How to Pray
Notes
Transcript
Read Colossians 1:13-14 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Introduction
A recent study has shown that for the first time in America, less than half of people in America pray.
In 2007, the number was 58% that peopled prayed daily.
Today, that number is at 45%.
Now since today we are celebrating our graduates, I found an interesting statistic to do with prayer and education.
Apparently, 49% of high school students pray for ‘personal guidance in crisis.’
For college it’s 39%.
So that means, that if you go to college, prayer in trials drop by 10%.
Why?
Why is this case?
Well, Christians who don’t know how to pray, will be taught in college other things, that they make them feel, that prayer is unnecessary.
‘I have all this knowledge, I got this degree by my own sheer will and determination, so I don’t need prayer!’
And that is why today, we will be learning How to Pray.
So that when you graduate high school, or when you graduate college, you don’t stop praying.
1. Keep praying to be filled with the knowledge Christ’s will (v.9)
1. Keep praying to be filled with the knowledge Christ’s will (v.9)
First let’s see what’s the occasion for prayer.
‘For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you’
Last Sunday, we learned How to Thank God, and we learned to Thank God for other believers, the gospel spreading everywhere, and ministers.
So great!
No need to pray anymore because look what God has done!
Right?
But not for Paul.
For Paul, seeing what God has done in the Colossians, causes him to pray more not less!
Why does Paul keep praying for them when God has already done amazing work in them?
Why does Paul keep praying for them when God has already done amazing work in them?
One of my favorite basketball players of all time is Kobe Bryant.
In 2009, Kobe and the Lakers were up against the Orlando Magic in the finals, and started the series 2-0.
If you didn’t know, an NBA final series is a series of games up to 7, needing 4 wins to win the series.
In a post-game interview, a reporter asked Kobe, ‘I haven’t seen you smile.’ because his expression during the interview was blank.
Being up 2-0 in a series is a huge advantage because there is tremendous pressure on the opposing team to win.
Teams that are down 0-3 in an NBA series, have come back to win, a total of: 0 times.
So you can see why the reporter is asking this question.
And so the responder continues, ‘You’re not happy?
‘You’re only half happy?’
Kobe replied,
‘What’s there to be happy about?’
The reporter said, ‘You’re up 2-0’.
Kobe replied, ‘job’s not finished.’
‘Job finished?’
‘I don’t think so.’
Students, God’s not finished.
God is still working.
See, Jesus said this,
But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
In other words, job’s not finished.
Now, Christ’s job of accomplishing salvation on the cross for us is finished.
But His work of continuing to grow us and use us to proclaim His word to the world is not.
That’s why we keep praying.
Because we’re confident of what God had done for us in the past, we’re confident to pray of what God will do in us in the present and future.
Christians who stop praying become prideful, and fall into temptation.
So don’t stop praying.
Now when we pray, we give thanks, but there’s another thing we do when we ask God for things.
Supplication is when we ask God for things.
And Paul asks God, ‘that they may be filled with the knowledge of His will’
Our minds are like water tanks.
They are made to be filled.
You can fill it with anything.
Most people fill their minds with trash.
Inappropriate things from the internet, musical lyrics that devalue people, entertainment that glorifies immorality rather than righteousness.
But instead, we must fill it with the knowledge of God’s will.
God’s will is that He has saved you and will continue to make you grow spiritually, and be a light to the world, so that others can be saved too.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
When your mind is full of trash it brings worry, fear, and death.
But when your mind is filled with the knowledge of Christ’s will you have life and peace.
If you anxious and worried all the time, ask yourself, ‘am I filling my mind with garbage, or am I filling it with the knowledge of God’s will?’
Because the less you know about Christ’s will, the less you will pray.
But knowledge alone is not enough, for knowledge by itself puffs up.
Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
That’s why college graduates are less likely to pray, because of the increased knowledge, leading to increased pride.
Instead, you need knowledge ‘in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’.
Wisdom means applying knowledge in everyday life.
I’m sure all of you who took algebra have thought or even asked your teacher, ‘when am I ever going to use this?’
I still haven’t used algebra since high school!
You never want to treat the knowledge of God’s will the same way!
It needs to be used in your every day life!
So you need wisdom!
But you also need spiritual understanding.
I met a person recently, who is very active in church, very kind, and even knows the bible more than most!
He even understands that there are people within the church that are not true believers!
And yet, even though he understands all these things correctly, he does not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
You can understand what the bible is saying according to the flesh, but to accept it and have it’s truths vibrate throughout your heart, requires spiritual understanding.
Students, without wisdom we become a textbook.
Without understanding, we become firewood.
So keep praying to be filled with the knowledge of Christ’s will in wisdom and spiritual understanding!
2. Keep praying to please Christ (v.10-14)
2. Keep praying to please Christ (v.10-14)
That is the second reason Paul prays for, that the Colossian Christians please Christ.
Look at v.10, ‘that you may walk worthy of the Lord’
How you live, or in other words, how you walk represents who Jesus is to others.
So when we live lives of kindness, peace, and courage, others think, ‘so that’s how Jesus is like!’
Some of your friends or coworkers, I’m sure have asked you, or at some point, will in the future ask you ‘why are you so happy all the time?’
Or, ‘I wish I had what what you have!’
And that is the precious treasure of the Lord Jesus Christ in you, that is representing Christ faithfully.
But when we live lives contrary to what Christ has taught us, lives of fear, no joy, speaking in vulgar ways like others do, then they will also think, ‘so that’s how Jesus is like!’
When Christians fail, I have personally heard coworkers curse God, because they think that’s what God is like when Christians act sinfully, because we represent Him.
And that is why we we must walk ‘worthy of the Lord’.
Because the higher the value, the more worthy something or someone is.
And because God is supreme in value, above all, then that also means that He is worthy to receive the purest form of representation from His children, by living like Christ.
So how do we do that?
How do we walk worthy of the Lord?
How do we walk worthy of the Lord?
Paul’s answer is ‘fully pleasing Him’.
LSB says, Colossians 1:10
Colossians 1:10 (LSB)
so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God;
Walking worthy of the Lord comes from a heart motive of desiring to please Him.
Everyday, people are constantly thinking, 100% of the time, ‘how can I please myself today?’
But no one ever asks, ‘how can I please God today?’
Have you ever thought, ‘how can I make God happy today?’
Some of us are probably thinking, ‘I can make God happy?’
Yes you can!
Hebrews 13:16 (NKJV)
But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Now God doesn’t need us to be fulfilled or happy, but His Word does say that you can please God, or in other words make Him happy!
So now that you know you can please God, not that Paul says ‘fully’ please Him or ‘in all respects’.
For example, you might be pleasing God in how you obey your parents, or how you serve Him at church, but are you pleasing Him in how you steward your money, or pleasing him when you play sports with others, or pleasing him by the way you treat others online?
Our hearts must desire to please God in all areas of our life so that we may walk worthy of Him.
So pray that your heart would desire to please God.
Now pleasing God is a very broad idea.
In fact, you may be thinking, ‘what does it look like to please God?’
What does it look like to please God?
What does it look like to please God?
Thankfully Paul tells us.
He gives us four images.
The first is, ‘being fruitful in every good work’
As Christians, we are rightfully taught that we are saved by faith alone, and that no good work can save you.
However, when God saves us, He also transforms us.
And we bear fruit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Our lives are transformed from being full of immorality and sorrow to lives full of the fruit of the Spirit.
If a Christian’s life does not bear fruit, then it is very possible that he is not even saved, because God saves and transforms lives.
See, sometimes we focus so much on faith, that we overlook how good works are supposed to fit in our Christian life.
I know many people in church who think Christianity is all about punching a ticket.
Punching a ticket?
Yes, punching a ticket to heaven!
Meaning, ‘I’ll go and get baptized, or say this prayer once, and I’ve punched my ticket to heaven, so I’m good!
I can go live a life full of sin now, because I’m saved by punching my ticket to heaven!’
Students, don’t think like that.
Pray that you would bear fruit and actually experience living a truly transformed life.
The second image of pleasing God is, ‘increasing in the knowledge of God’.
Now, in the LSB it says,
Colossians 1:10 (LSB)
so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God;
This is a better translation as it reminds you of what?
Genesis!
Bear fruit and multiply!
See as Christians, we are God’s new creation,
Colossians 3:10 (NKJV)
and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
And as God’s new creation, He plans to use us as part of His plan to redeem and restore where the old man, Adam, failed!
We do this by living lives that bear fruit of the Spirit and growing or multiplying in the full knowledge of God.
Paul brought this out in previous verse, but here we remember what Jesus said about knowing God,
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Yes, we are to grow in learning about the objective facts about God, His attributes, and His will to save people, but knowing God also refers to having an intimate knowledge of Him, like how a child intimately knows his father in a way that no one else does.
As Christians, our relationship with God is supposed to grow in knowledge, love, and intimacy.
It’s not supposed to stay stagnant.
Relationships that don’t grow, don’t last.
And we grow our relationship with God by learning more about Him, by spending time with Him, in His word, at church, hearing the word preached, and hearing others at church talk about him.
Pray that Christ would help you grow in your knowledge of him.
Because it pleases God to grow in our relationship with Him.
However, knowledge is not enough.
The third image of pleasing God is v.11 - 'strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power’
Christians also need strength and power.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
No matter how young or how physically strong you are, you will grow weak.
You need power, you need strength.
And when you wait on Christ, He will give you strength.
Christians need the power of the resurrection!
The very power that rose Jesus from the dead.
It is knowing the power of the resurrection that gives us strength!
And being strengthened Paul says, gives us, ‘patience and longsuffering (or endurance)’!
When we are strengthened by God, we are able to be patient, waiting no matter how long the duration of time for God to act, and enduring difficult times in life!
There’s this challenge that I saw on Youtube called a dead hang challenge, where if you can hang on the bar for 100 seconds, you would win $100.
It seems easy, but after over 2 hours, and 50 people trying, none of them could do it.
Even the most muscular people failed to do it.
Only one of them could do it, and the trick was hanging on one arm, and switching, as he said it’s about the blood in the arms’.
Because he had strength and endurance he could complete it.
Completing this challenge was not about pure strength, but a combination of strength and endurance.
Students, pray that God would give you strength, and that strength would give you patience and endurance!
Because it pleases God to see you be strong, because He is our Father who cares for us.
1 John 2:14 (NKJV)
I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
Be strong in the Lord students, for this pleases God!
The fourth and final image of pleasing Christ is joyously giving thanks.
Now this is in v.12, but I think that the LSB translation better here:
Colossians 1:11–12 (LSB)
being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Joyously thanking the Father, pleases Christ.
We talked about what to to give thanks to God for last Sunday, but here Paul talks about thanking God for making us qualified to enter heaven.
God promised an inheritance for Israel, which was the promised land of Canaan, but God also promises a better inheritance, the land of heaven.
So when you’re at the immigration gates of heaven, God will not reject you, and cast you out into hell, but He will bring accept you, because He has qualified you.
How does God qualify us for heaven?
How does God qualify us for heaven?
He did a rescue mission.
Read v.13 in full.
Before the Israelites entered the promised land, they were rescued by God from Egypt.
In Egypt, they were slaves, and constantly treated poorly, and forced unfair, never ending labor.
But then God rescued them by splitting the red sea, and bringing them into the promised land.
As Christians, we are the same.
Before Christ, we were stuck in darkness, a multi-layered prison cell of darkness where the course of this world: the culture, power of the air: Satan, and ourselves, yes ourselves, the flesh, all ensured that we would never escape.
That we would always be stuck in a cycle of sin, death, and depression.
But Christ, rescued us from that and brought us into His kingdom, where there is peace, love, and hope.
It is Christ who brings us redemption and forgiveness, read v.14 in full.
What is redemption?
What is redemption?
Redemption means the act of regaining possession of something in return for payment.
In Bible times, slave markets were common, and you could buy slaves.
God’s Word says that Christ redeems us, meaning that Christ buys us from the slave market.
But who does Christ buy us from?
But who does Christ buy us from?
Is Christ buying us from Satan?
No Christ, is buying us from God.
Because we all sinned, and the wages of sin is death, we deserve to go to hell.
If you let a criminal go free without paying the fine, you may have had mercy on him, but justice was not served.
Try letting a criminal who murdered a girl for free without punishment, and see how her parents would react to that.
That is why justice must be served.
So how can Christ free sinners from hell, while still being just?
By paying for their sins with his life.
You see students, when Christ redeems us from the slave market of sin, He sees you, and pays God His blood, blood that was required of you for sinning against a Holy God, so that you could be set free.
That students is redemption.
And that is how you are forgiven, through the blood of Christ.
You cannot forgive yourself.
Some people say, ‘you have to forgive yourself’ or ‘I forgave myself’.
Only God can forgive you.
Gospel
Without Christ, you will never receive forgiveness, you will also have the stain of guilt in your life forever, for the sins you committed.
So that’s the good news, that Christ is offering this as a free gift to you, by dying on the cross, to offer his blood as payment for anyone who believes.
So that you can be freed from judgement, and free from guilt, by being forgiven of your sin, through Christ’s blood.
All if you have to is accept this free gift, by faith alone, that there is no other way to be saved, then Christ and His work alone on the cross.
But if you reject this gift, you will pay for your sins, for eternity in hell.
So students, if Christ has rescued you and redeemed you, forgiving you, give thanks with joy to him!
Pray to Christ with joyful thanks for what He has done in your life!
Because this pleases Him!
Keep praying to be filled with the knowledge of Christ’s will!
And keep praying to please Christ!
Conclusion
John Bunyan author of Pilgrim’s Progress said this about prayer,
Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. Prayer will cease a man from sin; or sin will cease a man from prayer.
John Bunyan
So what will it be?
Will prayer keep you from sin?
Or will sin keep you from prayer?
Let’s pray.