WILD STANDARD: Drop The Mic

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

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

All right, let's give it up for all of our dads in the building.

Happy Father's Day to everyone.

Come on, we can dig a little bit deeper than that for dads.

I know that the moms get all the love, but can we show some love to all our dads and spiritual fathers and mentors and group leaders and all those wonderful things?

Thank you guys so much for being with us today, man.

I'm so so glad that you are here.

We've been in this amazing series that I'm just excited to jump right into and to continue on.

We're gonna take communion together as a family at the end of the service.

I think it's just a powerful way to not only move us forward in the series, but also to kind of commemorate what today represents.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter seven.

If you've been with us over the past couple of weeks as we've been um unpacking this wild standard series, then this is a text that is certainly familiar to you.

We've kind of used this as our foundational um thought as we kind of look at what does it mean to have this wild standard.

Here's what it says at Matthew 7, verse uh 24.

It says this everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain fell and the flood came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

Jesus is simply saying, like, man, if you can just allow my word to be the standard, no matter what storms may come your way, you will be able to endure because you've built it on a strong foundation.

So, as a quick recap, here's a couple of things that we've addressed so far in the series.

We first identify that Jesus is the standard.

Such a simple thought, but such a powerful one if we can get into our hearts that that Jesus is the standard, that he's the one that we're trying to do our best to walk in his grace.

This wild standard is not something that we are supposed to live up to, but it's something that we're invited to live into.

That's what it means to be a part of the kingdom.

Like when I'm in the kingdom, I'm not trying to check off a list of performance behavior things.

I'm simply just trying my best to live as a person who's in the kingdom of God, dealing with the tension between being in the kingdom and being in the empire.

The empire is all about me, but being in the kingdom, it's all about, it's all about Jesus.

We've also had to deal with the way that we understand things, dealing with our mind, understanding that we're not blessed because of what we have, but we're blessed because of who we have.

That means that no matter what season we may find ourselves in, that the blessing of God is with us.

It's not, it's not dealing with some of these other external things.

Then last week we began to deal with matters of the heart.

How do we process through some of these emotions and things that can keep us trapped?

So in Matthew 5, he begins to unpack some ways to make sure that we're not ones who are trapped under these emotions and can't move forward.

We kind of walked away with our prevailing thought, which was this we're called to build our lives on a rock, not live under one.

He wants us to build our lives on a rock, not live under one.

He wants to make sure that we have the freedom to move forward and not restrict it because we're holding on to burdens that keep us from moving forward.

So up to this point, we've dealt with the matters of the mind, how we think and how we see things.

We've dealt with matter of the heart, dealing with how we feel and how we process through things.

And now we're going to talk about matters of how we walk.

How do we walk this thing out?

How do we really, how do we really walk in alignment to God's word?

How do we do that?

And so when we get to Matthew chapter 6, we find ourselves at this place where where Jesus begins to instruct us in how we walk this thing out, particularly how we walk it out with Him, but it also translates to other areas of our lives.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So He He uses this word, He uses this distinction that is very powerful if we can get into our hearts.

It's understanding that when we, not if we, but when we, here's why I want to emphasize that in the mind of Christ, in the mind of a person who is a follower of Christ, Jesus is saying that it's not if you do these things, it's when you do these things, because when you're in the kingdom, this is just what we do.

So here's a couple things he emphasize when we serve, not if you serve, but when we serve, like we serve, that's what we do in the kingdom of God.

There's not a version of our lives that should be there where we don't serve because that's what we do in the kingdom of God.

He says, when we pray, not if we pray, but when we pray, we pray.

That's a part of our spiritual discipline.

We pray, we communicate with God.

He says, when we fast, when we not if we fast, but when we when we disconnect from the world, we disconnect from things that that could sometimes block us or keep us distracted.

When we do these things, this is how I want you to do it.

And then he says this when we give, not if we give.

He says, when when we give in the kingdom of God, we give.

That's what we do.

We we don't hoard, we don't keep, we we we find ways to be generous and to be a blessing to the kingdom of God because it will benefit the people of God.

That's what we do.

He begins to talk through all of these things, and as he concludes that stream of thought, he leads us to dealing with anxiety.

There's a reason why, and we're going to talk about that during the course of this message.

But if we look at Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 through 34, here's what it says it says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.

Matthew 6:25–34

What will you eat or what will you drink?

Nor about your body, what will you put on?

Is not the life more than food and a body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

And are you not more valuable than them?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you so anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?

Oh you of little faith.

Therefore don't be anxious, saying, What shall I eat, and what shall I drink, or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father already knows that you need them all.

But at verse 33, this is the foundation of our church.

This is what our church was founded on over 20 years ago.

It says this, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, all those things that we talked about, those things that create anxiety, the pressure, the stress, all those things will be added to us if we put God first.

Verse 34.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day in its own trouble.

Jesus is He's leading us on this journey.

And some of the topics that He hits on are ones that challenge us, there's ones that encourage us, but all of them are leading us to a place of wholeness.

Today I want to talk to us about the pressures in life and how sometimes that pressure can lead us to a place where we're we're nervous, we're we're we're conformed, and and we find ourselves reacting out of fear instead of walking in the freedom that God has called us to walk in.

Today, if you're taking notes and I hope that you're doing that, I want you to write this title down, Drop the Mic.

It's time for us to just drop the mic.

Let's pray.

God, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your people, God.

I thank you for this amazing church.

God, I thank you for the families of this incredible church.

Lord, I pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes that we can see you.

I pray over the next few moments, God, you give us open hearts that we can receive you, God, and I pray that we have open ears that we can hear you.

God, I pray that you speak and do what only you can do in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, church.

So let me go ahead and and and put this out here now.

As of this week, my family and I are officially Floridians again.

We have made the move.

We we're we're here now.

Now we're we're in that space now where we got here, but our stuff didn't get here yet.

So um, if you see me here next week and I'm wearing the exact same clothes, don't judge me, don't ask me, just just give me some grace and understand that it's all a work in progress.

So we're waiting for our stuff to arrive, but we're here.

We're living in hotels out of a suitcase.

It's okay, God's with us, he's ordered our steps.

But but since we're here, you're stuck with me now, so I'm gonna go ahead and just put some things out there so we can all get this family thing moving forward.

So here's my thing.

I wanna I want to give you this confession, but just just don't judge me.

I I have grown to the place where I have really learned to adore, maybe even borderline love, reality TV.

I I get it.

Some of y'all are judging me right now, but grace holds me now, and I don't care about your judgment.

Um but but but but here's the thing.

Initially, much like many of you, it's something that I tried my best to avoid with every ounce of strength that I had.

I wanted to do everything I could to stay away from it because I thought it was dysfunctional.

So I remember as my wife would watch it upstairs, I would go up into the room, see she's watching, like, okay, I'll be downstairs.

Let me know when you actually want to watch something edifying for our souls instead of something that's toxic.

So that would kind of be like our exchange that would take place primarily on Mondays.

But then this one this one day, it got to me.

I was in the room, I was getting something out of my closet, and I heard all this commotion coming from the TV.

There's all this emotion and and people running and all this anxiety that's happening on the television screen.

So the the pastor in me, I'm always gonna be concerned when I see that people are in some form of crisis.

So I began to like focus and pay attention, and I and I said to my wife, I said, Megan, like, why did Colton jump over the fence?

Like, I don't what what's going on in his life that he he felt that he just needed to jump over the fence and just run off into the dark?

Like, I wanted to pastor him.

Y'all are watching it for entertainment.

I'm trying to pastor Colton from a distance.

Like there's a difference between the two of us.

So I'm trying my best to find a way to encourage it, but now it begins to suck me in.

So I'm watching it and I'm absorbed by it.

And so now I find myself going from I don't want to watch it, I don't want to see it, to okay, if it's on in the background, I'm cool with it too.

I can't believe you watched that episode without me.

Like we I'm fully, I'm fully in at this point.

Like we're like we're into it.

Like they're because we're traveling, we're like streaming it and trying to watch it, and I fell asleep and I woke up and my wife was watching on her iPad.

I'm like, she might as well cheat it on me.

Like, what are you doing?

I thought we I thought we had this covenant established that we're gonna watch this together.

I mean, so it's one of those things that I'm fully into.

And like let me just say this right now.

I don't know how Luke P is still on the show.

Anyway, let me move on.

So here we are.

Here we are.

I'm I'm I'm I'm so into it because here's the thing I love.

I love watching the characters that are on these reality shows, and as they project these images, because they just want to be accepted, they just want to be loved, but as the weeks go on, you begin to see like the layers peel away and you start to see the real version of themselves stand up.

I believe it's the the great scholar uh Marshall Mathers that says, Well, the real and Slim Shady, please stand up.

Like you're you begin to watch it long enough and you begin to see the real version of these people show up, and I love it because initially what you see is a is a version of themselves that they're projecting because they they feel like if I can do this, then maybe I'll be accepted.

So one of the statements you constantly hear is I just want to see the authentic you.

Are you here for the right reasons?

Because you want to just see the real version of someone instead of the version that they're projecting because they feel like that's what they need to do in order to be accepted.

I just I love seeing all of that unfold as the weeks go on.

So when it comes to reality TV shows, I love seeing the progress of it.

So whether it's one dealing with dating relationships, whether it's one dealing with some form of competition, or even if it's ones dealing with entertainment, I love it.

Especially the ones dealing with entertainment.

The reason why I love those so much is because I love to see the background stories of people that are like laying it all on the line to pursue their dreams.

How can you not fall in love with a person that's saying, you know what, I've I've been singing since I was a little kid.

I'm gonna I'm gonna put it all on the line, I'm gonna buy this plane ticket, I'm gonna fly out here, I'm gonna stand in line for four days and stand in front of these judges for a minute and hope that I am good enough that I can make it onto the show.

Like you just gotta love somebody who just who guts it out and does that.

There's this one particular person that I saw, and like you see the background story of him.

You see that he's been singing, and so with the background footage that they collect of him, you see that he's like he's a phenomenal singer.

You see him with his family, it's kind of getting you emotionally bought in.

You're like, okay, there's like, man, they went through the trouble of like shooting this footage from his house.

So in my mind, the the very like analytical part of me is like, well, they didn't know he was gonna be on the show, which means when he came to the show, they went back to record him to let us know that he made it on the show.

So I'm already all bought in.

You see him with his kids, they're on the swings, everything is great, you hear his story, it's all good.

He gets out on the platform and it's his time to sing, and the lights hit him and he completely goes blank.

Just complete silence.

And so to kind of recover, he begins to sing in every genre of music all in one audition.

So he's like, Okay, there's a there's a country guy on the platform, let me start singing country.

Okay, okay, that's not working.

Okay, let me let me start let me start singing a little bit of pop.

Okay, well, that's not working.

Let me let me do a little bit of RB.

He literally went through like every genre of music, even went through this like weird like Caribbean phase.

Like he went through every genre of music because he was hoping that maybe if I can use my gifts in a way that identifies with that particular audience member, then maybe I will be told that I'm good enough and I'm accepted.

Unfortunately, in the process of trying to gain their attention, he lost himself.

And so they didn't turn for him.

He didn't make it.

And when he walked into the back, this person with so much talent, with so much opportunity, he looks into the eyes of his daughter and he says, I lost myself.

The pressure of being accepted by someone else caused him to lose who he truly was.

And I think that unfortunately the reality is this we live in a world where we're under constant pressure.

The pressure to be the perfect, the perfect dad.

We're told that you have to provide for your family and to this degree.

So we'll go through extreme lengths in order to do that without realizing that in order to make those marks, it's going to require me to be away from my family when the best thing I can do in my family is be present for my family.

But but the pressure to do those things can actually draw us away from the very thing that God has asked us to invest in.

The pressure to be the perfect mom.

We end up taking on burdens and things that God never asked us to carry, but this pressure that we look at other moms and we look at people that are in the same socioeconomic status or even in the same neighborhood or all those things.

Like we take that pressure upon ourselves and say, well, if I can if I can execute like them, then maybe I will I will fit in because that's what I'm called to do.

We end up walking in something that we're not called to do.

It's even possible to have to deal with the pressure of being the perfect pastor.

Treat please believe me that in this thing that I'm called to do, there's so much pressure.

I I have so many friends who have been in ministry who have who have stepped away from it because they've exhausted themselves and they burned out because of the pressure to perform.

You you better preach a good message.

If it's not as good as the last one, then we know it's like you feel like you you're just constantly performing, and if and if if and if you have a week where you weren't the best, and then the next church right down the street.

It's just it's just like gladiator fighting game that can happen sometimes even in our spirituality.

And listen, I am intimately aware that I am standing on a platform that I didn't build.

I am now the pastor of a church that I didn't plant.

I am leading a staff that I did not hand pick.

So the pressure when I show up, to have the eyes looking back at me and saying, Well, you you better be as good as the other guy, or we're gonna go to another church.

The the pressure to to conform, the the pressure to, okay, so what should what should I wear?

I don't want to scare anybody off, so should I should I do what the other guy did?

Like the pressure to be what people are comfortable with, that pressure to be perfect, it's it's something that exists with with all of us.

And if we're not careful, we'll lose ourselves in a process of it.

So here's what God spoke to me as we were going through this season and knowing that God has asked us as a family to come and lead this church.

The pressure of comparison and the pressure of, are people gonna show up?

God said, I'm not asking you to carry that weight.

God said, I've asked you in my word in Matthew 11 to take upon my yoke, to take upon my burden.

I'm not asking you to pick up another burden.

And what he resolved in my mind is, Keith, you can't make one person come to this church, you can't make one person give at this church, you can't make one person serve at this church, you can't make one person get involved at this church.

It is the grace of God that does that.

So, what I need for you is to be faithful to your family, be faithful to me, be faithful to your assignment, and I will add the increase.

God, in one moment, took the pressure off of me trying to live up to a standard and an expectation that has nothing to do with who I truly am.

What I'm saying to us as a family sometimes, we put on pressure that God is asking us not to ever carry.

This is why I love David so much, because what the Bible says about David when he was about to go and fight Goliath is that when Saul tried to put his armor on him, David said, I can't go in these.

This doesn't fit me.

Now, if I were to wear Saul's armor, I would have to use Saul's strategy.

And if I use Saul's strategy, then Saul could possibly get the results.

But I can't do those things.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be faithful to the way that God has wired me.

And the way that God has wired me is to have this slingshot in these rocks, and I'm gonna go out into battle and fight with what God has given me.

Maybe the giants in our lives are still existing because we're wearing an armor that God didn't grace us to carry.

God is saying, I need you to take the pressure off and stop thinking that you have to be someone else in order to get the results that you feel called to do.

See, this this pressure to be perfect is something that's not even biblical.

See, in the context of the kingdom, when we ever we see the word perfect, the word perfect is always associated with wholeness, not flawless.

So when we begin to think about what does it mean to be perfect in the kingdom, it simply means to be the whole version of yourself.

That is what God is asking us to do.

So there's times in our lives we're trying to be perfect, and that's not even a fruit of the spirit, good is.

If I can just be good, that's good enough for God.

If I can just be faithful, that's good enough for God.

So I've resolved inside of myself, if when God created the world, he didn't say it's good.

He said, He didn't say it was perfect, he said it's good.

When he created man, he didn't say it was perfect, he said it's good.

So if it's good enough for God, then it's good enough for me.

And if it's good enough for me, then it's good enough for my family.

What I've learned is if I can just be in a place where I'm good enough for God, then that's all the applause that I need.

That's all the grace that I need, that's all the peace that I need.

I don't need to strive for perfection because there's no grace and trying to be perfect.

Here's the unfortunate thing that I've seen in our lives.

We have given too many people ink pens when they only should have highlighters.

I give you this ink pen and I'm asking you to write my destiny for me.

So I'm looking for man to write words into my soul.

So I'm in a position where if you're not writing those words into my soul, well, if I can perform good enough, then maybe you'll write them into my soul.

Maybe you'll write and say that I'm good enough.

Maybe you'll write and tell me that I'm blessed, maybe you'll write and say that I am a good dad.

Here's the thing: man does not have the authority to write in your life.

The Bible says that I know the plans that I have for you.

I know you when I needed you in your mother's womb.

God is the creator, God speaks destiny, God's the one who formed us, God's the one who created us.

Man's job is to highlight the activity of God.

So as I stand on this platform, my job is not to speak the destiny of God into your life, it's to highlight what God is already doing in your life.

When I sit with my children and I speak to my family, I don't speak purpose into their life.

God's done that already.

I simply highlight what God is already doing.

I see this in your life.

God's calling you to do this, God's gonna call you to be a great mother, God's calling you to be a great father.

I can't speak it into them because God's already done it, but unfortunately, we've given people ink pens and we're waiting for them to write these words on our soul, and God's saying, You're giving them too much power over your life.

Take the pressure off.

You're trying to get people to like you, and you're stepping outside of yourself, and unfortunately, just like our friend, you're losing yourself in the process.

See, Jesus was talking to an audience of people that not only in their personal lives, but even in their spiritual lives, they had this attention of trying to live up to something.

The pagans had given them this example of if you have to do all these special rituals in order for you to get a response from God.

So they would cut themselves, they would they would do all these weird rituals because that is what they had to do to appease their God.

So the children of God, they saw that express.

But in addition to that, they also saw where the people of God, the Pharisees, the scribes, the ones who had the most profound knowledge of the word of God, even they had all these extra activities they would do.

They would they would walk around and have all these special prayers that they would make.

And so unfortunately, what people would do is when they would see them, they would say, I don't have the academic understanding, I don't have the I don't have the rationale.

So they would distance themselves from even trying to engage God because they felt unqualified.

So inside of the kingdom, he's saying, I need you to not look at your relationship with me as something that you have to perform in order to be spiritual enough.

I just need you to live in this space and be obedient to what I'm asking you to do.

Jesus is saying, I need you to drop the mic and be authentic to the way that I wired you because it's in that space there's grace and freedom.

There's four things that I believe that we can learn as we look at this text particularly and see what God is speaking to us because He's saying to us, if we can just if we can just drop the mic, then we can pick up peace.

If we can just, if we can get to this space.

Here's what it says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 1.

Matthew 6:1

I love what it says in the message translation.

It says, be especially careful that when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it.

It might be good theater, but the God who made you will not be applauding.

God's saying, I'm not impressed.

I'm not impressed when you do things with the wrong motive.

I'm asking you to drop the mic and be the real version of yourself.

The world may be impressed, the world may give you accolades, they may give you all these extra likes.

You may get a lot of attention from them, but I'm not impressed by that.

God said, I'm not asking you to impress people, I'm asking you to leave an impression on people.

So what he's saying is, I need you to, I need you to adjust the way that you walk this thing out.

There's a couple of things that he says to us that we that we do when we do that.

Here's the first thing he's saying when we when we drop the mic, we serve with humility.

Serve with humility.

Not if you serve, but when you serve, serve with humility.

The Bible just makes emphasis to make sure that we understand that there's people that are in need.

So when you look at it in the context of the message, it talks about when you give to the needy.

Now, the way that we translate that into our culture, that means that people are in constant need.

People who need encouragement.

They need love.

They need acceptance.

They need a place where they can come and know that God is for them.

So as a church, we come together and we gather to help meet needs.

Some of those needs may be resources, some of those needs may be more spiritual, but whatever those needs are, that's what we gather to do is to help meet those needs.

And you know that each week, week in and week out, we have hundreds of people on our serving team that are behind the scenes that you may never know, but they're serving so that they can make a difference because they know that people need to have a space where they can have an encounter with God.

But the beautiful thing is they're not doing it for accolades, they're not doing it for an Instagram post.

They're doing it because in God's economy, that is what we're asked to do.

They're simply saying that if God, if you need me, I'm going to step into that space.

So as a church, we we step into this space and we we do our best to pastor over 150 children every single weekend on Saturdays.

As a church, we do our best to partner with homeless out um outreach and organizations to make sure that our homeless community knows that God is for them, even irregardless of where they have been.

This is so this is so powerful, making sure that we understand that as a church, we're doing things not because we're looking for attention, but because it is what we feel like God is calling us to do.

In July, we're gonna be having a serve day and we're gonna go out into the community and we're gonna take the name and presence of Jesus all throughout this wonderful city to make sure people understand that God loves them.

It's not about our logo, it's not about our church, it's about people who are in need of encouragement, and we want to make sure that we can be conduits of grace.

So here's what I'm saying.

The Bible says that you're not doing these with the wrong motive, but when you do these things, make sure you do it with humility.

Here's something I want to emphasize.

The Bible says that when you do these things, that God sees you and He rewards you.

So allow me to be real plain with some of the people that are on our teams.

I want to thank you so much for serving.

Here's what the Bible says the Bible says that God sees you and God will reward you.

I'm talking to the person that's part of our setup and teardown team that gets up at five in the morning and that's here when nobody else is here and no one even knows your name.

No one even knows all that you've done to make sure that we can create a space so that people can have an encounter with God.

Listen to me, God sees you and God is going to reward you.

I'm I'm talking to the people that serve on our kids' team that are in the back, and they're not just changing diapers, but they're speaking words of life and love over your children, helping them to understand that they're called and that they have value and destiny.

No one may ever see them, but I want you to understand that God sees you and God is going to reward you.

I'm talking to the person that's on our parking team, that's outside when it's hot, that's outside when it's raining, who's dealing with all the raw elements, but making sure that we're creating a space so that when people come into worship, there's a place where they can park with comfort and safety.

I want you to know that God sees you and God's gonna reward you.

I'm talking about the person that is on our that is on our worship team, and you get here early and you're practicing on songs when you're at home, learning lyrics and things that you've never even heard or seen before, but because you know there's an environment that we're trying to create so that when people walk through those doors, they can have an encounter with the living God.

And you're wondering to yourself, as I'm pouring out, is anyone ever gonna pour into me?

You're wondering if God is gonna refresh you.

But the Bible said that God refreshes those who refresh others.

God sees you and he's going to reward you.

I'm talking to the people that are constantly pouring out.

God sees you and he is going to reward you.

It's when we do it with the appropriate motive.

Understanding I'm taking the pressure off.

I'm not trying to get attention, I'm simply going to do my best to ensure that I'm doing this without an expectation of anyone doing it back.

It takes spiritual maturity to get to that place.

Here's the other thing that the Bible tells us about.

We need to drop the mic and pray with simplicity.

Pray with simplicity.

Jesus is making sure that we understand that prayer is when we commune with God.

It's a conversation, it's a place where we're able to express worship, it's a place where we're able to talk through our pain, it's a place where we can offer up requests before God.

But here's the unfortunate thing.

It's gotten deeply complicated.

My wife and I, we we love to meet with married couples.

And whenever we meet with a couple, and there's a place where there's a gap of spiritual leadership in the home, there's a gap of God's presence in the home.

And when we ultimately begin to unpack exactly what's going on in the home, I'm gonna say, okay, like, do you guys pray together?

It seems like 100% of the time it's we don't pray together because I don't feel equipped to pray.

I don't feel confident in prayer, I don't feel comfortable praying out loud.

Because we have this pressure that when we pray, we have to have it all together.

We have to have all the eloquent words, we have to be able to quote 28 scriptures, we have to have all these things in place.

So what ends up happening is the very simplicity of having a conversation with God becomes this complicated thing that we end up avoiding and trying to stay away from because we don't feel equipped to do it.

But what Jesus is saying, inside of the kingdom of God, there we all have access to the throne of grace.

We all have access to be able to call upon the name of the Lord.

You don't have to be a person who is qualified and has a degree in order to call upon the name of Jesus.

The Bible says all those who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved.

Not only a certain few, not only those who are degreed in it, but all who call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved.

Is that the reason why you think the enemy attacks us by making us feel that we're not adequate to pray?

Because he knows that when we begin to call upon the name of the Lord, that breakthrough and change happens.

I wonder if we can press through our discomfort and say, even though I may not have all the words, even though I may only know one scripture, I'm still gonna declare the name of Jesus over my home, I'm still gonna declare the name of Jesus over my family, I'm still gonna declare the name of Jesus over my life, and I'm gonna watch the kingdom of God flow through it.

I love what my good friend Dr.

Charlie Dawes says about the subject.

You guys remember Pastor Charlie Dawes?

He's leading the church up in Metro Church.

Yeah, six of us, cool.

Um, and that's including his family that's back there.

Um but here's what I love about Pastor Charlie.

He wrote this incredible book called Simple Prayer.

And I love what he says about this idea of prayer.

He says, simple prayer is a movement toward God and away from the distraction that keeps us at a distance from God.

Simple prayer focuses our attention on God and reminds us that our heart, not our vocabulary, is what God hears when we pray.

It's understanding that I don't have to have it all figured out, I don't have to have all the literature.

If I can just simply engage the presence of God, I can drop the mic, not worry about the performance, not worrying about the outcome, and I can be sensitive and allow God to speak.

This is why when Jesus provides the model of the Lord's Prayer, it is meant to encourage us because I love the opening line: our Father who art in heaven.

Let me tell you what that means.

Ultimately, what Jesus is saying is that God is your father.

Someone needs to be encouraged in knowing that.

So what that means that if God is your father, that means that he is intimately aware of where you are.

He knows exactly who you are and he knows what you're struggling with.

But not only is he next to you, but he's also in heaven.

The reason why there's an emphasis on where God is, it's letting us know that he's above our burdens, he's above our struggles, he can see everything from the bird's eye view, which means that if I can see everything at once, he can lead us to where he's calling us to go.

So when we simply say, Our Father who art in heaven, we are declaring that God is with me, but he's also above the situation I'm facing, and he is ordering my steps and leading me to a place of safety, hope, and breakthrough.

So when we pray, we understand that God is with me, but he's above my struggle.

God is with me, but he's above my addiction.

God is with me, and he's gonna lead me to a place of healing and restoration when we simply have this powerful moment of prayer, understanding that we're inviting the will and grace of God into our lives.

Here's the one thing that has helped me as I as I think about when I pray.

I don't pray exclusively to move the hand of God.

I pray to position myself under it.

If I can, if I can just pray enough that I can find myself positioned under the hand of God, it's in that place that I can say, Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

The Bible says that when Jesus uttered those words, it says that the angels came and strengthened him.

It was when he was at a place where he said, Okay, I would prefer not to die, but not my will, your will be done.

When we can get to a place in our walk with God where we're praying for outcomes, but at the end of the day, we say, But Lord, it's not my will, your will be done.

The Bible says that strength shows up.

And when strength shows up, that means that if I do get the breakthrough, your will be done.

If I don't get the breakthrough, your will be done.

That means that my strength is with me no matter what season I find myself in because I'm praying for the will of God to move in my move in my life.

So Jesus is telling us, man, I need you to drop the mic, drop all the performance, and I need you, I need you to pray.

I need you to pray with simplicity.

Here's here's the third one.

He says this I want you to drop the mic and fast with sincerity.

We're talking about spiritual discipline.

Fast with sincerity.

Let me let me help us to unpack real quick what we mean by fasting with sincerity.

A lot of people, fasting was like one of the deepest spiritual disciplines because that's a space where you're choosing to say no to food.

You're choosing to turn down something that we all know that we need in order for us to survive.

So when you say I'm fasting, that's a way of saying, okay, I'm gonna create space for God to fill it.

What was happening back in that culture though is that when they would fast, they would do it, and it was like a way to for them to show just how spiritual they were.

I'm fasting from that.

So look at how deep and oh, you're you're eating today?

Oh, I'm fasting.

Like it's it became this thing.

I'm sorry, I can't go to lunch with you.

I'm I'm fasting today.

Um I'm hearing from God, but you go ahead and enjoy your food.

Like it became this, it became this weird thing where people felt like, well, man, I don't fast as much as they like, I guess I'm not spiritual enough.

So Jesus is saying, like, I need you to do it with the right motives, I need you to have the right heart.

Fasting was meant to be a thing that we disconnected from the world so that we can have a space that God can speak to us and provide clarity and strength.

It was never meant to be like this stripe or this badge of honor that kind of exhibited how deeply spiritual you were.

And not to mention, even for the pagans, when they they would eat and indulge in all these things that were that were sacrificed to idols.

And so fasting was literally a statement and saying that the same things that feed the world, we don't need it.

This is a powerful thought.

The same things that bring the nutrients to the world, we don't need it.

We're choosing to disconnect from that and allowing God to be our source.

All of this is connected to us understanding that God is our source.

This is why when Jesus was making the statement that we're gonna shut this stuff down, what he was saying is, I'm drawing you back to what I did with the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness.

Because the Bible says that they didn't have all that fancy food.

All they had was manna.

But what the Bible says about manna is that the name literally means what is it?

That means that God would show up in such a way that they didn't even have the ability to define it.

And those are the manna moments that we all find ourselves in when I can create the space and say that I don't know where my next meal, I don't know what the next breakthrough is going to be, but God shows up in a way that I just didn't see it coming.

That's what God is saying.

I need you to recognize that I'm going to provide for you the daily bread, but I need you to I need you to do it with the right motive.

Here's here's the here's the here's the fourth and final one.

He says this, he said, I want you to drop the mic, and I need you to give with liberty.

I need you to give with liberty.

This is a this is a powerful one here because Jesus begins to talk about the importance of investing in things that have an internal impact.

And he begins to talk about making sure that we have the right perspective because we can't serve two masters.

Jesus connects all these thoughts together and saying, it's important for you to have the right perspective when it comes to resources.

It's important for you to understand that I am your provider, it's important for you to understand that I am the one who gives you the ability to get wealth.

It's important for you to understand that I work through you with your obedience.

What Jesus is simply communicating to us is that when we give, that we're supposed to give with freedom.

That removes the burden of well, what if I give and I don't I don't have enough back?

Here's the thing that I want us to understand here at our church.

When we give, it is not a transaction.

That when we give, it is not a donation.

That here at Celebration Church, giving is worship.

And when I can give, understanding that when I give it is worship, it takes the pressure off.

Because when I give a donation, whatever I give, I lost and I don't get it back.

Whenever it's a transaction, I give and I'm expecting something immediately back.

But when I give it as a sign of worship, the Bible says that God inhabits the worship of his people.

So that means that if I can just make the heart and mind shift in knowing that when I give to God as an act of worship, the Bible declares that God will show up.

And when God shows up, he provides more exceedingly abundantly, all that we can ask or think.

All the fear and the things that we thought of in the world that begin to disappear because it's not a transaction, it's worship.

And the Bible says, I have been young and I have been old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken.

If you can just get it in your heart and understand that I'm going to trust God because God is my source, I know what my bank account says, I know where things are right now, but I'm trusting God because God is my source.

It's not a transaction, it's not a donation, but it's worship.

And I haven't seen a single place where we've offered worship to God that his presence does not show up.

The enemy doesn't want us to recognize that our giving is worship.

He wants us to have a donation mentality or he wants us to have this transaction mentality, which then allows us to look at what we don't have and tells us that we can't do it.

But when it's worship, the Bible says, let everything that has breath, that means that whatever I have, I have the ability to invite God into it, and I can see a breakthrough as a result of it.

It's when we get to that place where we understand that it's that I'm giving with freedom, I'm removing the the burden and and the fears that go along with it.

Scripture tells us that where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

I want us to look at the sequence that whatever we invest in is the most important to us.

So so here's what I'm walking away with.

What you invest in invests in you.

And what invests in you shapes you.

There are seasons of my life where if I've invested in things that were all about me.

So those things invested in me and it began to shape the way that I see things.

Jesus is saying, I need you to have a healthy perspective of when it comes to your resources.

Because if you can have a healthy perspective, you can give with freedom and not worry about the other sides.

Let me let me tell you, I've seen so many people who are generous at heart, but when it comes to helping those who are broken and disenfranchised, their mentality is well, what brought you to the point that this is where you are?

What what happened to you that this is why you're at?

If you made some different decisions, then maybe you'll be further along in life.

That's logical, and that's certainly the way that a business person is supposed to think.

That's just not the economy of the kingdom.

You'd never see one single instance in the entire Bible where Jesus makes an emphasis on what that person did to get them in that position.

He heals them where they are.

The Bible says that when the disciples came across a blind man, they said to Jesus, Who sinned that this man is in this position?

He did something that got him in this place.

So, so Lord, what happened in his life that he's broken?

Jesus said, You're asking the wrong question.

It's not for you to even worry about that.

He's in this condition, and the glory of God is going to flow through him, and God healed him on a spot.

See, when we say we give with freedom, with liberty, that means that I have the ability to take the resources that God has blessed me with and to make the difference in somebody else's life without carrying the burden of how they got there.

The Holy Spirit's going to work through all that stuff.

We resource people, we instruct people, but the Holy Spirit leads people.

I want to close with this.

Because after Jesus does all these incredible teachings, it all lands at the foot of anxiety.

See, I think the thing that keeps people from being obedient to God is not rebellion, it's fear.

See, anxiety is the oxygen that allows fear to breathe in our lives.

To be anxious means to have a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

A clear description that I've heard for it was it means to be trapped in the future.

Your mind is just constantly processing and trapped in the future.

And because I'm so focused on the future, I can't be faithful in the present because I'm I'm trapped in the future and I can't get out of it.

It's to be at a place where I'm perpetually buffering.

I can't get a fresh download, I'm just at a spot where my connection isn't strong and it's just I'm just spinning and I'm not getting a breakthrough.

Here's what here's what Paul tells the Philippian church in chapter 4, verse 6.

He says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

First Peter 5 says it this way to cast all your anxieties, all those burdens and cares on him.

Proverbs 12, 25.

Anxiety is gonna weigh a man's heart down, but a good word lifts him up.

What the Bible is simply saying is there are gonna be things that step into our lives that will try to put the pressure on us that'll cause us to be filled with such anxiety that we're afraid to give, that we're afraid to serve, that we're afraid to move forward in our lives.

And what the Bible is saying is the Bible, like it's saying, move forward.

I don't want you to be fixated on those things.

God has given us grace to move forward.

If we can just walk in that freedom, we can see all that God truly does have for us.

I've seen this express itself in so many ways.

In fact, even with our dear friend who went to the singing competition, he came back two years later and he absolutely killed it.

When the judges said to him, Man, what did you do differently?

Did you go to vocal coaching, mentoring?

Did you travel?

What got you to a place that two years ago you completely bombed, but two years later you were amazing?

He said, I dropped the act and I picked up myself.

I stopped trying to speak and sing in a way to appease people, and I found that I can be better if I could just be myself.

You know what that means for us?

If we can just drop the act, if we can just drop the mic, stop the performance as it relates to our walk with God.

It is from that place that we can go further with the grace of God and the way that He's wired us than we ever could trying to do it in our own strength.

God is calling us to drop the mic so that we can pick up peace.

Let me pray for you.

God, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for your people, God, and I thank you for these messages, Lord, that that challenge us, that encourage us, but they lead us.

So, Father, I pray that if there's any areas of our lives, any burdens, any things that have us anxious and filled with fear and not thinking that we can serve and make a difference and not having the knowledge and understanding, Lord, that we are blessed where we are, God, and and and not knowing how to adequately disconnect, God, whatever those things are that we're walking through, Lord, I'm praying for a fresh grace to come and strengthen us in Jesus' name.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

For more information about Celebration Orlando or to get in touch with us, please visit celebrationorlando.org.