Pitch a Tent. Build an Altar. Dig a Well // Pastor Vlad

Without further ado, I would like to speak today of the message that's been put on my heart by the Lord. If you have your Bible, would you go together with me to Genesis chapter 26, and I will read verse 25. All of our notes are also on the YouVersion Bible app.

If you use that app, you can follow the message every single Sunday, mostly, on that app. Genesis chapter 26 and verse 25, speaks of Isaac. "So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."

So I want you to notice three things today, that I want to highlight, that I believe will make our Christian life a balanced Christian life. And these are three things are to dig a well, to build an altar, and to pitch a tent. So pitch a tent speaks of our personal, family, finances, career life.

To build an altar speaks of our devotional life. And HungryGen exists to lead people to encounter God daily. But then I want you to notice the third one, and that is they dug a well. And that will represent our church life or our ministry life. To be successful as a Christian, to be balanced as a Christian, you have to keep these three things fruitful and good.

They, a lot of times, overlap. Your personal life, your family life, your business, your finances. You know, the Bible says he pitched a tent. And then there is the spiritual life. It's your encounters with God. You meeting with God. He built an altar. But then there is one more thing.

We see that his servants dug a well. And this speaks of your involvement in the church in the community. I want to take a moment and break these down. If you take this chapter and you go a little bit earlier in verse 12, it says this: "Then Isaac sowed in the land, and reaped in the same year one hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him."

Somebody say, "Amen." Verse 13. "The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous." Turn to neighbor, say, "I think it's talking about me." In verse 14, it says, "For he had possessions of flock and possessions of herd and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him."

So when it comes to pitching a tent, let me just take a moment and highlight a few things. One of them is in here it says there are three levels of prosperity. Now this could apply to finances. This could apply to honestly every area of our personal life.

He begun. He continued until he became very. Let me say that again. Begun, meaning you start something, you start prospering. You start doing good with your family. He continued, which is crucial because a lot of people start in January and they don't continue past February. They start on their health plan and then by March they no longer continue.

But the Bible says he begun. Somebody say, "Begun." Then he continued. Somebody say, "Continued." And then it says he became very prosperous. And I believe the Lord wants us to gradually start, continue until we become very. Not only in our finances, but in our family. Not only in our family, but also in our health.

To begin, to continue, and to be very. But I want to highlight another part about our personal life, and that it says here this: "he sowed in the land. He reaped a hundredfold;" and then he inserts this thing, "and God blessed him." Now it was a famine, so it was not the right time to sow.

It was also - he was in a foreign land. I want you to notice that God wants to marry His principles with His power in our personal life. And what I mean by this is so many Christians, they only focus on the principles of God, but they avoid or run away from the power of God.

In here, it says he sowed in the land. This speaks of you're working your business. You're investing. You're working. You're doing all the things you're supposed to do as God's image bearer on this earth. But then God comes along, and God blessed him. So God adds His super to your natural.

I believe God wants this year to be the year in your life where you're not only operating by the principles of God, but you're also seeing the power of God operating in your life. Now, here are a few principles of God in the Bible to stay away from debt, when it comes to our finances.

Another principle in the Bible is not to be greedy. Another principle in the Bible is to be an honest worker. Another principle in the Bible is to be a person that has integrity. I remember I had an interview with a top sex therapist in the United States who's a believer, and he said, "Vlad, a common mark I found out when a man stops watching porn, his income doubles."

And I said, "That's interesting." And the Bible does say, "because of a harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread." So there are principles. Stop watching porn, and your income starts to increase. Stop drinking. Your income starts to increase. You have less DUIs. You have less problems.

Stop. The Bible says he who loves pleasure will become poor. So when you stop loving pleasure and stop loving sleep, but you become disciplined, you start beginning to have growth in your finances. So the man sowed, and he received a hundredfold. So there are principles of God. Somebody say, "Principles."

But see principles, they are limited. "And then God blessed him." He also wants to add power. Somebody say, "Power." The scripture clearly states. "The Lord gives power to get wealth." Meaning God doesn't want your finances and your personal life, your family life to be only built on the parent books that you've read, the parents seminars that you went to, the wealth management courses that you took, the counselors that you have. "Oh, I know how to run a business.

Why? Because I have a board. Why? Because I have this counselor, or I have this coach, and everything." That's great. You sowed in the land, you get it a hundredfold. But then it says this, "and the Lord blessed him." Meaning there's a part that I do and then there's the part that God gets involved.

And I believe many Christians, especially in the West, they love their principles that God gives it to us. But a lot of times they say, "Well, I don't want God to be involved in it." God wants to be involved in your finances. He wants to be involved in your family.

He wants to be involved in your health. Working out is good. Eating your broccoli is good. Cutting back on sugar is good. Cutting back on carbs is good. But God is still the healer. God is still the one that helps with our everyday life. The scripture says that He gives power to get wealth.

The scripture says that it is God's blessing that adds no sorrow with it, and it makes one rich. The scripture says that tithing opens the windows of heaven. The scripture says that when we begin to be generous, God brings back the generosity. All of that does not make sense to a natural mind, but it works in the spiritual realm.

Be a Christian who is not just somebody who sows in the land, but be a Christian who also believes God blessed them. Be a Christian that raises your kids, and does their best, but you trust in God to touch them. Be a Christian. You invest in your marriage, and you do your best, but you trust that God, unless He builds the house, those who labor in it, they labor in vain.

And the Bible says the horse is prepared for the battle, but the victory comes from God. That means that I do my part, but I always trust the Holy Spirit to come in and do His part. It is not by might. It is not by power. It is by the Holy Spirit.

We are a spirit-filled church. We are a spirit-led church. We are spirit empowered church. But being spirit-filled, led, and empowered does not mean that we are lazy, passive, and we do nothing. He sowed, but God blessed him. And may this be the year where you sow, you strategize, you work, but at the end of the day, you give God the glory, you invite God into it, and God shows up, shows up, and shows off his glory in your life.

And God blessed them. Now the word prosperity triggers people because in here it says he begun to prosper, he continued to prosper, and he became very prosperous. And the reason why the prosperity triggers people is because of the abuses that have happened in a lot of hypercharismatic movements.

But I want to let you know, you were created by God to be His image bearer on this earth. And you were given a mandate. Theologians call it creation mandate. The creation mandate means God blessed you and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion."

Meaning you are God's representative on this earth. That means you are a reflection of God like the moon reflects the sun. His values, His creativity. You were given God's likeness to reason, to create, to make things happen, and to bring His kingdom that's in heaven, the spiritual on this earth.

Now, to do that, you have qualities, gifts, and talents. The word prosperity, the word to prosper, simply means to do well. That's all it means. Many people connect that word to being rich. That's not what that means. To prosper. Another word is to do well. Now in the Bible, Joseph, the scripture says he prospered.

But the conditions of his life were bad. He was a slave, oppressive system. He was betrayed, lied against. His reputation was tarnished. Yet he still did well. He had no income. He still prospered. So don't think of prosperity as a title, a position, and a fat retirement account.

Prosperity is that God activates within you as His image bearer an ability to do things so well in whatever the condition and position you find yourself in. Amen. So God wants you to prosper. Whether you are in middle school, whether you are in high school, a college student, whether you are in a university, whether you just started to work for somebody or you started your own business.

Whether you are parking cars, or guiding people, running sound, whatever position you are in, prosperity is God wanting to bless you so you do well. You do well with your children. You do well with your finances, that you do well with whatever has been given to you. Now then, it says this, "And he had possessions."

It happens a lot of times, not all the time, that people who do well consistently - begin to do well, continue to do well, until they do really well. They happen - Again, this is not a promise, but it is a reality of this world, and it is mentioned in the Bible that people like that tend to experience other areas of their life where they get rewarded for it, where they get blessed for it, where their boss promotes them, somebody is nicer to them, the gift makes a room for you.

And so the goal isn't to chase money or even titles or promotions. The goal is to in whatever situation I am in right now, I want to do well with God's help. And then possessions, herds, and all other stuff came into his life. Pitch a tent meaning: God wants you to treat your life, my life, our financial life as temporary.

Tents are temporary. They're not permanent buildings. So no matter how prosperous you are or not, your life is a vapor. Our life is like a shadow. Our life is like water poured out. It cannot be put back in. That means that no matter how wealthy you are or not wealthy you are, we always view our life through the lens of eternity.

Isaac was wealthy. Isaac was doing well. Yet the scripture says he simply pitched his tent. That's the first part of our life. The second part of our life and that is an altar. If you have a big tent, it does not always guarantee that you have a better life.

In fact, I would submit to you bigger tents does not mean bigger happiness. The big tent when God is not involved in it. See, the amazing part about when God gets involved, it's not what God adds, it's what He removes. The scripture says, "The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and it adds no sorrow."

God's blessing is not always evident in how much stuff He adds. It's the stuff He protects you from. It's when you have peace with your family. It's when you have peace in your mind. It's when you can sleep without medication because your mind can turn off. It's when you can take a day off.

It's when you can enjoy simple things in life. I love the blessing of God. Not because of what He adds to me. It's what He keeps from me. The scripture says, "And he pitched a tent." But then I want to move to the second part. And this second part is that he built an altar.

I want you to notice the word build speaks of permanency. You build things that you don't take down. They seem to have a consistency, stability to them. Now when it comes to building an altar, if you go to the verse 23, the verse above 24 and 5, it says that, "he went up from there to Beersheba.

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said," and in verse 25, it says, "So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there," a wealthy guy. You could call him a businessman. He sowed in the famine.

Economy wasn't good. Tariffs were high. He lived not in a good state where the taxes were high. He was not in the best place. But God still blessed him. He prospered him. Yet this man does not make his wealth, his possessions, and his business his number one obsession in life.

The scripture says this, he builds an altar. An altar speaks of your daily encounters. Meaning they are permanent. An altar means these things you don't just do it for a season. You do it permanently. And in this altar, three things happened. Number one, God appeared to him. Number two, he called on God.

And number three, God spoke. What does it mean when we said, "How to build your personal life?" You do it by applying God's principles, and you rely on God's power. God's power is not to just make you bling and bling. It is to make you effective in whatever you are doing right now.

Whatever that is. Now let's move to the altar. To be a successful person and a Christian, you must not have a big tent only and a great field. You also must have an altar, meaning you must have a devotional life. Now, some of you come from a Christian background, perhaps, and you've heard of this being mentioned: quiet time, a prayer time, a family time where you are around God's word.

And it could look differently for different people. When I grew up in my family, we would wake up in the morning, all of us would get on our knees, and everybody recited their prayers. Our parents would pray for us. And then when we went to sleep, we would do exactly the same thing.

Morning and night, five, six minutes, all of us were on our knees, and we were praying. As we were growing up, each one of us were given our own Bibles and we were encouraged to start reading the Bibles on our own. And then at the tender teenage years, I started to discover what it means to have some time every day for 10, 15 minutes to spend time with God.

I was a student at high school and that's when I discovered who Jesus is personally because you can't live on your parents' faith too long. Parents' faith gets you to about 13, 14. And after that, my friend, you got to discover God for yourself. Otherwise, some guy in the university with more degrees than a thermometer will begin to convince you out of your Christian faith.

But when you meet God - see, Isaac couldn't live on his daddy's faith. God had to appear to him by himself. Daddy was gone, but I needed to meet God. Now, the God of Abraham has to be the God of Isaac. That's why I don't believe that our children will belong to a woke ideology of our culture.

Our children will encounter God. Our children will know the Holy Spirit. Our children will meet God in a kid zone. Our children will meet God at the altar. That's why we don't leave our children to the teachers to teach them how to protest against ICE. We want our children, me and my house to serve the Lord.

If we going to protest anything, it is protesting wickedness. If we're going to teach our children, and that is to stand up for righteousness, to stand up for holiness, and to stand up for God's principles. Can somebody say, "Amen?" Now, some of you may be a little bit offended, but I am - The culture has a plan for your children.

You must have a plan for your children. Abraham taught his son to build an altar. Don't just teach your children how to have safe sex. Don't just teach your children how to balance a checkbook. Don't just teach your children how to get in the best university. Teach them not only how to pitch a tent.

Teach them how to build an altar. You are a priest in your house, man. Woman, you are a priestess in your house. Teach your children. Abraham is dead, but Isaac is building an altar. What happens when you build an altar? Three things happen. You experience God, you hear God, and you talk to God.

Let me say that again. Three things happen when you encounter God. You talk to God in prayer. You hear God through His word and the Holy Spirit, and you experience God through worship. Did you see what Isaac did? The Lord appeared to him. It's not a one-way street.

Any encounter where only you're talking, God is a speaking God. God is not a vending machine. You punch in numbers, right? He wants to talk to you. You are His child. You are the sheep of His pasture. The sheep hear His voice. God wants to speak to you through His word.

He wants you to experience Him. God is not a topic you study in the Bible seminary. He is a person you can know. You can experience Him, taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen. So he builds an altar. He encounters God. Appears to him. He hears God.

And then he calls on the name of the Lord. You can do that today. You can do that in a car. You can do that on your lunch hour. You can do that when children go to sleep. The timing of it doesn't matter. The location of it is not the point.

The point is the altar. You talk to Him, He talks back, and you experience Him. Amen. So we pitch a tent. That means we have fields, we have personal life, we manage, whether it's a business, it's school, how big it is, how small it is, that's not the point.

The point is that we do our part, and we always welcome God to do His, and we do well. We build an altar because if you have a big tent, but you have no altar, your big life will feel shallow and empty. And after an altar, there is one more piece, and that is we have to dig a well, or find a well, or join a well.

What does a well speak of? It speaks of a local church. Now in here, if you look at chapter 26, verse 15, and it says this, "Now the Philistines had stopped all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with dirt."

I want to let you know the devil does not mind you succeeding in your business if you hate church. Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against your LLC, but against His church. The scripture doesn't say that Jesus came to build your 5013C nonprofit charity organization.

He's building His church. I believe the Lord is restoring love for the church again. I understand I may sound like a person in the chamber. You're like, "You have no idea. I got hurt at the church." Welcome to the club. Jesus died for it. There's nobody here who's never gotten hurt or has did the hurting at the church because church is full of humans.

And for those of you looking for the perfect church, if you ever find it, don't join it. You'll ruin it. The scripture says the Philistines filled it with dirt. And the devil wants to distract the church. He wants people to not like the church. He wants people to have this kind of: "Eh, church."

He wants to fill the church with programs that don't have presence. He wants to fill the church with spineless preachers who care more about what people think about them than to please the Holy Spirit. He wants to fill the well with dirt. That it's dry preachers preaching dry sermons to dry people.

But God wants the church to be a well of living water. A place where you get convicted. A place where you get inspired. A place where miracles can happen. A place where demons cannot stand, but they come out. A place where young people are raised up. A place where we plant churches and dig more wells.

The scripture says in here, verse 17 and verse 18, "And Isaac dug again." But verse 19, it says, "Isaac's servants dug a well and found the well, but there was quarreling." In verse 20, there was more quarreling. And then in verse 21, there was another well, and it was a lot of quarreling.

I was reading through this this morning and highlighting. I was like, man, a lot of war not over the altar. A lot of fighting not over the tent. All the fighting was over the well. All the fighting was over the well until it says this in verse 22. "And he moved from there and dug another well."

Somebody say, "Another well." So he moved from there meaning he was in one place there was a well, so much fighting, so much backbiting, so much gossip, so much hurt, and he didn't give up the idea of wells. He simply moved to another place and dug another well.

This is a word for somebody. Some of you came from a place where there was gossip, there was fighting, there was quarreling, and the devil wants you to give up on church, but you just simply need to move to another place. "Oh, but that's church hopping." No, my friend, sometimes that's not church hopping, that's simply called moving on.

And the Bible says, "they dug another well. And they did not quarrel over it," new season. And the Bible says, "The place was called Rehoboth." And in my Bible, it gives me literally - says spaciousness. I was reading this. I said, "Lord, that's like our Kenwick, Edison, Canal building."

Spaciousness. Like there is space here for my parking. Space here for my friends. Space here to breathe. Space here to grow. Go to a church where there is room to grow. Go to a church not where you - you know, sometimes people come in, and they say, "I don't get anything out of it."

That's not where you should go to church. You should go to a church where you grow, where there is room to grow. And the scripture says they got to a place and there was spaciousness. And then he said this, "because he said, 'For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.'" Come on, somebody.

My personal life is a tent I pitch. The fields I manage. I sew into them. But God provides the blessing. I honor God. My private devotional life, which overlaps with my personal life, is an altar I build. No matter if I am a pastor, bishop, apostle, but if I am a Christian, I cannot just live by my tent.

I got to live by the altar. The altar is not what happens at the church. What altar is what happens every day. Jesus withdrew daily to talk to God. If Jesus had the fate of the universe on His shoulders and He had time to build an altar, so can you, build an altar.

And for most people, this is where everything stops. "I'm doing good in my family. I'm doing good in my business. I read the word. I talk to God. I experience God. But I don't believe in church. I don't believe in joining a church, being a part of the church.

Why? It's bunch of hypocrites. Why? Well, I got hurt before. Why? It's just an organized religion. All they want is my money." Did you know that that's Philistines poisoning your mind? That's Philistines filling the well with dirt. "Well, I've been to a church. I had a really bad experience."

Dig another well. Dig another well. "Well, all the churches are the same." Not really. They're not all the same. But if every church you've joined has always had a bad experience, the common denominator is you. We got to repent. We got to change. But sometimes it's really - it's just not a place for you.

You have to find one where there is spaciousness. What I mean by spaciousness is there's room for you to grow, and there's water. Three things happen at the well. Number one, we gather at the well. Have you noticed a lot of people in the Bible met their spouses at the well?

Moses met his spouse at the well. The servant who went out to find a wife for Isaac met the wife at the well. Jacob met his wife at the well. Even Jesus met a woman at the well. So if you're single, ready to mingle, you need to find a well, not a club.

I know the culture says that you got to fish for a gold digger. Don't be a gold digger. Be a well digger. Don't chase wealth. Chase wells; where the wells are because you want that man not just to be honking hot. You want that man to be a good dad, a good husband, a godly leader in the family, and a man of integrity.

And my friend, you're not going to find those good men at the strip club. You can find them at the well, but you got to be very careful. Not everybody at the church is the same. Church is a hospital. And not everyone responds to treatment the same. We meet at the well.

When we have a well, we have a church. We must meet there, not just watch online. Unless you're sick, you got to come to church. Secondly, meeting at the well means if the church has a life group, connect group, cell group, small group, home group, anything that has a word group there.

That's you and I, my friend. That means we gather at the well. You may say, "But I don't have time." Twice a month on Tuesday or Saturday, my friend, is not an excuse because you cannot complain that you are dry if you don't ever meet at the well. "I'm feeling so down.

I'm feeling so disconnected." My friend, let me ask you, are you meeting at the well? Are you gathering? The scripture says, do not forsake our assembling together. Not only on here, beautiful Sunday morning gathering, but also in a micro gathering in our small groups, in our connect groups where you connect with other believers.

Can somebody say, "Amen?" The second thing we do with the well is we drink from the well. Because how many of you know you can gather and never drink. You can gather and even take a selfie, and never drink. What does this mean? That means that you connect to what is happening at the church that you claim to be a part of.

When worship is going on, the way you drink is not like this. That's not how you drink. Never seen anybody drink like that from a fountain. You also don't just take a phone, and you take the selfie. You drink by opening your - you usually open your mouth when you drink, and you worship.

That's how you drink. Also, the way you drink is you receive the teaching. You come with the physical Bible to church. Now, you can bring your electronic Bible. Nothing wrong with that. But we got to bring back Bibles. There's a revival of the Bible happening in our culture.

We might as well jump on the train. I love the technology, but one of the things that I love to do is also bring actually a physical Bible because I read a physical Bible, and I want to preach on the physical Bible. One of the changes I made in my own devotional life is I got rid of the electronic Bible and I have like 20 of them.

And so get a Bible, drink. When the pastor is preaching, start taking notes. Drink. That simply also means - something I want to highlight. In our ministry, we don't have a Wednesday night Bible study, and we don't have another night for the Bible study. But the pastor that is speaking to you right now has a channel, and every Monday he releases short teachings, something you can drink from every single Monday.

So let's say that you come, you're like, "Man, I would love to hear him all more, or I would love to learn more about this." I actually got you covered. One of the things that I do is I pray. I study not only for the preaching on Sunday but for the short teachings on Monday.

For example, there are things that came out called "This Is What Anger Will Do For You," just 19 minutes. So it's a little bit longer. It will take you on your way to work and back. "Christianity versus Hinduism. I always wanted to know what was the difference." Perfect on your way to school, and you can literally be drinking from the teaching of this house. "Five Things That If You Do, They Will Drive The Holy Spirit From Your Life."

I wish I could preach that this Sunday, but I can talk to you about that tomorrow on your way to college. So, drink from this house. I also want to mention something, and this is personal. If you're a first- time guest, ignore everything I say for the next 35 seconds.

If this is your house and you're reading everybody else's books, but you didn't read at least three books from your pastor, you're not drinking from this well. I don't need you to buy my books. They're for free to be downloaded. Not the point. The point is this. If God placed you at this well, why aren't you drinking? "Oh, I'm not growing."

Are you drinking? Are you receiving? You've been coming maybe for a year or two, and you love the Sunday mornings. Man, I'm spiritually not growing." But do you know we have a discipleship class that will start next Sunday at 9:00? Please don't just hang out around the well while other people are being refreshed and you're still dry.

Drink from the well where God placed you. Now, if you don't like the H2O of this well, find the well that you drink from. But let's not be a church where we claim to be a part of a local church, but we don't drink from it. We only drink from everybody on Facebook and YouTube, and we come in like, "Man, I don't like my pastor.

I don't like the church. I don't like this. I don't like that." Because you're not drinking from it. Drink from the well where God placed you. If He brought you here, that means He wants you to receive something. The pastor, the team is giving it. Would you receive it?

And one more thing we do at the well. So, we gather at the well. We drink from the well. And then lastly is we dig the well or we draw from the well. The digging part requires - see drinking is not hard. Somebody did the work. Digging means now I move from drinking to making sure there is drink for someone else.

Digging speaks number one: tithing. That means that 10% of what comes into your account, you return back to God. Now, if you want a reason not to tithe, you already have one. But can I ask you to not just be a drinker, but a digger as well? Did you know that the reason why you can drink here, the well, is because the person sitting next to you did more than just drinking.

They started to dig. We started to contribute financially. It helps us with clubs. It helps us to plant churches. It helps us to take more territory for the kingdom of God. It helps us to run this whole thing. I'm a tither and so are most of the people.

I believe our church is probably the most generous church in this region. And that's something I brag about. Start digging. The second thing that you can do is serving. So you go from drinking to digging and that is to join a dream team. And every once in a while you'll hear a call. "Hey, we have a big conference if somebody wants to serve."

Pretty much, we're inviting you to come with a shovel and say, "Let's start digging." Join a dream team. If you've been coming for 6 months or so, you're like, "Man, I really want to get involved." That is the best place. Start digging. Not just drinking, but let's dig another well.

Let's dig a well in Yakima. Let's dig a well in Renton. Let's dig a well in Everett. Let's dig a well in Spokane. Let's dig a well in Unashamed Club in another high school. Because we're not just people who drink. We know that it requires someone to go from drinking to digging a well.

Let's dig a well. And the last thing we do with the well is you protect it. Don't throw garbage in it. If you drink from that well, don't spit in it. Don't contaminate it. If this is your church and your children's church, watch how you speak about other Christians.

Protect the unity of the church by not being a gossiper. Be a prayer warrior. Protect the church. This doesn't mean cover up faults and mistakes. One of our values is we lean into awkward. We have conversations that are difficult. But it simply means we don't walk around and contaminate what God is doing.

We grieve. We pray. We talk. But we solve problems. We don't exaggerate them. Protect the well. Be the person that helps to protect what God is doing. This is special church. This is unique church. But this did not happen on accident. This is not because God randomly chose HungryGen.

People paid a price. And people are paying a price to keep this holy, sacred, and special. Can somebody say, "Amen?" For those of you checking out HungryGen today, welcome to HungryGen, where we exist to lead people to encounter God daily. We want you to succeed in your field.

We want you to succeed in your tent. But we always remember our tents are temporary. Paul says, "When this body like a tent will be destroyed, God will give me a new body." All the blessings of God, they have an expiration date, but the spiritual blessings are eternal.

As HungryGen, we want you to succeed in knowing God personally and intimately. So when we stand at the pearly gates, Jesus will not say to you, "I never knew you." Our desire is that you know the Holy Spirit intimately. That you don't just know God on Sunday morning, but you know God on Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning, and Saturday morning.

But our desire is to build a church your children love to attend. Our desire is to build a church where the Holy Spirit feels most welcome. When on Sunday morning the Holy Spirit comes and says, "I feel welcome here because I can touch people here. I can heal people here.

People here are not ashamed of the gospel. They're not trying to cave into the cultural pressure. They're not trying to stay politically relevant and politically correct. They love my word, and they love holiness." We want to build this church to be a well. That means if I spot other garbage swimming around, we want to take this stuff out.

We want to gather at this well. We want to drink from this well, and we want to help to dig more wells for the kingdom of God. Would you rise to your feet? I want to take a moment and pray for our tents right now. I'm going to ask you to do something symbolic.

Would you take your phone out and put it out right now? Not so that you can show which phone you have, an iPhone or an Android, but because that's where the contacts are made. You talk to your family a lot of times through your phone. You handle business through the phone, emails and everything.

Would you just kind of take it out? Take out your phone. Lord, would You stretch our tents this year? Lord, I ask You, would You give us grace to plant and reap one hundredfold? Lord, I ask You that as we sow, would we see Your blessing in our tents with our children?

Lord, I ask You, would You provide a blessing with our health? The blessing that none of us realize how important it is until we lose it. Your word says that your blessing makes rich and it adds no sorrow with it. God, we want Your blessing. Help us to do well in whatever situation, condition, and season that we find ourselves in, in the name of Jesus.

Now, I'm going to ask you to put your hand on your heart. Lord, I pray may our heart be an altar. Lord, we don't want our heart to be a trash can. We want our heart to be an altar where Your fire falls. Not where we collect garbage, offense, grievances, and hurts and unforgiveness.

God, let our heart be a place where passion lives. Where our heart be a place where Your voice lives. May our hearts be a place, God, where Your holiness lives. Holy Spirit, take residence. Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. We choose to prioritize Your voice. We choose to prioritize Your presence. which is to make time, make room every single day in talking to You, hearing from You, and knowing You in Jesus name.

Now, I'm going to ask you to do something that's maybe never been asked in the church. I'm going to ask you to join hands with the person next to you. We're going to pray for the church. Whether this is your church or you're joining our church, as a sign of unity.

Lord, I pray right now for our church and for the guests in our church. Lord, we don't want this to be a prison. We want this to be a well where people who are thirsty will find living water, where people who are hungry will find the bread of life.

Lord, we pray HungryGen will not just be for the adults, but it will also be for our youth. It will not only be for our youth, but it will be for our children. It will be for our little ones. Lord, I pray the HungryGen will not just be only for the drug addict, but also for the CEO.

I pray the HungryGen will not only be for men, but also for women. I pray the HungryGen will be not only for students, but also those that are retired. I pray that every kinds of people in our city, the white, black, and brown. People that are immigrants, people that are that have lived here, people that even from a different religion will be able to find here the living water, the love of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, the power of Jesus that changes lives.

Lord, I pray that we will gather every Sunday, but I also pray that we will gather in homes. Lord, I pray that we will learn to draw water from this well. I pray especially for our leaders and pastors and those who've been around the block of Christianity for so long, and they walk around maybe like, "Hey, I've been around this.

I know this." God, help us to stay hungry. Help us to receive for what you're giving to us in this house. Whether it is through the sermons, through worship, whether it is through the teachings, whether it is through the books that are produced from this house, God, help us to drink from the water, the teachings, your presence, God.

But Lord, as we hold hands with our neighbor, we also pray, help us not only to be consumers, but contributors. Help us to be people who tithe, people who serve, people who love, people who protect, people who don't just stand on the outside and criticize, but people who get into the game, and they win.

And they help us to build another well, another well, another well for your kingdom until you come in Jesus name. And Lord, help Seahawks to win today in Jesus name. Lord, we don't deserve that victory, but you're a merciful God. Every head bowed, and every eye closed. If you're in this room today, you're visiting HungryGen for the first time, and maybe you fell out of church, you fell out of Christian faith.

Perhaps you were invited by a friend. Today, I want to give you an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ. And I know the word encounter may sound super religious, but what it means is that your sins are forgiven when you meet Jesus. That means your name is written in the book of life.

What that means is that you're not just a person who's building his material career life, but you're building a spiritual life as well. And you are a person that will live with God forever. Inside of your body lives a spirit. It's eternal. When your body dies, your spirit will not die.

It will go to one of the two places. It will go to heaven or it will go to another place where everything goes that does not go to heaven. And it's called utter darkness. God loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ that you and I can have an access to Him in spite of our sin because we can be forgiven.

But we committed sin not because of what we did but because of what other people did before us, like Adam and others. We were born in sin. Everywhere around us is sin. God hates sin. God punishes sin. And if God doesn't punish sin, He stops being holy. He stops being God.

So you got a serious problem. If God punishes you, He remains God. But He loves you so much. He wants to forgive you. He's offering you the gift of forgiveness today. He wants you to have a relationship with him. Maybe you're here and all of this sounds very familiar.

You're like, "Man, I know this stuff. I've been there." My question today is not, "Do you know this and did you pray a magic prayer when you were 16?" My question is, are you walking with Jesus? Or did you backslid and walked away from Jesus? Because if you backslid and walk away from Jesus today, I want to give you an opportunity to come back to Him.

And if you're here and you've never made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, when I count to three, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. If you're here and you walked away from Christ, when I count to three, I'm going to ask you also to raise your hand.

The best decision you will make in your life is not where you're going to live, the career you're going to choose, and who you're going to marry. The best decision is what you're going to do with Jesus Christ. And that decision is being made right now by you.

If you say, "I'm going to postpone," you're making a decision to say no. I want you to say yes. He loves you too much. Why would you say no to somebody who gave his life for you? You want to stay with your sin? Don't worry about it. God has something better for you.

The pleasures of sin are temporary. The pleasures in God's presence are eternal. One, Jesus is the only way to heaven. Two, hell is hot. Forever is very long. Today is the day of salvation. I know you may come with a friend. You may come with the family member.

Like, "What will they think?" When you stand before God, you're not standing as a family. You're standing individually. Three, raise that hand high if you say, "This is me. I need to get right with God, pastor. I'm not there where I supposed to be." Slip that hand high.

The Lord is knocking on your heart right now. He's drawing you near. If you raised that hand or you wanted to raise your hand, I'm going to ask you to do something very bold right where you are standing. If you don't do it here, you'll never do it there.

Come out of your seat right now and stand here with me quickly. If you raise that hand, just come forward. Let's go. Let's go. You were standing there on the bleachers. Let's go. Come. Come. This is the day of salvation. Let's go, brother. Let's go. Let's go. Leaders are coming up everywhere.

I'm glad you're here. Glad you're here. Glad you're here. You're making a good - You're making a right decision. The Dallas Cowboys, I don't know about that, but other than that. But after this prayer, the Lord is going to change your heart as well. Amen. Just come. Just come.

Just come. If there's anybody else, just come. Now, I'm going to invite the life group leaders that stepped in today on the stage and the new life group leaders, would you come forward as well? You're going to be surrounded by a lot of people. Don't feel pressured. These people love you. and they're going to be praying for you that you grow in Jesus.

Our goal is not that you get more religion, it's that you get more of the Holy Spirit as you come forward and you're watching us online. You can pray that prayer online as well with us. I'm going to ask you guys to stretch your hands like this. This is going to be your way of receiving this gift.

The scripture says, "The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life." We receive that gift. We don't earn it by our church attendance. We don't earn it by praying prayers or bringing our tithes. We receive that gift by faith. Say this prayer out loud with me.

Church, would you help to pray with them? Say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I believe You are the Son of God who died on the cross for all of my sins. I repent of my sins. Would You wash me with Your precious blood? I surrender my life, and from this day forward I promise to follow You all the days of my life.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit in Jesus name. Amen."