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Aug. 6, 2024
Counting the Cost: Following Jesus in the Face of Adversity
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to follow Jesus, especially when it costs you everything? Join us in this compelling episode as we explore the profound theme of counting the cost of discipleship in Christianity. We dive deep into the teachings of Psalm 103 and Luke 14, reflecting on the importance of remembering God's benefits and the ultimate victory secured through the cross. We'll discuss the biblical understanding of suffering, encouraging believers to remain steadfast and grounded in the assurance of God's love and grace, no matter what external challenges they face.
We'll also share personal narratives of embracing Christianity despite cultural and familial opposition, shedding light on the critical role of community support and God's empowerment. Through these discussions, we aim to inspire you to stay true to your faith and resilient through challenging periods, deeply rooted in the transformative power of steadfast faith and spiritual growth.
For more information and resources, visit www.citylightnyc.com
(00:00) Counting the Cost in Christianity
(09:13) The Cost of Following Jesus
(22:13) Navigating Faith and Persecution
Chapters
00:00 - Counting the Cost in Christianity
09:13:00 - The Cost of Following Jesus
22:13:00 - Navigating Faith and Persecution
Transcript
00:00 - Speaker 1
Now, why am I saying all this today? It's not for no reason. It's because I feel the cry in the Spirit from the Lord to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare Lord, you have my all and I will not be moved. I will not be moved, no matter what is happening out there. By your grace, I won't be moved.
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. 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.
01:05 - Speaker 1
Are you ready for the word this morning? Let's begin in Psalm 103, verses 1 through 3. The theme of this passage, these three scriptures I'm going to read, is something that's been a theme throughout City Light since the beginning. I feel it's incredibly important. The psalmist says bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me. That's a good prayer to pray if you've forgotten to say grace and you're halfway through the meal. Bless the Lord. Sometimes we have to pray that If the kids dive in. Bless all that is already within me, all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. There are benefits. This scripture meant the world to me.
02:13
A few years after I became a Christian, I dove into the benefits that you have in God and make no mistake about it, there are benefits. When I became a Christian, I was immediately introduced to other streams of Christianity and they seemed to have faith for defeat. They had faith for suffering. They had faith for misery and pain and agony. And then I dove into the scriptures and I began to discover that Jesus, he experienced hell so that we wouldn't have to Amen, and he experienced not just hell on earth so we wouldn't experience eternal hell, but so that we could have heaven on earth, and that he's a God of victory and that his suffering on the cross affords us victory Amen. And then it goes on to list the benefits who forgives all your iniquities and who heals all your diseases. And that's just two. If you dive in, you'll see that Jesus' victory at the cross afforded you victory in every category of your lives. Can we say a big amen to that?
03:20
I'm not preaching on that today, though. I'm not preaching on that today, though. I just wanted to start off with that In case, halfway through my message, you're wondering if I changed my doctrine. But it just does seem to me that it's difficult or challenging for believers to think abstractly or to have nuance when it comes to establishing their own God view and their own doctrine, and that's why you seem to have two camps. You have a camp of Christianity where they just believe life should be hard and life should be miserable until eventually, you make it to heaven and receive your reward. The scripture says that the way of a transgressor is hard and full of sorrow. I'm not a transgressor. My sins have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus, amen.
04:11
But then also on the other side of the spectrum and it takes a little bit of thought and nuance to live in the tension between these two On the other side of the spectrum is just a belief that God is only the good time God and that you are never going to experience any kind of suffering. And when you have that doctrine, the moment you experience biblical suffering, your whole faith is shaken and some people fall away. In fact, that's actually one of the four grounds that Jesus mentioned that when persecution comes, they don't have a good foundation, they're not in good soil and if they fall away and I want to read this scripture to you from Jesus. And, by the way, I mentioned biblical suffering Luke, chapter 14, verses 26 through 33. I mentioned biblical suffering because the Bible says we're called to suffer, as Jesus has suffered the sufferings of Christ. Do you know what the sufferings of Christ are? I'll tell you what they aren't Freak accidents, sickness, disease, poverty. Freak accidents, sickness, disease, poverty. Those aren't the sufferings of Christ.
05:30
Over and over in the New Testament, when the scripture speaks of the sufferings of Christ, scripture defines the sufferings of Christ, what we're actually supposed to partner with him in, what's our portion what we should expect. It's really not a lot of things. It's being really misunderstood, being hated just because, just because you're Jesus's Not even anything that you really did or said. I just don't like you. I don't even know why I don't like you. Your whole energy just disturbs me. And being envied. And he experienced that so much that they murdered him. You look at 1 Peter, the entire book of 1 Peter, the great suffering book. That's what it defines over and over again. Those are the sufferings of Jesus. Are you all with me? I know some of you. Maybe you were really married to your suffering, thinking that it's from God. I hate to break the news to you, but it's not from God if it doesn't fall under those categories. Amen.
06:34
But the Lord this week just was stirring up in me to remind the people of God about the cost, because there is a cost and Jesus talked about a cost. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost. Everyone just say count the cost, count the cost whether he has enough to finish it, lest, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him. Who comes against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.
08:01
So there is a cry I hear in the spirit right now of God saying strengthen yourselves in me, gird up your loins. That's actually a scripture in Jeremiah. Gird up your loins like a man Doesn't mean to run away. That means gather your robes together so you can run swiftly Not run away but run towards a battle, and that you have a resolve and a strength and that you've counted the cost. And my heart is for everybody who's a member of City Light Church, who calls City Light their home, to have that resolve and to have counted the cost, counted the cost, and that their heart is Lord. You gave me your everything. Therefore, hence, hitherto, I'm giving you my everything. You gave me your life. Now my life belongs to you. I'm no longer my own God, but you are my God, and what you say goes, and where you go I'll follow. Amen. This is the way Christianity was presented to me and I'm so glad for that.
09:13
Sometimes Christianity is not presented in a biblical way. We focus so much on the benefit and then it's like this old bait and switch and the person doesn't understand what happens the first time they encounter a trial and their faith starts to shake. But the gospel was presented to me, actually in a hard way, like they told me right away this is how your life should look after you become a real Christian. I said what I mean. The first thing, 16-year-old me. I just repeated no sex until I'm married. What that's expensive. You're telling me to count the cost. I didn't plan on that one and actually that was the first thing I bought. I said you can come out. That's like the old-fashioned stuff, right, the old-fashioned like that's not today, right? And they just calmly looked back at me and they said you know, jesus said whoever loses his life will find it. And whoever finds his life excuse me, whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will find it.
10:24
The word carries so much anointing. These were all teenagers. I didn't sit down with the pastor and the elders of the church. These were teenagers and they share that with me. And when that word hit I immediately knew okay, what the Lord is asking me to put away. There is a reward connected with that that's infinitely greater than what he's asking me to put away. There is a reward connected with that that's infinitely greater than what he's asking me to put away. And I didn't even yet know that it wouldn't be me putting it away with my own strength, but that he would empower me with his grace and that you can't take any credit for any outworking of holiness in your life, that he's behind all of it.
10:58
This was this night, the night I got saved, friday night, the night I got saved, friday night, august 14th 1992. And I was already at that church outside of my parents' will, because my parents forbid me to go to that church. Any church that wasn't a Greek Orthodox church they forbid me to go to Because I say Greek Orthodox. No, I'm not Greek, I'm from former Yugoslavia. But it's the Eastern Orthodox Church. It's the same thing. It's more than just the faith, it's more than just the religion. It's your ethnicity, it's your culture, it's your identity.
11:31
And they saw me going outside of that as a complete betrayal. Like family back in the motherland would be saying what happened to the Jancics? That poor kid got Americanized, went off the deep end and joined some sect, some cult. They said that about you, right, some version of that. At first they thought it was a phase. That's what they thought, the only reason. Eventually they thought it was a phase. When I started Bible school they got a little more nervous. They said this phase is compounding, this fire is growing.
12:17
It bothered me because the way I was raised, the way we're raised in our culture it's actually very similar to Asian culture. We're taught to, raised in our culture. It's actually very similar to Asian culture. We're taught to really honor our parents, really respect our parents. Don't do things that will dishonor your parents, don't do things that will grieve your parents. And here I was dishonoring them, disrespecting them, grieving them. But I counted the cost and I read that Jesus said and he's using these examples of mother and father, those things that are most precious to us. If you're willing to forsake that and, by the way, when Jesus asks you to forsake something 9.9 out of 10 times he's not actually asking you to turn your back on and forsake, forsake it. He's saying loose the grip that that thing has on your heart. And once you loose the grip that that thing has on your heart, and once you loose the grip that that thing has on your heart, then I have your whole heart, then heaven can come and invade your life.
13:10
It was a few months after I got saved. There was a constant tension in my home because of my Christianity and because I wouldn't be quiet about it. I refused to be a closet Christian, and so my dad is a wonderful man and he was not such a physical disciplinarian. I just have to say that my mom was quicker on the draw than my dad. My mom was like Clint Eastwood. It was like I said, whoops, my dad wasn't but I was, and this was a bizarre, you know, when you know, something's just supernatural, demonic.
13:53
We're in my kitchen. We're in a 12th floor, 12f in Forest Hills, queens littlest apartment where I was raised and I was trying to witness to my dad and he starts beating me, hitting me, hitting me. So I'm 17 years old at this time. I mean, I dropped to my knees, I can't. You know, I couldn't fight back to hit your dad. A lightning bolt might as well come and hit you before you commit patricide, you know. So I fall, I fall on the ground and now he won't stop. He keeps going. So I don't know what to do. So I start praying in tongues real loud. As soon as I start praying in tongues, he doubles down. He's whacking me. Now it's not relenting. I never experienced anything like this in my life. I pull away. My mom is on him pulling him away.
14:43
Later I asked my mom what got into him. He like doubled. That was bad the first time. She said she knew what it was. But she said well, when you started speaking in tongues, he said he was trying to put a hex on me so I had to hit him to protect myself. He's like can't you see he's doing some witchcraft, he's trying to curse us.
15:02
Now the promise that I received when I was becoming a Christian was that God was going to come and touch my family and bring healing to my family and bring all this love. That's actually what the person leading me, the Lord, prophesied to me that I would receive Fast forward. Six months later, I got the exact opposite, in reverse, like in an accelerated way. That's a good time when, if you're listening to the devil, you say you know this isn't working. This is actually working in reverse. Not only is it not working, I'm going backwards. What a bowl of lies I swallowed up.
15:44
But I counted the cost and said yes to it's only Jesus and Jesus, no matter what. And it wasn't shortly after that that they both gave their lives to Jesus and the home. Yeah, it's actually not a cost. It's not a cost period. It's a cost. It's a. It's not a cost period, it's a cost that pays that when you in your heart say Jesus, I give you my all and I will not be moved, amen. Now, why am I saying all this today? It's not for no reason. It's because I feel the cry and the spirit from the Lord to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare spirit from the Lord, to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare Lord, you have my all and I will not be moved. I will not be moved, no matter what is happening out there, by your grace I won't be moved. God forbid that people here be moved because they haven't counted the cost.
16:45
If you're following a Jesus and experiencing a Christianity that doesn't cost you anything, you're following a false Jesus, another Christ, a bastardized Western version of Christianity that's nowhere in the bible. For years I've preached on grace and how it's all for free and it is. This message isn't nullifying that, but what's required of you is simply you, all of you, and that you give your life to him, your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions. Lord, I won't go that way unless you go before me. Lord, what do you want for my life? That is the sure foundation that we just sang about. By the way, you can't sing that song with your chest out and your whole heart unless you're willing to forsake it all for the sake of the call.
17:40
And it's not by accident. I'm preaching this now, because it has been a bizarre two weeks, has it not? If you don't know that, it's been a particularly bizarre two weeks, especially to you. We should have ushers with bells Maybe we can talk about that at the next staff meeting. Maybe pots and pans, and then to people who don't amen when I do this. The ushers can just run around.
18:13
Can you appreciate how strange it is that in an eight-day period, this is what happened. Within just eight days, a former president running for re-election was shot, there was an assassination attempt and in the same eight days the current president stepped down from re-election, not via video because he wanted to protect the videographers from catching COVID, but through a tweet. The same president that for days was saying I'm in this election, I'm going to run this election, I'm not stepping out. Then all of a sudden stepped out. And here's what makes it even more bizarre that we know nothing more about this attempted assassination attempt than the Saturday afternoon evening that it occurred on. We know nothing more, have you guys?
19:14
If you haven't, you should seen the grilling of the Secret Service director. Do you know who? She reminded me of my kids. When I catch in the act. You know how, vivi, she'll go into that corner and grab some chocolate and you go, vivi, do you got the chocolate? I'm like, okay, you're not supposed to lie. Do you have the chocolate? I mean the word salad. If you haven't listen, forget about the 10-second TikTok shorts for comedy.
19:46
Watch the interrogation, the congressional hearing with the Secret Service director. I mean, I've never seen someone just so dodgy, lying, lying, lying, withholding, like the most basic questions that we should have answered what country is this? So we need Jesus like never before. We need to count the cost like never before and make sure that our feet are on a sure foundation, because if there's one thing the last four years have taught me, it's that the bizarre will get bizarrier, and it's that the bizarre will get bizarrier, and it's nowhere near November yet. So what's up next?
20:31
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, this is not a political message. This is a keep your feet on Jesus message. Look to him only message and know that they're lying to you left and right. Cling to Jesus to be above the lies. Hallelujah. Let's read Jesus in Luke 14, no mark 10, because Jesus never talks about the cost without also talking about the reward. I guess I just want us we're very strong, by the way, from the stories I hear, which I want us to be stronger, even because I think I still have. You can pray for me, for healing inner, deep, inner healing. Lay hands on me, sozo me away, cuz, because I still think I have PTSD from 2020. Because here's what happened in 2020, going into 2021.
21:33
You know, we were one of the first churches to reopen, and I think we were the first. There was a bunch of us that same. The first Sunday we could, we reopened and too many of our people came back, especially those that were alone, alone, watching the death-o-meter tick-tock away on CNN. Do you remember the death-o-meter? How could you forget that? Right, a thermometer except for deaths. And it just kept. I mean, just that is enough to do such a mind number on you. They were just different. The elevator didn't go to the top floor anymore.
22:13
I'd come in for the appropriate distant, pastoral side hug and they would, oh you know. Then I just out loud said, hey, this experimental jab that they really, really want us to take, I don't want to. My body, my choice, I don't want to. I don't want to put in this chemical experiment that's just a few months old, that they're already telling us, if I take it and when I say they, I mean if you dig a little bit into the medical, not what politicians were telling you they're telling you it won't prevent you from getting COVID and it won't prevent you from spreading COVID. Therefore, hence hitherto. Ergo, it's not a vaccine, it's a jab. What prevent you from spreading COVID? Therefore, hence hitherto. Ergo, it's not a vaccine, it's a jab. What kind of jab? Some kind of jab? The kind of jab that every six months, you got to take another jab for it to work. So I'm not offending anybody here, because none of you are vaccinated unless you got your 19th booster within the last six months. So that's right. So this is what happened and why I'm preaching this now.
23:31
I got so many phone calls and I appreciate phone calls, texts, emails. I appreciate anything other than just disappearing and leaving. For those who we have a relationship, I understand there's different people here. I'm talking about those who call City Light their home, not just if you're still checking us out, welcome. If you're still checking us out, check us out, you want? Should I turn around 360? Check me out? Too many of these kind of phone calls.
24:02
Pastor, I agree with everything you're saying. They knew right, they knew it was reasonable, they knew was logical. But if people found out, especially if my place of employment do you remember how it was four years ago? Oh I, I left out. The cherry on top was when, spontaneously on Sunday, the best stuff is the spontaneous stuff. Spontaneously on Sunday I said and spontaneously doesn't mean erratically, by the way, it means I moved when I sensed the Holy Spirit move and it just occurred to me by the Lord and I said anybody who wants a religious, who does not want to get the jab, we'll provide you a religious exemption on City Light letterhead. Ah, because I'm now not loving my neighbor right, I'm the grandma killer and I got so many of these kind of phone calls. Pastor, I agree with everything you're saying, but if people knew what kind of church.
25:01
Now, when someone leaves, I don't ever say anything Like. If you ever call me up to say, look, I'm moving to another church or I'm leaving, the only thing you're gonna hear from me is I bless you. It's been like that since day one. The Lord put that in my heart. There is no sense in arguing with you and trying to convince you. If you're out, you're out and I'm going to see that in the best possible light that God is calling you out. So don't ever tell me you're leaving, hoping that I'm going to get you to stand. And don't think I'm cold if I say listen, bless you, because that's all I'm supposed to say.
25:35
But a few of those times when they called, I felt tempted to say something, and what I would have said was because in each case by the way, each case was a man I wouldn't fuck a woman. But when a man the head of his house calls up and says I got to leave because I'm scurred, I'm scurred. What they might say, if they find out, because they're so important, they're going to be going through their social media, doing the detective work to find out. They go here. I'm scared that I go to a church where the senior pastor tried to bring some semblance of sense concerning COVID and told people hey, you shouldn't have to take an experimental cocktail if you don't want to. Well, they would really talk bad about me.
26:28
By the way, don't forget those were the times we were living. Now we all laugh about it. Do you know? We should replay, when I would talk just like this in 2020, what the atmosphere was like in here. You can hear a pin drop, there's people oh, he's going there, which, if you ever let out that energy, it makes me want to go there all the more. So don't. And I don't know what's on the horizon, but something is. This is what we have to admit to ourselves. We as humans, even Christians, we're easily programmable. We really are. There are people who know how to hijack our emotional state, hijack our program and for lack of a better term hypnotize us To where we all. You know, right now there's over 80 different nations represented here. I'm not talking about like your great-grandfather immigrated here. When we did the poll, 80 different nations were like me that came from another country and are here at City Light.
27:34
Yeah, we have more in common with each other as Christians, as Jesus lovers, jesus believers filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in water, than other people. Do not ever let them come in and mess us up and divide us and get us. 2020 should never, ever happen again. Amen, hallelujah. So Jesus answered and said Assuredly I say to you there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the gospels, who shall not receive.
28:16
Jesus never talked about a cost without also talking about the reward who shall not receive. Now people tend to think, oh, the reward, yeah, in the sweet by and by right In heaven. One day he says now, now, the reward is now, the reward is ultimate in heaven. But it's now, in fact, right now I'm enjoying such blessedness and peace and familial prosperity because of what I endured back in 1992. That cost, that little price that I paid where I just kept close to Jesus when Satan was trying to rattle my family, that now it's rivers of peace Now in this life, in this time. This is for everything. I love how he adds it too. He goes houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. That sounds like prosperity to me. Right, but with persecution, there's always that little seasoning there.
29:18
Yeah, with persecutions, people will talk bad about you. This was my big eye opener in 2020, because I overcame this a long time ago wanting to be liked you can't be a pastor in New York City and want to be liked, so the Lord dealt with that real quick. Liked so the Lord dealt with that real quick. But 2020 showed me how desperately people still want to be liked, still want to be popular, still want to fit in. You don't fit in as a Christian. And Jesus said they persecuted me. He actually started by saying this the servant is not above his master. They hated and they persecuted me. They'll hate and they'll persecute you. So please, I invite you to make your peace with that, that you're not supposed to be the popular guy, the popular gal, and that popularity it means nothing.
30:17
In ministry, popularity means nothing. How many of you remember Mike Francine? Years ago he came by and he told me that years ago, in the 90s, an old minister said tell me the top 10 ministries right now. And Mike said write them down. Mike Francine wrote them down and he said in 10 years you won't barely hear a word out of these ministries. And he said it turned out to be absolutely true. So he said this to me back in 2014. So I made a mental note of the top 10, like the most vocal, most popular ministries. And now, when I think back, at least eight out of 10, you really don't hear that much about why. At least eight out of ten. You really don't hear that much about why? Because popularity it comes, it goes to throw yourself on the seas of human adoration.
31:06
What I'll give you this example in the book of Acts, paul, the great preacher that he was. He preached the fiery sermon and you know what they said. They liked him so much. They said the gods have come down in the form of men. What a compliment. The next day, that same crowd. Satan just stirred them. The same people picked up stones to murder him. That tells us everything we need to know. Deep down inside, we're all if we're not looking at Jesus, these hungry animals that just want a pat on the back. A that a boy and a that a girl. You got to make a decision to get your pats from Jesus and Jesus alone, because people will flip on you, they'll change, but Christ endures.
31:51
Amen, and I live for the well done thou, good and faithful servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, lord. Worship team, come on up.
32:11
Romans 12, one. Thank you Jesus, thank you, lord. Paul says. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God. This, how he closes that verse, is my favorite part, which is your reasonable service. The Lord is not asking something unreasonable of us. He's forgiven all of our sin, given us authority back, crowned us with glory, given us adoption whereby we're now the very children of God. We have eternity in our spirits, we're heaven bound, we have intimacy with him, and he's saying I want your all, your all, your all.
33:15
So this is a bit of a recommitment service. I'd like every head bowed, every eye closed, please, and I want to invite you to recommit your life to Jesus and count the cost. We're here today because of the cost Christians in the past have paid for us. Christianity is alive because when the Roman Emperor was throwing Christians into the lion's den and burning them at the stake and crucifying them upside down, they would not renounce their faith.
33:58
Those were Christians who counted the cost, and the torch of Christianity has been carried not just through the century but the millennia right on down to today, because Christians who counted the cost said I shall not be moved, I won't go along with popular opinion, I won't make a short-sighted choice just to be safe and keep my skin alive, but I present the whole of myself, even my body, as a sacrifice that we may, like the Apostle Paul, say I have been crucified with Christ. Yet not I, but Christ. He liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. How many of you right now, with eyes closed, heads bowed, you would say Jesus?
35:01
I realize that isn't just the cost. The cost it pays great, great rewards, and I recommit myself to you and to the Lordship of Christ. Raise your hands all over this place, jesus, you're my Lord. You're my Lord. You're not just Lord of part of me, but you're Lord of all. I understand that if you're not Lord of all, you're not Lord at all. Lift your hand up, lord Jesus. I believe in you and I trust you with my life. Everybody, let's say this prayer together. Jesus, you gave me everything. I receive that and I give you myself. I'm no longer my own God, but you are my God and you are my Lord. I'll go where you tell me to go. I'll say what you tell me to say and I'll go where you tell me to go. I'll say what you tell me to say and I'll do what you tell me to do, and I will not bow down to public opinion, to popularity, to what others say about me. I'll follow you all my days, in Jesus' name Amen.
36:20 - 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.
Now, why am I saying all this today? It's not for no reason. It's because I feel the cry in the Spirit from the Lord to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare Lord, you have my all and I will not be moved. I will not be moved, no matter what is happening out there. By your grace, I won't be moved.
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. 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.
01:05 - Speaker 1
Are you ready for the word this morning? Let's begin in Psalm 103, verses 1 through 3. The theme of this passage, these three scriptures I'm going to read, is something that's been a theme throughout City Light since the beginning. I feel it's incredibly important. The psalmist says bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me. That's a good prayer to pray if you've forgotten to say grace and you're halfway through the meal. Bless the Lord. Sometimes we have to pray that If the kids dive in. Bless all that is already within me, all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. There are benefits. This scripture meant the world to me.
02:13
A few years after I became a Christian, I dove into the benefits that you have in God and make no mistake about it, there are benefits. When I became a Christian, I was immediately introduced to other streams of Christianity and they seemed to have faith for defeat. They had faith for suffering. They had faith for misery and pain and agony. And then I dove into the scriptures and I began to discover that Jesus, he experienced hell so that we wouldn't have to Amen, and he experienced not just hell on earth so we wouldn't experience eternal hell, but so that we could have heaven on earth, and that he's a God of victory and that his suffering on the cross affords us victory Amen. And then it goes on to list the benefits who forgives all your iniquities and who heals all your diseases. And that's just two. If you dive in, you'll see that Jesus' victory at the cross afforded you victory in every category of your lives. Can we say a big amen to that?
03:20
I'm not preaching on that today, though. I'm not preaching on that today, though. I just wanted to start off with that In case, halfway through my message, you're wondering if I changed my doctrine. But it just does seem to me that it's difficult or challenging for believers to think abstractly or to have nuance when it comes to establishing their own God view and their own doctrine, and that's why you seem to have two camps. You have a camp of Christianity where they just believe life should be hard and life should be miserable until eventually, you make it to heaven and receive your reward. The scripture says that the way of a transgressor is hard and full of sorrow. I'm not a transgressor. My sins have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus, amen.
04:11
But then also on the other side of the spectrum and it takes a little bit of thought and nuance to live in the tension between these two On the other side of the spectrum is just a belief that God is only the good time God and that you are never going to experience any kind of suffering. And when you have that doctrine, the moment you experience biblical suffering, your whole faith is shaken and some people fall away. In fact, that's actually one of the four grounds that Jesus mentioned that when persecution comes, they don't have a good foundation, they're not in good soil and if they fall away and I want to read this scripture to you from Jesus. And, by the way, I mentioned biblical suffering Luke, chapter 14, verses 26 through 33. I mentioned biblical suffering because the Bible says we're called to suffer, as Jesus has suffered the sufferings of Christ. Do you know what the sufferings of Christ are? I'll tell you what they aren't Freak accidents, sickness, disease, poverty. Freak accidents, sickness, disease, poverty. Those aren't the sufferings of Christ.
05:30
Over and over in the New Testament, when the scripture speaks of the sufferings of Christ, scripture defines the sufferings of Christ, what we're actually supposed to partner with him in, what's our portion what we should expect. It's really not a lot of things. It's being really misunderstood, being hated just because, just because you're Jesus's Not even anything that you really did or said. I just don't like you. I don't even know why I don't like you. Your whole energy just disturbs me. And being envied. And he experienced that so much that they murdered him. You look at 1 Peter, the entire book of 1 Peter, the great suffering book. That's what it defines over and over again. Those are the sufferings of Jesus. Are you all with me? I know some of you. Maybe you were really married to your suffering, thinking that it's from God. I hate to break the news to you, but it's not from God if it doesn't fall under those categories. Amen.
06:34
But the Lord this week just was stirring up in me to remind the people of God about the cost, because there is a cost and Jesus talked about a cost. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost. Everyone just say count the cost, count the cost whether he has enough to finish it, lest, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him. Who comes against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.
08:01
So there is a cry I hear in the spirit right now of God saying strengthen yourselves in me, gird up your loins. That's actually a scripture in Jeremiah. Gird up your loins like a man Doesn't mean to run away. That means gather your robes together so you can run swiftly Not run away but run towards a battle, and that you have a resolve and a strength and that you've counted the cost. And my heart is for everybody who's a member of City Light Church, who calls City Light their home, to have that resolve and to have counted the cost, counted the cost, and that their heart is Lord. You gave me your everything. Therefore, hence, hitherto, I'm giving you my everything. You gave me your life. Now my life belongs to you. I'm no longer my own God, but you are my God, and what you say goes, and where you go I'll follow. Amen. This is the way Christianity was presented to me and I'm so glad for that.
09:13
Sometimes Christianity is not presented in a biblical way. We focus so much on the benefit and then it's like this old bait and switch and the person doesn't understand what happens the first time they encounter a trial and their faith starts to shake. But the gospel was presented to me, actually in a hard way, like they told me right away this is how your life should look after you become a real Christian. I said what I mean. The first thing, 16-year-old me. I just repeated no sex until I'm married. What that's expensive. You're telling me to count the cost. I didn't plan on that one and actually that was the first thing I bought. I said you can come out. That's like the old-fashioned stuff, right, the old-fashioned like that's not today, right? And they just calmly looked back at me and they said you know, jesus said whoever loses his life will find it. And whoever finds his life excuse me, whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will find it.
10:24
The word carries so much anointing. These were all teenagers. I didn't sit down with the pastor and the elders of the church. These were teenagers and they share that with me. And when that word hit I immediately knew okay, what the Lord is asking me to put away. There is a reward connected with that that's infinitely greater than what he's asking me to put away. There is a reward connected with that that's infinitely greater than what he's asking me to put away. And I didn't even yet know that it wouldn't be me putting it away with my own strength, but that he would empower me with his grace and that you can't take any credit for any outworking of holiness in your life, that he's behind all of it.
10:58
This was this night, the night I got saved, friday night, the night I got saved, friday night, august 14th 1992. And I was already at that church outside of my parents' will, because my parents forbid me to go to that church. Any church that wasn't a Greek Orthodox church they forbid me to go to Because I say Greek Orthodox. No, I'm not Greek, I'm from former Yugoslavia. But it's the Eastern Orthodox Church. It's the same thing. It's more than just the faith, it's more than just the religion. It's your ethnicity, it's your culture, it's your identity.
11:31
And they saw me going outside of that as a complete betrayal. Like family back in the motherland would be saying what happened to the Jancics? That poor kid got Americanized, went off the deep end and joined some sect, some cult. They said that about you, right, some version of that. At first they thought it was a phase. That's what they thought, the only reason. Eventually they thought it was a phase. When I started Bible school they got a little more nervous. They said this phase is compounding, this fire is growing.
12:17
It bothered me because the way I was raised, the way we're raised in our culture it's actually very similar to Asian culture. We're taught to, raised in our culture. It's actually very similar to Asian culture. We're taught to really honor our parents, really respect our parents. Don't do things that will dishonor your parents, don't do things that will grieve your parents. And here I was dishonoring them, disrespecting them, grieving them. But I counted the cost and I read that Jesus said and he's using these examples of mother and father, those things that are most precious to us. If you're willing to forsake that and, by the way, when Jesus asks you to forsake something 9.9 out of 10 times he's not actually asking you to turn your back on and forsake, forsake it. He's saying loose the grip that that thing has on your heart. And once you loose the grip that that thing has on your heart, and once you loose the grip that that thing has on your heart, then I have your whole heart, then heaven can come and invade your life.
13:10
It was a few months after I got saved. There was a constant tension in my home because of my Christianity and because I wouldn't be quiet about it. I refused to be a closet Christian, and so my dad is a wonderful man and he was not such a physical disciplinarian. I just have to say that my mom was quicker on the draw than my dad. My mom was like Clint Eastwood. It was like I said, whoops, my dad wasn't but I was, and this was a bizarre, you know, when you know, something's just supernatural, demonic.
13:53
We're in my kitchen. We're in a 12th floor, 12f in Forest Hills, queens littlest apartment where I was raised and I was trying to witness to my dad and he starts beating me, hitting me, hitting me. So I'm 17 years old at this time. I mean, I dropped to my knees, I can't. You know, I couldn't fight back to hit your dad. A lightning bolt might as well come and hit you before you commit patricide, you know. So I fall, I fall on the ground and now he won't stop. He keeps going. So I don't know what to do. So I start praying in tongues real loud. As soon as I start praying in tongues, he doubles down. He's whacking me. Now it's not relenting. I never experienced anything like this in my life. I pull away. My mom is on him pulling him away.
14:43
Later I asked my mom what got into him. He like doubled. That was bad the first time. She said she knew what it was. But she said well, when you started speaking in tongues, he said he was trying to put a hex on me so I had to hit him to protect myself. He's like can't you see he's doing some witchcraft, he's trying to curse us.
15:02
Now the promise that I received when I was becoming a Christian was that God was going to come and touch my family and bring healing to my family and bring all this love. That's actually what the person leading me, the Lord, prophesied to me that I would receive Fast forward. Six months later, I got the exact opposite, in reverse, like in an accelerated way. That's a good time when, if you're listening to the devil, you say you know this isn't working. This is actually working in reverse. Not only is it not working, I'm going backwards. What a bowl of lies I swallowed up.
15:44
But I counted the cost and said yes to it's only Jesus and Jesus, no matter what. And it wasn't shortly after that that they both gave their lives to Jesus and the home. Yeah, it's actually not a cost. It's not a cost period. It's a cost. It's a. It's not a cost period, it's a cost that pays that when you in your heart say Jesus, I give you my all and I will not be moved, amen. Now, why am I saying all this today? It's not for no reason. It's because I feel the cry and the spirit from the Lord to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare spirit from the Lord, to encourage God's people to count the cost and declare Lord, you have my all and I will not be moved. I will not be moved, no matter what is happening out there, by your grace I won't be moved. God forbid that people here be moved because they haven't counted the cost.
16:45
If you're following a Jesus and experiencing a Christianity that doesn't cost you anything, you're following a false Jesus, another Christ, a bastardized Western version of Christianity that's nowhere in the bible. For years I've preached on grace and how it's all for free and it is. This message isn't nullifying that, but what's required of you is simply you, all of you, and that you give your life to him, your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions. Lord, I won't go that way unless you go before me. Lord, what do you want for my life? That is the sure foundation that we just sang about. By the way, you can't sing that song with your chest out and your whole heart unless you're willing to forsake it all for the sake of the call.
17:40
And it's not by accident. I'm preaching this now, because it has been a bizarre two weeks, has it not? If you don't know that, it's been a particularly bizarre two weeks, especially to you. We should have ushers with bells Maybe we can talk about that at the next staff meeting. Maybe pots and pans, and then to people who don't amen when I do this. The ushers can just run around.
18:13
Can you appreciate how strange it is that in an eight-day period, this is what happened. Within just eight days, a former president running for re-election was shot, there was an assassination attempt and in the same eight days the current president stepped down from re-election, not via video because he wanted to protect the videographers from catching COVID, but through a tweet. The same president that for days was saying I'm in this election, I'm going to run this election, I'm not stepping out. Then all of a sudden stepped out. And here's what makes it even more bizarre that we know nothing more about this attempted assassination attempt than the Saturday afternoon evening that it occurred on. We know nothing more, have you guys?
19:14
If you haven't, you should seen the grilling of the Secret Service director. Do you know who? She reminded me of my kids. When I catch in the act. You know how, vivi, she'll go into that corner and grab some chocolate and you go, vivi, do you got the chocolate? I'm like, okay, you're not supposed to lie. Do you have the chocolate? I mean the word salad. If you haven't listen, forget about the 10-second TikTok shorts for comedy.
19:46
Watch the interrogation, the congressional hearing with the Secret Service director. I mean, I've never seen someone just so dodgy, lying, lying, lying, withholding, like the most basic questions that we should have answered what country is this? So we need Jesus like never before. We need to count the cost like never before and make sure that our feet are on a sure foundation, because if there's one thing the last four years have taught me, it's that the bizarre will get bizarrier, and it's that the bizarre will get bizarrier, and it's nowhere near November yet. So what's up next?
20:31
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, this is not a political message. This is a keep your feet on Jesus message. Look to him only message and know that they're lying to you left and right. Cling to Jesus to be above the lies. Hallelujah. Let's read Jesus in Luke 14, no mark 10, because Jesus never talks about the cost without also talking about the reward. I guess I just want us we're very strong, by the way, from the stories I hear, which I want us to be stronger, even because I think I still have. You can pray for me, for healing inner, deep, inner healing. Lay hands on me, sozo me away, cuz, because I still think I have PTSD from 2020. Because here's what happened in 2020, going into 2021.
21:33
You know, we were one of the first churches to reopen, and I think we were the first. There was a bunch of us that same. The first Sunday we could, we reopened and too many of our people came back, especially those that were alone, alone, watching the death-o-meter tick-tock away on CNN. Do you remember the death-o-meter? How could you forget that? Right, a thermometer except for deaths. And it just kept. I mean, just that is enough to do such a mind number on you. They were just different. The elevator didn't go to the top floor anymore.
22:13
I'd come in for the appropriate distant, pastoral side hug and they would, oh you know. Then I just out loud said, hey, this experimental jab that they really, really want us to take, I don't want to. My body, my choice, I don't want to. I don't want to put in this chemical experiment that's just a few months old, that they're already telling us, if I take it and when I say they, I mean if you dig a little bit into the medical, not what politicians were telling you they're telling you it won't prevent you from getting COVID and it won't prevent you from spreading COVID. Therefore, hence hitherto. Ergo, it's not a vaccine, it's a jab. What prevent you from spreading COVID? Therefore, hence hitherto. Ergo, it's not a vaccine, it's a jab. What kind of jab? Some kind of jab? The kind of jab that every six months, you got to take another jab for it to work. So I'm not offending anybody here, because none of you are vaccinated unless you got your 19th booster within the last six months. So that's right. So this is what happened and why I'm preaching this now.
23:31
I got so many phone calls and I appreciate phone calls, texts, emails. I appreciate anything other than just disappearing and leaving. For those who we have a relationship, I understand there's different people here. I'm talking about those who call City Light their home, not just if you're still checking us out, welcome. If you're still checking us out, check us out, you want? Should I turn around 360? Check me out? Too many of these kind of phone calls.
24:02
Pastor, I agree with everything you're saying. They knew right, they knew it was reasonable, they knew was logical. But if people found out, especially if my place of employment do you remember how it was four years ago? Oh I, I left out. The cherry on top was when, spontaneously on Sunday, the best stuff is the spontaneous stuff. Spontaneously on Sunday I said and spontaneously doesn't mean erratically, by the way, it means I moved when I sensed the Holy Spirit move and it just occurred to me by the Lord and I said anybody who wants a religious, who does not want to get the jab, we'll provide you a religious exemption on City Light letterhead. Ah, because I'm now not loving my neighbor right, I'm the grandma killer and I got so many of these kind of phone calls. Pastor, I agree with everything you're saying, but if people knew what kind of church.
25:01
Now, when someone leaves, I don't ever say anything Like. If you ever call me up to say, look, I'm moving to another church or I'm leaving, the only thing you're gonna hear from me is I bless you. It's been like that since day one. The Lord put that in my heart. There is no sense in arguing with you and trying to convince you. If you're out, you're out and I'm going to see that in the best possible light that God is calling you out. So don't ever tell me you're leaving, hoping that I'm going to get you to stand. And don't think I'm cold if I say listen, bless you, because that's all I'm supposed to say.
25:35
But a few of those times when they called, I felt tempted to say something, and what I would have said was because in each case by the way, each case was a man I wouldn't fuck a woman. But when a man the head of his house calls up and says I got to leave because I'm scurred, I'm scurred. What they might say, if they find out, because they're so important, they're going to be going through their social media, doing the detective work to find out. They go here. I'm scared that I go to a church where the senior pastor tried to bring some semblance of sense concerning COVID and told people hey, you shouldn't have to take an experimental cocktail if you don't want to. Well, they would really talk bad about me.
26:28
By the way, don't forget those were the times we were living. Now we all laugh about it. Do you know? We should replay, when I would talk just like this in 2020, what the atmosphere was like in here. You can hear a pin drop, there's people oh, he's going there, which, if you ever let out that energy, it makes me want to go there all the more. So don't. And I don't know what's on the horizon, but something is. This is what we have to admit to ourselves. We as humans, even Christians, we're easily programmable. We really are. There are people who know how to hijack our emotional state, hijack our program and for lack of a better term hypnotize us To where we all. You know, right now there's over 80 different nations represented here. I'm not talking about like your great-grandfather immigrated here. When we did the poll, 80 different nations were like me that came from another country and are here at City Light.
27:34
Yeah, we have more in common with each other as Christians, as Jesus lovers, jesus believers filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in water, than other people. Do not ever let them come in and mess us up and divide us and get us. 2020 should never, ever happen again. Amen, hallelujah. So Jesus answered and said Assuredly I say to you there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the gospels, who shall not receive.
28:16
Jesus never talked about a cost without also talking about the reward who shall not receive. Now people tend to think, oh, the reward, yeah, in the sweet by and by right In heaven. One day he says now, now, the reward is now, the reward is ultimate in heaven. But it's now, in fact, right now I'm enjoying such blessedness and peace and familial prosperity because of what I endured back in 1992. That cost, that little price that I paid where I just kept close to Jesus when Satan was trying to rattle my family, that now it's rivers of peace Now in this life, in this time. This is for everything. I love how he adds it too. He goes houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. That sounds like prosperity to me. Right, but with persecution, there's always that little seasoning there.
29:18
Yeah, with persecutions, people will talk bad about you. This was my big eye opener in 2020, because I overcame this a long time ago wanting to be liked you can't be a pastor in New York City and want to be liked, so the Lord dealt with that real quick. Liked so the Lord dealt with that real quick. But 2020 showed me how desperately people still want to be liked, still want to be popular, still want to fit in. You don't fit in as a Christian. And Jesus said they persecuted me. He actually started by saying this the servant is not above his master. They hated and they persecuted me. They'll hate and they'll persecute you. So please, I invite you to make your peace with that, that you're not supposed to be the popular guy, the popular gal, and that popularity it means nothing.
30:17
In ministry, popularity means nothing. How many of you remember Mike Francine? Years ago he came by and he told me that years ago, in the 90s, an old minister said tell me the top 10 ministries right now. And Mike said write them down. Mike Francine wrote them down and he said in 10 years you won't barely hear a word out of these ministries. And he said it turned out to be absolutely true. So he said this to me back in 2014. So I made a mental note of the top 10, like the most vocal, most popular ministries. And now, when I think back, at least eight out of 10, you really don't hear that much about why. At least eight out of ten. You really don't hear that much about why? Because popularity it comes, it goes to throw yourself on the seas of human adoration.
31:06
What I'll give you this example in the book of Acts, paul, the great preacher that he was. He preached the fiery sermon and you know what they said. They liked him so much. They said the gods have come down in the form of men. What a compliment. The next day, that same crowd. Satan just stirred them. The same people picked up stones to murder him. That tells us everything we need to know. Deep down inside, we're all if we're not looking at Jesus, these hungry animals that just want a pat on the back. A that a boy and a that a girl. You got to make a decision to get your pats from Jesus and Jesus alone, because people will flip on you, they'll change, but Christ endures.
31:51
Amen, and I live for the well done thou, good and faithful servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, lord. Worship team, come on up.
32:11
Romans 12, one. Thank you Jesus, thank you, lord. Paul says. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God. This, how he closes that verse, is my favorite part, which is your reasonable service. The Lord is not asking something unreasonable of us. He's forgiven all of our sin, given us authority back, crowned us with glory, given us adoption whereby we're now the very children of God. We have eternity in our spirits, we're heaven bound, we have intimacy with him, and he's saying I want your all, your all, your all.
33:15
So this is a bit of a recommitment service. I'd like every head bowed, every eye closed, please, and I want to invite you to recommit your life to Jesus and count the cost. We're here today because of the cost Christians in the past have paid for us. Christianity is alive because when the Roman Emperor was throwing Christians into the lion's den and burning them at the stake and crucifying them upside down, they would not renounce their faith.
33:58
Those were Christians who counted the cost, and the torch of Christianity has been carried not just through the century but the millennia right on down to today, because Christians who counted the cost said I shall not be moved, I won't go along with popular opinion, I won't make a short-sighted choice just to be safe and keep my skin alive, but I present the whole of myself, even my body, as a sacrifice that we may, like the Apostle Paul, say I have been crucified with Christ. Yet not I, but Christ. He liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. How many of you right now, with eyes closed, heads bowed, you would say Jesus?
35:01
I realize that isn't just the cost. The cost it pays great, great rewards, and I recommit myself to you and to the Lordship of Christ. Raise your hands all over this place, jesus, you're my Lord. You're my Lord. You're not just Lord of part of me, but you're Lord of all. I understand that if you're not Lord of all, you're not Lord at all. Lift your hand up, lord Jesus. I believe in you and I trust you with my life. Everybody, let's say this prayer together. Jesus, you gave me everything. I receive that and I give you myself. I'm no longer my own God, but you are my God and you are my Lord. I'll go where you tell me to go. I'll say what you tell me to say and I'll go where you tell me to go. I'll say what you tell me to say and I'll do what you tell me to do, and I will not bow down to public opinion, to popularity, to what others say about me. I'll follow you all my days, in Jesus' name Amen.
36:20 - 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.
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