Colossians 4:2-6
We’re going to read some scriptures. This is five verses from Colossians chapter 4 as we kind of head toward the finish line of the book of Colossians. So, here’s what Paul wrote to that church.
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, and pray for us too that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.
Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Well, just a few personal notes before we jump into the Book of Colossians.
Most of you know that Dinah have eight grandchildren. Six of them are in Grand Rapids. And so, between our six grand kids in Grand Rapids and our two sons and daughters-in-law, there’s 10 birthdays in Grand Rapids.
So, we’re making frequent trips to birthdays. But three of our grandkids in Grand Rapids go to a wonderful Christian school called Dutton Christian School. And every year they have a Grandparents Day.
And so, the last like three years, we’ve gone to Grandparents Day and spent part of a day in the kids’ classroom. So, this year, Grandparents Day number one is on Wednesday. I was hoping Grandparents Day number two would be Thursday.
But Grandparents Day number two for, let’s see, who would that be for? Liam and Cameron is Friday. And then Aiden has a birthday on Saturday. And then there’s spring sports that they want us to watch on Saturday morning.
All that to say we’re going to be gone for a couple days for the end of the week. But you can be in touch with me by texting or phone calls. And so, we’ll go watch some soccer.
And by the way, Weston scored three goals yesterday. I know you want to know that, four-year-old Weston. So, congratulations to Weston.
We’ve got a little tradition. They call us after their sports on Saturday morning and kind of give us a report on how they did. So, we thoroughly enjoy that.
All right, we’re going to jump into Colossians chapter four. And we’re in the homestretch of the book of Colossians. So next Sunday we’ll finish Colossians.
Interesting, Paul closes by giving greetings to 10 different people. And we’re going to briefly examine the close of the book next Sunday. But this morning, closing reminders from the Apostle Paul.
So, as you know, the Apostle Paul is under house arrest in Rome. He’s awaiting trial from Caesar. And while he’s there, he’s able to receive guests.
He was there for two years, didn’t know if he was going to live or die, depending on how his trial came out. While he’s there, a fellow by the name of Epaphras travels 1,200 miles from Colossae to Rome to visit him. And the reason he did that is because Epaphras was pastoring the church at Colossae, Paul had never been there.
Paul had never been to the city of Colossae, but Epaphras established a church there. And he had some concerns. He was concerned about some false teachers that were trying to lead the church astray.
And so, Paul writes the book of Colossians in response to that and corrects some false doctrine and then writes this book to encourage those believers. It’s amazing how we live in the age of technology and communication because that was a 1,200-mile journey to go to Rome from Colossae. And then Paul writes this letter and sends it back and they have to travel 1,200 miles back to Colossae to get this message to them.
Today, we live in a day of instant communication and texting and emails. So, Paul gives some closing reminders and we’re going to look at four of them this morning from our text. And let’s look at the first one.
i. Devote yourselves to prayer
We just read it in our scripture reading. Here’s reminder number one. Paul says, devote yourself to prayer.
Devote yourself to prayer. The word devote, we could say a synonym is to commit, to make it a high priority, to dedicate yourselves to prayer. And Paul reminds the Colossian believers and in turn us the absolute necessity of prayer in our life.
That’s true all through scripture. It’s there by command where we’re commanded to pray over and over again. And it’s also there by the example of other people in the scripture.
Just a few verses that illustrate the command to pray. Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, we’re familiar with that text. The armor of God, Paul concludes in verse 18, and pray in the spirit on all kinds of, with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Paul reminds the Ephesian believers, hey, you need to be praying. And you need to be praying for God’s people as well and be praying for the church and fellow believers.
Philippians 4:6, and 7, some of my favorite verses in the Bible that I need to practice probably daily. Be anxious for nothing. It’s an imperative.
Stop worrying. Oh, okay. What are we to do? But in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
The paraphrase is, don’t worry about anything. Pray about everything. And then here’s the promise when we do that.
And the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That’s our emotions and our thoughts. Over and over again, we’re told to pray.
First Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. Doesn’t mean that we pray 24-7. It just means make prayer a regular, constant part of your everyday life.
You might say, well, who do I pray for? Paul writing to Timothy, I urge, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. Pray for everybody. But then he goes on to say, for kings and all those in authority, pray for your leaders.
Pray for our president. Pray for our governor. Pray for our local leaders.
Pray for our church leaders. We need to make prayer a regular part of our lives. That’s not only by command, but we see that all through Scripture.
The Old Testament, Nehemiah, who led the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days, he faced all kinds of opposition. And every time there was opposition in his life, you know what Nehemiah did? He prayed. First thing he did is he prayed.
So, Nehemiah was a man of prayer. Think about Daniel in the Old Testament. Daniel taking captive to Babylon a thousand miles from home when he was a teenager.
Now they passed this law that you’re not supposed to pray to anybody but the Nebuchadnezzar king and the Babylonian gods or you’re going to face some punishment. Daniel 6:10 says he did what he always did. He opened his windows and he prayed three times a day.
Now he paid for it. He ended up in, what, the lion’s den, but God protected him. And so, we see this all through the Bible.
The example of Jesus. Read the Gospels. What’s Jesus doing? He gets away by himself oftentimes and he prays.
If Jesus needed to pray, I think we need to pray on a regular basis. So, it’s all through the Scripture. We look at Paul’s letters and Paul’s epistles and it always starts out, almost every one of them, like, I am praying for you.
And so, the first reminder that Paul gives to the Colossian believers is that we need to pray. Now I like a very simple definition of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is talking to God.
It’s that simple, isn’t it? Prayer is talking to God. So, Christianity is a relationship. And how does that relationship grow? Well, the relationship grows because God speaks to us through his word and we speak to God through prayer.
And so, prayer is talking with God. We can do that any time of the day or night. That’s one of the good things about prayer, isn’t it? 24-7.
God’s never busy. He’s always there. He’s always listening.
He’s always ready. Don’t have to make an appointment. God is there.
And so, Paul says, devote yourself to prayer. Now he gives two characteristic adjectives to this thought about devoting ourselves to prayer. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
So, he says, we need to be alert. We need to be aware. We need to realize that as Christians, we have three enemies.
I hope you know who your three enemies are. The world. That’s the world system that is anti-God.
The flesh. Even though we’re a follower of Jesus, we still have sinful impulses. Paul talks about it in Romans 7. He says, the things I want to do, I don’t do.
The things I don’t want to do, I end up doing. Oh, wretched man that I am. That’s Paul and his battle against the flesh.
And then the third enemy is the devil. That’s what Paul writes about in Ephesians 6:10. So we need to be alert and aware as we pray. One of the things that I find that I need in my life every day is a prayer for wisdom.
James 1 says, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously. And what you discover as you get further along in life is that we need God’s wisdom in our life, in how we live our lives, in parenting, in grandparenting, in our occupation, and how we handle our finances, in our marriage relationship. We need wisdom.
And God gives us wisdom. A lot of it’s found in his word. There’s also wisdom found, the Bible says, in godly counsel, that we look to godly counsel to help us navigate life’s challenges.
ii. Pray for the advancement of the gospel
And so, the Apostle Paul reminds the Colossian believers and to us that we need to devote ourselves to prayer. Here’s a second reminder, not only to remember to make prayer an essential part of our life, but let me read verses three and four. And pray for us too that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.
Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. So, Paul asked prayer for himself. That’s something that I’m learning to do because I’m usually the one that’s praying for other people, but I also have recognized that I need to learn to humble myself to ask for prayer for other people.
Having said that, I hope you pray for me as your pastor and wisdom that I need in my life and in our church life. And so, Paul says pray for us. Now who’s us? Well, I think it’s Paul and Timothy.
You go back to the first part of Colossians and Paul introduces the book by saying Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. So, it’s Paul and it’s Timothy and Paul says to the Colossian church, would you pray for us? Would you pray for us? Now here’s what strikes me when I look at Paul’s prayer and look at this request. You know what Paul doesn’t ask for? Where’s Paul? He’s in prison.
Paul’s under house arrest. If that was me, you know what I’d be asking? Hey would you pray that I would be released from this prison and this unjust imprisonment in my life? He doesn’t even mention that. He doesn’t say, hey would you pray that I get my get out of jail card? No.
What’s Paul praying for? What’s the foremost thought in his mind? What is his passion? What is his goal? Well, we just read it. Here’s reminder number two for all of us that we need to pray for the advancement of the gospel. That’s what Paul’s asking for.
Notice again, pray that God may open a door for our message. Open a door for our message. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.
So, what’s Paul praying for or asking for? Would you pray that I will have an open door, an opportunity to share the good news of the gospel with other people? And would you pray that I will explain that and proclaim the gospel clearly? Would you pray for that? Evangelist Ron Hutchcraft says this, that we need to talk to God about people before we talk to people about God. In other words, we need to pray and when we’re getting ready to share the gospel and these open doors, talk to God about people. And when you’re praying for an open door and an opportunity, guess what? It’s on your radar screen.
And now you’re looking for maybe an open door, an opportunity to share Jesus with somebody. If you’re not praying that, those opportunities slip right by. How many times have I reflected back on a conversation in my life and I’m replaying the conversation, man, I had an open door.
I could have shared; I should have shared something with them. And I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t, it wasn’t on my radar screen. And so, Paul’s praying for the advancement of the gospel.
And he says, pray that I might proclaim it clearly. The simplicity of the gospel message. Jesus says, unless you become like little children, you won’t enter the kingdom of God.
What does he mean by that? You have to have childlike faith. Just as a child has childlike faith. Years ago, when I was in, we were in seminary, I worked for a fellow who had been in the pastorate.
He pastored a church in Ohio and then he felt like he needed more education. So, he went back to seminary. And so, he’s a little older than Diane and I were.
Louie Konopka. And Louie pastored a church in Rockford, Michigan that started out the size of our church and grew to about 2,000 people. God used him in a tremendous, tremendous way.
But I remember being there with Louie and Mona Konopka and Louie used to set three-year-old Adam on top of their refrigerator. And he’d stand there and he’d say, jump. What’d Adam do? He jumped.
Why? Because he knew his dad was going to catch him. And so childlike faith, the simplicity of the gospel. Admit your sinner that God is holy and therefore how good do you have to be to get into heaven? You have to be perfect.
And so, none of us are perfect. And so, we all fall short of God’s perfect standard. So, what’s the solution? Well, the B stands for believe.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s Acts 16:31. What does that word believe mean? It means to understand who Jesus is, that he is who he claimed to be, that he’s the son of God.
And then to believe that what he’s done. That when he died on the cross, he took our place, paid our sin debt on the cross through his death, burial, and resurrection. And we put our whole trust in him.
And the C stands for confess. Romans 10:9 and 10. Thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.
You will be saved. And so, it’s a turning from our sin and our dependence upon ourself to putting our full trust in Jesus and Jesus alone. That’s the gospel.
2nd Corinthians 5:21. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him, when we put our trust in him, we become the righteousness of God. Christ’s perfection gets credited to our account.
And when we stand before God, he sees us just as if we’ve never sinned because of what Christ has done for us. And that’s why we gather here every Sunday to worship and praise him for what he has done. And so, the Apostle Paul reminder number two is to pray for the advancement of the gospel.
iii. Live wisely towards unbelievers
Here’s the here’s the third one. And it’s found in verse five. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders making the most of every opportunity.
So, here’s reminder number three. Live wisely toward unbelievers. That’s what that word outsiders means.
He’s referring to people who don’t know Jesus yet. And so, he’s talking about the way we live, that our life needs to be an exemplary life before an unbelieving world. This is why it’s so damaging when churches or Christian organizations go through, and unfortunately it happens a lot, goes through turmoil where Christians aren’t getting along, where they’re fighting with one another, where there’s church splits.
Because what’s that send a message to an unbelieving world? Well, they can’t even get along with each other. Well, why should I put a stock in following Jesus? And so, Paul reminds us that we need to live our lives wisely in front of an unbelieving world. The reason for that is, as some often say, you might be the only Jesus that other people see.
You might be the only exposure to Christianity and who Jesus is. And unbelievers need to see a distinctive nature of our lives. Usually, it’s shown through testing.
There’s no testimony without a test. And when we go through difficult times, whether it’s difficult relational times, whether it’s difficult financial times, difficult physical times, and we do that well, and we put our trust in God, all of a sudden that gets believers or unbelievers noticing, hey, there’s something different about this person. 1st Peter 3:15 says, always be ready to give an answer, an apologetic, to anybody who asks you for the hope that is in you.
I read that verse for years and I’m like, you know what? No one has ever come up to me and just said, hey, Ron, would you tell me about the hope that is in you, why you have that? But when you read it in context, First Peter’s written to Christians who are scattered because of persecution, and they are suffering, and they’re suffering well. And when you do that, then all of a sudden people like, man, how come you’re not like upset or how can you handle this? And that gives you then a door to share, not because I’m such a great person, it’s because of Jesus and who I know. And so live wisely toward unbelievers.
This helped me greatly, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, when I was listening to Bill Hybels on a sermon about evangelism. And he said, when you are dealing with unbelievers, think of this continuum, where over here, we’re going to mark negative 10. This is someone who is maybe an atheist, an agnostic, they are antagonistic toward the gospel.
The pulpit would be zero, someone that’s neutral toward the gospel, and then plus one to plus 10 is maybe a seeker, someone that’s interested, and maybe getting close to coming to know Jesus. And so, he said that, picture it like this, whenever you have this interaction with an unbeliever, it should result in, maybe they don’t come to know Christ, but maybe because of your kindness and your love and concern for them, now here’s a person that was negative six toward Christianity and the gospel. And after meeting you, they’re negative three.
In other words, you’re pushing them along that continuum. And hopefully then they eventually get to the point where they put their faith in Jesus. So how does that happen? That happens when we live with integrity and love and a godly life in front of an unbelieving world, because they are watching, especially if they know you’re a Christian, they’re watching you.
And no, no, no one’s going to be perfect, but we need to live with integrity. And so that was Paul’s third reminder. You need to live wisely in front of an unbelieving world.
iv. Let your speech be characterized by …
Now here’s the last one, and we’ll conclude with this, and it’s found in verse six. So, verse five talks about our life, verse six talks about our lips, what we say. And so there has to be integrity between those two.
And so, Paul concludes, let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. So, here’s the first word that should characterize our speech. It should be graceful, full of grace, unmerited, undeserved favor.
1. grace
And so, our speech should be gracious. God’s been gracious to us. We need to be gracious in our speech. And our speech, what, reflects our heart, doesn’t it? Luke chapter six, verse 45, for out of the mouth, for the mouth speaks from the heart what the heart is full of. So, what comes out of our lips is really what’s in our heart. And so, if we’re going to have gracious speech, we need to have a heart that is changed, that is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, and that our words then are gracious.
And so, in Ephesians four, when Paul talks about the transformation of our life, he talks about our speech, and he says, let your words be only that which is edifying to other people. In other words, our speech as a Christian should be exclusive in what? Building others up, building others up in our speech and encourage them. Man, our speech is powerful.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and we can tear each other down, or we can lift each other up. And so, our speech needs to be filled with grace. Even when Jesus confronted sin in people’s lives, he did it with grace, didn’t he? The woman caught in adultery, he ministers to her, doesn’t condemn her.
He says, I’m the Messiah, presents himself, and then he says, go sin no more. He offers grace and forgiveness. So, our speech should be characterized by grace.
I love the little acrostic, think before you speak. And this could have saved me a lot of pain in my life. But the acrostic is, ask yourself before you speak, is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? A lot of it’s not.
We like to hear ourselves talk. Is it kind? Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? And is it kind? Well, the second characteristic of our speech, then let your speech be characterized by grace.
2. saltiness
Then he says in verse six, seasoned with salt. So, we might think, well, salty speech. No, not that kind of salty speech. The kind of speech that makes other people thirsty for the gospel, thirsty to hear more.
And our lives and our lips should make other people thirsty for Jesus. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, verse 14, that familiar passage. Let me read it for you.
Matthew 5:14, you are the salt of the earth. He says, you’re the light of the world. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Live your life in such a way by your good deeds and by your speech that what you glorify God and point others to him. So, here’s the last one. Then our speech should be characterized by grace, by making people thirsty for Jesus.
3. readiness
But here’s the purpose so that you may know how to answer everyone. So, we’ll use the word readiness, the word readiness. I already referred to First Peter chapter three in this book and letter that was written to people that were suffering.
But let me kind of read a few more verses here because it fits in this context of being ready with our speech to what? To share Jesus, to share the gospel. So, who’s going to harm you if you are eager to do good? This is 1st Peter 3:13. But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Ever have that in your life? You did the right thing and you suffered for it? Jesus says if that happens, you’re blessed.
Blessed are those that persecute you for righteousness’ sake, he says earlier. So even if you suffer what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give you the reason for the hope that is in you. So, we need to be ready to share the gospel. Not that we know the answer to every question that everybody has.
There are many, many times in our life, probably more frequently than not, that I have to say, you know what, I’m going to look at that, pray about that, research that, and I’m going to get back to you. Because right now, I don’t know. Better to just be humble and honest than to try to bluff your way through.
Questions to consider
But we need to be ready to share the good news. So, foreclosure reminder, devote yourself to prayer, pray for the advancement of the gospel, live with integrity before unbelievers, and let your speech basically point others to Christ. So, here’s four quick questions as we conclude here this morning that we need to put out there.
1. how’s your prayer life?
Number one, how’s your prayer life? Devote yourselves to prayer. And I got to tell you this, if we don’t intentionally plan it, if you’re like me, it’s not going to happen. So put it on your planner, make it part of your schedule.
2. do I pray for open opportunities to share the gospel?
Yes, you can pray at any time, but we need that dedicated time to pray. And so, devote yourselves to prayer. Secondly, do I pray for open opportunities to share the gospel? Is that even on my radar screen? Maybe there’s somebody that’s in my sphere of influence that needs to know Jesus, and I need to be ready and willing to share the good news.
We sang about it earlier. I love to tell the story. How long has it been since you told the story? And pray for some of us in faith talks this afternoon, because that’s what we’re going to do this afternoon, a few of us.
3. do I know what the gospel is, can I clearly present it?
Share the story of other people. And so, am I praying for open doors, opportunities to share the gospel, and am I able to clearly present it? Do I know what the gospel is?
4. does my speech and my actions reflect Jesus?
Lastly, does my speech and my actions reflect Jesus? Is my life and the way I speak to other people attracting people to Jesus or pushing them away? And Paul says the way we live and the way we talk should be an aroma that draws people to the Savior.
And so, I just know that, you know, when you get any more than three people together, people are going through stuff. Everybody has stuff. And some people are willing to share it.
In other words, other people, it’s just so painful they don’t share it with anybody. But I want you to know that if you’ve got stuff on your plate, that we need to pray for one another and support one another in prayer.