Jesus Christ- King of the cosmos, head of the Church. (2)
Notes
Transcript
An Apostles Prayer- 2
An Apostles Prayer- 2
Subject: The necessity of God’s strength
Comp: Endurance, Joyful Patience, Thanksgiving
Main Idea: God’s strength is necessary for endurance, joyful patience.
Preaching theme- Our need for God’s strength in endurance, joyful patience, that the Christian may live a life pleasing to God.
Big Takeaway- God delivers and empowers us to live for Him.
Intro/hook:
Most scholars estimate that the apostle Paul traveled some 10,000 miles during his missionary journeys and much of that by foot!
Rough terrain and harsh opposition did not stop him. Beatings, stoning’s, being shipwrecked and stranded, hiking up and down mountains, countless sleepless nights, desert heat, hunger, sickness, spiritual warfare.
Paul knew how important certain virtues were for the Christian walk by the time he wrote this letter. And so he prayed.
It is for this reason that the apostle Paul prays that the Colossians would be strengthened with all power from God, for endurance and patience.
We are in Colossians explain background...
Book: Let’s read... Read whole paragraph.
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, 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; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered 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.
Pray. God we know that your Word does something powerful in us when your Spirit is doing a work in us. Would you, by the power of your Word and your Spirit, work mightily in us so that we would grow in virtue and ultimately bring you the glory you deserve? Amen.
Alright I am just gonna jump strait into point number one...
Point #1 We walk.
I’d like to share about an epic story from the early twentieth century. It’s a story of an explorer named Ernest Shackleton and the year was 1914. Earnest Shackleton and crew were going to go a great expedition down in the Antarctic. They set sail from Argentina and we’re going to land on one side of the Antarctic and then dog sled 2,000 miles to the other side of the Antarctic where they would be picked up by a different ship and of course come back and be very wealthy and famous explorers. If you’re familiar with the story, you know that that is not what took place. Instead as the ship met the icy cold waters of the Antarctic it’s soon became immovable. The ice began to swallow it up and the men went from being on an expedition to being in the fight of their lives. Time would not permit me to tell of all the horrors they experienced. It is enough to say they spent 17 months in frozen wasteland. They had one small camp stove and very little shelter. They had one set of clothing, which they wore for 17 months straight and were nearly always wet. They had plenty of food with the population of seals that were around. Nevertheless, can you imagine eating seal for breakfast lunch and dinner. Not to mention, it is dark seven months out of the year there. Dark, freezing cold, ice making noises under them as if it will give way any moment, extremely little hope of making it out alive and yet the men made it. They weren’t wealthy expeditioners, but they had an epic tale to tell.
There are two things about the story cause me to share, one is how much this story is like the story of the Christian journey that Paul paints for us, the other is that the ships name is Endurance.
Endurance would be crucial for the Colossian church and for us today.
The Colossians were gonna have to deal with some unsavory people who had slipped in and caused dissension and ultimately distorted the gospel message.
The world’s government was Roman and we all know that Rome was not friendly toward those who had an allegiance that superceded the allegiance to their own Emperor.
Persecutions would be a very real thing in the times of the early church as it is in some places even now.
Paul pray’s that the Colossian church would be strengthened with power according to God’s glorious might, not man’s might, God’s might for endurance.
So that they could “walk”. And not just walk, but walk in a manner worthy of the calling of which they recieved.
Endurance is something you need in any race. Unless it’s a half mile race, and even that you better pace yourself. It is easy to see why Paul would call on the Lord to give them endurance.
With all that makes the Christian walk difficult, with no endurance they would surely fall in a pile of mush along the way.
They needed endurance for the walk and we need endurance for our walk.
Not only endurance, Paul prayed for patience.
Why patience?
Point #2. We wait.
According to at least one study, 96 percent of Americans will knowingly consume extremely hot food or drink that burns their mouth; 63 percent do so frequently.
More than half of the people interviewed would hang up a phone after being on hold one minute or less.
71 percent of the people frequently exceed the speed limit to get to their destination faster.
One of the most interesting things I read from recent studies was how people were given an option to choose between a small amount of money given to them now or a larger amount in the future. The ones that chose the smaller amount of money actually took longer to cash their check once they received it. They propose there is a correlation between impatience and procrastination. People who are impatient are also more likely to procrastinate.
I love what one lady said, “patience may be a virtue, but it is no longer a reality”.
If we are to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, we need patience. If you wanna bring him glory we need to be a patient people.
Why, because we are waiting. We are waiting for Jesus Christ to return.
It is something we may wait our whole lives for. We need patience.
Not only that but while we wait, we are to be growing in Christ. Maturing as believers.
The Lord’s brother, James speaks into this concept when he says...
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Patience and endurance are two ways of describing essentially the same thing here. They’re two different elements to the same concept, namely the ability to suffer long or “perseverance”. The ability to persevere under trying circumstances.
Paul says elsewhere in Romans
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
We are walking and we are waiting and at the same time God is working something out in us.
Patience is a virtue we could all use some growth in I am sure. If you want to grow in patience, you can do as Paul did and pray for patience, or you could just go fishing.
Besides, impatience is not a way to bring glory to God. It is not the way of glorious behavior.
Took:
So what do we take away from this passage?
I wanna read it again, just verses Col. 1:11-14.
being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered 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.
Well we take away that we each need to pray for endurance and patience for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters on their Christian journey.
We take away that God the father qualifies us, and that it doesn’t matter who else qualifies or disqualifies us in life.
We take away that we have been delivered from darkness into the domain of light.
We take-away that we are right now citizen’s of Jesus Christ’s kingdom.
We take away that when we are in Christ we have redemption from and forgiveness for our sins. That’s past, present, and future sins.
And the biggest one is that it is God who gives us strength for living a life pleasing to Him.
Some huge take-away’s for us. And in just two sentences.
How about looking forward? How can this change us for the better?
We can grow in the confidence that...
Look:
Anything God calls us to do, he will empower us to do.
How is it that we can have endurance? It is because the God of endurance is with us.
In Romans Paul calls God the God of endurance and encouragement.
God is the God of endurance and he is with us.
We’ve all heard of the guy who bought property and was living on welfare at some point and later oil companies told him he was living on a giant oil reservoir to which he owns all the rights.
That’s how it is for us, we have the resources of God at our disposal but we often forget.
Paul knew firsthand where his endurance and patience and wisdom came from, and he was praying for, and reminding the Colossians to turn to the source.
So what do we do?
There was a group of students who came to their rabbi and asked why God didn’t just give the Israelites enough mana to last a year. Why did the Israelites only get enough to eat for each day. The rabbi responded with a parable. He said there once was a king who had a son and he would give him a yearly allowance paying him the entire song on a fixed date it’s soon happened that the day on which the allowance was due was the only day of the year when the father ever saw his son so the king changed his plan and gave the song day by day that which was sufficient for the day and then the son visited his father every morning. Oh how he needed his father's unbroken love companionship wisdom and giving thus God dealt with Israel and thus God deals with us in our daily walk. We must turn to God daily for wisdom and patience and endurance. Not because God is some megalomaniac eager testicle needy God but because God loves us and wants a relationship with us and knows that we are prone to wander and like a good parent God knows that which is best for his children.
We get what we need for anything that God calls us to when we turn to him for what we need to get the job done. And he gives us what we need for each day when we turn to him.
I’ve heard it said that failure in the Christian experience is not an explosion, it’s more like a slow leak.
We need to turn to God daily, and he will help us to grow in the virtues that will help us bring him glory with our lives.
Anything God calls us to do, he will empower us to do.
I’d like to end with us all praying the Lord’s prayer together.
Would you stand and pray with me?
This is king James version, I’m sorry but it’s the best when it comes to the Lords prayer in my opinion..
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Benediction:
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you may go in peace. Amen.