Growing in God’s Will - Col. 1:9-14

Intro - Father’s Day

[Reminder of new series]

In the first century, Colossae was a well-known city and because of the city’s location near the Lycus River (central Turkey), it was easily accessible to outsiders, which would lead to all kinds of visitors bringing their own teaching with them.

So Paul, being under house arrest at time of this writing (Acts 28) cannot go visit them and bring the truth with him, so he writes this letter to correct those ideas and communicate to the church what true Christian belief and true Christian living really look like.

So it is appropriate for us in 2024 to heed the message of Colossians, because we live in a time where bad ideas can get around the globe with a single button.

We don’t have to wait for people to move into our town to be exposed to bed ideas.

We have a limitless supply of bad ideas in the palm of our hands and we very well may have adopted some of them.

And we will see through the words of Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit and preserved for us today, that the best way to guard against bad ideas is to know the truth

So let’s turn to Colossians together

As you turn there… I want you to think of the phrase “God’s will”

As a teacher, I had students ask me all the time about God’s will for what school and who to date.

My response would always be: How are you doing at obeying God’s commands?

If you won’t listen to those, then what makes you think you’ll listen to anything else?

Now, why would I ask this? Because God is concerned with who we are as his people, not just if we do that right things.

Focus on who God has called you to be and then the decision will flow out of that.

[Hook] I am concerned that if we get our understanding of God’s will wrong, we will just be a people who do the right things, but whose hearts might be far from God.

And Paul is going to pray for the Colossian church, through the inspiration of the the Spirit of God, they they would grow into who God wants them to be.

And these words are just as relevant today for us.

So let’s give these words our full attention.

[Col. 1:9-14]

Big Idea: It is God’s will for his people to be fulfilled

Now, fulfilled does not mean doing great by the world’s standards…

It is very possible to losing by the world’s standards, yet fulfilled by God’s standards

Remember from last week: To be fulfilled is to think and live according to the commands of God

To live the life God intended for you to live.

That is true fulfillment

And Scripture is very clear that God’s will is about our way of life more than just our big decisions

1 Thessalonians 4:3 - The will of God is that we would be sanctified

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - The will of God is that we would be give thanks in all circumstances

Ephesians 5:17 - The will of God is that we walk in wisdom

Matthew 7:21-23 - The will of God is that we would listen to his words.

We can say confidently that Scripture makes very clear that God’s will is that his people would be fulfilled by listening to his words and following them.

And Paul prays to that end in this passage.

So if we will listen to Paul’s words and ask the Spirit of God to help us to apply them today, we will be a people increasingly living in God’s will and knowing what true fulfillment is, thinking and living according to God’s will.

[Bridge] How can I know that I am growing in God’s will?

We are going to see 4 aspects to growing in God’s will.

Growing in God’s will means…

My desires agree with him (9)

We first need to notice that Paul does not just say that they should grow.

He says that he is constantly praying for their growth.

So what does this have to do with God’s will and our desires?

Well let’s think for a moment about what the Bible has to say about God granting our requests through prayer

John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

Asking in Jesus’ name = Asking for what he would ask for

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Delight yourself in the Lord necessarily means that you are focused on him and what he wants, which ultimately changes your wants as he gives you new desires.

Prayer is not like coming to genie and if you say the magic words, “In Jesus name” then God must grant your request.

It is when I desire the things that God wants me to desire and I pray for those things, he will always say yes.

And prayer is a primary means of my desires being changed.

It is not about changing God’s mind to get what we want.

It is about God changing our minds so the we get what he wants.

In Scripture God reveals to us his mind and his will - And the more that I know Scripture, the more I will know what God wants for me, and the more my prayers will be informed by it and the more that my desires will be changed to look more like his.

You will find that the more that Scripture informs your prayer life, the more your requests will be of a spiritual and eternal nature more than temporal.

Our requests change from being primarily focused on circumstance to being primarily focused on my countenance and character in my circumstances.

What desires are revealed in how you pray about your current circumstances?

How might you pray differently if your desires increasingly agreed with God’s?

Colossal has false teachers in their midst… But Paul doesn’t pray for false teachers to go away - He prays for what the church will need in the midst of false teaching so that they can grow and thrive.

So, growing in God’s will means my desires agree with him and the main way that my desires are brought into agreement with God is through prayer.

Second, Growing in God’s will means:

My thoughts are informed by him (9)

What specifically is Paul praying for? “…that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”

Filled (Divine passive) - God is the one doing it

Not spatially filling, but meaning to be characterized by it

Filled with what? Knowledge (epignosis - Experiential)

This is not a prayer for an enlarged intellect.

This is a knowledge that impacts you - It is an experiential knowledge

I can know everything there is to know about skydiving.

But when I jumped out of a plane at 18 years old, I had an experiential knowledge of it.

And it changed me forever.

The difference between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge is the difference between being informed and being transformed

Intellectual knowledge informs - Experiential knowledge transforms.

And Paul wants the Colossian church to be filled with the type of knowledge that transforms them.

So what do they need to have a knowledge of to be transformed? God’s will

It is worth repeating here that God’s will in Scripture is more about who you are than what you do. That the actions that you take in life are the natural outworking of who you are.

Plus, let’s just be real… God is very clear throughout Scripture that if the actions are there but the heart is far from him, he is not impressed.

So a knowledge of God’s will cannot just be about what to do - But who you are

So, let’s put this all together: What is Paul praying for?

He is praying that the believers in Colossae would be characterized by an awareness of who God calls them to be to such an extent that it would change them from the inside out.

And it is the same for us today - The more that you and I are characterized by an awareness of who God calls us to be, the more we will be changed to live lives that reflect Jesus, which is true, full life.

But as soon as I say that, we have to acknowledge our tendency to say, “Well then I guess I need to try harder. Learn more. Get smarter!”

Which is why Paul qualifies this prayer

“With all Spiritual wisdom and understanding”

There is only one way to come to this knowledge that Paul is praying for - By the Holy Spirit working it in us.

This is not vague spirituality, but an actively shaped knowledge that can only come from God.

It is God working in us to give us a worldview that aligns with the truth - Something that we can only get from his word and from his Spirit.

[Distortion/Error]

It is all-too-common today to think that because we have more information than ever before then that means we are smarter than ever before.

And then the error is in thinking that if it is believed today, since we have more information than ever before, it must be more right than things that came before.

Right? We know more than we ever have, so we must be more right than we have ever been.

This is what C.S. Lewis calls “Chronological snobbery” - And it is a legit problem because it is blinding.

We do not perceive a need to look outside of our surroundings

And when we are more informed in how to think by everyone around us, we are not living in God’s will.

And the evidence of that is all around us.

[Biblical Correction]

The apostle Paul knows this and prays that the Colossian church would not be informed by their surrounding culture, but by the eternal truth and knowledge of God,

[Application]

So let me ask you? What knowledge are you growing in today? And how does your life bear that out? How has your life changed as a result of where you are going for information?

If I am listening to the cultural voices more than Scripture, not growing in God’s will, my life will be marked by increased conflict, fear, sin, and error.

But if my thoughts are being informed by God as I growing in the knowledge of God’s will, seeking to be formed by the spirit more and more, my life will be marked by an increase in obedience, peace, and confidence in the midst of uncertainty.

Third, growing in God’s will means

My life conforms to him (10-12)

I want you to notice that Paul does not say that he is praying for them to be fileld with knowledge for knowledge sake

Too often we stop there - We seek knowledge so that we can know, but remember, the knowledge that Paul is praying for is transformational, experiential knowledge of God’s will

So it should have an outworking in their lives.

And that outworking is that their lives would be pleasing to God

v. 10 - “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him…”

Did you know that your purpose in life is more than just going through the motions?

The Westminster shorter catechism asks in its opening, “What is the chief end of man?”

Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

It is God’s will for his people that they live lives that are pleasing to him.

And this is not some kind of pleasing that is like a dictator who let’s you live for getting it just right, so that you constantly live in terror of whether or not your life is pleasing to him.

Remember, twice in the opening of the letter Paul refers to God as “Our father”

There is a way of pleasing a father that is not obligatory, but out of love.

And when you and I know God through Christ, the most natural outworking is a desire to please him with our lives.

And listen: There is a legitimate fulfillment that is experienced when, as children of God through faith in Christ, we live our lives out of a desire to please our heavenly father.

So let me ask you first: Do you desire to please God? [Not do you obey him perfectly…] Do you desire to please him?

If so, it is because you know him and you know that he is worthy of living for

If not, perhaps it is because you have the wrong view of him.

See him for who he is - A good God and Father who is worth pleasing.

So what does it look like to live in a manner that pleases God?

(4 participial phrases - Spheres/Areas - All modifying, “fully pleasing to him”)

My actions [Bearing fruit in “all kinds” of good work]

It is not obvious in english, but in Gk. the fruit is the good works.

Bearing fruit = All kinds of good works.

When you are filled with the knowledge of God’s will, the life that pours out of you will comprise all kinds of behaviors, in thought, word, and deed, that display the inward change that is taking place.

It is not that bearing fruit in good works earns your place in God’s will, but that they are the evidence that you are in God’s will.

What fruit is being produced in your life that reveals that you are or are not growing in God’s will?

What needs to change for you to know that your life is pleasing to God?

My thoughts [Increasing in the knowledge]

Paul uses that experiential knowledge word here again (epignosis) - Living a life pleasing to God involves knowing God more and more.

Never fall for the lie that theology is optional. We are all theologians - We all have thoughts about God

The only question is: Are you a good one or a bad one? Your life will reveal which one you are

When I am living in God’s will, I will be constantly seeking to let his thought inform my own.

It is common to let consensus drive what we think about God

Let God drive what you think about God, through his word.

My vitality [Being strengthened]

Vitality is your energy for life

Colossians 1:11 “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might…”

Living a life that is pleasing to God involves depending on the strength he supplies for whatever may come in life

It is common to hear the phrase, “You are enough” today

Why it is discouraging - Trials in life actually reveal the opposite - You and I are not enough.

Listen: When you are growing in God’s will, you are more and more aware that you are not enough, that you need the strength that only God can supply, and his grace is sufficient in your greatest weakness.

And that message, that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, that when I am weak, then I am strong as I depend more and more on his strength, that message is truly encouraging.

Peter says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness - See can patiently endure whatever may come because God will supply the strength we need.

And respond with joy, even in the midst of whatever you’re going through, which leads to the fourth way that we live lives that are pleasing to God…

My demeanor [Thanksgiving]

Paul says that they should be giving thanks to the Father

What does it look like to grow in God’s will? It looks like understanding what God has done and being thankful for it.

Not just thankful for the gift, but thankful for who gave it and how it was given.

Notice: Give thanks to the father (who) who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (how)

The salvation that God offers, what every person who places their faith in jesus receives, is not just an arbitrary gift

Something happened - God did the work necessary for your salvation.

The only thing you and I did in the process of salvation was provide the sin that made the salvation necessary in the first place.

[GOSPEL CALL] Friend, perhaps you’re here today thinking that what qualifies you in the presence of God depends on you - Your works, your life, your thoughts, your value.

Nothing we bring will ever meet the perfect standard of God because we are fallen, flawed people who are not enough in and of ourselves.

Your only hope in this life is to stop depending on yourself, and depend on what God has provided for you

The perfect life of Jesus applied to your account

The substitutionary death of Jesus to pay for your guilt before God

The resurrection of Jesus to validate that lived the perfect life he claimed to live and that he died that sufficient death that he claimed to die

And through that finished work on your behalf, you are justified in God’s sight and qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

We aren’t saints because of what we have done - We are saints because of what he has done.

He qualified us, he gave us an inheritance that was not ours, he made us saints, he brought us out of darkness and into light

And the God-pleasing response of that truth is that we would be thankful

Not arrogant, not judgmental, not critical - Thankful.

When we are growing in God’s will, our lives will more and more conform to him:

In our actions

In our thoughts

In our vitality

in our demeanor

That’s the third way we can know we are growing in God’s will. Finally, Growing in God’s will means:

My allegiance aligns with him (13-14)

v. 13-14 answers the question that the reader is no doubt asking at this point

How did he qualify us? Was it something I did that he rewarded? Was it something done for me by someone else?

Paul here draws on some Old Testament imagery to make a very clear point.

If you read Exodus 1-19, you will read the Exodus narrative in which God delivers his people

They were in slavery in Egypt,

But God delivered them by his mighty works and made them into a new people. When they left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they received a new identity as his people.

The exodus event was a historical event that foreshadowed the greater exodus event, wherein Jesus led a host of captives free, not from slavery to Pharoah, but slavery to sin.

And he gives them a new identity, a Gospel identity.

And we now no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness, but the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

If we are to be fulfilled according to God’s will, thinking and living the way he intends, we have to understand where we belong and where we don’t belong.

We are increasingly living in a world that demands that choose a side

Go with the tide or go against it

Submit to the gods of the day or submit to the God of the Bible.

Growing in God’s will means that I submit to Jesus as my king.

My allegiance is aligned with him and so it is evident in how I live.

When we are transferred by God into his Kingdom through the finished work of Jesus, our allegiance changes.

We no longer live for social approval.

We no longer live to be spoken well of by the rest of the world.

We live for God’s approval and to called good and faithful servants by our Lord.

A.W. Tozer puts it this way in his book, God’s Pursuit of Man [SLIDE]:

“The believing man is overwhelmed suddenly by a powerful feeling that only God matters; soon this works itself out into his mental life and conditions, all his judgments and all his values. Now he finds himself free from slavery to man's opinions. Soon he learns to love above all else the assurance that he is well pleasing to the father in heaven. It is this complete switch in their pleasure source that has made believing men invincible. So could Saints and martyr stand alone, deserted by every earthly friend, and die for Christ under the universal displeasure of mankind” A.W. Tozier, God’s Pursuit of Man, pg. 30

Fear of man often drives us to compromise. Fear of God and an alignment of our allegiance with him results in courage.

When the fourth century church leader Athanasius of Alexandria was warned that the whole world was against him, he responded, “Then Athanasius is against the whole world.”

Because of the finished work of Jesus and the forgiveness that comes through his death, burial, and resurrection, we can live confidently in allegiance to God, agreeing with the Apostle Paul in in Romans 8:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And when we are growing in God’s will, we will increasingly be aware that nothing can separate us from his love and we will seek to please only him.

What kingdom are you living for today, church family?

If you are in Christ, you have been transferred out of darkness and into the Kingdom of Jesus.

So let’s live like citizens of that kingdom today.

[CONCLUSION]

Like I said at the beginning, God’s will is much more about who you are than what decisions you must make.

And when:

Our desires agree with him

Our thoughts are informed by him

Our lives conform to him

And our allegiance aligns with him

You and I can be sure that we will live fulfilled lives as we growing in his will.

Big Idea: It is God’s will for his people to be fulfilled

So may we be a church that grows in both a knowledge of that will and in living it out each day.