WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.680 David began to what? He began to praise. And he encouraged, he reminded himself, 2 00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:11.680 God is good. God is with me. I don't care what I see. I don't care what I hear. I don't even 3 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:16.480 care what I'm experiencing right now. I'm looking at the hate and anger in their faces. 4 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.680 They're ready to kill me. But Lord, you're good. And he began to praise. And he would not fall 5 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:25.040 into a spirit of self-pity. And God can work with that. 6 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.840 Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's word 7 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:37.840 and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, 8 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:44.000 feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com, that's citylightnyc.com. 9 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:50.560 Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in 10 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:56.800 our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, 11 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:02.400 that you are surrounded by his grace, and that he has a real hope and a future for you. 12 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:16.080 Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Welcome. God is really doing something wonderful at CityLight 13 00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:23.520 Church. I've checked in with Pastor Mo numerous times because I want to make sure it's not just me. 14 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:35.120 And we've both agreed. God is doing something special, specifically in terms of people getting saved 15 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:43.280 and the kinds of people that are finding our church. So typically, a healthy church is winning 16 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:46.640 those who are far from Jesus who don't know the gospel who are lost. 17 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:54.000 But a large portion of those are those that are coming back to Jesus. Thank God for those. 18 00:01:54.720 --> 00:02:02.480 And then if you actually look very few, the first time salvation. But God is bringing people from all 19 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.920 over who are getting saved for the very first time who are hearing the gospel for the first time. 20 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:15.040 And it's very special and very holy. And I realize some of you that are hearing my voice right now, 21 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:21.600 you might be thinking, hey, that's me. You just described me. I'm so glad you're here. And it's not 22 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:28.080 by accident that you're here. Jesus said no one can come to me unless the Father draws them. 23 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:33.360 He drew you. Even if you were up at 3M one night and Googled, 24 00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:41.120 Jesus and I see church find God and I see whatever you Googled and somehow you landed here. 25 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:47.440 God did that and he opened up your heart and he's reaching out to you right now. 26 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:53.680 He's working on your heart so that you would say yes to Jesus so that you would give your life 27 00:02:53.680 --> 00:03:00.720 to him, repent of your sins, receive total forgiveness of sins and everlasting eternal life. 28 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:07.440 So what a privilege that is. For me, I've been waiting, you know, we just celebrated 23 years 29 00:03:08.320 --> 00:03:15.520 on March the 17th. Same Patrick's, it was Monday. I've been waiting 23 years to see it like this. 30 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:20.240 God's always been with us and he's blessed us and worked through us. But you know, we're in Queens. 31 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:25.280 And of course we get a lot of people from Manhattan, from Brooklyn, even from New Jersey, the country 32 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:36.000 of New Jersey, even from Long Island. But just in Queens, you know, there's 161 nations 33 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.440 represented in Queens. So it's really beautiful what the Lord is doing. 34 00:03:43.600 --> 00:03:48.640 Pastor Moe was talking about, you know, growing out of this place. If you look around, 35 00:03:48.640 --> 00:03:56.560 we've grown out of this place. So pray with us for that next place, for our own building. 36 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:04.880 I want to see a 600 cedar, six to 800. Go to two services with that and give the Lord something to 37 00:04:04.880 --> 00:04:13.680 work with. Amen. Oh, God, I can preach now. See, I was just small talking until the conduit of 38 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:19.120 the anointing for my life came in. And now there it is. Usher's quickly. 39 00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:28.160 So to those who are new and who are just coming in and even to some of the old-timers, 40 00:04:28.880 --> 00:04:35.840 I just want to remind you that when you look and you see people who have gone astray, people who 41 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:41.360 have become either backslidden or outright heretical in their thinking and all the weirdnesses 42 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:45.120 that have infiltrated the church. You know, a lot of weirdnesses have infiltrated the church 43 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:51.200 in the last 10, 15 years. A lot of weirdnesses have infiltrated just American culture in general 44 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:57.760 in the last 10, 15 years. But when you look at it, you'll find a common denominator amongst all 45 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:02.000 the different weirdnesses and different people that have gone astray. You'll find one common 46 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:12.960 denominator. And that's this, that in some way they began to dismiss or dilute or flat out reject 47 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:21.200 the integrity and the authority of the Word of God. It's just a good book or it's God's Word, 48 00:05:21.200 --> 00:05:26.480 but there's also some other stuff in there and I get to decide kind of like at a buffet. 49 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:33.200 I don't know, crab legs? Hmm. Some shrimp? Chicken. I can eat chicken. I can eat chicken at home. 50 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:37.040 And that's how they go about the Bible, picking and choosing. 51 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:46.400 If I gave you a glass of water and said this is from the glaciers of the Alps, 52 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:52.160 clear water, clean water, but I added just 1% arsenic to it. 53 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:58.320 Would you drink that glass of water? I hope the answer is no. If that book you call the Bible 54 00:05:58.320 --> 00:06:05.760 is 99% God's Word, but it's even 1% man's Word, I would not base my soul on it. I would not 55 00:06:05.760 --> 00:06:14.320 base my eternal destiny on a book like that. The Bible that you have, the Bible is God's Word to us. 56 00:06:14.320 --> 00:06:21.920 It is inspired by God. It is infallible. There is no mistake in it. It is immutable. It's unchangeable. 57 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:27.600 You can hold up that Bible with confidence and say, thus say if the Lord. 58 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:33.840 And people have tried to discredit it, always failing. People have tried to knock it down. 59 00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:40.400 It's withstood the test of time for thousands of years and is still the number one most read 60 00:06:40.400 --> 00:06:46.800 and number one bestselling book. In all of human history, that's for a reason. 61 00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:51.760 Kings have gone to that book to receive instructions. 62 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:59.440 So don't ignore certain parts of the Bible because they may make you uncomfortable or they're 63 00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:06.080 inconvenient. You know, there's people they cut out a part of the Bible that they don't like. 64 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.280 Oh, this is too tough. This is a hard thing. I don't like that. Cut it out. Go to another chapter. 65 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:16.000 I don't like this. Jesus is asking for a lot. I don't like that part. 66 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.480 And then they have a real holy Bible, which is an unholy Bible full of holes in it from the 67 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:29.760 passages they cut out. Don't let that be you. It's either all the Word of God or it's not at all 68 00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:35.840 the Word of God. And I know it's the Word of God because I did what the Word said and my whole 69 00:07:35.840 --> 00:07:40.880 life was transformed. I've seen thousands of others. Their lives are transformed. But you might 70 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:45.600 say, oh, that's subjective. You're just saying that. But even if you just look at it from a logical 71 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:54.720 lens, a scientific lens, the Bible has more manuscripts flowing perfectly together, never 72 00:07:54.720 --> 00:08:01.280 contradicting each other. Tens of thousands of Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew manuscripts that support 73 00:08:01.280 --> 00:08:05.680 its authenticity, that support its the Word of God. More manuscripts than any other book or any 74 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:10.960 other quote unquote holy book in the world. Amen. This has nothing to do with my sermon, 75 00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:17.120 but it has everything to do with my sermon. So I just wanted to say that. We need to be reminded 76 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:21.600 of that periodically because I come and you notice whenever anyone preaches from this pulpit, 77 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:28.880 they use a lot of scripture. That's not because we need filler material. God forbid we're just 78 00:08:28.880 --> 00:08:35.200 up here yacking. It has to be from the Word of God. That is our plumb line. That is our standard. 79 00:08:35.760 --> 00:08:41.040 Amen. And it's the Word of God that'll get you through. Good advice is not going to get you 80 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:46.000 through. Church hype is not going to get you through great musicians. They're not going to get you. 81 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.280 It's the Word. It's the seed, the incorruptible seed of God. When ingested by the human spirit, 82 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:59.520 it causes you to overcome. Amen. Amen. All right, let's begin. 83 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:13.520 We're beginning in first Kings chapter 19 and verse 1. What had just happened was Elijah the 84 00:09:13.520 --> 00:09:20.080 prophet had the greatest victory of his life. In fact, it was the highlight of his life. 85 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:28.640 Bell was a false God and he was actually drawing Hebrews who were faithful to Yahweh to him. 86 00:09:28.640 --> 00:09:31.200 They were erecting altars to him and erecting idols. 87 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:41.440 And God had enough of it and he sent Elijah. Elijah actually said, choose this day who you will 88 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:50.480 serve. If bail is God, serve him. But if the Lord Yahweh is God, then fully serve him. 89 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:57.600 And so it was on the top of Mount Carmel, Elijah verses 450 prophets of bail. 90 00:09:59.280 --> 00:10:06.160 And Elijah, this is so cool. I mean, if you just read what he says, it's like the lead actor 91 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:14.000 in a Hollywood blockbuster. He said, all right, you gather a sacrifice and I'll gather a sacrifice. 92 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:23.440 So put a bull. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. So the prophets of bail agreed. 93 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:28.640 They started in the morning doing their dances, wasn't working no fire. Then they started cutting 94 00:10:28.640 --> 00:10:35.840 themselves. They started screaming. They started appealing no fire. Elijah actually starts mocking 95 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:42.480 them, which is where I get my biblical precedent to mock on Godly thoughts. If you've ever thought, 96 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:47.280 why are you just, he's mocking that thing? But it's like I'm Netflix and it's totally in the culture 97 00:10:47.280 --> 00:10:54.000 and I'm mocking it as Elijah did. No, it's so, he actually starts telling the prophets of bail. 98 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:59.840 He says, hey, perhaps your God is deaf and can't hear you. Or perhaps he's on vacay. 99 00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:04.080 He's on a long journey. And then he says, or maybe he's going to the bathroom. 100 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:15.520 That's in the scriptures. I got I got scriptural precedent to provoke and not be crass but 101 00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:27.760 crassish at times. Then Elijah, Elijah has water poured on this bull. He offers up one prayer 102 00:11:27.760 --> 00:11:35.200 to Yahweh God. Oh, fire comes down from heaven, consumes the sacrifice. It's a major victory for 103 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:41.760 all of Israel, a major victory personally for Elijah. They slaughter the 450 false prophets of 104 00:11:41.760 --> 00:11:47.200 bail. And now we find ourselves in chapter 19, verse one. And they have 105 00:11:49.520 --> 00:11:58.800 King Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the 106 00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:06.000 sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah. This is in the same 24 hour span. 107 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:14.800 Saying, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life talking about Elijah as 108 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:20.800 the life of one of them, the prophets that have been killed by tomorrow about this time. In other 109 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:28.640 words, Queen Jezebel says, Elijah, you shane me, you made a mockery, I am going to kill you. 110 00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:32.960 I'm not going to be preaching on the spirit of Jezebel. 111 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:39.520 It's a common, especially if you're penicast, if you're charismatic, you got 16 books on the spirit 112 00:12:39.520 --> 00:12:47.040 of Jezebel. It is a real spirit. It is a spirit that a man can yield to and a woman can yield to. 113 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.400 I sometimes think we talk more about the spirit of Jezebel than we do about the spirit of Ahab. 114 00:12:53.520 --> 00:13:00.640 There is a spirit of Ahab, which is I think sometimes even more destructive than the spirit of Jezebel. 115 00:13:03.040 --> 00:13:09.280 A weak husband with no agency, just led by the nose, by his wife doing whatever, 116 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:16.480 rebelling, following the flesh just because she says, so why is it so quiet in here? 117 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:20.880 All right. Verse three. 118 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:25.200 Hallelujah. 119 00:13:25.280 --> 00:13:35.280 I want to say this on the side. I've experienced a major breakthrough. I've shared it, 120 00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:42.080 but there's new people all the time. A major breakthrough in every way, particularly financially. 121 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:53.440 I know, I give God all the glory, but if it wasn't for my wife and her posture and her support, 122 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:58.560 and the fact that she looks to me to lead, which sometimes for the first five seconds, 123 00:13:58.560 --> 00:14:04.080 you know, is the pressure, but then it, yeah, but then you're empowered by the Lord to lead well. 124 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:10.160 I would, I would still be in a windowless basement in 1217 through. Amen. So I want to give honor 125 00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:12.320 where honors do. Amen. 126 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:23.360 Verse four. Oh, I'm sorry. Verse three, we didn't read. Forgive me. And when he saw that, 127 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:30.160 this is Elijah, right? Less than a day after the victory of his life, he arose and ran for his life. 128 00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:34.240 There was something so terrifying about this woman and I won't get into that, but there is 129 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:41.200 a spirit of Jezebel that's so intimidating that this major man of God at the height of his ministry 130 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:47.200 heard that she wants to execute him and he runs for the hills. He arose and ran for his life and 131 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:53.600 went to bear Shiba, which belongs to Judah and left his servants there. But he himself went 132 00:14:53.600 --> 00:15:00.800 today's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he 133 00:15:00.800 --> 00:15:10.560 might die. What? He went literally from the mountaintop. He went from the mountaintop to a self-pity 134 00:15:10.560 --> 00:15:17.920 fest and becoming suicidal in less than a day. He came and sat down under a broom tree and 135 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:23.040 there he prayed that he might die and he said it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life where I am no 136 00:15:23.040 --> 00:15:29.200 better than my fathers, which is a lie. His fathers were in rebellion. He was the premier prophet 137 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:36.880 of Israel. So he was better. But when you wallow in self-pity, it distorts your perception. It 138 00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:43.040 distorts your reality. And you can be mighty, but in an old angel under a broom tree eventually 139 00:15:43.040 --> 00:15:50.640 in a cave, doubting everything and wishing death upon yourself. Verse five, then as he lay and 140 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:56.960 slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. 141 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:04.800 This is Old Testament Uber Eats, right now, sent from the Lord. Then he looked and there by his 142 00:16:04.880 --> 00:16:11.520 head was a cake from an angel. That's angel food cake delivered by heavenly Uber Eats, baked on 143 00:16:11.520 --> 00:16:17.600 coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and he lay down again. You know he's depressed, 144 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:23.520 right? You know he's wallowing in self-pity. I remember reading the account of in Columbia, 145 00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:30.800 what was his name? Escobar. And in Pablo Escobar, in his final days, they said all he was doing was 146 00:16:30.800 --> 00:16:34.240 eating big bowls of pot. He was sleeping on the ground. He was hiding. They were after him. He was 147 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:37.680 eating big bowls of pasta. Then you just turn around and sleep, wake up, continue eating from the 148 00:16:37.680 --> 00:16:45.440 bowl. It reminded me of his verse anyway. He eats and just goes right back to sleep. Elijah 149 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:54.640 acting like Pablo on the run. Not good. Not good. Verse seven. Did I read six? 150 00:16:55.280 --> 00:17:04.640 Yeah, he did the Pablo. Then verse seven. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and 151 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.880 touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose in 152 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:17.520 eight and drank and he went in the strength of that food. This was supernatural food. Forget 153 00:17:17.520 --> 00:17:22.320 about your power bar. He ate this angel food cake and he went on the strength of that one meal 154 00:17:22.320 --> 00:17:29.120 40 days and 40 nights and ran as far as horrib the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave. 155 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:39.200 So he's still having this pity party. That's what a cave symbolizes in the Bible. The wilderness 156 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:45.760 is a place of questioning, of searching. You have your needs met, but not your wants, but the cave, 157 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:49.360 you don't want to be in the cave. Everybody will be in the wilderness, but you'd get to decide whether 158 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:54.720 you go into the cave or not. He went into a cave and spent the night in the place and behold, 159 00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:01.440 the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you 160 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:08.560 doing? Full of self pity and hiding in a cave. So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord 161 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:14.480 God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and 162 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:21.280 killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Then the Lord 163 00:18:21.280 --> 00:18:29.280 said, get out and stand, get out of the cave. Some of you, you've been in a cave and by the 164 00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:38.480 anointing of God, God is going to break you out of that thing. Go out and stand on the mountain 165 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:45.440 before the Lord and behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains 166 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:50.480 and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. 167 00:18:51.760 --> 00:18:56.960 And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, you know, sometimes 168 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:04.640 we look so much for the spectacular, we miss the supernatural. People are looking to encounter 169 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:11.360 God or hear from him in this spectacular way, but he's coming to you in a way that's just as 170 00:19:11.360 --> 00:19:17.200 supernatural. It may not be outwardly spectacular, but he's ministering to you on the inside and 171 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:26.640 speaking to you by the still small voice. But the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the 172 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:34.720 earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. 173 00:19:35.520 --> 00:19:43.440 So it was when Elijah heard it, he found the Lord in the still small voice. When he heard it, 174 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:49.760 that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave, suddenly 175 00:19:49.760 --> 00:19:56.480 a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? I've heard that voice. I've heard 176 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:02.720 that voice when I allowed self pity to take a hold of me when my circumstances were overwhelming 177 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:09.600 to me. And it's kind of like you're sinking, you're sinking. And the Lord would shock me out of it, 178 00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:16.960 thank God, what are you doing here? You don't belong here in that place. And he said, I have been very 179 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:28.880 zealous. I think it did that reverse thing again. It's the what? I should have read it before I 180 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:34.800 put it up there, thank you. Did we do that in the first service also? Did they warn you that when 181 00:20:34.800 --> 00:20:40.240 you do media, how challenging and difficult it would be? They didn't warn you, welcome. 182 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:45.680 Well, you're doing great so far. And this is like the best version of me. You should have seen 183 00:20:45.760 --> 00:20:52.400 me like 10 years ago. What are you going back here? That's the work of the Holy Spirit. We're all growing, 184 00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:01.840 we're all getting better. I knew that if I could treat the media team as they ought to be treated with 185 00:21:01.840 --> 00:21:07.360 dignity and respect all the time, the Lord would visit our church and give us breakthrough. Amen. It's 186 00:21:07.360 --> 00:21:13.360 been a long, long ride. I've been very zealous for the things coming in with his resume again. I've 187 00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:17.520 been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken 188 00:21:17.520 --> 00:21:22.000 your covenant toward down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. So now a second 189 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:28.560 time says, I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Then the Lord said to him, go return 190 00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:34.240 on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint has ael is king over Syria. 191 00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:42.160 And you shall anoint, Jay, who the son of Nim she is king over Israel and Elijah the son of 192 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:50.560 Shafath of Abel, Mahola, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes 193 00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:56.160 the sword of has ael, Jay, who will kill him and whoever escapes the sword of Jay, who Elijah 194 00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:04.960 will kill. Now remember, Elijah kept saying, I'm the only one left. I'm poor me. I'm the only one 195 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:10.000 left. Here's the word of the Lord. It shall be that whoever and whoever escapes the sword, Jay, 196 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:17.440 who will kill. Yet I have reserved 7,000. You're not the only one, Elijah. Yet I have reserved 7,000 197 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:23.200 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to bail and every mouth that has not kissed them. 198 00:22:24.080 --> 00:22:34.880 What happened here to Elijah? He gave place to a very, very dangerous spirit. It is a spirit. 199 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:41.840 It's not often talked about. If I were to say list 5 things that can really derail you as a 200 00:22:41.840 --> 00:22:47.760 Christian, that could really mess you up, you would list 5 things. I promise you this wouldn't be 201 00:22:47.760 --> 00:22:56.640 on the list, but this I would put in the top 3 and it's the spirit of self-pity. Hence our 202 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:06.640 sermon title for today because I pity the fool that gives place to the spirit of self-pity. 203 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:19.200 Self-pity, it seems harmless. It seems like something to just indulge in. I know that spirit well. 204 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:27.360 You know how I know it? I know it because it comes in sweet and soft. It comes in with a warm 205 00:23:27.360 --> 00:23:33.440 embrace and you yield to the spirit of self-pity. You tell yourself you're not going to dwell with it, 206 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:41.120 but you kind of entertain it. You dance with it a little bit. You lean into its embrace and it 207 00:23:41.120 --> 00:23:49.600 messes you up every time. The spirit of self-pity, it actually is like a magnet for curses 208 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:55.920 and it reflects the blessings of God. Why? Because in order to receive from heaven, 209 00:23:56.560 --> 00:24:00.640 you need two ingredients. Number one, you need faith. Everything you receive from the Lord, 210 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:06.560 you receive by faith. You also need hope. Hope is important. Hope is future tense. You've got to 211 00:24:06.560 --> 00:24:12.240 keep hope alive. You've got to always have hope. Corinthians says these three remain faith, hope, 212 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.040 and love. Hope is in the future tense. Faith is in the present tense. Faith says I have it now. 213 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:27.360 But self-pity cannot exist in the same room as faith and hope. It cannot. And so while it seems 214 00:24:27.360 --> 00:24:32.320 like this innocent sin, you know what I like in it too? A McDonald's combo meal. 215 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:39.520 So comforting at first, right? You smell it. Reminds you of your childhood. Seems like it's going 216 00:24:39.520 --> 00:24:45.840 to be satisfied. Next thing, you know, you're all messed up and hiding in the cave on the floor. Amen. 217 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:53.840 It'll rob you. Do not give place to it. You've ever been on a farm? New Yorkers? At least three of you. 218 00:24:53.840 --> 00:24:59.120 I know you've been on a farm. Everybody is seeing a cow pie. Everybody's seen manure. Everybody's 219 00:24:59.120 --> 00:25:04.960 seeing a hoard of flies around. That's what self-pity is like. You draw the demonic and you draw 220 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:13.200 a curse of things to you like cow pie to flies. Amen. And flies to cow pie. 221 00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:19.520 Is anybody offended here? Should I say bovine, excrement, or something? What's happening? 222 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:26.720 Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. 223 00:25:31.520 --> 00:25:41.600 You know why I'm preaching this? Because I've fought it. And I've experienced it. And it's 224 00:25:41.600 --> 00:25:46.640 the quiet sin. And just last week for the first time, I said we just celebrated 23 years. 225 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:52.880 For the first time, I had a member who actually had enough self-awareness and enough humility. 226 00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:59.840 First time in my ministry life that somebody came and said, I feel the spirit of self-pity and I'm 227 00:25:59.840 --> 00:26:06.000 concerned I'm giving place to it. They recognized it. And then I thought I've known so many that 228 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:11.360 were under that spirit, never ever recognized it. And then when you would tell them that they were 229 00:26:11.360 --> 00:26:15.760 giving place to self-pity, they would get upset and say, oh, you don't have compassion. You don't 230 00:26:15.760 --> 00:26:20.000 have love. Don't you know, I'm going to need a hug and here you are telling me I need to come 231 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:26.960 out of self-pity. Beware of self-pity. It is like bad breath. You're the last one to know you have it. 232 00:26:29.360 --> 00:26:38.880 And it's designed to rob you to cause you to sulk. Contrast David. David to Elijah. David, 233 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:43.840 he got a prophetic word that he would be king and right on schedule. It's not just that it was 234 00:26:43.840 --> 00:26:50.080 postponed. The exact opposite began to happen. You ever get a prophetic word and exact 235 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:56.320 any prophetic word that I got that was worth its weight? Actually, the exact opposite started to 236 00:26:56.320 --> 00:27:03.360 happen. And because the word will be tested. The opposite starts happening and you've got to keep 237 00:27:03.360 --> 00:27:07.680 your chin up in your eyes on Jesus. Lord, I don't care what I see in the natural. I don't care what 238 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:13.520 I hear in the natural. Let God be true in every man, Elijah. Amen. Let your word be true. 239 00:27:13.520 --> 00:27:19.520 That's what happened to David. He was promised to be king. The then prophet of the day came and 240 00:27:19.520 --> 00:27:24.480 said, you're anointed to be king. The exact opposite starts happening. Instead of the palace 241 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:31.200 and the kingship, he ends up running around the wilderness and hiding for years and years being 242 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:40.960 chased by a maniacal king of Israel. At one point, right at Ziklag, all of his men turn on him because 243 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:45.920 all of their stuff was stolen and the women and their children were stolen. And his very closest 244 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:53.680 men took up stones to throw at David. And you know what it says? David encouraged himself in the Lord. 245 00:27:54.560 --> 00:27:58.880 Like right then and there. Doesn't mean he go up real hard and went, no, right then and their 246 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:06.960 David began to what? He began to praise. And he encouraged, he reminded himself, God is good. God 247 00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:11.440 is with me. I don't care what I see. I don't care what I hear. I don't even care what I'm 248 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:16.640 experiencing right now. I'm looking at the hate and anger in their faces. They're ready to kill me. 249 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:22.560 But Lord, you're good. And he began to praise and he would not fall into a spirit of self-pity. And 250 00:28:22.560 --> 00:28:30.080 God can work with that. He came in on that and turned that whole situation around. Amen. Hallelujah. 251 00:28:30.080 --> 00:28:40.560 Oh, it's a little bit tougher in the second service. First service we were roaring, but that's 252 00:28:40.560 --> 00:28:46.560 good. That means that God is coming in and adjusting some hearts. Because anybody who's given 253 00:28:46.560 --> 00:28:52.640 over to the spirit of self-pity actually it's an addiction. It's even an addiction on a biochemical 254 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:57.440 level. Because you secrete some dopamine when you start feeling pity for yourself. The only 255 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:02.640 problem is you gotta keep pitting yourself more and more and more to get the same hit. Kind of 256 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:12.720 like crack. So right now people are like, I'll take my drugs away. Shit, hands off my pipe. I'm 257 00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:21.680 coming for your pipe. I've shared this story before, but sometimes I wonder if you can really 258 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:28.480 appreciate it. You gotta step into my shoes. I'm 16 years old when I got saved. 259 00:29:29.840 --> 00:29:35.920 26 year old when I planted city light church. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as 260 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:42.000 church planting with other churches supporting you and sponsoring you. My pastor didn't know that. 261 00:29:43.040 --> 00:29:49.440 I come from a stream where the idea is if you're qualified to make it, you can make it. 262 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:54.800 I don't necessarily 100% agree with that, but that's the road God took me down. Because we've 263 00:29:54.800 --> 00:29:58.880 supported other churches and if someone else wants to plan will help, but I'm grateful for that. 264 00:29:59.520 --> 00:30:08.560 But I began with nothing. No help. We were broke. Broke, do you know our first projector? Like 265 00:30:08.560 --> 00:30:12.720 right now we have projectors. Our first projector, do you remember, and you have to be I think like 266 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:20.800 35 and older to remember this? The overhead projectors? That's how we did the words for the songs. 267 00:30:20.800 --> 00:30:24.960 And some of you remember Nova? She was with us for over 20 years. We have the Nova. She was the 268 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:31.040 one who would write out the lyrics and then she'd be switching those sheets mid-service from song to 269 00:30:31.040 --> 00:30:37.280 song. And I remember the price. I went to Staples and it was $139 and I was like, wow, the expenses. 270 00:30:37.360 --> 00:30:47.920 So then, now, I believe I'm called, the church is not growing. I'm really, really broke. 271 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:53.520 And then I do what all the pastors do, what every pastor has to do, which is going to a bunch of 272 00:30:53.520 --> 00:31:01.760 pastors meetings. This is kind of a joke because I don't do that anymore. I stopped like 10 years 273 00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:08.640 ago. I was delivered. If you want to be in the ministry, you don't go to pastors meetings. All they 274 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:13.920 do is they meet. They eat cheap chicken. It's cheap chicken because they get these events catered, 275 00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:17.840 but it's like the lowest tier of catering. So it's always cheap chicken and then iceberg lettuce 276 00:31:17.840 --> 00:31:28.320 that's like translucent. And I would meet other pastors. And here I am feeling like less than a 277 00:31:28.320 --> 00:31:35.040 zero. And there's this parade of other young pastors who are coming in with funding and support 278 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:42.000 from their denomination or from some large 10,000-member church in Texas that sent them out to NYC. 279 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:48.560 You know, this was post 9-11. So every church wanted to do something for NYC. So I have nothing. 280 00:31:48.560 --> 00:31:55.200 Now, they're coming in and they have everything. They have a salary. I didn't have a salary. 281 00:31:55.200 --> 00:32:01.600 We started in 02. I didn't get a salary till 06. They have a salary. Their kids are going to 282 00:32:01.600 --> 00:32:07.200 private school. They have a three-bedroom apartment. Pretty boys dressed immaculate from head to toe, 283 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:13.680 looking like wealth. And I'm like, feeling like a loser. So what? I know you would like to hear that 284 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:19.680 I just immediately looked up and went, Lord, hallelujah. No! I went back. I'm living in a windowless 285 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:25.360 basement 20-feet by 80-feet that I'm sharing with the church. I went back and it was my cave. 286 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:35.920 And I ended up, oh, Lord, it just doesn't seem fair. They got it so easy. And they just seem 287 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:42.160 like they're so happy. And here I am. They're staying away by the thousands. I'm preaching to empty seats. 288 00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:48.720 I'm eating ramen noodles every night. Where are you, Lord? And he would thank God. He would, 289 00:32:49.840 --> 00:32:56.080 what are you doing here? Just like he said to Elijah in the cave, what are you doing here? And then 290 00:32:56.080 --> 00:33:03.760 I would hear in those times of prayer. Listen, if you're in a difficult spot, be sensitive to the 291 00:33:03.760 --> 00:33:11.280 still small voice and to the images that God puts in your spirit. I was in that place 292 00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:21.040 king of loserville. I would go, Lord, and I didn't even have words. Just Lord, I just need to be 293 00:33:21.040 --> 00:33:26.000 with you right now because I feel like I'm going to die. That spirit of self-pity is not to be messed 294 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:34.400 with. Satan comes and he just tries to smash you in. And I would hear deep in my spirit, 295 00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:43.760 if you will just not quit, I will make it all up to you. If you will just not quit. And then once 296 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:51.360 I was in this state and I went to pray and I saw like a three-second long movie. You'd call it 297 00:33:51.360 --> 00:33:57.440 a vision. I'm moving image three seconds long and it was me on a mountain top. And I'm dancing. 298 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:05.280 And I'm not like contemporary American dancing. I'm old school Hebrew dancing. Like I'm letting it 299 00:34:05.280 --> 00:34:16.800 rip. Like twirling about like as David danced. And my face is glowing. I got a smile from 300 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:22.720 ear to ear and you exactly what the Lord was saying. Victory. Success. I will bless you. Just 301 00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:31.600 hang on. Hallelujah. And I was because of what I've been preparing all this week. I was just 302 00:34:31.600 --> 00:34:40.400 reminiscing with the Lord. Lord, look what you've done. On paper, we should have crashed. On paper 303 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:45.760 right now, I should be saying, would you like fries with that? That's what it looked like on 304 00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:54.560 paper. But God who then came through, who blessed, who overblessed, he will turn that thing around 305 00:34:54.560 --> 00:35:07.360 as long as you get out of the self pity. Amen. Hallelujah. Take a look at my guy, Nick Vuyichich. 306 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:13.600 If anybody's last name ends with an itch, you know that for my neck of the woods, he is he 307 00:35:13.600 --> 00:35:20.320 Serbian, currently living in Australia. He actually did a huge crusade and filled up a stadium. He 308 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:29.040 went to Serbia. He went into Montenegro. Christian, born again. If anybody could have yielded to the 309 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:38.560 spirit of self pity, it's evangelist Nick Vuyichich. Instead, he decided to allow his life to glorify 310 00:35:38.640 --> 00:35:45.040 God and he praised Jesus. Some of you you're doing fine and Satan whispered to you, you'll never get 311 00:35:45.040 --> 00:35:52.800 married. Look at him. Look at his wife. Look at his kids. Nothing is too hard for our great God, 312 00:35:52.800 --> 00:36:05.840 hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. 313 00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:17.280 Social media, that can augment self pity. You ever go on social media and there's people who they're 314 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:23.360 not looking for a solution, they're just complaining for the sake of complaining. It's really like 315 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:31.440 passing gas and then leaving the room. Leaving like six other friends in there. Was that you? Who 316 00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:39.200 was that? And they're gone. You know, I just want to enjoy scrolling Facebook and seeing what my 317 00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:47.760 aunt had for lunch that day. And instead you come across somebody's like complaint list. They don't 318 00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:52.880 want a solution. They don't want advice. They're wallowing in self pity and just want to just want to 319 00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:58.080 dive down into this miserable echo chamber and have other people join them because misery loves 320 00:36:58.080 --> 00:37:04.880 company. Don't play with this thing. Resist. And let me just for some of you warn you, I don't mean 321 00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:08.400 to be tacky, but some of you you need to hear it because you're still you're just seeing my 322 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:14.080 lips move. You don't know what I'm saying. I know what I'm talking about. I was miserable. 323 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:21.760 And then I was lonely and God brought me this angel and gave us two healthy kids. And then he blessed 324 00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:28.240 me. And when I say he blessed me, I don't mean the church gave me increases and raises. I invested 325 00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:34.080 and I got into Bitcoin. What I thought I was coming into late looks like it was still early. 326 00:37:34.080 --> 00:37:39.360 And he transformed my life. And by the way, the my back is coming in two weeks. Those Germans 327 00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:46.480 slow down. Amen. The Germans, you know, known for their efficiency. They lagged a little bit or 328 00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:56.080 demand is real high coming a month late. But in two weeks. Hallelujah. What I'm saying, why I say 329 00:37:56.080 --> 00:38:01.600 that is he promised he'd make it up to me. And he made it up to me. And a lot of those guys that 330 00:38:01.600 --> 00:38:06.400 came in with six figure in some cases, seven figure funding. I don't revel in this, but it's a 331 00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:12.960 reality. They're nowhere to be found. They're not around. They blew in, blew up and blew out. 332 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:19.840 Their churches are gone. And a few of them that were left as soon as COVID hit back to Texas, 333 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:26.960 back to Florida. Gonzo. The Lord made it up to me. Why am I saying this? Because he's going to make 334 00:38:26.960 --> 00:38:34.880 it up to you. He'll make it up to you. If you keep hanging on, just don't quit. Quitting is a 335 00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:42.160 permanent solution to a temporary problem. Well, let's look at Psalm 34 verses one through four. 336 00:38:44.640 --> 00:38:50.000 Thank you, Jesus. I was raised in a church 337 00:38:50.960 --> 00:39:03.920 where I got saved. 1992, Bedstuy, Brooklyn. Bishop Jones was my pastor and the church was a 338 00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:13.440 cool J.C. C-O-O-L-J.C. Church of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic faith. I'm grateful for 339 00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:18.080 that church. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit at that church. I got saved at that church. I got 340 00:39:18.080 --> 00:39:22.720 water. I was discipled at that church. Some of you I'm telling you today, they're very, very 341 00:39:22.720 --> 00:39:28.080 strict. It's a hole that you wouldn't like that church. You'd call them uptight. Woman have to 342 00:39:28.080 --> 00:39:35.680 wear a head covering. Get the chandeliers out your ears. That kind of stuff. Yeah. No pants for 343 00:39:35.680 --> 00:39:43.600 the ladies. But I will say this. They knew how to praise God. A lot of churches today 344 00:39:43.600 --> 00:39:51.280 they know how to laser and mirror and fog God to all the height. They don't know how to praise God. 345 00:39:52.160 --> 00:39:56.400 But over there there'd be two drummers and one cowbell and the whole place you were up to praise. 346 00:39:57.200 --> 00:40:03.040 500 people. Hallelujah. I mean, it was just like pastor would be preaching and say, Hallelujah. 347 00:40:03.040 --> 00:40:09.600 Oh, 500 people. Hallelujah. People twirling and dancing and then you how to praise God and what 348 00:40:09.600 --> 00:40:16.800 that helped me was I remember one time I came in with my sulking sulking and right away the usher 349 00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:22.480 lady, one of the mothers of the church and they would ask you this question, have you been praising 350 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:28.000 the Lord today? No, actually, I haven't. I've been reveling in self-pity and enjoying feeling 351 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:36.800 miserable. The key to changing your life is praising the Lord. You got to praise him. 352 00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:44.960 If Nick Vuechich can praise him, you can praise him. The lie is always that you're different, 353 00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:52.080 that your situation is too dire. Oh, poor me. Oh, this always happens to me. If you agree with that 354 00:40:52.080 --> 00:40:57.840 spirit, if you open yourself up to it, you make a contract with a covenant with it. Now you're 355 00:40:57.840 --> 00:41:03.040 tied to it. You're yoked together with it and it just brings more misery to your life. 356 00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:09.920 Snap out of it for your own sake. Say, first let me start. Let me start with salvation. Thank you 357 00:41:09.920 --> 00:41:14.880 Jesus that I am saved. There are people that are going to spend eternity in hell. I didn't do 358 00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:20.720 anything to deserve to get saved, but I said yes. And even you touched my heart and opened my heart 359 00:41:20.720 --> 00:41:26.640 so that I even could say yes to everlasting life. Thank you for that. Thank you for a new day. 360 00:41:26.640 --> 00:41:32.400 Thank you that my story hasn't been written. Thank you that you can do anything. Anything, 361 00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:38.160 you can change my life. Boom like this. And I open myself to that Lord. Oh, God, you're so 362 00:41:38.160 --> 00:41:48.640 God. I'm getting. Hallelujah. You got to praise him. I hope your eyes are open to that pity. 363 00:41:48.640 --> 00:41:53.840 And you'll find there are some people they want pity. They'll actually start conversations and 364 00:41:53.840 --> 00:42:01.840 angle them in a way to get. Oh, and then they're trying to get that same hit like from the initial 365 00:42:01.840 --> 00:42:10.560 hit. Are you giving me pity? I'm hungry. Can you have a little more? And we teach our kids. 366 00:42:11.360 --> 00:42:13.440 No, you're not going to you're not going to you're not going to 367 00:42:15.120 --> 00:42:22.080 sell yourself pity. And like moms have to be careful because moms are so compassionate. And 368 00:42:22.080 --> 00:42:26.640 there's there's so much empathy. You know, sympathies. I know how you feel. Empathies. I feel how 369 00:42:26.640 --> 00:42:31.920 you feel. They'll go right in there. But if you're not careful, every time you feed a kid a cookie, 370 00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:38.080 when they have a little boo boo, they're going to grow up to be man children who just want pity. 371 00:42:38.080 --> 00:42:42.960 Every time they get hurt, well, I scuffed my knee. I don't get to go to school today. I want 372 00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:46.480 ice cream on the couch because that's great. My knee as an adult. Are you getting this? 373 00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:57.040 Silence just means they're either processing it or they're like, wow, he's totally describing 374 00:42:57.040 --> 00:43:04.800 my life or my sister's life or something. There's two girls in this church. Their parents are 375 00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:11.280 actually here in the front row. Erica's girl, just raise your hand Erica, your girl Lauren. 376 00:43:11.840 --> 00:43:18.720 And then where did your wife go? She's in the front. She's there's just something. Wherever she is, 377 00:43:18.720 --> 00:43:25.760 may you be blessed. And you don't have to please don't get up. Go under the power you go. In Jesus' name. 378 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:35.440 And the changs who raised Kate, I immediately took notice of their daughters because we have 379 00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:43.280 such young kids and their daughters are so just beautiful outwardly, but on the inside. 380 00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:49.280 They're walk with the Lord is incredible. And what's what really what I realized right when I met 381 00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:54.400 them, they don't even smell like the world at all. They're like aliens, but in the best possible. 382 00:43:54.400 --> 00:43:59.040 Not weird Christians, but they don't even look like the world smell like there's not that yuck 383 00:43:59.040 --> 00:44:03.840 of the world on them. They're amazing. They're respectful. They're anointed. They're gifted. They're 384 00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:10.560 beautiful. It's just glorious God radiating out of them. So I, you know, I come by eye. In fact, 385 00:44:10.560 --> 00:44:15.120 I remember one time, you know, I was going to we were doing that life group that you think and 386 00:44:15.120 --> 00:44:18.080 your daughter didn't show up. And I just said to she okay and you were like, I'm going to you were 387 00:44:18.080 --> 00:44:22.960 going to get on her because you were just concerned maybe she was slacking in a little bit of way. 388 00:44:23.040 --> 00:44:31.120 So what I learned was in order to produce these kinds of adults, you cannot 389 00:44:33.200 --> 00:44:39.920 cuddle, you cannot allow them to wallow and self-pity. These parents, they surround with a lot of 390 00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:46.800 love, surround with a lot of affirmation, and also they don't play. They don't play. 391 00:44:48.720 --> 00:44:52.320 There is a standard and I'm going to love you. I'm going to give you everything you need, 392 00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:58.720 but I don't know why this is the quietest it's been, but this is what this is what culture needs to 393 00:44:58.720 --> 00:45:07.440 hear. This is why if you, if you have a whole nation of man children, no one your country will go 394 00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:16.800 downhill. But you get, you get girls to grow up into women and boys to grow up into men. Amen. 395 00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:21.760 And then they put the Lord first, you actually get prosperous, fruitful families multiplying 396 00:45:21.760 --> 00:45:26.320 and it goes into the city, it goes into the state, it goes into the whole nation. Amen. 397 00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:34.400 All right, Psalms 341. Hey, did you put what the Bible says, how the Bible announces it because it's, 398 00:45:34.400 --> 00:45:43.280 I like it. Because here's David, the happiness of those who trust in God, David, the guy who didn't 399 00:45:43.280 --> 00:45:55.760 yield to self-pity. Before, before he, the other instance I mentioned where he encouraged 400 00:45:55.760 --> 00:46:02.800 himself in the Lord, he was on the run and he ends up face to face with the king of gath. 401 00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:09.040 You know who the king of gath is? That's Goliath's king, king of Bimilek. And he knows he's toast 402 00:46:09.120 --> 00:46:16.960 or as my son would say he's cooked. So he pretends to be insane. This is the future king. 403 00:46:16.960 --> 00:46:22.000 He pretends to be insane. He starts drooling, scratching at the dirt, eating the grass, 404 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:27.920 acting like an imbecile. So they think he's crazy and he escapes. Where does he escape to? You 405 00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:37.200 guessed it, a cave, the basement of 1217 Street. He escapes to the cave. And then you know who he 406 00:46:37.200 --> 00:46:43.920 draws to himself? They later became his 400 mighty men. He draws the most discouraged, 407 00:46:43.920 --> 00:46:50.480 most destitute and most indebted men. Later they were called David's 400 mighty men. Right now 408 00:46:50.480 --> 00:46:58.560 they were David's 400 bombs. So David is at a low point in his life surrounded by 400 bombs. He 409 00:46:58.560 --> 00:47:09.440 himself is King Bum. And he writes these beautiful words. And this is why he receives such 410 00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:15.520 promotion from the Lord. This is why we're talking about him today. It's a heart attitude like this. 411 00:47:15.520 --> 00:47:24.240 He says, I will bless the Lord at all times. At all times. Do you know what's different 412 00:47:24.800 --> 00:47:31.760 between your praise now and your praise once you get to heaven? You have an opportunity to offer 413 00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:39.040 unique gift to God only on this side of heaven. Because once you get to heaven, you will praise him. 414 00:47:39.040 --> 00:47:44.400 You will worship him. But guess what? It'll be easy. You won't have distractions. You won't have 415 00:47:44.400 --> 00:47:50.800 this flesh to contend with. You won't have annoying thoughts and annoying thoughts. You'll be in 416 00:47:50.800 --> 00:47:57.520 heaven. But on earth you do have all those challenges, hurdles, obstacles. And when you still 417 00:47:57.520 --> 00:48:08.240 go hallelujah anyhow, it's extra sweet in the ears of God. Hallelujah. I will bless the Lord 418 00:48:08.240 --> 00:48:16.480 at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast 419 00:48:16.480 --> 00:48:24.080 and the Lord worship team. Come on up. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord 420 00:48:24.080 --> 00:48:30.960 with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me by the way. 421 00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:38.080 When he wrote this, the Lord hadn't heard him yet. But he wrote it in the past tense. You know 422 00:48:38.080 --> 00:48:43.040 who else did that? You'll see this throughout the Bible. Jonah, when he was swallowed, I did a great 423 00:48:43.040 --> 00:48:48.560 study on Jonah this week. Just for fun. Because it was his whole atheist thing. How could a whale swallow 424 00:48:48.560 --> 00:48:57.440 up? Man. And they're thinking of Shamu at SeaWorld. You know that original Hebrew word, first of all, 425 00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:03.440 in the Old Testament doesn't say, well, it says great fish. And that word in the Hebrew is more 426 00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:12.720 akin to sea monster. And it says that God had prepared a great sea creature to swallow Jonah. 427 00:49:12.720 --> 00:49:17.600 Do you know what that word prepared means? It's more akin to created. So this is where people 428 00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:22.720 are. I don't believe in the whole Bible. I do really believe that Jonah got swallowed. Yes. 429 00:49:23.520 --> 00:49:28.000 Because you're thinking that Shamu, the orca swallow the person and that's impossible. And you 430 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:32.880 actually look at the scriptures and is it too outlandish to believe that God created for that one 431 00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:38.240 soul moment in time for that purpose a giant sea creature to swallow Jonah. And actually, 432 00:49:38.240 --> 00:49:44.080 the language is pretty clear and pretty strong to that point. But Jonah, anyway, back to Jonah, 433 00:49:44.080 --> 00:49:52.560 Rabbi Trill. Jonah, while in the monster's belly, he said, I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. 434 00:49:53.200 --> 00:49:58.320 There is a past tense to God's word. See, if what you want from the Lord is always in the future, 435 00:49:58.320 --> 00:50:03.040 guess what'll always stay? He'll always stay in the future. So I keep chasing, you know, carrot on 436 00:50:03.040 --> 00:50:10.080 a stick. Faith says, I have it now. I have it now. You're believing for healing? By his stripes, 437 00:50:10.080 --> 00:50:16.480 I was healed. You're believing for blessing Ephesians 1, 3. I have been blessed, past tense, 438 00:50:16.480 --> 00:50:23.360 blessed did did did with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. 439 00:50:23.360 --> 00:50:30.080 I sought the Lord. He's in a cave. Nothing's changed. But he knows if he releases his faith, 440 00:50:30.080 --> 00:50:38.000 it's as good as done. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. 441 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:44.320 Can I get a hallelujah? Now listen, yeah. 442 00:50:44.320 --> 00:51:00.880 I took a plane flying less than once. Once. I jumped out of a plane too once. 443 00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:10.480 The reason why I didn't continue flying lessons was back then. It was too expensive. 444 00:51:11.440 --> 00:51:16.400 Then when the kiddies were born, I just thought I had a Harley too. The moment she showed me the 445 00:51:16.400 --> 00:51:20.960 little stick victor was coming. She's pregnant. I was like, we're going to rid of the Harley. 446 00:51:22.240 --> 00:51:28.320 It wasn't fear. I just want to minimize. Anyway, another thing. Like, you know what? Life is, 447 00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:34.720 I have enough risks, enough things that can take me out. I don't need a motorcycle story or 448 00:51:35.680 --> 00:51:42.240 skydiving story. But anyway, on a plane, there's this thing called an attitude meter. 449 00:51:43.600 --> 00:51:48.160 It's a positive attitude when the tip of the nose is above the horizon and then you ascend. 450 00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:53.360 And it's a negative attitude when it's below the horizon and then the plane descends. 451 00:51:54.240 --> 00:52:04.320 So the attitude determines the altitude. So it is with us. This isn't a cute, like, 452 00:52:04.320 --> 00:52:10.880 thing you would find in an inspirational poster in target. But truly, your attitude 453 00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:19.760 determines your altitude. You carve a path into your future with the thoughts that you think. 454 00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:30.240 Show that verse from Proverbs, please. This was not invented by some new age guru, new age mystic, 455 00:52:31.200 --> 00:52:37.200 positive, mental affirmation guy. They all stole it from the Bible. The Bible says as a man 456 00:52:37.200 --> 00:52:44.560 think it in his heart. So is he? That's why Satan wants you think if thing pour me. 457 00:52:45.920 --> 00:52:51.120 So this day decide what you're going to be think if thing. And dream with God. 458 00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:56.960 Dream with him. Let him fill you. Let him inspire you. 459 00:52:59.360 --> 00:53:03.760 Spend time with him and he'll whisper, sweet nothings with the still small voice 460 00:53:04.960 --> 00:53:11.920 and show you what he has prepared for you. So you can get your faith behind it. Hallelujah. 461 00:53:15.520 --> 00:53:18.720 Hallelujah. Here's what we're going to do right now. We're going to worship an honor 462 00:53:18.720 --> 00:53:23.440 of the Lord with our tithes and offerings. Let's do that. The giving information is going to be 463 00:53:23.440 --> 00:53:30.080 on the screens to my left and to my right. Give with a glad heart. And then we're just going to 464 00:53:30.080 --> 00:53:35.520 praise him for a little bit. Because praise is what breaks the back of self-pity. 465 00:53:39.200 --> 00:53:44.720 You know, when you when you it's a real funny spirit. And you know me, I don't just throw 466 00:53:44.720 --> 00:53:48.960 out the word spirit. Because to some Pentecostal Charismatics, everything's a spirit. This 467 00:53:48.960 --> 00:53:55.840 monitor goes off. It's the technology spirit is after me today. Electricity demons, you know. But 468 00:53:57.280 --> 00:54:04.800 self-pity self self-pity really is a spirit. And it makes you a low vibration person. 469 00:54:06.160 --> 00:54:10.560 You ever you ever hang with someone and then like you leave them after half an hour and you 470 00:54:10.560 --> 00:54:16.640 feel like the life was just sucked out of you. They soul-snatched you. When you're given over 471 00:54:16.640 --> 00:54:22.800 to self-pity that you're a giant black hole of vortex just sucking the life from people. 472 00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:30.560 Whatever you said back there, amen. Amen. 473 00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:42.000 Let's pray. Father in the name of Jesus, I thank you that you come. Even now with your 474 00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:51.360 anointing, say this church in Jesus name, I renounce self-pity. You are a good God. And you are 475 00:54:51.360 --> 00:55:00.480 good to me. Fill me with your strength. Fill me with your joy. I believe you're still at work 476 00:55:00.480 --> 00:55:10.560 in my life. And I believe the best is yet to come. And my end will be better than my beginning. 477 00:55:10.560 --> 00:55:16.720 In Jesus name, amen. Hallelujah. 478 00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:46.720 That you have been reminded how much God loves you. And that you are surrounded by grace. 479 00:55:47.440 --> 00:55:51.600 Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast 480 00:55:51.600 --> 00:55:58.000 wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.