Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon for Sunday, March 25, 2007

Title: The Kingdom Focused Church

Text: John 4:1-38

 

John 14:12 (HCSB) /“ I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do.

And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father./

/I want to live in the world that if the church is not the revolution that Jesus died to establish two thousand years ago, it ceases to exist.

I want to live in a world where the church has no more crutches or buffers to guard her from injury.

I want a church where a culture no longer protects her.

Whenever the gospel enters an environment, it prevails./

/-Erwin McManus-/

 

(Read the above quote) That’s a compelling vision, isn’t it.

It’s a vision of a risk taker.

It’s a vision that has such a passion for Jesus’ church that he would rather see if cease to exist than to have it something less than what Jesus designed the church to become.

It speaks volumes of faith in the Gospel Message and belief in the work of the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I read this quote because I want to see people with the same passion as this for the church of Jesus Christ.

I want to see people in this church have that same passion for the Berkeley Chinese Baptist Church – that all of you would have a passionate desire to see our church become all that it was meant to be.

And because of that desire, we would see God at work in everything that we do, wherever we go, and we would see God’s kingdom every where.

That’s what happens when you’re in a kingdom focused church and you’re a kingdom person.

You get a passion for growing God’s kingdom and you have a sense of the immediacy of what God wants to do.

When Jesus came, in Mark 1, He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news!”

And then He said, “ ‘Follow Me . . .

and I’ll make you fish for people’ ” (v.

17), and immediately He began to do things.

In fact, the Gospel of Mark uses the word /immediately /a lot.

Over and over again Mark rushes through the events of Jesus Christ’s life so he can get to the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord.

When you read Mark, you’ll find out that it’s not only God saying, “I love you, and I’ll sacrifice my Son”; it’s God getting in the middle of humanity where we are and doing wondrous things that point us to Him and save us from our sins.

Jesus did miracles.

He walked on water.

He raised people from the dead.

He did all sorts of things when He was on earth as a display of His authority vested in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the will of the Father.

Jesus Christ was not only inaugurating the kingdom of God; He was unleashing the authority and the power of God.

If we are going to have a kingdom-focused church, then we as a part of our church must be entirely in tune with the work of God.

We must be doing the works of God, and God must be doing His works through you.

Never are we called upon to do work /for /God.

He doesn’t need you to do any work for Him.

The work of God is the characteristic of the kingdom of God.

It’s God unleashing Himself to His people, through His people, and all around His people.

So, what is a kingdom focused church?

Let me read you a definition taken from the book, /The Kingdom Focused Church/ by Gene Mims:

/A kingdom focused church is a church that exists to transform unbelievers into Christlike believers and to mature these believers into kingdom multipliers of the message of Christ./

That’s what we’re going to be talking about today, the kingdom focused church.

OPENING PRAYER

/Father, I pray that through the next few months that our church which you have placed us in, the Berkeley Chinese Baptist Church would become a kingdom focused church.

I pray that you would train faithful witnesses who would get out there and become salt and light.

And that we would be ready to share the wonderful gospel that You have given us.

May we become a church that focuses on Your kingdom, that grows in Jesus Christ, and that become effective as Your ministers in this world.

In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen./

I. RECOGNIZING A KINGDOM FOCUSED CHURCH

I’m going to begin with a story.

Many of you have probably heard it before.

It’s the story of the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus.

Peter read it for you earlier, so I’m not going to read it again, but I want to look at some of the things that are happening in this story.

Jesus has just finished His encounter with the woman at the well.

She said, “I think you must be a prophet or something because you are telling me stuff that I didn’t know anybody knew about.”

She was a woman with a passion for life, and her passion hadn’t drowned or ended, even though she had been through multiple broken, failed relationships.

Jesus just met her needs and she went on to be evangelist to the little town where she lived.

But then we find an interesting encounter.

The disciples come back because Jesus said, I want you to go and get something to eat.

Then they come back and they said, “OK, we’ve got something to eat,” and then He surprises them by saying, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

And of course, they were confused and said, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat.”

Now notice what He says.

It’s really a key to understanding who we are as leaders and what our churches are as congregations.

He begins to give insight as to what the nature of the kingdom of God really is.

It’s not some unearthly concept.

It’s not some theological stronghold of truth.

No, the kingdom of God is as real as you and I are real, and it’s all centered in what God is doing.

John 4:34-38 (HCSB) /34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” Jesus told them.

35 “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’?

Listen [to what] I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready for harvest.

36 The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

37 For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’

38 I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”/

The kingdom of God is dynamic.

It’s what God is doing in this world today to take back the territory, and He’s doing it one person at a time.

We might define the kingdom of God simply as the reign of God in our lives in the heart of a believer in Jesus Christ.

When He establishes not only salvation but lordship in our lives, He begins to reign over all of us.

He rules over us.

And because He rules over us, He begins to work and manifest Himself in that rule, in that relationship, in that righteousness that we have.

He begins to do something in our lives.

Every believer can say, “What a wonderful change in my life has been created since Jesus came into my heart.”

Gene Mims once again says: /The kingdom focused church is a church that works.

It works the same way for city churches, country churches, big churches, small churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches, and every other kind because the kingdom focused church has a shape that God alone will decide./

As we become more of a kingdom focused church, we will begin to realize that the pressure’s off.

We can allow ourselves and our ministries to be used as an instrument of God’s will.

We will be able to come alongside Him where He is at work and then all of a sudden we will discover that the solution that we’ve been trying to find to grow our church isn’t programmatic or mechanical; it’s spiritual.

You see, programs depend on people and resources, while a kingdom focus does not.

A kingdom focus is utterly dependent on God.

When conditions change or people come and go in the church, programs will eventually become obsolete or ineffective.

But with a kingdom focus we don’t have to abandon everything.

We might have to change our tactics, but our objective would be timeless.

II.

A LOOK AT THE KINGDOM FOCUSED CHURCH

Let’s start with /THE/ – An Article of Faith

/The/ is a /particular/ congregation, which for us is the Berkeley Chinese Baptist Church.

Our church has its own unique challenges and opportunities.

Our church is /THE/ church that God has put us in right now.

He has given each of you a stewardship position in BCBC.

He hasn’t put you somewhere else, and He hasn’t given another church your unique gifts, potential, and vision.

God thinks that the best person in the world for our church is /you/.