“Perspectives on Prayer - 6”

Shane Sowers

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Tim Keller, reflecting on the passage, "Don't be anxious but make requests to God with thanksgiving", writes that, "We would expect Paul to say first you make your requests to God and then, you thank him for the answers. But that is not what Paul says." Keller then illustrates his point with a story from his early twenties:

I prayed for an entire year about a girl I was dating and wanted to marry, but she wanted out of the relationship. All year I prayed, "Lord, don't let her break up with me." Of course, in hindsight, it was the wrong girl. I actually did what I could to help God with the prayer, because one summer, near the end of the relationship, I got in a location that made it easier to see her. I was saying, "Lord, I am making this as easy as possible for you. I have asked you for this, and I have even taken the geographical distance away." But as I look back, God was saying, "Son, when a child of mine makes a request, I always give that person what he or she would have asked for if they knew everything I know.”

When it comes to prayer one thing we should never ever forget… the most important resource to help us pray is not experience, but the Scriptures. The Bible helps us in two ways clearly. Prayer evolves the more we learn about the character of God and His ways. Our theology has an impact on our praying or even our lack of praying. Another way the Bible helps us is studying the prayers of the Scriptures. The prayers of Moses, David, Solomon, Habakkuk, our Lord Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. Such study will help us identify what to pray for, how to approach God, the proper grounds for our petitions. Maybe this will help us with our praying today.

Ask ourselves today… are the petitions we commonly present to God in line with what Paul prays for? Let’s say that 80 or 90 percent of our petitions ask God for good health, recovery from illness, safety on the road, a good job, success in exams, the emotional needs of our children, success in our mortgage application, and much more the like. How much of Paul’s praying revolves around the same thing?

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 76). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (pp. 76-77). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Colossians 1:9-14

Colossians 1:9–14 NLT

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

The Setting

The Content

The Gospel

The first thing we will look at is the setting of this prayer of Paul. What prompted his petitions. Second, we will explore the actual petitions of Paul in this prayer. Finally, we will see the beauty of the Gospel and the power of Christ in light of the praying of the Apostle Paul

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world continue to lead us away from a proper understanding of prayer and the proper motivation, it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to hope in prayer and rest in its power.

I. The Setting

- The context of Paul’s prayer.

A. One of the first and striking principles we see in the setting of Paul’s prayer is the fact that he prays for people he does not know personally. He prays for those he heard about.

B. I wonder if much of our prayer revolves mostly around people we know personally or just in our circle of life. Now hear me when I say that this is not wrong. We should be praying for those in our circle of friends, church and family. But is that as far reaching as our prayers go? We do not want our prayers to be introverted or even dare I say self-centered?

C. We always hear about things happening around the world. What other Christians are doing. What other churches are doing. There is much that we hear with testimonies and reports. Do we make it a habit to pray for those we have not met but just heard about? This is an important step in becoming world focused Christians.

D. And here’s the biggy… he not only prays for them, he does not stop praying for them. Paul is telling the Colossians that since hearing about them he has made it a point to intercede with God on their behalf in his disciplined, regular prayer times; he has “not stopped praying” for them.

E. There are just some things in life that we should not stop praying for. The important point here is that there are things that we need to pray for again and again. Sure you made your request today, but you should make it again tomorrow and the next day. Paul is teaching us the principle of persistent prayer. Our Lord does the same.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 78). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Luke 18:1–8 NLT

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ ” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Luke

F. So hopefully is does pique our interest. What does Paul think he should pray for constantly on behalf of the Colossians? Is this what we pray for constantly?

II. The Content

- The knowledge of His will.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 79). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

A. Lets get this right today… Many times when we discuss the topic of the will of God we tend to look at it in light of some aspect of our lives. We seek the “Lord’s will” over whom we should marry, over major purchases, over what church to attend when we move to a new city. Now none of this is inheirently bad for there are many way the Lord will lead us.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 81). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Lord’s will” over whom we should marry, over major purchases, over what church to attend when we move to a new city. None of this is intrinsically

B. A problem… this focus can be misleading, can be even dangerous, for it encourages me to think of “the Lord’s will” primarily in terms of my future, my vocation, my needs—and that is often another form of self-centeredness. But even worse… it brings confusion to the main way the Bible will use the phrase… “the will of God.”

Psalm 143:10 NLT

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.

C. This concerns obedience to the will of God… obedience to what God has commanded. The psalmist does not here encourage us to find God’s will, for he assumes it is already known. Rather, he is concerned with performance of that will. We are talking about the

D. It is folly to pretend to seek God’s will for your life, in terms of a marriage partner or some form of Christian vocation, when there is no deep desire to pursue God’s will as he has already kindly revealed it. The will of God is not intended to be a mystery. It is amazing what the Lord has revealed in His word to us regarding much of our decisions.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 81). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

E. One minister writes, “When some perpetually morose and whining Christians come to me, I tell them I know what God’s will is for their lives: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

F. When you search the scriptures you see many examples of God’s will and directives for our lives. There are tons of it. Many times our eager search to know the will of God for certain decisions and circumstances actually show ignorance of the scriptures. Remember, man does not live on bread alone. And we should pray constantly that we will continue to grow in our knowledge of the revealed will of God.

G. And Paul prays this constantly so that...

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 82). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Colossians 1:10 ESV

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;

H. What a high standard. Pleasing the Lord in every way. That is what it means to live a life worthy of the Lord. This is what Paul prays constantly for the Colossians.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 81). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I. We might have a clearer vision of what this means if we lived in a shame culture. In a shame culture, one of the worst things you can do is bring shame on your family, clan, or tribe. Usually a host of known and accepted taboos exists, and the people who belong to that culture will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid transgressing those taboos, since to do so would incur terrible shame.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 82). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

J. In the Western world, we do not, by and large, think in such terms. Rugged individualism pervades much Western ideology, and whatever shame we feel is rather slight compared with the shame brought on by corporate pressures imposed on people in many cultures of the world. But in a shame culture, people are taught that they must be worthy of their family’s name, worthy of their country, worthy of their heritage. By contrast, many Westerners are applauded when they act in stubborn independence of their peers.

K. The shame culture was a reality in the first century. So in the context, it would seem that Paul is urging them not to fall in line of being worthy of their family or church, but worthy of their Lord. That would be an immensely powerful plea in a shame culture. In the Western world, it is far too often taken as nothing more than one option. But in Paul’s world, to be a Christian, to confess Jesus as Lord, meant to adopt a worldview in which you are bound to please him in every way. Not to do so would be to bring shame on him whom you have confessed as Lord.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 84). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

L. So Paul prays constantly so that the Colossians will be full of the knowledge of the will of God so that they can live a life worthy of the Lord. It gets better for us.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 85). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

M. Paul gives us 4 characteristics of what it means to be pleasing to the Lord. We have 4 participles in the greek text. These tell us what a life worthy of the Lord looks like.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 85). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

N. Number 1. Christians bear fruit in every good work.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Paul cannot imagine anyone being pleasing to Christ without fruitfulness in good works.

O. Number 2. Christians will grow in the knowledge of God. Christians are not machines that maintain the status quo, we are organisms that are supposed to grow.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 86). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

2 Peter 3:18 NLT

Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

P. Number 3. Strengthened to display endurance and patience. “Great endurance and patience”: the expression suggests both the kind of stamina that gets under a burden and carries it with enduring fortitude, and the kind of stamina that knows how to be patient.

Hebrews 10:32–36 NLT

Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Q. Number 4. Thanksgiving. What Paul is saying is that to live a life worthy of Jesus Christ is to overflow with joyful thanksgiving in the light of the salvation we have received at his hand. If we have been transferred out of the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son beloved by God, our only appropriate response is joyful gratitude.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 88). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

III. The Gospel

- We have so much to be thankful for.

Carson, D. A.. Praying with Paul (p. 89). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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