The Measure in Your Hand

00:00 - Speaker 1 God is calling you higher but you can't do anything about that. No, you can't. I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are, how much you've sharpened your elbows and achieved on your own you cannot achieve holiness on your own. It requires the grace of God. It requires strength from above. It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in, it's a heart transformation thing from the inside out. 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. 01:10 - Speaker 1 It is so good to see you. I joked in the first service about the church within a church. Have you heard that theory? In Revelation there's a woman, she's running, she has a child, the woman being the church, but then she has a child. That's the church within a church. I've always suspected in any church there is a church within a church and you wonder who really is the true church within the church. But on Memorial Day weekend you find out Because the church is here and then the outside church is watching online. Just kidding, just kidding. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, worship team. Thank you so much. Sorry, I just turned around. They were all looking at me very intently. That was it right. All right For now. Okay, praise God. Hey, we got something awesome happening here. Next weekend. David Wagner is going to be with us and he's going to be with us Friday night right here. There'll be no hopping to the little house in the Prairie secondary location. Saturday night he's going to be with us here and Sunday he's going to be with us for two services. Make it a point to be in every one of those services. 02:26 He is a prophet. You've never heard me call someone that. And you know why I call him that? Because he never calls himself that. He's never, ever called him that. He lets other people do it. 02:37 So if you meet prophet so-and-so who has a colossal Facebook ministry, and you are skeptical, be skeptical. That's good. I mean, there's people who start off their conversations announcing they're an apostle, they're a prophet. I immediately know you are not exactly that which you claim to be. Exactly what's on your business card that you got printed out for 39 cents at the Kinko's. That's exactly what you're not. But David Wagner really is, and we've asked him to not just minister prophetically to you but to teach on how the simple gift of prophecy works. And the simple gift of prophecy is something that every believer can operate in. We're supposed to be a prophetic people. 03:23 Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come. That means we shouldn't be caught surprised. We shouldn't be caught unaware. The Holy Spirit goes before us and shows us what's around the corner. Nothing that's happening in my life right now is shocking. 03:39 I had an inkling. I knew in my spirit I could taste it. Then I could taste it even more. At first it was a blurry image, then it solidified even more, then I would check back with the Lord and that would be even stronger and then it would materialize. That's how the Lord leads us, one of the many ways he leads us and he guides us. So he's going to be teaching on that. 03:57 So it's a wonderful time to learn how to hear from the Lord, because that actually is the number one, statistically, the number one question that pastors have in this country. Maybe in other countries but the survey was just for the United States, I reckon to say and venture to say it's the whole world. The number one question pastors get from congregants is how can I know the will of God for myself? So, really, what's behind that is a cry and insecurity. I'm not sure that I hear from the Lord accurately, I'm not sure that I can touch into the spirit realm, that I can touch on the prophetic accurately. Well, we want you to be able to do it and do it right and do it accurately and prayerfully, with minimal casualties. Amen, because we can learn from our mistakes also. 04:47 But we had him. It was 2019 was the last time he was here and I had a get together. You know when I think about that get together, I always think that that was one of your first times doing something City Light related and I have videos of that. Get together at our house and good night, heidi. You were a different person, you know. You didn't know what you were in for. You were brand new. You know, we have like 25 people jammed into our living room. Sean is on his guitar, David Wagner's ministering to people and I just sorry, I just what the Lord has done, huh. 05:26 So if you ever see somebody sitting in a meeting like this, just know that that can happen shortly after amen. But anyway, he comes up to my wife and he starts prophesying something where, immediately when he started, I thought there he goes. I knew it. Don't trust these prophetic characters. They're gonna mess you up. He was talking about something I had never considered before. It actually bothered me because he was prophesying over my wife and not me. And he started prophesying. He said the Lord has a country home for you. And he said he has a country home where you'll be able to garden. And he described it all. And he said the Lord has a hideout for you. And I thought there's about 10 things that I really want from the Lord right now. And a country home is not even number 11. It's like number 72. 06:19 I'm very happy in Brooklyn and you know, when people visit a country home, usually it's a weekend getaway. Well, my weekends are a little booked. So when you know I have kids who go to school, when will I visit this country home? I don't want one the next year. In a matter of weeks, things change and I find myself right in June of 2020, right when the real estate markets opened up again, getting at a bargain basement price a country, country home. I wasn't even looking for one, it fell into our lap and get this. 06:48 The community that it's in in Lake Ariel, pennsylvania, in the Poconos, is called the Hideout, and it was a week afterwards. I'm like why? And I listened because I recorded it. I listened to the prophetic word and he said the Lord has a hideout for you. Absolutely amazing, razor-sharp accuracy. Do not miss this. Next Friday, saturday and Sunday. Amen. And that's what I want my prophets to look like. Look at that. See a prophet with a beard, a dad shirt, a little bit of. That's the guy you can trust and you don't want somebody in tight jeans swirling about looking all slick. No, that's my prophet right there. And then the week after that we got a volunteer party. You can play that video in the background just to show that it's not bingo night. We've done volunteer parties all over the place the last two times we rented. 07:50 It's not fair to call it a boat. It's a little bit exaggerating to call it a yacht, but I think we can call it a barge. We got the love barge. That's not it, that's just our security detail floating beside us, and so this time we have for everybody who's a part of our helps ministry, everybody who's a volunteer. We have a rooftop overlooking Manhattan right here in Astoria slash, long Island City. Make it a part to be of that. You should have already received many invitations for you to confirm via email. If, for some reason, you have volunteered and you haven't, email info at citylightnyccom and we'll make sure you're a part of that party. We'll have prizes. The NOVA Award that's our MVP Championship Award will be presented along with other awards, and we're just going to have a great time of fun, food and fellowship. Sound good, church, amen. 08:54 Well, I want to minister to you a message called the Measure the Measure in your Hand. We started off 2025, and we're continuing in that same spirit. When we started off in 2025, the word of the Lord to us as a church was this is a year of increase, amen. This is a year of breakthrough. This is a year where the Lord is going to compound your efforts. This is a year where you're going to be able to look back and say look what the Lord has done. Amen. A year of increase, a year of promotion, and just because it's the fastest month that ever was May of 2025,. Wasn't that the fastest month that ever was? It's just started. We're going to be at the midway point. 09:42 Do not lose the word of the Lord that was spoken over our church. Do not weaken its grip on you in your heart. That word will get you through, and so I want to minister along those lines so that we can all receive of everything that Jesus has for us. I've found from studying the scriptures that God is very, very eager to bless his people. However, the problem isn't on heaven's end, it's on our end. It's on the earthly side, in that we don't position ourselves and don't allow the necessary work of the Holy Spirit to take place in us so we can withstand the magnitude of his blessing. I mean, everybody says I can take the blessing until they get the blessing. That's why, when you look at stats, for example, for lottery winners, many of you have seen the stats within two years. They're not just as broke as they were before they're broker than they were because they were given money so they can get into more debt now. So they actually end up even worse than how they started. What happened? Well, they didn't have the inner grid, the inner framework to carry that blessing and the Lord wants to see you able to contain that blessing. 10:58 We were taught in Bible school that the Lord is not in the habit of giving bazookas, missile launchers, not bubble gum bazookas. You know, every kid wants a bazooka, every male kid. My son would have loved a bazooka at three years old. Right, look, he's not. He's there. He's like yeah, but what you got was a super soaker instead. Can't give him a bazooka, why He'll blow himself out of the water. Maybe later one day in his life with proper training. You're going on a different course than that, but maybe. But some people, they want the Lord to give them a bazooka and they're actually just three years old and there is a growth process. 11:43 And I want to touch on some important things that the Lord is keeping an eye on in us, that he wants to change in us so that we could catch what he's pitching Amen, so we can receive what he's wanting to give, hallelujah. And, by the way, none of these things that I'm going to list, none of those things should you listen to and go ooh, I need to go work on that. Change is not going to come from you trying, trying really hard. Change comes from you. Number one, yes, recognizing there's a discrepancy in your life versus what the Word of God is calling you to. The Word of God is calling you higher, but you can't do anything about that. No, you can't. I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are, how much you've sharpened your elbows and achieved on your own. You cannot achieve holiness on your own. It requires the grace of God. It requires strength from above. It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in. It's a heart transformation thing from the inside out. Amen. So the answer if you don't measure up to any of these things, the answer isn't what should I do? It's who. And the answer to who is always Jesus. He's the one who's going to do it in our lives, spending time with him, looking to him, drawing for him. That works the transformation, but from the inside out. 13:01 First Corinthians 4.2. Out. First Corinthians 4.2. Moreover, it is required in stewards. That's what we are, stewards. What's a steward Like? Come by the aisle and offer you peanuts and Coke, right? No, a steward. Are you even allowed to say steward, stewardess anymore? A steward is someone who manages something for someone else, and that's what we are. We're stewards of the gifts of God, of the provisions of God, and so much of the Bible begins to make sense and how the Lord increases people. When you actually see that the Lord will only give you how much you can handle and the Lord wants to see that he can trust you. When he can trust you, then he'll give you more, and when you've been faithful in a little, he'll make you ruler over much. 13:55 I feel like I'm hitting a little bit of a wall. I don't know if it's the Memorial Day weekend wall or something, but maybe we need to rewind and just establish some basics first. All right, you ready, god good, devil bad. Because I'm talking about abundance and increase here and some of you look like you got your mind on Memorial Day brunch already. Let's just align right now. 14:14 Okay, picture two fields with me. One field is green and lush and fruitful, just abundant with fruit. And then there's another field and it's dusty and the ground is compacted and fallow and there's nothing but thorns and bristles on that ground. Which ground belongs to God? The first one? Okay, just want to make sure we're all at the same place. 14:41 Some people over-spiritualize the dusty ground and they might say, oh, but you know, maybe the Lord is teaching the dirt a lesson with all those stories. No, that's a forsaken ground. Amen, that's a cursed ground. God can still come and make dead bones live, but which ground reflects the nature of God? It's the lush ground, the abundant ground, the fruitful ground, because that's his way, that's his very nature. So God is a God of growth. God is not a God of stagnation. God is a God of increase. God is a God that's moving you somewhere. There are seasons seasons it shouldn't be your life but there are seasons when you're waiting, when you're in between God's waves. Have fun in between his waves and make sure you don't create your own waves in between his waves and get ready for the next wave. But know that he is increased minded. 15:39 And I'm saying that because there is a lot of cope in the church world, because people won't receive from heaven and then they'll make up a theology for their inability to receive and they'll spiritualize themselves as they're a dead fish floating downstream. There's no spiritualizing that. Oh Lord. Thank you, lord. There's nothing more depressing than get four Christians whose life is going nowhere and they know enough of the Bible just enough to be dangerous, and get those four in a room talking about the goodness of God and you quickly see it devolve into. But you know, God's will is past finding out and he works in mysterious ways. 16:23 And right now I got no love in my now. I got no love in my life. I got no money in my life. I got nothing in my life. My life's going nowhere. But you know God, no, that doesn't sound like God at all, hallelujah. And if that reflects your life, I'm not teasing you, but I'm coming against a mindset. See, you know what preaching is. It's a battle against the mindset. That's why you want preaching that's founded in the word of God, because the only thing that can dismantle a lie, a false mindset, is the word of God that comes in like a sword and dashes that lie to pieces, hallelujah. All right, here's 10 things that we, as stewards, need to show God we're faithful in, and 10 things that the Lord is watching to see if he can trust us with more. 17:15 Number one how you handle money, even small amounts of money. Now, before I became a Christian, I thought that on this side you have God, who's holy, who's just, and on this side you have money, which is nothing but evil, and the two should never be discussed in the same breath. How many of you thought that way? I thought that way, you thought that way. Of course that's how we were raised. And then I started reading the gospels, and Jesus is always talking about money and he's always connecting it to the heart. There is in the scriptures a heart money connection. Jesus is saying how you handle filthy lucre, how you handle unrighteous mammon, is indicative of what's happening on the inside. And if you're dishonest with money, you're dishonest on the inside. If you're stingy with money, that's the condition of your heart. And so how we handle money, god is actually keeping an eye on how you handle your money. 18:11 You might say what do you mean? What's wrong with the way I handle money? I don't even have a lot of money, so it's not like I'm even handling money. It just seems to go right by me. What is the Lord looking for? Well, he's looking for how you manage what you've been given. Do you tithe on your increase what he has given you? Do you honor him with the first? Are you helping relieve suffering in any way right now, with what little you have, or are you of that mentality that one day you'll give, one day when your ship comes in. You know how many times I've heard that One day that day never comes. If you're not giving with a little, you won't be giving with a much. If you're waiting for your ship to come in but you've never sent any ships out, you're gonna be waiting on those docks a very long time. No ship is coming in because you never sent any out. 19:03 I remember just to give you here's my mom as a witness. You remember that first Sunday going to City Light Church I hope you don't mind me because right now, front row in front of everybody, but just raise your hand if this is true. Remember, I had that whole Costco, I had your granny cart and I had her granny cart loaded. You know how many people were on staff at City Light Zero, just me as a volunteer pastor, and I have a granny cart loaded up with Costco stuff and it was the church's first purchase. The church just became a non-for-profit and it was going to be our first service and the church bank account was opened. And then the church got a Costco cart and the church loaded up this granny cart was opened. 19:45 And then the church got a Costco cart and the church loaded up this granny cart and my mom wasn't really even paying attention, but as I'm taking it into the church, she needed paper towels, bounty towels, and we had a big case of them. She said, oh, here's one. And you took it out. Right, just raise your hand so they know I'm not lying. And I and I she wasn't, she, just she's a mom. She thought paper towels me, need paper towels? Here's paper towels. And I went no, she's like why they're the church's paper towels. You can't use them for your home. The church bought those she's laughing. Because in our culture, in our country, then none of that would even be considered. You know, in a lot of other countries. 20:23 Also, be careful when you give overseas, because when the pastor says, give to my church, what he actually means is me. Because I ask okay, show me the church bank account. Well, here's my account. No, the church's bank account. Well, here's my account. No, you're you, you're Bob, and the church is something else. Why are you not making any distinction or barrier between the two? That's a problem, and when you start compromising in the little, you will eventually end up compromising with the much. So, right away, we laid out a thing I'm not. If I need tissues, I'm not accidentally letting this drop into my briefcase. 20:59 Amen, the Lord looks at that stuff. He looks at how honest you are in the little things and how you handle money, how you give. You cannot be contending for abundance and prosperity if you skim off the top in any area. I mean, how crazy is that? And how crazy would that be to be a tither and someone who gives offerings and then still skim off the top? You talk about a walking contradiction. God sees right through that. Number two oh, lord, you know I'm just because you often don't hear this stuff. 21:43 When it comes to teaching on God's abundance and prosperity, it's usually presented in a way where very little depends on you except to give and believe. God's going to make it rain. Ha, the choir behind me is going, he's going to make it rain and I'm just saying just believe and give, give till it hurts and God's going to make it rain. No, there there is a little nuance to that. Yes, giving very important, faith very, very important. But some adjustments on the inside have to take place, because god loves you too much to blow you out of the water. He's looking at you, how you, your tone, your honesty, your idle words. Matthew 12, 37,. Jesus says for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. That means being honest, not exaggerating. 22:43 Christians, especially in ministry land, can be big time exaggerators. You know how many times some pastor will say our church is 2,000 people and I go and I go. Well, where are they? You left off a zero. Pastors are infamous. They're always speaking pastorally. What happened in the past? That would be like me today going. You know we got six weekend services in four locations and well, you did pre-2020, but that's now in the past. I can't reference those things pastorally. 23:20 Evangelists, even worse. They speak evangel, Everything. Anytime I hear an evangelist, unfortunately now I have to subtract 90% from whatever number they're talking about. And there is. And that's why when you find an honest, integrative, sincere evangelist, they're like oh, what a breath of fresh air. It just doesn't help anybody. Exaggerating like that. It actually just brings down the IQ of the entire room and then causes us all to try to believe a lie together. So it's like I can't do it. This is how cults start. We're all going to just pretend that thing happened. It didn't happen. 24:04 And one got an evangelist colleague, let's call him. He was given a jet Legitimate. I know I said that like it just happened. That actually is an uncommon thing. He needed it and he was given a $7 million jet Isn't that awesome? And the person paid for fuel Sometimes to put that thing up into the sky is just $25,000. And the Lord provided and it was a wonderful story of God's abundance. And, by the way, if you're bothered, this is crazy to me, some people you can feel it in the room because I said evangelist and jet in the same sentence. If you're bothered by that, I hope you get just as bothered when you watch the Kardashians take off in their jet, when you watch your favorite hip-hop artist on his jet. I hope you really get bothered. I hope you get upset, because why would you get upset at one and not the other? He was given a jet. But then there was this other evangelist who the next week he announces on social media we were given a jet. And I go huh. So I dig a little bit deeper. It turns out he got busted. He wasn't given a jet, he leased the jet. And they confront him and said but you said you were given it. Well, you know like, we used our money and we gave it to them and they gave us the jet. 25:20 No, you smoke in mirrors, lying. Who are you helping this way? Nobody, you're actually just. You're bringing down the perception in the eyes of the world. The world is watching and you're failing right in front of them. Don't tell me you care about souls and care about winning the loss when you're publicly, over and over again, lying. I'm not lying. Yes, you are. You're not bending the truth. You're not slightly misrepresenting to get people in a place of faith. You're lying and it's hurting people, not helping people. Amen, Amen. Our speech should always be seasoned with grace. 26:05 Number three here's what the Lord is looking for how you treat people that cannot benefit you at all, how you treat people that cannot benefit you at all and do you have any people who can't benefit you at all in your life? Do you, If you don't have anyone in your life right now that you don't need whatsoever, you're missing it. You've got to have several people in your life that can't reward you at all. Look at Jesus. He says when you've done it, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me. 26:47 So from the beginning, because I was a bit of a misfit, I didn't really fit in anywhere. When I got saved and I noticed the Christians really just loved me for me, even though I couldn't do anything for them and we were all a bunch of misfits. It was an Asian ministry in the second floor of a church in Bed-Stuy that's odd right there in 1992. And we were getting saved, youth was getting saved all over the place, and we all really loved each other and cared for each other. And so I learned at 16, and it went my entire life. At any given point I had several people in my life who were like outcasts or misfits or had nothing going for themselves. The whole purpose was so that I could be Christ-like and just give to them, knowing that I could never really receive anything back from them. My reward would be from heaven. The Lord loves that. 27:35 The main advice you get today, though, from seminars, because I don't know if you've noticed, but everybody's doing seminars on how to make money, because the number one way to make money is throwing seminars on how to make money. Everybody's got a seminar, and they'll always tell you things like hey, be careful with your time, only connect and network with people who can lift you up. You know, you hear all different stats. Right, your net worth will most closely resemble five people you spend the most time with. So get rid of those losers and start hanging out with seven-figure people. And there's just one problem with that it's mathematically impossible If everybody is only close with people who can pull them up. Well, something's missing in that equation. Right, you got to have people that you can pull up, hoping for nothing in return from them, and the Lord will reward you plentifully. 28:29 But I encourage you, right now there should be no lonely people. I've tried. Can I tell you a secret? I've tried to help some lonely people in the church, and there's different reasons for it. But really, when I uncover, when I pop the hood and I said you know, why don't you hang out with so-and-so? And really what comes out is well, I really want someone cooler than that. As a friend and someone actually even just recently, said this to me he said well, I feel like I'm not successful. I can't be seen with someone like me. I want somebody higher than me. No, that's not how it works. You're a nerd. Find someone even nerdier than you and love them and care for them, be kind to them and forget about you for a moment and then watch what happens in a short while, what the Lord will do for you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen. 29:31 Number four how you use your time. Ephesians 5.15,. See, then, that you walk circumspectly, redeeming the time. That means making the most of the day, because the days are evil. Most people greatly overestimate how much they can get done in a month. That ever happen to you by next month, I'll X, y, z and it never happened, because we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a month but we severely underestimate what we can accomplish in a year and when we show consistency every single day. 30:14 And guess what? We have more time now than ever before, and it's the opposite of what you hear. You usually hear that you have no time and everybody's so busy. It used to take 90 man hours to run a house. Today it takes five, a hundred years ago, 90 man hours Just to do the laundry. I'm not even going to talk about how they used to do laundry because I get so exhausted and depressed talking about it. Baking bread. You don't even have to going shopping. 30:48 I remember my Saturdays with you, mom. My Saturdays were spent. Half the day was spent waiting on line. I almost never wait online. Now you don't have to your favorite place to eat. You can put your order in via app and just pick it up. 31:05 So the time that we actually have to spend on mundane things has decreased, and our free time. No matter what you may think, the reality is we have more free time as a people than ever before, and so God wants an account of that time. And it's this weird paradox, because we have more free time than before, but it eludes us and it evades us and we mismanage it. So we feel like we're constantly busy, but we're actually nowhere near as busy as a few generations ago, and so I encourage you to submit your time to the Lord. You say how do I know when I'm wasting my time, how you know almost anything. You're in relationship with the Lord. I'm not preaching an intellectual sermon here. I'm preaching to your spirit. You know when you're spending time with the Lord and you're inviting him into your life. You should know Like this summer we normally my family and I we go away for the summer. 31:58 I take him to Montenegro, and I love taking him to Montenegro because then my mom comes to Montenegro, that I can pawn my kids off to mom and then take my wife and you can use Montenegro as the base of operations. Fly into Rome, fly into Vienna. It's like flying into Washington DC. You know it's nothing once you're already there. And I started working on the same plan and I just felt like, hmm, I couldn't get the peace when I tried to. In little ways, I tried to picture normally, I picture family vacation time in July. I could see it like a movie vividly. I couldn't see it. Why, lord? I just didn't. So I canceled the whole thing. We're not going. We're not going to be going. I don't why. Why aren't you going? Because I really really value the will of God. I really really value only doing what I see him do and saying what I hear him do, and I'm very, very terrified of being outside of the will of God. And I'm very, very terrified of being outside of the will of God. The year Victor was born, he was two months old. 33:00 In 2014. I went off to Liberia, africa, in the middle of the Ebola epidemic. I never thought twice about it, never even. I wasn't concerned for one second. Why? Because I knew the Lord wanted me there. I knew that. I knew he led me from the inside out in my spirit. I knew I'd be okay. Never, ever, concerned me that I would pick something up and bring it back to my at the time two-month-old baby boy, to my wife. No, because the Lord was with me. But if I don't sense like he's gonna be with me, I don't even want to leave my house, let alone go to a foreign country with foreign spirits, foreign governments, foreign laws. 33:44 No way, it's the same way with how you spend your time, is what I'm getting at. If you're going in a particular direction and your peace is leaving you and you don't sense the satisfaction of the Lord, then it may be time to go back to the drawing board with the Lord and say Lord, how can I adjust the way I'm spending my time? Be time to go back to the drawing board with the Lord and say Lord, how can I adjust the way I'm spending my time? There could be a more fruitful way. And then, when you submit your time to him, he will double it and triple it and compound your efforts so that you can put an hour's work in and it feels like you've put in a hundred hours of work in. Come on, shout amen if you believe it. Amen if you believe it. Hallelujah, number five God is watching this, how you respond to correction, and the verse is Proverbs 12, 1. 34:35 That's it. Look it up in Proverbs 12.1. I just chopped off a few of the words before that, but that's an unedited meat of the verse, right there. He who hates correction is stupid. Welcome to City Light Church. If this is your first time, so glad you could join us. 35:05 You should have people in your life that can bring loving correction to you. You should have people in your life that maybe have a hard time with the loving part but nevertheless still bring correction to you, because the Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend I found earlier in my life as a Christian, no correction was good correction and I would say things like well, it wasn't what they said, it was how they said it. Then God would send me someone who said it just perfectly and I still didn't like it. You want the gift of correction to be presented with three bows and it's a present with three bows and you go, but what? No glitter sprinkled on top of the bows, None of those bells hanging off. It doesn't matter what form it comes in. But always heed correction, especially when it's somebody that's in relationship with you that knows you, that knows your life trajectory, that knows your goals, your ambitions, somebody who's in spiritual authority over you and they correct. 36:05 I do very little correcting. Actually I do a lot of correcting. 99 of it is right now. It's while I'm preaching. Very little outside of this, but when I do, I found that somebody can be sweet as pie for years until you correct them. And then the real person comes out, oftentimes gnashing at you with their teeth. Do you think I'd ever correct you? Because I'm bored. I just need to fill up the day a little bit. I'm not getting enough drama. I need to spice things up by just randomly correcting you. Trust me, it's not something I need to do, it's something that I'm compelled to do. If I ever do it by the Lord, I would pay attention to that. My pastor. To this day he can speak correction into my life, not even knowing all the facts. I'll immediately stop and go. Let me just, without any prejudice, let me receive everything he's saying In the multitude of counselors. 37:06 The Bible says there is safety. What I found is people will set their whole life up so that they're never, ever corrected. They will organize their whole friend circle so that they're never, ever challenged, never, ever corrected. People won't stay and really plug into a church because they're afraid eventually they'll be known, accountability will be required and they may be corrected, and they just can't handle that. I'm sorry that you went through such a traumatic time, truly, as a child. Whatever brought you to this place where you didn't get enough love, mixed in with the correction, and now, as soon as someone corrects you, they're your dad. That's a you problem. That's something you've got to go before the Lord because I have never known. I've seen it play out In Bible school. You could learn a lot in Bible school. There were 300 of us when we started out and I've never seen those that couldn't be corrected. None of them ever, ever went anywhere in ministry Ever. Not one example. Hallelujah it feels so Catholic in here I might start chanting in Latin any moment. 38:18 - Speaker 2 Now it's quiet, it's quiet. 38:27 - Speaker 1 It's quiet, I can receive correction better than you can. Number six, number six God is keeping an eye so he can trust you with more. Looking at number six, what you do when no one is watching. Matthew 6, 4 says your father who sees in secret, will himself reward you openly so you can actually have fun doing things and not telling a single person about them. 39:07 Like back in the day we would go out and we would just buy the homeless sandwiches. Really, when we first got saved as teenagers, we'd start our Friday night, we'd have our youth meeting Saturday night. We're all going out and we would go to Penn Station. Penn Station in the 90s was wall toto-wall. You think it's bad now? Anybody who's really been in NYC from the early 90s you know, no matter how bad they say New York is, this is paradise. Compared to the 80s and early 90s it was wall-to-wall homeless people and we would just do it and then never, ever mention it again Today. What do you get? Somebody buys a homeless person a cup of coffee and they quickly come around and they take the selfie to document what happened and tell everybody about it. 39:49 There is a reward that only comes when you don't tell anyone, and Jesus said if you tell people, then you're going to get your reward, which is the praises of people. A data boy, a little like a little comment that goes, wow, and you feel better. But that thing is fading. It's gone after five seconds. You know what doesn't fade after five seconds? The blessing of the Lord, the one who sees in secret and then rewards you openly Hallelujah. Do some things in secret. You know what we used to have in City Light. It was like a wave, this angel giving thing, where people would just, through life groups and through time, would find out what someone else may want and just order it on Amazon for them anonymously. It's also a great way to get somebody's number and address. I just got finished doing a wedding in Puerto Rico. I want to do more weddings. See, may the Lord bring more marriages and weddings and cross-pollination from the left side of the room to the right side of the room. 40:57 But doing things in secret, surprising people, giving it, actually puts you in a place where you have to believe God, and at City Light we have a phenomenal tithing rate. You never get a call from me. There's no wall of remembrance that quickly becomes a wall of forgetfulness where your family's last name is etched in. There's none of that, really, and we did that by design, not because we're lackadaisical, but by design, because it actually keeps all of our heart motives pure. You're not giving to a church, you're not giving to a person, you're giving to the Lord and your reward is from the Lord Amen. That's why it's so beautiful when you have people who've been tithing for years. They don't get a data boy in the natural, they don't. They never get a call from anybody on staff or we never have a party in their honor. People who are the top 10 givers never just want to say thank you back. It's exclusively between them and the Lord, and I find that the best harvest is when it's that way. Amen, keeps our motives pure. Oh, you're going to love number seven. Show them number seven. Ding ding, ding. 42:07 How you manage sexual purity, I realized in the first service I got ahead of myself way quickly and I need to start at a baseline by first saying and this may shock you there is such a thing as sexual purity that actually exists. It's a thing, and you got to be alive in a time where the majority of culture communicated to you that there actually is no guideline for sexual purity? There is no. Whatever you're into, that's fine. Don't judge. You know, the greatest sin became judging, taking the whole verse completely out of context. You want to pretend you're such and such a person and do such and such things. I don't judge. Yeah, maybe you should, because it's a perversion. And that's what's been trying to get erased from our language that anything is a perversion. Oh no, you don't understand. You don't understand my journey. How could you judge me? I do. Your journey is nasty, I do. And whatever it is you're trying to work out in your own mind. You know, up until five minutes ago we had a word for that. It was called sick. So you struggle with perversion. You need to acknowledge that. What is a perversion? What is something that's perverted? The word perverted means distorted, like when you look at yourself in a funhouse mirror and one arm is three times the length of another one. That's a perverted image of yourself. 43:36 Sexual perversion is engaging in sexual activities in a way that God hasn't ordained and that is outside of his boundaries. And why does God set these guidelines up? You know why? Because he's really creepy and just wants to get in your business. And if he sees you having fun. He just wants to put the kibosh on that. That's how people think of God and it's not at all. It's that he understands. 44:04 What also all of humanity understood until about five minutes ago is that sex is not a natural act only. It is a deeply profound spiritual and supernatural act and there is a transfer of spiritual energy and you don't get to just wield that in any way you want to. There are boundaries, there are confines to that. Pagan cultures, heathen, godless cultures, understood that. You know what you find. Whether it's in Latin America or in Africa or in Asia or in the Grecian area, the Roman area, you'll always find temple prostitutes outside the temples. Why? Because it's the quickest way, through sexual activity, to spread spiritual energy, aka the demonic. So getting a little bit off track here, but I think I'm hitting bullseye for some people. 44:56 So Satan he really started to dilute that in the 60s and really really put the cherry on top in the last 10, 15 years as he wore down God's idea of sexual purity and replaced it with just pure hedonism, where people are hurting themselves and then they still can't realize that they're hurting themselves. And a scientist who's an atheist will agree with the fact that sexual activity pairs and bonds you to someone, both woman and man release oxytocin and other chemicals that cause you to be bound to this person, but then you disengage, and then you get bound with someone else and then disengage, and then you get bound with someone else and you rack up enough of those. Guess what happens with that final person you settle down with and now your pair bonding is broken, and that's why, at the first sign of trouble, they bounce, they leave, they do what they've always done, which is on to the next one. It's really hurting people. It's the only sin that God tells you to flee from. 46:06 Let's just look at that verse. Or do you not know I mean, I'm not mincing words, because Paul's not mincing words that word that's always used in the Bible, harlot? Do you know what that word would be today? It's funny. I didn't want to say this in the first service. I felt a check, but now that I'm you know, I feel like, yeah, say it. So that's recorded forever. The word would be a hoe. It's a hoe Like. I'm not allowed to say that word, but that's the word. 46:44 Harlot, do you not know that he who is joined to a hoe is one body with her, for the two he says shall become one flesh, two will become one. And he's specifically talking to the Corinthian church that had these temple prostitutes outside and Christians, carnal Christians, christians who were just newly saved, christians who were living in one of the most carnal urban areas of the then world, very, very akin to New York City, a dense, densely populated, very, very multicultural, very, very diverse urban center. And you got a bunch of new Christians and they don't know the rules of engagement yet. And he says this flee sexual immorality. It's the only sin that the Bible tells you to flee from. That word flee in the Greek it means to run away from, as if in terror. It's actually calling back to Joseph when he was in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife came to him, tried to seduce him. And what did our boy Joseph do? He jumped out the window, fleed. I know where this is going to end me up. He said I know where this is going to end me up. 48:05 There's an old story, jesse the Plantist tells about a woman trying to pick him up at the airport years ago. Do you know the story? Yeah, this woman flirts with him and picks him up, trying to pick him up at the airport and Jesse's just being Jesse. He didn't know how to politely say no. He knew he had to flee lust, so he just went, whore of Babylon. Whore of Babylon, whore of Babylon, and please note, he did not fall in sexual sin that day. 48:34 Flee sexual immorality, because you're hurting yourself Every other sin, don't you wish your teenage kids were here? Trust me, they'd appreciate this. You know what I'm actually? Just serving it up to you the way it was served up to me. It really helped me. I've seen it served up other ways and you walk away confused and wondering what is he talking about? No, you're not going to be confused after today, you're going to know. You're going to know what I meant and what the Bible means. 49:11 Here's what they told me when I was a kid this one, they told accurately the flower with the different. Did I already say this, or was that the first service? First service the flower with the different petals on it. And that is you, and that is your makeup, your soul, your spiritual energy. You do actually have an energy and a life force. I know it sounds new, agey, but it's true. 49:33 And when you are sexually intimate with someone, you give a petal away to them. And when you're sexually intimate with someone else, you give a petal away to them and you give a pedal away to them and you give a pedal and after a while you're going to run out of pedals. You're just going to have a bare stem and that's what's happening out there. You go on some of these things. What are the kids up to now? I can't believe I'm that age where I'm going. What are the kids up to? 49:54 I said it as a joke but it came out too authentic. I realized I'm now flirting. I'm crossing the boundary between joking and actually being that guy. But you know Tinder and all that stuff. It's a bunch of stems, no pedals on anymore. It's a bunch of stems trying to get to. They have nothing to give to each other. They just want to leech and take and then discard and try, like a crackhead, try to get the same high with the next victim. It's hurting you. Hey, good news If you're going. Oh my God, I can't believe he's saying this. I feel like I'm the peddlerless one. 50:27 Oh, god will put a million pedals back on you. God will restore you from the inside out. He will fill you up. He will cleanse you. Yes, oh, he's awesome like that, but quit giving yourself away so cheaply. 50:46 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. If anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful, hallelujah, hallelujah. Sanctified and useful Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Eight God is watching how you forgive Mark 11, 25 to 26. 51:20 Jesus said if you do not forgive, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Why would Jesus say that? That you disqualify yourself from receiving forgiveness when you won't forgive someone? I present this to you. This is my suggestion that it's not so much that God now stops forgiving you, it's the fact that he's not continually forgiving you because you've pulled away from his forgiveness. You've pulled away. Look. 51:47 To receive forgiveness from God is not a one-time event. First, john 1.9,. It says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses him that's the perpetual tense Cleanses him from all unrighteousness. You know how you are as a Christian. It's like you're walking all day long underneath a waterfall of the blood of Jesus, constantly being in a constant state of cleansing, and I'm very conscious of that waterfall. I'm very conscious of what I deserve in the natural and then how God treats me because of the blood Because I'm constantly pulling on forgiveness. 52:19 If I didn't forgive someone who wronged me, I would immediately notice it. I would notice the duplicity, the discrepancy, that I was being a hypocrite. But when I forget how I'm being forgiven, then it's easy for me to get nasty and bitter with other people. And God says now you're disqualifying yourself. When I say unforgiveness, when I say bitterness, resentment, when I say those words, that first person you thought of that's the person you got to forgive. You know that face that popped into your head yes, you do. The one where you said I'll forgive everyone, just not that, that jerk. That's the one you got to forgive Truly, release them, forgive them and cancel all their debts. Why? Because Jesus truly released you, forgave you and canceled all your debts. 53:14 And God wants to put. See if he could show you in great detail what the prize at the end of the finish line is, you'd have no problem with this. But when you can't accurately see the prize, you're just dealing with your emotions. Then it's easier to just grab a hold of those baser things and have a scrawny, skinny spirit, someone who's not a big forgiver. That's how they are on the inside. They might look healthy and radiant on the outside, but their spirit, they're like the cryptkeeper. Eh, look their spirit. They're like the cryptkeeper. Look like a ghoul. Come back to life on the inside. 53:48 No, we need to be healthy on the inside, quick to forgive, love, keeping no record of wrongs, and find you a spouse that is quick to forgive. Amen, I hit the bullseye on that one. Thank you, lord. Just ask her, just say how much forgiveness have you had, and she'll be very happy to tell you. She'll be very quick, she won't hold back. If you think my wife is introverted, just ask her how much forgiving have you had to do? She'll light up. Let me tell you. I actually have this list right here in the scroll. Can you imagine God entrusting somebody with a scrawny, skinny, unforgiving spirit who's unaware of all the crud they were forgiven of? With increase, that's giving a bazooka to a three-year-old They'll blow themselves out of the water. 54:44 Number nine God is looking and keeping an eye on how you handle the small assignments. He said well done in Matthew 25, 21. Well done, good and faithful servant and worship team. You can come on up. You were faithful over a few things. So God is looking at how you do the little, how you handle the few, even the things that you resent. Small tasks, menial tasks. I shared once before. 55:20 A mental breakthrough came to me when I had my Chevy Spectrum 1986, paid $1,000 for it and never washed it because I hated it it. I used it because it was the only Flintstone mobile able to get me from point A to point B, and it did. It looked like a Flintstone mobile and I felt that at any time my feet would come and rip through the bottom and I would just run my way to Bible school. You remember it? It right mom. And my buddy from Bible school commented faithful are the wounds of a friend. He did one of these as I'm driving. 55:53 He went like this on the dash, bro, why don't you wash your car? And I very just, transparently said because I don't even want to wash it, I hate this thing, I just need it to serve its purpose. And then off to the city, dump it goes. And he said Tom Salts, never forget him. He said you need to take care of what God has given you. Do you want a better car? I said yeah. He said God's not going to give you a better car until you take care of this. 56:24 Now I'm coming from Queens. Right, I've never. I got my driver's license at age 23. Now I'm 24 with a car. I've never even washed a car in my life. She said how do I wash a car? He's like oh, it's the best Smell, that wax on a Saturday afternoon coming up into your mouth. So he took me right then and there to an AutoZone. I got all the stuff. Autozone, I got all the stuff. I started washing that clunker, that metal ball, washing it, waxing it, he said. He said it's going to look like a brand new car. I thought halfway through, as I'm sweating, he lied so bad it's still an ugly 86 Chevy Spectrum. 56:59 But in taking care and honoring the little God gave me, I positioned myself for him to entrust me with more. Amen. He actually cares and is watching what you do with the little. Love him for the little he gave you. Take care of the little he gave you, even assignments, tasks. Do them with your whole heart. When no one's watching, work is unto the Lord, and then place your faith in him to promote you. 57:27 Number 10, god is looking at how you honor authority Hebrews 13, 17. Do you know at work, your boss is your authority Hebrews 13, 17. Do you know at work. Your boss is your authority. Whoever said that? Thank you. If everybody would just out loud manifest what they're feeling, we'd be in a better place. Instead, everybody suppresses it, lets it cook on the inside and I start to feel stuff in the air. Thank you, some honesty in the place on Memorial Day weekend. Your boss is your authority. I mean he may be asking you for your TPS report, coming over your cubicle with that cup of coffee in his hand. Just five people saw that movie here this morning. 58:22 I guess I'm not saying you need to love the person, but understand that in the eyes of God they're over you and so you can't talk bad behind their back. You can't secretly resent them. What do I do? Change your heart, you say, but they're a total jerk. I believe you and God knows they're a total jerk. But there's a limit. There's a distinction between how you should speak about somebody who's an authority in your life and, by the way, you will never, ever, ever actually have authority until you've learned how to function well and be under authority. And one of the biggest heartbreaks I see within the church is people they've never been under authority but they want to have authority and they run out and make a shipwreck of their lives because they never learned how to be under authority. When authority is unbiblical, you kick against it. When authority is unconstitutional, you kick against it. When the authority tells you to shut down your church, you kick against that. Amen. 59:26 We don't just blindly. I understand cult leaders love verses like that and they twist them. But there is a biblical hierarchy. There is, and something in our culture also. God wants, not God, but culture wants to make everybody the same and you hear that, oh, we're all the same. You know, there used to be a quick understanding of people and their role and society was much, much more hierarchical. People hate that now. But you know who's very hierarchical god. 59:53 God, he actually arranges all of his angels in a hierarchy there's archangels at the top, then there's seraphim, then there's cherubim, then there's other angels, the regular ones, underneath them, and so I know who those are who are in authority over me, do you? There should be a separation and a distinction between how you speak of them, how you think about them. Bless them, resist evil in your heart towards them, resist hurting. You know, the Bible says he who hates his brother commits murder. Have you ever thought about that why he who hates his brother commits murder. 01:00:32 You know who explained that verse to me? A former witch. And she said when I was a witch, the way we curse someone, and she said people think we curse someone by like being in a circle over a cauldron. She said that's not. She said we would actually get into a circle and just think negative thoughts over the person. We would think that he's in a car wreck, we would think that he was getting robbed, we think that he he was sick with cancer. She said we would just think. And she said we understood that he who hates his brother commits murder. 01:01:11 There's something you send in the spirit realm when you're hating someone. You have to watch for that in your heart. That's why don't hate people, hate sin, hate the devil, but people, they're troubled, they're hurting, and you can actually be repulsed. You can make a boundary and never see them again, all without actually hating them. Amen, hallelujah, pray with me, church. God, you are good, your way is abundance, your way is increase, your way is prosperity. And we realize that in order to be entrusted with more, there is a work that needs to be done in us, on this side of heaven, and say this out loud everybody say Lord Jesus, I welcome you to grow me, to mature me, to make me more Christ-like, so I could contain the great blessing you're sending into my life In Jesus' name, amen, hallelujah. 01:02:13 - 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.