So have you ever read something wrong? I mean you just got it wrong. Well a few years ago Mark read something wrong. He got it wrong. He thought that his wife did not want a card for valentine's day and he got this in his mind. Not even my wife, she doesn't she doesn't want I think I've picked up on that vibe. Then on valentine's day late in the afternoon he called her talking to her on the phone when he picked up a completely different vibe that she was expecting a valentine's card. But he was in trouble because Mark worked at a warehouse for lawn mower parts and he knew it was not going to be enough time for him to get off work and get a valentine's card before he got home. So he panicked a little bit. But then he looked around he thought well what can I do? And he found a bunch of magazines at work. And so he got the magazine's got some scissors, got some glue, got some paper and he made a homemade card with lawnmower pictures from lawnmower magazines. Yeah. And what did he write on the inside of the card? This is what he wrote. I long for you. More power and more each day. True story that really happened. Good on your mark. He did. Well you know sometimes in life we read something the wrong way and we just have to go with it right we just have to step up and step into it. Sometimes we might have to use glue and scissors to there's just these moments where we have to kind of step into things. But but beyond the times that we read something wrong, there is one thing we need to read, write and we really need to read it right. And when we read it right, then we need to go with it. And what is that? Well, it's this thing that we need to read right? Because it reflects the absolute most happy that we could possibly be in life. Our happiness is seen in this one thing that we're reading right. The most happiness we could have in life is seen in reading this one thing really right and not just for our happiness, but it's important that we read this one thing right? Because it also is a way for other people to find the greatest happiness in their life. To find that one thing that they can long for more and more every day. So what is this one thing that we should read, we should understand, We should get and we should go with well let's see if we can find out. We continue our series today seven G. The speed you need where we take a different G theme from scripture and focus on it. Each sunday. Today are g is go the message today is go and we'll be asking paul to help us out colossians. Chapter four, Beginning with verse five paul is going to help us see what it means to go in maybe a different way than we thought of before, Colossians. Chapter 4: verse five Paul writes conduct yourselves with wisdom. What is wisdom? Well, according to the psalmist, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So that means we have to be afraid of God in order to find wisdom. Well, not really, that's that's not the picture, Someone said, the fear of the Lord is defined best like this. It's being afraid of running away from God. It's a fear of being away from God. What does that mean? Well, the picture here is that we wouldn't want to run away from God because of what we have found in God. And what can we find in God? When Paul wrote another letter to another church place called Ephesus. And in that letter, he said this Ephesians chapter two verse 12 remember that you were at that time separate from christ. If you can remember back to a time, if you're a believer, when you were not a believer, before you repented and turned to jesus, you were separated from jesus. And if you have not turned to jesus, you are separated from jesus now. So Paul's writing to the church, he said, remember at that time you were separate from Christ. And then he gives it some more language verse 12, you were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, you were strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world to be separated from God. For things between you and God to not be right, means that you have no true lasting hope. You have no true lasting happy certainty in this world or in the world to come. Doesn't have to be the end of your story though, your your story can change and paul tells us how it can change. It can change by what you can find in God, Listen to what he says continue in verse 13 Ephesians two. But now in christ, jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of christ. What is the most horrible reality in the universe? The most horrible reality in the universe is being far off from God being separated from God. There's nothing worse than that. It means living in this world as an enemy of God and leaving this world as an enemy of God, there is no greater horror than that. But then on the flip side, what's the most wonderful reality in the universe? What's what's the most glorious, fantastic, satisfying reality in the universe? Well, that is being brought near to God, being not far off, but near to God living today as a friend of God and leaving this world as a friend of God. That's the greatest reality. And the only way that reality can happen, the only way you can be brought near to God is to be unified with and identified with Jesus Christ. And the only way you can be unified with and and identified with Jesus Christ is through his blood. That's what makes a man. That that sounds weird and spooky and creepy and strange. All right, well, don't get too distracted with what it sounds like. Get connected with what it means and what it means is this the only currency that works when it comes to not being right with God. The only currency that works and making things between you and God, right? That currency is only the blood of jesus. There there is no other currency. You can't use good works, You can't use uh good deeds, you can't use uh family connections. You can't use your savings account. You can't use a homemade valentine's card made out of law. More magazines. But there's nothing else that works only the blood of jesus. That is the only currency that God allows. I was reading something years ago, a father was talking about how he spoke to his son about the gospel and he said something along these lines, son, this is the greatest hope of your life. Step into this moment for a second. If you have kids or grandkids think of all the things that we talk with our kids or grandkids about. And and this is a moment with him and his son, son. This is the greatest hope of your life. This is the greatest happy certainty of your life. That Jesus Christ God's perfect righteous son died in your place for your sins? Jesus took all of the punishment. Jesus received all of the wrath as he hung on the cross. So that people like you and people like your sinful daddy could be completely forgiven. That's a father son chat right there. The magnitude of the blood of jesus creates a conversation where you can tell your son or your daughter or your spouse, or your friend or your grandchild or whoever it is here is the greatest hope of your life. Here is the greatest happiest certainty of your life, Jesus died for your sins and in him you can be completely forgiven things between you and God can be right forever and ever and ever, starting now the old him said it this way. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of jesus, nothing. The ultimate hope that you can have. The ultimate happy certainty that you can have all of it comes in and through and only in and through the blood of Jesus Christ. So you need to read that right. If the happiest certainty in your life is found in the blood of jesus and the forgiveness of jesus, you need to read that right. The hope of your soul today and the hope of your soul forever is all wrapped up in reading that right and once you read it right? You need to go with it. You need to move with it. So here's a quick recap of just this picture of the christian life that we've seen so far and what is it? Well what should you do? Well you should conduct yourself with wisdom, you should act with wisdom. And where do you get this wisdom where you get this wisdom with the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And why should you fear the Lord? Well the fear of the Lord means you do everything. You can not to run away from God, not to be distracted from God, not to be disconnected from God. And the reason you do that is because of what you have found in God and that is this you have been brought near to God Near to the one True God of the Universe. You know, holidays are interesting, we we do so much for holidays but but we all know that almost every single holiday is super crazy, hard on people, right? We know that Mother's Day is a wonderful thing. But one of the reasons that we don't have a Mother's Day worship service is because sunday morning Mother's Day is hard on people's hearts. It's tough valentine's day, hard on people, right? Because some people are alone and they're looking for the valentine love. So it doesn't mean it's wrong for us to enjoy valentine's Day. It's just always a good reminder in the magnitude of the holiday there is hurt and pain and loneliness, despair. But in christ no matter what the holiday is, no matter what the moment is. You have been brought near to God. You are never alone. It is not possible for you to be alone. It is not possible for you to have the one true divine love of the universe constantly flowing to your life. Paul says this is it conduct yourself with wisdom. Wisdom comes from fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is not wanting to run away from God because of what you found in him and what you found in him is him nearness to him and the nearness of God all happened because of the blood of jesus. That's the math. The basic math of what it means to be a christian. What if you're not a christian? Well if you're not then you are far off from God, you're far away from God, you're separated from God. So we would plead with you to change that to repent. To turn to God to find the hope, the happy certainty that you long for the most that you would turn away from your sin that you would turn to jesus, that you would be unified with jesus identified with jesus, that you would discover what it means to be completely forgiven and that you would have that happy certainty that cannot be taken away mm hmm. But if you have been brought near then you need to do something, you need to go with it. If you've been brought near to God, if you have that relationship with God, if the blood of jesus has brought you near then then you need to go with it. What does that mean? Well, more than 100 years ago, J. C. Ryle put it this way. Happy indeed. Is that church whose members not only desire to reach heaven themselves but desire also to take others with them. This is a message this morning of Evangelism. Evangelism is a word that means good news. And if we're going to be a true church and that means we have to take the good news of jesus and we have to go with it. It can't stay in here. We have to actually go with this good news. It's important that we go with it and one what is one of the most important ways we can go with. One of the most important ways we can go with it according to paul is by how we conduct ourselves out there and we're supposed to conduct ourselves with wisdom And wisdom comes from fearing the Lord. I put this together years ago. I'm not smart and cool and catchy, but I kinda like this one. True wisdom is being wrapped up in being near to the fear and letting the fear draw us near. It's catchy, right. I like it. True wisdom is being wrapped up in being near to the fear and letting the fear draw us near. In other words. We are constantly engaged with the fierceness and the nearness of God. We're always in this because he's so great because he's so mighty and because of what he's done for us through jesus, we stay in the fear and we stay in the near and we take that and we use it as our fuel for our conduct. We watched the way that we conduct ourselves, we watch the way that we act, we look out for how we interact with people. Why, why would we do that? Well, it's a philosopher. Kw Gordy and M joseph Jackson once said, I always feel like somebody's watching me, I always feel like it. So who's watching? listen to verse five conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders, outsiders are watching. Well who are the outsiders? Well, simply we could say there are people outside of of the kingdom, outside of the gospel. People who do not believe in God and don't see any need for God. So, so people who are disconnected from Christianity and really have no desire to be connected with Christianity. The outsiders imagine you live in my neighborhood. Okay. And I never cut my grass, not only do I not cut my grass like I have a push mower and I just leave it in the middle of the front yard all year long and it just sits there never moves and I never take down my holiday inflatables either. I leave them up all year long, You know, got the reindeer snow globe and the snoopy pumpkin and the big inflatable, you know, loaf of melba toast for national melba toast day. I mean I got all the inflatables, you know, they're, they're all out in the front yard. They're just up all the time. I never take them down. And then on valentine's day, well on valentine's Day, I put these huge speakers in my driveway and boy at six o'clock, I crank up a key breaky Heart by billy Ray Cyrus and I play it on a loop from six o'clock to midnight every year on valentine's Day, you, you know me because of that. And when I'm driving through the neighborhood, I take my cups from the frozen custard place where I've got the frozen custard and the cookie dough and the butterscotch. And when I finished it up, I just throw them out the window, I'll throw them in your yard, I'll throw them in the back of your truck. I'll just throw them anywhere and then one day I bump into you at the local wheat grass ice cream shop and and we're neighbors and I say, well, hey buddy, hey man, I want to invite you to easter sunday at my church. Huh? How about that? Come on, You're thinking about coming, That'd be nice. Come on. I think you're going to jump on that offer after your experience around me as your neighbor or maybe you're not a trashy neighbor. Maybe you're a follow every single rule neighbor, you know, and you go away on vacation and while you're gone, I go over to your house and I measure the height of your rose bushes and I find out that they are outside of the home owners association code for the height of rose bushes. And I go on the H. O. A neighborhood facebook page and I put that your rose bushes are 1.27 inches higher than they're supposed to be. And then I bump into you at the local home improvement store. Hey buddy, how you doing? Hey, listen, we have a small group from our church meets every sunday five o'clock at our house. Why don't you come on over, love to have you come on. You probably are going to be skipping across the street to my house, Right? Look, we're all going to have our days, okay, We're all going to have our moments. We're we're not perfect. We're going to get things wrong a lot of the times. But the picture that paul is painting here is is who are we like most of the time if we're going to profess to be christians, what are we like most of the time toward outsiders. Now look, the message of the Gospel. It's offensive, right? The message of the Gospel says that we're all sinners says that we fall short of the glory of God, that we don't measure up. And then the Gospel lets us know that we can't measure up on our own right? We can't measure up and make things right with God by being a good citizen, or having good grades or having a good job or performing good deeds or or having a good retirement plan. Those aren't the things that make us right with God. So the message of the Gospel is offensive. It tells us that we're separated from God, that we can't save ourselves, but we need to be saved. So the message is offensive, but the messengers should not be offensive. People should not be distracted or disgusted with the Gospel because we are jerks. But that's not the call of our life, Paul was writing the church at Corinth, he said this for we are a fragrance of christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. So, so what's our fragrance out in the world? Alright. Somebody once said that people smell jesus when they're around you. You know, what is the fragrance that we have and and why is it so important? We're not going to be perfect all the time, Okay? We're not always going to smell like jesus. Okay. But but most of the time why does it matter what we say and what we do and how we act and how we respond, Paul goes on verse five conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. So what's the opportunity? Here's the opportunity? The opportunity is your life. That's the opportunity. Your life is the opportunity? Your your life to make a difference on earth is the opportunity? We all have one life to live. As the old saying goes, only one life to live will soon be passed. Only what's done for christ will last what we do in and for jesus, it matters because we have the opportunity to try to help people find the amazing joy of no longer being far off. But being near drawn near, we have the opportunity to help people find the happy certainty that cannot be taken away from us. The happy certainty of knowing God, the happy certainty of being brought near to God. The happy certainty of through the blood of jesus, having salvation and love and mercy and peace and joy that never ends. So again, browse words are appropriate. Happy indeed, is that church whose members not only desire to reach heaven themselves, but desire also to take others with them. And likewise, unhappy is the Church that constantly says, well, why don't we do things the way we used to do it? Unhappy is the church that constantly says, why can't we change all the things we're doing and and do new stuff? But happy is the church that says, I have been brought near to God and I want other people to be brought near Happy. Is that Church satisfied? Is that church joyful? Is that church the conduct of our life matters because we want people to go to heaven, Paul adds a little more verse six. Let your speech always be with grace. All right, let me just go ahead and cut us some slack. This one always happen. All right. This is a challenge. You know, it's it's not really a demand cause we can't pull it off. But the picture here is good. Jesus was teaching one day and jesus said this. He said, what comes out of your mouth is what's an overflow of what's happening in your heart? So what's what's happening in your heart these days? Is your heart a crock pot simmering on the truths of God. They're just, man, they're just there and they're just, you know, ready ready to come out. Or is your your heart kind of like a microwave? You know, you're just nuking some stuff here and there. You know, you're you're nuking some religious sayings to use your your nuking some political rants or you're nuking some fiery opinions on sports. What's what's happening with your with your heart? We're not perfect. We're all going to have our moments of of ranting and and rudeness and and and weariness that those things are going to happen. But most of the words that come out of our mouths? Most of our actions that come out of our lives around outsiders need to be the types of things that should look and sound like we've been brought near to God, not perfect, but generally speaking, we should look and sound like people who have been brought near to God. Our speech should be that way. And then paul adds a little pinch of salt, verse six. Let your speech always be with Grace as those seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each person. How should we respond to each person? Well, how can we get some some gospel salt into our words? Well, let me just kind of simplistically give a practical way maybe from looking the opposite side. If you want to be a person that has a lot of gospel salt in your language, don't be the guy that's always known for telling the questionable jokes. Don't be that guy. Don't be the lady that's always known for having the latest gossip. Yeah. Don't be the kid that's known for being rude and bossy to their parents. Listen, we we live in a dark, desperate, despairing time, a time full of anger and frustration and fear and worry and confusion and everything else. If there was ever a time that it is important for us to live with language and actions and responses that are full of gospel salt, it is now the world needs the happy certainty that we have the happy certainty of the gospel and they need to see it and how we talk and how we act and how we think and how we respond to things, All of these things matter, This June, my parents will be married for 66 years. Um, my dad has been in the hospital this past week with pancreatitis. Uh, he tough, tough go for him. My mom's having a bunch of dental work and I don't know she had six or 16 teeth removed. I can't remember. I mean just, it's just been crazy. And, and I think I've slept about 72 minutes this week. So it's been a, it's been a wild wild week. And in the midst of all of that wildness, I have discovered that there's something about my parents that I really appreciate and that's this like the rest of us. They aren't perfect with Gospel salt all the time. Okay. But my parents are pretty good with outsiders. So they really are by. My parents seemed to have a winsome thing about them. And I watched that, uh, this week we're at the hospital and uh, as all the other hospitals are in the world right now. The hospital my dad's in is very full and so we're in a, in a semi private room and and his roommate, uh, is about my age, We grew up in the same hometown. We didn't know each other growing up, but we know a lot of the, the same people, but between him and us and the doctors and nurses at any given time, there's a lot of, there can be some people in the room, something's happening. Uh, and one of those moments happened this week. Uh, my mom was up there and um, she immediately held up her, her necklace and I can't remember if Petey was in their nurses, I can't remember who I was in there, but she held up her necklace and she, she told us the story about her necklace. Her necklace was a heart shaped pendant that my dad bought for her five years before they were married. He got it at the old jewelry store on Broad street in Sumpter. And, and that was just this kind of quick story. There wasn't a whole lot to the story, but it was the story that in that moment, you know, we, we kind of realized, hey, that necklace is 71 years old, you know, that's an interesting story. It wasn't this loud sermon about jesus that we had in the hospital room, but here's what it was. It was one of those moments that everybody who was listening connected. It was a winsome moment. So we all have winsome moments in life, We have the opportunity and even give you any given moment to tell stories that open up the doors for the gospel. Now, am I forcing that story into the end of this sermon because tomorrow's Valentine's day and it's a cute story about my mom's necklace and I've slept 72 minutes this week, maybe, you know, maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about right now. But but I think the idea behind it is this the moral of the story is not to go buy a heart shaped pendant so that you can start telling people about jesus, but it does mean this, if you're a christian, if you're a believer in a sense, we all have a heart shaped necklace, we all do. And that necklace has a story and the story is this that necklace was bought for us on the old rugged cross with the blood of Jesus Christ And that Necklace is about 2000 years old and every time we hold it and think about it, it reminds us that we have been brought near. It reminds us that we need to conduct ourselves with wisdom toward outsiders. It reminds us that every moment of this life is the opportunity, the opportunity to help people find the happy certainty that we have found in Jesus Christ, the opportunity to help them find hope for this world and for the world to come. The hope of Our happy certainty is not just for us though, that necklace reminds us that we have the opportunity to help other people find that same happy certainty. See that's what we do day in and day out. We want to remember what it means that we have been brought near. We want to keep fearing the Lord, we want to use the Fear Nous and the nearness for our joy. But we also want to be sure that with our lives with our words, with our actions, with our attitudes not perfect because we're not. But generally speaking, we want to help other people find the hope that we have find the happy certainty that we have. In other words, most of the time. What we want to do is live in such a way that when people are around us, there's something that they see and they hear and what is that? Well, it kind of sounds like this. I once was far off, but now I've been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been brock near go with that.