Worship- Sacrifice go hand in hand

I’m reading a book about vision based on the story of Nehemiah. In order to go and rebuild the wall, they had to leave their farms, cattle and families unattended. This was an agricultural society, so it was a huge risk, taking time out to fulfill this vision, rather than tending to crops and animals that would provide food for them. To boil it down.. they had to sacrifice.

Anyway, as I was reading tonight I was struck by a portion in this chapter of the book that I wanted to share. It’s about a 23 year old single female, Karen, who had a burden to see a children’s church planted in the inner city of Atlanta with 5 other friends. She wanted a safe place for children in the midst of the drug zone. They found a place to rent that was $2000/month. That night the 6 of them emptied out their checking and savings accounts and between them they had $52. No one was wiling to support them or partner with them financially. So she called her “staff” together to talk about what to do…

“It was one of those nights that we just had to be honest with ourselves. Is this what we were going to do? Or was this just one of those things that we were just going to talk about until we were 40 or 50 years old? So we decided we were going to take the chance, because every once in awhile you’ve got to do that. The next day we went to our landlord and we handed in our notices to the leases on our apartments. We couldn’t afford to have our nice apartments and have church for those kids at the same time.

I remember the night we moved in, it was 20 degrees outside and 20 inside. We forgot to check if the building had heat before we moved in. It didn’t have heat, air, a toilet, sink or shower. ..We had to drive down to Hardees to use the bathroom. Our new home came with cement floors and 17” sewer rats.

Karen and her “staff” continued working at their various places of employment. On pay day they would deposit their checks into their ministry account. Then they would each take $20 for living expenses. On weekends they began going door to door in the projects inviting children to their Saturday services. They made 4000 personal visits each week. Over time they won the respect and trust of the parents in those communities. That is how Metro Assembly got its start.

Today Karen and her 16 staff minister to over 3000 children in multiple weekend services and established a private school in the community. Tuition is $20/month. They have 150 students and 500 on a waiting list.
Karen’s response- ‘If you decide that what God is asking you to do with your life is just too much on you and is just a little too inconvenient, then you will never see the miracles God has for you.’

Search the Scriptures. Search the pages of church history. You won’t find an example of anyone God used in even a small way who did not make some kind of sacrifice in order to pursue the vision. Sacrifice and risk are always part of the equation. When a man or woman is willing to give up something valuable for a God-ordained vision, God looks upon it as worship. To worship is to ascribe worth to something… to recognize and respond appropriately to the greatness of God.

I thought this tied in with our theme this week of LOVING GOD and particularly today’s on WORSHIPING.