For others, the fatigue is related to emotional turmoil related to health problems or financial problems or job search or family problems, or a combination of all four.

Our challenge in such times is to see that, with God's help, the "will" of our minds can overcome the "won't" of our bodies.

Simply stated, our challenge is to make sure our minds are in control, not our flesh.

If you’ve ever stayed up all night with a sick loved one, you know that it’s a physically demanding challenge. But you did it, anyway, because you knew that you were needed.

You asked God for strength to be what your loved one needed and He graciously provided it to you.

At that time, you experienced the blessing of empowerment in order that your will overcame your won’t.

I want you to know that the Bible has given us the secret for gaining an endless supply of energy.

Stated quite simply, I want you to clearly understand that a faith connected to the Father is a like a power tool plugged into the wall. As long as we keep plugged in, we'll have a faith that will not run down.

Colossians 1:21-29

Background and setting

If there is one trait which all Christians should possess, it is enduring friendliness. And that’s exactly what I see in the writings of the Apostle Paul. As I read this passage, I can tell that he was a friendly man.

What a change God had worked in his life since the days of cheering the murder of Stephen and imprisonment of early Christians!

Paul knew that he had been called to share news of God’s love and that’s why he was SO loving as he wrote about about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He knew that he had to be friendly if his listeners were to be interested in friendship with Jesus.

The same is still true today. That’s why it is so important that we be friendly with people as we point them toward Christ.

Illus: Reader's Digest told a story years ago of Kent and Diana, a couple who went out of their way at church to greet a family visiting the services. After explaining a bit about the church, Diana described how friendly her neighborhood was.

In contrast, the new couple explained they have felt ignored in their neighborhood.

"We've been here six weeks, and our neighbors still haven't invited us over to meet them," the couple said.

"How sad," Kent said. "Your neighbors really ought to be ashamed.

The two couples then exchanged phone numbers and headed home.

Kent and Diana's pleasure with their new friendship turned to profound embarrassment, however, when they saw the new couple pull into the driveway RIGHT NEXT TO THEIRS.

Do your neighbors know you are Christian?

Do they know where you go to church?

Do they know what it is to have you invite them to a church function here, such as the fellowship dinner today?

Do you have neighbors who would enjoy a place where they are loved without a hidden agenda?

Do you have co-workers pre-occupied with moral or ethical guilt and who need the feeling of freedom? Those hurting, lonely, confused people need to hear that being good in this life is not good enough to earn heaven.

That’s where our mission and motive comes into play.

The Bible clearly states that people wanting a certain hope are to offer their hearts to Jesus, their bodies in baptism and their lives in committed service.

If you love Jesus, you'll love those people. You'll start looking for ways to plant gospel seeds. And you'll patiently keep loving even if they rebuff your first few invitations.

Think of how many times that the Holy Spirit had to speak to your heart before you changed some unsurrendered area of your life. It perhaps took years of persuasion before the bad habit or that bitter spirit was finally laid on the altar of sacrifice.

God has been SO patient with you, just as He has been patient with me.

Please, my friend, be patient and persistent in building bridges of friendship with those slow to embrace Christ.

We owe God everything. The least we can do is the most we can do! God gave His best effort for us and we have an obligation to give our best for Him when it comes to sharing this good news with people we know or will meet.

Ezekial 33 provides a needed reminder of the believer's evangelistic responsibility. In vv. 7-9, we hear God say... ===>

God Has Commissioned and Provisioned His People to Share the Good News.

And yet, have we not all claimed at times that we just didn't have the ability or energy to do what God asked? Paul knew that Christians have this tendency and so he wrote in vv. 28-29 how we can accept and carry out our responsibility to be disciple-makers.

Most all of us can remember times when we were physically exhausted and yet the pressure of resonsibility compelled us to keep working toward a specific goal.

Perhaps it was the finishing of a term paper in college or high school. Perhaps it was remaining focused during a long labor as you awaited the birth of your child.

Perhaps it was remodeling your house by yourself in order to save money.

We each have our stories to share of times when we put forth efforts which required more energy than we felt we had. Each one here has a story to show how they did what thought they couldn't.

And yet, it is also true that each one here has a story of quitting at the first obstacles we face because we thought we didn't have enough energy, quitting because we didn't trust God for help.

Matt 26:40-46 == > (K) .... while others slept, JC prayed. He was given strength!

The next time you and I are tempted to think we just don't have the energy to serve God-by showing Jesus to someone in need, I want us each to remember this story about a woman named Lizzie.

Illus: At 13, Lizzie injured her back in an accident. For 27 more years, this paralyzed young lady would lay flat on her back, viewing the world only through the reflection of a mirror mounted above her head.

As handicapped as she was, she still sensed the grace of God applied to her. She wanted to show her appreciation. So she chose to make a quilt and sell it for $40.

Back in the late 1800s when Lizzie lived, that amount of money could free a slave in Africa.

It was very hard work for Lizzie to sew from such a position. And yet, God gave her the strength.

The quilt never sold, however. So she turned to making bookmarks, even though these were also painful to make.

These did sell and for the rest of her life, she raised $1000 a year toward freeing slaves, feeding ex-slaves and other missions efforts.

One day, a church leader from India was passing through Lizzie's hometown in Illinois.

She gave him the quilt. He took the quilt and its story with him on a national speaking tour. He asked if people would help with missions. More than $100,000 was raised on that tour just after the turn of the century.

God saw Lizzie's effort and strengthened her to keep going. With the money she earned from the bookmarks, she supported a Japanese orphan named Takuo.

Some 50 years later, after WWII and the atomic bomb on Takuo's town of Hiroshima, Takua was touring this country to describe Christianity in Japan.

While in Lizzie's hometown, this once-abandoned Japanese man sought out Lizzie's youngest sister. She told him that Lizzie put forth the best effort she could for the Lord.

Takua responded by saying, "All that I am, I owe to Lizzie Johnson."

Wow! What a great story. What an example of living out Colossians 1:29 for the sake of the gospel.

Invitation: If there is one thing that has been consistent during my years of observing ministry, it has been the fact that many Christians feel they are trying to feed a gospel dinner to people who aren't even close to hungry for Jesus.

And it will continue to be that way for them as long as they think creating a spiritual hunger in others is up to them. Evangelistic insecurity and inefficiency will always follow self-directed efforts rather than Spirit-inspired efforts.

The fact is that you and I - on our own - can not make people hungry for salvation.

Instead we are to demonstrate a sense of peace and purpose that is clearly inspired by a power greater than ourselves. People with lives in turmoil need to see people whose imperfect lives have still found a way to experience a deep peace.

Listen, people want to see the fruit of our faith, not hear an agricultural lecture on the biology of plant development.

There's a place later for that after they become believers and want to grow in faith.

When we show kindness, mercy, self-discipline, generosity and hard work at the job, they are seeing the fruits of faith. They are seeing characteristics worth imitating.

They are seeing a faith that makes a difference. They are seeing a faith worth imitating.

Boost your influence, my friend. Be more like Christ. As you do, He'll supply you with all that you need to do all that you should for His sake.