CHRONICLES OF A KING: We Are All Witnesses

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're doing well with you and your families.

Um, I want to thank you so much for allowing us to come into your home today.

I'm here with my family.

Um, my daughter's on the other side of this camera.

My family's all around.

We just want to thank you so much for allowing us to come into your homes, but also welcome you into our home.

Um, for us at the time of this recording, we're we're just on the um the next week, right after Easter Sunday, resurrection Sunday.

And my hope and prayer is that that you were able to really spend some time with family and friends, uh, reaching out to those, letting you know that you that you love them, that you're caring for them, and that you're praying for them, because that's exactly how we feel about you, that we're with you every single step of the way.

We want to let you know that that we're here for you.

And if there's anything that we can do as a church to serve you and your family, please don't hesitate to let us know.

You know, when I when I think about this season that we're stepping into, coming, coming on the back end, coming on the other side of Resurrection Sunday, um, at in real time for the for the disciples, it was a moment of of expectation.

There was some excitement, there was some concerns and questions, which we're going to address in just a few moments.

But I want to encourage all of us that this is a season where we're going into the preparation for Pentecost.

That's that moment when the Holy Spirit comes, that there's that moment where where the church is birthed.

That is when the believers are empowered with having God on the inside of them and we see mighty signs and wonders.

I have to truly believe this in my heart and in this spirit.

I believe that we're entering into a season, just like in the same way with the disciples in the early church, that this season of preparation for Pentecost is going to be one that is going to be incredibly impactful and powerful.

I want all of us to be expected of what we believe God is going to do in this season.

I know that we may be shut in, but God is not shut out.

And that is exactly what I want us to lean into in this season.

If you have your Bibles with you, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Acts, chapter one.

We're actually going to continue a little bit of where we left off at with the resurrection of Jesus.

So as we get into the word of God, I want to open us up in prayer as we begin to engage the word of God and really believe that he's going to speak to us in just a few moments.

God, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for opportunities that we have for us to come together and to gather.

Your word says that where two or three are gathered in your name, that there you are in the midst of us.

So, Father, I just pray that as we open up your word, that you give us revelation and enlightenment.

So, Father, we pray for open eyes that we can see you.

We pray for open hearts that we can receive everything that you have for us and open ears to hear the truth of your word.

We pray and declare all this in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

As we typically do whenever we go into the word of God in our homes, I want to let you know that you can pause it.

It's going to come up on your screen.

I want to invite you to pause the screen, uh, to read the scriptures out loud, come back to it.

But it's really important not for you just to watch us as we're doing church together, but you participate with us as well, that you engage the word of God as well.

I believe it's a powerful way for us to engage scripture.

It's a powerful way to bring the presence of God into our homes, into our cars, onto our iPhones, and whatever way that you're engaging, it's a powerful way to do it.

So I want to invite you to pause the screen, read the scriptures out loud, get your Bibles out, highlight what we're gonna do, and even begin to write down some of the things that God begins to share with you.

But beginning here in the book of Acts, chapter one, I want to give you some brief context as to what the book of Acts is really all about.

The book of Acts is written by um the apostle Luke.

And Luke, of course, the writer of the Gospel of Luke, it's a continuation.

In fact, it was actually written in a manner that it was meant to be continued right after Luke.

So here's a great idea that when you find some space as we're engaging scripture in this season, um, read the gospel of Luke and then jump right into um the book of Acts.

It's a great continuation because you're now familiar with Luke's writing, you understand the way that he loves to unpack things, and you'll begin to see these threads that Luke is connecting us to to give us a greater revelation of what he felt his assignment was with sharing the gospel.

So the way that that Luke concludes his gospel, he concludes it with the Great Commission, the resurrection of Christ.

And then in the book of Acts, he continues to connect these thoughts of preparing us for the ascension of Jesus.

And so starting here in Luke chapter 1, starting at verse number three, it's what it says, and he, and he being Jesus, he presented himself alive.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

That's a key word.

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise from the Father, which he said, You've heard from me, for John the Baptist baptized you with water, but you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

So when they had come together, they had asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, It is not for you know the times and seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

This is a key thought right here, because as they're trying to sort things out, they're like, Okay, Lord, so is this the time?

Is this our time that we're gonna see our breakthrough?

This is this the time where you're gonna allow us to stop being oppressed.

And so he begins to talk to them.

It's not, it's not their really their responsibility to worry about the times and seasons that God is gonna put things in this proper order.

I want to encourage somebody with this.

This is not meaning that we're not aware of the times and seasons in as it relates to culture and identifying the activity of God.

What it's talking about is the second coming of Christ.

And so often many of us are looking at seasons and we're trying to predict Jesus' return, and he's saying, Stop worrying about that.

I need you to occupy till I come.

I need you to live your life now with an expectation that I am going to come back, but don't put your life on pause waiting for that.

You got some work to do, and you're going to see a theme that continues to emerge from that.

So he says to them, it's not for you to worry about that, uh, for the times of seasons that the Father has fixed.

But here's the next thing.

But he says to them, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth.

And when he said these things, they were looking onto him.

He was lifted up on a cloud and took out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said to them, Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into heaven?

This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

There's so much there that we can unpack.

And I just want to spend a couple of minutes unpacking this next step, this next season that the church was going into.

Again, to kind of reframe it and summarize it.

The disciples are in this place where they've they've experienced a lot over the past couple of years, and especially over the past couple of days.

Like they're they're really trying to process through the fact that Jesus was dead, that he was resurrected, and they're trying to figure out what all of this really means.

And so as they're processing through all these things, they got questions, they got they're trying to understand their new reality.

What are the next steps for them?

And I can imagine for some of us that's exactly where we are.

But there's a key phrase that is stated in that.

It says that you are going to be my witnesses.

That word witness, that it literally translates to martyr.

It means to lay your life down, it means to surrender, it means to confess.

In fact, what you'll find, the biblical definition of witnesses, it's not just seeing something, but it is declaring something.

It's often referred to as bearing witness.

A lot of times in our context, when we think about witnessing something, it's really just about what we see, but there's no association with our words that are attached to it.

But but in the ancient Israel mind, it was it was really to witness something was also to bear witness.

That means to see something and confess to it.

There was work that was still meant to be done.

See, I think about all of us, and I'm pretty sure that all of us have things at and times in our lives where we've witnessed something, where we've seen something, things that sometimes have marked us.

Maybe there's some things that have changed our very reality.

We can think of moments like I can think of moments in myself where I think about the birth of my children.

Being present for all three of them, I witnessed it.

It was it was a powerful moment of seeing life come out, of and just recognizing the responsibility and and the weightiness of the beauty of it all.

We all have been invited into opportunities and seasons where we've been able to witness certain things.

Sometimes we witness car accidents.

You know, I remember many years ago, my wife and I, we were awakened from our sleep from a loud crash that happened kind of like right outside our window.

I honestly thought it was a it was I was in the middle of a bad dream.

I woke up and and my wife and I looked at each other and we're like, Did you did you hear that?

And and and we were like, Yeah, like I heard that.

Did you hear that?

And so we now we're in this this space of like, what do you do when you hear a noise in the middle of the night?

Now, here's the thing.

Against my better urban judgment, we went to investigate the news.

We wanted to go investigate the sound that we heard.

Uh, my wife was like, We could we need to go check it out.

Now, if anybody's seen any horror movies, you'll know that people that look like me typically don't make it out.

But against my better urban inclinations, we had to go play investigators.

So we got up and we began to kind of look around and we realized that the noise came from the outside of our home.

So we got dressed and we got in our car and we drove out to kind of see what was going on.

And when we arrived at the scene, what we had discovered is that there was a car accident right on the outside of our neighborhood.

We could hear the collision from all the way inside of our neighborhood.

When we arrived there, there was um two other people that arrived just before us.

And there was this, as you can understand, a moment of chaos, a moment of confusion.

We would are everybody got their phones out and they're making an effort to call first responders, and we're processing through what our next steps are going to be.

My wife is off to the side and I'm standing there and watching this distangled wreck of a vehicle.

And I get a little bit closer and I begin to kind of see the dynamics of what's at play, and I'm trying to process through everything that I'm witnessing right now.

I see a car that's crashed into a pole.

I see a young man that's sitting inside of the seat, and you can clearly see that he's hurt.

I'm seeing people that are making an effort to try.

I'm waiting for emergency responders to show up.

And in this moment, it was everything I witnessed.

I felt paralyzed.

I didn't know how to move forward.

I didn't know what my next steps were going to be.

I was hoping that I was gonna wake up and it was just gonna be a bad dream.

You know what I believe?

I believe for some of us that that every day we're we're waking up and we're witnessing some things that we feel completely uncomfortable with.

At the time of this recording, we we recognize that that just yesterday was the highest death toll for the coronavirus yet, to date.

We're waking up and we're realizing that every time we believe that we're taking a step forward, there's there's more, there's more noise, there's more noise and more news that that gives us the impression that we're not making the progress that we hope we'd be making.

We're we're waking up to the reality that that's that moms now have to become school teachers.

God bless you.

That dads now have to become school teachers, that that we're trying to figure out how to process and manage our workloads at the same time, trying to be very present with our families and recognize that maybe there's an opportunity for us to draw closer together, but yet we're witnessing all this mess at times and we don't know what to do with it.

We're witnessing those who are poor and disenfranchised in our community being impacted the most by this season because they don't have they don't have salary jobs.

They have to go out and because their jobs and their places of employment are closed, they're not even even able to get the resources.

So they're not even able to feed their families at all.

And we're seeing this and we're witnessing all of this.

We're witnessing that even resources and places that have always been staples in our communities that can help those who have been disenfranchised, that can help those who were struggling, that even their resources are drying up.

We're looking out into a world where we're witnessing some things, and if I can be honest, we're just hoping that one day we'll wake up and it was just one bad dream.

That maybe there's gonna be a moment where it's all gonna be wiped away, and and and what we've been witnessing was just a nightmare that we just had to wake up from.

You know, when I think about the disciples, I believe that for them, they were trying to process through everything they had seen over the past three and a half years in doing life and ministry with Jesus.

Fact of the matter is that these were men that were not selected in any other profession in regards to doing anything for the kingdom of God.

These were men who were rejected from being selected by rabbis.

So these were just skilled traders and people who just had to work with their hands, but yet Jesus saw something in them that no one else saw.

They they witnessed, they witnessed value, but they they also witnessed, they witnessed Jesus confront darkness and and win and share light.

They they witnessed Jesus take the hierarchy system and and and allowing women and children to be welcome at the foot of the cross and welcome in his environments that he was teaching in, like the cultural conflict that Jesus was presenting, they witnessed so many things with that.

But they also they also witnessed their Lord and Savior get beaten unrecognizably.

They they they recog they they witnessed him get betrayed, they they witnessed him get hung onto a cross, they witnessed him have all these illegal trials, they they witnessed all of that stuff.

And now on the other side of that, they they're witnessing now that the tomb is empty.

And they're trying to process through everything that they've seen over the past three and a half years, and quite honestly, they're paralyzed because they're saying to themselves, what happens next?

Maybe you're asking that question yourself.

What do we do now?

What happens next?

In the same way that the disciples could celebrate the fact that the tomb was empty, they still were dealing with the reality that they didn't know what their next steps were going to be.

And I suspect that many of us, we just came back from celebrating Easter.

The tomb is empty, and because the tomb is empty, that means we can have full lives, full of peace, full of joy, but we're still witnessing a world that is in desperate need of a savior right now.

This is the reality that the disciples find themselves in, wrestling with this tension of struggling with what their next steps are going to be.

So, what the Bible says is that while Jesus was amongst them, that he began to present himself to them as proof.

I want you to I want you to hear the words that it says.

It says, as proof, Jesus was presenting himself to them.

Like Jesus still had to prove who he was, even after everything they have seen.

He he still had to prove who he was, even after they seen him walk on water.

He had to prove who he was, even after they saw him raise the dead.

They he had to prove who he was, even after they seen him um come out of the grave himself, they still were at a place where Jesus still had to prove who he was.

But even after they seen all of these things, they still had questions.

That even after everything they saw, they still had things that they were struggling with.

That even after everything they saw, they were still filled with confusion.

I think that can be the case for some of us that even after we've seen God do some amazing things in our lives, that we still got some questions.

Things like we know that God is on a move, but we wonder why it does it feel like he's still standing still.

We we've seen God provide, but we don't understand why we've lost our jobs.

We know that God is a healer, but we're trying to process through why are we still sick.

These moments where even though we've seen God do some amazing things in our lives and in the lives of others, it doesn't reconcile with the reality of where we are right now.

This is what the disciples are stepping into this space of saying to themselves that even after everything we've saw Jesus, man, we still got some questions.

And so what the text tells us is that Jesus presented himself alive after his suffering as proof.

Man, I don't want us to overlook the sequencing of the text when it tells us that Jesus presented himself alive as proof, after his suffering.

What Jesus wanted to make sure that they understood is that they seen Jesus on the front end with all the miracles.

They seen Jesus even get brutalized unrecognizably, but he wanted to show them that yet he was still alive.

I'm not sure if you caught that.

That Jesus was alive after the suffering, that Jesus was alive after all the abuse, that Jesus was alive after the discomfort.

Let me encourage you with this, friends, that no matter what suffering is in front of you, Jesus is still alive.

That no matter what you're wrestling with, Jesus is still alive.

That no matter what setbacks you've had, Jesus is still alive.

This is why our faith is so pivotal.

This is why Paul tells us that if Christ be not raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain.

But the same power that rose Christ from the grave is the same thing that lives in us.

Here's what that ultimately means.

If Jesus is alive, then my circumstance isn't dead.

That means that no matter what is going on in my life, the fact that Jesus is alive, that means that I have access to life and life to its fullest.

I know that right now we may be in the middle of a situation, but let me encourage you that your Lord and your Savior, that He is alive, that He's alive on the other side of your pain, that He's alive on the other side of your suffering, that He is very much alive.

But it gets even better than that.

Because what the text says is that He appears to them over a period of 40 days, speaking to them about the kingdom of God.

For 40 days, that number 40 in the Bible is a season of testing.

It's a season of moments where things are kind of put into perspective to evaluate what's on the inside of it.

Here's what I wrote down.

I want you to put this in your spirit.

Tests reveal what's on the inside of us.

Tests will reveal what's on the inside of us.

You'll never know what's in you until you're tested because that's what comes out of you.

And not only will it reveal what's on the inside of us, but what's inside of us is connected to what God wants to get out of us.

A lot of times we won't know what God is calling us to do until we're tested and we begin to see some things flow out of our lives.

And what we see with these critical moments in Scripture, when that 40-day moment was put into context, we see that something powerful comes out of it.

Moses was on a mountain for 40 days, that Noah it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and God did something powerful with it, and that Jesus fasted for 40 days.

That there's something to be said about this season of testing.

So I want us to put this all together.

It says that Jesus shows up for 40 days, that Jesus shows up in the middle of the testing, and he's speaking about the kingdom of God.

That he shows up, that he appeared to them while they were eating, in the middle of the season of testing, that he showed up while they were on the road to Emmaus, while they were in the middle of confusion.

Here's what I want us to be encouraged in that no matter where you are right now, that Jesus will show up in the middle of your situation, and he will bring peace and he will bring shalom.

He will bring wholeness.

He will bring, he will bring, he will bring healing and breakthrough in every circumstance you may find yourself in.

The truth of the matter is that you may be in the middle of a situation right now, but Jesus is right in it with you.

You may feel like you're being tested right now, but Jesus is right in the middle of it with you.

That Jesus shows up in the middle of the test, revealing who he is in the midst of that situation.

I assure you that even in the same way with the disciples as they were on the road to Emmaus, the scripture says that they did not even recognize who Jesus was.

That while they were walking and processing through everything they had seen, that Jesus was walking among them and they didn't even recognize it because he had a form that they had not yet recognized.

Is it possible that Jesus is walking in the midst of your season right now and we don't recognize him because he's coming in a different form than what we expected?

I assure you that he's there with you, right in the middle of your test.

What the Bible says is that as the disciples are processing through this and that Jesus shows up on the other side of it, that he shows up in the middle of their tests and he's having conversations with them, he's expounding on the kingdom of God to them.

That in that same time, that when the moment came for him to ascend into heaven, that they literally watched him go up into heaven.

Man, I can't imagine how dramatic that was.

I can't imagine even the questions that they had in all of that stuff because they're still trying to figure out, okay, Jesus, you're alive, you're with us.

Okay, so so now what?

When when do we start to when do we start to take over?

But in that same moment, Jesus begins to ascend up into heaven.

Scripture tells us that they're they're confused, and so there's a moment where these two angels show up.

And when these two angels show up, they they say, Why why are you looking at why are you looking at heaven?

Like you're looking at the wrong thing.

Why are you looking up there when God has an assignment for you here?

Why are you so focused on looking to heaven for the answers when God has called you to be the solution on earth?

I think that thing could be something that we could process through ourselves that sometimes we're looking up when God wants us to begin to look around.

That there's a there's a harvest, there's work for us yet to do, and I believe it's an invitation for us to change our perspective and recognize that the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few that God is inviting us to get back to work.

See, the present moment that we find ourselves in is that sometimes we don't presence God in the middle of it.

My question for us, church, is what are we looking at?

I think sometimes we spend so much time looking or witnessing things that we stop witnessing to the things that we see, that we stop presencing God in the middle of our situation.

We stop presencing God in the middle of the circumstances that we're seeing, we're witnessing the news, we're witnessing our bank accounts, we're witnessing the obstacles that are in front of us.

Instead of witnessing it alone, we need to start witnessing to it.

We need to start speaking to it in the same way that when David he witnessed, he witnessed Goliath talking about God, talking about the children of Israel.

He witnessed all of these things, but at some point David confronted that thing and he began to witness the word of God to it, speaking and declaring what God's word says about that situation.

I believe it's the same thing that Jesus is saying that when we look at a mountain, we say, Be thy removed.

We gotta start presencing God in the middle of our mountains and confessing what God's word says about the situation instead of allowing the situation to dictate to us what our future is going to be.

We gotta start presencing God in the middle of our circumstances.

This is the power of the altar.

And we can have an altar in our homes, we can have an altar at our churches, we can have an altar at our workplace, we can have an altar in our schools, we can have an altar in our cars, we can have an altar when we're walking around our neighborhood.

The altar was simply a place where we presence the presence of God.

This is why we see in scripture that whenever there are obstacles, that people would often create an altar as a way to presence God in the middle of their situation.

Abraham, he presenced God in the middle of his situation, that Jacob, when he was fearful of his life, he presenced God in the middle of his situation, that when Noah's ark came to rest, that Noah came out of the other side of the storm and he presen God in the middle of his situation.

I believe it's time for us to stop witnessing what's going on and start witnessing to what's going to happen.

Start presencing God in the middle of our circumstance.

This is what it means to presence God in the midst of our situation.

It means to engage the word of God, it means to be a people of prayer, and it means to have a heart of worship.

This is how we presence God in the middle of our situation.

God is inviting us to invite Him into the middle.

Our circumstance, but we got to change what we're witnessing and begin to declare with our mouths what we know we're going to witness.

It's this moment where Jesus is taken up into heaven, and it sounds very familiar because it's almost like this transference of a of authority, of anointing, of purpose, of calling.

It's the same thing that we see where Moses he leaves and the mantle is now passed on to Joshua.

It's kind of the same thing that we see when the prophet Elijah leaves and the mantle is now passed on to Elijah.

We also see it's the same thing as when Jesus leaves, the mantle is now being passed on to the disciples and to the church and to us.

Ultimately, what that means is every time the mantle was passed on, that greater works were performed.

I know it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it, but the Bible says that Moses, the word of God says about Moses and Joshua, in the same way that I was with Moses, I will be with you.

The Bible says that with Elijah and Elisha, that the Bible says that a double portion of the anointing was upon Elisha.

And you know what the Bible says about us?

It says that we shall do greater works than Jesus.

It's hard to wrap our minds around it, but the mantle always brings an increase to our influence, an increase to our impact.

What if we really began to live our lives with this real with this radical understanding that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, that we can do greater works than Jesus?

That we can actually go out into environments and the gospel can spread at an exponential rate because we're able to leverage the influence and the power that God has placed on our lives.

It's all about recognizing that mantle that is on our lives.

Greater works are in you, friend.

Greater things are on the inside of you, friends.

And there's a lot of things that God has for you.

He's not done with you yet, but my question is, what are you looking at?

We are all witnesses, but we've got to stop witnessing and start witnessing to the places that God has placed us in.

You know, I think about when I was on the outside of my neighborhood watching this man, and I believe he was in his final moments of life.

Being at a standstill in the same way that the disciples were as they were processing through and watching Jesus ascend into heaven, I didn't have an angelic appearance.

I didn't have that benefit.

But what I did have is I had this burden on the inside of my heart that began to rise up and says, What are you doing witnessing this when you need to be witnessing to it?

I didn't know what that meant, but I knew that I was compelled to do something.

I walked up close to the door and there was a gentleman there that was trying to open the door up and keep it open.

I just stooped inside of the door and I looked at the young man in his eyes and I said, Would you mind if I prayed with you?

I want to let you know that the emergency responders are on their way.

They're going to be here in just a few moments, but I would love to pray with you if that's okay.

He couldn't really speak, but he just kind of gave me this nod.

I said, I'm not sure where you are right now, but I would love to invite you to invite Jesus into your heart.

Is that something that you feel comfortable with doing?

And he said, Yes.

I prayed with him right there on the spot.

What I didn't realize is that that prayer was going to probably be the last prayer and the last words that he would ever speak, that he eventually ended up losing his life.

There are times in my mind where I replay over and over again.

Man, what would have happened if, what would have happened if I didn't, if I didn't witness to the situation?

What would have happened if I just would have continued to witness and watch it without speaking into it?

I believe that the sovereignty of God transcends all of that, but here's what I believe.

I believe that while I was witnessing, God was inviting me to witness.

He was inviting me to speak into it, to change something possibly.

And I believe the same thing can be said of us.

That there's a lot of things that we're witnessing right now.

But I believe that God is sending the same message to us that the angel sent to the disciple, and that God prompted on my heart with the young man that I was praying with.

That the world is dying around us, and how long are we going to witness it?

It's time for us to start witnessing to it.

That God is calling us to speak into the darkness instead of just acknowledging it.

That God is calling us to speak life instead of just accepting death.

That God is calling us to speak wholeness instead of just embracing brokenness.

I believe that it's a season for us that we have to stop making an altar to the pain and stop elevating the things above God.

The scripture tells us that at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

But right now I sense that there's moments where we're elevating other things above who God is.

Acknowledge our pain, but let's not in one moment believe that we have to stop speaking to it.

We are all called to be witnesses.

And I believe in this season, when we're at our homes, there's an opportunity that God is beginning to stir on the inside of all of us.

We're witnessing a lot of things in this world, but I also believe that this world desperately is in need of a witness.

Just because we're in our homes doesn't mean that God has changed his mission.

I believe that we can begin to speak life.

I believe that we can speak words of encouragement.

I believe we can speak to our situations.

I believe that we can be the ones that are putting encouraging words out there on the internet instead of just downloading the negativity.

It's an invitation for us to start witnessing to a world instead of just witnessing where the world is going.

God has empowered us with his Holy Spirit.

That means that he's increasing our capacity.

We don't have to do it in our own strength.

And listen to me, friends, your simple invitation for someone to participate in church at home with you is the way that we witness.

Your simple way of praying for someone is the way that we witness.

Every morning at nine o'clock, we get together and pray and we declare the word of God that is the way that we change the atmosphere and the environments.

God has given us everything we need for the season that we are in.

But we got to stop witnessing it and start witnessing to it.

I love you, church.

And in just a few moments, one of our team members is going to lead you through a prayer.

They're going to lead you through communion and give you some encouraging next steps.

But what I feel like I want to do, I just want to pray for you where you are, because I know that we're all witnessing a lot of things, but I believe that God has empowered us to change the things that we're witnessing with the words of our mouths.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you, God, that you've empowered us with your spirit, that we are able to not only just witness with our eyes, but begin to declare your truth with our mouths.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for every person that is struggling, every burden, every sickness, every setback, that we can declare your truth over it.

That we can acknowledge where we are, but we can speak to where you're calling us to go.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, I speak wholeness.

I witness your presence.

I presence you in the midst of our pain with an expectation that we're going to see breakthrough.

I pray for our medical responders, those who are on the front lines.

I pray for everyone, God, that is dealing with the circumstances as a byproduct of this virus.

But Father, we will not exalt the pain above you, that we will presence you and create an altar of you, God, elevating you above it all and witness you do some incredible things because of what we're going to declare in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you guys.

I can't wait to see you all next week.

If you want to respond to today's message and commit your life to Christ and become a disciple of Jesus, I just invite you to pray this prayer after me.

Lord Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner and I admit that I need that a savior.

And I know that you are that savior.

God, I ask you to forgive me of my sins, and I commit my life to you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you've made a decision to follow Jesus, we are so excited for you, and we want to celebrate with you as well.

You can text the word decide 25101, and we'll be sending you some resources that can help you in your next steps.

Church, at this time we want to take communion as a family together.

So go ahead and grab uh your communion elements.

First, we'll take the bread.

On the night he was betrayed, uh, Jesus took the bread and he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the bread.

On the same night, in the same way he took the colour of the food and he said, This is the cover of the new covenant in my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the covenant.

Father, we thank you for your body and for your blood that was broken and shed for the remission of our sins.

We are in a new family because of what you did for us.

Father, we just praise you for who you are and what you're doing in the life of our church in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And as a church, we want to celebrate alongside you.

So if you have any praise or prayers during this time, we would love to hear about them.

You can text the word connect to 25101 and submit your prayer of praise.

Yeah, and don't forget, if you have a need or if you can meet a need, text the word care to 25101.

And just stay up to date with everything going on at Celebration Church.

You can follow us on social media under the handle at celebration overl.

Yeah, church, thanks so much uh for joining us today for Church at Home.

Uh, we love you guys, and 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 celebration at ORL.org.

We hope you join us next time.