Prayer And The Annual Meeting

Last Sunday’s sermon was preached by Pastor Harry on “Prayer And The Annual Meeting” (Matthew 21:22; Luke 11:5-13; Acts 6:1-7). The sermon and the whole service can be watched on our WIC YouTubeChannel:

In our opening text, and in our first reading, Jesus gives us instructions on how to pray. In the opening verse, He stresses faith for us to get answers to prayer. Don’t pray with indifference. Pray as if Jesus were standing right next to you, and nodding His head in approval as you talk to Him.

 

And in our first reading, from Luke 11, we read Jesus’ story of a man who has a visitor late at night, who is hungry. The man has no bread left, so he goes to his friend’s house to borrow some loaves. He must have known what to expect – after all, it was midnight. And sure enough, the friend wasn’t too happy at losing a good night’s sleep, and told the man to go away. But the man kept on knocking and got his way in the end – the friend gave him the bread, not out of love and compassion, but simply to get rid of him! Jesus says we should pray like that: keep on asking; keep on seeking; keep on knocking at God’s door with your prayers. And because He’s a good God, He’ll eventually give you what you desire – or rather, what you really need for your spiritual growth.

 

I’m sure many of you have been praying for our Annual Meeting, which will be held right after this service. I hope you’ve been praying persistently, and with faith! For now, I just want to discuss the model for large meetings that worked in the early church. It’s described in our second reading, from Acts 6.

 

We see the early church growing rapidly – and that was precisely when conflict occurred. That’s interesting in itself: when the church grows, expect more conflicts, because more personalities are coming into play. The reason for the conflict wasn’t spiritual (though Satan was definitely behind it, trying to break up the church – so ultimately it was a spiritual conflict). But on the surface it was simply a food distribution issue, which could easily be sorted out with impartiality and good will: an administrative problem. To resolve it, the spiritual leaders of the church called a general meeting – just like ours. The congregation decided to appoint a body of seven administrators.

 

What were the criteria for being an administrator? It says they had to be well respected, and also full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. “Full of the Holy Spirit” means they definitely had to be “born again” Christians. And if they were well respected, that means they were known by all the believers: the believers knew who they were selecting. And it says they were given this “responsibility”. It wasn’t a calling – it was a responsibility, and they were accountable to all the believers for carrying it out. The administrators had specific responsibilities.

 

Also, notice that the administrators were not above the spiritual leaders; they were subordinate to both the spiritual leaders and the assembly of all believers. And they were all Spirit-filled. These administrators were presented to the spiritual leaders, the apostles, who laid hands on them. In that way, the number of believers increased dramatically.

 

Dear Friends, that is the structure we should be praying for: always biblical structures, not man-made ones. Many understandings would be avoided. In conclusion, I’ll mention some biblical criteria for electing people to positions of responsibility. 1) Are they filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom? 2) Are they well respected? Are they known by the church? Are they interested in the church? Do they participate in the church’s spiritual activities, such as prayer meetings or Bible study? 3) Are they prepared to carry out specific functions as administrators? Because being an inactive administrator is not a reason to be elected.

 

To make the right choices, we cannot do without the Lord’s guidance. So let us now sing “Lord I Need You”. Amen.