A New Year For Our Church

PHIL. 2:12-16 “A NEW YEAR FOR RLCC”

A) Several years ago when our country was showing signs of economic instability, right in the

heart of the nation there was a pocket of prosperity!

* It was the booming city of Wichita, Kansas! * Unemployment rate was only 3% …….

* It had a $14 million city hall under construction and the board of education had just approved

a $30 million building program.

* Right in the midst of a nation plagued with economic problems, there was a pocket of prosperity!

B) What does our world need most as we exit 2006 and enter the new year 2007?

* Can I tell you that, what we need is pockets of spiritual prosperity!

* We need groups of dynamic believers scattered all over the place.

* We need colonies of heaven, living clean lives as children of God in a dark world full of people

who are “crooked and perverse” (morally corrupt), as Paul points out in v.15.

C) That’s the church … That’s the way it was meant to be and the world needs it to be!

* What will enable a body of believers to be this kind of church?

* Let me give you four things this morning that will help RLCC to become this kind of church …

(1) A CONSUMING PASSION TO KNOW JESUS!

A) A well known Christian motivator says there are two questions he asks as he comes to a

group to begin his work … “What do you want?” and “Where are your men?”

* What do we want as a church? * What are our goals? * What is our fulfillment through service?

* Ask Paul what did he want … Look at Phil. 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power …”

B) The way he put it, he wanted to know Jesus better!

* He doesn’t leave the impression that his desire was mild … It was a driving passion!

* It was knowing Christ at any price! * Now almost 20 centuries later, this is still where the action

is … There is no real spiritual life apart from Jesus Christ!

C) This is the day that Christians need to honor their vows!

* This is the day in which Christians need to let Christ be the center of their lives!

* This is the day in which Christians need to seek Him, the living Word in the written Word!

* This is the day that we should talk about Him … That should be something that comes natural!

D) We should share Him because He is the best we have!

* And it’s no surprise that if we do these things, our relationship will be alive.

* John explains it in John 1:4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

* John 10:10 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it …”

* A pocket of spiritual prosperity will be found only when there are Christians who have a

consuming passion to know Jesus!

(2) AN OVERFLOWING LOVE FOR OTHERS!

A) Paul was not only inwardly excited, he was outwardly motivated!

* His love reached out to others … And the reason is no secret …….

* Christ filled his heart with love for others.

* Paul practiced love in action … Love reaching out to others at a great cost to himself.

B) Love which got him in prison … Stoned … Persecuted …….

* Does loving this way come naturally for those who trust Christ?

* Well, it begins with trusting Him, but it is enhanced by other exercises …….

* For instance: It’s necessary to get near people before we can love them!

C) It’s also in order to pray for the necessary love!

* That’s what Paul did for the Philippian Christians … Phil. 1:9 “And this I pray, that your …”

* Paul wanted these Christians to overflow in their love for one another.

* When you truly love one another as Christ does, you love them in spite of their faults!

* If we want a great church in 2007, we must have an overflowing love for others!

(3) A WILLINGNESS TO PAY THE PRICE!

A) There is no bargain day in the kingdom of God!

* Jesus made that very clear in Matt. 13:44 … He told of a man who sold all that he had in order to

buy the treasure which he found hid in a field.

* In Matt. 19:16-22 He told of a wealthy young inquirer that the way to eternal life was to sell all

that he had and give to the poor! (Explain)

B) Turn to Luke 9:57-62 for some more good illustrations …….