Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

This may be the single most important message that I’ve preached since coming to Dishman.

Now I realize that I’ve only been here a little over six months but this message is so very critical to where we are as a church and what some of our next steps will be to continue to develop into the church that God needs us to be here in Spokane Valley.

There are thousands of books and resources that seek to define and describe the marks of an effective pastoral ministry.

In fact, earlier in the book we’ve been studying Paul’s letter to the Colossians he gives us a picture of or a job description for a pastor and those sermons are up on our website if you want to go back and listen to them again.

There aren’t so many about the general ministry opportunities for the lay person - and by that term I mean the church membership.

You are all lay members of the church.

And there are plenty of books, conferences and ministries that address specific areas of ministry - children’s, youth, small groups, etc. - but what about the general every day way that a person can serve the church.

While we always need more - and we could use some more volunteers in children’s, the nursery, welcome ministry and small group leadership - there are only so many openings every week for people to be involved in ministry.

Well, Paul is going to lay out for us this morning a way that every Christian can be involved in the ministry of the church - he’s going to give us the marks of an effective lay ministry.

This is Paul’s conclusion to the body of the letter in which he has been addressing the concerns that had driven Epaphras to seek him out.

And just as he should in a good conclusion he is going to refer back to many points that he has written throughout the book of Colossians.

Really this is his summary statement that answers the question of “What should we do as a church in light of the circumstances we find ourselves in?”

It is probably a good thing that Colossians is so vague regarding the exact heresies or false teachings that are invading the church there - because it keeps us from dismissing the book and saying “well we’re not facing those issues here so we this is nice literature and good reading Paul but there’s not real impact for us.”

In light of our current day the questions we would ask is “what should we as a church do in light of...” declining numbers in the Southern Baptist Convention?

The current debate surrounding the role of women in the church?

The intrusion of social gospel beliefs into the church?

The continued drift of the culture - although that is a peripheral situation in view in the letter.

Paul is going to answer the Colossians questions and our questions today with two simple strategies - first pray and then evangelize.

Pray and Preach.

Seek God’s grace and then spread His Gospel.

The order to this is significant.

In Acts 6 when the Apostles were addressing an issue in the church they laid out their philosophy of ministry in

This is the correct order in which we should seek to perform any sort of ministry - whether it is to the entire church or to our next door neighbor.

We should seek to pray and then speak.

Prayer

Colossians 4:2-4;

Prayer Charged

Now let me be clear - prayer is the duty of every Christian.

Christ expresses as much in Matthew 6 when in the span of four verses he says

Notice - whenever you pray, when you pray, when you pray and pray like this - prayer is an expected part of the Christian life.

But we also know there is a difference between the dutiful expression of an expectation and the devoted expression.

The dutiful husband or wife knows that they are supposed to go out to dinner with their significant other from time to time and so they do - but they spend most of dinner staring at their cell phone or the tv in the restaurant.

The dutiful parent knows that their kids have to eat and so they take them out or cook for them at home but again spend most of the meal focused on something else rather than spending time with their child.

Just as there is a significant difference between dutiful relationships and devoted relationships - there is a difference between dutiful prayer and devoted prayer.

Paul tells the Colossians to “Devote yourselves to prayer”.

What are you devoted to?

Are you a devoted father or mother?

Are you a devoted employee - going above and beyond to see your company succeed?

Maybe you’re a devoted sports fan and you get physically ill when you either miss a game or your team loses.

How many of you can honestly say that you are devoted to prayer?

That you persevere in prayer to the point of distraction?

Eight times in the New Testament this particular verb is used and six of them are connected either to prayer or the apostles teachings.

In Acts 2:42 and 46

I’ve already cited Acts 6:4 but also in Romans 12:12

and then in our verse that we’re studying here the ideal of being devoted in prayer is key.

We should be devoted to seeking the Lord and His will through prayer above all else.

Andrew Murray, the 19th Century pastor in South Africa and major proponent of prayer once said “Do you not see how all depends upon God and prayer?

As long as He lives and loves and hears and works, as long as there are souls with hearts closed to the word, as long as there is work to be done in carrying the Word - Pray without ceasing.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching your prayers with thanksgiving.

These words are for every Christian.”

This is a command to endure in personal prayer because we recognize that through prayer is our only conduit to receive and experience the power of God in our lives and our ministries - whether that ministry is making a home, driving a truck, running a machine at a manufacturing plant, teaching students, herding inmates or working at the building where the church meets.

The only way we can hope for any success, the only way that we can achieve what it is that God has for us to achieve is to be devoted - doggedly devoted, passionately persevering, consistently committed - to praying for God’s glory in whatever situation we find ourselves.

Another 18th century saint is a great example of the power of prayer that is available to us still today.

George Muller ran an orphanage in Bristol England.

Greatest of all Muller's undertakings was the erection and maintenance of the great orphanages at Bristol.

He began the undertaking with only two shillings (50 cents) in his pocket; but in answer to prayer and without making his needs known to human beings, he received the means necessary to erect the great buildings and to feed the orphans day by day for sixty years.

In all that time the children did not have to go without a meal, and Mr. Muller said that if they ever had to go without a meal he would take it as evidence that the Lord did not will the work to continue.

Sometimes the meal time was almost at hand and they did not know where the food would come from, but the Lord always sent it in due time, during the twenty thousand or more days that Mr. Muller had charge of the homes.

In the time period that he ran the orphanage he raised over $7,000,000 and provided for more than 10,000 orphans.

He made this comment regarding devotion in prayer

[I]n order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer, is, to continue praying; for the less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.

Paul tells us that we are to remain alert in prayer with thanksgiving.

Many of you may immediately think of the disciples and their failure to remain alert with Christ on the Mount of Olives on the night He was betrayed.

There is that sense here that we should certainly stay conscious for our prayers but there’s also the idea that we need to guard our hearts and our minds as we pray.

That we should remain watchful over our spirits and attempt to pray with thanksgiving and purpose.

Many of you have heard of the prayer acronym ACTS - maybe you were taught this in Sunday School, AWANA or a life group along the road of your Christian life.

A- Adoration, C- Confession, T - Thanksgiving and then S - Supplication or bringing our needs before God.

But often this is how we treat this prayer

Adoration we often rush through adoration (God you’re amazing), confession (You know I sin, I know I sin, do we really have to talk about it?)

and thanksgiving (thanks for everything), to get to supplication (what have/can You do for me now?

God I need this....or that....or oh yeah this one other thing that really would revolutionize my life right now.)

We end up sounding more like that kid going through the grocery or department store asking for everything they see and we miss out on the true attitude we should have.

Valley of Vision prayer?

The Throne.

True prayer often involves struggling and grappling with God, proving to Him the deepest concern of one’s heart.

Prayer is to be a persistent, courageous struggle from which the believer may come away limping.

Now am I saying that we should never bring our requests to God - No.

But if all we ever do is bring our requests to God without ever seeking the God that meets every need then we are seeking the wrong God.

By telling the Colossians to be alert with thanksgiving Paul is ending the letter right where he began - he is bringing us full circle.

Paul starts off the letter by giving thanks to God and ends the letter by telling the Colossians and us to do the same.

But more than the action of thanksgiving is the object of our prayers and the motive behind our prayers.

The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is worthy to be sought.

Prayer Requested

Paul moves on to make a request of the Colossians.

Pray also for us - for release?

Is the door that Paul refers to here in Scripture the door to the prison cell that he is in?

Paul has experienced release from prison before - in Acts 16 he is miraculously released from the prison of Philippi by an earthquake.

He also would have been aware of Peter’s release by angels in Jerusalem chronicled in Acts 12.

In Philippians 1, Paul tells that church that it is his expectation is that “this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Christ” and that he will be released through the power of Christ.

Here Paul is requesting prayer so that a door may be opened certainly but the door is the door that opens for the Gospel to walk through into people’s hearts.

Following his first missionary journey Paul reports about the doors that were opened among the Gentiles

In 1 Corinthians 16:9 writing to that church regarding his ministry in Ephesus Paul writes

In Revelation, Jesus in His letter to the church in Philadelphia, writes

And so here Paul implores the Colossians to pray for an open door for him to continue to speak the mystery of Christ as he ought.

The mystery, as we have discovered earlier in Colossians was the truth of the Gospel and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That He came not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles.

Recall that Paul discussed this in Colossians 1

And it was Paul’s life mission to make this mystery known.