Watch / Walk
AND TALK
Colossians
4:2-6
A
study thru the gospels reveals that Jesus was a man of Prayer –
A) Prayer was an important
aspect of His life
B) He prayed before Choosing his disciples / He spent time in prayer after long days of ministry
1)
He prayed in the late evenings as well as in the early morning hrs
C)
In the mist of heavy trials – Prayer was a solace
1)
Jesus was a MAN OF PRAYER
He
was also a man on a Mission !!!
A) He knew why He was here –
What He was to be doing
B)
He made the most of every opportunity to fulfill that mission – redeeming the time
C)
He wasn’t distracted – but He made use of every opportunity to reveal the
Father’s heart / way.
He
was also a man who Knew how to talk to People
A) He knew what to say /
when to say it / and the all important – How it should be said
B)
Well as Paul closes out this section on Col. that deals w/ Practical Christian
living { started Ch. 3
C) He Focuses on these 3
things – How to Pray / How to walk / and How to talk {
Rd v 2-6
Paul starts with our
PRAYER LIFE v.2 :
A)Prayer and worship are perhaps the highest uses of
the gift of speech.
W.Wiersbe says that Prayer
is like Air for our soul.
B) In the natural world we need four things to
survive, we need food, water, air, and light.
1) Take any one of those away and the
natural world falls apart.
C) In the spiritual world it’s the same way, we
need food, water, light, and air.
1) The light of the Christian life is Jesus Christ,
our water is the Living Water that comes from the Holy Spirit.
D) Our food is the Word
of God, and our air is prayer.
1) Prayer is
like air for our souls.
Now in this verse Paul gives us 4 insights into what makes for a
Satisfying & Powerful prayer life.
A) First, our praying must be faithful. “Continue
earnestly in prayer”
B) The Greek word here for, continue earnestly, is
proskartereo, which is a compound word that is made
up of Kartereo,
1) which means to be steadfast, or constant, or to
give priority to.
C) And the preposition,
Pros, which adds intensity and force to the verb.
1) So it is describing a Steadfast – devoted and
persistent prayer life.
D) So the idea is that prayer should not only be
something that we are constantly doing,
1) But it should be
something that are constantly doing with passion & intensity.
Christians must remember
that prayer is like the mortar that holds the bricks together,
A) Without the mortar
everything falls apart;
B) And without daily private
prayer, Christians face a spiritual anorexia.
{
C) "If I
had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my
ax." -- Abe Lincoln,
So first Continue earnestly
2nd Our
praying must also be watchful.
A) Vigilant is translated – watchful & alert
A) The phrase “Watch and
pray!” is used often in the Bible.
B) It had its beginning in
Bible history when Neh. was rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem: “Nevertheless we
made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them [the enemy] day and
night” (Neh. 4:9).
C) Jesus used the phrase
Watch & pray several times as did Paul -
(Eph. 6:18).
Now our watchfulness is going
to be determined by the degree of awareness of the battle we are in
A) Consider the difference
between two military sentries.
B) One is guarding the Armory here in OCSD.
The other is guarding a
platoon in IRAQ.
C) Which one is probably
going to be more attentive? Which one will be more watchful?
1) The guy in Iraq- because
he really
realizes that he is in a Battle.
D) Listen because we’re in a
spiritual battle, we need to stay on high alert at all times – Watch &
Pray.
Prayer is the last thing
that SATAN wants us to be doing –
A) I was going thru a trial last week that really had
me stressed out & irritable
B) I talked to a Pastor friend of mine about it – I
talked to my wife – I EVEN talked to myself
1) Which is always dangerous –
C) And although I received
good counsel in the situation – My mind was still
wrestling & confused
1) My heart was still discouraged UNTIL ….
I talked to God
D) He spoke so clearly to me about what I needed to do
– how I needed to handle this
1) I THOUGHT: Why did I wait to talk to You
E) I have times where the best thing I can do is to get away from
the normal routine and go talk to God
1) Spend the whole day
battling & wrestling in Prayer -
3rd Our praying
should also be thankful: Being vigilant or
watchful in it with thanksgiving.
A) Thanksgiving is an important ingredient in successful praying.
B) Gratitude is a
stimulus to prayer-
1) Sincere gratitude to God is
one of the best ways to put fervor into our praying.
C) Guys we have so much to be
THANKFUL FOR!
D) Personally, I don’t think
there’s anything more abhorrent than grumpy believers.
1) Don’t they realize how
good God has been to them? They’re going to heaven.
They have the Word. The Spirit indwells them.
E) I don’t think there’s a
single excuse for a rational person to be grumpy.
1)
Thanksgiving should be flowing from our lips constantly.
Paul declared
in 1 Thes 5:17 He prayed w/out ceasing –
A) This doesn’t mean you go
around muttering prayers to yourself all day –
B) They have places for
people like that where the doors lock on the outside
C) Rather it means to go
through the day Practicing the Presences of God
1) Being aware of God’s Presence
with you – offering prayers in each situation – thanks/ Help
Finally, our praying
ought to be purposeful:
A)Too often our prayers are
vague and general.
B) I think one of the reasons for our vagueness in
prayer is because we are ignorant of God’s specific will
C) Which is why I think it is
important to study the prayers of the Bible – { Give us
insight into God’s will
It has well been said that the purpose of
prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on
earth.
D) Prayer is not telling God
what to do or what to give.
1) Prayer is asking God for
that which He wants to do and give, according to His will (1 John 5:14–15).
E) As we read the Word and
fellowship with our Father, we discover His will and then boldly ask Him to do
what He has planned.
Richard Trench archbishop of
Dublin, (1807–1886), said it perfectly: “Prayer is not
overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His willingness.”
Paul has a specific thing in
mind as he asks them to pray for His ministry v.3-4 praying also for us, that God would
open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am
also in chains,4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
A) The proclamation of the Gospel is empowered by prayer.
B) A visitor at Spurgeon’s Church in London was asked
by Pastor Spurgeon
1) “Would you like to see the
powerhouse of this ministry?” BASEMENT
– 150 PP praying
C) Is it any wonder that God
blessed Spurgeon’s preaching of the Word?
1) Sometimes people say to
me “Well, the least I
can do is to pray for you.”
D) The most you can do
for CCV is to pray!
1) Pray for your pastors as
we prepare the Word, study, and
meditate.
E) Pray that the Holy Spirit
will give deeper insights into the truths of the Word. / Sensitive to HS leading
1) Pray that we would live
out what we are preaching in our homes &
F) Can I encourage you pray
on your way to Church as a Family/ for me/ Children’s ministry/ Worship
Now This intrigues me. Paul
says, “Pray
for us—not that we’ll get out of here, but that the Word will go forth from
here.”
A) I think if I were writing
this, I would say, “Please pray for me that I’ll get out of here. I’m tired of
being in prison.”
B) Not so Paul. He says, “My
desire is that God’s Word will go forth from here,
1) that those around me will
really see that Christ lives in me.” Truly, this is the way to pray.
C) How I want to be more like
Paul. I’ve got so much to learn in this arena—
D) Like the Early Church they
Prayed for boldness not the persecution
to stop
E) Your Job / marriage / not
get me out of here
1) See it as an opportunity
to shine for Jesus with your life & with your words
So the first thing Paul does
is give us insight in how we are to WATCH & PRAY
A) Next he turns is focus to how we are to WALK AND
TALK { Rd v 5-6
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the
time.6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may
know how you ought to answer each one.
A) Now there are 4 things that we want to note
concerning how we are to walk & talk
B) # 1. Be
wise. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside,
C) To
be wise in the way we walk means that we’re careful not to say or do anything
that would undermine our witness
D) In other words we need to
remember that those who don’t yet know Christ are watching us.
When
Dr. Will Houghton became pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle in Atlanta, a man in
that city hired a private detective to follow him around and report on his
conduct.
After a few weeks, the detective reported that Dr. Houghton’s life
matched his preaching. As a result, the man became a Christ follower.
E) It is True you might
be the only Bible some unbelievers will
every read
1) we need to be careful about the way we act because people are making
decisions about the validity of Christianity based upon how we’re living.
#2. BE READY - redeeming
the time
A) To redeem the time is a
Commercial term that means to “buy up.”
B) It’s the picture of finding something on sale and buying all you
can afford because the price is so good.
1) Likewise, we’re to buy up
every opportunity to speak for Christ when we see one. –
C) Are you making the most of
the opportunities you have every day?
1) Life is going so fast. We need to Make it count.
How? Redeem it.
According to those who study such
things, the average American will spend six months of his life waiting at red
lights.
A) What if we decided that at
every red light to pray for people in our fellowship – Prayer list
B) What if we decided to keep
an open Bible on the seat next to us in order to read a verse or two during
every red light? To Meditate on & Memorize the
word
C) I’m not even talking about
getting up at three in the morning. I’m talking about just using the time
they’re at stoplights. Redeeming the
time!
D) And taking advantage of
every opportunity to share Christ – Show love / Be
Kind
Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as
Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have.
E) SO #2 Be ready: Redeem the
time
# 3. Be
gracious. Let your speech
always be with grace,
A)It’s
important that we communicate w/words of grace when we speak w/ those who don’t
know Christ.
B) Grace” in their speech
presupposes grace in their hearts, “for out of the
overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
C) Unfortunately, many times
believers go off on people who are living in sin.
1) Or, we let loose about a
moral issue in our culture, forgetting that there may be someone listening who
is caught in that particular sin.
D)
When we’re filled with anger and rage people feel judgment, not hope.
We need to be
more like Jesus, who was the perfect embodiment of both truth and grace.
A) Even when He dealt with
sin, He spoke words of grace.
B)
In Luke 4:22, after listening to Jesus teach, the people “spoke
well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”
C) Our speech is supposed to
“minister grace unto the hearers” (Eph. 4:29).
1) But it cannot do that
unless we have grace in our hearts and in our words.
Prov. 10:20-21 The tongue of the
righteous is choice silver; 21 The lips of the righteous feed many,
D) That is how I want to be –
Gracious words
# 4. Be appetizing. Let your speech
always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to answer each one.
A)Salt enhances flavor and
makes food appetizing.
B) Salt also was a healing
element – it was applied to wounds in the ancient culture for healing
C) Our speech is to have a
flavor enhancing / healing affect upon our conversations
D) Salt also makes people
thirsty – Our talk / our attitudes – are meant to make people thirsty for JC