The Country Church Bourbon Indiana

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Text: Colossians 4:2-6
Theme: Talking to God and Talking to People

Verses 2-4
In just a couple weeks we will begin a series on prayer, but here we are with some biblical teaching on prayer already. In three verses we’re given four things that we should be doing in our prayers.

First, it says that we are to “continue steadfastly in prayer.” “Continue steadfastly” is actually one word in Greek, προσκαρτερέω, and it means “to be intently engaged in, attend constantly to, or to remain constantly in a place.” So this commandment means basically the same thing as the one to “pray without ceasing” that is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Now, if you think you have arrived and are the perfect Christian, consider this commandment to be praying constantly. I’ve never met a person who maintained a constant state of prayer. Just because I haven’t met someone who manages it consistently doesn’t mean it isn’t possible, it just means it is at least uncommon. But in fact, I do believe that it is possible to do this.

How is such a thing possible? After all, we have a lot of things going on each day. Not many people have the luxury of the kind of free time that you would think it would take to do this. It’s certainly not possible to lock yourself in a closet all day and not biblical either.
So how is it possible?
Well, I believe it is accomplished through changing your thinking patterns. We are thinking all day – or almost all day. The content of those thoughts might be to make plans for the future, reflect upon the past, concentrate on your current task, have a song run through your head, plan out what you want to say next, and so on. To pray without ceasing is to think those thoughts in reference to the Lord. So the thought: “What should I do next?” becomes “What should I do next, Lord?” As you consider the past, depending upon what the memory is, you might ask the Lord “now how could I have done that differently?” Or you might give a quick prayer of thanks for that nice event in your life.

If the song running through your head is a worship and praise song, you be attentive to actually sing it to the Lord. If it’s a secular song or just an instrumental song, you might take a moment to give thanks for beautiful music as you think about the song.

If your thoughts are thoughts of worry, you transform them into prayer requests for the thing that you are nervous about.

There’s nothing about any of that which is impossible. It takes concerted intentionality for a long time to turn it into a habit, but it is certainly very possible. You might think you wouldn’t ever be able to do this, but like most things it takes practice. A person doesn’t become a NASCAR driver overnight; they don’t receive a doctorate overnight – even an honorary doctorate takes some kind of accomplishment; they have to be worked at.

But this is even more attainable than those things. For many people, a doctorate and especially being a NASCAR driver might never be attainable. But you could start to pray without ceasing tomorrow. It’ll take a lot longer than that to make it into a habit. But you could at least make a good start towards it.

I say work towards it. It’s a biblical commandment to do it anyway. Even if you should find yourself falling short of that, even far short of that, at the very least you will be praying more often – and that’s certainly not a bad thing! More thankfulness, more releasing your worries and burdens through prayer, a closer walk with God – those are good things.

So, first, we should be continuing steadfastly in prayer. The second command given is to be “watchful” in prayer. This one means to be attentive and vigilant. It is an exhortation to be aware of your surroundings, aware of the times, knowledgeable about things you should be praying for. It goes hand in hand with continuing steadfastly in prayer, really.
The two commands together basically describe a lifestyle where you go about your life and actively notice things to be praying about. Instead of flying through an emergency and then later thinking “I probably should have prayed there,” or a friend tells you a problem and you think “I probably should have prayed for them,” you are watching out and ready to pray when things come up.

Actually, being watchful in prayer tells us that continuing steadfastly in prayer does not mean locking yourself in a closet all day – because you can’t be watchful if you never go outside your home. How can you be aware of what to pray for in life if you aren’t living your life?

And so we should be watchful in prayer. Third, our prayers are to be marked with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is positive gratitude to God. Without gratitude incorporated into your prayer life, your prayer life will probably look a lot more like complaining and demanding. Prayer is not just asking for things, but giving thanks when you receive things and being glad for what you already have. And thanksgiving is necessary for a healthy life – spiritually and physically. Without gratitude for what you already have and what you receive, life basically devolves into a greedy pity party – what misery both for our spiritual and emotional life! God isn’t going to be pleased and neither will you be.

Thanksgiving is out of fashion but it is so good. Life is simply too short to waste it all wanting and seeking. Take time to slow down and enjoy what you have and give thanks to the good God who gave the things to you.

After thanksgiving, one more command is given about prayer and while this is specific to the Colossians there is a principle for us as well. Paul tells them to pray for “us.” “Us” is Paul and Timothy. I know that from Colossians 1:1 where Paul says Timothy is with him. He asks that they would be praying for opportunities to share the Gospel with others.

You can easily imagine how this worked. Paul is in prison. Timothy is visiting. People ask Paul, “so what are you in for?” Or they ask Timothy “why are you visiting Paul?” And so they say “Paul is in prison for his testimony regarding the Gospel of God that Jesus is the Savior who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again three days later.” Paul wants them to pray for more opportunities like this, and is especially asking that they would pray he would be able to make the Gospel presentation clear.

Of course, we can’t pray for Paul and Timothy anymore or at least there is no reason to, but we can pray for our missionaries and we can pray for the persecuted church. If you want to be in prayer for our missionaries, we have several things available to you to help with that. There is a mission’s board out back by the stairwell, top right hand wall, where you will see posted letters and updates and cards from our various missionaries. Take some time every now and then to check that board out to see prayer requests from our missionaries.

You will also find on that board that a lot of missionaries include their email addresses on there. You could contact them to sign up for their updates. Most missionaries give updates via email once a month or so and have prayer requests. When we have missionary visitors, they always bring cards with them that have their picture and contact info, so next time missionaries come through you can grab a card.

And pretty often in our church bulletins you will find notes on things to pray for, for our missionaries. We have a big one this week!

For praying for the persecuted church, that’s as simple as going online and doing a google search for persecuted church. You will be shocked and your heart broken by how common and serious this problem is throughout the world. Living comfortable as we do in America, it is easy to not realize that persecution is very real. Furthermore for reasons that I think are, frankly, disturbing and sinister – the media in America largely ignores this problem.

But, there are many websites and organizations devoted to helping them and praying for them. The biggest one I know of is called “Voice of the Martyrs” and they have all kinds of free resources that can help you to pray for the persecuted church.

*Friend Jae-Jin in China*
Link: *Talking with God and Talking with People*

Verses 5-6
“Making the best use of the time” is modifying “walk in wisdom toward outsiders.” The sentence means that we are to act in a wise way and make good use of our time while we are with non-Christians. Of course, we should be acting wisely and making the best use of the time in all circumstances, but this verse is talking about while being around non-Christians specifically.
Walking in wisdom and making the best use of the time are enormous topics, but this verse narrows it down a bit more specifically to our time with people who are not Christians.

The next verse has to do with our conversations with people who are not Christians. When you are talking with someone who is not a Christian, you are told to let your speech always be gracious, and seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

So, verse 5 is about what you do while around people who are not Christians. And verse 6 is about what you say while you are around people who are not Christians.

In both of these things, I believe Paul has the goal of evangelism in mind. Remember – just before this, he asked specifically for prayer that he would have good opportunities to witness to people. And that they would specifically pray he would be able to communicate clearly. Now he is telling them how they ought to act and talk toward outsiders.

With that evangelistic goal in mind, walking in wisdom and making the best use of your time has to do with things like your testimony, with godly conduct, not making yourself look foolish. You’ve probably heard the phrase before “lifestyle evangelism.” The two people who were most instrumental in leading me to the Lord both demonstrated wise living before me. I looked up to both of them. They made godly choices. They were kind people. They were strong people. They didn’t do stupid things. They were unquestionably Christian and were not at all ashamed to be Christian. They made Christianity look like a wise and good thing.

The kind of lifestyle you lead and wisdom you display can either give your words great weight or make them quickly disregarded. People are much more likely to listen to foolishness from a wise person than they are wisdom from a foolish person. In the same way, it is usually very easy to overlook faults in someone that you like, and you tend to see all the faults in someone you are upset with. That’s just how it is. So walking in wisdom toward outsiders is very important if we desire to see them come to know Jesus.

Likewise, it’s also very important how we talk to people who are not Christians. Graciousness in speech – better known to us today as courteous speech – makes a big difference. You know, I am not saying that it can’t happen, but I have never seen someone won to Christ by a heated argument. Or by being made a fool of. Or by a debate.
The result of ungracious speech tends to be that the person you are talking to stops liking you. And if they don’t like you, they become much more likely to dislike the message that you wish to convey to them. That’s quite a tragedy if someone rejects something that is good and true because a person has acted toward them in a way that is not good and true. I can think of few things worse than being the reason that someone doesn’t want to trust in Jesus for salvation. I can think of few things more convicting or frightening than appearing before Jesus and hearing “This person and this person didn’t want to come to me because you were ungracious to them.”
And so we are told to always be gracious. Not just sometimes, but always.

Seasoned with salt has to do with including truth in your communications. When Jesus famously said to His disciples “You are the salt of the world,” He was talking about the most powerful preservative known to mankind at the time. Salt helps to keep things from rotting. Transferring that over into spirituality, Christians are meant to help keep the world from rotting. As we all know, the rot in the world is sin and sin is a departure from God’s truth into lies.

So speech seasoned with salt is speech that includes God’s truth in there. Maybe to talk about what the real definition of love is. Maybe to talk about what a particular sin is and why it’s a problem. Maybe to point out the joy of thankfulness. Maybe to share how your life changed when you came to know Jesus.

Any true conversation is a two-way street, so whether the other person is asking questions or making statements, what you have to say is often in answer to whatever they have to say. Having wisdom, being gracious, having salted speech all go towards helping us give each person the appropriate answer in whatever situation or conversation we are having.

“Sound answers offered with a positive spirit overcome many obstacles to the gospel.” – Richard Melick

Conclusion: *Talking with God and Talking with People*