Praise Your Way In | 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.

Man, I so and I'm ready to turn up, bro.

I'm ready to turn up.

Man, we're gonna go ahead and get into today's service.

We're so glad you're here, whether in person or joining us online.

So before you take your seats, would you mind turning to someone around you?

Welcome out to Celebration Church, and we're gonna get started in just a second.

Thank you, David.

Amen, amen, amen.

It's so good to see every single one of you.

We're gonna jump into our message in just a second.

Um, before we do that, I want to I want to welcome you and thank every single one of you for being with us today and and and and welcome you back.

Last week we um we didn't get an opportunity to gather here in person in this context.

We actually gathered with one of our local partners at US Hunger.

And and so what I want to do really quick is I want to pray over our tithes and offering, but I want you guys to recognize the impact um that we are having as a result of your generosity.

I'm so grateful that we're a generous church that not only did last week we package over 15,000 meals um that are gonna go out into our community here, but we also have the margin to continue to partner with US Hunger so that we can have more of these hunger projects and making a difference in our community.

We truly believe that the vision that God has given us here at Celebration Orlando is really simple to reach the lost, equip the found, and to help the hurting.

That's why we do what we do.

That is what we are called to do.

And ultimately, your generosity and your partnership with us allows us to fulfill the thing that God has called us to do.

So thank you so much for your generosity.

Can we put our hands together for those who are serving and who are investing into the difference that we're making?

So I want to pray over the offering and then we're gonna jump into today's message.

God, we thank you.

We thank you so much for the vision that you've given us, God, and the resources that you've given to us, God, knowing that we are called to be conduits.

So, Father, I return and we return the tithe for you, God.

The first 10% of what you've blessed us with is a sign that we honor you and that we love you and that we trust you.

And God, we pray over the offering above and beyond the tithe, God, knowing that we can have opportunities to serve in our community, that we can have opportunities to send missionaries, we have opportunities to reach beyond the four walls of this church.

God, we're grateful for what you've entrusted us with.

So we ask that you put a blessing on the gift and also a blessing on the giver.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

If you have your Bibles, would you please turn with me to Joshua chapter number six?

Joshua chapter uh number six is where we're gonna be spending some time today.

While you're turning there, I want to give you just some brief context so you can understand like the historic moment that we're about to enter into in this particular uh passage.

What's happening here, and if you're familiar with the biblical narrative, we know that the the children of Israel is God's chosen people.

They've been identified as the people through whom God was gonna provide the ultimate deliverer being Jesus.

So this was a massive moment.

So from the time that they've been identified, God had issued some promises to them that we then get to benefit from.

And one of those promises is referred to as the promised land.

And so if you remember the Exodus narrative, they were in bondage for over 400 years.

Moses gets involved, and God sends Moses into Egypt and to negotiate with Pharaoh.

Ultimately, God issues these plagues, they get set free.

They spend 40 years in the wilderness because now that they were out of Egypt, those 40 years was meant to get Egypt out of them.

Because how many of us know that there's certain things that we just can't bring with us into the promises of God?

There's there's certain behaviors that just don't fit in the promises of God.

So they had to walk around for 40 years to get some of those things out of them, and now they're at the point where they're about to finally cross the threshold to get what God has for them.

But here's the problem spoiler alert the environment that God had for them was already occupied by other people who had no interest in moving.

That's a little bit of a challenge.

When after 40 years of wandering, after 400 years of bondage, you finally get to the place that God has for you, but it still doesn't look like it's going to be easy.

How do you respond when you know that God has told you that you're going to do something, but it looks as if you're still facing opposition through it?

What the verse says here, starting in verse number one, it says, Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites.

No one was allowed to go out or in.

But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, its king and its strong warriors.

You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days.

Seven priests will walk ahead of the ark, each carrying a ram's horn.

Um, on the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times with the priests blowing the horns.

When you hear the priests give one long blast on a ram's horn, have all the people shout as loud as they can.

Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.

So Joshua called together the priests and said, Take up the ark of the Lord's covenant, and assigned seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram's horn.

Then he gave orders to the people, march around the town.

Um, all the armed men will lead you in front of the ark of the Lord.

And after Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests, the ram's horns, started marching in the presence of the Lord, blowing the horns as they marched.

And the ark of the Lord's covenant followed behind them.

Now some of the armed men marched in front of the priest with the horns, and some behind the ark, with the priest continually blowing the horns.

Verse number 10.

Do not shout.

Don't even talk.

Joshua commanded, not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout.

Then you shout.

Today.

We about to go in.

I'm entitled today's message Praise Your Way In.

Corey, I'm trying to tell you, bro.

We're about to go in, man.

Y'all, let's let's pray and let's see where this thing goes.

Lord, I thank you so much for this amazing community, this amazing church, and what you're doing in and through us.

Lord, we have an expectation, God, that you are going to deliver on your promises.

So, God, I pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you in areas that maybe we've lost sight, open ears to hear you in areas where maybe your voice has been drowned out, and open hearts to receive what you want to deposit in us, even in areas where there's calluses.

Holy Spirit, you're welcome.

This is your place.

We invite you to stir, to change the program, but ultimately change us, inspire us, challenge us, and help us to move forward.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

Okay, so I want to go ahead and make this declaration to every single person in here.

Maybe you've identified this trait in me if you follow me or my wife on social media, but for those that don't, I want to make this statement.

I love to travel.

It's true.

It's true.

Like I think of like the many things that God has positioned in my life.

And if I were to place them in order, it would be like God.

Um my wife.

My children in travel are like neck and neck right now.

Um sorry, De Niro.

Um, they're like neck and neck.

I I kid, but but honestly, like we really do.

We enjoy to travel, we enjoy to get out and see all of God's creation.

And and and honestly, I feel like we've gotten pretty pretty good at it.

Anybody that's like really good at traveling, you kind of know like your expert traveler.

Any anybody in here know, like, okay, I know how to get around.

Okay, a couple of us in here.

Let me let me educate you, let me walk y'all through what my process is.

So during the pandemic, uh, Megan and I, we we had an opportunity to serve our church in DC and here in Orlando simultaneously.

Come on, we got some DC people in the building.

They they that's honor, y'all.

That's what honor looks like.

Um so so in that time, um, we would we would actually travel back and forth basically every single week.

We would be here on Sundays, travel up to DC on Mondays or Tuesdays, depending on what we're doing, um, record messages, all those type of things.

Um, but we've learned because of the frequency of traveling that you just got to get good at it because like you're spending a lot of time in airports, so you don't want to be frustrated all the time.

So, okay, let me figure out the best flights to pick, let me figure out um which airlines are gonna be the smoothest force.

You just kind of find rhythms that that work well for you.

So I would say that we got really good in that time.

I knew what flights to kick, I knew kind of how to navigate through it.

So when you got good rhythms, you kind of know when to move.

I got so good at it, y'all.

I would leave my house at exactly the precise moment where I would walk on the plane exactly before it's about to take off.

I don't got no time to waste.

Like, I'm I'm I'm taking every moment, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm walking on.

My wife's like, what is wrong with you?

I'm like, I got this down to a science girl.

Trust me.

Like that was that was how I roll.

But there are some things that sometimes happen that's out of our control, such as when the person in front of you may have never gotten on a plane before in their entire life.

And and and we all understand that TSA, it can be a little bit intense.

Shout out to all of our TSA folks, man.

We love you, we are so thankful for what you do.

But man, TSA can be a little bit intense.

Like you get there and you got people yelling orders at you, you got, I'm and this is the thing, like, this is your everyday.

I'm only coming here every now and then, but they expect you to know everything, so you're there, they're yelling at you, throw out all the liquids, get undressed.

I don't know if I'm checking in a jail or getting on a like you just don't know.

So for me to keep my sanity, I'm just like, man, I realize I do this all the time, but I'm not sitting here.

I'm not gonna argue with you.

If I gotta take my coat off this time, I'll take it off this time.

Last week I didn't have to do it, and even though you said that the rules were always that I had to do it, whatever, I'm gonna take my coat.

I'm not gonna argue with you.

I'm not gonna go back and forth with you.

It's kind of the posture that I take.

Okay, sure, I'll take my shoes off if you want me to.

Last week I didn't have to take them off.

I'll take them off this week if that's gonna get me to my desk.

Like the mint, the mentality is I just want to get to my destination, and I'll do whatever I have to do to get there.

But when you get behind somebody who doesn't understand all the rules and the instructions, man, it could be a little bit frustrating.

Such was one of the instances that I experienced a couple of months ago.

I was doing my typical thing, I was behind this gentleman, we're having some small talk, but the moment that he got began to engage TSA, this dude turned up.

He turned up.

So when they were going through his bag, they were like, sir, you have to throw out these liquids.

This exceeds the amount.

Why do I gotta throw the liquid out?

And so literally, and so ordinarily, y'all know, TSA is law.

That's not grace, that's just a place of judgment.

Immediate judgment.

Jesus hadn't died yet in TSA's world.

Like it's it's immediate judgment.

So I'm sitting there like, yo, this dude's about to get locked up.

Guess who's going to jail tonight?

Anyway, um, so so I'm waiting for this to go down, but he he apparently got someone who had the patience of Job.

Because this individual was just looking at him and probably could see that he hadn't been there in a while.

Just there is something.

So she would just look at him and say, Sir, I understand your frustration, and I want you to make it to your destination.

I just need you to follow my instructions.

So he would like reluctantly throw something out or whatever.

And then, whatever, for whatever, whatever reason, the part that really seemed to push him over the edge was when you got to get into the machine and you gotta like lift your hands up.

I don't know what it was about that.

I'm not sure if he had like some kind of trauma that was associated with getting into small spaces, but he was like, Why do I gotta get into that?

They were like, Well, this is the process.

We need you to get in here and we need you to lift your hands up so we could do the scan, and then you'll be off onto your destination.

And he stood there for like a good three minutes, and I'm like, bro, I got somewhere to be, man.

I'm just trying to get to where I gotta go, man.

You can negotiate, you can negotiate all this.

Let me go around them.

But they they didn't let you, so I'm just standing there waiting.

And the lady just kept looking at him, sir, we truly want you to make it to your destination.

But I just want you to follow our instructions.

If you don't step into this machine and if you don't lift your hands up, you're not gonna make it to your destination.

So as I sat there, just full of judgment.

I'm like, bro, this is not the place to make a statement.

Like, I don't, this is like I got somewhere to be, man.

You like like let's just follow the instructions.

But it was there that the Holy Spirit punched me in my gut.

Because he said, This is how I feel with you sometimes, Keith.

Because you want to make it to a destination, but you don't want to follow my instructions.

There's there's so many times in my life that I have a vision of places that I want to go and things that I want to do, and God is saying, if you can just follow my instructions and step into this space and lift your hands up and empty your pockets of what you've been carrying, the burdens you've been carrying, that will be the thing that's gonna allow you to get to the place that I truly want you to get to.

The problem is you're trying to get to a place of peace, but you're not doing it my way.

You're trying to get to a place of wholeness, but you're not gonna do it my way.

And unfortunately, as long as you continue arguing with me and you're not following my instructions, it's gonna delay your departure.

This changed everything for me because I realized that in many moments I'm willing to go into an airport and lift my hands up to go to a destination that I absolutely love, but I won't often come into church and do the same thing.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get to a place that's gonna allow me to feel good in the natural, but I'm not willing to do what the instructions tell me to get there spiritually.

I'm coming for y'all today.

Get ready.

See, here's the thing that I understand about God's word.

The moment that we surrender our lives to Christ, that there's an expectation of what he wants to do in our lives.

And this is something that is available to every single one of us.

The moment that we say yes to Jesus, we understand that we begin a process that is parallel to the children of Israel.

That when we say yes to Jesus, that God promises to give us deliverance, development, and destiny.

Deliverance meaning salvation, pulled out of Egypt, a place of bondage.

I want to see you delivered.

That's salvation that is found through Christ.

I want to give you that.

Development is what we refer to as the sanctification process.

That's the process of now that I'm out of Egypt, it's time to get Egypt out of me.

That's the journey that we're often going through in order for us to become stronger and to become molded in the image of Christ.

But then there's destiny.

That's arriving to the place of what God really wants us to arrive at.

That's that place of flourishing that we talked about in our last series, that place where we're able to see heaven activated on earth.

God promises that to every single one of us.

But here's the caveat the timing of how long it takes for us to get there often depends upon us.

Because if we're not willing to follow the instructions, then it's hard for us to ever make it to the destination.

We are called to pursue God's promises, reaching out to heaven through acts of faith while still walking on a broken earth.

That is our assignment.

That is the challenge that He's given us.

This is why, for the children of Israel, as they're about to go into the promised land and they cross over the Jordan River, that there's a moment where Joshua sees a man who was standing on the shores with his sword drawn.

And Joshua sees this man and he doesn't know if he's a soldier from Jericho.

He doesn't realize that that is what we refer to as a theophany, a manifestation of God in human form prior to Christ.

It's a powerful moment that he didn't recognize initially.

So when Joshua sees him, he walks up to him and he's like, Okay, like I don't know if this thing is about to jump off or not.

So Joshua says to him, Hey, are you with us or are you with them?

He didn't realize that he was literally talking to the presence of God, but God's response is the thing that I think is the most compelling.

God said, Neither.

God, are you with me or are you with my enemy?

Neither.

Let me rephrase the question to you, son and daughter.

The question isn't, am I with you?

The question is, are you with me?

So often we're asking God to bless decisions and plans that we didn't consult him when we made them.

But God is saying, I want to be with you.

I truly am for you, but it's gonna require you to submit your plans to me first before you step out and do something I never called you to do.

I I I'm leading you to this promised land, but you're gonna have to do it my way.

I I got some things that I want to provide for you, but are you willing to follow the instructions?

See, the beautiful thing about the children of Israel is they've been on this journey, as we said, for 40 years, and now they just got hit in the gut with something that they didn't anticipate.

If you if you read Deuteronomy, the last chapter, there's a plot twist because Moses dies.

Now, this is a significant moment because for for the children of Israel, Moses was that guy.

He was the guy that saw freedom in them when they didn't see it in themselves.

He was the guy that went before Pharaoh, he's the one that stood before God on their behalf, like Moses was that guy.

So when when Moses dies, just before they're finally about to make it to the promised land, bro, that was an opportunity for them to be discouraged.

That was an opportunity for them to be deflated, that was an opportunity for them to come ultimately to a complete standstill.

But immediately what God begins to do is to communicate to them that what I did through Moses, I'm going to continue to do moving forward.

He he wanted to make sure that the children of Israel weren't so connected to Moses that they lost the God of Moses.

See, I think something that can happen to us sometimes is that we can misappropriate God's presence and think that it's contingent upon people.

Okay, let's go, let's go a little bit further.

Let's go a little bit further.

I I believe this.

I believe that we should appreciate the good and learn from the bad, but in the walk of faith, we can't live on nostalgia.

We can't live with our eyes in the rear view mirror.

We have to face forward.

What God wanted to show the children of Israel is Moses died, but I didn't.

I need someone to get that deep in our hearts and their souls.

Because circumstances often happen where things change, circumstances shift.

And if we're not careful, we will think that the hand of God has moved because a person has.

We will think that the favor of God has moved because somebody has moved out of our lives.

But let me tell you what God told them.

Moses died, but I didn't.

Moses has moved on, but my calling and grace on your life hasn't.

That we need to stop looking at people who are supposed to be conduits and thinking that they are the source.

That God was communicating to people, I am the source, and I will use Moses, I will use Joshua, I will use Caleb, I will use other people in your life to move you in a direction that I want you to go to, but none of them are me.

They may have left, but I still remain.

Here's what I want us all to understand that you may have lost your job, but you didn't lose your provider.

Sometimes we think that a lost job means that God is no longer for me.

I may have lost that job, but God is still real and He's still gonna continue to provide.

Many of us, and I understand the heartbreak that can go when you lose a friendship, when you're dealing with betrayal, and I understand the panic of that all too much.

But I want you to understand, you may have lost a friend, but you didn't lose your savior.

God continues to remain the same.

I want you to understand, you may even be going through a season where you're a little bit out of your comfort zone.

But the beautiful thing is that you still have a comforter.

What I want us to understand that is he who began a work in you is able to complete it until the return of Christ.

Not the return of that friend that lost, not the return of that spouse that betrayed you, not the return of that job that let you go, the return of Christ.

So until Christ returns, God is gonna continue to work all things together for the good of those who love him and who were called according to his purpose.

Stop looking in the rearview mirror and start looking forward and recognizing that seasons may change, but God remains, that people may lead, but God stands strong.

I want us to understand that people are gonna come and go, but God will remain faithful if we're willing to follow his instructions.

The Bible tells us that for the children of Israel, that they get to this place, and it says that Jericho, that the city gates were fortified.

Now, what fortified means is that they were reinforced, like they they shut everything down.

Now you have to ask yourself, why would they go through so much effort?

Here's the reason why.

Because for the people that were living in Jericho, they could recognize the hand of God on the people of God.

That the enemies of God, that the enemies of God's people, that they could recognize the hand of God on the people of God.

Even they could see it.

Because I think what can happen sometimes is that we can be so much in the day-to-day struggle of our lives that we lose sight of the faithfulness of God.

That we could be so much in the grind.

Have you ever like found yourself like on a journey and you don't recognize how far you've on the journey because you're not at the destination yet?

Like, I I I love road trips, but I also hate road trips.

Because for me, my way that my mind works is I'm always thinking to the fact of, I can't believe I've been in this car for five hours and we're not there yet.

There's nothing more deflating.

Megan, when we're on road trips, she's taking pictures of signs, and she will often yell like, oh look, it's only 800 miles left.

I'm like, oh my gosh, we've been in a car for 12 days.

Like, why aren't we there yet?

But she has a different perspective.

Her perspective is look at how far we have come.

Sometimes when you're in it, you could be so frustrated because of the energy that you use, you can't celebrate what God is doing.

So sometimes it takes an outside perspective to come in and to let you know, hey, if you only could see things the way that I see them, if you only could recognize what I recognize, if you only could recognize the progress and growth that I see in your life, God used the enemy to reinforce his promises and remind the children of Israel that he was with them.

What the Bible says in Joshua chapter 2, this is coming from the enemy's camp.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

It says, For we have heard how the Lord God made dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt, and we now know what you did in Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed.

No wonder our hearts have melted with fear.

No one has the courage to fight you after hearing such things, for your God is the supreme God, the God of heavens, of earth, and below.

This is the declaration of the enemy.

I wonder if we began to proclaim the same.

Things about God in our lives as the enemy does about our lives.

Have you ever considered that maybe the reason why you're facing so much opposition is because you're so close to your breakthrough?

Have you considered that for a moment?

That even though they were aware that the hand of God was on the people of God, the only thing they could do was make it a little bit more difficult so they reinforced the city.

They made it a little bit more difficult.

We want to make it a little bit more challenging so that you don't get it as easily.

Sometimes what God has for us will face a little bit of resistance.

I I remember several years ago when when Megan made the decision that she and I um were gonna go back to school.

Now, I've spoken correctly.

She decided that we were gonna go back to school.

Church, I was being bullied in my marriage.

Help me.

I was like, I don't I don't want to go, like, this isn't the best time to go.

Like, but she said, no, we're we're gonna go back.

We're gonna go back.

I want to go back.

So so she began to like force me into saying we're gonna go back.

So we begin this journey and she signs up, and immediately everything goes through.

But for me, we hit roadblock after roadblock.

Every single step of the way, there seemed to be some measure of opposition.

Certain credits didn't transfer, certain my previous college didn't submit the transcripts.

Like there was always a challenge, and so for me, I began to dig deep into my old theology, which is man, if this was God's will, it would have been done.

Y'all are laughing at me, but how often do we say that in our own lives?

If this is the hand of God, then there will certainly be peace.

God's gonna open a door that no man can shut, right?

What about when that door is closed?

So I'm looking at these things and I'm trying to pastor Megan in this moment if she wasn't so rebellious and stubborn.

I'm like, hey, listen.

We're seeing the resistance.

Maybe, maybe this is evidence that God is saying that this is not the right time.

We want to be patient.

You can pull scriptures in to justify pretty much anything.

But nevertheless, she persisted.

She continued to call, she continued to submit emails, she continued to do the work.

And then all of a sudden, the floodgates open.

I'm now enrolled in school, don't even know what I'm doing there, don't even have the books.

But nonetheless, we both graduated and God is good.

But watch this.

If I would have allowed my theological makeup to be the standard that I lived on, I would have stopped short of the promise because I faced resistance.

I want to say it to us this way just because the door is closed doesn't mean that you're not supposed to be in a room.

I I think that there's something to be said about persistence.

I I think there's something to be said when we understand that God has spoken something over our lives and not accepting no for an answer.

I believe that there's moments when we believe that closed gates means a closed heaven.

But I have found the adverse to be true.

That many times a closed door is means it's about to be an open heaven.

I I don't know who I'm talking to right now, but but I suspect that there's somebody in here, there's somebody that's watching online, that you've hit no after no.

You face obstacles and you thought that God was leading you to the place that you are, but now for whatever reason the city seems fortified.

And in this evening these moments that we begin to think, well, maybe this is not what God has for me.

Maybe I need to consider going a different direction, or maybe I need to continue to walk this out and trust God, believing that I know that He's going to accomplish exactly what He said He's going to do.

See, for them, they were at this moment where the walls were fortified.

It looked overly intimidating.

But then God begins to speak to them, and what He says to them is says, like, hey, um, I've given you the city, the king, and all of its soldiers.

I want you to recognize the tone at which God speaks.

I have given you the city, the king, and all of its soldiers.

Notice God didn't say, I'm going to give it.

He says, I've already given it.

What God was communicating was something that continues to blow my mind.

That He was speaking from a place that though it hasn't happened for me yet, it's already done in His view.

How often do we find ourselves with a posture and saying that I will begin to walk once I see it?

And God says, You will see it once you begin to walk.

I have already given it to you.

It's already done, it's already completed.

What I need you to do is be obedient.

What if I were to tell you that our obedience allows our natural to catch up with God has already done in the Spirit?

That that sometimes, there's sometimes that we may not see it right now, but we just have to continue to walk it out.

Have you ever found yourself spending energy and losing sleep about something that had already been taken care of?

Have you ever found yourself wondering and thinking and looking in the rear of your mirror, processing things only to find out, oh, this this has already been handled?

I wonder what our lives would look like if we just started taking God at his word.

I wonder if there are moments the things that we stress about, we don't even recognize that God has already straightened out.

But that's just why I believe that we need to understand that we walk by faith and not by sight.

Because I believe that our sight can be deceiving at times.

Have you ever looked at someone and you thought they were waving at you, but they're waving at the person behind you, and now it's that weird, awkward moment where you try to catch it?

Like I don't know how Oh, that's just me?

Okay, so but my eyes thought I saw something, but what I thought I saw wasn't reality.

How often does it happen in our lives where we think we're seeing a circumstance and we're reacting to it without realizing that what we're seeing is not a reflection of truth?

I believe that there are moments that we have to understand that facts are just the beginning of the conversation, not the end of the discussion.

That this is just the beginning, that the facts become prayer points, that the facts become the moments that I recognize the hand of God is with me.

The fact is the city was fortified.

The fact is that the city was protected, the fact is it appeared to be unpenetrable.

But the truth of the matter is, God said it is already done.

I just need you to walk into it.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but God just wanted me to tell you it's already done.

The thing that you've been praying and believing for, it's already done.

The thing that you've been hoping for, it's already done.

The healing, it's already done.

The miracle is already done.

The breakthrough is already done.

The provision is already done.

But are you willing to follow his instructions and walk in it so that you can see it instead of waiting to see it before you start walking in it?

It's so hard to make it across the finish line if we never even start the race.

It's time for us to stop being spectators and start participating in what God wants us to do.

Participating in good God wants us to see.

The moment of truth has arrived because now God begins to give them some profound instructions.

He says to them, Okay, I want you to march around the city once per day for six days.

Okay, so the city was about eight to nine acres.

So what they guess I made is about 30 minutes.

I need you to take a 30-minute walk around the city, and I don't want you to say anything.

Don't say anything.

I believe that God gave those instructions because our words are so powerful.

And what can happen is we have a tendency to want to provide commentary on everything we see.

Anyone who doesn't know that, just go onto social media for five minutes.

Everybody has an opinion about everything, no matter what's going on, and then you end up talking to people who aren't even experts at the subject matter that you're talking about.

So why am I asking you about what you think about this when you know just as much as I do?

I digress, but we end up having conversations without realizing that maybe the conversation is planting seeds of fear.

So God said, don't say anything.

Has it ever occurred to us that sometimes we talk too much?

That our observation can actually be seeds that plant fear?

Because all it takes is while they're walking around these walls, for one person to say, Wow, these walls are really high.

The person behind them's like, Man, you're right.

The person behind them, like, oh my god, dude, that person got is that an arrow?

That person behind them, how how are we gonna how are we gonna defeat them?

And before long, our small little conversations have turned into toxic gossip that have allowed us to take our eyes off to the reality of God, and now we're overly obsessing about the size of the wall, and now we don't even trust God anymore, and now fear has put us back, and now we're detoured and set back.

So God said, Shh, don't say anything.

Don't say anything.

I just want you to walk and listen to me.

I think sometimes we overthink and underpray.

Sometimes we we spend so much time talking to man instead of listening to God.

God said, I know that you're thinking about what is their strategy.

The best strategy that you will ever see is obedience.

The best strategy that you will ever experience is obedience.

They walk around the walls, and as they're walking around it, they don't say anything.

But now they get to the seventh day and they begin to walk around the wall, and they are walking around it seven times.

Now, I I want to make sure that you guys recognize something that's happening here because the number seven in the Bible represents completion.

I wish the time was here for me to explain the magnitude of what God was communicating to the Israelites, but I'll give you the Cliff Notes version.

What God was communicating to Joshua and the Israelites is I need you to follow my instructions completely if you want to see me complete the work.

Put this in your heart, church.

Partial obedience is disobedience.

Because imagine if they got to day number six and they wanted to do it a different way.

They would have stopped short of seeing a promise because they wanted to go off script.

But God's like, I got the game plan.

I don't need you to pull a Peyton Manning and Omahaul anything.

I don't need you to call any audibles.

I just need you to execute the game plan.

I need you to do the thing I'm telling you to do.

I promise you, my plans are perfect.

Don't say a word.

But now that you've walked around this wall seven times, now is the time that I want you to lift your voice.

What Joshua chapter 6, verse number 20 tells us is that now Joshua said, Now shout! And the people lifted up their voice with every ounce of energy that they had.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

And when he lifted up his voice, and the rest of the people lifted up their voice, and the ram's horn began to blow, it turned into like a crazy, wild warfare cry, but at the same time a worship service that literally began to shake the foundations of the earth.

And now the very thing that looked as if they were not going to be able to go through it fell down without them having to do a single thing about it.

This brings me back to my original thought.

That if we want to make it to our destination, sometimes we have just got to follow God's instructions, step into that space, lift our hands up, lift our voices up, and let God fight our battles for us.

I think unfortunately, we can overly strategize and miss what God is trying to do.

I also believe the significance of the death of Moses was meant to be an opportunity for God to reset how they were going to engage going forward.

Here's why.

Because with Moses came Moses' strategies.

With Moses came a Moses' approach.

But God had to let that die out, so they could not expect the way that God used to do things to be the way that He's going to do things.

This is the first time that their worship and praise was the way that they won a battle.

Every other time it required human effort.

Every other time it required a lot of strategy.

This was the first time that they were entering into the very thing that God had for them, but they were using a strategy that they never used before.

You're a lot closer than you think you are.

But what I want you to do is unlearn what you think God wants you to do and start doing what He's told you to do.

It may require you just to lift your hands up.

It may require you just to lift your voices up.

And what seemed impenetrable and unbelievably difficult is small in the hands of God.

I want to invite the worship team to come back up and to join me at this time.

I want to I want to go back into a moment of worship.

Because when they lifted up their voices, that was very synonymous with the posture of praise.

There's passages of scripture that speak to us about the significance of praise.

We know passages of scripture that says that God inhabits the praises of his people, that praise is also a weapon in warfare because it invites the presence of God to come in and to confuse the enemy.

We we understand that God uses all of these things historically and consistently through scripture, but yet it's the area that the enemy seems to fight us in the most.

I often wonder if we are like that old man trying to go through the metal detector, still holding on to everything.

He didn't want to let go of his wallet.

His wallet had his ID in it, and they were saying, Sir, we just need you to surrender it.

Sometimes we allow our identification, our preferences to be a barrier to keep us from praising God appropriately.

But I believe if we can do the very same things that God had instructed the children of Israel to do, the same thing that the TSA agent instructed that gentleman to do, trust me, follow my instructions so you can make it to the destination.

I need you to empty your pockets.

I need you to lift your hands.

I wasn't saying that because we're raising offering and I want y'all to lift your pockets.

Like that's not what I meant.

I'm talking about the things we're carrying.

I'm talking about the burdens that we bring with us that sometimes we're reluctant to put down.

I believe what God is saying is I want you, I want you to empty yourself in my presence and allow me to move on your behalf.

You know, when I first traveled after I got ankle surgery, I went to uh a small airport um in Montana.

And and when I got there, it was a it was an older airport, they didn't have like the newer technology.

So I remember walking through uh the metal detectors and the alarm went off.

And when the alarm went off, like everybody kind of like converged because I guess they just weren't used to that.

So I'm standing there and I got a bunch of people around me, and they're like, sir, um, do you do you have anything on you?

I'm like, no.

And so they begin to ask me more and more questions, and then eventually they say, Hey, do you have any, did you have surgery or anything?

I'm like, Yeah, I got a plate in my ankle, some screws, and they they kind of verified, they're like, Okay, and then they made this statement.

They said, There's something on the inside of you that triggered the alarm.

It preaches itself if y'all are listening to me.

There's a praise on the inside of us that has the ability to trigger an alarm.

And the beautiful thing about this alarm is that it triggers a response from heaven, but also sends a message to hell.

That I am more than a conqueror, that I am victorious in Christ Jesus, that I am the head and not the tail, that God is truly with me and that he's fighting my battles on my behalf, that I don't have to fight in my own strength.

What I'm trying to help you to understand that maybe the things that you've been toiling about and losing sleep about, that the remedy is not you googling another answer, that the go the answer could simply be and lifting your hands up in a posture of surrender and saying, God, I trust you.

I've walked around things in my life before and I lifted my hands up and I said, God, I don't know how you're going to do it, but I know that you've called me to it and I trust you.

Lord, I'm gonna offer up a praise because I know that you're gonna get involved and that you inhabit the praises of your people, and I trust you.

God, I see some walls in my life right now, and I don't know how they're gonna come down, but I'm gonna bring your presence in by giving you praise.

Lord, I trust you.

God, there's some sickness in my family, and I don't know how you're gonna bring the healing because we got this negative report, but I'm gonna lift up my hands and say, God, I trust you.

I don't know if there's anybody in this room that is looking at a wall in their life right now, but I don't want to invite you to take a moment and just simply say, God, I trust you.

I trust you with my finances, Lord, I trust you, I trust you with my memory, Lord, I trust you, God, I trust you with my body, Lord, I trust you.

God, I see this sickness, but God, I trust you, Lord, I know that you are with me, and I'm gonna continue to walk around this thing, and I'm gonna lift my voices up because I recognize, God, that you're gonna get involved in my own strength, and I can't do it.

Lord, I trust you, God, I just jump in working out.

But Lord, I trust you.

Things are going crazy around me.

But Lord, I trust you.

God is the hell is breaking loose when heaven's on the inner microphone.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

Um, we'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and review and share what you've heard today.

If you'd like more content like this, or you'd like to connect with us, go to celebrationorl.org.

We hope you join us next time.