Celebrating Milestones and Embracing New Beginnings in a Faith Journey

and as they would walk by they would throw the stone and it would serve as a memorial

centuries later to recall the past victories. There is a power to that. You know every time we

give a testimony we're recalling a past victory and the Bible says there's a power to our testimony

and so we're going to spend the service recalling and remembering and building a memorial to God

of the past victories we've had in the year 2023. Amen?

Welcome to the city light church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word

and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with city light church

feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com that 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. Are you ready for the best year

of your lives? This is what I'm believing for. I'm believing it for me, my family, for the people

who call city light home and I want you to believe it for yourself. The best year we've ever had.

Let's go to Joshua. Joshua chapter four verses one through three. I want to show you a powerful

principle from the Word of God. This is after many many years, various trials and tribulations after

the children of Israel were supernaturally delivered out of Egypt, wandered around in the wilderness

for 40 years, highs, lows, temptations, finally crossed over the Jordan into the promised land and

this is what God instructs them to do. This means that it's very important to God.

When all the people had crossed the Jordan the Lord said to Joshua, now choose 12 men one from

each tribe. Tell them take 12 stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the

middle of the Jordan, carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.

What were these stones? They were memorial stones. 12 men together 12 stones thrown in a pile.

To anybody would have just looked like a pile of rocks. But to them it would have served as a reminder

for them and for future generations a reminder of the goodness of God, a reminder of past faithful

ness, a reminder of past victories and throughout the scriptures that's a common theme. The Lord says

remember, remember, remember. Do you know why he says remember so often? Because we're so prone to

forget. And this isn't the first time the children of Israel or a people of God were instructed to do

this Jacob when he had that encounter with God at Bethel. He made a monument of stones over and

over again throughout the scriptures after victory. Sometimes it was one person. Sometimes in this

case it was 12. Sometimes it was in the tens of thousands. Each one was asked to pick up a stone.

Imagine what that looked like and as they would walk by they would throw the stone and it would

serve as a memorial centuries later to recall the past victories. There is a power to that. You know

every time we give a testimony we're recalling a past victory and the Bible says there's a

power to our testimony. And so we're going to spend the service recalling and remembering and

building a memorial to God of the past victories we've had in the year 2023. Amen. And here's what I

can encourage you to do. This is my wife and I we're going to do this as we ring in the new year.

Takes all of 10 minutes but it's very powerful. Get a piece of paper and just write the months of

the calendar year January, February, March, April, May. And next to each month just put down one

victory, the best victory that the Lord gave you in that month. Think back. If the year seems like

a blur like it does for many of us when you try to think back and if you don't journal I found if

you just go through the camera roll of your phone. Have you ever done that? I forgot I even took

that trip in February. Oh look at that. I was at such and such place and then that causes you to

remember something great that the Lord did last February, March and just write that down

and thank the Lord for every month and thank the Lord for what he's done and get yourself ready

because I'm believing that 2024 is going to be our best year ever. Amen. Hallelujah.

So Pastor Mo and Pastor James are going to be helping me today but I want to kick it off with some

of our victories, some of our memorial stones for 2023 and how good the Lord has been to us as a

church. Number one, we were able to partner with Yovitsa Pachmansky, a missionary whom we supported

for nearly 10 years in Montenegro to plant an entirely different church in the country of Serbia

and under-reached nation. There's plenty of beautiful buildings, church buildings there.

There's plenty of people who will say that they're Christian but very few Bible believing churches

and if you would interview people on the street you'd realize that the people who name Jesus as

the Lord and Savior is less than 0.01% those who actually would say I'm saved because I've put my

faith in Christ. So a lot of religion, very little relationship. So thanks to you, 15,000 plus

dollars which goes very far in Serbia helped launch that church. Let's put our hands together for

that victory and watch this video clip. Pastor Yovitsa sent us from his first service just a few

weeks ago when he launched out. Critics and blessings from Mavisa, Serbia, from Christ, gospel church.

In a few moments we are going to start with our new church meetings. I just wanted to share this

moment with you. Much, much, much.

Yeah, put your hands together. He's an awesome man of God. He reminds me a lot of the Apostle Paul. He's

tough as nails and in these countries where I'm from you start preaching the gospel. It reminds me

of the first century where the religious people. It says they nashed at the apostles with their teeth.

We think people are angry in America when you preach the true gospel. When you start irritating

that religious spirit though, there's just such a violence that comes out but he will not quit.

He will not back down and we're trusting for big fruit. Great fruit to come from that ministry.

Number two as a highlight from 2023, we were able to give 25,000 plus dollars that you raised

for Bonnie Andrews and live jam the ministry that he has in reaching college campuses and people

who haven't heard the gospel all across the country and college campuses. Let's put our hand

together for that. And let's look at this video. Bonnie Andrews.

But even though I focus on the brain, I know that the brain doesn't operate in isolation.

So we still have to think about how we navigate through our lives, all the experiences that we have,

how those impact our lives, how those impact our brains, and how our spiritual practice can also

impact our brains as well. Give a warm welcome to the post-machina later.

I don't know if any job that films your mistakes. And so a lot of people we had to talk about the

pressure of making mistakes because if you make a mistake it's going to cost you. A lot of people

run from God, but I'm telling you tonight you need to run to God. The only thing that's going to

heal and help that brokenness is Jesus Christ.

I like that the concept was direct and it was responsive. You wanted to engage it.

They didn't avoid the gospel, they didn't avoid Jesus, they looked at real problems.

It was easy to get saved in this meeting.

Amen. The only thing that we can take to heaven with us is souls.

And the most important thing on Jesus' heart is the salvation of new people.

So I want that to be the most important thing on my heart. I don't want to tell you I'm privileged,

I'm blessed that we have a church that can so seed and bless ministries and other nations,

bless ministries here, bless the man of God like Bani Andrews who can go around now in college

campuses and bring the uncompromised word of God and the gospel of power.

And when I say I'm blessed and I'm privileged because without you it wouldn't be possible.

I mean $25,000 is no no no, no chump change. And we just had to preach here once and we raised

nearly 90% of it that first week. Didn't even, you know, when we raise money, we don't make a big

push, we just say here's the need, do what the Lord says, do, do. And it came up, right, like 90%

that first week and then I found them. I said, I can't it's awesome 23,000 came in and we were

were all rejoicing. And then somebody said, no, it's going to be more than 25,000. Hallelujah.

Number three, a memorial stone I want to put on that pillar of victories this year is our

baptisms. We've baptized over 80 people in 2023. Amen. And baptisms are important. I personally

feel like there's been an intentional diluting of the power of baptism and the doctrine of baptism.

It's now treated kind of as an afterthought, like if you get around to it, get water baptized.

But to Jesus, it was so important. Number one, he modeled it as our example. Number two,

when he gave us the great commission, he mentioned baptism in there. Go preach the gospel,

baptizing. Amen. And he said, those that believe and are baptized, baptized, when you truly

believe in Jesus, it's the next step. When you truly give your life to Jesus, you want to do what

his word says to do. And what his word says to do next immediately after you believe is show your

faith with a work that you have faith in your heart and demonstrate and be baptized. So let's take

a look at this video. Congratulations on making it here. How many of you you felt like something was

resisting it to get you just from showing up to it? Yeah, that's usually the case. The enemy

hates baptism. It does not want you getting baptized. It's solidifying your relationship with Jesus.

It's solidifying the decision that you've made. I just wanted to encourage you to prepare your heart

for what's going to happen. I want you to forget about this is keep forget about every other person

who want to immortalize this moment. Just be thinking of one thing on your way to getting baptized.

There's going to be people praying for you. I'll meet with you and ask you five questions.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born in the Virgin Mary? I want you to just be thinking about

Jesus. Do you believe that he walked this earth and never seen? Do you believe that he died of a

block? What could come for you? And you just surrender your whole life. So that is coming back

and power and glory to you. Do you wonder what should I be thinking about the render? Trust

and let go, heal this surrender. In Jesus name, we welcome your presence. Jesus, because you're all

personal. Lord, it's safe here. Oh, it's safe. I want you to give baptized the Jesus name.

Something that universal man has always understood. And that's this, that there has to be a blood

shed for the forgiveness of sins. In the scripture says that without the shedding of blood,

there is no remission of sins. I thank you Father. In Jesus name, amen.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. For such a victory. Praise God. I'm sorry. I just saw that video for the

first time last service. And I still can't get past it. I cannot believe you let me out of the house

like that, Emily. I'm looking like Tony soprano. Just miss it. Just miss it in the gold watch and

gold chain. Good Lord. You were thinking it, right? I said out loud what you were thinking.

They're cracking up in the front row. I wasn't feeling well. I almost couldn't make it to baptism.

And I said, I'm going to dress comfortable. Pastor Mo and Pastor James. And then you see that.

And it's just my wife is too supportive, too encouraging. Whenever I say, hey, you know,

every house, how do I look? And she's, oh, you look great, babe. You got to stop doing that.

You got to tell me the truth. This is not honesty before the Lord.

Hallelujah. Number four, we preached through three series, the Book of Ephesians, Romans,

Romans 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, 7, and 8. And the book of Galatians took us eight plus weeks to get through Galatians.

And I count that as a victory because it was all expository preaching. Expository preaching

is when you go line upon line, precept upon precept, and you go through entire verses of the Bible.

It's actually how the majority of the preaching was done, historically speaking, at least in America

from what I've studied. Topical preaching, also powerful. We do it all the time. The Lord lays a

subject or a topic on your heart. And then you find various scriptures to open up and unpack that

particular topic. But it just seems that topical preaching has wasted past expository preaching

because it is so much easier and simpler on the people, which is also, unfortunately,

facilitated a lot of biblical illiteracy in the body of Christ because sometimes you really

got a deep deep there. And there's nobody juggling for you. The lasers are not. Nobody's

entertaining you. You got to get in there and absorb the word of God. And I hope that as we

went through these various series and went through entire books of the Bible that you're not

only benefited from the subject matter that was preached, but that you also learned how to study

the Bible and read the Bible for yourselves. That you can see that every single verse is pregnant

with truth and revelation. There's no filler material in the Bible. Nothing is there by accident,

but at the word of God gives us life, amen? So we celebrate these victories as we build a memorial

to the Lord. I want to ask Pastor Moe, our volunteer and community pastor, to come and share

some of the victories that he's seen this year. Happy New Year, church.

So I want to give you guys a number to start off with. That number is 58.

That was the number of life groups that we had this year alone at City Light Church.

Oh yeah. So these are the home groups that meet from house to house. We had those in three

different boroughs in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, and also meeting digitally on Zoom. We had

over 700 signups and attendees that attended these groups. No, you can clap and praise God for that.

Because what you don't understand is there are two City Light churches. There's a City Light Church

that meets on Sunday morning, and a guest might casually come and say, oh, this is a nice place,

but then you miss out on the second City Light. And the second City Light, if you attend life

group, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's the place where you meet your friends.

That's the place where you get prayer. That's the place where you get accountability and growth,

and it's the kingdom of God, and it truly is the family of God. I've seen so many breakthroughs

happen just this past semester alone. People walking in, distraught, broken, and hurting,

and leaving out buoyant, joyful, and happy, eating fried chicken.

Because listen, if you're life grouping out food, what are we really doing?

No, literally, it's a place where there is fellowship, it's true friendship, it's true accountability.

Have you ever gone through trouble and made the wrong decision because you were isolated in your own thoughts?

I've learned this. Christianity is not meant to be done in isolation.

Christianity is meant to be done in community with accountability, with friends that

tell you don't wear that. Don't do that. See this red flag over here? Beaming? I need you to see

that because sometimes we don't see the... All right, let me give it back behind the table. Let me read

you a verse from the Bible. Acts 246 says, so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking

bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. This is life

groups. This is meeting together, growing together, and making sure that we're bearing fruit.

Because on a Sunday morning, you don't really get to minister. You get minister too, but at a

life group, you get to minister. You get to pray for people. You get to grow in your gifting.

And it's a beautiful thing because we've seen our life groups explode and grow and we give God

the glory for that. We've seen people heal that life groups. We had a couple. They actually went on

a honeymoon trip and they left early to make sure that they were back in time for their life group.

That should tell you the level of diligence because they understood, I don't want to miss out

nothing. If God is showing up, I want to be there. And again, it's a beautiful thing when you can

have somebody walk into a room that is despondent, hurting and broken and they sit down. They don't

say a word and their life group members come alongside them and go, hey, what's going on?

And then they can share and they can open up and then people can pray with them and build them up.

That is such a powerful thing. In a city of isolation and loneliness,

we celebrate that God has given us community and life groups. Amen. Praise God.

Another thing that we're going to thank God for is the healing rooms. See, those sounds,

those whoops that you hear, these are the people that have gone to healing rooms and they've

received the ministry. Basically, the healing rooms, what we do is we endeavor to live out the

scriptures. It says that we would lay our hands upon the sick as believers and they would recover.

So on the second Saturday of every month, we pray for the sick at 4609 31st Avenue right

around the corner where we'll be having church next Sunday. We've seen some amazing things,

church. We've seen people, as a matter of fact, just this year, one of our members was diagnosed

with cancer. So they received prayer, they also received their treatment and now they're cancer-free.

Can we give God glory for that? I mean, we've seen blood diseases healed. We've literally seen

people that, excuse me, one of their legs is shorter than the other and we've seen,

actively seen with our own eyes, their leg grow out. They've had to get new orthopedic shoes and

their doctor was like, where are you been? What are you doing? So the God that we serve,

the Bible says that He's the same yesterday, today and forever. The same power and miracles

that you see in the Bible that you have access to that today. So we celebrate. We prayed for over 75

people this year. We've seen so many testimonies of people walking in one way, leaving out the other.

I love when I see sometimes people walking with canes and then you got to chase them down the

block when the appointment is over like, you forgot your cave and they're like, I don't want it.

We've seen that at the healing room. So we celebrate God. We celebrate His healing power,

His anointing, the blood of Jesus that gives us access to supernatural healing. We praise God.

But another thing that we praise God for are volunteers. Oh yeah. So everything that you see here

from the lights to the beautiful decorations, even my cloak. No, not my cloak. But everything

that you see, you see because we have a team of people behind us. It is not just pastor,

bull pastor, James and I that makes this church run. We are the leadership, but we have a team

of people and really they are the answer to prayer. We prayed to God, help us to build your kingdom

and He sent us amazing men and women that love Jesus and are willing to pull out of their time,

their effort, their energy, their money to make sure that the kingdom of God and the gospel is

going forth with power. Now knowing that that is the case that they give so selflessly to build

up the kingdom, we always want to celebrate, acknowledge and just declare that God is doing a

wonderful work. Now I'm the community pastor. If you don't know me, one thing you will know

or get to know about me very quickly, I like to party. It's within my nature.

More like it has to do with food, we're going to do it. And every year I'm responsible for

making sure that we celebrate our volunteers. So basically this is what it looks like.

I call it pastor bone. I say pastor bone, I want to have a party. And the first thing pastor

bone says, what's the number? And I say, pastor, I want to have a party. He said, what's the number?

I said, I want to have a party on a boat. And he said, what's the number? I said, it's a boat.

But he did say yes. Let's take a look at this video.

Some shining down on me all by the brand new day, nothing can bring me through.

First stylist thought she was going to the Oscars. Instead, it's the civilized volunteer party.

Hey, all right. We're celebrating today. Awesome.

The faithful through the age of the war comes to us.

Father, thank you for what's about to take place as Robin Yari Martino come on up because we're

going to ordain them into the ministry today. So this isn't just a ceremony for the sake of a

ceremony. Something special is happening here. The sweet psalmist award goes to

Katherine Bennett.

The kids and beat the award goes to Mr.

Osset. The rookie of the year goes to another that.

Hey,

lucky of the year!

Oh, yeah, this is an amazing

pleasure to be here.

The first service, everyone is laughing. I suppose, like, what's so funny though?

It's you, my friends. It's you.

So, again, we celebrate our volunteers. We give awards. We give thanks and appreciation for all

that they do. We give thanks for them.

AKA, you should join the volunteer team so we can give thanks for you.

One of the last things that I do want to celebrate that the Lord has given us the privilege to do is

we get to have church. And when I say that we get to have church, we get to have church in a

way where church is actually church. Did you know that the four walls of this building is not

what makes up the church? What makes up the church is every believer within this room.

And so often we have in our personal lives and in our worlds people that if we invite them

the church, they're not necessarily going to attend. So what we like to do is we like to

put the church in an accessible place where people have access to it. Because although someone might

not say yes to an invitation to church, they're probably not going to say no to a barbecue in a picnic.

So what we like to do annually is we go to the streets really and we have this huge blowout

of a party with one aim that we might bring the church and make it accessible to people who

might not necessarily come to a service. You might say, well, what does that look like? It looks

like we have a prayer table. It looks like we have different elements for the community,

just letting people know what city-like church is about. And we have, yes, free food that we spend

a great deal on because we want people to know that they are loved, they are welcomed.

Matter of fact, just show the video. Let the people see what we're working with.

It's just so amazing to be around people who also believe in the Savior's you believe,

you know that Jesus died and rose and we get to share that belief with one another.

It doesn't feel strange to talk about the love of somebody who's getting her off, you know.

I am enjoying today's beautiful day. I didn't expect it was going to be so much, so many

things for the children to do. This is my first time here and I was very surprised at how much unity

there is and how everyone comes in part take. You need to eat all of the ribs, all of the ribs.

All of this, it's really been a miracle. God's grace and just finding this beautiful community

that loves God that is so passionate about reaching out to other people. This is the back of what I've

been looking for when I say church communities. I've been looking for a church, we've never

looked for a church family and I'm so glad that comes to city-like.

I love it, it's the first time in this barbecue. I want a good work, I love the service,

the people are very kind, a wonderful, thank you very much. So, if it's your first time,

come play the ball, come here, Sunday's, you know, let's go, go, great!

Let's give a round of applause to the Lord.

So, again, we celebrate that God has privileged us and allowed us to take the gospel to the streets.

Stand with me and join me as we worship through song.

As we look back and celebrate 2023, General, that was one of our most

song favorite songs in city-like. That's a good time, isn't it? Singing and celebrating the

faithfulness of our God. What a great way to look back at 2023.

And one of the things we got to start the year doing is with an anniversary celebration.

You guys remember that? In January, we kicked off the year with a 21-year anniversary,

we rented out the Melrose Ballroom and we packed it out and had a party.

You remember that? Who got to join us for that? That was an incredible celebration

of 21 years of God's faithfulness. Let's look at some of the highlights from that incredible

experience.

Man, I am so excited to be celebrating 21 years of city-like church and this is the ultimate party.

People said, yes, Pastor Boyan said, yes, the church said, yes,

God, I'm showing up.

I'm so glad that Pastor Boyan said, yes, 21 years ago and we're reaping the benefits

as is our community. I hope you're getting as much out of it. God is good and he's not done yet.

The best is still yet to come.

Do you like that song that was playing behind that video?

Do you know that's an original city-like song? That's good stuff.

God has given us so many talented individuals. Hasn't our worship team done an incredible job?

Let's give them some thanks. You guys have done a great job. Thank you for leading us.

We got a lot of talent that God has blessed us with and we get to celebrate and you take it for

granted to you. This is another church and you realize they don't have the talent.

But it's a good time coming together and celebrating our God. And sneak peak next year,

we're going to be able to celebrate a little bit more of those original songs.

They got a city-like LP coming out with a good handful of five original songs that are going to

bless you. It's going to be good. They've been sneaking them in and you guys don't even know.

You're like, wow, that's a great new hillside. They're really burning it up.

The city-like, it's good stuff. Isn't it being good? Now let me tell you, let me look at a passage

here that I was thinking of in Psalm 118, verse 24 and 25. This is the day that the Lord is made.

Psalms 118:24

We will rejoice and be glad in it. Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us

success, success. God's given us so many successes. We rejoice and celebrate those successes and that's

the point of what we're doing today. Look at this in Proverbs 163. Commit your actions to the Lord

and your plans will succeed. And that's what we've done here at city-like. We commit all that we do

to the Lord and He is bringing us success. Let's put our hands together and let's thank you

more more time because all the credit belongs to Jesus for all he has done.

Earlier in the year, we created a brand new city-like logo and a new website so that it was

easier for people to figure out what's going on around here. The website's kind of a

taste and sea. That's the front door. You guys know that, right? You're going to check something out,

a new place, a new store, a restaurant, a church. What do you do first? You go to their website.

And so we wanted to have a fresh look that was easy to navigate that represented who we are that

helps people get in through that front door. And so that was a lot, that was a labor of love, right?

That was tough. Pastor Bo was looking at all these new logos that the designers were giving. He's

like, nope, not that one, nope, not that one. That's not right. That's not right. And we finally had one

that felt like city-like and we can use that to continue to show people who we are and what we're

about. And that was incredible. Then we had an incredible revival weekend. You remember Nathaniel

Saini-Loy came and ministered over the course of three days. Four services blessed and encouraged.

Were you blessed by that? That was good stuff. He spoke prophetic words over so many people

laid hands on just about everyone prayed for everyone. That was a powerful weekend. We got

to celebrate. If you remember a couple of months ago, we actually shared that one of our partnerships

with the Grace Center and Ethiopia through our mission initiatives was able to acquire more

property in a neighboring community where they're going to be able to expand and create a whole

other school orphanage center resource center to be more impactful in a neighboring community and

expand their influence. Let's give God some praise for that because that's a big accomplishment.

So why did Pastor Bo start city-like all those years ago, almost 22 years ago?

There were other churches in NYC when you started, right? It wasn't like, oh my goodness,

it's a waste land. There's no churches here. There's a lot of churches here. Why one more?

Because he just like then and us now want to see a church alive with the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what he wanted to see and that's what we want to see today. So many churches they pale

in comparison to what we read about in scripture, right? We read powerful stories of healing,

Jesus touching people. We see the Holy Spirit alive and active. He was befriending the sinners

and the prostitutes and he was frustrating the Pharisees, I like that. But then you see these kind

of anemic sad, it looks like maybe you're at a funeral or awake. They're just very reverent.

They're dead. We want a church that's alive where everyone is welcomed. Everyone can come in and

experience the transformative power of Jesus and be changed. That's what we want at City Light

Church where you can see power, you can see healing, you can find love and you can find grace

and his mercy. We want a church that everyone is welcome to. Everyone is needed as Pastor Mo mentioned

and a church where everyone is changed. You want to be changed or you want to stay the same?

The right answer is to be changed. A lot of you were murmuring it and I appreciate it. I want to

be changed because I'm a hot mess and I need to be better. And that's good and this is a place

where we can experience Christ and be changed. Let's look at what we find in Acts chapter 2 beginning

Acts 2 · chapter mention

of verse 42. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and

to sharing in meals including the Lord's Supper and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all

and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders and all the believers met together in

one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and their possessions and they

shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the temple each day. They met in

homes for the Lord's Supper and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while

praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people and each day the Lord added to their

fellowship those who were being saved. That sounds incredible. That's the kind of church I want to

be a part of. Not some of these churches that are just kind of playing church going through the

motions and really worshipping ritual but a church where we can come together and be fully devoted.

I don't want a church that kind of seems consumeristic and just kind of going through the motions

politically correct. I don't want to be a part of a church like that. What I just read sounds like

a church full of people that were sold out and fully devoted to Christ. They were devoted to

themselves. They were devoted to each other and everyone was filled with awe. You filled with awe

when you come into this place when you hang around other city lighters. That's our hope for you.

They weren't just going to church. They were the church. That's what we want to be a part of.

They weren't just spiritual consumers. They were spiritual contributors and just like us here at

city light we give, we worship, we study, we pray, we evangelize, we meet needs. We want to be

a radically generous church full of generosity just like the passage in Acts where everyone gave

together and no one had need. They had everything in common and they gave. You've heard all the recaps

shared. All the wins and successes and the radical generosity of here at city light. The amazing

things that we've been able to be a part of here in New York City and around the world,

sharing the truth, the love, the life change of Jesus. Just like the church in the first century,

I want us to be part of a radical movement of God devoted to each other and Jesus.

As we continue to grow bigger on Sundays, look to your left and your right. There's a couple of empty

seats. Let's fill them. You want to commit in 2024 to have no empty seats in our services?

That'd be awesome. The solution is right here to you. Invite people. Invite them to come.

Let's fill this place but we'll continue to grow smaller in our life groups. That's how

a big church stays small. You have community in life groups. As Pastor Moe explained,

that's we have relationship, accountability, food. I wish we had pizza and service on Sunday,

but we don't. Gotta go to life group. The semester starts again in February. Make sure you're in one.

We'll continue to launch new churches all around the world as we partner with other ministries

through our initiatives and relationships as we continue to see God's good news spread.

We're in leverage technology. We stream the services. Can we thank the production and tech teams

right now? Thank you and great job. It takes money, time, and effort. I know a lot of people think

that they're YouTube stars and it's not as easy as it sounds or looks. It takes a lot of work and a

lot of preparation and a lot of energy, but it's worth it to us for more people to hear the good

news of Jesus. So we stream the service. Did you know that hundreds more than sit in the seats

on Sunday actually experience our services via the online stream? That's incredible. And we leverage

Zoom. We have prayer meetings via Zoom every single week and tomorrow we start 21 days of prayer

and fasting via Zoom and that is an incredible leveraging of technology. This year we have a special

link just for kids so they can be involved in this process as well. We're going to continue to look

for opportunities to redeem and leverage technology to reach more people for Jesus. That's what I want

to be a part of. As long as there's breath in our bodies we're committed to be radically devoted

to Jesus and to each other so that his will be done and his kingdom advanced. That's the kind of

church we want to be part of in 2024. You excited to do it? Let's do it together. That's it.

Awesome highlights and memorial stones that were laid down today.

You know in my desire to see city lights really become what God has called it to be.

I can actually put my eyes so much into where we need to be that I forget the victories.

And maybe you're that way with your own life. I know I am. You know that there's still a way to go

and you can get caught up by where you are and how much further you have to go but then you

forget where you've come from and so we've just spent this service celebrating what amazing things

God has done for us in the last year and really as we compiled this list I realized I had forgotten

half of these things because I'm too busy thinking about where we still need to be and I encourage you

to not get overwhelmed by where you need to go but celebrate what God has done for you in 2023.

I really hope that as you enter in tonight that you'll make that list and you'll be reminded

and you will remind the Lord now how good he's been and it'll build up your faith for 2024.

We're going to say a confession of faith together in just a minute I just want to give you two

announcements just to reiterate next Sunday we won't be meeting here how many of you knew that

we'll be right five minutes away just down the street at the St. Andrews location all of that

information is on our website and the emails that have been sent out on our social media

and so we trust to see you there next Sunday and then number two is 21 days of prayer and fasting

begin tomorrow and so how long you're going to fast that's between you and the Lord I encourage you

to get a number from the Lord it could be the first week it could be the second week it can be

one day it can be the full 21 days you do business with God and find out what he's putting on your

heart but everyone can join us at 7 p.m. every night on zoom as we pray together how many of you

will be joining us tomorrow don't miss out on praying together it's really one of my favorite times

a year it is just powerful there was something about praying together in a community and so can't

wait to see one zoom starting tomorrow for 21 days let's all stand the Bible says death and life

are in the power of the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof

God has put a power in an authority in your mouth and we're going to decree and declare this

over 2024 are you ready say this out loud with me father in the name of Jesus as I enter 2024

I know you're already there you've gone before me I believe your hand is upon me the holy spirit is

within me your grace surrounds me 2024 is a year of victory it's my best year yet my cup runs

over I experience your protection your prosperity your favor thank you Lord I go into the new year

with faith optimism excitement you're going to do yourself Lord and I thank you for it

in Jesus name hallelujah hallelujah and happy new year hallelujah

a ministry theme won't you come on up we're going to worship the Lord with one more song I encourage

you to give him your all as you sing to him and if you want prayer for anything anything at all

our ministry team would love to lay hands on you and pray with you and for you you can come on

up to the front whoever wants prayer but we're going to put our eyes on Jesus and sing sing him one

more song right to his heart from yours amen we'll see you in 2024 tomorrow night as we

kick off prayer bless you city light 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 janskick and city

light church visit us at citylightnyc.com that's citylightnyc.com you're 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 subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you

find your favorite podcasts worldwide