Prayer

[00:00:01] O Heavenly Father, we pray to you today the way the twelve prayed to Christ when they said, teach us to pray. [00:00:14] I pray, Heavenly Father, that we would hear your spirit in our inner self and we would feel drawn to you, and we would seek you diligently and passionately in prayer. [00:00:33] I pray that we would speak to you in ways that nurture the human soul, in ways that delight your divine nature, and in ways that move your mighty hand. [00:00:49] And I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [00:00:55] We studied through the book of Colossians together. [00:00:59] This is the last Sunday on it, and next Sunday I'm going to begin a series on the moral attributes of God. [00:01:07] What kind of person is God? [00:01:12] Paul wrote this book to the church in Colossae. [00:01:23] Colossae was on a Roman trade route. [00:01:28] And he began the book, Colossians, chapter one, verse nine, with a prayer. [00:01:37] And we studied that prayer together. [00:01:39] And now we're at the end of the book, Colossians, chapter four, verse two. [00:01:44] And he ends the book with prayer. [00:01:49] So Paul is teaching us that the mature Christian life is a life of prayer. [00:01:58] And if you're ever going to grow up in Jesus Christ, if you're ever going to be fully mature in Jesus Christ, it is going to be through personal conversation with God. [00:02:16] Where a prayer is not a ritual you go through. [00:02:22] Prayer is a conversation you hear yourself having with God again and again and again throughout the day. [00:02:34] Prayer isn't a list that you pray your way through. [00:02:39] Prayer is a relationship that you live out in life. [00:02:47] This church has had a week of prayer since the early 80s. [00:02:55] For 43 years, we have gathered and we've entreated the Lord for blessings. [00:03:05] We've called upon his name. [00:03:07] We have turned to him in hope and faith. [00:03:12] Ah. [00:03:14] Everything you see here is an expression of what happens when people of faith call upon the name of the Lord. [00:03:28] So this is what Paul said. [00:03:32] Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. [00:03:40] At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the Word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. [00:04:03] Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of your time. [00:04:10] Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. [00:04:22] In verse two, Paul talks about prayer, and he has three main ideas. One, continue steadfast in prayer. [00:04:37] Two, be watchful in it. [00:04:40] Three, always have a heart of gratitude while you're Praying. [00:04:48] Ah. Do you remember I told you that this book is built on the poem of Christ? [00:04:57] We've read it every Sunday and we're going to read it again today. [00:05:03] This time I would like you to think about the poem of Christ, but I would like you to think about it in terms of prayer. [00:05:12] The poem of Christ can be a focus for our prayer. This is what Paul wrote. [00:05:20] Christ is the image of the invisible God, the prototype of all creation. [00:05:28] For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities. [00:05:39] All things were created through him and for him, he is before all things. [00:05:46] In him all things hold together. [00:05:49] He is the head of the body, the church. [00:05:53] He is the beginning, the prototype of life after death. [00:05:59] That in everything he might be preeminent. [00:06:03] 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 the cross. [00:06:20] How do I turn this poem into a blueprint for prayer? [00:06:27] Let's just do it together. [00:06:30] When I want to pray this scripture, this is what it sounds like. [00:06:36] I begin by saying, dear God, I believe that in Christ, ah, you become visible. [00:06:48] Help me to see you more clearly in Jesus Christ. [00:06:55] I believe Jesus Christ is the prototype of what creation should be. Help me to be more like Jesus Christ. [00:07:04] I believe that everything in my life was created by Christ and that all things are for your purpose. [00:07:14] Help me to live out the purpose for which you created me in Christ Jesus. [00:07:22] I say I believe that Christ is before all things and Christ holds all things together. [00:07:31] Would you please, through Jesus Christ, hold me close to yourself. [00:07:36] Would you please, through Jesus Christ, hold my relationship with my wife. [00:07:42] Help me to hold my relationship better with my wife. [00:07:46] You hold all things together. Please hold my family together and don't let evil touch us. [00:07:53] You hold all things together. Please hold Christchurch together and could be. Could we be united in love for Christ and one another? [00:08:03] Then I pray the church is all about you, God. I pray that you would receive the glory in the church that you deserve. [00:08:12] I pray that as a church we would do what you want us to do. I pray that we would treat people the way you want them to be treated. [00:08:22] I say I believe that you are the prototype of life after death, that as Christ rose from the dead, we also will rise. [00:08:33] And so I pray that you will be at work in my soul, so I will be ready to abide with you forever in the resurrection, in the life. [00:08:44] I say I want Christ to be first in my life. I want him to be preeminent in all things. [00:08:52] I want my best thoughts to focus on Christ. I want my best emotions to flow to Christ. I want my best behaviors to be done in light of who Jesus Christ is. [00:09:04] Ah, dear God, I believe that in Christ your fullness dwells. And so that I believe Christ is able to do everything good in me that he needs to do for me to be the man you want me to be. [00:09:20] And then I say to him, thank you so much. [00:09:25] Thank you so much for what Christ did for me on the cross. [00:09:29] Thank you that I am reconciled to you solely because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. All right, now I've just turned the poem of Christ into a prayer. [00:09:44] I'm talking to God in a way that reflects I'm serious about what he said to me in the Scripture. [00:09:55] Because he speaks to me in the Scripture, I speak back to him what he's already said to me in the scripture Church. This is mature Christian praying. [00:10:09] We have to grow up in our Christian life. [00:10:13] When you're a child, it's all right to think as a child. It's all right to feel like a child. It's all right to speak like a child. [00:10:22] But we grow up, and when we grow up, we don't sound the way we sounded in third grade. [00:10:30] Hopefully, when we grow up, different things become important to us. [00:10:40] We transition from a childhood system of values to an adult system of values. [00:10:47] Well, the same thing has to happen in our spiritual lives. There needs to be a transitioning from the prayers we said as baby Christians to the prayers we're going to say as adult Christians. [00:11:04] And basically, I think that transition needs to be away from Jesus Christ being a divine ATM machine. [00:11:16] And they need to transition toward Jesus Christ being the source of a spiritual life that is rich and good and noble and worth living. [00:11:29] I believe we should say, give us this day our daily bread. But I should. I believe our prayer should be more than just, give us this day our daily bread. [00:11:39] They should become conversations about who Christ is and what he does and what our relationship is to him and our hope that because he lives, we will live also. [00:11:57] So Paul says, first of all, be constant in prayer. [00:12:04] This word could be translated persists obstinately. [00:12:09] I kind of like that Paul said, persist obstinately in prayer. [00:12:16] What does he mean by that? [00:12:18] He means prayer should be fervent. [00:12:23] When I pray, I ought to pray like it really matters, as opposed to praying in a. In a passive way that says Wouldn't it be nice if Paul said, have some fervor in your prayer, put some energy of soul into it. [00:12:45] Second, he said this. Persist absently means be consistent. [00:12:51] Praying good one day doesn't make up for the rest of the week. [00:12:57] You get that? [00:13:00] I don't care how good your lunch is today, it's not going to keep you from getting hungry Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. [00:13:09] You can't eat one good meal a week and feel content. Well, you can't just pray one good prayer a week and have a healthy soul. [00:13:18] It has to be consistent. It's got to be a normal part of our spirit, spiritual life. [00:13:28] And then I believe it means pray intimately. [00:13:33] And by that I mean in prayer, my soul is drawing near to the soul of the living God. [00:13:47] I'm not standing at a distance. [00:13:51] Ah. I'm not sending God text messages. [00:13:55] My soul is reaching out for him. [00:13:59] I'm trying to connect with him. Soul to soul, life to life. [00:14:05] So when we pray in a mature way, we're praying fervently, we're praying consistently, and we're praying intimately. [00:14:15] Then the second thing he says is watching in it. [00:14:20] So this word for watching is the word for being alert. Being alert in prayer. Have you ever done this? [00:14:29] I've been praying along and I'm praying, but my head is somewhere else. [00:14:37] You know what I mean? [00:14:39] My words are prayers, but whatever's going on in my head, it's far from God. I am not alert, all right? [00:14:50] And I hate this about myself. It's rude. [00:14:54] Has somebody. Have you ever been talking to somebody and you can tell they're not paying attention, they're somewhere else? Okay? I don't want to treat God that way. [00:15:06] I want to have more. I want to have more respect to Him. So when I pray, I want to be intellectually alert. [00:15:13] I want my mind to be thinking and engaging God. [00:15:19] I want to be spiritually aware. [00:15:22] I don't want to be spiritually sound asleep. [00:15:26] Church When Christ asked the apostles to pray with him in the garden, they fell asleep spiritually before they fell asleep physically. [00:15:36] Do you get that? [00:15:37] Their souls were checked out before their bodies were watching. In prayer, being alert means to be emotionally engaged. [00:15:49] Now I want to pray in a more mature way. [00:15:53] I want to pray with the very best thoughts I can think. [00:15:57] I want to be praying with spiritual awareness. I want to be praying with full emotional engagement. I want to be talking to God in a way that. That expresses the reality of my heart and my soul. [00:16:14] And then he says, with thanksgiving, I believe that as we grow more spiritually mature. [00:16:29] God hears more thank yous and less give mes in our prayer. [00:16:36] I breathe that as we grow mature, our gratitude for God, our gratitude to God becomes deeper and deeper and we find the impulse of our heart to say thank you more and give me less. [00:16:55] Some years ago I went to the the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and I had this plan about. I was going to pray for my family and I was going to pray for the church and I was going to pray that I could become the full man God wants me to be. [00:17:19] And I got there and I put my hand on those ancient stones and all I could do is start saying thank you to God. [00:17:31] First of all, I never believed I would be able to go there. And there I was, standing at the Wailing Wall, touching the wall, and I just found myself saying to God, thank you for this, thank you for that. Thank you for this, thank you for that. Do you hear this church? [00:17:51] When we really get to the core of prayer, it is an awareness of how insanely good God has been to us and an impulse to worship him with gratitude and a fullness of heart. [00:18:11] Then Paul says in verse three, I want you to pray for me and I want you to pray for my preaching. [00:18:21] That's what he says, pray concerning us in order that God may open a gate of the Word to speak the mystery of Christ. [00:18:34] Paul said, when you pray, pray for me and how I preach the gospel church. [00:18:46] If Paul can ask the church of Colossae to pray for him and how he preaches the gospel, then I can ask you to pray for me and how I preach the gospel. [00:18:56] Do you get this? Here's what I believe. The Sundays, I preach good sermons. Somebody said some good prayers the Sunday I preached. Duds, man. You left me hanging. [00:19:10] There is a connection in the thinking of Paul to between prayer and preaching. [00:19:17] I want to encourage you to pray for the preaching staff of this church. [00:19:25] Listen, listen. The warning. [00:19:28] Not many of you should be preachers because you enter into a double judgment. [00:19:35] I'm going to be judged twice. [00:19:38] One time I'm going to be judged for my life and relationship to God. [00:19:46] The next time on me judge. I'm going to be judged for everything I've said to this church over the last 43 years. [00:19:56] That scares me more than the dumb stuff I've done. [00:20:03] Church. [00:20:05] This is a holy thing. [00:20:08] This is not a human lecture. [00:20:11] This is not. [00:20:13] This is not me coming here and doing a religious lecture for a half hour. [00:20:20] This is holy work. [00:20:23] This is. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. [00:20:32] This, this, this whole process of me seeking God all week long and putting a sermon and sharing it with you. [00:20:42] It is. It is. It is the divine way to nurture the body of Jesus Christ and it has to be prayed about. [00:20:53] Ah. [00:20:54] I want you to remember that we are one church in three campuses. And while I'm preaching to you right now, Chet's preaching at our west campus and Jovan is preaching at our old Brooklyn campus. [00:21:10] And we want to pray for them as diligently as we pray for our own campus church. [00:21:19] He said specifically, this is what I want you to pray. [00:21:22] I want you to pray that when I preach the mystery of Christ, it would be effective. [00:21:33] Every Sunday before I stand up here and preach, I pray, dear God, save your elect today. [00:21:40] I pray that your Holy Spirit would find one of your lost kids today and bring them home. [00:21:46] Here's what I. Dear God, I pray that Jesus Christ would be so convincing that people would want to use their spiritual gift in serving him in a new and energetic way. [00:21:59] I pray that every single week church. [00:22:02] That's what Paul's talking about here when we pray. Let's pray that the preaching of Christ would change people's lives. [00:22:13] Let's pray that when we come in here and we hear the wonder and the majesty of Christ, something would be changed on the inside of us and we would be more devoted to Christ, more loving to Christ, more committed to doing what he asked us to do. [00:22:31] And not only that we would do that, but that as God finds his lost kids and brings them home Sunday after Sunday, the kingdom of God would grow through the preaching of Jesus Christ Church. [00:22:55] So he uses this phrase, the mystery of Christ. What did he mean by the mystery of Christ? [00:23:01] I believe I've shared this with you before. [00:23:04] Mysterion meant, when Paul used it, information reserved for the initiated. [00:23:14] A mystery wasn't an Agatha Christie novel. [00:23:17] It was information you didn't get until you were initiated. All right, so what is the mystery of Christ? [00:23:24] When I'm initiated into the life of God by the Holy Spirit, I come to know Christ in a different way. [00:23:32] Do you hear this? [00:23:34] Paul said, I used to only know Christ physically, but now I know him spiritually. [00:23:44] The mystery of Christ is a personal relationship, a personal understanding of Jesus Christ. [00:23:53] The mystery of Christ is the poem of Christ completely understood in the human soul. [00:24:02] It stops being four phrase four verses of a poem, and it becomes a personal reality. [00:24:11] You really begin to know in your inner self that when you see Jesus Christ in the Gospels you're seeing the invisible God. [00:24:22] You really begin to experience in your inner self that Christ is the prototype of what humanity is supposed to be. [00:24:31] You stop vacillating about how this all got started and what its purpose is, and you believe beyond question that he is the creator of all things. [00:24:42] And you believe that all things were created for his higher purpose. The mystery of Christ is not memorizing certain statements. It is experiencing the living reality of Jesus Christ. [00:24:59] And Paul said, pray that when I preach, people would experience something of the living presence of Jesus Christ. [00:25:10] And I think we should pray the very same thing. Church. [00:25:13] I think we should pray that when people come in this building that nobody should come into this building and not in some way, sense the living God. [00:25:25] Church. [00:25:28] Ah. [00:25:29] Ah. [00:25:31] Let's be more specific on this. [00:25:35] Pray specifically for the way Christ is preached. [00:25:41] I've heard people preach sermons that the content was great, but it was so boring you couldn't listen. [00:25:52] Have you been there? [00:25:54] You looked at your watch, you thought it was a half hour. It was three minutes. [00:25:59] Anyone? [00:26:01] Okay, if my sermons are like that, please don't tell me. [00:26:04] All right? [00:26:07] It matters how the gospel is preached. Do you get this? Paul says, pray that I can preach the gospel in a way that reflects a richer understanding. [00:26:24] Church I know you can watch TV preachers, and they'll make you feel good. [00:26:30] But this is about more than feeling good. This is about growing in your understanding of Christ. [00:26:37] If you feel good and don't grow in Christ, I've wasted your time. [00:26:44] If you don't feel so hot, but you have grown in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit has made you aware and alert, then the church has worked the way it's supposed to. [00:26:56] Pray for a better delivery. [00:26:58] Pray for a more persuasive presentation. [00:27:02] Pray that the Holy Spirit would produce spiritual results every time the gospel is preached. That's what Paul is saying. [00:27:11] What do mature Christians pray like? They pray for the success of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [00:27:24] And then Paul says, after we've preached and prayed, we got to start living it out. Verse 5. [00:27:31] Walk around in wisdom toward those who are on the outside buying up the time after prayer and preaching, we've got to live out what we've prayed for and what we've. What we've learned. Church, please listen to this. [00:27:54] What we pray for and we learn on Sunday, we live out on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. [00:28:02] If we don't live out what we're praying for and what we're preaching, we're hypocrites. [00:28:11] Is it possible that it's so easy for people to call us hypocrites because we preach and pray one way and live on Monday another way. [00:28:22] We have to live it out. Church so what Paul is talking about is wise thinking and quality living. [00:28:34] Think about what you learn and then try to ask the Holy Spirit to help you to apply that in your everyday life. [00:28:44] Think about what you hear and then pray. Help me to live this idea in my everyday life. [00:28:52] I preached to you two sermons on the family. [00:28:55] Think about those ideas and then pray. Dear God, help me to treat my family the way you want them to be treated. [00:29:02] Can you hear this? Church it's not enough to be hearers of the Word. We have to be doers. [00:29:12] Then he says mature Christians need to pay attention to how they interact with people who are non Christians. [00:29:27] Look what he says. [00:29:30] Walk around in wisdom to those who are on the outside. [00:29:33] You're going to meet a lot of people next week that aren't Christians. [00:29:38] The way you interact with them matters. Do you get this? [00:29:43] Ah. [00:29:44] I've known Christians that I didn't enjoy being around at all. [00:29:49] I'm just be honest. They were terrible people. They had a bad attitude. They were judgmental. They were no fun. [00:29:56] They didn't work hard, complain too much. [00:30:08] I'm a Christian and it didn't like to be around him. What are the pagans going to do? Church Listen what Jesus said. I did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved. [00:30:23] Your job is not to condemn everybody around you. Your job is to partner with Christ in helping them to become Christians. And you don't help them to become a Christian by criticizing everything they do that you don't like. [00:30:41] Church I have to. [00:30:47] I have to live in the kind of way that something beautiful about Christ can be seen in my life. [00:30:56] If I can live in that kind of way, those people are going to think differently about Jesus Christ. [00:31:04] If they can't tell any difference in me and a stone cold pagan, why should they give Christ a chance? Church and then he said this used to be in the King James Buy back the time. [00:31:25] But actually I think a better translation is buy up the time. [00:31:29] And I read this week that it actually means buy up every opportunity. Don't let one opportunity slip by you. [00:31:39] When you're living the Christian life, when you're trying to live out your prayers, when you're trying to live out what you've learned, the Holy Spirit is going to create opportunities in your life. [00:31:50] Don't miss any of them. [00:31:53] Don't miss any of them. [00:31:56] Not long ago, I saw someone who matters to me, and. [00:32:02] And they're not real open to me talking to them about the things of Christ. [00:32:08] So I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, and I. And I said, just God, would you create some kind of opportunity? [00:32:17] Would you just create some kind of opportunity? [00:32:20] And out of the clear blue, this person shocked me by saying, what is your favorite Bible story? [00:32:32] And so I had the opportunity to tell one of the stories from the gospel. [00:32:38] Okay, don't miss a single opportunity. [00:32:43] Don't miss a single opportunity. Who knows what the Holy Spirit does with that little seed that's planted in the heart? Do you see? [00:32:51] It's the beginning of something. [00:32:56] As I'm going to work next week, I want to live out my prayers. I want to live out what I'm learning. And as I'm living it out, I need to say, God is going to give me opportunities today. I have to be ready. [00:33:12] And when I see an opportunity, I have to take it. [00:33:18] But I have to be wise in what I say and how I say it. [00:33:24] I didn't. [00:33:26] I didn't. [00:33:29] I didn't drop the whole crucifixion story on this person. [00:33:34] I'm looking for multiple opportunities. [00:33:36] And if I could tell something from the life of Christ in an interesting and passionate way, I'll get another opportunity. [00:33:45] People like to listen to interesting stories. [00:33:49] If I hardball this person, all right, and then Paul says, it matters how we talk. [00:34:06] Ah, let your word always be in grace. [00:34:14] Speak gracefully because we pray diligently, we speak graciously. [00:34:22] What does graciously mean? I talk to people in a way better than what they deserve. [00:34:31] Okay. I speak to people in a way better than what they deserve. I don't speak to them in reaction to how they speak to me. [00:34:41] If they're sharp, it doesn't mean I should be sharp. If they're a sarcastic, doesn't mean I should be sarcastic. If they're rude, doesn't mean I should be rude. If I'm going to be influential, I got to find ways to speak graciously. [00:34:58] I know people who are good at this. I know people who are very good at this. They're so good at it that it's hard for people to speak to them in ugly ways. [00:35:09] They have mastered the art of speaking graciously, and it is almost impossible to speak to them in harsh ways because they respond with such grace. You lose your intensity. [00:35:24] You just can't be angry with them, you know? All right, because we learn about Christ, through preaching and prayer, we speak graciously. [00:35:42] What does gracious speech sound like? [00:35:46] One, the, the, the illustration is for making your food taste better. You put salt on food to make it taste better. Right? [00:35:58] So gracious speaking is delicious speech. [00:36:04] Delicious speech is talk that satisfies your ear as much as a good meal satisfies your ear, your stomach. [00:36:19] Can you get that? It's a, it's, it's a metaphor, it's an image in the very same way that you leave a really good meal feeling different than when you sat down. [00:36:32] Gracious speech is delicious speech. You leave listening to that feeling different than you came. [00:36:43] We have to learn to speak in delicious ways that, that are delightful for people to listen to. [00:36:52] One of the greatest preachers in my lifetime was WA Criswell. And when I was a boy, I went to Dallas. He had a week long seminar for pastors and, and, and Dallas. I mean, and W.A. criswell was the kind of man who never said anything in a common way. [00:37:12] He never said anything in a common way. The Sunday I was there, he preached on, Jesus wept. And there was probably 2,000 people in the auditorium. You could hear people sobbing all over the room. [00:37:27] I mean, that hard crying, like he was an incredible preacher. [00:37:36] All right, we can learn to speak in ways that are more pleasant to hear. [00:37:46] Church. [00:37:47] We can learn that it doesn't take a miracle to start this week, praying, dear God, help me to speak in a more delicious way. [00:37:59] Huh? [00:38:01] Man, your family will love you for this There. They've heard all of the. They've heard of, They've heard the non delicious and now they're ready for a little. All right. [00:38:17] Ah, another way of saying this is pleasant to listen to. [00:38:24] Ah. [00:38:29] I'm not really a big podcast guy, but because Sarah and I do a podcast, I've listened to some podcasts and in my book there are two kinds of podcasts. The one is, I loved it. It went so fast, I couldn't believe it's over. [00:38:47] And the other podcast is. Yeah, I'm done with this. [00:38:52] Anyone? [00:38:54] All right, Paul saying, as we live out our Christian lives, we can start trying to be aware that we can speak to people in ways that are so pleasant they'll want to listen. [00:39:10] Or we can speak to people in ways that are so unpleasant, they'll want to get away from us as soon as they can. [00:39:20] I want to, I want to say one more thing. [00:39:26] This speech, this gracious speech, it implies that you have something interesting to say. [00:39:34] I think Jesus Christ is very interesting. [00:39:39] I think he is Very interesting. [00:39:41] But I think we can treat him and talk about him in ways that are incredibly boring. [00:39:50] It's not that he is boring, it's that we make him boring. [00:39:58] I've been, I read the gospels through every 60 days. [00:40:07] I never, I never get tired of rereading this fascinating life of Jesus Christ. [00:40:16] He was absolutely fascinating. [00:40:19] Do you know people walked for miles to hear him speak? [00:40:25] Do you know people went without food to hear him speak? [00:40:30] There was something so interesting, so passionate, so compelling about Christ that he was a phenomenon. [00:40:41] He was so popular he couldn't go into cities. [00:40:45] People had to come out into the country to see him. That's how many people wanted to hear him. That's how interesting he was. [00:40:52] Paul is saying we've got to learn how to let what is fascinating about Christ to flow through us when we speak about him to other people. [00:41:05] We've got to share the same wonder that people experienced when they experienced Him. [00:41:13] Ah, this. And he says, he says we need to talk about in a way that is, it's necessary for us to talk about. [00:41:26] The best preparation for a difficult conversation is prayer. [00:41:31] The best preparation for a difficult conversation is prayer. And in that prayer we ought to be praying. Help me to speak in a compelling and persuasive way, but help me to speak in an interesting way. Help my words to be delicious to the person I'm speaking to as opposed to what we commonly think. I'm going to tell this person a thing or two. I've been wanting to say this a long time and now they're going to get both barrels. [00:42:00] That doesn't work Church, for the record. All right. [00:42:07] And then he talks about the individually, the individual. [00:42:12] We have to answer each one as it is necessary. Everybody is an individual. There is no one size fits all. [00:42:21] This is a mistake that, that happened when I was a younger boy. We all learned the Romans road and it was like six or seven Bible verses from the Book of Romans. And we said these Bible verses to everybody. The trouble is everybody's not the same. [00:42:39] So the process sounded differently to some people than to other people. [00:42:44] And it worked for the people it worked for and the people it didn't work for. It was a disaster. [00:42:51] All right, I, I, there is no one size fits all. It's being interested enough to try to understand the person you're talking to and then tailoring what you're going to say about Christ to what they're open to and what the needs of their hearts are. Do you hear this? [00:43:09] Ah, put a little effort into it. [00:43:12] All right. [00:43:15] Say the right thing at the right time to the right person. [00:43:18] That's what Paul is saying. [00:43:20] All right. [00:43:23] Prayer and preaching are the sources of maturing Christian life. [00:43:29] The Book of Colossians is about maturing in Jesus Christ, growing in your relationship to the person who is represented in the palm of Christ, not being content to stay where you are spiritually. [00:43:46] When you read the Book of Colossians, I want you to encourage yourself to say again and again, who is Jesus Christ to me and how am I growing close to him in my personal life? Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this book. [00:44:07] Thank you for the wisdom that you've deposited in it. [00:44:11] Thank you for the instruction. [00:44:14] Now I pray that we would be people of prayer. [00:44:17] I pray that each one of us would feel compelled to meet you in prayer this. This week of prayer. [00:44:25] That our hearts would be open to you, that our minds would be open to you. [00:44:29] That we would pray mature Christian prayers. [00:44:32] That our lives would be changed because we experience more of the grace of Jesus Christ. [00:44:39] Then, Father, I pray that as we become more like Christ, the way we speak to other people would be more influential, more powerful, more persuasive. And I ask this all in Jesus name, Amen.