14th ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE

RF 14th ANNIVERSARY

October 9, 2016

When I look at what RF is today, I can truthfully say we are the expression of what God spoke to me as we prepared to birth the church: “There are a lot of scattered sheep in the El Paso area looking for a home.” Many times I have heard people say, "When we came to RF, we felt like we were home!"

We became a place for people to land, recover, and go out again… We became a place where people could be restored, refreshed, and rebuilt… We weren't perfect, but just like people grow into the expression of their DNA, we grew into a hospital where folks could find healing.

As a result, our target demographic has been Christians more than unbelievers.  This became so evident that we changed our mission statement last October from “Being one percenters” to “Helping others find hope in a spiritual family.” This was more representative of who we are!

It has been said that ’a growing church has to re-invent itself every 7 years’. We definitely fit that pattern…

Our first seven-year cycle looked like David’s army:

1 Samuel 22:1-2 (NKJV) David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

Our second seven-year cycle was marked by overcoming some severe financial struggles and by the desire to become more evangelistic. We sought to become younger in our leadership, more racially diverse in our leadership, and more structured to reach a younger generation whose largest religious demographic is ’none’!

Thanks to the unselfish sacrifices and contributions of our 'seasoned saints’, we began to reach more young families.

Now where do we go from here? What will be the distinctive of our next seven-year cycle?

Last Sunday during the worship time, I had somewhat of a revelation. As I looked around I saw our DNA on display: restored lives and families, weary saints who had been refreshed, broken lives that had been rebuilt. We are who we are, Restoration Fellowship. That will never change.

Let me lay out some goals for us over the next seven years. These are very practical.

1. Retire our mortgage.

2. Structure for longevity.

a) Continue to improve the family feel in our house.

1) Hospitality

2) Follow up

3) Connection

This is where we need all the help we can get!

b) Continue to focus on the needs of our community.

Last year I mentioned some things:

1) No hungry children.

2) No naked children.

3) Every family has a Thanksgiving.

4) Every child has a Christmas.

5) Every child has school supplies.

6) Every child has school clothes.

7) No one is lonely in our area.

8) No one is homeless in our area.

I am so proud that we stepped up and did so many of these things. We can't let up; we must keep reaching out.

c) Transition to new leadership.

In seven years, Alba and I will be 70! We hope we can make it that long; we hope you will let us hang around that long! Whatever the will of God dictates, we need to raise up new leaders to continue the ministry. This has never been personal; it has always been about having a church that will outlive us!

3. Plant a new campus.

Some of you may remember that five years ago we studied the book "Radical" by David Platt. It challenged us in five areas: 1. Pray for the entire world; 2. Read through the entire Bible; 3. Give sacrificially to a specific cause; 4. Spend time in another context; and 5. Multiply yourself.

I encouraged every member and ministry to multiply themselves. God asked me what I was going to multiply? He challenged me to plant another church! That command has yet to materialize. It hasn't died, just not sure of direction and timing.

I cannot do this by myself; I need your help to accomplish it. I want us to seriously begin to pray about multiplying this church in the next seven years!

Let’s all thank the Lord for His faithfulness in the past and in the future!

If you will allow, let me go into another area just for a moment that really holds the key to the future of Restoration Fellowship.  A pastor has three basic functions: prophet, priest, and king.  Most of what I have shared this morning has been as a king, a leader of a group of people.  Now I want to move into the office of prophet.

My heart is like Paul's heart:

Romans 10:1 (NKJV) Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel (RF) is that they may be saved.

My heart is for RF is that we all may be saved!

Romans 5:9 (NKJV) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Acts 2:40 (NKJV) And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

Hebrews 7:25 (NKJV) Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Brothers and sisters, if we get saved to the uttermost (completely), then the five things I listed earlier will not a struggle, they will be a delight!  You will pray without ceasing; read the Word out of love and devotion; give cheerfully; seek out the those in a different lifestyle; and reproduce Jesus everywhere you go and in everyone you meet!

We won't have to live in what I call Old Testament Christianity, but New Testament Christianity!

Jeremiah 31:33–34 (NKJV) But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

2 Corinthians 11:2 (NKJV) For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Colossians 3:4 (NKJV) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

INVITATION