Col 1.10 Priority Prayer Requests - A Godly Life

Priority Prayer Requests: Godly Living”  (Col 1:10)

-          There is so much talk about God and faith and prayer in our country right now, so awesome to see

-          We are seeing a huge reawakening to the importance of God, faith and prayer

-          I love what was said by one person via email:

-          We need to be praying for our country diligently, praying for our leaders diligently, praying for our families and friends diligently

-          And so I am glad that we are right in the middle of studying a prayer that Paul the Apostle prayed for the Colossian church, let us learn to pray effectively as we pray

-          Read the whole prayer once again for context (9-12)

-          Last time we looked at prayer request #1: that they would become experts on God’s will for their lives, knowledge of God’s will, His word, His direction……that kind of knowledge should lead to action, Godly living….and that is what Paul prays for next

I.                     Praying for a Godly life

A.        Walk worthy of the Lord

·         What “walk” means in the Bible

Ø          Walk: to tread all around, to move all around

Ø          Figuratively: to live, to deport oneself, a familiar pattern over and over again, walk refers to a person’s pattern of daily conduct

Ø          This is how you walk daily, how you generally conduct yourself, the norm, the way you walk

Ø          This does not refer to just how you live on Sunday, but how you live generally, everyday, all day

Ø          Your walk is the daily, usual, normal conduct of the way your live your life which could be testified best by those who know you best

·         Worthy of the Lord

Ø          | 1 Thess. 2:12 (NKJV)
12that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.Eph. 4:1 (NKJV)
1I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
Phil. 1:27 (NKJV)
27Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,  |

Paul says that this walk, this daily conduct is to be worthy of the Lord, listen to other important things mentioned by Paul in other letters

Ø          Worthy of the Lord, worthy of God, worthy of your calling as a Christian, worthy of the gospel of Christ

Ø          Worthy: axios, suitably, appropriately, in a worthy manner, very literally, “bringing into balance”, equivalence

Ø          So picture a balance: on one side is your pattern of daily conduct, the way in which you live daily

Ø          On the other side of the balance is the marvelous gospel message, the calling that you have as a Christian, the importance of the Lord and His truth

Ø          Do they balance out?  Is there equivalence? Is your walk worthy of the Lord?

Ø          See now this is the reason why Christians not only talk the talk but walk the walk, people need to see that you live your life in such away that brings honor to the Lord, not dishonor

Ø          We spend so much time worrying about what people are going to think of us, do I look good, how dare they hurt us

Ø          Many of us live our lives to impress others or keep people thinking good things about us

Ø          We should really only be concerned about what others are thinking about our God as they see the way we live our lives

·         How to walk

Ø          The Christian walk is to be a walk of unconditional love, purity, humility, faith, wisdom, truth, good works, contentedness, grace, a walk that is different from the world

Ø          The best way to know how we are supposed to walk is to look at the example of our Lord Jesus Christ

Ø          He lived a life that was a model for us, so we study Him, we study the scripture and we apply that knowledge to our lives, actually living them out

Ø          This is where all that knowledge of the Lord’s will comes into play, living it out

Ø          What an awesome prayer request to pray for someone else

B.         Fully pleasing the Lord

·         To fully please

Ø          Bringing a pleasing smile on our Father’s face, fully pleasing Him, what another great prayer request

Ø          Terry, I am praying that in this certain situation you will behave in such a way that is pleasing unto the Lord, fully pleasing Him

Ø          Concerned only with pleasing the Lord

Ø          Don’t get caught up in pleasing other people, even other Christians, our desire should be that our life pleases the Lord

Ø          That will get you through a whole lot of troubles, that will keep you from getting hurt by other people if you can keep that perspective

Ø          | Vance Havner comments, "The Christian life should be like a sword with one point, not like a broom ending in many straws. Such a single purpose forgets the past, reaches toward the future, and presses on. There is no time or place for side issues, diversions to the right or to the left. There is no place for hands on the plow with eyes looking back. Paul was a one-track man, but you can go a long way on the track!"  |

It will keep you out of trouble, when the crowd says do this and it’s wrong, hopefully you will stand with Jesus, wanting to please Him

Ø          I really think that there is a lot to be said for those WWJD bracelets, what would Jesus do, making decisions and choices on what would please the Lord

·         Example of Pleasing the Lord

Ø          We please the Lord when we walk the way we should, and again, so many things that please the Lord according to scripture

Ø          But let me just point out one that is truly important to know, it guarantees pleasing the Lord

Ø          Faith is absolutely vital to pleasing the Lord, He is delighted with us when we simply believe Him and act on what He says!

Ø          The only time that Jesus really commended people and approved of people in the gospels was because of their faith, the centurian and the gentile beggar woman, he said to them GREAT is your Faith

Ø          Faith is the key to heaven, it is the key to living the Christian life, we are to do all things by faith

C.         Fruitful in every Good Work

·         Constant fruitfulness

Ø          Being fruitful in every good work, the idea is not just bearing fruit for one period of time and then stopping

Ø          The idea is that as a Christian you are just constantly bearing fruit and being fruitful

Ø          Everything you touch is fruitful, there is fruit coming from your life

Ø          I think it is sad when you hear some folks talk about all that the Lord did in and through their life in the past, God moved so powerfully in the past

Ø          God still wants to move and He still wants you to be fruitful in every good work today

Ø          Joseph in the Old Testament was in my mind one of the best examples of fruitfulness in the OT, fruitful wherever he was, fruitful in almost any every endeavor

Gen. 49:22 (NKJV)
22             “Joseph is a fruitful bough,

      A fruitful bough by a well;

      His branches run over the wall.

Psa. 1:1 through Psa. 1:3 (NKJV)
1               Blessed is the man

      Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

          Nor stands in the path of sinners,

          Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2     But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

          And in His law he meditates day and night.

3     He shall be like a tree

          Planted by the rivers of water,

          That brings forth its fruit in its season,

          Whose leaf also shall not wither;

      And whatever he does shall prosper.

·         Fruitfulness

Ø          Christian character is called the fruit of the Spirit as found in Gal 5: joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, virtue, knowledge, endurance, peity, love, self control

Ø          That kind of fruit should be being developed in our hearts and in our souls, in the deepest part of who we are, and it should leak out of our lives so that it becomes noticeable on the outside

Ø          Good works: the Christian life is to be a life filled with good works, not to get saved but because we are saved, done out of thankfulness to the Lord

Ø          It has been wonderful to see the many Christian organizations take the lead in this tragedy

Ø          Where has the ACLU been during all of this?  Who puts their hope in the ACLU at times like this?

Ø          Souls won to the Lord through our faithful witness, people coming to Christ through your life is a kind of fruitfulness

Ø          Fruit of praise: living our life praising the Lord

Ø          Fruit through money: we actually share in the fruit of the ministry through our financial supporting of the ministry

Ø          Fantastic prayer request: fruitful in every good work

D.         Increasing in the knowledge of God

·         Knowing God is our highest calling in life

Ø          We were created to know our creator, to know our maker

Ø          This is not just knowing about God, this is actually knowing God

Ø          We can read lots of biographies about a man and have lots of knowledge about that person without actually knowing that person

Ø          To know God is truly the highest calling

Ø          Increasing: growing, maturing, getting stronger, getting more……increasing in our first hand knowledge of the Lord

Ø          Prayer: that you would continue to grow, progress, increase in your first hand knowledge of God, in your relationship with Him

·         Knowing God is where everything branches off from

Ø          This is the secret of vitality and excitement in life, in knowing God there is a satisfaction that is met in the deepest part of a person

Ø          Jesus spoke of water that you could drink from and never be thirsty again

Ø          The world tries to make God look so silly, boring and superficial, He is not and those of us who truly know God can attest that for you

Ø          Those who know God have great energy for God

Ø          Those who know God have great thoughts for God: you don’t have to talk them into reverence, or to praise, they just have this tremendously high view of the Lord

Ø          Those who know God have great boldness for God

Ø          | Dan. 11:32 (NKJV)
32Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.Acts 5:29 (NKJV)
29But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.  |

Those who really know God will have great contentment in God

Ø          It is through our relationship with God, our increasing in knowledge of Him that keeps us constantly bearing fruit, having a worthy walk, fully pleasing Him

Ø          Our time of meditation, reading and prayer draw us closer to Him, but also working out in the field with Him draws us closer to Him

Conclusion

-          These once again are prayer requests that emphasize our spiritual lives as Christian

-          Experts in God’s will, living truly Godly lives, knowing God better

-          I tell you, if we are praying things like this for each other regularly, just look out what God will do

-          Everything starts and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ