Hope Church LV Sermons
I Am Praying For You - Part 2 :: Colossians 1:9-12
Last weekend, we discovered together the five most important words you can ever say to another person. Do you remember what those five words were, anybody remember that was here last weekend? There you go, let's say it together. I am praying for you. The five most important words you can ever say to another person, now these words are so commonplace in our Christian vocabulary that I am afraid we often say these words with a lack of genuine sincerity. We say these words so often, as a matter of fact, some of you may have already even said those words this weekend since you have been here meeting and talking with somebody else. Sometimes we say them with a lack of genuine sincerity and here is what I mean by that. Sometimes you come up to somebody in the weekend and say, "How are you doing?" and they start telling you, and that really wasn't what you were asking. You didn't mean how are you doing, you were wanting them to say, "I am fine, God bless you brother." That's what you were looking for, but you said, "How are you doing?" and they actually started telling you how they are doing, and it's not good, and things aren't well, and all of a sudden you are getting overwhelmed, and as you are backing away, you say, "Hey, I am praying for you." That's the way to end the conversation and move on to something else, or sometimes people are sharing a real need or a burden or a situation that we could actually get involved in. And sometimes as a cop out to not have to get involved and meet the need or roll up my sleeves and serve in the situation, we'll say, "Hey, I am praying for you." Or sometimes the weight of what somebody is sharing with us is just bigger than we can comprehend, and we genuinely don't have the answer. We don't know what to say, and so for lack of having anything else to say, we fall back on that very comfortable saying, "I am praying for you." Wow, glad that's you and not me, I am praying for you. Can I, as we begin this weekend, just give you a practical application right out of the gate, and this, I know sounds a little bit cheesy, but you'll remember it this way. Don't say it if you're not going to pray it. Don't say it. I think maybe one of the greatest sins in the church is the sin of lying over telling people you're going to pray for them, and then not praying for them. It's our easy Christian vocabulary where we say I'm going to pray for it, but then we don't pray for people. Let me give you a practical application to just do in these situations. When you say, "I'm going to pray for you," let me encourage you to do something the Lord put on my heart a number of years ago, when I say to you, "I'm praying for you," as soon as I turn around, I'm praying for you right then. I just start praying for you right now and saying, "God, if you want me to pray for more this week, God, you bring it back to my heart, you put it on my mind, but I pray for them right now." It's okay even sometimes to just stop right there and say, "Hey, can I pray for you right now?" And you just put your hand on their shoulder and you just begin to pray for them. How awesome would it be if some weekends there were just people all over the lobby and all over this place where they were just laying hands on one another and just praying and interceding for brothers and sisters in Christ, asking God to be the only comfort and the only grace that they need in their given situations. Just praying for one another. Well, if you're visiting with us, we're studying straight through the book of Colossians. If you have your Bible, I want you to open it to Colossians chapter 1. Last weekend, Pastor Travis took us to a text of Scripture that we began to dig into and look at. And Paul began to talk to us about how he was praying for these Christians in Colossae, the city that Paul had never been to, but Paul had sent someone a pathrest to the city and in sending a pathrest there, a new church had been planted and Paul had heard through a pathrest about the wonderful work of God in this city and these believers that so loved Jesus. And so Paul writes them and wants them to know how precious they are to him and his heart. And he's praying for them specifically and Paul here gives us a great model of how you and I can pray for one another. Colossians chapter 1, we're going to begin reading in verse number 9 says, "For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and asked that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will 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." What a rich text of Scripture. We could, if we wanted to, spend several weeks just right here in these verses. Now we're going to finish them up this morning, otherwise we will be in Colossians for two or three years, but I want us to try to dig in here and pull out some truth. So let me just quickly remind you of what we looked at last weekend out of verse number 9. The first question that we sought to answer last weekend is what is prayer? Prayer is one of those things that we have greatly complicated in the church today. A lot of people say, "Oh, I can't pray." Listen, look at me. If you can talk and you can listen, guess what? You can pray. How many of you can talk? I don't believe you say amen. I'm afraid you're not out there this morning, all right? If you can talk and you can listen, you can pray. You see, prayer is simply talking to and listening to God. Prayer in its simplest form is just communication with God personally. Let me read you what William Barkley says about this subject of prayer. Look at it. It says, "In prayer, we are not so much trying to make God listen to us as we are trying to pursue, to make ourselves listen to God. In prayer, we are not trying to persuade God to do what we want Him to do. We are trying to find out what He wants us to do. It so often happens that in prayer, we are really saying, "Thou will be changed." When we ought to be saying, "Thou will be done." The first object of prayer is not so much to speak to God as it is to listen to God. But in this text of Scripture, Paul is talking more than just about basic prayer. Paul is specifically talking about what you and I would call intercessory prayer. You say, "What in the world is intercessory prayer?" Well, here it is, talking to and listening to God on behalf of somebody else. That's all it is. It's not anything complicated. It's simply praying for somebody else. Instead of just bringing my needs and my wants and my wishes and my problems to God, intercessory prayer is coming to God on behalf of somebody else and bringing their problems and their challenges and what God is doing in their life, bringing that into the presence of God. It's talking to God on behalf of somebody else and last weekend we gave you two ways to apply that. We challenged you last weekend to number one, pick somebody or some couple in your small group and for the next 30 days, pray for them every day. Can you imagine what God could do in the life of our church, the awakening and the revival that could take place if we honestly, for 30 days, just began to pray for one another by name. We specifically began to stand in the gap to go to the throne room of God and intercede our brothers and sisters in Christ. Listen, we also ask you last week to pray for students, to pray for all the students and leaders that were at camp this week. And I'm telling you, in response to your prayers, God moved in a mighty way on Tuesday night of camp. God moved in that service, we saw a bunch of kids give their lives to Christ. There were students broken and weeping all over the front, crying out to God as we just spent time worshiping the God of heaven. It just went on and on and on and on and on for a while. God moved in response to the prayers of his people. Second question we asked last weekend is what am I or how am I to pray for others? Second, we gave you a statement that's a summary, really, of verse 9. And here's what we said. The greatest thing you and I can pray for another Christian is that they would know the heart of God through the Word of God. That's what Paul's writing about in verse 9 when he says that you'll be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He's talking about us coming to the place where we intimately know the heart of God by spending time with him in his word. Now we're going to pick up there this morning and I want to ask a third question, why? Why am I to pray for others? Well that's what Paul begins to talk about in verse 10. Look at verse 10 in your Bible. The first two words are so that. It could literally be translated, here's why. Paul says, I want you to pray and I'm praying Paul says for you that you will know God through the Word of God and here's why. Look at it. So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. The word walk there is a word that just refers to how you live your life. It's everyday living. The word worthy there is a word that could be translated suitably or properly and what Paul is saying here is I'm praying that you would know the heart of God through the word of God because our lives are changed in that process to properly reflect who he is. Let me give you a reality. I want to put it up on the screen. Life change happens as I know God through personal fellowship. I want you to read that off the screen with me. You ready? One, two, three. Life change happens as I know God through personal fellowship. As you and I begin to get to know God as we spend time with God in his word. It's in that process of pursuing him that God does a work in me transforming me from the inside out. Listen, not just me on the outside conforming to some do's and don'ts and rights and wrongs, but God through the process of intimate fellowship with him changes me on the inside and it begins to come out on the outside. That's why Paul is praying. Paul says, man, I'm praying that you'll know the heart of God through his word so that your lives will be changed. Let me show you to you in another place in the Bible. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18. Look at it on the screen. But we all. Paul says, all of us. He included Paul says, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. The Bible here is referring to the word of God as a mirror. And as we, it's a present act of tenses beholding. It's describing ongoing continuous action, the pattern of my life. Paul is saying as we through the pattern and practice of our life are beholding as we are spending time in the word of God to know his character, to know his heart, to understand who he is and what he's done. Paul says, as we are beholding, look what he says, we are being transformed. Now that's in the passive voice, meaning that there's somebody working on this subject. I am to behold, it's an active word. I am to sit at the feet of the Lord and I am to understand his word and I'm to behold his glory and the Bible says in the process of doing that, the spirit of God is at work in my life transforming me, listen, into the same image from glory to glory. As we behold, let me ask you a question, how much time do you spend daily beholding? And it's interesting that Paul uses the word mirror here because in Paul's day mirrors were not like they are now. I mean, you look in the mirror today, you see everything, right? I mean, some stuff you don't want to see. In Paul's day, mirrors were not as polished and not as sharp and crisp as they are today. And so this idea of beholding in a mirror meant focus and looking intently and looking carefully. Does that describe the practice of your life? If you can't say that I'm regularly and consistently as the passion of my life, spending intimate time at the feet of the Lord, beholding the glory of God through his word, don't be surprised when your life is not being changed. It happens through this process. Paul says that's why I'm praying this for you. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. It's not my prayer for somebody that changes them. It's the power of God at work in their lives, but he invites me into the process through the vehicle of prayer. You say, explain that, I can't. I don't know how it works. I just know God is at work changing us from the inside out and he by his sovereign grace has invited us into the process through the arena of praying for other people. Now, what Paul goes on to say here is there are five outcomes when my life is being changed through this process of intimate fellowship with God. And I want to list them for you this morning and we'll be finished. Here's the first one. When I know his heart, I live for his pleasure. When I know his heart, I live for his pleasure. Listen what Paul said, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects. That little phrase all respects literally means every single detail in your life. The big stuff and the small stuff, Paul says, the more we grow to know him, the more we understand we were created for his pleasure. There are two things that we know for sure when we grow to know him. Here's the first one. It's not all about me, it's all about him. You say, why is that important? Here's why it's important. There's a dangerous philosophy that has crept into the church in America. It's a false teaching, I'm going to call it what it is. It's crept into and permeates much of the church in America. And it's a philosophy that teaches, in essence, God exists for me. God exists to create my happiness. God exists to cause my success. God exists to ensure my health and prosperity. God exists to meet all of my wants. God exists to satisfy all of my desires. There is a dangerous teaching in the church in America that is a very man-centered view of God that God is in heaven, and He exists to make sure that everything in my life is perfect. Now, many of us today would say, oh, yeah, that's dangerous. I'm glad I don't believe that. Well we say we don't believe it until our order gets messed up, right? It's all good when everything in my life is rosy. But that may be the one that loses my job. That may be the one that gets that announcement from the doctor about my health. Let it be one of my kids that gets in rebellion and runs away from God. And then all of a sudden my attitude is, hey, God wants to deal here. It's almost as if I begin to question the character of the faithfulness of God because God is not ordering my life exactly as I think it ought to be. Listen, I, God does not exist for me. I exist for Him, and there is a plan out there that is bigger than my life. And God is at work for His glory accomplishing His purpose. That's what Paul's talking about here in this verse when he says that we would be filled with the knowledge of His will. He's not talking about the individual specific details of His will for your life and mind. He's talking about God's grand design and purpose that we read about from Genesis to Revelation that will one day end around the throne of the Lord with all of us bringing glory and honor to Him. There's a bigger plan than the happiness of your life and mind. Let me show it to you in the Bible. First Corinthians chapter eight and verse six. That for us, there is but one God the Father from whom are all things and read the next few words with me. We exist for Him. I want you to say that again. We exist for Him. If you believe that, say amen. That wasn't real affirming. You know why we struggle with that? Because even though we say we don't believe that we've embraced the philosophy that God exists for me, and it's uncomfortable for me to think about the biblical reality that I exist for Him. You see, God made me for His glory. God made me for His pleasure. God made me for His purpose. God brought me into relationship with Himself for His divine sovereign plan. It's not all about me. It's all about Him. But God in His sovereign grace has established a beautiful paradox because here's the second thing we know for sure. When it's all about Him, it's best for me. That's a good place to say amen. Hey, when it's all about Him, it's best for me. Wait a minute, Pastor. Are you telling me that if I will die to my wants and die to my desires and die to my plans and die to my purpose and die to my prosperity and live exclusively for the pleasure of God, that that is actually the best life for me possible? That is absolutely what I'm saying to you. You don't look like you believe me. I'm going to show it to you in the Bible. Romans chapter 8 verse 28. Look at it on the screen. Paul says, "And we," what's the next word? Come on, what's the next word? And we know, hey, that's an important word. It'd be a little shaky if he said, "We hope," or, "Yeah," or, "We think," or, "We're planning." That's not what he said. Paul said what? He said again. No. How did he know? Because he'd spent time with him. You see, because Paul had cultivated an intimate fellowship relationship with God. Paul had grown to know the character of God, and Paul knew two things for sure. Paul said, "I know that I exist for Him," and let me tell you what else I know. I know that this God causes. What's the next phrase? All things. Let me tell you what that means. You can study in the Greek backwards and forwards, and here it is. All things, everything, every detail of your life. Here's what that means. The good and the bad, the stuff you like, and the stuff you don't like, the stuff you ordered, and the stuff you'd like to send back, all of it. God is using every bit of it. Why? Look what it says. To work together for what? Good. You know what's awesome? The word good in that text there could literally be translated with the word best. Paul said, "Let me tell you what I know." Paul said, "I exist for the pleasure and the glory of God, and if I will trust Him, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every detail in my life, the good stuff, the bad stuff, every hard situation, every mountaintop, and every valley." Paul said, "God is working it out, and it is the absolute best for me." I live for His pleasure. That's why Paul went on in 1 Corinthians to say whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God, even down to the smallest detail of your life. Here's what Paul's saying, "When we know Him, and we know His heart by spending time in His Word, we live for His pleasure," but here's the second one. When I know His heart, it changes me from the inside out. Paul said, "So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects," then he said, "bearing fruit in every good work." Every time I hear that little phrase, "bearing fruit in the New Testament," I always think about John 15. You know what Jesus said in John 15 in verse 5? He said, "I am the," what? "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in Him, He bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing." Hey, I want to ask you a question, and I don't want you to give me your Jesus answer, okay? I know you're in church, and I know when you hear the question, you automatically want to go Jesus, right? It's like the little boy that was in Sunday school class one time, and the teacher said, "What's brown and furry and has a fuzzy tail and climbs in trees and eats nuts?" And he said, "Well, it sounds a lot like a squirrel, but I know it's got to be Jesus because we're in church," right? No, I don't want you to give me your Jesus answer this morning. I want you to think agricultural, all right? What is fruit? Look like a farmer, I know for some of you big city folks, that's tough. What is fruit? Let me tell you what it is. It's the life of whatever is in the vine being pressed out in the branches. You've got a grapevine, what's coming out the branches, turnips, potatoes, what's coming out of a grapevine, what's coming out of the branches? Great, right? This isn't a trick question, it's in harm. Hey, you've got an orange tree, what's coming out of the branches? Orange, you've got an apple tree, what's coming out of the branches? Apples. Does a branch have to work hard to make that happen? No, what's a branch got to do? Hang on to the vine, right? Because the life of the vine will be pressed out through the branches. Now, spiritually, who is the vine? Gee, now give me your Jesus answer, come on. I got you scared to death, you want to say squirrel. No, look, who is the vine? Jesus, who's the branch? Me, what's my responsibility? Go bear fruit? No. Go down to the vine, and as I hang on to the vine, fruit is the life of the vine. It's the life of Jesus being pressed out through my life out of the overflow of abiding in Christ. That's why Paul said, "The greatest thing that you can pray for another Christian is that they would know the heart of God." Why? Because as I abide in him, Christ changes me from the inside out. And what comes out of me is not a better me. It's Christ in me living his life in and through me. That is the radical transformation that only Jesus Christ can bring. Then Paul tells us a third thing. When I know his heart, I want to know him more. Listen to it. So that you will 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. You know what Paul's saying here? That word knowledge there is a word that implies personal fellowship. Paul is saying the more I know him, guess what? The more I want to know him. How many of you in the room are married? Let me see your hand. Just hold them up for a minute. Sit in the room. All right, I'm going to stretch you here. But I want you to go back and think about the time when you first met your spouse and how you just fell head over heels and sometimes it's good just to think about that. Been married for a while. Just go back and think about when you first met them. I remember when I first met my wife, I was going over to a friend's house, his name was Scott Underwood. Scott and I had been friends since we were little boys and I was running over at his house to pick up a book or something and it wasn't supposed to be anything dramatic. I was just going over to his house, pick up a book and go head out. When I walked in the door, there was Christie. She was over there. She sang in a group with him in college and they were working on a song of him. When I walked in and I saw her, my response was, "Wow." I just met her. But let me tell you what, as soon as I met her, I want to know her more. And the more I spent time with her, the more I wanted to spend time with her. The more I got to know her, the more I wanted to know her and I couldn't get enough time with her. I always be trying to go see her and ask her to go out on a date and just spend time wanting. Because the more I got to know her, the more I wanted to know her. That's the way I love relationship where you listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. I grew up in church. All right? I was raised in a Christian environment. I was taught, "Hey, you need to read the Bibles. What you're supposed to do? You need to go to church." But it wasn't until September of 1989 as a freshman in college at the University of North Alabama that I met God personally and God changed my life. And when I woke up the next morning, listen, I didn't have to read my Bible. I couldn't wait to get this book open. Why? Because I'd come to know him and because I knew him, I wanted to know him more. I wanted to spend time in his word. I wanted him to teach me about his character and his faithfulness. I couldn't wait to get to church. Why? Because you got to go to church and be a good Christian. No, I wanted to know him. Listen, when you know him, it increases your capacity to want to know him more. That's why Paul said the greatest thing you can pray for another Christian is that they would know the heart of God through the Word of God because when you know him, it increases your capacity to know him more. Let me give you the fourth. When I know his heart, I find strength in every circumstance. Listen, what he said, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good word and increasing in the knowledge of God. Then that's what he said, strengthen, strengthen, listen to this, with all power. And then the next phrase, is unbelievable. According to his glorious might, you know what that means? All of the power of God is available to you and to me, anybody in a situation of circumstance right now, where you could use the strength and power of God, anybody need one of those? How you get it? It does not come as a package in the mail. We don't give out those shots here every weekend. You don't get a lightning bolt of this from heaven. All said, the greatest thing you can pray is that they would daily know God by spending time with him in his word, why? Because that's where we find strength. You know the problem? We wait until the big situation comes up and then all of a sudden, oh, my Lord, where's the strength? You don't get it like that. I love my iPhone. I'm going to say it again. I love my iPhone. I think it's one of the greatest inventions of modern man. It's right up there with fire and sweet tea, man. I love, I love my iPhone. I mean, inside of that little bitty device is the capability to do all kinds of things. If you plug it in every day, because if you don't plug it in every day, guess what? You got an expensive paperweight, right? Listen. All the power, all the strength of God, all the enablement, all the empowerment of God is available to you, but you got to plug in every day. You got to get to know him through spending time with him in his word. Listen to what John Gill said about the power of God. Listen to John Gill. He said, "Power belongs to God, is a perfection of his nature and has been and is graciously displayed in many things, as in the creation of the heavens and the earth, in the upholding of all things in their being, in redemption and salvation of sinners, in their faith and conversion, from this glorious power of God, saints, may hope to be supplied with all might or a sufficient supply of strength for every service and for every difficulty." Do you hear what he said right there? The same power that spoke everything you and I can see, taste, touch, feel, or smell into existence. The same power that is right now holding the universe together, that power, that's what the text said, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. And then he used two words to describe how that power sustains us. He first of all used the word steadfastness. It's an interesting word. If he deals with endurance and relationship to circumstances, then he used the word patience. Patience is endurance and relationship to people. So what he's saying here is God's strength will see us through any physical, material, or financial situation or circumstance, but also God's strength will enable us to handle any struggle, conflict, difficulty, or challenge with another person. That's not anything relationally or physically or mentally or financially or emotionally that the Spirit of God and His power cannot give you strength to endure and see it through if we're walking an intimate fellowship with Him. You see, you can't just unplug and live out of your own resources and then expect the strength and power of God to be available when you're ready for it. That's why Paul said the greatest thing you can pray is that as the pattern and practice of their life, they would know the heart of God through the Word of God. Here's the fifth one. When I know his heart, I am filled with joy and gladness. Listen, listen so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good word, increasing in the knowledge of God and strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, attaining of all steadfastness and patience. Then He says joyously, giving thanks, listen to the Father who has qualified us, boy, that's a good word, didn't say I qualified myself, who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You know what happens? The more I know him, the more I stop seeing me for who I am in my resources and I start seeing me from who I am in him, joyously giving the wine because he's qualified us. Doesn't say he is qualifying us. It's past tense, qualified us. You know who the most miserable people are on the face of the earth? Not lost people. Some people would say, well, it's people that don't know the Lord. No, that's not the truth. They're miserable to an extent, but they've never tasted life so they don't really know what they're missing. There's a lack of satisfaction, but they don't know what they don't know. You know who the most miserable people are on planet earth? Save people who are trying to live out of their own resources instead of daily tapping into the grace and mercy and provision of Jesus. You see, that's why church people can be mean as all get out, right? Hey, church people mean mean as a devil, that's the truth. I've been in this work 22 years. They ain't nothing. I hadn't seen church people do. I've been on the receiving end of that whooping stick before. You don't believe church people can be mean. Just follow me around after service sometimes. Hey, save people that are church people can be mean. Why? Because here's the reality. Listen, listen, don't miss this. My flesh is as wicked as it's ever been. As a matter of fact, the Bible says not only is it as wicked as it's ever been, my flesh is getting worse. The Bible says the outer man is decaying. You see, the old man that I was is still here, my flesh is still very active. And if I try to live the Christian life in my own strength, I'm capable of anything and everything I ever was. But now as Christ lives in me and I begin to live out of His resources and I understand that's not who I am anymore. I'm who I am in Christ. I can have joy and I can have gladness and I can live out of the state of being accepted by God as one of His children ready to share in the inheritance of the saints. When I know His heart, I'm filled with joy. That's why the Psalmist said in his presence, there is fullness of joy. Then look what he said, in his right hand, you don't even have to get past his right hand. In his right hand, there are pleasures for ever. I am praying for you that you may know the heart of God through the Word of God and when that happens, I live for His pleasure. I'm changed from the inside out. It increases my capacity to know Him more. I'm strengthened with all power and I'm full of joy and gladness. Let us be a praying people. [end]