How to pray for new (and old) Christians

About 14 years ago, one of the largest and most successful churches in the world was forced to issue a public apology. What was the church? And what did they do that was so wrong? Well, the church was Willow Creek Community Church. You may have heard of Willow Creek. If not, you may have heard of their celebrity senior pastor, Bill Hybels. If not, you may have heard their philosophy. Willow Creek was what is known as a seeker-sensitive church. That means that everything in the church from the buildings to the worship services to the sermons and even the staff’s dress code - all of it was tailored to please the churchgoer.

The idea was that they would make an environment that was, according to the name, sensitive to seekers. When the unchurched walked through their door, and even as they stood to worship and sat under the preaching of the word, Willow Creek’s goal was that the unchurched or de-churched individuals attending their services would not find anything that was offensive or hard to hear. In fact, it would be the opposite - everything was engineered to cater to the unchurched.

Now, on the face of it, that doesn’t sound bad. That actually sounds kinda good, right? Why wouldn’t a church want to make everything as attractive as possible for a non-believing attender? I hope that’s true of us here at Buffalo. The problem, though, is that they went a couple of steps further than that. A sign hanging on Bill Hybels’ office door reminded them every day of this mission: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider valuable?” At Willow Creek, programs for kids and youth and adults became goods they dispensed; the worship service became a performance; the church member became a consumer, a customer; the pastors became CEOs; sermons that should have expounded and explained the word of God instead became motivational talks about how you can improve yourself; most seriously, the gospel became a product, because the church had become a business.

So what were they apologizing for? This is what Bill Hybels said: “Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much stuff against is stuff our people are crying for.”

In other words, Hybels said, “We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become self-feeders. We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressive on their own.

They were apologizing for the very simple fact that all of this had not in fact resulted in what they hoped it would result in: their church was not producing maturing and growing disciples of Christ; they were producing spiritual consumers.

As a pastor charged with the oversight of a local church, and as a pastor who is tasked with shepherding a church made up of people whose primary task it is to grow in their fait in Christ, for me all of this raises the question: What does real spiritual growth look like? What do new believers need? What do old believers need?

Paul’s letter to the Colossians this morning helps us answer these questions. Because in these four verses, the apostle Paul tells us what he is praying for concerning these new believers at Colossae. Here we get a glimpse of what Paul’s priorities are for this new church of new Christians. And because Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, it also shows us Jesus’ own priorities for His church.

How should we minister to new believers? More to the point this morning is, How should we pray for new believers? Do new believers need programs tailored to their stage in life? Do they need worship services that are excellent and well done? Yes. But is there something that believers new - and old - need more than that and before all of that? Yes. At least four things, actually. But one at a time.

First, we pray that they grow in their knowledge of God.

#1: Pray that they grow in knowledge of God

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the cknowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

So Paul says that he prays for the Colossians that they would grow in the knowledge of God. Now notice that it is knowledge he prays for first. In our practical and pragmatic society, and especially in the church setting like Willow Creek, the one we talked about earlier, knowledge would seem to be not what the average person is searching for. “Give me some thing I can actually take and apply to my life today. Tell me how I can be a better parent, a better student, a better husband, a better wife, a better employee. Tell me how God can help me fulfill my potential and actualize my dreams. Don’t bore me with all of the knowledge about God. All I need to know is what to actually do.”

But you see, the Bible reverses this. God knows of our tendency to gravitate toward action and away from what we perceive to be in action. And Paul seems to imply that before we can learn to obey God and increase in good works, before we can grow in obedience to God, we must first grow in our knowledge of God.

But notice what kind of knowledge it is. It is knowledge of the “will of God.” We tend to think of the will of God as though it were a mystery. Who should I marry or what school should I go to or should I stay at my current church or find another one? We assume God has hidden His will from us and it’s our job to discover it. He has one choice for us and it’s our job to figure it out. But when Paul talks about the will of God, it’s simpler than that. Doing the will of God in the NT is not so much discovering something hidden that God wants you to do; doing the will of God is more like doing what you already know God wants you to do. Obeying His commands. Avoiding what He hates. Pursuing what He loves. Learning to walk by faith and walk in love and humility. That’s doing the will of God.

In other words, you have to know theology. That’s what the “will of God” here means. Have you ever thought of yourself as a theologian? You are. Everyone is a theologian. It really doesn’t matter whether you’ve been to school for theology, and you don’t need to go to school for theology or to seminary. The fact is that if you think about God at all or talk about him at all, you are a theologian question is are you a good one or bad one. And the reason this is the reason why Paul place his knowledge before obedience.

Ill. No why does Paul do this? I suspect it is because he understands what the English author CS Lewis also understood. CS Lewis said that theology, doctrine, or knowledge of God as Paul phrases it here, it’s like a map getting you from point a to point B. The fact is that the map is not the destination itself. Shannon and I are going to Phoenix tomorrow for the pastors conference. It would be really foolish of us to look up the distance and the map on our GPS software and sit and stare at that the whole time they were actually in Phoenix. Why? Because the math is not the thing. In the same way theology is not God, but it does tell you about God, what his will is for you. Theology tells us what God is, what he does, but he likes and doesn’t like, was he when he expects from us, what we can expect him to do for us. And that way theology is like a map that tells us which way to go in the Christian life.

But Paul doesn’t stop at wisdom. You’ll notice this and this is very important, in verse nine, he explains to us what kind of use we are to put that knowledge to. He says increasing in the knowledge of God with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now what is wisdom? In the Bible, wisdom is simply the ability to know how to live and walk out the truth about God and the Christian life that you know. Wisdom puts feet and hands on knowledge, wisdom is knowledge of God at work. Because you see, there’s knowing the truth and then there’s knowing what to do with it. There’s knowing the right thing to do, and then there’s having the wisdom to know when and how to do it.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 3

2 A time to give birth and a time to die;

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

3 A time to kill and a time to heal;

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4 A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost;

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak.

8 A time to love and a time to hate;

A time for war and a time for peace.

So this is the first way we pray for new believers. We pray for them to grow in their knowledge of God. We pray for them, in other words, that they may become full-fledged disciples.

Ill. As I look back on my early life as a Christian, I see that both things were missing. I grew up at Burkemont Baptist Church in Morganton. The older I get, the prouder I become of my home church. Back during the 1980s as a kid, we were one of the only churches in the state of NC that had more people in Sunday School than we had in worship. A normal Sunday would typically see over 500 people in Sunday School. Our youth group was big and active and fun. The church constantly had programs like Christian theater, concerts, classes - anything you could imagine. On top of that, there were dozens of men who have been called out of that church into full-time pastoral ministry over its 105 year history.

Ill2. But something was missing amid all of that and I was too young to see it at the time. I was baptized at the age of five, which is problematic to begin with. But then, beyond that, even though I was baptized at the age of five, it would be 12 more years before anyone would seriously attempt to disciple me - one-on-one. And as I remember it, all of those activities and concerts and trips were tons of fun. But when our new youth pastor, who is still there now 24 years later, took me and two other guys and started spending time with us and doing Saturday morning Bible studies with us, that’s when things started to change in my life. But I didn’t grow. Because activities are good, but they don’t by themselves produce disciples.

So we are to pray, and to work, that new believers would grow in their knowledge of God. Second, we are to pray that they would grow in their obedience to God.

#2: Pray that they grow in their obedience to God

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, bto please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

Next, we pray that they grow in their obedience to God.

Ill. Mark Twain once encountered a very self-centered and egotistical businessman from Boston. This man stood and bragged to Mark Twain, “I can do whatever I want to do, and no one will stop me. Once I’m determined to do something, no one stands in my way.” Mark Twain was unimpressed. So the businessman went a bit further and gave him an example. He said, “I’ll tell you what. Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And when I’m up there I’m gonna read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top of my voice.” Still, though, Mark Twain was unimpressed. He said, “I got a better idea for you.” The businessman, eager to show Twain that he would gladly accept any challenge, wasn’t prepared for what he heard. Twin said, “Instead of climbing up Mt. Sinai and yelling the Ten Commandments at the top of your lungs....why don’t you try this: just stay in Boston, and keep them.” [Swindoll, p413]

You see, knowledge of God is not just something you can gain and store away. It’s there to be used. God is not a subject to be mastered. He is the Great King over all the Earth, and He means to be obeyed. Which is why Paul, after he writes “we ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of HIs will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”, he then writes of the purpose that knowledge and understand. What is that purpose? “That you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).

Of course, we fail to do obey God as we should. None of us lives with complete consistency. And thankfully God is patient, so very, very patient; more patient with us than we could ever imagine. But that should lead us not toward complacency but toward a desire to live for Him, not in order to gain His approval and love, but because we already have it.

Ill. But it’s easy to get the kind of growth we are called to pursue wrong. Apparently in the last couple of decades a new niche market has opened up for farmers - two, actually. They are agritourism and agritainment. Basically both of these involve using a farm not for harvesting crops or raising cattle, but rather for things like petting corrals, hay-bale mases, and things like that. One farmer in Arizona is known to make about $15,000 in one weekend. Farms are increasingly being used not for farming but for various kinds of entertainment. I like what one author said about this: “Sometimes a Christian, or a church, can resemble an entertainment farmer. For whatever reason, we are diverted from the central purpose of producing a copy. Fruitfulness is God’s will for every Christian and every church.” [Larson, p. 187]

The Bible uses this image of fruit-bearing to describe the kind of growth that each church is called to produce. We talked about this two weeks ago. Numerical growth is good and we should desire and it work toward it, but it is not the kind of growth we should pursue first, nor is it the most important kind of growth. Growth in godliness is the most important kind of growth. Church members who are believers who have become disciples is our goal. We want to have a spiritually growing church, and if we have that, then we are in a healthy position for numerical growth. If we start with numerical growth, we end up like the farmers who have abandoned farming for entertaining. There’s nothing wrong per se with a farmer who gives up farming for entertainment, but there’s a serious problem with a church that gives up making disciples and replaces it with entertainment.

Two kinds of gospel growth each church is called to be part of :

Outward expansion (missions and evangelism)

Inner transformation (discipleship and sanctification) \

In fact, there are two kinds of gospel growth each church is called to be a part of. The first is what I call outward expansion. This is missions and evangelism. We want to expand outward, outside these walls and into our community and across the globe. We see this in the passage we looked at two weeks ago. In Col. 1:6 Paul talks about the gospel which has come to the Colossians and how, just as it is doing its work among them to save them and sanctify them, it is also “in all the world constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you” (Col. 1:6). Our money already leaves this building for our community and the world. My desire is for us to follow the money with our hearts and hands.

The second kind of gospel growth each church is called to be a part of, besides outward expansion, is what I call inner transformation. This is the kind of growth we see here in verse 10: “bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” This growth, Paul says, is to be comprehensive: we are to bear fruit "n every good work”. And this work is ongoing: He uses the present tense, “bearing fruit” and “increasing in the knowledge of God”. And since this is an ongoing work within us, we never stop growing.

We know from elsewhere in the Bible that while this inner growth is something we cooperate with, ultimately it is something God does within us by grace. Phil. 1:6 says “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6 NASB). And we know from this same verse that God will finish that work within us. Your growth as a believer, your sanctification, your progress in becoming like Jesus will one day be completed, at your death or Jesus’ return, and for all eternity you will sing the praises of the One who gets all the credit, because ultimately He did the work.

That’s the second thing we pray for new believers: that they will grow in obedience to God. The third thing we pray for new believers is that they will be strengthened in the power of God.

#3: Pray that they will be strengthened in the power of God

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

We’ve talked about growing in our knowledge of God; we’ve talked about growing in our obedience to God. But because God is ultimately the one at work to do these things in us, and because we are not naturally inclined to do these things, Paul tells us to pray for the spiritual strength of our fellow believers.

Look with me at verse 11 and we will learn something not only about how Paul prays for the spiritual strength of believers, but also about the nature of this strength available to us as believers. “Strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.” Sol the first thing we see is that this strengthening is not something we can do ourselves. How do we know that? We know that because this verb “strengthened” is a passive tense verb. It doesn’t say “I pray that they might strengthen themselves.” It’s not an action we perform. Paul writes “I pray that they might be strengthened”, i.e. that they might be strengthened by someone else - of course, by God.

Then notice with me something else. This strength not only is not something we can give ourselves; this is real power. It is divine power. He says “strengthened…according to His glorious might.” The Greek literally says, “with all power, being strengthened according to the might of His glory”. Think of the glory of God - the blazing, brilliant, radiant, searing, penetrating, white-hot glory of the all-holy God. The glory of God in the burning bush. The glory of God as He descended upon Mt. Sinai to give Moses the law. The glory of God displayed in the Egyptian plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. The glory of God is the holiness of God on display. God’s glory is His holiness made tangible and visible.

Now think about all of that - keep it in your mind, and return with me to verse 11: “strengthened with all power, according to power of His glory”. When Paul says he prays for us to be strengthened with power in accordance with the glory of God, that’s the kind of power he means. The power of God that manifests itself in blinding, blazing glory - the power of creation and nature - the power that shakes mountains and opens tombs and dries up rivers and destroys His people’s enemies - it is that power that Paul says we are to be strengthened with. It is an infusion of that same divine strength into our lives.

It is that power, moreover, that Paul says we are to pray for in the lives of believers both new and old. How many of you would like to have that kind of power in your life? How many of you feel a need for that kind of power in your life? It’s not power to make you get perfect grades or shoot successful three-pointers every time you step up to the line. God’s power can’t be manipulated; His power in our lives is not to be reduced to a means of getting what we want and fulfilling our goals and maximizing our achievements.

But His power is available to us, in the person of His Son and through His Spirit, for the defeating of sin in our lives; it is given to us for the doing of good works and the pursuit of holiness. It is power given to us to enable us to serve others and love them sacrificially. And, most importantly, as Paul goes on to say in verse 11, it is power to help us endure. He says “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience” (Col. 1:11 NASB).

Steadfastness vs. patience

Steadfastness: the ability to bear up under suffering

Patience: the ability to bear with the failings of others

Steadfastness and patience? That’s pretty specific. Steadfastness is another name for endurance. Endurance is moral strength here - the ability to bear up under suffering and keep on doing the right thing, keep on serving, keep on loving, keep on worshiping and doing what God has called us to do.

Ill. One author I read this past week described endurance this way. Endurance here is kind of like one of those punching toys for kids? It’s an inflatable but it has a heavy weight, usually sand, in the bottom. You punch it and it’ll go down - maybe way down depending on how strong you are. But just as sure it goes down, it’ll come back up. [Swindoll, p437]

There are areas of the world where you’ll take a hit simply for naming the name of Jesus. In these places, simply being a Christian requires levels of endurance and perseverance that are practically unheard in Western Christianity. I would suggest to you, church, that endurance is something that is lacking in most American churches precisely for that reason.

We’ve never had to suffer for our faith. It’s never been hard to be a Christian in the United States. But it is very possible that one day it will be. We need to begin preparing for it now. I don’t know when it will come or if it will come or how bad it will be. But one thing is certain, church: we will not face it alone. Don’t believe for a second that God abandons His people when they suffer for His sake. No, that’s when He shows up. He won’t necessary spare us the suffering. But He will give us power and might in direct proportion with His great glory - power to enable us to bear up, to bounce back, to keep on going, and to do so - incredibly - with joy.

But no less difficult is the second virtue Paul mentions here after steadfastness. He mentions patience. If you were to open a concordance and look up all the occasions where this word patience occurs in the Bible, you would find it very often being used to describe God’s patience with us. If you had the old KJV, it would read “long-suffering.” God is long-suffering - He suffers long, He bears with us at length, far, far beyond the point at which we would give up on someone else. Here, though, we are the ones called to have patience with others. God knows how hard that can be. So He makes His own power - His own patience, even - available to us to help us.

Who are you called to be patient with? Your spouse? That’s a big one, right? Marriage can be tough. There’s all kinds of room for resentment and frustration and anger and hurt. God’s patience meets us there. How about your co-worker? The one with the poor work ethic or the one, or the one who can’t stop gossiping, or the one who can’t seem to ever be at his desk on time - the person whose work you end up doing, and maybe they get the credit? That’s tough, right? God’s patience meets you there, too.

Let’s be known for patience, church. What a witness to an impatient world if the church of Christ could finally learn to mirror the patience of Christ? We’re not known for that right now. You know what we’re known for, increasingly? A new survey found that evangelical Christians are known now for their belief in the Q-Anon conspiracies; and a large portion of us are now known for our conviction that political violence is necessary to achieve our political aims. Now we know Jesus said that we would be hated for HIs names’ sake. But all we’re doing with all of that mess is giving the world more reasons to hate us. Let’s not give them unnecessary reasons to hate us.

But the bigger problem here, church, is that evangelicals used to be known for the gospel message. That was what we were known for. Not anymore. More and more , we are becoming known for our political persuasions, and less and less for the gospel. Now some of you might not want to hear that, I don’t know. But if we’re honest, we have to admit that it’s true. And I do know this: That must change. The good news of Jesus Christ is not a political platform calling Democrats to repent. The good news of Jesus Christ is a message of salvation through faith in Christ for all who repent, and only those who repent, Democrats and Republicans. Let’s be known for the gospel message, the message that in Christ God is showing the world patience.

And then we, the church, standing with open arms of love and grace and patience for others, will give that message credibility and believability. Tearing people apart on social media is not Christlike. Extending grace and love to those who could not be more unlike us - being patient with those we disagree with, speaking the truth in love - it might not get the adrenaline flowing as much, but boy is it healing. And that is what our nation and our churches and our families so desperately need. May God give us strength for this - His strength.

So we pray for new believers - and old believers - to be strengthened by the power of God. Lastly, we pray that they will joyfully and increasingly give thanks to God.

#4: Pray that they will joyfully give thanks to God

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

We are called to give thanks to God. And we are called to pray that our fellow believers would increasingly and joyfully give thanks to God. But notice how Paul describes God. He doesn’t use the generic name for “God”. He says “giving thanks to the Father”. How appropriate! The amazing truth is that for believers who have placed faith in Christ, the primary relationship we have with God is not that of a subject with a king, or that of a citizen to a president; it’s not that of a criminal to a judge or even first foremost that of a creature to the Creator. Our relationship with God is first and foremost the relationship of a child - a son or daughter - to our Father.

And not only does Paul call God Father. He identifies God not only by His Fatherly title but also by what our Father has done for us. “Giving thanks to the Father,” Paul writes, “who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Have you ever felt spiritually unworthy? Have you ever felt unworthy to serve in the capacity you serve in? Maybe you feel unworthy even to go into God’s presence in prayer. Maybe some of you have turned down opportunities to serve as a deacon or a Sunday School teacher because you feel unworthy.

I have news for you: the person standing before you this morning preaching is unworthy! Every person in this room is unworthy! I won’t stand here and tell you that you are worthy. Why not? Because the good news of the gospel is not the that unworthy people who felt unworthy are actually worthy. What new and old Christians need to understand - and what we should pray for them to be able to grasp is that truth that none of us is worthy even to be able to draw our next breath! And the good news of the gospel is that despite this - despite our deep unworthiness, God has chosen to consider us worthy, and because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, the Father has “qualified us” - He has made us adequate, He has imbued us with the qualifications necessary to receive, in Paul’s words, “a share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”

What is that inheritance? Paul tells us in the very next verses, verses 13-14: “For He rescued 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.” The inheritance of believers is nothing short of a kingdom in which we will stand forgiven, redeemed, and loved eternally as sons and daughters of God. And why is it so important for new and old Christians to understand this now? Why should we pray that new believers will grasp the fact of their future inheritance when there are so many pressing present issues? Because nothing else will motivate us to live faithfully here and now than understanding and being assured of our heavenly future then and there.

So this is how we pray for new - and old - believers.

Conclusion and call for response

So who is there this morning that you need to pray for? We’ve seen four ways to pray for believers both new and old, but maybe God is showing you someone who needs a different kind of prayer: a prayer for healing, a prayer for comfort and encouragement. No matter what kind of prayer God is leading you to pray, here’s my challenge to you this morning: Write that person’s first name in your Bible beside these verses. And read these short verses every day for 30 days. And as you do so, commit to pray for that person every day.

Ill. Dr. Donald Barnhouse was pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Barnhouse was famous for his pioneering work in the radio broadcasting of preaching. He is also famous for something else. One Sunday morning he shocked his audience and everyone listening on the air as he stepped into the pulpit and said three words in the opening of his sermon. He said, “Prayer changes nothing!”

You could’ve heard a pin drop as those three words thundered from the pulpit and reverberated through that sanctuary that was packed with people. It was one of those comments that was intended to make an impact. He wasn’t saying that prayer was a waste of time. He went on to clarify what he meant. He meant that God is sovereign; that God’s will is never thwarted or hindered; that God always accomplishes what He sets out to accomplish; that God is going to do His will, and that prayer is not a tool we can use to manipulate God into doing our will. Chuck Swindoll says this: “Our times are literally in His hands. No puny human being by uttering a few words in prayer takes charge of events and changes them. God does the shaping, the changing; it is He who is in control.” [Swindoll, p451]

That is true. It’s biblical. But still we are commanded to pray. As we’ve seen this morning, we pray that they would grow in the knowledge of God, that they would grow in obedience to God, that they would be strengthened with the power of God, and that they would joyfully give thanks to God. God in charge of all of those things. God will accomplish those things in the lives of all who trust in Him through His Son. God longs to do those things in our lives and in the lives of everyone who comes to Him through Christ.

But something else He longs to do? He longs to use our prayers to accomplish those things. God will grow His own in the knowledge of Himself. But He yearns to do that in response to our prayers. God will grow His own in obedience. But He wants to do that in response to our prayers. God will strengthen His own with divine power. But He’ll do it in response to our prayers. And God will enable His own to do all of this with thanksgiving and joy. But all of it will be in response to our prayers.