Gideon : The Reluctant Leader | 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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It is so good to see every single one of you.

Would you mind helping me show some love to those who are joining us online and those who are even in our family lounge and participating with our podcast?

We're so, so glad that you are with us today.

Before I jump into my message today, I want to do something uh just a little bit different.

I want to read a passage to us and just go into a quick uh moment of prayer.

Um 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse number 14 says this Um, if my people who bear my name humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7 · chapter mention

This passage is is written at a time when there's just a lot of chaos and oppression um in the land, and the people of God are kind of caught in in the middle of it.

And the reason I wanted to highlight this passage specifically as we go into uh a moment of prayer is that I suspect by this time that that many of our community are probably aware um that that former President Trump was shot yesterday at at one of his events.

Um fortunately, he's okay.

It looks like he's gonna uh pull through perfectly fine.

But but the reason I want to pause and and pray about this is because every election season as a pastor, particularly of a diverse church like ours, it is one that can be challenging, but it's also a great opportunity.

Because I'm I'm aware that my last 15 years of ministry have been serving in churches similar to ours, where we have differing views virtually on every topic you can imagine.

But the idea is that we center ourselves on the gospel, we center ourselves on what God's word says, we anchor ourselves in the kingdom and we allow that to inform the way that we respond to anything in the world.

But but sadly, what we've noticed, at least what I have noticed personally, is how now the politics have now become integrated into the church, and now our response is first political before it's kingdom.

And so I've been heartbroken as I've looked at the way that varying people have responded, not only to this incident, but other incidences, using God's word as maybe a way of oh, that was God's judgment, or or this is a consequence of that.

And and I just want to be very clear that that anyone that tries to weaponize the Bible to justify violence and harm, they are manipulating God's word, they are not in alignment with God's spirit, and we're gonna always call that out.

I I want to be very, very clear that that our response is always a kingdom response.

If you're new to Celebration Orlando and you're saying, okay, I'm at this church, man, do they lean left or they lean right?

We don't lean, we stand on God's word, and God's word doesn't require us to compromise.

We will not be a church that allows our politics to inform our faith.

And so we're gonna always have a kingdom response.

And what the kingdom response is, even in spite of what our personal preference is, is to pray and to intercede.

That's a challenge for all of us.

The Bible constantly reminds us to pray for those who are in positions of authority.

This was written to people who were dealing with oppressive leaderships.

There is, let me say this, there is nothing that we are experiencing that the early Christians didn't experience ten times worse.

And yet they survived, and yet they were still told to pray.

So that's what we're going to do in this time, believing that if God's people, which is us, can humble ourselves, get out of our political webs that we're in, and simply have a biblical kingdom response, then maybe that's the ingredients for a revival and not anything else.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your faithfulness.

And God, we recognize that we are entering into a delicate time in our country, but you are not taken by surprise.

Father, we pray first and foremost uh for former President Trump, his family, his community, the people that are around him, that he is safe and that you're going to heal him and that you're going to continue to protect him.

In addition to him, God, we also pray for every candidate, everyone that's in public service, Father, we intercede and pray for them that you can continue to protect their families and order their steps.

Lord, we also pray for the lives that were lost yesterday.

We intercede for those families, God.

And Lord, we recognize that we live in a world that is continuously putting fear in front of our faces, where we feel that we have to react in our own strength.

But Lord, I pray that the church in these moments will not be riddled with fear but respond in faith.

So, Lord, we pray, we humble ourselves, we repent for the times that we thought political leaders and political ideologies and laws and things were going to be the way that we force the kingdom onto people.

God, we repent for looking for the world systems to be something that can undergird something that only the risen Savior can do.

So, Father, we now declare the name of Jesus over this land because when we declare the name of Jesus, your word reminds us that that is when we are going to experience healing.

So, Lord, we need healing in our land.

Heal us from the brokenness, heal us from the division, God, heal us from all the pain and the anguish that people are experiencing because it's only you that will draw us all together.

Inside of the kingdom, there is no compromise.

We don't have to turn the other cheek up.

We can look at you and recognize that it's in you that we can have all the peace that we need.

So, Father, let us draw closer to you.

Have empathy, have compassion for those who are other than us.

And that is what I believe will be the seed bed for revival.

In Jesus' name.

If you believe that with me, church, would you say amen?

Amen and amen.

If this is your first time here, my name is Keith and I'm the pastor of this incredible church, and we are so, so glad that you are here with us.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Judges, chapter number six.

As you're turning there, I'll give you a quick context.

We are in a series that is entitled Behind the Scenes.

And it's in this series that our desire is to not only talk about maybe some characters that you don't know, but more so look at how God used them behind the scenes to create seismic shifts in the culture and the people of God.

For the people of God, they've already occupied the promised land as we're entering into this passage.

And for them, they've kind of caught themselves in this cycle of they pray about it, God heals them, they then disobey, they're then oppressed, and then they repent, and it's just this vicious cycle that they are in.

And so for this time, what would happen is every time they would cry out and pray that God would heal them, he would deliver them, and then they would forget God, and then the cycle of oppression would continue.

And in these moments when he would respond, he would bring up a judge who would then come in to serve as a leader, who was a military strategist, but also a person who was a good guide and a good barometer for the people of God.

And there's many people that God used the judges for.

This is before they transitioned into having kings.

So as we enter into chapter number six, the Bible tells us that the children of Israel, they they were in the promised land, they they forgot their ways, and now they're dealing with oppression and are crying out to God.

And now God responds by identifying a man to use him to bring healing and liberty to his people.

Starting at verse number 11, the Bible tells us the angel of the Lord came and he sat under the oak that was an Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abysrite.

His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.

Gideon said to him, Please, my Lord, if the Lord was with us, then why has all of this happened?

And where are all of his wonders that our ancestors told us about?

These are prayers that I've prayed before.

They said, Hasn't the Lord brought us out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.

The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian.

I am sending you.

He said to him, Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel?

Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's family.

But look at God's response, but I will be with you.

The Lord said to him, You will strike down Midian as if it were one man.

Today I want to talk to us about the sovereignty and power of God and how when we say yes, even when we are reluctant, he will use it to do something significant.

If you're taking notes and I hope that you are, I want you to write this message title down behind the scenes again.

Super simple.

Let's pray and let's get into it.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you for every opportunity that we are given to gather in your name and to uh engage your word.

So, Lord, I just pray over the next few moments that your spirit moves amongst every single one of us and uniquely speaks to us, but corporately delivers us.

Father, I pray that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear your truth, and open hearts to receive what you have and to be transformed.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I I've been recently doing uh a lot of reading, um, just in varying areas of psychology.

Many of you guys know that that Megan and I are in school about to finish up, praise the Lord for that, um, with getting our professional counseling and all the things that that God is leading us to do in this next season.

So I'm leading, I'm reading a lot of material that gives me different insight into different therapeutic techniques and integration in church and all these other things.

And I found myself reading this thing on on somatic therapy.

Somatic therapy.

I'll explain what that is in in just a moment.

And so they they kind of explained it by walking us through an instance where someone needed to use it.

And what somatic therapy ultimately is, it's the recognition that people can experience trauma in such a way that even after they no longer are dealing with the pain or the trauma, they still are wrestling with the symptoms because it's such a traumatic experience.

So they told a story about this young man who was a star basketball player.

This star basketball player um was having a lot of impact and he was on trajectory, being being scouted out by all the top colleges.

They were working their way to getting a championship.

So it was a lot of exposure, a lot of momentum in his life.

But then in one of the games, he sustained a very critical injury.

He sprained his ankle, and so he was heartbroken because he couldn't play.

He was also discouraged because he he thought that he let his team down and that they weren't going to be successful.

So while he's in the process of getting healed up, going to therapy, trying to hurry up and get back on the court so that he could hopefully, in the back end of the season, lead his team to ultimately a championship, something unexpected happened.

The team began to gel together and in such a unique way that even in his absence, the team was still very dominant and winning all of their games.

So even though he's getting healed up, he's recognizing that the team is doing pretty good without him.

He's a star player, but the team is moving forward and having a lot of success.

So so now that he's been cleared to play again, and he's now in the game that leads to the that leads to the final.

So he's in the semifinals, he gets out on a court and he is he is riddled with fear.

So so even though he no longer has the injury, he is now wrestling in his mind with the idea of, but what if I hurt myself again?

So he's he's moving very sensitively because he doesn't want to re-injure himself.

He wants to make it into college.

But in addition to that, he's also very hesitant to take shots that he would have easily taken before.

He's concerned that now that he's back, that he's gonna disrupt the chemistry that the team had created.

And so now he's also afraid that his arrival, even though he's the best player on a team, is gonna mess up the team's success.

So the entire game, he's struggling, and and and his coaches are saying to him, like, Man, take the shot, it's in you.

We trust you, we're with you, we're gonna either win with you or we'll lose.

But we're gonna we want you to step into what we know is in you.

But he was very apprehensive the entire time.

The team struggled to win, but then his mom took him to go see a sports psychologist where they began to talk to him about the very thing that I'm talking to you about, how sometimes we can experience such traumatic things in our bodies or even in our past, in our minds, that it literally affects our ability to move forward.

Sometimes traumatic expense experiences can really affect our ability to pivot into the next thing that we have.

It can make us very reluctant to do things that we once used to be confident in doing.

Reluctance ultimately means this feeling of extreme hesitation.

It's unwillingness, and it's when doubt begins to shroud our actions.

A couple of examples that we could probably pull from reluctance can look like a teacher who had a terrible previous school year, and now the summer break is coming to an end and they feel reluctant to going back.

I got some teachers in the audience I can clearly see that.

Reluctance can look like a business owner who has his MBA, has has different measures of success, but maybe some things didn't work out the way that he thought it was going to work out.

Maybe, maybe uh a product didn't launch well, or maybe the initial business didn't bring in the revenue they were hoping for, and now they have an opportunity to step into something that seems like a good opportunity, but they're reluctant to do it because either they don't have the margin to do it, or they're afraid of, what if I fail again?

Reluctance can come in many different forms, but but I want to ask you this question.

What if, even in the space that you find yourself, even within that reluctant space, that what if in that space is the place that God wants to meet you where you are and activate you into doing the next thing that He's ultimately calling you to do?

The Israelites were being oppressed.

When we hear those words, maybe different things come to mind, but I want to give us some continuity of understanding so we can understand the significance of what they were experienced.

To be oppressed means to be intentionally and cruelly squeezed in a way that prevents you from living the life that you were intended to live.

It's intelligent evil that is designed to hold you back.

It's not something that happens organically, it requires intelligent intentionality to prevent you from moving forward.

So the same way it doesn't happen organically, it doesn't dissolve organically.

It requires that same measure of intentionality to come out of it.

The people of God were dealing with significant oppression around because of the way that they disobeyed God and they're dealing with the extreme consequences of it.

And the Bible tells us about this one man from the smallest tribe, the youngest in the crew, that God was going to use him to be the catalyst to bring about change.

You with me, celebration, Orlando.

I want to share three thoughts with us that I believe that we can identify with Gideon, but ultimately meant to activate and bring revelation to every single one of us.

Here's the first thing that I want us to write down as we look at this text.

There is more in you.

There is more in you.

Let that settle for a moment.

Wherever you are, there's still more in you.

Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press.

And if you're not familiar with the practice, we may not understand the significance of what's going on right now.

But what's going on in the text is threshing wheat involved the separation of grain from chaff.

Ultimately, grain was used for food and other services.

The chaff was used for fuel or just to create fires.

It was typically a very communal thing.

It was something that you did on an open floor, an open community, the process of separating it, it was community around it.

But while they were doing it, what was happening is the Midianites would come in and steal all of their resources.

Another way to put it is that the separation of wheat from the staff is because ultimately what we're doing is we're separating the good from the bad, the good things in my life from the bad things in my life.

And they were doing that in the context of community.

But every time they separated the bad things out of their life and set aside the good things for their life, their enemy came in and took it from them.

Am I talking to anybody right now?

Where it seems like sometimes we're going through seasons of our life where we're going through the process in the context of community of separating the things that God has for us and removing the things that God doesn't want us to have.

But it seems like whatever we put aside for God, the enemy seems to come in and take it.

So what the Gideon has to do is he has to adapt in order to survive.

So instead of doing the separation process out in the open, he then takes it inside of a cave inside of the wine press.

The wine press was the place where grapes would be squashed into wine and preserved and ultimately become what they would then and take in.

But he had to do something different in a place that he shouldn't have been doing it, but he had to adapt in order to survive.

Have you ever felt like you had to adapt in order to survive?

Like there's something that I need to do in order for me to survive the current season that I find myself in.

See, when we're faced with threats and challenges, we often have to adjust our behavior, our attitude, and even our identities to sometimes navigate the situation.

This kind of adaption can build resilience, it can help us to endure tough times.

Whenever we go through difficult seasons, it may require us to focus in a little bit more, minimize other things we're doing, but we have to adapt in order to survive.

And it's often for the good that we have this ability to adapt so that we can develop resilience.

However, there is a downside because these adaptions, while initially helpful, they can cause us to obscure the true self that lies underneath all of the fear, the doubt, and the self-preservation.

Before long, we've adapted into a version of ourself that knows how to survive but doesn't know how to thrive.

There's something deeper on the inside of us that has been covered up by fear and by trauma.

And now there's these moments where our ability to now engage moments that tap into the real version of us, it leaves us reluctant to do it because I've had to bury that side of me in order to survive where I'm currently am.

I'm talking to people that may have dealt with betrayal or heartbreak.

And after you've gone through it enough times, you begin to develop a resilience and build calluses around areas of your heart with the mindset of saying, I'll never let anyone hurt me like that again.

I'll never be disappointed like that again.

And while that has been to protect us in one season, we may be keeping ourselves from getting hurt now, but we might be also stopping ourselves from getting loved later.

Sometimes we have to adapt in order to survive, but I want you to understand that it's in that hidden place, that it's in that spot of obscurity, it's in that place of fear that God shows up and he speaks to the true version of us and calls us out of that place of utter despair.

I want you to hear me clear, Celebration Orlando, that where you are is not a reflection of who you are.

That just because this is where you currently are, that does not mean that that's all that it's ever going to be.

There is more in you.

The Bible is filled with stories of God meeting people where they were, but calling something greater out of them.

The Bible tells us that when he confronts Abram, that his name literally means exalted father.

That's a great name.

But then God shows up and says, I don't just see you being an exalted father, I see Abraham.

You're going to be the father of nations.

I see more in you.

When he confronts Sarai, he says, Hey, I know that right now that that name means something powerful to you, but what I see is a mother of nations.

I see more in you.

The Bible is filled with different instances.

We're even told about Jacob, this man who was a conniver, a man who was a manipulator, but he has an encounter with God, and God says, I no longer see that in you.

I see more in you.

Your name is going to be Israel.

You are a champion of God, you're going to represent me well.

I see more in you.

Where you are is not a reflection of who you are.

God calls us out of that place of obscurity and brokenness and fear.

Maybe right now that you've had to evolve into an adapted version of yourself to protect yourself.

And you don't even recognize what's really on the inside of you.

God approaches Gideon and says to him, Greetings, valiant warrior.

How am I a warrior, God?

I'm in hiding right now.

I've had to adapt into an environment to do something that I shouldn't have to do.

No, you see yourself as hidden, but I see you as being preserved and protected.

I see more in you.

Maybe God is calling some things out of you that don't seem to reconcile with your current reality.

But it's in those hidden and broken spaces that God meets us exactly where we are.

Can we get a good amen to that?

The second thing that I love in this passage is this moment where.

Gideon is wrestling with the truth of what God says, and so he does this.

He seeks assurance from God.

He seeks assurance from God.

The Bible tells us the story of how when Gideon is hearing this news and he does a couple of things to show that he's surrendered to God, but ultimately he says, God, if this is really you, like, you gotta understand my context, God.

Like, like we have been defeated by the Midianites.

We tried to fight back.

We're not successful, we're outnumbered.

They are they are more strong than us.

Like, there's no way that you are calling me to do this, but I'm trying my best to trust you.

So I'm just asking you for a little bit of assurance.

Because watch this.

Sometimes it is just really hard to recognize God's voice.

Can I be honest with you?

There are times when when God is speaking, at least we think He's speaking, and we're like, okay, God is is that you?

Is that me?

Is it my feelings?

Is it is it is it my preferences?

How do I know if that is really you speaking or if it's not my ideas that are coming to the surface?

Sometimes it can be really hard to distinguish God's voice versus my own ambition.

So there are moments when we begin to feel these inner twinges that we have to seek assurance from God.

Not from social media, not from TikTok, not from the latest person that has all the opinions of everything, but I need to find moments where I can seek assurance from God.

When Gideon has this encounter with God, he says, God, like, listen, I just need a little bit of assurance.

Because if I can get this assurance, it can give me the confirmation that I need, and I can now begin to move with boldness, knowing that you are absolutely for me.

See, ultimately, what assurance is, is it's confirmation.

I just need a little bit of confirmation.

I want to make sure that if this is God, I just want to confirm that it's really Him.

I'm a little bit old school in this way, so some of the millennials may laugh at me, but but here, let me tell you how I move.

Whenever I make any purchase online, I don't close out the screen until I get that confirmation email.

I do screenshots, I make sure that, hey, I just gave y'all some money, and so before we close out this transaction, I'm highlighting that confirmation.

In fact, I have a whole folder on my desktop of confirmation screenshots of everything from paying off bills to going on vacation.

If I were to open it up, it may go back to 2016.

Like I have a I have a boatload of things because watch this.

I want to make sure that I can move forward with confidence and with peace because I know that I got confirmation that everything is good.

You'd be amazed at how we can now move in peace once we have confirmation.

What the Bible tells us about Gideon is that he says, Lord, I know that you are calling me to move forward, but before I can move forward, I need to make sure that I have confirmation that it is really you that is ordering my steps.

Because here's what I've recognized in my own life: that when I have confirmation, I have assurance, and then assurance will produce peace.

A lot of times we're looking for peace, but we haven't got the confirmation.

This is why when we come to church, it's important for us to engage God's word because it's in these spaces I can get confirmation.

This is why we open up our Bibles every day and we begin to read God's word because it's in that place that we get confirmation.

This is why we listen to worship music, because it's in those spaces that we can experience a little bit of confirmation.

This is also why the enemy hates when we're in community, because he doesn't want us to get confirmation that can produce peace.

This is why the enemy fights you from coming to church, because he knows that maybe you're going to come into a service, and something that God has been putting on your mind will be the very song that gets sang.

And then the scripture that you have been looking at for the past three days is the very verse that someone pulls from.

This is what confirmation looks like.

But if we don't engage the things of God, we're missing out on those moments where God is trying to confirm his word.

Just this morning, my family, my wife and I were riding into church.

And as we're riding into church, we're just processing and talking, and and and I was I got up early this morning and I'm praying, and and and as a family, we're we're navigating through some difficult times.

Nothing overly tumultuous, but but something we're we're navigating through.

And so Megan put on some worship music, and the song Firm Foundation came on.

And as I'm driving, thinking about everything, thinking about how we're gonna navigate through it, I began to just listen to the word saying that he won't fail.

That rain comes, the wind blew, but my house is built on you.

That began to allow my faith to rise up because it reminded me that when it's all said and done, my house is built on God.

And now I have the confirmation that I need in order for me to move forward and have peace, even in uncertain circumstances.

I want to encourage you right now to engage the things of God because maybe the confirmation that you need, the peace that you're seeking, is found when we engage something where God is simply reinforcing his word and challenging you to do something uncomfortable.

But when you have confirmation, it will produce peace.

Gideon was seeking confirmation from God, and this gave him assurance, which ultimately produced the peace that he needed.

The third thing that I think is so remarkable as we prepare to close is this.

Now that we have this recognition that God has spoken, just be courageous.

This is in this space where we just need to be courageous.

God had instructed Gideon to do something that seemed completely irrational.

He told him to take an army of 32,000, which was already significantly less than his opponents, and he told him to bring it down to 300.

I've been in leadership a long time.

I'm really great with strategy.

That doesn't seem like a great strategy to me.

It doesn't seem like a good idea.

But when I have heard from God and God tells me to do something, I can move forward with peace, knowing that God is ordering my steps.

For Gideon, even though he knew that he was facing opposition that far outmatched anything that he could handle, the Bible tells us that God told him, Be courageous because I am with you.

Because if I am with you, then what matters what stands against you?

It's in these moments that I believe it's meant to remind us that the battle is not ours, but it belongs to the Lord.

In many instances, when God is inviting us to step out into those uncomfortable spaces, we are trying our best to lean on our own understanding, lean on our own logic, and lean on our own strength.

But it's in these moments where God is saying, But I need you to be courageous and trust me.

It's an opportunity for God to get all the glory.

So that way, when I'm telling the story and people are saying, How did you survive that?

Can you give me the three steps?

Can you launch a podcast on what are the best ways to navigate these situations that we'll be able to say, I don't have anything to say except for Jesus.

I trusted God.

God told me to take a step, I did it by faith, and as I was obedient, it was uncomfortable that I seen the spirit of the living God move through my obedience.

It's not me, it all belongs to Him.

It's in this space where God challenges us to step out, even when we're afraid.

See, I believe that in Christianity, that a lot of times fear is misunderstood as a lack of faith.

However, fear itself is neither sinful or weak.

It's a natural response signaling when there's danger or when there is uncertainty.

We see in scripture that so many biblical characters, including Gideon, had moments when they experienced fear.

But the problem arises when we allow our fear to dictate our actions and our decision making, paralyzing us and preventing us from gathering a hold of God's promises.

What biblical courage involves, it moves it means moving forward in spite of my fear because I have confirmation that he sent me.

It means believing that God's promises are bigger than our problems.

It's God's promises that I trust in recognizing that he's with me even in my moments of uncertainty.

Choosing courage in the face of fear means knowing that God is with us every step of the way.

Gideon has now moved his army from 32,000 down to 300.

And now Gideon has surrounded the enemy camp.

And as he surrounds the enemy camp, he gives his army some very unique instructions.

He says, okay, guys, listen, we're about to engage in this battle, but not in the way that you think we need to engage in.

I want y'all to follow my lead.

I'm going to blow this horn, and I want all 300 of us to then blow our horns as well.

And when we blow our horns, then these these little vases that we have that have these smoldering flames in it, I want us to break the flames or break the break the vessel, and that will then and then lift our torches up.

That seems like a very unique strategy when you're preparing to go to war.

Blow the horn, crack the vessel, lift up your torch.

Blow the horn, crack the vessel, lift up your torch.

Logically, that doesn't make sense.

But when I understand the subtext of what's going on, it begins to have it begins to resonate with me a little bit deeper.

See, the horn typically represented the battle cry of an entire army.

And typically what would happen is there would be one horn player for every thousand people.

Blow the horn when I blow my horn.

Additionally, you would have torch bearers that would be there, and they represented one torch for every thousand person.

But all of us are gonna have our torches.

So Gideon tells his men, all of us are going to blow our horn, all of us are going to crack these vessels, we're gonna allow the wind to ignite the flame on the inside of these vessels, and when the enemy sees it, he will be windered into confusion because we know it's 300, but from his perspective, it may be 300,000.

I don't know if you caught that.

I want you to make sure that you bring this cracked vessel that has a flame on the inside of it, allow the wind or the oxygen of God to get a hold of it, and then lift your torch up while you're blowing your horn, and it will bring confusion to the enemy.

It sounds a lot like when we get into a moment of worship where we are earthen vessels who have brokenness on the inside of us.

But if we can still declare with our voices, symbolic of the horn, and invite the presence of the living God to breathe on the fire that's on the inside of us, it will bring the enemy into a state of confusion because he's not understanding.

Why are you worshiping when your marriage is falling apart?

Why are you worshiping when your children are sick?

Why are you worshiping when you still didn't get the job?

Because I'm gonna still declare the name of God over my situation, I'm gonna invite the Holy Spirit into my situation and it's gonna bring confusion to the enemy.

Maybe what you need to do to win this next battle is not bring out a sword, but lift up your worship and declare the name of the Lord over every situation because the battle is not mine, but it belongs to the Lord, and I have a fire on the inside of me.

And if I can invite the presence of the living God, the rule of God, to breathe on my situation, it will bring confusion to the enemy.

You're gonna be confusing the people at work when you walk in with joy, when they notice you're being oppressed.

You're gonna confuse your family members when everybody isolates themselves from you, but you're still exhibiting the love of the spirit of the living God.

What I'm talking about is being a people group that recognizes in my own strength I can't do it, but I'm gonna present my crack broken vessel into the presence of God.

I'm gonna lift up a praise and watch God bring the enemy into a place of utter confusion.

We just have to be willing to be courageous.

I want everyone to hear me.

Wherever you are, it's not who you are.

There's more in you.

And it's in these moments that we can seek assurance and confirmation of God that even in the uncomfortable things, that God is with us.

And it's in this place that we can courageously step into the spaces, even if they're uncomfortable, because we know that God has ordered our steps.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I just want to lead us into a moment of prayer.

Maybe you're in here with us today.

And as you were sitting, maybe there's something that began to stir your mind where you recognize that maybe there is more in me.

That where I am is not a reflection of who I am.

Maybe you've had to adapt into a version of yourself in order for you to survive.

But as you're listening to these words, it's confirming that man, maybe, maybe there is more.

There is more that I'm supposed to do.

There's more that I'm supposed to engage in.

There is yet more.

There's greater glory that God has for me.

If that's you, and you recognize that that man, there's more in me that God wants to get out of me.

I would love to pray for you.

If that's you, on the count of three, would you boldly lift your hands up?

One, two, three.

Keith, I recognize that there is more.

I believe that there is more.

There's more for my family.

Amen.

There's more for me.

There's more for my community.

I believe that there is more.

Amen.

You can go ahead and put those hands down.

Before we go into this moment of prayer, I also want to create a space where we can invite those who have not yet said yes to Jesus an opportunity to do that.

We truly believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And that we believe that it's when we surrender our life to him that it allows us to ignite that fire on the inside of us.

It allows us to be able to engage the things of God, allowing him to order our steps, living our life on his terms, and tapping into the more that he truly has for us.

He came just for you to activate the more in you.

There's eternity on the inside of you if you're willing to surrender at the temporary.

If that's you, and you simply want to say yes to Jesus, returning home, or maybe even saying yes for the first time, I would love to pray for you as well.

On account of three, would you boldly lift your hand?

One, two, three, saying yes to Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Celebration church.

Can we put our hands together and celebrate with everyone that is saying yes to Jesus, maybe even for the first time?

What I want to do now is I want to just lead us in a quick prayer, and Pastor Nate's going to come up and give us some instructions and dismiss us with a blessing.

But just right where you are, I just want you to posture yourself in a space to receive.

Lord, I thank you so much for your faithfulness.

I thank you, Lord, that it's in these moments that we can come together and the Holy Spirit uniquely speaks to us but corporately challenges us.

Father, there's some amongst us that that we have been hiding in obscurity and we recognize that there is more.

There's moments that you've been calling us out and we've been reluctant to step out because of our current situation.

But Lord, you reminded us that where we are is not who we are, that there is still more for every precious person that recognizes there is more, that they need to be bold and step into the thing that you're inviting them into.

That God, that you can stir their hearts and allow them to do it in the name of Jesus.

I pray that any trauma, any fear that is keeping them from tapping into who they truly are, that it can be processed, it can be resolved, but they can walk, walk forward in confidence knowing that you are with them.

Lord, I also pray for every precious person, God, that is saying yes to you.

We don't believe it's a special formula prayer, but we recognize it's the confession of faith, it's the belief in our heart that brings transformation.

So right where you are, just receive Jesus as your Lord.

Lord, I pray alongside of my precious brothers and sisters, and we're gonna come alongside them to support and to reinforce and to confirm your promises and blessings on their life.

God, I pray a blessing over them, and I ask that you activate the spirit on the inside of them in that fire that we were talking about, and that you order their steps.

So, Lord, it's in this moment that even in our reluctance, we're gonna still be obedient with an expectation that you're gonna change us and those around us in Jesus' name.

If you're thankful for God's word this morning, let me hear you say amen.

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

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