Guarding Gratitude

Our God has the power to raise the dead.

Have you forgotten that?

As you go through your life and circumstances are rising and bills are piling up and circumstances,

these things that you wouldn't pick for yourself.

They're coming and they're strangling life out of you.

You need to remember that we serve a God who heals, a God who delivers, a God who resurrects!

Welcome to the City Light Church Podcast.

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

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

that's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,

that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

I specifically want to talk to you guys today about protection.

This is not going to turn into a PBS special, so I hope your mind didn't go there.

Some people are nervous like, wait, what?

No, I want to protect some things that need to be protected, and it's not the usual fair.

What we need to protect today is gratitude.

We have to, specifically the Lord has given me a mission today that we have to arm the people so that they can protect their gratitude

because their gratitude is actually going to protect them.

Amen?

All right, and there's a reason for this, because I've noticed that sometimes when we become familiar with something,

we don't value it the same way that we once used to.

There's something about the familiar that just makes it lose a bit of its lustre,

so the treatment that we give it.

I mean, you can look no more than to, I remember when I bought these shoes,

which, actually, that's a lie now, and I'm thinking, I look down, these were a gift, praise God.

But there's something about when you first get something new that you treat it with a certain way,

like you open the box ever so gingerly, and rustle with your paper,

and you just look at them, you make, my sneak-aheads know.

It's like you almost don't want to walk with a crease, so you get that funny duck walk in the beginning?

Because you treat it a certain way, like even how about this?

I can show you the distinction between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

When you bump somebody on the street, and let's say you step on a sneaker head,

oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to.

Let you bump somebody in your house.

You give them a quick forearm shiver, you stop, you give them a look, and then you keep them moving,

and the look says everything.

Don't let it happen again.

And you don't articulate that with your words, but there's something about it that's just like,

you've been warned.

How is that possible that we would give more reverence to a stranger than somebody in our own home?

It's the familiarity.

I know this to be true because I look at it even within my own marriage.

I remember when I first started getting to know Tiffany,

as friends, we were just friends or so she thought.

I was scheming for a long time, gentlemen.

Yes, yes, yes.

Jehovah Sneaky was that play? He was on my side.

And I remember, I would craft these text messages to her.

And I used that word intentionally.

They were crafted messages.

These were intentional devices meant to put on full display.

They all some holy anointing that the Lord had put within the man of God in a presence.

They had to be funny.

They had to be cute.

They had to be smart.

They had to be all of that.

Because I was trying to win her affection.

And now it's like, yeah.

You doing a chicken a night?

Thumbs up.

It's just a difference.

That is, it's bred through the familiarity, right?

We all go through that.

My task today is calling people back to the all and the reverence and the wonderful God of heaven.

Because it cannot be that we have such an interaction with something so powerful,

someone so loving, someone so beautiful that we would treat him the way that we treat him

because we've known him too long.

It's not going to be a lot of amends tonight.

I feel it.

We have to go back to thankfulness and gratitude and show how our gratitude is actually a shield of defense against the enemy's plans for us.

It's so funny.

I remember one time I was in an office sitting and somebody brought their entire family to work.

They didn't plan to stay the whole day.

It was just the one time thing they were coming in to get something done and then go on vacation

so their whole family was with them.

Wife kids, everything. They only had one at the time.

And their kid was there and they were like, just watch them for a second.

I just want to run.

I'm like, I got stuff to do, Jack.

What are you talking about?

Just leave their kid.

The kid is about one years old.

And he's like, I'm just leaving.

He doesn't move. He's good.

You know, it's like such unfair things.

I'm like, at my desk, like, don't die.

And lo and behold, this one-year-old gets up and starts walking around.

I don't have my phone on me because I'm like, I'm like, what do I do?

I'd never seen a kid walk before.

I'm like, so I'm like, top of my lungs, calling the pair.

I'm like, come and look at them.

I'm missing.

Because I think I'm witnessing the first steps ever.

I will forever hold it.

I taught you how to walk.

That was me.

The anointing leached out of me and just grabbed you and got you up on your feet.

That was me.

I taught this kid how to walk.

His dad leans in from a doorway and goes, oh, yeah, he does that now.

So what used to be a monumental celebration?

Because it becomes a mundane acknowledgement of, oh, yeah, that thing.

We can't ever let our relationship with the Lord become that.

Because we would be in danger of missing the true benefit of interacting with who we love, the King of Glory.

Tolerance is not always a good thing.

When we encounter something too often, our senses are dulled to it regardless of how amazing and life altering that thing is.

Humans develop a natural tolerance that is gradually built up by exposure with everything.

How many coffee drinkers we got in the house?

Look at you.

Look at you.

Sick of all of you.

Here's the thing.

I'm not anti-coffee in any way.

I drink coffee all the time.

But I'm not like a connoisseur of any sort.

I drink coffee the way some people unfortunately drink alcohol.

I'm only there for the effect.

I'm not here for...

Oh, the bean straight from Aurobica.

I can tell that this was roasted on the mountains of Algeria.

I couldn't care less.

When people get...

Sometimes the saints are super gracious.

They're like, hey, Pastor, I saw you work hard.

Here's the coffee.

Literally, this has been my reaction.

Sometimes it throws people low.

They're like, oh, thank you.

People are looking at me.

What type of monster are you?

I'm like, you got me coffee.

I wanted to get it.

There's caffeine in it.

The caffeine's going to do something to my body.

I got it.

Thanks.

What do you want?

Because they're not used to people consuming coffee.

Because I'm not consuming it for the flavor.

I don't care.

I drink a lot of water.

I'm good.

Not to say that I don't mind you bringing me coffee.

I don't.

I like bangs and all sorts.

Yes.

Putting too much out there.

Praise God.

But it's about the effect.

If I use it more and I have used the substantial amount of coffee in my life,

not that I'm a fan of it and any sort, but I've used it,

it doesn't mean anything to me anymore.

It's all that I'm saying.

That happens in the spirit.

Your senses are dulled by how much you use something.

Even with human nature, they tell you with children.

Back in the days they didn't notice and they would tell you,

keep your kid away from everything.

Now they tell you, give your kid everything as early as possible

so that we know what they're allergic to

and what they need to be protected from.

Amen?

They're like, you know, we don't know whether your kid has a peanut allergy.

You just smear some peanut butter all over their face.

I'm like, whoa, bro, relax.

But it's something like we're from the beginning.

And I apologize for that.

I definitely went right across our face.

Like, yeah.

But no, they tell you they want you the kid to gain a tolerance to certain things early.

Not so in the spirit.

I want you to have a tolerance,

but I also want you to have an appreciation that lasts.

Amen?

And you guys will see where we're going with this.

They ain't nervous.

Oh, my God.

It's good.

I just want to make sure.

All right.

All right.

You're good.

You're good.

I promise.

Sort of.

Let's go to Mark 6.

Because we see this in the scriptures.

And we see how dangerous it can be if you don't put Jesus on the right bookshelf.

So often with people, and I tell people this in counseling,

you need to determine who people are in your life.

This will allow you to avoid a massive amount of conflict.

If you would understand who people are and put them on the appropriate shelf.

I'm talking about boundary work.

I'm giving you this one for free.

It's not even part of sermon.

This is just something that's going to bless your life.

Learn how to put people on the right shelf.

The reason that you keep finding so much conflict in some of your relationships is

you are putting people on the wrong shelf.

You keep thinking that these people are high brow people,

and you need to lower the stand a little bit.

Not everybody can I call on as my friend.

And it's not that I don't love you.

It's not that we don't associate.

Well, but that suggests it.

You are my associate.

You are not my friend.

My friend I can count on.

And listen, I could go on vacation with associates.

I could go to basketball games with it.

Certain people I know what to do with them and what not to do with them.

Certain friends I know I'm not going to count on you to watch over my kids

because my kids will end up in Guatemala somewhere.

But that doesn't mean that they can't walk my dog.

You just got to know where to place people.

Because the disappointment comes from the mis-expectation.

I thought you can handle this.

You clearly can't.

And now I'm disappointed.

Oh, they're not safe.

It's to real this morning.

Gee, willikers.

I've already used, it's a kicker and gee willikers and two sermons.

My wife is keeping count.

Mark six.

Then he went out from there and came to his own country and his disciples followed him.

And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue.

And many hearing him were astonished saying,

where did this man get these things?

And what wisdom is this which given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands?

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James,

Joseph, Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

So they were offended at him.

And some of you are like, Jesus had that many siblings?

Listen, Joseph was backed up for a little bit.

He got to work immediately once the son, all right, that was too much.

I felt it from the Lord, it's too much.

But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country,

among his own relatives and in his own house.

Now he could do no mighty works there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Then he went about the villages in a circuit teaching.

They had too much exposure to Jesus.

Boy, Adam, I'm not an watch.

You snout nose kid, I know you.

There were some people, their first interaction with Jesus, all they saw him was as the miracle worker.

The Messiah, the man.

And it was harder for the people who watched him grow up because they had had contact with him.

And I know immediately some of you are thinking that could never be me.

I only know him as the savior of the world.

Yeah, but do you?

For some of us, we know him too well.

And it has started to dull our senses to who he is and what he's capable of.

And what I'm talking about is actually super scary because when you don't give the proper place and reverence, you don't know what to get.

I'll give you a fun example.

And I'm not one where I'm held up on prestige and title.

Many of you know me, you talk with me.

I'm the most down to earth pastor you've ever experienced in your life.

I can say that humbly as Moses did.

Moses listed in the scripture in the book that he wrote that Moses was the most humble man on earth.

I can say that I'm one of the most down to earth pastors ever.

But I am.

And I find specifically, and I've seen this in real time,

when people come up to me and they're like, yo, it was cracking mo.

It was good, bro.

They only get a bro anointing.

They only get a mo, anointing because that's what they've come for.

How far, bro?

And I'm with it.

I've heard.

But then there are those who go, hey, Pastor Mo, you got a second.

I kind of need to pick your brain.

I'm hoping that the Lord would be in the midst of us as we had this conversation.

And then there are moments when I'm going through it.

I don't want to talk to nobody.

Listen.

I know that that shook some of you like, wait, what?

That happens to you too?

Yes, I'm a human.

So this word that I'm ministering to you today, this is not out of nowhere.

I've learned that I have to live in a place of gratitude

for those circumstances and life.

I don't get to pick every one of them.

This past Friday, I woke up with the most insane cold.

I felt like I had a full-blown flu, congestion, coughing, body ache.

And then my wife tells me, hey, you know, that house that they're working on for us to live in.

The door is being delivered today and the window for delivery is 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

and somebody needs to be there.

A.k.a. it's not going to be me.

So I get up and go, I drag myself to the house and now I'm waiting at the house.

And I think maybe around 11, the people from Home Depot show up with the door.

And I noticed that they're moving with an expediency.

And at first I appreciated it until like they left too fast because I went into the house

and I looked to inspect the door and by the time I found scratches all over the door

that had just been ordered, the smoke from the truck was going.

So I get on the phone and I'm now on the phone for two hours straight getting hung up on,

getting put on hold and getting hung up on with Home Depot.

Yes, Home Depot, I'm calling you out.

So eventually, this is what they tell me.

We can come pick up the door and you'll just have to reorder it again.

I don't think you understand about houses, they kind of need doors on them.

I can't afford to send you back with the door.

Either bring me a new door, don't.

So two hours, get that sorted out.

Go back to my car because now I can go back home and lay down in my own bed.

And I hit the start button on my car.

And the wildest thing that I've never seen happen before.

All of the gauges in my car from the gas gauge, temperature gauge, all of them started doing this.

Like it was like a carnival show and I was like, what is happening?

Car wouldn't start, car wouldn't react to anything.

And I'm like, oh, this is fun.

Because again, I'm talking to you about gratitude and learning how in the midst of things not to be shaken by these things.

Amen.

I'm not talking to you from an ivory penthouse.

I'm talking to you from real life in a story of Queens.

So I give Mazda a call.

I said, hey, I have a 2023 Mazda CX-9.

I'm going to need you to come get it and take it to the dealership because for some reason my gauges think it's a carnival.

The lady goes, okay, fine.

What's your license plate number?

Give her the license plate number.

What's your vin number?

Give her the vin number.

How many miles on the car?

I say 39,000.

She goes, ooh.

I said, excuse me.

What is, ooh.

She goes, ah, well, you know.

It's a little bit of a problem.

I was like, what's that?

She goes, well, you know, you have on warranty either three years or the first 36,000 miles.

And unfortunately, you're at 39,000.

So the toll will be coming out of your pocket and not mine.

Oh, she didn't understand who she was on the phone with.

It wasn't the anointing that rose up in that moment.

Oh, the spirit of Karen came upon me.

And I began to instruct her in the ways of Karen and letting her know that this is a mechanical malfunction, an electric malfunction, if you will.

I was preaching to this woman out of the spirit of Karen and I made her to understand.

I said, this vehicle is under warranty for any of these type of mishaps up to 60,000 miles.

And if you don't mind, I'll speak to your supervisor, please.

So needless to say, she goes, oh, you know what?

My bad.

We can definitely get that toe out and we'll get it done.

They'll be there in 90 minutes.

Three hours later.

I get a call from the toe people.

Hey, we got your information from AAA.

We'll be there in 90 minutes.

Two hours later, they show up at four o'clock.

They take the car.

Two Mazda.

They get there at 4.30.

Mazda closes at five.

I call Mazda.

I say, hey, is any chance somebody going to look at my car?

The lady said truthfully and respectfully, sir, kick rocks.

It's not going to happen.

I said, okay.

All day yesterday, sick and bad calling Mazda.

Hey, what's the deal with my car?

They say, respectfully, sir.

Saturdays are busy as day, so you should probably kick rocks.

I was like, oh, okay, well.

So I'm without a car today.

But that's all to say, I still thank God.

See, one of the things that I loved actually about the message

that passed a bold preach last weekend.

It's because I don't ever want you to see somebody from this

pulpit preaching the word to you that is not living it

and putting it into full practice in their own life.

He gave you testament, and that was just one.

One testimony of the things that has transpired in his life

that despite these things, he's still able to say,

God, you are wonderful.

You are magnificent.

You are the way maker.

You are my God.

I know in whom I have believed.

Amen?

We need to get to that place where we're not dulled

because we've been in relationship with him

and we just feel like I asked whatever.

I don't need to praise him as hard as I did in the beginning

because there's something about a new believer praise

that is a real distinct type of praise.

I remember the first day that I got saved

and I was in a church service.

I clapped so hard that my watch broke.

What was the last time you clapped that hard?

And there's something that dulls our senses

despite how amazing he is where it goes from,

oh, Jesus, thank you for saving my life too.

We become real too good.

Matter of fact, we time it just right.

Yeah, Sean's going to be up there for about 18 minutes.

I got another 16.

Like I never missed a beat.

Come on, y'all.

Jesus, hey.

Jesus.

Can I put you on notice?

The opportunity that we have here

is not just a musical portion to warm up the preacher.

When you are late for worship,

you have missed your opportunity to worship through song.

That's not on me.

You missed your part.

I stole your part because I noticed you wasn't here.

I said, I'm going to take all the Jesus for myself.

And I'm going to lift up his name

and I'm going to magnify him because I know

how good he's been to me.

So if you notice that you came in a couple minutes late

and your worship felt a little flat,

it's because I stole your portion.

But the honest truth is nobody can steal your portion

if you came with a heart to experience him, amen?

Don't get so familiar that you miss out on who he is

and who you're actually dealing with.

We need to stay in a place of gratitude.

Why?

What does gratitude do?

Gratitude resurrects what's dead in your life.

I'm not going live.

That was the point where you probably should have yelled

and screamed and clapped.

And here's the reason why because I know some of you

and I know that you got some dead things in your life

that need resurrecting.

There's some relationships in your life that have been killed

because of pride, because of conflict, because of disorder.

There's some sicknesses in your body.

Manifestations of dis-ease that need to be resurrected.

You need the resurrection power of Christ in your life.

That same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

You needed to come and quicken your mortal body.

So it's kind of not my fault that you missed your opportunity

to shout.

Hopefully another one comes for you.

John 1141 says this.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,

Father, I thank you that you have heard me

and I know that you always hear me.

After Jesus had said these words, he cried with a loud voice.

Lazarus!

Come forth!

Now, this is super important because I don't know if you missed

the context of this.

He had to specify Lazarus because it would have been

Holy Zombie Day on Earth had he not.

It was very much a velvet rope situation like,

no, no, no, no, no, no, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

we're going to let in the club.

Only Lazarus, only let, sit down, sit down, sir.

Lazarus, come forth.

The resurrection, because these are the things that you forget

and you miss.

Our God has the power to raise the dead.

Have you forgotten that?

As you go through your life and circumstances are rising

and bills are piling up and circumstance,

these things that you wouldn't pick for yourself,

they're coming and they're strangling a life out of you.

You need to remember that we serve a God who heals,

a God who delivers, a God who resurrects.

So he says, Lazarus, come forth.

And the man who was dead for four days came out of his tomb.

This is one of the greatest miracles that Jesus performed.

Lazarus has been dead for four days when Jesus raised him to life.

When you agree that death is indeed an extreme problem,

are we in agreement?

Having no money in the bank, it's a problem.

Being sick, it's a problem.

Losing your job, problem.

Bad as they are though, being dead is a bigger one.

We can all agree on this.

Okay, just checking.

But what I want you to see is this.

If Jesus in the most extreme of problems shows us

that the solution is still Father, I thank you.

Come on.

He says, Father, I thank you.

How much more should we thank God in the midst

of the less serious problems we face?

If Thanksgiving, aka the humble acknowledgement

and recognition can raise the dead,

then let us give thanks in spite of the negative circumstances

so that we can see victory.

Come on, church.

Unfortunately, we tend to do the opposite.

The minute we face circumstance, we call somebody.

And we don't call somebody so that they would join their faith

with ours, that we might lock arms, believing that two of us

shall make a thousand go to flight.

No, no, no.

I need to complain at somebody.

You free?

I got some murmuring to do about my circumstances.

Can you put me on the schedule?

Oh, that's only me.

Okay.

Okay.

So that's nobody.

So you and your invisible finger, you get up on out of here

because you don't need it.

Lies.

We call and we complain.

You don't know when they're doing the man work.

They don't appreciate my talents.

It's like the LeBron James.

I'm taking my talents to South Beach.

People always want to move when everything's getting hard.

Be on Zillow like you just watch.

Oh, look what they got in Utah.

They got a whole house in Utah for what I pay for rent.

You just watch.

I'm out.

I don't know why the devil tells us that our geographical

location is going to make everything better.

Did you realize that when you move to this new place,

you still have to go with you.

Oh, that's too uncomfortable.

It's epic.

Got it.

Jesus.

Murmuring and complaining only magnify the problem

whereas Thanksgiving is the language of faith.

Did you know that Thanksgiving is the language of faith?

So when you are exercising, you don't even know this,

but you've engaged in faith.

Because some people think that, you know,

this is only for ministers and evangelists and pastors and preachers.

No, no, no, this is for you as the believer.

You exercise your faith every time you thank God for what hasn't happened yet.

That is you moving in a very great deal,

in a great level of faith.

When you pray for God to do something in your life

and you don't have it yet and you have the audacity to say,

God, I thank you.

Faith is the evidence of things not yet.

So if I can't see it, but I'm thinking,

God, like it's here already, I'm exercising my faith.

Hallelujah.

My God.

I'm not saying that we have to give thanks for the problem.

Because some people hear them, they immediately think like,

why do you want me to thank God for this ungrateful person in my life?

Why do you want me to thank God for this mean boss, this mean spouse?

I'm not asking you to thank God for them.

I'm asking you to thank God in spite of them.

We thank God that He is our answer and that He has already given us every blessing

in spiritual places and the things that pertain to life and Godliness.

But Pastor Mo, what I have is so little,

how can I honestly be expected to thank God for it?

My friend, thanking God for the little you have will multiply what you have.

We see this all over the Scriptures.

Jesus thanked His Father for five barley loaves and two small fish,

a little boy's lunch, and they were multiplied to feed more than 5,000 people

with 12 baskets full of leftovers.

But this is the more important part, and I love this,

because you have to notice that when the Holy Spirit,

who ultimately is the author of the Scriptures,

despite the men that He used and breathed upon,

when He brings remembrance of this event,

He highlights something specific.

It's not just the miracle, but it's the giving of thanks that He remembers.

John 6.22 says,

on the following day when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea

saw that there was no other boat there except the one which His disciples had entered,

and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples,

but His disciples had gone away alone.

However, other boats came from Tiberius near the place where they ate bread

and the Lord had given thanks.

So there's something about this Thanksgiving that God really delights in,

because Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of the things that He's done.

You don't realize it, but every time you hold your mouth shut

because of the enemy's influence, because of your flesh,

because you don't feel it in the moment,

what you're doing is not giving God the credit that is do Him.

Is that really the place that you want to put yourselves in as a believer?

The place that you want to be always is to give credit,

glory, honor, worship, awe, and reverence to the one who does everything for you.

The more you thank God, the little that you have is going to exponentially multiply.

What happens when gratitude is absent? You miss out on certain benefits.

So I actually read a study that was done by a group of psychologists,

and they said that there were actual benefits to people who tended more towards gratitude than criticism.

Because ungratefulness always leads to criticism.

When you are not grateful for what you have,

look down on what you do have, and then begin to mock and corresponding language

comes out as ill or not enough.

You tend to look at other people's marriages and go,

hmm, must be nice.

Oh, he said it.

You look at somebody else's bank account.

What? Pass the bow, God, I may back.

Hmm. Praise God.

Listen, I have learned in my life that God is not a respect of persons.

And if he did it for somebody else, that just means that I become capable on the list.

The first time, see, I'm putting somebody else's business out there.

The first time he told me, he's like, I'm a millionaire now.

The way that I rejoiced, you would have thought that I wasn't, he wasn't.

Like, to the point that it kind of shocked him a little bit, like, oh, God, is he about to get me?

Like, no, no, no, it's just like, this is fantastic.

Look at what our God is capable of.

That should be your heart when you see the good happening in the lives of other people.

Amen?

Don't be stuffy like, hmm.

Listen, now's not the time to be baptized in lemon juice.

That's not it.

You better have a joy in your heart.

Listen, when you and your homegirl who been praying for a man,

when she get her man, you better be nice to him.

You better learn how to appreciate it.

He got friends.

You don't want to be that one friend now.

You better because she got the bus and you don't realize he got a whole harem of friends for you.

And now he got to tell his friends, listen, her eye twitch a little bit,

don't you want to even worry about that?

Like, she comes from a good stock and I'm saying just try to overlook the...

Well, I don't know, man.

Just pray that God, you know, touch her.

So again, back to these benefits that belong to you through Thanksgiving and gratitude.

You have a stronger immune system, less bothered by aches and pains, lower blood pressure,

exercise more and take better care of their health.

You sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking, psychological benefits,

higher levels of positive emotions, more alert alive and awake, more joy and pleasure,

more optimism and happiness.

Socially, you are more helpful, generous, compassionate, more forgiving, more outgoing,

feel less lonely and isolated, spiritual, miraculous things open up.

See, these are the better...

This is not like the commercials where I tell you that ill side effects at the end,

like, may cause diarrhea.

It's not going to give you diarrhea, it's going to make you a better person.

It's going to make you more happier, pleasurable to be around.

Amen?

Jesus, hallelujah, my king.

Actively stay aware of what the Lord has and is currently doing in your life

and stay grateful for it.

Let that gratitude usher in the miraculous into your life.

Think about this. Luke 9.16 says, taking the five loaves in the two fish

and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them.

Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.

We don't know the anatomy of this miracle.

All we have is what the scripture notes.

He has a little bit and he thanks God and then he has enough to feed 5,000 people.

The anatomy here, we don't know how this works,

but we know that something that was involved was gratitude.

I would take that to bank in my own life and go,

enough to feed 5,000. I could use somebody at my life.

I could use enough kindness to feed 5,000.

I could use enough finances to feed 5,000.

I could use enough bread to feed 5,000.

I'm asked by the fluctuates here today, down the moral, back up again.

Be grateful.

When you're grateful, it actually changes the paradigm for the lens for how you see things.

The last thing you want to do is see God like this.

Number one, it's a lie and you're lying on his name because he's so much bigger than that.

But if you can only see God this big, then he can only operate this big in your life.

I don't ever want to see God as little in anything because I need a big God.

I'm a big man. I need big stuff.

Only one person in the back was like, yeah, Chris got.

No, I want a big picture of Jesus.

I want the God who sits high and looks low, not the God who's stuck in traffic.

I tell my daughter all the time, my daughter is really smart.

She's nine now.

It's a funny thing about kids when they start to learn certain things and feel like they got it.

Well, dad.

It's actually well dad.

Did you know?

Yeah, I knew it.

And I tell her all the time, I'm taller than you.

I can see further than you.

Only the parents are laughing.

There's something about that understanding.

It's not that she can't teach me anything.

I'm clearly teachable humble.

She teaches me things all the time that I have to Google to make sure that she's not lying.

But there is something to knowing that our God is taller than anything else.

And he can see all of what's coming.

And I can trust him.

And again, when I thank him, it makes the perspective of who he actually is bigger.

You'd ever read in the scriptures when it says magnify the Lord with me.

That scripture excites me because what it really means is we're going to put God in His proper perspective.

And then we're going to see Him move in our life in a way that we never thought possible.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me.

Okay.

You take approximately 23,000 breaths every day.

When was the last time you thank God for one of them?

I'll wait.

It would be a show off in the front row.

It would be.

Praise God for that one.

This is the problem because we get these 23,000 every day on recycle.

And what we're really doing is we're waiting for the one that takes our breath away.

I've hiked to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and the view is so breathtaking.

I am without breath.

It's magnificent.

It's glorious.

But yet every day, 23,000 breaths he has given you.

And you let his skip.

Matter of fact, some of those breaths look like this.

You way, go.

What's with breakfast today?

Instead of.

God, you'd have a.

Just me even taking a breath is pronouncing your name and giving glory to all that you are.

Hallelujah.

Thank you for waking me up another day.

Did you know that it's a very complex system for you to exhale carbon monoxide and pull in oxygen

to maintain the stratosphere of the environment that you live in, in and of itself.

But we don't thank God for that.

We just go.

Monday.

Kind of hate it.

I dare you to just try the perspective shift that when Monday comes tomorrow,

instead of you worrying about how much you hate Mondays.

And if any of you are from Boston, I'm going to think differently about you because that means a different thing in Boston.

Well, people are Googling right now.

Hate Mondays book.

No, don't do it.

It's a racist joke, by the way.

They hate Mondays.

They compare Mondays to black people.

I don't like it.

Got real serious.

Instead of you hating a Monday,

I wish some of you would roll over and make the devil sick by praising God.

I wish you would roll out of bed and just declare,

I am blessed and highly favored.

I am kept by the God of heaven, the God who redeems, the God who works everything together for my good,

because I am called and I love the Lord.

Come on.

Did you think about how much different your day would be when you are empowered in that way?

And yes, that empowers you.

You know, sometimes occasionally I make my way to the gym.

Why are you laughing?

Occasionally,

I enter the place.

And I'm not going to lie to you whether I lift up 5, 15 or 75,

I definitely walk out like I'm small.

And it gives me a certain confidence while I feel like,

don't you test me?

I don't listen to me.

When people ask me for directions, I'll be like,

like, bro, you worked on legs today.

What time is it?

Calf muscle straining because I did it wrong.

But there's something about when you do this thing that it empowers you and it strengthens you

and it changes the way that you walk.

I feel like gratitude is no different because gratitude allows you to face the resistances of life

with a different level of strength.

Gratitude literally protects you from the plan of the enemy for your life.

His plan is to still kill and destroy with shame, guilt and condemnation.

You offset these things when you properly are grateful to God for all of who he is and what he's done.

I like illustrations as you can tell.

I'm a very picturesque type of preacher, if you will.

I want to read you something that the Lord gave me.

Imagine for a moment that your city is surrounded by enemy forces who aim to destroy you.

And you're aware that enemy sympathizers are insurrectionists.

What was the word I used for a service?

Insurgents.

Insurgents or living is a very hot topic word.

You say that and it's like, what's out of you on?

I'm going to talk about that.

But there are insurgents living in your city.

These are people that work directly for the enemy and they are hidden in plain sight.

These are enemy sympathizers.

They live and they work in this city with a view to undermine the city's defenses.

And suppose that you discover that there is a song which the enemy and the sympathizers cannot tolerate or approach.

Whenever they hear it, they pull back and they run in the other direction.

Isn't it certain that you would want to learn that song?

And after you learned it, you would sing it when you went to bed at night.

You would sing it when you got up in the morning.

You would sing it on the way to work and whenever you were among strangers.

As your confidence grew, you would even venture outside this city and you would sing it as you walk boldly through the enemy lines on your way to another town.

The more deeply embedded in your mind, the song became the more steady and deep and serene and fearless your life would become.

Others would see and hear and learn the song from you and in the end you would conquer the enemy and there would be no threat at all.

It's a beautiful picture, right?

Well, we are surrounded by an enemy, namely Satan and his forces.

He is the father of lies according to John 844.

His weapons are guilt, shame, condemnation, deceit, and delusion.

His aim is the destruction of your faith and your love.

And there are enemy sympathizers, these insurgents in the city of our own soul, namely the desires of the old man, your flesh.

These things are warring against your spirit and they don't want the things that God wants.

They want the things that the flesh wants.

So not only do you have to battle the enemy but you have to battle the enemy within.

And there is a song that Satan and his sympathizers cannot tolerate or approach, namely the song of thanks to God.

We're not talking hypotheticals, we're talking about something that you have at your disposal every day that puts the enemy on notice.

Here's the thing, I need you to understand something because sometimes we give the enemy too much credit.

Did you know that every time the enemy comes to harass you, he has to roll the dice?

Because he knows something that most Christians don't know.

You have access to the name of Jesus.

The Bible says that all things under heaven and earth are subject to that name.

And you've been given access to that name.

Even further, let me break it down for you.

The Bible says that all authority under heaven and earth has been given unto Christ Jesus the head of the church.

And again, you miss your moment to shout.

See, because if you would get this, it would change how you see yourself.

Forget going at a gym, this is like taking steroids in the spirit.

All authority under heaven and earth has been given to the head who is Christ Jesus, the head of the church.

Amen?

That should get you excited because think about it.

All authority under heaven and earth has been given to the head.

Okay, they still not getting it.

Let me break it down.

Who in here raised your hand if you had breakfast this morning?

Don't be shy.

Ain't nobody going fat shame?

If you ate breakfast, you ate breakfast. Praise God.

All right, for all the people who raised their hands, for the rest of you, you're probably lying.

You ain't fastened.

It's not 21 days of prayer and fasting.

There's nobody fat shame in you.

Least of all, not me.

So, you ate something today.

What happened?

You put food in your head.

Where did it go?

Oh, we got a smart church.

You put food in your head and it went to your...

Say it loud with conviction.

You put food in your head and it went to your body.

Now you see where I'm going?

The Bible says that all authority under heaven and earth has been given unto the head of the church, Christ Jesus.

All authority under heaven and earth has been given to your head.

Whatever goes to your head goes to his body.

Who is his body?

That's me.

If you don't want to take it, I'll take it.

That's me. I'm the body of Christ.

All authority under heaven and earth has been given to me.

If you would be willing to appropriate that and take it for yourself, understand the position and the power that belongs to you now.

You have access to the name of Jesus.

That means when the enemy comes into your marriage for destruction, you can say not today, devil.

You cannot buy here.

You must go in the name of Jesus.

I told you every time he messes with you, he's rolling the dice because he doesn't know if you know that there's power in the name of Jesus.

You have access to the name of Jesus.

He's real shaky.

I hope they don't understand.

Hold that word that they read last week.

It doesn't stick.

Okay.

Sickness.

And here we have the man of God going.

Oh no.

Oh no.

It is by his stripes and I'm healed.

Oh no.

Oh no.

And you start praising the Lord and declaring the scripture of God.

You get a bill.

Oh God.

Oh no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, devil.

You have no place here.

He needs all my needs according to his riches and glory.

The gold in the silver is his.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

You know, we got to get gregarious in our old schools.

He's like, all these things belong to me.

I am the head and not the head.

So you have authority through his word.

You have power.

You have gratitude that puts you on notice.

I pray that one of you would walk out of here encouraged to go,

I'm going to magnify the Lord by giving praise and glory and honor.

I'm going to be grateful for the things that he has done.

I'm going to manage the things that he's done and not let them slip

to the side as a regular thing.

It is not a regular thing that you have been saved from hell

and given eternal life.

If you didn't know, everybody in this room, myself included,

we deserve hell.

The Bible says that the wage of sin is death and all that fall

in short of the glory of God.

But yet we have eternal life.

We know the one true God and the one whom he sent Christ Jesus.

We put our faith in him.

If you count yourself a Christian.

If you don't count yourself a Christian,

I have an invitation for you.

I want to read one last scripture before I can out of your way.

And worships him, you could come on up.

Actually, I'm going to read you two scriptures.

Listen, I'm a non-denominational Christian preacher,

but I've got Pentecostal roots.

So that just means when I tell you one,

I probably got five more in my back pocket.

Romans 121.

Let me read you this before that.

Thankfulness is an essential guardian of the soul,

and therefore we should guard ourselves with gratitude.

Evidently, we are fair game for the devil

when we don't abound with Thanksgiving.

Unless the song of Thanksgiving is being sung in our hearts,

the enemy outside will deceive his way into the city of our soul

and the enemy sympathizers will make that his job easy.

So for the sake of your own safety,

strive to fill your heart with Thanksgiving,

guard yourself with gratitude.

Romans 121 says this,

because although they knew God,

they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful,

but became futile in their thoughts

and their foolish hearts were darkened.

So Paul accuses those who have seen

the evidence of God's power and deity in nature,

but have not responded with gratitude.

In other words, if your heart does not respond to God

with gratitude, your mind will be darkened.

You surrender yourself to the blinding work of Satan.

Gratitude is the guardian of the lamp of the soul.

If the guardian dies, the lamp goes out.

Guard yourselves with gratitude.

Put up a second Peter.

But also for this very reason,

giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue,

to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge self-control,

to self-control perseverance,

to perseverance, godliness,

to godliness, brotherly kindness,

and to brotherly kindness, love.

These are powerful things that you should aspire to have

in your Christian character, Amen?

For if these things are yours and abound,

you will neither be barren nor unfruitful

in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

That sounds good.

Everything we want.

But check what he says, because he doesn't end there.

For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness

and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

It's a funny little connect here,

a connecting point between the two scriptures

by two different authors.

He says, the blindness that we're talking about

that produces such wicked and evil behavior

that keeps you from the holy behavior

that we all look at and aspire to happens

because there is a forgetfulness,

a lack of acknowledgement,

a lack of gratitude.

How could you be thankful for the blood of Jesus

when you forgot what it did?

He says, all these things you can't have

because you've forgotten.

So that means that tells me that every day

I want to put the gospel at the forefront of my mind.

I want to remember who you are

and what you've done for me, Jesus.

You are my everything.

You are my salvation.

You are my peace.

You are my joy.

The joy that you give me, no man takes away.

You literally died in every way possible

so that I could have life.

If you would be grateful,

you would protect yourself from yourself

and from the enemy.

I want to make an invitation

before we receive the tides and offerings for this week.

If there's anybody under the sound of my voice

and you hear what we're talking about today

and there's a bit of a disconnect

because you're like, I'm not even a Christian yet.

This invitation is to you.

As I reiterated earlier,

everybody is a sinner before the eyes of God.

Every one of us have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God.

The only thing that we can honestly do on this earth

is earn a wage of death.

But God loved us so much that he sent his son

a perfect son for a divine exchange.

He would live a perfect life

and thoughtward indeed, never sin against God.

And then he would receive the punishment

that all of us deserved.

And it's a divine exchange

because he takes our punishment

so we take his perfection.

We take his right standing.

But that offer is only for those

that are willing to receive it.

If you can acknowledge that you need that type of Savior

to save you from yourself, from your sin,

then I want you to raise your hand.

I'm not going to ask you to come to the front.

But right where you sit,

you can raise your hand

and we want to pray for you and with you.

If that's you today

on the count of three, raise your hand.

One, two, three.

I see that hand in the back.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, you got it right, Christians.

The Bible says that the angels of heaven rejoice

that one person who comes to faith

so we rejoice with them.

There's anybody else.

I want you to,

and not just the one person who raised their hand.

Everybody under the sound of my voice,

I want you to repeat after me.

Say, Father God.

Thank you.

Thank you for Jesus.

For the blood that He shed.

For His perfect sacrifice.

By faith, I receive Him

as my Lord, as my Savior.

Wash me clean.

Make me yours.

And draw me close to you.

Father in Jesus' name.

Father, those that have accepted you today

have eternal life.

Show them your goodness,

your favor, your mercy,

your love, your power.

Make yourself bigger in their sight

that we might magnify you together.

That we might always be grateful for who you are

and what you've done in saving us, in healing us,

and providing for us, and protecting us,

in maintaining us,

Lord, in making us cute.

We thank you,

because you've called us to be a royal priesthood

and a peculiar people.

Truly, we are a blessing in this world, light and salt.

Use us now in that capacity

to be a blessing to others.

To be not just a testimony of this gospel,

but also to tell people and witness it

that they could come to faith as well.

Move in us and use us, Lord, in Jesus' name.

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 Janskik

in CityLight Church,

visit us at CityLightNYC.com

that's CityLightNYC.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person any time.

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.

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