Colossians #11: Prayer and Share
Notes
Transcript
Handout
For the past 11 weeks we have been working through a
In Christ, God changes us.
Through the first 2 chapters, Paul told us what happened when we became a Christian, when we became “IN CHRIST”. He said we didn’t need to add any other beliefs or rituals. Jesus is enough to save you and Jesus is enough to change you. And being in Christ does change us. The last two chapters describe this change. But instead of saying you are a Christian… so you better do this and that.
Instead of that, Paul says, you are different… this is what that means
He says you are different, now live it out.
Live it out in your personal holiness… put away your old way, the worlds way of living.. put on the way of Christ… love
And live that out with one another in the family of God… in the church. Love one another, serve one another, be graceful to one another, forgive one another…Live it out in the community of faith
And, Live it out in your home - with your spouse, with your children and parents, with your servants and masters
And now in the final chapter, Paul concludes with a reminder as to how those in Christ are to live with everyone else - people outside the faith.
With those Paul calls outsiders. What he means by that is people outside the church. I get it that in our world, everyone in Rock Hall is a Christian… but Paul means those outside the fellowship of the Church. You see in Paul’s world it would never happen that you would be a Christian and you wouldn’t be a part of the body.
In fact, for me, it gets harder and harder for me to understand it too. How I could for years claim to be a Christian and not long to be with my church family. I get it that there may be health reasons, a quarantine, a deadly virus for goodness sake that keeps us away. But for it to be a regular thing that divides a person from the body, there should be a longing to be with the family of faith.
Paul would never consider a member of the body of Christ as thinking… church - eeehhh … I can take it or leave it. That made someone an outsider, because they were not connected to the body; they were outside the body. I’m not talking about membership, I’m talking about being but invested and involved.
So Paul is writing to “insiders” telling them how they might approach “outsiders”
He gives us what I call
Prayer and Share: Two Steps for Making Disciples
Prayer and Share: Two Steps for Making Disciples
Michelle and I celebrated our 25th anniversary this week. Of course, we weren’t able to cruise to Alaska like we thought because of Covid, we weren’t able to go to Belize like we hoped; we weren’t even able to go out to eat. But thanks to some of you we had dinner brought to us!
But back when we got married, country music was pretty popular. I know some of you don't think of music as being country, but it was for us back then. This was before Country tried to be cool.
Anyway, we were going to have a country band at our wedding so Michelle wanted me to learn to dance. So she signed me up. She said she wanted us to learn to two step.... I figured how hard could it be two steps. Well there was a lot more to it than two steps I assure you.
That’s how I see today’s text. Two steps to make an difference in the life of people outside the church.
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
This week Michelle and I have been overwhelmed with your out pouring of love and concern for us. The texts and messages of prayer and encouragement have been amazing.
It reminded me that we really are good at praying in times of crisis. When we get bad news, when we see trouble coming. We are good at praying then.
Oh Lord help me.
Father help, save me, protect me, I’m scared. I’m hurting. I’m hungry.
Please Lord show me what to do; I’m lost.
Lord I don’t know where else to turn, can you hear me?
He loves us and He loves to help us.
He tells us to pray when we face troubles of any kind.
So we should pray when we face crisis.
But he also tells us to be devoted to prayer.
Prayer: Watchful and Thankful
Prayer: Watchful and Thankful
I saw a movie this week where one character told his commanding officer, You have my loyalty.” And the commanding officer responded, “I don’t want your loyalty, I want your devotion.”
What’s the difference?
To me, loyalty says I live for this; whereas devotion says I can’t live without it.
Paul says, be devoted to prayer. Live to be in prayer.
Prayer almost comes naturally to us when we are in a crisis doesn’t it.
When the things that are most important to us are hurting or sick, when we are stressed or anxious, prayer comes as natural as worry. We find praying for things that are important to us right now often is ALL WE CAN DO.
The sick loved one. The hurt we feel. The broken relationship. When we have tried all other means of working out a solution, we say "all we can do now is pray”. How crazy is that?
I’ll admit, I prayed a lot this week for my wife and her healing, I prayed for James’ family. I prayed a lot for Mrs El.
God wants us to pray when we are hurting.
When those we love are hurting
When we are going through difficult times
He wants to hear our hearts
God wants to answer our prayers.
That’s what Jesus sought to teach the disciples when they asked Him how to pray.
Jesus told a story about about a man who asks his neighbor for bread in the middle of the night. Jesus says the neighbor doesn’t give the bread because of the friendship, but because of the man’s boldness in asking.
We are to be bold in asking God to work in our lives. But prayer isn’t only about what I want. Prayer is a way for me to get tuned in to what God is doing.
I got to thinking I didn’t spend a lot of time praying this week about what God might be trying to do in these crisis.
That’s what Paul means by being “watchful and thankful”.
Prayerfully watching for what God is doing. Even when it looks like a crisis.
Because what looks like a nightmare, might become a place for God to work in a person’s life. What you see as a problem, might be a place for God to reveal an answer to a promise. Where you see brokeness, God might use as a place for restoration.
When we pray being watchful, our prayer changes from Lord deliver me from THIS… to Lord what do you want me to learn in this?
Being Watchful AND Thankful
Being thankful in prayer you see is about trusting God, not our circumstances, our situation. Believing that God is at work, even when it doesn’t look like he is. Prayer says, God I trust you because you delivered me from sin, whether or not you deliver me from what’s happening now.
That’s what I think Paul meant by saying to be watchful and thankful in our prayers. That’s it’s not just the things that we are aware of, but that we prayerfully consider what God might be doing now and has already done in or through our life.
Now remember Jesus’s words when he taught his disciples to pray:
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.
God wants us to come to him with our burdens… with our needs. God wants us to life up everything on our agenda. But he also wants us to lift up what’s on his agenda, what he’s trying to do in us… through us.
Be watchful and thankful, to pray with an eternal perspective because God is doing far more than you can see or imagine… because his ways are higher than our ways.
I’ll be honest with you, this week this has been a difficult thing for me to do. Some of you may not know, we were in a car accident and the driver of the other vehicle lost his life. It was awful… still is. We live in a small town and his friends are my friends. I’ve been wrestling with wanting to ask god WHY God. God why did he die and I get to walk away? Why Lord?
Then it struck me. I was comforted knowing that he knew Jesus. Life isn’t perfect, but God was at work in him just like he is at work in me… and I can be watchful and thankful in my prayers… not why Lord… but what lord? What do you want me to see? How do you want me to respond? I don’t have the answers, but I’m listening, praying as I am watchful and thankful.
Let me ask you, how might being watchful and thankful change your prayers?
So we pray that while we can only experience this small glimpse of life, God can do great things with it.
Then Paul says, while you are praying, pray for us. Remember he is in prison now. What’s amazing is that he doesn’t say, pray I get out of here soon. Pray that I get an early release. now he says pray that I get an opportunity to share the Gospel. and that when I do, I do it clearly so it can be understood.
How’s that for a prayer request.
Don’t pray for me to have it easy, pray that I get an opportunity to share Christ.
We don’t think that we could ever pray that in prison. But what about outside prison? What about at work? Could we pray ask one another in our small group to pray that we get opportunities to share the gospel at work. That’s something we can pray for each other as well.
So, step one… be devoted to prayer.
Step two in our lives with people outside the church family
Share: Walk in Wisdom
Share: Walk in Wisdom
Throughout Paul’s letters he teaches us that the way we live is a reflection of the Gospel.
As he wrote in his letter to the Corinthians:
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
That’s a heavy responsibility, but it’s a fact, when people consider your life, and hear you speak of your life with Jesus, they see your life as a reflection of God.
We all have probably had the experience of hearing about someone who is a Christian and we think.... “they were a Christian?”
Why did you say that?
Because their life didn’t reflect Christ.
Paul says that because yours does, now be wise in how you interact with outsiders.
Share: Walk in Wisdom
Share: Walk in Wisdom
What should we be known for among outsiders?
Forgiveness.
Self Control.
Peace.
Joy
Love
One thing I am learning to do, and it’s not easy. Instead of creating conflict in dealing with outsiders I am learning to create questions.
Asking people what they think, and Why. Asking people what they think about Jesus. Asking people what they think about life and death.
I want to create questions in the people’s minds, because I think too often in our world today we don’t question what we hear often enough.
We just keep taking in what ever our world, the culture feeds us… whether we get it from CNN, FOX news, whatever we get from CNBC, or the latest movies… we just take it in without much thinking about it.
We need to question things. Our world needs to consider the spiritual realities of life. In order for that to happen, we must be wise and making the most of every opportunity.
what might that look like at work?
Maybe helping someone in need on a project.
Maybe stepping in to defend someone being picked on.
Maybe listening to someone share what is going on in their life.
Making the most of every opportunity.
Full of Grace, seasoned with salt.
When I think of being full of grace, I think of using words that draw people in rather than drive them away.
If you need to see what this is alike, look at social media these days. Especially twitter. There’s something about feeling protected behind a computer screen, we have all sorts of boldness to say things that we would never say if we were face to face..
Paul says in your conversation be gracious and attractive.
You may have heard it said be winsome in your speech. I think there have been some Christians who were known more for what they were against. And now we have a world of people who think Christianity is about being against the things of this world. But Paul says let your words offer Grace not judgement.
That’s exactly how Jesus interacted with people.
The woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, Zacchaeus the tax collected, even Peter the disciple.
You remember Peter? He was a bold disciple, until it came time for Jesus to be tried. Then Peter denied knowing Jesus, again and again and again he denied knowing Jesus.
And how did Jesus respond?
He restored him. Grace.
That’s what Paul says… speak grace, not judgement.
This grace will be noticed… like salt.
Salt throughout the OT was used as a preservative, it enhances taste. It makes you thirsty. Paul says, let your words of grace be salty.
People outside the faith have questions, we just need to help them see them. What they want is answers not arguments. We are the people who God has put in place to point people to the God who holds all the answers.
People need to know who you know. Jesus.