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God is calling you higher, but you can't do anything about that.

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No, you can't.

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I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are,

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how much you sharpened your elbows and achieved on your own.

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You cannot achieve holiness on your own.

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It requires the grace of God.

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It requires strength from above.

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It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in.

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It's a heart transformation thing from the inside out, amen?

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Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast.

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Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

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If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

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that's citylightnyc.com.

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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit

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is already working in our hearts and minds.

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As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,

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that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

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It is so good to see you.

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I joked in the first service about the church within the church.

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Have you heard a theory in Revelation? There's a woman.

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She's running. She has a child.

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The woman being the church, but then she has a child.

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That's the church within a church.

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I've always suspected in any church there is a church within a church and you wonder who really is?

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The true church within the church, but on Memorial Day, we can you find out.

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Because the church is here and then the outside church is watching online.

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Just kidding. Just kidding.

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Hallelujah.

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Oh, thank you, worship team.

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Thank you so much.

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Sorry, I just turned around.

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They were all looking at me very intently.

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That was it, right?

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All right.

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For now, okay.

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Praise God.

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Hey, we got something awesome happening here.

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Next weekend, David Wagner is going to be with us.

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And he's going to be with us Friday night right here.

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There'll be no hopping to the little house in the prairie, secondary location.

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Saturday night, he's going to be with us here.

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And Sunday, he's going to be with us for two services.

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Make it a point to be in every one of those services.

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He is a prophet.

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You've never heard me call someone that.

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And you know why I call him that?

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Because he never calls himself that.

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No, he's never, ever called him that.

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He lets other people do it.

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So if you meet prophets so and so who has a colossal Facebook ministry,

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and you are skeptical, be skeptical, that's good.

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I mean, there's people who start off their conversations,

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announcing they're an apostle, they're a prophet.

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I immediately know.

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You are not exactly that, which you claim to be.

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Exactly what's on your business card that you got printed out for 39 cents at the kinkos.

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That's exactly what you're not.

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But David Wagner really is.

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And we've asked them to not just minister prophetically to you,

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but to teach on how the simple gift of prophecy works.

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And the simple gift of prophecy, something that every believer could operate in.

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We're supposed to be a prophetic people.

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Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come.

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That means we shouldn't be caught surprised.

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We shouldn't be caught unaware.

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The Holy Spirit goes before us and shows us what's around the corner.

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Nothing that's happening in my life right now is shocking.

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I had an inkling.

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I knew in my spirit.

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I could taste it.

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Then I could taste it even more.

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At first it was a blurry image.

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Then it's solidified even more.

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Then I would check back with the Lord and that would be even stronger.

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And then it would materialize.

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That's how the Lord leads us.

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One of the many ways he leads us and he guides us.

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So he's going to be teaching on that.

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So it's a wonderful time

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to learn how to hear from the Lord,

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because that actually is the number one statistically,

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the number one question that pastors have in this country.

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Maybe in other countries, but the survey was just for the United States.

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I reckon to say and venture to say it's the whole world.

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The number one question pastors get from congregants is,

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how can I know the will of God for myself?

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So really what's behind that is a cry and insecurity.

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I'm not sure that I hear from the Lord accurately.

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I'm not sure that I can touch into the spirit realm

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that I can touch on the prophetic accurately

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what we want you to be able to do it and do it right

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and do it accurately and prayerfully with minimal casualties.

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Amen.

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Because we can learn from our mistakes also.

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But we had him, it was 2019, was the last time he was here.

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And I had to get together.

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You know when I think about that, get together.

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I always think that that was one of your first times

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doing something city light related.

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And I have videos of that get together at our house.

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And good night, Heidi, you were a different person.

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You know, you didn't know what you were in for.

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You were brand new.

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You know, we have like 25 people jammed into our living room.

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Sean is on his guitar.

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David Wagner is ministering to people and

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I just, sorry, I just, what the Lord has done, huh?

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So if you ever see somebody sitting in a meeting like this,

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just know that that can happen shortly after.

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Amen.

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But anyway, he comes up to my wife and he starts

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prophesying something where immediately when he started,

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I thought, there he goes, I knew it.

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Don't trust these prophetic characters.

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They're going to mess you up.

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He was talking about something I had never considered before.

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It actually bothered me because he was prophesying over my wife

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and not me.

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And he started prophesying.

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He said, the Lord has a country home for you.

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And he has a, he said, he has a country home

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where you'll be able to garden.

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And he described it all.

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And he said, the Lord has a hideout from you for you.

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And I thought there's about 10 things

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that I really want from the Lord right now.

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And a country home is not even number 11.

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It's like number 72.

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I'm very happy in Brooklyn.

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And when people visit a country home usually,

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it's a weekend getaway.

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Well, my weekends are a little booked.

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So when, you know, I have kids who go to school,

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when will I visit this country?

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Home, I don't want one.

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The next year, in a matter of weeks, things change.

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And I find myself right in June of 2020,

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right when the real estate markets opened up again,

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getting at a bargain basement price,

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a country home.

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I wasn't even looking for one.

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It fell into our lap and get this.

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The community that it's in in Lake Aurel, Pennsylvania,

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in the Poconos is called the hideout.

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And it was a week afterwards.

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I'm like, why?

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And I listened because I recorded it.

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I listened to the prophetic word.

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And he said, the Lord has a hideout for you.

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Absolutely amazing.

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Razor sharp accuracy.

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Do not miss this next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

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Amen.

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And that's what I want my prophets to look like.

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Look at that.

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See a prophet with a beard, a dad shirt, a little bit of,

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that's the guy you can trust.

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And you don't want somebody in tight jeans,

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swirling a bow, looking all slick.

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No, that's my prophet right there.

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And then the week after that,

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we got a volunteer party.

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You can play that video in the background.

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Just to show that it's not bingo night.

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We've done volunteer parties all over the place.

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The last two times we rented,

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it's not fair to call it a boat.

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It's a little bit exaggerating to call it a yacht.

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But I think we can call it a barge.

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We got the love barge.

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That's not it.

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That's just our security detail.

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Floating beside us.

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And so this time we have for everybody

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who's a part of our helps ministry,

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everybody who's a volunteer,

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everybody who's a part of our helps ministry,

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everybody who's a volunteer.

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We have a rooftop overlooking Manhattan,

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right here in Astoria, slash Long Island City.

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Make it a part to be a that.

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You should have already received

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in many invitations and for you to confirm via email.

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If for some reason you have volunteered and you haven't,

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email info at citylightnyc.com.

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And we'll make sure you're a part of that.

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Party will have prizes, the NOVA award.

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That's our MVP championship award will be presented

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along with other awards.

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And we're just going to have a great time

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of fun, food, and fellowship.

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Sound good, church?

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Amen.

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Well, I want to minister to you a message

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called the measure.

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The measure in your hand.

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We started off 2025.

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And we're continuing in that same spirit.

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When we started off in 2025,

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the word of the Lord to us as a church was,

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this is a year of increase.

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Amen.

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This is a year of breakthrough.

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This is a year where the Lord is going to compound your efforts.

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This is a year where you're going to be able to look back and say,

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look what the Lord has done.

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Amen.

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A year of increase.

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A year of promotion.

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And just because it's the fastest month that ever was,

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May of 2025.

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Wasn't that the fastest month that ever was?

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Just started.

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We're going to be at the midway point.

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Do not lose the word of the Lord that was spoken over our church.

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Do not weaken its grip on you in your heart.

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That word will get you through.

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And so I want to minister along those lines

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so that we can all receive of everything that Jesus has for us.

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I found from studying the scriptures that God is very, very eager to bless his people.

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However, the problem isn't on heaven's end.

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It's on our end.

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It's on the earthly side in that we don't position ourselves

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and don't allow the necessary work of the Holy Spirit to take place in us

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so we can withstand the magnitude of his blessing.

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I mean, everybody says I can take the blessing until they get the blessing.

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That's why when you look at stats, for example, for lottery winners,

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many of you have seen the stats, within two years,

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they're not just as broke as they were before.

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They're broker, because they were given money

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so they can get into more debt now.

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So they actually end up even worse than how they started.

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What happened?

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Well, they didn't have the inner grid,

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the inner framework to carry that blessing.

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And the Lord wants to see you able to contain that blessing.

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We were taught in Bible school that the Lord is not in the habit of giving bazooka's

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missile launchers, not bubblegum, bazooka's, you know?

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Every kid wants a bazooka, every male kid.

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Right?

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My son would have loved a bazooka three years old, right?

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Look, he's not. He's like, yeah, but what you got was a supersoaker instead.

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I can't give him bazooka.

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Why? He'll blow himself out of the water.

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Maybe later, one day in his life, with proper training.

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You're going on a different course than that, but maybe.

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But some people, they want the Lord to give him a bazooka and they're actually just three years old.

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And there is a growth process.

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And I want to touch on some important things that the Lord is keeping an eye on in us,

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that he wants to change in us so that we could catch what he's pitching.

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Amen. So we can receive what he's wanting to give.

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Hallelujah. And by the way, none of these things that I'm going to list,

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none of those things should you listen to and go, oh, I need to go work on that.

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Change is not going to come from you trying, trying really hard.

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Change comes from you.

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Number one, yes, recognizing there's a discrepancy in your life versus what the word of God

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is calling you to. The word of God is calling you higher.

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But you can't do anything about that. No, you can't.

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I don't care how tough you are, how ambitious you are, how much you've sharpened your elbows

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and achieved on your own. You cannot achieve holiness on your own.

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It requires the grace of God. It requires strength from above.

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It's not a behavioral modification thing from the outside in.

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It's a heart transformation thing from the inside out. Amen.

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So the answer, if you don't measure up to any of these things, the answer isn't,

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what should I do? It's who? And the answer to who is always Jesus.

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He's the one who's going to do it in our lives, spending time with him, looking to him,

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drawing for him. That works the transformation, but from the inside out.

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First Corinthians 4.2.

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Moreover, it is required in stewards. That's what we are.

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Stewards. What's a steward? Well, they come by the aisle and offer you peanuts and coke, right?

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And no, a steward. Are you even allowed to say steward, stewardess anymore?

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A steward is someone who manages something for someone else.

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And that's what we are. We're stewards of the gifts of God, of the provisions of God.

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And so much of the Bible begins to make sense and how the Lord increases people

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when you actually see that the Lord will only give you how much you can handle and the Lord wants

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to see that He can trust you. When He can trust you, then He'll give you more. And when you've

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been faithful in a little, He'll make you ruler over much. I feel like I'm hidden a little bit

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of a wall. I don't know if it's the moral day weekend wall or something, but maybe we need to

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rewind and just establish some basics first, all right? You ready? God, good, devil bad.

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Because I'm talking about abundance and increase here. And some of you look like you got your

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mind on Memorial Day brunch already. Let's just align right now, okay? Picture two fields with me.

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One field is green and lush and fruitful, just abundant with fruit. And then there's another field

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and it's dusty and the ground is compacted and fallow and there's nothing but thorns and

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bristles on that ground. Which ground belongs to God? The first one, okay, just want to make sure

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we're all at the same place. Some people over spiritualize the dusty ground and they might say,

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oh, but you know, maybe the Lord is teaching the dirt a lesson with all those, or no, that's a

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forsaken ground, amen? That's a cursed ground. God could still come and make dead bones live,

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but which ground reflects the nature of God? It's the lush ground, the abundant ground, the fruitful

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ground, because that's his way. That's his very nature. So God is a God of growth. God is not a God

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of stagnation. God is a God of increase. God is a God that's moving you somewhere. There are

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seasons, seasons. This shouldn't be your life, but there are seasons when you're waiting,

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when you're in between God's waves. Have fun in between his waves and make sure you don't create

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your own waves in between his waves. And get ready for the next wave.

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But know that he has increased mind it. And I'm saying that because there is a lot of

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cope in the church world, because people won't receive from heaven. And then they'll make

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up a theology for their inability to receive. And they'll spiritualize themselves as they're a

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dead fish floating downstream. There's no spiritualizing that. Oh, Lord. Thank you, Lord. There's

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nothing more depressing than get four Christians whose life is going nowhere. And they know

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enough of the Bible just enough to be dangerous. And get those four in the room talking about

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the goodness of God. And you quickly see a devolve into, but you know, God's will is past finding

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out. And he works in mysterious ways. And right now I got no love in my life. I got no money in

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my life. I got nothing in my life. My life's going nowhere. But you know, God, no. That doesn't sound

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like God at all. Hallelujah. And if that reflects your life, I'm not teasing you,

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but I'm coming against a mindset. See, this, you know what preaching is? It's a battle against

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a mindset. That's why you want preaching that's founded in the Word of God because the only thing

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that can dismantle a lie of false mindset is the Word of God that comes in like a sword and dashes

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that lie to pieces. Hallelujah. All right, here's 10 things that we as stewards need to show God

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where faithful and in 10 things that the Lord is watching to see if he can trust us with more.

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Number one, how you handle money, even small amounts of money. Now before I became a Christian,

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I thought that on this side you have God who's holy, who's just and on this side you have money,

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which is nothing but evil. And the two should never be discussed in the same breath. How many of you

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thought that way? I thought that way. You thought that way. Of course, that's how we were raised. And

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then I start reading the gospels and Jesus is always talking about money and he's always connecting

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it to the heart. There is in the scriptures a heart money connection. Jesus is saying how you

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handle filthy lucre, how you handle unrighteous man is indicative of what's happening on the inside.

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And if you're dishonest with money, you're dishonest on the inside. If you're stingy with money,

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that's the condition of your heart. And so how we handle money, God is actually keeping an eye on.

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How you handle your money, you might say, what do you mean? What's wrong with the way I handle money?

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I don't even have a lot of money. So it's not like I'm even handling money. It just seems to go

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right by me. What is the Lord looking for? Well, he's looking for how you manage what you've been

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given. Do you tie on your increase? What he has given you? Do you honor him with the first?

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Are you helping relieve suffering in any way right now with what little you have?

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Or are you of that mentality that one day you'll give one day when your ship comes in?

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You know how many times I've heard that one day? That day never comes. If you're not giving with

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a little, you won't be giving with them much. If you're waiting for your ship to come in,

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but you've never sent any ships out, you're going to be waiting on those docks a very long time.

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No ship is coming in because you never sent any out. I remember just to give you, here's my mom

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as a witness. All right, you remember that first Sunday going to City Light Church. I hope you don't

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mind me because right now front row in front of everybody. All right, but just raise your hand if

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this is true. Remember I had that whole Costco? I had your granny cart and I had her granny cart

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load. You know how many people were on staff at City Light? Zero. Just me as a volunteer pastor and

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I have a granny cart loaded up with Costco stuff and it was the church's first purchase. The church

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has just just became a non-for-profit and it was going to be our first service and the church

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bank account was open and then the church got a Costco cart and the church loaded up this granny

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cart and my mom wasn't really even paying attention, but as I'm taking it into the church,

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she needed paper towels, bounty towels, and we had a big case of them. It's, oh, here's one and

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you took it out, right? Just raise your hand so they know I'm not lying. And I, and I, she wasn't,

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she just, she's a mom. She thought paper towels, me, need paper towels, here's paper towels,

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and I went, no! She was like, why? They're the church's paper towels. You can't use them for your

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home. The church bought those, she's laughing. Because in our culture, in our country, then none of

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that would even be considered. You know, in a lot of other countries also, be careful when you

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give overseas because when the pastor says, give to my church, what he actually means is me,

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because I ask, okay, show me the church bank account. Well, here's my account. No, the church

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is bank account. Well, here's my account. No, you're you, your Bob. And the church is something else.

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Why are you not making any distinction or barrier between the two? That's a problem.

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And when you start compromising in the little, you'll eventually end up compromising with the

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much. So right away, we laid out a thing. I'm not, if I need tissues, I'm not accidentally letting

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this drop into my briefcase. Amen. The Lord looks at that stuff. He looks at how honest you are

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and the little things and how you handle money, how you give. You cannot be contending for abundance

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and prosperity if you skim off the top in any area. I mean, how crazy is that? And how crazy with

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that be to be a tither and someone who gives offerings and then still skim off the top. You talk

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about a walking contradiction. God sees right through that. Number two. Oh, Lord, you know,

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I'm just, because you often don't hear this stuff when it comes to teaching on God's abundance and

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prosperity. It's usually presented in a way where it very little depends on you except to give and

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believe. God's going to make it right. The choir behind me is going, he's going to make it right.

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And I'm just saying, just believe and give, give till it hurts and God's going to make it.

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No, there is a little nuance to that. Yes, giving very important faith, very, very important.

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But some adjustments on the inside have to take place because God loves you too much to blow you

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out of the water. He's looking at you, how you speak your tone, your honesty, your idle words. Matthew

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1237, Jesus says, for by your words, you will be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned.

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That means being honest, not exaggerating. Christians, especially in ministry land, can be big time

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exaggerators. You know, how many times some pastor will say, our church is 2,000 people and I go

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where are they? If it's, you left off a zero. Pastors are infamous. They're always speaking

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pastorally. What happened in the past? That would be like me today going, you know, we got six

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weekend services and four locations and what you did pre 2020, but that's now in the past. I can't

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reference those things pastorally. Evangelists even worse. They speak evangelistically.

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Everything. Anytime I hear an evangelist, unfortunately, now I have to subtract 90% from whatever

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number they're talking about. And that's why when you find an honest, integrity, sincere evangelist,

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they're like, what a breath of fresh air. This doesn't help anybody exaggerating like that. It

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actually just brings down the IQ of the entire room and then causes us all to try to believe a lie

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together. So it's like I can't do it. This is how cult start. We're all going to just pretend

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that thing happened. It didn't happen. And what? Got an evangelist colleague, let's call him.

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He was given a jet. Legitimate. I know I said that like it just happened and just had it.

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That actually is an uncommon thing. He needed it and he was given a seven million dollar jet. Isn't that

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awesome? And the person paid for fuel, you know, sometimes to put that thing up into the skies just

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25,000. And the Lord provided and it was a wonderful story of God's abundance. And by the way,

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if you're bothered, this is crazy to me. Some people you can feel it in the room because I said

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evangelist and jet in the same sentence. If you're bothered by that, I hope you get just as

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bothered when you watch the Kardashians take off in their jet. When you watch your favorite hip hop

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artist on his job, I hope you really get bothered. I hope you get upset. Because why would you get

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upset? I want to not the other. He was given a jet. But then there was this other evangelist who

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the next week, he announces on social media, we were given a jet. I go, huh? So I did a little bit

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deeper. Turns out he got busted. He wasn't given a jet. He leased a jet. And they confront him

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and said, but you said you were given it. Well, you know, like we used our money and we gave it to

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them and they gave us the jet as a, no. You smoke and mirrors lying. Who are you helping this way?

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Nobody. You're actually just, you're bringing them the perception in the eyes of the world. The

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world is watching. And you're failing right in front of them. Don't tell me you care about souls

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and care about winning the lost when you're publicly over and over again lying. I'm not lying. Yes,

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you are. You're not bending the truth. You're not slightly misrepresenting to get people in a

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place of faith. You're lying and it's hurting people, not helping people. Amen. Our speech should

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always be seasoned with grace. Number three, here's what the Lord is looking for. How you treat

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people that cannot benefit you at all. How you treat people that cannot benefit you at all. And

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do you have any people who can't benefit you at all in your life? Do you? If you don't have anyone

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in your life right now that you don't need whatsoever, you're missing it. You got to have several

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people in your life that can't reward you at all. Look at Jesus. He says, when you've done it,

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whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me. So from the beginning,

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because I was a bit of a misfit, I didn't really fit in anywhere when I got saved. And I noticed

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the Christians really just loved me for me even though I couldn't do anything for them. And we

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were all a bunch of misfits. It was an Asian ministry in the second floor of a church and bedstie.

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That's odd right there in 1992. And we were getting saved. Youth was getting saved all over the place.

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And we all really loved each other and cared for each other. And so I learned at 16 and it went

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my entire life. At any given point, I had several people in my life who were like outcasts or

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misfits or had nothing going for themselves. The whole purpose was so that I could be Christlike

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and just give to them knowing that I could never really receive anything back from them. My reward

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would be from heaven. The Lord loves that. The main advice you get today though, from seminars,

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because I don't know if you've noticed, but everybody's doing seminars on how to make money,

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because the number one way to make money is throwing seminars on how to make money.

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Everybody's got a seminar. And they'll always tell you things like, hey, be careful with your time,

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only connect and network with people who can lift you up. You know, you hear all different stats,

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right? Your net worth will most closely resemble five people you spend the most time with.

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So get rid of those losers and start hanging out with seven figure people. And there's just one

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problem with that. It's mathematically impossible. If everybody is only close with people who can pull

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them up, well, something's missing in that equation, right? You've got to have people that you can

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pull up hoping for nothing in return from them. And the Lord will reward you plentifully. But I

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encourage you right now have said, there should be no lonely people. I've tried, can I tell you a

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secret? I've tried to help some lonely people in the church and it's different reasons for it,

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but really when I uncover, when I pop the hood, and I said, you know, why don't you hang out with

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someone so? And really what comes out is, well, I really want someone cooler than that as a friend,

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I really, and someone actually even just recently said this to me and said, well, I feel like I'm

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not successful. I can't be seen with someone like me. I want somebody higher than me. No, that's not

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how it works. You're a nerd. Find someone even nerder than you. And love them. And care for them.

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Be kind to them. And forget about you for a moment. And then watch what happens in a short while

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what the Lord will do for you. Hallelujah. Amen.

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Number four, how you use your time, Ephesians 5, 15, see then that you walk circumspeckly,

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redeeming the time that means making the most of the day because the days are evil. Most people

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greatly overestimate how much they can get done in a month. That ever happened to you by next

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month. I'll XYZ and they never happened because we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in

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a month, but we severely underestimate what we can accomplish in a year. And when we show

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consistency every single day. And guess what? We have more time now than ever before. And it's

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the opposite of what you hear. You usually hear that you have no time and everybody's so busy.

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It used to take 90 man hours to run a house. Today takes five, 100 years ago, 90 man hours.

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Just to do the laundry. I'm not even going to talk about how they used to do laundry because I

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get so exhausted and depressed talking about it. Baking bread. You don't even have to go

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in shopping. And I remember my Saturdays with you, mom. My Saturdays were spent half the day

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was spent waiting online. I almost never wait online now. You don't have to. Your favorite place

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to eat, you can put your order and via app and just pick it up. So the time that we actually

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have to spend on mundane things has decreased in our free time. No matter what you may think,

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the reality is we have more free time as a people than ever before. And so God wants an account

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of that time. And it's this weird paradox because we have more free time than before, but it eludes

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us and it evades us and we mismanage it. So we feel like we're constantly busy, but we're

441
00:31:33.280 --> 00:31:39.680
actually nowhere near as busy as a few generations ago. And so I encourage you to submit your time

442
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:43.600
to the Lord. You say, how do I know when I'm wasting my time? How you know almost anything? You're

443
00:31:43.600 --> 00:31:47.760
in relationship with the Lord. I'm not preaching an intellectual sermon here. I'm preaching to your

444
00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:52.720
spirit. You know, when you're spending time with the Lord and you're inviting him into your life,

445
00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:58.400
you should know. Like this summer, we normally, my family and I, we go away for the summer. I take

446
00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:03.680
them to Montenegro. And I love taking them to Montenegro because then my mom comes to Montenegro

447
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:08.880
that I can pawn my kids off to mom and then take my wife and you can use Montenegro as a base of

448
00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:14.080
operations flying to Rome, flying to Vienna. It's like flying into Washington DC, you know? It's

449
00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:20.640
nothing once you're already there. And I started working on the same plan and I just felt like, hmm,

450
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:27.440
I couldn't get the peace. When I tried to, in little ways, I tried to picture, normally I

451
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:32.800
picture family vacation time in July. I could see it like a movie vividly. I couldn't see it.

452
00:32:33.760 --> 00:32:40.640
Why, Lord? I just didn't, so I cancel the whole thing. We're not going. We're not going to be going.

453
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:47.360
I don't, why, why aren't you going? Because I really, really value the will of God. I really,

454
00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:53.760
really value only doing what I see him do and saying what I hear him do. And I'm very, very

455
00:32:53.760 --> 00:33:00.320
terrified of being outside of the will of God. The year Victor was born, he was two months old

456
00:33:00.320 --> 00:33:09.360
in 2014. I went off to Liberia, Africa in the middle of the Ebola epidemic. I never thought twice

457
00:33:09.360 --> 00:33:16.640
about it. I wasn't concerned for one second. Why? Because I knew the Lord wanted me there. I

458
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:22.080
knew that I knew. He led me from the inside out in my spirit. I knew I'd be okay. Never, ever

459
00:33:22.080 --> 00:33:26.640
concern me that I would pick something up and bring it back to my, at the time, two-month-old

460
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:32.000
baby boy to my wife. No, because the Lord was with me. But if I don't sense like he's going to be

461
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.720
with me, I don't even want to leave my house. Let alone go to a foreign country with foreign

462
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:41.760
spirits, foreign governments, foreign laws, no way. What's the same way with how you spend your

463
00:33:41.760 --> 00:33:47.440
time is what I'm getting at. If you're going in a particular direction and your peace is leaving

464
00:33:48.080 --> 00:33:52.400
you and you don't sense the satisfaction of the Lord, then it may be time to go back to the

465
00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:56.560
drawing board with the Lord and say, Lord, how can I adjust the way I'm spending my time? There

466
00:33:56.560 --> 00:34:02.160
could be a more fruitful way. And then when you submit your time to him, he will double it and

467
00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:08.480
triple it and compound your efforts so that you can put an hour's work in and it feels like you've

468
00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:15.440
put in a hundred hours of work in. Come on, shout amen if you believe it. Hallelujah.

469
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:25.280
Number five, God is watching this. How you respond to correction.

470
00:34:28.560 --> 00:34:39.920
And the verse is Proverbs 12-1. That's it. Look it up in Proverbs 12-1. I just

471
00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:47.760
chopped off a few of the words before that, but that's an unedited meat of the verse right there.

472
00:34:48.720 --> 00:34:56.720
He who hates correction is stupid. Welcome to City Light Church. If this is your first time,

473
00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:07.920
so glad you could join us. You should have people in your life that can bring loving correction to

474
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:12.640
you. You should have people in your life that maybe have hard time with the loving part, but

475
00:35:12.640 --> 00:35:17.680
nevertheless still bring correction to you because the Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend.

476
00:35:18.560 --> 00:35:24.640
I found earlier in my life as a Christian, no correction was good correction. And I would say

477
00:35:24.640 --> 00:35:29.440
things like, well, it wasn't what they said. It was how they said it. Then God would send me

478
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:37.600
someone who said it just perfectly and I still didn't like it. You want the gift of correction

479
00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:44.000
to be presented with three bows. And it's a present with three bows and you go, what, no glitter sprinkled

480
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.480
on top of the bows. None of those bells hanging off. It doesn't matter what form it comes in, but always

481
00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:56.960
heed correction, especially when it's somebody that's in relationship with you, that knows you,

482
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:02.640
that knows your life trajectory, that knows your goals, your ambitions, somebody who's in spiritual

483
00:36:02.640 --> 00:36:07.360
authority over you. And they correct. I do very little correcting. Actually, I do a lot of

484
00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:13.680
correcting. 99% of it is right now. It's while I'm preaching. Very little outside of this.

485
00:36:13.680 --> 00:36:19.920
But when I do, I found that somebody could be sweet as pie for years until you correct them.

486
00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:25.200
And then the real person comes out, oftentimes gnashing at you with their teeth.

487
00:36:26.160 --> 00:36:32.400
Do you think I'd ever correct you because I'm bored? I just need to fill up the day a little bit.

488
00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:38.240
I'm not getting enough drama. I need to spice things up by just randomly correcting you. Trust me.

489
00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:43.600
That's something I need to do. It's something that I'm compelled to do if I ever do it by the Lord.

490
00:36:43.600 --> 00:36:51.120
I would pay attention to that. My pastor to this day, he can speak correction into my life.

491
00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:55.440
Not even knowing all the facts. I'll immediately stop and go,

492
00:36:56.080 --> 00:37:00.320
let me just without any prejudice, let me receive everything he's saying.

493
00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:10.960
In the multitude of counselors, the Bible says there is safety. What I found is people will

494
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:16.640
set their whole life up so that they're never ever corrected. They will organize their whole

495
00:37:16.640 --> 00:37:22.800
friend circle so that they're never ever challenged, never ever corrected. People won't stay and

496
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:27.520
really plug into a church because they're afraid. Eventually, they'll be known. Accountability will

497
00:37:27.520 --> 00:37:32.560
be required and they may be corrected and they just can't handle that. I'm sorry that you went

498
00:37:32.560 --> 00:37:37.680
through such a traumatic time, truly as a child, whatever brought you to this place where you didn't

499
00:37:37.680 --> 00:37:42.320
get enough love mixed in with the correction. And now as soon as someone corrects you, there you're

500
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:49.520
dead. That's a you problem. That's something you've got to go before the Lord because I have never

501
00:37:49.520 --> 00:37:53.920
known. I've seen a play out in Bible school. You could learn a lot in Bible school. There were 300

502
00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:00.400
of us when we started out. And I've never seen those that couldn't be corrected. None of them ever,

503
00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:03.680
ever went anywhere in ministry. Ever. Not one example.

504
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:17.440
It feels so Catholic in here. I might start chanting and Latin any moment now.

505
00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:28.560
It's quiet. I can receive correction better than you can.

506
00:38:34.240 --> 00:38:42.880
Number six. God is keeping an eye so he can trust you with more. Looking at number six,

507
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:54.800
what you do when no one is watching. Matthew 6.4 says your father who sees in secret will himself

508
00:38:54.800 --> 00:39:05.760
reward you openly. So you can actually have fun doing things and not telling a single person about

509
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:13.120
them. Like back in the day, we would go out and we would just buy the homeless sandwiches back

510
00:39:13.120 --> 00:39:18.320
and really when we first got saved as teenagers. We're sorry. Friday night. We have our youth

511
00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:22.160
meeting Saturday night. We're all going out and we would go to Penn station. Penn station in the

512
00:39:22.160 --> 00:39:27.920
90s was wall to wall. You think it's bad now. Anybody who's really been in NYC from the early 90s?

513
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:33.840
You know no matter how bad they say New York is, this is paradise compared to the 80s and early 90s.

514
00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:38.720
It was wall to wall homeless people and we would just do it and then never ever mention it again.

515
00:39:38.720 --> 00:39:43.840
Today, what do you get? Somebody buys a homeless person a cup of coffee and they quickly come around

516
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:47.840
and they take the selfie to document what happened and tell everybody about it.

517
00:39:49.680 --> 00:39:57.520
There is a reward that only comes when you don't tell anyone and Jesus said if you tell people

518
00:39:58.240 --> 00:40:04.400
then you're going to get your reward which is the praises of people, a data boy, a little like,

519
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:11.680
a little comment that goes wow and you feel better but that thing is fading. It's gone after five

520
00:40:11.680 --> 00:40:16.560
seconds. You know what doesn't fade after five seconds? The blessing of the Lord, the one who sees

521
00:40:16.560 --> 00:40:23.840
in secret and then rewards you openly. Hallelujah. Do some things in secret. You know what we used to

522
00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:29.760
have in city light, it was like a wave, this angel giving thing where people would just through

523
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:34.320
life groups and through time would find out what someone else may want and just order it on Amazon

524
00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:39.040
for them anonymously. It's also a great way to get somebody's number in address.

525
00:40:41.600 --> 00:40:45.040
I just got finished doing a wedding in Puerto Rico. I want to do more weddings.

526
00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:52.800
See, the Lord bring more marriages and weddings and cross pollination from the left side of the

527
00:40:52.800 --> 00:41:00.160
room to the right side of the room. But doing things in secret, surprising people giving,

528
00:41:01.040 --> 00:41:06.400
it actually puts you in a place where you have to believe God and at city light we have a phenomenal

529
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:13.520
tithing rate. You never get a call from me and there's no wall of remembrance that quickly becomes

530
00:41:13.520 --> 00:41:18.800
a wall of forgetfulness where your family's last name is etched in. There's none of that really

531
00:41:18.800 --> 00:41:25.040
and we did that by design not because we're lackadaisical but by design because it actually keeps

532
00:41:25.040 --> 00:41:29.840
all of our heart motives pure. You're not giving to a church, you're not giving to a person,

533
00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:35.280
you're giving to the Lord and your reward is from the Lord. Amen. That's why it's so beautiful

534
00:41:35.280 --> 00:41:40.480
when you have people who've been tithing for years. They don't get a data boy in the natural.

535
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:45.760
They don't. They never get a call from anybody on staff or we never have a party in their honor.

536
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:51.520
People who are the top 10 givers, never oh, just want to say thank you back. It's exclusively

537
00:41:51.520 --> 00:41:56.800
between them and the Lord and I find that the best harvest is when it's that way. Amen. Keeps our

538
00:41:56.800 --> 00:42:05.600
motives pure. Oh, you're going to love number seven. Show number seven, ding, ding, ding,

539
00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:14.320
how you manage sexual purity. I realized in the first service I got ahead of myself way

540
00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:22.000
quickly and I need to start at a baseline by first saying and this may shock you. There is such a

541
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:30.560
thing as sexual purity that actually exists. It's a thing and you got to be alive in a time where

542
00:42:30.560 --> 00:42:36.240
the majority of culture communicated to you that there actually is no guideline for sexual purity.

543
00:42:36.240 --> 00:42:41.200
There is no whatever you're into that's fine. Don't judge. You know, the greatest sin

544
00:42:41.200 --> 00:42:46.720
became judging, taking the whole verse completely out of context. You want to pretend you're such

545
00:42:46.720 --> 00:42:51.760
and such a person and do such and such things with I don't judge. Yeah, maybe you should.

546
00:42:54.880 --> 00:43:00.000
Because it's a perversion and that's what's been trying to get erased from our language that

547
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:05.680
anything is a perversion. Oh, no, you don't understand. You don't understand my journey. How could

548
00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:13.440
you judge me? I do. Your journey is nasty. I do. And whatever it is, you're trying to work out in

549
00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:17.600
your own mind. You know, up until five minutes ago, we had a word for that. It was called sick.

550
00:43:20.320 --> 00:43:25.120
So you struggle with perversion. You need to acknowledge that. What is a perversion? What is

551
00:43:25.120 --> 00:43:30.240
something that's perverted? The word perverted means distorted. Like when you look at yourself in

552
00:43:30.240 --> 00:43:35.440
a fun house mirror and one arm is three times the length of another one. That's a perverted image

553
00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:43.040
of yourself. Sexual perversion is engaging in sexual activities in a way that God has an ordained

554
00:43:43.040 --> 00:43:48.960
and that is outside of his boundaries. And why does God set these guidelines up? You know why?

555
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:55.280
Because he's really creepy and just wants to get in your business. And if he sees you having fun,

556
00:43:55.280 --> 00:44:03.360
he just wants to put the kabasha on that. That's how people think of God. That's not at all. It's

557
00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:09.200
that he understands what also all of humanity understood till about five minutes ago is that sex

558
00:44:09.200 --> 00:44:16.960
is not a natural act only. It is a deeply profound spiritual and supernatural act. And there is a

559
00:44:16.960 --> 00:44:22.480
transfer of spiritual energy. And you don't get to just wheel that in any way you want to. There

560
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:30.880
are boundaries. There are confines to that. Pagan cultures, even godless cultures understood

561
00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:36.400
that you know what you find whether it's in Latin America or in Africa or in Asia or in

562
00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:42.160
the Grecian area, the Roman area. You will always find temple prostitutes outside the temples. Why?

563
00:44:42.160 --> 00:44:48.480
Because it's the quickest way through sexual activity to spread spiritual energy, aka the demonic.

564
00:44:52.080 --> 00:44:55.920
So getting a little bit off track here, but I think I'm hitting bulls-eye for some people.

565
00:44:55.920 --> 00:45:02.800
So Satan, he really started to dilute that in the 60s and really, really put the cherry on top

566
00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:11.440
in the last 10-15 years as he wore down God's idea of sexual purity and replaced it with just pure

567
00:45:11.440 --> 00:45:15.760
hedonism where people are hurting themselves. And then they still can't realize that they're

568
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:23.200
hurting themselves. And a scientist who's an atheist will agree with the fact that sexual activity

569
00:45:23.200 --> 00:45:30.320
pairs and bonds you to someone. Both women and men release oxytocin and other chemicals

570
00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:37.040
that cause you to be bound to this person. But then you disengage and then you get bound with

571
00:45:37.040 --> 00:45:41.120
someone else and then disengage and then you get bound with someone else. And you rack up

572
00:45:41.120 --> 00:45:46.880
enough of those, guess what happens with that final person you settle down with and now your

573
00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:53.120
pair bonding is broken. And that's why at the first sign of trouble, they bounce, they leave.

574
00:45:53.120 --> 00:45:58.480
They do what they've always done which is onto the next one. It's really hurting people.

575
00:46:02.240 --> 00:46:07.200
It's the only sin that God tells you to flee from. Let's just look at that verse.

576
00:46:07.840 --> 00:46:18.080
Or do you not know? I mean, I'm not missing words because Paul's not

577
00:46:18.080 --> 00:46:22.960
missing words. That word that's always used in the Bible, Harlet. Do you know what that word

578
00:46:22.960 --> 00:46:26.880
would be today? I didn't. It's funny. I didn't want to say this in the first service. I felt

579
00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:32.400
a check but now that I'm, you know, I feel like, yeah, say it so that's recorded forever.

580
00:46:35.520 --> 00:46:44.560
The word would be a hoe. It's a hoe. Like, I'm not allowed to say that word but that's the word,

581
00:46:44.560 --> 00:46:52.160
Harlet. Do you not know that he who was joined to a hoe is one body with her?

582
00:46:52.960 --> 00:47:04.240
For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. Two will become one. And he's specifically talking

583
00:47:04.240 --> 00:47:09.680
to the Corinthian church that had these temple prostitutes outside and Christians,

584
00:47:10.240 --> 00:47:15.920
carnal Christians. Christians who were just, just newly saved. Christians who were living in one

585
00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:22.800
of the most carnal urban areas of the then world, very, very akin to New York City. A dense,

586
00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:30.720
densely populated, very, very multicultural, very, very diverse urban center. And you get a bunch

587
00:47:30.720 --> 00:47:37.440
of new Christians and they don't know the rules of engagement yet. And he says this, flee sexual

588
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:44.480
immorality. It's the only sin that the Bible tells you to flee from. That word flee in the Greek,

589
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:51.040
it means to run away from as if in terror. It's actually calling back to Joseph when he was

590
00:47:51.600 --> 00:47:55.280
in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife came to him, tried to seduce him and what did our

591
00:47:55.280 --> 00:48:01.920
boy Joseph do? He jumped out the window, fleets that I'm, I know where this is going to end me up.

592
00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:08.960
There's an old story, Jesse DePlanter tells about a woman trying to pick him up at the airport,

593
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:13.360
years ago. Do you know the story? Yeah, this woman flirts with her and picks him up,

594
00:48:13.360 --> 00:48:17.840
trying to pick him up at the airport. And Jesse's just being Jesse. He didn't know how to politely

595
00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:24.880
say no. He knew he had to flee lust. So he just went, whore of Babylon, whore of Babylon, whore of

596
00:48:24.880 --> 00:48:29.520
Babylon. And please note, he did not fall in sexual sin that day.

597
00:48:32.080 --> 00:48:39.840
Flee sexually immorality. Because you're hurting yourself every other sin.

598
00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:48.080
Don't you wish your teenage kids were here? Trust me, they'd appreciate this.

599
00:48:51.760 --> 00:48:56.000
I pray, you know what? I'm actually just serving it up to you the way it was served up to me.

600
00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:01.200
It really helped me. I've seen it served up other ways and you walk away confused and wondering

601
00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:05.680
what is he talking about? No, you're not going to be confused after today. You're going to know,

602
00:49:06.560 --> 00:49:08.560
you're going to know what I meant and what the Bible means.

603
00:49:11.120 --> 00:49:15.040
Here's what they told me when I was a kid. This one, this one they told accurately,

604
00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:20.560
the flower with the different, did I already say this it was at the first service?

605
00:49:20.560 --> 00:49:25.680
First service, the flower with the different petals on it. And that is you and that is your

606
00:49:25.680 --> 00:49:30.720
makeup, your soul, your spiritualness. You do actually have an energy and a life force.

607
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:36.000
I know it sounds new agey but it's true. And when you are sexually intimate with someone,

608
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.360
you give a pedal away to them. And when you're sexually intimate with someone else,

609
00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:44.160
you give a pedal away to them. And after a while you're going to run out of petals,

610
00:49:44.160 --> 00:49:47.840
you're just going to have a bare stem. And that's what's happening out there.

611
00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:52.320
There's some, you go on on some of these things, what are the kids up to now? I can't believe I'm

612
00:49:52.320 --> 00:49:57.040
that age where I'm going. Who are the kids up to? I said it as a joke but it came out too authentic.

613
00:49:57.040 --> 00:50:03.360
I realized I'm now flirting. I'm crossing the boundary between joking and actually being that guy.

614
00:50:05.040 --> 00:50:09.520
But you know Tinder and all that stuff. It's a bunch of stems. No petals on anymore.

615
00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:14.240
It's a bunch of stems trying to get to, they have nothing to give to each other. They just

616
00:50:14.240 --> 00:50:19.040
want to leach and take and then discard and try like a crackhead, try to get the same high with

617
00:50:19.040 --> 00:50:24.880
the next victim. It's hurting you. Hey, good news. If you're going, oh my god, I can't believe

618
00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:31.040
he's saying this. I feel like I'm the petalist one. Oh, God, I'll put a million petals back on you.

619
00:50:31.040 --> 00:50:38.800
God will restore you from the inside. He will fill you up. He will cleanse you. Yes. Oh, he's

620
00:50:38.800 --> 00:50:48.240
awesome like that. But quit giving yourself away so cheaply. Flea, sexual immorality, every sin

621
00:50:48.240 --> 00:50:53.840
that a man does is outside the body, but he will commit sexual immorality sins against his own body.

622
00:50:54.640 --> 00:51:02.320
If anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful. Hallelujah.

623
00:51:06.320 --> 00:51:13.600
Eight. God is watching how you forgive.

624
00:51:13.600 --> 00:51:24.800
Mark 11, 25 to 26. Jesus said, if you do not forgive, neither will your father forgive your

625
00:51:24.800 --> 00:51:32.880
trespasses. Why would Jesus say that? That you disqualify yourself from receiving forgiveness when

626
00:51:32.880 --> 00:51:38.320
you won't forgive someone? I present this to you. This is my suggestion that it's not so much

627
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that God now stops forgiving you. It's the fact that he's not continually forgiving you because

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you've pulled away from his forgiveness. You've pulled away, look, to receive forgiveness from God

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is not a one-time event. First, John 1.9, it says, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses him. That's

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the perpetual tense. Cleanses him from all unrighteousness. You know how you are as a Christian?

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It's like you're walking all day long underneath the waterfall of the blood of Jesus,

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constantly being in a constant state of cleansing. And I'm very conscious of that waterfall.

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I'm very conscious of what I deserve in the natural and then how God treats me because of the blood.

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Because I'm constantly pulling on forgiveness, if I didn't forgive someone who wronged me,

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I would immediately notice it. I would notice the duplicity, the discrepancy that I was being a

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hypocrite. But when I forget how I'm being forgiven, then it's easy for me to get nasty and bitter

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with other people. And God says, now you're disqualifying yourself.

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When I say unforgiveness, when I say bitterness, resentment, when I say those words,

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that first person you thought of, that's the person you got to forgive.

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You know that face that popped into your head, yes you do. The one where you said,

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I'll forgive everyone, just not that, that jerk that that's the one you got to forgive.

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Truly release them, forgive them, and cancel all their debts. Why?

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Because Jesus truly released you, forgave you, and canceled all your debts. And God wants to put,

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see if he could show you in great detail what the prize at the end of the finish line is,

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you'd have no problem with this. But when you can't accurately see the prize,

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you're just dealing with your emotions, then it's easier to just grab a hold of those

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baser things and have a scrawny, skinny spirit. Someone who's not a big forgiver,

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that's how they are on the inside. They might look healthy and radiant on the outside,

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but they're spirit. They're like the crypt keeper.

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Look like a ghoul come back to life on the inside.

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No, we need to be healthy on the inside. Quick to forgive. Love keeping no record of wrongs.

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And find you a spouse that is quick to forgive. Amen. I hit the bulls eye on that one. Thank you.

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Lord, just ask her. Just say how much forgiveness she'll be very happy to tell you.

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She'll be very quick. She won't hold back. If you think my wife is introverted, just ask her,

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how much forgiving have you had to do? She'll light up. Let me tell you.

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I actually have this list right here in the scroll.

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Can you imagine God entrusting somebody with a scrawny, skinny, unforgiving spirit,

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who's unaware of all the crud they were forgiven of, with increase?

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That's giving a bazooka to a three year old. They'll blow themselves out of the water.

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Number nine, God is looking and keeping an eye on how you handle the small assignments.

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He said, well done in Matthew 25, 21, well done, good and faithful servant and worship team,

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you can come on up. You were faithful over a few things. So God is looking at how you do the little,

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how you handle the few.

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Even the things that you resent, small tasks, menial tasks, I shared once before a mental breakthrough

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came to me. When I had my Chevy Spectrum 1986 paid a thousand dollars for it and never washed it

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because I hated it. I used it because it was the only Flintstone mobile able to get me from

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point A to point B and it did. It looked like the Flintstone mobile and I felt that at any time,

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my feed would come and rip through the bottom and I would just run my way to Bible school.

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You remember it, right mom? And my buddy from Bible school commented, faithful are the wounds of

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a friend. He did one of these as I'm driving. He went like this on the dash.

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Bro, why don't you wash your car? And I very just transparently said because I don't even want to

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wash it. I hate this thing. I just needed to serve its purpose and then off to the city dump it

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goes. And he said, Tom Solts, never forget him. He said, you need to take care of what God has

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given you. Do you want a better car? I said, yeah, God's not going to give you a better car

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until you take care of this. Now I'm coming from Queens, right? My whole, I've never, I got my

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driver's license at age 23. Now I'm 24 with a car. I've never even washed the car in my life.

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He said, how do I wash your car? He's like, oh, it's the best. Smell that wax on a Saturday afternoon

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coming up into you. Now, so he took me right then and there to an auto zone. I got all the stuff.

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I started washing that clunker, that metal ball. Washing it, waxing it. He said, he said,

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it's going to look like a brand new car. I thought halfway through as I'm sweating,

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oh, he lied so bad. It's still an ugly 86 Chevy spectrum. But in taking care and honoring the

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little God gave me, I positioned myself for him to entrust me with more. Amen. He actually cares

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and is watching what you do with the little. Love him for the little he gave you. Take care of the

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little he gave you. Even assignments, tasks, do them with your whole heart. When no one's watching,

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work is unto the Lord and then place your faith in him to promote you. Number 10,

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God is looking at how you honor authority. Hebrews 13, 17, do you know at work your boss is your

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authority. Whoever said that, thank you. If everybody would just out loud manifest what they're

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feeling, we'd be in a better place. Instead, everybody suppresses it, lets it cook on the inside

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and I've started to feel stuff in the air. Thank you. Some honesty in the place on Memorial Day weekend.

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Your boss is your authority. I mean, he may be asking you for your TPS report,

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coming over your cubicle with a cup of coffee in his hand. Just five people saw that movie here

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this morning, I guess. I'm not saying you need to love the person. But understand that in the

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eyes of God, they're over you. And so you can't talk bad behind their back. You can't secretly

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resent them. What do I do? Change your heart. Say, but they're a total jerk. I believe you.

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And God knows they're a total jerk. But there's a limit. There's a distinction between how you should

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speak to somebody who's an authority in your life. And by the way, you will never, ever, ever actually

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have authority until you've learned how to function well and be under authority. And one of the

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biggest heart breaks I see in within the church is people they've never been under authority,

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but they want to have authority and they run out and make a shipwreck of their lives because

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they never learned how to be under authority. When authority is unbiblical, you kick against it.

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When authority is unconstitutional, you kick against it. When authority tells you to shut down

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your church, you kick against that. Amen. We don't just blindly, I understand cult leaders love

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verses like that. And they twist them. But there is a biblical hierarchy. There is. And something in

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our culture also, God wants, not God, but culture wants to make everybody the same. And you hear that.

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Oh, we're all the same. You know, there used to be a quick understanding of people in their role

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and society was much, much more hierarchical. People hate that now. But you know who's very hierarchical?

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God. God, he actually arranges all of his angels in a hierarchy. There's archangels at the top.

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Then there's Syrophib. Then there's Cheribib. Then there's other angels, the regular ones underneath them.

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And so I know who those are who are in authority over me. Do you? There should be a separation and

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a distinction between how you speak of them, how you think about them, bless them, resist evil in

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your heart towards them, resist hurting. You know, the Bible says he who hates his brother commits

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murder. Have you ever thought about that? Why? He who hates his brother commits murder. You know who

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explained that verse to me? A former witch. And she said, when I was a witch, the way we curse someone,

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and she said, people think we curse someone by like being in a circle over a cauldron. And

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he said, we would actually get into a circle and just think negative thoughts over the person.

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We would think that he's in a car wreck. We would think that he was getting robbed. We would

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think that he was sick with cancer. And she said, we would just think. And she said, we understood

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that he who hates his brother commits murder. There's something you send in the spirit realm when

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you're hating someone. You have to watch for that in your heart. That's why I don't hate people.

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Hate sin. Hate the devil. People are troubled. They're hurting. And you can actually be repulsed.

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You can make a boundary and never see him again, all without actually hating them. Amen. Hallelujah.

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Pray with me, church. God, you are good. Your way is abundance. Your way is increase your way

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is prosperity. And we realize that in order to be entrusted with more, there is a work that needs

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to be done in us on this side of heaven. And say this out loud, everybody say, Lord Jesus,

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I welcome you to grow me, to mature me, to make me more Christ like so I could contain

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the great blessing you're sending into my life in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah.

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This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message,

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or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church,

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visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

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We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today,

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that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

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Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you

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find your favorite podcasts worldwide.