Fruit Check: Embracing Trials that Help us Grow our Spiritual Fruit

When the pain hits, then you want to cry out.

What happens?

This is the hypothetical.

What happens if we live in a place where we constantly

depended on the Lord?

Instead of waiting for that one moment of pain,

we would constantly live in the present moment,

whether they were valleys, whether they were mountains,

and we would just say, I'm with you all the way, Lord.

I'm not going anywhere without you.

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.

My name is, again, my name is Pastor Muhammad.

I'm one of the pastors here at City Light Church.

I welcome you.

Now, I got to spill the tea.

The 10 a.m. they was talking smack about y'all.

The 10 a.m. was like, we the real Christians up in here.

You know what I'm saying?

Everybody just, you know what I'm saying?

They lounging around with that thing is giving feast.

I'm not going to let them drag y'all too long.

I'm not going to let them drag y'all.

There's something beautiful about having one heart in the room,

and I felt that.

So give yourselves a round of applause.

All right, so today,

I'm going to let you know that you're going to be a great

person.

All right, so today,

we're going to talk about something very specific.

We've got some things to preach on.

The title of today's message is called,

Fruity Christians.

Can I get three snaps?

Very questionable.

I'm not going to lie to you.

We made the thumbnail,

put the thing up there.

Matter of fact, show the graphic that we got online.

Don't be scared now.

It's online already.

Don't be scared, media team.

Fruity Christians.

Now, I just want to just put this out there.

You've been rickrolled.

Some of you know what that is.

Some of you don't.

Now, I will say this.

We are not afraid to preach on any given topic,

as long as the word of God has something to say about it.

So no, today's topic is not about homosexuals.

Amen.

But we don't shy away from that.

Listen, homosexuality is a sin.

I don't look at it as any different from any other sin,

but sin is sin.

Now, all are welcome here at City Light Church.

I can't tell you over the years how many thousands of people

have come through here and many of them being homosexual.

We welcome all to come as they are.

The beautiful part about God and this wonderful gospel

is that you don't stay as you are.

So just know that.

I don't want you to think that we're skating.

That was clickbait because I know many people need to see that

and be a part of something because there are people searching

for affirmation.

You're just in the wrong place if you think

that we're going to say that it's okay.

The scripture is very clear about God's heart for that.

It is not his best for you.

He made the male and female the scripture says.

But we are here today to talk about fruity Christians.

Raise your hand if you have fruity Christian.

Only to people in the first service.

Well, I'll ask again before we get to the end

and we'll see the impact that we could have.

Fruity Christians.

There's a fruit check.

It's a fruit check today.

Let's go directly into the scriptures.

Let's go to Matthew 21 verses 18 to 19.

Matthew 21:18–19

Now in the morning, as he returned to the city,

he was hungry and seeing a fig tree by the road,

he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves and said to it,

let no fruit grow on you ever again.

Immediately the fig tree withered away.

So again, today is a fruit check.

We need to see how leafy you are.

Or how prodigious you are in your Christian fruit, amen?

Because look at how dangerous this scripture really is.

You have to now ask yourself,

are you producing the right matter of fruit?

Or is Jesus coming to you and still finding himself hungry?

Sweet.

Because everybody knows that moment when you go to the fridge

and you're like, come on man, what are we dealing with today?

You've got to bend down, you've really got to look past

all the leftovers.

What is it for me today?

You know, sometimes you've got to give it a...

You back up and look at this thing.

And sometimes I feel like the Lord does that with us.

Because the Lord is looking for a measure of fruitfulness.

He's looking for a level of maturity and sometimes

it's looking real leafy.

Because the Lord will be like, huh?

Let me see.

All right.

Okay, okay.

The footwear is on point.

All right.

We don't...

We don't have fruit at all.

How many of us are leaving Jesus hungry?

Because again, just understand this.

Fruit is just something that is produced.

It's a production issue.

How many of you are truly producing as Christians?

We're producing every one of us here.

We're producing all manner of things.

But the question is, what type of fruit are you producing?

If you're an apple tree, I should not see oranges.

Now, here's where the community and accountability come into play.

Because when you're supposed to be an apple tree,

and you smell like vitamin C,

and your fruit looks mighty orange,

I got to question you on some things.

Oh, yeah, not saying nothing yet.

We're gonna get there. Don't worry, church.

We're gonna get there.

All right. So, I'll bring it down.

Because sometimes it's a lofty thing.

You talk about fruit and everybody's like,

oh, you know, praise God, I want to be fruitful.

All right. I'm gonna bring it down.

Very practical.

How many of us want to be successful and prosperous?

Everybody puts their hands up. Amen?

Okay.

So now, the question is,

do you actually have the fruit and the character to carry the success

that you're praying for?

Yes, we do.

Yes.

Yes.

Guess Lil Dicey after that?

Well, how about this?

I grew up in a Spanish painting of console church,

and when I first got saved,

I want a lot of you.

I had an extreme desire to prophesy.

Because I watched a man of God one day

expose all the secrets of the heart's in the room,

and I was like, oh, I want that.

But here's the thing.

It wasn't for holy purposes.

I didn't want it that I might be a grand benefit

to the church.

I liked it because I saw that how I felt about him.

And I said, man, I want the people to feel that about me.

And I wanted the gifts I was praying incessantly.

God let me prophesy that I might bless your church

and edify and read the mail of the people of God.

And I can't tell you how many years I did not prophesy.

Until the Lord showed me, it makes no point to ask me

for a gift that you can't carry.

In the same way, I wouldn't give my daughter, she's eight.

I wouldn't give her the keys to my car

and let her go to the store for me

because she's not ready to carry certain things.

She would hurt herself and, oh.

So the Lord didn't allow me to start prophesying

and speaking into lives and bring edification

until I understood what was at stake

until I finally came to the point

when he grew the fruit that would carry the gift.

Oh, y'all ain't saying nothing.

It's a fruit check.

It's weird because I feel like

the spirit of the age in New York City

and the principalities that rule New York City,

they have us being a very ambitious people.

It's very much a rat race in New York City

more than any other place in the world, amen?

There's a reason why when you go to other places

as in New Yorker, you kind of feel like

everything is moving in slow-mo.

Because like, you just, what are we doing today?

What, where are we going to outlets?

We doing this, what are we doing?

And everybody else is just like, you gonna relax?

We chill.

Go get you some orange juice, you'll be all right.

And mind you, I'm not against ambition.

I married the most type A person that I know.

Wife, mother of three, full-time nurse,

business owner, project manager.

Like everything you can think of this, this woman,

God, she got, she set goals, boom,

she go after and knock it off, let's go to the,

and mind you, she ain't the only one.

I don't want you to just think I'm just slouch

with this type A lady, you know,

we have helped each other, amen?

Like, we compliment each other.

I taught her to chill, she's taught me

how to be hardworking, praise God.

There's a reciprocity here.

But I'm not against it is what I'm saying.

Like, I don't want you to hear that

and think that, oh, he's against ambition.

No, ambition is good, ambition is holy

when you're running for the right things,

but we live in a generation that is only looking for the bag.

They're only looking for the mountain top moment.

And they're not respecting that,

they're so much more to this life

than just the curated pictures

that you keep seeing from other people's lives.

Oh, the algorithm people ain't, they ain't happy today.

Yeah.

We live in a life that longs,

they desperately seek only the mountain top.

And that makes me a little sad

because I know that that's the spirit of the age.

I know that that's most of society.

But the sad part about that is

a lot of Christians have been snatched up

into this way of thinking.

They think to themselves, well, look at that person.

Look at that church, look at their husband,

look at their wife, look at their life.

It's not mine.

And I'm here to tell you today that you don't have to

get yourself sad and dejected

because you don't have somebody else's life.

Did you know that comparison is the thief of joy?

The Lord has not called you to run your race

while simultaneously looking at other people's lives.

Any track star in the world will tell you that

when you run, you can only look ahead.

You can't even properly hunt and get ahead of other people

if you're focused too much on what's happening here.

You gotta look ahead.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Like, you can't stop and go.

Because you do, you end up on your face.

The Lord is calling us to this place where

we're going forward without comparison.

We're going forward without using other people

as our metric.

Man, this is not the message from the first service.

Because I feel this in the room so strongly,

you have paralyzed yourself for fear.

That you won't live up to somebody else's curated snapshot.

What you see on social media is not reality.

They have curated their lives and put it into a snapshot,

added filters, and then put the most sublime poetry

to describe the scene that you might think,

oh, if only my life could just be like that.

Let me let you win or something.

God is not just into the mountaintop moment.

There's this thing called the valley.

God is in as much as he is in the valley

as much as he is in the mountaintop.

But the thing is, we don't really like to hear that

because it doesn't fit with what we're learning about on social media.

Social media says, I need to get the bag.

I need to get the money.

I need to get the mountaintop.

And I got to make sure that when I get it, I'll pose cute enough.

I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Take my picture.

That's not actually it.

There's this thing called fruitfulness.

And I've learned in some of the old-time Christians

you'll understand and you'll get with me on this.

There's a certain level of fruit

that can only be produced in certain circumstances

in a certain climate.

It's like truffles.

Truffles are mad expensive, right?

You want to know why truffles are expensive?

Only the foodies are like truffles.

But now the foodies are like truffles.

You ever had a truffle fry?

They're the little thing that, all right.

Bring it back, Holy Spirit.

The reason why truffles are expensive

because they only grow on certain parts of the earth

under very, very specific climate change.

So it takes a lot to unearth them and cultivate them.

So when you do, and you bring them to buy,

you can sell it for a big deal

because it was a big deal to have them grown and to get them.

This is why they're so expensive.

There's a type of fruit that God is trying to grow

in you, Christian.

But the thing is you have been circumventing

and running away from the process

that would give you the type of fruit that you need.

Sometimes the Lord is looking to get...

You're asking for stuff.

I want to prophesy.

I want to preach.

I want to teach.

I want to move mountains with Jesus.

And he gives you a drop.

He doesn't give you a gallon.

He doesn't give you a smoke.

He gives you a drop of suffering.

Oh, Jesus.

He's the way you...

You asked me for patience.

I gave you people that it's hard to be patient with.

What are we doing?

I thought you said you wanted to be more like me.

Oh, you don't even say that.

You keep asking God for stuff,

but then you're running from the thing

and the process that brings the fruit.

Where's your sweat equity?

I want to be thin.

I want to look like a snack, Jesus.

But you keep eating snacks.

That's not how you become a snack.

You need to go to the gym.

You need to work it out.

You need to sweat.

Don't you look at the message

and don't think that the message ain't no point.

Don't say anything about me.

Judging?

You need to understand what is the true price.

Because we want this fruit,

but we keep running away from the process that produces it.

We want the mountain top.

We want the bag.

We want these moments,

but you don't want what is necessary,

which is to be able to depend on God

in every and all circumstance.

And again, this is how society thinks,

but that thinking has crept its way

into the church, unfortunately,

so that we're now also looking for these mountain top moments

and not realizing the true price.

So the only question is, what is the true price?

I'm going to tell you a story that I told my life group

and I'm just curious to see

if your reaction will be like theirs,

because I lost a lot of people that night.

I was in life group and I said, you know,

if I get to heaven

and Jesus is not there,

I'm burning the place down.

Half the life group is like,

you know, life group seven is probably not for me.

And you might think to yourself,

like, past the mode as you're doing a bit much,

what do you mean by that?

Well, here's the thing,

heaven is not my goal.

A driveway made out of gold,

that sounds nice, I'm not going to lie.

Doors that are made out of pearl, sweet.

But that is not my goal.

Jesus is my goal.

So again, if I get to heaven

and the angels are trying to like,

well, here's the waiting area.

You can put your feet up here.

I'm like, you're my man, my man, my man, my man, my man.

You're my man real quick.

I got a question, where is Jesus at?

Because you know how people try to talk fast?

They don't, because you know,

just do the timing and circumstance.

You know, you could stay real.

The Bible teaches me that all things are subject to the name of Jesus.

And me, I understand the authority that I have.

So I'm going to be in heaven causing a muck early.

Angel, and the name of Jesus, be still.

Because the Bible says all things under heaven and earth,

that they're subject unto Christ Jesus, right?

So in the name of Jesus, be still.

Where's Jesus at?

And the many try to start talking.

And you might say, that is why, what are you talking about?

Well, here's the thing.

Heaven is not why I'm fighting

and exercising my faith daily and dying daily.

No, that's not eternal life.

Let me show you from the scripture.

John 17.3 says this.

And this is eternal life,

that they may know you,

the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

It doesn't say anything about dying and getting to heaven.

I'm not living my life as a Christian as an escape artist.

I can't wait to just get out of here.

I want to go so bad.

Life is so hard.

Nah.

Eternal life started the day that I knew him

and received the one whom he sent Christ Jesus.

He lives in my heart and I live in him.

See, it's a subtle, subtle perspective shift.

But when I know that Jesus is my prize

and I know that I already have the prize,

I have to run on the rat wheel

or the hamster wheel of religion.

I don't have to do things like come to church

to try to get my attendance.

I come to church because I get to come to church.

I come to church because I get to fellowship

with the believers in unity.

There's something about the congregation coming together

with one heart and one mind that says Jesus is Lord

that I can't get at home.

Because I pray at home and I sing at home

much of the dismay of my children.

But I do those things at home but there's something different

when I come and my faith locks with your faith

and your faith locks with their faith

and then in one spirit we declare Jesus is Lord.

So I have a different prize that has nothing to do with heaven.

It has nothing to do with the curated mountaintop moments

that the world says I need to be going after.

So now that I know that there's a different prize,

I know that there's a different fruit that I should be looking for.

And the only sad part for some of you is that

that fruit doesn't always look glamorous.

Sometimes it looks real gritty to get that type of fruit.

Only the baby said it the right way.

And also just notice that the Greek word for no

in the verse that I just read you,

it implies a deep level of intimacy.

Just know that in the Old Testament,

when it said that he knew the woman,

he didn't just meet her at the Duane Read.

When it says that he knew her,

he was intimately acquainted with the most intimate part of her.

So God is saying, I want you to know me.

Know the one that I sent.

And then you can start bearing this fruit.

God is very much concerned with the totality of your existence,

not just the mountaintop moment.

He cares about the journey and how you're maturing in him.

And I know we can't fathom that in a generation that we live in,

because we live in an unprecedented age where so many curated peaks

into other people's lives have been given.

A few hundred years ago,

you didn't know anything about somebody living on the other side of the world.

But today, not only do you have to deal with looking at your neighbor,

you have to deal with looking at your neighbor who lives on the other side of the world

in Dubai and you feel like that's it.

I just need to move the Dubai in my life will be better.

That's the problem.

I'm not in Dubai, Jesus.

Take me to Dubai and it will be better.

How many churches are in Dubai?

Can I free some of you today?

Just like the truffle,

there is a fruit that can be cultivated from your life

if you are willing to not run.

Because sometimes we get this weird thing where we ask for a certain thing

and then when the opposition and the resistance that is useful to bring about that thing comes,

we run.

Because you find like, oh man, I found this church,

this crazy city like church.

It's amazing.

The worship is, I don't even know what it got to the word.

They must have gotten from India somewhere.

It's crazy.

He'd be singing and stuffing the team.

I feel the presence of God and it's amazing.

Pass the bouquets up there and he's unpacking the word of God.

Oh my God.

And then this is other past and he's just cute.

I don't even know what to do.

I don't know what to do but he's cute.

That's me by the way.

So you're like, man, this church is perfect.

And then you get to a life group and somebody doesn't agree what you said.

I'm leaving.

You find an interaction that's not per, oh, I'm done.

And we do this pain avoidance dance where anytime there's resistance,

anytime there's a little bit of conflict, anytime there's a little bit of friction,

we run.

We got to let go.

I understand as humans, it's a very real thing to be triggered by pain avoidance.

But you have to let go of that because we talked about equity earlier, right?

So how many people are going to join me in not running?

No, no, not the way you think it.

Stop it.

You just don't want to exercise.

You want to be, you want to be trimmed but you don't, that's not what I'm talking about.

When I say don't run, how many people are not going to run from the scary stuff?

How many people are not going to run from the hard things that you wouldn't pick?

Oh man, I'm sick of my body.

Symptoms of dis-ease.

How many people run after that?

Jesus was good up until that happened.

Oh, I lost my job.

How could he do this to me?

You mean how could he do it for you?

You know that God is not the author of every evil in your life?

I have to say it that way because there are many people who have been duked into believing

that everything that happens in this world is all God, good and bad.

God is not the author of confusion.

You live in a fallen world and guess what?

You know how we talk about like there are no perfect churches?

Because the minute you show up, it's no longer perfect.

Like it's no different here.

City light was amazing that I showed up.

There, body, done.

But in the same way like there is no perfect life, no perfect circumstance, no perfect situation.

You need to deal with the resistance that is going to make you grow.

Stop running from that.

You are running from the thing that is going to help cultivate the fruit that will give you the very gift that you desire in God.

We have to stop running and avoiding the hard things.

That's why I said who's going to not run with me?

Three people praise God.

I thank God for my three.

We'll see y'all, us three, we'll see y'all on the other side.

And we will look so much better than you thought you looked.

Because in the spirit we'll have grown, we'll have matured, we'll have gotten to the place where we can suffer certain things and know that God is with us.

Because here's the, oh man, I get excited on this part.

You can only know God a certain way under specific conditions.

Everything on the mountaintop is, it's nice.

I've been on the mountaintop of answered prayer.

God, I need you to come through, I need you to open these doors and he's, it's a very theological term by the way.

I've been in that place but it's so funny because that mountaintop place brings with it its own temptation and trial.

And the temptation is to let go of the rope through complacency.

Because things are so good that you get to, this is a little bit of weird pride that creeps up that you feel like you're the one who got you there and you're the one who can sustain it and maintain it.

And it's anything but the truth.

So now you hit the mountaintop when you're feeling real good about yourself.

Like, man, look at me.

Deep Christian that I am, I'll be praying.

I'm out here fasting, casting out devils, doing my job, bearing fruit, prospering.

You don't check in with Jesus though.

You just going about your life.

It's a different vibe than the person who needs their repaid.

It's a different vibe for the person with sickness in their body.

They're getting diagnosed from the doctors that they got months to live.

Those are two different types of prayer.

And I'm not saying I want you in that place of hurt all the time but I'm saying that you can't avoid it if you're going to truly do life.

You've got to let the hurt come because he will be in the hurt with you.

And he'll raise you up.

He'll comfort you in a way that nobody else can so that you later can be a comfort to those hurting.

But if you don't let him in into those moments, if you avoid those moments, where is the growth? Where is the fruit?

You're going to end up being a regular French fry.

I want to be a truffle French fry.

Put some gold leaf on mine.

You know what I'm talking about.

I want high-class fruit.

But high-class fruit.

It grows in the dirt, man.

Sometimes you got to get it out the mud.

It's not just slang we're talking. This is Bible we're talking.

The author in the finish of our faith, if you even look at it just as life in his ministry, he didn't get to where he got being our Savior without first suffering defeat.

So how could you try to live a life of pain and avoidance when God is promising you?

Because I'm telling you, I've been in the valley and it sucked and I did not like it.

The one consolation I had is that I experienced God like never before.

So much so that when I came out of that moment into a prosperous place, I low-key found myself looking back longingly at those hard times.

I miss those moments of prayer, Lord.

I miss going to sleep at 12 a.m. with tears in my eyes because I didn't know how it was going to work.

But I went to sleep praising you, thanking you, believing that you would come through only to wake up at 3 a.m. with more doubt, more fear, more unbelief and needing his presence to come again.

But then he would.

Let me ask you a question.

How many people in here take one aspirin every day?

One person out of over a hundred.

Did you know that doctors say that if you take one aspirin per day, you can lower your chance of cardiac arrest significantly.

One a day.

Nobody does that though.

Until...

What is...

Give me some aspirin, man.

Throwing up things back like tic-tacs.

But it's funny how when the pain hits, then you want to cry out.

What happens?

This is a hypothetical.

What happens if we live in a place where we constantly depend on the Lord?

Instead of waiting for that one moment of pain, we would constantly live in the present moment,

whether they were valleys, whether they were mountains, and we would just say, I'm with you all the way, Lord.

I'm not going anywhere without you.

The problem comes as we try to do life, and then when something happens, we run to Him.

Jesus.

Hear me.

Oh.

Shikabar al-waboshabat al-waboshabat al-waboshabat.

And really what the Lord is asking for is this.

If I'm going, you're going with me.

I'm going to the store, Jesus.

Bring yourself, let's...

We go into the store.

Yeah, I'm gonna go pray.

To me, we go...

We go into pray, Jesus.

Y'all, there's a baddie in church, we...

Hey, Jesus.

You know what?

I'm going to hell out of here.

We...

It's we.

It's no longer me.

Because wherever I go, Jesus got to come to.

Oh, man.

Ain't nothing but trials and stuff over there.

Now, before we would run the other way, but now, because of who I got with me,

all right, Jesus, go.

Jesus, go.

I'm okay because I've entered the fray with Jesus.

I've entered the fray with my...

He's my everything.

He's my rock.

He's my savior.

He's my point of refuge.

He's my safe house.

He is the lily of the valleys.

He is the bright and morning star.

He is the one that has everything that I need.

When I offend Chris by dragging him all over the church,

he's the one that gives my brother the grace to forgive.

Can you understand?

Everything that you do let it be that you bring Jesus into it.

He is not a supplement that you just add to your life.

He's not a part of your life.

Because if he's a part of your life, there are other parts that don't touch that one part.

He has to be the center of your life,

so that he connects to everything.

Thank you, brother.

Chris is like, never again.

His front row life ain't for me.

So one last note about this,

because we have to take advantage of the fact that on earth,

we have an opportunity to offer something that we will never be able to do on the other side of heaven.

You get to offer God praise that has been seasoned with temporal human hurt.

See, on the other side of eternity,

I don't even believe that there are tear ducts.

The Bible says that he will wipe every tear from your eye.

There will be nothing but joy and speakable.

So how can you give him a sacrifice of worship and praise when everything will be jolly?

You know, I told you I have a certain disdain for celebrating and decorating for Christmas and things like that, right?

I know some of you are like, oh, I can't believe it. No, it is real.

This past Saturday, not this Saturday, just past the Saturday before that,

my wife tells me, hey, babe, I think we should decorate.

And I say, hey, babe, the devil's a liar.

Now, here's the thing though, I've been fighting my wife off since July.

You know, I don't know how she was raised because her family's not even like this.

She's the only one.

It's like my own personal torture.

The Lord gives me the heirs of an elf and a wife who just,

I don't know what I did church.

But since July, she's like throwing subtle hints like, you know, how you feel today?

I feel great.

This is my first Saturday with nothing to do in like a real long time.

Yo, thank God.

She's like, I know, right?

She's like, what do you think about putting a tree over?

What do you think about putting a tree where?

We could put one right over here while we're going to put a tree there, Tiffany.

Just to spruce it up.

You see what you did there is a pun.

Yeah.

So the one Saturday that I have with no activity,

I end up meeting my mortal enemy Christmas decorating.

It gets worse.

I woke up that Saturday feeling ill.

You know how you get that one cough that tells you where your week is about to go?

No!

And I'll share with you because it's gross.

I woke up Saturday and I immediately coughed up this quarter sized shape of pure mucus.

No flim.

No viscosity to it.

It was pure.

And I was like, oh God.

And from that moment I just got sicker and sicker and I knew what was coming.

I had to feel like that plus I had to decorate.

Can you feel my pain?

So now here I am in this space of just not really enjoying things,

but giving God glory.

In this space where I'm getting calls and still having to live life,

I still got a minister to people.

I still got a show up.

I still got to be present.

And even now I'm not feeling super well.

My whole family is not here today because they are sick.

We will pray for them, amen?

But it was such a rough week.

Now, in the midst of that when I can lift up my hands and go farther,

you are all that in a bag of chips.

You are Jehovah Rafa, my healer.

You are my deliverance.

You are my peace.

You are my joy.

That has a certain, see my praise, that hallelujah we were talking about earlier.

That highest praise, it's been seasoned by my suffering.

And it produces a fruit for Jesus that he can't get anywhere else.

There's no fruit like that in heaven.

The angels praise him 24-7.

They circle his throne saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The 24 elders take their crowns and they throw it before his feet.

And none of them got nothing on us.

Because we offer him a worship that can only be received and cultivated here on earth in the present.

In this temporal thing that we call humanity.

But a lot of us are not even taking advantage of that because we are running from the moments that we create this type of fruit and create this type of praise.

We're cursing the fact that we have to live life and go through circumstances.

Listen, I understand you would have never chosen for the cancer to come.

I know that you would have never have chosen for the baby to be lost.

But I've seen God in those moments show himself off as the true deliverer, as the true healer.

And yes, there's a great many things that I never would have planned on.

But because he allowed them and showed himself off in those moments, I'm better for it.

You know, I remember there was a time before our second son was born.

My wife has a very terrible time with pregnancies.

She has a condition called hyperemesis.

This is low compared to what actually happens.

It's like the zenith of morning sickness where you can't eat anything.

You can't even drink anything.

You drink water.

Water will make you throw up.

So she's living like that for months.

Hospitalized and all that.

But she's sacrificing knowing what's on the other side of that, which is our child.

So she's undertaking this sacrifice for our family.

And then the doctors tell us there's a miscarriage and she loses the baby after all the suffering.

And it was hard.

And it hurt.

But she offered up such a sweet, beautiful worship to God.

That it was crazy because in the same year, God visited us again and she got pregnant again.

And my son was born later that year.

And Dallas is an amazing kid.

All my kids are amazing.

And I don't say that just because I'm their dad, like they legit are amazing people.

We were only able to get to that point because we didn't run.

It was weird because when Dallas finally came, we looked back on the situation and we were like, hold on.

I remember what happened, but the way that the Lord set it up, it felt like it was 20 years ago.

There was so much joy.

There was so much faith, so much belief that God was going to do what He said and what He promised that.

The pain of what we had experienced, we felt so separated from it.

It was only some months ago.

But the Lord found a way to refine our faith and grow it to the point that we could receive through the pain.

So now I have to expound and explain to people, don't run because you prolong pain by running.

You know, people who go to the gym, they will tell you you need resistance in order to produce growth.

He will do it.

He will do it, George!

You cannot let the pain of what you've experienced stop you from believing for his best.

There is a fruitfulness that he will give you if you would be willing to trust him despite what you've seen.

He will cultivate it and he will bless you.

Because he is not a respecter of persons and he blessed me in mine so I know that he can bless you in yours.

Praise God.

Let us learn to enjoy the process as he matures us and produces the good fruit from our life.

So let me ask you again, where my fruity Christians at?

Hallelujah.

We got to step away from the immediate gratification and we got to realize that there's a cost to certain fruit, a spiritual sweat equity.

Amen.

You'll have to give up on some things to get that precious thing called fruit.

You know, the Bible says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

And this is where you got to put in the disclaimer so people that they don't get disillusioned.

This is not a work's mentality when it comes to fruit.

You cannot produce the type of fruit that you need in your life.

You have to lean on Jesus to produce the fruit.

He will cultivate it.

Your job as a living sacrifice is to not run off the altar.

That's your job.

Your job is not to grow yourself, your job is not to become a better Christian.

All those things happen because of and through him.

So don't think that I'm now telling you you need to be a better Christian by doing this.

The this that you need to do is trust him.

Not crawl off the altar.

That's the problem with a living sacrifice when it gets too hot.

Not today.

But if you really trust him, you'll listen to that sweet will that says, come on back.

Worship team, you can come on up.

You can actually prepare communion too as well, Usher.

I'll close with this.

You want to know what's an underrated goodness of God?

Those moments when he tells you to wait.

We don't like that.

We and I'm saying we don't like that.

Sometimes I'm going to lie to you.

It's foolish to say, but sometimes I'd rather you just tell me no, bro.

Don't have me out here just suffering and struggling unnecessarily.

And every single time the Lord keeps reminding me, it's not unnecessary.

Because if I gave you what you wanted now, you would kill yourself.

Because you weren't able, nor ready to carry the things that you desire in God.

So he needed to grow me.

He needed to refine me.

He needed to press me.

He needed to allow certain circumstances, certain losses to happen so that he could work together for good.

Those things that are for me.

He says he works everything together for good for those that love the Lord,

and are called according to his purposes and will.

Ain't that you?

Ain't that me?

You can handle that.

So we got to stop being scared of the process, scared of the valley moments.

I'm telling you, you're going to know God so well in the valley that you won't even mind the valley.

You ever had a circumstance where you miss a train or something like that,

but because of the company that you're with, you didn't even mind it?

I missed some trains before.

And who you miss with makes the story.

Because I've had situations where I was leaving church, and this is when I used to go to church in Queens,

but I lived in Staten Island, and I don't run a lot, but I would run for the boat that time.

Because if you missed that ferry back in the day, you had to wait a whole other hour.

It was already two in the morning.

I'm like, I'm not trying to wait for three in the morning just to take a 30-minute boat ride

to then catch a bus to then walk home.

So I'm...

And I don't know why.

It scarred me a little bit, but I remember this dude at the ferry.

He watched me run from the stairs, and he stood there closing the door like this.

He's watching me run.

And he's closing, and I'm like, I don't worry, I know he's going to hold it at the end.

So I'm like, I'm not giving up. I want him to see, I'm putting in the effort.

Did you just think of it?

You give me the keys, like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Just going for it.

And I didn't let up, not even until the end.

And he just let that joint close right in my face.

And I'm not going to lie.

I didn't feel very Christian at the moment.

I thought about what would express the love of God with the appendages that I had.

And I didn't adequately come up with one, so I settled on one.

Those moments of waiting by myself were terrible until I got saved.

And then I found out how to wait in those moments with Jesus.

I found out how to go through life with Jesus, and it makes the difference.

It made me better.

So I no longer look for ways to validate somebody.

Now the Lord gives me a true reason to rejoice in every and all circumstances.

He's grown a level of maturity and fruitfulness in me.

Because if you didn't know, the ultimate goal is that God is trying to cultivate Jesus in you.

Now, that's an impossible task in and of yourself.

You cannot grow up to be like Jesus.

Amen.

But look what the Scripture says.

Because here's the thing, fruit is something that's produced, right?

We all agree on that.

The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is love.

But the Bible also says that God is love.

So when the Spirit makes His abode in you, you accept Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior.

The thing that's supposed to be produced in you is love, but love is God.

When the Spirit lives on the inside of you, you're supposed to be developing into Jesus.

Ephesians 4.11 says this.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,

and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,

for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith

and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man.

Who was the perfect man?

To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine

by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ,

from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,

according to the effective working by which every part does it share,

causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

AKA, He's trying to grow Jesus in you.

He's trying to make you produce a fruitfulness that makes you more like Him.

Please stop running from that process.

Be willing to receive the hard times because He's not going to leave you in them by yourself.

We're going to take communion now and it's fitting that we do because what's happening with communion?

The Bible says that we are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes.

What do you mean proclaiming the Lord's death? Well, here's the thing.

When Jesus died on the cross and then resurrected for us,

there was a great many benefits that He afforded to everyone who would believe.

So what I'm asking you to do is take stock of your life.

If there is anything that is not lining up to what He promised in the Scriptures belongs to you,

I need you to proclaim His death.

I need you to shout it from the rooftop, even with your actions.

This is what is owed to me because of what Jesus did.

This is what I believe I can live in and walk in.

If you are sick in your body, you have symptoms of this ease.

Know that it is by His stripes that you were healed.

If you are emotionally bankrupt and hurting and depleting,

know that the joy of the Lord is your strength.

He was abandoned in every way possible at the cross emotionally, physically, spiritually, even financially.

It's not like the movies.

He didn't have little two drops of blood and a little loin cloth.

He was naked.

The Bible says that He became poor that through His poverty you would gain riches.

So examine your life and think about what is not lining up to what Jesus did for you at the cross.

If you are burdened by guilt, shame and condemnation, know that the Bible says that you have been made perfect.

You are the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus.

You have joy that no man can take from you.

You abide in perfect health even as your soul prospers according to the Word.

So proclaim His death today.

Proclaim the maturity that you are growing up into Christ.

If you look at your life and you think,

Ugh, that makes bag of nuts, man.

I don't feel the maturity of the Lord like I want to.

Proclaim the Lord's death.

You can speak yourself into good fruit.

I'm going to share this with you guys.

First service didn't get this.

Part of the maturity that He's calling you to is a life of fruitfulness and answered prayer.

A mark of your life when you enter this zone of fruitfulness,

your life is going to be marked by answered prayer.

That's powerful because you're going to learn how to pray better.

Matter of fact, when you pray,

because right now we have this false assumption that when we pray,

it has to be with a lot of words and different things like that.

God do this.

God do this.

This is laundry list and really that's not how Jesus prayed.

Jesus believed and He said exercise your faith but He said a lot.

He didn't ask a lot.

He said a lot.

Let me just very quickly show you this.

Hold your communion and think about these things so that you can get it all in one.

Matthew 28 says,

Now in the morning as He returned to this city,

He was hungry and seeing a fig tree by the road,

He came to it and found nothing on it believes and said to it,

let no fruit grow on you ever again.

Immediately the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled saying,

how did the fig tree withered away so soon?

So Jesus answered and said to them, assuredly I say to you,

if you have faith and do not doubt,

you will not only do it was done to the fig tree but also if you

say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea,

it will be done and whatever things you ask in prayer,

believing you will.

Why am I bringing this up again?

I'm actually going to close with this.

Part of the fruitfulness of you becoming more and more like Jesus,

one of the hallmarks on his life on earth was answered prayer.

If you're going to be a fruity Christian,

you have to have a prayer life that breathes results.

John 15, 16 says this, you did not choose me but I chose you

and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit

and that your fruit should remain.

That whatever you ask the father in my name,

he may give you.

When you get the fruitingists,

you get whatever you ask for in his name.

Because we have Jesus as an example,

he then just acts for whatever he wanted,

he acts only for what he saw the father doing.

So when you matured to this point

and you stop running,

you're only going to ask God for the things

that you know are a part of God's will.

Eat and drink to your fruitiness.

Father, touch the heart of your people.

That we would not be a people of pain avoidance,

we would be willing and able to enter any

and every circumstance because we know that you are with us.

Make us to grow, make us to be fruitful.

Father, mark our lives with answered prayer.

Father, we ask you in Jesus' name.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message

or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik

in City Light Church,

visit us at citylightnyc.com

that's citylightnyc.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today,

that you have been reminded how much God loves you,

and that you are surrounded by grace.

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