Make The Most Of Every Opportunity

Let's go! It's gonna be awesome. I'm just gonna tell you, I was driving my car a couple months ago and this song came on and just felt in my spirit like Easter is gonna be all about how Jesus is the name above every other name. And that's what we're gonna bring to the surface. And so, so excited. Yeah, come on, give God praise. Man, even just saying that right now, maybe there's people in the room right now that there's another name that has had authority in your life. Maybe it's been the name of cancer or maybe it's been the name of somebody who hurt you. Can we just stand? Can we just, can we go off script today? If you're here today and man, that just registers with you like Jesus is Lord, but there's been a different name that's been elevated. Come on, if that's you, just put your hand on your heart today. Holy Spirit, we invite you. Lord, if we walked in thinking, how am I gonna get over X? Or how am I gonna get over Y? Whatever it is, Jesus, we exalt you right now. We lift Jesus above every other name. Come on, if that's you, just take your hand off your heart, put your hands in the air and surrender.

Jesus, I surrender. You take the highest space in my heart and in my life right now. Lord, we lay down every other idol, every other God, every other fear, every other doubt, every other diagnosis, every other condition. They must all bend their knee at the name of Jesus. We exalt Jesus in this place. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we ask for victory. In the name of Jesus, we will overcome. It's by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, and the word of our testimony that we overcome. We declare the name of Jesus over every situation. We declare the name of Jesus over every strain and every stress and every doubt. The authority of Jesus in our everyday lives, over every sin condition, over everything that we've gone back to. Some in this place have been like a dog going back to their vomit. They feel like I'm free, I'm not free, I'm free, I'm not free. In the name of Jesus, we have victory. We declare it today in the name of Jesus. Come on, church, say it, in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, we exalt you in this place, God. In your name, we pray. Amen. Okay, say amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on, you can go ahead and be seated. It's not about performance or perfection or striving. It's not about saying it the right way or praying it the right way. It is about the authority that we have in Christ. About the authority that we walk in as followers of Jesus. Man, I love that song that we sang here in Bismarck today. It's only by the blood. It's only by the blood. And man, I don't want you to miss church next week because there's been a message that's been brewing in my heart once we get done with this series that we're wrapping up today about life on purpose, about God's plan for our lives, about heaven and hell and how God has created us and the authority that we can walk in believers. And then I don't want you to miss the next week because it's Palm Sunday. It's gonna be special. And then I don't want you to miss the next week because it's Easter. And then I don't want you to miss the next three weeks because we're gonna equip your family. And then I don't want you to miss after that because the Bible tells us we should gather together because when we gather, we grow.

So let's just go to church together and then let's be the church outside of here as we leave this place. And amen, amen. Father, we welcome your presence in this place. Lord, we welcome your work in our hearts and in our lives. We pray that Jesus would be exalted over our personality, over our emotion, over our ability, that the blood of Jesus would make people whole today, would cleanse the guilty of their guilty conscience, would set us free, and would teach us to walk in a new kind of spiritual authority. Actually, it's an old kind that was restored. It's being restored from what you originally gave us in the Garden of Eden, what the enemy tried to steal away. God, you've restored through your son, Jesus. And so Lord, even before I offer a word or a thought, we exalt Jesus in this room above every other name, above every other God. Draw our hearts to yours. In your name we pray, amen. Amen, we've been studying Colossians, a book in the Bible together, and the key theme has been the supremacy of Christ, how he rules over all things, and then also that if we are in Christ, if we're followers of Jesus, that we live our lives in Christ, with him exalted in our hearts and in our lives. The Apostle Paul writes it this way,

that Christ is over all things that have been created through him and for him. So Christ is supreme. And then he says, so then, just as you received Christ, Jesus says, Lord, continue to live your lives in him. So it's Christ is supreme over everything, and it's also. of Christ in us, Christ having authority in our everyday lives. And we've talked through a variety of different topics. What does it mean to have Christ first in us? What does it mean to have Christ first in our thinking and in our relationships and in our peace and in our family and in our work? And today, what does it mean to have Christ first as we share who Christ is with other people? So today I wanna give you a message entitled, make the most of every opportunity. Make the most of every opportunity. Life on purpose is having a life, having purpose in your life with understanding that Jesus is Lord over all and that Christ is at work in us and it's positively reflecting Christ to those around us. And so the question is, what should our reflection of Christ look like? If Christ is in us and Christ is working through us, then what should our reflection of Christ look and sound like in the Apostle Paul in the last teaching we're gonna take from the Book of Colossians says it should look something like this,

that we should be wise in the way we act towards outsiders, that we should make the most of every opportunity, that we should let our conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt. Come on, anybody likes some seasoned salt in this place? Seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. This is how he's instructed us to live and so our impact is not about what we ourselves are doing, but rather what Christ is doing through us as we do whatever it is that we're doing. So our impact in our life is not just about what we're doing, it's about what Christ is doing in us and through us in whatever it is that we're doing. How can you make the most of every opportunity with your life? This means, how do you make the most of every opportunity at your school? How do you make the most of every opportunity at your work? How do you make the most of every opportunity when you're out shopping? How do you make the most of every opportunity when you're eating out, when you're in your neighborhood, when you're working out, when you're running errands, when you're on the road, when you're online, when you're in the stands at a basketball game? How do you make the most of every opportunity? It's not just representing Jesus when we're together as the body,

but it's in your ordinary everyday life. The everyday interactions that you have, it's in the moments when maybe Jesus isn't the first thing on your mind. How do we make the most of every opportunity no matter where we are? Jesus is the ultimate example of how to make the most of every opportunity. You see it throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. You see it throughout the Gospels, how he honors people, how he speaks to people, how he encourages people, how he sets people free, how he's ready for any moment. I mean, Jesus is the guy who's in a boat, they pull up on shore, and a guy full of demons comes running at him. Like, talk about just needing to be ready no matter where you go. And Jesus is that way. He's walking through a crowd. A woman touches his garment, and he's ready, making the most of every opportunity that he has. People loved Jesus. I know the end of his story, well, part of his story, is that he's crucified, that certain people kill him, but people love Jesus. Like, if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus is a lovable human. He's a lovable person. He speaks an encouraging word.

He fights for those that are down and out. He shared in ways that people were just dumbfounded at what he said. He flipped the world system on its head and said, here's a better way to live. The only people that didn't like him were the really pious religious people, and they still don't like him today. But people from all sorts of background and economic classes, like, they flocked to Jesus. He was this amazing, magnetic-type person that people gathered around. It wasn't just charisma, but there was depth, and there was intentionality to who Jesus was. It wasn't that he was attractive and like a modern influencer today. It's that he had real answers. It's that he had a real depth. It's that he taught in ways that caused people to think differently about their lives. He was set apart. So he made the most of every opportunity in the way that he lived. The problem today is that many Christians have begun to look a lot like everybody else. That if you kind of looked at how everybody's living and what everybody's doing, sometimes it's hard to pick out the people that follow Jesus unless they specifically say, I follow Jesus.

And Jesus himself predicted that this is what our world would look like, that in the last days, or in the end of times, the end of this age, that this would be the trend, that sin would be rampant everywhere, and that the love of many would grow cold. He's not just talking about the love of many people outside the church, he's saying there's people in the church that'll profess Christ, but they won't have... a lot of love. They'll tell other people about Jesus and what they ought to do but they won't really love people. They won't really make the most of every opportunity. Beware if your heart is getting hardened towards people that don't know Christ. Because the trend at the end of days will be that even Christians will stop loving people. Proclaim to love Jesus but not love the people that he died for. The love of many will grow cold. Jesus warned us that this would be the trend. That this could happen. That somewhere along the way we'd look at our lives and realize we forgot how to treat people well. That somewhere along the way we not only stopped loving people but we stopped even liking them. But one of the greatest indications of how well we love Jesus is actually not just how well we express our love towards him but one of the greatest indications of how well we love Jesus is how well we love people. Because people are made in the image of God and Jesus died for those people, for those image bearers. It's interesting that the book of Colossians has about 95 verses and at the end of Colossians Paul takes 12 verses, like 12 percent of the entire book, and he doesn't focus it on better theology or better ideas or more teaching but he focuses it on talking about people. He ends this powerful theological letter not with more doctrine but with people and he reminds us that the kingdom of God moves through not just ideas but it moves through relationships. It moves through how we treat one another. That you can have the best theology but treat people terribly and Corinthians says you are a loud gong and a clanging cymbal. That loving people is really, really important and so if that's the truth then what should our reflection of Christ look like? If Christ is over us and Christ is in us, what should we do?

We should let every interaction be an open door for the gospel. Every interaction? Right. Every interaction. In every place, in every place. To every person, to every person. Even the people that are hard to love. Even the moments when I lose my, even when you lose your temper. Let every interaction be an open door for the gospel. The apostle Paul said this in Colossians 4. He says be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. What does wise mean? There's a difference in the bible between wisdom and foolishness. Foolishness is casting off restraint. Foolishness is acting however in the moment. Foolishness is not anchored in the wisdom of God. Wisdom is being thoughtful, being mindful about every decision you make. Wisdom is knowing no matter what's happening in the moment I'm still focused on being a follower of Christ in that moment. He says be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Outsiders in this context is anybody that you're trying to reach with the message of Jesus. So he's saying be thoughtful, be wise, have wisdom towards how you treat people who don't know Christ. That at the end of the day even if you win the argument or even if you lose your temper on the person and you feel like you said what you needed to say but you didn't move them towards Christ, you've actually lost. So be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Let every interaction be an open door for the gospel. That means every conversation, every comment, every reaction of our lives is either opening the door to Christ or it's closing the door. It means every interaction that we have with people is opening the door towards Jesus or closing the door. And so your tone and how you treat the waiter or waitress after church matters. The way you talk about people at work matters. How you respond in traffic matters. How you comment online and what you say anonymously or that nobody else knows that it was you matters because nothing is hidden before the eyes of the whom of the one to whom we must give account. It matters. It says something. How you treat your spouse, how you treat your kids even when nobody in your church is watching matters. A number of years ago a waitress was interviewed about her job and someone asked her a simple question, what is the worst group of customers you serve all week? Come on, none of us are going to like her answer. She didn't hesitate and she said the Sunday lunch crowds from churches are the worst. They are often the most demanding, the least patient, and the worst tippers. One waitress even said this, they talk about Jesus the whole time they're eating, but they don't act like him.

Here's the, I know, my toes hurt too, okay? Like the scripture is stomping on my toes, not just yours. John Maxwell would say, my name is Josh and I'm your friend. But it's the truth. And many people don't actually reject Christ, they reject his followers. It's not Jesus they have a problem with, it's the people that claim to follow Jesus and in fact, Gandhi himself once said, I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians. Because your Christians are so unlike your Christ. That's stunning. That is sobering. And it's actually really scary because if we proclaim to follow Jesus and we're not representing Christ, we're doing more damage to the kingdom than good to the kingdom of God. That's actually what Paul is warning about in the book of Colossians. He's saying be wise in the way you act, especially towards outsiders, especially towards those who are not following Jesus. He says, make the most of every opportunity and maybe you think, well, my life isn't really that significant. Sociologists tell us that even the most introverted person in the room, that throughout the course of your life, you will have an impact on 10,000 people.

Think of that. That even if you're the most introverted and you don't love to have a ton of conversations in your interactions throughout your life and the people that you see, you have the ability to impact 10,000 people in your lifetime. And researchers that study social networks have found that our behavior is spread through three degrees of separation. That means that you're not only having an impact on yourself or on your friends or on their friends, but even your friends' friends are being impacted by the way you live. Now, the things you say and the things that you do, and when you choose to represent Christ, even when it's difficult, that impact can move really far beyond you. That you're affecting people's lives that you don't even know, that you don't even understand because of a gracious word that you speak or how you respond in a difficult situation. That tells me the church doesn't need better arguments and even better theologians. The church needs better ambassadors. Not ambassadors of the church, but ambassadors of Christ. People who live like Jesus and represent Jesus in the things that they say and the things that they do, that we live in such a way

that we leave the door open for the message of Jesus. That people look at your life and they wonder, why did he respond that way? Why is he so gracious? Why didn't they lose their temper? I would have lost my temper. But it's choosing to say, I want every interaction to leave the door open for the gospel. Here's another thought about how to have Christ over us and in us and what that looks like, Christ reflected through us. It's letting grace lead the way that you talk to people. Let grace lead the way that you talk to people. The apostle Paul said, let your conversations be always. He's absolute here. He's not like when you feel like it or when it's easy. Let your conversations be always full of grace. Everybody say full of grace. Full of grace. With seasoned salt. How many, come on, you've had the steak that doesn't have the seasoning and you've had the steak that had the seasoning. I mean, by vote, which one's better? The one with the seasoning. I've totally given in. I know some of you are gonna judge me. Guess what?

Hashtag don't care. But I've totally moved now. There was the anti-salt movement in the past and now we're kind of in like the salt is good for you and good for your hydration. I'm like the element drink guy, the electrolytes, like put the sodium in because it helps create more absorption in what you drink. I'm like everything with salt is better. That's what I came to tell you today. This is really what I wanna focus on. Season it with salt. If you're like, kids, I can't put salt on that because it's not good for you, come on, mom and dad, put the salt on. It's better that way. I salt my broccoli in Jesus' name. This is how he tells us to live. He says, what's really important about this is many people think if I really sign up to be a Christian and I have to give up X, Y, Z, then I'm gonna live this really bland life. The Bible doesn't say that. And Jesus wasn't that way. He didn't do what everybody else did, but there was such a salt to the way that he lived that people, crowds gathered to hear what he had to say, to be around him, to watch him interact. There's, if God really is restoring all things through Christ and that work starts in you,

then there is life and saltiness that flows out of you that other people go, that's good. So as we were talking about between services, I just need you to be as salty as that lobby is right now. Just let your life be seasoned with flavor. Yeah, be full of grace, but that doesn't mean that you're a doormat, that doesn't mean that your life is bland. It also means have some saltiness, be an uplifting person. You can have fun, the joy of the Lord is your strength. You can enjoy this life that God has given you. Let grace lead the way that you talk to people. It's easy to get selfish. It's easy to not wanna play nice, especially when other people aren't playing nice. He started it. It's easy to not talk nice or not react nice, but as Christians, this reflection of Christ to the world is not good. When we lead with grace in our conversations, it means that we're patient, that we're kind, that we're forgiving, still firm, but uplifting, not sarcastic, not harsh, not tearing down. I shared this on my social media a few weeks ago. I had a run-in with one of my kids one day, and we went to bed that night, and they said, dad, I'm sorry for yelling at you today. I said, wow, thank you for bringing it up, I forgive you. And there was a long pause, and then they said, is there anything you'd like to apologize for?

I feel coerced right now. Many times when I have to have a crucial conversation, I'll go sit in a coffee shop, and I'll write it out in my journal before I ever say it. Do you know why? Because I wanna put what I really feel and what I'm really wrestling with down on paper, and then I wanna read it back. And when I read it back, do you know what I'm assessing? Did I tell that person everything I wanna say? No, I'm assessing, what does this say about the condition of my heart? I can't change them. Their spirit is not my responsibility. Their spirit is the Holy Spirit's responsibility. But many times when our lips aren't filled with grace, it's a lack of grace in our hearts. And so when you lose it on somebody, or you keyboard warrior them to the ground, it says more about you than it says about them. It's actually revealing your spiritual condition, even though you're trying to indict somebody else. When your words don't line up with Christ or with who you want to be, it's an indication of what's in your heart. You have to go back to Matthew 12, where Jesus said, what you speak is out of the overflow of your own condition, out of the overflow of what your heart is full of. And James 1 tells us that if we call ourselves religious,

but don't keep a tight rein on our tongue, we're living in self-deception. That we can call ourselves religious, but if we can't keep a rein on our tongue, then we're actually living in self-deception. So it's not about saying nice things. It's not about watching your language. It's about the fact that the words you speak, and I have to say these days, the words you type are actually revealing your own spiritual condition. It's an overflow of what's in your heart. When we have grace, and we understand the grace that we've received, it lowers our defensiveness. It builds trust with people. So the Bible says, be full of grace, be seasoned with salt. That means, you know, grace makes it kind. It can be firm, but it can be kind. And salt makes it meaningful. It gives it depth. It gives it dimension. It's speaking from the heart and speaking the right truths from the heart. But in the words of Billy Graham, don't let it stop simply with what you say. Billy Graham says, your life speaks louder than your words. That you can say the right thing and try to, out of your flesh, say, okay, I'm a Christian and Pastor Josh is saying my words matter,

so I have to try to make it sound better. But it's not, it's your life. It's the overflow of your heart. It's deeper than just the things that you say. It's deeper than just trying to make your words line up. In fact, the apologist, Wes Huff, says it this way. There's five Gospels. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you. And many people in your life aren't reading the first four, but they're definitely reading the last one. They're reading your life. This person says that they're a follower of Jesus. What is their life saying about that journey? And maybe we can live in such a way, as followers of Jesus, that as we live, it inspires them to go back and read the other four. Because, oh, this is the only person I know who knows Jesus and really serves. and has Christ-like convictions, I wonder what Jesus is actually all about. And maybe they're inspired to go read the book of John and say, what is this Jesus actually like? What is the invitation that Jesus actually gives? There's people who are not reading the Bible, but they are reading you, so let your life be an invitation to them. And maybe they will go back and they'll read the other four. Colossians 4, 6 says that if we live this way, then we may know how to answer everyone.

You don't have to have the best theological answer. You don't have to be a West Huff and be able to defend your faith. You don't have to have the best theological argument, but if you live a life that is upright, if you do your best to live a life that's in alignment with God's word, then your life is going to preach the message of Jesus. The answer we give is by our words and our actions. It causes people to see your life, look at you, the way my dog looks at me. But it causes people to look at your life and go, whatever Jesus did in them, I wonder if he could do it in me. Whatever Jesus did in them, I wonder if he could do it in me. We call that your testimony, who you were before Christ and the way that you live and the way that you met Jesus. Could he do it for me too? What God has made alive in you, others are searching for that life and it makes people curious about Jesus. It means that you don't have to be forceful. You don't have to be preachy, but your life can be compelling. Doesn't have to be preachy, it doesn't have to be forceful, but your life can be compelling in the way that you live. I really believe one of the greatest indications

about how close you are to Jesus is how you treat other people, what they see in your life. See, some people think the world just needs louder Christians, but I think the world needs Christians whose lives declare Christ more loudly. In the conviction that we carry, in the way that we actually live, I mean, let me ask you a question. If somebody followed you around for a week, would they become more interested in Jesus or less interested in Jesus? I mean, really, I don't mean to be too heavy or too convictional. I mean, I do mean to be convictional. It's the scripture. But if they watched you at your workplace, does it open a door or does it close a door? If they watched you in your home, if they watched you in traffic, if they watched you in the restaurant, if they watched you online, even when you think nobody else is watching, would they say, you know what, there's something different about them? Or would they say, if that's what Christianity is like, I don't want anything to do with it. One of the greatest opportunity of scripture is that scripture gives us,

is it says when you're a true follower of Jesus, you're an ambassador for Christ. An ambassador, you show up in a nation and a world that is not your own because our home is in heaven. And you are an ambassador for Christ Jesus, telling the world what he's all about, telling the world what he's like, telling the world that he loves them. In fact, another passage of scripture says you are the fragrance of Jesus to people who are perishing. I'm telling you, I think I said this last week. I've been studying it, so it's gonna come out a lot. It'll probably come out next week. But I believe in zombies. In this way, they're gonna cut that clip, you know. I mean, just. But when Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden, they were alive. Both the immaterial part of them, their soul, their inner person that God breathed the breath of life into and the material part of them. And when they sinned, a part of them died. And so here's what I mean. There are people in this room and online and in your workplace who are the living dead. They're very much alive physically, but they are dead on the inside.

Today, I get a blessing from God. Today, I get to baptize a few people in water. And you know why it's so powerful? Because they're saying, I've been raised to new life on the inside. I've been transformed. The part of me that was dead before Jesus is now alive. And all I'm saying to you today is if Christ is alive in you, if he's truly saved you, if he's taken your dead soul and regenerated it back to life, then let Christ reign in you completely. Let him reign in you fully. Don't go back to the things that you used to do when you were dead, when you were separated from God. Don't forget who you are. Remember in your identity, I am a follower of Jesus. It's not about. performance, or perfection, or striving for attention. It's only by the blood. It's because of the blood of Jesus that was applied to my guilty conscience. It's because of the blood of Jesus that was applied to my guilty actions. The blood of Jesus has already been shed for me. This is the invitation of God that says the blood has already been given for you. Christ died on the cross, his blood was spilt, and now that blood sits in a bowl in heaven in a place called the mercy seat of God,

ready and available to be applied to your soul, to your life, to your habits and conditions, and the way you live. It's a gift that sits under the tree, and many look at it and leave it unwrapped, but others in wisdom pick it up and say, Jesus, be Lord of my life. Save me. Transform me. Resurrect my soul from death to life, because I don't want to be the living dead. I want to be alive in Christ Jesus in every area of my life. God, let the breath of God, the spirit of God, be alive in me. No longer governed by my dead flesh, but governed in my ordinary everyday life by the spirit of God. What an exciting way to live. What an exciting way to walk into a room at work, and instead of just going back to this old job, walking into a family where there's a lot of dysfunction, instead of saying these people, saying, God, there might be death all around me, but what life do you want to bring? What do you want to say? Where can I insert hope? Would people say there's something different about you, or would they say, if that's Christianity, I don't want anything to do with it?

And listen, I get it. We've all missed the mark, right? We've all missed opportunities. We've all said things we regret. We've all reacted poorly in a situation. We've all had that person in front of us at the left turn, green light, that was on their phone, and they were the first car, and instead of giving them the courtesy, beep, beep, you gave them the, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh. We've all missed the mark. We've all missed opportunities. We've all had somebody throw up the ball and ask you about Jesus, and you hold back. We've all been there. And I'm not telling you today to try harder. I'm telling you today to get closer to Jesus and your identity in Him, and let these truths flow from your ordinary, everyday life. So before you walk in a room this week, before you respond to a comment, before you fire off a text, just pause and say, Jesus, what would it be, what would it look like to reflect you in this situation? I mean, seriously, take a breath. Take a second. And make the most of every opportunity. I'm not asking you to manipulate your behavior and act like a Christian.

I'm asking you to allow Christ to make a change in your nature because of the blood of Jesus. Not asking you to manipulate your behavior. What we don't need is a bunch of people faking they're Christian and trying to act the part. What we do need is a whole bunch of people who understand His grace is sufficient for you. Even in your weakness, He's strong. And He transforms us from the inside out. Can we just have a moment of like honest repentance today? Can we respond that way and just say, Lord, search my heart, search my motives. Lord, I repent for every missed opportunity. I repent for the things that I've done in secret that weren't glorifying to you. God, I repent of reflecting my own brokenness rather than reflecting the wholeness that I have in Christ. Lord, I repent for the moments when I was a stumbling block to somebody who was perishing and they wanted hope and I just gave them more flesh, more of myself. Help me, Jesus. Come on, just ask Him. Help me, Jesus. Help me to be a reflection of you. Help every word to be filled with grace. Help every opportunity that I have to be an open door for the gospel. In Jesus' name, come on, would you stand with me and can we just. as people who have been paid for, bought at a price,

by the precious blood of Jesus. Can we just declare today that His blood is enough for us, that He's gonna empower us by His Holy Spirit to live this way, to take on this identity, to be under His supremacy and also to be in Christ, to not just modify our behavior, but even more to change us from the inside out. Come on, let's declare this truth together today.