Ride the Wave | 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.

Thank you guys so so much.

I am so so glad that you are here wherever here is.

If here happens to be online, if here is listening to this later on in the podcast, if here is being in our family lounge or being here with us in person.

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

Before I jump into today's message, I want to take a moment to acknowledge what's happening in the room.

Earlier we we sang a song called Refiner, talking about the presence and the power and the fire of God.

And if you're in this facility with us right now, you may feel that fire because it's quite warm in here.

We are with you.

We understand the AC is not working right now.

However, it is being worked on.

So in the name of Jesus, we were not trying to creatively find a way to allow the message of the song to really take root in our hearts.

We do recognize that the AC is out.

It's a little uncomfortable, but let's lean in for a few moments, and I believe that God is still going to speak to us today.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

While you're turning there, I want to kind of set the tone of what we're going to be talking about today.

I think it's a it's a very powerful and very meaningful message, and hopefully it can be something that can strengthen and even transform us a little bit.

I want to ask a question, and I'm kind of learning and noticing this new rhythm that I have that occasionally at the top of my message I'll I'll ask a question.

And it's one for you to kind of ponder and process through and think about a little bit this week.

And so I'm going to pose that question to you.

And here's the question: When you think about Jesus, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

I'll pause for dramatics a little bit.

Um, because I realize that right now some things are coming to all of our minds.

Things such as miracles.

We we we think about Jesus and we look at all the incredible miracles that he's done in the Bible.

We we think about Jesus and we think about this radical love and acceptance of how he he positioned himself around sinners and broken people.

You'll find that Jesus didn't hang out with the religious folks.

He was always in a mix with the people that would often be considered off-limits.

Jesus found himself in the messiness of humanity.

For some of us, when we think about Jesus, we think about his grace and his patience or even his teachings.

And I would tell you that none of those things are wrong.

This is one of those things where all the answers are correct.

However, there's an aspect of Jesus that I often think about when I begin to ponder on Jesus, and that that is his discipline.

That is his focus.

More specifically, it is his it is his prayer life.

When I think about Jesus and I look at all the things that we just mentioned, I believe it was undergirded by this profound devotion that he had to God and it was expressed through his prayer life.

I think his prayer life, his connection with God is what allowed him to function and do all the things that we had just mentioned.

He had a very strong connection to God.

Let me say it this way.

All of us in here love an amazing Wi-Fi.

We love Wi-Fi when it works properly.

We love when we are able to get all the streaming things that we want, right?

We just love when Wi-Fi is good.

Have you ever been in an environment where the Wi-Fi is terrible?

You you can't you can't get the proper downloads, things are taking a lot longer than they than they need to take.

I I recently made a subtle shift in my household thanks to Danny, who's in the back, he's on our team here.

But he he came over and he actually began to connect a lot of my devices directly to the Ethernet.

That means that it wasn't dependent on the Wi-Fi that can sometimes come and go depending on how many people are pulling on the bandwidth, but we just plug directly into the source.

And I've noticed this amazing thing.

When you plug directly into the source, you have uninterrupted power.

You have uninterrupted, you don't have to worry about things buffering or slowing down because you have this direct connection that you never have to worry about being interrupted.

You see, I believe that that's what our prayer life does with us as it relates to God.

I believe that when we pray and we have a life of prayer that we're directly connecting to the source, we're not leaving it up to Wi-Fi in these moments and hoping that we get a download from God, but because we have an effective prayer life that allows us to be able to be in sync with God all the time.

You see, this is the type of life that Jesus led.

He led a life where he was consistently connected to his heavenly father.

I want to read this passage to us that kind of serves as a as a highlight to all the prayers that Jesus has prayed up until this point.

We're gonna reverse engineer this in a moment and look at some other moments where Jesus prayed, but but I believe that this is possibly one of his most passionate and personal prayers that we're about to look at.

At Luke 22, starting at verse number 39, reading this in the message translation, the text says this.

Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives.

The disciples followed him, and when they arrived at the place, he said, Pray that you don't give in to temptation.

He pulled away from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed.

Here was his words Father, remove this cup from me.

Please, but not what I will, what you want, or not my will, your will be done.

Let me let me contextualize what's going on right now.

Jesus has just finished taking his Passover meal with his disciples.

This is this is leading up to him about to be crucified.

This is the leading up to him about to be tried and publicly murdered for nothing at all.

So as Jesus is sitting there with the backdrop of Passover, the realization, the weightiness of him understanding, I am the Passover Lamb, that means that I have to give up my life.

Even at Passover, there were four cups that were traditionally drank during Passover.

I call it Seder service.

There was a cup of blessing.

We just sung and proclaimed that.

There's a cup of wrath that's also there.

This is the cup of judgment.

This is what Jesus was saying when he said, Allow this cup to pass from me.

I don't want to drink from the cup of wrath.

You may remember in other parts of the gospels when the disciples said, Hey Jesus, can we sit on your left and your right?

And he says to them, Can you drink from the cup I'm about to drink from?

He's referring to the cup of wrath, that cup of judgment.

And so now Jesus feeling the weight of all of the sins of humanity.

Jesus feeling the brokenness of the entire world.

He's in this moment where he feels it and he understands that the wrath of God for all of sin, past, present, and future, is about to be executed on him.

But the man Jesus said, I don't want to drink from this cup.

But then he also says, Not my will, your will be done.

Verse 43 says this.

He got up from prayer and went back to his disciples and found them asleep, drugged with grief.

Verse 46.

He said to them, What business do you have sleeping?

Get up, pray so that you won't give in to temptation.

Immediately to follow, Jesus is arrested.

He's betrayed.

His disciples run.

He has to deal with all these things.

And he was saying to his disciples, if you would have been in prayer, a lot of the things you're about to walk through could have possibly been avoided.

I believe that there's something that God intends us to see in this passage in the life of Jesus, but also something that can be beneficial for us.

Today I want to talk to us a little bit about the spiritual discipline of prayer.

And I've entitled today's message, Ride the Wave.

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

Heavenly Father, God, we thank you so much for opportunities like this where we can come boldly into your presence.

So, Father, I just pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes that we can see you.

I pray for open ears that we can hear you, and God, I pray for open hearts that we can receive, respond, and activate everything that you speak to us today.

We pray and declare it with expectation in Jesus' name.

Faithful Church says, Amen and amen.

Well, church family, I want to I want to give you guys a brief update.

You know how I do typically in these moments during the service.

This is an opportunity for me to kind of get some things off my chest.

It's almost therapeutic for me for um a little bit.

So let me let me share with you where the Pittmans have been at.

We just got back from an amazing vacation.

This is the part we all clap.

Don't y'all like when y'all pastor takes a break?

Bless God.

We we just got back from an amazing vacation.

We went to the Bahamas and it was come on, somebody back there.

Corey knows, that's from your homeland, bro.

We gotta talk, man.

I okay.

Anyway, so we so we we had an amazing time, and and for us, it was it was it was almost like a dream come true.

We'd never been there before.

We had been anticipating and looking forward to going, and and God allowed things to line up where we were able to go.

We we stayed at Atlantis, and it was it was awesome, y'all.

Let me let me tell you something.

It was absolutely amazing.

The views were amazing, and then we got a chance to go and visit the the water park side.

And on the water park side, there's a couple of different things that me and my family got to engage in.

One of the rides that we got to engage in is this ride called the Abyss.

Yes, that sounds very exciting, doesn't it?

And and ultimately what it is, is this this water slide that you're in this tunnel and you can't see a thing.

You're dropping down.

It feels like you're doing about 200 miles an hour.

I don't know, but you're going really fast and you can't see, so you have no idea when you're about to be dumped into the water.

So you're just holding your breath, your eyes are closed tight, you're about to hyperventilate.

Doesn't that sound so much fun?

That's that that was the reality of it.

So we we got through that.

There's another one that's called the leap of faith.

I felt like certainly God's in this.

It's called the leap of faith until I got on it.

And I realized it was actually insanity because now you're on this thing, and as far as I'm concerned, you're about a hundred feet up, you're you're about to drop down at a 90-degree angle, and it gets even better.

You slide down this tube that is now surrounded by sharks, and it dumps you into the water.

Provocative.

We we did that, and so I remember this moment when you drop down, you drop down at this at what it seems to be the speed of light, you ride through, you see the sharks, you come out, and you just pray that you survive it, and we did that.

Check that off the list, got that done.

So these are all the exhilarating things that we did on our Bahamas trip.

But of all those things that I just mentioned to you that you would think would be the most emotional drain, no, it wasn't.

It was the lazy river that got me.

It was the lazy river that got me.

And and I and I I know what y'all are saying, y'all laughing, y'all joking, y'all making fun of me, but let me explain to you a little bit about what's happening here with this so-called lazy river.

See, for me, I'm on vacation.

And some of us know when you're on vacation, you end up doing so much that you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation.

So I was thinking to myself, the lazy river will be the thing that balances out the terror that I just experienced with the abyss and the leap of faith.

I'm gonna get on the lazy river, I'm gonna lean back, I'm gonna just ride this current, I'm gonna enjoy the views, it's gonna be amazing.

So I thought.

So apparently there's a portion on the lazy river where there's these water rapids that kind of flush in and it like and it it helps you to move forward.

But if you're not anticipating it, it can catch you off guard.

So we're we're in this water, I'm on the lazy river, I'm relaxing, I'm leaning back like Fat Joe said.

Everything is going the way that it's supposed to be going, but then there is this moment where I can start seeing a little bit of panic ahead of me.

I'm relaxing on a lazy river and I'm looking, I'm like, okay, what's all the commotion about?

I didn't realize that I was about to go into this place where the where the rapids part of the ride began to start.

That looks like this a massive wave comes in, it shifts you and moves you forward, but I wasn't ready.

So so what happens is as I'm coasting into this, the water comes, I I didn't see it coming, it smacks me in the face.

Just just smacks me in the face.

I was I'm I'm like, who hit me?

Like, I'm ready to guard up.

It's like smacks me in the face, knocks my glasses off, I fall out of my raft, and and I'm standing there, I'm trying to get myself together, I'm very disoriented.

The the the lifeguard had to come and get me.

Let me let me tell y'all something.

There is nothing more embarrassing.

There is nothing more emasculating than having to be rescued in water that's only waist high.

He came up to me and he said, Hey, like, you you just you just gotta ride the wave, and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.

It was awful.

But but here's why I I bring that up.

I was minding my own business, trying to enjoy the views, and these waters came out of nowhere and knocked me off of my raft.

I lost perspective and now was on the verge of drowning in water that I can stand in.

How often in life do we have this vision where we're just we're just coasting down the lazy river of life?

Things are going good, you got your plans all lined up, things are going great, and then out of nowhere, this this demonic wave comes, smacks you upside the head, you lose your glasses, or you lose your perspective, and now you find yourself on the verge of being consumed in something that you should actually just be able to stand up in.

How often have you ever been at a place where you have plans and you have things that are working out, but out of nowhere something comes and it just knocks you off balance and you're and you're disoriented trying to figure yourself out?

Let me let me speak plainer for some people.

Have you ever been in a place where you got some unexpected news?

That that you had plans, you had things that were worked out, then out of nowhere something comes up and it it disorients you.

Have have you ever been in a place where you had to make an adjustment to your life that you didn't anticipate?

Over the past two weeks, I've had three different friends share with me that out of nowhere they have to now pick up and move because of course the real estate market is hot, they're maybe renting homes from people who now want to maximize the season they're in, and out of nowhere they're being informed, hey, we actually need you to move out.

Have you ever been at a place where you felt like everything was lined up, but then this this wave comes and it just knocks you off your feet and leaves you disoriented?

My question is, what do you do when that happens?

Because the truth of the matter is, I don't want to be a negative prophet, but it's inevitable at some point a wave is going to come that you didn't anticipate.

And if we don't know how to respond to it, if we don't know how to react to it, you could find yourself just like me, losing your vision, losing your footing, and being consumed by something that shouldn't take you under.

How do you respond to that?

I believe that the response in those moments is prayer.

I believe that the response in those moments is prayer.

Let me say it this way: prayer should be our first response, not our last resort.

It should be our first response, not our last resort.

But more often than not, if I could be quite candid with you, there are times when I get sidetracked or I get hit with things, and I find myself processing through it, and I haven't necessarily processed it with God.

What I believe the ministry and the life of Jesus shows us is he shows us a life of consistent prayer.

See, let me explain to you what prayer is in its most simple form.

Prayer is a relational conversation with God.

And to make it even more plain, you can look in scripture, and pretty much whenever you see someone engaging God in a conversation, you can look at that as a form of prayer.

Sometimes we've complicated it and have all these cadences, but prayer is a relational conversation with God.

So when you look in the Bible and you see someone engaging in a conversation with God, that is a form of prayer.

So there's all types of prayers that we can look at from scriptures.

There's petitions, moments when you're asking God to do something for you when you need something from God.

There's there's prayers of thanksgiving, you're just thankful for the goodness of God.

There's there's prayers of praise where you're just praising God for what he's done.

There's prayers of hymns where you're singing these songs in your heart, those types of prayers.

There's prayers of lament where you're heartbroken and you're you're grieved.

But then there's other types of prayer.

There's intercessory prayer.

Intercessory prayer is when you're praying on behalf of others, you're praying for others.

We see this with Abraham when he's praying for his nephew Lot because Lot is living in Sodom and Gomorrah and God's about to destroy it.

He he goes and he intercedes, like, Lord, you certainly wouldn't destroy the righteous with the unrighteous.

That's a form of prayer, intercessory prayer.

We have a great intercessory prayer team here at our church.

They're praying for the services, they're praying for you, they're they're praying for me.

It's intercessory, they're praying for other people.

We also have prayers of healing.

When there's moments of sickness, the Bible says, if there's any sick among you, let them call the elders, anoint them with oil, and pray that they be healed.

We see these prayers for healing.

We see prayers for strength.

Remember when Samson was at the end of his life and he had lost his sight, but he said, God, give me the strength one more time to defeat my enemies.

There's prayers for strength, there's prayers for for wisdom.

And quite honestly, I think that that's probably the one of the most consistent prayers that I personally pray for myself.

If you're ever wondering, man, how can I pray for Pastor Keith?

You can pray for wisdom, vision, and discernment.

Those are the things that I always pray for.

God, I want to have, I want to have wisdom.

I want to have, I want to have vision, I don't want to see, I want to see what you're doing, and I want to be sensitive to your spirit.

Those are the most consistent prayers that I pray categorically.

I want vision, wisdom, and discernment for my family.

I want wisdom, vision, and discernment on how I govern my life.

I want vision, wisdom, and discernment on how I lead our church.

Vision, wisdom, and discernment are the things that I most consistently pray for.

These all these different types of prayer.

Prayer is a relational conversation with God.

So, so what is the reason why we pray?

Why do we pray?

Let me let me let me give us um a little bit of context as to my journey on why I pray.

I've learned for myself that when I am in a place where I'm praying consistently with God, it gives me peace, perspective, and patience.

That prayer provides peace, perspective, and patience.

Because there's moments when we face the chaos that we need a little bit of peace.

There's moments when things are over our head that we just need a little bit of perspective, but we also just need patience to allow God to do what it is that He wants to do.

Because if you're anything like me, when we don't pray first, we can be in that category where you overthink and underpray.

Have you ever overthought and underprayed?

You think about it a lot, but you haven't prayed about it at all.

We we end up processing it a lot, we we consider it a lot, we Google a lot, we talk to a lot of people, but we haven't talked to God about it at all.

Or we overreact because we've underprayed.

I'm reacting to something, but have I prayed about it first?

Understanding that prayer should be our first response and not our last resort.

Jesus prayed a lot.

He taught on prayer a lot.

He he made sure that we understood the significance of prayer.

He even made statements that you have not because you ask not.

He spoke about the persistence and the importance of prayer.

Because I say this because I know that that sometimes we wrestle theologically because we understand the sovereignty of God.

Sovereignty of God means that he's in control.

But if we're not careful, we can allow that to um make us believe that because God's in control, he's gonna do what he wants to do, I don't even need to pray about it.

There could be nothing that's further from the truth.

Jesus prayed all the time, and Jesus was not into theater, but he did things for a very specific reason.

I want to talk about the I want to talk about King Hezekiah.

The Bible says about him that a prophet came and visited him and told him that you are going to die.

Imagine that type of church service.

You are about to die.

Get your house in order.

Hezekiah turns to the wall and he begins to pray.

And then what the Bible says is that the prophet is then informed, go back and tell him that I'm actually going to give him more time.

So, so did God change his mind, or did Hezekiah's prayer, his petition, allow there to be a shift and what the outcome was going to be?

I believe that that's an example that when we can seek God in prayer, that yes, sometimes prayer changes us, but also prayer changes it.

There is power in prayer.

We see this all the time.

Prayer is a relational conversation with God.

But but how do we pray?

Because the truth of the matter is it can seem very complicated.

It can seem very overwhelming because for some of us we we may not know how to pray.

We may not understand the nuances of prayer.

Historically, prayer was always this relational organic thing.

But when institutional worship was birthed, prayer became more strategic and liturgical.

Jesus comes on a scene and he's looking to try to unravel that because unfortunately, when the priests, the high priests, were installed, people began to outsource their spirituality.

They began to say, I don't need to pray because the prophets will pray for me.

I don't need to pray because the priest will pray for me.

That was never the will of God.

God never wanted us to outsource.

Our relationship with him with a conduit in the middle.

This is why when Jesus came and he died on the cross, it says that the veil of the temple is ripped in half.

That meant that the things that once separated us from God are removed, and now we can come boldly before God on our own, on behalf of our family, and pray ourselves.

Jesus didn't die for you to outsource relationships.

He died because he wants to hear from you.

He died because he wants to have a relationship with you.

He died because he wants to spend time with you.

We understand this that Jesus is telling us that prayer invites God into the conversation.

It invites him into the conversation.

I like to say it this way: before you worry about it, talk to God about it.

Before you overthink it, talk to God about it.

This is why the disciples, when they're with Jesus, of all the things, think about it, of all the things that they've seen Jesus do, what is the one thing they asked him to teach them to do?

Pray.

Lord, teach me how to raise the dead.

That'll slap.

That's dope.

Lord, Lord, teach me how to preach like you, where you can get 5,000 people in a room that are hungry and they still stay there captivated.

He's laughing at us right now.

Like, man, y'all in here hot right now.

It's only 88 degrees.

Y'all be fine.

Come out to the Middle East and see what it was really like.

So Jesus was, he was, he was able to keep a captive audience even when it's like a thousand degrees.

Teach me how to preach like you, Jesus.

Lord, if you can teach me how to serve like you, teach me how to have compassion like you.

No, they said, Lord, teach us how to pray.

Because we understand that if we can learn how to pray, then you can empower us to do the very things that's on our hearts.

He walks them through this idea of the Lord's prayer, and he ultimately starts it off with this idea that literally shifts the paradigm of their belief system.

Our Father.

It starts off with that statement.

Our Father who art in heaven.

Let me pause there for a moment.

Historically, God was always considered to be the father of an entire nation, not of individuals.

This is why they gave Jesus so much friction when they when he would begin to speak as if God was his father.

Man, you're you're talking out of line.

That's blasphemous because if God is your father, then you're making yourself equal to God.

So when Jesus is teaching his disciples to say this statement, our father, God is my father, he's allowing us to now have a more intimate perspective of our relationship with God.

It's not meant to be something that's done exclusively in the congregation setting, but it's something that can be now stewarded as individuals.

It's a beautiful, powerful moment.

When you read through the rest of the Lord's Prayer, ultimately what it's saying is that we have access.

We can get downloads from God, we can spend time with Him.

It is such a beautiful thing.

God then begins to make it clear to us that we can pray with the power of the Holy Spirit, using the word of God to undergird the very desires of our hearts.

See, James chapter 5, 16 says this.

James 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

And I love this part because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful in its effect.

It's saying that if you can, if you can effectively pray consistently, it will have a powerful effect.

I believe that Jesus lived a life where he modeled, he stewarded, that he showed us what it looks like to have a life filled with prayer.

The text that we just looked at in Luke 22, I believe, gives us an amalgamation of the different things that Jesus has done that hopefully we can extract to be encouragement for us.

If you want to have an effective, powerful prayer life, I want you to write these three thoughts down.

An effective, powerful prayer life has these three things.

Here's the first one: it has a place.

It has a place.

What scripture refers to with Jesus, it says that he will often get alone and pray, that he will remove himself from the environment so that he could go and pray.

The question that you have to ask is why would Jesus go to a separate environment to pray?

What's the purpose for it?

What's the significance of it?

Why wouldn't he take his disciples with him to these remote locations?

I believe that Jesus was showing us that if we really want to have uninterrupted time with God, we have to put ourselves in a place where we can minimize distractions.

Because it's so easy for every single one of us to be distracted.

We live in a world where everything is integrated.

We all love the devices that we have.

We all love the things that are at our fingertips.

But if I can be real with you, more often than not, when I have my phone with me during my times of prayer, I'm looking up a scripture, man, like, where's that verse at?

I'm looking it up while I'm reading it.

I get an alert from ESPN.

Brian Westbrook is now on the Lakers.

I'm like, word?

Let me see what that's about.

I've got completely sidetracked from my time that I was supposed to spend with God because an alert pops up that it's easy to distract me.

I've learned that if we don't create a separate space, a separate place that minimizes distractions, it's easy for us to kind of get thrown off course.

And in our house right now, we have like one of those open floor plans downstairs where the kitchen bleeds into the living room, which bleeds into the eating area.

It's a great place for community, but it is terrible if you're ever trying to actually focus to get anything done.

There have been many times on a Sunday morning, I'm laboring in prayer for every single one of you.

I'm seeking the Lord on your behalf.

And then I hear the ice machine go off in the back corner and Deneer over there getting something to drink.

She's like, did I interrupt you?

Yes, you did.

You took me out the spirit, girl.

Like it's it's it's so easy for us to be in environments where we can get sidetracked.

But what I believe Jesus modeled for us is that he had a separate place where he designated that this is where I spend time with God.

Here's my question for us.

Do you have a place that you've dedicated just for God?

Because here's the thing my garage is where I put my cars.

Stick with me.

The restroom has its purpose.

The bedroom has its purpose.

I'm talking to the merry folks in here.

The closet has its purpose.

All these different rooms have their purpose.

We create space for so many different things.

But if but if God were to walk through, he's like, hey, where's my space?

Do we have a space that we can say, God, this is a section of my home that I've carved out that is specifically just for you.

What Jesus shows us is that he would consistently remove himself from the environments that cause distraction because he said, This is the space where I engage God.

I firmly believe this with the essence of my being, that we need to create a space where we engage the presence of God to minimize distractions.

I believe that is a key component to having an effective prayer life.

Here's a second thing that I want us to consider.

To have an effective, impactful prayer life, we have to have time.

We have to make time.

Jesus was raised in the Jewish context, which means that traditionally they would pray three times a day.

That was their standard way in which they prayed.

But but Jesus said, I don't want to have a relationship with my people that is so rigid that you check the box off and you're done those three times a day.

So what Jesus would do is he would pray all throughout the day.

So yes, he would pray in the morning, he would pray in the afternoon, he would pray in the evening, but Jesus would also have these little short fire, quick prayers throughout the course of the day in order to make sure that he stayed engaged.

In fact, when you look at scripture, the Bible says that over 38 different times it refers to Jesus getting away and praying.

I'm a firm believer that if something is a priority, we make time for it.

Let me say that again.

If something is a priority, we make time for it.

We don't find time because time can't be found.

You make time, you prioritize it.

And I have to believe that if our relationship with God is a priority, we make time in order to engage Him.

Because it's so hard to really have intimacy with someone that you don't talk to.

I I see it so often as a pastor that sometimes on Sundays we we we listen to the first song and it's like, okay, cool, that's the setup song.

We get to the we get to the second song, okay, cool.

We get to the third song, and now we're fired up and ready.

Why does it take so long?

Probably because we're worshiping a God that we haven't talked to all week.

And it's taking us a while to get there.

And when we want this immediate intimacy, it takes a while for us to get there.

What God is trying to help us to understand is that I want to have a relationship with you where we talk on a regular basis.

Let me say it this way.

I absolutely adore my wife.

That should not be, that should not, that's not spoiler alert.

That should be obvious.

Okay?

I absolutely love my wife.

I love spending time with her.

I know it sounds cliche to say this, but she is literally my best friend.

Megan, you are my best friend.

You are my best friend, girl.

You know you are.

26 years in the game, girl.

You're gonna give me, look at this.

My best friend gave me something because you know my pair sweating like TD Jakes.

Okay, so look at that.

Get ready, get ready, get ready.

Okay, so, so, okay.

My my my best friend, we love spending time together, and we work together.

We drive to work together, we spend time together.

70% of our friends are couples.

We go out and we hang together, so we're always together.

We're always together.

So every now and then, though I adore you, you know I love you, girl, so much.

And you know I you know I do.

Girl, you look good today.

Yes, you do.

Um, every now and then, I just need a few moments to myself.

Every now and then, she needs a few moments to herself.

This weekend was one of those moments.

We just came back from vacation, we got home as soon as we got into the house.

I mean, you can imagine together for like four or five days nonstop in the room, everything we did was together.

So when we got home, like, man, that was a great vacation, so good to see you.

I'm going upstairs, I'll see you in a couple hours.

Like, it was like, just give me some room to breathe.

That was this weekend, that was Friday, that was Saturday.

But here's what we do.

Even though we are enjoying each other's company and we're in separate parts of the house, it would be so weird if I didn't talk to her for 10 hours the whole day.

So, you know what we do while I'm upstairs and she's downstairs watching reality TV.

I was actually working on this message, I was seeking the Lord, but she was just doing whatever she wants to do.

It's okay, no shade.

I love you.

You know I love you.

But you but you know, but you know what, you know what ends up happening is I'll shoot her a text message, hey, what you doing?

She'll send me a FaceTime, hey, what you watching?

We'll talk.

Just these little these little touch point things.

We're literally only like 30 feet away, but we'll have these little touch point things.

Here, here's why that's so important.

Because if I'm in my separate quarters and she's in her separate quarters and we don't talk all day, come on, Mary folks, it's hard to have an intimacy with someone you haven't talked to.

Spiritually speaking, that could be the tension that many of us have.

We talk to God once a week, but we want this intimacy.

That's not intimacy, that's a spiritual booty call.

Listen, man, y'all zooming the camera in.

I ain't never scared.

I ain't never scared.

What what God, what God wants from us is someone who is going to talk to him frequently.

Someone who can just say, Hey, God, I just want to thank you so much for your goodness.

That's it.

Someone who can just simply say, God, I'm so thankful for my family.

That's it.

Sometimes we think prayer is these big, grandiose, long, drawn-out statements.

I have my moments where I do prioritize that, but more often than not, I have these little rapid-fire prayers.

Lord, I'm just so thankful, God, that you allowed me to get to my destination safely.

Lord, I'm thankful that you allowed me to get something.

I'm thankful for the resources that I have.

My kids are acting up.

God, I'm so thankful prophetically that my kids are going to clean up this kitchen.

Like I'm I'm thankful.

I'm constantly having these little rapid-fire prayers.

And what I want to encourage us with is simply this that if we want to have this intimate relationship with God, don't wait until the end of the week.

Don't wait to the beginning of the week.

You can have these moments where you can have these quick little prayers.

I want to uncomplicate this for us.

We can come boldly into the presence of God, speak what's on your mind, and keep it moving, but you need to make sure that we have this thing where we're stewarding our relationship with God.

Y'all did not expect to come here and hear about booty calls, but I'm gonna talk about it.

Here's my third and final point.

Here's my third and final point.

We can ask the worship team to come back up and join me.

What the text says is that is that then Jesus is in the garden.

He goes to this place, he removes himself from the distractions, he makes the time to pray, but then the third and final thing is he goes into this posture of prayer.

The scripture says that he he gets on his knees and he begins to pray.

Now, maybe you're fairly new to the Christian faith.

And you come into services and you're trying to understand the lifting of hands, you're you're trying to understand why we sing, you're trying to understand some of the things that we have done, that we do.

It's all rooted in scripture, but it's mainly an expression of the posture of our heart.

The Bible talks about lifting holy hands.

That's a sign of surrender.

Getting on knees is a sign of humility.

So when we live a life where we have a posture of prayer, we're positioning ourselves in humility and recognizing that God is God.

When we open our hands up, it's our way of saying, and I trust him.

So I want us to think about this.

The posture of prayer is one where I humble myself and recognize that I can't do it all on my own.

I understand my limitations.

Prayer allows me to come to a place where I'm able to surrender my skills, my gifts, and I'll allow God to be a part of the equation.

This is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 5, 7.

You guys may be familiar with it.

Cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

It's our opportunity for us to be humble enough to recognize there's certain things I just can't carry.

So in my mind, this is what I often say I'm called to care, I'm not called to carry it.

We're called to care, but I'm not called to carry it.

And when I have a posture of prayer, no matter what comes my way, it allows me to humble myself and recognize that God is my father, that he is ultimately in control, and I trust, I trust what he's about to do.

Jesus is in this moment of anguish, this moment of pain, this moment of of emotional and spiritual exhaustion, and he says, I don't, I don't want to die.

But but nevertheless, not my will, your will be done.

The sequence of events that takes place is after Jesus makes this statement.

The scripture says that an angel comes and strengthens him.

I want us to see this.

That the angel comes and strengthens him after Jesus was at a place of total surrender.

See, a lot of times we think the answered prayer is getting the outcome that we want.

It's not.

Sometimes an answered prayer is giving us the endurance to survive what we face.

When we're at a place of total surrender.

Yes, God, I want you to remove this thorn from my flesh.

Yes, God, I don't want to drink from this cup.

But it's not what I want.

If this in some way is going to bring you glory, then God, I'm I'm willing to lay my life down.

Then the angels came and strengthened him for what he was about to face.

It's all about posture.

I believe our posture can determine how we engage the things that we are facing.

You see, when I think about posture, it brings me back to my experience at Atlantis.

Oddly enough, I need to put something on Travelocity to let them know they need to make it more clear what this whole rapids thing is all about.

But watch this.

After I capsized, after I was defeated by the wave, I got back on it again.

I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose.

But while I got on it again, I began to pay attention as I now was approaching the same area that had knocked me off before.

And I noticed this sign that was off to the right.

It says, You're about to enter into the wave zone.

Sit up, lift up your feet, engage your core, and ride the wave.

It was all about posture.

What I had to do is instead of me being laid back, instead of me allowing the water to kind of tip me over, I engaged the exact same environment, but I shifted my posture.

I rose up, I brought my feet in, I was in the position similar to this.

I engaged my core, and now what once took me under allowed me to ride the wave.

The momentum took me further, faster than I did when I was doing it my way.

I believe that all of us are hit with waves that we don't anticipate.

But I believe the thing that allows us to survive it.

I believe the thing that allows that thing that hits us to turn into momentum that propels us is the posture of prayer.

If I can sit up, if I can tuck my legs in, if I can begin to posture myself in a position where I'm inviting God to speak, where I'm inviting God to have his will, what once would have taken me over, what once would have caused me to lose my vision, I can now ride above the thing that used to consume me.

It's all about posture.

My question for some of us right now is what are the things that you're facing?

What are the things that are hitting you?

What are the things that have knocked you over?

I believe this at the core of my being.

If you can shift yourself to have a posture of prayer, what once consumes you becomes momentum that takes you further and faster than you ever could do in your own strength.

I say this from a place of transparency and honesty.

Let me say this to you in real time.

I know I'm a few minutes over, but y'all, y'all stick with me because I really want to I want to say this to you.

I wasn't supposed to be here this weekend.

And I don't mean that in a dramatic way.

I mean that I was supposed to be at our church in DC this weekend.

Um, that was the plan.

That was what I had already had laid out.

I already had a preacher lined up, everything was great.

So I'm on vacation with my family.

My message that I was going to preach in DC is already done.

I'm a person of rhythms and patterns, the way that I function.

But on Wednesday, Lindsay calls me and says, Hey, the preacher that was supposed to come, he got COVID, he can't make it.

So my mind begins to process through with this.

Okay, like, okay, what am I gonna do?

Okay, Lindsay, I'll call you back.

I hang up.

Immediately my mind begins to process, and and I'm starting to find myself getting a little bit frustrated because okay, is there anybody else that I know that can preach?

I haven't been up in DC in almost six weeks.

I you know, I want to make sure that I'm I'm I'm loving that community there as well.

What are we what do you want to do?

Like, I'm I'm beginning to process, I'm beginning to verbally process.

My my family's looking at me, they can see that my whole mood has shifted.

I'm I'm frustrated, I'm agitated.

And I felt in a moment that God said, stop talking to them about it and talk to me about it.

Almost mid-sentence and mid-complaint.

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

I'm gonna.

I stopped.

And I just kind of looked over for a second.

I'm gonna put my head down.

I closed my eyes.

It may have been about five seconds, but to me it felt like an eternity.

Because I felt like God had given me an overwhelming sense of peace, He'd given me an overwhelming sense of clarity.

I opened my eyes back up.

I'm gonna preach.

I'll have somebody preach in DC.

I know that I'm gonna have to write a message in one day, but God is with me.

Historically, something that would have ruined my weekend, that would have even ruined the rest of my vacation, I had to shift my posture when something unexpected came my way.

That may seem like a small thing to you, but I just want you to see, even for me, when things happen, it's so easy for us to shift into the way that we think, it's so easy for us to shift into the way that we process things.

But I had to pause, I had to position myself to give it to God.

I had a sense of peace, perspective, and I trusted God with the outcome.

What is it that you're facing right now that you're thinking about but you haven't prayed about?

Because that's who I want to pray for right now.

But to take it as Step further.

I don't want to just pray for you.

I want to pray with you.

Because Jesus died, so you have access to Him as well.

If you're in here right now, I'm not going to call you to the altar.

We don't necessarily have the time for it, but I do want to know who I'm praying for.

If there's something that you're processing through, if there's something that you're carrying, if there's a decision that you need to make, there's something that you're walking through, that wave that can sometimes catch us off guard.

If you've been hit with that, let's pray.

But would you be bold enough to let me know who you are?

Want to count on three?

Keith, I want you to pray with me.

One, two, three.

Hands up.

Hands up.

Hands up.

Heavenly Father, you see every hand that's lifted.

Lord, you're familiar with the burdens that every single one of us carries.

You know how these waves can come and be such a profound distraction.

They can subside us, God.

It can cause us to lose perspective.

God, I pray alongside my brothers and sisters right now in the name of Jesus.

God, I pray that you give them the stability, the ability to change their posture with whatever they're facing, God.

Right now, God, I pray for those who are dealing with financial hardship and those who are struggling financially.

In the name of Jesus, God, I pray that you bring relief.

I pray that you bring clarity.

I pray that you bring strength.

God, I pray for every person that's dealing with fractured relationships, those who've been sidetracked or caught off guard with the dynamics of a relationship that has shifted.

Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, God, that you cover them.

You give them a peace that surpasses all understanding, Father.

God, I pray for every person, God, that is dealing with housing issues, homes, where they're gonna stay.

God, I pray, God, that you order their steps, that they engage you, God, in prayer and are patient with the way that you're gonna walk it out, God.

Prayer does not mean that we don't do our part, but prayer means that we talk to you about it first, Lord.

I pray for every student, I pray for every teacher, I pray for every parent, God, I pray for every sickness in here.

There are some among us who've got a diagnosis and it caught you off guard.

But Father, you are the great physician, and I pray in the name of Jesus that your healing virtue is extended to them, God, that we seek you, that we posture ourselves to experience your grace, and that maybe this can be a testimony that reaches doctors and people who don't have a relationship with you, God.

Father, I pray for healing.

I pray for strength.

I pray for stability.

I pray for breakthrough from addictions and things that have kept your people bound.

We come against it right now in the name of Jesus, the name that's above every name.

We declare victory where there's areas of loss.

We declare freedom in areas of bondage.

Just sit there for a moment.

Just sit there for a moment and let the let the grace, the power, and the presence of God wash over you.

Holy Spirit, you do the work.

Holy Spirit, you bring us strength.

Holy Spirit, you bring us stability.

I want everyone to look at me.

We're gonna wrap up in in just a moment.

I want to ask us all to stand on our feet as we prepare to wrap up.

Thank you for being patient with me.

We're a little bit longer than we typically would, and I know it's very warm in here, so let me let me give you to wrap us up.

But but prayer is not a permission to not do our part.

We pray and we walk it out.

We pray and we trust God.

We pray and we walk by faith.

We pray and we do our part.

If you're in here with us right now, and and I know that I've just prayed uh uh a lot, but if you're in here with us today and you know that your next step is to surrender your life to Christ, we've been praying for you, and my hope is that you can respond in this moment.

We don't believe that a raised hand is the thing that ultimately brings salvation.

We believe that that's an expression of what God is doing in your heart.

So if that's you and you know that your next step is to simply surrender your life to Christ, I want to lead you in a prayer as we prepare to wrap up.

So if that's you, on a count of three, today is the day of salvation.

I'm surrendering my life to Jesus.

We're gonna walk this thing out together.

Want to count of three, would you boldly lift your hand?

One, two, three.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I am profoundly encouraged seeing that.

Can we put our hands together for everybody in here that has made a decision to follow Christ?

Here's here's what I here's what I want to do.

We're gonna do something a little bit um slightly different.

I want to I want to pray for us.

Um the worship team is gonna lightly continue to play.

If you want to stay in here, you're more than welcome to stay for a few more moments just to kind of like soak it in.

But after that, we would love to connect with you outside.

I I do want to say this because I realize that that prayer is such a weighty thing.

It's something that can feel overwhelming and it's a process.

I want you to hear me.

We we do have resources that are meant to serve as a guide to help you.

If you go to celebration.org, this is our this is our central page.

There's a link on there that says resources.

If you scroll about halfway down, there's a guide that's called the prayer guide.

You can click that, you can download that, and it literally gives you the history of prayer, it gives you some prayers that you can look to, it gives you a guideline of things that helps you to understand the nuances of prayer in more depth than what I was able to do just now.

If you just need something that's gonna help you, I want to encourage you to please consider go to celebration.org resources, download that prayer guide.

What I want to do now is I want to pray for those who have decided to give their life to Christ.

Um, and then we're gonna pray a little bit more.

The worship team is gonna play, and we will certainly love to connect with you outside.

But but can you guys repeat after me, helping along those who are praying this prayer for the first time?

Repeat with me.

Say, Lord Jesus, I surrender my life.

I believe you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead, and I am saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps in Jesus' name.

Church, can we put our hands together one more time to celebrate with every single person?

We're so proud of you.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

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

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

We hope you join us next time.