Do Your Hands Have Splinters? | Pastor Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and it inspires you.

Amen.

Amen.

I am so, so glad that you are all here with us today.

I'm grateful for just moments of worship, opportunities for us to gather in the name of Jesus and be able to experience Him in community.

So as Pastor Nate had mentioned earlier, man, we're we're so glad that you're here.

And we believe that God is really going to speak to us and do some incredible things here.

And as Lindsay mentioned earlier, we're we're stepping into a new series.

That series is called Pursue.

And I I couldn't be more excited about it.

And it was really birthed out of this idea of recognizing coming out of a season of prayer and fasting and positioning ourselves in such a way that we can expect to hear from God, to expect to get some things clear in our lives.

But I also recognize it's in these moments that when God begins to speak, when God begins to show us what he has for us, there's something that's required upon us.

There's something that requires us to still go after it, to still pursue it.

Because God will lay some things out, but we still got to position ourselves to go and grab it.

So that's what this series is really meant to kind of accentuate, to make it simple.

The idea of pursuit, it simply means this.

It means to seek after, to obtain, to look to accomplish.

The synonyms are connected to it.

That simply says it means to chase something down, to go after it, to fully engage, to seek after with all of our heart and with all of our strength.

You see, that's the core of who we are as followers of God.

That's the core of who we are, even as a church.

We believe that God is calling us to pursue everything that He has for us.

Often when I'm having conversations with my family and we're making dreams and goals for things that we believe that God is calling us to do in any given season, our response is always this: I don't want anything more but nothing less than what God has for us, and we're going to pursue everything that He has for us.

We've even shifted the way that we, the way that we even communicated as a church.

If you've been around us for any period of time, you may have heard us say that we are leading people to experience a God first life.

And that still is something that we firmly believe in, but we made a subtle shift to the way we present our mission statement.

Instead of us saying we're leading people to experience a God first life, we now say that we are God's family, pursuing God's kingdom.

Here's a reason for the shift.

We don't believe that God is calling us to sit back and wait to experience what he has for us.

He's actually calling us to passionally pursue everything that he has for us.

That is ultimately what it is.

And I want to share this passage of scripture with you because I truly believe this.

And I want you to kind of put this in your spirit.

This is going to be like the main theme.

You're going to hear it so much, you're going to get nauseous when you hear it by the time that this series is over.

But nonetheless, I want you to write it down.

Our pursuit determines our experience.

Our pursuit, that determines our experience when we pursue something that shapes what we experience.

I want to share it with you here in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 33.

Matthew 6:33

It says this, it says, but seek first.

That word seek, it's synonymous with pursue, something that's incumbent upon us.

Seek first, pursue first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.

The context of this passage that Jesus is instructing his people to understand that you are filled with anxiety and stress, and you're concerned about how you're going to provide for your family.

You're concerned about so many things.

But if you seek after the kingdom of God first, everything else will begin to fall into place.

We heard that from Pastor Nate's testimony, putting God first, seeking after the things of God, and then it began to fall in place.

Our pursuit determines our experience.

Matthew chapter 7, verse number 7, Jesus says it this way: same teaching.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Jesus is helping us to understand that I do want to give it to you.

I do want you to find it.

I do want to open a door to you, but there's something that's required on you, you have to pursue it.

So if you want to have the answer provided for you, you have to ask, pursue it.

If you want to find your calling, your purpose, your destiny, you have to seek after it.

He's saying if you want some doors to open up for you, you're going to have to knock on.

And what ultimately Jesus is instructing his followers is that our pursuit determines our experience.

That if we want to experience some things in our lives, it's going to require us to pursue, to go after it, to chase it down, so to speak.

It even talks about how we need to pursue the things of God as it relates to us growing in our faith.

1 Timothy chapter 6, verse number 11.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

I love how it says it here.

It says, But you, man of God, flee from these things.

The context of that is that they're referring to these carnal things, things of the world, doing things with the world's mentality.

He says, flee from those things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

We we see here that the instructions from Paul to Timothy is he's saying, Don't do things the way that the world does them, but pursue righteousness.

If you want righteousness in your life, you're gonna have to pursue it.

You're gonna have to put yourself in a position to get it.

Righteousness is not gonna just show up at your door like an Amazon package.

You're gonna have to go out and get it.

If you want righteousness in your home, you have to pursue it.

If you want godliness, you're gonna have to pursue it.

Position yourself in godly environments.

It's not gonna just show up, you're gonna have to get after it.

You're gonna have to pursue some things if you want your faith to grow.

You're gonna have to pursue it.

Coming and listening to messages, and that's wonderful, but you're gonna have to create some space and pursue it if you really want to experience it.

Paul's instructing them and making sure they understood that there's a responsibility that we all have to play if we want to truly experience what God has for us.

Our pursuit determines our experiences.

I remember when my family and I we went and got season passes to an amusement park for the first time.

It was several years ago.

Even to this day, when I go back and I look at old pictures, because you know, whenever somebody's birthday comes up, you're just kind of scrolling through old pictures that you can put um on Instagram.

And so my daughter's birthday or my son's birthday had passed not too long ago, and I'm just kind of looking at all these old pictures, and I was amazed at when we were going to the amusement park, seeing him and my family kind of growing and all the fun and all the experiences that we had.

See, experiences turn into memories, but let's just know those things didn't magically appear on my phone.

I had to go and actually buy the tickets.

Hello, that was expensive, but I had to I had to buy it, I had to pursue it.

We had to get in the car and drive to the park.

We had to wait in lines and be patient.

We had to do all these things that then gave birth to an experience that is now connected to our memory.

See, the thing is, I think if we want to have experiences, sometimes we want experiences, but we lack the pursuit.

But if we want to get the experience, it's going to require us to pursue some things.

I even love how it says here in Hebrews chapter 11, verse number six, it says, Now without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and he is a rewarder of those who seek after him.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

We even are seeing here that the scripture is telling us that when we pursue the things of God, that there is a reward that comes alongside of it.

The reward is his presence, the reward is a revelation, the reward is the breakthrough that we've been waiting for.

We don't sit back and passively wait to experience God.

We have to passionately pursue it.

And what we're gonna do over the next couple of weeks is we're gonna unpack these key areas in our lives that I believe that God is calling us to continue to pursue after him so that we can experience the kingdom of God, which is what he wants us to have.

We're gonna now shift and get into our primary text.

All that was just the introduction.

I wasn't even preaching yet, but we're about to get there now.

Just getting y'all to get buy-in, just helping y'all to get the buy-in so y'all can ride with me because we're gonna go somewhere with this in just a moment.

But our our primary text is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

We're gonna read verses 1 through 12, and we're gonna pray and give some space for God and the Holy Spirit to kind of speak and stir our hearts.

But it says this, starting at verse number one, when he came to Capernaum, again, him being Jesus, when he came to Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that he was at home.

So many gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the door.

And as he was speaking the word to them, they came to him, bringing a paralytic carried by four of them.

Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus, because the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was laying.

Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

But some of the scribes that were sitting there questioning in our hearts, why does this man speak like this?

He's blasphemy.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Right away, Jesus perceived in his spirit what they were thinking within themselves, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things in your heart?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic that your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take up your mat and walk.

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority even to forgive sins, he told the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home.

Immediately he got up, he took the mat, and he went out from in front of everyone.

And as a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

We've never seen anything like this.

Let's pray and see what God wants to speak to us today.

If you're taking notes, I simply want you to write this message title down, Do Your Hands Have Splinters?

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much.

We're so thankful for opportunities for us to gather.

So whether you're sitting in our in-person venue or maybe you're watching this online or listen to this months from now, God, we're thankful.

And we believe that whenever we open up your word, that your spirit and your presence is there.

So, God, I just pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes that we can see you, open ears that we can hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us, God.

We create this space and we give it to you.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

You know, I I remember probably about 15 years ago, I think, give or take, um, when I first walked into the doors of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

My family and I, we had moved to Jacksonville about 15, 16 years uh ago, and and we were leaving out of a church context that that ultimately gave birth to us spiritually.

Again, Megan and I were raised in Christian households, but it was this church that really raised us up to have a real personal relationship with God.

And so when we were leaving that location, Megan and I were very involved.

We were now shifting, and I accepted a job in Jacksonville, Florida in the school system.

And now we were trying to find a church home that would work for us and our family, and it took us a little bit of time, but I remember getting an invitation from one of my coworkers at the time that says, Hey, I think it'll be great if you come and visit this church.

I feel like you would really appreciate it.

It was vastly different than anything that Megan and I had ever been a part of.

Our context and our church up in the Northeast was it was a holiness church, a Pentecostal church.

I'm thinking one of them churches where people just get up and start running.

Like one of the type churches.

That's where we came from.

Just just just just one of those fired up churches.

So when I come to celebration, that's vastly different than anything that I had ever seen.

First and foremost, I was amazed at seeing the diversity.

I was amazed at seeing how it was really a church that was really intentionally developing itself to have a church that looks like heaven, and we love that.

It was like, man, this is this is great.

I also remember that as we were leaving church, I would look at my children and they were actually happy.

Because in our old church context, you walked in, you didn't know when you were getting out.

Like y'all thought I preached long.

Listen, you walked in and it could be hours later.

So like my kids were happy because they knew, like, okay, at most it'll be an hour and a half.

We can go get something to eat, like we can still live our lives.

As I remember that experience, like it was just yesterday, and like looking at the true joy that was with our family.

But after going there for about six, I would say six to eight months, um, I knew that God began to kind of stir us to do a little bit more.

I felt that God was kind of nudging us to get involved.

But me reluctantly, I'm like, nah, man, I'm not ready.

I'm really enjoying showing up, literally sitting on the back row and piecing out even during the prayer.

Like I used to didn't think that was a big deal until I was a guy preaching.

I'm like, man, where y'all going?

I haven't finished praying yet.

Okay, I digress.

But I remember having those seasons when when I was, that was our role.

And then there was a moment when our church was having like one of those really high engagement moments when our global senior pastor, Pastor Stovall, was preaching a message about the importance of getting involved.

So he's preaching on getting involved with your giving, getting involved in groups, getting involved and serving.

And so my family was all fired up.

Megan was fired up, little baby De Niro was fired up.

Caleb was too small, but then my youngest son, Keith Jr., he was fired up.

So they start serving.

My son is serving in a parking lot.

Megan and De Niro start serving in kids, but not your boy.

I'm like, man, that's that's I'm not feeling it just yet.

I was like, God, if you really want me to start serving, you have to make it clear.

As if the 45-minute message that the pastor had just got finished preaching wasn't clear enough.

Lord, you need to make it clear.

So literally, the very next week, I'm sitting in the back row, my wife is serving, and kids, I will sit in two services, we would sit and wait for her to come in for the next one.

And as I'm sitting there, this gentleman walks by and he does a double take and he looks at me.

I still remember his name, Steve.

He was an usher.

He came up to me and he's like, hey, I just feel like God told me to tell you that it's time for you to get off the sidelines and it's time for you to get involved and start serving.

I was so upset because I had no more excuses.

I was able to flip that thing as much as I could, and I was like, Are you kidding me?

But I knew that that was clearly God saying, Okay, Keith, I shouldn't have to do this because you know better, but I will pursue you one more time to invite you to be a part of this work that I'm calling you to be a part of.

Needless to say, I started serving as an usher and I was opened up to an amazing community of men, and we would pray together, we would serve together, we would do life together, we would do all types of things that was just beyond my context.

For an introvert like me, that would seem like a lot of energy, but I actually began to really enjoy it.

While I was serving there, we would often have prayer requests, and while we had one of our prayer requests, um they would say, Hey, like what can we be praying for for those of us that are serving in our community?

And at that time, for me and my family, we were like really trying to navigate through some financial situations.

So I was like, man, can y'all just pray for me with my finances, man?

I just really want some wisdom and discernment on how to do it.

Kind of like when Nate was saying, like doing our best to steward our resources and give it to God, but also recognizing that sometimes you got more months than you got money.

Anyone know what that feels like?

We're like, man, like it's I don't get paid till the 30th and it's the 22nd.

Rama knows it is.

Like you're just you're just trying your best to try to try to survive and make it work.

We were kind of in one of those spaces.

But then they were like, okay, yeah, we're gonna pray for you.

Then someone said, Hey, have you have you ever considered going to Financial Peace University, man?

Like they got some really good wisdom on how to put some things in place in your life.

And so for me, I'm like, all right, sure, we'll show up.

Megan and I go and get involved in this financial group, and it literally changed our lives.

We still have friendships with those people, and those principles have literally helped us to navigate through debt and how to really steward our resources well.

While we were serving in that, we were told about, hey man, like there's this great outreach opportunity for you guys to come and participate in.

So I'm like, all right, God, if you're creating an opportunity, we're gonna show up, we're gonna step into it.

So we went in, we served at this outreach with At-Risk Youth.

I absolutely loved it.

And while serving there, I got connected with pastors on staff at the church, and and now I'm serving in student ministries and serving and preaching the gospel, something I knew I was called to do, but oddly enough, I thought that my season of serving in that capacity, it was geographically based, which meant when I was in that church in the Northeast, a much smaller church, a church where everybody knew us, we knew everybody, I thought that that my calling was reserved for there because when I came to celebration, I was thinking to myself, this church is far too big.

They don't need me, they don't need my gifts.

I have nothing to contribute, so I'm going to try to play the background as much as I can.

But I found that these open doors would present themselves and we would just show up.

We would step into it, and long story short, they end up inviting my wife and I to come on staff, and as we start serving on staff, me in the groups of department, Megan serving as a resource director, then God opens up another door, and now we're in DC as executive pastors, and and and now we're here, and now we've done all these things.

And when I think about all the things that God has allowed us to do, I recognize that it all started with showing up and serving.

I recognize that all it was is me showing up and saying yes to the things that God was asking me to do and pursuing after it.

You see, I see a weird correlation when we talk about what is our purpose and our calling.

Because when I when I moved to Florida, I really found myself saying, God, what is what is my calling?

I have a career, but I don't know what my calling is.

I'm not sure if you've ever been in that space where you you got the degree, you got you got the you got the credentials that you're looking for, but you're still looking for moments for you to truly feel fulfilled.

What is my purpose?

What is my calling?

I was wrestling with those very things as I showed up in front of the church over 15 years ago.

But interestingly enough, God began to give me a very clear revelation between what does it mean when you understand your purpose and your calling.

See, we all have the same purpose.

We were all created for the same purpose, and that is to reflect the image of God.

Genesis tells us that we are created in the image of God, and our responsibility is now to bear his image in every environment that he's called us to be in.

That is ultimately our purpose.

But our calling is the place, the location or vocation in which we do that.

So for some of us, that may mean being an attorney.

I am called to reflect the image of God with being an attorney.

For some of us, that may mean I'm a musician.

I'm called to reflect the image of God in the places where God has called me to be a musician.

For some, you may be a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad.

I am called to reflect the image of God in this location through this vocation.

And interestingly enough, as I began to recognize what my purpose was, was to reflect the image of God, but to now express it in the locations that he called me to do it, I began to find myself feeling fulfilled.

See, what Jesus shows us is he begins to show us that his purpose was connected to his serving.

He says it this way in Matthew chapter 20, verse number 28.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

He said, Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus directly connects his purpose with his serving.

I think about the many people that I've had a chance to talk to who are in the nonprofit space.

And when I talk with them and I kind of get in a sense of, man, how did you arrive here where you recognize that you wanted to lead an organization that had this impact on the city?

More often than not, it wasn't like they had this big vision or dream.

A lot of times it was a person who was simply looking at a problem.

They began to serve to bring about a solution, and then God revealed to them that that was ultimately what they were called to do.

You'd be amazed at what God will reveal to you when you simply put yourself in a posture of making yourself available and pursuing whatever it is that God is inviting you to do.

Jesus shows us directly that his purpose was connected to his serving because he came to serve, and through that serving, it allowed us all to benefit from it.

When we look at this passage of scripture that we've just been reading, I believe we see a very interesting connection here between what does it look like as Jesus is serving the community and people that are pursuing Jesus.

Let me give us some background so we can kind of get caught up as to what's going on.

This entire miracle takes place in a village called Capernaum.

The village name, it it represents this idea of people being made whole.

That's what the name is synonymous with.

While Jesus is there, this is not his first time there.

In fact, it turns out that this becomes Jesus' base of operations.

The first time that Jesus is there, he's actually there and he heals Peter's mother-in-law of having a fever, a sickness.

Like the Bible says that that his mother-in-law was sick, and that Jesus brings, that Peter brings Jesus into his home to deal with his mother-in-law.

Some of y'all are saying, like, right now, man, is that what I need to do?

Get my in-law situation fixed.

I just need to get Jesus involved.

But but but here's what Jesus does: He brings Jesus inside of his home to deal with the sickness that is in the household.

I believe that there's something powerful there of what the things that can happen when we begin to bring Jesus into our homes and we put things into his hand.

The scripture says that his, that, that Peter's mother-in-law's hand was placed in the hands of Jesus and that he raised her up and he healed her.

I believe this and with all my heart that as long as it's in Jesus' hands, it's not in mine.

What are the things that we are struggling with that we need to put into the hands of Jesus?

What are the things that we are recognizing that we need a miracle in?

Well, maybe the answer is simply putting it into the hands of Jesus.

When Jesus was there, they put the sickness into his hands and he brought about a rapid miracle.

And as a result of that, a revival broke out.

Scriptures say that there were so many people that Jesus eventually ended up leaving.

So you can understand that when Jesus is back, everybody is excited to know that Jesus is back, that he's preaching, that he's ultimately doing a tent revival in his base of operations.

And so now people are trying their best to get into the presence of God, to know that if I can just get in the presence of Jesus, that maybe I can hear a word, maybe I can have an encounter that can radically change my life.

You see, there's these men that were made aware that Jesus was in town.

And they were probably familiar with the miracles of Jesus when he was there before.

They may have heard about the miracles that he had done in the surrounding villages, and so they they took it upon themselves and know that there's somebody in our world that can benefit from being in the presence of Jesus.

They went into servant mode because they knew that if we can just get our friend into the presence of Jesus, it has the ability to radically change his life.

There's three principles that I want to share with us that I think can can really help us as we're navigating through how do we walk in the fulfillment of our calling with understanding our ultimate purpose.

Here's the first thing I want us to do when we recognize that our serving is connected to our calling.

Here's his first thing serving pursues people.

That serving, it it pursues people.

I I think about when I was sitting on the back row of our church and Steve walked by, he saw me and he pursued me.

He saw, he was sensitive enough, and he said, Hey, I'm gonna, I want to invite you to come and be a part of this thing because I think if you can get in this community, it can actually help you to experience wholeness.

I believe that serving pursues people.

You see, I think about this this paralyzed man, this man who was unable to move forward.

He was stuck, so to speak.

And what scripture says is that these four men, they went and got him to bring him into the presence of Jesus.

They went and pursued him.

It wasn't good enough for them to say, like, hey man, I know about this guy, but they went and got their friend and brought him into the presence of Jesus.

As if they really believed that Jesus was the answer.

I often find myself asking this question.

As a people of faith, if we really believe that Jesus is the answer, if we really believe that salvation and wholeness is found in the presence of Jesus, who are the people that we're pursuing to help them experience the same freedom that we've experienced?

That's a servant mentality.

These men immediately began to think about the people that were in their world that were paralyzed.

And I suspect that many of us, we can think about folks that we know they are paralyzed right now.

Sometimes people are paralyzed in sin.

Sometimes they're paralyzed in fear.

They're paralyzed in debt.

They're paralyzed with anxiety.

There's things that are often keeping people from moving forward.

And our awareness is an opportunity for us to pursue them and invite them to come into a place where maybe they can experience the wholeness from Jesus.

See, we're not the answer, but if we can simply position people and have a taste and see that the Lord is good in a moment, then maybe they can begin to walk it out.

But our servant heart is something that requires us to pursue the people.

What serving does is it pursues people.

Here's the second thing that I believe our serving has a potential of doing.

Serving it removes obstacles.

What our serving does is it is it helps us to remove obstacles.

You see, that the text tells us that when the men show up, they go and get their friend.

They're carrying him on this mat for them.

They're equally trying to distribute his weight so that way he doesn't fall off.

They they walk and no one knows the distance, but they walk and they finally get to the place where Jesus is.

They get to the place where they know that if their friend can just get into the presence of Jesus, then everything will be fixed.

But when they get there, it is so crowded that they can't even get through the front door.

What you'll find is the people that made up the bulk of the folks in the room were the religious people.

The scribes, the Pharisees, they had a front row seat.

They were taking up seats that the broken people needed to occupy.

Imagine that for a moment.

When someone who was broken, who needs to have an encounter with God, they show up and all they do is encounter religion.

I remember when Megan and I first gave our life to Christ and we're beginning this journey.

Sometimes not even wanting to go to church because you're wondering if you have the right outfit if you would fit in.

I remember wrestling with if I had the proper Christian language to talk to anybody because everybody there was at such a different level and the anxiety and the stress that we would feel every time we showed up for quite a bit of time.

I I remember the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing if you're going to feel loved or accepted for just where you are.

I still remember that, just as clear as it was yesterday.

I remember the anxiety and stress that that gave birth to.

Imagine showing up at the household of God with a desire, with a need to have an encounter with God, and you get met with religious.

You get met with you don't fit in here.

You get met with these moments where you feel as if you just can't get a breakthrough.

I'm convinced that sometimes we take God's job from him because we feel like it's our job to change people.

When it's actually our job to remove the obstacles so that folks can get into the presence of God and allow his word to begin to do the work on the inside of them.

Our job is to remove the barriers to keep people from experiencing God, but sometimes religion gets in the way.

Here's what I know about religion: religion is man's way to God, but Jesus is God's way to man.

And our responsibility is to remove the obstacles and the barriers that could be keeping people from experiencing God.

You see, what these men did is when they showed up and there was this barrier that was preventing them from getting their breakthrough with their friend, they weren't content with that.

They said, This isn't good enough, so let me let me let me go onto the roof.

The Bible says they go onto the roof and they literally tear through the roof.

The roof was made of clay and had this straw material, so they literally would begin to get splinters in their hand as they're tearing away the barriers and obstacles because they know if I can just get if I can just get my friend into the presence of Jesus, that has the potential of changing everything.

It's uncomfortable.

We have to go above and beyond, but that's what it looks like, and I love what our church has done.

When Megan and I showed up at the front doors of our church 15 years ago, seeing someone that was actually smiling and greeting us in the parking lot, it helped us to remove the obstacles.

When we walked in and someone simply said these words to us, we're so glad you're here.

I want you to understand that that's just not a phrase we say when we're being nice, but that's our way of saying, I don't know what you did before you got here.

I don't know what your struggles were last night, but I'm just glad that you're here today.

Because I know if you're here today, then God has something for you and there's a breakthrough on the other side of it.

I wish somebody was feeling this thing the way that I was because when I showed up, I was wondering if they would be glad that I was there.

But when they said, We're glad you're here, I'm not concerned about where you were yesterday.

I'm just glad that you're here because God is here now and you're going out of your way to pursue what God wants to speak in your life.

I'm glad that you're here.

And if you were part of any of our churches, we're just glad that you're here.

We're gonna do everything we can do to remove the obstacles, to remove the religious constraints, and allow you to have an encounter with God that allows him to speak a word to you, to let you know that your sins are forgiven, to let you know that you can pick up the map and go home.

We're just glad that you're here because we know that here is a place that you can experience your breakthrough.

It's understanding that we are called to be people that remove obstacles and barriers that keep people from experiencing God.

That is ultimately what we're called to do.

Because maybe some of you remember what it felt like when you showed up and didn't know if you would fit in.

Maybe some of us remember what it felt like when we showed up and we didn't know if we would be accepted.

Maybe what God is saying now that the same grace that you have received, it's time for you to now turn and create a space for somebody else because every week we have new people that show up and they're just wondering if they fit in.

And when we say, We're so glad you're here, it begins to remove the obstacles that are keeping people from experiencing what God has for them.

I believe that when we serve, our responsibility is to remove the obstacles.

See, the friends they show up.

They pursue their friend, they remove the obstacles.

And the the third thing that I want you to write down before we close is that when we serve, it helps to move people forward.

It helps to move people forward.

They remove the obstacles and they they tear open the roof.

And the scripture says they lower the man down in front of Jesus.

That's almost as if we're we're in here right now.

We're just having a good time.

I'm preaching the word, God's here, it's going great.

And then now we just hear this commotion above us.

The roof literally tears open, and there's a paralyzed man who was lowered down on a mat in front of us.

Jesus, he sees the man, but then he looks up at the friends, and the Bible says he sees their faith and it compels him to respond.

He didn't see the faith of the paralyzed man, he saw the faith of the friends, and that's when it compelled him to respond.

You'd be amazed at how God sees your faith when you're inviting a friend to your church.

You'd be amazed at how God sees your faith when you tell somebody to come over to your home to experience the celebration everywhere church at home experience.

You'd be amazed at how God sees your faith when you send somebody a scripture and you send them an encouraging word.

God sees your faith.

The Bible says that God saw their faith, and as a result of seeing their faith, it inspired him to move.

It inspired him to respond, it inspired him to react.

My question is, who are you believing God for right now?

What are you believing God for right now?

Maybe you're believing God for a loved one, and maybe that's a prayer that you stop praying.

I want to encourage you, you keep praying that prayer because God sees your faith.

Maybe you need to put it down on a prayer request, but God sees your faith.

That every time you show up, God sees your faith.

And a question that I often ask myself, God, can you see my faith?

Can you see my faith in my family?

Can you see my faith in my finances?

God, can you see my faith when it comes to my calling?

I need God to see my faith, and ultimately what we know is that the faith that we have in God requires something that God can see.

You see, they did something with it.

They weren't passively saying, hey, we're gonna we're gonna lob in a prayer request and hopefully Jesus gets it.

No, we're gonna go get our friend, we're gonna remove the obstacles.

In other words, faith has a visible expression.

Can you see my faith?

God sees their faith and he responds and he simply says, Your sins are forgiven.

Now, here's what I want you to understand.

There's not many instances in scripture.

In fact, there's only two in the gospel where sin and sickness are directly connected.

Only two stories.

So it's for a reason why God is connecting this story to sin.

Because ultimately the condition of the man, he was paralyzed because of a sin issue.

That there was something in his life that was keeping him from being able to move forward.

So Jesus could have very easily just healed a man, but he wanted to address the issue that was actually keeping him paralyzed.

I think sometimes we we want to get a touch from God, but we don't recognize that sometimes what God wants to touch is our very position as we are in the kingdom.

He says that your sins are forgiven.

And I don't know who needs to hear this, but but your sins are forgiven.

That you're not here by mistake, that you're not here for coincidence, but you're here because Jesus wants you to know that your sins are forgiven.

So now that your sins are forgiven, it's time for you to get up, to take up the mat and go home.

You see, what's interesting is that because the sins were forgiven and God now gave him mobility, in other words, the ability to move forward, it would have been ridiculous if the man would have continued to lay on the mat.

It would have been weird if his friends brought him there and Jesus says your sins are forgiven, but he's like, yo, but you know what?

I kind of like when you guys carry me, so I want to stay on this mat.

No.

The forgiveness of sins compels him to get up and to walk that thing out.

And I believe what God is saying for some of us is that you've been forgiven.

So stop letting that filthy mat define you, and now you begin to carry it and use it as your testimony.

He says, get up, take up the mat and walk.

And what the scripture says is that he walks out in front of everybody.

The very people that once was blocking him from getting in, now had to make way and give honor to God and what God had done through him.

I love, I love when that's what I call a God flex.

I love when God flexes on us like that.

Where he, the very barrier, the very thing that was trying to limit us, God now begins to use that.

It's powerful.

I want to invite the worship team up with us as we prepare to close.

Their response is really interesting.

After they they have this moment where they see this man's faith from his friends and he gets up, he takes up his bed and he walks.

They say, We have never seen anything like this before.

We've we've never seen anything like this before.

I believe if we want to see something we've never seen before, we gotta do something we've never done before.

These men, they knew if I can just get my friend into the presence of Jesus, I will do everything I can to remove every obstacle, every barrier, to ensure that my friend has an encounter with God because I know that encounter has the ability to radically change his life.

I still remember my transformational encounter with God.

Maybe some of you do as well.

Maybe you were still on that journey, but you remember that moment of when you knew that God was real, that moment when you knew that your sins were forgiving, that moment when you could get up and you could begin to move forward with your life.

You remember that moment?

I believe what God then compels us to do is to remember that.

This is why testimony is such a crucial component of the Christian faith.

To be reminded, to reflect back on what God has done through you and in you.

You never forget where you came from, but then you keep that same passion so that way when you know that God is going to show up in a place, you begin to have the same posture as those four friends.

If I could just get my friend into the presence of Jesus, I know that they can have an encounter that can radically change their lives.

Who are the people that God has given you influence with that you stop inviting to come to church?

The reason why we do church at home intentionally now is because we were hearing testimonies about how people were inviting people into their homes because they were more willing to do that than they were to come into a church building, but people got saved as a result of it.

We we didn't want to lose that momentum, and so we intentionally are going to have throughout the course of the year, about four times a year, where you can invite people into your home.

The key is who are the people you're believing God for?

And if you really believe that the presence of God is a transformational encounter, who are the people that you need to invite to have be a part of that?

Who are the folks that God is calling you to pursue?

What are the obstacles that God is calling you to remove?

It could be something at home, it could be something even serving here at the church.

God has blessed us tremendously, and you may have the same posture that I had when I showed up 15 years ago.

Man, it seems like they got everything covered, they they don't need me, but I assure you, there's always gonna be space for you to serve and walk out your your calling here at Celebration Church.

God has allowed us to have this venue temporarily, but but we're gonna be making a shift, and we make that shift, we need as many people on a team as possible so that we can serve families, so that we can serve kids, we can serve youth, we can get back to doing ministry, not the way we used to do it, but the way that God is calling us to do it.

But we can't do that without everybody pursuing the things of God and taking their rightful place.

And for some of us, we know that God has given us a teaching gift, so maybe there's an expression for that in our groups or an equipped environment.

Maybe God has given you a burden for kids, and now it's time for you to step up and serve in our kids' environment.

Maybe you just love to bring order and you want to serve on our usher team or on our parking team.

Every time you show up, you're removing barriers as helping people to have an experience with Jesus.

God sees your faith, and because he sees your faith, the Bible says that he rewards us accordingly.

What is your next step?

Who are the people that God is inviting you to invite in?

Because I believe that we're here for a reason, and that is to serve.

I really believe, as we said earlier, that our experience is determined on our pursuit.

And if you want to experience a community of people that are made whole, we have to pursue it.

We have to seek after it, we have to position ourselves, we have to pursue people, we have to serve them, we have to present them in the presence of Jesus and allow him to do the rest of the work.

Let me pray for us.

God, I thank you so much for what you allow us to do.

I thank you so much for our community.

And Lord, I'm so grateful that it's in moments like this we're reminded of our own journey when people remove obstacles in order for us to have an encounter with you.

And so I just pray in the name of Jesus that we begin to think about the people that we're praying and believing for salvation for, the people that we're believing that need to move forward, God.

That Father, you begin to reveal those names to our hearts, God, that we begin to pray for them, God, that we can do everything we can to remove the barriers that may be keeping them from the house of God or the household of faith, Lord.

Put them on our minds and on our hearts so we can pray and position them to the best of our ability so they can have an experience and encounter with you.

Lord, let us never forget where we've been, what we've come through, God, and the deliverance you brought into our own life.

And now we have an opportunity to reciprocate that by serving, by creating an atmosphere where people can have a radical life transformational experience with you.

We surrender it all to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

What I want to do now as we prepare to go back into worship is I want to create space for somebody that's here with us, whether it be online or right in here with us right now, where you know that your next step is to simply say yes to Jesus.

Maybe you didn't come in here with a mat, but you do know that you showed up here today and you don't have the mobility, you're not moving forward in the things of God.

This is an opportunity where we recognize that God has pursued you.

You know, we talk about do your hands have splinters?

Reason why we pose that question because the hands of Jesus did.

He was nailed to the cross, and the Bible declares that through him serving humanity, that was him serving us, that when he died, the veil of the temple, the barriers that kept us from experiencing God was ripped in half, and now we have access to him.

And now our responsibility is to receive it and pursue it.

We don't have to work for it, but we do have to pursue it to receive it.

So if that's you, and you know that you have not put your life into the hands of Jesus yet, that you have not committed your life to Jesus, or maybe you have in the past, but you know that right now you're away from God, and this is a great time for you to reallocate and get back on board.

I want to pray for you.

So if you're in here with us today and today is the day that you know you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ, I would love to lead you in a prayer with a belief that God is gonna come alongside you, and as a community, we're gonna rally and champion you.

If that's you, on account of three, with with boldness, I want you to lift your hands up saying, I am prepared to say yes to Jesus.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you, amen.

If you're online, we want to celebrate that with us.

Let's put our hands together and celebrate with everyone that is saying yes for the first time.

What I want us to do now is I want us all to stand on our feet.

We're gonna go into a quick moment of prayer, then the team is gonna lead us in worship, and then Nate's gonna come up and give us some next steps specifically for those who are saying yes to Jesus for the first time.

Give you some instructions and some things you can do to set you up on the right path.

But all of us as a community, as a family, can we pray this prayer with me alongside of those who are praying this prayer for the first time?

I want you to repeat it with me.

Simply say this: Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins.

And I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead.

And according to your word, I am now a part of the family of faith.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps.

I will pursue you in Jesus' name.

Come on, church, let's worship together and we celebrate what God is doing before we close out.

Thanks again for listening.

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We hope you join us next time.