Raising Up Kingdom Minded Disciples
What Fills Your Life Will Flow From Your Life
What happens when you pour too much water into a glass?
Have you ever done this? Maybe you got distracted. You weren’t watching. You were filling drinks, maybe getting a glass of water from the sink, and before you knew it… well, this happened…
Picture a pitcher of water and a glass. Normally, you might fill it part of the way up. Maybe even 3/4 of the way full. If you’re really thirsty, you might fill it to the top. But what happens if you don’t stop pouring, you just keep going?
It begins to overflow!
This principle is true: What fills your life will eventually flow from your life.
What we fill our lives with will overflow onto the lives of others.
Whatever fills your life will spill into the lives of others.
What we consistently fill our lives with eventually overflows into the lives of those around us.
We see this all the time.
If we fill our lives with 24/7 news, regardless of where we watch the news it’s generally not good news, then we know what’s going to flow from our lives. It’s no surprise that what flows from our lives is fear, anxiety, worry, outrage and maybe even despair!
If we fill our lives with 24/7 social media, if we’re doom scrolling for hours on end every day, we know what’s going to flow from our lives. It’s no surprise that what flows from our lives are feelings of loneliness, darkness, disconnectedness, and despair. It’s interesting that something we think was designed to connect us and bring us together actually has the opposite effect. Our social media feeds have been hijacked by those who want to sell us something or influence us in a certain way. Either way, if we fill our lives with social media, what flows from our lives is rarely good.
What’s true for people is also true for the church.
What fills our life will eventually flow from our life.
And when the church becomes fixed on anything other than Christ, that church will lose its direction, its purpose, its witness, and its mission.
It is mission critical for us as a church to be purposeful and intentional to fill our lives only with Christ. To allow His Holy Spirit to fill us completely until we overflow. Because what fills our lives will eventually flow and overflow from our lives.
As we pray, May Your Kingdom come, May Your will be done, this is what we seek. This is what we desire.
Yes, we want to invite people to GATHER in worship, baptize people in the name of Jesus, and disciple people in the Way of Jesus.
AND, we want to GROW as disciples of Jesus, raising up more Kingdom-minded disciples and leaders than ever before.
How do we do that?
Growing in Christ: From Gratitude to Fruitfulness
The Apostle Paul cared deeply about the growth of the church in the first century. Not only did he suffer greatly for the spread of the Gospel, not only did he write over half the New Testament, not only did he plant and establish numerous churches, not only did he care and provide support for the sick and suffering, but he demonstrated over and over again what happens when our lives are filled by the Spirit of the Living God and what happens in the life of the church when our lives are filled with the Spirit of the Living God.
There is this pattern that emerges that begins with gratitude and ends in fruitfulness.
You can see this across the writings of Paul, but consider something he once wrote to the church in Philippi some 2000 years ago.
In Philippians 1, Paul writes from prison. There’s some debate among scholars about what city Paul is writing this letter from, but there’s no debate that he is writing this letter from a prison cell. Paul is in prison because he will not stop preaching the Gospel.
Our purpose as God’s people, as God’s church, is to preach the Gospel.
The Good News that in Jesus, there is forgiveness of sin. If we’re not preaching the Gospel, what are we doing? And, there is a cost that comes with that calling. There is a cost to discipleship. It will cost you something along the way if you are living your life on mission with God, for God, in this world.
But even when there is a cost, even when Paul is sitting in a jail cell because He couldn’t stop talking about Jesus, Paul is filled with GRATITUDE.
3 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.
Philippians 1:3 (NLT)
Growing Churches Are Grateful Churches
Paul was grateful. He was filled with gratitude to God. Even when you might think he was at one of the lowest points of his life, his heart was filled with gratitude. Why? Because, the church was growing.
I think there is a connection between gratitude and growth.
Growing churches are grateful churches.
We can’t stop giving God praise for what He has done! Growing churches are grateful churches.
Paul doesn’t start this letter with correction or criticism. That’s not because the church in Philippi was perfect. It wasn’t. Keep reading and you’ll learn that. But Paul doesn’t begin with correction or criticism, he begins with gratitude. Gratitude to God for the church.
If we’re being honest, we can all be a little negative sometimes, myself included. We can all be critical sometimes. Be grateful. Who are you grateful for? Tell them. Who has made a difference in your life? Tell them.
Growing churches are grateful churches.
Paul begins with gratitude, then he says…
4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy,
Philippians 1:4 (NLT)
Growing Churches Are Praying Churches
Paul begins with gratitude, then he makes the move to prayer.
Growing churches are grateful churches.
Growing churches are also praying churches.
Not only are we grateful to God for one another, we pray for one another.
We intercede for one another. And we do it with great joy!
Our love for one another expresses itself in gratitude and prayer.
This is what fuels the mission and vision of every church. Just think about it.
A church with vision that isn’t grateful isn’t going to grow. It will be crippled by criticism and complaint.
A church with vision that doesn’t pray can’t grow. It will be like a branch separated from the tree.
Prayer is how we stay plugged into the power source, the life force, that enables us to grow! (John 15)
By the way, when we talk about being a growing church, we really do have two things in mind. It’s easy to focus on numerical growth because that is something we can see, that is something we can count. And numerical growth is important. Not because numbers matter, but because people matter.
But we also have in mind spiritual growth. It’s harder to see, and it’s not something you can count, but we want to be growing as disciples of Jesus. Both kinds of growth are important. Both kinds of growth matter to God. We want to grow deep and wide, spiritually and numerically.
Generally speaking, Healthy things grow.
Paul starts with gratitude, then moves to prayer, then moves to partnership. Listen to what he writes next…
5 for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.
Philippians 1:5 (NLT)
Growing Churches Partner to Spread the Gospel
Growing churches are grateful churches.
Growing churches are also praying churches.
And growing churches are made up of partners who spread the Good News about Jesus Christ!
Don’t miss this… we exist to spread the Gospel! That is why we are here! That is the purpose of the church! To spread the Good News about the great love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We want to honor God in all we do. Yes, Absolutely. And, we want to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, Absolutely!
If we are not partnering together in the spreading of the Gospel, what are we doing? That is literally why the church exists! To take the Gospel to the ends of earth! (Acts 1:8).
Can you imagine a football team that met every week to practice, learned all there was to learn about the game, worked on the fundamentals every week, learned the playbook, studied the game from every angle, but NEVER showed up to play in a game!? Of course not!
Yet, how many churches meet every week, they study the Bible, they learn all they can about the Word of God, they know all the answers to all the questions, but they are not partnering together for the spread of the Gospel? Churches that do not partner together to spread the Gospel will shrink, fade, wither, and die because they are not living out their purpose.
Just like if you sat in a chair every day and you stopped moving, you would shrink, fade, wither, and die. Growing churches are on the move. Growing churches are made up of partners who spread the Good News about Jesus Christ!
Growing Churches Persevere
Paul moves from gratitude, to prayer, to partnership, and then to perseverance.
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
7 So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News.
Philippians 1:7 (NLT)
Growing churches are persevering churches.
In other words, in this world we will face trouble (John 16:33). Hardship and difficulty will come our way. There is a cost to discipleship. It will not be easy. We will be tempted to stop, to give up, to give in. And there are no guarantees that our vision will come to fruition, that we will reach our goals because we are not in charge of outcomes. We plant, we water, it is God and God alone who gives the growth! (1 Corinthians 3:6–7).
But…
God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
Our job is to persevere, come what may, in praying and participating in seeing His Kingdom come, His will being done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Growing Churches Are Loving Churches
We begin with gratitude, then prayer, then partnership, then perseverance, and then… love.
Paul says…
8 God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:8 (NLT)
And then he says…
9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.
Philippians 1:9-10 (NLT)
Growing churches are loving churches.
What fills your life will eventually flow from your life.
And what should fill our lives is love. Not just any love. But the love of God.
And when our lives are filled by the love of God, that love will overflow.
Quick question, what happens if our lives overflow with the love of God?
What happens if your life overflows with the love of God?
We’ve got a little kiddie pool that my daughter will put in the backyard sometimes and fill it up with water. She loves to do that so that our dogs, we’ve got two Golden Retrievers, can get in the water and play. But you know how this works, if she puts the hose in that pool to fill it with water but forgets to turn the water off, it will overflow. And if it overflows, we will get wet!
If we allow God to fill us with His love, He’s not just going to give us enough to get by. He’s not just going to fill us up. His love is going to overflow. And what happens when His love overflows from our lives? The people around us will get wet! They will experience God’s love in us and through us!
And Paul says this happens as we grow in love, knowledge, and understanding. Our knowledge of God and understanding of God should always lead us to love God more and love others more.
And when that happens, this happens…
11 May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:11 (NLT)
Growing Churches Are Fruitful Churches
Growing churches are fruitful churches.
Righteous character is produced in us by Jesus Christ. And this brings much glory and praise to God!
How God’s Love Overflows to Others
Are you filled with the love of God? Is the love of God overflowing in your life?
How can you know? How can you tell? Is your life bearing fruit?
This is God’s original design for His church! So how can the love of God overflow from your life and touch the lives of others? How can your life bear good fruit for the Kingdom?
Love and Reach Your Neighbors
What if we established small groups in local neighborhoods that were committed to loving, serving, and reaching their neighbors for Christ? Sometimes, it’s easier to invite someone to come to your house than it is to invite them to come to church. Having someone in your home is an act of incredible hospitality. It is something that is taught throughout the Scriptures.
We see this in the early church. We see this in Paul’s ministry. The first century church grew exponentially. How? They met in homes. They invited their neighbors over. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors and yes, that means people all over the world, but that also means our literal neighbors. And as the first church met in homes to eat, fellowship, worship, and pray, it grew! (Acts 2:46-47; Acts 20:7-12; Acts 10:1-48).
Meeting together in homes on a regular basis and inviting unchurched neighbors to join us creates opportunities to share the hope we have in Christ.
Offer Hospitality to People in Need
What if we could help people who travel for medical treatment? People traveling for treatment have so many worries and concerns. One of the greatest needs is simply a place to stay while they or their loved ones are receiving treatment. What if we could take that worry away?
When the Good Samaritan famously helped the injured man in Jesus’ parable, he not only felt compassion for him and helped him, but he also took him to an inn and paid for his stay so he could get well (Luke 10:33-35). We can help people seeking physical help and healing by meeting practical needs like these.
Plant Churches and Multiply Disciples
What if we could be a church-planting, disciple-multiplying church? There are church planters who are being called, prepared, and trained to establish new churches in areas of our country that are highly populated and unchurched. There is an urgent need to plant churches in places that are not only unchurched, but have never been churched! I was at a conference and happened to sit at a table with three guys who were church planting experts. You could say that meeting was accidental. I believe it was providential. That conversation opened a door to an opportunity to be involved in an exciting work. Don’t miss this, we were praying. While we were praying, God was working. Planting a life-giving, Spirit-filled church can reach this generation with the gospel, create belonging across cultures, and build a home for those seeking purpose and community.
When God’s Spirit Fills His People
When God’s love fills us, it overflows from us!
First and foremost, we want to be filled with God’s love! We want His Holy Spirit to fill us. Like Paul, we begin with gratitude → prayer → partnership → perseverance → love → fruitfulness.
We want to participate with God to make things on earth as they are in heaven.
When God’s Spirit fills His people, God’s love overflows to other people.
Partner Together Through Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Paul had another reason for writing this letter to the Philippians. He wanted to encourage them and spur them on in living for Jesus and letting the love of God overflow from their hearts and lives. He wanted to encourage them to be unified and to have the mind of Christ. He wanted them to press on as they ran their race and to finish well as they lived lives that honored the Lord. But there was also disagreement in the church. There was division within the church. And Paul wanted those who were at odds to love and forgive one another so that they could partner together for the sake of the Gospel.
Pray that everything we do would bring God much praise and glory. If there is anyone you’re at odds with, pray for them. Pray for reconciliation, forgiveness, and that we could all partner together for the sake of the Gospel. It won’t be easy, but the mission and vision of God’s church is too great, too important, for us to harbor disagreement, division, and unforgiveness.
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