Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ. And now the message. So we found that Scotland is more of a pre-Christian nation. So even ministering to kids, even in our back to school Bible club, that it became dealing with six and seven year olds who would tell you, you know, I don't believe in God. I don't want anything to do with the Bible. They would present it that way, and it's almost like, who told you this? Because nobody operates like that in any capacity. But you realize the school system is very corrupt, and they put a damper on Christianity far more than anything else. They're very much a promotion of Islam in schools, and Hinduism, and other religions. But Christianity, they want to push that one away. They want to get rid of it altogether. So we've dealt very much with that, but even through that process, we just started to present it to people, letting them know that creation, God, everything began good. What they've heard probably most is that when someone comes and teaches and preaches to them, they just say, you're a sinner, which for us, if we heard that, we know We know what that means, right? It takes you back to the beginning. We know Adam and Eve said in the garden, we're like, yes, you know, that sin came upon us, you know, because sin passed upon all men for that all have sinned. But for them, they're just like, they make a mockery of that. Oh, I do wrong things. Oh, I'm a sinner. But then if you let them know that everything used to be good, it puts them into a whole nother perspective where they say, you know, there was actually something good before there was something bad. And sometimes we as Christians today, we miss that. We miss that it was good. You know, everything was created good, as God said, and then sin entered into the world. But even through the process of sin entering in the world, we still serve a good God through that process because he sent Christ to die for us, buried in a tomb, and three days later rising again and then promising of the consummation of all things in the end, wiping every tear from our eyes. And we see that all transpiring throughout the entirety of the word of God. And it gets exciting because it's almost like you get to figure out the culture that you're in and then have the opportunity to present the gospel in a way in which they can understand and proceed forward through with salvation. It's exciting to be a part of it. I'll give an update as well because he had mentioned regarding the Church of Scotland facility that we're in process of purchasing. I know we have gone through everything that we could possibly do. We even hired a solicitor or a What do they call him? A realtor. A realtor to come and inspect the property and so forth like that. But it happens to be an ordeal with the city council, the Aberdeen City Council, and the Church of Scotland. The city council believes they own a portion of land that actually cuts through the center of the manse. And because they believe that they own it, The City Council like any government they take their time with everything So they they make a statement and then a year later they can move on that statement. They're really just trying to Wear people out in a sense, but the city but the Church of Scotland operates at the same capacity So we're not really sure the time frame how all this is gonna come together I had to email them before we came out on this furlough The lady in charge of it told me that there has been no movement on the side of the City Council but the Church of Scotland has sent in the paperwork showing the... the property line around the city of uh... around uh... the church of scotland so they've shown that it's a been part of that for so many years so they've already sent that through so we're hoping that when we return they would already have that process taken care of and we can move forward with the purchase uh... i believe i had in the letter but we have raised around two hundred thousand dollars towards the purchase of the building uh... and uh... the specs regarding other church of scotland's in the area we believe that we have the allotted amount that we would need to do the purchase so We're thankful for everybody that's contributed to that and helped pray for us. during that time. And we look forward to hopefully being in this building in the upcoming year. And that's the goal. And I feel like I'm almost like presenting it to everybody. And it's just like, are you sure this is actually happening? And it's like, man, I am so sure that's gonna happen. I can only tell you what's proceeding the next step. But I thank you guys for your patience on this. And we're looking forward to what God has in place for Open Door Baptist Church. And also be in prayer. We have a couple in our church that we believe would be a potential couple and being able to take the church. You know, as God's called us to be church planters, you know, we never know how that's going to play out. We could go into an area, start a church, send people out of the church to reach the community or God would have us in an area and be able to have a couple take the church or called you know, lay hands on no man suddenly, but to have a couple that's called to be able to take that church. So we don't know what God has for us, but I just ask that you pray for us about that. We would love to go and start another church in Scotland. It's unheard of, at least for a long period of time since I've been there, but if it's what God wants us to do, we're more than willing to to pull away and start another church and continue to spread the gospel throughout Scotland. There's many areas that are without a church and we try to outreach to those areas all the time. So if this is what God has for us, we're thankful for it. But thank you guys so much for allowing us to be here. It's exciting. And if you stop by the table afterwards, if you have any questions regarding Scotland or any questions regarding our ministry, we'd be happy to talk to you about it. And I know I'm the I'm the unfamiliar face at the church. I know Sarah, you know, everybody seems to have known Sarah's parents some way or another. So, you know, we're so thankful for that. And then she'll tell you everything that's happening with with the in-laws and give you up to date and all that's happening there as well. But thank you guys for allowing us to be here. And let's just take our Bibles here. I just want to give a I know I only have about just before the Sunday school hour closes, but I just want to break down just a passage for you, just to encourage your hearts, especially during the Sunday school hour. My favorite part was Sunday school. You know, much of teaching on Sundays, it was a very beneficial time. This is where I grew more. I grew more in the Sunday school hour than I did in the morning service. More in the Sunday school hour, even the Wednesday night Bible studies or the midweek service, that's where I grew because it was the time that I was almost at my weakest. because you're tired. You know, you got here early, you've had a long week, so you're at your weakest, but the Holy Spirit, you know, is taking full control. And that's what we want in the service today, to grasp a hold of the truths that will be given to us in God's Word. If you take your Bibles to Colossians chapter 4, Colossians chapter 4, in this passage of Scripture, it deals with kind of a role that Paul was appointing the Colossian Christians to. And to us today, but in Colossians chapter 4, starting in verse 2, he gives kind of an outline of marks of an evangelistic Christian, marks of a true Christian who desires to reach the world with the gospel, but he gives three points in this passage here, and I just want to take a few moments just to talk about those things. encouragement to my heart. So Colossians chapter 4 and verse 2 it says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak, walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Heavenly Father, thank you for this passage of scripture that you've given to us, Lord. Hide me behind the cross, help for the words that are spoken to honor and glorify you. I ask, Lord, that you would just guide, open up our hearts, even during this time, that we would glean from your word exactly what we need to be evangelistic. uh... reaching the world with the gospel we ask for that you bless all the sudden done we pray in jesus name a man i think of uh... different things especially being in scotland you know what uh... has uh... infiltrated the churches to cause them to be well not evangelistic anymore you know they almost uh... They almost, I mean, I know this is going to sound funny, but they almost see the church buildings as being the evangelistic tool. See, God never called the church building to be the evangelistic tool. They almost say, well, there's churches all over the place. There's Christians. There's churches all over the place in Scotland, but they've been renovated. They've been turned into nightclubs. They've been turned into hotels. coffee shops so that the same aspect is not what they can really kind of share to say, well, people are getting saved because they see a church building. They don't really care about that. God's never called a church building to be a light. He called Christians to be a light. He said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. What I found in Scotland is that they make it a big point, even within their church groups, is that catechisms have made its way over scripture. That means scripture is filtered through their catechisms, not the other way around. They think, well, you know, they had it all correct back then. No, they didn't. They didn't have it all correct. They caused a lot of problems with all of it, but they don't care. They think, well, it was said thousands of years ago, so it must be correct. Could we say today that a lie told thousands of years ago is still a lie today? Doesn't matter, you can put time on it. They take religion over relationship. They take indifference over making a difference. Personal holiness, this is a big one within a lot of the Reformed churches, is that they say, well, I gotta focus on me, gotta focus on me. Nowhere in the Bible does it say focus on you. What does it say to do? God and others. And so fulfilling, what? The two greatest commandments. It doesn't say love yourself also, right? And it says, because you already do that. So there's personal holiness over practical or practicing compassion, and then they have man's traditions over biblical truth. As we see in this passage of scripture here, Paul gives three points, three marks, really, for an evangelistic Christian and how we, as a church, can be motivated to continue doing what we ought to do, despite what the rest of the world is doing, despite what the mandate is for many of the churches in Scotland, we stick to what the word of god says excuse me sorry on the tail end of a cold so I feel like an itch. That's all it takes is an itch, and then I'm done at that point. But here, three marks for the Evangelistic Christians. So just let me hammer out these few things here for you. The first one is one that we often kind of push to the side because we think, well, every Christian does that anyway. But this one is probably the most important, most important out of all of it. And it says, pray. continue in prayer. And I love that word continue because it actually implies that Paul is saying, well, you're already doing this. Now, okay, if Paul was writing a letter to this church today, could he say the same thing? Could he say, continue in prayer? Or would he say, make sure you pray? This is very important for a Christian. Could he say honestly that this is this body of believers to take time to pray. I know we can see, excuse me, see prayer as something that can be almost boring or annoying or hard to bear, but in the areas of a Christian, this helps provide for us intellectually, emotionally, and even in our own personal growth. being devoted, being constant in our prayer. This is something that every believer ought to already be doing. Continued prayer, you may say, well, I don't understand how this has to do with evangelism. It has a lot to do with evangelism. You know, 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 tells us to pray without ceasing. When this comes to mind, even in that particular passage, he's dealing with the very concept of evangelism. This is what we do when it comes to prayers that we're praying. And I do this when in Scotland I pray for divine appointments. I pray for God to present an opening, at least one. I just need one opening where I can talk to somebody where I can give them the gospel. And every time I pray for God to do this, God always sends somebody my way. He always sends somebody that I can share the truth of the gospel with. And it may be short, may be temporary, but it's something that was sent because the Holy Spirit sent them to me. It's important for us as believers to get, excuse me, get a hold of God. He tells us also, he says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. I mean, I love it because, you know, as much as we think of evangelism and we think of praying for one another, we often kind of take thanksgiving out of our prayer. What we do is we end up, we pray for the things that we need, but we're never thankful for what God has already given us. You know, I remember as a kid, you know, the teacher getting up and saying, you know, if you were to have everything, you know, tomorrow, what you were thankful for today, what would you have? And I thought, I wouldn't have much, because I don't take the time to be thankful for it. You know, I can see, I can hear, I can walk, I can talk, even though now I'm struggling. But you have all these things. He says, be watchful in Thanksgiving also. I love how Charles Spurgeon, he said this, he says, prayers should be mingled with praise. And that means as we're praying, we should always make it a point to thank the Lord. Thank the Lord that we have the opportunity to pray. You know, does prayer affect our outreach? Yes. A lack of prayer can cause you to miss divine appointments. But prayer is not a last resort. It's a first priority. We cannot escape the responsibility given to us in the Great Commission. And when we discredit prayer, we're looking at it as something that doesn't matter. We cannot expect to respond to divine appointments without divine awareness. Can't. See, intercessory prayer is also given to us. He says, with all praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. See, Paul, he's telling them at the same time, pray for us. And this is something that we would ask, you know, as we tell our churches, you know, pray for us as we're going to Scotland, but on the same aspect, we pray for our supporting churches. Why? Because there's a lot of pastors that are quitting nowadays. We could be on the field and we get an email and it says, I'm the new pastor of so-and-so. And you get excited because they found a pastor. But at the same time, you're like, what happened to the other guy? And it happens all the time. We're taking the time to pray for one another. Paul, as a missionary, is saying, pray for us. But Paul was, in fact, praying for them. See, prayer, Paul asked prayer for God to open a door to preach the gospel. And he asked for this even while he was in prison. You know, we could see prison as a place of no hope or really no opportunity, but Paul, he saw it as a place of opportunity. And he wanted clarity in how to reach. Excuse me. So can intercessory prayer affect our outreach? Yes. So we often get absorbed in our own Bible that we forget the churches around us. Pastors are quitting, missionaries are leaving the fields, marriages are on the brink. Children ready to rebel When are we praying for these open doors as Paul said I want an open door I Want it to be so easy To go and do what God's called me to do That that door would be open to me because I don't want to break down doors. I just want to get there You know We see this, we see the concept regarding prayer, but it is needed in our life. Open doors to speak the mysteries of Christ. He said that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. I want to be motivated to do it, have confidence to know that every step that I'm taking is God ordained. When was the last time you prayed for that? We may pray for that for ourselves, but when was the last time you prayed for that for someone else? Lord, make it so easy for them. Give them people that will respond to the gospel. It tells us in verse five, he says, walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time. Not only tells us that an active Christian prays always, but an active Christian prioritizes admirably. What does he say? First of all, he says, walk in wisdom towards them without. When we talk about walking in wisdom, we're talking about how we guard our testimony. See, Christian's life is not only lived in our prayer closet, but it's practically living out our Christianity in the world. In many ways, we call this lifestyle evangelism. It's where people see, and then they say there's something different about the way you operate. See, I worked at a job before becoming a missionary, and I remember just telling people that I was a Christian, but I thought, if I tell people I'm a Christian, I've got to uphold the testimony of being a Christian. Because there were people at work that would go around telling others that they're a Christian, and then they would live just like everybody else. They would act just like everybody else. And I thought, you are not helping the cause at all. But when it came to them having prayer requests or desiring for hope, I love that they came to me. They didn't go to the others. They didn't ask prayer, oh, you're a Christian, could you pray for me? They saw it as, what, hypocrisy. See, either they'll see you as genuine or they'll see you as a hypocrite. You're not of this world anymore, no matter what you try to do. If you're saved and you wanna live like the world, you'll be seen as a hypocrite. But if you're saved and you wanna live as unto Christ, you'll be seen as, what, peculiar. In other words, you'll be seen as weird. It's your choice. You either want to be seen as weird or you want to be seen as a hypocrite. I'd rather choose to be seen as weird. And then you can embrace that fully. I love how the word conversation appears in scripture. Many people say, oh, you know, I need an easier Bible to understand. I love that word conversation because it's so broad. Man, it doesn't just talk about the words you speak, the way you live, your activities, the way you operate. See, your testimony is an effective tool to reach the lost. They will not consciously listen to you talk if there's hypocrisy in your walk. The idea is not to put it into our own ways to say, well, it's my responsibility to bring about the increase. No, the Bible says that we water and we plant, and God gives the increase. So we take time to guard our testimony. because we need to walk in wisdom toward them which are, well, without. Not only that, but governing our testimony. He says, walk in wisdom towards them that are without, and then he says, redeeming the time. How many of you can say, oh, with a raised hand, I know exactly the day I'm going to die? Nobody? Oh. What are we doing about the time that we have? Are we redeeming the time? I mean, Ecclesiastes, you know, Solomon says redeeming the time because what? The days are evil. He says it's always the God of this world. He doesn't want anybody to come to Christ. It's evilness around us constantly. We're instructed to guard our testimony, but we're also instructed to govern it, redeeming the time, denoting this importance of actively living like you are the only Bible that someone else is going to read. Redeeming that time. You know, your enablers will see your faithfulness. They'll see who your authority is in your life. Are you your authority or is God your authority? Is your job more important to you? Or is church, God, more important to you? See, we're not promised any amount of time on earth. And I love how that phrase, redeeming the time, it's the idea of saying rescuing from loss. It literally means rescuing from a loss. It says keeping it from going in a direction that you don't want it to go. It's like holding a cup of water and you have to walk a distance and you're trying to keep it from spilling. But some people just don't care, man. They're just running with a cup of water. By the time you get there, there's no water left. You didn't help anybody along the way. I love Ephesians chapter five, 15 through 16. This is kind of what he's explaining in those verses is that he reminding us that we should consider all circumstances and possible consequences and do so with wisdom. And when was the last time we evaluated every situation that we entered into and said, Lord, how can I make this glorify you? That's redeeming the time. That's saying, I don't want to waste priceless minutes with conversations with people, priceless minutes when it comes to sitting at a restaurant. And you may say, well, my objective is to eat my food. But God may have a divine appointment for you in that area. When was the last time we said, Lord, while I'm here, if there's somebody you want me to talk to, I'm more than willing to talk to them. Their soul is more important than this food. That's redeeming the time. See, God wants us to be active as if the day of the Lord is going to happen at any moment. And guess what? It's gonna happen at any moment. And then lastly, here, verse six, it says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Last thing he points us to is that an active Christian has perfect, or he perfects, rather, articulation. Not only with the way that he speaks, but the way that he listens. He says, let your speech be always with grace. I think it was a profound moment in my life when I realized that the opposite of disgruntled was gruntled. So we like to use disgruntled a lot, right? But how many of us says, I feel very gruntled today? Because you almost sounds like it's a negative, right? But here, Paul, he's shifting to say that we actually have to have gruntled language. He's not telling us to be salty. He wants us to season everything with salt. He wants us to be pleasant. Gruntled is to be pleasant, graceful, sensible. You know, we often speak before thinking and many think without speaking. But here's Paul's reminding us to be full of Jesus and to make it make sense to the listener. You know, as we are commanded to walk in wisdom, we should also talk in wisdom. How we engage with others can either point people to Christ or point people away from Christ. I mean, do we speak with sanctimonious dullness or do we actually speak with pleasantry? graceful, that people actually desire to listen. Do we speak with incoherent laughter? I mean, there's a politician out there that kind of operates that way. It's time to put it away and start cultivating the gift of pleasant and wise conversation. See, an active prayer life will help develop this speech into something that will honor and glorify God. We're unique. Our witness is unique. We're not salespeople, all right? I know we try to provide it that way, but man, if you have to sell somebody on salvation, they ain't gonna get a grasp of it anyways to begin with, because it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with God. That's why it's called repentance. It's a change of mind. So not only do we speak gracefully, but you listen gracefully. That's why he says that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Listening, let your speech be always with grace, cease and withhold that you may know how you ought to answer every man. This is denoting the ability to listen before you speak. That's how you listen gracefully. Sometimes we listen so we can talk. I know the answer to your problem. Sometimes people just wanna talk things out. They need to talk things out to get a better understanding of what their position is. And many times what I found with evangelism, sometimes on the street, is that I'm really quick to just talk. But I realize that people make all the mistakes in their conversation if you just let them talk. So I just listen to them just go all over the place and then realize in the end that they have no idea what they believe. And I'm like, is it my turn? Okay, let's talk about this. And then I give him the answers. But in most cases, if we jump to the gun, then they'll just be fighting back and forth. And it never is profitable at all. So if we don't listen to the question, how do we answer correctly? Well, he tells us, too, that we may know how to. See, it's important to know that we listen gracefully. There are many basic practices. The way we listen, we listen. That means before we speak, we really try to get clarity on what they're actually talking about. You know, we want to draw our attention to them. Sometimes we'll listen to somebody talking and then we'll act bored. We're just like, oh, are you done talking yet? Oh, man, they don't want to continue talking to them. But if you show interest in what they're talking about, even if they're talking about something of no interest, if you show interest, they'll be willing to show interest in what you have to say. And then when the time comes to speak, address the questions head on. Oh, it's so much profitable that way. Sometimes we beat around the bush, and a lot of religions do that. They beat around the bush, but with Christianity, we know the answer. It's Christ. Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. He calls them to what? Repentance and faith. We know how to address the questions. It's just a matter of how we operate as active Christians in the community today. So reminding you of those three points there is that, you know, an active Christian prays always, prays always. He prioritizes admirably. And then he perfects articulation. As we are in this world today, the Bible tells us that we're a little Christ. We're followers of Christ. There's only three times in scripture where Christian's mentioned. But in each of those aspects, we see that the gospel must be understood clearly, that the gospel is significant, and the gospel ought to be propagated exponentially. We should make it a point to be an active Christian. Let's pray. Thank you for listening. If you would like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, PA 17112 and visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time!