Avoiding the Pitfall of Self-Pity

00:00 - Speaker 1 David began to what. He began to praise and he encouraged, he reminded himself God is good, god is with me. I don't care what I see, I don't care what I hear, I don't even care what I'm experiencing right now. I'm looking at the hate and anger in their faces. They're ready to kill me. But, Lord, you're good. And he began to praise and he would not fall into a spirit of self-pity and and God can work with that. 00:26 - Speaker 2 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. That's CityLightNYCcom. 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. 01:06 - Speaker 1 Hallelujah, thank you, lord, welcome. God is really doing something wonderful at City Light Church. I've checked in with Pastor Mo numerous times because I want to make sure it's not just me, and we both agreed God is doing something special, specifically in terms of people getting saved and the kinds of people that are finding our church. So typically, a healthy church is winning those who are far from Jesus, who don't know the gospel, who are lost, but a large portion of those are those that are coming back to Jesus. Thank God for those. And then, if you actually look, very few. They're first-time salvations. But God is bringing people from all over who are getting saved for the very first time, who are hearing the gospel for the first time, and it's very special and very holy. And I realize some of you that are hearing my voice right now you might be thinking hey, that's me. You just described me. I'm so glad you're here and it's not by accident that you're here. Jesus said no one can come to me unless the Father draws them. He drew you, even if you were up at 3M one night and Googled Jesus, nyc church, find God, nyc. Whatever you Googled, and somehow you landed here. God did that and he opened up your heart and he's reaching out to you right now. He's working on your heart so that you would say yes to Jesus, that you would give your life to him, repent of your sins, receive total forgiveness of sins and everlasting eternal life. So what a privilege that is For me. I've been waiting, you know. We just celebrated 23 years on March, the 17th, st Patrick's Day, just it was Monday. I've been waiting 23 years to see it like this. God's always been with us and he's blessed us and worked through us. But you know, we're in Queens and of course we get a lot of people from Manhattan, from Brooklyn, and of course we get a lot of people from Manhattan, from Brooklyn, even from New Jersey, the country of New Jersey, even from Long Island, but just in Queens, do you know there's 161 nations represented in Queens. So it's really beautiful what the Lord is doing. 03:45 Pastor Mo was talking about you, talking about growing out of this place. If you look around, we've grown out of this place. So pray with us for that next place, for our own building. I want to see a 600 seater, 6 to 800. Go to two services with that and give the Lord something to work with. Amen. Oh good, I can preach now. See, I was just small talking until the conduit of the anointing for my life came in, and now there it is, ushers quickly. 04:23 So to those who are new and who are just coming in, and even to some of the old timers, I just want to remind you that when you look and you see people who have gone astray, people who've become either backslidden or outright heretical in their thinking, and all the weirdnesses that have infiltrated the church, you know, a lot of weirdnesses have infiltrated the church in the last 10, 15 years. A lot of weirdnesses have infiltrated just American culture in general in the last 10, 15 years. But when you look at it, you'll find a common denominator. Amongst all the different weirdnesses and different people that have gone astray, you'll find one common denominator and that's this gone astray. You'll find one common denominator and that's this that in some way they began to dismiss or dilute or flat out reject the integrity and the authority of the word of God. 05:18 It's just a good book or it's God's word. But there's also some other stuff in there and I get to decide, kind of like at a buffet, I don't know crab legs, some shrimp Chicken. I can eat chicken at home and that's how they go about the Bible picking and choosing. If I gave you a glass of water and said this is from the glaciers of the Alps, clear water, clean water, but I added just 1% arsenic to it, would you drink that glass of water? I hope the answer is no. If that book you call the Bible is 99% God's word but it's even 1% man's word, I would not base my soul on it. I would not base my eternal destiny on a book like that. 06:09 The Bible that you have, the Bible, is God's word to us. It is inspired by God. It is infallible. There is no mistake in it. It is immutable, it's unchangeable. You can hold up that Bible with confidence and say thus saith the Lord, and people have tried to discredit it, always failing. People have tried to knock it down. It's withstood the test of time for thousands of years and is still the number one most read and number one bestselling book in all of human history. That's for a reason. Kings have gone to that book to receive instructions. 06:53 So don't ignore certain parts of the Bible because they may make you uncomfortable or they're inconvenient. You know there's people. They cut out a part of the Bible that they don't like. Oh, this is too tough, this is a hard saying I don't like that, cut it out, go to another chapter. Oh, I don't like this. Oh, jesus is asking for a lot, I don't like that part. And then they have a real holy Bible which is an unholy Bible, full of holes in it. 07:20 From the passages they cut out, minute. From the passages they cut out. Don't let that be you. It's either all the word of God or it's not at all the word of God. And I know it's the word of God because I did what the word said and my whole life was transformed. I've seen thousands of others. Their lives are transformed. But you might say, oh, that's subjective, you're just saying that. But even if you just look at it from a logical lens, a scientific lens, the Bible has more manuscripts flowing perfectly together, never contradicting each other. Tens of thousands of Greek, aramaic, hebrew manuscripts that support its authenticity, that support it's the word of God, more manuscripts than any other book or any other quote, unquote holy book in the world. Amen. 08:09 This has nothing to do with my sermon, but it has everything to do with my sermon. So I just wanted to say that we need to be reminded of that periodically, because I come and you notice, whenever anyone preaches from this pulpit, they use a lot of scripture. That's not because we need filler material, god. Anyone preaches from this pulpit, they use a lot of scripture. That's not because we need filler material. God forbid, we're just up here yakking. It has to be from the word of God. That is our plumb line, that is our standard Amen. And it's the word of God that'll get you through. Good advice is not going to get you through. Church hype is not going to get you through. Great musicians, they're not going to get you. It's the word, it's the seed, the incorruptible seed of God. When ingested by the human spirit, it causes you to overcome. Amen, amen. 08:58 All right, let's begin. We're beginning in 1 Kings, chapter 19 and verse 1. What had just happened was Elijah the prophet had the greatest victory of his life. In fact, it was the highlight of his life. Baal was a false god and he was actually drawing Hebrews who were faithful to Yahweh to him. They were erecting altars to him and erecting idols, and God had enough of it and he sent Elijah. Elijah actually said choose this day who you will serve. If Baal is God, serve him, but if the Lord Yahweh is God, then fully serve him. 09:51 And so it was on the top of Mount Carmel, elijah verses 450 prophets of Baal and Elijah. This is so cool, this I mean. If you just read what he says, it's like the lead actor in a Hollywood blockbuster. He said all right, you gather a sacrifice and I'll gather a sacrifice. We'll put a bull and the God who answers by fire, he is God. So the prophets of Baal agreed. 10:23 They started in the morning doing their dances Wasn't working, no fire. Then they started cutting themselves, they started screaming, they started appealing no fire. Elijah actually starts mocking them, which is where I get my biblical precedent to mock ungodly thoughts, if you've ever thought. Well, he's mocking that thing, but it's like on Netflix and it's totally in the culture and I'm mocking it as Elijah did. No, it's so he actually starts telling the prophets of Baal. He says hey, perhaps your God is deaf and can't hear you, or perhaps he's on vacay, he's on a long journey. And then he he says or maybe he's going to the bathroom. That's in the scriptures I got. I got scriptural precedent to provoke and not be crass, but crassish at times. Ish, then elijah. Elijah has water poured on this bull. He offers up one prayer to Yahweh God Fire comes down from heaven, consumes the sacrifice. It's a major victory for all of Israel, a major victory personally for Elijah. 11:38 They slaughter the 450 false prophets of Baal and now we find ourselves in chapter 19, verse 1. And Ahab, king Ahab, told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah this is in the same 24-hour span saying so, let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life talking about Elijah as the life of one of them, the prophets that have been killed, by tomorrow, about this time, in other words, queen Jezebel says Elijah, you shamed me, you made a mockery, I am going to kill you. I'm not going to be preaching on the spirit of Jezebel. It's a common, especially if you're Pentecostal, if you're charismatic. Ooh, you got 16 books on the spirit of Jezebel. It is a real spirit. It is a spirit that a man can yield to and a woman can yield to. 12:48 I sometimes think we talk more about the spirit of Jezebel than we do about the spirit of Ahab. There is a spirit of Ahab which is, I think, sometimes even more destructive than the spirit of Jezebel A weak husband with no agency, just led by the nose by his wife doing whatever, rebelling following the flesh. Just because she says so, why is it so quiet in here? All right, verse 3. Hallelujah, verse three Hallelujah. You know, I've experienced I want to say this on the side I've experienced a major breakthrough, I've shared it, but there's new people all the time A major breakthrough in every way, particularly financially. I know I give God all the glory, but if it wasn't for my wife and her posture and her support and the fact that she looks to me to lead which sometimes for the first five seconds, you know, is the pressure, but then you're empowered by the Lord to lead well, I would still be in a windowless basement at 121 East 7th Street, amen. So I want to give honor where honor is due. Amen. Verse four oh, I'm sorry, verse three. We didn't read, forgive me. 14:22 And when he saw that this is Elijah, right, less than a day after the victory of his life, he arose and ran for his life. There was something so terrifying about this woman and I won't get into that. But there is a spirit of Jezebel that's so intimidating that this major man of God, at the height of his ministry, heard that she wants to execute him and he runs for the hills of his ministry. Heard that she wants to execute him and he runs for the hills, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die. What? He went literally from the mountaintop. He went from the mountaintop to a self-pity fest and becoming suicidal. In less than a day he came and sat down under a broom tree and there he prayed that he might die and he said it is enough. Now, lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's, which is a lie. His fathers were in rebellion. He was the premier prophet of Israel, so he was better. But when you wallow in self-pity, it distorts your perception, it distorts your reality. And you can be mighty, but it'll land you under a broom tree, eventually in a cave, doubting everything and wishing death upon yourself Verse 5. Then, as he lay and slept under a broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him Arise and eat. This is Old Testament, uber Eats right now, sent from the Lord. Then he looked and there, by his head, was a cake from an angel. That's angel food cake delivered by heavenly Uber Eats right now, sent from the Lord. Then he looked and there, by his head, was a cake from an angel that's angel food cake delivered by heavenly Uber Eats baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and he lay down again. You know he's depressed, right? You know he's wallowing in self-pity. 16:20 I remember reading the account of in Columbia. What was his name? Escobar, pablo Escobar, in his final days. They said all he was doing was eating big bowls of pasta. He was sleeping on the ground, he was hiding. They were asking he was eating big bowls of pasta and then you just turn around and sleep, wake up, continue eating from the bowl. It reminded me of this verse. Anyway, he eats and just goes right back to sleep. 16:44 Elijah, acting like Pablo on the run. Not good, not good, verse 7. Did I read 6? Yeah, he did, the Pablo. Then verse 7. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food. This was supernatural food, forget about your power bar. He ate this angel food cake and he went on the strength of that one meal 40 days and 40 nights and ran as far as Horeb, the mountain of God, and there he went into a cave. So he's still having this pity party. 17:35 And that's what a cave symbolizes in the Bible. The wilderness is a place of questioning, of searching. You have your needs met, but not your wants. But the cave? You don't want to be in the cave. Everybody will be in the wilderness, but you'd get to decide whether you go into the cave or not. 17:51 He went into a cave and spent the night in the place and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him what are you doing here, elijah? What are you doing? Full of self-pity and hiding in a cave? So he said I have been very zealous for the Lord, god of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Then the Lord said Get out and stand. Get out and stand, get out of the cave. Some of you, you've been in a cave and by the anointing of God, god is going to break you out of that thing. Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. 18:56 You know, sometimes we look so much for the spectacular we miss the supernatural. People are looking to encounter God or hear from him in this spectacular way, but he's coming to you in a way that's just as supernatural. It may not be outwardly spectacular, but he's ministering to you on the inside and speaking to you by the still small voice, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. So it was when Elijah heard it, he found the Lord in the still small voice, when he heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance small voice when he heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said what are you doing here, elijah? I have heard that voice. 19:56 I've heard that voice when I allowed self-pity to take a hold of me when my circumstances were overwhelming to me and it's kind of like you're sinking. You're sinking and the Lord would shock me out of it saying God, what are you doing here? You don't belong here in that place. And he said I have been very zealous. I think it did that reverse thing. Again. It's the what. I should have read it before I put it up there. 20:29 Thank you, did we do that in the first service? Also, did they warn you that when you do media, how challenging and difficult it would be? They didn't warn you Welcome. Well, you're doing great so far and this is like the best version of me. You should have seen me like 10 years ago. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. We're all growing. We're all getting better. I knew that if I could treat the media team as they ought to be treated with dignity and respect all the time, the Lord would visit our church and give us breakthrough. Amen. It's been a long, long ride. I've been very zealous for this. He's coming in with his resume again. 21:13 I've been very zealous for the Lord, god of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. So now, a second time, he says king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphath, of Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, jehu will kill him, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, elisha will kill. Now remember, elijah kept saying I'm the only one left. Oh, poor me, I'm the only one left. Here's the word of the Lord. It shall be that whoever, oh, and whoever escapes the sword, jehu will kill. Yet I have reserved 7,000. You're not the only one, Elijah, yet I have reserved 7,000. 22:17 In Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. What happened here to Elijah? He gave place to a very, very dangerous spirit. It is a spirit it's not often talked about. If I were to say, list five things that can really derail you as a Christian that could really mess you up. You would list five things. I promise you this wouldn't be on the list, but this I would put in the top three, and it's the spirit of self-pity. 22:55 Hence our sermon title for today, because I pity the fool that gives place to the spirit of self-pity. Self-pity, it seems harmless, it seems like something to just indulge in. I know that spirit well. You know how I know it. I know it because it comes in sweet and soft, it comes in with a warm embrace and you yield to the spirit of self-pity. You tell yourself you're not going to dwell with it, but you kind of entertain it, you dance with it a little bit, you lean into its embrace and it messes you up every time. 23:44 The spirit of self-pity, it actually is like a magnet for curses and it reflects the blessings of God. Why? Because in order to receive from heaven, you need two ingredients. Number one you need faith. Everything you receive from the Lord, you receive by faith. You also need hope. Hope is important. Hope is future tense. You gotta keep, keep hope alive. You got to always have hope. Corinthians says these three remain faith, hope and love. Hope is in the future tense. Faith is in the present tense. Faith says I have it now. But self-pity cannot exist in the same room as faith and hope. It cannot. 24:25 And so, while it seems like this innocent sin you know what? I liken it to A McDonald's combo meal so comforting at first, right, you smell it reminds you of your childhood, seems like it's going to be satisfying. Next thing, you know, you're all messed up and hiding in a cave on the floor. Amen, it'll rob you. Do not give place to it. You've ever been on a farm? New Yorkers At least three of you, I know you've been on a farm. Everybody has seen a cow pie. Everybody's seen manure. Everybody's seen a horde of flies around. That's what self-pity is like. You draw the demonic and you draw accursed things to you, like cow pie to flies, amen, and flies to cow pie. Is anybody offended here? Should I say bovine excrement or something? What's happening? Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, jesus. 25:31 You know why I'm preaching this? Because I've fought it and I've experienced it and it's the quiet sin. And just last week, for the first time, I said we just celebrated 23 years. For the first time I had a member who actually had enough self-awareness and enough humility, first time in my ministry life that somebody came and said I feel the spirit of self-pity and I'm concerned, I'm giving place to it. They recognized it. And then I thought I've known so many that were under that spirit, never, ever recognized it. And then, when you would tell them that they were giving place to self-pity, they would get upset and say, oh, you don't have compassion, you don't have love, don't you know? I needed a hug and here you are telling me I need to come out of self-pity. Beware of self-pity. It is like bad breath. You're the last one to know you have it and it's designed to rob you, to cause you to sulk. 26:33 Contrast David David to Elijah David. He got a prophetic word that he would be king and right on schedule. It's not just that it was postponed. The exact opposite began to happen. You ever get a prophetic word and the exact any prophetic word that I got that was worth its weight. Actually, the exact opposite started to happen Because the word will be tested. The opposite starts happening and you got to keep your chin up and your eyes on Jesus. Say Lord, I don't care what I see in the natural, I don't care what I hear in the natural. Let God be true and every man a liar. Amen, let your word be true. That's what happened to David. He was promised to be king. The then prophet of the day came and said you're anointed to be king. The exact opposite starts happening. 27:23 Instead of the palace and the kingship, he ends up running around the wilderness and hiding for years and years, being chased by a maniacal king of Israel. At one point, right at Ziklag, all of his men turn on him because all of their stuff was stolen and the woman and the children were stolen. And his very closest men took up stones to throw at David. And you know what it says. David encouraged himself in the Lord Like right then. And there Doesn't mean he gulped real hard and went no right then. 27:58 And there David began to what. He began to praise and he encouraged, he reminded himself God is good, god is with me. I don't care what I see, I don't care what I hear, I don't even care what I'm experiencing right now. I'm looking at the hate and anger in their faces. They're ready to kill me, but Lord, you're good. And he began to praise and he would not fall into a spirit of self-pity, and God can work with that. Fall into a spirit of self-pity and God can work with that. He came in on that and turned that whole situation around. Amen, hallelujah. 28:34 Oh, it's a little bit tougher in the second service First service we were roaring, but that's good. That means that God is coming in and adjusting some hearts, because anybody who's given over to the spirit of self-pity actually it's an addiction. It's even an addiction on a biochemical level Because you secrete some dopamine. When you start feeling pity for yourself, the only problem is you got to keep pitting yourself more and more and more to get the same hit, kind of like crack. So right now people are like don't take my drugs away, get your hands off my pipe, I'm coming for your pipe. 29:18 I've shared this story before, but sometimes I wonder if you can really appreciate it. You got to step into my shoes. I was 16 years old when I got saved, 26 year old when I planted City Light Church. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as church planting, with other churches supporting you and sponsoring you. My pastor didn't know that. I come from a stream where the idea is if you're qualified to make it, you can make it. I don't necessarily 100% agree with that, but that's the road God took me down because we've supported other churches and if someone else wants to plan, we'll help. But I'm grateful for that. 29:59 But I began with nothing. No help, we were broke Broke. Do you know? Our first projector like right now we have projectors Our first projector do you remember and you have to be, I think, like 35 and older to remember this the overhead projectors. That's how we did the words for the songs. 30:20 And some of you remember Nova. She was with us for over 20 years. We have the Nova. She was the one who would write out the lyrics and then she'd be switching those sheets mid-service from song to song. And I remember the price. I went to Staples and it was $139. And I was like, wow, the expenses. 30:40 So then, now I believe I'm called, the church is not growing. I'm really, really broke. And then I do what all the pastors do, what every pastor has to do, which is go to a bunch of pastor's meetings. This is kind of a joke, because I don't do that anymore. I stopped Like 10 years ago. I was delivered. 31:05 If you want to be in the ministry, don't go to pastor's meetings. All they do is they meet. They eat cheap chicken. It's cheap chicken because they get these events catered, but it's like the lowest tier of catering, so it's always cheap chicken and then iceberg lettuce. That's like translucent. And I would meet other pastors and here I am feeling like less than a zero. 31:29 And there's this parade of other young pastors who are coming in with funding and support from their denomination or from some large 10,000-member church in Texas that sent them out to NYC. You know this was post-9-11, so every church wanted to do something for NYC, so I have nothing. Now they're coming in and they have everything. They have a salary. I didn't have a salary. We started in 02. I didn't get a salary till 06. They have a salary. Their kids are going to private school. They have a three bedroom apartment, pretty boys dressed immaculately from head to toe, looking like wealth, and I'm like feeling like a loser. 32:11 So I know you would like to hear that. I just immediately looked up and went Lord, hallelujah, no, I went back. I'm living in a windowless basement, 20 feet by 80 feet, that I'm sharing with the church. I went back and it was my cave and I inhale it. Lord, it just doesn't seem fair. They got it so easy and they just seem like they're so happy. And here I am. They're staying away by the thousands. I'm preaching to empty seats. I'm eating ramen noodles every night. 32:45 Where are you, lord? And he would thank God he would. What are you doing here? Just like he said to Elijah in the cave, what are you doing here? And then I would hear in those times of prayer listen. If you're in a difficult spot, be sensitive to the still small voice and to the images that God puts in your spirit. I was in that place, king of Loserville. I would go, Lord, and I didn't even have words, just Lord. I just need to be with you right now because I feel like I'm going to die. Lord, I just need to be with you right now because I feel like I'm going to die. That spirit of self-pity is not to be messed with. Satan comes and he just tries to smash you in. 33:32 And I would hear deep in my spirit if you will just not quit. I will make it all up to you, if you will just not quit. And then once I was in this state and I went to pray and I saw like a three second long movie you'd call it a vision, a moving image, three seconds long and it was me on a mountaintop and I'm dancing and I'm not like contemporary American dancing, I'm old-school Hebrew dancing, like I'm letting it rip, like twirling about, like as David danced, and my face is glowing. I got a smile from ear to ear. I knew exactly what the Lord was saying victory, success. I will bless you, just hang on. Hallelujah. And I was because of what I've been preparing all this week. I was just reminiscing with the Lord. Lord, look what you've done On paper. We should have crashed On paper right now. I should be saying would you like fries with that? That's what it looked like on paper. But God, who then came through, who blessed, who over-blessed, he will turn that thing around as long as you get out of the self-pity. Amen, hallelujah. 35:04 Take a look at my guy, nick Vujicic. If anybody's last name ends with an itch, you know they're from my neck of the woods he is. He's Serbian, currently living in Australia. He actually did a huge crusade and filled up a stadium. He went to Serbia, he went into Montenegro, christian born again. If anybody could have yielded to the spirit of self-pity, it's evangelist Nick Vujicic. Instead, he decided to allow his life to glorify God and he praised Jesus. Some of you, you're doing fine, and Satan whispered to you you'll never get married. Look at him, look at his wife, look at his kids. Nothing is too hard for our great God. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus, thank you, lord. 36:09 Social media that can augment self-pity. You ever go on social media and there's people who they're not looking for a solution, they're just complaining for the sake of complaining. It's really like passing gas and then leaving the room, leaving like six other friends in there and be like was that you? Who was that? And they're gone. You know, I just want to enjoy scrolling Facebook and seeing what my aunt had for lunch that day and instead you come across somebody's like complaint list. They don't want a solution, they don't want advice. They're wallowing in self-pity and just want to. They just want to dive down into this miserable echo chamber and have other people join them, because misery loves company. Don't play with this thing, resist and let me just for some of you who weren't you I don't, I don't mean to be tacky, but some of you, you need to hear it because you're still, you're just seeing my lips move. You don't know what I'm saying. I know what I'm talking about. 37:12 I was miserable and then I was lonely and God brought me this angel and gave us two healthy kids. And then he blessed me and when I say he blessed me, I don't mean the church gave me increases and raises. I invested and I got into Bitcoin. What I thought I was coming in too late, looks like it was still early. And he transformed my life. And, by the way, the Maybach is coming in two weeks. Those Germans slow down, amen. The Germans you know, known for their efficiency. They lagged a little bit, or demand is real high, coming a month late, but in two weeks, hallelujah. 37:55 What I'm saying, why I say that, is he promised he'd make it up to me and he made it up to me, and a lot of those guys that came in with six-figure, in some cases seven-figure, funding. I don't revel in this, but it's a reality. They're nowhere to be found. They're not around. They blew in blew up and blew out. Their churches are gone and a few of them that were left as soon as COVID hit back to Texas, back to Florida. Gonzo, the Lord made it up to me. Why am I saying this? Because he's going to make it up to you. He'll make it up to you if you keep hanging on. Just don't quit. Quitting is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Well, let's look at Psalm 34, verses 1 through 4. Thank you, jesus. 38:48 I was raised in a church where I got saved. 1992 Bed-Stuy, brooklyn. Bishop Jones was my pastor and the church was a cool JC, c-o-o-l-j-c. Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the apostolic faith. I'm grateful for that church. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit at that church. I got saved at that church. I was discipled at that church. 39:20 Some of you, I'm telling you today they're very, very strict. It's a whole new. You wouldn't like that church. You'd call them uptight. Women have to wear a head covering, get the chandeliers out your ears, that kind of stuff. Yeah, no pants for the ladies. 39:37 But I will say this they knew how to praise God. A lot of churches today they know how to laser and mirror and fog God. All the hype, they don't know how to praise God. But over there there'd be two drummers and one cowbell and the whole place erupt in praise 500 people, hallelujah. I mean, it was just like pastor would be preaching and would say hallelujah, oh, 500 people, oh, hallelujah. People twirling and dancing, and they knew how to praise God. And what that helped me was I remember one time I came in with my sulk on sulking and right away the usher lady, one of the mothers of the church, and they would ask you this question have you been praising the Lord today? No, actually I haven't. I've been reveling in self-pity and enjoying feeling miserable. 40:29 The key to changing your life is praising the Lord. You got to praise him. If Nick Vujicic can praise him, you can praise him. The lie is always that you're different, that your situation is too dire. Oh, poor me. Oh, this always happens to me. 40:50 If you agree with that spirit, if you open yourself up to it, you make a contract with it, a covenant with it. Now you're tied to it, you're yoked together with it and it just brings more misery to your life. Snap out of it for your own sake and say first, let me start. Let me start with salvation. Thank you, jesus, that I am saved. There are people that are gonna spend eternity in hell. I didn't do anything to deserve to get saved, but I said yes, and even you touched my heart and opened my heart, so that I even could say yes to everlasting life. Thank you for that. Thank you for a new day. Thank you that my story hasn't been written. Thank you for a new day. Thank you that my story hasn't been written. Thank you that you can do anything, anything. You can change my life. Boom like this, and I open myself to that. Lord. Oh God, you're so good. I'm getting whoo. Hallelujah, you gotta praise him. 41:46 I hope your eyes are open to that pity and you'll find there are some people they want pity. They'll actually start conversations and angle them in a way to get oh, oh, and then they're trying to get that same hit, like from the initial hit. Oh, are you giving me pity? I'm hungry, can you have a little more? And we teach our kids no, you're not going to. And we teach our kids no, you're not gonna. You're not gonna. You're not gonna. 42:15 Sulk in self pity and, like moms, have to be careful, because moms are so compassionate and there's so much empathy. You know sympathies, I know how you feel empathies. I feel how you feel they'll go right in there. But if you're not careful every time you feed a kid a cookie, when they have a little boo-boo, they're going to grow up to be man-children who just want pity Every time they get hurt. Oh, I scuffed my knee. I don't get to go to school today. I want ice cream on the couch because I scraped my knee as an adult. Are you getting this? Silence just means they're either processing it or they're like wow, he's totally describing my life or my sister's life or something. 43:02 There's two girls in this church. Their parents are actually here in the front row. Erica's girl Just raise your hand, erica. Your girl, lauren. And then where did your wife go? She's in the front. Wherever she is, may you be blessed and you don't have to. Please don't get up. Go Under the power. You go In Jesus' name. And the Chong's who raised Kate? 43:32 I immediately took notice of their daughters, because we have such young kids and their daughters are so just beautiful Outwardly, but on the inside, their walk with the Lord is incredible. And what I realized right when I met them they don't even smell like the world at all. They're like aliens, but in the best possible way, not weird Christians, but they don't even look like the world, smell like. There's not that yuck of the world on them. They're amazing, they're respectful, they're anointed, they're gifted, they're beautiful. There's just glory of God radiating out of them. So I, you know, I cut my eye. In fact, I remember one time, you know, I was gonna, we were doing that life group, the youth thing, and your daughter didn't show up and I just said, is she okay? And you were like, mm, I'm gonna, you were gonna get on her because you were just concerned maybe she was slacking in a little bit of way. 44:23 So what I learned was, in order to produce these kinds of adults, you cannot coddle, you cannot allow them to wallow in self-pity. These parents, they surround with a lot of love, surround with a lot of affirmation, and also they don't play. They don't play. There is a standard and I'm going to love you, I'm going to give you everything you need, but I don't know why this is the quietest it's been. But this is what culture needs to hear. This is why, if you have a whole nation of man children, no wonder your country will go downhill. You get girls who grow up into women and boys who grow up into men, amen. And then they put the Lord first. You actually get prosperous, fruitful families multiplying, and it goes into the city, it goes into the state, it goes into the whole nation. Amen, all right. Psalms 34.1. Hey, did you put what the Bible says how the Bible announces it? Because it's. I like it, because here's David, the happiness of those who trust in God. 45:41 David, the guy who didn't yield to self-pity before, before he, the other instance I mentioned where he encouraged himself in the Lord. He was on the run and he ends up face to face with the king of Gath. You know who the king of Gath is. That's Goliath's king, king Abimelech. And he knows he's toast, or, as my son would say, he's cooked. So he pretends to be insane. This is the future king. He pretends to be insane. He starts drooling, scratching at the dirt, eating the grass, acting like an imbecile. So they think he's crazy and he escapes. Where does he escape to? You guessed it a cave, the basement of 121 E 7th Street. He escapes to the cave and then you know who he draws to himself. They later became his 400 mighty men. He draws the most discouraged, most destitute and most indebted men. Later they were called David's 400 mighty men. Right now they were David's 400 bums. So David is at a low point in his life, surrounded by 400 bums. 46:59 He himself is king bum and he writes these beautiful words and this is why he received such promotion from the Lord. This is why we're talking about him today. It's a heart attitude like this. He says I will bless the Lord at all times. At all times. 47:22 Do you know what's different between your praise now and your praise once you get to heaven? You have an opportunity to offer a unique gift to God only on this side of heaven. Because once you get to heaven, you will praise him, you will worship him. But guess what? It'll be easy. You won't have distractions, you won't have this flesh to contend with, you won't have annoying thoughts, gnawing thoughts. You'll be in heaven, but on earth you do have all those challenges, hurdles, obstacles, and when you still go, hallelujah. Anyhow, it's extra sweet in the ears of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord Worship team. Come on up. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me. By the way, when he wrote this the Lord hadn't heard him yet, but he wrote it in the past tense. Do you know who else did that? You'll see this throughout the Bible Jonah when he was swallowed. 48:42 I did a great study on Jonah this week just for fun, because there was this whole atheist thing. How could a whale swallow a man? And they're thinking of Shamu at SeaWorld. Do you know that original Hebrew word? First of all, in the Old Testament it doesn't say whale, it says great fish, and that word in the Hebrew is more akin to sea monster and it says that God had prepared a great sea creature to swallow Jonah. Do you know what that word prepared means? It's more akin to created. So this is where people I don't believe in the whole bible like do you really believe that Jonah got swallowed? Yes, because you're thinking Shamu the orca swallowed a person and that's impossible. And you actually look at the scriptures and is it too outlandish to believe that God created for that one sole moment in time, for that purpose, a giant sea creature to swallow Jonah up and actually the language is pretty clear and pretty strong to that point. 49:42 But Jonah, anyway, back to Jonah. Rabbit trail Jonah. While in the monster's belly he said I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. There is a past tense to God's word. See, if what you want from the Lord is always in the future, guess what will always stay. It will always stay in the future. It's like you're chasing a carrot on a stick. 50:04 Faith says I have it now. I have it now. You're believing for healing by his stripes. I was healed. You're believing for healing by his stripes. I was healed. You're believing for blessing Ephesians 1, 3. I have been blessed past tense blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places in Christ Jesus, hallelujah. 50:23 I sought the Lord. 50:24 He's in a cave, nothing's changed, but he knows if he releases his faith, it's as good as done. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Can I get a hallelujah Now? Listen, yeah, I took a plane flying lesson once, once. I jumped out of a plane too, once, once, once. The reason why I didn't continue flying lessons was back then. It was too expensive. 51:11 Then, when the kitties were born, I just thought I had a Harley too. The moment she showed me the little stick, victor was coming and she's pregnant I was like I'm getting rid of the Harley. It wasn't fear. I just want to minimize, anyway, another thing. Like you know what Life is, I have enough risks, enough things that can take me out. I don't need a motorcycle story or skydiving story, but anyway, on a plane there's this thing called an attitude meter. It's a positive attitude when the tip of the nose is above the horizon and then you ascend, and it's a negative attitude when it's below the horizon and then you ascend, and it's a negative attitude when it's below the horizon and then the plane descends. So the attitude determines the altitude. So it is with us. This isn't a cute thing. You would find in an inspirational poster in Target, but truly your attitude determines your altitude. 52:14 You carve a path into your future with the thoughts that you think. Show that verse from Proverbs please. This was not invented by some new age guru, new age mystic, positive mental affirmation guy. They all stole it from the Bible. The Bible says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. That's why Satan wants you thinketh-ing, poor me. 52:46 So this day, decide what you're gonna be thinketh-ing and dream with God. Dream with him, let him fill you, let him inspire you. Spend time with him and he'll whisper sweet nothings with a still small voice and show you what he has prepared for you so you can get your faith behind it. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Here's what we're going to do right now. We're going to worship and honor the Lord with our tithes and offerings. Let's do that. The giving information is going to be on the screens to my left and to my right. Give with a glad heart. And then we're just going to praise him for a little bit, because praise is what breaks the back of self-pity. 53:39 You know, when you it's a real funny spirit. And you know me, I don't just throw out the word spirit, because to some Pentecostal charismatics, everything's a spirit. This monitor goes off, it's the technology spirit is. To some Pentecostal charismatics, everything's a spirit. This monitor goes off, it's the technology. Spirit is after me today, electricity demons, you know, but self-pity, self self-pity really is a spirit and it makes you a low-vibration person. 54:06 You ever hang with someone and then you leave them after half an hour and you feel like the life was just sucked out of you. They soul snatched you. When you're given over to self-pity. You're a giant black hole, a vortex, just sucking the life from people. Whatever you said back there, amen, amen. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you that you come Even now with your anointing say this church. In Jesus' name, I renounce self-pity. You are a good God and you are good to me. Fill me with your strength, fill me with your joy. I believe you're still at work in my life and I believe the best is yet to come and my end will be better than my beginning. In Jesus' name, amen, hallelujah. 55:17 - Speaker 2 This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. That's 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.