Reaching a Lost and Dying World with Jesus Christ, (Including Your Family) | God Dreams | Pastor Mike Signorelli

And so the title of this sermon is reaching a lost and dying

world with Jesus Christ.

Parentheses, including your own family.

Oh, there we go.

We always forget we're one of those churches.

You know, all the visitors are always like.

They keep telling me it's not a cult, but every time this dude

talks, everybody goes, hmm.

Okay, I'm by.

I'm playing.

But, you know, it's because we're connected by the spirit.

And this kind of unity is John 17.

Jesus prayed that we would be one.

And so unity is always going to freak people out who don't know

the things of the spirit because the things of the spirit

will.

They connect us in a way that is beyond race.

It's beyond what version of Spanish you use.

You know, it's beyond geographic borders.

And so God will connect us in the spirit, and it won't even make

sense to people.

But by the spirit, it makes sense.

Can I get an amen on that?

Okay, so now you have the title of the sermon.

So I'm gonna do the introduction, which is a diagnosis

of our world.

So let me diagnose our world.

So let's begin with the reality that we see around us.

Most people we meet are lost in sin and brokenness.

So this is a diagnosis.

Most of the people that you'll meet in life an overwhelming majority

of them, are lost in sin and brokenness.

But here's the thing.

For many sin, it doesn't actually feel like death to them.

This is the thing I want you to understand.

It feels like life.

It feels exhilarating, right?

So it feels even freeing.

So when we talk about sexuality, it doesn't feel like death.

When they have a one night stand, it actually feels like, now

they're alive.

That's how you get Carrie Bradshaw and Sex and the city that

runs that many seasons is because to them, sin doesn't feel

like death.

It feels exhilarating.

It's like, oh, I met this guy and we hooked up and da da da.

Oh, tell me the story, girl.

Let's go get a mimosa.

Da da da.

This feels exhilarating to them.

Then they tell this story.

Oh, I'm laughing.

Look what I did when I was drunk.

I got caught up on my body.

I got this crazy story.

I kicked this guy and broke his rib.

That's crazy, bro.

Frank the tank, bro.

So it's like.

And I'm being funny on purpose because sin is exhilarating when

your spirit is dead because you're satisfying the desires of

your flesh.

So your flesh is saying, yes, I love being drunk.

Anybody who's like, I don't like being drunk, it's like, you're

lying, bro.

You're lying.

You know, now there's a point of no return where you're like, I

wish I didn't do this.

And for the Italians, it's the lemon chili or whatever they have,

the limoncello.

It's like tequila with the.

Some of you ate the worm, you know?

And so every culture has this, you know, this relationship with

alcohol, and they romanticize it.

They glorify it.

They have stories connected to it.

When you go to a sports stadium, it's like, good luck trying

to find something healthy to eat, but you can find something that

destroys your body.

You can get unlimited alcohol without anybody noticing, because

this is what our culture has accepted, right?

Over 50% of marriages end in divorce because we don't believe

in covenant.

We believe in commitment, and commitments can be broken.

And so now if you're here and you've had a divorce, there's no

judgment.

And I believe that God will use your situation and use your circumstance.

And even Jesus gave a prescription for when divorces more

than appropriate.

And Jesus himself spoke on that topic.

But my point is, we've normalized some of these things that,

you know, I can't tell you how many couples come to our office,

or we do marriage counseling, and, hey, we're thinking about getting

a divorce, and we ask them the question, how did you first meet?

And they begin to tell the story, and their heart goes back

to those moments.

And then we take them on a journey, and they reconcile and they

heal.

But what we realize is, they were never mothered, and they were

never fathered, and they were never taught how to be in a healthy

marriage.

So the man doesn't know how to be a husband.

The woman doesn't know how to be a wife.

And they're lacking skills, and so they need to be taught.

Those are things that you should have learned in a home, but

how could you learn what you never saw?

So this is the diagnosis that we're in.

And then the other thing is, right now, you know, amongst our

Gen Z and our young people, you know, there's.

We were in Italy, actually, and we saw a guy in a full blown,

like, blue wolf costume.

And my daughter Bella goes, oh, look, it's a furry.

And I was like, what is that?

Oh, it's a person that identifies as an animal, you know?

And I don't know the extent.

For each person, this is individual.

So for some people, it might be fun for some people, it might

be a legitimate mental illness.

I don't understand all that.

What I'm saying is, but it does get attention.

It does get attention.

So even I'll be honest with you, when I was a teenager and I

had hair, I was a hardcore Christian, but I was a christian

punk rocker.

So, you know, we got tattoos and we dyed our hair.

I'd come home with red hair, green hair, blue hair, dreadlocks.

That was.

But for me, I was a hardcore Christian.

I had my dreadlocks in a baggie, and Julie threw him away.

I can't understand why she would do that.

So they just never came back.

But here's my point.

There was an aspect to that that was attention seeking, because

I was a Christian, but I was an orphan, and there's nothing wrong.

It's possible to dye your hair and not want attention because you're

an artist and this is who you are.

These things are nuanced.

But I do think that what you're seeing in culture is an escalation

of attention seeking by virtue of being spiritually dead.

And so it's like each generation goes further and further.

Now it's.

I'm going to demand that you call me one of 47 gender identifiers.

And by the way, my brother, who just got his master's from NYU

in social work, they had to take time in every single one of

their classes and go around the room, and they told every NY

master's student that they had to hear people's pronouns and store

them in their phone, and do not address any of the students,

your fellow peers, without first going back to the contact in

their phone to refresh what their pronouns are before you talk

to them.

And this is real.

Like, what I'm telling you is, like, it's not anecdotal, it's not

something I read on news.

That is my blood brothers experience at NYU just recently in

a master's program.

But I think to a certain extent, how does this happen?

How it happens is there's this exhilaration of, I feel small, I

feel little, I feel insignificant.

But when you have to treat me different and you have to treat me

on my terms that I've created, now, you will respect me.

You have to acknowledge me because I'm wearing a big blue wolf

outfit, so you can't ignore me anymore.

But then I also get to hide behind the outfit.

See what I'm saying?

Like, this is diagnosing culture.

And by the way, and I say this with the most optimism possible,

it's gonna get worse.

It's gonna get worse.

It's not gonna get better.

It's gonna get worse.

That's how you get a revival is things get so bad that revival

is the only option, and you'll get a great awakening in America

like never before.

We're in the surge before the wave right now.

And so that's all my diagnosis.

Now, where do we get this biblically?

Proverbs, chapter 14, verse twelve, says, there is a way that

Proverbs 14 · chapter mention

seems right to man, but its end is the way of death.

So proverbs proves this.

So for those of you who are taking notes, proverbs 1412 says,

there is a way that seems right to man, but it ends in the

way of death.

So this just proves everything I said, it seems right.

Well, I'm a lesbian because it feels right when I'm with women.

No, your sexual gratification does not equal your sexual identity.

Because you can gratify yourself with minors.

That doesn't make it appropriate.

So if you define gratification as your identity, then you are gonna

end up excusing the inexcusable.

And so that's why.

But see, then what happens is you have a whole generation that's

been programmed by pornography.

So they've learned how to find gratification in many things, but

then they've made the mistake of making their identity that gratification.

But the message of the gospel is actually, don't gratify yourself,

die to yourself.

And when you lose your life, that's when you find it.

So this is why Jesus got crucified, because the things that

he said were the opposite of the roman culture, and then they

offended the jewish culture.

So, like, if you're a christian today and you're not offending

people, you don't sound like Jesus, because the words of Jesus

in a culture like America is going to offend fake christians,

and it's going to offend Americans, and your goal is not to

offend them, because Jesus goal was to display the love of the

father.

But the most compassionate thing you can do is tell somebody

the truth in a world full of lies.

Okay, you with me?

Now the world is drowning in the temporary pleasure of sin, unaware

of the internal consequences of it.

This is where I need to help you.

The solution is you.

This is why you're alive.

Okay?

The solution, it begins with you.

It begins with you.

So now let's go to the next part.

So, sin has this false life that leads to death.

Romans chapter six, verse 23, tells us, for the wages of sin, is

death.

But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Now, every single one of you that have heard this, you think about

death probably as the physical death.

So the wage of sin is physically dying.

But I want to expand your understanding of the scripture.

Because there's relational death, there's emotional death, there

is spiritual death, and there's physical death.

So the wages of sin, it will kill your relationships.

The wages of sin is death.

It's relational death.

Right.

There's many people that come out of the homosexual community that

tell me personally that it was one of the most loveless environments,

and people were cheating, and people were sleeping around, and

they were using each other.

And.

And it's the brutality of that community that's actually drawn them

to the cross, because they got so tired of being used inside of

the context of that community that they were like, it put them

on a search of real love.

And in finding love, the Bible says, seek, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be open to you.

Right?

And so the thing about sin is that it temporarily exhilarates,

but then over the long term, it annihilates.

So in the short term, it exhilarates.

In the long term, it actually annihilates.

So it's like you begin to do these attitudes and behaviors and

actions, and you're like, man, this feels so good.

But what's happening is that there is a permanent consequence

to a temporary exhilaration.

Are y'all still with me?

So this is what we need to understand.

Romans chapter six, verse 23 says, the wages of sin is death,

but we need to understand it'll kill your relationships.

Just ask any addict.

You know, there's a point where your addiction will end up

killing all your relationships.

It'll burn every single bridge.

And because people are so sick and tired of always bailing you out,

that eventually they just say, you're not getting any more money.

Cause you're not using it to get your hair done or your nail's

done.

You're snorting it, you're shooting it, you're drinking it.

And what happens is, addicts, the wages of sin is death.

Before they physically die, they kill every relationship.

So the wages of sin is death.

Now, if you're in a local church and you're a Christian who's

sinning, you're also gonna kill your relationships.

And that's why my top viewed videos are why God removes people.

Because everybody always wants to believe it's someone else's fault

than their own.

So it's like, if I look at your life, and you don't have any

friends for more than five years.

You're the problem, because we've got to become the kind of people

that if the wages of sin is death, then the gift of God is what,

eternal life?

But your relationship should come to life.

Your physical body should start coming to life, your emotions

come to life.

He wants to.

He came that you would have life and life more abundantly.

Are y'all with me?

So if you're taking notes, the way to summarize this is sin is a

slow poison.

Sin is a slow poison.

And you won't even recognize that it's actually killing you until

things in your life start dying.

Okay?

Sin is a slow poison.

And so for now, people think they're truly living, but eventually

they find out that they're dying.

Okay?

Now my next point.

Here's the solution.

Cause I've been meditating on this all week.

The more real that Jesus is to you, the more real he becomes to

them.

Let me rewind that.

The more real Jesus is to you, the more real he becomes to them.

I'm going to tell you a private prayer, and it's not going

to be private anymore.

So I've hesitated to say this publicly.

One of my private prayers for years and years is that I would host

the Holy Ghost in my personal life to the degree that I wouldn't

even have to tell people I'm a Christian, but that they would know,

they would be able to tangibly experience it emanating from me as

a result of.

Of my time with him.

And it's so funny because I've increased that prayer recently.

Like, God, I want to be so saturated in your glory.

I want to be so saturated in your presence that I don't have to

advertise for people I'm a Christian.

But they just.

Even if they don't have language for it, they're like, there's

something.

There's something.

It was funny because I told that story of being at Buffalo wild

wings.

And the waiter, I just sit in there, and the waiter's like, I actually

was eating alone.

So eating alone at Buffalo wild wings is awesome.

Some of y'all need to date yourself.

And so I'm sitting there, and the waiter comes up to me.

He's like, hey, I just got a question for you.

Are you a Christian?

And I started crying because he didn't realize he was answering

the prayer that I had prayed privately.

And I never said nothing to this guy about God.

And I said, I am.

And he was like, well, why are you crying?

I was like, because my private prayer has been that people would

know that the Lord is with me in a tangible way.

And I said, you're fulfilling that.

I said, well, are you a Christian?

And he said, I used to be.

And he said, matter of fact, not only did I used to be a Christian,

but I was going to seminary to become a pastor.

And I dropped out of seminary when I stopped believing in God.

I'm like, well, you're about to believe in him again before this

meal is over.

I literally told him that.

And I said, not only that, but you're going to pick up the mantle,

go back to seminary, and you're going to be a pastor, and

you're going to tell the story of what's happening right now.

And then he started crying, and I said, now bring me some more

wings.

Felt the anointing on that.

So let me talk to you.

The more real Jesus becomes to you, the more real he becomes to

them.

And we need to be praying that people will just know there's something

different.

Don't ever mess up your witness.

If cussing all the time is messing up your witness, stop trying

to justify it and just stop doing it.

You want to say the f word?

Forgive.

There's an f word for you.

You want to say the d word?

I don't know.

I'm thinking about it.

Huh?

Deliverance.

Somebody anointed on this second row.

You want to say the s word?

Salvation?

You don't.

But Christian, I can cuss.

And Jesus called him vipers, and you ain't Jesus, and that wasn't

the same thing.

You know what you're doing?

You know what I mean?

Don't mess up your witness.

Don't mess up your witness.

And I'm not saying this to condemn you, but your goal should

be that, like, man, I emanate the presence of God.

And then yesterday, you know, I was hanging out with these people,

and this guy turned to me.

He was like, man, I just feel the presence of God all over you.

And again, I started crying.

But then I was in Alabama two days before that, and the pastor

there said the same thing.

So I'm getting data, and, you know, John the Baptist said, I decrease

so that he increases.

So that should be our aspiration, is that we decrease so

he increases.

Matthew, chapter five, verse 16, says it like this.

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good

deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

So notice that Jesus doesn't say, let your light shine before

christians.

He says, let your light shine before those that do not know me,

before all men.

Let your light shine.

Right now, we need to be shining the light of Christ.

It's like, how are we going to talk somebody out of confusion and

then bring them into our confusion?

I mean, one of the biggest advertisements for the body of Christ

should be not a perfect marriage, but a healthy one.

It's not.

Me and Julie never get mad at each other.

It's just that Julie finally started apologizing.

You all laughed because you knew that wasn't true.

It's because I started saying I was sorry.

And so you guys don't aspire to have Julie and I's marriage because

it's perfect, but because it's real and because we're showing the

love of Christ to each other.

I had a prophetic dream for my wife last night.

I'm not going to tell it to you, but the first thing I did this

morning and she said, hey, babe, good morning.

I said, julie, I had this dream and I started ministering,

and she was just in the bed, she was crying.

I needed that.

I accept that.

I receive that because before I come to this stage to minister

to his bride, I got to minister to my bride.

So you're like, what's Pastor Mike doing at six in the morning?

And given my wife a prophetic word?

And that's why when I come up to give God's wife a prophetic word,

it's also powerful.

Cause who's faithful with little, he'll make you ruler over

much.

Julia just said he called me little.

Okay, number point.

Number three.

Radiate the presence of God.

Your role isn't to drag people to church.

Your role isn't to argue people into the faith.

Your role is to let your light shine, which radiates.

It's like, you don't invite moths to your house, but your lights

do.

You don't invite moths to your house, but your lights do.

It's like, stop inviting people to church.

Radiate Jesus, and they'll be drawn to you and you, and they'll

end up at church with you.

You get what I'm saying?

Acts, chapter 14, verse 13.

Acts 14:13

For the note takers, write this down.

Acts, chapter four, verse 13.

When Peter and John boldly started preaching the gospel, that's

when people said, this is what they said.

They realized that they had been with Jesus.

So this is the biblical explanation.

Acts, chapter four, verse 13.

Peter and John are just doing ministry.

And what people said in response to that was, whoa, they've

been with Jesus.

So it's like, when you start talking, I want people to say, whoa,

they've been with Jesus.

They've been with Jesus.

Okay, I'm about to close right now.

Okay.

Romans chapter two, verse four, says, it's the kindness of

God that leads to repentance.

It's the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

And so what we're gonna begin to do as a church is we are about

to radiate.

We're about to shine the light of Christ to all men.

We're about to take inventory, because you can't listen, if you're

here at any one of our campuses and you're like, you're

devastated that your husband doesn't serve the Lord, stop asking

him to serve the Lord.

And you just go deeper in your relationship with God and radiate

the Lord.

But the Lord would serve your husband.

Jesus said, I didn't come to the world to be served.

I came to the world to serve.

And so when you put that.

Whatever your husband wanted, put that plate down when you put.

When you come in.

Oh, you know, when you begin to do that.

I remember one of the first vlogs I did was I.

A guy was telling me about how he massaged his wife's feet all the

time.

And the more he was telling me that, I started feeling guilty.

Cause I was like, I haven't touched Julie's feet in a long time.

But I was always asking Julie to.

He liked the emotional music behind this, but I was asking everybody

or her to always rub my feet.

Cause my feet are always hurting.

And so then I put the camera.

I hid the camera, and I put the camera hidden.

And Julie was sitting in a chair.

I said, jules, I just walked over.

I started rubbing her feet.

And I got so convicted because.

And you could see it on video, literally, Julie's like, are you

okay?

And I'm, like, massaging her feet.

Are you okay?

Are you okay?

And the more I did it, she was like, finally, I kid you not, she

asked me, are you terminal?

So my wife was thinking like, Mike, this is it.

Mike's gonna die.

And he's trying to be real good before he dies.

So I preach his funeral real good, you know, like, she's thinking

in her mind, like, mike must be.

And I literally.

It started as a joke, but it convicted me so deep that I was like,

I'm to the point where if I massage my wife's feet, she thinks

I'm dying.

So here's my point.

Here's my point.

That Jesus said, I didn't come into the world to be served.

I came to serve.

And the reason why christians have such a hard time is because

we have so much brokenness that we always want to be served.

But the message of the cross is, even in the midst of your pain,

learn how to serve.

So I know your husband hurts you, but serve him, because that's

what Jesus would do.

And then I know the world hurts you, but serve them.

Like, don't just bash the gay community.

Serve the gay community.

I mean, everybody's.

All the pastors are always asking me, why do you have so many

people who are leaving LGBTQ?

I'm like, they're never gonna leave it unless they're leaving it

for something better.

And the men and the women, I've said, hey, thanksgiving, I want

you at my house.

Christmas, I want you at my house.

Cause I'm not gonna ask you to leave a community and not give you

deeper community, a real community.

And so every year, my house is filled with people that I'm not blood

related to over the holidays.

Because what I'm saying is, there's no longer jew nor gentile,

slave nor free, male or female.

We are one through Christ.

And I know that your sin is different than my sin, but we both

need the blood of the lamb.

Then they begin to get free from the inside out.

This is the heart of this house.

So I want to make a moment right now on film, and this moment

is actually not for the people in the room.

I want to do something for your friends and family, because

I've been feeling this.

Can I close like this?

It's going to be different, because many of you guys have friends

and family that just don't understand why you give, why you

serve, why you attend, why you're always reading the Bible,

why you stopped listening to one radio station.

You listen to another.

They just don't get it.

So I thought to myself, I'm gonna put something on video so you

can send this to your friends and family.

And I'm gonna try to.

As the lead pastor of this church, I'm gonna try to explain

to them what I think is happening, and then you can share

this with them if you want.

All right.

Okay.

So if you're watching this right now, it's probably because

one of your family members or one of your friends sent this to

you.

My name's Mike, and I'm the lead pastor of v one church, and

I want to try to explain some things just quickly.

They probably are going to the church all the time.

They might even be talking about the church.

And it's annoying you because you're, like, thinking that they've

lost their mind.

And I just want to help you understand what I think is happening.

As somebody who has been an atheist for a little while, somebody

who struggled with alcohol addiction, somebody whose marriage

was almost broken, I also come to the church every single week,

and I also serve the church, and I also give my finances to the

church.

And if I could explain what I think is happening, by the way, at

every seat across all of our v one church locations, we have a card

that says, if you're not feeling v one, go try these other

churches.

So I just want to start by saying, you don't have to come here,

even if they're constantly begging you to show up.

And it's getting annoying.

But I believe in the concept of the church, even if it's not our

church.

And what I think is happening is that your friend didn't find religion.

Your family member didn't find religion.

They found Jesus.

And when they found Jesus, he started changing everything about

their pain, their brokenness, and some of the things that they

don't do anymore.

It's not because they have rules and obligations.

It's because they're free.

And the Bible says, whom the son, the son is Jesus.

He's God's son.

Whom the son sets free is free indeed.

So that's why they don't want to get drunk anymore.

That's why they're not talking.

That's why they stopped cussing.

It's not cause they're trying to be good.

Because the Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short

of the glory of God.

So I'm the lead pastor, and I'm not good.

You're not good.

None of us are good.

And the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that he takes good people

or bad people and makes them good.

It's just that he takes people who are dead, and he makes them come

alive.

And so your family member is the most alive they've ever been.

And they're not perfect yet, and they still relapse and they still

make mistakes, but they're really, really trying to become more

like Jesus.

Cause when they met Jesus, they said, this is who I want to

be like.

This is my hero.

This is who I want to be like.

And that's what's happening.

And it doesn't matter if it happens at v one church, we don't

want your family members money.

We don't use people.

But what they're doing even when they give financially is they're

saying, I want more people to experience this.

Right now I'm standing in what used to be a bar where people would

give money they didn't have for alcohol.

They would do drugs in this bar, and we turned it into a church.

And a lot of these people are saying, I used to give this money

to miller light, bud light.

I used to spend this money in stupid ways.

I'll gladly give it to the church.

I think that's what it is.

And we're not begging them to give it.

So I just wanted to disarm you for a second, but I wanna say something

to you.

They also sent this to you because they believe that you need

to meet Jesus, too.

And I wanna do whatever I can to make that happen right now.

Because maybe you'll never come to church, but maybe you'll

watch.

Maybe you watch.

I think if you watch to this point, it's because you truly believe

that he is real and his holy spirit is right there with you confirming

it.

You know, God will chase you down and he'll have little signs

everywhere, and you'll see all the signs and you won't be able to

deny it.

And right now is one of those signs.

So I want to pray for you right now.

Matter of fact, if you're here in this room, can we just stand to

our feet and we're going to pray this all together.

Is there anybody here at any campus or in this room that wants

to also give their life to Jesus?

Okay, I see three people right here in the room.

Just immediately lift up their hand, praise God, right here in the

room, three people.

And I know if you're watching, we're gonna pray all together right

now.

Because I believe what's happening is sacred.

I believe it's holy.

And there were many people, even while I was talking, I was watching

them wipe tears from their eyes.

And those tears are spiritual, because what's happening is we're

saying, God, I was made by you.

I was made for you.

And now I want to give this breath back to you.

So we're going to pray across every location right now.

Would you all just say these words with me?

Say, heavenly Father, I'm yours.

I want to live for you.

I'll die to self.

I want to walk this walk on the narrow road.

Wash me with your blood.

Renew my mind and as I renew this commitment to serve you forever.

No turning back.

I belong to you, Jesus, all my days, and I choose to follow you

now as a disciple.

I thank you for your church that's going to help me on this journey.

And today I'm stepping in to a new chapter in Jesus name.

Come on.

Can we all just shout amen right now?

Come on.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Father, for what happened today in this service.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you did in this place.

And, Father, I ask you right now that as each and every one of

them go into small groups, as each and every one of them join teams

to serve, as each and every one of them become members.

God, that you would just drive this thing deeper in their heart,

that they would become more like you.

A clearer reflection of who you are.

That addictions would continue to be broken, that strongholds would

come down in their mind.

That the assignment of Satan is canceled right now by the blood

of Jesus, and that they'll never be the same.

And before the end of 2024, their entire household will be saved.

Their coworkers are coming to Jesus.

And, Father, I thank you.

That whom the Son said sets free, let's say it across every location,

is free indeed.

Come on, somebody shout.