Wide In Christ

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Good morning.

Again, happy Father's Day to all the dads.

Glad that you are a part of CCW and our lives, and uh so glad that you're here.

If you didn't feel celebrated yet, you can go back by our coffee station.

We have several dozen donuts.

So if you're a dad, I it will not offend me if you get up right now and you need one.

I think it'll probably only help the message.

And so, moms, there should be plenty if you need one as well.

But we wanted to celebrate you with a small token this morning.

And um thankful for fathers today, and I'm thankful for strong testimonies of men in this church, in our community.

And uh I will echo what's been said, but Scripture says, where father and mother are not, that Jesus, that God will be a father to the fatherless.

And so I'm thankful for the example of a heavenly father who loves us.

I know for some Father's Day is hard for a multiplicity of reasons, but we have a good, good father in heaven who loves us and we can cling to that truth.

So happy Father's Day to the dads today.

I am taking the advice of my father.

Last night I was on the phone with him, and he said, Rick, don't beat up the dads on Father's Day.

So I'm gonna go back to our series in Colossians, not beat up on the he said, he said, the moms are always celebrated.

He said, I feel like the dads get kicked on Father's Day.

I said, I won't, Dad.

I promise I won't.

So I'm taking my dad's advice.

And uh, anyways, turn your Bibles to Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

Uh we also are on the back end this morning.

We celebrated our week of camp with our teens, the one-way students.

You'll see some shirts that look like this around here.

And uh, we were given the opportunity to go to Chaco Springs.

We took 42.

I shared this this morning, the second largest group out of 27 churches.

So that's pretty awesome.

And uh I told them this morning, it's like 10 years in a row that we're the second largest group.

I'm not gonna quit go until we bring the largest.

So, whatever we gotta do, people, if you got teenagers, let's go.

Okay.

We took 42, so next year we're gonna take 82, Joe.

I don't know what we got to do to make that happen, but anyways, we need first place.

Very spiritual of me, I understand.

Um, but we did have, I believe, five in our group that gave their life to Jesus Christ as Savior this past week.

So praise God.

And the presence of God fell, and uh, it's a beautiful thing.

So, anyways, Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

Let's uh get started there.

As we started this series called Rooted, we started the very first week with this idea as we get rooted into Christ, the vine, as we get deeper into him, we should, as a Christian, begin to grow.

We should become fuller, we should become more fruitful.

And we started as getting deeper.

And today, I want to submit to you that as we get deep in Christ, we end, and he ends Colossians with getting wide in Christ.

And so as you get deeper in the Word of God and richer into your walk with God, you, according to this last charge of Paul, you should get wider.

So we have deep and wide.

And Pastor Dave, so well last week, thank you, he did an amazing job preaching the truth.

He said this if your vertical relationship with God is right, then your horizontal relationships should begin to become right, should be bettered because of your relationship.

Everything else he said will be better.

And so if you're getting a fuller picture of God's word in your life, a natural byproduct should be that you want to share that message with people who need it, who maybe don't know it.

You see, theology is not for the sake of more information, it's not for the sake of debate or to build a deep social club, Sunday school deep club.

That's what the Pharisees and Sadducees did in the New Testament.

They took the Old Testament law information, not transformation, and they just talked and built on that.

It's not about building an elitist clique.

That's not what we are.

As we get rooted, we should get past that, and it's built on this premise.

The Church of Jesus Christ was built upon the premise of John 3.16.

For whosoever, whosoever, whosoever, Matthew 28, 19 said, for us to go tell every creature the gospel.

So as we get deeper and understand this better, if it's really understanding, getting rooted in us, then we should just almost have an idea, we just can't help, but overflow it into others in our community.

So we should, in fact, get wider.

If you're getting smarter biblically, our walls should be getting wider biblically, church.

Because you can't help but tell your neighbor, your coworker, that's why we're here.

So if it's really getting in you, and it's just not theological concepts and information, then you know what?

We're gonna have to build another building pretty soon.

And I'm okay with that.

To get deeper, we gotta get wider.

And Paul said this in Colossians 4, and we're gonna look at it in a moment.

He said, This is what it says.

I'm gonna read the verse, we're gonna look back over it, but he says, that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I'm in change.

He said, I just want to tell somebody.

Man, I had a week.

Go tell.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity that we have.

Lord, that you've chosen for us to be here.

Lord, I thank you for your truth.

I pray that you would invade our hearts.

God, that we wouldn't walk out of here just saying, that's a good message, that's a motivational word, but God, that you would fill us so full.

Lord, this has been the great apex of this idea that we get so rooted, that we take everything that we say is good, and everything we say is great theology, and it becomes a part of our overflow.

God, that we can't help but take it out of this building.

Lord, I pray that would be the testimony of the church at Chelsea Westover.

Lord, this building is great, and I'm glad that we come together and get excited here.

But Lord, take it to our neighborhoods, take it to our workplaces.

Use this message to motivate our hearts in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point this morning as you open up in Colossians is this can I get a witness?

Can I get a witness?

If you look again at verse 2, this is what he said.

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ.

And so the first thing we see about that verse letter A is prayer, he's praying for believers.

He says to continue in prayer for believers.

And he's praying earnestly for those Colossians that he's writing the letter to, that they would continue in the faith.

And it assumes that if, again, remember, we've talked about it, Dave talked about it last week.

It's a big if.

If you're a believer, then, he says, if you're a believer, then continue earnestly in your prayer.

If you're not ever praying, Paul would assume maybe you're not a Christian.

I want you to think about that this morning.

He says, continue.

The word in the Greek is prosketero.

Proskitero, and it means to wait on constantly.

Have you ever been to a restaurant and you've had a waiter that's constantly checking on you?

Right?

You didn't have to ask, you didn't have to do the weird like they were constantly there, your drink was about three-quarters, right?

And they came and they're just dumping some more in there, and they were constantly there.

They asked if they could get your napkin, if they could fill up, if they could take your plate, and they were constantly there.

He's saying the prayer that he's talking about here continue.

Proscotero is as to be waiting on constantly, looking constantly unto God with our prayers.

And so he's saying, you're just serving them up.

Here's the thing you don't have to beg Christians to pray.

If, remember the big if, if you're a Christian, then he says, Proscotera, continue earnestly praying for one another.

But Paul says, I know you pray, keep it up, but and I can't mention prayer without saying my favorite prayer quote.

John Piper says, prayer causes things to happen that would have never happened if you had not prayed.

It's important that you be in prayer.

It's God's hot button.

I don't understand that.

I don't know why.

He could do it without our prayer.

He can do anything he wants, but he responds to prayer.

God is sovereign, but it activates him when his child speaks.

And so he says, continue.

Listen to me, church.

He says, continue praying for your neighbor.

We're going to talk about the what in a moment, but he says, continue first.

You've got to understand we need more prayer.

We must continue to pray.

It's interesting, Ephesians 6.18.

At the end of the armor of God, you get through all the armor of God, the belt, the shield, the helmet, all of the armor of God.

At the end of it, it's almost like there's a secret special weapon.

And he says, and after all these things, continue earnestly, Ephesians 6.18, in prayer for the Lord's people.

He says, in prayer and supplication for the saints.

He's talking about prayer.

We're to pray for our brothers at arm.

We must pray.

Colossians 1, it started off, and it was a prayer.

James says, you have not because.

Anybody know?

You ask not.

This week I was thinking as my role has shifted from previously being youth pastor at camp to being the senior pastor at camp.

And I started thinking about what my uh what my position now is.

And I gotta tell you, wherever Joe is, my job is a lot easier at camp than it's ever been.

It's really kind of glorious now, right?

All the pressure falls to him.

I just want to make sure that everybody stays alive in the background.

But all the rest of it, Joe was out there chasing kids.

They're not in service.

Guess who had to go get them?

Joe did, not me.

It's glorious.

Right?

And so, but my role, a couple of things, you know, one of my roles is a counselor.

I counsel the guys in my room.

I'm an Uber.

So from getting one place to the next, I come flying in.

You need a ride?

You guys need a ride?

Trying to make anybody in my car's day better.

Need a ride?

So I'm an Uber, sort of a taxi.

Um, I am Joe's cheerleader.

I want them to know, man, this is your guy.

He's doing great.

Man, what a great youth pastor.

He's chasing them down, he's doing great, he's swimming, he's jumping off things.

Great, Joe, go, Joe.

Right?

And so I do that.

I'm Heather's soda water carrier.

Okay, she has to have soda water.

It's a part of her dietary needs.

And um, I did fail once.

One dinner, I didn't bring her a soda water, and she said, You got a soda water.

I was like, oh, forgot.

Only once, though, right?

And then it is my job, most and foremost, to be Weston's leash.

I am Weston's leash.

This is my 10-year-old.

We've always brought all our kids with us to camp.

It's a teen camp, and you don't want him, he just, he's everywhere.

He's berserk.

He wants to be into things everywhere, and so I am his leash.

Well, when I got thinking about that, Weston's with me, and Weston's great.

He loves to spend time with people, so he's affectionate toward me.

We have a good time, but he's a lot, right?

And so I got thinking about the week as a dad to my other kids.

One or two times Callie and Wyatt came to me in need of money.

I think just once each.

I can't totally remember, but that's kind of shocking on the normal.

But just once, maybe once they came to me, they got some coffee or drinks or something.

Weston wanted money every opportunity that he could.

Every time we passed that area that has concessions, there's two of them, one for Shaco, one for GoTo.

He wanted money.

And he had no problem to ask.

And he had no shame for the things that he asked for.

It's unbelievable the items he thought he needed at camp.

Okay, we got there, and within moments, he's like, Dad, can I get a harmonica?

What?

He's like, it's only eight dollars.

And I'm like, only eight dollars?

You're not musical.

What are we gonna do but annoy people with this harmonica?

I gave him the money for the harmonica.

Within moments, he labeled it Harmo.

Have you seen my Harmo?

I'm like, he got to go on stage and tell a joke.

On the way out, he went, blew his harmonica.

Like, this kid is awesome.

Anyways, not too much longer, he needed jumbo gummies.

Right?

And he's like, Dad, I need some jumbo gummies.

I'm like, dude, we just ate, like, you know, we we're gonna eat again, too, you know.

And he's like, but can I can I have him?

Like, okay.

So I buy him his jumbo gummies.

He gets those.

That night, he's like, Dad, there's this really cool pen in there.

I'm like, how cool can a pen be?

He's like, and it's only ten dollars.

And I'm like, dude, you're you're drying me up.

And he's like, Dad, so I'm like, no, you can't have it.

Next time we go by, he's like, Dad, can I have that pen?

He's like, I'm having a bad day, you know?

I bought him the pen, right?

Promptly, within an hour, he lost the pen.

Last night, you think that's enough, right?

I've given it.

He's like, he's just staring down this one sweatshirt.

He's looking at and he's like, Dad, he's like, you know my shirt from last year.

He said, and it just really happened.

It got it got thrown in some gas at home or something anyway, and he's like, I probably need another one.

And I'm like, fine, so I shell out the money for this thing.

Listen, this is what I want to tell you.

Weston asked every day.

Every day.

He had no problem asking.

He was always nice to me, he was always close to me.

He had no problem with the ask.

I want to tell you, church, the Bible says you have not because you ask not.

My other two kids asked me once.

I gave them what they wanted once.

My other child asked me probably ten times.

I gave him every time.

Now I want to tell you something.

This is for the kids today.

A little buttering up goes a long way, right, dads?

Am I right?

I mean, he's nice to me.

He's affectionate with me, he's kind to me.

You know, he's a little buttering up.

I heard a guy say the other day, butter makes everything butter.

That's a little dad joke for you.

Maybe some of you will get it later.

Makes everything butter.

But he stayed close and he asks.

He has no problem with the ask.

You have not because you ask not.

We have a covenant member creed that every covenant member here has signed, and it says in it that you will faithfully pray for your pastors, your church, and your body.

Now, I don't want to get into revoking memberships today.

But are you praying?

Are you praying for the body of Christ?

Are you praying?

Can I plea with you?

God is not doing something because somebody is not praying.

When someone calls or texts me, or I get a card and they say, Man, Pastor, I'm praying for you.

Let me tell you how that fills my heart.

Man, it's like I don't even know that I need it sometimes, and when it hits, it's like, man, somebody thought about me.

One of the cards I got from my kids this morning brought me the tears.

I got 40-something cents from Wyatt, who said, I found this at camp.

There's a backstory.

I go around looking for change while I'm at camp, so it's just a fun activity for me.

But that he thought about me last night before he went to bed as a dad, that just struck me, right?

Somebody thinking about you, telling you that they pray for you.

It matters.

So wouldn't you want to do something you love every chance?

I didn't say this, but my most important role at camp is I'm the prayer team captain.

I love thinking about our students and rehearsing their faces and names before God while they're in worship, while we're in groups and we're sharing.

I love to speak names before God because when God does something, I go, I was a part.

I asked and He did, and I love it.

For years I pray the names and faces.

I love praying for our church.

I go to the gym and often I'm praying through the names of people in our church.

I love it because it's something that I'm accustomed to doing.

We love something that we do.

Do you love to pray?

I love knowing God has heard and answered prayer.

But Paul does take it a step further.

Look at what he says.

He says, I'm praying for you and praying for an opportunity.

At Gotel, we write names of lost friends, family members, cousins on the board, and we make it our target that when they come back, and you can't write a name on the board if you will not come back.

We're not just praying flippantly, oh, that so and so will be saved.

They come back, this is their target.

Who am I not only going to pray for, but look for an opportunity, an utterance to speak to them about Christ.

So letter B is this.

He goes from praying for believers to praying for unbelievers.

Look at what it says.

Verse 3 and 4.

Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.

He's praying for a door.

The Greek here, listen, these three words, you want to write them down.

Uh I'm not gonna spell them, they're three Greek words, but they're very catchy, and I like this.

Here's the Greek that he says there.

Aniago Thora Lagos.

Aniago, Thora Logos.

And this is what that means: that God would open unto us a door.

Aniago, God would open.

Door is thorough of utterance is logos.

That God would open a door in the midst, in the midst of our life, in the midst of what we're doing, God would open.

He would bring you an opportunity, Aniago, a door, thorough of utterance, lagos.

And so a portal that means uh an opportunity.

Lagos is the same word uh used in John 1.1.

In the beginning, the word was with God, and the word was God.

And so he says, open a door for the word.

In the midst of your life circumstances, your day-to-day, a portal, right in the middle of work, right from 11 to 11 45.

God just goes, boom, here's a door.

And that person walks in and they've been having a hard week, and you've been praying for an opportunity, and he says, There's a door.

Door open.

What do we do?

He says, Would we be bold with the Lagos, the word, Aniago Torah, Lagos?

In the midst of my day, will I do that?

And here's what I want to recommend before anything else, before breakfast, before coffee, would you pray?

Aniago Thora Lagos.

God, in the midst of what I already have happening, would you open a portal to speak?

That's what Paul's prayer was.

Give me a door.

You want a cool tattoo?

Aniago Thora Lagos.

That I look down and I say, in the midst of whatever I'm doing, a door that I would speak.

A cool t-shirt?

Where's Jason?

A cool t-shirt?

Aniago Thoralagos.

That God would open a door in the midst of my day that I would speak.

You see, I want you to go back to the end of Ephesians there, after the armor, and look at what he says in 6, 19 and 20.

He had already mentioned part of what he says.

And for me, this is Paul again, almost the same thing, that the utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to.

And so we're commanded to look for this door.

And I want to tell you, church, the Bible says the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Do we pray for an opportunity?

Do we look for an opportunity?

I want you to look down at verse number five.

It says, after that prayer, then walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Second point this morning is this can I get some wisdom?

Can I get a witness?

Two, can I get some wisdom?

I need to show you just for some context what walking in wisdom looks like according to Proverbs.

So track with me.

He's praying, looking for an opportunity.

And then he says, When the opportunity opens, when the doorway, the portal opens in the midst of my day that I speak, may I have been walking with wisdom.

Proverbs 2 is a chapter on the value of wisdom.

I want you to see verse 10 through 12 and verse 20.

When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you, understanding will keep you to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things.

Look at verse 20.

So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep to the path of righteousness.

We're to walk, letter A, with godly wisdom.

For this doorway, for this prayer to work, our life has to be characterized by a walk of godly wisdom.

Walk the godly walk.

That word walk there is perpateo, and that means the way that we regulate.

The way that we regulate our life is with perpateo, that we walk constantly.

It's like regulating that, it's like cruise control.

This is our setting, this is who we are, this is what we do.

We just drove to Delaware and back and 14 hours twice in seven days.

And I'm telling you, much of that trip was regulated on cruise, right?

I don't even want to press the gas.

You know, I want to put that, I want to put a little bit of that in my calf, you know.

I want that calf pain.

And so I just hit the cruise and I go, and I get aggravated when somebody wants to get in my lane and mess up my cruise, and I gotta stop cruising for a minute and reset by one mile per hour difference because they're gonna get in front of me and go a little slower or whatever.

And I'm like, I'm cruising, y'all.

I'm regulated.

I'm in my lane.

Y'all just stay over there and do what you gotta do without messing me up.

But we get regulated.

I barely touched the pedal for many hours.

Is that the characterization of your walk?

Because before you can pray and be a witness when the doorway opens, you gotta know that your walk, your life, is the pre-cursor to any witness.

What is your character in the community?

What is your walk?

Before you take a step, what is your witness through your walk?

There's a setting.

You know, it's a great privilege for the Christian, but it's a dire responsibility.

Every day counts, church.

So it says this, it's interesting.

He says, walk with wisdom towards those who are outside.

People who are outside of what?

Walk with wisdom towards those who are outside, outside of the faith.

So we're commanded, listen, in our day-to-day and the busyness of our schedule, a lot of people just go and go and go and go and do and go and collect a paycheck and go.

And God's saying, No, no, no, no, no.

With your life, you are to walk with wisdom towards constantly.

We're praying, but then we're walking towards those who are outside of the faith.

I got thinking about that.

How many outside of the faith people are you walking towards in your week?

We have a lot of people over for dinners, get togethers, gatherings.

Who are you walking towards that's outside of the faith?

Well, what is walking with wisdom?

How do we do that?

Well, one is other scripture in Romans that says to us that we don't cause a stumbling block with our walk.

Okay?

In other words, do not let your Christian walk be the cause of turning away.

I never want anyone to think or say, because Pastor Rick is a Christian, I don't want it.

Because that person's a Christian.

If that's what a Christian is, then I really don't need it.

Because I have to walk with wisdom so that my testimony before them is whatever it is that they got.

I know when they're when their life's falling apart, they're still praising their God.

What is it that they got that I don't have?

And so I don't want to be a stumbling block.

Paul said all things are lawful, but not everything is expedient.

I can do anything I want within the law, but there's a whole lot of things I just don't do.

Church, hear me.

There's certain places I don't go.

I don't need to give you the list.

There's certain things I won't say, certain things I won't watch, certain things I won't do, certain places you won't see me slide into.

Why?

I don't want my walk to lose its witness.

Oh, could I do it?

Yeah, I could do it.

I have the capability of doing it.

But that's my testimony.

I can, I just don't.

Your walk talks louder than your talk talks.

But you have to let her be.

Let her be.

You have to talk.

Let her be is talk the gospel talk.

Look again, we're gonna keep seeing them, but verse three, four, and in the first part of six, it talks about that, about talking.

He says, God, open up a door that I might speak.

That I might speak, that I might make manifest as I ought to, verse four, speak.

Verse six, let's your speech.

Three times in one little passage, does it talk about speaking?

So listen, your walk is a part of it, the precursor, but you have to open your mouth too.

And so when God opens that door, opens that portal in the midst of what you're doing, your job, your work, and the opportunity arises, then we have to speak.

And so, what do we do with that?

We have a couple of clear jobs, no matter what your gift, no matter what your talent.

And one of them is that we speak.

And Paul added after those, at the end of that weaponry, he says, that I would speak and that I would speak boldly, that I would open my mouth boldly.

I want you practically for the next month, I want you to consider one per lost person that you know.

Isn't it worth the prayer and the plan to make a goal that you would have a door that would open and that you would speak?

One lost person, isn't it worth it?

Think about your neighbors.

Who do you talk to?

Are you walking towards them with wisdom?

And then do you speak the gospel talk?

The word preach in Mark, it says, preach the word to every of the creation.

That means to herald.

That means one who declares.

That means declaring means speak.

Saint Francis of Assisi says this that I think is flawed.

He says, preach the gospel every day, and when necessary, use words.

We have to use words.

The Bible says in Romans 14, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and how shall they hear without a preacher unless somebody speaks?

And so we speak the gospel.

The gospel needs lips.

And so I want you to think about it in practical terms.

I don't have all the options up here, but you can Google, you can speak to people about the bridge illustration.

Jesus, the Father is here, Jesus in the middle, and on this side is sin, and it took Jesus on the cross was the bridge that took us to our salvation.

You can look up the circles of salvation, the Romans road of salvation.

But learn a way that it's easy for you to share the gospel.

I told the kids at Kids Camp the gospel in ten words.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

A conversation starter is, man, I'm sorry I've never shared this with you, but can I share?

Man, something's been on my heart.

Or look for a testimony, a way to speak.

Here's the thing that I know when people know how to help something, they really want to share it.

There wasn't too long ago somebody was sharing about an ailment, and Heather, man, she pounced, she jumped right in, she said, Have you ever tried this essential oil?

She loves her essential oils.

Do I got essential oil people in the crowd?

Or oil folks?

Look, all right.

So there's clubs everywhere, right?

You get your oils.

And I was kind of a dissenter, a doubter, a skeptic of it until one day I got a headache, and Heather said, Pap, pap, pap, and she started rubbing this stuff on my head, which felt good in itself.

She was touching me, and I like that.

But anyway, she was just, and she rub, and all of a sudden, my headache went away, and I was like, this is magic.

I don't know, peppermint, lavender, I don't know what's in there.

She got stuff in that closet that stinks.

It's filthy the way it smells.

She'll rub it on your tummy.

Tummy ain't gone.

I'm like, wow.

So, but have listen, if somebody has an ailment, it'll take her a minute to tell them, Have you ever tried this?

Why?

Because we don't want you to have an ailment that continues.

She talk often about how we went gluten-free for a while that helped some struggles, right?

Quickly, if you got a problem, I would love to share about this ailment, but these are temporary ailments when people need to know about an eternal ailment.

And we so quiet when they need to know about their eternity.

Our neighbor, our co-worker, our cousin, our friend need this truth.

And we're we're okay, we're comfortable with helping a temporary ailment.

Yet we bypass the talk of eternity.

We don't want people to think we're weird and reject what we're saying, so we bypass the talk of eternity.

And Paul said, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Ephesians 5 14, he said, Don't use your time not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.

What are we doing with our time?

We're talking about eternity versus temporal.

We'll talk about everything to get somebody right for the temporary, but what is so needed is to speak the gospel.

Not as fools, he says, but as wise.

I thought about this.

I love arcades.

Okay.

I know by and large, this is a gigantic waste of monetary resources.

But I love to get in there and look, when I go, the first thing I do, I know y'all know that I'm not tall enough to have been a good basketball player, but in an arcade, I always beat the previous record.

Okay, and I'll stay there until I beat it.

If it's 85, if it's 90, I shoot.

Ask my kids, I'm just there shooting, I'm shooting.

But look, this is such a waste.

You pay$50 a kid to go into an arcade and they spend all their money.

And my kids, they don't even play like video games too much anymore.

They play games that get them tickets.

Y'all hear me?

They're getting tickets so that they can turn that$50 into, listen to this, they go in there and they'll get$12 worth of items for their$50.

They turn in$5,000 tickets and come out with a Chinese fan and some puppets and a few Tootsie Rolls, and they're like, we won.

I'm like, dude, we spent$150.

We could have gone to Six Flags for 14 hours.

We were in there one hour.

This was not good finances.

But I love it.

I love it.

I love to go.

I got a Dave and Buster's mug.

Listen, that probably cost me 75 bucks.

And it's worth seven.

Right?

But I was shooting, man.

Woo! Beating them.

Waste of time.

Waste of resources.

When I was younger, there was a place called Vince's Batting Cages.

And at Vince's, there was an arcade in there.

They learned how to capitalize on kids coming in to perfect their sport.

And uh we're playing the games, and I got these tickets.

And I started to save, and they had an autographed baseball bat, you Auburn fans are like this, by Frank Thomas.

And man, I wanted that bat.

And so it's 50,000 tickets.

And I save tickets and save tickets.

Every time I went to practice batting, I go play a couple of games, save tickets.

I got up to 15,000 tickets.

And I was working one summer, I came back to Vince's, and I come back in and I'm like, what has happened?

The bat was gone.

I didn't want none of this other garbage.

Let me tell you what happened.

I missed my opportunity to redeem the tickets.

I missed what I thought I wanted.

You know what Paul says?

There's a window.

He says, Redeem the time.

Be aware.

Redeem the time.

You don't want to miss it.

And that takes us to our last point this morning.

Point number three.

Can I get a window?

He said, Redeem the time.

He's talking about an opportunity, a window of opportunity.

Do we see windows?

To realize the value of a window when God opens a doorway, we have to realize the value of time.

The value of one year, ask a student who's ever failed a grade.

The value of one hour, ask a businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal.

The value of one minute, ask a man who had a heart attack in a restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table, and CPR saved his life.

The value of one second, ask the person who just missed an oncoming car collision.

The value of one millisecond, ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths.

We've all been given time and windows and opportunities.

What do we do with them?

There's 168 hours in a week.

You can't save time.

You can't even waste time.

You're going to spend time and invest time in something or someone.

Some people complain they just don't have enough time for their family or for their work or for things.

They wish there was more time.

And I'm here to tell you, you've got exactly the same amount of time as everyone else has.

And you do exactly what you intend to do with your time.

You do.

You'll do what you love.

Don't let the schedule plan your days.

You've got the same time.

Paul said, Redeem it.

Redeem the time.

Use it.

James said, This life is a vapor.

It's coming and it's gone.

What are you gonna do with your time?

Well, look at verse 4.

I know we're jumping back.

But he says to us something important.

That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.

I want you to see that word manifest.

Letter A is this that I have eyes to see.

With my time, I'm praying before God.

Paul is praying that I may have eyes to see, that I may make.

That word is phanaru.

In the Greek, that means to make visible.

Well, he says that I may make manifest.

Manifest is to make visible.

The same word he uses here in two phrases in a row.

The same word is phanaru.

Manifest, manifest.

He says, to plainly recognize with understanding.

Now here we go.

Number one, if you have prayed, that's first.

He wasn't out of order here.

He said, if you have prayed, and two, you've made a plan.

By the way, it's rare something's going to happen outside of that.

But Paul said, I've prayed.

I've made a plan.

He says, now, manifest, manifest, fanaru, fanaru.

Make it visible, God.

Make it so that this mind could understand.

Help me to see it.

Help me to see it.

He says it twice.

Help me to seize it.

Help me to seize it.

There's a window.

Are you looking for that window, church?

I think the world sends us many, many windows.

And we're looking at all kinds of things.

Are we looking for the opportunity to have an utterance to share?

Oh, it's everywhere.

Are we looking?

Are we seeing the moment so that we can seize the moment?

Matthew 6, 22 says this, the lamp of the body is the eye.

To see the moment, we have to understand it's through our eye gate.

If your eye is good, that verse says your whole body will be full of light.

If you're looking for the right things, you will be full of light.

And the book ends to that verse.

He says, Your whole eye is the lamp of the body.

The book ends is Matthew 6, 19 and 21, which says that do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

You can't serve God in money.

A rooted Christian has eyes that seek right windows.

And he says, basically, on the other end, everybody else is seeking the world's money, seeking to serve a God of money.

Our eyes are looking through our work for opportunities to elevate ourselves so that we can get more money, so that we can be a success with what we do, not that we have eyes to see a lost world in need of a savior.

We want to build us up so we can build our family up so we can have a legacy of something.

What about the legacy of salvation in your family, in your people, and the those around you?

If your eye is right, if you're looking through the right windows, you'll see it.

Many people are just building and grinding away at this life to become something of their work.

And if I can just become the greatest at this, one day, my kids will say he was the greatest at this.

Dads, can I tell you the greatest thing that you can leave?

A biblical legacy in your kids.

And he saw opportunities.

See, church, our time and season is coming and going.

And either we're gonna see and meet needs, or we're gonna build big barns, knock them down, build bigger barns, fill them back up, and knock them down, and pass it off to our kids.

We'll have to build big barns.

That's a scripture, that's a parable.

It says a man filled up with so much, and he just knocked his barn down and built it bigger.

Are you looking for ways to help?

Hear me.

Jesus Christ rarely saved a person who he didn't first meet a physical need of theirs.

Make sense?

We're walking toward those who are outside of the faith, who have a need, and we try to meet their need.

That's walking with wisdom.

We seen the door.

I'm not saying we're walking towards someone and we randomly say, You need Jesus as your savior.

Now we walk towards a need, we meet a need, we build a relationship, and then we wait for the window.

They say, How is it that you're like this?

Let me tell you.

I've been waiting to tell you, I've been praying to tell you, and here is my doorway.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 1.18 that the eyes of our understanding be enlightened, that you may know the hope of his calling.

He said, Manifest, manifest, fanor, phenorous, see it and see it.

Needs are everywhere, church.

According to recent statistics, there are estimated 112 million lost people in the United States of America.

Let that sink in a second.

There are 5.4 million people who live in Alabama, over 1.25 million lost.

Let me break it down.

231,000 people live in Shelby County.

24% of them claim religion.

So this number I'm going to give you isn't even correct, but they claim that they attend a religious ceremony somewhere.

Includes Catholicism, includes Mormonism.

So out of that 24% of 231, there's 175,000 or greater lost people in Shelby County.

He said, manifest, make it visible to me that I can see and see a need so that I walk through a door.

And he finishes with verse 6.

He says, Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

So he says, as the door opens with your speech, let it be with grace and seasoned.

Let her be as evangelized with seasoning.

That word salt is halas, and it's a symbol of lasting concord because it protects food from uh putrefaction and it preserves it.

But too often is forgotten to let your speech in the beginning part always be gracious, easier to understand.

That means loving words.

I tell my kids often if you want friends, then be the nicest person in the room.

It's not hard to make friends.

Be nice.

Compliment people with your words.

I'm not talking about flattery.

I'm talking about be real and genuine.

You have a nice smile.

You have nice eyes.

I'm not talking about men talking.

The ladies, y'all, okay?

I'm not talking about dating advice.

I'm just saying talk to people, be nice.

And I admire you for this.

You know, he says speech, gracious speech.

Loving words.

Are you nice to people?

Now, now for some here that you and you have a real struggle, sort of maybe like an introverted struggle.

The first part you need to hear, to talk.

That's your speech.

It means to talk.

You have to talk.

And some people try it's really hard for the Great Commission to be fulfilled if you don't talk, if you don't have that to talk.

So I know that that may be a bigger struggle for you, but you have to work so that you can talk.

And if you just like to be in the corner and read books, find people who like books and talk about the books.

Find a connection.

But you have to talk, and you have to talk with grace.

Hear me, because in a self-absorbed society, introvert, you can't have seasoned evangelistic opportunities if you don't speak.

Talk to people and be interested.

I love part of our CCW model and pastoring is shepherding, and we go on visits.

I love going and visiting people, and one of the things that I love about it, I don't go with the idea that I'm gonna sell CCW to people on these visits.

CCW and God, He knows how to market Himself.

I go on a visit, and here's my hope that I go on that visit and that I make a friend.

I want to make a friend on a visit.

And so I'm gonna go and listen to people talk.

I love to listen and learn about people.

I want to make a friend.

Max Dunham said it this way make a friend, be a friend, and you'll be able to win a friend to Christ.

Well, he says that we should be gracious and full of salt.

And he's using something that is tangible, that is earthy.

He says, Let our speech be within the context, be earthy.

And what that means is so we're seized with salt, it means we're finding a connection.

It's earthy.

We understand that.

So it's something that you can connect with a person, find a way to connect with them at their level, something they like, something that man, Pastor Danny, was amazing at this previous to me.

If you had a boat, he'd talk to you about a boat.

If you had a motorcycle, he talked to you about a motorcycle.

If you had a dog, he'd talk to you about a dog.

If if anybody you ever knew was a doctor, he was gonna bring up that his daughter was a was a PA assistant.

I mean, that connection was like boom.

And then we talk and we learn about somebody so that we can have an opportunity to share Jesus.

My evangelism professor said this get the conversation and turn it to spiritual things.

Learning how to turn the spiritual, the conversation to spiritual things.

When you think about heaven, do you ever think about this?

Everybody identifies with pain, so if you get into that conversation of the pain you've had, the divorce you've had, the struggle you've had, and you get to say, Let me tell you how I got through it.

And you can turn the conversation to spiritual things.

Or I lost this person in my life.

I see that you're going through this, and you turn the conversation.

How did you get through?

Your testimony is one of the most powerful tools to use.

Do you know how to turn the conversation to spiritual things?

Well, the salt was one part, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

We don't have time to turn there, but it says that for you and me, some water, some plant, God brings the increase.

So we are not only bringing salt, but we are a waterer.

So that something takes root to the vine, we're water.

And he says, To be a salty waterer.

Look at your neighbor and say, You're salty.

I got so excited this week studying, I was looking at salt water.

Listen to this.

Salty water draws out other water out of the tissues, causing a drying effect.

When the salt concentration is high enough, salt water kills bacteria through successfully sucking it out of the cell.

Salty waterers go with the truth of the gospel and kill harmful bacteria.

We go with this gospel message and we pull and extract the evil that they're living in by sharing with them the salty truth, the preservative of the gospel.

Church is supposed to be full of life-preserving.

That's what we do.

We exist to get rooted people to the vine.

And when you get deeper rooted in the vine, as you read and you learn, and put off and put on and pray, your heart should see the world around you with eyes like Jesus.

I came across this um story this week in study, and the story was about Elgin Staples.

There's a picture that's going to come up of Elgin and his mother.

Elgin was aboard the USS Astoria.

It was the first U.S.

cruiser to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island.

The USS Astoria scored the first two hits on the Imperial flagship of the Japanese, but Astoria was badly damaged by a missile and sank around noon that day.

A Midwesterner, third class, Elgin Staples, found himself swept overboard by the blast.

His legs were wounded by shrapnel, and he was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate.

Four hours he was in the ocean and finally was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching it.

The effort failed, and Staples found himself yet again back out in the ocean, still wearing the same lifebelt.

After a few hours, he was picked up finally by the USS President Jackson, one of 500 survivors of the battle.

On board, Staples began to closely examine this lifebelt that had served him so well.

And he looked down at the lifebelt, and it said that it was manufactured by Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio.

It bore a registration number, and he began to explain this story later, given home leave.

He told the story that his mother worked for Firestone.

At Firestone, the company insists on a personal responsibility effort for the war.

Each lifebelt was given an inspection number and was unique and assigned to only one inspector.

You see, Staples remembered everything about that lifeboat, and he quoted the number.

It was his mother's personal code, affixed to every item that she was responsible for inspecting and approving.

His mother wasn't aboard the Astoria that day, but she was responsible for Elgin's life being preserved.

Church, you and I are in a boat.

And the whole world was in a boat rocked by the enemy.

He fired his best missile and he sunk a hole into humanity by throwing us into a rocky ocean full of sin and self-trial.

We were left to drown, and Jesus 2,000 years ago left heaven's glory.

He came to earth living a sinless life and he took on one mission of personal responsibility.

His mission, he climbed Calvary's Hill, he took nails and hung on a sinner's cross.

And in so doing, he threw a lifebelt with his personal code written all over it, colored in blood, so that we could be saved from drowning.

Jesus saved us, and we are called to share his life-preserving message to a lost world who is drowning.

175,000 drowning in our county, and you've got a life belt.

Will you share the lifebelt of Jesus?

Heads bowed and eyes closed this morning.

You have and I have the hope of a drowning world written in a code on our hearts.

What will you do with it?

I want to challenge you.

I want to challenge our students who came back from GoTell this morning with those two words.

Will you go tell?

I want you to picture right now your coworkers, your family members, your friends, they're all that are lost, drowning in an ocean, and you're on a boat, and you have the greatest gift they could ever imagine: a life-saving gift.

Are you too busy about what's going on on the boat?

To see the need in the ocean.

They're everywhere.

Will you go tell?

Challenge this morning before our church.

Will we be a church that goes and tells?

Will you stand to your feet?

I'm gonna pray a prayer and I'm gonna ask students that God invade your heart.

Rick Gage at Camp said, This man, if you made a decision for Christ at all, any decision this week, would you come forward at your church at the end and just pray over your decision?

So I'm gonna ask our students, if you're a parent of a student, if you're here and God has touched your heart, this is what I want you to think about.

That person.

That person that needs the gospel.

How are they gonna hear it if it's not your voice?

Who are they gonna hear it from if it's not you?

Who will be the hands and feet of Jesus to people that need it if it's not the people in the Church of God this morning?

Will you go to?

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.

If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.

Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.