How to Change

You're going to do much better when you admit all excuses are lies.

And people lie to themselves because change scares them.

Because all they've known is one thing.

They're boring, same, still, swampy lives.

And God wants to pull you out of that.

There's a higher place.

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 Jancic 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.

I want to go right into the message today, and Pastor Mo is going to share some very important announcements.

We have a singles conference coming up.

which everyone who's single, which means you're not married, really you should be a part of it.

Because the one thing that'll trip you up is the whole single scene and it really, getting in a wrong relationship, getting in a mistimed relationship, it is like a Hoover.

You kids know what a Hoover is?

It's a Dyson.

Except a Hoover loses suction.

It's a Dyson for the anointing of God on your life.

Just sucks it right off.

So you want to be a part of that singles conference.

Pastor Mo will share all the announcements.

I'm like, he's going to share these announcements as I go through the announcements.

But I do want to draw your attention because I have backslidden when it comes to my announcements and just making people aware.

Like, we are a missions church.

We have given millions of dollars over the years to world missions.

And everybody used to know that.

But because I kind of stopped talking about it, like new people don't know that and old people forgot about it.

But we actually take our mission support very, very seriously.

There's something...

Yucky in the body of Christ.

And this is the yucky thing.

People make a commitment, people make a promise, and then they don't follow up on it, or they follow up on it randomly.

That shouldn't be, by the way.

The Bible says, blessed is he who swears to his own hurt and changes it not.

You know how many men of God have promised me stuff?

Oh, I'm going to get you, I'm going to do that.

And then it's like, whatever happened to that?

Well, God changed his mind, you changed your mind, somebody changed their mind.

But you say you're going to do something, you should do it.

We have that reputation.

We say we're going to do something, we do it.

We made a commitment to supporting various organizations around the world.

We are never even a day late.

Talk to missionaries and say, how does your support come in?

I talk to missionaries and they usually say, some months it comes in, sometimes it's late, sometimes they skip a month.

How would you like it if your employer paid you that way?

Sometimes I get a check.

Other times, you know, they forget.

Oh, well, I guess I'll just scrounge around until then.

So we have these commitments.

We have never even been a day late.

It doesn't matter what's happening here.

We've had great times, tough times, in between times.

We're going to stay faithful to our commitment.

And I found that God really likes that.

There's some things that God just likes.

He likes people who keep their word.

You know why I have to keep my word?

because I want God to keep his word.

Now he's not gonna change, but this is how it works.

If I don't believe my own words, how will I believe God's words?

You may not think that's connected, but it actually is.

If I don't have any integrity, which means that my word is my bond, I won't even believe that God has integrity, but his word is his bond.

He never changes his mind, he never goes back on his word.

He said it, and that settles it.

And I find that he likes when his people do the same thing.

So we have these commitments.

Many of them began in 2009.

We have an orphanage, the Grace Center, that we're the primary sponsor of in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

We have the Macomb family.

We have built, City Light Church over the years, has helped build over 50 at this point community centers,

And churches.

They double.

They're churches, but they double.

I mean, it's the only show in town.

It's the only show in the village.

So they double as a community center.

Many of them then triple as a medical center.

We have missions trips to Guatemala.

You've come.

You've helped.

By the way, for two days, we help build.

Because if you ever look at local contractors, and there's a lot of El Salvadorians and Mexicans and Guatemalans, and you'll know that they have no clue what they're doing, right?

They're actually praying for a 15-year-old white person from America to come to teach them carpentry.

See, when the guy did the same joke at my party, everybody laughed.

And I was like, that's my joke.

And he did it, and everybody laughed.

But he was black.

See, he says, white person, it's funny, but I say white person, where's he going with this?

Because you're a bunch of racists, and you need healing and deliverance.

You got woke-ified, and the humor left you.

Let me snap out of it.

Okay.

No.

Look, we come, because I even said, I'm like, why are we, like, these guys are mastered.

All of them know how to build stuff.

I don't.

How does me carrying that cement bag 50 feet help?

It doesn't.

But it shows them that I'm with them.

But we do that for like a few days, but what you may not be aware of is we've given a lot.

We put whole roofs, whole foundations.

Like we only do a little bit, but we leave them with all the supplies.

It's not our labor that's the blessing.

It's actually the purchasing of the supplies.

So Guatemala.

Oh, yeah, look, there's us helping.

And, ooh, wait, hold on.

I'm like a goldfish.

I got distracted.

Ooh, Eduardo looking good there.

Navy blue is your color.

Really nice.

Really nice.

I'd even dial it up to a midnight blue with that dark salt and pepper beard.

Yeah.

The kitties.

Vlad, are you here?

Yeah.

All right.

Back.

So we have Guatemala.

Guatemala.

Liberia for many years.

We were all over the place, but right now mainly Serbia, Montenegro, Guatemala.

and the orphanage in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

We have commitments there every single month.

So Mission Sunday used to be the same, still is, I just haven't talked about it.

It's every month, it's the third Sunday of every month, which, that's today.

So what are you supposed to do on Mission Sunday?

Well, you give something extra to missions.

When you give, there's this drop-down menu, there actually is a little tab for missions, and that's our missions budget.

And that's how we help spread the gospel and with humanitarian aid together.

Humanitarian aid must be paired with the gospel.

Because social justice without the gospel is an injustice.

What good does it do to help someone and then they just end up going to hell anyway?

You got to include the gospel.

So give something extra to missions.

And that's the one announcement I knew Pastor Mo wasn't going to do, but I'll save the rest for him.

Are you ready for the Word of God this morning?

All right.

I want to talk to you about change.

How to change.

How to experience change.

It actually seems very hard for us as people to change ourselves.

seems just as hard to change our lives, to change our circumstances, to change our environment.

Yet you read the Bible and you see that God is a master of change, of initiating change and following through in change, taking you from zero to hero.

Ha!

From the crack house to the penthouse.

From the ghetto to the meadow.

Come on, somebody.

God likes change.

He's in the change business.

But we as people have a hard time cooperating with God.

So what happens?

Too many of us are stuck in swampy sameness.

Where everything's the same.

And nothing ever changes.

And it's really, really boring and really, really dull.

And no, that's not the Christian life.

It's supposed to be from glory to glory to glory.

Guess what?

That's change.

Things are changing.

There's movement.

Swampy sameness makes me depressed.

This is a theory.

I've been stuck in swampy sameness.

It gets real dull and real boring, and you're like a dead fish floating downstream, and it's just yucky.

I want to experience the goodness of God, and if I'm not...

then I know the problem isn't on that side of heaven.

The problem's not with God.

I'm misaligned somehow.

I'm frustrating him somehow.

Because he's so good and he wants to bless you.

He wants to bless me.

And going through a prolonged, really long season, I'm talking like years and everything's the same,

I know I'm frustrating him because his very way is growth.

You look at God's ways.

God's ways are growth.

But people cope all the time.

You know who's master copers?

Pastors.

Pastors are master copers.

They always cope.

You know, they'll have a little itty-bitty church that's been the same size for 20 years.

And they'll say, well, I'm faithful.

Yeah, but Jesus didn't say be faithful only.

He said be faithful.

Then he also said be fruitful.

You got to be fruitful and faithful.

Yeah.

Outside of pastors, people like to cope.

You know how they cope?

They'll say, well, you know, Moses was 40 years tending his father-in-law's sheep.

And you know, David ran around in the wilderness.

And they'll talk about all these men of God that had these long, boring seasons.

Why are you identifying with that?

Why are you finding your hero in that sliver of their lives when that was their wilderness experience?

I'm not identifying with Moses.

tending his father-in-law's sheep for 40 years.

And by the way, there's a reason why the Bible doesn't talk much about that.

It just says that's what he did.

You know why it doesn't go into the daily of that?

Because it's boring.

Identify with Moses saying, let my people go.

I'm not going to identify with David and how long he had to wait.

And I am identifying with David when he was in the palace.

Hallelujah.

So let's end the cope.

And let's actually embrace change.

Which actually, because of the way we're wired, doesn't come easy.

And Jesus knew that.

And let's begin in the Gospel of John.

John chapter 5 and verse 6.

John 5 · chapter mention

I want to give you five steps to experiencing transformation and change.

To cooperating with God.

Because life is either an adventure or it's nothing at all.

If you're stuck right now, I'm very aware that I'm annoying you.

I know that.

When you're stuck, the last thing you want is a very happy, joyous person who's experiencing change telling you, hey, you get to change.

You want to throw something at me.

I get it.

And it's actually a spirit.

It's much better in here.

I smell.

It's much better in here.

First service.

Oh, man.

And I wouldn't say anything to you that I didn't say to them.

I told them.

It's a spirit of sameness.

You actually battle it when you're preaching it.

It's like this nasty Jabba the Hutt giant sloth that just sits on people with the sameness of the swampiness and then people resist change.

And they lie.

They lie.

They lie to themselves.

You're going to do much better when you admit all excuses are lies.

And people lie to themselves because change scares them.

Because all they've known is one thing.

They're boring, same, still, swampy lives.

And God wants to pull you out of that.

There's a higher place.

Now Jesus knew that.

So he asks what seems like a preposterous question.

He comes to the pool of Bethesda.

which is a beautiful thing where an angel used to come and stir the waters, and the first one in the water would get divinely healed.

And so a lot of sick people gathered around waiting for the stirring of the water.

Jesus finds a man who's paralyzed for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew, this is not written this way by accident, he knew that he had already been in that condition a long time.

He said to him, do you want to be made well?

Look at the wording there.

The Bible is letting you know that Jesus, because he knew that this paralyzed man was already there a long time, that maybe he didn't want to be made well.

Maybe now he was stuck in the swampy sameness.

Now he's already coping.

Oh, you know, I don't have a man to help bring me into the water.

This is just maybe how God wants me.

Things will never get better, but that's okay.

Because really, the Lord's my delight.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

And Jesus messes with him.

Do you want to be made well?

And the way in the Greek grammar that is, it's like he asked it twice.

Do you want to be made well?

Do you really?

He's provoking him.

Do you really want change?

Because I can perceive.

The Lord didn't ask this by accident.

Many other times it says Jesus discerning their hearts.

Yes.

He could tell what was going on on the inside.

He knew this guy outwardly looks like he wants change.

Outwardly, he's hanging out at the place where change happens, the church, right?

Outwardly, anyone in church wants change.

It would appear.

But Jesus would say, do you really want change?

Do you really?

Do you want to be made well?

So number one is you got to actually want change, right?

Now, why wouldn't someone want change?

One of the reasons is because they've tried to change.

They've tried to change the environment, their circumstances, and it didn't work.

Well, cry me a river.

You know how many times I tried to change and it didn't work?

I've bashed my head against walls trying to change stuff.

It didn't work.

You know, in my case, I don't know how it is for you, in my case, God was just waiting for me to get to the end of me.

Because I'm very full of me.

I'm full of, according to my wife, a lot of something else, too.

So God's... Look, she's taking notes for that.

She's like, amen.

God is waiting for me to get to the end of myself to finally collapse and say what we sang in that song.

I'm not enough.

I can't change.

Unless you come.

But what I'm saying is people have had their faith wounded.

Your faith can get wounded.

You want change.

You give it the old college try.

You swing the bat every which way but loose.

But you're still stuck in the same old, same old.

And now you have a choice to make.

Are you going to then go, I guess this is it.

Or are you going to say, you know what, I still trust, Lord.

You can do what seems impossible to me.

You've got to cling on.

But a lot of people, they're afraid to believe.

They don't dare to believe God.

So then they just end up coping and sitting and just letting the waves of life wash over them.

And so now life is happening to them.

They're not happening to life.

But God wants you to arise.

I say this with love.

And stop being boring.

You content to have the same experience a thousand times?

Or you want a thousand different experiences one time each?

The good ones you can have twice, three times.

The really good ones.

That's what God wants for you.

There's a whole other side to this message is yes, we're to be content.

And when things aren't changing, he is our joy and he's our contentment.

But that doesn't mean that has to be the entire movie of our life.

Hallelujah.

It's not always exciting.

It's not always a fast life.

And then Jesus is my ultimate source, ultimate joy, yes.

But at the same time, change should be coming.

If you're not changing, you're not growing.

And our circumstances should be changing.

To what?

To something better.

Yeah.

God wants that for you.

So number one, you gotta want change.

Number two, it's found in Titus.

Number two is receive grace to change.

I'm not just talking about changing like your character, changing habits, I'm talking about that, but even more, I'm talking about changing your circumstances, the environment of your life, the vibes,

The aroma you give off.

As I say that, some of you, you know Satan starts lying to you when you're a very small child.

I talk to my kids all the time.

You'd be shocked what they tell me.

I had the sweetest time with Vivian and I explained to her how Satan lies to us because I remember him lying to me when I didn't know what the devil was.

Four, you just hear that thought.

I said, what's the devil been telling you?

And when she told me, man.

Actually, right then, I wanted to grab the devil by the throat.

But then I relaxed and remember Jesus already did that.

Hallelujah.

I can't help that.

He did it.

So Satan's been lying to you since you were young.

And some of you, you leaned into that lie.

You partnered with that lie.

Now you're an adult.

But you have whole segments of your worldview, of your mind, have been formed around this satanic lie that you received when you were four, five, six, seven, eight years old.

And now he put on you a limiting mindset that,

And so you walk with your head down.

You walk without expecting much.

You think you're being humble and holy because you all just take the crumbs that come to me in life.

Are you kidding me?

You're destined to reign.

Because of the grace of God, by the way, in Romans 5.19, it says you are to reign in life.

Reign.

R-E-I-G-N. Reign.

Like a Lord.

Because he's the Lord of Lords.

Who do you think it's talking about?

You.

He's the king of?

Kings.

Who's he talking about?

You.

Hallelujah.

So how to experience change, how to change, how to flow with change, you got to want it.

One.

Two.

It's by the grace of God.

I can define grace so many ways because it's such a multi-layered subject.

You can define it so many ways.

But one way to define it is a hard attitude that says, I'm not enough unless you come.

Grace is an empowerment against sin.

Grace is the means by which you are saved.

Grace, in the Greek charis, is the gift of heaven.

Grace is the power of God at work in you, forming Christ in you.

And change comes via grace.

Grace is actually a teacher and a trainer.

When there's an outflowing of grace...

You will do God things, you will think God thoughts, and all of a sudden you find yourself, whereas normally you would go this way and that way is no good, all of a sudden you're making a right turn.

The grace of God is leading you.

And you're like, oh, what's this?

This is a new place in my life.

Oh, and it's the grace of God teaching you and training you.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

Teaching us, see, the grace of God teaches us

Now in this particular verse in context, it's talking about holiness.

Like how do we get holiness?

That's change.

How do we get more sanctified in our behavior?

Notice it doesn't say try real hard.

Right?

Really, really exercise, you know, discipline and self-control.

How many of you try that?

You realize it doesn't work.

It's got to be a work from the Lord, from the inside out.

The grace of God teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously.

But the grace of God will teach you what to do next.

You want change?

You want transformation?

I can feel you do.

Some of you are so upset at me right now.

You're upset at me because you know what I'm saying is true, but you're like, you don't know.

You don't know.

Easy for you to say, but you don't know.

I'm at point A and point B. I can see it.

It's so good, but how to get?

It's like the eternal divide between point A and where I want to get to point B.

And it is frustrating.

Yeah, I've been there.

I've been crying on point B.

Remember when that prophet came to town and he said I was going to be living in point B?

That was like three years ago.

It didn't happen.

God will get you there in a series of decisions that you're going to make in partnership with him, but it'll be the grace of God working through you.

If you don't really know what I'm talking about, make it your great quest to become BFFs with Jesus.

And he will teach you what I'm talking about.

A great sister verse to this, Titus 2.12, is found in Philippians 2.13.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

I'll never forget...

When City Light was six months old, we were originally in the courtyard by Marriott in Midtown Manhattan.

Because I wanted to be central.

Even though I'm a full, you know, I was a New Yorker, so I know New York.

I wanted to be in the middle of it all in Midtown.

But I was still so young and dumb that I didn't realize you probably shouldn't start a church in a commercial area.

Like we were across the street from the lipstick building.

Smith and Walensky's was right there.

And it's like we're not even in a neighborhood where real people live.

Just not real people.

Upper East Side joke.

And then I just sensed like we need to get to a real neighborhood.

That real neighborhood was a real neighborhood, the East Village.

It had just undergone a wonderful transformation.

And I knocked on a bunch of doors already.

Church doors.

I wanted a church.

I would knock on church doors.

I'm 26 years old.

When I was 26, I looked like I was 19.

And I preached for Robert Vasquez's mother.

This was so...

I come in to preach in this church, and the pastor, she grabs me, and she...

I come in to preach, right?

And she grabs me and grabs my face.

Oh, you're just a little baby.

I didn't think that was cute.

But anyway...

When you're 26, all you want to do is just appear older and be taken seriously.

You just want to bust out that scripture to everybody.

I will not let you despise my youth.

So I just felt.

It was a feeling.

By the way, I'm living with my parents.

I already went off to college, then went off to college again, left at 18.

Now I'm 26, and I'm living with my parents.

Which was, like today, that's becoming more and more normal.

Wow.

Because of the fiat dollar dying.

That's a whole other six-part series.

But back then, that was rare.

So in other words, it was a step back.

I'm with my parents.

I'm fighting discouragement.

And it was this nasty, rainy day.

And I was like, I got to go out there, even in the rain, and knock on a door.

One more door.

Right when I was thinking that, my father came in.

I was literally sitting down, sipping tea.

It was like that, you know that Kermit the Frog meme?

Where he's like sipping tea and the rain is on the window?

That was me.

I was sipping tea, looking, and there's a raining window.

And I was like, I know I need to get out there.

And my father said, what are you doing sitting here?

And my father didn't even want me pastoring.

Didn't want me starting a church.

But I guess he thought he's back living with me.

He needs to get out there and pastor.

He said, you're not going to find another building sitting in here.

And I was like, he's right.

I went that morning, and I knocked on one door, and it was the Carpatho, whatever that means, Carpatho, Russian, Greek, Catholic, Greek, like they wanted to be every denomination in one.

Because they have Catholic in it, but they're not Catholic, they're Greek Orthodox.

I knocked on that door and a priest opened and that's how we got our facility that lasted 17 years.

And it was a wonderful blessing to that entire neighborhood.

But what was that?

What was that that morning?

It was the grace of God.

Listen to this.

Tap into this.

It's causing me to do and to want what God wants for me.

Have you ever felt like you're in the zone?

Get in the zone.

When Jesus said, abide in me and I in you, you know what he was saying?

Get in the zone.

That's the flow zone.

That's the good zone.

That's where you think you're living your own life, but really, you're in the back, and I'm being the chauffeur.

And I'm taking you to the place that's good for you.

He's causing, for it is God who works in you to do two things.

To will, to want to, and then to do what's pleasing to him.

If you've never experienced this right now, you should be praying, Lord, do that in me.

I want to want to do things that are good for me, for you.

I want to want to, and then I want to do things.

That's my main prayer.

You know why?

Because it's not just that I'm not enough, unless he come.

It's because I suck.

I, in and of myself, suck.

You think those two will come back from this morning?

They will?

Okay.

There was two, and I said, I suck.

And they were like, they were holding hands.

And I was like, you guys, just checking in here.

Because you seem like you're churchified, so you've been to a church before.

Did your last pastor use the word suck?

And they just smile.

I don't remember what they said.

Nothing, right?

Which, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I suck.

I make bad decisions habitually.

Make a mess.

I need God.

To change what I want.

And God to change how I execute doing that.

And every time I can point back to a success in my life, it's always him doing that.

In fact, here's an example of it just this week.

I can't get into this whole thing.

But I made a lot of money in the last Bitcoin bull market.

And then Bitcoin does what Bitcoin does.

Which is fake everybody out and...

Spend a bunch of time going sideways, going down and sideways, shaking out all the non-believers, shaking out all the loose hands.

Psych!

And it goes in cycles.

And now the bottom is in.

And now it's ready to blast.

By the way, this isn't financial advice.

It's financial advice.

It's getting ready.

America's 40 trillion in debt.

The dollar's melting like an ice cube.

It's about to blast off and look back at the moon.

It's going over past the dwarf planet Pluto.

And I have been buying with both arms when you're supposed to buy, when everybody hates it, when you don't hear about it on the news.

There's no interviews with Michael Saylor on CNBC.

And we're buying, we're buying.

And I'm all bought out.

I have no more, like I'm very, very cash poor right now.

And she's such a doll.

I'm like, anything, any free money, I'm like, babe, give that to me.

Put it in.

And thank you.

She's always like, you're always ready to ride.

My ride or die.

Because I do.

It's a little bit insane.

But a year, 18 months from now, I'll be absolutely gloriously intolerable.

It's intolerable.

It'll be awful in the most wonderful way.

So I don't have any more money to invest.

And I'm not even thinking about it, but kind of I'm always thinking about it.

I'm at a red light driving.

And this thought just calm.

I'm driving.

It crystallizes.

Hey, you actually have these stocks you forgot all about.

You can sell those and roll them over and get the long, far outdated options that you really want.

And I was like, what the?

I didn't even like it was like 60 grand just sitting there.

And I was like.

I never drove to the next red light so fast.

At the next red light, I take out my phone.

I'm like, don't turn green, don't turn green.

I executed it right there at the red light.

And when I did, it was like .

And now I'm like, now I finally, I am fully ported in.

I'm fully invested.

I hear, I hear SpaceX.

Eight, seven, six, five.

And we're ready to .

And now it's like, but where did that come from?

How did that whole thing happen?

I'm telling you.

You know why oftentimes I don't hang around after service?

I don't want you to get to know me.

I'm so not impressive.

Really.

If you're like, this is me at my best with the anointing on me.

Apart from the anointing, ask Pastor Moe.

No.

See, he only looks at me through the eyes of Jesus.

No, really, I'm not that clever.

I'm not.

But with him, put that verse back up, with him causing me to want and to do.

See, your life could be this one.

All of a sudden you're like, you know what, I should.

And then you wait on the Lord.

And you got to learn to be belly led.

That's what the old timers called it.

Being belly led means living out of your spirit, man.

Your soul, your head is, we all know what that is.

Confusion central.

Don't live out of your head.

Live out of your spirit.

Live out of your belly.

That's where the Holy Spirit lives.

That's where the truth is.

That's where your destiny is locked up and the Lord is going to release it.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Just say this with me right now.

Lord Jesus, cause me to will and to do for your good pleasure.

Hallelujah.

I could share story after story just based on this.

This is when life is good.

This is the zone.

The whole reason we're here is we were so happy in Manhattan.

In 2009, to me that was yesterday, that's like a lifetime ago for some people.

The young whippersnappers in their 20s that don't know what a Hoover is.

We were so happy in Manhattan.

Church was doing good.

Church was growing.

All of a sudden, I start to sense over and over again, you got to start a Queens location.

Start a Queens location, too.

There's just a problem.

Buildings don't grow on trees in New York City.

Venues, space is very hard to get.

So I spent nearly six months driving up and down every street of Astoria.

I knew I wanted Astoria or Long Island City.

Nothing, nothing.

So I gave up.

And then I didn't go for weeks.

And then one morning, without me thinking about it, I just sensed.

It was just like within me.

You ever just feel a get up and go?

And you're like, okay, I'm going to go do this.

And there's like a...

It's the wind of the Holy Spirit.

May that happen to you more and more.

That morning, I felt the wind.

And I just knew, I'm going to go out.

I'm going to find that location.

And I'm, I'm, because the locations I need aren't going to be online.

You got to kind of do a guerrilla warfare style.

Knock on doors, peek through holes, like old school.

And I'm driving down 31st Avenue and I see a church.

That's good.

Because churches tend to rent to other churches.

I see a church and I see the grass is all unkept, which is also very good, which means no one's meeting in that church.

But it typically means that nobody's like meeting in that church and no one, you're going to knock on that door.

First of all, if you can get past the lock gate, you're going to knock and no one's going to answer.

I see it's like all unkept grass, but I noticed the gate is open.

So I go through, I knock and the priest opens the door.

Later I found out he's only there a few times.

He said two or three times a year.

Do they let you do that in Florida?

Is that, is this, you bring that Florida cult, I haven't seen you in so long.

And you just bring that whole Florida hippy dippy frame.

You can, you can do no wrong.

We're just, we're just so glad to hear you this Sunday.

It's okay.

So glad to see you.

So.

Turns out he's only there several times a year.

And I happened to be there one of those times.

And the story just gets better.

We rent, that's St. Andrews, by the way, the church around the corner from here.

Our budget was $1,500 a Sunday.

So he says, okay.

I said, look, all we have is 1,500.

And he goes, 1,500 a month, it's a deal.

No, I meant $1,500 a Sunday.

Well, I mean, I thought that.

I didn't say that to him.

I'm like, all right.

Lord, I know how this works.

I shut up and you do it, and I don't trip you up and get in your way.

You got it, pal.

$1,500 a month, which ends up being like $500 less bucks.

A service?

This is in 2009.

This would be cheap in 1965.

It's incredible.

What was that?

When you're in the God zone, change, transformation, good things.

But he's causing you to will and to do after his good pleasure.

You want to accelerate into that?

Get consumed with the things God likes.

Start wanting to build his kingdom.

And yes, he wants to build your life.

But demonstrate to him that you're kingdom minded and it'll be much quicker to build your life.

That's a whole other sermon.

But what I'm saying is, if all you do is consume, consume, and you tell God you love him, but really, you're selfish, you never give, you never witness, you're just focused on you, but you always tell God, but you know, when I come into my own, I'll really get you.

He knows you're lying.

You don't think you're lying.

You don't know you're lying, but he knows you're lying.

Because when that day comes, you won't get him.

You'll forget him.

So get with his business today, and he'll be very, very quick to build up your life.

So you can do even more for him.

Hallelujah.

Everybody shout, change!

All right, number three.

What's instrumental for change is a God encounter.

You have to have a God encounter.

The Bible is a book of ch-ch-ch-changes.

Everyone is changing, but they're not changing alone.

They're not changing in a vacuum.

God comes and he meets them and they experience radical transformation and change.

Moses was a nobody until he had a God encounter at the burning bush.

David was a nobody until Samuel came and poured that horn of oil over him and the anointing of God came upon him.

Jacob was a nobody until he wrestled with God and had a God encounter.

Gideon was a coward, hiding until he had a God encounter.

And the angel of the Lord, while Gideon was a coward, said, You mighty man of valor.

He was calling his destiny that was locked within him out.

Said, You mighty man of valor.

And Gideon, after the God encounter, experienced change and became that mighty man of valor.

You got to have a God encounter.

Have more.

Hey, God's generous.

Have two.

Have three.

Have half a dozen.

Nay, have a full dozen.

Encounter his Holy Spirit.

Now, we're getting a lot of new people.

I love the new people.

Love the new people.

But they come in.

It's probably, if you think, if you wonder if I'm talking about you, probably.

They come in with religious baggage.

To them, church is something you do on Sundays.

It's a place you go.

They look at me like I have three heads because I'm talking about a real God, a God you can meet with, a God you can encounter, a God you can talk to.

He talks back.

An active God.

And they're like, what meaneth this?

What this meaneth is the Bible is still true.

What this meaneth is that God is the same today and yesterday and forever.

And you can encounter him.

He wants you to know him.

Paul's.

His number one prayer for the Ephesian church.

Was that they would have an experience.

With the love of God.

So he's preaching that dangerous dog.

He's preaching an experiential Christianity.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You read your Bible.

It's an experiential Christianity.

Hallelujah.

It's not a philosophical creed.

Christianity is an ideology.

It's not a religion.

It's a relationship with God that leaves you completely wrecked and transformed and turned upside down.

Hallelujah.

So God encounter.

Look, we used to have God encounter Fridays.

Hey, Pastor Bradley, can I just use you as an example?

Pastor Brian was going, he had a Christian background, and he was raised in a ministry family, and then he backslid.

And when I say he backslid, I mean the boy backslid.

I mean, some people backslide.

He was like, you remember in Back to the Future, where Michael J.

Fox turns all the amps up and he strums the guitar and he goes blasted back 50 feet?

That's how far he backslid.

Right?

And he decides to go to church that one night, randomly ends up on a Friday night God Encounter service.

And before I even said a word, during worship, God meets him.

And he begins weeping under the presence of God, turns his whole life around.

Now he's a pleasure.

I see the fingerprints of God all over.

It was a pleasure to watch, to see him move.

I like the way he moves, his walk with the Lord.

Very admirable.

So that's because of a God encounter.

The touch of God changes everything.

And it's available to everyone.

You just got to be hungry enough.

You say, we already asked.

Or I try that.

That's your problem.

You asked once.

Keep seeking.

Keep knocking.

You got to be hungry.

The number one ingredient to a God encounter is an insatiable hunger.

I feel like the, I almost said I feel like the new generation.

Like that's the age I'm at.

I've never used that phrase.

I celebrated my 50th and now you just start using that word.

And I said whippersnappers earlier.

Golly, gosh darn it.

I said whippersnappers.

And this younger generation.

Next summer I'll be yelling at people to get off my lawn.

I'll have like the lawn chair in my, get off my lawn, you little whippersnappers.

No, but listen, the younger generation, you haven't heard the stories maybe.

You haven't read the books.

You haven't, there's clips of it.

Just a couple of generations ago, why, and by the way, why Christianity is still so strong in America, is there was a radical army of men and women who pursued God, like violently.

Yeah, violently.

The kingdom of heaven allows for sufferers violence.

And the violent, that means you got your press on.

Guys like A.A. Allen, who locked himself in the broom closet with one jug of water and told his wife, do not unlock it and let me out until you know that God has touched me.

And when he came out of that broom closet, one of the most powerful healing miracle ministries of the 1950s.

Do you know I've fasted seven times 40 days and too many 21-day fasts to count?

I'm not talking about like last year.

I'm talking about over my Christian life.

Because I was desperate.

I wanted God to do something in my life.

Once I shaved off all my hair.

So what does that have to do with anything?

I don't know.

I read in the book of Acts that Paul, it's in that book of Acts, Paul made an oath to God and shaved off all his hair.

And then the guy who led me to the Lord told me about someone else who shaved off all their hair.

I should have done a little more research.

Because it's really not a New Testament.

It really was not.

But I was so desperate for more of God, I shaved off all my hair.

It was not pretty.

But God still saw that.

Even weirdly manifested hunger, God will see.

There were times I was weird in my pursuit of God.

When I think back, it doesn't seem like God was ever turned off.

He seems actually very turned on by someone who really just doesn't care anymore and is willing to get hungry and get desperate to the point of possibly being ostracized, possibly being labeled as an extremist, as a weirdo.

But we're kind of chuckling now, aren't we, babe?

Because he's been so good.

Too good.

So wonderful.

Let me give you a scripture to go with that.

Oh, yeah.

1 Samuel 10, verse 6.

1 Samuel 10:6

Oh, this is a good one.

Because this is number three, a God encounter.

So we don't have God encounters.

By the way, do you know why we don't?

It's not because we've compromised.

It's not because we're, you know, watered down.

It's not.

It's just a geographic look.

We tried having Friday night services here.

But people just don't come like they used to.

It's a different, when you're in the East Village, and everybody wants to hang out in the East Village on a Friday night.

And so the services were always like wall-to-wall people.

But nobody wants to come to 46-1931st Avenue at 7 p.m. on Fridays.

I shouldn't say nobody.

43 people want to come.

And that was exactly how many people we had every single Friday.

But you can't have a move of God.

This is a fact.

John Arnott said this.

Pastor Rodney said, you have the same group of people every single time.

You feel the frustration of the Holy Spirit real quick.

You need to have new lumber thrown into the fireplace.

There's a whole reason behind that too.

It's because God comes to meet new needs.

Well, what about the older people?

He already met them.

Now he's waiting for them to cooperate with what he gave them a month ago.

This is talking about Saul and Saul.

Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and be, and this is what I want you to catch, because of the anointing, because of the Holy Ghost, because of the God encounter.

It says, you will be turned into another man, and you will be turned into another woman.

The anointing turns you into somebody else, which is great news for me, because I suck.

I want to be somebody else.

I don't want to be Bo.

I want to be the Jesus version of Bo.

I want his super to be put over my natural.

And the anointing does that.

I want to thank God's thoughts.

I want to get over my own procrastination and complacency and coping mechanisms.

But when he comes upon me,

I'm another man.

Really?

Then I'm smarter.

I'm fresher.

I see things no one else can see.

Then I'm cunning and crafty in his hand.

He's awesome.

And he'll do it for you.

Hallelujah.

Transformation and change.

It's by the Holy Ghost and his anointing.

2 Corinthians 3.18.

By the way, when I try to find verses...

For point number three, how change and transformation comes because of the anointing, my biggest problem was isolating it down to just two verses.

Because there's just so many of them.

So many of them.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding...

As in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being changed.

Wow, that's what we're talking about this morning.

Transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Here's what the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Lord, is saying.

When you behold him, when you see, you know when you behold him in worship, when you pray, you behold him.

When you read the Word of God, you behold him.

When you whisper to him, you behold him.

When you just lay there in silence, yearning for him, you behold him.

When you sing to him, you behold him.

And you are transformed into the very image you are beholding.

Change, transformation.

How does it come?

You got to want it, number one.

Number two, it's by his grace.

Let that grace have an outworking.

Number three, have an encounter with God.

Oh, let me just get back to that other topic.

People who have never had a God encounter, you don't even know what I'm talking about.

I got to help you find out what I'm talking about.

Without Friday nights.

If you don't know what I'm talking about and like to find out, I'd like to meet you at this altar after service.

Right away.

I just want to lay hands on you.

I want to lay hands on you, and I'm going to release the anointing on you.

There is an impartation by the laying out of hands.

And I'm going to ask the Lord that what he did in my life, how he opened me up, that he put that on you.

And then I want you to raise your faith.

That means you have expectation.

That's what I'm trying to say.

You don't just go, oh, that was nice.

Well, what happened?

Well, he laid hands on me.

No, you're now saying, oh, I have faith in you.

that things in my Christianity will change, that God will meet me when I pray, when I sleep, that things will start popping off.

Say no to the sameness of the swamp.

Swampy sameness.

Ooh.

All right.

Number four.

You want change and transformation?

How many of you, you got something that you...

are procrastinating on, but for good reason, because it's hard.

Something you know you should do.

You know it's going to take your life to the next level, but it's hard.

Anybody have anything like that?

Two people, two honest people in a third.

God bless you both.

Wow.

Do I have a third person?

Okay.

Wow.

The spirit of truth walketh in the third row.

That's it.

Number four, let's go to Esther 4.16.

Here's what point number four is.

You want change?

You want to cooperate with God, bringing change and transformation in your life?

Here's point number four.

Do the hard thing!

Do the hard thing!

That thing that's hard that you don't want to do, that's exactly what you got to do.

But I know, just like me, you'd rather do the 10 easy things.

Before I start writing my sermon, it's a wonderful time for my wife.

Do you know why?

Because I clean my whole office.

I do my laundry.

I even windex the mirror.

I mean, everything.

The office is spotless.

Everything.

And then I look at my laptop, and I'm like, oh.

Because this is the wrestling match for me.

This is where whatever he's been doing, it's got to come out on a laptop.

It's been 25 years, it doesn't get easier.

It's always like me against a keyboard.

So I do everything else.

What I should do right away, just start typing happily.

I'm a work in progress.

But what are you doing?

Talking to people and listening to them.

Everyone, their life is full of busy, busy, busy, busy work.

And none of it is going to get them from A to B.

But that thing that's hard, that's going to get you from A to B. I was going through something rough.

I'm not going to get into what it is.

Or it is when we found out one of our pastors left the state and was working remotely without telling anyone.

Laughter

It was very difficult for me.

And Pastor Jovica, in his infinite Serbian wisdom, he said something to me which I know was true because I wanted to throw whatever object was in the car nearest to me when he said it.

He said, Bojan, when you have to eat a bowl full of frogs, find the biggest, fattest, ugliest frog and eat that frog first.

I was like,

I'm like, dude, your plane leaves in 48 hours.

I'm here stuck with a bowl of frogs.

But I get what he meant.

That thing that I'm dreading, the hard thing, the ugly, big, fat frog.

Eat that one first.

Do the hard thing.

Esther did the hard thing.

Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, she said.

Now, Esther's Jewish.

This is a Persian king.

neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.

My maids and I will fast likewise.

And so I will go to the king.

It was 30 days since she saw the king.

She needed to be invited.

You can't just walk into the royal chamber.

But she had to make a special request to save the Hebrew people.

We still celebrate Purim to this day because Hester...

Esther had some ovaries.

She wasn't a coward.

She wasn't timid.

She did the hard thing.

And she said, I will go to the king, which is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish.

But she went to the king and God was with her.

But she did the hard thing.

Hallelujah.

So do the hard thing.

Eat the ugly frog.

Number five is very closely related to number four.

And that's do the thing that you're afraid of.

My pastor...

He is Pastor Breakthrough.

One of his main messages is breakthrough.

Breakthrough is awesome.

Because we all, you know, even if you broke through five years ago, now you're like one of those Parisian mimes.

And you're in a glass box.

Hopefully you broke through into a bigger box, but nevertheless, it's in a box.

And you've got to break through again.

And he preaches breakthrough and knows breakthrough.

I had already gone to his Bible school.

I was on staff with him.

And then I planted City Light.

And that first year, I met him up in Boston.

He was talking about breakthrough, breakthrough, persons on the side.

And I asked him, after all that time with him, I said, how does one get a breakthrough?

Because I needed a breakthrough bad.

I thought he was going to backhand me.

Because, like, imagine he's teaching and talking about breakthrough all those years.

And I asked, how does one get a breakthrough?

But he would talk about it in so many different ways.

But I said, like, I need a breakthrough.

I can't do the hour and a half long sermon.

Just tell me one sentence.

How does one get?

I didn't say it that way, but he answered it that way.

So how does one get a breakthrough?

I'll never forget.

He put his finger in my face and he said, boy, find the thing you're most afraid of and do.

I knew right away that was the truth of God.

That was correct.

You want to break through the thing that you're most afraid of doing.

Do that.

Closely related to number four.

Do the hard thing.

But I'm getting a little more specific here.

Do the thing you're afraid of doing.

That's the thing that's going to break you through to the other side.

Hallelujah.

God has not given you a spirit of timidity.

The reason you're probably afraid of that thing is because you know it's going to bring such radical change into your life.

And our carnal selves are addicted to swampy sameness.

We say we want God's blessings and God's breakthrough, but we also want the familiar and the comfortable.

And you can't have both.

That's why Jesus, he takes his hand out and says, come and walk on the water with me.

come and walk on the water with me.

You'll see the waves boisterous.

It's daunting.

It's scary.

But you can walk on the water.

I'll even give you the word, come.

And you can trust me and trust my word and stand on my word, come.

And this is why, before Joshua got a breakthrough and took all of the children of Israel to the next level,

God says, have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Everything I ever did, I did afraid.

Everything.

I started City Light terrified.

My mother, who's on a European tour with my father right now, which I'm so proud of, we were bicycling yesterday, and she left a video.

They're now in Paris.

Oh, oh, oh.

And they're showing macaroons.

I always want to call them Marcones, you know, but that's, you know.

They were eating Marcones macaroons.

And...

having the time of their lives.

She's 75, he's 76.

But my mother, when I was a teenager, this is just the Balkan way.

It's not abusive.

It's just the Balkan way.

She was calling me Michael Jackson.

Because, like, I remember once we went to a pizzeria.

And, you know, when I'm 9, 10, 11 years old, your mom probably orders for you.

But now I was like 14, 15.

And I would be so afraid and so intimidated.

I was like, can I have two slices, please, and a Coke?

And I kept doing that.

And then she finally said, why do you sound like Michael Jackson?

And I went, and I was like, but I knew she was right.

I was all like weird and insecure and goofy.

Then I got saved.

And then guess what happened?

I was saved and insecure and goofy.

And I was the same insecure mess just with my sins forgiven.

But then as I started to encounter God.

You know, to know God, he helps you actually like yourself.

Because you realize he likes you.

He loves you.

And you actually become more comfortable in your own skin.

You actually kind of settle in.

And then you take some steps of faith and you do some things afraid and you go, Oh, he was with me.

Let me try this one.

Oh, he was with me.

That thing he wrote to Joshua.

That wasn't just for Jashie.

That's for me today.

And then your confidence goes up.

Your faith goes up.

Hallelujah.

Yeah.

Hee hee.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

Lord, your ways are from glory to glory.

Lord, right now in this church, there's people at different points on their journey.

I'm asking you to meet them.

This is a great time for the worship team to come up as I have my eyes closed and every head is bowed.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Father, move in their lives.

Work with them.

Cause them.

In fact, I want you to say this.

Lord Jesus, I welcome your change.

Bring change into my life.

I trust you.

Cause me to will and to do your good pleasure.

Cause me to want change.

Let there be change.

And outworking of your grace.

Give me a God encounter.

And in Jesus name.

I will do.

The thing that is hard.

And I will do.

The thing I was afraid of.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

I started the leadership meeting we had two weeks ago.

All our department heads and our staff were there.

And I had a word from the Lord.

And it was, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Which is how the book of Joshua opens up.

That means one season is gone.

The old way of doing things is just that, the old way.

And now comes a new way.

That was a specific word for the new season that we're entering into as a church.

Family.

I feel it in my bones.

I feel it on a cellular level.

My mitochondria are trembling and dancing.

God is bringing in his chain.

And when he does it,

He's not that gentle.

The suddenly of God.

And he condenses years into weeks.

Hallelujah.

Be a part of that.

Open yourself up to that and welcome him to change your life so that a year from now you have to pinch yourself.

You'll think you're dreaming.

Sound like a plan?

Amen.

Well, let's worship and honor the Lord with our tithes and offerings.

Give with joy.

Give with a glad heart.

The giving information is on my right and on my left.

And may you reap a mighty harvest on everything you give.

Hallelujah.

And if you're not a tither, I encourage you to to

So many things I could say.

I was going to say get saved, but no.

If you're not a tither, get serious in your relationship with God.

Like you can't cut that part out.

You can't.

You can't like put that part on hold.

I know, I know you want to because you're fighting the devil of cheapness.

But you can't.

Amen.

You got to get to that place of maturity where you embrace the entirety of the word of God.

Get to that place of maturity.

It's a radical, I understand it's a radical ask from the Lord.

It really is.

But so is everything.

He doesn't ask for little things.

There's nothing he asks of us where we're like, okay, cool, doesn't matter.

Everything costs us something.

He says, deny your life, take up the cross, follow me.

It's a radical ask.

But he says, you will not be in the red because of it.

You will be in the green.

I'm not trying to take something from you.

I'm trying to get something to you.

You actually won't have a deficit.

I'm trying to get you to surplus.

Surplus.

So the question is, will you trust his word and do that?

Or will you just do whatever is right in your eyes and then go, well, I don't know why I feel frustrated in my walk with the Lord.

That's why.

Because you're a half-obeyer.

You can't be a half-obeyer.

Be a full-obeyer.

Hallelujah.

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 Jancic 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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