Sermon

A Call to Prayer for Our Nation's Revival

CityLight NYC Church Podcast

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  1. Rare will change America.

  2. I believe with all of my heart,

  3. with all of my heart our greatest days

  4. as a country are up ahead.

  5. God can do it, God will do it.

  6. He's going to show his mercy

  7. for our fevery, for our lying,

  8. for all of the innumerable sins we've done

  9. individually and collectively as a nation.

  10. We deserve the righteousness of God.

  11. But the cross of Jesus is there saying,

  12. I will give you what you don't deserve.

  13. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

  14. Thanks for joining us today

  15. as we look into God's word

  16. and discover the hope and truth

  17. that he has for us.

  18. He's surrounded by his grace

  19. and that he has a real hope

  20. and a future for you.

  21. Thank you, Jesus.

  22. It is good to be back home.

  23. Vacation was wonderful.

  24. Traveling is nice,

  25. but there's no place like home.

  26. One thing that

  27. hold on.

  28. I have the sweat,

  29. the wet wiping cloth

  30. and then the nose blowing,

  31. whatever this is.

  32. Burn that. Usher is burn that.

  33. Please.

  34. Take a torch to it.

  35. Whenever I go

  36. to Montenegro,

  37. the Adriatic is beautiful.

  38. The weather is lovely.

  39. It's awesome.

  40. But you just see that you're

  41. in a spiritual wasteland,

  42. a desert.

  43. There's no spiritual curiosity.

  44. There's no church I can go to,

  45. not where I was.

  46. An entire city of 30,000 people.

  47. Nobody's seeking after God.

  48. And you know when I say nobody,

  49. maybe there's somebody hiding

  50. in a bush under a rock,

  51. online trying to figure it out.

  52. 99% of the population secular humanism

  53. is their God.

  54. Greed is their God.

  55. A lot of that stems

  56. because we were under communism

  57. for so long,

  58. and faith was squashed.

  59. Communism also declares

  60. there'll be no other gods before me.

  61. And it just makes me love

  62. this nation so much more.

  63. I came here in 1981.

  64. I was five years old.

  65. I heard the gospel here.

  66. I got saved here.

  67. America is a place

  68. despite its problems.

  69. It's still a place

  70. where the gospel

  71. has free course.

  72. It's still a place

  73. where hundreds of thousands of people

  74. get saved every year.

  75. Other nations can't say the same thing.

  76. You can focus so much

  77. on the negative,

  78. and there's been

  79. an intentional

  80. attack on all of us

  81. on our psyches

  82. to only look at the negative.

  83. To actually try to get us

  84. to hate our own country.

  85. There's a reason why

  86. still over 50%

  87. of all global immigrants

  88. they want to come here.

  89. Amen. There's a reason.

  90. The upward mobility.

  91. The freedom.

  92. I'm grateful for America.

  93. You know, there've been times

  94. where we just let my mind wander.

  95. Because I don't like

  96. obviously some things that I'm seeing in America.

  97. Can I confess some things to you?

  98. You ever let your mind wander?

  99. See, I am in chains of love to the Lord.

  100. And I can't let my mind wander too much.

  101. I am chained to my calling.

  102. I'm here. I've been here

  103. over 20 years serving the Lord.

  104. It's pastor of city light.

  105. And from everything that I can tell,

  106. I'll be doing that till he raptures me up.

  107. Or I fall asleep.

  108. Paul said that I'm a bond servant of the Lord.

  109. That's a willful servant

  110. in the chain of love.

  111. But I let my mind wander when

  112. they had the whole vaccine passes here

  113. and it was such a darkness over New York City

  114. and a lot of the country had opened up

  115. and you go out in New York City

  116. people still can't look each other in the eyes.

  117. They're all walking around like ninjas

  118. all covered up.

  119. And I thought, you know, I wonder

  120. if I had to go where would I go?

  121. So I started thinking of all the countries.

  122. Where could I escape to?

  123. And then very quickly hit me.

  124. There is no escape here.

  125. Where am I going to go?

  126. America is the last bastion.

  127. If America falls, what will happen to the world?

  128. And a lot of people who have been born in America

  129. or have been too long in America,

  130. they take for granted

  131. what we actually have in America.

  132. They think that

  133. this is the default state of the world

  134. and it's not the default state.

  135. Freedom being able

  136. to have upward mobility

  137. being able to preach the gospel

  138. that is not the default state of the world.

  139. For the majority of the world,

  140. the default state is one level of tyranny or another.

  141. Are you aware of that?

  142. So I'm grateful for America.

  143. Other countries that go through passport control in 20 minutes.

  144. I landed JFK hour and a half line.

  145. I still say,

  146. hallelujah, I love JFK.

  147. I love that woman yelling at me to stay in line.

  148. I love that I'm in this unrenovated part.

  149. Looks like a freak show from the 60s.

  150. But God bless America.

  151. And because of what happened

  152. with the attempted

  153. assassination of former president Trump yesterday,

  154. I just couldn't go on

  155. with business as usual in this service.

  156. As soon as it happened,

  157. I'm like, I can't now just

  158. we're going to do a few songs of worship

  159. and then I preach the word

  160. and then we need to pray for our country.

  161. Understand.

  162. Confirmation and urgency in my spirit and a gravity in my spirit.

  163. Do you remember when we were in 21 days of prayer and fasting

  164. in beginning of 2024?

  165. And I began to say do you think.

  166. I asked you a rhetorical question.

  167. Do you think this whole year,

  168. it's an election year,

  169. do you think it's just

  170. going to go on

  171. without any major event?

  172. It's going to be an individual

  173. And the majority of you, you knew exactly what I was talking about, you said something

  174. is going to happen.

  175. What happened yesterday is no small thing.

  176. My father, who's so, he's so well tempered, he's not extreme in his thinking, he's not

  177. emotional.

  178. And a few months ago, he told me with his face pale, he said, you know, a lot of the reasons

  179. why we left former Yugoslavia, that's, that's the, those same things I'm seeing here right

  180. now.

  181. Some kind of phony, baloney, bogus convictions, you can't even tell me what he was convicted

  182. of.

  183. That was 30 plus, though.

  184. Yeah, what were they?

  185. Well, orange man, bad.

  186. Can you, you know, the talking points are all the same, he's going to be a dictator.

  187. I wish we had a test run where we could try him out to see if he was going to be a dictator.

  188. I wish, I wish we had like, I wish he like, we can look at past history.

  189. There's a lot of, I'll say this would love, but there's a lot of brainwashed muppets

  190. around, especially New York City, muppets, just muppets, tiktok brain, muppets, just doing

  191. whatever the media, your, the enemy of America is the media.

  192. And just, just programmed in their heads, well, I don't like him, okay, tell me specifically

  193. what policy in his four years, did you not like?

  194. Me tweet, hurt my feelings.

  195. You don't even know that the reason you don't like him is because of the media.

  196. I mean, imagine you, you actually had a crush on someone, but every time you looked at

  197. them, someone came in your ear and went, and he was looking at him, yeah, pretty soon

  198. you started to associate that person you had a crush on with this harsh screech.

  199. You know, I kind of, I don't like him anymore, I don't know why.

  200. Well, that's why.

  201. But it's not just what happened, what happened yesterday, it's, it's the where the pivotal,

  202. pivotal time, and I feel that America can go in any direction, and I sense, I sense that

  203. we can experience something of a golden age, that God will come and have mercy on us and

  204. give us another chance and visit us again, hallelujah.

  205. I was in, I said earlier, I was in Montenegro, I was actually in Rome, I remember because I

  206. woke up, I just woke up when the debates began.

  207. There's 3 a.m. debates began here at 9 p.m., and I woke up at 3 a.m. I started watching debates

  208. in my hotel room, and I could only take like 25 minutes, I was like, all right, that's,

  209. that's enough, that's enough for me.

  210. And then when I woke up morning, my time, I was shocked.

  211. I'm looking at my phone and every media outlet, all of a sudden, realized that Biden's

  212. a Satoshi short of a Bitcoin upstairs, that he's, the lights are on, but no one's home.

  213. All of a sudden, they all realized, oh, his cognitive process, he's must, hmm, it looks

  214. like they've slowed down, and we're like, this is what we've been saying.

  215. It's not they just slowed down, they've gotten worse, but four years ago, when Trump was

  216. filling up stadiums, Biden was in his room with little circles drawn around him and 12

  217. other people, barely riding his bicycle eating ice cream.

  218. Jack, it's no joke, Jack.

  219. That didn't actually make me happy, it made me nervous when the media, you got to wonder,

  220. where do they get their orders from?

  221. What do you think of the orders from the, in lockstep, every outlet, celebrities that

  222. adored him, all of a sudden, it was like somebody just hit the button.

  223. And change of plans, this is the way now.

  224. And it is concerning, you can look at him and, you can't look at him and believe that

  225. he's running the country.

  226. But then the question becomes, who is?

  227. Who is?

  228. Who's making the decisions?

  229. And please don't confuse me.

  230. Don't confuse me with the whack-a-do Christian Trump supporters, please.

  231. Some of you, you only know two extremes.

  232. Don't confuse me with, I know who he is, we all know who he is.

  233. I'm not calling him God's prince, I'm not, we all know his character, we all know his

  234. personality, we all, we also know that God can speak through donkeys, amen.

  235. And he did in the Bible.

  236. I'm not voting for Trump because I want him to be my apostle, you're not voting for him

  237. because you want him to be your pastor.

  238. Say I wish we had a better option, go ahead and wish, wish away, I too wish.

  239. But here's where we're at, hallelujah.

  240. So I want us to pray church, we're going to worship, we're going to pray if you're a guest,

  241. it's a bit of a different service.

  242. And so like I have to say, I make no apologies for it, we flow with the Holy Spirit here.

  243. And we need to, as a body, listen, we as a body, we need to pray for our country, prayer

  244. changes everything.

  245. Back when I was in Bible school, old fiery man of God, he said this, he said, every failure

  246. in my life has been a prayer failure.

  247. And I don't want to wake up in 2030, 2035, and it's Mad Max beyond Thunderdome in America.

  248. And I go, Lord, how did you allow this to happen?

  249. And he says, how often did you pray?

  250. I mean, really pray, son, and I go, that's for the others.

  251. That's for the Southern grandmas to do.

  252. They're the ones who pray and hold up the nation, we got to pray.

  253. We're commanding in the Scriptures to pray.

  254. And it says why that the word of God may have free course and be multiplied and that we

  255. would be in live at peace.

  256. So I want us to pray for the strength of America that God would be merciful to the United States.

  257. We need mercy.

  258. You know, King Hezekiah, judgment came upon him and he cried out to the Lord, Lord, give

  259. me 15 more years, please, and God said, 15 more years, He's a merciful God.

  260. And I want us to pray for revival because what we need is a move of God.

  261. Some of you, you've come in and you can just read about revival in books, I've tasted

  262. it, I've seen what the Lord did in the 90s and how He would shake entire regions.

  263. When revival comes, even the stonchist opponents to God, their hearts are warmed, their eyes

  264. are opened, the presence of God is on full display, that God would flex on New York City

  265. on this country that He would raise us up as the city on a hill that our light would

  266. so shine before men that God would get glory in heaven.

  267. Do you believe it can happen?

  268. I believe it can happen, I believe with all my heart, it will happen.

  269. I believe we're closer right now than we were even just a few months ago.

  270. Hallelujah.

  271. Hallelujah.

  272. Hallelujah.

  273. Hallelujah.

  274. Hallelujah.

  275. Let me read this to you, numbers.

  276. Numbers chapter 16 verses 41 through 48.

    Numbers 16:41–48

  277. I shared this one, Pastor James and I did the series in God we trust with a question

  278. mark.

  279. I shared how apolitical I was because I was young and ignorant and I realized, you know,

  280. I'm saying this in New York City, a little different politically here.

  281. You have to ask yourself, why was he so universally hated when he was a media darling for decades?

  282. Then all of a sudden you have this outsider who comes in and he's hated by the left and

  283. the right because he threatens to expose them and shake up the system.

  284. I don't want to see America turn into a banana republic.

  285. I come from a country like that.

  286. The government changed three times in the last two years.

  287. How do you build in a nation like that?

  288. I was on the beach and I said, that restaurant, it was like half built.

  289. I'm like, I asked my friend, why?

  290. Like you guys work around here or what, what was going on here?

  291. Like your country, 95% of your GDP's from tourism and the restaurant hasn't even been

  292. built and it's summertime again, it doesn't look like anything happened.

  293. He said, look, the reason for that is, there's been a governmental change three times in

  294. two years.

  295. Nobody knows what's happening, who's coming or who's going so you can't build, you can

  296. invest and then when you look at what happened with that assassination attempt yesterday,

  297. that was a major, major failure of his security team.

  298. On such a level where you have to swim and wonder, I don't wonder too much, but you at least

  299. should wonder whether it was an inside job or not.

  300. Is that the country you want to live in?

  301. Not me, I have kids, I'm going to have grandkids.

  302. I've passed your church, I want the church to be blessed.

  303. I want couples to be able to get married in their 20s and I'd say, oh, we've got to

  304. wait till our 30s until we're more financially stable.

  305. I want moms to be able to stay home with their kids, should they choose to.

  306. Not this warped economic system that we've fallen into, we're both parents up to work

  307. 50, 60 hours a week just to make ends meet.

  308. Hallelujah, let's read, on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel

  309. complained against Moses and Aaron saying, you have killed the people of the Lord.

  310. They were always complaining.

  311. Now it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron that they turned

  312. toward the tabernacle of meeting and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the

  313. Lord appeared.

  314. Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

  315. get away from this congregation that I may consume them in a moment.

  316. You may wonder why was the judgment of God so swift and so harsh because it says some

  317. Hebrews complained, yeah, those were the same Hebrews that saw the 10 plagues come upon

  318. Egypt.

  319. Those were the same Hebrews that saw the Lord with a mighty and outstretched arm, bring

  320. them out of Egypt and split the red sea open and bring them through unto dry ground.

  321. They witnessed firsthand his glory.

  322. They witnessed his provision in the form of a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of

  323. covering by day so they should have known better, yet give it some time and they start

  324. complaining and the Lord says, this calls for my righteous judgment.

  325. But Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in intercession.

  326. Some Moses said to Aaron, take a censor and put fire in it from the altar, put incense

  327. on it.

  328. What is incense a symbol of throughout the Bible?

  329. Yes, good job, city lights, say louder, prayer and take it quickly to the congregation

  330. and make atonement for them, atonement they're simply means covering.

  331. For wrath has gone out from the Lord, the plague has begun.

  332. Are you seeing the connection here?

  333. Prayer avert's judgment, prayer releases the mercy of God, prayer brings the glory of

  334. God, prayer will change America, yeah, I believe with all of my heart, with all of my heart

  335. greatest days as a country are up ahead.

  336. God can do it, God will do it.

  337. He's going to show his mercy.

  338. What do we deserve for our thievery, for our lying, for all of the innumerable sins we've

  339. done individually and collectively as a nation?

  340. We deserve the righteousness of God.

  341. But the cross of Jesus is there saying, I will give you what you don't deserve.

  342. We were forgiven all of our sins.

  343. We didn't deserve that, but the blood of Jesus grants us that which we do not deserve.

  344. Verse 47, then Aaron took it as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the assembly and

  345. already the plague had begun among the people.

  346. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people.

  347. And he stood between the dead and the living and that's what we're called to do, that's

  348. what we're going to do in this service.

  349. Hey, I want you to plug in with your whole heart.

  350. Oftentimes when it's just like a Sunday service, people get into consumer mode, like they

  351. want to kick up their feet, get a bowl of popcorn and watch Netflix.

  352. And yes, something is required of you and it's worth it.

  353. And this is one of the few opportunities we get where we're all together under one roof.

  354. And in the first service, we saw something shift.

  355. It was glorious.

  356. How many of you, you're still in there?

  357. Wasn't that something?

  358. It was like something just shh.

  359. Hallelujah.

  360. And he stood between the dead and the living.

  361. So the plague was stopped, amen.

  362. Father in the name of Jesus, you're a good, good God, a God who's abundant and mercy and

  363. tender loving kindness.

  364. So we bring up this country, our country, the United States of America.

  365. And we ask for another chance.

  366. Like Hezekiah cried and said, give me 15 more years, we cry on behalf of the nation.

  367. Give us more years.

  368. Let there be a turnaround and a change, a turnaround like there was in Samaria.

  369. Where the God of the turnaround shows up, that we do a complete 180, that there will be

  370. a holy and reverential fear of the Lord, that hearts would be turned back to you, O God.

  371. Lord that righteousness and holiness would reign in the land, that we would be a shining

  372. example of myriads of countries coming together and us fearing the Lord and loving one another.

  373. Father that the gospel would go forth, that you disrupt every system.

  374. Every system that's found its way throughout this country that is an offence to you, that

  375. you would disrupt it and raise it to the ground.

  376. Father that if you should carry in sending Jesus, that America be set up for centuries

  377. to come as a global lighthouse for the glory of God, in Jesus' name.

  378. Amen.

  379. This is the City Light Church podcast.

  380. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about

  381. Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com, that's citylightnyc.com.

  382. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

  383. We would love to connect with you.

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

  385. loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

  386. Thank you for listening.

  387. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite

  388. podcasts worldwide.