Sermon Tone Analysis

When Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy he once remarked to his mother, "Momma, you can't be good without praying."

"How do you know, Robert?" she asked.

"Because I've tried!" he answered.

This brings to mind a story about another little fellow -- one who had been sent to his room because he had been bad.

A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I've been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer."

"That's fine," she said, "if you ask God to make you good, He will help you."

"Oh, I didn't ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy.

"I asked Him to help you put up with me."

Different perspectives when it comes to prayer.

One of the things that is of note that affect our prayer lives today.

Are we really understanding the will of God for our lives and do we really know what it is to be pleasing to God.

This is the content of the prayer that the Apostle Paul prays for the Christians in Colossae.

Of all the things that we pray for today does it include the clarity of the will of God and to do those things that actually please Him.

Paul’s prayer here does not just give us an example of what it is we should be praying for, but also shows the nature of what is actually important in our lives as Christians.

When we hear the will of God for our lives mentioned, what is it that comes to mind?

The current culture and self improvement techniques tend to cause us to see the will of God more in the sense of how it affects me personally.

What is the will of God for me.

For instance many times when we read about or hear about “the will of God,” we immediately think about my vocation or career choice or for some aspect of my future that is determined by an impending choice that I have to make at some point or in the distant future.

We “seek the Lord’s will” over whom we should marry, where we should go to school, over major purchases, over what church to attend, or what to do about current crisises.

When a huge decision is to be made in life, the first thing people will say is what is God’s will for you.

Not that any of these things are bad in it of itself, but it does create a real problem or at least misleading to me.

It causes us to see the will of God only in terms of my career, marriage, future, or some kind of self-centered category.

We are so concerned with finding out the will of God for my life that we neglect the will of God for your life.

Instead of leading a person to find the will of God for their lives we should be encouraging them to do the will of God for their lives.

The prayer of the psalmist is not teach me your will, but teach me to do your will.

So concerned about God’s will for our lives that we neglect the will of God for everything.

Let’s take a better look at this in our passage of scripture today...

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

The Will of God

Wisdom and Understanding

The Work of God

The first thing we will look at today is the essense of what we should understand as the will of God.

Second, we will explore what the knowledge of the will of God consists of namely, wisdom and understanding.

And finally we will find hope in the the simple work that the Lord desires of us.

Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the philosophies of this world, may cause us to lose perspective on the will of God, it is the truth of the scriptures and the illumination of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to be complete with the knowledge of the will of God that we find in Christ and in Christ alone.

I.

The Will of God

- Teach me to do your will.

A. It is important for us to understand this passage of scripture for it is foundational for us to do what is pleasing to God.

And this is in direct contradiction with the gnostic teachings in Colossae that essentially teach that knowledge is what is important and beginning with Christ is a great place to start, but it is not enough.

Paul is praying that they would receive the “complete knowledge of His will and this is found in Christ and in Christ alone.

vs. 15-20.

B. Paul prays that God will make you full or complete of the knowledge of the will of God.

And this is what is called in the Greek a divine passive.

Paul prays that God is the one to fill us up.

This is not from any of man’s ideals or methods, but what comes from the hand of God.

It is understood that truths may be learned, but divine truths must be reveal to us.

The truth of God’s will must be reveal by God himself.

C.

And the knowledge that Paul prays for is not the gnosis that is urged by the false teachers in Colossae, but uses the greek epignosis.

- Coming to understand something clearly and distinctly as true and valid often with a personal acquaintance that necessitates a positive or negative reaction.

And this is a knowledge of the will of God.

But, well let me have some smarter than me tell you.

Dr. Douglas Moo - What Paul has in mind is not some particular or special direction for one’s life (as we often use the phrase “God’s will”), but a deep and abiding understanding of the revelation of Christ and all that he means for the universe (vv.

15–20) and for the Colossians (vv.

21–23).

Another Commentator writes - The ‘knowledge of God’s will’ is more than simply an insight into how God wants his people to behave: it is an understanding of God’s whole saving purpose in Christ, and hence (as in v. 10b) a knowledge of God himself.

Dr. Poole writes, “and the subject matter of their instant prayer was, that they might attain to a more distinct, clear, and practical knowledge of the mind of God in Christ, and a greater measure of conformity to what he requires in the gospel, ver.

6; Eph.

5:15–17.

John Calvin writes, “The knowledge of the divine will, by which expression he sets aside all inventions of men, and all speculations that are at variance with the word of God.

For his will is not to be sought anywhere else than in his word.

D. We find it in his word.

E.

Here the assumption is that the transformation of character and conduct brought about by the renewal of the Christian’s mind is precisely what equips such a Christian to test and approve God’s will—that is, to discover personally and experientially that his ways are best.

And what is best is found in His word.

F. And through the word we see some content as to some of what the Lord’s will is for you.

G. Something very sobering form the best living NT scholar DA Carson...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.”

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.”

II.

Wisdom and Understanding

- The knowledge of God’s will consists of wisdom and understanding.

A. The translations here tend to make things a bit fuzzy.

We might be tempted to think that this is some kind of esoteric experience is the realm of the spiritual.

But DA Carson and Douglas Moo help us with their rendering…through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

B. So has nothing to do with candles, incense, bongo music, chanting ect.

Or being spooky spiritual.

If you are a Christian then you have received a new spirit and because He is Spirit we receive it in spirit.

It is simply a spiritual format.

It is not how we define spiritual today… lets not confuse this.

"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR), also known as "spiritual but not affiliated" (SBNA), is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth.

- Like the Colossians we are being affected by the culture of this world.

The life we live with the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual growth in accordance to the will of God cannot happen apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.

- But what does this have to do with the knowledge of the will of God.

This rendering assumes that the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives constitute the means by which God fills us with the knowledge of his will.

- Carson helps us with this… “It is perhaps better to take the Greek preposition to mean “which consists of”: the knowledge or perception of God’s will consists of all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.

Knowledge of God’s will is more than knowledge of a certain corpus of doctrine (though it cannot easily be less).

Knowledge of God’s will consists of wisdom (so often tied in the Scripture to knowing how to live) and understanding of all kinds, provided by the Spirit himself.

That is what Paul prays for the Colossians.”

C. Paul prays not for the people to find out the will of God for their lives, but that they will do the will that is already revealed.

We need to not find God’s will for us , but for us to be in conformity to Gods will.

Do we not fell like this is the same message we need to be hearing today.

Just like the Colossians we are feeling the pressure to accommodate to the pressures and the patterns of our current culture.

This is what we should be praying for.

How are we supposed to have the mind of Christ and think like a Christian in our culture today?

How else are we gonna have our hearts and minds come into conformity to the will of God in our current cancel christianity culture?

D. So many today in the church are still fad christianity chasing, gimmick placing, bandwagon jumping, what we desperately need in our culture today a meditative and reflective dependance on the word of God.

E. It is funny that we live in a christian culture where the pursuit of finding out the will of God for our lives is at an all time high and the fundamentals of Bible knowledge at an all time low?

We don’t know the will of God cause we don’t know the Bible.

F. True, basic Bible knowledge does not ensure the kind of knowledge of God’s will that Paul has in mind.

But ignorance of the Bible, the focal place where God has so generously disclosed his will, pretty well ensures that we will not be filled with this knowledge of God’s will, this knowledge that consists in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.