You're Worth The Search (Luke 15) | Pastor Keith Pittman

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Worth the search.

Many of you that are part of our community are probably aware of this, but but my family and I, we are we're in the process of still like recovering from our recent move.

Just last week we we moved to a whole nother area of town.

And and and I gotta tell you guys, like people have been asking, um, how's the move?

How's things going with the move?

And I'm gonna tell you exactly how the move is.

The move has been rough.

It's it's it's been challenging.

It's it's it's something about when you live in a space for six and a half years, ish is how long we've been in our previous home, and then you need to pack up and then go to another space.

It really challenges your life choices.

Like, why did we buy this furniture?

It's so heavy.

Why why do we have all of these items?

There seems so unnecessary.

The process of trying to purge, what do you keep?

What do you get rid of?

And then you have people that are helping you when you feel like they're also judging you because it's like, why do you have so many shoes?

I'm like, why do you have so many questions?

Like it's it's it's all of these things that are kind of woven in at the same time.

And we've been blessed because we've had amazing support and community that came alongside and helped us, people that helped us clean our old house, people that helped us to pack up the truck and move things.

So we're really, really grateful for it.

But there's that moment where it really becomes real because our last two times that Megan and I had moved, when our families moved, they were like corporate moves.

And if you don't know what a corporate move is, that means that the corporation paid for the move.

So that means that they paid for the movers.

And so we got movers that came in and literally packed your stuff up for you and unpacked it for you when you got to the new house.

I'm talking about next level stuff.

The church friends I have, they weren't doing all that.

They showed up and they said, Listen, we're gonna lift it here, put it there, and then we're gonna put it down and we're out.

So there's that moment of after being out of sorts of knowing what it feels like to actually unpack boxes, like after the last person leaves, after the last person, you see the break lights go, and you turn around, and now it seems as if we're stuck in a house with unlimited boxes, just endless boxes as far as the eye can see.

And that's when the hard work kicks in.

So for the past several days, we've been just trying to sort things out, make sense of our lives, and it's been a little bit overwhelming.

But I knew that the first thing we needed to do as a family is to first at least set up our secure home base, which making sure everybody's bed is intact.

So I set up our bed because that's priority number one.

I was exhausted, but I said, if my bed's not set, nobody's gonna rest.

So I had to make sure that our bed was set.

Then the nearest bed was set, and so now we had to work our way towards Caleb's room.

And so we had everything laid out everything, the headboard, everything, all the sides there, everything was in place.

And as we were beginning the process of assembling this last bedroom set to make sure we all could at least rest that first night we were in a home, it occurred to us we had no idea where the screws were for his bedroom set.

Now, for all the other bedroom sets, we had beautiful Sharpies and we put all the screws inside of the ziploc backs, taped it to the back to ensure that there would be no no possibility of it getting lost.

But somehow, with with all the moving, with all the pacing, we have no idea where the screws are for his his bed.

Now we have the dresser, we have the headboard, we have everything that we need, but we don't have those stupid screws.

Something so small, something so insignificant, something so unseen, and yet it is the very thing that holds it all together.

How is something so small yet so important?

How is something so unseen, how does it carry so much weight?

It makes me think a lot about questions that I've asked of myself at different moments.

Because there have been seasons of my life where I felt like extra parts.

There have been seasons of my life where I felt like I was those screws that could just easily get arbitrarily thrown away.

But I believe that that God was reminding me, and by virtue, I'm reminding you that don't despise small beginnings.

The Bible reminds us and tells us that God takes pleasure in those things.

And so sometimes when we view as something as being small or insignificant, could actually be the very thing that holds it all together.

You may feel like you're insignificant in your family, but you may be the very thing that's holding it all together.

You may feel like you're insignificant at your place of work, but you may be the very vessel that's holding it all together.

Jesus has a He has a practice of spending time with those people that the religious narcissists have a tendency to look down on.

He has a tendency to sit with the people that everybody else seems to want to avoid.

He sits with the extra parts, he sits with those screws that you don't quite know what to do with.

And so the disciples are sitting with Jesus, but the Pharisees and the religious leaders are they're coming to Jesus and they're saying, Listen, if you were as religious as you say you were, you would not be spending time with these people.

These are extra parts.

These are those screws that you actually don't need.

They're so insignificant.

And Jesus is, by virtue, explaining to them, if you only could see them the way that the kingdom does.

So Jesus gives them three parables or three illustrations to show them the heart of God, to show them who God does value and who God is willing to pursue.

He talks about the lost sheep and how he's willing to leave the 99 to pursue the one.

But then he also now begins to talk about this coin, but it's so much more than that.

Because when Jesus is giving these illustrations, he is trying to connect people to the heart, the mind, and the hands of God.

He's literally revealing the character and nature of God through the people that he's choosing.

So let's take a moment to examine who did Jesus choose to use to be a conduit of the grace and love of God.

First, we have a shepherd.

The shepherd is willing to go out and pursue the sheep.

And for that community, you have to understand that that a shepherd, that it was a it was a decent job, but it wasn't a respectable job that the aristocrats would have.

So even Jesus choosing to associate himself with something so menial was revealing something about the nature of God.

But now it takes a step even worse.

Because watch this.

Jesus chose to connect the very character, the identity, the personality of God to a woman.

Let that settle for a moment.

Because there's been age-old debates about who is worthy of God to use as a vessel in order to reach people.

And continuously, when you read the gospel, the code is right there in front of us that continuously God is using women.

I thought the ladies would be a little bit more happy about that.

I thought sisterhood was strong in celebration or landing.

Let's back up.

Let's try this again.

Over and over again in scripture, we see that God uses women.

Where was that 20 seconds ago?

We could have used that.

We see it over and over again that God is using these women to communicate a very strong message that God is willing to use any vessel that is willing to be obedient to what he's calling them to do.

He's confronting the very hierarchy, patriarchy that people were used to seeing by sending them and saying, listen, the very woman that you would overlook, the very people that you consider to be property, is the very vessel that I'm going to use to demonstrate God's love towards his people.

This woman.

This is not pocket lent for that context, for that culture, or for this individual.

As I stated, women were considered to be property back then, so they very rarely had a lot of wealth.

Maybe there were some resources that were passed down from their father that was maybe a part of their dowry, but their only hope could ever be is that one day that maybe they will find a husband and get married.

But but Jesus is saying that this woman has value.

She has something that has significance to her.

And ultimately what he's communicating is that this thing that has deep meaning to her ends up getting lost, but it hasn't lost its worth.

I believe for some of us, we have confused loss with less for far too long.

We've gone through seasons where maybe we felt lost, but that doesn't make you less.

You may feel like, man, I I got this divorce, Keith, and now I feel like less of myself.

I'm struggling with this addiction, and now I feel like less of myself.

I'm going through depression and I feel like less of myself.

I went through a season where I've drifted and got away from the things of God, and somehow I feel unworthy.

But listen to me, just because the coin is lost doesn't mean that it's lost its value, it's just lost its place.

But it can quickly be redeemed.

A wedding ring is still valuable even when you lose it.

Amen to that.

Location doesn't change your value.

And Jesus says that if she loses one, and this is something that's so so powerful, but it's also so subtle.

He says if she loses one, she's gonna go through great efforts in order to find it.

That means this.

It means that if she loses one, she notices it.

That that if she loses one, that it's not an insignificant thing.

If she loses one, she doesn't view it as, well, I got nine others, so I should be okay.

I'm not gonna worry about it right now.

It says that if she if she loses one, she's gonna go through, she's gonna go through everything she has to do in order to recover that one.

And this speaks exactly to where I believe many of us are today.

It speaks to that quiet invisibility that exists within all of us because the coin was in the house, it was lost, it was unseen, but it didn't mean that it didn't have value, which means it was missing and it was noticed.

And for some of us, we may feel I've been drifting for so long.

Does anybody even notice?

It means I'm in a household with a significant other, but I don't even know what it feels like to have a hug.

It means feeling like you're in a relationship, and yet somehow you still find yourself being unknown.

It means being in a room full of people, and you're still thinking, if I didn't show up, would anyone even care?

And Jesus answers that with one detail He notices it.

He notices your tears, he he notices your frustration, he he notices the anxiety, he notices the restless nights, that even though there may be people in your world who don't see the nuances of the things that you struggle with, I want you to know that heaven sees it, keeps counting, that God knows he sees you, he notices your pain, he notices your disappointment, and he reaches for you, he comes for you, he wants to bring you closer to him.

This parable isn't meant to be just for evangelism, but it's meant to bring us back to a place of total resurrection inside of Christ.

He notices you.

It makes me think about when Jesus, when when God was speaking to Moses and He was telling him that it was his time to now redeem the people of Israel.

One of my favorite lines in Exodus 3 is when God is speaking to Moses from the burning bush, and he says, I have seen the oppression of my people.

I I have heard their cries, and today I'm going to personally get involved.

I don't know who needs to hear that right now, but let me speak out of the unction of the Spirit.

God sees your oppression, he has heard your cries, and by the name of Jesus, he's going to personally get involved.

He's going to personally get involved and begin to set some things right.

This is the God that we serve and the God that we love.

He personally gets involved.

He does not outsource the rescue mission.

The text tells us that when we look at it, that when she realizes that something is missing, that she springs into action and she does some practical things.

The first thing she does is the text tells us that she lights a lamp.

Whenever a coin goes missing, that the first thing you do is you you light a lamp up because in the first century homes there was not a lot of windows, there was no, there was no ceiling fans with fancy lights there, like it was dark.

And the only way that you could see things is if you brought things into the light.

Hear this, because it's possible that what you're looking for is not outside of the house, it's actually hidden in the shadows in the corners of your very own home.

But you got to be willing to bring it to the light.

Because sometimes what's valuable is lurking in the shadows, but we got to bring it to the light.

The things that are keeping us hidden from walking into the fullness of what God has for us isn't what's happening out there, but it's happening in here.

But we got to be willing to bring it to the light because inside of all of us, there's those shadows.

And those shadows look like the grief that we never processed.

Those shadows look like the shame that we have never put a name to.

The shadows become the things and the pressure that we normalize.

It's the it's the anxiety that we've never quite healed from, it's the disappointment that we buried deep on the inside of us, and we convinced ourselves that we gotta move forward, and we believe that that's somehow a reflection of strength.

The shadows become the secret coping mechanism that started off as relief, but now somehow is turned into a chain.

Family, I've come to recognize that some people aren't lost because they're rebellious, they're lost because life got dim.

It's because things got relegated into the shadows, that things got hidden under the darkness.

So, so what does God do in these moments?

He doesn't stand at the distance and yell, I hope you can find your way back.

He doesn't stand at a distance and scream.

You need to get yourself together because because judgment is coming.

Jesus doesn't do these things, but what he does is he brings light.

The Bible says that in him is light and it is the life of men.

The Bible says that in him there is truth and it is life.

In other words, when Jesus shows up, he brings things to life.

But I want you to understand this that when he shows up in truth, he doesn't do it to humiliate, he does it to illuminate.

His presence doesn't punish, it pursues.

This is why Psalm 119, 105 says, That your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path.

Scripture refers to him as being the light, the one who illuminates, the one who brings clarity, the one who orders our steps, the one who helps us to recognize when we need to go straight and narrow.

He brings light.

The Bible says that the woman, when she recognized something was lost, that she brought light into the picture because we gotta bring light into the areas where the shadows have tried to overcome it.

We have to confront the light.

But then there's another thing that it says that while she has this light, she then begins the process of sweeping.

It says that there's a light to hopefully illuminate the areas of darkness, and then she begins the process of sweeping the floor.

You see, the thing about dust is that it's uh it's really, really, it really can be a little disheartening when you actually do the analysis on what dust is.

Because, like, you know, you can Google it or Chat GPT, it whatever your preference is, but you'll see that a lot of times dust is actually like just like dead skin cells that we're shedding.

So it's like that's what we see, the accumulation of skin cells, and we wipe it off, and it's really odd and eerie, but but watch this dust is simply dead things that are covering over living things.

Something that has died that is covering life.

She's going through the home, trying to sweep away the dead things that are keeping the valuable things hidden.

She's walking through the home, and when you begin to sweep, it gets messy sometimes.

When you begin to sweep, it can get disorienting.

When we were cleaning out our house and we were at a point where virtually everything was gone, I have one of those leaf blowers, and I was in the garage and I was like, okay, let me just do this leaf blower thing.

And as I turn it on, I thought that the ground was fairly clean.

And all of a sudden, dust just starts flying up everywhere.

It's hit me in the face, and I'm literally finding things that we had lost years ago.

Just all kinds of random things that are just now scattered all over the place.

Because now that the dust has been removed, we can actually see what is beneath the surface.

Because the thing about when you begin to sweep, when you begin to remove dust, it can become very overwhelming and become very disorienting.

And some of us, we have confused the storm in our life with the enemy, but it might be just God stepping into your world, sweeping some things up.

When we're praying and asking God to give us healing and redemption, we got to be careful that when we pray that prayer, that when Jesus shows up, he often shows up with a broom.

He says, Okay, you want me to bring life, but I'm gonna have to sweep some dead things out of the way in order for me to show you what the life is right beneath the surface.

I know you think you're dead, I know you may think you're buried, but I promise you there's a resurrection power beneath all of this.

But I gotta first begin to remove the dead things that have been covering it up for so long.

And so often what happens when we experience that, we begin to shrink back.

Or we can misidentify it and think it's an attack of the enemy.

But maybe, just maybe, the very thing that you're seeking God for requires you to get a little uncomfortable.

Because the truth of the matter is, many of us we want to be found, but we don't want to be disturbed.

We want peace, but we don't want the process.

We want freedom, but we don't want to do inventory.

But Jesus shows up, and God's mercy looks like disrupting our normal patterns, disrupting our rhythms.

Things that we used to be content with.

God may be sweeping some things up and saying, I don't want you going into those environments anymore.

I don't want you hanging out with those friends anymore.

Why are you still going to that place?

There's no life in it anymore, and I'm trying to remove the dust so you can see the value that is beneath the surface.

Jesus is pursuing all of us, but it requires us to be okay with him coming in and doing a clean sweep of every area of our heart.

So now we have light, we have a broom, and the Bible says she begins to look carefully.

Another translation may say diligently.

That means not violently, not impatiently, not annoyed, but carefully, meticulously.

She begins to look around, trying to find the very thing that is of value that maybe has been lost.

When God shows up into your world, his desire is not to harm you, but is to is to diligently and carefully evaluate every area of your life so that he can bring your value to the surface that we've allowed the world to cover it up.

God doesn't handle people like machinery, he handles you like treasure.

And then there's something that's so powerful in this text, and I hope it says it in your translation, but it says that that he searches until she finds it.

Somebody say until.

She searches until she finds it.

That word until is not just a filler.

That word is theology.

That word is the heart of God.

Because some of us may believe that God will search me until he gets frustrated, that God will seek me until I do something that frustrates him.

That God will love me until I I've fallen back into that sin.

That maybe he searches me for a season.

He'll search me until it's inconvenient.

He'll search for me until I've somehow missed the mark.

But he searches until.

He searches until you are found.

He searches until you are whole.

He pursues you until you are freedom.

I need someone to hear this, and I'm confronting a lie of the enemy right now.

God is not disappointed with you.

That God is for you.

So that means that even when you relapse, he's with you until.

That means that when you start resisting, he's with you until.

That even when you find yourself going through numb moments, he loves you until.

He doesn't abandon you when it gets hard because he loves you until, until what?

Until you respond, until you receive, until you're willing to recognize that God is for you, which means that nothing can be against you.

Listen to me, family.

God has not given up on you.

People walk out on you, but God stays.

Friends get tired, but God keeps searching.

Maybe you got weary, but God remained faithful.

And if the enemy is whispering, you've gone too far, I'm here to announce to your soul you have not gone too far because God is searching you until you come back home.

Until things are made right, until we see wholeness, until we see freedom, until we see his kingdom come.

Come.

God has an until mindset when it comes to you.

This is the gospel message.

Because right now I know that we're living in an era where God is angry, his wrath is coming, and there will come a time when Jesus does return.

And for those who have not responded to this gospel message, there will be a judgment.

But I need you to hear me because we're amongst the land of the living.

God is still searching for you until that Jesus didn't outsource this message.

He showed up himself.

He could have easily sent an angel, he could have easily sent someone on his path, he could have easily delegated this.

But he stepped down off of the throne of glory, wrapped himself in humanity, carried a cross, died in your place just to let you know I love you until you're willing to respond to that love.

That is what the gospel message is.

Not because you earned it, not because you deserve it, but I love you because you represent me.

And the Bible says that when this person is found, that it turns into a celebration.

There's nowhere in the text that it says that when she finds the coin, she looks at the coin and says, Look at how dirty you've gotten.

There's no point in the text in which she says you shouldn't have fallen there in the first place.

How did this happen to you?

Why didn't you stick with the rest of the group?

It says that she finds it and she literally goes out and calls for her friends and has a celebration to celebrate that what was once lost is now found.

Come and celebrate with me.

And some would argue that the cost of the celebration was more than what she had lost, but it was worth it to her because she was celebrating the fact that what was lost has now come back home.

Please understand that there is literally a celebration in heaven every time someone says yes to Jesus.

There is literally people that are coming to faith by the by the roads and their celebration in heaven.

So we need to match that energy here while we're here on earth and respond with joy.

So here's what I want you to hear God doesn't measure your value by your visibility, he proves your value by his pursuit.

Because if you were insignificant, he wouldn't be looking for you.

If you were insignificant, he would not be disrupting things in your life.

If you were insignificant, he wouldn't be bringing light to areas that we need to still illuminate.

That God doesn't measure your value by your visibility, he proves your value by his pursuit.

That means that even when you feel overlooked, God is not indifferent.

When you feel unseen, God is not absent.

When you feel unworthy, God is not repelled.

When you feel out of place, God is still coming.

And I truly believe that for us as a church, as a community, that this is the year of more.

And I'm not saying that for the sake of more people and more stuff, but I'm talking about more people coming back home.

I'm talking about more prodigals are returning home.

I'm talking about more people being healed from shame.

I'm talking about more people realizing they're not disposable to God, that more is not a word of hype, but it's a heart, it's a heart word that more freedom means more healing, more restoration, more redemption, more breakthroughs.

When I'm saying more, I'm talking about literally God who does immeasurably more than we could ever ask or think.

That is the God we serve.

It's a time for us to embrace more.

So what do we what do we do with this?

What do we do with this?

I want to give you three practical things really quick because we're running out of time and I want to get into worship.

But here's the first thing I need you to do.

When you recognize your value is not attached to what you do, but it's a fact that God has pursued you.

How do we how do we pivot that?

The first thing we have to start doing is we have to stop auditioning.

Because for many of us, we have convinced ourselves that the gospel is audition and lost sight of the fact that it's an adoption.

You didn't earn your way into this thing that we call salvation.

It was something that was given to us.

So stop believing that you can perform your way in and that you can perform your way out.

Ephesians 2, 8.9 reminds us we are saved by grace through faith, not from works, so that no one can boast.

None of us.

None of us can boast.

All of us fall short of the glory in God or in need of his grace every day.

Stop trying to pay for something that Jesus has already purchased.

Stop trying to perform your way out of shame.

Stop performing, but start returning.

Return back to the things that God has already.

Number two, let God search the corners that you avoid.

Because we all have the areas that we hide.

We all have the dark areas that we avoid that we don't talk about, the places that we can go numb.

But healing doesn't happen in hiding.

God doesn't expose you to shame you, but he reveals so that he can heal.

So maybe as you begin to allow the light of God to explore the corners and you allow the broom of God to sleep and disturb some things, maybe, maybe there's some areas that you need to take a next step in.

Maybe that next step is going to counseling so you can genuinely process through the trauma and what you've endured.

Maybe it's confessing because we know the confession is good for the soul.

Maybe it's a conversation so that you're no longer bound by what has happened in the past.

Maybe it's getting involved in a group, it's asking for prayer, maybe it's telling the truth.

Whatever your next step is, as God brings light to it, as he begins to disrupt things in your life, be sensitive to it, and just be obedient to it so that you can walk in the wholeness that he has.

Can I get a good amen for that?

And then here's the last thing join the search.

It is time for all of us to join the search.

Because the truth of the matter is you were the one, and now you're one of the ones who's supposed to go out and help find the other ones.

The point of all of this is not that I feel valued, the point of this is to become a person who also values others.

To recognize that I am not a spectator, but I am a participator in this kingdom work.

That I myself have a responsibility of being light to those that are in my community.

I have a responsibility of when I'm in fellowship with others, of being that broom that he uses to sweep things and point things out when the relation can handle the weight of it.

I am the one who has been called to search carefully.

Maybe that looks like inviting someone to church.

Maybe that means having a conversation with someone, maybe it means being generous or extending hospitality.

But but I believe that God is trying to challenge us to keep us from becoming just like those Pharisees, the spiritual narcissists who live in our own little bubble while people are dying without the grace of God on their lives and facing God's wrath without the blood of Jesus.

And Jesus is simply saying, Can you be passionate about that?

Can you join this search?

Because there's too many people that are dying without me.

About two months ago, um, I was at home at our old house, and um I was upstairs and I was in a meeting.

I had like a Zoom meeting, and I was upstairs, and um Megan was downstairs.

I had my headphones on, and I kind of heard her voice get a little bit elevated.

And I was like, I didn't pay any mind.

I because with her, you never know, she broke out into a song.

You just never know.

But I heard her voice get elevated and I heard it come down, and I continued to lock in.

But it turns out um that that Megan was in our room and she heard somebody in our backyard, and the person she heard in her backyard was was HOA Greg.

I'm gonna miss HOA Greg.

But he was in our backyard and he was on the phone.

And while he's in our like, I don't know if y'all are catching this, he's in our backyard.

Our backyard, our window faces the backyard.

He's in our backyard and he's on the phone and he's talking about us.

So let me put this together for those who are not sure what I'm saying.

He's in my backyard talking about us.

Like, it's a good thing I'm on the other side of salvation.

I'm a different type of dude right now.

So he's in our backyard talking about us on the phone, and he's talking to someone, he's like, Yeah, man, like they got they got this nice fancy grill and this nice home.

And man, I wonder if the church is paying for all of this stuff.

So let me know the church isn't.

I pay for all the stuff myself.

The church doesn't, but if they did pay for it, I'll be truly thankful.

Anyway, I'm back over here now.

He's literally taking inventory of our stuff and he's talking to someone on the phone about our stuff.

So, so Megan pops up, and Megan is normally fairly chill, but she jumps up.

I'm upstairs, I don't hear any of this.

She opens up the sliding glass door, like, you talk about my family.

And I'm trying to, I'm trying to embody the way she did.

You talk about my family, like, you talk about my family.

See, don't let this woman that come up here be like, oh, praise the Lord, God bless you.

And if you need anything, come to connect.

We would love to care for you.

Listen, beneath all of that is a spicy Jamaican with extra, extra curry sauce on it.

She got extra jerk seasoning.

And it takes one thing for her to kick it to that like guang guan.

So Jamaican Megan.

Jamaican Megan came out.

So I'm upstairs, I hear her talking, I don't know what's going on.

Um, so I'm just chilling.

So she's talking to him, and then it de-escalates, he's apologizing.

Oh, I'm so sorry, you're right.

I was I was way out of line.

He's doing the whole thing because she was there, she was ready.

Um, I'm not gonna say any weapons were involved, but I'm not gonna not say any weapons were involved.

But she was just standing there.

And so he's like, I'm so sorry.

And so, and so we have our we have our pet cat Luna.

And Luna, she got our family's back.

So she's like, yo, you out here talking crazy, Greg?

So Luna sees Megan talking to Greg.

Luna pops her head out, like, yo, what's good?

Like, what are we gonna do?

So Luna continues to step outside and then she steps out onto the patio.

But here's the thing about Luna: she got a lot of talk, but she never even got outside before.

She's not an outside cat.

She's a very kept cat.

So she gets outside, she hears all the noise, she gets disoriented, and then she just scatters off.

Like she runs.

And so I do hear Megan say, Luna's out.

So I'm in the middle of a call, and all I hear is Luna's out.

I don't know who I was talking to.

If it was somebody in this room, I'm so sorry.

I hung up on him.

I run downstairs, everybody in the family got together, and then we all ran outside the house.

HOA Greg got into the car.

He was trying to ride around and find Luna.

He's stopping at other neighbors.

Hey, have you seen the gate?

I think he's just trying to get back on our good graces because Megan was she was pretty firm.

Um, but he he's riding around the neighborhood, we're all scattering out, and so only thing I'm interested in at this point is that we have lost something that's precious to us, and all I'm interested in, are you willing to help us find what we've lost?

I don't want to hear anything about bushes, I don't want to hear anything about hedges, I don't want to hear anything about any of your ideas.

I want to know, are you willing to help me find what we've lost?

I need you to join this search committee or don't come near me at all.

And I believe when we think about the gospel message, we can sometimes get so consumed with what it means to us that God is like, I celebrate that you're here.

Now I need you to help me join the search because there are more people out there that are away from me.

And I know that you got a lot of things that you're working through right now, and I'm here for you.

The Holy Spirit got you, but there's a neighbor across the street, they're lost, and can you help me bring them back into the family?

There's so many people that are within your reach that need to hear the gospel message through you.

Will you help me with this search?

This is the assignment that God gives us.

It's not for us to come to church on Sundays to feel good about our favorite worship song and to go on about our week, but it's for us to get filled up, spiritually filled up for the warfare that we're gonna face and genuinely ask the question: God, who is the one you want me to speak to today?

Who's the one you want me to be kind to today?

Who's the one you want me to pray for today?

Who's the one you want me to invite to church today?

Who's the one that you want me to pay for their coffee today?

God, who's the one?

And if we can be people that can genuinely say, God, I will do everything I can do to reach the one on your behalf, that is when we all get to collectively be a part of On Earth as it is in heaven.

Because on earth as it is in heaven is not just about you getting your healing, but it's about populating heaven and emptying hell.

That is the assignment that God has given us.

So who's the one?

And I know that as I talk to you guys, there's two people that are in this room right now.

There are one, there are people who are lost, but you're in the house.

Because I want you to recognize this that this entire narrative takes place in the house.

That means that this is someone who's in the house who's lost, who's out of place, who's grown numb.

They show up, but they definitely don't feel present.

And I know that there's some of us right now that we're saying, Lord, there's some shadows, there's some areas of my life that I just need the wind of God to disrupt some things to bring me to the light because I know that I'm value, but I've lost sight of it.

And you're in the house, you're blood-bought, you're spirit-filled, but somehow you've lost sight of who you really are in the kingdom.

And the problem is when you start believing what the world says about you, you'll start behaving like the world.

But then there's also another group of people, and that's those who are just away from God.

Maybe you've never had a relationship with Him, maybe your understanding of God has been painted by the Pharisees of this angry, vengeful father, and you've grown distant or uninterested.

But I believe my assignment today is to introduce you to a loving father, a loving Savior who is willing to do whatever it takes, inclusive of going to the cross on your behalf, to let you know just how valuable you are.

So if you're in here and maybe you're part of group one, and Lord, I'm in the house, I'm in, I'm in relationship with you.

But if I could be honest, man, there's some areas where I've I've grown numb.

If I could be honest with you, there's some areas where I have some areas that I need you to to dust up for me.

God, if I'm honest with you, there's some areas that I need you to, that I need you to step into, bring light to, to bring healing to, to bring restoration to.

I want to pray for you.

And as our standard is here at Celebration Church, every head up and every eye open because we don't disguise what God's doing in our life.

So if you're in here and you want me to pray for you, just God, just bring light.

Remove the dead so I can walk in the life that you have for me.

On a count of three, I want you to lift your hand up so I can pray for you.

One, two, three.

Bring it to the light.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

You can put those hands down.

I want to ask another question, and that's simply for those part of group two.

I'm lost.

I'm away from God right now.

And maybe that's you've never committed your life to Christ, or maybe you've just drifted.

But right now you know that you're lost.

The shepherd, the shepherd is inviting you to come home.

This is your moment.

God so loves the world, he so loves you that he went to the cross on your behalf, so that you can have unbroken fellowship with him.

What we have to do is we have to respond to it.

So if that's you and you're ready to say yes to Jesus, maybe for the first time or maybe you're recommitting, but if you're ready to say yes to Jesus, I would love to pray for you.

On the count of three, would you lift your hands up boldly?

One, two, three.

Yes to Jesus.

Amen.

For those joining us online, amen.

Church, we put our hands together for everybody that's engaging in this moment.

Come on, there's a celebration in heaven right now.

Let's put our hands together and celebrate.

Here's what I want us to do.

I want us to stand on our feet.

We're gonna go into a time of worship where we allow the name of Jesus to watch over us because it's in him that we have salvation.

It's in him we have healing, it's in him we have breakthrough.

So before you leave, just give us a couple more minutes to just let's just seal this moment in with the presence of God.

I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna pray for us.

But but let us worship God.

Let's lift our hands to heaven, Lord.

We thank you for your faithfulness.

We thank you, God, that you are with us.

We thank you that you remind us that we are indeed worth the search.

So as we engage your presence in worship, I pray that you reveal what you want to bring into the light.

I pray that you sweep and disrupt the things so that we can begin to walk in wholeness in Jesus' name.

Come on, let's worship.

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.