Rooted and Grounded

All I wanted was for one of the many guest speakers to point their finger at me and say,

I see that you're called to the pastor. I never got it. The investments into Bitcoin never

got a prophetic word about it. Change my life. Looking for supernatural direction from outside of

the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you tends to lead to error and tends to lead to flakiness

and tends to lead to people making shipwreck of their faith. 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. It is wonderful to be here with you. It's wonderful to be here with

you in strength because last Sunday I made it through the first service. My back had whatever you

want to call it. Gone out. Yeah, I blew my back out. That's not a real technical term.

I've known my chiropractor for a long time. He said, of all terms, he hates that. One the most.

It doesn't exist. Anyway, pickle balls of Satan.

So a lot of senior citizens right now on the pickle ball courts that need intercessory prayer.

They don't know yet. They will tonight. But I'm doing great now.

Today is August 10th. I got saved on August 14th in 1992. So I'm coming up on 33 years of

walking with the Lord and knowing. Amen. Best years of my life don't regret any decision I've made

for the Lord. And I'm particularly glad that He led me as I was getting saved to a spirit filled

church. Call it spirit filled. Pentecostal. Charismatic. The point is I was able to encounter the

Holy Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn't only a frontal lobe in church appealing

to my intellect, but the power of God was there and I encountered the power of God. And frankly,

I needed to encounter the power of God. And I'm not sure I would have gotten saved if it was

through another means. Just the way I'm designed. Some people can find the Holy Spirit later,

but they enter in through the intellectual door. I needed to experience him. And I did because

at the church where I got saved, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues

that same night. And then I got water baptized that same night. And because of coming into Christianity

in a spirit filled, Pentecostal. Charismatic way. I was able to encounter the Lord and He did a

deep life work in me. I was able to attune my spirit to hear His voice and it's just so awesome.

Which is why I was especially bothered when around 2010 and I've seen the same graph. I was

going to have the graph for you. You can look it up. The statistics haven't changed. It shows

different Christian denominations by household income. So it shows like 30 Christian denominations

all organized by total household income. At the very top, you got the Presbyterians.

Smart bunch of folk. And then I'm looking down the list and there's Lutheran, there's Methodist,

there's going down the... And guess who's at the very bottom of the list?

That's right. Pentecostals.

Not at the very bottom, we were only beat out by two cults. The Jehovah's Witnesses were third

from the bottom. So the JWs are broker than Pentecostals on the seven-day Adventists.

And I would be an irresponsible pastor if that didn't bother me and do some soul searching.

And I was already bothered to begin with because when you're in a spirit filled church,

you're given the keys to life. You're baptized in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus' words in

dude with power from on high. You're taught that the cross of Jesus Christ and His victory are made

your victory. And you're taught victorious living and you're taught the miracle working power of God

and then how in the world do you end up at least in the financial realm at the very bottom?

And someone who's skeptical probably broke will say, well, why about the finances? Maybe we're

higher and others because finances are important. Some broke person will always say that.

Well, what does it matter? Well, you can't make next month's rent, so it matters, doesn't it?

I'm glad I tickled one person. It matters. We should get to the bottom of that, right?

We shouldn't be afraid to not poke and pry and ask ourselves why in the world are Pentecostals

at the bottom of that list? And so I really kind of obsessed over that. And with my staff, too.

And I remember Pastor Mike and I obsessing over that and I shared with him my findings and my

wrestlings with the Lord. And out of that came his book, the intelligent charismatic,

because the conclusion I had come to of why Pentecostals end up at the bottom,

this is going to blow your minds. It's because there are a bunch of weird o-flakes.

Really, really just two heavenly minded that they're no earthly good, but they're not

even heavenly minded. They're just oftentimes weird and bizarre and belong on the Jerry Springer

show. So we're going to put an end to flakiness this morning, hallelujah.

I feel like I'm going to write a book towards the end of my ministry, maybe where I'm like pastor,

Meredith, and someone else is the senior pastor of City Light. The title of the book will be,

that'll be the cover. But instead of rooted and grounded, it'll say, the flakes have known.

Not even though make a cleaner, know the, just flakes have known. Let me define to you what a

flake is. Now you should find yourself somewhere here if you don't, I failed, because we all,

we all, we got to be honest, we all have a little bit of flakiness, right? And it's the Holy

Spirit's job to get rid of the flakiness and make us rooted and grounded in the word and the

spirit. So nobody here is flake-free. Just some people are so flaky, they're constantly self-sabotaging

their own lives. See, God, He's an overflowing waterfall of blessings, of goodness, of abundance and

prosperity, but we have to stop self-sabotaging and get out of our own way. There's a bunch of

Christians tab dancing around the waterfall, around the spout from where the glory comes out,

and He's like, won't you please just get under the waterfall so I can bless you. But the flakiness

in them won't let them. So here's what flakiness says, a flake is an ungrounded and substantial piece of

cornmeal, you remember? Serial. They can get blown, a flake can get just blown away in the wind.

A flaky Christian is a Christian who claims spiritual death, depth, but operates outside the

clear balanced teaching of scripture, building their faith life on personal feelings, superstitions.

Some Christians are just weird like pagan mystics, full of superstitions in the way they try to

decipher the will of God. They might as well be throwing chicken bones and splattering blood,

trying to figure out what is it that God wants them to do. There's so much weirdness out there.

Like when Archando flooded, Archando flooded, did over six figures of damage and a pastor,

friend of mine, who's normally not flaky. He said, probably thought it's on the deep too,

God is going to flood your life. God is going to flood your life with blessings.

And I thought, can you do that without destroying six figures of property that he blessed me with?

How do you get that? He destroyed my condo. God had already whispered to me, he was going to

bless my life. Like I really believe God wants to talk to you. Jesus said, my sheep here,

hear my voice. And flakes are always obsessed with the external. What's happening on the outside

and is God showing me a sign? If my hamster doesn't tread the wheel this week, I'll know God,

what your will is. It's not going to be from the outside. It's not going to be him flooding your

apartment. Some people use Satan to gauge how active God is in their life. They'll say, you know,

I almost got killed on the way to church this morning and it's going to be a great service.

I don't want to use the devil as a barometer to how great the service is.

A flake is ungrounded in the word, comes across a spiritual, they usually full of pride,

and they're very, very self-important. And the reason why there's so many flakes in

Pentecostal Charismatic Spurred Fieldland is because in that land you'll hear this more often

than in any other place. And that's that you are special, which is true. And you are unique,

which is true. And you are empowered by God and you can hear his voice and you can go forth and

have victory all true. But they lose sight of that you need to have great humility and submit

yourself also. So their heads get really big. Next thing, you know, they think they're Moses

on the mountaintop. They don't need a pastor. They don't need a church. They're just off on their

own and they make shipwreck of their faith. And I don't say this like with delight. I'm actually

preaching this because of 23 years of pain, of weeping, of going Lord, how can I help them?

Because I see which way they're going. It's going to end in pain.

Jesus.

Frequent thing that a flake will say is the Lord said,

do we believe the Lord says? Absolutely. If you're beginning every other sentence with the Lord said,

I want to caution you maybe on flake territory.

I don't have to tell my wife the Lord said. I don't have to tell the staff the Lord said.

Flakes come up all the time and they'll say something like this to me. I'll just make it up

off the top of my head. I'm starting a new business. They'll say the Lord told me to start

a new business. I'm moving to Florida. What do you think? What? I mean, I think that I should

argue with the Lord. If you're saying the Lord said, you've now locked me out of my opinion,

because I don't like to fight with the Lord. I lose every time. So you're already coming

completely unteachable. The Lord told you, can I get your advice? Well, my advice is to follow

the Lord. But I wish you would have come wondering if you actually heard from the Lord.

Like before I make any major decision, I go to people that I trust, that have the wisdom of God,

that are people of prayer. And I don't say the Lord told me, what do you think? I say, I believe

that this is what the Lord is telling me. But because I also recognize that I'm a man,

also prone to emotions and other desires that may not be of God, maybe it's not of God. I've got

to come in low. I've got to be open to correction and instruction. But when you begin with the Lord

said, there's nothing more to say, because you went to the mountaintop apparently and got the word

of the Lord. There was a fellow in here a while ago, he got radically saved. I was rooting for him

big time. And very quickly he swerved off. And he said, the Lord showed him that Pastor Moe was a

wish pastor. I'm like, there he is in the back. He said, I wish he said, he said, the Lord showed

him that Pastor Moe was a witch. I thought, what in the world is happening here? I know Pastor Moe

so well. He doesn't have a cauldron. Not a tarot card in sight. Man of God loves Jesus, loves his

family, loves people. And then in the life groups, when he would, when he would, I guess not jive

with someone, that person was a witch. But you couldn't convince him that the Lord didn't tell him.

And eventually he left. You know, it's not a demon always. Sometimes it's just a personality conflict.

Amen. Can I just relieve you? Did you know that you're not supposed to like really, really like

every Christian? Isn't that a relief? You're supposed to love him, but you don't really have to like

him. In other words, not every Christian is going to be your bestie. Sometimes there will be

personality clashes. There will be these differences. But it's not a demon. And what does that say about

my ability as a pastor to detect and discern what's happening in a church? Pastor Moe has been flying

under the radar as a witch for years. I couldn't tell. The other elders couldn't tell. My wife couldn't

tell. But this guy saved all of five minutes. He could tell. Whoa, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Just lift your hands and say, Lord Jesus, align me and stabilize me.

I've had some major, major wins in my life. And when I look back on major wins that are connected

to big major decisions, you know, not every decision is important. What business you start is

important, but you put your entire net worth into is important. What you're going to have for lunch

that day, not that important. All of the really important decisions that led to big success,

I'll tell you something. I never ever received a prophetic word about any single one of them.

Yeah, and I love the prophetic. I believe in the prophetic. In fact, when I was called to ministry

at the age of 16, 17, 18, all I wanted was for one of the many guest speakers to point their

finger at me and say, I see that you're called to the pastorate. I never got it. That's all I wanted

because it was burning inside of me. And I didn't want to be the loon flake who was just maybe getting

information from the wrong source. I never got it. The investments into Bitcoin never

got a prophetic word about them. Change my life. What am I telling you here? I'm telling you that

looking for supernatural direction from outside of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you tends to lead to

error and tends to lead to flakiness and tends to lead to people making shipperic of their faith.

And again, if you were to survey people, which they have surveyed, the Barna group is surveyed,

with the number one question people have about their lives. The number one question is, how can I

know the will of God for my life? So that's why prophetic conferences are so popular because a

prophet will come in and hopefully maybe he got to hold the dice. Maybe they'll pick you and they're

going to tell you what you need to do tomorrow next week, next month, next year. It's not going to

happen. Why is it not going to happen? Because we don't live in the old covenant anymore. In the old

covenant, people didn't actually have the Holy Spirit inside of them. Just the prophet, King,

and high priest had the Holy Spirit upon them and they had to get directional words, a directional

word having to do with where you're going to go, what you're going to do, your destiny, what makes

you you. They had to get that from the outside in. Under the new covenant, the precious Holy Spirit is

inside of you and he will illuminate you through your human spirit. He will guide you through your

human spirit. If I wanted to pack out every single Sunday, I would flow in the prophetic, I would

get prophetic ministers in and I would, it's evil actually. I would tap into people's insecurities

and in their desires and their fears about the future. Yeah. And I would offer that to them as a

product. And there was a time when I flowed a lot more in the prophetic. I've actually backed down

a little bit. We don't have Friday nights anymore. Every Friday night I'd flow in the prophetic

and people would show phones in my face to record. You know, as soon as the iPhones came out,

they would record prophetic words. And I'm like, you've recorded me already five times. This is your

sixth word you're recording. Are you like an archivist? Do you collect prophetic words about yourself?

Not a lot of amen. Some laughter, some uncomfortable laughter.

Collecting prophetic words stack. You don't have to be that insecure is what I'm trying to get

you to understand. He won't leave you out in the cold. He has promised to lead you, to guide you,

to hold your hand, to take you in a land flowing in milk and honey. So what is the prophetic for?

It's for confirmation, not information. Prophetic words are wonderful when they confirm what God

himself has already spoken to you. Hallelujah. You don't have to be a flake, amen. You don't have

to be wondering what is God having stored for you. You know, what is the will of God? It's actually,

if you just look at the scriptures, which is his word to you, it's very, very simple. Love him with

all your heart. Love others so that you witness and minister to them. Work with your hands. That

which is good. Don't be idle. And go have fun. Enjoy your salvation, amen. Hallelujah. That's flakes

always overcomplicate stuff. Spiritual warfare. Very, very complicated for flakes. They're binding.

They're loosening. They're rebuking. Then they're fasting. I shared with you a few months ago

about that woman who took communion. This is the stuff I'm talking about. She took communion

grape juice, probably welches. And she poured it all along the edge of her property, you know,

toward off evil spirits. This is something you'll get at some like pagan tribes somewhere in

another continent. Yeah, Christians are doing it. Typically, Pentecostal, charismatic,

cornflakes. Spiritual warfare. I mean, how complex does it have to be? Jesus defeated Satan.

Now stand in your victory. If spiritual warfare, doing battle with the kingdom of darkness

is more complicated than what you see the apostles doing, then you're not doing it right.

How come all that stuff? You can go to a Christian bookstore, go online and typing spiritual

warfare. You won't believe the titles you'll see. And then if you read it, you will come under so

much bondage, all the stuff you have to do. And then reality is you don't have to do any of that

stuff. Look at what the apostles did. They abided in him. He abided in them. They didn't go in

binding and loosening. They didn't go and prepare the terrain for two weeks by shouting at the devil

in tongues and warring tongues and waving banners and blowing rams horns. And they came and they

preached the word. And the word was enough. And then as a result of the word, signs and wonders

and miracles and salvation took place. And that spiritual warfare, hallelujah. If you're doing

something the apostles never did, what are you doing? You got some new revelation? There's people

I know that wake up in three in the morning and they go and talk to the devil for three hours.

They don't really talk to him. They're yelling at him. Devil, you can't have New York City. Devil,

we're going to win. Devil, I hate you. Devil souls are coming in. Devil, devil. Who are you talking

to even? Did he? Is he your best friend? You have a nice new personal relationship with Satan?

Spend your time talking to Jesus.

People see numbers in weird places. There was a person once here. They said, you know,

three is a holy number. You know what people try to set me up. I know three is a holy number,

isn't it? I guess. I don't know if it's better than one or seven or forty, but if you like it,

I like it too. Why? What's up? Well, I just see threes everywhere. And sometimes I see three,

I see three threes like I'll wake up and it's three thirty three. And then that day I look at a

license plate and I'll see three threes. And so I look at, you know, Timothy 3, verse 33.

There was this ministry. I gave them $333. And I said, what are you doing?

Unbiblical, weird, strange. And then people scratch their heads. Why are we at the bottom of the list

when it comes to household financial income? Because we have a bunch of flakes and nuts running

around making major life decisions on fruitiness. Also, by the way, 99.99% of all your dreams are,

guess what? Dreams. So like Aris makes said, just dream on. Dream on, dream on, dream on.

If you have to wake up with a secret magic decoder ring to figure out what God is trying to

communicate with you because you had a wild dream. You're doing it wrong.

Kenneth Hagan, he said, if I look in the Bible, whoever had a dream, they immediately knew

what was being communicated in the dream. People will come to me. This is what I dream.

Then I got a year, the whole 10 minute long dream. And I'm, my dreams are exhausting. Now,

I got to hear your 10 minute dream and go, do you know what it means? How am I going? It sounds

like you had a lot of pizza and Dr. Pepper, right before you went to bed. That's what it sounds like.

I can decode your dream. If you think the dream is from God, within that dream is the revelation.

Joseph got a dream, both Joseph's, original Joseph, and then Mary's husband Joseph,

they got you, but they knew immediately what the Lord was talking to them about.

People will do things like, Lord, if I encounter five people on the way to work and they have

airpods, air buds in their ears, I'll know. I'll know that you want me to go on that mission's

trip with City Light to Guatemala next February. And then it's not going to be on the outside.

And then in no other area, will you see weirdo, pentecostal flakiness more than in the area

of, you're ready for it, romance and marriage. Flakiness doth abound.

It was a pastor I knew. He had a deeply spirit-filled church where the anointing was strong.

People had God encounters all the time. And when they would come into his office in that first

initial, you know, they just met and they're kind of falling in love and they're going to the pastor

for premarital counseling, the first thing he would say to them is, I don't want to hear anything

that God told you. I don't want to hear about one dream, one vision, or one prophetic word,

not a one. Why? Because marriage is a very, very natural thing. And God has given you intelligence,

and God has given you wisdom. And so partnering with him, you can make the best decision.

But the moment people start getting into words and revelations and it always ends up weird.

And a big culprit is preachers because they like to super spiritualize how they met their wife.

So, you know, they tell stories in hindsight. And hindsight is weird. Either you're

outright lying or you don't remember how it really was. I know when talking to older preachers,

one of the jokes is the older they are, the greater they were. They'll tell you. He's like,

that was this crusade back in Liberia 20 years ago. The field had 100,000, oh, that was there.

There was like 600 people in the field. How did grow to 100,000? You had a 10,000 every year.

Up in there, that was a million people in that open air crusade.

So they recount how they met their wife and they super spiritualize. They say things like the

moment I looked at her, I heard God's voice. And I knew she was the one. Maybe for a few.

Maybe that happened for the vast majority of people. That was not going to happen. I met Emily.

I saw her. I did not hear God's voice. I heard my own voice going, wow.

And so I shot my shot and made my move.

I went, that was back when we actually had CDs in the back of my sermons, now everything's out

in the cloud, which you know the cloud isn't the cloud. It's a bunch of servers somewhere in

Oklahoma and Texas, but that's another story underground. I came up and gave her a bunch of CDs

for free. As a guest, I just want you to have these. She said, right then she knew. I had my eye on

her. But I never, I actually never, ever heard the Lord tell me anything.

I just had a great peace. I asked close friends, I asked close pastor friends, what do you think?

You know us, you know how do you think this will go down? Because believe it or not,

marriages and you holding hands and having visions of Jesus and angels. Marriage is a lot of love,

a lot of forgiveness, piles of dirty laundry and heaps of dirty dishes. And you need to be naturally

able to get along and make that work. Amen. I think there'd be a lot more healthy marriages and

more marriages in general happening if young men and young women just got to it. But you know what

happens? I understand this. They got to it in the world and it caused nothing but pain and they

made a mess. So they think it's like super, super different and in Christianity. And it is very

different. But it's not that different. Like some people act like you're attracted to them. That's

good. That's important. You shouldn't be unattracted to the person you're going to spend the rest of your

days with. Attraction is important. Now go ahead and get to know them. Check them out. Let them check

you out. Do you have a list? Everybody has a list. Maybe not on paper. But you have a list.

See how they measure up? And make sure you're using your head before you get drunk on the

silly juice of love. Because nothing is more intoxicating than nothing will make you more stupid

than falling in love. Before she let herself fall in love with me, she was checking me out. She was

like, what's this guy really about? I asked her questions. One of the first questions I asked

her was, are you a tyther? Because every pastor wants to know. No. Because she said, yes. And I

go, that's important because where Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart is also.

It's a sign of submission to the Lord and maturity in the Lord.

What's on your list? You know, men, women, women, top of your list should be not a joker.

Not a clown. Somebody who has vision. Somebody who's gainfully employed. That's a good start.

If they're not gainfully employed, do they have ambition in their eyes? Maybe they're

mopping floors next week. It's the fries. Do they at least know where they want to go?

Gentlemen, top of your list should be not a feminazi. If I ask for breakfast,

is she going to hurl a frying pan at my head? I'm preaching to six people today, but that's okay.

Hallelujah. Another thing, pastor, most share this one with me. I texted him last night.

He shared this one with something he encounters a lot.

His people come up to him and say, I want to grow in the Lord. And so I'm going to leave church

to grow in the Lord and I'll be back.

I'm going to work. See, God designed this thing called church where you're supposed to be matured

and where you grow and where your gifts are utilized. It's designed to grow me,

but not me. I'm going to go outside of the church and grow and I'll be back.

And I've never seen a one of them come back. Have you ever seen a one of them come back,

not a one. But see, if they weren't flaky, they would know the word and they would prize the word.

Flakyness leads to misalignment. God actually is a God of order. He's a God of structure.

See, we're a very free church. I'm a very free person, but at the same time, I fear the Lord,

I reverence him. And I understand that he is a hierarchical God. People don't like that term

hierarchy these days, but you look at even how he organizes the very angels he organizes

him hierarchically. From archangels at the top to seraphim to cherubim to then just angels,

you look at how he laid out the leadership structure from Moses at the tent of meeting and

God is a God of order. And if I start doing things that are out of order, for example,

what if I just get in my head, this is a little boring just preaching to city light.

I need more stimulation. And they've had me for 23 years. I'm going to travel. And God doesn't want

me to travel. He ordained me a pastor, not an evangelist or not a hybrid of both.

So now I go out and it seems right, right? What could be wrong with him preaching the word more?

I start traveling now. In fact, the ministry starts growing. I'm in other churches on Sundays.

You're seeing me on their YouTube channels.

And then all of a sudden, my marriage falls apart, my life falls apart, city light suffers,

city light falls apart, but yet I seem to be doing something good. What happened? I got out of

alignment. I got out of God's order. Being in his order brings a blessing and peace.

Bring outside of his order. It brings a curse.

Oh, hallelujah. Flakes I've known. We'll have a book signing and everything. Do you know

there are Christians who play Bible roulette? You know, like in Vegas, there's a roulette wheel.

Pronto Chanson, like I was taught, in fact, that first year I became a Christian.

If you want to know, God's will close your eyes, open the Bible and let it just open and put

your finger on a verse. Don't look. And the first verse that your finger touches, that's God's

word to you. I just don't see anybody in the scriptures doing it that way.

And I tried it and my finger went to Judas hung himself.

Then I thought, this can't be it. I'll try something else.

And one had something else and it said, that would you do, do quickly.

Just before you go on any weird spiritual side quest, ask yourself,

am I being more mystical than Jesus himself because you can't be more mystical than Jesus

himself. Hallelujah. I mean, Jesus, he lived in such close proximity to the spirit realm.

When Nathaniel was coming to him, this is so awesome. Jesus said, you know, while you were

under the fig tree, I saw you. Jesus was just in constant communion with the spirit realm.

And then he opened Nathaniel's eyes. He said, from this day forward, you're going to see angels

of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. So there was a huge amount of angelic

activity. What were they doing? I don't know. They were bringing in something and bringing

going back home and coming back in. They were ministering to him to Jesus himself.

But we can't be more mystical than Jesus. Hallelujah.

I want to present to you three scriptures that make flakes squeal.

Shriek, like in the olden movies, when you shove garlic in a vampire's face,

say, spray them with holy water. In this great deflaking, these scriptures will help.

We'll begin with the shriekiest one. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Oh, not obey. And that's really with a flake what you're up against.

Because when you're a full blown flake, look again, we need to be humble. Do I have some flake

in us on me? Probably, yeah. I'm constantly going to the Lord. Oh, that was flaky, right, Lord?

That was, that wasn't really grounded in the word. Like, I'll tell you, you know what I did

back in college? I was so hungry for the Lord. I read in the book of Acts that Paul made an oath

and shaved his head. I didn't know anything about that. I didn't know the history of the tradition.

So you know what I did? I got a buzzer and I shaved my head bald. I was so hungry for God.

You know, I do not have a pretty head. Like you, you have a, I admire your head.

Mine looked like the lunar landing. Like it was crater. I can don't know what happened. I don't

know what the doctor did when he pulled me out. You do not want to see me bald. I think the Lord will

always have me nice hairy mane to protect the eyes of the congregants. But I shaved myself completely

bald. What was that? Very flaky. The Lord and His mercy still met me, blessed me, touched me

because I was showing radical hunger, even though it was a complete flake going about how I

showed that hunger. So when you're just a little flake, you don't mind, but people who are in full

blown flakehood, the very word obey makes them shriek because really they don't want to submit

to anyone including God. They do not like to submit. Oftentimes that comes from a wound. They've

been hurt. They've been, this is very important. They've been hurt by an authority figure. It could

be early on as a father, a teacher, a coach, or later by a pastor, another elder, or they feel

betrayed by God himself. And so any kind of obedience, any kind of submission, they immediately recoil.

But you can't take away what's in the scripture. Obey those who rule over you.

Now, Pastor Moe and myself and the other elders, do we act like we rule over you? Do I come in here?

Kiss the ring. No, we love you. We serve you. We pledge our lives to the Lord. And we realize the

very word, minister means servant. And I get this, a verse like this has been abused by preachers,

cult leaders. If you're in a cult, get out. If you're under an abuse of pastor, why are you still

there? Get out. But find yourself a church with godly leadership. And there's a lot out there.

There actually is. Most pastors are not crooks. There's a few of them out there. But most pastors

that I know, even here in New York, see they're actually wonderful, darling men who love God,

love their wives, love their families and love the people God has put in their care.

Simple men who love Jesus. Since I said simple, I forgot to say, did I talk about it?

I'm sorry, sometimes the first service. And I talk about my pastor in simplicity. No,

my pastor. Mr. Holy ghost himself, Rodney Howard Brown.

Powerful anoint. Here's from heaven. Wonderful.

Charisma magazine, estimate. What is the secret to your prayer life? What is the secret to your

relationship? Because he was having back in the 90s, meetings like nobody has ever seen before.

If I told you what the meetings were like, you wouldn't, you wouldn't believe me. The people

had to be six hour meetings and people had to be dragged out as their experience, the presence of

God would come in and just overwhelm the whole place. And I was 18, 19 at the time. I wanted to

know too. I was ready. I had my pen and paper out. What is going to be his answer? I'm sure it's

going to be very, very deep and profound. Lots and lots of notes I can take. And he shrugged his

shoulders and he said, I can answer that question with one word, simple. My relationship with the

Lord is very, very simple. And I felt like change. Come explode, break off of me because my

relationship with the Lord at the time was very, very complicated. There was a constant ledger in

my head of what did I do? What did I do to mess God's plan from me up? Did I sabotage myself?

It was really religious bondage. I didn't understand grace and I didn't understand that

God has called us to simplicity. In fact, the Apostle Paul said, he said, I'm concerned for you,

he wrote the Corinthians, let's true be moved from the simplicity that is in Christ. There's a

simplicity. Hallelujah. The last two years of our lives, God has just overblessed us, overblessed

us. First the house, then the paying off of the house, then the Bitcoin went through the roof,

then you know, I shared in the first service and in sharing the second service.

Last week, it was now two weeks ago, my wife and I, I don't do this to be tacky again,

but to inspire you and to know that we practice what we preach. My wife and I gave 2.131

mama million with an M dollars as our tie then offering to city light church. Yeah.

Hallelujah.

You know how we got to that place? Simplicity. If you looked at our schedule and looked at how we

live our lives, you'd actually, you might yon. Simple. Holding his hand. And by the way, let me just

be clear, I didn't make over 20 million dollars. I know that'd be exciting. That was like a tie,

multiple tides and offerings because we just, we felt overwhelmed to and also that number that

we gave more than makes up for my salary for 23 years at city light church, which essentially has

made me now a volunteer pastor at city light for the last 23 plus years. So if anybody comes to

you and says, Hey, you know, church is all about money and I bet your pastor is all about money.

Yeah. Now, what is he drive? You can say, I may back. His wife's got a Porsche and also they gave

over two million dollars to the church. So put that in your religious pipe and smoke it. Amen.

Hallelujah.

Obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must

give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you.

Proverbs 11 14, be submissive. Obey those who rule over you.

Be teachable, be correctable. Proverbs 11 14, where there is counsel, the people fall,

excuse me, where there is no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors,

there is safety. So before you do that big thing with your life, find two or three people. The

Bible says out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, let it be established. We have an elder

ship here at city light. There's a godly man who've given their lives to Jesus. They have a

surrendered heart. They're engaging the word of God every day. They're good counselors. I'm happy

for any idea for you to bounce off of me. I'm happy and guess what, I'm also available and reachable.

And in addition to the ministry here, you should have people in your life who walk in wisdom,

who walk close to the Lord that you can, if you don't want to submit or discuss your big plan

with somebody, there's a reason for that. And it's usually not good. You've got something to hide.

Anything holy can be shattered from the rooftops. There's a deep down inside you know you're

flaking out. You're flaking out. You're wild. I'm got some random thoughts here. They're in my

notes, but a lot of stuff came. It was a big download when I was writing this message. But I had

this talk with a fellow friend from Bible school. And there were over 300 graduates from my Bible

school. And it's less than five of us that are actually doing something in ministry today.

And my friend now divorced. Bless his heart, his wife went off the deep reels and she really

wanted to be like some figure. Some, I'm not going to say her name. Okay, she wanted to be like

Paula White. That was just the hero she picked. She never ended up being Paula White and horrendously

backslid. But listen to this, every story of somebody in ministry at least. But I see it in the

congregation also of majorly derailing. They all have one common theme. They wanted to be somebody.

They really wanted to be somebody. They wanted to be important. They wanted to have fame.

They make it out like no, I really wanted to win souls and I love the Lord. But right underneath

there was I really wanted to be somebody. You know, somebody people respect. Somebody people talk

about. And I wanted my name to live on even after I go and be with the Lord. It always ends in

disaster. What's what's what path to take them? Don't want to be somebody. I want to be close to

Jesus. There's also a lot of people who are somebody, the vast majority of people who are somebody

when I get to know them, when I hear their story, I realize all they ever wanted to do was just

love the Lord and help people. And then God made them somebody. Hallelujah.

I'm watching somebody right now make shipwreck of their life because they really, really want

to be somebody. And the reason you got me going, the reason why

Pentecostal charismatic spiritful people are prone to losing their minds is because there's a lot

of people in that world. Whenever they prophesy, it's always some ridiculous word. There was a period

there in the 90s, 2000s where if you were ever ministering to youth, you prophesy to every single one

of them. You never prophesy. You're going to live a good life. You're going to love the Lord and

serve Him with God's gladness. No, that's not sexy. The prophecies are always, I see you standing

on a mountain. You're overlooking the nations. You're preaching to the masses. God is going to raise

you up. I see private jets in your future, everybody. And now they're working at King Coast.

Oh, you don't have to, you don't have to be somebody. You're already somebody in Jesus. Amen.

Now, was that an, for example, that statement in my early 20s and your early 20s? It's a little weird

if you're not very, very ambitious. And ambition is good, but vision is better. Vision is about

He. Ambition is about Me. Now, that was always the case with man. You can go back for all of human

history. That was the case in man. But how much more now in the current culture that we live in

with the constant scrolling and the social media? You're always wanting to be something else,

somebody else. It's a death trap. And when you finally settle and find your peace in Jesus

and declare that, Oh, you are enough. What we've experienced is he will overwhelm you. He will

cause your cup to overflow and overflow and overflow. When Jesus is enough, he gives you all that other

stuff. And can I just tell you, I will never get a luxury car again. I bought that May back. That

was wonderful. It's a beautiful car. It's a delight. It's a delight. But after about six weeks,

it was just like my Toyota. And that's the truth. Yeah, I get a massage and it keeps, keeps my

lemonade cold. And there's a, but it really is just like there's some men that's like their cover

photo. That's like their main goal in life. I wanted to celebrate a financial victory. And I go, you

know, it was not, it was like that about everything actually. There's watches I've been given,

Rolexes and brightlings. They're in a safe in darkness. They haven't seen the sunlight in five

years. At the end of the day, all you have is Jesus. He's the joy of your heart.

And then he'll just get you the stuff. He'll just get it to you so we can get it through you.

So one of those brightlings when John Arnott was over for breakfast, I'm sitting having breakfast

with him. And I think, oh, you were there. That's right. Yeah. I was like, I can give one of those.

Let it see the light of day finally. And he didn't even want it. He's like, I go to Mexico on

missions. I can't wear this. What am I going to do? I was like, just wear it. Just be blessed.

I bet it went in his sock drawer and he'll give it to someone else. And you know, those scriptures

that Jesus talks about riches and how they're rusty. And then it all starts to make sense when

you actually get some. When you're broke like I was. And Jesus talked about riches getting more

beaten and filled the road. You're like, I'd like to find out for myself here. Let me find out.

I'll pray back to you. Let you know how I feel about it. Turns out Lord, you were right all along.

Hebrews 10.25. We're talking about the trifecta of verses that make flakes shriek.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. See flakes, they don't like church.

And I realize I'm kind of preaching to the choir here because you're in church. So there shouldn't

be any full blown flakes here unless you're passing through unless we're one of the 10 churches on

your list. But flakes, they either don't go to church or they hopper from church to church.

The church hoppers see when your church hopper you never have to obey those who rule over you.

You never have to submit. The moment somebody comes and just pushes up against you, you're like,

hmm, all of a sudden I don't feel led to go to this church. I feel led to go to that other church

where they don't know me yet. They don't know how toxic I am. They'll figure it out in six months

and call me out on it. And then I'll feel led to go to another church. And I'll just ping pong

and bounce around all the spirit-filled churches of New York City. And then 20 years later,

I'll be scratching my head wondering why I'm at the bottom of household income here on this list.

Because I'm unstable. Jesus.

And they always spiritualize it. They see things like, I go to where the fire is hot and where the

fire burns. I go to where the wind is blowing. I go to, you go to wherever you want.

You flip a coin every Sunday. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

As is the manner that word for manner in the Hebrew in the Greek is habit.

Said, not go in a church, not coming together. That's a bad habit. It's the habit of granola bars.

Flaky people. But exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.

Can we get communion ready? Let me just read Mark 515 to you.

Thank you, Jesus. David Wagner stayed with me. We had some good talks about just this kind of

stuff. He would agree with everything. And he has a prophetic ministry. And he stayed with me.

And so we spent 18 hours a day together and woke up early and went to bed late and talking

about the things of God non-stop. Do you know how many prophetic words I got?

One thirty second one. Thank you, Lord. And I'm grateful for that. And it was wonderful.

And I didn't ask him for it. I remember when I was in my 20s and you really saved,

oh, I would come and I would sit somewhere where the preacher could see me just hoping they

would call me out. Because I was lonely and lost and insecure in the Lord's love for me.

But I don't want it to be that way with you. He loves you. He cares about you.

He sees the end from the beginning. He sees your 40s, your 50s, your 60s, your 70s, your 80s,

God willing, your 90s. He will lead you and guide you, but not from the outside from the

Holy Spirit within. Now we're going to all receive communion together. So just hang on to the

communion elements as we take them together. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And just so you know,

when I shared that amount, what we gave, we didn't just kind of peel that from the top and go,

well, this is nice. That was an amount. That wasn't a normal tie. That was a tie then an offering

and the offering was frankly bigger than the tie, the 10% amount. Am I making sense here for

people who are curious? I'm not sharing this to get applause. I'm sharing this because somebody here,

you know, is going to say, oh, I want to do that. And they're going to, they're going to connect

with that. You know who I heard you did this 20 years ago? Rick Warren, that book he wrote,

Purpose Driven Life. And he did that. And I watched the video where he said, I gave all the money back

that the church ever paid me. And I out loud, I said, Lord, please let me do that. I like the city

light was one years old. And I said, let me do that one day. That's still like the greatest

testimony a pastor can have. So I'm just sharing this so you get more insight. We didn't just peel it

off the top and go, well, that was fun. We were terrified. For 48 hours, we went back and forth.

We went and then we thought, how about this amount and no amount less than that did we feel peace

from? When we landed on that amount, it was like, the Lord likes that. Hallelujah.

So the madman of Gadara, full of demons running around the cemetery, cutting himself.

Jesus said, what's your name? He said, we are Legion. You know what a Legion is? A Roman

garrison of three to five thousand troops. That means that this guy had quite a few passengers

aboard his train. Full of demons. And Jesus commands him to come out. And what is the first fruit

of him being set free of the demonic? What is the, what language does the Bible use to describe

how we should know that he was fully delivered? They saw him sitting. What is sitting? Sitting is

the posture of a student. The rebony or the rabbi would be standing. The student is now teachable.

He's submitted and he's listening to the word of God. This message basically is a message that

encourage you to submit to the word of God, but you can't submit to the word of God if you don't know

the word of God. So stay in the word and don't do extra biblical things. And a lot of penicostles

are Biblically illiterate. And that's why they end up doing flaky things and hopping from job

to job. But do you know there was a great revival that moved in the 70s? Called the Jesus movement.

It happened on college campuses. And a lot of those people, because it was a great move of God,

they got a sense of eternity, they all believed Jesus was coming back within two years. So do you

know what they did? They'll draw a bunch and not all, but a disproportionate amount of them dropped

out of college. Yeah. You don't exactly come and fill up the greatest places in society when an

entire generation has dropped out of college. You got now Presbyterians at the top there,

they're owning the franchise and the penicostles going, would you like fries with that?

Hallelujah. And by the way, speaking of college, hang on to your community elements.

There's this movement now about how like you don't have to go to college, don't go to college.

Especially in conservative circles, because college is a grand completely mad. They're full of

wokeism, woke stuff, and you know, they're churning out. I mean, you see some of the results.

They're churning out men who don't want women and women who don't want men. And then people are

scratching their head wondering, why is no one getting married? Why can't I even find a normal

person to date when both men and women have been radicalized and made just impossible to get

along with each other? So there's this movement of, oh, you know, get into the trades and you don't

need college. No, you still need college. We don't need a million penicostle plumbers.

We need other, other strata of society to be filled up by thinking intellectuals who also hear

from heaven, amen? You know what I, what I notice living out in Long Island? Who, who doesn't get

brainwashed and who doesn't get wokified in college? You know, I know, I pay attention, I notice,

oh, look, Asians. Yeah, are you laughing, Asian? One who finds the funniest is like,

he's had laughing because he knows it's true. Chinese, Korean, Indian, oh, it's South Asia,

you say, I wonder why that is. They just must be stronger than no. Family, family, strong fathers,

family, they have the meeting, have many meetings, go to college, take the good stuff, spit out the

bad stuff. Here's a list of the bad stuff. You are a girl. You will not be a boy. You are a boy.

You will not be a girl. Hey, feminism equal pay for equal work. Good. All that other stuff they

put on top of it later. Not good. Amen. You're a man. You will take the hits. You will provide.

You will have vision. It's your job to protect and provide for your family. And then they can

come with the woke stuff later and they don't budge. Amen. Hallelujah. Lord, make us more Asian.

Jesus. I think it's time for communion. What do you think?

Thank you, Lord. Jesus. He gave his life and his body. His body was broken for you. His blood

was shed for you. This is not just an empty religious ritual. As you literally ingest communion,

as it's going materially into you, believe that Jesus meets all of your needs. Whatever you're

missing, think of one thing. Come to God with one need right now. What do you want him to do for

you? What are you missing? What do you lack? Because Jesus is the great need meter.

And as you partake of him, by faith, receive the infilling that will meet that lack. Go ahead,

partake of the body and blood of Jesus. And worship team, you can come on up.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus. Father, thank you that you show your love to your people. This week,

you draw them to prayer. You reveal your face to them. You open up the mysteries of the word to them.

May all shame, guilt, condemnation go off. You know, there is no place for shame and guilt and condemnation

here. There's no place for it. Your sin is not bigger and batter and bolder than the blood of Jesus.

You have been washed. You have been cleansed. You are accepted in the beloved. The blood of Jesus

has made you to be approved. You are justified and pronounced not guilty. Because of that,

you can have boldness. Hallelujah. No matter what it feels like, some weeks feel ugly.

I'm it's nice now standing here and saying what I gave and what the Lord has done. There were weeks

when I was rolling around on my carpet, like literally physically rolling or trying to pray. Just

it'll look nice. But it doesn't matter what you're feeling like. Hallelujah, anyhow.

Hallelujah, anyhow. We put one foot in the front of the other and we trust the Lord is leading us

to a good place. The Psalms call it your wealthy place. It uses that with your wealthy place in God.

Amen. Well, let's honor the Lord with their tides and offerings, shall we? Give them a big hallelujah.

The giving information is on the screens to either side of me, give with joy, give with a

glad heart and give in faith. And if you want prayer, please move on over to my left,

your right, right into that blue lit area. The ministry team will be there and they will love to

lay hands on you and pray with you and for you. Flakiness is an enemy. It's an enemy to the good

things of God. My prayers this week that we would all be deflaked some. We more stable, more

consistent, more aligned with God's ways in his word. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

You know, flakiness, you never taught it. It starts early. Even my son, who's awesome, but in the

early days, when he just was learning prayer and learning the things of God a few times, he slipped

in. God told me, remember we had that talk. God told me. I was like, don't you start that business

with me. This is not my first rodeo. If you're going to say God told me, train up a child in the

way he should go. And when he's old, he won't be a flak. The Bible says. All right, stand to your

feet. Go with blessing. Go with his love and go rejoicing. Let's sing one more song to him.

Be blessed, CityLight. This is the CityLight 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 CityLight 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 CityLight Church podcast wherever you

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