WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.800
This is the painful part of Christianity that you have a promise from God and it's invisible

2
00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:11.920
but you got it and you're going to not pay attention to the natural and you're going to

3
00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:14.760
pay attention to this invisible promise that he gave you.

4
00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:16.960
It's awesome.

5
00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:17.960
It's wonderful.

6
00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:23.560
It's thrilling and it'll make you feel like sometimes you want to die all at the same

7
00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:24.560
time.

8
00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:26.560
Hallelujah.

9
00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:28.720
Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

10
00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:34.040
Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth

11
00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:35.800
that he has for us.

12
00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:41.520
If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

13
00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.840
that's citylightnyc.com.

14
00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:50.080
Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already

15
00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:52.720
working in our hearts and minds.

16
00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:57.720
As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you

17
00:00:57.720 --> 00:01:06.040
are surrounded by his grace, and that he has a real hope and a future for you.

18
00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:22.240
I want to start right now in Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, hallelujah.

19
00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:28.600
We're going to have a little graph soon, the famous church thermometer, and I'll be

20
00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:29.600
able to show you.

21
00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:31.240
But you can designate end of year offerings.

22
00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:32.560
That up there, it's up now, right?

23
00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:38.440
The end of the year tab, so you can specifically give towards the end of the year offering.

24
00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:43.160
It would be especially encouraging if we could just smash past that.

25
00:01:43.160 --> 00:01:46.560
If every Christian hears from the Lord and does what the Lord tells them to do, we can

26
00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:51.360
smash past that and celebrate, come December.

27
00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:58.640
All right, Paul is encouraging Timothy and really this is for all of us.

28
00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:04.320
He says, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the

29
00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:10.120
things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men

30
00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:14.440
who will be able to teach others also.

31
00:02:14.440 --> 00:02:24.280
Then he says, you therefore must endure hardships, shout hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

32
00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:32.280
Now most people, when they first get saved, or especially when they're out in the world

33
00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:37.640
and they don't know the Scriptures and then don't know God, view God kind of as a puppet

34
00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:42.160
master up in the sky who controls everything.

35
00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:45.400
So if you're in a car wreck, God did that to you.

36
00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:47.480
If you lose your job, God did that to you.

37
00:02:47.480 --> 00:02:53.200
If you get sick and all sorts of, it's always that God is the source behind that.

38
00:02:53.200 --> 00:03:00.360
And I just want to tell you that God is good and the devil is bad, amen?

39
00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:06.480
And Jesus did not come to earth and when he was healing the sick and delivering people

40
00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:12.320
and setting people free, he was not undoing the works of the Father.

41
00:03:12.320 --> 00:03:15.920
He was undoing the works of the devil.

42
00:03:15.920 --> 00:03:20.640
He said that the devil comes to steal, kill and to destroy, amen?

43
00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:27.720
So a lot of suffering that goes on in life, God is not the source of it.

44
00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:29.480
The devil is.

45
00:03:29.480 --> 00:03:31.160
And sometimes it's not even the devil.

46
00:03:31.160 --> 00:03:36.720
I venture to say that nine out of ten times when I'm suffering, it is a direct consequence

47
00:03:36.720 --> 00:03:40.520
of something that I did.

48
00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.120
One faint amen from the back.

49
00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:44.120
Everybody's a victim.

50
00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:47.720
Well, not me, just the circumstances of life.

51
00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:51.400
No, I look in the mirror and I go, you did that.

52
00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.760
You did X, Y and then that equal Z.

53
00:03:54.760 --> 00:03:57.400
You're the culprit.

54
00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.360
I'm not going to blame God and it's not even that Satan had to get involved.

55
00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:05.160
I was fine enough tripping my own self up and then Satan comes in and he pushes on it

56
00:04:05.160 --> 00:04:07.840
and he steps on the wound that you created.

57
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.600
That's a, can we agree on that?

58
00:04:09.600 --> 00:04:11.960
We have to be able to just God.

59
00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:21.040
This is like the 101 class of advanced theology, God, good, devil, bad, all right.

60
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:26.760
Nevertheless though, in our Christian walk, there will be hardships.

61
00:04:26.760 --> 00:04:29.440
This isn't talking about biblical suffering.

62
00:04:29.440 --> 00:04:33.280
Biblical suffering is suffering in the ways that Jesus suffered.

63
00:04:33.280 --> 00:04:38.600
So that talks, that talks speaks to persecution, being misunderstood, people being envious

64
00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:44.720
of you and persecuting you and calling your good intentions evil or persecuting you for

65
00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.760
your faith in Jesus and your Christianity.

66
00:04:46.760 --> 00:04:50.880
That's all suffering that you're promised.

67
00:04:50.880 --> 00:04:56.080
That sickness, that poverty, and those things are not from God, amen.

68
00:04:56.080 --> 00:05:01.120
But nevertheless, there will be hardships and I want to speak to people this morning

69
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:07.800
who are going through a hardship because the hardship, it's in the emotional realm.

70
00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:09.920
It's in the soul area.

71
00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:15.080
It is oppressing and squeezing that will come upon you if you've been a Christian longer

72
00:05:15.080 --> 00:05:16.080
than five minutes.

73
00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:20.080
Amen.

74
00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:21.400
That's it.

75
00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:25.160
That's the revelation.

76
00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:28.200
When you leave someone asks you what great revelation that you get in church, I heard

77
00:05:28.200 --> 00:05:31.240
that it can be hard sometimes and there's hardships.

78
00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:36.840
No, but this is why in Peter, in Peter, he says to the people, he says, don't think

79
00:05:36.840 --> 00:05:40.240
it's strange for the fiery trial that is trying you.

80
00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:43.600
You know why he says, don't think it's strange because so many Christians think it's

81
00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:44.600
strange.

82
00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:47.400
I go, Lord, I know you're good.

83
00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:53.540
It is absolutely possible to know that you're loved by him, to be free from condemnation

84
00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:56.980
and shame and guilt and know you've been forgiven.

85
00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:01.700
It is even possible to be doing everything right as best as you can, but you're still

86
00:06:01.700 --> 00:06:03.540
feeling crushed.

87
00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:06.660
You're still feeling squeezed.

88
00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:08.300
What's the word of the Lord?

89
00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:09.780
Don't stop.

90
00:06:09.780 --> 00:06:15.020
Don't quit and have some endurance and endure hardship.

91
00:06:15.020 --> 00:06:16.260
You know why?

92
00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:19.260
Because it will come to pass.

93
00:06:19.260 --> 00:06:21.820
It will come to pass.

94
00:06:21.820 --> 00:06:24.700
It's just passing through.

95
00:06:24.700 --> 00:06:28.540
How many of you, like me, can look at at least a dozen times in your life where you thought

96
00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:29.540
it was over?

97
00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:30.540
Yeah.

98
00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:31.540
Right?

99
00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:33.820
Like that's it.

100
00:06:33.820 --> 00:06:36.660
Tomorrow's not even going to come.

101
00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:40.940
And then tomorrow came and then like three months later at the pinch myself, I thought I

102
00:06:40.940 --> 00:06:43.140
was dreaming things were so good.

103
00:06:43.140 --> 00:06:46.660
And then of course my wife will remind me, but remember how you felt just I'm like, yeah,

104
00:06:46.660 --> 00:06:47.660
that was weird, right?

105
00:06:47.660 --> 00:06:48.660
Yeah.

106
00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:49.860
That was odd.

107
00:06:56.260 --> 00:06:58.100
You just got to hang on.

108
00:06:58.100 --> 00:06:59.340
That's what fruit does.

109
00:06:59.340 --> 00:07:00.580
He said, I'm the vine.

110
00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:04.740
What does fruit do?

111
00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:05.740
It hangs on.

112
00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:07.660
Don't quit.

113
00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:08.860
Some people drop off.

114
00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.300
You know, like imagine you see grapes just dropping off.

115
00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:13.100
I can't take it in the agony.

116
00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:14.860
They were falling off the branch.

117
00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:22.860
Just hang on because quitting is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

118
00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:23.860
Amen.

119
00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:25.860
Amen.

120
00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:30.860
God is building in you something called endurance, which is what he wants.

121
00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:34.860
Hallelujah.

122
00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:39.860
To be able to contain the magnitude of the blessing he wants to put on the believer's

123
00:07:40.860 --> 00:07:45.860
life, there's going to be times of growing pains and anguish and feeling uncomfortable

124
00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:51.860
so that he can mold you and reshape you to contain what he wants to give you.

125
00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:56.860
I didn't say that because it sounds cute, that's the biblical recipe.

126
00:07:56.860 --> 00:07:58.860
All right.

127
00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:00.860
Hallelujah.

128
00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:02.860
Hallelujah.

129
00:08:02.860 --> 00:08:08.860
I'm going to listen to my wife and interpret the silence, not as lack of enthusiasm.

130
00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:13.860
But as an oh me, I appreciate it.

131
00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:14.860
Thank you.

132
00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:20.860
Hebrews 10, 36 through 39.

133
00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:26.860
When I was on 7th Street for those of you who are new, our church has a long history.

134
00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:30.860
We're going to be celebrating 23 years in March.

135
00:08:30.860 --> 00:08:33.860
Thank you.

136
00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:35.860
Thank you.

137
00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:36.860
Wow.

138
00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:42.860
And we had multiple locations and before we were in Queens, we were all over Manhattan.

139
00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:50.860
And the place we were longest that was 7th Street, where I lived in the church with no windows.

140
00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:54.860
It was a very difficult time like that for five and a half years.

141
00:08:54.860 --> 00:09:03.860
And there was an altar and behind the altar was a kitchen that I cooked in.

142
00:09:03.860 --> 00:09:09.860
And you know, just used kind of as a makeshift kitchen in an apartment.

143
00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:11.860
Anyway, I was feeling crushed.

144
00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:18.860
I was feeling in anguish because what I feel like the Lord had promised me I wasn't seeing realized.

145
00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:23.860
We had a like a fledgling church and I'm in a windowless basement and they're staying away by the thousands.

146
00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:27.860
And as I'm going into the kitchen, the door was right by the drum set.

147
00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:30.860
And every time I'd go by, I'd always accidentally hit the symbol on one of the drums.

148
00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:34.860
So it was like this comical farce where I'm going into the house.

149
00:09:34.860 --> 00:09:40.860
It was just like the sonic reminder of my own mediocrity and failure.

150
00:09:40.860 --> 00:09:42.860
You know, just being where are you at?

151
00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:47.860
Oh, you're living in a basement with no windows with mice and you're living in the church because you can't do better for yourself.

152
00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:55.860
And I'm feeling bad for myself and as I'm banging into the kitchen for glass of water, I hear in my spirit clear as day,

153
00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:59.860
you need enduring faith.

154
00:09:59.860 --> 00:10:05.860
Because I was mastering faith and using faith and I hear you, but you need enduring faith.

155
00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:11.860
Because in my mind, I had been believing for so long.

156
00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:14.860
But I quickly realized what's long to me is really not long to God.

157
00:10:14.860 --> 00:10:17.860
And it really wasn't long to other humans looking in from there.

158
00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:21.860
But you know, when you're believing God for something, one hour is too long.

159
00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:35.860
Let me just read to you.

160
00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:37.860
You can keep, please keep Hebrews up there.

161
00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:46.860
But let me just read to you this from in reference the second Timothy about enduring hardship.

162
00:10:46.860 --> 00:11:01.860
The war we face is a battle in our souls because the enemy is seeking to dishearten the army of God.

163
00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:15.860
The strategy is to wear out the saints, wear you out, with constant barrages of fear, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and disillusionment.

164
00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:24.860
I believe that there's a warfare that's been unleashed on the body of Christ such as we have not yet seen at least in our time.

165
00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:31.860
I believe this warfare has to do with the realm of the heart, the emotions, the soul.

166
00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:35.860
If we are not an emotionally strong people, we will fall.

167
00:11:35.860 --> 00:11:48.860
Even the elect will be worn down and overcome with a sense of utter hopelessness and the seeming futility of their efforts if we do not understand how to gird up our minds in the Lord.

168
00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:51.860
Does this resonate with anybody?

169
00:11:51.860 --> 00:11:57.860
I was almost going to preach another message I felt the Lord put a pause on it called perhaps.

170
00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:06.860
Because there are several instances in the Old Testament where God uses that phrase perhaps when speaking about the whole nation of Israel and the future of Israel.

171
00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:21.860
Perhaps they will repent, perhaps three separate occasions, three separate instances, perhaps and it always says to do with them repenting and returning to the Lord and then receiving His promises.

172
00:12:21.860 --> 00:12:24.860
But it doesn't say they will and it doesn't say they won't.

173
00:12:24.860 --> 00:12:27.860
He says perhaps I'm kind of making a rabbit trail here.

174
00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:29.860
This isn't actually my original message.

175
00:12:29.860 --> 00:12:38.860
I just want to say this that I feel that what we're all experiencing to one degree or another is we're feeling the tension of living in the perhaps.

176
00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:43.860
Because we right now with Christians in America are living in a major perhaps moment.

177
00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:45.860
Can you feel that?

178
00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:49.860
I feel like that's what's happening in the collective consciousness.

179
00:12:49.860 --> 00:12:58.860
There's people you have anxiety on you, you feel like you don't even have your stepping and you don't even know why you feel like you're not standing on solid ground.

180
00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:02.860
But a lot of it has to do with the day and age that we're living in.

181
00:13:02.860 --> 00:13:11.860
You understand what's on the line here and that there is something hanging in the balance and I hear the word of the Lord saying perhaps my people will really seek me.

182
00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:14.860
Perhaps they'll repent wholeheartedly.

183
00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:22.860
Perhaps the Christians will cry out to me and perhaps I'll move my mighty arm and give America more time.

184
00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:25.860
Perhaps it's right there we're on the cusp.

185
00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:29.860
Perhaps I'll come in and I'll bring righteousness in the government.

186
00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:31.860
Perhaps I'll come and I'll bring deliverance.

187
00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:36.860
Perhaps America will rise up as the glorious Christian nation that it is.

188
00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:38.860
Hallelujah.

189
00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:39.860
Hallelujah.

190
00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:42.860
And you can sometimes feel that tension that we're.

191
00:13:42.860 --> 00:13:48.860
We're living in a perhaps moment.

192
00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:55.860
But whatever it is that we're feeling, the word of the Lord for us is that we have we have need of endurance.

193
00:13:55.860 --> 00:14:01.860
Staying power.

194
00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:05.860
Whatever age you got saved and you got across the finish line, you know.

195
00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:11.860
And it's this kind of strange to say it this way but salvation is free.

196
00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:14.860
It is. This is salvation is free.

197
00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:16.860
The baptism in the Holy Spirit, free.

198
00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:20.860
So from the Lord.

199
00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:27.860
But as you hold his hand and walk through the decades of life, there's going to be times where you feel like your livers coming out of your nose,

200
00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:33.860
your small intestine bleeding out of your left ear, your hobbling in.

201
00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:35.860
You're going, Lord, I love you.

202
00:14:35.860 --> 00:14:41.860
I know you love me. What mean if this?

203
00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:46.860
And it's just, just hang on and just endure.

204
00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:50.860
Don't quit. That's forever if you quit.

205
00:14:50.860 --> 00:14:55.860
Just hang on. Well, it's messy. I don't even know if I'm hanging on right. Just hang on.

206
00:14:55.860 --> 00:15:04.860
You have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

207
00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:11.860
For yet a little while and he who is coming will come and not Terry, now that not wait.

208
00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:16.860
Now the just shall live by faith.

209
00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:23.860
But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

210
00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:29.860
This was written to the Hebrews, the best way, which I may just go and do the whole book of Hebrews.

211
00:15:29.860 --> 00:15:35.860
We haven't done a whole book together. And while Hebrews is rich, Hebrews is chock full of God's goodness.

212
00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:40.860
And it's written, the best way to understand that it's written to a group of very, very discouraged Christians,

213
00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:47.860
Hebrew Christians who were cut off from society. They were, they were ostracized economically.

214
00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:54.860
They were ostracized socially. They were, I mean, imagine what that was like back in the day.

215
00:15:54.860 --> 00:15:59.860
We don't experience that kind of persecution. They were really being tempted to quit.

216
00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:05.860
And the word for them was endure just hanging on.

217
00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:15.860
And don't draw back. Verse 39. No moon walking.

218
00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:23.860
No backwards walking. But we are not of those who draw back.

219
00:16:23.860 --> 00:16:34.860
We're not quitters. We're not of those who draw back to tradition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

220
00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:41.860
Hallelujah. Hebrews 6 verses 13 through 15.

221
00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:44.860
Thank you, Lord.

222
00:16:44.860 --> 00:16:51.860
For when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,

223
00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:56.860
saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you in multiplying, I will multiply you.

224
00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:04.860
And so after he had what, patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

225
00:17:04.860 --> 00:17:11.860
How many of you have a promise from God?

226
00:17:12.860 --> 00:17:16.860
That endurance part I understand can be excruciating.

227
00:17:16.860 --> 00:17:19.860
But you're changing in the midst of it.

228
00:17:19.860 --> 00:17:25.860
And he's filling you with the capacity to be able to withstand that.

229
00:17:25.860 --> 00:17:31.860
If I had, and my wife will quickly agree, if I got some of the stuff that he's given me now,

230
00:17:31.860 --> 00:17:36.860
if I got that 10, 15, 20 years ago, it would have been like a three-year-old playing with a bazooka.

231
00:17:37.860 --> 00:17:40.860
I would have blown myself up.

232
00:17:40.860 --> 00:17:46.860
What I deserved back then was a squirt gun, because that's all I could handle, and that's what he gave me.

233
00:17:46.860 --> 00:17:52.860
Then as he changed me and molded me into change, he can come various ways.

234
00:17:52.860 --> 00:17:55.860
He can come when you're having the time of your life just by the anointing.

235
00:17:55.860 --> 00:17:58.860
That's my favorite way of change. I love that way of change.

236
00:17:58.860 --> 00:18:03.860
My favorite way is me on my back with my feet in the air, the Holy Spirit all over me,

237
00:18:04.860 --> 00:18:07.860
and I'm feeling his presence, and I'm like, Lord, what are you doing?

238
00:18:07.860 --> 00:18:09.860
And I just feel his love because I'm changing you.

239
00:18:09.860 --> 00:18:11.860
I love that. That's my favorite.

240
00:18:11.860 --> 00:18:15.860
And then there's times where I feel like I'm a grape in the hand of a giant.

241
00:18:15.860 --> 00:18:20.860
And by the way, nothing in my life, a lot of these times, nothing in my life is wrong.

242
00:18:20.860 --> 00:18:22.860
Like everything is right in my life.

243
00:18:22.860 --> 00:18:26.860
But I feel like a grape in the hand of a giant that's about to get squashed.

244
00:18:26.860 --> 00:18:28.860
And I go, Lord, what are you doing?

245
00:18:28.860 --> 00:18:32.860
You know, you still get the same smile from heaven back, the same like, oh, I'm changing you.

246
00:18:32.860 --> 00:18:34.860
But this way, I like the other way.

247
00:18:34.860 --> 00:18:36.860
This way is changing me too.

248
00:18:36.860 --> 00:18:40.860
Yes, endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

249
00:18:40.860 --> 00:18:43.860
I'm working in you, patience endurance. I'm like, ah!

250
00:18:48.860 --> 00:18:50.860
Working in you, patience endurance.

251
00:18:50.860 --> 00:18:53.860
That's what some funny, dirty old preacher says when he doesn't know what to say.

252
00:18:53.860 --> 00:18:56.860
Next, don't know it. It's the Word of God.

253
00:18:56.860 --> 00:18:59.860
You just don't want to hear it at the time.

254
00:18:59.860 --> 00:19:02.860
Hallelujah.

255
00:19:02.860 --> 00:19:04.860
Thank you, Lord.

256
00:19:04.860 --> 00:19:11.860
Romans 14, 16, through 21, we're talking about Abraham here.

257
00:19:11.860 --> 00:19:15.860
He had this promise that he was going to be the father of many nations.

258
00:19:15.860 --> 00:19:17.860
God even changed his name.

259
00:19:17.860 --> 00:19:22.860
We don't really immerse ourselves in that whole scenario enough to know how difficult that would have been for Abraham.

260
00:19:23.860 --> 00:19:29.860
Being the father of exactly zero people and getting your name changed the father of many nations.

261
00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:32.860
You ever think what I was like for Abraham?

262
00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:42.860
Imagine you're broke as a joke and God says, I'm going to make you the wealthiest person on the planet.

263
00:19:42.860 --> 00:19:48.860
In fact, I'm going to change your name and you have to tell everybody this is your name, Richest Man Alive.

264
00:19:49.860 --> 00:19:53.860
And then you go to a party and I'm like, hey, what's your name? Richest Man Alive?

265
00:19:53.860 --> 00:19:54.860
Really?

266
00:19:54.860 --> 00:19:56.860
That's your name? Yeah.

267
00:19:56.860 --> 00:19:58.860
What's your net worth?

268
00:19:58.860 --> 00:20:04.860
Well, I still got some student loans, so it's minus $47,238.

269
00:20:04.860 --> 00:20:06.860
You just said you're the richest man of life.

270
00:20:06.860 --> 00:20:09.860
That's what God changed my name to, and that's what the promise is over my life.

271
00:20:09.860 --> 00:20:11.860
That's what it was like for Abraham.

272
00:20:11.860 --> 00:20:13.860
Everywhere he'd go, what's your name? Abraham.

273
00:20:13.860 --> 00:20:15.860
They understood it to mean father of many nations.

274
00:20:15.860 --> 00:20:18.860
You know the next question was how many kids do you have?

275
00:20:18.860 --> 00:20:20.860
Zero.

276
00:20:20.860 --> 00:20:22.860
This went on for decades.

277
00:20:22.860 --> 00:20:25.860
Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.

278
00:20:29.860 --> 00:20:40.860
Therefore, it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed,

279
00:20:40.860 --> 00:20:44.860
not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham,

280
00:20:44.860 --> 00:20:47.860
who is the father of a Saul.

281
00:20:47.860 --> 00:20:51.860
As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,

282
00:20:51.860 --> 00:20:58.860
in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead.

283
00:20:58.860 --> 00:21:03.860
God, who gives life to the dead?

284
00:21:03.860 --> 00:21:09.860
There is a theme for our church right now in this hour that God is touching dead things

285
00:21:09.860 --> 00:21:16.860
in your life and bringing them up again, bringing them to life again,

286
00:21:16.860 --> 00:21:24.860
who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

287
00:21:24.860 --> 00:21:30.860
And you know we're invited on that journey to call those things that don't exist as though they did.

288
00:21:30.860 --> 00:21:35.860
Abraham, he was not the father of many nations, but God called him that.

289
00:21:35.860 --> 00:21:39.860
That didn't really exist, but God called him that and it was so.

290
00:21:39.860 --> 00:21:42.860
What you say about yourself, what you speak about your life,

291
00:21:42.860 --> 00:21:45.860
you are actually prophesying your future.

292
00:21:45.860 --> 00:21:49.860
Your words are coming out of your mouth and carving a path into your destiny.

293
00:21:49.860 --> 00:21:52.860
You better agree with what the Word of God is saying about you,

294
00:21:52.860 --> 00:21:55.860
and stop agreeing with what the devil is saying about you,

295
00:21:55.860 --> 00:21:59.860
and what the world, what stress and anxiety are saying about you,

296
00:21:59.860 --> 00:22:04.860
and parakeeting that, who gives life to the dead and calls those things

297
00:22:04.860 --> 00:22:11.860
which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, in hope believed,

298
00:22:11.860 --> 00:22:15.860
so that he, in fact, did become the father of many nations,

299
00:22:15.860 --> 00:22:18.860
according to what was spoken, social, your descendants be,

300
00:22:18.860 --> 00:22:21.860
and not being weak in faith.

301
00:22:21.860 --> 00:22:26.860
He did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old,

302
00:22:26.860 --> 00:22:28.860
and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

303
00:22:28.860 --> 00:22:32.860
He did not waver at the sea.

304
00:22:32.860 --> 00:22:38.860
What gets in the way to receiving the promises of God is looking at the natural.

305
00:22:38.860 --> 00:22:44.860
If you have your eyes on the natural, you're going to quickly get discouraged.

306
00:22:44.860 --> 00:22:47.860
In the natural, there could be no hope.

307
00:22:47.860 --> 00:22:50.860
You're looking at a particular problem, a particular obstacle,

308
00:22:50.860 --> 00:22:54.860
you can even work out on paper, the ten ways that this can be solved,

309
00:22:54.860 --> 00:22:57.860
and God's not going to come through in any one of those ten ways.

310
00:22:57.860 --> 00:23:00.860
I'm telling you, he's not.

311
00:23:00.860 --> 00:23:02.860
How do I know I have a little bit of experience with him?

312
00:23:02.860 --> 00:23:04.860
He's going to mess you up and come the eleventh way,

313
00:23:04.860 --> 00:23:07.860
and there'll be way more glories than all of those other ten ways put together.

314
00:23:07.860 --> 00:23:13.860
He doesn't like to be pigeonholed, doesn't like to be put in a box.

315
00:23:13.860 --> 00:23:21.860
Abraham actually had to become good at ignoring the circumstances.

316
00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:23.860
Hallelujah.

317
00:23:23.860 --> 00:23:25.860
Listen, he's the God of the turnaround.

318
00:23:25.860 --> 00:23:31.860
But to activate that turnaround, this is why every great thing we've received,

319
00:23:31.860 --> 00:23:33.860
and we've received some things.

320
00:23:33.860 --> 00:23:37.860
But really, right before that, we kind of thought we were,

321
00:23:37.860 --> 00:23:40.860
because you don't fit in, and you're not acting normal.

322
00:23:40.860 --> 00:23:43.860
You're not talking normal, and you don't really confide a lot of these things,

323
00:23:43.860 --> 00:23:47.860
because people are going to think, okay, they're kind of really gone off now.

324
00:23:47.860 --> 00:23:51.860
They're not even paying attention to the stuff in the natural.

325
00:23:51.860 --> 00:23:53.860
Like they're coping.

326
00:23:53.860 --> 00:23:57.860
They're severely coping right now.

327
00:23:57.860 --> 00:24:01.860
But it's actually a manifestation of faith.

328
00:24:01.860 --> 00:24:04.860
He did not waver.

329
00:24:04.860 --> 00:24:07.860
Can you go back one verse?

330
00:24:07.860 --> 00:24:09.860
This is what I wanted you to see.

331
00:24:09.860 --> 00:24:11.860
He did not consider.

332
00:24:11.860 --> 00:24:12.860
Where is that?

333
00:24:12.860 --> 00:24:14.860
Yeah, he did not consider his own body.

334
00:24:14.860 --> 00:24:19.860
That means he ignored his own hundred-year-old body.

335
00:24:19.860 --> 00:24:22.860
Hallelujah.

336
00:24:22.860 --> 00:24:25.860
You need to ignore that thing.

337
00:24:25.860 --> 00:24:28.860
That thing, that it's just a natural thing.

338
00:24:28.860 --> 00:24:30.860
It's nothing for God.

339
00:24:30.860 --> 00:24:35.860
That cannot hold back his promises becoming realized in your life.

340
00:24:35.860 --> 00:24:37.860
It cannot. It will not.

341
00:24:37.860 --> 00:24:40.860
He did not consider his own body already dead,

342
00:24:40.860 --> 00:24:43.860
since he was about a hundred-years-old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

343
00:24:43.860 --> 00:24:45.860
So you said, but Pastor, I have this problem.

344
00:24:45.860 --> 00:24:47.860
Now consider it not.

345
00:24:47.860 --> 00:24:50.860
What is the word of God in your spirit?

346
00:24:50.860 --> 00:24:52.860
What is he whispering to you?

347
00:24:52.860 --> 00:24:55.860
Shut the world off, shut the phone off, shut all those other voices,

348
00:24:55.860 --> 00:24:57.860
and just get together with Jesus.

349
00:24:57.860 --> 00:25:00.860
And what is he whispering to you inside your spirit?

350
00:25:00.860 --> 00:25:01.860
That's the truth.

351
00:25:01.860 --> 00:25:03.860
That's the word of the Lord.

352
00:25:03.860 --> 00:25:05.860
That's what you can take to the bank every single time,

353
00:25:05.860 --> 00:25:07.860
over and over and over again.

354
00:25:07.860 --> 00:25:09.860
Next verse, please.

355
00:25:09.860 --> 00:25:13.860
He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief,

356
00:25:13.860 --> 00:25:16.860
but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

357
00:25:16.860 --> 00:25:19.860
and being fully convinced that what he had promised,

358
00:25:19.860 --> 00:25:23.860
he was also able to perform.

359
00:25:23.860 --> 00:25:25.860
Hallelujah.

360
00:25:27.860 --> 00:25:29.860
Hallelujah.

361
00:25:30.860 --> 00:25:32.860
Hallelujah.

362
00:25:33.860 --> 00:25:36.860
Thank you, Jesus.

363
00:25:36.860 --> 00:25:38.860
Thank you, Lord.

364
00:25:43.860 --> 00:25:45.860
Thank you.

365
00:26:02.860 --> 00:26:04.860
Hallelujah.

366
00:26:07.860 --> 00:26:10.860
I just feel something in my spirit.

367
00:26:11.860 --> 00:26:20.860
And just waiting on the Lord, because it could come out clumsy.

368
00:26:26.860 --> 00:26:28.860
I'll just say it.

369
00:26:28.860 --> 00:26:30.860
I know how to say it.

370
00:26:30.860 --> 00:26:34.860
The Lord has kept his word to me.

371
00:26:34.860 --> 00:26:37.860
He has kept his promises to me.

372
00:26:37.860 --> 00:26:39.860
He's been so good.

373
00:26:39.860 --> 00:26:44.860
And there's things in life that I wanted outside of him

374
00:26:44.860 --> 00:26:47.860
that were good to want, like a wife.

375
00:26:47.860 --> 00:26:51.860
I gave me the best wife.

376
00:26:51.860 --> 00:26:54.860
And I wanted kids, and he gave me wonderful kids.

377
00:26:54.860 --> 00:26:59.860
I wanted good friends, and he gave me wonderful brothers and sisters.

378
00:27:02.860 --> 00:27:05.860
I wanted her home, he gave me that.

379
00:27:05.860 --> 00:27:08.860
I wanted her to be rich.

380
00:27:08.860 --> 00:27:11.860
I wanted to be able to be in a place where I could give bigly.

381
00:27:14.860 --> 00:27:17.860
And this is the part, I can't, I don't say this.

382
00:27:17.860 --> 00:27:19.860
I just want you to know.

383
00:27:19.860 --> 00:27:21.860
I want to live my life transparently.

384
00:27:21.860 --> 00:27:24.860
And this is a big deal to me, for a kid who grew up,

385
00:27:24.860 --> 00:27:27.860
dirt poor, in Queens, in a one bedroom apartment with his kids,

386
00:27:27.860 --> 00:27:31.860
that he's giving me millions, millions of,

387
00:27:31.860 --> 00:27:34.860
but that just changed my life.

388
00:27:35.860 --> 00:27:37.860
And again, this is where it gets awkward.

389
00:27:37.860 --> 00:27:39.860
I don't want to, because why I can say that, and there's a guest,

390
00:27:39.860 --> 00:27:41.860
and they think, wow, the church is paying you well.

391
00:27:41.860 --> 00:27:45.860
No, he's giving me millions of other avenues.

392
00:27:47.860 --> 00:27:51.860
Other avenues that don't take up any time either.

393
00:27:51.860 --> 00:27:53.860
I don't have like three jobs on the side.

394
00:27:53.860 --> 00:27:55.860
This is all I do.

395
00:27:55.860 --> 00:27:58.860
Fell in love with Bitcoin, bought MSTR.

396
00:27:58.860 --> 00:28:01.860
But here's the point, here's the point.

397
00:28:02.860 --> 00:28:05.860
Here's the point, that he's giving no no, but here's the point.

398
00:28:05.860 --> 00:28:08.860
That really, I can come to a place where I go,

399
00:28:08.860 --> 00:28:13.860
wow Lord, in the natural, there's nothing that I even crave or want.

400
00:28:13.860 --> 00:28:16.860
Like you've given, and then you know where I come back to?

401
00:28:16.860 --> 00:28:20.860
I come back to, and this is what I want to communicate to you.

402
00:28:20.860 --> 00:28:25.860
I come back to that the only thing I'm telling you,

403
00:28:25.860 --> 00:28:28.860
the only thing that matters.

404
00:28:28.860 --> 00:28:31.860
It doesn't even matter.

405
00:28:31.860 --> 00:28:35.860
The only thing that matters is your relationship with Jesus.

406
00:28:35.860 --> 00:28:39.860
It's the only thing, which only when you get some stuff,

407
00:28:39.860 --> 00:28:43.860
do you realize that you didn't need that anyway for your relationship with Jesus?

408
00:28:43.860 --> 00:28:46.860
You didn't, then the Lord is just like, this is just like here,

409
00:28:46.860 --> 00:28:49.860
do what, you know, here's that stuff, do well with it,

410
00:28:49.860 --> 00:28:52.860
but it doesn't matter.

411
00:28:52.860 --> 00:28:55.860
All that matters is what you have with him.

412
00:28:55.860 --> 00:29:01.860
The satisfaction, by the way, you can get with one garment of clothes on a desert island.

413
00:29:01.860 --> 00:29:04.860
You know what I mean?

414
00:29:06.860 --> 00:29:08.860
Hallelujah.

415
00:29:08.860 --> 00:29:11.860
Jesus.

416
00:29:11.860 --> 00:29:13.860
Did that come out all right?

417
00:29:13.860 --> 00:29:16.860
I don't know how else to say it.

418
00:29:16.860 --> 00:29:20.860
We've been on these journeys, and then we landed somewhere so wonderful,

419
00:29:20.860 --> 00:29:22.860
and we exhale, and then we go,

420
00:29:22.860 --> 00:29:28.860
well, we just all come back to Jesus.

421
00:29:28.860 --> 00:29:33.860
And the joy, the pleasure, the...

422
00:29:33.860 --> 00:29:36.860
None of that stuff.

423
00:29:36.860 --> 00:29:41.860
It really, it doesn't.

424
00:29:41.860 --> 00:29:46.860
You know, I celebrated how we were able to buy a new car.

425
00:29:46.860 --> 00:29:49.860
You know, we haven't even watched that car once.

426
00:29:49.860 --> 00:29:52.860
You should see it.

427
00:29:52.860 --> 00:29:56.860
Well, I didn't, I wanted to take it for her to wash it.

428
00:29:56.860 --> 00:30:00.860
This is going nowhere, is it?

429
00:30:00.860 --> 00:30:03.860
I just...

430
00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:15.860
I think we should do second kings.

431
00:30:15.860 --> 00:30:18.860
I'd always wanted to be able to get my wife a car.

432
00:30:18.860 --> 00:30:22.860
She had this clunker, this old beat up from 2011 clunker.

433
00:30:22.860 --> 00:30:25.860
And then when the money came in, I'm going to get her a brand new Porsche,

434
00:30:25.860 --> 00:30:29.860
a paid-in cash, and I did.

435
00:30:29.860 --> 00:30:36.860
And do you know how long the high from that lasted like a couple of weeks?

436
00:30:39.860 --> 00:30:42.860
Now, it's just, I don't even see it.

437
00:30:42.860 --> 00:30:44.860
There's another car in the driveway.

438
00:30:44.860 --> 00:30:47.860
In the beginning, though, and this is your buying it.

439
00:30:47.860 --> 00:30:49.860
Oh, God, you're good.

440
00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:51.860
Lord, your word is true.

441
00:30:51.860 --> 00:30:54.860
Oh, and it feels good, and it boosts your ego.

442
00:30:54.860 --> 00:30:57.860
And it's not in debt, so you got all the goods.

443
00:30:57.860 --> 00:30:59.860
But then, you quickly come to this.

444
00:30:59.860 --> 00:31:02.860
It's just, it's nothing.

445
00:31:02.860 --> 00:31:06.860
All you have is him.

446
00:31:06.860 --> 00:31:10.860
It's the only thing worth having, too.

447
00:31:10.860 --> 00:31:13.860
Hallelujah.

448
00:31:13.860 --> 00:31:18.860
Thank you, Jesus.

449
00:31:18.860 --> 00:31:19.860
And it happened after this.

450
00:31:19.860 --> 00:31:21.860
Let's go to second kings.

451
00:31:21.860 --> 00:31:25.860
And it happened after this that Ben Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his army,

452
00:31:25.860 --> 00:31:28.860
it went up and besieged Samaria.

453
00:31:28.860 --> 00:31:32.860
So when the city is besieged, nothing can get in or out.

454
00:31:32.860 --> 00:31:35.860
And it's a military tactic to starve the city.

455
00:31:35.860 --> 00:31:45.860
And it prevents too many physical casualties, and you just stop traffic in and out of the city.

456
00:31:45.860 --> 00:31:47.860
And there was a great famine in Samarian.

457
00:31:47.860 --> 00:31:52.860
And indeed, they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver.

458
00:31:52.860 --> 00:31:57.860
I haven't done the conversion rate to know whether that's a lot or a little.

459
00:31:57.860 --> 00:32:04.860
But I'd venture to say, if you're eating donkey's head for any amount of shekels, you're in a bad place.

460
00:32:04.860 --> 00:32:09.860
And one fourth of a cab, I don't know how much a cab weighs.

461
00:32:09.860 --> 00:32:16.860
But when you're using units of measurement for dove droppings, you're in a bad place.

462
00:32:16.860 --> 00:32:18.860
Amen.

463
00:32:18.860 --> 00:32:22.860
So this is the biblical way of saying Samaria was in a very, very bad place.

464
00:32:22.860 --> 00:32:27.860
Then as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him saying,

465
00:32:27.860 --> 00:32:29.860
help my Lord, O king.

466
00:32:29.860 --> 00:32:33.860
And he said, if the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you?

467
00:32:33.860 --> 00:32:36.860
From the threshing floor or from the wine press?

468
00:32:36.860 --> 00:32:39.860
He's basically saying, I cannot help you.

469
00:32:39.860 --> 00:32:41.860
And the king is as lost as her.

470
00:32:41.860 --> 00:32:43.860
Then the king said to her, what is troubling you?

471
00:32:43.860 --> 00:32:50.860
And she answered, this woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow.

472
00:32:51.860 --> 00:32:57.860
You know, when I started reading the Bible with my kids, I quickly realized that it was an R-rated book.

473
00:32:57.860 --> 00:33:00.860
Not for the faint of heart.

474
00:33:00.860 --> 00:33:03.860
So we boiled my son and ate him.

475
00:33:03.860 --> 00:33:07.860
I mean, when you read the Bible with the kids, you quickly get up to the flood.

476
00:33:07.860 --> 00:33:11.860
You know, like five chapters in, six chapters in.

477
00:33:11.860 --> 00:33:13.860
And there's no way to sugarcoat that.

478
00:33:13.860 --> 00:33:16.860
Yeah, sweetie, people did wickedness in all the world.

479
00:33:16.860 --> 00:33:18.860
So God was mad that He even made them.

480
00:33:18.860 --> 00:33:21.860
So He just killed them all off.

481
00:33:21.860 --> 00:33:23.860
That's what happened.

482
00:33:30.860 --> 00:33:32.860
It's funny, only adults later have a hard time with that.

483
00:33:32.860 --> 00:33:34.860
Like, yeah, but then He said He was good.

484
00:33:34.860 --> 00:33:37.860
You know, but the kid is like, Vivian's like, yeah, that sounds about right?

485
00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:40.860
Kids agree with it. Like, I would do the same thing.

486
00:33:40.860 --> 00:33:42.860
That sounds right.

487
00:33:43.860 --> 00:33:46.860
You know, it's amazing. He spared us and He sent Jesus to forgive us.

488
00:33:46.860 --> 00:33:49.860
Terrible for them. Good for me, though. I was born AD.

489
00:33:49.860 --> 00:33:55.860
So we boiled my son and ate him and I said to her on the next day, give you a son that we may eat him,

490
00:33:55.860 --> 00:33:57.860
but she has hidden her son.

491
00:33:57.860 --> 00:34:00.860
Now it happened when the king heard the words of the woman.

492
00:34:00.860 --> 00:34:03.860
He realized how bad it had become.

493
00:34:03.860 --> 00:34:05.860
This is for the people who are quietly suffering.

494
00:34:05.860 --> 00:34:09.860
This is for the people who feel like they're like a besieged city.

495
00:34:09.860 --> 00:34:11.860
And you feel like there's a soul agony.

496
00:34:11.860 --> 00:34:14.860
It's not for everybody here. If it's not for you, I'm so happy for you.

497
00:34:14.860 --> 00:34:21.860
Take good notes, though, because at least in the next year, you'll have to reference this once.

498
00:34:23.860 --> 00:34:29.860
He does an Old Testament thing of rending his garment, showing that he's all torn up on the inside,

499
00:34:29.860 --> 00:34:32.860
but you tear the external garment.

500
00:34:33.860 --> 00:34:38.860
He tore his clothes and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked and they're underneath,

501
00:34:38.860 --> 00:34:40.860
he had sackcloth on his body.

502
00:34:40.860 --> 00:34:42.860
Then he said,

503
00:34:42.860 --> 00:34:50.860
God do so to me and more also if the head of Elijah, the son of Shafat, remains on him today.

504
00:34:53.860 --> 00:34:57.860
He needs a scapegoat and Elijah the prophet was in.

505
00:34:58.860 --> 00:35:03.860
But Elijah was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him.

506
00:35:03.860 --> 00:35:06.860
And the king sent a man ahead of him.

507
00:35:06.860 --> 00:35:09.860
But before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders,

508
00:35:09.860 --> 00:35:13.860
it's pretty hard to sneak up on a prophet, right?

509
00:35:13.860 --> 00:35:17.860
That's what's trying to sneak up on the prophet and he's going, hey,

510
00:35:17.860 --> 00:35:20.860
do you see how this son of a murderer talking about the king?

511
00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:24.860
Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head?

512
00:35:24.860 --> 00:35:28.860
Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door,

513
00:35:28.860 --> 00:35:32.860
it's not the sound of his master's feet behind him.

514
00:35:32.860 --> 00:35:37.860
And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger coming down to him.

515
00:35:37.860 --> 00:35:41.860
And then the king said, surely this calamity is from the Lord,

516
00:35:41.860 --> 00:35:45.860
why should I wait for the Lord any longer?

517
00:35:45.860 --> 00:35:47.860
This is what the king is saying.

518
00:35:47.860 --> 00:35:49.860
Why should I wait?

519
00:35:49.860 --> 00:35:53.860
That word, wait in the Hebrew is a precious word.

520
00:35:53.860 --> 00:35:56.860
You know how many promises there are for those of us who will wait on the Lord,

521
00:35:56.860 --> 00:35:59.860
wait on the Lord, be of good courage, he'll renew your strength,

522
00:35:59.860 --> 00:36:02.860
wait, I say on the Lord over.

523
00:36:02.860 --> 00:36:06.860
I still always wonder for years, what does that mean to wait on the Lord?

524
00:36:06.860 --> 00:36:10.860
I mean, it's not the kind of like how you wait for the if train.

525
00:36:10.860 --> 00:36:15.860
The word wait in the Hebrew is actually the same word for a tassel.

526
00:36:15.860 --> 00:36:19.860
Have you seen Jewish people with tassels, tassels from their hips,

527
00:36:19.860 --> 00:36:23.860
tassels, and their strings intertwined?

528
00:36:23.860 --> 00:36:27.860
That's what the word wait means, it means to intertwine yourself with God.

529
00:36:27.860 --> 00:36:30.860
You know it when you've experienced it, when you're waiting on the Lord,

530
00:36:30.860 --> 00:36:34.860
you may not even be speaking, but your hope isn't him.

531
00:36:34.860 --> 00:36:37.860
You're reaching out to him, you sense him reaching out to you.

532
00:36:37.860 --> 00:36:41.860
He's in you, you're in him, you're like a tassel wound together.

533
00:36:41.860 --> 00:36:46.860
That's waiting on the Lord and the promises are great for those who will intertwine themselves

534
00:36:46.860 --> 00:36:48.860
like a tassel with the Lord.

535
00:36:48.860 --> 00:36:54.860
He, like what where many of us are tempted to do when things aren't going right,

536
00:36:54.860 --> 00:36:58.860
when we've had a delay in receiving the promise for too long,

537
00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:01.860
it's why should I even wait on the Lord any longer?

538
00:37:01.860 --> 00:37:03.860
I've lost my hope, I'm upset.

539
00:37:03.860 --> 00:37:06.860
Look what's happening in Samaria.

540
00:37:06.860 --> 00:37:10.860
And here's the word of the Lord.

541
00:37:10.860 --> 00:37:13.860
Then Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord,

542
00:37:13.860 --> 00:37:15.860
that says the Lord.

543
00:37:15.860 --> 00:37:17.860
Tomorrow.

544
00:37:17.860 --> 00:37:20.860
Tomorrow.

545
00:37:20.860 --> 00:37:25.860
Not next week, not next month, not next year,

546
00:37:25.860 --> 00:37:32.860
but tomorrow, about this time, within 24 hours.

547
00:37:34.860 --> 00:37:40.860
A seah, a fine flower shall be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel

548
00:37:41.860 --> 00:37:43.860
at the gate of Samaria.

549
00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:49.860
He's prophesying a total turn around within 24 hours that this wrecked besiege city

550
00:37:49.860 --> 00:37:53.860
where people are devouring each other is going to experience such an upturn

551
00:37:53.860 --> 00:37:56.860
and all of a sudden prosperity is going to flood the place.

552
00:37:56.860 --> 00:37:59.860
And an officer on whose hand the king leans,

553
00:37:59.860 --> 00:38:03.860
so somebody very important and high ranking next to the king,

554
00:38:03.860 --> 00:38:08.860
he says, and this is who you don't want to be like.

555
00:38:08.860 --> 00:38:13.860
And this is who we sound like many times in our head as a knee jerk response,

556
00:38:13.860 --> 00:38:17.860
but then we better get out of our head and into our spirit and agree with God.

557
00:38:17.860 --> 00:38:22.860
He says, look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?

558
00:38:22.860 --> 00:38:27.860
And then Elisha says, you hear how that's just dripping with doubt and unbelief?

559
00:38:27.860 --> 00:38:32.860
If the Lord could make windows in heaven, there's always that guy in your life too.

560
00:38:32.860 --> 00:38:34.860
That's why sometimes when you're going through,

561
00:38:34.860 --> 00:38:38.860
you don't only share it with people of faith because you shared with that doubting

562
00:38:38.860 --> 00:38:39.860
Thomas in your life.

563
00:38:39.860 --> 00:38:42.860
And they're going to say, I'm like, well, how is the Lord going to do that?

564
00:38:42.860 --> 00:38:45.860
And they want to always focus on the natural.

565
00:38:45.860 --> 00:38:48.860
You don't get the breakthrough promises of God focusing on the natural.

566
00:38:48.860 --> 00:38:50.860
You consider not like Abraham.

567
00:38:50.860 --> 00:38:53.860
You consider not your body already dead.

568
00:38:53.860 --> 00:38:55.860
You ignore what's happening in the natural.

569
00:38:55.860 --> 00:38:58.860
And you trust Hallelujah.

570
00:38:58.860 --> 00:39:01.860
This is the painful part of Christianity.

571
00:39:02.860 --> 00:39:06.860
That you have a promise from God and it's invisible, but you got it.

572
00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:10.860
And you're going to not pay attention to the natural.

573
00:39:10.860 --> 00:39:14.860
And you're going to pay attention to this invisible promise that he gave you.

574
00:39:14.860 --> 00:39:16.860
It's awesome.

575
00:39:16.860 --> 00:39:17.860
It's wonderful.

576
00:39:17.860 --> 00:39:18.860
It's thrilling.

577
00:39:18.860 --> 00:39:22.860
And it'll make you feel like sometimes you want to die.

578
00:39:22.860 --> 00:39:24.860
All at the same time.

579
00:39:24.860 --> 00:39:27.860
Hallelujah.

580
00:39:27.860 --> 00:39:30.860
Hallelujah.

581
00:39:30.860 --> 00:39:33.860
Thank you, Lord.

582
00:39:33.860 --> 00:39:35.860
Next verse.

583
00:39:35.860 --> 00:39:37.860
By the way, I got this.

584
00:39:37.860 --> 00:39:40.860
This whole, I was shocked to actually find it in the Bible.

585
00:39:40.860 --> 00:39:46.860
When City Light was about five months old, whatever March to August is,

586
00:39:46.860 --> 00:39:51.860
five, six months old, we had three people in our service.

587
00:39:51.860 --> 00:39:54.860
And it had started with 105.

588
00:39:54.860 --> 00:39:59.860
And we saw wonderful negative growth for the next few months until it landed on three people in the service.

589
00:39:59.860 --> 00:40:02.860
And just think about what that was like for me.

590
00:40:02.860 --> 00:40:06.860
Because I got saved at 16, was called to ministry two weeks later.

591
00:40:06.860 --> 00:40:10.860
And every decision I made, I fasted off it, I prayed, I went to Bible school.

592
00:40:10.860 --> 00:40:16.860
Every decision I made was to pioneer and found the church.

593
00:40:16.860 --> 00:40:21.860
So I've been waiting for this for 10 years and prepping and making decisions.

594
00:40:21.860 --> 00:40:26.860
And finally, after a decade, and then I launched City Light and nobody cares.

595
00:40:27.860 --> 00:40:30.860
And they stayed away by the thousands.

596
00:40:30.860 --> 00:40:32.860
And I'm stuck there.

597
00:40:32.860 --> 00:40:33.860
Big sounds.

598
00:40:33.860 --> 00:40:35.860
I mean, I could have a conversation with three people.

599
00:40:35.860 --> 00:40:38.860
We might as well go to the deli and get a coffee and talk about it.

600
00:40:38.860 --> 00:40:40.860
I have a whole sound system, all the whole set up.

601
00:40:40.860 --> 00:40:41.860
I'm still preaching.

602
00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:42.860
I'm waving my arms around.

603
00:40:42.860 --> 00:40:45.860
If anybody was looking at me like this guy's lost it.

604
00:40:45.860 --> 00:40:47.860
I'm preaching like there's a thousand people in there.

605
00:40:47.860 --> 00:40:50.860
There's three people in the service.

606
00:40:50.860 --> 00:40:55.860
And afterwards, I think it's safe if I confess that I was a little discouraged afterwards.

607
00:40:55.860 --> 00:40:57.860
I went for a jog.

608
00:40:57.860 --> 00:41:03.860
And as I'm jogging, crying out to the Lord in between exhalation puffs,

609
00:41:03.860 --> 00:41:05.860
I hear in my spirit,

610
00:41:05.860 --> 00:41:08.860
I'm the God of the turnaround.

611
00:41:08.860 --> 00:41:10.860
I'm the God of the turnaround.

612
00:41:10.860 --> 00:41:12.860
And the whole time I'm going, he's the God of the...

613
00:41:12.860 --> 00:41:16.860
I come back home, I'm going my concordance, and I'm trying to find...

614
00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:19.860
And I realized where he had spoken that phrase to me from.

615
00:41:19.860 --> 00:41:23.860
It was out of this whole thing that he will come in.

616
00:41:23.860 --> 00:41:25.860
He said about this time to where he will turn it around.

617
00:41:25.860 --> 00:41:27.860
And he did exactly that.

618
00:41:27.860 --> 00:41:30.860
In the natural how Lord are you going to turn it around?

619
00:41:30.860 --> 00:41:32.860
We have no money, we can't advertise.

620
00:41:32.860 --> 00:41:35.860
There's nothing I've exhausted everything that I could do.

621
00:41:35.860 --> 00:41:38.860
I was preaching on the subways, I've exhausted everything.

622
00:41:38.860 --> 00:41:40.860
Lord, if you open up windows in heaven,

623
00:41:40.860 --> 00:41:42.860
what are you going to rain down people?

624
00:41:42.860 --> 00:41:43.860
Yet he did it.

625
00:41:43.860 --> 00:41:46.860
Next week was in three people, next week was in.

626
00:41:46.860 --> 00:41:48.860
Then he did speak to me and said, get out of me.

627
00:41:48.860 --> 00:41:50.860
What are you doing in Midtown Manhattan?

628
00:41:51.860 --> 00:41:54.860
You know where the church was located in a 53rd street in 3rd Avenue.

629
00:41:54.860 --> 00:41:57.860
Where nobody lives, exactly nobody.

630
00:41:57.860 --> 00:42:01.860
Where anybody who's a Manhattanite wants to stay from that region,

631
00:42:01.860 --> 00:42:04.860
as much as possible, said, go into actual neighborhood,

632
00:42:04.860 --> 00:42:08.860
go into the East Village, which back in 02,

633
00:42:08.860 --> 00:42:11.860
the East Village had just morphed into becoming the East Village

634
00:42:11.860 --> 00:42:13.860
from being out of a bit city.

635
00:42:13.860 --> 00:42:15.860
And I know it is out of a bit city.

636
00:42:15.860 --> 00:42:17.860
If you're in Avenue A, you're all right.

637
00:42:17.860 --> 00:42:19.860
If you go to B, you're bold, if you're in C, you're crazy.

638
00:42:19.860 --> 00:42:22.860
That's what I knew it, but no, but it had changed now.

639
00:42:22.860 --> 00:42:24.860
And the Lord said, go, and that's how we landed there.

640
00:42:24.860 --> 00:42:26.860
And next thing you know, we start moving.

641
00:42:26.860 --> 00:42:29.860
And the God of the turnaround shows himself.

642
00:42:29.860 --> 00:42:30.860
Hallelujah.

643
00:42:32.860 --> 00:42:35.860
Now there were four leprosmen at the entrance of the gate

644
00:42:35.860 --> 00:42:39.860
and they said to one another, why are we sitting here until we die?

645
00:42:39.860 --> 00:42:41.860
This is all in the same one-day span.

646
00:42:41.860 --> 00:42:45.860
If we say we will enter the city, the famine is in the city.

647
00:42:45.860 --> 00:42:46.860
And we shall die there.

648
00:42:46.860 --> 00:42:49.860
And if we sit here, we die also.

649
00:42:49.860 --> 00:42:53.860
Now therefore come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians.

650
00:42:53.860 --> 00:42:55.860
If they keep us alive, we shall live.

651
00:42:55.860 --> 00:42:58.860
And if they kill us, we shall only die.

652
00:42:58.860 --> 00:43:02.860
And they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians.

653
00:43:02.860 --> 00:43:05.860
And when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp

654
00:43:05.860 --> 00:43:08.860
to their surprise, no one was there.

655
00:43:08.860 --> 00:43:14.860
For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots.

656
00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:20.860
And the noise of horses, by the way, there was no army in the natural.

657
00:43:20.860 --> 00:43:26.860
But the Lord had allowed the Syrian army who had besieged Samaria to hear noise.

658
00:43:26.860 --> 00:43:28.860
What did they hear?

659
00:43:28.860 --> 00:43:33.860
Was it Jehovah Sneaky just messing with their heads, making them hear sounds?

660
00:43:33.860 --> 00:43:35.860
No, he's too good for that.

661
00:43:35.860 --> 00:43:39.860
No, he just opened up their spiritual ears and they heard the chariots of heaven

662
00:43:39.860 --> 00:43:41.860
and the angelic host.

663
00:43:41.860 --> 00:43:44.860
And there are horses in it, but those of you wondering are there animals in heaven?

664
00:43:44.860 --> 00:43:47.860
Yes, Jesus comes in and a white horse, there's horses.

665
00:43:47.860 --> 00:43:50.860
And the Lord wouldn't leave those horses all lonely, just with horses.

666
00:43:50.860 --> 00:43:52.860
Hallelujah.

667
00:43:55.860 --> 00:43:58.860
Some of you are going to be so blown away when you get to heaven,

668
00:43:58.860 --> 00:44:01.860
asking questions like are there animals in heaven?

669
00:44:01.860 --> 00:44:04.860
And you get there and you're going to see creation in its fullest

670
00:44:04.860 --> 00:44:06.860
and realize what earth should have been all along.

671
00:44:06.860 --> 00:44:08.860
Hallelujah.

672
00:44:09.860 --> 00:44:12.860
Thank you, Jesus.

673
00:44:12.860 --> 00:44:16.860
The noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army.

674
00:44:16.860 --> 00:44:20.860
So they said to one other, look, the king of Israel has hired us,

675
00:44:20.860 --> 00:44:25.860
has hired against us the kings of the headteites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.

676
00:44:25.860 --> 00:44:28.860
They still can't believe what's happening.

677
00:44:28.860 --> 00:44:33.860
Therefore, they arose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact.

678
00:44:33.860 --> 00:44:36.860
Their tents, their horses and their donkeys.

679
00:44:36.860 --> 00:44:38.860
Ooh, donkeys.

680
00:44:38.860 --> 00:44:42.860
That's going to cause the price of donkey heads to crash in Samaria.

681
00:44:42.860 --> 00:44:45.860
Flood the market with those donkey heads.

682
00:44:45.860 --> 00:44:48.860
And they fled for their lives.

683
00:44:48.860 --> 00:44:52.860
And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp,

684
00:44:52.860 --> 00:44:59.860
they went into one tent and ate and drank and carried from its silver and gold and clothing.

685
00:44:59.860 --> 00:45:02.860
This is all happening outside of Samaria.

686
00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:06.860
And went and hid them.

687
00:45:06.860 --> 00:45:10.860
Then they came back and entered another tent and carried some, for there also,

688
00:45:10.860 --> 00:45:12.860
and went and hid it.

689
00:45:12.860 --> 00:45:14.860
Then they said to one another, they got a heavy review here.

690
00:45:14.860 --> 00:45:16.860
We are not doing right.

691
00:45:16.860 --> 00:45:19.860
This day is a day of good news and we remain silent.

692
00:45:19.860 --> 00:45:23.860
If we wait until morning lights, some punishment will come upon us.

693
00:45:23.860 --> 00:45:27.860
Now, therefore, come, let us go and tell the kings household.

694
00:45:27.860 --> 00:45:31.860
So they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them,

695
00:45:31.860 --> 00:45:36.860
saying, we went to the Syrian camp and surprisingly no one was there.

696
00:45:36.860 --> 00:45:40.860
Not a human sound, only horses and donkeys and the tents intact.

697
00:45:40.860 --> 00:45:45.860
And the gatekeepers called out and they told it to the king's household inside.

698
00:45:45.860 --> 00:45:48.860
So the king arose in the night and said to his servants,

699
00:45:48.860 --> 00:45:50.860
he doesn't believe what's happening.

700
00:45:50.860 --> 00:45:51.860
So he says, I know what happened.

701
00:45:51.860 --> 00:45:54.860
The Syrians, they're playing a trick on us.

702
00:45:54.860 --> 00:45:56.860
They know that we are hungry.

703
00:45:56.860 --> 00:45:59.860
Therefore, they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field,

704
00:45:59.860 --> 00:46:04.860
saying when they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive and get into the city.

705
00:46:04.860 --> 00:46:10.860
And one of his servants answered and said, please let several men take five of the remaining horses,

706
00:46:10.860 --> 00:46:13.860
only five horses left in Samaria.

707
00:46:13.860 --> 00:46:16.860
The title of this message is five horses left.

708
00:46:16.860 --> 00:46:21.860
This sermon goes out to those who only have five horses left.

709
00:46:21.860 --> 00:46:26.860
Look, they may either become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it

710
00:46:26.860 --> 00:46:37.860
or indeed I say they may become like all the multitude of Israel left from those who are consumed.

711
00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:39.860
So let us send them and see.

712
00:46:39.860 --> 00:46:45.860
Therefore, they took two chariots with horses and the king sent them in the direction of the Syrian army,

713
00:46:45.860 --> 00:46:46.860
saying go and see.

714
00:46:46.860 --> 00:46:54.860
And they went after them to the Jordan and indeed all the road was full of garments and weapons

715
00:46:54.860 --> 00:46:57.860
which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste.

716
00:46:57.860 --> 00:46:59.860
He's the God of the turnaround.

717
00:46:59.860 --> 00:47:02.860
So the messengers returned and told the king.

718
00:47:02.860 --> 00:47:07.860
Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians.

719
00:47:07.860 --> 00:47:11.860
So starving, destitute people, they got a prophetic word.

720
00:47:11.860 --> 00:47:14.860
Everything's going to change within a day, within a day it changes.

721
00:47:14.860 --> 00:47:19.860
And now they're plundering the Syrians who had heard a noise and abandoned all their stuff.

722
00:47:19.860 --> 00:47:28.860
So a Syah, a fine flower, was sold for Shekel and two Syahs of barley for Shekel according to the word of the Lord.

723
00:47:28.860 --> 00:47:30.860
He's the God of the turnaround.

724
00:47:30.860 --> 00:47:36.860
He loves, he delights in coming into your unique situation and turning it around.

725
00:47:36.860 --> 00:47:39.860
But if you quit, he can't turn it around.

726
00:47:39.860 --> 00:47:45.860
So you got to hang on and having during faith and have perseverance is it, but it hurts faster.

727
00:47:45.860 --> 00:47:48.860
Ah, you talked to me about it hurts. I know it hurts.

728
00:47:48.860 --> 00:47:53.860
I wish I could make a go away like this, but it's something you've got to work out with Jesus

729
00:47:53.860 --> 00:47:55.860
and sometimes there are agonizing times.

730
00:47:55.860 --> 00:47:59.860
Sometimes you endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

731
00:47:59.860 --> 00:48:09.860
The oil of joy is still available. His love is still available, but there are seasons where it's not fun.

732
00:48:09.860 --> 00:48:14.860
But you hold his hand anyhow, and you go, life sucks right now.

733
00:48:14.860 --> 00:48:20.860
You're good, but right now for whatever reason, I feel like that grape that's getting,

734
00:48:20.860 --> 00:48:25.860
but I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and do what you say do and do what I know is right.

735
00:48:25.860 --> 00:48:30.860
And I'm not gonna, I'm not going to draw back because we are not of those who draw back.

736
00:48:30.860 --> 00:48:35.860
We're those who keep going forward. Hallelujah.

737
00:48:35.860 --> 00:48:41.860
If I can prevent one person from forsaking, from giving up,

738
00:48:41.860 --> 00:48:47.860
I would feel satisfied that it's a job well done because you don't know what's on the other side of that.

739
00:48:47.860 --> 00:48:51.860
You want to give up. I want to end the pain.

740
00:48:51.860 --> 00:48:56.860
First of all, you don't end the pain by giving up anything. You just switch pains.

741
00:48:56.860 --> 00:49:00.860
But if you just continue with the Lord,

742
00:49:00.860 --> 00:49:05.860
you let him do what he wants to do, which is make something beautiful out of ashes.

743
00:49:05.860 --> 00:49:08.860
Hallelujah.

744
00:49:08.860 --> 00:49:15.860
Just the next verse is really important because remember that officer on whose hand the king leaned,

745
00:49:15.860 --> 00:49:18.860
that high ranking official.

746
00:49:18.860 --> 00:49:23.860
Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate.

747
00:49:23.860 --> 00:49:27.860
Remember the guy who had the report of doubt and unbelief?

748
00:49:27.860 --> 00:49:33.860
I said, even if the Lord opened up windows in heaven, how could the elicious word be true?

749
00:49:33.860 --> 00:49:36.860
But the people trampled him in the gate.

750
00:49:36.860 --> 00:49:40.860
They were like, free stuff running for the,

751
00:49:40.860 --> 00:49:44.860
and here's this guy probably in his fancy clothes, but he gets trampled in the gate.

752
00:49:44.860 --> 00:49:51.860
And he died just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came to him.

753
00:49:51.860 --> 00:49:56.860
The moral of that story is be believing, be not unbelieving. Amen.

754
00:49:56.860 --> 00:49:59.860
Hallelujah, worship team, come on up.

755
00:49:59.860 --> 00:50:07.860
I want you just to put your eyes on Jesus. If you want, lift your hands and say this, Lord Jesus,

756
00:50:07.860 --> 00:50:17.860
when you ask me to endure, that means that you are giving me the power and the strength to endure.

757
00:50:17.860 --> 00:50:22.860
By your grace, I will not go back. I will not quit.

758
00:50:22.860 --> 00:50:27.860
I will consider not the natural. I'm going to ignore my circumstances.

759
00:50:27.860 --> 00:50:30.860
My eyes are on you. My faith is on you.

760
00:50:30.860 --> 00:50:33.860
I believe that you're the God of the turn around.

761
00:50:33.860 --> 00:50:35.860
You will turn it around.

762
00:50:35.860 --> 00:50:41.860
In Jesus name, supernaturally, I believe I receive.

763
00:50:41.860 --> 00:50:43.860
Hallelujah.

764
00:50:43.860 --> 00:50:46.860
Hallelujah.

765
00:50:46.860 --> 00:50:49.860
A turn around in your family.

766
00:50:49.860 --> 00:50:53.860
A turn around in your finances. Yes.

767
00:50:57.860 --> 00:51:01.860
A turn around in your living situation.

768
00:51:01.860 --> 00:51:06.860
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

769
00:51:06.860 --> 00:51:10.860
Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

770
00:51:10.860 --> 00:51:13.860
This is the City Light Church podcast.

771
00:51:13.860 --> 00:51:20.860
If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church,

772
00:51:20.860 --> 00:51:26.860
visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.

773
00:51:26.860 --> 00:51:32.860
Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.

774
00:51:32.860 --> 00:51:40.860
We pray that you have been encouraged today. That you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace.

775
00:51:40.860 --> 00:51:47.860
Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.