Called | Ps. Tim Timberlake

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.

You guys are in for a treat.

For an amazing treat.

And I don't say that lightly.

Yes, as we heard in the testimony earlier, I'm a phenomenal preacher.

We get that.

We get that.

But but today you guys get to hear from somebody that I personally look up to.

I want to give you guys a little bit of context about Pastor Tim and Pastor Jen, who are with us today.

They are incredible people of the faith.

And what I mean by that is as I've gotten a chance to spend time with them, they embody the message of the kingdom.

It's one thing to be a communicator, there's another thing to be a carrier.

And what I've learned as I spent time around them and the varying things that we've all walked through, that they are carriers of the message of God and not just communicators of it.

So we have an incredible privilege to hear from someone that I have personally learned that is an incredible father, an incredible husband, an amazing leader.

But the thing that I think I admire the most is the measure of humility that you continuously walk in.

If you guys only knew the influence that God has given Pastor Tim, but he walks this complete humility, which is a characteristic of Christ.

So you know what we do, church?

Let's give honor words due.

Let us stand on our feet.

And let's show some love for Pastor Tim Timberlake as he comes to encourage us in the word of God.

Come on, keep standing with me for a moment.

I want you to stand till your feet get tired.

Can we stretch our hands towards heaven real quick?

Seven years.

It's phenomenal to see what God has done over the last seven years, but I believe, as Pastor Keith said, there's more that God has in store for us.

And every single morning, what I like to do, I like to do something I call daily declarations.

That is simply believing with God that what he has for me I will see.

And I just want to take this opportunity to declare some things I'm believing God for for Celebration Orlando.

I believe that this won't be the only location that we have here in the city.

I believe that God is calling us to be spread across the city to reach people far and wide for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe God has positioned us here in Orlando to be a diverse community.

A community that is a reflection of heaven and the kingdom of God.

I declare that this will be a community that not only has a unique sound, but will write music that resonates in the earth.

I declare that this community, Celebration Orlando, will have thousands upon thousands of people coming far and wide to see and experience the grace that God has blessed this house with.

I declare and decree that there will be lines waiting to get in to be a part of this incredible move of God.

And I declare and decree that the rest of our life will be the best of our life.

I declare and decree that we have not seen half of what it is that God has in store for us.

And I declare and decree that thousands upon thousands will hear and receive salvation because we say yes.

Is there anybody listening to me that says yes right now?

Come on, lift your hands and just simply say, God, I say yes to you.

I say yes to your will.

Yes to what you want, and yes to your way.

In Jesus' name.

Now, real big, can we put those hands together?

Amen and amen.

Before you're seated, can we put our hands together and thank God for Pastors Keith and Megan Pittman?

Oh my God.

Oh man, we love you all.

We love the Pittman family.

We thank God for the years of sacrifice and service in building the kingdom of God in seasons where it hasn't been easy when it's been necessary.

Thank you for your yes and thank you for all that you do in the seen and the unseen.

And uh, we have the opportunity to see behind the doors, and we see what God is doing in public and in private, and we thank you for all that you have done.

So, one more time, come on, put our hands together for this incredible pastors and leaders.

I got the privilege of having my best friend with me today, my honey bun, my wife, my sweet thing.

Come on, Jen.

Wave at the people, girl.

And I'm old school.

We go stand and read, and then we go sit down and pray.

Is that alright?

We're in a series entitled Called.

And I want us to dive into 2 Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

We're gonna begin at verse 1.

We're gonna read on down through verse 9.

And then I'm gonna pray, and then I'll give you the subject matter, and then we'll unpack it.

2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 1.

2 Timothy 1:1

You there, say there.

You can't find it, say, Lord, help me.

Hear a couple of chuckles nervously, so I'll wait a little bit.

You in Genesis, you are not far enough.

2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 1.

2 Timothy 1:1

It says, This letter is from Paul chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.

I'm writing to Timothy, my dear son, may God the Father in Christ Jesus, our Lord, give you grace, mercy, and peace.

Timothy, I thank God for you.

The God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did, night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.

I long to see you again, for I remembered tears as we parted.

And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.

I remember your genuine faith, for you share the same faith that filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

And I know that this same faith continues strong in you.

This is why I remind you to fan into the flames of the spiritual gifts of God, the gifts that God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline or sound mind.

So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord, and don't be ashamed of me either, even though I'm in prison for him.

With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news.

For God saved us and he called us to live a holy life.

He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.

Let's pray.

God, you are so good to us.

We know that you are here because you came with us, and so, God, we ask that you would do only what you can do, and that is transform us from the inside out.

We ask, God, that your grace and your mercy and your love and peace would shine radiant through this day as we celebrate seven years.

In Jesus' name we pray.

All those that agree shout Amen and Amen.

You can take your seats.

From the subject matter, he called me.

He called me.

How many of you got cell phones?

Just wave your hands at me.

If you're watching online, I know I can't see you, but you can still wave at me.

Got cell phones.

How many iPhone users do we have in here?

Can tell who's saved by the iPhone.

What about Android users?

Come on, how many got them green texts?

Come on.

Can't even make out what the pictures is on that thing.

But I remember before we had cell phones, and we had something called landlines.

I remember coming home from school and anticipating a phone call from one of my friends.

And you know, back in the day you had to schedule these calls.

I'm gonna be home at 5.

Call me at 5:30.

How many of y'all remember that?

You wait by the phone, you hear the phone ring, and you pray nobody else pick up.

You on the phone, or what about at night when you're supposed to be studying or sleep, and you plan a phone call, and you pick up the phone, you're on the phone, and somebody else pick up the phone, you say, Oh no, don't say nothing.

You wait, you wait, you don't hear no breathing, you keep talking.

And then you hang up, you go to school the next day, your friend asks, Was somebody on the phone with us last night?

So I don't I don't think so.

You get home from school, your mama said, I heard what you was talking about last night.

Oh, you're in big trouble then, but the the the phones were so unique that you had to schedule your calls.

I I thought that was old school until I started talking to my mom.

My mom turned 72 on Friday, and uh she's an incredibly strong woman, but she was telling me, you know, when she was growing up, the phones were called party lines.

Everybody on the same street had the same number, and based upon how many times the phone rings, determine if the phone call was for you.

I can't fathom that.

I can't fathom, I know it's for me if the phone rings three times.

I know it's for my neighbor if it rings twice.

I know it's for the neighbor to the right of me if it only rings once.

And this is the unique thing.

Anybody at any point in time on your street could pick up the phone and join your conversation.

I said, that sounds like an invasion of privacy to me.

She said everybody knew each other anyway, so it didn't matter what we were talking about.

I said, how many people stayed on your street?

She said, about six of us.

I said, so at any given time, six strangers could be listening to your private conversation with somebody you haven't God knows where.

She said, Yeah.

I said, that wasn't a problem to you.

She said, no, that wasn't a problem to me because we weren't talking about much.

She said, when your dad started calling me, only thing we really had was payphones.

And he had to walk two miles to get to the payphone.

And he had to plan to walk those two miles to call me.

I said, was there ever a point in time you gave him the wrong time and he walked two miles for nothing?

She said, well, no, it wasn't a point in time where I did that on purpose, but there was a point in time my bus was running a little late and he was standing at the phone for two hours after walking two miles.

And I said, My God, that's what love is.

I can't even imagine walking two miles.

Nonetheless, waiting in a phone booth like Superman for two hours.

Ain't no change of clothes in there for me.

I'm just out there sweating, walking, working for a five-minute conversation.

And she said, Well, to make it even stranger, when he called me from a payphone, somebody else could pick up and listen in our conversation to that too.

I said, So there was no privacy when you grew up.

She said, Not really.

Anybody could say that they called you.

The unique thing that we read about this passage of scripture in 2 Timothy, what Paul is telling to Timothy, what I have blessed you with, what I have graced you with, what I have placed my hands on you and prayed for you for, no one else can say that they called you except for him.

And I need you to understand right now in this moment that what you do, the only reason you do it is because he called you.

The only reason you can do it the way you do it is because he called you.

The only way you can wake up in the morning and take air into these lungs and exhale air out of these lungs is because he called you.

And the significance of your life is because he called you.

When you're at your lowest moment, you have to remind yourself he called me.

When you feel too weak to get out of bed, you got to remind yourself he called me.

When you feel the pressures of life overwhelming you and the storms of life coming in on you, you have to remind yourself he called me.

Paul is telling Timothy, because he called you, you have to do something.

You have to fan the flame of the Spirit of God on the inside of you.

And I want you to know something if you're taking notes, if you're online and you want to put this in the chat, I want you to put this down.

If you want a fire to go out, do absolutely nothing.

If you want the fire of God to cease to exist in your life, do absolutely nothing.

I remember growing up, my father, we we grew up in North Carolina, and I would like it around this time of year because the leaves would start to change.

And I knew if the leaves would start to change, me and my dad would begin to go out and chop some trees down and get ready for winter.

And we had to prepare firewood for our fireplace.

And we would go outside and he would sharpen his blade and he would give me a little bit of yakts and let me chip away, and he would chip away it, and we would take this wood and side, and we would begin to prep the fire for what it was about to receive.

And in order for you to maintain the fire that God has placed on the inside of you, you have to prepare for it.

What I've come to learn about most people that say they believe in Jesus is they have no preparation in their spiritual life.

And so we confess one thing with our mouth, but we live our lives completely different than what we confess.

See, preparation is the only proof of expectation.

If I don't prepare, I may say I am expecting something.

But the proof of my expectation is only found in my preparation.

And so, in order for me to show God I am believing, in fact, what you said I am going to walk into, I have to start preparing for it.

In order for us to start to see more people come to Celebration Orlando, we have to start preparing for it.

In order for us to see the things that God designed for us to see, we have to start preparing for it.

It is no coincidence that God has positioned you where He's positioned you, and now He's calling you to continue to fan the fire.

Me and my wife were expecting our son.

We begin to prepare for him.

We begin to design his room.

We begin to buy a car seat and a stroller.

We begin to give new clothes as she continued to grow and expand.

We went out and bought him clothes.

We went out and bought diapers.

We begin to prepare for what it was that we were expecting for.

My question to you is what are you expecting God to do in your life?

Today marks a new beginning for you.

A beginning of something new for the rest of your life.

And if you don't start preparing today, your tomorrow will look just like your today.

God can take you into a new season.

And the season of life you are entering into looks exactly like the season you came out of because you bought the bricks of the old house into your new season, and that's what you prepared for.

But God is saying to you, can you leave behind who you were to become who I'm making?

And let me help you.

Celebration, Orlando, you are becoming something so unique, something so special, something so different and set apart that you actually have to prepare for it.

Anything done without intention is always done without significance.

What is it that you are expecting God to do?

Paul is sharing with Timothy.

It's not that I don't believe you have faith.

I believe that you have faith.

As a matter of fact, I believe that your faith is just as strong as your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

But this is the thing about faith.

If you don't continue to develop it, that fire will go out.

And if you want a fire to go out, do absolutely nothing.

If you want a fire to go out, stop engaging with church.

If you want a fire to go out, stop your daily prayer time.

If you want a fire to go out, stop your worship life.

Whatever you want to cease to exist, just stop doing anything for it.

But I believe I'm talking to a community of people that desire to see the Spirit of God do incredible, supernatural, miraculous, life-transforming things because we have decided and made up our mind to say.

Oh, okay.

What I was doing was creating circulation to the embers so that they could spread.

See, fire only spreads where there is dryness and wind.

This is the most incredible environment season of life for us to spread this fire that God has called us to steward.

Because when you drive around this city and when you drive around other cities in this country and other countries, humanity is desperate for a move of God.

Humanity is searching for an answer.

And the great thing about what we do and what we have, we have the answer and the solution for them.

All we have to do is panic so that it spreads and gets in front of them.

Fire is contagious in the right environment.

Fire is contagious in the hands of the right people.

Fire is contagious in the right climate.

And I'm telling you, there's nothing that can stop the move of God when a group of hungry people get a hole of it and say we want to see this outside of these four walls and represent it and reflect it in our city like never before.

Come on, tell yourself I gotta fan the fire.

Come on, say it like you mean it.

Number two, feed the fire.

In order to maintain a healthy spiritual walk with Christ, you have to feed the fire.

This is what I've learned.

Focus decides what you learn, but passion decides how quickly you learn it.

If you Don't have a desire and a passion to know more of Christ, then your passion and your focus will lead you further to becoming like yourself and more and more like what it is you desire and what it is you want instead of what it is God wants for you.

The only reason we fail in life is because of broken focus.

The only reason we fall short of what it is that God desires for us to walk into is because of broken focus.

Opportunities will get confused with distractions, and distractions begin to look like opportunities.

When we lose focus, we take our eyes off of the fire that God has called us to steward, and we begin to get busy doing other things.

And I've come to the point in my life where I'm not going to get so busy existing that I forget to live.

Break up your day with some spiritual routines and habits to infuse new life and what it is you do so God can show you how to feed the fire.

Psalms chapter 39, verse 3 says, My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned.

Psalms 39:3

When I think of all the things God has brought me out of, and when I think of the things He's allowed me to see, and the things He's allowed me to overcome and be triumphant in and be victorious over, my soul begins to burn in thanksgiving to God because I know if He bought me out of it, it would surely get me through what I'm going through now.

And get me anything that I may be going through anybody tomorrow.

Everybody listening to me right now.

And because I'm grateful, I will do it this fire well.

I have to feed the fire.

I have to do it the fire.

Not only should I feed it, but I have to feed it when I feed this fire that allows me to understand I can't live this life on my own.

I can't do this by myself.

I need something that is more powerful than me, that is more knowledgeable than me, that has more wisdom than me, that can operate and move inside of me and push me to where it is I need to be.

Because of our relationships, because of the school that we went to and the job that we have, and the car that we drive, the house that we may walk into.

The family that we grew up in.

On the flip side, there are people that are waiting to walk through the door.

And your excuse is I didn't have the family, I I don't have the great job, I don't have the great background, the education, and the reality is neither one of those really matter if you know what the fire is.

Neither one of those really have an eternal impact on your life if you don't know where the fire is.

And you'll live days and you ask yourself the question How did I get here?

How did I how did I get to this place where I feel so far from God?

How did I get to the place where I feel so far from community?

How did I get to the place where I don't even feel like myself?

I can tell you if you can point back to the place where you let the fire go out.

You'll see.

The God you believe walked away from you, in fact, did not walk away from you.

He is exactly where you left him.

And if you can go back to the place where you let the fire go out, I'm telling you, he'll give you new embers to breathe new life into the fire he's calling you to steward.

I don't know what pain you've gone through, I don't know what circumstances you've had to overcome, I don't know what obstacles you've had to hurtle, but I understand this.

God says, if you allow me to live life with you, it may not get easier, but my grace is sufficient for you.

The pain may not cease to exist, but I will give you strength even in the midst of pain.

When you can acknowledge how weak you are, that's where I infuse my strength.

When you can acknowledge how poor you are, that's where I infuse my riches.

Everything that you are not, I am.

And it's not until you acknowledge that that I exchange what I have for what it is that you have.

We have to fan the fire, we have to feed the fire.

And number three, we have to share the fire.

It makes no sense to be on fire and not share it.

My wife is from the Pacific Northwest, she's from Vancouver, Canada.

One of the things that she loves to do whenever she's in that climate and on that coast, she loves to get around a good campfire.

She doesn't just want to sit around it by herself.

That's no fun.

She wants it to be surrounded with the people that she loves and that she cares for so that she could share the experience of what the fire is creating.

None of this makes sense if we don't share the experience of what God is creating in and through us.

If we're not sharing this fire with the people that live their lives with us, if we're not sharing this fire with our neighbors and the people that we live life in community with, none of this makes sense.

If we're not giving hope to the broken and if we're not providing solutions to those that need it, none of this makes sense.

This is no different than any country club or any golf community where people go, they hear a great little talk and speech, they get brunch after, and no one's life is changed or transformed because of it.

But we believe that only Jesus can change our lives, and because we believe, we talk about it.

After all, he called you, he called you.

The word of God says he knows the number of hairs you have on your head, he called you.

For some of us, he knows the number of hairs you had on your head, he called you.

He desires that not only you be transformed by fire, but that you share the fire that you've been transformed by.

I love cooking.

Me and Pastor Keith, we got this little internal cooking competition going on.

He's got his Traeger grill.

I got my Traeger grill.

We swap, exchange recipes.

He tell me about the ribs he made.

I tell him about the brisket I made.

Compare contrast what it is that we've cooked.

I love cooking.

Like I said, I'm from North Carolina.

We cook cook in North Carolina.

We make up the excuses to cook.

We cook after we just got finished eating because we love to cook that much.

Let me help you understand this.

Nothing that you've prepared, none of the ingredients you've mixed together, none of the things that you've seasoned will taste the way that they're supposed to taste unless they're transformed by fire.

You may have all the ingredients to a good life.

You may have your plan together.

You may have your blueprint, your your dream board all mapped out, and I'm telling you, none of it will come together the way you plan for it to come together if it is not transformed by fire.

So today, some of you, just like Paul encouraged Timothy to do, you have to remind yourself that he called you.

You have to remind yourself that you've been called and set apart and chosen for such a time as this.

I believe this passage of scripture is so prophetic for the season of life that we're in because it not only reminds us that we're called, but it also reminds us how we are to respond in seasons such as this.

Verse 6 says, This is why I remind you to fan into the flames the spiritual gift of God that he gave you when I laid my hands on you.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and sound mind.

It is impossible for you to keep a sound mind without fanning the flame that God has called you to steward.

It is impossible to live a fearless life without fanning and feeding the flame that God has called you to steward.

You want to know why you feel so anxious, you want to know why you feel so worried.

You have to go back to stewarding the fire that God has called you to steward.

Oh, and you can steward the fire that God has called you to steward.

It refocuses you, it reminds you, it restarts you and allows you to know you are in fact doing what it is God has called you to do, and it removes you one step closer to the will of God for your life and away from what it is you may have had planned.

Some of you right now are dealing with fear and dealing with anxiety, and I'm a friend believer that anxiety is experiencing failure in advance.

You feel what you feel because you are anticipating that you will fail.

Help you understand this.

There is no failure when there is complete surrender, there is no failure where there is complete obedience.

There is no failure where there is the will to make significant sacrifice.

Will you feed the flame?

And will you share the flame?

Because I believe that God has something so big in store for us if we can steward what He's placed in our midst, if we can look at it as the beautiful thing that it is, in an unknown, uncertain, in certain times, dark climate, God has positioned us here to be the light of the world because we carry the fire of God.

You gotta carry it.

If you don't carry it, it will go out.

In the Old Testament, Abraham told his servants, Me and my son were going up on the mountain to worship.

Little did his son know that he was going to be the sacrifice that Abraham intended to worship God with.

But reading this, a couple of things stuck out to me.

There was no ability to start a fire on the top of the mountain because of how windy it was.

So in order for him to have fire on the top of the mountain, he had to create a fire in the valley.

And in order for him to get the fire from the valley to the top of the mountain, he had to carry it.

Theologians and historians believe that every 200 yards, he had to stop and ensure that the fire was still burning hot for the journey ahead.

And I'm telling you, if like Abraham, you don't stop periodically to make sure the fire that God has placed in you is burning hot.

The journey ahead of you will be longer than you anticipated and colder than you had hoped for.

And I'm telling you, if you can stop and stew it the fire of God, when you get to the place of sacrifice, it will be worth it.

Stand to your feet.

Close your eyes, bow your heads for a moment.

I want to encourage you.

I want to I want to challenge you to recommit to stewarding the fire that God has placed in front of you.

Recommit to fanning.

Recommit to feeding, recommit to sharing.

Let's watch what God does because of our obedience.

If you're listening to me right now and you need to commit your life to Christ, so you need to recommit your life to Him.

And you understand that you've let the fire go out.

And today you want God to spark a new fire in you.

Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.

I want you to stretch both hands towards heaven right now.

I see those hands.

I see those hands.

I see those hands.

God has called us for this season to carry out his will and assignment, not just for our lives, but for humanity.

And I'm so glad that he chose us.

So I want everybody to repeat this prayer after me.

For those of you that have your hands lifted, I want you to lift them a little higher.

Lord Jesus, I repent and I turn away from my selfish ambition.

I turn away from my will.

I turn away from my wants.

And God, I desire to live a life of complete surrender to you.

I confess with my mouth and I believe with my heart that you are my risen Savior.

And so I thank you, God, for saving me in Jesus' name.

Light a fire in me that cannot be tamed, that cannot be put out, but can only grow as I fan it, as I feed it, as I share it, in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Come on, put those heads together.

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.