Intro…
Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone Baptist Church in Wylie, TX.
It is March of 2020 and we are our city, our country, our world is in the grip of the Coronavirus. This has been unlike anything that I have experienced in my 43 years of life and I’m guessing that you can probably say the same thing. This is truly an unprecedented experience for me and as a result I’m asking a lot of questions to try and figure out what I should be doing.
I think it is wise for us to stay calm and remember that God has not been taken by surprise by all of this and if we are familiar with Scripture, we shouldn’t be all that surprised either. Disease is a common feature of life in this fallen world. When Adam and Eve sinned they unleashed a corruption upon this world that has thoroughly affected every molecule of our existence so that plagues, disease, sickness and even death are normal.
But living in self-isolation, self-quarantine, and not being able to buy toilet paper or bottled water is not all that normal for us. So, what are we to do?
Transition…
As Christians, how are we to live out our day to day lives in the midst of this Coronavirus outbreak? Last week on the podcast, Breck, Jeremy and Mark joined me and they helped us to gain a basic understanding of how we should think about this virus and our immediate response to it as Christians.
Today, I want to continue down that same path but I want to get a little more specific. I want to look at Colossians 4 with you and I want us to consider how we should approach our days in the midst of this current health crisis.
Col 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 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— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Podcast Focus…
This is what our day to day life as a Christian should look like.
I. Devote Yourself to Prayer (v. 2)
Col 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
There is quite a bit for us to consider in just this one verse. But the imperative, the word of command that Paul gives us here is that we should be praying. Yes, I know that you are frustrated about people hoarding resources at the grocery store, and I know you might be frustrated with people who appear to not be taking this virus all that seriously, but don’t spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about that, spend more time in prayer and while you’re praying be thankful.
Just last night as our family gather together for prayer, I asked my kids what they were thinking and how they were feeling about all that is happening in our lives right now. One of my sons mentioned that he missed his friends and that he was sad that he wasn’t going to be able to play baseball. Now, he doesn’t fully understand all that is going on in the world, but he knows that his world has been shaken up quite a bit. So, we spent some time talking about that.
But we also spent a few minutes talking about all the things that we should be thankful for. Most of us should thank God that we aren’t sick. We should thank God that we still have food to eat. We should thank God that we have generous neighbors who love us and care for us. We should thank God that mom and dad still have jobs, and if that doesn’t hold up, we will still have roof over our heads.
We should be thankful that we have a church family who loves us, misses us, prays for us and who is eager to serve the needs of our church body. We should be thankful that we have God’s Word in our hands. We should be thankful that through technology we have the ability to worship with our church family from home, the ability to see our loved ones faces, and to continue to minister to one another.
Brothers and sisters we have much to be thankful for. So let’s heed the instruction from God here to pray steadfastly and to do so with thankfulness. Perhaps, you should turn off the TV news for a little while, pick up your bible, and spend some time in the word and prayer. I don’t think you’ll miss anything.
That fear of missing out is real but we should take some instruction from Jesus on that. There was never a busier man in the history of the world than Jesus. He was the Savior of the world but that didn’t keep Him from walking away from everything in order to pray.
Let me give you a couple of examples of this from the life of Jesus.
Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Luke 5:15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would often withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Over and over, we see in Jesus’ life that the demands on his time are growing but He withdraws from all the demands and busyness in order to pray? Does it surprise us that Jesus withdraws from the crowds to pray?
I don’t know all the reasons why Jesus prayed so much, even in the face of great demands but we can probably put together a short list:
1. Jesus prayed this way because He loved communicating with the Father
2. Jesus prayed this way because He needed guidance and comfort which He received from communion with God.
3. Jesus prayed this way because His task was great and He needed spiritual help which He gained from fellowship with God.
4. Jesus prayed this way to set an example for us to follow and the example is that prayer is as common to the life of God’s people as singing is to a mockingbird.
Prayer was as common to Jesus as our morning coffee is to us. It’s the way he started the day and the way he finished the day. Deadlines didn’t get in the way of prayer; they drove home the need for more prayer.
The pace of our lives is set to constantly try and make us hurry up, but God wants us to slow down. He wants us to remember that He is God and we are not. He wants us to rest in the fact that though we do have weighty responsibilities we should also remember that we can’t do it alone.
John Piper writes:
“The very spirit and essence of prayer is dependence. So, even when we are not speaking consciously to God, there is a deep, abiding dependence on him that is woven into the very essence of our faith. In that sense, we are praying. We are experiencing a spirit of dependence continuously, and that kind of disposition is, I think, right at the heart of what God creates when he creates a Christian. There should be a spirit of dependence that permeates all we do.”
So here’s the first application for us in how to live for Christ today; rather than allowing your schedule, your iPhone and your inbox to drive you toward irritability, selfishness and stress; allow those things to drive you to prayer. Build prayer into the rhythm of your morning as consistently as coffee. Voice your dependence upon God. Ask for His help in keeping a watch on your heart and life.
But there is something specific that we should also be praying for…Gospel Advance.
II. Pray for the Gospel’s Advance (v. 3-4)
3 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— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Now, one thing that we need to know about this particular letter of Paul is that he is in prison while he is writing it. He is in prison for preaching the gospel and here we see him asking the church to pray for God to enable him to…preach the gospel. This man lived with a sense of gospel urgency that was incredible.
Paul is asking the church to pray for one of two things: either he is asking for God to open the door of his prison cell so that he can take the gospel out into the world. Or, he is praying for God to open the hearts of his hearers so that they will see their need of Christ and will repent and believe. Either way, he is calling on the church to pray for the gospel to advance and bear fruit, and he wants to be a part of that.
Do you find yourself at a loss for what to pray for right now? Probably not! We are praying for healing fo the sick. We are praying for protection for our loved ones. We are praying for God to remember His mercy in the midst of all the panic, and disease and death.
But if you haven’t thought to pray for an open door for the gospel, you should. Pray that the gospel would be declared and that more people would be born again. The heartbeat of the Christian life is the gospel, that we are saved from our sin and the wrath of God because Christ took our place on the cross. We deserved death and judgment, but in His mercy God applied the blood of Christ to our account. We are saved by faith in Him and when we truly come to an understanding of this gospel reality we want others to know it as well.
So let’s be faithful to pray for the gospel’s advance and let’s also be faithful in our part to advance the gospel. Don’t neglect to preach the gospel. Teach it to your children. Share it with your friends. Comfort your family with the truth in the hopes that all will see their need of Christ and believe. Pray for God to make the gospel clear and undeniable. Pray for your lost loved ones and ask God to open their eyes and hearts to the gospel truth.
Yes, there are many things going on in your life that you should pray about. There are big decisions in front of you and you should be praying for God for wisdom, guidance, patience, and confidence. There are things going on in the lives of others that you should be praying about: sickness, uncertainty, marital problems, struggles with sin, etc. But there is one major thing going on in the world that we should be praying about all the time and it’s the need for folks to hear the gospel and be saved.
1. Devote Yourself to Prayer, 2. Pray for the Gospel’s Advance…
III. Live Wisely (v. 5)
5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Be wise in the way you act, especially toward outsiders/unbelievers. Paul assumes that we are going to encounter unbelievers in our daily lives and because of this he wants us to make the most of our time with them. How are we supposed to do that? By conducting ourselves with wisdom.
Now this is going to be a challenge for us because at a foundational level we are more prone to feeling than we are thinking. And wisdom requires that we think our way through life more than we feel our way through life. Most of us, not all, but most of us have more of a tendency to elevate the importance of how something makes us feel over the importance of whether or not it is right and wise. There is room in our lives for both but notice that Paul doesn’t say that we should walk in emotion toward outsiders. He calls for wisdom.
Christian Wisdom is the mental capacity to understand and function according to Biblical truth. As Christians we should govern our conduct with unbelievers on the basis of Biblical wisdom.
So, what constitutes Biblical wisdom?
First, it begins with a proper fear of God which means we stand in awe of God and we give appropriate respect to His Word. Our lives are oriented around our Creator God as the center and source of all things.
Second, we let the word of God/Christ dwell in us richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another. We read the Bible. We study the Bible. We listen to sound teaching and we let all that we learn shape our view of the world, of family, of others, of life.
Third, process through the decisions in your life with the fear of God and the Word of God as the guiding principles. Some decisions are simple because the Word of God is clear.
Let me give you a few questions to help us make decisions when it’s not so clear what to do.
1. Is this spiritually beneficial to me personally and to the gospel generally?
2. Will this decision make God look glorious or will it slander His name?
3. Will my actions be affecting others in a sinful way or a godly way?
4. Does this violate God Word? Is it illegal?
5. Can I do this in a way that glorifies God?
6. Can I do this in a way that shows love and concern for others?
7. Am I following the example of Jesus to help reconcile sinners to God?
Christ calls us to walk in wisdom with outsiders and not waste our time with them. In other words, we should make use of every opportunity to magnify Christ in our relationships.
And when we do speak up we should speak of grace and with grace…
IV. Speak Graciously/Powerfully (v. 6)
6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
The way we feel or think in the moment is typically going to come out of our mouths because the primary way that we communicate is through speech. One component of the command for us to walk in wisdom is to exercise self-control in the area of our speech. Paul says that we need to let our speech be filtered through grace and seasoned with salt.
To speak graciously means that we speak with care and concern for others. We aren’t simply wanting to be heard or to get our words out, we actually long to show grace to others in our speech.
There is a connection between the attitude of our hearts and the way we communicate with others. For instance, if you are an angry person it is going to come out of your mouth. If you are a bitter person, the people around you know it because of the way you talk. If you are a person who has come to understand and enjoy the grace of God, then that grace should flow out of your mouth to others.
For our speech to be salty means that we should speak in a way that makes an impact. This doesn’t mean that we master the art of the one-liner but that our words have an impact on a person’s heart. I think the best way that we can do this is to be so thoroughly familiar with the rudimentary truths of the Christian faith that when we open our mouths, we speak the truth in love.
So, devote yourself to prayer with thankfulness. Pray for the gospel to advance in the world and through your witness. Live wisely and speak the truth with love and grace.
Conclusion…
If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.
Thanks for listening.
