Tonight we're going to be looking at a prayer of Paul. D.A. Carson, several years ago, took every prayer of Paul from the New Testament and commented on them. That's a very worthwhile study. Tonight, in the closing prayer, I'm actually going to pray this prayer that Paul writes here in the first chapter, verses nine through 14 on behalf of our church, Gold Country Baptist Church. I would encourage you to do this. take the prayers right out of the words of God, out of the Bible and pray them back. If we want to pray according to the Lord's will, this is a surefire method to do that. And oftentimes all you're doing is changing the pronouns. That's all you're doing. So it's a wonderful prayer. Let me just rehearse a little bit about Paul. Paul had received a visit from Epaphras. He's in prison. He's under house arrest in Rome. On the whole, the report that he got from Epaphras was encouraging concerning the church. However, the reason why Epaphras made the journey to see Paul is He was concerned that his work there was being subtly undermined by false teachers. And what these false teachers were doing, they were adding to the true gospel. That situation, hearing from Epaphras about the church, caused Paul to write this church a letter. He had never visited. His first concern was to thank them. And back in verse three, it starts out, we always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray to you. This was reassuring for the people to read that opening verse right there. Because I think they were wondering if they were missing something here. Paul also mentioned to them that Epaphras had told him that their lives demonstrated faith, love, and hope. And he also assured them that Epaphras had preached and taught the true gospel. The opening words that we're going to look at now say this, and so from the day we heard, and that is plural, and he's talking about himself, but also Timothy, and I'm sure other Christians. The day we heard, we have not ceased praying for you. Let me read you a quote from John Newton concerning prayer. Prayer is not only our immediate duty, but the highest dignity, the richest privilege we are capable of receiving this side of eternity. I think that's a true statement. You see, Paul was concerned And how was his concern manifested? He went to God in prayer. If we're concerned about our church, what are we going to do about that? We take it to God in prayer. If we're concerned about others that we know of, what should we be doing? Taking our concerns to God in prayer. That's what the Christian life is all about. and Paul continued to pray for them. And that's because their spiritual wellbeing was important to him. In the prayer we're going to look at nine through 14, Paul prayed for three things, fullness, power, and gratitude. And because of the time constraints, tonight, we're only going to look at his prayer for fullness. And next Sunday night, we're gonna look at what he says concerning power and gratitude. But I'm going to read to you the entire prayer, chapter one, verses nine through 14. Those who have ears, let us hear the word of God. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased praying for you, asking that you may be filled 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. May you be 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. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sin. Let's pray. Our great God, we have the privilege tonight of coming before you in prayer and then looking at your word. Father, help us to never take this for granted. It's the greatest privilege to be able to do this. Thank you, Father, that you hear us. And even though maybe at this same time around the world, others are praying to you, you're aware of each prayer that comes your way. And you know us. So Father, help us as we look at this passage tonight. to see Paul's burden for these Christians. And also the same burden, Father, applies to us, your people, who are meeting here all these years later. Enable me to speak clearly and accurately and in the unction and power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I wanna read verses nine and 10, because that's what we're gonna look at again. And so from the day we've heard, we have not ceased praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in 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. Paul's prayers, as I mentioned, focus on spiritual realities. He wanted the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. That's true for us. That phrase applies to us. Fullness and knowledge were two themes of the false teachers. They didn't really oppose epaphras outright, but what they did was more of a subtle nature. They seem to hint that epaphras had introduced the people to the basics, but, and anytime there's a but, there's a contrast here. Something more was needed. What was needed? One thing that they felt was needed was they needed to experience fullness. And that's exactly what Paul is praying for those Christians that we're looking at, fullness. Except the false teachers did not mean a knowledge of the scripture, What they meant was some sort of mystical enlightenment. And in order to acquire it, it was necessary to have some experience. But that's not the true gospel. We don't need some sort of mystical experience at all. And by the way, everything that I'm mentioning here is alive in well in some churches. There are some churches that delve into this. Paul has a totally different idea concerning fullness and knowledge in mind. The false teacher's idea was something esoteric. And that simply means it's for a few chosen ones, esoteric and mystical. What Paul has in mind is something that is practical. And that's why we need it. What he has in mind, what comes to your mind rather, When you hear somebody say the phrase, knowing God's will, because this is a central thing right here, knowing God's will for us. I think a lot of Christians think this way concerning God's will. Who should I marry? Or what career should I pursue? Should I change my career? Should I buy a house? Should we buy a car? Et cetera, et cetera. Now, those are important decisions. Don't get me wrong here. But that's not at all what Paul has in mind here. Paul is not thinking of that. What his focus is, spiritual reality that every Christian needs. Every Christian needs what Paul is praying for here. And that's why we can take the prayers of Paul and personalize them with the Bible in front of us. You don't have to write it down to do it. You just need to change some pronouns to do it. When Don Whitney comes, he's going to do that with the Psalms. I could hardly wait for this, by the way. I wanna talk about that at the end. He's gonna be talking about spiritual realities. What do we need to do as a church as we're waiting for him to come? We need to pray. That's what we need to do. We need to pray for him. And you know what? This is nothing new that he's gonna be giving to us. We might be shocked at the number of times he has spoken this to other church bodies. But we need to pray for him that it will be as it were the first time. And also that we benefit. to the degree that we pray that we benefit, I believe will be the degree that we will benefit. Because that's the way spiritual realities are. And that's why we need to be praying. And you notice here, Paul, because he was concerned, he prayed. He just didn't pray once. He continued to pray, to pray, to pray, to pray. So what are those spiritual realities? There are four. Number one, it involves walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. That's the first spiritual reality that he wants for those Christians in Colossae, but that God would have us here at Gold Country Baptist Church be concerned about. This is a common New Testament way of describing the whole direction of a person's life. It is living life in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now, what does this mean positively? It means that we are living our Christian lifestyle and it is appropriate for what we find in this book. That's what it means. And if we talk about it negatively, it means nothing in a believer's lifestyle should be inappropriate. Paul talks about in other places, and he's gonna do it in Colossians, about putting off and putting on. If something is inappropriate, what are we to do? Put it off. If something is appropriate, what do we do? We put it on. So that's the first thing. walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. How does a Christian live? How does a Christian think, speak and act? That's what he's talking about. The second thing is this. It involves being fully pleasing to him. Notice the word fully. That's really significant here. He doesn't say it involves being partially pleasing to him or being pleasing sometimes. It's very broad right here. And in order for us to know what is pleasing to him, we need to know what it says in the word of God. I want you to turn to chapter 3 of this epistle and look at verse 5. I'm going to read 5 through 17. We're going to look at this later, but if you want to find out what is pleasing This is a portion that's going to tell us how our life is going to be pleasing to the Lord. Listen to what Paul says. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen people, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing one with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called, in one body. And be thankful Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiveness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. There it is. There's the blueprint for life. That's what we're to be like. And when you live in a way which scripture talks about, your life is pleasing to him. If we live other than this, in those things that he started out, put to death, then our life is displeasing to him. The third thing is it involves bearing fruit in every good work. And the idea behind this is this involves a commitment to spiritual excellence, not a commitment to mediocrity, but to spiritual excellence. In the Sermon on the Mount, it says, be perfect as God is perfect. That's impossible. But that's the goal. See, that's the goal. He doesn't want to dumb it down. Every good work means that comprehensive. What about bearing fruit? I think the best passage, bar none, is to simply go to Galatians 5, 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We have enough in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 to keep us busy the rest of our lives, really. Fourth thing, it involves increasing our knowledge of God. Now, the Christians already knew God in a saving way, but Paul wants them to know God more and more and more and more. We will never arrive on, on this at all. But this time next year, we're to know him in a, in a much richer way than what we know him now. The quote I have given more than any other quote is the one I'm gonna quote to you now by A.W. Tozer. What comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So by way of summary, We could go to other places and read what Paul emphasizes there to just back up what he said here. Listen to what he says in First Thessalonians 4.3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. You see, everything we've been talking about here is our sanctification becoming more like Christ. Or Romans 12.2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. So I wanna challenge you by way of drawing this together, in two areas. The first area is praying. And I've already told you that Don Whitney is gonna be here. But I wanna challenge you to begin from this night on every day to pray for Don Whitney and to pray for our congregation that we will benefit hugely from it. I want to read a quote by Alec Moyet. He died not too long ago. To abandon prayer is to embrace atheism. That's a true comment. Do we abandon prayer? I do. I have. We need to pray. We need to pray for our church. We need to pray for the elders. I wanna talk about though, the last one here, increasing in our knowledge of God. Okay, here it is, table talk. Okay, I've held a table talk up many, many times and I'm going to continue to do that. The year of 2017 is a special year for the church because it's the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. And table talk for the whole year is going to focus on the doctrines of the Reformation. They typically go through a book of the Bible and sometimes maybe two. During the month of January, they focused on the doctrine of God every single day. And if you have table talk, you know that. And I have to tell you, it is rigorous. You may read about some things concerning a knowledge of God that you've never heard before. But this is a challenge to us. What about February? February, they're devoting to scripture. natural revelation, which is the revelation of creation and specific revelation, which is this right here. You see the Catholic church would say, oh, we accept this, but we accept also the traditions of the church. No, no, no. This, sola scriptura, is all we accept as being authoritative. This is not authoritative. We have men putting this together, and men can sin. R.C. Sproul would be the first to tell you that. Nothing he has written has been perfect, maybe close. but nothing. This is, I think, maybe 23 bucks, 25 at the most per year. 12 issues? You can't begin to get something as worthwhile as this right here. So just like that book I ran, you know, the radical book, Get it, get this right here. I have only one question. And that is, are you increasing in your knowledge of God? When you read the word of God, so you need to be doing that every day. When you read the word of God, you can start by saying, what did I learn about God? Start there. But you see, you have to be reading the Word of God. So you can't use that, but you can start there. Knowing God is another book by J.I. Packer. That's a study of God. You know, the more things happen, The fact that so many people can be praying at once and God knows. I can't even wrap my mind around that. I can't even begin to. And right away that tells you something about our God. Listen to what J.I. Packer says. You don't get all until you cultivate the sense that God is very great and that you are very small. You won't do it. And that's why it's so important just to pack our minds with the truth of God's greatness, which should lead us to gratitude that our great God in eternity past set His love upon us to save us. We're gonna take time for a time of reflection. And then as I pray, I'm praying Paul's prayer on behalf of you and me and go to Country Baptist Church. Let's take some time to reflect. Our God and Heavenly Father, I pray that we might be filled with the knowledge of your will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to you bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of you. May we be strengthened with all power according to your glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to you who have qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You have delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of your beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen.