Overcoming Discouragement - Why You Can’t Give Up

00:00 - Speaker 1 I know sometimes you didn't grow up with people counting on you, but I want you to know your Heavenly Father and your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, they're counting on you. They're counting on you to get to the end of the road. Jesus said he who endures to the end shall be saved. So endurance is a big deal to Jesus. He said anybody who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom. 00:29 - Speaker 2 You're not suitable, because the kingdom of God is not a kingdom that gives up. Amen. 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. 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. 01:06 - Speaker 3 Well, we have a special guest for you today. Pastor Maurice Johnson from Winners Church is here with us. It was an amazing first service, so you're in for a treat. This man has been my friend since 2002, when City Light was about a month old, we had our first lunch and haven't stopped having lunches since. I didn't even realize that was going to come out so funny, but now I see the humor in it Seemed like I planned that joke. Sometimes funny just happens. 01:46 I consider him one of my best friends. He wouldn't say the same. I even called him my best friend. He said well, you're not my best friend. I said who do you have? And he listed a couple other guys I'm not impressed at with at all, but apparently somehow they're better to him than I am. But the Lord will deal with him in due time. But he is. He's an amazing man and you know who can you call that close friend? It takes time, doesn't it? It takes time, and they had to have seen you at your worst and walked with you through some things, which Pastor Maurice has, and I love him dearly. He's a great friend of our family and this church, so won't you welcome Pastor Maurice Johnson. He's going to bring the word of the Lord to you this morning. We're so happy to have you here. Is that the deliberates of slow stroll? Thank you. 02:39 - Speaker 1 Pastor. Thank you, okay, this is mine, all right. Praise God, good morning everybody. Now we warmed up. This is the second service, so we got to get wild up in this one, all right? First of all, I just realized I didn't thank Pastor Boyan for the invitation. So thank you, pastor Bo. As you all know him, I appreciate the invitation. Thank you for your confidence in me and I'm so glad that his wife and his firstborn is in the house. This kid is amazing. He reminds me so much of his mom and the princess reminds me so much of her dad. Pastor Bo's mom was in the first service. She says, no, she's like me. I said, okay, but your boy is like me, so she's like him. I said, yeah, that's it. Amazing kids, amazing kids, amazing family. You really are blessed to have a first family like this. You really are blessed where what you're seeing in the public is what is happening in the private. Amen. 03:58 I was telling Pastor Boyan I didn't mean to say this, but I was at their house one day and I was hanging out with him and then his wife came in, she got the kids and he said something to his son and I was just observing and I noticed that his son's physical body language and response to his father was so positive. Boy, I gave him a little slight correction, correction and he gave his dad a hug. You don't see kids doing that. So there must be something that this man and this woman is doing with their children to make them respond so positively to their parents. Amen, can we give them a hand as great parents, their parents. Amen, can we give them a hand as great parents. And another thing I told Pastor Boyan before that. I said you can always know what's going on by looking at the kids. His kids are so happy, free. I said, oh, this is amazing. And Boyan thanked me. He said he feels as a compliment, but you can look at the children and you can know what's happening in the home and so this is a blessed and a holy home. Amen, praise God, thank God for them. 05:12 Alright, let's get into this word. I'm going to be teaching you today about overcoming discouragement, and the title of my message is why you Can't Give Up. After the last service. My message is why you can't give up At the last, after the last service, one young man walked up to me. I don't know who he is. He said I was going to give up, but now he's not. Amen, and three people gave their life to Christ. Aren't we excited about that? Praise God, and if you're in here, you'll have an opportunity at the end of the service to say yes to Jesus. 05:45 So one of the major weapons, master weapon of the devil against the church, against human beings in general, is this thing called discouragement. We've all faced it, we've all dealt with it, but I believe that people in the body of Christ need to deal with it even better now, that people in the body of Christ need to deal with it even better now. Now I know people have chemical imbalances and all that stuff, but there's too much discouragement in the kingdom. I hear it in Christians' talk, I hear it in people's pulpits, even some too much negativity. You know, I put up a post recently that the church is not failing and any prophet who says it's failing has not heard from heaven. Because if the church is failing, jesus is failing, because Jesus is the head of the church. And a lot of people was like, oh yeah, that's awesome. But there's one guy he's a friend of mine, mine actually pastor who lives in another state and he put up this whole thing. 06:49 What about this scripture? This scripture? And I didn't even answer Because he's asking me a question, but I know he wants to engage in an argument. I didn't answer but guess what? I went back. He put two more posts up, going nuts. No, the church is not. The church is failing. What about this? I was like uh-uh. 07:09 I said I see the grace and positivity is a mirror to your judgment. People think that grace is just an easy peasy message. No, it also is a mirror to people who have a heart of judgment. People think that grace is just because it's an easy peasy message. No, it also is a mirror to people who have a heart of judgment. And if somebody's saying the church is not failing gets you going crazy, something is wrong on the inside. If you're more geared towards negativity than positivity, something is wrong on the inside. I'm even watching my speech, my thinking, my feelings about things and I'm correcting it where it needs to be corrected, because God is calling for us to be positive. His kingdom is positive, not negative, and negative is nauseating, not only to me but to the Lord. Amen. So we're going to be a positive people. Right to me, but to the Lord. Amen. So we're going to be a positive people. Right, we're going to be encouraged. People, right, somebody say no more discouragement. 08:16 One of the things the devil wants you to give up on is your marriage, your career goals, improving your health. He tried to do that with me. Hey guys, I've lost 20 pounds, so, praise God, Pastor Bo was losing weight. Come on, look at him. Isn't that amazing? Give him a hand. Come on, pastor Mo was losing weight. We all losing weight. 08:41 They're both trying to look like their wives. Oh wow, I'm not married, so the joke's not on me. Amen. They got beautiful wives in great shape and they trying to now come in line. Glory to God. Emily's like thank you, jesus, got my kids in line. Now the husband's coming along. No, but there's different things. Ha ha, ha, ha ha. Got my kids in line, now the husband's coming along. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. No, but there's different things that the devil wants you to give up on Relationships, getting married, whatever. That's his MO. But we're not gonna let him and his demons dictate to us how we live our lives, how we think, even how we feel. Amen. 09:23 There's a scripture where David is depressed, downcast, and he says this why are you cast down, o my soul Hope in God. King James says Hope thou in God. You know what he did. He used the power of his words which you guys have been learning about Pastor Bo, teaching on faith, to tell his soul, which is the mind, the will and the emotions, how to act. We have to give back to the spirit man, our born again spirit, telling our soul what to do. If David could do it under the old covenant and get out of discouragement, how much more can you do it under the old covenant and get out of discouragement? How much more can you do it under the new covenant and get out of discouragement? Amen, because the feelings will come. But we don't live by feelings. We live by what Faith. We walk by faith, not by what Sight or feelings. Praise God, praise God. So does anybody ever? 10:29 Sometimes you wake up or you're walking through your house, or you're walking through your day at work, whatever, and you're like I don't feel good, I feel sad. Anybody that's ever happened to them before? Raise your hand if it's happened to you before. It's happened to me. We have a dude who says ah, ah, ah, ah. I don't receive it Now if it's the Lord dealing with you about something that's different. But you know there's the outside force that I don't receive you. 10:50 I reject you In the name, one of the things that you want to make the devil really mad. Anybody want to make the devil really mad. I mean really mad, like a punch in the face. You can't see him be really mad. Say these words I reject you. Can you imagine somebody saying that to you? You would feel like, oh my God, you say that as a believer with the Holy Ghost, power the devil and demons. They cringe. 11:20 I reject you. You're nothing, you're a dog. You're unforgiving. You have lost your place and I'm in God's place. You're damned and I'm blessed. The devil hates that. That's what's called rebuking the devil. 11:38 Saying I rebuke you is not rebuking the devil. Rebuking the devil is assailing him with abusive words. So he likes to assail you. Oh, you're nothing, you're stupid, you're a loser. You're no, no, no, you're the loser. You're the one who's a cherubim that lost your place. Dummy, come on, tell the devil he's a dummy, you're the dummy. You thought when you put Jesus on the cross you were doing something. The Bible says you just ended your reign and God made a show of you openly. You're nothing, and when you do that, guess what? You're going to feel so good. Instead of giving somebody a piece of your mind, give the devil a piece of your mind. Amen, amen. One of my favorite words to him is loser. 12:27 So reason number one why you can't give up you're alive. So I say I'm alive. You're a breathing human being and that is a main reason why you can't give up. David said the dead do not praise god. So the fact that you're alive means that you should be praising God. You should be living a good life, you should be living your best life now, amen. You should be living with a sense of hope every single day. 12:59 Anybody here you cried, or you know people who cried. You got to say I'm tired of crying, I'm tired of being sad, I'm tired of being despondent and depressed and down. No, I'm going to be up. Some of you. You know what you need to do. Put some music on in your house. You put on some Michael Jackson, some Janet Jackson. I'm dating myself. I know there's new people, if you like. Who's the girl? Who's the girl? Oh, the one who's really popular Taylor Swift. Thank you, taylor Swift. Put on some Taylor Swift. I don't listen to Taylor Swift. It'd be kind of weird. Pastor Marie's 52 years old black Listen to Taylor Swift. I don't listen to Taylor Swift. 13:41 You know, do something spontaneous, praise God. You know what I did. You want to know something that I did to show that I'm alive. I said this is going to be my spontaneous year, so I'm added. Besides the gym, I added walking to my regimen. 13:57 So I go to Manhattan Penn Station, I walk from Penn Station to Barnes and Nobles on 17th Street and then walk back. That's one of the things that I do. So one day this was like a week ago I went and I saw all these guys selling t-shirts and then I saw all these black people rushing into Madison Square Garden. I was like what the heck is going on here? And I looked at the t-shirt. I see Mario Neo and Mary J Blige. I said, oh my goodness, it's the Mary J Blige concert. 14:26 So then I go into my mode. What should I do? You know the hermit meme. What should I do? Should I go to the concert or should I do my walk? Hmm, so I go look and I said, let me see if I can get some good seats. I don't do bad seats. So I said, can I get some good seats and I look good seats for $106. And they said this is half off and with the tax, 138. So guess what I did On the women and I text I was. They were like what? I went right to that concert having a good time. Just fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Dj Fletch was there, mario was good, neo was good, we had a blast. Why? Because I recognize I'm alive, I'm single and I'm going to live my best life now, and sometimes that means doing things spontaneously. That brings you joy. So put on some music, go to a concert and have a good time. 15:34 Amen, praise God, you can rejoice about that. Go ahead, clap, but you are alive. Not only are you physically alive and here's your scripture but for him who is joined to all the living, there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion, very powerful, but only physically alive. You are spiritually alive. Romans 6, 11 says likewise. You also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 16:07 So being depressed, being down, being discouraged, wanting to give up, is not good, seeing that God put his life in you. The Bible says if you have the son. He who has a son has life and he who does not have the son does not have life. But you have the life of God, the Zoe, the God kind of life inside of you. How can I be down? How can I give up? Amen. Somebody say I have the life of God in me. Somebody say I'm alive. Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, I'm alive. Tell them you're alive, now live like it in Jesus' name, amen. 16:46 Reason number two why you can't give up God is counting on you. I know sometimes you didn't grow up with people counting on you, but I want you to know your heavenly father and your savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, they're counting on you. They're counting on you to get to the end of the road. Jesus said he who adores to the end shall be saved. So endurance is a big deal to Jesus. He said anybody who adores to the end shall be saved. So endurance is a big deal to Jesus. He said anybody who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom. You're not suitable because the kingdom of God is not a kingdom that gives up Amen, but the kingdom of God. 17:21 King James suffereth. New King James allows violence and the violent take it by force. But if you're a give up person, you may take another by force. If you give up person, you're not really making it. There's a scripture these scriptures are coming to my spirit. I'm talking to you and Isaiah 53 tells about the death of Jesus. I know pastor Bo has taught a lot on Isaiah 53 and the sacrifice of the Lord, but there's a scripture, that part of Isaiah 53 that's not really talked about much. It talks about Jesus dividing the spoil. This person who's going to be on this cross is going to divide the spoil. 18:04 Watch this with the strong, you are considered strong. You know why he said strong? Because let me ask you a question If your hand is weak, can you hold anything? No, that's what about. Paul comes later on, a thousand years later, says be strong in the what Lord and in the power of his might, so you can hold things, so you can have possession, so you can take things by force. You don't serve a weak God and he doesn't expect to have a weak people. Amen. 18:39 The Bible says let the weak say I'm what, come on, come on, let the weak say I'm strong. If you feel weak, if you feel down, say I'm strong. Greater is he who's in me than he who's in the world. I'm going to make it. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Encourage yourself. Don't wait for encouragement from church. That's good. Don't wait for encouragement from YouTube that's good. You have to open your own mouth and say I'm blessed and highly favored. I'm going somewhere to happen. God is counting on me and I will not let him down. Praise God, hallelujah. 19:18 Romans 11, 29 is the scripture, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God will never change his mind about what he called you to do and about what he gifted you to do. So it's important that you recognize your calling. I'm not talking about necessarily being a preacher. I'm talking about whatever he could have. Called you to be a lawyer, called you to be a judge, called you to be an accountant, whatever it is called you to be an entrepreneur, called you to be a preacher, whatever it is. He's called you to the entertainment world. Whatever it is he's called you to do, you must do it. It's not an option, and the gifts he's given you equip you to fulfill that call, and it's all kind of gifts. 19:55 You know, I had a dream man, I'm saying everything different from the first service. That's how the anointing works. I had a dream. I have a gift of writing. There's no scripture that says a gift of writing, but I know that's a gift. So I was laying down on the floor again like the other story I told and I was sleeping and this thing, invisible thing, came near my head. I knew it was the gift of giving, I mean the gift of writing. And I knew the question. I was being asked do you want this gift? And I know why I was being asked that because I hadn't been writing or producing. I've been writing but I haven't been producing books. And I said yes, and that thing that was near my head like this is in a dream went into the universe and it was like you know, like a slingshot, and then came on all these colors I mean vast colors, like I was in outer space. And I knew the Lord was pleased with my answer, but he was trying to tell me get to work. 21:04 The last time you've produced a book was this time and I've been moving slow, but I am because even recently the Lord dealt with me again. Get to work, release what I've given you. This is a gift I've given you. You have an amazing thing with words. Now do it. Now do write every Friday. 21:19 Every Friday, my church gets an email from me and it's amazing. People are encouraged. It's blessed. Amazing People are encouraged, he's blessed. I think we got like 300 people on the list and it's something. And God is looking for your yes. His yes is over your life. All his promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. But are you giving him your yes to what he's given you? You gave me a gift, lord. I say yes. 21:45 There's a girl in my church who I know she's been called to the ministry. She's a pastor's daughter and the Lord's been dealing with me. You're going to ordain her. I don't ordain nobody unless the Lord speaks. And you know why the Lord started speaking Because she and her husband have been encouraging her. And the end of last year she said I said yes to the Lord. She's an amazing communicator, an amazing woman in the corporate world, but God has a definite call on her life and she said yes. So who's going to say yes to God's gifts and callings? 22:15 Sometimes depression is coming in because you're going against the grain, but if you flow with the anointing, guess what there's all this joy, amen. So flow Whenever you see something's not working. Say, am I flowing with the Lord or I'm going against the Lord, amen. So you have gifts, you have a calling. Fulfill it. 22:36 Serve in your local church, join a small group, join the ushers and the greeters, join the kids church and whatever else is happening at City Light Church. Say you know what? I want to be a part. And I just met Michael. I know he's not here now, but he said, yeah, I'm on the worship team. I said, oh, come on, brother, got some Spanish people up on there now. Praise God, hallelujah. He was laughing, we laughed about it, but it's awesome, awesome that he was excited about serving you. Gotta be excited about serving your local church Anybody excited about serving God. 23:10 And the way you start is by serving in your local church and then from there, god will tell you other things to do. Praise God, some of you have the gift of giving. Now, I know you guys are givers here, but you have the gift of giving and you have a divine ability to give beyond your regular tithes and offerings and God speaks to you and says give this and give this and give this to the local church, maybe to some of the members, and you need to release that gift. Some of you have the gift of mercy. You're called to have an extreme amount of mercy to all the crazies in church. Release that gift, give them that hug. I know they're a little nutty, but Give them that hug. I know they're a little nutty, but give them that hug. Amen, say hi to them, praise God. 24:01 There's two words how God measures things fruitfulness and faithfulness. But guess what? I got something else to tell you If you're not fruitful, you're not really faithful. Go study it. Jesus measures your faithfulness by your. What Fruitfulness Are you bearing fruit? Are you on the prayer team, getting prayers answered, helping people get delivered, helping people get healed? What are you doing for the kingdom? What are you doing for your local church? If you've been here for some time and you have not done anything, start doing something and God's going to bless you. 24:40 The Bible says a faithful man or woman shall what Abound with blessings. A lot of people want to be blessed but they don't want to do nothing. You know the scripture. If you will reap what you, what Sow, it's not only money, it's if you sow yourself, sow your time, sow your gifts, you're going to reap great blessing. Amen, all right. 25:03 Reason number three the world needs you. One of the things you're going to learn as you mature as a believer is that everything in life is not about you. There are things that are about you. You have needs, you have desires, and God wants to supply all your needs and he wants to give you the desires of your heart. But he also wants you to mature and learn that everything is not about you. You're blessed to be a blessing. Help somebody else, love somebody else. People need your love, they need your compassion, they need your light, they need your creativity, they need your wisdom. 25:33 I saw Pastor Mo earlier sitting up the screen. I said what are you doing? He said, yeah, sometimes when we tear down, we have to step back up. He's not saying, oh, I'm the associate pastor, I don't need to do that. He's using his technical gifts to do that. I don't know how to do that. What he was doing. A lot of people don't know how to do it, but he's using his gifts in the church as is needed and he's serving, and if the associate pastor can do that, you surely can do it. 26:01 Amen, where's Mauricio? Where's that guy? Oh, right there. I love this guy. This guy's on fire. When my people from my church come, when they visit, they're like this guy's incredible, you are, you stand out. And he's been here for a long time. He can say, oh, I need to get this position, I need to do that. No, I'm here to serve. 26:24 And because he's here to serve, not only does the pastor recognize it, not only does the social pastor recognize it. Heaven recognizes it, and that's what matters. So we stand before Jesus. Jesus is going to be like here's your reward. But, jesus, I was just ushering and greeting and praying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 26:41 I know y'all thought it was little, but it was big. You were faithful over little. Now here you're, a ruler over much. Come on, tell you guys you don't know, you don't know, you don't know. The world needs you. Make yourself available. 26:58 Matthew 5, 14 to 16. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house In the same way. Let your light shine before others, before who, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. So when you do good, people see it, god gets the glory. God giving God the glory is not just singing worship songs is living a fruitful and a faithful life. 27:34 And when you're doing that, guess what Discouragement can't hold on to you. You're like a slippery slope. No, I'm too busy, I've got time for discouragement. You know what the problem is People have too much time. When you're busy in the kingdom, you don't have time for discouragement. I've got time for you. Bye, somebody needs me, somebody needs my service. They need my gift and God, my father's counting on me. Hallelujah. 28:02 Reason number four, talking about why you can't give up, here's a big one. Jesus didn't give up. The Bible says he left an example that we should follow. Let's look at the scripture, hebrews 12,. 28:17 Two to three, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy, the what Joy. You are that joy. You still are that joy that was said before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Do you know how shameful it was for the son of God, the creator of the ends of the earth, to be on a cross with nails in his hands and nails in his feet and appear side and thorn crown on his head, disgraceful. And so the angels are like what? This is a mystery. Even Paul said great is the mystery of godliness that he was seen of angels in a human body, my God, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Because there's always reward, always reward, for consider him. For what? For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and what Discouraged in your souls. 29:24 So the Bible is telling us the key to not giving up, the key to not being discouraged, is look to Jesus, not only to strengthen you. Look at his example and remind yourself if the son of the living God didn't give up, I can't give up. Amen, praise God, I don't care what it is. Don't listen to the whispers of the devil Say Satan, you're a liar and the truth is not in you. I will not give up. My future is bright, my kids are going to turn around, my money is going to turn around, I'm going to have the spouse of my dreams, hallelujah. And my best days are still ahead of me. Are you excited about that? Anybody believe that? Somebody shout. I believe, shout, I believe, shout, I believe. I believe my best days are ahead of me. 30:22 Reason number five why you can't give up you haven't seen all that should be or all that could be. Psalm 27, 13 says I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. If you're taking notes, write this down. If you give up, what could have been becomes what should have been. You don't want to be a. Should have been Christian. Oh, I should have done this, and I should have done that. I should have married this person. I should have served in my church. I should have given this. No. Should have married this person. I should have served in my church. I should have given this. No, lord, I did it. Somebody say I'm going to be I did it Christian. I did it. Believer, I made it happen, amen. Are you excited about making things happen? You know the statement. There's three kind of people in the planet those who watch things happen, those who wonder what happened and those who make things happen. Somebody say I want to be a make things happen person, amen. 31:37 Last point, reason number six, the most important one on here your story isn't over. We didn't read the scripture last time, but here's the scripture Psalm 139, verse 16. You saw me. It's an amazing passage, by the way. You should memorize it. This is from the NLT. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 32:15 Everybody has a story and every story matters, and your story's not over. Some of you are at the beginning of your story, some of you are at the middle of your story. Like me, I'm middle-aged, and some of you are close to the end of your story. No matter where you're at on that spectrum, you have a story and it's not over. It's not over until you close your eyes. Like Perry Noble says, if you're not dead, god's not done. Amen. 32:44 I don't care what your age is young or old, middle age you have a story that's unfolding, and one of the things you need to do is do what the apostle Paul did when he had that encounter on the Damascus road with Jesus. He said Lord, who are you? I am Jesus, who you're persecuting. He told him who he was. The next thing Paul said what do you want me to do If you are confused or you don't know your destiny, your purpose, why you're here. 33:13 You can find your why by asking the Lord lots of questions at every season of your life. What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to invest my money? Who do you want me to marry? What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to invest my money? Who do you want me to marry? Where do you want me to serve? Come on, how much do you want me to give? How often do you want me to pray? Whatever it is in your life you're not sure about, ask the Lord questions, you know why. What happens when you ask the Lord questions? It's very simple You're humbling yourself, and when you humble yourself, the Bible says he gives you more grace, and the grace is there to give you direction. Here's a scripture that you should memorize that I remember. I think all of us memorize when we're kids Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding In all your ways. What Acknowledge him and he will what Direct your paths. Your story is not over. In Jesus' name, amen. 34:17 - 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. 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