Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So good!

It’s good to be in God’s presence with you.

Go ahead and take a seat.

Open up your Bibles to .

If you don’t have a hard copy Bible, download that YouVersion app and you can follow along.

By way of reminder, this is a letter that Paul wrote.

Paul was an apostle and the greatest missionary in history.

But, he actually didn’t plant, he didn’t start this church.

Epaphrus learned from Paul in Ephesus and took it back to Colossae and started this church.

And Paul is so thankful that the gospel has made it to this region, but he is also hearing that they aren’t really getting who Jesus is.

So Paul is going to remind them of the sufficiency and sovereignty of Jesus.

And last week we looked at how Paul is giving thanks for the faith they have, and now before we get into the meat of the letter, where Paul is going to give us some important doctrine, he starts with a prayer.

So we are in chapter 1:9-14.

And before we get into it, I want to tell you, as I started studying this, there is something unique about these six verses.

In Paul’s original letter, in Greek, this is only one sentence.

This is only one sentence.

And I was talking to a buddy at work about this because I thought it was so interesting, and he asked the appropriate question: does that affect its meaning?

And I said, yeah it does.

This is one, long run-on sentence where Paul is pouring out his heart for this church that he’s never even been to.

So, for one, everything we read in here is all connected; these aren’t disjointed ideas.

Second, I think it speaks to Paul’s passion, and I hope you feel that this morning.

On Thursday, there was an art hop in Reedley, I actually saw a few of you there.

And it’s cool, a bunch of different shops opened up their shops and let various artists display their work.

And there were a lot of kids there too.

And most of them, you kinda just peruse, maybe stop for a little bit as you look, but then you keep in moving.

But this one store I went into there was this little girl that cracked me up.

She was a photographer and she immediately starting talking a mile a minute about each picture.

She explained where she was, why she thought to take the picture, what she liked about it, and she didn’t take a breath between pictures.

She finished explaining the first couple and then kinda directed me, and if you’ll step right over here… the thing about this picture is… She was hilarious!

But she was so passionate about her art!

This is what Paul is doing.

He loves these people and he’s so passionate about Jesus and he just crams all these really important truths into one cohesive prayer.

So with that said, let’s go ahead and read it starting in verse 9.

9 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, 10 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; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Knowledge = Knowledge of the Gospel

So good.

You see how all these ideas are just crammed into one prayer?

Well, let’s go ahead and go through it, starting in verse 9.

And Paul starts by saying, ever since we heard of you, we have not ceased to pray for you.

Right away, we see Paul’s passionate love for these people.

He sincerely cares for them.

And this an intercessory prayer; Paul is interceding for these believers.

When you pray to God for the benefit of another.

And what it is the first thing he prays?

That they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

And when I read this, I see it through American eyes, I think of God’s will for my life.

That Paul is talking about God’s guiding will in the life of every individual believer, but that’s actually not the “will” that Paul is talking about here.

When Paul talks about God’s will in this letter, he’s referring to His bigger will.

Namely, to save lost people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The gospel!

That’s the will Paul is talking about here.

And back in verse 6 he said they have heard gospel.

They have heard the truth.

But as we know, their knowledge of that truth is lacking in some areas.

But Paul’s prayer here is not that they would get introduced to the gospel.

That’s already been done.

But he wants them to be filled with the gospel.

But I think many people are fine with having an introductory knowledge of God and the gospel.

We don’t care to learn about it applies to everything in life and how it has the power to transform every area of our lives.

I hope we come to this text, to this letter of Colossians, with soft hearts asking that God will fill us with the knowledge of His will.

And back in verse 6 he said they have heard gospel.

They have heard the truth.

But as we know, there knowledge of that truth is lacking in some areas.

But Paul’s prayer here is not they they would get to know Jesus a little bit.

He wants them

What, How, and Why

And at the end of verse 9, he has these two descriptions of having the knowledge of God’s will: “in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

So what’s the distinction of these three apparently similar words.

We see knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

These words are really similar to their Greek counterparts.

Knowledge is at the more intellectual level, and wisdom and understanding are the same type of thing we have in English.

So why does he list them all?

Here’s what he’s saying: I want you to have the knowledge (the what), the wisdom (the how), and the understanding (the why).

The what, the how, and the why.

We need to know what the gospel is, how to actually apply it to our lives, and the understand of why it’s so important and what God’s purpose is behind it.

Can you answer those questions about the gospel?

What is it?

What is the gospel?

How does the gospel affect my life?

And why is the gospel so important?

Or why did God do it this way?

Those are Paul’s prayer for this church.

That they would have a full comprehension, intellectually and experientially, of the gospel.

Awesome.

Putting Knowledge into Action

Let’s look at the first part of verse 10.

So we have that knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him...” So what the purpose of all this head knowledge?

It’s not so you can keep cramming your head full of facts.

It’s so that it translates into action.

So we can walk in a way that is worthy of the Lord.

And sometimes we see knowledge and action as mutually exclusive.

That I can be really good at one, and if I don’t have so much of the other, that’s OK because I’m really strong in this other area.

That’s not how this works.

says:

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

When our mind is really changed, then our being is transformed.

Our mind our actions are irrevocably linked.

And again, :