2026 Vision: Entering the Year of More | Pastors Keith Pittman, Nate Capshaw and Viny Costa

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Celebration Church Orlando, you guys doing good?

You guys doing good?

Welcome to Vision Sunday.

Okay, welcome to Vision Sunday.

There we go.

There we go.

I know for some of us that we may be grieving because today apparently there's a football game on today.

And the Eagles have been robbed of their opportunity to continue to defend their championship, but the Lord says that they will be back.

So for all of us, go ahead and embrace this moment.

But this is my least interested I've ever been in the Super Bowl ever.

And so um I don't care who wins.

It can go a tie as far as I'm concerned.

But I am so, so glad that you guys are here with us today and that you're managing to try to stay warm.

Um, God is faithful and he is absolutely with us.

And and what I'm excited about most is being able to share um a couple of things on a couple of fronts.

Today's a little bit different.

So if this is your first time here, welcome.

I'm so glad that you guys are here with us today.

Um I would love to connect with you at the connect tent at the end of service where we would just love to answer any questions that you may have about us as a church, as well as give you uh a free gift.

Just our way of thanking you for coming to worship with us today.

If you have any needs, whether it's care or prayer requests, just connect with us out at the Connect Tent.

You can scan the QR code as well, but that's a great way for us to just to link up, see how we can connect and support you and your family.

Um, but today is a day that's a little bit different than what a typical Sunday would look like for us, because today is Vision Sunday.

And what Vision Sunday really is, it's it's where we are able to get an image of what God is doing in our church and to share with you guys some things we're believing for our church while simultaneously being inspired about what God is doing in us individually.

So there's a couple of things that we want to tackle today.

But before we can jump into what Vision Sunday is and what God is doing in us, I want to first anchor us in what Vision Sunday is not.

Um, Vision Sunday is not a business presentation.

We're not doing a PowerPoint on uh on random initiatives with goals and things like that.

However, we do want to provide clarity on what we believe God is inviting us into.

Um, we also want to take a moment for us to anchor ourselves in the presence of God.

So Vision Sunday really is a holy day where it gives us an opportunity to look forward while simultaneously anchoring ourselves in what God has done in the past.

Um, I I want to look at a passage of scripture that I think can really be an encouragement for us that hopefully you can go back to, um, just for you and your family.

And it's found in with the Old Testament minor prophet Habakkuk in chapter 2, verses 2 through 3.

And this is what the word, the word of the Lord says to us.

Um, the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

For the vision awaits to its appointed time.

It hastens to the end, it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay.

This this powerful passage is something that many of us come back to when it speaks about the importance of having a clear vision, making sure that it's clear, write the vision, and making it plain.

Vision is not intended to be a vague feeling, vision is not a vibe, it's not an idea, but a vision provides clarity, it provides direction, but it also provides an anchor to ensure that we don't drift from what it is that God has speaking to us.

We believe that vision is meant to be carried.

And I would say for all of us as individuals, I know that every year for me personally, and then I've shared with our family, and then ultimately sometimes it comes into our church context.

But I truly believe that it's important for us to have a vision for our lives.

Many of us know what it's like when we're believing God for big things.

Maybe you have a vision to purchase a home.

But if you don't have a clear vision, it's hard to save if you don't have a vision that you are working towards.

Proverbs 29, 18 reinforces this truth.

It says, where there's no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint.

But blessed is he who keeps the law.

Again, we see this principle in scripture that that when there's no vision, the casting off of restraints is not that someone is evil, it just means that they start functioning without boundaries.

They begin to drift.

So for us, vision is discipleship.

Vision is what allows us to stay on course of what God has for us, or I would say it this way, vision is stewardship.

But one of the things that I think we can that we can make the mistake of is that we can be so forward-thinking that we forget the faithfulness of God in the past because all vision is typically anchored in who God is and what God has done.

And so I would be remiss if we don't take an opportunity to remember the faithfulness of God.

A big part of the messaging of the gospel is to remember, do this in remembrance from me.

Remember what I've done, remember what I've brought you through, remember the deliverance of the past.

In fact, what they would often say for the children of Israel, when they would go astray, it says that they forgot the Lord God Almighty.

They would forget the faithfulness of God.

So before we go into what we're believing God for this year, we want to remember the faithfulness of God last year.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Come on, come on, let's let's let's get into it.

Last year we kicked off our year with a with a subtle but really anchoring theme called Rooted and Rising.

And the idea was to be a year of stability, a year of planting seeds, a year of expecting to stabilize who we are as a church so that we can grow into who God was ultimately calling us to be.

Celebration Church Orlando was planted 11 years ago.

In fact, we're in our 12th year now.

We'll be celebrating our 12th um anniversary in September.

Um, but but 10 years, like the first 10 years, we were planted out of Jacksonville.

And while we were an autonomous church, we were under the umbrella and covering of Celebration Jacksonville, where our church was planted out of.

But in 2025, God had led us to become an independent location, which means we have our own governing board, we have our own elders, we have our own structure, our own 501c3 for those who are business oriented.

So that was our first year of us launching off into being an independent church, and God has been incredibly faithful over this past year.

Not only do we see the the growth of our church, but we've seen the stability in ways that we had not quite anticipated because we honestly didn't know what we were going to be walking into.

Worked a lot of hard work behind the scenes and getting things in order for us, our financial systems in order as an independent church, and God has blessed us tremendously.

Let me share a few of the things that we've seen God do um just in 2025.

In 2025, we watched 30 people get baptized, people who went into the waters in one way and they came up in the newness of life.

Those are people taking steps and saying that the life that I used to live is now I'm buried with Christ and I'm being risen in his power and in his glory.

That's a powerful moment for us as a church, but it's even more that we can celebrate.

We had we had 120 people that said that this was their first time coming to our church.

This is 120 people that that actually stopped at the connect tent, filled out the card, and said it's our first time here.

These are metrics that help us to know are we still reaching people?

Are people still finding us and our people still coming to the church?

So we saw 120 people stop at the connect tent.

Maybe you've been coming here for the past year and you didn't stop at the connect tent.

It is not too late.

You can stop at the connect tent at the end of this, and you will then be added to that number for this year.

So make sure you stop at the connect tent.

But but the beautiful thing is also we've seen that our attendance for the year for Celebration Orlando 2025 was 12,304 people came and engaged and worshiped God with us last year.

It was incredible, and that's where we can give God some some praise for that.

We had over 1,600 team members that signed up to serve.

We had 27 people that signed up to serve for the first time in 2025.

Come on.

We also saw um in CKids, 1,800 sea kids check-ins.

We we we had 1,800.

Come on.

We had we had 20 new families join our church and then child dedication, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks.

We had 19 families participate in child dedication just last year alone.

We also saw our engagement in community, which is a really huge value for us as a church.

We had 29 unique groups and 297 people participating in groups in life-on-life discipleship and connecting in community.

And then we also saw almost 70 people go through our discipleship classes.

We're talking about people going from being inspired on a Sunday to being formed on a Tuesday.

That is something we can give God some glory for.

But wait, there's more.

There's there's more.

We also saw a 15% increase in our giving in our church.

Come on.

And here's the one, here's the one that I love.

Nate's gonna talk about this a little bit more, but just last year alone in 2025, we raised an additional$380,000 towards our permanent location.

Come on, let's give God some praise for that.

And I could go on and on, my time is limited, but I just want to hit on a couple of these really quick.

We sent six missionaries to Haiti where we gave out 80 um hygiene kits.

We gave$40,000 to local and global missions.

We we we reached 20,000 people with our YouTube channel with six over 6,000 hours where we watched content.

We had 14,000 people download our podcasts and streams.

We had 447,000 people view our Instagram page, reaching over 42, 52,000 accounts.

This is all evidence of the faithfulness of God reaching people in the various areas of the world, and it couldn't happen without your faithfulness in God's presence.

So, can we give it up for the goodness of God and the participation of his people?

God is faithful and ours and he's alive in our church, but now we turn the page.

Because now as we enter into 2026, I believe that God is stirring us for more.

A couple of months ago, God led me to Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 20, and we just concluded our more than able series, but but that was meant to kind of set up for where we're going today.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

The word of the Lord says this to us now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think according to the power that works in us.

At one point I thought that that passage was just meant to be a personal devotion for me.

Because more often than not, when God speaks to me, it deals with me first, and then I ultimately share it with the staff, I share it with our elders, and then sometimes I can get a sense that this is for us as a community, but it always hits me first.

And I couldn't quite understand why I couldn't move on from this bumper sticker passage.

God is more than able.

We've seen it, we've named it, we've we declared it over our lives.

God is more than able, but I believe God began to challenge me in this area personally.

Because what Paul is helping us to understand is that God is not limited by any barriers that we can sometimes project onto him.

That God doesn't have a lid, but if we're not careful, our disappointment will put a lid on what we ask God for.

If we're not careful, our fear of an unanswered prayer will make us stop being expected of who God is and what he is willing to do in our lives.

But Paul brings us back to reality by saying that this is the power of God working through us.

It's not based on our own strength.

So as I began to wrestle with this a little bit more, I felt like God was speaking to me and saying, I need you to lead my people to let them know that I am a God who is more than able.

And this seems like such an entry point idea for those of us who are followers of Christ.

Like, yes, he can speak galaxies into existence, yes, he can breathe into inanimate objects and they become life, but but time after time, after after enough pain, after enough delays, after enough setbacks, we become, we begin to shrink back.

Our disappointment can cause us to shrink back, our our our pain can cause us to shrink back, but God is saying that I have more for you if you're willing to take the handcuffs off of me.

Something that challenges me when I read the Gospels is that there's a moment in Scripture where it says that because of their unbelief, Jesus could not perform miracles in certain towns.

It's not that he didn't want to do more, it's not that he wasn't present to do more, it was because people stopped believing he was capable of doing more.

So I began to examine my life.

What are the areas of my life that I've put handcuffs on Jesus?

Such a vivid image.

But we must remember that when Jesus was arrested, there's a subtle word in the text where it says, and they led Jesus away in handcuffs, which means that we can even put handcuffs on freedom if we are filled with fear.

So I believe God is challenging us as individuals and us as a church to take the handcuffs off of God.

Because the limitations have nothing to do with God's ability, it has everything to do with our expectations.

And so Paul is challenging us, and I'm calling us to be people that anchors ourselves in knowing that God is more than able.

He is more than able to save the people that we stop praying for.

He's more than able to heal the things that we've just learned to manage.

He is more than able to restore what we assumed was over.

He is more than able to do above all we can ask or think.

And this more than able of God is not a demand that we place on him, it's a declaration of who he is.

And this year as a church, we're believing that this is the year of more for us.

That God has more for you.

He has more for us as a church, and we're going to lean into it.

In just a few moments, Pastor Vinny and Pastor Nate are going to come and share some things and some initiatives and what we believe God is calling us to do.

But I want to start with the first portion of our vision, which is to reach the lost.

It's a critical component that Jesus shares with the disciples on the Great Commission when he says to them, Now I want you to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all the things that I taught you.

I need you to go.

I need you to reach people, I need you to do your part to ensure that people understand that I am for them and I want them to spend eternity with me.

And I believe that God is now saying to us that when you understand what hope is, we don't hoard it, we share it.

God is calling us to be a people who shares the faith in a way that brings about transformation.

Last year, when we were doing our end times series, something had shifted on the inside of me as I was preparing for it.

Because for the first time in a very long time, as I was reading and preparing for this, the reality that is so clear in front of us hit me a little bit differently, and it was this Jesus is coming back.

And I want us to I want us to hear that.

Not with fear, not with not with anxiousness.

I think sometimes when you we talk about the return of Christ, it can come across in a way that makes us all fearful and hopeful that we make it.

And did did I cross every T?

Did I dot every I?

Am I going to make it into it?

And that is not the message of the kingdom.

In fact, watch this.

As a follower of Christ, the return of Christ is good news.

As a follower of Christ, the return of Christ is good news.

As a follower of Christ, the return of Christ is good news.

That means he's bringing justice.

That means he's bringing holes, no more suffering.

That's good news for us.

But when I understand that Christ is returning, I also understand that our people who have not positioned themselves to receive his glory.

I see now when I look in the moments where Jesus literally weeps for his people, it's because they are sheep without a shepherd.

Scripture reminds us over and over again that it is not his will that any shall perish, but that all should come to repentance.

That should give birth to a holy urgency and a burden for us to ensure that we're doing everything we can do to invite people into relationship with Jesus.

And we're living in a cultural reality where people are confused.

We're living in a reality where people are suffering.

We're living in a reality where people are looking for hope because when they're looking out and trying to find God in the midst of their reality, they see things that go viral.

They go on social media and they see people who say that they're followers of Christ, but they made an idol out of their politics and they're confused.

They see inconsistencies and hypocrisy in our behavior, and people are confused and they're hurting, and it's causing people to drift away from God's beautiful, inclusive love.

And I believe that God is challenging us, He's leading us to make sure that what the revival that we're speaking about is not us doing four worship songs instead of three.

It's not us having an extended exhortation in the middle of our services, but the revival that we see in Scripture is people who are dormant and away from the things of God.

Faith isn't acted because people who love God are actually demonstrating the love of God.

And I believe that is what He is compelling us to do.

The data would suggest that in America there are so many people who are disenfranchised from the church.

And I believe that it requires us as followers of Christ to do some internal inventory to see the part that we can play.

And what I felt like God spoke to me last year was I have a heart for all people.

What are you doing to ensure that they know that I love them?

Because reaching the loss is not about winning an argument, it's not about trying to explain why they're wrong, but it's about allowing them to know that God will meet them where they are and walk alongside them so we can see the transformation in their life.

Because while there is so much confusion, people are still searching.

People are still looking for meaning, but they're sheep without a shepherd.

And I believe this is where we step in.

In these moments, we have to ask, will we retreat or will we reach?

As for this church, we're going to be a church that goes out of our way to reach people that are away from God.

We're going to make room for those who have not yet said yes to the gospel or even invite people who've drifted away to come back into the family.

So there's a couple of practical things that we're doing as we say this is the year of more and us reaching more people.

We're going to build a stronger invitation culture.

No pressure, no awkwardness, but we want to equip our community and us to be people that can be ambassadors of love, but simply do something that has been happening for centuries, and that is inviting people to come to church.

Data shows that many people don't go to church because they don't know where to go and they don't know anybody.

But can you imagine that if you began to look at your life as a genuine mission field, and that if you just began to invite people to church, what God can do with that?

And so we're going to share some more information with you on this, but a couple of things we're making available to you is we want to make sure that we give you digital invite cards that you can that you can text and send to friends.

It's already written for you.

It's super simple, but it's a great way for you, hey, come to church with me, sit with me this upcoming Sunday and be led by the Spirit on what that looks like.

Invite cards that you can have with you that you can give to people in your community.

I've I've literally watched as one man has changed the lives of his entire friend group just by being obedient to this.

The fire of God got on got a hold of him on the inside, and he would just, he couldn't contain the joy of the Lord.

He couldn't contain the transformation.

People literally saw he went from a space of depression and brokenness to being filled with joy, and they were like, Man, what's going on?

There's something about you.

And he's like, Man, I gotta tell you about this man named Jesus.

Hey, can I meet this man?

Jesus, yes, come and meet me on Sunday.

I would love to introduce you to him.

I know it may seem superficial, but I watched as he brought one friend and another friend and another friend filling up entire rows and watching his entire friend group get baptized, watching his entire friend group say yes to Jesus because one man decided to say, I have this joy on the inside of me and I refuse to keep it to myself.

I believe that God is challenging us to be people that share this same faith.

The second thing I want to share with us that we're doing is we recognize that there are over 254 million active social media accounts.

And most data says that the average adult in the US spends 18 hours on social media per week.

That's a lot of time.

If you if you happen to have an Apple device, maybe once a week you get that screen report that shows you just like it's very humbling.

It's always on Sundays, just when I'm about to get up and preach, it's like, man, you spent this much time.

I'm like, God, I gotta do better.

Like, it's very humbling to see how much time we can spend engaging, like, oh, I'm not even on social media like that, and then a report shows up.

And apparently we are.

But we spend that much time, and so we understand that for a lot of people, that digital space has now become our mission field.

So a couple things you're gonna see from us is that we're changing the way that we we title messages, we're we're framing things differently because we recognize there may be somebody who's who's scrolling through at 2.30 in the morning and just we have we have 30 seconds to capture their attention with a word of hope, with a word of love, and we're gonna be intentional because we don't believe that growth is something that happens by accident.

It requires us to be intentional with the things that we're sharing.

So we're gonna be engaging in the digital space in a way that's gonna be intentional in hopes of watching people's lives get transformed because you just be amazed at what a person who's just Lord, I don't even know if if there's any purpose of my life, I don't even know why I'm here, I'm not even sure if I'm in the right spot.

And then they randomly come across a message.

From the God, a message from the Holy Spirit that speaks exactly to where they are, that plants a seed that allows them to step into what God has next for them.

We want to be in the space.

So you're going to see us doing some intentional things in there to ensure that we reach people.

And then the third thing we're going to do is we're going to simply widen our local and global outreach.

Pastor Nate's going to come and talk about that in a few moments, but we truly believe that God is telling us that we need to have a deeper footprint in our community and beyond.

And we're going to be doing some incredible things to ensure that people know that there's a place for them here at Celebration Orlando because here's what we know.

When you truly have hope, you don't hoard it, you share it.

One of the things that I was thinking about, I'm going to ask Pastor Vinny to come up in just a moment.

But one of the things I was thinking about as I was considering like, what am I believing God for for our church?

And not trying to get to a space where I'm setting numerical goals.

I came from the business and corporate world, and I've even seen numerical goals even in a church context, where we're saying, like, hey, we're believing God for a blank amount of baptism.

We're believing God for this.

And I believe those things.

And so for me, I also want to fall short of setting goals because if I can be honest with you, I've seen people manufacture those results.

Like, hey, we're believing God for 50 baptisms.

47 people got baptized.

Hey, you three, jump in the pool so we can say we got 50.

Like, we're not gonna be that church.

We got people getting baptized again and again and again so we can meet a metric.

And I'm like, yeah, we're not doing that.

But I also know that this is a year of more.

So so last year, we saw 61 people say yes to Jesus.

61 people.

Come on, we can give it up for that.

61 people.

And I'm like, this that's amazing.

So I looked at that and I was like, okay, Lord, like, I don't wanna, I don't wanna put you in a box, I don't want to put a limit on you, but but you said that this this is a year of more, so I'm believing that we're gonna see more than 61.

So God, I'm believing you're gonna give us a double portion.

I'm believing that you're gonna give us 120 decisions for Christ in 2026.

Come on, we can celebrate them.

And then, last night I'm going through our church metrics and I look in my city.

Since January up until this very moment, we've already had 129 people say yes to Jesus.

129 verses 61 last year, and we're not even through the first quarter yet.

This is what a God of more looks like.

He wants to do above and beyond all we can ask or think.

So I'm taking the limb of God.

I don't know what you're gonna do, but I'm expecting that you're gonna do amazing things in our church because we're faithful, we're rooted and rising, and we're filled with expectation.

So, with that being said, we know that that's only a part of the equation.

Not only do we want to reach people, but we know it's important for people to actually be equipped and disciple.

So I'm gonna invite my good friend Pastor Vinny to come up and share what it looks like when we reach people, but what does it look like when we equip them?

Give it up for Pastor Vinny as he comes.

All right, good morning, church.

Well, I'll be honest with you.

Out of my zeal, out of my fear of God, I wrote everything I wanted to share.

And at the at the 9 a.m.

service, I pretty much read everything, but I decided to do something different for this service.

I'm I'm going to share my heart, not my notes.

Is that okay?

So you're gonna get my heart and my rusty English all together.

So bear with me uh as we're doing this together.

As we read our Bibles, we see that Jesus gathers his disciples, and right before ascending, he says, Hey, I give you guys all authority, so I want you guys to go, go and preach, go and share the good news.

What Jesus was saying to them and to us is I want you guys to go and reach the lost.

But Jesus did not stop there.

He also said, I want you guys to make disciples.

Jesus is saying, I want you guys to reach the lost, but I also want you guys to equip the found.

Yeah, we reach 129 people in 2026, but who is going to disciple them?

It's not about investing, it's not only about investing money, sending out missionaries to reach people.

It's not only about inviting someone to church.

We all need to do that, but it's also about equipping them, discipling them.

And that's why we're here.

Reaching the lost, reaching someone is not the finish line, it's the beginning of a journey.

We see that Jesus did not only call us to make decisions, he called us to make disciples.

And that's why we're here.

A couple of years ago, Pastor Keith shared with uh staff that he wanted us as a church to invest more in discipleship.

And to be honest with you, I think we did a great job.

We launched our discipleship one class and then we launched our discipleship two class, and lots of us have been blessed by those uh classes.

But I truly believe that this is the year of more.

And discipleship, it's not only a class.

Discipleship is not only about teaching, discipleship is uh is about living life together.

So when we talk about equipped the found here in 2026, and when we think through the lenses of more, we don't want discipleship to be connected only with teaching.

We don't want discipleship to be connected only with learning something.

Because can I be honest with you?

You can go online and you can watch a service.

You can watch Bishop T.D.

Jakes preaching every Sunday if you want, you can read the best books ever, and all of these are good stuff, but none of this replace the holy work of walking with somebody, and that's discipleship right there.

It's not only about teaching, it's about establishing a culture in our church.

So we're not putting in front of you one more class, we're not putting in front of you one more way to grow in your faith, even though again this is all good stuff.

What we're putting in front of you as far as equipping the found in a year of more of more is establishing a discipleship department here in our church, and we believe that this is going to be a blessing for all of us.

You would ask me, Vinny, what discipleship is.

I will tell you.

Well, let's go back to the Bible and let's check Acts chapter 2 around verse 40.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Bible says that the people they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayers, and the Bible says all believers were together.

That's discipleship.

Notice teaching, the apostles' teaching is part of it.

But sometimes we get stuck right there.

What about fellowship?

What about breaking the bread together?

What about praying together?

What about all believers were together?

You see, discipleship is not a class, discipleship is a lifestyle, is living with somebody.

Is when you are brave enough because you love God and you love me to encourage me, to exhort me, to uh share with me to tell, hey Vinnie, let me tell you something.

Can we pray together about this?

This is discipleship.

Is when I reach out to you in the middle of the week on a Wednesday to tell you, can we pray together about this?

How are you doing?

How can I pray for you?

This is way more than this, this is way more the biblical discipleship than sitting in your seat and let's open our Bibles and let me teach you something for two hours.

Are you guys here with me?

Do you understand that?

So, what we are proposing is not one more class, it's a culture of discipleship.

As God brings people, that's God's responsibility.

Of course, we're gonna do our our part, we're gonna invite, we're gonna give their card, but God will bring them.

Now, who is going to disciple them?

That's us.

When we talk about discipleship, we need to understand that nobody graduates from it.

You don't get to a point in your life that you say, you know what, I don't need this anymore.

I'm good.

I am a semi-God that doesn't exist.

We all need discipleship because when I tell you this, we all need discipleship.

I'm telling you, I need you and you need me.

We're doing this together.

This is what the church is about.

Worshiping God together.

Let me share something controversial with you.

I apologize in advance.

But I heard somebody saying the other day, I go to church to find God, and I was like, this is so wrong.

I don't go to church to find God.

Actually, God is with me as I go to church.

He's with He's with me every single day.

I go to church to meet you, and together we worship God and receive from God.

So you are part of the equation.

We're trying to establish a culture of discipleship.

It's for everybody.

But we also need to understand that we have different journeys.

We have people here that are they're just visiting, they accept Jesus already, but they are trying to figure out if this is the right church for them.

We have people here that never accept Jesus.

We have here that people here that have relationship with Jesus for 12 years, but they still they still don't connect with people here in this church.

So we when we talk about discipleship, we're talking about living life together that points to Jesus.

And because of that, I would love to present to you our first initiative, uh, and he equipped the found arm, which is our pathway.

We want to present a clear discipleship pathway so you know what's your next step.

And I'm going to break this down in a second, but of course, we have our first connection, we have follow-up and essentials program that I'm really excited to share with you about.

Baptism serving, building community, growth, development.

This is just a way to put in front of you so you can identify where you are, and you know, okay, my next step in discipleship, but not only discipleship, relational discipleship is growth.

It's building community.

Now, this is very important.

This is not a rigid formula.

We're not we're not telling you to follow every single step as it is.

It's very possible that somebody join a group before getting baptized.

It's very possible that somebody uh it's serving before uh going through the essentials program.

This is not rigid formula, this is just a way for us to help you identify where you are, and as a church, we're going to help you to take your next step towards what God has for you.

We don't want to encapsulate the Holy Spirit, we don't want to box in your journey, we want to present you clear next steps.

So far, so good?

All right, I'd only I only have three minutes, so let let me try to do this.

Um when we talk about step one, first connection, this is for visitors or not.

Maybe it's it's you who have attended our church for a couple of months, and we all we always say, hey, stop at the connect tent, grab a connect card, because that will give us everything we need to initiate a relational discipleship with you.

Right now, when somebody stops by and fill out a connect card, Lizzie reach out to them during the week.

Every single week we have people filling out connect cards, and every single week they get emails from us.

But right now, the way we operate right now is our the emails we send, it's very it's it's all about information.

It's all about who we are as a church, and this is good.

But right, what we want to do it's on step two, it's follow up with an email information, but more than that.

We want to invite them to take part in our essentials program.

Vinny, what is that?

Well, imagine somebody visiting our church or you who have attended but has no relationship.

You don't need more information.

Do you know your what you need?

Relationship.

The essential program will help to build a bridge right there.

We're going to pair you with a guide, and you are going to live life with them for four weeks.

You are going to establish relationships.

You guys are going to pray together.

You guys are going to talk about essentials of our faith, essentials of our spiritual disciplines, essentials of our church, essentials of next step.

It's a great way for you to connect with somebody, to know somebody, to have somebody to pray with you, to share life with you.

So we're not giving you only information, we're giving you an opportunity to connect.

This is our essentials program, and we are very excited about it.

We are going to pilot this in March, and after Easter, we're going to launch to the entire church, and we believe this is going to be revolutionary.

We already have five guides that are being trained right now to be able to be the bridge and and and to close the gap of relationships.

Are you guys here with me?

After the Essentials program, we would love to encourage people to getting baptized or to serve.

We have multiple um teams here that are ready to serve God alongside you and to establish the kingdom of God with you.

On step four, um, we have building community, and that's pretty much groups.

So think with me, you had our first contact, you met somebody through the essentials program, you got baptized, you are serving now in your team, but now it's time for you to get more connections in the church.

Groups, when you join a group, is where you stop looking at church through the lenses of I'm going to something, and you start looking at church more like a place I belong.

Does that make sense?

So, groups is where you build your community.

It's amazing because we launched groups two weeks ago and we announced here in this platform for two weeks, and 170 people from celebration joined a group.

And this is incredible.

This is a great way to equip the found.

And this is available for you.

On step five, it's time for you to grow in your faith.

Now that you have connections, now that you are serving, now that you know people, now that you are walking with people, it's time for you to grow.

Um, and we had our discipleship one and discipleship two classes um that were designed to do that, and we're changing the names instead of discipleship one and two.

Now we're calling it Foundations One, Foundations 2, since discipleship now is a department, not only a class.

But I'm glad to announce to you that in the fall we're going to launch our third class, which is our freedom class.

And I know that lots of you have asked this question, hey, when it's happening.

So I'm telling you, it is happening.

We are writing the curriculum just for our church, and we believe it will be a place for healing, wholeness, and for you to meet God in a different level.

And last thing, step six, now that you connected with somebody, now that you're serving, you got baptized, you have community, you grew in your faith, it's time for you to pour out into others.

And to be honest with you, I don't think we have done a good job at this as a church.

We're always trying to meet a need.

Hey, we need group leaders.

Hey, we need such and such, but we and uh this is me be uh being honest with you, we don't spend time developing people to get there.

Step six will be when we sit together and we develop you to bless others, so you can be a better group leader, so you can be a teacher and teach freedom class, so you can be a guide in the essentials program.

It's time for you to bless others.

As you can see, discipleship is about multiplication, and we are here to do that.

Amen.

So, to summarize all of this, four initiatives under the equip uh the found, the pathway, we're going to implement this as soon as possible so people have clarity what's their next step.

Essentials program, we're launching this um after Easter.

If you want to know more about this, and if you want to be a guide, please let me know.

Freedom Class, it's happening this fall, and development program program, it's we're launching uh next winter.

The last thing I want to share with you is that if you want to know more about all of this, if this is burning in your heart, if you are like, yes! That's exactly what I was looking for, and you want to know more about it, if you are ready to reach the lost but also equip the found, it's not one thing or the other.

I would ask you to scan that QR code.

That will lead you to a small, quick form.

Um, and I will reach out to you with more information, next steps, all of this.

A healthy church to produce healthy disciples.

And that's what we want to do here.

So you think this is good?

Is this a blessing for our church?

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, we're here to reach the lost to equip the found, but not only that, we're here to also help the herding.

What?

Help the herding.

Help who the hurting.

Pastor Nate, would you would you mind?

Forgot my hand warmers in the car.

Bad mistake.

One of Jesus' primary focus was to make sure that he paid attention to people who were on the outskirts, to people maybe on the fringe of society, uh the despondent, the deject, the dejected, um, one of Jesus' primary focuses was to help the hurting.

And so, as the body of Jesus Christ, it's our job to imitate that part of his ministry as well.

And uh can I just say for you, if you're watching online, if you're in the seats, if there's ever a moment throughout this year where you are hurting, whether you are hurting spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, there is a temptation to isolate.

There's a temptation not to show up, there's a temptation not to let anybody know.

And that's the worst thing that you can do.

Sunday morning, a group text, reaching out via the app, whatever it may be, let us know.

And not just us as a staff, there are people here who are who are wanting to care for you, care partners, elders, all the above.

Can we just show up and let it let somebody know, hey, I'm hurting.

I need help, and I need the love of God to invade my life.

Amen.

We have two primary expressions of helping the hurting here at Celebration Church Orlando.

One is more inward focus, it's more church focused, and that's our care ministry.

Uh, like I mentioned, this is our care partners, this is our pastors.

They are there for you in the highs and lows of life.

They are there for you when you're ready to get married and to go through marriage counseling.

They're ready, they're there for you when you're having a rocky marriage and you need coaching.

They're there for you whenever you need pastoral guidance or biblical guidance, when you need prayer.

Our pastors and care partners are there whenever you're experiencing grief, immeasurable grief, and you need help walking through the loss of a loved one, or perhaps facilitating a funeral, something that you never wanted to do.

Our benevolence program is there when you're facing uh hardship in your life, financial hardship that uh seems to come out of left field.

Uh a more of an outward focus of our Help the Hurting uh vision of our church is our local and global missions.

And we'll start globally here first.

A primary partner of ours is a family church in Celebration Zimbabwe, Africa.

And what you need to know about Zimbabwe is it is predominantly unemployed and impoverished.

And so uh Celebration Church has planted over 30 campuses in Zimbabwe, Africa.

And these aren't just walls and gatherings, these are beacons of hope, these are places for people to come in, these are outposts of Jesus' love and care.

And we have a great testimony from uh one of our campus pastors over in Zimbabwe about something that uh Celebration Church Orlando was able to contribute to.

So go ahead and turn your attention to the screen for that.

Greetings, I'm Pastor Alfred Jujia from Celebration Church in Zimbabwe.

I just wanted to thank Pastor King and Pastor Legend and the World of Celebration Orlando for being part of what we're doing here.

Uh, what they gave us managed to be part of uh the material and everything that we managed to put up here as we construct this quantity.

The work is still there, but we're so grateful for the partnership.

Thank you, thank you once again to Pastor Give and Pastor Big and the World of Celebration Church Orlando.

Thank you.

We can give God a little bit of praise for that.

A portion, a portion of our giving uh goes monthly to celebration Zimbabwe, and that may be just a practical need of helping to provide materials, but again, it's serving a very real purpose to help those who uh need to hear the good news about Jesus but also need real, uh have real needs that need to be met.

And inclusive of that.

We are also partnered with Celebrations Zimbabwe to help feed over 65,000 children a day in the local school system.

So we can praise God for that as well.

And then our local missions, we get the opportunity to link arms with some great organizations here in our city, organizations like Fresh Start, who helped gentlemen overcome addiction.

And what the young man that Pastor Keith uh just shared about in the Reach the Lost portion, the person that he invited to church uh not only gave his life to Christ, but his dad just graduated from Fresh Start this last Tuesday, and he was here at our 1030 9 a.m.

service this morning.

Young Lives going into the public school system and looking after teen moms, people who are often uh stigmatized or people who are labeled and uh overlooked.

And so Young Lives goes in there and they say, you know what, you're created in the image of God.

Your child is created in the image of God, and he has a plan and purpose for both you and your child's life, and we're gonna walk alongside and disciple you as well.

Our friends over at iDignity, whose mission is to help restore dignity to their clients who maybe have lost or had their ID stolen, and it's really hard to take a next step in life without your ID.

And so they provide a free service for their clients to be able to acquire their government-issued ID in order to get housing or find a job.

And then uh last but certainly not least, uh, our good friends, our longtime partners at Orlando Children's Troop who bus in children every single Saturday to share love and hope with them and uh to provide them with a safe place where they can encounter Jesus and encounter the love of volunteers, which of whom uh we do have on a weekly basis there.

So these are just a few of the ways in which we're already doing this.

And you know, helping the hurting is a unique vision of our church, it's a unique area of our church because care is primarily responsive.

So it's a little bit difficult to maybe establish quantifiable goals on how we want to care.

Well, we want to, you know, help this many broken marriages.

Well, we don't want any broken marriages, right?

We want healing and wholeness throughout our church, but we understand that until the return of Christ, there is suffering and there is hurting.

And so the way that we can support is we can make sure that we undergird these resources these initiatives with resources to maintain sustainability throughout the year.

And so in 2026, we want to increase our benevolence support by 38% from 2025, and we want to increase our local and global mission support by 19% from 2025.

And let me be clear from this this is all because we together, all hands come, and we're faithful in our giving.

We're faithful to put God first in the tithe.

This isn't some extra fun, this is something that comes directly from our tithe.

So when you give, you are not only having an impact here locally, but you're having an impact in another continent, and that is an honor to be a part of.

You know, the ability to bless others and organizations is because of the tithe, and we're thankful to do that.

We're thankful to link arms with it, but um, we believe God has more.

We believe God has more specifically for our house.

We believe he has unique callings and ministries for us right here at Celebration Orlando.

But we also know uh that we need a stable base of operations in order to do that well.

And so if you've been around the church for any amount of time, you know that we're in a campaign right now to raise money to be able to find a facility here in Orlando, a single-purpose facility where we can host people who are hurting.

You know, Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan have a heart for uh mental health counseling, and we want to be able to provide that service, a ministry here at Celebration Church Orlando.

We need a base of operations to do that.

Pastor Keith has even talked about a food pantry and essentials uh items that we can collect and house here for people who just need to come in and have uh everyday essential needs met.

We're thankful for the Orlando Museum of Art.

We're thankful for our offices at Downtown Baptist, but we believe that God has more.

Amen.

And so as we continue to raise funds for this, we're gonna we're gonna give it a little shot in the arm, if you will.

We're gonna give a little bit of boost to what we're doing right now.

We're currently raising or we're currently giving about nine to ten thousand dollars a month for our building, which is amazing.

But and over the next 140 days, we want to raise$140,000 in order to get to 60% of our$2 million goal, bringing us to$1.2 million.

Okay?

Deep breath.

We can all do this if we do it all hands, all in, okay?

And so the best way that we're gonna be able to track this is there's gonna be a registration link in the app.

So if you want to go ahead and pull out uh your church center app, if you have that, uh you can pull that out now.

And on the front page, you're gonna see Vision 2026, year of more, and in there you'll be able to click and uh identify a pledge profile that you want to give towards over the next 140 days.

This ranges everywhere from$200 to$20,000, and then your pledge is gonna be entered into your giving profile, and you'll be able to track that.

You're not only gonna be able to see what your giving is over the next three plus months, but you're also gonna be able to see the churches at large and how we're tracking towards the goal.

Uh let me say this.

The priority, however, is the tithe.

If if you are a member of this family, if you consider celebration church your home and you're not tithing, uh today is a day that I would ask you to seek the Lord on how he would have you take a next step in that.

But if you are a member of this family and you are currently tithing regularly, we all want to join in all hands together and pledge to make the 140k in 140 days.

We can do this, church.

We can do this, church.

Um, another initiative that we're launching today in terms of the building is a little bit of data cleanup.

Who doesn't love a little bit of data cleanup?

I do.

I'm weird like that.

But this is huge because it allows us to properly uh identify who makes up our church more than just the eye test.

Okay, so uh if you have registered for an event, if you have joined a group, if you have given, if you have checked in a child, you have a church center account, whether you know it or not.

And so the first thing to do is to make sure you have the church center app, and then you can go into the church center app.

Are we live?

Live and five.

We're live.

We can go onto the church center app and update your household profile.

Up at the top left, uh, this is Mr.

Celebration Admin, and uh Mr.

Celebration Admin needs to update his profile.

But what we're really looking for uh mainly is as much information as you're comfortable in giving.

When it comes to um your location, if you're not wanting to necessarily give, hey, I don't want to give out my street address, I don't want people showing at my house.

First of all, we don't do that.

Uh but second of all, we would at least ask that you would provide your uh zip code because that's gonna help us identify where the majority of our church lives within the city so that when we create heat maps we're and looking for facilities, we're not going, well, uh, I think this is a good place, and everybody actually lives in Dr.

Phillips, which not everybody lives in Dr.

Phillips, right?

Okay, good.

I know some people do, but not everybody, and that's okay.

If if you did, we would reconsider where we want to have a church there.

Um but the other thing that I would be asked that you would do is to make sure that your household information is correct.

So if you have adults and children that you're not seeing here, uh chances are they are in the database, they're just not in the household.

Okay, so if you're not seeing your significant other, uh, your spouse on your household, just shoot us an email.

There's a contact button right at the bottom there, and just let us know hey, could you merge this person into my household?

Also, birthdays and grades for your children, all those things are super important, and they help us better plan and better execute and better ideate on what ministries we need to do moving forward in order to care for our church.

Is that making sense to everybody?

Are you willing to update your profile for us?

Okay, great.

Um, if not, you'll hear from me.

Um I want to read Psalm 127.1.

And if you've been around for our campaign, you know that this is the theme scripture.

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.

Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.

It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat, for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Now, uh I will admit that I've read Psalm 127.1 a lot since we launched this campaign, but sadly have not ventured down into verse number two until recently.

And verse number two challenged me.

Verse number two challenged me because if I can be honest with you, the search for the building is probably the thing in my job description that gives me the most anxiety.

Um I feel there's a lot writing on this.

But what Psalm 127.2 tells me is that the Lord provides rest because the Lord is the one who builds the house.

I am the one who is supposed to do the work.

I'm supposed to reach out to realtors, I'm supposed to help us raise the funds, I'm supposed to try and make the best connections in the city that I possibly can.

But God's gonna get the glory for this, not me.

God's gonna get the glory for this, not Celebration Church, and it's gonna be in his timing, in his place, and in his region.

Amen?

But we are gonna do our part.

Uh as we recognize God as our provider, we're gonna go into a moment of giving like we do uh each and every week.

And during this time of giving, I just want to encourage you, uh, if this is your home and uh you have not begun to tithe, to just pray and ask God uh to soften your heart uh so that you can take that next step.

Uh if this is your home and you have begun to tithe, uh just know that your tithe is going to um kingdom work right here in the city and around the world.

And uh we would just ask that you would consider what God would have you give over the next 140 days.

You know, even$200 uh is nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

Uh but over a three-plus month period it's about sixty dollars a month.

And so uh just asking God to provide for us so that we can uh get to sixty percent of that goal.

And then if you just would just join me in prayer as we pray for our pray for our new home.

Pray for God to continue to use us and pray for God to continue to make uh connections for us as we do our best uh to serve the city and to serve our world.

Amen.

Everything that that we talked about today, whether it be me or Pastor Keith or or Pastor Vinny, uh most of that information is in the Church Center app, right there on the homepage, uh under the Year of More button.

Uh but as we go into this time of giving, will you pray with me, please?

Dear Lord, um, you're so good to us, God.

And you invite us to be a part of the work that is sacred and holy, and we each get to link arms and do this all for your glory, God.

And so you we ask that you would continue to remind us that even in the nuts and bolts and the mechanics of everything, Lord, uh, we want to make sure that your name is glorified, and we want to make sure that people are reached, we want to make sure that uh people are equipped, and we want to make sure that people are helped.

And so, God, would you continue just to give us the opportunities to step into that?

We pray, God, as we uh take this time to give, as we take this time to pray, as we take this time to even invite you into areas of our lives where you're not there yet, um, that you would speak to us, Lord, and that you would uh nudge us uh to take the next step that is required of us and our families.

God, we give you praise and glory.

It's in Jesus' name.

And the church said, Amen.

But hopefully it's also a source of inspiration for us.

But just as a reminder, and Pastor Nate alluded to this, all of the things that we shared today, um, it's available on our our Church Center app.

And so if you if you go to the Church Center app, you'll see the section there that says Vision Sunday, the year of more.

You when you click on that, you'll see the opportunity for you to save the picture and send it as an invite.

We actually have sample text there that you can send it to your family and friends.

If you're interested in the discipleship arm and and what Pastor Vinny was describing of the guides, the people that are gonna help connect folks, almost serving as like a concierge.

I don't want to make it sound like a business, but someone who can literally walk with people through it and you're you're interested in that, we would love to hear from you.

Our missions page that Pastor Nate just brilliantly uh expounded on.

Um, we have all of these things that are laid out for us as well as the pledge to give, but but also at the bottom of that same spot, you'll also see where you can learn more about our belief and our permanent location, and that's where you're gonna see like the details, the nitty-gritty, the size of the building we're believing God for, some frequently asked questions that maybe you can engage in ways that you can participate beyond just financially, but also with your heart.

So I believe all of us has a step that we can take.

And so as we close, I just simply want to share this.

Um I believe we all have a next step, and and I believe that there's not only is this for us as a church, but I also believe that this is a truth for us individually.

You know, and in Joshua chapter 3, um, the children of Israel are at a threshold moment of their journey.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Um the Bible says, in fact, in Joshua chapter 3, verse number 4, it says that Joshua was speaking to the children of Israel, and he says to them, Consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow God is going to do an incredible work amongst us.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

The reason why this is so significant is because for the children of Israel, for for the past 40 plus years, they've been wandering in the wilderness.

40 plus years they've been waiting for them to get to the land of milk and honey, what we would refer to as the promised land.

For 40 years, this has been a part of the reality.

For 40 years, the land of milk and honey, it was their vision, it was the idea, it was the thing that kept them moving forward, even in the face of their opposition.

We all probably know what it feels like to be believing God for something, and it seems like it's something that's in the distant future.

But but then Joshua comes to them and says, like, hey, the thing that you have been believing God for is actually here now.

Consecrate yourself, prepare yourself because tomorrow God is going to do something powerful amongst us.

And I believe that for some of us, there are things that we've been circling for years, but God is saying it's time to consecrate yourself because this is the year of more for you.

There are things you've been believing God for for years, and you've been walking in the wilderness, hoping that one day it'll be there, and that vision of one day we'll get our home, one day we'll get our breakthrough, one day we'll get there.

But I believe that God is saying, but consecrate yourself today because I'm going to do an incredible thing in you tomorrow.

More is here now.

And I can only imagine for some of us when you've been, your identity has been attached to what you used to do.

Your identity is attached to the wilderness, but then God is saying, But more is here and more is now, and it requires us to make an adjustment.

For the children of Israel, they they had to step into the Jordan River, the same Jordan River that Jesus would eventually be baptized in.

And what's so significant about this is that the Jordan River, similar to the Red Sea, was the barrier between them and the promise.

And God issued this profound word of saying that you're about to enter into this vision that I have for you, but it's only when you step into it will you see the clarity and the path that I have for you.

You have to take your next step.

And the priest went first.

Now we are now knowing that the priest is not a delegated group of people, but but Peter tells us that we're all kings and priests, we're part of a royal priesthood.

That means those who carry the presence of God, we are now the temples of God.

That means that as we as the royal priests of God step into those waters, that the path will be made clear because more is here.

More is now.

There's things prophetically, I believe, that you've been circling that God is saying it's time for you to step into it.

Don't talk yourself out of the very thing that God has called you into.

More is here.

More for your family, more, more for your community, more for your children, more for all that God has, more of God's presence, more of his power, more is here.

I remember many years ago when my son was about 10 years old and we went to a birthday party.

Keith Jr.

was about 10, De Niro was seven, and and and Caleb was just an infant at the time.

But I remember we went to this birthday party and and we didn't get enough to eat.

And so Keith Jr.

was like, Dad, I want some more.

And I said, Well, son, there's not enough for everybody.

You're gonna have to wait.

And so the entire day he kept saying, But when am I gonna eat?

When am I gonna get my more?

I said, more's coming later when we finally got home and and and I ordered the pizza and it came.

I remember I told him, I said, Hey son, the pizza's here.

You can go and wash your hands and then you can come and eat.

Go and prepare yourself and then you can eat.

And I remember this was over 30 years ago that he said these words.

He said, Finally, more is here.

He was so excited because the idea of what was coming had finally become a part of his reality.

Church, I don't know who I'm talking to, but I pray that I'm firing up somebody right now because many of us have been waiting to see with the idea that taste and see that the Lord is good, but God is saying that more is here and more is now.

The thing that you've been praying for, the thing that you've been fasting for, the thing that you've been seeking God for, the relief that you've been believing for, the healing that you've been believing for, the bondage that you were hoping to get from, God is saying, consecrate yourself, prepare yourself because more is here and more is now.

This is not something that's going to happen in 2030, but God is saying that more is here and more is now.

If you believe that, church, will you stand on your feet and can we give God some praise?

Because we believe that this is the year of more.

God wants to do more in your family, He wants to do more in your life, and I believe that if we can link our arms together and be people of faith that can exalt God, anything is possible.

So let us worship one more time, declaring that He is more than Able.

Let's worship together, family.

Thank you for joining us.

To learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.