After the Message: No Excuses

Thank you for joining us for After the Message.

To learn more about Celebration Church here in Orlando, you can follow us on social media under the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website at celebrationorl.org.

What's up everybody?

Welcome to After the Message.

Hope you are doing well.

And uh man, maybe you stumbled upon this podcast or you're not really sure what you're doing or where you are.

You're on the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

And this is After the Message, a segment of the podcast where we just talk about the previous Sunday sermon, and uh we hope it encourages you to do the same.

I am joined by none other than my brother Hector Ramirez.

What's up, man?

What's up?

What's up, man?

How are you, dude?

I'm great now that I've had my second cup of coffee for the day.

What'd you go with?

Uh a medium caramelatte.

Okay.

It's my go-to.

All right.

Somebody pray for me.

I need deliverance.

A little a little Starbucks walk downtown.

Yeah.

Well, this one I had a drive-thru because the one that's right down the road from us is actually close closes at 1.30.

130.

I know this because I've researched all the Starbucks around us.

And which ones have drive-throughs, which ones don't.

Listen, if you're if you're high up in the Starbucks chain, we need to talk.

Yeah.

We got to talk about that.

130.

Like I need my coffee around two.

Straight up, man.

Okay.

Straight up.

Alright, let's see if we can get on that.

Um man, just just briefly kind of let the people know who you are, what you what you do at Celebration Orlando.

Uh yeah, what you got going on, man.

All right, all right.

Well, as my brother Nate said, um, I'm Hector.

I have the honor to serve here as the next gen pastor for Celebration Church Orlando.

Over CC Kids on Sunday mornings, uh, youth on Wednesdays, and now we have something incredible going on on Thursday nights, young adults.

There you go.

It's uh, man, that that group is special, but um that's what I get to do.

I'm married, been married almost or with my wife almost 10 years in March, been married almost seven.

Um we have two beautiful girls, uh Maggie and Evie.

They are um they need salvation because they some thugs out here, you know.

I gotta we gotta pray for them, okay?

But um, yeah, so this is that's what I do, and I love it.

It's been amazing here.

Man, you uh we were talking yesterday, and something uh that I was reminded of is you have experience in young adults and youth, but not in kids.

And it's been uh like a a learning experience for you and a growing experience you were talking about yesterday.

What's one or two things maybe that you've learned about what it's like to lead kids, especially like in ministry, you know what I mean?

Like, is there anything specific that you've learned about kids' ministry over the past year or so?

Oh my goodness.

Yes.

Absolutely like right off the bat, I have two, like easy.

One is patience.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Patience.

I mean, I think that's something we had to learn through COVID anyways, is to be patient with things and that everything will work out the way it's supposed to work out as long as we don't freak out, you know?

So having patience, which I learned that with my girls.

Yeah.

I think that's one thing that helped me with this transition to see kids is we had already had had Maggie and then we had had Evie for six months.

So when we moved here, she was six months old.

Wow.

Or I think it was six or three months old.

My wife will correct me later on when she listens to it.

But um they taught me I was very like for a while there, my wife was like, I'm more patient than you are.

And then we had our daughters, and then she'll tell y'all, shout out to her, but she'll say, Um, you're you're deaf you definitely have more patience with with them than I do.

There you go.

And so it's just um I've gotten to the point being so calm when things get out of hand.

And then then the next thing that I've learned is not not only patience, but to be flexible.

Because things won't work out how you want them to.

But the thing is, is that as we're leading, um, as we're as we're trying to help other people on this journey, we have to be flexible.

We have to be able to adapt to certain things.

And if something doesn't go the the way it's not supposed to, then there's a reason for it.

And just um I like the I like this quote that I I heard is that uh the difference between a uh catastrophe and an adventure is your mentality.

So I always, man, hey, I like if I didn't get my coffee today, it's another adventure.

We just gonna we just gonna go through the day.

Or if um some kid, Lord forbid, something I mean, turning up in the C kids room, you know, we'll just have an adventure with it.

You know, I'd rather have the coffee adventure than the turn up adventure.

Maybe God's asking me to have a kid because patience and flexibility are two things that is continually come on, man.

I need work on, man.

Oh my lord.

Um dude, let's uh before we jump into to the message, let's talk about unique November a little bit.

Oh yes.

We got November coming up.

Um we've got some cool things going on, inclusive of an evening service.

Yes, that all those all those people, especially some of your CKID volunteers, they need to be there.

Yes.

Because some Sundays, you know, they're they're pouring into so uh all the kids, so we need to make sure that they're being fed, right?

Yes.

So if y'all listening, see kids, y'all better pull up hard.

Uh we've got serve Sunday.

Yes.

So uh the twenty-first, we're partnering with US Hunger uh to package over we're shooting for fifteen thousand meals that we want to provide to our city.

Wow.

So and then the twenty-eighth, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, uh we got church at home.

Yeah.

So grab your friends, grab your family, grab your leftovers.

Definitely grab the leftovers.

And and and you know, engage in church at home, you know, spend spend time with family.

So looking forward to that.

Yeah.

I it's like where the church is being the church.

And that's what me and my wife were talking about, is that it's incredible to be a part of something like this because you won't see this in several in other churches.

Um, you know, to ha to make to turn something into an opportunity to bless the city.

Yeah.

And that's what I love, that that serve Sunday, we're feeding people.

Like, I'm gonna have my girls helping pack these these meals with us.

Yeah, you know.

Um the the night service, I firmly believe that's the ending of our s of our John series.

And Pastor Keith, y'all know he's about to bring that heat with uh with the story of Lazarus and Jesus, so I can only imagine what God's about to do.

And and then of course you have Thanksgiving, the food is gonna slap, and then also just everything that God's gonna do in that in that month.

So we got some awesome things coming down.

I feel like I have to pull Google up every time I talk to you because it's like you know what I like you you're the you're the guy that has to keep up with the terminology because you're the one that's shepherding that age group.

But yeah.

Man, speaking of uh Pastor Keith, you know, bringing bringing a word on on the the evening service, in my humble opinion, this past sermon was the sermon of the year at Celebration Orlando.

Oh my gosh.

No excuses.

And and even on Thursday when when we were doing staff prayer, he's like, Nate, you're gonna love this one.

Yeah, because he knows he knows my personality, but you actually got to be, you know, you actually got to be in service this Sunday and sit on the front row and and receive with with your wife.

And uh kind of tell me a little bit about like what was the the experience like, the atmosphere in the room, like could you could you sense you know people's engagement at a different level?

Because I I felt like I got to walk in and out, I was serving on security this Sunday for a few minutes, but th there was a different anticipation, I felt like, or a different um uh just a different kind of uh engagement, I guess.

Yes, it's it's funny, but I think it's needed.

I was feeling conviction.

And that's the word.

I know we don't use that a lot because we don't want to hurt people and offend people, but I mean if we look at Jesus, the stuff he said was you know, filled with truth, but uh had grace.

But I mean it was I mean very very clear.

And Jesus was always convicting people.

Like when I firmly believe that yes, he was called Jesus the friend of sinners, but I believe that those people after they left being around Jesus, they had to be convicted.

Sure.

And that's what I felt.

I think that's what that was a difference with this with this sermon, is that people were honestly feeling convicted, and because of the conviction, it caused a reaction.

And so it for me, like he was stepping on my toes too, and so I'm like, man, I couldn't help but engage and and really dive in with everybody.

And I felt the room was hungry.

I I think we're getting to a point with people that people want honest truth.

They want to hear the hard con conversations even from a Sunday platform like that.

And I think we have to get to the point that we're okay with sharing those truths because we have grace behind our words.

Yeah.

So um, but I felt that.

Do you attribute the the hunger for for truth, even the hard truth, uh, or the uncomfortable truth, let's put it that way.

Do you attribute that to just our our society right now, like not knowing who to believe or or where to turn to?

You know what I mean?

Absolut yeah.

I mean, we talked a little bit about this in some of our um uh staff prayers and talking about relative truth and absolute truth, and that relative truth is just relative.

You know, there's nothing that you can pinpoint that truth to that isn't gonna change.

And I feel like in our society we get told so many things that we get told facts but not the truth.

So I think that that's where we're at.

So and then you have uh all this stuff that's gone on in 2020, um, even in 2019 of who to trust, who you can't, all these things, like people saying this, people saying that.

And it's like uh people want the truth.

They just just be honest with me.

I've I've sat down with people just and they they'll look at me and say, just just tell me the truth, just be honest.

Yeah.

And I love those, they they make it easy, yeah, for sure.

But um, I I do believe it's because of what's happened that people are hungry for that truth.

And the good thing is is that we have absolute truth.

We have the word that's never gonna change, and so that's the one truth we can give, but I think we also give gotta give it in grace.

Yeah.

I think it's important too to highlight uh and to kind of clarify, maybe for someone who's listening who is an uh an outside observer or a new Christian or just trying to figure this whole thing out, like when we when we talk about conviction, we're we're talking about we're talking about God through his Holy Spirit letting you know who you actually are, right?

And not who you're not.

Does that make sense?

So so the the Holy Spirit, when he convicts us, he lets us know, like, no, you're a child of God, so that means X, Y, and Z.

Yeah.

The world's trying to tell you that you're not, right?

And so I think sometimes we like you said, we can throw conviction in a negative light when in reality, man, it's a grace.

Yeah.

Conviction is is such a such a great gift to have because it helps us, man.

Like if people weren't there to come alongside you in your early development and let you know where you need to go, and even in your later development, all throughout life, we need those people to come alongside us and let us know, hey man, that's not who you are.

That's not how we do things.

Not because they're trying to get on you, but because they know who you who you're created to be, right?

Yeah.

And so that's kind of the same how I look at it, I guess, with the Holy Spirit.

Yes, and with that um perfect example, um, I was serving at a different church one time.

I started on worship, and I remember I had just had a terrible day at work, and I had worship practice rehearsal.

I come in, I had a terrible attitude, and one of my brothers um that was in there, he played with me.

We were super close.

Um, I just had a terrible stank attitude.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, what about it?

Of course I know what you're saying.

Like you've probably seen a few of my stank attitudes.

Yeah, the ones that you know, don't even talk that, don't even, don't even say anything.

So I was playing through, just going through the motions, and this guy stopped rehearsal and he came over there to me during a break time.

He pulls me to the back.

He's like, Who are you?

And I was like, What do you mean?

He's like, This is not the Hector that I know.

He said, Shake this crap off.

He said, That's not who you are, and realize that we're up here to to honor God.

And I'm paraphrasing what he said, but essentially he was telling me, My feelings don't make me who I am.

It's who we are inside of us that God placed in us.

And sometimes we just gotta be reminded of that.

Now, I also want to clarify conviction and condemnation, yeah, because we get those um mixed up sometimes.

Um conviction is hey, this is who you are.

You're on a this is what we need to do.

Condemnation is oh, that's the way you're always gonna be.

You're never gonna do this, you're never gonna be able to accomplish this.

Those are and in condemnation, you hear those thoughts and from the world or you that's how you I distinguish it.

Yep.

So um just to clarify for some people who are outsiders listening in, yeah, for sure.

But conviction is needed.

So as I mentioned before, the in my eyes, the sermon of the year at Celebration Orlando was no excuses from this past Sunday.

And one of the things that Pastor Keith said at the top, I think he said it before in other contexts, but you know, religion doesn't heal you, Jesus does, right?

And so we we were talking about uh another one of the signs.

And if you've you've been a part of uh the church over the past few weeks, you know, we're in this series called Signs where we're just really taking a deep dive into the Gospel of John and the seven signs that are um that are unique to this gospel.

Um and this one was healing the man at the pool of Bethesda, right?

Yeah.

But he meant he started off by saying, you know, religion doesn't heal you, Jesus does.

And and then he he expounded on that as like religion is man's way to God, but Jesus is God's way to man.

So good.

That seems like it can get muddy, right?

Because we often associate God and religion.

Yeah they're like equally almost synon they're almost synonymous, right?

When in the way that we view things.

I don't know like your entire background or all all that stuff, but has that ever been blurry for you?

Oh yes.

And then how do you how do you come out of that healthy, right?

Because I I know I know a lot of people I've talked to a lot of people who are from different backgrounds in our church, and we're not throwing shade on any denomination or anything like that, because a religion can be in any denomination, right?

Yeah.

But how how do you get out of a religious mindset and into a follower mindset of Christ, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I think uh for me, yes, it did pose problems, especially when I went to college.

It m it it was so bad to the point because I was told you had to do this, you have to be this way, you have to do these things.

And they're good things, but however, it would it would push other people away just because of how I acted or how I was because they thought I was being judgmental or they thought I was being hateful, but in reality it's just what I was being taught um as far as religion.

But I think to get to a follower of Christ, uh ultimately it's gonna be cliche that that I say this, but uh understanding and knowing the word yourself.

Like what does the word actually say rather than hearing it from a Sunday preacher, rather than hearing it, yes, I'm thankful that we have groups, we have other people around us and they'll help us.

However, at the end of the day, there's a self-responsibility that we have to take upon ourselves to dive into his word to know it and understand it, so that way we can distinguish whether or not we have an honest relationship with Jesus, if that makes sense.

It does, and I and I think that's one of the beauties of this series that we're in is we're equipping people to take that next step in the word, right?

Like we're giving we're giving a tool with the journal and we're all participating together, so we're doing it together, and it's not you're siloed off somewhere trying to figure it out on your own.

Yes.

And so hopefully when this is over, it it sparks a little bit of like intrigue.

Like, man, I can do this whenever I want to.

Like I don't I don't need a journal to follow in order to dive into God's word, right?

I I'm gonna say something dangerous because I've been studying and just reading on is that if you look at all the great awakenings and all the big time revivals that have happened in America, they have all started with people reading the word and understanding it and it coming alive in them.

So I firmly believe God is doing special things.

I mean, we're seeing it, we're seeing it in our kids.

When kid when my daughter comes home from a Sunday lesson and she tells me, I ask her, What did you learn today?

She's two years old.

She said, God helps me and God I trust God.

When she sa says things like that, it's because we are we are stewarding what we've been given and helping people understand the word.

Yeah.

And we're trying to break, I'm trying to build people to build generations that are gonna know the word.

That's one of my passions, is to teach the word, theology, like answering those hard questions, helping students navigate through those things, but start at a young age.

Yeah, you know, and I think if we do that, we're gonna have I mean when they when they rise up later on in generations to come, they're gonna know, they're they're gonna know the truth, and they're not gonna be afraid to to stand up and say, Hey, no, this is the truth.

Yeah.

Building a solid foundation, you know, it's gonna be a key.

Uh it's a key to anyone's life, obviously, and it and it never it never ends.

You never you never reach the pinnacle of ultimate knowledge and scripture.

And and that's kind of the beauty of it, too, right?

Yeah.

Like it's there's no there's no like I got my degree in in theologi complete theological understanding.

And and so I think we talk about it often on the podcast, like man, this thing, this thing is a journey, this thing is it's a it's a daily walk, you know.

So one thing I like that Pastor Keith um something I never really thought about was uh you're not a victim, you're you're victorious, you know what I mean?

But but you have to you have to get rid of excuses in order to to do that.

So uh my wife and I, we were kind of talking about this concept on the way home um from church last Sunday, and man, how do we how how are we empathetic towards those who are hurting but also help them move forward, right?

You know, because you don't want to be you don't want to be too harsh on someone who's really going through something.

Yeah, but at the end of the day, we want people to pick up their mat and walk, right? 'Cause because we believe that if you are a child of God, like He said, I've overcome the world, you know, and we get to we get to be beneficiaries of that.

Yeah life's hard.

Stuff happens, I totally get it.

I've dealt with depression, it's been in my family as well, so I understand like those types of uh those types of struggles and hardships, but man, from from where you sit, where where do you think we can do a good job at being empathetic and understanding and walking with people, but also at the same time like encouraging them to move forward.

Yeah, oh my goodness.

This is tough, right?

Just me and my wife and I, we have these hard conversations, but I've also been thinking about that because uh you know, you get people who who come to church who don't come to church that are hurting.

And one thing I love about our culture here that I've learned is that to help us move on to help those people become from victim to victors, is this is we w we validate feelings, but we don't live there.

And it's okay, like I used to think that if I admitted that I was hurting, I was in sin or I wasn't believing God fully.

Until I was working at a police department back in Alabama and I had this amazing lieutenant who um pulled me aside.

I was hurting, I was in physical pain from I was dealing with health issues.

It was 2018, worst year of our lives.

Um, for my wife and I.

We had our first miscarriage, then I had health issues.

It was just ridiculous.

So we were having a terrible time and health complications in my body, and he stopped me and he pulled me to his office, he said, Hedra, are you okay?

And I was like, Yeah, I'm fine.

You know the typical, yeah, I'm good.

And then he was like, You do realize as a as a as a believer of faith, it's okay for you to acknowledge that you're in pain.

And that was the first time I ever heard that.

Because I always thought that if you admitted that you were in pain, you weren't believing God fully.

For in faith for whatever it was.

So when he said those words, I felt a a just a shift in my spirit.

So it's okay to admit that you're hurting.

It's okay to admit that you're in pain.

And we're we're gonna come alongside you and and walk in this pain together.

Um another beautiful thing, like I've I've lost a grandfather here recently, but y'all have walked through it with me.

Y'all have validated like Pastor Keith was the first person to to to call me and FaceTime me, and the first words out of his mouth were, I'm so sorry, Hector.

He said, I don't have I I don't have any words to encourage you other than to just be here with you.

And that's the thing I think that we need people to help us and but at the end of it all is to understand that we can't live in those feelings.

Because living in those feelings, then it'll lead us to anxiety, then it'll lead us to depression, it'll lead us to a state of mind where we have no peace at night.

And that for me, like I've learned that through the hard way.

I mean, and honestly, some that is something you learn walking through it.

So but so if you're walking through something like that, let us know because we have a wonderful care here at this church.

We really do care about people.

It doesn't matter if you come to our church or not, we're gonna we're gonna be there.

Yeah.

And I think that's the key for me is validating your feelings, but not living there and staying there.

It's almost like it's tough to uh it's tough to discern like what's encouraging and what's enabling.

You know what I mean?

Like how how do how do we how do we take you by the hand and encourage you without enabling you to stay in the in your same spot, right?

Um So yeah, I think if you read on further, Jesus finds this guy later on in the temple and and he says, like, hey, uh now it's time for you to to change your life, right?

He basically says, like, now that you've been healed, I want you to to shift, I want you to move into a new direction, basically saying, like, follow me, right?

Yeah, is what he what he's just trying to say.

Yeah.

So man, another great thing that that that Pastor Keith talked about um what was asking the man at the pool, like, hey, do you even want to get better?

Man.

And and I think a lot of times he he's right.

Like, do do we even want that?

We we get so comfortable, we get so used to whatever brokenness we're in that it becomes normal to us, and we almost forget the guy.

Probably just he almost didn't even realize what life was like before, or if you know, that's been this way his whole life, he doesn't know any different.

Yeah, you know what I mean, until you encounter Jesus.

Yeah, it became his identity.

Right.

And I think I think this man really was on the verge of not knowing who he was at all.

Because I mean he was uh the Bible says he was paralyzed for 38 years.

So before then, was he able to walk, was he able to do these things?

I th I think so, but then after that he just completely forgot.

Because he had stayed in that pain, he stayed in those feelings, and I think for us, like you're saying, man, is it becomes who we are.

And it's just like, oh, I'm gonna always be this way.

I've talked to people that there, you know, some people have told me, oh, this is the way it's always gonna be.

I've I just got the cursed hand from God, and I'm like, whoa, I don't think that's God's best for you.

And uh I think that again, Jesus, like, hey, do you want to get healed?

I think a lot of people this is gonna sound harsh, but um I used to have a rule with with youth students and I would tell them, I'm like, hey, we'll pray with you.

We're gonna encourage you.

If you bring us the same issue um three times, after the third time, I'm gonna start asking you different questions.

Instead of praying with you, I'm gonna start asking you, okay, what have you what steps are have we taken?

What are we doing differently than than just praying?

Because faith includes action.

Faith without works is dead.

So we're praying and believing in prayer, but the whole time you're staying in this same state of mind.

There's gotta be something that you gotta do on your end, which is I think what Pastor Keith hit on as well, is like you have to get up.

Yeah, he said uh you have to play a part in the miracle you want to see.

Yes.

And I think that's so critical for so many people.

Like, whether it's healing, whether it's stepping out in faith, like you have to take that step, whether you feel like it or not, you know.

Um God's grace meets you at the place of obedience was another thing that he said.

So, you know, it's ultimately God's power, right?

And and it's ultimately God who gets the glory, right?

Yes.

We gotta play a part in it.

Yeah.

You know, it's a it it's it is a partnership, probably more so leaning towards God's part.

Yeah.

But it it calls, you know, and he even mentioned, did he mention on Sunday or just with the I think he may mention it on Sunday too, but um about how everything that we read in scripture, other than creation, every miraculous thing that you know, man was involved in.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

So and it's not that God doesn't need us, yeah, but he wants us.

Right.

And I think that plays a part in, you know, we're talking about signs here through this series, like, and we're believing God to do some ridiculous, crazy, out of this world things for us.

But not because he we need that, but I think a lot of times is he wants us to experience heaven on earth.

But a lot of it, I th I love what Pastor Keith also said.

He says, before God puts it in your hand, it must first be in your heart.

It's we gotta believe it.

Mind faith and heart faith are two completely different things.

Touch on that a little bit.

Which because he Pastor Keith even said, hey, a double-minded person is a is is a fool.

You know?

And and that is like you can believe it in your mind, but it you won't like you can say you believe it, but until you believe it with your heart.

For example, if I if I get some diagnosis, like we believe in scripture, we believe in the word, I can believe in my mind what they're saying.

I can take in the facts, but until I believe it with my heart, then I think that's what God's will.

Whether he heals or not, it's still in my heart, and I'm believing God is gonna do something.

So I think mind faith, you we gotta get from a place of like when it just it we don't just believe in our mind.

It's gotta go in our heart, it's gotta be rooted in our spirit.

That when even when things aren't going the way we want us to, we're still believing in faith.

Yeah.

Because I think mind faith is just something goes wrong, oh, it's I guess it didn't work out for me this time.

But heart faith would say, even though that happened, I'm still believing for better.

Even though I didn't get that promotion, even though I got shut down um from this idea, I'm still believing in faith.

Because that could be the end.

Mind faith just stops.

Yeah.

At the beginning uh of this, you you mentioned something that that struck me as that God He wants He wants us, right?

Like He doesn't he doesn't need to use us for anything, he can do it on his own.

Yes.

What would you say to someone who's who doesn't believe that?

What would you say to someone who's struggling with the idea that that God does want a relationship with them or that God values them, period.

You know what I mean?

Like how do you how do you help walk alongside someone who who doesn't see their own worth?

So how in the world could God God value them?

Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah.

I think I would and that's so hard because again, they're in that victim mindset.

And I think breaking that is the first keys, like obviously, not with all people, but something has happened that's caused pain that they've identified that to.

So that and for me, that experience-wise, that's happened a lot.

Okay.

So like I've had you know, for example, I I've been in youth ministry for a while.

Students would come up at me, I don't feel loved, I don't feel like God loves me.

And then I would talk deeper on deeper levels with them and come to find out.

They either they didn't have parents who loved them, they didn't have people around them who loved them, and it all stemmed from a place of hurt.

So I think identifying that, and some people are just gonna be like, Yeah, I don't feel like God cares for me, and they may not have any hurt, but the truth is you're breathing.

You're here on this earth for a reason.

And I can't get you, and that's the thing, I can't get you to believe this.

Right.

It's all gonna have to be con the Holy Spirit convicting inside of you that something inside of you is like, okay, that doesn't make sense.

At the end of the day, I'm not trying to convince students to walk with God.

I'm trying to allow the Holy Spirit to convict them that that way when they go home at night, they start thinking, like, do I really believe this Jesus stuff?

What that that dude was talking some crazy stuff.

Let me start thinking about it.

And then it leads them on a pathway, a journey, the Holy Spirit will start speaking to them.

They'll start like, okay, he said this.

I'm gonna I'm gonna dive into this.

Let me find out, or man, he told me he loved me.

And he doesn't even know me.

But but that's the way God is.

Yeah.

So what um what you I know you got some notes over there.

I know you might be chomping at the bit to get to something.

So what you got over there, man?

Man, I've just man, I've got same things we've hit on, you know.

Um you have a t a part to play in the miracle you want to see, but then again, um when Pastor Keith was breaking down the word, the word used get up was the same word connected to resurrection and rise up.

So when Jesus told the man to rise up, to get up, not only was he telling him to get up physically, but I think in his spirit something shifted as well.

He was brought back to life.

Because can you imagine being like down for 38 years, man?

I wanna I'm gonna put a shameless plug.

The chosen does a great job of this story.

Really?

Like the whole man, I'm telling you, dude, the way they they they have written these things.

Go ahead and tell people about what the chosen is if they don't know about it.

The chosen is a free app.

The producer of it is named Dallas Jenkins.

He was a Hollywood producer and he wanted to have faith involved and wanted to create um uh a unique um point of view from the disciples encountering Jesus.

Okay, I didn't know that.

And so, like, man, it's Jesus walking through, picking out the disciples, and you see them like it's biblical, like he had a Jewish rabbi, he had uh um a messianic Jew, he had different people who have these deep roots in the Jewish life, but he's also got evang evangelicals who are super influential in our world, and so he's combining all of this together.

Like some of the stories does have Hollywood hits in it, but like it would make sense how they would line up.

Sure.

So I I I can't really explain the show.

It's like uh I want to give I don't want to give spoilers, but we've read the books.

I know what you're saying.

But um But it's from different perspectives, right?

It's kind of like how the gospels are written.

Like it's all the same story, but it's different points of view.

Is that what you're saying?

Yeah.

So like the uh Matthew, like the uh historians and theologians believe that he had a some type of meticulous disorder in it in his in his life because he was so meticulous with his writing.

So in the show The Chosen, they actually take a slight um autism approach to Matthew.

So it's like he's very detailed and they do a great job.

Now, again, can you find that in scripture that he has that?

No, but based off of studies and different things like that, you could assume that.

Not saying that that's what it what it was, but even things like that, they just do a great job of pain.

Like after I get done watching a show, man, first of all, I have a bunch of tissues beside me because I'm crying the whole time.

Secondly, I pull out my word at the end because I'm so hungry to dive into it.

And so it's a free app.

You can stream it to a smart TV.

Um, I would challenge anybody to watch it because it does an incredible job.

It's a it's a great, great resource out, and it's not cheesy.

Like Can I tell you my fear of it?

Yeah.

So my fear of it is if I watch this, whenever I read scripture, now all I'm gonna think about is what I'm seeing.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

When I'm seeing on the has it been that way for you?

Are you still able to to have an original?

It's like when you read the Harry Potter books and then you watch the movies.

Like, if you go back and read the books, are you seeing the movies or are you seeing what your imagination is is depicting?

No, so the actual stories you find in the in the word, you'll actually see them on the screen.

So you'll see them play out.

And it's beautiful.

But now the in-between that we don't have.

Like, um, they did they did a story uh the the Peter, man, episode four of Peter on season one was the one that wrecked me.

I'm talking about because it tells you why, like they added a little a little um short story of it of why it was important for Peter to have that miracle that happened to him.

Even though you can't find it in scripture as to or Peter needed a massive amount of fish, they add a quick twist to it to kind of be like, this could have happened back in his day.

So they've done studies on it.

And so I would say everything is accurate as far as what's going on in the gospels.

Now the in-between stuff is the is the kind of Hollywood stuff that's like, oh my goodness, that's a unique take on it.

I could see where that could play in.

So um it's inference.

They're inferring a lot of things.

Yeah, I got you.

It's great.

So if you uh if you work for the chosen, Hector wants uh onset like backstage like passes to be able to meet the crew.

Yes, absolutely.

Give me all the free gear, like I'll I'll be your spons I'll be a free sponsor over here I can do.

What um is there anything else, man, you know, before we wrap up that that you definitely, you know, wanted to touch on, um, or something that something that's kind of been sticking with you since since Sunday, or you know, you mentioned you were talking to Caitlin about, you know, certain aspects from the sermon, anything, or just in general.

Yeah, um the last thing is uh get going.

Pastor Keith mentioned on that, and the language used for walk when it was talking about that man walking, it was it's translated to live, or we have so we have to walk it out.

Um and then he said our past has muscle memory and it can be easy to revert back, but God says keep walking it out.

And that's a difference again to mind faith and heart faith is that I used to be this way, and I mean I I've seen people get healed of something supernaturally, like a mirac miracle take place, and then they start having pain in that same area, and then they start believing it again, and they fall back into the same same pain.

Now I've also seen the opposite.

I've seen people who were healed of things start feeling that pain again, and they start saying, No, uh, by faith, I was already healed.

I was already healed, and they stay healed.

So I think that is so true, but even with emotional pain, we can be like that too.

Is that you can start having the like I'm just gonna be very real?

Um, I I don't I didn't have a a real father growing up, you know.

The closest father figures I've had that have been super positive, influential.

I didn't get those till I was 17 years old in high school.

That's what really changed my life.

Um so sometimes I get those feelings of man, I really could use a a fatherly hug right now.

I really could use a phone call with a dad right now.

You know, and I do have people in my life, but it's different, you know, not having a blood figure there.

So um that pain comes up, that past comes up sometimes, but then I can't stay there and I have to continue on.

I have to tell God, God, you know what, it says you're in your word you're a father.

So I need you to father me through this right now.

And sometimes I cry, sometimes I give it to God, but again I don't stay there.

Right.

Because I have to keep going.

I have this these wonderful blessings at home now that I get to be a father to.

And Rose likes to pick on me.

Rose, my wife Caitlin, you know, uh, she'll um she'll say, when it comes to the girls, you just change.

You're very like she's she says the way I handle the girls, because I I guess I'm over the top with them.

And like any little thing with them, like, hey, those are my daughters.

You you don't like to anybody else, like those are our daughters.

Don't talk to them that way, or don't do this.

So I'm like that extra dad.

Like but um I do it because my past comes up, but now I get to redeem all that in my own life.

And I think that's the thing is that God has redeemed your past, but now it's time for you to walk it out.

You can't stay a victim, don't stay a victim.

You're gonna always be that way.

Like if you if you want to stay hurt, stay hurt.

You know, stay in that place.

But if you truly want help and want to get healed from it, you have to take some some steps.

And yeah, it's gonna suck at first, and yeah, it's gonna be painful, but you have to keep walking.

And eventually it'll start little by little, you'll start seeing faith get intertwined in your daily life.

You're like, oh, now I see, now I see what true, true healing, true peace means true love, true joy, true grace.

And it's incredible.

That's so that was that was the last that I got.

That man, that's been pounding on me hard.

It's awesome.

Man, go ahead and uh go ahead and shout out youth, young adults, how people can get plugged into to both of those, even see kids, like just let them let them all know.

Like, how how can they get connected to that stuff?

All right, let's go.

Hey, youth.

Well, let's start off with CKids.

CKids on Sunday mornings.

We're always looking for people to help in our C kids.

Um, that's the number one way to get involved is to serve, right?

But um, we my prayer is that that not just any people show up.

We want the right people.

So if God's pulling on your heart and you have a heart for kids, man, come join the sea kids crew.

Just just talk to me, email us, you know, whatever you gotta do.

Get in contact with somebody up here.

You can even contact me personally.

Um, youth parents.

We have a youth group night on our or midweek youth night on Wednesdays from 6 30 to 8 30 p.m.

at our downtown offices.

Um, it's an incredible time.

I mean, we're we're basically just doing this the whole time.

We're having conversations, we're having fun, we have things geared towards them that they can understand the word.

And then young adults, man, freshly kicked off.

I want to shout out uh Tina and Michelle, if y'all are listening, shout out to them.

They're incredible leaders.

Um, they've done a great job helping us, and so many uh, so much life changes happening in the young adults.

But that goes on on Thursday nights from 6 30 to 8 30 as well at the downtown office location.

So um just reach out to us.

We'll get you plugged in.

Yeah, man.

Appreciate you coming on.

And uh yeah, man, look forward to the next time you and I you and I can talk here on After the Message.

But uh guys, make sure you uh tune in next week as we talk about uh our next uh miracle in the signs series.

Thank you for joining us for After the Message.

To learn more about Celebration Church here in Orlando, you can follow us on social media under the handle at CelebrationORL or visit our website at celebrationorl.org.