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Text: Colossians 4:2-6
Intro: If you knew your time was short on this earth and you wanted to give final instructions or advice to loved ones what would you say?
It would be difficult but important.
You would focus on essential matters rather than incidental things, wouldn’t you?
Paul finishes his letter to the church at Colosse with certain admonitions, requests and reminders.
Paul was in prison for the last time and I believe he knew the end was near.
He wanted to leave them with a few essentials for life and ministry.
Two of these he spells out and the third he describes in his final greeting.
Ill.
The five foolish virgins and five wise virgins.
In verse 2 he tells us to watch in the same (prayer) we are to be ready for the return of our Christ at any moment.
There are three things that will make you ready for the finish of our work.
In these last 17 verses of Colossians I have picked out three essentials for our readiness in ministry that apply to all of us today.
Trans:
I. We are to Pray as Warrior (2-3a)
Paul began his letter talking about prayer (1:3,9) and now finishes his letter with admonition to pray.
Nothing is more important than prayer.
Illustration: John Piper said about prayer, “Prayer is not designed as an intercom between us and God to serve the domestic comforts of the saints.
It’s designed as a walkie-talkie for spiritual battlefields.
It’s the link between active soldiers and their command headquarters, with its unlimited fire-power and air cover and strategic wisdom.”
There are four aspects of prayer that Paul gives in quick fashion:
1. Faithful Praying (Continue in prayer)
Ready to go to prayer at any moment.
Prayer is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets and when you don’t use it atrophy sets in.
It is awfully hard to get a muscle to work after atrophy has set in.
Danger is Generic Prayer:
Most of us encounter difficulty in praying for someone to be saved because all we know to do is say, “God, please save so-and-so.”
We feel foolish in praying that one statement over and over again, so we usually give up and quit.
I challenge you to pray specific measurable prayer.
Consider your lost friends, Lee E. Thomas says we could pray in four specific ways for them.
the individual
the soul-winner
the word of God
and revival.
When we learn to pray for specifics in these areas, our intercession becomes challenging and effective.
2. Watchful Praying (Watch in the same)
“being vigilant in it” or “being watchful” (wide awake)
Illustration: Where do you think a military patrol is more watchful at Fort Riley on the streets of Bagdad?
This is because the enemy is prevalent.
I wish we could all see the real and eminent danger.
Recognize that Satan is working to keep lost people lost and saved people asleep.
This is your enemy and a battle plan is to pray like he is at work.
Look at how the Holy Spirit wants to counteract the work of the enemy...
Reprove Sin
The Holy Spirit begins the work of Salvation by setting a person apart (sanctification) by letting them see their sin.
Convince of Righteousness
Against the world he points to the goodness of God.
The church is the proof of the goodness of God.
Beware that you don’t have a poor spirit about a good God.
Convince of Judgement
We then can pray that God will convict the lost of their sin.
We want to pray for the conviction of sin in the lives of our lost family and friends.
This happens because we are not ignorant of how Satan works.
Even more so we know how God’s Spirit works with the Lost.
3. Thankful Praying (with thanksgiving)
a. Six times Paul stresses this in this short letter (1:3,12; 2:7; 3:15,17; 4:2).
b. Probably half of our time in prayer should be taken up in thanksgiving.
We overlook the many ways God blesses us.
c. Being thankful in prayer takes away from our tendency to pray selfishly.
Prayer is the weapon of our warfare.
We are to pray as a weapon to steal the lost from the wicked one.
II.
We are to Pray as a Soulwinner (3b-6)
First, that His word will “have free course.
This simply means to be unhindered; that Satan could in no way stop the flow of God‟s word.
He tries to stop it in every way he can imagine, from hindering and harassing the messenger of the word, to distorting the word, to destroying the printed copies of the word, to casting doubt on the word, ad infinitum!
Next, we pray for God‟s word to be glorified (II Thessalonians 3:1 ).
This means to be highly esteemed and honored among those who hear it.
We will have a new reverence for His word when we see that He has “magnified thy word above all thy name” (Psalm 138:2).
We also pray for God‟s word to be multiplied (Acts 12:24
Like seed that finds a great harvest.
We also pray for God‟s word to prevail or exercise force (Acts 19:20
Just as a small seed can crack a concrete slab as the force of life bound up in it begins to emerge, so does the seed of God‟s word planted in a heart.
My favorite prayer for God‟s word is that it will be effective.
Acts 14:1
Remember that the word of God was not profitable to those that did not apply faith to it.
God intends for His word to be effective; ask Him to make it so and you will be praying in His divine will and your prayers will be answered!!
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