continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving, meanwhile praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Amen. One of the best examples of how A Christian should pray to their God and their father is found in how young kids ask their parents for things that they need and in some cases things that they want. Children have no ability to help themselves. They can't walk into a Target and find the aisle that has Legos. They don't have any money. They couldn't go to the grocery store and buy themselves food. And what do young kids do? Whether you remember back to your childhood or just by observation, or perhaps you have young kids, what do they do? Mommy, I need water. I need food. I'm hungry. or perhaps it's their birthday, or it's six months away from their birthday and they're letting you know exactly what gift they would like to have. And this is a great example of how Christians should go to their father for a couple reasons. One is this, is that for things that you need or even want, you have less ability to obtain that thing than young kids who don't know where the aisle is that has food or their toys. They don't have money. You don't have the ability. Listen, every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, comes down from the Father of lights. And you, as Christians, you have just as much need as young kids do. I mean, you are needy. Even if you're in your prime and you're strong and you've got plenty of money, you need God to continue to provide for what you have. And you need God to give you those spiritual things, those spiritual things. You have need to pray. This is how we obtain what we need and what we would want even. And this is what Paul is addressing here in this passage of scripture. He's addressing prayer and how God's people ought to pray. He's been dealing with several exhortations. He's been exhorting God's people to a Christ-centered life. He's been, before that, dealing with how central Christ is to all things. He's in Rome. He's in prison with Timothy. He's writing to Colossae from Rome. Epaphras has told him of some of their concerns, their needs, some of the wrong teaching going on. And Paul is saying, listen, in Christ is all the fullness of the Godhead. You are complete in Him for your salvation and for all things. And oh, by the way, you are to live a Christ-centered life and you are to seek those things which are above. You are to put off sin. You wives and your husbands, you are to do certain things. And here we come to a section where he comes back to general exhortations. We see this morning an exhortation on prayer and next week Lord willing we will look at speech and behavior. What we learn this morning from this passage is Christians persistently, vigilantly, and thankfully intercede for the evangelistic and spiritual requests of others. That is the lesson. How should you pray? Christians persistently, vigilantly, and thankfully intercede for the evangelistic and spiritual requests of others. I want to bring this lesson to you under two main points. Verse 2, we have the manner of prayer. In verses 3 and 4, we have the content of prayer. Look with me first at the manner of prayer. Verse 2, continue earnestly in prayer. being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Now there's three things that Paul mentions here that affect how someone prays in the sense of their manner. The person, okay, the person of prayer. Not so much what they say, but the manner in which they pray. And the first thing he mentions is this idea of praying persistently. He says, continue earnestly in prayer. The New American Standard just says, persevere in prayer. The King James just says, continue in prayer. It's not so much the earnestness of it, but it's the persistence, the perseverance. Praying is not a sprint. It's not for sprinters. It's for marathon runners. You keep on doing it. You keep on going through this practice. You keep this discipline. And this is an exhortation that's throughout scripture. I believe that's because if you're like me, if you're like me, then you're prone to think, especially in light of prayers that go unanswered, or at least they appear to be unanswered. Is God listening to me? And is God doing anything? Does this have any effect? Remember, Paul is an apostle, but he is also a pastor. And he is saying, listen, keep on praying. Pray persistently. Jesus says, he speaks a parable, and you recall the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. and this widow is being mistreated. And she keeps going to this judge who does not fear God or care about justice. And this widow keeps coming, keeps requesting. And finally the unjust judge says, listen, I'm gonna give her what she's asking because she keeps coming to me. And that whole parable is prefaced with this verse. Luke 18, 1, then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. and not lose heart. Have you lost heart in your prayers? The premier leadership school in the army is ranger school. And if you were to look on paper at all the things that a ranger student has to do, it's really not all that incredible. A 12 mile walk here with a pack on your back and a 5 mile run here. But it takes a while. It's 63 days. You're faced with walking through woods and doing simulated combat patrols with, you know, in the snow and in the heat and without a lot of sleep and, you know, not a lot of food. And it's just, it takes endurance. And there's a slogan. It says, not for the weak or faint hearted. Listen, prayer is not for the weak or faint hearted. God's listening to you. God's listening to you, He wants you to pray, but He doesn't always answer your requests. And even those times where He does answer your requests, you don't always know it. You are to persist in it. It's a means in which He's given us to bring about His will, as we'll see tonight, in tonight's sermon from Providence. God uses spirit, He wants us to persist. And one of the ways that you can put off prayer put off persistence is to just go a day without doing it. Matthew 6.6 talks about a prayer closet. When you pray, go into your room. When you shut your door, pray to your Father who's in the secret place. What you can do, if you're like me, if you're like me, you've got a busy day, you've got to wake up early anyways, and you put off prayer. You put off prayer. Listen, Pray. You think about earthly things. You have need to think about spiritual things and to maintain that persistence. Persist in prayer. There are people that you love that do not know Christ and you've been praying for them for years. and you don't know if they're elect. It's not for you to know. Keep praying for them. Your prayers are not in vain, regardless. Think about children. Think about children. A godly father will listen to their children. A godly mother will listen to their children. Daddy, Mom, I need this. Even if they're a little kind of Pushy. The Father is listening. You're not bothering Him. He wants you to keep praying. Some of the commentators talk about violence in prayer. I like that. Hear my prayer. I cry out to you. Persist in prayer. Pray vigilantly. How should we pray? What's the manner? We continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant, vigilant in it. This is different. You may think it's the same. It's certainly connected. Vigilance in prayer is a little different. You may be very good, and I hope you are. I know many of you are faithful in this spiritual discipline to pray every day. There's a prayer clause. I'm talking about just you and God. You're not walking on a treadmill. You're not reading the Bible. I mean, there's a time where you stop and you pray. And you're persistent. And that's very good. I want you to keep doing that. Is that the only time you pray throughout the day? Are you aware of immediate needs that you have? And does that awareness provoke you to prayer? You know, you're out in your yard Saturday afternoon and you're doing some yard work and suddenly your neighbor, who you've been praying for, is out there doing yard work and you start a conversation. And they seem talky. They seem talkative to you. Pray. God, lead this in a spiritual conversation. Open their hearts. You're driving down the road, going to work, you're kind of late, you need to be on time, and you're thinking about, oh, I don't know if I'm going to have a parking spot. Well, pray. God's in control of all things. He loves you. Pray. Pray for the parking spot. See, vigilance of your needs, of your awareness, I believe there's really a lot of application here. I do believe that Paul is speaking here in this phrase, being vigilant, and he's talking about a vigilant mind or spirit, but there is a place for staying up at night and praying, and just being sober and awake and praying, and spending time in prayer. It's not just a monk thing, a monastic thing. Okay, I mean we can certainly go down that route and the monks in the history of the church have been superstitious, but Christ stayed up. It appears from the text all night praying for who his disciples would be. He probably took an afternoon nap, right? Because he's fully man, just like we're fully human. But it doesn't, this text warrants that type of behavior. Matthew 26, 41. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You may have a big decision, a big meeting the next day, an important conversation. Be vigilant and pray. That's not exactly what Paul intends here, but I do believe that's a biblical idea that comes from this idea. Are you vigilant? One of the ways you can do that, practically, is just turn everything into prayer. There's a famous general that was a Presbyterian, he was a deacon actually, and he would take, just as things came, he would receive a letter from a carrier, and he would pray for that subordinate commander. And as he's opening up the letter, he's praying for them. You're going throughout your day, turn things that are before you into prayer. We thank God before we eat a meal. It's before us. It's in our mind. Pray. You're in a conversation. Pray. You're walking through the doors of a building. Maybe it's the place where you work. Maybe it's someone's house. Maybe it's this church building. You say, Lord, let the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be acceptable to you. You know you're about to have a conversation with people. You want to be an example. You want to be an encouragement to people. And so you're vigilant in that way. He says, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Christians persistently, vigilantly, and thankfully pray. Now this phrase here certainly does affect our content of prayers. Paul gave thanks in his prayer this morning. We are to annotate those. And that's true. And I believe that's part of what he's saying here. But I believe that he's focusing more on the person. I mean you can give thanks and be thankful. Those are two different things. You can give thanks or you can be a thankful person. That comes out in your prayers. That's different. I believe that's what he's saying here. Being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. It's the idea of being. What kind of person are you? This is also replete in Scripture. First Thessalonians 5.18. In everything give thanks. There's two reasons why this is a legitimate command. praying with Thanksgiving, Paul to the Thessalonians says, and everything give thanks. Is that a valid command? I know as your pastor that there are many concerns, many aspects of your life that are sad. You're in pain, perhaps medically. There's disappointments. There's unanswered prayers. And I'm aware of that. And Paul, He is aware of that. He says pray with thanksgiving. There are two reasons why this is very legitimate. I want you to think about it. You have reason to give thanks and to be thankful. Even when God defers your prayers. Even when they go unanswered or they are not answered at all. They are answered in a way that you don't want them to be. Sickness, poverty, persecution. And the reason for that, I'm speaking to you as God's people. God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. It's a promise of Scripture in Psalm 84. And I remind you that God determines what is good. He determines what is good. He uses sickness. He uses poverty, tribulation, to make us more like Christ. He's going to give you the grace to endure these things. And even when prayer goes deferred, you have reason to be thankful. Because God is your Father. He loves you. You're His child. And He's making you more and more like Christ. And He uses affliction to build your faith. Listen, if we always got what we wanted, if this life was like heaven, would we learn faith? The same way we would learn if we had troubles. In that sense it is good and we can give thanks to God for it. If you are in a trial right now, God is molding you. He is shaping you. Now the other reason why you have to give thanks, is because you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father looks down from heaven and He sees you. Despite your sin, despite your disobedience, despite the spiritual mud that is over your face, He sees the purity of Christ. You're redeemed. You might have an illness, but you're not going to go to hell. Death is not your shepherd. Christ is. And I say this to my congregation, knowing that you have very difficult things going on. Be thankful. Remember. Who you are? You're heaven bound. Are you marked with gratitude? Do you just give thanks or are you a thankful person? This is how we ought to pray. This is the manner of prayer. Now the question is, not just from this passage, but Just if I was preaching a topical sermon on how to pray, well, what do I actually pray for? And in verse 3 and 4 we see Paul transfer actually to the content of prayer. And I think we need to, and I need to say and be clear, I'm not preaching a topical sermon on prayer, I'm not being comprehensive. Paul's prayer had many different parts. I noticed that. I appreciated that. The Lord's Prayer. There are several different types of petitions. We praise God. We thank God. We confess our sins. So this is not a voluminous or a comprehensive treatise on what to pray for. It's not even in regard to the idea of supplication and petition. And I want to say this up front. But I do believe that in these verses, what we should pray for, there's a lot of material here on what we should be praying. What's our emphasis? I'm going to elaborate on that a little bit. My lesson to you is Christians persistently, vigilantly, and thankfully intercede for others. Intercessory prayers. That's the first thing we see. Meanwhile, praying also for us. Meanwhile, also praying for us. Now, do you pray for yourselves? Okay, again, if you're like me, you pray for yourself. It's a very useful thing. Private prayer is very useful. You can be more intimate with God. You can confess sins that are private between you and God. You might have needs that you're embarrassed about. that you're only gonna mention in private, but don't only pray for yourself. Pray for others, intercession, intercessory prayer. Paul is talking about not just himself, but also Timothy. Timothy verse 1 of this epistle, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother. Very likely that he had another, had more with him, his traveling band as an apostle. He had more with him in Rome. He's praying. He's saying pray for us. Pray for the ministers of the gospel. That's especially an application that I'll get into in a moment. One thing I want to mention by way of correction. Preaching is meant to correct false doctrine. Now the Roman Catholic Church has a doctrine, among many doctrines, and the idea is not just confessing sins to a priest, who then is a mediator, a human mediator, but also praying to saints, who are not omnipotent, nor omnipresent, they can't hear you. What I want you to notice is that the preeminent man A preeminent apostle, if you will, Paul. He's saying, listen, I have need for you to pray for me. I mean, not only will you never find this idea of other mediators anywhere in the Bible, but actually this one premier quote-unquote saint is saying, listen, I have need for you to pray for me. There is one mediator between God and man. the man Christ is. I remember teaching Latin at a Catholic school. I think I've shared this with you before, but just quickly. A man came into the class. It was St. Bartholomew's Day. St. Bartholomew allegedly healed a young child's throat. He's now the saint of healing. He would go around with two candles in the form of a cross. He would put it on the throat of these kids. He was praying to St. Bartholomew. This is very wrong. And this is part of what we see here. Paul is saying, listen, I have need for you to pray for me. And I have need, I have need for you to pray for me. Listen, if Paul, with all the gifts that he had, and all the graces that he had, if he who wrote scripture, if he who performed miracles, He who received his ordination from Christ himself, who saw Christ, if Paul needed prayers from the congregation, from God's people, how much more is your pastor? Please pray for me. I was speaking to Evelyn Webster. She's up for a visit, but it was a visitor a couple times, and it was a few months ago, and she said to me, I don't know why I'm here. Tim was there with me. I don't know why I'm here. And what is God doing? And in other words, her question was like, do I have a purpose? And I said, listen, Evan, pray for me. Just pray for everybody, but pray for me. Pray for me. I ask you to do that for others as well, but for your minister. Pray that I would not be lazy. Pray that I would be bold. Pray that I would be wise. Intercessory prayers. Now, there's a focus here on a particular type of prayer. And again, I'm not excluding other prayers. But Paul mentions a specific thing. I want you to notice that. And it's evangelistic. evangelist kingdom growth, the gospel to go forth. That's his focus. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ, that I may make it manifest I skipped a part there, I'll come back to that. Verse 4, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about evangelistic prayers, the gospel going forward. That God would open to us a door for the Word. This is a metaphor. It's throughout Scripture, a door being opened. He's not talking about the door of his prison cell. Whether he was in a dungy cell, without a pillow, without blankets, or whether he was kind of more of a house arrest situation, which may have been the case. We don't really know. He's not talking about that. He's talking about that God would open up a door. God, that's what happens when the gospel goes forth into your heart and into a land. God is opening doors. One of the reasons why we should believe that regeneration is before faith. This is an aspect of Calvinism, an aspect of the sovereignty of God. I'm talking about that idea. It's because God must open the door. Man is unable, because of his sin, to embrace Christ of himself. God must open the door. Think about Lydia. Lydia. Acts 16, 14. Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. I recall a I can't remember exactly what it was. I think it was a blog or maybe it was a commercial. Paul Washer, Reformed Baptist, very powerful preacher. He has a heart cry mission society. And he was just calling for us to pray that these particular nations would be opened up to the gospel. There are nations that are... You cannot come in here, Christians. Okay? I mean, China would be one of them, in my opinion. The true gospel. Plenty of nations in the Middle East and Africa. Pray. Pray for those nations, those places to be opened up. John Wycliffe. I believe his first name was John Wycliffe. Early Reformer. Translator of the Bible into English from the Greek and Hebrew. Translator of the Bible. Burned at the stake. He said, I believe, at the stake. He said, God, open! The eyes of the King of England. This is what we're praying for. We're praying for our missions. We're praying for our missionaries. Pakistan, China, India. This is what we're praying for. We're praying for people to believe in Him. You know, me and Joel can go out. Tim, we can do evangelism. I can street preach. We can pass out tracts. Listen, every time I go out, I say, Lord, go before us. Open up the hearts of these people. Listen, I can't pull people across the line. Joel, he's really good at it. But he can't pull people across the line. Paul couldn't do it. Pray for a door to be opened to speak the mystery of Christ. This is a reference. What is this mystery? Okay, this has been abused. All he's referring to is the gospel. The doctrine of salvation as it has revealed now through Christ alone. Okay, he refers to this mystery. It's a mystery in the sense that in the Old Testament it was veiled to a large degree, to some degree, but now it's been revealed. It's kind of a paradox, a mystery that's been revealed. Colossians 1 verse 27. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles." What is that mystery? Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is what he's talking about. And his prayers are practical. It's not just that this would happen in its end goal. That we would pray for these missionaries to speak well. Particularly the pastors, the preachers, to speak well. He says in verse 4, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. The focus here is on clarity. It's hard to preach clearly. I can attest to that. Perhaps you can attest to that. It's not always clear what the preacher is saying. It's hard. That's what Paul is saying. Pray that I would make it clear to the mind and to the heart. Spurgeon is full of witty comments, a very intelligent man. And he gave an example of Christ said, feed my sheep. Did he not? He said, feed my sheep. What happens is preachers will prepare their messages and they'll bake these spiritual morsels and spiritual cookies and they'll put them on the shelf. We're out of reach of their congregation. And Spurgeon says, Christ didn't say feed my giraffes. Feed my sheep. Make it clear. I also believe there's an element to this that has to do with boldness. Making it open. I like the translation manifest. It's not just clear. I ought to speak boldly. A parallel passage in Ephesians 6. He mentions this. Verse 20, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly. as I ought to speak. Pray that I would be bold. Pray that Tim would be bold. Pray that pastors, yes, be gracious and wise as he says in verse six, let your speech always be with grace. Sometimes God's people just need boldness. We're living in an age where the exclusive gospel is reproached and frowned upon. And to think that pastors are not under pressure to back off from the sting of God's word is false. Pray for boldness. These are all evangelistic things. Before I go on to the last comment, are you praying evangelistically? Is that in your prayers? Put it in your prayers. Pray, listen, pray for an adult baptism in our congregation. Pray for an adult Baptist. Someone to come out of darkness into light. Not just our covenant baptism, which we love. And you can pray for that as well. Pray for an adult baptism. Pray for evangelism to go forth. That God would bless my efforts and the efforts of the congregation. Pray for the efforts of our denomination. There's information on that table. On our global mission committee. Are you including these? This is a focus. Paul could have said a lot. Which leads me into my next thing. I want you to see how spiritual Paul's requests are, and how spiritual our prayers should be. I'll say from the outset, Paul was a great example again. We pray for our earthly needs. We pray for people who are sick. I'm not denying that. I want you to know that. But think about Paul. Where is Paul? For which I am also in chains, he says in verse 3. Now, no doubt this phrase here, he's endearing himself to the Colossians. Listen, Colossians, I haven't seen you in my face, but I'm in chains because of this gospel that I want you to know. He's certainly magnifying the beauty and the value of the gospel. This man's willing to go to jail. Many of the apostles died. It's true. You really need Jesus Christ. You can't save yourself. You're not righteous. You really need Him. You must repent and turn to Him. This is all true. There really is such a thing as a heaven and a hell. That's part of what is being said here. But I find it very useful for us to back up. Both in this context of this passage, but also in our own lives. To back up. There is a focus on spiritual things. What is Paul not asking them for prayer for? He's not asking them to pray that I would be released from his prison. I wouldn't be wrong. That's not my point. The church prayed for Peter to come out of jail. He's not praying that my pillow would be more comfortable. That I would be able to go to Starbucks in the afternoon and have conversation with people down there. He's saying spiritual things. And I want you to think about this, whether it's your focus, not to the exclusion of your earthly needs, and even your wants. Do you pray for spiritual things? Dear congregation, Paul was very aware, and I want you to ask yourself if you're aware of this. Do you realize appropriately appropriately. That there are many people around you, perhaps even in this room, certainly outside this building, who will spend an eternity in hell without Christ. Are you praying for them? Are you praying for certain people to come to salvation in your family? At work? Old friends that you know? This is important. Listen, dear congregation, do you know that you have need for greater faith, for love, greater love for Christ? Do you have an appropriate amount of appreciation for the fact that the devil is coming after you every day to cause you to want you to sin. Lord deliver us from temptation. That's a spiritual prayer. Here's the other reason why I want you to think about spiritual prayers. God has made no promise to you that you would be successful that you would be healthy. Pray for those. It's lawful, but is it your focus? Or is spiritual things your focus? Father, show me my sin that I might repent. May I not be ignorant of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in this book. Expand my knowledge that I might walk in your ways. spiritual prayers. Paul was praying for spiritual things. Christians persistently, vigilantly, and thankfully intercede for the evangelistic and spiritual requests of others. Your father, your earthly father, he's like my earthly father, He was listening to my requests. And I want you to think about this. Whether you realize it or not, whether God seems distant to you or not, you have a God that is listening. And you have a God who is listening because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your King, He is your Prophet, and He is also your Priest. And as your priest, He not only died on the tree for you, but He continues to make intercession for you, despite your sin, despite your failures, perhaps in these areas that I've just mentioned. God hears you, because Christ is your mediator. And because He's your mediator, God is listening. Are you praying? Are you praying? Your father is willing and ready to help you. He's listening. Are you praying? Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we confess this morning that you are very gracious and good. You are far better than the best earthly father here this morning. You are patient with us when we nag you for things that aren't according to your will. And you're always there to hear us when we repeat our prayers, when we persist in them. Father, we ask that you would hear us. We ask that you would enable us by your Spirit to pray in the right way, to continue in it. We ask that you would bring about your will through this means and that we would give you glory by having a part and seeing your will come forth. Use our prayers and give us persistence in it. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.