Journey to Mature Faith: Trust, Guidance, and Spiritual Growth

Because when it's time to pray, I could see, I know it.

You're condemned. That's why you don't have a prayer life.

You're condemned.

Even though under this new covenant there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

That means not now nor can there ever be.

It's impossible for you to be condemned when all of your sins were condemned in his body on the cross.

Welcome to the CityLight 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 CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com,

that 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 want to read something to you from Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1.

Hebrews 6:1

Thank you, Lord.

Just taking my time here.

What a song.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

The writer of Hebrews says, therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ

and go on to maturity.

That's one of the things we're after as a church.

One of the things any healthy church is going to be going for is maturity in its believers

that they're no longer children.

Go so far as to say, not being children and tossed around like a little ship by every wind of doctrine,

but having grown up into the fullness and to the stature of Christ, having maturity, a strength in you,

we're now even able to teach others.

And so I want to just share with you seven characteristics of a mature believer.

Amen.

None of these things you should read and go, I got that.

That's me.

Oh, I got four out of seven, not bad.

These are all things that we're trusting the Lord to work out in us.

And this is the wonderful thing about grace.

It is up to us to participate, but you always keep your eyes on Him knowing that He even gives you the grace to participate with Him.

And then whenever you feel any kind of pressure, put the pressure back on God, He can handle it.

And the Lord will work these things out in you.

The Lord will do it.

Number one, seven characteristics of a mature believer.

It's found in Proverbs chapter three, verses five through six, and that's your trust in the Lord.

When you're a mature believer, you just have an unwavering trust in God.

You trust Him that He is who He says He is, that He's got your best interests in His heart, and that He's going to work it out in your life. Amen.

When I first was being minister to you to become a Christian, they kept telling me to trust God.

Well, trust trust Him, trust God.

And they were right, except I couldn't trust Him.

I hardly knew Him yet.

I didn't have any of His word in me, and I didn't experience much of Him.

So it was a big ask, wouldn't you agree, of a new believer?

And I know we ask that at church all the time.

Somebody's six months in the Lord, there's just everything's just starting to make sense to them, and you slap them on the back and say,

trust the Lord, won't you?

They're like, I've been living with an anxiety for 30 years of my life.

Everyone ever trusted, did me dirty, and now you're asking me to trust in the Lord who I barely even know.

But as you mature, is this just me or not? I didn't feel much of an amen there.

This is what I think when I see it happen, even if I've done it.

I just told them to trust the Lord. I wonder how deep that's going to go.

Because you have to have some experience with God to realize that He is trustworthy.

I mean, you can always have a mental ascent, but when it drops down those precious 18 inches from your head down into your spirit,

and now you know that comes through some experience. Amen.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,

in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

So something I often do with Emily is we reminisce about God, holy reminisce things.

And I particularly like to go back to the dark points.

The points where I was experiencing a crisis. Now let me just say I've had moments like that.

Those are just pictures. That's not the movie of my life. The movie of my life is one of God giving me victory and giving me peace. Amen.

So many people like to turn a picture into a movie.

And then you get a distorted view of God in Christianity where everything is morose and depressing.

And you know, you might meet somebody and they're like, will you talk on prosperity?

But look at the Apostle Paul's life. He was shipwrecked. He didn't have food. He said he was forced into fasting.

Those are photos like that happened, but that's not the movie. Amen. The movie is one of him moving in the grace of God with the power of God,

spreading the gospel to the four corners of the then known world. Amen.

So I've had pictures where I experienced a crisis of faith. Something just came out of left field that hit my life.

And it hit my life hard. I'm not talking about like a little speed bump.

I mean, T-bone collision, just my car spinning around. That kind of a crash where my faith is shaken.

And all I did during those times, thank God, was hang on.

And just not let go of Jesus and not let him let go of me. I can't even say that I responded in the best ways.

I would love to say that something terrible happened and immediately every single time I threw my hands into the air and said, oh God, you are worthy, you are great.

The Lord give us, the Lord take us away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

I didn't, but I hung on to him and I just spent that time. And now as the years have gone by and I can look back to those photos of crises moments, I can honestly,

and I believe you can too, from my heart say, the Lord redeemed every single one of those things. Every single one of those things. I'm better off now than I was before. Amen.

I can trust him. And so trust it's a necessary ingredient if we're going to be mature believers. And this is where we're heading to.

This is seven characteristics of the mature slash matureing believer.

Number one, trust. Do you trust him? Do you?

That is going to see you through. That is going to see your kids through. That is not going to forsake the work of his own hands. That he promised to be good to you.

Hallelujah. You can trust him.

Number two, found in Romans 814. Number two is seeking his will. This is a sign, an important sign of a matureing believer. You actually seek the will of God.

You're not doing whatever's right in your own eyes. That phrase doing whatever's right in your own eyes. That's the phrase multiple times used in the Old Testament to describe Israel in a state of rebellion.

They're doing whatever they want to do. Whatever they feel like doing. Well, your life is not your own. It's been bought with the precious blood of Jesus. And thankfully now you belong to another.

So seeking his will and being led by the Holy Spirit. So what separates a mature believer from an immature believer is an immature believer will just go about life as though they have no accountability.

As though they don't have a God who's in their corner who wants them to succeed, who actually will whisper advice to them in their spirit, who will lead them a guide them. They claim they have a shepherd, but they act like they're shepherd lists.

Until they go their own route long enough and they fall down and then they go, oh Lord, my shepherd.

Some get up and go, Lord, why did you allow this to happen? I didn't allow it to happen. You made it happen.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. These are the children of God, those that are led by the Spirit of God. Amen.

Let's look at a companion scripture in James chapter 413 through 16. Come now. I wonder how he would say that differently today. Come now. Go on now.

You who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city. Spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. You look at that. You're like, what's wrong with that?

Sounds good, especially to New York Christian. You move where you shaker, you...

The problem here isn't that they want to make money. He never rebukes them for that. Sounds like they're really fulfilling a lot of biblical mandates of not burying their talents, being industrious.

But there's a problem. They never involve God. They didn't go to him. The Bible talks about a young king, King Uzziah. He was 16 years old when he became king.

And it says, Uzziah set his face to seek the Lord, to inquire over the Lord, to just take every decision he was going to make and submit it to the Lord in prayer.

And the Bible says that King Uzziah sought the Lord and God made him to prosper. And as long as he sought the Lord, inquired of him, God made him to prosper.

And he prospered so much, and this story actually doesn't end well, but then he prospered so much he stopped seeking the Lord.

And then his kingdom was wrecked, and the prosperity he had gained.

Verse 14. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Instead to these wheelers and dealers and businessmen, he says instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.

Now, Christians being Christians because we're prone to religiosity, we took this very important biblical truth and we just made a sentence out of it and tacked it on the back of whatever we say.

Not so much here, but anybody raised in a Spanish Pentecostal church.

Did they not tack this because we had this in the first service? He was raised in that church and just laughing his head off in the front.

And I remember, yeah, that was all my Spanish Pentecostal friends. Did you want to meet for lunch? Yeah, Lord willing.

Hey, want to catch your movie? Sure, Lord willing. And you just tack it on the back of every sentence. That's not what that means.

He's saying when you inquire of the Lord, you want to move cities, you want to switch careers, any decision that can alter the path of your life like going into another town, buying, selling, trading, bring that before the Lord.

You're seeking him. You're in quiet. This is the sign of a mature believer.

Because if you don't do that, what you're saying in essence is, I got it down on my own. I don't need you God. I've had that attitude before.

And I've always ended up flat on my face. Not in a good worship way. Just hurt. Just flat. I'm a nose. Let's keep reading.

Instead you ought to say, Lord, if the Lord wills, I'm taking my life plans and my decisions. I don't go left or right without the Lord leading me.

But now you boast in your arrogance. So if you're not inviting the Lord into your plans, you're actually arrogant and you're boasting and you're behaving as though he's not the Lord of your life.

All such boasting is evil. Hallelujah.

So number one, trust in the Lord.

As you spend time with him, as you walk life with him, he will show himself to be trustworthy to you and you can trust him with your whole life.

You can trust him with your family. Trust him to see you through.

I mean, eventually you're trusting him to save your soul in that day and you'll appear before him and spend eternity with him.

Number two, as a sign of a mature believer, is you submit your will to the Lord. You submit your plans before him.

You want to be spirit-led, not led by yourself.

Number three, you're skillful. A mature believer is skillful in the word.

Hebrews chapter 5 verses 12 through 14.

Hebrews 5:12–14

You know, one of the biggest things that's plaguing American Christianity today is Biblical illiteracy.

A friend whose ministers and is actively involved in a large charismatic Bible school, she said, and I knew it would be true, but she said so many of our students and even the graduates, they don't have a foundational knowledge of the Bible.

What they can quote is sentences from their favorite preachers, so you've memorized what men of God have said about God, but the actual word of God hasn't gotten into you, because you're not taking the time, because we're running around with attention deficit disorder now.

I've been on a social media kick lately, but when your brain is fried, from watching 612 second videos, and then you open up the word of God.

Even if it's on your phone, it requires, it gets lonely, doesn't it? It requires some solitude, all of a sudden it's pretty raw.

There's no bursting colors, nobody making you laugh every three seconds, you're not waiting for some punchline, you're allowing the word of God to wash over you.

That's what pays big dividends. The word of God will never come back to you void.

Every time you get the word of God and it's like you're taking God's holy seed and putting it into the soil of your heart, and it will yield fruit.

This is what will keep you strong. This is what will keep you from getting deceived.

When talking about the end times, Jesus, in one passage four times, he starts by saying, take heed that no man deceive you, and he mentions getting deceived four times.

The antidote to deception is truth. By the way, let the Bible define the Bible. The Psalmist said, Lord, your word is truth.

The antidote to deception is the word of God. The Psalmist also said, Lord, your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

You want to break free from addiction, break free from struggles, experience the beauty of holiness. His word hid in your heart will get the job done. His word works.

As you know that, like actually it works. I don't mean his word works. His word works. That word works in the Greek is energy. It energizes. It's dynamic.

It gets the job done. You can ingest his word on a Monday morning, and that thing will be working in you all week. Hopefully it's not just on the Monday morning. There's some coming in on Tuesday and Wednesday too, but it's working in you.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, he's writing the church, and that's my heart that every single person gets to a place where they're teaching others, that you come to a place where you realize that I have enough word in me now.

This doesn't take long, by the way. This doesn't take 10 years, because there's people that you're surrounded with right now. They would love just to be near you, and you have something that they don't have, and you have more word of God in you that they could every imagine.

The young lady that led me to Jesus was saved for 24 hours, and she brought me to her group, her youth group. Everybody there was saved two years and under. They're the ones who led me to the Lord.

For by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. He's rebuking them.

Because they're not ready for me. They've just been sipping on milk, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. For he is a babe. Hey, how long do you want to be a babe for?

You're always going to be a babe. How long do you want to be a spiritual babe?

I read that when I was a teenager, I thought, I don't want to be a spiritual babe. I want to be strong in the word.

When evil doctrine comes in my way, I want to be able to blow it away. You're not getting in the way of my salvation. You're not taking me down some other path.

And it begins with you daily in the word. I don't want a religious church. I don't want a religious church, so I'm not giving you some systems and some formulas.

How to do it? Figure out between you and the Lord what works for you, but get in the word every day.

The only time I tell new people that just come to city light, that have no Bible background, I say, hey, start in the gospel of Mark.

You know why I tell them that? Because Mark is the power gospel. Very few parables, lots of miracles, lots of exciting things, and it's only 16 chapters, and Mark is actually the first gospel that missionaries translate when they go overseas because it's known as the power gospel.

And it's only 16 chapters, so I tell them if you read two chapters a day, you'll be done in eight days.

And with you are done in eight days, you have now ingested one of the four gospels, which unfortunately puts you in the top 5% in America when it comes to actual biblical literacy.

Where did I get that stat? Like every stat, I made it up. But you know, but you know what I mean. Seems right? Top 5%.

It'll put you up there. Most people have already been the gospel of Mark in the country, you know?

And I tell them that so they have a good place to start, because when people get saved, they either want to start in the book of Genesis, but 9 out of 10 times they want to start in the book of Revelation, and get to all the crazy, even I was just reading the word, we're reading the gospel of John, my son and I, just this week, and remember you asked me, so dead, when's the end of the world? Everybody wants to know.

And I gave him a very wise answer. I said, son, no man knows that they're the out.

My point is this skip, hang on to Revelation. It's the last book for a reason.

Get in the word that pertains to you right now. Oh, another big thing is actually pick a book and read it.

Like there is so much, I don't know where it comes from, but just like, like I'm going to do a little Isaiah today. Tomorrow I'll do, I'll do that mark you mentioned.

Then the next day, a little Jeremiah, then of course I'm feeling down by Thursday, so I got to get in the Psalms, because Psalms always when I'm feeling down, they're just so emotional in nature, they make me feel good.

And I'll hit one of the epistles and that's how most of us read it. I encourage you read the whole book.

There's actually a theme to an entire book. Otherwise, you're, like I understand a bowl of mixed nuts is delicious at a party, but you don't want to be a bowl of mixed nuts Christian.

Because I've seen if you spend years like that, you don't get the concepts thematically and it never really go. You just everything is like a popery basket of various scripture flowers.

Say this, I'll be strong in the word.

Skillful in the word of righteousness. Hallelujah. Number four, a sign of a mature believer is they have a prayer life.

They have a prayer life. Now, when I first got saved, one of the most popular books was, if the title was, could you not carry with me one hour?

Do you know it? But the title alone, right? The title alone immediately condemns you and makes you feel like, I mean, my first thought is I'm not praying enough, and if you read the book, they'll tell you exactly that. No, you're not, sir.

No, you are not. Because the title comes from what Jesus told his disciples, you know, when he was in the garden of Getsemini, and he asked them to keep watch with him and they fell asleep.

And this is, could you not even, Terry, pray with me, wait with me for one hour? And so the whole premises, you need to be praying at least one hour a day.

That's a noble goal, but I mean, what happens when you do it Monday, you do it Tuesday, you do it Wednesday, then you don't do it on Thursday.

You only do a measly 20 minutes. And Thursday, you're like, well, I owe God 40 minutes. So now you, there's all these religious trappings that all they're going to end up doing is making you condemned.

Another teaching that was very popular when I first got saved was, how do you approach God? It can be as simple as saying father in the name of Jesus. No, no, no, no.

So they would take you back to the Old Testament and how you got to enter his courts with praise, and they would take you from the outer courts to the inner courts, and then eventually you get into the holy place, and the whole process was like an hour and a half.

Who's got time for that? I mean, I do because it's my job, but I'm talking about you. I have time for that. But you've got a whole life to live raising kids going to work, fighting the subways.

So I have never, ever, I've never, ever given formulas out, but this is what I encourage you to do every single day. Talk to God like he's your best friend.

Open up your heart to him. Ask him for the things that you need.

I've had some people say, does it ever bother God that I ask him for so much? Oh, he loves that because he's showing, you're showing your dependency for him to him.

It doesn't get tired of you asking just like, I don't get tired of my kids asking me. And talk to him until he warms your heart.

Say, what does that mean? Exactly what I said. How do you describe it to someone? Talk to him until you sense his life has come into you, until he's warmed your heart and you've connected with God, and just stay there for a little bit.

And then you can repeat that again throughout the day, or you can do it the next day, but have an intimacy with the Lord.

A real friendship. That's what he wants to build with you. That's what this whole thing is about. Why Jesus came to die in the cross, to forgive us all of our sins, so that intimacy that we had back when Adam would just walk through the cool of the garden, with God himself talking to him.

Although he were a friend, that's been restored through the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. You know, it's possible to come to church every Sunday and not have a prayer life. I'm fascinated by that.

There's people here right now. I want to say I'm fascinated, but I'm not looking down on you. I just am fascinated by how the enemy has deceived you.

Because when it's time to pray, I could see, I know it. You're condemned. That's why you don't have a prayer life. You're condemned.

So, under this new covenant, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That means not now, nor can there ever be. It's impossible for you to be condemned when all of your sins were condemned in his body on the cross.

You've got to buzz the fly swirling around your head, condemning you. You feel condemned. You feel bad about yourself. You're not doing enough. You messed up over here. You messed up over there. You come to church to get some relief.

But the answer is going to be in your communion with God. You say, I just don't feel like I do it right. It's supposed to be clumsy. It always is clumsy. You're chuckling. You know what I'm talking about? Lean into that clumsiness.

Lean into that, yeah. People who don't feel a little awkward and prayer terrify me. It's always different. You're approaching the Lord God Almighty.

And he's a lion. At the same time, he calls you a friend. And you know you have the right to approach him. But it's different each time. That's why the Bible says in the Old Testament, keep your foot when you enter into the house of the Lord.

Keep your foot. That just means take care yourself. Watch yourself. And there's an awkwardness there, but you need not feel condemned. Hallelujah.

Number five, Roman six, one through two. Number five is in a maturing believer, there is an outworking of grace. You know what that means? There's holiness in your life.

Hallelujah. Thank you. Thank you pastor for talking about holiness. There's an outworking of grace. That means that your life is different.

Listen, the greatest proof to an unbeliever for the existence of God is a transformed life. That's why I led so many people to the Lord when I got saved, because I was nasty before I got saved. Every other word was a curse word.

And I got saved and the Lord took that away. Just my friends noticed and they were intrigued because they knew that I could not do such a thing by my sheer willpower.

There's got to be an outworking of grace. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? I'll sum that up.

Grace calls you righteous. Grace says you have right standing with God. Grace says you're the apple of God's eye and he finds no fault in you. Are you catching this? If you're a Christian and you're in Christ, there is no sin on your account.

You're forgiven. If you're a Christian and you fall, you don't fall and now need to get born again again. You're still the righteousness of God in Christ. You're still holy and without blame before Him in love. None of that changes. It's important to know and to remind yourself daily.

And as you receive that truth and welcome God's finished work into your life, that's the grace of God. There will be an outworking of grace where now your values, the way you plot your life, the way you live your life is more Christ-like, which will stand in sharp opposition to the world. Amen.

And that's the sign of a maturing believer. You know what? I found mature believers experienced less pain and heartaches. I just think of that one as what I'm preaching because the Bible says the way of a transgressor is hard and full of sorrows.

Hallelujah. Number six, found in Romans 12, 4 through 5, community and fellowship. Aside of a mature believers, they welcome being in community and welcome being in fellowship. They don't shy away from accountability, church life.

They're not alone, range your Christians. It's always funny saying this because I say it to the ones who are here. So you're not that for the most part, I guess. I mean, yeah, you're not. Maybe one or two slipped in, I don't know. Maybe they're just visiting this Sunday and we're the fourth church. They're visiting this month and they'll continue. They're on assignment.

See some of you don't even know. There's some Christians that are always on assignment. That's code for a hop around. I don't even know where I live. I just hop around from place to place because I'm like God's holy commando. I'm on assignment.

It just means that when I need a government ID and they ask me for utility bill, I can't provide one. Because I'm so unstable.

Hallelujah. No lone Ranger Christians. No lone wolf Christians.

Because you were designed to be in community. It's just how God made it. And listen to this verse from Jesus. He said, given it shall be given unto you. Good measure, press down, shaking together.

Will I sovereignly give you from heaven? Is that what he said? No. He said, good measure, press down, shaking together. Will men pour into your bosom? Men. For those of you just got triggered because you're ultra woke.

Where Jesus meant was human, not just men, human, but see sometimes the Bible because it was written in this patriarchical society. He uses the masculine, but he meant human.

In other words, God's delivery system for blessings into your life is people. And if you've cut yourself off from people, you're thwarting his delivery system. Yeah.

When I think back to all of the wonderful things that have come my way, I mean, I can't off the top of my head think of something that came sovereignly like as a hand from heaven from God.

It always came through a courier service called a person. Hallelujah. One of the greatest delights is God using you to be the courier. Hallelujah.

Hey, I don't mind that kid crying at all. I want you from my heart. No, really, I'd rather have that than this silence any day.

Dude, toss him, tickle him, bring him up to the front. I'm thinking that is my biggest amenor right now.

But it's all good. Hallelujah. All right, worship team. Once you come on up.

I want to let the Lord just minister to you and bring this word home to you. Thank you, Lord. There was a time in college where I, I don't know what I went through.

You know, we all go through goofy seasons. You know, sometimes you can amen too hard. That didn't feel right. I got to tell you my feelings are a little hurt, a little hurt there.

No, but in college, you know, I had a lot of Christian friends, but I was the only one going to full-time ministry. So I told myself it's a little hard to relate because I'm so special you see.

I'm just different. I mean, the regular Christians, I'm called into the fivefold. You know, and the devil is so quick to help you get these vain imaginings going.

Because then immediately, you know, you start pitching yourself like, yeah, that's right. I'm like in Elijah. I'm like, I'm just, it's just like, and you know, you, you romanticize it. God, it's just you and me.

And that lasted for a couple of months until I ended up on the floor. Again, not in a good, worshipful position, but just God, why did you allow this to happen? I didn't allow anything to happen.

You pulled yourself out of community. You pulled yourself out of the body of Christ thinking that that was going to be wholly healthy when everything in the scriptures commands you to be intertwined with other believers.

The wine is in the cluster. Amen. Hallelujah. And number seven is a mature Christian is open to the supernatural.

You're open. You long for the supernatural. You welcome the supernatural. Here the Apostle Paul is just encouraging all of the Corinthians to pursue love and desire what the supernatural desire spiritual gifts that you would be open to it.

I put that on that list because there are Christians. The moment you mention anything supernatural, they freeze up. They immediately recoil. They prefer a logical frontal lobe in Christianity. The only problem is that Christianity is in biblical Christianity and it doesn't get the job done.

We need an invasion of God supernatural power. I know what my family. I know there is a protective barrier over our home. I want you to know that too and welcome that and should something for some reason cross that barrier. We stand our ground and I believe that we're to live in divine health and we're to live in divine prosperity and God, the maker of heaven and earth, his powers behind that.

And we welcome the supernatural power of God. Amen. Hallelujah. Father, I thank you that we're all on a journey here where in different places and at different levels.

But you have told us to leave the elementary things behind and go on to maturity. God, I thank you for a church where people's roots run deep where they're pillars, they're mature, they're able to teach others. Thank you, Lord, as life groups begin in the fall that they will be our best life groups ever.

More people will be discipled, the gospel will be multiplied and your kingdom will be expanded. Thank you in Jesus' name.

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.