Daily Encounters // Pastor Vlad

Good morning, church. Are you guys excited to be in a new house? Come on. You just want to say, "Wow." Come on. Just say, "Wow." This is so beautiful. You may be seated. Vlad and I, we just want to welcome you everybody and we want to congratulate all of us with this beautiful new building that our church has acquired.

It's been a long time, but we are here now. But I also want to acknowledge Paul and Tanya for spearheading this project. Let's give a round of applause to them. Thank you guys so much. This was a heavy lifting and we want to appreciate you guys. Also, we have many many volunteers who served day and night literally working and making things happen here.

We also want to honour them and let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. This may seem like we have arrived, but I just want to let you know that we're only starting. This is only the drop in the bucket.

Okay. The vision that we carry, the vision that God has placed in our hearts, it's much much bigger. And we going to be the witnesses as it unfolds in front of our eyes starting today with this service. Amen. I was only 24 when I moved to Tri Cities, married Vlad, and I knew in my heart that there's going to be something special that will come out of the church.

And when I came, it was only like two pews in our old building filled with young adults and you know, their parents and grandparents. That's about it. But I felt like something is going to come out. Something special. And now I see it with my own eyes. This is so pleasant.

And I'm just I'm loving this. Give my beautiful wife a round of applause. Everyone who worked on this building knew that she had the final decision on everything. So all the design, the stairs, everything had to pass through Lana. She has four years of art institute design, not design but understanding in art.

So I told my wife and I said, "You're responsible that this house looks nice and it feels good. Looks nice. To God be the glory." Benezer, up to this point, the Lord has helped us. Today is a wrap up of our 21-day fast. And I was walking in the kitchen today and I just breathe the sigh of relief and I said, "Lord, thank you.

It is finished". I can start eating after this. As I said, it is finished. I heard the Holy Spirit say the fast is. But I heard He say this to me. He says, "Your life, the ministry life at church just started. It's not finished. It's just starting. All these 24 years have been just a preparation.

Now we're stepping into our promised land. We're stepping into the dreams that our parents, our pastor carried. We're stepping into the place that the Lord has promised for us that we will see signs and wonders. Young people being raised up, more people being set free, our community being impacted, music out of this house touching the world, the preaching on YouTube, reaching millions of people, most importantly, children worshiping Jesus, becoming warriors for the Kingdom of God, going into schools and campuses and bringing souls for Jesus.

This is just a beginning. As you walked in today, you received our annual report and I will not go through that today. You feel free to go through. This is for the glory of God. Everything God has helped us to accomplish, arrive at, last few years has been incredible.

There's also financial report there that you can receive and see how our church stewarded these resources that we've had. If you would like to receive that online, you can go to hungrygen.com/report. And tomorrow night is our volunteers meeting. So, anyone who's been in our church and want to serve at this revival week, which is starting Wednesday night with Russell Johnson and then Jeremiah Johnson, they're not relatives, by the way, just the same last name.

And then Friday, we will be releasing two campuses, not one. And so, really excited. Do not miss Friday's service and then Saturday service will be our deliverance service and Saturday will also be our tour here where people can come and see the building and Sunday morning next week is our Grand Opening.

So today is just a soft launch to kind of see make sure everything is working and to next Sunday is our Grand Opening. So we're really excited for that. Don't come alone, come early. It will be the same duplicate service. It will be ribbon cutting. Now, my friend David Diga will not be ministering at the second service on Sunday.

He'll be sharing a brief word. The reason why is because if everybody comes to the one service and then everybody comes to the second service, we won't be able to fit anyone. The parking lot right now is full. It's already full. And that's only one service. So, I'm so glad we didn't do one service today because there was no way we would be able to fit everyone.

And then life class is coming up on February 15th. Now, incredible news, guys. Our life class is moved to Sunday mornings now. So, instead of doing Monday night, it's going to be Sunday morning 9:00. You're going to be able to go through life class. So, really, really excited for that.

And without further ado, what I would like to do today is first of all reintroduce Hungry Generation. Hello, my name is Vlad. I'm a pastor at Hungry Generation Church, where our vision is to lead people to encounter God daily. And this is why, we believe that if you only come on Sunday mornings, your life is not going to change.

But if you meet God every single day, you will grow. And when you will grow, you will change. We want to take you from meeting God on Sunday to spending time with Him on Monday. Because Christianity is not just a religion, it's a relationship. Church services and spiritual highs will not sustain you.

Daily time with God will. If you want to grow, spend time with God every day. Talk to Him in prayer. Hear His voice through His Word. And encounter His presence in worship. A hungry heart never stops pursuing God. Many churches have different visions. If the Lord brought you to our house, if you feel like this is where God wants me to be, is where He brought me in, He right away thought about the fact that this house has a vision.

The vision of this house automatically translates to the vision of your life. Now, some people have a vision of I want to build a home. I want to get married. And that's fine. Today, I want to give you a vision that God has given this church. And I pray that this vision will be, your vision for your life.

A year ago, up to that time, the vision of Hungry Gen changed every year. I didn't even know what it was, until I would go on the website because I would forget. I would go to a different conference, find a different cool statement, and just put it on their website and love God, change the world, win souls, and make disciples.

And whatever the next thing that we were doing, that's the vision it was. And I'm just going to be very honest and transparent with you. And one person challenged me about a year ago and he said, "What is the vision of Hungry Gen?" And I said, "Let me check the website."

And I said, 'Well, it's, you know, it's the stuff like we do the stuff. And he said, exactly what is the vision? I said, 'Well, I think it's right now love God, love people, and change the world. And he asked me this question. He said, you're giving people three targets to hit.

He said, "What would be one thing as a pastor you would want, your congregation to do, that's measurable, doable, and that they could feel like they won by doing that not in a year, but in 24 hours?" And I said, "Well, we got three. Love God, love people, and change the world."

He said, "Be honest. How many of your congregation will hit three of them every single day? I said, "Love God?" Yes. "Love people?" sometimes. "Change the world?" Probably not. And I said, "But I want them to do three." And so after about months of spending time, processing this with my wife and with others, we took a retreat last year with most of, a lot of our pastoral team for three days, to pray into God's will.

What would be one thing that if you do every single day, you win? If you do that thing, what will be one thing if you do every single day, other things will flow out of that thing? What would be one thing whether you're a businessman, a stay-at-home mom, a high school student, a middle school student, or a university student, that you can do, no matter what your schedule looks like, no matter what your responsibility looks like, and no matter what your spiritual gifting or how long you've been in church, if you do this, we can guarantee your life will change because you'll grow.

And I asked our pastors and I said, "Every day, when you end the day, do you feel like you won, in this day when you changed the world?" They said, "Well, most of us don't change the world." I said, "Okay. Do you feel like you won when you encountered God?"

Yes. Even if that day I didn't win a soul, even if that day I didn't give my money to the poor, even if that day I did not accomplish all of my tasks. Even if that day things were bad, but I encountered God that day, I won. If my dreams did not become true, if I'm still not married, if I still don't have children, if I still didn't pay off my home, if I still didn't get a breakthrough in my business, but I encountered God in this day, I won.

David said, "One thing I desired of God." Jesus told to Martha, He said, "Mary has chosen one thing, that will not be taken from her." Jesus tells a rich guy who claims to be righteous, He says, "You lack one thing." I believe if you reduce your life, to one thing that is the most important thing in your life and if you're going to choose Hungry Generation to be your home church I want to let you know right away our vision is not to cast out demons, our vision is not even to reach schools that's a by-product of our vision, our vision is not global, it is actually practical, individual, and strategic.

So what, if we reach the world, but you don't know God? So what, if we cast out demons, but you don't know the father? So what, if you belong in the church where God does miracles, but you don't have a personal connection with the Father? The purpose of miracles, the purpose of deliverance is so they aid you to reconnect with your Creator.

Hungry Gen exists to lead people to encounter God daily. That's why we're here. Now, I don't want to make it sound super out there. Let me break down what I mean, when I say encounter. Encounter, we mean is you talk to God, you hear God, and you experience God.

Let's break this down again. You talk to God in prayer. Now, the length of it will differ based on the time they need and your personal personality. where, how you pray, whether it's in the car on the way to work, whether during your lunch hour, in the attic, in the basement, whether there is light and you're dancing around and jumping or there is silence, whether you have a candle or a lamp, that's you.

But you talk to Him. God wants to hear from you. You hear God through His Word, by reading it, and through His Holy Spirit who makes the Word of God come alive. Number three is you experience God coz God is not a topic you study in the university.

God is not an object. God is a person. God is a Divine being, you can have a relationship with. You can actually feel His love. You can feel His comfort. You can know His peace. And the way we believe you can experience God is through worship. Whether you turn on a soundtrack or you turn on a worship or you sing your own song to God, regardless of you can keep a tune or not and you worship Him, His presence begin to, Why?

Because He enthrones the praises of His people. Why? Because He seeks such worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Now why should you encounter God? Because when you encounter God, it is not just a daily spiritual activity. It is a strategic investment into your life. If you make it your priority to make money, making money won't help you with your health directly, your marriage directly, and your spiritual life.

There's no scripture or a principle that says if you're a millionaire, all these things like, your children loving you, your wife loving you, will be added to you. There's not a scripture that it says that if you make your children your number one goal in life that all these other things like a good health, like the things people seek will be added to you.

But the Bible says if you encounter God daily, you seek His Kingdom, all these things shall be added to you. My good friend Landon Schott says something that was really powerful and I do want to break that down today and that is this. You choose your daily encounters.

God chooses, your holy visitation. So daily encounter is something like this. You meet with God. Holy visitation which doesn't happen every day, happens once in a while, could happen once a month. It could happen once a year. Is when God in a Holy way visits you. When He visits you, He gives you direction.

When He visits you, He reveals facets of Him you knew about but He didn't know like for real, didn't know. You know, sometimes you encounter certain a facet of God's love. For example, you come back, you're like, "God is love." Everybody's like, "Yeah, I know. I read that."

You're like, "No, you don't get it." Like, like, you don't get it. God is love. And you're like, you don't have words to express it because you encountered that He visited you. Holy visitation is when you experience an answered prayer. Holy visitation is when you experience direction. Holy visitation is. when God speaks to you in a dream, in the vision, audible, in your heart, an angelic visitation, a miracle, a red sea splits, a Jordan splits, and an answered prayer, God supernaturally heals you.

Now, we all want the Holy visitations. We read about them in the Bible. But may I submit to you with an exception maybe of Moses and Elijah, the rest of the guys in the Bible, did not have those visitations every single day. You read the story of somebody's life 80 years compressed in three verses and it highlights two visitations, burning bush and mountain Sinai and most of us think every day they went outside to their oak tree and it was burning.

It wasn't like that. So what we do is this. We stack up daily encounters and God chooses when He gives us a Holy visitation. The story I would like to read to you today is the story of Joshua. And it's appropriate to our day today because Joshua stepped into the promised land and we stepped into Kennewick.

Come on, somebody. We crossed the river. Joshua crossed Jordan. We got the permits to start building on August 2022. January 2026 is when, we got the occupancy permit. 3 years and five months. Our river, that's how long it lasted. Joshua steps into the promised land. And in Joshua, the scripture says that God encounters Joshua, if you go to Joshua chapter 5 and verse 13, and it says this, "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes, looked, and behold, a man stood with a sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or are you for our enemies?" And I love how God responded. He said, "No." So, so like No like to what? Which question is it no to? God's like No to both. I'm not for you and I'm not for your enemies.

Why? Because when God comes, the question is not is He for you. The question is, are you on God's side? Not is God on your side. But I do believe that the Lord is going to be on the Seahawks side during this next game in Jesus name. Have mercy on our state.

New pope, new Super Bowl win. Amen. He said, "No, but as a commander of the army of the Lord, I have come now." Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" And then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals and your foot.

Take off the sandals off of your foot and for the place where you stand is Holy." And Joshua did that. In verse two of chapter 6, and the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its kings, and the mighty men of valour." And then He gives him a strategy.

Now, I want you to notice this. Would you go with me to book of Exodus chapter 33 and verse 11? So, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. This was before Apple invented FaceTime. Moses was already using it. Before Apple invented tablets, Moses already had them.

Not made in China, but made by the finger of God. And the scripture says, "And he would return, Moses to the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle." I want you to notice this. Joshua enters the promised land, has a strange man visiting him with the sword.

That's a holy visitation. This doesn't happen every battle. You don't see God coming to Joshua like this every single time. It actually happens at pivotal points in our life where God brings a Holy visitation. Now, let me give you the difference between our daily encounters and Holy visitations.

And this I am borrowing from my good friend Pastor Landon Schott. Your daily encounters are chosen by you. Holy visitations are chosen by God. Your daily encounters they are relational. Meaning you meet with God, you talk with Him. Visitations are directional. When God visits you, you gain direction.

You gain strategy. Encounters require your pursuit. Setting the alarm, waking up, pushing maybe the bed sheets, pushing distractions. You got to pursue. But visitations when they happen, you will have to obey. God will do something in you, say something to you that will require you to obey. Encounters, they grow your intimacy.

Visitations, they change your assignment. Encounters, they change your perspective and perceptions, but visitations, they will release you to God's purpose. What I want you to notice today is this. Before God gives a Holy visitation, you must first, stack up your life with daily encounters. Daily encounters are not accidental.

They're not just God randomly, excuse me, the visitations are not just God randomly choosing people. People prepare themselves by what they do in private for years and decades. Joshua in the promised land, God visits him powerfully. And you may think, "Oh, lucky he, Moses died. Joshua was the guy that took his place.

And God just randomly chooses to show up to Joshua." Yet you read in Exodus and you see the following that Joshua lingered when Moses would leave the tabernacle and he camped around the presence of God. Meaning Joshua prioritized his encounters with God. God wasn't visiting him with the sword.

God wasn't visiting him with the fire. God wasn't visiting him with an audible voice. He simply hanging out around the presence of God, enjoying God, the same way Samuel did. Samuel was just simply in the tabernacle. And after a while, God visited Samuel. My friend, your daily encounters are a decision you make, fuelled by your desire backed up by your discipline.

When I say that again, daily encounter is a decision. Nobody has time to spend time with God. Do you know that? And those people who have time have excuses to do something else. The only reason people spend time with God is because number one, they make a decision.

Somebody say decision. It's driven by desire. Somebody say desire. Everyone here, if you're a bible believing, spirit filled Christian, you have a desire. One of your biggest desires, I want to be closer to God. Your desire has to fuel the decision to spend time with God. Thirdly, this is where the desire and the decision dies if it's not strengthened by discipline.

Somebody say discipline. The challenge I find with a lot of people is their encounter with God is focused more on intensity than intentionality. I'm going to say that again. People get on fire for God and this is what they do. They go intense. That's it. I'm going to do a 21-day fast.

Hold on. Why don't you just focus on spending time with God five minutes? Why don't you fast breakfast? Hold on. The intensity is not going to last. Like, I'm thank God this 21-day fast is over cuz give another 21 days and then I'm going to lose all of my weight.

I can't fast 21 days every single month. That's not possible. God. You cannot build life with encounters God on intensity. Don't try to be radical. Be reasonable. Build routines, not some kind of a radical thing. Your goal isn't to impress anyone. Your goal is to grow. Hungry Gen exists to lead people to encounter God daily.

Somebody say, "It's about being intentional." Turn to your other neighbour and say, "It's not about intensity." Encounter with God. Daily encounters will give you three things. Number one, when you encounter God daily, it will give you strength for the new assignment that you have. Joshua went to the promised land and God right away spoke to him.

Joshua, be strong. Joshua, you're stepping into the shoes of someone who was more powerful, more anointed than you. You got actually God never said Joshua you got what it takes. God told Joshua I am with you. I am not a self-help TED talker. So I'm going to tell you the truth.

You don't have what it takes. Your problems are bigger than you. But God is with you. You don't have what it takes. You're not skilled for what you're stepping into. You don't have enough gifts, education, and experience. And what you're stepping into, you're not even you don't feel prepared for.

And that is okay. And I'm going to tell you another truth that's not going to you're not going to lie. Is this you are not enough. Oh, I'm enough. No, you're not. His grace is enough. His strength is enough. So when you encounter God, the Lord says, "I will be enough.

I will be the One that will support you." You're stepping into middle school and you're beginning to question, who you are. You begin to question, your identity. You begin to question, what is the purpose for your life. You're stepping into college and the weight of adulthood is hitting you.

You just became a new parent and you're barely sleeping. You're walking around. You're like, "I can't do this for the rest of my life." and you're like, "This is too hard." You step into a small group. You're leading a small group and people are just calling you all the time.

You're like, "I didn't sign up for this. You are not enough. You don't have what it takes in every new season." But God is stepping in and saying, "I am with you." When you encounter God, you tap into the strength for the new season without collapsing. Number two, what happens when you encounter God?

When Joshua stepped into the promised land, not only God brought him strength, number two is God brought a sword. Now, interesting thing about this sword is, this was not a sword that God gave to Joshua to kill Amalekites, parasites, other itites. This was a sword to actually be used on Israelites themselves.

It's called cutting. It's called sanctification. It's called sanctification. It's called cutting. The knife that Joshua made, this knife wasn't to attack the enemies. It was to prune the Israelites. When you encounter God, God starts sharpening the knife of your spiritual sensitivity. He starts sharpening your conscience. And things that used to be permissible start annoying you.

Things that used to be okay start making you feel guilty. Things that you used to justify. Even God was okay for 40 years. As you step into a new season, you encounter God. God starts bringing me things to your memory. Says, you lied there. That was an exaggeration over there.

You were too harsh with your spouse. You need to ask for forgiveness. Now there you are encountering God and you're saying, "Lord, give me knives to cut my wife. She needs to improve her game. Lord, give me a sharp knife to cut my children. They need to be more punctual and make up their beds and do their homework.

God, give me a knife. I need to cut Pastor Vlad. Lord, give me a knife. I need to cut that preacher online. I need to make a video and expose a heretic. Before God gives you a knife to attack your enemies, He'll give you a knife to cut you.

An encounter. An encounter that does not sharpen your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. It's not an encounter yet. I had this happen this week, where I was harsh with my wife. She was someone else and didn't have some details about what I what I thought and I just kind of went off on her.

Yeah. You know what fasting does is, fasting makes you sensitive. You're so irritable, moody, and cranky to the point that I don't want fasting because of that. Because fasting wakes up sensitivities, but if you're not careful, you're sensitive to everything. And so my wife is so glorious. She doesn't have to fast for 21 days to have more godliness than me.

She's like, I forgave you, Vlad, right away. You were under a lot of pressure. I was like, no, I wasn't under a lot of pressure. You were wrong. And I was like, babe, no, no, no. And she's like, no, no. I just gave you mercy right away. I knew that what you were going in.

And I remember I finished that conversation, the FaceTime conversation, and you know, when you said everything right, yet you were so wrong. I hung up and I was like, I was how dare. And when you quiet yourself, then the Holy Spirit says, "Jerk." I mean, He doesn't speak to me like that, but this is how I hear it.

Why you're so mean? Lord, give me a knife to trim my wife. She needs to change. And she may. That's a conversation for next month. The conversation for this week is, I need to prune you. The pruning is not God removing what's harmful. It's God removing what's hindering.

He didn't remove a cancer with a knife. He removed some skin that was not evil. But God says when you're in the covenant with me, the word covenant means to cut. If you are in the covenant, you will be cut. Meaning certain things other people do, you can't do because we're in the covenant.

You will reflect My spirit. You will reflect My fruit. You will reflect My heart. You will reflect that in your speech. You will reflect that in your money management. You will reflect that in your behaviour. You will reflect that in your attitude. And the moment you get some stuff growing that God says, "I know it's okay in the previous season.

I know it's okay if you're a lukewarm Christian, but that stuff got to get cut before you can conquer your promised land. You're going to be cut by the processes of God. Before you can submit, before you can resist the devil, you're going to have to submit and cutting hurts.

Encounters, they give me strength for the new season. And number two is they cut me before God uses me to conquer my new season. It was after the cutting, listen to me again, after the cutting that the man showed up to Joshua. Holy visitation follows the encounters with God.

What are these encounters? You choose this encounter, to get your strength from Him, to get convictions from Him. He cutting certain things out of your heart. If you're submissive to that, then comes the third thing, which is a strategy, which is a Holy Visitation. God comes to Joshua and in this encounter with Joshua.

God says the miracle that just happened, that's just the beginning. You cross the Jordan, that's just the beginning. You're stepping into your biggest battle and that is Jericho. And I'm going to give you a strategy. It will defy your logic. I'm going to give you a strategy. The people I will use to conquer Jericho are not the ones you're thinking.

They're not going to be your generals. They're going to be priests. Meaning this strategy is going to be around my presence. The strategy I'm going to give you is going to first look foolish, but it's going to be My Spirit all over it and you will conquer this new city.

Everyone wants a strategy. All of us, we need direction in our life. What to do next? God, I'm tired of this job. I'm tired of this situation. I'm tired of this season. God has a strategy for you. But please understand, He reserves His Holy visitations to people that submit to the Holiness of God in their life.

When they allow Him to prune, cut, change them, sanctify them, allow Him be their strength. My wish for you this year, may you encounter God daily. My wish for you this year, you want to change, stop focusing on changing as much as focusing on growing. By the way, stop focusing on growing.

Just simply do one thing, Encounter Him. If you encounter Him, you will grow. If you grow, you will change. If you change, you will conquer your land. You will conquer your dreams. Your cell group will grow. God will touch your business. You may say, "How dare you say that, Vlad?"

Because Matthew 6:33 is in red. And the Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Rise to your feet. Hungry Gen. Our church is not just about loud worship and very loud preaching. Our church is not just about powerful deliverances and great healings.

It's about encountering God. As we are ending this fast, I want us to start something and start something today. May this be this day you will never forget. It's 25th of January. If you have not had daily encounters with God, meaning they were kind of barely happening, not happening, not consistent, not important.

I want you to repent today and make a decision backed up by your desire, strengthened by your discipline. In fact, the next two minutes, if you want to make a change this year, I'm not asking you to change everything. Just one thing. I want to encounter God daily.

I want you to come out of your seat and stand here today. If you're saying, I want to live this out this year. That's one thing I'm going to pray for. This is not a call for salvation. This is a call for an encounter and not just at the altar but at home.

If you're saying today is the day I am making the decision I want to encounter God daily. I want you to begin to make forward. If you have not been encountering God, not through His Word, not through prayer, not through worship. And I'm not just saying because you had a busy life.

I'm talking about it's just kind of not important. You go to church on Sunday and that is so amazing. I'm so glad that you are here every Sunday. Please come. But the purpose of this church is not so you can come back on Sunday. It's so you can meet with God on Monday.

It's so you can meet with God on Tuesday. So you can meet with God on Wednesday. So you can meet with God on Friday. So you can meet with God on Thursday. So you can meet with God on Saturday. If you are a leader in our church or if you are a pastor in our church and you have not been encountering God, it does not matter what your title is.

God knows who you are because your room probably has been empty. I want you to be at the altar right now and let's make the decision. Today is the day we make a decision. I'm not asking you to cry a tear. I'm asking you to make a decision.

Lord, give me a desire to encounter you. Lord, give me passion to encounter you. Give me strength to encounter you. I don't care if you've been a believer for a month or just one hour or if you you've been a believer for 50 years. It does not matter.

Have you been encountering God? So everyone just begin to come forward. Begin to come forward, our worship team will sing a song. I pray, you will never forget this day where you make a decision to encounter God daily. Some of you are burnt out. Some of you are frustrated.

Some of you are angry with God. Process that with your encounter with Him. Process that in your encounter with Him. Let Him strengthen you. Let Him sanctify you and let Him give you a strategy. Everyone else, I believe you're encountering God daily. So, I want you to stretch your hands forward toward the people that are believing for that to become their consistent routine.

And I want to invite our leaders as well and our pastors for those that we can go ahead and just lay your hands on their shoulder on their on their forehead. Let's create a holy moment right now where the Lord encounters people. Come Holy Spirit. Come with your presence.

Change us. May what we do daily this year, change. We need you Lord. I pray for the new parents whose schedule is all over the place. I pray for the teenagers battling with insecurity and identity crisis. I pray for the empty nesters. Lord, I pray right now for those people battling with terminal illness.

May the encounter be a place, where our pain is processed. Where You deal with us. Where You change us. Where You heal us. Where You give us strength. Will You give us strategy? Come Holy Spirit. Come Lord. Come Lord. Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit. Oh, consume me with Your fire now, Lord.

Consume me with Your fire. Consume me with Your fire. Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit. Oh, may the fire of my altar never burn out. May the fire of my altar never burn out. The fire of my altar never burn out. May the fire of my altar never burn out.

Make me make me a house of the fire on my altar ever burn out. The fire of my altar never burn out. The fire on my altar never burn out. Make me a house. The fire, the fire on my altar never burn out. The fire on my altar never burn.

May the fire on my altar never burn out. Make me a house of praise. May the fire on burn out. The fire on my altar never burn out. The fire on my altar never burn out. Make me a house of prayer. Oh Lord, make me a house. Make me a house of prayer.

A house of prayer. Make me, Lord, Lord make me a house. Make me a house of prayer. Come on, every hand raised right now. You know the lyrics. If you're a believer, will you raise your hands? You're building an altar. Say, "Lord, make me a house of prayer.

I don't want to be a trash can. I don't want to be full of ashes. I want to have fire. I want to have passion this year. I want to have desire. I want to have godly disciplines. I don't want to just have memories. I want to have dreams.

I want to have hopes. Come Holy Spirit. Come with your fire. We welcome you Lord. We welcome you, Holy Spirit. We surrender to you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus name. As you're standing here right now, make a decision whether it's at night or during the day or in the morning that you will meet with God.

Make a decision where it's going to be. Is it in the car? Is it in the living room? Is it in the closet? Or is it in the attic? Stick with that for at least seven days. Choose the time. Bring your Bible there, physical Bible, so you have no distraction.

Write down what God is speaking to you. Begin to practice that this week. May this be a consistent habit for the rest of your life. I want to remind you starting tomorrow, this building will be open at 5:00 for prayer. If you live nearby, you can always come here and pray.

We want to start seeing this year that we have three hours a day in our intercession room at 9, 12 and 3 where people can come for an hour and spend time with God because Hungry Gen is an incubator for miracles. But for that to happen, this is a house of prayer.

It's not a house of entertainment. It's not a house of celebrity preaching. It's not a house of some famous worship team. It is where Jesus is famous and people love Him. Amen. Amen. For those of you here in the front, you can just take a one step back for just a second.

As this is the first service, if you're first time at Hungry Gen, you're so welcome. If you've been coming for some weeks already, we want to give you an opportunity before we close the service, an opportunity to encounter Jesus by getting saved. What is salvation? It means that you're far from God because of our sin, because of the way we were born, sinners.

Jesus died on the cross to bridge the gap. And He says He's the way, the truth and the life. And right now, if I can ask just everyone for just one moment right there where you are standing, could you just pause for just a second? I know some of you trying to get back to your seats, but if we can just pause for just a moment.

Thank you. Because this is a very holy moment for some for somebody, especially a friend. Maybe you brought. Maybe you're like Julian and whether your life is falling apart or your heart is broken and empty and you're looking for something to fill it. Perhaps you tried drugs, sex, religion, not selling you religion.

I'm offering you life. His name is Jesus. He died on the cross for you. He didn't die because He was only falsely accused. He died because He took your pain, your sin, your suffering, and your separation from God. He took that in. Today, He's offering you in exchange.

He's offering you life. He's offering you hope. He's offering you forgiveness of your sins. He's not offering you church attendance and tithing. He's offering you eternal life. Your life can change today. I double dug dare you. Somebody's praying for you. Somebody's fasting for you. Somebody put you in that sheet probably like three times.

You're not here on accident. Probably your heart is pounding three times. said, "It's not because Pastor Vlad is using manipulating skills. It's because the Holy Spirit is talking to you." So, no eyes closed, no head bowed. If you know you're not right with God, and you got to start this year getting right with Jesus, coming back to Jesus.

When I count to three, I'm gonna ask you to slip up your hand. That's going to be your way of saying, "Pastor, I got to start this year right. I want to give my life to Jesus. I want to come back to Jesus. One, two, three. Just lift the hand high if you say, "This is me."

Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else say, "Hey, this is me." Thank you. Okay. Now, I'm going to ask you to do something bold. And you're already here, so you're close to me. If you raised your hand or you wanted to raise your hand, it's going to get a little bit crowded, but I'm going to ask you to quickly come out of your seat and come and stand just a little bit closer.

Just come. God bless you. Let me shake your hand. God bless you. And there's more people coming. Can I have some of our leaders to step in right now? If you raise that hand, just step forward. We're going to pray with you. The best decision you can make in your life is to make Jesus the Lord of your life.

And if you're walking from the bleachers, just just shout it out. Wait for me quickly. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. So now in this building, we're going to have to speed things up when people will be coming our God bless you, young man. God bless you.

And if there's anyone else and if you're still walking, which I'm not seeing anyone else walking so perfect. Those of you watching us online, you're going to pray with us as well. I want you guys to stretch your hands like this. There's no magic thing about stretching the hands like this, nor is there a magical thing about praying the prayer we're going to pray.

Jesus hears our prayers and sinners pray. Jesus answers them. And we all going to pray together with you. Say, Lord Jesus Christ. I believe You are the Son of God who died on the Cross for all of my sins. Would you wash me by Your blood? Forgive me all my sins.

I am so sorry for everything I've done. I give you my life, the good, the bad, and the broken. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. And from this day forward, I want to follow You. Change me in Jesus name. Amen.