Scripture: Colossians 4:2-6
Do you know that babies begin their lives praying for everything? They don’t know where food comes from, so they cry. They don’t know why they’re uncomfortable, they just know something’s wrong, so they cry. Every time you hear a baby cry you can understand it as a desperate prayer for someone to come and do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
Their prayers are very self-centered, “Feed me! Change me! Hold me! Rock me!” But they are praying! I think you can get that. And we usually know what the baby wants even though it’s not using words, just as it says in Romans 8:26-27 “The Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying.” Oh, and babies do offer praise too. When they are laughing they are telling you, you did a good job.
We all started out our lives praying as babies. What we tend to lose sight of as we grow up is that there are things we still need to pray for, asking God to do the things that we still can’t do for ourselves. But we’re so grown up. We do know how to take care of ourselves, for the most part. So, our prayers do not have to be as self-centered as they were when we were babies, or babes in Christ for that matter. Now God wants us to pray for other people, who don’t even know how much they need God!
We can’t save them! Only God can work that miracle, so we must ask him to do it. We can’t know which words we might use that would touch their hearts, but God looks into their hearts, so, we need to ask him to instruct our tongues and lead us to say what they need to hear. We can’t just walk into people’s lives, interrupt whatever they’re doing and expect them to have time to listen to a gospel message, when they don’t even see the need for church. But God can arrange circumstances in people’s lives so that they get desperate to find better solutions to the problems they are trying to handle on their own. So, we must ask God to do that. And ask God to send us to them, or send them to us, when they need us to be there with the gospel message when it is most helpful to them.
You can’t do the work of an evangelist without prayer, any more than a baby can do the work of providing for itself without praying for mommy! You can’t do the work of an evangelist without prayer, any more than Ezekiel could make bones lock together and cover themselves with muscles and skin. And God wants us to partner with him. So, there are times God won’t do what only God can do, unless we pray. So, let us pray! If you believe that you don’t have the gift of evangelism, or you are just too shy to talk to people about God, or you are afraid that you would be too pushy if you tried to share the gospel, none of those things is your problem. If you are not doing any evangelism effectively in your life or in your circle of friends, it is probably because you don’t pray!
Maybe that’s putting it too strongly. Maybe you do pray for your loved ones to be saved. But do you just pray, “Lord save them?” Or do you add, “How can I help?” “What part do you want me to play God?” “How can I show your love?” Let’s be more alert and expect God to use us every day, in some little way, to come alongside a seeker and guide them closer to Christ.
Let’s learn from Paul, let’s pray, “Lord, help us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” An alert mind is listening for God to awaken us to ways of doing evangelism that maybe we hadn’t thought of before. Could you send a note of encouragement to someone you know is struggling with some issue, large or small, and include a Bible verse, or just mention that you’re praying for them? How about the opposite? If someone you know is celebrating a joyful occasion, could you communicate with them through Facebook, or email, or whatever way they can receive a note or a call from you in which you get to say that you are thanking God along with them, or on their behalf, for the blessings they have received? There’s lots of creative ways to walk through an open door of opportunity, and sometimes, you can create an opportunity by practicing hospitality. You’ll be hearing more about strategy in the coming weeks. But it all comes out of praying about it. And it only works if you’re praying about it.
Lord, help us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. A thankful heart will fill your heart with a compassionate love for the lost. Giving thanks for God’s grace and love may turn fear for their lives, or the thought that they will never change, into hope that God will do something good, and maybe even use you as his agent through whom to do it. Jesus told us we need to pray when he said in Matthew 9:38, “So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Also, look at a basket of grapes. A bountiful harvest brings joy. 1 Cor. 3:7-8 says, “It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.” It is God who gives the increase! So, pray to the Lord of the harvest for a rich harvest.
And remember, you’re not in this alone. You have a whole congregation full of support. You don’t have to do all the work. One plants, another waters, and yet another may do the harvesting. We can all pray for each other. Paul said, “Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.” So, while each of you is praying for how God might use you to reach the lost ones you know, please remember to pray for us too! We all would love to play a role in saving the loved ones we know, or at least leading them one step closer!
Wouldn’t it be amazing if much of our time together on Sundays was spent praying for each other, after talking with each other about who we’re praying for, sharing stores about what we see God doing among them, and how God led us to do or say something that really made a difference in the lives of those we’re praying for? Let’s believe that such a day will come if we devote ourselves to prayer! Let’s not say, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if that happens.” Let’s say instead, by faith in God, “Won’t it be amazing when it happens!”
Then in our text we get a reminder that this is no cake walk. This is spiritual warfare. Not that we should be afraid of that, just prepared, and ready to face the challenges ahead. Paul said, “That is why I am here in chains.” He had been arrested for preaching the gospel! The gospel, that message about peace and love, forgiveness and reconciliation with God, that good, good news, is not always welcome news. There is a rebellion against God’s plan. And yet, the lost and lonely people in this word are desperate for meaning and intimacy with God, if only they knew how they could get it!
The demons in this world always look for ways to lie about what our message is really about. They look for ways to stir up trouble for us and turn the tables against us. Their goal is to prevent the success of God’s mission. But there is nothing that can really deter us if we remain steadfast in the faith by prayer. In Ephesians 6:10-11, Paul says it this way, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.”
He goes on, in Ephesians 6:18-19, to say much the same thing we just read in Colossians, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too.”
Back in Colossians Paul’s specific request was, even though I am in chains, I do not want to stop preaching. Prayer will give you courage to be a faithful witness. I am inspired by the North Koreans who escape that terrible environment, learn about God’s love for them through Jesus, and end up walking back into the dangerous country of North Korea, even sneaking back in, with Bibles, daring to face a hostile environment, risking their lives for the sake of the lost ones in the darkness who might hear the gospel and be saved.
Jesus did that for us, he left the glories of heaven to come down to a world of evil and sin, to proclaim salvation for all people, and he did that even though he knew he would be betrayed, arrested, crucified and suffer a horrible death. And for him it wasn’t just a risk he was taking. He knew it had to happen that way. But he willingly laid down his life for his friends, because that’s what true love does.
Do you love the lost? If you really love them and you pray for them, God will give you the courage to risk a little embarrassment, a little social rejection. You don’t even have to worry about being arrested or persecuted in any of the more serious ways so many of our brothers and sisters face for the sake of the lost they are praying for. Sadly, all it takes to keep us from evangelizing is the thought that, “He may not like me,” or “I don’t think I can do it well enough.” But by prayer we can overcome our pitiful fears just as surely as our other brothers and sisters find courage to witness where people might kill them for it.
Then Paul said, “Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.” “Clearly” is a good word. It’s a simple enough message to learn. Nothing complicated about it, and the easiest way for any of us to get it across clearly is to just have your own personal story of salvation in mind. How was God made a difference in your life? What would your life be like without God?
I think that even people who grew up in church and have always lived a Christian life should still be able to recall times or events in which God clearly showed you how much he loves you. Or, you have an experience of realizing that “there but for the grace of God go I.” You clearly understand what a great sinner you are, and that without faith in Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life you would be just as bound for hell as the worst of sinners.
But I must solemnly warn you, the demons also look for ways to comfort dead souls into thinking that they’re ok with God. Many people think that he or she is Christian based on years in church and good behavior and even a profession of faith. But any such Christian must be helped to understand, if you have no heart-searching, heart wrenching experience of your need of forgiveness at the foot of the cross, you might not be really saved! You may have believed all this since you were a child, but if as an adult you have not become more aware of your own sin nature and have not struggled with sin and found solace only in the grace of God, then you do not yet clearly understand the gospel that will save your soul. Pray for God’s help!
That’s the kind of thing that keeps you humble too, so that you can be patient and kind and gentle with people who just don’t seem to care for their own souls. You get to care about their souls. And the best thing you can do for them is pray for them!
Prayer must come first! Prayer is the foundation and fuel of all our ministry. Prayer enables us to make the most of every opportunity. Prayer is our priority. Prayer is our power! Prayer is our proper means of applying God’s supernatural power to the needs of our world.
Then you will be able to live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. You will be able to let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. In order to respond, you will have to have heard something. You will have to be listening for every opportunity that you might make the most of. Next week’s message will focus on the importance of listening but here it is, hinted at in this text too.
All right, let’s do some application. We need to start looking for opportunities to share the gospel with people who aren’t saved. But there might be a problem. What if you don’t know anybody who isn’t saved? That’s a real possibility. Have you ever heard of the Christian bubble? As I said last week, evangelism isn’t our favorite pass time. We tend to play it safe so we’re not even challenged to try to share the gospel. We church goers tend to get stuck in a sort of cocoon in which the only people we really talk to are the other Christians around us.
At this point in my life, that’s even true of me! I have a couple of excuses. I only just moved into town! I’m working hard on my ordination. Good sermons take time! I’m helping to take care of Maddie, my granddaughter, and that takes up most of my afternoons. But it’s not right for me to ask you to do more evangelism if I can’t find a way to get involved with it personally. So, pray for me to be able to practice what I’m preaching here!
Let’s hold each other accountable and talk to each other about that. Pray for ways to get to know your neighbors, or anybody in your sphere of influence. Maybe you’ve never spoken personally to the waitress, or the bank teller, or the cashier, or anybody in a number of businesses where you are a regular customer. Start listening to and learning about the people around you and try to discover whether or not they even go to church. And pray for me that I do that too. One thing that I will be dong is getting involved with Child Evangelism Fellowship so that I get a chance to talk to kids outside of church, who may not go to any church.
It’s easier if you’re still working, or if you’re in a club or some kind of social activity that involves people from all walks of life. When I was a bus driver, or any place else I’ve ever worked, I got to talk to people about the gospel. One of my favorite stories though, happened pretty early on in my Christian life. I was working at a hardware store in Mamaroneck, NY, close to where I grew up. There were about 4 other employees. We took breaks when business was slow. Just about every morning someone would go across the street to the sandwich shop and bring back the order of sandwiches we had called in.
All of us loved to get out of the store on a nice day. But since I was the new guy, whenever it was raining outside, they sent me. But a really interesting thing started to happen, no matter how hard it was raining outside, when it was time for me to go, the rain would stop, and it often only stayed stopped until I got back in the hardware store! They would look and say, “Hey! It’s raining again!” We started to call it the DuBois blessing. I told those guys that it was God taking care of me, so that they could see he was real and wanted to take care of them too. Mostly they laughed it off, but there was one young man who was impressed enough that he started studying the Bible with me after work.
That’s may sound a little unusual and not likely to happen. But it is the kind of thing that might happen when we pray for who we want to talk to and ask God to arrange the details of timing, circumstances, etc. In the coming weeks, I will talk about strategies you can be more intentional about. But it all begins with prayer and prayers must continue through it all.
So, for today, I have a stack of very simple prayer cards that I will hand out as you exit. I could have just put them in the bulletin, but I wanted to treat them as something more precious than just a piece of paper. Actually, it’s two pieces of paper. One says on it: “In Ezekiel 37: 14, the Lord says, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” Lord, I pray for (and there’s a blank line where you can put the name of someone you know is not yet saved) ________________ to believe the gospel I share and come to life in Christ by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” I’ll repeat that and put a name in so you get the flow. “Lord, I pray for Christopher to believe the gospel I share and come to life in Christ by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
So, you take one of these cards and put in the name of just one person. Then you make a commitment to pray for that one person, for one minute, once a day. And to make it very easy to remember, the other side of the card says, “One, one, one,” As in one minute, for one person, once each day, at 1pm. You can begin with the one sentence prayer on the card, but you probably know things about that person that you can pray about for the rest of your minute. It’s also ok if you go over a minute! And as you pray for that person each day, stay alert for opportunities to communicate with that one. The other piece of paper is a short list of other prayer sentences you can use as a prayer guide for the one you’re praying for.
Here’s what I think you can expect. God will set up divine appointments of one sort or another in which you get a chance to love and encourage that one, and may be even share the gospel or at least give thanks to God for something in their life. Expect it. Look for it. Let the spirit lead you in how to respond to whatever opportunity he gives you.
Remember, this is prayer. You’re asking God to do the miracle. You’re asking God to do what you can’t do. But you’re also asking God to let you play a small role, and grant you the joy and privilege of seeing that soul come to life in Christ. If we all do this simple prayer discipline, I believe we will start seeing people meet Jesus. I believe we will start having stories to tell of how God is at work among us. I believe we will have more and more reasons to pray for each other and keep on encouraging each other to live by faith like this. Telling those stories might take up more and more time on our Sundays, and we will rejoice in the lord! I hope you can believe that with me!
Let us pray.
Prayers to pray:
Pray that God would give ______ a heart of flesh. The Bible contrasts a heart of flesh, a heart that is alive and responsive to God, to a heart of stone, a heart that is cold and unyielding. Pray that God would work within these unbelievers to change their hearts. “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…” (Ezekiel 11:19).
Pray that God would put his Spirit within ________. The great joy of salvation is being indwelled by God himself. Pray that God would grant this honor to those unbelievers, that he would choose to take up residence within them. “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27).
Pray that _______ would come to Christ. If unbelievers are to come to salvation, there is just one way. They must come through Christ and Christ alone. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). Remember, too, that he is the one who calls them to come and to be relieved of the burden of their sin (see Matthew 11:28-30).
Pray that God would open ________’s heart to believe the gospel. Once more, God must initiate and people must respond. So pray that God would open the hearts of these unbelievers so they can in turn believe, just as Lydia did. “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14).
Pray that God would free _________ from the slavery of sin. Unbelievers may believe they are free, but they are in fact enslaved. They are slaves of sin, bound by their sin and sinfulness. Pray that God would liberate them by his gospel. “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17).
Pray that God would remove Satan’s blinding influence from _________. Unbelievers have been blinded by Satan and will only ever be able to see and appreciate the gospel if God works within them. So pray that God would give them sight—spiritual sight. “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Pray that God would grant _______ repentance. Unbelievers cannot repent without the enabling grace of God. So pray that God would grant them repentance, that this repentance would lead them to a knowledge of the truth. Pray as well that they would come to their senses and that they would escape from the devil’s snare. “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
Do you know that babies begin their lives praying for everything? They don’t know where food comes from, so they cry. They don’t know why they’re uncomfortable, they just know something’s wrong, so they cry. Every time you hear a baby cry you can understand it as a desperate prayer for someone to come and do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
Their prayers are very self-centered, “Feed me! Change me! Hold me! Rock me!” But they are praying! I think you can get that. And we usually know what the baby wants even though it’s not using words, just as it says in Romans 8:26-27 “The Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying.” Oh, and babies do offer praise too. When they are laughing they are telling you, you did a good job.
We all started out our lives praying as babies. What we tend to lose sight of as we grow up is that there are things we still need to pray for, asking God to do the things that we still can’t do for ourselves. But we’re so grown up. We do know how to take care of ourselves, for the most part. So, our prayers do not have to be as self-centered as they were when we were babies, or babes in Christ for that matter. Now God wants us to pray for other people, who don’t even know how much they need God!
We can’t save them! Only God can work that miracle, so we must ask him to do it. We can’t know which words we might use that would touch their hearts, but God looks into their hearts, so, we need to ask him to instruct our tongues and lead us to say what they need to hear. We can’t just walk into people’s lives, interrupt whatever they’re doing and expect them to have time to listen to a gospel message, when they don’t even see the need for church. But God can arrange circumstances in people’s lives so that they get desperate to find better solutions to the problems they are trying to handle on their own. So, we must ask God to do that. And ask God to send us to them, or send them to us, when they need us to be there with the gospel message when it is most helpful to them.
You can’t do the work of an evangelist without prayer, any more than a baby can do the work of providing for itself without praying for mommy! You can’t do the work of an evangelist without prayer, any more than Ezekiel could make bones lock together and cover themselves with muscles and skin. And God wants us to partner with him. So, there are times God won’t do what only God can do, unless we pray. So, let us pray! If you believe that you don’t have the gift of evangelism, or you are just too shy to talk to people about God, or you are afraid that you would be too pushy if you tried to share the gospel, none of those things is your problem. If you are not doing any evangelism effectively in your life or in your circle of friends, it is probably because you don’t pray!
Maybe that’s putting it too strongly. Maybe you do pray for your loved ones to be saved. But do you just pray, “Lord save them?” Or do you add, “How can I help?” “What part do you want me to play God?” “How can I show your love?” Let’s be more alert and expect God to use us every day, in some little way, to come alongside a seeker and guide them closer to Christ.
Let’s learn from Paul, let’s pray, “Lord, help us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” An alert mind is listening for God to awaken us to ways of doing evangelism that maybe we hadn’t thought of before. Could you send a note of encouragement to someone you know is struggling with some issue, large or small, and include a Bible verse, or just mention that you’re praying for them? How about the opposite? If someone you know is celebrating a joyful occasion, could you communicate with them through Facebook, or email, or whatever way they can receive a note or a call from you in which you get to say that you are thanking God along with them, or on their behalf, for the blessings they have received? There’s lots of creative ways to walk through an open door of opportunity, and sometimes, you can create an opportunity by practicing hospitality. You’ll be hearing more about strategy in the coming weeks. But it all comes out of praying about it. And it only works if you’re praying about it.
Lord, help us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. A thankful heart will fill your heart with a compassionate love for the lost. Giving thanks for God’s grace and love may turn fear for their lives, or the thought that they will never change, into hope that God will do something good, and maybe even use you as his agent through whom to do it. Jesus told us we need to pray when he said in Matthew 9:38, “So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Also, look at a basket of grapes. A bountiful harvest brings joy. 1 Cor. 3:7-8 says, “It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.” It is God who gives the increase! So, pray to the Lord of the harvest for a rich harvest.
And remember, you’re not in this alone. You have a whole congregation full of support. You don’t have to do all the work. One plants, another waters, and yet another may do the harvesting. We can all pray for each other. Paul said, “Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.” So, while each of you is praying for how God might use you to reach the lost ones you know, please remember to pray for us too! We all would love to play a role in saving the loved ones we know, or at least leading them one step closer!
Wouldn’t it be amazing if much of our time together on Sundays was spent praying for each other, after talking with each other about who we’re praying for, sharing stores about what we see God doing among them, and how God led us to do or say something that really made a difference in the lives of those we’re praying for? Let’s believe that such a day will come if we devote ourselves to prayer! Let’s not say, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if that happens.” Let’s say instead, by faith in God, “Won’t it be amazing when it happens!”
Then in our text we get a reminder that this is no cake walk. This is spiritual warfare. Not that we should be afraid of that, just prepared, and ready to face the challenges ahead. Paul said, “That is why I am here in chains.” He had been arrested for preaching the gospel! The gospel, that message about peace and love, forgiveness and reconciliation with God, that good, good news, is not always welcome news. There is a rebellion against God’s plan. And yet, the lost and lonely people in this word are desperate for meaning and intimacy with God, if only they knew how they could get it!
The demons in this world always look for ways to lie about what our message is really about. They look for ways to stir up trouble for us and turn the tables against us. Their goal is to prevent the success of God’s mission. But there is nothing that can really deter us if we remain steadfast in the faith by prayer. In Ephesians 6:10-11, Paul says it this way, “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.”
He goes on, in Ephesians 6:18-19, to say much the same thing we just read in Colossians, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too.”
Back in Colossians Paul’s specific request was, even though I am in chains, I do not want to stop preaching. Prayer will give you courage to be a faithful witness. I am inspired by the North Koreans who escape that terrible environment, learn about God’s love for them through Jesus, and end up walking back into the dangerous country of North Korea, even sneaking back in, with Bibles, daring to face a hostile environment, risking their lives for the sake of the lost ones in the darkness who might hear the gospel and be saved.
Jesus did that for us, he left the glories of heaven to come down to a world of evil and sin, to proclaim salvation for all people, and he did that even though he knew he would be betrayed, arrested, crucified and suffer a horrible death. And for him it wasn’t just a risk he was taking. He knew it had to happen that way. But he willingly laid down his life for his friends, because that’s what true love does.
Do you love the lost? If you really love them and you pray for them, God will give you the courage to risk a little embarrassment, a little social rejection. You don’t even have to worry about being arrested or persecuted in any of the more serious ways so many of our brothers and sisters face for the sake of the lost they are praying for. Sadly, all it takes to keep us from evangelizing is the thought that, “He may not like me,” or “I don’t think I can do it well enough.” But by prayer we can overcome our pitiful fears just as surely as our other brothers and sisters find courage to witness where people might kill them for it.
Then Paul said, “Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.” “Clearly” is a good word. It’s a simple enough message to learn. Nothing complicated about it, and the easiest way for any of us to get it across clearly is to just have your own personal story of salvation in mind. How was God made a difference in your life? What would your life be like without God?
I think that even people who grew up in church and have always lived a Christian life should still be able to recall times or events in which God clearly showed you how much he loves you. Or, you have an experience of realizing that “there but for the grace of God go I.” You clearly understand what a great sinner you are, and that without faith in Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life you would be just as bound for hell as the worst of sinners.
But I must solemnly warn you, the demons also look for ways to comfort dead souls into thinking that they’re ok with God. Many people think that he or she is Christian based on years in church and good behavior and even a profession of faith. But any such Christian must be helped to understand, if you have no heart-searching, heart wrenching experience of your need of forgiveness at the foot of the cross, you might not be really saved! You may have believed all this since you were a child, but if as an adult you have not become more aware of your own sin nature and have not struggled with sin and found solace only in the grace of God, then you do not yet clearly understand the gospel that will save your soul. Pray for God’s help!
That’s the kind of thing that keeps you humble too, so that you can be patient and kind and gentle with people who just don’t seem to care for their own souls. You get to care about their souls. And the best thing you can do for them is pray for them!
Prayer must come first! Prayer is the foundation and fuel of all our ministry. Prayer enables us to make the most of every opportunity. Prayer is our priority. Prayer is our power! Prayer is our proper means of applying God’s supernatural power to the needs of our world.
Then you will be able to live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. You will be able to let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. In order to respond, you will have to have heard something. You will have to be listening for every opportunity that you might make the most of. Next week’s message will focus on the importance of listening but here it is, hinted at in this text too.
All right, let’s do some application. We need to start looking for opportunities to share the gospel with people who aren’t saved. But there might be a problem. What if you don’t know anybody who isn’t saved? That’s a real possibility. Have you ever heard of the Christian bubble? As I said last week, evangelism isn’t our favorite pass time. We tend to play it safe so we’re not even challenged to try to share the gospel. We church goers tend to get stuck in a sort of cocoon in which the only people we really talk to are the other Christians around us.
At this point in my life, that’s even true of me! I have a couple of excuses. I only just moved into town! I’m working hard on my ordination. Good sermons take time! I’m helping to take care of Maddie, my granddaughter, and that takes up most of my afternoons. But it’s not right for me to ask you to do more evangelism if I can’t find a way to get involved with it personally. So, pray for me to be able to practice what I’m preaching here!
Let’s hold each other accountable and talk to each other about that. Pray for ways to get to know your neighbors, or anybody in your sphere of influence. Maybe you’ve never spoken personally to the waitress, or the bank teller, or the cashier, or anybody in a number of businesses where you are a regular customer. Start listening to and learning about the people around you and try to discover whether or not they even go to church. And pray for me that I do that too. One thing that I will be dong is getting involved with Child Evangelism Fellowship so that I get a chance to talk to kids outside of church, who may not go to any church.
It’s easier if you’re still working, or if you’re in a club or some kind of social activity that involves people from all walks of life. When I was a bus driver, or any place else I’ve ever worked, I got to talk to people about the gospel. One of my favorite stories though, happened pretty early on in my Christian life. I was working at a hardware store in Mamaroneck, NY, close to where I grew up. There were about 4 other employees. We took breaks when business was slow. Just about every morning someone would go across the street to the sandwich shop and bring back the order of sandwiches we had called in.
All of us loved to get out of the store on a nice day. But since I was the new guy, whenever it was raining outside, they sent me. But a really interesting thing started to happen, no matter how hard it was raining outside, when it was time for me to go, the rain would stop, and it often only stayed stopped until I got back in the hardware store! They would look and say, “Hey! It’s raining again!” We started to call it the DuBois blessing. I told those guys that it was God taking care of me, so that they could see he was real and wanted to take care of them too. Mostly they laughed it off, but there was one young man who was impressed enough that he started studying the Bible with me after work.
That’s may sound a little unusual and not likely to happen. But it is the kind of thing that might happen when we pray for who we want to talk to and ask God to arrange the details of timing, circumstances, etc. In the coming weeks, I will talk about strategies you can be more intentional about. But it all begins with prayer and prayers must continue through it all.
So, for today, I have a stack of very simple prayer cards that I will hand out as you exit. I could have just put them in the bulletin, but I wanted to treat them as something more precious than just a piece of paper. Actually, it’s two pieces of paper. One says on it: “In Ezekiel 37: 14, the Lord says, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” Lord, I pray for (and there’s a blank line where you can put the name of someone you know is not yet saved) ________________ to believe the gospel I share and come to life in Christ by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” I’ll repeat that and put a name in so you get the flow. “Lord, I pray for Christopher to believe the gospel I share and come to life in Christ by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
So, you take one of these cards and put in the name of just one person. Then you make a commitment to pray for that one person, for one minute, once a day. And to make it very easy to remember, the other side of the card says, “One, one, one,” As in one minute, for one person, once each day, at 1pm. You can begin with the one sentence prayer on the card, but you probably know things about that person that you can pray about for the rest of your minute. It’s also ok if you go over a minute! And as you pray for that person each day, stay alert for opportunities to communicate with that one. The other piece of paper is a short list of other prayer sentences you can use as a prayer guide for the one you’re praying for.
Here’s what I think you can expect. God will set up divine appointments of one sort or another in which you get a chance to love and encourage that one, and may be even share the gospel or at least give thanks to God for something in their life. Expect it. Look for it. Let the spirit lead you in how to respond to whatever opportunity he gives you.
Remember, this is prayer. You’re asking God to do the miracle. You’re asking God to do what you can’t do. But you’re also asking God to let you play a small role, and grant you the joy and privilege of seeing that soul come to life in Christ. If we all do this simple prayer discipline, I believe we will start seeing people meet Jesus. I believe we will start having stories to tell of how God is at work among us. I believe we will have more and more reasons to pray for each other and keep on encouraging each other to live by faith like this. Telling those stories might take up more and more time on our Sundays, and we will rejoice in the lord! I hope you can believe that with me!
Let us pray.
Prayers to pray:
Pray that God would give ______ a heart of flesh. The Bible contrasts a heart of flesh, a heart that is alive and responsive to God, to a heart of stone, a heart that is cold and unyielding. Pray that God would work within these unbelievers to change their hearts. “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…” (Ezekiel 11:19).
Pray that God would put his Spirit within ________. The great joy of salvation is being indwelled by God himself. Pray that God would grant this honor to those unbelievers, that he would choose to take up residence within them. “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27).
Pray that _______ would come to Christ. If unbelievers are to come to salvation, there is just one way. They must come through Christ and Christ alone. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). Remember, too, that he is the one who calls them to come and to be relieved of the burden of their sin (see Matthew 11:28-30).
Pray that God would open ________’s heart to believe the gospel. Once more, God must initiate and people must respond. So pray that God would open the hearts of these unbelievers so they can in turn believe, just as Lydia did. “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14).
Pray that God would free _________ from the slavery of sin. Unbelievers may believe they are free, but they are in fact enslaved. They are slaves of sin, bound by their sin and sinfulness. Pray that God would liberate them by his gospel. “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17).
Pray that God would remove Satan’s blinding influence from _________. Unbelievers have been blinded by Satan and will only ever be able to see and appreciate the gospel if God works within them. So pray that God would give them sight—spiritual sight. “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Pray that God would grant _______ repentance. Unbelievers cannot repent without the enabling grace of God. So pray that God would grant them repentance, that this repentance would lead them to a knowledge of the truth. Pray as well that they would come to their senses and that they would escape from the devil’s snare. “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
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