The Cruciformed Life | 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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You all look so so wonderful.

It's so good to see us on our back to school weekend.

Church, would you mind helping me welcome our online family and those who are joining us on our family lounges, those who are joining us on our podcast?

Thank you so much for joining us today.

We're so, so glad that you were here.

If if if I haven't had an opportunity to meet you, uh my name is Keith, and alongside my wonderful wife Megan, we have the privilege of serving as the lead pastors here at Celebration Um Orlando.

And on behalf of our amazing staff and teams and just our community at large, we just want to thank you so much for coming to worship with us today.

I truly am expected for what God is going to speak to us today.

Did anybody come to church expect it today?

Fifteen of us came expected.

Let me see if I can get us up to 20.

Is 20 people excited for what God wants to speak to us today?

All right, all right, all right.

The teachers, the teachers rising up.

This is a word for y'all.

This is a word for y'all.

Um if you haven't been here over the past couple of weeks, then I want to give you a little bit of context as to where we find ourselves at this at this juncture and time.

We we are in the second week of our series entitled Corinth.

Um, and and Corinth is in essence is a church called Corinth, which is based out of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.

This is a church that Paul the apostle had planted.

Um, and when he heard about some of the rumblings and challenges that were happening in that community, he wrote them these letters to encourage them, but to also correct and challenge them.

And so what we wanted to do was immerse ourselves in the story of the Corinthian church, quite honestly, because I'm recognizing that the themes and the struggles that they dealt with then are often some of the same themes and things that we're struggling with now.

In fact, our theme scripture actually doesn't come from Corinthians at all, it actually comes out of Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 9.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

And and here's what the word of the Lord says to us.

It says this it says, What has been done is what will be.

And what has been done is what will be done.

There is nothing new under the sun.

It's nothing new.

So here's why I wanted to select that as our theme verse, so that all of us could do something collectively, and that is just calm down.

Because the fact of the matter is, if we pay attention to what we see on social media, if we see what we what we see on the news, if we if we listen to our neighbors, there's a lot of panic and fear and anxiety and angst that is that seems to be um all in the atmosphere, and understandably so, we have a lot of things that we care about, myself included, I understand that.

But I find my grounding in God's word where I'm reminded that there's nothing new under the sun.

And no matter how much culture will try to tell you that that this is the worst that it's ever been, and if certain things don't come the way that we want them to come, it's the end of all things.

There's nothing new under the sun.

To put it plainly, Jesus is still on the throne, and there's nothing that is happening now that is catching him by surprise.

Like Jesus has never said this phrase, it occurs to me.

Because it never occurs to him, because he already knows it.

So nothing is a surprise to him when he looks at our current culture.

So, what that means is as a church body, we have an opportunity to exhibit and demonstrate kingdom mannerisms and behavior instead of behaviors that mirror that of the world.

Can we get a good amen to that?

So, in this series, we are making some resources available.

We have our Right Now Media video study that's available for us to go a little bit deeper.

That's available to us for free.

We have some amazing journals that um are available.

Some of them may be gone now, but they're still available to purchase online.

We have groups that are going to be kicking off that are gonna be centered around the Corinth stories as well.

And and also one of the things that I I love so much is that we brought back our After the Message um podcast.

Um, do we have anybody that's ever listened to the After the Message podcast?

Four of us, five of us, six of us, eight of us, okay, look at that.

Well, we we we have our after the message podcast that is connected to this series as well.

And and if you didn't get a chance to listen to last week's message, um go back and check it out, and then go and listen to the After the Message podcast where we continue the conversation.

Um and Pastor Nate and I, we really we really dived in.

I was really proud of this episode we just did.

We talked about politics, we talked about division, we we go there with a kingdom lens, and it's a great way for us to get a kingdom perspective on what God's view is on our current season.

In 1 Corinthians chapter number 2, leading up to this moment, we have read in chapter one about the division and the disunity that was taking place in that community.

That was the first thing that Paul wanted to address.

So now, rolling over into chapter two, carrying that theme with him, he continues the conversation by expounding or introducing another thought.

He starts here at verse number one and he says this.

He says, When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come in brilliance of speech or wisdom.

I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but but with demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom, but on God's power, so that your faith may not be based on human wisdom, but that your faith may be founded in God's power.

Today I want to examine this text and a few others in an effort to help us to understand how to keep the main thing the main thing when it comes to living a life that is truly surrendered to Christ, a life of a disciple.

So if you're taking notes, I want you to write this message titled down The Cruciformed Life.

And if you're putting that into your phone or electronic device, it's gonna try to lead you to autocorrect that, but you need to cancel it because it says what it says the cruciformed life, the life that has been marked by the crucifixion that has been formed into the image that God is ultimately calling us to be.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for your presence.

Um, we thank you for an opportunity to come and gather in your name.

Your word reminds us that we're two or three are gathered in your name, that you're there amongst us.

So, Lord, I just pray over the next few moments that we all can decrease so that you can increase in us, in our community, in our families, in our world.

So Lord, I pray that you give us open eyes that we can see you and only you.

I ask that you give us open ears to hear your truth above all else.

And Lord, I pray for open hearts so that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

You know, many of us when we are thinking about, you know, family heirlooms or decorations that are in our homes, uh, a lot of times, if it gets broken, we end up sweeping it up and throwing it away.

That's typically the tradition that we have.

Something gets broken, it no longer has any value.

We sweep it up, we throw it away, and we look to move on to the next thing.

But then I recently found myself engaged in this Japanese art form called Kensugi, which has been really confounding to me.

And what it is, is it's something that goes back for many centuries, but but what it is is is it started back when when someone had broken a family heirloom, this this precious vase, this pot.

And naturally people are thinking, like, how can we reassemble this?

And if we do, will it be ugly?

Like, will it ever be the same that it was?

So it was a commission to say, hey, let's just buy or make a new one.

But but some beautiful artist said, No, if you give it to me, I can make it better than it ever was.

So he literally takes all the broken pieces, every single fragment, every single piece of it, and he assembles it together.

And instead of using glue in order to try to hide some of the cracks, he uses this gold dust so that the cracks are actually highlighted by the gold that's in it.

So what was once this once whole form gets broken and shattered, but it gets reassembled and is held together by this precious gold glue.

In fact, what they would often say is that when we're looking at the precious art of Kinsugi, the cracks are not hidden, but they're highlighted, creating a piece that is more beautiful than the valuable piece was before its brokenness had ever occurred.

It was recognizing that these cracks that are held together by this beautiful gold glue is something that should be highlighted and not something that should be put into a disguise.

What this art form shows us is that even in broken pieces, there's a possibility of redemption if we have the right adhesive to pull it all together.

This, my friends, is what happens to the life of the person who has been trying their best to complete and fix their own brokenness on their own terms.

The Bible tells us back in Genesis that when Adam and Eve sinned, there was this moment when they recognized that they were naked and unashamed.

But when they sinned, nakedness was made aware to them and their shame became clear.

And their response to that was to go and find fig leaves to try to cover up their brokenness on their own terms.

I think many of us have different expressions of what our covering, our brokenness can look like on our own terms.

We can we can find ourselves engaging in app in appetites and behaviors that are meant to cover our brokenness on our own terms.

We have varying coping mechanisms.

But but there's a moment when, after we've done everything we can to plug every hole that we have, but we still find that we're leaking joy, we're we're leaking peace, that the things that we think are going to complete us actually don't do it.

There's a moment when we bring our lives and surrender it to Jesus.

And it's that place where the grace of God is able to assemble those broken pieces, allowing his grace to flow in the areas where there once were cracks.

Our brokenness isn't hidden in the cross, it's highlighted and demonstrated by the blood of Jesus and the grace that now seems to hold us together and allowing beauty to be a place where pain once was the resident of it.

Ultimately, what we're talking about is that's what a cruciformed life looks like.

It's the life of a person that has been shaped by the cross of Christ.

Cruciformity is not just about what you believe, but it's about how we live, reflecting the character and mission of Christ in our daily lives.

It's recognizing that once I truly surrender my life to Christ, that there's a moment when every aspect of me will ooze the grace and love of God, even in my most broken areas, it will be seen so that all can see it.

But cruciformity is very counter-cultural.

This is not the this is not the cultural norm because cruciformity has a lot of components that are attached to it.

There's a lot of sacrifice and surrender, and so that seems to be very counter-cultural in a world that seems to be very mescentric.

But this is not something that's new to us.

In fact, Paul wrote about cruciformity all the time.

We recognize that he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, and in every single one of his writings, he finds a way to highlight and connect himself to the cross of Christ and what we will refer to as cruciformity.

Up until when he writes the letter to the Corinthian church, he's already written a few letters.

He's written to the Church of Galatia, he's written to Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, and so now he's writing 1 Corinthians.

So he has a rhythm of writing, and no matter what he's addressing and correcting, he finds a way to bring it back to the fact that Jesus died on the cross and our lives should be formed from it.

In Galatians chapter 2, he says this I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

So the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith in the Son who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul is immediately saying, Hey, I am identifying with the cross.

This doesn't make any sense because in that context, at that time, the cross was not something that you identified with.

You have to understand that it was a Roman torture device, it was an instrument of pain and shame.

So when Paul is using this language, he's not talking about the way that it's become an icon on our neck or we get tattoos with scriptures and RIP to the person that we just lost.

What Paul is talking about is I'm associating myself with an instrument that is shunned in the world, but it means power for us.

I'm choosing to say that I'm connected to this thing, that everybody else, when they look at it, look at this as something that you would do everything in your life to avoid.

But what Paul is saying, but for the person who is surrendered to Jesus, we actually find life being connected to this thing.

I love what he says here in 2 Corinthians 4.

He says, We always carry the death of Christ in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.

Paul is not distancing himself from the surrender of Christ, but he's actually drawing closer to it.

Romans chapter 6, verse 6 says this, for we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body that was once ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so that that sin is no longer empowering our bodies anymore.

Romans 6:6

What Paul is communicating is that over and over again, when he's trying to add correction and encouragement, he says, You know what this behavior shows is there's an area of your life that you haven't surrendered to the cross yet.

You know what this behavior is telling me is that there's areas of your life that you're putting in front of the cross.

Paul says it this way to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 18.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but is the power of God to those that are being saved.

When you think about what the cross is, when you think about what it signifies, when you think about the challenge that it issues into a culture that is very, that is very me-centric, Paul understood that I'm leading you and challenging you to live a life that seems foolish to the world.

Have you ever had conversations with people and they're trying to wrap their minds around the life that you now live?

I I remember when I surrendered my life to Christ and I began to find myself being conformed into his image.

You know what that meant?

There were certain things that I just couldn't do anymore.

Because I am made in the image of God, and the old me was been has been crucified with Christ.

There were certain behaviors that I didn't have.

Guess what?

There were certain places that I couldn't go.

There were certain individuals I just couldn't be around anymore.

And so when my friends would look at these adjustments that I'm making in my life in an effort to honor God, they would begin to say, Keith, it doesn't make any sense to us.

Why does it matter that where you go and what you do?

Like, why does it matter?

It's foolishness to people that don't understand.

I'm talking to people that you've been living this life of Christ, and people are looking at you saying, It makes no sense that you're praying when it's when it's times of pain.

It makes no sense that you're reading a Bible.

How are those words really going to transform your life anyway?

It was written by people that are not even alive, and you don't even know if it was written by God or not.

The things that we're doing are foolishness to those that are that are perishing, but it is the power of God for those of us who've been saved.

For people that have actually allowed their lives to be conformed into this, you recognize the activation that comes from it.

Paul says, I know that I'm inviting you into something that culture is mocking, but I'm also inviting you into something that is so life-giving and empowering.

So when he confronts the Corinthian church and all the chaos that's happening in their community, he he comes up with this phrase, and I love it.

He says, When I came to you, I didn't come to you preaching all these powerful messages that that that were that got you all excited about what I was saying.

He said, I didn't come to impress you, I came to leave an impression on you.

He said, I didn't come here to be the best communicator in the world.

I didn't come here to be to have the to have it all fit together.

But what I just came to be is be a man who has my own broken pieces, but I'm allowing the glory of God to shine through it in the hopes that it's going to draw you closer to God as a result of it.

What Paul was communicating is that somehow that community had lost sight of who their Messiah was.

Because in that community, what was going on is they began to exalt different people and put them in front of the cross.

Here's what I mean by that: that there will be communicators that would come in and maybe they were more articulate than Paul.

There will be other people that would come in and provide promises and make the people feel good about themselves to stir them all up.

That this community was consistently being infiltrated by culture, religious, and otherwise, and the folks will begin to exalt and elevate these people.

And they were saying, like, hey, if you think about it, he's a little bit better than Paul anyway, because Paul is not that great of a communicator.

Like, if you actually ever listen to his sermons, they're they're kind of boring.

He's not funny, he's kind of long-winded.

In fact, in the book of Acts, they tell a story of how long-winded and monotone Paul was that while he was preaching, a kid fell asleep and fell out of a window and died.

I thought when y'all doze off in the front row, I had a bad.

No, they're locked in.

Richard's locked in right now.

Paul was preaching so long, and he was so long-winded that a kid fell out of a window and died.

Because he fell asleep.

Paul's like, I didn't come here to impress you, but you know what Paul did after that?

He also had the power of God on the inside of him that he can go down and lay hands on that dead kid and raise him back to life.

What Paul was saying is, you guys are impressed by the wrong things.

Because there's people that will show up in your life and they're gonna say the things that you want to hear, they're gonna say the things that's gonna make you smile, they're gonna say the things that make you want to show up.

But I didn't come here to do any of that.

What I came here to do is speak about a life that needs to be surrendered to God and it's gonna be uncomfortable, but I didn't come here to impress you because if I came to impress you, then that means I can't challenge you.

Because the moment that I challenge you, you're you're just gonna get up and go somewhere else where you're not gonna have to deal with the challenging.

Somehow we in the church have gotten to a place where we've given ourselves over to consumer Christianity.

The consumer Christianity is that we look at the congregation as customers, and then the cut the congregations walk in like customers, being impressed by the lights, being impressed by what we see, and they're no longer discerning is the power of God even there.

I've seen so many people that have left churches that they were planted in, they were being challenged in, then they go to churches because the pastor has more social media followers than the previous guy.

That speaks to influence, that speaks to impact.

In Paul's language, what are we doing?

We've gotten away from the main thing.

Paul says, I didn't come to y'all to impress you, but I am going to challenge you because he's recognizing that I love you enough that I recognize that there are things that are going on in your life that we can't continue to allow to go if you're gonna truly be live a cruciformed life.

Paul says, I'm not here to impress you, but I'm here to leave an impression on you because what I can provide for you is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, get up and walk.

Paul said, That's what I bring to the table.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can discern when someone is disturbed in the spirit and I can call that spirit out.

That's what I bring to the table.

What Paul is saying is that we need to be a people that are drawn to the power of God and not the skills of a person.

During the pandemic, when we couldn't impress people with our church services anymore, pastors were losing their minds.

You know why?

Because we had gotten to a place where we felt like the presence of God just wasn't enough.

I remember when Megan and I got saved, we went to a small storefront church, about 30 people.

No lights.

I mean, we had lights, I mean we didn't pair our bills.

There was lights, but I mean it was that bare minimum, like a slight switch.

That was a no, no, no fog machine to create an atmosphere for us.

The church I went to, God didn't need any help.

You just showed up filled with faith, and God moved in most powerful ways.

But then I started becoming more educated about the importance of setting atmospheres and creating context so that people can can know how to put their guard down and let's make sure the music is as loud as possible because we don't want people to feel uncomfortable when they worship, because what if they can't sing?

And oh, by the way, like don't let anybody surrender their life to Christ when someone's looking, they might be filled with shame.

So let's make sure it's real dark and all heads bowed and all eyes closed.

We ushered in this idea of making people believe that being a follower of Christ means that I'm comfortable.

But Paul is saying that we have to get back to a place where the presence of God is enough.

So when the pandemic happened and I believed that God was allowing a shaking to happen in the church, it was saying, let's get back to the main thing where the presence of God is enough.

So when we came back, I said we're not going back.

We're not going back to the very thing that God led us away from.

Let's make sure that we have an atmosphere where the power and presence of God is the most important thing.

Will we function with excellence?

1000%.

Will we have our ducks in a row?

1000%.

But if the presence of God is not there, I won't be there because that is the very thing that's gonna bring us to a place of salvation and anointing and breakthrough.

Paul is saying that we're impressed by the wrong things.

And I suspect that even right now, we're being motivated by the wrong things.

We're putting too many things in front of the cross.

We're not allowing ourselves to be rooted long enough so that we can truly be.

Challenge, Paul was going against the culture, and he's saying that we got to get out of this consumer mindset and begin to have a kingdom perspective.

Paul was challenging this early church, and he begins to present this idea of worldly wisdom versus the wisdom that is found inside of the kingdom, confronting the Corinthians, but by proxy, us as well.

Because the world says, seek your personal success, but the kingdom says, seek first the kingdom of God.

The world says, look out for number one, us four or no more, me and my family, what's in my best interest.

But the kingdom says, consider others better than yourself.

The world says, gain power and influence and prominence.

But the kingdom says, the greatest among you will also be a servant.

The world says, accumulate wealth, store up all your nest eggs, make sure that you and your family are good.

But the kingdom says, store up treasures in heaven.

The world says, follow your heart.

But the Bible says, follow Jesus, because the heart is wicked, and sometimes your feelings are going to mislead you.

What Paul was confronting us with is this reality is that sometimes the things that we feel are not going to be the things that are the will of God, but he still has good plans for us.

Cruciformity is living a life that is surrendered and conformed into the image of God.

So what I want to do is I want to give us three simple attributes of a cruciformed life.

This is not exhaustive, but it's meant to start the conversation that can often challenge us and inspire us to look for other areas where we need to be cruciformed in the image of God.

Can we get a good amen to that?

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

A cruciformed life is a life that demonstrates humility and service.

Humility and service.

Now I want to help us that humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but it's learning to think of ourselves a little bit less.

It's the principle of learning to prioritize others and serve them with the love of Christ.

For the Corinthian church, they they lived in a cultural system that was highly influenced by Greco-Roman Roman values.

This was a culture that had a caste system.

This was a culture where you were born into an ecosystem and a family, and then you were born without it, and that pretty much was your reality.

So it was the exhibit, it was the exhibition of their culture.

But then Paul comes in and he says, But in the context of the kingdom, we're all equal at the foot of the cross.

That means that no matter how much you've accumulated in the world, in the kingdom, you are just like everybody else.

No matter how low you are in the world, in the kingdom, you have equal value.

So what was happening in a Corinthian church is that when people were being invited to serve, they were bringing their culture, their worldly mentality into the church.

So what was happening is the people that had a lot of money, they didn't want to serve the poor.

What do I look like serving them?

The problem is anytime we, them people, we've missed a mark.

It's us, not them.

But sadly, we've allowed the culture to convince us in the kingdom that we still need to look at them as the enemy instead of us reflecting the image of God.

And the best way that you break down those barriers is by functioning with humility and learning how to serve other people.

Paul is always talking about the importance of, hey, I have become all things to all men so that I might win some.

Paul's like, I've had a lot, I've had little, I've I've got I've got Roman understanding, I understand the context of Greek thinking.

I was raised in one of the most, the most rigid of Jewish cultures.

I have a lot of influence, but I've laid it all down for the sake of winning and serving people.

One of the attributes of the kingdom is understanding the importance of humility.

That means that I don't always have to have it right.

That means it doesn't always have to be me first.

It's understanding that I'm choosing to surrender my will for something much bigger than me.

This can seem like a lost art.

One of my favorite shows is Undercover Boss, and I love seeing when these bosses will dress up like an employee and they'll become working behind the scenes.

And what I normally appreciate about it is that that moment where the boss is now more aware of the day-to-day functions of what's happening in their community.

Because there's moments where you can get so far removed, you can be so high up on a food chain that you don't have empathy for people because their pain is not your pain.

But what undercover boss does is it allows a person to get enmeshed in the issues of what's going on in the culture, and a lot of times it results in them changing the system.

The Bible tells us about Jesus, that he became the ultimate undercover boss.

The Bible tells us in Philippians chapter 2 that he says, Hey, I want you to adapt the same mind that was in Christ, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

But he emptied himself, assuming the form of a servant.

He took upon the form of a man and he humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, and that is death on the cross.

Today we live in a culture where we love to exalt and elevate people.

But when we look at the model of cruciformity, that Jesus, who is the word, made flesh.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.

Revelations 19 tells us that Jesus is the word of God.

That over and over again we're reminded that Jesus emptied himself of all of his power and glory and dominion, and he came down and took on human form.

He was born of a woman that he created.

He allowed himself to be raised in a culture that he established, he allowed himself to be critiqued by people, he allowed himself to even be challenged by people because he was trying to demonstrate for us what humility and servanthood looks like.

And some of us can't even let our wives have the last word.

I am just as guilty of this because you know why?

Because I'm very rarely wrong.

Okay, let me keep moving.

The Bible says, tell the truth and shame the devil.

What I'm saying is that we see over and over again that Jesus models what it looks like to humble.

Even when he was about to go to the cross, he refused to speak.

I'm just going to be silent in this moment.

Jesus models what humility and servanthood looks like.

And what the Bible is challenging us to do is the exact same thing.

Is that sometimes we just need to learn to be humble.

I think the great poet Kendrick Lamar said, Be humble.

Now I know some of y'all are y'all are reading from the version with the E on it.

I don't listen to an explicit verse.

I listen to the clean version.

Be humble.

That's the only version I know.

Be humble.

Be humble.

What Kendrick is saying is be humble.

Sometimes we just need to sit down and be humble.

That is an attribute of a cruciformed life where we don't feel like we have to say everything.

We don't have to have the last word.

It's not, oh, it's about us.

We're not going to exalt our ideas above everyone else.

It's just learning that sometimes it's okay to just be quiet and be humble.

It starts there.

But another attribute of a cruciformed life, and this is the one that we're not going to get a lot of amens on, but we're going to stay here for a minute.

Ready, ready.

Y'all ready?

Radical generosity.

One person in the back.

There's a special place for you in heaven.

Fast passing to heaven immediately.

Y'all didn't know I had the authority to do that.

You don't have to wait in line.

Radical generosity is an attribute of a cruciformed life.

So let me let me push on this a little bit.

The cross is the ultimate symbol of sacrifice.

Jesus gave his life as the ultimate sacrifice, paying the price for every sin that we've committed.

This means that when you understand radical generosity, it first started with Jesus.

We all know the most popular verse, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

That love is always connected to some form of giving.

And God's love for you, God's love for me resulted in him giving his only begotten son radical generosity.

For the Corinthian church, they were a community that was known for having a lot of resources.

I shared this last week of how the Corinthian community was a place where a lot of commerce took place.

People were literally from all over the world would come and trade products there.

It was almost like if you can imagine New York and DC, like these high-powered cities where millions of dollars are being transported.

That's what the Corinthian culture was.

So it became a thing, and Meg and I saw this when we went there last year, is that it became a thing when somebody was ever like a little over the top, a little flashy, they would say, like, oh, that's are you from Corinth?

That's very Corinthian of you.

That's like another fancy way of saying, man, that's kind of bougie.

Like, man, you asking for that?

Man, you must be from Corinthian, huh?

Like, that's very Corinthian of you.

I I married a Corinthian wife.

Listen, when she preaches, she can say whatever she wants, but right now it's my time, it's my truth.

I and listen, I'll admit it, I got some Corinthian tendencies.

I I got some areas where I like to like pop out and show them every now and then.

Like, I got that a little bit.

But what Paul is saying is that we have a community of people that become so obsessed with their possessions that now their possessions have them.

They become so obsessed with their own world that they they don't even know how to be generous towards anybody else anymore.

The thing that has been challenging over me over the past two years is I've been reading some literature about what does it mean to live a life of radical generosity.

And here's the flip that I'm learning to make.

I'm no longer looking at things through the lens of how much do I need to give?

I'm working towards how much do I need to keep.

Jesus says these words that wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be.

Which is why generosity is spoken about in church, not because the church needs your resources or Jesus needs them, but he wants us to be unentangled from them so that we can understand how it looks to respond to a person when they are in need.

Paul was challenging this church and saying, You guys are really good at establishing all of these nice resources for yourself, but when it comes to making a difference in the lives of others, you're not.

In 1 Corinthians 16, he said this.

Now, I want to prepare y'all.

He says, I'm gonna show up, and this is what I want y'all to do.

I'm gonna instruct you the same way that I told the Galatian church that on the first day of the week, which is a Sunday, he says, I want each of you to come prepared to give what you've already set aside.

And those resources were used for the community, and those resources were sent out to help other Christians and neighboring communities.

They had a rhythm of generosity.

And Paul was challenging them and saying, Hey, I need you to make this a priority.

I need you to make sure that you're prioritizing what it looks like to be connected to things that God actually cares about.

You know the reason why David was a man after God's own heart?

It wasn't just because he made worship songs, it's because he had a heart for the house of God.

David was the one who said, Hey, if there's anything I can do, I wanted to make sure that God has a house where his people can be blessed.

And because of that, even in spite of his Bathsheba, even in spite of all the flaws and sins in his life, that God still said, Because of your heart for the things that I have a heart for, I have a heart for you.

I truly believe that when we're talking about living a life of radical generosity, it's not just limited to resources, but it's connected to everything that known that God has made available to us.

That God has, God has given me breath in my lungs, so I'm gonna use that breath to be generous with my encouragement of others.

That God has given me the ability to lift my hands, so I'm gonna be generous when it comes time to worship, that I'm gonna find ways to be generous with everything that God has placed in my hands.

Because a principle that is found in the kingdom context in the cruciform life is understanding I'm the owner of nothing, but I'm the steward of everything.

That simple mindset will shift the way that we look at our resources, recognizing I've been entrusted with this.

And I want to make sure that I'm prioritizing things that God says are important.

A couple of quick things you can do to help with this is because I'm gonna tell you, it's hard to just stumble upon generosity.

You got to plan for it.

Like I often will say, hey, I just want to be generous, but until I plan for it, it didn't happen.

So a couple of things you can do is you can prioritize it.

Make it a line item.

Megan and I, every time we get paid, we put aside a couple of dollars just for random generosity.

And so whenever, whenever someone's like, oh, we have a need over here, or or we're raising money for this, or there's somebody with a GoFundMe, we'll typically pray about it and say, like, hey, I feel like God's leading us to give towards this.

How do you feel about it?

Yes.

And we already have resources set aside for it.

Just plan your generosity.

Here's the other thing I think you can do.

Just start small.

Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed or even guilt-shamed, and that's not what this is, but sometimes we just need to find a place to start to so that we can make a difference in the lives of other people.

Paul was challenging them.

Listen, just put aside something so that way we can have our pooled resources that can make a difference in the lives of others.

But the other thing that we can do is whatever you feel comfortable giving, go above that.

Because we have to get out of our comfort zone.

Because a cruciformed life is not a comfortable life.

Any walk with God that doesn't have sacrifice connected to it is a walk that's too comfortable for us.

What Paul was ultimately communicating is saying, I want to make sure that you give beyond your measure of comfort.

So when Megan and I are in these moments of having conversations about, okay, we want to sew into whatever this thing is, a lot of times it'll be like, you pray about it and I pray about it.

And I'm typically praying that she comes up with a lower number than I came up with.

I'm like, man, I hope she don't come with too much.

But then she'll come back and she'll say the number that a lot of times God was stretching me to give towards.

And I'm like, dang it.

You sure you heard from the Lord on that?

Because watch, sacrificial giving is something that you should feel.

If I don't feel it, it's nice, but radical generosity is giving beyond your comfort.

That's what a cruciformed life is.

It's a life that is surrendered to Christ.

Y'all still with me?

Y'all sure?

Okay, let me get to the third point.

We're gonna wrap up and get out of here.

Here's my third and final point of the attributes of a cruciformed life.

The attributes of a cruciformed life is a life that has forgiveness and reconciliation.

When people look at the life of a believer, when you're at work, when you're at home, when you're in your community, and they can see that you are a person that has radical generosity, when they can see that you are a person that has that you have humility and servanthood, they also want to see that you have the ability to forgive and function with reconciliation.

Because forgiveness is countercultural.

We live in a canceled culture where one mistake, you're done.

Two mistakes, you're done.

Anything you do, there is no, there is no room for recovery from it.

And and one of the things that breaks my heart, specifically being a kingdom person, is that sadly I have seen people make mistakes.

And when I mean people, I mean I've seen pastors fall and make mistakes, and I've seen them walk through their process of reconciliation and redemption.

And then as I see them making an effort to try to move forward, the people in the church are saying, You're no longer called.

And it's not my job to say whether someone is called or not, but I'm wondering how did we, as a kingdom-minded group of people, forget to extend the grace that we need every single day.

Somehow, my sin is different than your sin, and I need grace for my sin, but you don't get any grace for your sin.

That's hypocrisy in the highest order.

But a cruciform life is a life that understands that the same way that I have been forgiven is the same way that we need to extend forgiveness to others.

The thing that I love about this cross and the way that it looks is that the vertical represents us being reconciled to God, but the horizontal represents us being reconciled to one another.

That's the ecosystem of the kingdom of God, is understanding that forgiveness and reconciliation go hand in hand.

I'm not talking about us staying in abusive environments, I'm not talking about forgive and forget.

That's not what I'm saying.

But what I'm saying is that that unforgiveness is poison that keeps us from moving forward.

That what I'm saying is that when we harbor resentment and we function with fractures, we're not allowing the glory of God to flow through those broken areas of our lives.

And so there's moments when as a cruciformed person, I surrender it to Jesus, even if it means the relationship is no longer what it used to be.

I want to give you some really practical things because I think it's important, specifically when we're talking about areas where we've experienced pain and betrayal.

There's three things I want you guys to do.

I want you to one, acknowledge the hurt and confront the issue.

Matthew 18, 15.

Acknowledge the hurt and confront the issue.

If you've been hurt, say it.

If you hurt somebody else, acknowledge it.

Let's confront the issue.

Second part, seek to understand and extend empathy.

James 1, 19.

What he says there is everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger.

Seek to understand and extend empathy.

And then the third one is ultimately to extend grace and forgiveness.

Colossians 3 13.

Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you are also to forgive others.

This cruciformed life isn't easy, it's it's countercultural.

And what I truly believe is that in our modern context, we've gotten so me-centric in our faith that we've lost sight of the bigger picture.

We've lost sight that there are others that we're a part of, and that God is telling us it is time for us to stop putting things in front of the cross.

Whatever you classify as, don't put it in front of the cross.

So if you're a conservative, don't say I'm a conservative Christian.

I'm a Christian who has conservative views.

If you're progressive, don't say I'm a progressive Christian.

You say I'm a Christian that may have perspective that has progressive views.

Because anything that I put in front of the cross is an idol.

Anything that I put in front of the cross, I've now exalted it and made it more important to God.

And it allows me to other you because you are other than me.

I can dehumanize you and I don't even consider you to be in a family of faith.

We've complicated the cross.

So what Paul is challenging the Corinthian church to do is get out of the way and allow the cross to be first.

Because when we're in the cross, it allows us to function with humility.

When we're behind the cross, it allows us to be generous.

That when we're in the cross, we understand how to serve and extend forgiveness.

That it's only when we're behind the cross are we empowered to live a cruciformed life.

I believe that what God is challenging us to do as a church and our current context with nothing new under the sun is to get back to the cross.

So we're not going to bow heads, we're not going to close eyes, we're going to allow ourselves to get a little uncomfortable.

Because I think the days of us trying to create and perpetuate comfortable Christianity is not producing the fruits that's going to allow us to have kingdom impact.

So if you're in here and there's areas of your life that you know I need to surrender it to the cross, I'm not going to call you down to the altar because we just don't have enough time for that.

Or maybe I will, might be the bait and switch.

Who knows?

I'm not.

I promise I'm not.

But what I do want to do is I want to pray for you right where you are.

So on account of three, if you're like, yeah, Keith, there's areas of my life that I just need to surrender to the cross.

No questions asked.

I just want to pray for you where you are.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

And watch this.

Keep those hands up.

So the opposite of hands down and eyes closed, everybody look around.

We all got something that we need to surrender to the cross.

We all got something that we recognize that in my own strength I don't have the ability to do it.

But we all have something that empowered by the Spirit of God that we can get victory over.

Lord, I thank you so much for your faithfulness.

I thank you for your kindness.

And Lord, I thank you that with our hands lifted high, we recognize that we need to surrender some things to the cross.

So as a community of faith, Lord, in the name of Jesus, we declare that we want to have a faith that Paul describes with power and demonstration.

Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus that anything that we have placed in front of the cross, our fear, our insecurity, Our ideologies, God, that we can put it back in its rightful place.

And that is connecting ourselves to the cross.

And that is first.

Lord, I pray that you can unite us as a body, but as a global community, because the enemy is still the serpent that is looking for opportunities to seek who he may devour.

But in the name of Jesus, not so with us, that we're going to be a community that's knitted together because we have recognized that we have a bigger purpose and a bigger thing that we're connected to.

And that is the kingdom of God.

That we're going to be an anti-culture kingdom church that recognizes that there's value in every single person, no matter where they are, no matter who they are or what they've been through, because their brokenness, as long as it's connected to the cross, is something that you can be glorified in.

So we surrender it to you in the name of Jesus.

So, Father, we thank you for the victory.

And in this moment, we surrender it all to you in Jesus' name.

If you believe in church, can you put your hands together?

We're going to go back into worship for just a minute.

So let us stand to our feet and let us worship together as a community one more time.

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 Celebration ORL or visit our website at celebrationorl.org.