don't want them to mate. I want them all to die."
Demons are like flies. They don't need an invitation. They need an opening. So, you can stand over there and say, "Well, I'm a tongue-speaking, King James reading, spirit-filled, hungry generation going, I have a theological degree." You can put that as a sign in front of your spiritual yard. But if you keep an opening, that's why Paul tells us, "Do not give room to the enemy." When you open yourself up, you hold on to unforgiveness. You don't deal with certain things in your past with trauma. You dabbled in the occult out of curiosity or whatever the reasons are. You can potentially expose yourself to the demonic intrusion, and they get in, and they're not just annoying creatures that sit on your forehead. I wish they would be like flies, and we wouldn't be talking about it. I would just tell you how to cope with them. I would just encourage you, give you some therapy, and then you can get therapy for that and just kind of deal with it. But because these demons bring actual harm and torment, not just annoyance, and then they use people to distribute their evil, therapy isn't enough. Medication isn't enough. Jesus says we have to cast them out. Are you with me?
So Jesus comes into the temple. You know, people would say, "Well, we're the temple of God, 100%. We're supposed to be a house of prayer." Jesus comes into the temple, and he sees the merchants there. They didn't own the temple, but they operated there. And the temple is symbolic of that Christian who is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes inside, and maybe He sees unforgiveness. He sees bitterness. He sees intrusive thoughts. He sees suicidal tendencies. He sees lustful desires that are just, they're not just lust of the flesh that you have to submit and surrender through prayer, fasting, but you have these urges like a venom type, like "Feed me. I need to eat," like that kind of stuff. Then you need to bring it to the Lord, and you need to seek that the Lord brings you freedom and brings you deliverance. Maybe you're experiencing oppressive thoughts. Not just because you lost a job and things are difficult, but this stuff is like generational or this stuff is coming from here. Your life is good, and you just don't want to, you can't sleep. You don't want to live. You have no desire, no appetite for anything. And maybe you've done everything. You sought a counselor, you know, you did your little physical exercise, cut off the sugar, improved your lifestyle, and everything, and those things don't disappear. I'm not here to tell you, you have a demon. I'm just here to tell you Jesus has help. There is help for you. And we're not a church that is just going to come in and make you feel and say, you know what? "Hey, you shouldn't be feeling those things. You might not, must not have faith." My friend, you may have all the faith that you want, but if there is an unclean spirit there, we got to get rid of that. We got to deal with that. We got to kill those flies. Get rid of them for the glory of God. And to those people who are persistent and Christians could never have demons, let me ask you a question. Who do you cast demons out of? And another question, why do you discredit the testimonies of believers, of brothers and sisters who went through deliverance and saw their lives changed? Why did you discredit that? Why do you think that your theological preference is stronger than somebody's testimony? We should line up our theology to the Bible. I'm not saying our experience should write our theology, but our experience definitely should back it up. Can somebody say Amen?
And as we're wrapping up this message, I want to remind each and every one of you, you're meant to be a dwelling place of God, not a den for demons. God wants to change you from the inside out. Religion wants to change you from the outside in. God says, "I will come into them. I will dwell in them. I will change them, and I will set My operation from their heart and influence their family, influence their school, influence their environment." Demons, they want to get inside, desecrate God's beautiful image in you, put graffiti on it, to almost like slap God in the face because they can't touch God, but the closest they can do is desecrate His glory. And they don't stop. They're not just annoying creatures like flies. They're tormenting entities. And the moment they succeed in getting inside, then they start setting up the shop. They start setting up operation. So now that through your behavior, through your foolishness, through your lies, through your lust, through you cheating, through you being depressed, through you being suicidal, through all of those expressions that they will do in whatever the way that they want to, they're not just hurting you, but you leave a wave of hurt behind you. So in this way, you become a mass destruction in your wake. Please understand their agenda isn't to get in so they can stay warm. Their agenda is to get in so you can be desecrated. Their agenda is to mock God. Their agenda is to say, "I'll put graffiti on that beautiful image. I'll vandalize it. I can't touch you. I'll touch what's dear to you. I'll mess with them. I'll ruin their mind. I'll break their emotions." And then while they're gonna be hurt, I'm going to use them as an instrument that they hurt other people as much as they can so they can hurt God.
But I want to tell you something, what the devil didn't count on is that we are also here. Holy Spirit is also here. He sets His dwelling place in our heart. And God doesn't just dwell us to make us happy. God doesn't just dwell us to give us peace. God doesn't just dwell us to give us joy. God is not just dwelling us so that we can be holy. God is dwelling us so that we can love. God is dwelling in us so we can be generous. God is dwelling in us so that we can make disciples. God is dwelling us so that our homes can become a place for life groups. God is dwelling us so that our church can multiply and we can have churches. God is dwelling in us so that we can go to high school. We can go to middle school and say, "Listen, the kingdom of God lives inside of us. This kingdom will spread through us. Lives will be changed. Souls will be saved. Bodies will be healed, and demonized people will be delivered." Give God some praise right now. Hallelujah.
I want you to rise to your feet. The whole topic of deliverance isn't about demons. It's about counterfeit. They're trying to just counterfeit what God is doing. And we here at the church want to do what Jesus did. We want to go into the temples and drive out merchants. Today, if you're in this room, and maybe you've been coming to HungryGen or this is your first time, and no, not everything is a demon, we have also responsibility and other things, and that's what I dealt with in Everett where I went through what is the difference between a disorder and a demon, a flesh and a demon, a curse and a demon, and all of this stuff. We are not a church that sees a demon behind every single bush and everything is a demon, absolutely not. And you've been in our church, you probably know we put a heavy responsibility on our decisions, walking with God. But I want you to know, Holy Spirit wants to live through you. He wants to change you. And there are evil entities that have made you their mark. Not only to harass, not only to torment, they have an agenda to vandalize God's image. Don't let him live holy. Live righteous. But if you had a crack, if you slipped, if you fell, if you find yourself tormented, if you find yourself in a cycle of sin you can't break, if you find yourself drowning and you can't do it anymore, you're tired, and the evil already is filling your heart. You came to a place, there is hope for you, there is help for you today. We prayed in the first service. People were being delivered. Demons were coming out. And we're going to do exactly in this service. The moment I close the service, we're going to have our pastors and our leaders in our second sanctuary ready to minister as long as it takes so you can leave today freed. So you can leave today not just pumped and encouraged, but leave delivered. Not just pretend to be free, but be free for the glory of God. Jesus loves you too much to leave you the same way.
But the greatest miracle is not to be free from demons, is to be saved from your sin. The greatest miracle is not to not have torments at night, though that is so beautiful. The greatest miracle is when you close your eyes, when you die, and when you live, you belong to God. That you are forgiven by Jesus. And that your name is written in the book of life. And right now, with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to give an opportunity to anybody in this room who has not yet given their life to Jesus. Maybe you're visiting us today for the first time, or you've been coming week in, week out. My question today is, do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior? Do not hide under the umbrella of, "Well, I go to church every once in a while." Going to Chick-fil-A doesn't make you a deluxe sandwich. Going to church does not make you a Christian. Don't hide under the umbrella, "Well, but Vlad, I believe in God. In my heart, God exists." The Bible says demons believe in God. There's still demons, and they're still going to hell. It's not about believing that God exists. It's about trusting in Jesus for your salvation. You are a sinner. You're not good enough to go to heaven. You know that. That's why you tell everybody, "Nobody's perfect." Jesus came on this earth, took your place on the cross, and died for you. So, you don't have to die for your sins. You can believe in His death and experience forgiveness, the shame, the guilt that you're carrying. You can experience new life. Your heart doesn't have to be a garbage can where you keep emptying it every confession. Your heart can be a new temple, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about getting an insurance card in case there is hell. I'm not talking about having a spare tire in case there is eternity. I'm talking about having a brand-new engine, having brand-new life with Jesus. You may think, "But man, but this sounds boring." It's only boring because you're dead in sin. But the moment you become new, this life has life in it. You're just existing, full of shame and full of guilt, disconnected from God.
Maybe you're here today, and you walked away from Jesus. You used to know God, and life happened, stuff happened. You made poor decisions. One thing led to another. One sin led to another. You've done things, you're so embarrassed. You're so ashamed. You know they were wrong. And you find yourself drowning today, so far from God. And maybe you're coming, you say, "Can God ever forgive me? It's the fifth time already. I'm repenting. Can God ever accept me?" I want to tell you, not only He can accept you, He can change you. There's not an accident that you came here today. He loves you so much. He brought you here today. And He wants to slap that devil right in the face and redeem you and tell the devil, "You tried, and you failed, because God loves you."
When I count to three, and you need to give your life to Jesus or you need to come back to Jesus because you've been a backslider, I'm going to ask you to slip that hand high. That's going to be your way of saying, "I need to get right with God." One, hell is hot. Forever is very long. Two, today is the day. Don't wait any longer. Now is the time. God brought you in this room today. Three, raise that hand high. I see hands going in this room. Raise that hand high. If you're saying, "This is me," Thank you. Thank you. In the second sanctuary, do exactly the same. If you're watching us on live stream, you can drop that in the chat. "I want to be saved." If you raised your hand, I'm going to ask you to take a bold step today, right here in this service. I'm going to ask you to step out of your seat and come and stand here with me right now. If you came with a friend, come with a friend. But come, come. Make your way. Let's go. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. This is the day. If you wanted to, you say, "Vlad, I was afraid. I wanted to, but I was afraid." You come. You come. You step out of your seat right now. You come. Let's go. This is the best day to do that. God bless you. Glad you're here. Welcome. Hi. Good morning. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Good morning. God bless you. Anybody else who's come here today and you're not right with the Lord, this is your moment. This is your time. You have nothing to lose but your sin, shame, and guilt. And if you ever want the devil back, he will accept you. Don't worry about it. Try Jesus. Give Him your life. But this is not about we're not trying. We're trusting. We're surrendering. We already tried sin. We already tried that stuff. That doesn't work. The world has nothing to offer us except sin, brokenness, and heartache, and demons, and hurt, and pain. Let's go. Second sanctuary. Welcome. God bless you. God bless you. Come. Come. Come. And many of you maybe are coming and you're thinking maybe, "Oh, they're just responding." But you don't know. There are family members that have been praying for them. There's people who have been fasting for this. People have been standing in the gap, hoping that they, these precious people will step into a church on a Sunday like this and hoping that God will knock on their hearts and they will say yes to Christ. Because when the Holy Spirit lives in you, you have a love that you can't explain. You're willing to do things for people who don't know Jesus that you would otherwise never want to do. It's the Holy Spirit that drives you into that. The same way evil spirits drive people to do harm and unexplainable, unreasonable damage. And you're like, "Why would you ever?" Because something else drives them that is unholy and ungodly. But when the Holy Spirit lives in you, you want to love people. You want to draw them. You want to help them come to Jesus.
Those of you here in the front, I want you to stretch your hands like this. I'm going to lead you in a prayer. It's not the prayer that saves, but Jesus. But sinners who come to Jesus, He forgives them. He restores them. He makes them new. Say this with me out loud. Say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I believe, You are the Son of God, who died on the cross for all of my sins. You were buried, and You rose again. Please forgive me for everything I've done. And wash me with Your precious blood. I repent of what I've done. I turn my life over to You. Would You be in charge of it? Would You fill me with Your Holy Spirit? Would You change me? Would You live through me? Make me more like You. I surrender to You right now. I receive the gift of forgiveness. And the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen." Amen. Amen. God bless you. Welcome. Welcome to the family of God.