EXILES: Under The Influence

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

You guys doing good?

Come on, we can do better than that.

Are you guys doing good?

I love that.

I love that.

I'm so sorry for my um my delay getting out here.

We didn't show that bumper video last time, but you can't have a series called Exiles and as epic as that and not show the beautiful graphics that the team has put together.

It feels like we're in the middle of a cinema.

I feel like it will be a really dope movie.

So if anybody does have that influence in their life, let me know.

I'll give you half of all the money that we do bring to proceeds in this all for the kingdom anyway.

How you guys doing?

I'm so excited for us to be here.

And I want to give a shout out to everyone that's joining us from home.

We're so glad that you're with us today.

If you have any needs whatsoever, please don't hesitate to reach out to us and to let us know.

We would love to come alongside and serve you and your family.

I want to encourage every single one of us that's in this room and those who are watching from home, please stay engaged and connected in this season.

As we're about to wrap up this year, which is hard to believe that we're almost at the end of the year already.

But as we wrap up this year, stay connected and engaged.

I do believe that this community is stronger together as we continue to press into the things of God.

And what we know is that there's several ways you can stay connected here at Celebration Orlando.

Of course, you can watch from home and do church at home with your family from the comfort of your home and your pajamas.

Go ahead and do your thing.

I'm not mad at you at all.

Um, in addition to that, you also can you can participate in one of our watch parties.

You can have some folks come over to your house and and hang out and let us know, and we'll give you some resources and love to equip you as much as we can.

But of course, we have our in-person gatherings, and every single thing that we do here is socially distanced and clean and safe.

So whatever way you choose to engage, stay connected with us in those ways.

So I'm I'm pumped to get into today's message today.

Pastor Mike, I've been thinking about it like for the past two weeks, getting particularly to this message because I think it's a it's a crucial one.

So we kicked off this series called Exiles Last Week, and the whole heart behind this series is really for us to have a constant reminder that this is not our home.

I think that when we consider all the things that we see, all the tension that we feel in this world that we could be so invested in, and it's okay, but we we can't lose sight of the fact that this is not our home.

And so, even in the beginning of the year, um, as we felt like God was stirring on our hearts to share around this subject in this particular narrative, we knew that we wanted to wait until this time of year because we're looking at a season now.

At that time, we didn't know that we would be in quarantine and scattered and disconnected from one another.

We didn't know that, but we did know that we'll be leading into a season of politics.

And every four years, particularly around the presidential um campaigns, that's when you begin to see things heat up.

And we knew that we all have our passions, we all have our convictions, and that's perfectly okay.

But if we lose sight of the fact that we are citizens of the kingdom of God, we can actually find ourselves vilifying the very people that have served alongside of us, walked alongside of us in every season of our lives.

But because we're on a different side of the aisle, we can actually begin to look at each other differently.

We looked at a couple of passages of scripture to kind of help set the tone.

In Philippians chapter 3, verse 20, we were reminded it says that we are citizens of heaven.

Philippians 3:20

Don't lose sight of that, that we're citizens of heaven.

1 Peter 2, verse number 11 tells us that we are strangers in exiles, that this is not our home.

It's a reminder that this is not your home.

Don't get swept up into all the drama.

Jeremiah 29, verses 4 through 7.

Jeremiah 29:4–7

It does tell us that we should be invested, though.

It does tell us not to shrink back, that we should be involved in what's happening in our community.

In fact, it says, do not do not shrink back.

You can actually thrive where we are, but just don't lose sight of where you're from.

Thrive where you are, but don't lose sight of where you're from.

I think it's important for us to recognize that we are not, we're not going to be so loyal to the donkey or to the elephant that we lose sight of the fact that we're also supposed to be loyal to the lamb.

That he is the primary one that gets all of our joy and adoration and utter loyalty.

And our primary passage of scripture that we've been looking at is Daniel chapter 1, looking at verse number eight.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

And what it says is that Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank.

Ultimately, that word defile, it means that he's not going to pollute himself.

He's not going to allow the culture to stain him.

All of us know what it feels like if you have on a brand new white shirt like mine, and I'm like mindful of the way I drink coffee.

I don't want that to stain.

What Daniel is saying is I don't want this culture to stain me.

I don't want it to come with me.

I don't want it to get so attached to me that I actually begin to lose my influence.

So last week we talked about how Daniel was able to draw the line.

He knew how to draw boundaries around the things that he's going to be involved in, but also know how to resist the things that are not of God.

So today we're going to pick up at Daniel chapter 3.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to join me there.

If you don't, it's okay.

If you're in a room with us, it'll come up on the screens.

And for those who are watching, I'm at home, it's going to come up as well.

But Daniel chapter 3, um, we're going to start off at verse number 14.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

But just to give you some context as to kind of where we are, we've we've gotten past like Daniel taking a stand and him actually choosing an alternate diet, but actually being healthier.

We get into Daniel chapter 2, where Daniel is now in a position where he interprets the dream and we can see that he has a dependency on God and not on worldly wisdom, and God blesses him as a result of it.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

So now Daniel is promoted.

His his friends are all promoted, their influence is growing, and now we have this chapter and three, which I think is like a standoff.

What we have here is Nebuchadnezzar, who serves as the antagonist.

He's kind of like the main villain, so to speak.

Nebuchadnezzar and also like Babylon, that that worldly culture.

It's a it's it's it's standing against the things and people of God.

So he creates, he creates this 90-foot statue, this monument to his glory, this monument to his power, this monument to his influence.

He's saying, look to me.

And he has this new thing, he says, I want everyone, when you hear a sound, to drop what you're doing and worship it.

I want you to surrender and elevate my ideas and my image and drop what you're doing and worship it.

And as you can see, for the people of God, they say, Man, there's certain things we're just not going to do, and I'm not going to worship your image.

There's certain things we're just not going to do, and I'm not going to exalt you higher than I exalt God.

So they said no.

Nebuchadnezzar finds out about this, he's understandably outraged, and he interrogates Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which are Daniel's friends.

And so picking up at verse 14, here's what it says Nebuchadnezzar asked them, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, is it true that you don't serve my gods or worship the gold statue that I set up?

Now, if you're ready, when you hear the sound, the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue that I made.

But if you don't worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.

And who is the God who will rescue you from my power?

We see this tension.

If you say and do what I tell you to do, everything's gonna be good.

If you don't, there's gonna be grave consequences.

He's he's trying to lead through fear.

If you don't do this, then this is gonna be a consequence of it.

We see this fear.

I love the response from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo.

And it says that they all replied, which means they were unified.

I don't know if they said it in concert or in harmony, but all of them are recognized as saying it because they are unified in their response, and their response was this they replied to the king, Nebuchadnezzar.

We don't need to give you an answer to this question.

Like, I just I'm looking for the day where I can like start a sentence off like that.

Where somebody asked me a question, like, hey, you know what?

I don't need to answer that question.

He's they said with such swagger and cockiness, like, we don't even have to answer the question.

If the God that we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can certainly rescue us from the power of you, King.

But here's the thing highlight this, circle this, put this into your spirit.

But even if he does not rescue us, but even if he doesn't, even if we don't get the results that we want, even if everything doesn't work out the way that we want it to work out, we want you to know as King, to know that we will never serve your gods or worship the golden statue that you set up.

God can rescue us, God is with us, but even if it doesn't work out, we still want to let you know that we are not gonna waver from our convictions and our beliefs.

My God, I can't wait to preach this mic.

Because even if, even if, even if it doesn't work out, we need to be the people that say, but God is still good.

That's who we are as a community and as a kingdom of God.

So if you're taking notes, and I encourage you that you do that, I want you to write down this message title, Under the Influence.

Under the influence.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for every opportunity that we have to gather in your name.

And Lord, we just pray for the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see things that we've never seen, and more importantly, see you.

I pray that you give us open ears to hear everything that it is that you're saying, your spirit to our spirit, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

Allow us to get out of ourselves and be the recipients of your truth.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

You know, when when I think about the power of influence, I think it's safe to say that we all are under the influence of something.

We're all under the influence of some things, some ones.

We all find ourselves in places where we find ourselves being influenced by people.

It's just a part of the way that the world is set up, just the way that life is.

We all have people around us that have an ability to influence us.

Some of us are influenced by things such as like our family members.

Some of us are influenced by commercials.

Like I am I am a person who was a sucker for a good commercial.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I, we went to the Apple store because she wanted to get her watch prepared.

I went there and I went into the store knowing prior to us walking in, I'm like, you know what?

I had a family meeting.

I said, listen guys, yeah, I noticed with this latest software update that our phones are starting to slow down, but it just so happens that Apple's about to release a new phone, but we're not getting on that gravy train anymore.

We're drawing the line right here.

We're not going to continue to get sucked in.

I know what they're doing.

They're trying to slow our phones down, they're trying to mess us up.

I know what you're doing, Apple.

I said, we're not doing it.

We are not getting a new phone.

Are you understanding?

The kids are looking at me.

Are you sure they're trying to influence me?

No.

This is me being a father, drawing the line.

We are not getting new iPhones.

We walk into the Apple store and my daughter is getting her watch repaired, and it just so happens that they're announcing the new iPhone on the screen as we are there.

And I'm like, no, we're not doing it.

I'm not gonna look at it.

Wow, they're coming out with a blue one.

How good is that camera?

Now I got the new iPhone.

You see, it just it just it just happens.

It happens just like that.

Picked it up yesterday.

Like it just happens like that.

You make decisions, but then you get sucked into things and it just pulls you in.

We all have the ability to be influenced by things.

Here's another one for me.

I have gone 25 years and I have not eaten at Taco Bell.

Let me see.

Is there any Taco Bell fans in the house at all?

Any Taco Bell fans?

It's a couple, it's a couple, not many.

I thought I expected to see more.

I expected to see more.

But but but but watch this.

I haven't had Taco Bell in 25 years.

25 years, and here's the thing there's a reason why I haven't had Taco Bell in 25 years.

But then you know what happens?

I start hanging out with our community here at Celebration Orlando, and then especially Pastor Mike, because Mike is probably one of the more bougie people that I know, just quite honestly.

We all know that friend who was like really, really picky.

But when I saw him eating Taco Bell, I'm like, well man, like if Mike is rocking with Taco Bell, certainly, certainly I can I can rock with Taco Bell.

So I finally get to this point.

Megan goes out of town, and I like, it's like I gotta sneak and do it because I knew she would judge me if I did it in front of her.

But I like I I text all our friends at work.

I'm like, okay, like guys, this is my night.

Megan's not here tonight.

I'm gonna get I'm gonna get Taco Bell.

Like, I haven't had it in so long, I'm so excited.

What should I get?

They all replied with like 20 different things.

Church, I ordered all of it.

All of it, all of it got delivered by Uber Eats.

I got like a thousand dollars worth of Taco Bell on my on my kitchen table.

Didn't like any of it.

Didn't like any of it.

Now here's the thing: some people can rock with Taco Bell, some people can't.

I choose to go in other directions when I want to have my neck Mexican needs met.

But for me, it just didn't work well.

But I found myself eating something that I knew that I wasn't crazy about because I was under the influence of friends and people around me.

It's so easy for us to find and draw lines around things, but yet we find ourselves being under the influence of people that are around us.

And here's the thing, it happens so quickly.

It's okay when we get a new phone if we can.

It's okay if we get something to eat, and it's like, okay, I wasn't really feeling that.

But what happens when we find ourselves doing things that are completely contrary to our character?

What happens when we find ourselves saying and doing things that are completely inconsistent with scripture?

It's amazing how when we begin to find ourselves in these positions, it can lead to compromise.

When we look at scripture, think about the people in the Bible that found themselves in positions where they were under the influence and it led them to compromise.

Do you guys remember Aaron, the brother of Moses?

Like he was actually the mouthpiece of God.

He knew that God didn't want him to create a graven image.

But you know, the pressure of the people convinced him to create something that God told him that he should have never created because he was under the influence of the people around him.

What about Pontius Pilate?

Remember him, he's the guy that was the one responsible for issuing Jesus' death sentence.

But the Bible says that he looks at Jesus and says, I find nothing wrong with him.

He's good, but the pressure of the people convinced him to make a decision that he knew that went against his core convictions.

What about Peter?

I think Peter is probably the first ride or die person you see in scripture.

Peter was about it.

Peter was that dude, like, man, I'll walk on water, I'll fist fight somebody, I'll cut off an ear if I got to.

Peter was about that life.

But he gets confronted by a middle school girl in front of a fireplace, and he literally denies that he even knows Jesus.

How does someone with such deep conviction find themselves shying away from the very thing they believe in?

It's because they were under the influence.

They were being pressured by the world and by culture.

It's so easy for those things to become normal for us.

It's easy for us to find ourselves the things that we say that we would never do, we then end up normalizing it and we don't even stand against it.

And it's because that was the methodology of Babylon.

Babylon was a very brutal environment, but also Babylon had a technique where they love to impress people.

Their whole methodology is like, yes, you're in bondage, yes, you're under an oppressive king, but we also want to impress you while you're here.

So we're going to give you the best clothes, we're going to give you the best foods, we're going to give you the best things that we feel like can really make you happy, and before long, your captivity isn't bondage anymore.

It's actually just convenience.

It's convenient for me to be here.

Like I've I've learned how to function here.

It's it's okay, it's it's normal.

You just normalize the chaos, you normalize the dysfunction, and that's the position that we can find ourselves in.

You end up finding yourself impressed by the world that you're actually supposed to be impacting.

We're supposed to leave an impression on this world, not be impressed by the world.

But what happens when we begin to normalize dysfunction, we can lose sight of the fact because it becomes so normal.

But here's the thing normal is not necessarily a bad thing.

Like, who who doesn't just want things to be normal?

It's not a bad thing.

Like, we all just want to go back to a day when things were normal.

We just want to go back and say, like, I want to have a normal marriage.

I want to have a I want to have a normal job with no drama.

I I want to I want to have a day where where everything is normal.

I want my finances to just be normal.

I I want I want church to be normal.

Hello, who doesn't?

I want to get back to the days where we could just have three songs of worship, maybe the fourth song of worship in our our two different venues and and all those other wonderful things, like man, we just want to get back to normal.

But I but I've come to realize that I think that that normal can be a little bit overrated.

Because we're trying to get back to something that God is leading us away from.

There's some part of us that's gotten comfortable and content with things, and God is trying to shake some things up and get us out of it because I think normal is overrated.

Because here's a couple of other things that I found that are incredibly normal.

You know that that division has become very normal, that toxic language has become very normal, that hate has become very normal, that divorce has become very normal, that that people being bullied is very normal, that cancer has become very normal.

I honestly believe that normal is overrated.

God has not called us to be normal, He's called us to disrupt the norm.

That God has called us to be the people that recognizes these things and say that our responsibility is to interrupt these things instead of being content and comfortable with it.

Please don't be impressed by the world that we are called to change.

The Bible talks about how Daniel and his friends they made up in their mind that we are not going to be content and we're not going to just be okay with normalizing dysfunction and chaos.

We're not going to be okay with that.

That we're going to actually draw the line and make a difference.

Today I want to unpack two things that I see in this passage of scripture that I think can be beneficial in this season.

It's just two simple points.

Here's the first thing that I want you to write down as we look at how these men responded to this chaotic season.

The first thing they did is they stand up, stood up.

Bad grammar.

Stand up, take a stand.

Whatever way you want to put it, just make sure stand is in the sentence, take a stand.

That these men were able to take a stand.

They stood up.

Here's what I mean by that.

The scripture tells us that Nebuchadnezzar had issued this decree that whenever you hear the sound, your reaction should be to bow down and worship.

And before long, we all know how how things are, when you hear things over and over and over again, it almost becomes a reaction.

You don't even got to think about it anymore.

Like you just you just hear it and you respond to it.

So he wanted to get to a point where people would hear the sound and they wouldn't even resist worshiping him.

He just wanted it to be, he just wanted it to be normal because that's how powerful and impactful music can be.

We all know the power of sound.

Like, man, I I grew up, you guys know this, I grew up thinking that that my calling in life was to be a rapper.

That that is what I felt like I was called to do.

Like I I was I committed a lot of energy to it, a lot of years into it.

So for me, like it doesn't matter how spirit-filled, how much I read the Bible, man, if I hear a drum drop right now, man, I'll drop into a freestyle in a second.

Like it's it's just in me.

It's just in me.

Like y'all even see when I preach sometimes, it's just in me.

It's just it takes everything in me to hold and operate with some restraint because it's amazing how sound has an ability to trigger a reaction even when you don't want to anymore.

Man, if I hear some horns right now, I immediately think that we're talking about tribe call quests.

Y'all too, y'all too young for that.

Y'all don't know anything about that.

Some of y'all may know, some of y'all won't know.

I know those online will.

If I hear, if I hear a certain beat right now, Mike Man, I might think it's Wu-Tang Triumph.

Let's go.

Now, at the same time, uh, let me let me let me make sure I satisfy the Christian side.

If I hear certain songs, that also makes me think about um, it also makes me think about Fred Hammond.

It also makes me think about some other things.

It's amazing how you can hear certain sounds and it triggers certain memories.

Just today, I was with one of our staff members and we were talking, and the word came out like, hey, we gotta get ready to hustle.

We gotta get a hustle, we gotta get after it.

And literally I'm just thinking, like, every day I'm hustling.

Why is it so easy for when you hear words, it just triggers a reaction and a response?

It's interesting how sound has the ability to trigger a reaction.

But I also think that it's possible that we've become so used to hearing certain things that when we're triggered, we react to it instead of having an adequate response to it.

I believe we live in a world right now where the world is looking to trigger a reaction from us, that we hear certain phrases and statements and it looks to trigger a reaction from us.

And unfortunately, that reaction may not be something that is based on the kingdom of God.

I believe that the people of God are not called to have a reaction, we're called to have a response.

There's a difference between a reaction and a response.

A reaction is cause and effect.

This happened and now I'm reacting to it.

A response means that I am causing an effect with the things that I'm going to do moving forward.

I think that as we look at the season that we're going into, we need to stop reacting to the world and start having a response to it.

The Bible tells us that for the children of Israel, as they were being chased down by the Egyptians and they were standing at the Red Sea, that they were beginning to react.

They were freaking out, they were terrified.

But Moses had this response.

He said, Stand still and see the salvation of God.

He said, Take a stand.

At some point, we need to stand on something that's beyond our feelings.

We need to stand on something that's beyond our logic.

We need to stand on something that's beyond our preference.

We need to take a stand on the word of God.

What if, when the world is trying to trigger us, our response was the word of God?

Our response was the love of God.

Our response was the peace of God.

Our response was the joy and the fruit of the Spirit from God.

I believe that what God is showing us is that when things are coming against us, that our response, not our reaction, should be something that's rooted in the things of God.

The second thing that we see in this passage that I want us to do is I want us to stand up, but I also want us to speak up.

I want us to speak up.

This is this is a big one.

See, the Bible says that when the when the men took a stand, that they were now invited into the king's court to be interrogated.

And now they're at this place where where the king says these words to them.

If you guys are ready, when you hear the sound, you will bow down and worship.

But if you do not, this is going to be the consequence of it.

They respond and say, Well, if the God that we serve exists, he is more than able to take us through this.

But even if he does not, we're going to let you know that we're not going to bow to you.

That word if is a very, very powerful word.

It's two letters.

It's used four times in this context, but I think it's very powerful when we look at it.

Because when Nebuchadnezzar used it, he said if then.

You guys are familiar with an if-then proposition.

If you do this, then you will get these results.

So a lot of times we can find ourselves slipping into that if-then proposition in every area of our lives.

If this happens, then I'll do this.

If my wife is nice to me, then I'll be nice to her.

If my kids do this, then I'll do that.

We it's a it's a transactional component that if I get the results that I want, then I'm going to be here.

And unfortunately, it works its way into our relationships.

It works our way even into our commitments, things that we know that God has called us to do, but then it creates this if then scenario.

I've been in this place before where I come to church.

And I'm like, if they play my favorite song, then I'll worship.

If they don't, then I'm good.

That if-then place where I'm looking to get my knees met, then I'll respond accordingly.

But the people of God have a different response when they hear things.

They have a response that transcends just their feelings.

They have a response that says, even if.

So let's take that same idea.

Even if they don't play my favorite song, God is still worthy of worship.

Even if they don't play my favorite song, God is still worthy of worship because the songs are not about me anyway.

They're actually supposed to be pointed towards Him.

So even if I'm not getting my way, God is still good.

There's a place that we get to in our faith where we stop looking for the transactional results and we start recognizing that even if I don't get the results, God is still good.

That even if things are broken down, God is still able to do it.

See, even if it's the place that we get to when our faith is bound and rooted on the foundation of maturity and truth, even if it doesn't work out, God is still working all together.

Even if I lose my job, God is still a provider.

Even if the divorce is finalized, God will take me to my next step.

Even if things are broken, God is still a reconciler.

Even if I am sick, God is still a healer.

Even if everyone leaves, I'm going to stay because God is still with me.

Even if it's the place that you get to where you say that even in spite of the results, I know that God is still good.

See, even if it's the place that we get to when our faith isn't predicated on outcomes because we have a different outlook.

I'm not looking at outcomes anymore because I have a different outlook.

We're supposed to walk by faith and not by sight.

Let me encourage us.

Don't let what you see shape your faith.

Let your faith shape what you see.

Somebody like that, and some I'm gonna say that one time.

Don't let what you see shape your faith.

Let your faith shape what you see.

You gotta have a place where you say, I look at things a little bit differently.

I've been in situations where I'm looking at the same situation as someone else, but I see it a little bit differently.

I've been in seasons where I've looked at some things that even I've been discouraged, but I've had somebody walk up to me and say, But Keith, I see it a little bit differently.

What I believe that God is calling us to do is that even in the face of all the chaos is that we're supposed to look at things a little bit differently.

That while the world is losing their mind and descending into chaos, that we're supposed to look at this as an opportunity to share the love of Christ to all people so we can show them how good our God is, even if it's a place that we get to when we recognize that it's not exclusively about outcomes because we have a different outlook.

Man, we got to see things a little bit differently.

I was talking to a friend of mine who planted a church just this year.

And you can only imagine that all his dreams and aspirations of launching his church, the vision, everything that he felt was going to work itself out.

He had some good traction, some good momentum, and then the pandemic hits.

The place that he was once meeting in had stopped accepting people, and he's now at this place where he's like, Man, like things have changed so much for me, Keith.

Like I used to have a couple hundred people on a Sunday, and and now because of the way that things are set up, man, we have like 50 people.

Man, I I just I don't know what to do about that.

I said, man, I I feel like if you have 50 people, then those are 50 people that God has asked you to pastor and to serve and not look in any other way.

I believe that, and even if mentality says that even if our church goes from 1,000 to 200, God is still good.

Even if God is still with us, it's getting past the transactional component and recognizing that God is still good.

And I told him that all of us are being disrupted.

I believe that God is shaking all of us, but I think what he's trying to get us to be is people that have rooted ourselves in.

Even if everything falls apart, even if everybody leaves, God, you haven't left.

I know that you're good, and I know that you're with us.

He wants us to shift from that place of if then to being the people that says, even if.

Daniel chapter 3, verse 21.

Daniel 3:21

After they responded to the king in this way, you can you can only understand how angry the king was.

The Bible says that that the three men were bound together in their cloaks, in their tunics, in their hats, and their garments, and they were thrown into the fiery furnace.

Here's why that's so significant.

Because ordinarily back in those days, whenever there was a public execution, they would actually strip the people naked to add shame to their death.

So not only am I gonna die, but I'm gonna die naked and ashamed, and it was gonna be something that would be exposed for the entire world to see.

Shame, it's it's a weighty thing.

But it says that they were thrown in the fire, but yet they were still fully covered.

That they were in the fire, but there was no shame.

That they were in the fire, but they weren't exposed.

I believe that I'm supposed to talk to somebody right now that they feel like they're in fire right now.

The pressure of the world is on them right now, and the enemy wants to convince you that you should be in shame, that you should feel exposed, that you should feel naked.

But the Bible that I read tells me that Jesus took the shame to the cross.

That means that even though I may be in a season of fire, I am still covered.

I may be in a season where I'm uncomfortable, but I should be able to keep my head up.

This is why I love watching halftime speeches from coaches when a team is down, because they have this ability to motivate their team that even though they may be down, keep your head up.

Don't allow the shame to work its way into it.

We got another quarter, we got another half that we got to play.

Allow me to be your spiritual coach right now.

You may be in a season right now where you can feel the flames on your back, but keep your head up.

We got another game to play, we got another quarter to go, that you may be down, but you are not done.

God is with you, and there is no shame.

The Bible tells us that Jesus took the shame to the cross, that these men are thrown into the flames, and the Bible says that that Nebuchadnezzar was surprised at what he saw or what he heard.

See, scripture and scholars believe that when they were thrown into the fire, that he heard, he heard the Israelites reading or singing a prayer.

Now, he probably was expecting them to scream out in pain.

He was probably expecting them to be yelling and suffering and and and all that, but but they said that he was alarmed because he heard them singing.

That means that while they were in the flames, there was a praise that remained.

That while there was a fire, there was still uh there still was a praise that was yet in their voice.

I believe that there's freedom in the flames as long as our praise remains.

I believe one of the things that the adversary loves to do is he allows, he loves to allow and exploit those moments when the fire becomes to get the hottest to convince us that's when we need to be the most silent.

But the Bible says that because they had this prayer, that he was alerted to see them walking around in freedom, and he was able to recognize that there was yet another in the fire that was with them.

There was another in the fire with them because I believe they be bring they thought to bring God with them into the fire.

I think if we look at the seasons that we find ourselves in, what have we ever considered would we bring God with us into the flames?

As they were yelling out this prayer, the Bible says that there was one who looked like the Son of God that was amongst them.

That means they didn't stay silent.

You know, the Bible says there were two or three who are gathered in his name.

There they are in the midst.

Their God is in the midst of it.

That means that God is with you, even in those uncomfortable places, as long as your presence in God in the middle of it all.

I've learned for myself that there are times that God doesn't deliver me from the flames, he delivers me in the flames.

And I think that some of us, we may be feeling the pressure in the flames right now, but I believe that there's another that is yet in the fire.

I want to invite the worship team to come back out and to join me at this time.

You see, the Bible tells us in Daniel chapter 3 that after they're aware of the fact that they were in this fiery furnace, that they were walking around in freedom, that that they were then taken out of the flames.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

And this is what it says at verse 27.

It says that all the important people, the government leaders and the kings and the counselors, they gathered around to examine them, and they discovered that the fire hadn't so much touched the three men.

Not a hair was singed, not a scorch mark on our clothes, not even the smell of fire was on them.

Like, that's incredible.

Like, I y'all know that I I love to grill, I love to smoke.

It's hard to be around smoke and then not get on you.

Because we know how it is, like what's around you gets on you, and then what's on you eventually gets in you, and what's in you eventually comes out of you.

If you're around toxic environments, then the toxic environment will eventually attach itself to you, then it'll work its way into your heart, and now you're saying things you thought you would never say.

But to consider for a moment that these men were in an environment of heat and flames, but when they came out of it, you could not tell that they were in it in the first place.

That's that's captivating for me.

That there was no residue of their past whatsoever.

There was no evidence that they had ever walked through that season.

Man, it it reminds me of several years ago.

Gosh, I think it's probably 22, about 20 years ago.

I got into a a car accident.

And and I remember when I it's in that season that I couldn't work for about a time span of about a year.

I think it was about a year, if I remember it correctly.

And in that time, like it was it was tough.

Like that's that's putting it lightly.

Like our finances were like like crazy tough.

Like it was it was bad.

And I remember like when I finally was able to work, you know, you're like you, you're just you ever like feel like you're just so far behind, you don't even know how to catch up.

Because while you're trying to get caught up, time is still moving forward, and you just don't know if you can ever get there.

So I just remember as a as a as a husband, as a father, and not being able to feel like I could provide, and then finally getting to a place where I did have an income after going through all types of different procedures and and getting all types of injections and things like that, that I'm now able to move forward, but I feel like I'm so far behind, we we just can't get there.

So for me, the the only resolve that I had was like, man, I think we're just man, I'm gonna have to file bankruptcy.

And and I remember that decision like it was yesterday.

I I remember leaving the lawyer's office after we kind of finalized the paperwork and and walking away and feeling so ashamed, feeling like I didn't honor my responsibilities, I wasn't doing a good job as a husband or a father.

It wasn't like the car accident just jacked me up and we just we just couldn't get caught up.

And I remember just being in this place of feeling like ultimately in despair because once you kind of get into that space of bankruptcy, like that's a scarlet letter.

Like you can't move forward.

Like you're if anyone will deal with you, they're gonna give you the highest interest rates possible.

Like you're just you're just stuck.

And I I literally got to this point where I just felt, this is my life, this is where we're gonna be.

We're gonna be, like, we're we'll be okay, but but this is gonna be our reality.

But then I remember there was this moment, probably about a good month into like this self-loathing, so to speak, where I felt like God said, Keith, you're you're in a fire.

Can you bring me in it with you?

What that meant for me personally was that meant to honestly begin to put God first in our finances.

Because up until that point, it was more like a if-then scenario.

If I had enough money, then I would give.

If if everything was okay, then I would do it.

But God said, Can you can you get out of the if-then space and just be an even if person?

Even if you got to make adjustments, can you bring me into this area of your life?

We were faithful and everything else, but that was an area that was on again and off again.

So we made a decision, like, okay, from this point forward, we're going to bring God into our finances henceforth.

We had a lot of work to do, we had a lot of adjustments we had to make.

But I remember there was this moment where my heart began to stir, and I felt like, man, like God was giving us permission to move forward.

So when we went to apply to to buy our home, there was like this moment of fear and anxiety and stress because I I was still feeling the shame.

I was still feeling the ridicule, I was still feeling like we weren't gonna be good enough.

I thought we weren't gonna be qualified, but I remember when I got a phone call from the banker and he said, Mr.

and Mrs.

Pittman, I want to let you know that you are approved.

You you are you are good enough.

And while I celebrated that in my flesh, God said, You've been approved by me a long time ago because you chose to bring me in this area with you.

What I think that means for us practically is for us, the stench of what we've been through is no longer with us.

We're able to move forward without even thinking about what has happened in our past because we brought God into that fire with us and it brought us utter healing, and so you can't even see the scorch marks or the stains of that previous season.

And what I believe for some of us, some of us are feeling in shame right now.

I want to let you know that you have an opportunity to bring Jesus into that situation.

You he took the shame to the cross so that you don't have to carry it.

I believe he's nudging us to get out of the if-then place of our faith and getting to the even if place with our faith.

I think all of us can do inventory and determine what that looks like.

But the song that we sang and that we're about to sing, it says that there's a there's another in the fire.

But the way that we presence God in the middle of our pain is often with our praise.

See, the Bible says that he inhabits the praises of his people and that the life that we live is an expression of praise.

The the way that we worship is an expression of praise, the way that we interact with one another is an expression of praise.

That that maybe if we begin to truly begin to model and demonstrate the things of God, that we're presencing him in the middle of our situation, in the season that we're in, you won't even see that there was evidence that we were ever there in the first place.

As we prepare to go back into this song, I want us to have this perspective.

What is the what is the pressure that you feel right now?

What are the things that are heating up in your life right now?

What are the things that you want to get away from?

What are the things that you feel are following you everywhere that you've been?

What are those things that that the adversary has been using to try to keep you in shame?

I believe that we have right now an opportunity to presence God in the middle of our fire.

Because it's when we do that, I believe that we will begin to experience freedom, healing, wholeness, and people will see that what you were once bound by becomes a platform that you glorify God through.

So as we stand on our feet, I want us to go back into this song.

I want us to get deeply reflective.

I don't want this to be a moment where we get extremely excited and hyped, but I want this to be a space where we begin to find ourselves reflecting on what are the things that we need to presence God in.

This is an opportunity for us to experience the goodness of God and to bring God into the fire of our family, to bring God into the fire of our finances, to bring God into the fire of everything that we may be facing.

Whatever that looks like for us, let's give it to God right now and presence him with our worship, believing that he's going to be in this fire with us.

Let's worship together, church.

Thanks again for listening.

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