11/20/22- Worships Impact on Outsiders-Jim Pasetti

Continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with Thanksgiving you're gonna have to control this from the there we go

At the same time pray for us that God may open us adore for the word 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 Matt you're going to have to advance this it doesn't look like it's working let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so that you will know how you ought to answer each person let advancement it didn't finish the last slot can you go back okay walking wisdom towards Outsiders making the best use of time let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person okay you may be seated so this passage in this passage God shows us two features of how our worship our lifestyle of worship relates to those outside the church these two are to pray persistently that's in the first few verses and to walk wisely let's look at these one at a time starting with praying persistently it says in verse 2. Continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it in Thanksgiving Paul commands us to be devoted in prayer to devote ourselves in prayer what's it mean to be devoted is there a test that we can apply to ourselves to be devoted how do I know if I'm devoted or not well we can look at the other places in Scripture where God uses that word devoted and it's used about 10 times four of those times he's talking about being devoted in prayer another five are talking about being devoted to Masters or disciplers but there's one instance one time that it's used in Mark chapter 3 that really

Gives us an idea of what this word being devoted means in Mark chapter 3 9 and 10 it says and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowds lest they crush him for he had healed many so that all who had disease pressed around him to touch him so if you remember this is back before the Secret Service and they didn't have a ring around their leaders to protect them so all the people that Jesus had healed were pressing in and pressing in there was really a danger of I guess being crushed to so many people so he told them to have a boat ready to prepare a boat and have it ready the boat was prepared for him it was available to him and it was set aside for his purpose he could get in the boat and be slightly offshore and the people were not going to be crushing in on him so this boat was devoted to his service so if we are to be devoted in prayer we have to ask ourselves are we prepared to pray to use modern speech I guess you could say are we online are we prepared to pray are we available to pray I know some of the people that I'm online I go to click on them to go into an instant message and it says out of the office busy or in a meeting so are we available to pray am I out of the office and are we set aside for prayer are we in instruments for God to use like this boat it was set aside for the purpose of God's use Jesus's use so that's what it means to be devoted to prayer Spurgeon spoke about this devotion he said Heaven's Gate is not to be stormed by one weapon but by many spare no arrows Christian

Watch and see that none of the arms in your Armory is are Rusty besieged the Throne of God with a hundred hands look to the promises of God with a hundred eyes you have a great work on hand for you have to move the hand that moves the world watch then for every means of moving that hand see to it that you ply every promise that you use every argument that you wrestle with all might we're to be devoted in prayer claiming those promises and we're also to Be watchful in prayer watchful it says continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful with Thanksgiving watchful here means to be alert to be sober to be awake and we can kind of get a glimpse of what the meaning of this word watchful is in the passage of The Garden of Gethsemane that evening before his death Matthew 26 40 and 41 it says and he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and he said to Peter so you men could not keep watch with me for one hour keep watching and praying so that you do not come into temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak I find myself looking down on the disciples that Jesus and his hour of need they weren't there for him but that then I start thinking if Jesus were to come to me if he were to come to us today could he say could you not watch in prayer with me for one hour this week could you not watch in prayer with me for one hour this month could you not watch in prayer with me for one hour anytime this year or have you never watched for one hour

In prayer with me ever he calls us to a lifestyle of watchful prayer devoted prayer watchful prayer this verse right here was important to me when God called me into the ministry and it says wake up from your drunken stupor the King James says awake unto righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your chain and this says Wake from your drunken stupor you can get the idea there's a haziness there's there's an unalertness that's going on here and what's the reason that they're supposed to Be watchful look at what it says in the latter part of the verse for some have no knowledge of God man I speak this to your shame it says in my name you can put my name I speak this to Jim shame right there your sleeping Jim you're not watchful and there are people who have no knowledge of God shame on you Jim and he used this verse God used this verse in a big way to move me towards Ministry to get me out of my stupor to make me more watchful in prayer for other people this is the reason why we need to be alert this is the reason why we need to be sober this is why falling asleep has consequences for people devote yourself to prayer being watchful and thankful this watchful word when Cody told me that the passage he wanted me to speak on was Chapter 4 verses two through six I read through the past passage and this word watchful jumped out at me and it brought to mind a passage in Ezekiel regarding the Watchmen and in that passage in Ezekiel let's go back one nope the other back there we go

So this is a watchtower and watch Towers were constructed on the edges of fields that had grapes or grain and the what the Watchmen would stand up on the Watchtower when it came time for the Harvest when the Grain and the grapes were almost ready and he would look out over the fields keeping watch for either animals or people who came to take or destroy any of the crops so the Watchmen stood on a position high up another place the Watchmen stood was on the wall they would stand on the wall and from that position that vantage point they could look out and see danger coming from far away their main job was to identify the danger and then alert those that were inside the city if we look at the passage where this analogy was taken from it's in Ezekiel chapter 33 and it says now the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man speak to the sons of your people and say to them if I bring a sword upon the land and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their Watchmen and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn and warns the people than someone who hears the sound of the horn but does not take warning and a sword comes and takes him away his blood will be on his own head he heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning his blood will be upon himself but had he taken warning he would have saved his life but if the Watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow his horn and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from them he is taken away for his wrongdoing but I will require his blood from the hand of the Watchman

Or the watchman's hand now as for you sons of man I have appointed you as a Watchman for the house of Israel so you will hear a message from my mouth and give them a warning from me when I say to the wicked you Wicked person you will certainly die and you do not speak or warn the wicked person about his way that Wicked person shall die for his wrongdoing but I will require his blood from your hand but if you on your part warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way he will die for his wrongdoing but you have saved your life do we have the responsibility of being a Watchman today well you could argue this was spoken to the Jewish people to Ezekiel the prophet so it wasn't really for us but in our community groups today this we looked at this verse and we found out that this verse is for us today and it says second Corinthians 5 18-20 all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the word to him world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and trusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God he may not have appointed us as a Watchman but he certainly has appointed us as ambassadors the ambassador of Christ is the modern day Watchmen so take up your horn

And start warning people there is danger out there the danger is different than the danger they faced when the city was circled by enemies but there is danger to people's individual Souls and we've been given the responsibility of being that modern day Watchman the Ambassador for Christ to warn them and in those illustrations it was some pretty powerful words said that the blood would be on our hands if we didn't warn them this doesn't seem like an optional command to be an ambassador for Christ or a Watchman so we are to be devoted in prayer we're To Be watchful in our praying and we're also to be thankful in prayer he said devote yourselves in prayer being watchful and thankful we just finished up the Book of Daniel and I don't remember I don't know if you remember back to when Daniel heard for the first time that the king had made a decree who said that if any man makes petition to any God or man for 30 days except to you King shall be cast into the lion's den notice what Daniel does when he heard that ominous news he goes up into his room according to Daniel chapter 6 verse 10. Daniel when Daniel knew that the document had been signed he went into his house where he had a window in the upper chamber opened towards Jerusalem he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously Daniel had something to be thankful for yes there was a decree put out and his life was in jeopardy but he had something to be thankful for what's the opposite of a thankful heart I was thinking about this week and I think I concluded that the

Opposite of a grateful heart is a grumpy heart can you imagine a situation where someone would say all of your sins are forgiven God has taken your sins as far as the East is from the West God credited you with all his righteousness you're going to heaven you're going to receive Wards and crowns all your sickness and your aches and pains are going to be gone forever yep you're going to be with God forever in glory yep Believers have no reason not to be thankful and I don't want anyone to say including myself but you don't know my situation you don't know what I'm going through where was Paul when he wrote to be thankful prison we'd even in prison even with a death sentence put on Daniel they found something to be thankful for and gratitude is the vaccination against grumpitude you're grateful or grumpy I don't think there's much Middle Ground and if you feel and grumpy the answer is go to the gratitude foreign Colossians the next verse verse 3 and pray for us too that God may give us a door for our message so the next way we need to pray is pray strategically be devoted to prayer what was the second one watchful in prayer thankful in prayer and strategic in prayer praying strategically is not saying God bless the whole world he's already done that right or God be with the missionaries

He said lo I will be with you even to the ends of the Earth that's in the bag already praying strategically is praying for opportunities specific opportunities to engage lost people specific opportunities open an opportunity let's look at our verse here an Open Door is to be interpreted as an opportunity to share the Gospel this isn't a unique wording for opportunity in Scripture it occurs also in Acts chapter 14. Well we have to get used to this new technology and this is Acts Chapter 14 verse 27 and when they arrived and gathered the church together they declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a Door of Faith to the Gentiles he had given them an opportunity with the Gentiles and the word also occurs meaning opportunity in First Corinthians chapter 15 7 and 8. For I do not want you want to see you now just in passing I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for Effective work is open to me and there are many adversaries a wide door a large opportunity has been given to me so our prayer needs to be strategic we have to pray for an opportunity but how else does God tell us to pray not only praying for opportunities when I was in this summer I flew to South America and did a phonology Workshop down there and I had people praying here and I was praying as well for opportunities and during that trip I had the Lord sat me next to an FBI narcotic narcotics agent and he was trying to figure out how God could be good if this all of the things that he was seeing going on in

The at the border with the abuse and the drugs coming in and people being taken advantage of and he just says how can God be good with all of these bad things happen so on my way to Columbia South America I sat next to that guy and we had an I had an opportunity to share the Gospel on my next flight in the country I sat next to a teenage Pentecostal girl whose parents had her so confused about everything she had to do to be saved her Gospel was muddy and unclear so she was trying to jump through hoops and she had no security in who she was I had an opportunity to share the Gospel with her to clarify that for her and then on the way back I had two Jehovah's Witness missionaries that were finishing up their two years in Colombia and they're on the way back and they're sitting right beside me on the way back a four and a half hour Bible study from Bogota to Houston that is an opportunity and they asked all kinds of questions like you know your Bible way better than we do so I had God gave opportunities to shake their faith in what they thought they knew a little bit and move them closer to understanding what is the Gospel that's what we need to be praying for open doors which are opportunities that we'll be able to share our faith with other people then after the opportunity he prayed that he would be able to make it clear clarity pray for opportunity to share the Gospel and then when you get that opportunity make sure it's clear it's clear there is clarity you can present the Gospel as was the case of the Pentecostal parents that we're sharing with their daughter in a way that is confusing to people now what do I have to do to be saved I have to

Believe I have to trust repent and then I have to go to church every week and I have to do Wednesday nights too and on Sunday nights and be there at Christmas time and I have to do all of these things that's confusing to people let's imagine on the way home from church today forward that you come across I guess not you come across an accident and it's clear to you when you come up upon the car that there's someone in the car that's not going to make it the ambulance is still three or four minutes away and this person isn't going to be able to survive that long and they look at you and say I don't want to die tell me what I can do to be saved I hope you've thought this through Clarity of the Gospel is really important when you go home today if you've not stopped to think this through what you would include how you would answer that person if you've not done that it's time to get out a piece of paper put it down on the table and write out what are the most important elements to include in a Gospel presentation but I don't want you to stop right there then I want you to take it to your husband to your wife to somebody here at church to someone in your community group to someone in your core group and I want you to discuss what's on your paper oh you had something I didn't think of oh I like what you have there I need I think that's an important element of the Gospel we should be having these discussions and iron sharpening iron so that our Gospel message is one that's given with clarity we need to pray for opportunity we need to pray for clarity

Because Paul said in verse 4 that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak there's an ought to or a should there we need to have a clear Gospel presentation it wasn't oh if you get to it'd be nice if it was clear no he Paul is for his itself think of who's praying this Paul who knew the Old Testament amazingly is praying that when he communicates the Gospel it was be it would be clear as he should then in verse 5. Goes on how should we claim the good news with Clarity and then he switches to the second main portion so we're supposed to pray persistently and then walk wisely and in the walk wisely in verse 5 it says be wise in the way you act towards Outsiders this isn't your husband your wife your child these are people who are Outsiders when you go out those doors today in the they're the people that you run into that aren't in your immediate close loop how do you behave yourself act towards Outsiders make the most of every opportunity walk wisely means to walk in a way that is attractive to the message I don't remember know if you guys remember a couple months ago we had a gentleman out front with a big sign and a big bull horn and I don't know how many of us were drawn magnetically to his delivery mechanism how he was delivering this he kind of It kind of was pushing us away rather than drawing us towards him I want to be wise in how I share the Gospel and it reminds me of Jesus when he was in Luke 4 21 and 22 Jesus said and he began to say to them today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words

Which were coming from his mouth and they said it's not this Joseph's son Scripture tells us that it's the grace of God that is the magnetic pull that leads people to repentance it's not how loud you can speak in the microphone or how offensive that you can be to other people the showing the grace of God is attractive to the Gospel message gracious words foreign are talked about in Scripture and compared to as precious as silver proverbs 10 20 Compares they're valuable gracious words are valuable gracious words are also compared to a tree of life they're life-giving gracious words are life-giving they're also compared to and that's in Proverbs 15 verse 4. They're also compared to food they're nutritious gracious words build people up proverbs 10 21. Gracious words are compared to refreshing water they're satisfying proverbs 10 11. And then gracious words are also compared to Medicine they're healing and Paul tells us that our Gospel presentation to unbelievers ought to be a gracious presentation building people up healing people giving them valuable information satisfying their needs so let your conversations be always full of grace and then it says season with salt so that you will know how to answer people seasoned with salt season means prepared and set before someone this verb is in a form that means the preparation happened in the past but it has

Continuing effects it's been season and that seasoning still is having its effect when the word of God dwells richly within us it is seasoned with salt and then at the end there of verse 6 so that it says we you will know how to answer everyone not a fancy how many people do we know don't share the Gospel with people because they're afraid of being asked a question that they don't know the answer to so because of that they don't engage in sharing their faith with other people this verse chapters 4 verse 6 gives the answer and in it there's a promise there's a so that there's a reason there so that you may know how to answer everyone if your conversation is gracious if it is seasoned with salt you will know how to answer the people who ask you questions but there's a preparation that goes involved your heart's got to be right you have to share graciously you have to share in a prepared way and present it before them in an orderly way but God promises that you will know how to give an answer to that person this is encouraging and should be encouraging to all of us who are afraid to be and ask something that I don't know how to answer that one God will give you an answer with that fellow the FBI agent who said how can God be good if I see all these terrible things happening I told him I don't know how to answer that question that's a like a huge question but the Lord put it on my heart to share with them him that God can end all of the suffering in the world right now and if he does that

He closes the book on everyone else who's never heard the Gospel from having a chance to get to heaven so do I really want to close the book and not let anybody else have a chance to hear the Gospel because that's the result if we say come right now Lord we just want to get out this place is dark this place is dreary they're suffering everywhere there's pain everywhere I want out of here are we willing to endure that suffering and to endure that pain so that the people who haven't heard still have continued chance to hear the Gospel but you don't know how bad this pain is maybe I don't but I do know how lost those people are and if I say get me out of this pain it means they don't get a chance to spend eternity with the Lord in heaven so to just to wrap up those two main points that Paul wants us to walk towards Outsiders is he wants us to be praying persistently and walking wisely no because Cody's discipled me well I have a head hand heart if I can get to that there we go head this is what you're to know Paul prayed that he might present a clear Gospel message this is Paul and he's worried about the clarity of his message I think we should at least be concerned about it right or do we know that much more than Paul that we don't need to be concerned about presenting a clear Gospel message that's what we know from this passage then what we know leads to what we believe it goes from your head to your heart what you believe about this is a clear Gospel message is what we ought to present that's what I know that's what I believe and from my heart what I believe it translates

Into what I do that's the hand so this week what I want you to do is write out the essentials of the Gospel I don't have a minimum number five points ten point you write out whatever you think are the essentials in that case where you come across an accident and you need to present a clear Gospel you only have a few minutes write out a condensed version this is what they need to know and then share that list with someone else and have a good discussion I guarantee you're going to enjoy the discussion I didn't even think of that oh that's a great idea I need to include that so that my presentation can be clearer next time I run into an outsider let's pray and then we'll be closed for today father thank you for your word thank you that it is alive and thank you for speaking to us through it today Lord you just don't want it us to be like the man who looks in the mirror and sees a spot on her face and then to turn around and walk away and not do anything about it Lord if any part of this message is applicable to people whose Hearts today and I pray that you would encourage them to think more about the clarity of the Gospel and to get involved in taking one step to think about the essentials of how they would share to someone in need and I pray that it will be an encouraging time to go through and discussing it with other people as well thank you for your word and for how it changes our life it never comes back void and it always accomplishes what you set it forth to do in Jesus name we pray amen [Music] but invite you to please stand and join me in singing as morning Dawns and day awakes

To you I bring my need oh gracious God my source of strength in you I live and breathe each hour is yours by wisdom planned each deed and powered by Sovereign hands renew my spirit help me stand be glorified today game [Music] as they unfolds I seek your will in all of life's demands and though The Temper tries me still I cling to your commands let every effort of my life display the matchless worth of Christ make me a Living Sacrifice be glorified today [Music] as Sun gives way to Darkest Night your spirit still is here and though my strength Fades like the light new mercies will appear I rest in you abide with me until our trials and suffering give away to final Victory be glorified today I rest in you I rest in you abide with me until our trials and suffering give away to find all Victory be glorified today [Music] I want to take this opportunity to thank Jim this morning for preaching for us and he done a wonderful job and you know I think he made it pretty clear in there you know and if you're here today and if you walk down that door and you died and you don't know where you're going whether you're going to heaven or hell we can we can fix that right here today we've got people around here can talk to you and so don't leave here if you know

Seek out some of us and we'll talk to you about that we'd be making a bad mistake after what we've heard here this morning if we didn't act on that okay so let's pray heavenly father I thank you today for this opportunity to be here and I thank you for your Gospel and I thank you that you saved many of us many years ago and it's all a responsibility to pass the word along and I pray that we'll do that in Jesus name amen thank you foreign