When I Pray (Part 2)

I would invite you to turn to the first chapter of Colossians again this morning

We have been looking at Paul’s prayer for the Colossians

And last week I left you with some homework

I asked you to in some way or another contact someone else and let them know that

You are praying for them

You are Thankful for them

And why you are thankful for them

Now, I know I didn’t lay it out like that, but that was the gist of it

Did anyone do the homework?

I did. I figured if I’m going to give homework, I should probably do it myself

If you didn’t do it, well, you still have time. This is something that would be great if we made it a practice

So, one of the things that I confessed to you last Sunday is that when I pray for you all, I find that I can quickly run out of words

Or find myself distracted

And so one of the things that I try to do is think of ways that Paul prayed for his brothers and sisters and follow his example

And today we are going to go on in Colossians chapter 1 and continue to look at things that were on Paul’s heart for the believers in Colossae

Colossians 1:9–14 “9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

From the day we heard...

Heard what?

He doesn’t say what he heard here in this verse

In order to find out what they heard, you have to go back to verse 4

Heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

Heard of the love that you have for God’s people

All based on the hope that is laid up for you in heaven

Their faith, their love, and their hope was so remarkable, that Epaphras came all the way to Rome and reported it to Paul

And Paul said, I have heard about you and I am thankful for you because it shows that your conversion was genuine.

The Holy Spirit really is at work in your heart

You really are living in the Kingdom of God

Remember, we said, when you pray for people, especially the people of God, these are things to be thankful for

Because all of these things are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in our hearts

Faith is a gift of God

Love is the character of God

Hope is the result of being reconciled to God through Christ Jesus

All of these are things to talk about

All of these are things to thank God for

Since we have heard of these things, We have not ceased to pray

I am challenged by how the apostle Paul expresses this

He says, “I have not ceased to pray for you”

Is this something that you and I could honest say? Are you persistent in prayer?

You know, Jesus taught His disciples about prayer

And one of those lessons was about persistence in prayer

He told a story about a widow who was asking for justice from an unjust judge

And Jesus says about this judge, “He neither feared God nor respected man”

And this widow woman came to him and said, “give me justice against my adversary”

And she comes to him again and again and again

And she was so persistant that the judge said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or have any respect for man, I have to give this widow justice, because she is bothering me and wearing me down with her persistence.”

And Jesus said, If an unjust judge will give justice, how much more will God give justice to those who cry out to him day and night?

He said, God will indeed give justice speedily.

But, He asks, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on this earth?

And He also gave this example in Luke chapter 11

Say that you get a late night visitor—a friend arrives at your house late at night on a trip, and your friend is famished

But you don’t have any food in the house (Remember, in those days, they only bought enough food for the day. They still do this in Africa)

And so you drag yourself out of bed and make your way to your other friend’s house, who happens to have some extra bread

And you bang on his window and say, “Hey, wake up and loan me some bread”

And your friend will say, “Are you crazy? I’ve locked my door, everyone is asleep. I can’t get up an give you anything without waking everyone up.”

Jesus says this about this whole scenario:

This guy will indeed get up and give you some bread

Why, because he’s your friend?

No! It’s because of your “impudence” (ESV)

This word that is used means, boldness, or “shameless audacity”

It’s not polite! It’s not respectful! It goes completely against the rules of social etiquette

But Jesus says, because of your sheer audacity and lack of respect, your friend will get up and give you bread

And then He goes on to say, “ASK! SEEK! KNOCK!

It will be given to you

You will find

It will be opened to you!

This is kind of a difficult story for me because I wonder, does He mean that He only will answer me when he get’s tired of my whining?

But, I think the point is that God invites us to be persistent.

In His love and sovereignty, he invites this sort of shameless audacity to come to him again and again

We can come to Him repeatedly and persistently and he is not going to be tired of us

Which can be a challenge for us to understand because as humans, we often get tired of this

As parents, if our kids come to us and keep asking for something,

At some point, we just kind of look at them and say, “Look, I already told you ‘no’ 10 times. Now stop asking!”

But, God is not like this. He welcomes our coming to Him and asking for what only He can do

what Paul says here, “From the day we heard about you, we have not ceased to pray for you”

Paul takes Jesus literally at His word. “I will not cease to pray for you.”

This is my encouragement for you and for me

What is on your prayer list?

WHO is on your prayer list?

What is the burden on your heart?

Do you have someone on your prayer list that has been there for many years?

Continue to pray! Don’t quit! Persist in bringing this person before God

pray for what?

filled Knowledge of His will verse 9

Wow, this is a good prayer. This is a prayer that all of us need

Do you know what the will of God is?

One of the biggest questions that I had as a teenager, and that I heard other teenagers asking was, “What is the will of God for my life?”

And what I mean by that question was, “What does God want me to do with my life?”

Does He want me to be a teacher like my dad?

Does He want me to be an x-ray technician like my grandpa? (I never gave that serious thought BTW)

Does He want me to be a pilot?

What does God want me to do?

And honestly, even as an adult, there have been times when I have asked this question

And young people, this isn’t a bad question to ask. I do believe that God has something that He wants you to do. He has a vocation for you

But when the Bible talks about the will of God, it is something much bigger than simply, “what does God want me to do with my life

And we don’t have time this morning to have a real deep conversation about the will of God

When we talk about the will of God, we are simply talking about, what does God want? We are talking, obviously HIS plan

And while the Bible is not very specific about what God wants you to do as far as a vocation or something like that

The Bible is VERY specific about the kind of person that He wants you to be, the kind of heart attitudes that you have and the values that you pursue

in 1Thessalonians 5 there is are some thing that are specifically named as God’s will

And these have to do really with what is in your heart

Rejoice always

Pray without ceasing

Give thanks in all circumstances. THIS is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus

Notice that these 3 things are done always, without ceasing.

Which speaks to your character or your way of life

If people described you, what would they say about you?

Well, he’s a joyful person

I know he certainly prays a lot

Man, he’s really thankful about things. Even when life is kind of tough, he’s still thanking God for everything

THIS is God’s will for you and for me!

And there are some other things in this same passage from 1 thessalonians that could be included in the will of God for you and for me

Respect for those who labor among you

Being at peace among yourselves

Admonishing those who are idle

Encouraging those who are fainthearted or discouraged

helping those who are weak

Being patient

Not repaying evil for evil, but seeking to do good to everyone

Not quenching the Spirit

Not despising prophecies, rather testing everything

Holding fast, or keeping a firm grip on what is good

Abstaining from every form of evil

These are all things that are the will of God for you

Back in chapter 4 of 1 thessalonaisns, Paul says, “The will of God is that you are sanctified and holy”

avoid sexual immorality

know how to control your bodily passions

That you don’t wrong each other

These are all things that are the will of God. This is quite a list!

So, Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will, that is that they would be filled with these values and qualities that we have mentioned just briefly

And you know, in our human way of understanding things, we might say, “Well, that’s not enough! I still need to know what is it that God wants me to do?

And that is why Paul includes this in his prayer: “That you may be filled with the knowledge of His will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding

Understanding the will of God…what He wants and what He values takes spiritual wisdom and understanding

From a human way of thinking, these things that are talked about in 1 tessalonians are secondary in nature

“Ok, sure, I should be a good person. I would love to have these qualities that 1 Thess 5 talks about

But the first thing on my mind is, what am I going to do? How am I going to make a living and pay my bills and survive?

How am I going to take care of myself

Maybe you could call it self-preservation

But God is saying, “hey, there are other things which are more important to me”

my will for you is that you allow my Holy Spirit to transform you into the kind of person that I want you to be

And for us, that take spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding for these things to become of utmost importance to us as well

So, as I pray for you, I pray that God will indeed fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

Why do you need to have a knowledge of the will of God? Why do you need spiritual wisdom and understanding?

It it to benefit you somehow?

Is it so that you can live your best life now?

Well, I would say that, yes, knowing the will of God and understanding it is a blessing to you

But that’s not the main reason. The main reason is so that you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord vs 10

The reason that you and I need to know and have an understanding of what the will of God is is so that we can walk, or conduct your life in a manner worthy of the Lord

This is the ultimate goal

What does this mean to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord

You know, when someone joins an organization, there is often a level of conduct that this person is expected to maintain

When we joined MAF, there was a level of conduct that we were expected to maintain

Whether I was flying and maintaining airplanes, or whether we were out about in the city

Or wether I was caring for my wife and children, or alone, there was a level of conduct that I was expected to maintain

A sports team for instance

A player is expected to maintain a level of conduct both on the field and off the field

And a player can be let go because of things that happen away from the field of play

Or the military

A soldier

And what is at stake in these examples? Reputation!

Is it the reputation of the individual? Certainly, there is some of that

But, more importantly, the reputation of the organization is at stake

That is why the organization says, “You need to live like this”. Our reputation is at stake here

And in this case, Paul says that the reason that you need to know the will of God is because

You need to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ

Why? Because HIS reputation is at stake!

Folks, this is a tall order isn’t it?! This is pretty serious! Does your life, the way that you conduct yourself in business and in relationships and in speech and in all areas, does your life glorify, or protect the reputation of Jesus?

So that even people who have not accepted what Jesus has done, even those people have nothing bad to say about Him

I was on a Zoom meeting the other day and the leader was talking about a local pastor who began hanging out with a bunch of rough characters at a coffee shop

Became friends with them and began sharing Jesus with them

And one of them one day said to someone else, “This is the best @#$! Pastor that I ever met!”

But, folks this is a tall order isn’t it? The reputation of Jesus is at stake here

Well, you are absolutely right that this is a tall order: And look how Paul describes how this kind of life looks: vs 10

fully pleasing to Him

Bearing fruit in every good work

Increasing in the knowledge of God

Look at the totality of these statements: Fully. Every. Increasing.

You might look at these statements and say, “Impossible”. There is no way that I can live up to this

Fully pleasing to Him? There’s no way.

I remember what I did yesterday

I remember what I was thinking about just this morning

I know these things did not please Him

How am I going to be fully pleasing to Him?

Bearing fruit in every good work?

Can’t do it

Some days everything feels so futile

I don’t know if I’m growing. I don’t know if my acts of service matter at all. Impossible

Increasing in the knowledge of God?

I think I am, but I don’t know

Folks, I just want to encourage you

I don’t want any of us leaving this place and say, “Well, I just have to try harder

I’m just going to have to shore up those places where I haven’t been pleasing to Him and just do better

I’m going to work harder to bear fruit

please don’t do that!

What Paul is describing here is God’s work and His alone

how are we fully pleasing to God?

only through the righteousness of Jesus

Only through Jesus as our mediator, our advocate

How do we bear fruit?

Only through the work of the Holy Spirit

The transformation that He works in our hearts and lives

How do we increase in the knowledge of God

Through the teaching of the Holy Spirit

“When the Comforter comes, He will guide you into all truth”

So, yes, what is being presented to us here is a tall order

But it’s only by the grace of God that any of this is possible at all

And it gets even better, because look at what it says next

Because look at what he says next

Being strengthened with power

How?

According to HIS glorious might

Why?

For all endurance and patience with joy

Look, this idea of living a life worthy of the Lord is indeed a tall order. It’s not easy! In fact, it’s impossible! Humanly speaking that is

That is why we need to be strengthened with power according to HIS glorious might

Did you hear that? According to HIS glorious might

Whose glorious might? Almighty God’s glorious might!

How much power is there? All power

That’s a lot of power there!

Giving thanks—there’s Paul being thankful again--See verse 3

giving thanks to The Father, OUR father

Paul, even though he had not met the Colossian Believers

He felt united to them because he and they (and we), all have the same Father

So, he gives thanks to the Father

You and I have the privilege of approaching our Father and saying thank you

Giving thanks why?

Oh man, there is a lot to be thankful for here!

5 Things that God has done for you in verses 12-14

Qualified you

Delivered you

Transferred you

Redeemed you

Forgiven you

You have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light

You have been delivered from the domain of darkness

Transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son

In God’s Son, in Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins

I would like to spend some more time on these things, but we are running short on time this morning, so maybe next Sunday we can look more closely at these things

Folks, this is something to be thankful for every day. Do you and I realize the depth of what Jesus has done for us?

As you come to the Lord in prayer, remember thank Him for this

And thank Him for what He has done, not only for you, but what He has done and is doing in the lives of your brothers and sisters

Father, I thank you for this body of Believers here at Fairview. I thank you for the faith that they have in Christ Jesus. I thank you for the love that they have for each other and for the family of God here in this community and around the world. Thank you for the hope that you have given us and that the Gospel which has come to us continues to bear fruit among us just as it is doing around the world

Lord, I continue to pray that you will fill us with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Help us to know and understand what it truly important to you so that we can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So that we can be fully pleasing to you. So that we will bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God

Lord, strengthen us with all power according to your glorious might, so that we might endure with patience and joy.

Thank you Father that you have qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Thank you for delivering us from the domain of darkness and transferring us to the Kingdom of your beloved Son, Jesus. Because it is Him that we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

And it’s in His name, the name of Jesus that we pray these things.

AMEN