Sermon
I Saw the Lord
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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When I finally see the Lord like Isaiah saw the Lord, I don't have to fear about what's coming
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in the next year. When you finally see the Lord, anything can come your way. Good, bad, ugly,
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and different. You can look at that thing and go, and I got the Lord with me.
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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's
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Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.
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And a future for you.
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Good morning, church.
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Again, my name is Mohammed and one of the pastors here.
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Man, God is good. All they let the cat out of the back, but he's gone.
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Well, let's just dive right into it. Today is going to be, again, today is going to be a little
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bit of a different service because today is very much about us reflecting backwards and thanking God
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for all the things that He has done this year. Amen.
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So we're actually going to start in the book of Isaiah. I promise the worship team that I was going
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to take five minutes, get out of their ways that we can continue to worship God through some
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Dan work in the first service. I ain't going to lie, Dan work. The worship was heavy and it was
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hard and I got up here and this, the Lord was flowing. And I looked at the time, I was like, oh,
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snap, it's not for the second service. So we're going to see if the Lord does better.
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AKA if I do better because he did his part. I just didn't follow the plan.
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Isaiah six. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted
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up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood Serafim. Each one had six wings
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with two. He covered his face with two. He covered his feet and with two. He flew and one
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cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host. The whole earth is full of his glory.
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It has been over 2,500 years since the death of King Uzziah. So it is difficult for us to imagine
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this year disaster that his death was to the prophet Isaiah. King Uzziah was the only King Isaiah
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had known. Having rained well in Jerusalem for 52 years, at his death the nation remembered Uzziah
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as their best and brightest ruler since King Solomon. So that was a big deal because Israel had a
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lot of up and downs when it came to rulers. Some rulers were outright idol worshipers and some
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rulers did what they could to honor the Lord to make Yahweh the preeminence. A lot of them
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did. So when you have Uzziah, he started at the age of 16 and he did what was right before the Lord,
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practically his entire life. And I say practically because he only had one faux pas at the very end
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of his life due to pride. But it wasn't because he turned from the Lord. He actually tried to do too
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much for the Lord and that could be a problem as well. Having King Uzziah on the throne meant peace
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and prosperity for the people, but Uzziah was dead and it felt like it would be all downhill from
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there. Isaiah experienced a deep sense of loss for his nation and his people. There was fear. I mean
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add to the fact that there was a new superpower in town that Syrians they were threatening invasion.
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Isaiah didn't know what to do. The future that laid ahead of him was one of fear and turmoil.
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He was tormented not knowing what was to come. Now Isaiah doesn't usually date his writings or his
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visions, but he does want the readers to know when he heard the Lord's call over his life.
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It was in the year that King Uzziah died. It was when he began to fear what was happening in this
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nation that he went to the temple to pray. It was while he was in the temple that he saw the Lord.
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He saw the Lord. High and lifted up. Have you seen the Lord?
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I saw the Lord this year.
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Hallelujah. Uzziah was no longer on his throne, but the Lord was on his.
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Isaiah wants us to know that despite all that one can dread concerning the future
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or the affairs of man. God is still on the throne.
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You got some people looking at 2026 like I don't know what's going to happen.
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A.I. is going to take my job. God is still on the throne.
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Well, what three might be happening? You know, the orange president. He's still in there.
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I got a couple of more years. I got to hold out. God is still on the throne.
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But Pastor Moell, you don't know all the different things that happened to me in 2025.
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You said it was a year of manifested abundance, but it's been a year of manifested busted.
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Listen, for some people, that's what it was. I'm not going to lie to you. 2025 manifested abundance.
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From the, we started the year and that was the vision we were proclaiming.
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We believe that that's what the Lord told us was coming for his people and we try to prepare everybody
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from January 1. Listen, this is the year for it. Grab hold of it, appropriated by faith.
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And I came again, June, this very table, this very spot, I said, hey, don't forget.
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This is the year of manifested abundance.
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And you want to know how the Lord got me this thing called manifested abundance.
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It is not by wisdom. It is not by the witty maneuverings of one Pastor Moell.
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My wife will tell you that.
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It happened because I just looked at him and said, I see you high and lifted up.
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It wasn't because I was worrying about the external things that are outside,
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not worrying about bills, not worrying about pains in the body, not worrying about diagnosis,
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not worrying about AI, not worrying about jobs, not worrying about, listen, there are some people
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they feel like the end of the world is coming and they are pissed. God, you just gave me my man
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and all of a sudden everything is going to hell in the hand basket. What's this about Jesus?
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And other people on the other end, like, man, 2025 was crazy, my man treated and he was like a dog.
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Oh, they don't know about it. Look at him. Look at him. I'm, you ain't talking about me.
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Hold on a man tight. She said, you ain't talking about me. Wow.
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She gave me the gaze like, you better look away.
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Praise God, boo. Praise God.
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Regardless of all the different things that can happen, you have to remember like Isaiah did
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that God has now seeded on the throne. That's the thing that we miss.
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If you would properly see him as he is, you would be able to navigate every single circumstance in
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your life. Good, bad, ugly, and indifferent. Good, bad, ugly, and indifferent. What do you mean?
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How do you navigate the good things? Those, those things just happen. No, they don't. Did you know that
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good things can derail you? Good things can be the enemy to great things. You can get so familiar
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and so content in a good thing that it'll stop you from truly achieving and reaching for the
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great thing that is within God's will. How about you can fumble a good thing?
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You have a pray so long for the thing that you wanted and God gave it to you and you,
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I'm sorry, Jesus can have another one. Oh yeah, lying today and pass the most only one.
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Listen, I'm just trying to get you to get out of your own head and get out of this space of
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performance Christianity. I am a living example that everything in my life I've received because
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of God's unmerited grace and mercy. I said this in the first service and my wife wasn't here.
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So she wasn't here to be embarrassed by what I have to say now, praise God.
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But that was her choice to come to church. She knew. She knew I was preaching today. She knew
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what was going to happen, but she still came. God bless her. But no, I said it in the first
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service like everything in my life I have, I know I don't deserve. Yo, this year I moved into a
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house that I didn't pay for. Can we talk about manifested abundance for a minute?
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Like in reality, we were probably 10 years out from home ownership just because of the natural
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like, you know, we manage our, we don't live above our means. We manage things well, but,
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you know, you got to deal with the repercussions of past decisions and before Christ. How about
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that, the BCH? You got to work your way up and that's the way the things of this worldly system
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works where certain people have to say, according to their check measures, this is what you can do
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and what you can't do. And God was like, you don't stop him. If I want him to have a house,
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he's going to have a house. Bang, God house. But again, I think back to my wife,
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I don't deserve the blessing that she is. Now, you guys can look momentarily and I don't mean
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to object to find a way. You can look momentarily and you can recognize that she is a bombshell.
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Momentarily, fellas. Your moment has passed. The scripture says your season is done.
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But for those of you who know her, you know that that's not the true richness of why I'm blessed.
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Because she's more beautiful inside than she is out. Type A aggressive going forward in every
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facet of her life. Just amazing. Always thinking about others first. Listen, God could have
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gave me a hedgehog based on my history and I'd have been like, thanks Lord. Because that's what I
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deserve. Oh, you guys don't know what a hedgehog is. Creature, ugly creature with spikes all over it.
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Every time you try to embrace, you get poked. Okay, praise God. He could have gave me that and
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that would have been enough. But God saw fit to go, you know what? I'm going to give him what he
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doesn't deserve. Every day that he wakes up and looks over to his left, he'll know God is good
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and God is real. Oh, you ain't saying it. I'm going to say it. Amen. Hallelujah.
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My life. So I turned 44 December 16th. Oh, praise God. Praise God.
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I know I drink a lot of water. Don't look like it. Don't look like it.
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Sitting having dinner with my wife and she looked over because I have a little rack of where,
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you know, like you walk in the house to take off your little shoes, you put it on the little rack
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and she looked over. She's like, how many shoes you got this past week?
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I was like, I don't want to bring it out because what you guys don't know is every shoe that I get
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means less closet space for her. And we were laughing about it because she was just like this entire
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month. The only thing that the Saints have been asking her is what is my shoe size. I was like,
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seriously, she's like, listen, since December 1, they don't even say how to go, hey,
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do you know past your most shoe size? Which is only hilarious, right? Because when we got married,
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I think I had what, close to 200 shoes?
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But before we moved into the new spot because she didn't say it but she said it, she was just like,
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looking at everything like, wow, a lot of them. So it's like I knew, all right, we got to make
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the sacrifice in marriage, amen? So I whittled it down to like 40? Yeah, that's a lot. Let's see,
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praise God, celebrate that. Oh, but it's been growing because like I said, people have been asking
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and just this season alone from December 16th till now, the Lord has blessed me with four more pair.
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That I didn't buy. And again, it's only hilarious because she was looking at them lovingly like, wow,
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look at the Lord. Look at the Lord. It's the good things that the Lord will do if you would take your
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eyes off of yourself. You know, the Bible says, magnify the Lord with me. And I think we miss
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what that means sometimes. When you magnify the Lord, what you're really doing is you're seeing
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him as he actually is. You're actually putting into relief and the proper perspective where everything
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else belongs because God is so big. You are magnifying and giving him his proper placement. Amen?
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So when I finally see the Lord like Isaiah saw the Lord, I don't have to fear about what's coming
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in the next year. When you finally see the Lord, anything can come your way. Good, bad, ugly and
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different. You can look at that thing and go, and I got the Lord with me. I remember one time I was
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preaching to the Lord, gave me something. I was a little thrown off like, Lord, you know,
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gang culture, what's that about? I said, you know, I can go into a knife fight very comfortable if
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I know that I have a gun. Oh, I guess it's just me and the Lord that know that life, please go.
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But I remember the Lord telling me that like, I'm loaded. You can go into any situation in the
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world knowing I got your back. And it gave me a sense of security and confidence where
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I'm not going to stress anymore about the things that I see knowing the things that he said
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because if he said it, consider it done. The problem comes when God says it and we believe for
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a second and then we act like he didn't say it. I don't want to hear about what you believe.
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I want to hear about what is the direction of your feet. Your feet will tell me what you actually
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believe. Are you calling your friends to complain about the situation? Are you standing firm knowing
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that God is going to make a way? It's a talk back church, but they're real quiet. Praise God.
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God is good. And all the time? All right. As we hit 2026, all you need to remember is that he
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is unaffected by all of these worldly things of man. God is still on the throne. Your God is fully
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aware of all of the happenings on earth and he is unmoved. He is still present to bless you,
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keep you and cause the light of his face to shine on you and give you favor and grace in the
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sight of God and man because you're one of his own. Amen? So today is a day of Thanksgiving
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and remembrance as we look back at some of the glorious things that he has done this past year
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and worship him through song. 1 Thessalonians 516 says this, rejoice always, pray without
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ceasing. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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So we started the year with a mandate from the Lord concerning manifestant abundance
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and we saw so much of this. I can give you testimony after testimony, not just of things in my life
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but things in other people's lives where we've seen the Lord show up and start burgeoning
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relationships. People that they will be married within the next six months because God's goodness
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has come and said, bang! See all the single people like, mm, must be nice. Yeah, it will be for you
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when you grab hold of the fact that, see, all right, God to preach, I'm just here to present to you
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the goodness of the things that the Lord has done this year. Amen? Part of manifest that abundance
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is not just in physical riches and coin. The greatest miracle that happens on earth is salvation.
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One of the greatest riches that we can have is people turning to the Lord and having their
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lives transformed. So we had water baptisms in May and in November. In May we had I think 50
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souls, 50, give their lives to the Lord and stand as a witness and declare that Jesus Christ is
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Lord and then November we had another 25 to add to the mix. 75 people just come into the Lord
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and truly, here's the thing, it's not just with words, they testified with their life, they stood
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before witnesses and declared Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's play that baptism video.
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The reason you see everybody smiling and rejoicing like that, you might not be able to pick it up
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from the video, but the presence of the Lord was in that room in such a powerful way.
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It was glorious. It's like God winked whenever we do the things that he said. He commanded
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to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus.
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Hallelujah.
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So I'm going to show you a few videos and I'll narrate as we go through. We're going to show you
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some videos from the healing rooms. Not yet. They're always coming in hot. They're always coming in hot.
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So with the healing rooms, we pray for the sick one-to-month, every month and we have seen such
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tremendous testimony. People getting healed of blood diseases, people getting healed of physical
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ailments. We had one guy come in, literally one of his legs was shorter than the other one,
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unbeknownst to him. He comes in with back pain and one of the volunteers is like, well you stand
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in like that. He's like, what are you talking about? And literally you can see it. His gate was off.
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They prayed for him and watched one of his legs grow out. These are the type of powerful things.
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God is still in the healing business today. The Bible says that he is the same yesterday,
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today and for. So let's watch these healing rooms videos.
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Hey guys, this is Michelle and this is Edward. He just came to the healing rooms at a city road church
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and he has a testimony to tell us. So you're dealing with some back pain, right?
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My back pain, if I was standing in my back, I would feel pressure in my back and then when he came
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to the healing room, they showed that my blood was really long and this is that. So they pray for
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him, but then God did it. He gave me a job done and I'm just standing now and now I'm
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putting the front of my back in. I feel much relieved when he's died and I'm so happy and blessed.
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Hallelujah. Jesus drudged his leg. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus.
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My friend Cynthia, she's become a church for a couple years but she was going through
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back pain. Do you want to tell us about what you're doing? Yeah, so I had a lumbar pain that was
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touching my sand and nerves. There was one of the things that was humiliated and I was just going
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through unbearable pain since December last year. So I had a surgery four months ago. I went through
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those surgery process and I was standing pain. I got up and getting injections, literally doing
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everything on my own till today. Yeah, how much pain was it with these days? I couldn't. Yeah,
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it was cream. Like even at the church service, I couldn't be seated. Like without the pain, it was
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it was torture for me to be sitting more than 20 minutes even lying down. Yeah, even this morning,
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you were in pain when you came to healing. Even this morning, I will cooperate with a lot of pain,
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even in my current way. I was walking and I was in pain. Yeah, and you were kind of saying,
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I can't even feel when this pain is on that. It's insane love, right? Yeah. So what happened
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today when you can't really start praying? So even when I was sitting and I waited for you guys,
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I was already in pain. And like I got bleeding. I was telling you that I feel so relieved because I
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you guys put hands on me, would pray, would leave that God will do it. And as I'll pain,
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went away. Yeah. And I couldn't, I couldn't be bending down. I couldn't feel my knees. Yeah,
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I couldn't lie standing out by myself. Can you bend it down now? I can't. Let's see it.
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You couldn't even have before. I don't talk about it. Be a bad it. Jesus!
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Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any pain now? No, not at all. Wow. Praise God. Say, glory to God.
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Listen, that's just two of the many that we've seen throughout the year. God just constantly again
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and again and again showing that he is real. It's one thing, like I love this because he doesn't just show
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up to do the things that you can't see. Like somebody gets saved. Praise God. We'll see in heaven.
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We'll know for sure. Man, they're with us. They made it. But it's like in the practical,
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when you're at a nine level of pain and then that goes down to a zero and you're like, oh,
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like there's something powerful to that when the unseen becomes seen. When the intangible
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becomes tangible is something that you can touch, hold and feel. And remember, we walk by sight.
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We walk by faith, not by sight. Don't say right. But it is a powerful thing to watch God move
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in our midst in a very tangible way that we can see and touch for ourselves. Amen. So give
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God a round of applause for that. So another thing that we like to do here at City Light,
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and if you don't know this, just we like to party. We do like to party because our God likes to
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party. And everything that we do here at City Light and serving this city as a house of worship,
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giving you a place where you can come and truly glorify the Lord. And even the things that we do
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cross sees through global compassion, all of it is only possible by the amazing men and women
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of God that volunteer and give of their time to serve. So we can't do what we do without the
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volunteers. So we make sure that the volunteers are well served. So this is a video of a little thank you
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that we give to the volunteers. Amen. Wait. This ain't no church party. It ain't boring.
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So just know that if you're not on the volunteer team, this is how we celebrate. We party.
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There are awards. It's a good time overall. Amen. We had a grand old time.
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Literally rented a whole venue, a rooftop venue because we've done land and sea before. So we
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figured, you know what? Let's go to the air and let's celebrate. We had a rooftop celebration
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brunch for all of the volunteers. And it was a glorious time and praise god.
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Yes, there was a DJ praise god.
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So we celebrate all of our clean leaders. These were so gracefully Sunday after Sunday.
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So our volunteer of the year award went to Anika.
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Sam, because I was because I was sneaker guy handed her a shoe box and she immediately thought
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she knew what it was. Lord bless her with a iPhone as our Nova award winner volunteer of the year.
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Yeah, we have the best volunteers in the world. Let me just go ahead and say that public.
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Yeah, only get a country's out. Only get in country's house for it and might say everybody else got it.
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So I got a question. Does that look boring? Does that look like something you want to be a part of?
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Sign up the volunteer.
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So for the next one, we partner, we, part of city light, we do local compassion.
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All of what we do here being a house of worship, being the kingdom of god, being a place of
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accountability and community. But we also have a far reaching hand as well. And it's amazing
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for the size church that we have. Our global impact is phenomenal. The amount of money that we give
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to help support the kingdom of god overseas. It doesn't make sense for our size church to be
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able to do what we do. So one of the people in Ethiopia, not even one of the people that found her,
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she made a video just thanking us for some of the things that they saw happen this year. So let's play
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that video from the Grace Center.
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Hi, Pastor Boyan and everyone at city light. We're so very grateful for you and your amazing
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partnership with us at Grace Center. I want you to know we could not do this without you. Thank
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you so much. I want to share with you a bit about what has happened in Ethiopia over the last year.
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In August, barred our Ethiopia face devastating political unrest.
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Over 2000 people were killed within 48 hours just in the neighborhood surrounding Grace Center.
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You can see here that the news that has covered doesn't come close to reflecting the reality
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of what we are seeing on the ground in Ethiopia. Communication has been difficult as well with the
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internet being shut off. We have seen extreme tragedy but continue to see god moving in miraculous
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ways. And we continue to pray for god's protection over all innocent people in this region.
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For a couple of months, Grace Center was the only program continuing to operate in Bahradar,
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a city of about half a million people. Despite the risks to their own lives, our staff continued
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their work at Grace Center. Their commitment reflects their dedication to serving those in need,
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regardless of the surrounding chaos. My family and I spent several months in Ethiopia last year at
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Grace Center. It was truly a blessing to be with the amazing people at Grace Center,
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and vital for us to have spent time there. Thank you so much for your partnership with Grace Center.
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I want you to know that you are saving and transforming thousands of lives. God bless you.
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Hi Pastor Boyan and everyone at City Life. So here's the thing, the Grace Center feeds over a
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thousand people every day. They double as an orphan prevention center, an orphanage,
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child care. They literally take women who, because in Bahradar Ethiopia, when you get pregnant,
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it's pretty much a death sentence. If you don't have a full system around you, some of the women
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get pregnant there and throw their babies to the side of the road. So not only are they saving
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these orphans, but they're also taking the mothers and teaching them, giving them a trade so that
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they don't have to feel like they need to abandon their children. Grace Center is doing such
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amazing work that the government reached out to them and said, we want what you're doing here
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in Bahradar. We want you to do it in other places as well. So the reach of what City Life is doing
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by helping them, we're actually blessing and serving those. Trust me, when you get to heaven,
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there will be people that will come up to you and thank you for the work that you've done.
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You're going to be like, I don't know, you're Takanama. And then they're going to point you to the fact
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that you are responsible for the help that I received again, again and again and again.
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Every day you are responsible as a City Life member, as a giver, you are responsible for feeding
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over a thousand people every day. That's nothing light. That's nothing to sniff at. That's God's mercy
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and grace in action. Amen? So finally, I want to point you to, we've partnered with Love Life.
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They are an abortion prevention agency. They specifically are fighting to combat the genocide
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that is happening in our country. Now, I will say people look at that and go, oh, that's pro-life
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politics. We're not really into that. That's not really pro-life politics. That's Christianity 101.
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Preserving life. That is the gospel where we're getting people saved. And with every one person,
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because basically what they do is they boots on the ground. They go and they stand in front of
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plan parenthood where a majority of these abortions are taking place and they're ministering to people.
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They're helping to convince people that there is another way that they don't have to give
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themselves up to abortion or give up their child to genocide. And with every one person that we see
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saved, think about all the generations that will come from that one life that got saved.
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It's a powerful thing. And even more so, the main facility for plan parenthood in Manhattan
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was officially shut down in no small effort to the work that Love Life and partnering with City
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Light has done. So that's a super huge thing. So a couple months back, we had a prayer walk
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on the a story of plan parenthood. So just take a look.
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Our work is we started in one area, we worship, we pray, and then we literally hit the
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streets, walking, praying, on the loudspeaker, letting the whole neighborhood know what is good for,
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which is so often the church is known for what they are against, but not what we are for.
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So we were praying for the dads, for the moms, for our community, for the workers themselves,
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for the church. It was an amazing time. Like I said, again, right in front of plan parenthood,
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it's pretty good.
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One of the prevailing thoughts that came through is just to reiterate that abortion is murder.
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People try to reconcile and dance around the subject, but you have to look at it for what it is.
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A abortion is murderous. So we're making sure that that message is known and that Love will
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prevail. Amen. Praise God. So we're going to hop right back into worship through song,
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but before we do, we're going to worship in our giving. Amen. Put your hands together. We're going
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to receive our weekly tides and offering. You can point your smartphone at the QR code to take you
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to our safe and secure landing page where you can do your giving. If you can't prepare to give a
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physical gift, we have offering boxes by the door. Just know this that as you give, let your
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giving be worship. Don't feel manipulated to do what anyone person says. Ask God what he would have
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you give. You're tied again. That's something the Lord has already set out what he would like you
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to do. That's 10%. Anything above that is an offering. So that's a free will gift that you give.
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Get with God and ask him, what would you have me give? Amen. So we have a first fruits campaign
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some weeks ago, I believe at the beginning of December past, the bull preached an amazing message
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on the first fruit and you can go and you can check that out. And basically it's not just about
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money. It's about the way that you live your life, giving God the preeminent in all things.
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That does equate to sometimes you giving of your money, but it's so much more than that. It's
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you literally living with God as the first place in your heart. So we do have, oh, they let the
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count out the back for his God. So our goal is 100,000. We are already at 81%. So that means
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we have this son, this is our last Sunday of the year, but we have till January 1 to make up
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the full 100,000. And I believe that we can do it. And not because of any one of you, but I do
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believe that as you ask the Lord, what he would have you give, God will speak. I pray that you
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would obey. Very simple. Amen. All right. So let's give with the cheerful heart, give as worship.
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And after you've given stand to your feet that we might worship and rejoice and reflect on
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God's goodness. Again, I want you to see him as he is. Don't see your trouble.
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Don't see your lack or your needs. See God as he is and he will meet that need.
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Regardless of what it is. Do you believe that today? Well, stand to your feet unless worship the
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Lord through song. God bless you. Have an amazing new year. And I will see you January 1,
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7 p.m. on Zoom for 21 days of prayer and fasting. God bless, guys.
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This is the city light church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message,
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or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in city light church,
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visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.
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We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today. That you have been
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reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening.
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Make sure that you subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts
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worldwide.