Meal Prep | 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.

Right.

Come on, girl.

Surely flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but that was a compliment straight from the throne of heaven, and I will accept it.

Thank you so so much.

Church family, how you guys doing?

You guys doing good?

Oh, it is so good for you for us to be back.

Megan and I were in our DC family last week, and we just we long to be back with you guys whenever we're away.

So we're so thankful that God would allow us to be able to serve there, but also to come back home.

While we're speaking about that, I want to thank you all so much for coming and worshiping with us.

Whether you're here with us in person, maybe you're watching from online, checking us out later.

However, you're engaging with us today.

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

We wouldn't be the same without you.

So if you are watching online and you're ever in the Orlando area, I want this to be a personal invitation.

We would love to have you come and sit in one of our services.

I'm excited about today's message because we're going to be talking about something that I think is very important that's going to help us out.

But before I jump into that, I kind of want to continue on this thread that we've probably heard a little bit today.

And that's really just speaking about our generosity as a church, which is you guys.

As you guys have heard, we we've given to Haiti.

As you guys are going to hear, we're going to figure out our next steps and so that we can actually serve and partner with um vetted organizations in Afghanistan to bring um relief to the area and the supporting countries that are supporting Afghanistan.

So you're going to hear more information about that as well.

But I also wanted to highlight um something over the past couple of weeks.

We've been talking uh a lot about this back to school season.

As you guys know, we we set up a backpack drive, we set up opportunities for us to serve our teachers.

And I just want to read off uh a couple of things to you guys.

So, because of your generosity with the backpack drive, this is some of the things that we were able to do.

We're able to donate 96 backpacks, which include 17-piece school supply kit, um, to the Academic Center for Success in Paramore.

I want to thank you guys so much for your generosity because we were actually able to resource 96 different families with that.

In addition to that, we donated over a thousand dollars worth of clothing and hygiene products to students in need at our middle and high school that we partnered with with Howard Middle and Edgewater High.

I want to thank you guys again so much for your generosity.

This is not coming from church funds, this is coming from you guys' generosity and responding to it.

But in addition to that, I also want to thank you for the way that you've responded to helping us resource our teachers.

I read an article recently that said that on average, um, that teachers can spend upwards of$400 of their own money and order.

Somebody said amen.

Nicole, you know, you know what I'm getting at.

So, so we know that we sometimes spend our own money in order to have the resources that they need to take care of the students that God has given them stewardship over.

But I want to thank you guys so much because we were able to donate well over$500 worth of gift cards to teachers so that that could be one less thing that they have to carry.

So thank you guys so, so much for your continued generosity.

That is the one thing that I truly love about our amazing community.

Now, I want to jump into today's message because I want to make sure that we can all get outside and celebrate those who are getting baptized.

It's a part of our service experience today.

So um, for those who came prepared to get baptized, we're gonna have a moment during the service where we're gonna allow you to kind of go out so you can get changed and we can continue on.

But all of us as a family, I want us to be out there to celebrate because we're participators.

We want to make sure that we can celebrate with those who are making such a monumental decision.

So that's gonna take place at the end of today's service.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the gospel of Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And if you've kind of been taking notes, and of course, good, strong Christians do that, um, you may be familiar with me referencing Matthew 5 because we've been really looking at Matthew 5 when we were talking in our in our um happiness series.

We were kind of pulling it from there.

So I won't give you all the background context because we kind of address most of it there, but I will give you this um caveat that ultimately what Jesus is doing, this is kind of the Sermon on a Mount.

This is Jesus resetting, kind of recalibrating expectations of what does it mean to be a follower of Him, what does it mean to be a part of the kingdom?

So you can read it in its entirety, but Jesus is kind of reshaping the way that they think about their engagement with God and their relationship in the kingdom context.

But the one verse I want to focus on today is found in verse number six, just a single verse that I think can give us enough to pull from to encourage us.

And it says this at Matthew 5, verse number six.

It says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

That is so short, I can read it again.

It says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Today I want to take a few moments to talk about our appetites, to talk about our hunger, the things that we're pursuing, and recognizing the part that God plays.

If you're taking notes, and again, we've established already that people who take the notes have special seats in heaven.

So if you want to get a good seat, you're gonna definitely take notes.

I see they got the notes up here.

Um, I want you to write this message title down Meal Prep.

Meal Prep.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word.

We thank you for your incredible uh community of believers that allow us to come together in freedom to exalt your name.

And God, I just pray over the next few moments.

We invite your Holy Spirit to come and inspire us, to encourage us, to challenge us, to direct us.

I pray that you give us open eyes that we can see you.

I pray for open ears that we can hear you and open hearts to receive everything that you're speaking to us today.

We pray this with an expectation in Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Family, I am I am happy to announce that we are we are entering into one of my most excited um seasons um with being a part of our Orlando community.

Now, now some of us we may think that that's referring to maybe college football of some sorts.

I I love that, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Some of us may be thinking about other things, maybe new TV shows that are that are about to ramp up for the fall.

You may be thinking about some of that.

I'm not talking about that at all.

What I am talking about is magical dining.

See, I I could see the confused looks.

So let me let me give you some context on what magical dining is.

Just to name itself.

You can't just say magical dining, you gotta do something with your hands.

Magical dining is like there's something to it, there's something powerful about it.

Let me explain to you what magical dining is.

I want to make sure that I get it to you right, so I want to read it directly from the website.

Experience the wonders of Orlando's amazing culinary scene with visiting Orlando's magical dining, celebrating its 16th anniversary from August 27th to October 3rd, 38 delicious days.

And here is it it's your chance to enjoy three-course meal at any of Orlando's most popular restaurants for$37.

Woo! This means you get to go to some of these five-star restaurants for only$37.

See, food and saving money is my love language.

It speaks to the core of my being.

So, but I haven't had an opportunity to really take advantage in the years that we've been in the Orlando area.

So I want to go ahead and lay this out here for our entire community.

My family, we're taking recommendations.

We're we're looking for recommendations because we have a lot of family and friends that that come to visit, and a lot of times they'll ask us, like, hey, where's the spots that you guys choose to eat?

And I'm like, I I don't know.

So here's what I'm asking for.

I want you guys to DM me, let me know, text message me, whatever.

What's the best Italian spot?

I I want the I want the best, I want the best seafood spot.

I want the best burger spot because I love me some burgers, the best rib spot.

I went to a cheesesteak spot recently.

Um, and you know, I'm really sensitive about that.

Obviously, I come from the Northeast.

I know what a real Philly cheesesteak tastes like.

So I've been some places where it's been false advertisement where it's like, you know, man, Philly cheesesteak.

I'm like, you're liars, you're sitting on the throne of lies.

This is not like so.

So so I do got a couple of spots that I can recommend for you if you're looking for that authentic Philly cheesesteak vibe, but we're looking for recommendations, and and and here's the primary reason why.

Because we all know that feeling of when you do go to a restaurant that has been filled with such hype, such expectation, and then you get there and it and it just doesn't deliver.

It just it's just not there.

Like, I mean, so for me, I'll be honest with you guys, ever since I started cooking on my smoker, I'm a little bit more critical.

I'm a little bit more of a snob, we might say, about certain things that I choose to go and eat.

Specifically when it comes to salmon.

Oh man.

I I love I love salmon, but man, I'm telling y'all, I make a bourbon smoked salmon that'll make you smack your mom.

Like I'm telling, I'm just, I'm trying, I'm trying to, I'm trying to tell you, I'm putting everybody on notice right now.

If this ministry thing don't work out, I'm open up a salmon restaurant.

Get ready.

It's it's coming.

But but but I so I'm very critical about it.

And so we we understand that feeling when we go out somewhere and we have these expectations, this anticipation, we eat it and it and it just doesn't deliver.

And so you know what that means.

We we may be full, but we're not filled.

We end up coming home, we're full, but we're we're looking in the refrigerator, trying to figure out do we have any other options?

Why why am I still why am I still looking in the refrigerator?

I literally just came from the restaurant, but yet something inside of me is still not filled.

I'm full, but I'm not filled.

What why why does that happen?

Well, well, let me give you a little bit of a breakdown from an anatomy standpoint.

See, there's a difference between hunger, appetite, and cravings.

Hunger, appetite, and cravings.

Hunger, that just means your body telling you that you have to eat.

We all have to eat.

That's something that you can't deny.

Appetite, that deals with interest.

This think of it this way.

Whenever someone gets sick, what happens?

I don't have an appetite.

The interest, the the drive to eat may shift.

That's the interest.

But then cravings, that's where all of us live.

That's where we begin to say, okay, I'm looking for this specific type of ice cream.

I'm looking for this specific burger spot.

You have very specific things.

We have our hunger, we have our appetite, and we have our cravings.

So when we go out to restaurants and we get something to eat, we're hungry, we have an appetite, we want to eat, but it didn't meet that craving.

And when the craving's not met, we end up looking to the next thing, and to the next thing, and to the next thing until we can find that need met, that craving, that desire that is not yet met.

We can be full, but we're not filled because we're still craving something that we haven't had.

I'm not talking about food anymore.

Because the truth of the matter is we have all been conditioned to have needs at its core level.

We all have things that we know that we're in need of in relationships.

We have needs, we we have things that we need, we have appetites.

That's just dealing with our our interest.

Which is why you could tell when when someone in you're in a relationship with their interest begins to shift.

They're just not they're not in the mood.

You're we're we're trying to figure out how to how to how to how to right size that.

But then the cravings.

This is the area that the enemy loves to exploit.

This is the area that the adversary loves to get us off track.

See, God had given us all of these things.

These are all God given.

God gave us hunger, he gave us appetite, and he gave us cravings.

The thing is, God had always wanted us to be oriented towards the things of the kingdom and not towards the things of the world.

He wanted us to hunger for the things of the kingdom, he wanted us to have an appetite for the things of the kingdom, he wanted us to crave righteousness.

He didn't want us to try to pursue the things of the world.

Let's let's rewind time a little bit and look at what it shows us in the book of Genesis.

You remember that beautiful moment where God says, I'm gonna create man in my own image.

In the image of God, he created them and he says, he blessed them and says, Be fruitful and multiply, have dominion on the earth.

This is God imparting his image, his mandate.

He's putting these things inside of man.

But then as we go a little bit further, he says, Okay, so I'm gonna put you guys in this beautiful garden.

It's dope, it has everything you could ever want.

It's beautiful.

You have all these beautiful trees that's available to you.

And God says this you can eat freely from anything that you see.

You can have whatever you like.

I just want you to avoid this one over here.

Because that stuff over there, that'll kill you.

That's not good for you.

Your body, your body's not meant to metabolize that.

See, if you go to that tree, if you eat from that menu, your body's gonna try to break down self-righteousness.

Because the knowledge of good and evil ultimately is pride where we can determine what's right and wrong on our own terms.

We just we're just getting started, Jacquard.

We we don't don't go to that tree.

Don't go to that tree.

I I want you to be oriented towards the things of the kingdom.

That seems like a very simple instruction.

So Adam and Eve are like, man, this is awesome.

We got access to the tree of life.

We have access to all these beautiful things that are in front of us.

Man, that's that's easy.

But then you know what happens?

The enemy shows up and he presents that alternate menu.

He shows up and he says, like, hey man, I I know, I know that God, I know that God told you that you need to eat from this from this menu, and that's gonna be what's best for y'all.

You can have eternal life and bliss and everything's gonna be great.

Listen to me.

God's holding out on you, man.

We got something over here, we got some options over here, it's a value meal, man.

It's free.

We're actually giving away for free.

If if you just partake of these menu options right here, you won't even need God to cook it for you anymore.

You can do it on your own terms.

You can imagine the choice now that is presented before Adam and Eve.

I can either eat from the menu that God has presented, this menu that provides life and and wholeness and freedom.

But man, this other menu seems very attracting.

It seems very, it seems very interesting.

Because if we do think about it, maybe God is trying to hold me back.

Maybe this whole God thing, maybe it is too restricting, maybe, maybe it is too controlling.

So, so let me go over here to this tree where I can determine what's right and wrong on my own terms.

I want you to see what it says here in Genesis chapter 3, where this all breaks down.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

What it says at chapter 3, verse number 6, it says that the woman saw the tree, was good for food, and delightful to look at, and was desirable in obtaining wisdom.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was also with her, and he ate.

I want you to see the breakdown of things that took place.

It was good for food.

We all agree.

God had given them hunger.

They wanted food, they needed to eat.

But she said, It looks good for the things that I need, but it also says it was delightful to look at.

That means she had a she had interest in it, she had an appetite for it.

But let's look at this last part.

But it was desirable, cravings to obtain wisdom.

Or let me give you another translation, to obtain wisdom the way that they saw fit.

This is the moment that the appetite of mankind shifted from being oriented to the things of God to the things that we feel is best on our own terms.

This is the moment our appetites began to evolve, and when they took it, they now had partaken from a menu that God never intended for them to eat from.

I want you to recognize that from this moment forward, God began to create this redemptive plan that was meant to not only just redeem man from his sin, but to also redeem man's appetite.

Have you ever really taken an opportunity to look in scripture and see how many biblical references there are to food and tables and the nuances that are connected to it?

Scriptures such as, you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemy.

God is calling us back to his table.

Scriptures such as Psalm 42, as a deer longs for water, so does my soul long for you.

I thirst for God.

We see this language of God trying to pull mankind back because the moment that we ate from the tree of knowledge in good and evil, our desires, our cravings shifted from the things of God to the things of the world.

So God is trying to redeem our appetites and saying, But can you have a hunger and an appetite for me?

Look at passages such as Psalm 34, verse number 8.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

All these passages are right in front of us, and it's all about God trying to redeem our appetite for the things of the kingdom as opposed to the things of the world.

It even says here, Jesus says in John 6.35, I am the bread of life.

Jesus told them, No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again, and anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty again.

Again, this language that God is trying to reorient our appetite, our cravings for the things of God as opposed to the things of the world.

So when Jesus is talking to an audience of people that have an appetite for justice, that have a craving to see things done the way that they've defined it, Jesus begins to reorient them and he's instructing them: blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the kingdom, doing things my way, looking at things from my perspective.

That's how you're blessed, because when you pursue it through that lens, then you will truly be filled.

We've been hoodwinked, church, because we've been pursuing things that make us full, but we're still not filled.

We've been pursuing things that that that may work in the moment, but it but it doesn't it doesn't fill us.

The main thing that I want us to walk away with today is simply this.

Let me say that again.

Jesus is the only one that can truly satisfy you.

I I realize that that is so hard for us to grab a hold of it sometimes, but Jesus is the only one that can truly satisfy you.

Because what can happen is we can have a craving, we can have an appetite for success.

And you know what happens?

We get successful, and then we're craving more success.

We can we can have an appetite and a craving for us to get married, and then we get married, and then we project our expectations that only God can handle onto our spouses, and they can't handle the weight of it, we're disappointed, and then we move on to the next one.

We're looking in the refrigerator of options, and the moment that that craving isn't met anymore, we're going on to the next one and on to the next one.

And many of us have lived lives where we're full, but we're not filled because we're looking to the wrong thing to fill us.

Jesus is the only one that can truly satisfy us.

See, everything else is just an appetizer.

I love appetizers.

I do.

They like, I can tell.

Relax, George.

I can, I I love, I love appetizers.

I love going into restaurants, I'm looking at the appetizer, I'm looking at the options, man.

Like, yeah, give me the bread.

If y'all are ever, if you're a server in a restaurant and I'm sitting at your table, don't ask the question.

Yes, I want bread.

Bring it out.

Bring it out.

Keep it coming, keep it coming.

I love, I love all of those things.

I love appetizers, but here's the thing I didn't come to the restaurant for the appetizers.

Here's the thing though.

If we're not careful, we can get full on the appetizers.

But we're not filled.

I I didn't come here for the bread, but I came here for the bread.

Yes, I I want I want the appetizers, I want you to see this.

When we can begin to recognize that the resources and things that God has given us, they're meant to be appetizers.

It's beautiful.

Man, my marriage?

It's an appetizer.

Girl, you were snacking, you know it.

Let me move on.

See?

See?

This is this is why I preach in DC.

Y'all can't handle this.

Okay.

Let me.

Yes, these are appetizers, and they make they make me happy.

My family, it makes me happy when I go on vacation.

It certainly adds to my happiness.

But I recognize that the only thing that can really fill me is found exclusively in Jesus.

And God is beckoning to us right now.

Can you begin to shift your orientation?

Can you begin to shift the way that you see things?

Can you begin to recognize that these are appetizers, these are great things, they will titillate your taste buds, they're okay, but I want to make sure they don't replace the only thing that can truly fill you, and that is the person of Jesus.

So what do we do when we when we understand that that I that I have an appetite, I have a craving for things?

How how do I shift it?

How do I how do I reorientate it?

I believe meal prep is a crucial component in order for us to truly be able to begin to fix our focus on making sure we have the things that are best for us.

See, we live in a world of such deep customization.

So we we're we're looking for things to meet our cravings.

We're jumping from one thing to the next, from one relationship to the next, hoping it's gonna fill us.

We're jumping from one job to the next, hoping it's gonna fill us.

We're jumping from one church to the next, hoping that's gonna be the one that fills us.

We're putting these expectations and we're and we're looking.

And here's the thing you should have a healthy expectation on the people that you're in a relationship with.

My wife should have healthy expectations from me.

My children should have healthy expectations from me, but their dependency's gotta be on God.

And and what God is simply saying is in a world of customization, we become we become consumers instead of stewards.

We we've become okay, let me let me take a little bit of this, uh, a little bit of that, let me mix these things together in an effort to get what I need instead of us being effective stewards.

It's almost like a person who goes out to um to a restaurant and they're like, Man, you know what?

I want um I want some Chick-fil-A chicken tenders, but I want um McDonald's fries.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I get it.

But you see how we live in a world where we can customize, we can customize our playlists, we can do everything on our own terms and what God is saying, but can you trust that the menu items that I am presenting to you is what's best?

Because these cravings keep calling to us.

You know that in spite of whatever preparation we may take, you know that in spite of whatever work we may do, we still have cravings for things that that may take us out of our discipline.

Man, I can do all the meal prep in the world.

On Sunday, I still crave Chick-fil-A.

I don't understand it.

It doesn't matter.

I could have done all the work at home, but I still got these cravings.

See, see, those cravings are the things that try to try to pull us off track, those things that can be a little bit distracting.

It's almost like we crave the cheat day.

Right?

We we live lives where we're craving, okay, I'll eat discipline on these days, but I'm craving the cheat day.

I'm looking forward to the cheat day, and unfortunately, a cheat day turns into a cheat week, a cheat month, and then a cheat lifestyle.

And we stop living the lives of discipline that God had intended us to live.

So, how do I shift it all?

I believe there's a couple of things we need to do.

Here's the first thing we need to make a choice.

We gotta make a choice.

You will find that with every discipline, it starts with, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna make a choice.

I I love how the Bible speaks about Joshua, Joshua who takes over from Moses and he's leading the people into the promised land.

They've got to the promised land, and there's a moment as he's kind of giving his his goodbye farewell speech, he says these powerful words that maybe you've heard in a different context.

He says, As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord.

What he said is, I'm making a choice for me and my family, and we're making a choice that we are going to serve God.

He literally said, Y'all can do what y'all want to do.

Y'all can eat from that menu, from the tree of life, and try to do things on your own terms.

That's cool, you do you.

But as for me and my house, we're going to make a choice.

I I want to encourage some of us right now, make the choice.

You've heard me say this before.

I believe that there's no greater waste of energy than redeciding something you've already decided.

One of the things that helps me whenever I find that I have the most consistent rhythms with going to the gym or being healthy is when I make the choice on a front end.

That means this.

I literally am saying, okay, I'm going to the gym tomorrow.

I'm going to lay out my shoes, I'm going to lay out my gym clothes, I'm making a choice now so I can be successful later.

Making a choice.

Let me let me help you orient that for some of us right now.

If we're making a choice that I want to orient myself, I want to begin to allow my appetite to grow for the things of God, make the choice.

That means making the choice to position yourself in environments where the things of God flow fluently.

That means putting yourselves in the church environment with community that can help you to grow.

That means engaging the word of God.

We can't expect kingdom results without engaging the king.

That's good.

That's good.

I feel like we should have got at least eight more claps on that.

So I'm gonna say that again.

We can't expect kingdom results if we don't engage the king.

There we go.

We're participators.

Celebration.

I know that if I truly, truly want to be made in the image of God, if I really believe that God is cultivating and developing me, I've got to spend time with the king.

I have to make the choice.

It will not just drop into my spirit.

No matter how much I pray, I will not just get revelation out of thin air.

It's gonna require me to make a choice to spend time in the presence of God.

What are the choices you are making to support the things that you want to see?

When it comes to seeing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, it is saying, I'm making the choice.

And when you make a choice, it automatically inherits boundaries, preparation.

It allows us to create some boundaries around some things that allows us to say, okay, I will do this, but I won't do that.

These things that protect us from going over into that menu option that we know will ultimately destroy us.

What are the boundaries that we need to put into place?

I'm not talking about just as it relates to the things of God, but I'm talking about even as it relates to our relationships, sometimes we really, really want to see a move of God in our marriages.

We really want to see a move of God in all the relationships that God has given us.

We want to see a move of God in our finances.

What are the choices and boundaries we're putting into place that gives God place to breathe on it?

Think about it this way: the Bible says in Genesis, I'm sorry, I'm about to get off on a rant.

The Bible says in Genesis chapter one, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void, darkness upon the face of the deep, the spirit of God hovered over the wickedness.

Okay, so you see this.

The spirit of God was present, the power of God was present, the anointing of God was present, but the Spirit of God had nowhere to land.

So until God began to assemble man, the spirit of God was present, but it wasn't enabling the people of God to reproduce.

I believe that sometimes we are content with feeling the presence of God, but we don't place boundaries so that we can allow him to breathe, so that we can reproduce what God is calling us to do.

And I'm telling you right now that if we really want to begin to feel the presence of God beyond just being in the four walls of the church, it's gonna require us to establish a place and say, God, breathe on my finances, this is what I'm doing.

Breathe on my marriage, this is what I'm doing, breathe on my family, this is what it looks like.

Breathe in my job, these are the boundaries for it.

If we don't create boundaries, it's not an invitation for God to breathe.

He'll hover, but you won't actually see the fruit that comes from it.

These boundaries help us, and here's the other thing we have to do.

We have to check our ingredients.

Every meal prep plan requires us to look at the ingredients.

That's one of the things that my daughter does all the time.

Like whenever we're about to get something to eat, she'll be like, Well, let me let me look at the ingredients.

I'm like, man, relax.

Like, can't can't can't a dude just live for a minute?

But she she's looking at the ingredients.

She's looking at the breakdown of things because she's saying, if we want healthy results, if we if we want to see a shift in our lifestyle, we gotta be mindful of these ingredients because some of these ingredients are are actually harmful.

Some of these ingredients are are are not gonna actually help us to be healthy.

Once again, I'm not talking about food anymore.

What are the ingredients that we are allowing to ourselves to ingest that is that is messing up our focus and our filters?

Let me let me make it plain.

Some of our ingredients that we need to probably re-evaluate as we look at social media, that's an ingredient.

We look to the news, that's an ingredient.

We we we look to politics, that's an ingredient.

We allow those things to begin to get inside of us.

And watch that.

Everything that I just described, it sounds a lot like the knowledge of good and evil.

Defining what's right and wrong on their own terms.

And when I can define what's right and wrong on my own terms, my own will, then I can pull in a scripture to justify what I just said.

Listen, y'all, I am not scared of nobody.

I'm trying to let y'all know.

We'll find ways to manipulate something to fit our agenda.

But when Jesus says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, it's saying that I'm I'm gonna push those things aside.

I'm gonna focus on what God says first.

I'm gonna make sure that I look at that as my primary ingredients.

Your input determines your outlook.

And if I'm getting things in my system that's affecting the way that I look at other people, I need to reevaluate that ingredient.

I need to I need to reconsider if that's the ingredient that God is truly wanting me to partake of.

I believe that when we can make healthy choices, set boundaries, and evaluate the ingredients that we bring into our world, it will allow us to get the kingdom results that Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 5.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after the things of God, because that's when you're gonna find true satisfaction.

That's when you're gonna find fulfillment.

See, when you pursue the things of God, it's amazing how you have the ability to stand in the face of adversity but still have joy.

Let me let me say that again.

When your filter is the things of God, you can stand in the midst of chaos and still continue to hold on to your faith.

That when your filter is the things of God, that even when things are a little bit out of order, you can still maintain a semblance of joy because you're not looking to those things that are now being disrupted as the source of your joy.

I have something much bigger.

I know that I will fulfill my calling as long as I'm focusing myself on Jesus.

This is ultimately what God is calling us to do is to begin to shift our appetites, to begin to have a hunger for the things of God, and you will find then that our cravings will begin to adjust.

By default, our cravings are the things of the world.

That's by nature.

But as we continue on this path of discipline, those cravings begin to adjust.

They may not always go away.

Paul says, When I want to do good, evil's yet with me.

Paul's talking about this tension of, man, I have a hunger for the things of God.

I want to see the things of God, but I still have this constant temptation.

This is why we place boundaries.

We don't want to get to a place where we feel so free that we no longer have to be mindful of the deliverance that God has given us.

See, children of Israel.

Because you know what happened when they got to the promised land?

They put their guard down and they lost what God had given them.

How often do we get to a place where we become content in our faith, put it on cruise control?

Oh, I don't I don't need to engage every week.

That's that's only for people that are that are extra over the top.

I I don't need to be involved to that degree.

We put our guard down.

And then the adversary begins to slowly take away every sense of peace, joy, and then we're wondering what happened.

Our appetite has begun to shift.

My family and I, we had an opportunity to go to um to the amusement park when they open back up, like during the pandemic era.

And so you know how it is.

Whenever you have those things that you've been away from for a long period of time, you just you're you long to be back.

We longed.

Think about this.

We were excited to stand in lines again.

Good God.

Says nobody except for us.

We were we were excited just to stand in line.

So we're we're standing in line, we're going around, we're thinking about all the food that we missed, so we're stopping and getting funnel cake.

Yes, give me two.

Okay, like we're looking at all the different drinks and all that type of stuff.

It's been a great day.

But as the day is coming to an end, I am actually full, but I am exhausted, I'm drained.

And you know what happens when you get exhausted and drained, attitudes begin to shift.

Like it's been a great day, but everybody's like a little bit chippy with each other now.

You know what I mean?

Like, and I, and you know, then I get into dad mode, and I'm like, yo, I I won't have to, I won't buy tickets for y'all no more, y'all ungrateful little.

Okay, I'm sorry.

I love y'all.

Y'all know I love y'all.

Y'all are the best.

But it gets a little chippy, you know what I mean?

You're just trying to figure it all out, but y'all do need to show honor to your pop.

Um, so you you you know what's going on, and so as we're walking um and about ready to leave, um, I see that the kids are drifting back a little bit.

Meg and I are like, man, this is why I can't take them nowhere.

We're not bringing them no more.

Like, so we're we're we're doing that whole thing.

And then um we see that they drift back and then they kind of just stop.

And so I turn around and they're like, hey, can we can we get some water?

I said, man, water at the amusement park, man.

That's like a car note.

But I said, fine, let's do it.

So I go to the the stand, I go ahead and lay away this water, because it costs a lot.

It it costs it costs a whole lot.

I'm like, man, do y'all take Klarna?

Like, what is how how can I how can I get it now and pay y'all later?

Um, we get the water, and as we're walking out, we begin to drink the water.

And even though we were full, as we began to drink the water, we began to get filled.

See, we had been craving all these things with all these sugars, and with the heat, it was actually draining us, it was putting weight on us, it was weighing us down.

But when we began to drink water, that actually brought refreshing, that brought life, that actually woke us up a little bit.

I'm not sure if you ever had like a cold cup of water, and as you're drinking it, you're like, This is this is actually what I needed.

I think so often.

We're we're pulling from the menu that that looks attractive.

We went to things with all the sugar and all the extra sprinkles and all that good stuff on it.

But if we really are looking true true fulfillment, we just need to, we just need to experience that water.

See, the Bible tells us in the book of Acts, chapter 8, about this man.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

By nature, he's an Ethiopian.

By definition and by brokenness, he's described as a eunuch.

And what the Bible says is that he goes to Jerusalem, this is post, this is post-resurrection.

And he's reading the Bible and he's trying to get an understanding of life, and as he's leaving Jerusalem, understanding this, that by definition of him being an Ethiopian and with him being a eunuch, he would not have been granted access into the temple.

His ethnicity and his brokenness would have not allowed him to go too close to God.

He would have been okay to be in the courtyard.

Jesus is already resurrected from the dead, and so as he's coming back without this revelation of Jesus, the Bible says that God sent Philip to him.

Philip comes alongside him and says, like, hey man, like, can I help to interpret what you're looking at right now?

Because sometimes we're looking at things in the world and we just need interpretation.

Philip comes alongside of him and says, like, man, let me show you Jesus in this.

He begins to expound on the things of God and shows him Jesus.

Many of you are familiar with the way that this story ends.

As they're on this journey, at some point, Philip must have begun to talk to him about how baptism is this crucial component that allows us to be refreshed, it allows us to separate the past and to what God is calling us to do in the future.

He began to connect it to the purification rituals of the Jews, but also helping them understand the refreshing that comes from getting into this water.

And the man says, Look, there is water.

Is there anything to stop me from getting baptized today?

It sounds very similar to my children when we're in the amusement park.

There's water.

We've had a lot of different things to eat.

But we just we need water to just allow something to come alive on the inside of us.

Let me present that question to you right now.

There's water.

Is there anything presenting preventing you from getting baptized today?

I want to ask the worship team to come back up and to join me.

We're gonna go into a moment of prayer.

And what I'm what I want us to grab a hold of in this moment is that as God is shifting our appetites, I want us to see this.

That baptism is that choice that we're making to say that I am beginning to pursue the kingdom perspective.

Baptism is the place where I say, I am putting the line in the sand and saying that as of today, this public declaration is not only something that we celebrate, but it's also a sign of war and letting the enemy know, not anymore, I'm placing boundaries around my life.

Baptism is the place where we invite the presence of God in a very tangible way into every area of our lives.

There are so many significant things that happen in Scripture, and it all starts with this part of crossing over water, crossing over the Jordan, this moment of setting the past behind me.

And I've seen people, as Megan mentioned earlier, they've gotten baptized because they've given their life to Christ and it's my next step.

I've seen people who've entered into new seasons that say, I'm getting baptized because this is a mark of a new season for me.

Look, there's water.

Is there anything that's keeping some of us right now from getting baptized?

Is there anything that's keeping you from taking that next step?

Yes, it is a public declaration of an inward commitment, but I also want you to know it's how we make the choice and begin to steward that decision in such a way that we're letting the world know that I belong to Jesus, but we're letting the enemy know I don't belong to you.

It's me separating myself from the past.

And I suspect there's many of us that we've carried things in here with us.

I suspect that for many of us there's been struggles and things that we have endured.

But what if getting that water is the thing that's gonna bring you the fulfillment that we've been looking to so many other things to do?

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to go into a moment of prayer because I realize that in a room like this, not only in here with us, but also joining us online, there may be people that they've been they've been going to so many different wells, and they may be getting temporarily full, but they haven't been filled.

And what that means for you, it means that your next step could be that God simply wants you to surrender your life to Jesus.

That's it.

I'm I'm tired of being full but not filled.

I'm I'm tired of jumping from one thing to the next and and hoping that that this is going to be the thing, that that this career, that this relationship, that this is going to be the thing that brings me fulfillment.

Jesus is saying, if you can just come to me for that, allow me to be your source, that's where you'll begin to find your fulfillment.

If that's you and you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ today, I would love to celebrate and pray with you.

I want to count on three.

Would you boldly lift your hand?

One, two, three.

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

God bless every single one of you.

Church, can we put our hands together for every person that has made that decision?

And just a moment, as a community, we're gonna all go out and watch our family get baptized.

So here's what I want to do: I want to ask everyone to stand on their feet.

And if you're in here and you've already made the decision that I know my next step is to get baptized today, I want to invite you to go ahead and slip out.

We have team members that are gonna give you the resources that you need, the clothing, position you and point you in a direction that you need to go into, um, so that you can have we have everything you need, but you can slip out.

But for the rest of us, I just want to have a moment of prayer because maybe you are one of the ones that that lifted up your hand.

I want to challenge you, I want to encourage you that this would be a great next step.

I also want to say this if you're in here with us right now and and you know that, man, I'm in need of a new season.

I'm I'm in need of a new season, or maybe I've already entered that new season.

Maybe, maybe today is a day where you partake of that water, allow that to fill you, and you can mark today and say, This is the day that I changed my appetite and my cravings will follow it.

You ever look at people who are super healthy and they're like eating salads and they're like actually enjoy it?

You ever see people that like eat kale and they actually enjoy it?

Well, I think that's just faith because no one ever enjoys kale.

Um quinoa, like you have these things that you're like, this is disgusting.

But you know what I've learned?

I'm sorry for all of our fitness people out there.

Um come back next week.

I'll file I'll promise you, I'll find a way to include you.

Um but but but here's what I learned.

Every year during our fast, when I'm choosing to abstain from a lot of the things that we've talked about, first couple of days, it's awful.

This is terrible.

Second week, I get it.

By the third week, I'm actually craving things that I didn't think that I would actually enjoy.

It's amazing how when you make your mind up and you begin to support those decisions, that the cravings begin to shift.

What I want to encourage you with is maybe you're struggling and you're trying to figure this all out.

Make the decision, steward your choices, and watch God begin to breathe, and your cravings will begin to shift.

I want to pray for us.

Let's lift our hands up as a sign of surrender and let's invite the Holy Spirit to breathe.

Heavenly Father, God, we thank you so much, Lord, for your goodness.

We thank you, God, that you are the one that gave us the hunger, you gave us the appetite, you even gave us cravings.

But your heart's desire has always been for us to be oriented or crave the things of the kingdom, to have a hunger for righteousness, to pursue things according to your word and your will.

Father, I pray right now over our precious family that God, you begin to reveal to us the boundaries we need to put into place, the areas that we need to avoid, the things we need to stay away from because they're distractions.

It's a it's alive from the adversary, making us believe that if we go and eat from this menu, that it's going to bring fulfillment.

It may make us full, full of ourselves, full of our ideas, full of our own philosophies.

But God, we want to be filled by your spirit.

So, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus over our precious church that you can give us the hunger and thirst for righteousness, God.

We come against every distraction.

For the relationships that need to end, I pray that you close the door.

For the relationships that need to begin, I pray that you open the door.

For the places that we need to get employment, I pray that you give us favor.

For the places that we need to transition from, God, I pray that you make it clear.

Lord, we're in need of a move of your spirit, and we don't want to do it in our own strength.

But God, we need you because we want to hunger and thirst for the things of the kingdom and anything that distracts us, anything that comes against that, we bind it, we rebuke it, and we stand on your word, and we have an expectation that your spirit is going to breathe and move.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

Church, we put our hands together for what God is doing and has done.

Thanks again for listening.

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