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Every good cook knows how to add just the right seasoning to make the meal perfect! At my house it’s the difference between rice and “Rice-a-roni”. A while back I set out to make Rice-a-Roni. I’ve done it a million times: brown the rice in a little butter, add water, cook…but this time I forgot the most important part…that little flavoring packet that comes in the box, the seasoning packet. Needless to say, no one wanted to eat my dinner that night. It just didn’t have the taste it usually did. There was no flavor. It’s the seasoning that makes all the difference. Without it, it was just plain rice. We passed a big milestone this week, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Well, everything but the leftovers that is. We’re past Thanksgiving, but we are just starting Advent. Advent represents the four weeks leading up to Christmas. During Advent we celebrate more than the birth of Christ Jesus, we celebrate His coming. Advent means arrival, coming. Our Advent theme for this year is SEASONING THE SEASON. As we celebrate the fact that Jesus came we want to kick it up a notch! We don’t mean speed it up a lot or add a lot more stuff to the season. What we want to do is add more spice, more seasoning so that the flavor of the next four weeks is just right! Like a well trained cook adding just the right ingredients to the recipe, we want to add just the right ingredients to our Christmas celebrations and traditions. Because, frankly, for many of us, Christmas has become a lot like my Rice-A-Roni, just a little bland and dull. We want to kick it up a notch and put the Reason back into the Season. So we’re going to discover together how to really Season the Season. And this morning we start at the beginning! The beginning? What makes you realize that it’s the Christmas Season? How do you know that it’s “Christmas Time”? Is it the decorations? Not for me! I noticed Christmas decorations going up in September! I even noticed a house near our home that was already lit up for Christmas…two weeks before Thanksgiving! It’s not the decorations. How about the music? Is it Christmas when the music begins? I hope it’s not the “Christmas sales” – they started way too early again this year. No, it’s not the decorations or music or sales – for me I will really know it’s the Christmas Season when I start to hear people greeting each other like it’s Christmas. There’s just something about hearing “Merry Christmas”. Of course we don’t hear “Merry Christmas” as much as we used to, it’s just not “politically correct” any more. I found this “disclaimer” this past week and thought I would pass it along to you! It claims to be the answer to all of our politically correct holiday concerns. It’s entitled… POLITICALLY CORRECT SEASON'S GREETINGS (after a lawyers review) Please accept with no obligations, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular practices and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all…
…and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year [insert appropriate year], but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only AMERICA in the Western Hemisphere) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.
(By accepting this greeting you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)
I hope you and I don’t have to go to that extreme to express “Merry Christmas” to those around us. I mean, let’s fact it, it is CHRISTmas. The whole point of the Season is that Jesus Came! It’s His birthday. If we are going to begin at the beginning – we have to get our greetings right. We need to SEASON OUR GREETINGS! How do we do that? How do we truly greet people with the MESSAGE of Christmas without turning them off to that message? How do we SEASON OUR GREETINGS with just the right amount of flavor and spice so we convey the message that Jesus Christ came to be more than just a baby in a manger. Our text this morning gives us a powerful two-part method. Simple and to the point. Read it with me this morning… Colossians 4:5, “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should.” It’s interesting that the original language of this passage says it this way: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt” We’ve been talking about SEASONING THE SEASON and right off the bat the Apostle Paul tells us to season our conversation with salt. What’s his point? Salt doesn’t taste good by itself, it’s used to bring out the flavor of the food it’s put on. In the same way we need to add the right things to our conversation so that it conveys the message as it should. That’s exactly what he says in the verse right before the ones we read: “Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.” (Colossians 4:4) We have a message that needs to be shared in as clear a way as possible. That message is that Jesus Christ is more than a baby in a manger, He is the Son of God who has come to forgive our sins and give us His life! He is God and we must accept Him into our lives. But there is a problem: most non-believers don’t understand, they just don’t get it. They are far from understanding and can easily misunderstand our message. So we must be wise in everything we do and everything we say toward those who are not believers. There is the two part method to SEASONING OUR GREETINGS. (1) Make the most of every opportunity – that’s the way we act. As we approach this unique time of year we need to make the most of every opportunity. People are closer to listening right now than at any other time of the year. Most of them are talking about Jesus and planning for His birthday celebration even if they don’t realize it. So we need to make use of these opportunities. That’s why passing out door-hangers is appropriate this time of year. It’s a great way to invite people to attend FamilyFellowship. People are often looking for a Christmas service to attend with their family. It’s the “thing to do” even if they really don’t understand why. Making use of every opportunity is why we are taking part in Winterfest this Saturday evening. It’s a great chance to share with people that it’s about more than winter, it’s about Jesus! On the back table you will see a sample of the craft we are preparing for Winterfest. It carries a short message about Jesus. It’s a great opportunity. But there will be literally hundreds of opportunities for you to share with people over the next four weeks. You don’t have to make opportunities – they will already be there. You can share your Advent Calendar, you can invite someone to church, you can…well, we’ll get to that in a moment. Part one of the method is to make use of every opportunity to wisely share with those around you about Jesus through your actions. Part two involves your speech! Our passage this morning says… “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt” I want us to look at four words from that sentence… First, notice "conversation". That word is a translation of the Greek word, LOGOS. It’s translated in other places “word; saying; message, teaching; talk, conversation”. In its barest sense it simply means “something that conveys a message”. Words convey messages. Conversations are meant to convey a particular message. To be honest, everything you do conveys a message. That’s why the translators of the old English Bible used conversation – it meant behavior as well as your words. Realize that people are reading everything you say! Now notice the second word… "grace”. Our conversation should be “full of grace”. That’s another old word that we don’t use too often. The Greek word is “Charis”. It’s where we get the word Chris from. It’s means “that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, good will, loving-kindness.” In short it means we should always live and speak in nice ways. Man, don’t we need that this time of year! People are not used to other people being genuinely nice to them. The simple act of saying “Merry Christmas” or “God bless you!” is an act of graciousness. But it’s not easy…because such responses have to be prepared in advance to be effective. Notice the next word… “seasoned”… it’s a little word that means to prepare with spiced, to prepare to stimulate. Think of it this way…in order to SEASON OUR GREETINGS we have to prepare our greetings. I know that sounds a little unfamiliar, but it’s not a bad idea to think about some things to say to people. BE PREPARED! PREPARE YOUR WORDS. SEASON YOUR WORDS. SEASON YOUR GREETINGS. You know the very best cooks take time to prepare their seasonings. They labor over the various spices and herbs. They work them until they are at optimum performance for the dish they will add them to. We need to do the say with our conversations. If you are going to the store…think about what you will say to the clerk…make your final Christmas greeting something unique and fitting. And if you don’t prepare it in advance it will definitely sound out of place. Maybe even practice it. (I know that sounds artificial, but the point is, you are sharing life’s most important message in just a few words…so take time to do it right.) If you are planning a family get-together what are you going to say to your family? Maybe you will plan a special toast, or a written out prayer. Maybe it will be how you use your mailed out Greeting Cards. What a powerful way to express the Christmas message. Take time to PREPARE your words. Finally, the last word I want you to notice is… "salt”…. “seasoned with salt” As I mentioned earlier, salt by itself it not very good. Few people like to just eat salt, but if it’s used the right way it brings out incredible flavor. It’s not just the words and actions that are important – it’s how you apply those words and actions that mean everything. You need to ask God to give you the right timing, right approach and definitely the right amount to make your greetings spiritually meaningful and impactful to those you greet. (1) Make the most of every opportunity (2) Make sure you convey the message with grace in just the right way! I know what you probably thinking right now. “That’s easy for you to say, but how do I do that?” Following that method is not difficult once you understand the how…and the Apostle Paul gives us a whole bunch of living examples of how to make the most of every opportunity by making sure the message is always conveyed with grace in just the right way. At the close of these two verses Paul begins to talk about a group of people who were very close to him; people who had used their words and their lives to convey God’s message in powerful ways. We don’t have a lot of time this morning to share each of their stories in depth, but I do want to mention them and, hopefully, you will get the point of why Paul mentions them right after talking about how we greet others. The first person Paul mentions is Tychicus. Tychicus was the encourager. His name means “fortunate” and those who knew him were definitely fortunate to have Him in their lives. He was so willing to help that he dropped his own agenda and followed the Apostle Paul as he went from town to town preaching and starting churches. Tychicus was willing to share in Paul’s life. The next person mentioned was Onesimus. Onesimus means profitable or useful. Onesimus was a slave. As a matter of fact there is a whole Book in the New Testament written about Omesmus, Philemon. Though he had been a runaway slave, he had come to Christ and was now a willing servant for others. Onesimus was willing to serve with Paul. Then there is Aristarchus. Aristarchus had been a nobleman and probably fairly wealthy. Now he was a prisoner in jail with the Apostle Paul. He had been willing to stand up with Paul through the tough times and both ended up in jail because taking a stand for Christ was not popular. Back then it could mean prison. Aristarchus was willing to suffer with Paul. John Mark is next, though here Paul just calls him Mark. Mark was a young man who had traveled with Paul and another missionary named Barnabas (who was also his uncle). Paul wanted the people he was writing to to listen to Mark when he arrived. Mark would be bringing a message from Paul. Mark was willing to speak for Paul. Next there was Justus (his first name was Jesus). Justus means righteous. That’s all we know about Jesus Justus. He was a just, righteous man. If we can take anything from his name we assume this was a man who worked for what was right, just. Justus was willing to struggle with Paul. And there was Epaphras. Epaphras was actually founding pastor of the church Paul was writing to. He had traveled almost 1000 miles from Colosee to Rome to seek Paul’s guidance concerning problems in the church. Now he was far away from his church – and his only way to help them was to pray – and he did, big time! Paul tells them that Epaphras “always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident of the whole will of God. I can assure you that he has agonized for you…” Epaphras was willing to pray for others. Now we went through all of that quickly, but notice how these six believers used their lives to convey the message: they shared, they served, they suffered, they spoke, they struggled and they prayed on Paul’s behalf. You want to know how to SEASON YOUR GREETINGS… Invest your words and your life in others like these six men Paul mentions.
SEASON YOUR GREETINGS – Invest your words and life in those God brings into your life. (1) Make the most of every opportunity (2) Make sure you convey the message with grace in just the right way! We have been given the greatest message in the world to share at one of the best times of the year. Let’s use our greetings to SEASON THE SEASON.
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(c) Paul Newell 2003 FamilyFellowship Church P.O. Box 465, Beaumont, CA 92223 |
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