Welcome to Colossians 1 for our sermon text this morning. It's our second sermon on Colossians. Last week I did kind of an introduction, so now we're getting a little further into this letter from Paul and Timothy to the First Century Church in the Greco-Roman city of Colossae. It was written around 60 A.D., give or take. So let's pray once again and ask God's blessing on the reading and preaching today. Lord, bless the reading and preaching of your word. Open our minds and hearts to receive this truth. Don't let the devil distract us and don't let our minds wander. Keep us attentive to the truth being preached today, and bear fruit through the preaching we pray. In Christ's name, amen. God's Word, Colossians 1, verses 6 through 12. I'm actually gonna start in the middle of five to get the context. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be fulfilled with the knowledge of his will and 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." God's word. You have to keep the main thing the main thing. Have you ever heard that saying before? Keep the main thing the main thing? It means you have to focus on what's truly important and not get distracted or lose focus on the thing that's truly important. So some coaches use that in sports. I read about a football coach using that phrase to turn a losing team into a winning team by keeping the main thing in football the main thing. That phrase, as you probably know, is also used in business, in leadership, business leadership. A leader helps others focus on the main thing so they can do that main thing in their business and lead that way. This phrase, keeping the main thing, the main thing is also used in financial planning and in people's personal habits and priorities and other areas in life. You've probably heard that statement. But this statement can also apply to the church and to the Christian life. To keep the main things the main things. to keep the most important realities of Christianity central in the church and in your Christian life. I mean, you can make a list of essential Christian truths. I mean, the Apostle Scrooge does a good job with that. But we think about the sovereignty of our triune God, one of the main things. And we think about the redeeming death and life-giving resurrection of Christ, one of the main things. And we think of the Christian duty to follow Christ in faith and obedience, one of the main things. So you can kind of see how this phrase, keeping the main thing, the main thing applies to Christianity. And in these opening verses of Colossians, we're going to learn once again about the main things and the importance of keeping the main things, the main things. So first of all, in verses six through eight, we're going to look at what Paul and Timothy say about the gospel and love, the gospel and love in verses six through eight. And in the second part, we're going to look at prayer and Christian maturity. Prayer and Christian maturity in verses 9 through 12. And so as we go through these verses, I want you to see that the gospel is the seed from which the fruit of love grows, and it blossoms into Christian maturity. So the gospel of Christ is the seed from which the fruit of love grows, and it blossoms into Christian maturity and growth. That's kind of an overall theme of this message. So let's look at the first couple of verses, verses six through eight, and it's kind of in the middle of a thought here. We're going to talk about the gospel and love, but you can see verse six kind of starts, or is in the middle of another thought. Let me pick it up. Last week we heard about the gospel, the word of truth that gave people heavenly hope. So if you remember, just a very quick review, the gospel is not what we do. The gospel is not law or commands. What is the gospel? Well, it's good news. It's what Jesus has done. It's the message of Christ's death and resurrection to save sinners. That's the gospel. And so the good news gives hope. And so Paul and Timothy are continuing with that. So the gospel, it says, has come to you, this is in verse six, as indeed in the whole world it's bearing fruit, as it does among you. And then in the end of that verse, he calls the gospel, in verse 6, the grace of God in truth. So you can call the gospel the word of truth, like Paul does, or it's also called the grace of God in truth. So we know the message is a gospel of grace. The message of the gospel is gracious. You know that salvation in Christ is a gracious gift of God, and eternal life is a gift from God, not reward for work. It's a gracious gift to be saved by faith. So that's our church memory verse we're working on. By grace you have been saved. It's a gracious gospel. That's what verse six says. But he says here again that the gospel is the grace of God in truth. So earlier he said the gospel was the word of truth. Here he says it's truth. So remember the news, the message of Christ's death and resurrection. You guys know this, but just remember it's not a myth. It's not a fairy tale. The gospel is not like partial truth from someone's perspective. And it's not like distorted information that you get everywhere online. The gospel is, like one apologist said, true truth. Because Jesus died and rose to save sinners in space and time history. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And the gospel is the truth that sets you free. So the gospel here is God's grace in truth. And Paul and Timothy say that that gospel is bearing fruit in the whole world. It's increasing. It's spreading. Now, you guys know what hyperbole is, I think. It's kind of a figure of speech to exaggerate for effect. So when Paul and Timothy say the gospel is spreading in the whole world, they don't mean that the gospel has come to, you know, in 60 AD to Latin America and to the Far East, but they mean many people in that area. The gospel has come to this whole region and it's spreading in that area. So it's a figure of speech, the whole world. It's kind of like the phrase in 1 John 2, Christ is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. for many people. And so that's what Paul is saying here. The gospel is spreading to many people and bearing fruit. So you guys kind of know what this would be like. You can read the book of Acts, where the gospel comes to a different town or city in Asia Minor back then, and people actually turn from their sinful and idolatrous ways and trust Christ and follow Jesus and show love to each other. That's the fruit that the gospel is bearing. People are coming to faith, trusting in the true God, and showing true Christian love. And so that's a fruitful ministry that Paul and Timothy are mentioning here, the ministry of the gospel that's producing a beautiful crop for the Lord. But the question is, then you can get the answer from verse seven and eight, when did the people in Colossae hear about the gospel? Or who told them about it? Well, in verse seven, they learned it from Epaphras. So remember who Epaphras was, a missionary that worked with Paul sometimes. And Epaphras actually had Colossae as his hometown. So that's very interesting. At some point, he was called into the Christian faith. He became a missionary, and he took the gospel back to Colossae. He preached it to his own townspeople. So he's the one who planted the seed of the gospel in Colossae, telling them about Christ and his miracles and his death on the cross and his resurrection. And many people in Colossae believed it and became Christians. And so you can hear more about Epaphras here in verse 7. He's a faithful minister of Christ, a fellow servant. He's the one who has reported to Paul and Timothy about the Colossian church's love. So it gives you a little window into who Paphras was. He was a good Christian man, a servant, faithful minister of Christ, and he's the one who told Paul and Timothy about their love. Now, pause here a moment and think about the centrality of the gospel in and for the church. So as you just pause to think about these first verses, even verses one through eight of Colossians 1, It shows us the centrality of the message of Christ in and for the church. Again, it's pretty straightforward. The gospel was being spread in places like Colossae by people like Epaphras, and people were actually believing in Jesus and coming to faith. It was bearing fruit and it was productive. And this is what Jesus told his people to do, right? Go into the world and make disciples of people from all nations. That's what's happening here. The gospel is being spread. It's central in the life of the church and in the life of the Christian. It's the main thing, to use that language, in the church and in the Christian life. Now, I'm mentioning this, this emphasis on the gospel in the church and in the Christian life, because as you know, some churches today don't really keep the main thing the main thing. I mean, you've told me different stories of churches maybe you used to attend or that you've been to. And some churches today have just straight up abandoned the gospel. They never talk about Jesus atoning death on the cross. And for other churches, sometimes they just set the gospel aside and they talk about it every now and then, but it's just not the main thing. And so as I was thinking about this today, I'm wondering, what are some different things that have replaced the gospel or come beside the gospel in the church today? Just the church, broadly speaking. How would you answer that question? Maybe you have experience. Well, I think one of them is politics. Many pulpits today have become very politicized. And the main thing isn't always Christ and Him crucified. Sometimes in churches, the message is more about the Constitution than the cross. And sometimes the preaching isn't about the suffering Savior, it's about the Second Amendment. So sometimes the main thing is not the main thing, it's because politics has crept into the church and become next to the main thing or the main thing. But what else? What are the things in the American church, broadly speaking, have kind of taken the place of the main thing, the gospel? Well, social issues. Some churches are really focused on social issues like women's rights, gender, climate change, wokeness, those kind of things, you know. Those things sometimes take the center stage, and the gospel's pushed off to the side. Oh, there's even a teaching called the prosperity gospel. It's a false gospel. It's a teaching that God wants everyone to be healthy and wealthy. You've heard of this. Name it and claim it. Blab it and grab it. God is a genie, and if you have enough faith, you're going to get what you asked for. And if you're not healthy and prosperous, it's because you either have an asteroid, or you don't have enough faith. That's not the gospel, but in some churches that takes the center stage. Now some churches are all about self-help, health and wellness. If you go there, you won't get an expositional sermon about Christ and Him crucified or living for Christ, but you'll hear sermon tips and stories to help you live happier, healthier lives and become a better you. You'll hear about losing weight, being mindful, trying out the new Daniel, actually it's the old Daniel diet. Or you'll just hear moralistic life hacks. So sometimes these self-help things take center stage in American pulpits. And sometimes it's just a mixture of all those things or other things. Now, some of those things aren't necessarily bad. I mean, we should care about our health. We should care about social issues and gender distinction, of course. But those things aren't the gospel. They're not the main thing in the Christian faith or life. Jesus did not tell the church to go and promote democracy or certain diets. The apostles didn't preach about health and wellness or the right to bear arms. They preached Christ and Him crucified. So when churches move away from the gospel and preach other things instead of or beside the gospel, it's not just unfortunate. It's unbiblical, it's unchristian, and it's unfruitful. And so I'm focusing here on the importance of the gospel in the church and the Christian life because it's of essential and utmost importance for churches to keep the main thing the main thing. To keep the gospel at the center. To keep Christ and Him crucified as the central theme of the lifeblood and preaching and practice of the church. And never let it get out of the center or become something beside the center. That's what we see here in these verses and other places in Scripture. One other thing I want to mention before we go on to the second point. In verse 8, it says there that Epaphras told Paul and Timothy about the love that the Colossian church had. This is actually the second time that Paul mentions the love that the Colossian church had for each other. In verse 4 and verse 8, he highlights the fact that this church was a loving church. The Holy Spirit was obviously at work in the church. because the fruit of the Spirit, love, was on display there. Paul calls it out twice and says, this is great, you're showing love. So that's another very important and essential thing in the Christian church, isn't it? I mean, first is the gospel, but what flows from the gospel or grows from the gospel is love for each other and for others. And if you maybe thought about it for a while, you'd probably say, well, you know, Pastor, you talk about love a lot. And it's not because I think you guys are horrible at loving, and you need to work harder at loving each other. I mean, we always need to improve, but that's not why I mention it a lot. I mention love so much because the Bible mentions it so much. Already, if you do a count, in the first eight verses of Colossians 1, three times, love is talked about. And more later in Colossians, above all these things put on what? Love. So if you wonder, here's ethics now, how to live. If you wonder how you should act and behave and make decisions as a Christian, let love lead. Two words can answer, how should you act as a Christian? With love or in love. What does God want you to do in this or that situation? Well, whatever you do, do it in? Love, love for God and love for other people. And so it really does boil down to love in Christian ethics, doesn't it? In your marriages, love. In your interactions with your neighbors and people at work, love. In our relationships here in the church, love. The key word for Christian conduct that pleases God is love, as Paul highlights here in these verses. One more note, actually, I was thinking about this as well. So you have the gospel, the seed that's growing and bearing the fruit of love in the church. And I want to just mention this. When you evaluate a church, don't think like a consumer. Can you mentally remember that? When you evaluate a church, don't think like a consumer. What does a consumer think like? Well, he or she is buying a product. I like the seats, and the building is really cool. It's comfortable. It makes me feel good. I like their politics. That's maybe how you approach buying a car or joining a gym, like a consumer. But that's not how you evaluate a church. If you want to evaluate a church, you don't think like a consumer. You don't evaluate it based on your feelings, on your likes, or your politics, or social ideas. But you evaluate a church objectively on biblical grounds. And what we've been talking about this morning are biblical grounds for, you know, the marks of a good Christian church. Is the gospel central? I mean, is Christ crucified, proclaimed over and over and over? And is it evident that the gospel's central in the church? That's an objective mark of the true church, that the preaching of the gospel rings loudly and clearly. but also what flows from the gospel is love. Is the church good at showing love in a Christ-like way, in such a way that it would be mentioned several times in a letter? So those are things to think about in evaluating church biblically, gospel-centered, showing Christian love. Okay, well, let's move on then to the second part. So we just talked about the gospel and love, and now in verse nine, they talk about prayer once again. So shift your thinking to prayer and growing in the Christian faith, maturity. Look in verse nine. So from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. Now, pause there a moment. Earlier, Paul and Timothy say we prayed thanks to God for you, but now they're saying here's how we pray for you as a church. We constantly pray for you guys. Me and Timothy do. And so, First of all, look what they pray for. In verse 9 again, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So that's kind of first. So Paul and Timothy say, you know, we have a prayer list for you guys. If you could look at Paul and Timothy, if they had a prayer list book, the Colossian Church would be on the top of the page. Here's what the prayer list would look like. The first one would be, we pray that you understand God's will in all spiritual wisdom. They're related, right? Knowing God's will and having spiritual wisdom and insight. And thinking about God's will and knowing it, if you are truly a Christian, you'll want to do God's will. Right? I mean, that's one of the things in your mind and in your heart. If you're a believer, if you trust in God as your Savior, you're going to want to do His will, which is to obey Him. And to obey God, you need wisdom and spiritual discernment from God in order to do that. That's what Paul and Timothy are praying for, for the Church. And this topic of God's will is a big one, right? You could do a sermon series on it. But God's will, in this context, is not like a secret thing that only a few really spiritual Christians know. God's will is revealed for us in Scripture. So you guys can know God's will because it's in scripture. And it should be a desire and prayer for all of you who follow Christ. Lord, help me to know your will in scripture. Give me insight and spiritual understanding to how you want me to live. And just as a word, you should pray for yourselves that you know how to do God's will. But when we say things like God's will be done, you have to remember it's not a prayer asking God to listen to us as if he should change. It's a prayer asking God to help us listen to Him so we change. We often want to change God's mind or His ways, maybe. We say, God, can you do this for me? But when we pray about doing God's will, it's asking God to change us so that we do His will. We're praying about doing God's will. We're not praying that He do our will, but that we're conformed to and submit to His will. That's what Paul's praying for for the church. We can pray for ourselves. So anyway, so I'm gonna walk through this prayer list kind of briefly. You can read into it a little more later, but let's see what else they pray. So they pray for knowledge of God's will. Verse 10 then. So they can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. So their Christian conduct in life is worthy of the calling and it pleases God. That's what walking means, your Christian conduct. The next one is bearing fruit in every good work. We pray that you bear the fruit of the Christian faith, that you show love for others in good works, in obedience to God. We pray for your obedience to the Lord. Look at the next one, verse 10, the end. Increasing in the knowledge of God. We pray that you love God with your minds, that you learn about God more, about his love, about his faithfulness, about his goodness. That's what we pray for you to know him better. And there's more, look at verse 11. They pray that the Colossian church would be strengthened with all power according to God's glorious might, for endurance and for patience. So we pray that you'd be strengthened with God's strength so you can endure through whatever comes in life. And we pray that you'll be strengthened so that you can have patience from God when life gets difficult. That's what they pray for. And we surely need God's help in displaying patience and having endurance through tough times. That's what Paul and Timothy pray for. And then also in verse 11, with joy, it could be, you know, they're praying for patience and endurance with joy. Or joy could go with the next phrase in verse 12. With joy, giving thanks to God the Father, or to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints. So in other words, this last prayer request in verse 12, or this prayer list, is that the Colossian church would give thanks to God joyfully because they have an eternal inheritance. That's that heavenly hope Paul talked about earlier. So that's just kind of a brief walkthrough. Once again, if you read this later today or for your devotions, think of this as a prayer list. And maybe if you like to write things out, you could go through these verses and bullet point this prayer list of Paul and Timothy for the Colossian Church. And I can kind of summarize it here. Basically, this prayer list is that the Colossian Church would understand God's will and have the power to do God's will. That's kind of how you summarize it. Or in other words, they pray for God's will to be done in the Colossian Church, and then they give a list of what God's will is for the church. that they'd walk into men are worthy, pleasing to God, bearing fruit, strengthen for endurance and patience, giving thanks and so on. So let's do some application work then. I mean, what's going through your mind when you read Paul and Timothy's prayer list for the Colossian church? Well, one thing is this should help us pray for each other better. You know what I mean when you see the apostles' prayer list for the church? Right away as a Christian you should be thinking, okay, this is my prayer list for the church too, for other Christians. You can emulate Paul and Timothy in your prayers. So it's okay for you to pray about health and job situations and finances and social issues. It's fine to pray for those things. But if you study the prayers in the Bible, like Paul and Timothy's here, You'll notice that they're almost always about the main things in the Christian life, like knowing God's will, like pleasing the Lord, like doing good works, like having patience and endurance. I don't know if you can ever, hmm, you can let me know later, but I don't know if Paul or Timothy ever prays that the church would be wealthy and have prosperity and success in the world. Paul and Timothy don't pray that the church would gain influence in the city and become all-powerful. They pray for more noble, better, higher things, like knowing God's will and obeying it. And this can help us in our prayers, for each other. I know that some of you are very good at praying for other Christians. So those of you who are actually very good at praying for other Christians, it's awesome. We're thankful for you. Keep praying for other Christians like crazy. Keep that up. You have a gift. But I'm guessing that some of you who are very good at praying for other Christians might get into a rut sometimes and it becomes kind of bland. You're praying for the same thing all the time. You know what? That's a great problem, isn't it? If you pray the same thing a hundred times for some people, that's better than not praying at all. But if that is you, if you do pray for others all the time and you find yourself kind of repeating yourself and you kind of need some refreshment in your prayer life, my challenge for you is to pray these things for the church. These things in verses 9 through 12. Make Paul's prayer list for the church your prayer list for the church. That will refresh your prayer list and your prayer life. Keep praying and pray these things for us. Now some of you maybe aren't so good at praying for other Christians. Probably a lot of us are in the middle. Some of you are very good, some of you are in the middle, some of you aren't very good. Maybe some of you here really don't pray for other Christians, and you probably can't remember the last time you did so. Just to be honest, that's not good. If you're not praying for other Christians here or other Christians elsewhere, you're not doing your duty as a Christian. And you need to change. I don't know what your excuses are. Maybe I don't have any time. Once again, if that's the case, you seriously need to rearrange your schedules and priorities to keep the main things the main things. But maybe if you don't pray for other Christians, maybe your excuse is, well, I don't really know how. What am I going to answer? Well, yes you do. It's just right here. Paul and Timothy give you a prayer list for other Christians. So now you know how. If you don't pray for other Christians very much, take these verses home, read them through, pray them for other Christians, and start your prayer life like that. But once again, this applies for all of us. All Christians should pray these things for other Christians. Husbands, now I'm talking to you, Pray these things for your wives. Like really, this week, go home, pray these things for your wives. Wives, pray these things for your husbands. This is how the elders and myself should pray for you as a church, and how you should pray for us as elders and as a pastor, and for your Christian friends and family elsewhere. And I'm certain that as you pray these kind of things more, you're gonna mature in your prayer life, and it will bless other people in ways you can't even imagine. And the last prayer application point I'm going to make is that if you think of the big picture here, Paul and Timothy actually tell the church, this is how we're praying for you. Sounds like bragging, right? Is it bragging? No, it's not. It's showing love and care and support. And you can tell others that you're praying for them. It's not bragging. Get that in your mind. It's not bragging to tell someone else there's a Christian that you're praying for them. It's not bragging. It's showing them that you love them, that you support them, and you care about them. And that encourages and builds them up. And don't you think this would build the Colossian church up when they read about how Paul and Timothy were praying for them? They'd say, this is great. And so I encourage you to tell other Christians that you're praying for them. That's one of the most encouraging things you can do as a believer. Say, dear brother, I've been praying for you in your difficult work situation, that God gives you patience. I prayed today that you would have joy in the Lord. I heard that you're dealing with conflict in the home, and I'll pray for endurance and faith for you, that you know God's will. It's great to tell each other that you're praying for one another. It's encouraging and edifying and upbuilding for the church. So, kind of in summary then, if we think about these verses we went over today and the whole first part of Colossians here, you know, the gospel is the main thing in the Christian life and in the church. Christ and Him crucified, the main thing. And following the gospel, what grows from the gospel is love and prayer and Christian maturity blossoming into good fruit. And so from the gospel with love and prayer, Christians grow and mature into fruitfulness for God. So remember, it's essential and important for us to keep the main thing, the main thing, Christ and Him crucified. For in Christ, we will bear much fruit for God together. Let's pray.