Breathe | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Okay.

Would you first mind helping me welcome everyone who's joining us online, those who are participating and watching us from our family lounge?

Let's go ahead and put our hands together and thank them so much for being with us today.

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

My name is Keith, and my wife and Megan and I serve as the lead pastors here at Celebration Orlando.

If we hadn't got a chance to meet you, and again, we're so glad that you're here with us uh today.

Um we're in week three of an incredible series that we have entitled Seeds.

And and somebody say seeds.

Okay, seeds.

And ultimately, what this series is meant to be a culmination of is it's birthed out of our theme for this year, which is rooted and rising.

We firmly believe that this is a year that if we're rooted in the right things, that we're gonna be rising in the right things.

Whatever you're rooted in is what you're gonna produce fruit in.

In other words, if I'm rooted in my flesh, if I'm rooted in the world, I'm gonna produce fruit that looks like the world.

But if I'm rooted in the things of God, I will produce fruit that looks just like God, rooted and rising.

But in order for there ever to be fruit, it first starts with seeds.

Somebody say seeds.

So we are in week three of our series on seeds.

Now, the thing that we talked about on week one is we understand that with every seed that there's opposition that's trying to prevent it from producing what it is intended to produce.

And so we talked on the first week about the devil being a liar, the devil being that chief opponent that wants to keep the things of God from flourishing in our lives.

Last week we talked really about just having some self-reflection and asking what are the things in our life that's keeping us from going deeper in the things of God, those things that are just beneath the surface that we don't even recognize are preventing us from going further into what God has for us.

So if you missed any of the previous messages, I want to encourage you to go to our YouTube channel or wherever you listen to podcasts and get caught up because I think that there is some continuity to what it is that we are speaking on.

We're gonna go back to the parable of the sower and continue to unpack this a little bit more.

So if you have your Bibles, I want you to join me in the Gospel of Luke, chapter number eight.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter number eight, and we're gonna read the same passages that we've been reading.

We're gonna just add one more as we continue to unravel this profound parable that Jesus shares.

If you don't have your Bibles, okay, it'll come up on the Bible in the sky in just a second, but it's Luke chapter number eight, and I hope that you're highlighting things that stand out to you because I think that it's just you can't exhaust the truth that God is sharing with us through this incredible parable.

Starting at verse number five, it says this A sower went out to sow his seed.

As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.

Other seed fell on the rock, and when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.

Seven.

But other seed fell among thorns.

The thorns grew up with it, and it withered away.

I'm sorry, it grew up with it, and it choked it out.

Still, other seed fell on good ground, and when it grew up it produced fruit, a hundred times what was sown.

As he said this, he called out, Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.

Then his disciples asked him, What does this parable even mean?

He said, The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

But this is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God.

The seed along the path are those who have heard, and then the devil comes and takes away from the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, they receive the word with joy, but having no root, these that believe for a while they fall away in a time of testing.

As for the seed that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, they go on their way, but they're choked with worries of riches and pleasures of life, and they produce no fruit.

They're choked with worries of riches and pleasures of life, and as a result, they are unable to produce the fruit that God has for them.

Today I just want to talk to us for a few moments on the subject matter of just being distracted, things that are trying to choke us out.

And I've simply entitled today's message, Breathe.

Somebody say, Breathe.

It is time for some of us to begin to breathe again.

Let's pray and see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for your presence.

We thank you for this uh incredible service where we're able to dedicate children to you.

We were able to participate in the Lord's Supper together, and now we're able to sit around your word and unpack what it is that you want to speak to us today.

So, Lord, I just pray over the next few moments 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.

Amen and amen.

Well, um, this past Friday, so just a couple of days ago, um, my my precious daughter celebrated her 27th birthday.

27, 27 years.

Now, if you're new to our community, you may be looking at me and saying, There's no way you have a 27-year-old.

And and I understand that.

I understand that.

You're looking at me and you're saying, How is it possible that you have that?

And I just want to give you a theological term that can help you to wrestle with this as you're walking away.

It's called black don't crack.

Take that with you and do with it what you will.

But yes, we have a daughter who is 27.

In fact, we have we have three children.

My oldest is 30, um, who has just doing an amazing thing.

He's in the he's in the army go army.

We have our our daughter, who Daenerys is 27, our youngest, um, Caleb is now 20.

So we're just this close to being empty nesters.

Y'all continue to pray for us.

Megan and I are ready to turn up, but it's still just a little bit of restraint.

But but back back to my daughter.

My daughter just turned 27 um on this past um Friday.

And and in the way that culture demands it, and the culture demeans it, it's it you have to celebrate it publicly.

That means that I had to do an honorary post on social media so that the world knows just how much I love my daughter.

Look at that precious face.

She looks just like me.

I mean, she looks just like her mom.

She looks just like her mom.

So I did this beautiful essay and and it was very well loved, and then she just kind of gave me a heart emoji.

She didn't even text me and say thank you.

I was kind of bitter about that, but it's okay.

It's okay.

But but here but here's the point.

When I because first and foremost, she's a quintessential middle child.

First and foremost, she is the family manager.

Um so she fits all of the psychological profiles of all that.

But when I was looking for the appropriate photo, because as you would have it, my daughter has to have all approval on any photos that are posted of her or her likeness.

So I had to search through our photo library to find out what photo would she approve of of me posting in a way of honoring her.

And interestingly enough, whenever you do go through your photos, you kind of go down memory lane.

Because as I'm scrolling through and looking at old photos and trying to find the ones that are the most appropriate, the ones that she won't be mad at, the ones that I won't have to take to post down, I began to look at these old memories of places that Megan and I have been that our family had participated in.

And I came across one picture in particular.

I want to show you guys this picture of Megan and I.

Look at this.

Look at we're we're just we're just glowing.

You could tell that the countdown is on of when we're empty nesters.

It's it's we've been celebrating and preparing for five years, and I'm just waiting.

Um, but we're we're almost there.

But here's here's what I want you to see.

Now, in the background, that is Cancun, Mexico.

We're at an all-inclusive resort.

Do you remember this, Megan?

She doesn't know I'm gonna do this.

Do you remember this?

Okay, so it's it's an amazing backdrop, it's an incredible vacation.

We're living our best life.

Look at Megan, she doesn't have a worry in the world, she doesn't know how much it cost, she has no idea, she's just there enjoying herself, and that is the way that the Lord had intended.

But if you look at my face, there's there's a story behind that crooked smile.

There's some tabulations that are going on inside of my head.

And my wife is like, hey, let's take a picture right now, and she pulls the phone out.

But in my mind, there's a lot of things that are going on, and and you and you can see it, you can see it in the smile.

So so let me tell you the story of what's going on behind that crooked smile that doesn't seem genuine at all.

At the time when we went, when this picture was taken, it was taken in February of 2021.

If you don't recall, because that seems like that was decades ago, that was when we're still in the height of the pandemic.

And so the only way that you could travel is that you first had to test negative to get out of the country.

And watch this, you had to test negative to get back in.

I can't imagine what was in my mind that I would have signed up for that back at that time.

I must have been out of sheer desperation that made me say, I'm going to leave the country and not even know if I can get back in.

But it nonetheless, that was what we decided to do.

So what ends up happening when you get to these resorts, you're there for a couple of days, but then there's a day where you have to test to see if you can go back home.

Imagine that.

I'm on vacation, I'm trying my best to enjoy myself, but now they're telling me, hey, your appointment to go and get tested to see if you can go back home is now.

So we go and we get tested.

But after we get tested, I'm starting to hear stories of people who had been trapped at the resort for two weeks, they couldn't get back home.

So Megan then says, like, oh, that's crazy, let's take a picture.

So now you understand what's going on in my mind.

When I hear the story that it's possible that we may not be able to go back home.

What's also in my mind is that I had developed this tickle in my throat.

And this is a time and age when every cough and every sneeze had to be accounted for.

When somebody cleared their throat, they had to narrate what was going on in their life.

Man, these allergies are really, these allergies are really acting up right now.

Well, like I'm telling you, man, I'm that went down the wrong.

Like, we have to narrate every single thing so that people don't feel weird about us.

So while we're on this resort, the first couple of days I'm enjoying myself, but then there's always that person that coughs and doesn't cover their hands at all, cover their mouth at all.

So I'm thinking, like, man, what if that got in my lungs?

And now that tickle in my throat, and I'm gonna be trapped here.

And and what if Megan tests negative?

Is she gonna leave me here?

Like, what's like so in my mind, I'm thinking of a lot of that, and then it says, cheese.

We're in paradise.

For all intents and purposes, we paid the price to be there, and we're smiling, but in the back of my mind, I was worrying about my mil my well-being.

We're in a place that is beautiful, we're in a space that should have been paradise on steroids, but instead, I'm in this spot, but my mind is wandering and it's choking out the literal joy that I should have in that moment.

That, my friends, is exactly what Jesus is describing.

Because what he's saying to us, it's possible that things can be going well in your life, but in the back of your mind, there could be crippling worry that is choking out your joy.

That in all intents and purposes, that you could be moving forward, that you could be prospering, that maybe your family's growing, that maybe you just got a new job, that you're moving forward, but there still seem to be this lingering thing that keeps us from truly breathing the joy that God has intended for us to breathe.

When Jesus begins to describe this in the text, he begins to outline it by providing us with some very, very strong language.

He said that these moments can just creep up on us and they can choke us out.

That word choked out, it ultimately means it can press upon us, that it can suffocate us, that it can crowd out.

That means it closes in in such a way that it becomes too small for us to breathe and extend in the lives that we are intended to live.

And Jesus uses this illustration to just show us how subtly it can happen.

He uses the term thorns, but thorns is a is a universal term that ultimately speaks to something that is unfruitful that is in our lives.

In the wild, these invasive species, they they they ruthlessly move in on territory.

And it's a vivid parallel of what can happen in our lives that while we're trying to move forward, that these thorns, that these weeds, that these things can come in, that while we're trying to grow, it's also still crowding us out.

That while we're trying to move forward, that it seems to be suffocating our joy, that while we're trying to breathe, it could be taking away our actual oxygen.

Let me let me break it down for us.

Financial anxieties they weave around our serenity, whispering that true security lies in our riches and it's shadowing our ability to trust in God.

Or maybe it's perfectionism that ensnares us with an unyielding grasp that pulls us into the depths of our own standards that are just completely unrealistic, health concerns, that these can bristle through our peace, providing worry with each cough or each sneeze or each diagnosis.

The pursuit of material wealth, it plants the illusion that happiness will be found in resources and we lose the contentment that is found in God's spiritual presence.

I can go on and on about the things that while we're trying to live life that are simultaneously intertwined with us, that are crowding us out and preventing us from experiencing the peace and joy that God intended for us to have.

This vivid tapestry of spiritual weeds, if we want to call it that, can be so invasive, but it's calling for us to be vigilant on what's going on around us.

So there's three things that I want to help us to do that we can walk away with to help us to identify some things in our lives that may be presenting us from living the lives that God is ultimately calling us to live and thrive in.

Here's the first thing that we have to do.

We have to identify it.

We have to take some time to identify the things that are crowding us out.

In the realm of agriculture, distinguishing weeds from crops is not as straightforward.

Because sometimes, and I just learned this recently, that sometimes weeds can take on the form of grass, and you sometimes can't even make a distinction between the two.

I learned this a couple years ago when we had a person that was coming and taking care of our lawn, and this person was doing a masterful job, so I thought.

And just to give you context, like I'm not like a I'm not like an outside lingerer.

Here's what I mean by that.

I'm not the type of guy in the neighborhood who's just outside for no reason.

Like if I'm outside, I'm going somewhere.

So when he catches me, like I'm literally on my way to a meeting, but I'm thinking that it's something very important that he wants to share with me.

So I get out the car and I'm thinking about, okay, I gotta couple more minutes to get to this meeting on time.

And he begins to kind of walk me through the yard and he's like, hey man, what do you what do you think about the yard?

My yard?

I'm like, seems fine, man.

Our guy's doing a great job.

He's like, Man, really?

He said, I think it's malpractice what he's doing to your lawn.

I said, What?

He's like, Yes, that like look, look at look real close.

Don't you see like those are weeds?

That's that's not that's not grass, that's that's weeds that's been intertwined, and and it's an invasive species, and and it looks like it's growing, it looks like it's it's thriving, it looks like it's doing really well.

But actually, what this is gonna do is it's gonna invite insects and it's gonna invite other type of things into your home.

Like, and he's looking at me and he's wondering why I'm not carrying the burden the same way that he is.

I'm trying.

I'm trying to like hey man, I got somewhere to go.

Like, like I'm gonna give you Megan's number, and you can call her, and that's how he got your number, honey.

Um but but but here's the principle.

I had no idea, like I genuinely, Meg and I would come home and we'd say, like, man, our lawn guy is doing such an amazing job, but I didn't realize that it took someone that had a measure of expertise that was able to recognize and see.

Like, I know that that looks like that's healthy, and I know that it looks like just because it's growing, that it's gonna be beneficial, but that's actually a weed, and what it's gonna do is gonna invite other things into the ecosystem, and it's not healthy for you.

You have to make sure you can recognize the difference.

I suspect that for many of us, there are things that are going on in our lives, and if we're honest with ourselves, we think that it's healthy.

There are nuances that are happening around us, and just because it's growing, we we think that it's good things.

In fact, Jesus uses this remarkable language that I think we cannot ignore.

When Jesus is describing this entire scenario, he says it grows up with it.

The seed and the weed are growing up together.

In other words, what he's saying is that as it's growing, you're growing.

As you're growing, it's growing alongside of it.

Let me put it in ways that we can possibly understand it.

It's something that we grew up with.

And for many of us, just because we grew up with something, we think that it's healthy.

I grew I grew up with this.

I just grew up in this context.

But what if I were to tell you that the thing that you grew up with is the thing that's keeping you from growing?

What Jesus is saying is that you need to make sure that you can recognize the difference between what is healthy in your life and what is draining you of life.

But unfortunately, we have the ability to perpetuate things and we often say, This is how I grew up.

I grew up in a family where we just yell at each other.

That's how I grew up.

I grew up in a family where we just didn't have a lot of resources, that's how I grew up.

I grew up in a family where we got, we would get angry and we cut off communication.

That's just how I grew up.

And we can end up normalizing things that are beneath God's standard for our lives.

What Jesus is ultimately challenging us with is we need to take some time to evaluate the things that we grew up with that are keeping us from growing and what he's ultimately calling us to do.

We have to identify those things.

The question we have to ask is what are the things in my life that are giving me life, and what are the things that are a drain for me?

What are the things that are taking away?

What are the things that are crowding me out?

What are the things that I feel very restricted in?

And we have to stop being loyal to a past that is not producing fruit in our future.

The next thing that Jesus then says is he says, now that we understand that we've identified these things.

Looking at Hebrews 4 is the metric, using God's word to identify what things in my life do I need to begin to remove so that I can produce the fruit that God's calling me to do.

The next thing is we have to do is that we have to begin the process of identifying, but now we got to begin the process of uprooting those things.

Because it's not good enough to just recognize it.

So many of us live in a space where we recognize things.

Oh, that's just that's just how I was brought up.

I would I was just raised this way, and we just we just leave it there.

But in order for us to ensure that this doesn't come back to become a hindrance that is perpetuated from one generation to the next, we have to begin the vivid process of uprooting it.

Uprooting it is certainly something that's not comfortable.

Uprooting things that are not healthy can certainly be challenging for us.

Paul tells us in Colossians 3 that we're to put to death those things that aren't producing life.

It's a challenge where we have to begin to evaluate what are the things in my life that are not helpful for me?

What are the things in my life that aren't producing fruit in my life?

What are the things in my life that are that are choking me out in such a way that I'm not throw for throwing or flourishing, sorry, um, the way that I was intended to flourish.

Scripture tells us that God invites us into this space where we can cast all of our cares on Him.

We have to uproot worry at its core.

We have to uproot greed at its core.

We have to examine the pleasures of our lives that have the grips on us, and we have to uproot it at its core.

In farming, they have this technique called soil solarization.

Soil solarization.

Say that three times real fast.

Soil solarization.

And ultimately, what this technique is, it's it's when you've identified that you have these invasive species in your yard, and what you do is you put a tarp over your yard, and then it invites the sunlight that literally begins to kill the weeds at their roots.

So watch this.

As you expose that thing to the sun, the sun begins to burn out the thing that is trying to deprive it of life.

Let me say it to this side, because maybe y'all are gonna catch it.

As we expose it more and more to the sun, the light of truth, the presence of God, that as we expose it to those things, that the truth begins to set us free.

It sounds a lot like the concept of repentance.

Because what the Bible says is that we're called to turn from our ways.

In fact, Acts chapter three says, Hey, we need to turn from our ways so that we can be exposed to the light that is found exclusively in Christ.

This this principle of recognizing that there There's some things that are growing on the inside of me.

There's some things that are crowding me out.

There's some things that have been choking me out that I need to turn to God and allow myself to be exposed to the truth which can ultimately set us free.

I believe that there's some things that we need to turn to God and turn away from.

There's some things that God is inviting us to bring into the light of his presence so that he can begin to reveal the way that he sees us, the value that he has in us, so that we begin to be released from the things of the past, so we can grab a hold of what God has for us in the future, but it requires us to turn away from.

We have to turn away from it.

And I think sadly that many of us are at this place where I want all of the benefits of being in the presence of God.

I want joy, I want love, I want peace, but I also still want to turn to the things of the world.

And sadly, because we are molded from the dust of the ground, we are capable of producing two different types of fruit.

Adam and Eve were molded from the ground, and from that very same ground, the seed can take root, and that seed will either produce life or it will produce death.

And we have to choose this day which way we want to go.

I want to produce life, and so I'm going to turn to God in such a way that it's going to produce life and wholeness.

Or I'm going to turn and do it on my own terms.

And it may not produce joy, but I'll produce happiness.

It won't produce peace, but but it may be it will produce relief.

And we're living at a substandard level than what God would have for us.

But when God begins to say, I need you to recognize the things in your life that aren't producing life, I then need you to present them to me so that I can bring you to a place of complete wholeness.

Somebody say, wholeness.

Here's the third and final thing that I want us to consider.

Now that we've identified it, we're going through the arduous work of uprooting it, identifying it, and beginning the process of removing it, we now have to do something that I call put in some protective measures.

We have to put in some protective measures.

Because now that I've experienced the truth that is found in the person of Christ, now that I've experienced his wholeness, I gotta make sure that I put some things in place to ensure that the enemy doesn't come back and run rampant on my territory.

In agriculture, that a lot of times what you'll find is that they use mulch as a suppressant to keep weeds from growing back.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

I just thought it made the neighborhood look nice syrup.

But apparently it serves a function, and that function is to be a suppressant to ensure that the weeds are not growing back because it's amazing how tenacious these things can be.

You uproot it, but it seems as if it still has an ability to continue to come back.

So we have to be vigilant.

It reminds me of what scripture says when Jesus tells a story that when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it goes off into dry places looking for a place in which it can land and finding none, it goes back to the original home and finding a clean swept, it comes back and brings seven more wicked than itself.

So the second condition of the man is worse off than the first.

But let me put it in context that when you get delivered from things that you used to struggle with, the enemy is looking for opportunities to come back in and to make you even worse than you ever were.

He's looking for opportunities like, okay, man, like you you cleaned up, now we got even more room to run rampant.

Have you ever noticed, and I've this is just maybe me, I've noticed that people that used to be very passionate about God, that have now become disconnected from God, are more angry now than they were ever before?

Seven more wicked than itself.

Have you ever seen people who were once walking in freedom that now once again they're bound, they're going fully deep in, and their addiction is even deeper than it ever used to be before?

Seven more wicked than itself.

The enemy is tenacious in making sure that if you have the audacity to dream and believe God's best for your life, I'm gonna have the vigilance to make sure that you don't thrive in it.

We have to put in some protective measures.

The Bible tells us about the children of Israel and how when they were on their journey, that as they were on their journey going from bondage and getting to the promised land, that the one repeated thing over and over again, hey, don't forget God.

Because that same God that delivered you from bondage, that same God that was with you while you were in the wilderness, is the same God that brought you into the promised land, but don't put your guard down because the very enemies that you kicked off this land, they're gonna come back and forth.

So you have to have protective measures.

Many of us, we have to recognize that we have to begin to protect the freedom that God has given us.

What that simply can sound like, and it can take form in many different ways, but I'm just gonna give you one, which is put some boundaries in your life.

Sometimes you just gotta put some healthy boundaries in your life.

And what these boundaries are meant to symbolize is it's meant to help us to understand that this is my definition of what peace looks like.

And if you are choosing to come into this space, you're gonna have to adhere to what my standard of what peace looks like.

This is how I define myself, and I'm gonna preserve my mental health, and I'm gonna preserve my spirituality, and I'm not gonna put myself in the area of my weakness and expect God's strength.

I'm going to put boundaries in my life.

The Bible tells us don't make provisions for the flesh.

That means I'm not gonna strategically put myself in environments that I know are against God's best for my life because I'm putting boundaries in my life.

And I understand how challenging that can be.

When we begin to talk about putting boundaries, take stake and claim that that could be offensive to some people.

For people that don't recognize boundaries or people who don't respect boundaries, that could be very challenging, and I get that.

But but I'm sorry if I can't live up to your expectations of myself.

But what I'm choosing to do is I'm choosing to recognize what God's word says about me, and I'm gonna orient my life in that way.

And if you want to be a participant in my life, then I'm asking you to respect the way that I'm gonna orient my life.

I'm placing boundaries because I'm choosing me, because as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord.

As for me, I'm gonna live a life of peace.

As for me, I'm gonna live a life of wholeness.

I'm gonna put some things in my life to ensure that I can't go back to where I once was.

We have to put boundaries.

Somebody shout boundaries.

We have to put some boundaries in place.

These protective measures are meant to help us.

As we close, I wanna I want to give you the conclusion of this story.

You saw my grimacing smile from earlier.

I had to wait 24 hours to get the test results from when we were in Cancun.

So we're there for a total of five days.

The first two days were cool.

That one day we had to take a test.

Megan's living her best life.

I'm filled with anxiety and stress.

It's literally choking out my joy.

She's like, hey, you want to go to the pool?

I'm like, no.

Like, I didn't want to do anything.

But then 24 hours later, it's the longest 24 hours of my life, I get the little ding from my email, like, and you just have that moment where it just seems everything zooms in.

And then when I look at it, it says, You have tested negative.

I said, Bless God, I can go home.

And sadly, I was like, Megan, if you don't make it, I'll send I'll send resources here.

I'm not staying here.

But she but guess what?

She made it too.

She's right here on the front row.

Let's give it up for Pastor Megan.

She made it.

But can I tell you, we had two more days remaining on that resort.

And now that I knew that I had passed the test, I was having so much fun.

Because the first couple of days, I was very restricted in where I wanted to go.

I was in environments, but when I would walk by people, I kid you not, I would hold my breath because I didn't want to inhale the COVID that then may be illuminating around them.

So I would walk by people and I'd just be like, it changed the way I breathed the entire time I was there.

But now that I got the results and I know that I had the results that was gonna allow me to get back on a plane, I was gone by speaking to people.

How are you doing?

I'm I'm it it changed everything because I I knew I could once again breathe because I was no longer concerned about not being able to make it home.

I hope that you can see the correlation here that many of us have gotten conditioned with living lives where we just hold our breath and we sneak in little areas where we can breathe where there seems to be a little bit of relief.

But I believe that this illustration is meant to help us to recognize the distinction of when I can be in environments where I'm trying to grow and move forward, but I still feel choked out, versus when I'm truly living a life of freedom the way that God has intended.

There's many of us that's in this space that we have been choking on fear our entire lives.

But God says that I give you the gift of the Holy Spirit, the ruach, the very breath of God.

The reason why he gives us that is because he's saying that no matter what you are facing, it is okay for you to breathe again.

So even though it may seem that fear is trying to choke you out, but I have not given you the spirit of fear, it is time for you to breathe again.

There's some of us that's in here that we have been choking on doubt and insecurity.

But he says, I have telling you this that if you say to this mountain, be thou removed, then you don't have any doubt in your heart that you're gonna walk in victory.

So it's time for us to breathe in confidence again.

There's some of us that have been choking in financial stress, and we've been breathing and choking on worrying, but the Bible tells us in Philippians 4 19 that God is our provider, so it is time for us to breathe again.

There's some of us that have been choking on perfectionism, thinking that we have to have everything lined up with self-imposed standards that are unreliable.

But the Bible tells us that my grace is sufficient.

It is time for you to breathe again.

There's some of us that are choking on worry and anxiety, but the Bible says, cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.

It is time for you to breathe again.

There's some of us that are joking on material gain and thinking that we don't have enough.

But God is telling us, I want you to understand that godliness is next to contentment.

It is time for you to breathe again.

Some of us are choking on unresolved conflict and tension in our lives, but God is saying that I'm giving you reconciliation.

So it is time for you to breathe again.

There's some of us that are choking on comparison, but God is saying that you are fearfully and wonderfully made as you are.

It is time for you to breathe again.

There's some of us that are looking for approval from man, and He's saying that man can make you, and man can't validate you.

I am the creator and you are made in my image and I love you.

It is time for you to breathe again.

It is time for you to breathe in God's grace, it is time for you to breathe in God's peace, it is time for you to breathe in God's joy, it is time for you to breathe again, it is time to breathe again.

You're not gonna allow the enemy to choke me out anymore.

It is time for me to breathe again.

Somebody shout, breathe.

It is time for us to breathe again.

It is time to breathe.

And the Holy Spirit is doing the work in here right now, and he's inviting us to begin to breathe again.

You've been holding your breath for far too long, you've been walking in fear for far too long, you've been allowing anxiety to take over your life for far too long.

You've been allowing these things to choke you out and crowd you out for far too long.

But it is time for you to breathe again, Lord.

We thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in this environment.

We thank you for the grace that's emanating in this space.

So as we go into a time of worship, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit hovers and it begins to breathe on every single one of us, and every fear and every anxiety begins to begin to move away because we recognize that we're in the presence of the living God and that there's time for us to breathe again.

We're not gonna allow worry to choke us out, we're not gonna allow fear to choke us out, but we're breathing in the precious presence of God, and we're exhaling our fear, we're exhaling confusion, we're exhaling anxiety, we're exhaling all the things that are leaving us in a space of fear.

But God, we're saying that we're going to breathe again.

So we offer up our praise because let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

So, God, we're choosing to give you your breath back.

We're choosing to worship and exalt your name, knowing that you are the same God that did it then, that's going to do it now.

So, family, let's worship and pray, recognizing that it is time for us to breathe again.

Let's worship together.

Thanks again for listening.

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