SEPTEMBER 13, 2024
READ: Matthew 6 (Focus vs. 9-13)
MEMORY VERSE
“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
BACKGROUND
The factories of Victorian England were dark places. Fatalities were high, and workers often lived in poverty.
“How can the working man cultivate ideals,” George Cadbury asked, “when his home is a slum?” And so he built a new kind of factory for his expanding chocolate business, one that benefited his workers.
The result was Bournville, a village of more than three hundred homes with sports fields, playgrounds, schools, and churches for Cadbury’s workers and their families. They were paid good wages and offered medical care, all because of Cadbury’s faith in Christ.
Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). This prayer can help us imagine, as Cadbury did, what our workplaces would be like under God’s rule, where our “daily bread” is earned and our “debtors” forgiven (vv. 11-12).
As employees, it means working with “all your heart . . . for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). As employers, it means giving staff what’s “right and fair” (4:1). Whatever our role, whether paid or voluntary, it means tending to the well-being of those we serve with.
Like George Cadbury, let’s imagine how things could be different if God were in charge of our neighborhoods and workplaces. Because when He is, people flourish.
By: Sheridan Voysey
INSIGHT
Matthew 6:9-13, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer, might more correctly be titled the Disciple’s Prayer because Jesus wanted to teach His disciples how to pray (v. 9; Luke 11:1).
Christ gave this model, or pattern, because He didn’t want His disciples to utter self-centered, exhibitionist prayers like the hypocrites (Matthew 6:5) or to babble ritualistic, meaningless words “like [the] pagans” (v. 7).
Jesus wants us to pray in a way:
*That affirms our relationship with God:
*To revere and honor Him as our heavenly Father in our dedication and service (v. 9);
*To carry out His plans for this world and
*To live out His kingdom priorities and will for our lives (v. 10);
*To depend on Him and trust Him to provide for our physical and spiritual sustenance (v. 11);
*To become forgiving people because we’ve been forgiven (v. 12);
*And to be victorious in overcoming temptation, sin, and Satan (v. 13).
APPLICATION
What would your workplace or neighborhood look like under God’s rule? How could you pray and work toward this vision?
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS (From Post)
“…let’s imagine how things could be different if God were in charge of our neighborhoods and workplaces. Because when He is, people flourish.”
PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
God’s work done God’s way always leave a lasting legacy pr
PRAYER
“Loving God, please help me to see what my workplace or neighborhood would look like under Your rule, and empower me to bring change where I can.”
TODAY’S HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“GOD’S WORK” LeAnn Rimes
Got a vision that’s revisiting me in my mind’s eye
All us people be walking ’round, screaming out
“God, God, God, God, why?”
Oh, we’re thinking
That our God’s got himself a listening problem
When we’re the ones dragging feet
Never moving through,
The superstition and the doctrine
And we can’t get to doin’
God’s work
God’s work
God’s work
We are God’s work
You are God’s work
I am God’s work
They are God’s work
We are God’s work, oh-oh
Where’d we learn along the way,
That our humanity’s our downfall?
If we ain’t seeing God in everyone,
Then we ain’t seeing God at all.
Oh, I’ll be the first to admit,
I let my heart get hardened,
And forget all ’bout,
How grace is always here to raise the broken and the fallen
We can get to handing out
God’s work
God’s work
God’s work
We are God’s work
You are God’s work
I am God’s work
They are God’s work
We are God’s work
Who or what are we waiting for now?
Whose permission are we waiting to get?
When you’re serving, who will you be now?
And are you willing to be it?
It’s okay, we forget who we are
Welcome back, see you’re all prepared
Ain’t no time for us to crawl, no, no
So, stand up and declare
That you are
God’s work
(I am) God’s work
(They are) God’s work
(We are) God’s work
You are God’s work
(I am) God’s work
(They are) God’s work
We are God’s work
We are, we are…
Sing it loud, sing it loud now
We are, we are God’s work
Sing it loud, sing it loud now
Sing it loud, sing it loud now
We are, we are
We are, we are…
READING THROUGH THE BIBLE THIS YEAR (DAILY)
ACTS 24
