Really count on one hand the number of times I've missed
church growing up and really since then.
And, and a lot of that had to do with my parents because there
probably would have been a whole lot more times that I missed.
But they drug me to church. They made me go.
And I'm glad they did. I'm glad they did.
I don't know what I would do on Wednesday night if I wasn't in
church. I really don't.
It would feel very weird to not be at church.
And so I'm, I'm glad you're here tonight.
It's always great to be able to get together First off for the
prayer meeting and, and we had a lot of people here this evening
and, and they just listen to everybody praying at the same
time. It's just, it's encouragement.
It's an encouragement to me. I know it's a blessing to God's
heart because that's what he wants us to do.
He expects us to pray and he and he commands us to pray.
And, and so just the fact that you're here for that and then to
be here for the service tonight as an encouragement, not not
just to me, but to everybody else around you.
And it's, it's great to have you here.
So Colossians chapter 4, we're just going to read here a few
verses as Paul comes to a close. You remember that Paul is, is
writing this from a prison cell. And essentially what Paul is
doing is, is, is concluding his letter with some things that
that are going to help them mature in Christ.
He talked about a lot of different things throughout the
book, obviously, but he says this in verse #2 of Colossians
chapter 4. 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 that word.
Manifest means plain, that I would make it plain for people
to understand it as I should, or as I ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time.
Let your speech be all way with grace, seasoned with salt, that
you may know how you ought to answer every man.
Maturity. That's what Paul and and that's
one of the things we talked about just even on Sunday when
the Bible says that Job was a man who was perfect, That word
perfect means complete. It means mature.
What is maturity? You know, is it is it?
Can you live a long life and still be immature?
Absolutely. You can just just physically,
but also spiritually. And there's many, many, many
Christians who are spiritually immature.
There's also a lot of people who are physically immature.
But I, I think maybe one of the best definitions of, of maturity
is that maturity has the ability within itself to postpone
pleasure. And if you think about that, it
really applies to kind of every aspect of, of what maturity is,
right? Spiritual maturity.
I don't have to have the pleasures of the world to be
happy. I don't have to indulge in that
sin. I can postpone that pleasure,
right? And the same thing is true when
it comes to somebody physically, when it comes to maturity.
You know, a kid that's immature is going to do the first thing
that comes to his mind because all watch this, this is going to
be funny, you know, or listen to this, this is going to be funny.
And it's just, it's just immature because you got to have
that instant gratification. You got that.
You have to have that instant pleasure.
Maturity really is the ability to postpone pleasure.
And there's a lot of people physically, but even more
spiritually who have never gotten to that level of
spiritual maturity. Your judgments and your
decisions take into consideration the long haul.
Do they? Do they take into account
eternity? So tonight what I want to talk
to you about straight from this passage, we'll have a couple
other verses that we're going to look at.
But really I'm going to stay mostly in this passage tonight
on the marks of of a mature Christian, The marks of a mature
Christian. What are some things that Paul
lists here in these verses that characterize a Christian who is
mature in Jesus Christ? We have we have a whole gamut of
people here tonight, some that are newly saved, some that have
been saved for decades. And I fall into that category.
And I think sometimes what happens is we forget some of the
things that make a Christian mature and we need to be
reminded of those things sometimes.
And I think that's what this is tonight.
So let's talk about those things for a few minutes after we have
a word of prayer. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity we
have to be here together tonight.
And thank you for all those that that made it a priority and and
came to church. God, I pray that you just give
us something from your word through this passage that will
be a help to us tonight. God, I pray that you'd help
every one of us to be working toward being a mature Christian
and having a mature spiritual life so that we can be pleasing
to you. Thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. The first thing that I think is
a mark of a mature question is that you will be consistent in
prayer. Somebody said your spiritual
maturity will never rise above your prayer life.
A man is what he is on his knees before God and that is all he
is. I think it's a great way to say
it. That's one of the things where
we lack the most. I believe it when it comes to
spiritual maturity and that is in our prayer lives.
I hope that, that, that the 30 minutes that you took over the
last 24 hours and we had so many of you that were willing to, to
jump in and become a part of that.
I thank you for that. It's just, it's, it's, it's as
much for you as it is for the church.
You know, we need that exercise. We need to take the time.
And for, for some of you, maybe that's the first time you've
ever prayed for 30 minutes in a row.
If that's the case, then make it a habit more often because first
of all, prayer is the great habit of our lives.
Chapter 4 and verse #2 says continue in prayer.
Continue in prayer. That's something that's a habit.
Continue in brushing your teeth, continue in making your bed,
continue in washing your clothes.
Continue in doing those things. Those are habits.
And he says continue in prayer. Now, if you notice in verse 5,
he says walk in wisdom toward them that are without.
He uses that phrase several times, not just really
throughout the throughout the letters that he wrote toward
them that are without. That's the key to I believe to
what Paul has to say in these closing part this closing part
of the the section of his epistle, the Bible.
Paul uses that phrase several times to talk about those that
don't know Jesus Christ as their savior, them that are without
and the believer, the Christian is to have those outsiders in
mind, them that are without in in all of his secular context.
Every time we meet with somebody, you ought to have the
fact that this is somebody that doesn't know Jesus Christ as
their savior. And it's my job to tell them how
to be saved. If we have that in our mind,
then it'll be something that will constantly come out in the
way that we speak and and so we're to live so that somebody
on the outside might get saved and become part of the inside.
The great resource available to all of us in that is prayer.
Every one of us can pray and we should be praying.
A few years ago we had a theme. Each one reached 1 and I gave
everybody a card and told you to write 5 names on the on that
card. I still have mine in the front
of my Bible because I still pray for those people every single
day. One of them has gotten saved.
There's four more that are not saved.
And I believe that that before I die, those four people will be
saved because God promises us those things.
But the only thing we can do, of course we can tell them.
And every one of those four I have given the gospel 2, Every
one of the five but one, one that did get saved, but four of
them that still are not, I've given the gospel to them.
All I can do now is pray and wait for opportunities to give
them the gospel again and then and then take those
opportunities when we have them. But you know, the, the, the
important part about that is we should be bringing those names
before God. I've heard many stories.
In fact, I believe one of them was even George Mueller prayed
for somebody for over 50 years, 50 years.
He prayed for somebody that he was in school with that he would
get saved. We gave him the gospel many
times over the years. And this man did not get saved
until George Mueller's funeral, but he got saved.
And I believe those are things that God wants us to do is
bring, bring those requests to him, bring those people to him
constantly and consistently. And it's not that God is going
to force them to get saved, but, but, but God will give you those
opportunities if he knows that you're looking for them, If he
knows you'll use those opportunities, I believe God
will put more of those opportunities in your path.
But you know, the, the, the, the responsibility to us is not just
to invite people to church, It's to invite people to Christ.
And I've said that many, many times.
I think so often we, we give ourselves an out.
We, we, we take the easy road and just give them a track and
invite them to church. Come to church with us sometime.
I, you'll, I think you'll enjoy it.
I think you'll really like our church.
I think you'll really like our people.
You'll feel like you've known us your whole life.
And we, and, and we think that I've done my job.
I've invited them to church. Now it's up to them to come.
No, unless we've given them the gospel, we have not done our
job. Yes, if they come to church,
hopefully they will hear the gospel.
Yes, if they come, they might feel that that that that warmth
and that friendship and want to come back.
But our job is not finished until they accept Jesus Christ
as their Savior. Our job is not just to bring
them to church, it's to bring them to Christ.
And we should be and can be using prayer.
Paul was a great believer in prayer.
Prayer is what links us to God's throne.
It's it's by prayer that we do business in heaven.
It's the most, I believe that prayer is the is the most purely
spiritual of all the things that we can do as Christians.
Prayer is hard to do. And maybe if this is the first
time that you've taken 30 minutes to sit down and pray,
you realize that it's not easy. Prayer is not necessarily an
easy thing to do, but it's a necessary thing to do.
And there's, there's nothing I think as Christians that we
neglect more than prayer. And maybe you do take time every
day and pray. Maybe you do have a set time
where you take five, 1015 minutes.
But if we really could understand the power that we
have through prayer, I think we would take a lot more of our
time in our days doing that. And not just, you know, in your
prayer time, but all the way throughout the day.
That's what the Bible says when it says pray without ceasing.
That's what the Bible means when it says pray without ceasing.
You ought to be constantly having a conversation with God.
Every single thing that comes up, every conversation you have,
you ought to be having a conversation with God.
Before, during, and after that conversation.
Before, during, and after that decision, you ought to be having
a conversation with God. The idea here when Paul says
continue in prayer is that it is to be a great habit of our
lives, be strong toward prayer, persist in prayer.
We're up against the might of Satan's army every single time
we pray. Do you think Satan, Satan
understands the value of prayer? He knows.
He knows that we're talking to God.
He knows that we're coming before the throne of grace.
And there's nothing that he tries to fight more, I believe,
than a praying Christian. Satan lines up everything he has
against us. We need the full armor of God
when we pray. We need the Holy Spirit's help
when we pray. We have to fight that that
drowsiness. And we have to fight the
distractions and we have to fight the discouragement when we
pray. But those are things that that
you need to have in place. You know, when, when I pray, I
mean, my mind is constantly going and I've got a ton of
things going on always at, at one time and, and I'll, I'll
kneel down to start praying and instantly something comes to my
mind. Well, the thing that I've
started doing, I've been doing this for a long time now.
I always have a piece of paper and a pen sitting on my desk.
I jump up, I write it down and I go back to praying.
I don't have to think about it anymore because I know I'm not
going to forget. That's what always, you know,
before I started doing that. And that's what I say, it's been
years ago that I started doing that now, But I always just
think, oh man, I got to do that right now or I'm going to
forget. So I get up and I start doing
it. And then the prayer is just gone
because you're never getting back to it after that.
Write it down, go back to your prayer.
You've got to do something to eliminate the distractions.
But if we're to live the way that God wants us to live, and
we're, if we're to follow the, the things that we've been given
here in Colossians, then we must pray.
Continue means to take all of your strength and focus it on
prayer. So it is the, the great habit of
our lives. But also in verse #2 he says and
watch in the same. It's the guarded habit of our
lives. Watch in the same.
Jesus told the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Watch and pray. We, we should, when, when we
pray, we should bring all of our faculties and all of our
attention to that prayer. It's very easy, as I've said,
and, and as you already know, it's very easy to get
distracted. It's why you got to find a quiet
place. It's why you, it's why you have
to have a prayer closet. It's why you have to be able to,
to get aside and pray. We're so distracted so many
times. Prayer is a great habit, but we
have to guard against being distracted from it.
The third thing about prayer that Paul mentions here is that
it should be the grateful habit of our lives.
Continue in prayer. Watch in the same and he says
with Thanksgiving, there's so many things that we should be
grateful for. And first of all, we should be
so grateful for the fact that Jesus Christ came and he tore
that temple veil and made it possible for us to not have to
go through a priest and not have to go through the the temple or
go go through any of those rituals to get to God.
We can go directly to God in prayer.
We can come to him whatever we like.
We can stay as long as we like. We can talk to Him about
whatever we want to talk about when we're there.
No matter who we are, no matter where we live or what we do, The
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, cleanses us from
all sin. And we have the opportunity and
we have the access into the throne room of the universe.
There's not a man on earth who will give us the time or the
access or the understanding or the help that Jesus will give us
when we meet him in prayer. But we ought to be grateful when
we when we come to him. We should come to him very
gratefully think about if if the privilege of prayer was was
taken away from us. In fact, turn over to first
Samuel. I believe it's first Samuel
chapter 28. What if what if we could no
longer come before God? What if we could no longer pray
to him. Imagine if that privilege was
taken away from us. It's the same thing that, you
know, with our freedoms in America, imagine if those
freedoms were gone, how we wish that we could have those back
and how we should take advantage of those freedoms today because
we may not have them tomorrow. We can give the gospel out
freely now. What if that's what if that's
gone in 10 years? We can read and preach the Bible
freely. What if that's gone in 10 years?
You know how much we're going to wish we had done it while we had
the opportunity to do it. What if prayer was just suddenly
taken away from us? What if, what if all the sudden
we couldn't get a hold of God anymore?
That happened to Saul. First Samuel chapter 28 and
verse #7 I'm sorry, verse number six.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not
neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
He knocked on heaven's door and he didn't get an answer.
So he went down to hell and got a witch to get what he wanted.
And could you imagine if the if the if the ability to pray was
just gone, could you imagine if God's door was just closed and
you couldn't go to him anymore? What would you do?
Prayer should be something that we are grateful for in our
lives, but we should thank every day God every day that we can
come before his throne, but we should come before his throne
with Thanksgiving. So the Bible says in Psalm 100,
come before His presence with Thanksgiving and into His courts
with praise. You know, one of the things that
I made sure that we did last night, made sure that I did when
I prayed during my 30 minute session today, is to thank God
for what He's already given us. I don't want God to think that
we're not grateful for this. And I tell Him all the time that
I'm so thankful that He's given us this building.
I couldn't imagine most of you don't know what it was like to
be in the hotel setting up and taking down and, and only having
it for Sundays and not not being able to have it for ministries
and everything else. I mean, you don't know what it
was like to be in a hotel. This, this building is a
blessing. And the way that God provided it
for us in the way that he did so many things to help us get into
this building was a blessing. And I want God to know that I
appreciate very much the fact that he allowed us to have this
place and it's still allowing us to have this place.
You realize what a blessing it is.
We could be out in the, we could be out on the street right now.
We should be. When, when they told us that
they sold the building 4 years ago, they said, yeah, you got a
year, maybe 2 before we tear it down and and start developing
this whole area. We're four years into that right
now. And it's not that.
It's not that we don't have a place because we just have been,
you know, sitting on our heels and not doing anything.
We've been trying and nothing is just coming available.
So what would we do for these last two years?
I mean, I guess we could go back to the hotel and if we had to,
we will. But I'm thankful for this, for
this place. I'm thankful for what God has
allowed us to have here. I'm thankful for what God has
done in this place and the souls that have been saved and the
lives that have been changed and the, and the, the folks that
have been disciple. And I hope you're one of those.
I hope you've grown in Christ in this place.
I'm thankful for it. You know, I think if we would
thank God as much as we asked Him, then he'd be a whole lot
more willing to give us the things that we're asking Him
for. He says all over the place that
we should come to Him with Thanksgiving.
And that's exactly what Paul says.
Again, continue in prayer and watch in prayer.
Watch in the same with Thanksgiving.
But then the last thing that we have about prayer here that Paul
says in verse #3 says 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. Prayer is the grandest habit of
our lives. We have such power in prayer.
Man, you look at you look throughout the New Testament and
see what prayer did. Prayer opened prison doors.
Prayer opens a sinner's heart. Prayer opens the apostles mouth.
That's what Paul is praying for here.
He wanted the boldness to speak the way that he should speak
about the gospel. And as great as the apostle Paul
was at sharing the gospel, even he struggled sometimes with
boldness. He's one of those guys that you
just, you read a story and you think you hear what he said
about who he talked to and how he went before these people and
gave the gospel, and you think, well, that's easy for him.
He was probably just one of those guys.
No more than once Paul said pray for me that I'll have boldness.
I think even the apostle Paul was sitting there in the prison
shaking ever at times wondering what's going to happen, man, Do
I tell this person or don't I? Do I share the gospel with with
the king or don't I? He gave the gospel to Felix, to
Festus, to Agrippa, probably to Nero.
He gave it to countless guards. People within within the the
emperor's court were getting saved because of Paul's
boldness. But even Paul said, pray for me
that I'll have boldness. I'll tell you what happens many
times. And I know most of you don't,
don't get the opportunity to do this, but I've, I've, I've had
the opportunity to preach a lot of different funerals and some
of them very big funerals. And always before I go into it,
I know that I'm going to preach the gospel.
But always before I go into it, I say, man, should I do that or
not? If I, if I preach the gospel and
I'm very plain about the gospel and I give it as clearly as they
as I can, they may not ask me to do this again.
And then I'll never have another opportunity.
And always, always it comes back to the fact that God says use
the opportunities that you're given to preach the gospel.
And there's people that don't like it.
There's people that have told me, I don't think that's the
right place for that. You shouldn't be doing that at a
funeral. I'm sure the family didn't want
you doing that, blah, blah, blah.
But you know what, I don't care what they think.
I care what he thinks. And there's plenty of other
people who are saying that was great.
I really appreciated the message.
I've been saved for however long and whatever else you know.
It goes both ways, but at the same time, we need to pray for
boldness because every time we're given the opportunity,
man, how many times you think about it?
If you sat there and thought about it, how many times have
you chickened out and not given the gospel when you had an
opportunity to do it? I should give them a track but
missed it. Oh well, I'll give them one next
time, right? We make excuses for ourselves to
ourselves when we're the only one in the car, right?
We chicken out. That's all it is.
We just, we, we lost the boldness to give out the message
of the gospel. And that's why we got to pray
for that boldness. That's why Paul said, pray for
me that I'll have boldness. And then when I do have the
boldness, pray that I'll have the words to speak that I'll
that I'll say the right thing, that I'll give the gospel as
clearly as I can get it, as I can give it.
That's what he's saying. Open a door of utterance that I
may make it manifest, that I should make it plain, that I
could give it clearly, that they would understand it and that
they would accept it. There's a wonderful privilege we
have to take advantage of it. So the mark of a mature
Christian according to Paul, and obviously God and His word is
first of all, that we would be consistent in prayer, but
secondly, that you, we would be gracious in our performance.
Consistent in prayer, but grace, sorry, conscious in your
performance. I think I said that wrong.
Conscious in your performance. He said this in verse #5 walk in
wisdom toward them that are without.
So first of all, we must guard our testimony.
We must guard our testimony. There's that phrase again toward
them that are without everything that we do ought to be with the
thought of winning somebody to Jesus Christ.
What's that word winning souls? Well, the Bible, the Bible uses
that in in Proverbs Chapter 11 and verse 30.
He that winneth souls is wise. So we use that phrase winning
souls. But winning a soul to Jesus
Christ is telling somebody about the gospel and seeing them
accept Christ and get saved. And so often our behavior as
Christians does not commend the gospel to the unsaved and all.
We have so many opportunities and so many different things.
But how far do you think Peter would have gotten if he had
tried to give a word of testimony to Malchus after he
cut off his ear in the garden? Oh, Jesus restored his ear.
But do you think Malchus would have been sitting there
listening to everything that Peter had to say about who Jesus
Christ was after he cut his ear off because he lost his temper,
pulled out his sword? Doubt it.
Think about us. How about a woman who wants to
see her husband saved? Well, what does she do about it?
She just nags him constantly about why he's not being in
church and why he's not doing this right and why he's not
doing that right. And they can't figure out why he
won't sit down there and listen what she has to say about the
gospel. Or how about how about at work,
an employee that wants to see his boss get saved and I've
given him the gospel. But you're lazy.
You don't show up on time for work.
You don't work hard when you're there.
You're stealing company time. You're stealing things from the,
you know, from the company. And then I don't know why I've
tried to give my my boss the gospel, but he just won't
listen. He doesn't want to hear it.
And we wonder why, Hey, what is our testimony toward them that
are without walk in wisdom toward them that are without a
neighbor, maybe that wishes for their neighbor next door to get
saved. But you borrow something from
them. You return it all beat up,
borrow a piece of equipment and turn it back in with empty gas.
Don't even give it back to them at all.
Or you have a big dispute over the tree limb that fell in your
yard. All you got to do is go clean it
up. You know, we're, we're trying to
win a lost world to Christ and we have to constantly remember
our testimony. And if that means that every so
often you have to get stepped on, then let yourself get
stepped on for the sake of the gospel.
People notice those kind of things.
And I know many times it seems like it goes unnoticed, but they
notice it, especially if they know that you're a Christian and
they will have them. You have a much better chance of
having them listen to you when you're trying to give them the
gospel. And so when it comes to being
conscious in your performance, we must guard our testimony.
Put yourself on that other person's shoes.
Be wise specifically in your dealings with the unsaved.
Walk in wisdom. That's going to help us make a
conscious decision to share the gospel with the lost.
It's going to it's going to help us make a conscious decision
about how we live around the lost and the type of influence
that we can have on them. And everything that we do is
going to be with that in mind. I'm trying to win these people
to Christ, trying to have an opportunity to share the gospel.
What if I say this? What if I do this?
Is that going to give me an opportunity to do it?
Now, that doesn't mean don't be bold when it's time to be bold.
But at the same time, we have to remember our testimony.
We have to guard that testimony. But then also, he says at the
end of verse #5 redeeming the time.
So we're not only we must guard our testimony, but we must guard
our time. We are to be stewards of our
time. You know, time is one of those
non renewable resources. Once it's gone, it's gone.
You don't get it back. And some of you who are older
might be able to testify to that more than some who are younger.
Time goes fast and when it's gone, it's gone.
And you wish you could go back and change things.
You can't go back and change something that's already been
done. Can't go back and you you can't
go back and and do things over. You can't go back and make
memories, can't go back and share the gospel with somebody
who's already gone. So we have to make use of that
time. And you probably heard an
illustration similar to this before, but you think about
some, some wealthy man who was who would agreed to give you
$14140 a day that you could use however you wanted to.
But when that 14140 dollars is gone, that's it.
I mean, well, when the day is gone, that $14140 you don't get
back. You can't bank it.
You can't put it in the bank. Only what you do with the money
that day is what you can use. Are you going to use it for
other people? Are you going to use it for
yourself? Are you going to waste it?
That's that's the decision that you have to make if you're given
that kind of money. But the same thing is true for
us. We have that amount of time
every single day. We have 14140 minutes in a day
that we can use to be spent however we want to spend it.
Can't save it, can't bank time, can't use that time for
something else. You can't save up some of
today's time for tomorrow. We don't have any of yesterday's
time leftover for today. All those minutes today, though,
are ours. And if we're going to use those
for the Lord's service, then we better get busy.
Spends again for his service. So many people will take that
and use it for themselves And, and listen, we're all going to
stand before God and we're going to give an account of the things
that we've done with the minutes that we're given.
What are you doing with those minutes?
Because once they're gone, they're gone.
Can't get them back. Can't do something else with
them. You got to use them while you
can for the Lord. Paul might have wasted his time
moping over the restrictions that were placed on his liberty,
but Paul didn't do that at all. Paul used that time to write
scripture. He used that time to share the
message of the gospel with his guards.
He used that time to encourage the churches.
Paul used the time that he had and that's why he can easily say
redeeming the time, walking wisdom toward them that are
without redeeming the time. So the marks of a mature
Christian first of all is that we will be consistent in prayer.
Secondly, that we'll be conscious in our performance.
But lastly #3 charitable in your pronouncements.
And I had to put it that way so that it would that it would be
alliterated because I had the 1st 2.
So you have to do this the the last one.
You can't have the third one be dangling out there by itself,
but charitable in your pronouncements.
Look what he says. Let your speech be always
seasoned, sorry, be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that
you may know how you ought to answer every man.
The first thing that Paul gives us here in that verse is that we
should be adding sweetness to our conversation.
Let your speech be always with grace toward them that are
without. Paul has that always in mind
toward them that are without. I think all too often we
alienate people with our tongues.
Paul has a recipe for changing that.
Let your speech be all way with grace.
That rules out all the harshness, all the criticism,
all the gossip, all the unkind ungracious talk.
You know the people the Bible says in Luke chapter 4 verse 22
about Jesus Christ that they marvelled.
They marvelled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth that that ought to characterize us.
Jesus Christ is our model. That ought to be who we follow
in our speech. How often we've spoken something
hastily that we wish we could take back.
But you can't take it back. You wish you could go back and
and pull those words. I read the story about a a man
who was traveling on a train. This is back in the days when
train travel was pretty much the main mode of transportation.
And so they didn't really have a choice.
They had to be in the car with a bunch of other people and a baby
was crying. And this was an overnight train
and the baby just cried constantly through most of the
night. And there was several people,
several of those other passengers that were on the car
that were that were that were obviously kept awake by this
crying baby. And finally one of them had had
enough. And he got up and he said, can't
somebody make that baby stop crying?
Surely his mother can make him stop crying.
That baby's been crying all night.
He's been keeping us awake all night.
And as he was saying that, he noticed that it was a father
actually sitting there holding the baby in his arms.
And he locked the eyes with the father.
And the father said, well, that's impossible for the mother
to keep the baby from crying because she's in a coffin in the
back of this train. And the man apologized.
I'm so sorry. I you know, I wish, wish you
could take it back, but he couldn't.
Once the words are out, they're out.
The Bible says that we ought not to let any of our words fall to
the ground. Everything that we say ought to
be with intentionality. Everything that we say ought to
be for reason. Paul says that our speech ought
to be alway with grace. Jesus speech was always seasoned
with grace. Everything that he said, I mean,
there was times when he had to come come out and name names and
call people out, but they were, they were amazed, the Bible
says, at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.
And Paul insists to us that we had the same sweetness to our
conversation. I heard four preachers were in a
conversation and they were, they were being very open with each
other and they were sharing their, their struggles with the
way that they, with the way that they spoke and, you know, the
words that come out of their mouth because it's, it's, it's a
struggle for everybody, honestly.
And the first one admitted, you know, you know, for a while now
and, and it's gotten a lot better, but I've, I've got a
problem with lying. And the other, the other
preacher, he said, well, it's interesting you say that.
He said, I actually have a problem with anger.
I, I explode in anger all the time at home and I wish I didn't
do it. I say things I wish I didn't
say, but have a problem with that sometimes.
The third one said that, you know, he didn't, he didn't
really like his people or his job and he struggled with that
often. So he would say things at work,
you know, that he wished he hadn't said and, and I wish he
could take back. And the 4th preacher said, well,
the problem that I have is that I have a really bad problem with
gossip. Our speech should be seasoned
with grace because we are ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
The last thing that Paul says here is not only that we should
be adding sweetness to our conversation, but that we should
be adding seasoning to our conversation, He says.
Seasoned with salt. So much of our conversation,
when it's spiced up is seasoned with anger.
A lot of people use profanity to season their speech.
A Christian is supposed to add salt to his conversation.
Salt does three things and I'll go through these quickly.
You've probably heard a lot of these things before, but salt
adds Tang, if you will, or, or something that's tasteless.
You add salt to it and it and it adds, it adds some flavoring to
it. There's people and I've, I've
seen them and maybe some of you I've seen do it too actually,
but you get your plate and without even tasting anything,
don't salt all over everything. Like everything tastes like
salt. Then you don't even get a chance
to taste the eggs or the bacon or anything else.
It all tastes like salt. There's people that do that.
But I've also had things that were very, very bland that
didn't have much of A taste. And when you add a little bit of
salt to it, it actually makes it taste good, right?
It tastes like whatever it was supposed to be just by adding a
little bit of salt to it. And we're, we're to aim at, I
think at being interesting, conversationalist, interesting
communicators. We should draw on our
experience. We should draw on our reading.
That's why we should be people who study and who who try to
constantly learn. Our Bibles should spice up our
speech. The Lord's conversations and his
conversations and his teachings were thoroughly laced with the
Old Testament truth. How many times did Jesus quote
the Old Testament? How many times did he use
illustrations that were drawn from from all walks of life?
Right? Jesus was was a good teacher
because he used things that they were very familiar with and he
added things into those conversations to help give them
the gospel because he was interesting as a
conversationalist. And I think we ought to be that
way too. One of the things that we can
use is the word of God. And if you think about it,
there's a lot of phrases in our language, you know, a lot of
phrases that have been coined that we use from the from the
from the Bible, talk about the salt of the earth or the signs
of the times or the powers that be, a thorn in the flesh, the
handwriting on the wall, the fat of the land.
And we use all these phrases in our speech.
A lot of times they all come from the word of God.
All things to all men fly in the ointment, right?
We talked about a lot of those things.
And actually a pastor was telling this story and he said
my father thought life was saturated.
I'm sorry. My father's thought life was
saturated with the Scriptures, and it came out constantly in
his everyday conversation. When I visited him in Chicago
after I left a small congregation in far off northern
British Columbia, he said, with whom hast thou left those few
sheep in the wilderness? When he was introduced to a
popular preacher, he said, Ah, the man whose praise is in all
the churches. When he introduced me to a well
known soloist, he said, meet the sweet singer of Israel.
When he met a doctor friend, he said, here comes the beloved
physician. It was not an artificial or
forced or obtrusive speech. It was as natural as daylight.
He dwelt in the scriptures day and night, and it was reflected
in his speech. It's all as we should have our
speech seasoned with the Bible says adds that Tang to it.
It adds that it adds that that that interest to it.
It makes it palatable for somebody, but it also arrests
corruption and the Christians conversation should be constant
rebuke to those who are speaking things that they should not
speak. And I don't mean that we have to
constantly be in everybody's face, but I'll tell you this.
People ought to feel uncomfortable cursing around you
as a Christian, as uncomfortable as you are around them when they
curse, they ought to be that uncomfortable around you when
they do it. And they ought to, they ought to
clean up their language when you come around.
And it's not that you have to be constantly preaching to them,
but I tell you what, when, when. And, and you know, police, Kevin
can tell you this and maybe some of the others that have been
involved in it, police are very, very colorful in their language
and they, they don't have any problem showing it.
But I'll tell you this, I've been around for a while now and
most of the time, not always. And, and the sad thing is it's
usually the ones who claim to be Christians and claim to go to
church that, that, that continue to speak the way that they
shouldn't. But most of them when I come
around, clean up their language, which proves 2 things.
Number one, you can have an impact and #2 you cannot talk
like that if you don't want to, right?
Oh, it's just who I am. I'm, I'm sorry, I was just, I
know I speak colorfully and whatever else, just who I am.
No, you can stop it. You do it, you do it all the
time. You just don't want to because
of who you're around. And that's what I mean.
You can have an impact on people, right?
Oh, sorry, sorry, Chaplain, I didn't, I didn't mean to say
that. I hear that all the time, you
know, and, and, and in fact, I just had a conversation probably
2 weeks ago with an officer and, and somebody pointed it out to
him. They were like they said, they
said something along the lines of, oh, I noticed you cleaned up
your language around the chaplain.
He said, well, you know, sorry chaplain, I am pretty colorful
in my language, but I do try to clean it up when you're around.
And and that's the impact that you can have, right?
That's what salt ought to do. Their conversation ought to
change when you come up. And again, you're going to have
some people who are who are doing it on purpose because they
know you're a Christian. But the majority of people ought
to, ought to know that you just don't appreciate it.
You know, you know how you can do that without even saying a
word. They start talking about things
that are inappropriate or they start using that language a lot.
Just walk away, walk away. They know what you're walking
away for, especially if you've ever told them that you're a
Christian, especially if you've ever told them that, that, that
you, that you go to church and that you're there on Sundays and
you're there on Wednesdays and all those things.
Walk away. They know why you walked away.
They know exactly why you walked away.
And you don't have to say anything about it, but we ought
to have an impact. The third thing that salt does
is creates thirst. Our talk ought to make people
thirsty for the gospel. Our talk ought to make people
thirsty for what we have. Boy, if all you ever do is mope
about how difficult life is, why do you think anybody will want
to become a Christian? All right, I know life is not
always easy. There are difficulties in life
that we face. But life as a Christian is
great. And if you would focus on those
things and let people around you know about it, you're going to
make them thirsty for what you have.
And how many times you've heard testimonies of somebody saying,
what is it that's different about you?
You're always happy. You always, you know, you always
seem like you're in a good mood. You always got this.
You always got something to say that's that's positive or
uplifting. What is it about you that's
different that I don't have right?
That's that's what the Lord's conversation did for the woman
at the well. So she said, Sir, give me this
water that I thirst not right his his speech made her thirsty
for that living water. The last thing that Paul says.
I think I already said that once, but let your speech be
always with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you
ought to answer every man. So not only when it comes to our
conversations would be adding sweetness to our conversation,
adding seasoning to our conversation, but lastly, for
real, adding spirit to our conversation.
Lowercase S. I'm not talking about the Holy
Spirit, although it sure would help if we'd have the Holy
Spirit as part of our speech as well.
But the vast majority of the people around us are lost here.
It's great. You can come.
You don't have to worry about language.
You don't have to worry about people talking about things
inappropriate because everybody's a Christian.
But as soon as you get out in the world, go to Wawa and take
long just standing there for listening to somebody talk.
You're going to hear cussing, you're going to hear somebody
saying something inappropriate. Doesn't take long at all at
work. Most of the people around us are
lost, and that's to our shame. By the way, Christians in
general, the church in general, most of the people around us are
lost. They might be kind, they might
be thoughtful, they might be religious, they might be
friendly, but they need Christ. They need Christ.
Our conversation should get them asking questions, and when they
do, you ought to be able to give them an answer.
You ought to be able to give them an answer.
Most Christians don't want to get into conversations with the
lost because they don't know how to answer the questions that the
lost have. And why is that not the Bible?
They're not. They don't take it seriously
when they sit in church and listen to the messages.
You're not writing anything down.
You walk out and by tomorrow you forget it.
How do you think you're going to answer every man that asketh a
reason of us of the hope that is in Jesus Christ right?
We we need the Holy Spirit to help us, but some people are
looking for an argument. Some people are looking for
their hearts needs. Some people are curious, some
are are are victims of wrong teaching.
But we have to be able to defend what we believe.
We have to know why we believe it.
We have to be able to share the gospel with somebody that asks
us how to be saved, asks us what's different.
Ask the question about, you know, evolution versus creation,
or ask the question about science, or ask the question
about any of those things. You ought to be able to give
them an answer from God's word because you're studying it and
you're reading it. God will give you the answer,
right? He even tells us, don't worry
about what you're going to say before you get there.
I'll give you the words to say when you go stand in front of
important people, right? But how is he going to give you
the words? You've never read them.
You got to know them. You got to study them, you got
to, you got to seek these things out.
You got to take the time to do it.
It's so important that we do those things.
The Holy Spirit knows the hearts of the people that we're coming
to. He knows what they're thinking.
And if and if we are relying on his power, we're relying on him
to help us, then He can give us the exact words to say because
He knows exactly what that person is thinking.
And he will do that if you're asking him to lead you.
So we're to be ready. I heard a story in closing here
is an Irishman. He said somebody, somebody came
and asked him, what do you believe?
And he said, well, I believe the same thing the church believes.
And the guy said, well, what does the church believe?
He said same thing. I believe.
They said, well, what are you in the church believe?
He said, well, definitely we both believe the same thing.
That's not being able to give an answer to every man.
That doesn't help anything, right?
If your only reason for believing something is this is
what my pastor preached or this is what my pastor says, then
you're doing it wrong. You need to know what the Bible
says. Now, obviously, I'm doing the
best that I can to give you the Bible, so I'll give you a place
to start. I'll help you with that.
But if that's your only answer, that's not a very strong
argument. It's not and you need to know we
should know how to give an answer to every man.
That's that is part of being a Christian.
And and to that end, the Bible says in first Timothy chapter 4
and verse 13, give thyself to reading.
Give thyself to reading. Oh, I don't like to read.
I don't like to study. I'm the I got out of school and
I've never looked back. Well, then you're disobeying a
command in the Bible because he says give thyself to reading.
I believe that 100% is the word of God.
I believe it's a lot of other things too.
You ought to know what's going on.
You ought to know what's going on in the, in the, in the
spiritual world. You ought to know things that
are happening in our government. You ought to know those kind of
things. And that only comes by study.
That's how you're able to give an answer to every man.
And we should study the great doctrines of the faith so that
we can be ready to minister the Word to somebody, that we can be
instruments that are available for the Holy Spirit to use.
That's what Paul tells us we ought to be.
Let your speech be all way with grace, season with salt that you
may know how you ought to answer every man according to the marks
of maturity, consistent in prayer, conscious in your
performance, charitable in your pronouncements.
Are you a mature believer in Jesus Christ?
Do you fit into the category of somebody who is mature, or are
there things that you need to shore up a little bit?
Because he tells us that we ought to be mature as
Christians. He tells us that we ought to be
complete. He tells us that we ought to be
perfect. That's what that means.
If we're not, then we ought to be striving to get to that
point. We should be moving toward
maturity. We should be striving to get
more and more grounded in Christ.
So let's make sure that we're moving forward for the cause of
Christ. Let's make sure that we're not
one of these spiritually immature Christians.
Let's be spiritually mature Christians that God can use
because of it. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you for the lesson that we find here in
Colossians from the Apostle Paul and obviously he being the
mouthpiece of Jesus, of God and given us your words.
God, I pray that you would just help us to follow them.
I pray that you'd help us to to look at our own selves, examine
our own selves, see where we fall short, and that you'd help
us to be mature Christians, that you can use God where we fall
short. I pray that you'd help us to
find the strength, find the courage to make those changes,
that we'd get into God's word, we'd study it for ourselves,
that we'd know how to be able to answer those that are asking a
reason of the hope that's in us through Jesus Christ.
Thank you again for all that you do for us.
In Jesus name, Amen.