The New Speech of the New Man (Col 4:2-6) | Worship Service

Good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Community Church.

Would you please stand with us as we sing this morning, Oh, Worship the King. Worship the

King, all glorious above, and gratefully sing his wonderful love.

Our shield and defender, the ancient of days, pavilion dense, splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy spades, his chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

Bountiful care, what tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light.

It streams from the hills, and descends to the plains, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

In children of dust, and feeble as grail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail.

Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.

All hail to the King, in splendor enthroned, glad praises we bring, thy wonders make known.

Returning victorious, great conqueror of sin,

King Jesus, all glorious, your victory we'll win.

O four thousand tongues to sing my great

Redeemer's praise, the glories of my

God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.

He's thus the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease.

Tis music in the sinner's ears, tis life and health and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free.

His blood can make the foulest flee, his blood availed for me.

He speaks enlisting to his voice, till life the dead receive.

The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.

Praise to God and praise and love be ever, ever given, by saints below and saints above, the church and earth and heaven.

O four thousand tongues to sing my great

Redeemer's praise, the glories of my

God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

Psalm 119 verses 129 through 132. Your testimonies were wonderful, therefore my soul observes them.

The unfolding of your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for your commandments.

Turn to me and be gracious to me, according to your judgment, for those who love your name. Let's sing

Psalm 119, your words are wonderful. Words are wonderful, unfolding like the dawn.

A wellspring and a rock we rest upon.

We trust your promises that keep our hope alive.

They steady us throughout life's weary call.

Where else can we go, where else can we go?

You have the words of life, the words of life.

Light your holy truth upon our longing hearts.

And strengthen us to shine against the dark.

Lord, guard us from the lies, the enemy will speak.

No guilt remains for those you have redeemed.

Where else can we go, where else can we go?

You have the words of life, the words of life.

Make your glory known, make your glory known through words of life.

Give us ears to hear and eyes to see.

Help us in our doubt and unbelief.

Give us ears to hear and eyes to see.

Help us in our doubt and unbelief.

Give us ears to hear and eyes to see.

Help us in our doubt and unbelief.

Where else can we go, where else can we go?

You have the words of life, the words of life.

Make your glory known, make your glory known through all your words of life.

Your words of life. You may be seated.

Welcome to Kootenai Church. A few announcements, one similar to last week.

Jim's not here today, and I'm not preaching. Both those things are true again today. We have quite a crowd today.

The word must have got out, Jeff. Did you put that on Facebook or something? I do have one announcement for next week.

October 1st, there'll be a baptism class. Cornell taught on baptism last week, and that's part of our series leading up to the baptism service on the 22nd.

So we had that message last week. We'll have the class next week after church on the 1st.

I think that's next week. If you are someone who desires to follow the Lord and believes baptism, then the 22nd will be that service that's held here.

Our scripture reading is going to be in Ephesians. We'll start with chapter 4, verse 17, and we'll read to chapter 5, verse 21.

I'll let you know that there is an outline in your bulletin that you can take some notes on when

Jeff is preaching. Ephesians 4, 17. Now this I say and testify in the

Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy, to practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learn Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let's pray together. Father, we are grateful for this word, for this challenging word, and we pray for Jeff as he brings another similar passage to us today that we would be challenged to live in the newness of life that we claim in Christ.

Lord, we are here to worship. We pray that we would worship you from our hearts, we would sing to you from our hearts, we would listen well to the word as it's preached, and make that application,

Lord, in Jesus' name. Would you please stand?

Take my life and let it be consecrated,

Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful to Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing, always, only for my

King, always, only for my

King. Take my silver and my gold, my blood

I withhold. Take my moments and mine in ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my wicked thine, it shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be

Thy royal throne, it shall be

Thy royal throne. Ephesians 2, 1 -5

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the

Spirit is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

Let's end our worship this morning by singing, Oh Great God. Oh Great God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly and supreme, conquer every rebel power.

Let no vice or sin remain that resists

Your holy war. You have loved and purchased me, make me

Yours forevermore. I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear

Your voice. Did not know Your love within, had no taste for heaven's joys.

Then Your Spirit gave me life, opened up Your Word to me.

Through the gospel of Your Son, gave me endless hope and peace.

You live a life that's dependent on Your grace.

Keep my heart and guard my soul from the evils that I face.

You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and highest heaven.

You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and highest heaven.

Glorify Your name. You may be seated.

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

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.

I'm going to shut the glock drawer here. There we go. So I 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. It's at the end of this wonderful little letter by the

Apostle Paul and in a very practical section. 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. So before we open God's Word, let's commit our time to our Lord and ask His blessing on it.

Our Father, we know that we are dependent on You for all things by Your grace.

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. 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. 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 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, it might be worthwhile to spend a little time sort of setting this up with a little bit of background.

Because when the 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

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

The Colossians were in the Lycus Valley, which was about 125 miles inland from the city of Ephesus, in what is now western

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

Lycus Valley is over 900 linear miles. So you can imagine how difficult it would have been for Epaphras, 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 thanks God for the Colossian Christians. And then as he gets down to verse 7, he's talking about the gospel.

And he says, 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 sort of form a little triangle there in the Lycus Valley of what is now western

Turkey. He also had to travel all the way from there to Rome to visit

Paul to talk to him about what was going on in that church. And so he says in verse 8, speaking about their trust in Christ and the establishment of that church, he says,

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

Paul because Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. And this is Gentile country. These were

Gentile churches. He was an effective communicator. And so all that distance he traveled in order to talk to Paul about a terrible problem that was going on in that church.

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, 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

Colossian Fellowship. At the end of that letter, Paul mentions Epaphras. He says, So Epaphras was probably also jailed at the same time

Paul was. And we also have a little indicator of that at the end of this letter.

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

He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the 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 Onesimus. Now Onesimus was the slave that had left

Colossae and his master Philemon. And so there's that connection there.

Onesimus is also with Paul. He's sending both of them back. Now, if Epaphras, who is with him, who came from Colossae, was the one who planted that church and who brought

Paul news of this heresy, it 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. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

So Paul's connection with the Colossian Christians was not because he had planted that church and had direct ministry with them, but it came through the information he had received from this man, this faithful servant of the

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

Now, Paul had ministered in Ephesus, which is about 125 miles to the west of the

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

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

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

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

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 things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything 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.

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

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

Lord Jesus Christ and his lordship. Well, scholars have long debated the exact nature of what they call the

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

Paul responds to it. And so it is thought by that first response of Paul about the sovereignty of God and Jesus Christ over all things that it was probably a mixture of things.

One scholar who calls it the 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.

Each group brings in a little of this and a little of that from their religious beliefs and drops them into the kettle, stirs in hopes that they all blend well and that the stew is tasty to the eater.

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

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,

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, maybe their traditions or their ancestor worship or some pseudo -Christian religious system.

What they fail to realize, these people who do that, and it's probably because nobody tells them, is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign

Lord and that lordship is not shared with anything or anyone.

He has the right to demand exclusive worship and will not share his glory with another.

And any addition, 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 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, okay? Some theologians call this cosmic

Christology because it's a statement of the absolute 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 Greek philosophy that had been mixed in with the gospel. And knowledge, probably a reference to the early

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.

Verse 4 of chapter 2, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

Plausible means persuasive or enticing. Whenever someone follows after man -made extra -biblical religious systems, no matter how good they sound, how plausible or enticing, they are being deluded.

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

And then Paul sums up this entire section on false teaching by gathering up all of these false teachings 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.

But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. External, extra -biblical, man -made religious ritual cannot accomplish internal spiritual reality.

And it doesn't matter how good it sounds, how good it looks, how wonderful it is and everything, and it's going to sound wonderful because it has to be appealing to the flesh.

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

External religious ritual cannot accomplish internal spiritual reality. As he moves into chapter 3,

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 externally.

Our new walk, as it says. And he even practically applies it to every area of life.

Why? Because Christ is sovereign over every area of life, including all relationships.

And so he deals with relationships at the end of chapter 3. Wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, masters, every area, every relationship is impacted by the new life of the new man.

And so as we arrive at chapter 4 and our passage that we're going to look at this morning, what we're going to see is

Paul basically focusing in on the new speech of the new man. This is an area of the spiritual life that's very important.

It's very critical. And it's very interesting. 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 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, he says,

Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the

Lord. The language of the new person in Christ, the person who is spirit -filled, is 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, singing 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. 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 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, 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, 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. 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 1, verse 9, 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, or in the book of Acts, of those gathered in the upper room after the ascension of Jesus Christ while they waited for the

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 heard the gospel and were saved and responded and were baptized, and you have to understand, at that point in time, 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 apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

If you want to know what the filling of the Spirit looks like, it's not some sense -oriented, whizzy experience.

It looks like this. 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, importunate praying.

You may have seen that along the way. In fact, Jesus, in Luke chapter 11, you don't have to turn there.

You might look that up sometime. He tells the parable about the 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. This man was persistent in his asking. Jesus taught that parable in response to the disciples asking him, teach us to pray.

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

One commentator defines it this way. This kind of praying may seem selfish and perhaps childish, but it really isn't because it is prayer in the will of God and is usually for others instead of self.

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

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

God persistently and urgently seeks us out, speaks to us, and constantly seeks to help us and love us,

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

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

Holy Spirit does. I follow after his prayers. I pray after his desire and heart.

True importunate prayer, then, is prayer that is drawn by God and that follows after God.

It is prayer that is aroused and energized by the 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.

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

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

He is not. You don't bother him when you press your prayers and when you repeatedly pray, when you're persistent in your praying.

God longs to hear from his children. He does. You don't have to make an appointment.

You're not bothering him if you 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 persistent.

Another thing Paul says, while we're being persistent, we ought to also be watchful, he says.

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

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. In fact, Peter uses this word in the context of warning his

Christian readers in 1 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.

Now, if you were given nighttime guard duty and they put you out on the perimeter at night and they said, stay awake, be watchful, be alert.

Oh, and by the way, out there is a lion prowling around seeking someone to devour. 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 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, right? To anticipate the coming of Christ, knowing that it is imminent, should change how we live our lives.

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

Paul adds the ingredient that he is so well -known for, be thankful. It's fundamental to our new life in Christ.

The prayer that new man is to be saturated with gratitude toward God expressed in prayer.

Paul was not only the apostle to the Gentiles, and he was, I think he should also be called the apostle of thanksgiving, because he was that as well.

Even back in Colossians 1, he doesn't get too far into this letter before he says this in verse 3, we always thank

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you. And even in chapter 1 again, verse 11 and 12, may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the

Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Before Paul commands these

Colossian Christians to pray, he models it for them by praying for them. And again, chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, he's thankful all the way through this letter.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the 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, he says this, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Paul was continually thanking God for the people he ministered to and telling those folks that he was thanking

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

God for them. He says, And in the first chapter of his letter to the

Ephesian Christians, Paul is true to form when he says in verses 15 and 16, That same combination of fervent or persistent prayer for his readers overflowing with gratitude to God is found in his letter to the

Philippians. Don't know how many more ways

Paul could say that, right? And to the Thessalonian Christians who were also well aware of Paul's grateful intercession for them when he wrote this in his first letter to them.

And even in his second letter to that same congregation. You know, he thanked God for them in the first one, but that wasn't enough for Paul.

In the second letter, he says,

When he wrote his letter to Philemon, who was part of the

Colossian Fellowship, Paul wrote this, And even in his very last letter written during his second imprisonment and his last, because he was going to be executed, he knew he was going to die.

He tells Timothy that in 2 Timothy. Get the picture?

Paul was a prayer warrior, and on the top of his list was prayer on behalf of those he was ministering to, and on the top of that list was gratitude.

Gratitude. Thankfulness to God. Paul wrote 24 % of the New Testament. 24%.

When you look at the word group that includes the word thanksgiving, thankfulness, and giving thanks, collect all that together, in the entire

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

Apostle Paul. Paul was a thanksgiving machine who understood that new life in Christ should produce a new walk.

And that new walk is 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, 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 hallmark of apostate unbelief.

Listen to what he says to the Romans. Romans chapter 1. For although they knew

God, apostasy always starts with some knowledge of God that is rejected. For although they knew

God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

New life in Christ should be manifested, is manifested, by continuous prayer through an alert mind that is saturated with thanksgiving to God.

And that new speech should also be purposeful. This is D on your outline there to Romans 1. Now there's nothing wrong with general prayers, you know.

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

We might even say targeted. This is verses 3 and 4. Paul says,

At the same time, while you're continually, steadfastly praying, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the ministry of Christ on account of which

I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

This is the apostle Paul, but he's not too proud to enlist prayer for his own ministry.

Prayer to God by the Colossian Christians. Paul prays for them, he's setting the model, and then he enlists their prayer for himself.

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

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, 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. He understands the sovereignty of God.

He also understands that the sovereignty of God encompasses the means by which

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

I tell you, you and I are going to hear about prayer a lot as evangelicals. We hear it probably hundreds and hundreds of times, right?

The importance of prayer. You'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 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, of course, God has given his great covenant to Abraham in chapter 12.

And that is a 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. One of the promises given in that covenant is that he was going to have progeny.

He's going to have children, right? Isaac is the answer to that. Well, when we get to chapter 25,

Isaac, it focuses in on Isaac and 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, it says, And Isaac was 40 years old when he took

Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean, of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban, the

Aramean, to be his wife. Verse 21, And Isaac prayed to the

Lord for his wife because she was barren. Now, somebody might say, wait a minute, you have a promise of children.

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 accomplishes his sovereign purposes, and one of those is the prayer of his people.

And so the answer to that, it says, He prayed for his wife because she was barren, and the

Lord granted his prayer and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. God accomplishes his sovereign purposes through the prayers of his people.

And so Paul has no problem at all. In fact, it's vital to his ministry to enlist the prayers of the

Colossian Christians for him. And it's so unselfish, so unselfish. Pray for us, he says, that God may open to us a door.

I mean, Timothy was with him and others were with him. Epaphras is there with him. And he also prays for what door to come open.

Now, if it was me, 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. 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 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, that I may make it clear which is how

I ought to speak. He doesn't say, well, 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.

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

Paul wants to do is that the door would come open for the Word of God and that I may make it 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 naturally moves him into Roman Numeral 2 because if he wants to make it clear, you know that he's thinking about those outside the church.

And so we arrive at Roman Numeral 2, New Speech Toward Outsiders, Our Witness.

And he says in verse 5, Walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time.

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

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

For the Apostle Paul, he can't separate the walk and the word. You've heard that, right? We need our word, our walk needs to match our word.

That's what Paul is concerned about here. In other words, he's saying act wisely, live wisely, or to use

Paul's metaphor, walk wisely before outsiders. To walk in wisdom is to live life according to biblical wisdom.

New Testament scholar and commentator Douglas Moo has a very good word on this. 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, 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 values should be put into effect.

Wisdom is in between thought and action. When I read that, I thought, yeah,

I can remember when I was in high school, about 16, 17 years old, the distance between thought and action wasn't very much.

All the men are laughing. What 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.

I heard a lot, Jeff, consider the consequences. Jeff, think before you act. Of course, when you're 15, 16, 17 year old young man, easier said than done.

But that's what he's talking about. And the same thing is true in our walk with Jesus Christ. A new mind, a renewed mind, we need to employ wisdom in order to know how to walk before the world.

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

Greek word for marketplace or to buy. So to buy out of, and it carries with it the idea of a strategic use of time at a strategic point in time.

Now the context, of course, is our witness to the outside world. 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, 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, Roman numeral three, new speech toward each one.

Very general concept, but so important. He says in verse six, 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? If 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, 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 believer's life for abusive speech to those in the church or to those outside the church.

It's an amazing thing. I mean, I've seen videos of people who are supposedly going out and 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.

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

Now this one is very important. What he says here is walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.

Now with this one, we have to start out with what it is not. Seasoned with salt is not salty speech, as we say in our language.

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

That's not what he's talking about. It's an amazing thing that in recent years, it's become kind of fashionable in certain evangelical circles for some of the, and they are some of the younger guys, to use foul language, four letter words, and even some graphic sexual references in their evangelism, but also from the pulpit.

Maybe they never read 1 Timothy 4, 12. 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, Titus, who was ministering on the island of Crete, the older man,

Paul said this, Titus 2, 7 and 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, so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

Sound speech, he says. That's the word, the Greek word there is hygienos, one of the forms that it takes is hygienos, we transliterate that into English, and we get the word hygiene from it.

Let your speech be hygienic, not contaminated, not filthy, not dirty, and both of these passages are to younger men.

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

The Christian should wisely suit his or her speech to each situation.

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

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

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

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, but if you are disrespectful, if you're not gracious to them, you've accomplished absolutely nothing.

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

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, 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.

Amen. 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.

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.

I would encourage you, instead of attempting to apply this to your life, trust in Christ as your

Lord and Savior. If you want to know which Christ, go back and read chapter 1, verse 15 and following.

That's the 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.

If you're not a Christian, believe in Jesus Christ. Turn from your sins and trust Him for your salvation.

Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank You for Your Word today.

We know that we are dependent upon You to apply it to our hearts and minds. 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, our time of worship and fellowship.

We know that it is possible through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we ask it all in His name. Amen. Please stand.

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.

I'd rather be His than have riches untold.

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.

I'd rather be led by His nail -pierced hands than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in centrist sway.

I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world has brought today.

Than Jesus than man's applause.

I'd rather be faithful to His dear cause.

I'd rather to His holy name than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in centrist sway.

I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world has brought today.

He's fairer than lilies or fragrance blue.

He's sweeter than honey from the juice all that I long for.

He's fair at ease. I'd rather have

Jesus than let Him be than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in centrist sway.

I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world has brought today.

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.