Provision
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Psalm 81:10
What an amazing verse! This verse points to the absolute dependence of Israel on the Lord when they were brought out of slavery in Egypt. The Lord delivered them from slavery into complete dependence upon Himself in the desert. Most of Israel hated this condition and complained against it constantly. The purpose of this dependence was for the Lord to glorify Himself through providing for the people in a way they knew it was the action of God in their midst. The picture is of a hungry person standing and looking up, opening their mouth, and waiting for the Lord to fill it. That’s dependence! The way the Lord met this need for a generation in the desert was by providing daily bread – manna (Exodus 16, Numbers 11, Deuteronomy 8, John 6).
This verse was the lifetime theme verse of a passionate Christian named George Muller. The life and ministry of George Muller has had a profound impact on my life. Muller ministered in Bristol, England during the mid to late 19th century. He is most well known for his orphan care ministry. Bristol was an industrial town struggling through the late industrial revolution period. There were an abundance of orphans and few social ways to care for them. Muller, and his wife Mary, felt moved to do something about this problem, but did not have the resources to help. The short of it is that they prayed and started to take in orphans one at a time. They specifically did not solicit people for funding but took their needs to the Lord in prayer. They took the posture of Psalm 81:10, for the purpose of seeing God glorified through answered prayer and provision. Muller expressly wanted the hard-hearted non-Christian culture of late industrial England to experience provision that could only be explained through the actions of God. The hope was that provision for these orphans would glorify God by God providing for their needs in a profound way.
Over his long ministry, more than 10,000 orphans passed through the ever-growing orphan ministry at Bristol. The stories and fame of the Lord miraculously providing for needs also spread. Over time, through walking by faith, every need was provided for and God was greatly glorified. To quote Muller, “Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained without asking any individual, for the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan house: there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. This then was the primary reason for establishing the orphan house. I certainly did from my heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor children…with the help of God to do them good for this life.” So, by not soliciting funds, while creating real need, Muller wanted to magnify the glory of God through real provision from a real God.
At Redeemer Bible Church, the elders have long ago adopted this same stance. As we together pursue local church ministry, we do not solicit funds for the work of the church. We take our needs to the Lord in prayer and ask for the Lord to provide. We actively want the secular unbelieving world of our time to see something radically different and God-glorifying through the financial provision of our church. We open our “mouths” and ask the Lord to supply. This posture requires walking by faith but continues to be the most incredible display of God’s reality.
This Sunday (during the member meeting) we will vote on the church budget for 2024. It is only a work of the Lord that all of what is contained in that budget could possibly have come to pass in just over four years! It is an amazing joy to know that over the past year we have taken our needs to the Living God and He has abundantly provided!! It’s also a joy to know that every dollar that has been given has been given freely and from a cheerful heart. Over the past year – by faith and through prayer – all the needs of two churches (Redeemer Spotsy Village and Redeemer Stafford) have been abundantly provided for. We have always run a major budget surplus as a result of generous giving. This abundance has allowed us:
- To fund the adoption of multiple orphans
- To underwrite most of the expense of many people going on foreign mission trips
- To expand into and renovate a new children’s ministry area
- To cover the benevolence needs of those in and around the church (major medical bills, needed home repairs, mortgage help in tight times, etc …)
- To give substantial funding to the Cooperative Program to help fund the International Mission Board, NAMB church planting, the SBC seminaries, and SBC disaster relief
- To expand our part-time staff to expand ministry offerings
- To pay for the design planning of a new church building and save $1.5 million toward building the new building!!
- To carry zero debt as a church
This is the provision of the Lord!
To close out, let me remind you all clearly that the Lord doesn’t want or need your money. Purely by the word of His power, the Lord Jesus can accomplish anything He chooses. The Lord instead calls for you to worship and love Him with all your heart. It is a far more meaningful action to love a person from the heart, than to give them a few dollars when they know you don’t care about them. Millions of people take this posture with God. He is not fooled. To love the Lord with all your heart, will displace your love of this world. May the Lord be glorified in Redeemer Bible Church. May we overflow with a love of God and the keeping of His commands. May we long first to reach the world with the gospel and sacrificially meet real needs. May we not love the world nor the things of this world.
Let’s go forward into 2024 continuing to attempt great things for God, while expecting great things from God! Let’s live in complete dependence on the Lord, and yet without fear or complaint. Only the Lord knows what next year will hold.
May the Lord Jesus be glorified in His church,
Pastor Vic