Don't Miss Your Opportunity

Well, while you're being seated, grab your Bibles and let's go to Colossians chapter 4. We are in between expositions, and that's usually a good time to hit on a number of things. And goodness, for 45 years, every fall has been a time where we try to turn our hearts more so toward outreach. toward evangelism. And by the way, don't you appreciate Brother Tom Clay?

I come to church and I'm blessed while we sing, and the music is done, and he cares about what's right and what's doctrinally sound and true. I just love working with them and appreciate all that they're doing. They're trying to work around everything and. Slowly piece by piece, get the Choir back in, the orchestra back in.

So it's been a challenge, but they've done a great job with it. But anyway, we're turning our hearts toward the fall. Friend Day is coming up and just stirring us afresh. You know, the Bible talks about stirring up again what is in you. And one of the things that we have to stir up afresh is: Lord, remind me.

To be a part of my church's team effort to reach the lost. We get cold there, we get stale there, we get indifferent to some degrees from time to time. And so this fall, we are once again with our friend Dave, a new small group, Year, etc., trying to stir our hearts. to reach the lost. And by the way, the last song we sang, we could not have had a more fitting song for the text that we're going to look at this morning.

Paul is writing to the church at Colosse. He's writing to them from prison. He's touching on a number of things, but in this section, he touches particularly on the work of reaching the lost. Let's look at it there. Verse 2 of chapter 4 of Colossians, going down through verse 6.

Paul writes: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Now, that could be one thing by itself, but then he weaves it in verse 3 to outreach or evangelism. Praying at the same time for us, that's Paul and Timothy. As well. That God will open up to us a door for the word.

So that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned. Pause there for a moment. Mystery simply means this is something that has been somewhat hidden. In the Old Testament era, something that was somewhat concealed. That is, how is God going to form for himself a people?

How is God going to redeem sinners and have for himself a people forever?

Well then the New Testament begins. Christ comes, aha. The mystery is now revealed. It was hidden. We didn't understand it.

But now Christ has come.

Now we know how God is going to build his kingdom, build his church, build his people, and that's through his son's work. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul says, I want to preach Christ. I want to win souls. Pray that God. God will enable me to do that. Verse 4, he amplifies on this.

That I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

Now he turns to the church members at Colosse to us. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Key word there, opportunity.

Now he's saying, now you folks in the church likewise need to join the team. Let's all together see if we can't reach more lost souls. Building up God's church, i.e., God's kingdom. and glorifying and pleasing God.

So you church members, laity, Ordinary Christian guys and girls, men and women. Verse 5: Again, conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Verse 6: Let your speech always be with grace. As though seasoned with salt, So that you will know how you should respond to each person. As you live your life, there's opportunities.

To say a word for Christ in the gospel. Get in on that is what he's saying. In John chapter one, the Bible tells us that Andrew first. Interesting. It says first found his brother Peter.

and brought him to Jesus. That's outreach. Very first thing, one of the very first apostles did was bring somebody else to Christ. Acts sixteen. Tells us that Lydia and her whole household believed and were saved.

The word household is the Greek word oikos. It has the idea of mom and dad, the children, associates, slaves, servants, extended relatives. And that day, a household could include a lot of different folks. When Pam and I were in Greece, and by the way, that really impacted our lives spiritually to tour the places where the Apostle Paul preached and started churches and ministered. And we were talking to one of the tour guides, and they were telling us how they will buy a single house and three generations will live in it because it's just too expensive.

to buy a house on your own like we're used to doing in America.

Well, that was much more so the case in this day.

So, the word household can mean a lot of different people other than just what we might call a nuclear family. But the point is this: Lydia and her household, it means the gospel spread, the saving work of God is expected to spread through our relationships. Our friends, our relatives, our associates, our classmates. Folks in the neighborhood. God expects it.

That's a natural flow. We see this again when Peter tells the jailer after the earthquake came and the jail doors were open. Peter and Silas were in prison for preaching the gospel. And all of a sudden, they're about to escape, and the jailer says, What must I do to be saved? And interestingly, Peter looks at the jailer and, in effect, says, Don't worry about it.

We're not going anywhere. And if you want to be saved, you must believe along with your oikos, your household. You can come to Christ and then you can be a part of others. in your circle of influence coming to faith. In Christ.

In John 4, Jesus heals the nobleman's son. And the nobleman's son, the Bible says, believed and his oikos, his household. A number of his friends and relatives and Children and his spouse, I'm sure, etc., etc. In Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the 500 were gathered there before Jesus goes into heaven. He says, Let me give you the final marching order.

Going to all the world. Make disciples. That means become saved, be a believer. They're not mature disciples, but the moment you believe, you become a follower, a disciple. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.

And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Who was this given to? The pastors, the preachers, and a whole lot of other just regular Christian folks. As a team. Jesus says.

You ought to be looking to go into the world. And folks, that's why we're here as a church. That's why we have small groups.

So we can get together as a team with our various gifts and abilities, with various things we're strong at, or weak at, or comfortable with, or uncomfortable with. But as a team, we can together reach the lost. Acts chapter 8, verse 4, as the persecution hit the early church, the Bible says they went scattered about, preachers and lay people alike, scattered about preaching the word. They were so full of God and so full of the things of Christ and the Holy Spirit, they couldn't help but go out. And as they booked into people and met people and formed associations with people, they shared the things of Christ.

God really does expect us. to be about the work. As a team. of reaching the lost. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 9:22, I've become all things to all men, so that I might by all means save some.

It's been my pattern through the years to kind of set my focus on somebody, maybe a family, maybe an individual. And try to reach them and witness to them and share something of the gospel with them, only to find that they are not really open because, by the way, it is the Holy Spirit's work. Amen? He uses us, but he has to do the converting. But then someone else over here that I've barely even spoken to comes out of nowhere and they're hungry for the things of God.

But, Brother David, we'll find out if we go for somebody, God will give us somebody else sometimes. It's a wonderful thing. You and I were just out in the woods the other day, and a repairman came to fix something at my place, and God sent us somebody.

So I have a friend for friend day.

Now, Brother David gets an assist on that. He was helpful. But I snatched him up quickly. And he and his whole family plan to come. You know, just as you're living your life, there's an opportunity out there.

Dr. Gray Allison was the president. Of the graduate school in Memphis that I attended, and he was just a passionate. Witness for Christ. And Dr.

Grace, you say you're either a soul winner or a backslider.

Now, not everyone is to be John the Baptist and put his finger on Herod's nose and condemn him for adultery publicly. I wouldn't recommend that. John the Baptist was supposed to do that, but not everybody's supposed to do that. But as a team, We can all get in on the process of reaching souls for Christ.

Some might be a quarterback, some's a nose tackle, some's a wide receiver, whatever, but we're all part of the team. Each small group, Brother Nathan, is a team. To reach the lost. For the Lord's sake and for the Lord's glory.

Well Let's pray. Let's seek the lost. And I've entitled the exposition of this text. Don't miss the opportunity. Don't Miss Your opportunity.

So this section in Colossians, Colossians 4, 2 through 6. is saturated with evangelistic devotion and evangelistic instruction. It illustrates and it exhorts to us that reaching the lost is a priority. And it's a team effort. It should be the priority that we should never go into a small group year where your small group doesn't say, We've got to pray and see if God will let us reach somebody for Christ this year.

As a part of the team, we're a team with the pastor, we're a team with each other. It's not just one of us. Matter of fact, we found conclusively through the years that overwhelmingly so, coming to faith in Christ is a long process of hearing the things of Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the words of Christ, Paul says in Romans 10. And that's a present tense verb.

Hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing again. Before they come to that settled rest of knowing they've been converted.

Sometimes you can know rather quickly, but it usually is a process. When I came to faith in Christ, there had been a friend sharing the gospel with me for many, many months.

Now, think about what was happening that moment I got saved, and we usually put all the emphasis there, don't we? Just that moment. And that's okay, but without exception, there's usually a witness here, a witness there, a sermon here, a sermon there, things we even forget that led up to that moment. And very often in that moment, certain particular things happen. And we try to make a program out of what happened in the moment, but the program of God is the word.

The gospel. Shared. Exhorted. Preached whatever. Over a period of time.

So, the priority of evangelism and the team effort, as Paul says, pray as I preach, I'm a preacher, but now you also. You've got opportunities as you go out to join with me in this process. Even though they weren't geographically together. The team effort is very, very obvious in the way Paul lays this out.

Well, let's outline it this way from our text. Roman number one, let's remind ourselves that prayer is the key. He jumps right into verse two. We'll go through verse four. Talking about Pray.

He begins in verse 4 by saying. Devote yourself to prayer. The vote there is a Greek word that means continue. Perseveringly. Uh Perseveringly, it means you know it's right.

But you're not always gung-ho about it. You're not always excited about it. But you just, from time to time, spiritually speaking, grab yourself by the nap of the neck and say, I need to pray. That's why we need to have special prayer times at the church on our Wednesday night. Prayer and provision, our prayer and pasta, our prayer and pastromi, or whatever it is.

Because we need to remind ourselves to be devoted perseveringly. Push on through the distraction.

Now, when you get to heaven, you won't have to do that. But as long as you're down here in this selfish, Unredeemed human package that we are still living in, you're going to have to. Have some accountability and encouragement and persevering. Devote yourselves, he said, to this kind of praying. This word, devote yourself, is the same Greek phrase that's used when Jesus told the disciples, Get me a boat down at the seashore and keep it ready for me.

What he's saying was if the people press in on me too heavily I'll have to escape and get away from them.

So, have me a boat ready.

So, what he's saying is that if you ever live your life, discipline yourself to be prepared and ready to pray.

Something that I fell into the habit of, which I was perfect at it, but it has helped me a lot, is in any and all circumstances, when I am in some sort of social interaction with someone, I'll ask God, Lord, give me wisdom. I'm just praying, God, give me wisdom. I don't want to give this person Jeff Noblet's ingenuity or ideas or understanding. I want to give them your truth. That's praying.

That's purposing to persevere in prayer. There are many dimensions and aspects to that.

So we're not talking about a. A constant verbal praying.

Now, in the old world, the old Pharisees, they were so big on showing off their spirituality, they would literally probably walk down the street chanting prayers to show everybody how spiritual they were. That's not what. Paul is talking about. It's more of a continual God consciousness, a striving to walk in a prayerful spirit. Keeping alert in it, he says.

That means uh that's the opposite of being listless. Being Sleepy in your prayers. Although it's a good thing when you can't sleep at night to pray. Satan may help you get back to sleep. If you do that.

Yeah.

So try to not be slothful and Lacking alertness in your prayer. Then he says, do it with an attitude of thanksgiving down in verse 2. Thanksgiving. This is the spirit which attends all of our praying. There's no such thing as a true child of God praying.

Apart from a spirit. of gratitude. Of thanksgiving, of appreciation for all of the bounty that God's already given us. If you woke up and you're breathing and you're not in hell, you're blessed.

So, gratitude just sort of flavors the totality of our prayer life. We're forgiven of sin. We're cleansed from defilement. Our guilt is removed. We are possessed by the Holy Spirit.

We have the fellowship of His church. We've been placed in His kingdom with the absolute assurance and promise of eternal life. There's so much to be thankful for. Are you thankful? Can I say something to you?

Are you discouraged? Are you downhearted? Are you wracked with anxiety? Without question. You're not thankful enough.

Throw yourself into the work of thanking God for His bountiful blessings and watch your spirit rise. I've told you this many times. It was just one of those moments. I've said this phrase a lot, where you just sort of have a reference point. You hear a little thing, you read a little thing, and boom, it never leaves you.

I don't know who the man was, but he wrote a one-page article on depression. For the child of God. And he said, you know, it's amazing how when we get depressed, we'll throw a sentence or two prayer at it, and then we go to the doctor and get medicine. I'm not saying all that medicine's wrong, but I sure would encourage you to not settle and stop there. See if God won't get you over it.

He said, let me tell you something when you're depressed. Have you prayed for an hour? He said, if you tried locking yourself in a room, opening your Bible, and start reading the word and crying out to God and say, God, I'm not leaving until you lift my spirit. It's me and you, God.

Well we don't throw anything into it. The world gives us too many Unsound and shallow quick fixes So stay alert in prayer, he says. Be ready to do it. Be ready to intercede with God for things that are important. An attitude of gratitude includes listen to me, having an attitude of gratitude in prayer includes welcoming, embracing the truth that God knows best.

And if his answer is no, If his if his answer is not now or later, Our if his answer is yes. Praise the Lord. God is not your cosmic automated teller machine. He's the Lord who we delight in, and we treasure his will first. Added gratitude.

and yielding the outcome to the Lord always go together.

Now So, Paul gives us general instruction on prayer because prayer is the key to everything, particularly our outreach. Then he gets right down to specifics. Roman number 2. The priority of prayer, which is kingdom advance. In other words, whatever you pray for in the back of it ought to be: God, how can this advance your kingdom?

I read this Puritan just the other day. Again, just a simple statement. He said something about going through a crisis, going through a trial, going through an anguishing of soul type of season. He said, Throw yourself into this prayer.

Okay, how can I glorify God in this? How can I glorify God in this? See, all of a sudden, you take you out of the center and you put God and his kingdom in the center. By the way, you know what that's called? Normal Christianity.

God's not your helper. To get you so that you can achieve your will, God is taking over you so you can be superiorly blessed, abundantly blessed, better blessed in His will. Oh. Do you not do you understand church? that every Sunday should be called Realignment Sunday.

You ever had tires lined up on your car? They realign your tires.

Well, see, every week you hit potholes and your wheels get out of line. All of a sudden, God and his kingdom is not quite where it ought to be. All of a sudden, you're sort of sitting on the throne, and you need the preaching of the word to get you back aligned. With what really counts and really matters. And by the way, and what's really going to be best for you.

Realignment Sunday. We might put that out front. Come join us for Realignment Sunday.

Well, that'd start some discussions in the community, would it not? The priority prayer is kingdom advanced.

Now, sub point one. Praying for the pastor is foundational to this advancing of the kingdom. Paul says here in verse 3, the first part: pray at the same time for us as well. That God will open up to us a door for the word.

Now now what's behind this? He says, he says, look. I'm in prison, and he does not say, pray I get out of prison. He does not pray. Or say, pray that I'll have my Provisions meant.

And that day you had to bring provisions for your family in prison or they starved to death. He didn't say pray for my health.

Now, all of those would have been fine. I'm not saying those are wrong prayers, but in Paul's perspective, that's not the most important thing. Those things are to the end of the thing, which is the advance of God's kingdom. In the earth. The advance of God's church, same difference.

I'll talk more about that in just a moment.

So behind Paul going right to Praying for him to get the word out more so more souls can be saved is Paul's motive. That the glory of God is everything, and the advance of God's kingdom, i.e., for now, the advance of God's true, healthy local churches. Is going to require the preaching of the word. And so help me, God, in this imprisonment or out of this imprisonment to stay with the task. Of sound, spirit-filled preaching of the Word of God.

I don't know why I said it. God set it up that way. It's baffling to me in some ways that God ordained men to preach the Bible, and that's the foundation stone, that's the hub of the wheel of his work in the earth. But he has. That's explicitly clear in the text.

So the kingdoms advance. The church's advance in the world. is the primary thing. And a foundational element, I should say, the foundational element of that work, building the church, building the kingdom, is the preaching of the word.

So Paul says, pray that I'll have an open door to do more of that. That's what's primarily important.

Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here, just kind of make a side point here in a way, but I want to share this with you because this has been chewing on me. And stirring me a long time.

So I say, okay, where did Paul get this? Modus operandi. Where did Paul get this? Like he said writing to Ephesians in Ephesians 3, 21, to him be glory in the church. And in Christ Jesus.

Where did Paul get that? All-consuming priority, the glory of God through the building of his kingdom, i.e., the building of his church. And the main means of that is the preaching of the word. Where did Paul get those priorities? He got them from Jesus.

Everything Jesus, the Son of God, did was to the end of glorifying the. Father. He made that crystal clear. Everything was about glorifying his Father.

Okay, well, how did Jesus purpose to glorify the Father?

Well, he purposed to glorify the Father by doing the Father's will. By building the church.

So he goes to a cross. A bloody, cruel, humiliating, shameful Horrendously painful cross event because there he would redeem the church. Which would glorify his Father. Paul learned it from Jesus. Matter of fact, Jesus gave us.

His realignment prayer. That we're to pray all the time, not necessarily the rote. Ritual of repeating words, but the principles of the realignment prayer.

Sometimes it's called the Lord's Prayer.

Sometimes it's called the model prayer. And I'm amplifying the word model prayer as a realignment prayer because when you really pray as you're supposed to pray, you're realigning yourself with God and kingdom priorities. You're getting yourself back where you ought to be. I mean, you watched too many Andy Griffith shows this week, and that's not wrong, but you need to get back. You did too much of this or too much of that in the world, sometimes it's not necessarily wrong, but it was just too much.

And you need to come to church on Sunday, and hopefully, your pastor is faithful enough, and God is faithful enough to use him to help you get realigned again. In other words, to rediscover your true joy again. To reaffirm your true treasure again, which is God, his work, and his kingdom.

So in the realignment prayer, Jesus says, Matthew 6, 7 and 8. And when you're praying, do not use meaningless repetition. That's what the unregenerate religionist would do. It's not just going through the motions. My football team, when I was in high school, used to recite the model prayer, the Lord's Prayer, before a football game.

I had no idea what it meant, and neither did most of those guys. Just a meaningless, superstitious rote repetition. He said, don't be doing that. Those kind of people think they'll be hurt for just saying many words. Verse 8, but do not be like them, for your Father in heaven knows what you need before you ask Him.

Verses 6, or chapter 6, verses 9 through 11, He continues in this realignment prayer. He says, So realign yourselves. He words it this way: pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your name be praised and honored and glorified and esteemed and treasured and embraced. And really, name represents the person behind the name.

May you be glorified and esteemed and treasured and hallowed and honored. How's that to be done now, Lord? You want us to hallow your name? Just what do we do? Verse 10: your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The Shoe leather application of that, the brass tax application of your kingdom come is. Help us to be a part of Building up a biblically and spiritually healthy local church. That's the kingdom of God in the earth today, primarily. It's not the only way the kingdom is expressed, but it is the primary way.

Let me say this: kind of a little. Biblical theology lesson as we go forward. When I was a younger Christian, Really for many, many years. We would hear this phrase, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, is in the text a lot, isn't it? And it was this Abstract, kind of broad.

Indefinable thing. But it's like we missed the forest for the trees.

Now, let me explain it this way. What I might call a secondary expression, a true expression, but a secondary expression of the kingdom of God is when you live under God's rule, that is, you live biblically as a single person. or in your marriage. Or in your home. Are in the workplace, young people are in the school.

with your classmates. Or in the neighborhood. When you live under Christ's rule, striving to follow the precepts of the kingdom, that is the virtues and the values, the precepts of the word of God, when you live that way, the kingdom of God is being seen and known. But I call that a secondary expression. Of the kingdom of God.

Because the primary expression of the kingdom of God is when God's people are together as local churches. I don't mean just any congregation. Far too many congregations are mildly biblical, if not radically unbiblical, and that's not a good manifestation of the kingdom of God. But a church that is genuinely striving to be biblically and spiritually healthy, if you'll pour your life into that, your family pours your life there. We're not going to take all of your time.

I'm not talking about some cultic, unbalanced thing where you can't have your life outside of church. Not at all. But whatever you do outside of there is always linked to what we are inside of here. Are you hearing me, church? Everywhere you go.

You're a member of Christ's church. It always goes with you. It's like the day you get married. From that moment on, everywhere you go, You're a married man or a married woman. Everything's changed.

The moment you're saved, God adds you to a church. Everywhere you go, you're a member of Christ's church. You live under his rule and by his precepts. You want to exemplify his values and his virtues to all the world. But when we're together and we are living out the precepts of God's word as a local congregation, that is the most powerful, clear, thorough exemplification of the kingdom of God the earth will know until Jesus returns.

So we have the secondary expressions of the kingdom of God. your personal life, your marriage, your home, et cetera. The primary Expression of the kingdom of God for time and space history. That's the churches, true churches. Never perfect ones, but those that are striving to be pleasing to God.

And then there's the perfected. Expression of the kingdom of God when Jesus. Jesus returns. And all the counterfeit Christians and all the counterfeit Christianity, all of that will be purged away. All sinners will be banished.

There'll be a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. And that will be the pinnacle, the perfection of the expression of the kingdom of God. And are you listening to me? This is a side note, but it's become a sermon by itself. When Jesus returns.

And lo and behold, we will all be. Purified and perfected. There will not be one molecule of your being that doesn't supremely treasure Jesus Christ on that day. I'll be glad when I get like that, won't you? Every aspect of my being will be The treasure, adore, glorify, and obey Jesus.

That will be the day. When he will receive the reward of his suffering. He came to a cross to have his children. To be with him forever. And finally.

Not that it was ever in doubt. It was absolutely certain from the beginning because God was performing the work, but finally, performing. Perfected and glorified with him. That is the perfection of the kingdom of God. Secondary expressions, personal life, marriage, family, home, the way we live in the world under God's rule, that expresses the kingdom.

Primary expression of the kingdom of God, biblically, spiritually, healthy, local church life. And then the ultimate of perfection. The expression of the kingdom of God when Jesus returned. My point is this. Paul learned this from Jesus.

And then he's given us the principles. And particularly what we're pointing out at this time is the Realignment prayer to get us back in line with having the priority of God's kingdom, our priority. The priority of God's glory becomes our. Priority. I'm going to touch on this.

I'm going to touch on it quickly, and I'm going to run on to show you how Paul kind of has his own realignment prayer based on the truth of Jesus' realignment prayer. Philippians 4, 6-9. Be anxious for nothing. Because if you'll get realigned, that's the key to peace in your heart and in your life. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer.

Paul's talking about prayer in Colossians 4. With Thanksgiving, Paul talked about Thanksgiving as he talked in Colossians 4.

So we see the parallels in his writings: one to the Philippians, the other to the Colossians. And let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Now, here's what's interesting. Finally, brethren. And I've always wondered how does this work? I just don't know in concrete application how this works. Verse 8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true.

Whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is of good repute, if there's any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Then I thought studying this. I'm supposed to be forgetting myself. And thinking on other things, because every one of these things listed.

True, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, excellence, worthy of praise. I'm going to dwell on those things. Every one of those. is a virtue, a value. of his kingdom.

Of his kingdom. And when heaven comes to earth, when Jesus returns, Everything will be good. and honorable And excellent, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Amen? But now we're to work on dying to ourselves, putting the kingdom first, and embracing the priority of the kingdom and living the values of this kingdom now.

That's what Paul's praying. Paul's not just praying, be a different kind of person, he's praying, connect with Christ, his purposes, and live like you believe all of that. And the peace of God which surpasses comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And I think we've made an error over the years of taking this text separated from God's purposes. You can't ask a person to think on these things if they're not fought into God's work in the earth.

You see what I'm saying? It's almost like you want to study marriage, but you're not married.

Well, when you study what the Bible says about marriage, it's nice to have a spouse to practice that on. If you're going to live out the virtues of the kingdom, you need a kingdom. to be expressing that with. And two. and encouraging one another to exemplify those things.

So everything in Philippians 4:6 through 9, when he talks about thinking on what's true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and of good repute and excellence and worthy of praise. These are the things he said, you saw and you heard in me. He said, I saw and heard them in Jesus.

Now you've seen him and heard them in me.

Now you live for the kingdom of God. You live for the church. You live for the advancement of God's purposes. Those are honorable, true, right, lovely, excellent things. Because can I tell you something?

Your marriage may not be here next year. Your marriage may not be here next month. Your spouse could die. It would be very rare. I've seen it happen.

Your spouse could rise up and say, as long as you honor Jesus and serve Jesus, I'm out of this marriage. Know what the Bible says? Be patient, be kind, be loving. Exhort them, encourage them, but if they demand You to turn from Christ to keep the marriage, you're to say then you must go because I can't leave Christ. What the Bible says.

Christ is the center of everything. Not your marriage? Because your marriage could pass away.

Some of you are sitting here this day without your spouse. God's already taken them to glory. But you know what? Are you listening? I can run up here.

It's big enough. Your marriage may be gone. Not a negative thing necessarily, it's just time for it to go.

Somebody went to heaven, whatever. But the church is still here. Are you hearing me? And you still have brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, except in the Lord.

So The peace of God, Philippians 4. Which surpasses all understanding is still there. Because my primary, listen to me, my primary Identification. My primary purpose is still There. The best way to have a great marriage is to put your marriage second to Jesus.

We've gone out on a great old big limb on that oak tree. And we've been all over it.

So let's get back to the flow of our text, but all this ties in. Everything about Philippians 4:6 through 8. Everything about Colossians. All comes from that. Granite foundation stone of Kingdom advance is to be our priority, and kingdom living is to be our pattern.

in this life. Pastor, I haven't been very good there. I'm slopping around and flopping around, and I come and I'm not prayed up when I come to church. I've got this interest, and I'm running chasing this and running chasing that. You know what you need?

You need a good realignment. And so do I from time to time. But you know what? If you're his, he will not let you go. He will not, he'll speak to you in the night watch and say.

What are you doing? He said, Does it speak audibly? No, it's louder than that. And you have to realize, it doesn't mean that necessarily you change anything. And don't take me out of balance here because.

Advancing the kingdom means if you're a wife. You advance the kingdom by being a biblical wife, a biblical mom, a biblical homemaker. If you're a husband and a father, you advance the kingdom by being a biblical husband and a biblical father and a provider and protector. If you're a worker in the world, you stay working in the world, but you advance the kingdom by being a biblical worker. See what I'm saying?

But it centers in your life in the church because you know one day your factory may close. One day you may get to retire, and the job's gone, and the factory's gone, and the work's gone, but the church is still here. Woo, God is so good to us.

Well. Paul says, Pray for me because I'm about the kingdom. I'm about spreading his word, which wins lost souls, which builds up those who are saved, and builds up his church, his kingdom.

So pray for me while I'm in this imprisonment that God will open up a word.

So I can be faithful as a preacher to be in on advancing the kingdom. Advancing the church. Then he goes a little further. I'm going to have to shut down and make this a two-parter. Let me just mention this.

The practical parts of praying for the pastor. Pray that there'll be an opening door for the word. Not only does that tell us Paul's priority of kingdom advance. It tells us that Paul knew. Thoroughly.

This preacher knew thoroughly Preaching the word. Winning the lost. is a work of divine sovereignty. Your church, you're going to have to pray for me as I preach. I mean me and I mean Paul saying this too.

Because it's not about me, my winsomeness, my cleverness, my creativity, my verbiage, my wordsmith ability, whatever it may be. It's not about that. The Spirit of God must attend the Word of God to transform the heart of man. Pray. Do you intercede with any fervency on Sunday morning, Saturday night, or through the week?

God used to preach the word to change lives this week. Paul said, I depend on that. In Acts sixteen, we have Paul. Again, when you sent us to Greece, we got to stand on the riverbank there, close to where best we know. Lydia and her friends, her household, her work associates' family, were taking a break down there at the creek.

We call it a creek, they call it a river. And she was talking to Paul. She overheard Paul, and God opened her heart, the Bible says. opened her heart. It's a divine work.

In Acts chapter 14, the scriptures describe that he, God, opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. God had to open the door. It's God's pre work. It's his initiative, if you will. 1 Corinthians 16:9, Paul writes, A wide door for effective service has opened to me.

So, as you pray for the preaching of the word, that we might win more lost souls, that we may reach more souls for Christ. Perhaps this is an example prayer. God, for your glory, that your name might be hallowed, open a door for the word. to build up your kingdom. To build up your church.

Is the kingdom of God your priority? Or have you tagged Jesus onto your busy, selfish life? Here, I'm here to tell you something, that won't work. You're going to grow old to be the most miserable person in muscle shoals. If you don't get kingdom prioritized.

Now, when I say that, I don't mean that you're going to walk in this imperfection. I don't. But I'm glad God keeps yanking me back in line. of having the priority of his kingdom And living the virtues and values of the kingdom as the pattern. of my life.

Well We'll stop there for this morning. I didn't plan to. And we'll pick it back up next week, all right? Lord willing. Yeah.