25,000 By 2025
February 1, 2022
We just finished our series on Sunday looking at what we believe God has for us in 2022. We talked about praying BIG BOLD prayers, the kind so big that if God does not intervene they won’t happen. We talked about what it means to follow Jesus: that being a true follower of Jesus is more than believing in Him. A true follower develops a heart for people who are going to spend forever somewhere, and unless they personally have a relationship with Him it will be forever without Him. We talked about how God is going to create hundreds of opportunities with the relationships and the people who are in our sphere of influence. We must seize each opportunity to start a spiritual conversation and develop a relational bridge to Jesus.
We believe that God has called NewPointe, as a community of followers of Jesus, to bring 25,000 people to Christ by 2025. We have learned that we are called to do more than believe in Jesus. We are called to follow Him. Jesus said He would make us into something significant if we did. He would not make us more religious, more compassionate, better leaders… as good as all those things are. He was committed to making us into fishers of people. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19 ESV). We are not following Jesus if we aren’t helping others experience salvation, which is having Him be the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their lives.
We do this because we realize that without eternal life we are separated from God forever. Everyone will spend forever either with God or separated from God based on whether or not they have believed and repented of their sins. The stakes are extremely high. There is nothing else in all the world that compares with it.
The church of Jesus Christ began with recognizing the high stakes and joining together to make great strides. We learned in our series Twenty Twenty-Two that 5,000 men were brought to Christ in a single day in the early days of the church. What an amazing start!
Now you might say 25,000 people coming to Jesus is impossible. But it is very possible if everyone who calls NewPointe their home and is truly following Jesus works together for the goal. Look at the apostle Paul’s philosophy and strategy:
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 TM
I am asking each one of you to list 5 people who are not currently Jesus-followers. We will then pray for those on our lists daily that God would open their eyes and hearts. We will pray that we will have the courage to seize the opportunities God gives us to begin spiritual conversations.
We will pray for God’s help in structuring our lives and schedules to invest in these relationships. We will invest in them, spend time with them, invite them to listen to a podcast, have coffee… the ideas are endless.
We will pray and believe that God will eventually open the door for you to invite them to know Jesus and to attend a weekend service with you. Some of these friends will come to know Christ before they come to NewPointe, and some will do it when they come.
For us to have an accurate count, we need you to let us know when one of those on your list, a friend, family member, or co-worker, has accepted Christ. We will celebrate with you and help them see that they have found a new family!
Jesus said, “I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows me in faith, believing in me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with my Father!” John 14:12 TPT
But a life lived loving God bears lasting fruit, for the one who is truly wise wins souls. Proverbs 11:30 TPT
This is our calling, our challenge, and our goal! Let’s do it, NewPointe! 25,000 by 2025 because everybody spends forever somewhere. We are robbing Satan and populating heaven!