The New Speech of the New Man (Colossians 4:2-6)

Kootenai Church

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So good to see each one of you here this morning and what a joy it is to be able to gather together to worship to hear

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God's Word taught and now as we come to the scriptures to Proclaim God's Word Martin Luther said the highest form of worship is the proclamation of God's Word and I think he was right

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So invite you to open your Bibles this morning to Colossians chapter 4 We'll be looking at verses 2 through 6 this morning in our study.

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It's at the end of This wonderful little letter by the Apostle Paul and in a very practical session section

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I didn't know that brother day was going to be teaching from Ephesians 5 this morning And so he really did set up our study this morning and so did the scripture reading

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So before we open God's Word, let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing on it

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Our father we know that we are dependent on you for all things by your grace

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We know that we have a relationship with you through that grace that you gave us in Jesus Christ And so father we are even dependent now to understand your word as we study it together we pray that you would be our teacher that you would overcome every weakness of the one speaking and Simply minister your word to every heart

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We pray that you would accomplish all of that for our joy and do it for your glory father in Jesus Mighty name we ask it.

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Amen Colossians chapter 4 verses 2 through 6 and you have an outline in your bulletin you can follow along if you care to I was

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Very gracious and lenient. I did not put any Blanks to fill in for you. So see you get the day off All you have to do is follow along and I thought because this comes at the end of Paul's letter in a very practical session

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It might be worthwhile to spend a little time sort of setting this up with a little bit of background Because when the

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Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian Christians, he did it from prison. This is his first prison imprisonment in Rome and He wrote this letter in response to being visited by a man named

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Epaphras very interesting man and a very committed and dedicated man to the cause of Christ the

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Colossians were in The Lycus Valley which was about a hundred and twenty -five miles inland from the city of Ephesus in what is now

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Western Turkey So from where Paul is in Rome all the way back to this little town of Colossae in the

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Lycus Valley It's over 900 linear miles Okay So you can imagine how difficult it would have been for a path for us this man from that church to travel all that distance just to be with Paul, but he did that and He's a very interesting man because Paul did not plant the church at Colossae Epaphras did we know that from this first section that Paul writes in this letter he

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Thanks God for the Colossian Christians And then as he gets down to verse 7

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He's talking about the gospel and he says just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant so Epaphras was the one who planted that church and he also probably planted the other two churches in that area the one in the town of Laodicea and Hierapolis there are three little towns that are sort of form a little triangle there in the

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Lycus Valley of what is now Western Turkey He also had to travel all the way from there to Rome to visit

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Paul To talk to him about what was going on in that church. And so he says in verse 8

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Speaking about their trust in Christ and that's the establishment of that church He says and has made known to us your love in the

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Spirit so Epaphras planted that church and was ministering probably in the other two cities as well and Traveled all the way to Rome to visit

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Paul because Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles and this is Gentile country These were

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Gentile churches he was an effective communicator and So he's all that distance he traveled in order to talk to Paul about a terrible problem that was going on in that church.

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There was a heresy that had taken root and Paul really does write this letter in order to respond to that heresy and Very interesting.

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He may probably also have been arrested while he was visiting Paul We have an indication of that from the end of Paul's letter to Philemon who was also a member of the

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Colossian Fellowship the end of that letter Paul mentions Epaphras He says my fellow prisoner in Jesus Christ sends greetings to you so Epaphras was probably also jailed at the same time

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Paul was and We also have a little indicator of that at the end of this letter

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Right when he gives his final greetings in chapter 4 verse 7 Paul says and he mentions another man that is with him

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Titicus will tell you all about my activities He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the

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Lord I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and With him

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Onesimus now Onesimus was the slave that had left Colossae and his master

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Philemon and so there's that connection there Onesimus is also with Paul He's sending both of them back

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Now if Epaphras who is with him who came from Colossae? Was the one who planted that church and who brought

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Paul news of this heresy? Seems like he would have been the logical one to send back with this letter, but he doesn't he mentions him in verse 12 at the end of chapter 4

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Epaphras who is one of you a Servant -of -Christ Jesus greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers

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That you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God So Paul's connection with the

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Colossian Christians was not because he had planted that church and had direct ministry with them

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But it came through the information he had received from this man this faithful servant of the

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Lord Epaphras and it's no wonder Paul refers to him as our beloved fellow servant a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

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Now Paul had ministered in Ephesus, which is about a hundred and twenty -five miles to the west of the

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Lycus Valley He had ministered in Ephesus for two years in fact He had set up probably what it was a school a training school in a place a building called the

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Hall of Tyrannus that's recorded in Acts chapter 19 quite probably where Epaphras had met him and learned of the gospel and then had taken it back up into the

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Lycus Valley So that's probably the connection there Well after his opening greeting and his prayer for the

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Colossians in chapter 1 Paul launches into this Magnificent statement starting in verse 15 of the absolute preeminence of Jesus Christ It says in verse 15 and following he is the image of the invisible

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God The firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all

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Things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things

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Whole together and he is the head of the body the church He is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything

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He might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to Reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross

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That's a tremendous statement of Christology And we're going to see probably why

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Paul did that when we look at the heresy he was trying to deal with tremendous statement of the absolute sovereign overarching

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Dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Lordship Well scholars have long debated the exact nature of what they call the

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Colossian heresy It's not really known exactly what it was We sort of have to reverse engineer it and put it together by how

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Paul Paul responds to it and so it is thought by that first response of Paul about the

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Sovereignty of God in Jesus Christ over all things that it was probably a a mixture of things one scholar who calls it the

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Colossian syncretism says this Syncretism is the blending of different thoughts and practices of the various religious beliefs in the area to make a comprehensive belief system sort of like a theological hobo stew

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Each group brings in a little of this and a little of that from their religious beliefs and drops them into the kettle

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Stirs in hopes that they all blend well and that the stew is tasty to the eater

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Okay, so it probably was this mixture of things Evangelists and missionaries have long struggled with the idea that when they go into an area and share

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Jesus Christ and tell people about the grace of God and the love of Christ for them very Often people are quick to say, okay,

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I'll take it. I'll take Jesus The problem is as they come back and look at it again They realize what they've simply done is to add him to their existing belief system

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Maybe their traditions or their ancestor worship or some pseudo Christian religious system what they fail to realize

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These people who do that and it's probably because nobody tells them is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign

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Lord And that lordship is not shared with anything or anyone

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What he has the right to demand? exclusive worship and will not share his glory with another and any addition any

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Even if it's something very good that's added to the gospel pollutes the gospel perverts it and it's not the true gospel and this is probably why

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Paul begins to counter that heresy with this tremendous statement of the Absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ over all things why that encompasses everything that they could think of that's a false system

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Okay, some theologians call this cosmic Christology because it's a statement of the absolute

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Hegemony of Jesus Christ over everything and anything Now Paul returns to that great foundational truth in chapter 2 as he moves along He says in chapter 2 speaking of Christ again verse 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge wisdom and knowledge probably one of the elements of this false teaching system was the wisdom that they thought they had the philosophy or love of wisdom it probably was even

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Greek philosophy that had been mixed in with the gospel and Knowledge probably a reference to the early

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Gnostic movement that was common as well but Jesus Christ is Lord over all of that and he does not share his glory with anything and Then Paul gives them the very practical reason why he's telling them this in verse 4 of chapter 2

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I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments plausible means persuasive or enticing

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Whenever someone follows after man -made extra -biblical Religious systems no matter how good they sound how plausible or enticing they are being deluded

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It is delusion It's not just one more system or one more legitimate form of belief and then

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Paul sums up this entire section on false Teaching by gathering up all of these false teachings in chap in chapter 2 verse 23 these he says these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body

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But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh external extra -biblical man -made religious ritual

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Cannot accomplish internal spiritual reality and it doesn't matter how good it sounds how good it looks

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How wonderful it is and everything and it's going to sound wonderful because it has to be appealing to the flesh

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It cannot accomplish what God wants to do, which is internal Spiritual reality

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External religious ritual cannot accomplish internal spiritual reality as he moves into chapter 3

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Paul now focuses on the new life that these believers have in Jesus Christ It's part of the whole theme of this and as we have seen in our reading through Ephesians, it's the theme of that as well new life in Christ Internally should produce new life

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Externally our new walk as it says and he even practically applies it to every area of life

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Why because Christ is sovereign over area every area of life including all relationships

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And so he deals with relationships at the end of chapter 3 wives husbands children father slaves masters every area

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Every relationship is impacted by the new life of the new man And so we as we arrive at chapter 4 and our passage that we're going to look at this morning

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What we're going to see is Paul basically focusing in on the new speech of the new man

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This is an area of the spiritual life. That's very important. It's very critical and It's very interesting.

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We talked about Ephesians 5 and What that means and as you know Ephesians is sort of a sister letter to Paul's letter to the

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Colossians they share many of the same topics and so on in Ephesians 5 and Dave was talking about this this morning 518 that Filling of the spirit passage that passage the results of being filled with the spirit

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He says do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit

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Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Singing and making melody with your heart to the

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Lord the the language of the new person in Christ the person who is spirit -filled is

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Described there but in chapter 3 of Colossians verse 16 Paul says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and The first thing he says is teaching which is a speaking or a verbal Endeavor teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom

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Singing songs psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God The results of being filled with the spirit are exactly the same as the results of letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly and So we have to see that connection there

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Theologians call this the concomitant working of word and spirit They are always together and here we see the results being the same which means they must be very closely related and certainly it is the filling of the spirit means that the

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Word of God is Dwelling in you richly and that brings us up to our passage that we're going to be looking at this morning

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Which really is also a result of being filled with the spirit and letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly from Colossians 4 2 through 6

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The new life in Christ should produce in the new man The first thing we're going to see is new speech toward God and that's prayer.

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That's our prayer life so important Paul says Continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with Thanksgiving Continue steadfastly the idea of persistence or perseverance in prayer back in Colossians chapter 1 verse 9

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Paul says and So from the day we heard heard about your faith in Christ heard about your new life in Christ we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and Understanding this concept is used by Luke in his gospel

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They were in the book of Acts Of those gathered in the upper room after the ascension of Jesus Christ while they waited for the

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Holy Spirit in Acts 1 14 he says all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer and Later on the day of Pentecost when 3 ,000 people who were heard the gospel and were saved and responded and were baptized and You have to understand at that point in time

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They were filled with the Spirit because the Spirit was controlling them at that point It says in Luke 2 42 and they devoted themselves to the

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Apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and Prayers If you want to know what the filling of the

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Spirit looks like, it's not some sense oriented whizzy experience It looks like this.

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That's the picture. Not only were they persistent in their devotion to apostolic teaching they were devoted to prayer on the day of Pentecost and This is what the old word some of the best words of the old words

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Importunate praying you may have seen that along the way. In fact Jesus in Luke chapter 11

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You don't have to turn there. You might look at that up sometime that he tells the parable about the

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Importunate neighbor who wanted bread who kept going back to the neighbor? Asking for bread asking for bread and finally the neighbor gave him the bread

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This man was persistent in his asking Jesus taught that parable in response to the disciples asking him teach us to pray

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So this is instructions from Jesus Christ himself about how his disciples are supposed to pray

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One commentator defines it this way This kind of praying may seem selfish and perhaps childish

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But it really isn't because it is prayer in the will of God and is usually for others instead of self

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In fact, the source of this kind of prayer is right from the heart of God It is how the

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Holy Spirit pleads and prays for us Romans 8 26 It is how

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God persistently and urgently seeks us out Speaks to us and constantly seeks to help us and love us

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Jeremiah 31 3 and John 6 44 Thus when I pray with Importunity, there's that old word

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I pray for myself and for others the same way and with the same heart as the

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Holy Spirit does I Follow after his prayers. I pray after his desire in heart true

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Important at prayer then is prayer that is drawn by God and that follows after God it is prayer that is aroused and energized by the

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Holy Spirit and that moves our soul toward God and presses our desire upon him repeatedly with urgency and Perseverance, but also with patience and waiting until our prayers are heard and answered

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I know that some of you may not have had a real close relationship with your earthly father

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I can relate to that But please understand this our heavenly father is not like our earthly fathers

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He is not you don't bother him when you press your prayers

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And when you repeatedly pray when you're persistent in your praying God longs to hear from his children

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He does he you don't have to make an appointment. You don't have to you're not bothering him if you

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Pray persistently like that Pray and be persistent new life in Christ should produce new speech toward God our prayer and that prayer should be

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Persistent another thing Paul says while we're being persistent. We are to also be watchful

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He says be watchful. It's actually the participial form of watching. In other words while you're being persistent be watching

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It's used to speak of continuous action in the tense that it's in It's actually drawn from the imagery of guard duty

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In fact Peter uses this word in the context of warning his Christian readers in 1st

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Peter 5 8 You've heard this verse be of sober spirit be watchful Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour

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Now if you were given nighttime guard duty, and you may put you out on the perimeter at night, and they said

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Stay awake be watchful be alert Oh, and by the way out there is a lion prowling around seeking someone to devour.

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All right, you'd probably stay awake I know I would that's the imagery that's going on here And it's also used in the context of the second coming of Christ But it means more than to just keep alert for his coming it has more of the idea that in light of his imminent coming watch how you live and In other words watch your walk to use

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Paul's imagery That's one very important reason why the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is so important It needs to be taught and preached why it's supposed to be life -changing

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Right to anticipate the coming of Christ knowing that it is imminent should change how we live our lives.

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It's a very practical doctrine from Scripture and To the strong command to be devoted and to be watching

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Paul adds the ingredient that he is so well known for be thankful Fundamental to our new life in Christ the prayer that new man is to be saturated with gratitude

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Toward God expressed in prayer Paul was not only the Apostle to the Gentiles and he was

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I think he should also be called the Apostle of Thanksgiving because he was that as well back even back in Colossians chapter 1

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He doesn't get too far into this letter before he says this in verse 3 we always thank

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God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you and Even in chapter 1 again verse 11 and 12

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May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance with and patience with joy

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Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the

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Saints in light Before Paul commands these Galatian Christians to pray he models it for them by praying for them and Again chapter 2 verses 6 and 7.

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He's thankful all the way through this letter Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the

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Lord so walk in him Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in Thanksgiving and he's not done yet in this letter chapter 3 verses 15 and 17.

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He says this and Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts

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To which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful Paul was continually thanking

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God for the people he ministered to and Telling those folks that he was thanking

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God for them and he modeled that as well in His thankful prayers. Just listen to a few examples in Romans chapter 1 verse 8

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Paul says first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all Because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world in his opening lines to the

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Corinthian Christians Chapter 1 verse 4 now, these are the Corinthians. They had some serious problems in that church, but Paul still thanked

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God for them He says I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus and In the first chapter of his letter to the

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Ephesian Christians Paul is true to form when he says in verses 15 and 16 for this reason

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I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the

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Saints Do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers

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That same combination of fervent or persistent prayer for his readers Overflowing with gratitude to God is found in his letter to the

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Philippians I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always Offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all don't know how many more ways

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Paul could say that right and to the Thessalonian Christians who are also well aware of Paul's grateful intercession for them when he wrote this in his first letter to them we give thanks to God always for all of you making mention of you in Our prayers and even in his second letter to that same congregation, you know

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He thanked God for him in the first one, but that wasn't enough for Paul in the second letter He says we ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers as is only fitting

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Because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of each one of you all toward one another increases all the more

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When he wrote his letter to Philemon who was part of the Colossian fellowship Paul wrote this

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I thank my God Always making mention of you in my prayers and even in his very last letter written during his second

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Imprisonment and his last because he was going to be executed. He knew he was going to die He tells

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Timothy that in second Timothy his life is over and he knows it and yet what is he doing? He's still praying for other people.

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He says to Timothy I am grateful to God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did as I unceasingly remember you in my prayers night and day

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Get the picture Paul was a prayer warrior and on the top of his list was prayer on behalf of those

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He was ministering to and on the top of that list was gratitude gratitude thankfulness to God Paul wrote 24 % of the

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New Testament 24 % When you look at the word group that includes the word

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Thanksgiving thankfulness and giving thanks Okay, collect all that together in the entire

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New Testament Even though Paul only wrote 24 % of the New Testament in the entire New Testament that entire word group 75 % of the references were by the

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Apostle Paul Paul was a Thanksgiving machine Who understood that new life in Christ should produce a new walk and that new walk is

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Marked by new speech toward God saturated with Thanksgiving heartfelt gratitude for God Who he is and what he has accomplished for Paul that gratitude by the believer is the hallmark of new life in Christ and by the way

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The flip side of that coin is for the Apostle Paul a failure to be thankful a failure to express gratitude to God is the

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Hallmark of apostate unbelief listen to what he says to the Romans Romans chapter 1

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For although they knew God Apostasy always starts with some knowledge of God that is rejected

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For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him

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But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened new life in Christ should be manifested is

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Manifested by continuous prayer through an alert mind that is saturated with Thanksgiving to God And that new speech should also be purposeful.

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This is D on your outline there to Roman numeral one now There's nothing wrong with general prayers, you know,

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Lord bless the world bless the universe But Paul's not too interested in that. He wants the prayers to be purposeful.

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We might even say targeted This is verses 3 & 4 Paul says at the same time while you're continually steadfastly praying pray also for us

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That God may open to us a door for the word to declare the ministry of Christ on account of which

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I am in Prison that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak

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This is the Apostle Paul But he's not too proud to enlist prayer for his own ministry prayer to God by the

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Colossian Christians Paul prays for them. He's setting the model and then he enlists their prayer for himself

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Because Paul knows how dependent he is on the prayers of God's people.

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This is very very important You might say well, wait a minute. Maybe Paul doesn't understand the sovereignty of God if God is going to Sovereignly do his work and bring people to himself

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Maybe Paul just doesn't understand the sovereignty of God. Well, then you should go back and read chapter 115 and following That's a statement of the absolute sovereignty of Christ over all things.

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He understands the sovereignty of God. He also understands that the sovereignty of God Encompasses the means by which

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God accomplishes his sovereign purposes, right? One of those means is the prayer of his people

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Tell you you and I are going to hear about prayer a lot as Evangelicals we hear probably hundreds and hundreds of times right importance of prayer.

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I've got to pray pray for this pray for that one of the things that Should revolutionize your prayer life if it hasn't already is the understanding that God moves through the means

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Sovereignly through the prayers of his people. We have an example of that in Genesis chapter 25. You don't have to turn there let me just Run through this real quick by the time we get to Genesis chapter 25

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Of course God has given his great covenant to Abraham in chapter 12, and that is a

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Transgenerational covenant that is a covenant that's given to Abraham and then to his descendants forever and it's repeated over and over again

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One of the promises given in that covenant is that he was going to have progeny. He's going to have children, right?

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Isaac is the answer to that Well when we get to chapter 25 Isaac it focuses in on Isaac in his life and remember this transgenerational covenant promised them to have descendants forever it says and so when it talks about Isaac in chapter 25 verse 20

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It says and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel the

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Aramean of Padan Aram the sister of Laban the Aramean to be his wife verse 21 and Isaac prayed to the

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Lord for his wife because she was barren now. Somebody might say wait a minute. You have a promise of children

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What's the point of praying here? well because Isaac understood the sovereignty of God that in his sovereignty that sovereignty includes the means by which he

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Accomplishes his sovereign purposes and one of those is the prayer of his people and so they answer to that it says

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He prayed for his wife because she was barren and the Lord granted his prayer and Rebecca his wife conceived

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God accomplishes his sovereign purposes through the prayers of his people and so Paul has no problem at all

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In fact, it's vital to his ministry to enlist the prayers of the Colossian Christians for him and it's so unselfish

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So unselfish pray for us he says that God may open to us a door

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I mean Timothy was with him and others were with him at papyrus is there with him? And he also prays for what door to come open now if it was me,

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I'd probably be praying Yeah, I want to get out of this stinking jail, right? But Paul says that God may open to us a door for the word

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Paul is concerned about the Word of God More than he is about his own freedom and what does he want to do to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which

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I am in prison and What's his personal prayer the thing that he wants more than anything as far as his own personal ministry?

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That I may make it clear Which is how I ought to speak He doesn't say well,

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I want to be known as the greatest theologian of my day I want to be known as the great Apostle Paul, maybe the most brilliant theologian and he was a brilliant theologian

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He was a Pharisee He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel Gamaliel would have been the premier Jewish teacher of his day and yet all

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Paul wants to do is that the door would come open for the Word of God and that I may make it

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Clear, which is how I ought to speak Paul's request for their prayers and his main purpose was to have an opportunity to clearly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and that prayer request that he mentions

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Naturally moves him into Roman numeral two because if he wants to make it clear

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You know that he's thinking about those outside the church. And so we arrive at Roman numeral two new speech toward outsiders our witness and he says in verse five

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Walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time

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Now when you first read that you may think well, what does this have to do with with any of the rest of this?

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Well, someone said what believers are gives credibility to what they say, right for the

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Apostle Paul He can't separate the walk and the word you've heard that right? We need to our word our walk needs to match our word

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That's what Paul is concerned about here. In other words. He's saying act wisely Live wisely or to use

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Paul's metaphor walk wisely before Outsiders to walk in wisdom is to live life according to biblical wisdom

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New Testament scholar and commentator Douglas Moo has a very good word on this

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Wisdom of course is a very broad concept occupying in biblical thought a crucial intermediate stage between thought and action as Believers immerse themselves in the life of Christ having put on the new man.

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Their minds are renewed by God's Spirit Wisdom will enable us to determine just how in given situations our new way of thinking our new set of biblical

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Values should be put into effect Wisdom is in between thought and action when

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I read that I thought Yeah, I can remember when I was about you know, I can high school about 16 17 years old

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The distance between thought and action wasn't very much All the men are laughing what

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I needed was something in between the thought and the action, you know, like wisdom and Our parents and those around us the adults were continuously trying to put some wisdom in between thought and action

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You know, I heard a lot Jeff think consider the consequences Jeff think before you act, you know

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Of course when you're 15 16 17 young year old young man easier said than done but that's what he's talking about and the thing that same thing is true in our walk with Jesus Christ a

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New mind a renewed mind. We need to employ wisdom in order to know how to walk before the world

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That's our testimony. And then he says be wise in your use of time Sometimes this is translated redeeming the time because it's a compound word made out of ECH or out of and the

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Greek word for a marketplace or to buy so to buy out of and it carries with it the idea of a

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Strategic use of time at a strategic point in time now the context of course is our witness to the outside world

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So and there's some variation among commentators, but the best understanding in the context walking wisely toward outsiders for the purpose of sharing our faith with them and Paul is exhorting believers to buy up all the time available to us or as one translation actually says

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Make the most of every opportunity and that is being wise in your walk so we who have new life in Christ will have new speech toward God our prayer and New speech toward the outsiders our witness and that brings us to point three

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Roman numeral three new speech toward each one very general concept, but so important He says in verse 6 let your speech always be gracious Seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person so important be gracious Kind of basic, huh?

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You're going to witness to people you're going to tell people about the grace of God and how he was gracious to you

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We should probably do that in a very gracious way We are to exhibit the same grace that God gave to us and there's no place in the believers life for abusive speech

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Okay to those in the church or to those outside the church. It's an amazing thing

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I mean, I've seen videos of people who are supposedly going out doing street evangelism and of course they get yelled at screamed at and all kinds of things and they sort of begin to participate in the yelling match and It's an amazing thing to watch remember unsaved people are not the enemy they're not the enemy

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Satan and his demons are the enemy and Then he says while you're being gracious be seasoned.

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Now. This one is very important What he says here is walking wisdom toward outsiders

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Making the best use of time let your speech always be gracious Seasoned with salt now with this one.

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We have to start out with what it is not Seasoned with salt is not salty speech as we say in our language

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It's just not not salty hate to pick on the Navy not salty sailor speech.

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That's not what he's talking about It's an amazing thing that in recent years has become kind of fashionable in Certain evangelical circles for some of the and they are some of the younger guys to use

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Vowel language four -letter words and even some graphic sexual references in their evangelism

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But also from the pulpit Maybe they never read first Timothy 412 Paul to a younger man let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech in Conduct in love in faith in purity and to another younger man

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Titus who was ministering on the island of Crete The older man Paul said this

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Titus 2 7 & 8 show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching which is a verbal Endeavor show integrity dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned

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So then an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us Sound speech.

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He says that's the word the Greek word. There is who he ace One of the forms that it takes is who guy

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Nas? We transliterate that into English and we get the word hygiene from it. Let your speech be hygienic not

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Contaminated not filthy not dirty. Okay, and This is both of these passages are two younger men.

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There is no excuse to do It is commonly done sometimes in certain circles. So seasoned with salt is not salty sailor speech

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But what is it one commentator and I think he gets it, right salt probably represents both attractiveness since salt makes food appealing makes it taste good and Wholesomeness since salt was a preservative that retarded spoiling or rotting in food

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The Christians should wisely suit his or her speech to each situation

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This is all about how we speak to unbelievers as new creatures in Christ part of our walk with Jesus Christ Remember, you're not there to win an argument.

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You're there to win that person. Okay? That person even if the Holy Spirit is drawing them to himself is going to have questions

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He's going to need some answers and how we answer those questions is just as important as what the answer is

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And so he ends up by saying be knowing let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt

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Why Paul this is a purpose statement so that you may know how you ought to answer each person

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What we are concerned so often is the what but the how is just as important You can share the gospel with someone you can walk away thinking that you've witnessed to that person

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But if you are disrespectful if you're not gracious to them you've accomplished absolutely nothing

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Speak the truth, of course, but speak the truth in love Peter says it this way in 1st

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Peter 3 15 in the last chapter of his last letter to the church Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and Respect and three verses later his last words to the church

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Peter said but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity men, so New life in Christ should produce in the new man or the new woman new speech toward God That's our prayer new speech toward outsiders that's our testimony and in general just new speech toward each one that is gracious seasoned and knowing

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If you're here today and you hear this message This is a message Paul gave to Christians if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ You have absolutely no hope at all in accomplishing this you can't do it because you have no hope at all

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I would encourage you Instead of attempting to apply this to your life Trust in Christ as your

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Lord and Savior if you want to know which Christ go back and read chapter 1 verse 15 and following That's the

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Christ. We believe in the eternal one the one who became man God became man and died on a cross to pay the eternal penalty for the sins of all who would believe in him

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You're not a Christian believe in Jesus Christ turn from your sins and trust him for your salvation

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Let's pray our father. We do.

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Thank you for your word today We know that we are dependent upon you to apply it to our hearts and minds.

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We pray father that Even now if there is one who does not know you that you would be drawing them to yourself through faith in Jesus Christ That they may come to know you and love you as we do and we just thank you for our time in your word today

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Our time of worship and fellowship and we know that it is possible through Jesus Christ our