Follow the Leader | 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.

Right, Church.

We put our hands together and just celebrate everybody that served so selfishly.

We're so grateful for them.

And while you guys are feeling so generous, can we show some love to our online audience, those who are checking us out at home, podcasts, however you may engage us?

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

If I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Keith.

I serve as the lead pastor here at Celebration Orlando alongside my wonderful wife.

And we just want to thank you guys for creating this space and coming to worship with us.

And I think that you guys have shown up on a great day.

It's a great day because we're concluding our series that we've been talking about for the past couple of weeks, which is simply entitled, Can I Bring My Cross?

Now, if you've been with us on this whole journey, then you'll kind of understand that question a little bit, but it's going to make sense at the end of today.

But really, we've been on this journey of just examining the words of Jesus and to frame the context, what it really is meant to be is an opportunity for us to really engage.

Like, what does it mean to be a follower of Christ today?

I know that when we look at scripture, this is thousands of years old, and while it's timeless, the application and some of the nuances have changed.

And so we're asking ourselves, what does it mean to follow Jesus today?

Because things are different.

We recognize that now that we have access to technology, that maybe someone can't be in a physical location every week.

So what does it look like to worship Jesus today?

Sometimes we have jobs and responsibilities that cause us to be scattered more than we would prefer.

So I still have a responsibility to presence God in those areas of my life.

So what does it look like to follow Jesus today?

So over the past couple of weeks, we've been unpacking that a little bit.

And we're looking at the words of Jesus found in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And it's really just three thoughts.

And today we're going to conclude it.

But the first thought was really this if you want to be a follower of me, if you want to be in a relationship with me, if this is what you are calling and responding to, the first thing you have to do is deny yourself.

That you just have to deny yourself.

It starts with understanding that I have to lay some things down, I have to lay down some preferences.

People who serve, they've denied themselves.

There's aspects of I could be doing something different, I could be doing this, but I'm choosing not to.

That's self-denial.

Deny yourself.

And then it says, take up your cross.

And I like how all the translations say your cross, not his cross, not someone else's cross, but taking up your cross means recognizing the way that God has wired you, the places that He's called you to be, and presencing Him in those spaces.

It gives us a little bit of peace because being able to exalt God in every area of our lives doesn't have to look like someone else's.

It's just how do I presence God and my life today?

Taking up your cross and then ultimately coming to the conclusion where it says, just follow me.

So I want to read this passage to us again as we bring it all together.

Looking at Matthew chapter 16, verses 24 and 25, um, each week we've read this in a different translation, and that's been very um intentional.

Matthew 16:24

One, there's some words that I wanted to highlight and phrases that were in different translations, but two, but to also just kind of show.

A lot of times as we're trying to engage God's word, and I hear people, they'll often ask me, what's the best translation of the Bible?

And there's all types of different schools of thoughts, and there's another room that I can have that conversation with.

But quite honestly, the best translation of the Bible is the one that you connect with, the one that you're reading.

And so I wanted to show that we can look at these different translations but still extract a powerful truth from it.

So today we're looking at it from what is referred to as the amplified version.

This is a version that Vinny will often read from.

And here's what it says Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to be my disciple, let him deny himself, which means disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself in his own interest, and take up his cross and follow me, which means cleave steadfastly to me, conform wholly to my example in living, and if need be in dying also.

Verse 25 For whoever is so bent on saving his life, his temporary life, that is, his comfort and security here, shall lose it.

You're gonna lose the eternal perspective.

And whoever loses his life, that means giving up your comfort, your preference, your security, for my sake shall find life everlasting, inherit something so much more.

Today, as we close out this series, I've I've been sharing on this journey that the series has momentum.

And each week is going to build on the previous week.

And so today is going to be the exclamation point of this journey that we've been on.

And so if you're taking notes and and I hope that you are doing so, I want you to write this message title down.

It's simply this Follow the Leader.

Follow the leader.

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

Lord, we we thank you so much for this space.

Um, God, we don't we don't take it for granted um that we're able to gather freely in your name in safety.

Um, God, there's many places in the world that just don't have um this privilege.

And so, God, we honor you and we thank you for creating a space where we can do this.

We thank you for what you've already have been doing in the service, recognizing as you've been stirring hearts and the atmosphere is already set for what you want to do.

So, Holy Spirit, you're welcome.

We I ask that I decrease and that you increase.

Um, God, I pray that you that you inspire us, that you encourage us, that you challenge us um in the areas to help us take our next steps.

So, so Lord, I ask that you give us open eyes to see you.

I pray for open ears to hear you and open hearts to receive everything that you want to speak and do in us today.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen, and amen.

Well, I'm gonna jump right in.

I think for all of the people that are that are from Orlando or have been in Orlando for any period of time, I can say this statement and you guys are gonna say amen to this.

I want to test it and see.

I-4 is a hot mess.

Amen.

Now, so for those that are joining us online, maybe you have no context of what I'm talking about, but but I-4 is a stretch of highway.

It's kind of like like Mad Max meets like the Daytona 500.

It's just chaos on this road.

And so when I moved here, I knew that my life's mission was to avoid driving on I-4 at all costs.

It pretty much became an endeavor.

Like my toll bill got through the roof.

I'm like, but at least I'm alive.

Like it just became a matter of like life and death for me.

So I've learned how to navigate and get around I-4 as much as possible.

But there are some moments where it is what it is.

And so last week was one of those moments where that's exactly what it was.

My son Keith Jr.

was in town, um, and while he was here, he's he said, Hey, I need to go take my car um to get some service done to it.

I was like, all right, great.

I I knew where he was taking it.

I said, Well, it's gonna take some hours, so I'll we'll ride there together, you'll drop it off, we'll come back home, and then we'll come get it later in the afternoon.

That was the plan.

But this was the plan.

We had to drive on I-4 collectively.

Let's say, oh.

Yeah, we we had to drive on I-4.

And so as we are preparing, I said, okay, let me give you some instructions.

Again, he's 30, he's he's lived in multiple places.

He can drive very well, but I wanted him to know the nuances of what we're about to endeavor into.

I said, okay, we're about to get on the highway, and when we get on the highway, there's gonna be cars merging from the left, there's gonna be cars merging from the right, there's gonna be cars merging from above, cars merging from like cars are gonna be coming from everywhere, and you're not gonna know how they got there, but they're going to be there.

So you gotta recognize that turn signals, um, they're they're pretty much optional.

Like it's just it's just what it is.

I said, so it's suggestive at this point.

So I'm giving him the nuances, we're laughing about it.

I said, but hey, we're gonna hit a stretch of road where it's gonna be a lot of congestion.

And so here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna give you the directions to where we're going, but I don't want you to follow the directions.

Because I know as a local, I need to get off the exit before they're telling me to get off because it will help me to avoid the congestion that's ahead.

I said, You with me?

He said, I absolutely am with you.

I said, Okay, so so just follow me.

I'm giving you this in the event that we get separated, but if we do, don't get off at the exit.

They're telling you, get off the exit, I'm telling you.

He's like, Um, you got me?

I've got you, dad.

I'm good, cool.

So we're on the road, we're riding, and everything is going really well.

And lo and behold, we hit that stretch of road where this convergence of all things happening all it's the epicenter of chaos, is right there.

And so as we're riding, I recognize that some distance begins to get in between us.

One car turns into another car, turns into another car.

And so now he's a pretty good distance behind me.

And so I can see him in my rearview mirror, kind of like drifting further and further back, but I'm like, okay, I'm gonna stay in this lane.

I'm not gonna get in the left lane and pass it because I want to make sure that he sees the lane that I'm in.

And so I'm thinking to myself that he didn't see me get over, he won't get over, and eventually cars will merge in and out and he'll catch up.

We all know the nuances of what it looks like to follow somebody.

It's just kind of the rules of the road.

But for my son, he wanted to catch up to me.

So he gets in the left lane and he floors it.

Problem is, he flies right past me.

Like, he gets right past me.

And so I see him just go right by me, and I'm like, okay, so as he's going by me, I know that the exits are coming up in the next two to three exits.

So I call him, I'm like, hey man.

He's like, um, he's like, yeah, I'm trying to catch up.

I'm like, you didn't catch up, you passed me.

I said, so here's what I need you to do.

I know that your GPS right now is telling you which exit to get off at.

Don't get off of that exit.

Get off the exit before that.

When you get off, make a right, make the first left, and you'll drive straight, you'll run right into it.

I'm like, You cool?

He's like, All right, I got you.

45 minutes later, I'm I'm I'm sitting I'm sitting in the lounge at the car dealership.

I'm two cups of coffee in, I'm talking to people, and I don't talk to nobody in the morning.

Like I'm talking, I'm just trying to kill time at this point.

I'm talking to people, and then he comes in all flustered.

I'm like, what'd you do?

Push the car here?

Like what like what happened?

He said, Well, I got up to the exit and and I couldn't remember everything that you said, so then I just started listening to what the GPS had told me to do.

He said, I I don't I don't know what happened.

And then I looked at him, I said, I could tell you exactly what happened.

I said, You got ahead of me and you didn't listen to me.

Woo! We are gonna have some fun in here today.

I said, son, you you got ahead of me and then you didn't listen to me anymore.

And and it caused you to get off at the wrong exit, which caused your delay, and you didn't make it here in the time that you wanted to make it here because you stopped listening to me and you got ahead of me.

How how often, when when we're looking at our walk with God, do we have all these ambitions and dreams and visions of places that we want to be, things that we want to do, places we want to go to, and things that we know are connected to what God is ultimately calling us to do?

But those moments when it gets very congested, there are those moments when it gets a little bit chaotic, those moments when there's a lot of activity happening around us, that we can find ourselves getting that distance and getting away from God.

But the problem is we're trying to catch up with God when we actually just need it to slow down.

How often do we find ourselves getting ahead of God and we stop listening to his voice?

His GPS was on.

So even though I called him and I said, Okay, look, I know you're a little bit ahead of me, but here's what I want you to do listen to my instructions, son.

The GPS is telling you to get off at this exit.

That is not the best exit.

It's gonna slow you up.

There's a lot of congestion, there's a lot of confusion there.

Get off at the exit before.

Trust me when you hear it.

But when all the pressure was on and he was uncertain, he decided to go with the crowd instead.

How often do we find ourselves knowing that there's some things that we know that God is trying to direct us in, some things that we know that God is trying to shift us to do, but we're a little uncertain, it's a little unknown, it can have a little mystery to it.

So instead of us following God and trusting him with every step and listening to his voice, we end up going at the voice of the culture.

We end up following the voice of everyone else, and before we know it, we get off at the wrong exit.

There's a lot of congestion, we're slowed down and we're wondering why we haven't made it to the destination of peace that the Bible describes.

Could it be that we've gotten ahead of God and we're listening to the wrong voice?

I believe that we are conditioned in such a way where everybody wants to be a leader.

Everybody wants to be a leader now.

And we see this is such a prevailing thought and culture.

If we go into a bookstore, if those things still existed, you would be able to walk into a bookstore and you will see there are entire dedicated sections just to leadership.

Leadership, leadership, eight ways to be a great leader.

And all of those things are great principles.

But the problem is the best leaders are the ones who know how to follow.

This is why when we see in scripture that Jesus is taking a vagabond group of men who were rejects from the rabbinical school, these men who had these industrial trades, he pulls them in and says, Hey, follow me.

And then he begins to live out the life that he wants them to emulate.

And when you look at all of his teachings, at no point does he ever say, Here's four ways to be an effective leader.

Here's 16 ways to lead your.

He doesn't do any of that.

What he simply shows them is what does it look like to deny yourself, to take up the cross and follow me.

If I can be an effective follower of Jesus, I am going to be an amazing leader.

If you can be a leader of Christ, if you can be a follower of Christ, you will be an amazing leader in your household.

Because it becomes the grid in which you live by, and then it flows from you, and then it affects everything around you.

But unfortunately, we're trying to implement practices when we don't have godly principles.

What I want us to recognize is that maybe we've gotten ahead of God and maybe we stop listening to his voice.

This is why in this passage alone, Jesus uses the word follow two times, and it can seem a little bit redundant when you look at it in the in the different translations.

I'll read it to you in the CSB.

What it says is, then the Lord says to his disciples, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

It looks as if Jesus is saying the same thing twice.

Follow me, follow me.

But this is why I love digging a little bit deeper into God's word, because when we look at the, we're looking at the Greek that influences the translation, we get actually two different words that are rendered there.

The first word, when he says, if anyone wants to follow me, that word is actually going to be rendered in a way, if anyone wants to become like me.

So keep that in mind.

If you want to become like me, if you want to become like me, yes, Jesus, I want to become like you.

And what does it mean to become like you?

To be a person of peace, to be a person of joy, to be a person that could be in the midst of chaos, but still, I can still be anchored in my identity.

If you want to be like me, yes, Jesus, I do.

What do I need to do?

Deny yourself, we talked about that week one.

Take up your cross, talked about that week two, and then he says, follow me.

Here's what that second follow me means pursue and obey.

If you want to be like Jesus, you're gonna have to pursue and obey him.

It is impossible to be like Christ if we don't pursue him.

I have yet to find a person who was truly emulating the character of Christ if we're not pursuing him.

That if we're not in some way putting ourselves in a position to listen to him and to be encouraged by him, we have to pursue him.

In fact, we can't be like Christ if we don't pursue him.

We can't be like Christ if we don't obey him.

Obey him simply means I'm listening to you, I'm receiving you, and I'm putting things in practice to bridge the gap between my life that I live and the life that you have for me.

This is what it means to be a follower of Christ, getting to that point where you're saying that I'm going to live my life God's way so I can get these kingdom results that scripture talks about.

So the question becomes how do we practically do it?

When we're talking about living in today's culture, we're talking about all the nuances, all the busy schedules, all the responsibilities, I get it.

Okay, I need to deny myself.

How do I do that?

We talked about it.

Okay, I need to take up my cross, we talked about that, but how do I actively follow him in a world that seems to be pulling at my attention?

Well, church, I'm glad you asked.

Because you were in the right place today.

There's three thoughts that I think can help us anchor ourselves, and what does it mean to be a follower of Christ?

Here's the first one: listen to his voice.

Listen to his voice.

Listening to his voice is going to be a primary ingredient of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Let me unpack this just a little bit.

If we want to truly be a follower of Christ, we must learn to listen to his voice.

We're living in a world that is filled with so much distraction.

There's there's so much noise that it's easy to miss the still small voice of God.

I I am a person who has not come to the conclusion that I'm anti-anything, in a sense of anti-technology, anti-internet.

Like I look at these things as tools that can help accelerate us as long as we have the proper filter.

So I'm a person that believes that.

But I also understand how those things, those tools, can turn into noise that causes us to lose sight of God.

Case in point.

I love social media.

I love these things.

But if we're not careful, it becomes the noise that begins to influence our understanding of the world, our understanding of one another.

We get caught up in comparison, and then we lose sight of who God is, we lose sight of what God is saying, and somehow we've got ahead of God, and the chaos has become louder than God.

What you'll notice in Scripture is that God is not interested in getting to a shout and match with anybody.

What we see in God's word is that he speaks to us in a whisper.

That whisper, that gentle whisper that is encouraging us, that is challenging us, that is inspiring us, and that is building us up.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John chapter 10, verse 27, My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

My sheep know my voice.

And Jesus is using this language because naturally, for that audience that he's talking to, they understood the nuances of a sheep and shepherd.

Reason being is because it was a very, very, very popular occupation back at those times.

And there was a relational connection between a shepherd and his sheep.

In fact, if you want to understand how God is with us, read Psalm 23.

It's so encouraging.

The Lord is my shepherd.

And we see these things that happen when the Lord is our shepherd.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is, Am I being one of his sheep?

There's a lot of things that the shepherd wants to provide and do, but it happens in the context of me being a sheep.

And so what the Bible tells us and what we understand about the culture is that a shepherd would often go ahead of the sheep, particularly when they're going into a new environment when he's trying to help the sheep to be nourished.

And so what would happen is the shepherd's going ahead of them.

He's speaking to them.

They know his voice, they've been raised with him.

And while he's walking ahead of them, he's removing sticks that could get into their digestive system.

He's removing the rocks that could cause them to get tripped up.

The shepherd is going ahead of them, making the path clear so that they can be nourished by it.

And occasionally you would have a sheep that would wander off, and a shepherd would go and get them, the other sheep would stay put.

It was this beautiful relationship that you understood that a shepherd loved the sheep.

The sheep trusted the shepherd, so even when a shepherd was correcting them, when the shepherd was redirecting them, it wasn't done out of anger, it was done out of safety.

He makes me lie down.

What if the shepherd of your soul is speaking to you and telling you it's time for you to slow down?

In a fast-paced world where we feel like we should be so much further, so much faster, and have accomplished so much that we're so wired up to be so fast, but maybe we're missing this idea of just simply learning to slow down.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That the shepherd is encouraging us but challenging us that maybe we need to learn to slow down just a little bit.

The problem is sometimes we get out of frequency with God.

Because in order for us to really recognize the shepherd's voice, in order for us really to intimately understand what he's speaking to us, when there's so much chaos going on, we gotta make sure that we're dialed in on the right frequency.

I know I'm talking to an audience that varies in age, but back in my day, when we used to listen to the radio in the car, when you were driving and you were getting a little bit away from the antenna, you would get that static.

Anybody with me?

Somebody be old enough.

Y'all got y'all with me?

16 of us gets it.

Okay, cool.

I'll rock with y'all.

For y'all, for the rest of y'all, it's like having bad Wi-Fi.

Okay, so so you get you get out of, you get to a point where the frequency is off, and you know that the signal should be stronger.

You know it should be coming through much clearer, but you're getting this distance, and so you have to like dial in the frequency to make sure that things are coming in clearly.

Maybe for some of us, we're we're wrestling with why isn't God speaking clearly?

Maybe it's not because he moved, but maybe it's because we did.

Maybe.

Okay, y'all with me?

Okay.

We're gonna get to the good part.

Y'all just y'all just buckle up.

I I found more often than not, and the areas where I feel like God is the most silent, is often the areas where I'm the most busy.

When I'm so busy and I'm active and I'm trying to do things in my own strength that somehow I got out of frequency with God and I'm not hearing what he's speaking to me anymore.

In this season, in this time, maybe God is challenging us to slow down.

Maybe we've gotten ahead of him.

Maybe we're listening to too many other voices.

Maybe there's too many things that's speaking to us right now, and God is saying, I want you to slow down.

Get in tune with me and recognize what I am saying about you.

I've learned in personal experience that the loudest voice is often the most silent when it comes to speaking truth.

Just because you can hear it doesn't mean that it's true.

Just because you can hear it doesn't mean that it's God.

Sometimes we need to begin to discern and recognize if it's God or not.

And what I've found is in those quiet moments that a whisper from God echoes truth in my spirit that gives me life.

It's getting in tune with God.

Here's the second thing that I want us to do.

We have to stay close.

We have to stay close to God.

It's it's so possible for us to allow so many things to come in between us and God that we end up having too much distance between us and God.

I like to think of a small child, and when they're they're at that toddler stage and they're they're finally out in public and they're learning how to stand and then walk.

But when they're standing at their mother or father's leg and other people come around, they still cling to their parents because there's something inside of them that knows that this is a safe place.

That when other people are coming up, they know that this is my place of safety.

I wonder if this is why Jesus says, those who come to me must come to me like children.

Maybe we've matured so much that we've lost the adolescent aspect of our faith that keeps us close to God.

That we've grown so much that we want to get away from him to the point that we can figure it out on our own, but we only realize that we get to a place that we didn't want to get to, and we need to come back to our Father and allow him to nurture us anyway.

The love is there, the acceptance is there, the grace is there, but I want to challenge you right now that maybe the area where you're feeling the biggest void, if we could just get a little bit closer to him, it will produce the fruit that you're desperately in need of.

The Gospel of John chapter 15 says it this way Remain in me and I in you.

John 15 · chapter mention

Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

Jesus has given us this idea of being connected to the root.

And he says that you may grow up and grow out, but don't grow apart.

Don't become a person that you're beginning to produce fruit, and now you're trying to produce that fruit outside of me.

The moment that you're cut off from the vine, you're not going to produce the fruit that I've called you to do.

Make sure you are staying connected.

You know, when I look in scripture and I see the ministry of Jesus and the impact that he had, there's there's moments where I often try to put myself in the moment just to understand how do we get here.

On the night when Jesus was arrested, there's a lot of things that led up to it.

But Peter is a character in the Bible that I can relate to because Peter is an expressive person.

He's a passionate person, but also he's a person that is a little bit unstable.

One day he's saying one thing and the next day he's doing something else.

There's moments that I can identify with Peter.

So when I look at the life of Peter and I consider the things that he has said to Jesus.

Well, I mean, he was in a ship and he saw Jesus and said, Lord, if that's you, let me get out and walk on this water.

I don't even know if I got that kind of faith.

I might get out of a well-eformed ship to get out and chest and see if that's God.

I trust that he's there because the ship is working.

But we're all wired differently.

Peter said, I'll get out the ship and try.

Let's see what happens.

Peter was a man of faith that Peter, that when Jesus began to talk about him going to the cross, like he was like, Man, like, okay, listen, the day's gonna come where I'm gonna give my life up.

Peter's the only one documented to rebuke Jesus.

You were not going to the cross.

You were gonna like you were gonna live and not die.

Like, you ever have people that try to encourage you and they're just completely missing?

Like, hey man, just let it run its course.

Like, Peter was the guy that confronted Jesus, like, you were not going to die.

I like Peter was that dude that was about the faith, and when Jesus was arrested, Peter pulled out a sword and cut off a man's ear.

Bro, like Peter was about that life.

He was like, yo, it's whatever it's gonna be.

Like Peter was that guy that was down to do whatever.

So, so how do we get to the point where just a few hours later, Peter says, I don't even know Jesus, don't ask me about him anymore.

What happened?

And one night?

You go from cutting off a man's ear to fight for Jesus to saying that you don't want to have anything to do with him.

What happened?

There's a phrase that happens that I think can be revelatory for us.

The Bible says that when Jesus was arrested, Peter began to follow at a distance.

He started following at a distance.

And the more distance that he got, the more fear that began to fill the gap, the more distance that he got, the more self-preservation that began to kick in, the more distance that he got, the more ideas that began to enter in.

And so just a couple of hours later, when they're like, Aren't you with Jesus?

Like, no, I don't even know that guy.

How do we get to a point where we begin to deny Jesus?

Maybe it's because we've allowed too much distance to get there.

And we all do it, and here's the thing we may not be denying Jesus in a sense of I don't know him, but maybe we're denying him access.

Maybe we're denying him an opportunity to correct us.

Maybe we're denying him an opportunity to speak to us, and what happens in that distance, instead of us looking at God's word and orienting our lives around what God's word says, because of the distance, we begin to pull in what culture says, what opinions say, and now we have a faith that looks nothing like what it means to deny yourself, take up the cross and follow him.

How did our faith get so diluted?

Distance.

We've allowed other things to get integrated in.

So how do I close that distance?

How do I tighten up that frequency?

I tighten up the frequency and I close that distance by making sure that I stay connected to him.

And I stay connected to him by making sure I'm engaged in his word.

See, when I read God's word, it allows me to get the mind of God and it allows me to take every thought captive.

It allows me to recognize the truth of what God's word says about me.

When I'm in time of worship, I'm in his presence.

It allows me to be filled up and exalt him above all things, and we have these practices that are meant to help us to close the distance.

I've talked with so many people and they struggle with reading God's word every day because we even turned that into a race.

Congratulations, man.

You read through the Bible in a year.

Congratulations, you read the Bible eight days straight.

And listen to me, I believe in every bit of that.

But when it becomes a task and it's not intimate, when it becomes work and it's not rest, we're not getting the things out of the Bible that the Bible wants to put into us.

Maybe instead of you trying to read the Bible in the year, maybe God just wants you to read a chapter and more importantly, let that chapter read you.

I've learned to slow down and stop being so obsessed about getting through all of it and learning to stand still so it can get into me.

And that may require me just to ruminate on one word, on one passage, but it helps me to slow down to make sure that the word of God is transforming me and I'm closing the distance instead of being a person who has a lot of head knowledge, but my heart is far from it.

Jesus cautions us with this way they praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Distance.

We close a gap by making sure that we're connected.

Our proximity to God anchors our identity and truth and healing and wholeness.

Here's the third and final point I want to share with us.

Pay attention to your surroundings.

Pay attention to your surroundings.

Whenever you're on a journey, you gotta pay attention to the things that are around you.

I I know that the many times I've gone on road trips traveling to go and visit family members that you know I've gotten off.

I'm like, oh man, we're running low on gas, and you get off and you get off at that one exit, and you're like, I'm not getting gas here.

I get right back on the highway and I'll go to the next one.

Because you know what you're looking around at the surroundings, you're like, yeah, this this it this ain't it.

Like, this ain't it.

Like I literally stopped traveling at night for long distance drives for that very reason.

Because I got off on the wrong exit and it just was chaotic and crazy, it was real eerie.

I'm like, yeah, this ain't it.

Like you get to a point where you begin to recognize, like, this is not a safe environment for me to be in.

We have to pay attention to our surroundings.

We have to make sure that we're not in environments that are going to bring us harm.

Jesus cautions his disciples in Matthew chapter 10, and he says, Look, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Sheep among wolves.

Jesus is saying, like, you're you're one of my sheep, but you're going to be in an environment that's filled with wolves.

And the thing we know about sheep is that sheep are defenseless.

And sometimes we may feel like we're in environments that we feel defenseless.

But the beautiful thing about the relationship with a sheep and a shepherd is that the sheep doesn't fight his battle, the shepherd does it for him.

So when I understand that I am a sheep, I may be in an unsafe environment, but the beautiful thing is I am there, and the shepherd is ahead of me, and he's removing the stones and the barriers and any opposition.

So there may be some wolves, but I got a shepherd there who's gonna make sure that I'm safe.

I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves.

But I still, watch this.

I still want you to be as shrewd as serpents.

In other words, I need to be very perceptive, know what's going on in culture, but as innocent as doves.

Look at the condition of the Christian culture right now.

When did the sheep turn into the wolves?

Jesus is saying we need to be mindful of our environment, because if not, the environment will begin to be on our mind.

And we'll begin to speak words that don't reflect anything like the gospel.

I I remember many years ago when I was um before I got into ministry, um, I was I was a courier.

It was one of my favorite jobs.

I used to deliver packages, and and and when I used to deliver packages, it was the greatest joy because I had an opportunity to travel to different businesses and meet people, and it was just really, really fun.

Well, well, on this one day, um, one of our trucks had broken down, and so we had to shift all of our vehicles over.

We had to move some things around, and so I got the newest truck.

Now that was a major upgrade for me because all of our old trucks, they did they only had AM radio.

I had to listen to sports talk radio all day.

Go Eagles.

Like I was it was all sports talk radio all day.

But this new truck, it had AM, FM, and it had a cassette deck.

So for some of my millennials, before we had Spotify, music used to get recorded on these little reels.

They would contain it, and then you would put it into a like just Google it.

It's it's really awesome.

Go to Smithsonian, you'll see it.

But it was these things that were music used to be.

You used to listen to music that way.

And so my my my truck had an actual tape deck.

So I go out to my car, I get the tape deck, I put it in, and I'm driving.

It's the best route of the it was the best one I've ever had.

I'm driving, I'm leaning, I'm getting out of the car, I got the windows down, music blaring out, dropping off packages, looking real hood, but it was awesome.

Like it was great.

It was great.

And so now I'm almost at the end of my route.

I've got two routes, I got two stops left.

And so I get to uh the second um to the last stop.

And as I'm driving in to go into the garage, I parked the car, I'm about to go inside to deliver the package, but as I'm going into Gray Park, the car comes to an abrupt stop.

Like it just stops, like boom.

So I'm thinking to myself, like, oh my gosh, I hit somebody.

Like, who did like who did I hit?

Like, so I'm literally freaking out because I didn't see anyone.

They train us on how to be alert, how to be great drivers.

So I'm thinking to myself, who did I hit?

So I'm I'm concerned, I get out, there's nobody pinned under the car, there's there's nothing there's nothing there, there's no animals.

I walk around the back of the of the truck, there's nothing back there, and I can't understand what did I hit that I came to such an abrupt stop.

So as I'm looking around and trying to understand what happened, I look up and it all made so much sense to me.

My previous truck, mm-hmm, seven feet high.

The clearance of the garage is nine feet.

My new truck, mm-hmm, eleven feet.

So as I'm driving in an environment that I'm used to being in, but I'm carrying something that no longer can fit into it, I crashed into the building and it brought me to an abrupt stop.

It shook the building.

What was even more embarrassing?

It was the building where my mom worked at, and everybody was talking about like, did you you hear about the you hear about the truck driving a crash into the building?

That was her son.

Like it was it was awesome.

It was so, so awful.

I'm sorry, mom.

Like it was, it was a terrible experience.

And I remember thinking to myself, like, they're gonna fire me.

Because all of the training was like, listen, you can hit a person, you can hit a kid.

It don't matter.

We're gonna keep you on staff, but if you crash into a building, that's guaranteed dismissal.

So I'm there like, man, like a I'm crushing it.

I crashed into the building, like I'm done.

Fast forward, they didn't fire me.

I actually got a promotion, but I'll save that for favor ain't fair for our giving series.

Um we'll get into that later.

But but that moment has marked me.

It's marked me because of this.

Because as I began to think about, I lost sight of my surroundings.

I I was in something new and I was living something old with old mentality and old behavior, and I came to an abrupt stop.

Is it possible that as you are in relationship with God, that God is expanding some things on the inside of you, and you're finding yourself bumping up into things because maybe you're not supposed to fit in that environment the same way anymore.

Maybe God is doing a new thing on the inside of you that is not meant to fit inside of the old thing.

That maybe God is expanding some things in you spiritually that is radically changing the way that you function.

And there's some environments that you used to go to.

I know that yesterday you could fit in there, I know the day before it was great, but today is a day where God is expanding some things inside of you, and I just don't fit in here anymore.

See, when I first gave my life to Jesus, I came to the conclusion of asking, what kind of Christian am I going to be?

And and that seems like such an odd question to ask, so I'll I'll give you a little bit of context.

Because in my spiritual understanding, I had seen all types of Christians up to this point.

I seen extremely dogmatic, Phariseeic, critical Christians.

Just super, no, no, no, the Bible said, like, and I get that.

I've seen, I've seen what I like to call the free-spirited hippie Christians, where it doesn't matter, it's all peace and love, man, it's all good.

Like I've I've seen, I've seen that.

I've seen conservative Christians, I've seen liberal Christians, I've seen Christians that believe in the Holy Spirit, I've seen Christians that that don't.

I've seen all of these different expressions of the faith, and I'm thinking to myself, God, like what but what does it mean for me?

Like, how how can I walk this out?

How can I honor you?

What does it look like?

What kind of Christian am I going to be?

And and and Jesus, he challenged me.

He said, Because you're asking the wrong question, he said, because the moment that you try to limit me to whatever construct that you have is the minute that you miss out on all that I am.

He said, The minute that you try to say I'm going to be a conservative Christian, the problem is you put conservative in front of Christian and that becomes your idol.

If you're trying to be a liberal Christian, then the problem is you've you've taken that and put it in front of being a Christian and that becomes your idol.

What happens is we put so many things in front of Jesus as the pre-markers that we complicate the cross and it becomes an idol that we exhaust, and we're wondering why come we don't see Jesus in the culture today.

So Jesus took me to this passage.

This series has been 25 years in the making.

Deny yourself.

You're gonna lay down some preferences, Keith.

You're gonna lay down some perspectives, you're gonna have to take up this cross, learning how to exalt me in every area of your life, that in every area of your life people can see that you're connected with me, and you're gonna have to follow me.

So the way that I simplified that was trying to understand the environments that I used to go into.

Is I began to look at my friend groups, and I will find that when I was hanging out with my friends, that I'm not trying to be critical.

I'm really not trying to be judgmental.

This has nothing to do with you, but it's about what God is doing in me.

But I found that I was bumping up into some things and I and I realized that I can't fit in here like I used to because of what God is doing in me.

I I am not trying to offend you, I'm just simply trying to honor my God, and so I come to the conclusion of asking, can I bring my cross?

Can I bring my cross into this relationship?

Because there are some environments that I used to go to with my boys, and it was great, we would have so much fun, but I found that if I try to go in there again, I'm gonna hit up against a wall, and the only way I could fit in that environment is if I leave the cross behind.

And I know I can't leave the cross behind, so the question became, can I bring my cross?

Hey Keith, we're going out tonight, man.

That's awesome.

Where are we going?

Can I bring my cross?

Is it gonna require me to disconnect from this thing that has my calling and purpose?

Can can I bring my cross?

I I've come to this place of this is the statement that I say virtually every day.

If my cross don't fit, I can't commit.

If my cross don't fit, then I can't commit.

If if I have to leave my cross at the door and check it like coach check and pick it up at the end of the night, that's probably an indication that I shouldn't be in that place.

There's no days off of being a follower of Christ.

I'm committed to this and it's uncomfortable at times, and carrying this cross gets a little awkward, and sometimes carrying this cross will even bring you to your knees.

It's it'll be challenging, but but I've gotten to a place where I'm saying to myself, can I bring my cross?

Can I bring my cross into this relationship where there's mutual respect and I honor you and you honor me, and there's this reverence for God that allows us to coexist all while knowing that Jesus is Lord, or do I have to put this at the side so that we can engage in behavior that we know that doesn't honor God?

Can I bring my cross?

Can I bring my cross into the way that I run my business?

Because I can really work these numbers this way and it'll be beneficial to me, but it's gonna require me to step away from the integrity and character that God wants me to function with.

And if I gotta step away from the things of God to get the things that God doesn't want me to have, I don't want them anyway.

Can I bring my cross?

Can I bring my cross into the way that I am stewarding my family?

There's so many times we get so reactive, and when I'm looking at my children, and I want to react out of frustration, but I realize that this cross becomes the grid that I look through.

There's always space for correction, but it's always gotta go through the lens of grace.

Can I bring my cross into this conversation?

Can I bring this cross into every confrontation?

The goal of the Christian when we say deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me is saying that I am gonna be connected to this cross and it's not easy.

Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable, sometimes I want to lay it down, but I can't distance myself from it because while it may be waiting, it also has my freedom, it also has my healing, it also has my redemption, it also holds my breakthrough.

So when I know that I am holding on to this cross, I am holding on to my healing, I'm holding on to my miracle, I'm holding on to everything that God has for me.

Can I bring my cross?

When we orient our lives in that way, of recognizing the environments that we may be invited into, just ask yourself can I bring my cross?

There's a lot of gifted people that are part of our community, but I've learned a valuable lesson that every open door isn't for you.

Because if I can't bring my cross into this room, then maybe that's my gift making room for me, but there's no room for my gift.

Can I can I bring my cross?

Can I can I bring it into my friendships?

Can I bring it into my marriage?

Can I can I bring it into my job?

Can I bring it into every place I'm going to?

The question is, can I bring my cross?

Because if I can't bring it, that means I can't bring Jesus.

And if I can't bring Jesus, then I don't want to go.

What the Bible says about the children of Israel as they were going into the promised land, they had gotten so connected to God that they said, Lord, are you with us?

And they said, Because if you aren't with us, we don't want to go.

They literally said, I would rather live in the wilderness with you than be in a promised land without you.

What I believe God is asking of all of us are you are you obsessing over the gift or are you connected to the giver?

Because when I'm connected to the giver, there's endless possibilities on what God wants to do with the gifts that He has for me.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to lead us to a moment of prayer and we're going to go into worship.

And what I recognize in a series like this, a message like this, that maybe there's there's something that God is challenging some of us with.

I I just want to be transparent.

I preach to myself every single week.

This is my form of therapy, it's much cheaper that I'm able to navigate through what I'm walking through.

How do I engage God?

How do I make sure I'm walking out with God?

How do I present it to us?

I'm not above or beyond what I'm sharing with you.

I'm always asking myself, can I can I bring my cross?

And what I've recognized is the places where I have the least amount of peace are the areas that I've been giving God the least amount of access.

So we have an opportunity to recalibrate that.

We have an opportunity to tune our hearts a little bit, to engage God's word a little bit, to engage in community, to lift our hands up, but to get back into frequency with God.

Maybe during the course of the series or even today, there's some areas where you felt challenged.

That's the Holy Spirit.

It's okay.

It's Him gently nudging you and saying, Yes, let's get back on track.

Maybe there's some things that came to your mind that you know you need to leave at the cross.

Because maybe your hands haven't been free because you've been carrying a lot of things that Jesus took to the cross for you.

But I know that regardless of where you are or who you are, there's a way for us to respond in this moment.

So I'm gonna invite you to come to your feet at this time.

And as we go to worship, begin to meditate on those things that God began to stir in your heart.

Begin to look and evaluate those areas of your life that you know you either need to leave at the foot of the cross at the altar, or maybe you just need to renew your mind by drawing closer to God.

As always, in these moments, the the altar is open.

It's the meeting place with God.

Maybe for you, you need to make a physical response and coming down to the altar.

And I know it can feel awkward, but it's only awkward if we make it.

The altar is simply the meeting place with God, the place where I get along with God.

This is a normal rhythm of a follower of Christ.

I'm going to lay it at the cross.

But in addition, you can stay at your seat.

If you're joining us online, you can participate in this moment.

But what I know is that God is doing something in all of us, and we all have an opportunity to exchange our burden for his peace.

So in this moment, as we go into worship, the altar is open.

Respond in your seats, respond, kneel, whatever you need to do, but make sure that you don't allow any distance to keep you from drawing closer to God in this moment.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your presence, and I thank you for challenging us, but also encouraging us at the same time.

As we go into this next song of worship with lifted hands and our voices are singing as we surrender this moment to you, I pray that the Holy Spirit does a transformational work in this moment that will seem like a lifetime to take place outside of it.

So, Holy Spirit, move and have your way.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship together.

Thanks again for listening.

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