It's good singing this morning. I hope your heart is tuned to listen to the Word of God as we preach about bringing that message of the Gospel across the lands. And of course, it starts right here in Lakeville, doesn't it? It starts in our own homes, in our workplaces, our family and friends. And I suppose there will be more opportunities even this week with family and friends perhaps still in town. Let's go to the Lord and pray as we come to a tremendous text of Scripture in the book of Colossians. Father, thank you for the time now to worship through listening attentively to your living, enduring, authoritative Word. We pray that these would not be the opinions of a man, but simply an explanation of Your Word and an application of it by the Spirit to our hearts. Lord, challenge us where we need to be challenged today, especially on this topic of evangelism. Teach us where we need to be taught. Admonish us. Encourage us where we've been discouraged in this whole endeavor. More than anything, make us to depend upon the power of God and the Gospel of Christ, and not on our own abilities in this regard. I pray this in Christ's name, Amen. Well, we are familiar, I'm sure, with our mandate as believers in Jesus Christ. We know our marching orders as a church. I think we understand our mission as a united body of believers. In fact, I bet we've all memorized it. I bet we've got it down. I'm sure we've memorized the words that Jesus spoke in His resurrection body. And He spoke these words with all the authority of the final Davidic king. He spoke the words of our mandate. And we know them as the Great Commission. The Great Commission. Matthew 28, verse 18 says this, And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." I love the encouragement. And not only are we walking in light of all of His authority, but we're walking in light of His all-day, everyday presence. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And of course, this great commission found its initial fulfillment in Acts chapter 2. Remember, Peter is preaching a rousing sermon to the Jews in Jerusalem of his day. Convicting words. about God and about man and about Jesus Christ, about what they should do. In fact, they cried out because they were pierced to the heart. The Spirit had used the Word of God and they were pierced to the heart and they said, what must we do to be saved? What must we do? And they received the Word. And 3,000 were added to their number. was born that day in Jerusalem. And the text goes on in Acts 2 to describe that local church. And they were continually devoting themselves. This is Acts 2, verse 42. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. Right out of the gates, by the way. First word. Devoted to apostolic teaching. And to fellowship. to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And did it have an influence? And having favor with all the people." That's outsiders. That's unbelievers. How do I know? Because it says, "...and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Disciples were being made. People were bending their knee to King Jesus. This is the pattern of the New Testament church. And brothers and sisters, this is what God wants for us here at Grace Community Bible Church. And this new year, our focus is going to be on evangelism, on disciple making, on witnessing the gospel as we begin an extended C.E. Hour series on this topic. of evangelism starting next week. And I am excited about it. I am really excited about it, brothers and sisters, because this is Christ's heartbeat. This is what He prays for in John 17. That the world might know through our unity and our love and our growth and our difference that He is King. We might call them to bend the knee to King Jesus. This is our call. Now, I'm fine. I am. I'm fine with this church growing when people hear about us and they're starving for the Word of God and they're in churches that are not preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They come and they find us and they plug in and they're fed sometimes for the first time in years. I'm fine with that. But, what I really want to see the Lord do is to see us going out and making disciples of our families, our co-workers, our friends, and our city. To see them saved, to see them baptized, to see them brought into the membership of the local church, to see them equipped under the verse-by-verse, week in and week out, plotting sometimes, preaching and teaching of the Word of God. That's what I want to see happen. That's what I want to see happen in this church. I believe that's what God wants to see happen. I believe that's His heartbeat. I think that's at the heart of the great commission of the church. And by God's grace, may it begin in earnest this very day. Now, in the book of Colossians chapter 4, Paul expands upon our participation in the process of making disciples. In fact, Paul gives some incredible details regarding the point of contact with outsiders. In other words, how to fulfill our mandate of the Great Commission. He kind of shows us what it looks like at the very beginning and how that process works out. So I want you to turn to our passage this morning in the book of Colossians chapter 4. And we're going to be looking at in detail verses 2 through 6, you have a handout in your bulletin if you'd like to track. Colossians chapter 4 and verse 2. Now, as you're turning there, the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Colossians. He is speaking about the supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said in Colossians 2, verse 6, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. So you've received the gospel, now live the gospel. Don't be thinking it's Jesus plus anything else. Jesus Christ is enough. You are united with Him in death. Forgiven of all your sins, you are united to Him in His resurrection life. You have it all in Christ. Walk in light of that. And he goes on to say, here's where. Walk that life. within the church. He talks about hymns and spiritual songs and some wonderful stuff within the church. And then within the home, there's a section on the home and the workplace. And at the end of the letter, in our passage, he speaks of living out the Gospel before unbelievers. And this section is really about our Gospel witness before unbelievers. Let's read it starting at verse 2. Colossians 4. 4 and verse 2. Paul writes this. Devote yourselves to prayer. Keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Praying at the same time for us as well that God will open up to us a door for the Word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned. That I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. This passage is a call for faithful gospel witness. before outsiders. Paul speaks of three aspects. Three aspects of faithful gospel witness here. First, our prayer for witness. Our prayer for witness. We're going to ask two questions about prayer in the life of the church, and we're going to see that they're connected to gospel witness. The context here is gospel witness. I think it's important to see that. Because we need to be certain about this before we ever utter a word in the CE Hour series. Effective evangelism starts on our knees before the Lord. It starts with prayer. First question under our prayer for witness, how do we pray? How do we pray? The text gives us three ways. First, with persistence. yourselves to prayer. That word for devote is a powerful word. Very emphatic in the original. It speaks, you could say, you could translate it to be courageously persistent in prayer. To hold fast to prayer like you would, you know, if you were tossed out onto a rough lake with eight foot waves and you grabbed a piece of wood. To cling to it like that. To hold fast and not let go. To adhere to like superglue. To be busily engaged in. This is the feeling of this Word. Keep your finger here in Colossians. I want you to turn to Luke 18. And let's illustrate this as Jesus illustrated it in a parable. Luke 18. Turn quickly there, and I'm going to start right away just reading this. Think about courageous persistence in prayer. Luke 18, verse 1. Now, He was telling them a parable to show that at all times, at all times, they ought to pray and to not lose heart. I try not to preach a little mini-sermon here. That's why we don't pray. We've lost heart. We've lost heart because we think it all depends on us. It doesn't. So we ought to pray and not lose heart. And he said this, in a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. Sound familiar? There was a widow in that city and she kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent. For a while, this judge, for a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Listen to this unrighteous man. Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him? That's a description of prayer. Who cry to Him day and night. And will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, Will you pray? Is what he's going to say, but he says it in a different way. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on this earth? Will He find you believing or despairing? And so the point is of unwilling and sinful humans will honor persistence. How much more our holy, loving, heavenly Father. And He pleads that we would not be discouraged. And He pleads that we would have faith to come and to believe this. And to be devoted to persistent and habitual prayer. Devoted to it. Persistent to it. One thing is certain about this word devoted. One thing is certain. It's hard work. It's hard work to pray, brothers and sisters. Let me guarantee you that in 2014, there's no spiritual discipline that you will find harder than prayer. It will be opposed by the world, the flesh, and the devil with all of their unveiled forces. It's hard work. Go back to Colossians 4. But fast forward just a couple of verses, and I want to show you this. Chapter 4 and verse 12. Go to Colossians 4, verse 12. I just want to see this little phrase that explains this. This is speaking of Pastor Epaphras, the pastor of this small church in Colossae. And he has fled to Rome to get advice from Paul. That's how much he cared. 1,500 miles trek for his church. And Paul gives him some advice, but he sends word back by a letter. And watch what he says about Epaphras in verse 12. who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings." Now watch what he notices about his brother Epaphras. Prayer is not easy. Watch this. Always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers. So that your gout would go away? No. It's fine to pray for that. It is. But no, so that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God." To be persistent in prayer, we must work. And we're discouraged by that, but you shouldn't be. It's in the text. We need to be devoted to this. And so, let me give you one hint. We need to plan to pray. We need to make an appointment with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and we must not break it for lesser things. We must be devoted to prayer. Secondly, how do we pray? With alertness. I couldn't come up with a better word. Perhaps vigilance. Perhaps awareness. Alertness, secondly. Keeping alert in it. And so, we're all ready to go, right? Monday morning. Prayer's not easy. I'm going to schedule it. 4 a.m. because I'm a busy guy. And so we get up in the morning. We plan to pray. It's 4 a.m. And we start praying. And 30 seconds later, our mind wanders to work. Or our mind wanders to the dinner preparations for the people coming over tonight. Or our mind wanders to that great book we're reading with our kids. We say, oh, Lord, please forgive me. I'm so sorry, Lord. And then you start praying again. And before you know it, you're dreaming. I mean, literally dreaming. You've fallen asleep in your prayer. Anybody been there? Well, that's what the text says. He says, literally, this word translated, keeping alert, is literally stay awake. Stay awake for it. Don't doze off. Pay attention. Engage your mind and your heart. This word does include physical alertness. We all know about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. We're coming to that in two weeks. And He says, men, pray for Me. Pray. Pray, pray, pray. I'll be over here. The stones throw away. I'll be praying. Pray for an hour. And what happens? They're exhausted. They fall asleep. Three times. And Jesus says, You men, couldn't you keep watch with me for an hour?" He says, keep watching and praying. Be alert, so you will not enter into temptation, but the Spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. Stay awake physically in prayer. That's what he's saying here. How to pray? Figure out ways of staying awake. Tips. Tips from Pastor Jeff. A good cup of coffee and pray out loud. Praying out loud has been a lifesaver. Try to pray in your head at 4 a.m. 4 p.m. for that matter. Pray out loud. Do what it takes to stay awake in prayer. But this is not just a physical nuance here. This is also a spiritual alertness in prayer that is captured by this Greek word. It's living your life with a mental alertness, a mental and spiritual readiness to the dangers and the needs and the spiritual alarms that go off around you all the day. It's being ready and alert to pray at all times, to look for opportunities to pray. It's spiritual alertness throughout the day. It's when you stop and you say a quick word to your king. Have you done that? When you're just walking through the hall at work, doing your job, and you see someone, you pray for them. Or you're struggling and you see something and you repent or you say, Lord, help me. That's what he means. That's a spiritual alertness in prayer. Nehemiah is a great example of this by way of illustration. Remember Nehemiah the cupbearer? He's deported like everyone else, the Jews, into a foreign country. And he longs for the restoration of Jerusalem. And he's the cupbearer. He's going before the king. He's not supposed to be grumpy or he could get his head chopped off. Not a good thing to make the king unhappy. And so, watch what he does. I'm just going to read it. Nehemiah 2, verse 1. And it came about in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Utterxerxes, that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had not been sad in his presence, or so he thought. So the king said to me, why is your face sad, though you are not sick? Of course, Nehemiah is gulping, feeling his throat right now, because his head could roll. He's made the king unhappy. He's made him sad. Because you're sad. This is nothing but sadness of heart, the king says. Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire? Speaking of Jerusalem, And then the king said to me, what would you request? And I love this little line put in. Then he says, so I prayed to the God of heaven. Did he say this? I know you're angry at me because I'm kind of sad, but I'm going to anger you further. I'm going to step outside for ten minutes. I have a little prayer meeting and I'll be back in a minute. No. In that moment, in the quietness of his heart, he said, O Lord, help. Give me the words. And so I prayed to the God of heaven." There was just a communion and an alertness and a vigilance and prayer that Nehemiah had. He prayed to the God of heaven and then he said, I said to the king, if it please the king and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it. And God answered his prayer. And pray, be ready, be vigilant, both physically and spiritually alert in prayer. And third, with Thanksgiving, how to pray with Thanksgiving, with an attitude of Thanksgiving, the capstone that envelops and fuels persistence and alertness. Are you ready? If you want to know how to do this other than out loud, it's this Thanksgiving. This one is sort of the capstone, as you structure it in the original. It's the fuel for the other two. Nothing will fuel your prayer life more than remembering who you were before Christ saved you, and all that He has done for you, and then thanking Him for it, and praising Him for it, and thankfulness for grace. Thankfulness for unmerited favor always leads to dependence. And dependence always leads to prayer. The problem is, when you don't have a thankful heart, but you have a complaining heart, which leads to a self-centered heart, and a heart filled with worry and the fear of man and anger at your situation, you will be stubborn and you will not pray. Am I right? You will be like one of those bratty little children who refuse to crawl up on their mother's lap. and give them the silent treatment. But, if thankfulness has filled your heart, oh, thank You, Father, that You have saved a helpless sinner like me. Lord, I have no idea what to do in this situation. I have no idea how I'm going to provide for my family. Oh, Lord, help. Come to my rescue. Oh, Lord, show me what You would have me to do. That heart of dependence, that heart that cries out, Abba, Father, is cultivated. by heart of thankfulness. It's fueled by that. Now, in our men's fellowship, we are studying the attributes of God. We studied the attributes of every good and perfect gift coming from God in James. That God is the giver of good gifts. One of the applications we made is to see how many good gifts from God you could list on a piece of paper in five minutes. One author gave that suggestion. So I'll commend this to you. You want to cultivate your prayer life? You start right there. Get a piece of paper out today. Take five minutes, set a clock, and write down for five straight minutes everything that you have to be thankful for. And it will fuel your prayer life. Brothers and sisters, be courageously persistent. Be alert. all with an attitude of thanksgiving. And when your heart is overflowing with thanksgiving, you will overflow in prayer before your God. Brothers and sisters, I have a question for you at the beginning of a new year. Do you pray? Effective evangelism must begin with prayer. How do we pray? Secondly, what do we pray for? Paul's focus now for the prayer for the Colossian believers is pretty interesting. You know, one of the prayer requests that Paul asked for, Paul asked for prayer for him, for his ministry. You could have said to pray for your families, pray for this, pray for that. He says, pray for me. Pray for the preaching of the Gospel. Hear me. This is the only request that's given here. Pray for the preaching of the gospel. And there's no apostles today, but we do have what? Missionaries? We do have preachers of the Word of God. And His one request that is mentioned here is to pray for the furtherance of the gospel through mouthpieces that are called of God. That they would be ready in season and out of season. that God would bring about certain things, that there would be a platform for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And He gives three requests in that regard here. What do we pray for? Number one, opportunity for the Gospel. Opportunity for the Gospel. Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the Word. Pray for opportunities to preach the Gospel. We are called to pray for our pastors. To pray for the preaching of the Word of God from this pulpit when I preach, or whether it's Pastor Dan, or some other guest preacher, Pastor Don, whoever is ministering the Word of God, to pray beginning, during, and afterwards for the Word of God to have its effect. That we would be ready in season and out of season. To pray for our missionaries. Are you praying for Scott and Julie Fultz? Are you praying for Matt and Laura Gaz? They're praying for Bobby and Danielle Harness to be trained and even to have opportunities now in the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Praying for opportunities, a door for the Word of God. A couple of weeks ago, Marlene asked our family to come down. We wanted to come down, and so we came down to sing some carols to her. We're going to come up to her room and sing her some Christmas carols. My family. But she got excited about it and she ended up hanging up posters in her apartment complex that we were coming. So we got there. There's 30 to 40 people waiting. And so we're singing Christmas carols, which contain the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But I'm thinking, I should have come with a devotion. This is an opportunity, what? For the Gospel. This is a door. I left my Bible. I didn't have my Bible. Marlene, do you have your Bible? Don't have my Bible. Marlene, can you go up to your room right now? I need a Bible. There was so much hindrance to the preaching of the Gospel that night. My own fear. We got a Bible. We preached about Jesus our Emmanuel. It wasn't long, but they heard the Gospel. Probably most of them unsaved. Who knows? It wasn't a Christian place. An opportunity, a door for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are we praying for these opportunities for faithful preachers of the Word? Do we pray for this pulpit ministry at this church? How are we intentional about that? Brothers and sisters, secondly, we are to pray for the purity of the Gospel. The purity of the Gospel. Open up a door for the Word. By the way, open up a door not for my opinion, but for the Word. Open up a door for the Word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ. Paul preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He preached the Gospel, not his own opinion. Turn over two pages to Colossians 1. Let's talk briefly about, very briefly, about the mystery of Christ. Paul explains it a little bit, and it should be the focus of this pulpit. Colossians 1, verse 27. We're going to jump right into the context. To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. There is the mystery of the Gospel. Christ Jesus living inside of us. Having hope of seeing Him face to face. Hope of glory. Our union with Christ. Jesus Christ is the mystery of the Gospel. That we could be one in Him and the church could be one, Jew and Gentile, one in Him. What did Paul preach on? Five steps to financial freedom that he whipped up? No. Verse 28, we proclaim Him. There's our ministry. We proclaim Him. Three words. Admonishing every man. Uh-oh. It might hurt sometimes. Admonishing every man. and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." And how do you think that power is fueled? The prayers of the saints. Pray that this pulpit would stand on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The pure, unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ. God is loving. And He's also holy. The man is not intrinsically good, but intrinsically bad. Separated from God and an enemy. Eternally separated from God. And then we would preach that the only thing that bridges that gap is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The cross of Christ. The only way. And that Jesus Christ lived the life we could not live and cannot live. And He died the death that we deserve. And He lives and ever lives to intercede before us. And we must preach that we must bend the knee to this King Jesus. And come to Him, bending the knee, believing in His merits and not our own. May we preach that Gospel from this pulpit. And may we preach, finally, third request, may we preach that with clarity. With clarity. Clarity with the Gospel. He goes on, "...so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned." Verse 4, "...that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak." The Apostle longs that he might speak the right words in the right way. He understands the sovereignty of God, but he longs that he might be clear with the Gospel. that He might be understandable to the minds and hearts of those who would listen. And prayer makes all the difference in the world. Brothers and sisters, this passage is teaching us that prayer makes all the difference in the world to the preaching of the Gospel. All the difference. For opportunity, for purity, and for clarity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for it. I just learned that a friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine, Pastor Mike Beasley, I learned that his wife Sandra prays for me every single morning on Sunday mornings. And it was incredibly encouraging. She lives in North Carolina. She's not a member of our church, of course. She prays every single morning for the preaching of the Word of God. What encouragement to me! You know, we know about Spurgeon The great preacher in the 1800s in England, he often mentioned that the secret of his success was not his eloquence, but what? Prayer. And he cited that many church members who prayed regularly in the basement during the services and on other significant occasions. And listen to what he says. I'll quote him. All hell is vanquished when the believer bows his knee in supplication. Beloved brother, let us pray. We cannot all argue, but we can all pray. We cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders. We cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men. Prayer links us with the eternal, the omnipotent, the infinite, and hence, it is our chief resort. End quotes. Effective evangelism brings with a devotion to alertness and prayer full of thanksgiving, praying for opportunity, purity, and clarity for the preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you thought about prayer that way before? That's what he teaches on prayer. The second aspect of gospel witness, and we'll move quickly, is our practice for witness. Our practice for witness. Now, we do pray for our pastors as they preach, our missionaries, but we also pray for opportunities so that we might open up our mouth for the gospel, don't we? By extension, by application here, come on. But watch out. You really want to pray that? God will answer that prayer. Be careful what you pray for. Because when the opportunity comes, will we cower in fear? Will we walk by the opportunity? Now, what's interesting about this passage is that Paul's concern for the Colossians is not, okay, let me tell you what to say. His first concern is, let me tell you how to live. Our practice for witness. And there's two aspects of our walk that influence our witness that are highlighted by Paul here. Two aspects. One, being wise. Being wise. Conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders, towards unbelievers, those outside of the church. And the idea of that word wisdom is behaving... I love this word because it's so what the Greek word means. It's behaving tactfully. Love it. Behaving tactfully and respectfully before unbelievers. That's walking in wisdom. Tactfully and respectfully before unbelievers. Guys, if you're going to be wise in 2014, you know what it's going to take? Slowing down. Slowing down. Yeah. Praying about stuff. Think about what the Word of God has to say about things before you make decisions. Evaluating circumstances. Thinking about what's going to come out of your mouth. Thinking about the impact of your decisions and your actions. It's going to take slowing down, respect, and tact. That is wisdom. Unbelievers. The opposite of this is foolishness, tactlessness, unthinking behavior. Running over people. And that will kill our witness for Christ. Instead, unbelievers ought to ask, okay, what makes you tick? What makes you different? Why do you have that hope? Give me an answer for the hope that you have. Why? Because they've seen it. They've seen that hope. They've seen the wisdom. It's otherworldly when it's from the Spirit of God. Oh, brothers and sisters, a holy life of wisdom will lead to opportunity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that will lead then to the second aspect that Paul highlights about our walk. That is buying up time. Buying up time. Making the most of the opportunity, he says in the text. The word there is redeeming the time. Redeeming. That word redeem is drawn from the idea of the buying out of the marketplace. And it's an intensified Greek word. It's really shopping hard. It's exhausting all the opportunities in that marketplace, looking for the perfect thing and looking well. I think of my wife. Looking for that perfect outfit. She doesn't get an opportunity to do this a lot, so when she goes, she knows where she's going, she knows why she's going, she knows exactly, and she shops, and she compares, and she graphs it, and she works at it. And she knows the outfit when she sees it, and she snaps it up, and it's usually on sale. That is redeeming the time. That is buying up the opportunity. One scholar says a good translation of this would be this, snapping up every opportunity that comes to speak for Jesus. I'll say it again. Snapping up every opportunity that comes to speak for Jesus. Living wisely. praying for open doors, and then taking those doors, snapping them up because you are shopping for them. And you know what they look like. And you're ready. Jeff, I've been praying for myself to live wisely for the sake of the Gospel at work. Lord, where is an opportunity to speak the mystery of Christ? Don't forget, it all starts with your walk. No walk, no opportunity. except an opportunity to drag the name of Christ through the mud and not adorn the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Walk wise before outsiders. And third, the final aspect of faithful gospel witness this morning is our proclamation for witness. In verse 6, how do we speak when God does open up that door? And we do snap up that opportunity. It's go time. You ever been there? It feels like an invisible force field. It feels like you've got two tons on your shoulders. Come on. And you're about to open up the Gospel and fear and everything else. Now, when you get going, it's great. But getting over that initial push is almost impossible with man. That's why we pray. And so, how do we speak when God does open the door? There are three ways in verse 6. Three ways. Let your speech always be with what? Grace. We need to hear this. Well, how often should it be with grace? Always be with grace. Do you hear that? Not sometimes. Always. And so, winsome and kind speech captures that word. If you study it out. Winsome and kind speech. If your heart has been captivated by grace, if you are so thankful that God has taken you from here in sin and set your feet on dry ground and cleaned you up and made you His son, His daughter. If you have been given grace, give that grace to others in your speech. That's kindness. And this is our problem, I'm telling you. If you see unbelievers as your enemy, you've got big problems. If you look at them with disdain at their sin, forgetting you were just like that. If you can't stand to even be around them, then your speech, your witness will be angry. You will be defensive. You will have a self-righteous tone in your voice instead of a tear in your eye. You will be red-faced and flushed. Flustered instead of patient and faithful. Our answers that we give aren't going to be liked. There's going to be debate. There's going to be discussion. Relax. The truth is on your side. Enjoy it. You must be saying it right. if they're reacting that way. Rest in that kindness, loving tone. Let your speech always be with grace. There's no exception in personal witness. Always be kind, the text says. I want you to maybe jot down Ephesians 4.29. It's worthy of memorization this week as a family, as individuals. Let no unwholesome word, Ephesians 4.29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear. Winsome and kind speech, the second way to proclaim is seasoned speech. As though seasoned with salt. I think as though, as added by our New American Standard translators, I think it's separate. Here, stacking, connected but separate. We've got kind speech, but we've also got salty speech. Seasoned speech. Now, salt in that day, in our day too, is an effective ingredient. You know when you put salt in and when you haven't put salt in to a meal, am I right? You're not uncertain about that. It's effective. Okay? Salt in that day, they used to clean. It can sting the wound, but it will clean that wound. Salt can prevent corruption in that day. We don't use it so much today for that, a little bit. Salt can prevent corruption, so our speech can have a purifying influence. Salt adds flavor, doesn't it? Salt adds flavor so that the witness of the new man is not dull and sanctimonious language. Hear me on this. Filled with pious platitudes. But real. Real. Thoughtful. Not boring. Savory speech. Salty speech. The word has a nuance even of witty. and joy-filled. Are you happy about this gospel? Or are you mad about it? And you get even with someone with it. No. Relax. This is the best news in the entire world. I think the gospel can hold its own in the marketplace of this world's fallen ideas. Do you? Let us not be ashamed of it. It is the truth. It is interesting. The Gospel is incredible. It's mind-blowing. Illustrate it with color, with life. Salty speech. Seasoned speech. Meet people where they're at. Be careful. Listen to me. Be careful of canned responses and witnessing methods with no heart. We can be interesting. and devout believers in Jesus Christ. The question is, do you genuinely know that person and their interests, or are you living in this world and rubbing shoulders in this world simply as a gimmick for the gospel, for the handmade, canned gospel presentation? Is it just a gimmick? This passage betrays that whole idea. No, we are to have seasoned salty speech. In fact, that leads to the third way of our witness and speech. Tailor-made speech. We'll finish on this. Tailor-made speech. As though seasoned with salt, now watch this, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. To each person. I want you to make two observations under this point of tailor-made speech. First, we must consider each person in our response. Each person. Not just a rattled-off, stereotyped testimony or approach, but know the person. Each person. Each person. Individualized gospel presentations. What's their question? Answer it. Start there. What is their background? What stumbling blocks might that have for the gospel? What's their culture? Are you respecting it? Philip started his gospel presentation with the Ethiopian eunuch where? Where that Ethiopian eunuch was. Not where he wanted to start. No, I give it. It was nice. It was Isaiah 53. I mean, come on. That's a good place to start. It wasn't the latest movie that someone has seen. Or it wasn't the question that they had about their nasty uncle. But those are the starting points for the Gospel. That's tailor-made speech. Paul adapted his speech and approach to his audience. He did. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 20, to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law. 1 Corinthians 9.20, "...to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, so that I might by all means save some." And it doesn't mean Paul went out and brutalized the gospel with all kinds of pragmatic worldly methods of winning people. All he is saying is that he had seasoned speech, tailor-made speech that he knew and loved people enough to bring the Gospel to real people whom he loved and cried over, like Christ cried and loved the rich young ruler who spurned his Gospel. And I love it, he says, and he loved this man. In Luke 18. Do you see that? That is what Paul did. Paul did not compromise the gospel. He said in Galatians 1.8, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. Anathema. Doesn't sound like he watered down the gospel. Anathematized people who did that. But he did tailor-make his speech and his approach to each individual person. I also, secondly, want you to observe. Not only that it's to each individual, that it shouldn't be stereotyped, but I want you to observe in verse 6. Look at it. Look at verse 6. This is really interesting. I want you to observe that the Colossian believers ought to respond to each person. Now, watch this. We are praying that pastors, right? In that day, apostles, now pastors, missionaries, ought to what? Proclaim the word. What are we doing? Responding. Now, I'm not saying that you can't preach the gospel on the corners. I'm not saying that. But notice the shift. It's a response here. It's a different word. And I think it's powerful. On the other hand, Paul ought to speak. Here's what I think it's saying. It's saying that living a godly life and then looking for opportunities that God creates through prayer, precedes our words. And in fact, oftentimes, if those things are in place, the words won't be canned and forced and red-faced. They will be a response. A response. We are not called... This is so freeing to me. We are not called the force openings in the flesh. we are called to accept openings created by God. Lucas says well, it opens the way for a greater dependence on God's leading as well as for a more relevant and sensitive witness suited to each individual. When the outsider has chosen the time and the place and the subject, how wonderfully free is the Christian to open his mouth and tell the good news of Jesus Christ. I was speaking with another believer in our church the other day. It was a few weeks ago. We were out for coffee. And he said, I've got this little, I don't know if it was a poem or what it was, on pride that's tacked to his workstation. And he loves to sit there. His co-workers come in and he sees them kind of steal a glance and skim over that thing on pride. And he's waiting. and praying for an opportunity for that to trigger what? A Gospel conversation. That is kind of the feel of the word respond here. And it makes perfect sense with what we read in our Scripture reading about being ready to give an answer to the hope that someone sees in you. Brothers and sisters, Paul calls us to faithful gospel witness today. But before we ever open up our mouth in witness, may we be found on our knees courageously persistent in prayer, courageously persistent, vigilant, aware, filled with thanksgiving. May we walk in wisdom before unbelievers. ready to snap up an opportunity to proclaim the mystery of Christ. To give them an answer, an answer that is kind, not critical. An answer that is seasoned, not dull. An answer that is tailor-made to each individual and to each situation. And we cannot do this. I don't know about you, but this is overwhelming. We cannot do this in the power of the flesh, brothers and sisters. It is impossible. We cannot say the right words at the right time. Evangelism is far beyond us. And that is why we come to God in humble, dependent prayer. And that is why I am so thankful that I am called to what? Scatter the seed. Maybe even to water someone else's seed. But only God causes the growth. for salvation is of the Lord. May the Lord greatly bless our upcoming series on evangelism in 2014 as we flesh out these principles through the Word, through the discussion. May He equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for this is how we day by day fulfill the Great Commission. The commission that is our calling as individuals and is our mandate as a church. Amen. Father, thank You for Your Word. It's so powerful, so relevant, so helpful. We're so thankful, Lord, for this opportunity this year to focus on evangelism. May You richly bless our efforts in the Gospel, learning the Gospel, learning to share it, discussing ways and encouraging and praying for one another. May our church look different a year from now. than it does today as we begin to really get busy in this work. Lord, if there's someone here today who has yet to bend the knee to King Jesus, may today be the day of their salvation. May they see their need, may they see their sin, and may they see Jesus Christ and run to Him, bend the knee to Him, and trust in Him alone. May today be the day of their salvation. A new year and a new life. I pray this in Christ's name, Amen.