5 FOR 5 - My Life Changed for the Better When I Let Go of...

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.

Hey church, I pray that you guys are having an amazing Sunday so far.

We are so excited for what God is going to do here today.

If you if you're looking, you can see that things look a little bit differently today.

I'm joined by an amazing esteemed cast of colleagues and anointed people that are part of our team that are going to be sharing the word of God with you today.

And so we've we've we've notably called today five for five.

And what that means is you're going to hear from five amazing communicators for five minutes as they're going to unpack the word of God to us in a way that I think is going to be really engaging and helpful for us.

And we really want to talk on this theme, this topic, My Life Got Better When?

My life changed for the better when.

Now, all of us know those moments where things got better, an upgrade of some sort.

Like things were one way, but then you made an upgrade and things got better.

Like for me, I know.

Like my life was good, but then when I got married, I got upgraded.

Come on, Megan.

Like I've I remember, I remember that moment when things got better.

I'm working on some points for this weekend, y'all.

Like I there's those moments when you know that your life changed for the better when.

And what I realize is that we all have those milestones, but there's also those other moments when we recognize, like, man, my life changed for the better when I let go of some things.

My life changed for the better when when I learned how to grab a hold of some things.

I love what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, where Paul talks about when I was a child, I thought as a child.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

When I became a man, I let go or I put back childish things.

I think that there's moments in our lives where our lives change for the better when we learn how to let go of things so we can grab a hold of the things that God has for us.

That's what we're going to be talking about today.

So today, I want to kick it off and introduce my beautiful bride, my first upgrade, my best upgrade.

So Megan, come up here and show us when your life got better when.

Thank you for that introduction.

Well, um, one of the things that I have learned is my life changed for the better when I let go and surrendered.

Surrender to things that I cannot change, surrender to things my wills and my desires that I wanted for myself, I surrender those things to God.

And, you know, a lot of times we have, you know, the outcomes that we want in life, you know, but we know as we live life, that doesn't always, that's not always the case.

You know, so when when early in my ministry, you know, I went to a place, you know, I talked about, you know, getting in a job, an exciting one that I was excited about, you know, and in this role, you know, you think that everything's gonna be great.

You're like, this is my dream job.

And then lo and behold, you have this thing that comes where you you don't get along with your boss and nothing's ever good enough.

And then you feel insecure.

You feel like, man, am I doing a good job?

You know, I'm not doing enough, you know, and then you wanna walk away.

And that's the easy thing to do is to walk away when something gets hard, when something gets tough.

But it's it's the God thing to do is when you surrender your desires and the things that could be easier to walk away.

And so one of the things that I learned about is that when you try to walk away from things, you're missing the points of what God wants to do in your life.

You know, and so it there were seasons where, you know, not only with just a job that, you know, unity is what you want for people, you know, and you can't change the situation.

You want to bring, you want to unify people together, and whatever you're doing doesn't work.

There's moments where you had the boyfriend, and and guess what?

You know, he cheated on you, but you can't change that.

You have to surrender what you want instead of, you know, caving to the things that are not the best for you, you know.

And so one of the things that I learned throughout all of this is that even in the secure insecurity and all that stuff, when I learned to release God, he taught me some monumental things in my life.

He he taught me how to release the pain to him, he taught me how to not control the situations.

The Bible says, in this life we will have trouble, you know, and in that no one says, God, I want to go through these things in my life.

I want to go through, I want pain.

You know, I don't want pain, you know.

But in those moments, it's like that's where God is teaching us to trust in him.

It's teaching us to increase our faith.

It's teaching us to, you know, exhibit the fruits of the spirit, you know, and those are the things that I learned in those moments.

Instead of caving into my feelings and saying, this is too hard for me, let me walk away.

Um, I surrendered my will to God.

What do you want me to have in that moment?

What do you want me to do?

And he did not want me to walk away.

There were things that I needed to learn.

And so all this, you know, caused certain emotions, which is like meltdowns, anger, frustration going through those seasons.

And you know what?

I had to change who I was, you know, and make sure that, hey, it didn't change me.

Because no one goes in and says, you know what, I'm gonna be a different person.

Now I'm gonna have my guard up when it comes to bosses or to people.

No one goes in saying they're gonna do that.

No one goes in saying that, you know what, I'm gonna react the same way, you know, but we have to change our mindset and is this what God will want me to do?

Am I exhibiting godly characteristics no matter what season that I may face myself in?

And so in Matthew 43, 48, it even says, Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

That means no matter what you do in life, there's gonna be things, because we are human, we're gonna sin and we're gonna be, we're flawed people.

We are still called to love one another.

And it says, in that way, acting as true children of your father in heaven, for he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the just alike.

He doesn't make a difference, uh distinction between the two.

Like we we still have to love one another.

And so when Jesus was saying this, even in the circumstances where we're uncomfortable, we have to change our posture, we have to change our behavior.

In other words, we may not be able to change it, but we can change us.

You know, and so we in our desires, our all of our desires and our needs, um, the ideas is a form of control.

We want to control the things, and if we can't control it, it's hard to think of things differently.

But surrendering requires you to relinquish the control of you wanting to change the situation.

It is when we stop trying to change that, that God continues to change us and give us freedom and peace in those areas.

I've learned that when I do it on my own strength, it doesn't always work out.

And so one of the things the serenity prayer, it says, God grace us with the things that we can't change.

Grace us and accept with serenity the things that we cannot change, the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinct distinguish the one from the other.

So sometimes we may think that we're supposed to change certain things.

Um, and guess what?

We have to make sure that we're we're operating in God's will and we're surrendering all those things for our life.

Amen.

Amen, amen.

Thank you, Pastor Megan.

That is uh super encouraging.

Um it truly is an honor to be able to talk to you, church, and I know that whenever someone gets up here and says that, uh, it can be a little bit redundant, but the only way to describe it is an honor.

And I want to talk to you a little bit about the subject of comparison.

You see, my life changed for the better when I let go of comparison.

And I say began to change because it's something that I continue to struggle with, it's something I continue to battle.

I learned that if I'm not careful, comparison will cripple me.

I can become so consumed with what Jesus has instituted in someone else's life that I may miss altogether the directives he has for my own life.

I would like to read a passage of scripture that specifically deals with the idea of comparison.

The passage is located in John chapter 21, and I want to start in verse number 18.

John 21 · chapter mention

Jesus has recently risen from the dead, and he's actually met his disciples on the beach for breakfast.

Not only has he met them for breakfast, but he's actually the one who's preparing the meal.

Shout out to Chef Jesus, you know what I'm saying?

Talk about Jesus being everything you'll ever need.

He's also your personal chef.

Yes and amen.

Can I get a witness?

Verse number 18 of John 21.

This is Jesus speaking to Peter.

I tell you the truth.

When you were young, you were able to do as you liked.

You dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go.

But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go.

Jesus said this to him to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God.

Then Jesus told him, Follow me.

Verse number 20, Peter turned around and saw behind him the disciple Jesus loved.

This is referring to John.

Let's skip down to 21.

And then Peter asked Jesus, What about him, Lord?

Verse number 22 says, Jesus replied, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?

As for you, follow me.

Now, can you imagine having a conversation with Jesus?

And he says to you, Yeah, so you're gonna die this pretty horrible death because of the path that I have for you, but why don't you go ahead and follow me anyways?

And then you look at your closest friend and ask Jesus, Well, what about him?

He's gonna have to suffer too, right?

You know, isn't that just our human nature?

We find out something unappealing, maybe even something downright dreadful, is happening to us, and our first reaction is, why me?

Why isn't this happening to the person over there?

I bet they're not going through the same thing I am.

Our lifestyles seem to be similar, our context isn't that different.

Why are they not dealing with the same things I'm dealing with?

You know what Jesus' response was to Peter when he asked him that question?

What is that to you?

Now, don't hear what I'm not saying.

If you were a follower of Jesus, you are not meant to be a lone wolf.

The Bible is very, very clear that we are to live in the context of community and that we are to be accountable to one another.

But just because we have the same jersey on does not mean we play the same position.

You wouldn't want the men's shot put team running the hundred-meter relay at the Summer Olympics.

You probably wouldn't win gold.

Jesus has a unique calling and purpose for your life, for my life.

And the path that Jesus has for you is better than a trail that someone else has already blazed.

Let me say that again.

The path that Jesus has for you is better than a trail that someone has already blazed.

Besides, the only person worth comparing yourself to is Jesus.

And if you haven't noticed by now, you're probably not gonna measure up.

But that's precisely why Jesus asked us to follow him and not try to be him.

Are you crippled by comparison?

What are some steps you can take to mitigate comparison in your life?

Maybe it's limiting or even eliminating social media.

That's right, I said it.

Perhaps it's asking Jesus for his input more than we ask Google for its suggestions.

If you are more concerned with the circumstances of those around you that you can't even see Jesus in front of you, he is offering both you and I a simple invitation.

Follow me.

Amen.

Amen.

Go after Nate.

They said it'll be great.

They said uh on April of 2014.

I was having my devos with God and reading in Philippians, and this scripture really stood out to me, and it said Jesus humbled himself and became obedient.

And I wrote down in my journal in that moment, sometimes humility and obedience go hand in hand.

It means, God, I'm gonna choose your will because I know it's better than mine.

What I didn't know in that moment is that that one scripture was going to begin to shape the way that I made decisions for the rest of my life.

And in that moment, I didn't know that what God was going to ask me to start to let go of was my pride.

You see, I am a planner.

I love to make plans, I love to know what is about to happen.

I I want to know what to expect when I'm going into a situation.

But the problem is that that MO was putting myself in the driver's seat instead of God.

I was saying, my will, my way of accomplishing your will, God, is gonna be better than yours.

And there were so many moments where I would just question, I would be like, okay, God, I'm gonna use you as my Google Maps.

I'm gonna figure out where you want me to go, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna continue to keep the control in my own hands so that I can say, actually, I know you're saying that I need to go straight, but I think the better way to accomplish this is to take a right here.

I know that you're telling me, okay, this is the job that you want me to take, God, great.

I'm gonna put my resume in these other places first.

God, I know that you're saying that you want me to have these relationships, awesome, but I'm also gonna keep my feet in these other places constantly, deciding that my will, my way, was going to be better than God's way.

Here's the thing.

When I recognized that I was in the driver's seat of my own life, I recognized that if I continued to do that, I was going to miss out on the relationship with God that I had so desired.

And so on that day when I began the process of letting go of my pride, what I was able to do was I was able to pick up who God was calling me to be.

I recognized that humility and obedience, if those two things go hand in hand, that I wanted to be quicker to obedience.

I wanted to put my pride down so that I could be quick to obedience and what God was asking me to do.

And so when I look at myself in 2014 versus who I am now, 2014, Becca would not have been able to handle 2020.

2014, Becca would have said, no God, you know what?

Actually, this doesn't make any sense.

But now I look at uh the five-year plan that I had in 2014, I let go of that five-year plan because I am so much more concerned about making sure I'm obedient in the next five minutes.

I let go of the person that I thought I needed to be for everyone else, and I became more consumed with being obedient to who God was asking me to be.

And here's the thing: I don't know what 2021 has to hold, but I know the person personally who holds 2021.

And so at the end of the day, what I know is that the more that I let go of my pride that says, God, my way is gonna be better, the more that I let go of who I think I'm supposed to be or what I am supposed to do, the more closely I get to walk with God.

Just like in Galatians, where it says, He who is moved by the Spirit keeps in step with the Spirit.

And the more that I get to keep in step with the Spirit, here, here's what that means.

That means that when God asks me to send an encouraging text to somebody, I'm not gonna say, okay, that's weird.

Like there, I haven't talked to that person in a month.

I'm gonna say, you know what?

No, I'm gonna send that text and then watch God move in that person's life.

Instead of saying, God, I don't want to get that$25 gift card for someone who might be in need, I say, no, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to step out and do that because who knows?

When we let go of the pride that we have in our hands, God is able to put moments of obedience in those hands that we get to be a part of who God is calling other people to be.

So I want to encourage you, let go of the things that are keeping you back so that God can put new things in your hand and you can walk in who God has called you to be.

All right.

Woo! So good.

I'm gonna reclaim everybody's time because I got a lot.

Um, so I'm just gonna take all the extra time if there is any extra time.

Listen, church, what an exciting time that it is right now.

And I say that truly to say like it is an exciting time.

Yes, I know it's 2020, but look what we get to do.

We get to come into this moment like right now, and we get to talk as a community, as a family, about some things that God has done in and through our lives that changed us for the better.

So even now, um, as I think about it and as we talk, you know, my life personally changed for the better when I began to put aside ambition.

Now I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, oh man, but can't ambition come from God?

Absolutely.

But what happens with all of us is that we can begin to pervert the very things of God.

We can actually manipulate it, twist it, and we can make it to work for our own good.

See, the truth of the matter is that God is the one who takes everything and works it for our good.

It's not us taking everything and then making it to work for our good.

Because what that ends up doing is now we become uh in a place where we begin to manipulate the situation.

Here's what I want to present to you right now is Matthew 5 and 6.

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

See, when you have a righteous ambition, when you when you get that from God, then the things that you hunger and thirst for don't look like the things that everybody else is saying you need to chase after.

See, the truth of the matter is you need to recognize what it is that you're chasing.

You need to find the rhythm of God and listen into that and get in step, as Pastor Becca even mentioned.

You've got to begin to listen to that rhythm and you've got to flow with the rhythm.

You know, it's funny, many of us have seen, it's really funny now because of social media.

Um, sorry, sorry, Nate, but we're with social media.

It's funny when you look at social media or even the TikTok stuff, which I do not have, don't even know how it works, but sometimes I see it on Instagram.

And anyway, you see these dances and these things that people have, and they're wearing these mics, these headsets, and and there's multiple people in the room with these headphones on, and everybody is listening to a different song, and they're all dancing to something different.

What is so amazing about that is that you don't hear what everybody is hearing, but everybody is doing something to a different beat.

They're they're going to a rhythm that is in their ear.

And when you start focusing on the ambition that is godly, then what you kind of, what you start to do is you start to get in rhythm with God.

What you start to do is you start to go, you know what, I do have ambition, but my ambition is for the things of God.

My ambition is how can I propel and push the kingdom forward.

Now, you don't have to be in full-time ministry to be in full-time ministry.

See what, see, we all have something.

There is a great commission.

See, this is something that Jesus told us.

He said, Hey, listen, you need to go, you gotta baptize and you gotta go and make disciples.

There is a part of that that all of us can do.

We all can go and we can present Jesus to the lost people, present Jesus everywhere we are.

And guess what?

You don't even have to use your words to do it.

It is how we show it.

So our ambition, when my life changed, when listen, I was called to ministry at a very young age, and when I turned 18, I received, I accepted that call because God knows I did not want anything to do with working on at a church.

Um I saw the the good, the bad, and the ugly and said, that's too hard.

I'd rather, I'd rather dig ditches, you know.

Like I just don't even want to do it.

But little did I know that me accepting at 18 years old that I would be sitting there and trying to strive for the dream that I thought that, for the dream really that God showed me.

And even some of it was something that I thought of my own, and I was just going and going and going after it.

And what I did not realize was I was beginning to get over ambitious and to leave God.

See, what I'm trying to get you under this understand is, and what I feel like God really wants us to understand is that we not only need to work for God, but we need to work with God.

And when you begin to put aside your own personal ambition, you will begin to work with God.

You will begin to go where he goes, you will begin to say the things that he needs you to say, you'll begin to do the things that he needs you to do, and that is how he will begin to open up doors that no man can close.

See, when you do it on your own, then that's when you start opening up your own doors.

But I'm here to tell you right now that all you have to do is stay in step with God.

All you have to do is listen into him.

Don't worry about others as you already heard with comparison.

You know, there's some things that are out of your control as you've already heard.

And of course, we've got to be in line and in step and put aside what our own ambitions are.

Ambitions are good, but doing it with God changes everything.

Ambitions are good, but doing it with God changes everything.

So, how do we do this?

We seek first the kingdom of God, and then every single thing will be added onto us.

He will give you the desire of your heart.

So, again, follow God, be with God, not just for him.

Wow.

That was Pentecostal.

I love it.

Well, my life changed for the better when I let go of religion.

And for me, the best definition for religion is everything we do for God, not having God at the center of it.

Well, as you can clearly hear, I'm not from US.

Um, I'm from Brazil, and Brazil is a very Catholic country.

So during my entire life, I was trained to understand my relationship with God through the lenses of religion.

Hey, Vinny, you have to go to church every single Sunday.

Hey, Vinny, you net you need to do this.

That to have access to him.

Hey, Vinny, you better use these weird words in order for him to listen to your prayers.

You have to, you need to, you must to, you better to.

Religion.

It took me years to realize that my relationship with God was based on the things I was doing not because I wanted to, but because I had to.

Not out of my love, but out of fear.

Not out of my heart, but just because someone else was pressuring me to do it.

I was tiding at the time, but I had no clue what that was.

I was going to church every single Sunday just because everybody else was doing that.

I was fasting because, come on, that's just part of what we do.

Religiosity, things that we do for God, not having God at the center of it.

You know what?

I let go of that.

I found something way better than this.

I found love.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 18, two men went to the temple to pray.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

One of them was a Pharisee, a man of faith, a man of religion, a great believer.

The other one was just a tax collector.

Well, this one, he was he was praying like this.

God, I thank you.

I thank you because I am not like the other guys.

Especially, I am not like this one over here.

I thank you because I fast twice a week.

I thank you because my resources I share with everybody around me.

Now, watch this.

Everything he was doing was good.

Going to the temple to pray, awesome.

Fasting twice a week, great.

Sharing resources with people around, awesome.

All good stuff.

Well, this other guy, he was just praying like this: God, have mercy on me.

Have mercy on me, because I'm a sinner.

This guy was proudly presenting to God a list of things he was doing.

This guy was just praying like, God, I need you.

Hey God, I need you.

I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life without you.

I need you.

Jesus said, This guy, the tax collector, went back home justified.

Not the man of the religion, the man of love.

You see the difference here, the Pharisee, the man of religion, the man of tradition, the man that used to have the list, this list of 300 things he was supposed to do every day to please God.

This guy, he he was doing great stuff, but God was not the center of it.

He was doing great stuff with a wrong heart.

He thought he had a relationship with God, but he had a relationship with his religion.

He thought he was serving God, but he was serving himself and his selfishness.

This odd this other guy, he had nothing.

Just a heart.

Just a desire to follow God.

Just his life.

That's everything he had.

This guy went back home with his religion.

This guy went back home with God.

Religion is everything you do, everything you do is right, but with a wrong heart.

Love is when you do uh good stuff for the right reasons.

Religion is I have to.

Love is I want to.

Religion is I'm gonna do this in order to be accepted or included.

Love is I am already accepted and included, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Religion is out of habit, love is intentional.

My life changed for the better when I let go of religion.

Come on, come on, man.

That was such an amazing collection of thoughts and words, man.

I couldn't be more proud of every single one of you guys.

You did better than me, so you guys are up next week.

Um, but I but I do hope, I pray that everyone at home has been encouraged and has been able to recognize this theme that began to emerge from the very beginning.

You see, Megan had began to talk about this idea of just giving up control, recognizing that you can't always change it, but you can change yourself.

Then Brother Nate, he got up here and began to talk about the power of comparison and how we can find ourselves comparing ourselves to things.

And the Bible said that that's not wise.

And then we have Sister Becca.

I don't never I never called you that before, but it feels right.

We have we have Becca, and and she began to talk a little bit about pride and how that can sometimes get into the way, and then we have Mike.

I call him Bishop Mike.

We got we got Mike, and he began to talk about this robust idea of what does it look like when our when our outbend and where our ambition begins to outpace the grace of God.

We find ourselves in a very uncomfortable spot, and then Vinny, you came up and shared an incredible word around this idea of losing religion because sometimes we can find ourselves doing the right thing with the wrong motive.

Ultimately, what I hope we are being able to see is that our lives get better when we learn how to surrender.

Surrender it to God.

Whatever that it is for you, that's what we have an opportunity to do here today.

What I do know is that it all begins with us recognizing that we need to surrender our lives to God first.

So I know that there may be some amongst us in our community right now, you may be listening to this six months from now, but as you find yourself listening to this, you know that the thing you need to surrender is your very life.

Because maybe you are walking in pride, making thinking that you can do it all in your own strength.

Maybe you're walking thinking that you can control all the outcomes.

Maybe you're you're walking, comparing yourself and wondering, whatever these variables are, maybe even religion has prevented you from surrendering your life fully to God, but we want to give you an opportunity to do that right now.

We believe that there's no coincidence in the fact that you're listening to us today, and I believe that we have an opportunity to pull this theme together of surrendering it all to God.

If that's you and you're with us and you're ready to surrender your life to God, I simply want you to kind of make that decision in your heart.

You may be sitting in your living room with your family right now.

You may can raise a hand, a gesture if you want, but ultimately you're making a decision in your heart.

And as you make that decision, I simply want you to pray this simple prayer with me.

It's a prayer that the words don't necessarily change your position in the kingdom of God, but the posture of your heart is the thing that does it.

It reminds me of the miracle where Jesus turns the water into wine.

When you look at that narrative, there's a moment where we actually don't know when the transformation takes place.

All we know is that everyone was obedient and then the change began to be seen.

That's what we believe happens in the moment when we make that decision to follow Christ.

So I want you to repeat this prayer after me.

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

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

And according to your word, because of that belief, I am now saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, if you made that prayer, we truly do believe that you have gone from darkness to light, from death to life.

And we want to come alongside you and give you the resources that we believe that can be such a strong blessing to you.

If that's the case, we simply want you to text the word decide to 25101, and then you're gonna get some resources and team members that are gonna come alongside you to encourage you, to support you as you're on this journey.

I pray that this holiday season has been a blessing to you, but we are just getting started.

For the rest of us that's in our community, if one of these things has resonated with you, one of those things, and maybe there's another one that you know that you need to make an upgrade in your life so you can say that my life got better when, and you know what that is.

I want to pray for you right now.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for our community, for those who've identified with everything that was shared, but you began to reveal some other things to them.

Lord, I'm praying that God, you begin to stir their hearts, that you begin to allow them to know that it is safe to surrender it into your hands, God.

I pray that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding begins to comfort them and strengthen them, God.

I pray for the adversary who's whispering in their ears that they need to control every narrative, Father, that you begin to silence that voice and that can lean into the presence of you.

They can't do it in their own strength, but with your spirit, all things are possible.

So, God, we surrender this time to you.

We surrender these people to you, we surrender these needs to you with the belief that things are changing as a result of our surrender.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

God bless you guys.

We love you.

We cannot wait to worship with you next week.

We'll be kicking off our new series Emmanuel going into the Christmas season.

It's going to be amazing.

Lean in.

Stick with us.

And while we're all at it, let's show some love for the team that shared such an amazing word.

God bless you guys.

We love you.

We're so thankful for you.

We'll see you next week.

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.