Walking in the Word

Greetings everybody. This is Doctor John you at the

senior pastor at Inglewood Baptist Church here in Rocky

Mount, NC. Thank you for joining us again

for another episode of Walking in prayer.

I hope you've enjoyed this podcast series.

If you haven't listened to some of the other episodes, here's

kind of the idea behind what we're doing.

We, we thought about how could we help somebody who might be

out walking their neighborhood or maybe walking in the gym or,

or just out walking with your spouse somewhere or some

friends. Or maybe you're driving and

you're playing this as you drive.

Or maybe you're at home during your personal quiet time and you

just wanted some guides for how to pray for different areas of

life for others as well As for yourself.

So it's always exciting that you join us.

We're we appreciate it very much and we appreciate the feedback

that we've received on this. We're going to also be talking

down the road about how to how to have a great personal Bible

study. So we're going to be talking

about that. So you watch for that as that

comes down the road. But today in our podcast, today,

our episode is about walking in the word.

And I'm privilege to be joined by our discipleship pastor here

at Inglewood, Jordan Reese. Thanks for being here.

It's good to be here. And so we're going to talk a

little bit as you begin your walk or you begin your quiet

time or you're driving down the road, keep your eyes on the

road. But as you're engaging in this,

we're going to be walking with you about how do I, how do I

pray the word of God into my life, the life of others and

into the events around me. And so we're going to talk some

about that because an essential part of discipleship, in fact,

we're going to be sharing about that here a lot at Inglewood.

An essential part of discipleship is that a disciple

engages the Bible. So let's talk about that for a

few minutes. Kind of what does that really

mean? What does it mean to engage the

Bible? What are some ways we can do

that? And what's the relationship

between engaging the Word and and abiding in prayer?

Yeah, well, when we talk about engaging the Word, we mean more

than just reading Scripture. It's about dwelling in it,

meditating on it, and letting it shape our thoughts and who we

are. Abiding in prayer means living

in a posture of ongoing dependence on God, and these two

are really deeply connected. When God's Word fills our minds,

it fuels and guides our prayers. And when we pray, it deepens our

hunger and understanding of the Word.

So several things happen when we join the two together and we

actively pray the scriptures. So number one, it keeps our

prayers aligned with God's will. First, John 514 says this is the

confidence we have before Him. If we ask anything according to

His will, He hears us. And when we pray God's Word, we

know we're asking according to His will, not just according to

our own sometimes self-centered desires.

It trains our hearts to want what God wants.

And then it also gives us confidence in boldness.

Hebrews 416 tells us, let us approach the throne of grace

with boldness. Man, when you pray Scripture,

you're standing on God's promises.

That gives you confidence because you're not relying on

your own words, but God's truth. And then third, it provides

words when we just don't have any.

In Romans 8, verse 26 says the Spirit himself intercedes for us

Romans 8:26

with inexpressible groanings, and sometimes we don't know what

to pray. In those moments, the Scripture

gives us vocabulary for our grief, joy, fear, and hope.

And the the Psalms especially give us prayers for just every

opportunity. And then it it unites us with

the global and historic church because Christians across the

world and across history prayed the same scriptures.

So when we pray the Psalms, the Lord's Prayer, or Paul's

letters, you're joining in a timeless chorus of believers.

Yeah, that's really good. That's a great introduction.

And, and I think what I, I really like about some of the

language that we're going to be using in our, our essentials for

discipleship. When we talk about some of these

active verbs that we're using here, we talk about engaging and

we talk about abiding. You know, these, these aren't,

just as you mentioned, these aren't just studying, these

aren't just reading. This isn't just a knowledge base

kind of thing. How, how many verses can I read

today or, or how long could I pray today?

Or did I make it through my prayer list today?

These really are verbs and activities that should impact

the way we live and the way we walk and, and how we're doing

that. So, so as you're beginning your

walk or your quiet time right now or as you're driving, I want

you to spend a couple of moments and, and ask yourself, am, am I

really, am I really engaged in the word of God that way?

Am I really abiding in prayer this way to where I can not only

pray scripture into my life and the life of others, but I can

apply it. So I want you to take a moment

and, and maybe even, maybe even rank yourself a little bit.

If, if I were to say one to five, you know, 1 is I'm, I'm

pretty weak in these areas and five, I'm really strong.

What number would you pick for yourself or for your family?

And to think about how could I improve in these areas?

So as you're walking along right now and you're looking around or

you're driving while you're in your room and having your quiet

time, I want you to reflect and ask yourself these things for

justice a moment while we pause. The.

The. The.

The. And not only do we want to think

about these foundational issues of engagement and abiding, but

let's talk for a few moments about how do I pray the word

into my own life? This may seem different.

This might be a new concept to your, maybe it's something

you've been doing your entire Christian journey.

But but think about Scripture passages, promises of scriptures

that that you can claim and you can personalize.

Think of something like the Lord's Prayer or Psalm 23 where

you put your own name, you put your own life into the middle of

it to where you're actually the one who's experiencing that.

Think about verses like Philippians 4-6 and seven where

Paul writes his church and says, he says you can go to God with

all of your anxiety, with all of your worry, and you can do it

with a spirit of Thanksgiving. And you can let your request be

made known to Him and he'll give you a peace that surpasses all

understanding and will guard your heart and mind.

What if you prayed that way in the first person to say, God,

here are my anxieties, here are my worries right now, and I come

to you and I'm thankful that I can come to you because I know

that you're listening. I know that this is real and I'm

talking to you. And I know that in the in the

midst of this, not only are you going to hear me about my

specific anxieties and work in those areas, but you're also

going to help me to be at peace, not because of my own strength,

not because of my own power, not because I've named it and

claimed it, but because Jesus Christ is guarding my heart and

mind. And so to think about how you

could personalize passages of Scripture.

Maybe it's it's from your devotional book this morning

that you're reading, or maybe it's for your Connect group

lesson next Sunday, or maybe it's something you heard in a

sermon and there's a scripture passage.

How do you personalize that in your life and make that your

own? So take a few moments and

whatever passage you might be in today in your personal time or

something you remember from this week or some favorite verse, how

could you put your name in there?

How could you put yourself in the middle of that verse and

pray that as you walk and as you work through prayer right now?

The. The.

The. The.

Well, let's also talk and this, this will be an important part

of this because, you know, we want intercession to always be a

part of what we're doing, even in our our connect group

ministry that that Jordan actually leads.

We're implementing a new intercessory prayer strategy

through our reach ministry. But how do we pray the word into

the lives of others? We got, we got to think about,

you know, there's, there's more than one kind of person out

there that they're the people we don't know, people we've never

met that person X out there, so to speak.

And, and sometimes we pray for all the missionaries in the

world and that kind of thing. We're all the lost people in the

world. But then they're also people we

know by name. So, Jordan, talk to us a little

bit about some of those ideas. Yeah, just just like we would

insert our name into those passages and pray those things

according to God's will, we can take that same principle and and

just insert somebody's name into Scripture and use it to pray for

the people around us, whether that means those that we don't

know personally. So let's just say the people in

your neighborhood as you walk, local leaders or school

officials or missionaries serving overseas families and

your community that are struggling or people who are far

from God, who've never heard the gospel.

And those people you do know by name that you see fairly often,

like your family praying for your husband or wife or

children, parents or siblings, church members, those that are

in your connect group, your pastor, friends in the

congregation. Even if you think about the

people you work with, their friends and neighbors.

Here's an example. So from Colossians chapter 1,

Colossians 1:9

verses 9 and 10, here's what this says.

We're asking that you may be, you may be filled with the

knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual

understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully

pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing

in the knowledge of God. What if you prayed this prayer

for someone by name? Maybe something like Lord, I

pray that Sarah would be filled with the knowledge of Your will

and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Help her walk worthy of Your name and bear fruit and every

good work growing her in the knowledge of you.

Yeah, and that is such a powerful thing to do because as

you said earlier, Jordan, you know, at the beginning, when we

pray the word of God, we know we're praying God's will.

We, we don't, we don't have to wonder about that.

Is it, is it OK for me to pray this for somebody?

You know, this is the word of God in somebody's life.

And so, and we also know that the word of God doesn't return

in a void way. So there's a power here.

There's, there's more than just a, a word.

This is the word of God. So this is a powerful thing that

can Pierce. And so I, you know, I, I, one of

my favorite life verses. I don't know what sometimes I'm

not sure what that phrase means, but a verse that has been very

meaningful to me and to my wife is second Corinthians 517 a a

common verse. Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away.

All things have become new and part of that's just because of

part of my testimony. But but I think about what what

about my next door neighbor? What, what if I said, Lord, I, I

pray that Norman becomes a new creation and I pray that all the

old things in Norman's life would pass away and that, that

all things would become new in Norman's life because of what

you're doing, because of what Christ, Because in that same

chapter, you could even go on to say because of the ministry of

reconciliation that Christ brings.

So just think as you're not only reading and studying scripture

for the application of the word into your life, but to think,

how could I actually use this as my prayer format?

You mentioned the Psalms and that, you know, that's, that's

almost their design. I mean, these were songs, these

were the the very first praise courses.

And to think about how David was using this almost as his prayer

language. It was he was singing unto the

Lord and, and these were prayers of praise and oftentimes

intercession. And a lot of times supplication

was praying for himself. And so to think through even a

study of the Psalms that way would be powerful.

So as you're walking, as you're working through your prayer time

right now, just. Think about those people there.

There, there's somebody that you might see right now you're

walking, you're you're looking at a house or you're driving.

You see people in a car or you're sitting in your living

room praying. And you think of that next door

neighbor or the person across the street or the person you

just saw at the store or the restaurant or maybe a family

member that you've been burdened about for years and you don't

know how to pray anymore. You've been praying and praying

and praying for some of these people and nothing seems to

happen. Well, well, try praying this

way. Let's see what happens when you

pray God's word into their life. So you do that right now.

Put somebody's name into a verse, nothing else.

Use John 316 to put their name right in there and and you spend

a moment doing that. The.

The. The.

The. The.

One last thing I'd like to talk about before we go and Jordan,

if you have any comments, it'd be great just to think about

some of the other episodes that we've done.

There have been various topics and this might be the first one

you're listening to. So you'll one go and look for

the others. But we've talked about how to

pray in, for example, for people who are sick.

We, we've talked about how to pray for people who are

spiritually lost. We've had, we've talked about

how do we pray for those who are spiritually wandering away from

the Lord, They're not active in his fellowship or the church,

etcetera. We've talked about in here how

to how to pray and worship. And then we're also going to

have episodes down the road at least about missions and perhaps

other subject matters. So so think about how applying

these principles from today's episode into those into those

other areas as well would be applicable.

And and think about how you could pray for, you know, pick

passages out and and pull, you know, somebody know that is

grieving. Pull Psalm 46 out and just put

their names in there and and pray that God would be an ever

present help in the time of trouble for blank, you know, and

and just start inserting personalized scripture.

Apply it to their lives and and pray that God would fulfill

those promises. And and what what I pray happens

is that not only do you find yourself in a deeper, maybe

fresher, more creative prayer experience where you're not just

reciting things, but I also pray that it draws you into the word

and that you find yourself in that both and that Pastor Jordan

was talking about earlier, that that becomes a part of who you

are. Jordan, you have any final

comments? Yeah, I think the hope is here

that this would truly transform your time with the Lord.

And as you, as you open up your time of devotion, whenever that

might be in the day, that maybe you you have a Bible reading

plan that you've done and, and maybe prayer is a struggle.

Maybe the reading is the easy part and knowing what to pray

and how to pray, maybe that's the struggle.

Well, maybe incorporating some of this into your devotion time

every day as you read scripture looking for ways to pray, that

Scripture will help draw you into a deeper prayer life and a

deeper walk with the Lord. Yeah.

In fact, that that's, that's been a problem of mine, to be

honest with you in the past. I, I, I, I don't seem to have as

much trouble studying the Bible. I, I, I enjoy that I get into

that. Probably that's the teaching and

preaching part of my life. Probably sometimes I find myself

in prayer. It's not that I don't pray.

It's the fact that I find myself just being kind of stale

sometimes. And I need, I need something

injected into my prayer life that'll bring new life to it.

And the word of God would be the best thing for that.

I mean, there wouldn't be a question about that.

So, so I'm going to give you one more pause just for a moment,

and I want you to just think through some of these other

areas that I've mentioned and just some of these principles.

Take a few moments to pray this way and then I'll come back here

in a few moments as you continue to walk or drive or pray right

now and we'll close this time together.

The. The.

The. The.

The. Well, I just want to thank you

again for joining us for this episode.

These have been a lot of fun and I hope that they're meaningful

to you. I hope that you will listen to

all of them. I feel like that all of them

really kind of go together to create a, a total picture of

mosaic, so to speak. Pastor Jordan, thank you so much

for joining us for this one. Thanks for having me.

And for those of you who are in our area, and if you don't have

a church home, we would love to see you at Inglewood Baptist

Church here in Rocky Mount. God's really blessing us.

We're seeing people saved and baptized.

Pastor Jordan's leading an incredible small group ministry.

We have small groups for every single age and family ministries

for every single age. And so if you don't have a place

to worship, a community, a fellowship of faith, please join

us. We'd look forward to seeing you

any Sunday or any Wednesday night.

You come find us and let us know that you heard about us on this

podcast and we'd love to meet you and greet you.

So thank you for joining us. We look forward to having you

join us for our next episode.