BH Bulletin - Tuesday 21 July 2020

Thought for the Day by Alex Forrest
(Voluntary Staff Worker)

​Matthew Chapter 6
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
 
Over the last two years I’ve been working for a church, in some capacity, and personally I’ve found the verses of Matthew 6:1-4 the biggest challenge, reminder, and encouragement in the way I minister to the church. Recently I’ve been on a growing leaders course and been reading lots about leadership in church and Christian contexts and I can still often so easily slip into “practicing my righteousness to be seen by others”. I know I’m not alone as many Christian leaders feel this way. Even in our day-to-day lives we find ourselves playing to the crowd, making sure people know the great work we’re doing for the gospel, how much we’ve sacrificed for Jesus, and how righteous we are.

We often think of our pride overtaking our ministry as something we all do, and is therefore okay. But in verse 1, we are shown how serious it is to be doing ministry to impress others, and not to glorify God. Jesus says if we do that on a regular basis, and don’t realise the error of our ways and try to improve in this area, we will have no reward in Heaven. Why should we? If we’ve been practicing our righteousness to be seen by others, we’ve already had our reward. We’ve been seeking our reward from being patted on the back and applauded by others in the church. If that’s the reward we want, that’s the reward we’ll get, as it says in verse 2. But if we want the real reward, the eternal reward, then our ministry has to reflect verses 3 and 4.
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Jesus doesn’t just tell us how not to minister for Christ, he tells us how to do it, and how to do it right. And the answer is, quietly. In our ministry, be quiet, be sincere, be dedicated, be genuine, be humble. Do it because you want to please God, not please each other. Not even your left hand should know what your right hand is doing, let alone the whole church. Yes, share encouragements from your ministry with the church, but do it because you want to glorify God and encourage others, not yourself. I know I need to hear this more than most, but let’s ensure that we are searching for our reward in Heaven, not on Earth for what we do in this life.
Alex 

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Come and pray this evening

There will be a short prayer meeting this evening from 19:30 to 20:00 on zoom.  Please join the meeting via MyChurchsuite.  Please let the office know if there are any problems

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Sunday 26 July 9.00am Service. Booking now open.

Booking has now opened for next Sunday's service at Bishop Hannington. There has already been a good response with nearly half the tickets having been allocated.
You can book your place by either using MyChurchsuite, the website or if you don’t have internet access you can ring the office.  You will need to book a place for everyone in your group that is coming including anyone under 18.

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