I want to do a quick Sunday overview because I want to get, I want to get
somewhere with the series that we're currently in. We are in a series that is
called the Forerunner Lifestyle and Vision, mainly coming out of the life of John
the Baptist and Jesus himself. And last Sunday I wasn't planning on it, but I
really parked at the life of the Apostle Paul and how the Apostle Paul was
actually a forerunner. And I just want to do a quick Sunday overview. I talked
about that a forerunner is somebody who runs ahead and they don't just run ahead,
but they run ahead and they are a scout. So they go ahead more than their peers are.
And what I mean by going ahead is it's somebody who's willing to pay a cost to
know Jesus in facets that your average Christian is not willing to pay the
cost. That's what I mean when I say running ahead. That means to choose the
Lord when nobody else is choosing the Lord. And the example is this, and I
speak this as an example because I've heard it. You know, the example of
choosing the Lord, there's a man of God that I that I esteem and that I
honor. And this man of God had an opportunity to speak at a very large,
I've shared this story before, but at a very large conference or crusade, so to
say. And this man was invited to speak there. We're talking about two and a
half, 3,000 people. We're going to be showing up here, probably even more. But
the Lord asked him, he said, I want you to take that time. And he said, I want
you to be with me rather than you going and speaking. And this man shows, he
chose to pay the... it's a price. It's a price you pay. And this man
shows to know the Lord and to be with the Lord, to minister on to Jesus, rather
than to go and speak at a conference. So when I'm talking about being a
forerunner, that means you run ahead. You're willing to pay a cost to know
Jesus, to be with Jesus in ways that a lot of people are just not willing
to do it. But in doing that, a forerunner is also a scout. So you
run ahead, you get somewhere. But then as a scout, you realize you've
looked at the land. You've surveyed the land, so to say. And you're
saying, man, it's good here. There's food to eat here. There is a
fulfillment here. And then you come and you tell others, listen,
there is more for us. Let's go there. You're being a scout. A forerunner,
and I'll talk a little bit more on it today. But a forerunner is also
somebody who prepares the way for the Lord. A forerunner is somebody who
actually prepares the way for the Lord. And today I want to mainly talk about,
well not mainly, I should say, I want to touch on it, is out of the life of
John the Baptist. Is where he prepared the way of the Lord. John the
Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, prepared the platform for Jesus to come
as the Lamb of God. Now I want to say this again in church, you've heard me say this,
but I want you to catch this. I want you to catch the privilege that we have
as Christians and as the body of Christ, as the bride of Christ.
I need you and I want you to catch this, that it would sear your hearts,
it would sear your minds. John the Baptist was a forerunner who was
privileged by God the Father, who was called by God the Father, who was,
who was given an opportunity by God the Father to be a forerunner to prepare
the way for Jesus to come onto the scene, onto the platform as a Lamb of God.
Okay, we heard that, right? We, as his church, listen, we as his church,
as his bride now have the opportunity, the privilege, the honor to bring Jesus to be
forerunners and to bring the Lord to come onto the platform now as a king and as a bridegroom.
That's what forerunner ministry is. We are preparing the way for the Lord and his return.
I don't know if you knew or not, but Jesus is coming back.
He is no longer a baby in the manger. He is no longer a crucified man on the cross.
He is coming back as a king to take his bride and his people to be with him for eternity.
That's who's coming back. I don't know if you knew that or not, but newsflash, he's coming back.
And I believe, I said this last Sunday, I believe that the Lord is inviting us, listen to my language
here. I believe that the Lord is inviting us to come into a lifestyle of a forerunner.
Let it be individuals, let it also be a corporate thing.
We've already been, I don't know if you guys have been around churches lately or not,
but we as a church, we've already gone further and I'm not saying this boastfully.
I say this with all grace, I say this with all humility. I've been around the block,
I've been to a few different churches. You guys know my story, but we already as a church
have gone further into the things of God than your average church in our day and age.
But I believe, see I'm not satisfied just to stay somewhere and be okay, we're good.
I believe God is asking us to go even deeper into the things of him.
To learn facets of Jesus and to see a side of Jesus that very few get to see.
Now my question to you is, and don't answer this, please don't answer this because I don't
want you to answer something and you're not even knowing what you're answering.
But my question to you is, are you willing to pay the cost?
Are you willing to pay the cost and the price to know the Lord in a way that not many people know him?
You see if you were here, I'm going off in a little tangent here, but I want you to catch
this. If you missed covenant partners this year, you missed out. I'm just gonna flat out tell
you, you missed out. Pastor Verne spoke on something that was so profound.
And after the covenant partners meeting, we got in the car, my wife and I,
we got in the car with another couple. And the wife of that husband, she gets in the car
and the first thing she says is she goes, how come people don't preach this on churches?
And I just started laughing. I said, she's getting it. I said, she's getting it.
But Pastor Verne spoke something at covenant partners that was very profound. And I'm trying
to bring it into a nutshell. But if we want revival, let me say it this way, if we want
revival, we have to be able to pay the cost for it. Did you know that everything
in the scriptures, let me rephrase that. Did you know that salvation is free according
to the scriptures? It's been paid for. It's been paid for by the precious blood of Jesus,
by the death and the resurrection of Jesus, by the father giving his son, our salvation
has been paid for. But did you know that if you actually want to know the Lord,
more than just, oh, he died for me. But if you actually want to know him, not just,
see, not just the things of him. We oftentimes talk about the things that are of the Lord,
but very few, I said very few know him. And if we want to know him, there is a price we pay,
my friend. And that price is not your Benzhumans. That price is your life laid down according to
Romans 12. And the apostle Paul, he says, he says, I beseech you, brethren. He says,
I beseech you. In other words, he's saying, I beg you. He says, I beg you that you would lay down
your life. Why? For the sake to know him. That's forerunner talk. That's forerunner talk.
So my question to you, you can sit here, you can hoot, and you can holler,
you can agree with me all day long and say, yeah, I want to know the Lord,
Pastor Igor. I want to know him. This is great. But see, you can talk that talk all day long
until you're paying the price. It's vain. It's empty talk. So my question to you, if God is really
calling us as a body, if God is really calling us as individuals into the deeper realms of
himself, my question to you this morning is, are you willing to pay the cost?
Are you willing to live a life that is disciplined and you set aside time every day and you say,
God, that time right there, I'm given to you. It might be inconvenient for my family schedule,
but God, you're more important than my wife. You're more important than my husband. You're
great. Praise the Lord. We've had a lot of questions come in regarding this series and I love it that
we're having these questions come in. I think it's so great that we're having multiple questions
come in. I actually want to encourage you. Starting from today, if you have questions
in anything regarding the series, please, I encourage you, send them in to us, to my
I would love for you to send in questions because you can have five people and five different people are hearing the same message five different ways.
So when we open it up to have people ask questions, it actually gives more clarity in what we're after.
It actually helps us mature.
So we had a lot of questions actually come in and Pastor and I were like, hey, let's let's answer these questions together.
You want to come up here with me?
So we had an individual sending a question that we want to answer today and we'll answer as many questions as we can.
If we get a lot of questions that come in, we'll kind of try to pick and choose the questions that apply to a majority of people.
We'll answer all of them, but the ones that we choose to answer off the stage, we'll kind of choose the ones that apply to a majority of people.
And we had a question come in this week and the reason why we're answering, we're both answering them because I felt like two perspectives would be better than one.
Would you agree?
All right.
So here's the question.
I'm going to read it to you and then you'll take a swing at it and then I'll take a swing at it.
And we'll see if we get a home run this morning.
If not, then they give us three strikes in American baseball.
Yeah.
In Ukrainian baseball, they even give you five strikes.
Can you believe that?
Yeah.
There's no such thing as Ukrainian baseball, by the way, but I had you believe in.
Here's the question.
The question came in, and by the way, we'll keep the questions anonymous.
We're not going to read your name.
So the question came in and it said, I feel like I am doing the work of a forerunner.
However, I'm not doing it in my home.
I take it with me and apply it where I am.
We as church attenders have a strong understanding of home groups, which has a leader and participants.
However, I believe this is something that can be applied anywhere.
As you talk with family members, friends, coworkers, out for coffee, et cetera.
How can we be more intentional in applying this wherever we are for however length of time we have
with a person or even people?
So that's the question that came in.
Technically, there's actually two questions in one question.
So take a swing at a pastor.
Can you explain why they're differentiating from home to wherever?
Going back to last Sunday's message, because when you were talking about forerunner
and the process of it and meeting in homes and so forth, can you put a little context to that?
So forerunners is something that it's...
Well, that's part of my answer.
You want me to answer first?
Go ahead.
You sure you want me to answer first?
Yeah, go for it.
Okay, so here's the way that I answered this individual.
And I'm answering it again for all of you to hear.
Forerunners is a lifestyle, if you guys remember.
And it is applied everywhere you go.
And to answer one of the questions out of the two is to be more intentional
is to simply live it and allow it to flow out of you.
And here's what I want to give a little bit more of a context to that is
if we actually live a forerunner lifestyle,
the question was how can we be more intentional with it?
To be more intentional with it is if you do it in your home,
like for an example, if I'm a mechanic and you say,
hey, this and this is wrong with my car, I'm going to walk over there
and because I'm a mechanic, it's going to naturally flow out of me
to discover the issue.
If I'm not a mechanic, I might sit there and be scratching my head.
Well, I don't know.
And then also, the question was, you know, I believe I'm a forerunner,
but I'm not doing it in my home.
Forerunner vision, the way that we have lived it,
the way that we have taught it to do it in our home
or to do it in homes is simply one way of expressing
of what it means to be a forerunner.
Because if you're living a forerunner lifestyle
and you bring somebody into your home,
you're actually bringing them into your life.
You're bringing them into what you do on a day-to-day private basis.
And when you do that, you're actually allowing people
to learn from you of how you love Jesus.
That's really what it comes down to.
So, did I answer that and give some more context?
Yep, I think it was good.
I am doing the work of a forerunner.
The work of a forerunner, as you explained it,
is someone who is a scout.
They go out ahead, see what it's like,
and if it's bad, of course, they say,
don't come here. If it's good, come here.
Follow me. I want to tell you to come back
and get the group and take them there.
To do the work of a forerunner,
we have to know where we're taking them.
It's good.
In my perspective.
You know, I can go out and scout and say,
okay, here's what I'm looking for.
What am I looking for?
Where am I trying to take people?
If we don't have the end goal already established,
we can't take them there.
We have to know what that end goal is.
So can I take two, three minutes,
and I'm just going to put a plug-in for our podcast here.
Which is launching in March.
We're working through world views.
That's where we're starting.
We have first two sessions.
Not about it.
And then we go into world view and you'll understand it
when you listen to it or watch it.
A world view is the filter that we run everything through
on every decision we make in life.
No matter what it is.
We justify it or we make the decision by our world view.
Okay?
We discovered that in the United States of America,
currently, it's come up just a little bit
probably because of the younger generation
is becoming much more conservative.
Currently, the number of people who hold to
a biblical world view in the United States.
Now, a biblical world view means
everything you do in life, you're running through this filter.
You're going to do it or not do it
according to your understanding of what the Scripture says.
Okay?
About 73% of Americans say they're Christians.
They claim to be Christians.
However, the number of people who live life
running their decisions through Scripture is currently 4%.
So this morning, you know, let's say we had 200 people
here before the adults left with the children and so forth.
4%, so that means eight of us
would be holding to a scriptural world view.
So then I told Pastor Yeager, I said,
well, go on a little hunt here, see what you can find.
What is the big world view in America?
And it's worldwide, by the way.
It is syncretism.
It's about 92% of people have a syncretistic
or syncretism world view.
What is syncretism?
Syncretism is, and I think it got so strong
because as communication and knowledge
of other parts of the world travel, et cetera,
increase, syncretism increased.
It's taking bits and pieces from various beliefs,
various cultures, various ways of thinking.
It's taking all these bits and pieces like a smorgasbord
and piling them together in what I believe.
This is what I think.
And I've gathered all this information
and come up with this approach.
92% of Americans, that's their world view.
So in other words, what I think is true is what's true.
Because I gleaned it from all these different sources
and this is what I think is truth.
So everything that I decide in life
is run through that filter.
This is what I think is truth.
Well, that's great.
But all the sources you drew from
could all be a bunch of hogwash.
So even though you think it's true,
it could be a pack of lies.
So to come from a forerunner
from the scriptural standpoint,
scripturally, what is the end game?
What is a forerunner trying to get someone else to?
And I agree. It needs to happen in the marketplace.
It needs to happen at our jobs.
It needs to happen at Walmart.
That's the starting spot.
So as we talked about this,
okay, I'm at Walmart.
I'm working with someone.
I'm trying to take them someplace.
Where am I trying to take them, number one?
And are they capable of making that leap all at once?
And what we talked about was scripturally speaking,
where does God, where does Jesus want every person to land?
Now, somebody's going to say,
well, he wants them all saved.
Well, he does.
That's true.
That's part of the end goal,
but it's not the full end goal.
Make disciples which causes them to obey,
which brings them into the church.
Into the body.
Into the body of Christ.
Well, I'm saved and part of the body.
What body are you connected to?
Because see, my arm is connected to my torso.
If I cut my arm off and I leave it home this morning,
it is a member, but it's not part of the body anymore.
But we have gathered information as Christians
that say, well, I can be part of the body and stay home
and do whatever I want to do.
No, you can't.
To be part of the body, you've got to belong to a body.
You can't be off as an individual member doing something
and never part of the body.
And that's a whole big subject.
My thought to your approach is this.
You have someone here who you're trying to get to Jesus,
ultimately into the body.
Because the body is as bright.
I just want to add that in there.
That's why it's the ultimate goal.
Yep.
And he's the head of the body.
Correct.
It's the attachment.
It's the whole thing.
The home is the perfect half step.
Correct.
To get someone from here to there.
Now, you might be able to use the restaurant.
You might be able, you know,
some place where you can get real with someone
and help lead them someplace.
Correct.
If you're not taking them to the scriptural end,
you're not a forerunner.
Might be a great person, but you're not a forerunner.
Yeah.
That has to be there.
And the home is the half step.
In my mind, that makes perfect sense.
Yeah, that's good.
Good with that?
I'm great with that.
I think you guys are good with that too, huh?
Yeah.
All right.
So yeah, send in your questions and we'll take a swing.
I think we hit a home run, man.
He's quiet.
All right.
Let me pray and then we're going to get into today's message.
Father, we thank you.
We thank you for your word.
We thank you for your spirit.
And we ask this morning for the washing of your word over us.
Wash over our minds, our hearts, Lord, our beings.
Wash over us this morning as we hear your word, Holy Spirit.
You are not limited.
So I ask you that you would minister to your people this morning as I speak.
Would you minister to your people, Father, by your spirit, not by power, not by might,
but by the spirit of the living God minister to us this morning as we hear the preaching of your word.
In Jesus' name.
If you agree with me, would you say amen?
Amen.
So I want to continue answering the question, what does it mean to be a forerunner?
So again, like I've already given you the Sunday overview, it is one that goes ahead.
It is one that is a scout.
The other portion of it, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Malachi chapter three.
To be a forerunner is to go before the Lord and to actually prepare the way for the Lord.
In Malachi three, we find the prophet Malachi actually prophesying about John the Baptist coming.
And listen to what the scriptures say here.
This is Malachi chapter three starting at verse one.
It says,
Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
The prophet Malachi is basically, in short words, he is describing the ministry of John the Baptist.
He's saying, listen, before my son Jesus comes down to the platform, I am going to send a forerunner before him.
Somebody who's willing to pay the cost, somebody who's willing to look silly, somebody who's willing to deny everything.
He's willing to give up everything simply to prepare the way for the return.
Or I should say, in this case, for the coming of the Lord.
That's literally John the Baptist's ministry.
And what's amazing to me, and I said this last time, and now I believe it's Matthew seven.
I should have brought the scripture for you.
But Jesus even talks about, and he says that John the Baptist is actually a greater example of what it means to be a friend of God than even Abraham is.
And when you actually study the life of John the Baptist, which I actually encourage you to do so.
Study the life of John the Baptist.
And you will find facets, if you want to know on a deeper level of what a forerunner is, study the life of John the Baptist.
And this man was a forerunner who went before the Lord, prepared the way for Jesus to come on a platform.
And he did it in such a way that people even came to him and they were like, so listen, you're doing all this stuff.
Are you the Messiah?
And he says, no, he says, I'm not.
They says, are you the prophet? He says, no, I'm not the prophet.
They're like, well, who are you then, dude?
Why are you even baptizing people in water?
And I love the answer of John the Baptist.
Again, this is forerunner talk.
I want you to understand that forerunners speak a different language and it's not Ukrainian.
Forerunner talk is different than your average Christian language.
So they come to him and they're like, who are you?
And they go asking him all these questions.
And this is forerunner talk.
John the Baptist, he answers them and he says, I am a voice.
He says, I'm a voice.
I'm simply a voice in the wilderness.
Crying out makes straight ways for the Lord.
Let the valleys be what?
No, that's not the valleys.
That's the mountains.
Let the valleys be raised up and let the mountains be made low.
Let the crooked paths be made what?
Straight. See, that's forerunner talk.
Forerunner talk, you will always hear repentance in it.
I said forerunner talk, you will always hear repentance in it.
To live a lifestyle as a forerunner, you have to embody a life of repentance.
And you're saying, well, what do you mean, Pastor Igor?
Does that mean that I constantly have to repent?
And that, yes.
Yes.
We have not yet come to the fullness.
Can I just say something here real quick before I get into a whole other tangent?
Can I say that repentance is oftentimes confused in our realm?
We think of repentance, Pastor.
I'm going to quote you here a little bit because you and I talked about this.
We oftentimes think of repentance as a shameful act.
When you come up to the altar, people got their heads bowed and they're like, oh, man.
People are looking at me.
They probably know my sin on and so forth.
And I love how you gave me this and my gears have been turning in my head.
The way that heaven, the perspective that heaven, can I quote you?
The way that heaven looks at repentance, if we could have our minds renewed in that,
friends, we would seek for anything and anything that we could actually repent of.
It's a honorable thing.
It's a privilege for us to actually repent.
So forerunner talk has to do with repentance.
So here, John the Baptist, he comes on the scene as a forerunner and he prepares the way.
Friends, we, listen to me.
We have the privilege to be like a John the Baptist.
We as a church, on a daily basis, as an individual, as a member of the body of Christ,
we have an opportunity to prepare the way of the Lord in our lives.
Let me give you a very practical example of what I mean by that.
The choices and the decisions that you make in a 24 hour day, think of it this way.
Are pavements or pavers, so to say, that are being laid out.
And you're either preparing the way for the Lord, or you're preparing the way for self.
And when you're preparing the way for self, you're actually preparing the way for the devil in your life.
Did you hear me?
Every choice that you actually get to make in life, you're either preparing the way for Jesus to come
and to abide and to embody and to have his way in your life.
Or you're making a way for self.
Where actually brings about destruction. It brings about the demonic.
Did you know that self actually ties into the demonic?
That's what lawlessness is. Lawlessness is being a law unto yourself.
What I think is actually good for me is what's best for me.
Where the scripture says, listen to me.
Where the scripture says, he who loses his life actually, what?
Finds it.
That's forerunner talk.
That's forerunner speech.
So John the Baptist comes, prepares the way for the Lord to come as the sacrificial lamb of God.
Now we, this needs to pierce your hearts.
Friends, this needs to pierce your hearts.
We have the privilege to prepare the way for the Lord.
To hasten the day come, Lord.
What does Revelation say? One of the last scriptures in the Bible.
What does it say? The Spirit and who else?
The bride. And what are they doing?
What are they doing? Tell me.
They're saying come, Lord.
What is that call meaning?
Lord, we're preparing the way.
We're readying our hearts.
We're removing the wrinkles, the stains, the blemishes by your Holy Spirit.
And we're saying come, Lord.
We need you.
We need you to come.
We can't remain in this unclean, disgusting world that we're living.
We need you to come and make everything right.
Can I tell you something here?
Ain't no political man or woman is going to make things right.
You didn't hear me. No, no, no. You didn't hear me.
Listen to me. Listen to me.
I come from a foreign country.
I've heard far too many. Listen to me.
I'm all about voting for the right candidate.
But can I tell you that we have Americans
that have actually put more hope in a political party
than they have in the Lord Jesus himself?
Can I tell you that?
There ain't no man. There ain't no woman
that's going to make everything right.
We need Jesus to actually come back
to establish his kingdom here on earth.
That then things would be made right.
Did you hear me this morning?
Yeah.
That's why. That's why we have the privilege,
the honor, and the opportunity to prepare
the way for the Lord to return.
The time has been determined by the Father.
It has been determined.
But we have the opportunity to say,
come Lord, we need you now.
Can I tell you the truth?
And I'm putting myself into this category too.
We're not yet desperate enough to have him return yet.
Did you know that? You're saying,
what are you talking about, Pastor?
Because if we were desperate enough,
if we were desperate enough for the Lord to come back,
we would spend hours on our faces
asking him to come back.
We're not desperate enough.
We are not desperate enough in America
to have Jesus return yet.
We still like our life.
We still like the things in our life.
And you're saying, but Pastor, I gave up so much.
So did I.
And do you know what my wife tells me?
She says, you know what?
She says, love.
She goes, I don't think we gave enough yet.
I said, what are you talking about, sweetie?
We gave up our business.
We gave up everything we had in the cities.
We gave up so much.
And she says, yeah, but we haven't given enough.
And I'm like, you're a wild wife.
I love you.
You are wild, Son of Sky, and I love you.
And you caused me to go deeper.
But friends, we're not desperate enough
for the Lord to return yet.
That's why when we hear doom and gloom,
we're thinking, why is all these guys
preaching doom and gloom?
Because doom and gloom, unfortunately,
produces a first love unto the Lord
that causes us to be desperate for Him.
You still with me this morning?
A forerunner prepares the way for the Lord.
Listen to this.
Hebrews chapter 6.
Did you know that Jesus was actually a forerunner?
Did you guys know that?
If you don't believe me, read your Bibles.
Hebrews chapter 6. Listen to this.
Starting at verse...
Let's go to verse 19.
And this hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast,
and which enters the presence behind the veil.
Where the forerunner has entered.
Let me say that again.
Where the forerunner has entered for us,
even Jesus, having become a high priest,
forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
So even Jesus Christ was a forerunner,
and He wouldn't be for us.
Why does the Scripture call Him the firstborn from the dead?
Why does the Scripture describe the Lord in so many different ways?
Because Jesus embodied so many things.
That's why He's called the great intercessor.
Because He could intercede for us.
He can feel everything we're going through.
Have you been betrayed?
So has the Lord.
Has your spouse divorced you?
Or left you?
They did the same thing to the Lord.
What did the nation of Israel do?
Over, over, over and over again.
He is the great intercessor
who can literally, literally...
Let me say it this way.
He has already walked in our shoes.
Were you born,
and maybe you didn't have a dad in your life?
Like an actual biological dad?
Jesus didn't either.
Jesus had a stepdad. His name was Joseph.
Who was a carpenter?
In every facet,
the Lord can relate to you.
And He's been there.
And now this forerunner goes before us.
And now, He's actually preparing a place for us.
Where?
In heaven.
He is preparing a place
for His bride, His eternal companion
to be with Him.
Which, according to what we were talking about here earlier,
is us. It's the body. It's the members of the body.
You still with me?
So a forerunner. One who goes before.
It's one who is a scout.
And it's one who prepares the way.
Now I want to go somewhere here with me.
Or I should say, I want to go somewhere here next.
Is a forerunner?
Is somebody who holds dear
to the things that are important
to the Father's heart?
That's a forerunner.
One who goes ahead.
One who scouts.
One who prepares the way.
And in the midst of doing all of that,
this person who is a forerunner
actually maintains
and holds on to the things
that are very dear
to the Father's heart.
You know what I love about our vision book here at Word of Life?
In our vision book, Pastor wrote it out this way.
And I love this.
It says, major on the majors,
minor on the minors.
Am I saying that right, Pastor?
We have those things backwards
in our church these days.
We actually have churches that are
majoring on the minors,
but yet minoring on the majors.
But a forerunner is one
who majors on the majors.
They hold on to the things
that are most dear.
Do you know that there's actually things that are more
dear to God than other things?
Did you know that?
There's actually things
that God holds more dear
than other things.
You know why marriages are so under attack?
Not just in the world, but in churches?
Because marriage is something
that is very dear to the Father's heart.
And this is what I learned.
Listen, this is what I learned.
Do you want to identify what's
very important to the Father's heart?
Look what the devil is after.
The devil will always
attack the things that are most
valuable to the Father's heart
and he knows what's valuable
to God's heart. Why? Because he's been there.
He's been in a realm of God's presence
that we haven't even yet been there yet.
Did you know that?
So he will always attack the things
that are most dear to God's heart.
Now, in my understanding,
if you really boil it down,
what is dear to God's heart?
We find it in Matthew 22.
If you really actually boil it down,
what is the two things
that are very dear to God's heart?
Matthew 22, let's read this together.
This is Matthew 22 starting at verse 37.
And this is actually Jesus
making a statement. And according,
if you know your Bibles, Jesus is the...
is the perfect image
or the perfect example
of the invisible God. He says,
I don't do anything on my own accord.
I only do what I see the Father do.
So these are the words of Jesus. Listen to this.
Matthew 22, verse 37.
Let me start there.
It says, Jesus said...
So again, let me give you a little bit
of a context here. When the Pharisees
starting at verse 34, when the Pharisees
heard that he had silence,
the Sadducees, they gathered together,
then one of them, a lawyer
asked him, asking the Lord a question
to test him, saying,
Teacher, which is the
great commandment in the law?
So they're coming to test the Lord.
They're trying to figure out,
oh, is this guy really it?
Let's see what he says.
And here's what the Lord says.
Jesus answered
or Jesus said to him,
this is verse 37,
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it.
You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.
And then he makes the statement.
On these two commandments
hang all the law
and all the law.
And the prophets.
If you really boiled down
what is dear
to the heart of the Father,
he desires
for us
to walk in first love
towards him.
Can I say something?
If we've lost
our first love, you've lost everything.
Let me say that again.
If you lost
your first love to the Lord,
you've lost everything.
I don't care that you can prophesy.
I don't care that you can speak in tongues.
I don't care that there are signs,
miracles and wonders happening.
If you've lost your first love
onto the Lord, you've lost everything.
Why do you think in the book of Revelation
when Jesus is actually
addressing the seven churches,
what is the first church
that Jesus addresses?
Can somebody tell me?
Okay, Ephesians.
What was he addressing them in?
They lost their first love.
Out of the seven churches
that the Lord was addressing,
he would choose to start
with that church.
That to me tells me something.
That tells me something about the Lord
and how zealous he is
for his people to walk
and first love towards him.
And you're saying, Pastor,
okay, well what is first love?
What does it mean to walk
in first love? How do I walk?
How do I know if I'm in it?
When we are in first love, we choose him
the most simplest way I can tell you.
We choose him above
all else.
We choose
the Lord above all
else.
Can I get real personal with you?
Ready for this?
We choose him
above all else when nobody
else is looking.
It's easy to choose him on a Sunday.
Did you hear me?
It's easy to be a Christian.
We should write a song about that.
It's easy to be a Christian
on a Sunday.
La la la la.
I should get Brian on the keys
and we should sing a song.
Friends, it's easy
to be a Christian
on a Sunday.
I've told you this before.
Put on a suit and tie.
Put on some good Gucci cologne.
Come in, you're smelling swell and well.
But I would love to,
you know, I would love
to sit with certain pastors
and leaders
and ask their wives and their children
what is your dad like or what is your mom like
at home?
What do they do at home?
That's why, see,
that's why I'm all about
you want to know who I am?
Come hang out with me and my family.
I am open to that.
I am open to that. Ask my kids
who I am at home.
They might say some things that are a little embarrassing
but that's alright. We're boys.
We do stuff that's embarrassing.
That's between me and my boys.
Ask my wife who I am.
You know, to walk
in first love, the best example
that I could give you is
the way that a husband
is with his wife.
And this is what I mean.
I could come here and I could
tell you and I could be all lovey-dovey
with my wife and I could tell you how awesome
she is and how great she is
and how beautiful she is
and all these wonderful things.
And you're like, man, Igor really loves
his wife. He's like, wow, he really loves her.
But here's where
the marker of, are you actually
walking in first love or do you actually love
your wife? What do you do for your wife
at home?
What do you do for your wife
at home? The same compliments that
you tell your wife in public
are you telling her those same things?
Are you serving your wife
at home?
Are you serving your wife at home, husbands?
Is she always
doing the dishes?
Is she always
doing the laundry?
Is she always the one home
with the kids?
Somebody's saying, uh-huh
preach it, brother.
Somebody's
saying, preach it, brother.
See, but that's how we are
with the Lord. We come
and we think we're in
first love because we just
experienced and what a wonderful worship
we just serve somebody.
We just prayed for somebody.
Here is a ditch that oftentimes
Christians get to. Christians
get into a ditch when they
fulfill the second commandment
which is love your neighbor as yourself
and they're fulfilling that
commandment thinking that they're
actually in first love where
they're missing it.
Friends, a genuine
real second
or fulfillment of the second commandment
actually comes from the first.
You cannot fulfill
the second and greatest
commandment unless you're
fulfilling the first. And that means
I love you, Lord, when nobody else
is seeing me, I'm still loving you.
I'm still choosing
you when nobody else is seeing me.
I'm still pursuing you
when nobody else is seeing me.
A full runner is one who
holds dear to the things
that are of the Father's heart.
And again, if you boil them down
it comes to two things.
It's to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with
all your soul. And can I be honest
with you, that takes you a lifetime
to learn that.
It takes you a lifetime
to learn that.
I've learned in my life
that when I actually know
how much he loves me
it propels me into
first love.
Ah, you didn't hear me.
No, no, no, you didn't hear me.
First John writes it this way.
He says we love
because he first loved us.
First love actually
comes from when we know
how much he loves us
and what he did for us
which then propels us
into love with him.
When we actually
begin to understand
what sin is
and how sin separates us
and how disgusting it is
and we begin to say, oh my goodness
Lord,
not only did you just die for
my sins, but the Scripture says
that the sins of the world
did what they came upon him.
He bore, the Scripture says
he bore the
sins of the world
a sinless man, perfect
actually bore
the sins, he wore them
on his flesh.
And we come with this perspective
God, why did you do it?
Why did you do it?
And his answer, because I love you, that's it.
When you begin to learn that
and you begin to grow in that
friends, you begin to weep when you read the Scriptures.
Do you know how I personally
measure myself?
When I'm like, Lord, make sure
that I'm, make sure that I'm
remaining in first love. Help me, Holy Spirit.
Help me and keep me
in first love.
I find myself often times when I read
the Scriptures and if I have a cold
attitude towards the Scriptures
I say, Lord, forgive me.
Forgive me, Lord.
It's so hard sometimes
and maybe some of you can relate
it's so hard sometimes
to read the Scriptures
and not cry.
It's hard sometimes
to read what he actually did
for us and not cry.
When you begin to read what he actually did
and who he actually is
you begin to weep.
We were just driving in this morning
into church with my family
and yesterday somebody
recommended a song for us to listen to
and it's a very old song.
It's sung by a lot of Lutheran churches
but you know I don't care.
Those Lutherans can know some really great songs.
And the song is
and I was like, how come I never heard this song?
And now my kids love it
and now my kids are like, Papa, can we sing this song?
I said, of course we can.
And the song, I'm not going to sing it
but I'll just read you or I'll say the lyrics.
It says, I'm not going to sing it.
No, no, I'm not going to sing it.
We need Jesse here to sing it.
But the lyrics go like this.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there?
See, I'm talking about it now
when I want to start weeping.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there
when they pierced his side?
Were you there
when he rose?
And we're driving in this morning
and we're singing the song and I'm weeping.
I'm weeping.
I'm like, my God, you love me.
You really do love me.
And you really did die for me.
And you begin to
think about this stuff.
You begin to read the scriptures.
How can you not cry?
How can we not weep
when we read the scriptures
of who the Lord is and what he's done?
Have we really become that cold
in our hearts that we read the scriptures
as, oh, okay, I've read this before
so I'm going to read it again.
Why?
Have we really become
that cold as a church?
Have we really become that cold
as a people of God
that when we open up the scriptures
we look at it as a chore?
Well, pastor said I have to pray.
Pastor said I have to
read the Bible.
Okay, well, I'm going to do it now.
Oh, this is very hard for me.
Have we really grown
that cold
and callous in our hearts
that that is our attitude?
Do you see what I mean
that there is very few that are actually
forerunners in our day and age?
I'm not saying this in a boastful way
but you will find certain pages
in the Bible when you flip them
specifically Psalm 27
you will find steer
or tear stains in my Bible
because every time I read it
I can't help but cry.
I can't help but look at the scriptures
and say, my God,
you really do love me.
You really did die on the cross for me.
And when we begin to understand
and we begin to grow
and how much he loves us
it actually propels us to love him more.
And when we love him more
we understand that when he
asks us to do something
we say, yes, Lord, we'll do it.
We'll go to the nations, God.
We'll lay our lives down.
We'll go to the neighbor.
We'll preach the gospel, God.
Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it.
But that comes from a first love
that comes from knowing
that you actually love me, God.
You do actually love me.
I'm broken. What is...
What is there in me, God, that you find so intriguing?
I oftentimes ask the Lord that.
God, what is it in me?
Is it how funny looking I am?
Is it my pants, God?
What is it, God, that you find
so intriguing
that you actually love me?
We love because he first loved us.
Friends, a forerunner
is one who holds dear
to the things that are of the heart
of God. And if you boil it down,
it comes down to two things.
I'm gonna love him
with all my heart, with all my soul,
with all my mind.
And I will put every effort.
I will make every choice
to walk in a first love towards the Lord.
And out of that,
out of that, I shall love others.
And I shall bring them
here where they know the love of God.
The love of God is wide.
The love of God is long.
The love of God is high.
The love of God is deep.
And it'll take us all of eternity.
I said all of eternity
to know it.
Listen to me here.
A forerunner
is one who lives a very unpopular life.
And you're saying, what are you talking about?
A forerunner
is one who lives a lifestyle, a fasting.
That's a forerunner.
You're saying, where'd you pull that from?
Study
the life of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist oftentimes
fasted.
I told you, I'm coming out of the life
of John the Baptist and Jesus.
That's where the perfect model
of a forerunner is.
Not a forerunner, a forerunner.
Some of you caught that, some of you didn't.
Matt's laughing, Matt Kruski's laughing.
You don't want to be a forerunner.
A forerunner right now, man.
Ice is all over us like butter on bread right now.
You don't want to be a forerunner right now, bro.
Help my brothers and sisters
in Jesus' name, Lord.
That they would stay in America.
I got to pray for some of them.
I'm telling you guys, it's awesome.
Jesus
lived a life of fasting.
Did you know that?
Did you know that Jesus
often fasted?
And you're saying, what are you talking about?
Read, just
read that scripture. I believe it's
John 4. Just read that scripture.
It's in John 4, I believe, where Jesus
meets with the Samaritan woman
at the well. I believe it's John 4.
And the disciple, so the scripture
says, I'm quoting it to you here
off my memory. The scripture says that
Jesus hasn't eaten all day.
And the disciples went out.
They went out to do what?
They went out to go get food.
Because they haven't been eaten.
And then Jesus ministers
to the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman leaves.
They see Jesus talking to a woman.
And then they come back and the disciples say,
Lord, we
brought you some food. You should
probably eat now, Lord. You haven't
eaten all day. Do you think Jesus
didn't eat all day because he didn't have
the finances to eat? Oh, he had plenty of
finances to eat. Trust me. We oftentimes
look at the Lord as this poor man. Jesus
was actually a wealthy man. Did you know that?
Did you know that? Why? Because
the scripture says that silver and gold is
mine.
Our God ain't poor, friends.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
We don't serve a poor God
who is scrambling, how am I
going to do this? He's got resources that
we don't even know of.
So they come to him and they say, Lord,
you need to eat. We haven't eaten all
day. And he says, listen. He says, I
have food that you don't
even know of.
I have food that
you don't even know of.
A
forerunner is one who lives a
lifestyle, a fasting,
and is sustained
by the Spirit of God in those
moments. There's grace. I said there is
grace to fast.
But can I also tell you, I shared this
last Sunday, my wife and I have
been living a lifestyle, a
fasting and prayer for 10 years now.
And I said this last Sunday, I'll say it
again. It doesn't become easy.
It doesn't
become easy. It's not that all of a
sudden, oh, I don't need to eat. Okay,
I won't eat. No, it's a choice that I
have to make. But I've learned
that if I'm taking an extended fast,
I've learned that once I
get past day three and I come into
day four of my fast,
all of a sudden there is a grace
for me there.
There is food
for me there to eat
that the world does not
know of.
Once we get past
a certain area,
some of us it could be after
day two. Some of us it could be
after day five. Whatever the
case is, I have found in my life
it's not easy for me to start a fast.
Though I live a lifestyle, a fasting
and prayer. Minimum once a day
or once a week I fast. Minimum.
And I'm not saying that boastfully. That's just
a choice that my wife and I
decided to make if we
want to be a forerunner. Because
when I study and look at the life of
John and Jesus, they
lived a lifestyle of fasting.
They fasted often.
Jesus actually
even said when it came to casting
out devils, he said this
kind comes out what?
Only by prayer and fasting.
That means that when I fast
I'm actually not only
crucifying my flesh
and denying my flesh and bringing it
into submission, but I'm actually
accessing, listen
fasting accesses
the things of the kingdom
of God. That's what fasting does.
It's not a hunger strike.
It's not I'm losing weight.
I actually
access the things
of God because I'm putting
to death the things of the
flesh.
Which then gives me grace now
to access a measure of power
and the things of God
that were not maybe accessible
for me until I began to fast.
Fasting is a forerunner
lifestyle. Can I tell you
something else? Prayer
is a forerunner lifestyle.
We're coming to a conclusion here.
In my earlier
days of when we just came into the ministry
my wife and I, I heard
I heard a quote from a man
who's now graduated and into heaven. His name
is Lenard Ravenhill.
Great man of God. I've watched some of
his teachings. Great man of God. Love that
man. He said and I hope to meet him
in heaven. He said a quote that
impacted my life to this day.
It's been almost 10 years that this
quote has impacted me and I began to
literally build my life. Not necessarily
around that quote. But I began
to implement that quote in my life.
And he said this.
He said a Christian is only
as good as his prayer life.
I said my God, we don't have many Christians then.
He said a Christian is
only as good as his prayer life.
A forerunner is one
who lives a lifestyle of fasting.
A forerunner is one
who lives a lifestyle of prayer.
Disciplined prayer.
Not when you want to and when you don't want to.
It's disciplined. You're bringing
your body into
submission, into subjection
to the things of God
and you're laying aside time and you're beginning
to live a disciplined
life for the Lord.
That's what a forerunner is.
A forerunner goes
before. He's a scout. He prepares
the way in the midst of all
that. The forerunner maintains
and holds the things
that are dear to the heart of God.
Even in the midst of chaos
and many other voices.
He maintains the things.
No Lord. You said I have to love you
despite whatever all the other voices
are saying. I'm going to walk
in first love towards you.
And with that Lord, I am going to learn
to live a life
of fasting and prayer.
I'm basing this out of the life of
John the Baptist and Jesus
that were primary examples
of what it means to be
forerunners. Jesus
lived a life of prayer.
Did you know that?
Can you believe that our Lord
actually prayed?
Some of you, this is a revelation
right now. You are like, really?
Jesus prayed more often
than you can even know. The Scripture
actually tells us that oftentimes
Jesus with drew
and for two, three days they couldn't find
him. What do you think he was doing?
Playing pickleball?
What do you think the Lord was doing?
He was with the Father.
He was learning.
He was hearing.
He was understanding.
He was a man.
The Scripture says that
vehement cries went from
the Lord and he was heard.
Friends, a forerunner
is one who lives
a lifestyle of fasting and prayer.
And let me say this. Let me encourage this.
Let me encourage you before we come to a conclusion.
This is a lot that I just
dumped on you and you are like, oh my goodness.
How am I ever going to get there?
Can I tell you this is a slow process
to get there?
I'm not asking you now you have to start
beginning the fast minimum once a week.
Start with what you feel the Lord
asking you.
I would say just pick
one day out of the month
and just fast for one day.
Out of the month. Out of 32 days.
32 days, right?
Were they listening?
They weren't listening, huh?
In Russia, somebody said.
Yeah, in Russia we have
15, yeah.
That's right.
Start where the Lord is asking you.
This sounds like a lot. You're saying Igor,
you're giving us far too much. Do you remember
I said I'm all about maturing the saints?
I want to mature more in
the things of God and as a forerunner
I want to mature people. I'm saying listen
come with me. Let me give you a short
testimony and then we'll come to a conclusion
about fasting.
In 2017,
when I was fasting
I want to say it was about
3 days, I think it was about 3 days a week
I'm trying to refresh my memory. I was
fasting about 3 days a week.
Friends, when I began to do that
it actually expedited
my growth in the things of God.
Supernaturally,
supernaturally, revelation
started to flow
from the scriptures to me.
Just because I said
Lord, I want to put
to death the things my belly,
your silence, you need to lose weight anyways Igor.
You need to get that six pack
back Igor. Look, come on.
And I would bring it into submission
and by the grace of God
he gave a spirit of revelation
and I began to grow
in the things of God at a far
faster pace
than your usual person
because I chose to fast
and the Lord honors it.
It's not a hunger strike.
And can I tell you something else
just to encourage you and then we'll pray?
Oftentimes when I was in the fast
I got nothing.
It's only like a month or two later
that it was like
oh my goodness. And then the Lord
says, remember you fasted? I'm like, oh
alright then this thing works
let's keep doing it.
Let's stand on our feet and we'll close
with prayer.
Father, we thank you.
We thank you Lord
that you
that you sent
your servant John Lord
to go before your son Jesus.
We thank you
Lord that John prepared the way
for your son to come as
the sacrificial lamb
of God. And we thank you father
that you are inviting us
this morning.
You're inviting us Lord
this local body here this morning
to engage in a forerunner
ministry and in a forerunner
lifestyle and vision
to prepare the way
for your son to come
as the bridegroom, as the king
as the Lord almighty.
We thank you Lord
we thank you Jesus
that you yourself are a forerunner
and you have gone before us
to prepare a way for us Lord
in eternity where we could
be with you Lord.
Father, we love you
and we ask Lord that you would grace
us. Give us the grace
to walk this thing out.
Give us the mercy
and the ability Lord.
As you said to the apostle
Paul, you said my grace
is sufficient for you in your weakness.
Lord, we are recognizing
that we are weak and broken
people and we're asking you
that you would grace us, that your grace
would be sufficient for us
to walk this thing out to obey you
in what you're asking us to do.
We ask that we would forever
walk in first love towards you
and that we would love
our neighbors from that Lord.
Give us a new and fresh revelation
of your love.
I said give us a new
and fresh revelation
of your love. That when we open the scriptures
even today God
that when we open the scriptures
we would begin to just weep.
That we would once again weep
when we read the scriptures. That we would not have
a cold and callous
heart when we look at the scriptures
as a chore but we would look
at it as my God. You love us.
You really do love me.
Grace us with that Lord.
In Jesus name
Amen.