Why Your Trials Aren't a Sign You're Failing

life is going to be hell on earth and hell when you get there without Jesus.

See, he didn't come to the earth and die on a horrible cross with a painful,

excruciating death because it would make a great movie. He did it was because it was

absolutely essential that something be done about your sin and mind.

He paid my debt himself as a free gift and so all I had to do is be Lee and receive.

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 Jansik 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.

Put your hands together for John Arnett as he comes and blesses you.

Thank you, Pastor. Well, this is just such a loving church. You know that, guys?

Here you are in the middle of New York City and we think, wow, like in the concrete jungle,

there are really living, caring, wonderful human beings. So turn and congratulate each other.

Well, you're for it. For being a trophy in New York City. It's so good. Wow.

Well, we've had a great time with you guys and let's see Friday night, Saturday night,

Sunday morning, twice. This is good. Here we go the second time. And you know, the thing about

two services is you really feel like everything's condensed and there's so much more you would have

loved to have said, but hey, the next service is coming. So and even this one, you get classes

after this and so we can't let you keep going until three. So what if the Holy Spirit wants to

move and He just falls on us and wipes everybody out and we get to break all the rules. Wouldn't that be

something? That's coming by the way. And today I want to talk to you about survival as a Christian,

but more than that, learning the lessons that life and heaven have for you. But see, in order to

make sense of the Word of God and the life experience as a Christian, you have to have the bigger

picture, including eternity. How many of you know that your life is not over when you die?

And we use that term you die, but it's really just your body that dies. You carry on into a greater

and greater existence with Him. So you are already an eternal being. Does that make sense?

Yes. It's like when I turned to 80, which was five years ago, I thought, oh my gosh, you're 80.

And I got to admit, 80 is old. But then I started to think about it. Wait a minute. How old

is old when you're going to live forever? Right? So tell me, how old is old?

How old is the ancient of days? See, if you're going to live forever, all that just kind of loses

its meaning. And so as long as I'm active and more or less healthy and going for it, I just plan on

doing this until I drop. Okay. Because a lot of people are so worried about growing old,

that their life ends the minute they start worrying and thinking that way. I want you to think

about the fact that you are going to live forever. Watch some of these near death experience stories.

And I watched one the other day and this young guy was saying, he saw his body over there and he

goes, huh, I think, yeah, I guess that's my body, but it's not me because I'm here and it's there.

And it's just don't on them, Ted. He's going to live forever. And so he's got a little

podcast going and all kinds of stuff and telling people, eternities on the horizon, everyone.

So turn, tell your friend, it doesn't matter how old you are, you're going to live forever.

And that's a really good deal. Good deal.

All right. I want to talk to you for a few minutes about what I call the convoluted or the random

journey of life. Because life is full of ups and downs. How many found that? You have good days,

you have bad days. And sometimes the bad days seem to be dominant. Isn't it funny how we really

remember the bad days and the good days, you know, they're way back in the past somewhere. We

remember the good old days, but you know what, there's good days too. And don't let the bad days

jade your perspective because God has a purpose in them. And what we want to talk about today is

is the fact that a part of our preparation for eternity is learning to handle stress and trials.

Remember the old song, my trials only helped to make me strong. I mean, you guys are all too young

to remember that Christian quartets and the way those guys used to sing and everything. But

they sang all those kinds of songs. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus,

I've learned to trust in God. My trials only help to make me strong. And so adversity, when it comes,

it's going to do one of two things. It's going to make you bitter or better. That's your call

and your choice and your reaction. How many want life to make you better and to nudge you along and

make you more and more like Jesus who had his fair share of trials, by the way. And he was the

son of God and he did everything right. And so we want to talk about this journey because I think

this message will help you. So let's look at Romans 828 as our verse. And I would encourage you to

print it out, stick it up in your bathroom mirror, and really get it into your spirit.

But here's what it says, Romans chapter 8 verse 28. And we know, we know this, don't we?

Romans 8:28

That all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who were called according

to his purpose. For who he for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son

that he Jesus might be the first born of many brothers and sisters.

So he wants you to be his sister and his brother. How many are up for that?

Now there's no higher position in all of heaven, friends. The angels, they have to stand back and

say, well, those guys are family. He has adopted them into his kingdom. And these are the ones who are

overcomers. How many want to be an overcomer in life? Put your hands up high. And heaven's counting to

see who's not putting their hand up. You want to be an overcomer? Wave at me. Say, yes, Lord,

I want to be an overcomer. I do with all my heart. I do. Okay, listen carefully. Overcomers

are going to need a few things to overcome. You get it? Just a few. Not a whole years and years and

years, hopefully, but a few things. But there are people who have struggled. You know, we had a guy

a missionary, a man by the name of Warren Brent, who came to our little church when we first started

in Stratford. He was, I guess, a Y-Wam speaker and we got him. Richard Warren Brent. This man

was imprisoned in Romania for being a Lutheran Christian and he wouldn't stop. And so they put

him in prison. And he was in there for, I believe it was 18 years. And he was in a cell that was four

feet long, two feet wide, and four feet high. So he couldn't even stand up. And he was a tall guy.

He was like over six feet. And I said, Richard, how on earth did you ever survive 18 years in those

conditions? I mean, I'm a young Christian leader now and I'm trying to imagine what he's been

through. And I asked him that question. Do you know what he said to me? He said, John, there are days

when I wish I was back in my cell. I said, what? How can you possibly say that? He said, because the

presence of the Lord was so real in that miserable cell that I just loved to be in there with him,

where all I could do was crouch down and weep and enjoy the goodness of God.

Oh man, it just left the mark on me. It really did. He learned that all things work together

for good to those who love God, to those who were called according to his purpose. It was

indelibly tattooed and written on his heart. But see, the problem with many of us as charismatic

Christians is this. We have no theology for adversity, many of us. And it's not preached very

often, as far as I know. I preached at one conference, one large conference, this message. I took

a lot of heat for it. What do you do in preaching discouragement? I wasn't preaching discouragement.

I'm preaching being an overcomer. See, I'm trying to connect reality like life is real.

And your trials are real and they'll make you bitter or better and they will help you or hurt you

one or the other. Carol spoke about Joseph last night. How many were here last night?

Okay, how many want Joseph's anointing? You know how you get Joseph's anointing?

You go through what Joseph went through. That's how. First of all, your family hates you. They want

to kill you, but they settled for selling you into slavery. And it wasn't just for a weekend.

It seems to me I tried to work it out roughly and we'll have to ask Chachi to pee to work it out.

The boy. It seems to me he was a slave for over 17 years. And it went okay at first,

didn't it? He's the right guy bottom and he's in a big house and it's okay. It could have been

worse. And so then he's made in charge of everything. But then when the lady of the house goes

for him and he says no thanks, she accused him of trying to rape her to save face he

through Joseph in prison. I think if if he had a thought it was true he would have you know

off with your head, but he settled for prison. And Joseph's in there is near as I can figure

about 17 years. Think of that. God, what's up? What happened to all my dreams about

being a leader and being a charge and my father wants this and wants that for me and everything

else. What am I doing in this stinking prison? Well he's on a advanced course for how to be a

ruler over nations and how to learn adversity so you know how to handle problems. It's amazing,

isn't it? Joseph, God bless you. And so we see in scripture the very same thing is true.

And it was a shock to me when I first realized this but tell me who your favorite Bible character is.

Just call it out. Come on. Who? John. Esther. David Deborah. Ruth. Jesus.

And we all have our okay. Now pick one that had zero problems because they knew how to really

work this Christian thing. They could overcome everything they just you know sailed through life

because they prayed because they gave because they served because they believed because they studied

because they did everything right. Who'd you pick? One guy said to me, Enoch. I said that's a good

one. There's nothing in scripture that says Enoch had any trouble but wait a minute. He lived at

a time just before the flood when the Lord looked over humanity and he said, you know what? I am

sorry that I ever created man on the earth. This is so violent, so corrupt and so horrible.

So I don't think even Enoch had a good time on earth particularly. And so if all the greats of

the Bible had struggles to overcome, why are we so surprised when things go wrong from time to time?

Why do you think Romans 828 is in there to encourage you not to quit, not to give up?

And so these are the things that we want to set you at peace over because I have a suspicion

that the enemy is whispering into your ear in saying things like it's not working for you, is it?

You can't seem to get on top of things. You can't make it work financially. The pastor said,

if you tithe and financial blessing will come, when is it going to come? Health wise, healing is

in the word. Yes, it's the will about to heal you. Why am I not being healed? And what about my

family? And why did this happen? And why did my mother die when we prayed? And why did the

marriage fail when we prayed? And why is everything going wrong? And the devil says it's because

it's not really for you. You can't make this work. Why don't you just pack it in? Why don't you quit?

Go on out party and wine women in song and forget all this Christian stuff because you can't make

it work. That's what he whispers in your ear. And I want to say to you, do not listen to that demonic

voice that is wanting to rob you of the only hope that we have. See, apart from Jesus, there is no hope.

None. Life is going to be hell on earth and hell when you get there without Jesus.

So he didn't come to the earth and die on a horrible cross with a painful excruciating death

because it would make a great movie. That's not why he did it. He did it was because it was

absolutely essential that something be done about your sin and mine. And since I had no way to

repay him, he paid my debt himself as a free gift. It's all I had to do is believe and receive.

And as I become a Christian, now he wants to make me more and more like him. So my earthly

jaded personality has to go through transition, has to get squeezed, has to be conformed to be in

the likeness of the dear son of God. That's the process, okay? So every day is not going to be a

bed of roses. How many have had a good days? Some days, everything goes, well, have you ever had a

great week? Wonderful week? Wow, we love those, don't we? Got a new car? Husband sent you a bouquet

of flowers. I mean, you know, Carol loves it when for no reason, I just bring her flowers.

Now, if it's a birthday or an anniversary and I forget it, that's a different thing.

But you know what, there are days when we have good days, but there are also days when everything

goes wrong. And see, he knows that we all do pretty good when everything's going well,

because we like it when things go well. I got to raise it work. Everybody's nice to me here.

This, that, this, that. Even the policeman was nice. He, I was speeding, he had me for sure,

but then he let me go and said, slow down, you know. Those are great days. We all do well during

them, but he wants to know also how do you do when nothing is going your way? How do you do?

Hmm, maybe not so good. See, the Bible characters are the very same. They had to face trials.

How many want Joseph's anointing again? I see. Didn't get hardly any hands that time.

How many want David's anointing? Hey, David, you're going to be a king one day.

You're, you're suspicious now, aren't you? You know, I would, if I'd asked that before, all the

commentary, then, but every once and a while, yeah, I want David's anointing.

You know, David got anointing in front of all his brothers and then quickly became an outlaw.

His picture was up in all the post offices, you know. Most wanted guy. He's barely getting away

from Saul. All these close calls and finally he just gives up and says, come on, forget it. Saul's

not going to rest until he takes me out. Let's go to the Philistines and make peace with them and

that's what he did. Went to Zicklag. How did that work out for you, David? Well, the Philistines

expected us to go to battle with them, fight our own people. Okay, let's go guys.

And then the other Philistine leader said, we're not taking those guys. No way. They'll, if the

battle goes against us, they'll turn and join Israel. How better can they be reconciled to their

leaders? So send them home. They all get up early in March home. Have you read this story?

And when he got to Zicklag, what did they find? The place is burned to the ground.

And the wives are gone and the kids are gone and the stuff is gone. And it was the worst day

in David's life because his own men are saying, we're going to stone you because we've followed you,

we trusted you, we believed in you and all the promises of God and look where it's got us.

We've lost everything. Poor David, right? What's he do? He does the only thing that there is to do.

He gets alone and strengthens himself in the Lord. And he says, Lord, what do I do?

In the Lord says, pursue them and recover all. Recover all. Yeah. So he rallies his guys.

Guys, here's what we're going to do. We're going to go after them and the Lord has told me we're

going to get everything back. So come on, those of you who are with me, let's go.

And off they go and they find the Amalekites all drunk and partying with all the spoil and everything

they have and they fell upon them at night and they got everything back. It's like a country in

Western. You know, we got my wife back and got my kids back and got my truck back. I mean, you know,

we're just really going here. And David got all this stuff back and he thought that's all we

want. You know, we used to say that when COVID was ripping around, if we could just get back to where

we were, it feels like we lost so much ground and cost so much financially. Church was shut down for

a year. Oh my gosh. So many people died. We didn't have a lot. We had one or two, but

there was a lot died.

David didn't realize that this wasn't just one more trial, but it was regime change

because Saul was killed in the battle and the next thing, you know, the guys from Judah arrived

said, David, you're our king. We want you to be king over Judah, which he was for seven years and then

he became king over all the land of Israel according to the prophetic word of Samuel.

How many of you have had a prophetic word that you've been hanging on too? Let's see.

Let's see. Hang on, friends. The thing about prophetic words is hopefully they didn't put a

timeline in there and tell you, oh yeah, by this time next week and that's where sometimes

prophetic words go wrong. We tell our guys that no dates, no mates and no babies.

Don't say you're going to meet a lovely girl or a wonderful young man who wants to marry you.

You can say it but be careful and don't say when. Anyway, all of these things are

trial. How many want David's anointing?

I do. You mean David, the guy that got another man's wife pregnant and then had the guy killed and

married the widow, that guy? Yeah, that guy. Wait a minute. Would you buy his book?

Here comes the preacher by the way. He got another man's wife pregnant.

Then he had that guy killed and he married the widow for crying out loud.

Would you buy his book? Well, we do. I have a copy of it right here.

Oh, no. Book of Psalms. You know, it's just a little rabbit hole here, but I said one day reading

all this. I said, Lord, help me. Why would you choose David and then why would you choose

Bathsheba? You know, Bathsheba was the ancestry mother of Jesus on two counts because she was

the mother of Solomon, the son of David, and the mother of Nathan, another son of David through

Bathsheba. David had kosher wives. Why would he choose Bathsheba? That was my question. Have you

ever asked the Lord that? He said to me because when I forgive, my forgiveness is perfection.

So here's another one for you. Saul and David, two young men, they're anointed

with holy oil by Samuel, the mighty prophet. As that oil went over those two young men, the spirit

of God came on them and they were given new hearts, both of them. They were anointed.

What's the difference? Who's anointing? Would you like? How many want David's? How many want

Saul's? Anybody want Saul's anointing? Besides Carol? See, they're identical. The question is,

what will you do with the anointing he gives you? Very identical. See, Saul defaulted into

blame shifting. It's not my fault. You turned up late. You're a day late. What was I to do? So

the people, they made me do this, and it's blame shifting. Whereas David owned up to it. Nathan

said, you are the man. And David is like, I am. And he wept his way through to genuine repentance.

And the Lord calls him a man after his own heart. See, Bible characters went through the

testings of life just like you. So the bigger question I guess is, why does the Lord have a value

on testing and adversity for us? What do you think? How many went to school and enjoyed exam time?

Why don't I have to have exams, you know, that kids are asking. Because they want to know where

you've been attention, did you learn anything so that we can move you on to the next grade?

And your exam will tell that. Yeah, you remember it. Okay, good. You pass. Be promoted.

But it's the stress of exams. Now Carol, she would go home from school and right away do her homework.

And did well on her exams were me. I would leave homework to the last minute, you know. And

cramming for exams when that time came along. Anybody else do that kind of thing? Anybody have?

I'm not alone. Good. Carol was a good little girl. I want you to know that. And mother said,

do your homework. Yes, mom, she'll do it. My mom said, did you do your homework? Not yet, mom,

but I'll get to it. Don't worry, you know. Yeah. Anyway, adversity, you know, it's biblical.

Have adversity. And the problem is many of us as charismatic Christians, we have this notion

that if we give enough, serve enough, read the word enough, believe enough, have faith enough

that everything is going to just go smooth for us and better roses.

And the problem is God builds into your lifetime in mind adversity because he wants to know,

are you an overcomer or not? Because in the millennial kingdom, he wants people that have been

tested and time tested and proven that they're going to make great rulers over cities for him.

For the king of kings and lord of lords. And he says things like, well done, good and faithful

servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm going to make you ruler over 10 cities.

And I'm going to make you ruler over five cities because you passed the test, my dear. Well done.

He wants you to be an overcomer. And like I said, to be an overcomer, you're going to need a few

challenges for you to overcome. You're going to have to trust God, you're going to have to believe,

you're going to have to this and you're going to have to that. I tell this story about

Carol and I, two divorced singles. I had two girls, she had two boys. And we met each other along the

way. And friends, even Benny hints at me that Johnny, you need to marry that Carol. I said,

Benny, stop. I mean, I'm trying to rescue a failing marriage here. And he says, I know, but

she's a good one. So okay, we eventually started dating when all hope was gone. I got my divorce

in the mail. She had already had hers for a while. I remember one day walking along by the river,

beautiful day in October. And I thought I'm going to ask her if she'd marry me.

Do you remember that moment, girls? And so I stopped there. I looked into her beautiful blue eyes

and I said, Carol, will you marry me? And she said, oh, yeah.

I'm like, what? Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. How's it going to work? I've got two girls.

You got two boys. And oh, God, I'll take care of us. Yeah, but we have no money. We got this

struggling business and just in that. Oh, God, I'll take care of us. And there's about three or

four of those. And I said, okay, well, if you think God's going to take care of us, let's do this then.

And so we got married about eight months later on June the 9th, 1979. It was a wonderful, wonderful,

beautiful day. And by the way, we lived happily ever after. And that was almost 47 years ago.

And we had no idea that we were being prepared and squeezed and tested to see how we would do.

And then he's going to hand us a global revival to two broken pieces in life who couldn't even make

marriage work really. His ways are not our ways, friends. So we felt disqualified to ever be pastors.

I did. I'd been to Bible school, learned all that stuff. But I felt like, well, there goes my dream.

Forget about that. You might as well just knuckle down and be in business, which I was trying to do.

And it wasn't going all that great. It was scraping along. And now I know why.

Your trials will only help to make you strong through it all.

Romans 8, remember that verse, write it down. You're going to need it. Come through.

Some of you are going through stuff right now. Health challenges, relational challenges,

family challenges, and this and that and the other. And you're like, God, where are you?

Like, I need you and I can't blind you. We need help. We need health. We need miracles. We need

something. And he's like, yeah, keep pressing it. Keep trusting. Trust when all else fails. Trust

when it seems like there's no more hope. And remember what he said to Abraham.

The Lord showed up and said, and Sarah is going to have a son.

And they both laughed, called the boy laughter, because that's what Isaac means.

I want to give you one more example. Many are unprepared for adversity.

John 16, 33 says, in this world, you will have tribulation, trouble. But be of good cheer.

I've overcome the world. So he's got this thing. What your job is to hang in there and pass the test.

Now, Hebrews 11 has got the list of champions. This guy overcame the fire and this guy overcame

the lions and this guy overcame this and overcame that and overcame the other. How many love the

hall of faith chapter in Hebrews? But it goes on to say, but others were saw in half and martyred

and seemingly it didn't work out for them. No, they passed the test even though they died trying.

See, the end is not the end with him. And some of us may get martyred. I don't know.

Is that okay with you? I mean, I'm 85. It's okay with me now. Bring it on. You know,

the martyrs get a better reward.

Build your house on the rock, not on the sand. Because the rains descend and the floods come up

on everybody. And if you've got a foundation unto you, that is the rock Christ Jesus,

your life will stand the test one way or the other. This is the biblical basis for testing.

In the world, you will have tribulation, trouble, pressure, but be of good cheer. Turn to your

friends and say, be of good cheer. So we got all these characters in the Bible and every one of

them had problems. What is your personal journey? Peter says the trial of your faith,

1 Peter 1, 7, the trial of your faith is more precious than gold to him. He loves it when you

hang on and say, I'm not going to quit. I'm going to keep going. That's what I did when I was

going through and all is failing and the devil is telling me it's not working for you. Why don't you

just forget this Christianity thing and go party on. And I had a long night of prayer

and somewhere around four in the morning. I said, God, I've come too far with you to turn back now.

So come what may I'm with you. You know, that was one of the smartest decisions I ever made.

I passed the test that night and I ended up with Carol, my treasure.

In one day, we were reading about the treasures and how we would be this peculiar King James

were peculiar treasure unto him. Unusual special treasure. I stopped and I said, baby,

I feel that way about you. Like some men, they drive it, some men, they hang it on the walls and

others they invest it and they have it in the bank. I don't have that, but I have a living treasure

and that's you. If you know what she did, she just burst into tears. I'm like, why didn't

want to make you cry? See, the treasures in life that you really long for are not stuff or things,

the relationships. And he wants to build relationships into your heart. That's why forgiveness is so

important, everybody. Like last night, many of you came to the front and you forgave people.

You gave them a gift. They do not deserve just like Jesus gave you that same gift that you did not

deserve. His mercy, his forgiveness became a treasure for you and you got a relationship with

the King of kings and the Lord of lords that is worth more to use than a world full of gold.

Relationships. Now, I want you to see how this works. Paul the Apostle was praying,

where do we go? When he's trying to go to Bethany and it's not opening up, he's trying to go

here. He's trying to go there. And finally, he gets a dream. How many get a dreams? Let's see.

Listen to your dreams. Write them down. Ask the Lord what they mean because God speaks through dreams.

Paul got a dream. There's a man in Macedonia saying, hey, come over here and help us. He woke up

Silas. I've got it. We're going to Macedonia. The Lord gave me a dream last night. Come on,

down to the port on a ship, way they go. And they're in Meletus, I think it was, and then led into

the city, the capital of Macedonia. And it went pretty good for a while. They met Lydia and she

opened her home to them. She's a wealthy lady. Come on, stay here and fed them and carried on

everything. And then one day, he saw this little demonized fortune telling girl that just got

under his skin and he said to the spirit, come out of her in Jesus' name. And it did. But the owners

of that little slave girl were so upset with them. They had him arrested and beaten with rods

at the two of them and thrown into the inner dungeon in their prison and locked them down with

their feet in the stocks. You know what stocks are, right? They're where you're sitting on a bench

and this other thing comes down and there's room for your ankles, but you can't move your feet.

And there they are, with their backs bleeding and hurting and they can't move.

What do you think they're saying to each other?

Silas and Paul. Silas is here. I got to go to the bathroom, I can't move.

You and your dreams got us into this.

I never did feel right about going to Mass at home. It just was kind of, you know,

how many of you have ever had a prophetic word that kind of went wrong seemingly?

You're going to be a pastor one day. There's going to be amazing, right?

No, that wasn't what happened. One of them said, I feel like singing.

What? Singing. It's midnight. We can't sing now. The place is all trying to sleep.

I don't care. I want to sing. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below.

Next thing you know, an earthquake. Everybody's chains fell off, all the prison doors flew open

and the jailers like, what happened? The doors were open, the chains are off.

Probably the prisoners have all run and where's my sword? I'm going to kill myself and they heard

them. And Paul Christ said, do yourself no harm. We're all here. What do you mean? We're all here.

None of the prisoners took off. If you were a prisoner at midnight, there's an earthquake and

your chains fell off and the doors flew open. What would you do?

Thank you, Lord. There's in such shock at the supernatural presence because those guys were no

doubt singing the gospel to them, that this is the hand of God and they're all like

broken. And the jailer came in, falls at their feet. What must I do to be saved?

And he and his whole family came to Christ. The next thing you know, they bring him into their home.

And it's, I don't know, two, three in the morning by this time. And the wife makes some food for them

and they clean up their wounds, wash them with wine and oil, I guess. And there they are talking about

the things of God till morning. And the next thing you know early in the morning, the word comes

from the magistrates. Hey, those prisoners you have let those guys go. And Paul says, oh,

just let those guys go. You go back and you tell those magistrates, listen here. We are Roman

citizens. You beat us and imprisoned us without a trial. You better get your own butt out here and

ask us nicely to leave. Oops. Here they come. We're so sorry. We had no idea we're a Roman citizen.

Oh, please. Go away quietly. So Paul said, I'm going to take my time. I'm going to go say goodbye to

Lydia and so on. And then maybe we'll leave after that. See, he turns it around. That's the point.

He turns it around. Your trials will only help to make you strong.

Even when you get a prophetic word, even when you get a dream, and it's clearly God,

God. That doesn't mean it's going to be a cakewalk and a bed of roses. Why? Because he has a high

value on testing. Looks your scripture. Everybody gets tested. Why? Because he wants to know how

serious are you? How genuine are you?

Not maybe that you're in the middle of stuff here and the enemy is whispering in your ear about

we both know this Christianity. Things not working for you. It's not working for you financially.

It's not working for you. Relationally, it's not working for you in any measurable way. Why don't

you just forget this and pack it up and go play or go something? Don't listen to that,

voice, friends. That's when we need to close ranks among ourselves and tell stories. I remember

when the Lord delivered me. I remember when the Lord delivered Carol. She knew what Carol did

about, I don't know, three or four years after we were married. Her ex-husband came down with cancer.

She got a phone call from his current wife who used to be a girlfriend of hers. He left Carol

to go and be with that one. She calls Carol. Carol. We don't know what to do. Bill's got cancer.

And they're saying he only has a short time to live. Oh my gosh. She began to pray for her ex-husband.

It wasn't too long after that where he's in the hospital and they've given him up.

So she went into the hospital. She had to stick handle around all the family and the relatives

and they knew wife and everything else. And she made it in there. And one of his friends was there

and there was a Carol. I got a whoops. See you later. And her husband said, Carol, what are you doing

here? You start saying, I'm sorry that I didn't really pay the money that I should have and I

did something like that. She says, that's not why I came. He says, it's not, no, I came to ask this

question where you're going to spend eternity. He says, well, heaven, I hope. He said, not good enough.

Led him to Jesus. He told our oldest son, Rob. Rob, I've surrendered my life to Jesus. I'm going to

be okay. And we knew it was genuine because he did that. That whole relief came on Rob at that time.

And he was what? Nine, 10 maybe or 11? Something in there. I can't remember exactly how many years

after we were married. He was nine when we were married, so he could have been 12. He was hugely

relieved. And they sent him home to the hospital and then about six days later, he died.

And she went to the hospital and led him to Jesus. See, that's what being an overcomer looks like

when she could have said, ha, ha, life caught up with you, didn't it, my friend? I hope you enjoy

your early death. But she, that was not in her heart at all. Because she was happy that she ended up

with me. The stat. If you're going through stuff right now, I don't want you to hang your head

in shame and feel like a failure because that's not the deal. The deal is he's wanting you to make

right decisions and grow through this experience and through this encounter. How many of you are

struggling right now? And you've been wondering, Lord, what the heck is going on? Where are you?

Why aren't you helping me? Don't you care? The last thing you want to do is start accusing God.

Don't, don't join hands with the accuser. Join hands with the comforter, the Holy Spirit.

And say, Lord, I know that you're a good, good father. I know you have my best interest at heart.

I don't understand why this, this thing is going on in my life right now except to say you're conforming

me to be more like Jesus. And so come what may I'm with you. See, that's the appropriate thing.

Now, if you're struggling, you need the family of God, the body of Christ to come and gather

around you and be a comfort to you. So if you've been struggling with things, I won't, you know,

you raised your hands a moment ago. I want you to come out of your seat and come and gather here

at the front. And let's pray for you. And let's be family and believe God. Come on.

All of you, don't hang back. And all of you on the ministry team here, raise your hands if you're

on the ministry team here. Come on, wave, wave, wave. I want you to just come up and encourage

these people. Because this scripture says, in this world, you will have tribulation, trouble, bot,

bot, be of good cheer because I have overcome the world. You're just in school, that's all.

You're taking a course about how to handle adversity. How many want to pass? You want to pass your

advanced course? Wave excitedly. Here we are. It may be that some of you have actually fallen away.

Or maybe you've never even surrendered to Jesus in the first place. You might be here and you're thinking,

do I ever want to surrender my life to Christ? If that's you, I want you to admit it right now to

yourself. I need a savior to rescue me. I do not, I don't want to pay my debt myself. I want

Jesus to pay my debt for me. So, if that's you, I want you to unashamedly raise your hand right

now and say, I want to, I'm not calling for people who have already decided yes for Jesus, but

people who need a savior to choose. If that's you, if you need to get born again, wave raise your hand

right now in the room. Unashamedly friends, because he's the only hope we have of ever having sins

remitted because if he doesn't pay them, you will pay them and I'm telling you, you don't want that

option because hell is real. If you're raising your hand for that, just say this quickly with me,

Lord Jesus, come into my heart right now and forgive me of all my sins, my railing against you

and come into my heart and wash me clean Lord with the precious blood that you shed.

In all of you that came up, I want you to shrug off all the fear, shame, anger, hurt, pain,

confusion and say, I'm going to trust in God. I'm going to pass this test. I'm going to get

through it. I don't know where the money's coming from. I don't know where the help is coming from,

but I don't need to know because I have a wonderful heavenly daddy who's got this thing

and he's going to see me through. Does that make sense?

Ministry team, I want you to come and we're going to run for the plane right now, but

I want you to take all the time you need, so I'm going to pass it to Pastor Moe. Pastor Moe,

take over. 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 Boy on Janskik in 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

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