A Journey Back to Jesus Through Authentic Worship and Witness

0:00 You've been hanging out with people and now their vision has become your vision. Where is your vision? You know what God has called you to do as a family. You know what God has asked you to do, but you have forsaken that because you want to look cool and you want to look accepted and you want to look happening and you become part of some cool vision. Guess what happened? God did not call you for the cool vision. God gave you a specific vision. 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 CityLightNYCcom.

0:41 That's CityLightNYCcom. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. Bonnie Andrews is here a fantastic preacher and evangelist who is a blessing and a friend of City Light Church. So put your hands together and help me welcome our friend, bonnie Andrews. Come on, city Light, make some noise.

1:21 Somebody say hallelujah. Oh my God, this morning I'm filled with gratefulness that I'm alive, I'm fully well, I'm blessed and highly favored and I get to share the Word in this amazing church. Come on, give some praise right now. Amen, so happy to be here and I'm a great friend of this church. This is like a second home. I want to thank God for the man of God, pastor Boyan, who is a senior pastor of this church founding senior pastor and for the great vision that God has given him and how he's able to steward it right.

2:04 In this house Many people are not ready to pay the price for what God has asked you to do, but he's been faithfully standing in the front line and being served in the Lord. I want to thank God for the pastors in the house Pastor James, pastor Moe. I want to thank God for the amazing worship team. Amen, amen, amen. So I bring greetings. I bring greetings from our ministry. I just want to say this church has been a generous partner and supporter of our ministry on reaching students not only in America, especially in the US, on college campuses and high schools around the world.

2:45 I just want to play a quick video from our recent event at UC Berkeley over to you. I personally do not know what you call it as agnostic. Okay, we're inside the auditorium.

3:38 This is pretty interesting situation is changing this room entirely to make the event really, really special. I'm just trying out light bulbs to dim it and really going above and beyond. I am super pumped, expectant for what God is about to do. I'm going to look at the one that has full house the big warm welcome to doctors Rice Brooks and Brian Miller.

4:53 I was going to ask you this girl you have to point out all religions were kind of the same, but then half way through the talk she just started crying. And then after the talk she came up to us and she was like hey, do you know anything about the Christian people who come to us on Sundays? I'd love to go to that. The fine-tuning argument is probably the most compelling In my personal life. Right now I have a close person who has lost the will to continue and this gave me a direction to help. Even if you are losing hope, there's a purpose. I was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Awesome night, Learned a lot, Excited to take it with me and share the good news. It's kind of pulling me stronger towards Christianity. Come on, somebody. 400.

5:38 478 students in one of the most liberal campuses. Let me just say that Jesus is still changing lives. Jesus is still changing lives. Those two guys, the captains of the football team you understand the influence that these team members have on the campus, especially those young girls that really had. You know, this is like a serious event. It's not like a revival gathering. This is an apologetics event. We got the best of the best people. The author of God's Not Dead. We have a scientist from MIT joining us and we share the gospel through evidence, through evil. You know. Share about the arguments around the evidence of. You know, the Bible, the Scriptures. We talk about evil.

6:19 Why do bad things happen to good people? We talk about evolution. We talk about all the science aspects, science and faith, and then we share the gospel and let these kids take a response and I'm telling you God is moving mightily on the college campus. Pray for us, especially this month. On the 23rd, we are going to be at MIT, right here on the East Coast, and my prayer is that God would open up. One of the most influential corridors in the world is right where we are. You know the entire Northeast, some of the best universities in the world are here, the nations are coming to our nation and we get this amazing opportunity. Leonardo Ravenhill said the opportunity of a lifetime has to be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.

7:05 I want to say that again the opportunity of a lifetime has to be seized in the lifetime of this opportunity, and that's what we're trying to do these kids while they're here. We have a window to share the gospel before they head out into the world, and we get this opportunity to share the gospel. One big report 1.1 million students 2020, a big report from 2020, 2023 is that 1 million students will reach for the gospel around the world in 42 cities. Out of that, 56,000 students were in person and over 11,200 seekers on our chat line just asking questions, and we've been able to share the gospel, send a Bible to them.

7:47 Thank you so much for praying. If you'd like to partner in any way, want to give to us, please get in touch with the church and they will be able to pass it on to you and you get your tax breaks as well. So thank you so much. Is everybody excited for the Word of God? We had a powerful service and I believe that this Word is from heaven for you and I believe that this is for us, and I want to have that picture of my family right here on the screen. This is my beautiful family who's speaking at an event on 2024, 31st night, and this is a picture from them. I've been married to my beautiful wife. They're probably watching me online. Hi, hello, love you.

8:28 See you soon for lunch. Okay, so well, I want to say that I've been married to my wife for 14 years. We've got three beautiful boys. We can, you know, we can put them together in a New York apartment, so we've actually officially moved to the burbs and we have some more room. And you know, let me just say 14 years of being married to this woman. It's been a joy, it's been, it's been, it's been amazing, right? But one of the things I know is that you know, for people I just feel like let me just throw it out to you People who wanted to get married this is totally off the topic. I just want to say, I want to throw it out for you guys, for people who need, who need to get married, we're not able to take a step of faith and you're wondering about where the money for the marriage is going to come from, where the money for the wedding is going to come from.

9:17 So when I met my wife and you know, we finally decided to get married. I couldn't wait Because I knew this was it. You know, when God spoke to me at a word and confirmations, and I said I couldn't wait, I walked up, coming in from an Indian background. We walked up, I talked to my in-laws and here I'm talking to my mother-in-law and I was telling her hey, listen, I really I feel like we need to get married. I don't want to paint the town red and I want to go around, you know, I just want to make sure that I want to get married as soon as possible. So here's my beautiful mother-in-law telling me listen, we need some time to prepare. Okay, we need some time to prepare, which means we need some time to prep our finances put together, because in our sort of, you know, culture, everybody puts in the money.

10:02 It's not just a couple, right, pastor James? So everybody puts in the money. So, listen. She basically said listen, we got to work on it. I'm like man, I'm in a hurry. Okay, and listen, I'm in a hurry. And I got the faith. I had no money in my bank, but I just told my mother-in-law. I said don't worry about the money, I'll be paying for everything. Let's get going. Okay, it was a step of faith and I want to say something. He is Jehovah Jireh. Okay, he's Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah will provide for us according to His riches and glory. All we need to do is that every promise in the Scripture is yes and amen. Right. If it is in the book, it can happen.

10:44 So I just stepped out in faith and I wanted to tell you something. It was not just a normal wedding. We got married in the top five destination spots in all of our country, right on the beach, beautiful, exotic place, and the Lord paid for every bill. We had extra money to start our home. I didn't have to put a registry, I already had the money. I just had to go there and buy it. I'm telling you God is a providing God. I'm looking at people in the room. You're wondering God, where is my money going to come from? How am I going to get married? Where's the money for the ring? I'm telling you step out in faith and watch what we'll do in and through your life, because His name is Jehovah Jireh.

11:27 This is totally off the topic. I just feel like in my spirit, somebody needed to hear this. Did anybody need to hear that he's a provider? Sometimes you feel like a minister. Oh my God, we're poor guys, man, we can't afford it. Let me tell you something you set the ceiling and the Lord exceeds our imagination. The Bible says as creative people as Sean and some of these people and some of our people in the room, we're creative people. We can think about some crazy things, but the Bible says he will do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. What does that mean? He's going to exceed your imagination. How's that Somebody getting excited right here?

12:11 He's going to beat your wildest dreams. He's going to beat your wildest imaginations, but only if you step in faith and receive and say God, if it is in your word, if God can speak and provide for this curry-eating man, he can do it for me. If you believe, it's an amen. Now, coming back to the topic, you know Mark Riscall. He made a quote like this you dated your wife to get married, but you have to continue to date your wife to stay married. Amen. Somebody need to hear that. Yes, you dated your wife to get married. Oh my God, pastor Moore, you know what I'm talking about.

12:52 You had flowers, chocolates, gifts, time you were doing everything possible and borrowed ideas. And now you've got chat, gpt. I mean you're making poems and you're making write-ups and you're writing blogs and you're writing things about her, somehow some way to get her on boat. And then, men as men, we are conquerors, we conquered, we conquered her. Now we're on to the next assignment. Let me tell you something we got to have romance back in our marriages. Amen, we got to date your wife. That's why we need to have date nights. We need to have, you know, we need to find out the five languages of love. Read Gary Chapman's great book Five Languages of Love.

13:33 Sit down with your wife and find out what are the top languages of her. Like, when I do something for my wife she's probably watching me right now she gets so excited. She says thank you, like five times. I'm like I just I mean I just watched the dishes Writes of affirmation big on her. You know, time is big. So all I'm trying to say I'm just trying to bring some context here to continuously woo your wife and your husband. The Bible says if you do not honor your wife, your prayers are hindered. You're praying. I'm like my God, what's happening? He's just hitting the ceiling, coming back down, because the Bible says if you honor your wife, your prayers are going to be heard. How is that correlation? Well, coming back to the topic of what I'm trying to say is that this is same in the life of the church.

14:19 We got saved. I got saved in 1993. I was recently in India visiting my mom. I just fell in my heart. Man, I've been wanting to, you know, spend some time with my parents, especially around Christmas. My family wants me to hear me Christmas. So I'm trying to balance it out and decide. In less than 24 hours I'm getting on a plane. My parents can't handle that, you know, maybe American parents can't handle that. They show up in the door and knock. They're like wow, I was surprised my parents were probably died. So I thought, let me give them 24 hours notice. And I just showed up in their home and I'm like holding my mom out and just walking around the mall and just really dating my mom and spending time. And probably, if I would ask her, she probably said this is probably the best time of her life.

15:03 We talk to her. I mean, we talk to each other every day. She's my greatest prayer warrior. She probably would be praying for me if she would know that I'd be ministering here Now. Let me just try to say it, tell you something, just like you know. And I finally got to the point that I found my Bible. That's what I wanted to say. I found my Bible that I started reading when I was saved, when I got saved in 1993. Oh my God, that Bible is colored. It's like a coloring book. God was speaking to me. I got notes on the side. I got the. You know, I got notes everywhere colors, crowns. I mean, I'm telling you I was on fire for Jesus. I didn't have an agenda when I went to prayer.

15:43 I didn't have a ministry to run. I didn't have a family to feed. Every time I went before God is because I love Jesus and I want to love Him more. And when I love Him more than when I receive His love, I want to tell that to other people. Where are we right now? I want to show that picture right here. If you see the sign anywhere on the street, what does this mean? Take a U-turn Tonight. I want to say I have two messages. It's probably my lifetime messages. One of my messages is the main thing is if you are, if you do not know Jesus, you're walking away from Jesus, you're living your own life.

16:25 It's time for you to take a U-turn, turn your life around, turn that car around, turn your life around and follow Christ, because the Bible says God came down. The Bible says John 3.16,. He loved, he so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son. I'm telling you, coming from the place that I am coming in from, we have 33 million gods, as they say in India. You can have a God for yourself, if I may say it right, and every religion in this world is based on this idea that man's got to try to reach God. Somehow I got to crawl on the floor, I got to climb up a mountain, I got to fast, I got to do this.

17:11 I got to do 10 different things through works trying to reach God, every religion. And then you read the Bible, the greatest love story on the face of planet Earth God came down to man. It's not man trying to reach God, god came down to man. And there are people hearing at the frequency of my voice that you have never given your life to Jesus. This morning is your time to give your life to Jesus, because he loves you, he cares for you and he wants to take you away from the messes that you have been through and give you a new life and take a U-turn. But from the church this morning, I feel like the church, you and I, we need to take a U-turn.

17:56 2024, we're like, oh my God, I believe God, you're going to bless me, you're going to prosper me, you're going to increase me. You're pulling every scripture that talks about the blessing. You want to be on that express road, be on that Tesla, the hybrid car, and just ramp it up full speed with your life and enjoy the blessings of God. But let me tell you I'm here to tell you, before you get on that exit, you need to take a U-turn. You need to go back and finish some unfinished business. Revelation, chapter 2, verses 4 to 5, if you can get your scriptures up, this is what John speaks to this church right here.

18:37 Let me get this. What does it say? Revelation, chapter 2, I have this against you that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. There are three words to be looked at here. Number one remember. Number two repent. Number three go back to the first words. What is the first word? Repeat it all over again. We have walked away from the first love to Jesus and this morning is a wake up call for all of us.

19:23 Are you coming to church because you oh my God, it's Sunday morning. Are you going through the motions of religion? Are you going through the motions of church? Oh my God, today's Sunday morning, you gotta be in church. Are you doing things for the sake of doing it? Are you here to pursue a brand, pursue a person? I know there's amazing worship leaders and pastors and speakers in this house. Are you pursuing the person, the personality or the person of Jesus? Are you pursuing Jesus in your life? Are you here to worship because you wanna have more of him? You wanna worship him, you wanna be intimately in love with him, you wanna adore him?

20:07 The scripture says the people of Israel looked at the hands of God, looked at God as an ATM. What can his hands do? What can I do to get his hands to work on my behalf? But the Bible says the people of Israel looked at his hands, but Moses sought the face of God City Light Church. This morning there is a call for all of us to return back to our first love. Is everybody with me? And I wanna tell you something. There are three indicators to understand where we are standing with our first love. The number one is worship and prayer.

20:50 How is your personal time with God? The word is TAG T-A-W-G. Time alone with God. How is your time alone with God? Does it have, like you know, every time you have to come to prayer, do you have like a whole list of things that you have to get by before you can actually seek the face of Jesus and adore him? You have an agenda. I know we come from corporate world where we have an agenda. Can we come to God in worship without an agenda? The only agenda is to fall in love with Jesus all over again, is to love him, to adore him, to worship him for who really he is, Not for what he can do.

21:35 So how is a worship time? What is a personal worship time as a family? As we start this year on the 21 day fast, somebody said doing the same things again and again and expecting different results is called insanity. The beginning of this year, can you rebuild that family altar at home. I'm not pointing my finger to you, I'm just saying can we do that? I put it on my calendar. Every day, 1900 is family time. I tap my wife onto it. It's on my calendar, it's a reminder.

22:16 I can't have a meeting at this time. It's time for us to pray together. It's time for us, as a family, to seek God together, to turn my house from a place that plays Netflix to a house of prayer. Restore the family altar in our life. Restore your personal altar, your personal worship time, your personal prayer time. Is your prayer time all about telling God what you want, or is your prayer time just talking to Jesus? Oh, I gotta pray because I gotta talk to Jesus. I gotta pray because I gotta seek what is on his heart. I gotta pray because I gotta pray what is on his heart.

22:57 I gotta pray because I need more of Jesus in my life. Or I gotta pray because I have an SOS. My budget is in the red, my business is not doing well, my math is always an SOS prayer that we have. I think it's time for us to shift and pivot from SOS to adoration. Amen. How's our worship time? How's our prayer time? Number two how's our word time? This preacher's just trying to make it all W's right Masterful. Number one is worship. Number two is word. How much time do you read? I mean this little glass screen that we have. If you look at the screen time that we're doing.

23:38 How much time do we spend on YouTube? How much time do we spend on Instagram? How much time do we spend on every other app but the Bible app? Thank God for the Bible app. Over half a million downloads. If you have never seen me on it Jan 17,. I'm back on the worst of the day. Over two million people they say read that worst of the day every single day, and it's on the most download app. But my point is it's not about having that app on the phone, it's about getting those streaks up. There's a thing called the streak. How many times have you read the Bible continuously?

24:19 Is your streak breaking from time to time, going back to zero, or is it just keeping on adding up? Is it like 364? I'm asking you, what is your word time? The Bible says whatever his word is like the best steak in the world. I got to eat that word, I got to meditate on that word, I got to make that word mine. And the last piece is that what is your witness time look like? What is the last time that you shared the gospel with somebody? I know you're busy, I know you're corporate life Every time you get. If you are in love with Jesus and if you are receiving his love, I'm telling you.

25:01 You just want to be telling everybody about it. A year ago, my wife and I and the whole family, we drove across the country I think I've shared this year 9,000 miles, 30 days, from cross country across the country, praying Because God spoke to Abraham, walked the length and breath of this land. We felt like this is our mandate. This summer we're going to create history and every night we were in a different city, almost every night in a different hotel. And the kids. We went to this hotel, we checked in and nice place, great hospitality. We're about to check out and the kids, you know, at the counter they just feel like that's got this metal card. They can swipe it and swing it and wave it and everything's going to come. So they just went and picked up two Frappuccinos, come into the counter to get checked out and the lady at the counter says oh, no, no, it's on us.

25:49 I'm like, wow, it's pretty cool. The next place a week later we were in another city, another part of the country, the same hotel chain. The kids go pick up some gummies. Kids love gummies, especially the colored ones. So you know they're going to check it out. And then the counter lady says, oh no, no, no, it's on us. I'm like, wait a minute, this kind of generosity I've never, ever seen it Right. And then I'm on to the next place. Next place we are happy to look for the place that you know, a city that has that brand on. And the third city, again, the same thing, all over again. So I just like, wait a minute, let me just talk to that lady.

26:29 And she tells me this is part of their core values generosity and hospitality. And I became an evangelist of this brand Everywhere I'm going. Oh guys, man, you got to check out, the yogurt is so good. There's a bike outside, there's the, it's all green. I mean it's a green place. I'm just, I've become an evangelist of this hotel chain. I'm telling people they're not even paying me, but I'm just telling people, if you are so full of Jesus, it will ooze out of you. Some people we got to squeeze and squeeze. There's nothing in that, brother. It's a flat tire. It's a flat balloon. There's nothing in it.

27:11 There used to be some air back in the day 20 years ago. Like most preachers say, these hands have been laid on people like 20 years ago. Tell me about stories that happened yesterday. Tell me about stories that happened six months ago. Tell me about stuff that happened two years ago. Tell me something fresh. I want a fresh story of intimacy with God. So if your life is in sync and in love and it is oozing the revelation of God you got I mean, you touch it. You sit next to somebody on a plane. It's going to come out. You don't care what other people would think about you, because you're like man, I don't care If you don't get this, even if you die on this plane.

27:54 I mean that's the best thing. I get people. It's sit on a plane and you talk about it, like if this plane goes down, what's going to happen? Yeah, this is the biggest wake up call you can get people. They're like why is president, president, everybody's scared of their life, but we're like, we're cool, I'm gonna miss family, but guess what? I'm gonna go straight to Jesus. I'm so full of that, that assurance, that faith, I'm saying how much of that is being shared with other people. So if your worship time is down, if your word time is down, if your witness time is down, it is a great call this morning for all of us to return back to the first love, to fall in Jesus, with love in Jesus, all over again and say God, I need you more.

28:40 One of his commandments. The only thing probably, he said is that, you know, forget the 10 commandments. Jesus said do this. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself, because when you love Jesus, it will automatically flow. Your neighbors will know your work, people will know, everybody around will know. Is everybody with me? I know this is not the coolest, happiest praisey message, but this is the heart of God for all of us this morning. It's that for us to return to our first love. If you believe it, say amen. The second piece of this is to return back to the ancient boundaries that God has placed upon my life or our lives, and I've been working out recently in a new location.

29:32 I found my tribe, been working out every day and see these guys that I work out with. They are maniacs. They're Christian maniacs. They do things and they make me do things that I would probably never done in my lifetime. I'm stretching my body, I'm doing more things. I'm killing this flesh. By the time I finish my work, I'm like, oh my God. But at the end, when we are leaving the place, our man makes a statement, one of the friends out there. He says you know, he's a pastor. He tells me listen, bro, don't waste this workout. What does that mean? Don't go and eat some junk. Don't go eat some sugary things.

30:12 Don't go get that frappuccino with four pumps of sugar soon after you get your work. Do your workout because you wasted it. When you're discipline your body, there are boundaries in your life, in your life, in your health, in the food that you're eating. Oh my God. You're weighing. You're looking at the back side. You never looked at the back side of a Coke bottle. You never looked at. You know whether. How much calories is God? How much sugar is God? How much sodium is God? I mean, you're getting into details these days. Why? Because it matters to you, but as a child of God, you have to go back to the ancient boundaries.

30:56 As a child of God, as a Christian. What is permissible for other people is not permissible for you. Don't tell me what other people are trying to do. Don't tell me how other people live their life, what is their value system. Don't bring that into your home, because this is uncharted territory. What is permissible for my boss, even some Christian brothers and sisters? When I hang out in most circles these days, I'm feeling like, oh my God, what is different between us and the ones outside? We're pretty much doing the same thing here. It's just that we got the holy talk and the holy tag and the holy caps that we wear to remind ourselves that we are.

31:42 But let me tell you, a lifestyle doesn't reflect the separation. You know the boundaries. God created boundaries for us in the scripture, Our sexuality. There are boundaries for it, boundaries for a single person, boundaries for a married person, boundaries for sin, sexuality. In the New Testament it doesn't even tell me I have to. You know I have to sleep with somebody. The Bible says if I look at somebody with lust in my eyes, I've already sinned. Don't tell me oh my God. You know my friends are. You know they're cool people. You know I don't think they have a problem with us living in.

32:23 Oh my God, when is that? When did that happen in the church? When is that written in the Word of God? We have slaughtered the fear of God at the altar of relevance. We wanna be cool. Did you hear me right? You have slaughtered the fear of God at the altar of relevance. We wanna be relevant. Let me tell you something. Relevant church is dead. Relevant Christianity is dead. They tried to do it. It didn't work. It worked for some time. We have moved the goalpost of our life a lot.

33:06 When did profane language become okay? As a child of God, the Bible says the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. Let it be pleasing to you, oh God, help us with our language. No matter how frustrated you are, no matter how sick you feel, no matter how betrayed you feel you, as a child of God, you got to watch the words that come out of your mouth. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Am I preaching to somebody here? Is this helping?

33:47 Is this helping. This is helping. This is really the heart of God. We have boundaries. Romans, chapter 12,. It says therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. What is worship? What is true worship when you offer your bodies as living sacrifice? It goes on to say do not confirm to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You are in this world, but you're not off this world. Oh my God, oh my God.

34:28 I preach that. When is the last time that you hung out with somebody who didn't tell you things that you like? When is the last time you read a book that convicted you? When is the last time that you heard a sermon that you felt like, oh my God, ouch, and the kids are getting? Do you hang around with mentors who say, oh my God, barney, look at that leather jacket. Oh man, you look so cool. The way you speak is amazing. I don't want people to tell me all the good things of life. Tell me all the things that I need to change. I don't give money to a coach to help me to affirm what I'm already doing.

35:10 I need to change, I want to go to the next level, and there is a price to pay for that. The Bible says who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? I'm going. Old school guys. Old school, old school here, bible school, old school, he who has clean hands and a pure heart. This morning the Lord is calling us as a church to return back to the ancient boundaries, return back to our first love with Jesus. Amen, amen, don't go beyond what God has authorized.

35:56 And on the other side, we have gone into the religion world where we have to do, do, do, do, do, do. Jesus did not come to create a religion. He came to create relationship. That was broken. So in the church we've got to beat religion. We have to slaughter. We have slaughtered intimacy at the altar of religion. Oh, no, no, no Time to go back to intimacy with Jesus. The other piece is to return back to the original vision of your life. You've been hanging out with people and now their vision has become your vision.

36:37 Where is your vision? You know what God has called you to do as a family. You know what God has asked you to do, but you have forsaken that. Because you want to look cool and you want to look accepted and you want to look happening, and you become part of some cool vision. Guess what happened? God did not call you for the cool vision. God gave you a specific vision. He asked you to do something and I'm telling you, vision is not easy Vision. The Bible says those. Let me get the scripture right for you Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 18. Where there is no vision, people perish.

37:19 In this presidential election year, every candidate is not talking about what they have done. They're telling about what they want to do. They're casting a vision. What is the vision for your life? What is your vision for your family? What is your vision for your? I mean, if you take vision seriously, your calendar is going to reflect your vision. If you don't have a vision, you're going to go everywhere. This prayer meeting, that prayer meeting, this leaders meeting, that meeting, this meeting. You're going to go everywhere and try to please people. That is the biggest trap that you can ever be in. If you're focused on your vision, you know exactly where to go.

37:59 Your calendar will reflect your vision. Your budget will reflect your vision. Your eating habits will reflect your vision. Where you live will reflect your vision, where you work and who you hang out with will reflect your vision. Because if you hang out with toxic people, let me get this straight for you the Bible says those who hang out with the wise will become wise, but those who hang out with the wicked it doesn't say you will be wicked. The Bible says you will be destroyed. So watch the people that we hang out with and watch your vision. Vision is the bridge between the present and the future.

38:42 If you do not have a vision, you do not have a future. And vision gives pain a purpose. Oh man, I'm telling you, is it hard to get up in the morning, especially in New York, you know, I mean, it's cold, the seat is cold and these cars they just charge you just to switch on the heating on the steering wheel. That's another $5,000. I mean, that's how they sell. So your seat is heated, but your steering wheel is not and you don't feel like getting up in the morning. It's cold. You have every reason why you don't want to go work out, even though your buddies and no gym wants you to be there, because everybody shows up in the gym.

39:24 They don't want me in your room, so they want you to take the membership and just stay at home. Yes or no? Am I preaching If everybody shows up in the? You know this model. But I'm telling you, vision gives pain a purpose. So it's painful for me to get up in the morning and to follow the disciplines of my life to do what God is asking me to do, but if I do it I will be the most fulfilled person on earth. So you gotta pay a price for your vision. Just keep you state focused. So God is saying go back to the original vision. I don't know your vision, I know mine. That's why I keep sharing it every time. You probably know it by heart.

40:04 Every student in every nation gospelize and mobilize. Every student in every nation gospelize and mobilize. Every student in every nation gospelize and mobilize. I gotta keep reminding myself Because if I'm not careful and if I hang out too much with other people, their vision becomes my. Oh my God. Wait a minute. I gotta raise all this money Like a half a million dollar budget. I gotta raise it. I wish I would be a salaried guy. I wish I could just be like a guy. A regular guy Could be a regular bivocational ministry. Isn't that cool? Is that cool? Of course it is cool. Is there models in the Bible?

40:45 Of course, but is that what God is calling you to do? When I hang out with you know I love pastors, but I know they have their own journey to take, but I feel like man. Maybe I just need to be a pastor, you know, or maybe just you know, I'm telling you, there's been several offers to me to deviate me from the focus that I was supposed to be. Here's the check, here's the thing, here's that, here's this you can do. I'm telling you I have to say no because I am clear about what God wants me to do Money, money. Vision gives direction. Vision evokes passion.

41:25 Vision motivates, vision disciplines, Vision prioritizes. God is calling us to return back to the original vision on your life. When in doubt, go back to square one. When in doubt, go check your journal out. When in doubt, go check your prophetic word. Oh, my God, you have a hard disk filled with prophecies. Guys, it's time to go back and get some road maps. Rather than going out to the next prophetic word, it's time for us to go and check the old prophetic words and check if you have fulfilled it. God is calling this church into the next level.

42:09 He loves you so much that he sent a curry eating man to share this word Not just for you, I take it as a we word, it's for me. The last piece is to return back to covenant and to relationships. The other day I was talking to somebody I haven't talked in that you know there are people in your life. Dr A Ebonad says you know, some people come in for a season, some kind of reason, some for a lifetime, and they say it takes about 200 hours to build trust with anybody Like me and Pastor James give me a high five, bro, listen me and him. For me to just be like thick, thick, I need to be given in a 200 hours of just hanging out with him.

42:50 That's like 200 hours, 200 coffees, 200 meals. Putting that time at the very basic at $50 an hour, that's like $100 just to meet for an hour, plus the meals, plus the food, plus, you know, the transport. Imagine the amount of money that you've invested into relationships in the future. But this season, prophetically, I speak to you that God is reminding you to make that call, and call somebody right now. He's bringing some concentric circles of relationships back into your life. I know it finished a season. There are people that I thought, oh my God, we had a great run in India. God bless you. That was great, that was great, fantastic. You move to the next place.

43:31 You are in the Middle East. Oh my God, they are in the Middle East. They are now in Dubai. Oh my God, they move from India to Dubai. Oh, we have one more round here. Dubai is over. Praise the Lord. God bless you. Peace, peace. You know, whatever you're the rock guys, peace guys, peace done. You come to the US. They are now in your neighborhood. They've showed up in your neighborhood. They're now in the East Coast. They're now two hours away. All that 200 and over hundreds of hours of relationship is now paying out in different terrains of my life because God is saying you're not done with them yet.

44:12 One more round, one more round of dreaming together. One more round. Let me tell you something. When I partner with somebody, when I partner with this church to go to campuses, hey, man, this church wants to go to campus, but they can't. They were looking like we want to reach the next generation. Show us a person who reaches the next generation and God shows me up in this circle. And now we have a perfect fit here of a partnership where the church wants to reach them, but they don't know how to. But they're now partnering, which means co-ownership. Oh my God, partnership means co-ownership. If you're partnering financially with the ministry, you're co-owning it.

44:53 You know, as a non-profit. I just wanted to let you know that you can't take nothing out of that. All you can expense is expense it out. It's not like your own company that you're like. I got stake in it. I've been doing this for the last 20 years. I have no equity in it. I can put it on my LinkedIn and say that I was the founder, that's it. You cashed out with nothing. I mean you cashed out with everything that God has asked you to do, but on the business world, I mean you left a company you exited with like tons of money. So when you're partnering with somebody, what's happening is you're becoming a co-owner of that vision and I'm telling you, god is bringing relationships back in your life.

45:34 To do one more round of kingdom activity together to reach students Out of the blue. This young man called me up. We did a lot of stuff together in different cities, dreamed together, did some crazy things, filled stadiums and I'm like all right, bye-bye, cheers, peace. The next thing I know is I haven't heard from him for years. I get a call from him. Listen. I've now moved to the US and I'm married and I live in Phoenix, and that just one conversation led to us dreaming about the largest outreach to the South Asian tech community in Phoenix. Over 300 tech people showed up, over 25 people got saved.

46:15 All because of that one call of re-engagement with a friend that I haven't seen for a long time. But in the right time, when carers means chronos, god is bringing concentrated relationships back again. Maybe I'm prophesying somebody. Maybe it doesn't make sense, don't take it. If it doesn't make somebody. If it makes sense, god's bringing those. Some people you don't like, listen. Some people you don't like. You wish you didn't want to work, but you have seen the ugly side of him, so you know exactly what to expect. You know what can possibly go, what is the damages that could happen, but you have built trust here. You have built a covenant relationship.

46:57 That's why somebody said if you find your people, hold on to them. If you're on this church, hold on to somebody, give a high-five to somebody and say we found ourselves. We found ourselves, we're in the right place, we're the right community. That's why we ask you to go, come together, you know, praying together, sharing the gospel together. Somebody said, if you don't evangelize, you will fossilize. Why is the church in need of a church in America dying? Why is the church in the West dying? Because, man, they're just feasting on last year's glory, they're feasting on the last 20 years of glory, nothing they have done right now. And if you don't evangelize, evangelism is a marketing wing of the church.

47:40 If you're on a business, if you don't do marketing, nobody knows about you. Well, word of mouth gets around. I'm saying that some people I've heard like oh my bro, you know I don't do business, I don't do marketing, it's just word of mouth. I'm like great, great, great. But if you wanna lift it to the next level, you got to do marketing and that is the great commission. So I'm saying right here that God is I wanna ask the worship team to come and I'm gonna land the plane. But what I'm asking you to do today, as I did in the first sermon, the first service, is to step out, not because you've sinned, but you wanna say God, I wanna return back to my first love. I mean, I would be here, right here in the front, if I would give a call right now. It's not account numbers, account hands, account heads, account butts, nothing.

48:23 I want you to just take a step of faith, not just a step of faith, an intentional step, a response of moving out from your seat. Like Billy Grant would say, in a few minutes from now you're gonna walk out. He got everybody ready for the last 20, 30 minutes of him speaking, just for them to come forward here. I am asking you to come forward and say God, I need to go, I'm hungry, I wanna be in love with Jesus again. I don't wanna talk about 20 years of stories, last year's story like five years story. 20 years ago I was this and that. Tell me where you are right now. If you need to go back, you need to bounce up from that seat right now, as we all stand up right now. We all stand up right here.

49:04 I wanna open up the altar right now. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. 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 City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.