Hi everyone. It's lovely to see you all.
And I'm Denise, by the way, and welcome to this series.
We are going through the book of Colossians, the epistle
Colossians, and this series is called Rooted.
We've been going through Colossians for quite a while.
Anyway, yeah, so Colossians, Paul wrote the epistle and he
wrote it while he was in prison, quite probably, probably he was
under house arrest. He didn't have a A tag on his
ankle, but he would have been chained.
And in those times you needed people to come and give you
food, look after you. And he wrote the epistle and he
wrote it and addressed it to the Church of Colossi.
And these people, these Christians, they were surrounded
by unbelievers. They were surrounded by people
who had different philosophies, ideas, people that were into
Angel worship, astrology, paganism, people who were under
the Mosaic law, under the Law of Moses.
And so they kept strict rules on what to eat and what to drink.
And there was people who really minimised the deity of Jesus
Christ. So he was encouraging Christians
to be rooted in Christ. And he also wanted this letter
to be read out to a nearby church called Laodicea.
And these people, these Christians were known for not
being now on fire for gods. They were lukewarm and they were
materially wealthy, but spiritually poor.
And I think with the audience, we could, we can identify with
with the audience because we're living in that time right now.
And when I was preparing this, because we've been in rooted for
a few months now and there's been so many plant analogies.
Yeah. So many people have come up and
they've given a plant analogy. And I was determined I wasn't
going to do that. I was going to be different.
And I was just preparing this and what did God give me a plant
analogy. Yeah.
And so before I go into my preach, I, I just feel like I
have a message for someone here or maybe if you're listening or
watching online. By the way, hello.
I'm sorry that I didn't say hello earlier on.
I just feel like I've got a message to tell somebody now.
OK Any plant mums or plant dads in the in the audience, Anyone.
Yeah. OK.
Now I became a plant mum this time last year and I went to B&M
in Hatfield. Who knows?
B&M in Hatfields. Yeah, shout to BMM at B&M in
Hatfields. And I, I bought some indoor
plants. Now I bought Calatheas.
Now I don't know if you know about that plant.
You've seen them. If you shop in Tesco's,
Sainsbury's, any supermarket, you would have seen these
plants. They come in different forms.
They're so beautiful. But the thing about calatheas is
that they are extremely fussy and they are unforgiving plants.
So if you do one thing wrong, just one thing wrong, it will
show. Yeah.
And so the good people of B&M, the good workers of BMM probably
did some lots of things wrong with these plants.
Yeah. And they couldn't sell them at
full price. They were like 1520 lbs.
And so they were selling them for a pound.
And I cleaned up. I bought so many plants and I
filled up my car with so many that my children didn't even
know where to sit. There was just so many plants.
And I took them home and I trimmed them up and I fed them.
And I wasn't a plant mum before. And I named them all the bougie
names. Yeah, all the bougie names that
my husband said, no way. I'm not calling our kids.
Yeah. So like names like Persephone,
Tallulah, Atticus, all of these names.
And if your name is that and my, my husband was like, no way,
sorry. Please.
I, I love the, the names. Anyway, I named all my plants
and I bought books and they were growing.
They were thriving. I even got all kids and people
have said all kids are so hard. Once they die, it's so hard to
bloom again. But they were blooming.
I was on YouTube, I was watching programmes, I was checking in on
my plants. And then winter came and I lost
interest in my plants and they started to wither and they
started to get crusty, started to get really dry.
And some, some of my plants, I couldn't be bothered that I just
picked up the plant and they were so dry that, you know, like
if you pick up a plant, it's like the soil is moulded into
the plant. And I just threw them in the
bin. I couldn't be bothered with
them, couldn't be bothered. And the reason why I'm saying
that is because maybe somebody here, their relationship with
God might be like a plant that you take for granted.
The plants are there, but you just don't look at them.
You don't bother with them. Now, let me show you.
This is 1 plant of mine. Yeah.
This plant used to be big. It had red leaves, iridescent
bits on the leaves. And look at it now.
Look at it. Now look at it.
I know you might not be able to see this online, but it was big.
And there's a part of me and I love this plant, there's a part
of me that I just want to throw it away.
But you know what? This is how we can feel about
our relationship with God, where it's a mess and it's a bit dry.
But you know, what I love about plants is that, and I love this
about nature, is that those things might look dead.
It's alive inside. And so your relationship with
God might seem a bit dead. You haven't bothered with him.
You've taken him for granted. And you may feel far away from
God, but he has not moved. He is still there and the Holy
Spirit is with you and the Holy Spirit is alive.
And I just want to encourage someone here or someone online
if you feel that your relationship is stagnant and
dry, don't give up, don't give up.
Go to him. Go to him now, don't give up.
OK, Alright then. So that is it.
We're going to go straight into the preach.
All right then. OK, so we're going to have a
look. Turn to your Bibles.
If you've got your Bibles, turn to Colossians chapter 4, verses
2 to 6. Or if you want to look on the
screen, you can do so. And I'm going to read out.
Just want to encourage you to bring your Bible.
I'm going to get a really big printed Bible because I cannot
see small print as much as I used to.
I'm getting older. And I'm not going to read it
like this because I'm probably going to be like this.
I've got it on a piece of paper. But I want to encourage you
bring your Bible. Bring a, a magnifying glass if
you need to as well. I'm going to be doing that too.
All right. OK.
Have you found it? Yeah, right.
So devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, and
pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so
that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in
chains. Pray that I may proclaim it
clearly as I should and be wise in the way you act towards
outsiders. Make the most of every
opportunity. Let your conversation be always
full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to
answer everyone. OK, so we're going to have a
look at verse 2. It says devote yourself to
prayer. Devote, commit, throw yourself
into. Be completely loyal to prayer,
to speaking to God, to communicating to God, to be in
contact with God. Prayer deepens your relationship
with God and prayer is active. Prayer is two way.
It's a two way conversation. It's not about just praying to
God. And then once you prayed, you
just get up. You got to be in His presence,
speak to Him, share everything that is on your heart, and then
wait, wait for him to speak. And he might not speak audibly.
I haven't heard him speak audibly, but he will in some way
communicate back. He just got to spend time in his
presence. And that could be in many ways.
It could be that you didn't have an answer before you prayed and
then you get a sense of what to do after you've prayed.
It might be that you felt quite worried and stressed and then
afterwards, after you've prayed, you get you get the peace.
The Holy Spirit gives you the peace, but you need to spend
time as you speak to God, spend time to listen, be in his
presence and listen. Prayer is active.
Jesus shows us, he gives us a great example how to pray when
he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In Luke 22 verse 42, it says Jesus says, Father, if you are
willing take the cup from me, You're not yet, not my will, but
yours be done. So when we pray, we give our
longings, our desires, our wishes to God in exchange for
his will. Yeah, we give our wishes, we
give our desires to God in exchange for his will.
And you might hear that and think, right, So you're telling
me that I pray and then I get his will and probably what if,
what if I want, what if I want a husband?
What if I want a wife? And then his, his will is like,
no, no, you can't. I mean, like you might think, I
don't want to pray. I don't want to pray because
what's he going to do? Probably he's going to give me
his will. And it's probably, it's probably
no. And yeah, it could be no, but it
could be yes, it could be wait. But his will is right.
And we don't have to worry. We don't have to worry about
that because in Philippines for chapter 4, verse 5 to 6, it says
don't worry about anything, but in everything, pray, make your
petitions to God with Thanksgiving and the peace of
God that surpasses all understanding will guard your
heart and your mind forever. So we don't need to worry when
we exchange, when we give God our desires in exchange for his
will, it is a good thing. It's a good thing now hearing
that, that you need to devote yourself to prayer.
Some of you might think, OK, I'll just pray more.
We're all in different places. Some of you may find it easy to
pray and you just think, OK, I'll pray more.
But some of you might find it hard to pray.
Maybe you find it overwhelming. Maybe you think that your
prayers are so basic, you're around people who just speak to
God so eloquently, and you think that your prayers are so basic.
You might be in a connect group or with some people and they're
praying. Have you ever been in a
situation where you're in a ring, you're all praying, and
you know your turn is coming and you're not even listening to
what anyone is saying. You're kind of rehearsing what
you're going to say out loud. Yeah, well, don't worry about
that. You can be basic.
I'm surrounded by so many people who are so eloquent when they
pray, when they come up here and they lead and they do ministry.
They're so eloquent. But you know what?
I'm basic. But you know, I I do it from the
heart. I'm not saying they don't do it
from the heart. I'm just saying I'm saying what
I do is from the heart. And it is basic, but I mean it.
Yeah. So be basic.
If that is the way you pray, be basic, but make it honest.
Make it real. And maybe you're someone where
you feel, oh, it's so I can't even spend time with God.
It's just so overwhelming. I don't, it's just, I don't know
how to just sit in his presence. Well, you know what?
I, I understand because many people right now find it hard to
be still. They find it hard to just sit
and connect with themselves. I teach Pilates and at the end
of my class for 15 minutes, I turn off the light and I just
allow people to just be still. And you know, some people
actually get up and leave and people have told me, I don't
like that. I don't really like it when you
do that bit. So just just know that I will go
because. And they said to me they, they
find it hard to be still. So, you know, if you're finding
it hard to be still on your own, how, how are you going to pray?
And if that is you, start small, start with just a little bit,
just a little bit and then build up.
That's all you have to do. Just start something.
Start small, start basic, start honest, start small.
And then maybe there's someone here who feels I when I just
actually am in God's presence, it just reminds me of all the
sinful things I'm doing and I'm not ready to stop and I'll start
praying for God when I just thought myself out.
I wouldn't even do that. I would go with your sinful
self. Just go just the way you are.
I've been in that place. I've been in that place where I
was doing things that were not right and I was not ready to
stop. I was not ready to repent.
But I prayed to God and I spent time in His presence even though
I did not want to change and just being in His presence,
eventually I was ready to repent.
I wanted to repent. So don't wait to sort yourself
out. Go to God in your sinful self,
in your sinful state. If there's red tape, when
there's all sorts of mess, just go to Jesus.
Go to Jesus. So devote yourself to prayer.
And the next part in verse 2, it says being watchful and thankful
that as I said to you last year when I got my plants, I was
attending to them. I was looking at them daily.
I was checking in. And Paul is encouraging us that
when we pray, we need to be watchful.
Last week, Taran encouraged people to become Watchmen, to be
to be on the watch, to pray for the church and be on the watch.
And we need to do that. We need to watch.
We need to be alert, not be lazy.
So we need to be aware of what's the spiritual temperature,
what's going on, what's happening around us.
You might find that there's a lot of people around you who are
gossiping about other people. What's going on.
I know that when I focus on other people so much, I have to
stop myself and say, OK, you're focusing on other people, other
people's failings, other people doing stuff.
What's going on with you, Denise?
And then I might say, you know what?
I think I'm because I'm failing to.
That's why I'm focusing on other people.
You know what? I'm a bit lonely right now.
That's why I'm focusing on other people who seem to have it all
together. And then I pray into that.
So you need to be watchful. What is going on around you.
I find right now so many people are angry.
So many people have such a short fuse.
Listen to this. Yeah.
At my children's school, 2 dads and they had prams, Babies in
prams. Yeah.
Two dads were waiting to pick up their kids and they started
arguing. Then they started swearing kids
were around and then it got to a point where they started to get
physical. That security from the school
had to come to break it up. All because one didn't know
there was a queue and jumped in front of the other one.
That is the reason why it all escalated.
People are going crazy, people are stressed and we need to pray
into that. What is going on?
But you know what, it's not even
non Christians, it's in the church.
There are people coming to church and having a go and at
the car park attendance and these car park attendance, not
only just trying to help you have a good experience at
church. And so people are just stressed
and irritated and we need to pray into that.
We've got to pray in to the to make sure that the enemy is not
coming into our life with certain stuff.
And also we need to be on alert, but we don't need to be afraid.
Be thankful when God reveals something to you.
Be thankful. So for example, if you just say
God thank you so much that you're showing me that so many
people are distracted by social media and so many people are
reacting to things. And Lord, I pray into that and I
thank you for revealing that to me.
You might say, God thank you so much that you've shown me that
me and my husband or me and my wife are like 2 ships in the
night. And I am aware that that's where
the enemy can come into a situations.
And I thank you for showing me that.
Well, ahead, help us to connect. So be thankful, don't have to be
afraid. Be thankful for what you see so
that you can pray into that situation.
And then we're going to go down to verse 5.
Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders.
Make the most of every opportunity.
Now, I'll be honest with you, I've struggled with this.
If you bring everyone that I have been in contact with here,
they I would not be the poster that that you know, the poster
girl for Christianity, all right?
I wouldn't be the way I've acted towards certain people if they
irritated me. And even like the mums at the
school gate, there's been mums that have irritated me and they
have done things and I have shown them my disdain for how
they are. And then maybe a couple of
months down the line, I get to know them and I want to pray for
them. And I feel embarrassed to pray
because I look like a hypocrite because the way I acted one
minute a couple of months ago and now I'm saying, oh, can I
pray for you? That seems a bit like a
hypocrite. But we need to reflect Christ to
everyone. And I believe that if you, for
you to reflect Christ, you need to know your relationship with
Christ and you need to know your identity in Christ, to reflect
Christ to everyone, know your identity and know your
relationship with Christ. 3 weeks ago, I was taking my
daughter to school and we were late and we park at a cricket
ground. Yeah, we park in the car park.
I don't think they like that, but we park there.
So do other parents. And we walk through the cricket
pitch. And I don't think they like that
we walk through the cricket pitch because they're, you know,
trying to protect the grass, but we walk through it.
It's a shortcut and we walk through and then we have to walk
through some bushes and then we get to the school.
Yeah, I really don't think they like it.
I think they're going to wise up one day and they're going to
stop it. But anyway, we do this, other
people do this too. And so we're walking through the
pitch and I could hear the school gate, like the rustling
of the of the chains that they're going to lock the gate
because my daughter's school, they are militant.
If you do not get there at 8:50. And you could be right there and
they will look it in front of you and they won't even let you
in. And I say you need to go round
the front and declare that you're late.
Yeah. And I, I didn't want that for my
daughter. So I could hear the chains.
And I grabbed her and I said, come on.
Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.
Let's run through. Let's run through.
Now we go through these bushes and there's this iron rail, 5
inches of the ground, right. And normally I step over it, but
because I was running, I totally forgot.
My foot got caught on it and I went flying into the air, out of
the bushes, onto the gravel. Now I see little kids fall all
the time. Anyone has anyone fallen as an
adult on the ground? It's not fun.
My body was in shock and I was
on the ground and my daughter's staring at me.
And I say to her, I can't get up.
I can't get up. She's looking at me like, what's
wrong with you? And as I said, that I
experienced, I had a Good Samaritan experience without the
Good Samaritan. Alright.
A jogger jogs, looks at me and jogs on.
Yeah, I'm surprised you're laughing.
Yeah. He looks at me and jogs on.
It's all right. You don't have to say, oh, no,
now it's all right. You can laugh.
But yeah, he jogs on.
And my daughter has to run to school on her own and she has to
call out to her teachers and say, miss, Miss, my mum's on the
ground. She can't get up.
And so the teacher came and so did her mum, and they picked me
up and I was all right. I've got, you know, scratches
and bruises, but I'm OK. But what bothered me, the only
thing that I could think of was that there was this man who saw
me on my back and ignored me. That's all I could think of all
week. It bothered me and I started to
think, was I not good enough? Was I not worthy?
You saw me on my back and you ignored me and it played into so
many things that week when I was in count, when I encountered all
sorts of people. I just thought I'm not good
enough. I'm not good enough because
someone left me on the grounds and it didn't stop there.
It wounded me. And then I started to fantasise
that, you know what, when I see that jogger again, because I've
seen that jogger. I've seen that jogger when I've
parked at the cricket ground. I've seen him and I knew I'd see
him again. And I started to think, you know
what, if I see that man, I'm going to look in his eyes and
I'm going to say yes, you wicked man, you wicked man, you did not
help me out. And you know what?
I didn't even leave it there. I took it even further.
I actually said, you know what, I hope when I see him, I hope
one day he will fall. He will fall and I'm the only
one there. And he will look at me in my
face and think, oh, no, is that woman I left on the ground?
And I will be like, yeah, I'm the only one there.
And I started to think, I hope that happens.
And I was telling somebody about it, and they said to me, oh, no,
you wouldn't do that. And I went, yeah, you're right,
I wouldn't. If he ever fell down, I put my
hand down and I'll smile and I'll say Jesus loves you and so
do I. That's what I said.
And I said it sarcastically. But when I said it out of my
mouth, I realised, hang on a minute, hang on a minute.
You see, I had looked at that man to tell me who I was.
His reaction I had allowed to reflect my worth.
When we do that, often when we are in contact with people,
whatever they do to us, we make that be a reflection of who we
are, the way they treat us. But the truth is I needed to
focus on who I was in Christ, who I was in Christ, and I
because of Christ, because Jesus died on the cross to save me.
I live in Him and He lives in me.
And I am worthy because I am God's child, not by what
somebody does to me. That is not a reflection of my
worth. And then also my relationship
with God. He loves me and I've received
His love. We can love because He first
loved us and so we have His love and we love him back and we love
ourselves and then we can love others.
So yes, I can help that man even though he didn't help me, I can
help him and I can give him the love of God because it is
something that I receive and I can give it to him and I forgive
him. I, I actually, if I saw him now,
I'd smile at him. I'm so over it.
I forgive him. I forgive him anyway.
So we need to reflect Christ and we do that by having our
relationship and identity in Christ.
And then in verse 6, it says, let your conversation be always
full of grace. And sometimes we do not share.
We do not give other people the grace.
Last week, Chuck mentioned that we are living in a time where we
can create our own community of people who agree with what we
believe due to the algorithms. But the Bible is full of
diversity. You've got people mixing
together with different ideas. The Bible's full of diversity,
and I think sometimes we don't give people grace because we've
forgotten that we are under grace.
One time I was in my car and I was in a driveway and I had to
reverse out the driveway. I turned on my music and it was
blasting. And you know what, right, I'm
listening to this music and I say to myself, I just want more
romance in my life. That's why I said.
And as I did that, I reversed, put my foot on the pedal,
reversed out. And as I said, I want more
reverse than romance in my life. I just heard bang and I turned
round and I had just crashed my car in my husband's car.
Yeah, and I'd, I was like, I forgot his car was there.
And it's so silly because I just walked past his car to get into
mine. I totally forgot.
So I had to call him and I didn't, I didn't write it off
for anything, but I just, I hit it.
And so I called him, told him to come out, showed him his car.
And I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
And he looked, he was frustrated.
He was frustrated, he was not happy.
And then all of a sudden he said, you know what, I forgive
you. I forgive you.
Now, Denise, I want you to just remember that next time I do
something wrong and you want, you want to nitpick me because I
nitpick him all the time, every day.
I want you to just remember that I gave you grace and I want you
to have grace for me the way I've given you grace.
And it's the same with God. God is perfect, but we need to
have grace for others because we are under grace.
We are not perfect. There are things that we are
doing right now that we have no idea is wrong and maybe we will
realise it's wrong in a week's time, a year's time, five years
time, 10 years time. We will be delivered.
And during that whole time, God was so gracious.
God allowed the sun to shine on our face.
God blessed us. He was so patient, He was so
kind. We are under God's grace.
God Forgives us time and time again and yet we can hold people
in a place of unforgiveness. In Matthew 7 verse 2, it says
for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and
with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
I really don't think that if we judge people, God is going to
judge us the same way. I think it's just how we're
going to see how God judges us if we're going to, if we don't,
if we judge people, we're going to think that's we, we're under
a harsh God, but he, his grace is sufficient and his judgement
is right. But how we see other people, we
may see our Father that way and he's not.
We need to give people grace. There are people who are
different to us and we need to be gracious.
And then lastly, make sure that your conversation is seasoned
with salt. And on a culinary level, salt is
a natural flavour enhancer. It tenderizes meat, it preserves
perishable food, and it balance out.
It balances out bitterness and blandness.
And in this passage, the Greek word is halas for salt, and
figuratively that means prudence.
So our conversation needs to be full of wisdom.
We need to be positive. We need to be uplifting, we need
to be engaging, we need to leave people wanting more.
Paul is calling us to have our conversation seasoned with salt.
So to summarise this passage, devote yourself to prayer.
Devote yourself to prayer. And we're all in different
places. We're all in different places.
Start start basic be real, be honest, devote yourself in
connecting with the Lord. It will deepen your relationship
and be wise how you act towards outsiders.
Develop your relationship in Christ, know your identity in
Christ so you reflect Christ and have grace for everyone because
you're under grace. And make sure your conversation
is prudent, seasoned results. Respond rather than react.
And if you need to take time, do that.
Don't allow, don't act quickly. And if it touches on wounds when
people talk to you, sometimes I get emails or I get WhatsApp
messages and it touches, it jangles on my wounds and I have
to just pause and then come back in a place that is positive and
uplifting. So respond rather than react.