Living by Faith, Giving by Faith

The Phase III building the future proposal that has been presented to us is no doubt one of the biggest things we have done in the lifetime of anyone in this flock.  This is bigger than Phase I and Phase II put together.

A month ago I called us to begin praying in earnest for God’s wisdom, will and leading.  This morning we enter into the next step, the pledge process.  For the next five weeks I encourage all of us to continue to pray and ask God to show us what He wants to do and how He will provide for this.

You have seen the concept drawings, you have read or heard the vision behind them.  A great team of people in our flock have been working on this for over five years.  From the input received at the townhall meeting adjustments and improvements will be made.  And based on the pledges we will see what God will enable us to do.

Exodus 35-36.

Our texts this morning give us Israel’s first building project, their Phase I was build a tabernacle.  Five hundred years later they would build Phase II, the temple.  You could say that as church building projects go we are moving at lightning speed.  We are up to Phase III in only 20 years.

There are some differences between their building project and ours.

First, God gave directly to Moses the detailed architect drawings.  God gave precise instructions and measurements for how to make everything that would go in the tabernacle, even down to the clothes the priests should wear.  Eight chapters of Exodus are devoted to how to build it.

Then, God became the project manager and got all His own sub-contractors.  He gave specific Spirit-anointed gifts, abilities and talents to specific people to do each task.

Finally, God stirred the hearts of the people to supply all the building materials, to raise all the funds for the project.  God was the architect, the project manager and the fundraiser.