Impact Your World Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• If you ever watch many sporting events after a while you start to hear the term, IMPACT PLAYER. A team will say they are one impact player away from winning a championship.

• On a team, obviously you have players, but an impact player is someone special. While the others on the team are going about doing their job, an impact player is a difference maker.

• An impact player is an important part of a winning team.

• You usually will not win with a bunch of below average players, but an impact player can make everyone else in the line up better.

• At FCC our mission, our mission statement is “Connecting People with Christ.”

• In order to do that each one of us has to make an impact in the world that we live in.

• At FCC we realize that Connecting People With Christ is more than just getting someone baptized, it also entails helping the new convert to grow in Christ.

• BUT before we connect someone with Christ, SOMEONE has to make in impact in their life, that someone is YOU!

• I want you to think about this for a moment. DO YOU HAVE PEOPLE YOU CARE FOR THAT DO NOT BELONG TO JESUS? A friend or family member maybe a co-worker?

• There are so many people in our lives who are hurting, living life with no direction, along with people who are dying every day without Jesus.

• I want you to think about those in your world who are without Jesus, now ask yourself, are they valuable to you and to God?

• If we really believe that people will not go to heaven without Jesus, then we will do everything we can to try to get them to Jesus.

• I know how easily intimidated by the thought of actually telling someone about Jesus.

• We are intimidated by what to say, how to say it, and by the potential reaction from the one we are trying to share our faith with.

• I want to help you take some of the intimidation factor out of the equation by helping you to see that you can be an impact player on God’s team.

• You can be a person who makes the difference in the lives of those who are lost.

• Impact players are not afraid to step up to the plate.

• When I was young, they called the Yankee’s Reggie Jackson Mr. October because of the impact Reggie would make on the biggest stage, the post season. He always wanted to be at bat with the game on the line.

• Folks for our friends and loved ones who do not know Jesus, the game of eternity is on the line, someone needs to step up to the plate and help them to get to Jesus.

• Will you be the one who is willing to step up? If you can grasp the concepts of today’s message, you will be able to impact your world for Jesus!

• Let us begin in verses 2-4

• SLIDE #2

• Colossians 4:2–4 (ESV) 2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. You can impact your world for Jesus with your prayers.

• This is such an important aspect to the success of anything we do in life, but it is maybe one of the most neglected.

• How many times have we tried to say something to another person about our faith without any prayer preparation?

• Do you have a list of people you are praying will be open to receiving and accepting Jesus as their Lord?

• One of the ways you can make an impact in the world you live in is to pray for people in your world.

• After all the doctrine and practice Paul shares with us in the closing section of Colossians we are told to Continue steadfastly in prayer.

• Prayer is something that I cannot stress enough. I know if we would take prayer more seriously, we would see results we never before could imagine.

• How are we to pray? As you look at verse two again you will see a couple of things.

• First we are to be DEVOTED to prayer. Continue steadfastly

• This is an issue of perseverance. It means to be courageously persistent.

• We need to all have a list of people we are persistently praying for.