I AM: The Light Of The World

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, we want to welcome you to our home.

I'm here with my wife Megan, my daughter Deneira, and my son Caleb.

And we want to just thank you so much for allowing us to come into your home.

Maybe you're watching us right now and you're with your family.

We want to say thank you so much for letting us be with you.

Maybe you're watching us right now and you're all alone in your apartment or just with your dog or whatever that looks like for you.

Regardless of how you're um engaging this content right now, thank you so, so much for allowing us to come into your home today.

At this time right now, at the time of this recording, we're we're in a quarantine and where we're shifting into a mode where maybe our gatherings are gonna be even be reduced a little bit even more.

But one of the things that I'm encouraged in is knowing that church is never canceled.

There's gonna be moments where even though we can gather together in our communities, and maybe even some of our friendship circles are gonna get a little bit tighter as a result of the season that we're going into.

The beautiful thing is that is that church is not a building, it's a people.

It's not a place that we go to, but it's something that we bring with us.

I want to just kind of quote this uh the statement from um this great profound theologian Thor.

And he said this.

He said, Asgard is not a place, it's a people.

Well, that's the same thing that I feel.

Church is not a place, it's a people.

It's when the people of God are just recognizing that they're part of a community that's much bigger than them.

And so whether you're sitting in an apartment by yourself or you're sitting with your family, or maybe just with a couple of friends, you are the church.

And so thank you so much for allowing us to come into your home today.

In just a few moments, we're gonna we're gonna engage in the word of God.

We're gonna open up the word of God, we're gonna take communion at the end of our time together.

And what I really want is I want all of us to actively participate.

That means that there's gonna be moments when the word of God's gonna come up on your screen.

I want to encourage you to read the word with us, read it out loud with us.

It's it's making a statement, it's a it's a declaration, it's a it's a sign of agreement.

So I want to encourage you to do that with us as well.

In addition to that, as you can see, I want you to take notes.

We got our family here, we have our Bibles with us.

Get your Bibles out, highlight um things that may stand out to you.

Begin to take notes in the margins of your Bible, it's gonna be okay, but we really do want you to actively listen.

Also, you're gonna notice that we're gonna have um, we're gonna also have like some questions that are gonna be posed.

I'll share some during the course of the message, and then at the end of the message, we're gonna share some of those questions with you.

Our hope is that you can continue the conversation.

I know for me and my family, after we end up sharing the word, we're gonna actually have some conversations around some of the things that we talk about in this to look at how are some things that, ways that it can apply to our lives, how do we how do we see these things working out and and walking them out for us personally?

So please just just take some time to participate with us.

We're gonna take communion um and then at the very end, we're gonna pray all together as a family.

Um, and it's gonna be a very powerful prayer.

And my hope is that that you'll be able to pray and bless your family, bless your friends, bless your home.

So that is what uh this church at home experience is really going to be about.

If you are taking notes, I noticed that last week we had so many people that that shared their notes online.

And it was such an encouragement because we saw that there are people who may not have caught the feed or they didn't accidentally, or maybe they didn't get that observation, but just sharing the notes was actually an inspiration for others.

So if you do decide to do that, let us know.

Tag us in, and we would love to know how God is speaking with you through this.

So what I want to do is I want to just open us up in prayer.

Um, then I want to go to the word of God, and then I just want to unpack a few things, have a conversation, um, and just see what God wants to do through it.

So let's let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for allowing us to continue to gather in your name.

So, Father, I just pray.

I pray for your people, regardless of what time in which we are engaging this content.

It could be six months from now, and we're on the other side of this pandemic.

It could be in real time.

However, we engage it, Lord God, we know that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So, Father, I just pray.

I pray for your people.

We present ourselves to you with open hands, with an expectation to both release what we have, but also receive what you have for us.

So, God, we ask for open eyes, open ears, and open hearts that we can receive everything that you want to do.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So, one of the one of the opening thoughts that I really want to kind of share with our church and with us as a family is a passage of scripture found in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 12.

John 8:12

Caleb, I want to ask for you to open up your Bible and read that for us and um and just share what God's word is saying around this idea that I believe that we're gonna go into.

Then Jesus spoke to them again.

I am the light of the world.

Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

Amen.

That's a that's a powerful phrase, and and and really to kind of put it into context, over the past couple of weeks, we've been in this I am series and really wrestling with as we planned and prepared our our services, like whether or not it was a series that we needed to stay in, or whether it was something that we just needed to come out of and and really acknowledge a lot of what's going on in this season.

And quite honestly, it was something that I have been wrestling with.

Do we do we continue to lean into this I am series and the statements that Jesus are making in the Gospel of John, or do we pull out of it?

But I I found that I can't think of a better thing to explore than the surehand and the statements of Jesus in moments of unsurety, and moments of perceived crisis, moments of things that we just don't know what the next steps are.

So we've been looking at that over the next couple of weeks, and it's been really encouraging for us.

We looked at powerful statements such as I am the true vine before the quarantine even kicked in, not realizing that we're gonna definitely need to have that as rooted in our soul and knowing that Jesus is our source, that he's our good shepherd, and that he's the one who's leading us through this season and that he's the door, that we're protected as long as we're on the other side of that door, and that if anyone wants to get to us, he's gonna have to go through him.

So, continuing that same school of thought, we now find ourselves at this idea of looking at that he is the light.

That's that's powerful because it seems as if darkness is all around us.

It seems as if things are closing in more and more.

Like as we stand right now, it's it's not like it's lightened up as of yet.

So, right now, with the position that we're in, it seems as if it's closing in, quarantines are coming in, and so it can make us feel a little bit uncomfortable.

And so Jesus' words to his church, but for us right now, is reminding us that he is the light.

So, one of the things that I think that that stands out to me with this passage is that when you think about light, it really serves a really strong purpose.

I think I think Kanye West said it best when he said, You can think about light, you got flash, light, spot, light, strobe, light, street lights.

Like you got these ideas of how lights are meant to kind of y'all just gotta stick with me.

Y'all know how I do.

Um, but it it light is meant to penetrate the darkness.

That's exactly what it's meant to do.

So there's moments of darkness, but when light shows up, it can change the entire environment.

Ultimately, what we know that light does is that it leads the way, it makes things clear.

You know, whenever we have like family members that come and stay with us that aren't used to our home, we always leave a light on.

Yeah.

Because we don't want them to stumble through the house when they're trying to find their way to the bathroom or to try to get something to drink.

We don't want them to stumble and fall.

We know that that the absence of light completely changes an atmosphere.

Have you guys ever walked around your grandmother's house when the lights are off?

When the lights are on, it's great.

It's very clear.

When when the lights are off, like you're like, is that Candyman?

Like who is that?

Is that is that one of the um characters from us?

Like, is that one of the tethered people?

Like, you just don't know because when there's no light, something that shouldn't be scary, it takes on the form of something that can bring terror.

You remember, Caleb, um, a couple of years ago, several years ago, when you went to that um, I think it was a um a Nerf gun war back at our old church in Jacksonville in Midtown, and y'all ran around the church in the dark.

You want to talk about something that's terrifying?

Run around, go into a church at nighttime, a place that should be so filled with peace and love and joy and the power of God, like you walk around a church at nighttime.

I don't know what it is about it, but it's like, man, like you don't know if somebody's sitting in the pews, you don't know what's going on.

Because when there's no light, even environments that should be providing you with peace and clarity and hope with the absence of light, something that shouldn't be scary, it can terrify you.

Yeah.

But the adverse is true as well.

Because that same exact environment when there is light, yeah, that same exact environment when there is a little bit of light, you then recognize that I don't have anything to be afraid of at all.

What I thought was something that existed in the shadows that could actually come and get me, it turns out that it wasn't Candyman, it's just a chair and somebody's hat is on it.

Like you begin to recognize that it's not as scary as it appears.

Because here's the thing, when there's when there's no light, like there's no clarity.

Yeah, there's like, there's sometimes there's no there's no perspective, there's no vision, sometimes it's it's no hope.

And and the truth of the matter is when I think about like our climate right now, there's moments that we're looking at that don't look as if there's any light.

Caleb, you and I were talking about this a little bit yesterday, and we were talking about how, man, like you're not able to go to school.

I know that you're broke up about that, so contain yourself, son.

Um but you're not you're not able to go to school.

And so starting next week, you're gonna have to do some some online distance learning.

So you're gonna get through it.

And but we began to talk a little bit about how it affects like the the workers at your school, how's it impacting the the cafeteria workers, how is it affecting the bus drivers, all the people that support that support your school.

But even beyond that, man, we just got a phone call that said that for the seniors that graduation is canceled.

We just got a phone call that said that that prom is canceled, that there is no Grad Bash.

I remember when you went to Grad Bash, how excited you were, and how much of a milestone that was for you to be able to do it.

But I think about that 17 to 18-year-old that's in that season where it's like you've been waiting to become a senior so that you can finally kind of be the big person at the school who's about to step into a new season and everything is canceled.

I think about I think about you, Daniera, and in the conversation that we had just yesterday, where you had your your your phone call with some of your friends and you were saying how some of your friends were laid off, but then even some of their parents were laid off.

So now like we're talking about dynamics where like even people's safety nets are being affected.

Yeah.

Because I think about how for for us, if push comes to shove, like if everything just continued to go sideways, there are safety nets that are in our lives that we think through that are like, okay, so if this goes left, then I can kind of figure this out with mom and dad.

Or but I can't imagine what it feels like to have like your safety nets even being disrupted by all of this.

And so now you're literally saying to yourself, I feel like I don't have any hope, I don't have any perspective.

Like I feel like I'm I feel like I'm losing that.

Think about Keith Jr.

who's up in Jacksonville, our son in Jacksonville, and his family.

Like he works in an industry that is directly fueled by economy, by commerce.

Like that's the that's the environment that he works in.

And so how is this gonna affect him two weeks from now?

How's he how is he gonna be able to provide for um for our granddaughters two, three weeks from now?

What's what's the what's the implications of some of that?

What I'm saying is that there's there's moments where it just seems like there's just nothing but darkness.

And and quite honestly, I I think about I think about us, how um we're in a real unique season.

We're we're in a process of selling our house in Jacksonville.

We're also in a process of of buying our home in Orlando.

And so we're in this weird space where, man, how's this gonna affect our our home sale?

Because our ability to sell our home there was gonna directly impact our ability to buy a new home.

And so now we're in this this spot where we're we're wondering what the next steps are gonna be.

I just I want us to see that it takes on many different forms.

But even with us pastoring a church, like this is the first time in my 44 years that we may not be able to gather as a church in the way that we're used to on Easter Sunday.

That's the one Sunday that you know that everybody who's even marginal or even considering the coming and having an experience with God, that you're guaranteed to be able to have that dose.

And so we're in a season where everything is taking on a different form.

And and here's the thing: there's no expiration date.

It looks as if there's no light.

It looks as if it's just like walking around the church or our grandparents' home when the lights are off, and things that are in the shadows, you're wondering, is that something that's out to get me?

Where's the light?

This is this is the the context that I think that that Jesus is speaking into, not only for his disciples and for the early church, but I think also for us.

It's understanding that that our pain, that the darkness that we're experiencing, is it's it's unique to us, but it's not the first time that he's seen it.

See, the the the canvas in which he says these statements of I am the light, it's it's painted on this idea of them celebrating the the feast of tabernacle or what they would call the feast of booths.

Um and so what that was is that was meant to be this moment where they they celebrated the fact of the goodness of God while they were in Egypt as well as while they were in the wilderness.

So it was meant to say you're on the other side of it now, so we can celebrate.

So here's a feast to celebrate so you can always be reminded just how good God was to you in that season.

So it was always meant to be a celebration of retrospect.

But in real time, that that feast didn't take place.

In real time, they were terrified, wondering what in the world is going on.

In real time, there was no celebration because they were just kind of just sitting in the midst of darkness.

So I think a lot of times with us, it's we know that God's gonna get us through it.

We're people of faith.

We we trust God, we know that he's in the midst of all of it.

But sometimes in real time, we just say, like, but but but what about now?

What do I what do I do with the now?

I I know that God's gonna work it all out.

I know that the Bible said he works all things together for the good, but but what do I do now?

I think that there's these moments where we look at these statements and it's meant to be an encouragement that even though we don't see it now, we can celebrate and what we know is gonna happen.

I think that's what this whole thing is.

What I what I really want to share with us, and what I'm hoping that we can take away from this is just because it's dark outside doesn't mean that you can't have light on the inside.

Just because there may be darkness all around you, and maybe your circumstance hasn't changed as of yet, that that doesn't mean that you don't have joy on the inside.

I believe that's what makes us unique as people of God, that even when we're facing persecution and pressure, that there's still something on the inside of us that allows us to have hope, that still allows us to have love, that somehow still allows us to have joy even in the midst of suffering.

Megan, there's a passage in Exodus chapter 10 that I think will be very fitting for us to read right now.

Exodus 10 · chapter mention

So if you don't mind, could you read Exodus chapter 10, verse 21 and through 23?

Exodus 10:21

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt.

A darkness that can be felt.

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were.

Yet all the Israelites had the light where they lived.

That is that should be encouragement for us.

Like I want to back up and look at what it says in the verse before where it said there was a darkness that could be felt.

Like it's you could feel it.

Like, I don't know how dark it has to be for you to actually be able to feel it.

But if I can, if I can, like, if I can just kind of like just embellish and put something in here for a moment, that means that it is so dark, you can you can feel it, you can you can feel how dark it is.

Like, there are people that work for amusement parks here in Orlando, and those parks are closed.

You can feel it.

There are people that work in the banking industry, and people aren't um taking out loans because of where we are.

You can you can feel that.

There are people who work in the car industry, and people aren't going out and buying cars right now, so you can you can feel it.

There are people that that work in the hotel industry, and that all supports this the economy and the way that we operate, at least here in Orlando, and you can feel it.

A darkness that can be felt.

Like that the breakthrough hasn't happened yet.

There's a darkness that can be felt, and some of us, I think we can feel it, we can feel the pressure on us, and maybe some of us that are sitting at home right now, maybe you can feel it.

My my question is what are some of those areas that you can just kind of feel that darkness closing?

And how are you feeling it right now?

But this is an encouragement for us when we look at this text.

That even in the midst of it, even in the midst of the darkness, the Bible says that there was still light where the people of God were.

Yeah, that means that even though it's dark on the outside, it doesn't mean that you can't have light on the inside.

That's a beautiful thing that we can lean on.

That's what it gives us hope.

That's what allows us to be able to have the proper perspective in a time such as this.

That just because it's dark outside, it doesn't mean that you won't have light on the inside.

This is what that tabernacle season and wilderness season was meant to represent.

That even after the children of Israel were were liberated from Egypt and they were they were going across the Red Sea and they were on the other side, the Bible says that, the Bible says that the Egyptians were chasing after them.

And I love what it says here in Exodus chapter 13.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

Again, this was going to come up on your screen.

I want you to read this aloud with us, but it says this it said, and the Lord went before them by the day in the pillar of a cloud and led them along the way, and in the night a pillar of fire that lit the way, that they might travel by day and by night.

Here's what it was saying that even though they were surrounded by darkness, even though they had an enemy who was closing in on them, that the Lord went before them and the Lord was also behind them.

That no matter what was going on, basically it's kind of like we were saying last week, that Jesus was still positioning himself to be the door.

I'm going to lead the way, but also if the enemy wants to get through you, get to you, he's going to have to go through me.

It's encouraging to know that even when we're in the middle of darkness and real time, that God's light can be on the inside that's with us.

That can give us hope.

That can give us encouragement.

And that is really what this feast was meant to represent.

It was meant representing that that no matter what season you may find yourself in, you may find yourself surrounded, but God is absolutely with you.

Here's the thing I want to encourage us with.

You may be facing a new problem, but it's not new to God.

This may be the first time that you may not have been collecting a paycheck, but this is not the first time that God's going to need to be a provider.

This may be the first time that you may be dealing with this level of a sickness, but I promise you, this is not the first time that Jesus needs to be a healer.

Well, we need to understand that something may be unique to us, but it is not new to our God.

That is what we take encouragement in.

That no matter what we find ourselves in, there's not a circumstance or scenario that we find ourselves in that is caught God by surprise.

That God has been with his people through every season.

He's been with people through bondage, he's been with people through plagues, he's been with his people through exile, he's been with his people through oppression.

Watch this.

In our darkest moments, God shines the brightest.

Yeah.

In our darkest moments, that's when we typically see the glory of God so much.

So with this whole feast and the moment that Jesus is saying that I am the light of the world, the context of that was that that was a moment where they would light up all these lamps that would literally light the sky up.

And so what Jesus was saying to his people, he was saying, You see all these lights that are around here?

That's me.

I am the light of the world.

If you can just understand that I am here, I am with you, and at every step.

And here's the thing: if you can just follow me, if you can follow me, then you will get the benefits of being in that light.

If everything was dark and I were to carry a light right now, you would have to stay close enough to me that as I'm walking, you're benefiting from that light.

But if you if you allow me to get too far ahead of you, if you don't stick in, if you don't stick with me, now you're standing in darkness, but right down the street there's light, but you you gotta walk with Jesus.

He's simply saying, Can you walk with me?

I know, church, that we're in a season right now where it's closing in on us.

And some of us are wondering where the darkness is and and when is the hope and that shadow that we see, is it gonna come and get us?

What I want to let you know it's not new to God, but continue to follow Jesus.

Continue to walk with him.

As long as you walk with him, he will lead and light the way.

He will lead the way of peace, he will lead the way of freedom, he will lead the way of breakthrough and miracles because that is the God that we serve.

It may be dark on the outside, but you can absolutely have light on the inside.

It may be dark on the outside, but you can have joy on the inside.

You can have peace on the inside, you can have miracles on the inside, you can have breakthrough on the inside.

Just because it may be dark doesn't mean that you don't have the ability to experience the light that God has.

So how do how do we do this?

I think at the end of the day, it's really just it's really just like letting Jesus shine.

And I know that that sounds super simple.

I know that it just sounds like a phrase and it's like, well, yeah, that's easy, that's easy for us to say, but I do think there's some practical applications to it of just letting God be God.

Letting letting Jesus be, letting be Jesus be Jesus in this season for us.

I love what it says in Genesis chapter one.

So Deneer, do you mind getting um your Bible?

I want you to read this chapter out, and it's gonna come up on our screens.

And I would encourage our family and our community at home to please read this out loud as we as we turn to it.

But looking at Genesis chapter one, I think there's a powerful thought that can be an encouragement for us.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty.

Darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light and there was light.

Look at that.

Let there be light and there was light.

Like let's paint the picture for a moment.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.

It says here that darkness was upon the face of the deep, like chaos is ultimately how a lot of people define it.

There's darkness, there's a lack of clarity, there's just all this murkiness.

But there's a couple of things that's present.

One, it says that the Spirit of God was hovering.

That even though it was dark, the Spirit of God was there.

That even though they were in a moment of shadows, the Spirit of God was there, that God was there.

And I like to look at it this way: God was hovering over the situation and taking inventory of what he needed to do.

And what he does is he then says, Let there be light.

He knew that light was the next thing that needed to take place.

Now he says the words let, which means that there's a there's a yielding that has to take place.

There's a moment where creation itself had to get out of the way so that the light that God was speaking could begin to take place.

It's this process of like yielding.

That's what it means to let.

It means to get out of the way, to allow to let happen.

Caleb, you're you're a new driver.

Bless God.

And and and we're out driving around.

And one of the things that we're working through is like yielding.

Like outside of where we live, we have like this traffic circle thing, which are like of the devil, because like everybody shows up at the same time, and who has the right of way?

Like, it's really one of those things.

So I remember like you're like freaking out.

Like, man, like who goes?

Who goes?

I'm like, man, just yield.

Let them go.

Just let them go.

So here's the thing that I think that we can look at with all that, man, is that there are gonna be times where we're gonna pull up at the intersection of life and we're gonna have to like yield and let the light of God shine through that situation.

Because if we don't, we're gonna get in the way of God and we're not gonna allow him to accomplish what we know that he is really trying to do in our lives.

That it just simply means yielding.

It just simply means stopping and allowing the light of God to shine through it all.

Because here's the thing when we don't, when we don't yield, it can be costly.

When we don't let Jesus shine, it can be costly.

I'm not sure if you remember this a couple years ago.

No, it's it's good, it's good.

I'm not gonna embarrass you.

I don't know if you remember this a couple years ago.

But in our other house, we had like that open floor plan that it was like really like all that natural light would come into it.

So you could have like light all like so it was built around like the center place, and we had like all this natural light.

It was it was beautiful.

But I remember it used to take a lot of work to go to all the different rooms to like open up the blinds and let the light come in.

So like after the first couple of months, when it's cool and everything was great, we ended up just kind of leaving the blinds closed all the time, like because it just took so much work and energy um to open them up and to close them and to open them up and close them.

So we ended up just like leaving them closed because it was just way too much work.

I know, just super like lazy um problems.

Um but but here's the thing that I noticed that next month when we got our light bill, our bill had gone up, I think almost like$85.

Yeah.

And I was like, what in the world happened?

Like what how did how did our bill go up so high?

What occurred to me as I reverse engineered it, because everybody that knows me knows I'm about that money.

I was looking back, like, okay, how did how did we get here?

What happened is because we had weren't letting the light shine in, we were using the manufactured light and it was costing us more energy.

It was costing us more, it was costing us more money, it was costing us more time.

Ultimately, what I realized is that because we weren't letting the light shine in, it was costing us a lot.

And what I truly believe is a lot of times in our personal lives that when we don't let God shine in those moments, that we it ended up costing us something.

It costs us sleep, it costs us peace, it costs us freedom, it costs us perspective, it costs us hope sometimes.

But there's moments that we find ourselves that we gotta pause and let the light of God shine.

There are moments where we just gotta pause and say, God, I need you to shine in this, and I can't let fear eclipse your glory.

I can't let frustration eclipse your glory.

I can't let doubt eclipse your glory.

I gotta, I gotta sh I gotta pause and let you shine.

Just just last night, we we got a phone call about your cousin and how um their baby was in the hospital.

And and and we were sitting there, we're trying to process through it all.

And I just remember like there was this moment of just feeling uh a little bit overwhelmed.

And and and what do we do with this?

We have staff members whose spouses lost their jobs.

We have we have people that are part of our church who who have lost their jobs.

We have all these dynamics that we're trying to work through, and then we get a phone call and say and and learn that this little baby, this infant, is in the hospital and we don't have clarity.

All we know that is he can't breathe.

And and I just remember in my mind, my logic began to kind of like run in a million different directions.

But but what did we do?

We actually were busy too last night.

We were in the middle of doing things and we just paused and um decided to pray.

Uh, I mean, we we prayed.

Uh we spoke in tongues, we we we got to heaven.

Um, Keith and I literally got together and just cried out to the Lord because we knew that this this my my little cousin has a calling on his life, and you know, no one wants to lose their child, um, let alone um but you know, we're doing we're standing in a gap for people during this season, I think, more than ever.

God is just showing us that a lot of it is about others and it's about us as well, that taking those moments, even when you are busy, to just take time out to call on God, who is the miracle worker in these times.

And that's and that's an example of what it means to let let God shine in those moments.

It's it's pausing and praying.

This is this is why like engaging scripture, all the stuff that we're talking about, pausing and praying, um, the things we're gonna share with you um at the end of this message, just the resources that's available to you, pausing and praying, that's an example of what it looks like to just stop and let God shine through your situation.

So there's a couple things I want to share with us, just really quick.

We want to I want to kind of like build around that word let because it's a it's a verb, it requires action from us.

So here's the first thing I think we have to do.

We have to listen to God.

Listen to God.

That's that first one, and I think that's so important because we have so many different sources that really want to speak into our minds, they want to speak into our souls, they really want to shape the way that we see everything that we're looking at.

But listen to God.

Even a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the importance of recognizing that Jesus is the source, he is our true vine.

Let's make sure that we're listening to God.

I I wrote this down and I think this is going to be encouraging for us.

Let the eternal God speak to your temporary situation.

Let the eternal God speak to your temporary situation.

When we don't allow that to happen, we end up allowing the facts to inform our faith.

Listen, facts are not supposed to inform our faith.

Facts inform our strategy, but they can't form our faith.

So we have to listen to God, making sure that we allow the word of God, the personhood of God, the presence of God to be the primary thing that shapes us and inspires us and encourage us.

Here's the other thing.

We're gonna listen to God, but we have to engage in godly community.

Engage in godly community.

This is so important in this season where there's so many different voices and camps and things that are coming for us.

But if we don't engage in environments that are gonna actually make us better, they can actually end up taking us backwards.

So here's what I need us to do.

I know that right now when we talk about godly community, we're thinking, like, man, we're in the middle of a quarantine, but this is where we get creative.

Like maybe you're sitting there with your family.

If you're there with your family, engage in your family.

One of the things that I know that we have to get a lot more intentional with is that we are a tight-knit family.

We're always together, but we have to be even more intentional in our time together to make sure that we're benefiting from being in one another's presence.

It's easy to be in proximity, but it doesn't mean that there's power in it.

Yeah, but if we're intentional with it, that's what I believe there could be transformational moments that we can experience in that engaging community.

Maybe you're not around some people right now, then utilize the resources that you use.

Nero, what were you using yesterday when I came in the room and there was like 88 people on your phone and they're all talking?

What were you using?

We're using FaceTime.

So it's FaceTime?

Yeah, just FaceTime.

Okay, so you and your friends were just talking and encouraging one another and praying and talking, like the tools are there.

Let's use them.

But just because you're sitting at home and maybe you are single or maybe you're not connected with everyone, don't let the enemy make you believe that you're isolated and alone.

Use those resources, engage in godly community.

Remember, whatever you invest in will invest in you.

If you invest in encouraging environments, those encouraging things will invest in you.

If you in if you invest in toxicity, news, and media, it's gonna leave a deposit, but sometimes that deposit's gonna cost you your sleep.

Making sure that you invest in the right things.

And then here's the the last one.

Just trust God with the outcome.

Just trust God.

I love what it says in Proverbs 3, where it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Our logic can hold us hostage.

But if we can get to a place where we can put the work in, but trust God with working it all out, that's what's going to allow us to experience the true peace that we know that God is calling us to have.

I want us to walk away with this.

I want us to understand this.

Philippians 1 6.

On all of this, we can be assured of one thing that he who began the work in you is able to complete it.

Trust God with the results.

If we can just listen to what God is saying, we can engage in environments that he's called us to be in, and we can trust him, truly trust him with the results.

I truly believe that it can bring peace and wholeness and healing to our lives.

We're dealing, we're dealing with something right now, church, as I sure, as I'm sure you are.

Many of you are dealing with scenarios as it relates to your jobs.

Some of you are dealing with scenarios as it relates to your health or maybe the health of your loved ones.

Maybe some of your plans have gotten adjusted, etc.

Just remember that in these dark moments that Jesus shines the brightest.

That in dark moments, for such a time as this, most of the miracles of the Bible were all birthed out of moments of desperation.

We're all birthed out of moments that we would define as darkness.

Listen, as a people of God, we're not scared of the dark.

The dark should be scared of us.

That means that when we show up, light shows up.

That when we show up, hope shows up, that when we show up, love shows up.

That when we show up, dark begins to actually run away from us because we have the light of God with us, because Jesus says that I am the light of the world.

And as long as, as long as we allow Him to shine through us, let your light so shine.

Let it shine through you.

Pause and pray.

Get the godly perspective on it.

Speak the word of God.

Embrace your reality.

Acknowledge your pain, but please don't submit to it.

There's a difference between acknowledging where you are and surrendering to where you are.

We acknowledge the pain, but we're not going to be surrendered and submitted to it.

Jesus is our primary source.

As a church, we're going to do everything we can do to come alongside you.

This is why we're repurposing the way that we operate as a church.

We're repurposing even our staff.

We're putting in place a structure of deacons that are going to be reaching out and calling every single member of our church and praying for you.

Our staff is going to be a critical part of that.

Our prayer team is praying for you.

If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.

If you have any needs, make sure you reach out to us at care at celebrationorl.org.

We're going to do everything we can to walk alongside you and your family in the season.

You are definitely not alone.

We love you.

Here's one passage of scripture that I want to put on the screen that I want you to read and just meditate on this week.

It's 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8 and 9.

2 Corinthians 4:8

And even as I read it, you can read it along with us.

It says this that we are afflicted in every way, but we are not crushed.

Perplexed, but not driven to despair.

Persecuted but not forsaken.

Struck down but not destroyed.

I want you guys to hear me.

That even though that darkness can be felt, you will not be destroyed.

That even though you may not have clarity right now, you will not lose your vision.

That even though you don't feel as if you know when the expiration date is, you are not going to be forgotten.

That no matter what season you may find yourself in, let Jesus shine through it.

Let him shine in your marriage, let him shine in your marriage, let him shine in your um your finances, let him shine within your faith, just letting him shine through it all.

So here's a couple of questions that I want you to consider as you're wrapping up with your family and your friends.

Are there areas of your life where you're feeling that darkness?

Maybe it's in your finances, maybe it's just with your hope.

But what are those areas?

Let's talk about it.

What does actively listening to God look like for us right now?

We talked about listening to God.

We know that that includes prayer, the word of God.

What is actively putting some rhythms in practice in order for us to do that?

How can you engage your community better?

What are some of those resources?

What are the people who are around you that you need to be more intentional with spending time with?

Let's have some conversations around that.

And what outcomes are you trusting God for?

For some of us, we have some very tangible outcomes.

We have some things that we can feel that darkness, so we know what we need God to show up in.

These are moments where we talk about it, we pray about it, and then we celebrate on the other side of it.

This is a great season for us to journal.

So, what I want us to do now is I actually want to shift into a moment where we're going to take communion all together as a family.

I want us all to know that you can do this right here with us, with your family, in your home, or even if you're alone by yourself.

So I'm going to ask my family, go ahead and let's grab the bread here and the cup so that we can all participate in this together.

Thank you.

Communion is really a powerful and sacred act.

And it's something that any person that's a follower of Christ can participate in.

Maybe that's your next step.

Maybe your next step is to simply let Jesus shine in your walk with Him.

Maybe you're watching this right now, maybe someone sent you the link and said this is something that would be encouraging for the season that you're in.

And your next step is simply to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

It's not a magic prayer that you pray, but the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart that Jesus is Lord, that you shall be saved.

Something as powerful as that.

A moment like that has the ability to change the trajectory of your eternity.

But what I want us to do now as a family, I want to model this for us as a church, but I want all of us to participate in this.

And again, you can do this at home in your family.

But I just want us to pray and take the bread.

So let's pray.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for your body that was broken for us.

You're the creator of the universe, and you've provided resources for us and you've provided your body.

So Lord, we right now we celebrate the broken body of Christ that allows us to be whole.

In Jesus' name.

Let's take the bread together.

Let's pray for the juice.

Lord have God, we thank you so much for the resources and that you've given us the fruit of the vine.

We recognize that this juice is symbolic of your blood that was shed for us for the remission of our sins.

We're thankful.

Let's drink the juice.

Church, I want to thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your time of being church in the home.

The prayer that we just prayed, a very simple prayer for communion, all of these resources and these prayers and more like this are available on our resource guide.

It's right on our app and on our church website.

I really want to strongly encourage you to download this.

This is a great digital resource.

It is filled with all types of prayers.

It is filled with all types of scriptures.

It's so it's so encouraging in a time like this that we're engaging the Word of God.

So that's going to be made available to you.

And so you can go online and you can download that.

At the end of this, we're going to also have our questions that's going to be available for you to continue the conversation at home.

And we're also going to list about 20 other scriptures that all speak a little bit about what I was talking about that I really want you to read through, pray through, meditate on, and declare over you, your situation, and your family over the course of this week.

So as we wrap up, I want to wrap up with uh what we refer to as the priestly blessing.

I want to read this from my Bible here.

So the Bible uh talks about how there is these powerful, this powerful statement.

It's actually gonna come up on your screen, and I really want us to kind of pray this together.

This statement of declaration as we say it over one another.

It's found in the book of Numbers, chapter six.

And we're gonna look at verses 24 through 26.

And right now in my home, I have my family with me, but we also have a great team that's here with us.

We have Zach, we have Jack, we have Vinny, and we also have Lindsay here.

So as I pray this blessing, this blessing is not just for me and my household, but it's for my family, it's for my friends, our extended family.

So, so Caleb, Danira, Megan, Jack, Zach, Vinny, Lindsay, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you great, great peace.

May the Lord lift up his continence upon you and give you peace.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

God bless you, church.

We love you.

I cannot wait to see you all again, but please know that we are praying for you.

Let us know if there's anything that you need.

Again, thank you so much for joining us for Church at Home.

If you just made the decision to follow Christ maybe for the first time, or you recommitted your life to Him, you just made the best decision of your life.

And we want to come alongside of you on this journey to help you, to support you, and to resource you.

If you could text the word decide to the number 25101, we would love to partner with you as you take your next steps.

Yeah, also right now we're going to take a moment to talk about um giving.

Um, listen, in these times that we're in, here's what we know.

There may be a lot of you right now who maybe you have lost your job.

Um, maybe uh you're on furlough right now.

Um, maybe you were a working mom or dad and now you're a stay-at-home mom and dad, and you're having to homeschool your kids.

Maybe you're a business owner and your business is struggling.

Here's what we want you to know is that God knows that and God understands that.

And in these crazy times, here's the thing in these ever-changing times, God never changes.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And so we believe as a church that God is going to work all things together for the good.

But right now, if you don't have an income, then you don't have anything to tithe on, and God understands that.

But here's what we want to encourage you with as well.

If you do have an income right now, we want to encourage you to tithe and to give.

And if you can give over and above during this time, we want to encourage you to do that as well.

That's called an offering, and here's why.

Because as a church right now, we're actually kind of reallocating some of our staff and different things to be able to serve you, um, our church, but also our city better during this time.

And so anything that you can give during this time to help others and to help meet the needs of others, we want to encourage you to do that and to be faithful with what God has given you.

And so here at Celebration Church, we have two ways that you can give.

Uh, you can give by texting the word give to the number 25101, or you can also click on the link in the description below this video.

And listen, we are a family, and families take care of each other.

That's right.

We love you, we care for you, we want to be there for you.

So, again, if you find yourself in need, or maybe you can meet a need, or you just want someone to pray with you, please text the word care to the number 25101, and we would love to do that.

And make sure again to share this with anybody that you know.

Right now is an amazing time as a church where you're able to share things with people that maybe wouldn't normally go to church or be at a church.

And so share this if it's impacted your life, share it with someone else, and also take a moment to tag us, do that at Celebration ORL.

Listen, we love you guys.

Thank you so much for tuning in today.

Make sure to do the discussion questions with your family or with your small groups this week.

We love you and we'll see you uh this week on IG Live.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

We'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and review and share what you've heard today.

If you'd like more content like this, or you'd like to connect with us, go to celebrationorl.org.

We hope you join us next time.