Kingdom Builders Sermon

Multiplication (Multi-site)

This is a big call, this is a big commitment.

But it’s our calling and our commitment and we want to be faithful with what God has called us to.

UNITY in the Leadership and Congregation

Ever leader is united behind the vision and mission of New Life.

;

Giving

Key Topics to

Speak to Millenials

Speak to those who aren’t partnering with the Church already.

Speak to those who are on fire about the mission of New Life.

Speak to those who are on fire about the mission of New Life.

Kingdom Builders

Introduction

Women to women Mentoring Sign ups this sunday out in the lobby

next week will be the pairings so make sure you come back next week to get paired with your mentor/mentee.

We are just coming out of a series that is very personal and very deep. Remember we taught from that by his wounds we can be healed.

But God’s plan for your life is not just to be healed, you were made for more than that. You were saved for more than just salvations sake. you were saved and healed for something bigger than yourself. You were saved for something more than you. You were save, you were healed for the Kingdom of God.

The Bible is the story of men and women who struggled through life, who encountered deep wounds and painful persecution, and their stories were used to build something bigger than themselves, something bigger than their own households, their stories were used to build and tell the story of the Kingdom of God.

Your story is being used to tell of the Kingdom of God.

Your story is being used to build the Kingdom of God.

YOU ARE A KINGDOM BUILDER

The theme weaving itself throughout the entire Bible is the building and advancement of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Its about bringing men, women and children back into relationship with God after we screwed it up by sin.

So these next 4 weeks we are going to be in a series called KINGDOM BUILDERS and we will be looking specifically at New Life’s vision for advancing the Kingdom of God in Aberdeen, the surrounding areas and to the ends of the earth.

We know from last week that God desires all men to be saved. God fights for us and comes to us in our weakness. He has paid our debts by dying on the cross so that by faith we might come to him.

Church listen up, I want to tell you from hours of experience and meetings from sitting down with elders and the staff. there is overwhelming unity that God wants to do something massive with New Life. We are passionate about caring for what God has given us but we are also passionate about using this group of people to advance the Kingdom of God.

We care about the Kingdom because Jesus cared about the Kingdom

This was the central message Jesus preached. In fact it is mentioned or talked about over 87x in the gospels.

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

It is something we were meant to pray for

Matthew 6:10 ESV

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus wasn’t just passionate about you and getting you saved. He is passionate about bringing the Kingdom of God down to earth! Jesus was passionate about getting people into the rulership and reign of God.

Question #1 - Do you see yourself in light of the Kingdom of God, or just in light of your only situation.

Does the Kingdom of God advance when you go to the grocery store? Does the Kingdom of God advance when you raise your kids? When you drop them off at soccer, when you take them to school.

You were designed to be missional!

You are called to step out in faith for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

“The church exists for mission as a fire exists by burning.” - Emil Bruner

The church exists for more than just worship. God didn’t create the garden and then say to Adam and Eve, “Now you may worship me forever”. No God created them and then gave them orders to advance the Kingdom of God. He made them to work and to partner with Him in his creative order.

What does this mean for us?

It means if the gospel has sunk deep in your heart and transformed the way you think and operate; then you will by default be missional.

It means putting your hands to work in the garden God has given you. God didn’t make you to have you sit around a fire singing coomby-ya, you created to work and advance the plans and purposes of God.

What happens when you are hungry and a delicious looking pizza is placed before you? When you are hungry you, by default, you want to eat, so you eat.

When the gospel is placed in front of the person and is received by faith, its changes their perspective and transforms their thinking, they, by default, become like the thing that’s changed them. Their story becomes a building block for the Kingdom of God.

If we become like Christ and follow Christ then we by default, will become missional.

Being missional is not an option, it not a choice, its a calling and a purpose. If you are a Christian you are missional! You are thinking about the Kingdom of God, you are partnering with your local church to bring the gospel to your community.

If you are not on mission right, its time to grow up. It’s time to mature in your faith so God can add your story to the Kingdom of God and use you as a Kingdom Builder.

You were created to build, not literally like a physical house; but your life is meant to build up the kingdom of God.

What does it look like to be Kingdom Builders?

A Kingdom Builder is someone whose life is one of mission and outreach.

Kingdom Seekers - They want the Kingdom of God to come to earth.

they are people “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

They don’t get bogged down with the anxieties of life but are always looking to God and his Kingdom.

Kingdom Prayers -

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.Kingdom Prayers -

They, their family, their time, their resources are all Kingdom centered.

Kingdom Prayers - They intercede for those inside and outside of the church.

They pray and pray…and pray for the Kingdom of God to come on this earth.

- “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Kingdom Multipliers - They want to see the church changing because its adding more people.

Kingdom builders aren’t one or two of these, Kingdom Builders are all of these. We may be better at one or two over the others but we must be al three. These are not giftings, they are callings.

What does it look like to build the Kingdom of God?

Acts 1:7–8 ESV

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus is giving his last speech to his disciples before he ascends into heaven. They are looking to him for leadership and guidance and this is what he tells them.

He tells them two things they WILL do; these were not optional.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you

You will be my witnesses.

Kingdom Building requires vision

The apostles question naturally would’ve been, “Jesus how are we going to do this?”

Kingdom building requires us to submit to Gods vision.

The apostles has a vision about what the Kingdom of God should look like but Jesus clouds their vision and tells them about his. In alot of ways Jesus leaves them hanging. Their vision didn’t line up with his. So he tells them two things.

The Holy Spirit will give you power.

You will be my witnesses.

Jesus gives them the vision, and if it is going to succeed they had to be unified in their pursuit of the vision.

The leadership of New Life is completely unified in the vision of making more disciples. We have spent hours mulling over what it looks like to make more disciples. We have a vision we are going to be unpacking in the next 4 weeks about what we believe God’s vision is for New Life going into the future. If this vision is to succeed we have to be unified as a leadership but we also have to be unified as a church.

An example - If you go back into cold storage. You’ll notice it is going through a face lift. We are cleaning it out so we can free up space because Pastor Paul asked a great question. He said “what is that space doing to make more disciples?” So he had it cleaned out and we will be moving our storage to a small space so we can free up more space to do ministry. We want to make disciples so bad that we are rearranging our building so we can maximize our ability to do ministry.

Kingdom Building requires multiplication

Jesus tells them they will go beyond their homes. They will go beyond their families. Their witness would go to the nations.

You will go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and even the ends of the earth.

This is called “multiplication”. It is people who have witnessed the gospel in their lives telling it to others and making more disciples; who then it turn witness the gospel and make other disciples.

It’s called domino discipleship. You make a disciple who makes a disciple who makes a disciple, then hundreds of years down the road, Joe Smoe is gonna look back and say God used little ol Micah to share the gospel with someone who eventually made it to me.

Multiplication is more than just one on one discipleship though. Multiplication happens through planting churches.

As the church grew more churches were added.

At New Life, we believe God has called us to plant churches. Whether its a church or a microsite that meets once a month for church until it grows into its own healthy and functioning church.

We believe God wants to multiply his church in South Dakota.

Kingdom Building Requires Unity

If we are going to advance the Kingdom of God in our community and our region and our world we must be unified.

Acts 1:14 ESV

All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 2:1 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

when the apostles came together and submitted to the vision of God; God did big things with them.

When they humbled themselves and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, they received power and were able to be affective Kingdom builders.

They were praying together, and the Spirit of God came upon them and they spoke in other tongues. They weren’t mumbling unknown languages, they were actually speaking languages of the people who had come from all over the world to celebrate the Jewish feast Pentecost. There were over 16 nations represented who heard the wonders of God through these people. God performed a miracle in their midst and it presented Peter with the platform to share the gospel and watch over 3,000 people get saved!

If you think New Life is doing well by having a thousand regular attenders, they got that in one day!

Their unity stretched beyond that moment, the unity spread to all aspects of life.

They were unified in.... their vision; their works; their giving

Their vision - The Spirit of God had been poured out on all flesh. Now everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” - They shared the vision of multiplication because the Lord added to their number daily.”

Their works - They opened up their homes for ministry and many people sold what they had so as to take care of others. Their works became focused on each other and those who were being added to the church daily.

Our works must be focused on taking care of those inside our care but also on those who God is bringing to us on a weekly basis, those he is adding to our numbers. Are your works focused just on you and your family or are you thinking outside your bubble. Are you seeing coworkers and friends who don’t know Jesus? Invite them into your home. Take a risk, open up your home to having people over for dinner who you dont know very well. Throw a bbq and invite your neighbors.

Their giving - The people sold what they had and took care of one another. They were generous in their givings. If they had things, they gave it, if they had money they gave it.

Tithing - I want to talk about tithing for a bit; and I know some of you are not going to like it because I am going to step on your toes. If you get angry with me or confused with something I say about tithing then please come talk to me after the service.

Two things about tithing

#1 Don’t let culture shape your view of giving!

Many people don’t trust the church because of the abuses they have seen by other pastors/preachers. Right now a televangelist is trying to buy a $54 million dollar airplane, even though he already has three! We see this and apply it to the church.

We are asking you to be disciplined and we want you to know that we are disciplined with how we use your money. The lay elders hold us accountable as pastors. Accountability is a great thing to have for any organization and we are actually bringing in an outside auditor to check our books and make sure we are doing everything coshure. New Life has financial accountability! But don’t let culture shape your view of the tithe. We are all paid according to a mean average. We are paid based upon our education, experience.

It starts with Leadership, if we as leader are not disciplined in giving then how can we teach you to be disciplined. We want to set the example so you know this vision is real and we are passionate about it.

Tithing is not tipping! We treat church like tipping at a restaurant. You come to church, get the main course enjoy it and then flip a $5 bill in the bucket. Church is low on the totum pole of giving. If we have extra we give it to the church, but otherwise we give to everything else first. This is not spiritually mature. If you are partnering with New Life and believe in the mission and vision of this church then we all have to be unified in our vision, our works and our giving. If this church is your home, are you giving to provide for the basic needs so we can continue to grow.

#2 Tithing is a discipline

If you do not tithe or give to the local church it means there is something missing in your spirituality. How can you say you trust Jesus with your finances if you don’t actually trust him with your finances by giving. You know you trust someone when you feel you can give something important to them. You know you have a good friend when you can give them information and they don’t tell anyone. Trust is evidenced by giving.

There is one group that is notorious for being bad tithers. It’s my generation. The millenials (22-37), statistically are notorious for not tithing. We are very undisciplined in giving and focus heavily on ourselves. If you are not prioritizing giving, ask yourself what are you prioritizing?

We will give one time but then after that we don’t prioritize it. We don’t budget it. We get emotionally aroused.

Do you advance the Kingdom of God by having your cable?

Do you advance the Kingdom of God by having your Hulu or Amazon Prime?

Do you advance the Kingdom of God by Bing-watching the latest Netflix series?

Are you prioritizing the Kingdom of God with how you spend your money?

I am not saying don’t have extra things that are nice or help you relax after a tough day. I’m not saying don’t have netflix or hulu or cable. I am trying to get into our heads the spiritual principle of giving so we prioritize it over those other things.

Are you giving to your local church?

How much?

I am not here to tell you how much you need to give in the tithe and offering. You need to talk with your spouse. Tithe literally means 10% so that is the number my wife and I use, so always recommend using that as a start and basing your giving around that number. Now some of you are probably thinking, no way that’s possible! I have to many bills, I have to many things going on to pay that king of money, that is painful giving.

Thats the point, the scriptures are overwhelming in its support of prioritizing the tithe and offerings. Tithe shouldn’t be an afterthought it should be one of the first thoughts. Your budget should have a line item for tithe; it needs to be a priority. My parents showed me this. My dad worked at wal-mart while raising 4 kids at the time. Yet I know they faithfully tithed through it. Tithe was something they prioritized every month. I remember seeing them put their little envelope in the basket with their %10 every week.

If you are not tithing I want to encourage you to have a conversation with your spouse. Talk with them about what they think tithing is and how important it is for our church to be united in our tithing.

If we are going to succeed as a church and reach out and build the Kingdom of God then we must also be unified in our vision, works, and giving.

Kingdom Builder giving

All the people had everything in common, the rich and the poor sold land and their goods so they could help care for each other.

The church took offerings to care for themselves but also to care for those who were being sent out. (They partnered with Paul in the ministry)

All the people had everything in common, the rich and the poor sold land and their goods so they could help care for each other.

This is a sign of spiritual maturity.

The Tithe takes care of home base and allows us to focus a bit outside the realm of Aberdeen. If we want to fulfill the great commission and go into the whole world with the gospel then we also must have Kingdom giving. Tithe is meant for the home base but Kingdom Builders looks beyond into the future. Kingdom Builders asks whats next.

What is next for New Life? What does it look like to advance the Kingdom of God into the surrounding communities? What does it look like to continue our partnership with Osmar in Peru, what does it look like for us to partner with our community and become invested. Kingdom builders are those people who are tithing already but when they hear the vision of planting microsites; their ears perk up and they wonder what more they can do. Kingdom builders are the ones who hear about Osmar building another Kids club in Los Delphines and they ask how much will it cost to build that and what can I give? Kingdom Builders are those who hear about great opportunities here at home like our 5k, where we are partnering with an organization called “change for kids”, we are doing in September and ask what can I do to help?

Kingdom builders are those Lifegroups who have an idea to help our community by donating fairly nice sports equipment and then planning a day where they can set up tables here at church and then give it away to people who can’t afford it.

I opened a bunch of things on you guys to wet your whistle a little bit. In the next 3 weeks Rodney is going to be unpacking the vision we have as a leadership so you can be aware as to what is going on with our Kingdom Builders opportunities.

For now I want you to take out that pledge card in the bulletin, don’t fill it out yet. Take it home and begin to pray over it, talk with your spouse, figure out if this is something you want to do. As Rodney begins to unpack these Kingdom Building opportunities in the next 3 weeks ask yourself if this is something you believe God wants you to be apart of. We want everyone to be giving something toward Kingdom Builders, if its $5, $10, $20 whatever this is extra giving for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.