Shelby McGinnis - Expectations vs. Reality
How many of you are exactly where you thought you’d be in life when you were 16, dreaming about your future? Ever look around at your life and think, This is not at all what I imagined it would be? Yeah, me too. I’ve lived through some faith-shaking circumstances. You too? Okay, then we’re in good company.

Here’s a question to sit with for a minute:
Are you living the life God gave you—or grieving the life God gave someone else?

Sometimes we get caught up in the things we think we should have or should get to do. And when our expectations and our reality don’t line up, disappointment creeps in. The further apart they are, the more unhappy we become.

Nobody plans their life thinking, You know what sounds good? Two divorces, a random illness, and maybe throw in a fire or flood for good measure.

But if you looked at each year of your life—the good, the bad, the weird—you’d see things that didn’t go as planned. Some of them turned into funny stories or unexpected blessings. Others… still sting.

Not every unmet expectation is a bad thing. Some are grace in disguise.
But holding on to unrealistic expectations—whether we know it or not—sets us up for disappointment and frustration. We can become so consumed with what we hoped for, that we miss the beauty of what is. All we see is the lost job, the broken relationship, the unanswered prayer.

But Isaiah 26:3 gives us this promise:
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

That’s the key: Fix your focus.

When life doesn’t go as planned, how do you lean into God’s plan instead of away from it? This is not easy stuff, y’all. I’m not pretending it is.

In tough seasons, what are you focusing on? How awful things are—or how big your God is? Or maybe, like me, you’ve had some backyard moments, fist in the air, yelling at God. No judgment. I’ve been there too.

So, how do you embrace a reality you hate? It comes down to this: What do you believe? About yourself? About God? About your situation? Do you believe God loves you and wants what’s best for you?

Here’s the kicker:
Do you believe He knows better than you—or do you fight Him on it? Do you believe He is always with you?

Because what you believe will shape how you walk. Your beliefs are the stones beneath your feet. You must establish them before you take another step.

Ask yourself:
Am I in right standing with God in this season? Or am I stuck in a place of self-pity and unrealistic expectations?

Are you embracing His will and finding joy in His plan—even when it’s not the one you hoped for? I get it. This is hard. I’m a “dog with a bone” kind of girl—I don’t let go of things easily. But I remember a moment when Jesus asked me: Will you be faithful through this season? And I answered, “Where else would I go? There’s no other place I’d rather be than with You.”

Making that decision at the start of a storm sets the tone for how you walk through it. You stop wrestling against God and start walking with Him. And that changes everything.

Your circumstances do not get to dictate your faith or your joy. As mature believers, we learn to hold grief and joy at the same time. That’s called endurance.

EnduranceThe ability to withstand hardship or adversity.

Before Paul had a platform, God placed him in hardship. Imagine this: Saul—this notorious persecutor of Christians—becomes a believer. But instead of immediate applause and favor, he walks into rejection, suspicion, and suffering.

We like to read Paul’s story like a highlight reel: dramatic conversion, favor with God, writes half the New Testament. But between those milestones were years of discomfort. Years of staying when it was hard. Years of being misunderstood.

Paul had to endure the shame, the rejection, the doubts about his character. He had to stay long enough to learn the lessons God needed him to learn—so he could do the work he was called to do.

Hebrews 10:36 says,
You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

Endurance is part of the process.

Hebrews 12:12-13 adds,
So be made strong even in your weakness by lifting up your tired hands in prayer and worship. Strengthen your weak knees, for as you keep walking forward on God’s path, all your stumbling ways will be divinely healed.

If you’re expecting instant healing or overnight transformation—take a deep breath. God uses processes. He works over time to change our hearts and minds. But the darkness won’t last forever. Your heart will heal. Joy will return.

I’ve learned in painful seasons to ask God, “What are you doing?” He can handle that question.

Ask Him:
What are You growing in me? What are You redeeming? What are You preparing me for?

Understanding even a little bit of the “why” can help you keep moving forward.

Years ago, I had a friend who was planning her daughter’s wedding. She was excited, and I should’ve been too—but I wasn’t. I said something I regretted: “I probably won’t come.” I could see it hurt her.

Later that night, I felt God ask me: Why would you reject the little joys I send you? I realized I had to say out loud so my ears could hear my voice and heart-loud and clear. And in that quiet moment, through clenched teeth and bitter tears, I told Jesus: I trust You. I trust Your plan—even though I hate it.

And in that surrender, something shifted. I handed the reins back to God, and He began to move things into their rightful place. That’s where healing begins—when we stop clinging to our dream and start stepping into God’s reality. Because here’s the truth: People can’t take away what God gives you.

Paul’s calling didn’t depend on the Jewish leaders forgiving him. Yours doesn’t depend on others accepting or understanding you, either. God uses our experiences—even our suffering—to grow endurance, character, and hope.

Joel 2:25 says,
I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.

God promises to redeem what you’ve lost. I don’t know how He will do it. But I do know that He will.

Matthew 24:13 reminds us,
But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

When we cling too tightly to our own expectations, we become frustrated and bitter. But when we surrender our expectations to God—when we trust His timing and His purpose—we find peace. We find purpose. We find freedom.

So here’s the challenge for you this week:
Identify one area of your life where you’ve been holding on to your expectations tighter than you’ve been holding on to God. Maybe it’s a relationship. A dream. A plan that’s fallen apart. Take that expectation, lay it at the feet of Jesus, and ask Him to replace it with His will.

Let go of the need to control the outcome—and instead, lean into the faith that God’s plan is not only better, but far more beautiful than anything you could have imagined. Because when we stop living in our expectations, we start living in God’s reality—and that’s where transformation begins.

Edgar Vazquez - Changing Your Mindset

So I’m what you call a “church baby” in every sense of the term. I was raised in church. 5 out of the seven days of the week I spent in church. From the age of 1 till the time I was full grown adult I spent my time in one church.

I learned what leadership liked, I learned what to say and how to please them. I did what I had to do to check the boxes and make sure that they were happy with my actions and direction.

As I got older I started questioning certain aspects of my life and really started leaning into my relationship with God and not with leadership. Where I come from the highest authority was the pastor and nothing you could do could even come close to challenging him because we would be “disciplined.” Meaning we would be removed from wherever we were serving and would sit out until HE thought we were ready. There weren’t any talks or counseling or conversations on how to fix the issue, just don’t do it again.

Coming from that place of “work to please everyone” into a place where you’re not just filling a spot but actually working WITH your brothers and sisters was a huge culture shock. It forced me to rethink the way I did things in a way that it was a struggle to even convince myself that I should be doing this.

I stepped into praise and worship right out of the gate because it was something I knew and it was almost like “since I can do this I’m expected to do this” but that changed once I saw the heart behind the actions of those around me. It made me change my heart and my mindset. It’s made me rethink why I do this. It’s made me have those tough conversations that led me from leading worship to being the now youth director. It’s made me find accountability in my brothers and build on a relationship that wasn’t based on what I could do for them but on who I was to them. I’m valued and encouraged to be creative, to come to leadership and have those conversations and that has transitioned into my own family.

My mindset has had to change from “I have an obligation to do this” to “I have the privilege to do this.” I had to learn to trust in others and to not look for that rug to be pulled out from under me. I had to be willing to change my heart to be who God ultimately wants me to be.

That has made me want to be the person that I wanted someone to be for me. I want the next generation of worshipers and leaders to be the product of the leaders that came before me because of the mindset that I was able to change through them.

I had to learn that just because something was done a certain way that doesn’t mean that’s always the right way. I learned what a healthy relationship with God and others does. I got to see Gods heart firsthand with those who corrected me even when I didn’t want correction. I now see my own identity in Christ and not just who someone needed me to be in that moment. I had to learn to trust my leaders because they are more than that. They’re my friends and my now family.

If you’re having trouble changing from whatever mindset you come from to a healthy mindset, and you think your way is better, I’ll ask you what Jason asks me all the time. “How’s that working out for you?”

So here’s what it boils down to:
I had to be willing to let go of what I’d learned, realizing that letting that stuff go didn’t necessarily mean that the leaders before were intentionally malevolent, but that they simply didn’t know a better way. That means I am going to have to be willing to embrace a new way of thinking and doing things if I am going to make a positive impact on those around me.

Paul said it like this in Philippians 3:13
I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.

I had to be willing to trust godly people around me, realizing they actually want me to reach my potential in Jesus, not just to use me to get what they wanted out of me.

1 Corinthians 3:9 talks about being co-laborers with Christ. Knowing you are working with not working for helped me trust!

I had to be willing to embrace a new way of doing things, realizing that I not only had a lot to learn, but God wanted to reprogram my mindset with his truth, not someone else’s expectation.

Isaiah 55:8 talks about how God's ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. I needed to embrace God’s way of doing things and allow his truth to be what motivated me.

If you are having a hard time with some old mindsets, do what I did.
Be willing to let them go, be willing to trust godly people around you, and be willing to embrace how God does things.

Brandon Browning - Accountability or Else

The Webster’s dictionary defines accountability as the obligation or willingness to take responsibility for ones actions. That sounds so easy doesn’t it? I made a mistake or I fouled something up; I accept that and we move onward in life. But if it is so easy, then why are we so bad at it?

For most of my life I have grappled with this on my own but it wasn’t until about 4 years ago I realized that this was not a battle that was to be fought solo. My water pistol wasn’t going to extinguish the sin natures of my familial inheritance and fleshly tendencies. This part of life had to be fought with community

You have already heard today about shifting your mindsets and enduring in the of midst of realities not meeting expectations and, like many of you, I have come face to face with those situations as well.

What I have learned is how badly I need people in my life to aid and assist as my thought processes and habits change. And change can be a daunting thing if I am not prepared. The closer you grow to God the more of the nasty things you will begin to see in yourself.

The scriptures tell us that Christ is the light of the world.
John 8:12 NLT
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

What does a light do? It pierces darkness and illuminates what once could not be seen. When a light is turned on in a dark place you will see everything that was hidden. This is what happens when you decide to follow Jesus and forsake the world. The lust or habitual sin that once seemed normal now you feel dirty when you have that “thing” come up in your day. This process can lead to depression, anxiety, and sense of low self worth because “God! I am so messed up,”

I remember driving down the road talking with Tony and Matt about some things that I was noticing in my thought processes and where I used to not have conviction over those things I now was feeling condemnation. These guys lifted me up and made me realize that these were just growth opportunities that a light needed to be shined on so that I could make cognizant change in those areas.

This is where Godly accountability becomes the key to moving forward and closer to God after all Proverbs 27:17 says
“as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend”

The PEOPLE that you allow yourself to be accountable to CANNOT be just anyone. At the very least they have to have the 5… Who can help me recite this, because it has become engrained in the culture here at Freedom.
1. They know you
2. They Know God
3. They love you
4. They love God
5. They have your BEST interest in mind.

I have very specific individuals in my life that I can call, text, email, send a carrier pigeon to or whatever form of communication I can find and they Will Not Let Me Go Backwards.

These people will drop what they are doing and take away from their personal interests to help me stay accountable to Jesus and myself.

The key to having this level of Accountability, and the only way this works is, I have to be willing to be open and honest about what I'm struggling with. I have to open up and expose who I really am inside.

“But what if they think less of me?”
This is a risk that I have to be willing to take in order to leap from the precipice I am standing on and get to the next level of growth God has in store for me.

If I am going to refuse to let people see what's really going on, then I am not really willing to change my mindset or let go of my expectations.
I have to trust them and let them behind the curtain.

I have to be willing to open up my hands and loose my grip on the burdens I hold so tightly to so that the Godly people that I have in my life can help me shoulder the load.

Galatians 6:1-2
1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Accountability demands I open up, but it also demands the person I open up to has compassion and concern, that they are gentle and humble in how they respond. But I have to remember that a fellow Christian can’t help me carry a load I either won’t tell them about or one I won’t let them help me carry!

So how do you do this?

1. Find someone with the 5.
Remember, they won’t magically appear like a fairy godmother. You have to seek them out. Go to men’s group. Go to women’s. Start serving in church. Go to lunch or coffee with godly people. If you want accountability, you have to put yourself into environments where someone
with The 5 can be found.

2. Open up.
This can be so difficult, but the relief that comes with godly accountability has to outweigh the pain of your current lack of accountability. So pick your pain. Either problems in isolation or freedom in the open.

3. Stick with it.
There were times when I wanted to give up or stop trying, but you will find that godly people around you will wedge themselves against you so the only direction you can go is forward.

4. Don’t sabotage it.
The best way to destroy accountability is to lie. Lying reveals brokenness and a lack of identity in you. Don’t take the bait of lying to cover your brokenness. Why?

Numbers 32:23
If you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.

You want freedom? Then it’s Accountability or Else.

When I was first faced with godly accountability, I was promised that my willingness to be accountable to God and to the people that God has placed in my life could be the key that unlocks growth in my life that I could have never imagined or even dreamed of.

I was willing. I found people with the 5. I opened up. I stuck with it. I didn’t sabotage it. And the promise came true.

This just works. It worked for me. I want to see it work for you.

Mollee Barrett - Worship

Lots of us have grown up hearing the word worship and immediately thinking of “singing on Sunday morning.” But as we grow older, we learn that it’s a little more than that.

The Bible says that worship is the act of honoring and revering God, ascribing Him to the level of holiness that He deserves. With that definition alone, however, it becomes so easy to think of worshipping as a singular event that happens, and then we move on to other tasks.

Take Sunday morning as an example: “I visit with my people, I worship God, I learn about the Bible, then I eat boudin balls.”

I want to challenge you with the idea that every single one of those things can be an act of worship. (ok maybe not the boudin balls). That worship is not in words, but in actions.

It is so easy for me to say the words “God I honor and revere you. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords and my life is yours.” But when I say those words and I am not following them up with action, they become utterly meaningless.

The goal of all of this is to develop worship as a lifestyle and a heart position that is evident in everything that we do. So what should I do to worship God with my life? The very things that we talked about on this panel.

Edgar talked about abandoning the notion that what you think makes the most sense is what must be truth.
That’s worship.

It’s deciding that when I am financially drowning, but Jesus is Lord of my life, I will continue to give and trust that He’s going to take care of me.
That’s worship.

Shelby talked about letting go of expectations and BELIEVING that God’s way is better, even when it’s different or even opposite to ours.
That’s worship.

It’s feeling the pain and rage and heartbreak, and still believing that He is Good.
That’s worship.

Brandon talked about letting go of pride and embracing vulnerability.
That’s worship.

It’s reaching out to someone you just met and getting your sin out of the darkness and into the light.
That’s worship.

All of these things are worship because they reveal a heart that genuinely loves God and is striving, above all else, to be more like Christ.

This is how you worship from your heart. You declare these things to yourself day in and day out. You stumble, you fail, but you continue to pray “allow my thoughts to be full of your truth and not my own. Help me let go of my expectations. Hold me accountable so that I can get better.”

When we are striving to be more Christlike (not always succeeding, but always trying), from the inside out, we are living our lives in a posture of worship. When the Bible says that David was a man after God’s on heart in Acts 13:22, it doesn’t mean that David was perfect. It means he was living to pursue and honor God.

I know we don’t often see what we would consider “non-religious” things like we’ve talked about today as worship, but worship is for sure ascribing to God words that revere his character and nature, but just as much, this constant pursuit and honoring of God through our actions.

That’s why kindness is worship, doing a good job at your job is worship, being willing to let go is worship, receiving and not rejecting that correction. This is worship because it comes from a heart that is seeking after Jesus. It’s worship because it is ascribing to God who he is in those moments rather than making the situation, scenario, or even your emotions the idol.

Letting go of expectations, changing your mindset, embracing accountability, these can be tough. And you’ve been given practical steps today on how to do these things, along with real people who have had to walk down these roads.

But if you’re still having a hard time, let’s take our focus away from the struggle and bring our focus to Jesus.

We’re going to take time here at the end to simply worship him. So whatever help you’re needing to follow through with what God is asking you to do today as a response, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to help as we worship.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?