Gospel Mission

It's good to be with you this morning. It's a special day as we honor our graduates, recognize the achievement that they have accomplished in crazy high school years. With a pandemic, you know, for most of their, or a part of their junior year, and then even most of their senior year. And so we're honored to honor them today. And so if you have an opportunity and you know one of these graduates, or maybe if you don't, I encourage you to just congratulate them when you see them as you see them today. I'm sure they'll stand out a little bit.

I'm sure they'll shed that pretty quickly as well. I know I would, but I mean, for most of us, though, in this room, you know, we have to think back maybe a little ways, but remember back when you were 18. I know some of you, you're like, I don't remember that because I'm only 10.

Okay, like, you know, but okay, just just go with the illustration, right? But think back or look forward, I guess. But for most of us in this room, think back to when you were 18 years old. You think about it, you had the whole, your whole life right in front of you. You're thinking like, what do I want to do with my life?

I can do any, I can do anything I want to do. And we are so blessed to grow up and to be born in a country with educational systems. Yes, they're flawed, but if you've never been to a third world country, if you've never been on a mission trip to overseas, we are so blessed with education and opportunity really to do anything you want. We need to hear some of our grads this morning and hearing where the where they're going to go and what they're going to do and how God is going to use them in the future. But I want you to think back, though, to when you were 18 years old, you're looking ahead. I mean, think with me like these graduates now they're 18 years old, maybe 19 looking out ahead and saying, what am I going to do with my life? Where do I fit in in this world?

What can I do? And how can I impact it? 20 years ago, this is this is crazy to me thinking about I was thinking about this this week. 20 years ago, I was I was 18. So quickly, it's easy math.

All right. 38. But 20 years ago, I was 18. And I went on my very first mission trip right outside of Toronto, Canada. My youth pastor encouraged me and challenged me to to preach at the church. There was a church plant in from our church in Charlotte here actually grew up here. And they planned this church outside of Toronto, Canada. And they had asked me to preach on I think it was a Wednesday night. It was the very first sermon 20 years ago this month. I cannot believe that I was terrified.

I still terrified standing up standing up here today as well. But I was thinking in my life, I'm going like, what do I want to do with my life? And so God was doing this work in my heart and shifting me and shifting me away from a focus of sports and just enjoying my life to saying, God, I have a purpose for you. I have a mission for you, Eric. And so I answered that call and felt that call towards ministry and have pursued that, thankfully, by God's grace for all these years. But for all of us, though, in this room, not most of you in this room, a heavy majority of you aren't called to full time ministry. You're not going to be called to go overseas, to serve somewhere in a country that is closed to the gospel, to bring the gospel. Our prayer is that many will be raised up and will go and answer that call of making disciples all over the world. But I recognize that most of us, that's not the case, but God has given us each and every single one of us a mission.

It's a gospel mission. And I want us to look at this passage this morning. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Colossians chapter four. Colossians chapter four, the very first sermon I ever preached 20 years ago was from Colossians.

It wasn't this passage. And I know, I remember, I think I apologized after I finished. I was like, I was so nervous and so scared. I'm like, and the pastor comes up and he's like, never apologize for preaching God's word.

I'm like, are you sure? So, um, so hopefully there's no apology at the end of this, uh, today, but Colossians chapter four, and I want to, I want to kind of put this question before you. How can you make your life count? Whether you are eight or 88, wherever you are on the spectrum, on the age spectrum in this room, how can you even still at this point in your life, maybe you've only got months to live or whether you're looking and think that you have 80 years to live. How can you make your life count?

What does that look like? What is that going to look like for you as an individual, as a high school graduate or as a senior adult? What does it look like to make your life count?

What does it look like to live on mission, gospel mission? Well, tonight or this morning, as we open up God's word and look at Colossians chapter four, we're going to see the end of a letter that Paul wrote to this church here, the small city in Colossae. Paul is wrapping up his letter as he, as he wraps up his letter, you know, as he does with most of his letters, he wraps them up with a few quick hitters, one liners of things.

Hey, do this and don't forget this. Pray for us. And he mentions Thanksgiving and mentioning several different people that he's planning these churches and serving the world and reaching the gospel to the nations with. And he writes this letter and this letter is, is probably one of the most Christ, uh, Christ centered and focused letters that we have in the new Testament.

It is all of Christ. I mean, all of scripture is all of Christ, but the focus of this letter is so much on the preeminence and the beauty of Christ and his holiness and his righteousness. And so as we come to this final part of the letter, we want us to look at these verses. So if you have a Bible there in front of you, uh, I would enter and encourage you to read along with me. So Colossians chapter four, starting in verse two says this, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison. That I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. This is God's word. And will you pray with me now? This is a passage, mostly, most of the sermon is going to be on prayer and I want us to go to the Lord now, uh, before we talk through this passage.

So will you pray? Father, we, again, we want to look at your word this morning. We recognize that this is your word. This is not Eric's word. This is not man's word.

It's not Calvary Church's word. This is God's divine word for us that you used Paul to write to this church in Colossae, but that so applies to us here today, 2000 years later. We pray your blessing on each of us in our lives, but we pray right now for your spirit to move in our hearts, to maybe change a perspective, give us more reliance on you and your word and your gospel. And may we live it out to the ends of this earth, wherever you may call us. And so we ask for your help in this today. And we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen. So if you want to make your life count, if you want to live on mission, it must first begin with prayer. But man, how often do we not do that?

How often do we begin elsewhere? How often do I find myself even in a, even in a preparation for a sermon on prayer, it is so easy for me to not even spend enough time in prayer. As a pastor, as serving students, to stand in front of them week after week, to disciple students and teenagers and dads and families, it's so easy for us to go about this mission and not begin with prayer. But here, Paul is encouraging the Colossian church to pray and it begins with prayer.

You know, we've heard the verses, right, in scripture. Scripture is full of prayer. We see the prayers of God. We see Jesus praying in his model prayer for his disciples. We see Paul praying for the church. We have examples of prayer.

And we know these things. We know that, listen, we don't have because we haven't asked. We know that we're not supposed to be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition, to make our requests be made known to God. But for some reason, many, if not most of us, don't really pray. What I mean by that, for a lot of us, we only pray, right? We're those people who pray, right, before a meal. Well, at least if we're with other people. If it's at lunch by yourself, you might not pray.

You might forget to do that. But if you're with people, you'll pray. Or maybe a quick, you know, as you're laying your head on your pillow, you're like, all right, I would love to wake up in the morning. So God, help me to wake up in the morning. You know, I really don't want to die right now. So we'll pray. Or we'll come to a communion or Lord's Supper Sunday and we're like, all right, I do not want to get sick today. So I'm going to pray.

I want to repent of all my sins before I take communion. So we might get a little more serious in our prayers before the Lord's Supper. But so often our prayers are just trite.

They're ritualistic. I'm saying this personally. You might be like, Eric, that might be you, but that's not me.

Well, that's great if that's not you. But my feeling, and as I've talked with countless numbers of people, is most people struggle in prayer. And here he says, listen, Colossian church, look at it. Verse two, continue.

Notice this. And we're going to see how to pray. How are we to pray if we're going to begin with prayer and we're saying, I want to live on mission for God and it's going to begin with prayer. What does that prayer look like?

How are we to pray? Look what he says. He says it here. Verse two, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. Notice that he uses that word steadfast. If you have the ESV in front of you, which we predominantly use here at Calvary Church, steadfast. Here he's saying it's this devoted prayer.

Other translation may use devoted, but it's this idea of persistent in prayer. That is so convicting for me because I am not persistent in prayer. You know, someone will say, hey, will you pray for me on this? We're quick to say, yes, I'll pray for you. You know, there was a lot of people in Charlotte, North Carolina, and all over the United States of America praying for the Olson family.

I'm a Panther fan and so I follow Greg Olson and his career here as a Panther and his son, TJ, who was born with the heart defect and his heart was was wasting away and he was needing a transplant. And and he's asking for prayer. And all these people, religious, non-religious are like, hey, praying for you, sending up thoughts for you.

And maybe we will in those moments or maybe we just type it. Praying for you in a text message without actually praying. Here he says, be devoted to prayer, be persistent in it, earnestly and steadfastly in prayer. There is there is a family in this church. I assume they still still still attend here, but there's a family. My fellow pastors would know what I'm referring to here is so over the years, the pastors we gather together.

So I've been here almost a little over six years, six and a half years almost. And in those six and a half years, almost every single Monday morning, when we would gather together to pray, and there would be the prayer cards that are in the pews in front of you, there would be this one family. I believe it's grandparents. And they list off every single one of their grandchildren on that every single week. They're writing their names.

I have most of their names in my head because I've seen that card so many times. And they're praying for salvation. They're not just praying for the sick and like, hey, pray for my son or my daughter, my granddaughter who has a big test or whatever. They're praying for their salvation and notice the persistence of that.

It was week after week. And I'm just assuming I'm gonna take a big assumption here that that's not just something they just write down. That's something that they're praying for. And they're they're calling out to God and they're persistent in that saying, God, will you save my children and my grandchildren that will you open their eyes to the gospel?

And I believe if my memory serves me well, it was a few years ago, I remember getting one of those cards and was a little bit different. It mentioned a praise for one of them. You see, persistent in prayer. It's not a one time thing. It's not a just send a text message, but not actually pray. Persistent in prayer.

Be steadfast in it. You know, notice, look down at verse 12, even in verse 12. Look what it says about Epaphras.

Paul says this about Epaphras in verse 12. He says he is one of you. He is one of you. He was there. He's with you. He knows he's one of you.

And notice what he says about him. He says a servant of Christ Jesus greets you always notice this word struggling on your behalf. In his in his prayers. How many of you would say, yes, it is a struggle to pray.

It is. Distractions show up notifications being on your phone or you're driving on the road and you're like, all right, I'm going to make this my prayer time. And then something happens. A phone call comes or a really a song you really like and you're like, all right, I'm going to listen to the song or pray.

And so you listen to that or take a podcast or something. You know, there's so many things that can distract us away from being persistent in prayer. And here it's modeled for us in Luke 18. I love this.

In Luke 18, Jesus told his disciples a parable encouraging them to always pray. And he was using this as this persistent widow. There was this widow who would keep bothering the judge over and over again. She would go up to the judge and bother this judge. And the judge would be like, go away, go away. Don't don't bother me anymore. And eventually the judge is like, fine, have it answered, fine, whatever, kind of almost like go away, stop bothering me. And Jesus was using that as an example, saying, hey, come bother me with your requests.

Bother me with your requests. I mean, not literally. He's not going to, you're not going to bother God with it. But the point being is this, that you're going to him persistently. Listen, I am not, I'm not the good father I should be.

There's many areas that I fail in. And this is one of them. I mean, when my kids, listen, it's nighttime. For those of you that are parents and remember these days with younger kids, it's like, at least they're knocking on the door, right?

Not just barging into your bedroom at night, but they're knocking on the door. Like, Dad, Mom. You're like, what? Right? Like, what is it? It's bedtime. It's like, it's 10 o'clock at this point. You should be sleeping. They come poking in, look in the door and they're like, hey, can you come do this for me?

Can you do that for me? I'm like, no. Like, no, it's bedtime.

Like, you know, like I'm not that good father. And so what will happen is they're like, they kind of walk, it's like, you know, the whole dejected walk away, close the door, go in their room. And then like a few minutes later, knock, knock, knock, they come back eventually something else and something else.

And it's like, all right, it is now 11 o'clock. You have continued to come to my door. Oh, no, yeah, fine. What is it that you want?

Just leave me alone at this point, right? But see, that's not our God. God is a good father. And he says, come to me with your anxieties. Come to me with your struggles. Come to me and bother me with your request.

And I will gladly answer them. You see, we're to be persistent in prayer. Not only are we to be persistent in our prayers, we're to be watchful. We have a Watchman prayer ministry here at Calvary, but look at it again. He says this, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. So we're to do it watchfully, alert, knowing that temptations lurk everywhere. You know, we are often tempted to think that we are talking to the air.

Maybe that's what you find like. You find yourself in a prayer closet or walking down the road, doing a walk or something, and you're going to try to talk to God. And sometimes it just feels like you're just like, are you talking to yourself or are you actually talking to God? And maybe there's gonna be those temptations coming where you're like, I don't know what I'm to pray. And is God really actually hear my request?

And so we're tempted in these ways. Maybe for some of you, you've prayed persistently. You're like, no, Eric, I have been devoted in my prayers.

I have prayed persistently and consistently for years for something to happen, and it just hasn't happened yet. And the temptation is right to say, well, God doesn't care about my request or God doesn't listen. Is he deaf? Is he tone deaf? Does he not hear my voice, but he hears other people's?

I don't understand. Paul's saying be watchful in it. In Mark 14, 34 and 38, Jesus told his disciples to stay here, keep watch, to watch and pray so that they won't fall into temptation. And so we're too called to be watchful in our prayer, but to be honest, I think there's even a more simplistic interpretation of this. We're to look, we're to pay attention for how God is working and answering our requests. If I can encourage you in something this morning is to use a prayer journal.

As you write those requests in the morning and as you pray and lift up these requests to you, would you write those requests down in a prayer journal? You will be blown away and so blessed by looking back at that journal and seeing God answered this. He came through.

He didn't come through in the way I thought he would, but he came through in a different way. Let's just watch and see what God does. As graduates, as we're praying for these graduates to go, let's watch and see how God uses them. I mean, listen, right now, even some are home actually on a little bit of a break this week, but we have probably like a dozen or so students and college students really serving all over the US and camps and in different ways, serving communities all literally all over.

We have some in Texas, some in Virginia, in North Carolina, South Carolina. There's really all over the Southeast especially, but all over just sharing the gospel, pouring into children and kids. And listen, let's watch as God does great things in their lives. And then that leads us to what we do next is as we watch, it leads us to be thankful. We thank God for his work. We thank God for what he is doing. I appreciate the song that we just sang right before I came up to preach this morning.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Listen, do you find yourself continuously thanking God for what he's done in your life? Be thankful.

This is what happens, though. As you're thankful, it gets your mind off of yourself. It takes the pride away and it puts us to a place of more humility. We're thankful. It helps change the perspective. You know, if you read the Pauline letters in the New Testament, it will really if you make that like one of like a goal at some point in your Bible study of the New Testament and just circle or underline all the times, Thanksgiving or thankful is mentioned, especially by Paul being thankful over and over.

It stands out on the page really for me, you know, and he's thankful. But here's here's the question I want to kind of lead us into this next section of our passage this morning is this. OK, so we know we're to be persistent in our prayer, be thankful, watchful. We do this persistently, but specifically when we're talking about gospel mission, what are we to pray for? Paul says this.

Look here. Look at verse three. He says at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Isn't it interesting? Again, when I start looking at my own prayer life, I see the selfishness, the self centeredness of my prayers. Often it's for comfort, for peace, protection. Sometimes we'll ask for some guidance and wisdom. We'll pray for healing for our friends. We'll pray for a lot of different things. But how often are we praying for God to open doors for gospel witness? Think about this.

Just think for a second. Paul, Paul is in a Roman prison, sitting in a jail cell, maybe chained to some guards even. He's writing these letters and he's saying, hey, pray for us. But he does not pray for freedom. He doesn't pray for an earthquake to open up a cell door or an angel to show up like it did for Peter. He didn't ask for these chains to be removed. Notice, his prayer isn't about his chains.

It's not even about rescue and healing or protection. He's praying for open doors for the gospel. Listen, the reason he's in chains is because he preached the gospel.

The reason he's going to stay in his chains is because he will not stop preaching the gospel. And so what he calls for and what he asks for is he says, Colossian church, will you join me? Will you partner with me in gospel witness? Will you pray for open doors for me to share the gospel? Whether that's with the jailers, whether that's with the Roman guard, whether that's with other people who are in prison, will you continue to pray for me and pray for us?

In 1 Corinthians 16, 8 and 9, we get this from Paul. He says this, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. He says, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me and there are many adversaries. He's like, there's many adversaries to this gospel work, but like the door has been opened wide. God has paved the path for a gospel witness right here where I am. And so you know what he does? We find out in Acts 20 that he stays there for about three years training, equipping, admonishing the church. He stays and he opens doors. Graduates, I'm thinking for you guys, that God will open doors for you in the communities and in the neighborhoods and in the campuses and the teams that you play on and the sports and activities and the groups and the societies that you get a part of, that God will use those as open doors for ministry.

But not just for students, this is for all of us, right? This week, what's ahead of you? I don't know.

Most of us don't know. We might have a calendar, but God might have different plans for you. But are you praying for doors this week, right? This very week, right after the service, when you're in your life group or right after the service and you go out to lunch with friends or family or you come in contact with a waiter or waitress or you come in contact with your, you go to the pool this afternoon, hang out with people in your neighborhood, are you praying for open doors for the gospel witness?

This is so humbling. Paul is like, I mean, if anybody, if anybody could say, hey, like, let me out of these chains, pray for that, that these chains will be broken because it'll impact more people. He doesn't even go there. He's just so concerned about the gospel and it getting out that he says, hey, pray for open doors. So when God opens these doors, what are we to pray for? Look what he says here.

He says this. He says, open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison. So not only were to pray for open doors, we're also, Paul says this, as God opens these doors, pray also for me that God will give me clarity in gospel witness, that I will be clear in how I am to speak so that when an opportunity is presented to me, I'll know exactly what to say and how to say it.

And I'll be clear in presenting the gospel to people. This is what Paul's heart is. His heart is about the gospel.

He cares deeply about the gospel. And listen, this is our calling too, right? The good news of what Jesus has done for us. This is our mission. This is our calling.

We need to be praying and beginning in prayer for these things. Open doors and clarity in gospel witness. Here at Calvary Church, this is an emphasis. This morning I was meeting with the graduates, but down below this platform, downstairs, was a gathering of men who were gathered to pray for me specifically this morning. To pray that I would be clear in presenting the gospel and preaching the truth of God's word this morning. There are people in this room that pray for our pastors. We want to so thank you for that. We need more of your prayer.

But listen, this is not something to be taken lightly. You think about this, Paul of all people, okay, Paul of all people, we would think, I mean, the greatest, I mean, he's the goat of missionaries outside of Jesus, right? He's the greatest of all time, and he's presenting the gospel all over the place, and he's saying, hey, will you pray for me? Like, I need your prayers. I'm dependent on your prayers.

Listen, if he's saying he needs the prayers of God's saints, man, I need it a thousand times over. Will you pray for your, will you commit to praying for your pastors, for your elders, for those in leadership, for your life group leader? Will you pray, obviously, for yourself, for open doors, for clearly communicating the gospel? Will you pray for our missionaries? We have a prayer report that comes out monthly from our missionaries that comes in our inbox if you've signed up for it. And there you have the opportunity to see the needs and to pray for our missionaries. But above all of their needs, will you pray for open doors to gospel witness and clarity in communicating that mission? Commit to praying.

Listen, are you doing these things? Are you praying for open doors for God to work in the lives of his people? College graduates, are you praying for your roommates?

You don't even, maybe you don't even know who they are yet, or maybe you're just starting to get to know who some of those people will be, your classmates, your teammates. Are you praying for open doors for gospel witness? God is going to put you, potentially for those of you that are going away to college and staying in a dorm or an apartment with other roommates, God has put you with that roommate at this time and for this purpose. God can use you to declare the gospel to this person. What an opportunity to be able to live with someone for those few years or at least for a semester and to be able to invest in them, to pray for them. You know, for each of us this week, are we praying for open doors?

And think about this for a second. Paul is saying, pray for us, partner with me in this. Listen, you literally can partner with us in gospel work by praying. You can help.

You know, I mentioned earlier about TJ Olson, Greg Olson, was a tight end for the Panthers and I'm asking for prayer. I was also saddened by some of the responses from people. People were like, hey, sending you strength. They were saying like, hey, man, best of luck, well wishes your way. But what does sending strength do? Like, how do you do that, literally? Like, how do I send strength? Like, here's some strength. Let me inject you with something.

I don't know what that looks like. You can text that all day, but what does that even mean? But notice, you can actually tangibly help someone. You can literally help them by praying for them. And Paul is saying, you can actually help in gospel witness. You can partner with me in this if you'll just join me in praying for open doors and clarity of gospel witness. So listen, if we're to make our life count, we must be persistent in prayer and specifically praying for open doors and clear gospel witness.

All right, that was the bulk of the message. Now we're going to look at the last two verses here. Chapter four, verse number five says this. Walk in wisdom. We're to walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So if we're going to live on mission, in this gospel mission, we have to begin with prayer. But really secondly, and what we're going to do is from these verses and these prayers that we just saw, we're going to see how we do that.

And here's how we do that. We do that, we're going to live on mission, we're going to do it by taking advantage of doors that have been opened to us. We take advantage of the doors that have been opened. These opening of doors that God provides for us and that happens day by day, sometimes hourly, sometimes minutely, sometimes it might be a few days a week or different times. God will open these doors and we're to take advantage of them.

And he tells us specifically how to take advantage of these. One, he says it this way, it's very simply, he says this, walk in wisdom toward outsiders. We're to have wise behavior. The way you act matters to the world, I think you know that, but it matters. You know how many churches and communities have been wrecked by moral failure by a pastor or leader?

How many, how much witness is impacted when there's failure by a pastor or overseer or some leaders in the church or even a life group leader, how that can impact the community? You see, wise behavior and acting wisely, it matters. Are you making wise choices? You know, students, when you head off to college, you will be presented with opportunities to really do some dumb stuff.

I mean, really, really dumb. You'll make some unwise, potentially you may make some unwise choices that could lead you on a path of destruction. I had the privilege this year, my oldest son, Colson, is moving into sixth grade, into middle school. And we took him on a passport, I took him on a passport to Purity weekend trip where we talked about Purity as he heads into these very vital and important years. And I remember there was, in one of the talks, you listen to these CDs kind of as you're driving, thankfully. You're like, you just keep talking there, sir, and I'll just keep driving.

You can talk all about that stuff, I would rather not. But anyways, and so in one of those talks, in one of those talks, there were some college students who spoke. And they had joined Fraternity, and in their initiation, they had this big party-style thing with a stage and everything. And people would come and they would walk up one at a time, these new guys, and they would take a champagne bottle and they would open it and they would down that bottle in front of all these people. And these three guys, they're both all three believers, some of them know each other, but they don't necessarily know each other really well yet, and they're all in line and they're all thinking the same thing, like, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?

Trying to fight, how am I gonna handle this situation? Each of them handled it somewhat differently, but I think each of them did it in a wise way. They were booed, they were ridiculed in the moment for not going through what everyone else was doing. But they made it through. And because of this, listen to this, because they acted wisely in that moment, they had a decision to make.

Am I just gonna go and, like, let's just make a party of this, let's see how crazy wild we can get? They chose not to, and guess what happened, though? God began to use them as a witness to their Fraternity. He gave them open doors. Because they acted wisely, as they made wise choices, it used that, it was taking advantage of open doors, and it led to more open doors. But not only are we to act wisely, he says this as well, he says in verse six, let your speech always be gracious and seasoned with salt. You see, our speech must always be gracious, because the gospel is all of grace.

This should be pretty obvious for us, right? If you're to consistently have negative speech, speak harshly with angry words, you're probably gonna end up with little friends. People are gonna want to be around you because all they hear is negativity or anger and frustration or bitterness. That's not attractive at all. That's not how you attract friends. Like, you show up at college one day and you're like, man, you start talking constantly negative and you're constantly just talking about how you hate everything and all of life and all this stuff. People are gonna be like, all right, can I get a new roommate next semester or this week?

Right, like, that's not attractive. And so he says, let your words, your speech, so we're talking about your behavior and acting wisely, making wise choices with how we act. But here he says this, with our speech, how we communicate matters.

The way we talk, listen, this pandemic and this year and this short decade already, it feels like it's been a decade, but it's only year one or something. But we think about this, you look at our culture, you see hatred, you see anger, you see constant noise and fighting with words. What if we as a spiritual army were communicating life? What if we spoke with grace? What if we spoke with kindness? What if we lifted other people up and looked in the best interest of them and spoke highly of people?

If we saw outsiders and rather turn our eyes to them and say, man, I don't ever wanna be caught around those people. You see, Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, but here's the thing, he was around sinners. He was invited over to Zacchaeus' house. He goes to these different parties and he's meeting with these sinners, but here's the thing, college graduates are gonna be college students and students really in this room, all of us, don't think that it's like, oh, I'm gonna be like Jesus and so he says I can hang out with sinners and go to the bar and hang out with prostitutes and some of that, so I can do it too. You notice though, every time Jesus goes somewhere and he goes into that environment, those people leave changed every time.

Every time these people lead to repentance and faith in Christ, they're changed because of his presence. Let your speech, what you communicate, these gracious words, communicate life, but he also uses an interesting phrase here. He says this, always be gracious, seasoned with salt. Salty speech, I know usually we use, when we say salty, we don't usually necessarily mean it in a positive way. It's like, man, that guy's a little salty, right? Like, man, he's always kind of a little sharp, a little criticism.

What does he mean when he says this salty speech? Let me illustrate it this way. So being a high school pastor and working with college students and others who are potentially looking like, hey, I would love to be married someday and they're single at the time and they're asking some questions and they wanna know, hey, what's marriage like? Well, a lot of times there's two kind of groups on this. There's the person, if you were to talk to them and they're like, hey, tell me what's marriage like? And they're like, well, let me tell you what marriage is like. It's rough.

They're like, it's really hard. My husband stinks, makes weird noises, he grunts. He never says anything nice to me. And he's like, man, or this other person's like, man, my wife, she's always just nagging constantly. She's always after me. She never helps. She's such a drag.

Think about it. If someone told you that, you're like, okay, I guess I do not want to be married, right? You're like, mm-mm. I don't think that's the kind of marriage I want. But have you ever been privileged to talk to a couple who are just deeply in love with one another, maybe for 50-plus years? I got a text message this morning.

I don't have my phone up here, but I had to get a text message this morning for prayer requests that we prayed for earlier. And I got to read that text was forwarded to me, and at the bottom it was talking about how much they love their husband, how supportive they have been through a difficult trial. And they're like, she's like, I just love him so much.

Have you ever been around someone who talks like that? Man, I don't know what I could do without my spouse. I don't know if I could live.

I don't know how I would go about my day. She or he is just the best thing that has ever happened to me, and they speak so highly of them. They just love their spouse.

You see, that's seasoned with salt. That's saying, listen, can I tell you how awesome marriage is? Yes, it's really hard, but can I tell you? Man, I would never do it any differently.

I love my wife, and it has been a joy to give of myself, to serve her, because she is so kind and generous to me. And you speak that way. Someone's like, man, I want that too. What would that look like for us with the gospel? To be like, hey, can I tell you about my God? Can I tell you about Jesus? Can I tell you what he has done for me? Can I tell you how he has been so kind and gracious and good to me and so undeserving to me?

Can I tell you my life could be so different? I'd be so lost without him. That is attractive. You see, we speak with gracious words and with words that are seasoned with salt. And notice what he says last. I'll conclude with this. He says this.

So that you may know how you ought to answer each person. You've prayed, right? You have begun with prayer. You're praying for open doors. You're praying that God would use you to clearly communicate the gospel. You're acting wisely. You're speaking with grace and with this salty speech that is encouraging, that's spicy, that's attractive.

It brings flavor. And as you do that, as you're doing these things and you're praying and you're just continuously, persistently praying, God gives you an opportunity. It's right in front of you.

This week, it's right in front of you. And you're like, okay, I'm now prepared to communicate the gospel to this person. In the context that I've been given, everyone is different. So some of you, you're like, well, I kind of know the content of the gospel. Well, for one, do you?

And if you don't, I say, practice it. And if you've never believed it yet, I want to challenge you to believe it this morning, that Jesus, that the world was created by God and he creates man. But yet, sadly, man rebelled against this God. They broke his commands.

They broke his laws and now every single person has done the exact same thing. We have rebelled against him. We have sinned and we fall short of God's glory. But yet, but God has given us his son, Jesus Christ, who comes and invades our planet, lives the life that we never could live, perfectly sinless. But yet, sinful man puts him on a cross. They beat him, they spit at him, they mock him and they put him on this cross and with God's dying breath, the darkest hour in history, the greatest thing happened. He paid the price that we could not pay. And this gospel, this gospel, this good news of Jesus isn't over with his death because three days later, he rose from the grave, conquering death so that one day we too, when we, our last breath is given, if we've placed our faith and trust in Christ, we too come to eternal life.

We are raised with him in new life. Listen, you can believe that this morning. The Bible tells us that it is by grace that you've been saved. It's not of works. Maybe you've grown up in a place, in a culture where you said, you know what, I'm trying and I'm trying to be good and you've just never been good enough. You keep finding yourself as a failure. You are a failure and that's okay.

I'm a failure too. But Christ is perfect. He's sinless and I have placed my trust in him. And by his grace, he gives us this avenue and this way to receive that grace by belief and repentance turning from our sin. You can do that.

And guess what? You can communicate that too if you're a believer in this room. Now, that message doesn't change.

But the context in which you present it changes all the time. But will you begin with prayer? Pray. Ask God.

Ask God to help you. Listen, as my wife and I take this really, really, really giant leap of faith for us to plant a church about an hour north of Atlanta, we would desperately ask for your prayer for us. That you would pray that God would open doors. That you'll pray for our senior pastor here at Calvary Church. That you'll pray that God will continue to use him to continue to proclaim the gospel here boldly as he's done for years. Will you pray for these open doors? Will you partner with us, partner together across the board in gospel mission? Let's begin with prayer and let's be persistent in it.

Thankfully, watchfully, earnestly. And that we will be able to clearly communicate the gospel to the world. Let's do that this week.

What'd it look like? This room could be filled and then we go back to two services again. Wouldn't that be awesome? I know you're like, well, maybe not two services, but if there's two services, you could choose one. The worship team is the one that would be like, I don't know about that.

But listen, they would gladly do it if it was full to 10,000 people. We can do that together. Partnering together in prayer and praying for those open doors and communicating the gospel. Let's do that together. Let me pray. Father, you are so good. You're so kind and generous to us and so gracious. Why you would come to our earth and take our place.

Why not just send us straight to where we deserve to be in hell for all of eternity. God, you made a way through the gospel and you have entrusted us with this gift of the gospel in this room to communicate that to the world. May we do that boldly. May we constantly.

May we take the pressure off of ourselves and like, oh, what do I say and how do I say it? May we just believe the gospel and learn how to communicate that truth in the context and the places that you've given us that will have open doors and be able to clearly communicate it. So Father, help us in these ways. Help us to trust in you more and more. Help us to rely on you.

Help us to lean in and press into you. Be with these graduates again. We thank you for them. I pray that you will bless them and these families. Bless us as a church. Thank you for your blessings over these years and we pray for your help and strength and for more open doors in the future. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.