0:17 Hey, hey, ha, it's working. Good afternoon, everyone. How are you guys doing? Okay, this was depressing. Let's do it again. Good afternoon, my people. How is everyone doing? This side is more excited. Come on, guys. Are you guys awake? You guys with me, right? I know you guys are. Good afternoon, everyone. How are you guys doing? Come on, I knew it. Guys, excited to worship the Lord together. Today is a good day because the Lord is here. Amen? Amen. Today is a good day because we will encounter the Lord. Amen? Are you guys awake? Okay. Okay. Now we're the Holy Pats. Play, play. Now we know it. We know it. Can we stand up, please? We will start the service. Where's my... Oh, it's here.
1:02 I was like, where's my worship leaders? They're here. Friends, every day is a good day for the Lord and a bad day for the evil. Amen? Amen. Satan is losing again today. So I just want to encourage you as we are worshiping the Lord for you to actively move your body. And when I say this, I don't want you to move and dance. But you know, give to the Lord your posture in worship. Lift your hands. You know, lift your voices. Because I will be honest with you. If your posture before the Lord, before the creator of the universe is just like this. Or hands in your pocket. Or just... death can say a lot about us and I believe the Lord he came here
1:50 to encounter us and we have to give him something back and maybe you can give your posture today maybe you don't have a good song inside of you maybe you don't have a big voice but you can give your hands in the air you can sing a chorus come on hallelujah that's what I want that's what I want pentecostals in the room hallelujah can we pray can we pray can we pray let's close our eyes before we start singing any song let's just start lifting our prayers to him Let's just start lifting our prayers to Him. Lord, we welcome You here. Jesus, we invite ourselves to Your presence now. Because You're already here, Lord. We honor You, Jesus, with our bodies, with our souls. We didn't come here, Jesus, to see our friends. We didn't come here, Jesus, just to have a good time. Father, we came here to encounter You, Jesus. So we pray, Father, change our hearts, change
2:40 our minds right now, Jesus. Open our eyes to see.
30:01 You can join online. We've come here to worship God. So we're going to sing that song again and give God the praise He is worthy of. And you're going to read those lyrics and you're going to meditate and you're going to reflect. And you're going to ask yourself, is anyone worthy? We are not worthy of His love.
31:05 him as your Lord and Savior and make him Lord of your life so we're gonna sing that again with understanding if you need to Google Google okay church let's go is anyone worthy is anyone
34:13 but I think we can't we have to stay here for a bit more we have to sing this again to him he is world come on church if you're able let's just lift our hands let's just give this to him as well we sing in one voice he is
38:11 at him right now just start to lift your songs to him start to lift your prayers to him let's fill this place with thanksgiving to him we give him all the glory he is worthy of your songs he is worthy of your prayers he is worthy of your body posture he is worthy of
45:01 here friends the Lord is here and in this moment there is liturgy there is so many things for us to do to move on in the service but the most important thing is that the Lord is here and when the Lord is here friends our lives can be transformed healing happens when he is in the room transformation happens when he is in the room Lord you are worthy Jesus you are worthy You can sit down but stay in this atmosphere, please. Don't move your heart from this place. We will just move on to another type of worship in our service.
45:49 2 Corinthians 9, 7 says like this. Each of you give what you have decided in your heart to give. Not relentlessly. Or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And I just want to speak very fast on this. So we can move our service. And the reason we're not changing the music is because I want you to stay in this vibe. Don't want us to go to the lo-fi beats. Say
46:34 this, giving comes from gratitude. Say this with me. Giving comes from gratitude. Come on. Not from obligation. Friends, in the Bible, giving is never presented as a tax or as pressure. It is always a response. Before God asks us to give anything, He already came and gave Himself to us. He gave us life. Amen. Amen. He gave us breath. He gave us the most important thing, salvation. And what gave us the opportunity to be in His presence, He gave us grace. In the Old Testament, people gave because God had delivered them. In the New
47:24 Testament, we give because Christ gave Himself to us. When giving becomes an obligation, friends, it loses its purpose. But when it flows from gratitude, that is the moment when giving becomes worship. When it comes from gratitude, say this. Come on. When it comes from gratitude, it becomes worship. God is not after what is in your hand, friends, what is in your bank account. He's God. And money is paper. Say it. Money is paper. That don't rule my life, right? Man is paper. But God is looking to our heart. And giving also shows us who is in control of our heart.
48:10 Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Giving is not really about money, friends. It is about lordship. Say, lordship. Are you guys with me? Yeah? Or the Lord already takes you to heaven because this moment was too powerful. It was so good. Lordship, friends, every time we give, we're declaring who we trust. Faith allows us to trust him. Giving is a spiritual act of alignment. Say it, alignment. It says, God, I trust you more than I can keep things. It does not take from us, friends. Actually, it freezes. And the most important, giving allows us to take part in
48:56 what God is doing. How many of you want to see a London transformed? Just me? Come on, lift your hand if you actually want to see this. Right? Do you guys want to see the streets full of the love of God? Do we want to see more people preaching the gospel than people to listen to the gospel? Because the whole of London is becoming Christian. Do we want to see that? I believe it. I believe that what God wants to do is so much bigger than a worship night. Do you guys believe that? Do we actually will act on this word, right? When we give, we're not just supporting something financially, friends, because God doesn't need our money. We are participating in the mission that God trusts us. The church is not sustained by money, but money can serve the kingdom. Say it
49:42 like this, money will serve the kingdom. Money will not take out my purpose, right? Money will not be a king in my life. Jesus is always the king of my life. So, friends, giving connects our hearts to what God is building together. And it says, this matters to me. God could do everything on his own. We all know that. He did it so many times. But he chooses to involve us. Friends, God don't need us to be together three, four, five hours singing together, lifting our hands, putting our shoes up. And I love the sand, okay? I've been there many times. But God actually wants us to participate in his mission. And one part of that is actually giving. When we give with joy... We become partners in grace. So remember this, friends. Giving is not
50:33 loss. It is a response. It is alignment. And it is participation in the kingdom of God. So now we will give. There is a QR code on the screens. And why I'm saying this to make you emotional, no, friends. It's to make you responsible for the mission that we have in the city. You're not giving money for us to buy new cars. You're not giving money for us to buy new houses. You're giving money for us to accomplish the mission that God gave us. We're sending people all around the world to the missions. We are doing outweeds on the streets every week. We have a house of prayer that wants to be a house of prayer 24-7. We have a team in the church that works hard every week to make sure that every single thing is aligned to what God is giving
51:20 and saying to us. And friends, unfortunately, that costs us as well. And we can participate in that. Amen. Are you guys with me? Say like this, money is not for Pedro. Say it. Money is for God. Amen. You're not giving to a charity. You're giving to the kingdom. Amen. You guys with me? Amen. So we will wait. We will have two minutes on this. I want Shireen. And you just sing. Sing. Sing it. But friends, your act of worship now is not hands in the air. Okay, your act of worship now is giving. Amen. Are you guys with me? Come on. Let's wait for a bit. If you're able, let's give to the Lord.
54:33 father we thank you father for the privilege of participating in what you're doing here father you were worthy father of our songs worthy of our gatherings worthy of our money worthy of our dreams worthy of our careers jesus you just lift a shout for Jesus. Come on, guys. Let's just praise. Thank you so much, my wonderful worship team. Guys, this week, Shereen, this lady here, she became the worship pastor of Impreza.
55:19 Jeez. Do you know, now the anointing will flow direct from the real fount, like from the Lord. Hallelujah, you guys awake? Yeah? Yeah, awake? Come on guys, I'm, you know, I wake up on Sunday saying like this, today's the best day of my week. We are beating up Satan's face non-stopping the whole Sunday. Four services beating him up. Every day he's a loser, but Sunday, whoo, triple portion, triple loser. Friends, we will go for a time of announcements now, but I'm not doing the announcements, so let's welcome here,
56:07 Good afternoon everyone. Can you guys just do me a favor and just look under your bum and look at the card in the seat please. Have you all got our cards? Just hold it up right in front of you. Great. And what is the first word there? Come on, come on, come on, come on. What's the first word on the front of the orange, this side of the card? What's the first word? It's curious, but thank you Josh. That's different. That's like a sign. That's a symbol. Thank you, Josh. Yeah, the first word is curious because that is what Alpha is all about. And starting next week Tuesday from, yeah, next week Tuesday, February 10th, we will be having Alpha and not to be shady, I'm sorry, but unlike some other religions, we actually are allowed to ask questions in Christianity. So God
56:52 encourages... your curiosity. He wants you to ask questions. He wants you to grow in depth and understanding of who he is and what his plans are for you. So if you've got questions, if you're a baby Christian, if you're an established Christian, because really, who really is an established Christian? Paul says to work out our faith with trembling and work out our salvation with trembling. Amen. So if you've got questions, you know someone who has questions, come for our for next week, Tuesday. There will be good food, hot food, not a meal deal. There will be proper food. So Please come forth and bring forth with you anyone else you have, okay? Cool. Next announcement is kids. Yeah, I love that. I want to tell you guys a story, okay? And this story is about
57:40 a boy named Samuel. Not a Samuel that I know, OG Samuel, first Samuel, second Samuel, that Samuel. And the Bible says in first Samuel 2 verse 18 that Samuel, even as a little boy was offering praise to God, he was ministering to the most high God. And it's so like mind blowing to imagine what doing that at such a young age can do for you as a person. Like the amount of heartbreak it saves you from, the amount of trouble, mistakes, setback it saves you from. So guys, it is our responsibility to nurture the next generation. The Bible also says in Proverbs 22 verse six, that if we train up a child in the way that he's supposed to go, when he's old, what happens? Exactly. So guys, please. That is the QR code for those who want to sign up
58:25 and fill in the parental form, consent form, so that we can take care of your kids properly with all the safeguarding, with everything that they need to be safe in the church. So please, guys, if you've got kids, if you're a kid, an actual kid, not a 30-year-old kid, if you've got kids, if you know anyone who has kids, please come to the kids' ministry, which will be starting next Sunday in St. Mary's at the 10 a.m. service. Amen? Amen. Amen. The next announcement is for Legacy Sunday. Everybody say Legacy. Legacy. And basically, Legacy is an annual event at Imprint where we basically invest in initiatives to forward the gospel. The Bible says in Matthew 28, verse 19, go ye into all the world. That was Jesus' last command, if I'm not mistaken,
59:12 to everyone. And he said it again in Mark 16, verse 15, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And just in line with what Pedro was saying, preaching the gospel, unfortunately, it costs, well, maybe fortunately, so the money's not an idol. It actually costs money because we have mission trips, we have events, like keeping the heating on in the buildings, keeping the lights on, it all costs money. So please, Next Sunday, February 8th, will be our Legacy Sunday, and this is your chance to invest in initiatives to forward the gospel. And it doesn't have to be money. It could be your time. It could be your skills. It could be access to things you have. It could be equipment. Anything you have that can further the kingdom of God, please invest in it as the Lord lays it on your heart next Sunday. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And now for a very, very special announcement, I'm going to call on Pedro to announce the mission trip to Brazil happening this
1:00:02 year. Like I was saying we have so many initiatives are happening. He's gonna tell us more about it. Amen Guys, how many Brazilians in the house any Brazilians in the house? Hallelujah guys come on say obrigado. Oh, the God Friends every year we take a team from the UK to Brazil just for you guys to understand what God is doing in Brazil There is something unbelievable happening there just for you guys to have a picture yesterday In Brazil, five different cities all around Brazil gathered 300,000 people in five football stadiums to declare that they are ready to accomplish the mission that God gave them. That's a big commitment, right? So every year we take people there to one, see what
1:00:50 God is doing in Brazil, to gather a bit of the hunger, because I will be honest with you, we're hungry for God. But you know, there is something different there, guys. You should come. Second, for us to partnership with some organizations in Brazil to do some social work. So we will go to favelas and work with some kids. We will work also with people that are vulnerable. Just to give you guys a picture. Last year in Brazil, team Costa was there. Costa, he used to be a barber. Now he's a full-time missionary, but in that time he was a barber. But guys, do you know what? Costa, he said to me, Pedro, I'm coming to Brazil and I'm going to the favela and I will cut the hair of everyone there. He didn't know what he was signing up. He didn't understand how many kids came for him to cut. How many people, do you remember how many? This guy,
1:01:35 guys, he worked hard. But we always ask people to come. If you're a doctor, if you're a dentist, if you cut hair, if you like to do, I don't know, whatever you guys like to do. If you like to do street theater, if you like to dance, if you like to hug people, if you like to eat as well, come because it's very important. But friends, also we will be visiting some churches in Brazil that are doing some global work. Some churches that are actually committed to make sure that South America belongs to Jesus. And I think that's very inspiring. So if you actually want to be part of this trip and be with us, please put your phone on that QR code. If you are interested to get your details there, send it to us. Someone from our team will send you a message and you will be able to receive all the information and be with us in Brazil. 2026. Wow, this will be great. And now
1:02:26 I will invite Joanna Julia, right? To give an announcement as well. Guys, today is the Sunday of announcements. We're announcing that the kingdom is coming. Hallelujah. Hi guys. How are you doing today? I'm glad to be back. I just came back actually from one month in Brazil, which was amazing. So forgive my English. I haven't practiced in a while. So I just wanted you guys to engage with me for one second. Who here loves studying the Bible? Everybody, right? Who loves community? Everybody, right? So studying the Bible in community is all about CRUZ. That's our Bible study and discipleship program. And I am very excited to announce that
1:03:13 after a very long break, we are finally getting back on track with CRUZ. And yeah. The first big announcement that I want to make is that moving forward, crews will not only be hosted within the church building, but also in our homes. So yeah, woo. So we will be opening our living rooms to receive the people from God, to study the Bible together, to build community together. And if you'd like to partner with us, join us and open your space, you can sign up through that QR code over there. I'll give you a few seconds.
1:04:01 Amazing. There is one more announcement regarding Cruz that I wanted to make. And I wanna ask you if there is any of you that feels that God has a calling for you towards leadership. Anyone? There you go, sister, well done. Yeah, so we are also opening up our signups for new leaders for this new season. If you feel like you're not quite prepared, don't worry. There will be a training provided. We are looking forward to partnering with people that actually want to step into what God is doing here in London, in the UK, in our community. We want to partner with people that are passionate about Jesus and about expanding the kingdom of God. And we'd love
1:04:49 for you, if that's you, to partner with us, and you can sign up through that QR code over there. I just wanted to make one note that if you are hosting, you don't necessarily have to lead. And if you are leading, you don't necessarily have to host. So if you want to host, but like, I'm not really prepared to lead, you can just host. Or if you want to lead, but you're not really able to open your home, you can just lead. OK? You can also find, I think, those QR codes on the website. If not, I will make sure you do by the end of today. And if you have any questions, just feel free to reach me out at the end of the service. Thank you. Guys, please sign up for Cruz. Please. Thank you.
1:05:40 Okay, so our Bible reading for today is from Matthew 13. from verse 24 to verse 30. I'm gonna give you guys time to open up and I will be reading the NIV version. Matthew 13, 24 to 30. And it says, this is the parable of the weeds. Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also
1:06:27 appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the weeds and bring it into my barn. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, amen. This is an Anglican church, even though we're very Pentecostal, call and response, hallelujah. Can I please bring up Anna Julia who is
1:07:13 our preacher for today so that I can pray for her? Hallelujah. Let me just get you. You're very welcome. Oh, this is kind of heavy. I never knew all this well. Oh, sorry. Oh, the Lord bless you and anoint you. Hallelujah. Can we bow our heads for prayer and stretch forth a hand to Anna Julia and just bless her in the name of the Father and Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah has a very interesting encounter with the Lord and he says, Lord, my lips are so unfilthy, like how dare I speak before you? How dare I speak your words? But the Lord said, I will give you my words to speak and he put his word in his mouth. The Bible also says in Jeremiah that God touched
1:07:59 Jeremiah's lips And he gave him his word to speak. So I just speak over you, Anna Julia, right now. May the Lord anoint your lips right now in Jesus' name. May his word flow through you right now in Jesus' name. May you be a vessel for his glory. May you not pour out to his people from your own strength, but may you be a vessel. May he pour into you and may you pour out in Jesus' name. I just anoint you right now in the name of the Father. Amen. and of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name I pray. According to what the Lord said in Acts 2 verse 4, may you have utterance. May the Holy Spirit empower you. May you have utterance to speak his word to his people. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. The Lord bless you. Amen. Thank you. Hello again, guys. So long. Can I ask Pedro to come put this thing down for me, please? Because it's like, I would have to kind of
1:08:48 jump. Thank you very much. That's good. Amazing. More men in the church. More men in the church. Come on, guys. Amen. Thank you. So, yeah. Hi again, guys. My name is Anna. I'm part of the team here at Imprint. And I'm very excited to be able to share this this word with you today. It wasn't an easy word for me to prepare and it's not an easy word for me to share, but I do hope that the Holy Spirit encounters your heart and I do hope that he's able to speak with us today. Amen? I'm going to start telling you a story of my life. It's not like a huge story, but it's like a
1:09:34 tale. Last year, when I started coming back to deep relationship with God, I used to sit on my sofa and I have a big glass door and a big glass window in my living room. And I'd love to sit there and look at the sky and look at the garden outside while I prayed. And one day when I was sitting there, I really felt a very strong presence, of the Holy Spirit and I started crying. And I cried and I cried and I wept so much. And the picture that I had in my mind and the reason why I was crying so much was because I could see as if it was a very huge part
1:10:25 of the church of God walking towards hell. And I didn't really understand why that happened at the time. But now I understand that that day, the Lord was placing a burden on me and that burden leaves today in the mission which I think he calls me to, and it is to see his people and his church being saved. When they asked me to speak on these specific verses, I got a bit scared. because it resounds a lot with this burden that God gave me.
1:11:13 And the thing is that it takes boldness from people to step outside in the world and speak a message of repentance. But it takes even more boldness to step inside God's house and speak a message of repentance. That's why I was scared. I was like, Lord, these people will hate me so much. But I was like, it's okay. I'll do it for you. And I just wanted us to think a little bit of this picture that Jesus is drawing when he's talking about the field. And the result of this picture is the harvest. And the harvest is the
1:12:01 fulfillment of a kingdom that has already been inaugurated in Jesus and that will come to fulfillment. And sometimes when we think of the harvest and when we think of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God, we think of it as something that's pretty far away, but it is actually closer than we think. The fulfillment of the kingdom of God is very close. And it's actually a promise that was made by Jesus himself. And it's a promise that is pictured here on this parable. And before I start, actually,
1:12:50 I wanted you to bear with me because my words... you today, they are not words of condemnation, but they are words of alert, of calling to repentance, but also an encouragement for you to hold on to a promise that was made and will be fulfilled. Amen. I wanted us to first take a look at the context. So I want you to picture the field. I want you to picture the wheat in the field. This wheat is the grain that is used to produce flour, that is used to produce bread. So at Jesus' time, this grain was very, very valuable. It
1:13:36 was very important because the bread was the meaning of life for them, of food, of feeding, of sustainment, right? So much so that even today sometimes when we refer to food, we refer to bread. Because bread has this very strong attachment to food and to life. And this comes from the wheat. So the wheat was a very special grain at that time. Alongside the wheat in the parable, Jesus is talking about the weeds. The weeds are a kind of plant that grows where they shouldn't grow. So it's a general term and it's used on the NIV version to refer to a type of plant that
1:14:24 will grow in crops even though they were not supposed to. So let's say I'm planting here my stuff. It starts to grow some things that weren't supposed to be there. Those are called weeds. But when Jesus is talking, the word that Jesus uses specifically is not translated as weeds. The word that Jesus uses is directly translated as darnel, which is a specific kind of weed. It's a weed that is toxic, it's poisonous, and spoils the crop. So when Jesus is talking about, he's not talking about any kind
1:15:09 of plant that is corrupting his crop. He's talking about a specific kind And the English word for that plant is tares. So that's why today, even though in your NIV Bible it might be written weeds, I will be talking about it as tares, because tares is the closer translation to what Jesus was saying. And this is a bit important, even if it doesn't look like it. And when Jesus draws these pictures about the wheat and the tares, The interesting thing is that they are so, so similar that when the workers of the harvests come and ask Jesus, oh, should we just remove
1:15:55 them? He tells them, no, you have to wait until they are mature. So then you are able to distinguish them and separate them. And I've got some pictures for us to understand more or less the similarity. And I really wanted to be faithful, guys. So I was like Googling and I was on and on trying to find pictures, but they look so much the same that I would look at the pictures, like I don't know what this is. The name doesn't really clearly say what it is. So I'm not pretty sure. So what I've done was I went to Jim and I and I asked him on AI, can you please generate me an image of a wheat? And then that image of green wheat Can you put that? That is the first image that came up. So that is the wheat on its early days, right? So I went there and I was like, okay, cool, thank
1:16:44 you. Now can you give me the image of the journal, the test, please? And then it gave me that image. And as you can see, it looks pretty much the same. So I was not satisfied and I said, now can you please generate for me an image of both of them side by side so I can make a comparison. And then he gave me that image over there. And I looked at that image and I was like, huh, are you sure you didn't give me the same image just in different colors? And he was like, you got me. It's because they are so similar and I tried to resound their similarity and then I ended up taking the same picture. But anyway, regardless of being the same picture, I think the point is that they are so similar that AI tried to trick
1:17:33 me. I think that's the same picture, but they look pretty much the same. The thing is that when the wheat and the tare, when they start to mature, they start to show more differences. So it's possible to defer them when they are mature, whereas it's not possible to defer them when they are young. And then I've got, I asked also him to generate a picture of them when they were old. And that was what he gave me. I'm not quite sure if that's 100% accurate, because I lost credibility in him after the last image, but I think we can have an idea of what I'm talking about. And before I continue, Jesus gives us the explanation for this parable a few verses
1:18:22 forward. And I wanted to read this explanation for you guys today. And he says, Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. He answered, The one who sowed the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one and the enemy who sells them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so we will be at the end of the age. The son of man will send out his angels and they will weed ourselves.
1:19:09 My throat is not very good. So today I will be addressing three groups of people and you will probably fall into one of them. And I want to make you an invitation today. I don't want you to look to the sides trying to guess
1:19:57 to which group somebody might belong to. I want you to put some walls around your head and Pray for the Lord to help you look inside yourself so that his spirit can help you discern. You are not able to discern either. There is only one that is able to discern between these groups. There is only one that's able to judge among them. And he sits enthroned in heaven. So we are not looking at people and we are not judging ourselves by our own standard. We are praying and we are asking the Holy Spirit to give us discernment. Amen? Amen. So the first
1:20:42 group that I want to address today is the Taz. There is a preacher that I really admire and his name is Paul Washer. And in his most famous preach ever, which is my favorite preach. It was done about 20 years ago. He says something that I believe stands true for today. And I will repeat that for you. And what he says is that there is a lie that is said in our modern Christian world. And that lie is that if one day you repeated the prayer and you invited Jesus into your life, you are saved and you are sorted and you are on your way to heaven. I know that that's not easy to
1:21:32 take, but I wanna explain that further. There is one verse, there is many verses that are used to reduce the meaning of the faith through which we acquire salvation by grace. One of these verses is John chapter three, verse 16. And it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This is one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. But the
1:22:19 misinterpretation of this verse has led many to mistake in our Christian life. The reason why is because the word believe in English has two origins from the Greek. There are two words in Greek that I used, mainly used to describe the act of belief. The first word, I will not try to pronounce, but it will be on the screen, that one. So that is the first word. And it's This word is the word that Jesus uses every time he says, whoever believes in me, for those who believe in me, every
1:23:08 time Jesus uses the word believe, he's using that word. And that word, the meaning of that word is a belief that's not just present, but it is continuous. So the same way that I believe today, I believe tomorrow, and I believe moving forward. not only so, but is also a belief that is active. So is a belief that, for example, if I come here and I say, guys, there is a fire starting in the vestry. We need to empty the room right now. If you believe me, you will leave. So this kind of belief is a belief that generates a response according to the faith produced. So it is a belief that you not only trust what was
1:23:57 said, but you act and live accordingly. This is what it means to believe in what Jesus is talking about. There is a second word to believe and is that one on the screen. And this word means a belief that comes from an understanding of reality. So if I look at something and I understand what it is, I know that it's there, I acknowledge that it's there, and I believe that it's there because I saw it. So you see that the belief comes from different places. One comes from a place of trust, and the other one comes from a place of perceiving, of seeing. I don't know if perceiving is a word. Anyway,
1:24:48 comes from a place of acknowledgement. So you see, it doesn't matter if you have acknowledged Jesus as Lord, if you have repeated the prayer after someone and acknowledged His kingdom and acknowledged His sovereignty and acknowledged the reality that He is, if you haven't believed in Him, a belief that will make you follow Him with your cross, you are on the wrong path. The second word for believe is actually used by James. James chapter two, verse 19 says, you believe that there is one God, even the demons believe that and
1:25:35 shudder. So you see, what James is actually saying is that do you want knowledge that there is one God? Good, it means that at least you have perception. The demons also do so. And they shudder because they know how great he is. So there is a difference in believing. And many Christians were led to mistake because someone told them that because they repeated the prayer, they were going to heaven. And they live their lives walking towards hell while they think that that they are giving glory to Jesus.
1:26:25 And this is the tares. The tares, they look exactly like the wheat when they are young, except for what is inside. So you see, you can look like a Christian. You can dress like one. You can have, I don't even know how many Christian t-shirts You can go to Christian conferences, Christian events, do Christian musicals, participate in the church, spend your whole life in the church. If you look like a Christian, but if you don't live like one,
1:27:11 you are lost just as the ones from outside are. And the thing about this parable is that when people read it, they will think of me like, we are the wheat and they are the taz. And they don't realize that they don't look like us. They don't talk like us. They don't dress like us. They don't speak like us. The taz are those who seem to believe in a life that is a lie. These are the tazs. In Matthew chapter seven, verse 21, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will
1:27:56 of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. I never knew you. Imagine away from me, you will do us. That is why, it is the reason why Jesus says that whoever does not pick up their cross and follow him are not worthy of him. You see, the Bible doesn't contradict itself. The same Bible that says whoever believes in me will have eternal life says whoever doesn't pick up the cross and follow me are not worthy of me. And Jesus is not contradicting himself. He's
1:28:42 saying this because he knows that who believes in me like the first word that I showed you guys, who actually believes in him will pick up their cross. And whoever does not pick up their cross is because they have acknowledged him, but they haven't believed him in the first place. I wanted to share with you what Jesus says to the church in Sardis. Sardis is one of the seven churches that are spoken by John in Revelation. And in Revelation 3, Jesus talks about Sardis. To the angel of the church in Sardis write, these are the words of him who holds
1:29:31 the seven spirits of God in the seven stars. I know your deeds. He knows it. You have a reputation of being alive. but you are dead. You have a reputation. You look like you're alive. You look like you are bearing fruit. You look like you belong, but you are dead. Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, hold it fast
1:30:17 and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come to you. That's very powerful. And these words are not mine. And I feel like the The word that John is writing about the church in Saadis resounds so much with the reality of Christianity until today. It resounds because many Christians, because they believe that because one day they pray the prayer and they don't need to do anything else about it. Because there's so many Christians that believe this. They walk as if they were alive, but they are dead.
1:31:05 And Christ is calling back them back to life. Christ, if this is you, and I've told you that today what we are doing is that you're not looking to your sides, you are looking at yourself and asking the Spirit to help you discern. And if that's you, I want to tell you that He wants to bring what's dead inside of you to life. Today, He's giving you another opportunity. It doesn't matter how much you look like. It doesn't matter the appearance. It doesn't matter what people think. He sees it through.
1:31:50 He sees it through. This is the first group of people. There is a second group of people that I want to address to today. And this group of people is called milk stage wheat. And that happens because the wheat is When it's green, it's actually called by the farmers milk-staged wheat. Because inside of it, it's liquid. And it's not able to be used to produce anything at that stage. And I believe and I feel like what God is saying here today is that there are many, not a few, there are many that have
1:32:37 believed in him. like truly believed in him. And they think they are following him. They think they are trying to follow him. But they are actually stuck in a spiritual infant state where they are not able to mature and they are not able to grow in spirit. The thing is that I showed you guys a picture in the beginning, right? And to be able to be distinguished from the tears, the weight needs to be matured. When it's matured, then it's able to be distinguished. So as long as you remain an
1:33:25 infant in spirit, how do you expect to be distinguished from the tears? You will still look the same. And when I was thinking about this, I asked the Lord, and what is Lord, maturity and spirit? And he guided me to Ephesians chapter four, and he says, until we all reach unity in the faith, unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, then we will no longer be infants,
1:34:11 This is maturity in spirit. is becoming more like Him. Not outside, I'm not talking about outside. It's becoming more like Him in speech, in thinking, in acting, in loving, in unity. Becoming more like Him is to be matured in spirit.
1:35:01 And sometimes we are not able to mature and we long for things that are given to those that are matured. And when we don't receive them, we get upset with the Lord. But the truth is that we were not ready for that yet. In Hebrews chapter 5, I'm going to write two passages. I'm going to read Hebrews chapter 5 when Paul is talking about immaturity. And he says, in fact... Though by this time you ought to be teachers, how long have you been in the church? You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not
1:35:51 acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit, but as people who are still worldly. More infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. This is Paul. He's talking about this church as infants in the spirit. We are behaving as those who do not know the word of God. We have inside the church of God quarreling, gossiping, slander, immorality. We have inside the church of God, his
1:36:40 children turning against each other. Behaving as children. When they should be matured. When they should grow in the spirit. Immaturity is not something that we can fake. You can fake when you're on the tab being a Christian, but you can't fake when you're immature being matured. Because immaturity has fruits. Maturity also has fruits. And you will give evidence of which one you are. And the Lord is calling us. He is calling his people to
1:37:28 mature. And I believe that today there are many that have believed and are trying to follow Christ. But for some reason are stuck in a place of spiritual infancy. And the Lord wants to bring you out. He wants to bring you to deeper waters of relationship with you. He wants to bring you to growth in the Spirit. This is the second group I am talking about today. One second. There is a third group that I want to address to.
1:38:16 And this group are made of those who are longing. longing, longing to be with him. He's made of those whom he knows very deeply and intimately because when they wake up, he's the first. And when they go to sleep, he's the last. And because they told him all their fears and their dreams, and because they know they can refer to him at any time because they are their father and because they are his close, There are those who seek righteousness. There are those who long for his kingdom to be fulfilled. There are those who long to see
1:39:03 his justice being done on earth. And this is the wheat. And Jesus talks about you. If you are part of this group, Jesus talks about you. Still in the church of Sardis, In verse four, Jesus said, the vision from John says, yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. There are few. They will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, I will acknowledge that name
1:39:50 before my father and his angels. He's talking about you. He's talking about a hope and a promise that will be accomplished because he has said so. And I want to encourage you in this promise. I want to encourage you in the calling that he has placed on your life. Because sometimes we lose perspective and we lose the joy of walking after him. But I want to remind you that the one who has promised is faithful to fulfill what he has spoken. In Revelation chapter 21,
1:40:45 It said, And be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old days, old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on a throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and
1:41:34 the omega, the beginning of the earth. In the end, to the thirsty, I will give water without cause from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this and I will be their God and they will be my children. Amen. There is an inheritance in the harvest that is promised to the wheat that has matured. And I want to remind you of that. I want to remind you that he will come. In fact, the day where we will see the son of God coming up from in heaven in the clouds with his angels and his glory is near
1:42:24 more than you think. And today he's giving us, those of us who are still not there The opportunity to partner with these people. The opportunity to join the wheat that has matured. The opportunity to take his hand and join his army that is marching towards victory. You see that the church is not marching towards an unknown future. The church is marching towards victory that he has promised. It's marching towards a harvest. will come and I wanted to read again Matthew 13 verse 24 when about the parable
1:43:13 and I want you to look at the parable with this fresh perspective the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while everyone was sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away when the wheat sprouted and formed heads then the weeds also appeared and The owner's servants came in to him and said, sir, didn't you sell good seed, even seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? And the enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the weed with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that
1:44:01 time, I will tell the harvesters, first, go Let the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the weed and bring them into my barn. Amen. It took me, guys, a lot of boldness to come and say this here today. I did not know how the congregation would take this word. And at some point I told God, Lord, I will be banished. And the Lord guided me to remain faithful. I also want to invite you to be bold. And I believe that the Lord is calling her first, those who the spirit has convicted, has believing as stars, as those who look
1:44:48 alike, but the inside is dead. He wants to bring that to life. And also I want to invite her, those who the spirit has convicted as being like the milk stage wheat, That believe in him and try to follow him but still needs to mature. I want to invite you to come forward. And I ask you to be bold. And I want to pray for you. I'll give you a few seconds if anyone would like to come and receive prayer.
1:45:37 Amen thank you, Jesus. I will ask you to go on your knees and I will ask the practicing to come and help me lay hands on them and pray for them. Thank you, Lord. Lord, we are here today
1:46:22 because we believe that your word is true. And Lord, we believe that your word will be accomplished, will be fulfilled. And right now, Lord Jesus, your children stand in your presence, guided by your spirit. face, Lord. And we pray, Holy Spirit, that when they seek you, they will find you. Because your word says, Lord, that those who seek you will find you. Those who seek you with their whole hearts, they will find you. So I just pray, Holy Spirit, that right now, those that feel like they have been dead inside, Lord, living a life of appearances, living or look like Christians, but with a
1:47:15 I pray that you will bring them to life right now in the name of Jesus. I pray, Lord. And I thank you because it takes boldness to do that, Lord. I thank you
1:48:03 because they are brave. They are brave, Lord. And I praise you for their lives.
1:49:38 to join us right now and I invite you and I ask you to be bold if you feel like in your heart there is something that is taking you that that's the Holy Spirit and he's inviting you to come forward be bold I have been bold these people have been so bold
1:50:24 Jesus he's waiting for you he's able to bring you out he's able to grow you he's able to do much more than you can possibly imagine I'm far away.
1:57:12 He needs one more time to him. Just prophesy this over the city.
2:00:01 want to take Jesus on your life. Amen, brother. Amen. Amen, sister. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Amen. I want you to repeat this prayer with me, but I want you to mean it. I want you to mean it with everything that you have. Lord Jesus, thank you on the cross for me. Thank you for bearing my sin. Today Lord, I not only invite you in my life, but I surrender to you.
2:01:02 name. Say, oh, I would stay here the whole day, right? We have a 3 p.m.
2:01:51 service as well, and after a 5 p.m. service, and we have to prepare the things for the next people that are coming. But thank you so much for coming here today. If this is your first time at InPrint, we have four services per Sunday. On Thursdays this week, we will have outreach. So if you guys want to do outreach, 6.30 at St. Mary's, we will go to the streets and preach the gospel. Otherwise, have a great week. God bless you all.
