Everyday | Week Three: Loving "the Others"

Crisis:

The only thing that is going to matter in 100 years is whether or not someone knew and followed Jesus. And we have the message of Jesus to share with the world, but so few of us take it seriously. Tyler stressed this for us last week: there are 10,000 teenagers in Little Rock that are not connected to a church home. They do not know and follow Jesus and we simply cannot be ok with that!

Complication:

There is a natural “us versus them” mentality that must be broken down in order for us to be effective in evangelism and hospitality. There is also a natural temptation for us to not rock the boat and blend in with the culture around us. We don’t want to live distinctive lives; we don’t want to stick out like a soar thumb. We have a deep desire to fit in and be well-liked, so we aren’t naturally inclined to live in an evangelistic way.

Share personal story about my evangelistic experience in middle school and high school.

So how do we overcome all of these obstacles? We have been slowly reading through Paul’s exhortation to the church in Colossae to try to come up with an answer. So far, we’ve seen that it starts by devoting ourselves to prayer, then it looks like looking for open doors to talk about Jesus, and tonight we’re going to see the third aspect of this “Everyday” evangelism. Let’s turn to Colossians 4.

Clue:

“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),” (Colossians 4:5-6).

PRAY 🙏🏻

Climax:

1. Be intentional.

a. “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.”

b. If you want a picture of what it looks like to walk in wisdom, this is it:

c. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace,” (James 3:17-18).

i. Do you notice how similar this list feels to something like the fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22-23)? That’s because the same Spirit that bears that fruit in our lives is the Spirit that gives us the wisdom to walk in the way that Paul is talking about, the way that James describes for us in detail.

d. When we talk about walking in wisdom towards outsiders, this looks like a couple of things:

i. Recognizing who you’re with and how you’re acting.

ii. Being engaged with the world around you.

1. “While resisting the wrong kind of outside influence, the Colossian Christians nevertheless need to stay engaged with their fellow citizens and seek to win them to Christ,” (Douglas Moo).

iii. Move the conversation forward.

1. When Paul encourages the Colossians to make the most of the time, he’s saying, don’t waste your days interacting with people and building relationships that never lead to the ultimate end of sharing Christ with a lost and hurting world.

2. You can start to implement this in your friendships and relationships, take this on as a personal challenge and see how it helps you “make the most of the time”:

Casual —> Personal —> Meaningful —> Spiritual

e. I want to take a second and explain a word in here that Paul uses that might trip some of you up: he calls those who we need to witness to “outsiders.”

i. That sounds like “us versus them” language. It sounds exclusionary.

ii. Have any of you ever felt like an outsider?

iii. Illustration: Share personal story about being an outsider in middle school

1. What’s really interesting is that this world actually has the opposite intended effect in Paul’s writing. He’s not trying to exclude those who don’t follow Jesus and label them as “outsiders” to be avoided or rejected, he is identifying the very group of people that need our love and compassion to make them “insiders”!

f. And this leads us perfectly into Paul’s next statement…

2. Speak life.

a. “…Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt…”

b. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear,” (Ephesians 4:29).

c. How do you talk about others? Are your words “always gracious” like Paul says?

d. This is about developing a heart of compassionand care for those around you.

i. We can’t love the “outsider” if we are constantly judging them or gossiping about their lifestyle. We can’t truly be effective in evangelism if we adopt “us versus them” language.

e. We need to be a people whose speech is always gracious and building up of those around us. We want to be a kind of people that speak life to those around us! Have you ever walked around your high school and just really listened to the way people talk about others? Have you noticed how toxic it is? Have you noticed how rude and mean the joking is? Guys, have you really stopped and listened to the locker room talk? Girls, have you really stopped and heard the kind of gossip that gets passed around the halls? Paul is saying that in order for us to maintain and effective, everyday kind of evangelism and faith, we must be different.

f. And when we commit to walking in wisdom, and speaking with grace and our lives begin to look distinctly different than the watching world around us, it leads us quickly to Paul’s final statement in this passage…

3. Make them ask.

a. “….so that you may know how to answer each person.”

b. “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,” (1 Peter 3:15).

c. Just as Paul told the Colossians, Peter is instructing his readers to live in such a way that is provokes questions.

i. Does your life demand questions? Does your life make people do a double take?

e. This “giving an answer” coupled with the idea from Colossians of “knowing how to answer each person” brings us to a really awesome and often overlooked part of sharing the gospel:

i. The Gospel means “good news.” It’s first and foremost the good news of our salvation and rescue from the consequence of our sin and the offer of eternal life by faith in Jesus!

ii. But the gospel is also uniquely good news to everyone in unique and specific ways. Learning “how you ought to answer each person” when it comes to sharing the gospel means learning what good news means to each person you encounter!

Conclusion:

1. Continue steadfastly in prayer

2. Look for open doors

3. Be intentional with your lives and look for ways to move the conversation forward.

*** Invite Cards for next week’s Color Wars!!***