Praying, serving, giving
I am loving the Bible in One Year, which gives me the chance to soak in a portion of the Old Testament, New Testament and wisdom books of the Bible every day with helpful notes from Nicky Gumbel.
In today’s section from Exodus 35:1-36:38 Nicky Gumbel comments on the astonishing achievements that are possible when every member of a small congregation gets involved in praying, serving and giving. In that chapter the Israelites are about to build the tabernacle which is going to need everyone involved. We are not doing a building project, but we are building a local church that will impact nations – a gateway for the gospel to go to the nations. To do that we will all need to be praying, giving and serving!
Everyone praying
In Exodus 33:10 everybody united in prayer and worship “they all stood and worshipped” (Exodus 33:10).
On Friday March 18th we are hosting an Enough Half night of prayer. Thousands will be gathered in churches across the UK and Northern Europe joined in heart to call on God for his extraordinary blessing. We’ll be feasting, breaking bread, worshipping and praying in lots of different ways, believing God that what we do will have a huge impact.
Everyone giving
The Israelites took up an offering for the Lord Ex 35:5 – all who were willing and whose hearts were moved.In the end they had more than enough and the people were ordered to stop.
We want to be a church that is…
- Passionately pursuing God
- Multi-cultural – reaching every cultural group in the area with the glorious Gospel
- Draws people in and sends them out – a gate is a place of entry into a safe place and for sending out to our workplaces, neighbourhoods and the nations.
- A Church planting church – playing our part to re-evangelise northern Europe by planting 1,000 churches.
That’s going to require significant resources!
Everyone Serving
While building the tabernacle everyone got involved in serving. They were “stirred up for God”, to get on with the job. The task was achieved by everyone whose heart was roused, whose spirit was freely responsive (v21 Message). I want to live my life building a church that is a gateway for the Gospel to go to the nations. I don’t want to look back on my life and think on how much time I spent in a onesie, watching Netflix! I want to be thankful for hundreds saved, churches planted and communities transformed.
Joyce Meyer writes “If you associate with a person who is a visionary, you will get a vision. But if you stay around a lifeless people who want to do nothing but complain, sit on the couch, eat donuts and watch soap operas, then soon you will be doing the same things.” In the end a whole generation of the people of Israel missed entering the promised land because they grumbled more than they got on with the job they were called to. But that will be the subject of a whole other blog!
What now?
Everyone praying: Get the Enough night Friday 18th March 6-11pm in your diary – come for all or some of it.
Everyone giving: Have you asked God how much you can give this year? Check out our giving page for the how.
Everyone serving: What are your gifts? How can you serve the vision? Come to a joining day March 13th, April 10th or May 15th to find out more.
