Sermon Tone Analysis
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Welcome and Announcement
We can continue to pray for Charlie and Lynne as the serve Christ’s church in China.
Get the Handout in the back for Psalm 119C
Youth Fellowship will be at the Edburg home this evening.
Lastly, we are honored to welcome Bentley Crawford to the pulpit this morning.
He is a graduate of RTS-Jackson and was called to be the RUF campus Minister at Belhaven University.
However, this morning, we look forward to his ministry to us.
Thank you for joining us this Lord’s Day.
If there are no other announcements, let us prepare to worship God.
Preparation for Worship and Prelude
Call To Worship:
27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
Invocation
You are Holy, Holy, Holy our God and our King.
As the Seraphim and Cherubim sing praises to you name for all eternity, we join them in calling to one another the awesome holiness of our God.
For you are set apart and above all things.
You stand alone as God over all creation.
You are merciful and mighty and the saints around the world gather to worship and adore your great name.
For you have bought us with a price and by the work of Christ call us your own.
therefore, as we worship you this evening, we are your sons and daughters.
We are grafted in your kingdom by the sanctifying work of Christ.
Therefore, we humbly confess your perfection in the midst of our failings.
On our own accord, we fail with the first Adam that was tempted and deceived by sin.
However, in the second Adam, we are made alive again.
As we conclude this Lord’s day, may it be a pleasing aroma to you.
Prepare us for the week ahead to live as you have called us to live.
We are your people.
Much has been given to us and much is expect from us.
It is all for your glory, Amen.
Hymn 100 Holy, Holy, Holy
Invocation and Lord’s Prayer
Old Testament Lesson: Job 11:7-12
Evening Prayer (Jimmy Sullivan)
Psalm 119C set to Germany
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Sermon Text Introduction
We are nearing the end of the book of Colossians.
Like much of the writing in the New Testament, Paul and the Apostles are worried about false teaching.
Paul in this letter is specifically worried about the believers at Collosae syncretism or the combining of religions.
For these Christians they added pagan philosophies to the True Faith and created false teaching.
Therefore, over the past year, we saw Paul address this Identity Crisis and remedy it with the promise of christ in all of our relationships.
This week, we will see the final instruction given by Paul to the believers.
Hear now
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.
Here ends are our New Testament Reading and this is the Word of the Lord.
Sermon Introduction
Persistence is a great gift in the Christian Tradition Persistence in prayer.
Persistence in pursuing God.
Persistence is our walk with God.
Persistence is pursing outsiders and sharing the Gospel.
Persistence separates the mature from the the immature.
This reminds we of the testimony of one of my professors at Moody Bible Institute.
This professor grew up in a Christian household, but never embraced Christ.
In his twenties, he embraced a homosexual lifestyle and became a drug dealer.
He eventually ended up in prison and then later gave his life to Christ.
The most striking thing about his conversion was not his rebellious lifestyle, rather it was the faithfulness and persistence of his mother.
Every morning she went to her prayer closet and prayer for her son.
That he would turn from his wickedness and to Jesus Christ.
She did this for years before the fruits of that labor would realized.
This is the same command that Paul gives to you today as he concludes his letter to the Colossians.
We are to be persistent in the faith.
A mature believer is marked by persistence in the faith.
Persistence in prayer and persistence in wisdom.
Therefore, as Paul transitions to the conclusion of his letter, he gives us one final teaching.
Even more then that he actually a final command.
We are to be devoted to prayer and to walk in wisdom.
So the Question that we seek to answer this evening is this, “What are we called to do for those outside of the church?” or put even more simply, “what does the evangelistic work of the church look like?”
The Answer is simple:
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them, and undergo our portion in them with the more satisfaction.
If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them, and undergo our portion in them with the more satisfaction.
Proposition: Devote yourself to being a Christian Witness.
HOW?
Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
Be Steadfast in Prayer (4:2-4)
First, we are called to be steadfast in prayer.
Look at verse two with me,
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.
Each verse gives us an idea for the content of evangelistic prayer.
Verse two tells us to how much to pray, Verse 3 tells us to pray for Gospel opportunity, and verse 4 tells us to pray for clarity.
A call to prayer (2)
As we open is verse 2, we see that the believer is called to “continue in steadfast prayer.”
To put is more simply we can translate this as “Devote yourself to prayer.”
I want you to notice that this is a Paul’s command to the believer.
It is not optional or a gift that only some possess.
Rather, it is standard feature of the Christian faith.
Every Christian must pray and it must be a regular habit in the Christian life.
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