Set the Tone | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

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.

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Would you mind helping me welcome our online community and those who are joining us over in our family lounge?

While you're at it, can you look at the person to your left and say, you look good?

I'm trying to help somebody out in here.

Now, if you if you married and you said it to an opposite person, it was all kingdom, we're brothers and sisters in Christ.

But if you're not, be like, hey, um.

Okay, let's do this.

Look to the person to your right.

Do the exact same thing.

You look good this morning.

That way it's not anybody awkward.

Some people just were ignoring other folks.

Anybody who didn't say that you look good, I'm telling you look good today in the house of God.

Amen.

I'm glad that you guys are here.

I'm proud of you guys.

Listen, we're in 2025 and you have perfect attendance in coming to church.

Come on.

Well done.

God's good and faithful service.

I'm so glad that you guys are with us today.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in Joshua chapter number three.

That's where we're going to be camping out today.

While you're turning there, I want to I want to frame up um not only this year, but this season, and we'll just kind of see where God goes with us from it.

Recognizing that we are five days into the new year, I understand that that this season can produce a lot of joy, a lot of reflection as we think about 2024, accomplishing goals that maybe we we were desiring to do, and that can certainly fill us with a good sense of excitement, ambition.

There's also opportunities for us to be frustrated and discouraged because maybe there are some things in 2024 that we didn't accomplish.

We didn't lose the weight, we didn't save the money, we didn't pay off the debt.

And so that can often cause us to enter into a new year feeling discouraged or burdened with having it all figured out.

You know, we we live in a world where I'm thankful for technology, I'm thankful for apps and other things that are like, hey, do you have your goals set?

Do you have all of these things lined out?

And sometimes you can feel like, if we can be honest, a complete loser because we're five days into the new year and you don't know what you want to do with the year yet.

And so sometimes it can create a little bit of stress and pressure.

And today I want to encourage us around that because I do believe that vision is incredibly important.

The Bible tells us in Habakkuk 2, 2, for us to write the vision and make it plain.

Vision is incredibly important.

We need to have a sense of where God is calling us to go.

It gives us direction.

The Bible also tells us in Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18, it says, like, hey, without a vision, the people perish or they cast off restraints.

Proverbs 29:18

That means that they're just out here running wild in the streets.

It's like driving down a highway and there's no lines in the road.

Everybody's just kind of doing their own thing.

And so vision helps us to put guardrails and boundaries in our lives so that we can make it to our destination.

But I also recognize that it's in this time when the pressure of coming up with a fresh vision, what do I want to do?

What are my goals?

What's my word for the year?

That often it can come at the expense of us having vision, but it's actually misplaced ambition.

And now we're out of sync with God.

So for me, I tend to slow down in this first portion of the year to ensure that while I may have a rough blueprint of what God is speaking to me, I try not to cement anything until I've had some time to be away with God through a season of prayer and fasting, consecration, if you will.

And interestingly enough, that's kind of what leads us into the text that we're about to read together.

The Bible tells us about the children of Israel.

You hear me speak about them often, and and and I and I love their narrative because they really do kind of embody the journey of a follower of Christ, a person who is doing their best to follow God.

We have areas of our lives that may be in Egypt, which is a form of bondage.

We're not feeling quite free.

There's the wilderness part of it where I'm no longer in bondage, but I'm not walking in the promises of God as of yet.

We all have parts of our lives that are that.

And then you have the promised land, which is I get what God has called me to have, but now I got to make sure that I'm fighting to keep it.

So I love their story because I think we can relate to it maybe different parts all at the same time.

And so for the children of Israel, after they spent 400 years in bondage and 40 years in the wilderness, the time has come for them to finally cross into the promises that God had been speaking to them generation after generation, almost 450 years later.

And you can imagine as they're preparing to finally step foot into the promised land, that you would think that their leader would have given them an incredible speech, an amazing moment for a general to kind of rally the troops.

But we actually see something a little bit different.

It's not a compelling speech, it's not a it's not a bunch of to-dos in order to prepare themselves, but it's actually something very uh precious and simple, but powerful.

Looking at Joshua chapter number three, we're gonna read verses one through five and a tradition that we started um last year is reading God's word together.

And I I want to continue in that tradition as we go into the new year.

In the ancient traditions, they would call it the public reading of scripture.

And I believe that there's power when all of us can read God's word together.

And so you can look at the Bible in the sky.

You may have your Bibles in your hands, but the translations may not quite match up.

But I want all of us to read these five verses together, sober-minded and declaring God's truth as we prepare to see what He wants to speak to us.

So, starting at verse one on account of three, let's read God's word together.

One, two, three.

Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia grove with the Israelites.

They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing.

After three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it.

But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the ark.

Do not go near it so that you can see the way to go, for you haven't traveled this way before.

Verse number five.

Joshua told the people, Consecrate yourselves because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.

I want to read this to us again, but this time I just want you to close your eyes and receive this.

Some of y'all haven't closed your eyes yet.

I'm looking at you.

I can see you.

Close your eyes and receive this.

I promise you, nobody's gonna come up and take anything out of your pockets.

Okay.

Joshua told the people, listen to me, church, consecrate yourselves because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.

As we kick off this new year, even open your eyes now.

Um, I want to speak to us about the part that we play in experiencing the breakthrough that God has for us.

If you're taking notes, and I hope that this is a year that we can journal and journey God's word together, I want you to write down this message title set at the time.

Let's pray and let's see what God wants to speak to us.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for the blank canvas of a new season, a new year, and what it is that you want to do and speak to and through us.

It is it is with that mindset, God, that we we have expectations.

And so, Lord, I ask that you give us open eyes that we can see you and only you.

Lord, I pray for open ears to hear your truth.

And God, I ask that you give us open hearts that we can receive the life transformational, incorruptible seed of the Word of God.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, something that I have uh grown to recognize in my life's journey is just how people, the individuals have the ability to set the atmosphere with their mere presence.

I I got a I got a valuable lesson in this when I got like my first professional job out of high school.

I was working in the mail room at a bank, and and I remember that I had a supervisor, and and and and he was a good man and had a lot of experience.

But his moods were always all over the place.

So one day he would come in and and and the place would just feel amazing.

He's speaking to everybody, we're talking, we're having a great moment of conversations, and you can just feel this lift in the atmosphere.

But the next day, it's literally like as if you didn't know him, he would come in and just have a completely different mood.

You can see the way he walked, the way that he went to his office, you could just sense that for no reason the atmosphere would completely shift because he wasn't in a good mood, and depending on his mood, that set the tone for the entire day.

We've been around people like that.

I remember when he got replaced with another supervisor who didn't have as much experience as him, but he had a more joyful spirit.

And and he would come in, and no matter what and how chaotic the work day was in front of us, he he would always come in and ask how everybody's doing individually, ask how we did the night before, just having these meaningful moments and conversations before we got into the work of the day.

And what I found to be so interesting is that even though he had less supervising experience, he actually had better productivity because of the way that he interacted with the people.

It's amazing how people's behavior can set the atmosphere for what is about to happen next.

That, my friends, is really a small microcosm of what it means when I'm talking about the concept of setting the tone.

We we all see these different people and different things that can set the tone, set the vibe, set the culture, set the atmosphere for what we are about to ultimately experience.

I I love whenever I get a behind the scene look into sports, and I see when uh when a coach is setting the tone before the game or or at halftime, he's he's trying to rally the troops.

There's a beautiful moment of setting the tone.

We see this a lot of times in families, where maybe you have a family member that sets the tone in their household.

I'm not afraid to admit that I would say like 90% of the time that would be Megan for our household.

She's a she's a bundle of joy.

She's a bundle of joy, guys.

And so, pretty much wherever, whatever's going on at any given moment, our house can turn into a musical.

She's gonna find a way to sing and dance and just completely shift the atmosphere.

There's times when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and she's like, good morning to you.

Good morning, like she'll just break into a song.

Y'all didn't know I had that note, but it's in me.

She'll just she'll just break out into song and and it sets the atmosphere.

It literally sets the tone for for the house.

But you know, another way she sets the tone in the house is like you just wake up and you see that she's cleaning.

And you're like, I guess we're cleaning today.

Like she just, I thought I was gonna be upstairs watching college football all day or watching the Philadelphia Eagles.

Come on.

You I thought I was gonna be doing that, but apparently we're cleaning.

That's where I put my foot down.

I'm like, hey, there's one hill I'm gonna die on, and that's the Philadelphia Eagles.

I'll clean up any other time outside of that.

I wear the pants in my household.

I love you, honey.

You look amazing today.

Did I tell you that?

It's all about setting the tone, it's all about setting the atmosphere.

In fact, for Megan and I, whenever we know that we're gonna have people come over to our house, we we know that, hey, we're we're gonna have about 10 people over, so we need to make the house just a little bit cooler than we typically would to kind of set the atmosphere to so when people come in, it's not warm and we're not fighting the AC system to try to get it down.

We're we're trying to get ahead of it.

You see, I think about how a thermostat, in fact, it functions.

The one in my house, it it tells me what the current temperature is, but I have the ability to change it, to dial it down to meet the needs of what we're about to experience.

I believe the same thing is true of us, that there's some certain things that that God is bringing us into that it's gonna require us to change the atmosphere a little bit.

I believe that there's some environments that God is calling us to go into that He's challenging us, that we need to change the temperature a little bit.

Let me be more specific.

God is saying, hey, if you want to step into my promises, I'm gonna need you to dial up your your your devotion a little bit more.

Hey, if you if you're really going to experience my breakthrough in your life, last year's prayers aren't going to work for this year's miracle.

Yesterday's price isn't today's price.

Some of y'all caught that.

Um I'm I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to help you.

I believe that God at times is bringing us to a place where He's saying that I need you to set a new tone for what you are indeed believing you're going to experience.

If you want to see a miracle in your household, you're gonna have to stop arguing about the same stuff.

Maybe you're gonna have to respond a little bit differently when you have those moments of conflict in your life.

I believe that God brings us to these spaces where he's intentionally challenging us to set a new tone.

And interestingly enough, when I look at this passage of scripture, I see the exact same thing.

Where God is is leading his people to prepare them for a promise, but he's telling them that what you did while you were in the wilderness won't work when you're in the miracle.

That what you did while you were in Egypt will not work when you're in Canaan.

I'm going to need you to establish new rhythms in order to prepare you for what it is I'm about to do in your life.

And what I would like to do is share three simple thoughts with us that I can hope will set the tone for us as we're preparing to go into this new year.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Okay, here's the first thing I want you to write down.

We need to prepare for God's path.

I think the first thing that we need to do is be people who live our lives and we are preparing for the path that God is about to take us on.

Let me give you an image of what's happening here for the children of Israel.

They're standing at the banks of the Jordan River, knowing that the promised land is just on the other side.

And then there's this powerful moment where we're, as they're preparing and they're like, okay, like it's in sight.

We're close enough to it.

We can see it, we can smell it, we can hear the atmosphere.

It's time for us to step into it.

And then Joshua commands the people of God and says these words consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow, God will do amazing things among you.

Consecrate yourselves.

Prepare yourselves.

I need you to set yourself apart because tomorrow God is going to do something significant among you.

What if I were to tell you that sometimes our biggest delays are not a lack of provision, but it's a lack of preparation.

What if I were to tell you that what we do today can determine what we experience tomorrow?

What scripture is showing us is that God was prepared to take them into the promised land, but there was something that he required from them, and he said, I need you to consecrate yourself.

Because what I'm about to do in you tomorrow, your current discipline can't handle it.

What I'm about to do in you tomorrow, your current lifestyle can't handle it.

What I'm about to do in you tomorrow, the current way in which you maneuver cannot handle it.

I need you to set yourself apart.

See the word consecrate, it really means to just simply to be set apart.

And the consecration was a series of rituals and routines.

It was cleansing, it was garment cleaning, it was being anointed.

It also included abstaining from certain things that God was saying, I need you to set yourself apart to prepare what I'm about to do in your life.

In other words, you can't move and function like everybody else when I'm calling you to be different.

That sounds a lot like holiness.

Now I realize that we live in a world where holiness can sound uncomfortable.

Holiness sounds so legalistic.

Holiness can sound so judgmental because I'm not sure about your background, but I've been around holiness environments.

I was raised in a holiness church where it made me feel as if I was constantly trying to perform my way into heaven if I prayed enough, if I read enough, if I fasted enough, that maybe I would have enough to earn God's favor.

And so we live in a world now where people have begun to reject that, and I understand it, but but here's the challenge that I've also seen.

In an effort for us to confront legalism that has produced pain, we've dismantled our faith to such a point that we've also disregarded God's holiness and we've minimized what God still requires from us.

The Bible tells us in Leviticus and in 1 Peter that God says these words, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

Be set apart, live different, look different, think different, walk different, talk different.

That God is ultimately saying that if you were gonna be people who are called after my name and really able to handle the glory I want to pour out in your life, you're gonna have to look a little bit different than the world.

You're gonna have to look a little bit different than culture, you're gonna have to look a little bit different than your neighbor, you're gonna have to look a little bit different, you're gonna have to move different, think different, and breathe different.

This is not about perfection, but it's about posture.

I believe that God is telling us in this season that there's some things that we need to prune out of our lives to make preparation for what he wants to deposit in our lives.

We see this in Hosea chapter 10, verse number 12, where he says, break up the unplowed ground in your heart.

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

He also reinforces this in Jeremiah 4, verse number 3.

Same thing.

Break up the unplowed ground.

Why is God using these words?

He's saying that I have a seed that I want to plant in your life that's going to produce fruit, but it's going to require you to prepare for it.

You know, when you break up ground, it requires you to go out and dig up the ground and make preparation for the harvest that is still to come.

God is talking about preparation, and ultimately what preparation is, is to make something ready for use.

It's to is to position yourself to experience what it is that God has for us.

It reminds me of this time when several years ago Meg and I had a friend of ours while we were living in Jacksonville, and he was a pilot.

He he flew in the Air Force, he flew commercial planes, and now he had his own little private, like prop plane.

And he has said to us all the time, like, hey, if you ever want to just get a quick flight somewhere, man, I'll be glad to take you.

It's a way that I can serve the church, it's a way that I can honor you.

And I'm like, all right, cool.

So after much deliberation, and when he said it was free, some things you don't gotta pray about, I was like, that ain't the devil.

So I was like, so I said, Megan, he's gonna give us a flight down to Miami from Jacksonville to Miami.

We're going on a cruise.

So we get to the airplane, we get to the airplane and we get on a um, we get on a plane, and and what I found to be so fascinating is that when we're in this little small plane, we got our headsets on, and we're just sitting on the runway, and he's like looking at all the levels.

He brought out this instruction manual and all the stuff.

It was actually uncomfortable because I'm thinking to myself, like, bro, I thought you flew before.

You're you're looking at this instruction manual like you've never done this before.

Like, you got precious cargo on this plane.

I am the Lord's chosen.

Like, are you are you sure you know what you're doing?

And it was then that he began to inform me, like, hey, even in spite of all of my experience, there's some pre-check things that I have to do to ensure that we can make it to our destination.

You're never so experienced that you don't need to consult the manual.

So so he began to look at the manual, and he was looking at the readings, and he was talking to the people in air flight control, and he's communicating with them, and then we lift off, and as we're flying, he literally gets a message saying, like, hey, off in the distance to the right, there's a storm there.

And so you need to avoid that storm so you don't want to go through, and so air traffic control is speaking to him, and all of this is so that he can make it to his predetermined destination safely, but he had to do a bunch of pre-check, but also consistently check in.

My friends, I'm telling you that as we go into 2025, that many of us have lifted off and we haven't even checked in, that many of us have so many goals, but we haven't even done a pre-check to ensure that where I am called to go is the place that God is leading me to go.

I believe that there are some storms that we can genuinely avoid if we continue to check in with God on a normal basis every morning.

God, what do you want me to do today?

Where do you want me to go today?

Who do you want me to call today?

Who are you asking me to pray for today?

Let me check in to make sure that I can avoid some things that are completely avoidable.

What if our biggest delays today are because of things that we didn't do yesterday?

I believe that God is leading us into a new season as a community, as a church, and even as individuals, that He's asking us to consecrate ourselves, set ourselves apart, move a little bit different.

And in several ways that we can do this is through fasting and praying.

Every year, we go through a period of fasting and praying.

It's a way for us to disconnect so that we can fully engage with God.

One of the things that I heard one of my friends say that I absolutely love, he says, sometimes, in order to have a fresh vision, you have to stop looking at so many distractions.

Sometimes I believe that our world is so full of distractions, whether it's social media or or or the things we watch on TV, the things we listen to, the things that we eat, the way that they affect our body, it can literally become a filter that makes it hard for us to recognize and hear the voice of God.

But it's in these seasons we get to recalibrate ourselves.

So fasting and praying is a way in which we can do this.

Scripture reading allows us to center our thoughts on the word of God and self examination, which is so important.

This is the area where.

We we pray Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24 over our hearts, like Lord, search my heart.

Psalms 139:23

Examine me.

And if there's anything that's not like you that's in me, reveal it to me and remove it from me.

The prayers of self-examination bring us to a place of repentance.

It's a place of pruning, it's a place where God can speak to us.

We invite him and we look to him to challenge us in areas where we need to make room for what it is he wants to do in us.

Somebody say holiness.

I didn't think y'all were gonna do it.

Come on, y'all good this morning.

Okay, here's my second thing I want y'all to write down.

Um, proclaim God's promises.

The next thing that we need to make sure we're doing is that we're proclaiming God's promises.

This is why this is so important.

You see, the promises of God are yes and amen.

That God's word is true and that he's gonna always fulfill what he says that he's going to do.

But looking at the context for Joshua, there's a little bit something more at play right here.

See, for Joshua, he had a mentor, he had a father figure, he had a leader, and his name was Moses.

Moses is like the people's champ for Israel.

Moses was that dude.

Like they were literally in bondage for 400 years, and God sent Moses to literally confront Pharaoh, who often was considered a godlike figure.

So Moses, a mere man, would go and confront Pharaoh.

We've seen it, let God's people go.

Let them go.

And if you've seen the Prince of Egypt, let them go.

Like we can put it in a musical form, but he was saying, let them, let them, let them go.

God said, Let my people go.

And after ten plagues, which were judgments on false gods, the people were finally set free and they began their journey in the wilderness.

So for them, they're like, Man, like Moses is that guy.

He confronted Pharaoh.

Pharaoh got swallowed up in a Red Sea.

Moses is that guy.

And so now on this 40-year journey, Moses has been the one who's been preparing them, developing them generation after generation, hopefully cultivating a faith that would allow them to be able to occupy the promised land.

And now they're on the verge of getting into the promised land, and Moses dies.

You can only imagine what that did for the community.

In fact, you can imagine what it felt like for Joshua, the man that he had looked up to, his mentor, his father figure, this leader that had literally led him from bondage, and God says, Moses is done, Joshua, you up.

Can you think of the insecurities that will begin to rise up inside of someone like that?

Can you think of the areas of anxiety as you begin to ponder and wonder will the people even respect my leadership?

Will they even respond and listen to me?

See, see, there's a thing called imposter syndrome, which is ultimately this moment when sometimes we are given opportunities and we wonder if we're good enough to do them.

And so we find ourselves comparing ourselves to other people, comparing ourselves to ideas of things, and we can never feel quite confident in the very thing that God has called us to do.

Sometimes when a when a when an when a woman becomes a mother, there's imposter syndrome.

I don't think I have what it takes to be as good of a mother as my mom, or because my mom wasn't a great mother, I don't have what it takes to be a good mother.

Look at how they are on social media.

Every time I look on social media, they're always smiling.

Their kids look like they cooperate all the time.

My kids are heathens.

Like I imposter syndrome, what is wrong with me that I can't handle and I'm not getting the results that I was hoping for.

Stepping into a new leadership role.

We could sometimes have imposter syndrome.

Man, when even in ministry, when when I stepped into the lead pastor role of this church, this church had been in existence for four and a half years, and now we're the lead pastors of it.

I'm completely different than the pastor who planted the church.

I love them dearly.

We're conveniently different.

So we inherited a church, we inherited a staff that was vastly different than what they had expected from a previous leadership.

And there were moments in my life I'm like, man, like I'm wrestling with this tension of do I need to speak like the previous leader did.

But God said, I didn't call you to be the previous, because if I needed the previous, then the previous would still be the present.

I need someone to hear that.

Because some of us are being faithful to something that God said, I told you to let go of.

I called you in your current form to lead us into the future.

And I believe that if we find ourselves romanticizing the past so much, we can be unfaithful to the future.

I believe that God is often challenging us to stand on his word.

So when he's talking with Joshua, he says to him 12 times inside of three chapters, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

But Lord, you don't understand, man.

Like they love, they love Moses.

I I Joshua, I understand, but I'm with you.

But Lord, they like really, really love Moses.

Okay, here's what I'm gonna do.

You know what God did because he knew that the people love Moses so much that when Moses died, he buried them and didn't even tell them where they were because they would have turned it into an idol.

God will sometimes do away with things and not even let us know what happened because he doesn't want us to turn it into an idol.

He's trying to move us forward.

So now Joshua comes down the mountain and he's looking at a group of people that have been looking to Moses, literally covering their faces because of the glory that was on Moses, and now Joshua's up, this young kid who's now in leadership, and God says, But it's now your time to lead us into the final space.

And if Joshua could not proclaim God's word through those moments, it could have led the people astray.

I believe for all of us, there are assignments that God has given us that we have to continuously proclaim God's word over our life.

And sometimes people won't do it for you.

Sometimes you're not going to get the accolades from people.

This is why David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Because sometimes people aren't going to give you affirmation.

In fact, I've often found it's very unhealthy to expect affirmation from the very people that need your help.

Did you catch that?

Sometimes you just got to encourage yourself in the Lord.

God, I know that you called me to be here.

I know that you called me to do this, and I'm going to proclaim your word over every step that I take.

I'm looking to some people right now because I believe that we mean what God is calling you to step into, it may feel like it's a little bit lonely.

It may feel like it's a little bit uncomfortable.

Well, guess what?

You're in good company because Jesus was in the place and he was just saying, I'm going to step out and I'm going to continue to pursue what God has called me to do, and he's going to send the people that's meant to be with me, but I'm not going to look back.

I believe we have to proclaim God's word over every area of our lives and not look back.

As you're going into this new year, as you're going into this new season, continue to find yourself anchored in God's word.

It doesn't mean that it mitigates every ounce of fear, but it does allow us to move forward with courage.

Sometimes we just have to have a trust fall with God.

You know when you have to have those trust falls as those team building exercises at your job, and depending on your coworkers, you're like, I'm not leaning back.

Shout out to Fat Joe.

Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lean back because I don't know.

I don't know if I can depend on you.

There's a trust gap.

But the Bible says that we not lean on our own understanding, we trust God.

So what God is hopefully developing in us in these seasons is that we can put our weight on God's promises.

Because on my own, I'm walking with a limp.

But God's word tells me that I'm going to get it so I can put my weight on it.

I could put my weight on what He says.

It's what it means when we proclaim God's promises over every one of our situations.

And I wish I had the time to unpack the personal times when all I had was a promise from God, but that's all I needed.

Here's the third and final thing I want to share with us is this proceed through God's power.

Proceed through God's power.

We've come to the climax of the story, guys.

After 400 years in bondage, 40 years in the wilderness, we're finally at the place where it's time to step into that next season, that next opportunity to take the ground, so to speak.

And the Bible tells us that God had given the Israelites some very specific instructions.

It says, listen, when the Levitical priests, which were ultimately the pastors, the leaders, the elders, when they are carrying the presence of God, when they step into the Jordan River, you guys are to follow them.

Don't follow too closely, but you're to follow them.

Now, here's why this is such a unique situation.

Because this is very reminiscent of Exodus chapter 14, when the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt and they found themselves standing on the edge of the Red Sea.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

But the difference is at that time it was Moses, and you know what Moses did?

Moses had a staff and he raised his staff up, and the water had parted and they walked through on dry ground.

Now, fast forward 40 years, Joshua is in a very similar situation, but God is telling him this time, you need to step into the very thing that you need deliverance from.

I think sometimes we can be so fixated on how God did it in the past that we miss what God wants to do in the future.

Joshua had to step into it in order to see a miracle in it.

I want you to catch this, friends.

I I think that there are some things that we have been avoiding.

I think there are some things that we have been denying.

There's been some areas of our lives that we're that we're not willing to encounter.

But but I believe what this text is showing us, that if you want to see your breakthrough, you're going to have to step into it first.

I'm a very analytical person.

I like to make and I make to make decisions based off of informed data, but I'm also a very faith-forward, faith-filled person.

So there's a dichotomy that exists within me where I like to be informed by context, but I like to be led by the spirit.

And interestingly enough, there are moments when there are times when I feel like God is nudging me to step into something, and I can find myself, if I'm not careful, saying, I will take a step once God completely separates it in its dry ground.

But then the faith side of me says that we walk by faith and not by sight.

And this is a situation where we're gonna have to get our feet a little bit muddy.

We're gonna have to step in it until we begin to see it.

And that's the tension that all of us have to manage.

I believe in this proper context, there are some miracles that we missed out on last year because we weren't willing to get our feet muddy.

But I believe that this year, God is saying, if you're willing to take a step in it, I will show you what I will do through it.

We're gonna have to begin to proceed in God's power.

What that means is no matter what analysis, no matter what strategy, no matter what things that they tried to implement, it was the power and presence of God that led them to their victory.

There are some things in our lives that our our flesh won't get the glory from, that our academic background won't get the glory from, that our experience won't get the glory from.

It's gonna be certain situations that we're just gonna have to step out in faith and trust and believe that God is with us.

We have to proceed through God's power and not man's logic.

You know, I think about how when God is speaking to the Israelites, he says to them, Listen, I want you to follow me about the length of a thousand yards.

That's that's the ten football fields difference.

And to me, I'm thinking, like, God, I I feel like we could be a little bit closer.

What why the distance?

And the scripture actually responds to it.

It tells us, it says, Hey, you have not seen this way before, you have not gone this way before.

So I need you to be at a big enough distance that you can see the big picture.

Because sometimes we can be so close up on things that we can't see beyond it.

I truly believe that for the children of Israel and for many of us in this room right now, there are some things that God is saying, I need you to get the big picture.

I need you to make sure that you don't outpace the grace that I have for your life in this present season.

It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite jobs that I've ever had, and that was when I was a courier.

And it was an amazing job because it allowed me to go to different homes and different neighborhoods and talk to all types of different people.

And I remember this one time specifically where I went into the super wealthy neighborhood.

And I'm just driving by in my delivery truck, saying, like, oh man, I don't even know if I like the I don't like the windows on that house.

Like I could afford the windows on the house.

But you know how you can you critique things because that's just kind of what we do.

Like, oh man, they only got an eight-car garage.

I definitely wouldn't do that.

Like, so ridiculous.

Um, but I pull up at this house and it was just breathtaking.

And and and the guy was kind of like waiting outside.

So when I got there, he was so excited, he took the box and he like turned around and went into the house.

And I'm like, man, like this is back in the day where you actually had to sign for it.

So I knocked on the door and he's like, oh my gosh, I was so I was so excited to get the package, I completely forgot.

I'm so sorry.

He comes outside and he already had opened the box up and he's signing for it, but he has this device in his hand, and he could see that I I look at it with curiosity.

He's like, Do you do you know what this is?

I'm like, no, sir, I I don't.

He said, Man, this is a this is a tuning fork.

He's like, I'm a I'm a music producer.

I'm like, Who are you, Dre?

Like, I could tell that based off of the house, he definitely produced some good music.

But he said, I'm I'm I'm a music producer, and I got these, I got these musicians coming in, and and and they all play in different bands and different places.

And what can happen sometimes is even though they are experts, we're not on the same frequency.

So I lost my I lost my tuning fork.

What a tuning fork is it allows me to use this as an instrument to emit a single frequency that then becomes a standard that everyone tunes their instruments to.

Because you can be an expert but still be out of tune.

When he said these words to me, we politely smiled and we left, but that has sat with me for almost 30 years.

Because I think that it's possible for some of us to be quote unquote experts in areas of our lives and still feel like we're out of frequency with the things of God.

What I truly believe is that when we begin to consecrate ourselves and proclaim God's promises and proceed with his power, it allows us to come in frequency with the things of God.

So now we have unity in the things of God.

We're in harmony with the grace of God, we're in step with the will of God.

And if there's something that I can admit in my own life, I've had amazing ideas, but I wasn't in God's timing.

And what I believe this year can be for me, for my family, for our church, is that maybe we can use this beginning time of the year to set the tone to allow ourselves to get on God's frequency so we can be in harmony with what the spirit wants to do.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Every head bowed and every eye closed.

Let me ask this question of us.

Maybe you're in here with us right now, and if you're truly, truly honest, this is a moment of self-examination.

There's areas of your life, areas where you feel like you're not in tune with the spirit.

Just areas where, man, I feel like I'm I'm doing things, but I'm not getting the results.

I just feel a little bit out of sync.

I want to I want to pray for you just really quick.

If that's you, on the count of three, just boldly lift your hands.

I just want to, I'm out of sync and I want the Holy Spirit to bring me in sync with the things of God on the count of three.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Hands up everywhere, amen.

God bless you.

You can go ahead and put those hands down.

Here's my second question.

Maybe for some of us in here, we're we're not just out of sync with God.

We're not even on the same page, which means we're not in fellowship with him, we're not in walking relationship with him.

We are we're not followers of Christ.

We haven't become disciples of him.

Maybe we were in the past, but but we've allowed the distance to get so great that we no longer can see him in any area of our lives.

If that's you, I believe this is an opportunity for us to receive the sacrifice of Christ on a cross and to be resubmitted under the power of the cross and to begin to walk in fellowship with Jesus.

So if that's you and you simply want to commit or recommit your life to Christ today, I would love to pray for you.

So on a count of three, would you boldly lift your hand up?

One, two, three.

Amen.

God bless you, amen, amen, amen.

God bless you guys.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, we put our hands together for everyone that is saying yes to Jesus, maybe for the first time.

I I want to lead us in a simple moment of prayer that I want you guys to receive.

And then Sean and Julie are going to come up and give us some instructions and some things you can look for in this upcoming year.

But just right where you are, I just want you to bow your heads but lift your hands and receive this.

Lord, I thank you for your goodness.

I thank you, God, for the opportunities for us to turn the page on the calendar, but also turn the page on our commitment.

Father, we we desire to be in frequency, to be in sync with you.

So, Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you can bring order to any areas of chaos in our lives, God.

That God, we can have the strength to consecrate ourselves, God, to proclaim your promises and to proceed only with your power.

We don't want to outpace you.

In the name of Jesus, God, we lay down our plans at the foot of the cross and we pick up the cross and we follow you wherever you will lead us to go.

We lay it at your feet with an expectation of radical transformation.

And Lord, I pray for those precious souls, those who lifted their hands up as an outward indication of the eternal and internal commitment that they're making before you now.

Father, I just pray that even now that your spirit begins to stir and well up on the inside of them, turn up the frequency on their commitment and devotion, and that all of us can find ourselves in a household of faith collectively connected to one another, so that we can grow in fellowship and in connection with you and with others.

So, Lord, I just pray in the name of Jesus that you bless us, bless our community, and draw us closer to you.

It's in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

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