What We Do With Grace

Well, firstly, does anyone know a band called Casting Crowns? Has anyone heard of that? Yep. Okay. It's actually a few.

It's one of my favourite Christian bands, and the reason I love them so much or enjoy their music so much is it feels like when you're listening to a song that it's almost a sermon in and of itself. You listen to it and it convicts you, it challenges you, it comforts you, all in the same one song. And this week, I felt that I was led to this particular song. Does anybody hear her? It's the title of the song. And it was just so hugely convicting to me again this week as the words of the chorus really struck me. It's about a young person and a young lady who has gone through a terrible time in her life and is just completely lost.

It begins with she's running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction. And this chorus challenges us as Christians about whether we really see this person and what we do about that. It challenges us in the sense that people see her scarlet leather, it says, and we judge her, but we haven't even met her. And so I was challenged again, what do we do with these people that we feel need to know the gospel, but we might feel uncomfortable with them. And John just prayed for us to, as we open God's word, to be amazed again at God's work in our lives.

But the question I was challenged with this week is, what do we do with that amazement of God's work in our lives? What do we do with it? Do we just come to church and are we just amazed and we go home again feeling good? What do we do with the gospel in our lives? This morning, I want us to look at Colossians.

And like I said, this all came about the same time, and I really feel that it's something that we need to look at as a church this week. Colossians 4:2-6. These are the final remarks of Paul as he writes to the church in Colossae, and he writes this in Colossians 4:2. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open the 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. It doesn't get any more practical than that.

And I want us to look at three points that Paul makes here for the church. And this is a church in Colossae, but it's just as much relevant to us today. The first point that Paul makes is a call to urgent prayer, an urgency in prayer. Devote yourselves to prayer, he starts. And that's the primary command that Paul gives, and it sort of feeds the entire passage there.

It means to persevere. To devote yourself to prayer means to persevere, to maintain vigilance, to not become lazy, to not become too busy with other things, or too tired. Keep up the habit. Don't forget it. Three or four weeks ago, we talked about prayer.

How are we doing with that? Keep up the habit. Don't forget it, Paul encourages the Christians. Make yourself that cup of coffee in the morning and do your prayers. Read your bible before bed and do your prayers.

Persevere. Don't give up. Devote yourself to it. Then he says, and be watchful. Now to be watchful means to remain fully aware.

To remain fully aware as a watchman on a guard tower scans the area. A few South Africans from the previous generation know what that guard tower duty was or was the worst thing to do, was the most boring because you had to be aware. Now while the Colossian church was to remain consistent in prayer, they were to be fully engaged with what was going on in their context. Prayer was to be for your own needs, but not only that, but for the needs of your family, of your friends, of your church, of your government, of your country, of the world. That's what it means to be watchful in prayer, to be consciously engaged with what's going on.

Within this context, however, it is to be specifically aware of the persecuted church, to know what's going on, what to pray for. Paul is writing this letter from a prison. He's in chains, he says, for Christ. So within this context, it's to be aware of the persecuted church and their needs. A prayer life that is simply for our own needs is too narrow.

It is too narrow. Powerful prayer lives are the ones that are intercessory. The ones that see the greatest things that can rejoice the most are the ones that pray for broad things, for things that are further than our own boundaries. If we want to witness the awe-inspiring power of our God, we must commit ourselves to intercessory prayer. And that means prayer on behalf of others.

That is what intercession is: on behalf of others, not merely for ourselves. Being watchful in prayer, as Paul puts it, means we keep our eyes on the needs of those around us. It means we pray for not merely ourselves, but for our church, for our government, for our world. We notice those needs and we pray accordingly.

Notice however what the attitude should be in those prayers. This is how he finishes it: and be thankful. Or a literal translation, with thanksgiving. So we pray for all these things with thanksgiving.

Now this is the challenge. When we see these needs, when we see the burdens, when we see the pain, when we see the suffering, and we pray for those people, we can often, through that sympathy, get really down. Oh, God. Why is this world in this state? Why is this situation so unjust?

The challenge is to do that with thanksgiving. Paul says, be thankful. Very practical. Spend more time thanking God for what he has given you rather than longing for what he hasn't. Spend more time thanking God for what he has given you, what he has given your family, what he has given us, what he has given the world.

I mean, John just mentioned the miracle of hearing. There's plenty out there to be thankful for. Spend more time thanking God for what he has given you rather than longing after what he hasn't. And I can guarantee you, not only will your prayer life be more positive if you have this habit, your life in general will be more positive. A healthy discipline is to have to begin your prayer.

This is just a practical thing. To begin your prayer with thanking God and listing those blessings, counting the blessings as the old people used to say. Before you come to telling God about your need or your request, tell God what you are thankful for and acknowledge His power in that. In that sense, you start worshipping God immediately. You start worshipping God for His grace, you acknowledge His love, you marvel at His power.

And then verse three continues, and Paul gets more specific to the Colossian Christians. Why devote yourself to intercessory prayer? So that you can pray for us too, he says. Asking that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Paul is asking for something specific in his intercessory prayer, and that is for evangelistic opportunities.

This is an evangelistic prayer. Imagine this: this is Paul writing in a prison block, in a prison cell, and he's asking for doors to be opened. But the doors to be opened aren't the physical ones that he's staring at day in, day out. The doors to be opened are the doors of the heart for the jailer, for the governor, for the inmates that he's with.

When Paul has witnessed and he has seen and he's been part of miraculous releases from prisons where doors have been flung open, but he's not praying for that. He's praying for the message to bear fruit, to fall on a soil that is ready for it. We also see how evangelism and God's sovereignty work together. We cannot, we cannot downplay this. We pray for God to open doors, and Paul says, so that we may proclaim the message.

Open doors, God, so that we may proclaim. God opens doors, we walk through them. We have to be obedient to preaching the gospel in this church, in our family, in our backyard, but we ask God for those opportunities. If you're sitting here and saying to yourself, but I don't know how to do that. I don't even know where to begin.

Well, you can pray for that too. You can pray for that too. Verse four says, pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Do you struggle to find the right words? Do you struggle with the logic, perhaps, of the gospel and how to put that together in a succinct, concise way?

Do you fumble around trying to express yourself? The answer is not to stop doing it, but to pray about it. Not to stop doing it, but to pray about it. Pray to the Lord and let him lead you. In this situation, both courage and clarity are needed.

Both courage and clarity are needed. What good is an open door if no one has the courage to go through it? What good is an open door if no one has the clarity to speak into a person's life? Therefore, the answer is, don't stop doing it, but pray. Pray and pray and pray.

So the first thing we see here in Paul's encouragement to the Christians in Colossae is about the centre of an evangelistic faith that is grounded upon prayer. It must start with prayer. The second thing that Paul moves on to is wise action. The second thing about evangelistic faith is that it requires us to be wise. God commands us to step out of our comfort zones, but to do something about a world that hasn't heard the gospel.

Verse five reads, be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. What does it mean to be wise to outsiders? What is Paul referring to here? Well, let's define wisdom.

Wisdom is knowledge or the use of knowledge rather to reach worthy goals. Wisdom is the use of knowledge to reach worthy goals. You can know a lot of things. You can be a PhD student and still be unwise. Wisdom is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom.

Having knowledge and using knowledge are very different. Wisdom is being able to take what you know and to use it for you to reach worthy goals. So wisdom has worthy goals in view. Now, having defined that, what is the goal of being wise towards outsiders? Well, short answer, wisdom has the goal of reaching others for Christ.

There are two remarkable texts in the Old Testament that connect wisdom with this worthy goal. Proverbs 11:30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls. He who is wise wins souls. The aim of wisdom is to win over the souls of those who reject the word of God, who reject His ways. Now within the context again of Proverbs, this is about wisdom that leads to life.

The wise brings the unrighteous over to the path of righteousness. So the goal of wisdom in Proverbs 11:30 is to win souls. That's literally how it says it. But then in Daniel 12:3, we see something a little bit in line with this as well. Daniel 12:3 says, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

And so the goal of the wise, the true goal of wisdom, is to lead people to righteousness, to that way that is in line with God's designated purpose for life. People make mistakes, that's unwise. Why? It's because they're not following God's way. And we know that there is a path of righteousness which is given to us in God's word.

Yet we know ultimately that we need Christ to convert our hearts so that we may yearn for righteousness, so that we may desire it, so that we may go after it. And so the goal, the ultimate goal of wisdom, is to bring people to Christ, to lead them to Christ. This is a very practical thing, and we stumble with it so often. Don't tell people how to change their sin. Don't tell people how to change their life because they don't love Christ.

They're not going to change that. They don't see that as unrighteousness. It's so easy for us to preach and to judge and to tell people that sex outside of marriage is wrong, homosexuality is wrong, abortion is wrong, they're not going to change anything if they haven't been led to Christ, if they don't know Jesus, if their hearts haven't been converted to seek and to yearn and to desire the righteousness of God. It's not going to change. Wisdom means bringing those people to Jesus so that Jesus can change their lives.

This is said in another way by Paul. Make the most of every opportunity. Be wise. Use every opportunity. The Greek literally puts it this way, buy up every opportunity.

Be wise in the way that you act towards the outsiders, buy up every opportunity. Now, I don't know about you, but I've witnessed some interesting things in my life. And one of them is to see a bunch of women around a bargain bin with new stock. It can get vicious. When there is new items in that bin, watch out, it's like a piranha frenzy.

Why? Because they are buying up the stock. They are buying up the opportunity of a bargain. Wise people will use the opportunities that God sends them, that they've prayed about, that God has responded to. Have you ever had a great opportunity to share the gospel and let it slip away thinking, oh, maybe it's not quite right.

And then afterwards, you kick yourself for not having taken it. Buy up every opportunity. That's how wise Christians should act. We don't need to sit back and ponder whether this is God's leading or not. You'll find out sooner or later.

Buy up every opportunity. Again, for us reformed people thinking about God's sovereignty, God's gonna have it sorted out. We just need to be obedient. You'll find out soon enough once you start sharing the gospel whether this is an opportunity that will lead somewhere or not. No more waiting for the perfect opportunity, just take it.

God sorts out the rest. An evangelistic faith begins with earnest and urgent prayer, but gets amongst it with responsive, wise action. And this leads us to the third and the final command that Paul makes to the Colossian Christians in verse six. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. A part of being wise as evangelistic Christians is being wise in how you speak.

Our conversations are to be full of grace, seasoned with salt. Grace, compassion, sympathy, understanding. When we share our faith, we need to know our place. This is so important. When we share our faith, we need to know our place.

We are simply sinners telling another sinner where to go to have their sin forgiven. That is humbling to realise. That is humbling to realise. There is no place for pride here. There's no place for self-righteousness.

There's no place for hypocrisy and unloving preaching. You don't have to have the answers. You don't have to know how to change their hearts. You don't even have to know what's going on to make them or to motivate them in what they're doing. All you need to know is that Jesus heals, that Jesus loves, that Jesus restores, that He forgives.

Notice that Paul also says, always. Always full of grace. Let your conversation be always full of grace. So whether I preach to a church or talk to my neighbour over the fence, whether conversing with an equal or replying to someone in authority, whether they are rich, they are poor, they are black, they are white, whether they are pretty or not, gracious speech is to be a habit in all situations. Paul qualifies this grace talk with a metaphor of salt.

Seasoned with salt, he says. In this context, salt has the qualities of purifying something. In those days, well, even today, bugs and germs and bacteria were killed by salt. We use salt to preserve meat with salt. But throughout the Bible, there are several other references for the effect of salt, and that's helpful here.

Job 6:6 says that salt enhances flavour. Numbers 18:19 says salt symbolises the keeping or the preserving of a promise. And in Mark 9:50, Jesus says that salt is precious and is good. Salt is good. Are we the kind of people who enhance the flavour of those who live around us?

Is your conversation pure? Does it have a purifying effect? Do you keep or preserve promises? Are you characterised by goodness? What do people say or see in you?

Salt prevents corruption. It prevents rot. It has a preservative power, but it also has flavour. And sometimes we can be all about saying the right things and not corrupting anything, but there's also an aspect of adding flavour, adding enjoyment, adding life. Speech flavoured with salt is not empty and not dull.

It is thought-provoking. It is worthwhile. It's not a waste of time. And at the same time, it doesn't turn people off. It doesn't repel them.

A good steak with the right amount of salt is awesome. It brings out the flavours. It attracts. And so speech from a Christian that is seasoned with salt has a spiritual charm about it. If we are the salt of the earth as Jesus said, then it would make sense for us to have speech that is salty.

So put away the foul language. Put away the gossip. Put away the repetitive whinging at work about the bosses. It doesn't get us anywhere. Let your speech be seasoned with the salt of the gospel because a changed heart should naturally produce changed speech.

Then finally, Paul concludes that gracious salt-enhanced speech will be able to answer anyone's questions. In other words, in evangelistic faith, we should be able to speak the right words to the right people at the right time. And it reminds us of what Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15. In your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for the reason of the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.

And so this completes the full circle. How do we speak to the right person with the right words at the right time? Only by the Holy Spirit. Only by the Holy Spirit will you know what to say, when to say it. Through urgent, persistent prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit, you will be able to give an answer to anyone who asks.

Jesus promised that to us, and that's a promise worth holding on to. Luke 21:14-15. But make up your mind, Jesus says, not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. That's a powerful promise. None of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict your words.

So your excuse, our excuse, I've never studied theology. How can I explain the gospel? Well, this guy seems to have read every book on religion. How will I be able to answer his questions? Or this lady obviously hates Christians.

How can I convince her of God's love? The promise is I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. Be prepared with gracious speech, flavoursome and appealing, and remain dependent not on your own arguments and logic, but by the power of the Spirit working in you. From time to time in the life of a church, there needs to be a wake-up call to get back to the central and basic things. And one of these this morning is that Christianity is a converting religion.

It is evangelistic. Our faith, what we sit and practice and celebrate here, is persuasive. It's expansive. It is missionary by definition. It is not coercive, however.

It does not use the sword, does not use manipulation or brainwashing. But it does proclaim, it does persuade, it does plead, it does pray. And when this is not believed, and when this is not practiced, when we fail to have an evangelistic faith, Christianity comes to a screeching halt. It doesn't do anyone any good, and it becomes another religion. When we lose a passion to see people won over to Jesus, we lose the essence of Christianity.

Christianity is a soul-winning, outreaching, mind-persuading, hard-entreating, rescuing, missionary faith. Or it's not true Christianity. We could close those doors. We need to be reminded of this because it is incredible how listless we can become while calling ourselves Christians. Little by little, our whole orientation can become inward.

It's scary how quickly it happens. We can become inward looking. We become so dull and spiritually calloused that we don't even ask ourselves if we believe in hell or lostness or the preciousness of Christ and the power of the cross and the freedom of the gospel and the explicit commands of Jesus to preach the good news. We just go about our in-house religious business, making sure we have a good worship service, making sure that our programmes run smoothly, making sure that people are happy in church, and we act like a medical clinic that starts seeing fewer and fewer sick people and holding more and more staff meetings to the point where there's nothing left but a smooth-running programme for the doctors and the nurses. And the sick people are still dying in the street.

And this is what happens to many churches. I'm sure you've been to some. This morning is a wake-up call for us. Jesus is our Lord. Jesus tells us to go and make disciples.

Bring them into this church. Be open and inviting, not closed and smug with a neat theology. Our mission statement reads that we are a church who want to grow in and share the love of Christ. That is what we've agreed to. How can others experience the love of Christ if we don't share it?

Pray for the lost. Guys, pray for the lost. Intercede for them. Plead for them. Pray for the missionaries like the church prayed for Paul.

Pray for your pastor. Pray for our church, for our mission. But then we have to get out there and do it. Be gracious in your speech, attract them with the flavour of your kindness, of your compassion, of your grace, and be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit. May we be a church of openness, guys.

May we be a church of openness for the girl with the scarlet leather. May we love and may we cherish the lost sinner. Let's pray. Father, we don't know really what to say to this. Your word is like a spotlight.

And, Lord, we did speak about that you are the Lord of light, that you are the God of light. And there are some of us here this morning that feel challenged by this and uncomfortable by this. Good. We should be. At the same time, Lord, we also know that you are in control of this, that your word speaks truth into our lives, but your Holy Spirit imparts strength and power into it as well.

And so Spirit, we ask you and we invite you again to come into our hearts. We pray for those opportunities. We pray for your leading that we may buy up every opportunity as it comes. Lord, and just give us that one word of truth, that one phrase that will change or unlock those doors. We pray, Lord, for this church that it may be a church that shines forth the gospel, and that it may be a church of love and openness, not neat theology merely, but a place of truth and love and compassion and grace for everyone.

Lord, we pray that you will continue to strengthen us and grow us. We thank you for your faithfulness so far. We thank you for every good thing we have received because we know that it is a gift from your hand, that you are faithful to us, that you love us, and that you have a huge amount of trust in us. Thank you for trusting us, Lord, with this responsibility. We ask, Lord, that you will empower us to reward that trust.

Give us perseverance. Give us energy. Give us passion and desire, Lord. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our King, and our Saviour. Amen.