A Grace that Exalts

00:00 - Speaker 1 Most of my prayer is just me cuddling up with God. Oh Lord, I love you. And then you can walk out of your house and say, in the name of Jesus, you're saying with heaven's authority behind you, today's gonna be exceptionally well, and the less you feel like it, the more you need to say it. Today, doors of opportunity pop like popcorn all around me. Today, God favor is on me. I'm at the right place at the right time saying Today God's favor is on me. I'm at the right place at the right time, saying the right thing to the right person. 00:26 - Speaker 2 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 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 that he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:08 - Speaker 1 Welcome to those joining us online. Thank you, Jesus. It is good to see you all. Thank you, Lord, and thank you worship team. Amen. Aren't you glad the worship team's alive? I am. I'm grateful, sean, for how you lead and the people alongside you. How sad would it be if they were up there just kind of going through the motions, just hallelujah. 01:59 You know, the fire has to be maintained. You've heard maybe that term that God fills us with oil, but we're leaky vessels. I don't believe we're leaky vessels, but the oil is for the fire and the oil is consumed and you have to keep getting refreshed with new oil, otherwise you get swampy. And the Bible doesn't say there's a swamp in heaven. It says there's a river in heaven. It says there's a river in heaven, there is a river in heaven. You look at Revelation there's a river and it says there is a river. In the Bible it says there is a river, the streams whereof will make glad the city of God. Well, what's the city of God? Jerusalem? And who is Jerusalem? God's people? Okay, let's try that again, because it's not a physical city anymore, it's not a geographic location. It used to be. Everything in the Old Testament was physical, but that pointed to what the Lord was going to do, which was redeem his people. His people are in Christ. You are the city of God. There is a river. When it flows through you, it makes you glad. Amen, amen. 03:33 You know, one of the subjects, one of the truths that I prize so greatly only because our entire salvation is based on it is grace. It's something that's so important. Any Christian should become really, really well acquainted with the grace of God, and if you're going to become an expert on something, become an expert on grace. And it's a deep subject, and so it can take you years and you'll continue to have fun. And strangely, one of the most essential call it doctrines or truths or subjects that a Christian should master, it's the one that's most elusive to believers. That's why, every year or two, I go through the entire book of Galatians, which is six chapters. I promise it only takes six weeks. It always ends up taking eight or nine weeks and we kind of have a mini revival each time of grace and people are refreshed. 04:30 But if you don't continue to feed yourself God's good grace, you can easily forget, because life happens and you just get overwhelmed. I mean, it's very easy to forget these things. It shouldn't be. You would think it wouldn't be, but it is. I mean Peter's very easy to forget these things. It shouldn't be. You would think it wouldn't be, but it is. I mean, peter, he wrote that some of you have forgotten that you were cleansed of your sins. You think, how do you forget that? But it happens all the time. 04:53 People just get distracted and they get caught up with like religious fluff. You can get caught up with a lot of just filler material. I don't want to eat bread, only I want the steak. You know, when you go to the restaurant and they especially when it's all you can eat, then they bring out all the bread. I see what you're trying to do. I don't want your filler material, I want the good stuff. You bring out that olive oil. It's not even olive oil, it's like bright yellow Crisco. You got to put all that salt and pepper in it just so it's palatable. Yeah, I don't want to fill up with, I want the good stuff. 05:33 Grace Now. Grace, it's the means by which we're saved. The Bible says you are saved by grace, through faith. Grace is also the new covenant that we are under In the Old Testament. You endeavored, you tried, you worked really hard to keep God's law in the hope of being approved by him, but you always fell short. You were still always found guilty. You couldn't do it for yourself. Picture a hamster on a wheel working really hard but going nowhere. You say that sounds terrible. What was the point of that? Well, the point of that was for people to then realize I can't do it on my own, I need God's grace. And the Bible says the Hebrews there were an example to us who's us the whole world that you can try to be super religious, try to cross every T and dot every I work to keep God's law, yet you'll always fall short. That's the old covenant. The new covenant is the covenant of grace, which simply means that God now has already approved you, he's accepted you, he's forgiven you, not based on what you've done or do, but based on what Jesus has done. And that brings a great relief. Now God looks at you and sees your life hid in Christ and everything Jesus accomplished has fallen to your credit and it's liberating and it's freeing and you get to enjoy your salvation now. Grace is also God's unmerited, undeserved favor, and it's his grace that exalts you, it's his grace that moves you into your destiny, that propels you forward. His grace will come upon you and change your life. My wife and I have recently seen decades condensed into weeks. Can you believe God will do that? I believe he did it in our lives and I'm sharing it and I'm sharing it. 07:48 I found, as a pastor, by the way, nobody even hears you until you've said something at least a dozen times. It's really interesting. So I feel like a parakeet. Sometimes I'm just going around repeating myself and I know I'm in good company because the apostle Paul said the same thing. He said I repeat myself all the time. And then he I'm in good company because the Apostle Paul said the same thing. He said I repeat myself all the time. And then he had a better attitude than me, though. He said for me. Paul said I repeat myself all the time. For me it's not grievous or burdensome, but for you it's necessary. He must have attended that church growth leadership seminar where the speaker said you have to say it, paul. You got to say it at least, at least 15, 20 times. And they're only hearing you the first time. So I've been sharing what the Lord has done in our lives has completely transformed our lives and decades and decades and decades of work were condensed into months. 08:41 That's God grace. It comes upon you, it exalts you. I want to show you this from 1 Corinthians 15.10. Do you believe that God's ways are from glory to glory? I don't want to go from glory to gory, to gory to gory. God is a God of increase. God is a God of abundance. God is a God of forward momentum. When you look and go, I wonder what the Lord has planned for my future, something better than what you have right now? Amen. And it's God's grace that comes upon you and moves you forward, compounds and amplifies your efforts. Amen. 09:20 Paul says and Paul was no schlub of an apostle, he was the man. He accomplished more than the original 12. And he said I was able to do all this by the grace of God. I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. And then he kind of clarifies what he means by that. He basically is saying I accomplished more than the original 12 disciples, all the other there were other apostles. And he recognizes that he accomplished more and he said well, I labored, I worked harder than them, but it wasn't me, but the grace of God which was in me. What is Paul saying? Grace is a force, grace is stuff. Quit mystifying these things like. They're just like invisible pixie dust in the spirit realm. Grace is God's stuff. God puts that grace on you All of a sudden. You're like a different person. You do more, you go further. He condenses decades into months and Paul said I was able to do all this. I came into this game later than all the other disciples. 10:37 And here I am writing over half the New Testament. What was that? Well, yeah, I work hard, but that's not it. You can work as hard. What are you? I'm just thinking about our life and what he's done financially for us and sometimes I get a little embarrassed because you know where I live, you get to know your neighbors and there's this one lawyer and he shared with me how the first 15 years he never took a vacation. He's working 60 hour weeks. For 15 years I worked hard. He's just sharing his life with me. In the back of my mind I'm thinking I made more money last year than you did. I think in your whole life doesn't seem fair. But favor isn't fair. Come on, God came with his grace. I'm not. I don't let it get to my head, Lord, help me, but I'm thinking. This is your way, Lord. One guy chose to work harder. I chose to work smarter by yielding to the grace of God, amen. So I'm preaching this morning to open you up to this grace that exalts, and you got to know that that's God's plan for you. God's plan isn't a swamp. There's always a movement. There's always a movement. There's always a current, there's a freshness. Hallelujah, psalm 75, six through seven For exaltation. 12:17 You know, and sometimes you preach exaltation, success. I get it all the time I get it. I've commented something on X, I'm sorry. Are you one of those prosperity preachers? No, I'm a poverty preacher. Why, the moment you mentioned success? What is the definition of success? A desirable outcome, what should I preach? That you get everything you don't want. That you come, follow the Lord and you'll have very undesirable outcomes all your days. That wasn't even Jesus's message. I'm following my Lord. 12:57 If God didn't want you to experience exaltation, he wouldn't talk to you about exaltation. All of the patriarchs, all of the biblical heroes, all the people we study they were exalted by God and their stories are for our example. So we learn the nature and the character of God and how to tap in to his ways like they tapped into his ways, for exaltation comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the judge. He puts down one and he exalts another. Lord, let that be another and that be that other and that be that other. So there's one who seemingly does everything right. 13:39 By the way, I had to fall flat on my face church planting to finally get opened up to the grace of God. Do you know why? Because leading up to planting a church, I did everything right. I really did like on paper, like I got saved at 16. I didn't date anyone till 24. Physically pure, no sexual activity. Did everything right, got married, ended in divorce, don't you know? Live right, live right before, don't go. It didn't work for him. No, I did. I fasted. You can't tell. Right now I've been on more 40 day fasts than I can. I've lost track. I did everything right and I'm preaching to empty seats. I get divorced, everything goes wrong, but I did everything right. So now I'm on the floor. 14:38 Whenever I talk about being on the floor, I literally get on it. That's one like I can't even pray. Normally I'm just rolling around on the floor. Oh God, Lord, you got to come or I'm out of here. I have thoughts. I'm like you know what. I came from the Balkans. Maybe that's why I'll die. I'll just go $300, go live in a mountain cabin, eat goat cheese and that'll be it for me. I've had those thoughts. So again, I'm not saying you should do this, but I got upset. I stopped praying, I stopped reading the word for like several weeks and all of a sudden I'm seeing new faces in church and I'm like whatever, no, no, I didn't even preach this in the first service. Somebody's drawing this out of me. 15:29 I would spend at least 30 hours on every sermon Every sermon that's in addition to all the other. Back then it was just me, all the admin doing the weekly emails, the counseling, the counseling, the 20 people that were coming. But this was a lesson God was teaching me, so I'm not studying. I remember one time, right there in the beginning, I wrote my sermon at the red lights on the way to church. I was ready to quit, I was done, and then I grabbed the mic and something seizes me and I preach like fire, people are amening, getting saved, and the church starts multiplying like crazy. 16:08 I'm like what am I in? Backwards land? What, Lord? For five years I did everything right with you. Know, God doesn't see as we see, and oftentimes God just wants you to come to the end of yourself, and that's what happened. I came to the end of myself, dreaming of living in a mountain cab and eating that goat. Come to the end of yourself, and that's what happened. 16:24 I came to the end of myself, dreaming of living in a mountain cabin, eating that goat cheese for the rest of my life, neglecting my responsibilities, not just as a pastor, but as a Christian. And he starts over-blessing me, which drove me to my knees, going oh God, you are so much better to me than I am to you and I better now align myself with what you're doing. And, Lord, what's up with all that? And the message I kept getting was because it's not about you, it's about me, it's about my grace, amen. I hope I've encouraged somebody here today, so I want to give you seven things that I would like to be core values inside of you. I just shared. I've had an imperfect pastorate, yet God is over the top bless me and my family. And so the main thing I can impart to you is really the main thing I can impart to my children, which is my relationship with the Lord, which, by the way, I just celebrated 33 years August the 12th. It was August the 12th 1992. 17:37 And I remember when I started with the Lord, I didn't even know who he was. I remember my first few times praying. Do you remember those days? Unless you were raised in a Christian family like I, would dear God. And you're looking around you're like is this how I do it? Is he even hearing me? This is awkward. 17:53 And then he builds this relationship with you over the years and he teaches you his ways, and maybe then you have a story of how you thought you were on the right track but weren't. And then God shows you what you really should have been doing or how you should have been thinking. And then, after 30, I wonder what I'll be preaching after 43 years, after 53 years. But right now the best thing I can give you is Mike's 33 years of walking, holding his hand, and what he's taught me. What will help shape your worldview, the lens in which you see your own life, where you want to go where the Lord wants you to go, how you're going to get there, what ingredients you need in order to cooperate with him and experience God's best. 18:39 So I want to give you seven things that I believe, that I believe without trying, because I've believed them so long. If you stick a pin in me, that's what'll come out Amen. Number one I believe with all of my heart that I am thoroughly and completely, 100% forgiven. Seems so basic, but I want to submit to you, as I have for many, many years, that your typical, average, even church-going Christian, even though forgiveness is the very heart of the gospel, your typical Christian, still doesn't understand the fullness of their forgiveness. How do I know? Because I see it all the time they're still walking around with guilt and shame and condemnation, and it's a trick of Satan, because if you're walking around with guilt and shame and condemnation, God is trying to work in your life. He's trying to bless you, but you're actually rejecting him, you're actually pushing him away because of the shame and the condemnation that you're under. So I believe with all of my heart that if you place your faith in Jesus and what he's done for you on the cross, he loves you, and not only does he love you, but he likes you. Some believers, they feel like God barely tolerates them, and then I'll dig. Well, why do you feel that way? Well, it's because I don't live a perfect life. You want to live with more holiness. Believe that God loves you right where you're at. Draw on that love, draw on his forgiveness. 20:19 There's over a billion people who call themselves Christian. Their headquarters is in the boot. I'm talking about Roman Catholics. Do I have to say everything that, if you ask them, do you know for certain you go to heaven? They go, I hope so. Well, what do you base that hope on? And then you get. Every and every one of them has a different answer. Some believe they will maybe go to heaven because they're better than Hitler. They always seem to compare themselves to Hitler. You always find the very worst person to compare yourself to, and most nine out of 10 say I hope so. So what does that mean? They don't have the assurance of salvation. 20:57 When in John, john wrote these things. I write to you that you know that you have eternal life. I know I have eternal life, like I know I'm holding a microphone in my hand because the word says so Amen. But what that reveals is there's so many Christians, not just in that particular wing of Christianity, but all throughout every denomination, every there's Christians who don't understand the depth of their forgiveness, that God has separated your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. That if you are in Jesus, you've placed your faith in him, you're looking to him as your savior. God cannot even see any sin in you. You are a new creation, a new being, a new species that's never even existed before. Hallelujah. Romans 3.24. Romans 3.24. 21:48 I believe this so much I got a tattoo about it. That's what this is. It's not a trophy. It's not like my fourth grade soccer trophy. Some people think it's a communion cup. It's not a communion. I love communion, but I would. 22:02 This is Joseph's cup in Genesis 48. Joseph is the most Christ-like figure, was an empty cup put upside down in a backpack. What do cups represent in the Bible? All throughout the Bible, cups are representative of God's wrath. Joseph, as a Christ-like figure, was pointing towards the cup of God's wrath being thoroughly poured out. Who was it poured out? On? 22:26 Jesus, because sin has to be punished. How much does it have to be punished? All the way to death. The wages of sin is death. God's wrath was completely exhausted on the person of Jesus. There is no more wrath left for you or me. So now I can live without condemnation. I can live expecting. This is what your default. You want to get good things from God. You got to expect good things, but if you're into shame and guilt and condemnation, you won't expect them. 22:55 I'm driving home, I'm looking in the rearview mirror all the time. Is there another blessing coming at me? Is God trying to sneak up on me? Because it says, surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life? I'm checking my rear view. Oh, there's goodness and mercy. They're chasing me down. No, but you got to live your life anticipating God's interruptions. Hallelujah, the suddenlies of heaven, hallelujah. 23:23 Being justified freely by his grace. Justified means you know how the judge hits with the gavel to decree something. He pronounces you not guilty. When you're justified, you're pronounced not guilty. That means you're innocent. You're a saint. That means you're innocent. You're a saint being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation. What is propitiation? One word means the appeasement of divine wrath. 24:01 By the way, we go to Guatemala every couple of years. We've been going since 2009, have helped put up over 40 buildings there. I used to give the specifics, then we actually lost some notes and lost track, but it's over 40 buildings churches, slash community centers that we've put up there. One of the biggest problems we encounter there is that, because they come from the Mayan background, they're still considered Ishi'il people, direct descendants of the Maya. They serve gods, lowercase g demons that you could never, ever satisfy. And then they take that and bring it into their relationship with the Lord, and so they're always striving. You have an altar call you can have. Hey, you can come up there, be happy and say we're having a happy altar call, come, let us be happy together and they're going to come up. And then when they stop, they just become normal and walk away and then they have tea. It's like the moment they want to encounter the Lord. 24:58 They got to be wailing and weeping, gnashing their teeth. Dios loves you. You don't have to will. Can you be happy in Dios's arms? He's not out there with a bat to hit you. You can actually enjoy your salvation in him. 25:21 Propitiation means wrath has been satisfied. Yeah, so I'm kind of teasing with this extreme example 7,000-foot evelation and nabah, Like one or two, is cool, but by the third one, you got to hit that silent. You got to. You got to hit that silent, you got to, you got to Ooh the chortle, but that doesn't mean much. It's when Natalie chortles, then I know the Lord is moving. That's the one I'm looking for and waiting on. It's been a while. Some churches they sound the shofar. I'm waiting for Natalie to chortle. Last time she chortled we had like five months of the wind of God in here. Now it's getting a little swampy and I'm waiting for the divine chortle and we need it. It's mid-August. We need that fresh wind. I don't want to go into September with this swampiness. So we have the appeasement of divine wrath that should cause you to have your head lifted up high. 26:34 Am I the only one who's messed up? Because before God set me free, I was messed up and I always. There was always this nagging feeling like God's angry with you, God upset with you. You, God upset with you. You're not pleasing him, you're just not enough. Well, I did. I prayed, but you didn't pray enough. But I studied the word, but you didn't study enough. I evangelized, you didn't evangelize. It's constant voice of you're not enough, you gotta perform, perform, perform. And if you feel I mean that's the very definition of religion You're constantly under condemnation, having to perform. 27:05 Is it any wonder why religious people either go insane or fall away? It's really when you follow it through. That's why you go to a very religious church. You just find a bunch of really odd, weird old people when everyone else is gone and completely living like the devil. That's the end result of religion. 27:24 But when you understand, wrath has been satisfied, you enter into a loving relationship with God, your Father. And that propitiation was purchased by the blood of Jesus, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. Just say this I'm sin free in Jesus, amen, amen. 1. John 3, 1,. Behold, this is John, like blown away. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God, totally forgiven, made righteous and now adopted into the family of God. That's why you can face tomorrow with your chest out and you can expect good things to happen to you. Because you're a child of God, blood-bought blood, blood washed, forgiven. You can walk no matter what's happening in your life. It could be a swirl of defeat, but yet you need to speak. It's gonna be well with my soul. 28:36 God is at work and the devil says how do you know? Why do you qualify? Because he has qualified. It's not about what I do, it's about what he did. His blood qualifies me. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. So, number one, I really believe I'm forgiven and so I act like it's. So, number two, I really believe that I'm loved by God and that he's very serious and passionate with his love. It's personal. Sometimes the love of God can be described in this cold way, like he's got to love you in a distant paternal sense. Cold way, like he's got to love you in a distant paternal sense, kind of like an elitist father who loves their child but sends them to a Swiss boarding school until they're 18. But I love you, son. That's not Father God. He's crazy about you. He loves you. 29:42 I want to show you this scripture from Zephaniah that when I was struggling with this early on in my walk with the Lord, this scripture, God used this scripture to break me through into experiencing the love of God and hear the heart of this the Lord, your God, in your midst. The mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you. Now, a lot of times that word rejoice is translated as dancing, because in Hebrew culture and tradition you couldn't rejoice with a stiff upper lip. You immediately danced. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. What does that sound like? It sounds like someone who's madly in love with you, passionately into you, and you're in Christ. So he sings over you, he dances over you. He rejoices over you. 30:39 Who? Me? Yes, you, if you dare to believe it and I believe it because the word says it's so, hallelujah. But also, let me just say this I probably couldn't believe it too long if the word only said it's so. 30:55 Some people can. I just feel like I'm a bit emotional. I am so I have to experience his love and that's why it means so much to me. In the book of Ephesians, when Paul said I want you to experience, he said I'm praying for you to experience the love of God. That cannot be known. The love of God cannot be known with the cerebrum. It must be experienced. That's why encounters with the Holy Spirit are so important Because when you encounter the Holy Spirit, what's the first thing that always happens? You're overwhelmed by his love. I have never, ever, encountered the Lord in prayer, in worship, at any time, without His fragrance is always love. It's the first thing. I've interviewed people. I remember praying for people and they start crying. Well, what do you feel? Oh, oh, love Every time. 31:53 Love, his love, his love, his love. People who have experiences in heaven. First, when they describe it, the love, you can feel it everywhere. You gotta feel his love. So in your times with the Lord, you gotta hang around long enough to actually have an experience with him. Are you hearing me? I can't tell you how to do this part, and for me it changes. Sometimes I'm just laying in my office floor saying nothing, just soaking. Sometimes I go for a walk speaking in tongues, sometimes I sing to him. But I tell you, what I endeavor to do is always come into contact with his presence and his love. His love refreshes me and keeps me focused on his love. But I wanna yes, I'm saying feel, I wanna feel it. Yes, I wanna hang out with him close enough to where he warms my heart every day, hallelujah. And when you experience his love, it puts you at a distinct advantage, because a man with just knowledge or with a theory is never at the mercy of a man with an experience. So experiencing his love is one thing, reading about it is a completely other. Thank you, Lord. 33:18 Number three I really, really believe that God is generous and that he loves to give good gifts to his children. I believe it with all of my heart. Do you believe it? I believe God loves to give good gifts to his children, the primary gift being the Holy Spirit and everything else after that and in fact Paul writes about that. He says look at the gift of Jesus on the cross, which causes you to receive salvation, have all your sins forgiven and be born again. Look at the magnitude and greatness of that gift. How can he who did not spare his only son, how do you not know that, he who didn't spare his only son, that through him and by him, he will freely give you all things? So he's saying if God, the Father, didn't cheap out on the cross and he didn't, he gave his very best do you think he's going to cheap out in other areas? Hallelujah, hallelujah, matthew 7, 11. That's easy to memorize. If you, then, being evil you were just reading this yesterday, victor If you, then, being evil, you were just reading this yesterday, victor If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? 34:44 Jesus is looking at all the earthly fathers and he calls them evil because, compared to God, the father they are, they were probably some of the natural good dads there. Any dad in here, I promise you, any dad in here, would do anything for his kids. And God says but compared to me, you're evil. So how much more do you think I want to do good and give good gifts to my children? And, by the way, when he said that, because we tend to over-spiritualize everything, the Bible is clear when it's talking about heaven or the Holy Spirit, and it's pretty clear when it's talking about what we need down here on earth. And he's talking about things we need on earth More often than we think and we just dismiss them as these ethereal spiritual things that we can't touch or hold. But he's saying I will meet your every need here on earth. I will give you good gifts right here, right here, in the now. Thank you, Jesus. 35:39 James 1.17. Just say this out loud God is generous and he loves to give good gifts to his children. He loves to give good gifts to his children. Every good James 1, 17, every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation. He's not unstable, he doesn't change or shadow of turning. God is like a rock. When I'm good, he's good. When I'm good, he's good. When I'm bad, he's still good. When I'm quote unquote doing everything right, he still loves me and is good. When I mess up and do wrong, he loves me and he's good. 36:22 Number four I believe with all of my heart that no matter what I go to do, what I venture to do, I am supernaturally empowered. I want you to believe that too. When you go into a room, it's not you going in there alone. God goes with you. You're wrapped in his power. He equips me for the tasks of life. I'm not alone. He makes me smarter. He makes me wiser. He makes me smarter, he makes me wiser, he makes me better. He causes me to stick out. Amen, hallelujah. God will put his super over your natural. 37:08 The Bible says that Daniel's friends and Daniel they all stuck out because God put inside of them an excellent spirit. You know what else it says about Daniel? That God gave him the ability to unravel knots. No, he wasn't a sailor. He meant those complicated life situations that you ever see a bad knot and you're like I might as well just throw the shoe out. I'm not fixing this, daniel. 37:32 Anointed by the Holy Spirit, those are the shoes that end up on the telephone wires. You know Used to mean that's where you could score. Now it just means I got tired of my knot. Everybody new here doesn't even remember what the shoes or anybody under 40 is like. Oh, why are the shoes there? Vestige of 80s and 90s New York. Do you know? 38:03 Listen, if you actually knew I'm preaching to so many different people. Some people know, some don't. Some people are with it. I gotta be honest. I'm just gonna tell you what I'm perceiving. Some people are looking up from their phone for the first time since last sunday at me and seeing spots, and so people don't know. If you actually knew what was coming down the pipe, you'd be terrified. You know how many of you use ai on an everyday basis? Yeah, three people. I'm sure I'm sure Some of you send me texts and I'm like, oh, there's like four em dashes in this text. Chat wrote this text, don't you? Have you seen the Tesla robot Optimus? You know they're coming out soon. They're going to cost anywhere from $23,000 to $28,000. That's not much. It's cheaper than a car. I just saw a video of the Optimus robot frying eggs. 38:58 Someone throws a tennis ball at it. It catches it without looking to demonstrate its agility and how nimble it is. You don't need a handyman anymore. It'll go around your house because my pictures are crooked. It'll go and put them nice and scant, maybe fix my HVAC, clean your house. It can tuck your kids in bed, walk your dog. Baby, you won't have to cook anymore, babe, you won't have to cook anymore. At night it acts like a guardian sentry and then, towards the end of the night, plugs itself in ready to serve you the next. 39:36 That's happening and if you've used AI two years ago, you know a year later it was completely different and more advanced than you know today. It's even more advanced. We've hit the exponential part of the curve and it's getting better, not in a normal line, but like the end of a hockey stick because it's building upon itself. So in the natural, that could be terrifying, because I'm predicting that in five to ten years, what we know as the world will be completely, completely different. I'm not the only one predicting that, but nobody seems to be talking about it. The Industrial Revolution turned things upside down and the world was never the same. This is going to be like the Industrial Revolution times a thousand. By the way, it's also a huge opportunity because, as it stands now, they're predicting you know, the Internet, what's known as the digital revolution, after the industrial revolution, made more millionaires than any other revolution prior to that, and that the AI revolution is right now estimated to make 50 times more millionaires than the digital internet revolution. 40:44 So on the one side, it's daunting, isn't it? Will I be replaced by AI? I feel like I have one of the few jobs that cannot be replaced by ai. You thought that pastor mo right, it's like optimist isn't going to speak in tongues, get a word from God. The anointing isn't getting into optimist, he can't impart it. But a lot of job. 41:08 But do not ever get afraid. Do not move in fear, but position yourself in the Lord and say Lord, show me where the opportunity is here. I believe that you will put your super over my natural, you will give me the ability to unravel knots, and that through this whole, because wherever there's a shaking and something turned upside down, there's opportunity. Is it true? I've heard this. Do you speak Chinese? I don't even know. Is it true that the same word for chaos is the word for opportunity, for crisis? The same word for crisis is the word for opportunity Crisis, but in second, like a sister word to it, similar During crisis, you get opportunity. During crisis, you get opportunity. Amen. White guy told me that, so I didn't know whether to believe him. He had a Chinese wife, but I'm like no, that's not good enough. I don't care who you're married to, I want to hear it from the source. 42:15 Number five I believe with all my heart that my faith can move mountains. I believe that my faith works. I believe that God responds to my faith and this is important. He doesn't respond to my need. Do you know? God doesn't respond to need. If God responded to need, there wouldn't be one needy person on planet Earth. But oftentimes we're like God, don't you see me, don't you see the need? And he's like I really do. Would you mind getting in faith about it, because I can't help you if you just sit, God never Jesus would walk past. It almost seems cruel. Walk past a thousand people with a need just to get to the one with faith. 42:55 And so, over and over again, you see Jesus looking for where's the one with faith, and he would say always this, multiple times throughout the Gospels according to your faith, be it unto you In proportion to your faith. Be it unto you In proportion to your faith. Where are you with it? What do you really believe in proportion to that? That's how I'm gonna answer you. So your faith works. Your faith makes a difference and what you believe. You always know what you believe by what's coming out of your mouth, because the Bible says faith is one half in your heart and one half in your mouth. If you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and confess with your mouth, there's always a mouth-heart connection. So when you're with somebody and it's just grumbling and complaining and negativity and then they go but I do believe no, they're lying to themselves they betray themselves with their own words. Mark 11, 22,. So Jesus answered and said to them have faith in God. Now just go back to verse 22. You can look this up yourself. 43:58 In the original Greek this could have been more accurately translated as have the God kind of faith or have the faith of God. What does that mean? Have the God kind of faith? Well, right before this, Jesus cursed the fig tree. And you know, you hear, Jesus cursed the fig tree. Do you think he was like like a cartoon character from Looney Tunes, getting all bent? No, he just walked up to it and went huh, let no more fruit grow on you from this day after. And with his words he spoke death over it and it died. And then he turns around and says have the God kind of faith. What's the God kind of faith? God believes something and he says it and it happens. You look at creation. That's the God kind of faith. Let there be light. He didn't go. Let there be light. Is it gonna come? Let there be light. There it is. He said have the God kind of faith. Then verse 23. 44:56 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says shout, says, whoever says to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says, shout, says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Three times. That's a lot of saysing. Actually, the word says is four times. We're just not counting the first time, because Jesus says I say to you, and then he's emphasizing the importance of saying there's a time to pray and there's a time to say Most of my prayer is just me cuddling up with God. Oh Lord, I love you, thank you for being in my life. I'm spending my time with my maker, my savior, my everything. 45:41 And then you can walk out of your house and say, in the name of Jesus, you're not praying now, you're saying. You're saying, with heaven's authority behind you, today's going to be exceptionally well, and the less you feel like it, the more you need to say it. Today, doors of opportunity pop like popcorn all around me. Today, God favor is on me. I'm at the right place at the right time, saying the right thing to the right person. Money comes from all over the place to me witty ideas. Lord, today I'm going to relieve suffering somewhere. Today I'm going to preach your word. I'm going to minister, I'm going to help someone with their pain and point them to you. 46:19 Hallelujah, your faith will make a difference, and it's no wonder why, when Satan comes, he comes right after your faith, first tries to just get you kind of sullen and not expecting anything, beat down, downtrodden, Jesus, said to Peter. He said, peter, satan has desired to cut you down like wheat. And then he says something very interesting. He says but don't worry, I've prayed for you that your faith fail not. He knew that's where the attack would be. In his faith. I'm praying for you. And Peter stumbled pretty bad, but your faith that it wouldn't fail, and Jesus's prayer was answered because Peter snapped back to it. 47:08 Next verse please, because this is all connected have the God kind of faith you can speak. Therefore, I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. Don't believe when you see it which, if you really believe this, then you won't pray for the same thing 30 times in the same day. When you see it which, if you really believe this, then you won't pray for the same thing 30 times in the same day. Are you hearing me here? All right, some? No, that's prophetic what that child is doing, because that's the sound that's going on in too many people's mind right now. As I'm speaking, I'm preaching this and in their mind so, praise God, keep it up. 48:00 There've been times I needed something. I like I have to have a bottle of water. I can't get one, I need a miracle. So the temptation is to go nervously throughout the day. God, I'm asking you for a bottle of water. God, I'm asking you for Lord, where's that water coming? And I've seen people pray like that for something they need. And Jesus said don't think you'll be heard for your much speaking. And if you really believe he heard you, then you won't keep asking for it. Could you imagine you put an order in on Amazon and you put it in and you go to your door and you go it's not here yet, I gotta put that order in again. And you put the order in again and you go well, it's not here yet, not comprehending that it's on the way. And you put the order in 30 times. Hey, next Wednesday you're going to have 30 boxes in front of your door. 48:50 So what I pray once there are some things I lift up in prayer. You say how do I know? Well, when you're in faith, you're in the right. When you're moving from faith into anxiety, worry, nervousness, fear, then it's not faith anymore. So now you're asking for God 50 times for something. 49:11 None of it is in faith 're just going around, and we don't want to be going around in circles. Church international, we want to hit bullseye. I need something. I'll pray and if I really believe it's even before it manifests. Before that angelic amazon delivery boy comes and knocks on my door, I'm thanking God. Thank you, I might be thirsty. Thank you, Lord. The water bottle's coming. Lord, I know I know the water's not here yet in the natural, but, Lord, I asked you for water and you'll not see me be corrupted. Lord, hallelujah. And then two friends will come. I go, you're never going to get that water. Oh Lord, job's friends will come by and go. You're never going to get that water. Oh, Lord, job's friends have come around again. I'm going to separate myself from them a little bit. I'm just believing you. 50:00 Hallelujah, Lord, you don't have water. What are you thanking God for? Water, for Hallelujah, anyhow, Lord, the water's coming and water's going to come. I got 33 years experience here. Amen, he comes, he comes, he fails not. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. 50:20 And number six we're talking about core beliefs we should have. That'll be like a magnet for the grace of God which empowers us and promotes us and exalts us at my very core, no matter what I hear, what some and Pastor Mo, you're the same. We've always connected in a lot of ways, but you're the same way. You could be going through anything but right. Your husband, God is good. We, Pastor Mo, we came from different backgrounds but we have a similar old school upbringing in the Lord, where the old timers they knew God is good and this is important. It seems so basic, but you look at what's being preached in Christianity and people deconstructing their faith and not, you know, trying. There's always going to be a tension in our faith because God is beyond us and anyone who insists on being able to describe him in words is going to miss it and they're going to fall into error and heresy. There are things that have happened in my life. I don't fully understand. But one thing I know God is good and I believe with all of my heart he is good. I believe he's good to you Today. 51:32 We celebrated this morning our daughter Vivian's seventh birthday Amen. We heard we were supposed to do it at 7 am but right around 6.30 I heard it was like and I'm convinced, she was stomping those feet because she wanted us up. She was stomping. So what many of you now don't know is that seven years ago, when Emily gave birth to Vivian, she came premature and she was three and a half pounds and they took her and they put her. I mean, it was terrible. We just saw her for a second and they whisked her away and put her in an incubator and intubated her. Now, if you're, I mean that'll do a number on you when you're a parent. And now, later that day, we were allowed to come by and I have the video Emily just putting her hand up to the plexiglass or the glass of the incubator and just looking at her and you think a lot of thoughts in those moments. What did I have to fall back on? God, you are good, you are good. And we began declaring we will see your goodness in little Vivian's life. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And now you see her. You never, ever believed she was a three and a half pound preemie, ever. Now God is good. 53:02 But let me just also say there will be times where you have something called a dark night of the soul, and let me just also say that a lot of people have a bad week and they think it's a dark night of the soul, like dark nights of the soul. You get one or two of those, I feel like max maybe three in your whole life. So let me define what it is. A dark night of the soul is when your faith doesn't feel real to you anymore and it seems that God is silent. And it's very difficult, it's excruciating, it's painful. You're having a crisis of faith. You see that in the Psalms. 53:43 I've experienced that. I've experienced that while in ministry. You talk about feeling all sorts of feelings, and God didn't forsake me, but he was strangely, strangely quiet and it felt like the mantle that I normally have. You know, when he allows you to experience him, it was just gone. There's also the wilderness. You can experience wilderness seasons with the Lord. What's the wilderness? The wilderness is a place of solitude, feeling lonely and no one understands you. And it's also a place where you don't get your wants met, just your needs. Look at the children of Israel in the wilderness. They got manna. You ever eat muesli? I had it once. I'm like, give me those frosted flakes, not this plain granola. That's all they had. They're like we just want some garlic and quail. God's like no, you get manna. And I've had wilderness times where I wasn't missing anything but everything was vanilla and anything I wanted wasn't happening. 55:05 The early church plan was that it's like. The Lord's like what are you complaining about? We're moving forward, I'm providing for him. I'm like yeah, but I'm in a basement with 15 people. He's still good. 55:21 There is suffering for the Lord and I will say most of what Christians say is suffering is not the suffering of the Lord, it's just a bad time. Biblical suffering is the suffering of the cross. That means being misunderstood by people, being persecuted for your faith. That'll happen also. But those are just pictures, still pictures in the movie. That is our life. Sometimes someone just wants to make a movie out of a picture. You can't. You know they'll say oh well, paul, how can you preach prosperity? Paul said that he was shipwrecked and didn't have anything to eat, and does that look like prosperity to you? That's a photograph that happened in a little sliver of his whole ministry career. Watch the whole movie. It tells a different tale, amen. Later he writes about Onesimus and says hey. He says hey. He says go to a hotel, take care of him or whatever he owes, I'll pay for it. That's not how a broke person writes, amen. They never tell you about that part. They always go to the shipwreck and say see, God is good. I shared. 56:29 I can't go into all the details, but had ECT treatments done electroconvulsive therapy. I was in a bad place years ago. Do you know what that means? It means I had to go under anesthesia over 30 times. How many of you here have been under not local going under anesthesia? I had to do it like every other day and it's really creepy because you got two or three doctors around you and then two or three nurses and you're laying down and you hear the boop, boop, boop and it's completely unnatural because you're totally awake and they have you count down from 10, 10, 9, 8, and right around 8. And I'm like uh-uh, and right when you hit 7, your light's out and in that moment I would feel like I was going to die. I think I would actually say, oh, into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit and I've had that 30 times. Yet here I am Arguable, but I would say in my right mind, blessed, because God is good, hallelujah, hallelujah. 57:36 When I was laying on that table, going again eight, seven, I would think, God, you will see me through this, you are good. I'd fall asleep and I'd always wake up with apple juice in my hand. It was the weirdest thing. You're laying on a table. Next thing, you know, I have apple juice in my hand. I'm in the hospital thing like Ezekiel. You know Ezekiel walked around with his, it says his backward parts were shown. So you know, in the hospital gown you got to make sure the knot's tied in the back and there'd be Emily sitting right next to me. Every time you'd be squeezing my hand. I'd be like, where did the apple juice come from? They want you to get the sugar in you. 58:19 Hallelujah, worship team, you can come up and number seven God is faithful, he's faithful to his word and his word cannot fail. His word in you cannot fail. First Thessalonians 2 13, it says. For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing. Catch this, please, because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. 58:52 This is the part I want you to catch which also effectively works. Effectively works, the Greek word for works. There is energio. Think of a giant turbine producing energy. The word of God is not like the word of man. The word of God actually causes power. The whole universe is powered by the word of God is not like the word of man. The word of God actually causes power. The whole universe is powered by the word of God. The Bible says it says he holds all things together. You talk about forget Pluto, forget the Andromeda galaxy. You zoom out of that and the other galaxies light years away. It's the word of God that's upholding it and causing all of those molecules to stick together. It's energized's the word of God that's upholding it and causing all of those molecules to stick together. It's energized by the word of God. 59:35 What do you think the word of God in you does? The word of man doesn't do that. But when you get his word in you every day, in his word, his promises, his good word to you. If you could see in the spirit realm it's actually a creative force. It'll draw God's good things into your life. It'll repel and protect you from the evil things. It'll make a difference in your life, more word, more energy in your life. But the word of God will work in you who believe. Amen, hallelujah, heavenly Father, thank you that you're good. Thank you for the grace that exalts, that promotes, that brings us higher. May this week be such a week. May there be exaltation from heaven. You put down one and then you exalt another. Exalt your people, oh God, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Well, are you ready to worship and honor the Lord with your tithes and offerings? Today is also Missions Sunday. 01:00:47 Since 2009, we've supported missionaries all over the world. In Guatemala, we've helped put up well over 40 churches that also double as community centers the Grace Center Orphanage in Bahir, dar Ethiopia, the churches in Serbia and in Montenegro. If you want to give a portion to missions, there's a drop-down menu when you go to give and you can designate a portion specifically to missions. Let's watch this brief video from our last trip to Guatemala also, we're going on another trip in about half a year, in February. Can you crank it up, because the song is already rather sleepy. We've got to get it above lullaby level. 01:01:43 Praying for the kids, we give school supplies, we provide all the construction materials for the work there and we're doing what the Bible says to do in whatever way we can, which is to go, ye, into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature is risen from the dead. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh, the glory of eternity spent with our loving King, amen, amen. So there's the giving information and someone literally teaching your mouse how to give. Give with a glad heart, give in faith. 01:03:03 Ministry team, won't you go to my left, your right? I pray for you this week for an oil change from heaven. The Bible says you'll be anointed with fresh oil. All swampiness goes, Lord. We open ourselves up. We need your freshness. We open ourselves up to revival. Come and invade your people In Jesus' name, amen. Again, if you want prayer for anything, our ministry team is to my left. You're right in the blue-lit section. Just go over there and say I want prayer and I'd love to lay hands on you and pray with you and for you. Let's all stand If you need to go, go. 01:04:03 - Speaker 2 Go with blessing and just shout Jesus is Lord. Be blessed. CityLight us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to CityLight Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.