Well, words have power.
Words have power.
When we were kids, there was a playground rhyme
that was used kind of as a defense against name calling
or against those playground bullies.
Any of you guys remember this one?
It went something like this.
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.
Right, and then their angry words,
their name calling just fell right off of you, right?
And you were fine.
Yeah.
That was our defense, right?
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.
This is probably a poor joke.
I made it in the first service.
It kind of fell flat.
But I said, well, that saying is actually
from the mid 1800s, around 1850.
So some of you were little kids when it was first said.
Oh.
Better the second service,
but I had to set it up a little bit.
And I didn't call out names like I usually do.
But how many of you guys have found out
over the course of your life
that the second part of that saying is absolute rubbish?
Rubbish, we're British today.
It's rubbish.
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words absolutely do hurt sometimes.
Words have power and they do hurt.
In fact, the book of James compares the power of the tongue
that each one of us has to speak.
Compares it to life or death.
Compares it to a small little rudder on a giant ship
that even in the middle of a storm, a windstorm,
battering the ship,
that small little rudder can still steer it.
That's like the tongue.
It also says that a small single spark,
talk about relevant for our day, right?
A small little spark can light a giant forest on fire.
And we really think about that where we live,
we're always concerned about fires,
we're always concerned about sparks
flying off into the woods.
And so you make sure to do everything you can
that your fires are put out, waters on it, dirt's on it.
But just think about that tiny little spark
and how it has set off massive forest fires,
100,000, 200,000 acres from a single spark.
Well, so too the words that we speak.
They have profound impact.
Words have the power to arrest time.
You guys experience this?
You wake up, you're having a great outlook on the day,
you're all smiles and giggles,
you're ready to tackle the day,
and then someone says an unsavory word to you
in a matter of seconds,
and it disrupts your mind,
it disrupts your heart for the rest of the day.
You can't get it out, it's stuck.
Maybe it's the rest of the day.
For some words, they stick for a week.
You can't get it out.
Some for a month and some, in some situations,
some words have the power
to chart the course of someone's life.
Words have power.
And last time we looked at Ephesians chapter five
in our series, Redeeming the Time,
we looked at Ephesians five and Paul's instruction to us
to redeem the time by living wisely
to be filled with life-giving words of God
and to be filled with the life-giving spirit of God
so that we can know what God's will is
and we can live it out in action every day.
And today we're gonna look at another passage
that Paul wrote, this time to the church in Colossae,
the book of Colossians,
which will have a lot of the same emphasis
that we saw in his address to the church in Ephesus.
And for Paul, you gotta know, Paul in his letters,
he oftentimes takes the beginning portion
of his letters to these churches,
and he unravels or reveals some mysterious,
theological truth and dives deep into it
and just says who we are or divides the word really well.
But then usually in the back half of his letters,
you'll find that he addresses Christian living.
Now in light of what you know or what you've learned
about who Christ is or the kingdom of God,
live a certain way.
It's supposed to change our life.
Paul is all about helping believers to understand
what it means to live the new life that we have in Christ.
And you can see that if you flip one chapter earlier
in Colossians, Colossians chapter three,
he uses the metaphor of putting on clothing
to say that we should put on the new self in Christ,
the new self in Christ made in Christ Jesus,
which should absolutely have an effect
on the way that we live.
Our scripture today is the next chapter over,
Colossians chapter four, beginning in verse two,
and it reads like this.
Devote yourselves to prayer.
Stay alert in it with thanksgiving.
And at the same time, pray also for us
that God may open a door to us for the word
to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains,
so that I may make it known as I should.
Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time,
let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how you should answer each person.
This is God's word.
And so we see that the new life in Christ chapter three,
put on the new self, put on the new man,
put on the new humanity in Christ,
actually is lived out in our actions.
And it's lived out in our actions
as we saw in Ephesians chapter five,
but it's also lived out the new life
in the way that we speak.
The new life has new actions,
and the new life has a new accent, the way that we speak.
Me and my wife had the opportunity to go to Ireland
for our anniversary a few years back,
and we did it on a shoestring budget,
so we flew into Dublin and basically spent 10 days driving,
and we drove everywhere.
We drove across and up and around and down and throughout,
and we drove, drove, drove,
and that's kind of the way that we spend our time driving.
We've seen the world through a car window.
But you go over to Ireland and you know
that the majority of the folks there speak Irish,
I mean speak English.
They speak English like you and I.
That's not an issue.
Some speak Gaelic that very few of the young people do.
But even if they speak English,
when you speak to someone with a heavy Irish accent,
I couldn't understand a thing.
I'm trying to order stuff,
I'm trying to have a conversation with someone,
learn about their life there in Ireland,
and they're just talking, talking in English,
and I'm going, and you have to pay so close attention
to their lips, and you're looking at them,
and then pretty soon you're, what was that, huh?
Could you say that again?
Could you turn upside down and say it in a different way?
Like, I'm not getting it, and I would look over at my wife,
and she'd be like, wow, something about the gas
and a radiator and a boot, and like, right?
Like, I don't know what they're saying.
Even though they're speaking English,
the accent, man, made it really difficult,
and you had to be super intentional about listening
and asking questions.
And in the same way, it's like the new life
that we have in Christ.
People should look around and go, well, you look human.
That was good, right?
You look human.
That's a start, yeah, let's start there.
But something about you is different.
I don't understand it.
Something about you doesn't compute
with the rest of the way that humanity runs or operates.
You act different, you do different things,
you speak differently, something about you is wrong.
Your accent's off, and I don't understand.
I need to ask questions.
I need to lean in, I need to pay attention to you
because you've caught my attention.
And so what does this new Christian speech look like?
What should be our priorities in the way that we speak?
Well, we're gonna look today under two points.
The first one, if you're taking notes,
speak to God about people.
The new Christian life, the new Christian speech
is about speaking to God about people.
Devote yourself to prayer.
Stay alert in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray also for us
that God may open a door to us for the Word
to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains,
so that I may make it known as I should.
Paul begins this passage in the same way he did
in Ephesians chapter five with this imperative.
It's a present imperative.
Devote yourself to prayer, or you might say,
keep persevering in prayer.
And Paul is not introducing anything new.
In fact, it's a pattern of the New Testament
and the new life that we have in Christ.
Right out the gate, Jesus ascends to heaven,
and what do the disciples do?
They gather together in an upper room,
and what do they devote themselves to?
Prayer.
And just a chapter later in chapter two of Acts,
we find out that they, then from that upper room,
Peter comes out and preaches the first massive gospel
message to all the people who've gathered in Jerusalem.
Thousands of them come to Christ.
And then what's the next thing that it says?
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching,
to the breaking of bread, to fellowship, and to?
Prayer.
A life marked with prayer.
And then Romans chapter 12, verse 12,
Paul is writing to the church in Rome,
and he's saying, rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction,
and be persistent in prayer.
Did you know that prayer is the highest form of speech
in the Christian life?
Prayer is the highest of Christian speech.
In fact, you may go, well, is it speech?
Because all my praying's done in my head.
It's all here, so is that really speech?
That's one of the oddities about prayer too,
that we're somewhat unfamiliar in our day and age.
In the first century, silent prayer was almost unheard of.
You and I probably have grown up with prayer
primarily taking place in here,
and occasionally taking place out of our mouth.
The first century Jew who would have read this,
or the first century, or any of the folks
from the antiquity age, regardless of religion,
would have understand prayer as something you verbalize,
something that comes out of your mouth.
It is speech.
And prayer isn't for emergency use only.
Prayer isn't only for when the car is flipped upside down
and you're hanging from the seatbelt.
That's not the only time, that's a good time to pray.
It's not the only time we should be praying, right?
Or when the fire is bearing down on your house,
that is a great time to be praying and leaving.
But it's not the only time we should be praying.
Prayer is not for emergency use only,
but many treat it that way.
In fact, there was somewhat of a stunning study done
by Barna, Barna is a group that studies Christians
in churches, and Barna did a study on the Christian life
and what it means to live out the Christian faith
a while back.
And the first thing that they found, A,
is that Christians believe that prayer is very important.
How many of you agree with other Christians who said,
prayer is very important?
Good, you're in the right place.
But here's the stunning part, that's not the stunning part.
The stunning part is that they also found
that Christians pray on average one minute a day.
On average, Christians pray, report praying,
on average one minute a day.
One minute a day for a very important activity
that we all agreed on.
And so I would say most of us or most believers
are in the habit of using prayer
only for emergency use only.
It's like you gotta break the glass
to get to the fire extinguisher, right?
And I need it now, and then I'm done.
And now I'm good.
Paul says, devote yourself to prayer.
Another way you might say that is busy yourself with prayer.
Busy yourself with prayer.
You're not doing anything?
You got some extra time?
You sitting around?
Pray.
Busy yourself with prayer.
What kind of attitude should we have in our prayer?
Well it says to stay alert, to be vigilant in our prayer.
Prayer is so important because it's important
to be vigilant in our prayer.
Prayer is so important because it reminds us
that we are weak and that we are inadequate
to produce any sort of meaningful or lasting results
in and of ourselves, but Christ is able.
Our station isn't to be the most high
and to have the highest view on life.
Our station is as a humble, prayerful, and trusting child.
That's where you and I are supposed to live.
And we're supposed to let God be God most high
and to align our hearts and reshape our hearts
according to his will and purpose.
Devote yourself to prayer and let God be God.
And when you devote yourselves to prayer
and you're vigilant and you're alert,
Paul also says to do it with thanksgiving.
Why with thanksgiving?
And over and over again you'll see with thanksgiving
tied together with prayer.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to the Lord.
Thanksgiving is tied right to prayer over and over again
in Paul's writings.
And it is because ingratitude has no place
in the new humanity.
Ingratitude has no place.
Prayer and thanksgiving are inseparable
because ingratitude expresses at its root
a dissatisfaction with Christ's rule.
It's saying I'm not satisfied with you as King, Lord.
I'm not satisfied with what you bring me.
I'm not happy with my life.
I'm dissatisfied.
You are a bad ruler.
Ingratitude is just that.
So I'm not grateful or thankful.
And you can see how it is the opposite of what prayer is.
If prayer is humbly trusting the Lord
and aligning our will and our heart to his will,
then ingratitude is the exact opposite.
It's a lack of trust.
It's a dissatisfaction.
God, you got everything else right in all of creation,
but you screwed up in my life.
I'm ungrateful for it.
Paul says give thanks in everything.
Give thanks in everything.
Someone please tell me what is not covered by everything.
Something, is there anything that's not covered
by everything?
Give thanks.
Pray.
Well, who do we pray for?
What do we pray for?
Well, Paul in talking to his son in the faith, Timothy,
he says pray for everyone.
Pray for everyone.
We should be praying for people.
Petitions and prayers and intercession with thanksgiving.
There it is again, with thanksgiving be made for everyone.
Why?
Because it pleases God our savior who wants everyone
to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Did you know that persistent prayer
is great commission work?
Persistent prayer is great commission work.
It's evangelism.
It's the starting point.
We begin with pray and some of us are called to preach,
all of us are called to pray.
Paul asks that they would pray for this open door
for the gospel of God.
For the gospel so that he could go and preach the word.
And that's a really interesting thing for Paul
because he's actually in prison right now
writing this letter.
And Paul is looking for any opportunity that he has
to preach the gospel.
And it's not just about open jail doors either.
He understands what it means to be content and grateful
in every circumstance.
We see that in the book of Acts,
Paul is actually taking the opportunity
while he's in prison to do a few things.
He's writing books to churches.
Did you know we wouldn't have most of the New Testament?
Writings, pass the gospel if Paul wasn't in prison?
Because you know what Paul would be doing?
He'd be traveling and preaching.
He wouldn't be writing.
But he had some time on his hands
and so he penned a bunch of letters that we have today.
God knew.
Did you know that when he was in prison in Rome
that he was evangelizing the guard, Caesar's guard,
the troops, the people who were there to keep watch on him?
He's like, well, if you're gonna be here every day,
I'm gonna share with you the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You're gonna learn something about him.
I'm gonna minister to you because he was always looking
and he was asking the church in Colossae,
pray for open doors, pray for open windows,
pray for anything, any way that this mystery of Christ
might be revealed to people through my preaching.
Some are called to preach, but we are all called to pray.
And prayer is great commission work.
My son, my youngest son, they all have their own
little quirks, but of all of my sons,
my youngest is the most persistent.
And I remember there was a time,
my wife was reminding me about this earlier,
there was a time where he got fixated on turtles.
Yeah, young kid, turtles.
Everything was about turtles.
And pretty soon, he's only talking about turtles
and he's only talking about a particular kind of turtle.
I think it was called a slider or something like that.
Slider turtle or something like that.
And it's these small little turtles and he wanted one,
he loved them, he wanted to see them,
he wanted to buy one, and pretty soon,
every day it's about like, can you take me down?
Can we buy a turtle, buy a turtle, buy a turtle.
And in the beginning, it's like,
no, we don't want turtles around here.
Like, we don't want, what are you gonna do with it?
How are you gonna take care of it?
Where is it gonna be?
But every day, it was like turtle, turtle, turtle, turtle,
and pretty soon, it's like, all right,
let's go get a turtle, let's try this out.
And so we get him a little slider turtle,
whatever that is, little guy,
and then we stop hearing the persistence
and then the turtle does not live very long.
And that's the other thing with kids too,
is they fixate and then they move on pretty quickly
after experiencing the actual caretaking of things.
And so the turtle dies and disappears.
It disappears and moves on.
But through his persistence, he gained what he wanted.
He wore his parents down.
That's not very good parenting, by the way.
Sometimes it's helpful for sanity,
but it's not very good parenting
to let your child wear down.
And don't get any ideas either, guys.
But Paul says, hey, be devoted to it.
Give yourself to it.
Paul says, pray for the gospel.
And he believes that prayer actually can affect a change.
Prayer can do something,
and so I want you to be praying for it.
And it reminds me of another story that Jesus told
in Luke chapter 18, verse one,
that he begins this parable with these words.
He says, now he told them a parable
on the need for them to pray always and not give up.
Well, that's what Paul's talking about.
Pray always and don't give up.
And what's the parable?
Well, the parable is the persistent widow.
He says, there was a judge in a certain town
who didn't fear God or respect people.
And a widow in that town kept coming to him,
saying, give me justice against my adversary.
And for a while, he was unwilling.
But later he said to himself,
even though I don't fear God or respect people,
yet because this widow keeps pestering me,
I will give her justice so that she doesn't wear me out
by her persistent coming.
This is a parable Jesus taught his disciples
on how to pray.
Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.
And basically the point of the parable is this,
if even a rotten judge who doesn't wanna do what's right
and doesn't fear God can be persuaded
through persistent inquiry to change their mind
and give justice, then even God, or of course God,
who is just, who is good and is right,
will respond to the persistent prayers of his children.
Amen?
So pester God.
Pester God, and more importantly,
pester him or be persistent on the things that he wants.
See, sometimes we read things that he wants in the Bible,
but we don't see them coming to be in reality.
But we forget to pray and pester him
about the things that he wants.
For instance, does God want that the world would know
who Christ is?
Yes, so God, if you want that to happen,
I'm willing and ready, make opportunities,
give me resources and give me the words to speak.
And if you're a coward, give me courage.
Give me courage.
You make good on what you want to happen.
It is said that God wants none to perish,
but that all would come to life, right?
Well, I'm gonna go be faithful.
God, you do your part.
You do what only you can do.
I'm gonna show up, but I'm gonna pray
that God would do what he has commanded us to do,
that he might provide the resources for us to do it.
You know, as a church, oftentimes you're faced with,
hey, we wanna bring the gospel to life,
that's our mission here at Village.
We wanna move forward, but there are actual limitations
in this world to what you can do, right?
You can only meet so often.
People have things to do.
You only have so much finances to do the things
that you need to do, right?
But oftentimes our prayer is, God, if you want us to do this,
then you have to make a way.
You own the cows on a thousand hills, right?
The cattle on a thousand hills.
What's it to you to make this happen?
What's it to you?
But we have to pray that.
He wants his children to come trusting him,
believing his promises and ask him to do it.
Do what you promised, Lord.
Be persistent.
When the widow went to the judge,
of course the judge is supposed to give her justice.
That's his job.
When a child goes to the father and says,
give me what you promised, it's the father's job
to follow through with what he promised.
It's the father's job to do good and right.
And so we go to him as trusting children,
believing that what he said is true,
believing that he actually wants what he said he wants.
And we may not know all the details
and it may not work out exactly how we strategize it
in our mind, but nonetheless, Jesus said,
hey, you wanna know how to pray?
Pray like that widow who keeps pestering the guy
to get what he's supposed to give her.
That's how we're supposed to pray.
Number two, if you're taking notes,
the first one is speak to God about people.
The second one is speak to people about God.
In Colossians four, verse five, it says,
act wisely towards out-writers, making the most of the time.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how you should answer each person.
If you were here last week,
verse five immediately reminds me of Ephesians.
A lot of the same language right here in verse five and six.
And so we hear in verse five, two,
act wisely toward out-siders.
Well, act is the same Greek word
that we saw in Ephesians for walk.
And it's a metaphor for live life in action.
Live life in action, wisely toward out-siders.
Our focus is to be, in this scripture, on out-siders
and how we live toward them.
Out-siders is just another way of saying,
those who are outside of the faith
or those who are outside of the church,
how are we supposed to live?
How are we supposed to reach them?
How is the gospel supposed to come to them through us?
We're supposed to act wisely toward out-siders.
We're supposed to act wisely, making the most of the time.
Making the most of the time is a phrase
that can mean redeeming the time
or purchasing or buying back the time.
For what?
For God's purposes.
For what he's called us to as the new humanity,
as the new people of God.
What has God called us to?
He's to make the most of the time,
to redeem the moments that God is sending our way
for the gospel advance and for the kingdom's advance.
Those kairos moments, opportune moments,
ripe, ready for harvest, ready for good.
Redeeming the time means looking for more
and more appropriate ways to show Christ in our lives
among those who don't know him.
Looking for more and more appropriate ways.
How many days do we wake up thinking,
okay, yesterday I did this, the day before I did that,
how can I look for a more appropriate way
to show Christ today?
How can I tweak the dial a little bit
so that today I can show the glory of who Christ is
a little bit more through my life?
Not everyone is called to preach.
That should be a real,
burden lifted off your shoulders.
For some of you, if I asked you to be on the second step
of the stage, you'd be sweating bullets.
Not all of us are called to preach.
In fact, very few are called to preach,
especially in the way that Paul did.
You know, Paul would pull up into town
and he'd just start talking to people
and pretty soon he'd have a crowd,
and he'd be yelling at the top of his lungs,
and then he'd be driven out of town and get stoned.
Not many of us are called to do that.
When I was in youth group, you know,
and they're always trying to run around
and they're always trying to rile up the youth
in youth group at church,
and you kind of got the sense that you had to get enough
boldness to be able to stand up in the middle
of a McDonald's and preach the gospel.
And the more I've matured
and the more I've understood the scripture,
the more I see that actually Paul lays out
a more strategic approach to how evangelism
is supposed to take in our lives.
That instead of going through the front door
and yelling boldly and getting shouted down
or escorted out, we're supposed to live lives
in such a way around people that they ask questions,
that it opens them up to go,
what is going on in your life?
Why do you have the hope that you have?
Why do you have the peace that you have?
What's with the patience you have?
Why do you talk to your children that way?
That's not normal.
It's good, it's not normal.
Why do you interact that way?
Why do you show that kindness or mercy?
Why aren't you mad at that person
in the way that most people would be?
What's going on?
And this form of evangelism is far more subversive
to culture and to the people around you
than coming direct.
You know what happens oftentimes when you preach direct
to someone who doesn't wanna hear it?
What happens?
Shut down, don't wanna hear it, right?
You shut down.
But this one comes along and says,
let's live life together, let's talk.
And there's lots of ways that this evangelism
can take place in our lives.
Each of us are different and we're wired different,
and this is not a bad thing.
It's not to say, like I said, everyone is supposed
to stand up in the middle of the town square unto death
to preach the gospel, but it is to say,
hey, every one of us is called to something different.
And in verse four, Paul says, hey, pray for the open door
for the gospel so that I can preach as I should.
Well, Paul should preach because he's called
and he's gifted to do that.
But then at the last verse of the passage
that we're reading today, the last verse says,
right here, any second now, there it is.
It says, at the same time, oh, that's his verse.
Let's do the second verse here.
Verse six, let your speech always be gracious,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how you should answer each person.
He uses the same word, you should answer,
as he said, I should preach.
I should preach, you should be prepared to answer.
I should preach the gospel on the corners
and in the towns, even if it means my death.
You should go into this world and be prepared to answer.
That's how you make the most of your time as you go about.
Paul is going to actively proclaim and preach.
You need to be ready to answer people
who question your life, who question your peace,
question your hope and your joy,
or maybe they just have questions about the faith.
A pastor out of Florida, his name's Joe B. Martin,
he's with a very large church, I think it's 1122,
Church of 1122, he talks about four ways
that this might look in our lives.
He says, for some of you, you're the coffee guy or gal.
For you, evangelism looks like inviting someone out
to coffee and opening the door so that you can
just share stories about your life.
Who are you, what's important to you, what's significant?
And in those, being prepared for opportune moments
that God might open as you're having coffee.
And you're just attentive, you're watching,
you're listening, you're adjusting to try to be prepared
for whatever open doors may happen at coffee time.
Some of you may be the prayer guy or gal.
And what you're gonna do is you're gonna go to your work
or places where you have friends who are outsiders
or nonbelievers, and you're just gonna resolve
to be known as the person who wants to pray for everyone.
You know, I don't, I can't stand up and preach,
but if someone comes and shares a difficult thing
that's going on in their life, I can say,
hey, would it be okay if I prayed for you really quick?
And pretty soon, that's gonna spread like infection
through my workplace, and they're gonna know me
as the guy they can go to to pray for them,
and I'm just gonna pray for them,
and then I'm gonna be watching to see
if the window cracks open for an opportunity for the gospel.
I'm gonna be the prayer guy,
and everyone will just know me that.
Some of you may be the invite guy or gal.
I don't, I'm not really good with my words,
and I don't really put it together,
and I'm socially awkward, and it'd be really weird
to go out to coffee because I would just sit there quiet,
and it would just be weird.
But I can invite people to come to church with me.
And I can invite them to places where the gospel
will be proclaimed or taught, and I can get them
within earshot of the gospel, and that's my way
of reaching people and looking for opportunities.
And then after the gospel is shared with them,
I can be prepared to answer questions that they might have.
I'm the invite guy.
Or some of you, you need to study the gospel.
You need to get your elevator pitch together,
and you need to be prepared to share it
because that's what God's calling you to.
How can you package the gospel together
in a way, well in what way?
This verse tells us in a salty way.
The gospel needs to be packaged in a salty way.
Well what's a salty way?
It is only fitting that the gospel of grace
should be shared with grace-filled speech.
It is a travesty when people attack others with the gospel.
This is not what the gospel is supposed to be used for.
A gospel of grace should be filled with grace.
A gospel of grace should be filled with grace speech.
And it says to do it seasoned with salt.
Salt adds flavor, and salt preserves food, right?
And so in other words, it makes food tasty,
and it makes food wholesome.
And we redeem the time when we practice and prepare
salty, grace-saturated gospel answers
for those who are seeking hope.
You never know when the opportune moments will come.
You just don't.
I remember as men, we would gather together
for Bible study, and for a while we would gather here
in the church, but then we started gathering
at a Starbucks, and do you know, just gathering
at a Starbucks around a table with five guys
in their Bibles open creates countless opportune moments.
I can't even tell you how many people would stop
by the table and go, what are you guys studying?
You know, and it was a bunch of big guys, right?
You know, got beards and working men around this table,
and someone would say, what's going on over here?
What are you guys studying?
And some would be like, oh, that's really cool,
you're studying the Bible, and others would be like,
okay, and then just leave, like as quick as possible.
But all of them were curious, they wanted to know
what's going on, this is odd.
Why did they all bow their head and pray, right?
I've been a part of other groups, not around here,
but in the past, where we would go, and the one leading
the group would be like, let's get our prayer requests,
and we can just say the prayer silently in our heart,
because we don't want to bow our heads here
in the Starbucks and disrupt it.
It's like, really?
Yes, we do.
We actually want to actively do that.
We want to pray out loud, we don't want to pray loud,
we want it gracious, right?
We don't want to get kicked out, we want to season the room
with the flavor of the gospel, and let it spread around,
so that if someone tasted and goes, I'm interested,
a door might open and we could share the good news.
You never know those moments.
Heard a story of someone praying, there was three beds
in a hospital room, one of the patients had their curtain
completely closed, the other two were open,
and one lady said, hey, can I pray for you to the other bed?
And got up and prayed for them, and that third person
in that hospital room just listened.
Said, day or two later, said, I didn't have the courage
to open or ask for prayer, I'm not a believer,
I've never been to the church, but I heard you praying
for the other patient, would you please come
to the church, would you pray for me?
And they got to share their hope, not only in word,
but in prayer, and just see what the Lord does with that.
There's opportune moments all around, and it's just us
being the light and new life of Christ wherever we're at.
But being active and being prepared.
Not thinking that if you're sitting at a table
with another believer, that oh, this is just catch-up time
for us, and I hope no one interrupts us,
hey, this is catch-up time, and I'm aware of everyone
around, and I hope someone sees something
that draws them to me or to us, so that we can be prepared
to answer for the hope that we have in Christ, amen?
It's time to redeem the time and be those gospel people,
live the gospel life.
I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up.
I just wanted to remind you as they come that words
do matter, and they shape not only our own hearts,
but they shape the hearts of those around, and Paul
is simply saying here in Colossians, speak to other people.
Speak to other people about God, and speak to God
about people, and redeem the time that we have.
And when we speak to God about people, we're acknowledging
our dependence on him to open the doors that we can't.
And we're also reminding our hearts that salvation
isn't our work, but God's work.
That we're his instruments, and when we speak to people
about God, our speech should reflect the very nature
of the gospel, gracious, salty, and wise.