Sermon

Walking in Love, Living in Power

CityLight NYC Church Podcast

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Faith is connected to love, and faith works through love.

  2. That means that if I have tons of faith in my heart, and I'm speaking it out,

  3. but I'm not walking in love, my faith won't be working.

  4. This is essential to me receiving from the Lord in prayer in my love more.

  5. Because when you don't have love, your faith is like two wires that sometimes connect.

  6. But the rest of the time there's no life, there's no current flowing.

  7. Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast.

  8. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

  9. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.

  10. That's citylightnyc.com.

  11. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working

  12. in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching,

  13. remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace,

  14. and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

  15. It's so good to have you with us, good to have those of you joining us online with us as well.

  16. We're going to start off this morning with an ordination.

  17. I'm really excited to have Brian Anderson here, his wife Heidi, his kids are here.

  18. You came to support Dad. It's so good.

  19. And so Brian has been with us since 2019. Many have heard his testimony of how he was horrendously

  20. backslidden. Not looking for God, ended up in one of our services. The Lord touched them,

  21. brought him back to himself, and we've been meeting for a while now, and actually it's got to be

  22. over two years where you said, you know, I love the Lord and He's done such a work in my heart,

  23. and I really feel ministry on my heart as well if there's anything. And if anybody comes and says

  24. that to me, I have the same thing. I tell them because we don't have like a plug-and-play operation.

  25. The council you get for me is going to be, well, start ministering right where you are.

  26. Wherever you are now, let those gifts flow out of you, start loving people, start receiving from

  27. the Lord and giving what you receive to the people. And Brian did exactly that.

  28. And many of you know him because his house is always open hosting life groups, going to life groups,

  29. and he never asked to be ordained, but I felt strongly, strongly, over the course of multiple months

  30. that he needs to be ordained, he needs to be in ministry, and he's going to serve along with the

  31. city light elders in the governance of this church. And so we're excited about that.

  32. I want to just go to Acts chapter 13. Hallelujah. He is an attorney full-time and owns his own legal

    Acts 13 chapter mention

  33. practice, runs it. And so when we say go into ministry, he's not, if you still have a legal problem,

  34. he's your guy. He's going to be bivocational.

  35. But one thing that impressed me about him that I noticed is that although the law is a love of his,

  36. it's not his first love. He's fallen madly in love with Jesus and wants to see Jesus as kingdom come.

  37. And so in Acts 13, one, we have the early apostles, and it says now in the church that was at

  38. Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger,

  39. Lucius of Cyrene, Manain, who had been brought up with Herod, the Tetrarch, and Saul, verse two.

  40. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, by the way, ministering to the Lord is something that

  41. activates the voice of the Holy Spirit. Say, what's ministering to the Lord? Well, what we just did,

  42. we're serving him with our praise and worship. We just had to praise and worship. That's ministering

  43. to the Lord. You're serving him. We're spring to him, talking to him, waiting on him, praising him,

  44. singing him. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, why don't you combine fasting when ministering

  45. to the Lord? Is it any wonder the Holy Spirit said on the heels of them ministering to the Lord

  46. and fasting? And I love the Holy Spirit said, if you heard my message last week, I can do anything if

  47. I had a Holy Spirit said on the topic. The Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul

  48. for the work to which I have called them. So, what's happening here is separation.

  49. There is calling. Brian was called before he was in his mother's womb. But there is separation.

  50. And so he's being separated for the work of the ministry. And I'm going to ask Pastor Rob and

  51. Pastor Mota to come and join me. And Brian, once you come stand and you can stand right there.

  52. And congregation, I'd like you, you can face me. And congregation, once you stretch your hands

  53. towards him and go ahead, lay your hands upon him. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Father, we thank you for

  54. the holiness of this moment. Thank you, Lord, that your hand comes upon Brian mightily.

  55. Lord, he's being separated, you've ordained it so, separated to your work. Now, Lord, Father,

  56. we ask that you put a mighty mantle upon him that he would move in the gifts of the spirit,

  57. that he would be mighty in the scriptures and fully a word. Lord, that he would love fiercely

  58. and vigorously all who are around him. Lord, that you would work miracles by his hands. Lord,

  59. that many people would come into the kingdom as a result of him and what his family say and do

  60. and proclaim. We bless the Anderson's and Brian right now and welcome him. Lord, into the

  61. eldership of city light church, in Jesus' name, shout a big amen, amen, amen, hey, and thank you

  62. for the anointing upon him. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

  63. Thank you, Lord. I said this at the end of the second service, I'm going to say it in the beginning

  64. of this one. How many of you remember when Trump was called, called them all fine people on both

  65. sides? Remember that? It was all over the media. Fine, fine people on both sides. It's a big white

  66. supremacist rally. I don't remember what was happening. A lot of red necks, a lot of red supremacists,

  67. a lot of anger, torches. I said fine, fine, fine people on both sides. And I've heard it as recently

  68. as just six months ago. And people believe this with all of their hearts. Okay, you listen to that clip,

  69. not a half an hour later, not an hour later. Right after he says, fine people on both sides,

  70. five seconds later, five seconds later, he says, I'm not talking about the white supremacists.

  71. Okay, yet people to this day will argue with you and say he said fine people, the information

  72. is out there. People don't want to hear it. Your algorithm knows you. Its job is to keep you engaged

  73. and its job is to keep you angry. Pacified, happy people don't doom scroll 12 hours a day.

  74. Angry, anxious people do. And that's how the machine wants you. You're more profitable that way.

  75. Why am I talking about this this morning? Because I'm seeing the same nonsense with Charlie Kirk.

  76. If you're getting your worldview from memes, I love you, but you're going to have a difficult 2020s.

  77. You're going to have a difficult time finding reality and prospering in reality.

  78. If you're getting your information in your worldview from memes, from sound bites that are cut off

  79. at just the right time, sentences taken out of context, it won't be well for you.

  80. So whatever you see online about Charlie Kirk or whatever you hear, do yourself a favor and don't

  81. just go off on that 22nd snippet that you heard that gets you enraged, but actually listen to what

  82. he's saying. Find the original, listen to the whole thing in context.

  83. And you'll find a man who loved Jesus, who loved his family, who loved America,

  84. who wanted to see people rise up, who wanted to see men rise up and become fathers,

  85. and woman rise up and become mothers. And if you're even upset at me for saying this, ask yourself,

  86. why? When you can't, you can't refute me, not with a meme, you can't.

  87. But one guy reposted, another guy's reposted, and it had the big bold block lettering.

  88. It was really 72 point fun, so it must be true.

  89. This is how we ended up all masked up, getting booster after booster, because people just,

  90. you know, right now when people behave that way, I just want to say, you know, you're programming

  91. you're showing. We're careful there, you're programming you're showing. You're programming is

  92. sticking out a bit. Hallelujah. But what happened was very, very significant. I still don't know

  93. to what degree it was significant, but it was obviously a tragic event. But what what people,

  94. no matter what side of the political spectrum they're on, when you see so many people moved,

  95. so many people engaging, when people are having vigils overseas, some things up.

  96. I know exactly where I was. I know exactly who I was talking to when I found out he died.

  97. I can only say that about one other event in my life, and that's 9-11, and I'm not comparing

  98. the death of one man to 9-11, but these are things that shift the zeitgeist. These are things that

  99. ripple and you realize things will be different after this. 9-11, COVID.

  100. So my prayer for you is, and what your prayer for you should be, that you be positioned under

  101. the Lord's banner, that you're not being moved by what your phone screen tells you.

  102. But this can only mean that there's going to be shifts happening. Something is up.

  103. And I want to be right underneath the Lord's wing, I'll assault 9-11,

  104. under his opinions and his feathers. Amen. Hallelujah.

  105. Well on that note, I want to talk to you about love this morning.

  106. Because when I first got saved, I was saved because of a lot, a lot of loving people in my life.

  107. I didn't know a lot of loving people prior except my media family because I was a teenager.

  108. I was 16 when I came to the Lord. Your average teenager, I wouldn't describe him as exactly loving.

  109. Was that just in Queens where I was a teenager? I don't know, such silence.

  110. Yeah, you're rough. And you don't care who you hurt. And all of a sudden, I ended up in church,

  111. and the people leading me to the Lord are teenagers. They're actually very kind, loving people.

  112. And then the adults are loving people. And then I met Bishop Wilbur Jones, and he walked into the room,

  113. and you know what the first thing I felt was love. His face radiated with love.

  114. I was mesmerized. I would look at him and go,

  115. like, where's the flash of anger, of the checked outlook, of just kind of just

  116. peered at the whole world from his bothering, like most adults, not on him.

  117. And recently the Lord's been reminding me of that, and I remember when I first became a Christian,

  118. the badge of authority that you could have was very closely linked to your love walk.

  119. In other words, the one who had authority was really loving people, and had a strong love walk.

  120. In fact, that term love walk, you don't even hear it in modern times so much.

  121. Back in the 90s, it was a constant thing. How's your love walk? How's your love walk?

  122. Right now you can have a large ministry and be influential, but have zero love walk for some reason.

  123. And here's what Jesus said in John, chapter 13, verse 35,

    John 13:35

  124. by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

  125. So Jesus said, the proof of you belonging to me, the proof that you're my disciple,

  126. is that you have love, heavenly love, fierce love, that you have it first for one another.

  127. That means within the church, your brothers and sisters who are Christian, and then to those who

  128. are outside of the church. But love should be the definition of a Christian. The measure of maturity

  129. in Christ is not how much you know how well you preach or how successful you appear.

  130. It's how well you love. Hey, men.

  131. Knowledge, Paul said, knowledge puffs up because he's talking to Greeks who are used to great

  132. debate and the smarter you are, the more well-read you are, the higher person you are,

  133. and Paul said, knowledge that just makes you arrogant and puffs you up,

  134. said knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. Now, go to Galatians. I want to show you why this is

  135. so important to you. Do you know that everything you'll ever receive from the Lord you'll receive

  136. by faith? It doesn't just drop on you like ripe cherries off a tree. Faith is a force.

  137. Jesus talked and taught about faith all the time. Why? Because faith is the unseen hand that goes

  138. into the invisible realm and brings down the thing that you need. Jesus said, according to your faith,

  139. I love that excited me. That means I get to decide. I'm not just a pre-programmed robot and

  140. everything's been written out, everything I'll ever do, everything I'll ever be, everything I'll

  141. ever have. It'll come in proportion to my faith, to your faith. Hallelujah. You were saved by grace

  142. through faith. You're healed by faith. Doors of opportunity will open up to you. How one,

  143. when you're depressed and lulligagging about nothing good ever happens to me? No, by faith. When you

  144. get up in the morning, it's a God. Today's a great day. This is the day you've made. I'll rejoice

  145. and be glad in it. And although I don't feel like it, I'm going to say hallelujah and I believe you're

  146. moving in the invisible realm. You're orchestrating my day. Your favors all around me. In fact,

  147. I decree good things happen to me today. Amen. Now you're utilizing your faith. Hallelujah.

  148. I shared about my breakthrough, my testimony financially with Bitcoin and all that. What I didn't

  149. emphasize so much is how my wife and the kids, we had a saying we'd say dozens of times a day.

  150. All the time. High five each other throughout the house. Just the faith proclamation of what God's

  151. going to do. And he did it. He did it. Jesus and Mark, this is very different from the first

  152. service. Jesus and Mark 11. He said, you can have what you say. You can't take it out of the

  153. Bible. You can have what you say. You can have what you say. You know how you got saved by saying

  154. if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart. So faith is one half

  155. in your heart, one half in your mouth. If it's one half or totally in your heart, that's nice.

  156. That's sweet, but it needs to come out of your heart through the words that you speak. Amen.

  157. And you'll always know what you're believing by what you're saying. So faith is powerful.

  158. And faith is like a tool that should be used. And in Galatians it says, when it's not on screen

  159. saver, it says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything. It

  160. doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're a Gentile or Jew, but faith working through love.

  161. This is a major key in how our faith operates. Faith is connected to love and faith works through love.

  162. That means that if I have tons of faith in my heart and I'm speaking it out, but I'm not walking

  163. in love, my faith won't be working. This is essential to me receiving from the Lord in prayer

  164. in my love walk. That's why this is so important. I mean, really it's important because Jesus commanded

  165. us and it's important because it's the very nature of God, God said, I am love. But if you're

  166. scratching it, I'm wondering, I don't feel like I'm getting all the benefits from the claims of

  167. Christ. Like I see Christianity shows this glorious life of victory, but I'm not living it. I would

  168. examine your love walk because when you don't have love your faith, it's like two wires that

  169. sometimes connect, but the rest of the time there's no life, there's no current flowing.

  170. Why do you think the enemy is working over time to get you better, to get you angry,

  171. to get you easy to be offended? In fact, as I'm talking about love and loving others, if you

  172. thought of someone, if you saw their face flash in your mind, that's the person you need to release,

  173. forgive and love. So, me, the Lord just do a little inspection, but sometimes we just need to

  174. just do an inspection. Just look at the man in the mirror and make a change. Look at the man in

  175. the mirror and go, you know, I haven't been that loving. How are you with that coworker that really

  176. annoys you? Can we not lock eyes next time I say that? I was so awkward. I feel like we should hug

  177. it out now. Everybody knows we're talking about Sarah, right? Of course, it's Sean we were talking about.

  178. How about with immediate family? There's people who are very, very lovingly put on their best

  179. face for those on the outside, but your immediate family. You might say, how can I love? Because

  180. there are annoyances out there, aren't there? Yeah, thank you one, one honest person.

  181. Let's go to Romans 5.5. I mean, and I'll tell you what, can I tell you something? I used to

  182. make a lot of New York jokes, lived in New York City for 43 years, then I moved to Long Island,

  183. and can I be honest with you? I find out the nice people are actually in the five boroughs.

  184. Oh, it's true. It's true. The Long Islanders are always like always ready to fight to me.

  185. Oh, wait, what are you looking at? It's my coffee. Give me my coffee. Whenever I go to the

  186. and I live in the fancy neighborhood, they come out of a Bentley. What did that have to do?

  187. Where was that going with that? I guess talking about unlovable people.

  188. If I had a greater point, it's gone now. How to love the unlovable. Now, hope does not disappoint,

  189. because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

  190. So the question is, how do I love someone who's really annoying me? How do I love someone

  191. who's just a jerk? How do I love someone who's hurt me? How do I love the unlovable?

  192. The answer is, not oh God, give me more love, but acknowledging that the love of God has already

  193. past tense been poured out. The King James Version says, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

  194. When I've been confronted with bitterness, unforgiveness, I'm wrestling with just liking someone,

  195. and their faces in the back of my mind. I close my eyes, I see a flash of that face.

  196. My confession is, Lord, the love of God has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit.

  197. And I feel like I'll go from 98 level offence to 96.

  198. And then in Hill Real Deep again, Lord, I thank you that the love of God has been shed abroad in my heart

  199. by the Holy Spirit. Oh, we'll drop down to 91. All right. Lord, I just receive your love.

  200. And then listen, you begin meditating on the love of God for you. The only reason Christians

  201. may not be loving is because they forgot who they are in Christ. Peter talks about this. He

  202. lists all these bad characteristics. And he says, it's because you forgot, you were cleansed from

  203. your former lifestyle. And it's easy to forget. You go about your life, you just go to church,

  204. but then it's pretty carnal in between, and you're just running on steam, and then months go by,

  205. and you actually forget what happened to you. So I like to remind myself, I remember where I was

  206. when I was 16 years old, lost, lost, lost. And I think, God, back then, I was not looking for you.

  207. You came looking for me. And Lord, you opened my eyes. I was blind. I couldn't see my need for

  208. a savior, but you opened my eyes. Lord, my heart was hard. Didn't want the things of God. I was

  209. dabbling in the new age in witchcraft. I wanted the spiritual, but I didn't want to go to the cross

  210. and receive you as my Lord. I didn't want to surrender my life, but you still, you moved past all

  211. that and still brought me to yourself. And Lord, you went to the cross and suffered so that I could

  212. be forgiven. The penalty for my sin was paid by you with your own blood. Lord, and I've been adopted

  213. into the family of God with all the same privileges of a natural born son. I can call you brother,

  214. Jesus, because we have the same heavenly Father. Wow, hallelujah. And the Bible says, I have access

  215. with confidence. I don't have to be sheepish and shy, but I have access with confidence into the

  216. very throne room of God. Hallelujah. Lord, it says I have a covenant with you that can't be broke.

  217. And now, hallelujah, hallelujah. And I'm reminded of the God's great love for me. And that helps me

  218. and allows me to be a lot more loving to you. Amen. How many of you want to increase in your love

  219. walk? Oh, thank you for participating in that survey. I really, that was very loving of you to

  220. participate, very considerate and kind. We used to have these things now. There's a lot of,

  221. there's a, there's, there is a lot of love in our church. Wouldn't you say, so those of you

  222. have been coming for a while, but we shouldn't get, I would, there's some churches, it's like the

  223. chosen frozen. It's, it's, you know, you can come and hobbling, bleeding out, and I'd be like,

  224. be warmed and be filled. I'm going to pray for you. It's brunch time. But we can always increase the

  225. love, increase the love in our home groups, increase the love when we not meet each other,

  226. increase the love. We used to have this thing. This is like over 15 years ago, where people,

  227. I encourage people to just give each other angel gifts, which are just gifts that are anonymous.

  228. But you know, the, we were a lot smaller. This was kind of easier to do because everybody knew

  229. what everybody liked, you know, when you got a group of 50 people. But people would just get gifts

  230. for each other. We get them off Amazon and just leave it in anonymous boxes with the person's name

  231. on it. Love, when the, when love spread through the church like that, when generosity and giving

  232. and care, do you know the anointing flowed like a river? The services were alive, people were

  233. getting saved. The foundation of everything the Lord does is love. Hallelujah, hallelujah.

  234. First Corinthians 13-8. I'm preaching this because faith works by love. I'm preaching this because

  235. love never fails. That means if you're walking in God's love, you will never fail.

  236. Can I get a hug? Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. You know what? Just for fun. Can we see the rest of that

  237. verse? No, nothing next verse. But the rest of that one. I'm sorry. I had mentioned that in the first

  238. service. Oh, so it might be a while. Can I, do you have that in the, at least I can read it?

  239. Kind of losing the flow here. It was just going to be in a side. I thought maybe an important

  240. aside. But if you're trying to find it, because I just wanted you to see this because some people don't,

  241. it's a funny little thing we had this first service. Because I just wanted to focus on

  242. love never fails, but accidentally they included the rest of the verse. But then I took the time

  243. to go into the rest of the verse because it'll help, it'll help you understand the Bible,

  244. it'll help you learn how to interpret the Bible. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,

  245. they will cease. Who? Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. They will be silenced. See,

  246. anybody who doesn't believe in speaking in tongues, this is their favorite verse. They have it on a

  247. bronze plaque right over their mantle. Where there, where there are tongues, they will be stilled,

  248. where there is knowledge, it will pass away. What's happening here? Paul is contrasting heaven

  249. to earth. And he's saying, once you're in heaven, there won't be a need for a prophetic word. You

  250. won't need to be edified, encouraged, and exalted in heaven. You're going to be just fine. When you're

  251. in heaven, you won't need the gift of tongues or the interpretation. And he ends his passage,

  252. he's teaching on love by saying, there are three things. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest

  253. of these is love. Why? Because in heaven, as awesome as faith is in heaven, you're not going to need

  254. any. He's right there. Amen. You're not going to need hope in heaven. Are you going to have a

  255. bad day in heaven? I hope tomorrow is better. My back is killed. Where's that angelic chiropractor?

  256. Maybe tomorrow will be better. No. You're always operating at 100%. So faith will go bye bye.

  257. Hope will go bye bye. What'll remain? Love, because God is love and even in heaven,

  258. everything will be love. Amen. And love never fails. Hallelujah. Now, I just want to read this

  259. in Matthew 539, because with my tough, tough long island crew, a lot of pontificators in my crew,

  260. street philosophers, I should call them golf course philosophers. And we were talking about one of them

  261. got robbed. We got on the topic of home security. And one of them had a break in and just got

  262. burglarized during the day. And I just, you know, we talked about break ins in the middle of the

  263. night, which they have been some. And that's a home invasion. I just mentioned, hey, I have

  264. legal. This is online too. Legal license to everything. Firearms in my home.

  265. In fact, no matter what floor of the house I am. And I've never less than 1.5 seconds away from

  266. crack. And one of them, one of them, oh, you're a pastor. How are you? And I said, I said what?

  267. I mean, if somebody comes into my home at 3am, what would you like me to do? Make them a sandwich?

  268. Come on in. My wife's in the master bedroom, kids across the hall. I'm going to defend myself.

  269. And he's not even Christian. He's Jewish, but he knew the one verse. He said, bo bo bo bo bo.

  270. What about turning the other cheek, aren't you supposed to tart? And this is the kind of

  271. specified version of love that has kept some men away from Christianity. Because a man,

  272. just with a genetic fingerprint, God put in man, it's to provide and protect that court. I mean,

  273. like take our elder team. All right. You don't want to mess with your kids or their wives. They're

  274. very, very loving sweet people, but you have not seen a T1000 indestructible robot like you would

  275. if you meant, and that's good. That's who I want. I feel like I need to preach this. I want dangerous

  276. men. Yeah. I want strong men. This whole specification that Christians ought to be harmless,

  277. Satan drools over that. Satan loves quiet, go in the corner and just roll over when anyone demands

  278. anything of you, justified. And some men will be like, hey, so am I just supposed to take

  279. abuse, slide down whenever somebody wants to stomp all over me? Hey, Jesus said turn the other

  280. cheek. Here's what Jesus is saying, but I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever

  281. slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. Most people are right handed.

  282. That means this side is the right side. How do I slap someone on the right side of the cheek?

  283. He specifically says on the right cheek, because that kind of slap is not a modern invention.

  284. Some of you know what that's called in today's vernacular. It actually goes back thousands of years.

  285. And in Jewish custom, it was an insult. One of the worst insults you can give was to backslap,

  286. so it was actually reserved for slaves and servants. And Jesus, if someone insults you,

  287. someone insults you, turn the other cheek over an insult. You don't go to war with them.

  288. You don't fight them. In other words, take an insult. You don't have to defend. You don't have

  289. to defend. Let God be your defense in those kinds of things. And God is a great judge, and he's just,

  290. and he said vengeance is mine, I will repay, and I'm going to give it over into the hands of God.

  291. But it has nothing to do with self-defense, protecting you when you're loved ones.

  292. If somebody wants to rob you out of a contract, and it's costing you life changing money,

  293. then you do go to battle. Amen. Listen, the Lord also said, David, the son said,

  294. Blessed be the Lord, my God, who teaches my hands to war. Hallelujah.

  295. He said, you're contradicting yourself. No, I'm flowing perfectly. You can love, because listen,

  296. real love protects. Real love actually takes a stand. Real love doesn't just allow and tolerate

  297. anything. Hallelujah. That's real love. But the world seems to have defined love for Christians,

  298. and if you notice, the kind of love the world would like us to love with, always results in our

  299. demise. I want to just strip you of everything, put you in handcuffs, tell you to be quiet there,

  300. now you're a nice Kumbaya loving Christian that I can abuse and take rights away from.

  301. I mean, if this was a definition of love, Christianity wouldn't have even made it past the

  302. 9th century. The Ottoman Empire would have come in right through the Balkans where they came in

  303. and taken up all of Europe would have been under Islam. If we should, oh, you're coming in,

  304. 30,000 of you with your curved swords will come right in. Would you like a cathedral to turn

  305. into a mosque? They didn't do that. Amen. It's my microphone on. Amen. Jesus was addressing

  306. personal pride and retaliation, not life-threatening violence, revelation 220 and worship team

  307. will be coming up soon. I want to encourage you to love. I want to encourage you to forgive.

  308. I want to encourage you to release your faith to have an even greater love walk while at the same

  309. time and there is attention in this. Because I said it, I said it before. The Satan loves harmless

  310. men. The disciples were not harmless men. They were very, very dangerous men. They looked at

  311. Paul and they said, these men who've turned the whole world upside down have come here also.

  312. You know, people seem like, Mr. Ten to think Mr. Rogers was how a typical Christian should be.

  313. Ned Flanders, Oakley, Dockley, neighbor. Nevertheless, this is Jesus speaking to a church

  314. in the book of Revelation. He says, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman,

  315. Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. So here, Jesus' problem isn't just with Jezebel,

  316. it's with this church who tolerated Jezebel. And what have we been hearing for 10 years now?

  317. You should be more tolerant. The greatest sin is to be intolerant. Right as in a tie for the greatest

  318. sin is that you judge people. That is like the unpardonable sin for the world, that you're judgmental.

  319. Yet Jesus said, judge with righteous judgment. What's righteous judgment? The standard of his word.

  320. So we've been told as a church to roll over, allow whatever the world has cooked up, whatever the devil

  321. has cooked up to come into the church. Why do my kids when watching the Disney Channel in the

  322. month of June, there's a whole separate section for children, LGBTQ plus why? Because we were taught,

  323. oh, you got to be more tolerant. Don't worry. Hey, 10 years ago, just bake a cake and now look

  324. where we ended up. It is not loving to tolerate somebody who's hell bent on heading straight to

  325. hell. And if you try to bring that hell into my life, that is not loving. If I don't protect my

  326. wife, my kids, for me as a pastor, it wouldn't be loving if I didn't protect you in the spirit.

  327. If I allowed, and in fact, we just had an elders meeting before Pastor Brian's

  328. ordination. And the one thing we just reiterated that one of the primary roles of the elders is to

  329. make sure the gospel is never compromised, that there's doctrinal purity, that no deception has

  330. come in, that we're not tossed around by every wind of doctrine, by how the world wants us to

  331. think right now. No, how does the Bible want us thinking? How does the Bible want us acting?

  332. What is God's desire? Not what's the world's desire? Hallelujah. First Corinthians 136.

  333. Cultural tolerance rejoices in anything that feels inclusive.

  334. Biblical love rejoices when people walk in truth and holiness. So here's what the Bible says to

  335. rejoice and love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Hallelujah.

  336. If someone ever calls you intolerant, say no, I just love God. I love myself too.

  337. I love you too. I love this country. And so I have a stand.

  338. And if you have a problem with my stand, might I suggest that you're the intolerant one?

  339. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want you to just put your eyes on Jesus, the one who gave himself for you,

  340. blood for you, exchange places with you, the one who is with you,

  341. and say, Lord Jesus, fill me with even more love. It's shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit.

  342. Move through me, Lord, and love through me. Teach me how to be strong and unbending when I need to be,

  343. and also very flexible and mobile like a drop of water in your hand when I need to be that.

  344. Help me to never compromise. Lord Jesus, you said concerning the end times over and over again,

  345. take heed that no man deceive you. Take heed that no man deceive you. Protect us from deception.

  346. Let our eyes be anointed with I, so that we may see.

  347. Thank you, Lord. I want you to turn this next song to sing to Jesus, but also release anyone

  348. who's hurt you, you owe it to yourself. Jesus tells the parable of a man who's forgiven a great

  349. debt, and then he wouldn't forgive someone who owed him money. The king then found out about that

  350. and commanded that unforgiving man to be handed over to the torturers. That's a picture of what

  351. happens to us when we don't forgive. We're handed over to the torturers. We're living here on

  352. earth. It doesn't seem like we're in prison, but the torturers are torturing us. Release, cancel

  353. the debts, and forgive. Sing to him this song, and love the people who have hurt you. Right now,

  354. in your spirit, you can love them. There's no distance in the spirit. Just bless them.

  355. If my heart is overwhelmed and I cannot hear your voice, I hold on to what is true, though I cannot see.

  356. If the storms of life they come, and the road ahead gets steep, I will lift these hands in faith,

  357. I will believe, and I remind myself of all that you've done.

  358. And the life I have, because of your son, love came down and rescued me. Love came down and

  359. said me free. I am yours. I am forever yours. Mountain high of aloe low. I see now remind my soul.

  360. I am yours. I am forever yours. When my heart is filled with hope, every promise comes my way,

  361. when I fill your hands of grace, rest upon me. Stay in debt before we do God. Stay in humble

  362. that you're free. I will lift these hands in praise. I will believe, and I remind myself,

  363. all that you've done. And the life I have, because of your son, love came down and rescued me. Love came

  364. down and said me free. I am yours. I am forever yours. Mountain high of aloe low. I see now remind my soul.

  365. I am forever yours. Love came down and love came down. You said me free. I am yours.

  366. When we see the Father's love, yeah mountain high of aloe low. I see now remind my soul that I am yours.

  367. I am forever yours. And I am yours. I am yours. For all my days, Jesus I am yours.

  368. And I am yours. I am yours. And all my days, Jesus I am yours.

  369. Love came down and rescued me. Love came down and said me free. I am yours. I am forever yours.

  370. Thank you for your love. Mountain high of aloe low. I see now remind my soul that I am yours.

  371. I am forever yours. Love came down and rescued me. Love came down and said me free. I am yours.

  372. I am forever yours. Mountain high of aloe low. I see now remind my soul that I am yours.

  373. I am forever yours. It's time in yours. I am yours. For all my days, Jesus I am yours.

  374. I am yours. I am yours. For all my days, Jesus I am yours.

  375. For all my days, Jesus I am yours. For all my days, Jesus I am yours.

  376. I just remember life groups start in a couple of weeks, September the 29th. That's in two weeks.

  377. It's really important to be a part of them. And it's only 12 week commitment.

  378. The life groups themselves are 75 minutes long. And remember that in their early church, they met in a corporate setting like this.

  379. It says they met in the temple and then daily house to house. So you need both.

  380. The temple setting, when we're all together in one place, and then the house to house, where the gifts of ministry will actually be activated inside of you.

  381. You can help other people. It's where you learn how the Holy Spirit will prompt you and how you can be a blessing to others.

  382. While you're ready to honor the Lord with your tides and offerings. Praise God.

  383. Yes, give with a glad heart and given faith, believing that he's going to recompense you back.

  384. I make a living by my giving. The giving information is on the screens to either side of me.

  385. And the ministry team after that will make their way to the ministry area.

  386. Thank you, Lord.

  387. A lot of weird stuff happening. Call me just a skeptic, but I'm having a hard time believing that kid.

  388. That skinny, scrawny kid is the one who killed Charlie Kirk.

  389. How come the butler shooting this? None of these both cases. 20 somethings that have almost zero digital footprint.

  390. My son is 11. He's got a digital footprint a mile long.

  391. All I would ask you to do is just I don't want to say beyond high alert.

  392. But if you if you feel like you're being messed with all of a sudden, like if in a week from now,

  393. you're thinking completely differently than how you've been thinking and a more negatively radical way,

  394. it could be that you were programmed. It happens. Why is everyone so quiet?

  395. Guys, you're acting like five years ago people were screaming at people not wearing masks, calling cops on them if they had a party.

  396. Ah, ah, normal woman were, ah, get away from me, you grandma killer. What happened there?

  397. Programmed. So don't look at me. Like I'm the one with the overactive imagination.

  398. I just didn't forget. Never forget. Amen.

  399. All right, if you need prayer for anything going over to that blue lit area for anything at all,

  400. you want prayer, you want hands laid on you, you want to be ministered too.

  401. We want to minister to you and pray with you and for you. Let's all stand.

  402. May you go in the love of God and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,

  403. be blessed city light church in Jesus name. Amen.

  404. This is the city light church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message,

  405. or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in city light church,

  406. visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.

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

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

  409. and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening.

  410. Make sure that you subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.