Navigating Faith and Freedom: From Biblical Truths to Modern Challenges

Nobody here can be more loving than Jesus.

Jesus is the express image the Bible says of the invisible God and God is love.

But in love you must warn people.

In love there is a call to repentance and a turning away from sin.

In love there is the new birth experience.

In love there is the blood of Jesus Christ which will cleanse you and the power of the Holy Spirit

which will from the inside out transform you.

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.

Well how many of you are ready for part two of our series?

We began a series last week past James preached in God we trust but with a question mark.

So my inflection was a bit off. In God we trust.

And this is all in preparation for the book that we're going to be doing together in our summer

life groups. We have regular life groups all throughout the year where the different groups

all read a different book but in summer we all read the same book we get on one page and I really

take time to ask the Lord because we're all going to be reading the same book and it's important.

What we should be doing this year and I was seeking the Lord very clearly, very strongly.

I sensed this book by Eric Metaxis letter to the American Church and it's a different kind of

book than we're used to reading in groups and so I felt it would be wise that if we just did a

two-part series and hopefully gave you some insight on why I would choose a book like that and why

I believe the Lord wants to communicate some truths to you through that book and get us all

on the same page. Amen. Are you ready for the word this morning? By the way life groups begin June

the 24th but signups begin today so sign up they're only six weeks long in the summer.

They're six weeks long and each group meets for total of 75 minutes and I've seen just such a

distinct difference over the years in the believers who are plugged into life groups and those who

aren't. The ones who are plugged into life groups there's just an acceleration in their spiritual

development and growth there just is because you bring something others bring something

and you're rubbing off on each other and there's this cross-pollination taking place

of the anointing and of the wisdom of God and it's just conducive to spiritual growth.

Let's begin in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 4.

1 Timothy 2:1–4

1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. Therefore the Apostle Paul writing to pass

1 Timothy 2:1–4

your Timothy teaching Timothy how we should pray. Therefore I exhort first of all first of all

that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men

for kings and all who are in authority why why pray for kings and presidents and governors and

mayors and all those who are in authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life

in all godliness and reverence. Now verse 3 it seems disconnected from this thought but it's not

it's completely connected to what the Apostle Paul is saying here for this is good and acceptable

in the sight of God our Savior why why is that good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior

because God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth listen to this

Paul is teaching young past your Timothy that first of all that means before you get to your own

grocery list of prayers keep your country in mind keep political leaders in mind and pray for them

and and have something vested in that why well so that you could live a peaceable life

and so that the gospel can go forth in verse 3 says when you're doing this kind of praying not only

will you have a peaceable life but then it'll clear the air so that there are laws and rules

and restrictions and regulations that would come in and thwart the furtherance of the gospel

amen let's look at that other verse two verses and Thessalonians second Thessalonians

chapter three verses one through two oh man some of us who were born in this country I say this

would love them at heart but you're spoiled a little bit you don't know what you got

and I don't want to sing that old Cinderella song but you don't know what you got till it's

gone passage aims after service at lunch with the pastor can you break that out

finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord everyone over 50 laughing really allowed

oh yes Cinderella finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly

and be glorified in the King James it says that the word of God may have free course just as it is

with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith

so in another place the Apostle Paul is saying pray for us pray for what see the enemy is always

against the word of God the word of God is a seed the word of God is power the enemy wants to thwart

and stop the word of God because the word of God never returns to the Lord void but it accomplishes

what he sends it out to do and so Satan hates the word of God and Satan's always trying to stop

the word of God you look at the book of Acts specifically they kept coming at the apostles

forbidding them to preach and teach in the name of Jesus Christ the enemy always wants to stop

the proliferation of the gospel and many times he will come and he will do that through politicians

through government through laws some of you don't even know what I'm talking about but I had the

benefit of being born well benefit at least the experience of being born outside of America

yes scratch benefit I had the experience I had the experience of being born in the social federal

republic of Yugoslavia excuse me the socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia and it was a communist

socialist nation and I know this that I never heard the gospel there none of my cousins heard the

gospel there none of my family members heard the gospel there there was no gospel there why because

churches were just suppressed and really church although the churches were allowed to exist most

people didn't even go to church once a year many of my family members have never been to church

in their lives church was seen as a place for very old widows to attend you'd see like six women

coming to church all dressed in black lighting candles and crying on and that was what wasn't even

attractive it's like what am I gonna get out of there I'm not even gonna go to that and communism

socialism became the unofficial state religion and that's also why I love America I feel like the

beginning seemed to the godfather you know the first scene and he goes I believe in America

the guy approaching Don Carlyone as he stroking the cat I believe in America I believe in America

I love the America I love the America because in America I heard the gospel yeah yeah I remember as a

kid when I came to America the first thing I noticed was there was a lot of talk about God I didn't

understand it but I was immediately greeted in New York City with subway preachers and people

on corners remember in the 80s NYC was a battlefield I mean you can see a mugging on this side of

the street and someone in the corner shouting about Jesus and handing out tracks and even though I

didn't get saved till I was 16 I saw that there was something different here there was a freedom

and a liberty and the word of God had a free course in my home nation it did not when I was 11 we

were on Wall Street not because my parents worked on Wall Street because we were still kind of

tourists at heart we were still settling in we were living in four stills queens and then on a

Saturday for fun let's go look at Manhattan wow and we go down to Wall Street check out the

bull and I was bored I remember I was leaning on a phone booth see some of you are so young you

don't know why I was bored because I didn't have a device to zone me out if I was an 11-year-old

kid who just wasn't you know I saw it already I was just as my parents were looking at

something I was just leaning in a phone booth and also kids there used to be these things called

phone booths you know two things you need to know it's not everybody had a phone in their pocket

so you'd actually put money in and make a call I was leaning in the phone booth they were a dime

all right it was ten cents back then and I'm leaning in the phone booth

and I noticed like a piece of paper crumbled up in the slot where your change is supposed to come

out of and I pulled out that piece of paper and it was a track someone handed it to someone

that person and wanted crumbled it up and put it in the phone and I opened it up and you know

those tracks they really Christians are so bad at marketing you know and so bad

notoriously bad a graphic design and all I mean it was like two-point fonts you needed a magnifying

glass to read it so I was immediately intimidated by that but then I turned to see the cover

and it was a man surrounded in flames like falling into the pits of hell all right not exactly a

message artistically speaking of mercy and love and grace but when I saw that at 11 years old

something hit my spirit my spirit recognized there was something there's something true here

and there was something deeply important and significant boy on because you know I didn't call

myself both back then so boy on that you don't know I was aware that there was something and a seed

was planted there and then when I was sixteen I heard the gospel and I responded and I got saved

hallelujah and for a lot of Americans especially those who don't travel outside of America you don't

know how wonderful of a country this is and you think that what we have here the freedom and the

liberty is like the default state of the world and it's not this is not the norm this is the exception

the majority this is statistically accurate the majority of the world lives under some kind of

oppression and guess what the freedom and the liberty that we enjoy and I'm telling you we

enjoy it see there is this attack on America you can point to anything and look at all the

negatives look at the dark spots you can there's this attack on America which is very dangerous

which is causing Americans to not prize where they live but go and do a little bit of traveling and

I'm not talking about go to see Paris and go to London and although even I have friends and friends

that are saying now upward mobility is absolutely dead in France you just can't out if you're born

in a certain place that's just where you're going to stay you can't break out where in America you

still can that is not the default state of the world we really enjoy it I remember back in former

Yugoslavia because then we had in 90s we had a bloody civil war and it split up into a bunch of

different nations Slovenia Macedonia Croatia Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina probably missed one or

two there when a little nation gets chopped up into eight different nations remember what a

dearth of the word of God there was and I remember going back every summer I spent my summers the

whole summer there so I had this experience even though I spent the bulk of my time in America and

I went to school in America my culture at home was Yugoslavia and I would spend my whole summers

in Yugoslavia and so I felt like I had my foot in each country as a child growing up and I was

able to see one way and another way and I was able to see the difference in former Yugoslavia we had

a dictator president for four decades he killed 500,000 people his own countrymen to maintain power

that's what he and his regime did what's interesting though is I was living in Yugoslavia when he

died and I remember the whole country crying and mourning for three days that's a distinct memory

that I have why why would they weep and cry well that's what mass formation psychosis does

in private my grandparents my parents would speak against the regime very very quietly your neighbor

couldn't even hear because there was this car called the black Maria sitting on marica I don't know

why I was called black Maria but it was a black Maria and it was show up and if you saw that car

someone was not coming back again that car would come at four or five a.m. they would knock on the

doors they'll pull you away put you in the car and you were gone never to be heard from again

somebody ratted on you because you spoke against the regime but when he died everybody wept

because over time we as humans if we're not careful we're so easily programmed and we're so easily

deceived like for example you know how in America we can take pictures of our politicians and catch

them in awkward and goofy moments with them making a weird face you see you don't even notice you see

that all the time growing up with president Hito every store had his photo and as always him as a

general and just totally mint uniform with his hat on perfectly he looked like somebody who would

aspire to be in here not even be like you couldn't even do that but be in here and people's minds

were changed oh lord

hallelujah anyway I came to America and as I'm growing up I asked my dad it was because

they were watching on tv Reagan against Mondale and I said hey Dad so like who are we rooting for

who's gonna win and my dad said stay away from this it's all nothing but lies and nothing but

by propaganda. Politics is dirty. And that was just my dad's stance. So I adopted that

stance. And then when I got saved at 16, I just stayed away from politics and buried

myself in the Word. And I actually thought that I was being noble, that it was the right,

right posture to have. I was so obsessed with the Lord, let me not even know, I mean,

I was a complete ignoramus. Let me not even know what's happening in a major arena of life,

as though the gospel doesn't touch every point and every arena of our life. So I, with this

false sense of nobility, I pulled away for years and years and years, even as a Christian,

even as a pastor, all up until around the last few years. Because in the last few years,

in the last seven, eight, 10 years, there are two events that happened for all of us to

see, which should have, I say this would love. But if you have more than a room temperature

like you, it should have woken you up. And when you get woken up, it is a lot like coming

out of the matrix. You come up, and you realize, I've been lied to my whole life. Some of

you can sense that that there is this veneer that's being presented to us. And there

is all sorts of ugly happening underneath the surface. And too often a lie is being presented

to us as the truth. One of the things that should have woken every person up was 2015 when

Trump began to run for president. That should have been a wake up call. Why? Because Trump,

prior to 2015, I like when I say the T word, the whole place immediately, you see what they've

done to us. Just the name Trump, spoken in New York City, where he's from, right? He's

like, everybody's like, Oh, God, where's he going to go with this? What is he going to say?

I really liked him. I've been coming for four weeks. I liked him, but now he said Trump,

and he didn't immediately bash him. And I don't know how I feel about that. Where's he going

to go? Just listen, just hang on for the ride. Just listen. 2013, 2014, I'm completely just unaware

of anything that's happening. And when he announced, he was going to run. Remember when he came down

the golden escalator? You know where I was? I was in Montenegro taking over for Pastor Yovitsa while

he was on sabbatical and pastoring his church. And I saw and I literally laughed. I laughed out

loud because I thought it was some publicity stunt. But just remember that before 2015,

everybody in Hollywood loved Trump. The media loved Trump. He was the media darling.

You know who else loved Trump? Rappers loved Trump. I did. I'm in the Trump international. Ask for me.

Had to, Pastor Moe. Had to just slip it in there. It was in a bunch of other rap songs. He was

just a darling. Nobody. And if you had anything against him, it was just because he was, you know,

the rich, Cherigan, Goofy guy. But then in 2015, now I'm a complete political ignoramus,

but I'm looking and I'm noticing that immediately there was this coordinated effort

with every major institution that previously loved him, immediately coming against him. All of

Hollywood immediately comes against him. All of academia immediately comes against him and all

of government. Listen now. Both Republican and Democrat immediately coming. It's like overnight

everybody hates him. And I'm scratching my head going, why? So he then gets elected and everything

I just said is true. But now once he gets elected, it's all taken up to the end's degree.

And there's this coordinated effort. And he just, he can do no, he can do no right. And it doesn't

help that, you know, he has some foot and mouth disease thing going there. So he would word some

things so clumsily and it wasn't hard to spin things that he said. Until later, as I'm just

observing, and if you were part of City Light Church, you know, I never said anything. I was

just observing and learning. I mean, honestly, what I should have been doing in my late teens and

early 20s, now I'm doing in my late 30s because I just stayed away from that. And I'm observing

and I'm piecing it together. I'm going, here is this guy who's a political outsider. He's not a

part of the regime. He's not a part of the system. And he's threatening to come in and uncover

things and shake things up. And now everybody hates him. Pay attention to who the enemies of God

don't like. Also, by the way, just pay attention to that. How many of you know Hollywood is not a

friend of God? It's just not. And when I say that, I don't say that, you know, because some Christians

when they talk about Trump, they get, it's like their faces light up. Ah, Trump, like they've been

praying so long for their Christian prints to come writing in on a whiteboard. He's not that.

All right, he's not that. His character, very, I don't want to say dark, but if he, dark,

you know, his personality, I never liked him even before he was president, just as a New Yorker,

just as personality. But guess what? I'm not voting for a marriage partner. I'm not voting for

my pastor. I'm voting for somebody who's going to kick butt and do what's best for the nation. Amen.

That should have been, I'm just telling you how I woke up and I'm hoping that some of you

had similar experiences that woke you up as well. If you didn't have a similar experience,

pay attention to what memes you were reading, what media was going in your ears, that you stayed

blind to what was actually happening right in front of us. Because there are some people,

it's unbelievable, still in 2024. There's still just la la la la la la. The deaf and blind and

don't want to pay attention to what's going on. Why am I talking about this? Why should you pay

attention to what's going on? Because with all of its problems, there is a reason why over 50%

of all global immigrants are coming to America. Over 50, we're still the number one immigrant

destination. Why? Because it's a blessed country. It's a country of great opportunity. It's a great

country. And the freedoms and liberties we enjoy are only one generation away from being lost.

Some of you think this is not viable. Are you kidding me? You don't believe that Satan would love

to squash America, to shove a sock in America's mouth, the nation that was at its height responsible

for 93% of all missionaries being sent out globally, a place where the word of God has resounded,

where churches are raised, deaf churches are planted. Millions of people come to Jesus Christ

and receive Him as their Lord and Savior every year, where I got saved, where then I was able

to lead my parents. If they stayed in Yugoslavia, never would have heard the gospel. I was able to

lead my parents to the Lord. The enemy would love to snuff this nation out. That's why this is

important. So 2015, 16 and all those years should have been somewhat of a wake up call. When you see

all of media, I mean, it was just incessant, 24, 7, bashing, bashing, bashing. Just take a step back

and go, huh. Because there's some people, this isn't about me telling you who to vote for. This is

just, just notice some things. Because there are people who absolutely despise Trump. You say Trump

and their head spins around 360. And then just quietly ask him, I know, right? Orange man, bad. Tell

me, you go first. Tell me, what policy of his did you most disagree with? He's really his

tweets. We're so inappropriate. I know. And he's got orange skin. I know. You said that. And he's

really not, he doesn't seem like someone I'd want to hang with. I know. But like his policies,

what policy did you feel? Can't name one over and over again. Me, I suggest that maybe you have

been programmed. And you didn't even know it. He's a racist. I know. He's terrible. Tell me, what racist

policy did he push? I'm going to, I can say a lot more after that, but I'm just,

oh, Lord. So that should have woken you up. If that didn't wake you up, because that didn't fully

wake me up, they just caught my attention. But the big wake up call was in the spring of 2020

when COVID came in on the scene. And all of a sudden we went under lockdowns. And this church was

declared nonessential. All churches were declared nonessential. Small businesses shut down.

Home Depot was still open. Walmart was still open. We were told not to go to the gym. And here's

the greatest mistake. If you don't know, this is a mistake by now. I don't know. We do have a

ministry team at the end of the service. They will lay hands on your pray for you. Listen,

the whole the masks and all the stuff. People were just terror, you were terrorized night and day.

You turn on CNN and they have the deathometer going. This is how many died. Remember how terrified

you were? Some people in this neighborhood, you see them. They're still wearing the mask sideways,

one nostril sticking out. Mask is dirty. It's like a week old filled with mucus and it's still

walking around like the walking dead. I want to just gently tap them on the shoulder. Go,

April of 2020 called it once it's mask back.

The greatest arrogance and greatest pride was believing that we could mitigate, that we could manage

an airborne virus. Which doctors in the beginning were saying there is no mitigating this.

And those doctors were quickly shut up and shut down. And then you were just presented with one

side and one voice. Yeah, that happened to us. That happened to me for a bit. And we were

presented with all these arbitrary rules. Do you remember the silliness? If you come within five feet,

you're going to get COVID six feet. You're okay. When you walk through the restaurant,

if you're standing up, you have to wear a mask. But when you sit down to eat, you're okay. Because

COVID hovers at a height of around five feet. You sit down below that. It doesn't dip. On an

airplane, you had to be masked up. But I found out if you ask for water, you can put your mask down.

And now COVID says, okay, because COVID knows the rules of engagement. It plays fair.

All right, now I'm okay. I quickly found out when I was in an airplane, I can ask for water,

put my mask down and sip that water for the three hour flight. It was craziness.

Why is this important? You go, why is this important? It's important because we were fed a lie.

And if you think they didn't know, it was a lie. Oh, you know, they were just figuring it out.

Now, today we know a lot more than we did back then. Listen, go on our church,

Instagram or our church Facebook. In March, we researched what had happened in Italy. Remember,

it was hitting Italy right before it came here. We researched what it hit in March of 2020.

Excuse me, late February of 2020, we posted about COVID. And we posted that it was an airborne

respiratory virus that it afflicts the elderly and those who are autoimmune, compromised the most.

And we listed all the facts. None of which have changed. Nothing has been added. We don't know

anything more about COVID now than when you back in February of 2020. So it's not like they didn't

know when we're just this benevolent government that was trying to figure it out. And why is this

important? Because it was a lie. And I will not live my life by lies. I didn't wear a mask.

Not because I wanted to be a grandma killer. Not because I'm jerky. Not because I'm arrogant.

But because it's a lie. It's a lie that this little piece of cloth or surgical mask is going to

prevent a COVID virus from coming through or in. It's a lie. I don't want to live my life a lie.

In any way. Amen. So what am I saying? I'm just saying. Do you know if we did nothing at all,

if we didn't lock down, if we kept meeting, if we did nothing at all, the results would have been

the same. That's proven now. What would you say? But people, we prevented people from dying.

No, people still died. The only way, the only way with the only thing that could have made a

difference is that each of us was hermetically sealed for a two week period in a bubble,

like suspended animation, cryogenic freezing. For two weeks, every single person that could have

done the trick. But we couldn't do that. Even if we're locked down, we couldn't do that.

We still have to go out and get stuff. We're out there exhaling and inhaling.

And so nothing would have changed. 2020 should have been, it should have been a wake up,

but I'm concerned that for too many of you, it wasn't because you were born in this country.

I noticed with immigrants, they were hip to it right away. People born in this country,

you just can't do the mental summer solitums and gymnastics to realize, huh,

they're actually evil and nefarious powers at work that want to program you and get me thinking

one way. And one of the easiest ways to program people is via fear.

Hallelujah. I'm having a good time. How about you?

Some of you, some of you are thinking, I should have brought my friend next week.

Because it looks like he's just getting warmed up. I should have invited him.

There is a third thing that if you haven't been woken up,

the should have woken you up and it just happened last week, this week.

And that's that he's been arrested and now he's been convicted.

Now, hang on, if your gut response is, what's the saying everyone is using?

Nobody's above the law. Nobody's above the law.

Why is George Bush above the law? He should have been tried for war crimes for what happened in Iraq.

He's above the law and all arrests. Why is Bill Clinton above the law?

Do you know what happened under, under him? I know what happened under him.

NATO bombed the tar out of where I'm from.

Most Americans don't even know that happened. I still say, I still see where the missiles fell.

Where pastor Yovitsa is right now, you go to Novisa, you still see the John Crater's

in buildings because they don't have the money to repair it. Hospitals, why is he above the law?

What about Hillary Clinton with a private server in the basement?

Smashing up hard drives and pouring bleach on blackberries.

Those are the blackberry days.

So just coming from where I come from, when a political rival is imprisoned in an election year,

it should cause you to pause and go, huh, because that's some banana republic level stuff right there.

Hallelujah.

Do you even know what he was convicted for, what he was arrested for?

His other people started wars, killed millions of people.

He messed with some money when stormy Daniels and I couldn't even keep track of it.

My wife knows she'll explain it to me later. I mean she did and I know but I just

in one year out the other because we know what's really happening.

Hallelujah.

And by the way, Trump, as far as I'm concerned, I have a big question mark about him

because he's still the father of the vaccine and he handed the country over to Fauci.

I just want to say that.

But at the same time, you know, I didn't say this in the first service, I got to say it in a second.

At the same time, I know that he would be the best for the church.

He just would be. I know that there's another side that is completely anti-god and anti-Christ

and that abortion is not of God and that abortion is murder and it's demonic and I cannot put

somebody in power is going to keep that going. I cannot put somebody in power who's going to keep

these lies and these myths were two plus two equals five going.

And that's why we still have to pray. Christians are hoping that this Christian delivering

prince is going to come in quoting scripture. It's not going to happen. Jesus was that prince.

He's the prince of God. He's the prince of peace. You're going to get a fallen mistake,

laden, human being and you got to pray for them. We're just trying to select the one that is

going to need the least amount of prayer and deliverance and demons expelled. Amen. Hallelujah.

I can see some are attendance in the life groups just ramping right up.

So there is, by the way, a new religion in America spreading like wildfire

and this is what's coming against us. It is the religion of wokeism.

You don't know, wokeism is a religion and it's catching America by storm. What is wokeism?

Woke once upon a time about eight, nine years ago was a term that meant being alert to racism

and racial prejudice. You know how long that lasted for about a minute and it was quickly co-opted

and it was co-opted and what's at the heart of wokeism is making people just hang on with me.

This is going to be key for you to understand. It's making people believe and see the entire world

through one lens and that's oppressor versus oppressed. By the way, critical theory is not a new

thing whether it's critical race theory or there's several other critical theories. It goes back

over 150 years. What is critical theory? It's an entire system where you see the whole world

through only one lens oppressor versus oppressed. Why? Because this is how communism took root in

Russia. This is what happened during the Bolshevik revolution. You cannot have a united country

if you're going to flip it around and change its government. Some of you don't even think this is

happening. It's happening. It's real. You have a front row seat, dude. It's happening before

your eyes. You have to have class warfare. You have to have a country that's divided and fighting

amongst themselves. You don't think this is real to you. You know who the oppressor is? Well,

if you're white, you're the oppressor. If you're male, you're the oppressor. There's one more

kind of oppressor, though. If you're Christian, you're the oppressor. Oh, yes, you are.

You're the oppressor. And you can see that. You can see that by the strong anti-Christian sentiment.

You know what I'm talking about? I used to be able to say not thinking anything would hit me.

Hey, I'm a Christian pastor. Oh, okay. That was 25 years ago. 20 years ago. Okay. Now I say,

I'm a Christian pastor and I'm waiting for what's next. And it's really, it's really never very,

rarely a neutral response. It's, oh, awesome. I didn't use to get that. Oh, awesome. Or like I said,

I worked for the IRS or something. Lord, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord.

In order to subvert a nation, in case you're wondering where this is all going,

am I, am I connecting this morning? You get it? Have you, have you been looking around lately?

And are you, have you noticed that like this is a completely different time? This is totally

different than when I've grown up. I meet these older fellows out in Long Island. They're in their

70s, one is in his 80s. And I've asked them, have you ever experienced what we're experiencing now?

Ever in your life? And they said, no way. And nowhere in our dreams. In fact, one of those guys,

he's younger, he said his father is an ultra liberal judge in New York State. And even he said that

what they were doing to Trump was just out of line in an election year.

In order to subvert a nation, you have to make truth relative. Can we go to that scripture?

I believe it's John 17, 17. Let me just see this. Yes. John 17, 17. Because in wokeism,

there cannot be objective truth. That's why pay attention to what's introduced into the vernacular.

That phrase, this is my truth, or I'm going to speak my truth. You notice about 10 years ago,

it was around a little bit before that, but that was really injected into the vernacular.

Anybody? You pay attention to this stuff? Now, yeah, nobody blinks. I'm going to speak my truth.

You don't get your truth. There's a lot of stuff you don't get. Hey, guess what? You know what else

you don't get? You don't get to pick your pronouns. You don't get to. You were born a certain way.

You were born without your two ex chromosomes or an ex-wife chromosome. I could find a skeleton

that's a thousand years old, and scientists can tell you whether it was male or female,

because it goes down to the bone, to the molecular level. You don't get your own pronouns,

just like I don't get my own adjectives. Like, what if I say, look, you need to respect my adjectives.

They are brilliant and highly anointed. And every time you refer to Pastor Bo, please don't offend

me. Use the proper adjectives. Please refer to me as brilliant and highly anointed.

Or else, I'm going to call you a Pastor Fob.

In order for wokeism to take root, truth has to be subverted. Jesus said, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word, your word, the word of God is truth.

Let me tell you something. Nobody here can be kinder than Jesus.

Nobody here can be more loving than Jesus. Jesus is the express image the Bible says of the

invisible God. And God is love. But in love, you must warn people. In love, there is a call to

repentance and a turning away from sin. In love, there is the new birth experience. In love,

there is the blood of Jesus Christ, which will cleanse you and the power of the Holy Spirit,

which will from the inside out transform you. Amen. But under wokeism, truth has to be subverted.

You got to read, George Orwell's 1984. I read that back in high school. I bought it. I re-read it

again and we are reliving so much of it today. That's why we're living in an age now where a man

can be a woman and a woman can be a man. And I just refuse. It doesn't mean I don't love you.

I love you. Don't call me hateful. I actually love you. But I also love God and I love his word.

And when I'm looking at a 50 year old man with a five o'clock shadow who's telling me that he's a

woman, I'm not going to go along with the lie. You may think, but I know who you are. And it's not

loving to pretend with you, to enter into that fantasy realm with you. So under wokeism,

a man can be a woman, a woman can be a man. Men can menstruate. Men can be pregnant. Look at

your emojis right now. If years ago I got an emoji of a pregnant man. I sent it to all my bros.

I was just like, congratulations. When the moment it came, I just sent it out. I was like,

bro, I heard the good news. Congratulations. And two plus two can equal five. Why? Because

under wokeism, there is no objective truth. There is only subjective truth. Subjective truth is

something that's subject to your own unique experiences. How many of you know that's not truth.

Objective truth is just truth that always is. Always was and always will be. And it is the word

of God. It is what God says. But in order to subvert a nation and lower the IQ of the people,

lower the critical thinking of the people, you make truth blurry. And two plus two can be five.

And men can get pregnant. And everybody's too afraid to say otherwise, less they'd be labeled

a phobic racist bigot. The silence is just going to get me louder. Hallelujah.

You know, I got a little bit more time. Let me just say this. Matthew 7, 1 through 3. I want to

say this under wokeism. Wokeism has one main sin and one main virtue. The number one sin.

Listen, this is a religion taken the country and the world by storm. You better know it's tenets.

The main sin of wokeism is judgy. You cannot judge. And this is the key scripture. Matthew 7, 1.

Judge not that you be not judged. Now let's just look at, okay, let's read the rest.

For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be

measured back to you. And why do you look at the spec in your brother's eye, but do not consider

the plank in your own eye? Now let's go to John 724. By the way, there's several. I believe up to

seven different Greek words for the word judge. All of you have made judge. How many of you locked

your house when you left today? You made a judgment. Those of you who drove to churches,

you stopped at the red lights. You made a judgment, didn't you? That's not the kind of judging

Jesus is talking about. He's saying don't hatefully condemn. When you're struggling with something,

don't hatefully condemn a person who's struggling with the same thing as you. But in another place,

Jesus said, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. What is righteous

judgment? What's the standard? Well, his word. His word is the standard. And so you, did you know

that you can judge and not be a jerk? Did you know, and this is where Christians have blown it?

They, you can, they're, they judge and they get into the flesh. It's almost like their flesh comes

alive. And they love. They want to feel superior to somebody else. No, that's wrong. But did you

know that you can judge and say, hey, I love you, but this is wrong. I don't, I mean, I don't

endorse your behavior, but you want to do that. Knock yourself out. I recommend highly that you

repent and come to Jesus. He loves you. His arms are open wide towards you. But, but this is a line

in the sand and I won't cross it. Every single one of you need to be able to make that decision

because the heat is only going to get cranked up. Do not bow. Do not. Do not. Do not do it.

It's just the pronouns, bro. Just just use the pronouns, bro. No, I don't think I will.

I don't get to use, I don't get to call you something that you're not. God decided that long before.

I don't think of myself so highly to be the arbiter of that. Oh, hallelujah.

And I just want to say this that the foot soldiers, the leaders and the foot, the army of the

new religion of walkism is the LGBT movement. And as I'm saying this, do you know that we have

people at City Light Church who are struggling with same sex attraction? And even though they know

my stance, they've come to me. They know I love them. Listen, I had a gay worship leader for

over a decade. I passed it in the East Village. I'm the gayest straight pastor you know.

I passed it for 17 years in the East Village. I've said, listen, I've had a parade. I've heard

every story, every confession, all the deep stuff I've heard. And I've learned and I've heard

and I've wept and I've rejoiced and I've spoken. I just thought that was somebody who would,

I would have wanted them to come up and say a few words. I can't see from the lights.

But we've had people who've come out of homosexuality. Genuinely, set free, genuinely delivered.

But the leaders of walkism, the army, the foot soldiers, is LGBT. And it's the most celebrated

people group on the planet. You do know that, right? It's gay Christmas. Someone said they

have a whole month for themselves. It's gay Christmas right now, June. In fact, when we were at the

pool, I took my kids to the pool yesterday after the volunteer party and there was a fella standing

in the pool, knee deep in the water and I'm not kidding. He had the rainbow tight speedos.

Rainbow sunglasses and a rainbow hat and he was standing with both hands on his hips like Superman,

just standing there. And I'm like, bro, I get it. You're very gay. I get it.

But a whole month, a whole month of celebration, right? You don't want to talk. Did I already say

that there's 13 Christians that die every day? Did I give that stat out? Oh, that was for service.

That's the number. An average of 13 Christians are killed for their faith every day.

Christians are the most persecuted people group on planet earth. The most celebrated people

group on planet earth right now are people of the LGBT movement. And I'm just using the first four

letters because I've lost track of all the other ones that come afterward. Hollywood, all the whole

Hollywood entertainment complex celebrates all the corporations and now super gay all of a sudden.

All government officials. Those are picture of Kamala Harris with the rainbow flag. All of them

celebrating. But do you know why it's still not enough? A month. I mean, you're going to see flags

and banners and parades and globally happening. Do you know why it's still not enough?

Because 30 days of clapping and celebrating is still not enough when deep down on the inside,

you know something's off kilter. You know that this is that you can come up higher, that there is a

better way, that there is God's way, that there is the kingdom of God and that you can be set free

from this darkness. So all the celebrating, all the applauding, it'll never be enough while somebody is

not right with the Lord on the inside. And by the way, if you are here and you're just straight

up gay or you're a Christian and you're strong, just know this. I know I can come across Jokey,

but I'm dead very, very serious about this. And you may not believe it after some things I said,

but I love you. I love you. I really do. I love you. Our whole staff loves you. And we're here to

pray with you, work with you, plead with you, share with you, hear you, but we're also here to

not compromise and not back off of the truth of God. It's something we won't bend on. We're not

going to do it. It's a slippery slope and we've seen in the last few years just how slippery.

I'll close with this worship team. Come on up. Let me just give you some ways that we are actually,

if you look at it, the Christian church and the LGBT church, I'm calling it a church because it's

like a religion now. If you actually look at a Nazi takeover, which you'll see, if you look at a

Nazi street, you'll see all the flags. You're going to walk down some streets in New York this

month. You're going to see some streets that look like it's been a foreign takeover.

We are total opposite. This is why the greatest tension exists between the church. Listen,

you see a gay pride parade. You know what you're going to see? I've seen it.

Gay Jesus, somebody dressed up all flamboyantly as Jesus. Have you ever noticed how they don't have a

gay Muhammad or a gay Buddha or gay Confucius? Because we Christianity is what's at odds,

because we're polar opposites. The LGBT religion believes in self-expression. We believe in self-denial.

The LGBT religion believes man can be like God. We believe God became man.

The LGBT religion celebrates pride. We as Christ followers celebrate humility. They say you're born

this way. We say you must be born again. The religion says I'm perfect just the way I am.

The gospel is I'm a sinner. Every single person fallen short of the grace of God and I need a

loving Savior. One worship sex, the other worships God. LGBT says love is love. Listen,

that sounds so nice, right? By the way, a lot of wokeism comes under the cover of love and tolerance

and compassion. But I cannot be more tolerant than Jesus. I can't be more compassionate than Jesus.

Sometimes I've scolded my son, right, like once or twice in your life. Do you know, come here. I

just want everybody to see how good-looking my 10-year-old is. He just turned 10. For his birthday,

he got a smart watch and he leaned over during worship and said, Mom, it says my heart rate went

up when I began to worship Jesus. But do you know what the Bible says? It says that a man who

doesn't discipline his children hates his children. And so in my love, I've had to draw lines,

right? And you're so grateful for that, I know. I wasn't either at 10, but later I went,

oh, mom and dad, you should have used the belt more. And so saying what the word says is an

expression of love. We're going to receive communion right now. I'd like every head bowed, every

eye closed first. You know, Jesus, he's been touching your heart. The Bible says that sin,

in order for it to be removed, it must be punished. That's why God came in the form of man as the

person of Jesus. To live the life we should have lived. He lived perfectly and never sinned.

And then he went to the cross in our place and received the wrath that we should receive for

our sin. He received it in himself. He was punished for our crimes. And the Bible says, if you believe

that, it's a faith thing. If you believe that he did that for you, you can receive him as your Lord

and Savior. And you'll be born again. You'll be forgiven. You'll be made a new creature.

If you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want you to lift your hand up right now.

I'm not going to ask you to get up out of your seat, but I will say a prayer together with you.

Lift your hand right now. Thank you. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. Who

else? Lift your hand up. Lift your hand. Who else? Thank you. I see those hands.

And God sees them even more importantly. Who else? Thank you, Jesus.

Okay, you can put your hands down. We're all going to pray this together. Those of you who lifted

your hands, I want you to say this extra loud. It's important you say it out loud.

And those of you who have lifted your hands, I want you to go to the hospitality table afterwards

and tell people there that you made this decision so we can just follow up with you.

We're here. Where you go now after this is up to you. We're here. And we want to take you and

lead you in the things of God. But we're all going to say this prayer together. Everybody,

especially those of you who lifted up your hands, say this Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe in you.

I believe you went to the cross. I believe you died in my place. I believe my sin was punished

in you. You do that for me because you love me. I receive you as my Lord and my Savior. In the name

of Jesus, I'm a new creation. I'm heaven bound. And I'm a friend of God. In Jesus name, amen.

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

at citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect

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

loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you

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