Naylor Community Christian Church, Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to
Colossians 1 -- our focus this morning is going to be on Colossians 1:9-12, but
when I was studying this, this entire introduction from Paul to his letter to
the church at Colosse just spoke to me -- so, I want us to go ahead and read
Paul’s entire introduction so we have the background and context of the main
verses that we will be focusing on this morning
-- so, please follow along as I
read Colossians 1:1-14, and pay special attention to verses 9-12
Colossians 1:1 Paul, an
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To God’s holy people in
Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters[a] in Christ:
Grace and peace to you
from God our Father.
3 We always thank God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5
the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and
about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has
come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing
throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day
you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8
and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason, since
the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually
ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and
understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of
the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing
in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his
glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving
joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance
of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
-- as you
know, we are in a sermon series called “Hearing God,” a study in the four main
ways that God communicates with us today -- the Bible -- prayer -- the church
-- and circumstances
-- we’re in week 3 of this
series, so this morning, we will be looking at the idea that God speaks to us
today through prayer
-- to introduce this idea to you
-- to really bring it home -- I wanted to share with you a true story that I
first heard from John Ortberg about a guy named Bob and the way God used prayer
in his life to change, not only him, but this world for the better
-- Bob was an insurance salesman
in Chicago -- he had just become a Christian and was meeting with a mentor in
order to learn more about what it means to be a Christian -- about how he was
supposed to live out this new faith that he had just accepted
-- one day, he went to meet with
his mentor and he was just super excited -- he had just read the part in the
Bible where Jesus says, “Whatever you ask for in my name, you shall receive
it.”
-- Bob wanted to know if this
was true -- his mentor said, “Yes, it’s true -- but it’s not like a blank check
-- you have to take it in the context of the teachings of all of the scriptures
and make sure what you are asking for is in God’s will -- but, yes, Jesus
really does answer prayer”
-- so Bob says, “Okay, then I
want to test it -- I want to pray for something and see what happens -- see if
God really does hear our prayers and answer them when we ask”
-- so his friend told Bob, “Okay,
let’s pick something for you to pray about -- and since I truly believe that
God is going to answer your prayer, let’s make a bet -- if you pray for six
months and nothing happens, I’ll give you $500 on the spot -- but, if something
does happen, then you owe me $500 -- and, one more thing, if you don’t pray,
even for just one day, then our bet is off”
-- Bob agreed and his friend
said, “What do you want to pray for?”
-- Bob said, “Well, I’ve always
been interested in Africa, so I’m going to pray for Africa.” -- His friend
said, “Africa’s pretty big -- why don’t we narrow it down”
-- Bob thought for a moment
and said, “OK, then, I want to pray for Uganda” -- his friend asked, “Why? --
Have you ever been to Uganda?” -- “no” -- “do you know anybody in Uganda?” --
no -- “then why Uganda?” -- “I don’t know -- I just want to pray for Uganda --
it’s just something that I’ve been thinking about lately”
-- so, they agreed on Uganda,
and Bob just started praying every day for that nation -- that God would move
there in a mighty way -- that the people and the leaders of Uganda would come
to know God in a special way -- that God might revive that country
-- every day, Bob prayed -- and
every day, Bob watched the news and researched Uganda on the internet -- and
for a long time, nothing happened
-- but then one night Bob was
at a dinner in Washington -- and he was making small talk with the lady next to
him and he asked her what she did for a living -- she said she helped run an
orphanage in Uganda -- the largest of its
kind in the country
-- as soon as Bob found out
she was from Uganda, he began to pound her with question after question about her
country and what she did there and how things were going
-- after a while the woman said,
“You’re obviously very interested in my country -- have you been to Uganda
before?” -- “No.” -- then why are you so interested? -- Bob replied, “well,
someone is kind of paying me five hundred dollars to pray for Uganda”
-- before the dinner was over,
the woman asked Bob if he would like to come and visit Uganda and tour the
orphanage -- Bob was so excited he couldn’t stand it and made arrangements the
next day to visit
-- when he arrived in Uganda,
the director of the orphanage gave him a tour of the capital city -- and he was
appalled by the poverty and the lack of basic health care -- so, when he got
back to Chicago, he started to write to the large drug companies, describing to
them the vast need he had seen -- He reminded them that every year they would
throw away large amounts of medical supplies that went unsold -- “Why not send
them to this place in Uganda?” he asked.
-- and some of them did --
they sent millions of dollars of medicine and supplies to Uganda to be
distributed at the orphanage
-- the director of the
orphanage called Bob and said, “This is amazing -- we have had so much help
because of you -- will you come over here and join us at a huge celebration
this year to celebrate what we have been able to do?” -- so, Bob flew back over to Uganda
-- while he was there at the
party, someone introduced him to the president of Uganda -- the president offered to take Bob
on a tour of the city -- while they were riding around, Bob saw this brand new
large building and asked what it was for -- the president said it was a prison
for political prisoners who disagreed with the government -- Bob shook his head
and said, “You shouldn’t do that -- you should let them go” -- and that was all
that was said
-- they finished the tour and
Bob went home to Chicago and was surprised a few days later when he had a knock
at his door -- he opened the door and there were two men in suits and
sunglasses standing there -- they said,
“we’re from the Government, and we have some questions for you”
-- he invited them in and they began -- “are you
Bob?” -- yes -- “were you in Uganda recently?” -- yes -- “did you make any
statements about political prisoners?” -- not really, I just talked to the
president of Uganda about them -- “and what did you say to him?” -- I told him
it wasn’t right to imprison political prisoners and he should let them out --
“and that’s all you did?” -- yes
-- they went on to tell Bob
that the U.S. had been working for years to get these prisoners released to no
avail, but all of a sudden -- with no warning and no advance notice -- the
president of Uganda had released them --
and when the State Department asked why he had done that, the president said,
“Because Bob asked me to”
-- by this time, the bet’s six
months of praying were up -- and Bob went back to his friend and gave him a
check for $500 -- Bob said, “You know what -- the Bible is right -- Jesus does
hear us when we pray and He does answer our prayers” [illustration modified
from John Ortberg]
-- so, that’s the story of Bob
-- and like I said, it’s a true story -- and the whole point of this story --
the whole reason for us being here today and going through this sermon series
on hearing God together is so that you get this one thing firmly in your heart
and mind and soul -- God loves us and He wants to spend time with us -- He is
constantly speaking to us and calls out to us every day in a multitude of ways
-- we hear Him through the Bible -- through the church -- through circumstances
-- and, yes, through prayer -- just as Bob discovered when he prayed for Uganda
for six months and watched God move in such a miraculous way
-- so, this morning, we’re going
to look at this passage from Colossians 1 and see how God can use our prayers
to speak to us and change the world through us just as He did with Bob
-- let’s get started
II. Scripture Lesson (Colossians 1:9-12)
-- verse 9
Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we
heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to
fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and
understanding that the Spirit gives
-- the 1984 version of the NIV
puts it this way, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have
not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of
his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
-- like I have said several
times in these messages, I’m not breaking any new ground here -- everybody
knows that, as Christians, we are called to pray to God on a regular basis --
it’s one of the things that we do -- it’s expected of us
-- but the thing we tend to miss
when it comes to prayer is that prayer is not just us talking to God and asking
Him for things -- prayer is two-way communication with God -- it’s us talking
to Him and it’s God talking to us -- and that’s an important thing to remember
-- when we pray, we need to take
time to listen for God and to wait for His response to our prayers -- the Bible
is clear that God hears our prayers and meets our needs, but He does more than
that -- through prayer and through God’s responses to us -- God changes us and
helps us to grow more like Jesus
-- we see that clearly here in
this passage in Colossians 1
-- Paul had heard about the
growing faith of the Colossians and of their love for all the saints -- so here
in this letter he tells them how, from the moment he has heard of this, he has
not stopped praying for them
-- there’s an important
principle that we gain from Paul here in this verse -- our prayers should be
constant -- Paul uses the phrase elsewhere that we should “pray without
ceasing”
-- now this doesn’t mean that
we should go around all day chanting prayers and doing nothing else -- but it
does point to the fact that we need to be persistent in our communication with
God -- especially our communication with God on behalf of someone else -- what
we call intercessory prayer
-- if you’re like me, too
often your prayer life looks like a rollercoaster -- there will be times when
you’re really praying and really pouring your heart out to God -- and then you’ll have long periods
where you don’t even really think of praying
-- Paul says that our prayers --
if they are to have any value -- have to
be persistent -- they have to be
constant -- they have to be done on a regular basis -- even if we don’t see any
answers or any results to start with -- think about the story of Bob -- Bob
didn’t see any results from his prayers for Uganda for months, but when they
came, they really came
-- we need to get in the
practice of setting aside a certain time every day where we just spend
persistent, regular time in prayer with God -- even if we don’t feel like it --
even if we don’t see any results -- the key is persistence -- the key is
keeping on doing it because that’s what God wants -- that’s what we see Paul
doing right here in this verse --
“We have not stopped praying for you”
-- Paul prayed that the
Colossians would be “filled” with the knowledge of God’s will -- this word, “filled,” means something
special in the Bible -- it’s not like the way we define and understand the
word, “filled,” in our day -- it doesn’t mean the same thing
-- to explain, when we say
something is filled, we use it in the sense of an item being filled -- of an
item being made whole -- like when we ask someone to fill our glass with tea,
we expect them to pour tea in it all the way to the top
-- but that’s not the way Paul
is using this word here in verse 9 -- the word in the original Greek that we
translate as “filled” actually is the same word that is used to talk about a
sail on a sailboat being filled with wind -- it implies being controlled and
given direction and meaning by the item doing the filling
-- for a sailboat, this means
that when the sail is filled with wind, the boat moves in a certain direction --
so, when Paul says here that he is praying for the Colossians to be filled with
the knowledge of God’s will, it doesn’t mean that their bodies are full to the
top -- what he means is that they are controlled by the presence of God in
their lives
-- that they will live in such
close communion with God that they will know what He wants them to do and they
are led in that direction as wind fills a sail so they move and get up and do
it
-- what this means for us is
that when we are filled through prayer in the same way, we are moved to follow
God -- through prayer, we are given direction and we head out to do what He has
called us to do and to become the people He has called us to become -- to be
filled in this way is to be active and not passive -- to be led and directed
and not just sitting still
-- if there is ever a prayer
that we need now-a-days for the church and for American Christians, it is that
we be filled with the knowledge and the presence of God in this way so that we
would quit just sitting around but would actually go out and do something for
Jesus
-- Paul prays that the
Colossians would know God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding
-- this points out to us that, as
Christians, we are operating on a whole ‘nother level -- we may be living in
this world, but the Bible says that we are not of this world any longer -- we are part of God’s kingdom --
and we live and move and have our being through God and not through the ways of
the world
-- that’s one of the big
problems with this Christian nationalism movement today -- it’s Christians
trying to express their beliefs and their will on others through the same
methods the world uses -- power and pressure and laws and politics -- that’s
not the way Christians are meant to operate
-- think back to the story of
Bob again -- the U.S. Government had tried for years to get the president of
Uganda to quit jailing political prisoners and to let them go, but the normal
ways of the world -- influence and pressure and politics -- they didn’t work
-- it was only when God started
to move the heart of the president of Uganda through Bob’s words that the
prisoners were released
-- as the Apostle Paul wrote in
2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as
the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On
the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
-- that’s why Paul doesn’t
pray here in verse 9 that the Colossians become wise in the world’s ways -- he doesn’t pray that they become
educated in the things of the world -- instead, he prays that they would become
wise in the spirit -- in other words, Paul is saying that he wants the
Colossians to learn God’s ways and to follow God even if it leads them to do
things the world wouldn’t understand
-- Bob
praying for Uganda made no sense from the world’s perspective -- but God made a
difference through Bob because he prayed with spiritual wisdom for God’s will
to be done
-- so what happens when we
pray?
-- well, two things happen --
first, God hears us and answers us -- the Bible tells us in Psalm 138:3, “when
I called, you answered me” -- and in Daniel 9:23 we read, “as soon as you began
to pray, an answer was given” -- and,
remember what Jesus said, “Whatever you pray in My Name, you will receive”
-- when we pray, God hears us
and answers our prayers even though the answer may not be what we want --
sometimes the answer might be “no” or “wait” --
but, always, God hears and answers us when we pray at the very moment we pray
-- secondly, when we pray, God
changes us -- remember that prayer is not
just tapping into a heavenly vending machine where we ask for stuff and it
drops out of the sky -- prayer is communication with God -- it is part of our
relationship with God -- and when we pray, God not only answers our prayers,
but He uses this time to change us and make us more like Him
-- look at verse 10
Colossians 1:10 so that you may live a life worthy
of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according
to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and
giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the
inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
-- when we pray and are filled
with the knowledge of God’s will and move out under God’s control and His
direction, we live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in
every way
-- Paul describes for us here
what a life that is pleasing to God looks like:
-- first, it bears fruit --
that means that we are doing good works for God -- we are touching other
people’s lives as God leads us and directs us -- we are meeting people’s
spiritual and physical needs and they are coming to know God through us -- that
is what it means to bear fruit for the Kingdom
-- secondly, we are growing in
the knowledge of God
-- the more we talk to God
through His Word -- the more we pray to God -- the closer we grow to Him and
the more we become able to hear His voice -- kind of like a couple that is just
starting to date
-- when
you start a relationship, you don’t really know the other person -- you don’t
know about them and you don’t know them -- but, over time, as you spend time
with them and you talk to them, you begin to know them
-- you
know what they like and they don’t like -- you know what they want to do -- you
know what they don’t want to do -- and you even know what they’re saying when
they say nothing at all -- it’s the same
way with prayer
-- the more time you spend
with God, the more you know God and the more you start to become like God
-- third, we are strengthened
with God’s power -- we learn to trust in God and His power rather than in our
own strength -- we can do nothing of lasting significance in our own power -- but when we rely on God, we can do
things that we couldn’t even think of doing in our own strength
-- through prayer and through
God’s strength, we can move mountains -- we can part seas -- we can even change the hearts of African
dictators and see entire countries like Uganda change for the better
-- as Jesus said in Matthew
19:26, “With God, all things are possible”
-- finally, we will reflect
God’s own character in our lives -- we will demonstrate endurance and patience
and joy -- we will live lives not focused on this earth or on today -- but lives that are focused on
tomorrow -- on eternity -- on the things that have eternal significance
-- we will become people aware
of God’s presence in our lives -- not just on Sundays but every day -- and we
will become people of thankfulness -- of gratefulness -- who continually recognize God’s blessings and thank Him for
all that He is and all that He has given
-- prayer not only changes the
world -- it changes us and makes us more
like Christ
III. Closing
-- so, as we close, let me
just remind you that Christianity is not about “going to church” -- it’s not even about reading your Bible
or just praying for things because that’s what Christians are supposed to do
-- Christianity is about
relationship -- it’s about a relationship with God -- it’s about coming to know
God in a real and personal way, just like you would come to know a spouse over
time
-- and we do this through
communication -- through talking to God and listening as He responds -- hearing
God and knowing God through prayer
--
through prayer, we offer up our praise and thanks to God for who He is and for
what He has done -- through prayer, we let God know of the needs in our lives
and in the lives of those around us -- and through prayer, God speaks to our
heart -- He changes us from the inside out -- He makes us more like Him and
fills us with His presence
-- through prayer, we know
more about God and we know God -- we know what He likes and what He doesn’t --
we know what He wants done and we know what He doesn’t want us to do
-- and, through prayer, we
come to know God in a way that most people never will
-- so, as I close, I want to
encourage you to take some time today to just sit in the presence of God in
prayer -- go to Him today -- talk to Him today -- don’t even ask for anything -- just praise Him for who He is and
listen for His voice to respond
-- my prayer for all of us today
is that we would come to know God and experience Him more in our lives through
a vibrant and real prayer life
-- pray
to God -- He’s waiting to hear from you -- and He has something to tell you
-- let’s pray
