The Truth That Breaks Condemnation

Because of Jesus' righteousness, he forever accepts me.

He forever approves of me.

When I go and ask him for something, it's like Jesus himself asking him for something.

And when this shift happens, I'm telling you, your whole life starts to click and flow, and your relationship with the Lord becomes fiery.

He starts visiting you in the night hours.

You start feeling his Holy Ghost.

Miracles start popping like popcorn.

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com.

That's CityLightNYC.com.

Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Today I want to minister to you one of the most important messages that I can give.

If you were wondering if I should come today or not, you chose a good Sunday to come.

I want to see you living victoriously.

I want to see you well equipped.

I want your relationship with the Lord to be fiery and working.

And a working relationship with the Lord means there is the smell of heaven on your life.

Yeah.

You know, Christians emit a fragrance.

Nice smelling people you want to be near.

You know, Jesus, what do you think he in the spirit smelled like?

People followed him everywhere.

He was just to gaze upon him.

You know, in the spirit he smelled.

There is a fragrance in the spirit.

And you also know people.

They don't even have to say a word, but they come into your space, and you're like, like I'm feeling choked out.

You are, something is wrong with you, like I love you, but I'm gonna love you from all the way over here, because you smell funky.

You smell like condemnation, you smell like defeat, like nothing is working for you.

And so I'm not rejecting you, but I just don't want that thing to get on me.

Okay, fine, I'm rejecting you.

I'm going to find some sweet-smelling Christians.

And a sweet-smelling Christian is living a life of victory.

They know who they are in Christ.

How about this?

Their prayers work.

Isn't that amazing?

Your prayers actually work.

Jesus said that the Father is glorified when your prayers are answered.

He called that good fruit in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Good fruit is when you ask what you desire and it's done for you.

Too many Christians don't even believe their prayers should be answered.

This is true.

This is reality.

You even see it in the book of Acts when they were praying for Peter's release.

And wouldn't you know it, their prayers are answered.

Peter's released.

Peter goes knocking on the door, and they're like, it can't be him.

It must be his angel.

How could it be him?

This is a prayer meeting.

Prayers don't get answered at a prayer meeting.

This is just what we do.

We kumbaya, we rock back and forth.

Somebody says the phrase, you know, 50 times in a row.

You know, Lord, you know, Lord.

Someone else says the word just 100 times.

I just, Lord, I just want to tell you, just, Lord, just, Lord, you're going to bring Peter out.

Just do what you're going to do, Lord, if it be thy will, Lord.

Just, just, you know, you know, just, you know, you know, you know, just, just, just, just, just.

Hallelujah.

So how to live a life of victory.

Enjoy your Christianity.

And really, what is the problem?

The problem is condemnation.

Your average Christian is under severe condemnation.

They're not happy.

They don't feel good about themselves, so they think God doesn't feel good about them.

They don't have confidence when they go to pray.

They're like a walking civil war.

Up one day, down the next.

When they do everything right in their own mind, they do everything right, cross every T, dot every I.

Then they feel that God accepts them and God approves in them.

When they stumble and when they fall, they feel that God has rejected them.

Then they blame themselves.

When you go to pray, I know this sounds creepy, but it's the truth.

When you go to pray, Satan goes with you.

He's there.

You don't want to think that.

But that's why sometimes you stop after 30 seconds.

Who do you think did that?

Every time to this day, you go to pray, you start praying, and Satan's just a few feet behind, right?

And he starts doing what he does.

He's the father of lies, and he chucks lies, accusatory, into your mind.

So you go to pray, and he says, who do you think you are?

Yesterday you thought this.

Two days ago you did that.

You're not worthy.

You're a sinner.

You failed God.

God is mad at you.

God is upset with you.

God's not going to answer this prayer.

And if you believe it and internalize it, it interrupts your faith.

And you get enough days like that, you're now living a defeated Christian life.

You start to smell funky in the spirit.

That bad smelling Christian, they're under condemnation.

I mean, what is a bad smelling Christian?

It's somebody who's listening to the lies of Satan too much.

And then they go to talk to you and guess what comes out?

The lies of Satan.

And of course you're going to move where you're like, hey, I got enough of that on my own.

I don't need you.

He's lying to me enough directly to me.

I don't need you as a mouthpiece of his lies.

So this must be broken.

Amen.

And the only thing that can break it is the word of God.

Why?

Because we must know who we are in Christ.

And we also must know scripturally who God is.

The problem is that most people don't want to know scripturally who God is.

They want to go by feelings.

How do they feel?

This is true.

Most people, and that's where they always start the sentence, I feel that, well, I feel 8 billion people in the world, 8.3 to be precise, and all of them have feelings about God.

Well, I feel that God, I feel, you know, there's 73 genders, and you know, I just feel that God just is okay with that.

I feel, well, your feelings are all over the place.

The word of God doesn't change, your feelings do.

So what you have is potentially 8.3 billion people.

You know how you were made in the image of God?

They're remaking God in their own image.

How do you do that?

By feeling, unscriptural feelings.

See right now, I just, I feel like this sermon isn't going so well.

Like I feel I like what the Lord is doing here.

But I feel like some of you aren't really quite getting what I'm pitching.

That's how I feel.

You know, there's been times where I felt like just leaving mid-sermon, just going in my car and driving off.

Really, I'm just like, I've had that feeling.

Not for a little bit.

I'm not talking about a passing thought.

I've actually looked around and thought, I'm outta here.

But I didn't, I didn't act on my feelings.

The Lord is so good.

I didn't act at my feelings.

There's a higher way.

There are times when I didn't even do anything.

Like a random Tuesday.

And I feel condemned.

Like, what for?

Lord, I'm in my kitchen making a sandwich.

And it's like a demon came with a blowgun and just, and all of a sudden, I'm like, man, anxiety, worry, salt and pepper with some depression.

And I hear the thought, nothing's going to work out.

And I go, Lord, I just feel like nothing's going to work out.

Hallelujah.

Well, let's look at one of the most important verses in the Bible.

Because we cannot understand ourselves by our feelings.

You comfortable with that statement?

You can only understand who you are by what the word of God says about you.

Even more importantly, you cannot understand God by your feelings.

Me, I'm from the Balkans.

I'm emotional.

I'm emotional.

My daughter's my little balkanista.

So, right, babe, would you say I'm a little emotional?

A little.

Should have seen the smile she flashed.

No, but really, like, my feelings change.

If the thermostat's on 72, and then it goes to 75, like, my feelings change.

Do you know, if I eat McDonald's,

And by the way, when I eat McDonald's, I don't like nibble.

It's two Big Macs.

It was like that.

Yeah, two big... And they go, no, one value meal, the fries and the big soda, and throw another Big Mac on top.

One isn't going to...

It's like four bites for me.

What's one Big Mac?

Well, guess how I feel afterwards.

I feel like hell.

Yeah.

I feel like the Holy Ghost has left me forever.

I do, that's how I feel like God has come and written to Ichabod the glory has departed over my life.

But that has nothing to do with my actual standing before God.

But that's exactly how I feel.

Like if you came to me and eating a miracle and said, pastor pray for me and I'm just like taking that last sip of Coke.

Of course it's Diet Coke, right?

I'll be like, find someone else.

God's not even listening to me right now.

But it's not true.

It's just a feeling.

So let's put our feelings aside and look at what the word of God says.

Amen?

Amen.

2 Corinthians 5.21.

Very important verse.

If you were to ask me, like your top verse...

that really encapsulates not just the gospel or the New Testament, really the entire Bible leads us here.

For he, talking about God the Father, made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

Very important.

He made Jesus, who is God also.

Jesus didn't know sin.

He made him.

Never one wrong thought, never one ill deed.

Never sinned.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

So Jesus on the cross, someone who had never ever sinned, 100% God, 100% man, on the cross, he became sin.

It's been said he absorbed the sin of the world, yes, correct.

He took on our sin, also correct.

But the scripture said he was turned into sin.

He was made into sin.

I once said this back in college when God was giving me this revelation.

I actually read it in an old time book and then I just quoted what I read.

I'll tell you what I said first, but I still hear a reaction.

This woman, she was very religious.

She was way older than me.

Way, you know, I'm 22 years old at the time.

And when I said this, she, I'll just never, it sounded like a hen that was disturbed.

She went,

how could you say that?

That my beautiful Lord and Savior and you're saying that.

And she was actually a real Christian.

You say, why does he do that?

Just because you'll never forget it now.

Also, I think older women who sound like chickens are funny.

Right?

Hallelujah.

And here's what I said that got her all, all hot and bothered.

I said that Jesus became like Satan on the cross.

Right?

And she, you know, but my beautiful, beautiful Lord and Savior.

Yeah, but on the cross, lady, he wasn't beautiful.

You're calling sin beautiful?

That offends me now.

Sin isn't beautiful.

He was made into sin.

I said, oh, you're taking it a little far, saying he was turned into like a Satan type creature.

All right.

Please don't go by your feelings.

Go by the word.

And Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

He was calling back to Moses when the children of Israel were dying, being bitten by vipers.

God gave instructions to Moses to put a bronzen serpent on a pole and lift it up.

And when the Hebrews looked at that serpent on the pole, they were instantly healed.

And Jesus said...

As Moses lifted up the serpent, not a dove.

The serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

In other words, I will be lifted up on the cross.

I will be made sin.

I will be made into the serpent.

And all who look to me, put their trust in me.

They will be whole.

They will be healed.

They will be sozoed, delivered.

Hallelujah.

So this is the essence of the gospel.

This is the power of the gospel.

This is the glory and the beauty of the gospel.

That he who was perfectly holy was made perfectly sinful.

He who was perfectly beautiful was made into ugliness.

So that we, the perfectly sinful, might be made perfectly righteous.

We who were forever ugly might be transformed and be made beautiful in the eyes of God.

That we who are unrighteous might be given the gift of right standing righteousness with God.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

That we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Hallelujah.

So through his substitutionary death on the cross, because of the great exchange, he took on all of our, you know what?

Let me, let's first define who we actually wore apart from God.

Because it's not pretty.

And you got saved, and you can't get saved without this.

You got saved because you got a revelation of who you are apart from Jesus.

Otherwise, you wouldn't have a need for a savior.

Who am I apart from Jesus?

I am an enemy of God.

Everything about me is a very affront to God.

I am absolutely apart from Christ.

I am offensive to God, and I am hell-bound.

I'm not hell-bound because God is just miffed at me.

I am hell-bound because I was conceived in sin, I lived my life in sin, and every one of my thoughts is evil continually.

That's what the Word says, and that is truth.

People say, well, I'm a good person.

Liar!

Why?

Because you compare yourself to Hitler?

I'm no Hitler.

Now compare yourself to God.

Because that's who he's going to compare you to.

And you're going to fall short every single time.

So we need a savior.

Thankfully we have one.

Who loved you so much.

Went to the cross.

And became your substitute.

And he who was perfectly righteous became sin, so that we, totally unrighteous, might be given by faith the gift of righteousness.

Now righteousness, you cannot grow in righteousness.

You either is or you isn't.

If you is, you're a friend of God.

If you isn't, you're an enemy of God.

If you is, you're approved by God.

If you isn't, you're rejected by God.

If you is, you're heaven bound.

If you isn't, you're hell bound.

This should not be complicated.

Right now, if you isn't, you should be asking, how do I is?

You do not get righteousness through self-effort.

The whole world, every unbeliever I meet, they all believe, oh, I'll get righteousness by being a good person.

I'll get righteousness, okay, so I got to go to church.

I got to pray.

I got to light a candle.

Remember the saints.

Do, do, do, do, do, and your whole life is a bunch of doo-doo.

You cannot do enough to become righteous.

There is not a mountain.

If I sold everything I had, moved to the most impoverished nation on earth, spent my whole life feeding the sick, caring for the elderly, blessing the poor, but I didn't have Jesus, I'd go straight to hell and split it wide open.

Amen.

Doesn't matter.

There's no amount of good that I can do to undo all of the evil I've done.

Not just the evil I've done, but my very nature is an affront to God.

But Jesus, but Jesus.

Because of him, we're born anew, we're born again.

And he puts a new nature in us.

And he gives us for free, by faith, the gift of righteousness, which means right standing with him.

See, I was going to say I have a towel, but let's just call it what it is, a sweat rag.

For years, we had these bright white ones, and then one day I saw the video, and it looked like I was at a car wash.

I'm like, can we get one that's not triple bright something?

That's just a little more muted, that absorbs some light and doesn't just reflect it.

It looked like I was landing a plane.

Okay.

See, I'm holding it in my hand, right?

There's no doubt whether I'm, I know I have it.

Just like I know I have the righteousness of God.

Oh, how are you so arrogant?

How do you know you have it?

Because the word says I have it because I placed my faith in Christ.

That's how I know I have it.

Nobody should be wondering, am I heaven bound?

Which, by the way, when you ask religious Christians, are you going to heaven or hell, they'll always say, well, heaven, and kind of laugh awkwardly.

And then you ask them why.

And they'll go, well, I mean, I hope so.

I hope so.

Whoa.

I mean, do I hope I have a towel in my hand?

No.

No, I know so.

And that's why in 1 John, he said, these things I write to you that you may know that you have eternal.

It's something you can know.

And he said that you can kind of hope so.

What a scary place to be in.

Hoping so?

No, you know so.

So if you have made Jesus your Lord and Savior, and you're trusting in him for his righteousness, if 2 Corinthians 5, 21 is alive in your life, that means you're born again.

It means you're saved.

It means that you have Jesus's righteousness.

Do you know what that means?

Do you know what that means?

It breaks the back of condemnation off your life.

Now those feelings, we're going back to that now.

Those feelings, because when you go to pray, Satan's there, chucking lies into your head, lying to you to get you feelings.

No, I don't feel like God heard me.

I don't feel, I feel, I feel dis, you know, there's my fear, I feel far from God.

What?

You know how often I feel far from God?

Do you know how many times that changes an hour later?

There's random moments I feel.

You think I just walk all the time under a deluge of the anointing?

And by the way, that may be true, but I don't feel that all the time.

I get busy.

I get, you know, whatever.

I eat McDonald's.

Never felt the anointing once.

He ate McDonald's.

Lesson in there somewhere.

So now my feelings.

I can't go by my feelings.

I have to go by what the word says.

So when you have righteousness, it's actually something you wear.

He puts it on you.

You now stand before God and God doesn't see any difference between you and Jesus.

Right.

If you wonder, what is righteousness?

It's right standing with God.

You either have right standing with God or you don't.

Look, you come into God's presence, he's so holy, he dwells in inapproachable light.

You could not even stand in his presence if you didn't have right standing with him.

Get smoked.

So that's why we pray, Father, in the name of Jesus.

That means I'm not sashaying up into your presence all alone.

I'm coming to you in the name of Jesus, the one who changed places with me, the one who gave me his right standing, which is perfect, right?

He gave it to me.

Now I come to you and you treat me, Father, just the same way you treat Jesus.

You hear my prayers just the way you would hear his.

You approve of me and accept me just the same way you do him.

Does anybody believe this here?

Because this is the essence and the core of the gospel.

This will set your prayer life on fire.

This will cause your faith to soar.

Faith, the Bible says, works by love.

But if you're under guilt and shame and condemnation, you're not receiving God's love.

You're too busy feeling guilty, feeling intimidated.

Too many Christians, they're walking...

Civil war, and they suffer from this spiritual inferiority complex.

Always beat down.

Beat it.

I'm not good enough.

I'm not holy enough.

I don't pray enough.

I'm not enough.

I'm not enough.

I'm not.

That's why most people backslide and quit Christianity because they can't take the I'm not enough voice anymore.

And they hear that voice mainly in church because preachers tell them you're not enough.

Every Sunday there's another to-do list.

You got to do more.

You got to do more.

You got to, you know, for religion to function, you got to keep the gerbil on the wheel.

Few Christians open up about their own weaknesses.

Everybody puts their best face on.

So suddenly they all psych each other out so then you feel even more not enough.

You know, you pray for 15 minutes, man, I just had an afternoon of prayer.

Then somebody else is like, oh, I'm not praying enough.

Hey, do you read the words?

You go all the time, but people don't know.

It's one verse a day.

Oh, he reads it all the time.

Oh, I'm not enough.

And that's why, that's why they quit.

So let me just ask you a question to see if you're getting it.

And those of you who've heard me ask this question before, resist.

What's the purpose of these tags anyway?

They're just itchy.

Anybody else do that with new clothes?

First thing, I bust out the scissors.

And the tags are getting longer and longer.

Anybody ever shop at Viore?

You know what I'm talking about?

The Viori tag is like a CVS receipt.

It's not that long.

I don't need to have your whole company's manifesto on my tag inside the shirt.

Cut this off.

All right, this is righteousness.

Jesus has given you his righteousness.

So Jesus and you are standing before the Father.

Who's more righteous?

You or Jesus?

We are.

Say it.

We are.

We have Jesus is more righteous.

We have we are more righteous.

Have you ever said this before?

No.

No.

Hold on.

This is very bold of you.

You said the same thing.

All right.

This is, you understand, ma'am.

Say what you said.

We're the same.

Now listen, I'm going to call the theological police on you.

Because what you're saying, you understand, religious people get very upset at what you're saying.

It's very, very brazen.

Very, very, very, very bold.

You're putting yourself on equal footing with Jesus.

You're saying you're the same as him.

Woo, woo, woo.

Religion doesn't like that.

A lot of preachers don't like that because now I can't control you.

And this is the first time you've ever said that.

Is this the first time you ever realized that?

This is what I live for.

How do you feel?

Because you're accurate.

You're right.

When this clicked for me, I first had to check.

I'm like, I don't want to, because I was very afraid of error.

And most, nine out of ten people immediately will say, Jesus is more righteous.

Because they've so been intimidated.

They're so used to being low like a worm.

They're so used to being low like a worm.

But if Jesus has given you his righteousness, now you have the same right standing before God the Father as Jesus.

And by the way, there are no degrees of righteousness.

There is either, it's binary, you is or you ain't.

You can't be more righteous than someone else.

You don't have more right standing.

If you have that, this is righteousness, I have it.

Jesus gave it to me.

You're the same.

You're the same.

And thank you for helping me with that example.

And I'm so proud of you.

And grateful to the Holy Ghost who showed you that.

Because some people can hear the same message 10 times and they still go back home beaten down.

And I ask him the question, they'll go, well, Jesus is more righteous.

Why when he's given you his righteousness?

This changes everything in the way you relate to God.

And you say, oh, it makes you proud, it makes you arrogant.

No, it does the exact opposite.

Because then you realize only then that you have nothing to contribute.

You have nothing to give to God that's going to impress him.

You're just completely dependent on him.

You're completely on the receiving end of his grace.

Religious people, on the other hand, they get very proud.

They get very arrogant because they think they can help a savior out.

They think that because they lit a candle, read the Bible X number of hours, maybe gave some alms, gave to the church, now they're more righteous.

And then they wanna tell you about it.

They wanna boast, they wanna share, they think they're growing, but... You know, my unbelieving friends,

They think that, because this is how the world believes, they think that, like, I have special access to God because of what I do.

And they'll be, like, doing something like playing a game of poker, and they'll be like, hey, can you, like, send a blessing my way?

I need some help.

And I'll joke, I'll be like, why do you think I can do that and you can't?

You know, I want to get into God's not going to bless your poker game or anything like that.

Yeah, that'll be the next time.

But, well, you know, you're closer to God because, you know, you're a pastor.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Do you, how do you think I approach God?

Do you think I bring him my resume?

Like, we've done, we've done in the natural some mildly impressive things.

Like, we've built close to 50 people.

churches slash community centers in Guatemala.

Do you think I come to God and go, hey, God, in case you forgot, since 2009, I mean, man, we've really ripped it up in Guatemala.

I mean, I'm your boy.

Whatever I tell God, that's my own work, my own effort.

Not only is it unimpressive to him.

Okay, great.

We'll do this visual.

Okay.

You can dislike me later for it.

The Bible says, in Isaiah, it says, all your works, all your good stuff is like a filthy rag to me.

And the Bible pulls no punches.

Look up in Hebrew what filthy rag is.

It's a menstrual rag.

God says, that's what that's like to me.

When you come and you try to impress me with your good works.

Because me, without Jesus,

I am an enemy of God.

I am a complete affront to him.

But because of Jesus' righteousness, he forever accepts me.

He forever approves of me.

When I go and ask him for something, it's like Jesus himself asking him for something.

And when this shift happens, I'm telling you, your whole life starts to click and flow.

And prayers start getting answered.

And Christianity becomes enjoyable.

And your relationship with the Lord becomes fiery.

He starts visiting you in the night hours.

You start feeling his Holy Ghost.

Miracles start popping like popcorn.

Popcorn.

When you get up from under feelings and guilt and shame and condemnation and get a revelation of the finished work of the cross, the power of the blood of Jesus, and total forgiveness of sins.

I want to just submit to you that too many Christians actually don't believe that all of their sins are forgiven.

I meet them all the time.

Well, you don't know what I've done.

Uh-oh.

Ooh, last of the big time sinners here.

Tell me, shock me, what have you done?

And then they tell me and I go, man, that is bad.

I mean, your sin is so big and so bad.

I think even the blood of Jesus is intimidated by the severity of your sin.

You don't even get why so many of our biblical heroes were murderers.

like multiple homicides.

Why the guy who wrote over half the New Testament, his track record is multiple homicides of Christians, by the way.

You think you're so big and so bad that the blood of Jesus can't undo what you've done?

And some people think that's like a holy thought.

That's false humility to the nth degree.

And what you're actually saying is that you're somehow tougher and stronger than Jesus' finished work.

You need to repent of that.

Hallelujah.

So let's see who you really are.

You ready?

Can't be based on your feelings.

Got to be based on the word.

What does the word say?

Let's go to Colossians.

Man, I'll drink to that.

This is a great verse because it not only paints an accurate picture of who you are post-Christ, it paints an accurate picture, which is important to know, who you and I were pre-Christ, B.C., before Christ.

And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.

That is rich right there.

We were alienated.

That means we were not in the nation of God.

We were not a part of the family of God.

We were outcasts.

We were rejected.

The wrath of God in Ephesians says was abiding on us.

I remember at 16, that Friday night, which just I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

It was August 14th, 1992, that I gave my life to Jesus.

I remember as I was getting saved, I remember that distinct knowing of I am an enemy of God.

At the same time, I know he loves me.

I know that he's drawing me close to him.

But I also know that I'm worthy of hell.

That's where I'm going and I'm deserving of hell.

Unless I receive what Jesus did for me.

You who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.

Yet now, because of the cross, because of the blood, he has reconciled.

in the body of his flesh through death, and now to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.

That is who you are now.

So you are holy.

That's how you're presented.

Well, I don't feel that way.

Well, biblical truth doesn't care about your feelings.

Amen.

You are blameless.

Say that, I am holy.

I am blameless.

The devil loves to heap shame on God's people.

Remember when you go and pray, he's there with the blowgun?

He could get you with some insecurities.

You're above reproach.

Someone says, but pastor, there's this sin addiction I have.

And, you know, I live like in this shame cycle.

I mean, what you're telling me is nice, but how do I break out of the cycle?

Focus on what Jesus did and it'll break you out of the cycle.

That means you may go through a period of feeling ashamed, but receive the antidote.

The antidote is the finished work.

Let me rephrase it.

The antidote is you reiterating over and over again who you are in Christ.

This message could simply be titled, Who You Are in Christ.

I basically have about 10 sermons, each with 50 different titles.

Maybe we should open up a staff position where they just come up with sermon titles for me.

It's like, what's he preaching on next Sunday?

The finished work of Christ.

Find another title.

What about the Sunday after that?

Grace, the blood, the finished work of Christ.

We're going to have another title for that.

That was a lot funnier than you let on, but okay.

Moving on.

I feel my feelings a little hurt, but I'm going to shake it off.

Hallelujah.

Let's look at Ephesians.

Is this ministering to anybody?

This is the message that changed my life.

Listen, can I tell you?

When you guys, how many of you want things to change, right?

I want things to change, a dynamic life.

Your number one enemy to change is your own mentality.

People are afraid of change.

They're actually afraid of promotion.

When the Lord started rapidly promoting us, if you're new, I'll make it real quick.

My wife and I married in 2012, been in ministry, me, since the year 2000, started City Light in 2002.

Things had been good, things had been wonderful, but financially things were always good.

they were okay.

They just weren't prosperous.

We were debt free.

Somehow we kind of ate where we want, we vacationed, but at any given time, we had about $1,000 to $1,500 in our bank account.

That's not fun.

That's how we lived.

And by the way, and I was very cognizant that that's actually better than most people because most people live like that, but they also have $30,000 in credit card debt.

But we just made a decision we're not going to be in credit card debt.

But there's this one thing, see...

I opted out of Social Security.

Ministers get to do that.

People think ministers get all these tax breaks.

We don't.

We pay the same taxes as everyone else, except we can opt out of Social Security once.

You only get to make that decision once, and then you don't pay.

That's 8.5%, by the way, that you're paying because the government's robbing you and borrowing from you now so they can pay people that haven't been born yet.

That's another story for another time.

So I'm 24 years old and I opt out.

That means I don't get any social security.

I have zero save for retirement.

And I start approaching the Lord.

Now it's my 40s.

Lord, help me.

Give me a solution.

This is no bueno.

And in 2019, I discovered Bitcoin.

Bought one whole Bitcoin, but didn't even know what it was.

Didn't care.

It was kind of illiterate in that regard completely.

It was just like, you know, when you don't have money, you kind of just go to the casino.

Yay, Lord.

But I felt a little, but in 2020, COVID comes, shuts everything down.

Now I have time to study this thing out.

And the more I learn, it takes about 200 man hours to actually get it.

I discover what it is.

And I realized this is what I've been looking for.

I've been looking for a store of value.

As unsophisticated as I am, I get that the government printing trillions of dollars cannot lead to anyplace good.

We're now officially, by the way, $40 trillion in the hole.

It's unsustainable.

That means the dollar is going to be devalued.

Inflation is going to rise.

They just keep printing more.

But Bitcoin, there's only ever 21 million of.

you can make more.

So it's actually programmed digital scarcity.

It is true scarcity.

It's the most truest, scarcest thing on the planet.

You say, well, gold is scarce.

Yeah, but we don't know what's out there.

The Mariana Trench could bust wide open and 5,000 tons of gold come up.

A meteor can come.

You know, they just discovered a vein of gold in Uganda worth 12 trillion.

Bitcoin, though, there's always... Oh, I'm sorry, the gold bugs.

You know, I love gold, but...

But Bitcoin, there's only ever 21 million of.

Why am I sharing this?

This is for somebody to hear.

Oh, I know why.

I was talking about your mind and how this helps.

So anyway, summer 23, I'm buying Bitcoin.

Summer 23, I put everything we have in long call options in a company called MicroStrategy, which is the single biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

And these things go up by over 5,000%.

financially changes our lives forever.

But let me backtrack.

It didn't go up to 5,000% in a straight line.

It was up, down, all over the place.

And I'm watching this.

I'm watching life-changing money, generational wealth one week, and this went on for months, gets sliced and diced the next.

So what's happening in my mind now?

I got very acquainted with how much Satan wants to keep God's people down, how he uses guilt and shame and condemnation, how he comes against your identity in Christ to hit your self-worth.

Because when everything is stripped, when it really stripped away and the battle of life comes, the question is, do you believe you're worthy?

And I realized, wow, even with all that word in me, I have to double down on understanding that God wants me promoted, God wants me successful, and God says I'm worthy, not because I'm good, I'm not good at all, but the blood of Jesus has made me worthy.

That's why you'll notice Madison Avenue, all their marketing campaigns in one way or another are really trying to get you to feel worthy.

You know all those commercials where they show you like a $5,000 silk top, and it's like the voice comes on?

Aren't you worth it?

This car, aren't you worth it?

Because they know, deep down inside, you don't think you're worth it.

But if I can convince you, aren't you worth it?

For men, sir, you work hard.

You provide for your family.

That new Mercedes-Benz S-Class is just waiting for you.

After all, aren't you worth it?

So if you were to ever ask me, what keeps Christians stuck?

Being little livers, nothing ever changing.

They don't feel worthy of promotion.

They don't feel worthy of change.

They don't feel worthy of a God invasion in their life.

They're stuck in a cycle of guilt and shame and condemnation because they never, ever basted in this long.

You can't just get this in this one Sunday sermon.

You know how Uncle Scrooge jumps in the money bin and he's like doing the backstroke?

You got to marinate in this stuff.

You've got to be like Uncle Scrooge and do the backstroke and belly flop cannibal in this word.

Let your mind be renewed to where when I poke you, this truth comes out.

And you know you have been made righteous.

You know you're blameless.

You know you're without blame and made holy before him in love.

That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

Oh, hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

There's a lot of benefits the Bible promises to righteous people.

Do we have any righteous people at City Light today?

Psalm 3725.

I'll go through these quicker than in the first service because I didn't finish in the first service.

So you'll read these promises in the Bible.

They're conditional.

If you're looking at you and your own behavior and never taking confidence in something you did, you're on the wrong track, buddy.

In fact, I say this with love.

You're messed up.

There's people like that.

I meet them now all the time.

Your default, especially, I say this respectfully, but especially coming out of Catholicism, which my whole unsaved crew, pretty much, they're ex-Catholics.

You say, why are they?

Because they're not anything now.

They're mad.

They're bitter.

They've forsaken the church.

They're bitter.

But that Catholic working for God, trying to please God, trying to do something.

You can't do anything.

He's God all by himself.

You're going to help a savior out?

You're going to contribute?

That's like a billionaire's wife.

You're like, you know, honey, I'm going out.

I think I'm going to get a job.

I'm going to work at that boutique on Saturdays.

And comes back home with $150 and says, here, honey, put it with the rest.

Thank you so much for contributing to the pile.

And that's how people are in their relationship with the Lord.

Let me contribute, Lord.

No, he doesn't need your 150 bucks.

There's a metaphor here.

Somebody's going to cheap out on the offering because I use that as the metaphor.

I don't want that to happen.

All right, I have been young and now I'm old.

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.

The righteous.

So it's a promise for the righteous.

Do we have any righteous people?

Made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

So you can take confidence you'll never be forsaken.

Your descendants will never be begging bread.

Next verse, Psalm 512.

For thou, Lord, will bless the righteous.

With favor will thou compass him about as with a shield.

This verse you should memorize.

Because the favor of God isn't fair.

Favor ain't fair.

Favor is his favoritism.

People, you know, there's this whole thing with equality now.

There's a liberal doctrine of equality.

We're all equal.

Everything's the same.

It's so unbiblical.

We're all the same.

Everything's the same.

You're all messed up.

We're not all the same.

God didn't make angels all the same.

There's hierarchies.

This might blow your commie mind, but God is a hierarchical God.

And Christians, we want to say, oh, they're all the same.

God loves us all the same.

All right, whatever.

But his favor is not all the same on people.

According to your faith, be it unto you.

You see somebody and they're getting blessed left and right.

That's why you're depressed because you're like, well, God, you love me the same.

Why isn't it working for me like it's working for them?

That guy's under the spout from where the glory's coming out.

That guy's learned how to tap into favor and you're there harrumphing going, well, it's not fair because don't you love us all the... Get his favor.

His favor is awesome.

His favor makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

His favor is like you could be in a room with 20 people and 19 are hungry and you have a full belly.

His favor is a thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

His favor is in destruction and famine.

You shall laugh.

There.

And with favor, not just in front of you.

All around you, in front of you, to your left, to your right, behind you, over you like a canopy, and undergirding you.

With favor, he'll compass you round about, but only, that's a promise only, to the righteous.

Come on, man.

Five people shout.

See, when I first got saved, I read this, and if I was having a bad week with the Lord, I'd read that and go, well, I guess I don't qualify.

Wow.

Or I would think, what do I have to do to qualify for this?

Psalm 512.

I really want to be encompassed with your favor.

What do I have to do for you, God?

Just name it, I'll do anything.

See, our religious mind wants to do, do, do.

That's why we smell like doo-doo.

When the finished work of the cross is done, are you hearing this church?

It's done, done, done.

You don't have to do-do.

You have to believe in the one and trust in the one who did it all for you.

Hallelujah.

So I read this and I don't think, wow, what good things have I done for you, Lord, that now you should put your favor on me.

I think, Lord, I receive Jesus and his righteousness.

And when you look at me, you don't see one speckle or spot of sin in me.

Not because my behavior is flawless, but because Jesus's work on the cross is flawless.

And he transferred me.

His A grade, like I took an exam before God, you took an exam, you know what we got?

Not a C, not a D, an F minus.

And Jesus got an A, a perfect A.

And then Jesus erased his name off the top of the exam and put your name there and presented it to the Father.

So now you have an A plus, plus, plus, plus with extra credit, gold star happy face on it.

Hallelujah.

Psalm 84, 11 says,

I feel happy because I feel like I've preached myself happy.

And I feel like a good number of people are finally, finally breaking through.

And somebody is going to have fun in prayer and actually get results this week.

Hallelujah.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield.

The Lord will give grace and glory.

Glory.

Oh, by the way, I didn't say this in the first service.

The Lord will give grace and glory.

What does that mean?

I mean, what does glory in that context mean?

See, I've secretly been trying to offend people.

Offense is a beautiful thing.

Jesus used it often.

It exposes not how offensive I can be, but how sensitive and easily offendable you are.

So here's what glory means.

That's why I'm standing up.

Money.

Money.

Money.

Money, money, money, money, money.

Money.

You don't like it?

Too bad.

It means money.

You're going to check AI?

Good.

Check it.

It means money.

You're going to harumph it.

Sorry.

It means money.

That's what it means.

The first time the word glory was used, and there is the first use principle in theological interpretation, the first use principle.

The first time the word glory was used was that Abraham's beasts of burden were so kabod.

The word for glory, kabod, it means heavy laden with treasure.

See, your American 2026 mind, this doesn't mean anything.

For the Lord will give grace and glory.

What do you think glory is?

Pixie dust?

Oh, give me glory.

Oh yeah.

What, good vibes?

Hashtag good vibes?

That's why you read that and didn't get excited.

Somebody, a Hebrew living back then, that's saying, God Almighty, El Elyon, El Shaddai.

Jesus will give you grace and prosperity, abundance.

Word glory, material wealth and possessions.

And people read glory.

What does that mean?

A wave of fog in the air?

No good things.

We're still talking about things.

I don't like that city light pastor.

He's so materialistic talking about things.

Take it up with the Bible.

Amen.

He wants you to have things.

Lots and lots of things.

He'll get the things to you if he knows he can get them through you.

Hallelujah.

No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

That's why I walk so uprightly.

And I remind God of how upright I am.

And when I pray, I tell him, Lord, you know, we feed the homeless.

And Lord, I'm such a good Christian.

I'm kidding.

I never do that.

A lightning bolt would strike me.

I hope to knock the nonsense out of my head.

For those who walk, I don't walk uprightly.

But Jesus walked perfectly uprightly.

And so I don't take my confidence in my own walk.

That embarrasses me.

You ever meet the religious person who wants to boast to you about how great their walk is?

What would be awesome is if Jesus showed up and actually exposed them.

Which, by the way, he does do that.

He did that to the rich young ruler.

The rich young ruler probably...

externally had like his own great walk, right?

And he said, I do this, I do that, I do everything correctly.

And Jesus is like, uh-huh, tough guy.

I know who your God is.

Your God is money.

So I'm gonna put my finger right on that thing that's captivating your heart.

And he says to him, go and sell everything you have.

By the way, it's not a commandment to every Christian to go and sell everything they have and give to the poor.

Commies love to quote that today.

If that was true...

If every Christian is supposed to sell and give it all away, Paul wouldn't have written Timothy and said, hey, to the wealthy people in your church, teach them this.

There'd be no wealth.

Commies, they want, what they really hate is that there be generational wealth within the church.

They love Christians with a poverty mindset who think they should just give everything away so that every generation is starting from scratch.

Because commies actually hate powerful people.

And in this world, money is power.

And communists want to take that from you.

So, say no to communism.

Amen.

I was born in communism.

I have memories of singing songs to my dictator, pledging my...

I'd wear the little hat with the ribbon.

There's a picture with me with the ribbon.

Druze Tito, mi ti secune.

It's comrade Tito, to you I pledge my allegiance.

Yeah.

I'm not 150 years old.

This was like...

45 years ago.

It's not that long ago.

Hallelujah.

Man, do you want to hear more scriptures?

Or I think you're full.

All right, one more.

I got a list here.

Let me pick the best of the bunch.

Oh.

Oh, 15.6.

Just because I offended, I fell some people with money.

So I want to offend you more.

In the house of the righteous, in the house of the righteous, there is much treasure.

because there's these people.

They think there's something inherently holy about being poor.

They love poverty.

And now I'm messing with their whole life's mindset.

I pray for them they don't have a mental collapse when they leave here.

Because they ascribe a virtue to poverty.

I spent my life ministering of impoverished nations.

There's nothing holy about them.

Impoverished nations you'll find all manner of wickedness and horror and sin.

Religious poverty minded people want to reverse this scripture.

I really forgot this was on the list.

I went through the list like let me pick the funnest one.

Then I saw this that really tickled me.

In the house of the righteous, there is much treasure.

But in the revenue of the wicked is trouble.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

So now you might, you might now go back to your home and go, doesn't look like much treasure here.

So either God's wrong or you're wrong.

So if you're wrong, which you are, then you can invite God to come and make it right.

See, what I would do then is go, in the house of the righteous, there is much treasure.

Lord Jesus, I know according to your word, I have been made righteous.

But right now in my house, it's kind of crickets.

All this Ikea furniture, I don't think qualifies as much treasure.

So I am trusting you.

to promote me.

I am trusting you to make this Bible verse come alive in my life.

Hallelujah.

Just because I'm not living it right now doesn't make it not true.

But let God be true and every man a liar.

Hallelujah.

Worship team, come on up.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYC.com.

That's CityLightNYC.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening.

Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.