My Hands Are Full | 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.

Amen and amen.

Can we give it up for everybody that serves here at Celebration Orlando?

We really are thankful for the sacrifice that it goes that you guys heard us share.

And we just want to value them, but also invite you to participate and to join this amazing family.

I also want to take a moment to welcome everybody that's joining us online or via our podcast.

So can we put our hands together and welcome our digital family?

We're so glad that you're here.

If you're not in the Orlando area and if you're ever passing through, come by and worship with us in person.

We would truly love uh to meet you.

I'm so glad that you guys are here.

Maybe you're new and I haven't had a chance to meet you.

My name is Keith.

I have the privilege of serving as the lead pastor here at Celebration Orlando, and I want to welcome you and thank you for worshiping with us as we're going into week two of our series, Can I Bring My Cross?

I'm gonna give you a quick recap as to kind of where we left off at, but I do want to encourage you that if you missed last week's message um to go check it out because this is really a message that that does have continuity, that we're looking at the words of Jesus in Matthew 16, and in each of the phrases that he says is what we're building um that message around.

So last week we talked about what it means to truly live a life of denial.

What does it mean to deny yourself?

Jesus says that if you want to be my follower, you have to deny yourself.

And ultimately, what we concluded is that when we learn how to deny ourselves, that it's where we ultimately find fulfillment.

Also, understanding that that self-denial is not self-deprecation, it doesn't minimize our value, but what it does is it allows us to see the value in others.

And so last week we we talked around this idea of self-denial, but also understanding the value of self.

And so we want to continue um in that same vein.

We want to continue on a foundation that we built um just last week.

So so looking at Matthew chapter 16, we're gonna pick up at the exact same passage because that's our theme um for the next uh two weeks, this week inclusive of next week, where we're gonna bring it all together.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

I want to read this passage to us one more time, um, but I want to read it in a different translation than I did um last week, because there's a couple of words in there that I that I think it's worth highlighting the distinction from.

Starting at verse number 24, this is what it says Jesus tells his disciples, if anyone wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

But if you but if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Jesus was masterful at creating these paradoxical statements that that seem to be in contrast with one another.

Jesus is saying, hey, if you try to hold on to your life, you're you're actually not gonna find fulfillment.

But if you learn to live open-handed and and and give up your life, you will actually find fulfillment.

This just it's amazing how the kingdom operates that way, that my surrender also brings me fulfillment.

So so today I want to look at that second phrase that Jesus communicates.

This idea of taking up my cross and what it means to pursue him.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write this message title down.

Let's pray and let's see what the Lord wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for your grace.

We thank you for your mercy.

We thank you for this incredible community, both in person as well as online and wherever else people may be engaging.

Um, this content, this message, Father, we celebrate their presence.

Uh and God, we we honor you.

You are the guest of honor.

This is your church, these are your people, Father.

And so, Father, I decrease and ask for you to increase.

Lord, I ask that you inspire us, that you encourage us, but you also challenge us, and that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive what it is you're speaking to us so that we truly can live lives that are transformed.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

Well, um, on the 4th of July, my my family and I, we had a get together with some people from our college that came and hung out with us.

And so one of the things that you know that you have to have at the 4th of July is that you gotta have all the meats.

And so I'm I'm I'm cooking burgers, I'm I'm cooking hot dogs, I got some chicken going, and and I also am doing my bourbon smoked salmon.

Like it's it's literally from heaven.

So I'm I'm I'm it's it's an amazing opportunity, it's an amazing experience.

And then we had our friends that were coming, and they were gonna bring sides, they're gonna bring varying drinks and all these other things.

And and then one of our friends said, Hey, I'm gonna bring some desserts.

Um, and so I said, Let the church say amen.

So they brought some desserts and they brought apple pie, because what else would you bring on the 4th of July?

And so as I'm there and I'm cooking, and some of y'all know that when you're cooking, a lot of times you don't you don't end up eating a whole lot, you just kind of end up serving and engaging with everybody, and then you eat a little bit later.

So as we finish wrapping up eating and people are beginning to leave, it occurs to me um that I had not partaken of the apple pie as of yet.

So I felt that the Lord began to put an unction in my heart that it was time for me to partake of the blessings that he had prepared for us.

And so when I went to go get the apple pie and I opened it up and I and I looked at him, I said, you know what?

I need to put some ice cream on this.

Because you cannot, you cannot eat apple pie and not have vanilla ice cream with it.

I I don't know what it is you're doing.

See, Yolanda gets it.

I don't know what y'all are doing, but but you can't do it.

It's literally against the law.

So I said, let me go and get, let me go and get some some ice cream so I can put it on top of this.

And so I was all inspired.

I was doing my ice cream dance.

I won't show it to y'all now, but maybe outside, I was doing my ice cream dance.

I went to the freezer and I found that there was no vanilla ice cream there.

I said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So I immediately say to myself, okay, like it's still this the grocery store is still open, I'm gonna make a mad dash, go to the grocery store and pick up some vanilla ice cream.

It was a whole experience.

Like for me, like therapy for me is just being in a quiet room watching TV.

I'm not answering any questions with a bowl of ice cream and a warm apple pie.

Like, I don't know what that is, but it fills my soul.

So in my mind, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna make a beeline, go get this ice cream, come back, and this is how I'm gonna close out the night.

I I get into the grocery store, and again, I'm very methodical.

I know I have my grocery store memorized.

I know where to go, I know what to pick up, I know what lines to get into.

Like, I am on it.

So as I'm walking in, though, I walk in and immediately I'm met with a series of buy one, get one specials.

And and I knew it was the devil, but something inside of me said, Man, but at least this chips and salsa, bro, like this is an amazing deal.

Buy one, get one free.

So I said, Well, I'll go ahead and pick that up and I'm gonna make a beeline to the thing.

I I start walking down and I see some other items that are buy one, get one free.

I I went in there with hopes of just picking up this thing that didn't require a cart.

25 minutes later, my cart is full.

I'm just wandering around the grocery store picking up random things because the buy one get one free sale was ending that night, and I felt like if I don't get it now, I'm gonna miss out on it.

I gotta save this money.

So I'm now find myself this little quick three-minute trip has turned into 45 minutes.

But nonetheless, I finally make it to the register, I check out, I'm on my way home, and life is good.

I get to my home and I have about 14 bags in the back of my car.

And so I come to that point that every self-respecting man comes to where you look at this and say, I'm doing this in one trip.

I'm doing this in one trip.

I'm I'm not here to step on anybody's manhood, but I'm doing this in one trip.

Now, I I want to bring some clarity.

I I don't live in an apartment complex, I don't live on the third floor.

I literally park inside of a garage.

When you walk inside the house, the kitchen is right there.

I could have walked in and out 18 times in the time that it took for me to look at this and do this algebraic equation on how I can carry all these bags in on one trip, but I did it.

So I got all these bags in my hand.

I'm walking in, I'm cutting off circulation, I'm about to pass out, but I do it.

I I walk in and I look around, and there was no one there to celebrate my success.

My wife completely missed an opportunity, but I choose to forgive her.

She missed an opportunity to celebrate my manhood, but but then I go in, I put everything up, and I kind of have a moment of just reprieve, relax, I feel good about myself, I provided for my family.

Life is amazing.

And then about 45 minutes later, it occurs to me that I still didn't eat my pie and ice cream.

So I'm like, oh man, I this is what I did all this for.

I go downstairs, I get the pie, I heat it up in the microwave for 22 seconds, a minute second longer when it made it too hot.

So I put it in there for 22 seconds.

I go over to get a scoop of my ice cream, I look in the freezer, and it is not there.

So now I am beginning to panic a little bit because I'm thinking that one of my ungrateful family members went and ate of all the ice cream without me.

So I'm already filled with judgment and anger, and I'm ready to rebuke everybody in the house, put them out.

This is why y'all need to move out.

Y'all adults anyway.

Like, I'm about to, I'm about to go off.

So, and then I look at the receipt.

Well, maybe, maybe I didn't get it.

Maybe, maybe, maybe I skipped it somehow.

I look at the receipt, so I'm like, no, I got the receipt, so I see that I paid for it.

So, so clearly the grocery store just didn't give it to me.

I'm about to go get in my car.

I don't typically make a scene, but I'm like very passive aggressive, like, hey man, you know, I drove all the way out here, it's literally a mile.

I drove all the way out here, you guys can get it, man.

What can you give me for free?

I'm always looking for an opportunity for them to be a blessing to me.

Um, I get to my car and I open up the trunk just to do a double check, and I realize I carried every single bag in except for the ice cream bag.

I don't know how I missed it, I don't know how I didn't manage to scoop it in, but but somehow, in in my haste to get inside of the house, that the very thing that I went to the store to get is the thing that I left behind, and it was a mess all in the back of my trunk.

It was just messy, it had melted, it was gooey.

I was sitting there, I felt like I had failed in life.

I'm looking at this and I'm like, man, like what good is it that I went to the store to get the one thing I came to get?

I picked up a whole bunch of other stuff that I really didn't need to have, and the very thing that I was supposed to get, the thing that was gonna give me satisfaction, the thing that was gonna give me the most joy, I left it behind and it made a complete mess.

Somebody sees where I'm going with this.

I I wonder how many times we we have convictions, we have things that that God places on our heart.

We have we have things that we know that we're called to do and and we and we know what we're supposed to do, but somehow when we walk into the aisle of life and we see these things that are screaming for our attention, we we end up picking up a bunch of stuff that we're not supposed to have, and the very thing that we know we're supposed to need, we end up leaving it behind and it ends up creating a massive mess.

How often do we find ourselves and our hands being full of things that God never intended for us to carry?

I believe it's when we're looking at passages like this that God is challenging us to take inventory of the thing that seems to be occupying our hands the most.

The things that we're carrying that God wants us to leave at the foot of the cross, the ambitions, the goals, all those things, the dreams of success, all that stuff is healthy when we give it to God first.

But when we put it in front of God, what ends up happening is we end up living a life on our own terms, and then somehow we recognize that it leaves a mess.

See, Jesus is talking to his disciples about this idea of saying that we're gonna have to live open-handed lives, but we're gonna have to lay some things down if we're gonna carry the purpose that he truly has for us.

He uses the language of the cross.

And now we we live in a world and a culture and iconography where the cross is beautiful, it's it's incredibly symbolic.

We're over 2,000 years past the cross, and so now we can celebrate the cross.

We get we get necklaces with the cross, we get tattoos with the cross.

It's such it's such a beautiful thing to be associated with the cross, but but let me tell you what the disciples heard when they heard Jesus say, take up your cross and follow me.

They weren't thinking of tattoos, they weren't thinking of diamond-encrested chains.

Their perspective of the cross was vastly different than our understanding of it.

For them, the cross was an instrument of a violent and painful death.

They had no other frame of reference to even consider when Jesus is saying these words to them.

To take the cross was to carry this horizontal beam.

This would have been already at the place of execution, this pillar here.

They would have taken this portion, it would have been placed on the shoulders of the condemned person, and this thing could weigh up to 300 pounds.

And now they're forced to walk the streets to their execution, being mocked, being yelled at, being laughed at, having things thrown at them, walking to their death.

This is what Jesus endured.

When I went to Israel and I got a chance to walk the very path that Jesus walked, it wasn't a straight path.

It wasn't paved with with with streets of gold.

He's walking uphill and it's it's very it's very rugged, but Jesus is carrying this weighty cross, and it just makes us think about what he did on our behalf.

When the disciples hear these words and they're thinking about the the public the public shame that comes with the cross, they're thinking of the ridicule that comes with the cross, they're thinking of the of the of the suffering that comes with the cross.

They're not thinking that following Jesus is this thing that is trendy, that you can become popular and become wealthy, and that it's the thing that you can do that looks so sexy.

No, being a follower of Jesus meant living a life of total surrender, and it could cost you your life.

Who wants to sign up for that?

Jesus was inviting them into something that was even forbidden to talk about.

The cross was almost like it was like it was like Voldemort.

You just don't say it.

Don't you say the name.

Don't you even mention a cross.

It was fear connected to the idea of the cross.

The Romans didn't create it, but they perfected it.

They were they were particularly good at bringing suffering to people.

In rhetorical terms, Jesus describes that being a true disciple of mine, it means that you are to be a person to be ready to live this life publicly.

You you couldn't do this in secret.

It was very public.

Everyone would see when you're carrying the cross.

This wasn't a secret thing.

This wasn't something that you kept hidden.

This wasn't something that you don't talk about.

Everyone knew when you were associated with the cross.

Jesus was challenging his followers that if you're going to be a follower of me, it can't be a secret.

Your relationship with me is personal, but it's not private.

People should know that you're in a covenant relationship with me and should know that you're connected to me.

The cross has now evolved into be a representation of sacrifice.

The cross is now being recognized as a place of loyalty, as a place of surrender.

It represents being committed.

It's a public display of knowing that we're connected to the cross, but it's never been meant to be a burden.

That somehow in me carrying this cross, in me being connected to Christ, that it's not a burden that I get to carry, but it's a purpose that I get to fulfill.

In fact, this is what I want you to write down and meditate on this this week.

That our cross is not a burden to bear, but it's a purpose to fulfill.

Because Jesus already carried our burdens of the cross.

So we're exchanging our burdens for the victory that He made for us, but it's not meant for it to be a secret.

That our cross is not a burden to bear, but it's a purpose to be fulfilled.

In the journey of discipleship, Jesus challenges us and to reflect and to count the cost on what does it mean to take up our cross?

It's meant to recognize that we're connected to something that actually does produce life.

That our cross becomes a pathway of fulfilling our purpose, walking in obedience, and finding the true meaning of life.

It's a beautiful thing when we can surrender our lives and take up our cross every single day.

Daily.

Paul says, I die daily.

I I know I can't be the only one that I wish the cross had office hours.

I I can't be the only one that there aren't some instances I find myself being pulled into where I'm like, I'm gonna leave my cross right here so I can tell you exactly how I feel about you.

I I wish there were moments where I could conveniently lay the cross down and I could let the real Keith stand up, stand.

Okay, y'all don't get that.

Okay, I there's sometimes I really want to let some things out of me that that God has told me to keep contained and surrender at the foot of the cross.

But but what it says is we have to every day choose to take up our cross.

Every day choose humility, every day choose to be submitted, every day choose to be surrendered, every day we have to make this choice to do it, and it's not always easy.

Taking up our cross means embracing God's purpose for our lives, it means willingly embracing the sacrifice for his purpose, and it means enduring faithfully for what he's called us to do.

So I want to break down those thoughts in an encouraging way, and then we're gonna go into some time of prayer.

So here's the first thing that I want you to write down.

Taking up the cross means embracing God's purpose for your life.

That when I take up the cross, what I'm choosing to do is I'm embracing God's purpose for my life.

Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is encouraging the church, and he tells them in verses 8 and 9, yes, everything else is worthless when compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ.

And becoming one with him, I no longer count my own righteousness through the obeying of the law.

Rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.

God's way of making us right in himself depended on faith.

To paraphrase that, what Paul is communicating is that he understands that he has gifts, he understands that he has uh a bunch of talents, he understands that there's a lot of things that he's capable of doing.

But what he's choosing to do is I'm laying those things down and I'm embracing what God wants me to do with those gifts that he's given me.

I'm not gonna allow my ambitions to drive me off of the path that Christ has me on, but I'm going to make sure I surrender my ambitions to Christ so that he can be glorified through my gifts, through my ambitions, and through my callings.

I'm embracing God's calling for my life.

Each one of us has been created with gifts and talents and passions.

And by surrendering ourselves to the cross, it allows us to discover what it is that God wants us to do with the gifts and talents that He's given us.

You know, I recognize that we're living in a world now that is that is filled with so much anxiety, so much stress, and and and there's a lot of things that contribute to it.

But but as I've been studying and trying to engage and understand the anxiety and stress, when you really begin to drill it down, a lot of it is just people are wrestling with their own disappointments.

They end up living a life and they're taking inventory of where they are, and then we get consumed by comparison.

And whether it's it's it's a metric that we created for ourselves or where we feel our life should be, or maybe it's someone else telling us that, hey, by this age I thought I would be this.

But we end up doing is we end up comparing ourselves to other people, and then we wonder why we're not where other people think we should be, or even the false projections that God never intended for us to carry, and then we end up wrestling with anxiety and stress because we feel like we're not where we should have been, and then we end up losing sleep because we feel like somehow we've missed it, and it's a vicious cycle.

This is why Jesus says, take up your cross, take up the thing that I called you to do.

I don't want you to get consumed with comparison and find yourself valuing yourself based off of where somebody else is.

I need you to simply carry the thing that I told you to carry and express me through it.

This is why the enemy loves for us to get consumed in environments where we're constantly looking to the left and to the right.

We're looking at where other people are so that we can be filled with anxiety and stress and feel like we've missed God somehow.

What God is telling us to do is lay those things down and find how He wants us to express Him through where we are, not where we're supposed to be.

Hear what I'm saying?

How can I honor God with where I am, not where I feel like I'm supposed to be?

I'm gonna say that over here.

How can I honor God with where I am, not where I feel I'm supposed to be?

Taking up the cross means understanding that I'm on this journey and maybe I've had some detours, but no matter where I'm at, I can still glorify God with what He has given me.

There's not a later date to glorify God.

You can do that right now.

You can glorify God in the divorce, you can glorify God in the reconciliation.

How can I glorify God with where I'm at instead of letting the enemy make me feel I'm not valued because of where I'm not at?

I want us to imagine for a moment a gardener who has a beautiful array of fruits and vegetables, and they all are playing a significant part of what he wants to create.

That's who we are.

Jesus is the is the master gardener, and he's has a purpose for every single one of us.

But if I'm wondering how come I'm not producing fruit, maybe it's because God didn't give me the seed to produce that.

But when I embrace the cross that God has given me, it means I recognize the gifts that he has given me and I'm going to be faithful to that.

Embracing the cross means simply recognizing the gifts and the talents and the things that God has given me.

I'm going to glorify him through that.

Here's the second thing I want us to write down embracing the sacrifice for God's purpose.

That when I take up the cross, it's me embracing the sacrifice for God's purpose.

For God's purpose.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

It's one of my favorite verses that when I first became a Christian, that I will refer to quite a bit.

It's a challenging one because Paul says, My old self has been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

That taking up the cross requires sacrifice.

And what Paul says is the life that I now live is a life that is meant to honor God.

That I recognize that my old self has been crucified on the cross, that my old self has been buried, that my old self is now in tune, and I'm raised up in the newness of life.

That is what baptism represents.

It represents I'm burying the old me and I'm rising up.

As the new me, but we also understand that that comes at a cost, there's a sacrifice connected to doing the things that God has ultimately called us to do.

I I I wish that it I wish that it wasn't, but there's some beautiful metric in me laying down my burdens and somehow picking up my purpose in the things of God, and it's a beautiful exchange that takes place, but there is something that will be required of you.

I often look at people who have amassed measures of success.

I look at people who have done significant things and I and I often reverse engineer and say to myself, man, I wonder if I would have the courage to do that.

This could be with an entrepreneur who just had a vision to step out and start a business.

This could be anyone.

I'm often inspired when I learn the origin stories of someone who had an idea in their heart and they chose to do it when it wasn't the norm.

One of my heroes is Martin Luther King Jr.

And as much as we have have talked about the journey that he brought us through as a as a country, but I want to reverse engineer back to the time in which he was stepping out.

Now we have holidays and and we're we're off work and and and we we get to we have streets named after him, and we can kind of get to that end result, and it's just like it's normalized.

But but let's reverse engineer back when, a time when it would have literally been illegal for us to worship together.

It would have completely been something that you would never see.

And God had given him a burden, him and a bunch of other people, and that burden was this does not match the kingdom.

And so I'm going to step out and I'm gonna take up this cross, and every day I'm going to choose to put God and honor him, and it's gonna cost me something.

I I can't imagine.

I genuinely can't imagine.

This is I was born after the civil rights movement.

I can't imagine, like you're fighting against the culture, you're fighting against the country, you're fighting against laws, and every day you're waking up and choosing to sacrifice and to lay your life down and to do these things in face of opposition, even coming from the church.

I can't imagine the courage that it took to do something like that.

But nonetheless, every every day, taking these marches, people spitting on you, telling you that you're worthless, but every day choosing to honor God because that's the cross that God has called you to carry.

I I think about moments like that, and then I often challenge myself because I think if if if this man could be the face of a movement that literally fought against laws in the country, you mean to tell me I can't represent God at my job?

You mean to tell me the resistance and the opposition and the death threats that came from standing on the things of God in the face of people that told you you were wrong, and I can't share Jesus with my neighbor?

What I believe God is challenging us with is to get some perspective and ask ourselves, what is it that God is asking me to give up to honor him in the places that he's called me to be?

Taking up the cross means that I have emptied my hands of my comfort and I'm making room for my purpose.

It's gonna cost us something.

It may be a little uncomfortable, but we're gonna see the kingdom advance as a result of us being faithful to that.

Can I get a good amen today?

Here's the third and final thing I want to share with us around this idea of taking up the cross.

Taking up the cross means we're gonna have to have endurance for God's purpose.

We're gonna have to endure some things for God's purpose.

It's not an overnight thing, it's not a it's not a sprint, but it's absolutely a marathon that taking up our cross is gonna require endurance and perseverance.

Along our journey, we're gonna face trials, we're gonna face oppositions, we're we're gonna face moments where we even doubt ourselves, that maybe we even doubt God.

But but taking up our cross means that even in spite of those doubts, I'm gonna be steadfast, I'm gonna continue to be committed to God's purpose for my life because I'm strengthened through my surrender.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Joseph.

And if you're not familiar with it, I'll try to give you the short version of it.

But ultimately, Joseph is a young man who had incredible favor, favor with his dad, favor with God.

God had entrusted him with visions and dreams and discernment.

So Joseph being the young man is, he would share it with his brothers, like, man, I had this crazy dream last night.

They're like, yo, what was your dream?

My dream was that y'all serve me.

Again, if God gives you that dream, some people can't handle that.

So just be mindful of where you share that at.

That's just my little two cents.

But but Joseph is telling his brother who who who are older than him, and it would have been completely unethical and against the culture, but he's saying, like, the day is gonna come where y'all are gonna surrender to me.

So naturally, they weren't even trying to hear that.

So for them, they were like, Look, I can't hear Joseph tell another one of his crazy stories.

He's he's walking in here with this coat with all these colors, man.

Who do you think he is?

Like, here's what we need to do.

We should kill him.

You thought you had family problems.

His brother said, Man, let's just kill him so we don't have to listen to him anymore.

Other brothers, like, nah, nah, man, we're not gonna do that.

But here's what we can do: let's let's just sell him into slavery, let's be done with it, and then we're just gonna move on with our lives.

And so, fast forward, David, I mean, Joseph gets sold into slavery.

He ends up in bondage, he finds himself in Egypt, he's in prison, but no matter where he was, the hand of God was on his life.

Let me say that again.

No matter where he was, the hand of God was on his life.

There are some of us that find ourselves in places that we don't want to be, but God's favor is still upon our life.

There are some things that people have lied on, our lives, but God's favor is still on our lives.

There's some environments that we know we shouldn't be in, but God's favor is still on our lives.

Let me give you an old Pentecostal black church thing.

What God has for you is for you.

And I want to let you know that there's no weapon that is formed against you that shall prosper.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but I'm telling you, there's some environments that you find yourself in.

There's some things that you're wrestling with, there's some struggles that you're dealing with, but at the same time, you still have peace.

There's some things that you're struggling with, but at the same time, God is still moving you forward.

I don't know where you are, but God does.

And what the Bible tells me is that he knows how to get you from where you are to where you're supposed to go, but you're gonna have to have endurance.

You're gonna have to keep showing up, you're gonna have to keep fighting, you're gonna have to keep standing and making sure that you don't surrender.

Joseph spent years being moved from one place to another, but he decided that he wants to live a life that honors God and he was willing to take the long road to do it.

Like when when he was being tempted by Potiphar's wife, his response wasn't, man, I'm not in the mood.

His response wasn't, man, I don't want to get caught.

His response was, I don't want to disrespect my God.

That he was literally saying to himself, I have committed to living my life in a way that honors God, and I will not disrespect him by doing something like this.

He decided to live his life in a way of total surrender.

It's it's a life that's gonna require us to have endurance.

Endurance is not just about surviving, but it's about thriving even in the midst of challenges.

I'm sure we all can relate to this, but but I I want to I want to give you a little bit of of ministry perspective for for me and my wife.

We we've been in full-time vocational ministry for almost 15 years now.

When we got into ministry, we were living in in Jacksonville, Florida.

And in all the years that we were there, we we've amassed a great deal of favor and influence, built ministries and had incredible impact.

And then God called us to go and serve in Washington, D.C.

So we we packed up our family and we moved to D.C.

And now we're we're at a church where they don't know us.

They don't know what we've built, they don't know our hearts, they don't understand any of that.

So we're now in an environment that's kingdom, but they don't know us, they don't trust us, and we're trying our best to win them over.

For two years we're we're serving and dealing with resistance, and if I could be honest, there are many times I'm like, I'm I'm just trying to help people.

I didn't I didn't sign up for this.

Like, what are we doing?

I could be doing something else that requires less stress, but makes a lot more money.

I could I could be somewhere else, but God said, No, but I need you to have endurance.

In that time, we continue to serve and we began to see the culture of the church change.

And then after two years and finally getting comfortable there, God says, No, I'm calling you now to come to Orlando.

So once again, we we pack up our family and we we seek God, we move to Orlando and now we we inherit a church that we didn't start.

It's a church that we had been connected to, but we didn't start it.

And so once again, we're right back into that cycle where we've invited, we we've inspired and brought a culture in that we didn't create, and now we're trying to be faithful to what God has called us to do.

And and you would think that we're we're all trying to do the same thing, we're all just trying to do what God's called us to do.

But the amount of resistance and spiritual warfare that we dealt with was beyond me.

Let's let me let me break it down.

Whenever a pastor comes in and replaces the previous pastor, you get two things.

Everyone who feels like you should keep everything the same, and everyone who thinks you should change everything.

At the same time.

And you're meeting with people that's telling you why you need to keep it, why you need to get rid of it.

And you're dealing with this all at the same time whilst trying to be sensitive to what God is telling you to do.

In the midst of all that, you throw in a global pandemic, you throw in racial tension, and now you're at this space where I'm beginning to question, what am I doing here?

I sold my house in Jacksonville for this.

There were days I began to wonder, like, look, Lord, are you sure you called me here for such a time as this?

I feel like everything that we're doing, we're dealing with resistance, every step we're taking.

Now we have to lead here and in DC at the same time, navigating through a church, but God, what what what did you want me to do?

Like, I thought that I was gonna come here and use my leadership abilities.

I got the education, I got the background.

I thought that was the way that I was gonna build the church.

He said, No, I don't need you to build the church, I need you to build the people.

And I don't need you to use strategies, I need you to show them what it looks like to trust me even when it's uncomfortable.

I need you to take up the cross and show them what endurance looks like because unfortunately, the local church had turned kingdom into self-help.

And he said, That's not what I need in these upcoming days.

What I need him to understand is how to persevere when it's uncomfortable, and that is what I'm inviting you to do.

It was hard, it was uncomfortable.

I I didn't sign up for it, but nonetheless, I found that every day that we woke up and I would pick up the cross and show up and have meetings with people that are going to leave and people that want to stay and you're navigating through it.

And I remember I was at one point where I was really like, as we began to gather again after the pandemic, and I was like, God, like I I don't know, I don't know if I can keep doing this.

I don't, I don't, I don't know if I can deal with resistance from everyone around me.

I know what I'm called to do, but I can do it in other places.

I will still honor you, I will still pastor, but but maybe there's somewhere else I can do it where I can just feel like I have a little bit more support.

And God changed everything for me.

It was one conversation, and and I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna call him out.

But but Jared, you came to me at the end of one of our services.

This is after people are leaving, it's chaotic, it's a bunch of drama, and and and Jared walks up to me and he says, Hey, I don't I don't know why I'm supposed to tell you this.

I know that it's crazy right now, but God told me to tell you that me and my family aren't going anywhere.

He doesn't know that I was on the verge of accepting a pastor job somewhere else, making a lot more money and having a lot more peace.

But God said, That's why I called you to be here.

I don't need you to focus on who left, I need you to focus on who's there.

It's understanding it's going to require endurance.

And I believe that what can happen for some of us, we can focus on the wrong crowd.

We're so focused on who's left instead of who remains.

What it means to be a person that takes up the cross is it means that I count who is with me, not who has left me.

Because if God needed who left, they would still be here.

But God is showing me that my best days are still ahead of me, and all I gotta do is walk by faith and not by sight.

I don't care what it looks like, but I know what God has told me, so I'm gonna continue to walk it out.

It's not comfortable.

Sometimes this cross gets very weighty, but I'm gonna continue to trust God with every single step that I take.

What it means to be a person that takes up the cross, it means that I laid down convenience and I pick up calling.

I lay down pain and I pick up purpose.

But I have made up in my mind that I will never look in the rearview mirror again because I know that God is calling me towards something greater, and I know the transformation is still ahead of me, and I know that I'm gonna continue to move forward.

God is telling us that taking up the cross, it may not always be convenient, but it's truly going to empower you with what he's called you to do.

See, every one of us are created in the image of God on purpose and for purpose.

However, the truth of the matter is when sin entered the world, it made a mess.

It just created a bunch of chaos.

And that chaos becomes the things that we end up occupying our hands with instead of carrying the cross.

I want to read to you what the Apostle Paul says about this in Galatians chapter 5, and he uses some very strong language, specifically in the message translation.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

He says this he says, It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time.

Repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness, trinket gods, magic show religion, paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition, all-consuming yet never satisfied once, a brutal temper, an impotence to love or to be love, divided homes, divided lives, small-minded and lopsided pursuits, the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival, uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions, ugly parodies of community.

I could go on.

God's view of sin has never been about trying to control you.

He just doesn't want sin to control you.

He understands what happens when we live lives where we allow ourselves to engage in these things.

And so he's not trying to keep us from enjoying life.

He's not trying to keep us from these things.

What he's trying to do is remove these things so that we can truly live a life of abundance and peace.

He knows that sin will never deliver on its promises.

No matter what we get, it's never enough.

No matter what we do, it's always more.

No matter how many people we've been with, there's always another.

He's saying that this is not the life that I have for you.

And so what I want you to do is I want you to take those burdens.

I want you to take those ambitions, I want you to take those desires and bring them to the cross.

For Jesus, he knew that denying ourselves can happen because he accepts us.

He knew that we could take up the cross because he went to the cross for us, and that we can follow him because he's only going to lead us to a place that produces fruit.

You see, the cross had always been a place of consequence, a place of condemnation.

But Jesus took all of those things that I just read to you, our insecurities, our fears, our brokenness, all these things, he took them to the cross so that we don't have to carry them anymore.

And then he says, But you're gonna have to occupy your hands with something.

Because if we don't occupy our hands with something, the very things that we try to get rid of will find themselves right back into our hands and continuing to corrupt our hearts.

So he says, Here's what I want to do.

I want to have a moment where we can exchange it, where you can lay your pain, your fear, your insecurities at the foot of the cross, and then you can pick this up.

I want you to pick up this beam, and and I just want you to carry it.

And and as you carry it, you'll recognize that there's gonna be moments where it's not comfortable.

You're you're gonna recognize that when you carry this cross, that that it's not a secret.

People are gonna clearly see that there's a cross that's connected to you.

There's gonna be some environments that you can't get into because the cross just doesn't fit.

There's gonna be some relationships that you can't connect with because if I if I can't bring my cross with me, then it means that I I probably shouldn't be in there.

If I can't bring my cross with me into this conversation, then I probably shouldn't be having it.

Bringing my cross means elevating Jesus, exalting Jesus in every area of my life.

My hands are full because I'm carrying the cross.

But but if I put the cross down, I can pick up a lot of sin.

I have room to pick up insecurities, I have space to pick up fear.

But if my hands are occupied, if my hands are full with the cross, it changes the way that I talk.

Because the cross becomes a filter that I talk through, and even before I speak, I see the cross, and I'm like, is this language that honors God?

Is this is this behavior that honors God?

When I take up the cross, it has the ability to change everything.

The cross is no longer a place of condemnation for your sin.

The cross is a place where we have victory over it.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Therefore, we are surrounded by such a large crowd of witnesses in this life of faith.

So let us strip off every weight and sin that leaves easily trips us up.

What the writer is telling us is that we're surrounded by a community that has been on this journey and that we're all on this journey together.

But he also says there are some things that we're carrying that we need to be casting, and we need to free ourselves up so that we can carry the call of God for our lives.

We're called to take up the cross because when I lay down my fear, I can take up the cross of faith.

That that when I lay down my pride, I could take up the cross of humility, that that when I lay down selfishness, that I could take up the cross of selflessness, that that when I lay down bitterness, I could take up the cross of forgiveness, that that when I lay down doubt, I could pick up the cross of trust.

That when I lay down complacency, I could take up the cross of passion and purpose, that I could lay down worldly desires and take up the cross of seeking God's kingdom.

I can lay down anger and take up the cross of love and reconciliation.

I can lay down unhealthy attachments and take up the cross of surrender and total dependence on God.

I can lay down pursuits of worldly success and I could take up the cross of serving others.

Our cross is not a burden to bear, it's a purpose to fill.

That I can lay some things down and that somehow it allows me to experience a place of freedom.

That's what the cross does for us.

It frees us up so that we can live our lives in a way that honors God.

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

Because I know that as we are sitting in this room and we're we're thinking about the things that we're carrying, the things that may be occupying our hands right now, we we may be wondering, like, what exactly are my hands filled with?

Are they filled with things that God has given me, or are they are they filled with things that I feel like the world can provide for me?

But if I'm honest with myself, it doesn't make me feel fulfilled.

Maybe as you're meditating and reflecting on that, there's things that are beginning to come to mind.

There's some ideas that are beginning to rise to the surface, some things that God is telling you that it's time for you to lay that down.

Laying it at the foot of the cross doesn't mean that you don't care about it.

It means that you're no longer going to carry it.

I'm going to give it to Christ and I'm going to allow those things to be fulfilled in the way that I live my life.

As we go into a time of uh of worship, as we go into a time of reflection, I want to invite you that if that if that if there's something that you know that you need to leave at the foot of the cross, that that this altar is open.

You you don't have to come up to the altar, but what we want to cultivate is an environment where we know that this altar is the meeting place with God.

That if you're joining us online, that you could participate in this moment as well.

But what we want you to do is that as we're sitting here and as we're reflecting and meditating on the goodness of God and what we have at this cross, maybe there's some things that we're carrying, some bags that we have that are occupying our hands, that we know that I just need to lay this at the foot of the cross so that I can free myself up to truly live a life of fulfillment that is only found in Jesus.

I'm I'm tired of waking up feeling empty.

I'm tired of pursuing things that'll never deliver on the promise.

I'm I'm tired of struggling with this sin.

I'm I'm tired of wrestling with my identity and purpose.

What I'm choosing to do is lay it at the foot of the cross and truly embrace what it is that God will have for me to do.

I want to invite you to stand up.

And as we go into a time of worship, maybe God is telling you to leave some things at the foot of the cross.

Maybe there's some things He wants you to surrender.

But what I want us to do is to fully lean into this moment.

Be sensitive to what it is the Spirit is calling you to do.

And if you would like to come to this altar, I'll pray with you.

If you want to stay in your seat, that's perfectly okay.

But make sure we surrender whatever that thing is that God is telling us to surrender.

Heavenly Father, I thank you.

We thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your grace.

And as a community, Father, we're committing to laying down our lives and picking up the cross.

The very thing that gives us victory, the thing that gives us hope, the thing that gives us stability, the thing that gives us strength.

So as we go into this moment of just honoring and worshiping you, exalting you, God, I pray that you bring us freedom and allow us divine exchange to take place where we can lay down our burdens and pick up your peace.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship together, family.

Thanks again for listening.

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