Rick Henderson – Page 27 – The Everyday Prayer

Organically

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 8:14-17 (day seven)

As we work our way through these miracles, we see that Jesus is healing these people organically. I don’t mean this like He is feeding them healthy organic food, rather that this process is coming very natural to Him. It is in His normal pattern of life. Jesus is not going out of His way to find these individuals. Many of them are coming to Him, but the reason they are even coming to Him is because the rumor of His authentic and organic works are beginning to trickle out into the public. Jesus isn’t putting on a show. It is simple. It is the touch of a hand, the utterance of a word, in His friend’s house, on His road home. Simple, yet profound. The way Jesus approaches this situation begs us to ask a question of ourselves: who are the people in our normal pattern of life that are hurting and in need? Lord Jesus give us Your vision to see those around us who need You!

Faith Lessons

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 8:1-4 (day seven)

“When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.”

Very shortly before this, Jesus spoke these words on top of the mountain, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

The leper heard these words of Jesus. He was listening intently. He then sought obediently, approached reverently, and asked boldly just as Jesus had said. This man had faith.

For Jesus, here is a grand opportunity for Him to teach a lesson. He was very strategic in who He healed and when He healed. This was a time for Him to show the masses who were following closely behind these things:

1) He is who He says He is.

2) You can trust that His promises are true.

3) Faith in Him is where the miracle begins.

The First Day of Advent

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 4:1-11 (day seven)

How fitting that we begin Advent with the story of Jesus’ temptation? O Come, O Come Emmanuel. God with us. This month we celebrate the arrival of our Savior. We will celebrate His miraculous birth with images of the Christ Child, a sweet little Baby lying in a manger. This is the reason for the season! Our passage this week shows us this Incarnation in a different image. God not only came to be with us but came to be like us. Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” The virgin birth is only the beginning of the story. Jesus was born fully man, fully God with the anticipation that He would overcome sin and death, so that He could become our bridge to the Father. This was the plan of Salvation. This is the reason for the season!

Unification

Re:Verse passage –Colossians 4:7-18 (day seven)

Today we will gather in community as we conclude this series on Colossians. We will meet in Bible Studies and open up our personal Bibles to this passage we have read all week. We will sit under the teaching of pastors and teachers who have lived in this book for months. There is beauty in this Re:Verse process. Pastor Chris and Pastor Don were highlighted this week in The Baptist Standard talking about the Re:Verse and how it has unified our church. Unified study leads to a unified church.

This unification in our congregation seems very similar to what we see in the final greeting in Colossians. Two churches gathering around the reading of the same letter but under much different circumstances. Imagine the excitement and anticipation of the Colossians as this letter is being read aloud for the very first time. Imagine the intrigue as they hear these words of Paul telling them to take off the old self and put on the new. Imagine the burden they must have felt as Paul concludes, “Remember my imprisonment.” Excitement, anticipation, intrigue, and burden: what emotions will you feel as we gather today?

Thanksgiving

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 4:2-6 (day seven)

“keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving”

Who is God to you? For most of us this is a very easy question, and I reckon our answers would be somewhat predictable. God is Good. God is my Savior. God is All-Powerful. Now let me ask this question a different way; how does your prayer life communicate your beliefs about God? If we were to take a manuscript of all of your prayers this week, if we saw what you prayed for and how you prayed, what would it tell us about God?

Thankfulness is the leaven of our prayers. When we orient our priorities and attitude to be thankful for what God has done for us, it keeps our prayer life from becoming a selfish pleading to have our desires fulfilled. It is all about perspective. Multiple times throughout scripture God reminds us that thankfulness is essential to prayer, because we often find that as thankfulness increases, so does the awareness of things He has already provided. Thanksgiving and supplication are directly intertwined.

As for the Lord

Re:Verse passage –Colossians 3:18-4:1 (day seven)

This passage is full of commands from God. You can hear the doubters coming out, we have all heard them, “More rules. The Bible is just a list of dos and don’ts.” But pay close attention to the sentence structure. There is a modifier giving explanation and further instruction to every command. These modifiers take the command, which out of context could seem rash or harsh, and show us God’s true intention; everything we do is to be done as for the Lord. When we allow this aspect of the command to become the most important part, God begins to put modifiers on our lives. We begin to follow the commands He set forth, but not in order to simply follow the rules, but because putting God at the forefront of everything we do makes our lives look more like His.

Evident and Active

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 3:10-17 (day seven) ^“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you” Colossians 3:16a

“I love my Bible. I read it every day” Pastor Don Guthrie would say during so many of our children’s sermons. Words that were not just meant to teach our children a valuable lesson about the importance of reading their Bible, nor to subtly set an example for the congregation attentively watching along, but words that were undeniably true. Words that cause you to ask the same question of yourself; do I love my Bible?

This type of love is evident and active. When you love your Bible, you are dwelling in the Words of Christ. You are opening those pages; spending time meditating on the words He has spoken. Then His words begin to shape, mold, and change you. He helps you take off the old and put on the new. He shows you how to put on love. None of which is possible on our own. He makes these changes in you as you dwell with Him. When you love your Bible, your love becomes evident and active.

Not of This World

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

Two years ago I chose Colossians 3:2 to be our Freedom Weekend theme verse. I wanted this verse to resonate with our students as they looked at the culture of their schools and peer groups. It is incredibly easy for students to look at the here and now, and submerse themselves into “the things that are on earth” while becoming consumers of the culture that is around them. The more they consume of culture, the more culture consumes them. The more culture consumes them, the less they consume of the things that are above. This is not just an issue with the younger generations is it?

There is a fine line to be walked as we are called to be in the world but not of the world. The calling in this passage is missional. This calling is for us to set our mind on things that are not of this world, so that we, being in the world, might show the world that we are meant for so much more than this world can ever offer.