Transcript
00:00.221 --> 00:05.966
And at just the perfect and right time he snatched you from the grip of hell and he gave you eternal life.
00:06.760 --> 00:08.282
But I love this Jesus.
00:08.703 --> 00:14.450
He could have said I've done this thing, that only God can do, this impossible work.
00:14.720 --> 00:19.367
And he could have said let me take the napkin off your face and let me cut you out of these grave clothes.
00:19.560 --> 00:20.605
But he doesn't do that.
00:20.860 --> 00:24.546
Jesus does what only God can do and he raises him to life.
00:26.300 --> 00:28.388
Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.
00:28.660 --> 00:34.949
Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.
00:35.700 --> 00:40.448
If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.
00:41.460 --> 00:43.406
That's CityLightNYCcom.
00:44.800 --> 00:51.908
Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.
00:52.640 --> 01:02.505
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.
01:06.292 --> 01:07.094
God is so good.
01:09.960 --> 01:13.230
I want to talk today about life groups.
01:14.620 --> 01:16.688
I know we looked at the video earlier.
01:16.881 --> 01:17.785
It looked real good.
01:17.880 --> 01:20.028
The whole bunch of beautiful people in there.
01:21.662 --> 01:22.700
See, only she gets that.
01:23.022 --> 01:23.828
I was in the video.
01:23.848 --> 01:27.287
That's why I said that the people's is beautiful, praise God.
01:29.540 --> 01:33.651
But no, there's something super powerful about life groups.
01:33.680 --> 01:37.547
And if you don't know what life groups are, let me show you from the scriptures what they are.
01:39.240 --> 01:42.806
So let's go to Acts 2, we're gonna read verse 46 and 47.
01:44.220 --> 01:49.288
So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.
01:49.620 --> 01:56.920
They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.
01:56.920 --> 02:01.631
And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
02:03.243 --> 02:04.127
This is life groups.
02:05.804 --> 02:08.860
They met in an official capacity in the temple on the Sabbath.
02:09.622 --> 02:12.270
Like what we're doing right now, we are in the church.
02:13.162 --> 02:16.030
I won't say in the temple, because you are the temple, amen.
02:16.984 --> 02:19.840
So they met in the church in an official capacity together.
02:20.545 --> 02:22.640
But I love what it says at the end in verse 19.
02:23.423 --> 02:25.169
People were getting saved daily.
02:25.260 --> 02:36.250
Well, how could they be getting saved daily if they only met in the temple on one day it was what was happening every other day as they met from house to house and they broke bread.
02:37.800 --> 02:45.087
See, this Christian thing that we do, this way of life, it's not meant to be relegated to this thing that you do just on Sunday.
02:46.440 --> 02:47.766
It's meant to be your life.
02:47.880 --> 02:51.426
It's meant to encapsulate all that you are, all of your relationships.
02:51.500 --> 02:54.309
It's meant to be a Monday through Sunday thing.
02:56.120 --> 03:07.590
So here on Sunday you come and the pastor and the preacher, they give you a word of encouragement and strengthen you and give you an exhortation to point you in the right direction.
03:07.900 --> 03:10.889
But then you need to follow that up with actual practice.
03:12.420 --> 03:15.687
So on a Sunday morning you don't actually do the ministering.
03:15.828 --> 03:19.067
I do, pastor Bo does, pastor James does.
03:21.124 --> 03:26.309
But in life groups you get to put to practice those Christian principles.
03:26.720 --> 03:33.387
You get to lay hands on people, you get to prophesy, you get to preach, you get prayer, you receive and give prayer.
03:35.020 --> 03:35.924
How powerful is that?
03:37.400 --> 03:41.446
But the thing is we don't often take advantage of that because we have a lot of Sunday Christians.
03:44.422 --> 03:46.769
Oh, he got heavy fast.
03:46.809 --> 03:47.250
What happened?
03:49.565 --> 03:59.809
No, I do believe that the Lord is calling us out of that place of nominal Christianity where we checked our attendance card and said I came because this is what happens.
04:00.020 --> 04:12.040
We're at a point in our lives where we go to church on the high holy days Mother's Day, easter and Christmas and then we graduate from there and we go.
04:12.080 --> 04:13.826
You know what I'm getting serious about?
04:13.867 --> 04:14.208
God?
04:15.620 --> 04:33.850
I'm gonna honor the King and I'm gonna go every Sunday and I'm gonna check my attendance card and they're gonna know I'm there because I'm gonna lift my hand and the Lord is saying I want more because and here's the reason why it's not just so that you can say that you've done something.
04:33.980 --> 04:35.747
God actually wants to give you something.
04:35.840 --> 04:43.185
As with all things, even as we were just collecting the offering just now, that's not really about you getting God money, that's about him getting you money.
04:44.600 --> 04:45.142
Did you catch that?
04:46.280 --> 04:51.885
Because when you sow, then you reap a harvest that, okay, they get it, they get it, they get it.
04:54.760 --> 05:02.308
So the reason we're talking about life groups today is life groups are the lifeblood of our church and I know it might seem like a misnomer.
05:02.580 --> 05:06.105
I'm the community pastor, so life groups are very much my heart.
05:07.900 --> 05:14.965
But we say it's the lifeblood of our church and I'm not the only one that says that is because, again, it's the connection, it's where community happens.
05:16.589 --> 05:21.044
We have this thing called fellowship and sometimes people call the services well, I'm gonna go fellowship.
05:21.064 --> 05:23.425
Some of the old time heads in Christianity call it that.
05:23.680 --> 05:24.745
It's not really fellowship.
05:25.200 --> 05:37.928
When you come on a Sunday morning, the only thing that you're fellowshiping with is the back of somebody's neck, and the real interaction that happens in Christianity is not meant to be with the back of somebody's neck.
05:39.623 --> 05:41.188
Oh, nobody's gonna say amen to the obvious.
05:41.268 --> 05:55.788
Okay, I love life groups because it teaches people to be great friends, friends that are like-minded, friends that are reliable friends, that are able to carry each other in discipleship.
05:56.860 --> 05:58.828
You know, life groups are where one another happens.
05:58.920 --> 06:05.403
You know, in the scriptures, the Bible says 59 separate times that we are to one another, each other, you might say one another.
06:05.443 --> 06:05.865
And what's that?
06:06.160 --> 06:07.645
Well, the Bible says that we should love one another.
06:08.840 --> 06:10.466
The Bible says that we should pray for one another.
06:11.280 --> 06:15.905
The Bible says that we should greet one another, that we should strengthen one another, that we should bear with one another.
06:16.980 --> 06:20.209
The one anothering happens in the context of life group.
06:21.080 --> 06:29.307
So, if you haven't figured it out, today, this is a big sermon inviting you to life groups, I'm inviting you to community.
06:30.500 --> 06:35.807
I'm inviting you out of nominal Christianity into a place called accountability.
06:46.880 --> 06:49.368
You know, cs Lewis once said this about friendship.
06:49.840 --> 06:50.964
He's a famous Christian writer.
06:51.900 --> 06:57.508
He said friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another what you two?
06:59.500 --> 07:02.028
I thought that no one but myself.
07:03.402 --> 07:09.365
So there's this dynamic where we get to connect with people and grow and bear fruit.
07:10.087 --> 07:14.928
Aka, you can't get where you wanna go by yourself.
07:18.660 --> 07:25.028
People don't really like hearing that, because there's a level of humility and dependence that is necessary that we don't really like.
07:29.120 --> 07:31.469
Your friends should motivate and inspire you.
07:31.580 --> 07:34.369
Your circle should be well-rounded and supportive.
07:35.980 --> 07:37.907
We need godly friendships in our lives.
07:40.100 --> 07:42.268
No one person can encompass all that we need.
07:42.308 --> 07:44.707
Relationally, though, how about this?
07:45.080 --> 07:53.306
Even your spouse for those of us privileged to be married even your spouse can't connect all of the dots of what you need relationally.
07:54.780 --> 08:00.770
Monica's, like you don't know my husband boo, she in the second row, like my man, is my best friend.
08:01.980 --> 08:06.584
Amen, amen, ah, amen, amen.
08:06.940 --> 08:12.665
But I've learned that sometimes you need more than just romantic relationship.
08:13.841 --> 08:17.130
You know why you need platonic, same gender friendship?
08:19.620 --> 08:29.716
Because there's not a threat of you doing to get All the married people immediately got what I was saying See, the married folk understand that.
08:29.736 --> 08:35.488
You know what I'm gonna keep this hair relationship nice and tight and good.
08:35.528 --> 08:39.000
Because, yeah well, praise God, praise God, praise God.
08:39.561 --> 08:48.604
There's something about the platonic friendship that you need to be able to tell each other the truth and garner things that you can't get from that romantic relationship.
08:49.087 --> 08:58.130
It actually causes you to become a better person because, if you didn't know, it's easy to call yourself anything in isolation.
09:00.041 --> 09:07.265
I am amazing and the minute I get around other people they will go nah, you all right.
09:09.800 --> 09:26.169
There's something about the accountability and the honesty of community that will bring out the truth Because, again, it's easy to say whatever it is that you wanna say in isolation, with nobody there to fact check to you, aka keyboard fingers on the internet.
09:26.189 --> 09:26.891
Somebody talk to me?
09:28.620 --> 09:29.664
Oh, you're not gonna talk to me about it.
09:29.744 --> 09:34.788
All right, all you people in the chat, you better put a fire emoji.
09:34.920 --> 09:44.480
Hope I'm not talking about you, if you look at it and again this is a real thing.
09:44.880 --> 09:56.010
You need a plethora of relationships in your life and I know this because even when I look at God, god in and of himself is relationship.
09:57.260 --> 10:03.805
Now, I don't know some of you have maybe heard this story before, but our city kids program that we have downstairs it is thebombcom.
10:05.280 --> 10:06.966
It is children's church for real.
10:07.880 --> 10:12.388
They don't sell a junior holy spirit down there, they are having church the same way we're having church.
10:12.640 --> 10:13.805
They're learning about the word of God.
10:14.220 --> 10:17.506
Sometimes the stuff in my door that hits me with I'm like I didn't teach you that where you got that from.
10:18.300 --> 10:20.067
She was like you know, I'll be going to church on Sunday.
10:20.180 --> 10:20.561
Right, I'm like.
10:25.500 --> 10:34.968
But it's funny because I've heard this said to children before and it grinds my gears in such a way where you'll have a little kid going hey, why did God create humans?
10:36.460 --> 10:45.463
And then you'll get some well-meaning Sunday school children's church teacher who will lie out the back of their mouth and say something that was born in the pit of hell.
10:47.843 --> 10:51.350
Well, god created humans because he didn't want to be lonely.
10:53.273 --> 10:53.814
That's a lie.
10:55.220 --> 10:56.806
God has never been lonely.
10:57.740 --> 10:59.406
God is relationship.
11:00.120 --> 11:02.368
He is the father, the son and the holy spirit.
11:02.580 --> 11:04.788
Let me show you from the scripture, so you don't just think I'm just talking.
11:05.120 --> 11:11.449
First, john 5.7 says for there are three that bear record in heaven the father, the word and the holy ghost.
11:11.760 --> 11:13.667
And these three are one.
11:15.824 --> 11:21.065
So again, there is no one person that can encompass all that we need relationally.
11:22.400 --> 11:29.051
We have friends of the same gender to help us learn how to actually love without motive or physical intimacy.
11:29.340 --> 11:36.827
We need to learn how to be actual friends to each other when it comes to community and kingdom.
11:37.769 --> 11:42.119
Amen, amen.
11:42.160 --> 11:49.569
Proverbs 18.24 says a man that has friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
11:51.200 --> 11:54.884
We need to learn how to be willing to let other people's star shine.
11:55.960 --> 11:57.787
You can't do that in isolation.
12:02.000 --> 12:05.446
We need to be willing to be poured into as we pour out into others.
12:06.300 --> 12:10.729
There's a wonderful given taken friendship that displays God's love relationally.
12:14.340 --> 12:20.030
And one of the things I'm just gonna say flatly you've gone as far as you can go by yourself.
12:24.160 --> 12:28.287
God is going to build you up through your connections and not isolation.
12:30.982 --> 12:34.671
You have to be able to connect and flow with people to take it to the next level.
12:35.320 --> 12:37.567
You have to trust people and not just any people.
12:37.607 --> 12:39.843
You have to trust the right people with your vision.
12:40.600 --> 12:43.687
You have to get it out of your hands or it won't multiply.
12:46.280 --> 12:47.584
We multiply through connections.
12:49.008 --> 12:49.810
I'll give you a story.
12:50.000 --> 12:57.092
So I want to say it must have been somewhere in 2012.
12:58.800 --> 13:15.805
We, just because we had our services on Friday nights in the East Village, shout out to all my old schoolers who would come to hey, sheika, our Friday services were fun.
13:16.300 --> 13:19.650
We call them happy hour because our church was located in the East Village.
13:20.200 --> 13:23.369
And if you didn't know, the East Village is a very fun, weird place.
13:24.520 --> 13:29.531
Per capita, it has the most bars per square foot than any other place on earth.
13:30.840 --> 13:37.486
So just imagine we were getting quite a clientele of people coming in and getting saved and having their lives transformed on a weekly basis.
13:39.940 --> 14:04.065
So I remember after one Friday night, Pastor Bo and I were just conversing and we walked to his car and we got in the car and it was close to Thanksgiving and I remember I was sitting in his car and I was weeping and I remember he was trying to encourage me because there was this thing that I couldn't break past.
14:04.740 --> 14:09.730
I was trying to get into my destiny and I didn't know how.
14:11.480 --> 14:17.941
I knew I was called to lead and minister and preach and teach and serve and all of these things.
14:18.262 --> 14:20.449
But I had no opportunity.
14:20.880 --> 14:46.508
I was working full time at the YMCA counseling center and I remember just like just feeling so stuck because if you haven't known this feeling when you have a call of God on the inside of you, this is the best thing that I can akin it to it felt like a tree was growing on the inside of me Because you know, if you look at a tree it's imperceptible, you can't really gauge it from one day to the next and go you're bigger.
14:47.470 --> 14:48.352
You can't do that.
14:48.701 --> 15:01.871
But if you would put a tree right up against a piece of glass, eventually the glass would have to give way and break because of the growth, like we see this literally on the streets, where the roots of a tree can unearth concrete.
15:03.280 --> 15:07.531
So I felt like this thing was growing on the inside of me, but it hadn't broken through yet.
15:08.320 --> 15:12.351
So again I'm talking with my pastor like hey, man, how do I get to the next level?
15:12.840 --> 15:14.367
And it was funny because he was trying to encourage me.
15:14.540 --> 15:24.228
He says listen, when it comes to doing all that you can do, I can say with clarity and honesty you are doing everything that you're supposed to do.
15:25.740 --> 15:26.162
I know you.
15:26.840 --> 15:33.530
You are praying, you are fasting, you are serving, you are looking for every opportunity to pour yourself out for the sake of Jesus.
15:33.900 --> 15:34.582
So I don't know, bruh.
15:38.140 --> 15:42.210
So again I'm just crying because I'm just like God, I just want your will.
15:43.460 --> 15:45.728
And then he said something to me that was powerful.
15:46.140 --> 15:52.123
He goes when you've done everything that you know to do in order to reach your destiny but still feel stagnant.
15:52.604 --> 15:56.793
It could be that there are destiny partners connected to your destiny.
15:58.463 --> 15:59.044
And I said what?
16:02.580 --> 16:06.769
Because nobody really wants to hear that when you want to just go where you want to go, you want to go by yourself.
16:07.140 --> 16:14.411
And, in essence, what he was telling me is there are some people in your life that you haven't connected with yet that might be the key that opens the prison door.
16:16.084 --> 16:16.846
Oh, y'all didn't hear me.
16:18.400 --> 16:21.108
Sometimes you are the key that opens somebody else's prison door.
16:25.889 --> 16:27.413
So I'm like man God, what does that mean?
16:27.560 --> 16:30.430
And he says, listen, it doesn't have to be that it's a romantic relationship.
16:30.560 --> 16:31.946
It could just be a relationship.
16:32.440 --> 16:36.988
Maybe there's somebody in your life the Lord wants to put you together and both of you will get together and start an amazing business that will change the world.
16:37.240 --> 16:37.682
We don't know.
16:39.584 --> 16:40.728
Well, maybe it could be romantic.
16:41.020 --> 16:43.802
Hey, now Listen.
16:44.183 --> 16:46.188
Shortly thereafter I met my wife.
16:47.800 --> 16:53.839
She started out as a friend that I got to know at LifeGroup Plug.
16:54.080 --> 16:59.505
I got to know her at LifeGroup and she became my girlfriend at LifeGroup and from there she became my wife.
17:01.944 --> 17:10.528
No, you could clap a little bit better, for my wife, tiffany, is at home and she's actually driving here right now.
17:11.760 --> 17:13.527
She is pregnant with our third child.
17:13.760 --> 17:15.406
She is due March 12th.
17:16.160 --> 17:18.286
So, aka, she is ready to go.
17:20.640 --> 17:22.445
She will be here shortly to receive all of your praise.
17:25.280 --> 17:36.625
But it's funny that I needed to connect with my wife and it set me on such a trajectory because I was working at that job and I get married to my wife and six months into my marriage I get laid off.
17:38.100 --> 17:47.352
I had never been without a job since the age of 14 and I find myself all of a sudden without work at the most important time when I need work to be a provider and a husband.
17:47.560 --> 17:49.125
It was all like, oh, my God, jesus.
17:50.580 --> 18:05.568
But it's so funny that the trajectory of what happened through connecting with her, I watched as the Lord connected me with my wife, that I ended up in my dream job and both of our lives just exponentially kept growing from there forward.
18:07.720 --> 18:15.144
You cannot get where you want to get by yourself, because you, my friend, are a member of the body of Christ.
18:16.400 --> 18:20.562
I don't know about you, but my pinky does not get up and walk away and do its own thing without me.
18:21.780 --> 18:23.885
When my pinky wants ice cream, we want ice cream.
18:25.609 --> 18:27.924
It don't be me, y'all, it be the pinky.
18:33.045 --> 18:34.567
I still didn't hear no amen to that.
18:34.587 --> 18:35.329
But all right.
18:39.660 --> 18:43.007
Matthew 18, 19 and 20 says this again.
18:43.087 --> 18:55.693
I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.
18:55.820 --> 18:57.246
I'll give you another one for free.
18:57.740 --> 19:07.362
Leviticus 26, 8 says five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put 10,000 to flight man.
19:07.422 --> 19:10.407
That is some crazy kingdom, exponential math.
19:10.427 --> 19:11.769
That doesn't make sense.
19:13.332 --> 19:22.865
But I love it and it just reaffirms further the point that I'm making that God means for you to get where you're going by getting with his people.
19:26.440 --> 19:41.549
So if we can establish that life groups are the way, communities the way, getting with the people is the way, we have to ask the $10 million question and just to be clear, even if you call out the answer, I will not give you $10 million.
19:43.680 --> 19:45.264
People from the first service, just wait and like.
19:48.560 --> 20:00.235
So the $10 million question is this if we know that there is so much power in accountability and community and one another, why don't we do it?
20:02.870 --> 20:13.318
Why is it that when life group semester opens up, as it opened up last week, that every group has to be labeled full for this week because it is at capacity and cannot take anymore.
20:17.063 --> 20:17.884
You want to know why?
20:18.024 --> 20:18.465
I'll tell you.
20:18.505 --> 20:22.017
Why I'll tell you because it's actually the title of this sermon.
20:24.070 --> 20:27.258
The answer is that help sometimes hurts.
20:31.418 --> 20:43.632
See, I was trying to be nice, I was giving the media team a chance to throw it on there like the sermon title, but technically I guess we don't need it.
20:48.294 --> 20:58.482
Help sometimes Somebody feel me.
20:58.690 --> 21:00.035
Help sometimes hurts.
21:01.830 --> 21:03.295
You want to know how I know that this is true.
21:05.070 --> 21:05.733
It's February.
21:07.190 --> 21:08.897
Where are my athletic gym goers at?
21:10.234 --> 21:10.656
Oh, don't you.
21:11.752 --> 21:12.776
Hey, you cross fit people.
21:12.816 --> 21:14.020
Now You've been showing off that body.
21:14.070 --> 21:14.632
Don't get shy.
21:14.693 --> 21:19.990
Now Raise your hand, brother, all right.
21:19.990 --> 21:20.692
Now here's the thing.
21:22.670 --> 21:29.238
It's mid-February, right, a lot of the New Year's resolutions are starting to taper off.
21:31.450 --> 21:34.956
We had some people start and they were on fire.
21:36.579 --> 21:40.914
I'm going to go, I'm going to bear this fruit, I'm going to go Work the thing out.
21:43.070 --> 21:44.897
Everybody working out because they want to be a snack.
21:47.412 --> 21:47.813
Talk them out.
21:52.498 --> 21:53.139
But you know why.
21:53.179 --> 21:56.963
You only get a few people who last off, like my brother in the second row.
21:57.004 --> 21:58.686
Come here, oost, just come here, brother.
21:59.531 --> 22:01.076
Yeah, yeah, come on.
22:02.972 --> 22:05.337
See, oost is a former professional bodybuilder.
22:08.750 --> 22:11.231
You can't see it under here, not a lot.
22:11.251 --> 22:11.772
He married.
22:11.792 --> 22:13.696
So just keep yourselves.
22:16.682 --> 22:17.463
Keep yourselves.
22:17.830 --> 22:24.739
I'm just giving you the warning, but he lives a lifestyle of exercise and working out.
22:25.220 --> 22:27.192
He's a trainer, matter of fact.
22:27.953 --> 22:30.018
I'm just putting your face out so people can come as you are.
22:31.541 --> 22:31.962
Nervous.
22:32.650 --> 22:39.858
No, you good, you got more applause than me, bro.
