Who I am in Christ… (8)

I have been rescued, redeemed, and forgiven…

May we never stray away from the cross as we journey along our walk with Christ. Christ is the door in which we enter into the kingdom of God. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He gave much to bring us life.

This morning as we look at our Scripture in Colossians, we’ll start reading at chapter 1:9, but we’ll focus on verses 13-14.

Colossians 1:9–14 NIV

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul never stopped praying for the church in Colossae. The Apostle Paul had heard about their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for all God’s people.

Church family, it’s imperative that we pray for each other. Paul showed his love for the church in Colossae by praying for them. We need to bring each other before the throne of grace.

What did Paul ask the Lord for?

We can pray prayers from Scripture that are in agreement with God’s will. When we do, we can expect to have our prayers answered.

1.That God would fill you with the knowledge of His will…

How?

Through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives…

God’s will cannot be understood in our carnal nature, our flesh.

Paul said this in

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 NIV

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:13 NIV

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

We can’t know God’s will if we are being squeezed into the world’s mold. God calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we can know what God’s will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

In the church world, we are using metrics to establish programs. Sometimes, I wonder if we rely more on our own abilities than we do on the Spirit’s power

Paul prayed that God would fill believers with the knowledge of His will so that

2.So that you can live worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way…

My prayer is that God would empower each one of us to live worthy of the Lord, worthy of the calling that He has placed upon your life and the we would please Him in every way.

May there be nothing that comes between us and our desire to please the Lord. I’m not talking about trying to earn God’s favour, but pleasing Him out of our love for Him. we love Him because He first loved us.

How does Paul describe pleasing the Lord in every way?

Colossians 1:10 NIV

10 …bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

Good works don’t save us, but show that we are producing good fruit in our lives.

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

How do we grow in our knowledge of God?

I’m not just talking about our knowledge about God: not just knowing the books of the Bible or memorizing a few Scripture verses, even though these are good, but growing in relationship with God.

Philippians 3:10–11 NIV

10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul also prayed that

3.You would be strengthened with all power…

through His glorious might so that

You may have great endurance and patience…

The other night at soccer, I was playing fullback. Josh is a fullback, I was always a mid-fielder. There’s a huge difference playing against 13-14 year olds that are in good shape, and playing against people that have been drinking pop and eating junk food.

I thought I was beat before I started because I have seen these young athletes play all spring. Part way through I could feel my left quad. By the end both quads were sore. I was thankful that I had been walking all winter so I was in better shape and had more endurance than I had last year. A lot of the play was coming up my side, I had to be patient and not give up.

Spiritually speaking, we need to be like athletes. We can’t expect to have endurance if we don’t train.

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 NIV

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Paul used the illustration of athletes, knowing full well that we can’t live the Christian life in the flesh, in the carnal nature.

Romans 8:6–7 NIV

6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

We are the children of God who are governed by the Spirit of God, and therefore, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Paul also prayed that

4. You would give joyful thanks to the Father…

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Paul and Silas were praising God in a jail cell when the place was shaken and the chains fell off.

Why should we give thanks?

Because He

Colossians 1:12 NIV

12 …has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Because God has qualified us to share in the inheritance,

Colossians 1:13 NIV

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

(LANTC)

Paul knew the history of God’s chosen people. They were in Egypt for 430 years, and many of those years in slavery. God raised up Moses to lead His people out of the land of bondage and into the Promised Land.

In many ways it represents our journey as the people of God. Before we came to Christ, we were in the domain of the kingdom of darkness.

Darkness represents evil…

Satan had blinded our minds. We couldn’t see the glory of the gospel that is iin Christ. Satan has blinded and is blinding hoards of people in our world today. There is no dusk and there is no dawn. Either we are in the dominion darkness or we are in the kingdom of light.

2 Corinthians 3:16–17 NIV

16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

God the Father has rescued us. He has delivered us out of the kingdom of darkness. He has brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.

Life Application New Testament Commentary Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer / 1:3–14

True believers, however, have been transferred from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom, from guilt to forgiveness, and from the power of Satan to the power of God. We have been rescued from a rebel kingdom to serve the true King. That King, the Son God loves…

Who is this King?

Colossians 1:15–20 NIV

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

God the Father rescued us and Jesus Christ has

Redeemed us…

He has paid the ransom for us with His own blood.

When we plead the blood of Jesus, there is great value. We plead the blood for protection because we know that there is power in the blood of Jesus. It’s not something magical. Your redemption was paid by the blood of Jesus. (Guzik)

To whom was our redemption paid?

This is a good question. Some think to Satan because He held us captive. We believe that Satan is a defeated foe. Christ defeated Him on the cross.

We didn’t sin against Satan, we sinned against God the Father, and even though, we had broken relationship with God, He restored that when Jesus gave His life a ransom for many.

Romans 3:23–25 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood…

In Christ we have received redemption,

The forgiveness of sins…

If you have been a Christian for a while, this might seem beneath you…This might seem so elementary and yet when we tell others abotu Christ, we need to get down to the basics that God loves us, that He died for us, that Jesus died on the cross so that payment could be made for our sins.

But people won’t believe. No one can come to God unless He draws them. We might think it’s too simple. People won’t believe.

Let’s be ready in season and out of f season. Let’s be ready to share our faith if the time seems favourable or not. We are called to testify about the goodness of God. Jesus is the One who does the saving, we are called to witness what He has done in our lives.

1 John 1:9 NIV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

If you have been forgiven, if you have been redeemed, if you have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness, you have a story worth telling, and a story worth living…

Let’s pray!