This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our look through Colossians chapter 4. This is the
second day of our look through this chapter. We're going to focus in on verses 3
to 6 today.

In these verses, Colossians 4, 3 to 6, Paul points out three specific ways that
you can influence those who are outsiders to the faith to invite them to become
insiders to the faith, insiders to trust in Jesus Christ. Three specific ways,
in your prayers, in your actions, and in your conversations. Listen to what Paul
says in Colossians 4, 3 to 6, 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 that 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. Did you hear those three things in your
prayers, in your actions, and in your conversations? There are people in your
life, you look at them and you think, "God, they haven't stepped across the line
yet.

They don't have a relationship with you yet, Jesus, but I know that they could
because I know you're inviting that in their hearts. How can I be a part of
helping them to see the wonderful, good news of what you can do in their life?
Help me to know how to be a part.

" If you've been thinking that about a friend, a family member, and if you're
wondering how you can be a better influence in their life towards the good news,
Paul says here's how you do it, in your prayers, in your actions, in your
conversations. Let's walk through what he has to say. First, in your prayers.

Paul invites those that he's writing to, to pray for him. Pray for us, too, that
God may open a door for our message, and pray that we may proclaim the mystery
of Christ, and pray that we may proclaim it clearly. How do I pray, when I'm
praying, that I could be an influence in somebody else's life to let them hear
the good news?

I don't want to be a bother in their life, I don't want to be a negative in
their life, I don't want to push them away from the good news, so how do I pray
in such a way that I can influence them towards the good news? Well, Paul says
here's two things you do. You pray for an open door, and you pray for a clear
proclamation, is the word that he uses.

Pray for an open door. Pray that God may open a door for our message. God opens
the door.

God opens the door for a conversation, God opens the door in a person's heart,
God opens the door. Now, we then have to walk through that door. The second
thing Paul says is then pray that we could have a clear proclamation.

Proclamation is just telling something forth. And he says pray that it would be
clear, that people would be able to understand what we're saying. The
interesting thing he's saying here is that God opens the door, and then we
proclaim it clearly.

And what that reminds me is this, don't try to do what only God can do. Only God
can open doors. And that doesn't mean I don't need to be knocking on them.

That doesn't mean I don't need to be telling the good news to everybody that I
have an opportunity to, just waiting on God to somehow put a neon sign in the
sky that says you have to do this. No, he opens the doors, but I've got to knock
on them to find out that they're open. But if I knock on a door in somebody's
life and they're not open at that point, then I pray God open the door.

Open the door of their heart. And then every once in a while, I knock again in
just a very light way. We're going to talk about that in a minute.

Pray that God would open the door of the heart of the person that you're saying
to the Lord right now. I want them to come into the kingdom. I want them to know
you, Jesus.

I want them to be not only forgiven in this life and free from guilt, but I also
want them to understand the goodness and grace that you have for them throughout
this life, all the way into eternity. God, open the door in their heart. Don't
try to do what only God can do.

Only he can open the door. And don't expect God to do what he's asked you to do,
which is to proclaim it clearly. A lot of times we say, God, open the door and,
okay, would you then tell them to somehow through someone?

Well, you're the one praying for them. You're the one that's in their family or
that is their friend. And I know it can be a nervous thing.

It can bring up a lot of emotions to share the good news of Christ with someone
because that person is important to you and the good news is important to you.
And any time we're right in the middle of something important, there's a lot of
emotion going on. But the truth of the matter is we cannot expect God to do what
he's asked us to do.

And he has left the proclamation of the message, the telling of the good news.
He's left it in our hands. So you pray, God, open the door.

And then when I knock lightly, I see that it's open. Help me to say it clearly,
not to stumble over my words, not to focus on me, not to say so much that it
gets lost or so little that it's not understood. God, help me to say it clearly.

In fact, in getting ready to do that, you might even think through how you would
say it clearly. And one of the best things you can do to get ready to say the
good news clearly is to sit down and write down, write out your own personal
testimony of how Christ has come into your life. Just write it out.

And you might have a half an hour version the first time you write it out. Then
take that and reduce it down to maybe a three-minute version, something you
could share with somebody briefly. Here's what God did in my life.

Here's how Jesus Christ changed my life. Pray for a clear proclamation as you
share the good news of what Jesus Christ has done. How do I help those who are
outsiders to the faith to become insiders?

Those are the words that Paul uses here. He says, first, this happens in your
prayers. Now, I just want to note before we go on that Paul says here that the
mystery of Christ had put him in chains, that his proclamation of the gospel,
there were some who accepted it, but there were some who rejected it.

And those who rejected it, he was actually imprisoned because of that. That's
what scares some of us. We realize there'll be some who reject.

When you look at it in terms of eternity, we're never going to probably be put
in chains, most of us listening to this, few of us. But most of us listening to
this are never going to be put into chains for our faith. You might be rejected
by somebody at work or passed over for a promotion.

When it comes to eternity, that loss, that rejection that you might face for
proclaiming the good news when weighed against the eternity of somebody's life
who comes into the family, it's not even worth comparing. That's why Paul says
he was willing to be put into chains for this. I share the good news in my
prayers by praying for an open door, by praying for a clear message.

I also shared in my actions. In verse 5, Paul says, "Be wise in the way that you
act toward outsiders, wisdom. " A clear proclamation saying, "This is how Jesus
has changed my life.

Without wisdom in my life," people look at that and think, "What's that all
about? Why do they say one thing and yet do another thing? " So be wise in the
way that you act toward outsiders.

Be wise in the grace that you give and the patience that you show and the love
that you share. has the power to bring the good news to a person's life that
nothing else has. There are many, many people I know who have been loved into
the kingdom of God by their family and friends who just didn't give up on them,
who just kept loving them through every situation of life.

Even when they were rejecting the good news, they just kept loving them. In
fact, Paul makes this very specific here. He says, "Be wise in the way that you
act toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity.

" The literal idea there is redeeming the time, the idea of redemption, where
something is set free. You want to set free the time to be used in the best way.
And God's going to put into my life and He's going to put into your life
opportunities where through my actions, through the wisdom that I have in my
life and the way that I live, I can redeem the time and I can let people who
don't yet know Christ know what it means to know Christ.

Now, I'm not going to be perfect while I'm on this earth and neither are you,
but I am going to be growing in Christ as long as I look to Him and trust in
Him. And if I'll allow other people to get a look into that, if I'll be open
enough with my life to let people see where I'm growing and how I'm growing, if
I won't act like I'm always perfect, that redeems the time. Paul is also talking
about redeeming the time here by taking the opportunity to let other people see
the good news of Christ in your life by the way that you serve others and who
you give to.

Be wise in the way that you act toward outsiders. Serve them and share with them
in wise ways. And then in verse 6, it's in my prayers and my actions and then
it's in my conversations.

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you
may know how to answer everyone. The way that I speak in every conversation is
going to open the door to me sharing the word of God, the good news of Christ
with people in certain conversations. If I'm always complaining, if I'm always
negative about everything, and then someone says, "Well, I've been wondering
about this church thing," and I say, "Oh, let me tell you the good news,"
they're going to look at me like, "What good news do you have to share?

" I know we all struggle with this, with our words, but the Bible here says that
one of our greatest witnesses is that my conversation is always full of grace,
grace towards others. The kind of grace that God shows me, I show towards others
in my conversations, and that is a powerful, powerful witness. In fact, he says,
"Not only should you let your conversation be full of grace, it should also be
seasoned with salt.

" Now, what is that talking about? Well, seasoned with salt has the idea of
creating a thirst to hear more, and so I seasoned my conversation with salt by
being willing to talk about my relationship with Christ and what it means, being
willing to talk about church and where it's taken me and what good things are
happening in my life. And as I talk about that, if there's someone who has a
thirst to know more, they're going to ask questions.

They're going to show interest. That's why he says at the end, "So that you may
know how to answer everyone. " When I say just a word about, "Yeah, I was
praying about that this morning, and wow, God gave me hope.

I really needed it," I'm going to see in some people's eyes rejection. I don't
want to hear about that hope thing, that prayer thing. I'm going to see in other
people's eyes, "I want to know more about that, maybe even in what they say to
me.

" Then I know how to answer them. What we're talking about here is making our
conversations gracious and attractive. And in order to do that, I don't know
about you, but I need God's help in my life every single day.

James tells us that no human being can control the tongue. I can't do it, but
God can. So you need him to be a part of your conversation, just like you need
him to be a part of your actions and of your prayers.

And that's how we're a witness for Jesus Christ, watching what he can do and how
he can work in our lives. Now as we pray today, let's take a minute together to
talk about those people in our lives that we're praying for, we're concerned
about, we love them. We want them to come to know Christ.

Somebody in your family, somebody that's a friend, somebody at work or at
school, just bring their name before God right now and say, "God, would you help
this person to come to know you? " And I pray for an open door. And I pray that
when that open door happens, that through me, this is scary for me to pray, but
through me, that there'd be a clear telling, proclamation, saying of the good
news.

And Lord, help me each day in my actions to have wisdom, to redeem the time, in
my conversations to have grace. I need your strength for that. I want those who
feel like they're outside of the good news of Christ to know that they can be
brought inside because you've invited us all.

Use me in that, Lord, I pray in your name, amen. Be sure to join us tomorrow as
we end our look at Colossians and Colossians 4. We're going to begin a look at a
true picture of fellowship.