Praying and Knowing the Will of God

If you have a Bible, go ahead and open up with me to Colossians 1:9-14 and this is an amazing passage out of an amazing book that I am excited to dive in with you. As we all go through the book of Colossians together, we are going to see that Paul is writing to confront a number of different heresies, or false teachings, that had been circulating around the church in Colossae and what’s important for us to know is that just as the 1st century church was plagued with false teachings and false gospels, you in the 21st century will find yourself plagued with false teachings and false gospels. You guys probably know that there are a lot of things out there that you can have knowledge about. It is possible to know things and it is possible to know quite a bit about quite a bit of things. But not all knowledge is true and not all knowledge or things that claim to be knowledge is helpful. That’s partially what Paul is writing against in this letter to the Colossians. Some commentators will say that Paul was writing against a false teaching that would come to eventually be known as Gnosticism. If you have no idea what that is, that’s ok you will. Basically what gnosticism was and still is in a sense is this idea that their is a hidden, deeper knowledge that is above what is revealed in Scripture that we need to discover in order to be saved. That’s not everything that goes into it but that’s what it is at the most basic level. Paul confronts this in this letter and that is why so much of Colossians is addressing really what is basic Christian truth and basic Christian actions. Paul in the verses you read last week, the verses we’ll look at today, and the verses that we will look at over the next 10 weeks all comes back to the truth of the Gospel that was first revealed to the Colossians. Not just some made up hidden information but that which God has spoken about plainly in His Word. What we will see today is that if we want to follow Jesus faithfully, we can’t just know things, we have to know the right things and those right things that we know to be true must lead us in everything that we do. John Piper said, “You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things.” So what are the few great things that we must be mastered by? Let’s open up in prayer and then we will read Colossians 1:9-14

Colossians 1:9–14 NASB95

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 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. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Knowing, Growing, Going

So there is a lot happening in these verses but before we go to far into them, I want us to take special notice of verses 9 and 10. The first thing that I want you to notice is that Paul uses quite a bit of similar language in these two verses to what we see in verses 3 and 6. This is something that is totally intentional because Paul wants us to see the parallels between different stages of Christian life. Let me read these verses back to back for you and tell me if you see the parallels that Paul is pulling out. Colossians 1:3 “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,” Colossians 1:6 “which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;” Then look again at Colossians 1:9–10 “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;” Do you see the parallels that exist there? Paul echos the language from verses 3 and 6 into verses 9,10 and 12 and the purpose behind this is described by Douglas Moo like this: “The effect is to subtly remind the Colossians again that they must continue on the course they have already begun.” It’s one thing to know the truths of the Gospel, to be impacted by the Gospel, to look fondly upon the Gospel and the things of God, it is another thing to continually be going and growing for the Gospel. I’m hoping that you guys at your age already know that when it comes to Christianity, you never reach the pinnacle. None of us can say that we have truly arrived. We have not scrapped the barrel clean of the heights, depths, and riches of the things of God. While Christians are completely and totally justified in God’s eyes the second that we are saved, we have not mastered sanctification. That’s a fancy word for we are not as much like Christ as we could possibly be. There is in a sense still work to be done in us so that we may look more like Jesus. I think, and I would even say that I know since I’ve worked with teenagers for over 10 years in youth ministry, but I think that there is this common misconception with teenagers when it comes to Christianity that all that they have to do is accept Christ and then they can coast. They don’t count the cost of following Jesus. We know Christ so we can continue to grow in Christ. Continue is the key word in that sentence. Notice in verse 9 that Paul says that he and his ministry partners have not ceased to pray for the Colossians and asking that they may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. If we need to be filled what does that mean? We aren’t full yet. And here’s the thing, you can be a Christian for 1 day, 1 year, 1 decade, 8 decades, and still not be filled. The Christian life, our sanctification, is God’s process of filling us so that one day we may be full. The Christian should be in a constant state of knowing, growing, and going. We know that which is true, which is biblical, which is from God. We grow to be more like Christ, more conformed to His, more in love with Him. Then we are going, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Gospel until God says, “Time to come home, your work is done.”

Spiritual Wisdom Leads to Godly Living

What does it mean to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will? Well to answer that we need to know what the will of God is. That might sound like a lot, it might sound intimidating but God clearly states what His will is in Scripture. Paul says in Ephesians 5:17–18 “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,” God wills that all Christians would be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the first half of 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Paul says: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” It is the will of God that we would be more like Christ, that we would be set apart from things that are not holy, that we would grow in our desire to know and follow Christ to a greater degree than what we had the day before. God’s will for your life is really not hard to figure out. You may not know what you are going to do for a career or go to school or who you are going to marry, God knows those things but those really are secondary things. God’s will for your life is that you would be holy because God is holy and how this is accomplished is through spiritual understanding which leads to Godly living. Look at what Paul says in verses 10-12 one more time. Colossians 1:10–12 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 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.” This is the direct result of being filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. It is so that you as a Christian would live these things out. Let’s just go through these quickly: to be a Christian means that we are walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. The way that you live needs to be consistent. If you are going to claim the name of Christ, you are claiming it 24/7. There is no such thing as a faithful Sunday only Christian. You aren’t on fire for the Lord today and off tomorrow. You’re either all in or you aren’t in at all. As all that is happening, we make the pleasure of God the thing which our heart delights in the most. We aren’t to just please Him in one area of our lives, we are to please Him in all respects. You can do really well at memorizing your bible verses but unless your whole life is put on the alter before God, are you really pleasing Him in all respects? Paul doesn’t say “please Him in all respects except for that one area that you would rather keep to yourself.” No it’s all to Him! To be a Christian also means that we bear fruit in every good work. To bear fruit in every good work means that we should be evangelizing, we should be seeking to please God in all that we do, our praise should reflect our devotion to the Lord, the things that we give and donate to should be pleasing to the Lord. Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” These are the things that the Christian’s life should be displaying. This is the fruit that we should be putting out as God works powerfully in us. Then we come back to increasing in the knowledge of God at the end of verse 10. This means that not only should you know things about God; but the Word of God should be a delight to you! You should desire to be in this book. I was just thinking the other day that God has given me a desire to know Him and He has given me a career where I get to go through His book day after day and tell others about Him! I don’t have to do ministry; I get to do ministry! So what are the things that you are bringing into your minds? Is it truly Christian? Because not everything that claims to be Christian is. What is the content that you are bringing into your minds? We are to be doing all these things. This isn’t just the rule for the superstar Christians and the pastors, this is the rule for every believer. Now you might hear this and think, “How can I do this? That seems impossible! There is no way that I can do all those things on my own. I’m not good enough, not strong enough, not powerful enough, not focused enough, not smart enough.” Let me encourage you that you are on the right track with that mindset. You are not able to do that on your own. The Christian life isn’t hard; it’s impossible. But look at what Paul says in verse 11. We are to be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. How do we do this? Only through what God has done and is doing. In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul is praying for the Ephesians and make special note of what Paul says in verses 16 and 17:

Ephesians 3:14–19 NASB95

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

How is the work of God carried out in the believer? Only through the Spirit of God. You can’t do it, but God can and God through His spirit is able to work powerfully through you so that you might live a life that is holy and pleasing to you. This shouldn’t come as a shock to us because even your salvation does not happen unless God works in you first.

Only God Can Do It

Something that is so crucial for you all to know is that you don’t save yourself. You never made the first move towards the Lord. No, God had to move to you first. You did not seek Him out, He sought you out. You were not floating out in the ocean of sin, death, and despair, and God through you a lifeline. No you were dead in sin at the bottom of the ocean and God had to go into the deep Himself, bring you to Himself, and raise you up Himself. Jonathan Edwards used to say that the only thing you bring to your salvation is the sin that makes salvation needed in the first place. Salvation is grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone. Notice in verse 12 that Paul says that we give thanks to the Father, “who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” Paul doesn’t say that you have become good enough to qualify for salvation. No, he says God Himself has qualified you. God has to qualify us because we are unable and powerless to qualify. B.B. Warfield, who was a professor of Princeton Theological Seminary in the 18 and 1900’s, said, “You see the idea is not that we had the power to enter but not the fitness to abide there; it is that we had no power to enter—the light striking us in the face drove us away because we were of the darkness and incapable of the light. It was God and God alone who made us able to receive a portion in the inheritance of the saints in light; He alone who delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And we will utterly fail to catch Paul’s real meaning unless we feel profoundly how entirely he ascribes the totality of the transaction by which we are vested with a heritage among the saints “in the light” to God and to God alone. It is to God and not to ourselves—not to our fellow-men, nor yet to angels,—to God and to God alone, that we owe it that our part is with the saints in the light.” Only God can do it. Only God can save. It is only through God that we are transferred from the kingdom and domain of darkness to the Kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ. Understand that in Christ, you don’t just have a kingdom that you are brought to. You have redemption. You have complete and total forgiveness of all sin. What an unbelievable blessing. What a tremendous gift that we could not earn. Who is it that qualifies for the Kingdom? Only those who recognize that they are totally unworthy of it. Do you remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5:3? He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit means that we recognize that we have nothing to deserve it. It means that we are spiritually bankrupt and we recognize our total inability to receive the kingdom. To be poor in spirit means that you recognize that you couldn’t save yourself. You couldn’t barter your way into Heaven. You recognize not only that you can’t afford Heaven, you recognize that you only deserve Hell and the only hope that you have in this life or the next is if God who is rich in mercy tears you from the Kingdom of Darkness Himself. Have you recognized that? Do you see this great need for your life? I see it in my life every day and I praise God for it every day. I praise God that even though I have done nothing but sin, He loves me and Christ died for me so that I may live for Him. Have you come to that moment in your life where you finally recognize that you can’t do this on your own? You might be a Christian today and you might think that you have it all put together. But I’m telling you, based on the authority of God’s Word, that you are not full yet. You haven’t arrived but God will see to it that one day in eternity you will. You might be here tonight and not be a Christian and let me just say to you that you need this Gospel. You need God to do this work in your life. You need God to bring your dead heart to life and if it isn’t done today, when will it? You don’t need to be qualified to come to saving faith in Christ. You aren’t qualified on your own to do it. Only God can do it. Only God can save and restore a broken heart and that heart today might be yours. Come to Jesus Christ, leave the domain of darkness, and go to Him who has transferred us to the Kingdom, to Him in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. If you aren’t sure what that looks like, come talk to me or Grant or one of the leaders after the service. Let’s pray.