Don’t Stop Praying | Colossians 1:9–14
Notes
Transcript
Good morning church! If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, go ahead and grab them and head towards Colossians 1. This morning we’re going to dive into the next part of Paul’s introduction to the book: Colossians 1:9-14.
Now one of the reasons I’m so excited bout this text is that it is immensely practical. Have you every found yourself in a situation in which you don’t know what to pray? Or, I know for some people the idea of praying in front of others is more than intimidating, it’s terrifying! And often the reason that it’s so terrifying is because you don’t know what to say, or you’re afraid you’re going to sound dumb, or maybe you’re just afraid of being up in front of people. But maybe it’s not being in front of a crowd, maybe this is true of you when you pray with just with one other person. Well, I have some good news for all of us this morning. Prayer isn’t something that should be scary or something that we aren’t willing to do Instead prayer should be a regular part and a regular rhythm of our lives. Today, Paul is going to help us out. He is going to model for us some incredibly basic and practical ways in which we can richly pray for ourselves and for others.
Now, before we read and dive into this I want you to know why I’m doing what I’m about to do. Often when we preach through a whole book, which is what we’re committed to doing here, we will give some recap as to what was covered in the previous weeks. For the sake of time, I’m not going to recap this week, but instead what I’m going to do is start reading at the very beginning of this letter. I hope that as I read the verses that we’ve already covered that your mind and heart light up with some of the truths we’ve already covered. So Colossians 1:1-14. Let’s read, pray, and dive into it.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
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, 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; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered 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.
This is God’s Word. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.
In this passage Paul models for us so much about what we need to know about prayer. If you’ve been around here for a while then you’ve probably heard me say the why is more important than the what. I still think that’s true, but the good news is today that Paul is going to give us more than that. In just verses 9-10 Paul shows us why we pray, how we pray, and what we pray. If you have those 3 things, then you can pray anywhere, for anyone, for anything. Let me show you…Since the why does matter more than the what, let’s start there
Why do we pray?
Why do we pray?
Why does Paul pray for the church at Colossae?
Paul prays for the church at Colossae for two reasons. First, he heard. “And so, from the day we heard.” Reports had come back to Paul that the gospel had gone to this city through Epaphras and was bearing fruit. They had seen the great hope found in it and that stirred up their faith to believe which led to a life of love for others. The powerful gospel and performed a powerful work of transformation in the lives us these believers and the very first thing Paul does when he hears is pray.
Church there’s a couple really important implications that has for us. Gospel reports garner prayer. I was convicted this week as I thought about this, because how often do you hear reports of God’s work somewhere, maybe even here, and go, “That’s great!” Or maybe, you hear reports of something God is doing and your indifferent, or maybe, just maybe, you’re jealous. I’ll be honest church, I’ve seen all of those rise up in my heart over time. But that reaction is absolutely revealing as to what’s truly going on in our hearts.
The “that’s great comment” for me tends to have a sense of envy in it. It may not always, but my or our failure to recognize God as the one in doing the work is a failure to worship the God who does work. Indifference and jealousy prove that we aren’t actually focused on the kingdom of God here and now, but really are instead focused on our own kingdom.
What Paul is showing us here is that when we hear of God’s work being accomplished—and in this context it is specific towards the gospels working and transforming, but just as a side note I don’t think it’s an inappropriate application towards God’s blessing on others—when we hear of God moving, our response should be prayer.
Now we looked the past two weeks at verses 3-8 and in them we saw that it was a prayer of thanksgiving, but here it’s a prayer of petition. Which is interesting, right? The gospel has come and it has performed a clearly salvific work. These people have come to believe the gospel, but Paul says, “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking.” He is specifically going to the Lord because he’s heard about their faith, hope and love and now he’s asking for more. T
Here’s why this matters: the fact that Paul is praying and asking for something is indicative that this group of believers hasn’t arrived. In fact, they need never ceasing prayer. That’s the second reason why Paul prayed for the believers at Colossae. While they may have received the gospel, the gospel wasn’t done working in them, or through them.
There was a point in my life where I got into triathlons. I used to swim a mile, bike 25 and then run 6 miles. All in one day. For fun. I know…clearly I’ve wised up. I was really wanting to do the half Ironman race which was double those distances I just mentioned. Well I did my first race out in NC and I loved it. I was so proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I had even trained so well that when the race was over I felt great. I legitimately felt like I could do the race again.
So I started to prep for my next race which was down in Buffalo Springs near Lubbock. But because I did so well I thought I could start to back off my training. We head to Lubbock to race and I remember coming up out of the water thinking I was dead. I didn’t know how I was going to get on the bike and ride and there was no way I was going to make the run. I got lucky and a storm blew in when I arrived back from the bike ride and they ended up cancelling the race, but my legs were cramping and there was no way I could finish. I thought I had arrived.
Church sometimes I fear that we think we’ve arrived. We’ve prayed a prayer. We’ve had a season of growth. We’ve seen God work in mighty and maybe even miraculous ways. We think we’ve kinda figured it out or that we’ve just reach the peak of our relationship with Jesus or what we need to know about him, so we just fall into our rut of life. IF that is your perspective, if you think you’ve made it, then friend, I don’t think you’ve received the gospel, because what did we look at last week? V6—when you’ve received the gospel you bear fruit and increase. It doesn’t stop growing. It doesn’t stop working. It doesn’t stop transforming.
So the first way we pray with purpose is in our why. Why did Paul pray? Because of reports he heard of God’s continued faithful work and because the church at Colossae hadn’t arrived. God has begun a work and He’s not done with it yet. That’s why we pray.
What about how? How do we pray? Well, that’s our second question to answer:
How do we pray?
How do we pray?
So then how did Paul pray?
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,
“And so, from the day we heard.” Did Paul wait? Did he say, man that’s great, every time I hear about you guys I’ll be sure to pray for you? Or did he go, hey let me share this with my church here in Rome and we’ll pray for you on Sunday? No. Paul, immediately went to the Lord in prayer.
Just this week someone came into my office to give me an update on some significant life happenings. To be honest, the updates weren’t great or too exciting. I was genuinely upset for them. I hate that they’re having to walk through what they’re walking through, but do you know how I ended the conversation? I looked them in the eye, I said thank you for giving me an update and I’m so sorry your having to endure this, keep me in the loop, and then do you know what I said? I’ll pray for you. To that person, I’m sorry. To anyone in here that I’ve said that to, I’m sorry.
What Paul shows right here is that when we hear of gospel fruit or burdens of life the right response isn’t, I’ll pray for you, but let me pray for you right now. Church, may the phrase I’ll pray for you be removed from our lips and be replaced with the action of actually praying for someone immediately. “From the day we heard.” He didn’t delay. He prayed immediately.
The second way in which he prayed was unceasingly. Now I appreciate that Paul says this. He is the guy who told the church at Thessalonica to pray without ceasing and the church at Ephesus to pray at all times, and the church in Rome to be constant in prayer, so at least he’s practicing what he preaches, right? But really, when Paul says, “we have not ceased to pray for you,” what does he mean? If the dude wrote the majority of the New Testament then he did have to have some sort of break from prayer to listen to and then respond to the problems from these other churches. So how can we actually pray without ceasing?
Spurgeon, in his sermon on this text which is based off of the old KJV or translation, argues that at the heart of prayer is desire. He says,
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXIX Spiritual Knowledge and Its Practical Results (No. 1,742)
Now, desire is the essence of prayer; in fact, desire is the kernel of prayer, and the vocal expressions which we call by the name of prayer are often but its shell; inward desire is the life, the heart, the reality of prayer. Though you cannot always be speaking in prayer, you can always be desiring in prayer. The miser is always desiring riches, though he is not always talking about his gold and silver; and the man who loves his fellow-men, and desires their profit, is really always praying for their benefit, though he is not always lifting up his voice in supplication.
So to pray without ceasing then is to have an active desire that is constantly burning in your heart, but even that is revealing. Because when you pray, what desire is burning inside you? Is it to sound good? Is it to impress? Is it to connect the dots or to figure out how to wrap it up? Or are you just repeating words that you heard someone else say before and they sounded good?
This dawned on me in one sermon I preached a while back…when I pray words to impress you that I’m not really praying to God, I’m praying to you. You are the god I’m trying to impress and receive praise from. When our prayers are truly addressed to God they express the purest desires of our hearts to him. SO to take that desire and lay it truly at his feet is real prayer. To express it to him and trust Him with it is to truly pray.
So Paul prays immediately, unceasingly, and together. “WE have not ceased to pray for you.” Remember that he’s writing this letter with Timothy. So Timothy and Paul are in constant and immediate prayer together.
Now, I don’t want to go rip Matthew 18:19 out of context, which many do. Jesus said there Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” That verse is in the context of church discipline and specifically relates to that. With that being said, Jesus had a habit of sending his disciples out two by two and Paul is setting for the example of shared ministry just in the book of Colossians. Those are just a couple biblical examples, but I do think the overwhelming precedence in the New Testament is partnership in ministry & prayer. So, I do think there is something powerful behind praying with someone else. Praying alone is a good thing to do, but praying together has power.
This is why one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is to sit in on the front end of Sunday School and listen to everyone pray together. Hearing voices lifted up together expressing our desires to our good Father is powerful.
So what does Paul show us about praying with purpose? It has a why and a how. Why—because of what God has done and because His work is not accomplished yet. How—immediately, unceasingly, and together. If we have our motives correct then the next question is what do we pray for?
What do we pray for?
What do we pray for?
This is the part where Paul lays down for us some really basic, but rich petitions or requests that we can pray for people no matter the circumstance. Let me put these verses back on the screen so that you can have it in front of your eyes.
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,
Here’s the real simple answer to what we pray for: To be filled with the knowledge of His will. That’s it. Pray that God would fill you with the knowledge of His will. But what does that mean? Let’s meditate on this for a minute.
You know what to be filled means. It means to not lack. To take a cup and continue to pour into it until it is full. I can’t remember where I read this or heard this this week, but one guy said that as God fills you He increases your capacity for that filling. The work the Lord is doing is never done and he desires to continue to fill you with knowledge and spiritual wisdom and understanding.
But that also brings about the question, if we aren’t filled with His knowledge & wisdom & understanding then what are we filled with? Because here’s the thing, we are all always constantly being filled with something. The music that you listen to, it fills your mind with ideas on how the world should work. That news channel you watch, that podcast you listen to, that social media channel or person that influences you is filling you with ideas and perspective and beliefs on how things should be. They are preaching to you where your hope should be or what it should be in.
We live in a world where knowledge is more readily abundant and available than at any point in the history of the world. Google has transformed our ability to access information and know things and social media & a.i. are taking over by storm. But in a world where knowledge is just a click away, the brokenness that we live in is still glaringly obvious. So knowledge, for the sake of knowledge clearly doesn’t fix things. That’s why Paul specifically prays for knowledge of His will.
What is His will? Lol. I literally wrote lol in my manuscript. I’m going to do my best to explain this. Paul talks about the will of God, as do other NT authors, in a lot of different places and theologians have often categorized the will of God in two ways: revealed will and the hidden will of God. The hidden will of God is the things that we don’t know for certain but that are revealed over time. For example, should I take this job, should I marry this person, should I go to this college? What is God’s will for my life? This is a VERY common question that I get, and church, it’s a great question to ask. It is a good thing to seek the Lord and say, God, what is your will in this situation?
The revealed will is what God has already spoken. We don’t have to ask questions as to what God’s will or desire is because he’s told us through His word. So then, what does God’s word tell us about His will?
For this is the will of God, your sanctification…
Paul pretty plainly tells the church at Thessalonica what God’s will is and then immediately after this he goes into a list of things to avoid, i.e., sins, that prevent or hinder sanctification. Now just real quick, sanctification is a big Bible word that simply means to be made holy. So God desires for us to be made holy, because He is holy and it is only in holiness that we can be filled with knowing Him.
This is exactly where Satan, the deceiver and accuser creeps in. Back in Genesis 3 the slithery snake tells Adam and Eve that they can know and be like God, they just need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The more they know the more they’ll be like God. Deceived, Adam and believe place their hope in what Satan says and act in faith by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Sin enters the world in this moment and everything is different.
But what would’ve prevented it? Adam & Eve, if they had listened to the Word of God and obeyed it they would’ve holy. This is why Jesus says in His prayer right before he is arrested and then crucified in Jn 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Since the dawn of creation God’s will is for you to be holy because he desires to be near you and the way He sanctifies you now is through His word. What does His word reveal? His word reveals a living hope that is being kept safe for us, it reveals a hope that is blessed and glorious that is full of joy and peace, that is rich in grace. What is that hope? It is Christ crucified on our behalf. It Christ risen again and reigning at the right of the Father. And now, through faith in Him he delivers us from the domain of darkness where knowledge and holiness is lacking and transfers us to kingdom of his beloved Son in which there is an inheritance that awaits us in light. That hope, one in which we can truly and fully see him and know him because of what he’s done for us, that hope is what the Word tells us about and what Paul is ultimately praying for is that the church at Colossae would be full of the knowledge of that. That is the knowledge of His will, to be sanctified and made holy by knowing fully and completely the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. How do you know that hope? How are you sanctified? By knowing His word because it is in knowing His word, you get to know the word—Jesus—who is who sanctifies.
So then last me ask you this question: do you know the Word of God? Now I mean that both in the person of Jesus and in the Scriptures who reveal to us Jesus.
I tend to find there are 4 different types of people here-specifically speaking of when it comes to knowing the Scriptures. There are those who say, “I don’t need to know the Bible, that’s what pastors and preachers are for.” Can you imagine for just a second that you got married and after you said your vows you kissed your bride (or groom) and then said, I don’t really need to know my spouse, I’ve gotten what I need. Any thing more I’ll just ask their friends for family. Is that a relationship? No, it’s manipulation. It’s using that person for your own personal gain. It’s not about love, it’s about me.
When you say, “That’s what pastors and preachers are for” you’re ultimately manipulating not just pastors and preachers, but really God for your own selfish purposes. God will not be mocked.
Then there’s the second group of people who go, I prayed prayer, I grew up in church, I’ve learned everything I need to know. One commentary mentioned a book entitled, All I needed to know I learned I Kindergarten. Catchy title, and I’m afraid that’s how many treat their faith. They learned all they need to know. They being apathetic in their relationship with the Lord and in doing so become complacent with where they’re at. As one author says, “The result is that they remain woefully ignorant about what they believe and why and have only a dim awareness of God. Calvin wrote: “Faith rests not on ignorance, but on knowledge. And this is, indeed, knowledge not only of God but of the divine will.”
The third group of people are those who go, I want to know the Word of God, truly, I really do, but dang, it is really hard and really boring trying to read that book. This might be the biggest group in the room. To you, I want you know that I totally understand. Here in just a second I want to give you a couple ways to try and help.
The fourth group are those who have tasted & seen the goodness of God in His word—His revealed will. It are those who can cry out with the Psalmist:
My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.
Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your righteousness give me life!
I open my mouth and pant,
because I long for your commandments.
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So the question is how do we become people who are consumed with longing and panting and treasuring for the good Word of God? Well, what does Paul do here for the church at Colossae? He prays. If you want to read the Word, if you want to want to read the word, then you need God to do something in you and for you. Ask Him. Pray that he would fill you with desire for the knowledge of His will. Pray that He would would fill you with the knowledge of His will.
Now, do you know why you need to pray that God would fill you with the knowledge of His will? Yes it’s because in our flesh we don’t desire it. Yes it can be hard to read and difficult to understand. That’s true. But look at the next phrase
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,
You need spiritual wisdom and understanding when it comes to knowing His will. This isn’t something that we can do in and of ourselves. This doesn’t mean that the smarter you are the better you’ll be at it. It is spiritual by nature and thus needs the Spirit of God to help. We need the Spirit of God to grant us wisdom & understanding.
We are at risk of growing in our knowledge of the Word, yet lacking understanding and wisdom. What does that mean? It’s one thing to know Matt. 18:19—when two agree God gives, but it’s another thing to understand what it means in it’s context and to rightly apply it in life.
That’s the difference between wisdom & knowledge. Knowledge is the car. Wisdom is the driver. We need the Spirit to help us in our understanding and application of His word. Otherwise we become like Pharisees who know the Bible, and can beat people up with the Bible, but never know the God of the Bible. How do we prevent this? Pray. Humbly pray and ask God to fill us and to keep us. He will, because it’s His will. He desires for us to be sanctified and know His truth and to know Him. So if you want to read the Bible in the first place, pray. If you want to read it correctly, pray.
The second thing you do is read. Build the discipline of Bible reading into your daily life. There are SO many tools at our disposal. The Bible Recap is a phenomenal tool that you can read and if you aren’t a reader it’s recorded. You can listen to it and it helps you see and know the Scriptures. Don’t like that, then pick up a Bible reading plan and commit to it for 3 months. Then commit for 3 more months. The more you do the more it becomes a habit, but more importantly, the more God reveals himself to you as you read and study. When that happens, you begin to know the good character of our glorious God, and that stirs up desire. So pray and read. Read his word and pray that as you do He will fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Why do we pray church? Because of what we’ve heard and because God isn’t done. How do we pray? Immediately. Unceasingly. Together. What do we pray for? For God to fill us with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. If you know why, how, and what to pray, then what’s the right and only response to this sermon? Pray. That’s our main point today: Don’t stop praying. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to pray. Right now. We’re going to pray together. This isn’t you sitting there listening to me. What are we going to pray about? That God would fill us. That he’d fill us with desire to know His will. We’re going to pray that he’d fill us with wisdom and understanding as we learn His will. So here’s what I want to do. Music team, come on up. Go ahead and begin to play. Everyone else, don’t stand up and leave. Grab the person beside you and pray. Grab your kids and pray them. Grab your spouse and pray with them. Out loud. May for just a minute, instead of singing a song of response, may we respond in worship through prayer. May this room be full with the offering up of our prayers to our God. So I’m going to give us a couple minutes for you to pray. Then I’ll close us here in just a second. Let’s pray.
