Colossians chapter 1, we're going to look in verse number 9 is where we're going to start at. Verse number 9, the Bible says, For this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. I want you to listen to verse 11. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance. Verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin." I want you to look back in verse number 10. The Bible says right there at the end, "...and increasing in the knowledge of God." Increasing in the knowledge of God. When we as Christians take a look at our lives and we take a look at all we believe, everything that you and I ought to stand for ought to come from God's Word. And the Bible says here in Colossians 1, verse 10, it says to increase in the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God comes solely from God and His Word. Am I right about that? The knowledge that we glean about God comes from His Word. Now can I tell you something that man will change, you and I are gonna change, we're gonna change our minds, we're gonna have different opinions, we're gonna change what we do, we're gonna change in theory, but God's word never changes. God's word is the same yesterday, the same today, the same forever, and Jesus Christ himself, as it says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse eight, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever. But when I think about the Bible, a lot of times, What we like to refer it to, and I love this reference, is it's almost, I've used this in our youth group, and I think I may have gotten it from Mr. Dean, I don't know where I got it from, but the Bible is our guide to life. It's our guide to life. And when we think about the Bible and we wanna know how to walk in our Christian life and how we're to move forward and what we're supposed to do in our Christian life, the Bible is our guide to that. And the Bible is where we turn to for answers. So therefore, if the Bible is my guide to life as a Christian, and if the Bible is where I have to turn to for answers, and the Bible is where God gives me my direction, therefore, we as Christians must learn to love it. and must learn to grow in it and it be our source of knowledge. A little boy one day saw his father using a square on a home project at his house. And the boy looked at his dad and he said, daddy, why are you so careful? And the dad says, well, son, we can't guess in carpentry work. You have to be just right. People guess at too many things in life, and God doesn't like that way of living. And the son looked back at his dad, and he said, well, dad, I guess there's no squares to live by, is there? And the dad said, yes, son, there are squares to live by, and you'll find them in the Bible. Test all that you do by them. and you will go straight in life. I thought about that. How often do we try to just muscle our way through life? Try cutting a straight line. If you're building a house and you're doing something in your house, whatever it may be, the O'Neill's just got a new house. Howard's pretty good with all his, he's pretty good with carpentry work, okay? But if he tried to go in there and did some things without a level and he thought he could do it and it came out crooked, You think Connie's going to be very happy with him? I don't think she's going to be too happy with him. But you know what? He has a level at the house. Do you have a level at the house, Brother O'Neal? Okay. Do you use it? Does your wife make you use it? She does. He's got a level at his house. You know what he does? He uses his level. because he wants to be straight. He wants his cuts to be straight. He wants his lines to be straight. Can I tell you something? God gave us the lines. God gave us the way to go. God gave us the guide. He gave us the path. And sometimes I think we're just settled in our Christian life and we sit down and we say, I'm good. I know enough, I grew up in church, I had Christian parents, or maybe I grew up, I've gone to church for 20 years, I'm settled where I'm at, I don't need to increase in knowledge. But the Bible said here in Colossians, Paul's talking to this church and he said, hey, increase in knowledge. And if we're here tonight, I want to tell you something, we as Christians ought to be always increasing in knowledge. There should never be a time in the Christian's life where you sit down and you say, all right, I'm good. I know everything there's to know. I've got it all settled and I'm set. There should never be that time in a Christian's life. We should always be looking to grow. Can I give you number one? The Christian's example for learning. The Christian's example for learning. Could you turn over to 2 Timothy chapter three with me? 2 Timothy chapter number three, we're gonna look at verse number 15. Paul was training young Timothy here, and he wrote this letter to young Timothy. And I love the book of 1 and 2 Timothy. Those are my two favorite books. If I were to pick a favorite, it would be 2 Timothy. But 1 and 2 Timothy are my favorite books in the Bible. You want to know why? I'm a young preacher. I'm a young person growing in the ministry, and you know what I wanna do? I wanna know all that Paul had to tell Timothy. That's why they're some of my favorite books. I read them at least once a month, if not twice a month. I love those books. But Paul here, he's telling Timothy right here in this second book that he wrote to him. Look at verse number 15. He said, in that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. We learn a lot about Timothy right there. You've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto," what's that next word? Salvation. You know what the Christian's example for learning is? It's God's Word. What does God's Word do for me, though? You know what it does? It shows me how I can know salvation, how I can be saved. When someone is young, or when someone is unsaved, and they don't know what Jesus Christ is, or they may not know what God is, and they may not know all the things that you know, they may not know all the stories about the Bible that you know, they may not know all the doctrine that you know, you know what God's word can share with them? You can share with them from God's word, it's salvation. First and foremost, Timothy is being told here, he said, hey, in that from a child you've known these holy scriptures. First off, they're wise to make thee unto salvation. And the Bible has the ability to, the gospel is clear in the Bible. And I want you to catch this. You and I know a lot about the Bible. You're here tonight and you say, yeah, I know quite a bit about the Bible. I know a lot of stories. I know a lot of things about the Bible. And we meet somebody that may not have grown up in church or may not know anything about the Bible and may not know anything about God. And we look at him and say, okay, read the Bible. If I were to do that to some of our teenagers that have never really even seen a Bible, and I would say, all right, here's the Bible, go ahead and read it. I think they'd look at me and they'd go, I really think they would. But you know what, the first step, the first thing that the Bible says it's able to make thee wise to is salvation. And so my first step is to open them to where the Bible talks about salvation and say, here, let me help you start in this knowledge. Because you always have to have a starting point. And that starting point right here in God's word is salvation. But then it goes on. Look at verse number 16. Why is scripture given to us? Verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. You know what doctrine is? This is what we believe. So first thing is first is is I'm gonna be saved based on the word of God. I'm gonna increase the knowledge, so I'm gonna start off by being saved. But then the Bible says, it says it is profitable for doctrine. This is what we believe. This will shape how we think and how we view things. And I'm gonna make a statement tonight that if you're getting your doctrine anywhere else from this book, then you need to test it to this book. Because you can go to somebody's website, you can go to somebody's blog, and you can look and see what they believe, and you can say, yep, that's what I believe, it sounds real good, but you haven't tested it according to God's word. You know what God's word is profitable? Profitable for? It's profitable for doctrine. And if I have a doctrine and it stands contrary to the word of God, then my doctrine is not true. And my doctrine is wrong. And I need to test my doctrine to the scriptures. Because it is profitable for doctrine. If you've gone through pastor's first steps, phase one, his phase two, which some people are in right now, are talking about all the doctrines of God. I think there are nine doctrines that he has laid out in the second phase. It talks about the major doctrines of God. And so this is important in a Christian's life to know about these doctrines. So they get saved. There's a young Christian, they get saved. Now they grow to learn about the doctrine of Jesus Christ. But what else does the Bible do for us? Look at verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine. But then that next word, for reproof. That's where we've been wrong. This is where, as a Christian, you're reading God's word and all of a sudden you come across maybe Ephesians 4, verse 31. And you go, man. I've got a grudge against my family. I've got a grudge against my brother. I've got a grudge against my sister. I've got a grudge against this person. That is the reproof that he's talking about right here. Maybe you're looking, I want you to look at, turn to Hebrews with me for just a second. Hebrews chapter 4, it's just a couple pages over. Hebrews chapter 4, this is a powerful verse. You know what the Bible is good for? Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 12. For the word of God, many of you probably have this verse memorized and I hope you do because this is a great verse. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and morrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Bible is therefore reproof. for reproof, so it's there for salvation, for doctrine, for reproof. Now I want you to catch this. For, what's the next word, correction. This is how to get right. This is how to get right. So we've seen what is right, we've seen where we're wrong, and then the Bible is there for correction. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 119 verse nine? Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How am I supposed to get right, the Bible says. How am I supposed to do it? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. How do I get right in my Christian life? I've done wrong, and you know, it's really interesting. Psalm with David saying, hey, how's no young man gonna cleanse his way? David says, hey, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. By taking heed to what God has written in his word because it's there for correction and how to get right. But then I want you to notice this. the last word that it says there, for instruction in righteousness. You know what? We saw what is right, we saw where we go wrong, then God corrects us, he shows us what is right, but you know what he does? He instructs us in the way to go. You know that's what God's word does for us? It instructs us on how to stay right. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one says, wherefore, Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So God uses his word to help Christians mature in the things of God. But if I'm gonna increase in knowledge, this is a great tool for that. This is a great way to go and it should be the first place you turn to. But can I tell you something? God, when you're increasing in knowledge and you want to increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, God uses his word. But you know who else God uses? He uses faithful, mature Christians. He does. Pastor's First Steps phase, second phase, is a very good, structure-wise, it takes a mentor and it takes a disciple and it puts them together. And it says, you wanna learn more about the Bible? You wanna learn more about what God has for you? Here, here's a mentor. Here's someone that can help you. Here's someone that can help mold you and share with you what God's word says about the doctrines of scripture. Here's what God's word says about how to get right, how to stay right, and that is what the Bible is good for, but mature Christians, here's what happens sometimes. and I hate this because I've been saved for several years. I've been saved since I was seven years old and I can tell you that the time that I wasted with some of the people that I could have shared Jesus Christ with and the times I could have invested in people, I think of guys that are in college, that were in college with me, that I could have invested in and I could have helped them grow in the Christian walk. I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up in a pastor's home. I knew a lot about this book. To whom much is given, much is required. But can I tell you something? I knew so much about this book. But did I use it? Did I help younger Christians that had just been saved? There were times where you think, oh, I went to a Bible college, and you think, well, everybody that goes to a Bible college is saved, and they know Jesus Christ as their Savior. No, that's not the truth. We had kids that were getting saved all the time. I say all the time, but we had kids get saved regularly that were in Bible college. I've been saved for a long time, and you know what I had to do? I wish I would've done a better job, but you know what I needed to do? Invest in them. And if you're a mature Christian in here, we have a lot of younger Christians that are starting to become a part of this work, and that is awesome. That is so awesome to see. But if you're a mature Christian in this room, you need to take somebody under your wing and say, hey, let me help you. Because God uses mature Christians. You know what he used? He used Paul to help Timothy. And Timothy, I don't believe Timothy would have been what he was to where he amounted to had it not been for someone that took him under his wing and said, I'm gonna help you. Well, that's up to the pastor, that's up to the youth pastor, that's up to their workers. No, that's up to each one of us. If you're saved and you're a mature Christian, I pray that each one of us take our gifts and we use it for the Lord. Number two, I want you to notice this, the Christian's choice for learning. This is interesting. There's two avenues for learning, and I'm finding this out more and more, and you'll see why in just a second. Two avenues for learning. Number one, obedience. This is when mom tells you that the stove is hot, don't touch it. So you know what? You don't touch the stove, because you obeyed mom. Right? That's the simple way. Here's the other way. Not obedience, but experience. This is when mom says that the stove is hot, but you put your hand on the stove anyway, and you find out through experience that indeed, the stove is in fact hot. That's experience. Working with a youth group for the past two and a half years, I've seen that. And I've seen it played out more and more. But there's two avenues. Can I tell you as a Christian, the latter is probably not the better. God has given us things in his word, how to stay right, and how to do what we ought to do, and how to stay on the path, and how to follow him, and yet too many times we as Christians, we're gonna learn by experience. And that is why I believe God uses mature Christians, because of the experience that comes alongside of it. There's many times I walk up to this pulpit and I think, Any single one of you could be doing this way better than anything that I've done. You know why? Because you have the experience. You have the experience, but God has seen it fit through obedience. And what I have done and what pastor does and what you see in Christian workers and faithful Christian workers is you see the obedience. If you're teaching a Sunday school class, obey God, keep going with it, do what he wants you to do. If you're serving in the nursery, which we need more of, I'm not saying that out loud, am I? We need more of that. then keep serving in the ministry of the nursery. If you're serving on a bus or you're serving bringing children in, continue with it. If that's what God has given to you, continue in that, but do it because God has given that to you to do. I gotta get back to where I'm at. I keep, I'm losing where I'm going here, but Experience and obedience. Two ways that a Christian learns. Obedience, I obey because I was told that this is what God said I wanted to do. Or experience, hey God told me not to go here and I turned into a Jonah and I did it anyways and I got to come back and now I got to do what's right. This goes two ways, though, because there's two different sides. If you're a mentor tonight and you've taken someone under your wing, you're a Paul to somebody's Timothy, and you have a young Timothy and you're being their Paul, and you see someone go astray, and you see someone mess up, look, I hate it when I get phone calls saying, hey, so-and-so that you knew from the youth group is doing this now. Or so-and-so that was part of your youth group is now out here doing this. And this person is here, and this person's with this person, and they're doing the things that they know they ought not to do. Or, hey, this person. They know better. You and I as Christians, we know better. But you know what? As a teacher, as a Paul to young Timothys, here's what I gotta do. I gotta say, they have made a decision. And you know what I gotta do? I can't look at them and go, why'd you make that decision? Is that gonna do any good? Is that gonna help anything? What is wrong with you? Wake up! That's not gonna do anything. You know what I gotta do? I gotta come and say, hey, You know what you did was wrong, but here's what God's word says on how to make it right, and here's how you can stay right. Because it's not gonna do any good to come to that person and smack them upside the head and say, hey, dingbat, what did you do that for? Why are you hanging out with that person? Why'd you go there? Why'd you do that? It's not gonna do any good, but you know what I can do is I can come alongside them, and I can be patient, and I can say, what was going on? You know that's against God's Word. You know God's Word told you that that wasn't right. You know God's Word didn't want you to do that. Acts chapter 27 is a very interesting passage. Paul is on his fourth missionary journey, and I found this very interesting. I was reading this this week. Paul's on his fourth missionary journey, and he's on his way. He wants to go to Rome. He's never been there, and he wants to get to Rome. So he's trying to get to Rome. This is after he's been in prison, and he comes before King Agrippa. You remember that story where he came before King Agrippa, and he told King Agrippa, he gave the gospel, and then King Agrippa looked at him and said, almost you persuaded me to be a Christian, almost. But right after that, he gets put on a ship to go to Rome. Well, the centurion that was with him put them on a boat that was going to go to Italy, but it first had to make a stop. And when they got in their stop, Paul said, hey guys, I don't think it's a good idea to keep going. There's a storm coming, it's really bad, and I don't think our boat can make it. And the centurion looked at Paul, heard his claim, and then he looked at the master, the ship master, and he said, what do you think? And the ship master said, oh, we can do it, there's no problem. Well, what happened? They get out to sea, and they get lost. They get hit in this major storm, and they're throwing things overboard, and they're scrambling around, and they finally get towards Italy, where Rome is, and they've got a beat-up ship, they can barely make it to shore, and their whole, their whole, all their livelihood is just gone because they had to throw it overboard. And Paul looks at them, and he goes, think about being Paul here. Told you so. Like, that's what I would say. Told you so. Like, I told you not to leave port, but yet you left port anyways. What is wrong with you? In our flesh, that just seems to be what we'd wanna say. But Paul didn't say that. Paul looked at him, he said, look, we're in this situation now. Here's what we're gonna do about it. I know the Lord Jesus Christ and he has saved me and here's what we can do about it. And Paul used that opportunity to share his faith in a way he would have never been able to share his faith. But sometimes I think we as mature Christians and the mature Christians in this room, we look at people and younger Christians that make a mistake and we go, They just blew it. They just blew it. And we give up. And we don't try anymore. Christian, mature Christian in this room, don't give up on your young Timothys. Keep alongside them and nurture them and help them. If they mess up and they sin and they go the opposite direction, help guide them back. Help bring them to where they need to be because ultimately, you are what can help bring them to where they need to be. Number three, I want you to notice this. This is real quick, the Christian's tool for learning. What's the Christian's tool for learning? Just like Howard's level that he used, our tool is the Bible. The Christian's tool for learning is just as a carpenter uses a hammer. How many good carpenters do you know that go to work without their tools? Not many. They don't go to work without any tools because, you know what, they gotta get the job done. And Christian, when you go out in the world, When you go out and you're in where God has placed you, whether it's the grocery store or the doctor's office or wherever it may be, wherever God has placed you, have your tool with you. Hide God's word in your heart. We talked about that this morning. Hide God's word in your heart that you may not sin against God. How awesome would it be to meet someone in the grocery store that God has brought you to and you've got the tool for learning right here in your head and you can say, hey, Romans 3.23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you can start sharing the gospel with them because that tool is right here. Right here. Now lastly, I want you to notice this. The Christian's responsibility. So we're to increase in knowledge, but what is the Christian's responsibility? 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse number 7 says this, You know what the Christian's responsibility is? He's to abound in knowledge. Christian, Don't get so happy and so set on your couch at home and in your everyday life and you sit down and you just live your life and you don't do anything about God's word. Yeah, maybe you get up and you read your scripture and you do your thing every day and it becomes a habit, but can I tell you something? God's word says in 2 Corinthians 8 to abound in knowledge. This literally means it has the idea to have an excess or an abundance of knowledge. I guarantee if I asked each one of you in this room tonight if you had an abundance of knowledge about the Scriptures, probably each one of you in this room would say, yeah, probably not. That's what I'd say. Hey, Johnny, you got an abundance of knowledge about the Scripture? No, but I want to. And that ought to be, every Christian in this room ought to have that desire to say, God, I want to know more about you. I want to know more about what you want from me. I want to know more about how I can help others. I want to know more about how I can reach the lost for Christ. I want to know more. I want to abound. I want to be overflowing. I want to have an excess or an abundance of knowledge. But we're not just to abound in knowledge. Look, Colossians 1, where we were, Colossians 1, verse 9. The Bible says, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will. All Christians are to be filled with knowledge. I want you to catch this. The Greek word that was used here literally means to cram full. That interesting? The Greek word filled with knowledge, it has the idea to cram your head full of knowledge. Man, when I sit to study God's word, I ought to look to cram God's word into my head and say, God, what do you have for me? I'm too abound in it to have excess, but I'm to cram it full because you know what? God has so many truths in his word. God has so many good things to show us. And man, if you're 100 years old and you've read the Bible every day and every second of the day, God still has more truths for you. How awesome is that? But you know what the Christian is also to be doing, and I close with this, verse number 10 of our text where we just were, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto every, I'm sorry, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in knowledge, the knowledge of God. I don't care if you've been saved for five days or 50 years in here, there's still more to learn about God's word. God's word, like I just said, is full of truths, it's full of great things that we can learn, it's full of things that we can, we can cram our head in an abundance of knowledge. But I think we, sometimes we get too stale. and I think we take advantage of all the knowledge that God has for us. There are people that would, over in some of our African countries, there are people that when they get a copy of God's word, they take it and they can't put it down because they look and they go, what is this? They get a New Testament, they maybe get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Acts, and they look at that and they go, What is this? And they can't put it down because they keep filling their head with knowledge and they keep filling their head with knowledge and they want to know more and yet we who have had God's Word for years and years and years, we go home at night and we put it on the shelf and we leave it and when we come back to church on Sunday, we got to grab our Bibles and we got to dust off the dust because we got to come back to church. We got to make it look like everything's good and we got to look like we've been in our Bible all week and we've been abounding in knowledge, and we've been studying God's word, and we gotta put on the face that we're the best Christian, that's what we almost feel like we have to do, but can I tell you something? If we as Christians just looked at this book and we said, oh God, fill me with your spirit, give me knowledge, and I think that we as Christians can all come together and we can say this one thing, I don't know enough about God's word. I can stand here this evening and I can tell you one thing and one thing I know for sure, I don't know enough about God's word. But you know what? I want to know more. I want to know more. I want to take this book And I look at this book, I use a different Bible tonight. I don't ever preach from this Bible, but I use this Bible tonight, because this is the Bible that I've had since I was, before I was saved, so it's almost 20 years old. I've had this Bible. And I've got notes all throughout this Bible. I love this Bible. And I don't use it to preach because it's delicate. But this Bible means a lot to me, you know why? Because through the years I've increased in knowledge in this book. And this book right here, the one you're seeing in front of you, I've increased in knowledge, but you know what, it's not enough. I've got two others that are just like it, one that is the exact same Bible and another one that I used to preach from, and they're the exact same, and I look at those and go, I gotta fill those up. I gotta start increasing in knowledge and I gotta start learning more. I can't just quit because you know what? There's people that are counting on me. There's young Christians that are counting on you to get in God's word and to learn more and to know more about what God has for you and for them and I can't let them down and you can't let them down. How many of us tonight would answer this question and be honest about it? we've stopped trying to gain knowledge. Or maybe you're gaining knowledge, but maybe you realize, I've just gotta abound in knowledge. Maybe we give the excuses that we say, well, I'm just too old, or I've been in church for many years and I know enough. Man, we as Christians ought to be always abounding and always growing and increasing in the knowledge that God has given to us.