Exploring Financial Wisdom: Overcoming Poverty Spirit and Embracing Abundance

Please note that your answer is in Jesus.

Please know that He loves you and that He will set you free.

There's all different types of addictions.

I've had various, He will set you free.

It won't be by your strength, it'll be by His.

It won't be your power, it'll be His.

You say, what do I do?

There's things I've been addicted to.

You come and you tell God your power list on your own.

And you say, Lord, I trust You.

Lord, I lean into You.

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'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.

We have concluded now for the last eight plus weeks our series on Galatians.

And we have talked about the different covenants, the differences between the old and the new.

Over and over again, we've read the words of the Apostle Paul,

anointed by the Holy Spirit because it's not just some guy Paul writing.

It's the very word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit.

As you let us know, we're no longer under the curse of the law.

And the curse of the law is that you have to keep doing the law

and if you're guilty in one part, you're guilty of all.

But now you've been invited into a covenant of grace that's God's unmarried favor.

And it's yours for free.

And hopefully if you've walked away with anything, you've walked away with a greater sense of God's love.

That He loves you.

And that's not cheap. It's not a cheap love.

And it's not just an emotional love.

It's a love that springs into action.

It's a demonstrative love.

Love can mean so many different things for people.

God loves you and they think God from a distance just waving,

sending good vibes and good energy.

But the Bible says God so loved the world that He's sprung into action

and gave His only begotten Son.

His love does something. His love is a love of action.

His love is a love of movement.

And so the Scriptures declare over us over and over again that God loves us.

It means that He is acting on your behalf.

He's moving on your behalf.

Amen.

And so if you're a guest here,

I just want to say welcome,

and also we have waxed incredibly theological over the last eight weeks.

We dove into the deep stuff.

And I went line upon line, precept upon precept,

verse by verse through the entire book of Galatians.

But today is going to be a little different.

I want to talk about a different subject matter,

but something that's been brewing in my heart for some time.

And something that I believe if you're a good shepherd,

you'll want your people to be aware of and to know,

because my job is to be an under shepherd to Jesus

and to feed you the Word of God and to protect you

and to issue a warning if necessary.

And it's in the realm today that I want to discuss.

It's in the realm of finances.

Because you may not be paying attention.

Some people subscribe to the ignorance is bliss model of living their lives.

And then some people may be paying attention to the wrong things.

Let me just say this right now.

It's 2023. We're going into 2024.

This, the media was always full of lies,

but never so much like today.

So some of you may think you're paying attention to what's going on.

I would just question where you're getting your sources.

I have to get my sources from dozens of different places

and then come up with my own conclusion.

The days of sitting in front of any media and just saying,

oh, that's what's going on. Those days are gone.

I'm telling you, you're going to be brainwashed within three weeks, tops.

Amen.

Because I'm not just reporting the news.

They're telling you what to think about them.

How to respond.

Sometimes within 10 seconds of meeting someone,

I just feel like saying your programming is showing.

Excuse me, your programming is sticking out.

Yeah. Please, tuck that away.

I mean, I can just tell exactly where you're coming from because of...

And in the natural, I stress, in the natural.

Thank God we're not in the natural, we're in the spirit.

But in the natural, the situation doesn't look too good financially

for the country.

If you haven't been paying attention, the country is massively in debt.

This has been the story for years, but now it's really approaching

if it hasn't already reached a critical point, a breaking point.

30 plus trillion in debt during 2020,

the country printed four plus trillion dollars just created it out of thin air.

If you follow me on social media, I've posted the videos of Powell

just talking about how they created the money out of thin air.

And the guy on 60 minutes says, well, you printed the money?

They don't even printed anymore.

There's no. We just basically clicked on the keyboard

and added several trillion.

And people are not wondering, where does the inflation come from?

And arguing about what inflation is.

Inflation comes from inflating the money supply.

Money gets its value from a thing called scarcity.

And if you can just add four plus trillion, make it rain on the nation

and now it loses the value.

Amen.

I remember in 2020 I started talking about inflation and people looked at me

like I had two heads.

I told it, majority of Americans, I feel,

just from the responses I got, didn't even know what inflation was.

It wasn't in the vernacular.

Then you have it maybe as a distant economic concept.

And now you hear about it all the time and you've experienced it

when you go to buy a dozen eggs.

This thing is on, right?

She hit the jackpot.

If you can just dial that volume down, it's just a smidgen.

It reminds me when I go through the airports and the jackpot.

They don't have that in American airports,

but other ones that have slot machines and different dependable conchula.

I understand. I got kiddos too.

I get it.

Just a volume, just a smidgen.

I get so easily distracted when I preach.

I'm going to come alongside her and play.

Are we dismissed as at the end of the survey?

Where am I?

I'm just getting started.

I want you to be prepared.

This doesn't have to be the story for you.

I want you to be financially sound.

Amen.

We prepared going into 2024.

And so just to set the foundation,

I want to read to you from Deuteronomy 8.

Deuteronomy 8.10.

When you have eaten and are full,

say full.

Just I want you to catch God's heart for prosperity.

He doesn't say when you have eaten just enough.

But when you have eaten and are full,

just that shout it one more time.

Full.

That means you're waddling away from the table.

You're full.

This is God's heart.

This is Jesus when he fed the multitudes.

They took up 12 baskets of leftovers.

That's his way.

That's his style.

When you have eaten and are full,

then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land.

Shout good lands.

Good land which he has given you.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God

by not keeping his commandments,

his judgments and his statutes which I command you today.

Less when you are eaten and are full

and have built beautiful houses.

Shout beautiful houses.

Beautiful houses.

Not shacks.

I just want you to catch God's heart.

Look, you can either read this and go,

that's nice or you can say,

when I first saw this in the Bible,

I was shacked.

I was blown away.

Because somehow I was taught to equate poverty with Godliness.

And poverty has nothing to do with Godliness.

Poverty is not something anybody should be welcoming

into their lives.

You're not some 15th century monk going up into the hills,

taking a vow of poverty,

which I don't know why they did that,

or I mean I know historically why,

but I don't really see the fruit.

You can find God in wealth.

You can find Him in spite of poverty.

But I've tried both and I'm telling you wealth is better.

I promise you.

When you have eaten in our full

and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them.

And when your herds and your flocks multiply,

back then they use herds and flocks instead of bank accounts.

When your herds and your flocks multiply,

and your silver and your gold are multiplied,

and all that you have is multiplied.

Shout multiplied.

When your heart is lifted up,

and this is the danger as the Lord begins to bless you,

that your heart is lifted up and you think that it's you who did it.

And there really is a real temptation.

You want to lean into the humility of the Lord

and show your dependence on Him.

When your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God

who brought you out of the land of Egypt

from the house of bondage,

who led you through that great and terrible wilderness

in which were fiery serpents and scorpions,

in thirsty land where there was no water,

who brought water for you out of the flinty rock,

who fed you in the wilderness with mana,

which your fathers did not know.

This is talking about that wilderness season

that He might humble you and that He might test you.

Why? To do you good in the end.

Your end state will be better than your beginning state.

And I've been serving the Lord for 30 plus years.

And I think I've had about six in 30 plus years,

actual wilderness seasons.

I'm not talking about a bad day, a bad week,

but I'm talking about a wilderness season.

Practically you're having a crisis of faith.

You ever been through a wilderness season?

That's when you want to just jump out of your skin.

You don't even want to be you.

You even have the thought, Lord, take me up.

Nothing makes sense and you're in the crushing.

It's at about six.

Now I didn't think this one I was going through,

when I was going through it,

I'd do anything to not be going through it,

but having gone through it, I look back and I think,

yeah, I wouldn't trade those for anything.

How many of you can relate?

You have made it through a wilderness.

I wouldn't trade it for anything,

because I will look back then and see

that there was a promotion associated with that.

Usually, months up to a year and a half later,

I'll look back and go,

my life is in a totally different place.

After that wilderness season, I went through a crushing,

I went through a pressing, I was tested.

Humility means your dependence, your neediness for God,

that he might humble you and that he might test you,

become more humble and then he did you good in the end.

Hallelujah.

Next verse.

Then you say in your heart,

my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.

No, don't do that.

Don't do that.

And you shall remember the Lord your God,

for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.

When I first read this verse,

it had an impact on me.

And you can read this and go,

isn't that sweet?

Or you can say,

this is God and this is God for me.

Power is anointing,

creative ability,

power to get wealth,

that he may establish his covenant

which he swore to your fathers

as it is this day.

The covenant is established when you increase.

Hey, it's part of the covenant.

Say that belongs to me.

It belongs to you.

It belongs to you.

Increase.

Hallelujah.

Then he may establish his covenant

which he swore to your fathers

as it is this day.

So God is on your side.

You are not a citizen of earth.

The Bible says your citizenship is in heaven.

And I want to provoke your faith

as we go into 2024

that no matter what is happening,

I want to see you on the increase

and in a better place financially.

Can we agree to that?

Amen.

I know for some people

to talk about finances in church,

it's almost sacrilege

because they just think

the two don't go together.

That's not my fault.

You don't think the two go together.

Jesus put them together all the time.

You know, Jesus talked twice

as much about hell as he did about heaven.

But he talked about finances,

offerings, talents.

Talents, not like I'm talented,

I can sing but talent as a unit of measurement

for precious metal.

And real estate,

he talked about all that

more than heaven and hell combined.

Why?

Because he knows that's important to you.

Isn't it crazy how people can come to church

and then separate and think

that's not important?

But it is important

because you still live on earth,

although your citizenship is in heaven

and your son of God

and a daughter of God,

but you still have to interact with the earth.

You can't go to the grocery store

and buy a dozen eggs for eight dollars.

And when it's time to pay,

say, you know,

my citizenship is in heaven.

And actually, I don't talk about finances.

I should talk about it more.

The more I talk to people

and the church, the more I realize

I should talk about it more.

Because honestly,

some things,

I've done my homework.

I've dove into this

and the practicality of this.

And the Lord has blessed me.

And then I'm shocked that some people still,

I say this with love,

but it really sends a shutter

through my heart.

They're in a high school level.

They could be over 50,

but they're in a high school level

in understanding how finances work

and they're wondering

why they're always broke.

Why they're always on barely

get along street

and just barely have enough.

And it shouldn't be.

Your silver and your gold

should be multiplying.

And your oxen,

multiplying,

and all that you have,

multiplying,

that's God's heart.

So let's get out of his way

and allow him to do that

in our lives, amen.

And don't let the news out there scare you.

Yeah, in the natural,

it is bleak.

But that's when we just

rev it up.

I'm giving more.

I'm not giving less.

I'm believing more.

I'm not believing less.

I'm expecting for more.

I'm not expecting for less.

Hallelujah.

Please don't.

Don't make me be the only one.

Please.

I don't want to be here

in a year apologizing.

Oh, for my wealth.

I...

I won't do it anyway,

but I don't want to be here

a year from now having to explain.

Let me not say,

I'm having to explain.

Oh, 2024 is going to be delicious.

For me and my family,

that's my...

It's going to be amazing.

If you could do it back then

and cause a water to come out

of a dry and flinty rock,

furnish a table in the wilderness,

2024 is going to be our best year yet.

Declare that over yourself.

Over your family.

The best year.

Hallelujah.

So what comes in the way

of this kind of thinking,

probably what I'm facing

a little bit right now as a ministering,

is something called a poverty spirit,

or poverty mentality,

because when I say poverty spirit,

don't think of a broke demon.

Like a shoeless demon

with a coat and holes

goes around.

Is that what you thought?

You must have read Christian books

in the 90s.

Illustrated ones.

Did you...

Did I know?

I've been in the biz long enough.

I know exactly where it comes from.

Yes, there is a demonic spirit,

but in order for it to function,

it has to be a mentality first

where transformed by the renewing of our minds.

The principalities and the powers

they can only function

when there is this particular thought

that runs through people.

And if enough people have the same thought,

that's when you get a stronghold.

A stronghold is a house made of thoughts.

So, poverty spirit,

and I've just hated it, it's disgusting.

And it's a mentality that afflicts people.

I've been to over 50 different countries.

I can sometimes feel at the moment

the playing touches ground.

You can feel the poverty spirit.

I love poor people, by the way.

I just hate the poverty spirit.

Jesus loved poor people,

but didn't glorify the poverty spirit.

Some people think the poverty spirit equates to holiness.

We have, by the way, missions programs

in some of the poorest countries on earth.

We spend years working over in Liberia,

fourth poorest nation on the earth.

I never ever got off that plane

and said, wow, the holiness of God is in this place.

You just feel, because of the poverty you know,

it's the holy.

Oh, it's the exact opposite.

Oh, Lord.

So, I want to give you some characteristics

so that you can be open and find

where you are aligning yourself

or agreeing with this poverty spirit in your own life.

And let's put an end to it, amen.

Let's say no, what's in for all.

Hallelujah.

It is, I believe, with all my heart,

it is our responsibility to be financially blessed.

It's not just something we can indulge in,

but it's our responsibility.

It's our responsibility to have a cup that overflows.

I don't want him to come to me and say,

you just buried your talents.

What did you do?

You did nothing.

But no, you grew.

And now, with more finances,

you can help more people.

Hallelujah.

So, this should never, anything I say,

by the way, it may be to provoke you,

it's never to condemn you.

If you get upset at me, I welcome that good.

But just know, I'm on your side,

and I'm never, ever condemning you,

but I may be provoking you.

But we live under no condemnation

thanks to the blood of Jesus, amen.

So, you ready?

Let's go through some characteristics of the poverty spirit.

In no particular order of importance.

But number one,

a characteristic of the poverty spirit

is resentment,

specifically towards people of means,

towards wealthy people.

If you find that you resent people

who are better off than you,

that is a type of the poverty spirit.

And usually, in the media,

wealthy people are presented as like evil.

And I'm telling you right now,

they're not.

There are some, but you know what?

This might blow your mind.

Just hang on.

Did you know there's evil poor people?

Did you know that?

There's wealthy people that are harming you.

Did you know there's poor people that are harming you?

I know.

There's wealthy people who are proud and selfish.

Did you know there's poor people that are proud and selfish?

But statistically speaking,

percentage wise, wealthy people

give way more and relieve way more suffering than poor people.

I don't yourself, of course, they're wealthy.

They have more money.

I mean percentage wise.

They'll give a greater percentage

of money that they have.

This country has done so much good concerning Christianity.

We were at the height responsible

for over 91% of the missionaries in the world.

Before Korea came.

How Korea sending out missionaries wholesale into the world.

But we were responsible for 91%.

Warfinages being built, churches being built.

People doing good with their finances.

Where I come from, there's a severe poverty mentality

that's still from the old communist days.

And they just think every poor rich person is evil.

I'll never forget.

This is nearly 20 years ago now.

After the war ended, I came.

And I'm taking a boat ride off the coast.

I see this beautiful house.

And I asked the boat operator,

who's house is that?

He goes, ah, mafia.

Everybody who seems to have money,

they just say mafia.

Mafia.

They don't even know them.

Just must be evil because they have money.

Mafia.

I just said, wow.

The mob is big here.

Mind you, it's like the safest place in Eastern Europe.

There's no...

Later, after my trip, I'm on the airplane

and I open up the inflight magazine

and I see the same house.

And it's a woman who sells perfume

and has her own perfume factory,

has a huge cosmetic slime.

Not mafia.

It's just a business owner.

But when you're under the poverty spirit,

everything is mafia.

Now, when the Bible condemns rich people,

it always qualifies specifically,

like in the book of James,

rich people who keep back by defraud.

Rich people who specifically are becoming wealthy

because they're defrauding poor people.

But that's not all wealthy people, amen?

And by the way, you can't become

something you're cursing under your breath.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

So, give it to that resentment.

If you have instant resentment,

if you see someone in a nice car,

well dressed in a nice home,

repent of that.

Hallelujah.

Or don't.

And it'll be another round around the mountain.

Don't do another round around the mountain.

You know what that's a reference to?

The children of Israel.

40 years.

Should have been an 11-day journey.

The walk is like here from here to Rhode Island.

Can you imagine that taking you 40 years?

Going around Central Park 20 times for a few months.

This is getting monotonous.

But you literally have some people still live their lives.

Another round.

Oh, we owe.

Number two.

Part of the spirit of poverty.

Is always having an idea of what rich people should do

with their money.

Like Judas.

The woman came with an alabaster box inside the alabaster box.

Precious perfume.

Worth a year's wages.

Think of that in today's term.

And Judas says,

what a great waste.

Really she got wasted on Jesus.

But he says, what a great waste.

This should have been sold and given to the poor.

It seems so noble, right?

This could have been sold and given to the poor.

And Jesus as only Jesus could.

So Christ-like, because after all he is Jesus the Christ.

He in a very nice way says,

mind your business to Judas.

Mind your business.

What do you care what she did with her stuff?

If she wants to spray it around,

bathe in it, play catch with it,

or annoyed me with it before my burial.

That's her business.

Is this resonating with anyone?

I don't know if you've noticed there's this whole cry of people

telling wealthy people what they should do with their money.

Right, tax the rich,

tax them, tax them into oblivion.

It sounds so nice.

Do you know, if you took, there's 700 billionaires in America.

700 of them.

If you confiscated all their wealth,

it wouldn't be worth more than $3 trillion.

That's less than a tenth of our national deficit.

It wouldn't be a drop in the bucket.

And they're telling you they're the problem,

while they're hiding their absolute reckless out of control spending.

And by the way,

the best way to demoralize and destabilize a country

is to incite class warfare.

America was doing the best

and everybody was on the increase

and we're all cheering each other on

and everybody could believe that they could make it here

but no, the really evil,

bad rich people.

They're getting in your way.

No, this is still the best country on the planet

for upward mobility on planet earth.

And if you don't believe that,

go find a country that's better.

Tell me a country that's better

and then back it up.

Words are cheap, back it up, move.

We need to receive postcards from you

of how well you're doing there.

We will all pray for you for success.

Oh, Hallelujah.

Oh, praise God.

And

number three.

And this is key.

Part of the poverty spirit

is living above your means.

Living above your means.

Letting your outflow be more than your income.

And I would say that right now

I say this with love in my heart

as high as 80% of the people right here.

You're living above your means.

Part of the reason why I'm preaching this message

is before COVID, right before COVID hit.

The amount of savings in America

was in the trillions.

Not national savings,

but I'm talking about all the US citizens

and how much they had in their savings account.

Now,

not even four years later,

it's the tenth of that.

What happened to the savings?

And at the same time,

credit card debt has

increased.

Have you ever

gone out of a supermarket

and walked out with a bag and gone,

how's that $62?

It's like six items jingling in there.

And then I would ask how are people making it?

How are they doing it?

Then I realized they're not.

It's the same old song.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Charge!

And living off credit.

And they're living above their means.

I encourage you.

Before any of the other things

I mentioned, even if you're married

to get together with your spouse

if you're single to get together with yourself in Jesus

and do some real inner work.

Get do some real, take an inventory of yourself

and see what expenses you can cut off.

And it actually comes from a spirit of poverty.

I'm familiar with it because of my former country

and how they operate.

And you see it everywhere, really.

Everywhere there's a part when I was in Bible school down South,

I drive by a trailer park and there'd be three kids running around

in their underwear, dirty feet,

but there's a brand new sparkling Ford F-150.

Right in front of the...

Where I'm from, the big thing was gold chains.

It was this whole thing where every minute you are in a man

if you don't have a gold chain.

It was a particular kind too.

And good shoes, good sneakers.

My cousins were like that.

I'd always pay for lunch,

for they had the gold chain and the fancy sneakers.

And then I'd go into their house and have a bottle of ketchup in the fridge.

But you have...

You know that scripture that says you have a form of godliness

but deny the power they're off?

Well, too many people, they have a form of prosperity

but deny the actual money they're of.

So the Instagram feed is fire.

And they look so good.

But really, they're broke.

They're broke, hooked up to their eyebrows.

That is not God's best for you.

You know how I...

And I know this and I can recognize it so quickly

because I was there.

I was afflicted by it.

And when I dug deep, I realized that's just pride.

Many of you know our story and I've shared

my family and the journey we've been on

and I got into Bitcoin back in 2019.

It was the best decision I ever did.

And we did a whole seminar here in the church and I...

This is not financial advice, but I'm giving financial advice.

I believe in it with all my heart.

I believe in it because you can't make any more of them.

And they'll ever only be 21 million of them.

But anyway, I won't give you a Bitcoin lecture.

But we got our whole finance has changed as a result of that.

And we got flooded in that condo that we had in Williamsburg

and moved to a beautiful house out in Long Island.

And then we needed a second car.

Well, we have a second car, but it's really a 2011 clunker.

I mean, it's Alexis, but I'm telling you,

it's like there's no air conditioning that works.

Like you got to put the windows down, the house is beautiful.

And now my prize started getting activated

and started thinking, you know, I need a car to match the house.

I think God, I have such an amazing wife, really.

She's never once said, you know, I deserve.

She was just...

She, in fact, when I'm the one who gets heated up

and she has to talk me down off the ledge.

Because I'm sitting there and I'm going,

you know, start fantasizing.

I'm like, oh, I wonder what a 2024 would feel like.

I bet the leather is extra buttery.

I bet, I bet it's, I bet my phone completely syncs up with it.

I mean, do I even have to drive that thing?

I bet I just lay back and makes this presso for me and I sip

and it just takes me where I need to go.

And then I do the math and I realize this will be the worst decision.

Even though financially, we could buy it right now.

But I'm going to end up buying the worst possible asset you could possibly own.

And ice cube that's melting.

And just losing value every single day.

So we opted and she talked me off that ledge.

I was like, oh, thank goodness for wives through whom the Holy Spirit speaks.

Now, I'm not suggesting, look, there's a balance here.

I'm not suggesting that any luxury items are bad.

But I'm saying that to get into debt over them is bad and we'll keep you broke.

But luxury items, if you save up for them, if you believe for them,

knock yourself out.

Oh, quality items, don't get suckered in by just...

What's with the bumper sticker, the Supreme bumper sticker?

Is it on Honda Civics?

I guess I asked my questions later, but I'm just like, okay, I guess they became...

But, you know, anyway, that's a whole other thing.

Tell you how to carry hell together by Supreme bumper stickers.

If that's you, I will see you after service.

We can commune, make up if we need to.

Hey, number four, a victim mentality.

That is an expression of the poverty spirit.

Do not allow yourself no matter what you've been through, no matter what you've got.

Look, newsflash, every single one of us has a sob story.

Every single one of us, every single one of us can play the victim.

It gets you nowhere, all you get is cheap sympathy.

That's all you get in its cheap because it's given to you for a little bit of...

And then you're going to seek out for more.

It doesn't help you.

It keeps you stuck and yes, it is a manifestation of the poverty mindset.

And whenever you see a victim mindset, you're going to find it's cousin.

Actually, it's twin brother, poverty.

Sean, thank you. You're playing such beautiful music.

This message would be, I feel like it would come across so much harsher

if Sean wasn't back there. Just so sweet.

I'm like, Supreme bumper stickers and he's like the psalmist, the bard of God.

Lord, speak to us, your people.

Oh, a number five.

We're talking about characteristics of the poverty spirit.

Envy.

When somebody that you know gets blessed with something, what is your knee jerk response?

What comes out of your belly?

What should come out is an understanding that God does not run out.

What he did for someone else, he can do for you.

But people, if you feel envy, yeah.

If you feel envy about anything, what you really deep down in your heart thinking,

because of that poverty mindset, that scarcity mentality,

you're thinking that God is going to run out, or that he blessed someone that you know,

and now there's none left for you.

And he's not, he doesn't run out.

Hallelujah.

You should champion anyone around you who's promoted, who gets success,

or who, do you know what I've done?

I have financially blessed people who didn't need it at all.

By the way, that's good.

That's right.

That's healthy.

They didn't need it.

I needed to bless them.

I needed to sew into them.

To them, it was just a little more on the top.

But I wanted to set my heart free and I wanted to bless them.

And I'm honoring the one that God has blessed and acknowledging that what he did for them,

he can do for me.

Hallelujah.

For these next few, we might need the whole band up there.

Proverbs chapter 6, verse 10 through 11.

Proverbs 6:10–11

Manifestation of poverty, spirit, laziness, slackness, and love of sleep.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity, like an armed man.

Proverbs 20, 13.

Do not love sleep or you will grow poor.

Stay awake and you will have food to spare.

Number 7, and this is a big one for me.

Sloppiness and disorganization.

Let me just show you the scripture for this.

Here's, there's many, but Proverbs 27, 23.

Daniel's stuck out and all his friends stuck out because they had a spirit of excellence.

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks and attend to your herds.

You have to know the state of your flocks.

You have to know what's coming in, what's going out.

And that has to transfer into every area of your life.

Sloppiness, messiness, uncleanness, disorganization,

it's all a manifestation of the poverty spirit and it will keep you poor.

It'll keep you in a place of lack.

Kenneth Hagen tells the wonderful story of the president of the Bible school,

not his, but years before that even.

How he would, to all the young potential pastors, all the ministers,

the candidates that were going through the school,

he had a habit of just showing up to their house unannounced.

And then he would just go and like, mind if I come in and look around a little bit,

what are you going to say now?

And he would just look around.

And he said to those that were sloppy, to those that were disorganized,

to those that are like open drawers and stocks, and it was all just a mess.

He said, not a one of them did I see them succeed.

Not a one.

Is this making sense?

I know people in all areas of the economic spectrum,

when and with wealthy people, you get into the car, smells nice, is nice, all clean.

Poor people.

It's like a 7-Eleven and a Walmart exploded inside of them.

But they're waiting, right?

They're waiting.

It's going to change somehow.

And oftentimes they'll Christianize it.

They'll Christianize, they'll Christianize their breaking of biblical principles

and have this powerful lottery mentality like, I just know my breakthrough is a comment.

And it's not a comment if you don't align with the word of God.

And it'll always be in the future.

And I don't want to be 95 years old.

My bike pillow will come in.

We're not getting any younger, any of them.

I want to know.

Amen.

I want to move forward now.

Hallelujah.

My first car was a thousand dollar Chevy spectrum.

I learned to drive way too late.

I was age 22 because I was raised in New York City.

So I didn't need to drive.

Then I found out after college I'm going to Bible school.

I was like, I got to learn to drive.

So I learned to drive that spring and that summer I went off

to Tampa, Florida, to the River Bible Institute.

And I didn't have any money.

So my first car was a 1986 Chevy spectrum.

I got $4,000 and it was bad.

It was just, it had per mistake.

There was no amount of blade, no amount of air fresheners.

It's just in a steering wheel.

Smelt, so I don't know what they did to that thing.

And then I would always have to wash my hands after I drove my car

because my hands would smell.

And I hated that car.

And I was asking God to get me another car

yet I disdained and despised this car.

And because I hated it, I didn't take care of it at all.

And what's the point of paying for a car wash

when at that point the car wash costs more than the car?

But I got corrected on my attitude.

And another brother in the Bible school

who had a greater revelation than me on this, he said,

you know, God's not going to get you a better car

and tell you a grateful and take care of what he's gotten you.

And he showed me, you're sloppy, you're disorganized.

And I'm like, not in any other area of my life, I'm not.

But with my car because I hated it, I just let it go to hell.

Kind of arrived from hell, but I let it go.

And I said, what do you suggest they do?

He said, you need to go to the whatever it was.

Not the car wash.

No, no, no, he wanted me to wax it myself.

And he told me that he said, no, no, no, you need to feel every inch of the car.

And thank God for every inch of the car.

I'll never forget $50 was a lot of money back then.

The auto zone.

I went to the auto zone, this is all fun.

Now, 23 years old, my first time going into an auto zone.

And I'm picking up the wax and the sponges.

And he's teaching me how to, all the different things you got to do to properly clean a car

and then wax it.

And, you know, you can't just use any old tile.

He got me the microfiber and not to scratch it.

Like, you know, the thing had gashes in it.

Like it'd been through World War Three.

But he got me to, I spent, it killed me to spend $50 on it.

And I spent the whole afternoon in that hot floor to sun.

Washing it, then waxing it, then buffing it, then two coats.

And finally, this old clunky car, though, it's shown like a pearl.

And it looked like I cared.

And soon after that, I wasn't driving the Chevy Spectrum.

I'd upgraded, not by much, but by little.

At least it didn't have a premise thing in it.

To a red truck.

It was a Sanford and Son type red truck.

But it was a red truck.

From, from, from, from, from, from, from, that's how I felt.

But I was high and lifted up.

And I'm not kidding, people don't believe me, this is true.

With the Chevy Spectrum, there was at least half a dozen times

where I would hit on the brake and my foot would just go right through.

Yeah. And then I'd pump it.

And then it would get to working again.

So at least the truck had a functioning brake.

You don't, you don't say, you need whisper, it's dangerous.

You have no idea, you have no idea.

When I, when I tell you I'm grateful to the Lord and, and the stupid stuff I've done,

and how I lived in my early 20s, it's amazing.

I'm here ministering to you.

Amazing what he's delivered and rescued me from.

Because I stayed on the road.

I was like, well, I'll just pump it. I have no choice.

I can feel your disappointment expressing me.

I thought I'm going to go minister over here.

What?

But after the truck, after the Sanford and Son truck,

I took care of that too.

I was given a 325 IBMW, Hallelujah.

The point of my story is take care of what you have

and take care of the apartment of the home that you have.

Hallelujah and love it and thank God for it.

Do you know it's possible to be grateful for what you have

while still believing for an upgrade?

You don't have to hate the thing you have.

Then the upgrade won't come.

But taking care and thanking God for what you have.

And knowing the state of your flocks when it comes to finances.

I've shared this before.

I'll share it again.

If you come to me for financial help,

the first thing I'm going to ask you is how much debt do you have.

In over 80 percent of the people I meet with,

their responses, I don't really know.

Why?

Do you know the emu bird?

That the people think it's an ostrich but it's really the emu bird.

It sticks its head in a hole.

Do you know why it does that?

It does that.

It's not looking for food.

It stays like that because it believes that if it can't see its enemies,

its enemies can't see it.

So it sticks its head in a sand.

And that's how people are with their debt.

It sticks their head in a sand.

Like if I can't see it,

maybe it'll just magically go away and it can't see me.

It'll find you.

Trust me.

It knows.

And while your head is in a sand, it's growing.

That's not the growth that you want.

You don't want the penalties.

You don't want the 29 percent APR that would make a true mobster blush

at the amount that they're ripping and scamming the American public for.

But being...

I remember when I first had to figure out how much debt I had.

And we've been consumer debt-free for all our marriage and before then.

But there was a time when I had over $60,000 of consumer debt spread across 16,

16 different credit cards.

I just keep getting new credit card offers in the mail and saying yes

and then robbing Peter to play Paul.

A little voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit would say,

you know, this will catch up one day.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That day will come.

I'll get a breakthrough.

By the way, the breakthrough came and came in the form of me waking up.

And then paying it off slowly and do you know what?

As I stayed faithful and played it off slowly,

then some true genuine breakthroughs came.

Some surprises.

But you got to put one foot in front of the other and do the right thing.

Get that thing in motion.

Hallelujah.

We're going to be receiving communion soon.

Right about right around now is a great time to read Proverbs 5, 11, 13,

number 8.

Hating correction and instruction.

Hating correction and instruction is a form of the poverty spirit.

Do you know when I'm with wealthy people, one thing?

They ask me a lot of questions.

And I've had people who are struggling with their finances,

struggling, struggling.

Meet with me, come to my new house,

spend hours with me, and I'd ask me a single question.

That one question.

Just look out of curiosity.

Hey, tell me about Bitcoin.

Tell me about, isn't it too late?

Tell me any question.

What's the weather like?

Any, who know?

There's no questions asked.

I hear a lot of what they have to say.

But no questions.

A type of the poverty spirit is hating any kind of instruction.

Any kind of correction.

And you mourn at last when your flesh and your body are consumed.

And say, how I have hated instruction and my heart despised correction.

I've not obeyed the voice of my teachers

nor incline my ear to those who instructed me.

I feel like, you know, I have a lot of people over,

and some people are looking at me funny.

I'm not, if you're here, I'm not talking about you.

I'm not talking about anybody from the church.

Next time I'll make sure I ask them all these questions.

No, I'm not talking about you.

Look at people outside of the church.

Jesus, Lord.

This is where communion's coming up.

My point here was people think rich people are proud.

I actually find a lot of rich people to be very, very humble and inquisitive and curious.

And when I hang out with poor people, I find them to be incredibly proud.

There's a, you can't tell me nothing, attitude.

There's a, I know it.

I got it.

I don't want to, uh, no, you need to sit and learn.

But I'm not going to shove it down.

You need to ask some questions.

You need to love instruction.

Keep pushing away.

People who are there who can help you.

Addictive behavior is a lack of temperance as a type.

Or as associated.

I don't say a type.

Excuse me.

It's affiliated and associated and reinforces the poverty spirit.

Proverbs 23, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will

close a man with rags.

Now, if you're suffering from any kind of addiction, any kind of addiction at all,

please note that your answer is in Jesus.

Please know that he loves you and that he will set you free.

There's all different types of addictions.

I've had various.

He will set you free.

It won't be by your strength.

It'll be by his.

It won't be your power.

It'll be his.

You said, what do I do?

There's things I've been addicted to.

You come and you tell God, you're powerless on your own.

And you say, Lord, I trust you.

Lord, I lean into you.

I renounce Satan in Jesus' name.

I receive grace from you, O God.

I believe you transform me from the inside out.

And every addiction falls off of me now in Jesus' name.

Boom.

He's, oh, I did that.

Do it again.

And then praise him for it.

And then do it again.

And the righteous man falls down seven times,

but each time gets back up again.

And keep putting one foot in front of the other.

He's big enough.

He will do it.

Hallelujah.

And finally,

following frivolous people and pursuits,

Proverbs 28, 19,

he who tells his land will have plenty of bread,

but he who follows frivolity.

Just say that with me, frivolity.

Frivolity.

That was hundreds of years before the New Testament was written.

Nearly a thousand years before the New Testament was written,

there still was something called frivolity.

But now we live in the age of frivolity,

where you can burn hours and hours in a day just by scrolling.

Now that I'm in Long Island,

I went to this place called the mall.

It's an amazing place.

Just yesterday, went to the mall first time.

Since I moved, visited a few other times in my life.

But honestly, I felt like something changed.

I'm walking around and Emily said at first,

that kept it on the inside.

I don't know if it's the legalized weed everywhere,

or the devices, or both,

but everyone looked like a space cadet.

It just felt...

Honestly, I thought I was...

Remember that old show, the walking dead, or whatever?

It looked like the walking dead,

except their flesh wasn't falling apart.

Everybody's just shuffling their feet,

looking like the lights are on and no one's home.

I think people are just totally burning

their brain out on devices.

And it tends to poverty.

And it's by design, you know.

How many of you remember, several years ago,

those articles came out that the top Silicon Valley executives

who invented this stuff and invented the apps

don't let their kids on it.

But they put it out into the world.

And there's kids addicted to the stuff.

We limited our kids iPad time to one hour a day.

And we thought that was awesome.

Big breakthrough.

But just about a week and a half ago,

I won't get into details.

It wasn't really that bad.

But we just, honestly, we snagged it.

Bigger messed up.

Not bad.

It's a little mess up.

But we took it as an opportunity,

and said, we're removing your iPad indefinitely.

First time we ever did that.

Within 72 hours, we couldn't believe it.

He was always a good boy.

But it was like...

His attention span and his creativity,

and he just looked more contented and happier.

And now he's painting and drawing.

And now when I tell a long story,

he listens and he asks questions.

It's like someone flipped the switch back on.

I couldn't believe it.

I thought I was doing good with an hour a day,

and I go, he doesn't need it.

Really, the only reason we,

I'm going to be honest here,

the only reason we would give it to him

is out of selfishness.

Because now I have to think of a way,

it's something for him to do.

It's much easier to say here.

Here's a pad, here's a screen.

Go zone out for a few hours.

Let me pray for you.

Listen, hey, good news here.

God is on your side.

Before we pray,

put your hand on your heart.

Say this out loud.

God.

You're God of abundance.

You're God of prosperity.

I renounce the spirit of poverty,

the mentality in Jesus' name.

Lord, I trust you.

For 2024, it's going to be

my best year yet.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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.

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 subscribe to City Light Church podcast,

wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.