Building the Future Together | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

You know I can't preach without my trusty um 5-0 Eagle Smug.

Um talking to you, Sean.

Um, we're we're so so glad that you are all here with us today.

Um, we really are expectant of of what we believe God's gonna do, and I believe it's a good time for all of us to come together um as community.

If it's your first time here, we want to welcome you and thank you so much for coming to worship with us.

Um, family, would you mind helping me welcome those who are joining us online and those who may be joining us on in the family lounge and listening to the podcast later?

We're so, so glad that you're here.

It's such a critical time.

We really believe that this is a crucial time for us as a church, and I'm gonna explain to you why.

Um, over the past two weeks, we've been in this incredible series called All Hands.

And this is a series that we do every year, and what it's really centered around is the idea of what happens when a community all comes together and all participates and seeing God do some incredible work through us.

We all know what it feels like to be partners in a group project, and when everybody puts their part in, how seamless and how smooth it can be.

So we believe that we're an all hands church, that everything we see, everything we do is as a result of everyone contributing the way that they can.

We have people that contribute their time, that come in early in the morning, do setup and breakdown.

We have people that are dedicating um their talents by using their gifts and helping us to communicate God's word.

But we also have people that are communicating and helping us by participating with their treasure, using their resources to help us to advance the gospel, and all of us play a critical part.

So over the past two weeks, we've been talking specifically about the resources that God puts into our hands.

If you're new here, then I just want to go ahead and disfuse any uh misnomers or any confusion.

Yes, today I will be talking about money.

Lock the doors, don't let them out.

But but I only talk about money typically about once a year, and this just happens to be the time that you guys came here, but I don't think it's by mistake.

Because if I could be quite candid with you guys, over the past two weeks, inclusive of this week, so I might as well say three weeks, we have been dealing with so much resistance.

We we preached on spiritual disciplines.

In fact, that was our theme all year this year.

And certainly there's going to be challenges because we're doing the things of God.

But can I tell you that we felt a more concentrated dose of resistance over the past three weeks than we have in anything that we've done as a church up to this point?

So, so for the first week, we talked about what does it mean to have a generous heart?

That ultimately generosity starts in the heart, having a heart for the things of God.

And so, this is a series and a message that was really meant to cultivate to help us to understand the importance of having a heart for God, opening up our hearts and opening up our hands and participating.

And wouldn't you know the day that we're talking about people being generous is the day that our website crashed and people can't give?

Last week we talked about the importance of prioritizing God in our resources, talking about our finances and the importance of making sure that we prioritize God in the area of our finances, putting Him first.

And wouldn't you know that not only did the audio equipment not work so people couldn't hear the message that was being preached, but then also the giving platform that people give through also crashed.

So we have two back-to-back weeks where as we're sending this message and the importance of trusting God with our resources that we've dealt with heavy resistance.

And even this week, we have we have team members who are out sick, we we have staff members at our home with family members, and even for me, like I'm dealing with a sinus infection.

I got all kind of medicine in me.

I don't know what I'm gonna say upon this platform today.

But but I believe this, I believe this.

When I begin to recognize a pattern of resistance, that lets me know that we're stepping on the toes of the enemy.

Because what the Bible reminds me of is that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

And there's a moment when we begin to step into environments where we're leading people to a place of freedom that we begin to feel the biggest resistance.

Let me explain to us what this looks like.

For the children of Israel, when they were in bondage for over 400 years, and and and Moses began that process of helping them to get set free, there were a series of compromises that Pharaoh had submitted to Moses.

But the one and the most critical one is when he was talking to Moses, he said, Who's all going with you when you want to go into the land to worship God?

And he said, We're gonna take our families, we're gonna take our children, and we're gonna take our resources and go off and worship God.

And Pharaoh's response is, You can take your families, you can go ahead and take your children, but your resources must stay in Egypt.

Isn't it interesting that when a people of God know that their resources are meant to honor God, that the enemy always wants to mount an attack to make sure that we keep our resources in Egypt.

This series has been meant to help us to understand what it looks like to be in partnership with the kingdom of God, and I believe that we've been dealing with significant resistance every step of the way.

But what the enemy doesn't know is that your boy don't give up.

And whenever I see that the adversary begins to stir things up, my faith gets a little bit stronger because I know that my steps are ordered by the Lord, and that as God is ordering our steps and leading us into this next season, there's not a devil in hell that's gonna shake us off of what we know that God has ultimately called us to do.

We're gonna move forward with confidence, we're gonna move forward with boldness, and we refuse to shrink back.

Our theme scripture over the past couple of weeks has been in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse number 7.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

And it was all leading to this moment as today we're gonna posture our hearts to give in partnership with what God is calling us to do as a church, but just to read it in our remembrance, it says this you must each decide in your heart how much to give.

And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.

The overarching theme that we've been sharing over the past couple of weeks is that generosity is a matter of the heart, but it also activates our hands.

And what we've been doing is we've been looking at the narrative of Ezra and Nehemiah, these two books that are back to back that have overlapping timelines.

And ultimately, what we see are three incredible leaders, Zarubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, each playing their part with bringing a revival back to Israel.

Zerubbabel's responsibility was rebuilding the temple.

Nehemiah's responsibility was rebuilding the city gates, and Ezra's responsibility was rebuilding the fervency and the pasture and the passion for God's word and for God's people.

And together, these three men, along with their communities, all put their hands in, and as a result of that, they've seen a revival happen in their community.

I want to turn to Psalm 127, and that's going to be the area where we zero in for the rest of our time today.

Just one simple verse, but it's our theme and almost a statement of faith for us in this current season.

It says that unless the Lord builds the house, the workers of the builders is wasted.

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

Let me explain what that means.

What it means is that we can have all the talent, all the strategy, all the gifts and skills in the world.

But if God is not with us, then what we're doing is in vain.

What we believe is that God is with us on this endeavor that He's He's He's leading us on in order for us to create a kingdom work that is going to be a place where His name can dwell.

So today, I want to speak to us briefly on the subject matter that I've entitled Building the Future Together.

Let's pray and let's get into it.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for your people.

We thank you for the opportunity to come and to worship.

God, we we we don't take it for granted.

We realize in other parts of the world there's there's chaos over in Israel in the Middle East, God, there's chaos and and and there's no safety and no provision.

But Father, we have an opportunity to pray on our behalf and we can gather in safety.

So Lord, I just pray.

I pray, God, that as we're here today, um, that you give us open eyes that we can see you and only you.

Lord, I pray for open ears that we can hear you and only you.

And I pray that you give us open hearts to receive what you want to speak to us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And amen.

I want to take you guys down a little bit of my personal journey with this community that we've been a part of for some period of time now.

I I remember walking into the doors of Celebration Church about 18 years ago.

It's hard to believe that it's it's been that long.

This is when we were living in Jacksonville, which is where celebration originally started.

And I remember a friend of mine had invited me to come to church.

I moved to Jacksonville from the Northeast, and I was trying to get acclimated and finding a community um that we could call home.

When I walked into the doors, I was I was blown away at the at the kindness and and the generosity because me coming from a church environment that I will just say it was called holiness.

And so, what holiness was was a was an amazing church environment where we were taught how to study the word of God, where we're taught the importance uh of prayer, but was also a posture of worship that I went to basically define as this we worship out of obligation for what God has done for us.

So we were raised in a way where we felt like we had to, we had to, we had to meet God, we had to match God because of what he had done for us.

So when I came into the doors of celebration church, I was exposed to a God that I hadn't known for the first about 10 years of my walk with God.

And what I was introduced to was a God who wasn't angry, a God who wasn't vengeful.

I was introduced to a God who was who was loving, a God who was graceful.

So what I learned was that I don't worship God out of obligation, I worship God out of a response.

That is from a place of purity and a place of love and acceptance.

And and now these two experiences have begun to shape my mindset about who God is, that He's someone that we recognize that we worship with fear and trembling, but we also can go boldly before the throne of grace.

The two things can coexist in the same space.

And so these experiences help me to understand the nature of God.

I literally sat in the back row of the church because coming from the community that I came from, I was very, very involved.

I was the pastor's right-hand man, I traveled with him.

It was it was a it was a very rich environment spiritually, but but it was very taxing.

So when we moved to Jacksonville, I was just looking forward to going to church, sitting literally in the back row, and watch this.

If I didn't go to church one Sunday, somebody wouldn't call me and think that I've given up on Jesus.

Maybe y'all don't know what that feels like.

So I was enjoying my back row saint vibe.

I was enjoying it.

And then one day someone had saw me and and and they had tapped me on the shoulder and said, like, hey, God told me that it's time for you to get back into serving.

And up to this point, I honestly didn't think God needed me because I was going to a church that at the time probably had about 3,000 people in Jacksonville at the time.

And so as I began to sit in the back row and I began to look at what God was doing in his community, I'd never seen service like this.

I'd never seen a fog machine in church, I'd never seen flashing lights and all that stuff in the church.

I thought it was a cold at first or a rock concert.

I'd never seen anything like that.

But then I was introduced to this authentic Jesus, so I began to think about the gifts that I had, but for whatever reason, I thought that my gifts were geography geography based.

So I didn't think that they traveled with me when I moved.

So I was I was content with sitting in the back row.

But as I sat there, I was invited to start to serve, and I just remember saying, okay, I'll I'll start to serve.

And I and I began to serve as an usher, and I was introduced into a brotherhood and a community that I had never been exposed to before.

People of different backgrounds, people of different socioeconomic status, people of different cultures, and I had never worshiped with such a diversity of people, and I didn't even realize at the time that's exactly what I needed, to be exposed to things beyond just my filter, and my life was better as a result of it.

My family and I eventually began to serve in outreach and started serving in the in the downtown community, and we loved that so much.

And then I I gravitated over into next gen ministry, serving in the youth department.

And each time it was just me saying yes to an opportunity, but the whole time thinking that God doesn't need me.

There's so many other people here, there's they don't need my participation, but every time I stepped in, it seemed as if I was meeting a need, even in a church that had so many people that were already involved and contributing.

As time would have it, um I was eventually invited to come on staff and I started off as the group's pastor, and I began to create different um rhythms and streams and things like that, and I saw God move mightily amongst his people.

I eventually became the next gen pastor.

We built world-class youth ministry, and the whole time I'm still thinking about me sitting in the back row thinking, what am I even doing here?

God doesn't need me, but yet it seems as if every time I said yes, I was meeting a need.

Then a couple years ago, God had called us to go and serve in in DC.

I went there and served as an executive pastor for about two years, and while I was there, I saw God do some incredible things there.

And then for the past four and a half years, we've been here in celebration Orlando.

We've just celebrated our ninth anniversary.

And in those nine years, I spend nothing short of a miracle.

Because in those nine years, we've seen God do some incredible things in this community.

To make it more specific, in the four and a half years since Megan and I have been here, we we've literally seen relationships restored, we we've seen healings, we've seen miracles literally take place, and all of this, I never would imagine in them in my life that I would sit on the front row and watch the move of God to the magnitude that we have.

And all of it started because I said yes to being an usher.

I decided to put my hands in.

Here's the reason why I want to share all of this.

Because we live in a world and in the culture right now where there's so much that is said about the local church.

Rightfully so.

There's a lot of chaos, there's a lot of there's a lot of disorganization, there's a lot of dysfunction, there's a lot of things that we've seen over the years, and as a result of that, we get a chance to kind of be on the outside looking in and critique it.

But I'm here to argue on the other side.

It's when I got in the local church that I have made some of the best friends I have ever made.

It's when I got in the local church that I've drawn closer to God than I ever have been.

It's when I got in the local church that my identity and calling get formed in the things that God was ultimately calling me to do.

Here's what I want you to do: don't believe the hype.

The church is alive and well, Jesus is active and he is moving through his community.

And we all have an opportunity to play a critical part.

We've weathered through a global pandemic.

We went from two locations to one, we've moved locations two times in only a couple of years, and each time the enemy's desire was to shut the doors of the church.

Do you know that the average church's lifespan is about the same as a restaurant about three years before the doors close?

But God.

Let me say that again.

The average lifespan of a church is only about two to three years old.

And even through all the transitions and opposition and literal tactics to try to empty the church of God, but God, we're still here.

What I want you to recognize is that if God be for you, who can be against you?

Maybe you're looking at your life right now and you've been dealing with a great deal of resistance.

Maybe you can name the people that have been standing in the place of your opposition and you feel a little bit discouraged.

But I believe that God brought you here for such a time as this.

That if God be for you, because greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world, that if God is ordering your steps, there is nothing that the enemy can do to stop what God wants to do amongst his people as long as we keep walking, as long as we keep trusting, as long as we keep praying, as long as we keep showing up, there is nothing that the enemy can do to stop the people of God and have place their trust in God.

God is active and he's moving amongst our community, and he is just getting started.

Maybe you're relatively new to our church and you're trying to get a glimpse of who we are as a community.

Maybe you're trying to understand our kingdom assignment and what God has ultimately called us to do.

Maybe you've been here for a while, but I want to give you a little bit of a refresher so that there's no misunderstandings about the assignment that God has given us.

God has called us to reach the lost, to equip the found, and to help the hurting.

That we're a church community that is called to reach people that are away from Jesus.

We may not often understand what it takes for a person to show up into the doors of a church, not knowing what they can expect, not knowing if they'll be accepted, not knowing if they're gonna be entering into a place where they don't feel as if they're gonna be loved and valued.

But what we're gonna do is we're gonna be a church that no matter where you came from, no matter what you've been through, that the same way that Jesus accepted everyone that came into his presence, that we're gonna be a church that cultivates a welcoming environment, that we're gonna reach people that are away from Jesus.

I don't care how sick you are, I don't care how broken you are, I don't care what you've been through, I don't care what you've done.

If you are walking into the doors of this church, you are welcome here because that is exactly what we've seen from Jesus.

We will reach people that are away from Jesus.

But we also feel a responsibility to equip.

We feel a responsibility that for those of us that have made Jesus our Lord, we want to create environments where we can grow in our faith.

The Bible speaks about the importance of equipping of the saints so that way as we're rooting ourselves in God's word, doing classes like discipleship one and two, going through classes like freedom, that we can begin to anchor our identity in Christ, so that when the enemy comes, the Bible says that we're not gonna be tossed to and fro by every doctrine, but we're gonna be rooted in the things of God.

I want to make sure that we can limit the anxiety that enters into our lives because what I'm finding is that the people of faith are filled with so much anxiety because we're afraid of what's happening in the world.

But for those who know that they belong to Jesus, but for those who know that I'm anchored in Jesus, it doesn't matter what the world is saying, I know what God says, I don't care what's going on in the culture, I know what God's Word says about me, then I can move with confidence, I can move with boldness, I can move with clarity, I can take dominion because He has given me all authority, because I am rooted in the things of God.

So what I want us to do is be encouraged, that we're equipping you to know who you are in Christ Jesus.

But we also want to help the hurting.

That every time I'm I'm driving down a street and I see people that are are struggling, whether it be with mental health issues or or dealing with low socioeconomic environments or or just poverty, that we we have have to do something about that.

We don't want to be so inward that we're so focused on ourselves that we become that we become like a club.

That's not who we are.

That this is not a cruise ship, we're a battleship.

That we're ready to go wherever God is calling us to take ground and help as many people that are hurting as possible.

And the way that we do that is the way that we create our culture.

Who we are as a church is a church that's gonna celebrate the goodness of God.

I realize that when we turn on the news, when we look at social media, we're inundated with the pain and suffering of the world.

But I feel like my assignment today, and maybe this is the only thing you needed to hear, God is good.

Let me say it over here because maybe somebody else is gonna resonate with that.

God is good.

Maybe you haven't seen it yet.

Maybe you're dealing with some suffering, but the Bible says that he works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

So, what that means, if it's not good, that means that God's not done.

Because he works everything together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

God is good, he is good, he is good even when I'm struggling, he's good, he's good even when things are going great, he is good, he is good enough that he sees me in my suffering, and I know that a testimony is coming on the other side of it.

He is good.

I've seen God do some miracles in my life, and I'm anchored in the truth that God is good, and we will always be an environment that cultivates that, but we also know in the goodness of God that we believe in the power of God.

Let me help you to understand, Jesus is still on a throne.

In spite of what we may see on the news, in spite of what we may hear from the local politician, Jesus is still on a throne.

What Jesus says when he is risen, he says, All power has been given unto me in heaven and in earth.

All power.

That means that Jesus is on the throne, so we believe in the power of God.

We believe that if it's in the Bible, it's still available for us today.

We don't believe that there's an expiration date on a move of God.

So when we see blind eyes being opened, we believe in the power of God.

That when we see that people are healed from sickness, we believe in the power of God.

That when I look at God's word and I see a discrepancy in my life, I'm praying and believing for it because we believe in the power of God.

That what God did then is available to us now.

That's the church that we want to be.

A church that believes God's word, that we anchor ourselves in God's word.

We allow our lives to line up with God's word so we can see the results that are in God's word.

We believe in the power of God, but here's the thing: we have to engage the presence of God.

What that means is that we have a part to play.

The Bible says that we draw near to God and He draws near to us.

So often I have conversations with people and they're saying, I'm waiting for a move of God.

And I want to let them know that God's awaiting a move from you.

You ever go into one of those stores where it looks as if the door is closed?

But when you put weight on something, the door opens up and allows you to go in.

So often we're on the outside of closed doors, not realizing that if we just engage the presence of God, that something that once was closed can open unto us, but we have to engage the presence of God.

We engage the presence of God by reading his word.

We engage the presence of God when we come into environments like this and we lift our hands up during worship.

We engage the presence of God when we say amen.

We engage the presence of God when we clap our hands.

Hands.

We engage the presence of God when we clap our hands.

We engage the presence of God.

Let me come over here.

We engage the presence of God when we when we clap our hands.

See, see, right now, you you may not know what's going on, but but what the Bible tells me is that he inhabits the praises of his people.

That means that when we make a decision to begin to lift our voices and to clap our hands, that the presence of God dwells in the midst of him.

Here's what you need to understand what Paul tells us is that the enemy is the prince of the powers of the air.

That means that the enemy doesn't have any authority on the ground, he occupies the air space.

So sometimes we may feel oppression in our lives and not realizing that my praise is the key that's gonna give me the breakthrough that I need.

So if we could just understand that when I clap my hands, I'm pushing the enemy back over my family, that when I say hallelujah, that I'm inviting God into my situation, that the enemy has no authority over.

This is why I will not keep my voice silent.

This is why I lift my hands up, this is why I clap my hands because I'm in spiritual warfare, because the enemy will not have my family, he will not have our church, he will not have my kids, he will not have it.

I'm gonna give God praise.

This is what it means to be part of a community of faith.

We engage God's presence and then we demonstrate his love.

We know that God is calling us to demonstrate his love everywhere that we go.

That if people are surprised that you are a follower of Christ, you're doing it wrong.

We demonstrate his love, that everywhere we go, that people should know us by our fruit.

And what they see from us is people that are loving, that are truthful, but we're also kind.

We've seen God do some incredible things in our church, but even in spite of everything that he's done, we felt some critical limitations.

You may not recognize this, but there's some moments where we feel this lid over what we sense that God is doing in our community.

We love that we get a chance to partner with this incredible facility, but can I tell you so many challenges that we face week in and week out?

That that when we come in here, we we get here super early.

Well, when I say we, I mean a team, I don't get here early, but but people get here super early, Vinny and the crew, they get here early to set up this environment.

They they get here early and they're practicing for for worship to so they can set the atmosphere that when we come in, that we can experience the presence of God together.

It's not a concert, they're coming in to set the atmosphere.

But because we don't own this facility, they they have to get here super early.

And then the challenge becomes of giving me the microphone and telling me that I got 35 minutes to preach when I got 80 minutes worth of content on my screen right now.

You don't guys don't even realize that sometimes Vinny's in the back telling me to land the plane.

I'm like, bro, I'm just getting started.

Lights are flashing, telling me to wrap it up, and I'm just getting started.

Here's what I'm saying: there are moments when we're in service and we can sense the presence of God as moving in worship.

There are moments when we're in service and we're feeling that God wants to have a powerful altar call, but we gotta be out of here by 12 o'clock.

And if it's the first service, we gotta have you out of here by 1012 tops, realistically 1021 if it's me re-preaching.

But we know that we have limitations.

It doesn't mean that God can't function in those limitations, but it's a lid on what we feel God can do in our community.

Those are some of the limitations we have.

We have something called unique November, where two Sundays in November, this facility isn't available for us.

So we have to get creative on what it looks like to have church services.

It doesn't mean that God doesn't move, but it certainly does interrupt momentum for people who may not be connected to social media, people who may not be here every week, and they just happen to show up on that one week because they felt a nudging and they get here and they see a bunch of trees in the lobby and are wondering where the people of God are.

What I believe God is calling us to do is to establish an environment that's a beacon in a city that people can come to at all times of the days and they know that we're going to be here.

We often have to have moments where when we do baptisms, if you guys only knew the work that it takes, Nate has to get a rental truck, then we have to get the baptismal pool, we have to get permission, then we have to fill it up with water, then we we get it here, we set it all up, then we have to drain it out.

When I say we, I mean a team, um they have to drain it all out.

They put it back.

So it's a process.

So we typically do baptisms about four times a year.

But but what I would believe God is calling us to do is that there are gonna be moments when we're having a service and the Spirit of God breaks out in such a way that we're saying we're gonna do baptisms right now, you don't gotta change your clothes, we're going out right now, and we're gonna have baptism services.

We have tight service turnarounds and all of these things, but I believe that even in spite of those, God can do something incredible.

But I believe because of those limitations of what God wants to do in our community, He's leading us to take our next step.

So today it's with honor and humility.

I am blessed to announce that we're launching our campaign for our permanent building.

I wasn't gonna say this, but your response is way better than the nine o'clock service.

Good on you, 1030.

Well done.

Our theme for this is Psalm 127, as we read earlier.

That if God doesn't do this, it won't get done.

That if God's not in it, then it's not gonna be something that we can do in our own strength.

It's gonna require all hands to participate and to get involved.

Here's what I know we don't need a building to build people, but a facility will help us to better facilitate, it'll help us to do a better job at doing what we believe God has ultimately called us to do with establishing a place where his name can dwell.

All hands.

A few years ago, about three years ago, if I if I'm not mistaken, we we we raised an offering for our Zimbabwe location.

And the purpose of that offering was all of the celebration locations across the globe wanted to help them to complete the factory that they were working on.

They ran out of resources, so all the locations had had kind of put resources together during our all hands offering about three years ago, and that portion of the money went to help to complete the factory.

The beautiful thing about the factory is the factory was going to now employ some of the ladies who had gotten rescued from abusive situations.

So it created a revenue stream for them.

So when our team went to Zimbabwe, they went to Zimbabwe to bless the opening of the new factory.

They also picked out the fabrics of the clothes that we will be using in our shine conference, which I'm wearing right now.

It all comes full circle as a result of all hands getting involved because we were able to put our resources together to finish the work of the factory and seeing what God can do when everybody participates and plays their part.

So, what do we what do we need?

What's the vision that God has shown us?

Habakkuk tells us that we write the vision and make it plain, that we make it very clear on what we believe that God is ultimately telling us to do.

I want to share with you what I believe God has shown me about our permanent location.

God has shown me a 500-seat sanctuary that is filled with people from every tribe and tongue.

A church that is going to be filled with people that come from deconstruction to people that have been walking with God for 50 years.

This is where we celebrate the diversity of God's people.

People that come from all types of backgrounds, an environment where people feel welcome and valued and loved.

Here's what I want you guys to know that at this time last year, our church has grown over 30%.

And God continues to send people our way.

So we need to make room for what God is doing next in our community.

What I'm really excited about is what we plan on doing for the next generation.

Because we truly believe that the reason why so many churches are closing their doors is because they're not doing a good job at discipling the next generation.

So as the older generation dies off, churches that used to be visited by people that want to worship now become museums.

What God is telling us is that if we don't have a better pipeline on how we are developing, discipling the next generation, that we can literally have people that grow up without knowing the name of God the same way that the Israelites did.

So our next generation is something that's very, very focused.

We have an incredible team that is that is catering all of our content to make sure that we're literally developing and discipling your children from the time of infancy all the way until the time that they're college age.

Because what we feel a responsibility for is that we can't control what's happening in the world.

We can't control what's going on in culture.

But what we can do is put the seeds of truth inside of their hearts that when they go out into society, that no matter what the enemy throws their way, they say, I know who I am.

I am a child of God.

I am a son of God, I'm a daughter of God.

I don't know what culture is saying, but I know what God says, and you can't shake me from it.

We want to be a place that's a training ground for the next generation.

I read a statistic recently that said that the average person comes to faith when they're 14 years old.

14 is the age when someone takes ownership of their faith and they begin to grow.

So if we don't cultivate a dedicated environment for our next generation, recognizing that critical time of where they're dealing with so much influence and pressure, that if we don't become the place where they can feel loved and valued, they will find it in the world and we could potentially lose them.

What God has placed on our heart is to have a world-class environment where we can develop the next generation with dedicated spaces that meets them where they are with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, recognizing the technology that's available, but still rooting them in the ancient truth of God's word.

That's the assignment that God has given us.

We also feel a burden to develop the next generation of leaders in partnership with Southeastern University because we want our site to be an extension site so that when people want to be raised up into the things of God, that they can look to us as a place that they can come to be developed as leaders so they can do what God has called them to do.

We also want to make sure we have enough meeting space so that our community partners who can't afford to have their own locations, when they have staff meetings, so they're spending resources, renting spots, that we want our church to be the place that they can come to where they can utilize our facility for free.

That's the goal that God has placed on our heart.

The vision that God has shown me is that we're gonna have a food and clothing pantry.

And this is not just a place where we're gonna have boxes of food and boxes of clothing, but it's gonna be a boutique so that the people that are in need, they're gonna walk in with dignity and be able to pick out the things that they want and walk out with not paying a single dollar.

We're not handing out bags.

We want you to walk in and pick out what you need.

It's gonna be organized just like a store because God has shown me to show people the dignity.

God has shown me a church that has a coffee shop that's gonna be open to the public every single day.

So people can come in, get their coffee, get their free Wi-Fi, but in the background, they're gonna hear worship music and they may see Pastor Keith walking by preaching the gospel and not even realize that seeds are being planted, they're being transformation in our lives, and they don't even know it.

They're wondering, why do I feel compelled to go to church?

It must be in this coffee.

No, it's Jesus.

God has shown me a facility that has a mental health clinic connected to it where my wife is gonna serve as the executive director so that we can begin to have a response to the crisis that we see in people who are trying to understand what's going on in their mind with the deep depression and how the church can partner with it and helping to care for people holistically.

We understand what's going on in your mind, we understand your trauma.

Jesus is a healer, but we also want to walk you through the process of healing.

What God has shown me is a city that is on a hill.

What God has shown me is a city that's a light in the midst of darkness.

What God has shown me is a city that has salt and that it won't lose its flavor.

Revival is coming to Orlando, revival is coming to your home, revival is coming to this city, and it's all because of the part that we play.

So it brings me to this point.

We all have a part to play in what we want to see.

Really quickly, I want to give you the three things that you can do to participate in this moment to help us see this vision come to fruition.

We truly believe that the first and most prominent thing is to be people of prayer.

The first thing you can do with us is pray.

This is not something that we arbitrarily throw out.

This is not a minor thing.

But I was raised with the discipline of truly believing that prayer changes things.

I'm staying here as a result because I've seen how prayer changes things.

That when we begin to pray and we begin to seek God, we humble ourselves, we position ourselves into the holiest of holies, and we begin to come in alignment with God, and we begin to see on earth as it is in heaven, prayer is a powerful thing.

When we look at Ezra and Nehemiah, before they went out to do the work that God had called them to do, they prayed.

They sought God's wisdom, they sought God's vision, they got God's perspective, they got God's strategy, and then they employed it and did what God was ultimately calling them to do.

Family and friends, the first thing I need you to do is be a person who's praying with us.

And here's some things I want you to pray for specifically.

I want you to pray for the generosity of our church and our community that we all can participate in this moment.

I want us to pray for favor because when we were looking for a building back in 2019 before the pandemic, and as we began to look at places that we could move into, you'd be amazed at the different parts of the city that don't want a church there.

As we're trying to say no, we have the resources, we have the revenue, we're prepared to bring value to this, but yet they don't want us there simply because it's a church.

Could it be there's a demonic stronghold there that's trying to keep the church from coming in there and taking ground?

And what I'm believing God for is in every environment where the enemy is saying no, God is saying yes, and we're gonna move forward with favor and with power and provision, and we're gonna take ground in the name of Jesus.

We're praying for divine relationships, we're praying for open doors, we're we're praying for wisdom, and ultimately we're praying for God's timing.

And here's what I want us to do: we are committed, and I want you to write this down, highlight it, circle it, and put it in your phone.

We're committed to praying every day at 127, in theme with our Psalm 127.

Bob mentioned this to me when we had one of our meetings, and my spirit came alive.

Because what that means is imagine if 500 people that are connected to our church all began to pray at 127.

That we all just took that one minute and just began to say, Lord, I'm praying for our permanent location.

Lord, I'm praying for favor, I'm praying for divine relationships, I'm praying for resources, God, I'm praying for revival.

Imagine if we were beginning to bombard heaven, that we begin to shake hell because we're all seeking after the hand and face of God.

I promise you, that opens heaven when people begin to pray.

And if you're super spiritual, you can do it at 127 a.m.

Here's the second thing.

Here's the second thing, really quick.

The next thing you can do is partner with us.

I'm gonna say this really quickly.

What I realize is that sitting in our seats, there's a lot of people that have incredible gifts.

What that means is you may work in the construction industry.

Maybe you work with real estate, maybe you work with relationships with city planners.

You might be an influence and helping us to gain favor in parts of the city because we know that we want our church to be accessible.

I know that we can move out to the suburbs and acquire land, but that's not the vision that God has given me.

I want our church to be a place that somebody can walk to, someone can Uber to, that a homeless person can stumble into, because I believe the gospel needs to be available to all of them.

But it's not without its challenges.

So what I'm asking for is if you have relationships, if you have influence, if you have any perspective, we're asking you to consider joining our vision team where we're praying and strategizing about what the future of this is going to look like.

The third and final thing that I want to invite us to do is I want to ask us to participate.

This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road.

Participate means to get involved, it means to contribute.

Ezra chapter 1, verse number 6 says, All their neighbors supported them with silver, articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to giving a free will offering.

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

That when Nehemiah and Ezra had the assignment of building something in the name of God, that the people of God came together and they contributed to it.

So let me give you a breakdown of what our financial goals are for this endeavor that God has shown us.

We're believing God for two million dollars.

Two million dollars.

Lock the doors.

And we're not getting out of here until we raise it.

I'm kidding, I'm joking, I'm joking, I wouldn't do that.

My old church would, but I wouldn't.

Okay.

We're believing God for two million dollars.

Here's what I want you guys to hear me when I say this.

You'll notice on the pamphlet that you're given that there's a there's three goals that are there.

And the reason why I want you guys to see that is because I want to give you full perspective of the way that this works.

Typically, what happens with a church that whenever you're launching uh a building, that typically you're raising whatever your annual budget is.

So our annual budget as a church is one million dollars.

That's the bare minimum.

But but here's why we're raising it a little bit more.

Because we live in Orlando and it's just stupid expensive here.

So because it's stupid expensive, those ratios don't always work.

And what we want to make sure of is that when we move into our facility, that we actually can like pay for the lights and that we actually can pay for the electricity, and we can pay for the things that we need to bring into the facility as well.

I know that when Megan and I bought our first home, that we got the home, but it was like a photo finish, so we didn't have any furniture for like a couple weeks.

Like it was like, man, we're here.

Take your shoes off, but it's all we got, like it's all we have.

But what we want to do is we want to move in with strength, and so the financial goal of having two million, it'll allow us what we believe is to acquire the facility to do the renovations as well as outfit what we believe God is ultimately calling us to do.

This is something that I believe that God has shown us that is more than possible.

God has told me specifically that what we need is in our church, but it just happens to be in your pockets, and what I'm believing that if you are believing God for a revival, if you're believing God for miracle in our church, this is an opportunity that we get a chance to sew into what we want to see.

This past uh weekend, I had the incredible privilege of uh spending some time in Jacksonville for our women's conference.

I got any ladies here that went to the women's conference.

It was amazing, it was amazing.

Um, and you may be wondering why I was there, but I wanted to be there because I believed that the gospel is for everybody.

So I said, I need to hear it.

So so but but while I was there, it was just beautiful to be in this this venue that that I spent many years at many prayers I prayed was there, but but there was a surreal moment for me.

And it was during one of our worship moments, and as I was kind of standing off to the back, there was a there was a young lady that was in front of me.

We both have been on staff now for several years.

And I remember back when we were building the facility that we hosted our service in.

We call it the arena in Jacksonville.

And I remember when we were building it, and there was a moment when everybody that gave, they all went out to the land, and we were all given these stakes, and we wrote on the stakes the things that we were believing God for.

So I wrote my family names down.

God, I just want them to be raised in the house of the Lord.

I just want them to love you.

Wrote the name of our families down, wrote down theme scriptures, and we put those stakes in the ground and we put it at the exact spot that we built the altar because we believed that as we stood on God's word, we stood on those prayers, we we would have prayers, and those things are still there to this day.

But for this one young lady, I remember that she was believing God for a child.

This is going back about 13 years ago.

So as I'm sitting in the service and I'm watching what's going on, I'm just overwhelmed with emotions as we're in a women's conference with this lady who's on staff at our church.

I remember what she wrote on the stake, and she's standing on the pulpit and she's worshiping next to her daughter.

It's a full circle moment, but I still remember when we all wrote what we were believing God for and we sew it into it.

Maybe there's something that you're believing God for.

I believe we have to sew into what we want to see.

What is it that you're believing God for?

Maybe you're believing God for just restoration in your relationships, so into what you want to see.

Maybe you're believing God for a place where you can raise your children up to be anchored in the word of God, so and what you want to see.

Maybe you're looking to experience a breakthrough or even get a sense of what God is calling you to do, so into what you want to see.

I've seen it time and time again that when God puts something on your heart, he also activates within our hand, and our obedience with our hands determines what we see with our eyes.

You'll notice in the pamphlet that you were given there are some instructions here.

First and foremost, we want you to take this pamphlet home and we want you to keep it, put it up on your refrigerator, put it up in a place where you can pray and just see what we're believing God for.

But there's also a card.

I don't have my card on me.

I don't see if you wrote anything down on here.

Yeah, sure.

I know you would have.

Um so this card is is really clear.

And and what it is is it's it's a commitment card.

And this is a commitment between you and God.

It's it's not us as a church.

We're all in this together.

But what we're gonna go into is a moment of reflection and worship.

Every year around this time, we do a year-in offering, and I know that many of us came prepared to give.

That's kind of what we've been leading to, and we still want us to give and lean into this moment.

But what I'm asking you to do that's a little bit different, is you'll notice on a card is what is God asking you to give for the year?

Because what this is going to allow us to do is as we collect these, it's gonna allow us to see the participation of our church so it can set the pace on how we move.

Phase one is going to be us.

Raising the money.

Phase two will be location.

Phase three will be acquiring.

Phase four will be us moving in.

So we're only in phase one.

So phase one is to raise the resources, but when we see the participation, I would love to be able to look and see: hey, based off of what our church is committing, this is where we're going to be at next year.

So that allows me to have conversations with banks and realtors and things with an anticipation that we're going to follow through on what we say we're going to do with God.

So as we go into this time of reflection and worship, we want you to fully lean into this moment and participate.

I've been praying about this for the past three weeks, and what God has placed on my heart is something that's a little bit intimidating.

My family and I, we tithe faithfully, but this is above and beyond that.

But I believe that God is telling me that I have to sow into what I want to see.

And what I want to see is a world-class church that's going to be available for my children's children's children.

And it starts today.

What is it that you want to see?

So as we go into this time of just meditation, a reflection, I'm prayerful that all of us will respond.

And whatever God says, do it.

It's the same thing of when Jesus was healing and doing the water into wine.

Mary says, whatever he tells you to do, just do it.

And if we write this down and we believe that God's going to provide, I believe that collectively, all hands, that what it should be projected to take two years, we can do it in one year because we're all committed to participating and doing this together.

So as we go into a time of prayer, I want to pray a blessing over you.

I want to ask you to be sensitive to the Spirit and just be obedient.

Lord, we ask you to stir our hearts.

This entire series, God, has been really about us aligning ourselves with your word, with your truth, to be a people to have a burden for not only our families and our communities, but for the globe.

And Father, this is good ground.

So, Father, so as we enter into this space of reflection, reveal to us how you want us to participate in this moment.

There's those of us that came prepared to give today, and we're asking that we'd be obedient to that, as that's going to help us to set resources aside so that we can continue to add to it.

Father, I thank you that as of right now, we have over$120,000 already put aside for the building.

We're already moving in this direction.

We have margin, and I'm believing that by the time we finish this year, just from our margin, that we're going to be closer to 180,000.

That means we just need 1.8 million, and it's possible.

So, Father, I pray that you stir our hearts, you store our minds, and that you allow us to lean into this moment, to be obedient, to be challenged, to be stretched, but to watch the faithfulness of God in Jesus' name.org.

We hope you join us next time.