Good Things Happen to Covenant People

You can have a terrible 26, a mediocre 26. You can have a full overflowing 26.

And a lot of that boils down to how we are thinking about ourselves and the upcoming weeks and months and how we see ourselves in Christ.

For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What are you in your heart of hearts believing about your future?

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.

Welcome to those of you joining us online. I want to make a couple announcements before I bring today's Word for you which I'm very excited about.

One growth track begins tonight. So everybody you hear clapping, they've gone through growth track.

I will admit I will confess my sin. I have slacked with regard to stating the importance of growth track.

So what is growth track? Growth track is four sessions, about 45 minutes to an hour in length.

And then for everybody who wants to learn more about City Light and learn more about how they fit into the body of Christ, it's really our membership class.

Now, whenever I became a Christian, I didn't want to be a member of any church. That was just my default state.

Not because I understood membership, but because I thought, well, I don't want to be controlled, I don't want to go to a plaque.

What does that even mean? Like, am I a member for life? Is it like the mob? You can check in, but you can't check out. How does membership work?

Why membership? What's the importance of membership? Here's what the Bible says. It says those that are rooted and grounded in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God.

So you got two Christians. One is a leapfrog Christian, ribbit, ribbit. They bounce from church to church. Study that Christian.

You'll soon find out that there's nothing about their life that you want to emulate.

You'll soon discover that they're not living in God's best. And the moment God starts to deal with them, they just switch churches.

See, that's why in the Old Testament, in the good old days, the first century. You know, if you got out of line, Paul's like, hey, we're going to kick you out of church.

That was bad news in the first century, because you're an Ephesus. You're like, oh, Corinth is a long ways off.

But now someone just takes a subway stop one over and they're in another church. And they just begin the whole thing all over again. No, but God wants you plugged in.

God wants you rooted. God wants you receiving and giving somewhere. And so it's frustrating not to be in a place where you're rooted and grounded. It's frustrating for you.

Not for us who are rooted and grounded. We're having the time of our lives.

So it begins with the growth track. You also discover more about yourself. There's a spiritual gifts assessment.

So you learn how God designed you, how God made you, and how you can fit into the body of Christ.

Tonight it starts at seven if you don't know what I'm talking about, but you want to get involved. And it couldn't be any easier. It's via zoom.

Like everything is so easy now. You could be in your pajamas from the waist down. So comfy.

And go go through the growth track. So email info at citylightNYC.com. You can also fill out a connection card and do all that.

But this is the quickest way. And that email. Remember that email. It's the number one way to get a hold of city light church.

There is an actual human, not an algorithm or AI behind that email. And they will respond to you. Amen.

And number two, how many of you? You watched Mike Winger's video, so whopping four people in the first service. Wow.

Mike Winger came out nothing. Wow. You guys are so blessed. It's so awesome. All right. Let me chitchat about that a little bit.

This fellow Mike Winger is running an exposé on the crazymatic, I mean the charismatic church.

And it got over a million views within just a few days.

And it's got a nice in the first service. Only four people raised their hands. And in this service, I don't even know because some of them were in the first service raising their hands again.

So let me start in the beginning. In the beginning, there was the word. No. In the beginning, just so you know, we're a non-denominational church.

And most churches, most church plans of the last 20, 25 years are non-denominational. That just means they don't fall neatly into a particular denomination.

But if you come for longer than five minutes, you'll realize, oh, had city light, they believe in the whole Bible. Nothing added, nothing taken away.

And they believe in the whole Bible. They also believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit with the manifestation and evidence of speaking and tongues. They believe in all nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And so we're in that sense spirit filled, although that's not a denomination. In that sense, we're penicostle, but that's not really a denomination either.

There's no like penicostle world headquarters. You know what I mean? And also we're charismatic.

We're charismatic because we believe in the carus. That's the Greek where the carus, the grace, or the giftings of the Lord, especially with regard to the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But in this video, did you watch it? You didn't even hear of it. Millions, so a million views in a few days. It's not a you guys. Or she says, it's for you guys.

Well, that's because although I love the Holy Spirit and I love the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I'm not so in love at all with the crazy, mad, world.

You can get very weird. You can get goofy. And when things get weird and goofy in church, people get hurt.

So have you ever noticed that we don't have that many guest speakers at city light? Like you might think we do, but there's churches like once a month.

We do a three day mini conference or full on conference and they're having constant guest speakers. There's actually a reason why from that charismatic world, the only guest speakers I have come in our David Wagner and the R knots, who will be with us in April, by the way.

I got involved deeply in that world. So I'm not talking about doctrine here. I'm talking about the machine, the world of carus mania.

And I just noticed it wasn't conducive to spiritual health. Got very, very weird, very bizarre. And then when I got to know the minister is associated with that, not all, but a disproportionate amount are what's the psychological term for crazy.

They're nuts. They're crazy. They got, it's a great place to hide if you got like borderline personality disorder, narcissistic disorder, your ego is all out of control.

It's a great place to hide. And then if anybody ever says anything, boo to you, you immediately bust out, touch, not God's anointed and do his profits, no harm.

You're telling me about me? What do you want God to curse you? Don't you talk about me? I mean, what a weird manipulative thing, right?

So what came out in this video, which I'm so proud of David Wagner, who actually is a prophet of God, who told me all this in 2019, that's seven years ago.

That one of the supposed profits was actually data mining on Facebook. So if there's a conference, you know, people register for the conference on Facebook and things too.

So he would find that list, go into their Facebook and find out your dog's name, your goldfish's name. Find out your birthday and your address, because you put all that stuff out on Facebook.

And then come to the meeting goes, they're Lucy. Is there Lucy here? God's going to make you a fisher of men, because I know your fish that you love so much is named Abigail. And there's Lucy.

Six not sure it's catching Lucy as she crumbles to the ground.

David Wagner told me he said, listen, something's up with that guy. He's a real prophet, but he said, there's something's up with that.

I said, why would you say that? No one else is saying why do he said, you know when the words are just a little too specific over and over and over again?

He's like, I operate in the prophetic all the time. It could just be me. Maybe I need to go to a higher level. He's so humble. That's how he words it, because it could just be me.

But I have never known anyone to do that consistent like that can happen sometimes. But all the time, I think he's going on people social media and finding out what they're about and giving them words.

So why would somebody do that? There are a lot of reasons. I mean, when I got around that movement in 2008, this is going to blow your mind.

But when I got around the movement, would you believe that some people are still a slave to fame and money, money and fame and money, money and fame?

And it becomes like a drug and then they just got to, they got to also perform. They got to put not a rabbit out of a hat. They got to pull a hat out of a rabbit.

I love when the Holy Spirit moves and he moves in varying degrees from service to service. But I know when I wanted him to move in great ways in the early, every single service, there were times where I distinctly felt I was pushing on another realm that was not of God.

And I would be exhausted physically after the service. I feel very agitated and irritated after and I went to the Lord about it and the Lord said, quit forcing the Holy Ghost.

You cannot, you cannot make a sure, see if I'm, if my, if my whole reputation has passed your bow with a miracle man, right?

If that's, then you're going to come here expecting miracles. Yeah, but maybe I show up on a Sunday and the Lord wants me just to teach, maybe wants me to teach on the tithe, someone's least favorite subject.

And that's, he wants me to go for two hours straight on the tithe, really get in there. 90% of the people like wear the miracles, they walk out. So now I have to perform, I have to keep the show going and you open yourself up to all sorts of different spirits.

Why am I talking about this? Just because I want you to be discerning and most of you really, really are, you'd be discerning and know if, if someone gets elevated to a position to a prominent position and quote the body of Christ, that does not mean that God is endorsing this person.

That is not God's stamp of approval on the person. The gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. That means he won't take them back. That's why there's some charlatan ministers, they still minister with authority, effectiveness, even the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their life is a mess. And you don't want to get entangled with that. Hallelujah.

There was another guy that got exposed, he would say things like, I have not lied since I got saved. Never ever lied. And people would cheer. If I was in that meeting, I would have said, you just did now. There's your first one then. He just did.

And then he doubled that. And he's, by the way, it wasn't just once. He kept on saying it. Like throughout the years, they would show clip after clip after clip. I've never, and then he would say he would take it even further. I've not sinned since I got saved. Like, what a horrible thing to then put on others because you're making yourself the standard and impossible standard for other people to meet.

And it would just bring shame and guilt and condemnation on all the listeners. And, and then also it would serve him because now he is God's untouchable. Like the holy man. Wow. He must really, really be special.

So, you know, how do we process this? Well, one, we don't want to become overly suspicious. Anybody can be suspicious and cynical. You don't want to be suspicious and cynical.

You want to believe the best and have an open heart. And God uses lots of different people and lots of different ways. But also you don't want to be silly and naive.

And, and I'm not in love with the movement. That's all that's the only thing I can say. I don't, I don't like the weird stuff that happens. I don't.

Not the God, look, God can be weird. God is the good kind of weird. I love God's weird. Because it really exposes that I'm the one who's weird. He's normal. He's good.

It's the weird, you know, I'm talking about weird stuff. Like, can I just see your Bible for a second? You know, I remember at one meeting, oh, Lord, you didn't tell me I needed a personal trainer to lift up your Bible. What the,

all right, I don't, I, I thought I needed an object lesson. I do not. I need Tiger Bomb for my bicep now after holding up your Bible. You know, I'm talking about weird.

There's a guy at a conference. He comes up to him and he go, God's putting gold glitter all over, all over my hands. It's a, but you know, he's got the wild look in his eye and everything.

Which you can't use that to judge a person because a lot of Christians have that look. Amen. Especially especially the conference Christians.

See, there's church going Christians like yourselves and there's conference junkies. They're like heroin addicts. They never go to church. They rarely have Christian friends. They're just like, do you got, you got one of those conferences?

I was doing the mean. Nobody knows the mean. All right. You got any more of those conferences? Thank you two of you who appreciate the mean.

And he comes up to me and he goes, I got gold dust. God is putting gold dust on his people and he's got gold and I'm looking at it and I go, it is gold dust.

And then he's got his Bible in his hand. He's got gold dust on it too. So I go on the edge of the Bible. I'm like, bro, your gold edge Bible pages are all glitter.

So, you know, you rub that thing, pretend like you're a DJ. And then you're going to get a little gold flakes on. Can God do? Yeah, of course he can. But I'm not going to build a ministry around that.

And also, I'm going to be, I can, I get to ask questions like, all right, give me some of that dust. Let's take it to a jeweler for analysis.

How come nobody does that? Find out it's dollar general glitter.

Hallelujah. I can go off on that. I better, I better preach the sermon now. But I thought I might have to like, you know, comfort some of you and encourage some of you, but I didn't even watch the video. You just, you're one of the four.

Pay attention when there's a ministry. Pay attention to the mood of the minister's staff.

That's always to, you know, never ask the staff the pastor how you do it. They're going to lie to you. Never ask me how are things. I'm not going to tell you, ask the wife.

Don't pay attention to what she says. Pay attention to her countenance. That'll never lie. After you ask the wife how she's doing.

I got to wear sunglasses. She's glowing so much. I can ask the staff how are things. You go to a ministry and the staff looks like, because one of these ministries that got exposed, the guy's whole entire staff was turned around.

Twice. I think in a year was it in or in two years, the whole set. Like, could you imagine if, like, if my whole staff left and I hired a whole new staff and then a year later, that whole staff left and I, you, you should ask Pastor Bow.

You know, some of your jokes off the pulpit. I thought they were just jokes. Turns out you're serious. You're chasing everybody away. Some things wrong with you. Amen. So look at those things. Hallelujah.

But this is all good and healthy. The Lord is shaking the tree, pruning branches. This has happened before. It happens.

Ever watch the Godfather's like, these things happen every five, ten years. Talk about the family's going to war. I remember I said, these things happen every five, ten years. I thought, that's how the Lord does it. These things happen every five, ten years.

He shakes the tree. Bad, rotten fruit falls off. He purges his body and then, and then we go higher after that. Amen. Amen. Well, let's go to Hebrews chapter 8 verses 6 through 13.

Hebrews 8:6–13

Oh, speaking of which before I began ministering by joke, I've been ministering this whole time. Some of you know it. And others are waiting for me to start ministering to you this whole time.

I have determined not to bow down to any pressure to do anything other than what God tells me to do. So I've been talking other minister saying, what is wrong with this movement? Why does it produce this so much of this nonsense?

They're like, there's so many good things. And maybe I didn't do a fair enough job to say how many good things I've gotten from charismatic panic, whatever you want to call them, spirit-filled believers, they're so much good.

But there's also a lot of yucky stuff.

And I wonder what, how do we eliminate what's wrong here? And one of the frequent answers I will get is these leaders, they don't stay in their lane.

Now, if you read the book, God's generals, volume one, you will find over and over again that that is reiterated as the theme of the book. And the number one reason why some of these great men of God in their latter years went off the deep end.

They don't stay in their God or dain lane. You get so successful, you get so big, it seems like God has given you the mightest touch, everything you put your hand forth to do, he makes it to prosper.

So you just start doing all these other things until you find yourself in trouble. So like, let me give you an example. Last Sunday, we had to cancel service because of the snowstorm.

Now, did you notice we did not have a live stream? That was intentional. That wasn't because, you know, we forgot. We could have easily had one.

We could, I could have recorded one from my office in my home. You know why we didn't have one? I didn't want to. That's it. I didn't want you.

But everybody had one, not me. I didn't want one. You know why? Because the word that God gave me, He gave me for my church. And He gave me for the people that would come.

It was, this is the word I'm going to, it's a specific word. I don't want to have a live stream. We're only, frankly, 20% of you're going to show up. And now I don't want to waste that word, which is is dying for the whole church on 20% also. I'd rather save it for now.

But we needed something. You got 2000 somethings, podcasts, YouTube, it's all there. Watch a rerun. Also, do you notice we don't have any conferences? Now, when I first started, I wanted to have conferences, but we had no money to have conferences.

And conferences are very expensive. But if you want to get the churches name out there, they're the fastest way to get your church name out there. So when we were broke church, I wanted conferences.

Couldn't have conferences because we're broke. Now we're prosperous church. And I said, no conferences.

I don't know what we could do. If I was a schemer. If I was a, it's very easy to blow up in ministry. It's actually not hard. Some of you think, I wonder if Pastor Bowen knows, yes, I know. I've been around this way. I know all the little tricks. I can do them. I can hire now.

I can hire media director. I can hire people. We could do conferences once a month and get the who's who and the crazy mad exude the top names. So now my stock value goes up because I'm being associated with them.

I can see the biggest names. And then also, you know, you know how there's the posters and there's like a flying, storing dove with missiles coming out in his wings and flames of fire. And then there'll be my picture.

And I get a new title. Pastor Bowen sounds too, too local. I like senior global leader, Dr. Apostle Bowen. That's hot. That's hot. Senior global leader, Dr. Apostle Bowen.

And it will cost me 50 grand a pop. Who cares? And I do conference after conference. We would become the charismatic hub of the Northeast.

And you, can I tell you something? None of you would correct me. I shouldn't say none. But because here's the trap. I didn't mean to antagonize you by saying it that way. But here's the trap, though. I start getting famous.

Now you also, because you were here from the early days. And you know me. So you don't correct me. You don't pray for me. You like it, too.

All of a sudden everybody's talking about city light. And do you go to city light? You just came to city light. I've been coming to city light. I remember when Pastor Bowen was in my life group.

You, you're new. That's how these things happen. So I have never been, and by the way, do you know how I got this way?

Because I have such a pure heart. No. It seems like it's so holy up here. I got this way because I went down some of these roads myself.

Thankfully, by God's mercy, I fell on my face so hard so quickly before I got along too far that I realized, whoa, this is not the way to do it.

This is dirty. This is unholy. This is nasty. And I, that's it. Amen.

I feel like I need to clarify some things, but I'm going to leave it at that. I'm going to leave it at that. Amen.

All that to say is here we are. I have embraced my calling as a local church pastor who sometimes travels. Sometimes. Like I'll be visiting Pastor Yovica in late spring, checking up on the work there.

But I'm contented. Whereas for years, there was always like a worm in me that wouldn't give me rest.

I don't need other people to know me. I love you. God knows me. He knows my name. My family knows me. And I just encourage you. Have that. Get to that place.

The moment you get to that place where you're contented and God's allotment for you, you will have peace.

Now, you want to be robbed of peace? Go a lot on Instagram. Go a lot on YouTube. Go a lot and see what God is doing in other people's lives.

And I've sat in whisper to you, how come your life is boring and there's so exciting. And your peace will get robbed.

Because social media is an envy amplification device. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Well, look at you. Look at YouTube.

I can't even see your faces because the light is but I see the silhouette. Aren't you all snug as bugs in a rug? Look at how snugly wugly you are.

Let me see here.

Okay.

Hallelujah.

I thought I missed out on something. You were so snugly.

Lord, let not my behavior keep other people from forming relationships and dating within the church.

I'm just actually very, very excited for the both of you. Very, very blessed. You stay good and snugly. Hallelujah.

Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6.

Hebrews 8:6

Hebrews 8.6. So I'm thinking about your 2026. I've been with the Lord and going Lord, what one thing?

One thing for them to be positioned and postured for 2026 to be awesome and all has to do with thinking and how you think.

And what you believe about God and what you believe about yourself and what you believe about how God functions in your life.

In fact, before Hebrews 6, just go to that verse in Proverbs because this is how important this is.

You can have a terrible 26, a mediocre 26. You can have a full overflowing 26.

And a lot of that boils down to how we are thinking about ourselves and the upcoming weeks and months and how we see ourselves in Christ.

For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

So what are you think ofing? What are you in your heart of hearts believing about your future?

Notice that Satan is constantly trying to infiltrate your mind and get you to be down about your future, down about who you are in the Lord.

And the new covenant and what Jesus has finished work affords us is the solution to that. Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

It's talking about the new covenant starting in verse 6.

The thing is way too many Christians don't know the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.

Did you know that? I know that. 8 out of 10. Maybe 9 out of 10. Can't tell you the difference.

They'll just say, well, the old covenant was before Jesus, the new covenant was of Jesus. That's it.

And it is absolutely essential. This passage we're about to read is one of the most essential passages in the entire Bible.

Once you get it, a lot of things fall into place. Like before I got this secretly, I wondered, how come it seems like God had one personality in the Old Testament?

And a totally different personality in the New Testament. Did you ever wonder that? Well, he didn't have a therapy and get nicer.

He didn't have a personality. He's the same God. But the covenant is different. So the way in which he relates to man is different.

Under the old covenant, you did good. You got good. You did bad. You got cursed. You got bad. It was based on your behavior.

The new covenant is not based on your behavior. It's based on your believing. And once you have right believing, then you will have right doing or right behavior.

And then you'll have right receiving. And a lot of people aren't receiving from the Lord because they don't have right believing.

But now Jesus, he has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant.

The new covenant is a better covenant. A good question asks is why? Why is it better? We'll get to that in one or two more verses.

But for now, let's just agree that the new covenant is better. It was established on better promises.

I used to also think that the old covenant just meant older. And the new covenant, it's the newer covenant. But you know what really confused me besides the fact that no preacher ever taught on this, none of my pastors ever taught on the difference?

What confused me was we still read the old covenant. We read the Old Testament. So if the old covenant is no more, why do we read it?

And why should we read it? Well, we do. And we should. Because in the new covenant, it says, read the old covenant. These things were written for our examples.

And the new covenant is actually in the old just concealed. And then it becomes revealed. But this is what was in God's heart from the very beginning.

So we should read the old covenant. But with the understanding that we are not living under the old covenant, we're living under the freedom of the new. Hallelujah.

But for if the first covenant had been faultless, aha, there was a problem, a fault, a bug. How many of you got the last iPhone update? I never get those things. I always wait 30 days.

And so with this last one, last big one, there was a bug. Some people's phones were freaking out. There was a bug. There was a fault in the first covenant. Terrible fault. So why would God put a fault in there? Well, he just gave the people what they wanted. It's what they asked for.

They said, we're well able to keep all your commandments. We're well able to keep all your statutes, all your rules.

The problem with the old covenant is that we are involved in the agreement. And as long as humans are involved, they will always fail. They will always fall. And we were the covenant breakers.

So when we do good, cross every T dot every I, you get good things. When you fail to go perfectly, you get a curse. That's why the Old Testament is so depressing at times. And you see people getting their butts kicked and getting cursed all the time.

You don't see that with the Christians and the new covenant, do you? No, you don't. If the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second, verse eight.

Because finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord. So he begins to prophesy about the new covenant.

He's able, under the old covenant, your sins were still not taken away. God was able to find fault with them in a fault he covenant. Now, what's the new covenant? What's the difference?

You got to get this man. It'll change the way you think of you, the way you see you, and it'll change your receiving, and you'll be a magnet for the blessings of God, and your 2026 will be different.

Under the new covenant, it's not me. It's not you holding the covenant together with Father God. And the moment you slip, the covenant is disturbed. The covenant is broken. I got to reconnect.

No, it's Jesus on your behalf, forever, forever, perfectly holding the covenant in place in spite of you. Wow, what greater grace, what manner of love is this?

You said, what about when I sin? Especially when you sin. That's when you need him holding your end of the covenant in place more than ever. Hallelujah.

Well, then if you preach that, people will just go off and sin. No, because I preach to mainly saved people.

And grace is an empowerment and a solution to sin. Not an empanada, what some preachers call a, oh, you just greasy grace and hypergrace. What's hypergrace? I'm pretty hyped up about it. I don't know what hypergrace is.

It actually cleanses you from the inside out. Hallelujah. Religion is always seeking from the outside in. Behavior modification. The new covenant deals with heart transformation.

Finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, verse nine.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant. See, the problem is they didn't continue. They slipped.

Have you ever not continued in God's covenant? One humble person. I don't know who that was from over there. People are afraid to answer this. Yeah, you know what some Christians do? They slip up, slip up, and they get so frustrated with themselves.

And so frustrated with them, they'll just stop going to church. Or how many of you, after getting saved, and you know Satan tricked you like this, you send a little bit, and Satan said, oh, you're really blown it now. So then you go, whoa, I might as well send a lot of bit. And just totally fall off the deep end.

No, you sin. He's with you. And he loves you and still calls you made perfect. You stumble and fall. The covenant is held in place. The culprit here have been preachers who are afraid to empower you, afraid to tell you biblical true thing like you're going to lose your mind.

I'd rather trust the Holy Spirit and the gospel that even when you're set free, you do the right thing. So years ago, I declared to the whole church, if you don't tithe, God is not going to smite you. You're not cursed. But you should tithe because it's scriptural, and it's the right thing to do. But I'm not going to threaten you with some divine curse if you don't.

Guess what happened to our tithing numbers? Did they go up or down? Most preachers think, ah, you told them that? No, don't ever let them know. Hold them by the neck. Threaten them. Tell them if they don't, God's coming for his collection money. He's protection money. He's got two angels, Vinnie and Tony.

They're going to come. They've got a heavenly baseball bats. They're going to break your kneecaps if you don't pay your protection money. No, we set the people free. And this is the greatest test. And people are like, oh, so God won't like cause a grand piano to fall on my head if I don't tithe.

He loves me anyway, but tithing is the right thing to do. I'm going to tithe anyway. Well, I'll increase the financial blessing with my tithe, but it's just the right thing to do. And tithing numbers went up. Hallelujah. It's the same way with all behavior.

When you realize how precious you are to him, I loved you are how you already made perfect. Your behavior rises, maybe not instantly, but over time. Hallelujah. But this message is more about you knowing you have an unbreakable covenant because good things happen to God's covenant people.

And I'm expecting good things in 2026. You know, God will God, it'll seem like God is bending over backwards to see you get blessed. You'll be just at the right place at the right time. Oh, hallelujah.

Next verse. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

It's a prophetic word from Ezekiel about the new covenant. He's saying no longer will there be this external pressure to behave, but I will put my Holy Spirit in them. And I will, from the inside out, I will touch their heart.

You know, the commandments are all you shall not, you shall not. Now God is saying, I will. If you actually look at the prophecy in Ezekiel 37, he says, I will. You shall, but you did anyway.

And you cannot do good. It's impossible for you to do good consistently. So I will on your behalf. So how great is it that God is holding together in Christ your end of the covenant for you?

He said, what do I got to do? Surely I got to do something. No, you got to believe something. And you got to believe this every single day. It's easy to agree or not. You got to believe this every single day.

You know how Satan loves to hound God's people. His very name is Hassatan, which means the accuser of the brethren. So he hounds God's people and he whispers to them. For some, it's like a 24-7 broken record. You're not good enough. You're not clean enough. You're wicked. You're not holy enough. You don't study enough. You don't go to church enough. You don't evangelize enough. There's always something where you're not enough. You're not enough. You're not enough.

Why does it do that to you? To shake you out of your solid, rooted position where God says, my work is complete. It is finished, debt paid and full. You have been made holy and righteous and blameless before me in love. You are mine.

The father looks at you the same way he looks at Jesus with a smile, with approval. In fact, the Bible says you have been approved. You have been justified, declared not guilty. Who are we then to be waddling around, rolling around in shame and guilt and condemnation?

Who are you? Are you bigger and battered than the precious blood of Jesus that has thoroughly cleansed you? Hallelujah. So when you get this right mindset, you will become like a magnet for good things. You will expect good. You will be excited about your tomorrow and you will draw those things in.

People aren't excited about their tomorrow. They don't draw anything in. It's just the same old, same old. And if you just let that go, it'll, you know, entropy. Things tend to just go in a state of disorder. Hallelujah.

Next verse, please. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Some of you have a bad habit of reminding your own self of the things you used to do. And reminding God, God, could you ever forgive me? He already has.

You keep reminding them of stuff he's forgiven and forgotten. For I will be, yeah, verse 13, in that he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. The first is obsolete.

You know how many people have a transactional relationship with God? If I do this, you'll do that. God, if I, if I, if I change my life, God, I'm going to stop drinking. But then I want you to give me that promotion. I want a new car.

I tell you what, Lord, I watch some questionable shows. You know what? I'll throw that out too. But you got to up your game. Now I want the new job, the car I want a new house. They have this weird transaction. God's not going to give you anything based on what you do.

He will give you everything based on who he is. Good, generous, loving. And when you fall in line and go, and I qualify, see, because your average Christian doesn't believe that they qualify. They're constantly disqualifying themselves.

In their mind, because they don't know they've been forgiven thoroughly. They still think God's holding a grudge. A lot of people are so disgusted with themselves. They transfer that feeling of disgust onto God and think God is disgusted with them. No, for whatever reason you're disgusted with you. But he loves you. But you're wallowing around and self-disgust, which is pretty disgusting, if you ask me.

Stop wallowing around and self-disgust. And start seeing yourself with 2020 vision from heaven's viewpoints. Hallelujah.

In that he says in your covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. I was talking to a pastor about this.

Some people get excited when they want to deflect victory. I'm telling man, we're under the new covenant now. The old is no more. No, no. But look, look at that verse. What are you doing? Where are we going here?

Don't make me get old covenant on you, whoever's back there. He's like, it's getting, he goes, you're messing with my punchline, past your mark.

He goes and is growing old and is ready to vanish away. You see, it hasn't vanished away yet. It's getting ready to vanish away. Like he got me in a theological four-figure leg lock.

You know, in other words, he wants to be bound so much to the old covenant saying it's getting ready to vanish away. You should have seen his face when I just said, it's vanishing away, not fully vanished away, because the temple was still a few years away from getting destroyed. And that was the end of Judaism.

That was the end of the whole, you cannot have an old covenant system without the Levitical priesthood and the temple sacrifices. Hallelujah. So the old covenant is over. And it's an inferior covenant. I mean, under you are crying that the iPhone 6 is no longer around. Oh, I miss it. It was so good. No, you're like, I got the better version. Hey, man, you got the new version. You got the new covenant.

And there's not going to be any need for a third because this one's complete and perfect. Hallelujah. Let me give you some scriptures. You should get tattoos of on your body.

Colossians 1, verse 21.

Colossians 1:21

Whoever's over there in the media team, I love you. Please don't contact Mike Winger and tell him you were spiritually abused by me. Please.

Hallelujah.

And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind, that's all of us. Enemy, we were all, do you know we were all enemies of God.

And no amount of good that we did or could do whatever changed God's mind about us. Everything in us on a cellular level was the antithesis of God.

It was in direct opposition to God. Yet now he has reconciled. He's made peace. He's reconciled.

Wait for it. In the body of his flesh through death to present you, this is you. This is you holy.

Blameless. Oh, you don't know what I did. I don't want to know. You forget what you did. I'm talking about five years ago. I'm talking about just last week.

Focus on you and what Jesus has done in you. You are holy and blameless. And whatever sin struggles you've got, the Holy Spirit will cleanse you of and work them out.

I tell you what's not going to make you better. You focusing on your sin. Some Christians and so exhausting. I don't even know how their Christians for years. I wouldn't be. I would have backslid lost my mind.

But they got years long relationship with the Lord where every prayer session is going, God, cleanse me. Lord, I keep sinning and yet you love me. Oh, Lord, I'm so dirty. Oh, Lord, when will you set me free? How do you do that for years? Yet some people do.

That's not a life of victory. That's not the question that's hell on earth. And Jesus saved you to have heaven on earth. So yes, acknowledge your sin. Glance at it. But stare at Jesus.

You're not turning a blind eye. You're not being quote soft on sin. You're actually looking at the solution who is Christ. You keep talking about your sin, looking at your sin, getting repulsed by your sin. You're going to have, guess what? More sin.

And sin will multiply in your life. That's why some of the weirdest, nastiest sinful people you'll ever meet are church people. And the more religious the church.

Yeah, the more religious we have to come in and have a straight face and you can't show any chink in the armor. Can't show any weakness. That is where you will find the weirdest perversions ever. I know from firsthand experience.

To present you holy and blameless and above reproach, above shame. You know, one thing we have never ever told our kids ever, ever, ever. I've said a lot of things to them.

One thing I've never said is shame on you. Never. Some of you need to start telling your kids shame off of you. Shame on you.

Shame on wearing the shame removal business because that's the business that Jesus is in and cousin business as a woman. He's removed shame.

So we're holy. Say this for yourself. I am holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. I'm under the new covenant, which is forever intact.

So I qualify to receive good things from the Lord. And this will be the best year of my life. Amen. Hallelujah. Ephesians 1,4.

Hallelujah. There's just a little bit of a frustration in me. I got to admit because I don't believe that everybody's getting it.

I believe some people think they're getting it, but they're not getting it. But this will change your life once you get it.

A lot of Christians walk around. They're walking civil war. Have no peace because they don't get it. They're in opposition to themselves. They can't rest in God. But when you get it, you'll find true rest in God.

When you get it, no matter what's happening in your life, you'll actually like the person in the mirror. And realize, yeah, in the natural, you may be broken, in the natural, you may be hurting, in the natural, you may be prone to failure and stupid mistakes.

In the natural, I'm prone to retardation. But God. Hallelujah.

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, did we already read Ephesians 1,4? It's similar. It's such an echo of Colossians that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Those two verses, you're holy and without blame. And the other one from Colossians internalize that. So when Hassatat and he will, when Satan comes accusing you, be litaling you, you have a response.

Because the attack is going to come in that fashion. You're not enough. You're not measuring up. You don't deserve. You don't qualify for God's blessings. And you will disqualify yourself instead of looking to the cross and going, I may not qualify, but He did that for me. That has qualified me. Hallelujah.

Thank God for the finished work. So let's read a few of the benefits. Then we're going to receive communion in just a few minutes. Psalms 37, 25.

There are a lot, a lot of benefits to having been declared righteous. A lot. How many righteous people do we have here? If you're righteous, raise your hand. All right, we're doing good in here.

Did you see, did you raise your hand? Are you righteous? Do you have righteousness? Hallelujah. Just try and see where you're at. I see great things on you. I'm keeping an eye. We're going to make sure this foundation is strong.

If you don't know why every hand went up, it's not because they're dying of pride and think they're all that. It's because they understand that righteousness is a gift and it's been given to them. The Bible says, you have the righteousness of Christ. You've been given the righteousness of Christ.

You may want to sit down. I was exaggerating when I said it. It was a preacher talk. Like 40 minutes from now. You don't end when you tell them you're going to end. You string them along slowly. You hear that winger?

So you have been given this precious gift called righteousness. We're going to, hey, there's a big group of us, 20 plus, 25 of us going to Guatemala. This one's they pray for us.

And I try to get this message in Guatemala. We're making a headway, but it takes a lot of work because they're culturally, they're under a system because they're the you shield people, the direct descendants of the Maya.

So they wonder this pagan system where you have to try to appease a vengeful, wrathful set of gods that you could never appease. So that doesn't really produce spiritual confidence, does it?

Then they traded that for Catholicism, which is like a lighter version of the other thing. A God that's always angry. I mean, he's so angry, you got to go to his mother list. He said you got to go to mom.

So again, doesn't really you got to go go to go to the whole team, go to the 58 Saints, go to the mother, go to anyone but God, because if you go to God, he's got the lightning bolt in his hand.

Boom.

At the cigar lounge, I tell this to all the Catholics, they love me. They love me. They laugh in their heads off. They're like, you're exactly right. The men will laugh their heads off. The ladies don't like when I do that though. They just clutch their pearls and, you know, it's not sensitive of you to say that.

So I'll do this thing in Guatemala. And I'll say, who's more righteous, you were Jesus after preaching at it all week and giving them the answer all week. And I'd be like, now to wrap it off, who's more righteous you and Jesus, you were Jesus and the whole place.

Jesus. And the correct answer is not Jesus. Somebody shut out the correct answer. The same. If Jesus has given you his righteousness, then who's more righteous. It's the same. And then I would do that. And you could see the gears in their heads. And like they're confused.

Basically, the look is, could this really be true? Is this so great a salvation? They've got really pull us out of the mud and bring us to his level. Could something so grand be so true? And the answer is yes.

That's why the angels appeared at Jesus' birth and said, the savior of the world, glory and that. There was such a proclamation because everything was about to change and he was going to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. That's why the gospel is good news. That's why this is the greatest love story that's ever been told.

He took us. We couldn't do anything for it. We're utter failures. And he came and did the work for us and lifted us up and put us on the same status as Jesus when it comes to righteousness. Hallelujah. So here's some, you know, if you read the Old Testament, there's a lot of promises made to righteous people. If you're looking at yourself and your own behavior, you're going to get depressed because you don't qualify for any of them. For example, maybe you're struggling financially and your best friend texts you this.

I have been young and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging bread. Good verse, right? But there's a qualifier. You're going to be righteous.

So guess what that person was already getting attacked by the enemy is going to think, well, I'm not righteous. I'm prone to human error. I've made mistakes. In fact, I've missed two Sundays already.

Well, this doesn't work for me. When instead they can say, I have been given righteousness. I am holy and without blame. Is this helping anybody? I'm holy without, holy and without blame before him in love. Now all of a sudden you went from being disqualified to qualifying. Amen. Hallelujah.

Psalm 512, for thou Lord will bless the who? Shout that's me with favor will thou compass him about as with a shield.

Psalm 5522 cast your burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Shout that's me.

Psalm 8411, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. You know what that word, I didn't get into it in the first service, but I feel there's some, I smell religion in this place.

You know what that word for glory is? It's not a say it again. Say it one more time. Amen.

People hear glory. They mean it though. It sprinkles from heaven. That word glory. There's the kabad which was actually the same word used for it when Abraham put all his treasures on the beast of burden. It was so heavy laden with treasures.

God will give you grace and financial provision. Kabad, glory.

Otherwise the next part doesn't make sense. No good thing. Thing. Will he withhold from those who walk uprightly? Now, if I want to analyze the minutia of my behavior, I'm not confident that I fulfill the qualifications for this verse.

Uprightly, how uprightly? Perfectly uprightly? Well, are we talking about sins of commission and omission?

I've really tried to bring down the sins of commission, but there's always sins of omission, like I was sharing in the first service. If I sinned yesterday, I don't know. I'm sure I did, but I don't know.

There's some way. I don't, there was no. What a perfect, what a good Saturday. But what about sins of omission? Because I didn't spend the whole day reading the Bible. I didn't spend the whole day feeding the homeless.

There's a lot of things that I omitted. Now, I'm guilty again. I will always be guilty if I'm looking at myself. Always. You will always be guilty and lacking and disqualified if your eyes are on you.

Get your eyes off for you and put them on Jesus. Put them on Jesus, the author, finish up your faith. Whenever you feel you're not enough, put your eyes on Jesus.

He's made you more than enough because he's put you inside of himself, hallelujah. And then you can say this whole thing applies to me. Proverbs 28.1, this is how to avoid being mousy.

How to avoid being a coward. By the way, Guatemala, whenever we pray, the first thing they start doing within five seconds, those of you've gone, what do they do?

Cry. They cry. I love crying when I pray, but it's got to be the Lord touching my heart to cry. I don't automatically cry every time I pray.

Like the men will be happy, shoveling the cement, joking. And then it's like time to pray, like blessed the foundation of the building roll and take their hat off.

Oh my God.

And I'm like, do somebody die since we finished the last bucket and like, like, wailing, crying, why? Why?

Because of religion, because of tradition, because they're feeling inferior just to talk to the guy they can't do with their smile.

Sounds like someone strangling a bag full of cats.

The righteous are as bold as a lion.

When you understand you've been made righteous,

you don't come to God,

you go, father, and just talk to him.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

You're offended here today.

I apologize for nothing.

Proverbs 24-16.

For a righteous man,

fall seven times and rises up again.

But the wicked shall fall into trouble.

I'll close with that.

Let's receive communion and drink and eat and partake of Jesus

as blessed new covenant, hallelujah.

A better covenant,

a covenant that qualifies us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As you wait,

it's been a while since I've pointed this out,

you know,

we don't use the church wafers,

the little, they look like the Captain Crunch.

You know.

You ever see the pre-backage church communion

looks like a Captain Crunch puff.

We use what Jesus ate,

unleavened bread,

matza.

Mr. Schmooly sold these to me himself.

And if you look at matza,

you'll see three things about it.

It's burnt.

It's pierced.

There's little holes.

And it's striped.

Burnt, pierced and striped.

Do you see it?

Can you see the little holes?

Hold it up to the light and you'll see them.

And there's burn marks and there's stripes.

Why?

Because this is a picture of Jesus.

This is Hebrew matza.

The gospel is in there.

He was pierced for you on the cross.

He was striped and by his stripes you were healed.

And the wrath of God burnt on him so it would never burn on you.

And you're getting off free and clear.

Because of Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection.

So what's happening when we receive communion?

Why do we do it?

We're reaffirming the covenant.

And if you're sick in any way,

if you're lacking in any way,

if you're under condemnation in any way,

as you reaffirm the covenant,

use it as a point of contact

and trust God's supernatural power to go inside of you.

Amen?

Say this with me out loud.

In the name of Jesus.

I have an unbreakable covenant.

I have the righteousness of Christ.

I am holy and without blame.

I partake of communion.

And I receive all the benefits of Jesus' cross.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Go ahead and partake of the body of Jesus

and then the blood of Jesus.

Oh, hallelujah.

Precious Jesus, hallelujah.

Yes, Lord, yes, Lord.

Yes, yes, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

May you leave here with your head held high.

May you know that you are loved,

even if you don't like you.

Sometimes that's the problem.

You don't like you.

But God likes you.

Amen.

As many days, I don't like me.

What do you do then?

I go to my wife.

I'm like, babe, I don't like me right now.

She's like, I don't like you either right now.

What do I do?

You've got to go to God, amen.

He's like, I like you.

I've watched you.

I've cleansed you, hallelujah.

He's all the affirmation and validation we need.

Well, let's worship and honor the Lord

with our tides and offerings.

Amen.

Give with a glad heart.

The giving information is on the screen right there.

Give in faith.

And really listen to the Lord.

If he tells you to give something extra,

because last Sunday's offering was obviously not great

since we had no service on Sunday.

So thank God for people who still remembered

and sent it in online.

And those who have reoccurring giving,

but we trust the Lord to make it all up, hallelujah.

The ministry team will be to my left, you're right.

If you want prayer for anything, ministry for anything,

maybe you're new.

Maybe you're wondering why you stayed this long.

The way's deep already.

Why don't you finish it off and go get prayer.

It won't hurt you and the Holy Spirit will never ever hurt you.

He loves you. He's on your side.

He's more for you than you're for you.

Go and just say pray for me.

And watch the Lord do something great in your life.

We bless you.

We love you.

Life groups are coming soon.

And if you haven't done growth track tonight at 7 p.m.

Be blessed, City Light Church.

Go in the victory of the Lord.

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 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.

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