Following Jesus Closely | 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.

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

We're so, so glad that you're here with us as well.

If you're new to the church, I'm Keith and my wife Megan, who was just up here earlier.

We have the privilege of serving as the lead pastors here at Celebration Orlando, and we truly are so glad that you are here.

If you're joining us online, I want to I want to give you a special invitation.

If you're ever in the Orlando area, please pull up, man.

We would love to see you, meet you in person, and allow you to enjoy in this fellowship that we have together as a community.

I'm excited for today's message as I am for all of them, but but this series has been one that's near and dear to my heart.

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

While you're turning there, I'll do my best to give you guys the Netflix series recap model of this really quick.

Um we we started off this series a couple of weeks ago, and the name of the series is Reclaim.

And the heartbeat behind this series was really to reclaim, which means to redeem and put back in its rightful place, what it means to be a follower of Christ.

That's a very daunting task, I know, and we're just scratching the surface.

But the goal is to help us to get a kingdom view of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The fact of the matter is that we live in a society now that when you say that I am a Christian, people can have a reaction to that because what it means to be a follower of Christ has gotten conflated with a lot of things that quite honestly aren't kingdom.

We've gotten, we've allowed politics to get involved, we allow patriotism to get involved, and so when people hear that you're a follower of Christ, they think that it has to look a certain way, and it's actually pushing people further and further away.

So what Reclaim is meant to do is to get back to the essence of what does it really mean to be a follower of Christ.

You can have your convictions, you can have your interests, you can be a patriot, all that stuff is fine, but let's not elevate that to the same level of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Can we get a good amen to that?

So the first week we talked about dropping our nets, and then last week we had a little bit of a change of plans where just out of the need and just the pressing of the Holy Spirit, we decided to go in a different direction.

And so today we're we're going to pick up where we left off at.

However, um, our series was intended to conclude today.

It was going to be a three-week series, and and so because we kind of called an audible last week, and I'm preaching this message now, the third and final message of this series is going to be released exclusively on our After the Message podcast.

So if you want to see the conclusion of this series, you got to go over there.

That's what we call marketing.

I'm trying to lead you guys over to After the Message to get those streams up a little bit.

Um I'm I'm joking, but I'm not.

Check out After the Message.

It's an amazing resource.

Um, but with all that being said, in the Gospel of Mark chapter number two, we have Jesus having a discussion um with some of the religious people that are in the vicinity.

At this point, he's been building momentum, his teachings have been catching hold, and he's beginning to develop more and more disciples.

But his disciples look different than the disciples of the Pharisees, as well as the disciples of John the Baptist.

So they're trying to understand why your disciples move differently than ours?

Why does the expression of your faith look different than the expression of our faith?

So, starting here at verse number 18, we get a glimpse into some of their curiosity.

Now, John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

People came to him and asked him, Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?

Jesus said to them, The wedding guest cannot fast while the groom is with them, can he?

And and how long does when they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast?

But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then that fast will come.

No one sows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise the new patch pulls away of the old cloth, and the worse, the tear is made worse.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskin, otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.

No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.

I I realize that that Jesus responds with cultural nuances that can really not make much sense to us if we don't understand the context and the framework that he was speaking from as it relates to what does this discipline look like.

The good news is that I'm going to serve as your guide to unpack with some of these references of wineskin and sewing old patches.

What does that mean in our current context?

So if you're taking notes and I hope that you are, I want to pick up where we left off at um after week one.

And this message title is simply called Following Jesus Closely.

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

Lord, we thank you so much for the invitation for us to be your disciples.

We we count it as an honor that you would see us and say, Follow me.

So Lord, it's in this moment that we humble ourselves and and we ask that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

One of the profound um joys of my life is being a husband and a father.

And all of my kids are adults now, so something that I didn't quite anticipate was the time when my family would begin to scatter and to create their own traditions and moving off and all those things.

So that's something that I still have had to navigate through of, okay, what are your plans for the holiday?

Because it's always been us, but but when we do have those moments together, I try to maximize them as much as humanly possible.

This this past uh Thanksgiving was one of those moments when I just so happened to have all of my adult children with us together for Thanksgiving.

And so I'm I'm doing my smoked turkey, I'm going all out.

I'm trying to convince them all to move back home so they can stop being prodigal sons, and y'all pray for us.

Um I'm joking, but I'm not.

Um so so I have our whole family there.

We're having a great time.

Um, and and then there was this moment where um we have a newcomer that's in the family, kind of like a plus one.

So Caleb now has a girlfriend who comes to our first family gathering.

And so, of course, I gotta turn up and make everything as possibly embarrassing for him as humanly possible because that's what fathers do.

Like, we're just and we're and and I'll be I'm gonna be real with you guys, like our our family, our family's a hot mess in the most beautiful way.

Like, like we get together, we joke.

I mean, when I say hot mess, I mean primarily Megan, she influences all of us.

I'm trying my best to keep, I'm trying to keep the boundaries right.

Like, no, the Lord would not be pleased with that joke.

That would, that's just me.

That's just me.

Like, but you know, listen, when you preach, you can say what you want, but I'm telling my truth.

Um But we're we're we're there, we're cutting up.

And there's this moment where we're all there, we're all joking, and then Caleb's girlfriend says, like, oh my gosh, like just out of nowhere.

And we all kind of pause and we look like, like, what's up?

And she says, Y'all are the exact same person.

She's seeing my, she's seeing my son, she's seeing my daughter, and she's seeing Caleb, she's like, Y'all are exactly all the same people.

It makes so much sense to me now.

Caleb makes so much more sense to me now that I get a chance to see him around y'all.

So I'm like, okay, I don't know if I should be offended at that, tell you to get out, or if I take that as a term of endearment.

But but she said these words of like, it makes so much sense.

Like when I seen him in isolation, and I see his behavior, I see the way that he thinks, I see the way that he moves.

In isolation, it may not make sense.

But when I see him with his father, I'm seeing the similarities from his father in him.

And now I can almost not even make a distinction between what is him and what is his family unit.

It makes so much sense now.

So it made me think.

I know you see where I'm going, Carr.

It made me think.

Carr said, I can come here and preach this message if you want me to, Keith.

You know we talked about this last week.

Remember, we said, like, hey, if in our old church tradition, it was like be ready in all seasons.

Somebody get Carl microphone, she's going, I'm I'm messing.

Summertime, we're gonna turn up though.

But but but I want y'all to consider this for a moment.

I want us to consider that let's say hypothetically that Jesus was here in the flesh, that we had a family gathering, and no one at that family gathering had met Jesus.

But Jesus is now walking around the community, he's talking with people, Jesus loves a party, he's turning water into wine, like, oh boom, now we're not done yet.

Like Jesus is Jesus is walking around doing his Jesus thing, and it makes me wonder if people who knew us spent time with Jesus, if they would say, Oh my gosh, it makes so much sense.

The way that he acts and the way that y'all act are exactly the same.

It makes so much sense to me now.

The way that you talk to people and the way that he talks to people, it's exactly the same.

Now you make sense to me because I see that you are so similar to Jesus, it makes so much sense to me now.

If Jesus was to be introduced to your community, would you guys be distinguishable?

I believe that that's the challenge of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

It's not bumper stickers, it's not posting quotes on social media, it's not taking a picture with your Bible open when you're saying I'm dipping my Devo today.

Like that's not what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

God bless you if you do all of that.

But what it means to be a follower of Jesus is that you live your life in such a way that when they look at you, they see Jesus.

It makes me think about this phrase that we have been saying for decades at this point.

What would Jesus do?

And I think that statement is powerful, but if I can be honest, I think it's a little bit incomplete.

Because the truth of the matter is when we're saying what would Jesus do, it allows us to kind of detach from our reality and then kind of like transport ourselves back into the Middle East, and we're trying to figure out how we can fit our lives into Jesus.

And that's a very noble task.

But I think the appropriate way to process that question is to say, what would Jesus do if he were me?

What would Jesus do if he were a single mother?

How would Jesus handle conflict with his wife?

What would Jesus look like when he's doing his taxes?

Uh oh.

Hey, Keith, man, you're stepping too far now, bro.

Keep it on the other side of the line, man.

I get it, I get it.

But it challenges us when we are forced to integrate Jesus into every area of our lives instead of compartmentalizing him.

What would Jesus do if he was married?

What would Jesus do if he had conflict?

What would Jesus do if he didn't get along with his boss?

Did he get uncomfortable yet?

Let's take it a step further.

What would Jesus do with his money?

I know I love the 1030 service.

I love messing with y'all so much.

Who said that being a Christian was easy?

Here's the thing that I want us to understand that being a follower of Jesus is literally integrating him into every area of our lives and following him so closely that what they would say in the Middle Eastern terms is that his dust gets on us.

When you followed a rabbi back in those days, they said that they would walk so closely behind the rabbi on the dust roads that the dust would literally get on them.

And they would mimic the way that the rabbi talked, they would mimic the way that the rabbi walked, they would mimic the way that he behaved in community until he got to a point where the rabbi could say, You followed me so closely, I can release you to go now make more disciples.

That is what it meant to be a follower of a rabbi.

The truth of the matter is, when we're invited into fellowship with Jesus, what we're saying is, Lord, I want you to influence every area of my life.

And when we say these things, I I know it can sound a little bit challenging.

I know that it can seem as if it's overwhelming, but it's already happening.

Let me let me say it this way the Bible tells us in Romans 12, chapter 2, for those people that have been in the Bible for a long time, it says this, and do not be conformed to the image of the world, but be what?

By the renewing of your mind.

I knew the 1030 service was saved.

The 9 o'clock service, they had no response for me.

You guys are with me.

Y'all the real ones, y'all the real MVPs.

It says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Let's look at these words.

Conformed.

It says, Don't be conformed to the image of the world.

Don't be conform.

What conform means, it means made after a set pattern.

There's a pattern that the world has established, and it's saying, don't be conformed, don't be pressed into that pattern to the point that you begin to look like the world.

Another translation for it says, Don't be an echo of the world.

Just don't be an echo of the world.

But it says, be transformed, metamorphosis, evolve into the image of God.

The thing about these two words, conformed and transformed, is that they are both present passive verbs.

I got any English lovers in the house with me today.

Any English teachers?

We got two, three.

Those are the ones, those are illiterate people.

The rest of us, we're gonna figure it out.

Watch this, watch this.

Present tense verb means that it's a verb that's already in motion.

So the words are saying, we are all ready to something, we just have to choose what?

When we're talking about being a follower of Christ or not being a follower of Christ, you've made a choice that I'm gonna either be conformed, pressed into the image of the world, an echo of the world, or I'm gonna be transformed into the image of Christ.

Because the reality of it is it's already happening.

I just get a chance to choose.

So I like to say it this way we're on to either be an echo of the world or we're gonna be a reflection of Christ.

But you can't be both.

What Jesus invites us into this, he's saying, Who are you willing to allow to be the most influential aspect in your life?

To me, that person is Jesus.

The man who walked this world perfectly and who died for my sins, this man who I believe is the prototype, who's the template, the one who is the the epicenter of all things.

I believe Jesus is worth following and living and dying even for.

But I get it, it's hard.

Transformation is hard.

Life is hard, and we have so many things that are working against us.

We're set in our ways.

We're raised with a certain context and culture and nuance that makes it hard to unlearn those things and really pick up the ways of God.

We we live in a world of fear where we like to hoard and keep everything for ourselves.

So we live in a world where we have all of these things.

So when Jesus comes in and confronts us to let go of our radical individuality, to learn how to serve, to look for the least of these, to be radically generous, when he challenges with that, it becomes really difficult for us to integrate that into our lives when we're holding on to so many other things.

But I also think that the thing that makes it so hard for us to be transformed, honestly, is sin.

Now, when I say that, I know that that could be triggering for some of us.

Because we've heard the word sin and the concept of it taught and weaponized in such a way that it seemed as if it was tearing us down and somebody standing on a corner always telling us every wrong thing we're doing.

And I think that that has been a that has done an injustice to what God is talking about when he's speaking about sin.

In fact, in scripture, they don't speak of sin just as an action, but they speak of it as a condition, referred to as being in sin.

Like we live in a fallen and broken world where sin is all around us, and because of that, we we we have sins that we commit.

We have sins that are committed against us, and we actually just have sin all around us, and and we don't even recognize it sometimes.

Let me give you this example.

No matter how much I try, that whenever I'm cooking on my smoker and I lift up the lid, that smoke always comes blowing out and hit me in the face.

I've tried everything I can do to sidestep the smoke, but no matter what I do, when I lift it up, it comes and hits me in the face, and it's all over me.

And sometimes I don't even realize it.

I went to the grocery store a couple of weeks ago.

I'm walking around, I'm at my local publics, I'm knowing everybody, they know me.

What's up, Keith?

Like, what's happening?

It's good to see you, Tom.

Like, I'm walking around doing my thing.

I get up to the register, and the lady looks at me, she sees the ingredients, she looks at me, and she kind of paused.

She's like, That smells good.

That's what she said.

What I heard was, you smell good, you fine caramel man.

That's what I heard.

I don't know why that's what I heard, but I heard you are a fine-looking man, and your wife is lucky to have you.

It just keeps adding on to it.

Like, and so I kid you not, I look at her and I'm like, I'm married.

And she's looking at me confused.

She was like, No, I can smell that you were cooking brisket, I can smell it on you.

I'm like, oh my, I'm I felt so embarrassed because here I am walking around the store, thinking that every woman in the world loves me.

And the truth of the matter is they're just hungry and they can smell the brisket all over me.

Watch this.

That's exactly how sin is.

It could be on us, and we don't even recognize it.

We're walking to environments shifting atmospheres, we got attitudes and behavior, and we don't even realize that we're shifting the atmosphere because sin is around us, and if it's around us long enough, it gets in us, and if it's in us, it eventually comes out of us, and we live in an ecosystem where that's our reality.

But I got good news.

Somebody say good news.

Jesus came to deal with our sin issue.

I'm gonna say that again.

Jesus came to deal with our sin issue.

I'm gonna say that a third time.

Jesus came to deal with our sin issue.

Come on.

He came to deal with our sin issue, he came to allow us to walk in freedom.

But the reality of it is, if we don't fully understand what we're free from, it's hard for us to truly walk in freedom.

So, in order for me to really unpack what I believe is gonna lead us to a place of radical acceptance and celebration of why we celebrate the goodness of God, it's gonna require me to kind of go a little bit theologically nerdy for a minute.

Can y'all give me like three minutes to unpack the significance of Jesus in our lives?

Is that cool with y'all?

If y'all said no, I was gonna do it anyway.

Um but but let me okay, y'all, y'all, y'all ready for this?

Okay, get ready.

We are born in the image of God.

We are triune beings, which means we are body, we are soul, and we are spirit.

Let me break this down a little bit for us.

Our spirit is the aspect of us that is connected directly with God.

It is the eternal aspect of us that survives even after our death.

The Bible tells us in Romans 8 16 that our spirit testifies to God that we are now children of God.

Then we have soul.

Somebody say soul.

Soul encompasses our mind, our will, and our emotions.

It's the center of our intellect and our experiences, it's where our decisions are made.

It fundamentally shapes our personality and who we are.

Our soul is in essence the us.

And then we have our body.

Somebody say body.

Body is our physical structure that's including our flesh and bones, and it allows us to interact with the world through our five senses.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6 19, don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that our bodies are how we engage with the world.

But wait, it gets better.

So when we say yes to Jesus, our spirit becomes regenerated, is what the Bible calls it.

That is the part of us that becomes born again.

Now we are in fellowship with God, according to John 3, 3, verse 3 through 7.

It tells us that we're now regenerated in the eyes of God.

Our spirit has come alive, it's been resurrected, so to speak.

And then what ends up happening is we begin the journey of sanctification.

Sanctification is the process where as we continue to feed our spirit, our spirit begins to influence our soul.

The sense of who we are, our mind, our will, our emotions, our thoughts, our behavior.

The more that I engage the things of God spiritually, it begins to influence my soul.

And if it influences my soul long enough, you'll begin to see it in my body.

And this is why Jesus says, by their fruit, you will know them.

The things that you do with your body is evidence of who you are rooted in.

So when the Bible talks about us being connected to Jesus, it says that we are born again.

I am made new in the image of God.

I'm going to make it to heaven.

I have direct access to Him.

I'm filled with His Spirit, and now I have this divine connection.

But as I worship, as I give, as I serve, those things begin to influence my soul.

And before long, something that takes a lot of effort can almost become a little bit more natural because I've been doing it long enough and my mind has been changed, the renewing of my mind, my behavior has changed because I'm seeking fellowship with God.

And then you'll begin to see it in my natural body.

Can I get a good amen to that?

This is the journey of sanctification that takes place.

It's the renewing of our mind.

And then eventually the day will come when my body will be glorified in heaven.

The Bible talks about on those last days when Jesus comes back for the church, that our flesh will be glorified.

So now we'll be just like Jesus when he was resurrected, when he says, Look at me, handle me.

I am flesh and bone that is filled with the spirit in the presence of God.

I don't age, I don't get sick, there is no decay.

That is the ultimate goal that we all want to get to, but we're on a journey.

Somebody say, journey.

That journey is called sanctification.

And that whole process that I explained is something that we never graduate from until Jesus comes back to get us.

We never graduate from this process of spending time in the presence of God, filling up my spirit, allowing my spirit to influence my soul, my mind, my will, my emotions until you begin to see it demonstrated consistently in my flesh.

Sanctification, and none of us ever graduate from it.

It's something that we have to continue to do.

So, how do we put this into practice?

How do I make sure that I'm feeding my spirit the right things so it can influence my soul, which will eventually create fruit in my flesh?

I'm glad you asked because I have three points I want to share with you on that.

Here's the first thing.

Teachings.

The teachings of Jesus.

The word of God is the place where the spirit is being fueled by the wisdom of God, and it begins to influence our soul, our mind, our will, our emotions.

Jesus uses the analogy of old wineskins to illustrate this transformational aspect of his teachings that takes place.

Now, when you think about wineskin, many of us are like, I don't know what that means in our current context.

What that means is that back in those days when the wine was being prepared, there was a process of it being taken off of the trees, of course, when it's being crushed, of course, when it gets put into these vats, and then it's it's it's provided oxygen, and then it's put into these wineskins where it can then ferment, and the fermentation is what actually turns the juice into alcohol.

But what's interesting is that whole process, while it's fermenting, it needs to have space to breathe.

So when Jesus begins to talk about wineskin, he's speaking about it needs to be in something that's not too rigid.

Wine has historically, from a biblical perspective, has represented joy or new teachings.

So Jesus is saying, when I'm a part of your life, it should produce joy.

It should produce new wisdom.

It should produce new insight.

But if you're trying to pull it into your old traditions, your old religions, your old ecosystem, your way of doing things, what's going to happen is you're not going to allow it to have the room that it needs to breathe, and it's going to break your system and it's all going to go wasted.

But he's saying, I need you to pour this into something that will allow it to stretch.

Here's my point.

When you are really in fellowship with God, his teachings are going to stretch you.

He's going to say some things to you that it's going to stretch you a little bit, it's going to make you feel a little bit uncomfortable.

And what he's challenging every single one of us is don't you pour me into these old structures and this old rigidness because it's not going to work.

Because if I don't have room to breathe, not only will it break the structure, but then that fine wine can get turned into vinegar.

The biggest difference between wine and vinegar is ones that have the room to breathe and those that don't.

What God is saying is, I want you to have joy in your life, but it's going to stretch you.

I want you to have peace in your life, but it's going to stretch you.

I want you to be an ambassador of me, but it's going to stretch you.

Because if you don't allow it to stretch you, you're going to be so rigid that it's going to turn into vinegar.

You're going to become really bitter.

As I say those words, you can think immediately of the person that you know that is filled with so much joy that's a follower of Christ, but I'm also sure that you can think of that person that seems to be so bitter and unhappy.

What God is saying is that if you're going to really be in fellowship with me, my teachings are going to stretch you, but man, you're going to have joy.

They're going to stretch you a little bit, make you uncomfortable, but I promise you that it's going to have a deeper impact.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Here's the second thing that I believe Jesus is helping us to understand.

Not only do we need to make sure we have the teachings, but we also have to practice them.

We have to put the teachings into practice.

That what we see with Jesus as he's with his disciples, he's continuously talking to them about putting it into practice.

You gotta take what I'm telling you.

You have to take this knowledge, but knowledge means nothing until you put it into practice.

That's what turns it into wisdom.

There's a lot of people that have biblical knowledge, but they haven't put it into practice and they don't have any wisdom.

But when I put it into practice, it transfers into wisdom.

You gotta practice.

The year for me is 1984.

1984 is when my life changed forever.

You may be asking me, Keith, what happened in 1984?

I'm so glad you asked me.

1984 is the year that I heard hip hop music for the first time.

It was a group called Run DMC.

And Run DMC, they had this song that was called Sucker MCs.

I heard this sitting in the backseat of my mom's car and it changed my life.

I remember sitting back there and hearing Rev Run say two years ago, a friend of mine asked me to say some MC rhymes.

So I said this rhyme, I'm about to say, the rhyme was deaf, and then it went this way.

I heard that and it was over for me.

I was like, oh my gosh, that is me.

I remember hearing those words, and I know that this may seem sacrilegious, so for the super rigid people with the old wineskin, cover your ears right now.

But it's almost like I had a born-again experience in rap.

Like I was like, oh my gosh, like this is this is amazing.

Something came alive on the inside of me.

I remember going home and saying, I want to do this.

So I began to write raps.

And as I began to write them, they they didn't make any sense.

But guess what?

I kept practicing.

And one day I would go into my room and I would have my brush and I would look in the mirror.

And as I'm holding the brush slash water bottle, I'm holding this thing and I would look in the mirror and I would act and I would show myself as if I was rapping because I had to I had to practice it.

I had to I had to put it into practice.

My brother busted in the room and was like, bro, what are you doing?

I'm like, I'm just brushing my imaginary beard.

He's like, are you a rapper?

Is that is that what you're doing?

I'm like, no.

But my brother didn't believe me.

So we went to a high school dance, and then I heard I heard the DJ call me up to the DJ booth like I was a lost kid at Walmart.

And and I walked up to the DJ booth and he and he said, he said, hey man, um I heard that you can rap.

Let me see what you got.

But because I had been practicing, I already had something to say.

So I grabbed the microphone and it went this way.

I can't even stop it.

So I started rapping because I had been practicing.

And then when I went home, I started writing even more.

And then I started doing shows.

And after the shows, I would I would look at the how the performance, and then I would practice, and then I got with my group, and in my group we began to write music, and we began to record music, and some of it was good, most of it wasn't, but we kept on practicing, and we kept on doing shows, and and we kept on practicing, and and we didn't arrive where we were overnight, and we never reached a level of perfection, but we had to continue to practice.

When I got radically saved, and God wanted to use all of those experiences to help me stand on the platform in front of people, he said, but you gotta keep on practicing.

So when I was asked to pray for the first time, I wasn't scared of the crowds, but I didn't know what to say.

But I would keep on practicing, I would stumble, I would stutter, I would misquote scriptures, but but I had to keep on practicing, I had to keep on moving forward, I would make mistakes, and sometimes I wouldn't get it right, but I had to keep on practicing.

So now as a follower of Christ, I know that perfection isn't the goal, but we gotta keep on practicing.

So many of us believe that somehow when I become a follower of Christ, I get it perfected and we stop and we make mistakes, but we gotta keep on practicing.

You know what?

We're gonna have to practice on what it looks like to be a husband that knows how to love your wife and love your children well, and some days you're gonna get it wrong, and some days you're gonna get it right, some days you're gonna knock it out the park, and some days you're gonna strike out, but you don't give up.

You you keep on practicing.

You're gonna have to practice what it looks like to forgive somebody.

And some days it's gonna be easier to do that, and other days it's gonna be hard, and some days you're not gonna feel like doing it, but but you gotta keep on practicing.

So sometimes you're not gonna want to read your Bible, but you're gonna know that you're gonna need to.

You're gonna have your Bible reading plan, you're gonna have your devotional set up, you're gonna have your alarm, it's gonna go off, and some mornings you're gonna get up, and some mornings you're gonna hit snooze.

But you gotta keep on practicing.

You're gonna have to learn how to practice, how to say, I'm sorry, I was wrong.

To your spouse.

Again, I'm preaching, it's my truth.

I say what I want to say.

Okay.

Here's my point.

None of us ever graduate from this journey of sanctification.

None of us never arrive.

None of us ever get to the place where, oh, I I could check that box off, I got it all figured out.

But each day, I gotta keep practicing and recognizing that the goal isn't perfection, but it's reflection.

I'm never going to do this thing perfectly, but what I can tell you is I'm gonna always get better.

And as followers of Christ, that's the goal is for us to practice.

Somebody say practice.

Practice.

I'm talking about practice, not the whole game, not the game, practice.

Any of my Alan Iverson fans in the house, Philly, stand up.

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

Practice.

Okay, here's the here's the third and final point.

Because now that we have the teachings and we're putting it into practice, now we have to do it in community.

That's the third and final point.

Is that we have to do this in community.

The thing that I believe is getting lost in our current culture of deconstruction, and I understand the heartbeat behind it, is that Jesus didn't just call individuals, he called individuals to be part of a community.

And what we're seeing that's becoming more normalized is we have a bunch of lone wolf Christians that have turned to being just as bitter as the Pharisees are trying to escape.

And what I believe Jesus is saying is that your experience is real, but you're gonna get healed in community.

Your trauma is real, but but it's gonna get healed when you're connected to other people.

And watch what I'm about to say, because this is what's gonna mess with us, and it's not gonna always be with everyone that you agree with.

Maturity is found when I can sit in fellowship with someone that has a different view than me.

I'm not saying have a conversation with someone, anybody can do that.

But when you can say we go to the same church and we have different views, but we can still stay connected.

You have different experiences than my experiences, and I'm not gonna argue with you and run away, but we're gonna figure this out together.

I think the the imagery of a tapestry, this imagery of how every individual thread that is woven together on its own may seem so insignificant.

I was looking at this on YouTube and I and I saw like this beautiful work of art that had all of these colors and and all of this texture to it.

But as they zoomed in, you saw that it was a person who had woven together all of these different threads, that together it created this beautiful collective image.

The power of community that I could take my individual pain, my experiences, you could take yours, we put it together, we figure it out together, and then in community we're strengthened.

That one thread isn't easily broken, we're connected to something that ultimately is a reflection of Christ and his disciples.

I've said this before, but if we actually were to do a test on all of the disciples, they had such a variety of backgrounds.

Some believed in a government, others didn't.

Some were rebellious, some were fighters, they had all of these different distinctions, and Jesus intentionally pulls all these people together to say, I want the way that we work together to be an example for what the church should look like.

Conservatives, liberals, all of them.

I want them all together so we can show that that my love is with all of them.

I'm using them all uniquely, but together we can create something that's beautiful.

How did we drift so far away?

How did we get away from that that we've gotten to the place where this is what it means to be a Christian and that's not?

We've lost the plot.

Being a follower of Christ is not everybody believing and agreeing on the same things, it's not all of us having the same perspective.

It's about unity, not uniformity, but it's getting to a place where Jesus is Lord.

I'm not loyal to anything except the Lamb of God.

I am a big fan of technology.

That should not be a surprise to anyone.

Um anytime something new comes out, I'm always trying to figure out what's the best way to utilize and maximize it so that it can be beneficial for me.

I have so many different intersecting areas of my life with personal life and ministry and school and clients and a bunch of other things.

Trying to find a singular system that keeps my life integrated is very difficult.

I remember about a year ago when I kind of went on this journey of trying to find software that could simplify my life.

So I picked up a software over here, software over there, all these apps that I had going concurrently, paying all these subscriptions, and none of them were doing what I needed them to do.

But then a software update was coming out for the operating system that was going to integrate a lot of these apps things into the foundational software so I wouldn't have needed all of them anymore.

But when it came to do the upgrade, guess what?

I didn't have any more room.

There was no space.

So I had to make the decision to uninstall all the things that were taking up space so that my system could be upgraded and it'll allow my life to flow more seamlessly.

I believe that every one of us, we're grasping at all the things that the world has to offer and hopes that that's what's gonna give me joy.

That's what's gonna give me fulfillment.

If I could just have a little bit more money in my account, then I'll find like we've feel like we've made it.

If I could just get to this point, then maybe I'll get there.

And Jesus is like, don't be like the foolish one who's storing up all these things on earth and you're missing the eternal perspective.

Let me upgrade your system, but you gotta make room for it.

He's saying to us, Hey, I know that you're trying to pencil yourself into these relationships, but you're finding yourself in this old wineskin and you're not allowing me to breathe in your life.

And so instead of being a person that's filled with joy, it's turning into bitterness.

But let me upgrade your system.

But first, you're gonna have to uninstall some things.

I believe that God, every single day, when we're reading his word, when we're having experiences with him, he's showing us what's possible, but he's also saying, but if you really want to do this, you're gonna have to make room and uninstall some things that you've been holding on to.

Dropping your proverbial net.

I believe all of us have things that we gravitate to that we believe is gonna give us wholeness, give us peace of mind, give us what we need, and what we're gonna find is at the end of it all, that void will still exist.

But when we can uninstall and truly allow Jesus to be the center of it all, I promise you, not only can you still have those things, but you can have those things and use them as a resource that brings glory to God.

Can we get a good amen on that?

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to pose this question to us as we go into a moment of worship and reflection.

Maybe you're in here right now and you're away from Jesus.

You're not in relationship with Jesus, you're not in fellowship with him, you're not saved, you're not born again.

Whatever tradition you're used to hearing, the bottom line is if we're talking about following Jesus closely, you would say, Keith, I am not.

There's a lot of distance between me and Jesus.

But I believe in this moment we can close that gap and we can begin to allow the dust of Jesus to literally transform your life.

If that's you, and you're ready to commit or recommit your life to Christ, you're ready to uninstall the things of the world and truly get the mind and heartbeat of God and integrate Him into every area of your life.

On a count of three, I want you to boldly lift your hands up.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I see those hands in the back.

Amen.

If you're joining us online, I'm with you in spirit.

Amen.

Church, can we put our hands together and celebrate with every person in here that is making that decision to I just want to follow Jesus more closely?

If that's you, I want to take a moment to celebrate with you, but also encourage you.

If that's you, don't leave here without letting us know.

I believe every one of us has a next step.

And maybe your next step if you're joining us online or even if you're here is to simply text the keyword follow to our church's phone number.

While I would love to meet you outside in the courtyard where we can give you a Bible and a great resource that's going to help you get set up, but if you don't stop there or if you're joining us online, don't miss this opportunity of responding in this moment.

I don't believe it's a raised hand that saves us.

I don't necessarily believe it's a prayer, but I do believe it's evidence of us doing something in our flesh what God is already doing in our spirit.

And our response is the fruit of it.

So maybe your next step is to text our number, meet us out in the courtyard, get your free Bible and free resource.

But if that's you, we want to celebrate with you, but we also want to resource you.

For the rest of us, I want us all to stand on our feet as we go into a time of worship.

I want to pray for those who just said yes to Christ, and I also want to pray for all of us together as a community and ask for God in this moment of worship to reveal the things that I need to uninstall.

What are the areas of my life that I need to be stretched a little bit in?

How can your teachings continue to inform me?

What is the community I need to be connected to?

And how do I put this into practice?

Lord, I thank you so much for your presence.

I thank you for your word.

And I thank you, God, for how you love us enough that you challenge us and that you stretch us.

If we've gotten too comfortable, it may be because we're following too far behind.

But as we draw closer to you, you're going to stretch us.

Father, I celebrate with every person that raised their hand.

And I believe that at the evidence of that movement, Father, that there's a new spirit that's been developed on the inside of them and they're walking in fellowship with you.

As a church, we want to walk alongside them in community and resource them.

But God, I pray for those of us who are who have the root of bitterness that may have been connected to us.

That when we hear about brokenness, that we don't understand it.

Maybe there's areas of our lives where being a follower of Christ seemed to be too restrictive.

But if only we could recognize the joy that's available to us, the peace that's available to us.

So in these moments, Father, I pray that you hover, but you also fill us, reveal to us your heart for your people, and inspire us and draw us closer to you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship together one more time, Church.

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, celebrationorl.org.