Walking in the Light: Exploring Ephesians 5

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.

Well, who knows what we're doing today? We're in Ephesians, Ephesians 5, part 2, because we couldn't finish it all the first time around, because we couldn't finish 4, and by we, I mean me.

So we're going to begin in verse 8. Let's just read 6 and 7 to see what context verse 8 is being presented us with.

Hey, and let me just do a quick recap on Ephesians 1 through 4, because Paul is still talking about how we ought to live, and he's setting certain things in order, and you better believe there is an order of God.

And in the order of God is peace, in the order of God is Shalom, it's nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing broken.

Outside of the order of God, well, that leaves you open. Outside of the order of God is where the enemy dwells, and I don't know about you, I want to be in God's divine order, I don't want to be outside of His order.

What he does for the first four chapters, really three, mainly of Ephesians, is he is solidifying who you are in Jesus.

Over and over again, he is cementing your identity in Christ. He's letting you know all that you have as a result of Jesus and the cross, all that you are as a result of Jesus.

And so he declares over the saints, hey, that's you, saints of God, that you're blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

He declares over you that you've been raised together with him, isn't that good news?

At the crucifixion, your old nature, all your sin, everything you'd ever commit, every sin you're ever going to commit, was crucified there, was killed there with him.

Your old nature was put to the cross, and then Jesus at his resurrection, you were there, you were raised together with him, and now, even though you're seated at 4401 Broadway, somehow, right now, at the same time, you are seated positionally.

This is how God sees you. You're seated in heavenly places in Christ. And then he adds to that, that this is all through no work of our own, no merit of our own, no law keeping of our own, no self-discipline of our own.

Completely given to you, gratis, free, by grace, undeserved favor, unworked for, unmerited favor, he has given this to you so what, so that now nobody can boast, and nobody can claim it's because they're so awesome, or because something that they did.

It's really humbling and really very beautiful. So I said, yeah, well, I made a choice for him, he did the work on the cross, I made a choice for him. Yes, you did, but he's the one who opened your eyes and caused you to see your miserable state, and then opened your eyes even more, caused you to see him as the solution to our miserable state.

He's the one who softens your heart that you would believe. He's the one who wooed you as the all-time evangelist used to say, he's the one who pulled on the strings of your heart, but he's the one who drew you to him, outside of him there is none that seeks after God.

There is none, we all just want to do our own thing, do whatever's right in our own eyes, but whoever's come to that place where they've received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they've been made new, they've been born again, born from above, I'm using synonyms here, but different versions say born again, or born from above.

It's been completely through no work or effort of our own, he did it all, and then transferred that great victory over to us.

Hey, man, that's a good news, isn't it? Hallelujah.

And so now that we know that, he tells us this is how we ought to behave, and whenever there is an encouragement or an admonition on our behavior,

we should always understand that we cannot fulfill this apart from the Holy Spirit.

We cannot, we can't do it on our own, and he's not calling, you notice he never says, hey, try harder, be more disciplined, sweat a little more.

When he's trying to turn a church and get them to go up to a higher level in holiness, in an understanding who they are, he reminds them of what Jesus did for them, and that calls out the truth.

And that's the biggest difference between Christianity and every other religion.

Every other religion is into behavior modification, and somehow you have to do X, Y, Z, and then you earn ABC.

Christianity isn't about behavior modification, it's about heart transformation.

And so, the responsibility we have is knowing what happened at the cross, knowing what happened at the resurrection, and then submitting and yielding to that.

And there will be a working out, someone said, but the Bible says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Amen, you've been saved, now work it out.

This still doesn't mean you get to add to it, it's done, but let there be an outworking. Amen. Hallelujah.

It's going to be a fun service, because I'm just determining to have a party, and you can come if you like, but I'm going there.

So starting in verse 6, just to recap, let no one deceive you with empty words, and he's talking about the world.

The world coming and enticing you to forsake the ways of the Lord and be a part of the world, he calls that empty words.

Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, that's unbelievers.

We're not sons of disobedience, we're the very offspring of God, we're children of God, and so we ought to behave that way.

If ever you get something that's contrary to the word, and it starts to tickle your ears, and your mind starts doing gymnastics, and you say, you know what?

On the surface seems completely contrary to his word, but the more I work it out in my mind, the more it sounds good to me.

Man, the red lights better start going off, the sirens.

Empty words, somebody put some empty words in you, and of course there's going to come rationalizations that give place to the part of us that's been crucified.

I remember when I was 16, on my way to getting saved, like two days before you got saved, I didn't get surprised by receiving Jesus, just the way it worked out.

I said, come this Friday, we'll baptize you, so I waited, unsaved, waited till I got to the church and someone could lead me to Jesus, and then afterwards they baptized me.

But remember, I wasn't thinking about all the things that I had as a result of Jesus, because I didn't know him yet, but I was thinking all I could think about in my 16 year old mind was everything I'd have to give up.

And my mind started doing the gymnastics and looped the loops.

And I, with the person who was leading me to the Lord, I got together with him, and I said, look, about all that stuff you said that would have to change in my life.

Listen, I have an idea, and I started presenting to him my version of how I could still really serve the Lord, but serve the world at the same time.

What, like it was the first person in history to ever do that, I thought I was so clever.

And he said, sounds like you're really going up in your head and rationalizing what the word of God says, and I thought, oh, I thought I was the first, I thought I was so clever.

So this is a thing people do, huh? He said, yeah, everybody does that. That's okay.

Empty words!

Don't let him deceive you and entice you and seduce you with empty words.

Just leads to the wrath of God coming upon the sons of disobedience, but you're not the children of disobedience.

Your children of the light, isn't that good news? How much wrath does God have left for his children?

Zero! Isn't that good news? You don't have, the scripture says you don't have an expectation of the wrath to come.

There is a wrath, but as far as your concern, the wrath of God that's against all sin, don't take it personally.

The wrath of God is holy, and it's just, it's not him getting upset, flipping out, getting all emotional, it's holy, it's just, but it's been completely poured out on the body of Jesus.

And so there is no more wrath left for you. Amen.

Verse 7, therefore, do not be partakers with them. And then verse 8, this is where we are.

For you were once darkness. Notice he doesn't say you were in the darkness. He says you were darkness.

But now you are light in the Lord, and this is one of the several verses that we got our name, city light from.

But doesn't say you were part of the darkness, you were darkness. Look, it is good. It is right. It is healthy for us to take a good look at who we once were.

And the Bible doesn't sugarcoat it.

Sometimes we sugarcoat it, we weren't so bad. You know, now I'm a better person. I came to the Lord to be a better person. Nobody was truly safe talks that way.

They understand who they were. Jesus didn't mince words either.

We say we were okay before the Lord because we're comparing ourselves with some genocidal dictator tyrant.

I'm not so bad compared to that person, but God compares you not to a genocidal dictator, but to himself. And then we all fall short.

That's why we need a savior who will take his righteousness, his right standing with God and give it over.

For free, transferred over to us. So that when God the Father looks at us, He sees us with the same level of righteousness.

It's the same thing as Jesus himself, because Jesus took his right standing with the Father and gave it to you and you received by faith through grace, hallelujah.

But in our fallen state before the Lord, we were darkness. Jesus pointed to those outside of him and said,

these are strong words. You are of your Father, the devil, and his will you want to do.

And that's a reality. There's two spiritual families, the family of God and the family of Satan. And we are born into this world in a fallen state into the family of Satan.

I want to really think about this with him as our spiritual Father.

And he's an abusive dad, not good, really bad.

But then there's a transfer. There's a shift. When Jesus comes to you and you say yes to him and you moved and pulled from the family of Satan and now you're placed into the very family of God and you're now the offspring of God, the children of God, the Bible says you're adopted.

But not in some way where you're adopted, but you're not on the same level as a natural born son. It says that you've been adopted and you have the same privileges, same rights as the natural born heir.

That's Jesus. Hallelujah. You once were darkness. I once was darkness. I don't sugarcoded. Everything about me was anti God, but Jesus. And because of Jesus now, I'm light in the Lord.

And then this is by the way how he brings correction all the time. He reminds you of your identity. He reminds you of who you are. This is who you really are.

Now yield to that. Let there be an outworking of that. You are light. Now walk that way. Walk as children of light.

Verse 9, for the fruit of the Spirit is an all-goodness, righteousness and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

Verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. And verses 11 and 12 go together. The next verse says,

for it is shameful, even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. Go back to verse 11, if you will, please. The two are somewhat connected, because the admonition is, don't hang around and be intertwined and entangled with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

What does that mean? I'll tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean going to your place of work where you're the only believer and then pointing at everybody and letting them know what their sin is and how bad their sin is and what they're doing wrong. And you don't do that anymore because you go to city light church.

Actually, 21 years, I've not had many of these stories, but I feel like things have shifted. But after I got saved, I met Christians all the time who they felt it was their job to point out sin in people.

And it just never goes over well, because we're not called to point out sin in people, we're called to point out the savior that is available to people. And so many people think they're witnessing, but there is no gospel presentation, there is no hope given to the people at work that now hate them.

And they respond with, you know, I'm being persecuted for my faith. No, you're not being persecuted for your faith. You're being persecuted for your lack of social skills.

And they hate you because all they see is a judgmental religious meaning pointing a finger at them. You got to provide the way out.

And I find that you don't usually have to tell somebody what their sin is and that they're a sinner. Sinners are very well aware of their sin.

I'm contrary to popular belief. I've never found a sinner who says, no, I'm totally fine. Eventually, very quickly, when you're ministering with the anointing, it illuminates. And it brings light.

And then those dark spots like roaches come scurrying and their head just goes down and they understand.

They may have been seduced with empty words and they can rationalize and justify. But when the gospel is presented, they know they have nowhere to hide, but they need to be told the way of escape. It's only through Jesus.

Deliverance is in him. Salvation is in him. So have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

We're dischainful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. When we expose something, we're not necessarily pointing to the person and saying, your wicked, your evil, you have sin in your life, I'm exposing you more.

So why won't you come to my church? We're exposing them two ways. One way, and it gets into that in the verse after that, when your light is shining, it is exposing the darkness.

That's one. Two, also, it says it's a shame to even speak about these things. In other words, you can expose these things to each other as long as it's not idle chit chat about someone else's darkness, just for the sake of gossip or for the sake of feeling superior to someone.

But you may need to talk about something so that other Christians won't fall into the trap. So just trivial chit chat about darkness or about sin. The Bible says, no, don't do that, but you can expose them one to another. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.

But all things are exposed. All things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. That's you. You're a lighthouse, a million lumens, wherever you go, for whatever makes manifest is light.

Therefore he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Just a note here that verse isn't actually in the Bible, and you'll see Paul quotes scriptures all the time from the Bible, and he'll use that phrase, therefore he says, that isn't it, but it's most commonly believed that it was the first century song, a verse from him.

Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Let me just read to you this quote from Charles Virgin, because this verse is it is applicable to Christians.

You once were dead, now you're made alive, you once were darkness, now you're made light, but still the admonition is don't fall asleep. It's possible to be a Christian, to be made alive spiritually inside, but you can still fall asleep. You know that's possible, and you don't even know your sleep until you wake up.

That's why sometimes you can go into a worship service, or even have a go to a life group, or just pray with a Christian, and the anointing and presence of God come upon you, and you just like your eyes are open, and you feel alive again and fresh again, and you don't even know you were sleep until you woke up again.

Amen.

Paul is saying, don't be asleep. Here's Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, and his take on it. The man who is asleep does not care what becomes of his neighbors.

How can he, while he is asleep?

I know some of you Christians do not care whether souls are saved or damned. It is enough for them if they are comfortable. If they can attend their respectable place of worship, and go with others to heaven, they are indifferent about everything else.

Did you catch that? I don't have it up on the screen. We're able to catch what Spurgeon is saying.

The only way we can do this is to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up, to wake up.

My four and no more, my family is okay, and I go, he said respectable church in that quote. I don't know about that, but you go to a church.

He was talking about stained glass and turrets and spires.

But the litmus test is how much do you agree for lost people, and we should all carry with us everywhere an awareness that this precious gift that we've been given, it must be shared, it is a travesty, it is criminal, if other people in our lives, if they haven't heard, if they don't know.

Paul said, woe to me, if I don't preach the gospel, that word for woe means calamity, like travesty, like a mountain slide, wiping out a whole town at the base.

What a woe, what a terrible calamity, if I don't preach the gospel.

It just came to me in the first service, I'll share it here. It just reminded me of that old Seinfeld episode, where Elaine is dating a Christian, I guess.

And he's a caricature of a Christian, as Holly would like to do, some weird version.

And he quotes scripture and he talks about God, and she turns to him and says, well, does it ever bother you that I don't believe in God and you do? And he goes, no.

And she says, no, really? Or happy, you know, and he goes, no, I'm not the one going to hell.

And I'm watching that. I'm laughing, I'm going, yeah, but that's us sometimes.

This shouldn't be amen. Hallelujah.

May we all awake. Have our eyes opened.

Verse 15, see then that you walk circumspeckly, not as fools, but as wise.

So once you're filled with the Holy Spirit, once you've received his life and his life, the admonition from the Apostle Paul is stay in a place of being woke.

Awaken, amen. Come down everyone, awakened. You can see clearly, amen, you're not asleep. You're biblically woke.

Wanting to see lost people get saved. And then it says, look, circumspeck me, circummeaning circle, spec meaning see that you walk around not with your head in the sand.

And for too long, Christians have had their head in the sand, because they don't want to be bothered. They don't want to deal with attention between living right now on this earth while being a citizen of heaven,

while being bearded by everything that this world has to offer. There is attention, we're pilgrims, we're sojourners, we're strangers, we don't belong here, we're just passing through.

But we're to walk, not with our head in the sand, but circumspeckly, looking around, knowing what's happening, knowing the signs of the times, the spirit of the times, the zeitgeist in the air.

Like the sons of Ishaqar, who had an understanding of the seasons and the times of the Lord, and you know, culture used to change once every two, three generations.

Then culture, as far as two generations ago, began to change every one generation. Then every ten years, then every six years, now they say culture, there's a major shift in culture every six months.

So walk circumspeckly. My son, he's in third grade, and he goes to jujitsu twice a week, and I've been training him now how to take himself there by alone.

One of the first things I'm teaching him is how to have situational awareness, how to, you know, I let him go alone, but I didn't, you know, I trailed him behind.

Let's just keep it and I, Emily was still relieved, you know. That's how my mom did it. Back when I was in third grade, I was just teaching him not to just look at the ground, not to look like your prey, not to be, but that's it.

Son, you stick your chest out, walk around, note the things that are around you, but this is a good advice for us. Amen.

Because, and I know this phrase is used a lot, but now more than ever. Remember that phrase used a lot, but it's true. Now more than ever.

It's time to walk around with your eyes open. Not paranoid, but with your eyes open. Why now more than ever? Because now more than ever in my life, you tell me if you agree with it or not, but now more than ever in my life, it seems like we're living in a simulation of sorts.

The two plus two equals five simulation, when even something is totally wacky and off of the wall, nobody wants to talk about it.

It's like nobody, nobody, I mean, wouldn't it be healthy if we just had an open and frank discussion about what in the world happened to us over the last three years, particularly the first year and a half, which were celebrating the third anniversary of the lockdowns this, this, this March.

Not right now. But no one wants to talk about that. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of a guy crossing the street, tripping, splitting his pants right up the back, picking himself up, dusting himself off and just pretending it never ever happened.

And the whole other side of the street didn't see his backside. What? No, it was. Let's not speak of this again. Can we all agree to forget that that happened? That's how everybody's attitude is.

No, open your eyes. Walk circumspecly. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about, you know, I was just reminiscing March the 12th, 2020, go on our City Light Instagram and look at what we posted before the lockdowns were even announced.

We posted something as a church from the information that we got out of Italy. Remember Italy? Remember how it was China, Italy? And we did our due diligence and we posted back then. Okay, this is what little we know about this virus.

It overwhelmingly affects the elderly 80 plus. It almost never affects children 18 and under. They almost never get COVID. They almost absolutely never die from it and very rarely transmitted.

And we went, it's an airborne virus. This is all stuff we knew. We have not progressed that much in understanding this thing since we posted that mid March of 2020. Yeah, we were keeping six feet apart.

I remember when we would be doing the recordings in the church, this thing would be slapping, dripping, not with the oil of heaven, but with sanitizer and we don't hand it over, no accidently touched you.

I mean, because they were programming and 24-7 showing us bodies just falling out in the street in Wuhan and trucks carrying away, you know, like medieval times, bring out your dead, bring out your dead.

We're sitting there 24-7, the counter, the death, the death, the deathometer, the death clock is going and we're stuck at home constantly.

And then we're told we have to do these things. And if we don't, we're killing grandma and don't love our neighbor, take an experimental ejection. Hey, it's been a hundred years since vaccines were invented.

We still haven't got a vaccine for the common cold 40 years since HIV. We still have a vaccine for the HIV. But we got one now in less than a year. Aren't we awesome? Take it.

And if you don't, and pastors were saying, and if you don't, are you really loving your neighbor, trying to use scripture? And then we can't even talk about that.

We're not supposing by, wait, I don't mean just in this church, everywhere, everywhere I'm tired, I'm COVID it out. I'm COVID it out too, I'm tired. But we have to talk about so it doesn't happen. I want to never forget.

Hashtag never forget. I won't forget that I couldn't have a cup of coffee with my wife for eight months in my own city.

One of the first meetings I had with Pastor James, reading a falafel, I'm 71st and kind of freezing our teacher because we're too contaminated to come in.

I don't want to forget that things like fully vaccinated, that was a term. Nobody uses that term now because it was not a very thing. It's not even a medical statement. It's a political statement fully vaccinated.

But in the beginning, in the beginning, when you were supposed to get fully vaccinated, people were advertising that were fully vaccinated, like if they needed a roommate, I'm fully vaccinated, you've got to be fully vaccinated.

Like, everyone's reminding me of dogs with a pedigree. And like, you can come over, I'm fully vaccinated, just all you have to do is show me your papers.

And I grew up on my grandpa's knee from World War II. I remember the show me the paper story.

But we should talk about this, say, man, and walk circumsipically. Why? You're like, Pastor, why don't you just let it go? It's my job to not let it go.

It's my job to say, hey, that happened. And some of us fell for the greatest sia of the last hundred years. We need to have enough humility to say, hey, I was bamboozled.

I was swindled. And now I'm not. Amen. And then once again, for those in the back, never ever, never ever said COVID isn't real.

This church gave $50,000 in March of 2020. Remember the great, is it PPI? Yeah, the great PPE shortage. We gave. And by we, I mean, we gave $50,000 and made, we made 30,000 N95 masks and gave it to the hospitals in New York City.

We purchased tens of thousands of dollars of filters and UV lighting and filtration here. No one ever said the virus isn't real, or that the virus isn't deadly for 1% of the population.

But what we did say was, you are really exaggerating, and you are now in a hyperbolic state, and you're pushing this, and you said, wow, would anyone ever do that?

Well, you don't want to go down that rabbit hole. Not right now, though. I got to get to Ephesians 5. But, but.

You know, my walking circumspecally here. And if you're uncomfortable, you shouldn't be. You're in a safe space. But if you are uncomfortable, just enjoy that heat under your seat. Just lean into it. Let the fire.

I had to go through it. Now you get to go through it a little bit too. It's good for you. It's healthy. Cooks out and burns off all the lies.

You say, why would anyone ever do that? I know several things happened. I know pharmaceutical companies got very, very wealthy. I know that billionaires all across the board, no matter what political aisle, they're on all of their collective net worth skyrocketed.

While mom and pop businesses were destroyed, while the middle class was destroyed, while students lost on years of education, all sorts of mental issues, emotional issues now. And there's been a great de-churching.

Many churches still have nowhere near than even 50% up to their pre-COVID levels. But if you want to think there was still a benevolent government behind that, who was just whoopsie, slipping up that whole time.

Remember what we're told with remasks? See, you forgot. These are things you want to forget. Remember when people were hugging each other through the plastic and the late texts and all that?

Remember our stores? Some of them still have the windshields up, because we all know the virus only travels linearly. It doesn't do around.

I mean, this is now, but that's what I mean. This is embarrassing stuff that nobody wants to talk about, because they split their pants on Broadway, and they just want to pretend that it never happened and walk away.

We're going to walk circumspecally, amen. Our eyes open. By God's grace, never get hoodwinked again. Praise God.

Verse 16. Redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. Notice it says the time. That's the Greek word Kairos. The word we often use as time is chronos. It just means time in general.

Kairos is taking away. By Kairos is different. Kairos is special. It's where time and destiny meet and collide. Kairos is a special time and a pointed time, a unique time.

And right now, that time is the time is this new covenant of his grace that we have. You don't want to live in the covenant before that was the covenant of the law. If you're new, you don't know what that is.

If you having to strive and shfitz and work and do your utmost to try to be approved unto God, but always falling short, that's the old covenant of the law.

It ought to do with you and your ability and you and I have none. The new covenant of God's grace is Jesus coming in the God man and doing for you what you and I could never do for ourselves, living a perfect, sinless, holy life, dying on the cross and then giving his righteousness to us when we receive it by faith.

That's easy. That's a good covenant. That's why Hebrews calls it a better covenant and eventually grace will be wrapped up and there's something else coming in another dispensation.

You don't want to be a part of that either. You won't be. You'll be up with the Lord. You'll be with him. But that means this is a good time. It is the time. It is the Kairos time and the Bible says, make every effort to redeem it.

To not sleep on it, but understand this is a special time in the history of the world and we're privileged to be alive in it. Amen.

Redeem the Kairos because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is. Christians, myself included, are always looking around for that guy called Will.

Well, where's the will? I'm looking for the will of the Lord. And that's good too. It's obviously good and beautiful and healthy to want the will of God. I want his will more than anything. I want to be in the perfect center of his perfect will.

I don't want 99% of his will. I want 100% of his will. But when you don't know what the will of God is, you may not find it at the next conference.

I found you're going to find the will of God because there's several places in the New Testament where it says this is God's will. And none of it actually seems that spectacular on the surface.

This is God's will that you pray that you worship and elicit these basic things, but it's when you do those written things of his known will that then you position yourself to hear from him specifically about your unique situation, your life, your destiny, where you as a person are headed. Amen.

So don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is and then he tells you what the will of God is. Don't be drunk with wine. In which is dissipation, dissipation means waste.

So whenever you're drunk or high or escaping, there is a waste. There's a waste of resources, a waste of your creativity, a waste of your life force, a waste of your body.

No, don't do that. There's waste in that. But be filled with the spirit and just notice the connectedness of the two.

There just seems to be a suggestion as though he was saying, don't be drunk on wine. That'll lead to waste. But be filled or be drunk with the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hallelujah. Take a big drink. And it says, be the grammar there in the Greek is be being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because we are lamps that burn oil. And you may have gotten filled two weeks ago, but that lamp was burning for two weeks and without a fresh refill, your wick is going to be dry and dim.

So there has to be continuous refillings. This is important for some people to get because I've run into people who ask them if they're filled with the Holy Spirit and they'll go back to some date like 50 years ago.

Now you filled with a yes in 1947. Boy, this country preacher came in. I got filled with the Holy Ghost. What about since then? Well, not really since then. Well, that was a long time ago.

Nobody told you. Acts chapter two, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts, Acts four, five, they get refilled. The same group of people praying and the place where they were assembled was shaken. And once again, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's not a one time event. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. How do I be being filled worshiping him? He's actually going to get into that. I'll just let the cat out of the bag, worshiping him, talking to him, talking to him like he's your best friend, staying in connection with him. That's why we have Friday night revival nights because it's a time for us to minister to the Lord, but it's never one way. It's always two way. And as we minister to the Lord, he fills us up. He refreshes us.

Friday nights are totally different than Sunday mornings. It's just a different flow. If you've never been, you should come. And your own expectation should be Lord, I want to meet with you. I want to hear from you. And I guarantee you, you will walk away. Fuller than how you came in. Amen.

So don't be drunk with wine, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, how do you be being filled?

There should be a melody in your heart. You know what a dead giveaway is? For deadness in the pulpit, deadness in the believer, there's no joy. There's no joy. When there's no joy in your eyes, on your face, you never crack a smile.

You know what the Bible says about Jesus? Contrary to the movies that always show him kind of like semi-depressed. I think they're trying to go for the two deep look right in the movies. He's not depressed, but he's like so above everybody, just like nothing gets to him. And he's so deep.

Jesus and Hebrews won that he was anointed with the oil of joy far above his colleagues. You know what that means? There's 10,000 people in a stadium and Jesus was in there in his earthly form. Jesus, he would be the happiest, most joys person in the group. Amen.

You know, there's a scripture that says, in that day, Jesus rejoiced. When they came back to him, the 70 came back to him, in that day, Jesus rejoiced. If you read that with religious lenses, you were, okay, Jesus, what did that look like when Jesus rejoiced? He went, praise my name. Hallelujah. This makes me so happy. And that Greek word is allegreos. How do you say it in Spanish? It's similar, right?

I don't know what it means in Spanish, but you're going to the Greek and it means to shout, to leap, to twirl around and to dance with overflowing and exuberant praise and joy.

That's what Jesus did when he rejoiced. Amen.

It's the fruit of being filled with the Holy Spirit. So speaking to one another in Psalms, what are Psalms? One thing we can definitely defer from this is that the Lord loves variation in the way we approach him.

He loves that kind of diversity. We can come to him singing, speaking, shouting, whispering. There's really a lot of leeways in there. He doesn't mind how you come to him. Do it all sorts of ways as long as you're coming to him. Hallelujah.

A psalm could be quite literally a psalm from the Bible, speaking to one another in Psalms. Do you know God in His infinite wisdom? The psalms are poetry. They're all poetry, but they're not rhyming words, they're rhyming thoughts. Isn't that brilliant?

Because he was eventually going to get translated into thousands of different languages. You can't cause words to rhyme and thousands of different languages. Just ask Dr. Seuss, it never works outside of English.

But with rhyming thoughts and rhyming ideas, you see David all the time. When you know that, you'll see all of the psalms in a different way. You'll realize how one stands than rhymes with another. And why there's so much repetition, the Lord is in my shield. He's my buckler, but which one? He's both. We're rhyming here. Track with me.

That's a psalm. Speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, what's a hymn? It's a written psalm that an anointed psalmist or lyricist wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then there's this thing called a spiritual psalm.

Where Sean's been trying to, not in and of himself, but there've been times when the Holy Spirit would move him to get us into that place and some people don't know what to do.

Because they're so used to the worship leader leading and confused if he leaves you to a place where you need to now dig deep and rely on the Lord.

And a spiritual psalm is you making up a psalm right on the spot. Spontaneous psalm. Will it climb the Christian billboard 100? Maybe not.

It could, but maybe not, but it's special. It's now, it's intimate between you and the Lord. It causes you to lose some of that coolness you think you have.

That's a good thing, by the way, to come to the end of yourself and be like a drop of water in his hand.

And say, Lord, if you want me to sing to you right now, I'll do that even. I'll just make it up as I go. I'll demonstrate right now. I got you the night.

My pastor, man, that fell on him one time. He would do that. And one service back in 1993. I believe the video still out somewhere on YouTube.

He's saying the whole service. He's saying the beginning. He's saying the message. And then you couldn't stop. He's saying the whole altar call.

Saying the altar call. People rushed the platform. And then say, Amen. And it was the end of the service. Four hours long. Hallelujah. That stuff you can't fake.

You know, it's like speaking in tongues. Someone says, Oh, you're faking it. Well, you can fake 10 words. You can fake school B. Doobie.

You went into the ruby and then played with his cube. And you can, you know, but after like 20 seconds, you're going to be like, Oh, what do I say next?

But you you're going to have an hour and you're speaking out of your spirit in the heavenly land. You cannot fake that. Amen. Amen.

And making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always. This is how to be being filled with the Holy Spirit, giving thanks always for all things to God, the Father, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

So the next few verses we're going to look at really fly in the face of contemporary culture and contemporary living from the outset, I want to let you know this.

There is going to be always a knee jerk pulling back a wincing away from the order of God because it's the wisdom of God and it flies in the face of the wisdom of man and it flies in the face of what we see happening currently with our culture in an accelerated way.

For example, people in general have an unhealthy view of any kind of authority and they want to pretend that they wear all the same. Yes, we're all the same in value.

But we're not all the same in function and we're not all the same in position. And God is that way. He orders things. I'm going to say this word. Some of you are going to grab you, clutch your pearls. He orders things hierarchically.

He does. It's not all the same. Even the angels underneath him. He orders them. There is right underneath him. Archangels, Gabriel, Michael. People have said, well, Lucifer, he was an archangel. Actually, he wasn't. He wasn't on that tier right underneath God.

It says that he was in the category of cherub. He was the anointed cherub that covered the throne. Underneath archangels, you have seraphim. Then you have cherubim. And he organizes the angels hierarchically.

He organizes the animal kingdom hierarchically. He organized even the children of Israel. He made captains over tens, captains over hundreds, captains over thousands, captains over 10,000. Amen.

And so here, the admonition is submit to one another. That doesn't mean each of us goes around submitting to one another. No, after you.

That's nice. No, please, after you. That's nice. Specifically, that word submission is a military rank term. And it means to put your mission sub underneath the main mission of the person who's over you.

So guess what all of you you submit to your employer? You submit. You're saying, hey, what I'd like to be doing right now is not this kayaking wind surfing, whatever it may be. It's not this, but I'm going to take my mission, which is to have fun all day long.

I'm going to submit it to the mission of this organization. So there's going to be submission. Amen.

I can't go into another church and check out the situation and try to find out what's wrong and bring some order there. I have no authority in that other church.

I'm submitted to the other pastor. Last week is a great example. We had Bonnie Andrews with us, who is an evangelist. I submitted my pulpit to him. I submitted our church to him. In turn, he submitted to the vision that we have here and submitted to my pastoral covering and we all did that.

There wasn't a contract we signed. We didn't even talk about it when you know someone by the spirit that just happens. It flows and that's how you know a covenant relationship and when something is sweet and there's an ease and there is the order of God. Listen, do not do not let them cheat you and deceive you with empty words.

There is a railing against this because Satan knows if you can get you outside of God's design, God's order, God's best. That's where the trouble starts, even though it seems so reasonable and rational and so evolved and so progressive.

But it leads to death. Amen. Wives Ephesians 5-22. Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

So I remember my first wedding, I was a year old in the Lord and this is often read at weddings. First Corinthians 13, the great love chapter and Ephesians 5, that's like 99% of the wedding sermon right there.

I'm listening to this and when I got saved, I shared the gospel with numerous people in my high school, a bunch got saved also and one of them was there at the wedding and her story was interesting. She got radically saved and fell in love with the Lord but two years prior to that, her father had left the family and put her mother in a real bad place and her and her sister were now alone and her world was shattered and she was so hurt and she saw what her mother was going through.

And this verse was read at the wedding and when the wedding was done, I turned to her. I didn't know, you know, for me, I'm just a dude, 17. They read that in one year out the other. She was visibly shaking because of the trauma she went through and the hurt that she had.

She was now seeing the world through a different lens and I understand that. I have compassion on that. But I say still with love in my heart, there is a God desiring and it's there to cause you to be blessed and cause you to prosper. It's not there to hurt you. Amen.

So let me break apart this verse. Why I submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Let me break it apart by first saying what it does not mean. It does not mean that one person has more value over another person.

You know, this is a hollow back church, right? You can talk back to me and say, Amen. I'm talking about the verse, the verses in Ephesians, everybody's on the edge of their seat now. The internet is up and that's forever. Just talk back to me.

It does not mean that one holds more value than the other. It does not mean that one is subjugated to another. It does not mean that one lords it over another. God pulled Eve out of Adam's rib. Not his toe that he should stomp on her.

Not his skull that she should lord it over him, but out of his side, an equal partner, equal value. However, not equal in function, not equal in design. That isn't something. Listen, that isn't something that should get you riled up.

If you are getting riled up, relax. Once again, you're in a safe place. In a safe space. Chill. Just ask yourself, why am I getting riled up and how am I processing this and just hang on and let's get through the under the chapter. Amen.

Everything that the enemy is doing right now is to get us out of God's order and to get us divided. Races against other races, women against men, men against women, everything to slice and dice and divide.

Don't fall for it. Especially as we, I dread, head over into 2024. Don't fall for it. They should never ever in this house. They should never be in us and them. We're talking about politics. We're talking about genders. They should never be us them.

We are us. 80 different nations represented here. We are, we're saved. We're Christians. We're called apart. We're sanctified. We're set apart. That's us. Amen. And as far as them goes, we love them and we want to win them with the good news of Jesus. That's the only us them that should exist. Amen.

So wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. It's a calling to put your mission underneath your husbands. There's also calling for the husband to be godly, to love his wife as Christ loved the church.

But for a wife to say, I now follow the mission that God has put in your heart and you know what, this shouldn't be controversial. It should be the same mission.

10 years plus with Emily, not once have I ever had to start my foot and say, woman, Ephesians 5 says,

you need to submit to me or you're going against the very word of God. Never had to do that.

Because what we're being called to is a cooperating. Is a working together. But ultimately, he's laying out his design of how the family unit, which is so precious. Society, if society was a body, the family unit is the cellular organisms that make up the world.

And it's beautiful. God designed it and it's holy. And it works so well when it's in his order. Amen.

Let me let's just read those hester those verses or those slides that I sent you about headship.

Worldly headship says, I'm your head. So you take your orders for me and must do whatever I want. Godly headship says, I'm your head. So I must care for you and serve you.

Worldly submission says, you must submit to me. So here are the things I want you to do for me. Godly submission says, you must submit to me.

So I'm accountable before God for you. I must care for you and serve you. Amen.

Let's keep reading. What verse are we on?

Verse 22, wife submit to your husbands. Oh, let's go to 22 just because there's another thing I want to show you there.

I want you to submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

What this doesn't mean is that a husband can say the way you submit to Jesus, that's how I want you to submit to me, that's not what it's saying.

Every time you put your mission and submit it and receive your husband, who by the way should be chasing after Jesus, loving the Lord, wanting to glorify God.

What is the glorify God to serve him, to know him, to make him known? That should be the mission of every family here.

And husbands need to arise and lead in love and lead by example.

And I'm telling you, when you're loving, when your eyes are on Jesus and you're loving your wife, you won't ever have to have the talk.

You'll see how God designed us. It'll flow beautifully and naturally together.

It means as unto the Lord means as though you were doing it to the Lord.

So you're submitting to your husband but as unto the Lord. In other words, he receives that as though you were submitting to him because you're obeying his word.

Does that make sense? It's not saying the husband is the Lord. The Lord is the Lord.

But when you love him and submit to him, it's like you're doing it unto the Lord.

Next verse, please. For the husband is the head of the wife.

As also Christ is head of the church. And he is the savior of the body.

That word savior there is even better translated preserver or deliver a really preserver.

And what it's simply saying, the husband is the preserver of the body.

The husband is the one who should go out and slay that deer. Amen. And bring it home.

These terms, you're not slaying a deer but the husband should rise up and say,

it is my primary responsibility to love my wife, love my family and provide. Amen.

And in that way preserve the body of his wife and of the kids.

Hallelujah.

This silence that I'm hearing.

I'm trying to...

We're good, okay.

Because look, this is controversial but it shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be when you just look at when we were functioning well as the people.

Today, this has obviously been demolished, destroyed as every wise reason why it has.

And what do you have? You have more drug abuse, you have more depression, you have more suicides, you have more confusion.

The stats for Gen Z is out. There's an attack on their soul.

Why? Because this pillar that's biblical, that's holy, that's good.

And yes, you can tell me nightmare story, so-and-so was heard, so-and-so was abused.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Christians who love the Lord following the word of the Lord.

Families thrive. They thrive and they thrive physically, thrive intellectually, emotionally, financially in every way.

This works in the natural.

Man, the silence is going to make me say some stuff that...

This works in the natural. Do you know in America?

Ethically speaking, who the top income earners are.

You know who's at the top? Indian, number one.

After that, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Malaysian.

Somewhere in the middle, the average American.

Talk about household income.

Go, why? I wonder what systemic thing is making that happen.

Well, you know what I see at those groups up top there? I see some version of this.

I see an adherence to family.

I respect the love of cooperating, working together, and that brings blessing.

And I thought I had it quiet before it now looked.

You can't even mention the word, other ethnicity.

We need to get some Christian comedians in here, filled with the Holy Spirit, just blow the whole place wide open.

You'll feel like you're at an enemy and it's exactly what you need.

Some people, your fingers are so tight, I can hear it from here.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ,

so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.

Now, you know how the Bible says, like, submit also to the reigning ruler.

And Romans 13, great verse about submitting great passage about submitting to government.

Romans 13 was Hitler's favorite chapter, by the way, in the whole Bible.

That wasn't a joke, that's a fact.

During the Nazi uprising, and true Christian churches were just getting delayed

during Bonhoeffer's time, and that whole thing, and it was those churches that said,

Romans 13, boss, they were the ones who were praying.

What I'm saying is there is a time if ever a request is made of you that's contrary to the word of God

that would lead you into sin that would cause you to negate your conscience that's based on the word of God,

you don't have to ever submit to that, whether spousal or governmental or employer related, amen.

Your integrity is worth too much, and you cannot compromise, whatever you compromise to keep,

you will lose anyway.

So let me just read to you a few things where it is not appropriate to submit.

When the husband asks or expects the wife to sin, obviously, she's free from her obligation to submit.

When the husband is medically incapacitated or insane, she's free from her obligation to submit.

When the husband is physically abusive and in danger is the safety of the wife or children,

the wife is free from her obligation to submit.

When the husband breaks the marriage bond by adultery, obviously a wife does not have to submit to her husband's adultery and just accept it.

Amen.

Let me just say this, gentlemen, you've got to arise, I've got to arise.

We all have to, men, I'm talking to the men right now, and allow Jesus to do a deep work,

because any attention that's here, it'll be dissipated when men recognize who they're supposed to be in Jesus.

And when they love and sacrifice and give and serve, you're not going to get who are you,

you're going to get, I can't wait to submit and lock arms and go with you.

Ladies, am I right?

Amen.

So yeah, that's the high calling.

I wasn't intended to be funny, but okay, verse 26, I'll take any sound right now, anything.

Genuine laughter, uncomfortable laughter, sphinxters tightening, whatever, just not that silence of a graveyard.

That he might sanctify, worship him, come on up and bail me out real quick, verse 26,

that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

That's not referring to baptism, that's referring to the actual cleansing that comes when you hear the word of God.

Jesus said, you're already clean because of the word that I've spoken over you.

How many of you know you can just hear the word of God in passing, you come to a service, your friend can text it to you.

And the moment the word of God comes in, it's like, oh, now it doesn't actually do the cleaning.

The blood of Jesus does the cleansing, it's the one that removes it, but the word just, it acts as a connector.

It takes you and connects you to the truth of all of your sins being forgiven by his blood.

You're like, oh, it just feels like I took a bath and a shower.

I just got three verses in me, that's the power of the word.

That he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

but that she should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church.

For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church,

and he's comparing and contrasting earthly marriage with your marriage union to Jesus,

saying, our earthly marriage can be, should be, a mirror reflection of our union with Jesus,

our marital union with Jesus.

The way Jesus sacrificed and gave himself for the church's bride,

that's how men should treat their wives.

The way the church submits to the mission of Jesus, that's how a wife should submit to the mission over the household.

Amen.

And you know what else that tells me?

That there is the potential there for marriage,

is how it should be to be heaven on earth,

just as the marital union between us and Jesus is heaven, here on earth.

It has the potential, it's what he wants, amen.

But I speak concerning Christ and the church,

and nevertheless, let each one of you in particular,

so love his own wife as himself,

and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

If you've been confused by this today,

then only read verse 33, because that's a great cliff notes version of the other previous verses.

That sums it all up.

Bottom line, men love your wives,

and women respect your husband.

You can almost say that men love and crave respect,

and women want love.

I should write a book about that.

I'm going to call it love and respect.

A worship team.

I'm feeling worshipy right now.

How about you?

Lord Jesus, thank you.

Thank you, Lord, your word is light.

It's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path,

and the entrance of your word brings light.

Father, may we be filled with your word and aligned with your word,

and during this next song, ask the true minister to people.

Some people, the word works, and it works for them,

but they need to know how much you love them right now,

and they're spirit.

They need to hear from you.

Be open.

Eyes opened in Jesus' name.

The power of the Holy Spirit come inside of you.

Bring clarity to your situation.

Show you that he's removing you from the pit.

Supernatural deliverance in Jesus' name.

Change.

Change.

Transformation.

The enemy who sings sameness, stillness.

May the Lord Almighty come in like a mighty rushing wind

and bring the change.

The change of heaven in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message,

or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik

in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com.

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.

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