How to Worship Jesus with Your Life

What's up friend? My name is Courtney and I'm on staff here at Harris Creek Baptist Church and I want to share with you today that as we think and as we pray for you specifically, I want you to know that you are not alone. God is in this with you and we are in this with you. As we prepare these messages, we very often think, man, how will this affect the Pando community? How will this affect the people who are incarcerated right now? And we think all the time about your well-being, your safety, and your salvation most importantly. And so as you listen to this message, don't blow it off. Don't look for a motivational speech. Look for the gospel. Look for how Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection can change your life. He changed my life. I was a struggling alcoholic four years ago who did not know Jesus and the change that has worked in my life has been astronomical and he can work in your life as well. So I pray that that's what happened in this message today. Have at it. Go check it out. See you soon. For those who are watching in stage two, thank you for sitting where you are. Those who are watching online, we got an email from someone who's watching from Florida. Tuning in, there's people all over the nation. Those who are watching from prison via the Pando app, good to be with every single one of you today. Lee Strobel is an author, Christian author. Many of you know him by the book Case for Christ. He wrote the Case for Christ. Over 5 million copies have been sold. New York's Time, bestseller. Many people have come to faith through the writing of that book. What it is is an evidence-based book on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Evidence-based because Lee Strobel was a journalist, an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Now, while many of you may know who Lee Strobel is, you may not know who Lee Strobel was. As an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune, he was building his career while simultaneously tearing down his family. He was an atheist. The reason why he even set out to write the Case for Christ before that was because he was an antagonist towards Jesus and who he was. He was like, it's not true. As an atheist, an unbeliever, he's like, it's not true and I'm going to disprove it. And in trying to disprove it, came to actually find proof for Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. Now, his life prior to Christ was different publicly than it was privately. JP told me that he has heard that when his kids would be playing, they would hear the garage door open as Lee came home. They would scoop up their toys and hide from him because he was such a terror at home. The winning awards and accolades at work, there was this total bifurcation of who he was in the workplace and who he was at home. In fact, JP texted him because he was on the

Becoming Something episode and so they've become friends. JP said he was so full of joy on Becoming Something, like just marked by joy, that he texted him. He's like, hey, would you just remind us of who you were prior to Christ? He sent JP this text back and said, I was living a drunken, immoral, narcissistic, self-absorbed, and in some ways a self-destructive lifestyle. What people saw was my success at the Chicago Tribune and winning awards for investigative reporting. What they didn't see was the other side, drunk in the snow in an alley on a Saturday night. You see, there was a difference of who he was at work and who he was at home, and that happens. That's the reality of life. It's like something that kind of creeps in, like we've got our private or personal life, then we have our professional work life, then we have our public life when we're out and about. Oftentimes, it's three different versions of ourselves. We're not all that different from Lee, except he had the benefit of at least saying, well, I was an atheist. I didn't know God. So as Christians, we should be predictably Christian in our personal life, our professional life, and our public life, that who people see, no matter what the environment, should be predictably Christian, despite the difference of those relationships, no matter where we are. Alternatively, if who you are changes based on who you are with, then who you are should concern you. I'm going to say that again. If who you are changes based on who you are with, then who you are should be of great concern. Because what that means is, like if you're like kind with some friends and critical with others, it doesn't mean that you're good at adapting. It means you're an actor. If you're lazy in your private life and a producer In your professional life, it means you're a performer, that you can switch it on and off. But instead, as we're gonna see in the Scriptures today, the whole of our life is to be unto worship to Christ, that every single aspect, whether personal, professional, or public, that in any way, any environment that God has us in, we are to give that as worship to Jesus. And so today, that's what we're gonna be talking about, is how to make your personal, professional, and public life worship to Jesus.

Not just like to be Christian, but that it would actually be worship. Whatever you do, whoever you're with, that it would all be worship to Jesus. Today is the conclusion of walking through, preaching through the letter to the Colossians. And the way that Paul writes these letters oftentimes, most often, is he divides it into orthodoxy and orthopraxy, orthodoxy is to have a right belief, right beliefs about God. And then those beliefs inform our behaviors, which is orthopraxy, to put the right beliefs into right practice. And you can't divide the two. And the first informs the second. We don't have a doing problem. We have a knowing and transformation problem. So out of all of this that he has said, Christ is preeminent. Jesus is God the Son in flesh, given for you for the forgiveness of sins, not to make you better, to make you new. As a result of that, he now will give us probably the most orthopraxy instruction in the entire letter. It's like, no matter where you are, home, work, or public, you live as worship unto Jesus. And it's not much different than what we've talked about today in Palm Sunday, as at the beginning of the week,

it's Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, which was all fulfillment of prophecy from Psalm 118, where they're like, the stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone. They were saying, blessed is he, you're the Messiah, you're the one that we've waited for. And in that same city, just days later, would shout, crucify him. There was this difference. They were changing who they were based on who they were with. And it's really tempting to do the same. Like, we're really Christian on a Sunday morning in church. We've got on our Sunday best, we act our Sunday best. But how was it before you came to church? How was it last night? Or how will it be tomorrow when you're at work or back in the classroom? Because we should be predictably Christian in all of our dealings. Today, if you wanna turn there, we're gonna be in Colossians 3.18 through 4.6, and then the final greetings of the letter. And as JP said last week, there was this putting off of the old self and putting on of the new. And then that now is going to lead into all of our relationships here. But before we go, verse 18,

verse 17, it says, whatever you do, I mean, what a summary statement. Whatever you do, which includes anything, with anyone, in any place. In word or deed, do everything, everything, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father for Him. That's like this distillation boilerplate, and then He's going to give us these specific avenues or places in which we live that. And so here in verse 18, you'll see it on the screen. Wives, submit to your husbands. How's that for an introduction of a message? Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. So there's that S word right here in church, submit, that's, you know, a lot of ink has been shed because of the word submit, and what does it mean, and all these different things. In Ephesians 5, which is a parallel passage, it says the same things. Wives, submit to your husbands, as is pleasing to the Lord, that is the will of God. And then it says something interesting. It says, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. Now, it's important to say what that does not mean is that wives have unequal in dignity, in worth, in value, in personhood, every bit equal. But what you'll see is that God gives

different instructions to the wife than He does to the husband. If we were all the same, He would give the same instruction. He'd just be like, hey, y'all, do the thing. But instead, He's like, okay, wives do this, husbands do this, which speaks to a difference. There is a difference. The difference, again, is not in dignity, worth, or value. The difference is, however, in role. That we're not just supposed to follow our flesh, but instead to follow the Lord. We're to follow Christ because otherwise, we will follow and see chaos in the home. So he's speaking into the home, and he's like, wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. But it doesn't end there. He speaks to the husbands, and he's like, now husbands, because you can't just be a harsh, demeaning ruler within the house, like, hey, what I say goes, and that's that, and you're supposed to submit. That would be terrible. And if you are in that situation, if you're like, you don't know my husband, you're asking me, I'm like, well, the Lord is asking you to submit to your husband. You don't know my husband. He's not even a believer. First Peter's three is another parallel passage that speaks to this, where it says that wives

can actually win over an unbelieving husband by their reverence, their behavior of their lives, their tranquil, peaceful spirit, that the husbands, the unbelieving atheist husband will be like, who is this God you serve? And that they would be won over, and then speaks to the husbands in First Peter three, and says not to be harsh with them, but to be gentle and tender as the weaker vessel so that nothing will hinder your prayers. God's like, hey, you talk to her that way? Don't come talking to me. I'm not even gonna hear your prayers. Like, you get that right, and then we'll talk. So God's bringing order to the home. He's speaking to our personal life. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Because there's a lot of different expressions of love. Like, I can love you with provision. I can love you with protection. And here's like, I want you to love her with your words, your person, like who you are and how you speak to her, and do not be harsh with my daughters. And do not be harsh. Then he says, children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. He's speaking to the whole household, the whole like home life. He's like, all right, wives, husbands, kids. And then after that, he's gonna go fathers.

So even the kids here, he says like, you can worship Jesus by obeying your parents in everything. I tell my kids often, like whenever there's disobedience, whatever, I'll try to sit them down and be like, hey, like ultimately, it's what your mom and dad said. But in reality, you're not even disobeying us, you're disobeying the Lord. Now, I'm not saying that to twist the knife and be like, hey, you better watch out. Like, you think my spanking was bad? God's gonna smack you. Like, you're disobeying God most high. It's not that. It's like, I want them to know like, oh, I've got an aspect of worship here in the household when I do what I don't wanna do, what my flesh does not wanna do. I don't wanna do what mom and dad say. But when I do that, it's actually worship unto the Lord. It says right here, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. And then he speaks to fathers. So just in case you wives thinks you got the short end of the stick, as it says, submit, he's like, husbands, fathers. He doesn't say anything about mothers. He's like, you guys are good at it. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.

And so there the Lord is speaking to the household of God, all the different roles, equal in worth, dignity and value, giving them distinct instructions based on their distinct personhood. And so the first point is make your personal life worship for Jesus. Make your personal life worship for Jesus. I chose those words really intentionally because I think so oftentimes we're like, all right, just some arbitrary command in Colossians 3. And it's like, no, your personal life is worship unto Jesus. Everything you do in the privacy of your home can be, should be worship unto Jesus. How you take out the trash, how you make your bed, how you get up on time, everything about it can be, should be, whatever you do in word or deed, worship unto the Lord. You see, here's the reality, is that privacy reveals normalcy. Privacy reveals normalcy. When you put on your work clothes and go out the door and how you doing, shaking the hands, how was your weekend? Great, let me make the sales call. That's different. Like when you pull into the drive, garage door opens and you walk in, that's who you are. Privacy reveals normalcy. And so God's speaking into that, inviting us to give our personal life

as worship for Jesus. My most often confession is to be harsh, short, or short. sharp with the kids. Like you can ask my life group, I've said it from the stage, that's my most frequent confession. Praise God, it is reducing in frequency and in intensity. Because I'll ask the kids for forgiveness and I'm begging the Lord to help me repent from it. Like that's my long, like I don't wanna be that guy. I don't want my kids to grow up with these father wounds. So when I miss it, I'll ask their forgiveness. But right here, how I parent, fathers don't provoke your children unless they be discouraged. Like I've got to see my parenting, my fatherhood as worship unto Jesus and that changes it. It's not just me parenting my kids. It's like that act of parenting is worship. But the other thing where it says husbands, don't be harsh with your wives. Like love them and don't be harsh with them. Laura, I've shared from the stage, has OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder, a mental illness. She was born with it at eight years old. It kind of like took on a life of its own with these unwanted thought loops, often really condemning and accusatory. It's called scrupulosity. And so often I can be her cheerleader. Like, hey, that's not true.

That's not who you are. Don't believe that lie. Let's go back to the truths of God. But then after some time, I'll like switch from cheerleader into coach mode. And I'll just be like, hey, we can't do this anymore. Like, I know, and she's like, hey, in those moments, I don't need you to fix it. I just need you to sit with me in it. And she's like, it's not so much what you're saying, it's how you're saying it. It's not my talk, it's my tone. And she's right. And so the Lord instructs me here, love her. Don't be harsh with her. That's a good thing. And so as she reads like, submit to your husband, like this glad submission, like, okay, you get to lead, which means we don't have male passivity in our household. Like that would play into that. And then I've got my role and the kids have theirs and I've got mine with them. It's this way that the Lord pushes out chaos by inviting us to follow Christ. Make your personal life worship for Jesus. Let's continue in verse 22. Well, hold on. I've shared mine, I went first. I want you to think about what yours is. Like, was it in your life, in your private life,

where you're like, man, this is an area that I do not worship Jesus with how I interact with others? Because we didn't come to church just to come to church, at least we shouldn't. To be like, all right, you say something, we'll sing something, and then we'll go get something to eat. But instead that we are here to take the word of God like a mirror to our soul and realize what's out of place in order that the Lord might change it. And so what is it? Like, take a moment, let the Spirit speak to you and be like, I think this is out of place in my life and I want to now anew with the Lord's strength, give this as worship unto him in my personal life. Make your personal life worship for Jesus. Verse 22, bond servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, meaning only working hard when they're watching you. And that's just like to have some false veneer, like, oh yeah, I work when they're watching, but otherwise we're like cutting up and acting up, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, this is another like huge statement, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Now, that's interesting. He says, whatever you do, work as unto the Lord

and not for men, which means you're not working for your boss or for your coach or for your teacher, that whatever environment you're in professionally, it's ultimately for the Lord. He goes on to say, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward, that in our earthly work, somehow, someday, there will be an eternal reward as we offer our professional life as worship to Jesus. That's crazy. Like how you do your work, how you're a mechanical engineer at Baylor, like you're learning your homework, your finals, your work, your stay at home momming, all that stuff is actually worship and that there will be a reward. Then he says, you are serving the Lord Christ. He first said, bond servants to your masters. Now he says, you're serving the Lord Christ. It's like, wait, hold up. My boss has a boss. And I'm serving him. It says, for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, now we're talking about the employers, the teachers, the coaches, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing, if you're a person in a place of authority, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So for the ones that are under authorities,

like, hey, I want you to look past your boss and serve your boss's boss, who is the master in heaven? It's the Lord Jesus you're serving. And masters, you better treat them fairly and justly because you also have a master. And I'm the one watching over you and how you treat others. You see, the Lord here, it first was the home life, now he has the professional life, and he's speaking order into that and how we are all to work together. Now, when you read the word bondservants in your translation, it may say slaves, which raises a question. And when you go to college one day, one of your professors, some of your classmates, they may say to you, oh, so you're a Christian? You know that your God endorses slavery. Don't you think slavery's wrong? Like, you know slavery's wrong, right, yes? Well, did you know that your Bible, that you attest is the word of God, speaks about slavery? To which you can respond, well, did you know in 1 Timothy 1, it says that enslavers of men are ungodly and wicked. You see, God wasn't endorsing slavery, he was speaking into it. It was a cultural phenomenon, and so he's speaking truth and order into that. He's not endorsing it. He says it's ungodly and it's wicked, the enslavers of men.

But since it exists, he's going to speak into it. He's going to speak into the culture. The other thing, bondservant, that word is due loss. When you see that word, bondservant means often a willing subjection to another in order to have living or wages, like room and board. Like, if they were in a foreign nation, they would say, well, hey, I will be your bondservant, you'll be my master, and you'll give me a place to live, the food and water that I need, and a role to fulfill. And after a certain amount of years, maybe I could buy my freedom. But it was a willing subjection. In fact, Paul uses the word interchangeably, where he says, bondservants and masters, he will also say, I'm a bondservant of Christ. Meaning, I've put myself in willing subjection to my master, Jesus Christ, my Lord, who ransomed me from sin, death, and Satan. And so, he didn't just save me, he keeps me safe. And now, rather than me thinking I'll live my life however I wanna live it, I am going to stay under the headship and mastery of Christ as his bondservant, I'm his servant. I no longer do my will, I fulfill his will. He is not just my savior, he's my Lord and master. So, with all of that in mind, he says, bondservants, serve your earthly masters. Fearing the Lord, you're serving the Lord Christ. So, look past your boss to your boss's boss

and work unto him. And you know what you're gonna do if you do that? You're gonna be the best employee this world has ever seen. You're gonna be the best student your teacher or professor has ever seen. You're gonna be the best player picking up the cones and the balls and serving the other teammates after the practice that your coach has ever seen and make the faith attractive, as Titus 2.10 says regarding bondservants and masters. Like, dude, who is this God that you serve? Like, I don't believe in him, but you're the best employee, student, or player I've ever had. So, tell me more about your God. That's what's happening here in the midst of this. And you may say, well, you don't know my teacher. You don't know my boss. You don't, my coach cusses at me. My boss is unfair. He gives favoritism. He hasn't given me, you know, this or that. Well, the Bible is replete with examples of godly people serving ungodly under ungodly authority. You think about Joseph under Potiphar who was accused of rape and thrown into prison for years without a trial. But he served so faithfully in prison that he got elevated from prison to prince serving only to second command as Pharaoh.

Or you think about Samuel who served under this passive Eli who, though he was a priest, turned the other eye when his sons were committing sexual sin. But Samuel served faithfully under him. Or David serving Saul who's literally his boss in a sense, hurling spears at him as his father-in-law. Or there's Daniel who served under three pagan kings, was thrown into the lion's den simply because he prayed, but then became elevated time and time again. Time again, because of his godliness, or even Jesus, here at Palm Sunday, looking ahead to Easter, who was faithful and even submissive to Pilate, and said, you would have no authority except the authority that heaven has given you, and yet laid down his life. And so the Bible's got plenty of examples of those serving godly in their work under ungodly people. There's no excuse for it. You can't say, well, you don't know my boss, because your boss has a boss who is Jesus, and it's him we are serving. I saw this firsthand when I walked into a In-N-Out, the In-N-Out down by Baylor Campus. I'm in there, and I go in with my kids, and we're there ordering, and there's a trainee there, which, you know, is a little bit of a like, oh, man, this is like nothing's gonna come out right. In-N-Out's got some customizations,

and I'm like, oh, there's no telling what is gonna happen right now. But there's an older man standing beside the younger trainee, and he's like, he greets us in addition to the other guy, and then he's like, yep, no, okay, so that button right there, yep, okay, so, okay, they said, well done, fries, which, by the way, is the way to go every time you're at In-N-Out, get it, well done, fries. He's like, well done, okay, that, yep, oh, good job, good job, okay, now, he's like, look back up, yep, okay, ask the kids if they want stickers, yep, they want a hat, great, hey, great job, okay, and then, like, walks our food over to us, and as he sets his food down, he's like, hey, I just wanna thank you for what you do at Harris Creek. I was like, ah, this all makes sense. You're at Harris Creek, you're a believer? He's like, yes, sir, my name's Monty Desimantes, and this is my In-N-Out, and I see this as my place of ministry, it chokes me up. He's like, these are my kids. You know, they're not my kids, but they're my kids. I disciple them, I love them, I care for them, I wanna raise them up. You know, I've got them longer here, more hours than some of them have at home, and he's like walking around, picking up trash

off people's tables, comes, prays with us at the table. Like, that man is leading in a way that makes Jesus really attractive to the entire city, to every homeless person that walks in there, to every Baylor student that walks in there, or anybody catching a game and wanting to grab a burger beforehand. So, Monty, thanks for your example, as he is serving the Lord. It's like, it's enough that In-N-Out's got scriptures on their cups and french fry things. Dude, he's got it written all over his life. And so may we, as point two says, make our professional life worship for Jesus. That we don't have our quiet time and take off the Jesus hat, and okay, now I can't go in and whatever, but that we would live and make our professional life worship for Jesus. When I was in Dallas as a pastor up there, there was this guy and he came to me and he was like, man, you're never gonna believe it. I need you to pray for me. Like I got fired. It's like, whoa, you got fired? Yeah, for being a Christian. Oh my goodness, fired for being a Christian. Man, Jesus said we'd be persecuted and blessed are you when you're persecuted. What happened?

I was sharing my faith. I was sharing my faith at work and so I got fired for that. Can you believe it? I was like, so tell me about it. He's like, man, every day I go in and like all day, every day, I'm just telling everybody about Jesus. My co-workers, the people. You know what my boss said? I didn't hire you to tell people about Jesus. I hired you to do sales and he fired me. I was like, oh, oh, you didn't get fired because you're a Christian or because of evangelism. You got fired because you weren't doing your job. You were trying to sell Jesus instead of the product that he had hired you to sell. Like that's why you got fired. It sounds like you weren't a good employee. Like you should be the best employee while telling people about Jesus. Maybe on the lunch break, take him to coffee, invite him to church, maybe ask how you can pray for him. But it sounds like you weren't even doing your job. He's not paying you to lead people to Christ. He's paying you to make sales for him. You weren't being a good Christian. You were being a bad employee. He looked at me like just confused. Like I can't believe you're saying that.

You should like applaud me for sharing faith. I'm like, you made the faith unattractive to your boss. Like you weren't living your professional life as worship to God, that like lacks integrity. You weren't even doing what you were hired to do. We should be the best. Like we as Christians should be the best employees this world has ever seen because we're actually serving Jesus and not just trying to pull in a wage or get a raise. Period. Like that should be our drive. Like I'm serving Jesus. Come what may, I'm gonna work as unto him. How you pick up the trash, how you close out the books, how you treat customers, how you treat fellow employees. And that will make the faith attractive. You'll receive an inheritance. And just remember, your master's got a master. So make your professional life worship for Jesus. He goes from personal to professional, and then finally, he's like, and wherever you are, which is your public life. Let's read in verse two. Colossians 4 to continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite verses on prayer because he invites us to pray. God himself, Paul writing by the Spirit is like, hey, be prayerful and be watchful.

Why does he invite us to that? Because God's like, I'm gonna move. I'm gonna do something. You don't know how, you don't know when, you don't know what I'm gonna do, but I'm gonna move. And if you're not watching, you're gonna miss it. And then, like the Samaritan leopard, to return and give thanks. So pray, watch, give thanks. And he's gonna say now, because of all of life, there's opportunities. 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, that Jesus came for the salvation of souls, his life, death, and resurrection, that we could be forgiven and be given new life, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Now, let's pause for a second. Paul's in prison. He just told us this. He's like, I'm in prison because of Jesus. He says, pray that a door would be opened. When I'm first reading that, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, a door would be opened, just like in the book of Acts. Like Peter, Peter was in prison, the shackles fell off, the door opened, then the gate opened, and Peter just walked out. I'm sure Paul knew that story from Peter.

He's like, that's what I'd be praying. If I was in prison, I'd be like, God, open a door. Do what you did for Peter, do it for me. But instead, Paul's like, no, pray that a door would be opened for the gospel. And pray for me, that I would have words to speak it clearly as I ought, that there wouldn't be any confusion. And Paul has got a really tight theology. He's got a scripture download to him from the Spirit, and yet he's like, hey, pray that I'd have opportunity and that I'd be really clear. He's wanting to make the most of his time with outsiders, not even asking God to change his circumstances, but for God to use him in the circumstances to spread the gospel. Recently, as JP shared, we were on death row, which those inmates call life row. And one of the inmates was exactly, well, not exactly, Paul was in prison because the gospel, this person was not, however, came to Christ in prison. And I said, hey, how can I pray for you? And she said, not that she would be pardoned and sent home. She didn't ask for that in her prayer. Though one of the fellow inmates was being released, found innocent, she didn't ask for a pardon and be sent home. Instead, she said, I write these devotionals and I share them with other inmates.

Would you pray that God would anoint them and give me the words and give me the wisdom so that I could write clearly? She wasn't even praying that her circumstances would change. She's just like, just pray that God would use me to share faith with others. She was making her public life worship for Jesus, as was Paul. It says, walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer each person. He's like, look, your public life, you're gonna encounter all sorts of people. The guy on the street, the guy in passing at the airport, your Uber driver, the person that brings the food to the table, you're gonna encounter a great many people. Pray that you'd always be ready, that your speech would be seasoned with salt, which means preserving and tasteful, leading people to Christ, making the use of every opportunity, like just to scan, be watchful in it. And what he's saying is the third point, which is to make your public life worship for Jesus. That we're just like head on a swivel, that the thousands of people that will be here on this campus will very soon walk out into the 254 and interact with innumerable people, and that we would all be watchful and be like,

I'm gonna pray for him, I'm gonna share the gospel, I'm gonna be generous here, I'm gonna start a gospel conversation, I'm gonna serve this person, though they're supposed to serve me, that we'd turn the city upside down by making our public life worship for Jesus. I'll tell you about two Fridays recently. One Friday was the one after spring break, the other Friday was last Friday. One was totally wasted, and one was watchful and yielded a lot of fruit. The one after spring break, I had 17 hours of travel, I encountered so many people, was in two airports, a driver, all these instances, I shared my faith zero times. I didn't ask how I could pray for anybody. Buddy, I didn't wanna be bothered. I was exhausted. I'm like, just get me home with as few delays and as little trouble as can be. It was a totally lost opportunity, completely worthless, lost day, though I saw more people than the other Friday that I'm gonna tell you about. This Friday, we started in prayer at Baylor Campus. We prayer walked the entire campus to push back darkness against suicidal ideation and self-harm, because Charlie Ramsey, the chaplain, was like,

hey, it's on the rise. It's like, great, we're gonna call together all the churches, we're gonna pray it back. That set me in this mindfulness and watchfulness that when I was doing kid pick-up, I saw a cop and I was like, I asked how I could pray for him, laid hands on him, prayed for him, told my kids about it after I picked them up from school, pulled into a gas station. There was two more cops. I was like, hey, as a church, we always say either pay for cops or pray for cops, and so, can I buy you a snack? You know, anything you need? They're like, no, we don't need anything. I was like, okay, well then, can I pray for you? He immediately takes his hat off, gets to lay hands and pray for them. I go to pick up my kids at some birthday party, talking to the mom about a kid that needs healing in a certain situation. Then I see another little girl, Lyra Stuman, who had an arm injury, and I was like, hey, Lyra, come here, lay hands on her, pray for her. This was wasted, this was watchful. The difference was not the people. In fact, I was around more people this time. The difference was the condition of my heart that I woke up watchful, like,

Lord, what do you have for me today? And there were opportunities everywhere, everywhere, if I stepped into them, if I, as Scripture says, walked in wisdom towards outsiders' church, will you make your public life worship for Jesus? The rest of the letter, to give it to you quickly, I'm gonna put up on the screen. Paul doesn't just give us this instruction, he lives the instruction. Because look at these highlighted names. Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Mark, Barnabas, Justus, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, Nympha and the church in her house, Archippus. Paul, you can tell, was just like walking through life, like, you, and you, how can I pray for you? Thank you for leading the church in your house. Like, everywhere he went, making the best use of time towards outsiders, and so there was this downline of connection from Paul as he concludes the letter. He's not just giving us, like, hey, this would be good for you, he's like, this is the better way that I have found to live as Christ, my master, and me, his bondservant. You remember Lee Strobel, author from an atheist? Well, Lee, after trusting in Christ, was still working at the Chicago Tribune. He was there at work one day, he had come to trust in Christ, he was walking out, and the Holy Spirit stopped him at the doors and was like,

I want you to go invite that person in the business office to come to church on Sunday, it's Easter Sunday, go invite him, and he's arguing with the Holy Spirit, he's like, they're not even, they're an atheist, they're not gonna come to church, why would you send me to invite him? He's like, and he said the Holy Spirit kept pressing upon him to go back in and invite him to church, so he reluctantly walks in, he's like, knocks on the office window, he's like, hey, Easter's on Sunday, well, I thought you might like to come. He's like, Strobel, I don't believe in any of that nonsense. He's like, yeah, I know, but he researched it, that's how he came to faith, he's like, you know, there's actually a lot of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. He's like, Strobel, I don't believe in the resurrection, get out of my office, and in this split second, he's arguing again with the Holy Spirit, like, why did you send me in here? I feel like an idiot, and he's like, remembers the guy likes music, he's like, hey, you like music, right? He's like, surely there's an avenue, God, you like music, right? He's like, yeah, I like music. He's like, well, our church, we're gonna play a lot of music on Easter. And he was like, Strobel, get out of my office,

I don't believe in any of that. He walks out, for like four years, he's wrestling with this, it's a rock in his shoe, like, God, why'd you send me in there? Can I not hear from you rightly? Like, why did I, I mean, you told me to go invite him, I was faithful to invite him, like, nothing ever came from him, what was that? Four years later, this guy walks up to him, he's like, I wanna thank you for your spiritual impact on my life. And Lee's like, well, that's really kind, but I've never met you. He's like, yeah, I know. But one day, I was working at the Chicago Tribune, I was on my knees, chiseling tile in this big office, huge desk, and somebody walked into the office and started inviting the guy that I was working for to church, told him about the evidence of the resurrection that Jesus raised from the dead and shared the church times. I was sitting there with my heart, like, pounding through my chest. I went home and I told my wife, we're going. We're going to church this Sunday. She's like, we're not even Christians. He's like, we're going to church. He became a Christian, his wife became a Christian, their son became a Christian. He's like, I'm here, Lee, because you have the courage to invite that man.

And in that moment, Lee knew what God was doing. According to Lifeway Research, 80% of people would accept an invitation to church if they were asked. Four out of five people would say yes if they were asked. Church, Easter's this coming Sunday. You're going to walk out these doors. Will you invite them, not just to church, but that they would come to church and find the salvation of their souls? Let's go out these doors and make our personal, professional, and public lives for Jesus. Lord, use us, use us in all of our lives as worship unto you. We love you, in Jesus' name, amen.