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September 26, 2004
17th Sunday after Pentecost
Colossians 4:2-6
Pastor Ben Berger

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

Have you ever worked on an all-consuming project? A project that took all of your time, attention and energy. My most recent all-consuming project has been looking for a new bedroom set. I woke up the other morning at 5:17am thinking about furniture makers and dealers, the kind and color of wood I prefer, and the cost. It seems that I'll never stop thinking about bedroom furniture until we finally decide what we want. You have been asked to be part of an even larger building project. First, we all have the responsibility and privilege to help build God's kingdom by spreading his word. God wants that to be an all-consuming project. As a congregation we are trying to build God's kingdom by expanding our own ministry and property. This too is an all-consuming project. But, as we sang earlier "With the Lord begin thy task," all of our projects begin with prayer. So, this past week as you attended information meetings we asked each of you and your families to commit to prayer. You even signed a commitment card that reads, "Yes, I will support my church in this effort. I will prayerfully seek to know God's direction for my life and, by faith, do it." You have committed to pray for Mount Olive and yourself for the next five weeks. Today the apostle Paul asks us to make prayer a life-long project. He encourages us to Devote Yourselves to Prayer. Specifically, Devote Yourselves to Prayer 1) for our message 2) for your message.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, (v.2). DEVOTE - that means all-consuming. To devote to prayer means to pray continually. Dig in, hunker down; prayer never leaves your mind or heart. In other words, be watchful.

We all have to admit, don't we, that we are not watchful. Not a single one of us has given all of our attention to Christ. How many of us lie awake at night wondering how we'll better spread God's word tomorrow? (Some of us might). How many of us wake up in the middle of the night just to pray? We are so distracted by this world. We have so many other all-consuming projects to think about. We work too many hours. When we get home from work or school, we want to spend time with family and friends. We have to clean, eat or meet. Add our problems to the mix and our attention is spent. We don't have time to think about God.

Even then, God is thinking about us. In fact, in Christ God gives us his full attention all the time. Christ DEVOTED himself to us. God created us and made us the crown of his creation. He knew us even before he created the world; he knit us together in our mother's womb. And, most of all he saved us. Christ literally devoted his life and death to us. Even now, while we sleep, while we worry about other problems, Christ devotes all of his attention to us. He sends his angels to watch over us. He listens to the thoughts and worries on our minds and hearts. He calls us to offer comfort and strength in his Word. He anxiously waits for us to come home.

Christ's devotion to us motivates us to devote ourselves to him. His salvation, protection and provision move us to pray. We have four reasons to pray. You might want to write these down as a guide for your prayers; the first letters spell out ACTS. We adore God; we acknowledge him as the one who made us, takes care of us and saved us. We confess to God. We confess that we have not given our full attention or devotion to him and trust him for forgiveness. We thank God for the forgiveness he offers, his devotion and his many other blessings. And supplication - we ask God for further blessing.

Specifically, we ask God to bless the efforts of our church. Paul said, "And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should," (v.3-4).

Pray that God would open a door for our message. You never know where that door will open. As Paul said, he was writing this in chains. He was under house arrest in Rome for preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. In Philippians he wrote that God answered these prayers. Paul's trial gave him the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the leaders and people in Rome.

God will answer our prayers to spread his Word at Mount Olive too, but we have to ask. Pray that God will open doors here. Pray that he will give us many opportunities to share his word with each other, with the people of our community, with the people of our country and with people throughout the world. We have ways of doing that now: regular worship and study, a day school and high school, Mission Partners. Maybe God has other plans for us as well. Also pray that God would literally open our doors. Hopefully we'll be adding a few doors in the next year. Every time another door opens, we have another chance to proclaim the mystery of Christ.

Pray also that God would help us proclaim his word clearly. Pray that your leaders would continue to speak only God's word and not their own. Ask God to help us preserve his word in all of its truth and purity. Plead that God would teach us to speak his word plainly and clearly to all. Paul said it, Christ is a mystery to many people. Many around us do not truly know who Christ is or what he's done for us. When they hear it the first few times, it won't make sense to them. Satan will try to confuse them. We'll need to proclaim Christ many times and clearly. Pray that God gives us many chances to do so.

And pray together. We will continue to pray as a congregation for our message. We could also pray with our families; we could invite friends over to pray with us. We have given you some helps to do that. Remember ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. You have some passages and a prayer printed for you in a bulletin insert today. You have received a prayer calendar as well. Why don't we stop right now and pray the congregational prayer on the October calendar. "Dear Lord Jesus, I see again the bountiful harvest you grant to farm and field. This is also the time when we are considering our parts in our congregation's extraordinary effort to increase our building so we can increase our ministry. Help us to be faithful as we plan our gifts. Help us trust your promise, 'Seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, and all other things will be given us as well.' Let us do all to your glory. Amen.

As we continue to pray for the message of our congregation, Paul also encourages us to pray for our own individual messages. Let's read verse two again and then look at five and six. "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful…Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone," (2,5-6).

Again we must admit that we are not completely devoted to Christ. We do not give our full attention to him, nor do we give him our time. How much time do we spend with family and friends? Watching TV or playing vids? Working out or playing sports? Many. How much time should we spend with our Savior? One or two hours a week? A few minutes each day? There is no rule. We only want to remember the time Christ gave to us. Christ devotes all of his time to us. He gave us thirty-three years on the earth and three hours on the cross and every minute before and after that. God spends all of his time working for us. That's why we'll want to spend all of our time working for him.

We can devote our time to God by continually spreading his message in our personal lives. Pray that God would give you your own personal opportunities to spread his word. Do you really think he'll say no? You can create open doors for your message by the way you act. The way we walk in this world speaks volumes to outsiders (unbelievers). When they see that we faithfully attend church, go to Bible study/Sunday School/Catechism, study and pray at home, talk about our God…they will notice. When they hear us talk about our God in every situation…I'll pray for you, I thank God for ____this beautiful day___, I find comfort and strength in God's promises…they will notice. Some will ask questions.

You can have an answer ready for them. Ask that God would give you the words to speak and even the way to speak them. Pray that God would teach you all of his truths. Pray that God would help you to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks about the hope that you have. And when they see your hope, they will ask.

Then, LISTEN. Prayer is only one part of the conversation. In prayer we speak to God; we praise him, confess to him, give thanks to him, and ask for his help. He answers through his word. After we pray, we will want to listen. We can listen together. As you ask God to show you your role in his building project, listen to his word. Take home bulletins and print off sermons to study them with your families. Use the daily devotion books to read and study God's word. Come to study at church and study even more at home. God promises to hear and answer your prayers.

We are often consumed by projects of this life. God has asked us to be part of a bigger project, a heavenly project. Our congregation is doing its best to give its full time and attention to spreading the message of God's word. We follow Paul's encouragement to begin by devoting ourselves to prayer. We pray for God's blessing on the message of our congregation and of our personal lives. We devote ourselves to him because he has devoted himself to us.