The Everyday Prayer

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?

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

This is not theoretical physics. It’s two plus two; it’s the car payment, or your five dollar latte. It’s real life. That’s one of the things Paul is after when he mentions real people. He wants this small church to know that walking in Jesus is not theory. It is more than the assimilation of spiritual ideas, or philosophical musings. He really intends for his words to intersect into their real lives, at home, work, or the grocery store.

That’s where the rubber meets the road, right? Are Paul’s words, or Jesus’ just theory to us? Do we enjoy taking special time out of each week to muse on these spiritual ideas, only to put them back when we are done? Or are we like Tychichus and Onesimus, or Aristarchus, Dema, Justus or Mark, who by God’s grace walked with Jesus and put on their new selves in real life?

Hoping it’s the latter.

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

“Tychicus… is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.” “Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.”

What does the work of the Holy Spirit look like in your life?  What are signs of transformation that the Gospel has caused? In this week’s Re:Verse passage, we have at least two different indicators that point to the evidence and work of the Holy Spirit. One is faithfulness.  The other is change.  Tychicus was a faithful friend, supporter, and encourager to Paul and other believers. His trustworthiness and consistency in the faith were a testimony to his life changing encounter with God’s grace and strength.  Onesimus, on the other hand, was rebellious, hard hearted, and useless. But an encounter with the living Christ changed him. He became different- useful, faithful, and dear. What a remarkable turnaround!  Pause today and ask the Lord to change those qualities that are not Christlike. Also ask Him to build a consistent, faithful, and enduring will and walk in your life.  Both will be a testimony of God’s love, His grace, and His power!!

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

Tychicus was a trusted friend.  Paul was sending him to the church at Colossae to deliver the letter and to share with the church about Paul’s circumstances.  Now, if it were me sharing the circumstances (hardships, chains, imprisonment), there would be an element of dismay or ‘poor me’ syndrome.  I would want my fellow believers to be praying for delivery from my miserable conditions.

Verse 8 says, “For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that he may encourage your hearts;”  Encourage?…Paul’s perspective was much different than mine would have been.  He did not want to include them in his misery, he wanted to encourage them. {Barnabas, who is mentioned later, in verse 10, was the ‘Son of Encouragement’} Paul begs the question, “Do we encourage others?”  Do we want to drag people down or build people up?  Are people blessed by our words or do we add to their burden?  Strive to be the source of encouragement in someone’s life today!

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

“These are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.”

Paul means Jews. He’s glad for the company of fellow Jews. Paul regards with deep warmth everyone he names in this passage, but it is with just a few that he seems to sustain his deepest intimacies. Friendship is by nature an exclusive undertaking. It is a selective and restrictive kind of life that will require one to dispense with the noble-sounding aspiration to be equally a friend to all. This is so because the learning of another soul is a tender and vulnerable pursuit requiring the revelation of weaknesses and the calling forth of character in small, quiet moments of risk and trust. Love for the whole world is nurtured in the diminutive room of friendship.

Re:Verse passage – Colossians 4:7-18 (day two) Greet the brethren…vs. 15a

No man is an island…These words were penned by the great poet John Donne. Paul, like Donne, understood that since God has created us for community he has made us to work in community for a greater Kingdom purpose. At the end of his epistle, Paul is wise to include all those who co-labor with him to that great purpose of distributing the gospel of Jesus. Whether they were hand-delivering the letter, reading it aloud, maintaining the church in Colossae, or Laodicea, they were all part of God’s design to change the world.

No single pastor is called to do the work of the church. We are built for community, and every link in the chain matters to the great purpose to which we have been called. You are not alone in this fight, you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

 

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

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.