A Witness To The World

10-13-05

Title: A Witness to the World

Text: Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:5-6, NKJV)

Introduction

I want to begin with a joke.

A mother had been working with her young son teaching him to tell time with a non-digital clock.

For several days they had been talking about the “small hand” and the “big hand.”

When she heard him walk into the kitchen where they have a clock with hands, she called out from the other room, “Cameron, what is the little hand on?”

He yelled back, “A chocolate chip cookie.”

Children’s comments are priceless, and they’re a joy to be around.

Today, I want to talk about a job that Jesus has given to every one of His children.

On His last day on earth, and just before He ascended back to the Father, He gave us what we call the Great Commission.

The commission was to take the Gospel to the world.

That is the title of the message, A WITNESS TO THE WORLD.

Professing Christians should live a life of faith in God and of obedient response to the Holy Spirit.

They live in a world that is often hostile to Christ, or worse still, indifferent to Christ.

Their response to the world around them is crucial to their Christian walk and their witness for Christ.

Too often Christians make the response of identification with the world.

They so closely identify themselves with the world that their life can hardly be distinguished from that of a non-Christian.

Another response that Christians sometimes make is withdrawal from the world.

They try to shut out entirely the world around them and live in their own little, private, well-protected world.

Neither of these is the proper response.

The proper response is for Christians to be a responsible witnesses in the world.

We associate with the people of the world.

Therefore, we should give a responsible witness of our faith to the world.

Our faith should be the guiding principle for our lives.

Everything we say and do should come from a heart that loves Jesus and wants to be obedient to God.

I like to think of life as if we are working for God and Jesus is the One who signs our paycheck.

Our work should reflect our faith, by doing everything the best we can.

That way no one can use us or our work habits for bad examples of what a Christian is.

Our encounter with God in worship gives us strength and power for daily living.

Our character, growing out of our relationship of faith in God, gives a silent but powerful witness of the meaning of faith and salvation.

Through our very lives we are “salespeople” for salvation.

Elton Trueblood once said that faith lives and dies not by what goes on in churches, but by what, as a result of the churches, goes on outside of them.

That is what the apostle Paul meant by these two verses in the last chapter of his letter to the Colossians.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:5-6, NKJV)

He urged them to be wise in the way they act toward outsiders, meaning those who are outside the Christian fellowship—the lost, those without Christ.

He had both an offensive and defensive purpose in mind.

The defensive purpose was to protect the good name of the Christian community.

The offensive purpose was to go after outsiders and bring them into the Christian fellowship and to faith in Christ.

This is still our witness to the world.

Our witness to the world involves three issues; our time in the world, our walk in the world, and our talk in the world.

Let’s face it; we may not have much time left to live in this world.

What’s the old saying; “Nothing’s certain but death and taxes.”

Someone said, “The statistics on death are very impressive, one out of every one dies.”

Because of our age, none of us will be around for very long, so we need to use our time well by witnessing for Christ.

We are told to redeem the time which means literally, “to buy up the time.”

Think for a moment how you use your time.

Do you watch television, talk to friends, read books, walk through the halls, sit outside and enjoy nature, or maybe you are involved with some activities given by the staff here at _____________.

These are all good things; nothing wrong with any of them.