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Oct. 15, 2024
Navigating Faith and Dreams: Perseverance, Preparation, and God's Love
In this episode we we go through these personal stories and biblical parallels, such as Jesus' transformative encounter at the pool of Bethesda.
This episode is all about the trials that test our pursuit of the dreams and visions God places in our hearts.
We emphasize the necessity of genuine desire and action, drawing from the healing of a man ill for 38 years, showcasing how perseverance and faith are vital in achieving the abundant life God promises.
Balancing between resting in God's promises and actively chasing our dreams can be challenging, but it’s a journey worth embarking on.
These experiences illuminate the profound joy and fulfillment found in taking leaps of faith. Our conversation shifts to the decade-long preparation and relentless prayer that went into launching CityLight Church, highlighting the lessons learned from persistent seeking, as inspired by Luke 18:1-7.
Finally, we remind you of God's immense love and encourage you to stay connected with CityLight Church through our podcast and online platforms, ensuring you are continually uplifted by the teachings and enveloping grace of our Lord.
(00:00) Testing Your Pursuit of God's Vision
(03:55) Testing Your Pursuit of God's Vision
(11:49) The Journey of Pursuit and Preparation
(24:08) Navigating Life's Challenges and Pursuits
(32:49) Connecting With City Light Church Podcast
(03:55) Testing Your Pursuit of God's Vision
(11:49) The Journey of Pursuit and Preparation
(24:08) Navigating Life's Challenges and Pursuits
(32:49) Connecting With City Light Church Podcast
Chapters
00:00 - Testing Your Pursuit of God's Vision
03:55:00 - Testing Your Pursuit of God's Vision
11:49:00 - The Journey of Pursuit and Preparation
24:08:00 - Navigating Life's Challenges and Pursuits
32:49:00 - Connecting With City Light Church Podcast
Transcript
00:00 - Speaker 1
God has put a dream in your heart, god has put a vision in your heart, but it will be tested. Your desire will be tested, your pursuit will be tested and your want to will be tested. Satan is not like a demonic doorman that is gonna open up the door for you and say right, this way, madam, right this way, sir, to the abundant life, to the blessed life, you're actually gonna have to get your pursuit on amen.
00:26 - Speaker 2
Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. 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.
01:08 - Speaker 1
Let's begin in John, chapter 5, starting in verse 1. This is Jesus at the pool of Bethesda. It was only after I became a Christian, in 1992, when I rollerbladed. People forget that At one point New York City was like along the avenues was just a sea of rollerbladers. I was one of them. It's hard to picture that now. It's crazy that my parents let me out of the house back then, 16 years old, on rollerblades and just going up and down like 8th Avenue, fighting the cyclists, fighting the yellow cabs. It wasn't the nice Manhattan of today where all the lines were painted and you had the bicycle lane. You just had to basically die between cars. You better believe in Jesus if you were going to survive in Manhattan back then. But I showed up in Central Park and realized, oh, there's that thing, oh, that's from the Bible Bethesda found. I'm getting the connection now. It's from John, chapter 5.
02:10
It says after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. Gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years that's a long time when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, you would think that it would say Jesus saw him and found out he was only there for a day, that he would say what he said to him do you want to be made well? But it was actually because Jesus saw him there and knew that he was already sick a long time that Jesus asks him a perplexing question. It almost seems like a rhetorical question, but it's not. He asks a sick man who's been sick 38 years do you want to be made well? It's almost like you can add. Do you really, do you really want to be made well? Because you're laying here, it's been 38 years and you're not really doing much. It seems to make it happen If we keep on reading.
03:55
The man says I have no man. In other words, his eyes are on man, human, and he says I don't have anybody to bring me into the fountain. And Jesus is really provoking him and testing his desire, and testing his want to, because if your desire is big enough, listen, the evidence of desire is in pursuit. And when your desire is big enough and large enough, you find a way, you make a way. You know I preach grace. I'm a big grace preacher. When it comes to our salvation, the work is done and when it comes to our salvation, we get to rest. But when it comes to the dreams that God has put in our hearts, it's a tension between, yes, resting in the promise, but also cooperating with what the Lord has said, because Christians are really, really good at waiting. They're professional waiters.
04:49
What are you doing? I'm waiting on the Lord, and then some preacher comes and begins to talk about. You know, abraham waited a really long time. That's me, I'm Abraham. And then you know David waited. Moses was 40 years, just twiddling his thumbs in the desert. Oh good, I didn't waste the last 40 years. I'm such a good waiter.
05:06
And let's not identify so much with the waiting part and identify more with the receiving part Amen. I understand there's a baking process. I've gone through it. I'm sure I'll go through it again. There's always a waiting period. But I don't have to have faith to wait. I want to have faith to receive Amen. Have to have faith to wait. I want to have faith to receive Amen. The prophetic word isn't given so you can wait for it. It's given so you can cooperate with it. Hallelujah. And there will always. When God gives you a dream, when God gives you a vision, when God begins to stir up a desire in your heart, there will always be a test of how big is your want to? Do you really want this? For this man here by the pool of Bethesda it didn't seem like the want to was that great because he could have gotten addicted to the social surroundings. I mean, it became a hangout place where everybody with the same problems would hang out. He could have gotten just used to the dream that had died and talking with others as they wallowed in each other's mediocrity. And Jesus comes provoking him how big is your want to?
06:22
I remember my first year of Bible school. The Lord was already talking to me years before that that I needed to be good at winning souls, that if I was going to enter the ministry and be a pastor, the very basics, the very fundamentals, are being able to articulate the gospel, to lead a person that's far from Jesus through the gospel and to Jesus, amen. And to do that with anybody. I felt like it was raising me up to be unafraid, to speak to anything with a heartbeat that moves. And so I did that in high school, I did that at college, but then I felt like the Lord was saying okay, not just your friends, strangers even.
07:02
And then I entered into Bible school and they had this outreach that happened every Friday night down in Tampa, florida. It happened in Ybor City, which you know how, like New York City is, like all bad and good, tampa's weird in that there's a lot of suburbs and just a lot of normal places and it's like the concentration of evil is on the sixth, sixth or seventh block. There's two people who know Tampa. Right, it's this concentrated area of evil, ybor City. Right, some people call it Evil City, which, of course, being a Christian organization, they don't believe that you can witness to somebody Wednesday in the afternoon or Tuesday morning. But it's like you know, christians, we're funny that way we're like you know what. Let's find the sinners that have been waiting all week to sin and now it's Friday night and they're going to Ybor city and all they really want to do is get high and get drunk and party. Let's witness to them. Then I really, I prefer, I prefer to meet my sinners Saturday morning, like when the hangover is still fresh and they're hungry and they're good. They got all the regret on them, not when they have the thirst for sin in their eyes. But you know, we're Christians, right, so we have the bright idea.
08:16
We hear one or two testimonies of how somebody was on their way into a bar and a preacher came up to them, someone ministered to them and they fell to their knees. What must I do to be saved? And we think that's the norm. Those are great. We always celebrate these outlandish testimonies. Do I believe God can do that? Yes, do I believe he's done that? Yes, but also there is a norm. That's just me like doing group therapy with you guys. That has nothing to do with I didn't want to do it, but I felt that's how I needed to do it if I was going to fulfill the call of God on my life.
08:54
And so we would go down there and we would hold up signs that said free prayer, or we would go up to people and just present the gospel to them. I mean, I got kicked in the shins, I got elbowed One time. I got back, I mean, like, here I am listing these persecutions, right, paul was whipped. And I'm like, did you know, and it's a true story I took off my fleece and there was this big wad of gum that somebody put in my fleece. I can't believe it. The sufferings of Christ. Some of them looked at me scornfully. It was terrible. But you know, I'm 24 years old. No, I'm not, I'm 22 years old. At the time this was 98. Don't do the math, I'm 48. And I kept going every Friday because after I would come back I would be so full of joy and so elated because I knew I was doing something that was going to bring me closer to my destiny.
09:53
Listen, god is going to test your desire. This was me saying yes, lord, I believe you've called me to the ministry and I believe you will put me in the ministry, and I believe you've set this up as a prerequisite of what I must do to enter into full-time ministry. Is this ministering to anybody today? That God has put a dream in your heart. God has put a vision in your heart, but it will be tested. Your desire will be tested, your pursuit will be tested and your want to will be tested. Satan is not like a demonic doorman that is going to open up the door for you and say right, this way, madam, right this way, sir, to the abundant life, to the blessed life, you're actually going to have to get your pursuit on. Amen, hallelujah, hallelujah.
10:48
When being prepped to minister this, I just felt like the lord in my spirit just said encourage my people to not allow the dream to die, whatever he's spoken to, to not allow that to die. And in case you haven't noticed, more and more everything in our society seems to be set up for you to let the dream die, from the food we eat that disrupt your entire endocrine system so that you just veg out to this constant scrolling to the legal weed. Everything is just to kind of numb. You sedate you and take life as it is and God is saying wake up. Wake up and dare to believe, wake up and dare to dream again. Won't I do it, hallelujah. But sometimes your desire will be tested to, where you even wonder God, are you with me on this? I mean, I felt, listen.
11:49
For 10 years I prepared to launch City Light Church. That's all I, from 16 to 26,. I was preparing, I was studying, going to Bible school, praying hours a day, and then I finally, with Jesus leading me every step of the way, launched City Light Church and I'm you know I'm thinking Lord, if anybody's proven their want to, it's this guy right here. When I launch City Light, god's going to say well done, enter now into your heavenly reward. Those 10 years have not been in vain. Watch what I do. In the span of days and they stayed away by the thousands. And I'm preaching to four or five people, and you know the mic went out for ten seconds. That's like the biggest problems I have today.
12:36
Back then the speaker would just blow out In the service. It didn't even have a worship leader. It was the first generation iPod. Some people don't even know what an iPod is now Because it's in their phone. Now they don't even make that anymore. Right, a separate device for your digital music. That was our first worship leader. We just played tracks off the iPod. I'd have to get up there and, all right, close your eyes, everybody lift your hands. And it's so sweet now because in retrospect I realized all right, lord you, you weren't trying to torture me. But now I so much value what you've done because my desire was tested and you got to stay hungry and keep pursuing Hallelujah. Thank you, jesus.
13:38
Let's go ahead and read Luke 18. Verses 1 through 7. Then he spoke a parable to them. Then men always ought to pray and not lose heart. That's one of the messages this morning Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. The battle is in the realm of your emotions. God wants to rob the uh out of your heart, the dunamis. Don't lose heart.
14:26
Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man, so an unrighteous judge. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself though I do not fear God nor regard man. Yet because this widow troubles me, because she was incessant, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. One version says, lest she drive me insane, crazy.
15:13
Then the Lord said hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them, and shall God not? In other words, this is in the theme of Jesus talking about how much more will your heavenly Father do, or how much greater is your heavenly Father? Let's compare and contrast. If this unrighteous, ungodly judge will be moved by importunity, by the widow continually coming to him, how much more will your heavenly father be moved as you keep knocking on the door? Hallelujah, it says, though he bear long with them. So sometimes there is a bearing long. But continue bearing, continue seeking, continue knocking. Hallelujah, how big is your want to? And the Lord, for some of you, is going to refresh your want to, because the clobberings of life and the let downs of life, they tend to rob you Right Of the want to. Because the clobberings of life and the let downs of life, they tend to rob you right of the want to, of the desire to. Then, where you just throw up your hands and just take whatever comes. No, the things of God must be seized. Hallelujah, I pray. The Holy Spirit now come and inject you with a holy seizing and a faith to dare to believe, hallelujah.
16:49
I said 24 when I was thinking of my age. It was 22 when I was doing the evil city, ebor City. It was 24 when I was ordained, and the day after I was ordained, in the ministry that I was a part of, the financial director came and handed me my ordination and she said now that you're ordained, would you like to opt out of Social Security? I said what that's a thing? She said oh yeah, ministers can opt out of Social Security. Some of you and some people think ministers don't pay taxes, we pay taxes, but we get can opt out of Social Security. Some of you and some people think ministers don't pay taxes, we pay taxes, but we get to opt out of Social Security. And she said it's a decision you can make once and then. There's no reversing it. That's a lot of pressure for a 24-year-old to make. And I asked her what do you think? And she went well, I don't know. She said I don't know. I mean like I don't know if social security is even going to be around when, when, when you need it. And I I'm 24 years old and I'm thinking well, social security.
17:49
I've looked at my paycheck and that was eight percent. I don't know what it is now, but it was an eight percent. They took out nearly a tithe and I thought surely I could do better with eight percent in the government. I said you know what I'll opt out of social% than the government. I said you know what I'll opt out of Social Security, and then I'll wheel and deal and I will multiply that and I will be all right. So I opted out of Social Security, didn't even think about it through my 20s, through my 30s. Then Victor came along and somewhere in my early 40s I thought huh, you know that plan. I had to take that 8% and put it to the side. I never did that. So I have no safety net whatsoever other than the Lord, which let me just talk about that.
18:32
There's a lot of people who have the attitude of oh, the Lord will take care of me. Yes, the Lord will take care of you, but there are levels that the Lord will take care of you on, and if you didn't use wisdom and if you didn't use your head, you're going to limit the taking care of, like he took care of the Hebrews in their rebellion. But they were eating, you know, quaker oats. And I don't want Quaker oats every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes I want a piece of steak In the wilderness. He met them. He supplied their needs, but not their. In other words, god, when you have faith in him, you're not going to end up under a bridge somewhere and you're not going to end up starving. He will take care of you. But I don't want to be on. Barely get along street. Okay, you're sustaining me, so I don't die of hunger. This is too practical.
19:28
Look, you know who's the worst at this, ministers. I mean, oh, god will take care of me. Well, what are you doing in the natural? By his wisdom, by his anointing to prepare for your future right now, huh, prepare. And then you read the bible. You know how many times he sent prophets to say prepare. There's going to be a drought, there's going to be a. There's going to be a drought, there's going to be a famine, there's going to be prepare.
19:44
So I wake up in my early forties and realize I'm completely unprepared. So I get this desire. The problem is I have no money, no excess money. But I get a desire and I start beating the bushes. Lord, you got, I don't. I'm on the clock here now. You got to multiply this thing.
20:05
And I discovered this thing and I've shared this from the pulpit before this thing that I knew nothing about Bitcoin. I'd only seen quick headlines and everybody thinks they know what Bitcoin is, but that's because everybody's too embarrassed to admit they know not at all what Bitcoin is. That was really funny, I thought. Thought, because whenever I talk about bitcoin, some oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that yeah, yeah. I'm like no, okay, so this is what I had to go. I know nothing about that world, I know not.
20:33
I threw myself in ministry, and ministry only, and then it took at least 200 hours and this is the recipe it need. You need 200 it's not really that, but it is when you don't get it 200 hours to understand Bitcoin until I finally understood it. And then, when I really understood it, I started buying, not with just one hand, but both hands and two feet, and then that was back in 2019. And so it went from several thousand dollars and, in the next year, went to $60,000. And so it went from several thousand dollars and then the next year went to $60,000. And so I started borrowing against my Bitcoin because now it went into the millions. So I went from zero to hero real quick.
21:10
I share this testimony, you know. You say why does he keep talking about it? Because the Lord changed my life. Amen, the Lord changed my life. The Lord changed my family's life. It was a major breakthrough. Now I say I don't say that as this is what happened to me. Ha ha, it's. This is what the Lord will do for you when you look to him, cry out to him and put some pursuit in amen.
21:32
But it wasn't an easy journey, because I then got reckless and borrowed against the Bitcoin and then made even more millions and then Bitcoin, as it's prone to do, went, dropped 40 plus percent. I mean it'll go down and up. It's volatile and people say, well, that's why it's no good, it's volatile. Everything good is volatile. The Holy Spirit is volatile. Niagara Falls is volatile. When there's energy, it'll be volatile, amen.
22:01
And so I had sleepless nights. And so I had sleepless nights. I mean, bitcoin will make you throw your guts out multiple times before it actually comes back, kisses you on the cheek and hugs you. It is not, for the faint of heart, the best advice I can give somebody who wants to purchase Bitcoin is purchase it for 10 years and forget you have it. Purchase it now, not in 10 years, as another asset, and then don't think about it for 10 years. And so I had to keep enduring. You know what's great Making millions. You know what's painful Losing millions with an M. It's more painful than never having had them. And I'm persisting, persisting, and the Lord led me down some other avenues bitcoin related to purchase bitcoin derivative options and then got me back and then some.
22:58
What I'm just trying to encourage you is to keep on keeping on and to keep on putting one foot in front of the other while you're looking to Jesus the entire time. He will reward the persistent soul whose desire is evident Come on, hallelujah, look. When you realize this, when you realize this, then you will understand why that demonic onslaught in your head is there, that voice that wants to get you to just shut down and take whatever comes and then say pseudo Christian things like well, god's got this. Then it'll make sense why the devil wants you drunk, high, giving up, going off into escapism. That'll make sense when you realize it's that what God wants to see is a fire in you and some pursuit. That is the evidence of your desire that he put there Hallelujah. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, luke 19, verses 1 through 5.
24:08
I'll close with this. Hey, let me just say this you know here's a revelation Life ain't easy. You're going to have challenges. I easy You're going to have. I know you're going to have challenges, but there's a real, there's a real trend of therapy now. I mean like never before. I mean back in Europe they always used to chuckle at Americans. They're always in a shrink's office. All the movies there's always someone popping pills on a couch, laying down, talking to a shrink. But now you know you can't even get in with a therapist and they're charging ridiculous rates and they're booked out for months on end.
25:02
And there's buzzwords like trauma and abuse. And I don't knock anybody who's experienced real trauma. That's why, the Lord, that's why I do what I do to minister to people who've been traumatized. But it's so overused now and that when I talk to some people they'll throw the words like abuse and trauma around and I'll go well, what happened? And they're like I had two parents and they loved me.
25:29
And then mom would ask me every morning do I want breakfast? And then mom would ask me every morning, do I want breakfast? And then they put me in all the sports I mean, I was in baseball and I was in soccer and they start describing what like, for anybody else out of time, would be an idyllic childhood. And there is a trauma there. But here's what the trauma is. It's not the upbringing Everybody there's not going to be a perfect upbringing. The sitcoms of the 80s weren't real. But what they really, when they start describing it's that they grew up in this loving, protected bubble, got out of it and started life and life just smacked them, life being life. And they go, oh, oh. And the shrink says your mom, your dad, oh, they traumatized me. No, they didn't. They loved you and took care of you and protected you and were kind to you and good to you. And okay, what does this have to do with the price of eggs? Because there is a, there is, there is, there is a group of people who have, we've been so pampered that then, when we go out there, we're shocked to learn that everything doesn't go our way all of the time and that it actually requires some and persistence and and continuation and an evidence of desire. Amen, hallelujah, all right.
27:05
Luke 19, verses 1 through 5. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was well, jesus entered and passed through Jericho. That happened. Well, jesus entered and passed through Jericho. That happened. And then in Jericho was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich, and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. Some versions say he was a dwarf. He had dwarfism. He was a little person. What does that have to do with anything? Well, just picture him right.
27:45
Here's this rich guy, and the jewelry on him probably weighs as much as him. He's four foot10" but he's successful and he wants to get a hold of Jesus so much and he couldn't for the crowd, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. What a sight that must have been this little guy right running with the jewelry hanging off of him, the robes hanging off of him. But he's like. You know what I want to see? Jesusesus and 2 000 people around him are like, yeah, we do too. And he's like yeah, but I want to see him more than you want to see him. Therefore, hence, hitherto, I'm going to make an absolute fool out of myself. I'm going to be like one of those rainforest creatures that dangle from a branch by their tail.
28:37
He climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way and notice that Jesus didn't say look at this short, rich fool. What a sight. Hey, peter, get a load of this guy. And when Jesus came to the place of all the thousands of people, he looked up at dangling Zacchaeus and saw him and said to him Jesus's heart was touched by what the pursuit, the want to the evidence of his desire. He looked up and saw and said to him Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house. I just felt I didn't share this in the first service, but the Lord just reminded me in my spirit.
29:21
Those of you who are single look, not all single want to be married. Some people are single and they're saying I feel like this is a season of singleness. But if you want to be married, I encourage you, let. But if you want to be married, I encourage you, let there be an evidence of the pursuit, whatever that means, get together with the lord. But you cannot just be sitting and waiting and thinking that this person is going to paratroop out of the sky. They won't, and technically, on paper, I know it isn, but it should be easier to meet somebody. I know it isn't, and there's this like pandemic of people not being able. Sometimes it's because the options are so much. I mean, I come from this little village, my legacy, my history, this little town, the town itself is 20,000 people, but there were villages of several hundred people and somehow nobody ever was unmarried Because they had no choices.
30:18
It was like who are you going to marry? Well, I know Berta from the Village Next Door. I've seen Berta her whole life and that's all I got. All right, berta, you ready, want to spend the next 70 years together. But here in New York City they have so many options, so many things. Nobody can find their perfect match. But I'm encouraging you. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you got to do something. Do you know? Here's a story she's probably watching online. She couldn't be here today because she's taking care of Vivian, my wife Emily that I had tried to date Emily before I actually dated Emily and we actually actually went out several times.
30:59
You know, just as friends just talking, but it was like we kept missing each other, like I couldn't connect with her at all and she couldn't connect. She thought I was out of my mind. She wasn't, she wasn't that wrong, but that was in in in the fall. Then in May, because I was lonely and depressed, I said let me, let me, let me call Emily. And I asked her out and she was like a different person and I said what happened and she said I just opened up. And I said what happened and she said I just opened up something in my heart, not to me, just to the Lord doing something in her life. There was a part that was closed where she now opened up.
31:43
And if you're single, open up that part of your heart and pursue the Lord and pursue him for his will for your life, and then realize that faith without works is dead, hallelujah. In fact, I pray for every person here who's looking for a godly spouse. You want a good thing, a righteous thing. I pray in the name of Jesus that heaven and earth would be moved for you, that, as you take steps of faith, that the Lord would cause your path to collide with somebody who's also submitted their lives to Christ is full of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, all impediments go, demonic assignments that want to thwart family and godly seed be broken. In Jesus' name, and for some, that your hearts would be healed, that you'd be able to trust again In Jesus' name, amen.
32:49 - Speaker 2
This is the City Light Church Podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.
God has put a dream in your heart, god has put a vision in your heart, but it will be tested. Your desire will be tested, your pursuit will be tested and your want to will be tested. Satan is not like a demonic doorman that is gonna open up the door for you and say right, this way, madam, right this way, sir, to the abundant life, to the blessed life, you're actually gonna have to get your pursuit on amen.
00:26 - Speaker 2
Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. 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.
01:08 - Speaker 1
Let's begin in John, chapter 5, starting in verse 1. This is Jesus at the pool of Bethesda. It was only after I became a Christian, in 1992, when I rollerbladed. People forget that At one point New York City was like along the avenues was just a sea of rollerbladers. I was one of them. It's hard to picture that now. It's crazy that my parents let me out of the house back then, 16 years old, on rollerblades and just going up and down like 8th Avenue, fighting the cyclists, fighting the yellow cabs. It wasn't the nice Manhattan of today where all the lines were painted and you had the bicycle lane. You just had to basically die between cars. You better believe in Jesus if you were going to survive in Manhattan back then. But I showed up in Central Park and realized, oh, there's that thing, oh, that's from the Bible Bethesda found. I'm getting the connection now. It's from John, chapter 5.
02:10
It says after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. Gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years that's a long time when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, you would think that it would say Jesus saw him and found out he was only there for a day, that he would say what he said to him do you want to be made well? But it was actually because Jesus saw him there and knew that he was already sick a long time that Jesus asks him a perplexing question. It almost seems like a rhetorical question, but it's not. He asks a sick man who's been sick 38 years do you want to be made well? It's almost like you can add. Do you really, do you really want to be made well? Because you're laying here, it's been 38 years and you're not really doing much. It seems to make it happen If we keep on reading.
03:55
The man says I have no man. In other words, his eyes are on man, human, and he says I don't have anybody to bring me into the fountain. And Jesus is really provoking him and testing his desire, and testing his want to, because if your desire is big enough, listen, the evidence of desire is in pursuit. And when your desire is big enough and large enough, you find a way, you make a way. You know I preach grace. I'm a big grace preacher. When it comes to our salvation, the work is done and when it comes to our salvation, we get to rest. But when it comes to the dreams that God has put in our hearts, it's a tension between, yes, resting in the promise, but also cooperating with what the Lord has said, because Christians are really, really good at waiting. They're professional waiters.
04:49
What are you doing? I'm waiting on the Lord, and then some preacher comes and begins to talk about. You know, abraham waited a really long time. That's me, I'm Abraham. And then you know David waited. Moses was 40 years, just twiddling his thumbs in the desert. Oh good, I didn't waste the last 40 years. I'm such a good waiter.
05:06
And let's not identify so much with the waiting part and identify more with the receiving part Amen. I understand there's a baking process. I've gone through it. I'm sure I'll go through it again. There's always a waiting period. But I don't have to have faith to wait. I want to have faith to receive Amen. Have to have faith to wait. I want to have faith to receive Amen. The prophetic word isn't given so you can wait for it. It's given so you can cooperate with it. Hallelujah. And there will always. When God gives you a dream, when God gives you a vision, when God begins to stir up a desire in your heart, there will always be a test of how big is your want to? Do you really want this? For this man here by the pool of Bethesda it didn't seem like the want to was that great because he could have gotten addicted to the social surroundings. I mean, it became a hangout place where everybody with the same problems would hang out. He could have gotten just used to the dream that had died and talking with others as they wallowed in each other's mediocrity. And Jesus comes provoking him how big is your want to?
06:22
I remember my first year of Bible school. The Lord was already talking to me years before that that I needed to be good at winning souls, that if I was going to enter the ministry and be a pastor, the very basics, the very fundamentals, are being able to articulate the gospel, to lead a person that's far from Jesus through the gospel and to Jesus, amen. And to do that with anybody. I felt like it was raising me up to be unafraid, to speak to anything with a heartbeat that moves. And so I did that in high school, I did that at college, but then I felt like the Lord was saying okay, not just your friends, strangers even.
07:02
And then I entered into Bible school and they had this outreach that happened every Friday night down in Tampa, florida. It happened in Ybor City, which you know how, like New York City is, like all bad and good, tampa's weird in that there's a lot of suburbs and just a lot of normal places and it's like the concentration of evil is on the sixth, sixth or seventh block. There's two people who know Tampa. Right, it's this concentrated area of evil, ybor City. Right, some people call it Evil City, which, of course, being a Christian organization, they don't believe that you can witness to somebody Wednesday in the afternoon or Tuesday morning. But it's like you know, christians, we're funny that way we're like you know what. Let's find the sinners that have been waiting all week to sin and now it's Friday night and they're going to Ybor city and all they really want to do is get high and get drunk and party. Let's witness to them. Then I really, I prefer, I prefer to meet my sinners Saturday morning, like when the hangover is still fresh and they're hungry and they're good. They got all the regret on them, not when they have the thirst for sin in their eyes. But you know, we're Christians, right, so we have the bright idea.
08:16
We hear one or two testimonies of how somebody was on their way into a bar and a preacher came up to them, someone ministered to them and they fell to their knees. What must I do to be saved? And we think that's the norm. Those are great. We always celebrate these outlandish testimonies. Do I believe God can do that? Yes, do I believe he's done that? Yes, but also there is a norm. That's just me like doing group therapy with you guys. That has nothing to do with I didn't want to do it, but I felt that's how I needed to do it if I was going to fulfill the call of God on my life.
08:54
And so we would go down there and we would hold up signs that said free prayer, or we would go up to people and just present the gospel to them. I mean, I got kicked in the shins, I got elbowed One time. I got back, I mean, like, here I am listing these persecutions, right, paul was whipped. And I'm like, did you know, and it's a true story I took off my fleece and there was this big wad of gum that somebody put in my fleece. I can't believe it. The sufferings of Christ. Some of them looked at me scornfully. It was terrible. But you know, I'm 24 years old. No, I'm not, I'm 22 years old. At the time this was 98. Don't do the math, I'm 48. And I kept going every Friday because after I would come back I would be so full of joy and so elated because I knew I was doing something that was going to bring me closer to my destiny.
09:53
Listen, god is going to test your desire. This was me saying yes, lord, I believe you've called me to the ministry and I believe you will put me in the ministry, and I believe you've set this up as a prerequisite of what I must do to enter into full-time ministry. Is this ministering to anybody today? That God has put a dream in your heart. God has put a vision in your heart, but it will be tested. Your desire will be tested, your pursuit will be tested and your want to will be tested. Satan is not like a demonic doorman that is going to open up the door for you and say right, this way, madam, right this way, sir, to the abundant life, to the blessed life, you're actually going to have to get your pursuit on. Amen, hallelujah, hallelujah.
10:48
When being prepped to minister this, I just felt like the lord in my spirit just said encourage my people to not allow the dream to die, whatever he's spoken to, to not allow that to die. And in case you haven't noticed, more and more everything in our society seems to be set up for you to let the dream die, from the food we eat that disrupt your entire endocrine system so that you just veg out to this constant scrolling to the legal weed. Everything is just to kind of numb. You sedate you and take life as it is and God is saying wake up. Wake up and dare to believe, wake up and dare to dream again. Won't I do it, hallelujah. But sometimes your desire will be tested to, where you even wonder God, are you with me on this? I mean, I felt, listen.
11:49
For 10 years I prepared to launch City Light Church. That's all I, from 16 to 26,. I was preparing, I was studying, going to Bible school, praying hours a day, and then I finally, with Jesus leading me every step of the way, launched City Light Church and I'm you know I'm thinking Lord, if anybody's proven their want to, it's this guy right here. When I launch City Light, god's going to say well done, enter now into your heavenly reward. Those 10 years have not been in vain. Watch what I do. In the span of days and they stayed away by the thousands. And I'm preaching to four or five people, and you know the mic went out for ten seconds. That's like the biggest problems I have today.
12:36
Back then the speaker would just blow out In the service. It didn't even have a worship leader. It was the first generation iPod. Some people don't even know what an iPod is now Because it's in their phone. Now they don't even make that anymore. Right, a separate device for your digital music. That was our first worship leader. We just played tracks off the iPod. I'd have to get up there and, all right, close your eyes, everybody lift your hands. And it's so sweet now because in retrospect I realized all right, lord you, you weren't trying to torture me. But now I so much value what you've done because my desire was tested and you got to stay hungry and keep pursuing Hallelujah. Thank you, jesus.
13:38
Let's go ahead and read Luke 18. Verses 1 through 7. Then he spoke a parable to them. Then men always ought to pray and not lose heart. That's one of the messages this morning Don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. The battle is in the realm of your emotions. God wants to rob the uh out of your heart, the dunamis. Don't lose heart.
14:26
Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man, so an unrighteous judge. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself though I do not fear God nor regard man. Yet because this widow troubles me, because she was incessant, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. One version says, lest she drive me insane, crazy.
15:13
Then the Lord said hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them, and shall God not? In other words, this is in the theme of Jesus talking about how much more will your heavenly Father do, or how much greater is your heavenly Father? Let's compare and contrast. If this unrighteous, ungodly judge will be moved by importunity, by the widow continually coming to him, how much more will your heavenly father be moved as you keep knocking on the door? Hallelujah, it says, though he bear long with them. So sometimes there is a bearing long. But continue bearing, continue seeking, continue knocking. Hallelujah, how big is your want to? And the Lord, for some of you, is going to refresh your want to, because the clobberings of life and the let downs of life, they tend to rob you Right Of the want to. Because the clobberings of life and the let downs of life, they tend to rob you right of the want to, of the desire to. Then, where you just throw up your hands and just take whatever comes. No, the things of God must be seized. Hallelujah, I pray. The Holy Spirit now come and inject you with a holy seizing and a faith to dare to believe, hallelujah.
16:49
I said 24 when I was thinking of my age. It was 22 when I was doing the evil city, ebor City. It was 24 when I was ordained, and the day after I was ordained, in the ministry that I was a part of, the financial director came and handed me my ordination and she said now that you're ordained, would you like to opt out of Social Security? I said what that's a thing? She said oh yeah, ministers can opt out of Social Security. Some of you and some people think ministers don't pay taxes, we pay taxes, but we get can opt out of Social Security. Some of you and some people think ministers don't pay taxes, we pay taxes, but we get to opt out of Social Security. And she said it's a decision you can make once and then. There's no reversing it. That's a lot of pressure for a 24-year-old to make. And I asked her what do you think? And she went well, I don't know. She said I don't know. I mean like I don't know if social security is even going to be around when, when, when you need it. And I I'm 24 years old and I'm thinking well, social security.
17:49
I've looked at my paycheck and that was eight percent. I don't know what it is now, but it was an eight percent. They took out nearly a tithe and I thought surely I could do better with eight percent in the government. I said you know what I'll opt out of social% than the government. I said you know what I'll opt out of Social Security, and then I'll wheel and deal and I will multiply that and I will be all right. So I opted out of Social Security, didn't even think about it through my 20s, through my 30s. Then Victor came along and somewhere in my early 40s I thought huh, you know that plan. I had to take that 8% and put it to the side. I never did that. So I have no safety net whatsoever other than the Lord, which let me just talk about that.
18:32
There's a lot of people who have the attitude of oh, the Lord will take care of me. Yes, the Lord will take care of you, but there are levels that the Lord will take care of you on, and if you didn't use wisdom and if you didn't use your head, you're going to limit the taking care of, like he took care of the Hebrews in their rebellion. But they were eating, you know, quaker oats. And I don't want Quaker oats every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes I want a piece of steak In the wilderness. He met them. He supplied their needs, but not their. In other words, god, when you have faith in him, you're not going to end up under a bridge somewhere and you're not going to end up starving. He will take care of you. But I don't want to be on. Barely get along street. Okay, you're sustaining me, so I don't die of hunger. This is too practical.
19:28
Look, you know who's the worst at this, ministers. I mean, oh, god will take care of me. Well, what are you doing in the natural? By his wisdom, by his anointing to prepare for your future right now, huh, prepare. And then you read the bible. You know how many times he sent prophets to say prepare. There's going to be a drought, there's going to be a. There's going to be a drought, there's going to be a famine, there's going to be prepare.
19:44
So I wake up in my early forties and realize I'm completely unprepared. So I get this desire. The problem is I have no money, no excess money. But I get a desire and I start beating the bushes. Lord, you got, I don't. I'm on the clock here now. You got to multiply this thing.
20:05
And I discovered this thing and I've shared this from the pulpit before this thing that I knew nothing about Bitcoin. I'd only seen quick headlines and everybody thinks they know what Bitcoin is, but that's because everybody's too embarrassed to admit they know not at all what Bitcoin is. That was really funny, I thought. Thought, because whenever I talk about bitcoin, some oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that yeah, yeah. I'm like no, okay, so this is what I had to go. I know nothing about that world, I know not.
20:33
I threw myself in ministry, and ministry only, and then it took at least 200 hours and this is the recipe it need. You need 200 it's not really that, but it is when you don't get it 200 hours to understand Bitcoin until I finally understood it. And then, when I really understood it, I started buying, not with just one hand, but both hands and two feet, and then that was back in 2019. And so it went from several thousand dollars and, in the next year, went to $60,000. And so it went from several thousand dollars and then the next year went to $60,000. And so I started borrowing against my Bitcoin because now it went into the millions. So I went from zero to hero real quick.
21:10
I share this testimony, you know. You say why does he keep talking about it? Because the Lord changed my life. Amen, the Lord changed my life. The Lord changed my family's life. It was a major breakthrough. Now I say I don't say that as this is what happened to me. Ha ha, it's. This is what the Lord will do for you when you look to him, cry out to him and put some pursuit in amen.
21:32
But it wasn't an easy journey, because I then got reckless and borrowed against the Bitcoin and then made even more millions and then Bitcoin, as it's prone to do, went, dropped 40 plus percent. I mean it'll go down and up. It's volatile and people say, well, that's why it's no good, it's volatile. Everything good is volatile. The Holy Spirit is volatile. Niagara Falls is volatile. When there's energy, it'll be volatile, amen.
22:01
And so I had sleepless nights. And so I had sleepless nights. I mean, bitcoin will make you throw your guts out multiple times before it actually comes back, kisses you on the cheek and hugs you. It is not, for the faint of heart, the best advice I can give somebody who wants to purchase Bitcoin is purchase it for 10 years and forget you have it. Purchase it now, not in 10 years, as another asset, and then don't think about it for 10 years. And so I had to keep enduring. You know what's great Making millions. You know what's painful Losing millions with an M. It's more painful than never having had them. And I'm persisting, persisting, and the Lord led me down some other avenues bitcoin related to purchase bitcoin derivative options and then got me back and then some.
22:58
What I'm just trying to encourage you is to keep on keeping on and to keep on putting one foot in front of the other while you're looking to Jesus the entire time. He will reward the persistent soul whose desire is evident Come on, hallelujah, look. When you realize this, when you realize this, then you will understand why that demonic onslaught in your head is there, that voice that wants to get you to just shut down and take whatever comes and then say pseudo Christian things like well, god's got this. Then it'll make sense why the devil wants you drunk, high, giving up, going off into escapism. That'll make sense when you realize it's that what God wants to see is a fire in you and some pursuit. That is the evidence of your desire that he put there Hallelujah. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, luke 19, verses 1 through 5.
24:08
I'll close with this. Hey, let me just say this you know here's a revelation Life ain't easy. You're going to have challenges. I easy You're going to have. I know you're going to have challenges, but there's a real, there's a real trend of therapy now. I mean like never before. I mean back in Europe they always used to chuckle at Americans. They're always in a shrink's office. All the movies there's always someone popping pills on a couch, laying down, talking to a shrink. But now you know you can't even get in with a therapist and they're charging ridiculous rates and they're booked out for months on end.
25:02
And there's buzzwords like trauma and abuse. And I don't knock anybody who's experienced real trauma. That's why, the Lord, that's why I do what I do to minister to people who've been traumatized. But it's so overused now and that when I talk to some people they'll throw the words like abuse and trauma around and I'll go well, what happened? And they're like I had two parents and they loved me.
25:29
And then mom would ask me every morning do I want breakfast? And then mom would ask me every morning, do I want breakfast? And then they put me in all the sports I mean, I was in baseball and I was in soccer and they start describing what like, for anybody else out of time, would be an idyllic childhood. And there is a trauma there. But here's what the trauma is. It's not the upbringing Everybody there's not going to be a perfect upbringing. The sitcoms of the 80s weren't real. But what they really, when they start describing it's that they grew up in this loving, protected bubble, got out of it and started life and life just smacked them, life being life. And they go, oh, oh. And the shrink says your mom, your dad, oh, they traumatized me. No, they didn't. They loved you and took care of you and protected you and were kind to you and good to you. And okay, what does this have to do with the price of eggs? Because there is a, there is, there is, there is a group of people who have, we've been so pampered that then, when we go out there, we're shocked to learn that everything doesn't go our way all of the time and that it actually requires some and persistence and and continuation and an evidence of desire. Amen, hallelujah, all right.
27:05
Luke 19, verses 1 through 5. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was well, jesus entered and passed through Jericho. That happened. Well, jesus entered and passed through Jericho. That happened. And then in Jericho was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich, and he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. Some versions say he was a dwarf. He had dwarfism. He was a little person. What does that have to do with anything? Well, just picture him right.
27:45
Here's this rich guy, and the jewelry on him probably weighs as much as him. He's four foot10" but he's successful and he wants to get a hold of Jesus so much and he couldn't for the crowd, so he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. What a sight that must have been this little guy right running with the jewelry hanging off of him, the robes hanging off of him. But he's like. You know what I want to see? Jesusesus and 2 000 people around him are like, yeah, we do too. And he's like yeah, but I want to see him more than you want to see him. Therefore, hence, hitherto, I'm going to make an absolute fool out of myself. I'm going to be like one of those rainforest creatures that dangle from a branch by their tail.
28:37
He climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way and notice that Jesus didn't say look at this short, rich fool. What a sight. Hey, peter, get a load of this guy. And when Jesus came to the place of all the thousands of people, he looked up at dangling Zacchaeus and saw him and said to him Jesus's heart was touched by what the pursuit, the want to the evidence of his desire. He looked up and saw and said to him Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house. I just felt I didn't share this in the first service, but the Lord just reminded me in my spirit.
29:21
Those of you who are single look, not all single want to be married. Some people are single and they're saying I feel like this is a season of singleness. But if you want to be married, I encourage you, let. But if you want to be married, I encourage you, let there be an evidence of the pursuit, whatever that means, get together with the lord. But you cannot just be sitting and waiting and thinking that this person is going to paratroop out of the sky. They won't, and technically, on paper, I know it isn, but it should be easier to meet somebody. I know it isn't, and there's this like pandemic of people not being able. Sometimes it's because the options are so much. I mean, I come from this little village, my legacy, my history, this little town, the town itself is 20,000 people, but there were villages of several hundred people and somehow nobody ever was unmarried Because they had no choices.
30:18
It was like who are you going to marry? Well, I know Berta from the Village Next Door. I've seen Berta her whole life and that's all I got. All right, berta, you ready, want to spend the next 70 years together. But here in New York City they have so many options, so many things. Nobody can find their perfect match. But I'm encouraging you. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you got to do something. Do you know? Here's a story she's probably watching online. She couldn't be here today because she's taking care of Vivian, my wife Emily that I had tried to date Emily before I actually dated Emily and we actually actually went out several times.
30:59
You know, just as friends just talking, but it was like we kept missing each other, like I couldn't connect with her at all and she couldn't connect. She thought I was out of my mind. She wasn't, she wasn't that wrong, but that was in in in the fall. Then in May, because I was lonely and depressed, I said let me, let me, let me call Emily. And I asked her out and she was like a different person and I said what happened and she said I just opened up. And I said what happened and she said I just opened up something in my heart, not to me, just to the Lord doing something in her life. There was a part that was closed where she now opened up.
31:43
And if you're single, open up that part of your heart and pursue the Lord and pursue him for his will for your life, and then realize that faith without works is dead, hallelujah. In fact, I pray for every person here who's looking for a godly spouse. You want a good thing, a righteous thing. I pray in the name of Jesus that heaven and earth would be moved for you, that, as you take steps of faith, that the Lord would cause your path to collide with somebody who's also submitted their lives to Christ is full of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, all impediments go, demonic assignments that want to thwart family and godly seed be broken. In Jesus' name, and for some, that your hearts would be healed, that you'd be able to trust again In Jesus' name, amen.
32:49 - Speaker 2
This is the City Light Church Podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.
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