When God Rewrites the Story: Trauma to Triumph // Family Service // Pastor Adam

We want to join you and welcome every single one of you, even those watching online as well, to our family service this morning. I'm going to ask for everyone to come to the front with your kids, your children. Come to the front. Let's rise to our feet and worship him this morning.

Come on, let's praise him this morning. Some people think that I'm crazy. Some even call me a fool. But I found a love so amazing. If only for me all of the times you provide the mirals, wonders and signs, but I cannot give it half of my worship.

And I should be no surprise. So ask me why I worship the way that I do. Cuz I got a reason to praise life. I know I got nothing to lose. Cuz I got a reason. I got a reason. My God is overwhelming. A joy that I can't put in words for all of the blessings he pours out from heaven.

I'll give him what he deserves. So ask me why I worship the way that I got a reason to praise. I know I got nothing to lose. I got a reason why I worship the way that I got to. I know I got nothing. I've got a reason to I've got a reason to I got a reason to my I was lost now.

Jesus save my life. I was down in the light. That's the reason why. That's the reason I was Jesus my life. Heat. Heat. Heat. Jesus. I see the reason why I worship the way that I do. Cuz I've got a reason to bring life. I know I got to reason.

I see why I wor the way I got a reason. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Jesus. Walk in the light. That's the reason why. That's the reason why. The reason I praise you, Lord. That's the reason why we praise you this morning. Come on, lift up your hands.

That's the reason why we praise him this morning. We are thankful for all the blessings. We are thankful. We are thankful for your goodness this morning. Oh, we worship you, Lord. There's a reason why we praise him this morning. There's a reason for him. Oh, we praise you.

We praise you. We praise you, Lord. Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. It's not hard to see. Look what the Lord has. Look what the Lord has said. Look what the Lord has done. >> Look what the Lord has done. >> It's not hard to see it. >> It's not hard to look what he said.

Come on, let's give him this praise this morning. Look what the Lord has done. The Lord has done my heart to see. Look what the Lord has done. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. That's the reason why. That's the reason. Come on, give them a shout of praise this morning.

Come on. How blessed are we this morning to see our kids worship on this stage this morning. We give him all the praise. Like in Joshua says, "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord." Come on, someone give him this shout. Hallelujah. >> Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

You are here. As we lift you up, you are riding on our praise. over everything you are seeing. This is your feeling in the air. We lift our praise and you change the atmosphere. My heart's open now. Everybody sing it out. down any other sh I can feel the change I present now with me doors are This is prophetic.

I can feel it in the air. Chasing at hearts open now. Everybody sing it out. I am free. Turn it up. This sound make it louder. Heat. Heat. Oh, let everything. Our praise goes up. Your rain comes down. Our praise goes up. Your rain comes down. My praise goes up.

Your rain comes down. We shout of praise. We celebrate. King of glory entering. You are riding on our praise. Oh sh and shout his Oh, >> I'll praise you, Lord, with all my heart. You are here moving in our midst. I worship you. I worship you. You are here working in this place.

I worship you. I worship you. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God. That is who you are. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. You are here touching every heart.

I worship you. I worship you. You are here healing every heart. I worship you. I worship you. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God.

That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. Even when I feel that you're working the Lord with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength stop even when I don't see it you're working even when I don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop working.

Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working. Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working.

You never stop. You never stop working, way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are.

That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you Colossians 3:2. >> I want everybody in this room to know that God wants that.

Not only God can heal you, not only that God wants to heal you, but that God purchased the right with his own love to save, heal, and deliver you. So I want you to know all over this world that he that God sees what you're going through. He knows he sees you.

He knows what you're going through and he wants to help you. He wants to rescue. All you just need to do is believe and accept that he can do what only he can do in your life. And that he is making a way for you right now. God, that is who you are.

Hallelujah. Come on, put your hands together for Jesus. Isn't it so beautiful seeing our kids worship here and giving praise to the Lord? Come on, lift your hands. We want to sing grateful to Jesus. Hallelujah. Come on, lift those hands and let's worship him. He's so worthy. There was no way until you made one.

Grace upon grace. Hallelu. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it. And who am I that you keep me on your God? I'm just grateful for you. And God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life, you've been right here by my side.

God, I'm just grateful for you. God just grateful for you. Holy, holy, heavenly one. I gave you glory for all that you done. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Even though I could in earnest, you g you keep me on your mind. God, I'm just grateful for you.

And God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. God just keep me on your mind. I'm just very grateful for you. God is grateful for you. Oh, we're so grateful. Jesus, you paid it all.

You gave your life for us, Lord. I'm lifting both of my hands. You give me chance. I'm a chance. I'm a chance. I'll give it all that I am. You give me chance after you give me Oh, you keep me on your mind. I'm just grateful. All my life you've been right here by my side.

God, I'm just grateful for you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. You'll be right here. I'm so grateful. I'm all right. If they say I'm not. I'm just grateful. I'm just grateful. Come say, "Who am I? Who am I that you keep me on your mind? I'm just grateful for all that you do cuz all my you go.

Oh yes. Oh yeah. Come on. Sing it again. Who am I? Yes. You keep me on your mind. I'm just grateful for all the way. Cuz all my life, God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And who am I that you keep me on your mind?

God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life, you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. >> Come on, church. Put your hands together. Give the Lord a clap offering if you are grateful that through the grace of God, through the mercy of God, you are here today.

Welcome to Hungry Jen where our vision is to lead people to encounter God daily. One of our unique characteristics is to raise the next generation. And you see that being modeled today where each month that has five Sundays, the fifth Sunday is where children lead us into worship where they participate with us.

We close down the kids ministry so that we can minister together to our Jesus together with our kids. Amen. Let's give the Lord a clap offering one more time. Me and my family will serve the Lord. Can you make that agreement with me? Now, we want to give a round of applause to all of our kids who've been serving us today with worship.

Would you give them a round of applause? They've been practicing. They've been rehearsing. Thank you kids so much. You're not the leaders of tomorrow. You're the leaders of today. God bless you. God bless you. Amen. And right now, what you have in front of me as as these kids are going to take their seats is we have parents that are going to dedicate their children to the Lord today.

And these parents are the ones who signed the form and they are here today in front of the church. and the church is going to come in agreement with them to dedicate their children to God. We know that this is not just a ritual, but it has a powerful symbol in the spiritual realm.

When our children, we acknowledge they don't belong to us, but they belong to God. >> And not only they belong to God, we also by dedicating them to to the Lord, we acknowledge that we as parents are filled with the responsibility to raise them as unto God. not only just as great children in our family, but to raise them as great disciples of Jesus Christ.

And so those of you who are parents here today who are presenting your children, I just want to encourage each and every one of you that you prioritize your marriage. For those of you who have marriage, that you prioritize your marriage. For those of you who have jobs and businesses, that you prioritize your marriage. >> More importantly than your kids, because the best example you leave to your kids is a healthy marriage.

Secondly, that you prioritize your relationship with God. That you put Jesus at the center of your relationship. You put church attendance at the center of your week so that your kids can see the serving God is part of what it means to be a good human being. >> And thirdly, that you regulate your emotions where kids misbehave.

Especially those of you who have the younger ones, I stand with you in agreement. I'm a fellow uh sufferer with you. when the kids misbehave, when kids act out, when kids don't know how to process their emotions, that you be the adult in the room, that you navigate yourself better as they are learning how to navigate their emotions because that points a way of how Jesus would do it to their world.

And right now, what we're going to do is as you take your children, we have a lot of the parents today. So, I'm going to ask the whole church, not just the pastoral team, but everyone is going to be involved in dedicating these children to the Lord today.

Would you agree with me to do that? I'm going to ask you, would you stretch forth your hands? This is just your sign of saying, "I'm I come in agreement." Our members are, even if you're a visitor, if you are a volunteer, servant leader, or you're a pastor, I want you to stretch forth your hand, and we're going to pray a prayer of blessing right now for each one of these children.

We're going to pray God's health over them. We're going to pray God's protection over them. We're going to pray from the young age that they will know Jesus. And we're also going to pray that Jesus will become real to them from the young age. That they will be servants in the house of God.

That they will be great students in the colleges and schools that they go to. That they will have great families one day in the future. And most importantly, that they will build the kingdom of God on this earth. Would you stretch your hands right now all the way from the bleachers and the floor as well?

Those of you watching us online, you can bring your children to the screen as well. And you pray with your family for your child as well. Father, we thank you for each one of the children that are presented at this altar today. Your word says God that children are a blessing from God.

Your word says God that children are like arrows in a quiver. Your word says God that you want us to be fruitful and multiply. And today as we stand with our children at this altar, Lord, we stand fulfilling the creation mandate you've given to us as human beings.

But Lord, we are dedicating these children to you. We're dedicating these kids to your kingdom and to your will and to your purpose on this earth. Right now in the name of Jesus, we cancel every generational curse on this child's bloodline. Right now in the name of Jesus, we cancel every generational cycle of sickness, mental health issue that was supposed TO BE PASSED THROUGH THIS CHILD.

It stops here at this altar in Jesus name. Right now in the name of Jesus, we cancel every weapon formed against a child. This weapon shall not prosper, the disease to take them out early before their time. Some kind of a violent attack in the name of Jesus.

We cancel that in Jesus' name. Lord, we speak your purposes. We speak your will. We speak your assignment. Jesus, we speak your perfect will on earth as it is in heaven to be done in their life. I pray for their health in Jesus' name. I pray for them to know Jesus at the young age in visions and dreams.

And they will see their mom and dad talk about Jesus that Holy Spirit will reveal to them who Jesus is. They will not become Christians because their parents are Christians, but they'll become Christians because Holy Spirit revealed it to them. We pray right now that from the young age that you will give them good friends as they go to school eventually.

We ask you right now that you'll reveal your will for their life, God, and what they're supposed to do. We pray for their future in the name of Jesus Christ. That you protect them, that you provide for them. And Lord, that you will use them to accomplish your purpose on this earth.

And together with Joshua, we declare me and my house will serve the Lord our God. So as we dedicate these children, we trust that the mark of the Lord, covering of the Lord will accompany them all the days of their life in Jesus' name. And everybody said, "Amen."

Parents, may you raise your children in admonition of the Lord. Church, would you give them a round of applause one more time? Make some noise for the Lord as these parents celebrate what God is doing in their families. God bless you. You may go back to your seats.

As the parents are taking their their seats, we want to let you know if you are here today and maybe you cannot have children. We stand in agreement with you. We pray for the breakthrough in your family. If you're here today and maybe you've been through miscarriage and services like this, they bring you a lot of pain.

We stand in agreement with you that Jesus is the one that not only comforts, but he gives breakthrough in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. I know that you guys already took it as a cue when I said to go to your seats that it's time to sit down and preacher forgot to mention that.

I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you to rise to your feet. Would you turn to somebody on the right and the left? Maybe get out of your seat for just 60 seconds and would you meet somebody and say, "Hey, even if it's your first time, it's completely fine.

It's safe. Just stretch your hand. Say, "Hey, my name is so and so. What is your name? How are you?" Go ahead and do that. And in the next few seconds, we're going to watch a screen on the video. >> We don't want to rush past in this room.

If you're a guest today, welcome. We're so honored to have you here. We have a gift waiting for you in the lobby at the welcome center. Make sure you stop by and say hello. Hungry Generation exists to lead people to encounter God daily because when you encounter God, you will grow.

And when you grow, you will change. You're not meant to do life alone. That's why we have connect groups. real people with real relationships growing in faith together. Find a group and get connected. You can also join the dream team and serve with us. There's nothing like serving God's purpose together.

If you're ready for your next step, our disciplehip track is for you. It's where you can become a member, grow in your faith, and attend our encounter retreats and develop your leadership. It's truly life-changing. I know that may feel like a lot of information, but it's simple. Just visit hungrygeneration.com/info.

Hello everybody. Good morning. It is a great day to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. >> Amen. Amen. Amen. My name is Caleb. I'm an unashamed club leader at Kyibbe High School. And I am super super honored and privileged to be a part of this youth ministry right here with amazing Pastor Zach leading it.

So thankful for everything you guys do. Um, without taking too much time, we want to stay in the attitude of worship today by honoring the Lord with our tithes and our offerings. Just wanted to read a couple quick scriptures to you guys. In Mark 12, it says, "Jesus sat down near the collection box in the temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money.

Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus calls his disciples to him and said,"I tell you the truth. This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she poor as she his as poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on."

Amen. This verse was so powerful when I read it. It just showed me that it was never about the amount that we gave, but it was about how much we trusted the Lord. These rich people were putting in loads and loads of money, but they had a cushion to fall back on.

This poor woman, she was broken, but she decided that the Lord could do better with those two small coins than she could. Amen. Amen. So, I just want to encourage you today with whatever you give, give it with faith and give it with what expectation of what the Lord can do for you, what the Lord wants to do in your finances.

Our tithes and offerings is the way to involve the Lord in the areas of our personal finance. So, some of the ways you can give today is you can scan the QR code to the side. You could do the good oldfashioned way and the ushers have some envelopes.

You can write a check or you could put cash in one of the envelopes. And we also have a new thing. Most of you guys can see the sticker on the back of the chair. Yeah. Or the chair in front of you. First row doesn't have that privilege, but everyone behind they can see.

You guys can see this. So, you can tap your phone here. And I believe we have a video to play. Tap your phone on this and it will take you to a website where you can give as well. It's the easiest, most convenient way. So, if you'd like to do that, please do so and close your eyes as we pray.

Lord, thank you today for this generous congregation. Thank you for what you're going to do with what they give today. Thank you that as they give, they will give with faith and expectation of what you want to do in their finances. Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit will give them peace and guidance in the areas of their money and their work and their job.

Father, I just pray that you bless them beyond measure in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. And as the offering buckets buckets go around, please help me welcome Pastor Adam for the word. Hello. Hello. All right. We are so excited. Wasn't that a wonderful, amazing time we had with all those kids?

I'm so grateful today because I get to tell a story. And the story is about being a kid, growing up, um, watching God work, the privilege of having the Lord, uh, impact a life in the lives around, the privilege and blessing of being able to see uh, parents raise up uh, my life and exemplify what it means to serve the Lord.

So, so grateful. Oh, you guys like this one better? >> There you go. >> Awesome. Oh, yeah. You hear that? It sounds very deep now. That's good. That's a good thing. Hey, I uh I want to tell you something to start. I uh woke up yesterday and uh man, I got hit like a Mac truck.

I think uh my illness, all these symptoms came out. And you know what I found is I was I was talking to the Lord yesterday about it because I was a little bit upset. I was like, "Okay." But you know what? Sometimes when we're getting ready for something for God to do, um I think that Satan is a harasser.

I think that he harasses us. And so in the name of Jesus, I come against everything and anything that is coming against any person in this room in the name of Jesus that the freedom of Jesus Christ that your Holy Spirit would begin to fall on this place as it has.

We've worshiped you and praised you. And now I pray that your word would go forward and it would not return void in the name of Jesus. Would you rescue us? Would you give us your freedom? Would you help us understand you more? And would you help us surrender to your will and your way?

We give you everyone in our lives and we give you everything in Jesus' name. Amen. So I was hit like a Mac truck yesterday and uh it was tough man. all every symptom you can imagine, every flu symptom. But hey, I'm the executive pastor here at Hungry Jen, and I was called on to do something here at Hungry Jen that I'm very excited about.

Um, my ministry is all about lifting pastors up and helping them be successful in their ministries. Um, I'm here to equip uh pastoral leadership and equip this culture, the staff culture to grow in the admonition of the Lord, to grow in their relationship with each other. And I'm here to coach leaders at Hungry Generation so that as this church grows, uh, we don't kind of neglect one another, that we can continue to see each other as the Lord sees us.

So, I've been in marketplace ministry or leadership rather. I was in there for 10 years. Just a little bio on my life. Um full-time ministry for 37 years. I know it doesn't I don't look that old. Um and every role uh I served in uh is involved in the church.

So I've been in the small groups ministry. I've been in uh evangelism. I've been a senior pastor associates and played those roles over time. So, just a little bio and uh about me and why I've come here today and why I'm part of Hungry Jen. Hey, a little bit about my family.

There's a screen throw a screenshot of there of my wife and I and uh I think we've got it in the queue. There we go. All right. So, uh ministry started for my wife and I a long time ago. I know. I threw down the the nice tan pick cuz this is like a glory day, right?

This is when I was getting to know my wife Julie and um we would go and we would serve at variety of youth camps together. And so this is us on the bus together. And uh we're heading off to another another season of camp to minister and to love the Lord.

And this picture reminds me, first of all, how drop deadad gorgeous my wife is. but also what a blessing it is to have known uh my wife somewhere around 47 year. We've been friends for like 44 years or so and we've been married for about I got to get my notes.

Isn't that crazy? That's how bad I am. Let me see here. Let's check this. Um we've been friends for 42 years and married for 34 years. 34 years. And so it started because we both loved the Lord and we wanted to serve him all the days of our life.

And we thought, man, we're going to go every time we get a chance to go and help and serve. Uh we're going to do that. And we had the privilege and the we're so grateful we got to do it together. I want to talk about today uh trauma to triumph.

Trauma to triumph. Have you ever been Have you ever felt like you just had to run? Sometimes we have trauma and we feel like we just need to be on the run. We're running from something. Running from pain, running from things that have happened in our lives. Um we're on the run and we feel like maybe if we just run hard enough, long enough, we'll survive and maybe we'll just get through if we fight our way through trauma.

But I'm here to tell you another story. I'm here to tell you a story of my family and about the trauma that we faced and how God triumphed and brought us through. How is God bringing you through in your trauma and how are you going to experience triumph?

One of my life verses is you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds remain steadfast on you because they trust in you. Isaiah. Hey, I I'm going to put on a little cap cuz sometimes you guys will see me and I'm sure some of you wonder why I might wear something like this.

Like, Adam, why are you wearing your little hat? Um, this is called a kipah or kipah. And um I wear it because it's a symbol of my ethnic heritage. I am Jewish and um I my story is entwined and wrapped up in my Jewishness. And Jesus Christ is my Messiah.

He is my savior and my Lord. But my Jewishness is very deep and personal to me. And every week I hang out with some Jewish folks and a few Gentiles and we talk about the Lord and we study God's word. And when I study God's word, the thing that compels me is what God said before is the same thing he said after.

What God said in the old, he fulfilled and said in the new. And so I make sure that I understand the old and un in order to understand the new. In fact, that's something my grandmother whom I will talk about in a moment. Uh my grandmother said to my uh my mom once when my mom received Jesus Christ and was born again, my grandmother said to her, "You can never understand the new unless you first conceive and understand the old, speaking of old and new testaments."

And of course from a Jewish perspective, we don't consider old and new testament. We consider it one grand story, one grand testament of God's work in the entire world. So I wear my uh kva when I'm praying. I do it when God tells me to when the Holy Spirit says, "Hey, you need to wear that."

And I wear it because I'm proud of what I come from. >> I'm proud of being a Jewish person. Throughout my ministry, sometimes I was told, "Hey, you don't need to worry about that because Jesus taken care of. you don't need to worry about where you come from or your background or you're Jewish.

Just just kind of set that aside cuz Jesus took care of all of that. And so I said, "Okay, I'll I'll just uh I guess I'll set that aside. I don't I don't have to do that." And then later uh sometimes there would be levels of concern or p how how could you support the the Jewish nation or how could you be a part of such a horrific uh type of people?

And I would have that and I wondered well maybe if I just kept a little more silent and a little more quiet that some of that negative conversation would go away. But as I am older now, I realize what a grace and a mercy and what an incredible story God has given me in this space and how the gospel transformed my family.

So I want to tell a story and I want to uh we're going to tell it in three ways. First of all, I want to talk about running and then I want to talk about saving and then I want to talk about how God made you a masterpiece.

Three things. first running the first illustration. I'm gonna take this off because sometimes when I jump around or if I move around too much, it actually falls off and that's embarrassing that I have to pick it up. But let me tell you the story. I was trying to think of what it's like to fight against God's pursuit or to be so stubborn or so desirous of battling against everything he sets in motion for you to experience that you're just like, I'm never going to come.

I'm I'm going to battle my way through the circumstances and the pain that I've experienced. And I'm going to shoehorn this illustration because I think it's so funny. I remembered a time I was about 19 years old and I loved playing football. We would play football after church actually.

We would go out on a field, we'd play football and our youth pastor at the time, he was a wide receiver for the University of Washington. And so when we would play, we'd be playing with some of these guys who were pretty significant in football. And so he was so I loved tackling people.

I loved taking out my aggression and just go after people. And so I remember one time when I was running and the wide receiver, my youth pastor had caught the ball and was coming down field and I was staring. I was like, I am going to knock this guy out and I am running as hard as I can for him and he's coming right for me.

I said, "This is going to be trouble. We're going to coll we're going to really we're going to really mash it. We're going to hit." And so I'm going run in and you know in my mind when it comes to stories in my mind this is me in reality it's probably like I don't know maybe but I'm running as hard as I can towards this guy and in a moment's notice right before I make contact we're on the on the edge of the field right just before I make contact I see a smirk and kind of a glimmer I don't know how to put it but the as a wide rece kind of looked at me and he just kind kind of smiled and for a quick second I thought why in the world would he be smiling and out of nowhere I'm hit from the side by this gigantic man and he is launching me 10 yards off the sideline and of course that was a blocker I hadn't seen him at all the blocker came and knocked me for a loop and threw me off to the side and as I was thinking about that I was thinking about how we strive and work and try and often times it creates a blinder to what's going on and the enemy can come and he can just completely knock you off track.

A bit of a shoehorn. But I want to tell you a story about my family and how I got here today. Why I'm standing when we were singing about God's grace and mercy. I want you to meet a person by the name of Nikolai. Nikolai lives in Kiev.

And he's living in Kiev. He's not far away from the Kiev opera house because he uh was an artist, a famous artist. This isn't him. This is my dad. So, we'll save that for later. But Nikolai was serving at the Kiev Opera House and he had everything going on.

This might be you in your life today. You might have everything going on. I mean, things were grand. He had a great job. He was popular in the city. People knew his name. Uh he sang and he danced and he was an artist and he loved to draw his art and he was well known and he just thought everything was going perfect.

The one the problem he had was is that he was a philanderer. That's a fancy word for saying a cheater. He was a cheater. And he was cheating on my grandmother at the time. But he thought everything was great. Everything was working out. He had um two girl, three girls and a son on the way.

So everything was going great for my grandfather. My grandmother, on the other hand, not everything was going great for her because she was married to a cheater. Unbeknownst to my grandfather, she was filling out paperwork, divorce papers that very week. She was filling out divorce papers to get a divorce, but he was unaware of what she was about to do.

But she said to herself, you know, it's going to be okay because I have three daughters and I have a son on on the way. And his name will be named Andre. And Andre is Andrew in English. And so his name is going to be Andre. And Andre means strong and courageous.

My firstborn son will be strong and courageous. So So she's saying, "Okay, we can get through this. We'll get through this. We're living in Kiev." Suddenly the world takes a turn. World takes a turn. My grandfather comes home uh from work. some kind of scenario and he basically says we must run now.

Run for our lives. The Nazis are coming to town. We have to get out of here before the Nazis arrive. My grandfather wasn't a faithful man. He had abandoned his relationship with God long ago. He felt it was irrelevant because he had everything he needed. He had all the accutrants that you get when you're popular and you're having fun and you're enjoying a lifestyle counter to God.

And so he had abandoned and left his faith far behind. He loved Marxism and he thought that the way of Marxist was the best plan and such a great philosophy that he embraced it. My grandmother on the other hand, she kept her faith, but she had to keep silent and she prayed in the background and she read her scriptures and she uh asked the Lord for mercy.

So, fast forward. So, my grandfather comes home. Run, we've got to get out of here. They pack up everything and all the kids and along with a 100,000 plus 100,000 plus Jews, they flee Kiev. to the woods. My grandfather believes he's a very smart man. So he says, "We are going to run for Poland because I speak Polish, French, Ukrainian, and Russian, and we can get our way through.

We'll get to Poland, and we'll get to safety." So they take off running along with 100,000 or more Jews, and they run into the deep woods for Poland. I wonder how many of us have been in a situation where we just felt like the only power and the only strength we have is to run.

Sometimes we're running away from our past. Sometimes we're running away from uh trauma that's happened in our lives, something that's been done to us. But the only response my family had at the time was to run. So they did. So, they packed up. Now, this is a long story and there's lots of details that I uh that I don't mind telling, but we don't have a lot of time to go through every detail, but I want you to know eventually they were picked up.

They were put on cattle cars and they began the 15 plus day journey from the woods to a camp in Germany. on their travels, this 15 and more day journey, they had no food, no water except for the rain that fell constantly from the sky. My grandma says they would just put their hands out and drink water.

And my grandmother was pregnant. And so at one point, people were dying in the car and when they would die, you just sat with them because they were just dead. They're dead. Nobody cleared out the car. they would just sit with the dead and there was no bathrooms.

So you can imagine that and so they're on this long journey and uh at one point my grandmother is so cold, so freezing, so desperate, so worried about the baby and all the kids that she cries out to the Lord. Now, she was a prayer a person of prayer.

So she's always praying, but remember she prayed in silence. She didn't she didn't make it really public, but she was praying. And at one moment in the car, I'm told she just cried out to the Lord. Have you ever been in such a desperate situation that you just have to cry out to the Lord?

And she said, "Lord, I we can't take this open car one more moment. The cold is too much. We are all going to die if you don't help today. In that moment, in that moment, a tarp came flying off. Now, I don't know what was on the in the other car.

This is what goes through my kind of mind. It's like, well, God took the tarp and put it off of one car and then dropped it on to the moving cattle car of my grandparents of my my grandmother's car. Tarp flies off. lands. My grandmother says that she just was so grateful to have a tarp.

Grateful to have a tarp. H So this desperate situation occurred and and she cried out to the Lord. It was a terror-filled journey. And uh Psalm 103:17-18 says this says, "But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children's children and with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey all of his precepts."

So I I know there were probably plenty of people praying that day and I know that God helped and and helped some and others didn't meet the same fate. I don't know why my family was chosen but my grandmother who kept the precepts who kept a covenant was praying out to the Lord and the tarp fell and there was solless.

Fast forward a lot. My dad is born in the camp that they arrive at. I mean, I want you to think about that. I thought they were I thought they were killing people. Why is my dad born in a camp? Well, it turns out my grandfather was using all of these skill sets that he had to deceive like Jacob. all these skills of manipulation and conversation and all these artist skills to give favors to his family.

One of the favors was my dad, amazingly enough, was born in a hospital next to the camp. Here's a camp. Here's Param. There's a hospital in the town. And for whatever reason, my dad was born in that hospital and then went back to the camp. Fast forward, there's a lot of stories that happened in that camp.

Most of which through trauma, my dad can't remember, couldn't remember anything that occurred throughout the camp experience. And he couldn't remember really anything up to the age of about nine years old. But his sisters would tell me stories of what happened in that camp. And for the sake of time and for the sake of just pain, I will won't be sharing a lot of those today.

But what I want to tell you is at one moment in time after several amount of months in this camp, suddenly the war was ending. When the war was ending, the camp was released. And suddenly the soldiers in the camp, the Nazis were very concerned and they started opening up all the gates and they opened up all the doors and they told my my grandparents and their families to run.

It was another run story. They had to run for their lives. So they leave the camp and they're running and then not just point to the woods and so they run towards these woods and it's an open field. As they're running, some bullets are coming this way from the woods and bullets are coming be from behind them from the camp.

So, the Nazis are shooting back at Americans who are in the woods all lined up ready to relieve this camp and bullets are flying back and forth. And my grandmother is running across a field with kids in tow and crying out to the Lord again. Lord, save my children.

Save my children. Not one bullet hit my family, but others did suffer. She gets to this the woods. She crosses in the woods and there was like a barrier is what I understand and a whole bunch of American soldiers all in this barrier and they were not letting anyone through because their commanding officer had said no one can pass through this checkpoint, no one as the Americans are going to go liberate this camp.

So, she's sitting there and she gets down on her knees again, falls to her knees, and begins to cry out to the Lord. I want to ask you a question. How desperate are you for God to intervene in your life today? How would you like today to stop running? either running from the Lord or running from the trauma or trying to make it on your own or trying to just resist as hard as you can or try to hope that all the pain will just go away if you wait long enough.

How many of you are ready just to surrender and cry out to the Lord? So, she got on her knees. She couldn't get through the checkpoint. She was worried they're all going to die again. So she cries out to the Lord. Lord, you have to save us again.

A soldier, a young soldier, disobys orders, grabs my grandmother and the family and pulls them across the line. I understand he got really chewed out because nobody was supposed to come across the line, but instead just my family gets pulled out and across the line. I'm so grateful.

Thank you Lord. I'm so grateful. Gets pulled across the line. So that begins a new journey. So my family is all about running in fear, facing trauma, um facing trauma and living out and crying out to the Lord. At least my grandmother Eventually, after the crossing, they made it to Ellis Island.

That's a long story, too. There's a bunch of stories in between as well. But eventually, my dad made it to Ellis Island and came in as an immigrant. They weren't really choosing to go that direction. They were hoping to go back to Kief of all places. They thought, "Let's go back." back and the Americans are like, "Uh, you're crazy and that's not going to happen."

So, they got on a boat and they headed to Ellis Island. This is a photo of my dad. Um, and I wanted to show this photo. This one is the photo where he's sitting and staring from. It's the one either after this or prior to this actually because there it is.

Okay. So, this is my dad and you can see my I I always called her Babushka. Her name is Alexandria, but I always call her Babushka. And um so my babushka is there. And then you see my dad sitting there. This is after they're in the United States.

And my dad because he learned to run and survive. My dad thought that the only way to make it was to fight. Fight every turn. Don't let anybody look at you crosseyed. He they lived in the in the ghettos in New York in Chicago because they were just trying to survive.

And so I wanted to show you a picture of what my dad looked like when he came to the United States. And if you look real closely, look how he's looking. Oh, no, no, no. Stay on this one. If you look really closely, look at how he's looking at the camera.

Look at his face. I've stared at this photo many times. Because that's the face of a traumatized person. A person who says, "I have to fight to survive. I'm by myself. No one's going to help me. There's no one to help me survive but me. And I will make sure no one hurts me again."

So my dad's story is about survival and about survival. And what happens is every time I walk away from my phone, it turns off and then I have to reunlock it. And I hate that. I'm getting kind of frustrated with it. And now I lost everything completely. So I apologize for that.

So that's my father. I want to fast forward then completely other side of the country. So, my dad is living in trauma. He's this young man that you see. There's another important person in my life. Um, that person's name is Linda. Linda's my mom and she was born in Tacoma, raised in Seattle.

And when she was raised in Seattle, um, her family name is Bllye. But because uh Bllye sounds too Jewish, they changed the name to Blly Stone. And then she's got a bunch of mix in there. And so by the time my mom comes uh into the world, that Jewishness is long lost.

But my mom is being raised uh in a household that was terrifying. So my mom uh would also experience running. She had to run for her life on many occasions. My grandfather was so abusive to my grandmother on my mom's side that he was kicked out of Washington State.

He could not come and cross the border of Washington State because he was so violent towards my grandmother. This is in the 50s. So very violent. So then my grandmother marries the milkman. The milkman is another violent individual, harmful. And my mom has to suffer in this very difficult and toxic environment. when my grandfather and I and I know my grandfather, but at some point when I was an older kid, my parents actually took me away from this environment because it was so just evil.

My stepgrandfather, he would get this weird look in his face and he would start twitching and his leg would start twitching. And whoever he did that when he did that around me there were a few times where he just went and grabbed me by the Achilles and he would just pinch my Achilles as hard as he possibly could.

And he told me that's what you get when you walk in front of me. So my grandfather uh would torture my mom and everybody in the household. And at night and at in the day when my mom began to realize that my grandfather, my stepgrandfather was getting kind of ramped up, she would see the twitch.

And so she would run and she would leave. And the place where she found solace, the place where she found peace, she would sometimes crawl through a window if she heard him coming through the hallway. or she would just leave when she saw him begin acting up and she would run a block away was a Roman Catholic church and she would go in and she said that whenever she went in there she felt peace safe.

Peace and the priest would come and just sit with her and let her light the candles. And so she learned that going to church was the place where you find peace. So, she decided in her heart at a very young age that she loved God and God loves her and that she's going to become a nun.

She decided she's going to she's going to just dedicate herself to the Lord and become a nun. So, both of my parents experienced having to run, experienced trauma and pain. And my mom sought the Lord and had an understanding of what it meant to know the Lord, but she didn't know Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.

And so without the Lord running and fighting the enemy, you'll be taken advantage of. But in God's mercy, with God's mercy, you can you can not only experience God's love, but you can experience his freedom as well. So the first story is about running. Now my dad ended up coming cross country and meeting my mom as older teenagers.

And so they my mom saw my dad. He was very elusive. He was very protective. He didn't talk to anybody in high school. But for whatever reason, my mom saw him in high school and said, "I am going to marry that man. I know it's strange, but my mom just said, "You know what?

That's that's a man I think I'm going to marry." So, she begins to go after him. He decides that this this woman's okay, and they start a friendship and a relationship, and they decide they're going to get married. They propose, they get married, and then my dad's sent off to Vietnam.

So when my dad and now we can show that picture you've seen a few times. So when my dad was sent off to Vietnam, he became a um marksman and a cook, but he didn't want to use either one of those skill sets uh for war. He was tired of war.

He was tired of people. The only person he felt he could trust was my mom. And so when he went off to war, he would write letters hoping to return soon. There's a bunch of stories with that. But needless to say, he did come back. And he came back alive.

He made it back. So when he made it back, they decided to get married. when they got married, uh, they got my my mom got pregnant and she got pregnant with me, Adam. So, they're living this life and my mom gets pregnant and soon after my mom gets pregnant, she meets some God-fearing, loving believers.

And they lead her and say, "You know God, but you don't know your salvation. you haven't come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So at one point she says, "Well, of course I want that." She was so energized and excited. She says, "Of course I want to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ."

So she does that. So she becomes a believer. She repents. She's saved. Now she has a dilemma, though. My dad is a practicing atheist at this point. I mean, he is dogmatic atheist. He wants nothing to do with any form of religion. He blames most religion for most of his pain.

And in the household that he grew up in and even when I used to meet with my grandparents, you could never talk about religious things. You had to keep it quiet. This has nothing to do with you. Don't ask questions about our history. Don't ask questions about faith.

Just keep everything quiet because they were on the run. And so my dad was resolute, resolute atheist. And so my mom wondered, how in the world is she going to raise Adam, me, in the Lord? How is this going to work? But God was rewriting a story. And part of my message today is God has you here because no matter what your story is, and I'm telling you a grand story, but no matter what the story is, if you've been running from the Lord or if you've hurt others or if you've rebelled, God wants to rewrite your story.

And even in the midst of all the pain and the difficulty and all the running, God was rewriting my family story and he can rewrite your story as well. So she cries out to she says, "I can't talk about the Lord. How do you move someone like my father into a relationship with the Lord not being able to talk about it?"

And so she cried out to the Lord. Oh, I know. Prior to this, they went to before they got married, this is a funny story. Before they got married, they went to all the pastors in the Seattle area and they were like, "You got to marry us." My mom says, "I'm a Roman Catholic and my uh future husband is an atheist."

And so, no pastor would marry them. They all said, "No." They said, "This is never ever going to work." And so they finally found this one pastor, a Presbyterian pastor of course, who was willing to um marry them. But literally on the day um that he gave the like the last little conversation with them, he said, "Yeah, this is never going to last.

I give this marriage about 6 months." And so when my mom came into a relationship with the Lord, she was desperately seeking how she could minister to my dad or how she could talk in a house that has a rule that says, "No religious talk. Do what you want in private, but don't let it into this home."

My mom got down on her knees, says, "Well, how will my husband know you if I can't tell him?" And she came across First Peter 3 1-2. says this, "Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husband, so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words, but by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your life."

A lot of people ha get really shaken up by the scripture because the word submits in there. But you'll notice it starts with in the same way because Peter first talks about how a man loves his wife and then this passage is the one my mom captured. Submit yourself to your husband.

How? Do not win him over with words but instead with purity and reverence. So long story short is that my mom began to ask the Lord two things. She wanted two things. She said, "Lord, make me a first Peter wife. Two, God, show yourself to Andrew because I can't tell him about you."

Short time later, this is still when I'm in in the womb, uh my dad starts noticing things. He says, "Man, you're sure nice to me. I'm I'm kind of mean and and you're kind of nice to me all the time. How how come you're so nice? Then one day my dad comes home from work and he is very upset.

Very upset. And he says that oh my dad was an outside iron worker. He was a welder. Work with his hands. Craftsman. Love architecture. And so he's worked with his hands pretty he got pretty well known about that. He helped build the Colombia Towers. To this day, uh whenever I drive past the Columbia Towers in Seattle, I go, "Oh yeah, my dad was a foreman on that project.

He helped really build those two towers. My dad comes home one day and he says to my mom, he goes, "We have a problem. We have a problem that has to be resolved immediately." And my mom was like, "Well, what's the problem? What can we do?" He says, "I'm going to lose my job."

Why are you going to lose your job? Well, every dang time I put my helmet on and I put the cover over my face, all I see is that Jesus dude dying on a cross. He's bleeding everywhere. I cannot see my welds. I cannot see what I'm welding.

If I can't see what I'm welding, I will be fired. Every time I close my mask, that's all I see. we need to go to a local church and have that pastor make this stop. That's how my dad my dad didn't understand anything about the Christian faith. He thought maybe it was a curse.

So, so my mom goes, "Well, it just so happens that um coming up this weekend, there's this Nikki Cruz gang uh guy who's coming to town and there's a rally and if we go to the rally and then my dad stopped her and says, "I don't care about any gang members.

I don't care." So, think about this. My dad grew up in the inner city, so he's like, "I don't care about any gang members. You know what I care about is we have to talk to that dang pastor and get rid of this curse. So my mom says, "Okay."

So my dad goes with my mom to this event. My dad, it was added to local church. My dad sits at the front row. The pastor's preaching and my dad's My mom says that she wanted to leave the moment my dad came in because my dad is just folded his arms and he's just like he's at the front row.

He came right to the front row. just staring at this preacher, waiting for this preacher to get done with his stupid talk so that he can get this curse lifted. So then um the preacher suddenly after his talk ends and says, "The Lord's about to do something. The Lord's going to work a miracle."

So this preacher looks down and says, "This is the day." points to my dad. This is the day you will be saved. This is the day that you will know your salvation. My dad says he doesn't even know. Something welled up within him. It began to just churn and he said that he stopped running.

But the place he had to run first was right to the altar. Because for that moment, the Lord decided to tell him that Jesus in his mask was the one that came to save him. Jesus in the mask was the one that was with him all the time.

So he ran. My mom says that she was looking over and next thing you know, my dad is the only one and he is on his knees on his face at the altar asking God for mercy. And so from that day, he was a different man. He was completely changed.

My parents showed me and demonstrated a love for Christ that I I could only begin to tell you the stories. Our house was so radical. I grew up in a space where we would go to restaurants and my parent all of a sudden two waitresses would come to Jesus Christ.

We would go to the baseball field and all of a sudden the coach would come to Jesus Christ. We would go everywhere and my parents never stopped sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Then when people would say they have problems and trauma, all of a sudden I would find they're at our living room and they're in our house and my parents would be in the name of Jesus, come out.

They were casting out demons. This church is known for doing you might have re reservations. You might have come in today said, "I've seen some things, weird things online. I've seen some I've heard about Hungary Jen. It's kind of the crazy place." And I want you to know when I was um in ministry all these years, I I heard about Hungry Jen and there were a few times I thought that's kind of different.

That's pretty out there. That's pretty strong. I want you to know that when I've as I've gotten to know the pastors here and as I've grafted myself in, your your pastoral team is so humble. They love the Lord so much that they're willing to try anything. Anything to help you find freedom in Jesus Christ.

Anything to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life. Anything. If it if you're going to be free from the demonic bondages that are part of your life, you have to be desperate and go for it. You got to say, "I don't want this anymore. My dad came in the house says,"I don't want this anymore.

I need freedom in Jesus name." So my parents would pray over people. Pray over people. And people would screech in the living room. And I'm a little kid. I'm like, "Whoa, that's kind of weird, you know? Wow." And then all kinds of things, witches, um, occult leader. I mean, it was just crazy.

So then I'm in my room and sometimes, unfortunately, a byproduct of that sometimes is that I'd be in my room and these demonic creatures would come into my room. And I was a little kid. I didn't understand it. I was like, I don't know, eight or nine, maybe seven, eight.

And I would see these things running around in my room. What are these shadows running around my room? How come I CAN SEE THEM? WHY are they scaring me at night? Why are they waking me up in the middle of the night? What's going on? And I finally go to my parents and they come in my room say, "In the NAME OF JESUS, GET OUT OF THIS PLACE."

And those things would scurry out through the window. I could see him. That was an amazing an amazing vision or sight that the Lord was able to give me. And I've used that in ministry to be able to it's a gift I think that the Lord's given me.

But my parents didn't understand all the ramifications. They were just radical. They just said, "We don't understand. We We're not sure, but we know God is telling us, bringing these people to us, and they need freedom." So, I was raised in that. Fast forward, even with all of that, and my parents decided to stay faithful.

Where am I? Over 15 minutes. Is that what I am? This is way too long. With all that said, the Lord loves you and you have a story and sometimes your story is filled with pain and the Lord runs after you even while you're running after running away from him.

You have a story, but the Lord wants to restory and repurpose your life. You have a calling. You know, you're not called to volunteer at Hungry Jen. You're called to live out the very thing that God has created you for. And my parents experienced some of that and raised me that we are masterpieces for the Lord.

That we are developed, that we are like a living poem, that we have power and that we have a purpose. And you do. If you've been playing a different story out in your life, there's something that's been going on in your life and you want that story to change.

It's been a toxic story, a damaged story, a scary story, a running story. The Lord wants to change that in your life. He wants to turn it around today. And so, I want to give you that opportunity. If in your heart you've been like, I don't deserve it.

I I don't I don't I don't know. I've kind of walked away from the Lord so many times. I don't I don't know how to return. I feel like I've rejected and ran for so long. I don't know how to be in a personal relationship with the Lord.

I'm I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter how much running you did. It doesn't matter how many times you said, "Lord, forgive me." And then uh and then you decided to rebel. What I mean by that is the Lord is here today because he's been chasing you all of your life.

He's not going to let go. He didn't let my family go. He's not going to let you go. He wants you. He wants a relationship with you so that you can live that relationship out in front of your children so that your children will not have the pain that you might have experienced.

So, let's practice a breaking today. If you are in this space where either you've never had a relationship with the Lord and you'd like him to rescue you right now that you'd like to stop your running, you'd like to be saved and you'd like to be developed in a as a masterpiece.

If this is your first time, I'd like you to raise your hands. Would you like to know Jesus Christ? Would you like to experience him maybe for the first time? If you're sitting here today and God is speaking to your heart, you can raise your hand today. He loves you.

He cares about you. He came for you. If you're here today and you've been running, running from the Lord you once knew and you want to be restored and renewed in Jesus name, you can raise your hand. This is a safe place. Raise your hand and let me know.

Have you been running from the Lord and you want to be restored in Jesus name? Thank you. Let's close our eyes today and pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for leading us, for guiding us. Lord, we thank you for your salvation. In the name of Jesus, with every eye closed and head bowed, we ask you Lord to forgive us from everything that have separated us from you.

Every sin, Lord, we repent and we come before you. We ask Lord that you would raise us back up Lord. Would you heal us in every way we need to be healed? Heavenly Father, we commit our lives to you. We recognize that we've sinned against you. We set our lives for purpose.

We place our hearts into your care. We ask for your saving grace in your ministry in Jesus name. Heal us, Lord. Amen. And amen. Pastor Vlad, come on church. Let's give a round of applause to Adam. Thank you for sharing this. If you um raised that hand, can I ask you to rise to your feet?

Everyone, before I dismiss you, if you raised that hand that you wanted to give your life to Jesus or you wanted to come back to Jesus, I'm going to ask you to do something right there where you were standing right now. Would you just make your way forward?

We would love to pray for you. So, if you said, "Hey, I'm that person. I need to give my life to Jesus. I raised that hand and or I need to come back to the Lord." Just make your way forward. We would love to pray for you. This is why this service exists.

And I think this such a powerful story of Adam sharing about his family because and maybe you're that man, you know, you're tough and you're like, "Hey, this this kind of touched me. So glad you're here." God bless you. God bless you. And if there's anyone else, you just just make your way forward.

We're going to wait for about a few seconds. I know there's more people that when you were listening, the Lord was touching your heart and you said, "Hey, I need to give my life to Jesus. I need to come back to Jesus. I'm not where I supposed to be."

Just make your way forward. We would love to pray with you today in Jesus name. Thank you. God bless you, man. Thank you. Thank you. And I know that the the theme of U Adam's story was heavy, but honestly, a lot of your family stories are not lighter either.

And I think when you come to church, you can know there is hope. God can save your husband. God can save your wife. God can save your children. And not not just saved to make them Christian, but saved to make him new, to make him different, to make him have new life.

You look at Adam today, you would never probably see that this is the family that, you know, the trauma that he's endured is the guy laughs a lot. Has a weird laugh though, but um and has a full of joy. But this is what Jesus does is he changes our lives.

Amen. And so those of you guys here in the front, I'm just going to lead you in prayer. um whatever the situation you're coming from and there's still time. If you're watching us online, you can drop that in the chat. I want to give my life to Jesus.

Everybody else, would you repeat after me as our team um as our precious folks pray this prayer with me. Say this with me. Say, Lord Jesus Christ, >> Lord Jesus, >> I believe >> you are the son of God. >> Who died on that cross >> for all of my sins for all my s >> I am so sorry >> for how I have lived. >> Would you forgive me? and wash me >> with your precious blood. >> I give you my heart. >> I give you my heart. >> I give you my life. >> Would you come in >> and live in me? >> And change me. >> Make me new. >> Make me different. >> Make me different >> by your Holy Spirit. >> In Jesus name. >> Jesus.

Amen.