CityLight NYC - Premiere Episode! - Guest Pastor Bonny Andrews

Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com, that's CityLightNYC.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Well, we're in the middle of the book of Ephesians. I'm going to continue Ephesians 5 Part 2 next week, but this has been in the calendar for some time.

We are privileged to have an amazing man of God with us this morning, Evangelist Bonnie Andrews. Put your hands together.

I'm so grateful that he's here this morning, along with his whole amazing family.

You know, your boys are just a little bit older than Victor, and every time I look at them, it's just, I set up some goals, you know, for me and my son.

They just love their dad, love their mom, and yeah, you saw me peaking. They're like worshiping the Lord and loving the Lord, and it's just so awesome.

But Bonnie and I met in January of 2020, and I instantly just absolutely loved him, which believe it or not is rare in ministry land.

For whatever reason, that is just rare. But I instantly loved him. I loved what he carried. I loved his passion and his burden for people and for winning him to Jesus.

And it just radiates out of him. I just joked to Pastor James. I said, what you just heard this morning, that's exactly what it's like having a half hour cup of coffee with Bonnie.

It's the same zeal, the same fervor. You know, you put a pinprick in him, and it just leaks. Evangelism and leaks, souls.

And he had a very large, very influential ministry in India hundreds of thought. And still does. Thank you. I put that in the past tense, but that ministry in India is still going.

Except he's not in India any longer. I mean, what I'm trying to say is he was in the natural, very comfortable and very cushy.

And then he answered the call of God to come to New York City, a place that's been termed for the last half a century as a preacher's graveyard.

And so trust me, he gave up much. You know, he told me about his ministry. I said, did you have a chaiwala? He said, I did. They brought you chai, right?

He had it all. I prayed one day, someone. But in any case, he was reaching Gen Z before it was cool to reach Gen Z.

Before everybody was talking about it, and we had Asbury. And we actually scheduled these meetings before Asbury broke out because he shared his vision for what he wants to see happen around college campuses all over the nation with live jam right here in the United States.

And so I want you to open up your heart and receive. Don't wait a half an hour before you realize whether you like them or not.

Just make a decision right now. He's cool. I like him. He's safe. That way you can open up your heart and really receive from the grace and the anointing that's on his life.

Are you ready, church? Put your hands together one more time for Bonnie Andrews.

Come on, city light. Make some noise. Come on, come on, come on.

Give it up for Jesus all over this place. He alone is worthy. He alone is worthy of all praise and honor. Amen. Amen. Amen.

I'm so honored to be here this morning. This is one of my favorite places to preach the gospel because the people in this church are amazing on fire.

I'm just here to put some more gasoline on the fire that is already here. Are you ready people?

Yes.

I'm telling you, when you're in New York City, how cool is that? I meet Pastor Boyan. First of all, he's got the coolest name ever.

For real. For real.

We just met. We just connected just like Pastor said. We've been friends in New York.

We meet a lot of people and we're in all different types of circles.

One of the coolest things that we know is when we meet a lot of people, so I was sharing the last service,

that your phone book is filled with so many people, maybe over 5,000 people on my phone book,

you know that you have many acquaintances but few friends. And then you have friends and then you have brothers.

In our lingo, we call it broskees. Stop. And Pastor Boyan is a broskees, a brother.

We hang out, we eat together, pastors, friends, and eat together is a good thing.

If you love food, if you love fellowship, that's how the folks in the acts roll.

They just had food, they just had chai, I don't know if they had chai, but they had curry.

So I come from curry land. I tell people, I come from the land of curry but I live in the land of curry.

New York everybody is busy. You know what I'm saying? Busy, baby. Busy.

You know, my calendar, if you're trying to fix an appointment, they're telling you about 2024.

I'm like, whoa. And a little bit of what I'm talking about. So I'm here to bring some curry and nointing in the room.

If you don't like curry, I mean, you know when you live next to an Indian because the fragrance is amazing.

I have people knocking on my door and just telling you, when are you going to invite us for some curry?

So that's how contagious curry is. But let me tell you, America doesn't like, I mean, they love curry, but this land is filled with sugar.

This is sugar land, baby. You put sugar in your meat, you barbecue.

I mean, you know, we put some chilies on our meat when you're barbecue. You guys put sugar.

The barbecue sauce, I'm talking about barbecue sauce. It's got sugar. Hello.

And the kind of sugar that you put in your drinks, you know, you sold us and all that stuff. So you guys love sugar.

So just coming back to just being an honor to be here and I'm here with my family.

Come on guys, you know, it's not often that they sit on the front row. My wife is always looking after you.

So look at me. Am I looking good or not? So my wife insisted that I wear this.

Okay, so that's my wife, my aunt, get up everybody. Guys, just face the music.

Turn around, Zach. Zach Jacob, you don't want to do it? He doesn't want to get up.

All right, here we go. This is Levi's, our 11 year old bold man of God. And then we have Zach.

Maybe he hands up Zach. You wonder what he wants to see your hands in face.

They want to see your cool hairstyle. You want to show them?

Come on, Zach. He can do it.

All right, then this is our brand new two year old, right? Born in America, right?

And he's the cutest thing that's ever happened. It's my beautiful wife.

You know, when you say, when you look at your wife, you're like, I just mad it up.

I just say, I just keep saying, I'm married up. I'm married up.

If I was a hip hop artist, I'm married up. I'm married up.

The only thing I do in the morning is make her a cup of coffee. And she says, like, thank you, like 10 times for the cup of coffee.

Because, you know, we have some really nice coffee machine. Hallelujah, right?

So I'm happy to be here with you. And I'm happy. This is the, this is the, this is the crew.

God spoke to us a couple of months ago. You know, I got back from a, from an overseas trip.

And I got back jet lag. And the Lord began to speak to me for a couple of days.

Speaking to me from big chunks of scripture. And the day one was from Genesis.

God spoke to Abraham. You know, walk the length and breadth of this land.

And I'll give it to you. Then God spoke to Joshua.

Wherever the soul, if you feed shelter, I'll give it to you. God spoke to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah chapter 29 was 16. It says, you know, where, you know, stick the piece of the city.

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

And the city is blessed. You will be blessed.

So then I told this idea to my wife. Of course, you have to share this with your wife.

This idea is going to be driving across America in a minivan.

9,000 miles. New York to LA. All right.

Seattle to Miami back to New York in 30 days.

And thank God she said yes. So this crew made it 9,000 miles.

We drove in a Chrysler Pacifica. We fallen in love with Chrysler.

Where's my Chrysler? Right? So we drove around. We prayed for 30 days across the country.

Brain for you to be saved. That was an agenda.

We're not fundraising. We're not asking people for money.

We're not asking nothing. We just went around just praying.

We just asked leaders on the ground. Can you give us one hour to pray for your city and for your youth?

And all of them said yes. So we had, you know, we had capitals being opened up.

We were praying with politicians, campus leaders, ministers, all the cool things.

And out of that, something cool has happened.

While we were on the road, the Lord kind of with with some research.

We were at Penn State the first day.

State College was a pit stop day number one.

And we were at Penn State who were asking students and campus ministries around.

They said there's 40,000 students in Penn State.

How many? Talk to me, ladies. Talk to me, guys.

40,000 students. And less than 1% of those students are involved in any sort of campus ministry.

So less than 400 is being distributed among all the campus ministries that you can talk about.

All the national local ministries.

That's where our college campuses are.

And day one, the Lord began to speak to me.

Your heart is for the campus.

You know, for the last 18 years, the Lord, you know, let me to start this ministry called Live Jam.

And we've been focused on high schools.

You know, we, we reached out to over 3 million students in 184 cities around the world.

Bands, tour, you know, festivals, radio, television.

All that Gen Z loves.

And young people love we were using that.

But here, the Lord began to speak to me.

Your heart is on the college campuses.

So we're on a mission that's just being birthed out of prayer.

Anything that is birthed out of prayer is good.

God loves that stuff.

It's not like I just asked five guys who are MBA guys and say go out into the market and find some information.

And based on that, you write a proposal and start doing it.

When you hear it from the heart of God, it is from the heart of God.

And guess what?

What is on the heart of God?

That none should perish.

Not a single student.

Not a single young person in America should perish.

But all, what does this Bible say?

All should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

So that's a mission that we run.

Share in the gospel with young people.

And this morning, I wanted to say that we want to just stand up for the right,

rise up for the reading of the scripture.

Are you guys ready?

Yes.

Stand up and we're going to read it with power, authority, conviction, because this is it.

This is it.

Michael Jackson said.

This is it.

Jesus said.

This is it.

Okay.

Look at this.

No, let's go up.

Luke chapter four was 18.

The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me.

To preach the gospel to the poor.

Send me to heal the broken hearted.

To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.

To set at liberty those who are oppressed in Jesus name.

You may be seated.

I'm telling you something everywhere you look.

It is about revival.

Revival is in this land at this point.

It is everywhere.

You go, you know, my family and I, we got to drive up.

I mean, these days after you drive like for 9,000 miles,

two hours of driving is like going for coffee.

It has to be minimum five hours to just get as excited, right, Sean?

And this was a 12 hour one and I was watching Super Bowl.

And of course, I come from the land of cricket and of course Super Bowl is no connection.

So I was in national land and I'm just looking at all these things and me.

And you know, we were talking about the revival that's happened.

And I'm looking at the fairs and I'm like, I can't just look at the feed that's going on.

This is day two of the revival.

I'm like, I have to go.

So guess what happened?

So right in my easy chair watching Super Bowl, I told my wife, could we go?

And she said, yes.

Hallelujah.

So I just went out, got a rental.

By the time I came back with my rental, she was already packed and we were on.

So we drove till we, you know, we were sleep, you know, we were feeling sleepy.

We just stopped and then we drove again.

We got there by four o'clock.

So just to see the power of God, he didn't call it students.

There is no superstar on stage.

I was looking for the man of God.

You know what I'm saying?

You know what I'm saying, guys?

I was looking for Benny, he ain't there.

I was looking for the shop.

Our guy is not there.

I was looking for the cool worship leader like Sean, he ain't there.

There's no rib jeans, there's no leather jacket, there's no Chelsea boots.

You know what I'm saying?

There is no Starbucks coffee thing.

You know what I'm saying?

You know how we roll?

We come to church with our Starbucks coffee.

I mean that's how we roll.

What should we just roll with like the Starbucks?

So you know what I'm saying?

That's the James.

You got it.

That's what we call the swag coffee.

I mean they might be coffee, they might not be coffee.

That's what we roll.

There is no Starbucks.

This is a town in the middle of nowhere.

There's no Starbucks there.

There's a gas station like far away.

Small little stores in the middle of nothing.

There's a university.

We roll up there and God's power.

We just walk into the room and people, young people, who can't look, you know,

who can't stay away from their phones for like more than like five seconds.

They have to check on the stories and you know what they said and other people said.

The people that were on, you know, I was looking at these young people on fire for God.

Just worshipping God.

Staying away from the phone.

I'm like a few phones here and there.

Those were all the older people.

They were filming you.

They're like, man, this is revival when young people are staying away from phones.

And old people are switching on.

It's like they're trying to film everything that's going on.

Some of them are blown away.

Some of them have been praying for real.

For being praying for this revival.

And here is young kids on the altar.

No altar call.

No offering.

Just organic stuff.

Stay, stay, stay away with me.

Organic.

My God, I'm telling you our church is a lot about hype.

I'm tired of hype.

Hipping it too much.

Hipping with the coffee.

Hipping with the swag.

Hipping with the worship team.

Hipping with the cool pastor.

Hipping with the graphics.

Hipping with the big truck that you roll out.

Whoa, city light.

You know, I'm just, you know, this big branding.

It ain't working, guys.

American church.

4,000 churches are shutting down in America every single year.

Pastors are disillusioned.

Pastors are walking away from their assignment.

Pastors cannot sustain themselves.

Churches are shutting down because they can financially keep it going.

And whenever there is a crisis, God begins to move.

So today, if you're in the middle of this crisis, thank the Lord

because something is about to happen.

If you're in the middle of a crisis, you need to break through.

Jesus is just going to show up right now.

That's it.

That was like a million dollar word.

In the middle crisis is the butt place of breakthrough.

Every time there was a crisis, there was a breakthrough.

There was no wine.

All right, Jesus said, all right, guys, stay away.

Let me just show up.

He just showed up, turned bottle water into expensive wine,

like 30-year-old wine, like 50-year-old wine.

I don't know what that is.

He time crunched.

The Bible says, this is another whole sermon.

Let me just say that God can time crunch you, Michael.

The scripture says, there was a first time the glory of God was manifested.

Every time the glory of God is manifested, it is not just about goosebumps,

there's a manifestation on the ground.

Water was turned into wine.

Wine would take like 20 years from the time it was conceived,

to grapes, to crushing, to fermenting and putting it in racks, 30 years.

The best wine.

Boom!

One second.

Time crunched 30 years into one second.

God can turn around things in your life.

He can turn your family around.

He can turn your husband around.

He can turn your son who's been walking away from faith around.

He can turn your health around.

He can turn your life around.

And the only one.

The only one who can do it is Jesus.

And I'm just the mouthpiece to tell you that he can do it.

If you believe it's a Amen.

This is a good ground to preach.

I'm just getting excited.

We're just getting started.

It's going to be a long service, baby.

I just want to say that God is moving all across America.

I want to make this big statement.

Don't sleep on the harvest.

Don't sleep on the harvest.

God is moving.

And I don't want you to be sitting around and doing something else.

If you are an entrepreneur, if you are a business guy, this is like,

this is the way that we've been waiting for.

This is the startup wave.

This is the entrepreneurial wave.

This is the AI wave that we've been waiting for.

This is the moment to start a business, to create a product,

to start a church, to start a meeting, to start a revival meeting.

Fellas, when you have a revival meeting in church, show up.

Show up because you are seeking God.

You know what, the people of Israel looked at the hands of God.

Most of us look at God as an ATM machine.

You are shaking it and working sometimes.

You are kicking it.

You are making it work.

And you are saying, God, give me this.

Give me that job.

Give me that jacket.

Give me that cool card.

Give me that.

Give me, give me, give me.

While the Bible says, most of us sought the face of God.

So those revival nights, what we are doing here in this church,

is really seeking the heart of God, seeking the face of God.

And I want you to turn around.

I don't know many churches in the city who does that stuff.

And you are blessed to be part of the church who does that.

So when you have it, go get it.

Amen.

Amen.

So this scripture says, the spirit of the Lord is on me.

Look at somebody who says, the spirit of the Lord is on you.

It's not just on Pastor Boyan.

I know he's got a cool name.

It's not just on Pastor Moe.

Whoa, what a cool name.

Moe.

Pastor Moe, Pastor James.

Is this not on the elite?

The senior pastor doesn't mention that.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Look at you.

I mean, I do this stuff.

I prophesy to myself all the time.

Put your hands on your head and say, the spirit of the Lord is on me.

Oh, I can't hear you.

Say that again.

The spirit of the Lord.

Come on, Sean.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

It's upon me.

Let me tell you something.

It's going to be a fun service.

All I'm saying is the spirit of the Lord is upon every single person in this room.

Every single person who's watching me online, who's sitting in front of me,

you have an assignment.

Let me just tell you, the anointing is not for you to just chill out in the church.

Church has become the Holy Night Club.

The beans are good.

The wipe is good.

The coffee is good.

I mean, there's no alcohol.

There's coffee, of course.

There's coffee is a new alcohol, you know?

You make different types of coffee.

You go to Brooklyn.

Oh, my God.

There's swirl.

They weigh it.

Then they talk about the beans like they know it.

They know the guy who grew it.

This is single origin.

Organic.

You know, I'm telling you, you don't come to church to get goose bumps,

to feel good, to take the mark, to tell somebody and put on some insta stories

of the cool worship leader and the drummer.

You know, all those cool things that you have in this church, it is not about that.

The anointing on your life is for an assignment.

Look at somebody and says, the anointing is for an assignment.

The anointing is for an assignment.

And let me tell you something, that assignment is not you, it is others.

The anointing on your life is not for you, it is for others.

It is to go through you into the lives of others.

If you look at the life of Jesus, it was always about people.

He was in the people business.

He was all about all night.

He just soaked in.

Let me just tell you, I love these soaking parties.

I love soaking in the anointing.

But Jesus soaked all night to do some work all day.

Stop.

You know, don't just put the full stop with soaking.

Soaking is the comma.

Soaking comma.

Preach the gospel.

That's the next piece.

So you don't feel goosebumps in your body just to sit around and chill.

And some have some holy cool people hanging around with you.

It is for others.

Pass the modes for others.

Pass the boy and it's for others.

Brothers, it's for others.

It's for you work people.

It's your colleagues.

It's your students.

It's your neighborhood.

Everywhere.

The spirit of the Lord is upon you.

The word anointing means to rub.

The oil has been rubbed on you signifying there's a divine assignment on your life.

And the anointing is for you to fulfill that assignment.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

What is he anointed me for?

Number one.

Proclaim the good news.

Now the word preach the good news.

Now the word share the good news.

Tell the good news.

Said anybody got some good news?

Every news station is selling you bad news.

They're even selling bad news from churches these days.

Church scandals and those things have been trending more because they feel like there's a money on that game.

They track in every pastor down, they track in every church down, put in those stories,

and getting you all distracted from the mission that you're on.

Your mission is to not look at other pastors.

Your mission is to look at Jesus and ask him what do you want me to do?

And you just go do it.

Nike knew that well, that's why they said just do it.

Just do it.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me now to want to preach the good news.

To speak the good news has God done something good in your life.

Tell us, don't sleep on me now.

Okay, I'm going to wake people up right now.

Has he done some good things in your life?

Did he turn your life around?

He turned my mom, I mean I'm telling you, he healed my mom of cancer.

I have some good news to tell people about.

He does a miracle every single day of our life.

My kids can brag about it.

They're going to tell the world about it.

We have miracles happening on a daily basis.

People, let me just tell you, we live on the edge.

Lauren Cunningham wrote a beautiful book daring to live on the edge.

And he's saying, hey, start living the predictable, boring life.

That the enemy wants you to do.

95, the same old things.

And somebody said, doing the same things again and again.

And expecting different results is called, cuckoo, it's called insanity.

Get out of that monotonous game into the wild, wild world.

The adventurous world, when I talked to my wife and I said,

you know, decided, you know, a taller, we're going to get married.

I just said, join the adventure.

This is an adventure, right, pastor?

It is an adventure.

Number one, to preach the good news.

This anointing used to preach the good news.

When is the last time you shared the gospel with somebody?

When is the last time?

You know, this is the only thing that God wants you to do?

The only thing that gets brownie points in heaven is souls.

You can't take your cool.

I know you guys, I mean, I want to say that the most good looking people in all of New York is in this church.

You got all cool swag on.

You called jackets and scarves and jewelry and all those cool things.

I mean, your head gear and your hairstyle and you spend like half an hour, 45 minutes just doing it all up to come to church.

You can take none of that to heaven.

You can take your shoes to heaven.

You can take your car to heaven.

You can take the cool wearsachi jacket to heaven.

You can't take none of that to heaven.

No Rolexes in heaven.

The only thing you can take from this part of the world to the other side of the world is people.

Please take some people to the other side of eternity.

I know for one thing.

When I get to heaven, it's going to be a lot of people.

I need to say hi, fight.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Some mother is going to say, hey, you preach the gospel to my son.

He preached to me.

He preached to his dad.

He preached to his grandma.

And that's why we are here.

So a lot of people that I don't even know are going to say hi to me.

You know why?

High five because you preach the gospel I am here.

And I want you guys to have friends in heaven.

That's another sermon.

Friends in heaven.

preach the good news.

When you ask people what is the good news?

People have no idea.

What is the good news?

What is the gospel?

Many people, most Christians don't have an idea what the gospel is.

The thing is a cool thing.

The gospel.

When you ask people, they say John 3, 16.

That's the gospel.

God, so I love the one.

Yes, it is the gospel.

Let me give you the definition of the gospel.

You can screenshot it and go back and think about it because if you don't know, it's like,

you know, when you're trying to sell something that you have no idea about, you're just gassing it.

Right?

But you need to know what the gospel is all about.

This is the gospel.

Very well written by one of the ace evangelists of our time, Dr. Rice Proxy says,

the gospel.

Can you read this with me?

The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ.

We live the life that we should have lived.

Die the dead that we should have died in our place three days later.

This is an important thing.

He rose up from the grave proving that he is the son of God and offering the gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in him.

Let's do one more time.

The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ.

He lived the life that we should have lived.

Die the dead that we should have died in our place three days later.

He rose from the grave proving that he is the son of God and offering the gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in him.

Come on, give it up for the gospel.

This is a gospel.

I love what Jesus says, the son of God became the son of man so the sons of men could become the sons of God.

Our righteousness is like filthy rags.

Our brownie point is not going to take it there, but guess what?

Jesus said, now listen, don't worry, I am paying the price for your sins and your father's sins,

your mother's sins, your ancestral sins, and the father's sins that you're going to commit.

And I went and paid for that price once and for all on the cross of Calvary.

The most gruesome death that the worst criminal of their time could go through.

Jesus took our sins on the cross and he said it is finished and he rose up from the grave and he

said, if you believe in the simple gospel, you will be saved.

So this annoying thing on your life is for what?

Is so that you can get a good job?

Well that's part of it.

Why did you put you in a good job?

So that you have access to people that normal pastors don't have access to.

Hello, Christian pastors have to go to a health club to find some sinners.

You know what I'm saying?

We need to go out of gym.

Hey, we hanging out too much with pastors.

We need to go to a coffee shop.

We need to go somewhere else.

That's why you got a great job.

That's why God has put you in that university.

That's why God has put you in that college.

That's why God has put you in that neighborhood.

Does your neighbors know that you're a Christian?

Does your workplace people know that you're a Christian?

Do they talk? Do you talk like them?

Do you speak like them?

Do you live like them?

Do you hang out in the same places where they hang out?

What's the same things that they watch?

What is different about you?

That makes them feel like I want what you have.

I'm kicking some butts this morning.

This is called the Holy Kick.

Too much of sitting in the church.

Get out and do something, guys.

Go preach the gospel.

Slay it in the Spirit.

I love that stuff.

But then what?

Speak it in tongues.

I love that stuff.

Then what?

Lift your hands up in the air and worshiping.

And then what?

Preaching the gospel.

Mark 16, 15.

Go ye into all the world.

Our vision is very simple.

We want to preach the gospel to every student in every nation.

Boom.

Pretty much covered that, right?

Sean, every student in every nation needs to hear the gospel.

That's a mission.

We're going to do Paul said I will do all things

and do all men so that I'm making some.

So the preaching of the gospel,

what are you going to tell people?

That number one, he heals.

He's a healer.

Last week I was ministering in the church in the Hamptons.

The Hamptons.

The Hamptons, guys, the Hamptons.

Where there is my wife's like,

you know, we need to go get some fries from McDonald's.

I'm like, baby,

there ain't no McDonald's in the Hamptons.

Pizza starts at 20 bucks.

That's a little pizza.

It's not the Domino's big ass pizza, you know what I'm saying?

Everything is expensive.

Milk is like one dollar up.

I'm like, what's going on in the Hamptons?

But guess what happened in the Hamptons?

Ministering in a church.

And guess what happened in the middle of that?

There is a young girl who never spoke

under five years or five-year-old girl.

Never spoken her life.

Nobody laid hands on them.

I wish I could have said that, you know,

I laid my hands on and boom, something happened.

An electric power happened.

And then they, no, nothing, nothing.

She just went, she couldn't speak.

She just got on stage,

picked up a mic and started speaking.

We are in revival zone.

We're in easy zone.

All you need to do is just show up.

All you need to do is just show up.

Catherine Coolman said,

God is not looking for a silver vessel or a gold vessel.

God is looking for a yield at vessel.

All you need to say is, yes, Lord, I am ready.

I am ready.

I'm available.

Use me.

But guess what happened?

If you don't want to be used by God,

God's still going to do what he,

I mean, I was talking to people in this room.

It's like you were in love with this girl.

And just about the time when you had to just get to business,

get on your knees and just propose to her.

You didn't do it.

You don't have the guts for it.

You didn't feel it.

You know what I'm saying?

Christians always have to feel a lot.

They overspiritualize a lot of things.

I'm telling you, this is a,

all that I say, this is the most

second most important decision of your life.

If you don't get this right, man,

it's hard one, okay?

But you don't show up and you don't do it.

And guess what happened?

Somebody else did.

And they're going to get married to her in front of you

out of that field.

Ouch!

That hurts.

And that's exactly what God is doing.

Because you didn't show up.

God chose somebody else.

And he's going to do the same assignment right in front of you

and make you feel like you missed the bus.

That is miserable.

So, I think God, I'm available.

I'm sorry.

I'm ready.

I'm doing whatever you want me to do.

I mean, I'm a crazy press.

Whatever you want me to go.

Wherever you want me to go.

Whatever you want me to say.

I'm ready.

I'm all in.

I'm all in.

Preaching the gospel.

Number one, telling them he is a healer.

Healing the broken-hearted people.

There's a lot of broken-hearted people out there.

Popping pills every day.

Drinking a lot.

In New York, they have a dog, by the way.

They don't want to get married.

They got too busy with their career.

Now, they just like, they don't know what's going to happen.

But they just need a dog.

They have a dog right now.

And the thing having a dog is going to heal them.

No, listen.

Healing can only come from one person.

That is Jesus Christ.

True healing of the heart and the soul and the body comes from him.

For all the dog lovers, I mean, listen.

I grew up with two dogs.

So, I love dogs.

Not really.

But all I'm saying is, you cannot replace Jesus with anything else.

So, he heals.

Number two, he delivers.

People out there are depressed like you have no idea.

Pornography crazy.

They can look at a guy as a guy.

They can look at a girl as a girl.

Their minds have been perverted by all these things.

So, they watch.

They're depressed.

They're pulling pills.

They're going to therapists.

Six out of 10.

I mean, I heard a one out of four in every campus.

Young people are going through depression.

I was talking to parents like my son's depressed.

Therapy.

This is what is going on.

But let me tell you something.

You have something that you have in your hand.

I'm not overspiritualizing.

But it has got spiritual connotations to what they're going through in their spiritual life in terms of depression.

You have the power to tell them about Jesus who can heal, who can deliver.

And the last piece, I want to say, he restores.

God is a God of restoration.

Only one person can say that I can restore you and he can restore you.

You know why?

Because he's outside time.

God is outside time.

That's what I said.

He can crunch that 30-year breakthrough into like one second because he can restore.

You're looking at somebody.

If you know my story, I would tell you, I am a restored vessel.

Look at my family.

I'm a restored person.

Look at my dad and my mom.

They're restored people.

We are restored people walking around sharing about the one that restored.

And he can do a great job with it.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news.

Heal the broken hearted.

Set the captives free.

Amen.

Let me just tell you.

You might be thinking, hey guys, listen.

You're looking at me.

You preach a voice.

You can do it.

You need to know how to put it.

The three points sermon and the cool things and the lingo and the swag and all those things.

Let me just break it down for you.

Is that okay?

How can I share the gospel with somebody?

I'm just doing a little training.

Are you guys okay with that?

Yes.

All right.

Let's look at this word solved.

Say that with me.

Anybody loves some salt on that steak?

Do it like salt, bear you.

Salt is an acronym for sharing the gospel.

Salt starts off with S for start a conversation.

You're at a coffee shop in a line.

Hey, man, what's up?

What's your name?

Start a conversation.

You know, start talking.

Just asking what's going on.

I mean, this is what happened.

Can you put that picture of this couple that I met on a plane from New York to Dallas?

Okay.

New York to Dallas.

Early morning, Southwest plane.

I got an X-L-Drow seat.

X-L-Drow is the economy.

You know, it's the business class of economy.

Right.

So I was like excited.

I'm thanking God and praising God that I got an X-L-Drow seat.

I'm going to stretch my legs and sleep.

And guess what?

A young man comes and sits next to me.

And then a girl, beautiful girl.

Louis would turn back.

Just comes and walks it next to me.

And then boom.

The next 35, three and a half hours.

I, you know, woke up from my sleep and I decided I'm going to do something about it.

I just started to ask questions to these girls.

These guys.

He said he's a baseball player.

She says he's a senator's daughter.

She's an interior designer.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then A starts for asking questions.

So start a conversation.

A for asking questions.

Right.

I'm asking what's going on.

What's going on?

For three hours, I was just asking questions.

Uh-huh.

Really?

My God.

Crazy.

Oh, my God.

I can't believe it.

So I did that for like most of the time.

Ask questions.

L is for listen.

L is for listen.

Preachers, guys, listen.

We love to talk.

We love, we are the talking.

We get paid to talk.

So stop talking.

Right.

Start listening.

That's why he's giving you one mouth and two years.

Right.

So start a conversation.

Ask questions.

Listen.

That's your moment.

At the end of three hours, I was like, what about you?

I'm like, yes.

Then I began to tell them about my story.

I got changed my lab, boom, boom, boom.

And before the plane landed, I held their hands and prayed with them.

They started talking.

They were too strange.

Just two weeks later, they connected.

Got engaged and finally asked me to get there to do their wedding.

And this was their wedding.

Crazy flash wedding.

And this story

became viral on the internet.

They made the top five stories and 50 years of flying on Southwest

because the Indian curry eating pastor decided not to sleep

and but just asked some questions solved.

Start a conversation.

Ask questions.

Listen.

Tell your story.

Are we getting anywhere?

Right.

We're getting to get into close, right?

Pastor?

No.

We're good.

Hallelujah.

Now listen.

This is how you're going to roll.

The spirit of the Lord is upon us.

He's anointed us to preach the good news.

Heal the broken hearted.

Set the cap to free.

These hands of God has given you.

Put it on somebody the other day.

And just say, can I pray for you?

Can I lay hands and pray for you?

Can I say that?

I mean, I don't know how many times you do that with these boys on a...

on a... on a... on a... on a...

Uber ride.

Your name is Muhammad.

I'm like a star of Islam.

I'm like, he gets excited.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

He just... he just puts the...

all the... you know, the blind... you know, all the...

all the... all the guards are down now.

I like it.

Barney, mom, mostly...

He's not able to understand.

But at the end of the day, we're going to share the gospel with the guy.

There are moments we have prayed with the guys.

There are moments they've joined us in church.

I mean, there's been crazy stories.

All that happens because you said, I am ready.

I'm ready to be a little bit unashamed.

You know, what is stopping you from preaching the gospel?

The fear of man.

The Bible says, the fear of man is a snare.

It is a trap.

It stops you from preaching the gospel.

I guess what happened.

You know, I'm telling you, this church, I'll tell you,

God is speaking to this church in a mighty way.

40 years after the church was birthed in the book of Acts.

Jesus begins to speak to this church in Ephesians and says,

guess what happened?

What does he say?

Return back to the first love.

I wish I could just stand up right here.

I'm going to mess up the camera.

But Jesus, look at me.

I like Jesus speaking to you.

Return back to your first love.

Return back to your first love.

The day that you got saved.

The day that you heard the gospel.

The day that you were falling in love with Jesus.

Now, as a minister, every prayer is about fulfilling a budget.

Every prayer is about a need that you have.

Every prayer has got an agenda.

But return back to the first love.

This morning, God is saying, city light church.

Return back to the first love.

When you got saved.

When you are on fire for Jesus.

Now, the devil got you all blessed.

You know, sometimes the blessing becomes a curse.

God blessed you so much.

Now, the blessing has got you so busy that you don't have time for God

and sharing God's word and God's love to other people.

Are you guys ready with me?

Let's go back to the book of Acts.

Let's see what happened.

Ask chapter one and verse eight.

Jesus said, listen, boys and girls, I know you guys are ready to share the gospel.

Hold in there.

Hold in there.

You need something called power, which I call it.

Shaba power.

You shall receive power.

The word is, do not miss.

Power when the Holy Spirit shall come upon you.

You shall be my witnesses.

What is the witnessing?

It is not a big deal.

I was talking about a hotel that we went on.

Just love their service.

Generous at the, you know, remember the hotel that we were staying?

You know, they were just giving away stuff to the kids.

And we were like, we want to chage.

They were like, no, no.

It is okay, it is on us.

And was number one, day one, I was like, whoa.

The other hotel, another hotel, another city doing the same things.

Two frappuccino, Starbucks, it is like ten bucks.

You pull that out from the, take it to the counter to get, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It is a good return gift from us.

I was like, whoa.

It must be the pastor's blessing.

You know, I am thinking of- you are always spiritualizing.

And the third place you go, the same thing happens again.

Then we found out it is actually the culture of the hotel.

that I began to be an evangelist of the hotel.

All my brother, you have to go to this hotel.

I'm telling everybody about this hotel.

That's exactly what God wants you to do.

Just be telling about what God has done in your life.

Don't get that into three-point sermon,

how Tim Keller does it, or he does it at one point.

He's my neighbor by the way.

So I'm just trying to say,

you don't have to spiritualize it and systemize it

and institutionalize it.

You just got to make it organic.

And share it the way you can.

And boom, guess what happened?

Receive the power.

And then in Acts 2,

the Holy Spirit falls on those 120 hungry people.

Number one, if you want to be used by God,

you got to be hungry.

Hungry, desperate, unashamed,

and said, God, I am ready.

Whatever you want me to do, hungry people,

120 people, boom, the Holy Spirit comes upon them,

starts speaking in new tongues.

Guess what happened after that?

Acts 1, 2 and worse.

Let's go.

Where are we?

Acts 2 and worse.

2 and worse, 38.

This dude called Peter,

who denied Jesus three times,

who doesn't have the capacity to stand up and do nothing,

who has never preached a sermon.

He hasn't gone to the preaching class.

He gets up and speaks his first sermon.

Three thousand people get saved in one message.

So you don't need to be, you know,

this is something I have to tell myself all the time,

being in New York and just hanging out with the who's and who's,

Barney, God never used the qualified.

He qualifies the cold.

He never calls the qualified.

He qualifies the cold.

The question is, are you called?

He's never asking you, are you qualified?

Are you called?

Are you called to preach the good news?

Are you called to be in the gap of God,

to God to use you wherever you are in your marketplace?

If you're called, Jesus is saying, yes, go.

241, guess what happened?

People are getting baptized everywhere, right?

They're just getting it back into the basics.

I told the American church has gone into optics,

metrics, it's about how many birds and how much bugs.

How many people showed up?

How much they gave, right?

But optics, how cool it looks, the branding, the lighting,

and this and that and the coffee and the snacks and chocolate cake

or carrot cake, whatever, all those things, right?

You have to go back to the basics of reading the word of God.

Guess what happened?

Let me just tell you something.

If you read the Bible for three days in a row, this is what happens.

Three to four days.

I tell these campus students who don't even care about the Bible.

I'm saying, this is a book if you read it.

Your mental health is going to drop.

Fear is going to drop by 32%.

Depression is going to drop by 36%.

Pornography is going to drop by 52%.

Evangelism is going to go up by 200%.

Discipleship is going to go up by 220%.

Just by reading this book.

Start reading the book, okay?

So they got back into the basics.

Reading, prayer, fellowship, listening to what the Godly authority

was on top of that and guess what happened?

People got saved every single day.

How does city light grow?

By putting cool ads and putting a lot of ad money

and getting some cool influencers and worship leaders

and pastors, different sight angles and front angle,

side angle, moving cameras, passive points, different.

Nothing's going to work.

People are going to come to the church when you begin to tell people

to come to this church.

When you begin to invite them, when you begin to share the gospel,

they need to take some next steps and you say,

come to city light and then they start coming here,

start getting saved and start filling these forms.

So if you want to see these empty chairs and other services

and you want to start another service and an evening service

and new location, it's not in their ball, it's not in their court,

it is in your court.

If you would preach the gospel, everybody in this room

would preach the gospel, boom, there will not be any space.

There will be a standing room only, right pastor?

That's right.

Right now, let's go last thing.

You know, Paul gets transformed and Paul and Barnabas

go on this mission.

It says, within two years, all of Asia heard the gospel.

My Asia Minor heard the gospel because of two guys.

They didn't have the TV ministry.

They didn't have Instagram stories in life.

They didn't have the text messaging platform.

They didn't have those cool networking events that they did.

All they did was, they did it and they told other people

to do the same.

That's exactly.

This preaching is not just preaching.

I'm just doing a mini training.

A mini evangelism training to say that is not just for preachers like us.

You can do it.

Salt is for everybody.

Start a conversation.

Ask questions.

Listen.

Tell your story.

Boom.

Got them saved.

Now where do they go?

Come to church.

And they start showing up.

Amen.

So this morning, I want to read the scripture and close it.

Right.

Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 10 and verse 14.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Now the ball is in your court.

It says, how can they call on the one they have not believed?

And how can they believe in the one that they have not heard?

And how can they hear with us somebody preaching to them?

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent

as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news?

This morning, I'm telling you, thousands of people are waiting for the good news.

And if you would say, yes, God is going to use you.

And how many people out of this room?

I'm telling you, this is the send happening right now in your church.

We're going to pray and send you out.

We're going to pray and commission you.

We're going to pray and say, go and preach the gospel.

Go and preach the gospel.

The only qualification right here is to go preach the gospel.

Mark 1615, go preach the gospel to all over the world.

Maybe God's going to call you to a different nation.

Great.

Maybe God's going to call you to a different assign.

I don't care what it is happening.

The church is not known by its seeding capacity.

It is known by its sending capacity.

Now this church is a giving church.

This church is a sending church.

This church is a church that believes in apostolic ministry.

We don't want to hold nobody because the more you go, the more we'll come in.

Amen?

So this is a call this morning by the Lord is saying, return back to your first love.

Come back to square one.

What is your original assignment?

Some people God tipped you from another country into this city.

You think it was a cool idea.

It was your idea.

No, it was not your idea. It was God's idea.

God brought you from the nations.

This nation has been a sender of missions.

Missionaries around the world has become the greatest mission feel in the century.

So as we have the worship team coming up right now,

this morning is going to become a send commissioned morning.

Every single person in this room and watching online,

we are praying and sending you out.

We are praying and sending that you will go and preach the gospel.

You will know whatever.

Maybe you don't have all these skills.

Maybe you can just ask them, you know, how many kids God saved just me telling them

to come to church and listen to the cool drummer.

Go and invite.

Go and invite.

Every hands, everybody stand up right now.

What's your team is here?

Before I end the service, I just want to say, there's anybody here watching online.

You've never accepted Jesus as your personal savior.

You've been born and raised up in a Christian home.

You heard of Jesus.

I made the commitment of Jesus asking Jesus to become your Lord and Savior.

And God is saying today is the day.

He doesn't care about your past.

He doesn't care about your sins that you've done this morning.

He says, I'm going to wash you away and cleanse you with the precious blood of Jesus

that he shed on the cross for you.

And he wants you to be born again and welcome to the kingdom.

That's going to be number one.

Number two is going to people who want to recommit their life.

You feel like you've been walking away from Christ.

You want to recommit and say, I want to come back to you, Jesus.

And that is me.

Just flip up your hands.

Every eye is closed right now.

Flip up your hand wherever you are.

And say, that is me.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I see those hands.

Anybody else.

Anybody else.

This is your moment.

Just say, yes, Lord.

I want to ask you to come into my life.

I want to recommit my life for your plans.

If that is you, flip up your hand.

We're going to pray this prayer together.

Everybody praying with me.

Jesus.

I know that I'm a sinner.

Today.

I believe that you died on the cross for me.

By the blood of Jesus.

All my sins are washed away.

Jesus.

Come into my life.

Make me a new person.

In Jesus mighty name.

Amen.

Amen.

One more thing I want to do.

How many in this room?

I want to stand up here.

How many in this room wants to say, God, I want to be used by you.

I want to be sent from this room.

Right from this room, I want to be sent out as a missionary,

as a man on mission, as a woman on mission, as a child on mission.

And I'm saying, Lord, I know I don't have the qualification for it,

but I am here.

I feel I'm called.

And you said you will call.

You will call and use the people that are available.

And here I am.

That is you.

Just lift up your hands wherever you are.

And say, yes, Lord.

Here I am.

Yes, Lord.

Here I am.

Father.

Send me.

Father, send me.

Father, use me.

I am willing.

I am available.

I am ready.

Use my mouth.

Use my hands.

Use my feet.

Use my life.

Use my family.

For the expansion of God's kingdom.

Lord, use me in this room.

Use me.

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 and City Light Church,

visit us at citylightnyc.com.

That's citylightnyc.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today.

That you have been reminded how much God loves you.

And that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening.

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