Let It Be Known | 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.

What's going on, church family?

Thank you guys so much for creating the space to worship with us today.

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

My hope is that you didn't gain a single pound from all the food that you ate, and I believe that this is going to be an incredible time with us together in community.

Um, if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Now, before I get there, I gotta admit, man, I I so love the holiday season.

I love getting together with family.

I love getting together with friends.

I love looking for opportunities to eat, to spend time together, and and and just do all the things.

But I also recognize that it's times like this that can also be a little bit of a challenge.

For some of us, we may not feel that same level of excitement and joy when it comes to the holiday season, specifically coming off of Thanksgiving.

It's kind of like kickstarts, uh, the next um iteration being um Christmas and all the things, New Year's, all those components that go with it.

Um but today I really want to encourage us that no matter what season we may find ourselves in, there is always something that we can give thanks for.

And I believe that the passage that we're gonna look at today is gonna give us some perspective, to give us some encouragement, and to ultimately give us some hope.

Looking at Luke chapter 17, we're gonna look at verses 11 through 19.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

And I want to read this to us, and if you don't have your Bibles, it's perfectly okay.

It's gonna come up on the screen, but but I want us to meditate on these words that I'm about to share with us.

Here's what it says it says, As Jesus continued toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria.

As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

He looked at them and said, Go, show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, Praise God! He fell to the ground at the feet of Jesus, thanking him for what he had done.

This man was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, Didn't I heal ten men?

Where are the other nine?

Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

And Jesus said to the man, Stand up and go.

Your faith has healed you.

I want to talk to us just for a couple of moments around this important idea of keeping perspective of the goodness of God.

And if you're taking notes, and of course we do at Celebration Orlando, I want you to write this message title down.

Let it be known.

Let it be known.

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

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for the opportunity for us to gather, even in our homes, even with family members and friends, just to center ourselves around your word.

I pray that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything you want to speak to us today.

Holy Spirit, you're welcome.

And I we invite you to challenge us, inspire us, to change us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You know, family and friends, I one of the things I truly enjoy is I love to spend time and to serve my family members and friends.

I love to do things.

It's such a filler for me whenever I get an opportunity to be around family and friends and to do things.

And it could be because I'm I'm the second child, I'm a little bit of a people pleaser.

Who knows if that's kind of fulfilling some weird psychological thing?

But nonetheless, I love when I get a chance to be around people and I can do things that I think that's gonna add value to their lives.

It's not many weeks that go where I don't send a text message to my entire family just asking, like, hey, are there any food requests?

Is there anything that anyone is looking for or craving for?

I'm gonna do a grocery store run and I want to make sure we have everything we need so I can do my best to provide what you're looking for.

So once I get the text messages back, I'll go to the store, I'll buy the varying ingredients, I'll get all the things that's necessary, I'll I'll prepare the meal, I'll cook the meal, I'll watch over every aspect of it, and then I'll present it to the family.

Now, the beautiful thing is that because of schedule, sometimes we all don't get a chance to eat together.

And so when when Caleb comes in the house, I'm like, hey man, food's already ready, you can go ahead and refrigerator and get it.

De Nira comes in the house, same thing.

It's just knowing that it's available and it just fills me with such joy.

And and the truth of the matter is I don't expect anything from them.

I don't do this for anything except for I just love to be a part of making my family happy.

But there is one small thing that I think I'm looking for, and that's just a little bit of gratitude.

I don't do it for gratitude, but I certainly appreciate when gratitude is extended.

And I think the reason being is because I want my children to be expectant of me.

I want my children to have expectations of being in our household.

But I believe that there's a thing that can happen when we become expectant, we have expectations, and if we don't have gratitude in the middle of it, we become entitled.

The challenge becomes we can get so filled with expectation and be so filled with expectancy that if we're not careful and if we're not keeping a posture of gratitude, we can shift into that place of entitlement.

And then unfortunately, when we get into a place of entitlement, if anything falls short of what we are expected, if anything falls short of our expectations, then we stop having any sense of gratitude.

I believe the thing that is the remedy for all of that is having a posture of gratitude no matter what.

It's so important for us to make sure that we have a perspective of gratitude.

Now, I know for some of us, we may be saying to ourselves, I'm I'm walking through seasons that that really I don't see anything worth having gratitude for.

I'm dealing with some challenges, I've had some setbacks and some struggles and some disappointments, so I'm having a hard time seeing what I should have gratitude for.

And I truly understand it, I get it completely.

The Apostle Paul dealt with the exact same thing.

See, the Bible tells us that while he was in prison, he wrote a letter to the Philippian church, a church that he was highly involved in, a church that he was invested in.

But if you do a little bit of study, you'll find that the primary theme that he wrote to the Philippian church was joy.

And he was writing it to encourage them because he found out that they were discouraged about finding out that he was in prison.

Imagine for a moment, Paul's in prison, but he's writing to people that are discouraged about his situation and telling them to maintain a measure of joy.

But but there's a passage of scripture that I believe is really encouraging for us that we can look at to pull some hope from.

And it's found in Philippians chapter 4, verse number 8.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

And here's what it says.

Paul says this, and now, my dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on whatever is true, on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure and lovely, admirable.

Think on these things that are excellent and praiseworthy.

Paul is simply saying, there is always something that we can give God thanks for.

No matter what our circumstances, there is always something that we can give God praise for.

I believe that one of the primary tools that the enemy uses to keep us from having a posture of gratitude is having us to be distracted so much on what is missing that we miss what we actually have.

That we get so fixated on what we didn't get that we lose sight of what God has actually provided.

And what we know in scripture is that God has given us everything that we need as it relates to life and godliness.

We we even see that the psalmist tells us in Psalm 100, verse number 4, to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.

Now, the context of that writing is so different than what we probably are familiar with.

For many of them, they did not literally know if they were going to live the next day.

War was always a possibility, famine was a possibility, sickness, anything could happen at any given moment.

But yet, the psalmist encourages us that even in spite of all of those challenges, that we enter with thanksgiving and with praise.

That means that no matter what you may find yourself walking through, find something that you can give God praise for.

Now, when I speak about gratitude, maybe maybe you're wondering what exactly does that mean?

Because sometimes we use the word gratitude, thanksgiving, praise.

We use them interchangeably, and while they're different words, they are synonymous.

And ultimately what it means is to exalt God above our situation.

We give God praise.

It means to exalt God, so I express my gratitude above my situation.

I exalt my my praise above my situation.

So there is some things that are connected to it.

And what we find that as we do that consistently, that God continues to extend favor and blessing to us.

Now, now let me be very clear for something.

That God doesn't do these things and we don't respond to these things so that we can get a blessing.

No, we do these things as an expression and as a posture of our heart.

Gratitude is about attitude, it's all about the posture of our hearts.

And I know for some of us, we are looking for a reason to be gracious.

We're looking for that one specific outcome in order for us to have that expression of gratitude.

But when it's a posture of our heart, it doesn't matter what's in our hand.

I I remember a time when I was talking with my mother after finding out that she had fallen and broken her femur bone.

This is a this was a very dense bone.

This is a bone that they say is is is very painful when you break it.

But when she broke it, the circumstances around it were were completely uncomfortable.

She was at home alone.

She was she was up on a ladder when she shouldn't have been.

You know you shouldn't have been, Mom, but she was up on a ladder doing some cleaning and she slipped and she fell and she broke her femur bone.

And and the challenge was that she was in such pain she couldn't move.

So she's on the floor, all alone, no one's home, and she just sat there all day.

My my dad finally comes home, he sees her, rushes her to the hospital, she gets surgery, and then they call me.

I I drop everything.

I go to go see her the next day.

And as I'm sitting there and talking with her after she's gotten the surgery, I'm expecting her to be downtrodden.

I'm expecting her to be so discouraged.

But when I walked into that hospital room, she was filled with so much joy.

She had the biggest smile on her face.

And I said, Mom, are you okay?

She said, Keith, it could have been so much worse.

Now, to me, I'm thinking, I don't know how much worse it could have gotten, but she began to unpack her perspective to me.

She said, Keith, like when I got on that ladder, I I could have actually fallen and broken my neck, but but it could have been so much worse.

She went on to say, like, even when I was on the floor for those hours and I and I couldn't get to the hospital, she said to me, Do you realize that when I finally got to the hospital, that the trauma surgeon that was there is literally world renowned with working on the exact fracture that I have.

They use my study as a case study to train other doctors on how to deal with the complexity of my break.

If I would have got here sooner, the doctors would have done a good job, but they wouldn't have done as good of a job as the surgeon.

It was almost if, even in her discomfort and waiting, that God positioned her to have the best people take care of her.

She said it could have been so much worse.

I was looking to go in and encourage her, and she was encouraging me because if I can be honest with you, I may lose my patience if I get stuck behind a red light for too long.

I can find reasons to not be happy, but even in spite of that challenge and setback, she said it could have been so much worse.

She found perspective and she was so thankful for the goodness of God.

I believe that every single one of us can find a reason to express gratitude.

So when we look at this passage of scripture with these ten men who were struggling with leprosy, understanding that this was a this was a disease that wreaked havoc on the people of God, that removed them from community, removed them away from their family and friends, and now they're at a place where they're isolated, broken, and dealing with their suffering.

That that now they're at this place where Jesus is passing by.

And as they see Jesus passing by, they lift up their voices and says, Jesus, have mercy on us.

They were inviting Jesus into their situation.

They were very familiar with Jesus' ministry.

They were familiar with the fact that he knows how to heal, so they were just asking Jesus for some relief.

And so Jesus simply says, Go and show yourself to the priest.

That was a that was basically the tradition that whenever there was sickness and brokenness in the area of leprosy, that the way that you would get cleared to go back into society is that a priest would have to look over it and that he would say, You're good enough to get back into society.

So as they are walking, they get healed.

I want to pause there and say something to us really quick.

They weren't healed until they began to walk it out.

They they didn't actually see the breakthrough until they started walking out.

This really isn't my subject matter, but I would be remiss if I didn't help us to recognize there are moments that we have to walk in it if we ever want to see it.

That many times that Jesus is giving us instructions that will you just go?

And we're waiting to see it before we go, but we walk by faith and not by sight.

So while they were going, they experienced their healing.

But only one of them, when he recognized that he was healed, turned back and gave gratitude to God.

That is the point that I want to make with us today.

I want to encourage every single one of us, make sure that your praise is louder than your problems.

They lifted up their voice initially to get Jesus' attention to invite him in.

But the moment they got healed, only one came back.

It's almost as if when the guys got healed, they were so excited about being healed, they were so excited about moving forward that they just continued on their journey.

But only one person was able to say, I'm not going to allow my problems to be louder than my praise.

I'm going to go back and make sure that I give God the appropriate honor and praise.

I believe for many of us that sometimes when the goodness of God gets poured out on our lives, it can actually cause us to have more distance from Him.

But he chose to close the gap with gratitude.

And I want to challenge every single one of us.

What is the goodness of God that is in our lives right now?

What are the things that God has poured out into our lives?

And are we allowing our problems to be louder than our praise?

I think that we have an opportunity to shift that today to make sure that even though there may be some things I didn't get, maybe there's some challenges that I'm continuing to experience, but I believe that I'm going to be a person that I'm going to let my praise be louder than my problems.

The moment that Jesus recognized that this man comes back, he says, Go your way, for your faith has made you whole.

Here's the point of emphasis with that.

The other nine men, they still needed to go back and to ultimately be verified by a priest before they could be released back into community.

But because this man came back to Jesus and gave him praise, he was permitted to go his way.

He didn't have to go through anyone else.

All he could do is go back to his community without needing the approval of man.

Do you see what happens here?

As long as we don't bring Jesus into the equation, and as long as we don't give God praise, we still may be in a position where we're seeking man's approval.

But if we can continue to go back to the source and give him praise, it frees us from needing the approval of man.

That is the point today, where that when we live lives of gratitude, it actually brings us freedom, freedom to move forward, freedom to have hope, freedom to have courage, freedom to have perspective.

That is the message that Jesus has for us today.

I've gone through many seasons of my life that it seemed as if the list of things to be grateful for was very, very minimal.

But then when I read this narrative, it reminds me that there is always something that I can go back and give God praise for.

There may be challenges in my marriage, but I'm going to go back and give God praise for it.

There may be challenges with my finances, but I'm going to go back and give God praise for it.

I want us to take the posture that this man had when he saw Jesus.

And here's what I want us to do: cast your cares on him.

Absolutely cast your cares on him.

Walk in victory even if you don't see it and give God praise and repeat.

Cast your cares on Jesus because he cares for us, making sure that we walk in victory even when we don't see it, and let's return and give God praise.

If we can be people that live our lives in such a way, I believe that the cyclical cycle of us giving God praise, Him opening up doors, giving God praise, Him opening up doors.

And we don't do this to get something, we do this because He's given us everything that we need.

God bless you, church family.

And if there's anything that you need, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I want to pray for us and I want to remind us that God is absolutely good and we celebrate the goodness of God.

Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness.

And I pray that we can have a perspective shift when it comes to the journey that we're on and acknowledging and recognizing that you are for us, and if God be for us, nothing can be against us.

I pray that we can take inventory and start focusing on what we have instead of what we lack.

There is always something that we can give you praise for.

Let that be the posture of our hearts.

God, I pray for our precious community and anyone who is distant from you.

I pray that you draw them close.

We respond with gratitude, and we can continue to walk in victory in Jesus' name.

God bless you, church.

I love you so much.

And make sure you join us next week for church at OMA.

We cannot wait to see you in person.

Thanks again for listening.

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