Hi guys this is Vlad
I would like to take a moment with you and share with you concerning what just has happened
with a great hero in Christianity who passed away last year
some of you have already seen the news and I do not usually go out and make comments
or share my thoughts on cases like these
but I really would like to do that in this case
some of you might wonder what's happening with his gloves
why is there gloves on the table and why is he wearing rubber gloves
but its in line with what i want to share with you concerning what has happened with Ravi Zacharias
first of all i want to say that I am heartbroken for his family
I am praying for his family in fact during this time of recording
we're about to go into an all night prayer meeting
something that we do at Hungry Gen on Fridays
and I'm really going to be also interceding for his family for his children and for his wife
and for the rest of the people who are impacted by that
me and my wife both listen to his teachings
his preaching it was actually my wife's most favorite preacher
absolutely admired his preaching and his teaching
and so i have huge respect for how God used him
but I'm also heartbroken with the sinfulness he lived with
and he hid for a while
why am I wearing these gloves, these gloves because
I really believe that every man of God every pastor
is like a glove
and God his anointing is the hand
and when the glove goes on the hand the hand can do a lot of great things
but the problem with gloves is that gloves are not the hands
gloves are simply they go on the hand
and they rip sometimes they are stronger sometimes they are gloves like these
and a lot of us are like these gloves
honestly we are very fragile and we are very easily cut
we are very easily bruised
and sometimes there are sins sometimes there are self deceptions
sometimes there is pride that comes into all of our lives
and causes these gloves to be cut and ripped
kind of like what we've seen what happened with Ravi Zacharias
even though he already passes away
but because of what has happened to his life unfortunately
his legacy is not going to be the people that he won to Christ
when someone is going to think about Ravi Zacharias
they're unfortunately going to be thinking about the fall that has happened
but I would like to just encourage you to take a step back
and recognize this one thing
that every man of God every preacher and every pastor is a glove
God is the hand
and therefore we have to put our trust in God not in the men of God
also we have to understand that just because somebody has fallen
it doesnt mean that God did not use them
even in the time that they were struggling or perhaps even living in sin
it happened with Noah it happened with Moses it happened with David
it happened with Samson it happened with Solomon
and some of these people we dont know exactly if they finished really well at the end
and yet we still read their teachings we still preach from their teachings
and yet we still admire them and honor them
and a lot of times even in the New Testament
we see that God's grace somehow covered it and doesn't highlight their weaknesses
this is not to say that we are to downplay man's sin
and just look beyond that and just see the grace of God
we must understand that God's work will be done
in spite of the weaknesses and in spite of the defeats
of men like Ravi Zacharias and men like you and I
we are all capable of committing such atrocities
now reflecting on my own life
as a minister I'm not in any way on the level of Ravi Zacharias
and that's not my goal even of sharing in this short little video
but looking back at it I'm reminded of a story of Abraham and Abimelech
when Abraham who was God's friend
he kind of lied concerning his wife
he had no integrity
and Abimelech he was rebuked by God for taking Abraham's wife
and God compliments this heathen king and says
because of the intergrity of your heart
in fact he says to God
Lord in the integrity of my heart I took Abraham's wife
and looking at the fact that a lot of times God's children and God's servants
can walk in these dubious ways
and the world sometimes some of the world leaders
can have more integrity than even us
how could that be how could we allow that?
looking and reflecting on my own life
this is not my estimate of Ravi because I don't know his heart
I don't know what was going on with him if he needed deliverance
if there was something going on deeper that I'm not aware of
l'm just looking from the outside in
and a few takeaways that I brought from my life
one of them is this
is that to prioritize intergrity more than I prioritize influence
when influence grows the problem what it does influence intoxicates person
and a lot of times people who have influence
they become intoxicated with their influence
and what we do is that instead of prioritizing our intimacy with God
and prioritizing our integrity
we are drunk with influence we are drunk with impact
we are drunk with the anointing look at how many people are being impacted
people are being saved God is using me
and it's easy to ride the wave of influence
and honestly forget the river of intimacy
for those of you who are like oh that's not possible
every one every person with whom God entrusts with influence
is tempted with it myself included
you must understand there was a time where there was this big rise in prosperity preachers
the whole idea was if you were rich you were righteous
today we have another dilemma it's called popularity preachers
where if you are popular you must be pure
if you are influential you probably have integrity
and please understand we all strive to make an impact for the kingdom of God
but being influential does not equal walking in integrity
integrity is the inner life of a person it's being whole on the inside
it's being the same way in public as you are in private
it doesn't mean being perfect
but it means that you are being constantly being perfected
and you are honest concerning your weaknesses with your mentors with your counselors
with people that you are going to get help and you are not hiding it and justifying it
one thing we as leaders have is we have the ability to cheat
we have the ability to create loopholes
we have the ability to honestly medicate
we have the ability to manage certain weaknesses
to develop certain inner toughness to act it out
to honestly to just kind of do it no matter how you feel
and a lot of times that's a good thing
but most of the time it becomes a very bad thing because we live one life on the stage
and a different life completely off the stage
and my takeaway if this not matter how much influence God gives to a person
to me I am responsible to maintain my intimacy
and I have to pay a price for that intimacy
and I'm responsible to walk in integrity
how it works in my life is without intimacy I cannot have intergrity
you know influence can bring impact
but only intimacy brings integrity
you know it speaks about David there's two people who we see in the bible
where God where scripture say that they had integrity
Abimelech and the other one it says about David
he led Israel through the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands
but if you look at David David wasn't perfect
what was the secret of David's integrity
the bible says that God says concerning David
he says I found the man after my heart
it doesn't say I found the man who has my heart
David was simply in the pursuit of God's heart
if you want to live in integrity you don't seek integrity
you seek intimacy you go after God's heart
and as a result of going after God's heart God starts to transform your own heart
he might not change your ministry he might not increase your influence he might not give you more money
he might not give you more anointing but one thing that will happen
is your heart is going to look more like his
and if your heart is not in the pursuit after God your heart has a way of deceiving you
I mean look Ravi Zacharias probably was the last person on the planet
I would have ever thought who was able to do these dubious things
his board did not even think that he was they trusted him
when I heard the accusations and I read a few articles I'm like there is no way
this guy is like he's pure like an angel
you listen to his voice I was like there's no way I could feel the anointing coming from his voice
you might say how could that be
a human heart is self deceiving
Ravi is just a human you and I have the ability to do exactly the same thing
be self deceiving
our only protection is to let this heart of ours run after God
and when it runs after God it gets healthy
you know when you run your heart gets healthy
when you run after God God makes your heart healthier
if you don't run after God your heart becomes corroded
your heart becomes hard and your heart loses wholeness
when it loses wholeness it can go stupid it can do crazy stuff
it can do immorality it can lie it can be harsh
it can be self deceiving it can do one thing in public and do completely different thing in private
it can watch porn during the night and then honestly teach Sunday school lesson on Sunday morning
it's the heart that's the problem
I just want to encourage you today to prioritize pursuing God
let this be a reminder for each one of us
who are alive who are awaiting the coming of Jesus Christ
who are trying to reach our world for Christ
who are trying to maximize our influence
for the kingdom of God to understand that influence is important
intimacy is more important
impact is important but integrity is more important
income is important but my friend being anchored in your identity in Christ is more important
and so these are just few of my takeaways to really encourage each one of you
boundries are good sometimes people say oh you have to have accountability and boundries
Ravi Zacharias did
the problem is if you have boundries but you don't have brokenness
you are going to cheat your boundries
you're going to cheat your mentors you're going to cheat your accountability
and it's time not just to have great honor in the eyes of men
it's time to come back to a place where we have hunger before God
where we have humility before God
where we don't outgrow our need for deliverance where we don't outgrow our need for repentance
where we don't grow our need for honestly being real and raw with people that we trust
to with people that we claim to go for mentorship
because a lot of people are honestly lying through their teeth when they say he's my mentor
and it's only a coverup but it's not real they're not real they're not naked
and if I could use the words they're not honest they're not transparent with anybody
everything is hidden and concealed and sooner or later everything will come out
I almost feel that the devil wants us to succeed
before he takes us down
because if you fall from a 2 feet height you know you're going to get bruised
if you fall from a 20 ft height you can get really injured
if you fall from a 200 ft height you're going to die
and it's almost like the enemy wants us to get as high as we can
and then he pulls things from under our table to completely devastate
to destroy and bring shame on the name of Jesus Christ
and to destroy our legacy
don't let it happen to you
I want to encourage you let's humble ourselves before God
you precious young ministers who are maybe right now eager to find more influence
who are maybe trying to reach the world at any cost in your passionate pursuit
I want to let you know that redefine you win
let's not focus on winning as much as we focus on pleasing God
I'm reminded of that verse where Paul says to Timothy he says
be a good soldier he says and a soldier doesn't get himself entangled in a civilian life
so that he can please him who enlisted him
now I'm reading that and I'm like soldier your goal is to bring back a victory
your goal is to go beat the devil
you're a soldier to bring a medal home
and he says no in God's kingdom as a soldier your goal is to please him who enlisted you
that's a different definition of win
and then Paul says you're a farmer and as a farmer your goal is not to just reap the crop
your goal is to be hardworking
and then you're an athlete and your goal as an athlete is not just to win
your goal is to not to compete according to the rules
to me this is just a huge takeaway
i gotta I gotta get back
to my secret place I gotta get back to my place of humility
we gotta get back to the place of repentance
we gotta get back to valuing our roots as much as we value our branches
we got to get back to the place of intimacy
because that is our only assurance that we will walk in integrity
meaning where our heart is whole
we can fool people with our gifts we can fool people with our anointing and we can fool people with the eloquence of our speech
we can honestly fool people with our education
with our connections and with our associations
but at the end of the day there is a God in heaven
and there is an inner world we are accountable to
to live honest before him and to live honest before people
and so at the end to summarize everything
I am not one of those people who are going to throw the work that God did
through Ravi Zacharias under the bus
I still believe the things that he preached they were true
I still believe there's anointing on it
the same way that I read book of Solomon even though Solomon did some pretty shady things
the same way I read the Noah story even though Noah did some pretty bad things
If David would have done what David did today
I would have never had him speak in our church
I tell you that right away
If moses would have murder on his rap sheet and he would be traveling in tricities
I don't think I would have Moses speak at Hungry gen
I would be like I'm not sure bro
God forgave you God's using you but let it go to another church not to ours
and so we preach these guys we read the bible
and then they had some mistakes
and so what happened to him like I mentioned men are gloves
God is the hand
let's focus on the hand not on the glove
and for those of us who are men let's remember
we are weak
let's remember just because you're a preacher just because you are known just because you have millions of followers
just remember because you can prophesy the paint off the walls
just remember because you have all of that
you can move mountains but you don't have love
meaning if you lose love for God
he says you are nothing
I am nothing if I have all the gifts
but I don't have love for God I am nothing
if I have all the influence but I don't have intimacy
I am worthless
I am just an echo I am no longer a voice
and to me my friend and to you I want to advise you let's come back to repentance
let's come back to the first love let's come back to being hungry for God
and valuing our time with Jesus
thank you for watching this clip and I hope it brings encouragement and realignment
let's take a moment right now and pray for Ravi Zacharias family and his ministry
and I ask you pray for you pastors cover them with the blood of Jesus
in the fire of the Holy Ghost
and God will protect them Lord
we just thank you right now for your grace
thank you for your mercy Lord and I lift up right now
the whole family God that's devastated
the family that honestly Lord probably going through a very difficult time
lift the children Lord lift the wife God
pray for people who are going through things right now where they are broken shattered and devastated
maybe those who lost their faith
let them look to you God
let them not stop your work just because a glove got broken
or got ripped to pieces Father
we ask you that you will help all of us as young ministers
to persevere to continue
and God not to bring shame to your name but bring glory to your name
help us not to look to ourselves and seek to be famous known rich even anointed
but help us to be pleasing to you
to love you God more than gifts more than influence
more than the width of our ministry God
but to love the depth with you
we pray all of this in Jesus name Amen
guys I want to ask you to please like this video
leave some comments below tell me what you think
if you knew Ravi Zacharias or you met him let me know what you think
in Subscribe click the bell button so that you can be reminded when I go live
and in just few weeks I'm going to be starting doing Thursday night streams
I cannot wait to meet you
and to pray with you and to preach God's word with you
and to glorify Jesus Christ together with you
so God bless you until next time