CityLight NYC - Premiere Episode! - Guest Pastor Bonny Andrews

Welcome to the City Light Church Podcast.
Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word
and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.
If you want to connect with City Light Church,
feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.
That's citylightnyc.com.
Pastor BoJan 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.
- Well, we're in the middle of the book of Ephesians.
I'm gonna continue Ephesians 5, part two next week,
but this has been in the calendar for some time.
We are privileged to have an amazing man of God with us
this morning, Evangelist Bonny Andrews.
Put your hands together.
(audience applauding)
I'm so grateful.
that he's here this morning along with his whole amazing family.
Your boys are just a little bit older than Victor, and every time I look at them, I set
up some goals for me and my son.
They just love their dad, love their mom.
Yeah, you saw me peeking.
They're like worshiping the Lord and loving the Lord, and it's just so awesome.
But Bonnie and I met in January of 2020, and I instantly just absolutely loved him, which
Which believe it or not is rare in ministry land.
For whatever reason, that is just rare.
But I instantly loved him.
I loved what he carried.
I loved his passion and his burden for people and for winning them to Jesus.
It just radiates out of him.
I just joked to Pastor James, I said, "What you just heard this morning, that's exactly
what it's like having a half hour cup of coffee with Bonnie."
It's the same zeal, the same fervor.
We put a pinprick in him and he just leaks evangelism
and leaks souls.
And he had a very large, very influential ministry in India,
hundreds of thousands, and still does, thank you.
I put that in the past tense,
but that ministry in India is still going,
except he's not in India any longer.
I mean, what I'm trying to say is he was in the natural,
very comfortable and very cushy.
And then he answered the call of God
to come to New York City,
a place that's been termed for the last half a century
as a preacher's graveyard.
And so trust me, he gave up much.
He told me about his ministry.
I said, "Did you have a chaiwalla?"
He said, "I did."
They brought you chai, right?
I mean, you had it all?
I pray one day someone.
(laughing)
But in any case, he was reaching Gen Z
before it was cool to reach Gen Z.
Before everybody was talking about it and we had Asbury.
And we actually scheduled these meetings
before Asbury broke out because he shared his vision
for what he wants to see happen around college campuses all over the nation with Live Jam
right here in the United States.
I want you to open up your heart and receive.
Don't wait a half an hour before you realize whether you like him or not.
Just make a decision right now.
He's cool.
I like him.
He's safe.
That way you can open up your heart and really receive from the grace and the anointing that's
on his life.
Are you ready, church?
Put your hands together one more time for Bonnie Andrews.
Come on, city light.
Make some noise, come on, come on, come on.
Give it up for Jesus all over this place.
He alone is worthy.
He alone is worthy of all praise and honor.
Amen.
Amen, amen.
I'm so honored to be here this morning.
This is one of my favorite places to preach the gospel
because the people in this church are amazing.
On fire.
I'm just here to put some more gasoline on the fire
that is already here.
Are you ready, people?
- Yes!
- You know, and I'm telling you,
when you're in New York City, I mean, how cool is that?
I meet Pastor Boyan.
First of all, he's got the coolest name ever.
(audience laughing)
For real.
For real.
You know, I mean, we just met, we just connected,
just like Pastor said, and you know, we've been friends.
In New York, you know, we meet a lot of people,
And we're in all different types of circles.
But one of the coolest things that we know
is when we meet a lot of people,
so I was sharing at the last service,
that your phone book is filled with so many people,
maybe over 5,000 people on my phone book,
you know that you have many acquaintances but few friends.
And then you have friends and then you have brothers.
In our lingo we call it broskies.
'Sup?
- Broskies.
(audience laughing)
- And Pastor Boyan is a broskies,
brother, we hang out, we eat together, pastor's friends that eat together, it's a good thing.
Right? If you love food, if you love fellowship, that's how the folks in the acts roll.
They just had food, they just had chai, I don't know if they had chai,
but they had curry. So I come from curry land. I come, I tell people, you know,
I come from the land of curry, but I live in the land of hurry. New York, everybody's busy. You
You know what I'm saying?
Busy baby, busy.
You know, I got my calendar.
If you're trying to fix an appointment,
they're telling you about 2024.
I'm like, whoa.
(audience laughing)
And you know, a little bit of what I'm talking about.
So I'm here to bring some curry anointing in the room.
If you don't like curry, I mean,
you know when you're living next to an Indian
because the fragrance is amazing.
I have people knocking on my door and just telling you,
"When are you gonna invite us for some curry?"
So that's how contagious curry is.
But let me tell you, America doesn't like,
I mean, they love curry, but this land is filled with sugar.
This is sugar land, baby.
You put sugar in your meat, you barbecue.
I mean, you know, we put some chilies on our meat
when we barbecue, you guys put sugar.
The barbecue sauce, I'm talking about barbecue sauce.
It's got sugar.
Hello?
And the kind of sugar that you put in your drinks,
you know, your sodas and all that stuff.
So you guys love sugar.
So just coming back to just being an honor to be here
and I'm here with my family.
Come on guys, you know it's not often
that they sit in the front row.
My wife is always looking after.
So look at me, am I looking good or not?
So my wife insisted that I wear this.
Okay, so that's my wife, Kalpana.
Get up everybody, guys, just play some music.
(audience applauding)
Turn around, Zach.
(audience applauding)
Zach Jacob, you don't want to?
He doesn't want to get up.
All right, here we go.
This is Levi, our 11-year-old bald man of God,
and then we have Zach.
Wave your hands up, Zach.
Everybody wants to see your handsome face.
(audience applauding)
They want to see your cool hairstyle.
You want to show them?
Come on, Zach, you can do it.
All right, then this is our brand new two-year-old, right?
Born in America, right?
And he's the cutest thing that's ever happened.
This is my beautiful wife.
You know, when you say, when you look at your wife,
you're like, I just married up.
I just keep saying, I'm married up, I'm married up.
If I was a hip hop artist, I would be making some,
I'm married up, I'm married up.
The only thing I do in the morning
is make her a cup of coffee and she says like,
thank you like 10 times for the cup of coffee.
Because you know, we have some really nice coffee machine.
Hallelujah, right?
So I'm happy to be here with you and I'm happy.
This is the crew.
God spoke to us a couple of months ago.
You know, I got back from an overseas trip,
and I got back jet lagged,
and the Lord began to speak to me first couple of days,
first three days, speaking to me
from big chunks of Scripture.
And the day one was from Genesis.
God spoke to Abraham, you know,
"Walk the length and breadth of this land,
"and I'll give it to you."
Then God spoke to Joshua,
"Wherever the soul of your feet shall tread,
"I'll give it to you."
God spoke to Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 16,
It says, "Seek the peace of the city
"and the city is blessed, you will be blessed."
So then I told this idea to my wife.
Of course, you have to share this with your wife.
This idea is gonna be driving across America in a minivan.
9,000 miles, New York to LA, all right?
Seattle to Miami, back to New York in 30 days.
And thank God she said yes.
So this crew made it 9,000 miles.
We drove in a Chrysler Pacifica, we fall in love with Chrysler.
Where's my Chrysler?
Right, so we drove around, we prayed for 30 days
across the country, praying for youth to be saved.
That was our agenda.
We're not fundraising, we're not asking people for money,
we're not asking nothing, we just went around just praying.
We just asked leaders on the ground,
"Can you give us one hour to pray for your city
"and for your youth?"
And all of them said yes.
So we had capitals being opened up,
we were praying with politicians,
campus leaders, ministers, all of the cool things.
And out of that, something cool has happened.
While we were on the road, the Lord,
kind of with some research,
we were at Penn State the first day.
State College was a pit stop, day number one.
And we're at Penn State.
We're asking students and campus ministries around.
They said there's 40,000 students in Penn State.
How many?
Talk to me, ladies.
Talk to me, guys.
40,000 students.
and less than 1% of those students
are involved in any sort of campus ministry.
So less than 400 is being distributed
among all the campus ministries that you can talk about,
all the national, local ministries.
That's where our college campuses are.
And day one, the Lord began to speak to me,
your heart is for the campus.
You know, for the last 18 years,
the Lord led me to start this ministry called LiveJam,
and we've been focused on high schools.
You know, we reached out to over three million students
in 184 cities around the world, bands, tour,
you know, festivals, radio, television,
all that Gen Z loves and young people love,
we were using that.
By here, the Lord began to speak to me,
your heart is on the college campuses.
So we're on a mission that has been birthed out of prayer.
Anything that is birthed out of prayer is good.
God loves that stuff.
It's not like I just asked five guys who are MBA guys
and say, go out into the market and find some information
and based on that you write a proposal and start doing it.
When you hear it from the heart of God,
it is from the heart of God.
And guess what, what is in the heart of God?
That none should perish.
Not a single student, not a single young person in America
should perish but all, what does this Bible say?
All should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Amen?
So that's a mission that we're on,
sharing the gospel with young people.
And this morning I wanna just say that
We want to just stand up for the,
rise up for the reading of the scripture.
Are you guys ready?
- Yes.
- Stand up and we're gonna read it with power,
authority, conviction, because this is it.
This is it, Michael Jackson said, this is it.
Jesus said, this is it, okay?
Look at this, now let's go, Luke chapter four, verse 18.
The spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor.
Send me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
In Jesus' name, you may be seated.
I'm telling you something, everywhere you look,
it is about revival.
Revival is in this land at this point.
It is everywhere.
You go, you know, my family and I,
we got to drive up another,
I mean, these days, after you drive like for 9,000 miles,
two hours of driving is like going for coffee.
It has to be minimum five hours
to just get us excited, right, Sean?
And this was a 12 hour one, and I was watching Super Bowl,
and of course, I come from the land of cricket,
and of course, Super Bowl is no connection.
So I watched the national anthem,
and I'm just looking at all these things,
and me and, you know, we were talking
about the revival that's happened,
and I'm looking at the fairs,
And I'm like, I can't just look at the feed that's going on.
This is day two of the revival.
I'm like, I have to go.
So guess what happened?
So right in my easy chair, watching Super Bowl,
I told my wife, could we go?
And she said yes.
Hallelujah.
So I just went out, got a rental.
By the time I came back with my rental,
she was already packed and we were on.
So we drove till we, you know, we were asleep.
You know, we were feeling sleepy, we just stopped.
and then we drove again, we got there by four o'clock.
So just to see the power of God,
hidden college students.
There is no superstar on stage.
I was looking for the man of God.
You know what I'm saying?
You know what I'm saying guys?
I was looking for Benny Hinn, he ain't there.
I was looking for the Shabba Guy, he's not there.
I was looking for the cool worship leader like Sean,
he ain't there.
There's no ripped jeans, there's no leather jacket,
there's no Chelsea boots.
You know what I'm saying?
There is no Starbucks coffee thing,
you know what I'm saying?
You know how we roll?
We come to church with our Starbucks coffee.
I mean, that's how we roll.
Worship leaders roll with like the Starbucks,
you know what I'm saying?
Pastor James, you got it.
That's what we call the swag coffee.
I mean, there might be coffee, there might not be coffee.
That's why we roll.
There is no Starbucks.
This is a town in the middle of nowhere.
There's no Starbucks there.
There was a gas station, like far away.
Small little stores in the middle of nothing.
There's a university.
We were all up there and God's power,
we just walked into the room and people,
young people who can't look,
who can't stay away from their phones
for like more than like five seconds.
They have to check on the stories and what they said
and other people said.
The people that were on,
I was looking at these young people on fire for God.
Just worshipping God, staying away from the phone.
I'm like, a few phones here and there,
those were all the older people.
They were filming it.
They're like, man, this is revival
when young people are staying away from phones
and old people are switching on.
It's like, it's like they're trying to film
everything that's going on.
Some of them are blown away.
Some of them have been praying for real,
for being praying for this revival.
And here is young kids on the altar.
No altar call, no offering.
Just organic stuff.
Say that word with me, organic.
My God, I'm telling you, our churches are a lot about hype.
I'm tired of hype.
Hyping it too much.
Hyping with the coffee, hyping with the swag,
hyping with the worship team, hyping with the cool pastor,
hyping with the graphics, hyping with the big truck
that you roll out.
Whoa, city light, you know, I'm just,
you know, this big branding, it ain't working, guys.
American church, 4,000 churches are shutting down
in America every single year.
Pastors are disillusioned.
Pastors are walking away from their assignment.
Pastors cannot sustain themselves.
Churches are shutting down
because they can financially keep it going.
And whenever there is a crisis, God begins to move.
So today, if you're in the middle of this crisis,
thank the Lord because something is about to happen.
If you're in the middle of a crisis,
you need a breakthrough,
Jesus is just gonna show up right now.
That's it?
That was like a million dollar word.
In the middle, crisis is the birthplace of breakthrough.
Every time there was a crisis, there was a breakthrough.
There was no wine.
All right, Jesus said, "All right, guys, stay away.
Let me just show up."
He just showed up, turned bottled water
into expensive wine, like 30-year-old wine,
like 50-year-old wine, I don't know what that is.
He time crunched.
The Bible says, this is another whole sermon.
Let me just say that God can time crunch a miracle.
(congregation applauding)
The Scripture says, "That was the first time
"the glory of God was manifested."
Every time the glory of God is manifested,
It is not just about goosebumps,
there's manifestation on the ground.
Water was turned into wine.
Wine would take like 20 years
from the time it was conceived to grapes,
to crushing, to fermenting, and putting it in racks.
30 years, the best wine.
Boom!
One second.
Time crunched 30 years into one second.
God can turn around things in your life.
He can turn your family around.
He can turn your husband around.
He can turn your son who's been walking away from faith around.
He can turn your health around.
He can turn your life around.
And the only one, the only one who can do it is Jesus.
And I'm just the mouthpiece to tell you that He can do it.
If you believe it, say amen.
This is good ground to preach.
I'm telling you, I'm just getting excited.
We're just getting started.
It's gonna be a long service, baby.
(audience laughing)
I just wanna say that God is moving
all across this America, and I wanna make this big statement.
Don't sleep on the harvest.
Don't sleep on the harvest.
God is moving, and I don't want you to be sitting around
and doing something else.
If you are an entrepreneur, if you are a business guy,
this is like, man, this is the wave
that we've been waiting for.
This is the startup wave.
This is the entrepreneurial wave.
This is the AI wave that we've been waiting for.
This is the moment to start a business,
to create a product, to start a church,
to start a meeting, to start a revival meeting.
(audience applauding)
Fellas, when you have a revival meeting in church, show up.
Show up because you are seeking God.
You know what, the people of Israel
looked at the hands of God.
Most of us look at God as an ATM machine.
You're shaking it, it ain't working sometimes.
You're kicking it, you're making it work,
and you're saying, "God, give me this, give me that,
"give me that job, give me that jacket,
"give me that cool car, give me that,
"give me, give me, give me, give me."
Well, the Bible says, "Moses sought the face of God."
So those revival nights, what we're doing here
in this church is really seeking the heart of God,
seeking the face of God, and I want you to turn around.
I don't know many churches in this city
who does that stuff.
And you're blessed to be part of the church
who does that.
So when you have it, go get it.
Amen?
Amen.
So this scripture says, "The spirit of the Lord is on me."
Look at somebody and say,
"The spirit of the Lord is on you."
It's not just on Pastor Boyan.
I know he's got a cool name.
It's not just on Pastor Mo.
Whoa, what a cool name.
Mo.
Pastor Mo, Pastor James.
Is this not on the elite?
The senior pastor, he doesn't mention that.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Look at you, I mean, I do this stuff.
I prophesy to myself all the time.
Put your hands on your head and say,
the spirit of the Lord is on me.
Oh, I can't hear you, say that again.
The spirit of the Lord, come on, Sean.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me.
It's upon me.
Let me tell you something.
It's going to be a fun service.
All I'm saying is the spirit of the Lord is upon every single person in this room.
Every single person who's watching me online, who's sitting in front of me, you have an
assignment.
Let me just tell you, the anointing is not for you to just chill out in the church.
Church has become the holy night club.
The beets are good, the wibe is good, the coffee is good.
I mean, there's no alcohol, there's coffee, of course.
Coffee is the new alcohol, you know?
(audience laughing)
You make different types of coffee.
You go to Brooklyn, oh my God.
They swirl, they weigh it, they...
(audience laughing)
And they talk about the beans like they know it,
like they know the guy who grew it.
(audience laughing)
It's a single origin, organic.
You know, I'm telling you,
you don't come to church to get goosebumps,
to feel good, to tick the mark,
to tell somebody and put on some Insta stories
of the cool worship leader and the drummer
and all those cool things that you have in this church.
It is not about that.
The anointing on your life is for an assignment.
Look at somebody and say,
"The anointing is for an assignment."
The anointing is for an assignment.
And let me tell you something,
that assignment is not you, it is others.
The anointing on your life is not for you, it is for others.
It is to go through you into the lives of others.
If you look at the life of Jesus,
it was always about people.
He was in the people business.
He was all about, all night, He just soaked in.
Let me just tell you, I love these soaking parties.
I love soaking in the anointing,
but Jesus soaked all night to do some work all day.
Stop, you know, don't just put the full stop with soaking.
Soaking is the comma.
Soaking, comma, preach the gospel.
That's the next piece.
So you don't feel goosebumps in your body
just to sit around and chill
and have some holy cool people hanging around with you.
It is for others.
Pastor Mo, it's for others.
Pastor Boyan, it's for others.
Brothers, it's for others.
It's for your work people, it's your colleagues,
it's your students, it's your neighborhood, everywhere.
(audience applauding)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The word anointing means to rub.
The oil has been rubbed on you,
signifying there's a divine assignment on your life.
and the anointing is for you to fulfill that assignment.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
What has he anointed me for?
Number one, proclaim the good news.
In other words, preach the good news.
In other words, share the good news.
Tell the good news.
Has anybody got some good news?
Every news station is telling you bad news.
They're even selling bad news from churches these days.
Church scandals and those things have been trending more
because they feel like there's a money on that game.
They're tracking every pastor down,
they're tracking every church down,
putting those stories,
and getting you all distracted
from the mission that you're on.
Your mission is to not look at other pastors.
Your mission is to look at Jesus and ask him,
"What do you want me to do?"
And you just go do it.
Nike knew that well, that's why they said, "Just do it."
Just do it.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me now,
to one, to preach the good news,
to speak the good news.
Has God done something good in your life?
(audience cheering)
Fellas, don't sleep on me now, okay?
I'm gonna wake people up right now.
(audience applauding)
Has he done some good things in your life?
Did he turn your life around?
He turned my mom, I mean, I'm telling you,
he healed my mom of cancer.
I have some good news to tell people about.
He does a miracle every single day of our life.
My kids can brag about it.
They're gonna tell the world about it.
We have miracles happening on a daily basis.
(audience cheering)
People, let me just tell you, we live on the edge.
Lauren Cunningham wrote a beautiful book,
Daring to Live on the Edge.
God is saying, hey, start living the predictable,
boring life that the enemy wants you to do.
Nine to five, the same old things.
And somebody said doing the same things again and again
and expecting different results is called cuckoo.
It's called insanity.
Get out of that monotonous game into the wild, wild world.
The adventurous world.
When I talked to my wife and I said,
when I was deciding, I told her we're gonna get married,
I just said, "Join the adventure."
This is an adventure, right, Pastor?
It is an adventure.
Number one, to preach the good news.
This anointing is to preach the good news.
When is the last time you shared the gospel with somebody?
When is the last time?
You know this is the only thing that God wants you to do?
- Hallelujah.
- The only thing that gets brownie points in heaven
is souls.
You can't take your cool,
I know you guys, I mean I wanna say
that the most good looking people
in all of New York is in this church.
- Amen. - Stop.
(audience laughing)
- You got all cool swag on,
you're called jackets and scarves and jewelry
and all those cool things.
I mean, your headgear and your hairstyle,
and you spend like half an hour, 45 minutes,
just doing it all up to come to church.
But you can't take none of that to heaven.
You can't take your shoes to heaven,
you can't take your car to heaven,
you can't take that cool Versace jacket to heaven,
you can't take none of that to heaven.
No Rolexes in heaven.
The only thing you can take from this part of the world
to the other side of the world is people!
(audience cheering)
Please take some people to the other side of eternity.
I know for one thing, when I get to heaven,
it's gonna be a lot of people I need to say high five to.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Some mother's gonna say,
"Hey, you preach the gospel to my son,
"he preached to me, he preached to his dad,
"he preached to his grandma, he's great."
And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
and that's why we're here.
So a lot of people that I don't even know
gonna say hi to me.
You know why?
High five, because you preach the gospel, I am here.
And I want you guys to have friends in heaven.
That's another sermon.
Friends in heaven.
Preach the good news.
When you ask people, what is the good news?
People have no idea.
What is the good news?
What is the gospel?
Many people, most Christians don't have an idea
what the gospel is.
They think it's a cool thing.
The gospel.
When you ask people, they say John 3, 16.
That's the gospel.
God so loved the world.
Yes, it is the gospel.
Let me give you the definition of the gospel.
You can screenshot it.
and go back and think about it,
because if you don't know, it's like,
you know when you're trying to sell something
that you have no idea about?
You're just yassing it, right?
But you need to know what the gospel is all about.
This is the gospel, very well written
by one of the ace evangelists of our time,
Dr. Rice Brooks, he says, "The gospel,"
can you read this with me?
"The gospel is the good news
"that God became man in Jesus Christ.
"We lived the life that we should have lived,
"died the death that we should have died in our place.
"Three days later," this is an important thing,
"He rose up from the grave, proving that He is the Son
"of God and offering the gift of salvation
"to those who repent and believe in Him."
Let's do it one more time.
"The gospel is the good news that God became man
"in Jesus Christ.
He lived the life that we should have lived,
died the death that we should have died in our place.
Three days later, He rose from the grave,
proving that He is the Son of God
and offering the gift of salvation
to those who repent and believe in Him.
Boom, come on, give it up for the gospel.
(audience applauding)
This is a gospel.
I love what C.S. Lewis says,
"The Son of God became the Son of Man
so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
The son of God became the son of man
so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
The son of God became the son of man
so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
Hey, we couldn't make it.
Our righteousness is like filthy rags.
Our brownie points is not gonna take it there,
but guess what?
Jesus said, "Now listen, don't worry.
I am paying the price for your sins and your father's sins, your mother's sins,
your ancestral sins and for the sins that you're going to commit.
And I went and paid for that price once and for all on the cross of Calvary.
The most gruesome death that the worst criminal of their time could go through.
Jesus took our sins on the cross and he said it is finished.
And he rose up from the grave and he said,
If you believe in the simple gospel, you will be saved.
So this anointing on your life is for what?
It's so that you can get a good job?
Well, that's part of it.
Why did He put you in that good job?
So that you have access to people that normal pastors don't have access to.
Hello?
Christian pastors have to go to a health club to find some sinners.
You know what I'm saying?
We need to go to the gym.
Hey, we're hanging out too much with pastors.
We need to go to a coffee shop.
We need to go somewhere else.
That's why you got a great job.
That's why God has put you in that university.
That's why God has put you in that college.
That's why God has put you in that neighborhood.
Does your neighbors know that you're a Christian?
Does your workplace people know that you're a Christian?
Do you talk like them?
Do you speak like them?
Do you live like them?
Do you hang out in the same places where they hang out?
Watch the same things that they watch?
What is different about you
that makes them feel like, "I want what you have."
I'm kicking some butts this morning. This is called the holy kick. Too much of sitting in
the church. Get out and do something guys. Go preach the gospel. Slain in the spirit. I love
that stuff. But then what? Speaking in tongues. I love that stuff. Then what? Lifting your hands
up in the air worshiping and then what?
Preaching the gospel.
Mark 16, 15.
Go ye into all the world.
Our vision is very simple.
We want to preach the gospel to every student
in every nation.
Boom.
We've pretty much covered that, right?
Sean, every student in every nation
needs to hear the gospel.
That's our mission.
We're gonna do, Paul said,
"I will do all things unto all men
"so that I may gain some."
So, the preaching of the gospel.
What are you gonna tell people?
That number one, he heals.
He's a healer.
Last week I was ministering in the church in the Hamptons.
The Hamptons.
The Hamptons, guys, the Hamptons.
Where there is, my wife's like,
you know, we need to go get some fries from McDonald's.
I'm like, baby, there ain't no McDonald's in the Hamptons.
Pizza starts at 20 bucks, that's a little pizza.
(audience laughing)
It's not the Domino's Big Ass Pizza,
you know what I'm saying?
Everything is expensive.
Milk is like $1 up.
I'm like, what's going on in the Hamptons?
But guess what happened in the Hamptons,
ministering in a church,
and guess what happened in the middle of that?
There is a young girl who never spoke
under five years, a five-year-old girl,
never spoke in her life.
Nobody laid hands on them.
I wish I could have said that, you know,
I laid my hands on, and boom, something happened.
An electric power happened, and then they,
No, nothing, nothing.
She just went, she couldn't speak.
She just got on stage, picked up a mic and started speaking.
(audience cheering)
We are in revival zone.
We're in easy zone.
All you need to do is just show up.
All you need to do is just show up.
Catherine Kuhlman said,
"God is not looking for a silver vessel or a gold vessel.
"God is looking for a yielded vessel."
All you need to say is, "Yes, Lord, I am ready.
I am ready, I'm available.
Use me.
But guess what happened?
If you don't want to be used by God,
God's still gonna do what he,
I mean, I was talking to people in this room.
It's like you were in love with this girl.
And just about the time when you had to just
get to business, get on your knees,
and just propose to her, you didn't do it.
You don't have the guts for it, you don't feel it,
you know what I'm saying?
Christians always have to feel a lot.
(audience laughing)
They over spiritualize a lot of these.
I'm telling you, this is a,
all that I say, this is the most,
second most important decision of your life.
If you don't get this right, man,
it's a hard one, okay?
But you didn't show up and you didn't do it,
and guess what happened?
Somebody else did.
And they're gonna get married to her in front of you.
How does that feel?
Ouch!
That hurts.
And that's exactly what God is doing.
Because you didn't show up, God chose somebody else.
And he's gonna do that same assignment
right in front of you and make you feel
like you missed the bus.
That is miserable.
So, thank God I'm available.
I'm sorry, I'm ready.
I'm doing whatever you want me to do.
I'm in a crazy press.
Whatever you want me to go, wherever you want me to go,
whatever you want me to say, I'm ready, I'm all in,
I'm all in.
Preaching the gospel, number one,
telling them he is a healer,
healing the broken hearted people.
There's a lot of broken hearted people out there,
popping pills every day,
drinking a lot.
In New York, they have a dog, by the way.
They don't want to get married,
they got too busy with their career,
now they just like,
they don't know what's going to happen,
but they just need a dog.
They have a dog right now.
(audience laughing)
And they think having a dog is going to heal them.
No, listen, healing can only come from one person,
that is Jesus Christ.
The true healing of the heart and the soul and the body comes from Him.
And for all the dog lovers, I mean, listen, I grew up with two dogs, so I love dogs.
Not really.
But all I'm saying is you cannot replace Jesus with anything else.
So He heals.
Number two, He delivers.
People out there are depressed like you have no idea.
Pornography crazy.
They can't look at a guy as a guy,
they can't look at a girl as a girl.
Their minds have been perverted
by all these things that they watch.
They're depressed, they're pulling pills,
they're going to therapists.
Six out of 10, I mean I heard one out of four
in every campus, young people are going through depression.
I was talking to parents, like my son's depressed.
Therapy, this is what is going on.
But let me tell you something.
You have something that you have in your hand.
I'm not over spiritualizing,
but it has got spiritual connotations
to what they're going through in their spiritual life
in terms of depression.
You have the power to tell them about Jesus
who can heal, who can deliver.
And the last piece I want to say, he restores.
Our God is a God of restoration.
Only one person can say that I will restore you
and he can restore.
You know why?
Because he's outside time.
God is outside time.
That's why I said he can crunch that 30 year breakthrough
into like one second because he can restore.
You're looking at somebody, if you know my story,
I would tell you, I am a restored vessel.
Look at my family, I'm a restored person.
Look at my dad and my mom, they're restored people.
We are restored people walking around,
sharing about the one that restores,
and he can do a great job with it.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news,
heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free.
Amen?
Let me just tell you, you might be thinking,
hey guys, listen, you know, you're looking at me,
you preacher boys, you can do it.
You know how to put it, the three point sermon
and the cool things and the lingo and the swag
and you know, all those things.
Let me just break it down for you.
Is that okay?
You're trying, how can I share the gospel with somebody?
I'm just doing a little training.
Are you guys okay with that?
- Yes. - All right.
Let's look at this word, salt.
Say that with me, salt.
Anybody love some salt on that steak?
Do it like Salt Bae, you.
Salt is an acronym for sharing the gospel.
Salt starts off with S for start a conversation.
You're at a coffee shop in a line.
Hey man, what's up, what's your name?
Start a conversation.
You know, start talking, just asking what's going on.
I mean, this is what happened.
Can you put that picture of this couple
that I met on a plane from New York to Dallas, okay?
New York to Dallas, early morning Southwest plane,
I got an exit row seat.
Exit row is the economy of,
you know, it's the business class of economy.
(audience laughing)
So I was like excited, I'm thanking God and praising God
that I got an exit row seat.
I'm gonna stretch my legs and sleep,
and guess what, a young man comes and sits next to me,
and then a girl, beautiful girl, Louis Vuitton bag,
just comes and walks, sits next to me,
and then boom, the next three and a half hours,
I woke up from my sleep and I decided
I'm gonna do something about it.
I just started to ask questions to these girls, these guys.
He said he's a baseball player,
she says she's a senator's daughter,
she's an interior designer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then A, starts for asking questions.
So start a conversation, A for asking questions, right?
I'm asking what's going on, what's going on.
For three hours I was just asking questions.
Uh-huh, really?
My God, crazy.
Oh my God, I can't believe it.
So I did that for like most of the time.
Ask questions.
L is for listen.
L is for listen.
Preachers, guys, listen.
We love to talk.
We love, we are the talking.
We get paid to talk.
So stop talking, right?
Start listening.
That's why he's giving you one mouth and two ears.
(audience laughing)
Right?
So start a conversation, ask questions, listen,
and T, tell your story.
That's your moment.
At the end of three hours, I was like, what about you?
I'm like, yes!
(audience laughing)
Then I began to tell them about my story,
how God changed my life, boom, boom, boom.
And before the plane landed,
I held their hands and prayed with them.
They started talking, they were two strangers.
Two weeks later, they connected,
got engaged and finally asked me to get there,
do their wedding, and this was at their wedding.
Crazy flash wedding.
(audience applauding)
And this story became viral on the internet.
They made a top five stories in 50 years of flying
on Southwest.
Because an Indian curry eating pastor
(audience laughing)
decided not to sleep in but just ask them questions.
Salt, start a conversation, ask questions,
listen, tell your story.
Are we getting anywhere?
Right, we're getting too close, right, pastor?
- No.
- Oh, we're good?
Hallelujah.
(audience laughing)
Now listen, this is how you're gonna roll.
The spirit of the Lord is upon us.
He's anointed us to preach the good news,
heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free.
These hands that God has given you,
put it on somebody the other day.
And just say, "Can I pray for you?
"Can I lay hands and pray for you?
"Can I say that?"
I mean, I don't know how many times you do that
with these boys on a Uber ride.
Your name is Muhammad, I'm like,
"As-salamu alaykum."
I'm like, he gets excited, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!"
(audience laughing)
He just puts all the blind,
You know, all the gods are down now.
Like, "Bani, Muslim."
You're not able to understand.
But at the end of the day, we're going to share the gospel with the guys.
There are moments we have prayed with the guys.
There are moments they've joined us in church.
I mean, there's been crazy stories.
All that happens because you said, "I am ready."
"I'm ready to be a little bit unashamed."
You know what is stopping you from preaching the gospel?
The fear of man.
The Bible says the fear of man is a snare.
It is a trap.
It stops you from preaching the gospel.
Guess what happened?
You know, I'm telling you, this church, I'll tell you,
God is speaking to this church in a mighty way.
40 years after the church was birthed in the book of Acts,
Jesus begins to speak to this church in efficiency
and says, guess what happened?
What does he say?
"Return back to the first love."
I wish I could just stand up right here.
I'm gonna mess up the camera.
But Jesus, look at me, like Jesus is speaking to you.
"Return back to your first love.
Return back to your first love.
the day that you got saved, the day that you heard the gospel, the day that you were falling in love
with Jesus. Now as a minister, every prayer is about fulfilling a budget.
Every prayer is about a need that you have. Every prayer has got an agenda, but return back to the
first love. This morning God is saying City Light Church, return back to the first love when you got
when you are on fire for Jesus.
(congregation applauding)
Now the devil got you all blessed.
You know, sometimes a blessing becomes a curse.
God blessed you so much.
Now the blessing has got you so busy
that you don't have time for God and sharing God's word
and God's love to other people.
Are you guys ready with me?
Let's go back to the book of Acts.
Let's see what happened.
Acts chapter one and verse eight.
Jesus said, listen, boys and girls,
I know you guys are ready to share the gospel
the gospel, hold in there, hold in there. You need something called power, which I call it
Shabba Power, right? You shall receive power. The word is dunamis, power when the Holy Spirit shall
come upon you. You shall be my witnesses. What is the witnessing? It is not a big deal. I was
talking about a hotel that we went on. Just loved their service. Generous at the, you know, remember
the hotel that we were staying, you know, they were just giving away stuff to the kids and we
And we were like, "We want to charge."
They're like, "No, no, it's okay, it's on us."
That was number one.
Day one, I was like, "Whoa."
Day two, another hotel, another city,
doing the same things.
Two Frappuccinos, Starbucks, it's like 10 bucks.
You pull that out from the,
and you take it to the counter to get,
"No, no, no, no, no charge, it's a return gift from us."
I'm like, "Whoa, must be the pastor's blessing."
You know, I'm thinking, you're over-spiritualizing.
And then the third place you go,
the same thing happens again.
Then we found out it's actually the culture of the hotel.
that I began to be an evangelist of the hotel.
Oh my brother, you have to go to this hotel.
I'm telling everybody about this hotel.
That's exactly what God wants you to do.
Just be telling about what God has done in your life.
Don't get that into a three point sermon,
how Tim Keller does it.
Oh, he does it one point.
He's my neighbor, by the way.
So I'm just trying to say,
you don't have to spiritualize it and systemize it
and institutionalize it.
He just got to make it organic
and share it the way you can.
And boom, guess what happened?
They received the power.
And then in Acts chapter two,
the Holy Spirit falls on those 120 hungry people.
Number one, if you want to be used by God,
you got to be hungry, hungry, desperate, unashamed
and say, "God, I am ready.
"Whatever you want me to do."
Hungry people, 120 people, boom,
the Holy Spirit comes upon them,
starts speaking in new tongues.
Guess what happened after that?
Acts chapter one, two and verse, let's go,
where are we?
Acts chapter two and verse,
two and verse 38.
This dude called Peter,
who denied Jesus three times,
who doesn't have the capacity to stand up and do nothing,
who's never preached a sermon,
he hasn't gone to the preaching class,
he gets up and speaks his first sermon,
3,000 people get saved in one message.
So you don't need to be,
this is something I have to tell myself all the time,
being in New York and just hanging out
with the who's and who's.
Barney, God never used the qualified.
He qualifies the called.
He never calls the qualified.
He qualifies the called.
The question is, are you called?
He's never asking you, are you qualified?
Are you called?
Are you called to preach the good news?
Are you called to be in the gap for God,
to God to use you wherever you are in your marketplace?
If you're called, Jesus is saying, yes, go.
241, guess what happened?
People are getting baptized everywhere, right?
They're just getting back into the basics.
I told, the American church has gone into optics, metrics.
It's about how many butts and how much butts.
How many people showed up, how much they gave, right?
And then about optics, how cool it looks,
the branding, the lighting, and this and that,
and the coffee, and the snacks,
and chocolate cake or carrot cake,
whatever, all those things, right?
We have to go back to the basics
of reading the word of God.
Guess what happened?
Let me just tell you something.
If you read the Bible for three days in a row,
this is what happens.
Three to four days.
I tell these campus students
who don't even care about the Bible,
I'm saying, this is a book, if you read it,
your mental health is gonna drop.
Fear is gonna drop by 32%.
You know, depression is gonna drop by 36%.
Pornography is gonna drop by 52%.
Evangelism is gonna go up by 200%.
Discipleship is gonna go up by 220%.
Just by reading,
just by reading this book.
Start reading the book, okay?
So they got back into the basics,
reading, prayer, fellowship,
listening to what the godly authority was on top of that,
and guess what happened?
People got saved every single day.
How does City Light grow?
By putting cool ads and putting a lot of ad money
and getting some cool influencers and worship leaders
and pastors, different side angles
and front angle, side angle, moving cameras,
Pastor Boyens, different, nothing's gonna work.
People are gonna come to the church
when you begin to tell people to come to this church.
When you begin to invite them.
When you begin to share the gospel,
they need to take some next steps.
and you say, "Come to City Light."
And then they start coming here, start getting saved,
and start filling these forms.
So if you wanna see these empty chairs and other services,
and you wanna start another service,
and an evening service, a new location,
it's not in their ball, it's not in their court,
it is in your court.
If you would preach the gospel,
everybody in this room will preach the gospel,
boom, there will not be any space.
There'll be a standing room only.
Right, Pastor?
- That's right.
- Right, now let's go, last thing.
You know, Paul gets transformed
and Paul and Barnabas go on this mission.
It says within two years, all of Asia heard the gospel.
My Asia minor heard the gospel because of two guys.
They didn't have the TV ministry.
They didn't have Instagram stories and live.
They didn't have the text messaging platform.
They didn't have those cool networking events that they did.
All they did was they did it
and they told other people to do the same.
That's exactly.
This preaching is not just preaching,
I'm just doing a mini training.
A mini evangelism training, to say that,
is not just for preachers like us.
It can do it, solve this for everybody.
Start a conversation, ask questions, listen,
tell your story, boom, got them saved.
Now where do they go?
Come to church.
And they start showing up.
Amen?
So this morning, I wanna read the scripture and close it.
Right, Romans chapter 10.
Romans chapter 10 and verse 14.
Now the ball is in your court, it says,
how can they call on the one they have not believed?
And how can they believe in the one
that they have not heard?
And how can they hear without somebody preaching to them?
And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet
of those who bring the good news.
This morning I'm telling you, thousands of people
are waiting for the good news.
And if you would say yes, God is gonna use you.
I don't know how many people are in this room.
I'm telling you, this is the send happening right now
in your church.
We're gonna pray and send you out.
We're gonna pray and commission you.
We're gonna pray and say, go and preach the gospel.
Go and preach the gospel.
Go and preach the gospel.
The only qualification right here
is to go preach the gospel.
Mark 16, 15, go preach the gospel to all over the world.
Maybe God's gonna call you to a different nation.
Great.
Maybe God's gonna call you to a different assignment.
I don't care what it is happening.
The church is not known by its seating capacity.
It is known by its sending capacity.
Now this church is a giving church.
This church is a sending church.
This church is a church that believes
in apostolic ministry.
We don't wanna hold nobody
because the more you go, the more we'll come in.
Amen?
So this is a call this morning by the Lord is saying,
return back to your first love.
Come back to square one.
What is your original assignment?
Some people, God took you from another country
into the city, into this country,
you're thinking it was a cool idea, it was your idea.
No, it was not your idea, it was God's idea.
God brought you from the nations.
This nation who's been a sender of missions,
missionaries around the world
has become the greatest mission field in this century.
So as we have the worship team coming up right now,
this morning is gonna become a send commissioned morning.
every single person in this room and watching online,
we are praying and sending you out.
We are praying and sending that you will go
and preach the gospel.
You will do whatever.
Maybe you don't have all these skills.
Maybe you can just ask them.
You know how many kids got saved just me telling them
to come to church and listen to the cool drummer?
(congregation laughing)
Go and invite.
Go and invite.
Every hands, everybody stand up right now.
Worship team is here.
Before I end this service,
I just want to say, if there's anybody here watching online,
you've never accepted Jesus as your personal Savior.
You've been born and raised up in a Christian home.
You heard of Jesus, never made the commitment of Jesus,
asking Jesus to become your Lord and Savior.
And God is saying, today's the day.
He doesn't care about your past.
He doesn't care about your sins
that you've done this morning.
He says, I'm gonna wash you away and cleanse you
with the precious blood of Jesus
that He shed on the cross for you.
and He wants you to be born again
and welcome to the kingdom.
That's gonna be number one.
Number two is gonna be people
who wanna recommit their life.
You feel like you've been walking away from Christ.
You wanna recommit and say,
"I wanna come back to you, Jesus, and that is me."
Just slip up your hand as every eye is closed right now.
Slip up your hand wherever you are and say,
"That is me, yes, yes, yes, I see those hands."
Anybody else, anybody else?
This is your moment to say,
"Yes, Lord, I wanna ask you to come into my life.
"I wanna recommit my life for your plans."
If that is your step up your hand,
we're gonna pray this prayer together.
Everybody praying with me.
Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner.
Today, I believe that you died on the cross for me.
By the blood of Jesus, all my sins are washed away.
Jesus, come into my life.
Make me a new person in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen, amen.
One more thing I wanna do.
How many in this room, I wanna stand up here.
How many in this room want to say,
God, I want to be used by you?
I want to be sent from this room,
right from this room, I want to be sent out
as a missionary, as a man on mission,
as a woman on mission, as a child on mission,
and I'm saying, Lord, I know I don't have
the qualification for it, but I am here.
I feel I'm called.
And you said you will call and use the people
that are available, and here I am.
If that is you, just lift up your hands wherever you are
and say, yes, Lord, here I am.
Yes, Lord, here I am.
Father, send me.
Father, send me.
Father, use me.
I am willing.
I am available.
I am ready.
Use my mouth.
Use my hands.
Use my feet.
Use my life.
Use my family for the expansion of God's kingdom.
Lord, use me in this room.
Use me.
- This is the City Light Church Podcast.
If you've missed any part of today's message
Or if you would like to find out more
about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church,
visit us at citylightnyc.com.
That's citylightnyc.com.
Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.
We would love to connect with you.
We pray that you have been encouraged today,
that you have been reminded how much God loves you,
and that you are surrounded by grace.
Thank you for listening.
Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast
wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.
(upbeat music)
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