A Journey through Faith, Community, and Transformation

You ever feel like you're carrying something around, it's like you're nine months pregnant,

why is it this baby coming? I've had that, and then I step out and finally do the stuff the Lord has

been on me, but it's in his word, I should have been doing it, and I do that, and then it's unlocked,

and the day loose comes. Babies popping up all over the place, and you have been carrying these

guys for years. Oh, you were waiting for me to just do what the book says do, because I was always

fond of saying, I'm waiting on you, Lord. It's actually, I'm waiting on 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.

So glad that you're with us, those of you joining us online, glad you're with us also.

Hallelujah. I want to just make you aware of this connection card. If you're a guest,

this is your first or second time, or you've never filled one of these connection cards out,

encourage you to do so. It's the number one way. The best way that you can connect with us,

ask us a question if you want to speak to anybody on our staff. If you want to get baptized,

we have baptisms coming up very quickly. What is the actual baptism date? October,

November the 4th. So we're six, seven weeks away from baptisms. So if you've never been water

baptized, you can sign up to be baptized through the connection card. If you want to learn more about

membership, through the connection card, you want to serve and volunteer. Through the connection card,

you just want to say hi and drop a comment. They're actually read over every single one.

Pray it over. Leave your phone number. You want to call. Some about human will call you, not an AI

system. A caring individual, on full-time staff, to pray with you. And if you need a counseling

appointment, they'll set one up for you. So if you're one of those out, you can give it to an

usher, put it in the offering boxes. I suggest you bring it to the hospitality table,

where they'll give you a gift in exchange for your data. No, but seriously, look, the whole

data thing, you know, that really hasn't come to New York City because New York isn't going to

put up with that. But across the border in Tennessee, I can't even buy a pillow. I went into

Temper, Peter, I'm on one pillow. What's your email address? None you business at iCloud.com.

Why can't I buy any, every store I go into wants my email. And then I get coupons three times a day

and flash discounts. We're not going to do that to you. One maximum two emails a week and they're

important. No discount code for next Sunday service. Well, we're concluding, as though you can

really conclude it, but we're concluding specifically this series called the anointed one in his

anointing. An impetus, what I sense from the Lord and why to begin this series is because the Lord

has something up his sleeve for us. I feel it in my spiritual bones. We are in a place of strength now.

And the Lord has some ground for us to take, some land for us to possess as we finish up 2023.

And that was not the case just a few years ago that we were in a place of strength. A few years ago,

COVID happened even as recently as two years ago. The lockdowns had subsided here, but really the

Christian Church was devastated so many people left New York City. And then we had a lot of people

pleasantly leave. They just said, Pastor, this church has meant the world to us. Thank you for your

ministry, but our family is going to and you know where they went. The Carolinas, Florida, or Texas.

So we had that. We all said some people leave because I did not bend the knee to Fauci.

I did not wear three masks while preaching. And that was very upsetting.

Can you believe that guy is still around? Squacking. I saw a clip even CNN was mocking him the other day.

Well, one guy on CNN.

And so we were weakened and we found ourselves hit hard. And the Lord quickly started to bring

new people, but it took a while for new people to develop roots. So we had a lot of people get saved,

as you can see from our baptisms, our baptisms twice a year. We have baptisms. They were full.

We had a bunch of new people get saved. We had some others who came and they were already saved.

But then what you have, you have a full church, but you have a disjointed church.

But then those people began to develop roots. Those who weren't saved, God saved. They were baptized

in water, baptized in the Holy Spirit, started coming regularly, even began to serve, joined a

life group, and most importantly, connect with others. You cannot be an island in a church. You're

not really then experiencing church as it was intended to be experienced by the Lord Himself.

We're all body parts. We can't have an arm over here and a leg over there. We got to be connected.

And people started to connect and relationships started to blossom. And now here we are wrapping up

2023, we're in September. And I can honestly say, Pastor Modone Chuckle, but we're the strongest

we've ever been. And it's true, we're the best we've ever been, we're the strongest we've ever

been. The love that I sense amongst the people, the unity, the coming, not saying we've arrived,

but we are at a place of strength. And by every metric, that's a good use.

And so when you're at a place of strength, what do you do? You just make a hammock,

lay it down, and that will be the comfortable thing to do, but that's not biblically what you're

supposed to do. You then take ground for the Lord. And I believe we're in this series talking

about the anointing because you can't expand the God's kingdom and work for the Lord, work for

the Christ without understanding the Christos, the anointing, the power of God and the presence of

God. And he wanted to marinate a bunch of you and set you ablaze and realign you and have

you experiencing him because you can't give away that which you don't have. Paul said, as much

as is in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel. Well, if nothing is in you, you can't preach the gospel.

But if you're full of the Holy Spirit, you've got something to offer, something to give. And he's

been filling us so that we have something to give. And I believe with all of my heart, I sense it,

other pastors, because I don't believe this is unique to city light. Other pastors in the city

have confirmed it. There was something in the air. And I believe we're in the cusp of seeing

a major influx of souls come into the kingdom, a major like supernatural. Like I believe, I believe

if we steward it well, it could turn into something like the Jesus movement where people who've

experienced the Jesus movement, they would say people got saved by accident. It was the easiest

thing to lead someone to the Lord. It was just like in the water. People were hungry and the Lord

came through and turned the hearts of the people and it was like wholesale salvation by the truck

load just coming in. If we steward it right, he always tests you first. You know, he could pour out

his Holy Spirit on a campus and then if administration decides to shut it down prematurely,

it could end that revival, hypothetically speaking, that could happen.

So there's always a test. How are you going to steward what I've given you?

And then if you pass the test, it gives you more. He who's faithful with a little, then he gives

you more and then you're able to be faithful with the much. So that's where we are. And you get to

play a part and have a role. No outpouring of God, no move of God, although that's usually

associated with a human name or several names, that's just the people who get the recognition.

It's always carried by the no-name people. It's always carried by tens of thousands of Christian

laborers who actually steward the movement. So next week we have Nathaniel Sainte and Lloyd

with us. You'll be with us Friday night because we've restarted our Friday night revival night.

Do not miss that. I shared with someone. They said, oh, that's during Rosh Hashanah weekend. Yes,

it's during Rosh Hashanah. We planned it that way.

For those of you who are really Jewish, you're really in touch with the Abrahamic spiritual roots.

It's on Rosh Hashanah weekend. Friday night, Saturday night at seven, not here, but in our other

location, just a couple of blocks away. All of this information is online and on our social media.

And then Sundays for two services here. So I just encourage you, don't miss out on Friday night at

seven, Saturday night at seven and coming here for the landing. Like be there for the takeoff,

the Ascent to 40,000 feet, eat some peanuts, drink the five ounce bottle of Poland spring,

be on the whole ride and then land with us. Because the anointing builds, it compounds,

it amplifies. So be on the whole journey. I have specifically asked Nathaniel to come. Have you,

have you ever wondered why we don't have so many guest speakers? When in reality, it would be easy for

us. I could go this route. I've never shared this. It's very easy for us to get the best guest speakers.

Do you know why? We have the money. And two, we're in New York City. And every ministry wants to go

to New York City at least once a year. And so we've done that. And what we found is, hey,

there's some great people, but they don't really know who we are. They don't know me. They don't know

my vision. They don't know my heart. And some of them don't really even care. It's just one of a

hundred places they're going to minister during the year and we're just another stop along the way.

And we've been there, done that. It always left me feeling empty. Like how you feel after you eat

at McDonald's, you ate something and you're full, but really you're empty, starving for nutrition.

And I thought, what? But I noticed people who I have a covenant relationship with, who know me,

who are in my life, who love sincerely love this church, they will come and they will minister

with no agenda, with no strings attached and what they deposit seems to last much longer. It's not

just an evangelist blowing and blowing up and blowing out. So Nathaniel and I have been friends

for nearly 15 years. And he's seen this church when it was just an acorn and now he's seeing it

growing up into a mighty oak and he loves you. And I know that right now he's preparing for these

services. They're not just another stop in his itinerary. He's praying for you. He's reading his

spirit to bring something to you. The Apostle Paul said to the Romans, I long to come to you.

That's so you could just hear pretty words out of my mouth. He said, I long to come to you that I may

impart to you some spiritual gift. I want to leave a divine deposit with you. He'll be leaving a

divine deposit here. So join us. Take this time out and say, look, I want to close out 2023

with a bang. Lord, I'm going to position myself to receive from heaven Friday night at seven,

Saturday night, and then here on Sunday. Amen. Amen. The anointed one and his anointing, which is

the definition of Jesus' title, the Christ. Let's dive in starting at Isaiah 61, which is what

Jesus would read from as he would visit synagogues. Jesus was Roboni, which means Rabbi,

and he was a traveling rabbi. And as he would go from town to town, the Jewish custom was in the

synagogue, whoever or whenever there would be a traveling rabbi, he would get the pulpit. I'm so

glad that custom is nonexistent in America today whenever a traveling itinerant, thank you, no thank you.

But back then it worked. And Jesus would come in and in Luke chapter 4, and we believe this is a

Luke 4 · chapter mention

pattern of his, he called for the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and then he would read from Isaiah 61.

Imagine that. God in the flesh, the Christ, the Messiah, anticipated long for, prayed for for

centuries is there. He asked for the prophet Isaiah, the scroll to be brought, reads from Isaiah 61,

and then says, today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. I am the one whom the scriptures

were talking about. In Luke 4, they didn't work out so well. They were so upset at that that they

took him to throw him head long, says head long over a cliff. And then the next verse it says,

but Jesus passing through the midst of them went his way. I don't know how that worked out,

but it just wasn't Jesus's time yet. Did you ever catch that? They went to kill him. So you

picture a mob of people going to throw him. This is like street justice. Throw him head long over a

cliff, but Jesus passing through the midst of them just went his way. That just shows me that when

you're walking in God's will and it's not your time yet, you're unkillable. How did he pass

this a mob of people carrying off a cliff? He just said, you know what, no thanks. I'm not going to

participate in today's execution. It's not my time yet. This is what Jesus read. The spirit of

the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel.

You know who's anointed and qualified besides Jesus? You are. That anointing and that qualification

was released on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And if you have received

Jesus as your Lord and Savior, all of your sins have been forgiven you. They're completely

blotted out and taken out of the way and you've been given the free gift of righteousness.

You've been given the gift of justification and you've been pronounced not guilty. That's who you

really are. And you've been filled with this Holy Spirit, which is the unction and the anointing

of God. So you are qualified whether you feel like it or not. Listen, no matter where you are,

I'm the spectrum. We have right now red hot fiery believers living for Jesus every second

of the day or you could be beat up bruised. You came limping in here this morning. You're even

suffering with shame and condemnation and you wish you could walk this Christian walk better

if your faith is in Christ. I want you to know your sins are already forgiven you

and you are not less qualified than that first person I mentioned.

You don't get to sit this out. You are qualified and you can expand the kingdom of God.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to

preach the gospel of good tidings. What is the gospel? It's good news. What's the good news?

Your sins are forgiven you. That's good news. Religion wraps it in bad news.

Which is, well, Jesus, that for your sins, but here's what you have to do. Do, do, and then the

list comes out. A 50 point list putting you back under the law and getting you in a state of works.

That's not good news. That's a bait and switch. Good news is all of your sins. Every single one

has been taken out of the way. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming and said,

behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. Sin, singular. The whole sin, the sin problem

takes away the sin of the world. They just don't know it yet. I'll often say I got saved on August

14, 1992, but the reality is, is that's the day I received my salvation. I was saved. You were saved

2,000 years ago at his death, his burial and resurrection. That's when it was all paid for.

That's when it was purchased. And then you were touched by the Holy Spirit. He opened up your heart

to believe, but not just by the Holy Spirit. Somebody talked to you. Can we all agree on that?

It's something that we all have in common. Somebody talked to us. It wasn't just the Holy Spirit.

Nobody got led to Jesus, at least not here. Nobody got led to Jesus by a vision in a dream. There's

always people. Even in the Scriptures, when Ananias, he receives an angelic visitation, the angel

doesn't preach the gospel to him. He says, you're going to go meet a person. He's going to tell you

the gospel. The preaching of the gospel has been delegated to man. And so man opens up their

mouths. And all of us have that in common is that some person told us, maybe it was their parents.

Usually, maybe it's a 50-50 split between parents and a friend, a coworker, someone you knew.

Some people get a hodgepodge. Some people you can see, the Lord just plucks out. They watch a

YouTube clip. Curiosity stirred up. And then all of a sudden they find themselves running into people

who keep telling them the same thing, keep reiterating the gospel to them. And then they come to faith.

But it's always through people. So we are here enjoying salvation as a result of people

opening up their mouths and talking. When you think of it that way, you realize we have a

responsibility. We have a responsibility to open up our mouths and talk. We do.

We're not responsible for the whole world. But we're responsible for the people he's put in our lives.

We're responsible for our circle of influence, our severe. Do you ever think about your salvation?

I think about it every day. I don't want gratitude for my salvation to ever

evade me and fall on the back burner. You're eternal being.

There are people who don't go to church to not save, but they understand this. We tend to think

if we're in the church, we tend to think everybody out there is just an atheist. They're not.

There are billions, literally billions of people. They haven't submitted to Jesus,

but they believe and they understand that we're eternal beings. They may not call God's name

Jesus, but they believe in intelligent design. They look around in nature at the universe,

and they've come to the logical conclusion that this isn't all a random act.

We are not just particles and molecules that randomly formed over billions of years after

some big bang. No, there was an intelligent personality, a creator behind this

who put us here and he's eternal. And so he made us eternal beings and will go on forever.

This is real to me. And then I think, Lord, I was made. I was born into sin. And sin cannot have

fellowship with you. But you came to me, Lord. You came to me and you surrounded me with people

who would talk and explain the gospel to me so that I could have all of my sins forgiven.

Because Jesus came in my place and took on my sin for me. I'm so grateful for that.

I'm so grateful that Jesus said, and this pains me every time I say, but this is a reality. He said,

broad is the highway that leads to hell and destruction. It's a literal highway to hell.

And short, excuse me, straight and narrow is the way that leads to life everlasting.

And he put you on that straight and arrow. Aren't you grateful for that? Every day I'm so grateful for

that. That he's opened up my eyes. I can't take any credit for it. He's opened up my eyes

to understand what happened on the cross. And that now I'm pardoned and I'll spend eternity with

him. One of the most powerful verses in the New Testament is Jesus. This is so succinct and so

simple. He just says, whoever believes on me will never die, but will live forever. I'm grateful

for that. So grateful. And then I'm also then aware of the responsibility. How horrible would it be

if I just kept this to myself? It would be if there was famine and drought in the land and I have

a whole wealth of food and water in my house. And I'm going out amongst the neighbors who are starving

and thirsty and I'm going, yeah, it's terrible out here, isn't it? And we'll go back into my house.

I've got to share a little bit. Go help out a little bit. Here you are, fees, you're eating steak and

lobster. Drinking that fresh squeezed OJ. And they're thirsty. We have a responsibility to share

with the hungry and thirsty. Amen. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has

anointed and qualified me and you to preach the gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor

and afflicted. And this is what the anointing that's on you does. And this is what the preaching

of the gospel brings. He has sent me to bind up and heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty,

to the physical and spiritual captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those

who are bound. I love the tense of that. Just go back to that one verse. He says, I've come to

proclaim the prison doors have been opened. Hey, are you with me? This is important because Jesus

opened the prison doors two thousand years ago. There's just a bunch of people in prison who don't

know it yet. The door is closed, but it's unlocked. But they're too busy sitting around unaware

that they're actually in prison in sackcloth and ashes, downcast, hungry, thirsty. They don't

know that the prison door has been opened. Somebody needs to tell them just like I didn't know all my

sins were forgiven. Somebody had to tell me. And then when I was 16 years old August the 14th,

1992, I received that forgiveness. Somebody told me, hey, what are you doing riding in that prison cell?

Well, how do I get out? Nobody told you? Jesus with a substitutionary death on the cross for you

unlocked the prison gate. You can walk right through. Oh, and see, that's why we get it mixed up.

And we think evangelism is harder than it needs to be because we think we have to get people to

do all these things and understand all these things when in reality they need to know that the

prison door has been opened. There's sins are already forgiven them. The price has been paid.

Hallelujah.

Verse two.

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of his favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, to grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion,

this by the way was Jesus' mission. He's describing his mission.

This is the Christ's mission. This I encourage you to memorize these three verses because it's your

mission also. You are a Christian which means little Christ, a follower of Christ, an emulator of Christ,

little Christ. This is just as much our mission as it was Jesus' mission.

To grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament, a garland or

diadem of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment expressive

of praise instead of a heavy burdened and failing spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness,

lofty, strong and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God,

the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. This is Jesus' heart and this is our heart

and this should be every Christian's heart. But I'm in the biz. As you know that,

ministry can be a biz. It doesn't have to be, but it is, I'm joking, you know what I mean.

I peaked under the hood. You know what I found? 2% of the church is actively engaging their

surroundings with the gospel and that is depressing indeed. 2% of Christians are following the

mission of Christ. What are the other 98% doing? I peaked under that hood too. I wanted to explore

this thing. What's happening? What are the other 98%? I don't think that statistic is true here.

I know there's other churches that throw off. I think it's much better here, but still we have a way

to go. What are they doing? I peaked under the hood. I realized what they're doing is they're waiting

for everything to settle down in their own life before they start evangelizing. They're waiting to

get on steady ground. They have thoughts like, oh, I can't do it yet because I have problems.

And when they're all fixed, I'll be perfect and I'll be a great advertisement for the Lord

then. And then they end up waiting forever. And then they were in heaven where everything is

perfect and everything is calm and then they're trying to evangelize in heaven and everybody's like,

yeah, I know that. Some other guy told me way before you. No, but you do it when

it doesn't seem like a good season to do it. That's how you get out of that season. This is what

people have to get. You minister your way out of trouble and onto the next level. The promise from

the Lord is if you build his house, he will build your house. If you seek first the kingdom of God,

all those other things will be just added unto you. And so there's a lot of Christians there.

They're wondering why isn't, you know, I've been to the seminars. I've gotten the eight keys

to the nine doors that'll put me on the ten highways to greater increase and success in Jesus.

But nothing seems to be changing. Why? Because people all around you are dying and going to hell.

And you're waiting, you know, you're believing God to become dead free.

I found the quickest way to activate the promises of God is to get busy with the simple mandates.

Go into all the world. Hey, good news. You live in Queens. You don't have to go into all the world.

The world went to eat. 161 nations in Queens, 2.4 million people. Go into Jackson Heights,

go into Forest Hills, go into sunny side, share your faith and then watch how the promises,

that there's latent promises. You ever feel like you're carrying something around?

It's like you're nine months pregnant. Why isn't this baby coming? I've had that.

And then I step out and finally do the stuff. The Lord has been on me. But it's in his word.

I should have been doing it. And I do that. And then it's unlocked and the day loose comes.

Babies popping up all over the place. I had six duplicates. Wow.

And you have been carrying these guys for years.

Oh, you were waiting for me to just do what the book says, do.

Okay. Because I was always fond of saying, Lord, I'm waiting on you, Lord.

It's like, I'm actually, I'm waiting on you.

I think, I think a lot of you don't know what you're capable of.

You tried witnessing once, twice. You invited someone to church and

that kind of fizzled out. And you're waiting for somebody to cross your path fall to their knees and

say, what must I do to be saved? No, you still have to go out. And most people,

they need you to be the conversation starter. But you're not aware what you're capable of.

The enemy loves to come to believers and tell them they're not ready yet.

But if you never reach the end of yourself, you won't activate the power of God. I'll never forget

witnessing to my grandfather. I led my mother to the Lord and end the 92. My father then came

in the spring of 1993. My mother got radically saved. Immediately started pursuing the things

of God. My dad had a bit of a rough start. For a number of reasons, mainly because of his

background, having immigrated from a communist country, you're just skeptical. You're not skeptical.

Actually, Jesus can put up with skeptical. He was cynical. The Pharisees weren't skeptical.

They were cynical. And then Jesus says, no, thank you. But he was very cynical because under

communism, if there's ever an assembly with more than three people and it's organized, it's corrupt.

It's evil. So he didn't like churches. He didn't like pastors. He loved Jesus. Even to this day,

I'm the only pastor he likes. Everyone else is a charlatan and a crook.

So he had a bit of a rough start. I thought, I wonder if any of this is really penetrating.

Until years later, I'm witnessing to my grandfather and I'm wrestling with him.

Because all he's known is the Eastern Orthodox Church. What commonly here is just called

Greek Orthodox. Our faith is identical to that. It's just called Serbian Orthodox because we're not

in Greece. And that's how he was raised. And in his mind, if he made the sign of a cross and

thought of God once a year, he was doing his duty. And that's all that he needed to do. Over there,

those churches aren't even open every Sunday. They're only open half a dozen times a year

for the high holy days. So I'm wrestling with him. And I can't penetrate. I've been wrestling

with him for days. The slass wrestling match was right after dinner, so my parents were there.

Now, here's my red hot on fire. Mom, she's just looking and she's wondering how can I help,

but she's not doing anything. All of a sudden, my father, who I had completely put on pause,

I just thought, Lord, you've got to give me a strategy. How do he opens up his mouth and presents

the gospel for the next 120 seconds in such a way, my mouth hung open. And I thought, this is

Billy Graham sitting right next to me. He went through everything, our sin condition,

the necessity for blood sacrifice, Jesus' perfect death on the cross as our substitute and how

faith in him causes our sins to be forgiven and presents us righteous and right standing before

God. He said it all. I went, later, I said, wait, wait. I said, Dad, that was awesome. You

said, I said, where did you get that from? And I'll never forget what he said. He said, oh, no.

And when he said, oh, no, I said, oh, I know what happened. You, according to the Scriptures,

opened your mouth and God filled it. And that's what the Bible says, open your mouth and I will fill

it. Jesus, speaking of being persecuted, he said, don't even think about what you're going to say.

Don't even have a strategy. Don't even plan it. Open your mouth. And in that hour, I will give you

what to say. I saw my lukewarm so that I don't say back, doesn't let me be respectful, because sometimes

he watches online. My mom definitely is watching. Not back, isn't lukewarm. Backslide.

Backslide and that turned into the world's greatest evangelist, because he just surrendered and made

himself available in that moment. And some of you don't know that is what you're capable of.

Who can't yield and allow God to flow through them, but you never brought yourself to that place.

But God wants to use you in a great way. And the only thing we can take with us to heaven is souls.

That's our legacy. People talk about legacies and leaving a legacy on earth. Everybody wants to live

forever. I'm building this business. It'll be my legacy. No, you're going to be forgotten about

very quickly. No, if you remembered for 50 years, you're 0.001%. You just have grandkids, great

grandkids that you're pictured to them. Oh, yeah, I heard. And they'll have a one sentence about

your whole life. That's the reality. You think of the last 2,000 years, you can name, but 10 names.

Right off the cuff is the name. 10 of the most influential names of the last 2,000 years.

And you have to think of these names. And these are the most influential people.

No, this time on earth is a vapor. We'll be forgotten, but what will truly live on

and have an eternal consequence is the people we bring with us to heaven.

And each of us should be those that pluck from the fire.

When I first got a taste of soul winning, it was a couple of weeks after I got saved.

And I led someone to the Lord.

There was something that filled me then. I still remember it.

When you're doing what Jesus created you to do, he created you for two things. To know him,

one and two, to make him known. This is not that complicated. Know him. And out of that overflow of

knowing him, make him known, relieve suffering that doesn't mean do humanitarian work,

relieve eternal suffering. Humanitarian work is fine, but social justice without the gospel is

an injustice. Relieve suffering. Relieve people who are on their way to a devil's hell forever,

where the worm doesn't die and their fire is an extinguished. Relieve that suffer. When I sense that,

I got addicted to soul winning. This is what I want to do. Lord, I feel like I'm in the perfect

center of your perfect well. And I had the privilege of leading someone to the Lord just a couple of

weeks after getting saved. Part of that was just because all of my friends were unsaved,

unlike now. We're the vast, vast overwhelming majority of Christians.

And they were teenagers, hungry. And so I led that year dozens of people. I don't mean I set a

prayer in a corner with them and I led them to the Lord. I mean, they came to Betts,

with me. They got baptized in the same tank as me. They got filled with the Holy Spirit. They

got disciples. And I saw them. There's several of them in full time ministry today. Yeah. Hallelujah.

God is just looking for the available person. Let's read Luke.

Oh, hallelujah. Yes, you. Someone said not me. Yes, you.

Listen, there is this poem that I mentioned one of my majors was English.

So I had this weighed patches. Remember this poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called Charge of the Light

Brigade. It was about the press, the Crimean War. I believe it was a Prussian army and it was this

light brigade on horseback that valiantly charged into battle. Kenans to the left of them.

Kenans to the right of them. They charged into battle every single one of them was slaughtered.

And the story goes there was a French general also on horseback. I'm a cliff overlooking this scene.

And he said, incredible. Incredible. Because we spectacular to behold what a show of bravery.

He said, and Crayabra. Man. Senegal again. Incredible. But this is not war.

I think that what's considered in the American church evangelism most of the time falls under

the umbrella of and Crayabra. But it's not war. It's not really getting the job done.

It's not effective. It's spectacular. It makes a good show. But nobody's really getting one.

I'll give you an example. Every ministry when they want to reach New York City for Jesus that's

outside of New York and they come in. Where do they go? Times Square. Where there are no New Yorkers.

Nobody told them that the one place New Yorkers avoid like the plague is Times Square.

If you want to be away from New Yorkers, go to Times Square and you'll trip over Texans on their

way to Olive Garden and on their way to the M&M store to get an M&M hat for $50.

But every one of them, and who do they phone up? They phone me up.

Several minutes. Largely. Do you want to get involved? We're going to have this big wrap. No, I don't.

I've seen what you do and it's incredible.

It looks great on Instagram. It's going to make great short videos on TikTok and for YouTube.

And it looks wonderful. But I know nobody's getting saved.

The only people who show up to that is a bunch of Christians.

They should see the hands being raised for salvation. Yeah, I saw those same hands worshipping

an hour before. And now they're getting resaved. And then you're going to have a baptismal service

and they'll get baptized for the fifth time that year. I don't want to play Christian games.

I want to get the job done. I want something that's really going to work. Amen. I want war.

Real war. Real taking dominion.

You know how people usually get saved? Someone invites them to church.

They like it. They have some questions.

You then meet with them for coffee or on a park bench or over the phone. You answer their questions.

They come again. They like it. That's something happens. They don't come for three or four weeks.

You give them a call to see how they're doing because you love them not just to see them get saved,

but you love them with no strings attached. You love them just because they're a child of God.

Then they come again. They hear the gospel. But you know, most people have to hear the gospel like it

does in times before it registers. You did. I know I certainly did. So then you reiterate the

gospel to them. They get saved. They come to church. They hear about baptism. They get baptized.

They come to a revival night. They experience God's power. Not that you can only experience it

on a revival night, but I'm just saying. They get baptized in the Holy Spirit.

It doesn't really sound that spectacular, right? It's not Enquay Abba. It's boring.

May say like air, but it's war. It's actually getting the job done.

There's ladies. I remember one lady. She would win whole neighborhoods to the Lord with cookies.

She made baked, baked fresh cookies. This obviously wouldn't work in New York,

because no one's going to let you in no matter what cookies, cupcakes, or whatever you have.

But would you believe there's parts of the country where if there's a smiling lady

with a basket of fresh baked cookies, they'll actually let her in.

And she went from house to house with fresh baked cookies. It's a can I share something with you?

And she would share the she led thousands to the Lord. Is it Enquay Abba? No.

But she was doing more, much more so than somebody doing some giant crusade and a lot of fluff,

a lot of flair, but no real fruit. Something every Christian is capable of doing.

You're capable of it, yes you are. Right where you're at.

There are denominations

that really cater to thoughtful people.

I said thoughtful because I'm remaining exceedingly respectful. I used to call them Christian

egg heads. Now we're going to call them thoughtful.

You know they just relate to the scripture. It's what the Apostle Paul said about knowledge

puffing up. It's that verse coming to life. They read every book, 50 translations of the Bible,

and then they argue these points of the gospel and they present Christianity as though you had to

have a Ph.D. to get saved. They even confuse me. Look what? If I had to understand all this to get

saved, that would have never gotten saved. You know what really helped me as I was diving or exploring

that world? It was around 2010 I visited our orphanage in Bajur Dar, Ethiopia, and then they took

me out into the bush to preach, into the bush. I'm talking about mudhuts where eight people live

in a mudhut. So never ever these people could be 30, 40 years old, never spent one day inside of a

classroom. You understand what that does to an intellect. You need to go on some mission strips with

this where you don't know how privileged we are here where nobody has been stimulated by a book

or there's just a glaze in their eye. They're essentially on the intellectual level of a four or five

year old. It's not even recommended that you preach the gospel as you would in America, but that you

use a board and the dry race board and a marker and illustrate the gospel. And so I would give a

simplest gospel presentation so that a four or five year old could understand it and you would see

them get saved and salvation that would last. You know what that shows me? That shows me that the

Lord designed the gospel fine. If you're a frontal lobe and egghead, I love you. I died for you.

My gospel is so rich and so complex. You can debate about it for weeks on Twitter.

Bring out the nuance. Beautiful. Also though, if you've never been into a classroom for a day,

my gospel is so simple that even a child could understand it. That's also there and everything

in between. Why am I saying this? I'm saying this so that you don't feel that you need to go to

Bible school. You don't feel that there's all these hurdles in front of you when people out there

are lost, they're on their way to hell, they're burning and they're just looking for a normal,

a normal loving human being to talk to them about God. That's all they're looking for. I didn't

know it. That's what I was looking for. A normal, a normal girl. She was my friend for years,

Elena Chan. Since junior high, since seventh grade, now I'm in tenth grade and I see her in French

class and she just looks behind the shoulder and waves hide at me and I look at her and I just

her eyes to me seem like they were glowing. She looked different. I'm not saying this is always

but for me, maybe the Lord did something to stir up my curiosity. We're walking to the next class

and I said, what's going on? You look different. Why yesterday? I went and I got baptized at this

church. I got excited because I thought you're not been wanting to get baptized.

Because in the Eastern Orthodox faith, you're baptized as a child and I don't even know for whatever

reason they didn't baptize me. I thought I should because otherwise I'm going to go to hell.

This is not true, by the way, but that's what I thought. Because if I'm baptized as a kid,

then I can live any which way I want and I still go to heaven. Again, not true, but that's what I

believed. My mom phoned up. She phoned up the Serbian Orthodox church in Manhattan and I'd

said $500 earlier in the service, but I believe it was $800 in the early 90s. It was a lot of money.

They requested a fee, $800. In the first service when I shared this, some people went,

you can feel the like, why would they charge? They're charging because no one's tithing. Do you know

why no one's tithing? Here's a heavy revy. Unsafe people don't tithe. It's wonderful when safe people

tithe, but unsafe people definitely don't tithe. In these churches where there's no power of God,

where there's no actual gospel being presented, but the church still has to keep going. They charge

for weddings. They charge for baptism. You have to charge. We've never charged for a wedding for

anything in our lives because we have a church of safe folk who died. That was just a side,

little church economics class. I wanted to present to you just so you know how the sausages are made.

Anyway, $800, my parents couldn't afford it. So I always felt like something was missing. So she

says, yeah, I got baptized. This is, she was saved one day. And she said, and now look what I can do.

She starts speaking in tongues in the hallway. A forest tells high school in between classes.

And I go, now I don't know what she was saying, but I felt something like, oh,

I knew, I knew something supernatural was just activated. And I said, what was that Elena?

And she said, that's the Holy Spirit. I said, what's that? And she said, he's like a guardian angel

who lives inside of me. Very bad doctrine. She did not have all her teeth crossed and all of her

eyes dotted. But notice that she was still saved. Notice that she was witnessing less than 24

hours saved, doctrinal messed up. And notice that here I am as a result of her efforts serving the

Lord 31 years later. That means that God can use anyone. He can use you. You don't need to go

to Bible school. You don't need to have finished reading the whole Bible. I didn't even get to Matthew

3 before I started witnessing. When I got saved a certain book of Matthew right around the part

where I got to Matthew 3, I would have read it much faster, but the church I got saved and was a

King James only church. So I had to really push my way. If I had known Pastor James back then,

he would have turned me on to the NLT and I would have chapters a day. Let's read Luke.

Oh yeah, you're qualified. Wait, before I read Luke, let me keep anew on the edge, listen.

There always is this bit of a shift when I talk about evangelism. Do you know why this shift,

I don't mean in a positive way, there's almost like this weirdness in the air. Similar to when you

talk about tithes and offerings, similar, it's like oh, hmm, because you realize there's some

responsibility that comes with your salvation. And it's weird how some people don't want that.

They prefer to just sit and do no pastor, tell me more about what has already been bought for me

and what I can just sit back and receive. That's most of the stuff, but there are some things that

you have to do. And I realize I am the pastor who says you're a human being, not a human doing.

And Christian, it isn't about do, do, do. It's about done, done, done. But for you,

theologians out there specifically what I'm talking about is as concerns your salvation,

your sins being forgiven, that's a finished work and you can't add to it. Your responsibility is

done, but now that you are saved, now that you're holy, now that you've been declared not guilty,

there is a responsibility. But the good news is he doesn't just send you out alone and say,

now you've got to work for me. Go. Because that's some people think. Now, God saved you, now you've got

to pay him back and he goes, go now, you labor for free. No, he goes alongside with you. He puts his

hand over yours. It's not like father telling a son, get them on the lawn. It's a dad saying, hey,

want to mow the lawn with me? Come on, put your hands over mine. Let's mow the lawn together.

You are co-laborers with him and he pays you. And yes, I'm going to use that word. He pays,

he pays you. Jesus gave the example of the vineyard and the laborers in the field and the master

of the house will pay them. I found that when you are consumed with people and you love people

and you actually want to see these souls come to Jesus, he pays very, very handsomely.

Oh yeah, there's some things that God just likes. He doesn't cause him to love you more,

but he just likes these things and they open up the windows over your life and evangelism,

witnessing, whatever you want to call it, witnessing, evangelism and that sounds so aggressive.

Sharing your faith, whatever you want to call it, I call it,

plucking one out of the flames of hell and presenting them to Jesus. And I want that honor.

And what I'm pressing for is, Lord, I know there's a move of God coming to New York City.

Favor us as a church. Let us have an honor of bringing people to Jesus.

I want, I want, and I don't want you to sometimes people, well, my job is just to so seed someone

else will water someone else will harvest. People use that verse as an excuse all the time. Well,

I just plant a seed. I gave it an invite to church to someone and I planted a seed.

Someone else will water it. No, I want to plant a seed. I want to, Lord, use me. Use me to bring

that person from zero to hero in Jesus Christ. Use this church and use our people and your

relationship with the Lord will come alive. Your Christianity will come alive. And you will realize

this is what I was created for to know him and to make him known. Hallelujah. I'm telling you,

if you, if you have been saying no to this or if you've just, if you've just put this and

assigned it to somebody else, you will, you will be trying to taste of Jesus. And it's like eating

ice cream with saran wrap around your tongue. Your Christianity will be empty. It won't, it won't

connect because you're not doing what he created you for. You're not fulfilling the great commission.

I trust that nobody's under condemnation as I say this. But I hope you are under receiving end

of a heavenly pinprick. Yes, right on your bottom. Wake up. They're dying all around you. Wake

up and you get to leave them. And don't always think of the, the handful that rejected you. You

really think about it. How many really rejected you? How often did you try to win someone and cast

the wide net and trust the Lord to make you better? We should be growing. Learning from, there's

some people, you know, you've all run into some street preachers. Nobody's getting saved. They've

been on the same street corner, hollering for years and then ever go back to the drawing board and

say, you know, maybe I should think about my strategy. They just believe everybody else should

adopt around them. No, you learn something. Take some notes. Get better at it.

And let me say this. A lot of times Christians think that their only responsibility is inviting

someone to church. It is not so. That's just the beginning. Jesus didn't say you'll be witnesses

onto a church. He said, you'll be witnesses onto me. Our responsibility isn't really inviting

them to church. It's to talking to them about Jesus. Church just helps in that.

Does this making sense? Oh, man. Hey, I got good news. Next week we have a guest speaker. He's

going to be putting no responsibility on you whatsoever. It's just going to be, it's going to be

like a buffet. All you can eat and it's about everything that you already have in Jesus.

And I'm not talking to all of you. Yes, but I am messing with some of you.

There is an anointing to mess with people. Did you know that?

It came upon Elijah on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. He said, where is your God? Maybe

he's using the toilet? Is he relieving himself? Cut yourself more. Cry harder.

It's the anointing of messin' and I feel it heavy upon me.

I'm going to call it the mantle of messin'.

Some people that we're not going to hear it under the wind until you poke them and provoke them

and just tease them a little and say, hey, you got to think about what you're doing.

And what will your life look like if you keep doing what you're doing in 20 years from now?

And what could it look like if you align yourself with God's values and what God is requiring of you?

Oh, hallelujah.

Let's read this and we'll close with this. Jesus talks about who we're to be like.

He said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it?

So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your

strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered

rightly, do this and you will live, but he wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus,

oh yeah, and who's my neighbor? This guy thinks he can outsmart Jesus.

Then Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell

among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance, a certain priest, a priest, this is someone who's in the business of helping people

or at least should be. A certain priest came down that road and when he saw him,

he passed by on the other side. He couldn't even, he couldn't stand the messiness of it.

You know, God loves ugly and he rescued us in our mess and he's calling us to not be afraid of

the mess. Listen, just saying, I'll pass your telling you the witness. You don't know my

spear of influence. My circle, it's a mess. God loves the mess. When I got saved, all the Christian

that I didn't even know were Christians that I later found out because I tried to win them.

I mean, they were telling me, no, I'm a Christian. No, no, but are you real? Do you understand

that Jesus is like, oh yeah, yeah, no, I go every Friday, youth group, I know. Why didn't you ever

tell me? And several of them said the exact same thing. You know how you are. We never thought

you'd get saved. So you prejudged me. Because I was just total, just secular, humanist,

hedonist, running around doing whatever I felt like doing. Did you want me to act like a Christian

before I became a Christian and then you were going to witness to me? You wanted a clean fish

before you even caught it. No, God loves the mess, but this priest he kept across the street,

he couldn't stand the mess. Likewise, a Levite. So a priest and a Levite, that would be like

today Jesus would say a priest and a pastor, people in ministry who should be seeking out to

relieve suffering, they couldn't even stand to look at it. When he arrived at the place came and

look and passed by on the other side, but a certain Samaritan and there was a great contention

between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. There was a huge tension. So they really didn't have

dealings with each other, but here's a Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw

him he had compassion. You have to have compassion and think about daily how blessed you are,

how privileged you are, that you're not on the highway, the broadway that leads to destruction

that so many are on. But even if you're messed up right now and you feel like a patchwork job,

you're saved because your faith is in Christ and you're looking to Jesus and here you are right

now sitting under the anointing and his word. Be grateful that you're heaven bound and then have

compassion on someone who isn't. That blows my mind. I think about people who rejected Jesus

and they live in such suffering on earth and then they die and go on to real suffering.

There it freezes my blood, real suffering that doesn't end. No, I want to intercept that.

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds pouring on oil and wine in the natural.

These were used as antiseptic ingredients for balm and the wine because of its alcohol content,

but we all know what the scriptures are looting to here. Don't we?

Oil, a type of the Holy Spirit, wine, a type of the Holy Spirit.

That's what city light is. It's an oil and wine dispensary.

And when you walk in in the spirit, all the ushers, all the greeters that have jugs of oil and wine,

they pour it on people's heads and are sealing these hydraulic mechanisms holding 55 gallons

drums of oil and wine come slashing down on people.

Be one who pours in the oil and the wine. Oh, I'm not good at that. Just start and watch what the Lord

does. I'm using this word and I don't want you to win set this word. It'll be addictive.

It's addictive because it's one of the first times that you'll see and experience how God comes in

and you step back and how God works and uses you and flows through and works on your behalf and then

you actually become very impressed not with yourself but with how the Lord can just do that and you go,

oh, now all those times when I hear the Lord can do anything through you now it's making sense

because I'm saying things I haven't even really studied or thought of or they're in there

but the Holy Spirit draws them out but only when you bungee jump and put yourself out there.

He poured in the oil and the wine and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an end and took

care of him. This is a meridon. He's the one who should have crossed the road but he didn't. He

stopped. You know why? Because love stops. Listen, love stops. Another world is going at a

quick pace. Your life is going at a quick pace but love stops. Compassion stops. He stopped.

Who does the Lord want you to stop by? Just stop and make them a part of your everyday prayers.

And genuinely love them with no strings attached. Not because you're trying to bring them to Jesus

only. You love them because who they are and then bring them the gospel. Say how? Any which

try a bunch of stuff? Try the simple stuff. You know what worked for me for years? Something as

simple as, hey, can I don't know if you believe in the Bible or not? But will you read John chapter

three with me? This is going to just read John chapter three with me. It takes like 10 minutes.

I can't tell you how many people I've read to the Lord just by reading John chapter three with

him. For many, it's the first time they're even exposed to Scripture. And you sit down and

read John chapter three and Jesus is talking about the new birth and you're explaining it to them

which opens up a window or a door to bring another parts of the gospel. Next thing you know,

they understand the gospel. And you leave them then. You know what I find is a major problem?

People don't know how to close the deal. Because, and they always quote that verse, well, you know,

I saw someone else's waters. No, go for the jugular. Hit bulls eye. I've seen Christians

where somebody's like, what must I do to be saved? And like, well, think about what I told you

and walk away. Oh, don't worry. In a year from now someone will come and you know, I just

planted a seed. What? That seed will be burnt and scorched in a year from now. You could have just

reaped that whole thing. You do it, yes, you can. You can with his strength, with his wisdom.

And you won't be doing it alone. On the next day when he departed, he took out two denari,

gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of him. And whatever more you spend when I

come again, I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell

among the thieves? Worship team, which please come up. God is calling us to love our neighbor.

There's some practical ways you can do that. I know you guys have friends. You know how I know,

because when we have a church picnic with catered barbecue, you guys show me just what social

butterflies you really are. You invite people, people come because a church picnic is easy to

invite you. But extend it a little more. We have these, we have these physical cards for those of

you who are into physical cards. This is a nice thing to leave with someone. You know what I find

works really well? When you invite someone to church, just shoot them a link of the Google Maps

link. We have right now 193 five star reviews. Maybe you will be the next seven right here. Bring

us over 200. But it's a great advertisement for our church. We got a pictures, videos, our website,

the times on there. People can read reviews and just shoot that over to friends. They want to come

here with me this Sunday. This is where I've been going. But I'll never go to church. I know,

come check it out. I never do a lot of things until I do them. Hallelujah. And this week as a start

to this new season in our life, in the church's life, we want to give you this, I usually don't like

church merch. It's always cheesy, always tacky. But this honestly, this looks like a key fob to a

Lamborghini. This is a city light key chain. We'll give you one and one to give to a friend when

you invite them on your way out. But let's pray right now. And let's trust. Let's trust that the Lord

will use us. Those of you who right now you're saying, I want this so much. I want to take people with me.

Release that compassion right now. Release that cry. Lean into it. Sometimes it's painful.

John knocks. You know what his prayer was? Hundreds of years ago, he cried out to God. He said, Oh God,

give me Scotland or I die. Give me Scotland or Lord, I'll die. I ache for their salvation. I ache for

them to come. For your family, your parents, your children. Don't be afraid to be moved to where

you say, Lord, give them to me or I die. I ache for them. Use me flow through me, open up my mouth,

give me the right words at the right time. I will seek, I will seek the opportunity. But you also

put me in an opportunity, Lord, whatever it takes, you have no hands on earth, you have mine,

you have no feet on earth, you have mine, you have no mouth on earth, but you have mine. Use me,

flow through me. Not my will, but yours be done. Father, the name of Jesus, let a mighty outpouring

of your Holy Spirit and a special fire from heaven come upon us as a church. Lord, let this be a

house of salvation from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, raise us up 10 times

more than before. Thank you for previous salvation and the baptisms. Lord, 10X in Jesus name.

There's a million of us here in the five boroughs, Lord. We're asking for hundreds of thousands

in Jesus' name that a mighty move of God would come and sweep New York City. Amen.

Amen.

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.

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