Author: Rick Henderson

Rick Henderson is the Associate Pastor for Students.

Make War

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 2:11-17 (day seven)

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. vs 11

There is a war for your soul. Are you fighting? You may think you have built your walls up high enough that the enemy can’t get through. You may think the once a week fortification of your walls is enough, but if you are not engaging in the warfare, the enemy will eventually break down your wall.

We live in a hostile environment. Every day, the enemy is bombarding you with an array of attacks hoping one of them will find a weak point. Once that weak point is found, the attacks become harder to hold off. The constant bombardment creates cracks in the once strong wall and will eventually bring them down. So what will you do? Will you make war? Grab your Sword and Shield and fight back!

“Take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:16-17

Royal Priesthood

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 2:1-10 (day seven)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. vs 9a

If this language sounds familiar, then you are probably connecting it to Old Testament passages such as Deuteronomy 7:6. Peter is using this common language to explain to his listeners that the Church is the new Israel. Jesus’ work on the cross created a new nation, not by race, but by His blood. All those who believe in Him now have access to things that were previously exclusive to Israel. He even takes it a step further by saying that every single person in this new Kingdom is royalty and a priest. These two things were exclusive to only a few people in Israel and they were never the same person… until Jesus. Our Great High Priest is King.

What does that mean for the church today? Personally, you have direct access to God. You can speak with Him and approach Him with confidence. He wants and desires to spend time with you. As a result, when we come together, the things God has been empowering in each us individually can be corporately shared and encouraged. We each have a part to play in the growth of our church and The Church.

Conformity

Re:Verse passage – 1 Peter 1:10-17 (day seven) 

 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. vs 14

Conformity is inevitable. The question is what image are are we being conformed to. Children are the epitome of this inevitability. “Nature vs Nurture” shows us there are things that we all have engrained in our DNA, but we still take on traits and customs of the environment we are surrounded by. We are conformed by what is around us. If you want to be conformed into the image of Christ, you cannot continue to surround yourself with the things that led you astray in your past. Sometimes those are people, environments, or different stressors. When placed in those situations, it is easiest to revert back to what we once were instead of who God wants us to be. If we want to be conformed into holiness, then we will need to surround ourself with holiness. What image are you being conformed to?

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Phil 4:8

Chosen

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

…who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. 

Don’t you love being chosen? Do you remember the feeling when you lined up at recess and one by one people were chosen to be on the different teams? Do you remember waiting through all the picks just hoping you weren’t the last one chosen? We all wanted to be wanted. The same is true today. We hope our boss chooses us for a special assignment. We want to be chosen for the grant we applied for. We want to be wanted. We want to be chosen!

Before time even existed, God chose you! The creator of the universe chose you to be a part of His immaculate plan. He chose you to partner with Him in His ministry. God wanted you and continues to want you even when you don’t want Him. The next time you are passed up or forgotten, rest assured that you were already chosen for something greater.

Faithful

Re:Verse passage – Hebrews 10:19-25 (day seven)

… for He who promised is faithful.

The concept for our Better Together series was formed during a staff retreat almost a year ago. As we all sat together in that room, we realized that we had missed being together as a team. We laughed, we prayed, we sang, and we dreamed. As we dreamed, we realized that just as we (the staff) were better together, so was the entirety of our congregation. God was moving amongst all of us to come back and tell you about “Better Together” immediately, but to do this right, we needed to plan it out. We needed to write our own curriculum. We needed to wait until the timing was right, but we knew that this was from the Lord and He who promised is faithful.

Wouldn’t you agree that He is faithful? Have you felt as encouraged by this study as we have? Don’t you feel more connected to one another than we did even a few months ago? The final word of our study tells us that we will be encouraged as we draw near to God personally and as we draw near to one another in community. That is how we will continue to be Better Together beyond these 13 weeks, for He who promised is faithful.

Incalculable Debt

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day seven)

When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. vs 24

How much is 10,000 talents. One talent was approximately 20 years wages for a working class citizen. Just for fun, let’s see how much that is in the U.S. Dollar. Twenty years working $15 an hour for 2,000 hours per year is $600,000. That’s just one talent. This individual owed 10,000 talents: $6,000,000,000 in todays economy. That is 6 Billion with a “B!”

Why would anyone allow such a debt to accrue? That just seems like bad management. Why would the king even let it get to that point? It seems absolutely ridiculous until you realize what Jesus was saying. We have a debt on our hands that is incalculable.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

The wages of our sin has accrued a debt we cannot pay back. Yet, Jesus absolved it all. We are debt free. God tells us we are Better Together when our relationships are in order. We can find forgiveness with one another, because God has already forgiven us all.

Temptations

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:5-14 (day seven)

For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come. vs 7

When initially reading this passage, it really makes you stop and think. Why would Jesus want me to cut off my foot and gouge out my eye? After a period of trying to figure out if you could survive like a pirate with an eye patch and a peg leg, you then begin to think about the root of what Jesus was really saying. He was saying that:

  1. Temptation will come.
      • It is a part of human nature that we will be tempted. Even Jesus Himself endured temptation. There is nothing new about the temptations of today. The vessels may change, but the fight remains the same.  1 Corinthians 10:13 
  2. Temptation is necessary.
      • Just as Jesus was able to overcome temptation, so can we. Not only can we overcome it, but when we do, it will make us stronger. Romans 5:3-5
  3. Temptation needs to be removed.
      • In order to fight these battles effectively, we need to cast aside the sins and weights that are holding us back and fix our eyes on Jesus, and He will help (perfect) our fight. Hebrews 12:1-2

Defining Moment

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:1-4 (day seven)  

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

What would have happened if Jesus had given them an answer they actually sought? Would the group as a whole be able to respect the decision while being hurt that it was not them? The question revealed their personal intentions and expectations. They had not quite figured it all out yet. At this point they were not there to serve Jesus, they were there for what Jesus could bring them.

Where were you when you figured it out? Where were you when you realized that being a Christian is not about what Jesus can do for you but what you can do for Jesus?

I think this was that moment for the disciples. Maybe not immediately, but looking back they saw this illustration and realized what it took to be heavenly residents. All three synoptic writers include this event in their account. John addresses his readers in 1 John as Little Children. The disciples all looked back at this illustration as a defining moment. They were Better Together when the together was centered on Jesus.

Get Out of the Tree

Re:Verse passage – Luke 19:1-10 (day seven) 

And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. vs 6

The icon above was done by William Holman Hunt in the 1850’s and was titled “The Light of the World.” People from around the world flocked to see what became known as a “sermon in a frame.” Jesus, carrying a lantern,  penetrating the darkness, has come to a door that seems to have been overgrown with weeds and has rusty nails and hinges, but the most peculiar thing is that there is no door handle on the outside. The sermon in the frame: it is up to the person on the other side to let Jesus in.

“Christ will not force himself into any man’s house, and sit there against the man’s will. That would not be the action of a guest, but of an unwelcome intruder.” Charles Spurgeon

Zaccheus had to come down from the tree and receive Jesus into his house. Like Zaccheus, when we go looking for Jesus, He will call us to do something. It is our responsibility to be faithfully obedient to His calling. It is our job to get out of the tree.  It is our job to open the door.  When we are obedient, He will then come in and dwell with us and show us more than we could have ever imagined.

Teaching

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 28:18-20 (day seven)

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. vs 20a

As I sat in a subway car on my way out of Manhattan late Friday night, I began to think about this verse in light of what had transpired this week. I led a team of 11 high school student leaders and adults through New York as we aided a church planter in Brooklyn. We didn’t lead anyone to Christ this week. I didn’t preach at a service. Surely we didn’t come all this way just to have fun in the Big Apple? That is when it hit me; the great commission is less about going and more about teaching. This trip wasn’t about making converts, it was about making disciples. Our group was able to have some rich meaningful discussions about things we were seeing and hearing as we were traveling. We discipled each other. We taught each other. We also had several divine encounters where God led us to speak with people about why we were there. We pointed hundreds of people to the Borough Church as we served behind the scenes for an NYPD basketball tournament. We were able to help the Borough Church host their first ever youth outreach event at a bowling alley in Sunset Park. Though we may never see the fruit of our work, we were helping make disciples by planting seeds. Whether we were discipling our own group or planting seeds throughout New York, we were fulfilling the great commission!