Embracing Immanuel — God With Us

Because we're professional hiders, we hide from the Lord, and this is a man problem.

You see it right in, the third chapter of Genesis, as soon as man fell, what did man do?

Hit. Where are they going to hide? But yet that's you. That's me.

Hiding. Like we can hide from him. So the Lord is calling us to step into the light and to

transparency, because that's where the healing takes place. 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.

I got prayers like that, and the Lord actually said to the same thing, I flashed back to,

and then I'd be reading Matthew, and before you know, I'd read the same passage,

still don't know what it means, still confused. My mind zones out for five minutes as I'm reading it,

then I read it, and it's like, I get teleported into the book, and you start,

you know, you're reading the miracles of Jesus, and you get glimpses, and you start feeling the same

anointing that was there in the Gospels. Hallelujah. See, there's levels to this thing,

and a lot of people, they're not hungry for the next level, because they never ever progress

in him, so they don't even know what's available. And the hungry people who ever meet is someone

who's gotten a few touches from the Lord, then they realize, oh, I've been eating this soup,

called Christianity, it has no salt in it, it has no pepper in it, not even a dash of hot sauce.

But I'm eating it, it's better than water, and everybody tells me it's so good, but then the Lord

comes up and goes, you have a little dash of Frank's red hot, it'll make the whole thing better,

and you're like, wow, I didn't know soup could taste so good. He comes by and crackles a little

pepper on there and you go, oh, there's levels to this thing called soup. Amen, I don't have to eat

bland stuff. Praise God. I forgot how to think I was going to preach, but the interruption,

the Lord highlighted them, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. You know God, this is an important

foundation to lay, God is good. That should go without saying, but if you actually listen to

most Christians, they don't in their core believe that, because they've been beaten up a few times

in life, and they misattribute the beatings to God, as though God is a great puppet master in

the sky who controls every facet of their life, sometimes stuff just happens, sometimes bad stuff

just happens because we're living still in a fallen world, reaping the consequences of a fallen

world. Now, ideally you're sticking close to the Lord, you're listening to his every leading,

his every word. If you do that, you will be protected from a lot. But even then, sometimes stuff,

stuff just happens. It doesn't mean God is bad because if you yield to him in those moments and go

with faith and out doubt and unbelief and complaining, he'll come into that mess and to that trash

heap that the world and that Satan created and he'll recycle that thing, it'll be a pile of gold

instead of trash. But God is good. Too many believe that some of the time, but he's actually good

all of the time. And he's good to you. And we have to be on this foundational fundamental

same page that God wants to bless you. Not just God as a blesser, no, he wants to bless you.

David didn't say the Lord is a shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. Now, I'm so glad so many of

are nodding, but I want to tell you honestly, when I really talk to believers, whether it's in

city light or outside of city light, in their heart of hearts, they're not really convinced,

they wonder. And some will actually adopt the mentality of why, no, God is good. And he's really

good to some, but you know, he has his chosen and his favorites and to others, you know, you might

get the short end of the stick or whatever. And life might be really hard and cruel, but eventually,

you get to heaven and it all pays off. No, resist that mindset. What, you're going to relegate

yourself and partner with that thought that you're a stepchild in the family of God and you get

second best, the real kids eat at the table and you get the crumbs that fall from the table. No,

God, he wants to bless all of his children. He wants to prosper all of his children, wants his

children healthy, wants his children with peace. And so there are promotions from the Lord.

The only way I can actually, it's not the only way, but it's the way I, because that's the way

the Lord communicated to me when I was still in my late teens. And it really is like that in your

walk with him. It's really, all of you have played video games of one type or another.

What, what was your first video game console? Nintendo, because you're 10 plus years younger than me.

What was yours? Nintendo. Now mine. The Atari 2600. In 1983, we got it.

As nothing to what I'm preaching, I'm just reminiscing here in the presence of the Lord. No,

but in a video game, you know, there's levels. And then once you beat the boss and you get the key,

you can unlock the level, it gets you closer to saving the princess or whatever.

And the Lord really does, I found function that way. And that's why messages that talk about

promotion from the Lord are so popular because he can't appear that we're stuck in a certain domain

in a certain level. And then somebody just gets a breakthrough and he takes you to the next level.

Now, I know that I know from the word, from the character of God revealed in his word

that God wants to consistently bless and exalt and promote his people. I believe that for myself

personally, for my family, I believe it for you, but you have to believe it for you.

But it then begs the question, how come some people get stuck at the same level?

Most of you played Super Mario Bros. It's a great first level. But imagine playing that your whole life.

I mean, that's going to get old pretty quick. You got advance in levels. Why are some people stuck

at the same level? I am convinced this is the kind of stuff as a pastor I really look into. I study

this. I monitor it. I want to know because it's my heart and I'm submitted to God's heart. My heart

to see you increase and move and be promoted. Why do some people get stuck at the same level? I'm

convinced it's because they never spend enough time in the presence of God and allow the Lord to do

a deep healing work in them so God can't promote them to the next level because they would get

blown up at that level. What would blow you up? The blessing would blow you up.

I want to invite the presence of God to minister to us, to be with us, learn, become really good

at cultivating the presence of God. For the sake of Him, but a great byproduct is

you became to look more like Jesus and then He can promote you. He can trust you enough to promote

you. I remember I was in Toronto. I was only saved then. I don't know. I was 20. So I was saved

four years. And a big phrase there was becoming more Christ-like and becoming more like Jesus.

And really as a 20-year-old, I mean, I didn't get the appeal of that. It seems like I should have,

but it was like something nice to say, but like what's the benefit? And I understand why Jesus

was Christ-like, but I'm 20 and I'm trying to figure life out and how does that apply to me.

And this old man, I mean wearing like baggy clothes and had the wild beard look like a mountain man.

He just turned to me and he goes, oh, that's it. Because to be Christ-like is a pleasure. And then it hit me.

And I went, oh, that is the benefit. It's not just in then what I can give to the world,

if I'm more Christ-like, but actually to be Christ-like is a pleasure. Then I won't have to deal with

all of this stuff I'm normally dealing with because Christ doesn't deal with that. Amen. To be Christ-like

is a joy. You said, free from bondage. You said, free from ticks. Hallelujah. It's a pleasure.

It's a joy. So it is important to cultivate the presence of God. That's why by the way,

you know, we had an amazing service last week. We just tweaked a few things and the Holy Spirit came

and it was like billows washing over us. And the staff was so blessed and we were blessed and I

said, we got a, I just want to pursue this. And maybe we adjust some things in our service order

or whatever, but it is of the utmost importance that people be familiar with the presence of God.

Because of our law, we still have Friday night, revival nights for nearly 20 years.

But then we left Manhattan and then we tried it here in Astoria, but it doesn't work as well in

Astoria because it's a weird train that goes here, whereas in Manhattan, we were near Central Hub.

And so my concern is that there's people who could come to City Light for a year and never have

an encounter with God, which is what a travesty that is, what a loss to come and you can get blessed

and you enjoy the worship and you learn something from the preaching of the Word, but without a God

encounter, you're just, you're not experiencing Him for yourself. You're learning about somebody that

I've experienced that may be your neighbor sitting next to you as experienced, but you're still

taking my word for it. You have to have an encounter. You, that's why you read through the Bible

everybody that God used, starting with Noah, moving on to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, Moses,

they all have one thing in common. They had an encounter with God. A man with an encounter is

never at the mercy of a man with a philosophy or a theory or a thought. We actually talked about this

just on the way to church. We were singing in the car and one of my daughter's favorite songs

is that song by Brian Lake, Brandon Lake. I've seen real life resurrections, I've seen miracles,

I've seen cancer healed. She has this morning, what does it mean? I saw a woman receive

arches in her feet. Is it things that in the song? And we started talking about that and I said to

her, Vivi, you know, the whole song is basically the songwriter saying, I have first-hand knowledge of

these things. I have experienced these things either personally or saw them with my own eyes. So

because I've had these first-hand experiences, he's too good to not believe. Someone else might

have a theory about how he's not good, but I've experienced him and he's good. So it doesn't even

have an impact on me because I have a first-hand encounter. She kind of looked and looked in

in the review mirror and then I said, hey, like now the kids are all eating Dubai chocolate

apparently. How this stuff infiltrates, they're they're like they're banned from iPads, she doesn't

have it, but yet it still comes in. She came to me the other night or the hand full of Dubai chocolate,

like a giant clump. It's coming like Play-Doh out of her finger and she's like, Dad, would you like

some? Like get that away. You're the one who shared it with her. And I said to her, you know,

did you like that Dubai chocolate? Her face, she takes after me. So you mentioned it, no really,

it's true. Victor takes a lot after his mom and she takes after me. So you mentioned a good

dessert. She's like, yeah, I like that Dubai chocolate. Can anyone tell you it's bad? No.

Because you've tasted and seen that Dubai chocolate is good. So when you've experienced the Lord,

you taste and see that he is good. No one can take that from you. That's why encounters with the

Lord are vital. And you qualify for one. The Lord will not hold one back from you. You need

frequent encounters with the Lord. To be refreshed, to remember who he is, to not just believe, oh, he's

the God of love and God is somewhere you get the bit midler doctrine of God is watching us

from a distance. No, not from a distance. Up close and personal. And in love with you,

wants to bless you. And if you allow a work of the Holy Spirit to take place inside of you,

then he'll promote you, amen. Like I want my son to get promoted. I have rifles. I'd

love for him to go to the range with me. But he can't. At least not in Long Island, he can't.

So he has nerve guns. You know why dad doesn't give him a rifle? Because it blow himself up with it,

amen. And maybe me. But this is why you might be saying, Lord, promote me, promote me. And he

can't even promote you the way he actually wants to, which is more than you're even asking for,

because he'll do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. But he won't do it because

he loves you so much because the blessing will blow you out of the water. So you ask him to do

a deep work and you open up so that then he can promote you, amen. There's way too many people

in the church. They actually got what they're praying for. They wouldn't ever come back to church.

Hallelujah. See, one thing you can know about me right now, and this was, this was, I wouldn't say

a big test, but it was something I had to, like, look at and confront. That this is the first year

that I don't have to work for city light church. I don't need the salary. So I had to, it's not like

it was a big temptation, but I thought, wow, you know, before I'd say it's the call of God, but really

where else am I going to go? What am I going to do now? Submit a resume somewhere to accompany and

be like, I'm going to start at the mail room and work my way up. Well, what have you been doing

your whole life? Well, since I was in my 20s, I've been a full-time ministry. Can you use me? No.

Besides, AI is going to take these jobs in three years anyway, so we really can't use you.

Nobody likes AI jokes here. Okay. I guess the touchy subject.

You stay close to Jesus. You are secure, amen. AI is not coming for you. You stay close to Jesus.

And stay close to Jesus. It doesn't mean being ignorant and praying a lot either.

It means stay close to Jesus in your prayer life and allow him to flood your mind with creativity.

In case he says turn left, pivot right, you flow with him. Amen.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. So, yeah, I wouldn't give my son that because he would hurt himself.

I'm also convinced that a reason, maybe a primary reason of why people don't allow a deep work

of God's holy presence to take place inside of them is because they hide.

You know, we as people are professional hiders. We hide all the time. You guys have a friend

that everyone has one friend like this. They'll complain about someone else. I'll be like,

I don't like Sally. Sally is, and the list, all the things they don't like about Sally,

but all of those things apply to them. You know what I'm talking about. It's not you,

it's your friend of yours. It can't be you.

And you go, how come? Wow, they got like zero self-awareness. They don't even know that they

just describe themselves. All the false, they don't like about Sally. That's more them than Sally.

Well, what mean if this? What's happening in that cranium of theirs? What's happening is that we

all have these egos and your ego is not your amigo. Your ego is always wanting to protect itself.

Always wanting to show its best face and is extremely defensive. And you know,

spiritual maturity can be measured in, in tandem with how defensive you are. The less defensive you

are, the more spiritually mature you are. Amen. So because we're professional hiders,

we hide from the Lord. And this is a man problem. You see it right in the third chapter of Genesis,

as soon as man fell, what did man do? Hit. Where are they going to hide? This is God,

but they hid themselves. I mean, it's, it's comical and preposterous for us because we're reading

of psiliatum, hiding. But yet that's you. That's me, hiding. Like we can hide from him.

So the Lord is calling us to step into the light and to transparency because that's where the healing

takes place. You know, Jesus, did you notice he doesn't, what happened? Guys, this is a party.

I'm trying to preach. There's like 15 Altoids on a chair. Mops are being taken out.

We're, okay, son, you make me proud. You have the freshest breath in the church. And I want

you to know that when I prayed for a son, I specifically said not one would stank breath and he

gave me you. It's got two handfuls of Altoids. You know those are the churches Altoids.

I want you to see you make that up in the offering. Where was I?

Adam and Eve, do you notice Jesus doesn't like fig trees? Like he curses the fig trees. There's

all these reasons. Why? But I got a better one. And then he says, if you'd say to this

sycamore tree, a sycamore is a type of fig tree. If you say to the sycamore, be plucked up by the

roots, be cast into the sea. It's like, Jesus, you don't like fig trees. What's your beef with fig trees?

Fig leaves is what man uses to hide.

A great part of the Bible from beginning to end is the Lord calling out, come out of hiding,

come into the light. That's where the healing takes place. Healing can take place in the darkness,

demons dwell in darkness. Healing takes place in the light. And most people, now don't think of

your roommate, your spouse, your best friend, think of yourself. Most people are terrified of stepping

into the light. Usually they're tricked by God, lovingly into stepping into the light. They're like,

oh, that's why they break out crying. Oh, Lord, I'm so exposed, yet I still feel your love,

how can it be? Does that compute? Does that compute? They break out crying? They think they'd be

rejected if God actually saw who they were. Yet he knows you, knows every cell in your being,

knows you every which way. He's not put off by you. It's still sin, it's still wrong. It's still maybe

broken, but he loves you. God loves ugly. He's not put off by it. And one of the greatest examples

of that in the gospels, though, there's many, because Jesus never went, oh, you're so broken.

You're so messed up. Once you work on yourself, then come to me. I was just

wouldn't instinct to somebody. And they used that in the classic, I'm going to come to the Lord

because he was raised religiously. I'm going to come to the, I just need to work on myself first.

You're going to work on yourself. And you're going to fix yourself up till you're presentable. Wow,

you have a magic power. You are so strong. You can actually do the work of the cross apart from

the cross. And then you'll come to the cross. So Jesus is ministering in a synagogue. And the

Bible says there's this man with a withered hand. And it's illegal for him under Levitical law to

have this deformity of a withered hand and be in the synagogue. So he's hiding. And the Bible,

the way it phrases, it's very apparent that he's hiding because he's also out on the outskirts in

the back of this synagogue. And Jesus is preaching. And then after preaching, what time is it?

Miracle time. Because the spirit should always come and confirm the word, hallelujah. In fact,

when I preach, it's not just so that you can take good notes, get a Christian education,

it's that the seed of the word of God has to go into your heart and then God's spirit will come

and demonstrate what was preached. That is a healthy church. There has to be a demonstration.

It may not take place up here all the time, but there should be a demonstration in your life,

the Holy Spirit confirming the word with signs following. That's Mark 16. He'll confirm the word

with signs following. That's why Jesus, whenever you look at a crusade he had, it always says he

went preaching and teaching and then performing miracles. First is the preaching and then teaching.

The word has to go forth first, then the miracles. And that's why Paul said, my speech and my

preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. You ever watch the history channel and

history channels doing something? I'm like, Samson, I'm going to talk about the Philistines and then

they show the egghead, theologian scholars with the swayed patches with the library behind them

and Paul was saying, I'm not like one of these guys. I'm not an egghead theologian who's just

going to talk to you about God. He said, my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words

of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that has to be a demonstration.

Amen. So Jesus finishes preaching and now it's time to demonstrate. And who do you think is the

first one Jesus calls out, the man with the withered hand, who's in the back hiding that grotesque part

of himself. And Jesus being Jesus, I mean, can you believe any preacher would do this? He says,

you stand forth in the midst. He calls them out to stand in the middle in front of everybody.

The guy's hiding. Jesus knows what he's hiding. And he goes, stand forth in the midst. The guys are

going, they're going to see my hand. They're going to stone me. You didn't get to find back then.

You got stoned. And if you're unsaved and you think that's the good kind of stone to you good,

it's not that kind of stone. Then when the man, he comes in the midst, no one says anything,

so he must be hiding his hand. Then Jesus says, stretch forth your hand. So show that ugly grotesque

to everybody. Why? Why? Is Jesus being cruel? No. Healing cannot happen in the darkness.

That's where the devil dwells. Healing happens in the light. And then the Bible very specifically

with this language. And I don't have the passage up here, but read it when you get home for yourselves.

It says, as you stretch forth his hand, probably coming out all deformed. As you stretch the

fourth, it was made whole as the other. That is a picture of how God will deal with us.

When we're honest with him, when we're not hiding, when we're so used to putting our best face forward

to all of our friends or acquaintances, that then we take that same thing with the Lord like he

doesn't know. So it's so much better to be honest to relax in his presence and to say, Lord,

I come to you just as I am. No pretense. I can't trick you. I can't pump myself up in front of you

know exactly what a wretch I am. And you love me anyway. Hallelujah. They say there's this thought

also in the church that like if you sin, if you mess up, God takes his Holy Spirit away.

And that usually causes nine out of ten times that causes the person to backslide fully.

And you know if you sin, God won't take his Holy Spirit away. He's with you.

But people feel like because one of the symbols for the Holy Spirit is adove that the Holy

Spirit is as skittish as a pigeon. I was taught that when I first became a Christian. Don't sin.

That's good advice. Don't sin. You've been empowered not to sin. But sometimes you don't have to

mess up. But sometimes you still mess up. Then what do you do? Now I was taught the Holy Spirit.

You know how adove gets startled if you mess up. He just flies away. Why do you get him back?

Well now you got a fast. Now you got a beg roll around on the altar maybe. Oh God.

Pray Psalm 51, but only with an old covenant mindset. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

And you don't have to do any of those things. He didn't go anywhere. He's not some fair weather friend.

He sticks with you through the ugly. And God loves ugly. We should excite us because we're kind of

ugly apart from him. Hallelujah. Oh the ones who really agreed with that, they're getting the

breakthrough first. The ones who can go through the low path of humility and say yeah Lord I'm

really really ugly without you. Hallelujah. Well I want to read Psalm 63 to you this morning.

We're focusing on the presence of the Lord. I think this is a good theme for Christmas because

the very name Emmanuel means God with us. And that's what we're celebrating. The presence of God

with us. Experiencing his presence. And David, he's very unique. Have you ever heard that term

key of David? It's in Revelation. You just said I'll give you the key of David. What is the key

of David? Theologians have speculated on what the key of David is. I personally believe it's

intimacy with God because that's the one thing that causes David to stick out like a sore thumb

compared to other Old Testament he rose in patriarchs. He had a friendship with the Lord and a yearning

and an intimacy that I feel like you don't even see with Moses. You don't see with Elijah. You

don't see with Elijah. He just loved the Lord not for what the Lord could do for him but just because

he's the Lord and he's awesome and it's wonderful to be with him and spend time with him.

And that's really bizarre because he was under the old covenant. You know, you're different

under the new covenant. Jesus said something that really shows you how different you are. He said

John the Baptist of all the prophets. There's no one greater than John the Baptist. So Jesus

actually said, wow, John the Baptist is greater than Moses. He's greater than Elijah,

greater than Elijah, greater than Habakkukukukukukukukukuk. Why is he greater? Well because he announced

the way the Lord and prepared the way the Lord, he heralded the way of the Messiah

but then he said something even more bizarre. He said, the least in the kingdom of heaven

under the new covenant, the least, so think of myself the least. He said, the least in the kingdom

of heaven under the new covenant is greater than the greatest under the old.

Aren't you glad you were born AD? Now why? Why is the least under the new covenant greater than

the greatest under the old? Because they didn't have the new creation reality. Under the new covenant

you have a brand new spirit. You've been born again. There was no new birth. There was no born

again experience in the old covenant. Also you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They

didn't have that in the old covenant. Under the old covenant only three people, the king, the

prophet and the high priest would be anointed and be covered by the Holy Spirit, but still know

indwelling presence. So you're special. You've been separated. Hallelujah. But David, even living

under the old covenant with all the things I just described, he still was like an old testament

saint with a new testament heart. Because even though he didn't have the new creation, there was an

intimacy that he had tapped into and a yearning for the presence of God. And the reason why all of us

love David and can so often relate to David is because you realize his flaws. Even though he's

such a great man, a true poet warrior. Hallelujah. That's what the world needs more of, by the way,

poet warriors. I've told my son, we're raising you to be a poet warrior.

Is there just warriors that great, they'll get the job done, but then their meathead

can't think. The philosopher poet is wonderful. Developed mind you can think, but when the going

gets tough, you hide behind a stack of books. But a poet warrior, like David, gets the job done.

Hallelujah. Well, he tapped into something beautiful. I invite you, Psalm 63. Oh, God, you are my God.

Listen to his heart's cry. Early will I seek you. My soul thirst for you. My flesh longs for you.

There's segments of Christianity where if you say I want to feel the presence of God, they go,

that's terrible. They only believe in walk by faith, not by sight.

Is it legal? Is it okay with the Lord for you to say, Lord, I really want to feel your presence?

Yes, it is. David said, I miss the presence of God. I want to feel the presence of God.

I understand why there are some staunch people who say, well, no, I just want to be a frontal

lobe in Christian. Just relegated to my frontal lobe and everything has to make sense and everything

has to be logical. Maybe they ran into a few flaky pentecostals who always had to feel God.

And when they didn't feel God that one day, the spiral into depression, that happens.

And they think, oh, what's wrong? What did I do to upset him? What a fickle friend. I made one

mistake. And so there's a truth right there in the middle. We do walk by faith and not by sight.

And we're not moved by whether we feel them or not. But thank God that we can feel Him. Thank God

for when we do. And it's totally fine to press into feeling Him because look how David is praying.

Think by soul, it thirsts for you and my body, my flesh, longs for you. We're in this world

which is a dry and thirsty land. If you don't have daily drinks from the Lord, you're going to

wither up and dry up. Hallelujah. I hear this. Jesus saying knock and keep knocking and the door

will be open to you. Seek and keep seeking. And I will be found of you.

There has to be a tenacity. There has to be a persistence. Lots of people was out with

persistent but then want to actually peek under the hood and interview them. What they mean is,

well, I tried praying a few times and God just doesn't work me like that. That's our persistence.

Keep knocking. Wait in His presence. I did for 20 minutes. I didn't feel anything. Awesome.

Wait another 20. Then do something you haven't done before. Sing a song out loud to Jesus

alone in your room for goodness sake. Then sing another one. Then open your mouth and begin

to sing in other tongues. And as He fills you with His Holy Spirit of fresh.

Then step out of your head and just begin to pray out of your spirit whenever He deposits

in you. He'll give you the words to pray in English. Now you're moving into the realms of God.

That's knocking. That's seeking. And there's a principle in the Bible. You cannot keep knocking

without the door being opened. Hallelujah. I've never ever met someone who was consistently hungry

for the Lord who said, you know, I've been hungry for 17 years. I still never had that God encounter,

you talk. Have you? Have you met? I've never met that. I would love to meet that person.

I have never met him. I mean, maybe they say that and I go, tell me how you were hungry. Oh,

that's why. See what you call hunger. I call that a mild tummy ache. That's not hunger.

You got to be famished. Hallelujah. Some of you, I'm provoking you this morning. You got to do

something crazy. I shaved off all my hair once. I was 21, 2021. And I read in the book of Acts

that Paul shaved off all his hair and took an oath. Now I didn't bother to study what Jewish tradition

that was. Why he did that? Does it apply to me today? I was like, man, so I took, I went full

on prison. I'm talking, ooh, that's when I discovered I do not genetically have a dome that

needs to be displayed to the world. Some people got nice domes. Mine looks like you know,

slalom skiing on it. I don't know where all the bumps came from. Maybe my mother dropped me.

Now that was bad theology on my part. I might have been a little overzealous in my youth.

But you know the Lord honored that. He said, look at this crazy kid. I'm not even doing that head

shaving thing anymore. But he thought I was. So I'm going to get down with that. Do something you've

never done before. Hallelujah. I was inspired by men of God. There's a man of God used tremendously

in signs, wonders and miracles. He took a water jug into the closet, locked himself in the closet

and said, do not to his wife. Do not let me out of here until you know that God has visited me.

And he stayed in there for over two days with the one jug of water.

Sometimes you got to, it's not that you got to get God's attention, but you got to step out of

the norm and provoke yourself into a place of the miraculous. Doing something you've never done

before. Be a wild woman. Be a wild man.

What's the downside? Hallelujah. There is no downside. What would someone's going to say

or think? Don't tell them. Keep your pursuit of the Lord private. That stuff shouldn't even

be shared until years later, I believe. So when there's a work that's done and you can talk about it

as something with a period at the end, not mid-process. You can subvert the process if you talk about it,

mid-process. So my soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where

there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory.

My prayer for you is that you would experience daily the presence and the power of God and that

you would grow in the glory and the presence and the power of God. Hallelujah. Because you're loving

kindness, this is the same word for tender mercies, loving kindness, this is the word that David used

when he was now. King of it all, he stopped running around through bramble bushes and hiding

out in caves, he had now become king, he had the palace, and you know what he's doing? He's pacing

the palace going, is there anyone of the house of Saul that I could show cassettes, that I could show

covenant kindness to tender mercies or loving kindness. It's also translated that way.

And the servant said, oh, there is one mephibishev, but he's lame in his feet.

And David said, bring him, and he treated him like a son, he made him sit at the king's table,

restored all the lands that he had lost, and it says every day, then mephibishev 8 at the king's

table, who's mephibishev? I'm mephibishev, you're mephibishev, lame in our ankles.

Yet God, in this case David representing God, is going, who is there that I can show covenant

kindness to in spite of them? That's what he's talking about. He's saying, I've tasted of your

covenant kindness, your tender mercies, your loving kindness. It's better than life. Hallelujah,

do a little check. I really wish God would do us a big favor. I pray that all you have a vision,

not just of God, but of what your life would look like, apart from God. Kind of like the Christmas

Carol, except not the three ghosts, but just an angel of come and says, let me show you what your

life would be like. If God hadn't intervened in visibly in your life a million times, it starts when

you were two years old, and mom was crossing the street with a baby's drawer, and that mac

truck should have hit you, but I prevented it. And then six months later you were going to eat that

thing, it was poisonous, but I caused it to fall out of your hand. And take you through your whole

life at how many times he saved our hide, we would go, oh, your loving kindness is better than life.

My lips will praise you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thus I will bless you while I live. Here's a

pedicostle verse. I will lift up my hands in your name. Hallelujah.

I was delighted when I read that for the first time, because I was searching for scriptures

about the late lifting up of hands, because I noticed there's this unspoken thing to lift or not to

lift. And people, people tend to see lifting hands as, that's a little radical, bordering on

fanatical. I could definitely be the hands in my pocket swaying to worship Christian.

I could be the Christian that claps, that's easy, because we clap to all kinds of songs, but to lift

up your hands, that's next level. That's the doctoral program. I'm not ready for that. Yeah,

you are. It's how God designed the whole thing. In fact, the word yada, which means praise,

comes from the root word you would inhibit, which means hand.

They actually say, well, to praise him, there's a lifting up of the hand. There's something

spiritual about it. I wonder why. It's been suggested, I think, because, hmm, feel the anointing on.

You know, the Bible calls Satan the Prince of the power of the air. And there's something about

when you lift up your hand, you're declaring to the heavens, to the air, to the atmosphere. God

has dominion even here. Hallelujah. Next verse, please. My soul worship team, you can come up

my soul. And this is why the presence of the Lord is such a delight, because we're less nasty

when we're full of the presence of God. You ever have your own nasties come up? You need

carpet time. You need to rest in the presence of the Lord, allow him to touch you,

heal you of the pain that's making you nasty. You feel restless, irritable. Your soul is

unsatisfied. The presence of God comes to satisfy your soul. My soul shall be satisfied. As with

marrow, see, that didn't even make sense 10 years ago. But now, because of these health means

trends and all that, everybody knows how good bone marrow soup is for you, right? Yes,

no, is that just my wife? Everywhere she was making bone marrow before bone marrow was

cool. Now everybody I told her, have you tried bone marrow? Yeah. And I'm from the Balkans. We're

raised on the stuff. It's the choice is the part. It's where all the nutrition is. And he says,

my soul will be satisfied. As with marrow and fatness, the choice is the part, the presence of God,

the best. That's what will satisfy you. Like its marrow and fatness. And my mouth shall praise you,

hey, another Pentecostal verse. Because it actually talks about mouth and lips. I'm talking about

expressive demonstra when I jokingly say Pentecostal. Because some people, they won't lift their hands.

They won't even sing out loud. They don't know it's city light. They think it's the first

church of the chosen frozen. And so they stay. And that's fine in the beginning, but

worship God, the way he prescribed to be worshiped and his word. My mouth shall praise you with

joyful lips. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. How many of you

go to sleep? You're thinking to the Lord. Oh, if you're not doing that, you're missing out.

I know you do. And that was such a beautiful habit you developed on early in your life.

To as you drift off, it's not even that you're praying to him, but you're just kind of

thinking to him as you drift off in his presence. And there's a power there. If anybody suffers

from night terrors or nightmares or any kind of assault while they sleep or even a lack of

good, healthy sleep, you know how much the Bible talks about sleep where God promises you sleep.

And it says he gives his beloved that's you sleep. And it all begins when you're

communing with him as you drift off into that place. That place called sleep where the enemy loves

to attack. Why? Because you're at your most vulnerable there. You're unconscious.

And you know what the Bible says? He gives his beloved gifts

in sleep. He talks about him giving you sweet sleep and gifts in sleep literally. And I know this

has happened to me multiple times while you're sleeping in that state of openness and unconsciousness.

So your monkey mind can't get in the way with the paralysis of analysis and the overthinking and

the reasoning and the rationalizing your way out of a blessing. When you're in that receptive

state, he gives you gifts. He gives you graces. He actually makes heavenly deposits into you while

you're sleeping. I know I'd be falling asleep and then I'd wake up as deposit was going and I'd

wake up like 20% wake up in the Holy Ghost. Oh, I feel like if I could see in the spirit of be

shivers of golden waves over there, I'll go, oh, Lord, that's you. And then I'll go back and sleep

wake up eight hours later, be like, oh, I got something. Yeah, I got something. I'm different

than how I went to bed. He Jehovah's Niki. He came in and snuck something good that I needed in

there. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches because you have been

my help. Therefore in the shadow of your wings, I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind you.

Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life to destroy it, man, I got a flash of

you, Pastor Brian, when I read that, that's, but those who seek my life to destroy it,

shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion

for jackals. But the king, that's you. Male, female, you're the king. God has made it so.

The king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him shall glory. But the mouth of those who speak

lies shall be stopped. Hallelujah. These are the blessings and benefits of a person with a hunger

for the presence who's experiencing the presence. The first half of the psalm is him describing his

hunger for the Lord. You can taste his hunger. And then the second half of the psalm is describing

all the benefits of a person who engages in the presence of God. I pray that the Lord

mold us and shape us where every single person here is radically head over heels in love with Jesus.

There's just no other way to live. There's no other way to do Christianity. If there was another way,

I'd be bored of it. I'd never be a pastor. It's either an adventure or it's nothing at all.

And with God, it's an adventure because the things of God are bottomless. You can never figure him out.

Amen. Well, we're going to go into a time of worship where you can drink of his presence.

But before that, let's honor the Lord with the tides and offerings, shall we? Amen.

Now, I want to make an announcement. I got great news. Most of you, I believe, were here last week

when we had an impromptu special offering for Pastor Rob and Yari who are adopting

to help alleviate some of the burden, the legal burden. Because, you know, those costs can be over

$70,000. I'm very disappointed to say only $216 came in. No, I'm kidding.

You won't believe how much came in. I'm so blessed by our church.

$18,400.

You know, those are like mega church numbers.

Yet, we typically have about 320 people between the two services on Sunday, right around the size of

Gideon's army. We said, we have a Gideon's army here that gives like an army of 1,000 or 1,500.

I'm so blessed. And may the Lord, I pray for everyone. I don't know who gave to that special

side offer. Oh, also what's good. By the way, let me just say this. I'm going to come back to my prayer.

The Lord understands. As I was receiving it, you know, you have to understand, as a pastor,

I'm also responsible for the finances of the church. When you receive a special offering like that,

you can't help but think, man, I hope this doesn't affect the church times in offerings. You know,

because like everybody will give to one and I'm just saying that's when the unrenewed mind,

so that thought did come. So to combat that thought, what I said was, hey, if you don't know whether

to give to first fruits or the adoption, give to the adoption. You remember me saying that's

the combat that thought of, oh, man, I don't want every, because people get excited. They're not

thinking about, you know, how we're going to pay the light bill or whatever. They're thinking,

I give it all to the new couple. But what blessed me so much was that we more than made budget

with the regular tax and offerings and then we brought in 18,400. Do you know, I could be pastoring

some potent country church that's dead. I could be pastoring in Manhattan in the middle of the

greatest city in the world, but also with the church of dead people. But instead, God found

it good in His eyes. And I am blessed to be pastoring people who are alive, who love the Lord,

and who back it up in a practical way with their generosity. So isn't that awesome? Hallelujah.

And they're going to make the best couple. And I want to pray something specifically

for their child. They're not even here, but in worship that this just came up.

You know, when someone is adopted, one of the big things the enemy tries to do to them,

I've seen it over and over again is to work in them with a spirit of rejection.

Because they're little, they're a baby, they could be one minute old. But because in a way,

they're being rejected. In a way or a total way, you know, they're being rejected by their

birth mother and their father. And that spirit can attach itself to them. And then they can even come

into a loving family, but they're always struggling with acceptance. They have a terrible

insecurity. They have a huge wound in them. And they're always really fighting with a spirit of

rejection. I want to pray that for their future daughter in the name of Jesus, because she has

yet to be born. She's on the way. Father, that you see through the whole birth, that you see through

it, healthy. And Lord, we just bless and we join with the prayers of Pastor Robin Yari,

that that child be protected, that rather than the rejection by the birth parents, that they feel

the acceptance and approval of you and their new parents, Lord, that that child would not have

one emotional hiccup or stutter, that she'd be brought up in a house full of the Holy Ghost,

in wholeness and in blessing, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. We'll give with a glad heart, give

worshiping God. And if you want prayer, there's a ministry team that'll in about 10 seconds be by the

Christmas lights to my left. You're right. And we'll see you next Sunday. How do you like this

service with just a little bit of an adjusted flow? We're just going to continue like this. Amen.

Enjoying the presence of God. And the main thing is, you can't, you can never try to repeat a

service. The Lord doesn't like that. No cookie cutter stuff. Oh, yeah. First fruits.

If you're wondering, now I'm going to do it differently. If you're wondering whether you should

give to first fruits, you definitely should. Let's just look at that. This is the best we've

ever done. 71%. You've been around for years. We've never normally, this is where we're like at 30%,

and I'm like, uh, whatever, guys, give. And then the Lord still does it, but it's like some miracle

at the end. It's nice to just frontrun the thing, you know? No, but this is, listen, it's not about

the money, although the money is nice. What it is is the Lord amongst us, right? Because a church

that's not generous, you will never see a church that's stingy and in revival does not exist.

The Bible says people will give willingly, gladly, in the day of his power. So when you see the

Lord moving on people's hearts with no guilt, no manipulation, it's a big thing. It's a beautiful

thing. You can stay seated. I feel like this is a stay seated. Like you don't want to stand. You

want to just baste. Be blessed in your baste. We'll see you next Sunday. This is the City Light

Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more

about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you,

and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to

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