29/1/18 THE JOURNEY PT.4 – LEARNING ABOUT TEAM (EXODUS 18)

This blog contains:

• Community group/family study
• Daily bible studies 
• You can listen to all the messages at:  Link to audio content
• You can watch this blog in video form if you go to our Facebook page: CCP FB Page 

COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY 4: LEARNING ABOUT TEAM

Exodus 18 has much to teach us about working as a team. The chief role of a leader and leadership team is to release others into service for the vision God has given. Every sport, army, work place, government, family has authority and submission - life works better with healthy teams. Read Exodus 18 and pray that God would speak to you.

ARE YOU LEADING WHERE GOD HAS PLACED YOU?

•      Moses appoints leaders to help him to ‘carry the load’. This means that these people needed to be willing to sacrifice time and effort to do so. What reasons might stop one from being willing to lead and serve?

•      What does Ephesians 4:11-12 say about spiritual gifts and their purpose?

•      What gifts do you have and how are you using them to build the local church - are you helping to 'carry the load’?

•      God has given you a number of spheres beyond the church (workplace, family, street, college etc.) How are you or could you lead and serve here?

ARE YOU BEING LED WHERE GOD HAS PLACED YOU?

•      What does Hebrews 13:17 say about our attitude to leaders in the church?

•      What experiences might cause us to view authority with suspicion? 

•      Read 1 Peter 5:2-3. It’s vital that elders (same term as pastor, bishop, overseer) are not overbearing, but they do have authority from God. The eldership team, in liaison with the church, has a vision from God that requires unified faith and action. You are invited to join the team. We need your help! Are you serving on a Sunday team? Please talk to Jem or email the office about opportunities that are available?

NOW PRAY AND WORSHIP TOGETHER

•      Spend some time thanking God and praying together out of today’s text and discussions.

•      Please pray for the eldership team: Jem, Jason, Andy, Nev and Matt as they, under God, seek to lead this church. 

DAILY BIBLE DEVOTIONAL

PERSONAL BIBLE STUDIES WEEK 4 – EXODUS 18

MONDAY: GOOD NEWS SPREADS

Exodus 18:1 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Good news spreads! Word of mouth is still the best advertising! If the good news of Jesus does not spread from us, something is wrong. Are your friends hearing ‘everything God has done’? Pray that we would become like the Thessalonian' church, 

1 Thessalonians 1:8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it,

TUESDAY: LET CHILDREN TELL THE STORY

Exodus 18:2-4 After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”; and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

I love the names of Moses’ sons. Our culture reveals it’s values as it names its children after unworthy celebrities and the aesthetics of it (how nice it sounds to us) rather than what it means! These names reveal Moses’ struggle and source of strength on his journey; he desires for his children to know the story of God. Are we teaching our children the gospel so they can tell the story of the love of God? 

WEDNESDAY: MOSES SHARED THE GOSPEL

Exodus 18:7-8 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.

Moses’ priority is to reiterate what God has done for him - how He ‘saved them’. Let’s pray and make the most of every opportunity to greet and tell our families the gospel of salvation. 

THURSDAY: NOW I KNOW

Exodus 18:9-12 Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.

Moses’ witness encourages Jethro to see God’s victories and supremacy which leads to him bursting out in praise and worship. We live in a culture that equates all religions as equally valid or equally useless. Israel’s journey acts to show God’s jealousy. Pray that you would inspire praise in others to the only God. 

FRIDAY: YOU CANNOT HANDLE IT ALONE

Exodus 18:13-18 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”  Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”  Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

Jethro brings wisdom to Moses. Moses needs to learn that leadership is about creating teams rather than bottlenecks. Too often the church still operates like the ‘pastor’ is the one who does the ministry while the congregation receive ministry. This story teaches us that it is vital that a church recognises and releases leaders of all sorts if we are to be effective; as we read

Ephesians 4:11-12 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up...

SATURDAY: MOSES DID EVERYTHING HE SAID

Exodus 18:19-24 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people – men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain – and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”  Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.  

It’s a rare thing for someone to 'listen and do’. Moses is humble enough to listen to advice and share leadership responsibilities. Will you be a Jethro and seek to bring good advice? Will you be a Moses who will take advice? Will you be a leader who will receive delegation to serve and relieve a load? Will you be led by those appointed to leadership? If the church is to journey in a healthy manner, she needs to embrace the principles of authority, submission and service.

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22/1/18 THE JOURNEY PT.3 – VICTORY THROUGH PRAYER AND FAITH ACTION (EXODUS 17:8-16)

This blog contains:

• Community group/family study
• Daily bible studies 
• You can listen to all the messages at:  Link to audio content
• You can watch this blog in video form if you go to our Facebook page: CCP FB Page 

CG STUDY 3: VICTORY THROUGH PRAYER AND FAITH-ACTION

There are 2 dangers with prayer: we can over estimate our role - become driven, stressed and burnt out because we bear the weight of the world on our shoulders. Secondly, we underestimate the power of our prayers. Our prayers make a real difference to personal, local and international history! In this event we will see that all effective praying requires the support of your church community as his friends hold up Moses’ arms. Prayer is also supported by faith-action. If we pray without action, we don’t really believe for what we are asking! 

Read Exodus 17:8-16 and pray that God would speak through your discussions together. 

WHO'S LIFTING YOUR ARMS?

• What is Moses’ response to being attacked? What is your usual response?
• Moses is an object-lesson in prayer. Physical tiredness can hinder all of us from prayer; what other things can hinder us from persevering prayer? 
• What does this event teach us about the importance of prayer and is this reflected in the church and our personal lives? 
• Moses was helped to keep praying; how can we help one another to pray? 

WHOSE ARMS ARE YOU LIFTING?

• Are you a good example of private and corporate prayer and how could you grow in this?
• How can we all help to create a culture of prayer in the church?

ARE YOU TAKING FAITH-ACTION?

• What does Joshua do whilst Moses is praying and why is faith-action vital if we are to see victory? (Exodus 17:9-10)
• How would Joshua have felt knowing that Moses was praying for him?
• Is there anything for which you are praying that you need to act on?

NOW PRAY AND WORSHIP TOGETHER

• Spend some time thanking God and praying together out of today’s text and discussions.

DAILY BIBLE DEVOTIONAL

PERSONAL BIBLE STUDIES WEEK 3 – EXODUS 17:8-16

MONDAY: ATTACK

Exodus 17:8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

On our journey it’s not just hunger and thirst that we have to contend with, we also have an enemy who attacks us in various ways. A main strategy that the devil uses is deception - he counterfeits the work and word of God, as we see earlier in the story, 

Exodus 7:10-12 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

The devil seeks to distort God’s truth, let’s not be unaware of His schemes. 

TUESDAY: LEADERS NEED CONFIDENCE TO STAND ON TOP OF THE HILL 

Exodus 17:9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

We value action. Leaders who value prayer will be misunderstood and can lack confidence to delegate activities so they can be freed-up to pray and study. In Acts 6 we see a similar scenario,

Acts 6:3-4 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

WEDNESDAY: THEY WENT

Exodus 17:10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.

Very often we fail to follow-through on God’s leading. We hear sermons, for example, on UP –prayer/worship; IN - loving one-another and being hospitable; OUT - sharing the gospel... but are we actually doing what we hear and say? Let Jesus challenge us today,

Matthew 28:28-31 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

THURSDAY: PRAYER IS POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE

Exodus 17:11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.

Victory depended on prayer. If Moses had stopped praying, the inference is that they would have lost! How may battles have you, your Community Group, this church, lost because we gave up on faithful prayer? In our ‘Pray for a change’ series we talked about having a prayer list; how is that going? Are you learning to pray faithfully? As Jesus says,

Luke 18:1-8 Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”  And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?...”

FRIDAY: WE NEED EACH OTHER IF WE ARE GOING TO PRAY EFFECTIVELY

Exodus 17:12-13 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Moses’ friends help him to continue praying. God parted the sea and yet he expected Moses to draw strength from his friends! If we are going to persevere in prayer we need a church community to ‘hold up our arms’ through teaching and encouragement. But will we allow our arms to be raised in prayer? Do we listen to those who encourage us? Will we offer encouragement to others as they struggle to pray? Will you be a 'lifter of arms’ - and prayer provoker?

SATURDAY: GOD IS A JUDGE

Exodus 17:14-16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.” Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

God pronounces judgement on the Amalekites for their sin (See Deuteronomy 25:17-19). God is a perfect judge, As Hebrews says, 

Hebrews 10:29-31 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Those outside of Christ face God’s justice. God is particularly angry with those who attack His people and truth; His fury is against those who know the truth and yet choose to attack it. Let’s be prayerful, live soberly and take every opportunity to call people to repentance. 

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