The Prize

(0:00 - 0:09) Satan's job is to keep you from experiencing the presence of God. And Satan lied to you and said, you're hard to receive. And you said, yeah, I am. (0:09 - 0:15) And the moment you said, yes, I am. This is how it works with all of Satan's lies. By the way, you then partnered with that lie. (0:15 - 0:21) It's like you covenanted with a lie. And now you received it. Now you're bound by it. (0:21 - 0:28) And you need to say, Lord, I'm sorry. Wash me afresh in your blood. Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. (0:28 - 1:03) 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 CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. 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. (1:06 - 1:22) You know, I had to make a decision when I was saved at 16 and called to the ministry at 16. I had to make a decision very quickly about what kind of pastor I was going to be. Because there's a fork in the road for every minister. (1:23 - 1:31) On the one side, you can go to cemetery. I mean, seminary. And you can become highly educated. (1:33 - 1:47) And you can wear a quarter zip with authority. And when you've gone to seminary, see, I didn't earn this quarter zip. But if I went to seminary, this is what I would live in. (1:48 - 1:57) I'd be very smart. And I'd be a Christian egghead. So that's on the one side. (1:58 - 2:35) And on the other side, you can become a minister who actually meets God and who experiences his presence and then invites others to come and partake of what they themselves have firsthand experience of. And I'm so glad the Lord invaded my life at 18 so that I believe I made absolutely the right decision in that I didn't go to cemetery, but I went to a place that focused on the presence of God, because that is the ultimate prize. That is what it's all about. (2:36 - 2:46) We're celebrating Christmas. It's the incarnation of the living God who came from heaven to earth. The word of God made flesh. (2:46 - 2:52) That is the celebration of his presence. It's not just about presence underneath the tree. It's the presence. (2:56 - 3:13) And isn't it amazing that you can go about Christianity and lose sight of that? That's why you see Jesus in Revelation chapter three. He's actually standing outside of the golden lampstands. That means he's been pushed out by the church. (3:13 - 3:19) The lampstands are the church. He's been pushed out. And then he pleads with the church. (3:19 - 3:30) He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man opened the door, I will come into him and will dine with him. I'll eat with him. (3:31 - 3:38) It's a picture of intimacy. I will dine with him and he with me. So it's possible to be in the church. (3:38 - 3:49) But over time, you push the presence of God out. You know, you can come to church every Sunday and keep the Holy Spirit at arm's length. And Jesus is pleading saying, you've forgotten the first thing. (3:50 - 3:58) The principle thing, my presence and my love. So he pleads. He's saying, I'm not beneath pursuing you. (3:59 - 4:09) He's pursuing you right now. He's pursuing by standing at the door and knocking. If any man hear my voice and open the door, open up that door, those gates. (4:10 - 4:23) I'll come into him and will sup with him and he with me. I was saved in a church. It was not on a pretty street. (4:24 - 4:33) The whole neighborhood wasn't pretty back in 92. In the heart of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I'll just sum it up this way. (4:33 - 4:39) The church had a neon sign. It said, Jesus saves. This was 92. (4:40 - 4:53) Now I remember that neon sign because all the people I would try to bring to church and many of them got saved, but they would all comment on the neon sign. My parents, my mother first said, the church had a neon sign. You see my mother usually worshiping in the front row. (4:53 - 5:09) First thing she says, I got a neon sign. I mean, because in the natural, like one of the tackiest, cheapest things you can do is hang a neon sign anywhere, especially in front of a church. I don't know, times have changed. (5:09 - 5:25) We have led everywhere, but a neon sign, only like massage parlors and psychics had neon signs. And it didn't look pretty inside at all. I mean, everything was worn. (5:27 - 5:50) Crackly staticky sound system that sounded like you were on the other side of the Burger King drive-thru. But I walked in and I was hit by the presence. And the presence did in me, in the space of half an hour, what any man trying to reason with me and use logic with me couldn't accomplish in a lifetime. (5:51 - 6:00) I got radically saved. In fact, just talking about it, I call them Holy Ghost flashbacks. Some of you know what I'm talking about. (6:00 - 6:14) You talk about a time that God touched you and it's a Holy Ghost flashback and you relive the same anointing that touched you. This is how 30 plus years ago, 33 years ago. I can feel that anointing. (6:17 - 6:23) I used to love that church. I would love to, it smelled a particular way. I thought it was heaven. (6:24 - 6:34) And I called up the guy who led me to the Lord. And I said, listen, that church, every time I smell it, but it was really the presence I was feeling. But I'm a very olfactory kind of guy. (6:34 - 6:42) Really, I can smell something and I'm like three years old again. You bust out Coppertone for me and I'm three years old at the beach. I flashed back. (6:43 - 6:48) So I associated with the presence. I said, what are they burning? It just smelled. And he said, it's earwick. (6:49 - 6:54) And he told me the scent. It's like, you can get it at any supermarket. I was so disappointed. (6:55 - 7:13) I was like, it's just earwick. We use earwick. I have it above my toilet, but I guess it smells different when, I guess it smells different when it, when it's in a place with the anointing. (7:14 - 7:21) Hallelujah. So year after I got saved, I brought my parents to church. Now my mom had already gotten saved. (7:21 - 7:32) I was praying with her every night. One of the ways I got my mom to accept the Lord was I didn't ask her to get saved right away. I just said, will you pray with me? And then I just prayed with her every night. (7:32 - 7:51) And then after a couple of months of that, I shared the gospel with her. She was a lot more receptive if that way, cause she was already warmed up. If I just tried to get her saved ice cold, she probably would have been, not probably, I know she would have been very resistant and very hesitant, but the presence had its way. (7:53 - 8:05) The Bible says somebody like that has fallow ground. That's that hard unbroken ground. You can't plant any seed in it, but the spirit of God, it breaks up the hard heart and you gotta be careful. (8:05 - 8:25) Bitterness is a trap. I feel like the temptation to be bitter is higher than ever. Simply because you carry around a device in your pocket that knows that the most engagement you're going to get is if you're upset. (8:25 - 8:39) Do you know that? If you don't know, now, you know. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to say, if you don't know, now, you know. (8:48 - 9:11) Imagine that, that they figured out that if you're happy and if the algorithm provokes you to happiness and joy, you'll stay somewhat engaged, but nothing like if you're upset. So your algo, including everything, moment, the moment you stop phoning or texting and going into any app, it's trying to get you. What's it trying to do? I thought all of it is free. (9:11 - 9:16) Let me tell you something. If anything is free, you're the product. It's not free. (9:17 - 9:26) You're paying. You're paying with your attention. And it knows that if it can get you riled up and angry, you'll stay engaged longer. (9:28 - 9:41) So in that way, there's a greater temptation to be angry and bitter. And when you're icy, you lock God out. The Holy Spirit will make a supple heart so you can receive. (9:42 - 9:50) Hallelujah. So anyway, I couldn't get my father to church. But then it was Easter of 93. (9:50 - 10:02) I was 17 years old. And Easter morning, I asked him, I'm going to church. Will you come with me? And that Greek Orthodox mind kicked in and he just thought, well, I guess I should go to church. (10:03 - 10:13) After all, it is Easter. And he came and the place was packed. And it was packed, which means that we were all squished in. (10:13 - 10:29) So he was already uncomfortable. And the preacher, glorious, glorious man of God, Bishop Wilbur Jones, he just went home to be with the Lord a couple of weeks ago at the age of 83. Serve the Lord. (10:30 - 10:33) These guys don't retire. They refire. He just finished preaching. (10:34 - 10:43) Preaching every Sunday until he was caught up in glory. That's a role model. But he was an old school aha preacher. (10:43 - 10:52) How many of you know that? Know what that means? One woman knows what an aha. All right. All right, go watch coming to America. (10:53 - 11:00) And then multiply it by 20. Y'all don't know what an aha preacher is. I'm not gonna, I cannot imitate it. (11:00 - 11:08) So don't, you just have to know. You have to know. You gotta know for yourself. (11:12 - 11:20) He was six foot five. He wore the robe and then his face glowed. He's towering there. (11:21 - 11:37) But I guess because he was Eastern and was packed, the already bad sound system was extra crackly. So I could only understand like half of what he was saying. My father, right? Very hard man, cynical man. (11:38 - 11:53) Ex-communist. So what does that mean? That means in your mind, you just believe everyone is out to get you and everybody's trying to trick you. And you're perpetually trying to read between the lines and figure out how do I not get duped? Because you come from a country that's been duping you your whole life. (11:54 - 12:00) That's how he's sitting in church. And now he would normally not understand anything. But now it's a crackly sound system. (12:00 - 12:15) And I'm thinking, oh, Lord, I'm just going to receive for myself. Please just do what you can with my dad. But I'm already thinking on the car ride back, I'm going to hear about everything that was fake and phony with the church and everything he didn't like. (12:16 - 12:28) And Bishop Jones, I'll never... I still hear his voice. I remember him preaching saying, they spread him wide and hung him high. He's preaching about there. (12:28 - 12:39) He said, then they spit upon him. And they said, prophesy, son of man, which one of us was it that hit you? And I still hear his voice. My father's just sitting there. (12:39 - 12:56) And then Bishop Jones gave the altar call. And my father starts shaking and tears rushing down his eyes. And I said, dad, do you want to go up? And he looked, you know, he always made sure that he was the authority and I was the son. (12:56 - 13:06) And he looked at me like a five-year-old boy. He went... And he just stood up and went to the front. And this wasn't the front where you said a 10-second prayer. (13:06 - 13:20) And they said, now we're going to give you a tract and hope you make it. They then tick, tick, tick everybody who answered the altar call upstairs. They change the clothes, put on white robes on them, get baptized right then and there. (13:21 - 13:49) Then you take them back upstairs, put on the dry clothes, then sit, explain the baptism in the Holy Spirit, lay hands on them. They don't leave until they're filled with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Now, that church did not obsess so much about their decor, that flashing neon sign, but they got the presence right. (13:50 - 14:00) And that presence made all the difference in me and my mother and my father. Hallelujah. The presence fixes everything. (14:02 - 14:13) Everything. Hallelujah. May we increase more and more as a church that prioritizes His presence, that cultivates His presence. (14:13 - 14:29) It's about cultivating it in our Monday through Saturday. You know, what I preach about 9 out of 10 times can fall under the umbrella of cultivating the presence of God. I have to come up with a different sermon title every week. (14:29 - 14:51) Pastor Mo makes sure of that. If I don't have it by Wednesday 1 p.m. Now it's become a joke among us. It had nothing to do with what I said. (14:51 - 14:58) He's getting so touched here. I looked at his face and then I got touched. He's in heaven right now. (14:59 - 15:10) He's gone. Jesus. I don't even know what I was saying. (15:10 - 15:23) Oh, sermon titles. Yeah, I mean, if I didn't want to be creative, really, I could just have cultivating the presence of God, part one, cultivating the presence of God, part two. What are you preaching that next week? Yeah, you guessed it. (15:24 - 15:50) Part three. Because that's really what it's about. Staying in that place of intimacy, whispering to Him in the mornings, talking throughout the day, say a scripture out your mouth, for goodness sake, and let it not be John 3.16. Memorize another and see how that cultivates and builds the anointing. (15:50 - 16:03) The reason why some Christians never seem to progress is they get hit by the anointing on Sunday. And then Monday, it's the whole one step forward, two steps back thing. But imagine if you took a couple of steps forward every single day. (16:03 - 16:09) Now the anointing can compound and build. And God can take you where He wants to get you. Amen. (16:10 - 16:22) Hallelujah. You show me a church that has a group of people that have become good at cultivating the presence of God. I will show you a church that's unstoppable, where God's prosperity is everywhere. (16:22 - 16:28) Miracles pop like popcorn. The supernatural is an everyday event. Hallelujah. (16:30 - 16:55) Thank you, Jesus. Let's read Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now, you know why they heard that sound? Because that's what God did every single day. (16:55 - 17:14) If you read a little bit before that, see, God didn't. And I used to think this before I was saved, because I had heard the story of creation. And it seemed to me, when I heard it, and it wasn't explained correctly and specifically, it seemed like God created Adam and Eve, said, don't touch that fruit, and then peaced out. (17:14 - 17:21) And like, didn't come back till they messed up. But that's not the reality. He walked with them. (17:21 - 17:34) The God of the universe would walk with them every day in the garden. What was He doing? Fellowshiping with His creation. Loving them. (17:35 - 17:42) Adam probably had a lot of questions. God disclosing the secrets of the universe to him. They had sweet fellowship. (17:44 - 17:51) And now it was broken. And they hid themselves. By the way, that's what people still do all the time. (17:52 - 18:05) Even when you feel like you've messed up, rather than go and be cleansed and realize you're now completely forgiven, made perfect. It's like you had never, ever sinned once in your life. The moment you look to Jesus and His blood, people don't tend to go there. (18:05 - 18:17) First, they hide. And they punish themselves by withdrawing from the presence of God. Even though He's still, I don't care if your eyebrow deep in sin right now. (18:17 - 18:23) He loves you. He's pursuing you. He's already forgiven you for Christ's sake. (18:23 - 18:31) You need to receive that forgiveness. Fall on your knees and kiss the King. He has not forsaken you. (18:33 - 18:39) Yeah. You know who that was for? Your spirit left within you when I said it. It's for you. (18:41 - 18:51) Quit withholding. So just pride. You want to come back to God on your own terms when it's what? When it's cinematic? It's cinematic right now. (18:52 - 18:55) It's lovely right now. Do it now. Hallelujah. (18:57 - 19:05) So the real tragedy isn't the loss of authority, which they lost authority. They lost dominion authority. They've been given dominion. (19:07 - 19:16) You know, man, he could say to a lion, here kitty, kitty, kitty. A little lion would come up to Adam here. Dominion over the sea, the land, the air. (19:18 - 19:25) That's a tragedy. But the greatest tragedy is that they were locked out of the presence of God. That's the loss. (19:25 - 19:34) And then Jesus came. God in the flesh to restore. Intimacy. (19:35 - 19:40) You know, people have sometimes asked that. I'm glad they're at least thinking. They ask people who don't know anything about the gospel. (19:41 - 19:47) They hear the term salvation and savior. And they've asked me safe from what they don't even know. And there's a lot of answers I can give. (19:47 - 19:51) Safe from health. Good starting point. Safe from eternal destruction. (19:51 - 19:58) Safe from separation from God. But it's not just that you were saved. It's that you were restored. (19:58 - 20:09) Will restore to what? Restored to that pre-fall intimacy and fellowship. That's available to us. And presence fixes everything. (20:10 - 20:21) Hallelujah. When I graduated Bible school. The focus was on the presence. (20:22 - 20:33) I'll tell you what the focus wasn't on. Anything administrative. Anything that had to do with any kind of planning. (20:36 - 20:44) Forward thinking. I mean, you ask anybody in leadership for advice. Like, what should I do? The answer was always follow the Holy Ghost. (20:45 - 20:55) Follow the Holy Ghost. Yeah, but what do I do? Follow the Holy Ghost. So I planted CityLight Church at 26 years old. (20:58 - 21:10) And I didn't even know what I didn't even know. So I was doubly ignorant. It's like, there's a lot to it, by the way. (21:10 - 21:19) Sometimes people just show up and they go, oh, look, church. You know how much has to happen? Talk to some of our staff. What has to happen behind the scenes? Every day, week after week. (21:19 - 21:23) They don't get Sundays off. You can take a Sunday off. They don't take Sundays off. (21:24 - 21:30) Well, I didn't know any of that. That stuff. Like, for example, one of the things was the concept of a first impressions team. (21:30 - 21:43) This is just one of a thousand examples. Old school churches, like where I went, there was no first impressions team. You put like the meanest, snaggly toothiest usher in the front with the church bulletin with a scowl. (21:43 - 21:51) And you told him to make sure everybody gets a bulletin. He stood there. Nobody even taught him to pop an Altoid. (21:53 - 22:18) And then I learned, wow, you can actually have joyous, enthusiastic people that make a first impression because the nonbelievers are already terrified to come into church. Well, what if they weren't greeted by the angry, snaggly tooth usher? What if they were greeted by a group of charming and lovely people who are welcoming? Oh, you know, that was like mind blowing to me. There's a thousand such examples. (22:20 - 22:31) So there was a church that started right around the same time as us. Don't try to figure it out who it was or what it is. And they were really, really good at the administrative part. (22:32 - 22:42) Not very big on presence. See, it's a tension that's constant. If you get too administrative, too in the natural, then you push the presence of God out. (22:43 - 22:52) It's the same way for our life. I try to stay planning. You can't, you know, Christians either don't they plan too much and push the presence of God out or don't plan at all. (22:52 - 22:59) And then they, life is a mess. There is a tension there and the Holy Spirit will help you navigate both. So you can use both your brain and your spirit. (22:59 - 23:05) Amen. Well, this church was really, really good at administrative things. I mean the best. (23:06 - 23:14) So much so that within a year, they had over a thousand people. Some would say close to 2000. It was in the early 2000s. (23:18 - 23:36) And I studied them and everything I learned, it was mind blowing to me. Cause all we were good at was experiencing the presence of God. But yet there was 15 of us clapping our hands in a basement in the East village. (23:36 - 23:42) And that church at least could have staff. When I went there, I wasn't even on staff. No one was on staff. (23:42 - 23:47) Back in the early days, we had one projector in our house. Projectors are cheap now. That projector was $3,500. (23:48 - 24:04) It was our first... You know how we have the graphs and the bars in this week we raised? I had a six month long capital campaign to buy our first $3,500 projector. That's just how small and broke we were. You know, we usually have a capital campaign for like a church building for 20 million. (24:05 - 24:17) We did it for a projector for 3,500. Before that was the Staples overhead thing for $149. Some of you, you're so young, you don't even know what that is. (24:19 - 24:39) You had to have somebody in the front turning and that was Nova turning the slides. I even once visited because our service wasn't till noon on Sundays. You could tell I was in my twenties when I started it, right? I was like, well, people are gonna wanna have brunch and that doesn't get cooking till two. (24:40 - 24:51) So we'll start at 11 noon service. And I went to their service first to scope them out. It was the only time I went to church not to receive, but to see, and I was, I mean, they had it down to a science. (24:51 - 24:56) It was like a franchise. They had, it wasn't just a first impressions team. I looked at their manual. (24:56 - 25:09) They had what they could say, long list of what they couldn't say, how to approach, I mean, everything. And it was working. I'll never forget coming from that service, which was excellent. (25:11 - 25:26) I'm not gonna say anointed, but it was excellent. Not a little piece of litter on the carpets, not everything was according to the plan. But I then was running late to my own service. (25:28 - 25:41) I was with Sean Martin, him and I went into the, and we had to take a cab all the way from far away. And then I come 20 minutes late to my own service. So worship was already going. (25:42 - 25:51) And I come into our own service, worship was already going. And the whole time I'm thinking about, I got a long way to go. I gotta grow so, I gotta change so much. (25:52 - 26:02) I gotta like relearn. Now I'm 27 years old at this point. I spent the last nearly decade training, but so much I haven't, so I'm feeling like heavy and condemned and inferior. (26:03 - 26:14) And now we're late and I rush in, down those steps and come into our own service. And they're already in the middle of worship. And I come in and I just started weeping because I walked into a thick wall of the presence. (26:16 - 26:29) And all that weight and inferiority, and it just came. And all of a sudden I was standing in the midst of what I was created to be a part of, which was fellowshipping and enjoying the living God. Hallelujah. (26:34 - 26:50) And I wouldn't trade our weird journey for anything. And now today, and I don't say this with delight. I say this with reverence and a holy fear, but they actually kept shrinking after that peak. (26:50 - 27:05) Shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, even though they're so excellent. And we're larger than them now. What did that? Not my administrative skills. (27:07 - 27:18) Not Pastor Moe's cleverness. Not Sean's study of music theory. The presence, the anointing. (27:21 - 27:29) Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The anointing does what no man can do. (27:31 - 27:38) That's why the word blessed, you know, it actually means we've lost sight of what it means. Cause we just say, bless you, bless you. Bless you, bless you. (27:39 - 27:52) But it means empowered to prosper. And it means to be envied. You'll be envied because people can't figure out how you live the life that you live, considering your past. (27:53 - 28:00) Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. (28:05 - 28:16) So a lot of my neighbors, I get the feeling more and more, they don't like me. Cause they see what God has done in my life. Yeah. (28:16 - 28:36) And they're thinking, man, I've been working 60 hour weeks, all through my thirties, all through my forties, all through my fifties. The ones who know my story, you know, I can tell they're like, oh, I'm so happy for you. I've been diligently putting away my 401k. (28:36 - 28:44) You know, I got my AAA. Everything is, you know, by the book, every T. And then I come in. Hey guys. (28:45 - 28:51) Well, what do you do? I'm a pastor. And then look at my cars. Look at my house. (28:52 - 29:02) If you're a guest, I can't get into the details. The Lord blessed me. I don't know when a preacher usually says that. (29:02 - 29:17) They mean I got a big raise from the church. No, he blessed me outside the church. And then I blessed the church with over $2 million and paid it back for every single salary check that he gave me over the last 23 years. (29:17 - 29:30) Amen. But yeah, what, what they don't like then is that you cheated the system. You didn't suffer like me, but you have way more than me. (29:30 - 29:39) That's what the anointing will do. The anointing will do that for you. He'll take you and put you on the accelerator path. (29:41 - 29:46) Hallelujah. Yeah. He delights in doing that. (29:47 - 30:07) The whole picture of the children of Israel, slaves for hundreds of years in Egypt, and then taken out and thrust upward and promoted and blessed and exalted. That is the picture of what he wants to do with every person that's in him today under the new covenant in Christ, in the church. Hallelujah. (30:08 - 30:16) Hallelujah. Exodus 33. Hallelujah. (30:20 - 30:29) If you've never spoken in tongues, start there. You haven't spoken in tongues. I don't know how else to say it. (30:29 - 30:38) You're missing, not something. You're missing someone. So many times preachers have just, because I don't want to hurt people's feelings. (30:38 - 30:51) Well, I don't want to make them feel like they're missing something. They are missing something. Yeah, I take you to, to per se for three star Michelin, 10 course meal. (30:51 - 31:05) You're going to bounce after three courses. Oh, you're staying for all 10 courses. So why in the world would someone come and just receive salvation? When there's more. (31:06 - 31:17) So the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues is more. And you're not being humble. You're not being cued by putting it off and going one day. (31:18 - 31:27) Well, if God wants that for me, he'll do that. What do you want him to do? Come down and tackle you and force himself on you. You do the pursuing. (31:27 - 31:33) You press through. You show some hunger for him. He's a God that must be sought. (31:33 - 31:43) Amen. So how to get baptized in the Holy Spirit? You can come right after service. Talk to me. (31:44 - 31:54) We have a ministry team. If they can't help you, I'll personally help you. We have everybody who's been trained and they'll lead you in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (31:54 - 32:04) I've had books, little mini books there in the front. We give them away for free for 20 plus years now. Start with reading one of those books. (32:05 - 32:15) So you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's the doorway to the supernatural. You can't go into the deep things of God until he's filled you with his Holy Ghost. (32:16 - 32:28) And that's available to you. I know it doesn't make you weird or strange. It makes you more like Jesus, which in turn is kind of weird and strange from the perspective of a hell bound sinner. (32:29 - 32:42) Amen. Why are you going to live the low life when he's calling you up higher? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. (32:45 - 32:52) 25 is about to get wrapped up. 26 is starting. We're going to start the year off with 21 days of prayer and fasting. (32:54 - 33:06) Amen. We have John and Carol Arnot coming in April. Experts in the presence of God, professors. (33:10 - 33:26) But my heart for you is to just begin now to recalibrate and cultivate the presence of God. Get to that place where you're drop away from drunk at all times. There's so many people here, they don't even know what I mean. (33:26 - 33:39) They're like, yo, this pastor's cool. He's really, I like this guy. I'm talking about being intoxicated and inebriated in the Holy Ghost. (33:41 - 33:49) You see somebody here during worship and you're like, wow, they're acting foolish. Yes, that's how drunken people act. They're inebriated. (33:56 - 34:06) You want to be a drop away, right? From like what we experienced this morning. We're having a normal conversation. I said, what's her name? I said, does she have a name? I'll get to it later. (34:06 - 34:14) But you said yes. And when I asked that question, I feel it again. Does she have a name? You both said yes. (34:14 - 34:21) I got hit with the Holy Ghost. I look at Rob that second, his eyes. You know, when you get that thousand yard heavenly look. (34:22 - 34:33) And I look at it and I go, I had to turn around and not even, I couldn't look at him any longer. We both got hit. You want to always stay in that place where you're just a millimeter away from stepping into the supernatural. (34:34 - 34:42) Hallelujah. And that's not hard, by the way. Maybe you make it hard in your head. (34:44 - 34:52) God's not cheap. He's not stingy. He's just cultivate a little more every single day. (34:53 - 35:01) Some of you just need to do stuff you've never done before. You ever sing a worship song in the shower? Let me blow your mind. You can do that. (35:05 - 35:16) Yeah. You ever just wake up first thing in the morning and then just spend five minutes whispering to God, pouring out your whole heart to him, talking to him. You can do that. (35:16 - 35:27) Some people are like, well, you know, I don't feel the, I'm not a feely person. You have swallowed a lie. Satan came to you and said, you're just different. (35:28 - 35:35) You're not susceptible to the Holy Spirit. Besides those people, they're just foolish anyway. You're a dignified Christian. (35:39 - 35:58) Don't be a dignified Christian. There's a reason David said when he was dancing in his pajamas, he said, I'll behave even more undignified than this. In fact, you see the pattern in the Holy Scriptures all throughout the gospels. (35:58 - 36:13) No one could stay dignified and receive from Jesus. Tell me why I will give a thousand dollar reward. If you can show me this, someone who still kept dignified and received from Jesus. (36:14 - 36:32) Zacchaeus, who the Bible says was wealthy, he had to dangle from a tree, upside dangling from a bridge. You know what a ridiculous site that was? Especially since the Bible says he was short in stature. In the Greek, that meant what we call today, a little person, midget. (36:33 - 36:42) What it says in the Greek, Greeks weren't politically correct. It's midget. So you picture this, you picture his gold chains and stuff. (36:43 - 36:53) Dangling and there's Zacchaeus and Jesus stops and says, today I must have lunch with you. You caught my attention because you were willing to get undignified. So some of you, you heard the lie from Satan. (36:53 - 37:02) See Satan's job is to keep you from experiencing the presence of God. And Satan lied to you and said, you're hard to receive. And you said, yeah, I am. (37:02 - 37:08) And the moment you said, yes, I am. This is how it works with all of Satan's lies, by the way. You then partnered with that lie. (37:08 - 37:14) It's like you covenanted with a lie. And now you received it. Now you're bound by it. (37:14 - 37:25) And you need to say, Lord, I'm sorry. Wash me afresh in your blood and open. I refuse to believe I'm hard to receive. (37:25 - 37:37) That I'm not susceptible to the Holy Spirit and open yourself up. It doesn't matter what culture you come from. Doesn't hallelujah. (37:39 - 37:53) Doesn't matter how you were born or was born shy. Shyness, by the way, is from the devil. That's how I'm going to say it. (37:57 - 38:03) We like to make everything hope. You know, people think they got a, they got like this Trump card or something. Well, I'm shy. (38:04 - 38:16) That just excuses me from everything and all in for the rest of my life. I'm shy, tee hee hee. The Bible says God has not given you a spirit of timidity, timidity. (38:16 - 38:36) We like to quote it as fear, timidity, shyness that, Oh, not me. God has, God has given you the lion of the tribe of Judah has given you a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind. Hallelujah. (38:36 - 38:43) Like my wife, she's not here today, but she's not shy. She actually is just quiet. Big difference. (38:45 - 38:54) Amen. Come and hang with me for a couple of days in my house. You'll see no shyness, no shyness. (38:58 - 39:04) Man, it's nice. I can make jokes about our marriage. She's not here and I don't have to get the look. (39:07 - 39:15) No, I don't actually ever get any look. I get no look, which is even more terrifying for me. So that's the look is the no look. (39:15 - 39:32) She never talks to me about it after. Yes, just hallelujah. They're in Pennsylvania this weekend. (39:36 - 39:41) Exodus 33. Did we even read this? No. Okay. (39:48 - 40:27) I just, I don't know how else to say it. I'm now I turned 15 a couple of weeks and, and I think about my life, how my parents immigrated here. English was my second language growing up in Queens, getting saved through just insurmountable odds from Forest Hills, Queens ended up in 1992 in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and an old school holiness apostolic church where the woman wore head coverings and skirts got baptized, filled with, got discipled there for the first couple of years of my Christianity. (40:28 - 40:41) On paper went to the wrong school. Other places, when they planted church, they start with whole denominational backing or network of churches. They start with six figures in seed money. (40:41 - 40:58) I started with exactly $0 and zero team members started preaching in the subways and the Lord, he kept adding and adding. And then I just had one request of the Lord. I said, Lord, I poured everything into the church. (40:58 - 41:07) I got no. So, you know, as a minister, you can opt out of social security. Many of you don't know that you can, you don't, you don't have to pay, but you don't get any social security. (41:07 - 41:17) So now I'm in my early forties and I'm going, you know, I wonder if I made a mistake about that thing because I have no money. I'm debt free. So I would teach my kids. (41:17 - 41:33) I said, they would always say, Lord, thank you that we're rich. I had for the last, my most of my adult life, I had usually around $1,500 in my account. But even then you remember, I was talking about, I actually believed that was so rich because I had no debt. (41:33 - 41:46) Now, if my hot water heater went out, it was over. That's all I ever had for so long. And then in my early forties, I didn't pay attention to it before then, but in my early forties, I thought this may be a little irresponsible. (41:47 - 42:00) God, can you catch me up? Lord, what's happening here? Help me. And I started pressing into that and the Lord said, Hey, here you go. I'm going to take eight figures and just on you. (42:04 - 42:30) So if you ever want to be discipled by me, I'm going to tell you right now, I got nothing really smart to tell you other than what I'm preaching this morning, which is make his presence, your great quest, the prize of your life. And he will add all the other things onto you. Amen. (42:32 - 42:53) So that's what I was saying is when I'm approaching 50, I'm looking back. And if I was to summarize, what has the Lord done? How has he done it? I fall to my knees and I go, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Because back when I was obsessing over things that seemed smart, he would, he would tell me like things like, I just want you to roll around on the carpet and enjoy my presence. (42:53 - 43:01) It sounded like, it sounded irresponsible. Sounded nonsensical. But yet I knew it was him. (43:02 - 43:17) Cause that's the kind of stuff he tells you. Amen. You know what? I think the Lord has gotten to reading scripture. (43:18 - 43:38) It's never unanointed to read the word, but I feel like. If you're hard to receive our ministry team will double team. They'll triple team. (43:38 - 43:50) They will keep their hands on you and soak you. And a little dash won't do some of you only, not because the Lord, but because you got it in your head. There's going to take a while and they will soak you in his presence. (43:50 - 44:03) And some of you picture all this crusty stuff from the world. It's encrusted itself to you. They're going to come with a chisel and a hammer, and they're going to get, get those cement chips off of you. (44:10 - 44:25) I pray you have the wettest, sappiest, drunkiest in the Holy ghost Christmas you ever had. Hallelujah. And I'm kind of liking this theme for Christmas. (44:26 - 44:31) Maybe you just. Worship team, get ready. You did. (44:32 - 44:45) And like a spectacular job this morning. Spectacular. It's their reverence for the Holy spirit and their prizing of the presence that makes it spectacular. (44:46 - 44:55) One day we'll have our own building and we won't have dollar tree lights up in the front. No poo on you. No, come on, pastor more. (44:55 - 45:11) That wasn't so personally. You know what I mean? I mean, at the end of the day, I was gonna, I was going to say we have tinsel, but there's no tinsel this year. All right. (45:11 - 45:25) You know what I mean? I mean, we got frosty, but even frosty looks dope. He does. He looks, but what I'm saying is with all those things and the worship team puts Jesus first, I thought, yeah, you guys can come on up. (45:26 - 45:29) Um, sorry. I didn't say that explicitly. I was just raving about you. (45:29 - 45:45) But that you put, put his presence first. Now we have Rob and Yari Martino here this morning. Pastor Rob, he first started coming to CityLight in 2011. (45:45 - 45:58) So he's been with us nearly 15 years. Yari came in 2015. I did their wedding in 2017 on a rooftop hotel in Williamsburg, overlooking Manhattan. (45:59 - 46:12) They've been faithful members since day one committed, always serving. She's in city kids and wherever else is needed, he's ushering and wherever else is needed. They were serving so much. (46:12 - 46:31) I had gotten to know them well, and I asked them to become care pastors in our church. And pastor Rob is on our elder team. And I was so excited to see their love blossom and to officiate their wedding. (46:31 - 46:56) And then soon after that, just started hearing from them to pray for them because they were having a difficult time conceiving and they continued having a difficult time conceiving for years. And then about a year ago, they made a decision to adopt. They never asked for any help with adoption. (46:59 - 47:20) But I know because we have adoption in our family through Emily, how much these things can cost. And if you don't know, it's actually quite shocking. You would think that they would rush to pay for everything, since it appears the government just loves giving billions away if you commit fraud, right? But if you want to adopt legitimately, it'll cost you 70,000 plus. (47:22 - 47:40) Now, pastor Rob is a sergeant in the NYPD. And while he's amazing at what he does, knowing that he works for the NYPD also tells me that he's underpaid. So they just share these things with me so I could pray with them. (47:41 - 47:54) And just so as their pastor, I could know what's happening. But I immediately felt in my spirit that we as a church should bless them. So in case you're new, I made a lot of money in Bitcoin, if you haven't caught up. (47:56 - 48:12) And then five, six years ago now, I took a chunk of the church's reserves. Took me nearly half a year to convince the board and put that in Bitcoin and made 10x for the church. So that's not money we can use. (48:12 - 48:31) However, but it gave us some wiggle room, which we've left untouched. Except I said, because I know how much expenses are, we can cover half. So the church, you know, there's nothing like when the Lord prospers you and blesses you, then you can just start relieving suffering everywhere you look. (48:32 - 48:44) The only thing is, people are like, great, I can't wait for him to do that. Great, start relieving suffering right where you're at. Because if you're waiting for your ship to come in and you haven't sent the ship out, no ship is coming in. (48:44 - 48:52) Amen. Everybody claims, oh, when God blesses me, I'll be the most generous person you've ever seen. Yeah, sure you will. (48:53 - 49:01) You will be at the golf course missing Sundays. That's the first thing that happens. No, you prove it when you have nothing and then he'll lift you up. (49:05 - 49:22) So we pledged $35,000. But then I also said this, because they also never asked and they've been so faithful. I said, when it comes time, I want to be able to receive a special offering that'll go directly towards paying the legal bills and all the bills of the adoption. (49:22 - 49:31) And here's why I believe the Lord put that on my heart. One, because we're a generous church. Two, is because as any Bible-believing church, we are not for abortion. (49:32 - 49:39) Amen. That shouldn't be something that's even debatable. If you're a Bible-believing Christian. (49:40 - 49:46) If you've committed, I realize you have an open church. People have committed abortions. You come to Jesus. (49:46 - 49:52) God has forgotten about it. He's forgiven you and your child is waiting for you in heaven. Amen. (49:54 - 49:59) Probably not an infant. Amen. So you skip the messy part. (49:59 - 50:07) The diaper. I'm preaching so bad because I'm feeling so good. I'm totally inebriated right now. (50:07 - 50:17) I really am. I'm in heaven. So a lot of times churches will be anti-abortion, but they're not, with their money, very pro-family. (50:18 - 50:22) That's what I'm trying to say. Is they yak. They love to protest with picket signs and all that. (50:22 - 50:31) But it's like, all right, that's nice. But what are you doing to show your love of life and family? You know, I had to make a decision. No churches give paid paternity leave. (50:31 - 50:42) CityLight does. Why? Because I thought, hey, if we're really pro-family, which we are, then we should be amongst the first to give paternity leave. We should communicate that we prize and love family at all times. (50:42 - 51:02) So now with adoption, let's communicate that we prize and love family and life. Amen. So Robin Yarry, won't you come on up and just share briefly? Hello, everyone. (51:03 - 51:37) We just want to thank CityLight because it's vital. The obstacles that we have faced, we have truly believed that the desires in our hearts of wanting kids and having a family are aligned with God's will. And CityLight has been in our corner, believing with us and praying for us, believing for the Martinez children and so much love and support that we have received from CityLight. (51:39 - 52:03) And, you know, something that we have really valued is like our connection to all of you. You know, CityLight, that being in community has been so important to us and a key in our walk and faith. And we just want to share the news with excitement that we have been matched with a baby girl. (52:09 - 52:30) Yeah, she's going to be here in February 14. Yes. We just can't wait to have our baby girl in our arms and to bring her home and to stand here in this altar and dedicate our child to God. (52:34 - 52:53) Hallelujah! Can't wait. Good morning, everyone. As we went through this journey together, seven long years trying, we would fill our home with scriptures, things to remind us of God's promises and his goodness, his faithfulness, and something that Yadi had written was delay does not equal denial. (52:54 - 53:01) And for our walk, that was vital to be able to see every single day. You know, the timing and the terms weren't ours, but amen to that. They were the Lord's. (53:01 - 53:25) Like it says in Isaiah 60, 22, when the timing is right, the Lord will make it happen. And so our testimony is pushing through even when in the natural, it doesn't make sense. And especially with all of you, it's our brothers and sisters in Christ being there, you know, having our backs at our sides, praying for us, supporting us, blessing us with meals when we're going through difficult times, throwing a baby shower for us when we didn't have a baby in the natural. (53:26 - 53:41) It meant so much to us. So we just want to share thank you, you know, as much as we are so already in love with our daughter, we know that she'll be loved by so many of you as well. And the name that we chose for her is Anaya, which means God has heard or God has answered. (53:42 - 53:49) May that name be a testimony for everyone here. God has heard. So awesome. (53:50 - 53:59) Thank you both. Anaya, Anaya, Anaya. God has heard. (54:00 - 54:09) Lord, keep your hand on Anaya. From this moment forward, all the way up until they end up in their parents' arms, keep your hand upon Anaya. Hallelujah. (54:10 - 54:19) Through the birthing process, every step of the way, no complications. Lord, butter their steps all the way. Amen. (54:21 - 54:32) So again, I am very inebriated in the Holy Ghost. You say, what is this all about? I don't know how else I'm going to just say very plainly. I love Pastor Rab Ben-Yari. (54:32 - 54:40) They're very easy to love. Jesus said, if you love those who love you, what reward have you? So I get no reward for loving them. They're very, very easy to love. (54:40 - 55:03) The reward only comes when you love those who are hard to love. But they are the most unoffensive, if you know them, kindest, consistently sweetest, always looking to see where they can help, always looking to see really ideal Christians who aren't called into full-time ministry, like I am, five-fold ministry, but then said, okay, I do this. I'm a sergeant in the NYPD. (55:03 - 55:09) But the rest of my time, I'm building the kingdom in whatever way God presents Himself. Amen. I love them. (55:09 - 55:24) I love the work of the Lord in their lives. And so I want to get behind them. So we're going to allow you, if you want, with no pressure, but it's an opportunity to bless a young family. (55:25 - 55:35) We have our regular tithes and offerings. We have the end of the year giving campaign, which we're doing very well on, by the way. It's at like 64, 67%. (55:36 - 55:40) 64? Thank you. I love it when a member knows better than me. 64. (55:42 - 55:57) Then if you want to, I was just told in the first service, I wasn't so clear. So I want to be super clear. And if you want to give specifically towards Pastor Rob and Yari and them paying the legal bills and helping with all that, because I want them to have zero stress. (55:57 - 56:04) They never asked for this. In fact, when I first brought it up, they were like, I don't know, you know. They weren't like, yeah. (56:05 - 56:12) They were like, are you sure? Like, we don't know. Like a special offering for us? Because we don't, we've never done this. I don't have, when would we? No. (56:15 - 56:27) So if you want to give to bless them, you hit other. When you put on the QR code, it goes to our giving website, hit other. And do they have to designate anything? They have to write, just write, right, baby. (56:27 - 56:36) That's it. Right, baby. So you do business with the Lord right now to tithe in the offering. (56:37 - 56:48) You don't, to tithe, you don't have to pray about. But the offering then, how much you want to give towards the first fruits and then towards. And if you have to decide between first fruits and baby, pick baby. (56:48 - 56:56) God will handle the hundred K goal we have. Hallelujah. You know, there's some things you just feel like the Lord is cool with. (56:56 - 57:10) And then there's other things you feel like he really, really likes and delights in. And I feel like this, he really, really delights in. And this precious girl is going to grow up in our midst, in the presence of God. (57:10 - 57:20) We're going to see her like a plant grow and be nurtured and be blessed. Hallelujah. Yeah. (57:24 - 57:40) Hallelujah. I just, when I said that I flashed into that scripture where Jesus warns not to offend one of these little ones because their angels always do behold the face of their father in heaven. There's an angel assigned to an ear beholding the father's face. (57:41 - 57:51) Still, the Lord is fashioning her and her inward parts and will carry her safely to you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. (57:51 - 58:12) This is the CityLight 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 CityLight Church, visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. (58:12 - 58:28) 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 CityLight Church podcast, wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.