Rick Henderson

Beach Retreat 2025

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:16-21 (day seven)

I write this post from the ocean view patio of Port Royal Resort near Port Aransas where our High Schoolers from FBCSA have spent the weekend retreating in God’s creation and resting in His Word. Our theme for weekend has been relationships. We have talked about our relationships with friends, authority, parents, and even dating. Most importantly, we have tried to highlight that if our relationship with God is not our primary focus, then our other relationships will struggle to fulfill our needs.

We are created for relationships. God designed us with a desire to have deep relationships, but he designed us so that we need relationship with Him. When we fix our eyes on Jesus and run after Him with everything we have, God will provide us the needs we have for relationships through the Presence of His Holy Spirit and through the other people that we have found to be running along side us.

Wins Above Replacement

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:12-15 (day seven)

And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind. vs 15

In modern baseball there is an advanced metric that is being used to grade individual player’s success: WAR- Wins Above Replacement. This metric is gauged by a player’s success compared to a replacement level player in the same position. Essentially, you want other players to not succeed so that you have a higher WAR score. You want your team to realize that you are irreplaceable. You don’t want the person backing you up to take your place.

This is how I have lived most of my life. I have wanted those around me to be so dependent on me that they would see me as irreplaceable. It started with sports, but that mentality carried over to other areas, including my profession… which is ministry. Why would I want my ministry to fail if I departed?

The answer is in the question. It isn’t my ministry, it is God’s. I am not playing a game for individual success. I am a part of a much bigger team that God is using to reach this generation. My job is to work myself out of a job. I should be investing and discipling in such a way that my departure does not bring about a cessation of progress. Rather, when I depart, ministry should continue to flourish because I discipled well.

What about you? Are you living in such a way that your legacy will continue to be carried on when you are gone, or are you living to not be replaced?

Called and Chosen

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:8-11 (day seven)

be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.

Jesus calls us all. In the middle of the storm, in the depths of darkness, the voice of the Lord is continually calling out to guide us to Him. The enemy will use the storms and darkness to muffle the voice of the Lord so that we do not hear Him or to think that we do not need Him; but once that voice penetrates through the void and you hear the sweetest sound, you cannot help but to draw nearer to it. The storm begins to calm and the darkness is flooded with light all because you answered the call.

for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.

Were you chosen or were you called? The answer is both. It is by the practice of these things, the gifts and fruit mentioned in last week’s study, that we find ourselves drawing nearer to the Lord and in turn being made into His Image. It is then that we look back and realize that this calling was bigger than us. We were chosen to become Image Bearers and His Ambassadors back into the storm and the darkness, bringing peace and light, so that others might hear His voice and realize they too have been chosen.

Heavy

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8 (day seven)

… and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. vs 7

Is your heart heavy this week? We grieve the loss of a young mother in our congregation to cancer. We grieve the loss of a young father who was assassinated for speaking his conservative (and often Christian) beliefs. There were murders in trains and shootings in schools. To make all this worse, social media has been wrought with division as people seek to make death political.

In the midst of the heaviness of death, there is a spark of life. There is a call being made to unification. There is a call being made to boldness. There is a call to kindness. There is a call to love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. vs 8

Do you want to be useful in this call? For us to be effective in loving the world around us in such a time as this, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to instill in us a desire to increase all these qualities of a complete faith. If we increase in these things, we are promised Jesus will increase in us. If Jesus increases in Us, we are promised that Jesus will increase in the world.

Precious

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:1-4 (day seven)

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises. vs 4

Precious; a word that derives an image in our minds. Maybe it takes you to a Precious Moment figurine, a precious jewel, or maybe if you are a Tolkien nerd like me, you hear the voice of Sméagol saying, “My precious!” The language is meant to draw an image. Even if Peter had no clue that we would connect the image to a fantasy fiction series, he clearly wanted us to see that God’s promises are immensely powerful and intensely personal. These are characteristics of God that He reveals to us in our faith and through His promises.

These promises are magnificent. When we see them come to fruition, we realize that it was greater than we ever could have dreamed. He is Immensely Powerful. Yet, like a jewel, much of the value is found in its rarity. He does not hand out promises like a politician trying to win favor with the people. He gives you a promise at the moment you need it so that He can show you How great He really is. He is Intensely Personal. You are precious to Him, and so His promises are precious to you.

Profane the Sabbath

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 13:15-22 (day seven)

What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? vs 17

Many Christians will claim verses such as Romans 6:14 to attempt to diminish the importance of the Law, especially as it pertains to the Sabbath. Some may even go so far to say that Jesus abolished Sabbath laws. However, Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath in Mark 2:27-28 and said that the Sabbath was created for us. Though it may be true that we do not need to follow the Sabbath laws to the fervor by which the pharisees attempted to follow it, by no means is there anywhere in the Bible that would condone the abolishment of the Sabbath from our lives.

Why do we continue to profane the Sabbath day?

Working in youth ministry, I see the mistreatment of the Sabbath on full display. Baseball tournaments, musicals, and weekend trips have filled our parents’ schedules to the point that our most faithful students are attending Sunday morning worship and Bible study twice a month. What does that say about our less frequent attenders? We need to reclaim a Sabbath in our lives, not so that we might claim a better average attendance, but so that our people might find rest in the Lord, rest in each other, and rest from the world. This is why God ordained a Sabbath.

Everyone is Invited

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 12:40-47 (day seven)

God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced. vs 43

This celebration was not reserved for select individuals or VIPs. It wasn’t even reserved for just men, as would be normal for such an occasion in these days. The joy of the Lord fell upon the entire assembly as intergenerational, multicultural, and gender diverse worship exploded across the land. That shouldn’t surprise us, because that is how Heaven is going to be!

I wouldn’t be a youth minister if I didn’t see the importance of youth being in age and gender specific groups for certain functions such as Bible study and accountability, but when it comes to worship, diversity in age, gender, and culture lends itself to joyful and Spirit filled worship. Everyone is invited and encouraged to worship as one body, and when we do, we see a glimpse of what Eternity will be like. Worship in Heaven isn’t siloed.

Cursed

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 10:28-30 (day seven)

… taking on themselves a curse … vs 29

Though they were taking on an oath to walk in God’s law, there was also a curse attached to the oath. If they failed to walk in the law of the Lord, they would fall back into the same cycle that has plagued these peoples since the beginning of their history. The Israelites abandon God, face punishment through foreign domination, cry out for help, and then are rescued by a judge, king, or prophet appointed by God who puts things back in order.

The curse is more of a promise from God. When we attempt to do things our way instead of God’s way, we will become more susceptible to corruption from the enemy. It is not that He chooses for us to be punished for our disobedience. Rather, our disobedience creates a disconnect between us and God that opens the door for further disobedience. It does not begin with full on abandonment of God. It is little choices of trying to do things our way that gets us in to trouble. We think we do not need God, and in turn attempt to become our own god. That is when the promise becomes a curse.

Pray

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 9:1-3 (day seven)

Did you know that Nehemiah 9:5-38 is the longest recorded prayer in the Bible? There are songs and psalms that compare, but of the specific prayers in Scripture, none can top this Levitical confession. Yet, this prayer only takes about six and half minutes to read aloud in the english translation. If you have not read the prayer this week, go ahead and do so now.

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

What does it mean to pray without ceasing if Scripture only exhibits short prayers? Praying without ceasing is next to impossible. Living your life in an attitude of prayer is entirely possible! Like a quiver full of arrows, we should be able to reach back shoot up a quick prayer at any moment of the day. God wants us to pray about all things little and big. Those arrow prayer will help us achieve an attitude of prayer in our daily life. “Prayer does not need to be long to be glorious and effective.” -Guzik

Hear and Understand

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 8:9-12 (day seven)

because they understood the words which had been made known to them. vs 12b

This was not the first time the Israelites had heard the laws from Scripture be told to them, but this was the first time they heard The Law in a way that touched them to the core.

As we wind down the summer, I reflect back on Impact Camp. Something special happens at camp where students hear and understand scripture on a level that touches them to the core. The speaker is saying the same thing that we tell them every week, the Holy Spirit is the same God, and their Bible is the same Bible. What makes camp so special? Separation, Saturation, and Expectation. They are separated from their normal pattern of life, saturated in Scripture all week, and they expect for God to do something big.

What if it wasn’t just camp? What if we saturated ourselves in Scripture all week? What if we were to walk into Sunday morning Bible Study and Worship with the same expectation as youth do for camp? What if it wasn’t just something we checked off the box? What if we really listened to understand the sermon instead of just hearing another word? Maybe we too will weep. Maybe we too will be filled with the joy of the Lord. Expect for God to do something Big!