Peaceful Pursuit

Show me a Christian who has a faith-goal list, but isn't ruled by that list, but is just happy with their relationship with the Lord and is happy with the clothes on their back and the breath that he's put in their nostrils, happy that their sins are completely forgiven.

They've been made the right choices of God through faith in Jesus Christ, filled with the Holies, can they get any better than this Lord?

Also, I have that list from so happy, so filled with joy!

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.

So we just got back last Monday, we had a really special vacation for two weeks in Belize, and I highly recommend Belize.

If you want fancy, don't go to Belize, but if you like adventure and the best snorkeling and school beddiving and spearfishing and just jumping off docks with stray dogs, you're going to find that.

You're going to find that in Belize, there's no resorts there, I like it that way.

People like Antigas better, Aruba is better, I don't want to stay on the 30th floor of a Marriott.

You know, like a bunch of drunk Americans in the pool going, these days are freedom, as all I've ever had, I don't want to see that person.

I want to see Belizeans, hey man.

We had two, it was just so much fun, and with the kids, our kids are 11 and 7 now, so it's non-stop comedy hour.

And we got back late Monday night, and for whatever reason, I woke up at 5 a.m., no alarm, just 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.

You know, there's so much to do when you first get back. I first wanted to just get with the Lord, and you know how you have your favorite playlist?

For worship songs, no one's looking at me, you have playlist, right?

I have my favorite playlist, but sometimes you play your favorite playlist so much that you've kind of sucked all the anointing off of all those songs, and now they don't do it for you anymore.

So I'm like, what have I listened to in a while? That's awesome. That has an anointing on it, and I thought, oh Jason Upton, I've put him on a shelf just long enough to where if I listen to it again, it'll be fresh to me.

And I ask Alexa to play my favorite Jason Upton album, which is Jacob's dream. Alexa play Jacob's dream.

She doesn't start the album. She thinks I'm talking about the song also by that same name, and she puts on the song, and about 30 seconds into the song.

See, I just fresh from a two week vacation. JFK is like, what a rude and rough welcome back home.

We crawl in, right? Fridge is empty. We don't know up or down. Kids at school that say morning, all the unwashed laundry.

And Jacob's dream comes on, and I didn't expect it. I love it when the Lord does this. I wish he'd do 10 times a day. He smashes me.

I'm listening to the song, and I'm crumbling, laugh crying, cry laughing in my home office. The Lord just, I mean, I'm coming undone.

I'm wrecked completely, and I get the download for this year, and I get the download for us as a church.

So this is kind of like my new year sermon that I should have preached last Sunday. I know in the fan you'll say, and the Lord did a fantastic job.

But this is what the Lord put on my heart. I want you to just check out the lyrics to this song, Jacob's dream by Jason Upton.

Hallelujah.

You see, one of my pledges to the Lord for 2026 was to be much kinder and gentler, especially to the media team.

He said, son, this is the final boss in your life. Once I work this out of you, you will have arrived.

So the old me would be there. Because in the first service, it came right up, you know. Right when I said the song, but something got lost in translation.

Which is okay. Because perhaps you're new. Maybe you didn't see it. No pressure.

There was a lot more of these little moments back in the day for everything had to be timed to the second.

Let me tell you what he's singing about and then the lyrics will come up.

He's singing about Jacob. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac began Jacob, Jacob had the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jacob, the very name means schema or scoundrel. Jacob was the quintessential New Yorker.

He was very prone to NYC 2026 hustle culture. He sharpened his elbows. His motto along with many New Yorkers motto is if it's to be, it's up to me.

I'm ambitious. I'm going to be successful. I'm going to get mine. I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to take it.

I'm going to do whatever it takes. That is not God's way. And people who are believers are just getting a very frustrated.

People who are unbelievers may achieve what's on their list. However, they too will end up very frustrated.

And it will feel like sand in their mouth. And here's the song that will read the scripture. Jacob really long to be a hero.

And then God is saying, all I really wanted was a friend. Do you know that God didn't create you to be successful? He created you to have relationship with him.

When you do that, you will be successful. Amen. When you put his kingdom first and see God and his kingdom, all those other things, things God is not against, things God is not against success.

He just wants you to put him first, then all those other things will be added unto you. But he didn't create you to be successful. He created you to have relationship with you. Amen.

Jacob really long to be somebody. The moment you try or you stop trying to be somebody is the moment God will promote you.

You ever get around somebody and you can just it's just emanating from them. They want to be somebody. Yeah, everybody should know their name.

And they're preinst the famous on their way. And it emanates from it. It smells bad, doesn't it? You're smelling them in the spirit. It's really the opposite of what God wants for us.

Jacob really long to be a hero. God saying, oh, I really wanted was a friend. I'm the way, the life, the truth. So tell me Jacob, when will the lying end? Because he was always lying, probably telling himself they were white lies, just to get ahead.

And the question from God then, and does the striving make you strong? Because when I came to love on you, say, Jacob, where came to Bethel?

And he made camp there and lie down. And God came to him and what does Jacob do? He's so full of strife. He's so full of the hustle. He's sharpened his elbows so much that he begins to wrestle with God.

Jesus visits him in the person of the angel of the Lord and he wrestling fights God until God dislocates his hip. Why did God dislocate his hip to show him that he needed a crutch?

He wasn't strong in himself. He needed to lean on God. You know how some people go? Oh, Christianity is just a crutch for you. I say, thank you very much. Do you have another compliment for me?

Because I know what your crutch is, your high half the time. You party your brains out. That's your crutch. You doom scroll 12 hours a day. That's your crutch.

You got all these addictions in your life. That's your crutch. We as humans, we need help. We need a crutch. I'm very proud to say that Jesus Christ, the Alpha, Nomega, the first and the last and maker of heaven and earth is my crutch.

So Jacob had to learn that lesson the hard way. God has hip dislocated. But God didn't come down there to dislocate his hip. He came to bless him. Jacob immediately does what's natural to him. Let me fight.

Full of strife. Because when I came to love on you, you fought me till the dawn. It was that verse. You know, I was still I wasn't even fully in worship. I just asked Alexa to play the song. I'm still from the trip. I'm organizing the things on my desk. And I hear that verse. It was like a waterfall of the Holy Ghost.

You fought me till the dawn. Finally, Jacob's lying down. That's where God had to come to him when he was at rest. Do you know Aaron's rod? It butted when Aaron took it and threw it down on the floor. What was it doing? Nothing. It was just being.

That's when it produced fruit. There is a consistent theme throughout all 66 books of the Bible that God is a God of rest. This is the antithesis to everything you're hearing to every motivational expert right now.

This is the word of the Lord for our church. Typically to start 2026, the word is something like to encourage and inspire and whip people a little bit. Like this is going to be a great year. You can't be lazy. You got to be disciplined. You know, six ways to stop procrastinating. You got to go. Go.

When I look back on my life, everything worth mentioning that I received from the Lord actually came when I got to the end of myself collapsed by force.

I got into a place of rest and then it came to me. My pastor was so fond of saying this. He said it for years when I was with him at random times. He said, the moment you quit struggling to get what you want, God will give it to you.

The moment you quit, and it would be like, hey, would you pass that word? The moment you quit struggling just all the time. I knew he was not to something, but I didn't have a revelation of it.

But through the years and through some of my stubbornness, God taught me. You fought me till the dawn. Finally, Jacob's lying down. And while he sleeps, I will dream of a generation not known for their crowns or success.

But again, who was not so much as interested in crowds or pleasing men, but knowing me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's read that.

Oh, Psalm 127. I want to give you a scripture. Have you ever read a scripture that meant so much to you, you remember exactly where you were when you read it?

I read this scripture. It was sophomore year of college. I was in my dorm room. First time I stumbled upon this. When I read it, I couldn't believe it was in the Bible.

Because it was something the Lord was trying to teach me. I could sense in prayer. I just didn't have scripture for, you know, in the beginning, everything's new. The hands come across this. And I'm like, I know this is what God, how he operates, but it's actually in the word.

And I was going to a church. Good church. I still have a great relationship. He ministered here past your time. Hallelujah. Love Christian assembly in Long Island. It was a great church, but they hadn't had this revelation yet.

He would say that you'd be the first to say that today. So everything was whipping and striving. Everything was priding the people trying to get them to do more.

Here's what the Bible says, unless the Lord builds the house. What house? The house of our life. For me, part of the house of my life is the house of the Lord.

Unless the Lord is actually building it, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Next verse, it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows. For so he gives his beloved sleep in the Hebrew. This is stunning. It literally says God gives to his loved ones while they sleep.

While they're at rest, provision flows most freely when the anxiety stops. The amplified really amplifies it quite a bit. It is vain for you to rise up early. You know when I said I woke up at 5 a.m. It's not because I set my alarm.

You know, when you're listening to the motivational experts, I mean, first it was get up at 6. Then it's get up at 5. Now they're getting up at 3. I get up at 3 through an alarm. I will be the most unpastoral pastor you ever met. When I say I got up at 5, it's because my body woke up then.

I really believe this is a life of message for me because everything he's done in my life, especially recently, I don't deserve and I did not hustle for. I did not work for. He just gave it to me in a place to rest.

Come on. It is vain for you to rise up early to take rest late to eat the bread of anxious toil for he gives blessings. When you're sleeping, when you're at rest, what does it mean to be at rest?

It means that you have ceased from your own striving. It means that there's a rest in your soul because you do not trust yourself. You've done everything you need to do in the natural.

But ultimately you know that God is the one who will bring it to fruition and now you're resting in that. The highest level of faith is rest. When you see somebody who's brow is furrowed and they're still fighting in prayer, good, but don't spend forever there.

Eventually get to the place where you believe that you have received and now you're at a place of gratitude and rest. I have seen this in our church over and over and over again. When we first started City Light, I remember I would be alone in that basement at 1217 Street. I had a folding table every morning. I had every morning about 859. I had that folding table opened up the laptop on and I'd be working and working.

Not even that much work when you first started church, but I had to be busy eight hours a day, otherwise I'd be a lazy preacher. I don't want to be one of those lazy preachers. I got to make it happen and I ran myself ragged and there was no growth. Then you know what happened? I collapsed. I said, forget this.

So at nearly 30 years old, living in that basement, I went, Mom, can I crash in your couch for a while? I'm done with this. I'm like, I'm sure you crash. I'm crashing the couch for days and days and days. You say, what are you doing? Nothing. I was so tired. I had like a adrenal fatigue. I was doing nothing. And I was like, Lord, you got somehow I felt a strange piece as I was doing nothing. I really, I'm like waiting for the Lord to say, you lazy 10 you. Get up off.

Never came. Then everything I was fighting for, he just began to do. Do you know what? By the way, here's my history. I did not own a TV from 1994 till 2009. Didn't own it. Why? Because that would be distracting in the evenings you read.

I mean, I really tried to do everything by the book, which I'm not saying that's bad. That's a good thing. But you know what I did when I moved back to my mom? And I hadn't played video games in over a decade. I moved back to my mom. This was like, oh, oh, four or five. I got an Xbox. It was no sex. I got an Xbox. So now I'm like to completely backslip and pasture. I'm playing this game that was brand new then Halo. And I'm like, reliving like what I should have been doing

when I was 18. I had no video games. I'm like, I'm like, and the Lord, the Lord starts blessing waves of new people start coming. You can't stay on the couch, but the Lord was, the Lord was teaching me a lesson. And that's that when I work, he rests.

When I rest, he works. This is not an exhortation to be passive. No. This is an exhortation to be aggressive. This is not an exhortation to be lazy. But this is an exhortation to once you've done what you need to do with the natural. You got to back off. You got to trust the Lord to do it in your life.

This is how city like church operates. We won't do anything unless the Lord breathes on it first. And there have been times when we've missed it. There have been times where we're like, all right, you know, sometimes as you're waiting between the waves of the Lord, you don't you want to make sure maybe you don't want to make sure you haven't gone to sleep. So like I remember one year.

A while ago, we had this bring your friend to church Sunday. And the staff, all of us, we obsessed over. We planned about it. We organized for months. It was the Sunday where everybody was supposed to bring their friend, but the announcement, the graphics, the promotions, the, and then that Sunday finally comes. Nobody brought their friend to church. Not one. I'm, we, do we have the loneliest group of people coming here or what?

Then a few months later, without us doing a thing, all of a sudden waves of friends are coming to church. Wait, what's the difference? One was in our own strength. Not blessed. The other was from a place to rest. God breathed and blessed. Amen.

And this is the year where the Lord will teach us to a greater degree, how to fall back and rest in him. When we rest, he works. When we work and strive and push and schmitz and sweat and labor, he rests. And you can't do both at the same time. Hallelujah.

Let's go to Matthew 11. This is the case for ceasing from religious striving.

Because we're talking about, let me back up a little bit. For 2026, I hope you have like a vision list. Call it a prayer list, a vision list, you have five things you want the Lord to do in your life.

That is good. That is healthy without a vision that people perish. They cast off for strength. You need faith goals, right? If you want to be married, you're not married. Bam. That should be number one on your list. You're not happy with your job. You want another job or promotion. Boom. Put it on your list. Increase in finances. Put it on your list. Have a list. If you don't have a list, where's your faith directed at?

But here is the tension that few Christians have learned how to navigate. You're at point A, that's your current life. Point B, all the way over here, is the fulfillment of that list, right? That's point B. But you're a point A, and you're looking at your list.

And probably in the back of your mind, you're going, how in the world is the Lord going to fulfill this list?

As long as you're obsessing over the list, as long as the list is a priority in your life, for some, the list becomes their God. The list will never be fulfilled.

The tension isn't, so, okay, that's one side of the spectrum. Let me backtrack even more. The other side is some people, look, I don't have a list.

Akuna Matata. No worries. Whatever will be will be. You know, I just kind of go with the flow, man. You ever see someone talk like that? Do you want to emulate their life? Not me.

So the tension isn't, you have the list, but the list doesn't rule you. The list is something external that's going to make your life better, that you believe is bringing you into your destiny and God.

But while you're at point A, have the list, you can talk about the list to the Lord every day. Feel free to do so. But your peace, your contentment, your rest is apart from the fulfillment of that list.

That's the tension. That's what I believe the Lord will teach us quickly this year, how to walk into, because that's exactly where the promises are fulfilled.

Show me a Christian who has a faith goal list, but isn't ruled by that list, but is just happy with their relationship with the Lord.

And it's happy with the clothes on their back and the breath that he's put in their nostrils, happy that their sins are completely forgiven.

They've even made the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ filled with the Holy Spirit. Can't again any better than this Lord.

Also, I have that list, but I'm so happy. So filled with joy. And then you're praising Lord, you go, oh, I wasn't. You did that. And you did that. And look at that. You did that.

Hallelujah. I'm trying to condense really what the Lord has been teaching me since 1992 in one sermon.

More than anything I've seen, I study, why do some people get answers to prayers? Others don't. Why do some people's lives change? Others, it's like they're the Lord. They change that.

What is the difference? This is the difference. Hallelujah. Matthew 1128.

So we cease from our striving. We do everything we can in natural. Also, the rest of God is ceasing from trying to be perfect before God apart from the blood of Jesus.

We are really in and of ourselves completely unimpressive, and that's an understatement to the Lord.

He's not impressed with my religiosity and my law keeping. I have no ability to dot every T and cross every I.

Reverse that. Yeah. Jesus. He said, come to me. All you who labor. Who was he talking to factory workers? No.

Because I've heard that verse often. Are you tired this week? Have you had a long time at the job? Jesus says, come to me. All you who labor. He's not talking about that kind of labor.

He's talking about religious labor. Do you know what Judaism was like in Jesus' day was not like the Judaism that was around in Moses' day.

It had warped while they were in Babylon. They didn't have the word of God with them. They didn't have the temple.

And they began writing outside of the word of God in the Talmud. And Talmudic Judaism had crept in. That's why Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees.

Saying, you whitewash tombs, you brood of diapers. Because of your traditions, your man made stuff. You make the power of God of no effect.

How will you avoid the condemnation of hell? Who's talking to people who added to the word of God and add they did?

So much so. Can you imagine every time you want to drink some water, you got to put a bunch of nets as you pour the water, you got to strain for nets.

He said, you strain for nets, but you swallow camels. You have to strain for a little net or mosquito, lest they go into the water you're about to drink, and it'd be uncosure and unclean.

That's tedious. That's religious labor. When Jesus said this, they wouldn't wear sandals on the Sabbath day.

Lest they accidentally step on a kernel of corn and the husk break, and it'd be considered work, and it'd be considered a breaking of the Sabbath.

Who wants to live that way? That's not how God wanted them to live. So what is he saying? He's saying, you're working for God too much.

You're trying to do stuff to win his favor. No, no, no, come to me, you labor, and you're under a heavy burden, you're heavy laden.

Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And in the next verse he says, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So what does that look like as you're pursuing the Lord and the destiny has for you in 2026?

You're in a place of rest. That means here's how I would define rest if I haven't already. I don't know if I did in the first or second.

It's you doing whatever the Lord puts in your heart and your spirit, but no more and no less. And when it comes to relating to him, you will always feel to a degree.

You will always feel like you're not enough. You know why? Because you're not. See your ability to keep God's law sucks.

And if you turn to me and said, pastor, your ability to keep God's law sucks. I'd say, I know.

I cannot impress God with my own self effort. There is none. If I spent the rest of my life giving stuff away, reading his word every waking hour, selling everything I have, traveling to the poorest place in the world, washing their feet.

My own effort means nothing to me. He says, all your righteousness is as a filthy rack. Eventually you must collapse and go, Jesus, my trust is in you. And because of the blood, because of the finished, completed work of the cross, I am squeaky clean to you.

I am without sin, without spa, without wrinkle. You accept me as you do Jesus Christ Himself. That's how the Father accepts you, isn't that good news? So you get that kind of a rest. Hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah. Hebrews 410. Is this blessing you today? Thank you, Lord. For He who has entered His rest. Yeah.

This sermon, by the way, you shouldn't just listen, unless you've been around for a long time and the Lord has already begun this process in you, this sermon may be a little frustrating because it's paradoxical.

It's mysterious and I'm not trying to be paradoxical to appear sophisticated and lofty. It just is. It's my numbing. When I got to work, but not work too much, I got a labor, but I got a labor, not how I think I got a labor, actually got a labor to enter into His rest.

What does that mean? I got to work to rest. Yeah, because when we're programmed to just work in the natural, it actually takes some work to go, yeah, I'm going to do what you're telling me I need to do.

But no more. You know what? Keep that up there. I'm going to tell you a story. It's a story time in the house of the Lord. The only thing that can actually drive this point home is a story.

When I graduated college, 1998, I'm 22 years old. I did college just, frankly, because my parents said, you're going to college, but I couldn't wait to go to Bible school of some kind.

So a graduate college, and now it's time for Bible school. And in August, it was actually August 12th. I now remember that because August 14th is when I got saved to August 12th.

I mean, this was six years later, but it was all in August in that same week. August 12th, I landed in Tampa. I didn't know anybody except one person, Carl Brown. And I only knew him from the phone.

And he said he would take me in for a few days. He had a wife, he had two kids. He didn't need, you know, 22-year-old both fighting his way on his couch.

So he said, you can stay on our couch for a few days and I help you get started. So I had a goal of three things. One, get a car. I need a car. No buses, I mean buses, but Tampa buses, you know.

And I didn't get my license till I was, I didn't get my license till a few months before I went to Tampa. Because I'm a New Yorker. I didn't need it. I need a car, I need a job, and I need an apartment.

Day one, we go to get a car. And by the way, I have almost no money. All this I had to do with under $2,000. I remember I had a friend who I had led to the Lord who later came to the River Bible Institute of her mother worked for TWA.

Kids that's an airline that used to exist back in the day. And it was, you know how you go to the terminal with the jet blue and there's that awesome building, all architectural and wavy like. It was actually in that terminal. I had to go through that because her mother got me stand by tickets real cheap.

So I'm tied on money. I land day one. I got to get a car. He takes me to several use car lots. All these cars are like $3,000, $4,000. The final car lot. I find the car for $1,000. And it's a stick shift. And I can barely drive stick shift. So I learned grinding gears.

Day one, I get the car. Flintstone Mobile with a stick shift. Cost $1,000. Day two already. An apartment comes.

He actually called up the ministry and said, is there anybody who's renting an apartment? They said no. We didn't even have Craigslist back then. This was like the beginning of the internet.

So he hangs up two hours later. The ministry calls back and said, you know somebody just called us and said they have this apartment to see.

So I come in. It's $400 a month fully furnished what they call a mother-in-law set up, which is return the garage into like a room and a kitchenette. It was perfect. So day one car, day two, the apartment. Now it's time to get a job to pay for all these things.

The whole time since I landed, I'm sending out resumes. And I'm determined I'm not going to be passive. I'm not going to be lazy. I'm not going to fail at this because I didn't do something.

So that's good and that's healthy. But if this is where the tension is, very quickly you can forget about God and make it all about what you can accomplish.

This whole time I'm absolutely terrified. Everything is new for me. And every time I sit in that car to drive it, I'm going, Lord, please make sure I don't die.

So after several days of handing out resumes driving by, resume to everybody, like day five or six, I wake up and I'm thinking another day I'm going to hit it. And the Lord speaks to me.

And when I say the Lord speaks to me, I want to be very specific. He speaks to me stronger and louder than typical. The Lord speaks to us all through the still small voice, the wisdom that he gives us, the quiet, gentle nudges of our shepherd. This was louder. This was more authoritative.

This is I remember it to this day. He said, go to the beach. You have not been, it's almost a week and you haven't even touched clear water. St. Petersburg, go to the beach. That would be like the most irresponsible thing I can do. I have no job.

I'm going to go have a day at the beach. Like who does that? He said, you're going to do that. So I do as the Lord says, I go to the beach. I'm walking around clear water beach, going for a swim all alone, saying hallelujah. I even saw a restaurant the only time I ever saw my own name.

It was a giant sign. And they pronounced boy on Bojan. And it was called Bojan steakhouse. And I asked someone on the beach, what is that place? And they said, oh, some Canadian guy. I said, he's not Canadian. That's, I know where that guy is from. He started a station. He started like in 1978.

I have a great day at the beach. Get some sun on my face. Go back to the mother-in-law setup. And as I'm coming in, I look at the answering machine. Many of you, you don't know what an answering machine is. Watch a few sign-filled episodes, especially the one about the answering machine.

Before visual voicemail, virtual voicemail, whatever, there were answering machines. And I look and the light is blanking. Who could it be? Nobody has my number except Carl Brown, but he quickly hit, and it was Franklin Templeton.

One of the dozens of places that I sent my resume to asking me to come in for an interview. And I got that job with Franklin Templeton, and that job is what sustained me that first year of Bible school.

To me, that was a life lesson. That was what he wanted me to use as a grid, as a blueprint for my life and for my ministry, which is, do what you need to do in the natural. But if you overdo it, and some of you overdoing it doesn't actually mean you're doing anything.

You're just in your bed obsessing over it. Now you're not in a place to rest. You're agonizing. You're worrying. You're stressing. You're talking to everyone about it because of your own anxiety. Now you're working. Guess what the God has to do. He's got to back up and rest.

But when you're going to rest, go for a walk on the beach. And I emphasize again, after you've done the normal things, you need to do in the natural. That's when he comes and puts his super over your natural. Can we shout a big hallelujah?

Amen. I want to give you a bunch of verses.

Let echo this thing. Isaiah 30, 15. If you're into taking notes, memorize these verses. Isaiah 30, 15. The Bible says in returning and rest. I believe the King James says in repentance and rest, shall be your salvation.

In returning and rest, you shall be saved in quietness and confidence. Shall be your strength. Israel wanted activity and alliances. But God said salvation and strength only come through rest and trust.

Hallelujah. Not frantic effort. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.

I just want to go on record. The Lord spoke this to me just driving here. I want to probably won't be used and don't get excited, but I want to give that made back away this year. I'm so I want to give it away.

That's it. I want to say to go on record. To be held accountable. Because there's something the Lord, and this is okay. I said, Lord, in order for me to do that, you got to do this other thing here.

He said, that's nothing for me. Then it'll be nothing for me. Amen. I believe God. God wants to do some preposterous, hilarious. You know the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. You know what that word in the Greek is, hilarious. It's where we get the word hilarious from.

So you go to the cigar lounge. Did you all know I go to a cigar lounge? I told a lot of people. You don't know. I like cigars. I like them a lot. You say, you religious religious thing. You ate fast food three times last week.

I need more unbelievers in my life. We're not going to meet unbelievers. And my wife keeps calling it a cigar bar. I'm like, baby, it's not a cigar bar. There's no alcohol there. It's a cigar lounge. A bunch of long island men. Yeah. And cigars, if you case you're wondering, because there's like Bonnie Andrews, he knows. And he said, you know, if you do this in India to them, that's like the ultimate sin. I'm going, that's so weird. Because the cigar is not dangerous. You're not inhaling. You're doing it.

You're doing it, Clinton. I didn't inhale cigarettes are bad. There's a lot of things that are bad. Look at any picture of Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, and he's got his, his trusty cigar.

So there, if you're grieved, if you're grieved, then your pastor goes to cigar lounge. You need to find out what some other pastors are up to. I'm okay. Amen.

Don't drink alcohol. Love my family. Amen. Porn free. Just that. It's really how weird the energy box shifts when you say that.

Porn free. Amen. And, and we're, I can take the service in the whole other direction. If I talk more about that.

May that deliverance, which has been for years and years, I have to say, because someone's always corn free as of last month. No. Years and years and years and years.

But it is a major temptation when you carry the smut of the world in your back pocket in the form of a phone.

And so I do take this moment. How did the Lord do that? He just, he did it. It was a supernatural deliverance. And whoever needs that may come upon you.

Boy, that was a rabbit trail for somebody. But anyway, all that I go to a cigar lounge. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

And they ask about my life because I started going two years ago. So they've seen the transformation in my life. And they cannot, like to an unbeliever, makes no sense.

Because they push, but first they didn't like that I got, you know, these things. Then I explained to them, hey, you know, I gave 2.1 million dollars to the church. They just don't do that.

How does that even work? So I believe the Lord is going to make a hilarious display out of us.

We're doing things that are so confounding to the natural mind that the world will go, yeah, just like they looked at Jesus' ministry and was like does not compute the error five, whatever it is, 5378B.

Hallelujah.

Judges 7-2. The people who are with you are too many.

The people who are with you are too many for me to give the media nights into their hands.

Let Israel claim glory for itself against me. Can you imagine that? The Lord is saying, hey, your army is too strong. If I let you win like this, you're going to think it's you.

So you've got to like thin that out a little bit so I get all the glory. That's a good hint. On your vision list, it should be far enough, wild enough, hilarious enough that when it comes to pass, you can't patch yourself on the back thinking you did it.

It's got to be so out there that unless the Lord comes through your sunk.

Saying, my own hand has saved me.

The God intentionally removed Gideon's ability to win by human strength so the miracle could only be credited to him.

First Kings 19, 7-8, arise in eat because the journey is too great for you. This is for Elijah.

So he arose an ate and drank and when he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horab, the mountain of God.

Elijah was exhausted. He was so exhausted, this was probably some love. This was right after he called down fire on the prophets of Bale.

Probably a spirit that spirit of Jezebel along with some kind of bad adrenal fatigue because he went literally from that mount top to whimpering underneath the tree, depressed and suicidal.

I shared with you how I had two major bouts of not feeling the blues or sadness, the ability to depression.

And as I was coming out of it after I was hospitalized, I still needed lots of sleep.

Now I go on five hours of sleep, just fine. Five, six hours is amazing.

I'm not kidding, I was sleeping 12, 13 hours a day. And again, the way I'm wired, I don't like to do that.

I like to be productive. I'll wake up at nine a.m.

I'll fall back asleep. Wake up again at 10.30, look at my watch, I'm like, oh Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm like, don't worry.

I'm like, Lord, I'm just so tired. And the Lord said, so sleep.

My head didn't want to receive that. My head is condemning me.

What kind of a pastor are you? What kind of a leader are you?

You should already have been to the gym and like smash through your to-do list and listen.

You know back then I thought the way this is going, I'm going to be an abject failure.

Like you look up failure and addiction area, they'll be my picture.

And then what the Lord has done in the last few years.

He's sending a message.

It's hard for me to even articulate it. I hope you're catching what I'm pitching.

We're sometimes a lot harder on ourselves and condemning ourselves.

And the Lord would come to me morning after morning, be like, Lord, I can't get out of bed.

Say to me, you need rest, let your body heal. I'm healing it as you rest.

And I'm going, but if I continue like this, Lord, I'm going to just, it'll be bad.

And you know what? I spent a few more weeks like that, linking my wounds.

And then all of a sudden a strength return, more and more. And then with a few other weeks,

I was back to my normal self. Hallelujah. Elijah was in that place.

Some of you need to rest. Do what you know to do in the natural.

But then rest if you need to.

That's how you know God is doing it supernaturally behind the scenes.

And what will really mess you up. I could not do not get on social media.

Do not let seven different characters. I've never seen so many motivation.

Everybody's like a life coach and a motivational expert.

Everybody's going to teach you get their course. You're going to 100 exit, baby.

I'll teach you how to 100 X. What you got to do is you got to wake up at 3 a.m.

All right. You can't eat anything but red meat. Only eat red meat.

And you 100 exit, baby. 100 exit.

And you'll run yourself ragged, baby. And you'll be miserable, baby.

Your dreams won't come true. You'll just think, ah, I failed even at 100 X.

I just failed at everything. Let God shock you.

He is good. His way is from glory to glory to glory to glory.

His way is increased. His way is promotion.

It's what he wants. Hallelujah.

Mark 631. Here's what Jesus said. Oh, I love it.

Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place. He's telling his disciples.

And rest a little while.

Hallelujah.

Jesus taught that spiritual fruitfulness requires intentional withdrawal.

Not non-stop output. Worship team, you can come on up.

Luke 1041-42. This is famous. I've preached this entire sermon on this.

Jesus answered her and said to Martha. Martha Martha. What was Martha doing?

She was cooking, cleaning, serving, doing what was good for a host to do.

But Jesus reputed her. He said, you're too busy, busy, busy, busy.

You know, people love to stay busy.

Pastures especially.

How's it going, busy? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you're that busy.

Martha Martha, you were worried and troubled about many things.

Verse 42. But one thing, everybody shout one thing.

Shout one thing. I said one thing.

A little bit louder now.

A little bit louder now.

One thing. How many things?

One thing. I said one thing.

One thing. One thing. One thing is necessary.

I said not two things. Not three things. Not four things. One thing.

Jesus really breaks it down. He really causes us to focus.

One thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part,

which will not be taken away from her.

What's the one thing to sit at my feet, a posture of rest?

Sit at my feet and hear my word. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. God is looking for the person who has forgotten the one thing.

Oh, He will multiply the efforts of the one thing, Christian.

Zechariah 46, I'll close with this.

Not by might.

Know my power. You know this verse eluded me for years as a young Christian.

I didn't know what that meant.

Because I thought, what do you mean not by might?

Your spirit is might. What do you mean not by power?

Your spirit is powerful. This is like a contradiction, not by might.

Not by power, but by my spirit.

You know, sometimes you can just have a brick in your head from the enemy.

And then the Lord took it away and went, oh, not by human might.

Not by human power, not by self effort, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts.

Hallelujah.

Let's pray right now. Heavenly Father, we're looking forward to 2026.

May this be the year of resting in you.

Teach us by the Holy Ghost.

How to rest. How to do those things that you tell us to do.

No more, no less.

Give us practical wisdom.

Sometimes what we think is necessary really doesn't make a difference.

And you'll tell us to do something that seems unrelated, but that's actually the important part.

Teach us to hold your hand, to hear your voice.

Teach us to do the right thing, at the right time, and to fall back on you.

Not trusting in our own strength, our own cleverness, but trusting in you when you alone.

We bless you. We bless you.

And we're excited for the best year we're ever going to have in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for listening.