MOMENTUM: Panel

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

We are so glad you joined us, and we hope you are encouraged by today's message.

Um, you guys know our our our panel here, but I want to go ahead and and do the formal introductions because I love these individuals so much.

So we, of course, we know Pastor Justin and Becca, the ones who are leading this incredible campus down here.

We have them here with us.

Of course, we have my beautiful Brian.

Hello.

Um, and then we also have Josh and Callie.

They're the ones who are leading our college park location.

Thank you guys so much for being with us today.

Um so yeah, we're we're excited to have this this conversation and and really um talk through and and and and kind of close out this series that we've been in.

And and honestly, what we've been talking about for the past, I don't know, for probably about the past uh two months, if I look at January and I look at February, um we've been talking about this this theme that's kind of been connected.

Um our our our heart this year, what I really believe that God's kind of spoken to us is the importance of us taking ground.

And so you'll hear that woven throughout the entirety of the year, where we're gonna just talk about taking ground in all kinds of different areas of our lives, and that'll just kind of be the subtext of everything that we talk about.

Um but in addition to that, what we've been talking about over the past couple of weeks is momentum because the taking ground really kicked off like during our season of fasting and praying.

And it was really birthed from me recognizing there are moments when you know you have like this the season of fasting and praying.

You're you're trusting God, and you're like, okay, so I'm fasting for 21 days, and then you get to day 22, and then what can happen is you're back to eating burgers and everything you shouldn't eat, and then you just kind of bounce right back to what you used to do.

So the whole idea is like, okay, we're taking ground, but how do we carry that momentum?

Yeah, we're gonna like continue to eat what we want to eat, thank God for that.

But but how do we take that same spiritual momentum and allow us to keep going forward?

And so a lot of this discussion was birthed out of us just spending some time in the office and talking through some practical ways on how we can keep that same energy or keep that same momentum going forward.

So that's really kind of like what sparked a lot of this.

I do want to share a quick passage of scripture with us that that kind of serves as the foundation for this.

So I'm gonna read it to us now, and then we're gonna come back to it at the end of it, and it'll all make sense.

But if you have your Bibles, it's in 2 Kings chapter 5, verse 17 and 19.

2 Kings 5:17

I want to go ahead and preface this that this we're reading into a text that's already in motion.

So as I read some of these things, it may not make sense, but it will make sense um by the time we wrap it all up.

Um so here's what it says starting at verse number 17.

Then Naaman said, If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loaves of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord.

And in this manner, the Lord um will pardon your servant.

When my master goes into the house of Ramon, which is a a false, a false god, that when I go into the house to worship there, and my Lord is leaning on my arm, his boss, and I bow myself down in the house of Rimmon, um, when I bow myself down in the house of Remen, the Lord will pardon your servant in this manner.

And he said, Go in peace.

Real quick, I'll give you some context and then we're gonna pray and then jump into this discussion.

Ultimately, what we have here is uh is a man who experienced a miracle.

He experienced this incredible moment with God, but he also is aware that now that I've had this encounter with God here, I have to go back there.

And so now he's trying to figure out how do I take this momentum, how do I take ground and continue that same success in my work environment.

Because the truth of the matter is my boss is a pagan, um, the environment that I work in is pagan, and there's sometimes I'm even getting pulled into things that may not necessarily line themselves up.

So he literally wanted to take ground from Israel, the place where he got his healing, he wanted to take it with him and he carried it on him.

So whenever he was walking into an environment that was not a reflection of the kingdom of God as we understand it, he always was making sure that he was standing on and was carrying the ground that God had given him with him.

It's a literal example of what it means to take ground, but to also carry momentum forward after he had this moment.

And so when I read that, I said, man, like this is a great topic for us to discuss.

What is our version of that?

When we have these great services on a Sunday, but then we don't want to lose that momentum as we're getting into Monday and to Wednesday.

Like, how do we how do we take ground?

Unfortunately, we don't gonna go out and pick up any dirt.

If you do, we're gonna pray for you.

We're not doing that.

But there's gotta be an expression or a practical way where we can take that momentum with us um back into the environments that God has us in.

So that's what we really want to talk about.

So I want to pray really quick, and then we're just gonna open up and we're having a conversation, not an interview, and so we're gonna have some fun, but hopefully there'll be something that you can get from it.

But let's let's pray first, Lord.

We're so thankful for these opportunities to have these conversations, Lord.

Um, these opportunities to invite you in, but also invite us as a community to discuss some things, Lord, that helps us to recognize ways that we can take ground and carry the momentum in our lives.

So, Father, I just pray for open eyes, I pray for open hearts, and I pray for open ears.

And Holy Spirit, we're asking for you to do what only you can do.

It's in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen and amen.

Okay, so straight off the back, I just want to kind of set this um this up as a premise for all of us.

Um, just so we all understand that we all had to start from somewhere.

Is there anyone on this platform that was born saved?

I mean, almost.

I was I was born Baptist.

So yeah, so you just inherited salvation for sure.

Yeah, it came with the lineage.

Yes, it's it's it's all it's all connected in.

Um the reason why I say that is because I want to make sure that all of us understand that every person who walks with God, they had to have an entry point.

Yeah, that we all had to start from somewhere, that there was a moment when you were living the way that you wanted to live, and then there's a moment when God kind of interrupts your life, and now you have to adjust and begin to figure it all out.

So for some of us, I know that when earlier in my faith, when I would find myself struggling with things, it was like, like, man, am I the only one that's struggling with this?

Like, how do I, man, I when I look at these other people that seem like they're so on fire for God, they probably don't have these same issues that I'm having.

But the fact is that we all have had to navigate through that.

We are still continuing to walk that through.

So I want to encourage everyone in here.

There's no super Christian in here.

We are all saved by grace and by faith, and that we're all just walking this thing out day by day, and that is how we create momentum.

So there is no one that's kind of graduated or just kind of inherited salvation from birth.

It's something that we had to like really work out and to soar through it.

But the fact of the matter is, there are there are moments when, as we're on this journey, that we do kind of hit these roadblocks, that we do have these moments where we kind of bump up against things.

We do feel like we're stuck in mud, we're not making a lot of progress.

And and the truth is that's where we can find ourselves getting discouraged.

We can find ourselves feeling isolated and alone.

And I know that all of us can speak to that, and I want us to, but I do want to take a few moments and and talk with you for a second, Becca, about that.

Because I do know that you have such a powerful story and testimony about what your what your on-ramp with God was, but then how you've had to express it through your own roadblock.

So let's hear a little bit about what your journey has been as you've been walking with God.

Yeah.

Um, so those of you that know me, um, I've spoken about it before.

I um have struggled and dealt with depression for over about 10 years now.

And um really my walk with depression has really kind of been synonymous with my walk with God, and it's really um through depression, my momentum and my relationship with God has really taken off, which sounds like it would be opposite.

But um I started struggling with depression whenever I was in high school and um didn't really understand that I was standing still because who knows, but those of you that have struggled or deal with depression know that depression keeps you still, it steals your motivation, it tells you that you are alone, it tells you that you are not worthy of taking one more step, and so you stay still.

And I didn't even realize I was still until Justin and I started dating, and I realized that my depression was halting the momentum in our relationship, and I had to wake up one day and make a choice that um I was not going to let depression steal the joy that I was finding in our relationship, and so um I had to speak out and I had to be honest with myself.

And whenever you're silent about something, the only voice that you hear is your voice and the enemy's voice.

And who knows that those voices can be can lie a lot to you, and so but that's the moment that you speak out, the moment that you allow yourself to admit to yourself and to others what you're dealing with, that you're able to shine, even if it's just a little bit of light, into the absolute darkness that you're feeling.

And it was in those moments that I chose to start going to um counseling, and my counselor explained to me that there's you know two different types of depression there's biological depression where there's some hormonal imbalances, etc., and then there's circumstantial depression, and both can happen at the same time, and et cetera.

But um, she told me I had biological depression and I went on medication and I'm still on medication today, and I really the thing I'm most passionate about is I really want us as the church, can we break the stigma that is mental health?

Can we break the stigma that you're depressed because you don't pray enough?

You're anxious because your faith isn't strong enough, you just need to have more faith.

You just need to read your Bible more, you just need to, but I can tell you this that no amount of reading your Bible, no amount of prayer, no amount of listening to podcasts will protect you from the evil that's in this world.

It'll it'll prepare you to deal with it, but it's not gonna protect you and keep you from it.

And so um I had to make that choice and continue to make that choice.

And each and every day that I wake up, I have to choose to love God, to love myself, and when I do that, I'm able to love those around me.

And um I just want to tell you that if you're struggling with that today, and and by the prayer requests and the prayer cards that we get, I can tell you that there's more than likely someone in your section, if not in your row, that is experiencing that, that you're not alone, and it's okay to not be okay because there's an end to that sentence.

It's okay that I'm not okay because Jesus is.

And it's when we can speak that and not be ashamed of coming in here and opening our mouths and saying, you know what, I'm not okay.

If we can enter into the the doors of that church, of our church and come in and feel comfortable and saying, This was a really crappy week.

I am not okay, I am not fine.

I, you know what?

Like, I am feeling really hopeless right now.

Like I am on the edge of doing something that I will regret.

It's when we can open our mouths and be honest with those around us that we can find hope in Jesus because it's okay to not be okay.

But that's not the end of the sentence.

The end of the sentence is Jesus is okay.

And he rose from the dead for you and me, and that is our victory story.

And we look at other people and we see them getting their miracle, and they wake up tomorrow and they're not dealing with depression anymore, and I believe Jesus does that.

Yes, and amen.

Like he does, but I am someone that has been struggling with it for more than 10 years, and I can tell you that if I looked at other people's miracles and said that that was the only type of miracle that I believed in, then I would be a really helpless, hopeless person.

Because I have to recognize that the fact that I woke up this morning and I'm here and I chose to get out of bed and I'm at church and I have breath in my lungs and I'm breathing in and out, that's a miracle.

The fact that you are here, that is a miracle.

And so don't belittle the miracle that is you are here, you are still here, you are alive, and that is a miracle.

And so recognize what God is doing in you and the calling that you have, and don't let the depression and the lies that the enemy tries to tell you steal that from you.

Speak out, be bold, find someone that you can be honest with, and know that we as the church are going to change the stigma and that there is no shame in how you're feeling.

That's good.

That's really good.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

That's that's powerful.

And and Justin, I'm gonna come to you in in just a second because I know that with you being on the other side of it, that there's things that you've had to navigate through.

And one of the things that you said, Becca, is like the importance of choice.

Um, so we're gonna come to that in in just a second, because I think it's all it's all a part of it.

But but you mentioned how it's a journey and not comparing miracles and and not getting sidetracked by looking at okay, this is the only way that that we see God move.

Megan, like when we when we first got saved and we found ourselves um on this journey and and and trying to navigate through like the pace at which I was moving versus the pace at which you're moving.

And and I think Jessica can spake some time to speak to this as well.

But like at those times where you feel like you are not in sync, like what what are some things that that that you have seen for us?

And then I want to hear from you, Justin, on what how did you guys navigate through that?

So when um we both got saved or rededicated our lives around the same time, it was about April 26th.

About how many years ago?

Over 20.

Over 20.

We got some we got some knowledge.

We got some years.

We got some years in the game.

So April 26th, let me say this.

April 26th, it has it has a lot of significance for us because that is the that was our our spiritual birthday.

We got saved together.

Um, then in addition to that, that is the day that we closed on our house, April 26th was the day that we bought our first house, and then uh last year, April 26th, is when we were installed as the lead pastors here.

All I'm saying is April 26th clearly has the grace of God on it.

So if there's anything that happens on April 26th, I believe it will be blessed.

At least I've seen it work its way out in my life.

Amen.

A lot of praise card, please.

A lot of praise cards because I believe your miracle may happen on April 26th.

I don't know.

Yeah, so um Keith came out and he had so many, like he was really, really on fire for God I'm talking about, like outpaced me.

And uh he just had so many questions at a rapid pace, and uh, I was a little slower um to like learning the things in the Bible, like just reading the pace that I was reading was so different, vastly different than Keith and so um he would often um feel frustrated because we weren't on the same level, and um it took me speaking out when we're talking about hiding those things that are hidden in the dark and speaking out about it.

It took me speaking out about it and communicating that hey, I feel like the pace that the grace that God has given you, you want me to have that same grace, and right now he's dealing with me on the level that I need to be on, and that's when he began to pull me up, not at a fast pace, he began to pull me up in the pace that was fit for me.

And so allowing the Holy Spirit to do the job instead of uh me working for something um and missing all the principles that God has given to me at the level that He wanted to speak to me at.

That's true.

You have a good husband.

Um I believe that.

I believe that.

And you have a great husband.

But yes, it's it's it's yeah, okay, we're we're gonna talk about that.

Um, so but but I think what you're saying here in regards to like pacing and recognizing where each other are and and learning how to navigate through it.

So so hearing you guys' story, I'm certain there had to be moments where like, yeah, we're talking about us growing spiritually differently, but this is a very natural practical thing you guys are working through.

Justin, how did you how did you navigate through that?

Yeah, I mean, there are definitely ups and downs and and a lot of them too.

And I think um, I think probably one of the lowest points of of this whole journey between me and you and depression and everything was I mean, like the week we got back from our from our honeymoon and the six months after that, it's just everything just you know, I don't I don't know what it was.

And I think I think for me, and it's something that you that you said too, like at the end of the day, uh me continuing momentum and me like moving forward with this, it was a choice.

It was a choice, it wasn't something that just came like naturally, it wasn't something that whatever because for for me, it was like, you know, I Beck and I we had a great dating relationship, like you were going, you were going through that, but you were going to counseling, and there was, you know, there was there was some healing in it, there was some some all that, but you know, we we had a lot of fun and like we got to know each other, which is why I proposed to you because like I love you, you know, and then we get married, and then it's like the first six months after we got married, and and and this and this entered the picture, it it was like what what is what is happening right now?

Like what this is this is not what it was supposed to be.

And for those of you in this room who have somewhat of like a romantic mindset, you know, I kind of I kind of have one of those, like I always thought like marriage would be this, and you know, it was gonna be this, and you know, it was gonna be like dating all the time, and it was gonna be like, you know, every time she walked in the room, or there was always gonna be these butterflies and kind of like all that, you guys laugh, but the thing about butterflies is butterflies fly away.

Like it doesn't, it doesn't always, it's not always there, but when we got married in when we got married and depression entered the picture, and you know, there there was, you know, I had to be, I had to be very like uh supporting and sacrificing and like walk through this with you, you know.

Meanwhile, we had just planted the church and the church was growing, and and I was growing in my walk, and I was moving forward, and I was beginning to preach and kind of all this.

It's like everything, it was like twofold.

It was like my personal side of my life in our marriage, it was very confusing.

I didn't know what was happening.

And then on the other side, there was like my calling and aspect in this church, and I was moving forward.

And for me, it was like I basically I had to come to this decision, and I I went to counselors, I talked to people like like how do how do I move past this?

How do I how do I help her?

Because I don't under, I don't understand it.

For those of you who are married to someone who are close to someone with depression, let me just tell you this.

You cannot understand.

You cannot put yourself in those shoes until you've been in those shoes.

I think for me, for a lot of times as a husband, you know, a lot of times as husbands, you try to fix things.

You try to fix things.

She would have wake up, have like a bad day.

And I'd be like, hey, well, you just need to like, you know, just get up out of bed, like wash your face with cold water.

Like, why don't we go for a walk?

Like, here's some coffee, you know?

Why don't you read this book?

Why don't you listen to this podcast?

Why don't you she's like, shut up?

Yeah, and and I think for me, I I tried putting myself in her shoes, like, okay, what would what would I do if I were in this place?

And what would I do?

How would I get over it?

And so, me being a pastor and a leader, I know all the leadership answers, I know all the whatever, but at the end of the day, I didn't know.

I didn't whatever, and things weren't getting better.

And so for me, I got to this place where like I would I would begin to think and tell myself, like, it wasn't like this when we were dating.

I wish we could just go back to when we were dating, I wish we could just go back to when we always had fun.

I wish we could just go back to these days, and I would romanticize the past, and I would fail to look forward to the future anymore.

But I think that the change for me was like, okay, well, this is I I I love her.

I'm not going anywhere, we're not done.

Like, I said yes, and and and that's final.

Like, we have to move forward, so how do we move forward?

And for us, it was like, okay, what are the cards we've been dealt?

This is what we have.

Okay, I'm not gonna look to the past anymore, I'm not gonna romanticize that.

How do we move past this together?

How do we okay?

Well, let's go to counseling together now.

Let's try to figure this out.

Okay, if this is this is part of it, then hey, let's go see a marriage counselor.

And I learned through marriage counseling and through going with her, like how I need to speak in these situations.

She doesn't need me to fix the situation, she just needs me to be there and remind her I love her.

That what you think right now, what you're telling yourself right now, it's not actually who you are.

And so we learned how to get through this, and we have since then we've gained momentum in our marriage, and also it's one of the things where, man, we were dealt the card of depression, and let me just say this in front of everyone.

Like, I'm so proud of you.

I am so proud of you for speaking out about this and being willing to talk about this.

And so it's one of those things, man, if you want to fake, if you want to gain momentum in your life and you feel like you're hitting a wall right now, look at what that wall is.

Maybe that wall is there for I'm not gonna say a reason.

God can't use anything, you know, any any crappy situation and turn it into good.

And so for us, it's like, okay, this is what we have.

This is this isn't going anywhere.

By the grace of God and for prayer and healing and stuff, we're believing it, but in the meantime, what do we do in the middle?

We can either choose and be like, oh my gosh, I wish this would just go away, or we can choose to use this for God's glory.

At the end of the day, and I feel like when you begin to honor your life situations, your circumstance, you begin to honor God with them.

I think God honors you.

I mean, since we've been very open about this and moving forward, I think we've seen a lot of people who have been helped by this, a lot of people who are like, man, uh, I'm not, you know, Becca's like that, and you know, she's like a pastor's wife, and they're in the church and calling.

Like, maybe I can talk about this, maybe this is something I can get past.

And I think it's one of those things for us to answer your question, how do we continue momentum?

It was a choice.

We could not sit back and be like, well, maybe it'll change and do nothing about it.

For us, this is what it was, it wasn't going away, so we're gonna move forward with it.

I think what's what's what's really good at what you shared, man, is that it's a choice that we're that you you have to make a choice.

I love how the the apostle Paul says, he says, I die daily, which basically means like it's a it's a perpetual daily sacrifice.

Like it's not this thing like you've done it once and it's all over with, but like he says, I have to sacrifice every single day.

I have to put these things into practice daily.

There's no days off of any of this stuff.

So when I hear you talk about the importance of making a choice and and bringing things to light, it really does make me think about you guys.

Um because uh you guys come from like a a different context.

You guys come from a a church background that's that's kind of similar to what I came from, which is like, okay.

Like everything is the devil.

And so if everything is a devil, you pray about everything and that fixes everything.

And please understand, like, I still believe that I still believe that the enemy is very active.

Here's a distinction that I've found with me when it comes to identifying the demonic activity.

Does this thing exist in heaven?

If it does not, then it's the devil.

Like for me, it's really just that simple.

On earth as it is in heaven, will this exist in the kingdom to come?

No.

And that means that we are dealing with some level of spiritual warfare.

However, there are moments that where we see in scripture where it says that we're first natural and spiritual.

We we live here in earth.

There's got to be a practical application even to these spiritual nuances that we have.

So with you guys, with your journey and you being involved in church and everything, you guys had to walk through some things with learning how to have conversations, bringing things to light, man.

So let me hear a little bit about that and how you guys navigated through it.

I think for me, and you just kind of hit on it with the background.

My background that I was from, um I'm gonna get to it in a second, but I struggled with addiction for around 12 years of my life.

And the background that I was from was, well, if you love God enough, then you wouldn't do that.

But one of the breakthroughs that I had to have in my life was I had to realize God loves me enough.

There was so much, so many times where I would be struggling with what was going on in my life, and I would think, well, I don't love God enough because if I love God enough, then this wouldn't be happening.

But what I had to change my mindset to was that God loves me enough that He gave Jesus for me to overcome this and His Holy Spirit to overcome this.

And so many times.

We can stay where we're at.

We can get stuck and not get momentum because we're convinced that man, if we loved God enough, then this wouldn't be happening.

And for me, that was kind of where I was at in my life.

Um, long story short, um, my parents got divorced when I was nine years old.

My mom remarried, and the guy that she remarried, he was uh physically abusive, uh verbally abusive, but also he was sexually abusive, um, especially to my sister, but then to me as well.

And when I was 12 years old, um he introduced me to pornography.

Um, and because I had some wounds and things that needed to be healed in my life, it was something that I became addicted to for the next 12 years.

Now, this was something that I would fight in my own power and willpower and strength, like throughout be like, man, I had a great year, and then nope, did not have a good year.

Oh, I had a great week, did not have a good week.

I would fight this thing and I would fast and I would pray and I would listen to worship music.

There were so many things that I would do to try to combat like this symptom of this thing in my life.

But I remember being 24 years old, this was two years after Callie and I got married, we were actually in a church service, um, a lot like the one you guys are in today, and there was a guy up there who was in his 40s, and he talked about it was him and his wife and his kids, and he talked about how pornography and sexual sin and addiction had literally ruined and ravaged his life for almost his whole entire life.

Like he had just gotten free with it earlier in his 40s, he was in his late 40s, and his whole entire family was up there talking about like this thing and what it did.

And I remember him saying, if you were going through this, you need to tell someone.

But how many people know when you're in the middle of something, the last thing you want to do is tell someone.

The last thing you want to do is speak up.

I remember growing up, my dad would always tell me that communication is the bridge between chaos and clarity.

So if your life is in chaos, start communicating and you can get clarity.

My life was in chaos, but I was not going to communicate because I didn't want people to have clarity on what I was going through because I thought if they knew what I was going through and they would look at me and they would reject me and they wouldn't love me and they wouldn't, they would they would not think the same of me.

And so I had to take a moment, I remember him saying that, and I had to realize, okay, I've got to speak to this.

I've got to tell someone, I've got to let someone know what I'm going through because I've been trying to go through this thing alone.

Here's what's crazy about it is I remember I would actually at night sometimes I would pray.

God, send someone to ask me what's going on in my life so I could tell someone.

And honestly and truly, no one ever asked me.

But here's the thing sometimes you need to be the one to tell somebody else.

I believe as a church, we should ask people how they're doing, but a lot of times, if I'm honest, someone asked me how I'm doing, but it was in passing and be like, I'm blessed and highly favored, I'm doing great.

It's true.

But like I had to actually tell someone, and so I remember, and right after that, the pastor's son got up and he talked about how he had dealt with it in his life.

And so I remember that night, so many people went down to the altar and they had these moments with Jesus.

They laid down these addictions, and then I remember having to make decisions to even talk to Callie about it and what it was doing for us.

But the thing that I really had to learn after that moment uh was actually taking every day moment by moment.

I think sometimes when we're facing sin or facing facing struggles in our life, we try to go day by day.

But then if we screw up in the morning, we're like, well, already screwed up.

I got a free card today, so I'll start again tomorrow.

Uh for me, I had to realize, no, I've got to do this moment by moment because his mercy and his grace is new for me every single moment.

And if in these moments, if I can create movement in my life, then that will create momentum.

Every single moment that we have, if you're going through anything in your life, ask God to give you the strength to do it for the next moment.

I ask God to help you love someone that you don't love for the next moment.

Ask God to help you do something that you feel like you cannot do for the next moment.

Yes, put safeguards around you, do all these things, but what I did for so many years until this time, and there's a great book about it called Killing the Spider by Carlos Whitaker.

If anybody has ever gone through addiction or you're going through addiction right now, it's a great book.

But he talks about in this book how so many times in life what we do, we try to deal with the symptoms, and he calls them cobwebs.

So we go in our life and we try to clean out all the cobwebs, but we never kill the spider.

And so we've been addicted to something.

Now we clean out that addiction, but then all of a sudden we didn't deal with the root issue, which for me was rejection, which was fear, which was feeling like I wasn't loved, but I never dealt with that root issue.

And so then what would happen is another addiction or another thing would pop up in my life.

So I want to encourage you guys, if you were going through anything like this, talk about it, put some words to it, but then take life moment by moment, start communicating, go from chaos to clarity and even believe in those moments.

I still today, I wake up every day because this is one of the things, and Becca spoke to it a second ago.

She talked about lies.

So for me, what when I was struggling with this so bad, this is the lies that I'll believe.

You're not good enough.

Like no one loves you, no one's gonna accept you.

I'll believe this.

And so then I will get stuck in this addictive cycle.

But then after I did what I did, this is the other lie that I heard.

Well, now you're not good enough for God.

Now God doesn't love you.

You thought other people didn't love you, now God doesn't love you.

And so every day I wake up and I remind myself that God loves me, that God is proud of me, that God has chosen me, that God has given me all these things.

Because if you don't do that and you don't do that moment by moment, then you'll let the lies of the enemy come in.

And the thing that he's gonna do so much, he's gonna he's gonna question the character of God in your life, but then also question your character and who you are and who God has made you to be.

And so in these moments, like know that you can speak the word of God over your life.

That's one of the things that helped me as well as I learned scriptures to speak over my life in these moments that I am chosen, that God's not forgotten about me.

And so I would encourage you guys to again just put words to it, talk to someone about it, reach out to someone, say, hey, this is what I'm going through, no matter what you may be going through, and then know that God is going to move in those moments as you begin to communicate, as you begin to talk about those things.

And I know we talked about last service, but the the hardest part for me is uh we were married at this point, Carolie and I.

And I had to, as a husband, communicate that with her.

And that was really hard.

But here's the thing that I can tell you, and it's just like uh like I said about Justin, you met me with so much grace.

Um, I remember the first time I shared it with you, I actually like I actually cried like on her shoulder for a long time because it was the first time I had shared it with her.

And and here's the thing too, and it is I'm going a little bit long, but it's okay.

Um talk to me later, but don't at me on Instagram or anything.

Here's the thing: whenever you go through something in your life, maybe you're not even married now, and you may think this thing that I'm going through is not gonna affect me or affect other people.

It affects other people, it affects your family, it affects the people around you, and so know that just as much work as you need to do and that God needs to do on the inside of you through his Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit's gonna have to come into those situations and do work in those relationships as well.

And so just know, but can you talk about that a little bit?

Like I feel like you were like superwoman, filled with grace.

I don't know, I don't know.

I think honestly, I'm just so thankful for the grace of God because this situation obviously was like super difficult, and it was something that we had to work to overcome.

And um, for me in my life, I've been on the receiving end of a lot of pain based on other people's choices.

And so for me, it was really difficult to kind of like take those hits, and a lot of times I took them really hard, and I've been knocked off my feet more times than I would really like to admit.

But the thing that I'm so grateful for is for the grace of God, because I know God in a way that I never would if He had not shown up for me in those dark times and those places where I felt like I had no control and I didn't ask for this, and this is not like this is not what I had planned, and this is not how it was gonna go.

And I had to go to God and say, like, this is what you wanted for me, like this is how this is how it's gonna go, like this is this is who you are for me.

And he took me on a journey of like through our relationship of of showing me what he thought about me and what he felt about the situations I'd been through and the the pain that I had experienced, and that like his love was greater and could could heal the the wounds that I experienced because like just Josh said, like we weren't really in an environment where we talked about things, and so I love that we get to do this here.

I love that we get to do this now because you know it was a lot of just like pray and move on and just keep it going and just keep it moving, and and keeping it moving is not momentum, like that's not actually getting anywhere.

So I'm so thankful that like you know, we've come to a space, like I remember you guys, like we sat in this auditorium in these seats and heard the pastor say, like, if you need to go to counseling, go to counseling.

I've never heard that before.

And we're like, shoot, maybe we should go to counseling.

Like, that's awesome.

Like, so like just things like that, but I'm so thankful that like in those moments when I experienced like what like what we experienced, that honestly was the grace of God.

Like, God gave me grace to be who I needed to be for Josh, and just who I've needed to be in in life and for other people in those moments, because it was not me.

That is not like my ability or my capability, and I thank God for the Holy Spirit and the fact that like I can speak what the Holy Spirit tells me to speak, and not what my mind tells me to speak.

And that is literally how I have gotten through all of those situations.

That's great, that's great.

Thank you guys for sharing that.

So you kind of hit on a little bit of of of counseling and knowing that it's something that we can engage in.

And so I'm gonna come back to you in just a minute to talk a little bit about care.

And so a lot of times when we think about counseling, is it's it's in the context of like response to crisis.

Like, here's the most extreme scenario, like I I've prayed about it, I don't have any other option, let me let me go to counseling.

But but Megan, I remember for I remember for us, um, when we kind of had like counseling available to us as a staff of the church, um, we were in a really good spot.

Like I really felt like our marriage was probably hitting a stride that had been the best it had ever been.

But yet we still chose to, we still chose to go and and really allowed um God to even draw us closer to that.

Let's let's walk through a little bit of what we saw when we just stepped into that space and allowed God to use um allow God allowed God God used counseling to help bring us even closer together.

Yeah, so we went to an actual Christian counselor and um the when it was available to us, we we missed a couple of them because we were like, hey, we don't need it.

We really want people to on our staff to be able to utilize that because we were good.

And then we said, Oh, let's just do it, you know, let's just go and just uh see what he has to say.

And I'm telling you, I don't counselors have a gift on them, especially Christian counselors.

Um, but when we went in there and he started asking questions, normal questions, all of a sudden things started to come out that you didn't even know that you that affected you.

And I'm like, why am I crying?

It's a lot of tears.

I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on?

Like, I literally didn't know what was going to be.

Remember the first time Vedica and I went in there to counseling?

We ended up talking about the type of chicken that she bought the day before and how it offended her that I said something or everything.

And I was like, this is the thing.

I didn't even know something.

It was like an hour later.

Anyway, go to counseling.

And so what you don't realize is there are certain things that's underneath your hood that you don't necessarily know that you're not dealing with that can come out in other aspects of your life.

And God wants us whole, He wants us whole from the inside out, and the only way that we can do that is by talking to someone, getting in community, getting freedom groups, putting all these things in place that can help you as a person be whole on the from the inside out.

And so that was eye-opening for us is that we didn't realize that we had stuff underneath because everything was good.

It seemed like it was good, but it came out in other ways.

Well, because again, you have a good husband.

Um, but but honestly, but but I but here's the thing.

I do want to I do want to talk about this.

We're gonna wrap up in in just a moment, but but Callie, we you know, you you're overseeing a lot of our our care initiatives and things that that God really has us.

And and here's a key thing that I want us to recognize here, the theme that's kind of emerged um almost organically, because we didn't have any intention on this happening in any of the other services, but like this theme of freedom.

And and so the Bible just kind of came to my mind how the truth shall set you free.

Like when you the the truth is a thing that sets you free.

It's it's a it's a pathway of freedom, and of course, freedom is how we get momentum.

So there's a lot of different ways that take place.

It can happen suddenly in a service, as we were talking about earlier, and and Becca, I think you hit on it before, like, yes, you go to the altar, God does it immediately.

And then there's also other areas, and you guys have probably heard me say this at some point, but that word healed, it it actually ties back to the word therapy.

Look that up.

And actually, it's a and that's the process of healing.

It's the process of being made whole, which means that it may not happen overnight, it may not be one of those things that happens once, but but as you continue to engage that healing process, that is where healing and wholeness takes place.

So just can you help our church to know what we have available here for us, not only as a staff, but also for our church members who are wondering, okay, so I know that, okay, I see a theme, truth shall set me free.

I need to engage this a little bit more, I need to make some choices.

What are some of the choices they can make?

Yeah, I'm really excited because we have a lot of really great practical tools that we can make available to you.

Um, first being, obviously, we talked a little bit about it, but community, like obviously, community is so important, and no, not every person that you meet in your community group is gonna be your best friend, but I really believe that God is gonna orchestrate um relationships within that community for the people that you need to be around and the people who are gonna be able to walk with you and to be with you in your life and support you in the times when you need it most.

So, community, obviously, community groups are one of the ways.

Um, also, we have some incredible people here called care partners.

They, yeah, they're literally so wonderful, and they are people that we have interviewed, people that we know, people who are willing and able and equipped to meet with you, to talk with you, to give you practical um biblical wisdom and guidance.

Also, they are here on Sunday morning.

So, if you're here on Sunday, you're like, man, I really wish I could just have someone pray for me.

Obviously, you can come to any of us, um, staff or leaders, but like these people are here and they are ready and they are willing.

So at any point, if you ever want to speak to one of them, they are here, they are out at the tent, um, they're in the they're in the auditorium.

So make your um they're available to you, so so go to them.

Um, also, we partner with a counseling center here in Orlando called uh First Orlando Counseling.

They're amazing.

They are licensed professional counselors, um, but they're also Christian counselors.

So they are they are so equipped to handle a multitude of different um areas of your life.

So whatever it is that you're facing, from trauma to addiction to depression, they have tools and they'll be able to give you the tools that you need to succeed in the season that you're in.

So we fully believe in counseling.

Um, this place is amazing because they partner with us as a church.

So if you attend Celebration Orlando, you can tell them that you're a member here and they will give you a discount on your session.

So sometimes we know that you know with insurance and stuff like that, it doesn't always get covered.

So they have been so gracious to do that for us.

So that's just we want to make it one step, like an easier step for you to get there.

So take advantage of that if you if you need it.

Also, um, you can always email care.

We have a multitude of different resources that we can provide to you, um, including 21 Days of Freedom.

We have a freedom curriculum that is that is awesome because I really truly believe that all of these things they really do go hand in hand.

Like you cannot have one without the other.

So we have we have tools for you, we have resources for you, so they are available if you ever need them.

That's great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for wrapping that up.

And so one of the other things we want to let you know that we have available is um just us under our church umbrella, but it's called Honey Lake Clinic.

And that is one that maybe maybe there's a space where you just need to kind of get away.

Um, and it's all like Christian, and as we said, but it really does incorporate uh uh the medicinal side, the counseling side, the the practical side, and integrates the spiritual side as well.

So that's available to us as well.

So you can go on our website, learn more about that.

But but you could see that there's a there's something that that God is that as God is doing.

The number one issue in the world, so this transcends America, the number one issue in the world is mental health issues.

And it's the one area that people that are they're often reluctant to go into.

But I love how um how Paul tells us that it's the renewing of our minds.

If we can just, if we can allow the word of God and some other resources to help us to renew our mind, I think it really can help to put us in this place that God is ultimately calling us to go to.

So I want to close with this.

I want to thank you guys so much for um for being vulnerable, sharing your story, because I realize that maybe your specific struggle wasn't expressed on stage, but maybe there's some area that you can identify with that hopefully can allow you to know that we all have a responsibility and ultimately it's choice and how we begin to engage this.

And so I want to point back to the scriptures just really quick as we as we wrap up.

Um the thing that we see with with Naaman for him is that he had leprosy.

And so this is a man who who had like this contagious disease that would have put him in isolation in any other context.

But what scripture tells is that it was probably in an isolated area that he was able to cover up, that a lot of people didn't see it, which means that he was had this really debilitating thing that everyone didn't know about, and that was almost like a secret.

And if I'm honest, if I think about some of the issues that were mentioned here and how the enemy loves to keep us silent, I see I see a theme here where if I can just convince you to be silent about what you're struggling with, then then maybe you can fit in, but at some point it will be brought to light.

At some point, it does have the ability.

And I love what you even said that even sometimes the struggles that we have, we may think that it only affects us, but at some point it does have the ability to spill over and hurt someone else or affect somebody else.

And actually, I'll be talking about a little bit of that next week with our with our new series.

So there was a moment where he had to do a couple of things in order for him really to experience true healing, true wholeness.

And the first thing they had to do is that he had to embrace where he was.

That just simply means you gotta be honest with where you are, be truthful with where you are, like understand, like the the biggest thing that we want to make sure that we don't do is deceive ourselves.

I've gone through seasons where I've convinced myself that I wasn't struggling with something.

Oh no, it's not a big thing.

Oh, I'm actually in more control than I think.

But as you find yourself still struggling with that same dilemma, not getting any traction, just be honest with yourself.

This is an area where I'm not making a lot of progress.

It's gonna take us to be really aware of where we are.

But then the other thing that he had to do was that he had to reposition himself because he's off in like Syria, but the the healing was going to take place in Jerusalem.

So now that he's aware of what he's struggling with, he had to reposition himself to go to the place where the healing was going to take place.

If I'm honest, man, there's many times just because of the conveniences that exist in our world, that can that can be a barrier for some of us.

Because in our own minds, we're thinking like, okay, I I know what I need to do, but can I just space time that person?

Can we just can we just do it this way?

Because that's a lot more convenient.

I talked to a counselor a couple weeks ago and he said that that we have an addiction to comfort.

And and everything we do is revolved around our comforts.

We have apps, we have things that I don't even have to like, I don't have to like pay attention to what time a movie or show comes on, because I can just watch it on demand.

Like everything is built around what I want.

So when there's something that requires me to step into a space and in and and really kind of adhere to someone else's schedule, it becomes so inconvenient, and that can often be a barrier.

But it required Naaman to kind of come out of his own comfort zone to go to the place where he could experience healing.

So I do think that we have to embrace where we are.

We have to also reposition ourselves to go to the place that God is calling us to be.

But then here's that next one, which is simply this we have to be obedient.

When he got there, when he got there, he had this interaction with um with Elisha, the man who was ultimately going to help to bring healing to his life.

But Elisha didn't even have this elaborate conversation with him.

In fact, he didn't even talk to him directly.

He just said, like, hey man, tell him to go down and dip himself in the water seven times and he'll be fine.

So now, Naaman, he had to acknowledge where he was, he had to reposition himself, but now he's in a place where he at least expected it to be done a certain way.

It even says in the scripture, like, man, I thought he would at least come down and wave his hand over my afflicted area and it would be made better.

In other words, he had a formula in his mind on how he wanted that thing to work out.

Some of us can have that from time to time.

I've I like let me let me be real in church for a moment.

There's many times that I've that I've seen people that'll that'll come to our church and they and they love it, but they'll say, like, hey man, how come you didn't do it this way?

Because they've already made up in their mind that this is the way.

God uses a multiplicity of ways.

And if I'm honest, if I had a conversation with each of us about how Did we get integrated into the faith?

It would be a different story.

So let me help somebody in here.

There is not just one way.

Jesus is the way, but God will use a multiplicity of ways for us all to experience healing.

And so we see that because God never wanted us to be more faithful to a formula than we are to him.

So so that's kind of where we see all these things work out.

Okay, I'll say it if y'all want me to.

God doesn't want us to be more faithful to a formula than we are to him.

That's going to help somebody in here today.

Because a lot of people are faithful to formulas and they're missing out on God.

Okay, I'm gonna get off that soapbox.

Okay, so we we we see we see a little bit of that.

So then he had to deal with like, I have to go and dip myself in the water seven times.

So he had to be obedient to what he was told to do, but then he had to do it seven times.

Now we know that God can do things instantly, he can send a word, he can, there's all these different ways that we've seen God do things.

But in this context, he told him to go and dip himself in the water seven times.

That speaks to being persistent.

That speaks to being consistent.

Because the truth of the matter is there have been multiple times in my life, and I think all of us could probably attest to this, like, God, why seven?

I came to church that one week, and there's many of us that have probably the byproduct of that crisis moment where we've had that incident that happened in our lives, and so we're saying, okay, God, if you can get me out of this situation, I will never do that again.

Those Hail Mary prayers, we've all prayed them at some point.

Don't y'all look at me and judge me.

We've all been there.

Like, if you can get me out of this, I'll never do this again.

That one time, that instantaneous breakthrough and healing.

So a lot of times we'll come to church as the byproduct of a moment of crisis.

God, I need you to fix this thing right now.

We have a great service, worship is good, everything's going well, but as you walk out of the doors, that dilemma is still waiting for you.

And so often what we can do is like, man, I'm not going to church, it didn't work.

I'm not, I'm not going back.

I thought that they said if I give, then I was going to be able to receive.

I thought they said that if I serve, that then I would be refreshed.

I thought they said, and so we end up looking at things through the lens of a transaction.

I do this, God does this.

But what this is meant to do is meant to break that and saying, like, man, just just doing it isn't the thing.

Being consistent in doing it is where you're going to get your miracle.

And so what we see with Nauman is he says, I need you to dip yourself in there seven times.

Don't stop on three, don't stop on five.

I need you to do it seven times.

So being obedient, but being consistent.

I'm hoping I'm encouraging somebody in here because I feel like there's somebody in here that's on the verge of wanting to give up.

Because you maybe you're at that place that Becca was speaking about where you just feel like, man, there's no hope.

I don't know if I'm ever going to see this thing change.

And so maybe that voice that you're hearing right now is that it's not going to work.

You need to just stop doing those things.

What I want to tell you is be obedient to what God says and keep doing it.

Keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking.

And I believe that you truly will get your breakthrough.

And that's what we see from Nauman.

And then ultimately what we see is that he's able to take ground back.

And everywhere he went, he took that victory with him.

I know that for me, I got tired of having breakthroughs at church, but by Tuesday when I was at work, I was not experiencing that breakthrough.

What I believe that we need to do is be honest with where we are, become reposition ourselves, be obedient no matter how difficult it is for us to be obedient.

Maybe that is going to counseling, maybe that is going to have that conversation, bringing some things to light.

If we can be obedient and be consistent, go to counseling more than once, come to church more than once, get baptized, take that next step and be consistent.

Keep on doing the things that God told you to do.

And I truly do believe that's a practical way, but a supernatural way on how you're going to experience momentum.

I truly do believe that I've seen it in my life and in the lives of so many that are here and in the lives of you guys.

So can we give it up for our panel?

Thank you guys so much for sharing and being vulnerable in this conversation.

You know what I want to do?

I want to actually do something a little bit, I want to do something a little bit different from the the other services.

Becca, I want you to pray for mental health.

Um I want I want you to guys to pray.

So in fact, I want you, Callie, to pray for like addiction in the Megan.

I just want you to pray over the service, and then Pastor Justin, you can wrap us all up and we'll we'll go our way.

So um, but I just want us to kind of lean into this moment and allow what I believe the Holy Spirit uh to do to kind of really um encourage us to take our next steps.

Father God, we just thank you so much for these moments that we were able to open our mouths and speak the truth of where we are.

God, I pray that each and every person in this room would feel the boldness to speak out and to be honest with themselves and to those that they love about where they are to seek help.

Father God, I pray that we as a church would just break the stigma, God, that we would love your people and find them where they are, God, and tell them it's okay because you're okay.

God, we thank you for your healing hand, God, that you speak and people are healed, God, but we also thank you for being with us each and every step of the way through our journey to healing.

God, each and every moment you are there.

In our loneliest of moments, there you are holding us.

When we're crying and we feel like we can't take one more step, we can't take one more breath, Father, that is where you are.

And I pray, God, that each and every person in this room would have the revelation that you are with them in those moments.

God, I pray over those struggling with depression and anxiety, Father God, that your healing hand would be on them, God, that you would reveal those things inside their heart, God, that you would renew their mind, God, that they would step out and be bold.

Lord, we love you and we thank you for who you are and who you made each and every single one of us to be.

In Jesus' name.

God, we love you so much.

God, I'm so thankful that you are who you say that you are.

So, God, we thank you that you're a healer.

We thank you that you are a deliverer.

God, I thank you that you are moving right here, right now.

God, that you are meeting people exactly where they are.

God, you know what we need before we can even speak it out.

So, God, I just thank you, God, that you are working, God, that your Holy Spirit is powerful.

God, I thank you that you are bringing healing and freedom to people's life right now in Jesus' name.

God, I thank you that uh the places that people feel stuck and the places that they feel bound, God, that they would experience your freedom and your healing power in their lives, God, that you would, that you would reach down into the root, God, of the of the um thing that is keeping them bound, God, the thing that is causing the pain, God, the thing that may have uh caused trauma, God, and that you would heal those things, God.

That these that these cobwebs and these symptoms that keep popping up, God, that they would be no more.

Because we say that the spiders and the things they have to die, and because they cannot live where you are, God, we just ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, God, because where you are, there is no space for anything else.

So, God, I thank you for who you are, and I thank you that you are, that you are a powerful, miracle working, God.

And I just ask that today would be that day.

Today, this would be a day where people would encounter you in a new way and that they would walk away bold and feeling like they can take their next steps, whatever that may be, that if they need to speak out, they can speak out.

If they need to ask for help, that they will be able to ask for help.

But God, we thank you that you are able to do more than we could ever hope, imagine, or think.

So I thank you for that right now in Jesus' name.

Lord, I thank you for um the words today that were spoken.

I pray that each and every person today, the seeds that have been planted, that when they walk through these doors, they will not be taken away.

I pray that what the enemy has said against them will not come to fruition.

I pray that you cover people with boldness today, the shame and guilt they will feel no more today.

I pray that you align them with whatever direction they need to take to get healed and whole.

Lord God, I pray that your wisdom um just penetrates the heart of the people.

Lord God, I just pray that you cover each and every person.

Let them know that you love them, Lord God.

Whether it's in your word, whether it's through worship, let them know that they are loved.

You died on the cross because you loved us.

So I pray that if anyone doesn't believe that today, that they do, heal their hearts, heal their minds, lead them in the right direction.

Fill them with your Holy Spirit, fill them with a peace that surpasses all understanding, and knowing that today is a new day, that they can be new in you.

So we thank you for what you're gonna do in advance.

In Jesus' name.

With every head still bowed and every eye still closed, for the last uh 35 minutes or so, we've been talking about how to gain momentum in your life and how to gain momentum in your relationships, and every single thing that we talked about here today, we talked about within the context of a relationship with Jesus.

Who is the person who gives you that momentum.

So here at Celebration Church, we never let a service go by without giving someone an opportunity to respond to Jesus by either committing or recommitting their life to Him.

There's some of you who are in this room who you need to commit your life for the very first time.

You've never had a moment in your life where you have stopped and you have gone before God and said, God, I'm done living life my own way.

I'm done doing what I know best.

I believe what you did, I believe in Jesus, I believe what Jesus did for me, and I believe that you have a plan and a purpose for my life.

There's some of you in this room who need to give your life to him for the very first time and commit your life to him and find out what it means to have momentum, true momentum in your life.

There's those of you in this room who you know Jesus, you have had that moment in your life where you have given your life to Jesus.

But there's those of you in this room who you actually need to recommit your life to him.

Maybe for whatever moment, maybe what some life threw something at you and through circumstances, you have found yourself in this room in this seat, far from Jesus this afternoon.

But you don't want to leave the same way that you came in.

Then you need to recommit your life to him.

So if that's you and you're in this room and you want to commit or recommit your life to Jesus, in just a moment, I'm just gonna count to three.

And if you want to make one of those two decisions, I'm just gonna ask that you raise your hands, and then all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lead you in a prayer of salvation.

We're all gonna say it out loud, and then we're all gonna leave here celebrating what God did.

So if you're in this room and you want to commit or recommit your life to Jesus, I just want to ask that you raise your hands in one, two, three.

Raise them.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

If you have your hand raised in this room, I just want to ask that you repeat this simple prayer of faith out loud after me.

I want to ask everyone else in the room, if you would, just repeat this out loud after me as well.

Jesus, I stand before you today, asking you to forgive me of all my sins and all my mistakes.

Today I choose to live for you.

Today I choose to make you my Lord and my Savior.

From this point forward, I'm gonna live my life, the rest of my life, for you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, church, let's stand to our feet all over the stream and put our hands together.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

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