I know that we've been in a message. Pastor has been bringing us through a message of tithing, which has been really good.
I don't know about you, but it's been really good.
But I'm going to take a little bit of a sidestep here, and I'm going to take us a little bit differently.
I'm not continuing this series that we're in, but I will say that I have...
Is my mic on? Can you guys hear me fine?
Okay, all right.
I will say that I have a word of the Lord today.
And the reason why I'm saying it and say it with such confidence is because I'm preaching from the Bible.
And I believe that if you're preaching from the Bible, it's the word of the Lord, right?
Perfect. So you're on board with me.
I want to encourage you as we get into the message today.
I want to encourage you to listen very carefully today.
And here's why I say that.
Each and every one of us have a different background, the way that we were raised, the things that we have experienced on and so forth,
which causes each and every individual.
I think this is very beautiful and it's challenging at the same time from a speaker's perspective.
But each and every one of us have a filter that we will feed things through in the way that we receive it.
So I say this on the forefront.
I just want you to listen very carefully to what I'm saying today.
Because I do want to make some corrections.
And this is not towards one individual.
This is to us as a body and as a church and where we're headed to.
So I just say that, just listen.
Allow the Holy Spirit to really work at your heart this morning.
You with me?
Perfect.
I was doing some research in preparation to today's message.
I was doing some research and it's really interesting.
I was like, oh, this is something cool.
I should bring it up, ties in with the message.
That as of June 2nd, which was this past Monday, we are officially halfway through the year of 2025.
Isn't that crazy?
I feel like we just had open heavens last week.
I'm being honest with you.
So literally as of June 2nd, we are now halfway, more than halfway through the year of 2025.
And more than that, as I was doing the research, the person that was writing all this out as I was researching said that we are officially closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000.
Just think about that for a second.
We are officially closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000.
We came to America in 98, which is I'm like, oh my goodness, I've been here much longer than I've been back in Ukraine.
But I say all that to say that oftentimes, living in the culture and living in the things that we are living in, in this fallen and broken world, we can oftentimes fall into what I think is so prevalent in our culture and just in the world is distractions.
So when we live, we've lived already six months, and I guarantee you that there is a lot of people.
It's not just one or two or three, but there's a lot of people that have actually forgotten what God has asked them to do because we get so caught up in the distractions.
I mean, just think of it.
In open heavens, we saw a vein of the Lord, we saw the Holy Spirit really begin to emphasize some things.
And it was good some of us were able to last in that for a month, some two months, some three months, but majority of us have probably even forgot what that vein is.
That's the truth.
We get so caught up in the things, our daily routines, our going to work, our going home, where we actually put on the back burner the things that God is asking us to do as individuals and as a corporate house.
It's been six months, friends.
And here's my question for you, and you don't have to answer this, but this is, I'm going to be honest, this is something I do.
This is the way that I heart check myself often. This is what I do personally.
My wife and I, we do this.
I want to ask you, since 2000, since the beginning of this year, to where you are at now, have you actually seen a progress?
You don't know, don't answer it. I'm not asking you to answer it, okay?
I don't answer it out loud to my wife, like, yeah, I think I've seen progress.
But have you seen, have you seen, this is what I really want to emphasize today, and we're going to get into it.
Have you actually seen the word of God, the command of God, what God has spoken to you?
Have you actually seen that take flesh in your life? Have you seen the word become flesh in you?
Don't answer that. I'm not asking you to answer it, okay?
Thank you for your response, but I'm not asking you to answer it out loud.
There's a reason why I'm not asking you to answer it out loud.
Honestly, have we been obedient to what he's been asking us to do?
Have we seen a growth and a maturity, now I want to do a little timeout,
not just in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but in our character?
Have we seen a maturity in our character?
Have we seen us grow to a place of where we're not lying anymore?
Have we seen us grow to a place of where we're not over exaggerating?
By the way, did you know that over exaggeration in the scriptures is actually a false witness?
We think it's okay to over exaggerate. I'm not lying. That's actually a false witness.
To over exaggerate, to make something that's a mouse into an elephant for our benefit
or for the benefit of our hears, you're actually false witnessing.
Have we seen growth in our character in the way that we interact with our wife?
In the way that we interact with our husband? In the way that we interact with our children?
Because when God asks us of things, it's not just for the sake of let's get all spiritual about it.
God is really concerned about our character. He wants to build us.
He wants to shape us. He wants to make us like Jesus.
Conformed into the image of who? Of Jesus. That's what the scriptures say.
So if you really sit back and you begin to think and you begin to waste some things
and you're like, man, have I actually really grown?
Yeah, I probably prophesy a little bit more now, but man, I still lie.
I want you to really just think about that.
If you have your Bibles, open up to first, not first John, the Gospel of John chapter one.
I got a few things here listed off while you're opening up your Bibles.
I read down some questions that I asked myself and I'll ask you.
The first one is, is the word becoming flesh in me?
Am I seeing progress in maturity of the Lord?
In other words, am I, do I know him more?
And let me, let me elaborate on that a little bit more.
Because oftentimes people say, well, yeah, I know him more.
This is what I've learned in my life.
The way that I actually know that I know him more, I change.
That's how I know that I actually have grown in the knowledge of who he is.
You cannot be in the actual presence of God.
You cannot be in an encounter with the Lord and leave that place the same.
You can't. You literally can't.
If he touches your life, if he actually touches your life and you encounter him,
take Moses for an example, never the same.
Take the apostle Paul for an example, never the same.
You cannot be in his presence and leave that place the same.
You can leave that place understanding that I need to make a decision.
And that decision will determine are you actually willing to know him more
or are you going to stay where you're at? Am I making sense of what I'm saying?
You're following me.
Have I seen positive change in my life?
Guys, I'm just going back to January. I'm not going back to years past.
I'm just bringing us back to January.
We are halfway through the year.
I think it's important for us to be sobered of actually where are we?
Am I being obedient to what he has been asking of me?
See, that's a huge one.
Have I been actually obedient to what he's been asking me to do?
Has my love for him grown more?
Has my love for people grown more?
Am I submitted more on to God than I was before?
That ties into obedience.
Because to be obedient, you got to submit more.
Is there a greater surrender to him now than it was before?
First John, or I'm sorry, John chapter 1 is a very famous scripture that we know.
But I'm bringing this up because I want to draw you something here.
Let me read it here.
John chapter 1 verse 1,
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God.
And the Word was God.
He was in the beginning.
He was in the beginning with God.
And I'm going to jump down to verse 14.
It says,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory and the glory as of one of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
I might irk somebody with what I'm about to say, but that's okay.
Imagine if the Word of God never became flesh.
Just imagine if God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are in heaven
and they're discussing what they're going to be doing.
And all of a sudden they're like, yeah, that's a great idea.
And they stop and they don't do nothing.
Imagine if Jesus actually was not an incarnated God.
If he was not the Word that became flesh, do you know what would happen?
We'd all be doomed.
We'd be doomed.
I'm drawing that perspective to you because I really want you to know the privilege,
the honor and the ability we have of knowing him and the price that he paid.
We can oftentimes take the small, what we consider small things for granted.
Imagine if the Word did not become flesh
and the Word just was with God.
The Word never came to fulfill what it was sent for.
We would be doomed.
Now I want you to flip that really quick.
Imagine if the Word of God in us never takes flesh.
God won't be doomed.
God won't be doomed because the Bible says that even the rocks will cry out.
But here's what I want to draw your attention to.
If we as a body, listen carefully, if we as a body, if we do not embody the actual Word of God,
if we do not obey and the Word does not become flesh in us,
we're going to miss a window of opportunity of what God wants to do here.
If we don't allow the Word of God to become flesh in us, our destinies to come forth,
we're going to miss an opportunity of what God wants to do in this house.
If we don't allow the Word of God to take flesh in us,
if we don't allow the Word of God to embody our lives and we begin to walk it out,
as individuals we will miss the opportunity of what God is wanting to do.
That's the truth. God won't be doomed.
God says the rocks will cry out. That's what Jesus said.
They said, hey, have them stop worshiping.
He said, listen, if I have them stop worshiping, the rocks are going to cry out.
Because it's His creation. He created it.
And they will worship Him regardless of what's going on.
But if we choose to simply sit and look at the things of God that He has spoken to us,
or even His written Word, if we look at this as a good idea,
we're going to miss the opportunity of what God wants to do.
Friends, I'm being serious. We will miss the opportunity of what God wants to do
if we remain as just, that's a good idea.
Man, that's a good idea, pastor.
Yeah, to see the outpour of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that's great.
You know, everybody loves the ideas and it seems as if though everybody has the ideas.
But when it comes to put boots to the ground, there's very few laborers.
That's the truth. And that has been a problem for years.
The harvest is ripe, friends. The harvest is ripe. The Word is right here.
The Word is right here and the Lord is allowing us by the Holy Spirit to embody,
to have the Word become flesh so that we, like Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit,
would walk and do the things that the Lord has done.
And everybody's like, that's a great idea, pastor. Woo-hoo! You got this!
Where the Lord is like, yeah, but I'm talking to you.
But I'm asking of you, but I'm inviting you to have my Word take flesh in your life
and actually begin to walk it out and live it out. You still with me?
You still with me, right? Praise the Lord.
Thank you, Dean.
The other thing that I've noticed in a people, again, I'm not pointing out any individuals, friends.
I'm just bringing you a broad stroke. It's like a brush stroke.
Everybody is after the big picture.
Everybody's after the big picture of things. And that's not a bad thing.
But can I tell you something that's a little bit more important than the big picture?
It's the small things.
I don't know about you, but when I put together a puzzle,
the puzzle doesn't come completed for me. I got to put it together.
And there are small pieces to the puzzle that we have to add to create the big picture.
And I love seeing people in this house. I love seeing people excited for the big picture stuff.
I love seeing that. But let me highlight something to you.
There are small things that we have to pay attention to
and that we have to do to create the big picture.
There are small things that nobody else wants to do seems like
because the small things don't give you the praise.
The small things don't give you the entitlement.
The small things don't give you the attention.
The small things don't bring about a people looking at you.
The small things usually are done when nobody else sees.
And we're all wanting the big picture and that's good.
I'm excited for what the Holy Spirit is wanting to do.
But I also know that if I myself and my own personal life
don't do the small things, what we consider small things,
the big picture will never happen.
Why is it that everybody wants to come up and give a prophetic word
but nobody wants to fast?
Why is it that everybody wants to grab a mic and pray out loud
but nobody wants to do it when they're at home?
Why is it that we're after these things
where God is more concerned of the small things?
Because it's the small things that create the foundation
for the big picture.
Why is it that everybody wants to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Which, by the way, I'm all for that.
If a church is not operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
I question if it's a church.
I'm honest with you.
Because if the first church experienced it,
that's my format of what a church should look like.
You gotta have the gifts. You gotta have the glory.
But why is it that we are more concerned about the gifts
rather than the fruit?
Because when I read the scriptures,
the Bible says that the prophecies will seize.
Tongues will seize. What is he talking about?
He's talking about heaven.
But you know what remains? Peace, joy, and love.
What is that? That's the fruit of the Spirit.
So we're looking at all these things
and we're saying, yeah, we're after that.
I actually love it. I was at an encounter on Thursday
and Pastor Brian was speaking at our youth service,
which, by the way, youth highly encourage you to go.
I really do.
Pastor Brian was speaking and he read
on 1 Corinthians 14.
And I said, thank you, Lord.
In 1 Corinthians 14, it says,
pursue love, desire the gifts.
And Pastor Brian underlined something.
He said, in the church, he said, we gotta backwards.
He said, we're pursuing the gifts,
but we're desiring love.
Or the apostle Paul writes, pursue love
and desire the gifts.
I'm gonna encourage you to desire the gifts,
but I'm gonna encourage you even more.
Pursue him, Jesus, pursue love.
Because the Bible says God is...
pursue him.
I've learned in my life that if I actually pursue the Lord,
the gifts are inevitable, meaning that they show up.
They seriously, they show up.
I'll give you even a little bit of a secret.
You cannot know him without the gifts.
To know him, the gifts will begin to come up
and you begin to experience him.
You begin to know him.
You begin to understand who he is.
I'm saying all these things,
because friends, I want you to really understand
where God has us as a body of Christ,
as this local body here.
I feel, I've said this before
and I'm gonna repeat myself here,
I feel as if though we're like on trial.
I honestly, I feel that God is so gracious to show up.
Every Sunday, he is so gracious to show up
and he entrusts us.
But at the same time, I see the Lord
as if though he's looking at us
and he's weighing us.
Can I trust you with more?
How are you gonna handle what I've given you?
This goes to us as individuals
and this goes to us as a corporate body.
There is a saying in the medieval times,
in the middle ages during the nights.
There's a saying, let me actually read it to you
so I don't butcher it.
Find my notes here quick.
It says, you have been weighed.
This is a very famous saying
that they used to say back in the night's time.
I like the medieval time,
so that's why I'm pulling it out of there.
I like to see the night's fight. It's pretty cool.
It says, you have been weighed.
You have been measured.
And you have been found wanting.
What that means, it's very simple,
but let me speak it to you
in case you don't understand it.
To be weighed is to be, in a sense,
it's like a testing period.
You're being weighed and you're being measured.
Are you worthy or are you able
to steward that which you have?
So a lot of the times nights when they would fight
and one night would defeat another night,
he would say, you've been weighed,
you've been measured, you've been found wanting.
The second portion of it is found wanting
is basically you failed.
That's what that second phrase means.
I feel, I sense this.
I feel as though the Lord is saying,
I'm weighing you.
We don't have a result yet.
But I sense that this house
is like God saying, I'm weighing you
and I'm measuring you.
I'm weighing and I'm measuring,
are you able to steward
that which I have given you?
Is the word?
I'm going to emphasize this more and more, friends.
Listen, is the word becoming flesh in you?
Are we obedient to the little that he has asked us?
As individuals.
The book of James, if you have your Bibles,
open up to the book of James.
I want to read some stuff out of here.
This is the book of James.
Ah, let's go...
Let's go James chapter 1, verse 21 and 25.
Verse 21 to 25.
Here's what James writes.
He says,
But be doers of the word
and not hearers only.
Deceiving yourself.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word
and not a doer,
he is like a man observing his natural face
in the mirror.
For when he observes himself,
goes away and immediately forgets
what kind of man he was.
This is not a statistic that I probably
found somewhere, this is honestly,
this is my opinion more than anything.
But I think there is very few,
this is not just our body,
I'm talking about as the church as a whole.
There is a very small percentage
of Christians that are actually
doers of the word.
And here's why I make that conclusion.
If there was a greater majority of Christians
that were doers of the word,
our world would look different.
I said our world would look different.
And you have people that come to churches,
they listen to the preacher preach,
they agree with him,
amen pastor, that's awesome,
you're awesome, whoo-hoo, yip-dee-doo.
But then they leave the sanctuary,
they leave the church,
as if though somebody that went to a mirror
looked at themselves,
checked themselves out,
man, I look good today.
And then they leave
and they forget how good they look.
That's the reality.
Do you know why so many Christians
choose not to be doers of the word?
Because it costs you something.
To be a doer of the word,
it will literally cost you something.
To allow the word of God
to take flesh in you
and to begin to live out,
to embody the word,
and begin to live it out,
it will literally cost you something.
And it becomes very inconvenient for us.
So we choose not to do it.
Let me share some things from our life here
as a testimony.
Over two years ago,
when the Lord called me and my wife
into a season of consecration,
where he literally pulled us,
he hit us,
it cost us a lot of things.
It cost us a lot of things.
It cost us relationships with people.
It cost, it costed us,
let me go even deeper to make it more intimate,
it costed us relationships with our family members.
And I don't know if you guys know me
and my family, we are very close.
It's just how we do it in the Slavic communities.
We're very close.
And it would cost us,
and it wasn't pleasant.
And here I thought that, okay,
a year into it, I thought, okay, Lord,
you know, I laid that down.
You're probably done with me.
You know what I mean?
You're gonna move on and go somewhere else.
In the next year,
our relationships with people
that are very close to us,
our friends that we've been running with
for many, many years,
all of a sudden,
we began to see those relationships diminish.
And that was even more painful.
People that I was running with closely
that were at our prayer meetings,
that were constantly there.
We were encouraging meeting together
a minimum of once a week.
All of a sudden,
I began to see those doors close.
And you sit back and you think,
Lord, is this actually you?
And then he'll remind you
and he'll nudge you,
the word that he's given you.
And it's painful.
It's painful to see relationships
that you have built for years
come to a close.
And it's not one party's or the other party's fault.
It's simply the Lord stewarding it.
We tried.
My wife and I,
we tried reaching out to our friends
and we tried to do things,
but it seemed to not be the same.
We spent some time,
but it wasn't as often.
But friends, it cost you something.
And then after two years,
the Lord brings us here.
And I'm not going to get into too much detail,
but it's like, God,
here I thought I was done.
And he said, son, I'm not done yet.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I'm holding back all my tears here.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I feel like I'm in an oil press.
And I know I'm not the only one.
I know there's people sitting in this congregation.
You're feeling the exact same thing that I'm feeling.
I feel as if though there's an oil press
of God pressing and wanting and ushering
and bringing me to a place
and us to a place of where we embody His scriptures
and we begin to live them out.
Of where the word becomes flesh
and we begin to live it out.
That's what I feel for this house.
And I don't want you to avoid
the things that you consider are small things
where God is saying those aren't small things.
Those are things that I've asked of you
and I'm wanting you to keep doing it.
I feel like I'm in an oil press.
I asked Pastor Verne last week, I said,
Pastor, how long do I got to remain in the oil press?
He giggled and said, that's...
it's all up to you, man.
He said, it's all up to you.
God will have you somewhere in a position
until he sees that finally they got it.
Finally the word is in him.
Finally the word is becoming life
and it's taking flesh in this person's body
and they're living it out.
God is very patient.
I said, God is very patient
and he's very gentle.
And he will sit on something
when we think that we're done and we're here
and God's over here and he's saying,
yeah, but I'm not done.
But I'm not done with your character yet.
So why don't you just
get down a ground level?
Don't be so super spiritual.
In Russian we call those people
ultra-duchovnaya. That's what we call them.
I'm telling you.
Ultra-duchovnaya. It's somebody that's super spiritual.
And it's like, just come down a few steps.
God is still here.
God is still working out some things in your character
before he can entrust you
with the things of his spirit.
Do you know what I believe the Lord is
wanting to establish even more in this house?
His holiness.
Can I give you a little bit of advice?
Can we not, as a church, as a people,
can we not loosely throw this phrase,
God told me?
Can we not do that?
Because it seems like everybody hears from God
and I'm like, whoa.
Am I the only one missing him?
I believe the Lord is wanting to establish
a greater measure of holiness.
With holiness comes a less measure of looseness.
You see, we oftentimes confuse holiness
and legalism.
We do. The church has a difficult time
of actually discerning the two.
We call things that are holy,
we say that's religious and that's legalism,
where God says, no, that's actually holiness.
And we call the things that are actually legalistic
and religious, we say that they're holy.
So just, you can listen to me,
you cannot listen to me,
but would you please wait
before you go and tell somebody,
God told me, because I have seen,
this is not just in this house,
I've seen this amongst Christian,
especially younger people.
It's like God told me.
So hold on a second.
Hold on a second.
I'm not doubting that he did,
but hold on a second.
When you use that phrase with such looseness,
it has me really question,
did you hear from God?
I gave this advice to people
that my wife and I used to disciple
and used to mentor and raise up.
I said this, hey listen,
use the word I sense, the Lord.
I sense this.
I feel this,
prior to making a statement of,
God told me.
It's like, whew.
Because when I read the scriptures,
I don't know about you,
when I read the scriptures
and when God actually spoke to people,
there was something that was about it.
There was an effect that affected
more than just one individual.
Let me tell you again,
this is again my opinion.
Okay, you can agree,
you can disagree with me.
I believe, I believe in my life,
90% of the time when God is speaking,
it's concerning me, not everybody.
And only 10% of the time,
it's to everybody else.
There's only unique situations,
like Pastor and I,
we were talking about it.
There's only unique situations
when God has you to steward a service
or something else,
will those two change?
But on a day to day base,
God is actually talking to me
and dealing with things
that I need to deal with
and showing himself to me
more than he is having me
talk to other people.
That's how it is in my life.
Maybe it's different in your life.
I'd love to sit down
and talk with you about it.
But God will deal with us
and in the dealing with us
and in the speaking to us,
other people are affected by it.
And then there's 10% of the time
where he has us go and give a word,
pray, whatever the case may be.
You guys following what I'm saying?
It's heavy in here.
I don't know about you.
Everybody's looking at me like,
it's heavy in here.
I'm not giving these things
out of I'm upset or this.
I'm giving you these things
because friends, I see where
the Lord is taking us.
I see where the Lord is taking us
as a body.
I do see that.
I love what Pastor Brian,
I love what you said to the youth
on Thursday.
By the way, the other portion
of it too I'm going to share.
The Lord spoke to Pastor Brian
on Thursday and the Lord said,
I'm not upset at you.
I'm not frustrated with you.
I just want to commune with you.
Right?
That's what the Lord said on Thursday.
I feel that not just for the youth.
I feel that for our church.
God is not upset with us.
He's not frustrated with us.
He's not like how dare you.
But he's simply saying,
listen, I want to commune with you
in greater ways.
I want to visit you in greater ways.
But here is the standard.
And it's not self-righteousness.
To achieve that standard
is to submit and surrender more.
That's why you see,
that's why I asked you earlier.
Put down your filters because
I don't want you to think
that we're preaching works.
We're not preaching works.
We're preaching faith.
Saved by...
Through...
That's what we're preaching.
But for us to actually
get to the standard
of where the Lord wants
the bride of Christ to be,
friends, we have to submit
and we have to surrender more.
We have to.
We have a grace-preaching gospel.
All just be how you are.
I don't know about you,
but the Son has a standard
for His bride.
The sin that you were committing last week,
you should probably deal with that.
You should probably deal
with some of the characteristic issues
that are in you.
And the Lord is more than willing
to help you deal with those things.
You guys catching what I'm saying this morning?
For the Word of God
to become flesh in this house,
friends, it's going to cost us things.
Is there anybody in the house
that feels like I said,
you know, man, I feel like I've been under
under an oil press too.
Is there anybody here that can
raise your hands high so I can see?
See, I'm not the only one.
It's like the Lord is pressing.
And in the pressing,
He's trying to bring about something.
In the pressing, He's trying
to bring about a holiness.
In the pressing, He's trying
to bring about and conform
Christ in us.
It's in the pressing.
I feel as if though we're being
measured as a house.
And the Lord watching.
And the Lord seeing individually,
friends, this is an individual
and a corporate thing.
This is not just us.
This is when we go home.
This is when we're at home.
This is when we come together as well.
God is bringing us into something.
I feel it.
I sense it.
I know it.
I have confidence in it.
James chapter 2.
This is why we're not preaching
works or self-righteousness.
James chapter 2 verse 26.
I want to show you something here.
Just so you're understanding.
We are not preaching works.
We are not preaching self-righteousness.
We are preaching to obey
and to submit to the Lord.
James chapter 2 verse 26.
For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works
is dead.
Let me elaborate a little bit more
so that we can really understand.
I've said this before.
I'll say it again.
Everybody likes the idea
of what God is doing in this house.
Everybody does.
I like the idea.
Tell me somebody who doesn't like the idea.
But there's very few people
that have actually caught it.
What I mean by that is that
when you catch something,
you actually begin to
do the actions to follow
that which you like, the idea.
You guys catching what I'm saying here?
As a body without a spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead.
If I'm actually believing the Lord
for some things of what he's going to do
in this house and what he is doing in this house,
if I'm actually believing the Lord,
I have to begin to live it out.
I have to actually begin to
make decisions in my life
that are going to be painful.
Friends, they're going to be painful.
But if I'm actually believing the Lord,
I know that the outcome of it
is going to be far more rewarding.
Does not the apostle Paul say
that these temporary things
that I'm experiencing,
they do not even compare
to the glory.
If we're actually believing the Lord
for a building.
Let me just talk about the building
just for a second, okay?
If we're actually believing the Lord
for a building.
And this is not with just tithing.
We're going to need more people
to be on board.
People that we can trust
to lead different things.
Because according to the vision
of word of life,
of what the Lord has given,
we're expecting to see a multitude
of babes come into the house.
Okay?
Don't answer this.
Okay?
Don't answer this.
But how many of you are actually
ready to disciple somebody?
Honestly.
How many of you are actually
ready to take somebody under your wing
and to help them walk
through life and to pour into them
and actually have something
to pour into them?
My wife and I said this
all the time to people.
If I'm an empty vessel,
how can I pour into another vessel?
If I don't know the Lord personally,
if I'm not with him personally,
if I'm not seeking him out personally,
how can I talk about him
to somebody who doesn't know him?
You can't.
So the question is,
how many of us are actually ready
to take somebody under our wing
and disciple them?
There's not many.
But these are the things
that I'm talking about.
So when I'm regarding the building, friends,
I'm not just talking about
let's give more for it to build.
I'm talking about readying yourself
for what's to come.
I'm talking about the multitudes of people
that are going to be hungry
to hear the word of the Lord.
That are going to come from
south and east and north and west.
All the regions,
they're going to come to hear what?
Not Pastor Igor.
They're going to come to hear
the word of the Lord.
They're going to come
and hear the word of the Lord.
But if the word of God in me
is not flesh,
if I have not eaten the scroll,
how can I give it to somebody?
You can't.
You'll give them another user-friendly gospel
of how to make Jesus convenient for you.
When I read the scriptures to follow him
has always been an inconvenience
for the flesh.
Friends, I'm saying all this
to really stir you to something.
We are now halfway through the year.
We're halfway through.
We're closer to 2050
than we are to the year 2000.
That sobers me up.
I don't know about you.
That sobers me up.
That causes me to look at my life
and say, Lord, wow.
Am I actually obeying
what you're asking me to do?
Am I actually seeking you
when you are wanting to be sought after?
You're catching what I'm saying today?
God is bringing us somewhere.
But I'm telling you.
I'm telling you.
He is measuring us.
He's weighing us.
Can I trust you
with what I want to give you in its fullness?
I don't know about you,
but I feel the fear of the Lord on that.
The fear of the Lord to steward
what he asks for us.
As the body without a spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead.
You know what the difference
between self-righteousnesses
and actually working by faith?
Self-righteousness is when you go
ahead of what God has told you.
Where this scripture right here,
he's simply saying, obey.
As faith without works
is dead.
But if my faith is alive,
that means that I'm obeying
what he's asking me to do.
Is that making sense?
I did one of these here real quick.
God is bringing us somewhere.
You guys are going to hear me
say that over and over
because I'm really trying
to stir your hearts to something.
The Holy Spirit is wanting
to bring us somewhere
deeper into himself.