Exposing the Enemy's Playbook

00:00 - Speaker 1 When I'm 85 years old, I want to be more fiery than I am today. You cannot have a lukewarm Christianity, Jesus said I will spit you out of my mouth. You're neither cold nor hot, but are lukewarm. I will vomit you out of my mouth. Lord, keep your fire in us, keep your zeal in us. God, baptize us a fresh and holy fire for all of City. Light Church in Jesus' name. 00:31 - Speaker 2 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 Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. That he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:06 - Speaker 1 The title of my sermon is Notes from the Other Side Exposing the Enemy's Playbook. How many of you have read the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis? Oh, just a handful. A lot more in the first service. If you haven't, you should read it. It's an easy read. It's a short read. It's a fun read. It's a short read. It's a fun read. It's a light read. I feel like I'm doing an ad for a book of the month. Club Reading is fundamental. 01:35 And he CS Lewis, who is a Christian writer very prolific, very profound, very insightful. It was written in 1941. And you know, something is insightful and profound when it was written nearly a century ago and it still matters today and it's still relevant today. And the screw tape letters are that way. And really the premise of the screw tape letters are two demons talking One, a senior demon known as Screwtape, giving advice to young Wormwood, a junior demon. And so it's all from the perspective of these demons, revealing their strategy and how they entice and tempt man to fall away from Christ, how they attempt to blind them so that they should either never serve the Lord or stop serving the Lord. And I don't know about you, but I want to be on fire now until I get there, amen. I don't want my fire to grow dimmer and dimmer by the year. I want it, as the Bible promises, for it to be brighter and brighter and brighter each and every successive year. 02:46 And we're not to be ignorant of the devil's devices. You know, I find in church people always tend to go to one extreme or another. Either they focus completely on Satan and they become like a PhD in demonology and get all weird and flaky, or they don't even really believe that Satan exists, that there isn't a person, that he's just kind of like an abstract force, like a negative energy. No, there is the demonic and there is a Satan and he has been defeated for the born-again believing Christian and he's under our feet to the degree that we believe he's been defeated, amen. But he's always trying to deceive and trying to get us to fall slowly, get us to get colder and colder until we forsake the faith if we're in the faith. And Paul says don't be ignorant of his devices, of his wiles. And Paul says don't be ignorant of his devices, of his wiles, of his strategies. So I want to, just because it's a fun weekend, fourth of July weekend, let's go through ten of these, from the screw tape letters from this senior demon, affectionately referred to as Uncle Screw Tape affectionately referred to as Uncle Screwtape and how he advises that demons should come to humans and how they should entice them and cause them to grow cold and forsake the faith. 04:16 Number one noise and distraction. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds. In reality, our best work is done by keeping things out. So as humans, we're very aware of invasive thoughts. You are right. Sometimes you're just minding your own business. All of a sudden, a thought that you realize is an ungodly thought, it just comes out of nowhere. It's really like a demon just threw a projectile, a dart, right at you. And then, by the way, you can't overcome thoughts with other thoughts. You can only overcome thoughts with words. And so we realize he does come from the outside in and we pay attention to that. But we may not realize that also, part of their strategy is to keep God's thoughts out. So how do they do that With noise and distraction, again written in 1941. 05:18 How noisy could it have been. When I think of my childhood in the 80s, even if you watch an old 80s movie, or you watch an 80s movie that takes place in the 50s, like Stand by Me, one of the first things, one of the first things that's so strange to me is when I think about my childhood. It was so quiet, but there were distractions then, but how much more so now. And so how does God speak to us? In the stillness, in the silence. I would venture to say that over half of my prayer is quiet prayer, what's known as soaking prayer. That really, really I notice West Coast former Christian hippies love soaking prayers. It's like I'm soaking, and anybody with a Catholic background loves the term. 06:12 Contemplative prayer, meditative prayer, listening prayer, old school Pentecostal, waiting on the Lord, waiting, it all means the same thing. It means you're not talking, and it's very difficult to do from a human perspective. Why? Because we like to work, we like to be busy, we like to do something. If I'm not talking, God's going to get bored and distracted by somebody in China who is, so I got to yell and talk and keep it going to keep his attention, and you don't have to do any of that. In fact, Jesus cautioned against talking too much. I actually believe that some of our prayers are too long. 06:53 Jesus said don't think you'll be heard for your much speaking when I need something from the Lord like the prayer of petition, short and sweet, under 30 seconds. I mean, how many different ways can you word Mark 11, 24? This is what I need, lord. This is what your word promises me. I believe you that I receive this, amen. Now, if I add anything more to that, I'm just kind of trying with my verbosity to twist his arm into doing what I want him to do. No, I want him to do what he already said he would do in his word. So that leaves a whole lot of room for us to be still before the Lord and it's uncomfortable. But if you can press past that discomfort, you will strike. Well, I'm telling you, you will hit a gusher. 07:39 Every time I've had a major breakthrough in my life I mean every time, like clockwork it was always prefaced with another time of dedicated still prayer, contemplative prayer, being quiet. You say well, what do you think about? I think about Jesus. Well, what happens when your mind wanders? Oh, it does. I wander it back In the beginning. When you try this, you'll notice your mind is very undisciplined. After 15 seconds you're thinking about your to-do list. The dog hasn't been walked. I wonder what I should make for dinner tonight. You'd be like there's my phone across the room calling out to me. I should just check it just once. You say no to that. You focus on Jesus now. Next time you make it a full minute, then you'll make it a minute and 10 seconds. Next thing you know you can go 20 minutes and you're comfortable being still. 08:32 There is such a preciousness to that because the Bible says he will come to you with a still small voice. There's a reason. Do you know? The majority of miracles in the Bible took place in the morning. Jesus sought the Father early in the morning. In the Old Testament you'll see that phrase early will I seek you, lord? When it's quiet. In fact, the Bible says to seek him while the dew is still on the grass, when there's a stillness. When there's a quietness, when the world hasn't woken up yet, you can be still before the Lord. He has no problem with you sometimes not saying a word. Good morning Lord, hallelujah. And then just be with him. 09:12 Jesus said this to Martha. He rebuked her. He said you're so busy Martha is indicative of your typical churchgoer Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And he said, martha, you're so encumbered about. Look at Mary just sitting at my feet hearing my word. Just to sit at his feet and hear his word. Sometimes his word is simple, like I'm with you and I love you. But when I've done that part of being still before the Lord, then I can be somewhere where I'm not even seeking him. I can be driving my car, and because I've done the work of being still before him earlier, I'll just get a word from the Lord. Amen, hallelujah. So this applied back in 1941. How much now, when we have phones and we're really messing ourselves up with the distraction of phones. 10:10 I took my wife to Vegas a few months ago because we needed to double or maybe even triple our building fund and we just thought Jesus, let it ride. See the people who, like me, sit close so they know to laugh. I notice nobody in the back laughed. It's almost like if I didn't clear you out last Sunday with my talk on Israel, I will today. So praise God, I know the joy of the Lord is my strength. 10:52 No, she's never been. I've never been. I went once, but it was to a church conference, so I never saw Vegas. So I wanted to take her to Vegas. We saw all like the cheesy classic tourist stuff, went to Red Rock Canyon, went to Hoover Dam, went to Cirque du Soleil and then, of course, I had to, because he was one of the first people I saw when I first immigrated here in 1981. 11:16 Little five-year-old kid, he made the Statue of Liberty disappear. David Copperfield I went to David Copperfield and he did something that was very offensive. He took my phone away. He took all of our phones away and it was on a lockbox at our table. Nobody could have a phone, and I'm not telling you those first ten minutes without, because I always have it with me. Those first ten minutes I felt like that Dave Chappelle meme. You know, anybody got a phone. I need my phone Like a drug addict. But you know what I noticed? After 10 minutes I was fine. After 15 minutes I was better. It didn't take that long to detox. My wife is free. She'll go on whole entire walks and leave her phone at home. Wow, I'm like no, babe, I need mine because it counts my steps. But one day I'm going to be like you, hopefully sooner than later. Thank you, I'm encouraging you to resist these distractions. 12:34 There are people, really there are people that are terrified to be alone. You see it all the time People who their minds now are so gooey like a lava lamp, just that, if like a crack addict, if they can't have it in front of their face, they're so terrified of being alone with their own thoughts for even five minutes. If this is you, there is help. Dial 1-800-NO. There is help. It's not a number, his name is Jesus, but it will help you tremendously to be. Look, it's excruciating. Before phones were ubiquitous, it was excruciating. 13:12 Then, when I first started to study meditative prayer, contemplative prayer, listening prayer, it was so lonely Because during that prayer you're not talking, you're just being. You're being a human being and not a human doing. And then Satan comes and attacks you and says, oh, you're doing this wrong or you're doing nothing, but you're doing everything. You're sitting at his feet and just waiting to hear his word. And if you're going to go and attempt this and you never have be ready for the first five, six times for nothing to happen, and you're going to go and attempt this and you never have be ready for the first five, six times, for nothing to happen, and you're going to feel like you wasted your time and Satan will tell you that you wasted your time. But do it again the seventh time anyway. Then do it again the eighth and you will hit a gusher in the Holy Spirit. It will be such a joy and a delight to you as you go to just meet with the Lord and just be with him. It'll be amazing. Hallelujah. 14:07 Number two anxiety From the screw tape letters. There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against God. How many of you have ever felt anxiety Just kidding everybody, in fact, just yesterday, right, and the day before, nobody. What a bold bunch of lions you are, and by lions I don't mean the animal, I mean you're a lion. This is the thing People have anxiety. I had quite a moment yesterday. 14:49 That was just yesterday, saturday morning, because Friday we left for Manhattan, because I've lived in New York City for 44 plus years and then two years ago we sold out and moved to Long Island. I have to say it that way, because that's what I always thought about people who left New York City. What a sellout you need to suffer in New York City and live in a shoebox, stick one of the kids in a broom closet. No, we moved to Long Island and the funny thing is, while I lived for those 44 plus years in New York City, my greatest goal on 4th of July was to get out of the city. And then we get out of the city and we're like, hey, let's go into the 4th of July, into the city. So it was a wonderful day. We're walking everywhere because in New York City there's this thing called walking, which Long Island doesn't have. And we're walking everywhere. 15:41 And we got a hotel for the night in the East Village and it actually had a view of the East River. We saw the fireworks popping off. And then we woke up early Sunday morning and we were just a few blocks from Tompkins Square Park, which is just half a block away from City Light Church in the East Village where we had a location for 17 years. So I said let's grab breakfast and go eat it in Tompkins Square Park. So now it's. 16:09 Guys, do you know what July 5th looks like in Manhattan? It was like less dense than COVID, than the height of COVID. I mean, it was like the trumpet had sounded. Everybody went up and nobody there. And I'm sitting now. But this is what I want to when I want to tell you I'm sitting on the bench. 16:28 So I was 26 year old. 26 years old when I founded City Light with no denominational support, with no sponsorship alone, and nearly died in the process. It was such time, my mid-twenties, riddled with anxiety. So now I'm here with my wife. I'm in the most blessed season I've been in up until now, experiencing his goodness, that song, his faithfulness. And I'm sitting there and I'm looking at a park where I used to walk and pray. In that park, full of anxiety. I mean, I had every dark season of my 20s and my 30s I experienced in Tompkins Square Park. And now I'm 49, I'll be 50 in half a year. We're having a party. You're all invited. Can't wait to see you there, you know. By the way, you know what? We've rented terrace on the park. We've rented terrace. I've never had a party, never talked about my birthday. We're usually fasting right in the middle of my birthday, but for my 50th we're going to have a time. 17:40 But anyway, my mid-20s, oh, my early 30s, full of anxiety and I had to learn how to handle that stuff because it was like a broken record in my head. You're going to lose, you're going to fail, you've wasted your future, you're a nothing. This will turn to nothing. Quit, quit, just quit. Why aren't you quitting it? Quit because you're such a loser, you're such a failure. Quit Because you're such a loser, you're such a failure, quit. I know none of you have ever heard these thoughts before. 18:12 How do you overcome anxiety? One thing in particular. I can tell you 20 things that will work. But one thing that I've just found helpful to me, maybe it'll be helpful to you, is found in 1 Peter, chapter five, I believe, verse seven. It's something you got to do Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. There's hundreds of scriptures that tell you don't be afraid, don't worry, don't be anxious. But this one especially. In the Amplified Bible it says casting the whole of your care once and for all on him. Once and for all. Because what happens when you cast your care on the Lord? Somehow you sneak it back. 30 seconds later, I miss it. Where did that giant trash bag full of my cares go? I'm so used to carrying it around like an anxious Santa Claus. So picture yourself with that bag of cares. You're hurling it at his feet. Now I'll tell you why. I didn't want to do this bag of cares. You're hurling it at his feet. Now I'll tell you why I didn't want to do this. 19:12 Because the way I was brought up, I was taught to be very, very responsible. And if I just cast my care upon the Lord, that seemed irresponsible to me. Because I had people in my life who were like Hakuna Matata Christians, like oh, I don't have a worry. And I'm thinking you kind of should. Like you haven't even filed your taxes in three years and you're just Christians, will do crazy stuff and go. You know, Bible says don't worry. No, for that maybe. Don't worry, but be concerned in a godly way, like handle your business, do what's right. So to me, not worrying was the same as not having responsibility. But I'm not talking about Hakuna Matata. Just don't worry because you know it'll all work out. 19:54 No, you're existing with God saving your behind. You're living from miracle to miracle. What's wrong with that? I don't want to live from miracle to miracle. There's actually a better way, even higher, where you don't need a miracle every two weeks, amen. You're just living in his peace and his provision and his abundance. And it's like oh, God, rescue me. Oh, he came through again. You know, I prefer not drowning but walking on the water, hallelujah. 20:20 So take your trash bag full of anxieties right, you're getting overwhelmed, you're getting overcome. Anxieties right, you're getting overwhelmed, you're getting overcome. Put it at the Lord's feet and if you're just new to this, you'll notice after about 30 seconds you stole it back. So then, out loud, stop again and say, lord, these anxieties, these worries, these cares, I put them at your feet, I cast them on you. You're big enough to handle them. I'm not, you're not intimidated of that bag. I am. I'm not doing this in a way where I'm being irresponsible, but it is an act of faith. I'm inviting you into this problem and that's the key difference. I'm not just saying, oh, I don't want to think about this. I'm saying, lord, I can handle this, you can. Every single time you do that, you'll notice you get more rest in between the next batch of anxiety, until you can live an anxiety-free life, hallelujah. And when problems come and they will they don't cause anxiety, but you face them from a place of peace, calmness, hallelujah. Knowing the Lord will give you the victory. Amen, amen. Number three is this blessing you All right Self-hatred, which you know if you've been coming to City Light. 21:39 I'm big on this and some people I haven't been criticized for it. But I've seen the nature of some people online where they would say oh, are you pastoring one of those feel-good churches where you just tell the people over and over again that God's a God of grace and that he loves them no matter what? Yeah, I am, because that's what I see in the Bible and what they're really saying is. But you need to belt them over the head here and there. I mean, don't let them feel too good about themselves and what Jesus has done, just occasionally, just to remind them. After all, this is church and you should feel miserable about your existence from time to time, but that's not God's way. Jesus said to Peter feed my sheep, not beat my sheep. 22:27 But it turns out self-hatred was a thing in 1941 too, and in 1841, and in 1741. And you'll find that man, universal man, since the dawn of man, on every continent, has struggled with these demons that come, these demons of self-deprecation, where you're told you're not enough, you're not good enough, and one of the key things people struggle with is self-hatred. That's why we lift up Jesus, because he wipes that away, because there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Amen. We lift up the blood of Jesus, because it's via the blood of Jesus that you are wiped squeaky clean. God doesn't just love you, do you know? He likes you With all your stuff, with all your brokenness. He loves you through into holiness. Maybe you don't enjoy you, but God actually enjoys you. 23:32 I'm speaking to Christians here. If you're not a Christian, become one. I highly recommend it. We don't have a six-week class for it. Confess your sins to God, tell him you are a sinner and say Jesus, I trust in you for my righteousness. I trust in you. I look to the cross. I want a relationship with you. 23:53 Congratulations. Now you're a Christian. And now God, the Father, looks at you through a filter of the blood of Jesus and cannot find one thing wrong with you. Now you're approved and you're accepted. I have to say approved and accepted because those are the words that the Bible uses, because the big thing today in PC culture is well, you're accepted, everybody should be accepted. So, gotcha, yeah, great, you're accepted, fine, but are you approved? But through the blood of Jesus you're also approved. The Bible says you're justified, which means that you're pronounced not guilty. 24:24 Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, I'm having the time of my life. I really am, because the Lord has done a work in my heart recently that I didn't even know needed to be done. It really really began in 2020 during COVID, where some of those other remaining elements of performance were taken away. And you know, even for pastors any pastor worth their weight in salt. They want to be the best pastor. They can be the best pastor that God has called them to be. But our wires can get crossed because when you see other successful pastors, you might want to be like them. But I can only be who God has called me to be, and when I made my peace with that, I became an even healthier version of who God called me to be. And I'm saying all this for you, because your job is not to be somebody else, it's not to fulfill somebody else's calling. It's to find out what the Lord has for you and then just do that, no more, no less. And there is such a peace and a rest in that Hallelujah. 25:43 Number four lukewarm faith. Here's what Uncle Screwtape said to Wormwood A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all and more amusing. I find that hilarious Because demons are even more amused with a lukewarm Christian than a total non-Christian. I just made a decision when I was 16 years old and those kids, those other teenagers were witnessing to me. I made a decision I'm going to go all in or I'm not going in at all. If you're at City Light, I'm pretty confident that you made that same decision. 26:26 Well, are you a fundamentalist? No, I just kind of decide what I like the Bible to say, and then the parts I don't like I just cut those out. Yeah, I'm a fundamentalist. You see how other Christians treat you. You know cultural Christians treating parts of the Bible like they're suggestions. 26:48 No, no, he gave his life for me and he wants me to give my life for him. And his life is worth a lot more. So I'm getting a good deal here. What's my life worth? Nothing. He gave his life for me. All he wants is my life in return. But I want a fire For the sake of my children. I want a fire For the sake of my children. I want a fire For the sake of my children's children. I want a fire when I'm 85 years old. I want to be more fiery than I am today. 27:15 You cannot have a lukewarm Christianity. Jesus said. I will spit you out of my mouth. You're neither cold nor hot but are lukewarm. I will vomit you out of my mouth. Lord. Keep your fire in us. Keep, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Lord, keep your fire in us. Keep your zeal in us. God, baptize us. A fresh and holy fire for all of City. Light Church in Jesus' name. Hallelujah, you can always test your fire. You know what a good measure of your fire is. It's your generosity with people in your giving you. Show me a stingy person. I'll show you somebody who's got a cold heart. Hallelujah Also, the lordship of Christ. When your whole heart attitude is Lord, all I want is what you want for me. That's a good measure that your fire is at a good temperature. 28:08 Cold, lukewarm Christians they act like they can do anything. I can't do anything. I'm hopefully one of the freest people you'll ever meet. He set me free, but I can't go anywhere. I want to. I can't do anything. I want to. I'm on a short leash and I wouldn't have it any other way. Paul said I'm on a short leash and I wouldn't have it any other way. Paul said I'm a bondservant. He said I'm a slave, but in chains of love. In other words, a bondservant was someone who actually wanted to be attached to a better house and was willing to serve there, but so that they could be in the master's household. Hallelujah Number five wasting time. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption my time is my own. I found that, on average, christians are praying less, but they have more free time than ever before. Does anybody really believe that we're as busy as we pretend to be? We're really not. 29:15 It used to take 90 plus hours a week to keep a regular, normal household going, and I'm not talking about 500 years ago, I'm talking about the turn of the 20th century, in the early 1900s. I had a glimpse into that growing up in former Yugoslavia as a kid and going back there every summer, because my grandparents were constantly moving and working. Just to keep a small household going, they had to go to the market every day because their food doesn't have preservatives like ours does. So they had to get milk every day. Can you believe that the next week the milk would stink? They had to get a loaf of bread every single morning. You wait two days. It was like, hard as a brick, our bread. You can drop a slice behind your couch, find it five years later and it's still soft and fluffy. You ever drop a McDonald's french fry in your car? My kids dropped one back in 2016. I found it the other day. It was still gold and perfect Tasted. The same too. No, just kidding. Today your dishwasher can be connected to your phone via Wi-Fi. But because, look, we don't even I don't, even I don't. 30:38 I used to spend my Saturdays waiting in line. Anybody over 40, you remember? Saturdays were for shopping and for waiting. Everything was waiting. I'd be like, wow, it's 5 pm. There goes my Saturday. I was just waiting in line the whole Saturday. I don't remember the last time I waited in line. You don't have to wait in line at Starbucks. You can have your drink waiting for you. Everything is delivered to you. What am I saying? We have plenty of time, we're not that busy. But we need to steward that time and just say Lord, now you don't be busy. I know there's a hustle culture. You got to be. No, you can rest in God. But if you rest in God, do it intentionally. If you just want to just dawdle around your house, but do that intentionally. But don't allow time, which is one of the most precious commodities you can have, to just escape you, amen. 31:32 Number six encouraging extremism. The senior demon training the younger demon says all extremes except extreme devotion to God are to be encouraged. Politics, fitness, even religiosity itself become corrupt if devoid of charity and the love of God. So make sure that you are passionate and extreme in your pursuit of the Lord and there's other things that if you become too extreme, they can become an idol in your life. Amen, especially politics, even great noble pursuits like health. All right, got two amens on that one. So I'll go to number seven. It's just because we're not in that wave right now. But if we were in a wave, because people are so easily programmed and when they start pulling the levers and then you start getting your programming via social media and other sites, all of a sudden you start caring about stuff that you never thought about before. Then all of a sudden you become an extremist about something you never even cared about before and don't realize that you've been programmed now in just a matter of weeks. Hallelujah, amen. Or, oh me, some of you, you really had the heavy barbecue on Friday. Huh, you're still recovering. 33:03 Number seven Destroying sexuality or biblical sexuality, healthy sexuality from the book. It is the business of demons to produce in every age a general. They're so poetic. It is the business of demons to produce in every age a general misdirection of what may be called sexual taste. So poetic you almost don't know what in the world he's talking about. It was so proper in the 40s that you know today I'd say well, I won't even say what I'd say. Let's leave it to CS Lewis to do the good talking. Amen. But sexual taste means a monogamous marriage, amen. Sex is powerful. Sex is a portal into another realm. Literally, paul said that in Corinthians who you're joined to sexually, you're joined to spiritually. Sex is so powerful and so deeply spiritual that God put guardrails there for our protection. He doesn't punish us when we go outside of those guardrails. We punish ourselves because we're no longer under his safety and protection, and that's why there is such an attack on healthy sexuality, biblical sexuality, monogamous relationships. Thank you, maurice, thank you. 34:48 I warned my son about pornography when he was finishing up the first grade. And when I say I warned my son because when I said this in the first service, somebody in the congregation went. I don't know what they pictured. When I said I warned my son, maybe they were warned, they're not warned I just said listen, on this thing called the Internet you might see pictures of naked people. If you do tell Dad right about it, he'll never be upset at you. And you know why I did that? Because I saw pornography before there was an internet, when I was six years old and I remember what it did to me. I remember very clearly A bunch of us kids we got. 35:32 I lived in Parker Towers in Forest Hills, at three big red buildings right across the 112th Precinct, and we would all play in the playgrounds around the buildings and then, where the handymen were, we got into one of their closets. We're just mischievous kids. This is the 80s where our parents let us roam like cattle and we just had to come back home before the streetlights came on and we got into a box filled with magazines and I remember opening up those magazines. I remember feeling like hot lava was pouring through my body. I remember seeing things. I knew that I shouldn't be seeing these. No one talked to them about those things with me. I knew that I was being defiled. I knew that those images would stick with me for a long time. They would burn. You know, if God, God Well, if God had his way, God's way, he actually designed us to, when we see a naked body, for that image to be burned on our mind. So, ideally, you're married, young, you're a virgin, you see your wife, you see your husband, and that's the image that's burned into your mind and that's what stays with you forever. But now we have this perversion and the enemy comes in, and so we see these other images and, instead of being the one we love that, we're going to spend the rest of our life with another image. Another image is nothing that the blood of Jesus can't wipe away, nothing that the Holy Spirit can't cleanse it. Just, you may struggle a bit, and I want to give my kids a head start so they don't need the deep cleansing that I needed. Amen Shouldn't be a controversial thing to say, because if I could stumble upon it in the 80s and most of us kids did now, you carry the whole and it's really crazy, when you think about it, that every kid that's 12 years old in Long Island they have a phone, so they're carrying the library of the world smut in their back pocket. And I want to keep the doorway of communication open because I know one of these unsafe kids is going to go to my son and go hey, look what I saw. You see it too and that image will be burned and I want to be there for him. I want to help him navigate through that because it is powerful. 37:52 With point number seven, I just want to tie it together with point number two or three, which was self-hatred, because people who start coming to the Lord and realizing they need a cleansing in the area of sexuality and how they relate to the topic of sex there's a lot of self-hatred that can come in. And may that not be you. No, you're not filthy, you're not dirty. You were born and brought up into a fallen world. You keep your eyes on the Lord, you reach out to him, read his word. You know in the Bible it says your word is like a fuller's soap. You know what a fuller is A launderer. Your word is like a launderer's soap. You read his word and it acts like a giant cleanser. Read more of his word, it'll cleanse you from the inside out. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. 38:53 Number eight gradualism. The safest road to hell is the gradual one says. Uncle, screwtape the gentle, slope soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. Be aware of small, innocent compromises, one of the strange things about being a pastor. It's strange because I don't know of other professions where you can stay with people for years and years and years in a spiritual way. So I've seen, I've seen people make it, I've seen some people not make it and I'm able to draw some conclusions. And for those that don't make it, I pray they can come back. But those who have forsaken the Lord, they've forsaken the faith. How do they end up that way? Oftentimes people will point look, he did X Y Z. He didn't start off doing X Y Z. You're just seeing the straw that broke the camel's back and you want to make a big deal about that last straw. But there was a thousand other smaller pieces of straw before that final one broke that camel's back. Little compromises, little compromises. 40:00 Satan doesn't come at you right away with a level 10 temptation. He gets you to just compromise a little bit. Say no when you should say yes, just that one time. Until he comes knocking on the door again, all he wants is a finger to grab your hand, to grab your whole arm, and sin will always take you further than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay. And, by the way, the answer to any sin problem is grace, is receiving more of the love of God. 40:31 If you're struggling with sin right now, I'm not advocating for you to toughen up and try, try, try really harder. You won't do it. You're not strong enough. So what are you saying I should do? I'll tell you exactly Die, just die. Die to self, die to your pride, die to thinking that you can work on yourself and help yourself, fall into the arms of a loving Savior, fall into his grace. But what if I mess up again? I can almost promise you you will. But keep at it. You may not be sinless, but you'll sin less and less and less. 41:12 And you know I've received major deliverances in my life. You know, not everything is a deliverance. Sometimes it's just over time and that gets cleansed, and then sometimes he just does it in total deliverance. But each time I received a deliverance. It wasn't ever, because I was focusing on the sin, I was focusing on Jesus. And then I was like wait, that addiction, that thing, the thing I couldn't break, the Lord just did that and I wasn't even thinking about it, I was consumed with him. And then he just did that. Jehovah sneaky, he just did that. I was, I was like worshiping him. And then, wow, what a great God. Nine, oh, this is a good one. 41:58 Disordered pleasure, disordered pleasure. Man, how do they write this stuff in 1941? Were there pleasurable things back in 1941? When we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy form, we are, in a sense, on God's ground. Listen, this is important Algis Huxley, the science fiction writer. 42:28 I stumbled upon one of his essays several years ago, during a time when I was starting to feel, for whatever reason, empty. I was starting to feel like I had a scratch. I just couldn't like something was broken. And here's what he said. Listen to this. 42:52 He wrote that the problem with modern society isn't that it seeks pleasure, it's that it settles for pleasures that anesthetize the heart. So this was basically the premise of his essay that you cannot get pleasure without first having struggle. That the way we're wired as humans, and I believe this with all of my heart you cannot have pleasure without there first being not just suffering, but some kind of struggle. In other words, you know a farmer who's been working the field the whole day now goes inside and has a meal, sits down and then goes to sleep and that's very pleasurable to him because the reward was prefaced by a price that he paid. But in modern society that price has come much cheaper. So we get cheap pleasure, cheap dopamine. 43:46 So I found myself in a place where the Lord really, really has blessed us and prospered us. My whole life has been nothing but struggle, but then all of a sudden the Lord just turned that off. Now all I have is pleasure, with almost no struggle, like I don't have to, like Uber Eats comes and rains food down on you. I have to explain to my kids that we used to see a trailer for a movie and have to wait for it. Now you can just watch whatever you want at any time. It's a blah pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, just raining down on you without any struggle. 44:21 You know what? That's a recipe for An empty soul and depression for everybody, but I will say especially for men, for everybody across the board. But, men, you need to schwitz, you need to sweat. You know there's a saber-toothed tiger that you need to kill. Amen, amen, that you need to kill, amen. 44:49 So now my struggle is that I have to find and introduce struggle into my life, taking the long way back. You know, drop and give 20 pushups before you eat that meal. Amen. No, I'm serious. Whatever you need to do, someone's like Pastor, I got. So that meal, amen. No, I'm serious. Whatever you need to do, someone's like Pastor, I got. So much struggle. Don't worry, I'm good, but I find any pleasure that comes cheaply and anesthetizes the heart is not a pleasure of God and it actually leaves you emptier than before Hallelujah. And I actually leaves you emptier than before Hallelujah. 45:23 And I will say this I've been gesticulating to my wife a lot, but she is the master at not cheap pleasure. She's like from another century. I don't know how I'm still at all. It's been 13 years. I still study her. I'm like you're like. She's a monkette from, not a monk, you know, a monkette From another century. She's happiest she could not have. I'm trying to call. Where's your phone? She's like oh, I was gardening my phone. I hadn't seen it in five hours Praise God. And number 10, worship team you can come on up Despair, despair. And number 10, worship team you can come on up Despair. 46:13 My pastor tells of a vision that he had, and this is important. I just mention this because if somebody's having 16 visions a day, I tend to doubt that. When somebody's had three visions in their life, and this is one of them, I'm going to listen up, especially when their life is fruitful and they're bearing the fruit of a surrendered Christian life. And he tells of a vision a dream actually, he said, but he said it was so intense he didn't know whether to call it a vision or a dream. But he went in I'm going to have to give you the quick version when he went into the devil's domain and he saw Satan with a giant bag of tools, different tools that he came to use against the people of God, very similar to the screw tape letters. But he said this is my most beloved tool of all and it was discouragement and despair. This is my number, my most beloved tool of all, and sitting in Tompkins Square Park yesterday reminded me of that. 47:06 Despair is even like a demon. It'll come and rip hope out of your bosom if you let it. You know the Bible says hope deferred will make the heart sick. You have to command yourself, like the psalmist did, to yet hope in God. Do not allow, do not even play with despair. How does it become despair? You start meditating on discouragement and you don't nip discouragement in the bud. It'll turn into an ugly Medusa monster of despair. 47:36 I pray for you today. I pray that the Lord would increase his fire upon you. I pray now, if you're dealing with discouragement and despair and hopelessness, I put the blood on you and I command it to fall off of you right here in this place, in Jesus' name, that heaven's assistance come to you, that the Holy Spirit and his transforming power would overtake you. In Jesus' name, I speak and prophesy, breakthrough over you that the goodness of the Lord would come upon you. I decree and declare that your enemies come against you one way, but they flee before your face seven different ways. It's not over for you. You're not done. God will be glorified in your life In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Give the Lord a big shout. God will be glorified in your life in Jesus name, amen, amen. Give the Lord a big shout, hallelujah, hallelujah. 48:32 Fall into the arms of a loving savior ministry team. Won't you head on over into the ministry area? If you want prayer for anything at all, our team would love to pray with you and for you. You can go at any time right to that area, even if you're new this is your first time that area that's lit up blue. Over there you're going to find some loving, gentle people who love Jesus and who love people, and they're going to pray for you. Let's all stand. If you need to go, go, have a blast in your summer discipleship groups this week and if you want, stay and let's worship the Lord with this one last song. Sing it with all your heart. Be blessed CityLight. 49:10 - Speaker 2 This is the CityLight Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to CityLight Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.