Well, when Pearl Harbor was attacked in December of 1941, a scrawny shipyard worker named Desmond Dawes was among the many people in America that was disturbed by that and wanted to do something about it.
And yet, as a Seventh-day Adventist, he had sworn to never take a human life. However, he enlisted anyway, but he just enlisted as a medic and resolved to step out onto the field of battle without a weapon, not even bringing a knife.
So, his particular battalion was sent to the Pacific theater, and they were placed on the island of Okinawa, charged with the almost impossible task of scaling a 400-foot cliff and then taking it from Japanese forces that were embedded upon the cliff's peak.
So, they ascended that cliff, and upon the top, they were bombarded by enemy fire. Fierce fighting broke out that lasted a day, and by the end of it, there were multiple wounded in the American forces, and they were driven back all the way back to the edge and back down that 400-foot cliff.
So that by the end of that day, only three people were left on top of that mountain: the Japanese forces, wounded American troops, and little Desmond Dawes.
As U.S. forces regrouped down at the base of the cliff, suddenly they looked up, and from over the edge, they saw a body appear that was lowered by rope back to the ground. It was a wounded soldier.
And then it happened again. And then it happened again. And it happened again. Slowly, what people began to realize was that Desmond Dawes, who stayed for hours on top of that cliff, would sneak through enemy fire to continue to dodge around, find injured people, provide aid to them, and then drag their bodies to the cliff, lash them with rope, and carry them down.
He continued this for hours upon hours so that by the end of that night, the U.S. military estimated that Desmond Dawes had personally physically saved 75 men.
So, the Medal of Honor was bestowed upon him by our country, and he was asked in that moment, "What was going through your mind as you continued to put yourself in harm's way to rescue those who were hurting?"
And he said this: "What was running through my mind was I just kept praying, 'Please God, help me save one more. Please God, help me save one more.'"
Now, why do I mention that? Because I think many of us love stories like that—that an ordinary person can be used to do extraordinary things if they're willing.
I mention that now because we're in this fascinating moment where Paul is talking about the mission of the people of God. He said earlier in the book of Colossians, which we're wrapping up these two weeks, that God is on an incredible mission to rescue us out of the kingdom of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of the beloved Son.
That every human being, though you're made in the image of God and beautiful, you're broken because of sin. We are devastated by our depravity. Yet, Jesus Christ went running into the chaos, gave His life for us so He could pull us out of the darkness of death and condemnation because of our sin and transfer us to safety and life and health and eternity with God through Jesus Christ.
That God is on a rescue mission. And what's amazing about the book of Acts is He says to His people, "And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth."
That God says, "I am on this incredible mission of rescue of broken people. I've supplied all that's necessary to redeem a human soul from condemnation, and now I'm taking that message and I'm giving it to you—ordinary people."
That you see in the book of Acts, yes, you have the Apostle Peter healing and the Apostle Paul working miracles, but you also have Philip, who was in charge of bread distribution, bringing the gospel to a nation that had never heard the name of Jesus.
That God delights to use ordinary people to do His extraordinary work. And all of us want to have a life full of meaning and a life of purpose. If you're in Christ, you know you've been latched into the greatest of all stories.
So, my longing for a life of purpose is now intersected with the greatest of all purposes—that I get to let the world know that Jesus Christ has come for them.
And let me tell you something: if you're new to church, for Christians, this thrills us. I've been to so many conferences and events and moments where, by the end of it, after three days of worshiping and confessing sin and seeing redemption as true and all the beauty that comes with knowing the grace of God, by the end, people are usually fired up.
They're cheering, and usually at the end of a conference, it ends by saying, "We want to see God glorified," and everyone's like, "Yes! We want to see the name of Jesus made great! Yes! We want to see His glory cover the earth like the water covers the sea!"
And He says, "So you go and tell your friends and coworkers about Jesus."
No, no, no, no, no, no! I do not want to do that. That will be awkward. They may not like that. You may say they're lost; they don't feel like they're lost. You may say they're drowning, and we're throwing them a life raft, but they're out there wondering, "Why do you keep hitting me in the head with life rafts?"
Hey, I don't know that my friends want this.
And so there's a tension in the Christian community. If we want a life of purpose, we have the greatest of all purposes. We're meant to deliver it to people, but often, if we're honest, we're scared to do it.
It's in human nature when we enjoy something to share it with others. We are all ambassadors of great movies and music and restaurants, and we want to be ambassadors of the greatest of all kingdoms, Jesus, but we're scared sometimes.
And let me just say this: as a pastor, I get it. Because yes, I'm a pastor, but I'm also an introvert. When I waited tables in college, I used to have to pray in the kitchen for the courage to come and take people's orders. I'm not making that up.
And you're like, "Ben, you're their waiter; they're expecting you to come." And I would say, "I know!" And yet I understand what it is to be scared to initiate a conversation.
That's why it was crazy for me through much of my early years of ministry to be involved with an evangelistic ministry that would go to pool houses and bars and just come in with gospel tracts and tell people about Jesus. I was terrible at it.
And yet that impulse to make the name of Jesus that healed me and forgiven me known to my friends is in me.
So, what I want to do today is teach us, and I love that we've got this collection of door holders in here. Let's talk about how we can be a part of God's rescuing work.
So, what we're doing here today, if I can just let you know what to call this, it's the ordinary person's guide to changing the world. That's what this talk is. Or you could call it the introvert's guide to evangelism, right?
Because Paul, in his mercy, is going to make it real simple for us. He's going to give us three steps that we can take right now. Even if you don't feel gifted or talented, you can take these three little steps, and they might just lead you to being a world-changing, life-saving human.
The first of the steps we get right out of the gate in verse 2: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with all thanksgiving."
What does the believer do that wants other people to know that Jesus they found? Which, incidentally, if you're here and you're not a believer in Jesus, you're like, "Wait a minute, what? I'm not going to go tell the world about Jesus; I don't even know if I like Him."
Hey, that's fine; we're glad you're here. Just know that this message has the opportunity to let you know a little bit about what's happening in the heart of the friend who invited you here, okay?
So, this is a little recon for you. And for many of us who know Him, where do we start? Paul starts us with: we pray earnestly.
We pray earnestly. And as he talks about prayer, he tells us how to do it and then what to pray about. The how is in verse 2: he says you pray continually. You adhere to it, persist in it. One translation says, "Devote yourselves to prayer."
That means you stay actively, busily engaged in something. And then he says, "Do it steadfastly." That means persevere; you don't give up. Persist and persevere in prayer. That's what we're meant to do—to keep going.
Jesus taught like this. He told the story in Luke 18 of the woman who went to an unjust judge. This judge was crooked and corrupt, but she kept coming to him day after day after day until finally, the judge was like, "I don't fear God and don't like you, but I'll give you what you want if you'll go away."
And Jesus says, "If an unjust judge will answer that kind of persistence, how much more will a God of justice answer the prayer of His kids?"
He says, "But when the Son of Man comes to the earth, will He find faith?"
And Jesus flips them on him and says, "Hey, God is inclined to hear you. Are you inclined to talk to Him?"
If you don't pray very much, can I just be real? Jesus says it, not me. It's because you don't trust God, because you don't think He's real, or you don't think He can really bring His power to bear in your life.
You just pragmatically don't think it's realistic. So, this is a challenge of faith today. Do you believe God's real or not? He's telling you, "Test me; come to me and persist in it. Don't give up."
So, we pray persistently. And then he says we pray watchfully. What does that mean, watchfully?
Well, Jesus used that language in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was praying, knowing He was about to die. You remember He went and He was praying, and He was sweating and crying out to God, and He asked His boys to pray with Him. They kept falling asleep, and He told them, "Wake up."
And then He said, "Man, the spirit's willing, the flesh is weak." But He says, "Hey, watch and pray so you don't enter into temptation."
He said, "Guys, there's a bigger story playing out right now. This is a huge event historically, and you're going to want to be awake for this. So, watch and pray so that you won't be tempted to just be consumed with sleep or get sideswiped by your fears. Stay aware that God is moving because this is a significant moment. I'm about to go to the cross."
And what's wild is He uses that same language. We don't have time to read all these all through His last sermons to us about His return. That Jesus Christ is coming back, and He says, "So be watchful and be awake because you do not know when He will return."
And then Thessalonians says the same thing: "We are not children of the dark; we're children of the light, children of the day."
What He means by that is, man, we know what's going on in the world. That in your offices, at your school, in the city that you move among, there's a bigger spiritual story playing out than just, "Did I get a parking spot?" and "Do I like my co-worker?"
There's heaven and hell, life and death, eternity, and the preciousness of a human life every day playing out.
And so Jesus says, "Wake up! Be watchful! Don't sleep! Stay awake! There's a bigger spiritual game going on here."
So, don't get lulled to sleep by just being interested in entertainment and comfort and clothes and sex when the reality is there's a bigger story playing out.
So, yes, eat, yes, get clothed, yes, live your life, but never lose an awareness that there's a spiritual story playing out in your apartment right now.
So, we pray watchfully and gratefully. Why gratefully? Because we get to talk to a God who can do something.
And so we come before the throne. Some of you, you can't get a meeting with your boss, but you can get a meeting with the King of Kings anytime you want, and He's calling you, "Talk to me! Come to me!"
And then He tells you with what. In verse 3, Paul says, "At the same time, pray for us."
What does he pray for? That God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I'm in prison.
He's going to give us two things to pray for. Number one, he says, "Pray for opportunity." Pray that God will open the door. Paul prayed like that all the time. One of my favorites, 1 Corinthians 16, he says, "A wide open door of effective ministry has been opened to me, and many oppose me."
I love that. And he doesn't say, "God opened a door of ministry, but many oppose me." He says, "God opened a door; many oppose me; here I go!"
Right? He says, "God's opened a door." And then you see in the book of Acts, God opens the door of people's hearts. Lydia, God opened her heart to receive the message.
That God creates opportunity, and God creates the life change. So, we start praying to God, "Will you open up doors?"
And particularly here, it's like, "Will you open up doors so that we may speak the mystery of Christ?"
What was the mystery of Christ? He said it back in chapter one: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."
That your shame, your condemnation, your sin does not need to be the end of your story. There's no tragic heroes in the kingdom. That all your flaws and brokenness won't ultimately bury you if you are in Christ.
That His glory is too good; it's too sweet. That your guilt and your shame will not be your end. His glory and His hope and His redemption is your end because Christ wants to be knit together with you.
And so we have all this hope, and so he says, "Pray that God will open a door that we get to talk about that."
Do you do that? Have you ever done that? Prayed that God will open a door of ministry?
Let me tell you something: I have to do that. Like I said, I grew up in an evangelistic ministry that was led by people who were gifted in evangelism. They would go out. I kid you not, I went once to the bus stop in Dallas with one of these guys. He said, "Let's just walk along this bus terminal and see if people will talk about their faith."
And I'm like, "Okay." So, I'm walking up to people like, "Do you want to talk about your faith?"
"No."
"Yeah, I don't even know why I said that. I'm sorry, man."
Like, it went so bad. And he walked up to me and was like, "Man, how's it going?"
I'm like, "Terrible! I'm just scaring people!"
He's like, "Ah, man, I'm sure you're fine." Then he just sees the guy and he goes, "Hey, man! Hey, man! I was reading this Bible verse today. Listen to this!"
And he read it. He goes, "What do you think about that?"
The guy goes, "I think I needed to hear that today."
He's like, "Right! You know Jesus, man?"
The guy was like, "No."
He's like, "Well, let's talk about it, man! Can I pray for you?"
The guy was like, "Yeah, I'd really like that a lot."
And I'm like, "Oh, come on! What is this? What is this?"
When I walk up, I'm like, "Hey, man, sorry!"
"Hey, no, no, no, we're cool, we're cool."
I'm like, "I'm not good at that!"
A lot of shame in my early evangelistic endeavors.
And so I realized, I don't know if this is broke, but I'm going to do this: God, if you want me to talk about You, You have to make a way because I can't produce it, right?
And I would pray like that: "God, will You create the opportunity and will You give me the courage to take it?"
But I don't want to say that like, "Yeah, Ben, you did that." I mean, it didn't start great.
The first time I ever did it, I was waiting tables at a restaurant that was hotter than it is in this room now. I lost 10 pounds carrying fajitas to people. I hated that job.
I mean, it was so hot. It was so hard to just get covered with food and spilling margaritas on me. I didn't enjoy working at this restaurant.
So, I got into a habit. Every day as I would pull up there, I would park the car, and this was my rhythm: pull up, park, and then I'd go, "God, please help me get through today. Amen."
I'd get out of the car, and then there was one day, I don't even know why I did it. I went, "God, please help me get through today, and if You want to use me or whatever, fine."
That's a quote.
And I got out of the car, and I went in to wipe down tables before it started, and I kid you not, I go in there to wipe down tables, and one of the other waiters turns the corner and goes, "Hey, man, you believe in God?"
I said, "Yeah."
And he goes, "Tell me about Him."
Then he sat down. I was like, "What?"
He said, "Tell me what you believe."
I was like, "Uh, okay. Well, I believe Jesus is the Son of God."
I started talking about it. He goes, "Hey, hold on."
And he goes back and he gets another waiter. He's like, "Sit down! Start over! Tell him! He's telling us about God! Go!"
And I'm like, "What is going on here?"
So, I started telling him about Jesus, and it turns out they had watched some show the night before that had completely freaked them out.
And something about me, they thought, "Maybe this guy has some answers."
And so I looked at that, and I was like, "Okay, even the most pathetic prayers God can use."
So, I'll tell you my life hack in ministry, man: I pray that all the time.
Like, my wife worked at a Starbucks, and she was so kind and gentle. People coming to her asking her to pray for them, whatever.
I'd walk into Starbucks, and I think I intimidate people. I don't have an approachable face.
And so I just realized I don't know what to say, so I would just pray, "God, would You create opportunities and give me the courage to take them?"
And I would pray that all the time, and I would just keep going to the same shop so they would know I'm a part of the fabric of this community.
And I remember a lady came up to me once on her break, took her apron off, she sat down, and she said, "Are you religious?"
Excuse me?
She said, "I see your Bible out here. I need you to pray for my son."
I said, "Okay."
So, we started talking about the deepest pain in her life, and I was able to pray for her and pray for her son.
And I just kept showing up, kept coming back, and then every time I would go get my coffee, she would tell people, "Hey, y'all need to know this guy! He's praying for my son! Hey, meet this guy! Hey, this guy's a part of this church! She started telling the whole staff about what church I worked at, where it was, what time the gathering started, and "I'll see you there!"
And one by one, this Starbucks had more and more people arriving at our church because I was a powerful evangelist.
No, no one buys that.
But because God uses earnest prayer.
Are you praying for an opportunity? Do you even ask Him that? Do you pray for His opportunities for His church?
That's what Paul says: "Pray for us that God will open the door for us."
You've been praying for our venue, some of you. And this isn't every one of you. Some of you have been complaining that we haven't had a venue to meet in, but you haven't prayed yet that God would provide one.
So, I don't know if it's on me as a leader; it might be on you as a prayer. I'm just saying somebody needs to pray about that because I got a verse right here. That's all I'm saying.
I just let it sit under a tree and think about it because Paul said to the Corinthians, "You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."
Paul says you have to.
I grew up in a home where my mom had a room. After her kids graduated, she took one of the rooms and she transferred it into a missionary prayer room.
She was a teacher at a high school in her neighborhood, but you went into that room, and it was covered with maps of the world with pins of where the missionaries were that she was supporting.
She didn't have a lot of money, but she knew the coffee this guy liked, so she'd send him that coffee. She knew this person needed someone to watch the dog, so she had this ugly, nasty, very sick dog in her home so that missionary wouldn't have to worry about it.
And our life was touching the globe because of the faithfulness of my mom. Her prayers connected her to the work of God around the globe.
Do you pray? Pray earnestly. I don't know what to pray for. Pray for an open door.
And then Paul says, "Pray that I will make it clear as I ought to speak."
I just kept thinking about my buddy Nate Butler all the time because he would always shout down a pastor by saying, "Make it plain!"
It's like, "Yes! Make it plain!"
Paul says, "Pray for opportunity and pray for clarity that I would make it plain."
For me, when I started as a youth pastor, these kids would come to our church that were punks. And by that, I mean they would just wear all black and like safety pins connected to them.
Like, they were really into punk and not really into church, but one of them, their dad made him come.
And so she would come, and I remember I just shared the gospel with her. I drew a picture, drew a little stick figure up at the top, quoted Colossians, "All things were made by God for God."
Then I drew an arrow down, "Romans 3:23 says, 'For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.'"
Then I drew a line to eternity, "And the wages of that sin is death, separation from God, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ," through a cross leading us back to God.
And I just wrote all those Bible verses on it, and at the end of that, she's like, "Can I keep this piece of paper?"
I'm like, "Yeah!"
And then she asked me if I'd meet with a friend of hers. We went to like a Burger King, and I'm trying to be cute at that point. I'm like, "God's kind of like a motorcycle and climbing a mountain."
She was like, "Can you just draw the picture?"
I'm like, "Yeah, all right."
"All things were made by Him, wages of sin, whatever."
They invited a couple more friends, and I'm still trying to be cute. Man, I was reading this passage today, and they're like, "Can you just draw the picture, man? Just draw the picture, bro! Don't get cute! Just make it plain!"
Do you know the gospel? Can you share it?
The ministry I grew up in high school, they made us memorize verses so that you could explain to someone about the glory of God, the beauty of humanity, our fallenness because of sin, Jesus stepping in, living the perfect life we could not, dying the death we deserved, raising victorious over heaven so we might have eternal life in Him.
They taught us to speak that in less than three minutes.
And I've often used the line that they told me when I asked somebody, "Do you know what the Bible's about?"
I said, "Have you ever had someone explain it to you?"
Most people are curious and intimidated by this book, and so I've found that's been such a fruitful way to start a conversation.
"Hey, man, before we get into the politics of Christendom or whatever, do you know what the Bible's about? Do you know its main storyline?"
Most people say no.
I said, "Can I take about three minutes and explain it to you?"
I've never had anyone say, "Nah."
There's a curiosity in people if we can explain it and make it plain.
Can you do that?
So, we pray for opportunity and for clarity.
Let me give you the next two things we do. They're in verse 5 and 6: "Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so you may know how you ought to answer each person."
That's your second point.
Number one is we pray earnestly. Two is we walk wisely. Conduct yourselves with wisdom.
Paul prayed this for us at the beginning. He prayed that God would fill your life with spiritual wisdom so you would walk in a way pleasing to the Lord.
That the Lord made this world; He knows how it works. And so, as we study His word, we know how the world works and how to best work within it.
Here's how to use money in a way that honors God and blesses people. Here's how to use my gifts in a way that honors God and helps me and others.
Here's how to use my body in a way that cares for my soul as well as my body.
The Bible tells you how to handle all manner of the ways the world is built so you can flourish.
And he says, "Man, pray and then walk in wisdom. Live out this word because no one wants to buy your perspective if they don't see it in practice."
So, if your life looks no different from your co-workers that don't know Jesus, why on earth would they want to buy into this craziness?
They need to see the effect in your life to be drawn to the message that's changed it.
Do they see it change? Life? Does the way you handle money, the way you handle sex, the way you handle your mouth in conversations, the way you handle setbacks at work and grumbling, do you look different?
Are you strange?
It should be the normal experience for a Christian for someone to come to you and say, "Why are you like that?"
I remember a different table I waited tables at—a different restaurant I waited tables at. We helped open this restaurant, and I remember as I was there, we had our opening day, and it was training for waiters.
And there were all these new kids that had never waited tables before and were nervous about it. So, there was a moment when the trainer left, and it was just us sitting around.
And you could tell pretty quickly the two camps: the nervous new kids and the old seasoned veterans, grizzled from waiting tables.
And these new kids were like, "What happened? What if we get a six-top? What do you do?"
And you know the old ones are like, "Man, I remember once there was an atop; they all wanted separate checks."
You know, they're telling rough stories, and I was part of that crew.
But I remember one girl spoke up, and she goes, "Well, I'll tell you when you don't want to work."
She said, "Sundays, because that's when all the Christians go to church."
And she said, "They come out, and they're rude, and they're demanding, and they're the worst tippers."
You know what happened when she said that? All the other veterans nodded along.
And I couldn't argue with her because she was right.
Profoundly disappointing to see how people would treat a waiter, and then they'd watch you bow your head and pray.
And I walked out of that meeting really deflated, and I'll never forget this girl walked up to me, and we hadn't talked. She didn't know I was a Christian.
I just think she saw my demeanor. I couldn't hide well how discouraging that was.
So, she walked out, and she looked at me, and she goes, "That was pretty discouraging, wasn't it?"
I was like, "Yeah."
And then I'll never forget, she looked at me, and she goes, "Well, let's prove them wrong."
I was like, "Okay!"
And it was literally like the 80s montage started. Like, you could hear the keyboard start. We were like, "Let's do it!"
And so what we started doing was walking wisely among outsiders.
We just started wiping down their tables for them. If I'm wiping down your table, it means I'm not serving mine, which means I might get a lower tip, but I'm helping you set you up to win.
That's not something you have to do for your job, but non-Christians would watch us clean their table like, "What are you doing?"
We'd stay up later to help people break down so they wouldn't have to be there till 1 a.m. cleaning up their tables, the cooks.
And there's famously animosity between waiters and cooks. The cooks, all the grease from their fires had gone up into their air ducts and turned them black.
So, I took down all their air ducts, took them to a car wash. They had a degreaser as part of the gun. I spent ten dollars just putting money in there and firing this degreaser at this thing just like, "Until those things were shining!"
And I'll never forget when we loaded them back up, the cooks found out about it later. It was the funniest thing because they walked up to us, and they were like, "Hey, man, did you clean our grills?"
I was like, "Yeah, dude, it's pretty cool, man."
He was like, "Yeah, no problem."
He goes, "No, man, no! That was pretty cool, man!"
Like, "Okay!"
And after that, we built a bond. Something happened here.
So, when one of our co-workers invited them to church with us, they all came.
How did they come? Why? Because we walked with wisdom.
There's something different about you.
Let them see that. That the way you're walking in life—hey man, things went sideways at work, and everybody grumbled to complain. You never do that.
I just, I've never heard you complain. Why is that?
And then you got to make a choice.
Well, you know, good parenting. Or if you say, "Well, I mean, to be honest, it's not that I've never felt frustrated; it's just God is working on my life."
"Hey man, you just don't seem stressed. This is a stressful town. How are you peaceful in the midst of this crazy?"
"Why? I'll be honest with you. I developed a rhythm from the Scriptures that said, 'Don't be anxious about anything, but let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' I live in that verse."
"I don't know anything about that."
"Well, I mean, I'd love to talk to you about it sometime."
Making the best use of time. Making the most of every opportunity.
I love that. Just the Greek word is "ex agora." Agora means marketplace. He says, "Snatch it out of the marketplace."
Ex agora—get it out of there.
He said, "Your time is diminishing, so when you see an opportunity to do good, snatch it! Don't miss it! Grab it! Be a part of it! Be in the middle of it!"
Brian Head Welch was the lead guitarist for Korn. I don't know if any of you know who Korn is anymore. They're a fairly aggressive rock band.
And with all the money he was making, he got into real estate. And as he got into real estate, he wrote in his book, "I met a guy named Doug."
He said, "Doug was a church-going goody-goody, but he was a positive person, so I was drawn to him."
And he said, "We'd do these real estate deals with Doug and with Eric."
And then he wrote, "But I was so addicted to meth, I had eight brands going at once."
And he said, "In the middle of 2004, I was saturated with evil and depression, doing more speed than you can imagine and getting more obsessed with pornography. I had hit rock bottom."
He said, "I knew it was time for me to try and reach out for help, so I reached out to Doug and Eric a little bit."
He said, "I sent them emails about real estate deals all the time, but I started to hint at how unhappy I was."
He said, "And then one moment, I got an email out of the blue from Eric. 'Brian, not to get weird on you or anything, but I was reading my Bible this morning, and you came to mind when I read this verse: "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me. I'm gentle, humble in heart. There you'll find rest for your soul. My yoke's easy; my burden's light." I don't know why, but I had a very strong feeling that would mean something to you, and I should send it to you. Please don't take that wrong. All the best, Eric.'"
I read his email, and when I replied, everything came pouring out of me.
I told him, "I'm a lost soul, man. My life isn't fun anymore. Do you have any advice on where to go from here?"
And he wrote back, "Awesome message! I want you to get one concept because he said maybe I need to go to church. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car. A relationship with Jesus is personal. He's your confidant and your friend. You can turn to Him anytime. He's always accepting, no matter what you've done. He can release you from any guilt, pain, or shame you have. People in far worse circumstances have turned their lives around and come to know the unconditional love of God. I would love to come and sit and talk with you more about it."
And Brian Head Welch put his faith in Jesus Christ because of the faithfulness of Eric and Doug, the real estate guys, to make the most of every opportunity to see someone's cry for help and say, "Hey man, I don't want to be weird, but where is God in that for you? Hey, can I pray for you?"
I don't have to do it with you; that makes you uncomfortable. I just want you to know I'm going to pray for you because I don't have any advice, but my heart hurts for what you're hurting with.
Make the most of every opportunity.
So, we pray earnestly, we walk wisely, and then we speak graciously. That's the last thing.
A lot of people want to skip that in Christian circles. They love that quote from Saint Francis: "Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words."
You're like, "It's necessary! You're going to need words!"
All right? That's like saying, "Order food, and when necessary, use words."
You know, you're like, "Hey, no! Learn sign language! Use it! Use communication to get a message across!"
And so, yes, you do good and walk wisely to set up what this message does to you from the inside out, and then people will be drawn to this message, and you speak.
And he says, "Let your speech always be gracious or with grace, seasoned with salt, so you may know how you ought to answer each person."
He says, "When you speak to people," and he says "always."
This isn't just when the religious conversation comes up. Suddenly, you become this religious person that you're cussing, rude, grumbling, complaining, and then suddenly you're like, "Well, you know, Jesus Christ has changed my life."
Who did you just become now?
Always with grace.
That you have a gracious way of talking to people. You have a gentle way, is what Peter says.
"Be ready to give an answer, but always with gentleness."
That the way you speak to people is kind. Your words aren't the thrust of a sword, but they're like the wise words that bring healing.
That the way you speak is attractive to people.
G.K. Chesterton is one of my favorite people to study. G.K. Chesterton lived in the late 1800s, early 1900s in Britain. His writings were so profound in their apologetics, they helped convert a young C.S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity.
They inspired everybody from Michael Collins to Gandhi. His writing's beautiful. His book "Orthodoxy" is historic, but he was also really silly.
He was an overgrown elf of a man, is what one person called him, who laughed at his own jokes and amused children at birthday parties by catching biscuits in his mouth.
He didn't take himself seriously. He was asked once about being one of the major proponents of Christianity, "If you were caught on a desert island, what—so if you could bring one book, what would it be?"
And without hesitation, he said, "Practical Guide to Shipbuilding."
He's great!
And he was always invited to debate George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells. They would pack out stadiums for him to debate these men, and he would show up late, tripping on the stage, pulling random scraps of paper out of his pockets, and then laughing at his own jokes, becoming friends with them.
And his habit was after the debate, "I take you to the pub."
And he became friends with all these guys. He vigorously opposed their philosophies, and yet even as he vigorously opposed their philosophy, he was so winsome that they wanted to be around him.
This is what one person who debated against him said about the experience of being on stage with him.
He said, "To hear Chesterton's howl of joy, to see him double himself up in agony of laughter at my personal insults, to watch the effect of his sportsmanship on a shocked audience who were won to mirth by his intense quirks of joy was a sight and a sound for the gods.
And I carried away from that room a respect and admiration for this tomboy among dictionaries, this philosophical Peter Pan, this kind and galloped cherub, this profound student and wise master who has grown steadily ever since.
It was monstrous, gigantic, amazing, deadly, delicious. Nothing like this has ever been done or will ever be seen, heard, or felt again.
This was the guy he was disagreeing with said this about the experience.
He was disarming every philosophy I hold dear, and to watch it was magnificent and glorious, and I don't know if I'll ever see something that beautiful again.
Why did he say that? Because this man cared that I can speak the truth in love, that I can talk about the grace of Jesus with a graciousness.
That's what Francis Schaeffer did. He would never let them be called debates when he would debate people on stage. He would say, "I have dialogues because I never want to dishonor a human being."
So, he would ask his students, "Pray for me that I can profoundly agree with someone's disagree with someone's philosophy, but do it in a way that it would not be odd for us to go to dinner afterwards."
And he would do that famously. He was able to say some very hard things to people, bring up some controversial topics, and tell them, "You are lost and dead in your sin, and there's eternal judgment for those who deny God.
But by the grace of God, Jesus Christ has interposed His precious blood that you can be made clean and right and holy before God, but you must repent because you're a sinner and can't fix you."
That is such an offensive message to some, but when you say it with a gracious way, some people see the grace of Jesus, and they want it too.
So, I pray earnestly, and I walk wisely, and I speak graciously.
And I love the way he ends it: "So you'll know how you should respond to each person."
That to speak graciously, to be winsome, Paul said it: "To the Jews, I became like a Jew; to the Greeks, like the Greeks, in order to win the Greeks, so that by all means I might win some."
I love the way Pastor Louis says it: "We are winsome so we might win some."
So, I don't just have a gospel message I throw at everybody. I get to know you, and the more I understand how the brokenness of sin that impacts us all plays out in your life, I can apply the balm of the gospel to your particular wound.
Billy Graham was leading his massive crusades, packing stadiums in London, and so he got a call: "Hey, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill would like to meet you at noon today."
What?
He said he didn't even have time to get nervous about it. "I'm going to go meet Winston Churchill."
And he said on the way there, he was so nervous, "What do you say to the Prime Minister?"
And he said what I found out later that I didn't know was Winston Churchill was pacing his office saying, "What do you say to an evangelist?"
He had no idea.
And Billy Graham, through some mistakes, had learned, "I don't try to act like I'm as equal as a leader. I don't try to act like my opinions about politics are equal to his. I don't pretend to be something I'm not. I'm a minister of the basic message of Jesus; that's all I am."
And so he came in, and he was just trying to be aware and sensitive to this man.
He said when he walked in, there were newspapers spread all over his desk, and as they began to talk, Winston Churchill looked at these papers and he said, "These papers are filled with nothing but war and death. Do you have any hope in the world?"
Billy said, "Yeah, I do."
He looked at him, and he said, "Well, I'm a man without hope."
Billy said that felt like my moment. God opened the door; give me the courage to step into it.
And he said in that moment, I was like, "Are you speaking politically, or are you speaking about your own soul?"
And he said, "Churchill said, 'My soul. I think about it a lot.'"
He said, "Sir, can I tell you what I've been saying in these stadiums in London?"
He said, "I'd like that very much."
So, he started to tell him about Jesus.
He'd been told on the way in the door, "The Duke of Windsor will be here in 20 minutes. You have 20 minutes with the Prime Minister, and you're gone."
And so dutifully, there's a knock at the door: "Excuse me, sir, the Duke of Windsor's here."
And Winston Churchill said, "Let him wait. Continue."
And Billy Graham got to preach the gospel to this man and then said, "I don't want to offend you, but can I pray for you?"
And he said, "I would like that very much."
So, I don't know what opportunities God's going to give you, but God loves to do extraordinary things to very ordinary people.
He'll do it. He'll do it through you.
I had this beautiful—I found recently a string of emails I had gotten between me and a college student. He left Texas A&M and went to go work with horses in Austria.
He said, "I don't know any Christians here, so can you give me advice on how to grow in my faith? And then I don't know how to be a Christian in the culture."
So, I sent him a list of things just like this. I said, "Pray a lot that God will open doors. Study a lot; get to know your Bible really well. Serve people. Then ask God to create the opportunities and give you the courage to take them."
And he wrote me back so excited: "Ben, you're not going to believe this!"
He said, "I was so convicted by that 'pray a lot' line. I said I don't pray at all, so I started asking God to create opportunities."
And he said, "The next day, I'm giving riding lessons to this kid. The kid starts bringing up the church he used to go to as a kid and then says, 'Man, I don't do that anymore,' and I got all these questions."
And what do you believe?
He said he brought it up, so I told him what I believe.
He said, "A couple days later, same thing happened. I'm teaching riding lessons to this girl, and she said, 'Hey, I watched this movie last night called The Passion of the Christ. Terrifying!'
And she said, 'I don't understand why that man had to die like that. I don't get it at all.'
And he said, 'Well, I'm studying the Gospel of John. Would you like to read it?'
She said, 'Yeah, actually, I really would.'
And he said, "And then I got kind of awkward."
He was like, "Man, I wasn't sure like her and I one-on-one are going to read the Bible together. This might get a little weird."
And he was like, "I don't know, kind of like the dynamics here get a little twisted when you're both cute, you know?"
So, he's like, "I'm not sure what to do."
So, he just kept praying about it, and then someone else came and said, "Hey, what are you all doing?"
You're like, "Hey, we're going to read the Bible again."
She's like, "Oh, I want to do that!"
And he wrote me back later and was like, "Hey, I got this little community that every day is reading about Jesus."
He said, "We had a woman come that's been searching spiritually all different places, and she heard about what we're doing, and she wanted to read it."
He said, "One of them, she's reading it every day; she's translating it into German so she can give it to her friends."
People have done that, but she wanted to do it herself to get deep into the Word of God.
And he looked up and he was like, "Dude, I don't even know how this happened, but I'm walking people in an ever-increasing wake of people to the front door of the person of Jesus. Here's what He's like. Here's how He treated people who were a mess. Look how gentle He was with children. Look at what He was like. Look at who He is. Look at what He claimed He was."
Do you believe?
It's scary, but it's a wonderful opportunity.
Augustine was arguably the greatest mind Christianity has ever seen after the Apostle Paul. Augustine was obsessed with moving to the big city to be successful as a philosopher, as an orator, and he had a deep and profound brokenness, particularly with his sexual obsessions.
But as he showed up there and pursued everything the world had to offer, he was famous and wealthy and successful and empty.
And then he heard about, back in his home country of Africa, a man named Anthony who had left it all to seek Jesus in the wilderness and to teach people the Word of God.
They looked at his friend and said, "We have everything this man has, none of our learning. He charges the gates of heaven, and we pilfer around with trifles."
And it convicted him.
He went to go hear the preaching of Ambrose because he wanted to study oratory, but he kept hearing about the beauty and grace of Jesus that could forgive even him.
He recognized the power of the gospel in the life of Anthony, and when he released his sin and shame to Jesus and came to faith in Him, he told a crowd of people, "I am here because of the preaching of Ambrose, the life of Anthony, and the prayers of my dear mother."
We pray, we walk, we speak, and God opens doors.
And I'm excited to see what He'll do in Washington, D.C., as His timid, trembling people walk this ancient path with Him.
on Nov 09, 2023
