The Effective Witness of a Christian

Desire to be an effective witness

Recent events have caused us to change what we do.

I’d been preaching through James, but I think that there are other things to look at for the time being.

The question I have for you today is how can you be an effective witness for Christ.

Especially now.

How can we use our current circumstances as an opportunity to be different.

All Christians are called to be evangelistic.

We are created in the image of God.

We know truth.

If we are Christians, we know who Christ is.

In the Great Commission, we are told to go and make disciples of Christ.

So how do we do this?

And how do we do that when we are locked in our homes.

No meeting at coffee shops or restaurants.

There are countless books and programs that teach you how to be evangelistic.

But it’s rare to find someone who is genuinely evangelistic.

Have you ever known someone for a length of time -

This could be a coworker.

Friend.

Friend of a friend.

Someone that you know, and they find out your a Christian, and it’s suddenly like they learned something brand new about you?

“Oh you’re a Christian? I never knew that about you.”

It’s as if their whole world is rocked, because you aren’t what they thought you were.

Those words should break your heart.

Why is it that your faith in Christ is a secret that people have to pull out of you like a tooth in the dentist’s chair?

If someone has to wonder whether or not you are a Christian, that should make you wonder what is it you are communicating?

What are you communicating if you can be a believer in Christ … and no one knows?

Being a Christian shouldn’t be an alter ego.

Superman kept Clark Kent a secret.

Bruce Wayne didn’t want the world to know he was Batman.

Being a Christian isn’t the super power that you keep in secret.

Why don’t we let more people know who we are and what we have in Christ?

To be a witness, means to testify something, to proclaim something.

You have something to say.

You have something to communicate.

What is it you are communicating?

What is it you are saying if people don’t know this about you?

What it really means is that if you aren’t a witness for Christ, you are communicating something other than Christ.

Today, we will look at , and we will see 3 very simple ways to be an effective witness for Christ.

Read Colossians 4:2-6.

The first step to being an effective witness for Christ is to Speak in Prayer.

This begins in verse 2, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

Paul’s first words are to speak in prayer, “Continue steadfastly in prayer ...”

To continue steadfastly, means to hold fast to something.

These words were used of taking a boat and tying it to a jetty.

Of fastening a boat to a dock.

When that boat is tied, it will not move.

The boat becomes one with that dock.

To continue steadfastly is describing something being attached to another thing.

We’ve got honey in our pantry.

It’s in a container that’s loosely shaped like a beehive.

And when I grab it, no matter where I grab it, there’s always little honey on the sides of the container.

Doesn’t matter where I touch it, I always get honey on my fingers.

And it sticks to me.

That’s what it means to continue steadfastly.

It holds to me.

It sticks to me.

This is how we are to be in prayer.

Christians are to constantly be attached to God in prayer.

The Christians is to continue steadfastly in prayer, connected to prayer, tied to prayer.

The thought of a Christian, not in prayer, is an anomaly.

The Christian not in prayer, is a ghost ship.

He’s untethered.

He’s lost at sea.

He floats aimlessly, without any connection to a foundation, no dock to call home.

Praying continuously -

Prayer isn’t mindless mumbling, or saying little mantras to yourself, that are meaningless.

Prayer isn’t a formula, incantation, or magical spell, that if you say the right words in the right order, makes God do certain things for you.

that you say that makes God do certain things when you say things in the right order.

Prayer isn’t like that secret 4 digit code you type into an ATM machine to get cash back.

Prayer is a deep, connection and devotion to the Lord.

Always being aware of His presence, guidance, and sovereignty through life.

Prayer is the reality of knowing God, having His Spirit within, and fellowship with the Son.

Prayer is like the rope that fastens the boat to the dock, and it is your connection to God.

And so we pray.

Prayer is the greatest weapon that you have in your arsenal against enemy.

After describing the armor of God, in , Paul says, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

Why is prayer so powerful?

Because of Who you are talking to.

Because of the death of Christ, you have peace with God.

You no longer have to fear the wrath of God.

Rather, you can approach God.

Because of the presence of the Spirit, you, a mere mortal, a human, you can talk to the sovereign God Who created everything.

And He hears.

He cares.

He listens.

And you ask, because Christ has all authority.

So we pray.

I can consider nothing more affective in times of worry, then prayer.

Prayer is for all Christians.

Have you ever heard of a prayer warrior?

The term prayer warrior is usually describing someone who prays a lot.

The prayer warrior is seen as rare.

You need something, and you need something done soon, you find the prayer warrior, because you know this person prays.

You don’t pray.

At least you don’t pray like you should.

But the prayer warrior does, so you seek him out.

But the prayer warrior shouldn’t be the rare Christian.

Paul is speaking to all Christians.

This is in the y’all tense.

He’s speaking to you all.

In the New Testament the praying Christian is never the rare Christian.

There is no spiritual gift of being a prayer warrior.

There is no spiritual gift of prayer.

Prayer is the action of all Christians.

When we read the New Testament, we read, they all prayed.

, after the ascension of Jesus, it says, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, ...”

, after Pentecost, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Prayer wasn’t just for the apostles, or the super Christians.

It was expected of all Christians.

That’s why Paul gives the charge here, the command here, to “Continue steadfastly in prayer ...”

If we are going to have an effective witness for Christ we must be praying Christians.

But the more I talk to Christians, the more I learn that prayer isn’t something that Christians are doing.

Why is that?

Maybe the reason why so few Christians do pray, is because they don’t think it really does anything.

That’s why when we pray, Paul says to continue in prayer steadfastly, and that we are to be watchful, “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful.”

What are we watchful for?

The response.

Think of a security guard who walks a property at night.

What good is a security, if he goes into his car and falls asleep?

He’s good for nothing.

A good security guard assumes someone is out there.

And he is going to catch that someone.

So, he drinks his coffee.

He stays alert.

He is vigilant.

His eyes are peeled open.

Keeping guard.

This is how we pray.

We pray.

Then we are watchful.

Paul says, “Watchful in it ...”

Stay alert.

Keep your eyes open.

Maybe the reason why so many Christians have such lethargic prayer lives, is because they aren’t watchful.

They say the words.

They go to sleep.

Not expecting God to really do anything.

This is a faithless prayer.

In James says God won’t honor a faithless prayer.

“For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

We are to pray.

We are to be watchful.

And we are to be watchful in it with thanksgiving.

We pray with the expectation that God will answer that prayer

When you pray in faith, and you pray being watchful, then you pray expecting God to answer that prayer.

You do it with thanksgiving.

You can pray and be thankful while praying.

Ready and eager to give God praise for what He does.

There are certain people that I can count on.

Jason Taylor, is my best friend.

He’s also one of our elders.

I can ask him to do something, and it’ll happen.

He’s got a track record of accountability.

And yet, Proverbs says that there is Someone who is closer than a brother.

This is God.

More reliable then your closest friend.

So we tenaciously, go to the Lord in prayer.

And then we anticipate Him responding to that prayer.

If we are going to have an affective witness, an affective ministry, then we must be a praying people.

Especially now.

We must be a people who are anchored to the sovereign God, in continuous prayer.

That brings us to the next point, we are to Speak in Boldness.

This has to do with what we pray for?

We say that we pray.

Now what do we pray for?

To give us an understanding, we need to know a little bit of the context here.

Paul is the one that is writing Colossians,

At the time that he writes this letter, he’s imprisoned in Rome.

Hebrews tells us to pray for those who are in prison.

Paul wants prayer.

He desires prayer.

He wants other Christians to be praying for him in his time of need.

But notice what Paul is not asking prayer for.

He isn’t asking for food.

And he’s not asking for an early release.

He’s not asking someone to contact his lawyer to speed up his appeal.

What is Paul’s prayer?

You see it in verses 3-4, “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door -”

He asks for a door.

Not to escape from prison.

He asks “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.”

He is praying for opportunities to preach the Gospel.

This is what he is praying for.

If the first point was that we pray.

This second point is that we pray in boldness and for boldness.

So often our prayers aren’t for boldness.

We want to the Gospel to go out.

We love seeing lives changed.

But we don’t pray for boldness.

We pray that someone else will do all of that.

We want to be a witness.

We want to be evangelistic.

We want to share the Gospel.

And what should we pray for?

Paul gives us an example, pray for open doors to declare the word.

Now I want you to think about something.

Think of someone who’s not a Christian.

Have you ever prayed for that person to be saved?

How have you prayed for that person to be saved?

A lot of times we pray, “God please send someone into that Uncle Bobby’s life.”

“Please let someone else be bold.”

But what does Paul pray for?

Pray that God would make him bold.

He says, “pray that I would have an open door.”

Pray for us.

Pray that God would open a door for the word.

Paul is asking for prayer so that he would be bold.

Not someone else.

Himself.

Pray for me to be bold.

He’s praying for an opportunity to preach the Gospel.

He’s in prison for preaching the Gospel.

But he hasn’t learned his lesson.

And he’s asking that God would allow him to continue preaching the Gospel.

This is interesting, because I always think of Paul as a super Christian.

As if he’s the boldest man to ever walk on the face of the earth.

Not afraid of anything.

Yet, what is it he asks for?

Boldness.

Back in he said, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,”

Again, he prayed for boldness.

This should teach us something.

If Paul needed to pray for boldness … we need to pray for boldness.

This gives us an idea of what we should be praying for.

That we would be individually bold in preaching the Gospel.

My prayer for you is that you would be bold.

In fact, we should be praying for each other, we would be a bold church.

A dream of mine, is that Southwest would be that weird church in Temecula, that is obsessed with the Gospel.

And that we would be individuals who are bold with the Gospel.

That we would have an attitude of boldness.

You should be praying for yourself, that you would be bold.

That we would be eager to share the greatest message in all the world.

This is what our prayer should be.

I want Southwest to grow.

I want to see more people in that building when we return.

And that’s what we pray for right?

How do we expect people to show up and to be converted?

They need to hear something first.

Let’s not just pray that the church would grow, let’s pray for bold Christians.

The book of Acts records the explosion of the church.

The Lord added to their numbers daily.

They weren’t just praying, “God bring more people here.”

What was the church doing?

They weren’t just praying, “God bring more people here.”

They were bold.

And we see the content of our boldness, “to declare the mystery of Christ ...”

We all have our passions.

Some love to talk about sports, others politics, others celebrity gossip.

Some of us love to talk about ourselves.

And we are very clear about these passions.

And you do really well communicating all these other things.

But our prayer is that we may declare the Gospel, and to declare it clearly.

If people are going to get mad at us, if Christians are going to be offensive, let it be because we are clear about the Gospel.

Paul was a tent maker.

He wasn’t in prison because he made a defective tent and didn’t honor the warranty.

He was not in prison because of his stance on the Caesar and the growth of the federal government encroaching on the rights of the individual citizen.

Paul was in prison because of the Gospel.

Because he preached Christ and Him crucified.

Let’s not confuse what our boldness is to be primarily about.

It’s easy to confuse the issues.

It’s easy to put our passions first.

It’s easy to become so focused on politics that they become our main issue.

It’s easy to become so focused on sports, entertainment, and even ourselves.

That we become offensive about these things.

I love baseball.

But if all someone can talk about is baseball … I get bored real quick.

What we should be obsessively bold about is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because if people don’t know Christ, they are going to Hell.

Someone can not like baseball … and go to heaven.

Someone might be ignorant of what’s going on in Washington DC and be happy as a lark.

But if they don’t know Christ … it’s an eternity in Hell.

I’ll tell you what, this Covid 19 thing, it’s real.

I met with a fellow student who I go to seminary with yesterday.

He’s a nurse.

He’s watching the hospital he works at become primarily a covid 19 hospital.

People in our community, Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar, Winchester, have this virus.

People are dying.

And the world is scared.

What is your message?

Is it, “I hope you have enough toilet paper?”

Or is it trust in the lamb who was slain.

That’s a message of hope.

In Jesus said this, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

This what we are to pray for.

Jesus tells us what to pray for.

Pray for the church to be bold.

Pray for yourself to be bold.

I ask that you would pray for me to be bold.

We are never going to be an affective witness if we are quiet, if we aren’t saying anything.

And the third way to being an effective witness for Christ is that we must Speak Expecting to be Heard.

You have a message to tell.

Be consistent in that message.

I’ve heard it said, “Actions speak louder than words.”

How you live says something about what you believe.

If you are a Christian, then you believe that Jesus is Lord.

If you are a Christian, then you obey Him.

You live under Him as your sovereign King.

Your life, how you live, bears the fruit, is the evidence of the new life that you have in Christ.

So the question is, what does your life say about what you believe?

Are you living consistently?

What kind of witness does your life give?

In verse 5 Paul says, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.”

Walk in wisdom.

That’s the opposite of walking in foolishness.

In the Bible, especially, the Proverbs, foolishness is opposed to God.

In , the fool says there is no God.

The fool walks in sin.

When the outsider, the nonChristian, looks at your life, what does he see?

Who does he see you serving?

Who does he see as your Lord and master?

Does he see someone who serves money?

Are you serving only your desires?

Your personal happiness?

Paul says to walk in wisdom.

Because you are saying something, whether you want to or not.

We absolutely are to preach the Gospel with our mouths.

I’m not talking about that quote, that isn’t real by the way, that says, “Preach often, and use words when necessary.”

That’s not what I’m talking about.

Because we are to preach often.

And use words.

Remember, Paul prayed for boldness to use his words.

You are going to preach.

But your actions better not contradict that Gospel that we preach.

I know that many of you are terrified of evangelizing, because you might say something wrong.

You’re afraid to evangelize because you might tell people some new heresy, or to invite Buddha into their heart, or something.

Do you ever stop to think that how you live is equally dangerous as to what you say?

, Pauls says, “For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

You claim to live under the Lordship of Christ.

But if your life says something differently, then your confession is really a mockery of God, it is blasphemy.

I knew a man who was a pastor.

He fell into sexual immorality.

He had an affair on his wife, while a pastor.

He emailed myself and some other pastors in the area, and he apologized.

He apologized because his actions said something.

And they said something about pastors and the office of an elder.

His actions further tarnished the role of a pastor in the world around us.

The role of a pastor is to serve as an undershepherd of Christ.

And now when people in his church, and people who go to that church meet an elder or a pastor, there will be some suspicion about their pastor, whoever he is.

Think about the message of your life.

It’s one where we grieve over our sins.

We find comfort in Christ who redeems.

And live in obedience to Him.

Paul says, “making the best use of the time.”

Time is so precious.

Our government passed a huge stimulus bill this past week.

I’m sure it’ll be help.

Where’s the money coming from?

I don’t know?

A printing press in Fort Knox.

Sometimes it seems like the government just makes money, it pops up out of thin air.

Time is not an asset that we can just make up.

There is no stimulus package for time.

says that God knows all your days ahead of time.

It’s as if your life is written in a book.

It’s finite.

It’s limited.

Once a second passes, you can never get it back.

There’s no time machine.

There’s no way to go back in time and relive a moment of the past.

We’ve all known someone who left us, and it seemed premature.

They moved away.

They died.

And you were left having something to say, that you never said.

And it breaks your heart.

One more time to tell your mother you love her.

You wanted to tell your mother, one last time, you love her.

One last opportunity to patch up a rocky friendship.

But the moment has passed.

These are brutal lessons.

So Paul says, “make the best use of the time.”

Literally to redeem the time, or buy back the time, or ransom the time.

Because time is precious.

And you won’t have it forever.

Jesus understood the treasure of time.

His official time of ministry was only 3 years.

, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”

We have only a limited amount of time.

And we have only a limited time to be bold.

They moved away.

We have only a limited time to be a witness, to point people to Christ.

If you are going to be an affective witness of Christ, then understand that now is the time.

We pray.

We pray for boldness.

And we pray that we would use this time to be a bold witness.

They died.

Not only are we careful in how we live, but we are careful in how we speak.

And we were left having something to say, that we never got to say to them.

In verse 6, Paul says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

And it breaks your heart.

How you speak says something about what Christ has done to you.

One more time to tell your mother you love her.

How you speak is a litmus test for your own spiritual condition.

One last opportunity to patch up a friendship.

, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

These are brutal lessons.

The condition of your heart is manifested in how you talk; in what you say.

We are talking about being an affective witness for Christ.

If your mouth is full of slander, vulgarity, filthy jokes, cuss words, what is your witness?

If the heart has changed, then the language changes, the behavior changes.

That there isn’t any internal change.

Ephesians 5:29, “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.”

Verse 25, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

How do we speak?

In truth.

Verse 29, “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.”

An affective witness for Christ, aims to encourage others.

We are commanded to make disciples.

And everything that we do and say should be helping foster that mindset.This is how we are to speak.

, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

, Paul said give grace to those who hear, and here in he says let your speech be seasoned with salt.

This is how we are to speak.

Being seasoned with salt, is having the word of Christ dwell in you.

It’s being in God’s word.

And then letting it overflow out of your life.

Notice that Paul is talking about our relationship to nonChristians.

Outsiders.

What should they be hearing from us?

Speech that is seasoned with salt.

Seasoning brings out flavoring.

It’s distinct.

It’s different.

It’s seasoned with grace.

It’s always pointing people to Christ.

It’s speaking of the Gospel.

It’s speaking of what has been done for us.

Folks we have an opportunity in front of us to be a witness for Christ.

Everything that the world has built is suddenly being seen as being built on sandy soil.

Empires have been rocked.

The world is scared.

How do you respond to this?

With hope.

Why do we have hope?

Because we know that there is a God who cares, loves and comforts.

This God loves those who are His.

How much?

That He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for those who don’t deserve it.

To pay for their sins.

So that when they die, they won’t be abandoned to God’s wrath.

But have everlasting life.

We commune with this God.

So we pray to this God.

We know that this God answers prayers.

So pray.

We pray frequently.

And we pray for boldness.

We pray that we would be obedient to the call to go and preach.

We pray that the Good News of the Gospel will go out.

That people will learn of Jesus Christ who conquered the grave.

We pray for the Gospel to to go out.

And we live knowing that Christ is Lord.

Do you realize

Letting your actions be fruit, evidence, a fragrance of a new life in Christ.

I tell you what, you do these things, and you will be a witness for Christ.

You’ll be amazed at what He does.

Pray