A Journey Back to Jesus Through Authentic Worship and Witness

You've been hanging out with people and now their vision has become your vision.

Where is your vision? You know what God has called you to do as a family.

You know what God has asked you to do but you have forsaken that because you want to look

cool and you want to look accepted and you want to look happening and you become part of some

cool vision. Guess what happened? God did not call you for the cool vision. God gave you a

specific vision. 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's CityLightNYC.com. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the

Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching,

remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that He has a

real hope and a future for you. Bonnie Andrews is here, a fantastic preacher and evangelist who

is a blessing and a friend of CityLight Church. So put your hands together and help me welcome

our friend Bonnie Andrews. Come on, CityLight. Make some noise. Somebody say hallelujah.

Oh my God, this morning I'm filled with gratefulness that I'm alive. I'm fully well.

I'm blessed and highly favored and I get to share the word in this amazing church. Come on,

give some praise right now. Amen. So happy to be here and I'm a great friend of this church.

This is like a second home. I want to thank God for the man of God, Pastor Boyan who was a

senior pastor of this church, founding senior pastor and for the great vision that God has given

him and how he's able to steward it right in this house. Many people are not ready to pay the price

for what God has asked you to do. But you know, he's been faithfully standing in the front line

and being serving the Lord. I want to thank God for the pastors in the house, Pastor James,

Pastor Moe. I want to thank God for the amazing worship team. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I bring greetings.

I bring greetings from our ministry. I just want to say with this church has been a generous

partner and supporter of our ministry on our on reaching students, not only in America,

especially in the US on college campuses and high schools around the world. I just want to play

a quick video from our recent event at UC Berkeley. Over to you.

As one of America's most living campuses, I want to protest for a pretty good evening.

I personally do not want you calling as an agnostic.

Okay, we're inside the auditorium. This is pretty interesting situation. It's changing this

room entirely to make the event really, really special. They're taking out light bulbs to

dinner to really go above me. I am super pumped, expectant for what God is about to do.

With a big warm welcome to Dr. Rice Brooks and Brian Miller.

I was going to ask you, this girl, flexing the point that all religions were kind of the same,

but then half of the talk she just started crying, and then half of the talk she came up to,

she was like, hey, do you know anything about the Christian people that we've done

some days, I love to go to that. The fine dream area is probably the most compelling.

In my personal life right now, I have a close person who has lost the will to continue,

and this gave me a direction to help. Even if you are losing hope, there's a purpose.

I was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Awesome night. Learned a lot. Excited to take it with me and share the good news.

Come on somebody, 400, 478 students in one of the most liberal campuses. Let me just say that

Jesus is still changing lives. Jesus is still changing lives. Those two guys, the captains

of the football team, you understand the influence that these team members have on the campus,

especially those young girls that really had, this is like a serious event. It's not like a

revival gathering, it's an apologetics event. We got the best of the best people, the author of

God's Not Dead. We have a scientist from MIT joining us, and we share the gospel through evidence,

through evil, you know, share about the arguments around the evidence of, you know, the Bible,

the scriptures, we talk about evil, why do bad things happen to good people, we talk about

evolution, we talk about all the science aspects, science and faith, and then we share the gospel

and let these kids take a response. And I'm telling you, God is moving mightily on the college

campus. Pray for especially this month on the 23rd, we are going to be at MIT right here in the East

Coast. And my prayer is that God would open up one of the most influential corridors in the world

is right where we are. You know, the entire Northeast, some of the best universities in the world

are here, the nations are coming to our nation, and we get this amazing opportunity. Lionel

Ravenhill said, the opportunity of a lifetime has to be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.

I want to say that again, the opportunity of a lifetime has to be seized in the lifetime of this

opportunity. And that's what we're trying to do. These kids while they're here, we have a window

to share the gospel before they head out into the world and we get this opportunity to share the

gospel. One big report, 1.1 million students, 2023, a big report from 2023 is that 1 million

students will reach with the gospel around the world in 42 cities out of that 56,000 students

were in person and over 11,200 seekers on a chat line just asking questions and we'll be

able to share the gospel, send a Bible to them. Thank you so much for praying. If you'd like to

partner in any way, want to give to us, please get in touch with the church and they will be able

to pass it down to you and you get your tax breaks as well. So thank you so much. Everybody

excited for the Word of God. We are a powerful service and I believe that you know this word is

from heaven for you and I believe that this is for us and I want to have that picture of my family

right here on the screen. This is my beautiful family who's speaking at an event on 2024, 31st

night and this is a picture from them. I've been married to my beautiful wife. They're probably

watching me online. Hi. Hello. I love you. See you soon for lunch. Okay. So well, I'm going to

say that I've been married to my wife for 14 years. We've got three beautiful boys. We can

we can put them together in a New York apartment. So we've actually officially moved to the birds

and we have some more room and you know, let me just say 14 years of being married to this woman.

It's been a joy. It's been it's been it's been amazing. Right. But one of the things I know is that,

you know, for people, I just feel like let me just throw it out to you. People who wanted to get married.

This is totally off the target. I just want to say they want to throw it out for you guys

for people who need who need to get married. We're not able to take a step of faith and you're

wondering about where the money for the marriage is going to come from. Where the money for the

wedding is going to come from. So when I met my wife and you know, we finally decided to get married.

I you know, I couldn't wait because I knew this was it. You know, when God spoke to me at a word

at confirmations and I said, I couldn't wait and I walked up coming in from an Indian background.

We walked up, I talked to my in-laws and I hear I'm talking to my mother-in-law and I was telling

you, hey, listen, I really I feel like we need to get married. I don't want to I don't want to

paint the town red and I want to go around. You know, I just want to make sure that I want to get

married as soon as possible. So here's my beautiful mother-in-law telling me, listen, we need

some time to prepare. Okay, we need to some time to prepare, which means we need some time to

prep our finances put together because in our sort of, you know, culture, everybody puts in the

money. It's not just a couple, right? Pastor James. So everybody puts in the money. So listen,

she basically said, listen, we got to we got to work on it. I'm like, man, I'm in a hurry. Okay,

and listen, I'm in a hurry and I got the faith. I had no money in my bank, but I just told my

mother-in-law, I said, don't worry about the money. I'll be paying for everything. Let's get going.

Okay, it was a step of faith and I want to say something. He is Jehovah Jaira. Okay, he's Jehovah Jaira.

He will provide for us according to his riches in glory. All we need to do is that every promise

in the scripture is yes and amen, right? If it is in the book, it can happen. So I just stepped out

and faith and I want to just tell you something. It was not just a normal wedding. We got married in

the top five destination spots in all of our country, right on the beach, a beautiful, exotic place,

and the Lord paid for every bill. In fact, we had extra money to start our home. I didn't have to

put a registry. I already had the money. I just had to go there and buy it. I'm telling you,

God is a providing God. I'm looking at people in the room. You're wondering, God, where is my money

going to come from? How am I going to get the, you know, how am I going to get married? Where's

the money for the ring? I'm telling you, step out in faith and watch what we'll do in and through

your life because his name is Jehovah Jaira. This is totally off the topic. I just feel like in my

spirit. Somebody needed to hear, did anybody need to hear that? He's a provider.

Sometimes you feel like as a minister, oh my God, you know, we're poor guys. We can't afford it.

Let me tell you something. You set the ceiling and the Lord exceeds our imagination. The Bible says,

you know, as creative people, you know, as Sean and some of these people and some of our people

in the room, we're creative people. We can think about some crazy things. But the Bible says he will

do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. What does that mean? He's going to

exceed your imagination. How's that? Somebody getting excited right here? He's going to, he's

going to beat your wireless dreams. He's going to beat your wireless imaginations. But only if you

would step in faith and receive and say, God, it bitters in your word. If you, if God can speak and

provide for this curry eating man, he can do it for me. If you believe it's a amen. Now coming back

to the topic, you know, Mark Riscoll, he made a quote like this, you dated your wife to get married.

But you have to continue to date your wife to stay married. Somebody need to hear that?

You dated your wife to get married. Oh my God. Past them all, you're not talking about flowers,

chocolates, gifts, time. You were doing everything possible and borrowed ideas. And now you've got

Chad GPT. I mean, you're making poems and you're making write-ups and you're writing blogs and

you're writing things about her somehow, some way to get her on boat. And then men as men, we are

conquerors. We conquered. We conquered her. Now we're on to the next assignment. But let me tell you

something. We've got to have romance back in our marriages. Amen. We got to date your wife.

That's why we have date nights. We need to have, you know, we need to find out the five languages

of love. Reed Gary Chapman's great book, five languages of love. Sit down with your wife and

find out what are the top languages of her. Like when I do something for my wife, she's probably

watching me right now. She gets so excited. She says, thank you like five times. I'm like, I just,

I mean, I just watched the dishes. Words of affirmation, big honor. You know, time is big.

So all I'm trying to say, I'm just trying to bring some context here to continuously

woo your wife. And your husband, the Bible says, if you do not honor your wife, your prayers are

hindered, you're praying. I'm like, my God, what's happening? He's just hitting the ceiling, coming

back down. Because the Bible says, if you honor your wife, your prayers are going to be heard.

How's that correlation? Well, coming back to the topic of what I'm trying to say is that this

is same in the life of the church. We got saved. I got saved in 1993. I was recently in India

visiting my mom. I just fell in my heart. Man, I mean, what I do, you know, spend some time with

my parents, especially around Christmas. My family wants me to hear me Christmas. So I'm trying

to balance it out and decide in less than 24 hours. I'm getting on a plane. My parents can handle

that. You know, maybe American parents can handle that. They'll show up in the door and knock.

I'm like, wow, I was surprised. My parents were probably dying. So I thought, let me give them

24 hours notice. And I just showed up in their home. And I'm like, holding my mom out and just

walking around the mall and just really dating my mom and spending time. And probably if you're,

if I would ask her, she probably said, this is probably the best time of her life. We talk to her,

I mean, we talk to each other every day. She's my greatest prayer warrior. She probably would be

praying for me if she would know that I'd be ministering here. But let me just try to say I

tell you something just like, you know, I finally got to the point that I found my Bible. That's

what I wanted to say. I found my Bible that I started reading when I was saved when I got saved

in 1993. Oh my God. That Bible is color. It's like a coloring book. God was speaking to me. I got

notes on the side. I got the, you know, I got notes everywhere, colors, crayons. I mean,

I'm telling you, I was on fire for Jesus. I didn't have an agenda when I went to prayer.

I didn't have a ministry to run. I didn't have a family to feed. Every time I went before God

is because I love Jesus. And I want to love him more. And when I love him more and when I

receive his love, I want to tell that to other people. Where are we right now? I want to show

that picture right here. If you see this sign anywhere on the street, what does this mean?

Take a U-turn. Tonight I want to say I have two messages. This is probably my lifetime

messages. One of my message is the main thing is if you are, if you do not know Jesus,

you're walking away from Jesus. You're living your own life. It's time for you to take a U-turn.

Turn your life around. Turn that car around. Turn your life around and follow Christ because

the Bible says God came down. The Bible says, you know, John 3, 16, He loved. He so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son. I'm telling you, coming from the place that I am, coming in

from, we have 33 million Gods as they say in India. You can have a God for yourself if I may say

it right. And every religion in this world is based on this idea that man's God to try to reach

God somehow. I've got to crawl on the floor. I've got to climb up a mountain. I've got to fast.

I've got to do this. I've got to do 10 different things through works trying to reach God. Every

religion. And then you read the Bible. The greatest love story on the face of planet earth. God came

down to man. He's not man trying to reach God. God came down to man. And there are people hearing

at the frequency of my voice that you have never given your life to Jesus. This morning is your

time to give your life to Jesus because He loves you. He cares for you and He wants to take you

away from the messes that you have been through and give you a new life and take a new turn. But

from the church this morning, I feel like the church, you and I, we need to take a new turn.

2024, we're like, oh my God, I believe God, you're going to bless me. You're going to prosper me.

You're going to increase me. You're putting every scripture that talks about the blessing. You

want to be on that express road, be on that Tesla, the hybrid car and just ram it up full speed

with your life and enjoy the blessings of God. But let me tell you, I'm here to tell you

before you get on that exit, you need to take a new turn. You need to go back and finish some

unfinished business. Revelation chapter 2 verses 4 to 5, if you can get your scriptures up.

Revelation 2:4–5

This is what John speaks to this church right here. Let me get this.

What does it say? Revelation chapter 2, I have this against you that you have left

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works.

There are three words to be looked at here. Number one, remember. Number two, repent.

Number three, go back to the first words. What is the first word? Repeat it all over again.

We have walked away from the first love to Jesus. And this morning is a wake-up call for all of us.

Are you coming to church because you, oh my God, it's Sunday morning. Are you going through the

motions of religion? Are you going through the motions of church? Oh my God, today's morning,

Sunday morning. You've got to be in church. Are you doing things for the sake of doing it? Are you

here to pursue a brand, pursue a person? Another amazing worship leaders and pastors and speakers

in this house? Are you pursuing the person, the personality, or the person of Jesus?

Are you pursuing Jesus in your life? Are you here to worship because you want to have more of

him? You want to worship him? You want to be intimately in love with him? You want to adore him?

The scripture says, the people of Israel looked at the hands of God, looked at God as an ATM.

What can his hands do? What can I do to get his hands to work on me behalf? But the Bible says the

people of Israel looked at his hands but in Moses sought the face of God.

City like church this morning there is a call for all of us to return back to our first love.

Is everybody with me? And I want to tell you something that are three indicators to understand

where we are standing with our first love. The number one is worship and prayer.

How is your personal time with God? The word is tag, T-A-W-G. Time alone with God.

How is your time alone with God? Does it have like, you know, every time you have to come to prayer,

do you have like a whole list of things that you have to get by before you can actually seek the

face of Jesus and adore him? You have an agenda. I know we come from corporate world,

where we have an agenda. Can we come to God in worship without an agenda? The only agenda is

to fall in love with Jesus all over again. Is to love him, to adore him, to worship him for who

really he is, not for what he can do. So how is a worship time? What is a personal worship time

as a family? As we start this year on the 21 day fast, somebody said, doing the same things

again and again and expecting different results is called insanity. The beginning of this year,

can you rebuild that family altar at home? I'm not pointing my finger to you. I'm just saying,

can we do that? I put it on my calendar every day. 1900 is family time. I tap my wife onto it.

It's on my calendar. It's a reminder. I can't have a meeting at this time. It's time for us to pray

together. It's time for us a family to see God together, to turn my house from a place that

plays Netflix to a house of prayer. Restore the family altar in our life. Restore your personal

altar, your personal worship time, your personal prayer time. Is your prayer time all about telling

God what you want or is your prayer time just talking to Jesus? Oh, I've got to pray because I've

got to talk to Jesus. I've got to pray because I've got to seek what is on his heart. I've got to

pray because I need more of Jesus in my life or I've got to pray because I have a SOS. My budget

isn't the red. My business is not doing well. My match is always an SOS prayer that we have.

I think it's time for us to shift and pivot from SOS to adoration. Amen. How's our worship time?

How's our prayer time? Number two, how's our word time?

As preachers are trying to make it all W's, right, Masterful? Number one is worship. Number two is

word. How much time do you read? I mean, this little glass screen that we have, if you look at the

screen time that we're doing, how much time do we spend on YouTube? How much time do we spend on

Instagram? How much time do we spend on every other app, but the Bible app?

Thank God for the Bible app. Over half a million downloads. If you have never seen me on it,

Jan 17, I'm back on the W's of the day or two million people. They say read that

W's of the day every single day. And it's on the most download app. But my point is it's not

about having that app on the phone. It's about getting those streaks up. There's a thing called

the streak. How many times have you read the Bible continuously? Is your streak breaking from time

to time? You're going back to zero? Oh, is it just keeping on adding up? Is it like 364?

I'm asking you, what is your word time? The Bible says whatever his word is like the best

take in the world. I got to eat that word. I got to meditate on that word. I got to make that word

in mine. And the last piece is that what is your witness time look like? When is the last time

that you shared the gospel with somebody? I know you're busy. I know your corporate life. Every time

you get, if you are in love with Jesus and if you are receiving his love, I'm telling you,

you just want to be telling everybody about it. You know, a year ago, my wife and I and the whole

family, we drove across the country. I think I've shared this year. 9,000 miles, 30 days from

cross country, across the country, praying because God spoke to Abraham, walked the length and brother

of this land. We felt like this is our mandate. This summer, we're going to create history and

every night we were in a different city, almost every night in a different hotel. And the kids,

we went to this hotel, we checked in and nice place, great hospitality. We're about to check out

the kids at the counter. They just feel like that's God, this metal cart. He can swipe it and

swing it and wave it and everything's going to come. So they just went and picked up two frappuccinos,

come into the counter to get checked out. And the lady of the counter says, oh no, no, it's

on us. I'm like, wow, it's pretty cool. The next place, a week later, we were in another city,

another part of the country. The same hotel chain. The kids go pick up some gummies. Kids love gummies.

Especially the colored ones. So we're going to check it out. And then the counter,

ladies says, oh no, no, no, it's on us. I'm like, wait a minute. This kind of generosity,

I've never ever seen it. And then I'm on to the next place. Next place, we are happy to look for

the place that a city that has that brand on. And the third city, again, the same thing all over

again. So I just like, wait a minute. Let me just talk to that lady. And she tells me this is part

of their core values, generosity and hospitality. And I became an evangelist of this brand.

Everywhere I'm going, oh, guys, man, you got to check out. The yogurt is so good. There's a

bike outside. That's the, it's all green. I mean, it's a green place. I'm just, I've become an

evangelist of this hotel chain. I'm telling people, they're not even paying me, but I'm still

telling people, if you are so full of Jesus, it will ooze out of you. Some people, we got a

squeeze and squeeze. There's nothing in that, brother. It's a flat tire. It's a flat balloon.

There's nothing in it. There used to be some air back in the day, 20 years ago. Like most

preachers say, these hands have been laid on people like 20 years ago. Tell me about stories

that happened yesterday. Tell me about stories that happened six months ago. Tell me about stuff

that happened two years ago. Tell me something fresh. I want a fresh story of intimacy with God.

So if your life is in, in sync and in love and it is oozing the revelation of God, you got,

I mean, you touch it. You sit next to somebody on a plane. It's going to come out. You don't care

what other people would think about you because you're like, man, I don't care. If you don't get this,

even if you die on this plane, I mean, that's the best thing I get people. Sit on a plane and talk

about like, if this plane goes down, what's going to happen? This is the biggest wake of God. You can

get people with their like wise president, president. Everybody's kind of their life. But we're like,

we're cool. We're going to miss family. But guess what? I'm going to go straight to Jesus.

I'm so full of that that assurance that faith. I'm saying how much of that is being shared with

other people. So if your worship time is down, if your word time is down, if your witness time is

down, it is a great call this morning for all of us to return back to the first love.

To fall in Jesus with love in Jesus all over again and say, God, I need you more.

One of his commandments, the only thing probably he said is that, you know,

forget the 10 commandments. Jesus said, do this. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart.

And love your neighbor as yourself because when you love Jesus, it will automatically flow.

Your neighbors will know. Your work people will know. Everybody around will know.

It's everybody with me. I know this is not the coolest, happiest,

crazy message, but this is the heart of God for all of us this morning. It's that for us to return

to our first love, if you believe it's a amen. The second piece of this is to return back to the

ancient boundaries that God has placed upon my life or our lives. And I've been working out

recently in a new location, I found my tribe, been working out every day and see these guys that

I work out with, they're maniacs. They're Christian maniacs. They do things and they make me do

things that I would probably never done in my lifetime. I'm stretching my body. I'm doing

most things. I'm killing this flesh. By the time I finish my work, I'm like, oh my God.

But at the end, when we are leaving the place, our man makes a statement, one of the friends out

there, he says, you know, he's a pastor, he tells me, listen, bro, don't waste this workout.

What does that mean? Don't go and eat some junk. Don't go eat some sugary things.

Don't go get that frappuccino with four pumps of sugar soon after you get your work,

do your workout because you wasted it. When you're disciplined, your body, there are boundaries

in your life, in your life, in your health, in the food that you're eating. Oh my God, you

weighing. You look into the back so you never looked at the backside of a cold bottle. You never

looked at, you know, whether, you know, whether how much calories is God, how much sugar is God,

how much sodium is God? I mean, you're getting into details these days. Why? Because it matters to

you. But as a child of God, you have to go back to the ancient boundaries. As a child of God,

as a Christian, what is permissible for other people is not permissible for you. Don't tell me one

other people are trying to do. Don't tell me how other people live their life. What is their value

system? Don't bring that into your home because this is uncharted territory. What is permissible

for my boss? Even some Christian brothers and sisters. When I hang out in most circles these days,

I'm feeling like, oh my God, what is different between us and the ones outside? We're pretty much

doing the same thing here. It's just that we got the holy talk and the holy tag and the holy

caps that we wear to remind ourselves that we are. But let me tell you, a lifestyle doesn't

reflect the separation, you know, the boundaries God created boundaries for us in the scripture.

Our sexuality that are boundaries for it, boundaries for a single person, boundaries for a

married person, boundaries for sin, sexuality. In the New Testament, it doesn't even tell me I have

to, you know, I have to sleep with somebody. The Bible says, if I look at somebody with lust in my

eyes, I've already sinned. Don't tell me, oh my God, you know, my friends are, you know, they're

cool people. You know, I don't think they have a problem with us living in, oh my God, when is that?

When did that happen in the church? When is that written in the Word of God?

We have slaughtered the fear of God at the altar of relevance. We want to be cool. Did you hear me

right? You have slaughtered the fear of God at the altar of relevance. We want to be relevant.

Let me tell you something, relevant church is dead. Relevant Christianity is dead. They try to

do it. It didn't work. It worked for some time. We have moved the goalpost of our life a lot.

When did profane language become okay as a child of God? The Bible says, the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart let it be pleasing to you. Oh God, help us with our language,

no matter how frustrated you are, no matter how sick you feel, no matter how betrayed you feel,

you as a child of God, you got to walk, you got to watch the words that come out of your mouth. The

Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. My preaching is somebody here.

This is helping. This is helping. This is really the heart of God. We have boundaries. Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. It says, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer

your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper

worship. What is worship? What is true worship? When you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

it goes on to say, do not confirm to the pattern of this world. But be transformed by the renewing

of your mind. You are in this world, but you're not off this world. Oh my God. Oh my God, somebody

priest that. When is the last time that you hang out with somebody who would tell you things that

you like? When is the last time you read a book that convicted you? When is the last time that you

heard a sermon that you felt like, oh my God, out. And the kids are getting in. Do you hang

around with mentors who say, oh my God, body, look at that leather jacket. Oh man, you look so cool.

The way you speak is amazing. I don't want people to tell me all the good things of life.

Tell me all the things that I need to change. I don't give money to a coach to help me to affirm

what I'm already doing. I need to change. I want to go to the next level and there is a price to pay

for that. The Bible says, who may I send the hill of the Lord? Who may I send the hill of the Lord?

I'm going to old school, guys. Old school. Old school here. Bible school. Old school. He who has

clean hands and a pure heart. This morning the Lord is calling us as a church to return back

to the ancient boundaries. Return back to our first love with Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Don't go beyond what God has authorized. And on the other side we have gone into the religion world

where we have to do, do, do, do, do. Jesus did not come to create a religion. He came to create

relationship that was broken. So in the church we got to beat religion. We have to slaughter.

We have slaughtered intimacy at the altar of religion. Oh no, no, no. Time to go back to intimacy

with Jesus. The other piece is to return back to the original vision of your life.

You've been hanging out with people and now their vision has become your vision. Where is your

vision? You know what God has called you to do as a family. You know what God has asked you to do.

But you have forsaken that because you want to look cool and you want to look accepted and

you want to look happening and you become part of some cool vision. Guess what happened? God did

not call you for the cool vision. God gave you a specific vision. He asked you to do something.

And I'm telling you vision is not easy. Vision. The Bible says those, let me get the scripture

right for you. Proverbs chapter 29 was 18 where there is no vision. People perish.

Proverbs 29 · chapter mention

In this presidential election year every candidate is not talking about what they have done.

They're telling about what they want to do. They're casting a vision. What is the vision for your

life? What is your vision for your family? What is your vision for your, I mean if you take

vision seriously your calendar is going to reflect your vision. If you don't have a vision you're

going to go everywhere. This prayer meeting, that prayer meeting, this leaders meeting,

that meeting, this meeting, you're going to go everywhere and try to please people. That is a

biggest trap that you can ever be in. If you're focused on your vision you know exactly where to go.

Your calendar will reflect your vision. Your budget will reflect your vision. Your eating habits

will reflect your vision. Where you live will reflect your vision. Where you work and who you hang

on with will reflect your vision because if you hang on with toxic people let me get destroyed for

you. The Bible says those who hangs out with the wise will become wise but those who hangs out

with the wicked, it doesn't say you will be wicked. The Bible says you will be destroyed.

So watch the people that we hang on with and watch your vision. Vision is the

bridge between the present and the future. If you do not have a vision you do not have a future

and vision gives pain or purpose oh man I'm telling you is it hard to get up in the morning

especially in New York you know to I mean that's it's cold. The seed is cold

and these cars they just charge you just just to switch on the heating on the steering wheel.

That's another $5,000 I mean that's how they sell. So your seed is heated but your steering wheel

is not and you don't feel like getting up in the morning it's cold. You have every reason why you

don't want to go workout even though your buddies and no gym wants you to be there because everybody

shows up in the gym there will be in your room. So they want you to take the membership and just

stay at home. Yes I know I'm a preaching. If everybody shows up in the you know this model

but I'm telling you vision gives pain or purpose so it's painful for me to get up in the morning

and to follow the disciplines of my life to do what God is asking me to do but if I do it

I will be the most fulfilled person on earth. So you've got to pay a price for your vision

just keep you stay focused. So God is saying go back to the original vision. I don't know your vision.

I know mine that's why I keep sharing it every time. You probably know it by heart. Every student in every nation

gospelize and mobilize every student in every nation gospelize and mobilize every student in every nation

gospelize and I got to keep reminding myself because if I'm not careful and if I hang out too much

with other people their vision becomes my oh my God let him wait a minute. I got to race all

this money like a half a million dollar budget. I got to race it. I wish I would be a salaried guy.

I wish I could just be like a guy regular guy could be a regular bivocational minister. Isn't that

cool? It's that cool of course it is cool. Is that models in the Bible of course but it is what

is that what God is calling you to do? When I hang out with you know I love pastors but I know

they have their own you know journey to take but I feel like maybe I just need to be a pastor.

You know or maybe this you know I'm telling you there has been several offers to me

to deviate me from the focus that I was supposed to be. Here's the check. Here's the thing. He's

that. Here's this you can do. I'm telling you I have to say no because I am clear about what God

wants me to do. Money. Money. Vision gives direction. Vision evokes fashion. Vision motivates. Vision

disciplines. Vision prioritizes. God is calling us to return back to the original vision on your life.

When in doubt go back to square one. When in doubt go check your journal out. When in doubt go check

your prophetic word. Oh my God you're you're you have a hard disk filled with prophecies. Guys it's time

to go back and get some road maps rather than going out for the next prophetic word it's time for

us to go and check the old prophetic words and check if you have fulfilled it. God is calling

this church into the next level. He loves you so much that he sent a curry eating man to share

this word not just for you. I take it as a wee word. It's for me.

The last piece is to return back to covenant to relationships. The other day I was talking to

somebody. I haven't talked interrupt. You know there are people in your life. Dr. Ebenard says this

some people come in for a season, some kind of reason, some for a lifetime. And they say it takes

about 200 hours to build trust with anybody. Like me and Pastor James give me a high five. Listen

me and him for me to just be like thick, thick. I need to be given in a 200 hours of just hanging out

with him. That's like 200 hours, 200 coffees, 200 meals. Putting that time into very basic at

50 dollars an hour. That's like a hundred dollars just to meet for an hour plus the meals,

plus the food, plus, you know, the transport. Imagine the amount of money that you've invested

into relationships in the future. But this season propheticly I speak to you that God is reminding

you to make that call and call somebody right now. He's bringing some concentric circles of

relationships back into your life. I know it's finished a season. There are people that I thought

oh my God. We're a great running India. God bless you. That was great. That was great. Fantastic.

You move to the next place. You are in the Middle East. Oh my God. They are in the Middle East.

They are now in Dubai. Oh my God. They move from India to Dubai. Oh, we have one more round here.

Dubai is over. Praise the Lord. God bless you. Peace. Peace. You know, you know,

whatever you're the rock, rock guys. Peace guys. Peace. Done. You come to the US. They have,

they are now in your neighborhood. They've showed up in your neighborhood. They're now in the East

Coast. They're now two hours away. All that 200 and over hundreds of hours of relationship is now

paying out in different terrains of my life. Because God is saying, you're not done with them yet.

One more round. One more round of dreaming together. One more round. Let me tell you something. When

I partner with somebody, when I partner with this church to go to campus, hey, man, this church

wants to go to campus, but they can't. They found they were looking like we want to reach the next

generation. Show us a person who reaches the next generation and God shows me up in this circle.

And now we have a perfect fit here of a partnership where the church wants to reach them,

but they are not how to, but they're not partnering, which means co-ownership. Oh my God.

Partnership means co-ownership. If you're partnering financially with the ministry of co-owning it,

you know, as a nonprofit, I just want to let you know that you can't take nothing out of that.

All you can expense is expense it out. It's not like your own company that you're like,

I got steak in it. I've been doing this for the last 20 years. I have no equity in it.

I can put it on my LinkedIn and say that I was the founder. That's it.

You cash out with nothing. I mean, you cash out with everything that God has asked you to do.

But on the business world, I mean, you left a company, you exited with like tons of money.

So when you're partnering with somebody, what's happening is you becoming a co-owner of that

vision. And I'm telling you, God is bringing relationships back in your life to do one more round

of kingdom activity together to reach students. Out of the blue at this young man,

call me up. We did a lot of stuff together in different cities. Dreamed together,

did some crazy things, filled stadiums. And I'm like, all right, bye bye, cheers. Peace.

The next thing I know is I've been heard from for years. I get a call from him. Listen, I've,

I'm now moved to the US and I'm married and I live in Phoenix. And that really, that just one

conversation led to us dreaming about the largest outreach to the South Asian tech community

in Phoenix, over 300 tech people showed up, over 25 people got saved, all because of that one

call of reengagement with a friend that I haven't seen for a long time, but in the right time,

when caros means chronos, God is bringing concentrated relationships back again.

May I improv sign somebody? Maybe it doesn't make sense. Don't take it if it doesn't make somebody,

if it makes sense, God's bringing those, some people you don't like. Listen, some people you don't like.

You wish you didn't want to work, but you have seen the ugly side of him. So you know exactly

what to expect. You know, what can't possibly go? What is the, what is the damages that could

have, you know, that could happen? But you have built trust here. You have built a covenant

in relationships. That's why somebody said if you find your people, hold on to them. If you're

on this church, hold on to somebody. Give a high fire to somebody and say, we found ourselves.

We found ourselves in the right place with the right community. That's why we ask you to go

come together, you know, praying together, sharing the gospel together. Somebody said if you don't

evangelize, you will fossilize. Why is the church in America dying? Why is the church in the West

dying? Because man, they just feasting on last year's glory. They're feasting on the last 20

years of glory. Nothing they have done right now. And if you don't evangelize, evangelism is a

marketing wing of the church. If you're on a business, if you don't know marketing, nobody knows

about you. But word of mouth gets around. I'm saying that some people have heard like, oh my bro,

you know, I don't do business. I don't know marketing. It's just word of mouth. I'm like great, great,

great. But only if you want to lift it to the next level, you got to know marketing. And that is

the great commission. So I'm saying right here that God is, I want to ask the Lordship to come

and I'm going to land the plane. But what I'm asking you to do today, so I did in the first sermon,

the first service is just tip out. Not because you've sent, but you want to say God, I want to return

back to my first love. I mean, I would be here right here on the front if I were to give a call

right now. It's not a count numbers, count hands, count heads, count buds, nothing. I want you to just

take a step of faith, not just a step of faith, an intentional step, a response of moving out from

your seat like Billy Grant just say in a few minutes from now, you're going to walk up. He got

everybody ready for the last 20, 30 minutes of him speaking just for them to just come forward.

Here I am asking you to come forward and say, God, I need to go. I'm hungry. I want to be in love with

Jesus again. I don't want to talk about 20 years of stories, last year's story, like you know,

five years story, 20 years ago, I was listening to that. Tell me where you are right now. If you need

to go back, you need to bounce up from that seat right now as we all stand up right now. We all

stand up right here. I want to open up the altar right now. 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

Boy on Jansk and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.

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

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

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