Crossing the Finish Line With Strength

There is none that is righteous. I was born with sin in iniquity that my mother conceived me. I needed Jesus who would take away all my sin. Prior to that, I was without covenant. I was an alien. I had the Bible says I had the wrath of God abiding on me. And then Jesus and His mercy came and took all that away. You can receive all this for free by faith. That's what's being offered to you. Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com that's citylightnyc.com. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God. That you are surrounded by His grace and that He has a real hope and a future for you. Hallelujah. God is good. He's so faithful. And Lord, may you keep coming. He came. He just, shh. But yeah, it doesn't mean he has to stop. I pray we have Acts chapter 10. Peter got interrupted in his sermon. I would like to be interrupted in my sermon. Hallelujah. We're Lord, you know, you have us in the palm of your hand, whatever you want to do in here. You're the God of miracles. The God who reaches in transforms our lives. And I have this nice message on paper, but somebody needs to hear this. Get out of God's way. You have some problems and you're coming to God to fix your problems, but you're coming to Him with a rule book like a menu. God, this is what I need you to do. And this is how I would feel comfortable that you would do it. This is how I want, it doesn't work that way. You give Him your problem and then step back. It's uncomfortable. It feels like walking on water. That was uncomfortable. But that's when His best work is done. Let go. God's not somebody you hired. He's not like an outside consultant. Now you're in a pinch. Now I hired God. Even paid my tithe, paid him. Now I want him to tackle this issue that I have. We all have, and it easily comes back, even when it's down, these layers over our heart. Let God peel you like an onion layer upon layer upon layer and let that brick wall fall down. That's when He has access to the real youth. When you're intimate with Him, you open up. That's when He can do what He really wants to do. That's when miracles start popping like popcorn. But you've got a yield. Hallelujah. Well, we had a wonderful volunteer party yesterday. So grateful for all of the volunteers at CityLight. And we have that annual party. We try to honor you all the time. We're grateful for you all the time. But that's our way of just saying an extra special thank you and honoring all of the people that serve at CityLight. We have a huge percentage of members and attenders that actually serve. And we're grateful for that. That doesn't mean that we should stop. If you're not serving, find a place to serve. You can serve. Someone can serve as little as once a month, right? But get involved. Yeah. Don't just come to church, be the church. Look at Him. He's not even five minutes in. He's rebuked me 17 times already. I heard that was the Grace Church. I checked out the Google reviews. Everyone said how nice it was. Now He's already offended me. 13 ways. He hasn't even started preaching really. But let's look at that video from the Volunteer Party yesterday. Welcome back Carter. I love royalty-free internet music. There's just a certain anointing on it and makes God's anointing leave. But no, we had a great time. Thank you to all of our volunteers. Everyone you see there is a volunteer. Our awesome ministry of helps. I always read Romans chapter 16 at the Volunteer Party where the Apostle Paul lists over 20 names an entire chapter in the Bible. And these people's names, you never heard of them before? You'll never heard of them again. But they're immortalized in the Word of God. Guys with names like Rufus. How that later turned into a dog's name, I don't know. But there were humans named Rufus. Paul said I want to honor Phoebe. Rufus. And other Greek names I mispronounced yesterday. But what's the point of an entire chapter, Roman 16, it shows you that Paul knew every one of them and God knows every one of them. And they were really volunteers, helps ministry. Those called alongside to lay up bricks in this building that is God, not a physical church building, but the building of the body of Christ, that God is building up. Hallelujah. Are you ready to receive this morning? That's great. For the first two rows. That's great. Also, summer life groups are started. Yeah. They last for only six weeks, and are only 75 minutes in length. Normal life groups in the fall and spring are 12 weeks long, and everybody has a different book. In the summer we all read one book. In this book in particular, I wanted you to read, and it'll make even more sense when I'm done preaching today. But it's a way to avoid the summer slump. Summer swamp is a better term. What is it about the summer that things, just, I've been doing this enough decades now to know that things just get swampy. And people can kind of lose the fire. And you don't want that to happen. You want to stay plugged in. Six weeks, 75 minutes, it's a way to stoke the flame. Meet all some people. Be disciples. Oh, I'm already a disciple. Great. Help disciple others. Amen. Are you ready for the word of God this morning? Yes. Okay. Many of you know my story that I immigrated here when I was five years old in the early 80s. And I came from a country formerly known as Yugoslavia. It's now six other countries. And every summer I would go back there to visit family and spend the summers there. And that first summer in 1982, I was six years old. I went back. And since I was six, I didn't know how to swim yet. My grandfather wanted to teach me how to swim. And it's in Montenegro, a little beach called Igolo. And it's like a little bay area. And the background was the former dictator, Tito's giant villa, a giant lawn. And that's where my grandfather, I can remember this like it happened yesterday where he taught me how to swim. And one of the first things I did when I learned how to swim was start to use a floaty. I couldn't use one before, because if I flipped over, I drowned. But now I learned how to swim. And I would always see the adults on, floaty is a term for everything. floaty could be like things you put around your arms. But I'm talking about the ones you kick back and relax and lie on, right? And I'd see adults doing that just laying out their hands behind their head, floating. And I wanted to be a big boy. So I'm six years old. I borrowed my older cousins floaty, bringing in three feet into the water. I can see my grandfather right there. And I get on the floaty. I put my hands behind my back. And I am big bow. I am a hater. I remember I'm looking at the clouds. I closed my eyes. And I didn't fall asleep. I just closed my eyes for about three or four minutes. And I then went to open my eyes. I went, huh? And I was looking at a completely different place. And when where's my grandfather? I started to panic right away. I'd only gone about 50 or 100 meters to the right. Not even that far. But I started crying, screaming. Ah! Dino! We just grandpa! Where are you? And he comes running. He's all over here. And I realized, huh? The current. Even though it's a bay, very few waves and ripples, it just happened. I drifted away. I want to tell you right now that the greatest enemy that I see when people, you know, when they backslide fully and forsake the faith, when they walk away from the Lord, you're really seeing the final result. You're seeing the final phase, what happened and how they got there is much more subtle and it's slow drift. And nobody is immune to it. I just want to read to you several statements. The danger is not usually rebellion overnight. You might hear, so all of somebody just looks like they lost their mind. They just rebelled against God. They used to be on fire. They used to come to church. They were a leader. And now they're completely, did you see their social media and what they're posting? They've gone nuts. That didn't happen overnight. You're just seeing the fruit underneath that for months, maybe years, they were slowly, slowly drifting. So the danger is not rebellion overnight. The danger is drift. It's not an explosion. It's slow erosion. It's not a sudden fall, but a slow cooling of the heart. And so Christianity and our fire, our passion for the Lord, it's something that has to be maintained. This is something I'm beginning to teach my kids. You know, when they're young, everything's exciting. I mean, when they're young, you want to pray out, pray out. Jesus, close your eyes. What do you see? I see Jesus. You know, everything's exciting. And then slowly, especially, where's my son? Where's the victor? Where is he? He went, what? He went downstairs. Michelle, run downstairs. Bring him up here. Yeah, he just went. Look, it's like he could pay him off. He's got lawyers. He just went. Actually, he's volunteering. He should be behind the camera, but I just noticed, as I'm talking about my family, that Vlad, we look nothing alike. You cannot be my son. Emily, can you help me out with the young victor? With the wherever? No, but wherever he went. Oh, he went to the restroom. Michelle's going to have a hard time. Okay. This could turn into a real life example of how not the parent right about now. I met this investor, successful investor. And he said to me, you know, all companies, no matter how hot they are, they trend to zero, eventually. And he's telling me about where billionaires park and keep their money. Which haven't you ever wondered, where do they keep their money? I have always wondered that. I mean, it's not at the local city bank. It's not. Where do you keep 5.6 billion? Do you have a concentrated position? I mean, are you all in Tesla? Are you all in Bitcoin? Turns out the majority of them, they keep their money in the S&P. They've diversified over hundreds of companies because all companies, eventually, no matter how hot they are, trend to zero. Like, when I was a kid, you know, it was a really hot company, IBM. IBM was in. One was the last time you even saw an IBM. Over time, all companies eventually collapse or get taken over or get bought out or become irrelevant. Do you remember when you were in 10th grade, you learned about this thing called entropy, that things that are in order tend to chaos and disorder? I'm experiencing that in my house in the Poconos. During COVID, we bought a house in the Poconos. I hardly go there because I'm pretty busy on the weekends. So we've gotten up now. We're going there like three, four times a year. I mean, the kids and Emily go in the summer. But most of the year, it's sitting empty. Is there your Airbnb in being it? No. What's the point of taking off our shoes every time we go into the house? And not stepping on the couch is what, have you ever... You've been a renter. You know what you did to that house? I don't want... I know what I do to a hotel. Anyway. It's a joke. You know where I went back to James Gaffigan. You know James Gaffigan? He talked about coming out of the shower naked in the hotel room and sitting naked on the couch. And then he said, as I sat naked on that hotel couch, the thought occurred to me. I may not be the first person doing this. Everybody behaves differently in a room. That's not their own, you know. In the Poconos, the forest is fighting for my house. It's coming in. Like the worst thing for a house is not to live in the house and maintain the house. Things tend to disorder. Things tend to drift. Things tend to entropy. And I want to finish strong. I'm looking at my life. I'm a little concerned about the present. I'm looking at 40 years from now. How will I finish the race? Will I cross the finish line? Will I do it with strength? Or, you know what used to terrify me? When I first got saved, I was 16, served the Lord, then went off to college, joined the on fire radical group of college kids, and we go to the local church. And you can't help but notice all the older people love us. They love us. They love us. And they say, oh, you're fiery. And you're so zealous. And we're all there, we're in love with Jesus. And then during the sermon, I'll look around. And it's like all the older people who had test them I've been saved 20 years. So I got saved in the early 70s. The great revival that swept through Long Island. And you look at them. And they're like zoned out during worship, yawning during the preaching of the Word. And I had that as an 18-year-old. I thought, why? Why do some of these adults that have been saved the longest? You think they know God, the deepest. And they look totally like they're bored of God. How do you get bored of God? The things of God are bottomless. He's not simple. He's not simple. Oh, I figured you out on board now. It's a never-ending journey. And then you realize as you get older, you're like, oh, okay, it does take a fanning and a stoking of the flame. Because things tend towards entropy. Things tend towards drift. And I don't want that for me. I don't want that for you. No, no, no. We've got to finish strong. Look at the Apostle Paul. Second Timothy, chapters four, six through eight. He says, I have fought for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. I mean, he knew in his spirit it was time for him to go. And look, by the way, I can just preach your message and I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. Because you know what he was saying? I'm dying empty. It was Miles Monroe who said, the wealthiest places in the world are not the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. They're not the diamond mines of South Africa. The wealthiest place in the world is out Wall Street. The wealthiest place in the world is cemeteries. Because of all these people who've died, pregnant, full, full of vision. They're in the tomb. They're in the coffin. But they never wrote that book. They were supposed to write. They never started that business. They never planted that church. God put that treasure in them. And they never gave birth to it. They're dead six feet under buried. That's wealth underground. Paul didn't have that testimony. He said everything that was in my heart to do. I did. All that God put in me. He got out of me. I'm being poured out a total drink offering. I'm done. I want to die empty. I don't want to die full. Empty. All that you put in me. Lord, get it out of me. Hallelujah. He knew in his spirit. It's time for me to go. I believe that's good. That's healthy. When you're walking close to the Lord, you think death is a surprise? Everybody went down in Tampa. Pastor, all the Holy Ghosts all the time. And it's not faith and doubt and unbelief. I'm just feeling my spirit. The Lord is shh. I'm transitioning over. Next verse, verse seven. I fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. No drift, no slow decline. But I'm crossing the finish line with gusto. Can you shout amen? Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that day. And not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing. Acts 20, verse 24. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. Just say this out loud as a confession of faith. I'm going to finish the race with strength. First Corinthians 9, 24. And then I want to go into a questionnaire that we should ask ourselves at least once a week. Spiritual checkups are healthy. And we should all conduct spiritual checkups on ourselves. Because we have line spots and drift happens. Ideally, you have people around you that keep you from drifting. But we live in a culture and a time where in America really, you know, when you visit other places and you're in touch with other cultures, you realize there's other cultures that people are in your business all the time. And that's normal. They still have the mentality of a village that's normal. They realize the benefit of that. Not so great for privacy. Not so great for that. America has. It runs through everything. Nation was birthed in independence and rebellion. It's a fact. And so what runs through us is a fiercely independent spirit. So even in close relationships, there's taboo subjects to talk about. Like how often do you have a friend that goes, you know, I feel like you've missed church a lot lately. Or you're coming to church all the time, but it's not the same. Are you all right? Who are you to question me? But the Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. A real friend will ask some difficult questions. But we live in a culture where that doesn't often happen. It's like, why are you digging in my salad? I leave you alone. Leave me alone. It's none of your business. That's between me. I once asked that. That's between when I was doing evangelism, you know, in college door to door. I said, you know, if you were to die today, do you know for certain that you go to heaven? And the person went back, that's between me and my God. Oh, okay. I'm here to help. That's private. Jesus didn't keep things private. He died naked on a mountain, elevated on a cross. There's no closet Christianity, amen. Anything holy can be shattered from the rooftops. So, do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize, run in such a way as to get the prize with determination, with focus. I'm asking you today, how do you, how do you want to be serving the Lord when you're 60, when you're 70, when you're 80, when you're 90? I've made plans. I'm not going to retire. You don't see it in the Bible. I'm going to refire. It doesn't mean I'll be here preaching. I may be at that time. Pastor Emeritus sitting here. Just praying into the thing and discipling and mentoring the next wave of leadership. But where am I going to go? Go and retire in Miami. Go to Boca. So I can backslide and then Satan take me out in my 80s as I slowly drift away. Go live in Margaritaville. What? Oh. Run with determination, run, run and see yourself serving the Lord. Hallelujah. Next verse. Verse 25. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but okay, everyone who competes in the games. It's amazing how much power the media team has. I mean, it's like I'm like, Lord, you control the service, but really? The media team. And so if you start to feel the heavy hand of God on you back there, that's why. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. He's saying, I am efficient. I am focused. I work smarter, not harder. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. I'm not shadow punching here. He's saying, I'm not playing any games. I'm making everything I do count and it's with purpose. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. So I want to give you a spiritual health checklist, something that we should ask ourselves at least once a week. And let me just say this, I recognize that drift happens. I recognize that you have to have things set up in your life to combat drift. I'm not talking about backsliding. In fact, just with somebody I'm mentoring, I said, be careful you're not drifting. The first thing they said was, I'm not backsliding. I said, I didn't say backsliding. Be careful you're not drifting. I'm not having sex, I'm like, bro. Okay, I'm glad. But I didn't mention any of those things. I'm just talking about drifting. We have to keep a fire in our relationship. I mean, we don't want to just drift slowly. Drifting is subtle. It's subtle until it isn't. Then all of a sudden you're doing things you never thought you'd be doing. You go to read the Bible and you're like, oh, satanic confusion comes in because you haven't kept your mind sharp with the word of God. So we need spiritual health checkups. So here's several questions number one. And this is an important one. I could have put it anywhere but I put it number one because it's the most offensive one. Has my giving and my generosity toward God's kingdom increased or decreased? Why is it offensive because it has to do with money? Why is that offensive? Because money is people's God. And the moment you mentioned money, people start winging out. Especially when a pastor mentions money. It's their self interest there and why he's preaching that. No, Jesus said that. He's the one who continuously connected how you handle money and generosity to your heart condition. He said, quote, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. So if you want to know how on fire you are, stick a thermometer in your giving and see how it reads. When people are in love with God, they are aware of how much they've been given and they hold the things of this earth loosely. And so your giving is a reflection of how much God has captured your heart. One of the first things to go before you backslide, not one of the first, always the first thing to go is people stop giving. And I'll just say this, I haven't counted an offering in over 20 years. I have no clue. But the reality is when CityLight was eight people, I was counting the offering. That was awkward and weird. I couldn't wait to stop counting the offering. But that's the one thing I was told is, but then I quickly noticed. All of a sudden someone stops giving or they're like completely lower their giving. You're like, huh, then they stop giving and then you never see them. Oh, Jesus is Lord of all. Really, you're wallet too. There is a connection. When God in Acts chapter 10 was looking for somebody to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. He sent an angel to Cornelius. And that angel said, I've come here. You got God's attention because of your prayers and your giving. Wow. You connect giving to the anointing to prayers? Yeah, because it shows what's in people's hearts. People who I'm close to, they all have something in common. They're generous. And if you're new here, you don't know my story. I gave 2.131 million dollars to the church personally last year. I paid back the church everything. It's ever paid me since 2002. I can't go into any more details. Ask another member. They've heard it already, enough times. But in case somebody, you have a guest, oh, God. It's the first time here and he's talking about money as his first point. All right, I'm fine. God has blessed me. My cup, run it over. How did J. Z. say it? Run it over with honey. All right. My cup, run it. I can't rhyme it. He does that word bending where he rhymes anything with anything. And I did that so he would continue to have my heart. Every time you give, you're showing God, you can trust me with more. Money hasn't become my God. Hallelujah. So stick with the moment in your giving. And it doesn't just have to do with a tie than the offering. It's how you treat people. When I'm looking for close friends, they have to be generous. I want to go out with people where I have to pay for that check. Pretend to go to the bathroom and pay for that check. Because if I don't, they'll do that. You know, you're the same way. Not maybe this way, but how long does your cheap skate friendship last? How long is it? How long do you go on with somebody who's always calculating in their mind? And I'm going to make sure I come out on top and they got last time. Somebody with a scrawny skinny heart like that, something is wrong. Something is broken. They need Jesus. They need healing. But we can't go deep because you're a heart that is close to give, is a heart that is close to receive. Amen. So number one in a spiritual checklist is stick a thermometer in your giving and go. And honestly, check your, evaluate your generosity. Number two, important question, which is why I see so many of you with your phones taking notes. Have I become slower to forgive and quicker to take offense? How am I forgiving? These two questions are actually so important. How is my giving and how quickly do I forgive people? Because when you're walking with the Lord, you are acutely aware of all of the crud, the nonsense, the sin he has forgiven you. And you're so grateful that you go through life with soft, gracious, merciful eyes, and you extend that forgiveness quickly to others. When you're quick to take offense, you're not living in light of how much God has forgiven you. Your heart has shriveled up. You've become the Grinch whose heart was two sizes too small. Can you imagine you have been forgiven of all of your sins past, present, and future? That's a lot. And then somebody offends you and you, you get an attitude with them. And you get hurt. And you get all cold and bitter. You just fell into a demonic trap. The Bible talks about the root of bitterness. It defiles many. When you're close with the Lord, you're living in light of this revelation. Everything about my life, prior to Jesus, everything about my very existence was in a front to heaven. You're aware of that, right? I'll just talk about me then. But the Bible says it's about all of humanity. There is none that seeks after God. There is none that is righteous. I was born with sin in iniquity that my mother conceived me. I needed a savior. I needed Jesus who would take away all my sin. Prior to that, I was without covenant. I was an alien. I had the, the Bible says I had the wrath of God abiding on me. And then Jesus and His mercy came and took all that away. If you haven't made Jesus your Lord in savior, you can receive all this for free by faith. That's what's being offered to you. And he did that for me. Now, someone's going to come and offend me. And I'm going to hold a grudge against them. What? Jesus spoke to this specifically. He told the parable. He talked about a man who had a debt. You can do the calculations. Last time I did these calculations 20, 25 years ago was something between 20 and 30 million dollars. This is like Matthew 18, Matthew 9th, Matthew 18-ish. And he was forgiven this 20 to 30 million dollar debt by the king. He owed it to the king. And the king said, you know, back then, when you needed to pay off a debt, they didn't garnish your wages. They put you in prison. Slave camps and things like that. So he was on his way and he fell on his knees as a please forgive me and the king graciously forgave him. And as he was leaving being forgiven on his way back home, he ran into a lower servant who owed him the equivalent of about 20 bucks. And that servant fell on his knees and said, please forgive me. And he said, no. The Bible actually says he grabbed him by the throat and said, he was Tony soprano. Grab them by the throat and said, pay me what you owe me with my big. And when the king heard of that, he said, grab that wicked servant. And this is the quote, hand him over to the torturers. So Jesus gave this parable to demonstrate that servant is an example of a Christian who was pardoned of a 30 million dollar debt he could never ever pay. But then he wouldn't pardon someone else. What happens to that Christian? They live life in a tortured state. They're handed over to the torturers. If you're hanging onto Britannus, you're hanging onto a grudge. That is showing that you're not walking in full revelation about God has forgiven you. You've come out of intimacy with the Lord. You got a Grinch-like heart. You said, what's step one? Step one is recognizing how much what garbage truck full of junk God has forgiven you. We always tend to minimize our own sins. Sometimes we act like we're doing God a favor by serving him. Be glad for the oxygen in your nostrils. Be glad for another day. You think about your sin. Now multiply that by a thousand. That's actually your sin count. Don't do it too long. You'll get depressed. Focus on the blood, forgiveness, the new birth. But you've been forgiven so much. Hallelujah. There's some people they look for offense. They're like an offense assignment. You know these people. Maybe you are these people. I'm so glad you're here to hear this. But there's people. They cannot wait to be offended. They look for offense. They're online. You can say online. I really like bananas. What do you mean you hate oranges? They're ready to rumble. They're looking to be. And you know what it is? They don't even get offended. They take offense. Somebody said, oh, I don't like that person. They offended me. They just went about their business. They don't even know what they did wrong. You took offense. Any opportunity to get offended. And by the way, culture in the last 10 to 15 years has really accelerated this. Because we reward victimhood. We prize anyone who's been hurt. We lift them up. So now everybody like victimhood has become a currency in today's culture. So everybody's running to be a victim. Why are you nodding that way? I mean, that's offensive. You've hurt my feelings. It seems like you're into the service. But I don't like the energy. I'm not comfortable with you that way. That's the new thing. I'm not comfortable. My daughter started saying that. I don't know where she learned it. Well, I know where she learned it in school. But I'm not good. Because what do you say to someone? Fella told me. He smokes cigars. He smelled like cigar smoke. He went to the bank. And the teller said, I'm not comfortable with you right now. And he's like, what do you want me to do? I've been smoking? Yeah, I smoke cigars. But I'm not comfortable with you right now. I just want my money. It's a way to paint someone into a court. I'm sorry. My very existence is making you uncomfortable. How do I change this? I just want to deposit this check. Hallelujah. Forgive. You know all of therapy. I'm going to save you tens of thousands of dollars. All of therapy can be summarized in one word. All inner healing. All where they eventually trying to get you to. You ready? Forgive. Forgive. You don't know. But it's hard. I know. Sometimes forgiveness isn't most of the time. If it's real bitterness, you're not going to just go, okay, fine. I forgive them. It's going to be a daily process. Sometimes a hundred times a day. But every time you think of them and your body tenses up. And you imagine choking them? Now shift that. And so a hundred times a day, you're going to have to go, I release them. I cancel their debt. Say that out of it. I cancel it because you're holding a debt against them. You want retribution. You want vengeance. You want... You're even upset that God, God who can be the great smiter, hasn't smitten them yet. You're like, God, why not? And that's where Jesus served another man. He's like, I make my son to shine on the just and on the unjust. I make my reign to fall on the just and the unjust. And you're back in the Old Testament and go, but you said vengeance is mine. Say, it's the Lord. You know what there's, let me just put a pause on that sermon. There's a scripture in Romans that says, if somebody offends you, hurts you, give them a cup of cold water. For in so doing, you will heap colds of fire upon their head. How many of you know that verse? All right. That's great. 20 of you are reading your Bible. I'm so encouraged to pass to this church. Next sermon is going to be on biblical literacy. Next time they don't miss it. So some Christians get very excited. They think it's a formula and how to get God to punish someone else. Because they read that as, oh, if someone hurts me, I give them a cup of cold water. And then God is obligated to heap colds of hot fire on their heads. Yeah. Really what that's saying is, colds, ashes, was a sign of repentance. It means that when you are kind to someone who has been unkind to you, your kindness will draw them to putting ashes on their head to actually repenting. The same way how God's kindness towards us causes us to repent. Because while we were still sinners, he was kind to us and he loved us and he forgave us. Amen. Remember, that person who hurt you, I'm not belittling whatever they did. But you're giving them a gift. Do they deserve it? No. But you got a gift. Did you deserve it? No. So give that same gift. And don't get too bogged down in the fine print. Whenever I start hitting, bitterness, resentment, because there's full blown unforgiveness, then there's the twin cousins that are more sneaky, bitterness and resentment. Full blown unforgiveness, you can see 10 miles away. But you know when somebody mentions that person's name and you just, and it's like somebody threw a few grains of sand in your heart? Yeah. God's after that. He doesn't want those grains of sand in your heart. When you tense up, so whenever I preach on that, the people with issues then want to talk to me and they get into the nitty gritty. They want to know the rules. They go, all right. So, can I forgive? But not forget. No. You got to forgive and forget because God's forgiven. All right. All right. How about this? I'll forgive, but I won't trust. All right. Why won't you trust? Because they hurt me and I don't want to be heard again. And then what about it in the abusive situation? What about it in the... Jesus didn't get into all that. He just said, forgive. You're in an abusive situation. Forgive them. Get away from them. Get a restraining order as you forgive them. That's fine. Don't focus on all the little rules. Just forgive. How will I know? You will know because it'll feel like an elephant got lifted off of your neck. That's how you know you forgiven. Hallelujah. Stop nursing that bitterness. There's a demon that comes and makes you in a sick way. Feel more righteous as you rehash that person's offenses. And the only one getting hurt is the person who's been handed over to the torturers. You. Three. Oh, there'll be no drift. No summer swamp. Lord set us ablaze that we might burn for you. Like when they saw John the Baptist, it says he was a bright and shining, burning lamp, cause our flame to not flicker. Hallelujah. We're not going to be flashes in the pan, fly by nights. No stories of I remember. I remember when he was on fire. I remember when she was serving the Lord. Three. Where's my son so I can apologize to him? Okay. Am I still burdened for lost people? Am I still burdened? This is a question number three to ask for our spiritual temperature. Am I still burdened for lost people? Do I care about people's eternity? Do I care about the realities of heaven and hell? This will always show where you are, where your fire is every single time. Because when you're drifting from God, you don't really care anymore. You don't think about that. People, I don't know how it works, they never, they never care. When I got saved, I realized very quickly, wow, I'm going to heaven. And all these other people around me that I love that are in my life that I play sports with, it was going into junior year of high school, all my hangout friends, none of them have Jesus. None of them have received the blood sacrifice. None of them have been born again. They're all hell bound. How cruel would it be if I didn't tell them? It's like everybody's poisoned on an island and you have the antidote and you're like, well, you know, the antidote is a private thing. People get offended when you discuss the antidote. And they're like, you know, I don't talk politics, I don't talk antidote. It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode. You under 30, there was in the 90s this show called Seinfeld. It was really big before there wasn't Netflix, before Max. It was a show set right here in New York City. And Elaine got this boyfriend. They never called him a born again Christian, but he was a born again Christian. I kept talking about God, God, it was into Jesus. And Elaine is an atheist on the show. And she turns to a boyfriend and says, hey, you're always talking about God. Does it bother you that I don't believe in God? And the boyfriend says, no, I'm not the one that's going to hell. But most Christians, that was not a good attitude, by the way. That's not how Christians should be. Yet that is how many Christians are. We are here, CityLight church exists to broadcast the gospel so people can come to Jesus so they can be transferred from darkness and into his marvelous light. Many people here hear about the blood of Jesus, the saving grace of God, the power of the cross, the finished work of the cross, they hear it here for the first time. Those dots are connected and they realize this is what I need to believe, what I must do to be saved. This is what we live for. Oh my goodness. This is what we live for. I love you, I'm sorry. This is why we exist. This is what you drive and propel Christians. I believe the volunteers, the ones who decided to serve, they get that. They're like, oh, I'm helping build a place that's multiplying the gospel. Stick a thermometer in your personal witness. Do you actually care? Do you ever pray for your coworkers, your neighbors, your friends? Oh, they're Christian, why? Because they say they are? You know they have no fruit of Christianity. Technically, I was a Christian. People ask, what are you? Well, I'm not Muslim, I'm not Jewish. I'm Greek Orthodox. So yeah, I'm a Christian. Never read one verse of the Bible in my life, been to church five times in my life before I was 16, but called myself a Christian. Thank God somebody didn't go, oh, you're a Christian, you're good. No, they gave me the gospel. That's like when people want to date an unbeliever and you go, hey, are they saved? They go to church. Whenever someone tells me they go to church, come on now. When, Christmas and Easter, four times in the last five years, come on. Are they saved? Amen. Hallelujah. All right. So, how's my giving? How quickly am I forgiving? Am I still burdened for lost people? Thank you, Jesus. Am I closer to God, number four, am I closer to God than I was a year ago? Just ask yourself that. Because there will be, in your relationship with the Lord, there will be ups and downs. There's lulls. I experienced that. I went through this thing in 2019. I got touched by the fire of a God in a fresh way. It was incredible. I was like praying eight to ten hours a day. I know some of you think that's what I do now, but it's not. To other things. I was praying eight to ten hours a day for months and months and months. I would go alone into St. Andrews and start at eight in the morning. And I would often have to go into seven to eight into the night, 12 hours a day. And it was easy. I couldn't wait to wake up. You know that? That puppy love feeling in high school when you first fell in love? That's how I felt about Jesus. I'd wake up like Jesus. And then there were seasons where I wake up and I wake up all, I got a headache. And it's like, I checked my phone. I remember this season. I checked my phone for like ten days straight. I was living in Brooklyn at the time. Ten days straight. It was February and the temperature was always below ten degrees for ten days. It was like five degrees. How do I go? Six degrees. And I had a dog I had to walk to. And I slowly waddle over to the shower. And when the water hit me, I think, I didn't even say good morning. I didn't even think to you. I'm not even talking about prayer. I'm just talking about the thought to God. There are lows. But even there are times. I can't wait to read the word. There are times where it's, oh man, I got to read the word. I'll give you just a secret. Be transparent with the Lord. Because he knows how you're feeling about it. He knows what you're going through. He continually give yourself to him. That thing that Paul said, I'm now, I'm being poured out as a drink offering. That speaks to him, dying empty, giving his life for the gospel. But it also shows how he viewed himself. He's ready to be poured out. Be like a vessel that's always being fully poured out. Nothing held back to the Lord, even when you're going through the lows. Is this helping anybody today? Amen. We're going to receive communion here in just a little bit. Here's another question. Are we at number five? What currently excites me the most? And guys, like in a little bit, in like five minutes. Thank you, team. They are awesome. They're like the secret service of CityLight. They like heard the code word. He says the C word. He said communion. Praise God. This is why we rent the whole penthouse rooftop for our volunteers, because of that caliber of helps. Now listen, what do you daydream about? What really gets your juices flowing? What pushes your buttons? What excites you? That's what's captured your heart. So monitor that. I used to go for decades. I mean, since I got saved, I had a routine where when I would fall asleep, I would think to Jesus, I would pray. It would be like I was snuggling with the Lord every night. How many do you know what I'm talking about? You're going to bed. You're like, oh, Lord. Basically, you just open up your heart like a sponge and you're receiving his love. You're unburdening as you drift off to sleep. It's a beautiful way to fall asleep. It's what I've done for decades. And then a couple of years ago, when I started making that crazy Bitcoin money, and the option started exploding, and I would see, guys, and I shared this to get this anointing on you. I shared this for the sake of prosperity, and if it upsets you, I don't know what to tell you. That's your problem, not mine. This actually happened to my life, so I'm sharing from it. Like I share with you embarrassing stuff. Everybody loves it. I share a success. I always got to talk about that. I'm watching my portfolio go up on the daily up or down. Five, six, seven years of what my annual salary is. That does something to your psyche. So now I'm going to sleep. On a bad day, I'm going, oh, Lord, will there be anything left? And a good day, I'm starting to dream about my portfolio. Like I'm actually thinking of that. I'm going, wow. Oh, I'm like, five X this thing by the end of the month. Wow. Like, it happened one night, two night, three night, four night. Fifth night, I turned to my Michael Babies. I'm getting sick. Something's wrong. This is not good. That's by the way, what many things that I did that you don't even know, but part of the reason I gave that money, which was, there wasn't a tithe. That was many multiples of a tithe. Because when you give, you're showing that thing doesn't have a power over you. You're showing it doesn't have a hold on you. When you give, you're showing, all right, that is not my God. And now, Lord, you can trust me with more, but it's not. Lord, you set the level of my prosperity. That's by the way, in Proverbs, that the Lord sets the level of your prosperity. But just note, He wants you to prosper. But anyway, back to this. I knew something was wrong because something else, in this case, prophets captured my heart. And that's what I was thinking about. That's what I was danger. You say, oh, I don't have that problem. But maybe you're falling asleep thinking about your problems. You're rehashing your problems. Listen, there's people who are addicted to anxiety. They're addicted to ruminating thoughts. Their thoughts, they just go all over the place, go all around the room, and then just come back to you. Nothing is solved. But you're addicted in that cycle. Break that addiction in Jesus' name. What excites you? What pushes your buttons? What gets your juices flowing? It's got to be Jesus. And we're going to receive communion really soon. I'm not a prophet, but I'd say probably in about a minute or two. Probably. My final point. If my spiritual life continues on its current trajectory, where will I be in five years? If my spiritual life continues in the current trajectory, where will I be in five years? You've all heard that saying. It's a form of insanity to do the same thing over and over again. And expect a different result. So if this is the road, I'm going down over five years. Where will I really be? Well, if you want to change, engage the Lord to help you change. By the way, I hope you... They're going to start passing out communion. Just hang on to the communion elements. And we'll receive them all together. None of this is supposed to be... This isn't me going raw, raw. You got to do more. You got to psych yourself up. You got to serve God with more vigor. This is me saying drift happens. Only the Lord can help. Run to Jesus for help in keeping your fire going. You can't do it on your own. I can't do it on my own. If this... If I had full control of this ship... I... I shudder to think, right? You don't got to agree with me so readily, Pastor Moe. You can like... Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we thank you for your saving power and we thank you for your keeping power. We thank you, Father, that you're the one who keeps the flame burning. We thank you that you look after us. You give us an empowerment from heaven to say yes to God things and say no to evil things. To make the right decisions, to cause that flame to never go out, that we, like Paul, would be able to say we've ran the race, we've finished the course, we're ready to be poured out like an offering, a drink offering, unto the Lord. That we die empty, empty of everything that you've put in our hearts to do. I pray in Jesus' name for you, for special grace to engage heaven this week, to engage the Lord, to be intimate with him, to enjoy him. Hey, news flash, in Jesus' name, enjoy your salvation. How about that? This is not supposed to be burdensome. Religion is awful, suck the life right out of you. But salvation is meant to be enjoyed. You have eternal life, you have the living, all mighty God, over you, within you, around you. It was for freedom that Christ has set you free. Enjoy what He purchased with His own blood. And we're about to receive communion, which is partaking of Jesus. And as you partake of Jesus, believe that you receive. Let me tell you how communion is supposed to go down. It's not mysterious. You need things, examine yourself. You need stuff in your life. When you partake a communion, use it as a point of contact, and say, Lord, I trust you to fix this in my life, because you're partaking of Jesus. Jesus has already died, so that you can have wholeness in every area of your life. He didn't just die to see your sins forgiven. He died to bring wholeness, blessing, peace in every area. So if that is missing in some area of your life, think of it right now. And say, Lord, as I partake of Christ, I trust that you will fill that up. That you will meet that need. Can you do that? So you take, look, some people just eat some moths and drink some grape juice. Others take communion. Did you catch that? What's the difference? Faith? I don't want to eat moths. I don't like moths. It's dry. All right. I don't like welches. I like ketim. I don't want to eat moths' injury grape juice. I want to receive communion and activate the supernatural power of God. Go ahead and partake of the body and blood of Jesus right now. Right now! I made the power of God flood your life! Supernatural miracles happening in your life! A change while you're in here with your eyes on Jesus receiving communion. He's out there in your place to work. Right where the problems are. And he's fixing and healing and blessing in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. And please remember that when you're walking with the Lord, guilt, shame, condemnation is not a part. It's not a portion for you. It's not a part of your life. Please note that. You can actually hear a message that challenges you, that exposes you, and not feel condemned and shamed. That's the healthy responses. Wow, I still know that God loves me. I might be drifting. You might be here fully backslidden. You might be here unsaved. A friend brought you in. You've never given your life to Jesus. You do what you want. You live for yourself. You can be convicted by the Holy Spirit. You need a Savior. You need forgiveness. But you don't have to be ashamed, condemned. Mm-hmm. Those who, the person who isn't saved when you come to Jesus, that'll lift before that you do have that. But the Christian, no shame, no condemnation, no guilt. I get zapped by the Lord all the time. I don't then go crawling a corner boohoo. I'm such a wretch. I still know that you love me. In your eyes, I'm still perfect. You don't see one speck of sin in me. You called me holy. You've put me in the family of God. But you're exposing somewhere I need work in, an area that you want to touch. And I yield to that, Lord. Amen. Amen.