Open your Bibles once more to Paul's epistle to the Colossians. Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 14 this morning. Colossians chapter 1, beginning with verse 9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Father, we ask that you would open this passage to us. Show us this morning, not only what Paul was saying to the Colossian Church, but what you are saying to us. We ask this in the name of your Son, our blessed Savior and Lord. Amen. Once upon a time, at a prayer meeting, A member requested prayer for another member who was described as a woman who was having a difficult time and feeling just miserable. And so a brother stood, volunteering to take that request, and that day fervently prayed, oh God, bless this miserable woman. I don't know if that's the pattern we want to adopt for our own prayers. I don't think that's a prayer we need to emulate, but it does raise a question for us, exactly how are we to pray for one another? How are you to pray for me and me to pray for you? How are we specifically to pray for the body of Christ, for our brothers and sisters? Paul provides us with an answer to that question in the passage this morning. Verses 9 through 14 of Colossians chapter 1 is Paul's prayer on behalf of the Colossian church. And we would do well as we pray for one another to emulate what Paul prays in this passage. Let's take a look at this piece by piece. The first thing we want to look at is Paul's motivation for praying. Now, we know that Paul prayed all the time. He was a praying man, for we read his prayers in almost everything he writes. You read through his epistles, and you see written into the epistles his prayers for the churches. We see Paul accomplishing things that no one could accomplish unless they were men of prayer. Paul evangelized most of the known world. He wrote most of the New Testament. He discipled men and women and placed them in positions of authority in the churches. He could not have done all that he did without being a man of prayer. And we can be sure that when the apostle tells his readers to pray without ceasing, he was doing the same thing. He was following his own admonition. But what is it specifically that has occasioned this particular prayer here in the epistle to the Colossians? We find the answer in the very first words of verse 9, where Paul says, for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. For this reason also. Logical question is, what reason is that? give you a little class in biblical interpretation. When you see some phrase like that, for this reason, you go back and you read the passage that just came before it because that's what he's talking about. For what reason? Well, it's what I just told you. Have you forgotten already? For this reason. What did Paul say in this passage that he just spoke of? Well, we saw last week that Paul was thankful for two things. That's what we see in verses 1 through 8. Paul's being thankful first for the Colossians themselves. and for the faith and love and hope that was present in them and being developed in them. The second thing Paul was thankful for was the gospel, because Paul knew that it was the power of the gospel that developed the faith and the love and the hope in the Colossians. It was the power of the gospel that brought them to Christ in the first place and made them capable of the kind of faith, love, and hope that Paul was talking about. And so when we come to verse nine and read, for this reason also, we know what Paul's talking about. Because of your reception of the gospel and the work with which it is working in you, in joy and gratitude, I'm moved to pray for you. And so the question comes to us then, what is our prayer motivated by? Go back and think through your prayers recently. What has motivated you to pray? Maybe it's a real tough situation that's occurring in your life right now. Maybe it's things you want. Maybe it's just obligation. Well, you know, I'm a Christian, so I gotta spend some time in prayer. There's no joy in it. There's no desire in it. It's just something I've got to do. That wasn't Paul's motivation for prayer at all. Paul's motivation for prayer came out of what he saw God doing in the lives of his people. And Paul rejoiced it. Paul was overflowing with gratitude for what he saw God doing in his people, and that drove him to his knees because he wanted to see more of it. And he says, God, this is great. I love what you're doing here. Do more. I want to see some more. Glean more fruit from these people. They're yours. That was his motivation for prayer. Would be to God that our prayer is motivated by the work of God and his people and our rejoicing in what he's doing. Our hearts could be that sensitive to the work of God that full of gratitude for his work in someone else, not necessarily our own. That's easy. God, I just, I am so grateful for what you've done for me. And that doesn't, that's not hard at all. The harder part is developing the kind of a sensitive spirit and heart in which you are grateful for what God is doing in other people's lives. And that being a spur and motivation for your prayer. That's what Paul was motivated. The next thing we see in the passage is the duration of Paul's prayer. We see in the motivation of Paul's prayer, what God's doing in the lives of the Colossian church. But after the motivation, we see a time element, the duration of Paul's prayer. He's not one who shoots up a, Lord, bless these people. And that's the extent of his prayer. How does Paul pray for the Colossians? He says that he has been praying since the day we heard of it, and that they have not ceased until the very time that he wrote this epistle. And we can be sure that Paul's prayers continued even after this epistle was sent. So what do we see about this duration of Paul's prayer? What did he hear of? that caused him to pray for the Colossians. Well, once again, we go back to what he's just written about the work of God and the Colossians through the gospel. And from the very time that Paul heard the gospel, was preached, and took root in Colossae, he was praying for the believers in that city. If you remember from last week, Paul did not personally plant the church in Colossae. Those whom Paul had evangelized and then discipled went back to their hometown of Colossae, and they planted the church. Epiphras. Philemon. Those are the people who planted the church. Paul had probably never even been there to this point. And yet, when he hears that the gospel had taken root, that there was a church there in Colossae, there were believers gathering together, from that point on, he's praying for them. He considers them part of his apostolic charge. because those whom he had brought to Christ had planted this church, and he felt responsible for them. And so from the very first moment that he hears of believers in that city, he's praying. And now reports come of their faith and their love and their hope, and he is spurred on to continue to uphold them in prayer, because as we will see, God is answering those prayers. So from the very first, Paul prays. But his prayer isn't a one-line deal. He doesn't say that I prayed for you when I heard that you had believed in the gospel and gee, I hope things are okay. What he says is that he has not ceased to pray since that day. He is a man who is going to knock on the gate of heaven until his requests are answered. Here is a man who will pray with perseverance. Here is a man who will not forget his brethren, even though he has never met them face to face. most of them. There is still that bond in Christ that is driving him to his knees. Here is a man who understands the power and the importance of prayer. Now I want you to think of something this morning. Do you in any measure at all reflect in your own prayer life Paul's perseverance? Do you pray without ceasing for anything? Think about it. What is the thing that you have prayed about the longest? For many of us, it would be unsaved loved ones. There are people in our families that we have been praying about for years. That's praying without ceasing. It's praying perseveringly. For others, I know it must be family members who have walked away from Christ. And we are pounding on the gates of heaven, praying, Lord, bring them back. Bring them back. And we will not stop until God answers those prayers. For others, I have no doubt you can't think of anything that you pray for continually, because you don't really pray about much of anything to begin with. Maybe you think prayer is like so much of our culture today. If it doesn't come easy, and if it doesn't come right away, then it's not going to come. And so we'll just give up on it. That's not how Paul prayed, certainly. Paul didn't think that way. Paul prayed without ceasing over what was surely a period of years. And during that time, he probably didn't have any idea what was going on in Colossae. There was no postal service. There are no telephones. There's certainly no email. Abraham didn't pray that way. He didn't think that way. He and Sarah prayed for a child for decades before God answered their prayers. And when he finally did answer their prayers, it was past the time anyone would ever expect the prayer to be answered. You don't expect a 100-year-old man to be fathering a child. And yet, that's when God chose to do it. But we live in a microwave society. I want it now, and I want it my way. Don't try to put God on your timetable, because your timetable is undoubtedly wrong. God knows much better. We need to understand what Paul understood. Our prayers need to be in line with the will of God. not our own will. We need to be praying for those things that God wants to bring about and continue to pray whether or not we see God working. You do realize, don't you, that whether or not you think God is doing anything has no bearing at all on the reality of the situation. God is not obligated to check in with you and let you know, here's how I'm going to answer your prayer. He's God. He has no obligation to you whatsoever. Anything He gives to you is grace. Let's keep things in perspective. He doesn't have to let us in on His plans or on His actions. And that might make it harder to persevere in prayer. But there is something to keep in mind that will make it easier again. It's a rhetorical question, and it's given to us in Genesis chapter 18, verse 25. And it's a question I keep coming back to again and again when I have no idea what God's doing, when I don't understand it. And it's simply this. Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? in other translations, will not the judge of all the earth do what is right? And the obvious implied answer is, of course he will. Of course he will. And it doesn't matter if we see it or not, and it doesn't matter whether or not we understand it, God will do what is right. And so we keep praying. Whether we see anything happening or not, we persevere in prayer just as Paul. And so we'd see Paul's motivation. He saw what God was doing in the Colossian church. We see the duration of his prayer. It was without ceasing, constantly beating at the doors of heaven, praying for the Colossian church. And finally, we're going to spend most of our time this morning, the composition of Paul's prayer. What was it exactly that Paul prayed for? And I think we can break it down into two major components. First is the prayer for knowledge, verse 10. We see that, verse 9 rather, for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. And what did he ask? And to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. That's what Paul was praying for, knowledge. It's interesting that Paul prayed for the Colossians' knowledge. Remember what we said yesterday? What caused Paul to respond to the Colossian church in the way he does? There was a crisis going on in the Church of Colossians. People called the Gnostics were coming in. And they were saying, you simple little Christians are OK, but we've got something much better. We've got this secret knowledge that you need to have and that only we can give you. We can initiate you into the true mysteries of the faith. And they were called Gnostics because they claimed to have this secret knowledge. And so what's Paul's prayer for the Colossians then? He goes right to the point of contention. I'm praying for knowledge for you, but true knowledge, not the Gnostics' false knowledge. I want you to have true knowledge. They were teaching that Christ was a good place to start, but that there was so much more that they could know and experience. And some had fallen for this. And so Paul's prayer that they be filled with knowledge hit the problem facing the Colossians right on the head. And knowledge is a good thing. Some people don't believe that. Warren Wearsby says that he once heard a preacher say, I didn't never go to school. I'm just an ignorant Christian. And I'm glad I is. To which Worsby comments, a man does not have to go to school to gain spiritual intelligence, but neither should he magnify his ignorance. We are to have knowledge. We're told throughout the scripture that we are to know the word of God. We are to know God himself. We are to know Christ. We are to know the spirit. We are to know how they work. We're to know all of these things. and that knowledge that we are to have comes through the scripture. The scripture is going to provide the knowledge that in turn will produce what Harry Blamire calls the Christian mind, that which is trained and disciplined to handle life in a framework of Christian presuppositions. How do you respond to the events in your life that come to you? Is your instinctual response, is the training of your mind such that you will respond in a Christ-like manner? or do you have to sit down and think about it? How does a Christian respond to this? Having a Christian mind, trained and disciplined by the word of God, is a mind that instinctually knows the mind of Christ. Events come, and the first impulse. is the biblical impulse, because we are so saturated with the word of God and the knowledge of who Christ is and how he works and what his priorities are, that that becomes our first impulse. That's where we want to get to. It's a growing process. No doubt, and it's a process we'll be going through until the day we stand before him in his throne room. But that's the direction of our lives. That's where we want to go. And so Paul prays for the Colossians. God, give them knowledge. The knowledge of what? What is this knowledge that we're to pray for? What is there that the Colossians should know? And Paul tells us, Paul prays that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of what? His will. Now, this could be a sermon series unto itself, and I don't doubt that one day it will be. What is this will of God, and how do we know it? Well, I just want to say that we gain the knowledge that God wants us to possess through scripture. I'll say that again. We gain the knowledge God wants us to possess through scripture. Now, you mean, some of you might be thinking to yourself, the scripture is going to tell me what job to take? Scripture's going to tell me what school I should send my kids to, who and when I should get married. Scripture's going to tell me where and when I should move. Scripture's going to tell me what ministry I should be involved in. How does Scripture do all those specific things? Of course, the answer is it doesn't, because that's not what Paul's talking about. When the scripture talks about knowing the will of God, the scripture is not talking about knowing specific things about your life ahead of time. If that's the way you're thinking about the will of God, then you're not thinking about it biblically. Notice how Paul describes the will of God. Paul speaks of the will of God as that which is in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And that gives us a big clue right there as to what the will of God is. When the scripture talks about the will of God, it does not refer to specific future decisions that we are to make. You will look through the scriptures in vain for someone getting on their knees and asking God to tell them what they're supposed to do tomorrow. It's not there, and we're never told to do that. That kind of thinking only brings anxiety. What am I gonna do here? What does God want me to do? I'm looking for signs, I'm looking for feelings, I'm looking for all this. Scripture never promises that. The scripture has very few times when it tells us precise, when it tells a person precisely what that person is to do in the future. And every time it happens, it comes as a result of an angelic visitation, Right? Christ appearing himself. Some kind of supernatural thing that is never, ever mistaken for anything else. That's what we see in scripture. So if an angel comes and talks to you and tells you what you're supposed to do tomorrow, you have two things to do. Make sure it's the right kind of angel and then do it. But it's never happened to me. And it doesn't happen all that often, even in the scriptures. What we see in the scripture is a pattern of knowing what God wants us to do in broad, general terms, according to the scripture, being obedient to the scripture, and then everything else falling into place. God is a sovereign God, and he knows exactly what you're going to do tomorrow. And if you are obeying the scriptures, He is going to put you exactly where He wants you, so you can do exactly what He wants you to do. That's a biblical view of determining the will of God. Don't look for feelings. It might be the pepperoni pizza you had last night. You can't rely on that. You can rely on the Word of God. Come with me back to Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, and we'll see a little bit more of this. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2. Many of you are familiar with it. Paul's admonition says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind That you may prove what the will of God is. Some translations don't make it this clear, but this is how it should read. That you may prove what the will of God is. And then Paul defines the will of God for us. That which is good and acceptable and perfect. Moral qualities. Righteous qualities. Now, come back to our passage in Colossians and look at the context in which Paul speaks of the will of God. Why is it that we need to know the will of God? We're told we do need to know that. We have to have a knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding why. Look at those first words of verse 10. So that, okay, here's the reason coming. You need to know his will so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. It's a moral quality. You need to know His will so that your conduct will be what it should be. Not so that you'll know what you're supposed to do when these decisions face you, so that you can live godly in Christ Jesus. That's why you need to know the will of God, which goes right along with what Paul said in Romans 12, 2. It's the will of God, that which is good, that which is acceptable, that which is perfect. Righteousness, in other words. We need to know the will of God so that our conduct will be what God desires. The will of God, then, consists of that moral law which is to govern the child of God. If that's your focus, then everything else is going to be okay. God will put you where he wants you to be. Your responsibility is to seek to obey and to glorify him. And that's exactly what Jesus said. If you don't know it from the scripture, you should know it from the song. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. I hope you know it from the scripture before you know it from the song. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and what? His righteousness. And once you've done that, then what's going to happen? Then all these things will be added unto you. That's the priority. Don't worry about all the stuff in life. Worry about righteousness. Worry about living godly in Christ Jesus. That's what Paul is praying for on behalf of the Colossians. Typically, when we pray for ourselves or for others, we pray for physical health, we pray for well-being, we pray for social relationships, we pray for spiritual growth. But part of our intercessory prayer ought to be for the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I beg you to pray that for me, and I'll pray that for you, because we need it. We need to know how to conduct ourselves. We need to know how to walk worthy. It's interesting that the next thing Paul prays about is, in fact, their conduct. Here's what it leads into. We've seen Paul's prayer about knowledge, and now we see Paul's prayer about conduct. And the first thing he prays about is a worthy walk. Give them this knowledge of your will, Father, so that they may walk in a manner worthy of you. The Hebrews saw an absolute connection between knowledge and conduct. There was no getting around it. And since Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, it's not surprising that we find him making that connection. Paul knew that true spiritual knowledge leads into action. You can't separate them. If you do, you're living an unbalanced life. Because there is the possibility of having a dangerous, unbalanced dichotomy. There's a tendency that we see around us for people of knowledge to be very passive in their activity, and the reverse tendency for people of action to neglect the pursuit of knowledge. And both of those things are wrong and unbalanced. Let me mention an example. On the one hand, you have the ignorant man who is zealous for souls. But all he knows is enough to take a rabbit trail through the scripture from this verse to that verse to this verse to communicate a presentation of the gospel. But woe to him if a question is raised that doesn't fall within his program. He has no thought through answers of his own. He'll just keep going at it. A lot of questions are no different in this respect from Jehovah's Witnesses. You'll have them come and knock on your door and they'll give you their spiel. You ask about something that's not included in the program, and they've got to go run back and talk to one of their elders. They're lost. Christians, by and large, are not much different. We go through the four spiritual laws of the Roman's road, and we know those key verses, maybe, if we're involved in witnessing at all. But you get away from the basics, and we're lost. that knowledge needs to be there. On the other hand, you have the contemplative scholar filled with knowledge who has never led a person to Christ in his life. Neither of those extremes were meant to be. There is a balance. There's one reason that I admire the reformers and the Puritans. They were scholars of the first order, but they put their knowledge to work among the people of God. Martin Luther produced incredible amount of scholarly writing. I think his works total 50-some volumes. And yet, he was a pastor. All his life, from leaving the monastery on, he pastored a church. And he taught people and discipled people. And he taught other churches how to do church in a reformed way. And he did all of it at the same time he was being a scholar, and translating the New Testament into German, and doing all this amazing production. That's the example that we need to follow. We need to understand the word, and we need to know it, and we need to love it. We need to be able to use it. But we need to use it, too. The ability to use it doesn't take us far enough. and we can't be satisfied in constant action. The Lord says, be still and know that I'm God. Stop. You cannot be effective in your ministry if you don't know the word. It's a two-edged sword. And you've got to have both of those things working together. Profound knowledge should profoundly affect one's walk. Paul prayed that the Colossians would walk their talk, that their knowledge would grow and produce a conduct worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in all respects, the text says. And that's how we should pray for our brothers and sisters. What then is the result of this worthy walk? Verse 10 says it's bearing fruit in every good work. It's not only to be a worthy walk, it's also to be a knowledgeable walk. He comes back to the same theme once again. Bearing fruit in every good work, verse 10, and increasing in the knowledge of God. This is what Paul asked for at the beginning of his prayer. Why does he mention it again? Because he wants to stress this so much. this dynamic connection between action and knowledge. One begetting the other, and the other begetting the first again, and it becomes this wonderful upward spiral. The more one truly serves, the more one knows. And the more one knows, the more one wants to serve. And it feeds on itself, that's how it works. That's what we need to have. We see also praise for a powerful walk in verse 11. He prays that they be strengthened with all power. And the power which Paul prayed upon the church is immense, because when he says that they might be strengthened, he wants this to happen continuously. It's not a one-time thing, where you're strengthened and that's it, and we let it go. But it's a continuous strengthening. It's a continuing filling of the spirit over and over and over again so that we might be empowered for service. And the strengthening, look at this, is on God's own scale. He prays that they might be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. And I hope you've picked up this point as we worked our way through the Beatitudes. The power which is necessary to do that which God calls us to is not found within us. You hear a lot of people telling you that all that you need is inside yourself. Well, that's just not true. Inside yourself is sin and weakness. The power that Paul prays for, for the Colossians, comes not from us, but from God. It is to be found according to His glorious might. God gives us His power to accomplish His task. His glorious might. You don't have the power to develop this kind of steadfastness and patience that he's talking about here. He wants them empowered with the power of God so that they might attain steadfastness and patience. You can't develop those qualities in yourself. Not the qualities in the way that Paul's talking about them, but God can. He gives you the power to do that. And we should be praying for our brothers and sisters that God would develop it in them. I pray that because, frankly, being your pastor, I need you to demonstrate steadfastness and patience. I will be the beneficiary of those qualities. And so I'm going to continue to pray for these things for you. And I hope you do the same for me. Finally, Paul says, I'm praying for you, that you would have a thankful walk. How else do we walk worthy? We walk worthy by giving thanks, verse 12. Joyously give thanks. I pray that you'll be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you'll be steadfast and patient, and so that you will joyously give thanks to the Father. That's the summit of the prayer. Everything points toward that. Everything in our lives should move toward thankfulness. thanking God in all things. We cannot walk worthy of God without constantly giving joyous thanks. Believers who walk worthy of Christ constantly give thanks to God for what? For their salvation. We call this three specific reasons here. We give thanks to the Father who has first qualified us. to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of life. That's a present and a future reality. This is the work that God has done in us, presently. He has qualified us. We stand today, if we have trusted in Christ as our savior, qualified for the kingdom of God. Isn't that great? We are qualified to step into the kingdom of God, to share in the inheritance of the saints. so that if we were to be called home today, we're qualified. That's called assurance. Many people don't have that, but Christians have it. If we have trusted in Christ as our savior, then we have that assurance that our home is in heaven, not here. We are not citizens of this place, and we don't have to keep working and struggling in order to obtain God's favor. God has already given us his favor through his mercy and his grace. and we are prepared for the kingdom. What else has he done? He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us to the kingdom of his beloved son. That's what's qualified us. He has plucked us up out of the kingdom of darkness and he said, okay, you're moving over here now. You're in the kingdom of my son, whom I love. And you're identified with him. And that's a demonstration of the fact that God loves you too. He has changed you. He has made you alive. He has regenerated you. All these terms that scripture uses to describe the simple fact that once you were dead and on your way to hell, Christ, God has reached down and he has made you alive through the work of Christ and he's put you into the kingdom of his beloved son and he's giving you a home in heaven. That's what we are to be thankful for. And finally, we're to be thankful because we have redemption in Christ, the forgiveness of sin, the sin which made all this necessary to begin with, the sin which killed us spiritually and made it necessary for Christ to come and give himself for us on the cross, made it necessary for God to regenerate us, made it necessary for God to pluck us out of darkness and put us into his kingdom. All that has been redeemed. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Christ died on the cross and redeemed us. He gave us over into the hands of the Father through his work on the cross. These are amazing things that God has done for us, and our thankfulness should be constantly overflowing as we meditate on it. Interceding for other Christians is one of the most important ministries that we have been given. I ask you covenant this morning to pray for both the knowledge and the conduct of your brothers and sisters in Christ. A church that is growing in the knowledge of Christ and in his will and is walking worthy of him will do great things. So let us commit this morning to sensitive, fervent intercession on behalf of our church family. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you. for this wonderful example of prayer that we have from your apostles. Father, may your spirit burden us with the need to pray for one another, and to pray for one another along the lines that Paul does, that we might give thanks, that we might be filled with the knowledge of your will, and that we might walk worthy of you. That is our prayer, Father. We pray in the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen. Please open your hymnals to number 349, 349. Stand together as we sing. O Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day. I His love and power controlling, all I do and say. the Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour, so that all may see I triumph only through His power. May the peace of God, my Father, rule my life in everything, that I may be calm to comfort sick and sorrowing. fill me as the waters fill the sea. Dream exalting, self-fulfilling, this is me. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless, with great joy. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.