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Colossians

Paul's Prayer For The Colossians

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June 18, 2023
Colossians 1:9-14
Brian Liechty

Prayer

Sanctification & Growth

The Bible

Wisdom & Discernment

Transcript

0:10Well, please join with me as we go to the Lord and ask for his help. Father, we need you right now. We need you in order to understand what this passage is saying, and we need you in order to apply this passage to our lives. So Father, come now and do what only you can do. Help us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, today is Father's Day. It's a day that we honor and celebrate the fathers that God has given us. And so one of the things I am really excited to do today is connect with my dad and let him know just how much that I appreciate him. Another thing, uh, that I hope to do today is take some time to reflect on the blessing of being a Father. Personally.

1:15I'm just so grateful for the three boys that God has given me. In fact, one of my greatest joys over the years has been watching them to grow up and become young men. In fact, every time they take another step to follow Jesus or overcome an obstacle or take on more responsibility, I just can't help but to smile. Well, even though my sons have reached some significant milestones, I still want them to keep growing and maturing. In fact, I want them to grow in their passion and zeal for the Lord. Not only that, I want them to grow in their love for the church and love for the lost. I want them to grow in their ability to lead and disciple others.

2:06And in many ways, Paul wanted something similar for the Colossians. As you probably recall from last week's message, Paul learned from Aris that the Colossians had demonstrated some significant spiritual milestones. As we saw in verses four and five, Paul heard of their faith in Christ and their love for the saints and how their hope was laid up in heaven. And yet Paul still wanted them to grow. He still wanted them to mature. He wanted them, as he says in our letter, to continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. And so what did Paul do about that? How did Paul help the Colossians to grow and mature after all, at this time, he was locked up in prison.

3:01That's when he heard and received this news from EPAs. So how did he help the Colossians to grow? How did he help them to mature? Well, one of the most important things Paul did was pray. In fact, as verse nine of our passage says, he prayed without ceasing. So from the time he heard of the Colossians faith, he prayed for them. And he prayed for them consistently. He prayed for them regularly. He prayed for them routinely. And what we have here in verses nine to 14 is a report on how Paul prayed for them. And in many ways, it's kind of a, a window into Paul's heart for the Colossians. It shows us what he longed for God to do among them.

3:52And so what we're going to do this morning is unpack this prayer from Paul. We're going to investigate it and examine it and see how it applies to our lives. And we're gonna do that by asking three questions. So to begin with, what did Paul pray for? That's the first question that we wanna consider this morning. Again, what did Paul pray for? In other words, what was the focus of Paul's prayer? We'll, look again at verse nine, it says, 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. So Paul prayed that God would fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will. And when we see that word fill there, we typically think of a, a container or something being filled up with a substance or a liquid.

4:53So we think of filling in terms of space and capacity. That's why we talk about filling up a bottle with water or filling up a can with gas. But that's not the kind of filling that Paul was talking about. Paul was talking about being filled in terms of being characterized or known for something. And specifically he wanted them to be filled and characterized with the knowledge of God's will. And Paul's emphasis here, I believe, was on God's revealed will or his moral will. In other words, Paul was asking God to help the Colossians understand what he expected from them, what he wanted from them, what he commanded of them.

5:40And it's important to note that Paul asked God to fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Did you notice that? So Paul didn't want the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, just for the sake of knowledge. He wanted the knowledge of God's will to affect their understanding, their ability to discern the truth. He wanted the, the knowledge of God's will to lead to wisdom, to result in Godly living. And that's a, that's a good reminder for us, isn't it? It's easy in an information age to just be consumers, right? To just consume more and more and more information, and yet not do anything with it.

6:26That's often what we do when we look at social media or we watch the news or we read books. But the knowledge of God's will is meant to be different. It's meant to shape us and change us from within. It's meant to alter and transform our behavior. And thankfully, the Holy Spirit can help us to get practical with the knowledge of God's will. He can help us to apply it to our lives. In fact, that's why Paul prayed the way that he did. That's why he asked God to fill them with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He was referencing the work of the Holy Spirit to do that in our lives. And he did that because Paul knew they needed.

7:16And we need the Spirit's help, not only to know God's will, but to apply it, to live it out. All right? So we know that Paul prayed for God to fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will. But how exactly was that supposed to happen? How are the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will and how are we to be filled with the knowledge of God's will? Well, that happens through the Bible. It happens through God's word, right? God's word is what reveals to us what he desires and expects and commands of us. God's word is what reveals to us how to think and how to act as Christians. Now, it's true, the Bible doesn't contain all the information that we could ever want to know, right? So the, the Bible doesn't tell us how to tie our shoes or how to cook dinner or how to change the oil in our car.

8:16But the Bible does tell us everything we need to know to become a Christian, to live as a Christian, and to grow as a Christian. So the Bible tells us, for instance, how to receive forgiveness for our sins and how to respond to suffering and how to love one another. It tells us how to let go of bitterness and renew our minds and fight our fears. It tells us the kind of person to marry and how to be a faithful employee and how to be salt and light in a very, very dark world.

8:54In other words, the Bible is sufficient for the Christian life. It has all the resources we need to understand and know and live in light of God's will. So brothers and sisters, let me encourage you, do whatever you can, whatever you can to put yourself in front of the Bible. Do whatever you can again, whatever you can to become familiar with God's word. Because it's through God's word. It's through the Bible that he fills us. He characterizes us with the knowledge of his will.

9:40All right, well, so far we've answered our first question. What did Paul pray for? Paul prayed that God would fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will. But that leads to our next question. Why? Why did Paul want the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of his will? Again, why did God want the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will? In other words, what was the purpose or the goal for Paul's prayer? We'll, look again at our text it says, and so from the day we have heard, we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual understanding and wisdom, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him. So according to verse 10, there were two reasons why Paul wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will to begin with.

10:38He wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, so they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And that word walk there is a Jewish metaphor for how a person conducts themselves. And it's a really helpful metaphor because walking is something that we do every single day. So every single day we have opportunities to honor God with our behavior. Every single day we have opportunities to walk in ways that are consistent with God's will. Not only that, but other people see our walk, don't they? Our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members, see the way we conduct ourselves. They observe our behavior.

11:25And of course, Paul prayed that the Colossians walk would be in a manner worthy of the Lord. In other words, he wanted their behavior to be in keeping with or in fitting with Jesus. So as Christians, that's what we are in this room, at least the majority of us as Christians, as those who've taken on the name of Christ, as those who have access to God's revealed will, we should live and behave in such a way that our lives reflect Jesus. We should live and behave in such a way that our lives match up to Jesus as much as possible. So again, Paul wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of his will so that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

12:18But that's not the only reason that Paul wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. He also wanted them to be filled with the knowledge of God's will so that they pleased Jesus. And from what I can tell, these two reasons are actually related. One is meant to lead to the other. Lemme give a an example to explain what I mean. Let's say that I encouraged you to study hard in college in order to get a degree, in order to get a job. Well, in that example, the immediate purpose of studying hard is to get a degree. But the ultimate purpose is to get a job. In other words, getting a degree isn't meant to be an end in and of itself, it's meant to lead to something greater. Well, in verse 10, Paul was using similar logic.

13:14Paul wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord in order to please Jesus. In other words, a life that reflects Jesus isn't meant to be an end in and of itself. It's meant to lead to pleasing him. That's the end goal that Paul had in mind. That's ultimately what we're to be about. So pleasing Jesus or pleasing God as scripture often refers to, that's our, our greatest aim. That's our greatest goal in the Christian life. It's our chief mandate, if you will. It's our number one priority as Christians. It's why Paul said in two Corinthians five, whether we're home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

14:09In fact, Paul said something very similar in second Timothy chapter two. He said, Sharon's suffering is a good soldier in Christ Jesus. He said, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. So Paul was saying, just like soldiers were to be single-minded. So even though we have to participate in the the affairs of daily life, we don't let those things entangle us, right? We don't let those things slow us down, distract us from our job on the battlefield. Instead, we make it our aim to please the one who enlisted us. That's what wakes us up in the morning and motivates us.

14:55That's what captivates our attention throughout the day. That's what drives our decisions and our behavior pleasing him and pleasing him alone. Now, for some of you pleasing God may seem like a little bit of a confusing concept. In fact, you may be wondering if I've been accepted and counted righteous because of Jesus, how can my behavior somehow please or displease God? It just doesn't seem to add up. In other words, you're wondering if the doctrine of justification and scriptures called to please God are somehow at odds, well, let me offer this analogy and see if it helps. Let's say one of my sons walks up to me and starts cussing at me.

15:47Well, that's gonna upset me, right? That's going to be displeasing to me. That's going to grieve my heart. But on the other hand, if one of my sons walks up to me and encourages me, they say something really edifying that's gonna make me happy, that's gonna be pleasing to my ears, that's going to bring joy to my heart. But regardless of whether they cuss at me or they encourage me, they will always be my sons. I will always love them, and I will always be their father. So even though their behavior affects the quality of our relationship, it doesn't affect the status of the relationship. Even though their behavior affects my level of delight in their actions, it doesn't affect my level of love and my commitment to them.

16:40Well, brothers and sisters, the same is true of our relationship with God. As Christians, we are completely justified the moment we demonstrate saving faith. So at that moment, we are counted righteous in Christ at that moment. We belong to God's family at that moment, we are his children. So as Christians, God is committed to loving us no matter what. So why scripture says nothing, and he means nothing can separate us from his love. And yet, during the process of sanctification, as we're changing and growing, to be more like Jesus, we can do things that either displease or please him. So when we fail to trust God and we disobey him, and we go our own way, it grieves Gods heart. Even though he stands ready to forgive us, our sin still makes him sad.

17:43But when we trust God and when we obey him, and when we follow his will, it brings him pleasure. It makes him happy. It puts a smile on his face. It pleases him. You know, a couple of weeks ago I attended my high school's, or not my high school, my son's high school graduation, and one of the speakers shared 10 pieces of advice for the seniors who were graduating. And the first nine were pretty good, but when they got to the final one, I, I just kind of put my hand over my face and let out a big sigh. After all. The final piece of advice was about how each of those students were the most important person in their story. Well, that's not true, is it?

18:32God is the most important person in our story. In fact, God is the most important person in the universe. He and he alone deserves glory and honor. He and he alone should take center stage. He and he alone should have the spotlight. So brothers and sisters, let's take every opportunity we can, every single one we can to please God. Because the more that we please God, the more glory and honor he receives.

19:09All right, so we've answered our first two questions this morning. What was Paul praying for? Paul was praying that God would fill the Colossians with the knowledge of His will and why. Why did Paul want the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will? Well, ultimately because he wanted them to please God. All right, well, there's one last question that we wanna look at this morning. How were the Colossians supposed to please God? That's the third and final question we wanna look at. Again, how were the Colossians supposed to please God? And that's a pretty important question, isn't it? Not just for the Colossians, but also for us. After all, if our goal in life, if our aim, our ambition is to please God, then we should wanna know what that looks like.

19:57We should want to know what that involves. And thankfully, Paul helps us out because in the remainder of his prayer, what he does is describe what a life that pleases the Lord looks like. And and how he does that is he gives four different ways that the Colossians can please God. Now, these four ways weren't the only ways that the Colossians were to please God, but they were certainly four important ones. The Colossians were to please God by bearing fruit in every good work, by increasing in the knowledge of God, by being strengthened with God's power and by giving thanks with joy. And so let's look at each of those and as we do, we'll see not only how the Colossians were to please God, but how we can as well. So first, according to verse 10, the Colossians were to please God by bearing fruit in every good work. Now, the New Testament is very clear, crystal clear that our good works do not save us, right?

21:06So there's nothing we can do, nothing we can do to earn or merit the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. In other words, salvation is God's gift. It's purchased and accomplished through Jesus and Him alone. And yet the New Testament is also clear that we're saved for good works. That's why Paul says in Ephesians that were God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In other words, good works are the fruit of salvation. So as Christians, good works are something that we produce as we abide and keep connected to Christ. And to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what good works Paul had in mind for the Colossians, but I do know this, when we bear fruit in every good work, it pleases God. It does.

22:06So when we're motivated by Jesus to serve our neighbors that pleases God, when we're compelled by Jesus to be sacrificial to our family members that pleases God, when we're led by Jesus to minister to the needs that exist here in the body that pleases God. And it's important to acknowledge that the good works we do, they're they're going to vary from one person to another. That's to be expected. That's actually how God designed it. So the good works that a 20 year old student in college does will be very different than that of a 40 year old who's married with four children or an 80 year old who's battling cancer. That said, we all have good works to do.

22:51God has prepared good works for each of us, all of us, every single one of us to walk in. And so brothers and sisters, I wanna encourage you this morning, consider what good works God is calling you to maybe this week, maybe this month, maybe this year. And remember, those good works will bring God pleasure. Second, according to the end of verse 10, the Colossians were to please God by increasing in the knowledge of God. And at first glance, this sounds very similar to what Paul mentioned just a verse ago when he talked about God filling the Colossians with the knowledge of his will. But he's actually after something very different here.

23:39The phrase knowledge of God that Paul used in verse 10, likely has its roots in the Old Testament. And rather than referring to head knowledge, it describes someone who loved and remained faithful to God in that covenant relationship. So for instance, in Isaiah chapter four, it says, there is no faithfulness or steadfast love, no knowledge of God in this land. Or in Isaiah chapter six, God says, I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. So when Paul talked about increasing in the knowledge of God, he was encouraging the Colossians to give their hearts to God.

24:25He was encouraging them to, to love God and remain faithful to him rather than just going through the motions or giving him lip service. And of course, it's very consistent with what we see in the rest of scripture, isn't it? In fact, it's consistent with the first and greatest command, which is to love the Lord our God, with all our hearts and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength, right? Everything within us, Everything we have, we want to give to him. We wanna have affections for him, we want to love him, and we want to grow in that more and more and more. And when we do, that pleases him.

25:10And so among other things that should shape the way that we read and see, study the Bible. So when you open your Bible, take time to see and savor what it says about God. Make that a priority. You can increase in the knowledge of God that way. Not only that, take time to fix your eyes on Jesus and behold his glory. When you do that, you're increasing in the knowledge of God. You're increasing in your love for him and your affection for him. So take time as you open the word throughout the week to cultivate your love and satisfaction for the Lord. Because again, when we increase in the knowledge of God in that way, it pleases him.

25:54Well, third, according to verse 11, another way the Colossians were to please God was by being strengthened with his power. You know, typically when we think about pleasing God, we think about things that we can do. And there are things we can do that please God, we just talked about two of them, right? We can please God by doing good works and by increasing in the knowledge of God, but we can also please God by depending on him, really depending on what he can do in particular, by depending on his power. And that's exactly what Paul encouraged the Colossians to do in verse 11, Paul wanted the Colossians to look to God and rely on God and depend on His power for their lives.

26:43And notice that the power God provides, it's according to his glorious might. Did you notice that it's according to his glorious might. In other words, it comes from his own intrinsic glory. So brothers and sisters, God doesn't run out of this power. He has it and he has it in abundance. It's inexhaustible, it's infinite. He has unlimited power because he's an unlimited God. So even though we may be feeble and we may be inadequate, God is not. God is ready. God is willing. God is able to strengthen us with his power according to what His glorious might. It's amazing, And it's important to notice that the reason God grants this power, he grants this power to the Colossians for their endurance and patience. What are those referred to?

27:48Well, endurance is the ability to remain faithful to God no matter what the circumstance. And patience is the ability to tolerate problems that come when we're around difficult people. And of course, the Colossians would've needed both. So they needed endurance and patience to remain stable and steadfast to, to persevere in the faith, to keep growing and maturing. Not only that, they needed endurance and patience to, to deal with all the false teaching that was happening in their midst so that they weren't taken captive by empty philosophy. And the reality is, we need endurance and patience as well, don't we?

28:29In fact, I don't know what all of you're going through here today, but I know what some of you're going through. Some of you are facing cancer. Some of you do have a a wayward child. Some of you are dealing with significant doubts and wrestling with assurance of your salvation. We need endurance and patience to face those things. We need endurance and patience to face the trouble of this world that we live in, the trouble that we face in our homes and in our workplaces in our world. And again, brothers and sisters. God is able, God is ready. God is willing to strengthen us with all power according to His glorious might. The question is, will we look to him?

29:21Will we rely on him? Will we depend by faith on the power that he provides, or will we depend on ourselves and are extremely limited resources? Again, let me encourage you. If you're looking for a way to please God, this is one of those ways you can please God by being strengthened with his power according to His glorious might. Well, fourth and finally this morning, according to verses 12 to 14, the Colossians were to please God by giving thanks with joy. And as you probably notice, some versions of the Bible, like the English standard version, connect the phrase with joy to the endurance and patience that God grants according to His strength in verse 11. But I think it's more likely, as other versions suggest that Paul intended with joy to connect to the phrase giving thanks that we see in verse 12. After all, if the other part of simples in this passage are modified with a prepositional phrase, it's likely that's what's happening here as well.

30:32So Paul wanted the Colossians to bear fruit in every good work. He wanted them to increase in the knowledge of God. He wanted them to be strengthened with God's power, and he wanted them to give thanks with joy. In other words, Paul wanted the Colossians to please God by recognizing and rehearsing his goodness and his grace in their lives. In fact, to facilitate their joy-filled thanksgiving, Paul reminded them how they've been qualified to share in this inheritance because of God and how they've been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved son. And when Paul did that, he was borrowing language from the Old Testament.

31:21He was borrowing language of the Hebrews deliverance out of Egypt. So when Paul spoke about redemption and deliverance and the domain of darkness and having a shared inheritance, he was recalling the exodus. But here's the thing, and this is really important. The exodus that the Colossians experienced was far greater than that of the Hebrews, far greater. So while the Hebrews were rescued from the realm of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh, the Colossians were rescued from the power of Satan and the realm of evil. While the Hebrews are rescued by the blood of a Passover lamb, the Colossians were rescued by the blood of the Passover lamb, the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

32:07And while the Hebrews are rescued for an earthly kingdom with an inheritance in the land, the Colossians were rescued for a heavenly kingdom with an inheritance and glory. And brothers and sisters, just like the Colossians, we too share in that greater exodus. So we too have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, right? We've been delivered from our sins, from death, from Satan, from all of those things because of God's beloved son. So because of Jesus, our debt has been forgiven, because of Jesus. We're no longer in bondage to sin and because of Jesus, we will get to enjoy God's presence forever.

32:54And brothers and sisters, if that's not reason to give thanks with joy, I don't know what is. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I am so grateful for this church, so grateful you brought our family here, and that we get to be part of this body. And Father, I wanna ask you to do the same thing for the North church that Paul asked you to do for the Colossians. So Father, I ask you to fill this body of believers with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And I ask that you would do this so they would walk in a manner worthy of Jesus, so that they would please you, father, please, causes people to please you by bearing fruit in every good work and by increasing in the knowledge of God and by being strengthened with your power and by giving thanks with joy. Oh, father, please to this I ask for your glory and for their good.

33:55I pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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Colossians 1:9-14

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