Sunday Sermons from Penrith Anglican Church
Jun 21, 2026 · 24 min · 7 segments
Tom Harricks preaches from Colossians 4:2-6.
Tom HarricksHostJudithPanelist
Uh, back in the nineteen nineties, there was an academic set out to study what people talk about in general conversation.
Weather.
We spend sixty-five percent of our conversation talking about relationships and people and, uh, what people are doing and how they're going.
Surely things have changed since then." Two years ago, the same study was conducted.
What, what had changed? Not much, but eighty-five percent of our time was spent talking about people.
We find it easy to talk about other people, right? Uh, uh, humans naturally spend our time with our speech focused on social life, people, uh, relationships, daily events.
And with that already limited space, you've got explicitly religious conversations.
Uh, both praying together and intentionally talking about conversation, no, talking about Jesus, are really niche topics amongst niche topics, uh, in the broader range of what we talk about.
And they are the two conversations that I wonder whether we find the hardest, praying to God and speaking about Jesus with others.
And, and those are the two conversations, uh, that, uh, are covered in the passage that Judith just read for us.
Firstly, speaking upwards to God in prayer, and speaking outwards to those outside of the safety that you've experienced in Jesus.
Uh, so if you've got both of those conversations covered, if you're both great at both praying and evangelism, take the next twenty minutes off.
Uh, back in the nineteen nineties, there was an academic set out to study what people talk about in general conversation.
Weather.
We spend sixty-five percent of our conversation talking about relationships and people and, uh, what people are doing and how they're going.
Surely things have changed since then." Two years ago, the same study was conducted.
What, what had changed? Not much, but eighty-five percent of our time was spent talking about people.
We find it easy to talk about other people, right? Uh, uh, humans naturally spend our time with our speech focused on social life, people, uh, relationships, daily events.
And with that already limited space, you've got explicitly religious conversations.
Uh, both praying together and intentionally talking about conversation, no, talking about Jesus, are really niche topics amongst niche topics, uh, in the broader range of what we talk about.
And they are the two conversations that I wonder whether we find the hardest, praying to God and speaking about Jesus with others.
And, and those are the two conversations, uh, that, uh, are covered in the passage that Judith just read for us.
Firstly, speaking upwards to God in prayer, and speaking outwards to those outside of the safety that you've experienced in Jesus.
Uh, so if you've got both of those conversations covered, if you're both great at both praying and evangelism, take the next twenty minutes off.
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