I have learned over the last few years a pattern in my children. And the pattern is that I believe that my two sons, my two oldest sons, have learned that if they really want something from dad, that they need to ask their sister to intercede for them. It's a good plan. I find it hard to tell my only daughter, Sarah James, no. She's my only daughter and she's very cute. And it's hard for me to tell her no when she asks me for things and when she's really interceding for her brothers. It's because she's cute. But it's also because she knows how to ask me. She has her reasons. She typically has a reason. Daddy, we haven't watched a movie in a couple of days. What do you think we can watch a movie tonight? As if there's some law in our house that would authorize that automatically. But she has her reasons. And she knows that not to ask for too much, you know, there's just some things that Daddy's just not going to allow. It's not according to his will. And I bring this up to you because even though the parallel between Sarah James, my daughter, and myself is not perfect in regards to a Christian praying to the Father, there is some connections. We do need to know how to pray. And we do need people. to pray for us, to intercede for us. And I want you to think about this morning in light of this passage of scripture, the idea of intercession, intercessory prayer for other people. I want you to look at the manner of intercessory prayer and much of the content of it. We have in this paragraph, this long sentence, many things that Paul's praying for the Colossians. He knows something of their grace in Christ Jesus. He's very thankful. He just reiterated, just wrote to them in the previous verses of his thanks to the Father on their behalf. They know the Lord Jesus Christ. They're growing in grace. And because there's grace in Colossi, there's there's people to pray for, there's things to pray for for them. And this morning, I want you to think about this lesson. The lesson is this, that God's people intercede intently for the spiritual progress of one another. God's people intercede intently for the spiritual progress of one another. And I want to look at two main ideas. In verse nine, the beginning of that, we have the manner of intercessory prayer, how to do it. And then secondly, the content, what it is that we actually are praying for. And in actuality, as you listen to me this morning, I really have five points, one being the manner and then four points on content. Look with me first at the manner of intercessory prayer. Verse 9, he says, for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask. Now, I want you to realize something about Paul. Now Paul is an apostle, none of you are apostles, and there's a sense in which we should not imitate Paul in everything. Certainly there's places in scripture and there's people in scripture that we're not supposed to imitate. But I commend the idea that in this section, we are to imitate Paul. That's really the lesson here for us. Paul says this in many places. He tells the Philippians this, he tells the church in Thessalonica, he tells the church in Corinth, therefore imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. We learn something about prayer, that we are to pray intently. He says, for this reason, we also. Intent prayer, interceding intently, oftentimes involves praying with others. We also. Paul's certainly one who would pray by himself, and that's certainly taught in scripture. There's also praying with other people. He's praying with Timothy for the Christians in Colossae. He's most likely also praying along with Luke and Epaphras and these other people we see in chapter four, Tychicus. The corporate prayer meeting is not necessarily in view. Of course, that would be inconsistent with it. I think there's times where Paul prayed for himself, prayed himself for the Colossians, but he certainly prayed in union with his other men. My mother has the practice if not every day, very, very regularly. It's part of her morning routine. She has her best friend. And she calls, either she will call her or she will call my mother. And they'll pray for five or ten minutes. They don't talk. They just pray. It helps. It helps to pray with others. One commentator writes, As there is nothing on earth more grateful to the Lord than this divine concert of many souls, thus mingling their voices and supplications. So there's nothing more effectual to draw down his blessing, obtain his graces in the behalf of our neighbors. Praying with others helps us pray intently. We also see how Paul prays. There's a level of importance to intercession. He prays with others. He prays with importance. It says, since the day we heard it, Paul heard of this church in Colossae. He didn't plan it. He didn't know them by their face. But when he heard the news and their needs, these gnostic errors that were going on in the church and these problems, man, it was important to him. He started praying. You know, if I'm driving on a trip, to Reno, Nevada or Los Angeles, my family. And I suddenly realized that I'm on E. I mean, the only thing that's in my mind is where is the next gas station? Because we need gas. This is important. But it's another thing if my children say, hey, you know, we'd like to have some candy. I mean, maybe I'll stop and get them some candy, perhaps. But it's not as important. This is important. Intercessory prayer matters. We see also the fact that he prays frequently. Do not cease. Do not cease to pray for you and to ask. Do not cease. How do we understand this? First, notice that it's not just praying in general. Prayer is very general. I typically pray, and as I'm sure many of you, in my corporate prayers, something to give thanks to God for. I bless his name. Hallowed be your name. That's a praise. We confess sin, even corporately. We can ask for things for ourselves. But this is a prayer for someone else, and to ask. And it's very frequently, a do not cease is to be understood in a certain way. And it's not literal. We know from the history of the early church, the book of Acts, Paul's not always praying. Like literally always praying. He doesn't pray for them frequently. He doesn't stop praying for them. I cannot confirm that this was Paul's technique, but I think one way of doing this One way of praying frequently and without ceasing is to do this. You can keep a prayer journal. I want you to think about this because if you're like me, you've probably been burdened with the fact that you know you need to pray. And if you don't pray for your husband, who's going to pray for your husband? And if I don't pray for my kids, who's going to pray for my kids? And my pastor has asked me to pray for his preaching and for his boldness. And you can feel burdened. Well, have I prayed? Am I really praying for people? And what I think Paul has in mind here is that he frequently prays for the Colossians. You can keep a list of names. It might be that you only pray for your friend in Fresno or once a week or once a month, but you have them on your list. And when you pray, you're gonna go through that list and you're gonna pray. You're not stopping to pray for them. This is the idea here. No doubt Paul certainly did spend a lot of time in prayer. Elders, pastors are called to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Prayer is important. This is how we should do it as well. Imitate me. Imitate me. How do you pray? And how do you pray for others? Is it intently? Is it important to you? But I want to spend a fair amount of time on the content of prayer. Going back to my illustration with Sarah James, she knew how to ask. She knew what to actually ask for. And so these last four points is what to pray for the content of intercessory prayer. The first thing we see is related to to right knowing the knowledge of God's will for guidance in our decisions and also for the knowledge of God, theology, for doctrine. We see we see that here. I do not cease to pray for you. We do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The emphasis in this first petition, this first intercession, is guidance, God's will. What's God's will for your life? Have you ever sought counsel on where to work, where should I go to college, what job should I take, how should I buy? The Bible doesn't tell you everything. I mean, you can't turn to Romans chapter 18 and it's all there. The Bible speaks to your life. The Bible is sufficient for us. And we do study God's word. There are times when we need to know God's will. We need to have spiritual wisdom and understanding. I take this next phrase here, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, as really getting at one idea. He's not talking about all wisdom, just Indiscriminately. I mean the Gnostics, keep in mind who's in Colossae, they're all about wisdom and knowledge, but it wasn't according to God. It wasn't really spiritual. It wasn't spiritual as in from the Holy Spirit. It's talking about a certain type of wisdom, a certain type of understanding. I received a phone call recently from someone who was asking me a question about a relationship that he's in. He didn't know if he should pursue it. He told me a few things about the girl he's interested in. He doesn't know what to do. We're needing guidance. We're needing wisdom. This is what we need to pray for. We need to pray for guidance for ourselves and for others. There are decisions that you face. There are decisions right now that you all are facing. And you need your brother and your sister to pray for you. That you make a good decision. If we're going to please God, and if we're going to live our lives rightly, we need to know how to think rightly, too. And that's partly what's, the other part of that is talked about in the end of verse 10. Again, right knowing. Pray for right knowing. He says that they would increase, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now this is a little bit different. It gets to the same idea of guidance. Because what's being talked about right here is Paul is talking about doctrine. He's talking about theology, the knowledge of God. And understanding something about worship, the means of grace, the trinity, whether or not we should be speaking in tongues, revelation, scripture. All these points of doctrine are very important. Because it affects the way we think, the way we understand our world, it affects our decisions. Having a theology is like a water filter, or in some cases, not having a water filter. All this junk from the world coming into you, what are you going to actually take in? What are you going to actually take in I was speaking to Dr. Kerto in class, I guess a few years now. You recall Dr. Kerto, the man who preached my ordination sermon, a minister in the OPC, a missionary in Uganda for 10 years. He came across a man, an American, normal looking guy in Uganda. and started to get to know him, talk to him a little bit. And this man said that God had told him to leave his family and his home in America to come to Africa and share the gospel. He heard a voice. Theology matters. Theology matters. It matters how God communicates to us. Should we be listening to voices? It matters how we do missions. Do we just go by ourselves or does the church send us? All these different things. Praying for the right knowledge. How do we worship God? Are we really sanctified by the truth? If we are sanctified by the truth and in worship we worship according to God's Word. All these different things, they matter. It affects us. The Trinity, is it true? It affects how you pray. It certainly affects salvation. It matters. Knowledge, right knowing. Praying for this. Do you pray that your loved ones and yourself have a right knowledge of God? A right knowing. But look with me also, my third of five points. Not just right knowing, but right living. right living. He says in verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work. So thirdly, right knowing. There's two errors in this regard. There's two errors that we can fall into. We can be all about right knowing, all about theology. You can be that type that knows all about how to do evangelism and what the Bible says about preaching and missions and not actually share the gospel with anybody. Because you don't actually love sinners. And you've never had someone over in your neighborhood for lunch on the Lord's day. Because it's all about right knowing. Of course the other error is all right doing or doing and not knowing like that man in Africa who left his family and went on a missions trip by himself. He was out of money and didn't have any fruit. So we want to live rightly and know rightly. Look with me in this verse that you may walk worthy of the Lord. Now the word walk here is a expression for how you live your life. It's deeply rooted in Old Testament literature. The Psalms and Proverbs talk about, I've walked in my integrity. What he's talking about, he's lived truthfully. That's what Paul has in mind here. Walking worthy of the Lord. What does he mean by walking worthy of the Lord? Do we earn? God's favor? The Lord's favor? Do we act in such a way that He says, you know, I want you to be my daughter. I want you to be my, you know, my son. Well, no. He's talking about a certain seemliness, as one commentator writes, or a certain level of contact that's appropriate to take upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. To say that I'm a Christian calls upon you to act in a certain way. One commentator writes, the worthiness of which the apostle speaks is nothing but a certain seemliness, or if you like, in Matthew chapter 3 verse 8, John the Baptist says, therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. barefruits worthy of repentance." In other words, John the Baptist is saying barefruits so that you would repent and it would actually be repentance. Not fake, weak repentance is not true, not in the heart. But it would be real. There would be substance there. So we need to walk worthy of the Lord. Our manner of conduct. Philippians 1 verse 27, "...only let your conduct..." Paul says the same thing there. "...only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ." What does he mean by that? Whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." So we don't walk worthy of the Lord in that we earn it. That's my point there. We please Him. Fully pleasing Him, Paul says, our conduct should please Him. I spoke to a man who was actually a minister of the gospel in another denomination years ago. who had a particular view of sanctification, particular understanding of how God's people become more like Christ. And he said that based on his understanding of sanctification, he said that God, because His people are forgiven, because they're in Christ, He's never displeased with them. He's never displeased with them. Speaking of how theology changes the way we live, of course this passage is getting at the idea that we might do something that doesn't please Him, and that we are to seek to fully please Him. Ephesians 4.30 is an example where we speak words and it grieves the Holy Spirit. So we are praying for this right living, which includes being fruitful in every good work being fruitful. I want you to think for a moment about what fruit you have in your life as a Christian, spiritual fruit. Graces, character traits, and also good deeds, good works. God does not call you to be, He doesn't I expect you, in every case, to bear fruit." What I mean by that is this. Jeremiah, the prophet, calling upon Israel, calling upon Israel to repent. From a certain perspective, Jeremiah didn't have any fruit. He didn't have any fruit, but he was faithful. Oh, that's true. You may be working very hard as a parent and your children are not converted. Or elders and pastors may labor much for their congregation and may not see a lot of fruit. Now I want you to know that God calls you to faithfulness, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't pray for fruit. The farmer doesn't just like having vineyards and trees and stuff and just look at them. He wants fruit. Pray for fruit. Pray that God would bless our efforts as a church to reach out to the lost. Pray that you would grow in grace, that you would learn to be patient with those people who are really hard to be patient with. That you would put off sin and put on Christ. One commentator writes, Saints are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and their graces and good works are their fruit. Right knowing and right living. But also, fourthly, what should we pray for? I'm gonna come back more specifically to the idea of intercession. But I want you to think about what it is that you should be praying for, for yourself and also for others. Fourthly, for strength. For strength. Verse 11, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. A couple weeks ago, maybe it was a few months ago now, Bill and Willa, they needed some strength. They needed some help moving the furniture in their home. Now Bill's moved many times. It's not like he didn't know how to move furniture. It wasn't that he didn't want these improvements in his home. He doesn't have strength, so he had to get some family and friends to help. And we as Christians face situations where what we need is spiritual strength. The odds are that if you have not taken one of those gospel tracks in the back of that foyer there, and handed one out in the last six months. The odds are, if you're like me, it's not gonna be an issue of not knowing how to lift up your hand and giving a track. It's a matter of strength. You might make someone mad. Listen, I was out recently, and I shared a track with some lady. She looked at it, and she looked at me, and she said, no, thank you. And it hurt me. Here I am, 34 years old, pastor, you know, used to be in the army. And I was hurt, and I was like, man, I'm a loser. You know, what is this? spiritual strength. We face enemies. We face reproaches. Listen, you know, the evangelical church, the part of the church, whether they be Lutherans or Baptists or Presbyterians that actually believe the Bible. OK, there's going to come a day when men like me stop saying that homosexuality is a sin. This will be attempted. to just not say that and to just not go there. And it's not gonna be a matter of, well, I'm not really sure. It's gonna be a matter of strength, courage. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation with your spouse or whether it be your kids or someone in this room, and they're hard to deal with. They've wronged you. They've spoken sharply to you. And God calls you, of course, to be ready to forgive. And it's hard. It's hard to be patient. Strengthen with all might, for all patience, and long-suffering with joy. It's hard to be joyful in this situation. That's what we should pray for. We need strength. We can't lift the furniture all the time. I want to encourage you with something here. Paul says something here very encouraging. I remember being in high school and becoming, kind of becoming aware of this. Alright, so thanks Pastor Sam. Need strength. He says, strengthen with all might according to his glorious power. I was reading my Bible in high school and I was starting to talk to my youth pastor and struggling with sin, struggling with just normal Christian stuff. I came across this passage in Ephesians chapter 1. Paul's praying for the Ephesians. He wants them to know these things. He says, What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe? What kind of power? According to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Listen, Christians are the strongest people in the world. I'm not talking about bench press. I'm talking about being patient with people. What's our power? What's our power? It's the Holy Spirit. We face sin, we face persecution, we face trials, we face a need for patience, and Christ, by His Spirit, strengthens us according to His glorious power. If you ask, if a multi-millionaire was to say to you, or if you were to hear these words, they would give of their wallet You know, it may be 10 bucks, but if they give according to their wallet, according to their ability, according to their capabilities, you know there's a lot more money there. Well, this is what's going on here. It's the Holy Spirit. It's the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. He's in you. He enables you. Pray for strength. Pray for strength. It's there. But pray that it would fill you up. Acts chapter 4. I want you to think about this for a second. Acts chapter 4. Peter. Peter's speaking before a bunch of Jews who killed Jesus. Verse 8. Remember who Peter is. I'm talking about strength here. Peter was the man who would not confess Christ before a servant girl. Three times denied Christ. Acts chapter 4 verse 8, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel. And he speaks. In verse 13 it says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. They marveled. Uneducated and untrained men. Forty days earlier he was denying Christ. strengthened according to His glorious power. That's encouraging. Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill you up and that He would fill those you love up with His strength. We need strength. We need strength. Fifthly, what do we pray for? Pray for a thankful heart I mentioned much of this last week, but I'll say a few more words about it. A thankful heart. Pray that you would have a thankful heart. Verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Here we're talking about the face of a person. The face of a person. Whether they live and walk with the knowledge of their salvation before them. He doesn't say give thanks for all the things that you have in your house and giving thanks for your health. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance, your salvation. This is Old Testament language. Partakers of the inheritance, it's almost a, it's not a technical phrase, but it harkens back to the land. What was the inheritance of the Old Testament people of God? was land. Joshua 14 verses 1 and 2. These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan. Then verse 2 says, "...their inheritance was by lot." Which is the same word here, partakers. We don't inherit a physical land, but we do inherit a spiritual land, which actually one day will be physical. We keep that in our mind. Are you facing difficulties? Are you having a hard time being thankful? If not today, maybe tomorrow. I know that's my experience. And what you do is God's given you something to think about. You are a son. You are a daughter of God. You are a daughter, you are a son of God, and you are an heir of eternal life. You are in the light, in the light. The next verse picks up on the idea of darkness, but it's just referring to our representation. We're in Christ, we're children of light. We're no longer in darkness, chained to the devil and his power. We have much to be thankful for. And we need to be thankful, we need to think about this, prioritize these things. God's people intercede intently for the spiritual progress of one another. And I want you to think about two things in closing here. I want you to think about if you actually pray this for other people. And if you actually pray for other people. Intercession's different than supplication. I get up in the morning and either initially or a little later, I might go on a walk and I'll pray for me. I'll pray for maybe my wife too, but my kids, and I pray for other things, but I pray for me. Well, do you go on past that and pray for other people? Listen, if you're not praying for your kids, who's gonna pray for your kids? For your spouse, for your parents? Who's gonna pray for your parents? Pray for other people. Pray for your pastor. Paul says in verse two of chapter four, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant with thanksgiving, meanwhile praying also for us. Pray, pray for our missionaries. I got a email from one of our missionaries in India, Vinky. Two converts this year, so encouraging. He needs prayer. Pray for our missionaries. Do you pray? Do you intercede for other people? But secondly, and just as a way of recapping here, what do you pray for? I want you to think about something. The Bible, totally authorizes us to pray for our physical needs, which I did in this corporate prayer time. Paul doesn't mention any of that. Later in this book, he says to them, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, for Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Those things that you need, that are ever before you, pray for them. But pray for other things too. Pray for spiritual things. This is pleasing to God. It's according to His will. This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. We need you to strengthen us for our pilgrimage. We need you to empower us. We need your grace. We ask that you would make us to be people who pray rightly and pray intently. We ask that you would protect us, that you would make us a congregation, make us families, make us people who pray your protection upon others. And Father, we know that we have an intercessor with you, Jesus Christ, and we love him and we depend upon him. Heavenly Father, we ask that because of him that you would hear our prayers. We pray in his name. Amen.