After the Message: What Does God Want? | Week 2

Thank you for joining us for After the Message.

To learn more about Celebration Church here in Orlando, you can follow us on social media under the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website at celebrationorl.org.

Let's talk about freedom, man.

Let's talk about freedom.

And on that note, welcome to After the Message.

If you have stumbled upon this or you're part of our church here at Celebration Orlando, welcome.

Um if you're not sure what After the Message is, uh we talk about the previous Sunday's message and just kind of continue that conversation.

I am joined by a self-proclaimed avid listener of After the Message.

I am an avid listener of After the Message.

Pastor Becca Westcott, how are you?

I'm well.

How are you?

Doing good.

Good.

Doing good.

Glad to be here.

Um this is my favorite format of After the Message.

I said that last week and I will say it again.

Um having a conversation.

Yeah, and it's a familiar environment in your office on the second story in downtown Orlando.

With all the fun background noise.

All the fun background noise.

I hope we get something good.

Or maybe we see like Batman swinging from the roof or something.

That's ridiculous.

Um, this past Sunday, we got to hear from the man, the myth, the legend, Pastor Stovall.

And I think I think all of those describe him because he is a man.

He's sort of mythological.

And then he's obviously a legend.

Yes.

So I love it.

I thought it was great that uh because you know, obviously he's very busy in Jacksonville and has, you know, a lot of people up there to to lead and stuff, so we don't get as much FaceTime with him.

So it was great to to hear him speak to Orlando directly.

Yeah, and I just love the he felt like um he's taken on this like grandpa role where he was talking about, man, I'm gonna like go and just cheer for everybody and stand the back and uh I I want to pay for you to have lunch uh on your launch Sunday.

Like just you know how like your grandparents come in and just like lavish gifts on you.

I I just love his his heart in that way.

I literally have in my notes as the first thing to talk about free lunch.

Yes.

So you brought you beat me to the punch.

Yep.

October 4th, we are gonna start gathering again.

So exciting.

And Pastor Stovval's praying for paying for lunch.

He might be praying that he can pay for lunch too.

But so if you register, you're getting lunch on October 4th, so make sure you do that.

Um, let's get started.

And I think I want to kind of start with what we were talking about in the first week of What Does God Want and talking about God Wants a Family, and that's kind of the theme of this whole series series is building off of God Wants a Family.

And Pastor Stovall, I think, explained it in a way explained freedom in a way because we were talking about freedom this week that I hadn't really given much thought to, and that is God chooses to do good.

Okay.

And so, in order for us to be ambassadors or to have God's DNA, we have to have choice too.

And I thought that was it opened up a new realm in my mind, you know, like a new section of my mind to think about what freedom actually is.

Yeah.

Because a lot of we do think of it as like freedom from sin, freedom from addiction, and all those things come along with it.

But at the at the at the end of the day, like we have to choose to do that, you know?

Yeah.

And that's true freedom, is the choice.

Yeah.

Well, and one of the best illustrations that I've ever s heard or been given, um, as far as what salvation versus walking in freedom really means, is uh it's like we're sitting in prison cells and like the prison cell of our sin, and Jesus comes and unlocks the prison cell, but it's our responsibility to like get up and walk out of the prison cell, like walk out of of sin and into his family and into the freedom that he has for us.

And so I think um I I love what they talked about this um past week in that as you were saying, like the the family part, like we choose to move forward, we choose to uh start following Jesus um and be part of his family.

Um it is that choice to actually start walking in the freedom that he has given us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's definitely a lot of avenues to go down with the whole free choice, you know, or uh what's the word I'm looking for?

Free will and all that kind of thing.

Like there's a lot of different obviously theologic theological lines of thought there.

But when you think of it as as a an aspect of dignity, which I thought was an incredible way to to shape like first we gotta talk about dignity, and that is that every human being has the ability to choose.

Yeah.

So when you take away someone's dignity, you take away their their option to choose.

Yeah, you take away that their their ability to choose.

And that really helped me, and you know, we've had a lot of civil unrest, and but that helped move me forward even another step of understanding that, yeah, you know, from my position of not having to experience that much in my life, but understanding like, man, people are oppressed whenever their choices are taken away, and they're just told what to do.

Yeah, and so it's an amazing thing to think about the original design of our creator was you get to choose, you know, and and that's that's true freedom, you know.

Yep, exactly.

And it it sheds that light on what it means to take that away, and that's that's a scary thing to think about.

And I think in that, uh, one of the things that that really stood out to me was that part of the conversation of we we bestow dignity on others that uh we uh I think it's really easy for Christians who are uh working to walk in the freedom that Jesus gives us.

And of course, like it's something we pursue, we will never fully arrive in wholeness like on this side of heaven.

But like as we pursue freedom and walking with Jesus, uh I I've seen so many times people look down on others for their choices, but I think the way that we can reflect God is is recognizing who that person is in his view, you know, uh, and recognizing that they're a child of God and helping them instead of judging them.

And I think part of that dignity factor is looking at, you know, our brothers and sisters and saying, like, how can I help pick you up and and walk you forward in such a way that you recognize like who you are as a child of God.

And I think that is just such a powerful piece of that like dignity that we were just saying.

Yeah.

I one of the one of the things that can be frustrating about that is it can be exhausting because you're you feel like, gosh, man, I've given you so many chances, you know, and and I think that's what Jesus modeled so well.

Yeah, is how many times do I have to forgive my brother?

Seven times?

No, seventy times seven, which he's basically saying like every single time someone offends you.

And man, that's a that's a weighty command because I know I definitely am guilty of being frustrated, like, man, why aren't you further along?

Like we you and I have talked about this, or we have discussed this in a group setting for years, you know, and you're still not seeing it.

But then I look at my own life and go, what what am I still not seeing it?

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So I I think the the thing to remember is God's grace for you, you know, and and how much how much you need it, and in turn being able to impart that to others, which can be difficult.

Yep.

But I don't know if you have any words of wisdom on on that.

I just think it's so good to recognize how we have such a good good father, you know, that old what was it, 2017, 2018 when we were singing that song all the time.

Every week, yeah.

Um it's a good one though.

Um but he we serve a good good father who does have the patience even when we uh exhaust him, you know.

And if we're gonna be imagers of him, we have to be like, man, I am I still showing people grace even when they're exhausting.

Yeah.

You know?

And yep.

What um one thing I definitely want to touch on because I think it's important, it it can get confusing at times is so they s uh Pastor Stoval said, the kingdom there's no hierarchy, but there is authority.

So I feel like that can get a little bit muddy.

Yeah.

Um but how would you best describe like the difference in the two?

It's such a good question.

You know, I just have to backtrack a little bit and say that I have such like concern about the questions that you're going to pose to me because of the last time that I was on after the message, and you like dropped this like, hey, you know, let's talk about Abraham's bosom and all of this stuff.

So like as soon as you're like, I do want to ask the question, I'm like, oh gosh, where is this gonna go?

Well, don't worry if if it's a if it's a bomb, it'll be towards the end of the segment.

So good to know.

Everybody stay tuned, it'll be so fun.

Yeah.

Um okay, so I think hierarchy versus authority is such an interesting dynamic because what it comes down to is hierarchy is is worldly culture.

Like we we think hierarchy, okay, we think um royalty, you may think um, you know, the presidential, you know, all of that, or we start thinking about a corporate C-suite, like what is hierarchy?

Like who's the boss, who's the utmost person, and then who's the next person in line in the next, you know, org chart.

But yeah, we start thinking about org chart.

Um and kingdom culture is just different, and it's about authority, like authority is given by God, you know, there's nobody in thor authority that like God hasn't ordained.

Um, and I wish I'm terrible at references, but I wish I could think of that one.

Um but I do think that that's why it's so hard for us to really comprehend, is because hierarchy is something that we see all the time, that we really understand and we we recognize so readily.

Um and obviously in that hierarchy is also authority, but authority is something that we operate in um as believers, and we you know, we have authority over the enemy, and we have people who are in authority um in the church, you know, and it yeah, I think it's I think that's why authority is hard for us to comprehend because we want to apply har hierarchy to it all the time.

Gotcha.

But at the end of the day, like we're all brothers and sisters, we're all you know, we're all believers, we're all, you know, God's children.

Um, and that puts us in in kind of like the same playing field, but then there's there's still that authority.

Like I look at Pastor Keith and I am submitted to his authority um as my pastor.

And same with Pastor Choval, I'm submitted to his authority as you know, the global senior pastor of celebration.

Um, but it's not about hierarchy, it's about something that I feel like I'm called to be part of, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does.

And I I did like the the distinction they said, look, look, you know, because we're in the world, there are systems in place and stuff that because we're fallen human beings, if we didn't have these, it would just be anarchy.

You know, so I I did like how they how Pastor Stovall definitely like made that made that claim.

But at the end of the day, the more that we can the more that we can try and image or the more that we can try and not force, but the more that we can try and cultivate a kingdom culture, the more that it becomes a reality.

You know, I think a really good example of this as I'm trying to think about it is in Acts when the apostles, uh when it comes to the apostles, like, hey, the the widows are being overlooked um in in this, and they're like, man, we we really need to be able to, as apostles, be focused on teaching and praying.

So we're going to find somebody else who has, you know, who is trustworthy, who have have gifts, administration skills.

Yes, exactly, to be able to um drive this other piece of ministry forward.

Um, and I think that's a great example of it, it wasn't about um hierarchy.

Like obviously the apostles had the gift to spread the gospel, to be teachers of the word, to help, and they they in their authority said, Hey, this is something else that we we need to make sure that we're taking care of.

And so we're gonna give you authority to operate in the gifts that you have to be able to help people and move people forward.

I feel like that's a pretty good demonstration of what the kingdom culture of of authority versus hierarchy kind of looks like.

Yeah, and again, Jesus is the greatest example of this, and he didn't consider his position with God as something to cling to.

That's right.

And he became a man, you know, and became flesh and bone to come to earth to save us.

And even while he was here, he said, Hey, if you want to be the greatest, you need to be a servant.

Yeah.

And I don't think he was saying like I think one thing that we misconstrue, and I and I could be wrong about this, but I heard this recently was longing for leadership or longing for a role of authority isn't, I don't think, an inherently bad thing, especially if God's placed that in you.

But doing it in the right way is is the way is what Jesus is saying there.

Like, hey, I want to do you want to be great?

Like, yeah, of course you want to be great, but the way to be great is to be a servant.

Yeah, serving the people that you're leading.

Right.

I uh yeah, it's all about posture.

Like, are you trying to get position um because you want to be able to have control?

You know, can control is not not a good goal, yeah.

Um, but it's that um in Philippians it says put yourself aside and help others get ahead.

That's the message version of that.

And I think uh that's such the posture of a good leader is um are you ready to put yourself aside and help other people get ahead?

And and if that is a desire that you have, that that's why you're pursuing leadership roles, um, I think that is a noteworthy and noble and something that you know, like walking in obedience to what God is asking you to do, like uh He's gonna use that and stewarding the positions that He puts you in.

You know, and if you look at others as your equal, yeah, if you look at others as just as valuable in the kingdom as you are, yeah, in your specific role, then you're probably not gonna have too much trouble with that.

Yeah.

Well, and even I think it's in Philippians too that it talks about um consider others better than yourself.

And I think that is such a challenging thing when we're talking about like you know, uh culture where you very rarely consider others b better than yourself or somebody who deserves to be considered better than others.

And that goes back to the dignity dignity conversation we were just having is um are we truly considering others better than ourselves, not just the people who have like the merit for it.

Sure.

Are are we serving people um in that way?

One of the things that I've learned in my um so far brief stint in ministry and in a leadership role at the church is how much I go into a meeting or a conversation or a coffee or whatever it may be.

Lord, you know, help me to give me wisdom for this conversation.

Help me to help this person, you know what I mean?

And going in like, man, I'm gonna pastor and and I walk away going, Holy crap, that person just taught me so much.

Because be it's just it's just crazy.

And so it's really helped me reverse my or you know, recenter my prayer to God just be here.

Yeah, whether it's for me, if it's for them, if it's for both of us, which is usually what it is, it's an encouragement to both, and we both move forward if it's a healthy conversation.

Yeah, you know, it's that's one thing that I've learned and and I've taken note of quickly is like when I'm going into any conversation, let's let's have it be centered around God and let the rest work itself out, you know.

That's so good.

And I think that's such a great example of the benefit of being part of a family.

It's that iron sharpens iron, like, hey, I'm gonna encourage you in the Lord, you know, uh one of those old phrases I used to hear my parents say all the time.

Um but it is that that being able to mutually walk away from a conversation and have a greater understanding of of the magnitude of God because we get to see it playing out in somebody else's life.

It's just such a such a joy of being part of God's family.

Yeah, I heard a quote recently and I wrote it down in the back of my notebook because I want to refer to it often as humility is to be deeply aware of your own ignorance.

Yeah.

Always aware of it.

Like whoever I'm talking to, whether it's a a kid or whether it's someone who's not as educated as I am, someone of a different color, whatever it is, be aware of your own ignorance because you can walk away from that.

Someone they an idiot might have something that you can learn from, is basically what I'm trying to say.

You know what I mean?

And I think that that's a that's a great posture to have.

Yeah.

If an idiot would do it, don't do that.

Dwight Troop.

What what does Michael say?

Um we're gonna go on a side trail here at the office for all you office fans.

He says, What's the what's the greatest thing I ever told you, or something like that?

And Dwight says, uh, don't be an idiot, change my life.

It's a great quote.

Uh The Office.

If you haven't watched it, where have you been?

Yeah, seriously.

Oh man, how do I rebound?

Um the foundational component to freedom is interdependence.

Um let's try and unpack that a little bit.

Because it sounds cool, but what does it really mean?

You know, the foundational component to freedom is interdependence.

So leaning on one another, depending on one another, like why is that such a big deal?

Yeah.

Well, and it goes back to um Pastor Keith's message a few weeks ago or a month ago, where he talks about Lazarus walking out of the tomb, and he tell and Jesus tells his communic community, like, take his grave clothes off.

I think it's that interdependence of not trying to walk into freedom on our own, but um really relying on the others around us to be able to help us like help get the chains off.

Like that interdependence is dependent on other people to help us see what walking in freedom really looks like.

And one of my favorite and something that challenges me, because I hate vulnerability, um, is the scripture we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

And the word of our testimony doesn't go anywhere if we're not saying it out loud, sharing it with other people, sharing um what we're overcoming.

And so I think that shows that interdependence.

Yes, it's the blood of the lamb.

The the blood that Jesus shed on the cross is so important.

Um, and then the word of our testimony of over what we're overcoming helps free us even more, and that's what helps us overcome.

Yeah.

Rainstorm.

Just a just a light just a light shower, Orlando shower in the background.

It'll be good though.

Um yeah, and in James, I believe it's in James it says, confess your sins.

One to another so that you may be healed.

Yeah.

When's the last time you went to your buddy and said, Hey, I sinned, you know, like conf or confessed your sin to someone else?

I mean, it's it's true.

It's it's a it's a communal effort, you know.

I think, man, especially right now, everything's about individuality.

Yeah.

And there's a there's a component to that because even in the first week of the series we talked about the Enneagram and God's all the Enneagrams in one, and He's designed and equipped you for a specific purpose.

But it has to function properly within the body of Christ and within with other believers.

Yeah.

Or else you're not utilizing it's a waste, you know.

Right.

That's so true.

But that's I think that's kind of the paradox of it, of the whole thing.

Is knowing your your individuality, knowing who you are, and but also how how do I use that the best way?

Yeah.

Well, and it's the I take personal responsibility for the wrongdoing in my life.

Um but having the the bravery for lack of better words to like invite somebody else in um to your messy world, you know, because we don't have a natural bent to be like, hey, these are all the things that I'm struggling with, you know, but letting other people in because it brings freedom, I think that's something that the enemy tries to keep us from doing.

Like, uh, you don't want to go to that small group because everybody's just gonna, you know, cry about their feelings, or like all of those things that he or you're gonna feel awkward, like it's not gonna be fun, those aren't your people, like all those things that keep us from going and engaging in community.

Um we're also missing that interdependence, that um opportunity to find people that will help you pull your grave grave clothes off.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, it's hard.

Yeah, it's it's a lot.

I think we just need to get over being uncomfortable.

Correct.

Because and I think the sooner that you can embrace discomfort, the better off you're probably gonna be in life, or the more you're at least gonna discover about yourself and about other people and about how the world works.

Yeah, because even everything right now is telling us to be in a bubble.

Very true.

Society is telling us to be in a bubble, you know?

And man, if I had a soapbox, don't get me don't let me stand on it.

I'll kick it out the window.

But it's true.

I think um it's really easy for us to use barriers, social ones, um, cultural ones as excuses to not move forward and obey what the Bible is telling us to do.

Um and we just have to lean on you know, the truth of what the word says and lean on the fact that like we never regret the steps that we take towards growing in our understanding of God.

Like ever.

There has never been a time that I'm like, man, I really regret getting up earlier so that I could spend time with God.

I've I've never regretted having a conversation that God asked me to have with somebody, no matter how uncomfortable it was.

I've never regretted the moments where I stepped out of my comfort zone in order to grow spiritually.

And so I think just recognizing like, man, this is not going to be a moment that I regret.

It's a it's a safe place to step out.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's one of the things that I really appreciate about the Lord.

And I'm thankful like Jesus didn't really sugarcoat stuff, you know.

He told he told us like, hey, uh just a heads up, you're gonna have trials.

It would have been one thing if he, you know, hey, like enticed you, like come follow me, and you know what I mean, and then you figure out like, well, this is hard.

Why do I want to do this?

But he was up front about it, and he lets you know like what you're getting into.

Not just you're gonna have trials, but consider it joy.

Yeah when you have trials.

It's a good thing.

Because it builds perseverance and endurance and all those, you know.

But that's a great point.

I I think that the same thing with serving, you know, whether it be on a Sunday or an outreach or just w in my home, whenever I put someone uh put someone's needs ahead of my own, I never look back and go like, dang it.

I regret that.

I shouldn't have done that, you know.

But especially because sometimes, you know, thinking back to the good old setup days and stuff, like getting up, like, oh man.

But when I was done, I just felt that was the right thing to do, and like you said, I I never regretted that.

Yeah, it's an investment in the right thing.

Yeah.

Um we talked about some of the things the uh like some of the demonstrations and Sabbath and communion specifically.

And I think I think what we need to do is kind of distinguish like what those are as far as what role they play, you know.

Um because they're important, yeah.

And how they how they help us recognize a family, you know, and I think the Sabbath thing is a really cool idea to think about how it can bring your family together.

And I know you've tried to implement that a little bit in your life recently.

What has worked, what has not worked, what do you what's been your experience?

Sabbath is hard.

Um especially when you are a type A achiever who really thrives on being productive, you know, and um intentionally resting, I think is just it feels very countercultural because when you talk to somebody like, hey, how are you?

So often the answer is, Oh, I've been busy.

And like busy is like a you know, stamp of approval that you're using your time well.

And so it's Sabbath is and to backtrack just a minute, if you're not if you're not sure, like what in the world is Sabbath, I think you just said it great.

It's intentionally putting aside time to rest.

Yes.

And one of the ways that I heard that really has helped me, and I'm still not doing this well at all.

Um, but uh mindset is it's like when we put God first in our finances, we tithe.

We tithe to put God first in our finances, and we observe Sabbath and we rest in order to put God first in our time.

That we take that time to stop producing, um, stop the the hurry, stop the the busyness of life in order to to pursue rest and just like allow God to take take over.

Um and I think it's it's so important and that it it goes back to I've never regretted the time that I have put aside to like really rest and yet it's still so hard to do.

And um you know, um the the way that the Bible kind of rules it out, and I've done a lot of study of just like the Israelites, and um like on on the seventh year, something that has really helped me is on the sixth year they used to gather a crop that would provide enough for the sixth year, the seventh year, and the eighth year because they would let the land rest in the seventh year.

That was the Sabbath year.

Talk about conservation 101.

Right, but it was like this supernatural thing that of like God's provision.

Like he's going, man, if you're gonna put me first by taking a year to let the land rest, and like we can look at all the agricultural like implications of that, you know, like that it let the soil, you know, regain nutrients and all of this, all that stuff, but he blessed and gave provision for the sixth year, um, so that it would cover that, cover them for those three years.

And it just shows over and over again when you read the Bible, it just shows like, man, putting God first is never a mistake.

It it always is something that like he he is a provider and he he cares for us and he's not gonna be like, oh, you're gonna put me first.

So like your your time is gonna be like you're just gonna be rushing around the next day trying to get everything done that you didn't get done the day before.

You know what I mean?

I think that's sometimes the reason why it's like, oh, I'll just do the dishes.

Oh, I'll just I'll just answer this one email.

I'll just, you know, like all of those excuses that we make to not prioritize rest and um reflection and remembrance, because that's really why um God called us to rec observe the Sabbath and keep it holy, is because like we can uh get so caught up in everything else that we don't take time to remember.

And that's the same thing with communion, you know, like it's that you know, Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me.

So yeah, let if we as humans, and we see this in the Israelites, where like all of the Jewish feasts are based in the fact that they needed to remember what God did for them because like humans have short-term memory loss, you know?

And um so we do those things because it's intentional time that we can set aside to remember who God is, that He is our provider, who who He is as our Father, and not just, you know, this big person up in the sky who's trying to get us to do a bunch of things we don't want to do.

Um and taking time, you know, communion, reflecting on the fact that Jesus has forgiven us of so much, and yet we still hold things so much smaller against other people, our brothers and sisters.

And so I think that's why coming to the table is such a gift of remembering, man, if Jesus can forgive me of a natural inherent sin nature, like I I can look at this thing that somebody said to me that I've been thinking about for a week and and forgive them for saying that thing.

You know what I mean?

And so I think it's just intentional pauses.

And as you said, they're demonstrations, but it it's just those moments that we can demonstrate that we we want to observe and we want to posture our lives towards who God is more than we're posturing towards what we want our lives to be.

Okay, I'm sorry, I said a lot.

No, it's you got me on a soapbox.

No, I mean there is a lot there.

What's let me try and go through my list.

First of all, the even some of the practicality of God's commands, we always think them think of them as strictly spiritual.

But the idea of he knows what's best at the end of the day, and he doesn't have to explain why, but you looking back, like the whole idea of letting the land rest.

Could you imagine if our society let our planet rest for a year, what it would do, but we can't stop produce we can't stop production or else our entire system would just collapse.

Right.

Which is insane to think about.

Well, and talk about a soapbox, like we can see all of those uh like environmental things from people quarantining during the pandemic.

Like just yeah, the that recuperation of of not producing, you know.

But yeah.

I want to get a s scientist in here on after the message to talk about that would be fun.

If you are a scientist, you can email atm at celebrationorl.org.

Yep.

And we would love to bring you in to talk about those things.

That would be fantastic.

But yeah, there's that, there's the practical side of things, there's, you know, there's obviously the spiritual side of things, but even even the what you talked about with the um this reconciliation value of other people getting together with other people and saying because because God's done what he's done for me, I can extend that to you now.

Because I because I understand, goodness gracious, I know who I am, you know, and God's perfect, and he still chooses to to call me friend.

Right.

I can call you my friend too.

Yeah.

And so having having dinner with somebody that maybe you wouldn't ordinarily do that with is that's a beautiful picture.

Yeah, and I love you bringing for like the practical, like God knows us because we're his children, and so he said practically you guys are gonna need times to pause and remember because you're quick to forget.

And so I think um in the same way that like a good parent, you know, says, Hey, don't you can't eat your dessert first, because then you won't be hungry for your dinner.

Because they know those like practical exactly, they know those practical things.

Um He knows he knows us because we're his children, and so he's gonna put those practical things in place.

Um, but it it's so quick, I think, in our culture to be like, oh man, that's legalism.

You know, and it's like, no, that's not the heart of it.

Like your parents aren't telling you not to eat dessert first because they want to be terrible, like mean parents and they want you to eat vegetables.

Like, how dare you?

It's like they know what's best.

Yeah, they know what's best.

And what are they gonna do?

Sit you down and explain to you, like, okay, this is how food works.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Like, no.

Yeah.

Um four-year-old's not gonna respond to that.

Exactly.

And we're four-year-olds.

Correct.

We're all four-year-olds.

Um this brings it full circle, which is incredible.

Um and I'm trying to re and I'm trying to get there, recapture my thoughts here.

So at the beginning, we were kind of talking about sometimes it can be frustrating to extend grace.

Right.

Why is that?

Well, it's because we have short-term memory loss.

Right.

Why do we have short-term memory loss?

Because we don't take time out to remember what God's done for us.

That's good, Nate.

So if we were to just practice taking a day, even if here's my thing, I love playing golf.

I'm terrible at it.

I'm I'm the worst version of myself when I play golf sometimes.

But to get out in nature and not and put my phone away for four hours and to like enjoy have enjoy an activity and to sweat and to look at a beautiful course and and remember, like, man, thank you, thank you, God, that I have the ability to do this.

I have a day to do this that you've provided, you know, even something simple as that can kind of bring you back to reality.

Yeah.

And if a whole day of Sabbath like stresses you out, don't start with a whole day.

Start with like, I'm going to put my phone away for these five hours for this five-hour chunk, you know, and just really intentionally focus on God and not just veg out and watch Netflix.

Not that there's a you know, there's a place for that, I'm sure.

But um, you know, just intentionally spending time.

I just thought about that verse where there's like a time to live, a time to die, a time for Netflix, and a time.

That's good.

Oh man.

But yeah, start with five hours.

I think that's a good start.

It's great advice.

And some of the best advice that one of my friends gave me a while ago, I was like struggling with not being able to get up and read my Bible, start my day, reading the word and like quieting my mind and talking to God.

And so I was like, man, I set my alarm, I don't do it, blah, blah, blah.

And he goes, dude, five minutes.

Just get up five minutes earlier.

And as soon as you start doing that, you're like, Man, I want it, I want it more.

So it's 15, and then it turns to 30, and the next thing you know, you know, you're an hour in and you're like, I still want to get, you know.

So I think that's great advice.

That's good.

Um We touched on Sabbath, we touched on communion.

Anything else?

I don't know.

I feel like we covered a lot.

We did.

This is a fun conversation though.

For sure.

I could probably keep talking about the or at least researching and wanting to talk more about the environmental.

Oh, I can s I can send you my document because the uh the celebration of all the Jewish feasts are coming up.

And so I've been doing all of this research to see the why behind celebrating it.

And it's just been really cool how um there are so many divine threads through throughout the throughout the Bible and that still connect to today of like, man, that's that's really cool.

And it's not it's not stuff like that isn't even like to get God's approval.

I've been thinking about stuff I've been thinking about this a lot recently, like God, God's children, hit okay, the original children of God, Israel.

They were his kids, okay?

No matter what.

Literally marked as the people of God.

Yeah, no matter what, before they ever did anything for him, so to speak.

Yeah.

And yet he still loved them enough to say, okay, I'm gonna give you ways to live, ways to cultivate land, ways to uh how you govern your people, like all of these things that we see in the Old Testament, like the law and all that stuff is like this is me helping you like make it.

Yeah, because everything here is new to you, like this your land is new, like the way that you are gonna live and be different from the rest of the world is new, you know.

So it really helps you put things in perspective.

And yeah, I think the more that we can learn about those things and try and implement those in our lives as far as what's actually behind it, um, we could definitely benefit from that.

Yeah, sweet.

Thanks for uh thanks for doing this.

Like like uh pastor Becca said, if you're a scientist or maybe you're not and you just want to say what's up, you can email us uh atm at celebrationorl.org.

That stands for after the message.

So uh yeah, thanks again.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for joining us for after the message.

To learn more about Celebration Church here in Orlando, you can follow us on social media under the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website at celebrationorl.org.