How to Build a Daily Rhythm with God (Matthew 6) | Pastor Keith Pittman

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I want us to remain standing.

I want to go ahead and flow into the reading of our word today.

So if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter number six.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter six.

Thank you, Dominique.

That's God's word for us.

Today, at this time, I want to go ahead and dismiss our middle and high school students.

We have an amazing service with a great team that would love to serve and spend time with you so you guys can slip out and you can connect with your students at the end of service.

We're going to read from Matthew chapter six.

If you don't have a Bible, please see us at the end of service.

We would love to gift you with one.

But if you don't, it's okay.

It's going to come up on the screen in just a moment.

Looking at Matthew 6, the Bible says this, starting at verse number 5.

These are the words of Christ, and he says, And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in synagogues and at street corners, that there may be seen by others.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard by their many words.

Do not pray like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask.

But verse number nine, but when you pray, pray like this.

And if you're looking at our screen, I want us all to read this together because it's it's it's powerful and it's a reminder of something that's familiar.

So, verse number nine, starting at Our Father, one, two, three.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This is God's word for us today.

Can we give the Lord a praise in this place today?

Before you take your seats, I want us to stand in authority on something together as a community.

When we read passages like this and we look at the power of moments like this, I think every person that would say that Christ is the center of their life, that Christ is who we have fellowship with, we know that God is calling us to commune with Him.

I think we understand the power and the intimacy that is birthed from those powerful moments.

But the truth of the matter is life can sometimes be life in.

And sometimes we have distractions, and then we have the vacations, and then we have the struggles and things that can sometimes interrupt our rhythms with God.

And then oftentimes we start a Bible reading plan, and by the time we get to February or maybe March, it just seems to lose its steam, and we've lost momentum, and many times we don't even know how to begin to engage the presence of God again and how we find ourselves stuck in that rut.

But today I want to shift our focus and shift our attention and even shift our hunger just a tad bit by letting us know that if we can show up as our authentic self, that God is always willing to meet us exactly where he is.

So today we're gonna talk about building a rhythm daily in the presence of God that can transform our lives.

I've entitled today's message something really simple, two words.

Daily rhythms.

Somebody say daily rhythms.

Somebody say it with your chest.

Say daily rhythms.

Lord, we thank you so much.

We thank you for your word, we thank you for your presence, and we thank you for the invitation to spend time in communion with you daily.

Lord, I ask that you have your way in this space.

Holy Spirit, this is your church, these are your people.

So we ask that you just confront us, you encourage us, you challenge us, you sharpen us, but you draw us closer to you.

So Lord, I ask that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

High five, three people and say daily rhythm as you're taking your seats.

Daily rhythms, daily rhythms, daily rhythms.

Come on.

Come on.

Amen.

It is so good to see so many of you and and on such a pertinent, um, on such a pertinent Sunday back to school, which means that it's time for us to begin to shift our rhythms.

Many of us know that there is a there's a summer rhythm, there's a way that we move throughout the world and out space in a summertime, and then there's also the the rhythm when we got to get back to being fully functioning adults.

We got to get back into rhythm, we got to get back in the routine and get our focus back.

I I've been doing some reflecting on what this past summer has been for us in the Pittman household.

And honestly, it's it's been a little bit of a blur.

When I when I think about just the the spaces we found ourselves, the movements we've made, but it actually starts in the very beginning of the summertime.

In the very beginning of the summer, Megan decided to abandon her family and go to Greece for three weeks and left me behind all by myself to fend for myself.

You've heard that right.

Three weeks.

Three weeks left to fend for myself, to to comfort myself.

It was really a challenging time, but but we've been together, we've been together for 31 years.

31 years.

So I felt that I could handle the weight of us being apart for 21 days.

I think it was technically 19.

And so I remember when she first said to the idea, like, hey, I'm gonna go to Greece, it's part of our our college program we're connected to.

We actually went together a few years ago.

So I'm like, it's gonna be amazing.

And if I can be honest with you, I was kind of looking forward to it.

Don't tell her I said that.

She wasn't sitting in the first service.

I thought you were sitting out, but okay, I I wasn't looking forward to it.

I was grieving from the very moment, sackcloth and ashes from the very beginning.

But I remember about the first day in, dropped her off at the airport, and and I I rode back home, and I knew that I was in a new season because I rode back home.

I could let all the windows down because I didn't have to worry about her complaining about the wind, messing up her hair.

I let the windows down, I played the playlist.

I wanted to play.

I'm like, this is gonna be a great 19 days.

I get home and I begin to just kind of find my rhythm.

I'm finding my ways to move and and do things.

So day one was great.

Day two was absolutely incredible.

Day three, I thought was gonna be what the rest of them was.

I was great.

I was I was waking up early in the morning, my rhythms were great, but something happened around day four.

Day four was terrible.

I like I realized like that that I was missing my rib.

I was missing my my soulmate, and and and and what I thought was gonna be great was actually me longing to connect with my wife.

And what made matters even worse is that she was in Greece, so she was seven hours ahead.

So we didn't have a lot of times in which we could actually commune and talk.

So we had to be very creative about what our window of connection was going to be.

Because for us, oftentimes when her day was just getting started, I was still asleep, and then when my day was coming to an end, she was already sleep.

So we had to learn how to work our window.

And for a couple of days we were trying to find our rhythms, and and we finally we finally locked in, and and and when we finally got our rhythm, when we finally got a sequence, we're talking every day.

Some of those conversations were only about 30 minutes, but they were the highlight of my day.

See, I got it back.

You see that, babe?

I got it back.

I was looking forward to it.

And and if I could be real real with you, most of those conversations were about nothing.

She would call me and she would say, like, hey, this is what I ate today, look at the background, this is what we did today, and I would I would update her on what was going on in my life, and it was just simple, quick 32-minute conversations before she would go to sleep.

But it was the most important part of the day.

About halfway through, there was one day where we missed each other.

Just the sequence of events.

And in my mind, I was thinking, like, man, but I talked to her yesterday, but I missed that time to connect with her today because I learned a valuable lesson.

You can't store up intimacy.

There's something about needing to commune daily that deepens the bond that you have with someone.

I began to think about the importance of us having these moments of connections that that drove us deeper, whether their conversations were deep or shallow, it was an opportunity for us to connect together.

It occurs to me that many of us try to do with God what I could not do with my wife, and that is I can live off of yesterday's conversation.

I I can live off of yesterday's revelation in God's word.

But if we only understood that we're not meant to be sustained off of something that God said to us two years ago, that He has something new, that He wants to speak to us every single day.

And somewhere along the line, we begin to believe that that daily seems to be a bit excessive.

But what if I were to tell you that that daily is not meant to be a demand, but daily is actually an invitation.

That God is inviting us to sit at his table every day, and he's inviting us to show up.

Not as a version of ourselves that we believe that we're supposed to be, but the version of ourselves that's honest with who we are and where we are.

It's about relationship.

This is what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount, the text that we just read.

He's literally deconstructing the idea of what it means to be in connection with God, and he's showing that it's all about relationship.

It's not about performance, it's not about having it all together, but it's about showing up, knowing that God is inviting you to commune with him just as you are.

Now, here's the thing about when we're invited to sit at the table of the Lord.

Sometimes we we ask ourselves, well, how do I need to show up?

Anytime Megan and I are invited to go anywhere, two things run through my mind.

How do I need to dress and what do I need to bring?

How do I need to show up?

Is this a casual event?

Is this something that we need to bring something to?

I want to make sure that I show up with the best version of myself.

And so many of us are wondering that if God is inviting us to sit at his table, how are we supposed to show up?

There's a couple of principles in scripture that I think can help us as we're establishing our daily rhythm.

Here's the first thing when you show up at the table of Christ, make sure you come hungry.

Make sure you come with an expectation and preparation of what you believe God wants to speak and do.

Let's let's unpack this for a moment.

The children of Israel are about six weeks out of Egypt.

They are free for the first time in 400 years.

And the Bible says that they were starving, they were famished, they were hungry, they were looking for something to eat.

So in Exodus chapter 16, God does something that exceeds their comprehension or the vocabulary.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

He literally allowed manna or bread to rain down from heaven that became the sustenance that sustained them.

Now you have to understand they had never seen anything like this.

They had no way, uh, they had no category for it.

So the Bible says that when they looked at it, they said, What is it?

And they literally called it the question.

What is it?

Mana.

Mana literally means we don't know what it is, but somehow it is still sustaining us.

That question that they had of what is this stuck with them from day one.

What is this?

I don't know what it is, but but somehow it's sustaining us.

On day 10, manna.

I don't I don't know what this is, but but yet God is providing it to us, and and somehow it's it's sustaining us.

On day 100, we still don't have a category to define this, but somehow God is providing it and it's sustaining us on day 1000, on day 4,000, for 4,000 days, they were consuming something that God had provided that was sustaining them even in the wilderness season, and they didn't even know what to call it.

What is this?

The Bible tells us in Exodus or in Deuteronomy chapter 8 that Moses finally begins to define this experience they've been having for the past 40 years.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

And and what Moses says is that that God was showing up daily, one to develop your trust and dependency on him, but to also make sure that you knew that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that succeeds out of the mouth of God.

For the first time in 40 years, they had been consuming something that had been sustaining them.

And Moses said that God was using this to make sure that you understand that God was dependable, that you can trust Him, but to also make sure that you have a reliance on the word of God.

Moses says this so plainly.

He says that sometimes God will provide something to you that sustains you in seasons and you don't even know how to define it.

Allow me to preach to some people for some moments, because I think some of us, when we think about our lives and we look in the rearview mirror of seasons that we've gone through, we've said to ourselves in the position we're in now, I don't know how I got through that season, but somehow God sustained me.

I can think about many milestones in my life where I've had setbacks and challenges, even present day, and I don't know how I got through it, but somehow God sustained me.

I've gone through unemployment and yet our light stayed on.

Somehow God has sustained me.

I've gone through sickness in my body and yet God strengthened me, but somehow God has sustained me.

I've gone through betrayal in relationships, but God showed me that he sticks closer than a brother because God has sustained me.

I don't know about you, but I can think about the faithfulness of God, and I know that God has sustained me in seasons that I don't have a vocabulary or the ability to articulate how I got to where I'm at.

I don't even know how I'm standing on this platform right now because God is faithful and he sustains me.

He sustains me in the grief, he sustains me in the brokenness, he sustains me in the fear.

I don't have vocabulary for it, but God is faithful, he's sustaining me.

That's the faithfulness of God that he shows up in ways that we can't even articulate, but yet God's grace meets us when we get there.

The Bible shows us that the word of God is not something that's meant to be critically analyzed, but it's something that is meant to be consumed.

Jeremiah said, Your words were found, and I ate them, I consumed them.

David said, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

This is why David also says in Psalm 1 that he said, it is good when a person meditates on the word of God day and night.

Meditation is not deep reflection, but in Hebrew thought, meditation is literally consuming and growling over it the way that a lion does its prey.

That means that when we're literally meditating on the word of God, it is nourishing us and satisfying us, not draining us.

The problem is when we show up, we often don't have an appetite for the things that God wants to provide for us.

As a person who often cooks from our family, I know the difference between when my family shows up with an expectation to get something good to eat versus when they've already eaten before they got home.

Let me show you how it plays out in the Pittman household.

I'll get a text message from my children at different points and say, hey dad, what are you what are you cooking tonight?

That typically comes in between paydays after they spent all their money out running the streets and they don't have any options.

So they're saying, Dad, what are you what are you cooking tonight?

And I can always tell when they come into the house, they can smell the food, they're waiting, they're hovering, and they get their plate and they eat it very quickly.

You can always see the tension of that.

But you also know on a payday, they're out with their friends, they come home, the same food is available, but they don't have an appetite for it.

Same food, same ingredients, same amazing chef.

That would be me.

Um nothing's changed except their appetite has changed.

They've already consumed something that's causing them to miss out what's right in front of them.

The children of Israel, the Bible says that after 40 years of eating from this miracle food, they got to a point where they began to despise it.

Numbers chapter 11, they literally said, Hey, we remember back when we were in Egypt, we ate fish, we ate potted meat, we had we had leeks and onions.

Numbers 11 · chapter mention

This is what we began to eat, and now we're just out here eating this miracle from heaven that God is providing for us every day, and somehow that's no longer good enough.

I want you to recognize for a moment that God was providing a miracle for them every day, but they still had an appetite of bondage that God had delivered them out of.

It's interesting how they remembered the menu but somehow forgot the chains.

They had a hunger for the things of the world and lost an appetite for the things of God.

They were hungry for the food of a slave.

Let me say this again.

They were showing up to the space that God had prepared for them, and they didn't have an appetite for the things of God because they still were hungering for the things of the world.

Let me speak plainly.

Many of us are opening up our Bible and we will read it for four minutes and say that we don't get anything out of it, but we've been scrolling on TikTok for four days and we're wondering how come we're so full of the world that we can no longer have a desire for the things of God.

Let's let's shift our appetites a little bit.

There's nothing wrong with the menu.

Maybe there's something wrong with our appetites because whatever you feast on, you keep on, and it becomes the very thing that you begin to crave.

When you're so full of Egypt, you will despise the things that God has given to you from heaven.

But Jesus resets that by saying, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst, who have an appetite for the things of God, who desire the things of righteousness, who desire the things of holiness.

Jesus says, Blessed are they who actually will orient their lives around the things of God because they will be filled, they will be satisfied, they will be complete, they will be whole.

If this Bible feels flat to you, it's not because there's not enough seasoning in it.

Jesus cooked it perfectly.

Maybe it's because we're eating on things that are actually destroying us.

Maybe we're consuming things of the world and we have lost sight of the fact that it's actually not good for us.

I've lately been on this fitness journey, you probably can see it.

But yeah, I've been on this fitness journey a little bit, and I've been reading the labels more recently of the things that I've eaten, and I've been confounded as to why are we eating these ingredients?

Why are we allowed to eat these?

Why are these ingredients in our food in the first place?

It's so destructive, it's so terrible.

Why are we digesting something that is literally trying to kill us?

Pause.

Let me come over here.

Why are we consuming the things of the world knowing that it is literally destroying our souls?

Why are we consuming the things of the world knowing it's controlling our family?

Why are we consuming the things of the world thinking that somehow what we have in the world is better than what God can provide for us?

Taste and see that the Lord is good, but we have to shift our appetite and we have to come into the presence of God hungry.

How do we get our hunger back?

We fast.

We have to begin to disconnect from the systems of the world, from the appetite of the world.

We gotta turn down our plates, we gotta reorient our taste buds so that we can actually have a hunger for the things that God is saying.

This will nourish your very soul, but you gotta be willing to say no to some things so that you can say yes to the right things.

We gotta show up hungry.

But not only do we need to become hungry, we need to come honest.

Because I think sadly, when we think about what it means to be a follower of Christ, somehow it's turned into a performance.

We speak in these ways that we never talk.

Hey, how you doing?

I'm blessed and highly favored.

When do you ever talk like that?

I'm blessed and highly favored.

Blessed by the best, too good to be stressed.

Like, I mean, and I get it.

These these are declarations of the faithfulness of God.

I get it.

But but if I can be honest with you, sometimes there's a discrepancy between what God's word says and where I presently feel.

And Jesus was speaking to people, trying to help them to strip away the need to perform.

He said, Don't pray like the hypocrites do, acting like you got it all together, coming into the temple, coming into the synagogue, coming into the household of faith, and and and talking with all the spiritual language, the Christian needs, and quoting in Bible terms, and and and won't he do it, and all these things, and we're missing out on the authenticity of where we are.

The Bible says God is near those who are brokenhearted, but if I never present my broken heart to the God, I'm not inviting him into my brokenness.

God is saying, I need you to come to me honest.

Look at what Jesus says here.

He says, When you pray, I want you to pray like this.

Let me stop here for a moment.

He says, when you pray, that's the most obvious but overlooked statement in this text.

Because he's not saying if you pray, he says, when you pray.

Because in the mind of the Jewish person, the one that this text was written from, they assume that you know that we need to be people of prayer.

They assume that you know that this is.

A part of being in a devoted relationship with Christ.

So they're not even thinking they have to convince you that prayer is important.

They're like, you should already get that.

So we're gonna skip past that.

So when you pray, this is what prayer should look like.

Do you have a when we pray lifestyle?

Or are you living on a if we pray?

Jesus is inviting to something much closer.

And he says, When you pray, this is what I want you to pray.

I want you to pray from a place of relationship.

This is why he says, Our Father, who are in heaven.

He's framing it up right now and letting us know that God is our Father.

That we're in relationship with Him.

He's holy, He's set apart.

That He's above all, that He's He's in it, but He's above it.

He sees it.

It's understanding the pattern and the words that Jesus passed down to us, helping us to recognize the way that we can approach God, our Father who art in heaven.

You're holy, you're righteous, you're set apart.

Your kingdom come, God.

I just want your will to be done in my life.

Jesus lays it out because he doesn't want the lobby version of you when he's communing with you.

You know there's a difference between the lobby you and the car you.

The lobby you is the version of you that when someone sees you at church, hey, how you doing?

I'm good.

That's a default answer that we provide.

I'm good.

Things are going okay.

He doesn't want that version of you.

He wants that version of you that's in the car, that version of you that vents, that version of you that's disappointed, that version of you that can be honest and authentic because Jesus can handle it.

I remember being raised in a belief system that that conditioned me to believe that we're not supposed to have emotions in the presence of God.

I was raised in a belief system that says, don't question God.

God has it all figured out and you need to catch up to where he's at.

But the more and more that I read scripture, I see that people were able to be honest, authentic, they could have doubts, they could have fear, they could have anger, they could have frustration, they could have disappointment.

And God was big enough, watch this, to handle all of it because spoiler alert, he gave us the emotions in the first place.

They're meant to be indicators of where we are.

Look at Elijah.

Elijah, this incredible prophet who called fire down on a prophet's Baal, this incredible man of faith, of deep conviction.

But the moment that he was confronted and thought his life was on a line, he ran away, he was suicidal and on a space of despair.

And God met him there.

He says, Elijah, what are you what are you doing here?

Jesus is not trying to get information, he's trying to bring us to a place of formation.

Can you be honest and authentic with where you are?

Hear me, friends.

He would rather your honest anger than your polished silence.

He would much rather you be real with where you are.

Come honest.

And let me be honest with you, there are gonna be times when you position yourself to pray that you're not going to have the words to communicate what's on your heart.

There are gonna be times when things will literally take your breath away and you don't even know what scriptures to pull from.

Thank God that we have an advocate.

Because Romans 8 tells us that the Bible says that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that can't be uttered.

Let me speak to some of my family right now, because maybe we've thought that the Spirit of God was this mysterious force that just seems to be present.

But the Bible I tell not only tells you that he dwells amongst us, but he also dwells on the inside of us.

So when I have moments when I just don't know what else to say, the Bible says that the Spirit of God begins to intercede with things that I can't articulate, that God is interceding on our behalf.

So Paul says, I pray with understanding, and there are times that I pray in the spirit.

There are moments when I don't know what to say, so I just allow the spirit to pray through me, communing with the Father on my behalf, because sometimes I don't know what to say.

Sometimes I don't know what to do, but sometimes I can just say hallelujah and begin to pray in the spirit, and God will meet me exactly with where I am.

He'll intercede for my family, he'll intercede for my friends, he'll intercede for our church, he'll intercede for our staff, he'll intercede with those groanings that can't be uttered.

I don't have the vocabulary for it, but thank God that we have an advocate that knows how to intercede on our behalf.

We just have to position ourselves to let him pray through us.

We have to come honest.

But then there's a third way we need to come, and that means we need to come back because yes, we we need to make sure that for our daily rhythms as we establish them, that absolutely that we're gonna come honest, we're gonna come hungry, but we have to understand that we have to come back.

The power of our relationship with God is never built on the intensity, it is bent, is built on the consistency, the daily rhythm.

We keep coming back, we show up hungry, we show up honest, and we keep coming back.

And through that, somehow it deepens our intimacy with God.

Let's let's look at the text for a moment.

Because the Bible says that when God allowed the manna to rain down from heaven, that every day it was made available to them.

And so they would go out, they would gather what they needed for today, they would they would cook it, they would be creative with it, and then the next day they would go out and they would get it again.

It was a rhythm that God had created for them to recognize that God was dependable, but also wanted to develop a rhythm of them of learning how to trust and depend on God.

Gather what you need for today because something new is coming tomorrow.

Why would God do that?

The God who's the creator of the universe, the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who has all power in his hands.

It's because God was developing something on the inside of them and also for us to help us to understand that he is reliable, that every morning that God was going to meet their needs that day, that they didn't have to live with a scarcity mindset.

Coming out of Egypt, they never knew what their next meal was going to be.

They never knew when they were going to get off work.

They were in a system that continuously worked for them and they didn't know what to expect.

So to break them out of that system, God was showing that you can rely on me.

As long as you show up, everything you need will be provided for you.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Let me show up for you every day.

And just like human nature, they still were filled with fear and greed and scarcity, so they tried to break the system.

So people began to gather more than they needed because they still didn't trust that God was going to provide for them the next day.

And the text literally tells us that the parts that they did not eat, that it literally rotted by the morning, and the worms began to eat it, and it began to smell.

Hold on to that.

They gathered more than they needed.

That abundance actually began to spoil, and it began to create an aroma that actually permeated into the environment so they could learn that they could trust God.

It stunk.

It made me think about the distinction between a rut and a rhythm.

See, a rut is when I'm trying to live off of yesterday's manna, even though I know it no longer will sustain me.

But a rhythm is me showing up every day knowing that God's mercies are renewed every single day.

No matter what comes my way, I know that God is going to provide.

Let me speak plainly.

There are some of us that are living off of a word that God gave us two years ago.

And God met us at that altar.

He spoke a word to us that was meant to anchor us in our soul, but we have gotten it so twisted if we believe that God doesn't have something new that He wants to speak to you.

He says, Behold, I do a new thing.

Can you not perceive it?

Why are we living off of yesterday's banner when God is saying, I don't want you to live off of spiritual leftovers.

I have something new that I want to do in your life today.

This is what Daniel does when he becomes and begins to demonstrate what it looks like to be a man of persistent prayer.

The Bible says that he prayed three times a day, every single day.

He had a rhythm of seeking after God every single day.

And when they passed a decree that said that they're not supposed to pray to Yahweh anymore, Daniel did what he always did.

He continued to pray.

Watch this.

Him being threatened didn't create a prayer life, it exposed a prayer life that already existed.

What if we became people that says that I pray every day?

I have an expectation that God is going to meet me every single day.

I know that when I wake up today, God's going to meet me.

And when I wake up tomorrow, God's going to meet me exactly where I am.

God did not start speaking, we stopped gathering.

This is why Psalm 119 says that your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Look at the words.

It's a lamp, not a floodlight.

That means that He's going to give you enough illumination for you to take your next step.

And then I'll show up the next day, and He's going to give me enough illumination to take my next step.

Stop living off a revelation of the past and start showing up every day, knowing that God has created a fresh revelation for us today.

But let me be honest about this revelation.

Because sometimes we will open up our Bibles and we won't feel anything.

Sometimes we will pray and we won't get the chills.

We won't have that Holy Spirit breakthrough moment.

But even though we don't feel it, God is still very much present.

There were times when the children of Israel were in Egypt and God showed up and opened the doors and allowed them to walk out on dry ground.

Then they were in the wilderness, and while they were in the wilderness, they were complaining, but the manna was still there.

They were dealing with opposition, but the manna was still there.

They were dealing with rebellion and the manna was still there.

There were moments when they were having this spiritual high and the manna was there.

There were moments when they were at their low and the manna was still there.

The manna kept showing up because God is faithful no matter what the condition of our situation is.

So the part that we play is I'm not allowing my connection with God to be governed by my feelings.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to show up when I open up the Bible and I get something out of it, and I'm going to show up even when I don't feel like I'm getting anything out of it.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to show up when I feel like the bed is calling my name and I don't feel like waking up this morning.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to keep showing up when the house is loud and I can't even seem to find a quiet corner for me to have a thought to myself, but yet I'm going to show up with that version of me.

I'm going to keep showing up even when I'm running late and the day already seems like it got away from me.

But in the car, while I'm driving, I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to keep showing up when I don't feel anything because I know that the manna is there because God is faithful.

I'm going to keep showing up even when I blew it last night and I committed a sin that I know that I shouldn't have done.

But I know that God says I can come boldly into his presence because his grace is always before me.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to keep showing up when I've been praying about something for years and I still don't get my breakthrough, but I still know that God is faithful.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to show up even when I'm angry, because I'm dealing with disappointment that I shouldn't be standing him.

But I know that God is still good.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to show up even while I'm in the midst of grief.

Because I'm walking through some things that I never should be walking through.

But God is with me.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to keep showing up when I've been faithful.

I'm going to keep showing up when I've missed the mark.

I'm going to keep showing up when the enemy is whispering in my ear and trying to convince me that God is not with me.

But the devil is a liar because the Bible says he will not leave me nor forsake me.

Because God is faithful.

I'm going to keep showing up.

I'm going to struggle when I feel like him.

I'm going to show up when I don't.

I'm going to struggle when I feel strong.

I'm going to struggle when I feel weak.

I'm going to struggle when I feel holy.

I'm going to follow when I feel carnal.

I'm going to keep showing up because his mercies are renewed every morning.

And I'm not going to miss my appointment in the presence of God.

I'm not going to miss the grace that I need in the presence of God.

I'm not going to miss the strength that I need in the presence of God.

God is faithful.

We just got to keep showing up.

We gotta keep showing up.

And when we show up, God shows up.

And when God shows up, it shifts the atmosphere.

He reminds us that I don't have to battle.

It's in my own strength.

In fact, the word of God reminds me that the battle is not yours, it belongs to the Lord.

And the enemy's trying to convince you that you're fighting a battle on your own.

But the devil is a liar.

Keep showing up.

You keep pulling up.

You keep trusting God.

You keep serving.

You keep giving.

You keep showing up.

You keep serving.

You keep giving.

In the midst of the confusion, you keep showing up because God will meet you there.

We keep showing up.

Jesus, when he was talking with his disciples and he's revealing to them about this idea of the manna from heaven, he he shifts it and he says, I am the bread of life.

It's me.

So this whole entire time, when they've been learning about the Passover, when they've been learning about the manna that was coming down from heaven every morning, that was simply a metaphor that was pointing to Jesus.

Jesus is the one who sustains us every day.

Jesus is the one that gets us through our seasons and we don't understand how we got there.

Jesus is the one who meets us where we are.

He's the one that actually is the source of our very lives.

Jesus is the one.

So so maybe we've been in a space where we've been hungering for things other than Jesus.

And every morning we wonder why I have been consumed in chasing after the things of the world, and I somehow still feel empty.

Jesus is saying because we've been drinking from the wrong cup and sitting at the wrong table.

But if you can show up daily and accept the invitation that Christ makes available for us, it changes everything.

God is faithful.

Jesus is faithful.

We're gonna go into worship.

And I want to invite everybody to stand on their feet.

Because what I know is this I'm not the only one walking through difficult times.

I'm not the only one who's working through some things.

And yet, the same source that strengthens me is available to you.

The same bread of life, the same nourishment.

He's available to all of us.

He's inviting us to sit at his table and we need to just show up every day.

If you're in here right now, and you're just going through a difficult season.

Whatever that may be, just challenges, whatever.

I just I just want you to slip a hand up because I want to pray for us.

You can slip a hand up.

I'm just going through a difficult time.

I'm just going through some challenges.

I'm going through some opposition.

If your hand is lifted up, I want to invite you to come down to this altar.

Just just come on down, come on down, come on down, just come on down.

We just believe the altar is the is a meeting space with God.

It's an opportunity for us to come into the presence of God and experience his grace and peace.

There's nothing magical about it, but there's something supernatural about us stepping out in faith.

We can squeeze in a little bit.

I'm gonna ask any of our elders or our prayer leaders to come in behind and just begin to lay hands.

I want to lead us in a moment of of prayer.

But I want to give us some space to calm down.

We can come on and squeeze in.

We're we're all we're all families, okay?

Where we're our our elders and our prayer leaders are they are they amongst us?

I just want us to begin to work through.

Cassie, I want you to pray for us as well.

I just want to encourage us.

That God is faithful.

That's it.

And and I know that sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

I know that sometimes it feels overwhelming, but the manna from heaven is available to us right now, and that is Jesus.

And our belief, our conviction is that when we show up, that manna, it sustains us no matter what season we may find ourselves in.

Let's lift our hands to heaven.

And if you're in the seats, and I want you to extend a hand as we invite the presence of God into this moment, Lord, you see the tears, you see the grief, you see the burdens, you see the struggles that are here at this altar.

And Holy Spirit, I just pray that you begin to move amongst every single one of us that are in our community.

That Lord, you see where we are, you see what we're walking through, you see our disappointment, you see our struggle, and we sometimes have lost the vocabulary to express where we are.

So, Father, we pray in the spirit.

So, God, I just ask that you begin to move amongst your people.

And Father, right now I intercede for those who need healing in the name of Jesus.

Allow the bread from heaven to heal in the name of Jesus.

I command for every burden to be broken off of the people of God in Jesus' name.

I pray against every distraction in the name of Jesus.

Father, we come against the spirit of depression in the name of Jesus.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, and we command for depression and anxiety to be broken off in the name of Jesus.

God, we pray for healing over the people of God, physical healing, anyone dealing with sickness in their body, anyone dealing with diabetes, anybody dealing with any broken conditions, Father, we command for the body to come into alignment with the way that you've created, and we demand healing in the name of Jesus.

You are loose from the infirmity in Jesus' name.

Father, we touch and agree and believing that if we can touch the hem of your garment, that wholeness is available.

Father, we pray for spiritual healing for those who are dealing with spiritual wounds and trauma and mental issues.

God, we come against it right now and we pray that you heal, that you restore, that you allow reconciliation to come forth, God.

Give us the ability to establish boundaries, give us the ability to show up daily with a dependency that you're gonna meet us exactly where we are.

In the name of Jesus, we don't have to pray in our own strength, we don't have to pray with our own power, but we know that with God, all things are possible.

So, Father, we come against the lies of the enemy that told us that we will never get through this season that we're in.

The devil's a liar, we're healed in Jesus' name.

The curse is broken in the name of Jesus.

We're walking in wholeness in the name of Jesus.

We declare for the presence of God to take up residency in every one of our lives, Father.

Lord, I pray that you do a deep inventory on the inside of us, do a deep work on the inside of us and remove anything that's not like you, God.

Shift our appetites for the things of God.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, God, purge us of the impurities of this world and give us a hunger for the things of God.

God, help us to be holy, help us to be righteous, help us to walk in alignment with you in the name of Jesus, God.

Help us to be honest with where we are and who we are, and knowing that you can meet us where we are, God.

And Father, help us to be diligent and showing up every day.

No matter what's going on, God, we show up every day, we worship every day, we serve every day, we worship every day, we read your word every day, and God, we just lift up our hands and we lift up our voices with an expectation that you're gonna inhabit the praises of your people.

So, God, do a deep work, do a healing work.

Help us, God, in the name of Jesus.

We cry out, Ah, but Father, Lord, we need you.

Let the revival start in us, let the revival start in our homes, let the revival start in our communities, let the revival start in our church, let the revival start in our jobs, let the revival start amongst us, Father.

Allow this fire to spread that brings transformation to everyone we come in contact with.

We trust you, God, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

The name that's above every name, it's in the name of Jesus that we pray, the name that demons tremble at, in the name of Jesus we pray, the name that has all authority and healing and freedom.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.