Okay, so let me pray for us and we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to have a place to come and worship you and fellowship together. We pray, Father, that you would give us insight into your Word, and more than just a simple understanding, a greater conviction, a deepening of appreciation of what it is that we have in you, that our desire to spread the gospel, Lord God, would be deeply rooted in understanding of who you are and what you've done for us.

I pray for your blessing this evening. Help us to have a great discussion. Help us, Lord God, to dig deeper and to know your heart, Lord, through this text. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So just as a reminder, again, Colossians is divided into two major parts. Remember, the first two chapters is doxology, right?

Basically the doctrine of Christ, it basically goes over what the gospel is, and then chapter three he goes into therefore, right? Therefore, this is how you ought to live. So chapter three and four, we've been in the exhortation of what we ought to do. So chapter three, a large division of chapter three basically is because of what Christ has done, put off your old self and to put on what?

To put on Christ, right? That was chapter three, right? The immediate application of the gospel is to put off your old self and put on Christ. And then chapter four, the text that we're in today, specifically goes into prayer, but more specifically, not just general prayer, but prayer specifically engaged in what?

Evangelism, right? Because that's kind of how it ends. So if you look at all the majority of the writings in the New Testament, there is some push toward evangelism, right? Again, and it's, I don't know if that's something that needs to be pushed, but I think generally speaking, I don't know about you, but the first day I became a Christian, the first thing that came to my mind is who I was going to tell, right?

I don't know how you became a Christian. Maybe some of you guys kind of gradually became a Christian, so maybe you don't remember, but maybe some of you guys remember when you first became a Christian, right? When your eyes became open to the truth. I think that's a natural response of any human being.

I don't think that's anything unique to me, right? If you've come to realize that God is real, heaven and hell is real, that the Bible is real, then what else would you be thinking of other than who can I tell, right? This great news. So Apostle Paul, all the letters that he writes, it's in the context of evangelism.

Churches that he's planted, he's following up on them, and then it ends in exhortation, so therefore now engage in this ministry. Whether you are like Apostle Paul going out to foreign lands as a missionary, or whether you're in your home, whether it's toward your family, whatever it may be, that the immediate response to every Christian is to go tell, right?

That's why he says we are the light of the world. You don't hide a light underneath the table, you put it on the top so all can see. So that's kind of like how he's summing up the book of Colossians, right? After every exhortation, at the end, he says to pray and to pray deliberately.

So if we look at it, remember one of the first things that we want to do in everything that we do is to give the outline, right? What is the broad outline here in this text? If you're texting me now, I'm not going to be able to get to it.

I feel my phone buzzing in my back pocket, I'm not going to take it out, okay? So it's a little bit too late. Hopefully we'll be able to answer it without me looking at it, okay? So I would say verse two, right? Verse two, what do I have? Yeah verse two would be kind of like the first thought.

Where's the second thought? Right? Three. Say something. Where's the second break? Three. Just three? Okay, three and four, and then five and six. So how would you label verse two? Call to pray, right? It's a call to prayer. And then three, four. What to pray, right? And then five and six.

Maybe I'm milking it, but I labeled it what to do after you pray, okay? It's not necessarily telling you to pray, but it is connected, right? It is connected to the call to prayer. All right, so let's look at the first one. Okay, devote yourself to pray. He doesn't just say to pray, but he says to be devoted to prayer, right?

In fact, if you look at the New Testament, every time there is a calling to prayer, it is never casual, right? He says to be committed to prayer, to be deliberate about prayer, to be devoted to prayer. Like why does he tell us to be devoted, right? And I talked about this briefly on Friday.

He says to keep alert. What is another way of saying keeping alert? Those of you who have different translations. To be watchful. That's the same word that's used when Jesus is at Gethsemane and he's telling his disciples, can you stay and watch? And he used that word three separate times to refer to the disciples praying, right?

And when somebody tells you to keep watch, what are they asking you to do? What are they asking you to do? To guard something? Okay. To guard something? Huh? Join them? Like if I say, hey, keep watch. Stay with me. Okay. What else? Okay. Be alert. Be sober. Okay.

Stay awake, literally. Okay. Watch out. What do you think if I say watch out? I look for danger. Okay. So all of these ideas, when it says to pray, to guard something, to guard something, it's not just to guard something. It's to guard something. Okay. So, what does he say?

He says to be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. To be alert. Okay. So, what does he say? He says to guard something. Right? Are Christians called to guard something? Absolutely. Right? Spiritually, we're supposed to guard the gospel.

We're supposed to guard the church, guard the truth. Right? We're supposed to, when Jesus says to watch, he's basically telling his disciples to do what he's doing. And he's also using the idea of watch. We see it in the book of Ezekiel. Remember? He calls the watchman, and he says that God has called Ezekiel to be the watchman of Israel.

And as he is watching, if God tells Ezekiel that judgment is coming, and he doesn't do anything, he doesn't warn anybody. Right? So his calling was to be the mouthpiece of whatever was coming to Israel. He's supposed to stand at the gate and watch to see the danger coming.

And if God says danger is coming and he does nothing, or he's falling asleep, he says the judgment is coming upon Ezekiel. Remember that? In the book of Ezekiel. Okay? So the idea of watching in the New Testament, in particular when Paul's talking about here, is a reminder to us that there's a spiritual battle.

Right? Again, when we are, and this is why evangelism is so important in keeping us sober. When you are not engaged in getting the gospel out, you are constantly forgetting that we are engaged in spiritual battle. Right? There's no spiritual battle in doing quiet time. There's no spiritual battle in coming to church and hanging out with friends.

There's no spiritual battle in getting the theology correct in your small group Bible study. Right? How do we engage in the spiritual battle? Taking the light to the darkness. Right? So when you are not engaged in some context, I'm not saying that you have to go out to China or you have to be sharing the gospel with non-believers out in the street every single day, but if there isn't some kind of engagement and deliberate attempt to get the gospel out, your prayers are going to be affected.

Right? It's hard to remain sober when you're not engaged in the battle. So the call to prayer is really a call to battle when he says to watch. Right? I mean, when do you feel the urgency to pray? When something is happening in your life. So typically what happens is you pray when something emergency happens in your life that you can't control.

Right? Even we Christians will pray when you're sick or something disastrous happens or you've gone to the mission field, you're engaged in some kind of work. Right? I'll bet you if you've ever been to short term missions that you probably prayed more than you did when you didn't go because you have a work to be done and you want to make sure you're being fruitful.

You want to get this right. So you're asking God to pray. Right? So when you are engaged in God's work, it causes you to be sober to be more prayerful. But when you're not engaged in it, what are you praying for? Right? So you may be praying for comfort.

You may be praying for safety, but it's not it's not prayer for battle. It's pray that God would protect what's important to you. Right? And so typically those type of prayers are still prayers, but it's not powerful prayer. Right? Because we're not necessarily engaged in what God desires for us.

So he says to devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it, being watchful and with an attitude of thanksgiving. Right? Why is thanksgiving always attached to prayer? Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that you request be known to God.

Colossians 3, 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. And over and over again, prayer and thankfulness go hand in hand. Right? Why is thankfulness important in effectiveness in prayer? How is thankfulness connected to prayer?

Okay. It's connected to our faith. Right? James says that. He who comes to God must first believe that he is. Right? So he, one, thankfulness is related to prayer because we believe that he's going to answer. So you already come believing that God's going to answer. Right? But another part of thankfulness in prayer is the fact that you're able to pray, you should be thankful.

Right? The fact that you have access to God should automatically, even before you pray, you know what I mean, the fact that you are able to enter into his throne with confidence is because of what Jesus has done. Right? So even before we even engage in prayer, he says to devote yourselves in prayer, being sober, being watchful, engaging in the spiritual battle with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Now let me make this as crystal clear as possible. Prayer without prayer, right, you can do as much Bible study as you want, you can do as much fellowship as you want, you can do as much exegesis and serving the church as you want, you cannot engage in the spiritual battle because we do not fight against flesh and blood.

Right? The devil is not afraid of theologically minded people. The devil does not draw back from people who are organized. Devil is not afraid of a church filled with people who are very gifted, have a lot of experience. What is the devil afraid of? The devil is only afraid of one thing.

What's the devil afraid of? God. There's nothing more powerful than him than God. Right? Satan was the highest of the angels. So there's nothing that the devil is afraid of other than God himself. So it is only when we are directly engaged with the things of God, right, all of these things are important, but prayer is the most direct thing that we can connect with God.

Right? And that's why Jesus says when he sees the multitudes, first thing he says is what? He doesn't say, "Go raise more disciples." He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, "Go train more people for leadership." He doesn't say that. What does he say? "Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers." Right?

Because ultimately only God can cause us to bear fruit. Right? So he says to pray, pray with Thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us. And again, so he calls us to pray and then what he asks us to pray for is directly related. Pray at the same time for us.

Who's the for us he's talking about? Paul and his companions, right? And he names it later on in chapter four. He gives all these lists of people that he's traveling with. We mentioned that in the beginning, right? Paul's not a lone ranger walking around doing his work. There's a whole team of people.

He just happened to be the captain. Right? And he says, "Pray for us that God will open to us a door for the Word." So Paul is not passively waiting. I know that there's this tension whenever we do church or evangelism or mission work, there's this tension between strategy and dependence on God.

Right? The Western church has a tendency to strategize everything. Right? If you're strategic enough and you use this kind of organization and if you have these gifted people doing this, we would be more successful. And yet we are weak in prayer. Right? And so what's lacking in the Western church is not more how-to books on how to do things because we are experts in that.

Right? That, I mean, all the books on how to do church, how to disciple, how to teach, how to this, it's all coming from the Western community. Right? What we are weak in is connecting to the Holy Spirit. Right? That's where we're weak in. The Western church is because they don't have the strategy, they have a tendency to be more reliant on prayer and fasting and coming to God.

Right? Apostle Paul, did he have a strategy? This is systematic theology. Think about the big picture of how Paul did ministry. Did Paul have a strategy in his mind? Tell me some of Paul's strategy. Okay. It's clear that Paul's intention was to go to the synagogue. Why would he go to the synagogue first?

Huh? Why would he go to the synagogue first? Because they had the gospel in the Old Testament. Even though the Holy Spirit made it very clear, "You are an apostle sent to the Gentiles," even Paul had a hard time with that. We can't read his mind, but it seems like Apostle Paul was so stuck on the Jews that it took him a while.

It wasn't until he got rejected by the Jews, he started going to the Gentiles. Remember? Right? Even in Corinth and Athens, he went to the synagogues and then he got kicked out and went to the marketplace. Right? So, there is a strategy. And then, not only did he go to the synagogues, the cities that he went into, were they strategic?

How was it strategic? They were all major cities. Have you ever, do you remember any city that we studied or, there might be one or two, but majority of the cities, it says it was a major city. It was a Roman occupied city. It was a major port city.

Every single one of the cities that Paul targeted were major cities. He didn't go to little towns. Why would he do that? Because that's where everybody was coming. There's a reason why people are going to Beijing to preach the gospel. Because that's where everybody is coming. Right? So, they would strategically target these big places.

So, I can go on and on, but did Paul have a strategy? At least, when you read it, it seems like Paul had strategies. Right? But, even though Paul had strategies and he was working, ultimately Paul knew that it wasn't the strategy that was causing him to bear fruit.

Right? It wasn't like, "Oh, we did this and then," you know, there are times when the Holy Spirit says, "Don't go to Asia. Come up to Bithynia." And then he has a, somebody has a dream and then he crosses over to Macedonia. And so, Paul, in the midst of having plans, right, he didn't sit there and wait.

The Holy Spirit didn't tell him not to go. Right? He wasn't just sitting there at home. Well, God didn't call me. He called some people. He didn't call me. Right? He was in the context of moving and being obedient. And within the context of his working, the Holy Spirit would guide him and lead him.

Certain doors would shut and then he would end up going somewhere else. So, you can see his ministry was very fluid, but it was happening in the context of him being obedient. Right? It was in the context of him sharing the gospel. You know, one of the most frustrating things that I hear from people are people who are very critical about the way someone else is doing evangelism while they're sitting at home watching TV.

Yeah. That ticks me off, to be honest. Right? They're so critical about how other people are doing ministry while they're sitting home doing nothing. Right? So, even if you disagree, disagree in the context of you doing it. Right? While you're doing it, show people how you think it ought to be done, but don't sit there with your arms crossed and then criticize people who are actively going out there because you don't think they're doing it right.

Right? Apostle Paul was actively engaged in ministry. It wasn't like he didn't have a strategy. So it's not that strategy doesn't matter. It's just that strategy isn't foundational. Right? Do we have strategy at the church? Of course we have strategy. How we organize our small group is very strategic.

Right? Like how, you know, where we plant, what people come, the age organization, all of these things are strategic. But in the end, what bears fruit is not the strategy. Right? He says, "Pray that the doors may be open to us, that the word may spread." Right? Paul's not saying so that we may spread, our brand of Christianity may spread, but he's eager to get the word out, that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.

So Paul is, Paul knows very clearly, right, what the heart of his message is, is to get the gospel out, to which I have been imprisoned. So again, he's not just passively waiting. Did he go to prison because he was a Christian? Now, there are periods in church history, and there are places in the world even now, that there is persecution just by being a Christian.

Right? North Korea would be one of them. I mean, we heard about the bombing that took place in Sri Lanka. They got bombed because they were Christians. Right? But for majority of church history and majority of the places around the world, they're being persecuted and risking their lives, not because they're Christians, but because they're proselytizing.

The Indian pastors in India can live a very peaceful life if they didn't proselytize, if they didn't go to the villages and try to preach the gospel. Paul was sitting in prison not because he claimed faith in Jesus Christ, but because he was trying to get other people to believe.

He was risking his life going place to place. And then when he was very successful, he would actually turn even the economy upside down because they couldn't sell idols anymore. People wouldn't go to the temple. And so they couldn't make a living because of Paul was so successful in certain cities, Ephesus being one of them.

Right? That's why he was sitting in prison. Because he was actively engaged. So oftentimes when people think, "Oh, how come we don't experience persecution here?" Well, persecution happens when we're engaged in the spiritual battle. It may look different. You may not be imprisoned or get rocks thrown at, but there will definitely be a pushback of some sort.

But if you're not pushing toward the darkness, there's nothing to push back. If you're sitting comfortably where you are, there's no need for them to push you back. Right? Paul's sitting in prison because he's actively engaged in the gospel ministry. And then he says his prayer is that not only that the doors may be open, when the doors open that he may make the gospel clear.

Right? So in order to make the gospel clear, two things need to happen. One, you need to be clear about the gospel. You can't be clear about the gospel if you're not clear about the gospel. If you're kind of nonchalantly just going through. You know, I've met so many Christians who can't explain why Jesus had to die.

And again, I don't mean to shame you here. And if you can't answer my question, it's a challenge. Is it important for Christians to be able to explain why Jesus had to die? Why couldn't he just say you're forgiven just like normal people? If somebody wronged me and you want my forgiveness, all I have to do is say, okay, I'm not gonna hold it against you.

I forgive you. Right? Why doesn't God do that? Mankind sinned against him. Why does all this drama of crucifying his son and sin being upon him? Why does he do all that? I remember early on as a Christian, yeah, I couldn't understand that. Even though I accepted it and I prayed and it's back in my mind, I didn't fully understand it.

I just kind of like, oh, you know, let the theologians take care of it. They said it so it must be true. But the more, the longer I became a Christian, the more it bothered me that I couldn't give it a precise answer for that or a satisfactory answer for that.

And I realized like, hmm, I don't really know the gospel that well. Right? How important is it that you understand the concept of Colossians and what Paul says, why he says it, why is he on the cross? What is the nature of God? Right? How he created, what caused man to fall, what happened after the fall, what was the reason why we got saved, what happened after we got saved, what is coming because we got saved.

How important is that as poor Christian? Really important. Right? If you own a home, you better learn how to pay your mortgage. Right? If you own a home, there's, I mean, if you bought a house and you say, well, how'd you pay for it? I don't know. Where do you pay your bills?

I don't know. Did you get a loan? I don't know. You're going to lose your house. You know what I mean? You can't, you can't own a home and not know about the mortgage. Right? Assuming you're the one in charge. Right? You can't profess to have faith in Christ and then live the rest of your life and not know the content of the gospel.

Right? So if you want to make it clear first, you have to be, you have to be clear about the gospel and that's why we study the word of God. We're trying to understand what we've already professed. Why did he do that? So somebody who is not evangelizing and sharing the gospel, you may feel comfortable being where you are because no one's ever challenging you.

Right? A non-Christian isn't going to be like, "Wow, why, if God's so good, why did he do that?" No one is ever asking you because you're not ever engaged with non-Christians. Right? In fact, you don't even know what kind of holes exist in your understanding of the gospel because you're never being challenged.

You're always surrounded by people who are trying to encourage you. "Oh, I didn't do my quiet time this week." "Ah, it's okay. You know, we all struggle." Right? I mean, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but if that's all you have around you all the time, right, constantly telling you that everything is okay no matter what it is, then 10, 20, 30 years go by, you still have no idea what you profess to believe.

And all of a sudden, you get an aggressive atheist at work who's coming at you. 20 years later, you realize, "Hmm, I don't know what I believe." And then because you don't know what you believe, you begin to think that maybe this isn't real. It just may be that you don't know.

Not that there isn't an answer for that. Right? So, in order to make the gospel clear, you need to know what the gospel is in detail. You need to be growing in understanding of what he did, why he did it, what did he accomplish at the cross, why was the shedding of blood, right?

Why did he have to resurrect? Why did he have to be the son of God? What is the second part to make the gospel clear? You need to know the gospel. What's the second thing that you need to do? It's not that complicated. You need to open your mouth.

You may know the gospel well, but if you don't open your mouth, it means nothing. How can they know? Right? Doesn't Paul say that in Romans? Right? How can they hear if they do not preach? How can they preach if they're not sent? Right? So, you need to know, you need to know, and that's what we're doing here, right, in the end to really understand the depth of the gospel.

Every part of the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is a revelation of the gospel about the mystery of Christ. And that's why we need to know every part of the Bible. Because it gives different aspects, right, of the gospel. But the second part of it, if you may know it and you may appreciate it, you may worship God and be a great Christian in church, but if you never open your mouth, how will they know?

Right? So, Paul says, "Pray for us that the door may be opened for the word, that the mystery of Christ may be made known." Make it clear, right? And then, thirdly, he says, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders." Now, this is not disconnected with what he just said about prayer, because his prayer was to make the gospel known.

Now he's talking about how you ought to live in order to set up for the gospel, right? So it is related. So all his prayer is, you need to pray to keep watch, to be thankful, right? And pray specifically for us that the door may be opened for us, that the gospel may be preached, you may be made clear.

But the way that you need to live where you are, right, toward outsiders, conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. So what does he mean by making the most of every opportunity? Look for opportunities to get the gospel out, right? If you're going to make the gospel clear, you know the gospel, and you're ready, you're praying and you're ready to open your mouth, right?

He says, "Why do you need wisdom? So that you can make a lot of money? Make a lot of friends?" What is he asking wisdom for? To be effective in preaching the gospel, right? He's not saying live wisely so that you can make good investments and make sure you pick the right stock so that they can go up and buy the house at the right time when it dips, right?

Know which industry to go into that's booming and different. Live with wisdom. Is that what he's talking about? That's not what he's talking about. In the context he's talking about, live with wisdom to make the most of every opportunity. If God opens the door, right, but you're not sober, what happens?

Nothing's going to happen. You'd be surprised when you are prayerful and you are spiritually sober, just how many opportunities that are around you every single day for you to share the gospel that you just aren't even aware of, right? It's sometimes like, "Oh, you know, like Orange County, everybody knows, you know, like if I go to China where people don't know the gospel, I could," but you'd be surprised if you stayed alert, right, how often you run into, like when you go out to missions, right?

Let's say you go to Japan and you prayed in the morning, "Hey, let's stay sober." You get into the subway and then say, "Hey, when you're in the subway, sit next to me," assuming everybody speaks English, which they don't, but I'm just giving you an example, right? Every time you enter into the subway, that's a possibility to share the gospel, right?

Everybody is lost and asking a question, that's an opportunity to share the gospel. You're a student and you have other students sitting around and you're doing projects together, that's an opportunity to share the gospel. You have non-Christian family members coming over, that's an opportunity to share the gospel, right?

I mean, if you are sober and you are actively looking and praying, you'd be surprised just how often that opportunity actually happens, right? Hey, I have so many stories of me missing opportunities and I would only think about it after I would come out of that. It's like, "Oh, shoot, I should have said something." Yeah, there's one time I was just so burnt out from ministry.

I got on this cruise by myself, okay? And I told the story before, but yeah, I was a weirdo. I got on a cruise to Ensenada by myself and I didn't want to talk to anybody, you know, and then I would go to dinner by myself and they would say, "What are you doing here?" And I was like, "I'm just tired," you know?

So I just didn't want to talk to anybody. And I remember there was another older man who was there sitting and eating and I must have looked pretty pathetic and he was engaging with me. And then for some reason, there was a lot of fires going on at that time.

There was a Malibu fire, there was a lot of earthquakes. And then he wasn't a Christian and he asked me, he said, "Wow, you know, like something must be going on." That's what he said. It's like all my years, he said 70-some years he lived, he said, "I've never seen this.

There's something going on." And I was just sitting there, it's like, "Yeah, there's a lot of fires." In the back of my mind, I knew like, okay, you know, like I could have just said, "You know what the Bible says about the end times?" And you know, and he was engaging me.

I live all my life trying to engage people and he was engaging me, but I was just so tired. I didn't want to talk to anybody. And I remember coming back to the room and even to this day, I think about that situation. Because I pray for that kind of stuff to happen.

And then when the guy came to me, like trying to help me and I didn't want to talk to him because I was just so tired. I don't want to talk about anything. I just want to go back to my room. I don't want to engage this guy. And again, to this day, I think about that because that kind of stuff just doesn't happen.

Right? I mean, I traveled to India and remotest parts of the world to try to engage people about the gospel and this guy came to me. But because I wasn't sober, I just didn't have the energy. And so if we were, again, if we're engaged in prayer and we're remaining sober, you'd be surprised how often opportunities are around us.

So he prays that we would conduct ourselves to outsiders with wisdom, making the most of every opportunity. And his speech, "Always be with grace as seasoned with salt." So again, what does salt mean? Jesus himself says that we are the salt of the earth. Salt is used, one for flavor and the other was for what?

Preservation. Right? So could Paul be saying, "Be salty, be flavorful." Make their dull food more flavorful by being around. Like they have more fun when you're there, possibly. Maybe you could milk an illustration out of that, but it seems to fit more with the preservation. Right? That we are the salt of the earth, that God put us to be a light and he's using us as an avenue to save the world.

Right? So he says, when he says, "To let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt in preservation, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." In other words, the way you speak, right, in the context with the outsiders will either cause you to have an opportunity to share the gospel or may shut the door.

Right? As an example, if, and again, this is, you know, most of you guys are in the workforce, have at least experienced the workforce. I've worked enough in the secular world to know that the common attitude most people have at work is disgruntled. It doesn't matter where you are.

In fact, it's almost weird if you went to a workplace and everybody was happy. Find a new job and go there and don't do it the first week so you don't get fired. Right? After a while, you get, you know, you get tenured and you feel comfortable there. So what do you think about the boss?

See what comes out of their mouth. Typically, most people are disgruntled at work and they spend an enormous amount of time complaining about who's doing what wrong. That's usually the environment. How many of you are in that kind of environment right now? Like, if you can be honest, maybe you're the one causing this.

How many of you are in that kind of environment right now where it's very toxic because people are always talking bad? Okay. All right. There's enough of you, right? You be so... Oh. This is specifically for you? Yes. I'm not saying every worker is like that, but that's the general attitude most people have of workers.

They're disgruntled about something. Whether they blame the boss, whether they blame other people, there's always some kind of drama going on. If you jump into that and you're no different than them, and then all of a sudden they say, "You know what? Jesus died for me on the cross." See how serious they take you if that's what you're known for.

You're known for your disgruntle, your slandering, you're always saying this, you're always grumbling, and all of a sudden it's like, "But Jesus died for me." So when he says, "Make your speech seasoned with salt," right, so that you will know how you should respond to each person, again, it's to establish an opportunity, again, with your speech, when the opportunity comes, when God opens the door, that you can share the gospel with people and be wise about how you go about doing that.

You know, one of the best things that I learned about sharing the gospel is that you don't need to talk all the time, right? Because people want to be heard, most people, especially if they're hurting. If they're hurting people, they don't want to hear a monologue from you, you know, because they're hurting.

You don't want somebody sitting in front of you saying, "Hey, you don't know, I know, you know, I know, I know, I know, you don't know, I know, I know." That's all they hear. Like that's all they're hearing. So one of the biggest things that I learned in evangelism is to hear them so that they feel like you know and you care.

If they think you care, they become far better listeners, right? If they don't think you care, they don't care what you say. They don't care how well you say it, right? And so a lot of times like when we're evangelists and I'll sit there and he doesn't give me a single minute to talk.

And I used to feel like, "Oh, I got to get the gospel out, you know? I got to stick it in there somewhere." And I would force it in them and then I said it and they're like, "Oh, I shared the gospel today." But I realized that a lot of times like I don't have to share, you know, because that's why it's like we're praying for opportunity to be wise.

If I go out there and engage and I'll tell them I'm a Christian, they know why I'm there. And even the one sentence I say in the context of them listening, there's far more, there's far more fruit than trying to shove the whole gospel into somebody who's not listening, right?

So oftentimes you'll be sitting there talking to a non-Christian and he doesn't give you an opportunity to talk. That's okay. You're engaging in them, right? But maybe, maybe in the context of talking, he's like, "Man, I've talked for two hours straight. I haven't asked a single question." So what do you do?

That 10 minute or five minute window he gives you will be far more effective than the hour of trying to shove it down his throat. So that's why you need to be wise. Be wise, be prayerful, be watchful, look for the opportunities that are coming your way. Again, if you're not sober, even in the opportunities come, you're not even going to, you're not going to be aware of it.

But if you're sober and you're aware, you'd be surprised. Every question they ask you, every interest that they have in you can easily turn into the gospel, right? What do you like to do? I like to go to church. Where do you go to eat? I usually go out with my friends after Bible study.

Every question could turn into a connection to something that you do related to Christ, if you're sober. But if you're not sober, it's like, what's the most important thing to you? It's the playoff right now. I really wish the Spurs would win. Now you're having a whole conversation about what's going on in NBA playoff because you're not sober.

And then way later, you're thinking like, oh shoot, he asked me what was most important to me and I told him it was basketball. Because we weren't sober. So the whole thing that he's saying here, again, it's in the context of planting churches and spreading the gospel, to be prayerful, to be watchful, with thanksgiving, pray for the doors to open, pray that when the doors do open that he may be able to preach it clearly.

In order to do that, make sure that you're staying sober. You're living in such a way that you're being wise among non-Christians so that when that opportunity comes, you're ready. So along with that, at the end, some of the questions. How is your prayer life? In what way can you be more deliberate in your prayer life this week?

No matter where you are in your walk with God, in your prayer life, this is asking for specific application and you don't have to be like, oh I'm going to pray an hour a day, I'm going to pray in the morning, I'm going to pray at night. But wherever you are, to be a bit more deliberate.

Prayer is one of those things that if you don't make an appointment, it's probably not going to happen. If you don't make an appointment, it's like, oh when I get up I'm going to do it. I don't know about you, but when I get up I'm not in the mood to pray.

Sometimes I pray. I'm not in the mood to pray. Because I'm tired, I'm thinking about getting dressed, I'm thinking about all the appointments and different things I have to do. So if I don't tell myself I'm going to come to the office and I'm going to sit there and I'm going to pray for these things, it just doesn't happen.

Or it kind of happens sometimes, it kind of doesn't happen. So how can you be more deliberate about praying? So if your prayer life kind of looks like this, when it happens, it happens, doesn't happen, doesn't happen, right? How can you be more deliberate this week? Just even if it's ten minutes, when you get in the car in the morning, or when you get into the work a little bit earlier, you're going to pray.

Or before you leave and get in your car, I'm going to pray a little bit and I'm going to pray for these things. So if you're going to make an appointment to pray, prepare for prayer. Don't just get in there and I'm going to pray. Already think in your mind or even write down, this is what I'm going to pray for.

I'm going to pray for these people, I'm going to pray for this situation, and write down two or three things that you're going to pray for that day. That will help you to get there and do that. Because if you don't do that, you're going to say, well, you know, I'm going to pray, it's important for me to pray.

Like at what point in your life, especially if you're busy, if you're a young parent with children, at what point do you get thirty minute or ten minute, twenty minute break where you're doing nothing? Zero. If you have young children at home, there is no such thing as break.

Break is when you close your eyes and go to sleep. So if you're not deliberate about appointing that time, it's probably not going to happen. So that's that question, how can you be more deliberate? What aspect of the gospel do you need more clarity in? I told you in the beginning, I had a hard time understanding why the cross itself had to happen.

Because what part of the gospel is kind of vague that you should kind of really dig and really try to get a reasonable answer to. If there is anything like that, which I know everybody does. Who are the non-Christians in your life that you have been praying for? And even if you haven't been praying for, that you should be praying for.

So take some time to share that with your group. And in what way can you be more deliberate in sharing the gospel with them? Don't say Tuesday, I'm going to lay out the Romans road. Right? In the five minute break. Something more reasonable with wisdom. Take them out to lunch.

If you haven't talked to this guy ever, and the first conversation is, if you don't believe in Jesus, right? So maybe if you haven't connected with him, just take him out to lunch. Or just hang around them more. But how can you be more deliberate about reaching out to them?

You know, I was really thankful this Easter Sunday. I think we had more non-Christians come to church this Sunday than we've ever. I don't know the exact number, but off the top of my head, we probably had 30 or more. More than 30. 30 is the number that I kind of like off the top of my head.

But that's not including the people that I don't know, that I haven't talked to. Right? So that's really encouraging, because a lot of people made an effort to reach out to their non-Christian friends. Right? So whether that leads to further conversations, or them accepting Christ or not, but at least it shows me that a good number of our church people are being deliberate about being intentional with non-Christians.

So if that's something that, again, that you are already engaged in, take some time to pray. If not, maybe this can be a catalyst for you to be mindful of them and pray for them. Okay? So I'll close, and I'll have you guys get into your small room. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your living word.

We thank you that you are gracious with us, that you use weak vessels like us to spread such an important message of the cross. We thank you that you didn't leave it up to us, that ultimately, Lord, that salvation is in your hands. Help us, Lord, to share, pray with confidence that, as you called us to be faithful, that nothing that we do is in vain in you.

So we pray for your blessing over our small group time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. (silence)