Praying for People

Genuine – Part 2 Colossians 1:9-12

Asbury Free Methodist – Rev. Dr. Brent Russett

April 18th, 2021

            This is week two of our series – Genuine, a walk through Colossians. This week we are going to be looking at Colossians 1:9-12.

            Paul had never met the Colossians church, but he knew them through the eyes of Epaphras, and what he knows of them is that they are a healthy church. Last week we looked at how they displayed five characteristics of health. They have

  • Faith in Christ
  • Love their brothers and sisters in Christ.
  • They have hope stored in heaven.
  • The gospel is bearing fruit and they are growing in the Lord.
  • They truly understand grace.

So here is the question I want you to think about with me. How do you pray for healthy Christians? Have you ever noticed how our prayers tend to focus on those things that are unhealthy? We pray for people who are sick. We pray for people who are experiencing emotional distress or mental illness. We pray for people who are not where they need to be spiritually. When people or circumstances are unhealthy it seems obvious what we should pray for. But how do you pray for people who are spiritually healthy?

            More than that, how do you pray for yourself when you are spiritually healthy? I have had a lot of people tell me that they pray for other people, but they rarely pray for themselves. Can I tell you this as your pastor with all love and respect – That is silly. What is it that you want God to do in your life? Pray about that. Where do you want to grow in your life? Pray about that. What wisdom do you need from God? Asked God for that. God does what he would not otherwise do because we pray. James says, “You do not have because you do not ask.”

            Today we are going to walk into Paul’s prayer and see how to pray for others and see how to pray for ourselves.

            You heard it read before, let’s hear it read again.

Colossians 1:9–12 (NIV)

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.

            There is so much packed into this prayer but if you check closely Paul is only praying for one thing. If that thing happens then a number of other things will fall into place.

            His one prayer is this.

Colossians 1:9 (NIV) (Highlight in above verses if on one screen)

…We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 

            The one thing that he prays is that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will for themselves. That idea of being filled with the knowledge is to have complete knowledge. Paul is praying that they will have complete knowledge of God’s will.

            If that happens then here is what will happen as well – Notice the beginning of verse 10 – “So that” if you know the will of God then these things will happen. (Slow)

  1. You may live a life worthy of the Lord.
  2. You will please him in every way.
  3. You will bear fruit in every good work.
  4. You will grow in the knowledge of God.
  5. You continue to be strengthened with power.
  6. You will have great endurance and patience.
  7. You will joyfully give thanks to the Father.

            All of those things happen when you are filled with a knowledge of the will of God.

            And here is what I know about many of you, even most of you. You want those things in your life.

  • You want to live a life worth of the Lord – you really do.
  • You want to please the Lord.
  • You want the good works that you do to bear fruit.
  • You really do want to grow in the knowledge of God.
  • You want strengthened with God’s power.
  • You want to have great endurance and patience.
  • You want to be full of joy and praise.

            And if you want those things to happen in your life then you need to be – as verse 9 says

Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

…(filled) with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 

            So, the question becomes – How do you know the will of God?

            Most of you know the Sunday School answer to that question. You know the will of God through the scriptures, through the bible.

            There is just one problem with the Sunday School answer when it is applied to this situation. It doesn’t track.

            Paul was writing to the Colossians, most of who were Greek and would not have access to the Old Testament – For they were in scrolls in the local synagogue.  And he was writing at a time when most of the new testament was not written. None of the gospels with the possible exception of the gospel of Mark had been written –  Mark was written around the same time as the book of Colossians.

            So, when Paul writes this, he is not expecting them to get to know the will of God that will produce the kind of results that he is talking about through scripture. Now I have a high view of scripture. And because we have it now, we know that anything that is God’s will, will not go against scripture. But Paul was not expecting the Colossians to find God’s will in the scriptures. Let’s go back to verse 9 again.

Colossians 1:9b (NIV)

… We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 

            The NIV translate this verse best. Most other versions read

Colossians 1:9 (NRSV)

…we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

            They talk about spiritual wisdom, which seems like something you would go up on a mountain to find. But the original language is very clear that the wisdom and the understanding that allows you to know God’s will comes from the Spirit.

            Knowing God’s will is a matter of the work of the Spirit in your life.

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            Knowing God’s will is something that a lot of people throw their hand up at because they wonder if it is possible. There are many times when we are making a decision that we would like to know God’s will – but it just doesn’t seem to be clear.

            But Paul in Colossians is praying that they will know the will of God fully. He is even more direct with the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 5:15–18 (NIV)

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

            Again, knowing God’s will is linked to wisdom and it linked to the work of the Spirit in our lives. But most of all, what I want you to see is – Paul doesn’t see knowing God’s will as something that is improbable. – It is his expectation that we will know the will of God.

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            Now let me say that there have been a number of times in my life and there still are times, when I have felt like I haven’t known what the will of God is in a particular situation. Maybe you feel like that too. You don’t always know what God’s will is.

            Here is what I have found – when my experience and the word of God does not line up one of three things is happening. It could be that the word of God is wrong. I tend to reject that out of hand because I have seen so often that God’s ways are better than my ways. His word is trustworthy.

            It could be that my approach to the word of God or my understanding of the word of God is lacking in some way. Sometimes that is true – I am understanding what God’s word is saying in one way, when in fact as I get to know God and his word better something else is actually happening.

            We need to be very careful with this option – because we often want to justify our own experience instead of submitting the word of God. The last option is this:

            It could be that the reason my experience and the word of God do not line up is that I am not walking into all that God has for me.

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            I suspect that when it comes to understanding the will of God that the last option is true for most of us.

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            Have you ever noticed that the topic of the will of God only comes up when we are trying to make big decisions? Lord should what career should I pursue? Who should I marry? Should I buy this house? Should I take on this responsibility, etc.?

            I know that in my life, the times I have prayed to know God’s will the most were the times when I was faced with big decisions.

            Let’s go back to our Colossians passage. Remember what would happen if we knew the will of God. Look at how many of those things happen in the middle of our daily lives.

  1. You may live a life worthy of the Lord. (daily)
  2. You will please him in every way. (daily)
  3. You will bear fruit in every good work. (daily)
  4. You will grow in the knowledge of God. (hopefully daily)
  5. You continue to be strengthened with power. (hopefully daily)
  6. You will have great endurance and patience. (When we need it in our day to today life)
  7. You will joyfully give thanks to the Father. (regularly)

            All of these things have to do with our daily life and only a few of them and only tangentially have to do with the big decisions of life. I suspect why our experience and the word of God haven’t always lined up is that we want to know his will for the big things but have ignored it for the little things. And because we haven’t got use to hearing what his will is on the little things, we don’t know how to hear well on the big things.

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            Let’s go back to verse 9

Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

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, 

            When Paul prays that we ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will it is written in the aorist tense. We don’t have that tense in English. But it means that it has happened and in continues to happen. Knowing the will of God is not a once for all kind of knowing. It is not like knowing your times table. –When you know it you know it.

            It is more like a captain of a boat on the Mississippi river. The sandbars on the river keep on changing. An experienced Captain builds on his past knowledge to travel down the river, but there is something new to learn on each trip, because the river keeps on changing. Sandbars pop up others disappear. But a good captain understands the flow of the river.

            That is the kind of knowing that Paul is talking about. You have known God’s will in the past but as you journey through life you continue to learn and know what God’s will is for the present. There are somethings that stay steady from day to day and some things that will change.

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            So how do we know God’s will. Paul gives three ways. The first way is that Paul is continually praying for them to know God’s will.

Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

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

            How are we going to know God’s will? We are going to need to pray to know God’s will and it would an awesome thing to get other people to pray that you know God’s will. Do you want to know how to pray for your spouse or your pastor or your friend or your children? Pray that they would continually know God’s will. Do you want to know how to pray for yourself? Pray that you know God’s will.

            I believe that when James said, “You do not have because you do not ask,” is especially true when it comes to knowing the daily will of God for your life.

            The second way that we will know God’s will is through Spirit given wisdom.

Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 

            Wisdom is the ability to apply what you know. It is one thing to know that we are to love people. It is another thing to know how to apply that to an ornery person, or a fearful person, or a proud person, or a challenging person or a gracious person. How do you love someone who is a competitor in business? The Spirit can give you the ability to know how to apply what you know you are to do. That is wisdom.

James 1:5 (NIV)  says,

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

            Do you get the idea that we may need to up our game in terms of praying for not just the big interactions of life, but the little ones. The Spirit of God gives wisdom. But you need to ask and we are going to need to get better at hearing from God for our every day life.

Colossians 1:9 (NIV)

. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 

            You will know God’s will through the understanding that the Spirit gives. Understanding is the ability to comprehend what is going on. The Spirit of God can give you understanding of what is going on in you and what is going on around you. As you see that then you are going to be able to see what it means to live the will of God out in your daily life.

            The Spirit of God can give understanding of what God wants to do in you during a lockdown. He give understanding as to how to live well during this time.

            How do you know God’s will on a daily basis? You pray that God will show it to you. You ask for wisdom and listen for his answer. You ask for understanding and listen to what he revels to you. As you are hearing God for these things.

            You will have the wisdom and understanding to

  1. You may live a life worthy of the Lord
  2. You will please him in every way
  3. You will bear fruit in every good work.
  4. You will grow in the knowledge of God
  5. You continue to be strengthened with power
  6. You will have great endurance and patience.
  7. You will joyfully give thanks to the Father.

            There are a number of people who think they have run so far off the path that they will have to get back on the path and then maybe they can think of doing the will of God.

            Here is what I want you to know. You have everything that you need to do the will of God today. The will of God for you may be taking one step back towards the right path. God has given you what you need to do his will today – so don’t wait until tomorrow.

            Let me remind you of what knowing the will of God will do.

Colossians 1:9–12 (NIV)

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.

Sermon Questions – Genuine – A walk through Colossians – Part 2

Praying for People

Introduction

1. What are you grateful for today?

2a. How is your prayer life these days?

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2b. Have you noticed how our prayers tend to focus on that which is unhealth? Why is that? What would be the benefit of praying for something that is already healthy?

3. Read Colossians 1:9-12 – Paul really only prays for one thing in this prayer. What is that one thing? If that one thing happens, what else will happen?

4. Most of the New Testament was not written when Paul wrote Colossians? What does that mean for our understanding of Colossians 1:9 in regards to the will of God?

5. What is wisdom and what is the understanding that Paul is talking about in verse 9? If you were wise and if you had understanding, how would it affect you day by day life?

6. Read Ephesians 5:15-18. What does that have in common with Colossians 1:9? Read James 1:5 what does it have in common with Colossians 1:9? How do we get to know God’s will?

7. When it comes to understanding the will of God, do you think Paul is only talking about the big decisions of life or is he talking about the decisions we make on a daily basis? How does that affect how you pursue knowing God’s will.?

8. When Paul prays that we would know God’s will, the tense is that we would know and continue to know God’s will?  How does that affect you pursue God’s will?

9.  If we take Colossians 1:9 as a template of how to know God’s will then what are some of the things we should do or skills we should learn?

Life Application

10. Is knowing God’s will and having God’s wisdom and understanding something that you are willing to do what it takes to acquire?