Where Do I Go From Here | 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.

All right, all right, all right.

While we're feeling so kind with our applause, could we uh could we celebrate our amazing worship team um for the way that they lead and usher us into uh the presence of God every week, man?

We're so grateful uh for the sacrifice.

And and one of the things you're gonna hear us talking about quite a bit um in this series, but also just this year, is talking about how the life that we see is a reflection of the lifestyle that we live.

And every time we come to church together as a community, um I'm always so thankful that we have a worship team that's living a life that when they come together, that there's an anointing and there's a grace that allows people to experience freedom as a result of just declaring the name of Jesus and leading us as a church.

So I'm super pumped about being back together with community.

What I realize is that for many of us, um, it's the new year.

And what I want to say to you guys, man, for those who said, man, I want to go to church in 2023, you're off to an amazing start.

Check the box, you're already winning.

Um, because you started off the year uh the right way.

But what I also understand is that while we're on this journey of engaging God and reprioritizing some key areas of our lives, that there may be some that are amongst us that um maybe you're coming back after a while.

Um, maybe you've never been here.

So I really just want to take a minute just to kind of introduce who we are as a church.

Uh, my name is Keith.

I have the incredible privilege of serving as a lead pastor here alongside my amazing wife.

We have an incredible uh team.

And who we are as a church is we are a Jesus-centric, kingdom-minded um church, a community that's multicultural, multi-generational, um, that has a focus on reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

What we often say about our community is that we're an all-hands church.

And what that means is that what we have and what we do is as a result of the people who participate with us.

There's no extra fusion of money that comes in, there's no extra people that comes in that everything we have is because people serve, it's because people give.

And so we want this to be your church because you also participate in it.

Um, who we are as a church is probably expressed in what you feel.

And if you're not familiar with church settings, let me give you a little bit of our kingdom values.

We believe in celebrating the goodness of God.

Um, if you're wondering about what we talk about, we're gonna always talk about Jesus, we'll address sin, we're gonna talk about pain, but we're gonna always help to move people forward.

We celebrate the goodness of God.

We believe that God is good.

We're also a church that believes in engaging the presence of God.

We believe that that God in and he invites us to engage and participate in what he is doing in the earth and in our community.

So we we lift up our hands and worship, we we give, we have moments like this where we come together and we intentionally engage, but we're also a church that believes in the power of God.

We'll have moments where the altar is open and people come up and they they lay their burdens at the altar.

We believe in inviting the Holy Spirit in to move and to bring transformation.

We are a spirit-led, spirit-filled church.

We absolutely believe that the promises and the miracles that we see in the Bible are still active and alive and available to us today.

Um, and we also believe in demonstrating the love of God.

That that means being kind, that means being generous, that means serving, that means sowing.

Those are the things that kind of set up the cultural pillars of who we are as a church.

And my my invitation to you is that if those things are things that you want um to participate in, please let us know how we can help you take your next step.

What does that next step look like for you?

And if there's anything that we can do as a church to serve you and your family, we'd be honored to do it.

Today is our first service, as I mentioned earlier, um, and and I can't begin to explain just how excited I am.

Reason being is because every year as I begin to process and pray a little bit through what I believe God wants to do in my life, which then kind of becomes an extension of what he's gonna do in my family, which then becomes an extension of what he's gonna do in our staff, which then becomes an extension of what he wants to do in our church.

Um, I feel like God has kind of given me an overarching thought or word that really is meant to inspire us.

It's a prophetic word, and I want you to lean into this.

But what I believe God is speaking to us right now is that this is the year of better.

It's the it's the year uh of better.

And the reason why I say that is because what scripture tells me is that God takes us from faith to faith and glory to glory, God makes us better.

Somebody shout better.

What we see in the Bible is that whenever Jesus gets involved, things always get better.

Paul says it this way that eyes haven't seen and ears haven't heard, and neither is enter into the hearts of men what God is going to do.

God is always going to help us to get better.

Somebody shout better.

What I love what we find in the Gospel of John, chapter 2, when Jesus turns water into wine, the host of the wedding begins to talk and he says, Man, ordinarily, whenever there is a party, the best wine is given up front, and then the watered down wine is given in the back.

John 2 · chapter mention

But when Jesus got involved, the wine was actually better.

Somebody shout better.

What I'm believing for in this year, that this is the year that we're gonna build everything on our lives on Jesus, and it's only going to get better.

My marriage is going to get better, my finances are going to get better, my family is going to get better, my time at work is going to get better.

I believe that if we have the mentality of understanding that Jesus makes things better, that this can be a better year for you.

That's what I'm believing, that's what I'm declaring, that this is the year of better.

But I also know in order to experience better, we have to live better.

We have to have a better discipline, we have to have a better lifestyle.

And I can't think of a better way to recalibrate that than having 21 days of prayer and fasting.

What prayer and fasting is, these are spiritual disciplines where we intentionally disconnect from the world and engage in the things of God in a very meaningful way.

What I believe is as we're looking at creating goals and rhythms for our lives, it's important that we have these ambitious goals that are built on God, otherwise, our ambitions can pull us away from God.

I've seen people that say, Man, I just want to make more money so I can be able to travel and then end their traveling.

They stop coming to church.

I don't believe that God ever wants to give us something that pulls us away from Him.

So, what 21 days of prayer and fasting does, it allows us to build our hopes, our dreams on the foundation of Christ.

Here's something that I want you to put in your spirit.

This is the year that Jesus is not going to be an accessory.

We don't add him on and take him off when it's convenient.

We build everything on him.

And that is how we're going to be able to experience better.

The reason why we wanted to delay uh the launching of our season of prayer and fasting is because our hope is that everyone that calls Celebration Orlando home, you'll be able to find a way to engage and participate.

We didn't want to launch the fast when we weren't gathering because we wanted to make sure we could all get together, but we also wanted to give you a week to pray and prepare and to plan.

Whenever there was a great movement of God, you will often see and the people prepared for it.

And we didn't want to launch into something that didn't give people an opportunity to prepare because what can happen is you get discouraged, you don't have the groceries, or you don't have what you need to do to make the adjustments, and then people check out altogether.

So, what I want you to do this week is begin to prepare.

Next week, we're gonna have some fasting resources available for you, um, Bible reading plan, even a grocery list, suggestions if you're gonna choose to do some type of a food fast.

But there's gonna be a variety of it, and I'll be talking about that next week.

But let this be the week that you're praying, processing, and preparing, doing some research on what your time of fasting and praying is going to be about.

If you have your Bible, I wanna um invite you to join me in the Gospel of John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

I think it's gonna be a phenomenal way for us to kick off this series, but also this season for us as a church.

I want to put this in front of us first, that when Jesus was inviting people to become followers of him, he was not asking them to pick up a new philosophy.

He he wasn't actually asking them to become people that that had a uh a mentality or were looking for three points that they could regurgitate.

What he was actually doing was inviting people into a lifestyle that transformed them from the inside out.

This is why the early church, before it had the name Christian, they were just referred to as the way.

Because they had no other way to describe them.

There was something different about the way these people lived, the way that they loved, the way that they served, everything about them set them apart.

And so the way is the mentality that Jesus has for us to initiate.

Looking at John chapter 14, Jesus says these words to his disciples in one of his profound teaching moments.

John 14 · chapter mention

I think it's one of the top five things that Jesus has said because it encapsulates so much.

But this is what he says he says, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

What's so significant about the words of Christ is that he's making a strong claim about himself.

He's speaking to a culture of people in person, but also subsequently through us, people who have a variety of belief systems, a variety of religions, different ways to not only follow Jesus, but people that can follow any way that they want to go.

So Jesus makes this claim, and I think the most powerful thing that Jesus said is found in what he did not say.

I want to show you what he did not say.

He did not say, I am a way, I am a truth, and I am a life.

See, see, Jesus then knew that he would be dealing with people that are dealing with the same thing now, where everything is so subjective, and I have a truth, you have a truth, and and what if our truths don't coexist and it's okay, you live in your way, I live in my way, and it's all good.

But Jesus doesn't say, I am a way, I am a truth, I am a life that you can have.

He says, No, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

There is no other option.

What Jesus was saying is I am not multiple choice, I am the answer.

That you can't say, Oh, I can do it Jesus' way, I can do it my way, I can look at what the Buddha said.

He said, No, I am the answer.

And it confronts us because all of us have areas of our lives where, if we're honest, there's things that we want to do Jesus' way, and then there's other ways we want to do it our way.

But Jesus said, But no one can make it to the Father if it doesn't go through me.

What he's speaking about is not only access to heaven, but access to what heaven has to provide for us: hope, love, joy, peace.

What he's saying is, if you don't go through my way, you're not gonna have an eternal hope.

You're not gonna have eternal joy, you're not gonna have eternal peace.

You'll have circumstances, but it's not gonna transcend your circumstances.

And Jesus is challenging us with this idea of saying the way.

What I want to do for the next few moments is talk to us about living a transformed life.

And and I've entitled today's message, Where Do I Go From Here?

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

Lord, we thank you so much.

We quiet our minds um and we open our hearts with an expectation that, Lord, you're gonna speak to us and that we're gonna receive from you.

Lord, I decrease and ask for you to increase.

Lord, I ask that you have your way in this place today.

I ask that you bring your spirit, and your spirit uh challenges us, it can it confronts us, it graciously nudges us, and it inspires us to take whatever our next step is.

So, Lord, I pray for open eyes that we can see you.

I pray for open ears to hear your truth, and I pray for open hearts to receive what it is you want to do in and through us today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You know, when I when I think about what it means to be uh a disciple, uh, a lot of things truly do uh come to mind.

If we're honest with ourselves, this is a statement that actually transcends just Christianity.

Um, but I'll speak in the context of Christianity.

I remember early in my walk with God, um, just devouring as many books as possible on what does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus.

I get inside of these books and I see the five things it takes to be a disciple, and those things have added value to my life.

I've I've I've been a part of churches and ministries that that really try its best to summarize what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

And depending on which church, there's different expressions of what discipleship really can mean.

And so I understand and appreciate all of the expressions of it.

Some of the adjectives that come to mind when we think about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

I will give you a few.

Devoted is a word that may come to mind.

Being a devoted person means being a disciple of Christ.

Being loyal, we we understand that that God wants loyalty, He wants us to be committed in the same way that hopefully we want our relationship with our spouses, that we want loyalty to be there.

God is no different.

He wants us to be loyal, faithful.

That means faith-filled, faithful, that we're gonna we're gonna stick through it through thick and thin.

Disciplined is another one.

There's a routine, a rhythm in the way that we live our lives.

And honestly, I feel like all of those adjectives adequately do add value to what it means to be uh a disciple.

But but in my time of processing over the past couple of weeks, God had presented another word that I think truly does embody all the things we're talking about, and that word is an apprentice.

See, when we when we're familiar with what an apprentice is, I think that that helps us to understand not only what we get from God, but what God requires of us.

An apprentice is a person who is learning a way of life from a skilled teacher.

This is so much more than learning a technique to produce an outcome that an apprentice is typically taking you on a journey to have a completely different approach altogether.

When I think about an apprentice, I think about the story of a young lady named Angie.

Angie is a potter and she's been masterful at her trade.

And after accomplishing every accolade that she could find in her sphere of influence, she knew that the next step for her was to join an apprenticeship program in Japan.

So she she signed up and she got permission to go, and so she she left the life that she had here in the States and she moved over to Japan for six months.

And in that six months, she was filled with so much expectation and excitement on what she was gonna learn that was gonna enhance her craft.

While she was there, she got a chance to sit under this master potter who was showing her the varying techniques that he uses.

But something very interesting and unexpected happened.

She found herself being invited to his dinner table.

She found herself seeing the way that he functioned with his family.

She she began to recognize the way that he talked to his children.

She began to recognize, and for many weeks she didn't understand on why she was just watching him live life instead of watching the work that he was doing.

He would often say comments to her, like, You cannot separate your life from your work.

The way that you do the most insignificant activity of your life will be reflected in your work.

So he was showing her the way that he just lived his life.

He began to show her the way that he kept his workstation clean.

He began to show her the type of clay that he would utilize that would even be adequate for him to begin the process of him doing the pottery work.

In fact, instead of her actually being hands-on in those moments, he would actually send her out to the rice fields to find the clay, bring it to him, and he would let her know whether it was good or not.

So after all this time there, she never got a chance to actually sit with this master potter and allow him to put his hands on hers and show her how to mold a piece of clay.

I don't know if she went there in her mind thinking of Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, where they would have this powerful moment where they're molding a piece of clay.

I don't know what her expectation was when she went there, but the reality of it was while she was there, she never got a chance to make a single thing.

Six months later, she leaves and she comes back home.

And when she gets back home, she has this statement that begins to rise up inside of her where do I go from here?

I I gave up six months of my life in hopes that I was going to become this master craftsman, and it all seems like such a significant waste of time.

She she goes into her room where she had all of her pottery components, and it's all filled with dust after the six months of the lack of activity.

She she pulls off the cloth that had been covering it, she begins to dust everything off, and then she begins the process of engaging pottery for the first time in six months.

Something remarkable happened.

She noticed that the clay that she used to use was no longer good enough, and so she began to up the quality of clay that she was using.

She began to notice that the level of detail that she used to have had been significantly enhanced as a result of the time that she spent around this master craftsman.

In fact, when she put the piece of pottery inside of the kiln and it came out, it was literally the most magnificent thing that she had ever produced in her life.

It turns out that this time that she thought was a waste of time, she was just absorbing a way of life that then made what she did in her life that much better.

That she was observing, and through that observation, she was able to make a distinction between excellent work and acceptable work.

And she decided that I'm gonna be a person that lives a life of excellence.

That the point of all of this is that sometimes when we are on this journey trying to follow the ways of God, if we're not careful, we can have a TikTok mentality.

I'll go to church and get three points on the shortcuts on how to have a better life.

I can talk to someone who's gonna tell me how I can get to the end result without having to put the work in, but we have to learn in the same way that Angie learned that sometimes it's gonna require us to adapt a whole new lifestyle before we can actually expect to see it reflected in our lives.

The thing that she was watching from this master was a different approach, and that approach ended up changing everything she did in her life.

When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, he was not about teaching techniques on how to have a good life.

If you notice, there's never a spot on there where he was telling the disciples how to preach, but he was telling them how to live a life that when you speak, people want to listen.

He he wasn't telling them how to read the Bible and exegete scriptures the best way.

He was showing them how to live the Bible out in such a way that people can see it with the life that they live.

He wasn't even showing them techniques on how to cast out demons.

He was simply saying that if you have a lifestyle that is connected to me, the demons will tremble when you show up.

This is why when we see that moment where the Father comes to Jesus and says, Hey, I brought my son to your disciples and they couldn't do anything with this.

Jesus said, Well, this time comes out only by fasting and praying.

What Jesus wanted them to understand is that your skills and your knowledge will only get you but so far.

At some point, you're gonna have to have a lifestyle that unlocks authority in your life that even the demons begin to tremble at.

I wonder if this can be the year where we stop looking at the shortcuts that to allow us to experience success and we can begin to adapt the lifestyle that begins to unlock doors, that begins to unlock the anointing on our life, that begins to allow us to have access to the authority that God has for us.

Jesus is not inviting us to have some tips on how to do things better.

He wants us to have a lifestyle that makes everything better as a result of it.

Following Jesus isn't about getting to do something, it's about living a life that's reflected in everything that we do.

It's in moments like this that the words of Paul make so much more sense to me.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, it says this I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.

Galatians 2:20

But it's Christ that lives in me.

The life that I now live in this flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

What Paul was saying is that being an apprentice of Jesus meant understanding that I'm going to live my life God's way.

My life God's way.

It means that I recognize the independence and the freedom that God has given me, but I'm making a choice that I'm going to live it God's way.

In other words, what Paul was saying is that in order for us to really experience the life that we want, we're going to have to make some adjustments to our lifestyle.

And in November, I had the incredible privilege of officiating a wedding of Jason and Christina who belong to our community, a beautiful wedding.

And while we're sitting at the reception, I'm sitting next uh to this guy who's who's just swole, just just you ever just been around some people like, man, I could tell you don't miss no days in the gym.

Like this dude was just ripped.

And initially I was like, man, why'd they sit me next to him?

Like, you know, I didn't know, but I'm like, okay, man, like we're sitting there, we're eating, we're talking, having small talk.

Um, we kind of get past the weather conversation because we all know that that's the best way to introduce um ideas.

And then finally, I'm like, man, like, you know, what's what's your what's your routine when you go to the gym?

I kind of said it with my chest out.

I'm like, man, I'm in the gym, I'm getting some gangs.

I'm not sure if y'all laughing at me or with me.

I'm seven pounds down, baby.

I'm looking good.

I'm going to continue to keep this grind going.

Y'all better respect my progress, he says as he sticks his chest out more.

Um, so I say, hey man, what's your routine?

What are what are some of your rhythms?

And and this brother proceeds to take the next 10 minutes and he starts to talk to me about the food that he eats.

He begins to talk to me about how much water he drinks.

He he then tells me how much rest he has.

He tells me the places that he doesn't go, the things that he doesn't put into his body.

And then at the very end of the conversation, he gave me a little bit of tips in the gym.

I initially was just expecting him to say, hey, do this much cardio, do this much, and you're gonna get the results.

But he was like, Man, if you want to get these results, it's gonna require you to make some adjustments to your lifestyle.

What I believe is sometimes we we see the outcomes of people, but we don't have the adequate input.

That we that we want to see our lives looking a certain way, but are we willing to do the things that's necessary in order for us to produce the results?

When we get to a place where we say, My life God's way, it's when we honestly say that I am laying down my way of doing things and I'm going to do things the way that God wants me to do it.

That's a declaration.

It's a it's it's also A challenge because when we say my life God's way, it means that I'm gonna have to begin to love like Jesus loves.

When I say my life God's way, that means I'm also saying it's my money God's way.

When I say it's my life God's way, I'm also saying it's my time God's way.

That when I say it's my life, God's way, I'm saying, hey, my gifts, God's way.

It's my family, God's way, it's my business, God's way.

It's it's the ultimate statement that challenges us and confronts us with the areas of our comforts that we don't want to relinquish to God, and we say to ourselves that if I want to see kingdom results, I'm gonna have to be submitted to the king.

It's my life, God's way.

The life of an apprentice of God is one of surrender, but also one of declaration.

When Jesus had his encounter with his disciples and he's bringing them on this journey of what it means to be a disciplined follower of him, an apprentice of him.

What stories tell us about the rabbis back then is that what would happen is that their followers would follow them so closely that they would literally pick up their mannerisms.

So when you would see the varying disciples, you would know who they belonged to by the way that they answered questions.

You would know who they belonged to by the way that they even talked, by the way that they walked.

What a testimony it is when we see in the book of Acts, when it says that they looked at the disciples and could tell that they had been with Jesus.

There was something about the way that they lived their lives that they could tell, okay, these are Jesus people.

They they set themselves apart.

I believe what was true then should be very much true now.

That when we go into work, they can tell that we've been with Jesus.

That when we're interacting with our family, they can tell that we've been with Jesus.

When we look at our bank accounts, they can tell that we believe in Jesus.

That every area of our lives should reflect that we prioritize God in it.

I often wonder that when Jesus has a radical encounter with people, the challenge of transformation that that takes.

We don't often see the rest of the story.

We get the front end and that's all we see.

But if if it's anything like what we experience now, I think we all ask ourselves, but where do I go from here?

Think about a miracle, pick a miracle, any miracle.

Think about blind Bartimaeus, this man who had been born blind, who had been blind his entire life, who had to learn how to function with his dysfunction.

And then he has an encounter with God, I can see.

I never picked up a trade.

All I knew how to do was beg.

And now I've had this encounter with Jesus.

I can see, I don't have skills, where do I go from here?

Think about the woman with the issue of blood who'd been isolated from community for over 12 years, and in one encounter with Jesus, everything changes around, but now she has to begin to establish a new way of life that reflects the healing in the encounter with God.

She had to begin to evaluate where do I go from here?

And if I'm honest, I think all of us have a moment of that.

And it may happen for us weekly.

That we that we hear a word, we we get compelled in worship.

There's something that happens that reminds us of the goodness of God, but if we're honest, when we walk out of here, we don't quite know where do I go from here.

And I also know the testimonies of others of us who may have some struggles and some disappointments and some areas where we've had setbacks, and those often can be the places that make it the most difficult in order for us to move forward.

I think one of the passages that inspires me the most when it talks about just making forward progress no matter where you are, is found in Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

It's the story of the prodigal son, and for the sake of time, I'll I'll summarize it.

But but I hope that you can catch what I'm saying here.

What the Bible says about the prodigal son is that he was born and raised in a household where things were provided for him.

But he gets to a point where he's the opposite of what we're declaring today.

He says, My life, my way.

I no longer want to live in my father's house.

I no longer want to live with my father's standards, I no longer want to live with the foundaries that my father has set for me.

I want to live my life my way.

So he goes to his father and he gets his inheritance.

He takes the blessings and gifts from his father, but doesn't want to invest them in his father's house.

He takes them out into the world.

And it says that he goes off and he lives life on his own terms.

And wouldn't you have it that after he lives a life of that, they said that he spent all of it, he's exhausted all of it, and now he wakes up and finds himself living in a place that he never would have imagined he would be?

Have you ever looked in the mirror and didn't recognize where you were?

Have you ever found yourself saying, This is not God's best for me?

How do I keep falling into the same traps over and over again?

How do I keep falling into the same dysfunctional relationships over and over again?

How do I keep running out of money over and over again?

How do I keep not having peace over and over again?

And this is the exact situation that the prodigal son finds himself in.

He's sitting at this place where he's hungering for things that he never would have eaten before.

And he comes to this moment where I think the most clarifying, profound moment comes upon him.

It says that he comes to his senses.

This is what we refer to as a moment of clarity.

Whether you want to call it rock bottom, but there was something that hit him where he began to recognize that my father has more for me than this.

But there's so much baggage there.

So he begins to say to himself, if I can just get back to my father's house, it's it's a long journey and it may not be comfortable, but even if I go to my father's house, I know I will be in a better position than I am right now.

You see, what he had to do is he had to make up his mind.

I think the thing that all of us have to do, no matter where we find ourselves, the only way that we're ever gonna make progress is the first thing we have to do is we have to make up our mind.

And making up our mind really falls into three areas for me.

You have to make up your mind that you're either you're gonna be a victim, a villain, or you're gonna be a victor.

A victim.

What has happened to me means that nothing new can happen to me and I'm gonna stay exactly where I'm at.

A victim mentality magnifies what has happened and it keeps anything new from happening.

Now, the reality of the trauma is real, and I think there's processes and ways that we can deal with that.

That's not what I'm talking about.

But we all know those times where we're stuck in an eternal loop where all we can do is obsess about what happens.

When you have conversations and every time you offer any suggestion on how to move forward, it's like, yeah, but you don't understand.

It's it's when I choose to live in a place where I refuse to move forward.

Or you can have the villain mentality.

The villain mentality is one where because it happened to me and I survived it, I have no issue with perpetuating it on you.

We can often look at that as tough love, and sometimes as parents, that's the tension that we have to wrestle with.

Because I know that for me as a parent, I I recognize the season that I came through, the things I had to experience, the life lessons that I had.

And so sometimes I want to pass those on to my children, but mine came through pain.

So how do I make sure that my kids can learn the principle without perpetuating the pain?

When we don't use wisdom in that, we just create scenarios that we think is tough love, but it's actually abuse.

We become villains and we're perpetuating the same abuse that we are still going to the altar for.

So we can either be victims or we can become villains and we justify what we're doing because we survived it, or we can become victors.

A victor says, even though this has happened to me, God is not done with me and I'm going to start moving forward.

It doesn't ignore what has happened.

What I'm doing is I'm inviting Jesus to move me forward so I can experience wholeness in it.

The prodigal son had to make a decision.

I can either stay here, I can either perpetuate that I'm here onto someone else, or I can make a decision and say, even though I'm here, God's not done with me, and there's something next for me.

He made the decision to be more than a conqueror.

He made the decision to be a victor.

And what he decides to do is the thing that changes the course of his life, and I think he can be inspiration for every single one of us.

Here's the first thing that he did.

You have to acknowledge where you are.

He acknowledged where he was.

There was a moment where he began to look and see where he was, and he had a very real, honest, vulnerable moment with where I am at is not God's best for me.

The only way we can begin to move forward is we have to be real with where we are, acknowledging where he was.

But but the other thing that he did that I thought was so profound is he also had a vision for where he wanted to be.

He had a vision for where he wanted to be.

We we have to have a vision.

The scripture says that without a vision, people will perish.

Or another translation says they cast off restraints.

They have no boundaries, they have no direction.

But he had a vision for his life.

He said, if I can just get back to my father's house, he knew exactly where he wanted to go.

I think sometimes we all can recognize that we don't want to be somewhere, but we don't have a vision on where we want to be.

And because we don't have a vision on where we want to be, we don't have a strategy on how to get there.

See, the third thing that I think is important for us, if we're talking about where do I go from here, is developing a strategy and accountability for us to get there.

You can't have a strategy without accountability.

Let me say that again.

You can't have a strategy without accountability.

It's so important that we invite other people in to help guide us so that when we get off track, they can encourage us on the journey.

See, our walk with God is personal, but it's not private.

It's never meant to be this lone wolf thing that we don't have anyone around us that can come alongside us and encourage us because there are moments when we may have a desire to go left when God is telling us to go straight.

We have to have accountability in order for us to get there.

And it can sometimes come from unsuspecting sources.

I remember about three years into my walk with God.

Um, I was high just on this walk with God, filled with the Spirit, just things were going great.

But but then in this third year, I I had a car accident, and this car accident was such a significant setback.

And it messed with me because I I just got the car literally maybe two weeks ago, and and I was so, so filled with with faith.

I I prayed over the car.

I anointed my dashboard with oil.

It was just glistening.

I said, Lord, bless this vehicle, let me make it to my destinations, let me use this vehicle to be a blessing to other people.

Two weeks into it, somebody fell asleep and hit me in the back of the car, in the back.

Like I'm I'm I'm I'm literally conflicted with theology, I'm dealing with pain, I'm not, I'm not working right now, and and I'm frustrated.

And so this went on for about a year of just not being able to work and not having enough resources and being frustrated and and and reading the Bible and expecting to see certain things and not seeing it.

So so I got low.

And so I remember all of my friends who I was connected to, they knew of my radical transition into being a follower of Christ.

I was still cool with them, but I wasn't always with them because when you are truly an apprentice of God, it's going to change the places you can go.

It's going to change the things that you can do.

Let's be honest.

If you are following God and it doesn't cost you anything, let's reevaluate.

It changed where I could go.

So all of my friends knew my lifestyle had radically changed, even though I was still cool with them.

But in this moment of vulnerability, it was a Friday night, I was like, man, I just need to get out the house.

Megan and I were beefing because you know that sometimes when there's not a lot of resources, it just creates tension.

So I went out and I just kind of made up in my mind, I'm just gonna go out, I'm gonna catch up with my boys, man.

We're gonna go to um the bar, I'm just gonna go and just kind of just relax.

I just I just need I just need a a little bit of a disconnect.

I get to the spot and I and I park.

And and when I park, I get out of the car, and and one of my friend's older brother, he sees me.

So I'm walking up and he's like, yo, he's like, yo, chopsticks.

That was my rap name back in the day, chopsticks.

They used to call me sticks.

Um, so he says, Yo, chopsticks.

I'm like, yo, it's good, man.

He said, Hey, what you doing?

I said, Man, I'm about to about to run in here real quick, man, catch up with the fellas.

He's like, Okay, okay, man, yeah, come come for a ride with me real quick.

I'm like, all right, cool.

I I get into the car and we start riding around and it's just dead silent.

And and and I don't understand for a while, but about five minutes of silence, he begins to say, hey man, so look, I I don't know what you're going through, um, but what I do want you to know is that you're an inspiration to all of us.

We we talk about you all the time and just how there's a true difference in the life that you live.

And so, man, I'm not sure if you're just here to say, What's up?

I'm not sure if you're here to escape, but I want you to know that your life is our story, and I don't want you to go into there because I think it could cause some people to lose hope.

Those words were so sobering to me.

I got out of the car, I got back into my car, and I went back home.

I'm not saying me walking into that bar would have changed my calling, but what I'm saying is it would have changed my influence.

That's when I understood that my life God's way also meant that I was connected to something bigger, and it meant that I was also telling our story.

What it meant to be a follower of Christ is that I don't live in this covenant relationship with him as an individual.

That's what it actually means is that when it's my life God's way, it's also connected to other believers and now it becomes our story.

That's where the accountability begins to kick in.

We will never make it to our kingdom purpose if we don't understand that we're connected to something so much bigger than us.

That if we don't invite other voices to come in and to challenge us and to redirect us, my friend's brother was not even a church-going guy, but he saw something inside of me and knew that I had influence and impact, and he didn't want me to lose my witness.

What I believe that all of us have to recognize is that when we become an apprentice of God, it simply means that it's my life, it's God's way, but I'm connected to something so much bigger and it's our story.

I I want to invite the worship team to come up and and join me at this time because I want to go into a moment of uh of prayer and and reflection.

But but it's in moments like this where I think about accountability, and here's what I come to.

Accountability is always a sobering message, but it also is encouraging because it lets us know that what we do, it really does count.

My life, God's way, but it's our story.

Isaiah chapter 64, verse number eight says this yet, Lord, you are our father.

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

We are the clay, and you are the potter.

We are all the work of your hands.

When when I read this passage, I can't help but to think about Angie, who went over to Japan to study under this master technician.

And when I get this visual of her seeing this master craftsman, the way that he selected his clay, the way that he nurtured it, the way that he molded it, he understood and had a vision for it, the way that he cared for it, the heat that was applied to it, the way that he decorated it, it was all for an intended purpose.

I can't help but to recognize that when God refers to himself, he says that I am the potter and you are the clay.

That means that he is masterfully taking us and selecting us, and he's gonna rub out some things that he doesn't want us to carry.

He's gonna detail us with things that we may not understand.

There may be some heat to seal some things in, but he has a vision and a purpose for our lives.

And what our responsibility is, is to simply be a willing and available vessel.

So when God sees something that's not right with us, when he begins to rub on it and it's a little uncomfortable, but I'm saying it's my life, God's way, and it's our story.

When God begins to challenge me, because there's some areas of my life where I'm I'm reluctant to forgive, I understand that it's the master potter saying, but it's my life, God's way, and you're connected to a much bigger story.

Well, when I hear messages on the importance of generosity, it's sometimes I chafe against this and begin to create doctrine and justification on why I don't need to be supported in it.

I begin to understand it's the potter challenging me, saying, It's my life, God's way, it's our story.

When God invites me to live a life of servanthood, where he's asking me to pour myself out like a drink offering, similar to what Paul says, that I understand that I may not always have the time.

It may not be the most convenient, but it's my life, God's way, and it's our story.

That when God is inviting me to participate in these things, he's not asking me to check a to-do list, but he's inviting me into a way of life.

He's inviting me to make some adjustments to my lifestyle so that I can be a vessel that can then pour out.

It's my life, God's way, our story, but it's for his glory.

Everything we do is to glorify God.

Every word we speak is to glorify God.

The way that we function is to glorify God.

What if I were to tell you that God is not interested in transforming your marriage alone?

He wants to transform you so that your marriage will be transformed as a result of it.

What if I were to tell you that God is not so interested in getting you out of debt as He is in helping you learning how to steward money so that you could be live a life of abundance and generosity?

When God wants to heal you, it's not so that you can just feel great, but so it can bring him glory.

When we begin to understand that I am a vessel in the hands of the potter, I can begin to trust that it's my life, God's way, our story, and it's all for his glory.

That is what it means to follow the ways of Jesus.

It's a life of total surrender, it's a life of submission, it's a life that is free, but it will cost us everything.

Jesus paid the price, but what he's inviting us to do is to lay everything down and pick up a new way of life.

The life we see is a is a result of the lifestyle that we live.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I wanna I wanna propose this question.

Everyone in here has a next step of some sort, a moment where, much like the prodigal son, we have to make a decision.

I'm gonna move forward and do things God's way.

And and for some of us, that may simply mean saying yes to Jesus, and maybe for the first time, or you may be returning home after being away from him.

Regardless of where you are, he wants to let you know that you are welcome back at the Father's house.

If that's you, and you simply know that today, that this year, this moment, I'm going to declare my life God's way, and I want to surrender my life to Jesus.

And I'm committed to going on this journey of apprenticeship.

It's not an overnight journey, it's a lifelong journey of Him showing me and molding me and bringing me around community and challenging me and using me.

And it's this beautiful idea of knowing that I'm connected to something that's going to bring him glory.

That's what he's inviting us to participate in.

So so if that's you and you know that your next step is simply to say yes, to respond to this invitation to being an apprentice of Jesus.

On account of three, I want you to be bold enough to lift your hands up.

We we lower the lights not because it's a secret, but we want to make it sacred.

And we want this to be a moment between you and Jesus, but we're gonna celebrate it all together.

So on a count of three, if you're ready to say my life God's way, and it's our story.

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

One, two, three.

This is a year of better.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

It's all for your glory.

My humility is for your glory.

My my my silence is for your glory.

Everything I'm doing is for your glory.

Amen.

Church, we put our hands together for everybody that's that's that's clearly identified that my next step is to surrender something, even for those who are saying yes to Jesus for the first time.

Here's what we're about to do.

We're gonna go into a moment of of communion, then we're gonna go into worship, and then I want to pray over us.

Um, and we got a couple more minutes, so just stick with us for the next couple of minutes.

But what I want us to do in this moment is if you got the communion elements when you came in, I want you to go ahead and and and grab those.

If you if you didn't get them when you came in, um you can slip a hand up and and and Corey is on the side, and he would love to bring um the elements to you.

What I love so much about what communion represents is um it's it's it's acknowledging what Jesus has done for every single one of us.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he he he's sitting amongst his disciples, and and as he's having a conversation with them, he he begins to unpack to them the significance of what he has done already and what he is about to do.

He he tells them that the bread is symbolic of his body and it's about to be broken for them, and as a result of that, they're gonna be able to experience healing.

And he says, I want you to remember this moment.

This is what you have access to.

He he also shows them the cup which was filled with with wine.

This is juice.

Don't y'all get any ideas?

But he he gives them the juice and he says that this is symbolic of my blood, which is about to be shed.

It's gonna literally cover all of your sins, and now you will have access to the presence of God.

And I want you to remember this moment, and when you come together, celebrate what I've done.

The idea of communion was to make sure that we understood that we're reconciled to God.

But the other element that's connected to communion is understanding that we're also reconciled to one another.

This idea that we're actually all in this together, that we're not just individuals that just go on our own terms, but we're connected to a bigger community.

If I could put it this way, what communion represents is my life, God's way, our story.

So as a family, I want us to I want us to declare and demonstrate that together.

I want us to take the bread now and be reminded of what Jesus did on the cross and know that not only did he do it for you, but he did it for your neighbor.

And that's what brings us all together and recognizing we're part of the same story.

Let us take and eat.

In the same way, as we prepare to take the juice that's symbolic of his blood, there's freedom in knowing that there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

When I think about the prodigal son and that he's so far away from the Father, yet when the Father saw him, he met him, he wrapped his arm around him, and he crowned him before he cleaned him.

That's a beautiful reminder that no matter where you've been, that there's no shame, that God accepts you where you are as you are, and he brings you to where he is.

That's what this is meant to be a reminder of.

Let us all take and drink together.

Lord, we thank you for the body that was broken for us.

We thank you for the blood that was shed for us.

And in this moment, Lord, we we celebrate your goodness, we engage your presence, we believe in your power, we demonstrate your love because we Declare it's my life, God's way, and our story.

Church, let's all stand together as a family.

Let's go back into worship together as a community, and let's declare these words that our lives are going to be built on Jesus, and He's the center of everything together.

Thanks again for listening.

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