Join in the Work - Colossians 4:2-6

1:17Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. This is the kind of exciting work that Paul was involved in. And it is exciting. We just sang a wonderful song that we get to go to all the world with kingdom hope unfurled because no other name can save but Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul is so excited to hear about the faith of the Colossians, that the word has come in, and just like it's doing all over the world at that time, it is bearing fruit in their lives. It's causing growth. It's changing who they are. And they have had faith. They've believed in this word. It's exciting.

2:12He gives a report that this is happening everywhere. And he commends Epaphras because Epaphras is a faithful servant. He's the one who shared the word with them. He's a fellow worker. Paul will go on to say that ever since he heard about their faith, he has not ceased to pray for the Colossians. He is giving thanks for them over and over and over. He is praying for them over and over and over because there's gospel work going on and it's exciting and they need to grow. And Paul is excited and giving thanks. Look at the end of chapter 1, verse 27.

2:55Colossians 1, verse 27. To them, that's the same. To the saints, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me. So Paul has this mystery that he's declaring, and he is working to help people understand it. He is toiling, he is working, and God is at work in him. God is doing things through the Apostle Paul. And in our passage today, Paul is going to invite the Colossians to join in this exciting work.

3:54There's an exciting work going all over the globe. Paul is involved with it. Epaphras is involved with it. And now he's going to invite the Colossians to become part of it as well. That's what we're going to see today. In Colossians, he's already talked about the mystery of Christ. He has talked about the preeminence of Christ over all things. He's commanded them to fix their minds on the things above instead of letting themselves be taken captive by earthly philosophies.

4:28And he's discussed. How the radical changes that have happened in a Colossians' life lead, should lead to ordinary changes in the way that they live. The radical changes that have happened for them, that they have died and been made alive in Christ, that these should lead to more ordinary changes. The Christians in Colossi were expected to live ordinary lives. Wives are still wives. Husbands are trying to be gentle husbands. Children and parents and slaves and masters. But all of these lives, these ordinary lives, they live with a new perspective. This is what we studied last week. They live with the perspective now that the Lord sees them and He cares about the way that they live. And so they're living before His eyes. Today, we're going to see how these ordinary Colossians can participate in Paul's mission. He's going to give them three ways that they can join in the work. Three ways to join in the work: persevering prayer, wise walking, and salty speech.

5:49These are ordinary ways, too, right? But these are ordinary ways that we also can join in God's mission, in the grand work that He's doing in. The globe that we, ordinary us, we get to join in the work. Persevering prayer, wise walking in salty speech. Colossians 4, verse 2. Colossians 4, verse 2. This is our text. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Pray with me. God, we pray that you'd help us as we study this text.

6:56We do know that there is no other name by which we can be saved except through Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you would help us catch the excitement that Paul has about this work, that in his day your word was spreading throughout all the world and bearing fruit, and it has in the lives of these Colossians. I pray, Lord, that you would. Get us excited about that as well and make us eager to join in the work.

7:36Thank you, Father, for this passage. Thank you for letting us be together this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, the first way that the Colossians can join in the work is persevering prayer. Persevering prayer. Look at verse 2: Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. And at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. So, the first thing he says is to continue steadfastly in prayer. After he gives them the commands for their households and for their works, for their slaves and masters, and things like that, he tells them, continue steadfastly in prayer. Be devoted to prayer. Be busy with it. Persist in it. He's already told them in chapter 1 that ever since he heard about their faith, he hasn't ceased to pray for them. And so now he's saying to show that same devotion, the same steadfastness in prayer.

8:52Paul always says this kind of thing. He always places this high importance on prayer. He is always praying. Praying, we hear about it in all of his letters. And he commands his disciples to pray. You guys remember in 1 Timothy 2, he says, First of all, I declare that the men in every place should pray. Jesus held prayer with a similar regard. He held it up. He was always praying. He was sneaking away in the morning to go and pray. We hear about Jesus' prayer life in the Gospels. The apostles lifted prayer on this high pedestal as well. They considered it so important. You remember in Acts 6 how instead of using their time to wait on the tables, they appointed the deacons so that they could keep teaching and praying. They considered it important. Well, so does Paul. And now he's calling the Colossians to continue steadfastly in prayer. The command to continue steadfast has this idea of perseverance. They're to persist in this. They're to work hard at making it a priority to pray all the time. So let me pause to ask you: are you doing this? Are you devoted to prayer?

10:18Do you join in the work by continuing steadfastly in prayer? I think that most of us are on the same page. We wish we did it more, right? Most of us would say, that's something I really want to be persistent in. That is something I really want to work at, that I want to persevere in, that I want to continue steadfastly in prayer, to be always praying. And it is a command. And even though we wish we did it more, and maybe we failed in the past, that doesn't mean we can't apply it even this week. We can apply it this week. Even this week, we can persist in prayer. We can join in the work. So I just encourage you, before we keep going through this text, to let this text lead you into action. Maybe you've had the thought a thousand times, oh, I wish I was more devoted in prayer. And maybe we'll have that thought a thousand more times in our life. But at least this week, let's let the text drive us into action and be more devoted to prayer as we go through it. Paul is going to give us several characteristics of prayer in verse 2.

11:34We've seen the first already, that it should be steadfast, that we should keep at it, that we should be busy with it. So steadfast. The next characteristic is that our prayer should be watchful. It should be steadfast and it should be watchful. Verse 2: continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it. So when we pray, we should be awake. We should be aware. Of what we're praying about. This word for watchful is actually the same one. Do you guys remember this story? It's the same word that Jesus uses in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he tells his disciples to watch and pray. It's this stay awake, be alert.

12:19That's what Paul is saying: pay attention. This kind of watchfulness is the kind of watchfulness that the apostles are always telling in their letters. They're always telling us to be watchful as we wait for Christ to return. Be awake, be aware, know what's going on around you and persist in prayer. So this prohibits the kind of sleepy, unaware prayer that a lot of us do. Liliana each night prays before she goes to sleep. And a lot of times her prayers are creative. She's good at it. She can think of how to talk. But a lot of times she's also very sleepy. And when she's very sleepy, she has this go-to prayer that she says all the time. She says, Dear God, I hope we have a good time and have fun and have a good time. Amen. And you can tell that it's just this sleepy, she's not thinking about what she's saying. It's just this totally unaware prayer.

13:30Silly to us, but we can do the same kind of thing, right? Even as believers, even as adults, we can have these sleepy, unaware prayers. We're aloof to the work that's going on in the church. We're not paying attention to the work that the Lord is doing, and so our prayers are unaware. So instead, we should be alert. We should pay attention. So our prayers should be steadfast. Our prayers should be watchful. And finally, our prayers should be thankful. Verse 2: continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Being watchful in it with thanksgiving. This kind of note, this kind of detail with thanksgiving, Paul keeps inserting throughout this whole letter. We've seen it over and over and over and over. Give thanks. Be thankful.

14:23Let your prayers be filled with thanksgiving. He keeps saying this over and over and over. So we've talked about it, it feels like, a hundred times as we've gone through this letter. And I think that's the point. Paul is saying, let this thankfulness, let this flavor permeate throughout all your prayers. When you are speaking with God, when you are praying to Him, you need to always have this grateful, thankful heart. We need to ingrain in our minds the necessity of gratitude in our prayers. In chapter 2, he'll say that we should be abounding in thanksgiving. Abounding in thanksgiving. And that is the same thing he repeats here: that we should be thankful. So your prayers should be steadfast, watchful, and thankful. And then I think, kind of surprisingly, Paul gives them two specific prayer requests as he's talking about prayer. He says, pray for me. Pray for the Apostle Paul. Let's look at his prayer requests. Look at verse 3. At the same time, pray also for us. So while they are persevering in prayer, while they're making themselves busy by joining in the work through prayer, he also wants them to pray for him.

15:48Now, Paul is an apostle, he's an official representative of Jesus Christ. He's an official spokesperson for Jesus Christ. He's received visions. He's delivered the word of God. And yet he still asks for these prayers from these ordinary people. So no leader is beyond the need of prayer. We all need to be praying for our own leaders in the church. The Apostle Paul, he's not on earth anymore, so it wouldn't make sense for us to pray these requests about him. But I think you'll see that as we go through these two requests, they're still. Still, requests that we can be praying for today.

16:33The two requests are an open door in clear speech. An open door in clear speech. Verse 3. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison. Pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word. So Paul is asking them to pray for ministry opportunities. He's asking them to pray for God to open this door where he can preach the word.

17:17He knows that it's God who opens the doors. And he knows that when the door is open, that it's the word who causes the cause of Christ to advance. So when the door is open, he is going to preach the word. It's the same idea we saw in Psalm 127 in Sunday school this morning, that God is in charge. He's sovereign. And so Paul is asking them to pray that God would open the door for the ministry. We see this theme throughout the book of Acts. This is one of the main themes in the book of Acts: the advance of the Word of God. The advance of the Word of God. This is what Paul is praying for in Acts chapter 6.

18:00After the deacons are appointed, like we talked about, after the apostles are able to start teaching and preaching again and praying, the author of Acts says in verse 7, and the word of God continued to increase. It's kind of a unique statement, isn't it? The word of God continued to increase. And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. The word of God continued to increase. And then in Acts 12, six chapters later, Peter is freed from prison through the prayers of the church. You remember that story, right? The church is praying for Peter, and an angel comes and actually frees him from prison, and they're surprised. And in that same chapter, Herod is struck down dead publicly for not giving glory to God. So that's Acts 12. And at the end of that chapter, the author summarizes again. He says, but the word of God increased and multiplied. So as these things are going on, the word of God keeps increasing. It keeps multiplying. It keeps advancing. It keeps accomplishing God's will. In Acts 19, Paul is traveling and teaching, and he's able to heal. And it says in Acts 19 that even if a handkerchief touches Paul, They're able to take that handkerchief to someone who's sick and it can heal them. So, Paul is traveling and teaching. It talks about in Acts 19 that the sorcerers and the magicians begin to burn their books at great cost because they're turning to Christ and they're leaving behind their old ways. And the author repeats again: after all that exciting work, he says, So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. So you just get this picture in the book of Acts that the word is marching forward and marching forward. The word is increasing. The word is multiplying in Acts 12. The word is prevailing mightily in Acts 19. And then at the beginning of our letter in Colossians, Paul has said, Of the hope that's laid up in heaven, you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing. He uses that same idea. He says, Colossians, the word has come to you and it's increasing throughout the world, just like it was in the book of Acts. The word is marching forward, it's accomplishing God's will, and people are turning to him. So, Paul knew firsthand he's the one who's doing the ministry in Acts 19. He knows firsthand what it looks like for the word of God to continue and increase and prevail mightily.

21:00He knows what it's like to see the door and to go through it and see the word do its work. And now he's asking the Colossians to pray for him, that this would continue to happen even while he's in prison. Think about that. One of the pastors that spoke at the Shepherd's Conference a couple weeks ago made this point really vividly, that Paul was in prison. And right here, he's giving the Colossians a prayer request. And certainly he remembers that story that we just brought up of how Peter prayed, or how the church prayed, and Peter was freed from prison. And so you might think that that would be Paul's first request. You know, find those people who prayed. Or find some people who prayed.

21:58Surely Paul knew that story. And so why wouldn't that be his first request? Well, instead, his first request is that even in prison, God would give him an open door for the word. That's what he's concerned about. That God would give him an open door for the word. He wants to declare the mystery of Christ. The very things he's gone over for us in Colossians 1 and 2, the very things we've studied, the mystery of Christ.

22:30He wants to keep declaring this, even though this is what landed him in prison to begin with. And so he prays for an open door. The second request is related. Clear speech. Look at verse 4. That I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. That I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. So he asked the Colossians to pray that he would have these opportunities to preach the word. And then he asked them to pray, and when those opportunities come, pray that I would speak clearly.

23:08He wants to make the mystery of Christ plain so that people can understand. Now remember that in one sense, all of this uniquely applies to Paul. We've seen this before, that he has this special job to declare these mysteries. They've been revealed to him, and his job is to make them plain. In Colossians 1:24, he says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations. But now revealed to his saints. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So Paul is saying that these mysteries have been revealed to him in his stewardship from the Lord. His task is to reveal these to the saints.

24:24So Paul has a unique ministry, he has a unique mission. And when he's asking the Colossians to pray for him, he's asking them to join in this mission that he has, to join in this task that the Lord has given him. But even though he's unique, I think these requests are pretty broad, and we can pray the same things for each other. We can certainly pray these for the elders and the ministries of this church. That God would open doors for the word, and that when the doors open, that we would proclaim the word clearly and plainly. That's what Paul is asking. It's God's Word that marches forward and changes lives, just like we saw in the book of Acts. It's God's Word that is changing hearts and doing the work. And so we should pray for open doors and clear speech. And let's make sure that our prayers, like he says, are steadfast and watchful and thankful.

25:31Pray in your closets. Pray in your beds before night. Pray at the table before you eat. Pray together as a church on Sunday mornings. Pray together on Wednesday evenings. Come to a prayer meeting and join in this work of praying for the workers. This is the first way we can join in the work, persevering prayer. The second way is wise walking. Wise walking. Look at verse 5. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. So now Paul is commanding the Colossians to be mindful of the way that they interact with unbelievers.

26:26Those outside of the faith, those outside of the church. When we're around unbelievers, we need to be careful that we're walking in wisdom. You can see right away that this is certainly a way to join in the work, right? You can see the implications here. Paul is saying that to the Colossians, Look, I am working hard to spread this gospel, to spread this good news to all the nations. You work hard at home by being wise around those that are looking at you.

27:02They need to interact wisely. This wisdom has been a theme throughout Colossians. We see it all over Scripture. But he has mentioned it over and over and over for the Colossians that they should grow in wisdom. In chapter 1, verse 9, he says that he's been praying for them without ceasing, that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. In chapter 2, he tells them that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ himself. And he warns them against false wisdom. In chapter 3, he commands them to teach each other with all wisdom. This is a big deal. And now he is adding yet another reason to conduct yourselves in wisdom, to grow in wisdom and knowledge, and make it change your behavior, to live wisely. And that reason is that unbelievers are looking at them. It impacts their testimony.

28:07And so, are you mindful of the way that you act around unbelievers? I think as Christians, it's an easy pattern for us to fall into where we are really mindful of our wise walk when we're around each other, right? We don't want to be judged by one another or something like that. And so we put our best foot forward and we walk. Wisely around each other, but then when we go back to our unbelieving co-workers or our unbelieving community, we can kind of let our guard down and stop being so wise in our walk.

28:42I think that's a pattern that all of us can fall into. Instead, we should be wise around the unbelievers as well. The wisdom that we read about in the Old Testament should mark our lives as believers. And it should mark our lives in a way that non-Christians can notice. They can see it and they can notice. My wife and I both just recently read this book on hospitality, which is certainly a way to be around unbelievers and walk wisely as they're in your home.

29:20But there's a story in that book about this couple who invited this man over to their house, and he would come over. For four years, he came over and came over and came over. And finally, he became a Christian. And later, he would confess that the reason why he became a Christian was because when he looked at that couple, when he looked at how they interacted with each other, when they looked at how they parented their children, he could tell just by the way they were acting that there was something different. And over time, it broke down his defenses, and he realized he needed that, and he became a Christian.

30:00Four years. So, this couple they showed love and kindness to this man by inviting him over. But then, God used these ordinary things, parenting, being a husband, being a wife. God used these ordinary things to draw that man to himself. They were walking wisely toward an outsider. In this example, this story challenges us, right? This verse challenges us to walk wisely. It challenges us in two ways. First, it challenges us to make sure that we are interacting with unbelievers. That's something we can neglect in our life. We can avoid the unbelievers at work, or we can never talk to our neighbors in our neighborhood. So, get to know your neighbors, get to know your co-workers. But, second, this verse challenges us to pursue wisdom. Yes, we should seek to have relationships with unbelievers, but also at the same time, we need to be pursuing wisdom. We want the fruit of wisdom to be in our lives.

31:07We should pursue this wisdom. The young adults know that this can be hard work. We've been having to chew on the book of Ecclesiastes all semester, and it can be hard work. We need to chew on the book of Proverbs. We need to think about it, let it impact our lives as we seek to grow in wisdom. But when we do, God can use that wise walk. In front of the eyes of unbelievers to draw them to himself. It impacts our testimony. Part of this wisdom is expressed in the second half of verse 5. Look at verse 5 again. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time, making the best use of your time. Use your time well, use it to grow in wisdom, use it to join in the work by befriending unbelievers. Some of your translations say redeeming the time, redeeming the time. But the idea is simply that your time is limited, so make the best use of it.

32:10We should snatch it up before our time runs out, before it goes away. We enjoy the blessings God has given us in this life. We enjoy our toil. We enjoy the food and drink. But we don't lose sight of the fact that we're running out of time, that before we know it, our life is going to be over. So we should use our time to walk wisely around outsiders. Walk in wisdom. The final way for the Colossians to join in the work is with salty speech. Salty speech. Look at verse 6. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Each person. A common interpretation of these verses, because he literally says at the beginning, let your speech always be gracious. He says, your word in grace. That's what it says. Your word in grace. And so a common interpretation of this is to say that it's divine grace. He's saying, let your words, let your conversations with unbelievers may it always be filled with talk about the grace of our Lord. May you scatter that throughout your conversations. And that's what the salt would be in that interpretation, that the salt are these spiritual truths that you scatter throughout all your conversations. Those things are certainly true, but it seems that Paul is using these idioms, these were common idioms in his day, to just refer more broadly to gracious speech. Just be kind in your speech, be winsome, be compelling. The Ephesians parallel says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth.

34:09So, yes, their speech should include gospel truths, we all believe that, but he's also calling them to something more broad. He's expanding this idea and just saying, Let all your speech be gracious. That's the same way we use the phrase, let your speech be gracious. This is another way that they can join in the work, and it's an ordinary way. Talk to people. Be gracious when you talk to people. Seasoned with salt was a common idiom that they used back then to say that Christians shouldn't feel the need that after they become a Christian, all of a sudden all of their conversations have to be dull and boring, that they have to go on and on and have these drab monologues with other people. No, their conversation should be seasoned with salt. They should be gracious. They can have normal, gracious conversations with unbelievers, and even that becomes part of your testimony.

35:13So talk to people. Have good conversations. Let's look at the next part. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So we work on having conversations with people. We work on being gracious with our speech so that we can answer people. When we're walking like a Christian, when we're walking in wisdom, and we use our words to tell them what it means to be a Christian, we're going to get questions about it, and we should be ready to answer those questions. So the call in this verse, in verse 6, is actually two parts, right? We need to work on being good at conversation in general. We should just work on being kind to people and gracious. But also, we need to know the faith well enough to be able to talk about that. So, when people have questions, we can answer them. We want to be able to give answers. So, if this second part scares you a little bit, how do I talk about the faith? I don't know enough, or something like that. I encourage you to work on that right away. Know the faith. Maybe you're a new believer, or maybe you've been a believer for 10 years, you've just never really studied the basics even of Christianity. Work on it right away. Sign up for Partners One-on-one with somebody in this church. Get the basics down. Know scripture. Be ready to answer, like he says.

36:56But I suspect for many of you that have been believers for a while, it's not that part that scares you in this command. It's kind of more the first part. If I'm a shy person or something like that, how am I supposed to be gracious in conversation? How do I work on that? I think that, ladies, some of you have figured out how to stay just busy enough with your children to not have real conversations with other people outside of small talk. Or men, maybe you do the same thing at work. You set up this atmosphere where you. You never really actually talk about anything. You maybe have the normal greetings or the normal small talk or something like that, but you never have a chance to be gracious in your speech. In my generation, and for the college students, the people who talk to people all the time are kind of the weirdos. That's just not what you do.

37:51If you get in an elevator and there's other people with you in the elevator, you do not talk. It's just awkward, right? You just stand there in silence, or maybe you pull out your phone so it's not so awkward as you're just standing next to this person in silence. But Paul is calling us to season our conversations with salt, to consider the fact that we want to be gracious in our conversations. So maybe it takes work, maybe it takes practice, maybe a hundred awkward conversations in an elevator as you're learning how to be gracious in your speech, as you're learning how to talk normally to people and be kind and gracious. So work towards gracious speech and work towards being able to give an answer. This is a parallel, as ordinary as this seems, this is a parallel to the other ordinary thing that he's just said, to walk in wisdom. These are ways we interact with unbelievers in a way that helps our testimony, that makes it so we can join in the work. Join in Paul's work. Join in the gospel work.

39:00So, Colossians is a book that talks about dramatic, universe-sized truths. Paul talks about the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. This is big stuff. And the Christian life, as he's described in Colossians, is one that's based on dramatic, life-altering truths. He says in Colossians 2, you who were dead in the trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

40:02Everything has changed for the believer. But like we talked about last week, Paul tells us what the Christian life is supposed to look like, and I think to many of our eyes, it's surprisingly ordinary. We're still wives and husbands. We are still children and parents. We put off the old things. We put on the new things. We let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. We teach each other, we admonish each other, we sing with one another. We consider Jesus as the Lord of our marriage, our family, and our work.

40:42These are ordinary things, right? But what's so amazing is that Paul is saying that we, as ordinary as we are, we can join in this gospel work, all of us. We can pray for the workers. We can pray that there would be open doors for the word and that the workers would have clear speech. We can walk in a way that unbelievers can see the wisdom and we can talk to them, ready to give an answer, being kind and gracious in our speech, letting our speech be seasoned with salt. And when we do, God can use these things to draw people to himself.

41:33These are the very last things that Paul commands the Colossians before he starts to give all the greetings and goodbyes in the rest of the letter. These are the very last things, and they might seem ordinary for us to do, to pray, to walk with wisdom, to be gracious in our speech, but they're important. And we must. Do them. So consider your prayer. Consider your walk. Consider your talk. And join in the work. Let's pray. God, we pray that you would make us excited about this gospel work.

42:21Most of us aren't going to travel overseas and share the gospel. Most of us aren't going to be like Paul and sail from city to city and proclaim your name. But we have been called to be something different and unique, even in our daily lives. And even from our day-to-day life, we can join in this work that's going on, this work that you are doing by considering our conduct, by being wise, by talking with people in a gracious way, and by praying for the work that's being done.

43:13I pray, Lord, that you would make us steadfast and devoted in these things. I pray that you would make us people who love to do this kind of work. We thank you, God, for this study this morning. I pray that people would be able to consider the areas where maybe they're failing in these things, in prayer, or in a wise walk, or in their gracious speech. And I pray, Lord, that even this week they could put it into action for your glory, that they could obey the commands that they see in Scripture and work on these things.

44:01We thank you, Lord, for letting us be together. We thank you for bringing back all the people who went to Honduras. It's a joy to be with them, and we miss them. We thank you for bringing them back safely. And we pray that you would bring back all the other people who have gone on trips for spring break so that we can worship together with them again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.