Devoted to Prayer, Walk in Wisdom

Transcript

GRM 712
12/10/2000
Devoted to Prayer, Walk in Wisdom
Colossians 4:2-6
Gil Rugh

I want to turn your attention to Colossians. The first two chapters deal with the doctrinal issues that Paul wants to set down. That's true of Paul's letters. He usually begins by setting forth the doctrinal material, clear teaching on the truth concerning Christ, our salvation in Him and he has done that in chapters 1 and 2. Then chapter 3 forms a transition to where the emphasis is how do we live out this doctrine in our daily lives. Those who have truly come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ have a transformed life. They live in a different way. They have a joy and peace and sufficiency in Christ that no one else can know or experience apart from Christ.

He begins in chapter 3 verse 1, "If then you have been raised up with Christ." and they have been raised up with Christ. That's what he talked about in the preceding two chapters - that we died with Christ, we were buried with Christ, we were raised up with Christ to new life. Now if that is the case concerning you and it is, keep seeking the things above. Verse 2, "Set your mind on the things above." Verse 5, "Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sin," and so on. That emphasis continues down through chapter 4 and verse 6. After talking about the personal character issues of believers in the first 17 verses of chapter 3, he moved to talk about individual groups. Our responsibility of believers, as wives, husband, children, fathers, slaves, concluding in chapter 4 verse 1 with the masters of slaves. Then with verses 2 to 6 of chapter 4 he pulls together this second major division of the life and conduct of the believer. But I want to focus our attention on these verses, some of the thoughts that Paul brings together. My attention was drawn to it by virtue of the fact I was in Colossians and so had much time reflecting on the book of Colossians. Then looking at the ministries there and reflecting on our ministry and what makes our ministry great. What would make it greater? How could we be more effective in our service for the Lord? Paul draws some of these issues to our attention when he talks about the responsibilities that are ours as God's people. We are going to deal with the responsibility we have toward God and the responsibility we have toward the lost. They tie together as you'll see. They flow from one to another. In other words, we turn to God and seek His will and His blessing. That is what opens the door of opportunity to share the Gospel with the loss and he cautions us on how we are to conduct ourselves on the doing of that.

Note how verse 2 begins. Colossians chapter 4, "Devote yourselves to prayer." That's the first of two specific commands given. Both are given in the present tense. Devote yourselves to prayer is the first and then in verse 5, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom." Two specific commands. Commands given in the present tense, meaning these are things we are to be continually doing as God's people. Now remember these are commands given only to God's people. People that are religious, people that are humanly speaking good people, do not fit the instructions here. Because only those who have been identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection have forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ are truly children of God. That's what God has set down so clearly in His Word and Paul set down in chapter 1 and 2 of Colossians. It's a gift given to all who believe in Christ. The command given becomes a privilege and an honor that we are to enjoy. Be continually devoting yourselves to prayer. Prayer is very simply the privilege that God's children have to come and talk to Him about all that is on their heart and mind. In the book of Hebrews, we are invited to come with confidence before the throne of grace. The book of Hebrews tells us that you must have Jesus Christ as your high priest to enter into the presence of God in prayer. The Old Testament tells us if you have rejected God's Word even your prayer is an abomination to God. In John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." So only those who have come in faith in Jesus Christ and thus have become the children of God, can come into the presence of God in prayer. Now that sounds hard and exclusive. We like to sentimentalize prayer and think well anybody who wants to talk to God He's there to hear them. I just want to tell you I didn't make this up. He is God and He has graciously said you are welcome into My presence, but this is how you must come. We say, no, I'll come my way. He says, then you cannot come into My presence. That's not so surprising since He is God. What is surprising is that He would invite any of us to come. He has made it simple because He had His Son die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. He says trust in My Son, and I will give you the gift of life. Then as My child you come with confidence into My presence, and I will give you the desires of your heart.

We are commanded here to devote ourselves to prayer. That word "to devote" has the idea of perseverance and it also has the concept of being tenacious. So, we are those who diligently apply ourselves to prayer and stay with it. We ought not to think that simply because God provides access to His presence for us in His Son and invites us to come with our requests, that we can be flip or light about it. Think of it as a parent. That's the analogy God uses. Your children walk through the room and say I'd like to have this and continue out the door. They don't say anything more about it. You don't take that very seriously. You think well, that was just something that came off the top of their head. But if they have been talking to you and asking you about something specific for the last three months, you think they would really like to have that. They've really thought this through. This is really something that they desire. You take that much more seriously. Well, that's the way God deals with us. There are things I tell God, you know, I'd like this. I'd like that. As we would speak, throw off a prayer, and then I forget it. I'm glad God doesn't give me all of those things. What would happen to your children if every time they'd walk through the room, and they said I'd like this. Oh, yeah, why don't you buy me that when you're out. and you did it every time. They would be spoiled rotten. You say that wouldn't be good for them.

Well, we need to stop and think God is our Heavenly Father. Would it be good for us if He just was pouring out on us everything we ever came up with? No. We want to grow and mature. I have to stop and think and learn to think and grow and develop. That's what persistence and tenaciousness in prayer does. As I think it through, as I prayer about, as I talk to God about it. There are times when what? I don't like to buy impulsively. I'm one who has to sort it out, search it out, examine and think about it. I don't want to have buyer’s remorse tomorrow as they say. You know how often it has been you walk through a store, and you see something, and you say, boy, I could really use that. I think I'll come back and buy it, and you sleep on, you mull it over and two or three days later you think, boy, I'm glad I didn't buy that silly thing. What would I have done with that? That's the last thing I need. In our persistence and tenaciousness with God, God knows what's on our heart, but what we are doing is maturing as I sort through things and narrow down. I'll tell you the things I pray about over weeks and months are things that really have become important in my heart and thus I come with a burden before my Heavenly Father. There's a seriousness about this kind of prayer. We are to be continually devoting ourselves to prayer.

Great ministry we have, I have to say being away it just reminded me of this and how much I appreciate those of you who pray so faithfully for my ministry whether I'm here or away. I think about and wonder what makes the biggest difference the ministry of our church. I get the most recognition because of the position I have, but I wonder when we stand before the throne of glory whether it may not be the saints who have diligently labored in prayer who reap the greatest rewards for their faithfulness as they have besought God for His mercy and grace and blessing, and God has responded to their prayer and we have enjoyed that blessing as a church.

We are to be devoting ourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Keeping alert. That's a Greek word we've carried over into English. The name "Gregory" comes from this Greek word. We've just transliterated it over into English. It means "to be alert," "watchful." One of the biggest things you have to do in prayer - keep alert. Do you ever notice when you decide you're really going to pray, you start praying and you're about half a paragraph into your prayer and all of a sudden, I got to do this. Yeah, I better do that now before I forget. It seems like other things come into your mind. Or that is the time all of a sudden you just overwhelmed with weariness, and you know, I just can't keep my eyes open. I can watch golf or football or something for an hour or two or three, but I sit down to start praying and in 10 minutes my eyelids are so heavy. Lord, I'm sorry, you know how tired I am.

Well, here's a reminder - keep alert, watchful. This will sharpen your prayer life and it's simple. Fill it with thanksgiving. Keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. You know what you ought to do in your prayers? You ought to rehearse God's goodness to you. A good place to start is thanking God for what He's done. Think about your children again. If they came and asked you for things, and you gave them, but they never thanked you for anything, you would begin to think something's not right here. They are not really appreciating what I'm doing. They are not maturing. They are developing again a selfishness. You find thanksgiving is a crucial aspect.

Just look at Colossians 1. Beginning with verse 3 Paul begins to unfold his prayer for the Colossians and he says beginning his prayer, chapter 1, verse 3, "We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." He started out, "I'm thankful for you." He doesn't start out by saying, "There's so many things I have to pray the Lord will correct, change, in that church." No, stop and think about God's grace and the way it has worked so marvelously in the church of Colossae. Paul starts out by thanking God for what He has done in that church.

Look down at verse 12, breaking into the long sentence, "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." Giving thanks to the Father. Chapter 2 verse 7, just look at the last part of the verse, "Overflowing with gratitude." Our thanksgiving to God. Chapter 3 verse 17, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." That thankfulness. Just jot down Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. You see our prayer life ought to be saturated with thanksgiving. That is to be an ongoing characteristic of the life of a believer. People out to look at us and say they are such thankful people. They seem to have such a gratitude for all they have and all that's been done. I mean our prayer life ought to bubble over with thanksgiving. Because think about it. What I have to pray about and talk to God about and ask Him for is a shortness compared to all that He has done up to this point. I can only really thank Him for some of the more immediate things or I wouldn't have time for everything else. But it's good for me to be continually rehearsing in my mind. That's why making a list of things you're praying about can be very helpful. Because it's a reminder to you of what you are bringing before the throne of grace and will also be a reminder to you as God graciously answers prayer that you need to be thankful to Him.

Now Paul gets more specific. He just doesn't want them to be faithful, persistent, tenacious prayer warriors. He wants them to include Him in their prayers. Praying at the same time for us as well. So, when you are praying include us. Pray for us also that God may open up to us a door for the Word. Paul really believed that prayer made a difference in his ministry. You get into these areas that we cannot sort out all the details completely. That ought not to concern us. I am a finite being. He is an infinite God. But in the sovereign purposes of God, He has determined to use the prayers of His people for the accomplishing of His purposes. You would think the apostle Paul who had had a direct confrontation with Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, who had the privilege of having a vision being caught up to the third heaven, the very presence of God, who received direct revelation from God that no other man had received, would not need anyone to pray for him. He can talk to God directly himself and he could. Yet the apostle Paul believed that he was very dependent on the prayers of God's people for his ministry. Here's an example. "Praying at the same time for us as well." Back up to Romans 15:30 Paul says, "Now I urge you, brethren." This is something he really beseeches them, pleads with them to do. "By our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Paul believed they were joined together with him in his ministry when they seriously, tenaciously, persistently labored and battled with Him in their prayers for Him, striving. Note, prayer is work. We look at the apostle Paul and oh, how he labored and suffered. But you realize in Glory, there are going to be a multitude of saints who share in the rewards of the apostle Paul because they were valiant prayer warriors for Paul. He was suffering and toiling, being in prison and so on and they were faithfully laboring for him in prayer. They made them a part of his ministry. He gives specifics on what he wants them to pray for in verse 31. You know, it's amazing. The apostle Paul is writing here under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. We are clearly told God uses the prayers of His people for the accomplishing of His purposes. Look at II Corinthians chapter 1. Paul talks in verse 8 about the great burden and affliction that came to him in the ministry of the Word in Asia and the deliverance of God that came to rescue him and then look at verse 11 of II Corinthians 1. "You also joining in helping us through your prayers." Think of the great privilege these prayer warriors had to be actually a vital part of the apostle Paul's ministry, really being used of God to enable his ministry to be more effective.

Look over in I Thessalonians chapter 5. Paul says very simply in verse 25, "Brethren, pray for us." Look in II Thessalonians 3:1, "Finally brethren, pray for us that the Word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men." Paul really believed that the effectiveness of his ministry of God's truth was tied to the prayers of God's people. If there is one thing, we can do to greatly enhance the effectiveness of the ministry of our local church, it would be to become more diligent, more persistent, more tenacious in prayer for one another and our prayers for this ministry. I say well we are praying, but we became more persistent, more tenacious. God, we appreciate Your blessings. We thank Him for the many blessings we enjoy, the souls that are saved, His strengthening, enabling sufficiency for us in our service for Him, but Lord we want more. That's the way the apostle Paul approached. We say what could we do to make our ministry more effective, you know, and there are many things going on, but we don't want to overlook the number one thing. The most effective thing being done - prayer, people diligently, faithfully praying. Some of you have prayed for me specifically these last couple of weeks while I was gone, ministering the Word in another place. What a blessing. Someone said I prayed for you every day. What a blessing! Whatever effect the ministry of the Word had while I was thousands of miles away, people praying for me share in that. Whatever rewards there will be in Glory, it will belong to those who prayed faithfully. So, it is God gives us a great opportunity and He gives us a command here to be devoting ourselves to prayer. But what a great privilege it is that we should be commanded to come into the presence of God regularly and persistently and tenaciously. You might think He'd say you can come but only once a month. He tells me to come all the time. Lord, I've been here a lot today but I'm back again this evening and I hope you are not tired of me. He'll be tired of me, He's commanded me to come all the time and be persistent and tenacious. I'm His child. Jesus said He delights to give His children good gifts. Doesn't mean He gives us everything we want any more than that we give our children everything they think they want. He gives us everything good for us.

Come back to Colossians 4. I want to remind you of the apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians as a Roman prisoner. I say that because if we were in prison in Rome, this letter would have probably been taken up with a lot about our problems, our struggles. Like our prayer lists all have to do with the physical problems we're having, or the circumstances of our life and we do need to pray about those things. But you know Paul doesn't say pray that my health will hold up, pray that I might get a better diet. Pray that this lingering cold will go away. Pray that I might soon get out of here that I might really have a ministry. You know, he did tell the Philippians and Philippians is another letter written at the same time, I believe God is going to give me deliverance through your prayers. He believed prayer is effective. But what does he tell the Colossians here? Verse 3, "Praying at the same time for us as well that God may open up to us a door for the Word, that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, which I have also been imprisoned." Oh, my, you are in prison, Paul. Almost forgot that. He didn't say that the Lord would open the door for me to walk out of this prison. That might have been my prayer. Paul's prayer is to open a door for the ministry of the Word where I am.

What does it mean to have an open door for the ministry of the Word so that I may speak forth the mystery of Christ. Lord, give me opportunities, more opportunities, to present Christ. The mystery of Christ is the truth that God has revealed concerning His Son. You understand everything else is irrelevant, mundane. The most important thing in all the world is that a person hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe that glorious message. If they don't hear it, they can't believe it for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and Paul is consumed by this. You know, 2000 years later it doesn't really matter if he was comfortable or uncomfortable as a prisoner. It doesn't really matter if he had enough to eat or too little to eat. He doesn't really matter whether his health was good or bad, but it does matter whether people heard and believed the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ because the result of that transcends this life. They determine eternity.

Paul's burden is pray that God will open doors for me to tell others the message of Jesus Christ and His salvation. "For which also I have been in prison." Why is Paul in jail? He preached the Gospel when he was free. But you note Paul was desirous of being used where God put him. It's easy to be frustrated, "Lord, get me out of this prison. Set me free from imprisonment so I can spread Your Gospel everywhere." We don't have to tell the Lord how to do His business. The Lord put Paul in Rome as a prisoner so what's Paul pray? Open doors for me as a prisoner. When he was out of prison what did he do? Pray that God would open doors for him. He writes to the Corinthians and speaks about the fact in chapter 16 that there is a wide door for effective ministry open for me and there are many adversaries. Wherever Paul went he had one thing on mind - opportunities to present the Gospel. I mention that here because we need to realize that. God has placed you where you are, and the issue is not oh what would you do with opportunities if you were this. That doesn't matter. The issue is what do you do with opportunities where you are? So here Paul is saying pray for open doors. I'm a prisoner I can't go around and share the Gospel in other places so pray for open doors where I am.

You know, God answered those prayers. Back to Philippians. There's another prison letter of Paul written about the same time as Colossians in that imprisonment, an imprisonment which incidentally spread out over about five years. So, you get the idea he's here on three or four months . . . That can get wearying. But in Philippians 1:12 there was response to these prayers. Things were happening. Philippians 1:12, "Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel." I asked someone the question recently, a believer, "How are you doing?" "Pretty good under the circumstances." What kind of answer is that? What do you mean pretty good under the circumstances? You know what Paul says. My circumstances have turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel. You know we get consumed with the problems in which we find ourselves. We get consumed that we're prisoners. We're confined. This isn't good for me. "My circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout all the praetorian guard and to everyone else."

You know how you would walk into the royal guard and say, "I'm here to present the Gospel." That would not be good. You couldn't do it. But here Paul chained to a soldier. Now Paul's emphasis could have been you know I can go anywhere. No matter what I do he's with me, 24 hours a day. But do you know what Paul's thought was? He's not going anywhere. The issue is not I can't get away from him. You know what? He can't get away from me. Everywhere I go he goes. We can talk about the weather for a little bit. We can talk about his job as a soldier for a little bit. We can talk about his family for a little bit. But you know what we're going to talk about? A Savior. Paul's opportunity to tell him why he's a prisoner, what the Lord had done in his life. So, the whole praetorian guard heard. Why? That soldier goes off duty; here comes another one. Another opportunity. For me I'd be praying, oh, Lord, not another one of these vile, crude creatures to be chained to for another few hours. Well, I got another one. The Lord just reeled them right to me and attached them so they can't get away till I'm done. You see, Paul's circumstances. They turned out for the Gospel. Why? He's looking for an open door, and it's right there. We miss some of our greatest opportunities because we're so frustrated that things don't change. We forget that the sovereign we claim to serve is the sovereign God who has placed us in that situation. So, Lord, you've put me here. You've done this to me at this time. So now what?

In addition to the praetorian guard hearing Paul says, "Most of the brethren," in verse 14, "trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear." When the brethren see how the Lord is using even my imprisonment, boy, they've got a lot bolder in sharing Christ. So, there was clearly an answer to prayer.

Back to Acts 28. Just look at a couple of verses at the end of this. This relates to the imprisonment during which Paul wrote these letters. We're told in verse 30 of Acts 28, "He stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him." Paul was like under house arrest at this time. It says two years. But you understand from the time he was arrested until the end is about five years. I believe it was about two years in Cesarea in prison and then about a year traveling and then two years in Rome. You get weary. But for Paul this is where the Lord has put me. Pray for open doors here where I am as the prison of the Lord, if you will. So, what did he do? He preached the kingdom of God, taught concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered. What an opportunity. He's under the protection of Rome. Think of it that way. They can't stone him. They can't drag him away because the Roman soldiers are protecting him. You think if you would talk to Paul and ask Paul how are you doing? Ah, pretty good under the circumstances. That's not the kind of response you get from Paul. What's he says? Pray for more open doors and he's not done. Come back to Colossians 4. What's he praying? Open doors for the Word. "So that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ." Note verse 4 now, "In order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak." The apostle Paul asking that what people would pray is that he would be clear with the Gospel. He told us in Galatians chapter 1 that he got the Gospel by revelation and now he's saying, oh, pray that God will give an open door and that I’ll be clear with the Gospel when I present it through that open door. I don't soften the edges. That I don't pull the punches. That I don't say it less clearly than it is. That I may make the Gospel clear as I ought to speak. You ought to underline that little word "ought." It's a little three letter word in Greek. It comes over in English dei, "day." A word when it's used in the New Testament that denotes a divine necessity, a divine urgency. God is involved in what must be done here. Paul saw this as his obligation before God. That's what drove him. This is something before God I must do. I must make it as clear as I can. Never became complacent. I'm Paul. I can present the Gospel. I'm bold. Oh, pray for me that I will be clear, that I'll be bold. People often ask me to tell them how we can pray for you, and it's simple. Pray that I will be diligent and faithful in studying and preparing the Word of God and then pray that I will be clear and bold in presenting God's truth. It all comes back to that. Paul says I want the opportunities to present the truth and I want to do it properly and correctly.

Then he says in verse 5, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders." You see the transition to the second command flows easily because he's talking about his own burden to have opportunities to present Jesus Christ. But it's not just for Paul but it's for them. So, he commands them to conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, to the unregenerate unbeliever. It wouldn't do any good for Paul to get in a discussion with his Roman soldier and talk to him about the politics of Rome. What was wrong with Roman emperors and how the political situation in Rome was harmful for the country and the emperor. That didn't have anything to do with eternity. Paul wasn't praying for an open door to correct the politics. He was praying for an open door for something of eternal significance. So, conduct yourselves. I've talked about you pray about me about my conduct, my opportunities. Now let me give you a command. You conduct yourselves. The word literally means to walk. You be walking yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders.

Back in Colossians 1 at the end of verse 9, Paul says he was praying, "that they might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk in a manner pleasing worthy of the Lord." Filled with all spiritual wisdom to walk properly. In chapter 2 verse 3, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The end of verse 6 of chapter 2, "Walk in Him." That's how you walk in wisdom. Those who are in Christ live their lives in Him. They draw true wisdom from the One who Himself is wisdom; and we walk in Him. "So, conduct yourselves," chapter 4 verse 5, "with wisdom" as one who lives his life in Christ toward those who are outside of Christ." We are to do nothing to dishonor the name of the Lord. We are here wherever we are whether it's in prison, in a hospital bed, at our job, in our home, in the most discouraging of circumstances or in the most wonderful of circumstances. We are here as representatives of the living God and servants of His Son, Jesus Christ. We do nothing to dishonor His name. We are here to make Him known.

"Making the most of the opportunities." What Paul is saying is I'm in prison. I want to make the most of my time here. Pray that I'll seize the opportunities. Pray that I'll have many opportunities. When those opportunities come, I'll be clear and bold with the Gospel. You conduct yourselves in your relationships with the unbelievers so that you can make the most of your opportunities. Redeeming the time, redeeming the opportunities, buying them up, making the most of them. See how it ties to Paul's situation. He's in prison in Rome and he's making the most of the opportunities. He's redeeming the time that God has given him, not bemoaning the fact thinking when I get out of prison then I'll serve the Lord. Do you realize some of Paul's most effective ministries took place when he was a prisoner? We are benefiting from letters that he wrote when he was a prisoner. He impacted the world with his life and testimony while he was a prisoner. He wasn't marking time in prison till he could get on with his ministry. The ministry God had given him at that time was as a prisoner. If you are in a hospital bed, the ministry God has given you at that time is in that hospital bed. Maybe it's with those hospital personnel that come to help you in your physical need, the person in the bed. I don't know. But say God, Your sovereign. You put me here. The number one concern I have is to open a door of opportunity and then make me clear in my presentation of the truth. Use my life. Redeem the time. Do you realize I can't buy back yesterday. All the past right up till now has been done. We are to be conducting ourselves in a manner that will enable us to use the time God gives us.

"Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person." Our speech ought to always be with grace. A gracious speech. We need to be careful. In Scripture the harshest words are reserved for false teachers, false religious leaders. But Jesus dealt very graciously with the tax gatherers, the harlots, the outcasts. Now He didn't hesitate to confront them about their sin and offer them the salvation that's found only in Him. But His manner of dealing with the Pharisees was quite different. We need to be careful that we are conducting ourselves properly and our attitude toward the unbeliever is what it ought to be - gracious. We are told concerning Christ that we were amazed at the graciousness of His speech.

Gracious speech, seasoned with salt and salt gives flavor. Salt preserved. You know in the days before refrigeration and even before ice boxes, salt was key to persevering from corruption. Ephesians 4:29 Paul wrote, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment that it may give grace to those who hear it." In chapter 3 of Colossians verse 8, Paul had dealt with this, "But now you also put them all aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self." Titus 3 reminds us, "Remember, you were once foolish." In ignorance, just like the others, be gracious in dealing with them. We don't come to the unbeliever as though we were doing them a favor. We are some great person, somebody more important than them, somebody less sinful than them, and we want to tell you how you can be forgiven. We come as those who by God's grace have been forgiven in Christ, those who but for God's grace would be the most wretched and lost of people, come to tell them that God is a God of grace and love and mercy and kindness. I'm a testimony to that because He saved me. That's how Paul presented his testimony. Me, the chief of sinners got saved. That gives you hope. Because if He's saved a wretch like me, He can save you. That's Paul's approach. That's what he reminded them of in Titus 3. Don't forget that's what you once were.

So here's he telling them, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so you may know how you should respond to each person." We get all tied up in knots. How can I talk to them about this? See what Paul did. He had people praying for opportunities, praying for open doors, praying the Lord would give him clarity and boldness in speaking. He says you have to conduct yourself properly. You must be conducting yourself as a child of the living God. Conduct yourself with wisdom and in the wisdom that is His. Speaking properly. When you immerse yourself in Christ it's natural to talk about Him. I'm interested in how natural it is for people to talk about the political situation going on in our country. All you have got to do is say something and everybody's got something to say. You talk about who won the big 12 championship whatever. Everybody's got to . . . But all of sudden something about the opportunity to talk about Christ and we get tongue tied. I won't know what to say. What do you mean you won't know what to say? Is He not the living God? Did not His Son die for you? Were you not cleansed and made new? And you have nothing to say. We are tongue tied. We don't know what to respond to people. I didn't know what to say. We are at the same thing. Everybody here would say, "What do you think about the election?" I'd have to cut it off. We'd got opinions on chads and bads and all that goes on and boy, just let it go here, and then we got . . . But we don't know how to talk about Christ.

Well, Paul has given us a summary. We ought to be praying for one another. When you pray for this Body, pray for people specifically. Pray the Lord will give them open doors. Pray the Lord will give them clarity and boldness to present His truth clearly and accurately. We need to be conducting ourselves properly as the servants of the Lord. We are here to be here in this city as a light. I say I wish people thought better of us. The truth reveals character, reveals conduct. People find that unpleasant. I cannot change the truth but in my attitude in presenting the truth I want to be characterized by love and grace. I present it to these people not because they are so vile and disgusting. You find yourself in a hard position at work and I just hate going to work and I hear such terrible things and they always talk about things. I just feel defiled there. Well, stop being such a hypocrite. Why did God put you there? What do you think you find Paul complaining, "You know what it's like being chained to a vile Roman soldier whose filth and improper speech and sexual talk just comes naturally from his mouth. Oh, I just can't stand it, Lord. It's defiling me." Who are you, who am I, such pure, holy dainty people. Oh, I hope sinners don't walk by too close. That's more like the Pharisees, isn't it? I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men like this sinner here. We are to say thank you, Lord, for putting me in the environment of these hopelessly lost people. I would not expect them to be anything other than vile and vulgar. But I am here and have hope for them. Open a door for me, Lord. Give me boldness, Lord. Help me to conduct myself in such a way that I'll have the opportunity and I'll be ready when the opportunity is there.

That's what I desire for our church. Each of us as a member of this body, we might have that kind of testimony before the world. Let's pray for one another. Pray for things that are of eternity significance and importance above all. If I'm sick, I appreciate you praying for my physical health but I tell you that is not the most important thing. Look at some of our prayer lists. You'd think the only thing that really matters is my health. Look at Paul's prayer list. You'd think the only thing that matters is eternal salvation. I want my prayer list to look like Paul's and our growth in that wonderful salvation.

May God use us personally in the testimony of this church to that end. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for abundant grace. Thank you for the salvation that was provided for us in the death of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, it's easy for us to become self-complacent, to think of ourselves as good enough, religious enough. We fail to see ourselves as you see us and that is all that matters, as those lost in sin, without hope in the world. Lord, bring that conviction of sin to hearts and lives today. Then, Lord, I pray the glorious light of the Gospel might shine in the darkness of those lost hearts. That they might see and understand and believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and He is the all-sufficient Savior. Lord, may we as Your people have lives that are lived according to what You have done for us in Christ, that what really matters is that we seize every opportunity to make Him known, that we live lives consistent with His grace, the wisdom that is found in Him and that we may be ready to testify to every man concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray in His name, amen.