Today is going to be part 4 of the series: Single Ready To Mingle. It's not only limited to single people and it's not just based on the book. The first week we talked about is sexual sleep. It was mainly for the teenagers. It was preached on the youth service. The week two we talked about obsessive love. Week three we talked about love versus lust. And today we're going to talk about the cure for insecurity. One of the things that a lot of people in our generation, whether single people or married people struggle with, is a sense of unworthiness, sense of inferiority, sense of insecurity. You know we all battle with that. It's part of the humanities epidemic that they struggle with. The State of Texas. The university, the mental health center of University of Texas said that low self-esteem sometimes presents in one of the three patterns. The first one is impostor syndrome. It's when you try to do a lot of successful things. You try to become a perfectionist or a procrastinator to mask your insecurity. The second way is rebellion. When a person tries to pretend they don't care what others think of them, and they try to break rules and rebel against authority. And the third way that the insecurity presents itself in a lot of people's lives is victimhood. It's when a person plays a victim and chooses to act as though they cannot change their circumstances and their decisions. I want you to open your Bible to Genesis 2:15-17. If you did not bring a physical Bible with you, would you open your phone. An app on your phone to Genesis 2:15-17 and after you did that would you rise to your feet please for the reading of God's Word. If a police officer. As you're finding the verse. If a police officer doesn't have a police car, doesn't have the badge, doesn't have the uniform. He cannot operate in the area of his jurisdiction. He can still have the credentials in the police department. The police department can still confirm legitimately he is a police officer. He works here. But if he doesn't have the car, if he doesn't have the uniform, if he doesn't have the badge or the gun. You will never pull over. You're not going to get a ticket from him. You're just going to keep on driving. Why? Because he doesn't mean anything. His identification is what gives him the power to operate in his jurisdiction. You have to understand as a Christian, God has given you an identity. But if you're not living out of your identity you cannot operate in the kingdom of God. You will sabotage every relationship you go into, you will not be able to serve properly in the church or in the ministry. You will not be a person who will be a blessing to your community and the blessing of your environment, if you don't operate out of the identity that God has given to you. The question is not whether you have the identity. The question is are you operating out of the identity. Genesis 2:15 says the following. Let's read it together on the count of three. One, two and three. Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" Say, "I don't want to die." Let's just pray. Father I thank you for your grace. I thank you for your word. Holy Spirit I pray that you will take inventory of our heart this afternoon. I pray that you will begin to expose orphan heart. I pray that you will begin to bring healing to the damaged mindset and stronghold. And I pray that you will begin to bring deliverance to every spirit of bondage that's operating behind insecurity, in Jesus name we pray. And everyone said, "Amen." Insecurity is really rooted in idolatry. Idolatry is placing your hope, looking for your definition of who you are in something other than Jesus Christ. Idolatry is not necessarily having a little idol in your living room where you come and worship. We don't do that kind of idolatry. Our idolatry is more sophisticated and domesticated. Our idolatry today is when we place our trust, when we draw our identity from something other than Jesus Christ. That my friend, is idolatry. God said in Jeremiah through the prophet Jeremiah. He said, "For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and hewed themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water." Meaning God was saying my people have rejected Me as the source of who they are, but instead they have started to look to other things to define who they are. My friend people who struggle with insecurity, and I do not mean an insult to no one who is battling with this because all of us do. It's an idolatry problem not an insecurity problem. It's when we place our trust in something other than Jesus. It produces two feelings. Sense of inferiority when you have nothing or sense of superiority when you got something. And both of those senses are not scriptural. Sense of I'm not good enough and sense of I am so good, people should just worship me. It's like a lady comes to a pastor say, "Pastor I struggle with this sin. Every time I come to your church I feel like I am the most pertiest woman in your church. In fact I feel so purty that nobody else is worthy to shake my hand. Pastor pray for me so God can help me to be free from this sin." Pastor says, "Woman that's not a sin. It's just a mistake." A sense of superiority and sense of inferiority is insecurity. And insecurity is idolatry. It's placing our trust in something other than Jesus. Insecurity not only is idolatry, insecurity leads to insanity. Every person who is insecure is a little bit insane. Keep looking at me straight. Some of you are about to take your your spouse's hands, say I told you. Why? Because insecure people are chronically jealous, insecure people are overly sensitive, insecure people are always thinking somebody is talking about them. Insecure people are extremely, they're so focused on their own feelings and they focus on what somebody is saying about them. That it takes them into the realm of they begin to become a little bit crazy. When King Herod was here on this earth and the wise men came to King Herod and they said, "A King is born. Can you tell us where?" King is on the throne. Another king is born. It could make anybody just a little bit jealous. But see a person who bases their trust in God knows one thing, the position I occupy belongs to God. A God who brought me into this position God will keep me in this position. And like David says, "If God finds no delight for me to be in this position, may He do what He desires. But His name will be praised." Herod on the other hand begins to search where this new king was born. And when he doesn't find he goes in and kills all the babies under the age of two. History says Herod actually killed one of his wives, two of her sons and his older son out of jealousy, fear and suspicion that they are trying to overthrow his kingdom. In fact Emperor Augustus commented and said, "It's safer to be Herod's pig than his son." Why? Because insecure people are insane. King Saul was the same way. King Saul, though he was taller, he was so handsome. But he was so chronically insecure that on the day of his inauguration when he was to be announced as the king, King Saul was hiding behind baggage behind bags. Imagine. And he wasn't there preparing like in a green room you know, getting himself worked up. He was so shy and afraid to get up and to be inaugurated, to be promoted as the king. Now at first it seems like "Oh look, he's so shy. He's such a, you know he's so humble. He doesn't think of himself highly. That is, that is so good." No. No. No. Insecurity is false humility. Because this inferior guy, give him power and he becomes a monster. He goes in from hiding because he's so insecure, to then disobeying God, chasing David, destroying people's lives, killing priests, doing bizarre thing. Why? Because insecurity here looks like false humility. But if it's not cured, give insecure men power and Hitler will have nothing on them because insecurity is very, very damaging. It destroys. It makes us crazy. It makes us go insane. It makes us jealous of people, it makes us compete with other people and it makes us people who are not celebrating other person's success. Who are only like mosquitos; we live off of other people's blood. We live off of other destroying another person. It's like two people who had a shop next to each other and they were competing. Two owners, to businessmen were competing. They were rivals. They were always checking on each other to see who's doing better and always wish that the other would fail. And one time the angel comes to one at night and says, "What do you want me to do for you but remember what you ask for I will give to your enemy twice as much. So if you ask me for a house, your rival will get two houses. If you ask me for money, they will get double of that. What would you have me do for you. He said, "Here is my request. Strike me blind in one eye, so that my neighbor will lose both eyes." Insecurity is insanity. Anytime you're not operating out of your identity, you're operating out of insecurity. It is already idolatry and sooner or later you are going to be a little bit insane. Even if you don't get diagnosed as insane, even if they don't put you in a mental institution. Everyone around you will know being with you is crazy. We live in a generation today where the competition because of social media there is such a, such a big focus on trying to be better than somebody else. Trying to compete. Trying to be something that we are not. And I want to make an apology right now because in previous years of my ministry and preaching I have made fun of chickens. I have glorified eagles and I have said statements like you know, "Be an eagle don't be a chicken." And then I did some studying and I've realized that actually eagles produce only 2 eggs a year. Chickens 260. And I have never, eagles have never provided an egg for my breakfast. I've been to quite a few restaurants but I've never seen an eagle meat on the menu. So I just want to apologize to all the chickens and to say chickens continue to be the best chicken that you can be. Because eagles, yes they can soar but they can't produce eggs. Because eagles, yes they're beautiful and they're noble but honestly, nobody eats their meat. So I just want to challenge each one you, never try to be the next this or that. Be the first you. God is not interested in making you better than another person. He wants you to be better than you. Touch your neighbor and say, be better than you. Don't try to be better than me, try to just be better than you. God is not competing. God wants to make us complete. Before we talk about the cure, I just want to show you just a little difference between what insecurity is and what identity is. Insecurity is into titles. Identity is into towels. Jesus was in the last supper and the scripture says the disciples were bickering, who's going to be first. They wanted the title. Who's going to sit at the right hand? Who's going to sit to the left? Who's going to be closer to Jesus? Because see, when you are insecure you always need a title. And if title is taken away from you, your life is taken away from you. People who have their identity anchored in Jesus, they can do just fine without a title because they're looking for opportunity to serve. Insecurity is into competing. Identity is complete. Insecurity focuses on weight. Identity focuses on worth. Insecurity looks in the bathroom mirror to see who they are. Identity looks in the mirror of God's Word to be defined who they are. Insecurity is always jealous. Identity is always joyful. Insecurity is focused on issues. Identity is focused on intimacy. Insecurity is always into self-pity. Identity is into self-care. Insecurity lives out labels that people put on them. Identity lives out of love that God gives them. Insecurity like Adam hides from God but people in identity, they hide in God. Insecurity feels abandoned. Identity walks as though they're adopted by God. And lastly insecurity leads to idolatry. Identity leads to inheritance. Somebody say amen. I want to encourage you today, that if perhaps you're dealing with insecurity in your life. There is a solution for that. And the solution is we're gonna right now look at the scripture that we've read. God tells Adam. He puts him in the garden of Eden and says out of every tree in the garden I want you to eat, but one tree, tree of knowledge of good and evil; don't eat of that tree. Just leave that tree alone. Tree of life was there in the middle of the garden but there was also all trees, other trees. Good trees that God told them to eat of. And there was one tree in the garden that was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I want you to notice it wasn't called the tree of death. It wasn't called the tree of satan. It wasn't called the tree of sin. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We don't know how the tree got there. I heard one preacher explain it and according to Matthew 13 that while they slept the satan sowed the seed and how the tree came. Like God slept and everybody slept and satan came in. I don't know how that tree. That's one of the questions we're going to ask in heaven. How did God or whoever put the tree in there. But the fact remains there was that tree. One tree. But there was hundreds of other trees God said to eat off of. Write this down. The first thing that I want you to remember out of this message today is this. Is you will always have a reason to feel insecure. And even when you do, you will have a choice not to feed on your insecurities. You will have a reason to feel insecure but you have a choice not to feed your insecurity. Adam had a tree in the garden of knowledge of good and evil. You and I also have a tree in our garden. It's something that is there. That you might not be able to remove it, you may not be able to change it. And if you give focus to it, you think about it too much. It will make you feel inferior, not good enough, unworthy, ashamed, ugly, you don't measure up, you're worse than other people. The way Adam did. He felt ashamed. He felt afraid. He felt fearful. In fact those feelings led him to start creating some clothes. And even those clothes didn't fix those bad feelings, that he started to hide from God. That's what this tree does. And maybe you have something in your paradise today. Perhaps that tree is your physical appearance. There's nothing you can do to change it. Perhaps it's something that happened a long time ago. Something that someone has said, you cannot undo that and that thing today causes you to feel that. That thing doesn't cause you to feel that. The tree didn't make him feel ashamed. It's eating from the tree that made him feel ashamed. The tree doesn't make you feel ashamed. It's eating from the tree that brings guilt, shame and insecurity. In my case when I was younger, as a teenager. You know when I was born they said that something happened during the birth, where one of the optical nerves was damaged and I was born. And as a child everything was fine but then later on when I was age five or six they started to notice that one of my eyes was different than the other. Now when you're a little kid, like a baby or a toddler and you're fat, your eyes are like different. Nobody cares, right. Have you ever looked at the kid and said, "That's the ugliest kid I've ever seen in my life." No. You see some of these kids like six rolls and like, "Oh this is so cute. This is so awesome." You're looking there like, this is not cute. That thing is fat. But when you're a kid there's no such a thing as fat. You're just cute. Until you age five and then you're not cute, you're pleasantly plumb. And then you hit 11. You're not pleasantly plump, you're fat. You hit 13 and then you get bullied, for the very thing you got called cute at the age of 13, you're bullied for. And that's what kind of started to happen to me in the Ukraine. I was bullied. I was made fun of, I was called with labels. Partially because of my eyes. When we immigrated to the United States all of those things that were spoken about me and then I kept looking in the mirror. I started to feel the same thing that Adam felt. I felt inadequate. I felt I wasn't good enough and I felt all of those things. And I had a tree in my garden. This tree was called my physical appearance. It wasn't bad. Physical appearance is not a bad thing. Tree of knowledge wasn't a bad tree. The only thing that with this tree God says you shouldn't eat of this tree. Don't remove it, just don't eat from it. But my problem was that I was eating from the tree. I allowed my physical appearance to determine who I was. And for the longest time I had a difficult time to relate with people. I had a difficult time to even relate to God. I did very poorly in school. My grades were not good in school. I had a difficult time to even establish myself in the church and to do some things in the church because I felt like everybody rejected me. I felt like nobody wanted me, nobody wanted close to me. And I felt like it was the world's fault. And all the shame and all the inadequacy that I felt, little did I knew it wasn't because there was a tree in my garden. It was that I was eating of the tree that produced the feelings I was feeling. What does that mean? Let me just make it simple for you. I was allowing my body to determine who I am before God and when I stopped eating from the tree of knowledge, the tree of my physical appearance and I started eating from a lot of other trees. I started to feel different. I still have the tree of knowledge in my garden. You're looking at it. But I'm a different guy today. I'm not a different guy because I'm better. It's not because the temptation is no longer there. I have other temptations that are as strong as that one. But the principle remains the same. There will be things in your garden that you cannot remove, you can't fix and you can't change. But you are commanded by God not to eat of that tree. Let me just while I'm at this, to remind those people who use their body as a source of their identity. Remember your body is important to God. God created it. Jesus healed it. The Holy Spirit and dwells in it. God one day will resurrect it and reward everything that's done in the body. With all of that said, your body came from dirt. You came from God. Anytime you let your body be the foundation of your identity, you will feel dirty. Your body will go back to dirt. It's just the skin stretched over the skeleton. But who you are, you're made in the image and likeness of God. Ten times in Genesis 1 and 2. God said according to their kind vegetation and animal world was created. According to their kind. But you and I were made not according to their kind. His kind. You are a God-kind. You carry an image and likeness of God. You carry that image. That's why when they brought a coin to Jesus and they said, "Jesus should we pay taxes?" And Jesus says, "Give me the coin." What did he do? He looked at the coin and He said, "Whose image is on the coin?" They said, "Caesar's." He says, "Give to Caesar whose image is on the coin." See when I look at you I see the image of God, therefore you belong to God. You don't belong to sin. You don't belong to the devil. You don't belong to people's labels. You belong to God because God's image is on you. Come on somebody. Give God some praise. If you feel dirty it's because you let your body be your foundation. Now some of us in here today, you walk around and you feel great. And not because you know who you are in Jesus. It's because you got biceps and triceps and your skin is stretched really beautifully. And you don't got those pimples. But I gotta warn you. After 40, no matter how many lotions you put in, there is someone who's going to look better than you. There's always somebody who looks better than you. And I want to tell you today that good looks is a gift from God, but it's also a great temptation. Joseph was being tempted because he was good-looking. So for those of us who are like, "Man I just wish. I want to be good-looking." Spare, may the Lord spare you from that. Whatever the looks that you have, praise God for them. I always, this is a bad thing to say but I'm gonna say it anyway. I say one of the reasons that I was a virgin at the age of 24 and when I married to my wife is because I wasn't good looking. It's fine, as you can laugh at me right. It's completely fine. One time I'll let you laugh. And when I was younger I used to think, oh man, I wish I would have looked like somebody else better. But then I grew up and I realized one thing. You know you don't have to have the best looks to marry a good girl as a guy. Most of the girls they flirt with good-looking guys. They don't marry them. Girls settle for guys who have something in their brain and something in their wallet. And some good-looking brothers are so busy on their looks, that they have nothing in their brain and nothing in their wallet. So brother, you know if you got some tree in your garden. It don't look good. Don't let that tree define you. Get busy. Work on your career, get some stuff going. Why? Because at the right time. Don't ever believe in that lie that just because you are not maybe as good looking as somebody else, you'll never get married, you'll never have a great life. All of that is a lie of the devil. You have to refuse to eat from the tree of your appearance. Good appearance is a gift from God. We should take care of our bodies. Don't get me wrong. We should work out, we should eat the greens, the vegetables, we should drink a lot of water, we should drink protein. We should do all of that. We should look the best we can but good looks is not a good material to build your identity on. You cannot change sometimes the tree in that garden, but you are responsible not to eat from that tree. You know one of the things that I had to learn is I cannot change my body, even though I tried. I had two eye surgeries, not because I couldn't see. Out of four siblings and both parents, I'm the only guy who does not wear glasses and eye contacts. So everybody in my family has glasses or things they put inside of their eyes, kind of scary, to help them see. I don't. So I don't have a problem with vision. The two surgeries that I had did not do with the vision. It had to do to improve my appearance. There was a third surgery that was scheduled. And they said after the third surgery, if I would sleep, one eye will be left open. And I was like, oh my goodness. They will recruit me for Harry Potter movie or something. I was like, there's no way I'm settling for like some scary stuff. And so I said no, I'm fine. I'm not gonna go to be looking like a crazy guy when I sleep. I can tell you one thing is that the surgeries, the ministry today being known. None of that cures the insecurity. What cures insecurity is eating from the trees in your garden. There is a tree of life in your garden. It's called the tree of God's Word. It says that you are righteous and you are fearful and wonderfully made. If you walk a little bit further there's another tree. It says that you are worth dying for because the blood of Jesus was spilled on your behalf. Just go a few feet away and you will see there is another tree that says the Holy Spirit, the God, lives inside of you. You know God's address, is you. Go a little bit further, and you will see another tree that says that you received abundance of grace and you have the gift of righteousness to reign in life. Go a little bit further there's another tree in the garden that says you're a royal priesthood and the chosen generation. Go another few feet and you will see there is a tree that says your citizenship is in heaven and there is a city that is prepared for you. You might not have a house on this earth but there is a mansion that is being built for you. Go a little bit further and you will see the God of universe is your Dad. He is your Father. Go a little bit further and you will see there is a tree that says, angels of God are protecting you. They are watching over you. Somebody give God some praise for the truth. The Lord had to teach me and still does that. To stop eating from the tree of my appearance, my accomplishments but to eat from the tree of the truth, to eat from the tree of His promises, to eat from the tree of what He says about me. Renew my mind until I think different, until I feel different. Because see, your feeling comes from what you feed on. What you feed on comes from what you focus on. Somebody say "Focus", somebody say "Feeding," and somebody say "Feeling." See feeling is the result of what you feed and feeding is a result of what you focus. You focus on yourself, you will feed yourself with you, you will be aware of you. And then you will feel either inferior or you will feel superior. But when we feed ourselves in God's Word something begins to change. I want you to write down point number two. When you don't eat from the tree of life, you will end up wearing fig leaves. When you don't eat from the tree of life, you will end up wearing fig leaves. Fig leaves cannot fix insecurity. Feeding on the fruit can. Adam ate from the forbidden tree. Adam ate from the forbidden tree but he took leaves from the fig trees. He should have been eating from the trees, instead he took the leaves from those trees. But in the tree that God says don't eat, he ends up eating. See there is nothing wrong with leaves. We just have to understand is that they can't cure insecurity. There's nothing wrong with having a good position in a society, but you must understand your position doesn't determine who you are in Jesus. There's nothing wrong with having a lot of money and a lot of wealth. But you must understand is that your wealth doesn't determine your worth. Meaning you don't become more important when you have more money. You are as important to God. And you must have a healthy view of you, when you absolutely have nothing. Many people, they allow the fig leaf of wealth to cover their insecurity. This is how it works. When their wealth increases so is their self-esteem. When your self-esteem is attached to your wealth, your self-esteem is inflated like a balloon. It gets bigger. But the problem with the balloon, is the balloons are terrified of needles. Because it takes a small sharp object and the balloon goes poof. And that's exactly what happens with people's self-esteem who attach it to their possessions, the maker of their car, the places they eat, the brands of clothes they wear and the zip code of their house and how many degrees they have. Your identity cannot come from that. Those things are leaves. They have their place in life and on the trees of life, but they don't feed us. What feeds us is the truth of God's Word. What feeds us is something that devil cannot take. What feeds us is something IRS cannot take. What feeds us is something inflation cannot take. What feeds us is something old age cannot take. What feeds us is something that haters and critics cannot take. What feeds us is eternal. It's everlasting. It's a Word from almighty God. What feeds us is the presence of God. It's the peace of God. It's the truth of God. It is the Holy Spirit. It is the blood of Jesus. What feeds us is the eternal life and that my friend, no devil can take, no demon can put his finger on, no thief can steal, no moth and rust can destroy. Those are eternal things. Those are eternal things and nobody can touch it. Amen. When you don't eat from the right tree, you will end up wearing what you should be eating. Number three. We're gonna bring this message to an end. When you cannot remove the tree of knowledge, you must resist it. God didn't call Adam and He didn't tell him, "I want you to go into the garden and chop down the bad tree." He told him to name the animals, He told him to take care of the garden, He told them not to chop that tree down. That's interesting. If I would have been God, I would say, "Adam, here's a chainsaw. Get the tree out." He says, "Don't remove that tree." He just says, "Don't eat from it." There are certain things you're not going to be able to change about your life. You just have to change, not the tree but change your approach, change your feeding style, change your diet. I tell people sometimes to come up and say, "You know I feel very insecure about the way I look. I feel very insecure about how I've been treated. I feel left out. I feel abandoned. I feel pushed, pushed away." And I tell them instead of trying to go and change the situation, change your diet, change your focus, change your perspective. Allow the Holy Spirit to take inventory of your heart and to reveal the fact that you got pushed aside, the fact that you got thrown with that label, the fact that you know, you went through that and you cannot change what happened in your past. It's like a label that sticks to you. You have the power not to allow that to change you. And that power comes from the Holy Spirit. You have to resist that tree. Now what makes the tree of knowledge dangerous, seductive. Is not that it had the most appealing fruits. It's not that its fruits were the sweetest. It's not that the rest of the trees were sour. What made the tree so seductive is that it had a snake who leveraged the tree, to push its own propaganda. It had a hissing snake who manipulated the facts, played with emotions of Adam and Eve to get translated, twisted, manipulative message across and get them on the hook. That's one of the reasons why we fall for using our body, our faults, things that we've been through. We use that and we fall through that and we allow that to define us. It's not because those things are so powerful. Those things in themselves have nothing, no power to influence us. It's the satan uses our reality to mess with our revelation. He uses our issue to cloud our identity. He uses my condition, to question my position in God. He manipulates the facts to push his propaganda. The tree doesn't speak but there is a snake that uses the forbidden tree to push his lies and his venom. Snakes are not dangerous because they have fists. Snakes don't fight with fists. They fight with their mouth. The Bible says satan is like a roaring lion. Even though we know lions have a power in their tail but the lion's power is not even his paw. It's in his mouth. Some say that lion can paralyze his prey by his roar. My friend on the cross satan was defeated. God took his voice, therefore he needs your fig tree as a microphone. Because whatever he will say will not stick. As long as he can use the fact that you were divorced, the fact that you were abused, the fact that you compare yourself to other people and you don't look as good. The fact that somebody is way ahead of you than you. The fact that your mom and your dad says you should have been more like him or them. He could use that as a microphone and a platform to push his propaganda. My Bible makes me to understand in Ephesians chapter 6 is that fiery darts of the devil. See the fig tree speaks. It spits venom. That's why you have to have a breastplate of righteousness. That's why you have to feed yourself with the truth. That's why you have to put on the truth, not just have the truth. Every Christian has a breastplate, not every Christian wears it. Every Christian has a helmet of salvation. Some leave it in the closet, some put it on their head. Every Christian has the truth. Some know it, others only have it. It's not the truth you have, it's the truth you know. It's not the armor of God you have in your closet. It's the armor of God you have on your chest. It's not the tree in your garden, it's the fruit in your mouth. It's letting this go from information to revelation, application, transformation. It goes inside of you. You can have a truckload of soap in your house and stink like a skunk. The presence of soap doesn't make you clean. It's applying the soap on you that washes away dirt. There was trees there. Adam didn't eat of them. He ate of one tree. Why did he eat of that tree? Not because it was appealing; it had a snake behind it. God never told him to destroy the tree but He did give him the power to destroy the snake. He gave him dominion over every creeping thing and satan is a creep. God gave Adam the authority. Jesus gave you also the authority. Many of you here today, plastic surgery is not your option. Many of you here today, you cannot go back and change things in your past. That's not possible. You can't change what your mom and what your dad did or which family you grew up. Some of you, you cannot change some of the weaknesses that you have, natural things. You cannot change that but what you can change is this. Is you can break the grip of a snake from using your reality to influence your revelation, from using your circumstance to reinforce your character. I want you to open your Bible to Romans 8:15. And once you do I want you to rise to your feet. Romans 8:15 and once you do I want you to rise to your feet. I will read from King James, New King James Version. "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear," so spirit of bondage is a demon. The Bible here doesn't use word "spirit" as you know. When we went to school we say the spirit of our school you know, you're in the spirit. Meaning like an attitude or aroma. Or a spirit as like an atmosphere, you know, you're in a spirit today. That's not what this means. This is not talking about atmosphere. This is not talking about some kind of an influence. It's talking about a demon, an evil spirit and a demonic entity. "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear." When Adam obeyed the snake, he was afraid, ashamed and he hid from God. And Paul in here, says you did not get the snake again to be afraid, to feel ashamed but you received the spirit of adoption. Not an orphan but adopted, loved, accepted in spite of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father. I want to tell you something today. Your insecurity will start changing if we do few things. One. We have to remove the snake from your garden. You have to make a conscious choice not to eat from the tree that you can't remove. And thirdly you have to consciously, intentionally, consistently feed yourself on every tree God has planted in your garden of faith. There's about 66 of those trees over here in this Book. Pick one each day and go on it and eat it. Wear the leaves, eat the fruits in Jesus name. The last two you do at home. The first one we do here. Satan is a deceiver. He wants to cripple your life, sabotage your relationships. He wants to hide behind that tree and add volume to it. But today is a very bad day for him because in here I have a sword of the Spirit. And in the gathering of an army in here today we are going to revolt and we are going to rise again. And we are going to win and he will lose. David killed Goliath with his own sword. We have the sword of the Spirit. Jesus went to the wilderness and the devil used the stones to say, "Look you're not the son of God. If you are the son of God?" Devil will always put a question mark where God put an exclamation mark. And Jesus looked to the devil and He didn't say, "Oh, I am so sorry." Jesus said and He rebuked the devil. He spoke back to the devil. He didn't just say, "Oh, I'm just going to hide away." He spoke back what God said, and the devil left him. And the same devil that left Jesus will leave you in Jesus name. Chronic anxiety, depression, sleepless nights, compulsive, just this chronic comparison, suspicion. All of that stuff is gonna leave you today in Jesus name and you're gonna walk in your destiny in the name of Jesus. As we're gonna have Pastor Ilya, Pastor Rick and Pastor Martin on the stage right now. I want you to grab your Bible in your hand and I'm going to lead you in prayer. And we're going to lead you together to receive freedom today in your life. I want you to say, "My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." I want to say, "My spirit is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit." Say, "I am saved, I am healed and I am delivered in Jesus name. I'm a new creation. I am justified. I'm a royal priesthood. I'm a chosen generation. My past has been washed, my future is clear. The God of heaven and earth is on my side. And right now I take authority over every hissing snake using my situation to confuse my identity. Right now, your time has expired. I command you out of my garden. I command you out. Out. Out. I break your grip. Listen to me satan, you will no longer have the power over my identity using my insecurity. Right now I drive you out. I command you leave my place, leave my garden in Jesus name. Come on, right now open up your lips. Use the authority in Jesus name. Begin to command every hissing snake to lose its grip in Jesus name. Yes Father, we come against right now every snake, every demon that torments His people and we break your grip. We declare, we stand on the promises that God has given us. That we are a chosen generation. We are what you say that we are, we have what you say that we have and we can do what you said that we could do. We are not defeated. We are not mistake. We are not forgotten. We are not abandoned but we are children of the most high God. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the death lives inside of us and we break your grip satan. We break your grip over our lives, over our detinies, over our bodies. In the name of Jesus we break you down. We silence every voice that's spoken against us, that spoke into our future. And we stand on the promises of God of who we are in Jesus name. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, let's continue to be in the attitude of prayer right now. As the Bible says that the snake seduced man to commit sin, to do the wrong thing. But God almighty made a promise and He said until the end of days, man shall crush the head of the snake. The Bible says that we have been given authority to trample on every snake and scorpion. Whatever that snake has been telling you today, whatever that snake has been whispering to your life. It is time right now to break it at its neck. Begin to say right now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, you snake of lies, of insecurity, of deception. I come against you by the power in the name of Jesus. Lose your grip over my life, lose your grip over my conscience, lose your grip over my mind, over my spirit, soul and body. Begin to pray right now and to break the head of the snake, the lies, the misconceptions that have been spoken against you. Begin to command it right now and break it in the name of Jesus. I know who I am in the Lord. I know what He says that I am. I know that I have what He says that I have. I am a child of God. I am not a slave to fear. I am not a slave to kings. I am not a slave to shame. I am not a slave to sin in the name of Jesus Christ, in the blood of Jesus Christ. In Jesus mighty name. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ. See the devil, the only power that he has is in his mouth. But my Bible tells tells me and makes me understand that I also do have a power in my mouth. And so the way we shut the devil up is when we open our mouth because two people can't speak at the same time. When we speak we have the authority of God. Bible says that we carry the power of life and death in our mouths and we just gonna speak today. Also in Psalm 8 it says this, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength, because of your enemies. That you may silence the enemy and the avenger." And right now we can open our mouth and we're going to begin to declare who we are in Jesus Christ. We're going to begin to silence the voices that tell us otherwise, the voices that tell us that we're nobody. The voices that speak to us about our trauma, our pain. The voices that speak to us about the things that we went through. The voices that begin to belittle us. The voices that tell us that we're worthless. The voices tell us that we will amount to nothing, that we will not make it. Right now it's your moment. It's your chance to open up your mouth and silence your enemy. Silence your avenger and speak life into yourself and speak life into your situation and begin to restore your identity. Begin to put on that the shield of faith, begin to put on the breastplate of righteousness, begin to put on that helmet of salvation. Right now it's your moment to speak the truth of God's word and to begin to arm yourself in Jesus mighty name. Right now open up and begin to pray, begin to confess who you are in Jesus Christ. That you're no longer the victim, you're a victor. Your no longer a slave. You are His Child in Jesus mighty name. Right now lets begin to confess that, lets begin to pray that. Begin to declare opposite to the voice that is speaking to you in Jesus name. Come on. Every hand raised. Silence that snake right now. Silence every voice of accusation. Let the enemy know, what happened in the past stays in the past. I am a child of God. I am no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. Come on lets sing it one more time. I'm no longer a slave to fear, insecurity, shame, the past. I am a child of God. Come on place your hand upon yourself right now. Say that of yourself. I'm no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God. Every eye closed, every head bowed. I want to give an opportunity to anybody in this room who have yet to make Jesus the Lord of their life. Maybe you're coming today and you have not given Jesus your heart and you didn't surrender to Him as your Savior. The Bible says, "It is appointed for a man to die and then there's a judgment." We will stand before God to give an account for our life. But Jesus two thousand years ago died on the cross so that we can be free, so we can be healed. And most importantly so we can have our name written in the book of life and we can go to heaven and have eternal life here now on earth. If you have not made a decision to give Jesus your life, right now I would like to give you an opportunity to do so. Perhaps you grew up in a Catholic or a Christian home but you did not make a personal decision to follow Jesus. Today is your moment to do that. Jesus is waiting for you. He brought you into this room. He wants to save you. On the count of three I'm going to ask anybody here who have not given their life to Jesus to raise your hand. Or maybe you're here, you've backslidden, you used to know the Lord but you don't know him anymore. You walked away from Him. And today you're coming for the first time or you're coming maybe for the last few times you realize that, you know what Vlad I need to give my life to the Lord. If you say, "Vlad you're talking about me. I have not given my life to Jesus or I walked away I would like to recommit my life to Jesus." On the count of three I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. Hell is hot, forever is very long and Jesus is the only way to salvation. One. Two. Three. Raise that hand up. I want to see it. I want to pray with you. Thank you. Thank you Anybody else to say you know Vlad, this is my day. I need to give my life to the Lord. I need to come back to Jesus. I need to start my life right. If you want to give your life to Jesus, if you raised your hand or you wanted to. Or you brought a friend with you, they need to give the life to the Lord. I'm going to ask you quickly to come out of your seat and come meet me right here. We have a team that's waiting to pray for you. If you say Vlad I would like to give my life to Jesus. Just quickly, quickly run out of your seat and come to the side right here. We're going to pray with you right now that Jesus will come into your heart, that He will forgive you of your sin. The team is going to sing just for the next 30 seconds. If you're not where you're supposed to be with God, quickly run from your sin run from the worldly life and run to Jesus. Right now run to the Lord in Jesus name. We're gonna wait for about 30 more seconds and then we're going to pray for people who have insecurity. You unravel me with a melody. You surround me with song of deliverance, from my enemies. Till all my fears are gone. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear. As people are coming, if you're watching us on livestream and you have not given your life to Jesus. Right there and then you can comment below on youtube or facebook. Our team that's there they will reach out to you right now. But this is your day, this is your moment. The most important decision in life is to give your life to Jesus. Jesus loves you. He died on a cross for you. What you have to understand is that He's the only way of salvation. You need to repent of your sin. Believe in Him. You can comment below and we'll pray for you. There's more people that's coming. We're going I wait for a few more seconds. If the Lord is calling you, He's calling you home. If you're not where you're supposed to be, if your life is falling apart and you realize today you need to give your life to Jesus. I'm asking you quickly come out of your seats and run to Jesus. Don't hide in your sin, come and hide in God. Hide in Jesus. He will forgive you, He will restore you, He will deliver you and He will give you a hope and a future but most importantly eternal salvation. We're gonna pray a prayer right now together with every person that came to the front. Could you guys just for a second look at me. I'm gonna lead you in the prayer and then the prayer team is gonna continue to pray for you. So if you could just follow this prayer with me and then the prayer team is going to continue to pray with you. Say this out loud with me. Say, "Lord Jesus, please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your precious blood. I acknowledge that I did not live right and I repent for that. I turn from my evil ways and I place my trust in you. I ask you for your help to live for You in Jesus name. I received the gift of forgiveness. I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. I received the gift of holy life. Deliver me, heal my heart and restore me in Jesus name. Amen."