The Artificial Soul

In this episode of the Hundredfold Ministry podcast , we dive into a message based on Revelation 3:14-22. Through the history of the ancient Laodicean church, we uncover what it truly means to harbor an "artificial soul" which is a dangerous state of spiritual lukewarmness masked by material wealth and deceptive self-reliance.

We break down the message into three essential pillars:

• Overconfidence: Discover how financial security and earthly comfort can easily blind us to our deep, true need for God.
• The Cost: Learn why authentic faith requires putting your heart, soul, and personal sacrifice into your relationship with Christ, rather than settling for cold, convenient transactions.
• The Consequences: Understand the reality of being spiritually lukewarm and why God calls us to urgently repent and buy gold refined in the fire.

"Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked..." — Revelation 3:17

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So often we think that we just need to go and buy the thing and we've got the thing and now we're done. But what God is saying is this thing that we have, the gold that we bought, the relationship that we have, needs to be tried in the fire. Welcome. Come on in. Come on in. Welcome to the Hundredfold Podcast, an extension of Hundredfold Ministry with Pastor Vanessa Holland, where we seek to deepen our relationship with the Lord as we study his word and worship. Today we're exposing the hidden danger of a lukewarm faith. Join us as we unpack Revelation chapter 3 and discover why earthly wealth might be masking an artificial soul. Let's dive in. For giving us this wonderful opportunity to be in your presence right now, God. I pray that you would please bless this wonderful worship service, bless this ministry, bless every ear that is here, bless those that will hear later, bless those that would want to hear but can't right now, God. I pray that you would please uh be lifted up right now in Jesus' name. That you would you would minimize and demote Daniel the man and raise up your word so that people be able to hear what you have to say to them right now in Jesus' name. I thank you, God, thank you for being you. Thank you, God, for loving us. Thank you, God, for taking care of us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Amen. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful for hundredfold ministry. I'm grateful for Pastor Vanessa because she's a wonderful, wonderful pastor who looks after the flock. She takes care of the people. She prays for us. She listens to the Lord and she is with him all of the time. And I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak before God's people within this ministry. I'm thankful for Pastor Hill, who is a wonderful uh pastor, a wonderful minister, a wonderful mother who takes care of all of her children, who prays with us, who stays with us, and just a wonderful influence and has been instrumental in the growth and development of each and every person in this room and all around. Amen. I'm also grateful for my parents as well in uh North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

This morning, um earlier this week, as we were going through a lot of different things within the family, and I knew that Pastor Vanessa was going to be uh going to have lots have lots of things going on. God was speaking to me. God was talking to me and telling me, and he said, I have a message for the people. I have a word. And I said, Okay, well, I will let Pastor Vanessa know I have a word just in the event, just in case um it comes to be that the word needs to be shared. I do have a word, and so there's a word that came from the Lord that I've been struggling with. I'm not going to lie. I've gone back and forth. He actually gave me the title of the word. He said, This is what it's going to be, this is the scripture it's going to be. And so we've been developing in a as I read more, I read more. I was like, I don't know if that's the right title. I don't think that's the right one. And then I keep reading more. I think I have a better title. And then I come back, and then about five minutes ago, God said, You know what? The title I gave you was the title you're going to use. And so it's called the Artificial Soul. And so I said, Okay, well, let's let's deal with this, let's grapple with this artificial soul. Let's first turn to the word because it all needs to start with the word, and we can't just, you know, have and toss words around and not even have any scripture to go in the midst of it all. If we open up our Bibles to the very last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, in the third chapter in the 14th verse. I'll give you uh five seconds to get there. All you do is flip to the very last page of your Bible, turn a couple pages, and you're gonna be right there. Revelation chapter 3, verse 14 through 22.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Revelation 3, 14 through 22.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

And as we're getting there, I'll tell you that as I was coming through Sunday school and maybe as a young adult in the Christian ministry, one of the most scariest scriptures in all of the Bible, one of the ones that made me so afraid, and oh, I don't know about this, was what we're about to read right now. And so I have to go and tell you, I was scared of this scripture for a long time. Not just the words, but the ramifications of it. It says in Revelation chapter 3, verse 14, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Verse 15, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Verse 17 says, Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich in white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalv that they thou mayest see. Verse 19 says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Amen. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing and doing of his holy word. There is three points, three things that we need to discuss as it comes to this particular scripture in Revelation chapter three. Those three things that we're going to deal with is number one, overconfidence. Number two, the cost. And number three, the consequences.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

How do we get to this point? Well, first let's just go through what's going on in Revelation right now. There's a letter that's being there's letters, and and Jesus is actually the Lord is talking to uh to his messenger here, and he's going through and talking about the churches and giving a report card or a status update, if you will. And so we go through several different churches. There are seven different churches. The first one is the church of Ephesus. If you go to uh chapter two, this is where we start hearing that, you know, in the church Ephesus, you've tried hard, you know, but you left the love that you had in the beginning. So just go back to what you were doing before, and you know, it'll be we'll get you there. Just change your heart. They also had these, you know, people among them that wasn't right. They were preaching wrong things, and some people were starting to uh stick to that. There was, of course, the church of Smyrna that came next. This church had a lot of troubles going on. They were going through some stuff, but God said, just stick with it. You might even have to die in the fight, but just stick with me and I will take care of you. There was a church of Pergamon who was true to God, but they just happened to be in the wrong place, in a bad place. They were a faithful church, but they were next to the uh the host, the home of Satan. They were in a place where there was a lot of bad things going on, but this was a church that was diligent to God, but it was hard to be there because some of the folks were starting to follow the teachings of what was going on around them. In the church called Thyatira, I know your works, you know, you have good works, good love, good faithfulness, good service, you've been enduring, but there's an issue. Y'all have just let this Jezebel sit up inside your church and your people, and you've tolerated her, you've allowed Jezebel to be there, and there's been adulterous things going on, and so here's what's gonna happen. I'm going to inflict, you know, a judgment and pain upon Jezebel, and anybody that has this relationship will be afflicted. You will know that they are not part of this anymore. You have the church of Sardis as we're moving along, who had a reputation for being alive, but they were dead. We move on to the church of Philadelphia, who was the one who says, Okay, I know your works, you kept my commandments, and because of that, you're not gonna have to go through some of the stuff that everybody else is gonna have to go through. Philadelphia, okay, Philadelphia, I like Philadelphia, that's a good one, right? And then we move on to the church of Laodicea, where we just read the scripture about. And you know what's interesting about this is you might read this in the Bible and you say, Okay, well, these are churches, okay, some churches, but recognize that these churches were geographically not too far away from each other. One might be 11 miles down the road from another, the other might be 100 miles down the road from each other. They are not that far away from each other, yet they have all of these different characteristics about them that make them distinct and different, such that God can call them out and let them know, well, this is some stuff that's going on wrong within your church community, within your body of Christ. Don't we know that we can have something going on within our own house and our next door neighbor could have a very completely different situation going on?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

And so the church of Laodicea was in a place called Laodicea. And this place was very interesting, and it might add some clarity to what we know about or what we read about here. These people were very wealthy. They happened to be in the middle of a trading route, and so people would come here from one direction and they would swap their goods for another. And so, as a result of being a hub or trading post, lots of money was flowing through the area. And so, as a result of having lots of money flowing through the area, it had naturally became a place that had lots of money because you know, if you host the Olympics, then money's gonna go around to the different parts of the community or what have you. And so these people had lots and lots of wealth just accumulated because of the location of where they're at. In so much as they trusted in their wealth beyond anything else. How do we know this? Even beyond what we read just now, there was a giant earthquake in 60th century BC, 60 BC. These guys, there's devastation all around. The Roman Empire said, We'll help you out. These guys said, We don't need your help. We will buy it all our own, we'll spend it and we'll fix it all up ourselves. These guys had trust in their own wealth. They said we don't need outsiders coming in helping us to do what we need to do. And hence we have the church of Laodicea in which we are being told of what's going on within this church. God says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. How do you how do you guys know and understand that when you just have a means of buying stuff, it takes away, it detaches your feeling for what you just did. Let me use an example. Pastor Vanessa and I, we moved into this house. We moved in, there was lots of stuff going on. Pastor Vanessa saw the backsplash in the kitchen. She saw the backing of the kitchen and looked at it and was like, I would like a different backsplash. And we went to the different stores and we looked around and we saw everything. And now we could have gone and paid for somebody to go and do the backsplash and make it different. But Pastor Vanessa did not go that route. Instead, Pastor Vanessa went and got the tiles, she got the little machine that cuts them, that throws the water on it so that it doesn't get too overheated. And she got the the spacers and she got the mud, the paste that you put on the wall to get it up there, and she got the right color, she got the band, everything that she needed to get it done. She went and put those things on all by herself, making sure that everything was on there looking neat. Every time that Pastor Vanessa and I look at the backsplash in our kitchen, I'm reminded of the sacrifice that Pastor Vanessa had to make. There were times when she got close to the electrical outlet and the electrical outlet said, no, no. And let you know that, oh no, you weren't supposed to touch there with that thing. But there was a cost that came with putting that thing in herself by hand. She put her heart into it, she put her soul into putting that backsplash up. And so now when you look at it, you realize the things that came along with putting that backsplash up. There's a warmth that comes with it. Versus sometimes I might look at, you know, a light fixture in the house and be like, oh, that's a nice light fixture. I had nothing to do with that light fixture. It was here when I bought the house. I didn't put it in, I didn't install it, I didn't go through any pain to put in there. I just wrote a check effectively and it was mine. There's a coldness that comes in that transaction when you don't have the real, a real article, a real genuine artifact that goes along with it, like, oh, I paid the cost to go alongside of it. When I think about being hot or being cold, but neither in between, I was sitting there thinking about food items, you know, thinking about things that need to be hot or need to be cold, but cannot be in the middle. And instantly I started thinking about, well, you know, you have soup. Soup is delicious. If it comes off piping hot, you can see the steam coming off and it's nice and warm. It can fill you up. It's nice and hot. If I see a nice green, a bowl of soup that happens to be green, I'm looking at it. Okay, I'm gonna have some of this green soup. I put my spoon into it, I eat it. Oh, it's a delicious split peas soup. Oh, this is wonderful, it's tasty. At the same time, if I see this bowl of green soup, I put my spoon into it, dip it in there, and it's cold. Oh, but it's gazpacho. I actually don't mind gazpacho. You know, right time, right season. I don't want to have it when it's cold outside, you know. I you have it at the right time. But when it's hot or cold, I can figure out what I want to do with it. But if I took that same spoon and dipped it into cold split pea soup, or lukewarm, I should say, you know, it's curdled, probably. It's just everybody's face starts turning up. If you know what I'm talking about, if you have that soup and you put it in, same thing if I had that gazpacho. If I put my spoon inside the gazpacho and eating this lukewarm, it's lost all of its ability to be worthwhile as what it's supposed to be, because it's neither hot, it's not cold, it's just there. It's difficult to deal with, difficult to handle. As we turn to our scripture in verse 17, and this is where I just had to sit and ponder and think for a long time. It says, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. Semicolon. We'll stop there for a second. It says, and I believe I Hosea chapter 12, verse 8. Let's turn there really quick. Hosea is round about the book of Daniel. It's either right before it or right after it. I think it's right after it. Let me let's turn there. And it says, And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich. I have found me out substance. In all my labors, they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. All of a sudden, you get yourself in a place where you feel like I have done it. I have made it. I am in such a good spot. They can check me over, and ain't nothing wrong with me. I'm good. I have lots of money. When I got the big bucks, nobody's gonna deal with me. I don't have to worry about any problems. I've got it scotch-free. I am rich and increased with goods. I have lots of stuff. I have money and I have stuff. What do I have to worry about? What am I considering? What do I have to think about? Overconfidence. That was the first thing we're gonna talk about. Overconfidence. When you have all of these things around you, when you have wealth in your bank account, when you have something going there, you feel really like, who's gonna touch me? Why do I have to be it? Well, you can be touched. You can be touched. It says after the semicolon. And know it's not. Uh-oh. So we talked about I'm rich, increase of goods, having eaten nothing, but then after semicolon, it starts out and says, and knowest not that thou art, okay, you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked? This is a list of a whole bunch of things we don't want to be. I'm just saying, does anybody here want to be wretched?

SPEAKER_03 18:04

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Does anybody here want to be miserable?

SPEAKER_03 18:07

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Does anybody here want to be poor?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Does anybody here want to be blind?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

No, sir.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Does anybody here want to be naked?

SPEAKER_03 18:17

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

But yet these people at the church of Laodicea says Revelation 3.17, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. But Jesus the Lord is saying right here, you do have some things that we need to talk about. How is it that you are so rich but yet you are wretched? You are rich, but yet you are miserable. You are rich, yet you are poor. You are rich, yet you are blind. You are rich, yet you are naked. The money is covering up so many different things that you are not able to see exactly what's going on within your life and within your lifestyle. That you are being in a place where you're not able to accurately ascertain what's going on within your surroundings. You know, if somebody is naked in your vicinity, there's something about the human nature you kind of know that somebody's naked when they're around you. Have you ever experienced that before? You just I'm in the room and somebody ain't got their clothes on. Like, wait a second, I don't think they got their clothes on. These people are naked. But then God says, Well, wait a second, I'm going to give you some advice because verse 18 says, I counsel thee. That means here you go. We're going to give you some advice to get you in a spot. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. So now you're poor. You're rich, yet you're poor, but you need to buy. That gives me a little bit, pause for a second, we'll go into that. That thou mayest, oh, buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou may be mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyes that thou mayest see. We don't with overconfidence. And now we're discussing the cost. The cost of fixing our situation, fixing, getting back, and getting right. God says to the people, I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined in the fire. Isaiah 55 and 1, if we can briefly turn there, it says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy, and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. There is a way to joy, the comforts and the wonders of this world without money. It is by going to God with open hand and an open heart and saying, I'm here, I'm willing, and I want to be with you, God. I am on your team. I trust in you, God. It says in Zechariah chapter 13, verses 8 and 9, and it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say it is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God. So often we think that we just need to go and buy the thing, and we've got the thing, and now we're done. But what God is saying is this thing that we have, the gold that we bought, the relationship that we have. Needs to be tried in the fire. Put it in the fire such that all of the impurities come off. There's a beautiful, you ever have some time, you want to go on YouTube and just want to watch some stuff and learn about how the world works and how we get the things that we get. You go and watch how they mine gold and how they mine silver and how they get from the thing that's in the ground into the thing that's on our hands and on our all the jewelry and things like that. You watch and see, well, they've got this ore and they come out the ground, and it's nothing but a rock. It's a rock. You go and you you get your pickaxe and you go and you chink, chink, chink. It comes out the ground and it is a rock. They take this rock and they put it on this belt and they shake it. They shake it over and over again. They put water on it, they shake it, get the dirt off, they get all the stuff that's not there on there. And then they have different ways of heating it up where certain elements will just drop off because it's heat, a specific heat capacity, says, Well, when it becomes this hot, I go away. And so all of these different things fall off. And as you get closer and closer, you get to the element that you actually want. You get to the gold, and you find the gold or whatever you're looking for, and you say, Okay, I have my gold. It looks pretty good, but it's not quite pure gold yet. So, what we need to do is send it through the furnace. We need to send it through the fire. You put it in the fire, all of a sudden, all of the impurities move to the outside. You can see this blackness come around this big orange-red glowing thing that is our gold rock. And you see that, oh, now we are refining this thing to where the impurities that were there are there no more. It happens with gold, it happens with silver. And what God is saying to the people of Laodicea is you need to buy some gold refined in the fire, things that don't have these impurities attached to them anymore. You need to have a relationship that is pure, that has come through some stuff. And don't be ignorant of what's actually happening here. You're neither hot nor cold, but yet you need to go through the fire in order to get to where I'm trying to take you. You need to have the heat on you. So often, what money allows for you to do is avoid the pain of having to go through the hard things of, you know, instead of actually having to put the hammer to the nail myself and have my muscles hurt and aching and having my hands all torn up and busted, I'd just rather pay for somebody else to do that. So I don't have to deal with that. I don't have to go through the fire, I don't have to go through the pain of it. I'm just paying for somebody to do that. God says sometimes, some things, with this relationship between you and me, we need to go through some stuff together. We need to know that there is a reliance and a and a love for each other that's coming no matter what. We can depend, you can depend on me. I will be there for you, even though it hurts. Yes, it will be okay. I can take care of you.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

He even said, You need to go and get you some white clothes, some white raiment to cover up your naked body. That you are naked and exposed and you don't even know it. You have your money and all that stuff, and it's not letting you know. You remember that story, that little children's tale, the emperor's new clothes. The man goes and the king has all of his nice stuff, and he has this one person come in and tell him I've got these new clothes for you that's gonna make you look a certain kind of way. He said, Okay, the man goes and gives up some clothes, ain't got nothing, it's just a nothing, he's naked. Man goes outside all naked and is happy. He's like, Look at my new clothes. And the people think he's crazy. Sometimes having too much around you, too much money and resources and things around you to put your wealth on, you don't realize that you are way overexposed for the situation and the environment that you're in. Well, God says, Come with me. I'm gonna get you some clothes so that you will be covered up, that the things that's going on with you within you isn't going to be exposed to the whole world, that you're sin and all those things. We will for I will forgive you of those sins, and we don't have to go and put those things on Front Street for everybody to look at and point at and see. Amen. You need to get to a place where you have a relationship that's gone through the fire, a relationship where the person on the other side says, I you don't need to be out there naked, baby. I'll take care of you. I will make sure that you have your clothes and everything taken care of. We talked about the cost. I'm sorry, overconfidence. Yes? The cost, the consequences, overconfident in our wealth, but there's a cost, the cost of coming back. Well, actually, the cost is free. You just have to give up. You have to give into it and say, I'm here. You know, a lot of times in the stock market, I deal with people, deal with time situations where things go way, way up, way more expensive than you ever thought it should be, could be. It's like, wow, I'm rich, I've got so much money. And the person on the side saying, Yeah, but that thing is, you are really counting on the stupidity of other people to keep you there. So you might want to consider swapping out as soon as you possibly can. No, no, no, no, I'm good, I'm good, I'm rich. And then the thing falls apart, comes all in, went from 100 and goes down to 10. And you're like, I thought I had a hundred dollars, but now I got 10. Well, that's what happens. But there's a cost at either side of that to say, I just want to flip and change. Because the person at the very top, he he he wants to, you tell them to change, he's like, I don't want to change. I'm rich, it's just gonna keep going up. The person, when it comes down to 10, be like, I don't want to change. I just lost all my money. Can I get a little bit back? Can I get some back before before I just go and swap it into something that's supposed to be safe? Both of those people have issues with making that change. That's the cost, the opportunity cost of making that change right then at that point in time. The issue is, and the thing that we have to worry and be knowledgeable about as Christians, is no matter where that thing is in the spectrum, whether it's 100 or 10, it's always worth the cost to switch over to our relationship with God. If I'm on cloud nine with God, or if I'm on cloud nine world and I feel like I am as rich as I ever want to be, now's the time you should get your relationship with God going. Just go.

unknown 28:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Give it all up, give it all away. Just go. If you went from 100 and went all the way down to 10, you ain't got nothing. Give it up.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Go.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Now's the time. The cost isn't always in a situation where it is just better to go and be with God.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

It's just better because no matter how wealthy or poor you think you are, you're gonna be better off when you're with God. That's what the scripture has been telling us. That's what has been walking us through right now. And then there's the consequences of making that choice, the consequence of making that decision. Sometimes you think, oh no, it's gonna be tough, it's gonna be tough. You never know. Verse 19 lets us know. As many as I have loved, in verse chapter 3, verse 19, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. If I love you, I'm gonna let you know. And we're gonna talk about it, and then we're gonna be some consequences, but be zealous, be on top of that thing and repent. Don't just sit there and say, Well, okay, well, it happened. I repent. As we continue, verse 20. Behold, this is where the consequences become real to me. This is why I can say with confidence that it's worth it no matter when you make that choice to switch. And verse 20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. God is there knocking and waiting. He is there waiting. If any man, any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. God is there knocking, knocking, and if anybody answers, if anybody responds, if anybody gets there, I will be there. I will come in and we'll have some dinner. We're gonna have a time and we will have a fellowship and we will talk and communicate. To him that, verse 21, to him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. The consequences of making that switch, the consequences of making that change in your life and your lifestyle is very, very simple. God's gonna knock and he's gonna come in, he's gonna want to have a fellowship with you. When you make that choice, when you make that change, when you make that decision, God says, I'm gonna be right there waiting for you because I know that you did that thing. And I'm gonna come in and we're gonna have a good time. It says, We're going to suck. I said, it said right there. I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. When I read sup, I think supper. And so I think, and I might be wrong, I will sup with him. We're gonna have a fellowship, we're gonna have a time together, we're going to enjoy each other's presence. You know, some of our greatest times, our memories is families, is when we come together, we might have a meal together. We might all be around the Thanksgiving table. We might, you know, have the big people over at this table, we might have the little people over at this table, but there's lots of memories attached to just being with our large family group together, having dinner together. Whenever you go to a wedding, there's a wedding reception, and everybody has food together to celebrate. Whenever you get together for a remembrance of life, we all have a repast and people come together and you just come together and you have a meal of fellowship together. When God comes into your life, and when God, when you sit there and you make that decision, that choice, going from, I trusted in myself, I trusted my wealth, I trusted my goods, but I don't want to do that no more. I want to go with you. I want to be on God's team. God says, I'm going to be knocking at your door because I heard what you was about to do, and I'm going to come in and we're going to have a good time together. We're going to fellowship and it's going to be great. There's an opportunity for each and every one of us to give up the artificial life, the thing that is resting on grounds that's going to not be good. Anyone that's cooked before knows when you have a choice between the real thing and the artificial thing, there are consequences to that choice. Yes? What happens if I have a recipe that calls for butter, but all I have is margarine? What are some of the things that I have to deal with? It's going to, it might break a different way when you heat it up. It might change its texture different from how the butter would change. It might have a different taste to it because butter, of course, is animal fats. Margarine is highly reliant on vegetable fats. And so it's not the same texture, it's not going to have the same vibrancy. When we have a life that's built on an artificial relationship, money, things, wealth, and not the genuine artifact, Jesus, God, there's going to be severe consequences to that. And we want everybody to have a relationship with God. We want everybody to have a relationship with Jesus, one that has affirmation where you recognize that God is the author of your author of your life, author of your salvation. If you have not come to that place in life, now is a wonderful time. The best time to make that choice. Because as we said before, no matter where you're at, whether you are high on life or down in the dumps, it's always the best time to make that change right now. Amen. So, with that said, if you want to share your life with Christ, if you want to raise your hand and say, I am on God's team, I'd like for you to close your head, close your eyes, bow your head, and say this prayer with me right now. Lord, I am a sinner.

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I am a sinner.

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I need and want your forgiveness.

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I need and want your forgiveness.

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I accept your death as a penalty for my sin.

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I accept your death as a penalty for my sin.

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And recognize that your mercy and grace is a gift that you offer to me that you offer to me because of your great love.

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Because of your great love.

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And not based on anything I've done.

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And not based on anything I've done.

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Cleanse me, Lord.

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Cleanse me, Lord.

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And make me your child.

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And make me your child.

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By faith.

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By faith.

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I receive you into my heart.

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I receive you into my heart as the Son of God. As the Son of God. And as Savior and the Lord of my life.

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From now on, help me live for you.

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Help me to live for you.

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With you in control. With you in control. In your precious name.

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In your precious name.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. In the name of Jesus. If you prayed this prayer for the very first time, we want to hear from you. We want to know who you are, and we want you to reach out to us and we will extend the relationship, extend the communication line. So reach into the Facebook on the chat, type in your information, type your name, and we will reach out to you if you're on YouTube. Do the same thing. You can even send messages, direct messages, either on YouTube or Facebook now. And so if you have, if you've made the choice, made the step, we want to talk to you. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us this week. And I encourage you to join our Facebook page where we keep you updated on what's going on. You can watch some past services and you'll have the opportunity to see the whole family as we have grown and flourished in this ministry. You can also find us on YouTube on our channel at Hundredfold Ministry. Finally, if you feel led in the spirit to support our ministry in prayer, we accept your love and care. If you would like to support our ministry financially, we have ZellQuy at Hundredfoldministry at gmail.com and via Cash App at Dollar Sign Worship the Lord. We look forward to being with you next week. And just remember, God loves you more than anything.