Faith: Four Perspectives

God never asks something of us without also empowering us to fulfill that obligation and what he does is he demands faith. He's given every person and this is what the Scripture says, a measure of faith and then it's on every individual person to grow with their faith, to develop their faith. And faith really can only grow one way and that's by the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com that's citylightnyc.com. Pastor 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. Welcome to City Light. I just got back late last night. It was a wonderful trip to Serbia and Bosnia. Absolutely awesome. So just a quick recap because we have so many people from different segments in City Light's history. We've had an ongoing missions program for nearly 20 years and in 2015 we partnered with a church in Montenegro. Many of you know the couple, Pastor Yubitsa and his wife, Savka. They came here a year and a half ago and we partnered with them. They had been pastoring in Montenegro. They're Serbian but they were pastoring in Montenegro. That's like me saying like I'm from New York but I'm pastoring in New Jersey. Not that far but the country went through a brutal civil war in the 90s and got Balkanized into six different nations. So he was a missionary from Serbia to Montenegro and we partnered with him in 2015 and I've supported him actually to relieve him. After that time I think it was 17 years I forget now and I'm bad at doing math on the spot. He had never had a break and I took over the church in Montenegro for this summer and the team here ran City Light. And I got to say it was difficult and from my bloodline I'm Montenegro. I consider myself I don't want to mess with you in politics and this gets so weird and deep. I'm Serbian but my bloodline is from Montenegro and it broke my heart to see that it's the small nation of 630,000 people but there's about 150 known believers. It was hard and he grew the church, he raised the builders, he raised the point in particular and passed the church on to him and then he planted a church in Serbia which we helped him with a few years back, helped him in addition to the monthly support, get the seats, the projectors, the musical equipment. When I say we I mean you so thank you for that but it was such a difference ministering in Serbia and it's amazing how different it can be in New Jersey. Just culturally and the way the way people received the way they just were you know in Montenegro it was hard. You know I understand why it would be hard like with unbelievers but even in the church the attitude was kind of like I dare you to bless me. Just go ahead and try. If you try too hard I'll have something smart to say about it but in Serbia they were warm and open and hungry and it was just awesome. One thing in particular I noticed in the first service was there was this condemnation hanging over the people and we come from a very shame based culture. If you're a small kid you're going to hear shame on you. Shame on you over and over again and if you don't consistently preach the fullness of the gospel particularly our right standing in Christ, freedom from guilt and shame. What the blood of Jesus actually does and how he's thoroughly cleansed you. Religion will creep in Satan will come and he'll push those buttons and Luke traveled with me and we could just feel it over the people. Last night I hit that hard to break the back of that thing and that's easy for me to break the back of that thing because Jesus broke the back of that thing. I just have to proclaim what he did. Amen. Hallelujah. Traveling with Luke was trippy. He is a walking revival. How many of you have ever seen Jesse Deplantis's close encounters of the God kind? Let me see your hands. All right the usual suspects. Do yourself a phase. This is like from 30 almost 40 years ago. Go on YouTube and put Jesse Deplantis close encounters of the God kind and he talks about his experience of getting caught up into heaven. You have to see this. I mean it'll launch you out. You'll feel I don't believe everything I hear and see but when the anointing is on something that means something to me. And he talks about how when he first got caught up into heaven there was an angel escorting him and he would just say he would just say like glory to God and as soon as he would say it all in heaven would erupt and glory to God and then the other angels would go glory to God and then the cherubim would go glory to God. That's how it is traveling with Luke. It was awesome. Like I have this habit of just like praising God under my breath. Like just not for anyone to hear just like praise you Lord but as soon as I would say it. So you know and he had the bed next to mine so the whole hotel room the whole time was I just be like you know like oh Lord I love you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And I just wanted to let out a five second prayer next I know I'm caught up in a 20 minute prayer session. It's awesome. I mean whenever you're available you're coming with Luke that was just awesome. It was sad to see you leave. It really was. He left a week before me and it's just wonderful. Watch close encounters of the God kind. It was awesome. So I want to minister to you on an all important subject which I like to touch on frequently and that's the subject of faith. I like to touch on it frequently because Jesus taught on it much. We should focus on the things that Jesus focused on. And to like what a church's messages are it should somewhat be in proportion to what Jesus emphasized. And Jesus constantly emphasized faith and isn't it peculiar that you hear so little preaching on the subject of faith. When Jesus talked about it all the time. You know in the movies when they want to see if something's radioactive and they take out a guyger counter. Jesus is like he had a faithful meter, a faithometer and he would inspect people's faith. And he would comment on it. You of little faith. Great is your faith. If the meter didn't go off at all he'd say where is your faith. And he taught on faith all the time whenever he did miracles. He would reference it. He would say according to your faith. In other words you get to decide according to your faith be it unto you. So we're going to hear multiple sermons on faith this morning because I brought out my team, the big guns, the pastors of city like the elders. And so they did just such a phenomenal job. I'm so blessed. I love them. They're on fire. I said this in the first service. The second church I went to the pastor was absolutely on fire. But as elders looked always like grumpy and beat up. You know I was two years old in the lords. I was checking everyone out. And it would be praise and worship. But they just look like what are they so mad at? Is this what happens when you've been saved 20 years, 30 years? I thought we're supposed to get better and better. They look upset. But then during worship I peek at them and they're all just like totally on fire. I love the Lord. I love each other. Awesome men of God. So you're going to get what we affectionately call a salsa service here this morning. It kind of ended up being called that. I don't know if it really references the dance, the music, or what we eat with chips. So the dip, lot of ingredients and salsa. So you're going to get a lot of ingredients and a bet four or five are going to speak directly to you. First I want to invite Pastor Brian up here. Love this man. He is an attorney. That's why he's the best dressed out of all of us. He owns his own law firm. And he's just a wonderful guy who loves, and I got to just say this about you. One thing that I was taught early on was, look, we talked about this. Being a good deflector. What does that mean? The whole problem with Lucifer is that he absorbed some of the glory that should have just been passing through him. Lucifer means light bearer, but not light producer. His job was just to reflect and let God's glory pass through and transfer it all over, but he kept a little bit for himself. And if you ever listen to a preacher and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, it's because they weren't deflecting. They were absorbing. Maybe they were really doing a bang up job and they knew it. And people, yeah, and people go, hallelujah, they're like that positive. And they're absorbing the glory of men. And I got to tell you, you'll never hear it from him, but he has in the natural a lot. He could be very proud and arrogant about it. But he's a great deflector. It just doesn't want any of that. He lays his crown at the feet of Jesus. I have to say that. Bless you, man. Thank you, Pastor Boat. Good morning, city light. I'm going to talk about the power of testimony. Power of testimony. Let's go. All right. So what is a testimony? A testimony is a declaration of what Jesus has done or is doing. We read in Revelation 12-11. It says about the church that we would overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and they wouldn't love their own lives even until the death. So right there next to the blood of the lamb, you have the word of their testimony as being a key component to victory on earth over the kingdom of darkness. That's pretty incredible. It got my attention. I want to know more about the testimony. What is a testimony? Testimony declares to us that what God has done in the past, he will do again. What he's done in someone else's life is available to your life. So when we hear a testimony, our posture is not like the world's posture. They hear a success story of someone else, and they say, you know what? I'm envious. There's not enough left over for me. That person got the nice car, that person got the nice house. With a testimony, it's the exact opposite in the church. There's an invitation to each of us to participate in the things of God through testimony because there's an unlimited God standing behind it. And so when we hear a testimony, there's an invitation being extended by the Almighty God. It doesn't matter who the vessels is bringing it. The point is that God showed up for them, and he'll show up for you. And there's something about putting the testimony out verbally speaking it out, whether you're speaking it out in public, whether you're speaking it in prayer, whether you're reminding yourself of the things that God's done that gives a visibility to the work and ministry of Jesus. Jesus actually becomes visible through our testimonies to the world and to ourselves. We actually see Jesus as we speak testimony. There's a scripture that in an also in Revelation, Revelation 1910, it says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So you know that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, says that the most important spiritual gift in the church is the gift of prophecy. Why? He said because the gift of prophecy builds people up. It encourages people, it strengthens people. When you testify about the things that Jesus has done, you're actually releasing a prophetic message into the spirit realm, and you're saying that what Jesus has done for me, he will do again. What he has done for someone else, he will do for you. There's no partiality in God. He doesn't pick and choose winners and losers. He is available, his kingdom is available, and it's available to be grabbed a hold of. So when Pastor Bo gives his testimony about financial prosperity, it's an opportunity for us to receive it in faith and reach out. There's an action required on our part to grab a hold of it and say, that's for me too, because there's an infinite God behind it. He hasn't run out. There's not just a little bit for the pastors and not that much left for everyone else. It's for every single person to grab a hold of. And so we want to be a community who shares our testimonies. Even the small testimonies remind us that God cares about the little things. That he's tuned into our lives. So we sometimes downplay it. My first point is you have a testimony, you have many testimonies, share them. Because there are people who need to hear what you have to say about what Jesus has done for you. And sometimes we downplay and we say, you know what? I didn't have that dark history, I didn't have that dark past. I didn't have that dramatic coming back to the Jesus story. I wasn't, you know, some drug addict or promiscuous person like Pastor Brian. I was just a regular Christian, you know, kind of a little lukewarm. And then I came, you know, and then I was turned on, you know, turned, set on fire by the Lord. But you know, somebody needs to hear that testimony. Somebody needs to hear how Jesus got a hold of you. Someone needs to hear about what he did in your relationships, what he did in your finances, what he did in your body if he healed you. Somebody needs to hear that. It's not just for you. And when you speak it out, it's immense something in your own spirit. It gives you strength in your own spirit. It actually blesses you. Just like everything else in the kingdom when you give it away, it rebounds to you. So as you start to speak and articulate the testimonies of God in your life, you actually find that you're being strengthened and you're being encouraged and you're being reminded of his faithfulness because every testimony has an echo that says he is faithful and he always comes through. He always comes through. He always shows up. He is with you. He is for you. That same message is behind every testimony big and small that God is faithful. And as you begin to speak it out, you start to notice, oh, there's a pattern here. There's a pattern here of answered prayer. There's a pattern here of God showing up in my life. There's a pattern here of, as I pray and I expect God to move, he moves. I don't know always when and how, but he moves. And you have a testimony of his faithfulness that you need to release out of your mouth and begin to declare that God has been faithful in my life. And as the devil comes against you in a new area, you say, no, no, no. I've got history here. He came through on my marriage. He came through with my kids. He came through with my finances. And now he's coming through on this. So point two is that God wants us to actually build a history of testimony, where there's things in our lives that mark our lives, but there's things in our lives that God's victory over that mark who we are. They are central to our identity. They are core to our faith and they define who we are. We see this with King David before he was the big shot when he had been anointed, but he was still child. He was heading into, to take care of his brother, bringing food and different things. And he saw Goliath taunting the people of God, taunting the armies of God. And he didn't have the same reaction as everyone else. He had faith. He had a strength. He had a confidence that others didn't have. And he proposed that he go and fight the giant. And Saul said, you're not able to do this because you're just a boy and he's a seasoned warrior. And David said, no, no, no, I have a testimony. And the testimony is that God came through when I had to defeat the lion. God came through when I had to defeat the bear that I was a shepherd boy. And when I was out in the wilderness, God came through for me against the lion and the bear. And he said, come through with for me again against the giant. And that's the way the Lord wants to build a history of testimony in your life where you can point back to victories you've had that you don't forget that you don't just move on. That when the victory comes, you cement it in your spirit. There's something about, there's something about even the active communion when we remember what Jesus has done. We're not just remembering the cross and his death and resurrection as powerful as that is, but everything that came out and threw that into our lives. We're remembering when he healed and restored our marriage. We're remembering when he healed our bodies. We're remembering when he helped us find that new job or broke through on our finances. We're remembering everything that he's done for us and we're reminded to do that regularly. Do this in remembrance of me, Jesus said, because we have a tendency to sometimes forget. We have a tendency to come into a season of victory. Some of you are walking and answered prayers right now and you just need to take a minute and smell the roses and go, God, I'm standing right in that relationship I prayed for for years. I'm standing right in that job that I prayed for for years. I'm standing in the midst of the victory right now. I'm not going to mark this in my spirit so that when the next battle comes, I can say, no, no, no. God has granted me victory again and again and he will do again what he did before. Last point is that sometimes you hear a message on faith, but there's this annoying thing in your mind. There's some disappointment you've suffered. There's some pain that you haven't been able to shake and while everyone else seems to get pumped up about faith and everyone else seems to be succeeding in their life, you're still in the midst of it. There's something anchoring you down and keeping you back and you feel stuck. I want to speak specifically to that right now and I want to tell you that God is the God of the testimony and bringing the testimony directly to that place of pain. In other words, he turns pain into purpose and we see this again and again and again. He always turns pain into purpose, always, always. Daria to find me an example where he doesn't turn the pain in someone's life into purpose when they commit it to him and when they follow him, he always does it. He always does it. And so if you're in the middle of it, I would just encourage you just to give it to the Lord and say, God, I don't know how you're going to do it. I don't know when you're going to do it, but I believe that you're coming through for me. I believe that one day I'm going to testify about your faithfulness in this area. I don't know how it's coming through, but it's coming. I'm standing. I'm going to declare it before it comes. I'm going to speak it out before it comes and one day I'm going to share with my friends and family how you came through in this area of pain. It will no longer be a place of pain but a place of praise in Jesus' name. Awesome. Awesome. Hallelujah. The disciples, after the feeding of the 5,000, I think only one gospel references this. The feeding of the 5,000, which is really the feeding of the 15 to 20,000, a short while after that, they had another little food shortage crisis, similar scenario. And they freaked out all over again. Where are we going to get the food? And Jesus goes, did you forget? Like the other week. Now maybe they'd rehearse their testimony. They wouldn't have flipped, but you know, and we read that I go, those disciples, weak and pathetic. But that's in there because we're them. And the problem comes, go, and we forget what he did. And so your testimonies, each one is a bullet. May I suggest the magazine with 30 rounds? Share your testimony often. If no one wants to hear it, do what the Psalmists did. Share it with God. Read the Psalms and you'll see that they're really just sharing to the Lord what the Lord did to them and for them. You know, we don't like to do that or we tend not to because we're like, well, he was there. What does he need to hear it for? He did it. But it's really not for God. It's for you. So recount, out loud, out loud is a key. What the Lord has done for you and it'll raise your faith. Amen. Pastor Rob Martino is going to come up next. Pastor Brian is the best dress of us. Pastor Rob is the most muscular. Oh, look at. Oh, look, quick. Pray for my hand, quick. I broke a finger. He flexed on it and it just snapped out of joint. He is a sergeant with the NYPD, a dear friend. I just want to boast on you a little bit. There is such a shepherdly spirit of gentleness on him. I remember a few years back. I haven't referenced this. I remember when I was under attack, you were one of the first phone calls to just say, back then, Pastor Boyan. Just want to let you know we love you. We stand with you. We're for you with gentleness and love. I'll never forget that. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Good morning, city light. Before I get started really quick, between the services, somebody stopped me and questioned my outfit choices, particularly the shirt. And in my defense, Pastor Boy texted about a salsa service. I was confused. I thought I would be dancing. And my wife hooked me up with this shirt and I appreciate it. All right. Good morning, good morning. So today we're going to talk about the difference between faith and hope. Very quick impromptu service. Obviously, the impromptu service. We had a great, great response to this in the first service. You here are holding on to an expectation of future promise, a vision from the Lord. How many of you got it? I'm included in that group there. How many of us here? We are actively trusting the Lord. Remembering what he's done for us already. That he's going to see us through to that promise. How many of us here? We're halfway through the battle here today. We're going to talk about the difference between hope and faith. A future outcome. And one is a now active trust in the Lord. We're going to refer right now to Hebrews 111, particularly in the Amplified. I like what it says here. It says, now faith is the assurance. The title deed confirmation of things hoped for. Divinely guaranteed. That term title deed. And when you have that title to that home, to that car, to that business, that gives you ownership. You can take that thing to the bank, right? The evidence of things not seen, the conviction of their reality. Even if you don't see it, it is a reality for you. Biblical hope is not the way we refer to hope too in our common vernacular. We speak to one another. It's not a hope that it doesn't rain tomorrow. It's not a hope that I look like Brian when I grow up. It is a hope that is an expectation or confidence with assurance of a future good. Although there's a variety of different words that are used in the Hebrew and Greek. The majority of them have this connotation. It's expectancy. It's something waited for. And it's anticipation of an unseen good to come. I love the illustration of hoping the Bible with Abraham, right? It refers to having a hope, a desire to be a father of many nations. But in the Bible, we see that Abraham's situation didn't match that. He was, I think the biblical term here is old as dust. And his wife was equally old. And so it didn't make sense. But what do we see? Hope generally refers to a desired unseen outcome. But the Bible tells us it requires faith to be empowered and strengthened. Woman's 420 tells us. He did not doubt her waiver but grew strong and empowered by faith. He was confident and expected in the promise to come. But his faith was in the one who could do it. Another example is the woman with the issue of blood. She had hope that she would be healed. And natural did it make sense every doctor could not cure her. We spent all her money and still no cure. But she had that hope. And when she saw Jesus, that hope met faith. And when Jesus healed her, as she touched the hell of this garment, he said to her, your faith has restored you to health. Every future hope we have should be anchored in the Lord. Biblical faith, as we move on from home, Biblical faith takes on a more active connotation. It's an established, lasting, continuing, and certain trust and reliance upon the Lord. I like it to amplify where it calls it, abiding trust in God and His promises. And the New Testament, particularly in the Greek, the word that's used, I think 245 times something that effect is beasties. And that was not AI that gave me that fact. That was strong concordance. I dusted it off. Dusted it off. My first time using it though, it's fine. A few verses later, in 11-6, we see faith is necessary to walk with God. It says, without faith, it is impossible to please Him, right? He's a rewarder of those who seek Him. It's an active term. Now, while you can hope for something, you can have a heart state of expectation toward the healing, towards the deliverance, towards the promise, you have to marry that thing to hope with faith. You have to have the substance behind that hope. Faith is trusting in, relying on, and fully submitting oneself to God no matter what may come. It's believing, in spite of not seeing, and I would even argue it's having the posture of, even if I don't see it, my faith will stand. A quick illustration of the gospel is what I call undeterred faith in Mark 5. We see the synagogue official who worked in the synagogue, the same people that were actively hunting Jesus, finding a way to put Him to death. He saw Jesus, he had hoped for His daughter to be healed. The Bible says, He begged. He spoke to Jesus. He begged anxiously for that healing. And as they were traveling, what did He get to witness? Goes hands in hand with the testimony that we talk about. He saw the woman with the flow of blood healed. He had that testimony that he was able to see and witness. And it was important because right after that, a member of his own household comes out to discourage Him and say, don't even bother Jesus anymore. Your daughter is dead. But Jesus Himself encourages His faith and says, do not be afraid, only keep on believing. Who was allowed in that room when Jesus healed his daughter, the father, the mother, and the three of Jesus in a circle, almost the only one who was allowed to witness that miracle, the ones who maintained faith until the end. And I would be remiss if I did not use my own life, my life's life as an example. Right? We, for eight years, we were attempting to have children. And we went through IVF, through a miscarriage. But we, we had that hope in our heart. We believed the promise that God put in our heart. We, we partnered in faith. We found scriptures that spoke to it. We spoke in our home that we would have that life come. And it did not come the way we expected to, but it came. In Jesus name. Right? So in conclusion, hope and faith are vital parts of our Christian walk with hope we can assuredly expect the fulfillment of the promise of the one who has saved us. And in faith, see that he'll see us through every need as we actively currently in the now, trust, rely, and seek Him. I hope this blessed you this morning. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Hallelujah. Faith says I have it now. Hope is important. But hope is always in the future. Don't be that person that's always hoping for something. And then that thing is always in the future. I know a few people like that, they depress me. I have to immediately go and worship, because I have the presence of the Lord to get the depression off. Because like for 20 years it's the same, you know, and it's always one day. It's good to have hope that's in the future. But faith then says I have it now. Faith is the substance of things hope for. In the amplified, it amplifies the word substance. It says title deed. I'm hoping for it, but by faith I have it now. Where is it? I have it. By faith. When do you have now? I don't see it. Don't worry about it. I have it now. And if you can be stubborn about that, it'll manifest. And you've got to be stubborn. Abraham was stubborn. When he was, what's the biblical term again? Old as dust. When he was old as dust, it says in Romans, he considered not his own body already dead. So he was stubborn and ignored his dustiness. Consider not his own body. And pay attention to that. But he clung to the promise of God and said, I have a son now. Hallelujah. So don't keep that thing in the future. Hope is important. But then release faith that says I have it now. The next elder in pastor that's going to minister to you needs no introduction. My brother from another mother passed your moh. He's my brother. My brother. Amen. Good day to all of you. No. Yeah, right? Don't tense me. So here's the thing. We're talking about understanding faith today. And I've learned that part of understanding faith is a practical application. Like God is going to put you in a situation where you need to utilize your faith. You need to be able to move and act in your faith. And in order to do that, he's going to do what all parents do. He's going to ask you to do stuff. Now, I'm going to share something with you. I wanted to be a parent for a long time, and specifically just so that I could ask my kids for things. I'm not going to lie, because I grew up in a West African home, and tell me if this sounds familiar to you if you have any background with a parent. I was in my room doing my homework, and all I hear is, Mohammed! They would never say anything. Well, at least my dad. He would never say anything else, because he expected when I call you, you come. You do what I say, do what I say, do it. It's a rush out. Yes, dad. Yes, sir. Pass me the remotes. And as a kid, I'm not going to lie. I learn my eyes twitching a little bit. What did you just say to me? Is Victor smiling? Yes. Is it? Because he's sitting on the couch, and this is the coffee table, and the remotes on the coffee table. And you have stopped me from doing the thing that I need to do in order to come and do it, and pass you the thing that is right here. You mean this? Yes. Give it to me. You know, it's also West African homes, so the eye twitching was about as far as it got. Because I learned quickly from watching my older brother pull one of these moves. Get it just... He didn't even finish the sentence. I've never seen my dad move that fast in his life. Say it again. I'm like, whoa. So parents do ask their children for things. But the beauty is this. The parent might ask their child for something, an unbeknownst to the child that is actually for the benefit of the child. See, I often tell my daughter. My daughter is... She's double digits now. She's ten. Yeah. She's going to have those talks about how to secure fire arms for New York City residents. Right after the service, praise the Lord. But the thing is what I tell her is, because she's very smart, and sometimes that could be a hindrance to me teaching her new things, because she's so smart already. But I tell her, you know, in a very practical sense, I'm taller than you. So I can see further than you. I've been here longer than you, so I know more than you. Hey, shut up. So we know that parents do ask their kids of things, right? Amen. All right. So turn with me to Genesis 22. And I won't even read all of it, but the idea is that the father wanting to get something to Abraham, ask him for something. Because it's not that he wants to take something from you, but God wanting to bless you is going to ask you for something that is going to cause you to need to utilize your faith. You are going to have to get up from your blessed assurance and actually move into the things of God via faith. So God taking that which is as old as dirt. And he blesses him with a child. And now the child has grown to a certain age. And he's enjoying the beautiful. He's walking in the promise of God. How many can I identify? Third row. You better raise your hands. Third row. All right. All right. Third row. I leave the third row alone. It's married people. It's engaged people. A lot of people at third row. They're on their way. Amen. Sitting there too cute. No. The Lord has blessed you. If you walk in the promise, you better declare it. All right. All right. Angerier than I need to be. Angerier than I need to be. Yeah. So walking in the promise. The Lord says, I want you to give me the thing that I gave you. Now, what we don't see in the scriptures is our normal response. This is normally the response when God asks us to do something. And it's something that might be considered crazy or wild or out there. Like, hey, I want you to fast. I want you to pray. Like, those things are not actually crazy. Those are beneficial things for you, amen. But sometimes the Lord will ask you to do something that it requires our spiritual perspective to understand that it's not crazy. Because in the outside it very much looks crazy. And what we do sometimes is we rationalize things. Well, you never, the Lord couldn't possibly be asking me to do that. That just wouldn't be exercising. Was it a matter of fact? That's murder. No, no, no, no. He's definitely not asking me to do that. Give my only son. No. He didn't, here's another thing too. He didn't delay. The Bible says that that morning they head out. When the Lord asked you to move in faith, step one, don't delay. The late obedience, it's not that the late obedience is disobedience per se. But it gives you too much wiggle room. When you delay, you give yourself this room for rationalization and you wiggle out into the, well, maybe I ought not. And you try to convince yourself not to do the thing that God is asking you to do. But we need to understand the wisdom of God that if God is ever asking you to do something, it is with purpose. Amen? Actually, you know what? I'm going to give you a quick story just so you can understand that. So often the Lord will ask you to do something that is beyond you. But it is with purpose even if you yourself can't see it. So when I first got saved, I was working for the Staten Island YMCA counseling service. It's a substance abuse counseling service. And if any of you know some of my testimony, you know that. I used to sell drugs, not for a living because I worked at the YMCA for a living. But on the side, I sold drugs. Now, those two things seem congruent to each other. And you know how Paul talks about being the chief of all sinners? He's actually lying. That was me. And to my shame, I can say that my mind worked this way. I worked at a substance abuse counseling center where people were coming to get help for addiction and substances. And I was a drug dealer and a drug user. And that just meant that I had access to clientele. Yeah. So I find myself in this place where I'm using drugs. I'm selling drugs even to the clients that I'm meant to serve. And then I get saved radically transformed by the God, the Lord's love, the God of Heaven. The God of Heaven is a term on my tongue right now. It's part of my worship leaking out. I'm sorry. You know when you wish a wife, you go, hey, boo. I mean, come here first lady. Yeah, well, it's just my boo, the God of Heaven. But I'm in that place. And it's a terrible place, but I get saved. And I'm spending time with the Lord. And then the Lord asks me a question. He asks me to do something for him. He says, I want you to reach out to your boss. And I need you to testify of what I've done to you. And in my mind, I mean, I did what I thought Abram should have done. I said, could you please speak more clearly into the microphone? But no sooner than two seconds that I really get the sense from heaven like I'm not playing, I want you to call him, set up a meeting, sit down, and tell him all the things that you've done and how you're not doing them anymore because I came into your life. So now I have a choice. Either I'm going to obey promptly or delay and give myself the temptation of the wiggle room of rationalization to not do this thing. So I moved with obedience, called my boss. This is not even my direct supervisor. This is my supervisor supervisor. So I called him up and said, hey, I need to meet with you. And the reason that I met with him is because, and I'll show you this from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 11-17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said in Isaac your seed shall be called. Concluding, that's a very important word right now, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Abraham was able to obey because he had it in his mind. He concluded the Bible says that regardless of whether I have to kill this boy, I already know that God said he's going to give me this boy. He obeyed believing and knowing the end result. Has God spoken something to you? Do you know the end result of what he has already promised you? Then I want you to be able to move in faith and answer the call and be obedient. With swift obedience, because here's the kicker. I go into this meeting and he goes, why did you want to meet? And then I laid the whole thing out for him. Because in my mind, I had already rationalized that, okay, this is what I had concluded. Lord, you probably want me to pay penance for the fact that I've done so much wicked and evil in my life. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with living under a bridge. I'll probably be able to minister to all the whole bows down there, praise God. My ministry will get started. Hallelujah. And he does something super odd. I lay out this whole thing. He walks to his office door and he closes it. So now I'm thinking, oh my God, I got to fight this guy too on top of it. And he walks up to me and he goes, you can't ever tell anybody this story. I'm sorry, bro. My statute of limitations on this is over 10 years ago, praise God. But he says, he actually testified to me that now he knows of a certainty that God is real. Because there's no way that I would be willing to risk everything coming to him like this. He saw the conviction of my faith and it helped him along in his journey of faith. I would not have known that just by thinking of it. All I knew was I wanted to obey what God said, do. So in order to move in faith, you are going to have to get up and actually do something. But there's also one more thing that you have to do. You have to conclude. You have to see the end. You got to do a little believe in. But there's also this beautiful part that we actually, we're going to go back to Genesis. This one last part that Abraham does and it goes in tandem with your believing. He said the right things. God asked him to do something and his outlook of faith was connected to what he was saying. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. Now that sounds pretty when you feel like he's talking to them. But we know what he knows. God has asked him to sacrifice his son. But yet his words are words of faith. I'm going to go do this thing. I'm going to obey the Lord and notice that he counts he equates obeying the Lord with worship. He says I'm going to worship me and the boy and the boy is going to come back because we already read from Hebrews that he concluded. Regardless of whether I sacrifice him or not, this is the one that God gave me. So God is going to give me him. There are promises in your life, things that God has spoken, things that God has asked you of. Will you obey to get what he wants you to have? That is the question you have to ask yourself. Will I trust him? Will I speak the right things and move in faith or stand still in delayed obedience? Hallelujah. Hebrews 116. It says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Those of you who are in faith, that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, that you have his righteousness, you're already pleasing to God. But nevertheless, God does demand faith. And you see that in the gospels. The Jesus, he demanded faith. He wants us to be a people of faith. It says that without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder, not a subtractor or takeer or a wayer, but a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So God never asks something of us without also empowering us to fulfill that obligation and what he does is he demands faith. He's given every person, and this is what the Scripture says, a measure of faith. And then it's on every individual person to grow with their faith, to develop their faith. And faith really can only grow one way, and that's by the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The more of God's Word you get inside of you, the more your faith will grow. But I want to specifically just talk about what kind of faith Jesus is talking about. What is this faith? And the answer is in Mark chapter 11, and then courage you when you get home, read the entire chapter. But Jesus goes by a fig tree, inspects it, notices there's no fruit growing on it, and he curses it. And he curses it just by saying, let no fruit grow on you from this day forward. You know, it's interesting, it says presently the fig tree withered away. But it was then several days later that disciples came by to the fig tree and noticed that it was decaying, that it was dying. But which one is it? Is it several days or is it presently? This isn't my main point, but I just want you to catch this. The scripture says presently, like right away, but they didn't see it till several days later. And that's typically how faith works. When Jesus cursed to die, the death began right away, but it was on the inside. It was in the invisible. Several days later, they came back and noticed the fig tree was dying. And they started commenting on that. And as they're commenting on the fig tree, Jesus says something interesting. He says, have the God kind of faith. In the English Bible, it says, have faith in God, but I challenge you. Go into the Greek. Go into the syntax. And it's much more closely to have the God kind of faith. Jesus saying, have the God kind of faith. And then he says, this is Mark 1123, have the God kind of faith. And then he says, whoever says to this mountain. And he goes into one of the greatest faith teachings ever, and how to get answer to prayer. What is the God kind of faith? It is faith that speaks. God created this earth, created the universe, not by thinking it, but by saying, let there be. Let there be. Salvation came to you, and it's available to all men. The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart. So faith is half in your heart, but half in your mouth. And it must be released by the words that you speak. And this is so crucial, because I dare say the vast majority of Christians keep that faith bottled up in their heart, but they never actually released it out of their mouth. Jesus released it out of his mouth all the time. When you get this, the gospels will come alive to you, and you'll see that faith is voice activated. The leper came and said, if you're willing, are you making me clean? Jesus said, I'm willing. Be made. It was when he said, be made clean. Peter saw that. It was so powerful that when he was on the ship, he didn't just jump out on the water, he said, Jesus, bid me to come on the water. Jesus gave him one word, come. When Jesus spoke, come, Peter, then you, I can jump out of the boat and walk on water. You have been given this power in your mouth. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it will lead the fruit thereof. And so too many Christians think that faith is quietly, really, really believing something positive. It's so much more than that. It's actually opening your mouth and speaking God's word. And most Christians don't like to do it because Satan comes and lies to them and tells them they're acting crazy, they're being foolish, or they're just part of the term. They're just spiritually lazy. And Satan on top of that is working extra to keep your lips buttoned. Do not let them be buttoned. Open your mouth and speak. You say, what should I speak? Well, whatever the problem is, find the solution and God's word and say that out loud. I just had like a 14, 16. I don't even know how many hours, door to door, travel day. And typically when I come in from out of Europe, you know, it's tough going over there, but coming back because of the time difference is actually quite nice. I did not have nice last night. I was up all throughout the night, tossing and turning. At one point, it was like between three and four AM, I was wide awake. And I thought, how am I going to even make it into service? I am just, I'm beyond exhausted and like I'm loopy. I don't even know how I can drive myself there. And I thought, you know what I'll do? I'll do that thing I'm going to preach about tomorrow. I'm going to say a few things. So I just said, under my breath in Jesus' name, I'm going to wake up absolutely strong. I'm going to wake up clear-headed. Tomorrow's service is going to be wonderful. The anointing will be upon all of us. People will get what they need. I just started speaking it. I woke up. It was not like that right away. I say that so you know what to expect. This is not Instacoffee. It was not like that right away. But then one foot out of the bed. The next one. Lord, I thank you. You're strengthening me with every step. You go before. The Bible says you will quicken. That means make a live. You will make a live my mortal body. Your spirit brings life. I thank you that's in me right now. And then that started to manifest. So be a word speaker. In fact, in Genesis, when it says that God made Adam a living soul, look into that. He means speaking spirit. You're amenning me. You've heard this. What was Adam's first job? Come and name the animals with me. God said. Come and be a part of creation by speaking. And it doesn't mean the tiger was called Tom. And the lion was called Harry. When he said name the animals, he said sign to them that their purpose. So when he said you are lion, you are king of the jungle. You roar. You are an apex predator. You're an ant. When Adam said you are an ant, you can lift 50 times your body weight. You move in a colony. And he gave him their purpose and their destiny. But it was through speaking. So, hallelujah. Release that faith, bottled in your heart through speaking. Amen. Hallelujah. God is good. He is a very present help. In a time of trouble. Are you already the worship and honor of the Lord with your ties and offerings? You know how I always say give and faith? That's what I mean. It doesn't mean like hey, you have a positive attitude when you give. It means actually talk. There's some financial things I'm believing for. Whatever I've had so far I believe was just a test. It was the appetizer. Me personally. I'm just sharing with you to the main course. I know I'm doing some speaking. What should I say? Well, I like to say thank you, Lord, that whatever I give comes back to me multiplied. That's in your word. Thank you, Lord, that you take pleasure in the prosperity of your servant. Lord, you're not the God of poverty. You're the God of prosperity. Everything you touch, you make a life. Thank you that I'm alive physically in my emotions, financially, spiritually. Speak those things. Amen. In fact, right now let's do it together. Lord Jesus, I'm the head, not the tail. Everything I've ever sewn comes back to me multiplied. And super abundant, mighty harvest. In Jesus name. Amen. So give in faith, hallelujah. 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 Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today. That you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.