The Power of Prayer

Open your Bibles. if you would, to Colossians chapter four. We’ll be in verses two through six today. The title of the message is: “The Power of Prayer.” The Power of Prayer.

You know, when I was a child, I used to pray all kinds of crazy types of prayers. I don't know if maybe you still feel like you do that sometimes. But, I mean, they were a little wild. One time, I thought a friend got hurt – he was actually playing a trick on us – but I thought he got hurt. And so, I was down at the end of the cul-de-sac in our street about, you know, eight houses away. And I thought, I've got to run, you know, “Lord, carry me like Elijah back to my home.” And I was just praying this prayer in my mind like, he did it then, he could do it now.

Another time, after hearing a message about, you know, Peter walking on water. Did guys ever think about that prayer when you were little? Like maybe, “God, I kind of want to see you move. I want to see you work. I want to see your power.” And so, I remember walking by the Potomac River up there in Brunswick. Often just thinking, I wonder. I wonder what would happen if I, if I tried to walk across the water? And I think I got my toes wet, that was about it. I thought, no, no, that's not it. Obviously, Peter wasn't trying to test God when he was walking on water. He wanted to get to Christ. And I just wanted to get to the other side of the river. Right?

And so, we have these things in our mind where we hear something or see something in Scripture, and we think, Oh, well it happen then, maybe God wants to do it again. And we completely yank these things out of context, thinking, wow, that can really empower my life. You know, you could just think about all the, “Lord, move mountains, I want to see a breakthrough. I want to break the chains. I want to…” I mean, how many of you have ever been in chains? I didn't think so. Right? So, we think about all these things, and our Christian songs are full of these stripped out of context, prayer requests. And we think, wow, that's the way, that's what God wants. “Ask anything in my name and I'll give it to you.” Right? John15:7, and we forget the whole abiding part in the first six verses.

You know, instead of asking God to move mountains – I mean, if he did move a mountain, if a tectonic plate moves like five inches, right, it's cataclysmic. And we're praying, “Lord, move mountains, move mountains in my life.” You know, the last time mountains moved, the Earth had a global flood. That's not really what we're doing. What we're doing is we're trying to say, “God, I want to see you at work, I want to see you move, I want to see you somehow.” And what we do is we try and supersede or go beyond what's in the Bible, or we don't even know what's in the Bible to begin with. And so, we just start with all these kinds of childlike prayers for our own benefit.

You know, instead of asking God to move our “mountains,” we should ask him to move our hearts. Right? That would be a huge movement, a lot of times. So, we want to understand that the real power of prayer comes from knowing what the Bible says about prayer. And praying biblically, that's really what should be the desire of your heart is, is to pray biblically. Not just to, “Wow, I prayed and I got an answer to prayer,” or we have something weird that happened 50 years ago, and we keep telling everyone about it. Like God hasn't done anything since. Right? We want to see God at work in our lives. And… but we want to pray biblically. And I know you want to pray biblically.

And Paul, as he's writing to these Colossians – these dear people in Colossae whom he’s never met – he's just heard of from one of his workers, co-workers. He prays in ways that help us understand what biblical prayer is. So, look in your Bibles at Colossians four in verse two and following, and we're going to see what biblical prayer is today. If you need a Bible, there's one under a seat nearby. I'd encourage you to look at the words for yourself. I'm going to be reading out of the ESV today. Paul says this, he is at the end of the letter here, in verse two,

Colossians 4:2–6 (ESV)
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 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. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

The first thing that we see today is that we are to pray with diligence and thankfulness in prayer. Our prayer life should be characterized by diligence and thankfulness. See there in verse two, it just flat out says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” That “continue steadfastly” is one word in the Greek and it just means “to devote yourself.” A lot of the translations use the word “devote,” be devoted in prayer. Devoted, loyal, faithful – continue to do something with intense effort, intense effort. And in 4:2, he talks about being steadfast. You know, unwavering, committed, persistent. Like a child who wants a cookie, they are not giving up easily, they are going after this thing that they want. And that's the way Paul characterizes prayer here.

And he also talks about Thanksgiving. This consistency is characterized by an act of thanksgiving in prayer. But what are we devoted to, what kind of gets us going? What motivates us in life? Well, if you drive a car, and it's a gas-powered car, you're motivated sometimes by lower gas prices. Right? You might go to the gas station and say, “Wow, it's a little lower today.” But what if I told you that this afternoon at 4pm, gas all over the country would be free for one hour? What kind of frenzy would that create? Right, you would change your schedule completely. They would be lining up for hours, just waiting. To what? Gas is about $3.50 [per gallon] on average around the country, higher in California of course and lower elsewhere. I mean, to save 60 bucks? You know, we would all be there, we would swarm these gas stations just to get a free tank of gas.

But of course, we would all agree prayer is more important than a free tank of gas. But does our diligence in prayer show that? So we have to rightly look at our lives and say, “What do I actually think about prayer? And does it motivate me and drive me towards God, towards his throne?” In that grace that he calls us to. Is that what prayer does in my life? He calls us to be watchful, as well. To be watchful in prayer, watchful in it. You know, we use binoculars to see better. Prayer helps to bring life into focus. We use mirrors in a car to stay safe in our surroundings. Prayer helps us be aware of our surroundings and to stay safely focused on God. It helps us to be watchful and alert.

You know, when it says to be thankful, to give thanks. This is the word that Paul is describing that expresses gratitude. Did you know that if you look up “give thanks” in the dictionary, prayer is used there to define “thankfulness”? Here in this passage, thankfulness is not just something we do in prayer. It describes the entire act of prayer itself. Right? In thankfulness. We give thanks to God for all of these things. The way that the word thankful is used, you would just think that Paul is only giving thanks in his prayers. In Colossians 1:3, it says, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” Thankfulness characterizes his prayers.

What characterizes our prayers most of the time? It's the request syndrome. Right? We all know God says, “Make your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” And, “Lord Jesus, I need some peace today. So, I'm going to pray.” And we launch into just asking God for things. But over and over again, in Colossians, we see Paul saying, prayer is supposed to be used as a way to show appreciation to God. Of course, you can make your requests be made known to God, we're told to do that. But we are never told that making our requests to God, characterizes or summarizes our prayer lives. Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

So, when we pray, we're supposed to be thankful to God in everything that we do, including in prayer. You say, “Well, I know I'm supposed to be thankful. I just have a lot on my mind.” And that's okay. Right? God knows us. And he knows what we're going to say before we say it. But what are we thankful for? You know, in God's providence, he has brought about a very unusual situation in our church. Where he has provided a shepherd before the current shepherd leaves. He has provided such a humility in the next pastor of this church, that there's going to be a harmonious overlap of people who are going to be leading the church. Now, how many of you have ever heard of that in your entire lives? Maybe less than five, if any. Maybe one or two? God has provided for us, as Ephesians says, “to equip the saints, for the work of the ministry.”

You know, a lot of churches are deviating, they’re going off on all kinds of tangents constantly. And God has provided a stable continuity [in our church] so that there's not a single Sunday, where the pulpit is not used to proclaim Christ and glorify God. And as we start each worship service with, we say, “we're here to worship Jesus Christ.” That's something we can be thankful for. God has provided elders who love you and pray for you. God has provided a church where you and your children can grow up hearing the Word of God. Not just finding a place with other people who like you and like your interests. But a place where God is held high. In God's providence, our Lord has provided a way of salvation, to cleanse you from sin.

You know sometimes we come to church, and we're just burdened by sin. We're just overcome by our thoughts from the week. “Lord, I haven't confessed these things to you.” And we just get weighed down and the circumstances of life weigh us down. But the greatest thing that we need is reconciliation with God, and that's already been done through Jesus Christ. Does that cause us to burst out in thankfulness to God in prayer? So, Paul encourages them to be thankful in their prayers, to be watchful in it, to be steadfast, and devoted, and diligent.

And then he has a request. And I think this is the meat of what he's talking about here in this passage. And he's going to summarize a lot with few words. Look at verse three, Colossians 4:3-4, “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.” Every pastor who's preached more than one sermon knows this passage. We want our messages to be clear. We want it to be understandable. And I know you're praying for that every Sunday as well, “Lord, help me understand what this guy is talking about.”

But what Paul is really saying here is he's praying for gospel opportunities. And that's the second point: You and I Need to Pray for Gospel Opportunities. To open doors. You hear that phrase, “Lord, open a door.” We normally use it as a way to get a job, or to find a new house, or to find something. “Lord, just pave the way, open the door for me.” Right? We talk about that constantly. Paul uses this terminology, to show that it's the Lord who establishes the path forward. According to his Word. Paul has traveled for thousands of miles, he has seen people saved. But he knows only God can change hearts. “Lord God, I can go, and I can find unsaved people.”

You and I can go outside these doors. And a lot of times, inside these doors, we can find unsaved people and we can preach the gospel. I mean, do you need God to open a door to show up at the grocery store and find an unsaved person? No. So what is Paul talking about here? He's talking about the dependence that is needed for God to graciously work in someone's life, to bring them to saving faith and to use him to preach the gospel clearly, to them. It can't simply mean that he's looking for breathing, unsaved people. They're everywhere. So, he prays that God would open doors.

Notice, he says, “on account of which I am in prison.” He knows that God has called him to preach. Just because his circumstances change, doesn't mean the message has changed. Think about that. How often do our circumstances dictate our prayer life, versus our prayer life dictating how we operate in our circumstances? Paul is not praying for his circumstances to change. You won't find him praying that the prison doors be opened, he's praying that Gospel doors will be opened. Do you see that in the passage? If there ever was a time, a stressful time in Paul's life, this is it. This is the pinnacle of stress in his life. And he is not praying that an angel would bust him out of prison. He is not praying that he would just be vindicated and justified in life – that he is falsely accused, and that everyone would see that he is innocent of whatever they're accusing him of. He's not praying for that. He's praying that God's will be done in his life. So, when you pray for gospel opportunities, you're praying for God's will to be done in your life. And when God opens those doors, we need to walk through them.

You say, “Well, I mean, Paul had visions, he did miracles, he had all kinds of things to help him.” Well, let me just describe to you… Paul's in prison. He tells them later, “Remember my chains” [Colossians 4:18]. He wants them to remember where he is. Let me tell you, how did Paul get to prison? Do you remember the circumstances leading up to it? Dustin actually read some of the circumstances leading up to it, just this morning, before our prayer time. Let me tell you how Paul got where he is because it's going to help us understand the magnitude of what he's asking them to pray about.

He's towards the end of his third missionary journey. And he had been accused of bringing a Gentile into the temple, which would defile the temple. Right? So, this is Acts 21, that's where that's recorded. This led him to languishing in prison for two years. Two years. If we were in prison for a week, we would be so bitter. He is going on two years or more here now. And this was going nowhere and eventually he appeals to Caesar. Right? We remember that. But there's a whole lot more to the story that really illuminates this passage for us.

So, we go to the time where Paul is accused of taking a Gentile into the temple. It's a very fruitful time in his ministry. And they take him and they put him in prison. And Paul realizes that when he's in prison, he's, of course, got a captive audience. Like when you're on an airplane or something, you have a captive audience, they really can't go anywhere. So, it provides new gospel opportunities. And he wanted to make the most of it. And so, while he's in prison, he's asking for clarity. “Lord, help me to be clear to these people.” Paul has had to learn how to be clear in high pressure situations. So, when the pressures on and you have to give the gospel, that's when you really understand how much you know the gospel. When you're talking to me or someone else, and you're talking about Scripture, and you know, how you were saved. That's not really high pressure. That's like what we call T-ball situations. Where the ball is on the tee and it's not moving, you just got to hit it. That's the easy part.

Paul, leading up to this time, was preaching to a Roman mob in Acts 22, who wanted him beaten, and put in prison, and forgotten about. Then in Acts 23, he was called before the High Council, and the High Priest, Ananias, who could have had him whipped. Of course, the Sadducees and the Pharisees who didn't believe what he was saying, were also there. So, this is leading up to where we are in Colossians, over a two-year period, and these things are getting worse and the situations are getting harder and harder. And you'll see from Acts 21 to the end, he repeats his testimony over and over again in high pressure situations. They had so much hatred for Paul – the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the people who were the Roman mob – they had so much hatred for him, remember that they actually tried to kill him while he was in prison. While they were moving him from one place to another, their plan was to ambush him.

We know this was very intense because in Acts 23 it says they had 470 men who came together to just safely transport Paul, where he needed to go. Now, guys, one against three are bad odds, right? So, to take 470 men – soldiers, foot soldiers, horsemen, spearmen – you can read about that in Acts 23. The whole town, the whole city, wanted to kill him. That's pressure. When he finally did get to Felix in Acts 24, here's what Paul spoke about: he spoke, “about faith in Christ Jesus… righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” [Acts 24:24-25]. Let me ask you a question, is that what you thought you would hear from the pulpit today? Faith in Christ Jesus, righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment? If you have one gospel opportunity to share your faith with somebody, don't just simply ask them to come to church and think that you’ve shared the gospel with them. That's not the gospel! The gospel is faith in Jesus Christ, that people are dying, they're on their way to hell. That they need to turn from sin to a living God and live for Jesus Christ. That they need to live a righteous life, that they need to have self-control.

That whole thing out there that there's, “Oh, I just can't handle, my mind is so messed up, I have no self-control.” Self-control, it’s a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control.” And he preaches judgment. Either Paul is the most unloving person on the planet, as defined by the typical popular church today. Or he's doing exactly what God wants him to do. Calling people to faith and repentance, not whitewashing their sin. Telling them about a loving God, who is bringing the coming judgment. That is the gospel. He spoke powerfully to powerful people; he did not shrink back. He did not shy away. He called those, who could have him killed, to repent of their sins. Were afraid of posting on Facebook. Well, as he was going through this, things slowed way down. They hoped that Paul would bribe them. That is, Felix the governor, and all of his people. They thought Paul would be able to bribe them with money. So, they just left him in there – in prison, to rot. Until the next guy, who was named Festus, came along. They thought maybe Festus could enjoy listening to him.

This is like a two-year court case going nowhere and without a lawyer. Right? If we get called into our boss, or if there's a meeting. Or a, “Hey, Pastor, I want to have lunch with you,” right, type of thing. We get nervous when we don't know what's going on. This is two years of being his own lawyer. And it says in Acts 25:7, they could not prove their charges against Paul. These are the most educated people trying to condemn one person in a foreign city for years. He didn't even go to Rome right away after he appealed to Caesar. Because this guy named King Agrippa came, he showed up and he wanted to have a little fun and hear from Paul as well. You get the idea, anyone of power and renown had come to hear Paul, to hear Paul.

Eventually, they agreed to his appeal to Caesar and sent him to Rome. And in one of his final testimonies about God, let me repeat Acts 26:18 to you. This is what Paul says, so when he's praying, “open my mouth and make it clear,” this is what he says, that he had been sent, “to open their eyes.” Sounds really judgy doesn't it? “To open their eyes, so that they may [what?] turn from darkness to light.” – “Are you saying, Paul, that we are in darkness? How dare you?” “And from the power of Satan to God.” How many churches are preaching that the unsaved are following and in the power of Satan? Instead, it's just, “God's got a wonderful plan for your life.” Yeah, he does. He doesn't want you to follow Satan anymore. Going on, “that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:18.

So as Paul for years is repeatedly brought before people, and we only have a few accounts of him being brought before people, while he's in prison – over and over and over again – notice he's not getting bitter. His message hasn't changed. The bite and the sting of it hasn't been taken away. Notice when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he took away the sting of death. There is a consequence for not following Jesus Christ. And Paul wants them to receive forgiveness of sins, and a hug and Kumbaya is not the way. It's not that Paul didn't know the gospel, he knew the gospel. It's not that he didn't have courage, he had immense courage. Or even the opportunity. So why ask for open doors and clarity when he obviously had open doors and clarity? It's because he wanted to finish the race. Notice he says this “is how I ought to speak” [Colossians 4:4]. There are other ways I'm tempted to speak but I want to speak the way God wants me to, “how I ought to.”

Paul was a man just like us, he was human. He had fears, he had been preaching the gospel, one trial after another for many years. He knew these trials brought him great opportunity, the trials, brought him opportunity. He would not have been able to preach the gospel to people so influential without being in prison. King Agrippa even told him he could speak freely. In other words, “Paul, we're not going to kill you on the spot. You can say whatever you want to say.” If you went into your boss's office, and he said, “You know, I hear that you're a Christian, I just want you to tell me everything about this.” Would you tell him about righteousness, and faith, and self-control, and the coming judgment?

If you've got one opportunity to talk to your boss or that neighbor – who you thought one could save, not even God? And they say, “I'm just feeling down, you seem to have this joy about you. Why do you have that joy?” Would you tell them what they need to hear? Paul knows that “speak freely” depends on God. We don't want to give our own words, we don't want to put our own spin on it. We don't want to just come up with something off the cuff. We want to be prepared and ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us. That is praying for gospel opportunities. In any and every situation.

So, you say, “How does this apply to me directly? I'm not in chains. I'm not in prison doors. Let me give you a few ways this applies to you directly. One, prayer is about God's will not ours. Prayer is about God's will not ours. Let me prove that to you. It was God's will for Paul to preach. So, he prays, “Lord help me preach, help me to speak how I ought to.” To proclaim what? Not just his own ideas, but ‘the mystery of Christ.’” “The mystery of Christ” in context is the gospel. You can't get through chapter one without knowing that. It was God's will for Paul to be clear. So, he prays for clarity. If you've ever given a speech or a presentation, it's nerve racking. And you know you want to be clear. So, Paul is praying that God's will be done in his life. So, he prays for clarity.

Why should we pray this way? Why should we fill our prayers with Scriptures about what God has already said and asked us to do? Because God's will is more important than ours. His will is more important than ours. “Not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus demonstrated that in his humility for us to consider and to pattern our prayers after. Our will needs to conform to God’s. And if your prayers are about something else, besides your will conforming to God's – there are other things to pray about – but what you're going to see the pattern of Scripture is the conformity of the person to God. You're going to see that over and over and over and over again in Scripture.

God wants to use us to share the gospel so he can change people. It's not some method or convincing argument to have you mentally assent to something that you now feel convinced of because the presentation is so amazing. It's the simple truth. The power of God is the gospel unto salvation, not the cute presentation. We spend so much time trying to change others for our own benefit, but only God can do that. Only the power of God, through the Holy Spirit, can change a person's life; can grip their heart and transform them into his image. Our job is to be in God's will, to be ready with what people need. And they need the gospel and his Word. So, the first thing you can do is to make sure that your prayer is about God's will not yours.

Second, prayer is not about securing a luxurious life. It's not. It's not about getting all you can get, or being as happy as you can be. Over and over and over again, in history, we see the wealthiest people who can have everything, they're miserable, they’re miserable. It was God's will for Paul to be in prison, has that sunk in yet? God put him there. And the first thing we would do is, “Lord, free me from my circumstances.” But I want you to go and to preach the gospel to people and the prison is the hallway to do that. “But Lord, can’t I just do that by sending them a letter? Can’t I just do that by living in my own house and having all my nice things and to just, I don't know, maybe send a message to somebody?” You could, but God's will not my will. Paul's best prayers are not for money, a nice house, a good job. His prayers are to preach Christ and make disciples. Is that what characterizes our prayers? So, the second thing you can do is to make sure your prayer is not about securing a luxurious life.

The third thing is that prayer is about transforming us, not life and others to make us happy. Prayer is about transforming us, not about transforming life and others to make us happy. You can pray that God heals your grandmother's big toe. You can. You can pray for your neighbor’s cousin’s, third cousin removed, elbow that got bumped last week. You can. Or that God fixes your flat tire, or your AC unit that goes out. I had that happen a couple years ago, right in summer, not too far before a graduation party at our house. We were praying, “Lord, what are we going to do? It's like 90 degrees out.” But that should be about 5% of your prayers, not 95.

And when somebody asks you, “How can I pray for you?” And you say, “I don't know. What you're really admitting is I don't know the Scriptures enough to know what you should be praying about. And if they ask you what to pray about, and you say, “Oh, you know, so and so is not feeling well. Somebody's in the hospital.” All right, that's great. But if that's always your prayer requests, if that's your prayer requests most of the time, then are we really following the pattern of prayer here for prayer to transform us?

You say, “this just sounds like a big preaching point.” It is a big preaching point. And I'm going to prove it to you. Look in Colossians one, nine. Colossians 1:9. This is what transforming prayer sounds like. And Paul already prayed it to the Colossians. This is a perfect example of transforming prayer.

Colossians 1:9–14 (ESV)
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking [and here is what a transforming prayer sounds like] that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks [there’s that giving thanks again] to the Father, who has qualified you [notice the qualification didn’t come from you, God qualified you] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

That is how our prayers should sound. Filled with Scripture, asking God to help us have a godly walk. An obedient, fruitful life. Bearing fruit in every good work. That means every good work is for the glory of God if it’s to bear fruit. Increasing in the knowledge of God, not just filled with Scripture and wisdom, but also increasing. That never stops. Our understanding of Scripture never stops. You can read the same verse over and over again, you can have it memorized, you can have chapters or even the whole Bible memorized, but you should never stop growing in your understanding of God through his Word. Strength, endurance – we pray for that a lot, I think. Patience. Anyone with children, or who has been married, prays for patience, right? You pray for it and your spouse prays you have it too. Joy, thanksgiving, and remembering our glorious salvation! He's delivered us from the domain of darkness! That should fill our prayers, that should make us joyful. When somebody takes a chunk out of you with their words, and you say, “I’m delivered from the domain of darkness, you're just part of it.” You don't say that to them out loud. But you're thinking it. You're thinking, “Jesus has given me joy and forgiveness and I'm worse than you can even imagine.” When someone says something nasty, or something that's unkind, or maybe unjust – if they could only know our thoughts, right?

So, after today, we should never, ever wonder how to pray. Ever, for the rest of your lives. You should never wonder what prayer should be characterized by. You should never wonder what the content of your prayer should be. Prayer is about transforming us, not life and others to make us happy. So, to summarize so far: one, we’re to pray with diligence and thanksgiving in prayer. Two, we’re to pray for gospel opportunities. And three, in Colossians 4:5 and following, we’re to pray for gracious words.

Remember the context, gracious words. Colossians 4:5-6, “Walk in wisdom towards outsiders,” he says, “making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” This is not a Get Out of Jail Free card so that you don't have to talk about repentance, and forgiveness, and the judgment. That's not what this means. He's already, in context, says he's revealing the mystery of Christ. He's already said that they were to be delivered from the domain of Satan. You want to season your conversations. As one commentator says, “Salt has a purifying influence, rescuing our conversations from their typical filth.” Right, that salt is seasoning. You want to see where people are at. You want to try and be a blessing to them. Not to just hug them and tell them, “Everything's going to be okay.” Because that does happen when they die. But there's between now and then, right? There's this whole part in there that we need to point people to Jesus Christ. Our minds need to be submissive to Christ and his Word. So that we can make the best use of our time. Not struggling with what to come up with. But to have something ready, with our hearts submissive to Christ and his Word. And even the words themselves, submissive to Christ and his Word, then we are ready to talk to others. Being gracious, sharing Christ, seasoning the conversation with salt.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” We need to think about how we're presenting these words. Right? We're not coming off as the one who judges, we're trying to come off as the one who has already judged those who've rejected Christ. We need to be gracious as we share the words of Christ, repentance from sin is a gracious thing. To know and enjoy God's love is a gracious thing. But as we make a defense, notice that is set up by first of all, considering “Christ the Lord as holy,” as holy. To those outside the church, they should think we are gracious and kind. Not because we never bring up Christ, but because when we do, they can see that we love them. Some people think it is unloving just to confront anyone over anything. That is, of course, not the case. But we need to make sure that our own attitudes, our own thoughts, our own expressions, do not convey something that gets in the way of the gospel. And Paul has done this over and over and over and over again. Peter, obviously, the Foot and Mouth King, right, he's praying that he won't get in the way of the gospel.

Paul says the same thing – though he is the most learned, educated, eloquent person on the planet. He wants to have prayers that all his words would be gracious and seasoned with salt. Where does living this kind of life start? How does that come about in our lives? It's through prayer. God can accomplish much in you and through you, as you are diligent, thankful, praying for gospel opportunities, and praying that God would help you to be gracious as you share the full gospel with people.

So, what is the power of prayer? It's God accomplishing his will through us.

Let's pray.

Lord God, what a blessed passage. You have called us to come before your throne with grace, knowing we're not worthy to do so. Yet you have asked us to boldly approach your throne because of our confidence in Christ. Lord, we want to see the world saved. We don't want to cower in the corner and not share the Gospel. And we don't want to be rude and get in the way of the message. Lord, help us to understand these things. Help us to have courage to share Christ, to share his Word. To share, as Paul did, about righteousness and faith in Christ.

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here, or listening online that doesn't know you, that they couldn't backup their faith with Scripture passages. They may be just playing church. I pray, Lord God, that you would save them right now. That they would just call out to you, Father. That they would beg you for forgiveness and grace. And Lord, we know that if they do you will save them. And you will call them your child.

Why don't we just take a moment right now? And if you're not saved, cry out to God and ask him to be your Father and to forgive you of your sins. And if you are saved, let us ask God to help us to be faithful and thankful in our prayers.

Father, we thank you for these things. We love you. We pray that you would help our lives to be full of worship and joy for you. In your precious, Holy Name, Amen.