Alright, let's turn to Colossians chapter number 1. Book of Colossians chapter number 1 tonight. Good to be in the house of the Lord on Wednesday night. I know Wednesday night, prayer meeting night for our churches. got the nucleus of this congregation here this evening and ask you to pray about several things. Colter's got a little book table back there. He travels with me a lot and whatever donations given to him he takes care of missionaries and then also got a special needs ministry going on over in the Philippines. Brother Rommel Reeves is with us for about three months and Brother Rommel is raising some funds to help build a facility. They had 215 special needs folk in the last service that they had. A lot of them in that area. Some of them have got saved. They've ministered to them. In the Philippines, you don't have a handicapped parking place or a handicapped bathroom or anything like that. But he went with Colter to a special needs ball game. and got a burden for it, went back, and man, he's been a real light to those folk and to those families. And so culture's a big part of that. So see him after the service. And then also, I'd ask you to pray for us going into Australia. I'll be from the Northern Territory down to New South Wales, about 5,000 miles altogether in that travel, preaching in that part of the world. And we certainly need your prayers. And I want you to especially pray for our Aboriginal family up in the Northern Territory, a fellow by the name of Keegan. He's in a family. He was fishing the other day, caught a fish with a tag in it and won a million dollars, a million dollar fish. So, man, that's something else. But I'm trying to, and his sister's older sister got saved and God's working on him. And so I've made friends with him and I'd love to see him get saved by the grace of God. And there needs to be a great move among those aboriginals in that part of the world. Not a whole lot of Christians among them, but God is working. And so pray that we'd be able to reach him, that boy would get saved. Not for his money's sake, just that's the one way you can remember him. Just pray for the million dollar fisherman, amen? And God knows about him. While it's night here, it's day over there. And while it's day over there, it's night here. They're in the bed and I've been praying that God would wake him up under Holy Ghost conviction and save his soul for the glory of God. And then appreciate all of you that pray for us regard to the disasters there in Western Carolina, but God is getting his word out and God's people are being a witness in this hour. I'll ask you to stand tonight wherever it's God's word together. Looking in Colossians chapter number one, look down in verse number nine. For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Father, I pray You'll bless the Word of God tonight. I need Your illumination and wisdom in all that needs to be said. And I pray the Holy Ghost to put this Word down deep in some hearts. Lord, there's struggles going on. There's battles taking place. And I ask You, our Father, that You might work in hearts by Your grace and by Your power. Thank You for what You've done in the meeting. Continue to work and continue to help me in each that only You can, Lord. It's beyond us, but Lord, it's not too hard for You. Have your way now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. One day, the apostle Paul had a fellow by the name of Epaphras that approached him, and he came out of this little village called Colossae. There in Colossae, he began to tell him about what was going on in that local congregation. And Paul got a real burden for them. And he mentions Epaphras four times in the book of Colossians, and in the latter part of it, over in chapter number 4, he says about him that he is also one of you, a servant of Christ, that saluteth you always, laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Epaphras' zealous prayer was that they might stand perfect and complete in the will of God. And as he told Paul about that congregation, Paul picked up that same burden to pray for them. and the Lord inspired him to write down the prayer that he was praying for the Colossians. And I believe the prayer that was prayed for the Colossians is one that was prayed for you and for me that it might be fulfilled in our lives. Now, Colossi was in that section, you know, the seven churches of Asia Minor. Ephesus, Myrna, Laodicea, and all of that. Well, down through that section there's a little country place called Colossae. A priest in Turkey was able to go there. And the only thing in Colossae as far as digging up the old ruins and stuff is nothing more than a little bitty sign that is about half bore out and a trail going up the bank. And then there's about a five acre field where there's absolutely nothing there except a bunch of ruins in the ground. But we stopped there, and I went up there, and I began to walk around and began to look at the ruins and stuff, and I would do this. And then I'd go back to looking and examining and see what I could find, then I would look up again. And every time I turned around, and every time I'd be looking down, it wouldn't take but just a minute before I'd do this. There's an 8,000 foot mountain range, And in that section, it's the highest mountain, Mount Calvus, and it's the highest mountain in that region, and it just is breathtaking. And you won't stand in Colossae long without looking up and just admiring the work of the Lord in that mountain. And it's in this book of Colossians that he says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. And as you walk through the mountain range of the book of Colossians, boy, it's not long until after you read a few verses, you're going to start looking up into the heavenlies. And behold the wonders of the height for the glory of our great God. In this book, he talks about the riches that are in Jesus Christ. He speaks to us about how we are complete in our Lord and in our Savior. Now tonight I want to look at this prayer of Paul from verse 9 all the way down to verse number 17. Now had this been turned over to the average English teacher, they would have put red marks, they would have put all kind of notations, and they would have said this is too much of a run-on sentence. It's one of the longest run-on sentences in the Bible. It starts out in verse number 9, and you don't get a period in this thing until you come down to verse number 17. It's almost like Paul is praying, and he hardly can take a breath between what he's praying for these folk. Man, instead of papyrus, he's got a fervent prayer. Fervent praying means red hot praying. And God said in James, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Have you ever gone beyond just a little Christmas wish list that you give God? Have you ever got in communion and fellowship with Him? Well, you seek His face and boy, things boil up in your heart and you pour your soul out before God. I believe God is pleased with that. This is what's happening to Paul. And I want to look at the different things that he prayed. Start there in verse number 9. And he says, For this cause, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. And when we hear about other believers and we hear about other churches, we need to pick up a burden to pray for them. I mean, here's Paul, he's got his ministry, he's preaching every night. What's the big deal? Why should he care about them? He cares about them because Jesus cares about them. Why should I care about the Indian Mission Baptist Church? Because Jesus cares about you. Why should you care about Bethel Baptist, or Octavia, wherever? Why should you care? Because He does, and we pray one for another. Now here's what he says, that he does not cease to pray. It's a continual prayer. And our prayer is not just a few minutes in church. But praying to the child of God ought to be as natural as breathing. He said, pray without ceasing. Somebody said, well, you know, I pray 20 minutes a day. Well, that's not enough. I pray three hours a day. That's not enough either. Pray without ceasing. You ought to go with a continual prayer on your heart and on your mind. And he says, here's what my prayer is, that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. His prayer for them is they might have an understanding of these following things that are laid out in this Scripture. And His prayer for them is they might know the will of God. And I want to say, my friend, one of the greatest things in the world is for anybody to know the will of God for their life. The will of God is that which God has ordained for you. The Lord made one of you. He gave you life. He gave you breath. He let you exist upon His planet. You're going to take up a little space of time, and you're going to have existence here. And when God lets you be born, you weren't born just to blunder through life and wonder aimlessly. No, when Jesus comes into your heart, He will show you why, when, and where the will of God is for your life. Now Jesus said, this is the will of my Father which sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, might have everlasting life. It's not God's will to save anybody unless they believe on the Lord Jesus and they trust the Son of God. And I want to ask you something. Are you in the will of God tonight in salvation? Have you believed on Jesus? Have you claimed to Him? Have you trusted Him as your Lord and your Savior? And I'm not talking about just the head knowledge, I'm talking about with your heart, you've called on Him, you've believed in Him, you have trusted Him. Now there's some of you sitting here, you've heard this all your life, but you have yet to bow your knee and call on His name and receive Jesus into your heart. John said, through as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. And there was a day, though I knew about it intellectually, that something happened in my heart, and I received Him into my life, and He became the Lord of my life. He became my all in all, and forgave me my sin, and saved me by the grace of God. Has that ever really happened to you? Yes, it's God's will. It's God's will for you to be sanctified. This is the will of God that every one of us might be sanctified, know how to possess His own vessel. It's the will of God to praise Him without ceasing in all situations. And so, Paul's opening up saying, I want them to know the will of God in knowledge and in wisdom with spiritual understanding. There's a lot of folk that don't have any spiritual comprehension or understanding. And when you say, pray for me, we need to pray God, give us a spiritual understanding and a comprehension. Then look in verse number 10, something else he prays about, is that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. His prayer is that they might walk worthy of God. The Bible said that Enoch walked with God. And he had this testimony before God took him that he pleased the Lord. I wonder if you're pleasing God tonight. It's the prayer of the Lord that you might please Him. If you please God, you can't please man. You can't please man and please God. Well, you know, my buddies, my friends, my peers, you can't worry about them. You've got to come to the place where you want God's approval more than man's approval. Not only that, you can't please yourself all the time and please God. It's that about Jesus, that He pleased not Himself. Oh, and He said, Father, if it's Your will for this cup to pass, but nevertheless, not My will, but Thine. He wasn't looking forward to the nails. He wasn't looking forward to drinking that great cup of iniquity and becoming sin for us who knew no sin. He wasn't looking forward to all that, but He said, not My will, but Thine be done. Don't think for a minute that you can go with God and always have your will and have your way. God will cross you. God will deal with you. And you have to make a decision. Will you go with God or will it be your will? And so that's part of the prayer. And then he goes on to say that we might be fruitful in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God. He's praying that we might be fruitful people. Jesus said, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit. Now what is the fruit of a Christian? Well, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, faith, meekness, temperance, all of those things. It will be those fruits that are on our life. Then also, that fruit of the Christian is seeing somebody else saved. Paul said, I would love to go among you and preach and have some fruit among you. He's saying, man, I want to see somebody else saved. Come here a minute. Do you have a desire to see somebody else saved? You're here tonight not by yourself. Many of you got your entire family here. And the reason is you've influenced them to come. If they wanted to, they'd just say, stay at home. But you say, no, let's go to the house of God. Some of you are here because people have invited you and they want you to come. And boy, to go with a consciousness. When I meet people, I'm on an elevator. And before we get up to the eighth floor, I'm already inquiring about their soul. You say, well, ain't none of your business. Yeah, that is my business. And it's your business as a child of God. You know, I hear this saying all the time. Man, pray for so-and-so's family. So-and-so got killed on the way to work. And boy, pray for him. I worked with him for 20 years. And you get around to ask, well, was he a saved man? Well, I don't know. I never did ask him. You mean you'd work with somebody 20 years and never ask them about being saved? You wouldn't have a desire to have fruit among them that if somebody witnessed to you, you might witness to them and see them saved? Have you got kin people that you don't know whether they got a testimony whether they're saved or not? Do you work with folk every day and you've never got into that conversation with them? What about eternity? What about your soul? And they may say, well, it's none of your business. Say, well, it's going to be all of our business because we're all headed to the same place. Death's on your trail like it is mine. And I got saved and I just want you to enjoy what I'm enjoying. And so we want to have some fruit among us. I don't want to go to heaven by myself. We sing the old song, bringing in the sheaves. They that go forth weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again, rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him. I don't want to come to heaven by myself. I want to bring somebody else with me, don't you? Well, that's the prayer for us right here. And then in verse 11, He said, strengthened with might according to His glorious power. And to do the will of God in this world, you're going to need to be strengthened with might. Not be weak, not be cowardly, not be unable, but to be energized and empowered by God. As a young man, I'd rather take a bad grade than have an oral book report. I didn't like to get up in front of people. I was made to stand in front of the class, and boy, it just killed me. And even as a senior in high school, I was in the FFA, and I was in our farm class, and they had to have somebody to give a speech. And they chose me, and I said, no, no. He said, either that or take an F. I said, all right. So I got my little speech together, and I gave it. Stuttering, stammering around, and the teacher said, are there any criticisms? I think all 30 hands went up. So next time I gave my speech, I wrote it out and I held it up. We went to Franklin, North Carolina for the Western North Carolina Convention there. And they were there from all over Western Carolina, big audience. So I picked my paper up and I read it off just like Walter Crankcase did every evening on the news. Well, we finished. I said, I'm done with that. And then they called the name of the winner, and guess who won? I did. Because the other students tried to memorize it, and they stuttered and stammered around. That put me to Raleigh in front of 3,000 people down there. And there's only four of us in the whole state. And so we got to go behind closed doors and give our speech to the judges. I threw my speech in the garbage can, stuttered and stammered around. I didn't win and I didn't want to win. And I said, I'm done with that. But then I got saved. And guess what I heard? I heard, preach, preach, preach, preach, preach. Somebody else would preach, I could see myself preaching. I'd think about things and preach, preach, preach, preach, preach. And finally, I came to that place where I said, Lord, I may make the biggest mess out of it anybody's ever made, but I'm willing to be miserable the rest of my life. If that's what You want, Your perfect will for my life, and I surrendered to preach. But you know what? With that call to preach, God gave me in happiness to do the will of God. And honest than that, I'm just as comfortable behind this pulpit as I would be at my home with my easy chair and my feet kicked up drinking a gold glass of tea. Amen. And I used to hate to travel, but now I don't mind it at all. I love it. I didn't like to meet strangers. Man, I didn't like people. But now I love people and I love strangers. Because when the will of God comes and you have an understanding of what the will of God is, He gives you a strength to do that will. I don't know that I could ever do that. You can do it if you're strengthened with the power of His glorious might. And He'll make you happy doing it. And you're never going to be filled with joy and peace until you get in the will of God and go to doing whatever God has called you to do. Amen. Then look in verse 11 again. He said that you might know patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Patience. Patience is idling your motor when you wanna strip a gear. Boy, you say, well, I have to pray for patience. When you do, something's gonna happen. Tribulation, work of patience. And God'll put you through some things to teach you patience. But boy, to be impatient and hot-headed and can't wait on it, that'll get you in trouble. I mean trouble. with patience, possess ye your soul. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." And if you'll wait on God, you'll find out that He'll do more for you than you can ever do by running and staving and trying to get it accomplished yourself. Patience, bearing the load with long suffering. That's not giving God a deadline to get it out. That means to suffer and suffer a little bit longer. That's God's will for us to be a long-suffering people. And then he goes on to say with joyfulness. Yeah, I'm putting up with it. I'm putting up with it, yeah. He said with joyfulness. And you know, it takes a work of God in our heart to be joyful even in tribulation. I'm like you, I don't like it any more than anybody else, but the joy of the Lord's our strength. When Nehemiah and all them folk came back, and they were building that wall, and Sam Ballett and Tobias is saying, hi, if a fox walked across that wall, it'd fall. Ha ha, you ready to go to sleep tonight? We're gonna get you and your family. And they put their sword on their side and had their trowel in their hand, and they're working, and they're picking that rubble up, and it's hard work, and the sun's beating down on them. And old Nehemiah seen how they were down and out and getting grumpy and growly. And so he preached the message, remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength. You ever notice that when you're working around somebody and they go to sin or they got joy, it just really affects you? But when you walk around people and they're all grumpy and growly and sully and touchy and ill, how that affects you? We need to pray the will of God in our life would be that we be filled with the joy of the Lord. I was in Milan, Australia, preaching at Grace Baptist Church. Standing at the door, people coming through, and I shook hands with this man and woman and got to talking to them. Found out that they had come off a yacht. They've sailed a yacht literally around the world and finally they quit that and they came to Melanda to retire. And I asked them both if they were saved people and they said, oh yeah, we're saved. And I asked that woman, I said, how does somebody on a yacht get saved? She said, well, I pulled into a port, we did, got tired of sailing and said, I got a little job of teaching women's aerobics every morning. I said, one day this young lady showed up And after I taught her for a week, I looked at her and I was so mad. And I looked at her and I said, are you religious or something? She said she had the biggest smile and the most joy in her life. And she said, no ma'am, I'm born again. I said, what do you mean born again? She said, I'll tell you tomorrow. And she wrote a whole page on what it means to be born again. Gave her a Bible and gave her that literature. She said she took it home and she got in the back bedroom and she read it and said she got born again. Said that girl just disappeared, said she never ever saw her again. But she said because of the joy that was in that girl's heart, it put something in her to say, what is different in you? What is going on? Boy, you go out here with the joy of the Lord in your heart, especially on these heavy days, what's happening to you? What's wrong with you? You are an oddball in a solid generation. Amen. That's God's will. Move on. He's still praying now. He said, Giving thanks to the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He said, I'm praying that you might understand that you've got an inheritance. incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. The world may cheat you out of everything, but as a child of God, they're not going to take your inheritance away. And it's undefiled. None of the other kids are going to get mad because you have that inheritance. There's going to be no back taxes on it. Matter of fact, the termites won't eat its foundation. And you'll have to put more into it than it's worth. Thank God when you get over there, the Lord said, I've got an inheritance waiting for you. And He said, I'm praying that you might understand that this world is not the end of things. This is just a little space and then we have all eternity. He goes on to say in verse number 13, I'm praying for wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might know that He delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of light. When I got saved that night, I thought all I did was have my sins forgiven and wasn't going to hell no more, and I was glad of that. Man, I found out there was so much more that took place. The Lord literally translated me out of the kingdom of darkness and He placed me into the kingdom of light. It was a divine rescue. No longer would He say, ye are of your father the devil. But he would say, you are my child. You've come out of that kingdom and now you're in my kingdom. And Paul said, I'm praying for you that you might understand that you're living in His kingdom, the kingdom of light. Verse number 14, I'm praying for spiritual understanding that you might know we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. All these precious songs about the blood tonight. Boy, don't you worship God. Forgiveness of sins, why? Sometimes I ask people who say they're saved, why would God save you? Well, I guess because I ask Him. Yeah, you ask Him, but why would He save you? Well, I said, you ever thought about He saves you because Jesus shed His blood and paid the price? Oh yeah, yeah, that's it. And then finally it dawns on them. That ought to be at the forefront of our minds. The only reason I am saved is because I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb. And there is a fountain filled with blood, and I've been plunged beneath that flood, washing all my sins away. Revelation 1, 5, and 6, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. That'll make you want to sing blood songs. That'll make you want to magnify it. I feel sorry for these United Methodists that years ago cut the blood songs out of their song book because they said, oh, that shouldn't be sung in a mixed congregation because it's just too gross and it's something that's not proper. Well, praise God, it is proper. We ought to sing about it. We ought to magnify it. For if there's no shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Amen. Look in verse 15. He said, I want you to have an understanding that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And when it said the firstborn, it don't mean He was the first one born. It means anything that was born was first coming through Him. That's what that's all about. And Jesus is God. These little Jehovah Witness come knock on your door, or these Mormons ride their bikes by, you ought to put this verse on them. He is the image of the invisible God. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He says in verse 16, He said, I want you to have knowledge and understanding, I'm praying for this that you might know, that by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, that are visible, that are invisible, whether it be thrones, dominion, principalities, power, all things were created by Him and for Him. He said, I want you to know that He's our Creator and all things were made by and for Him. He said, then I'm praying for you that you might understand that He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Not that Jesus was before all things, but that He is before all things. He's right now 10 million years ago, as much as He is 10 million years in the future, and He spans the gulf of eternity, and He knows no zones of time. The men, you do, but He don't. Hallelujah. And Deuteronomy said it's the eternal God is our refuge. And Timothy said the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only one is God and our Savior Jesus Christ. We're not dealing with temporal things that will pass away. We're dealing with the eternal God. These are eternal things we're involved in. Man, he's praying God give him understanding now that, in verse 18, he's the head of the body. The church. I want you to know about the church. God has a church. Oh my, I witnessed the folk today that are out of church. They're not putting a lot of attention to the church. And I just told them what they were mentioning because Jesus died for the church. And He is the head of the church. Who is from the beginning, the firstborn of the dead and all things. He might have the preeminence and if you want to serve Him, then the preeminent one is the head of the church, and you need to be a part and involved in the church, and to be included in what God's doing through His church. And then in verse number 19, He said, For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Now this has been one run-on sentence. And He said, When I pray for you, that's what I'm praying about. And when we pray for each other, these are things that we ought to mention before the Lord, not only for ourselves, but for one another, and that we might have a fullness and an understanding. And you know, Paul picked up what was going on in that Colossian church from Epaphras. And in the latter part, chapter number 4, and you can turn there, it says in verse number 12, Epaphras, who is one of you, He's in fellowship with those people. One of you. This is my people. This is my crowd. These Colossians, I'm part of them. Do you say that about Indian Mission Baptist Church? Oh, they, or his, or them. Or do you say, hey, I'm one of you. Praise God, this is my church. This is my people. It ought to be a close-knit bond. A papyrus is a servant of Christ. He didn't come there as a pope, He came there as a servant of Christ, a bondservant. He said He saluted you, He's friendly, laboring fervently for you in prayer. When's the last time we labored in prayer? Brother Brandon, I'm sure somebody says, you know, why do we need revival? I haven't shot anybody lately. I haven't robbed any banks in a while. You know, I haven't told a cussing fit. Well, it's been a good while. But, you know, why do we need revival? When the people said, give us a king, give us a king, give us a king, Samuel said, you don't want a king. He'll run your life. He'll put your boys in war. He'll tax you. You don't want a king. You want God to be your king. No, we want a king like all over the nation. He said, all right. You want it? You can have it, but you're not going to want what you get. And then down the road a little bit, they cried out to Samuel, oh Samuel, don't cease to pray for us. Samuel looked at them in surprise, and he said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. If you've ceased to pray, if you don't have a prayer life, you're sinning against God. Sin of omission, that means something you've left out. And whatsoever's not of faith is sin. And it may be tonight we need to disobey God. As Paul had that burden to pray for Colossians and even pray for us, I need to pick up a fresh burden to do some real praying. And if we want revival, you know II Chronicles 7.14, you've heard it multitudes of times, humble themselves and pray. A proud people are not a praying people. A proud people say, oh, I can make it through, no big deal about that, why worry about it? But a humble people says, I need to bring it to the Lord and I need to pray. We need to pray for these fellows. That's about the fifth police cars went up, and there goes a wrecker. And somebody's had a wreck, somebody's dying, somebody's in dire need right now. They don't know if there's a little church on the side of the road, and we may never know who it is or what it is. You'll probably figure it out later. But it'd be a good thing if we might just pray for them. And then you've got loved ones that are lost and undone. We need to really burn down to pray for them. You've got situations that have arisen in your life that are bigger than you are. You need to call on the Lord and ask Him to help us. I want us to stand all over the house. I don't need any piano playing tonight. What I want, I want you to move out of your pew and let's get around this altar. Let's have a prayer meeting. And let's call on the name of the Lord. Pray for revival. Pray for our own sanctification. Pray for others. Pray for burdens and things that are on our heart. I want you to come on. Let's get around this altar right now. And seek the Lord's face. Look unto Him. Paul had that burden to pray. And his prayers were answered. That Colossian church really became a lighthouse on the hill. If you regard iniquity in your heart, You need to ask God to take that iniquity out, and if you're not praying, what are you doing? You say you're saved, and you don't want to pray. Are you really saved? Save people, pray. Save people, call on the Lord. God's speaking to you. Come on. Come on. Pastor, I'm going to ask you to lead us in prayer. Let's pray together.