Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction – Today is the 3rd Sunday of 2022.

Only 49 more Sundays left in 2022 haha.

I so missed being with you last Sunday and when Lynn Carrel called me to see if he needed to get in touch with Sawyer-George Funeral Home, I kind of felt like Mark Twain: “The news of my death is greatly exaggerated.”

Cheryl and I appreciate your prayers and texts and calls of encouragement.

I’m so thankful for the message Josh preached last week from Rev. 1:8 about Jesus being the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning & the end, God who is, who was & who is to come, the Almighty.

He did a tremendous job fleshing out what that means and his message last Sunday really fits well with my message today as we’ll see shortly.

But as Josh was preaching and I was taking notes,

BTW you ought to always take notes when you’re hearing preaching to help you pay attention, gives you something to refer back to, and even allows you to jot down thoughts the HS gives you as you interact with the Word of God.

And the message you hear on Sunday is God’s primary message & conversation He wants to have with you during the week.

(That’s all free material this morning…)

But as I was taking notes, regarding that verse, I was reminded of a statement I saw from a fellow pastor a few weeks ago around Christmas: “Jesus isn’t just the reason for the season, He’s the reason for everything!” Amen???

That text from Revelation affirms that.

We’re still early in 2022 and I don’t about you but I’m still working on some goals I’d like to accomplish this year.

I’m in planning mode for our church calendar - please let me know about fellowship & outreach ideas you may have.

I’m in planning mode for my personal and professional life.

One of the things the Lord has convicted me of is a need to get back into the mode of operation I heard through Dr. Patterson which he got from the late great W.A. Criswell.

Criswell challenged young pastors as far as their schedules: “Give your mornings to God, the afternoons to your church and your evenings to your family.”

In other words it must be a priority for me to study intently God’s Word so I can be a workman, who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”

(2nd Tim.

2:15).

I love doing pastoral care which is a twin pillar to pastoral preaching and teaching.

The longer I preach and teach the more I know I need to study.

I believe you all deserve a hot fresh meal from the Word of God and I’m always wanting to improve in my communication of the Word, and hone my preaching craft.

It doesn’t mean you can’t reach out to me in the mornings if you need something - listen I had 5 kids so I’m very well able to pause & get back to it.

It just means I’m going to prioritize my study of the Scriptures over administrative work I need to do here at the church.

We began the first Sunday talking about spiritual goals for 2022 from Colossians 1:9-10 - to be well pleasing to Him and the knowledge of His will.

Specifically since we know it’s God’s will to be a witness for Christ, and the simple tool of sharing your testimony, your God story with others.

If you got to share, I’d love to hear about it!

Today I want to continue this idea of being well pleasing to God with another spiritual goal for 2022 - “Increasing in the Knowledge of God” Read Col. 1:9-12 for context.

So the question is, how do we increase in the knowledge of God, how are we filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding?

How do we walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to Him and bearing fruit?

There’s only one way: literally being saturated with the Word of God!

Transition - Our text presents two urgent needs in order to be well pleasing to God.

1.

The urgent need of a transformed will -

Explanation - Earlier here in chapter 1, Paul assures the believers at Colosse of his prayers and thankfulness to God for their faith in Christ (vs.

3-6).

In vs. 3 Paul tells them he’s always praying for them - in other words he regularly prays for them.

Here in vs. 9 we have an even more forceful statement: “We do not cease to pray for you!” Think about that for a moment.

The apostle Paul was a busy man.

The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome but we’re told Paul was able to receive visitors (all who came to him) in his own rented house, preaching and teaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence and no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31).

Yet in spite of Pauls busy meeting, teaching and preaching schedule, he tells the Colossians he doesn’t cease to pray for them!

Why is Paul urgently praying for them?

It’s right there in the next phrase: “and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will.”

Notice this important fact: It’s that the Colossians be transformed by being filled with the knowledge of His will, not their will.

You see Paul was painfully aware of the turf war that takes place in a believer’s heart, life, & soul every single day.

It is literally a battle of the will where we have to choose between worship of ourselves or worship of Jesus Christ by deciding: “Am I going to do God’s will today or am I going to pursue my own will, passions and desires?”

The bottom line on this prayer request Paul is making to God is that they would surrender to the will and Lordship of Jesus Christ.

How does the knowledge of God’s will come?

Last phrase of vs. 9 “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”

Our problem is that we live in a fallen world that is literally consumed with worldly viewpoints, worldly priorities, worldly politics, worldly infatuation with our physical bodies, physical beauty, greed for money, power & influence.

It is difficult to think in the spiritual realm and look at life the way God sees it.

The first and most important step of being well pleasing to God is having a transformed will that begins with right thinking, seeing every situation from a Biblical worldview, a worldview of how God views everything in our lives, from our relationships, to our jobs, to our families, to what our priorities should be, to our relationships with other believers and fellow humans who are lost and doomed for eternity in hell.

That spiritual understanding and wisdom and will of God must shape how God views sin in our lives and how God defines what is right and what is wrong.

The bottom line is where our source of truth comes from.

Does it come from God or Satan?

Most of us are guilty of “stinkin’ thinkin’!”

This battle for truth, for what’s right and what’s wrong and how we think and view the world has direct impact on how we behave.

Consider these Biblical admonitions to deal with “stinkin’ thinkin’:

Rom.

12:2 - “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Not being conformed and be transformed are imperatives, or commands!

Col. 3:1-5 - look over one page in your Bible!

See the world wants you to think that God is okay with just a little bit of sin, as long as you don’t go off the deep-end.

Eph.

4:23 - “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

1st Cor.

2:14 - “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The CSB translates this last phrase: “he is not able to understand it since it has to be evaluated spiritually.”

Just a few verses over in 1st Cor.4:19 God says: “For the wisdom of the this world is foolishness with God.”

You see how we need a radical transformation of our will which comes through how we think?

And yet how much of our lives is shaped by what we see and hear on social media, on the news, in TV & movies and popular books, our friends or circles of influence?

I have news for you, 1 hour of Bible preaching is never going to overcome the plethora of worldly voices shaping how you think!

Illustrate - The sad thing is Satan does it so innocently.

He introduces filth to you by presenting it in such a way as to tug on your emotional heartstrings.

He’ll have you emotionally involved in a Christmas movie 3/4’s of the way into it and Satan will have two homosexual characters kiss and declare their love for each other!

Or he will have you believing the ends justify the means as long as the bad guy goes to jail, it doesn’t matter if the police officers broke a few rules along the way to get there.

He’ll have you sympathizing with your friend who wants a divorce because they “fell out of love” and they are sure God wants them to be happy; they’re so convinced of that & they can’t wait to tell you about someone new they met.

Satan will have you to believe that you don’t have to be married and you can just live together and have all the happiness and perks of marriage without being tied down.

Satan has one goal in all of that foolishness, to destroy lives!

Argumentation - Yet God’s absolute truth is there are two genders, male & female.

God’s absolute truth is that marriage is reserved for man & woman, for Adam and Eve and not Adam & Steve.

God’s absolute truth is the absolute best sex in the world is monogamous sex within the confines of marriage between a husband and wife in a life-long commitment exclusively to each other & that all sex outside of marriage between a man & woman, husband and wife is in fact sexual immorality.

Where does all that absolute truth come from?

It comes from God’s Word.

It is how God sanctifies us and makes us holy and more like Jesus.

This is Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, the urgent need for a transformed will that is fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

2. The urgent need of a transformed walk -

Explanation - The logical next step from having a transformed will, heart and mind surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ translates into how we walk or behave, how we conduct ourselves.

“That you walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God…” The only way we increase in the knowledge of God, the only way we can transform our behavior, our walk, our manner of behavior and thinking; is a steady, consistent diet of the Word of God.

Notice the progression, being filled with the knowledge of His will, leads to wisdom and spiritual understanding because we understand how God thinks and what His desires are - wisdom is the ability to live life skillfully the way God designed according to “the Owners manual.”

That produces dramatic changes in how we walk or live our daily lives.

That life transformation pleases God, produces spiritual kingdom fruit, produces good works and helps us grow to think like God and live like God.

Our lives begin to model the life of Christ!

Jesus literally changes your “want to’s” and your “did do’s and will do’s.”

You say I don’t know if I can actually do that!

You’re right but God can and does!

Where is that?

Right there in vs. 11 - “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience, and long-suffering with joy.”

You see it’s God’s Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of God Himself in the 3rd person of the Trinity who lives this transformed life in you and through you!

It’s God’s glorious power that transforms you - The indwelling & filling of the Holy Spirit - the paraklete does a divine work in you the you’re tempted to sin, He reminds you of the clear teaching of God’s Word you’ve studied and how to apply that teaching to that situation you’re facing in real time!

Illustrate - Some co-worker begins to flirt with you, your flesh and ego are flattered that someone is noticing you.

The Holy Spirit instantly reminds you you’re married!