Good morning. A little boy wanted $100 very badly. He prayed for weeks and weeks, but nothing happened. So, he decided to write a letter to God requesting $100. When the postal authorities received the letter to “God, USA,” they decided to send it to the President. The President was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5 bill. The President thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the $5 bill, and sat down to write a thank-you note to God. The postal authorities forwarded this letter on to the President, too. It read: “Dear God, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington, D.C., and those guys deducted $95 in taxes!”
Well, I thought that you might be able to relate to that with this past week being the end of tax time. If you are like me, then it does feel like the government has taken away a huge chunk of you money.
But, today, we are going to take a look at speaking to God about people, and speaking to people about God. To do that, turn with me to Colossians 4:2-6. Here in this passage, we are reading about prayer and evangelism all tied into one. Listen to the words of Colossians 4:2-6: it says, “1”
Before we take a deeper look at this passage, let’s begin our time with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
Are your knees calloused? The dictionary defines a callous as: “A localized thickening of the outer layer of skin.” Some of you work with your hands every day. Your hands are probably calloused from extensive use. Today, we are going to take a look at prayer, and seeing a vision that will motivate us to spend time in prayer every day fro God to be at work in our community and for lost people to be come to Jesus.
So, is it possible to pray too much? A young man goes into a drug store to buy 3 boxes of chocolate. The pharmacist says what size small medium or large. The young man tells him one of each. Then the pharmacist asks why. “Well,” he said, “I’ve been seeing this girl for a while and she’s really Beautiful. I want the chocolate because I think tonight’s “the night.” We’re having dinner with her parents, and then we’re going out. If she lets me hold her hand I’m going to give her the small box of chocolates. If she let’s me kiss her on the cheek, then I’m going to giver her the medium box. And if she lets me kiss her on the lips, I’m going to give her the big box. The young man makes his purchase and then leaves.
Later that evening, he sits down to dinner with his girlfriend and her parents. He asks if he might give the blessing, and they agree. He begins the prayer, but continues praying for several minutes. After he finishes his prayer, the girl leans over and says, “You never told me that you were such a religious person.” He leans over to her and says, “Well you never told me that your father is a pharmacist.”
Well, what I want to look at this morning is the idea of speaking to God about people, and then we will take a look at speaking to people about God. First, Speaking To God About People. Again in our passage, verses 2-4 says, “1”
We tend to underestimate not only the power of prayer, but also the importance of it. When we pray we are acknowledging to God that we are in a spiritual battle, and that we need His power and wisdom if we are going to achieve victory. And as we look at things this morning, we will find that prayer is the key to evangelism.
First, let’s look at how to pray:
First, we must pray persistently. In some older translations, it says, “Continue earnestly in prayer…” The Greek meaning behind “continue earnestly” means to “adhere firmly to.” It implies ongoing persistence that refuses to give up when you don’t see immediate results. In the NIV it says, “Devote yourselves to prayer…” Be so devoted to prayer, that we never give up on it. The beauty of prayer is that the more we pray, the more we become empowered to pray. Prayer is not like a cell phone whose power runs down as you use it. Prayer is just the opposite. It increases in power the more you use it. That is why we are told to “pray continually”, and here we are told to “devote ourselves to prayer.”
Secondly, we must pray alertly. As we think about prayer being a weapon in the spiritual battle, consider the difference between 2 military scenarios: here in America we have different levels of alert, but in several areas in the Middle East, they’re on high alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because we are in an active spiritual battle, we need to stay on high alert at all times. The verse said, “…being watchful…” The purpose of being watchful is to make sure that when the enemy attacks, you are ready for battle. When we pray, not only do we need to be persistent in our prayers, but we also need to be alert at all times.
And thirdly, we must pray thankfully. One day a woman was rushing home from a doctor’s appointment. The doctor had been somewhat delayed at the hospital, and the lab work took a little longer than usual, so by the time she left the clinic she was running quite a bit behind schedule. She still had to pick up her prescription, pick up the children from the baby-sitter, and get home and make supper, all in time to make it to the prayer meeting at her church that evening.
As she began to circle the busy Wal-Mart parking lot, looking for a space, all of a sudden, a downpour began. While she wasn’t usually the type to bother God with small problems, she began to pray as she turned down the row closest to the front door. “Lord, you know what kind of a day I’ve had, and there’s still an awful lot to do. Could you please grant me a parking space right away, oh, and close to the building so I don’t get soaked.”
The words weren’t even completely out of her mouth when she saw the backup lights of a car come on at the end of the row. It was the best space in the whole parking lot, right next to the handicap spots and straight out from the front door. She made straight for it and as she pulled in, she said, “Never mind God, something just opened.”
As we pray with thanksgiving, we acknowledge God as the One who answers prayer. Gratitude is also a motivation for further praying. When we remember God’s faithfulness to answer prayer, we will pray more. Our verse tells us to “…be thankful.” When we pray with a thankful heart, it also allows God to know that we are giving him the credit for what is being done. So, now we know how to pray to God about people, now let’s take a look at:
What to Pray:
First, we should pray for opportunities to share. Verse 3 reminds us to “…pray for open doors..” Paul did not see prayer primarily as a means to making life easier for himself, but as a means to spread the gospel. Most of us would have made it our top priority to pray for deliverance from prison; Paul’s request for prayer was that others be delivered from the prison of sin. When we are prying to God about people, we need to make sure that we are praying that God will give us opportunity to share with others. Pray that He will put you in places where people are seeking Him.
Pray that He will place you in a job, where you can witness to your co-workers. Pray that He will allow you to make new friends that need to know Him. Pray for the opportunities to share, and then share when you have the chance.
And secondly, we should pray for clarity of speech. We need to not only have opportunities, but when we are given the opportunity it is important that we have prayed for God to help us in what we say. Moses in the Bible told God that he couldn’t speak well, and God was able to take care of that problem so that Moses could lead a group of people. Don’t you think that if you are trying to witness to people around you, that if you pray for clarity of speech, that God will give it to you? When we have the opportunity to speak to someone about Christ, we should always ask God to give us the ability to share what we have with them in a way that will show them what God wants them to see.
So, that is a look at us speaking to God about people. It is the whole idea that when we enter into evangelism, we need to also enter into a deeper prayer life as well. Now, let’s take a look at:
Speaking To People About God. The rest of that passage from this morning said in verses 5 and 6, “1”
From this I learn that our lives and our words should be a reflection of our prayer life. Now, from these last 2 verses of this passage, I believe that there are 5 things that we can learn about evangelism. In the time that we have left this morning, I want to briefly touch on each of these ideas.
First, we must live wisely. Living wisely means that we are careful not to say or do anything that would make it difficult to share the Gospel with others. Whether we realize it or not, people are making decisions about the validity of Christianity based upon how we live. People are always watching, determining whether to put value on what we say or not, based on what they see in us. So when you let words slip out of your mouths that shouldn’t, or when you do things that are wrong, there are always people there watching, and deciding whether to listen to you or not. So in order to avoid problem when witnessing to others, we need to make sure that we live wisely.
Second, we must make the most of opportunities to share. The phrase “redeeming the time” is a commercial tern and it means to “buy up.” It’s the picture of finding something on sale and buying all you can afford because the price is so good. That’s what this verse is saying, “…make the most of every opportunity.” When God gives you an opportunity to share with someone, take it! Don’t pass it up, because you may never get that opportunity with that person again. How are you going to feel when you get to Heaven, and God asks you, “Why didn’t you share with this person? I gave you plenty of opportunities, and you let them all slip away.” So, we must make the most of every opportunity we have to share with someone.
Thirdly, we must saturate our conversations with Grace. “…let your conversations be always full of grace…” Now what exactly does that mean? We must be kind, courteous, merciful, and compassionate. Don’t be judgmental of people and their sins. Instead, relate with them, and allow them to know that you too are in need of God’s grace. Let them know that the only way that they can make it into Heaven is by the grace of God. So saturate your conversations with God’s amazing grace.
Fourth, we need to season our conversations with salt. Verse 6 tells us, “Let your conversations be … seasoned with salt…” What in the world does that mean? If you are like me, you add a little salt to your meals. Sometimes it makes what you are eating taste a whole lot better. Sometimes it makes things that don’t taste good, bearable. And if you are like me, when you salt things, you tend to eat more of it. Well, salty speech makes people thirsty for more. We should season our conversations with salt so that people’s mouths water for the living water that God has to offer, Jesus Christ.
And finally this morning, we need to be prepared to answer common questions. When we are gracious and well informed, people will want to hear what we have to say. So we must be prepared! When it comes to your Bible study, whether you do it in a group like on Wednesday nights here at church, or you do it on your own in a personal study time, you need to make sure that you are doing it. You may ask, how does this help in evangelism?
Well, if someone asks you a question about church or about Christianity, and you can’t help them with the answer, what makes them want to follow in you foot steps. Now, this does not mean that you will know everything. There are times that people have asked me questions that I have had no clue about, when that happens, tell them you will get back to them on that, and then try and find out the answer for yourself and for them.
But you know what, for ever person that I have not been able to give an answer to; there have also been those people that I could answer their questions. The important thing is this: that we get into the word of God and be ready to get people the answers to the questions that they have.
Satan’s strategy is to keep us off our knees, to keep our knees from becoming calloused. If we fight the spiritual battle without spiritual weapons, we are powerless. But, if we will fight this battle with the power of prayer, then we will be able to evangelize to people and help them come to know Christ as we do. And that is the real victory that God is seeking.
So, we need to be able to both speak to God about people. Here is a quote from Charles Spurgeon. Listen to this: he said, “It is the usual rule with God to make us pray before He gives the Blessing. There is a general kind of praying which fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly somebody would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.”
Well, when we are talking about evangelism, we need to realize that we have to pray to God for the people that we are witnessing to. If we will pray the way that we looked this morning, and then do as He leads us, we will be more effective in our evangelism.
The other thing that we have to be able to do is speak to people about God. As we end this morning, let me end by reading you a poem that I believe has a powerful message in it, and I think that it sums up what we have looked at this morning. It is from an unknown author and here is what it says:
“The Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Are read by more than a few.
But the one that is most read and commented on
Is the Gospel according to you.
You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day
By the things that you do and the words that you say.
People read what you write, whether faithless or true.
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?
Do people read His truth and His love in your life,
Or has yours been too full of malice and strife?
Does your life speak of evil, or does it ring true?
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?
Let’s Pray. |
