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.
The more I think through Paul’s advice here, the more I see this truth. To see a change in our world today, we need to be committed to the two P’s - prayer and proclamation of Christ. I summed it up this way – the 2 P’s of the Christian life
• Pray - to talk to God about men – bringing men’s needs to God.
• Proclaim – to talk to men about God – telling men the plan of God.
I. TALK TO GOD ABOUT MEN - PRAY MUCH
We’ve been talking a lot about this topic, but today I want to focus on what Paul says here - Col 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
We are to be DEVOTED to prayer, to be faithful and committed to it.
• It’s not something ‘nice to do’, ‘good to have’, but a serious HABIT to be cultivated.
• If only God can touched lives, and prayer is the only means to tap of God’s power and help, then I don’t see how we can ever make prayer an optional part of the Christian life.
Paul says we need to be ‘devoted’ to prayer – it’s a strong word.
• It has to do with being faithful to it, being committed, being loyal to it.
• You give yourselves fully to a cause.
I felt that we need to hear this phrase again and again.
• More so in our times, because words like being faithful, loyal, committed to a cause or to someone, is not longer regarded as an admirable trait.
• People don’t like to talk about commitment. They don’t find a need to be devoted, to anything or anyone.
But the Bible tells us, if we want to see a REAL difference - in our own life, in the lives of people we see around us, in our church, in our nation - prayer is the key!
• Pastor Edmund Chan wrote in a newsletter I read this week: “When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works!”
• It’s a simple line, and most of us would probably say we know it.
• But for some reason that day, when I read it, it just caused me to stop and think.
• How true is this? Do I really believe this from the bottom of my heart?
It reminds me of the great need for us to just STOP whatever I am doing, and PRAY!
• In a society like ours, so driven by doing, doing, and doing things, making things happen, being productive, and achieving the most in the fastest time…
• We are driven to do and do, try and try, and soon we believe we can make things happen.
• There is little need for prayer. Do we really need it? You see, life goes on without it. Things are fine even without it. Why pray? It’s such an unproductive thing.
Robert Holden shared an illustration in his book “Success Intelligence” - about the pit-stop in Formula One racing.
• The cars race through 50-70 laps, down to the finishing line. It’s the fastest sport in the world. It’s a picture of life in the fast lane.
• Yet central to winning the race is not about being the fastest car, because you need to stop. You need one, two, sometimes three stops in order to complete the whole race. They call it the pit-stop.
• No driver, no matter how fast they drive, can win a race without taking a pit-stop.
• In the pit-stop the drivers take quick break, receive instructions, refuel the tank, and set off on fresh tyres.
• It is in the timing and management of the pit-stop that the race if won.
Prayer is a pit-stop.
• It helps us remember who we are and what we are living for.
• We remember our vision and our identity as children of God.
• Prayer can save us so much time, so many mistakes, and so many heartaches. If only we had prayed.
• "Every failure in life is a prayer failure." Pastor Creflo A. Dollar, Jr.
We often hear people say COMMUNICATION is the key to a happy relationship.
• This sounds obvious, yet it’s the most neglected aspect in real life.
• It is one of the big problems in relationship because it is not easy.
• We need to talk, talk, and talk. That’s how we connect, that’s how we build understanding and trust.
When we devote ourselves to prayer, we’re being drawn closer and closer to Him.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
• Notice when the Bible talks about prayer, often we see these two words – watchful and thankful, watch and pray, give thanks or thanksgiving…
• Prayer can change our perspective in at least 2 ways - (1) makes us aware of dangers; (2) remind us of His blessings.
“being watchful…” talks about a defence, a protection, a guard.
• Prayer changes our perspective by making us aware of the dangers.
• Remember what Jesus told His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:38): “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
• Paul says, after mentioning the need to put on the full armour of God - “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Eph 6:18)
Watch – is the disposition of the heart.
Prayer – is the practical thing you need to do to keep you from falling.
“… being watchful and thankful.”
• Prayer changes our perspective in a 2nd way – it reminds us of God’s blessings.
• Each time we pray we are reminding ourselves that it all about Him – Acts 17:28 Peter says, “`For in him we live and move and have our being.’”
• The person who prays is always a grateful person. You are keenly aware of what God has done and is doing today.
Let us be DEVOTED to prayer.
• If we want to be overcomers in life, we cannot have a ‘hit and run’ kind of prayer life.
• Kent Hughes says that it is not so much the speaking of words but the posture of the heart that is important.
II. TALK TO MEN ABOUT GOD - PROCLAIM CHRIST
Col 4:2-6
3And 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.
Look at the capitalised words. It shows you the true heart of a Christian.
• We are to pray for open doors, clarity in sharing the message and good testimony!
• The Gospel must be proclaimed, by word and deed.
Our deed does affect our message:
Billy Graham tells about a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was.
When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, "If you’ll come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to Heaven."
"I don’t think I’ll be there," the boy said. "You don’t even know your way to the post office."
It was the preaching of the Gospel that sent Paul into prison
• And it would be the preaching of the Gospel that would keep him there.
• He is not too concerned to have prison doors opened up, but to have preaching doors opened up.
• If God opens the door for him to preach Christ in the prison, it would mean he has to remain in prison.
• The truth is he did share with the guards and some were converted.
• Phil 1:12-13 “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.”
This passage tells us we can all proclaim Christ – by the way we conduct ourselves.
• Sometimes just being a good friend to someone will draw the person closer to Christ. That’s why people coin the term ‘friendship evangelism’
• It’s a lot to do with BEING rather than DOING evangelism.
• If you do not behave right, no amount of good talk can bring the person to Christ.
There are many reasons why we opt out of evangelism.
• Very often it has to do with the way we think evangelism.
• We may have heard the message all our lives but we still don’t know what to SAY to people. Our focus is to be theologically correct.
• You may have tried sharing with your friends or colleagues and got shot down. That discouraged you from trying again. You failed the presentation.
• Or maybe you’ve done some spiritual gifts test and evangelism last on the list. So we stick to things that have a higher score, like hospitality or administration.
Too often we get too caught up by learning certain formula, or that we need to have certain kind of skills in order to evangelise.
• And some who feel that you are not the extrovert type, not the outreach type, will drop the idea completely… and leave the job to the ‘professional’, those gifted to evangelise – preachers and missionaries.
• We need to see evangelism in a different light.
I’m encouraged by what Bill Hybels shared in his new book, “Just Walk Across the Room”.
Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek church, shared this:
When I come across these evangelism-averse folks at Willow, here’s the question I ask: “If you knew that taking twenty steps across any ordinary room could actually change somebody’s eternity - just twenty little steps - would you be willing to take them? As you’d imagine, they all agree. But it’s superficial consent, the look on their faces betraying their real answer. Sure, I’d take the walk, they think, but we both know that evangelism just isn’t that easy!
Admittedly, there was a time when I might have been more sympathetic to their arguments. But all that shifted when I attended a luncheon in a southern city a few years ago. There I met a tall, Muslim African-American man who told me a story I won’t soon forget. He explained that he and his family had been ostracized at the church he grew up in because of racial differences. One day, he went off to college and realized that the only people on campus who embraced him were Muslim, and so he decided to convert to Islam. Years later, after becoming a successful businessman at a firm in the South, he noticed a pattern of being excluded at the social functions he needed to attend because of his profession.
The typical pattern was that I’d come to one of these cocktail parties, grab a drink and a plate of food, try to make a few business connections, find myself standing all alone (again), wait about a half hour…and then start to plot my exit.”
Everyone else seemed to have their “own kind” there to talk to while he just hung out alone. It was frustrating - even humiliating - for him, until one evening when the whole dynamic got turned on its head. He described to me that on this particular occasion, just as he was contemplating making his escape, he noticed a white gentleman step away from his conversational circle, turn toward him, and walk clear across the room.
The stranger was a Christ-follower, as the Muslim man would soon find out. But after sticking out his hand, introducing himself, and engaging the Muslim man in a very natural conversation covering everything from sports and the business world to matters of faith, the Christian said something remarkable. “You know, I know almost nothing about Islam. Would you be willing to grab a cup of coffee with me sometime and explain the basic tenets of your faith?”
That breakfast meeting led to a weekly discussion between the two men. The Christ-follower focused on asking good questions, being an attentive listener, and developing a genuine friendship with the Muslim man. The Muslim man, as you’d expect, was astounded and impressed by the genuine care and attention.
Eventually, he asked the Christ-follower to turn the tables and explain what Christianity was all about. One thing led to another until one morning, instead of driving directly to work following their breakfast meeting, the Muslim man drove home, walked into the master bedroom, dropped to his knees, and asked Jesus Christ to take control of his life. Soon afterward, he led his wife and kids to Christ.
Although there are many aspects to that story that inspire me, the main one is this: a man and his entire family will take up residence in heaven one day all because of a simple walk across a room.
Think for a moment your own experience – your own journey of faith in Christ.
• How did you wind up in God’s Kingdom?
• Most of us can trace your faith journey back to someone who took time to talk to you and extended a hand of friendship to them.
• Could have been in the campus, in school, in the office, a shopping mall, wherever.
• Someone touched you first before God touched your heart.
The point is that people are drawn to a person before they are drawn to God.
• Eventually, whether the next day or the next decade, they turned over their lives to Jesus.
• And it happened all because one Christ-follower agreed to take twenty simple steps across a room.
• Someone’s life is changed because you simply take a walk-across-the-room.
This is what evangelism is all about. Be a true friend to someone.
• Philip finds his friend Nathanael and said, “Come and see.” (John 1:46)
• It can be as simple as that.
At a specific point in time and space, Jesus Christ left the comfort of heaven so that he could take the most significant walk in history.
• His was a walk across the vastness of the cosmos - a series of steps that ushered Christ into our earthly paradigm.
• It was a walk that would eventually cost him his life, and yet he took it willingly.
Look just how far Christ walked in order to provide a way for all of us to be made right with God.
• His walk was a difficult one, but for us, our walk across the room is a simple one.
• The Lord wants us to “follow His lead”.
Bill Hybels ends by saying:
“Leave your well-known circles of comfort and take the risk to enter the zone of the unknown. Feeling wobbly as you take those first steps? No need. Remember that His Spirit is guiding your every move. He’ll tell you when to walk, what to say when you open your mouth, how to behave in a natural, honouring way with the person you approach.
Worried about the outcome? Leave that up to my Father. Really… he’s much better at that sort of thing. All that is required of you is your initial obedience to walk when he says to walk, talk when he says to talk, and fall silent when he whispers that you’ve said enough.”
Friends, evangelism doesn’t have to be more complicated than this.
