Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians AUGUST 16, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Man, the title of my sermon this morning

is Paul's Prayer for the Colossians.

Paul's Prayer for the Colossians.

In this chapter one, the apostle Paul

is writing this letter to the Colossians

and he's heard about their faith,

he's heard about their church,

he's heard about the things that have gone on there

and he's praying for them

that they would become better Christians,

that they would grow

and obviously we can apply this to ourselves too.

This is how God wants us to grow

and how we can become better Christians

if we look at the prayer that Paul had for them.

Now look at verse number nine, this is where it starts out.

It says, for this cause we also,

since the day we heard it,

do not cease to pray for you

and to desire that you might be filled with,

so here's the prayer,

is that they would be filled with

the knowledge of his will in all wisdom

and spiritual understanding.

So point number one is that God wants us to know

what his will is, right?

And God's will is just a way of saying what God wants

and how do we know what God wants

is that we read it in the Bible, right?

God has given us the written word here, the Bible

and we're all saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit

so we can understand the Bible

and we can know what God's will is by reading this book.

That's why we need to read the Bible every day,

one reason is so that we will know

what the will of God is.

Now to some people,

the will of God is some kind of an ethereal, mysterious thing

that we have to figure out or something like that.

You know, it's a lot better to approach the will of God

by just going to the Bible and say,

hey, what does God want me to do?

God wants you to do what he's telling you to do.

Let me give you a few verses on this.

First Thessalonians chapter four, verse three says,

for this is the will of God,

even your sanctification

that you should abstain from fornication.

So you wanna know God's will for your life,

it's that you live a holy, clean, separated life.

What does that look like?

That you abstain from fornication.

That means that if you're single,

you abstain from any kind of sex outside of marriage.

You wait until you're married

to indulge in that activity.

Obviously, if you're married,

then you stay faithful to your spouse

and you don't go outside of that relationship

and commit adultery, et cetera.

The Bible also says in 1 Peter chapter two, verse 15,

for so is the will of God

that with well-doing,

you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

You know, you can shut the mouths of the enemy

by living a good life, well-doing.

Well, how do I know what well-doing looks like?

Well, I read it in the Bible.

The Bible tells me what to do.

The Bible tells me what not to do.

And it's God's will that I follow

those precepts every single day.

So number one, Paul is praying for the Colossians

that they would know God's will.

But secondly, he's also praying

that they would understand God's will, right?

Because he says there in Colossians 1, 9,

that you might be filled with the knowledge

of his will and all wisdom

and spiritual understanding.

Now, if you would flip over to Ephesians 5,

we're gonna come back to Colossians chapter one,

but flip over to Ephesians chapter five.

And let's talk about understanding God's will.

It's one thing to know God's will, right?

Hey, God wants me to do this.

God does not want me to do that.

But it's also good to have an understanding

of why it is that God wants me to do X,

but he does not want me to do Y, right?

And as we grow in grace and in the knowledge

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

we're not just knowing what the right answer is,

but we're understanding why, the rationale behind it.

Now, look, when I was a kid,

there were a lot of rules that I just followed

and I didn't necessarily understand why, right?

Your parents just tell you certain things.

You need to eat this, don't eat that, don't go here.

And you don't necessarily understand why.

You just have to trust that your parents

are looking out for you, they're older than you,

they know things that you don't know.

And it's the same thing with God.

You have to trust God in the beginning

that when God tells you not to do something,

it's for your own good.

Okay, the Bible says that we as physical children

had fathers of our flesh which corrected us

and we gave them reverence.

You know, how much more should we be in subjection

to the father of spirits and live

for they, verily, for a few days

chastened us after their own pleasure,

but he, for our profit,

that we might be partakers of his holiness.

And so what the Bible's saying there is that our parents,

a lot of the rules and a lot of the discipline

is so that we will not be a pain in their neck.

They chastened us after their own pleasure,

he chastens us for our profit.

So our parents, you know, they don't want us

messing up the house, irritating people,

causing damage, causing problems.

Obviously parents are looking out

for their children's own good,

but they're also looking out for their own sanity.

You know, so they're chastening them

after their own pleasure.

Hey, do this, because I said so,

because I don't want you to do it.

I'm the boss.

Okay, but God the Bible says

is actually even more than a physical parent

looking out for the well-being of the child

and he is disciplining us for our profit,

for our benefit, for our own good,

so that we might be partakers of his holiness.

That sounds to me like following God's commands

and doing the will of God is actually for my own good.

Now, sometimes we can't see it.

We look at a commandment and we say,

well, God's just withholding me

from fun that I wanna have.

Or, you know, he's not letting me do something

that I like, but we have to have the faith and trust

that God is actually putting those rules in place

for our own good.

That we're gonna be better off if we don't fornicate.

We're gonna be better off if we don't drink and party

and do all these things.

He'd say, oh, I just really wanna do that stuff.

Yeah, but God's looking out for you.

That's knowing the will of God.

But then understanding the will of God

is when you start to see like, wow,

I really am better off following God's commandment.

I really am happier and here's why it makes sense.

Let's look at an example.

Look at Ephesians chapter five verse 17.

It says, wherefore be ye not unwise

but understanding what the will of the Lord is

and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess

but be filled with the spirit.

Now look, he's telling us here, don't be drunk with wine.

That's God's will.

Don't get drunk.

Pretty simple.

But then he actually explains the why, wherein is excess.

And this is not the only place in the Bible

where the why is explained.

Because if we go to Proverbs 23,

he talks about the fact that if you indulge

in alcoholic beverages,

your eyes are gonna behold strange women,

your mouth is gonna utter perverse things,

you're gonna get wounds without cause.

And he goes on and on about all of these

negative effects of alcohol in our lives.

But here he has this phrase to explain it,

wherein is excess?

Now, what does that mean, wherein is excess?

Well, let's think about some other phrases in the Bible

that use this same kind of grammar.

Like for example, the Bible says,

in all labor there is profit,

but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.

So what's the Bible saying?

In all labor there's profit,

but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.

Meaning that if you actually put in the work,

you're gonna get some kind of a benefit.

In all labor there's profit,

you're accomplishing something.

Whereas just talking about stuff,

if you're just a talk, talk, talker who doesn't work,

you know, that leads you,

it tends to lead you to the poor house, right?

In all labor there's profit,

meaning that labor tends toward profit,

talk of the lips tends toward poverty.

Well, guess what?

Drunkenness with wine tends toward excess.

In the same way that in all labor there's profit,

well, in drunkenness with wine there is excess.

It says wherein is excess.

That is what is grammatically going on in this passage.

Another one is in much wisdom is much grief.

And he that increases knowledge increases sorrow, right?

So again, wisdom and learning and gaining knowledge

can sometimes cause us sadness

just about how messed up the world is,

whereas ignorance is bliss.

That's why a little kid can just be happy.

They don't really know how messed up the world is.

You get older and all of a sudden you start to realize

that things are worse than you think.

So I'm just explaining the grammar here,

because some people will try to twist this and say,

well, God's saying get drunk some of the time

or get drunk a little bit.

Just don't do it in excess.

That's not what this is saying.

It's saying that inherent in the activity

of being drunken with wine is excess

or that drunkenness with wine leads one toward excess.

That is what this is saying.

Now, what do we mean by that?

Well, think about it.

People who drink alcohol,

well, they're gonna end up spending money foolishly

or wastefully, okay?

I mean, when we say that alcohol leads to excess,

it's gonna lead to excess in all areas.

Now stop and think about it, okay?

What is it that alcohol is doing to people more

than anything else is removing boundaries.

It's removing limitations.

And what is it called when you go over boundaries

and go past limitations?

It's called excess, too much, overdoing it.

And so it could lead to overspending.

I mean, look, drinking alcohol is one

of the stupidest ways to spend your money

and people who are under the influence of alcohol

are probably a lot more loose with their money,

which is why casinos love to ply you with free alcohol.

Because every drop of free alcohol that they give you

at the casino, they're gonna make that money back

in your excessive gambling, your profligacy

at the gambling table because you're under the influence.

You're gonna spend more money.

This is why stores that sell expensive merchandise

will be handing you little champagne flutes

and they drink this because you're gonna spend more money

because within drunkenness with wine is excess.

And even just the act of buying an alcoholic beverage

is stupid because alcoholic beverages are expensive.

I mean, I'm always just blown away.

I've never been a drinker.

I grew up in a Christian home

and I've never been a drinker,

but just seeing it on the menu,

I'm always just blown away by the absurd cost

of alcoholic beverages.

And then you go on these Carnival Cruises,

you go on a four, five night cruise

and people are spending $450 for the drink package.

So it's like less than a week

and they're spending $450 just for booze,

just to drink alcohol.

I mean, that's really expensive.

And it's just then you're just gonna waste your money

on other things.

They probably love it when these boomers

buy the drink package

because then they're probably gonna also end up

in the gambling hall wasting money on that stupidity as well.

And so we're in his excess.

Number one, spending money foolishly or wastefully.

Number two, how about just talking too much

or boasting or saying things that you regret

blowing off your mouth.

Isn't this what people do

when they're under the influence of alcohol?

How about this excessive confidence?

Being overconfident and arrogant

and blowing off your mouth,

picking fights with a much bigger guy,

getting beat up or whatever.

These are the things that people do

when they are drinking alcohol,

overconfidence from the impaired judgment.

And then how about this?

Just crossing lines of decency, just going too far.

Excess, how about with women, right?

The Bible said, beholding strange women,

saying perverse things,

crossing those kind of lines.

But ultimately, here's the big one,

losing the ability to stop so that one drink becomes main.

Oh, I'm just gonna have one drink.

But here's the thing inherent in that one drink

is it's leading you into excess.

So you drink one and then eh, might as well have two.

Eh, what about three?

Hey, if I'm already drinking a bunch of alcohol,

why not mix in some pills?

You know, why don't I just wash down a pill

with some alcohol and just really party whatever.

Folks, drinking alcohol is stupid.

It's foolish.

It's gonna waste your money.

It's gonna waste your health.

It's gonna waste your brain.

It's gonna waste your relationships.

It's gonna mess up your marriage.

It's gonna mess up your family.

It will mess you up.

It's gonna mess up your driving record.

It's gonna mess you up with your job.

It is all negative, all bad.

And God is telling you,

look not on the wine when it is red.

When it give it its color in the cup.

When it move it itself right.

At the last, it bite it like a serpent

and sting it like an adder.

Now, knowing the will of God

is knowing that God told you to stay away from alcohol.

And understanding the will of the Lord is understanding.

Hey, alcohol is for dummies

and God is looking out for me by telling me not to drink it.

So we need to, number one, know God's will.

Number two, understand God's will.

Let's go back to Colossians.

The whole basis of the sermon

is this passage in Colossians one.

We saw verse nine.

He said, hey, I'm praying for you guys.

I've heard about you guys.

I've heard about your faith.

I'm praying that you will be filled with knowledge,

that you'll have spiritual understanding.

Look at verse number 10.

He says that you might walk worthy of the Lord

unto all pleasing.

And so, thirdly, I wanna say this.

God wants us to walk worthy

of that calling we're with, we're called.

We need to walk worthy.

Now, what does that mean to walk worthy?

Well, you don't have to turn there,

but in Revelation chapter one, verse five,

it says, from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness

and the first begotten of the dead

and the prince of the kings of the earth,

unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins

in his own blood and have made us kings and priests

unto God and his father,

to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Now, look, if God has made us into kings and priests,

you know, we need to walk worthy of that calling

because that is a pretty important job,

to be a king or to be a priest

or to be somebody that's that important.

To be an ambassador for Christ is pretty important, right?

And you would expect kings and priests and ambassadors

to carry themselves a certain way

and to be worthy of that calling.

I mean, think about it.

If you got a job that was a really mundane job,

you might not really feel like it's super important

the way that you dress when you go to that job, you know?

You might just kind of throw on some clothes and go do it

because it's just a super unimportant

kind of behind the scenes job.

Maybe you're not dealing with the customer or whatever.

Nobody cares, it's a dirty job.

You're not gonna see anybody.

Right, but let's say you're out front or whatever

and you're greeting people when they walk in the hotel

or you're over here, you know, doing sales

and talking to the customer

or you're the president of the company

or you're on the board and you're going to all these meetings

or what if you're a lawyer?

You know, I would assume that lawyers

are probably expected to dress really nice

because if you're paying somebody hundreds of dollars

an hour to talk to you,

you probably don't expect them to show up

in, you know, socks and their slides or whatever

just kind of hanging out.

You know, you probably expect them to be dressed pretty nice

because that's a pretty important job

and you're being paid the big bucks,

you gotta take it seriously, right?

And so the Bible is saying here

that we need to walk worthy of the Lord.

You know, if we're kings, if we're children of God,

if we're these important people

then we need to carry ourselves

in a respectful, respectable manner.

And that's what the Bible is saying

about walking worthy of the Lord.

And really, this comes down to a mentality

of just understanding who we are, our position in Christ

and it's not about pride in ourselves

or arrogance because of who we are.

It's more like realizing,

hey, I have an important job in this world.

I'm playing an important role here.

I need to take it seriously.

I need to live up to the trust that has been put in me.

You know, I mean, what if you went to go for a job?

I remember I applied for a job

and I was struggling to find the job that I wanted

when I moved to Indiana for Bible college.

And I remember just,

everybody's just offering these really low wages.

And so I was coming from California

so I was used to more of a California wage

and they're coming at me with these Indiana wages

and I was just like, what the heck?

I couldn't believe these wages.

So then I go to this job interview

and all of a sudden he's just offering me

like more than time and half

what anybody else is offering me.

My first thought was like,

I'm gonna walk worthy of this vocation here

because this guy's paying me way more money

than anybody else.

Man, I have got to really be careful

not to let this guy down.

I'm gonna make this guy happy.

I'm gonna do a good job.

Well, you know what, if we're purchased

with the blood of Christ,

if God has given us all of these honors

and all these things that we don't even deserve

then we should have that, man,

I'm not gonna let you down, God.

I'm gonna walk worthy of the Lord

because of all this privilege that I've been given.

It's the same type of mentality.

You know, in Revelation chapter three,

just a couple chapters later, he says this,

thou hast a few names even in Sardis

which have not defiled their garments

and they shall walk with me in white

for they are worthy.

He's saying, look, these people are walking worthy

of that vocation we're with, they're called

and what does that look like?

Not defiling their garments.

And of course, this is an analogy,

obviously it's not talking about

literally getting your clothes dirty,

but it's the idea of just having the garment

spotted with the flesh,

just indulging in sinful activity.

The ones who are not living sinful, corrupted,

messed up lives, you know,

that's what it looks like to walk worthy.

And obviously look, none of us is perfect.

We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There's not a just man upon the earth

that doeth good and sinned not,

but at the same time, you know, there's a difference

between living a Christian life

and doing the best you can

or at least putting forth the effort

versus the person who's just indulging in sin

and just totally soiled their garments,

soiled their testimony, et cetera.

So we wanna walk worthy of the vocation

and we're worth the call.

Take it seriously, hey, I'm a Christian,

I'm important, I'm an important role to fulfill.

And so I want to live a respectable worthy life

that shows my gratitude toward God

and shows my understanding of how important it is

to be a Christian, to be an ambassador for Christ.

And that's why he says in Ephesians 4,

one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord

beseech you that you walk worthy

of the vocation wherewith you're called.

And again, vocation just means calling.

And we often refer this to a job as being your vocation

because that is your calling in life.

Here we're talking about the calling of serving God

and living as a Christian.

So number four, if you would,

look back at Colossians where we just were

because the whole sermon is just

from this one passage in Colossians.

We said no, God's will, understand God's will,

walk worthy of the Lord.

But then he says this in verse 10,

he says walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,

being fruitful in every good work

and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So next God wants us to be fruitful and to do works

because he says to be fruitful

and he says in every good work.

Now, if you would flip over to Romans 7,

again, we'll be back in Colossians

but go to Romans chapter seven.

What does it mean for the Christian to bring forth fruit?

Well, the main application of this throughout scripture

when it comes to fruit bearing is reproduction.

All the way back to Genesis chapter one,

everything brings forth after its own kind.

Everything has the seed within itself

to bear fruit after its own kind.

And so oranges beget oranges, apples beget apples.

The tree is known by his fruit.

We don't necessarily have the expert,

arborist knowledge to walk up to a tree

and just look at the leaves or the bark

and say, this is a cherry tree,

this is an apple tree, this is an orange tree,

lemon tree, I mean, maybe you do.

But most people would just walk up

and if it's just leaves, they don't really know what it is.

Whereas if there are apples growing all over it,

mystery solved, you don't have to wonder about it.

And that's what the Bible's saying.

And look, not all people

are even producing any fruit whatsoever.

So sometimes we walk up to that person

and they're just the tree that's just leaves

and we don't really know and we can't really tell.

But when you see a tree that's just filled

with hundreds of apples, it's an apple tree.

You see a tree that's covered in thorns

and all kinds of bad things,

then you say, okay, this is a bad tree.

If I see a plant that is just all bad fruit,

it's all poisonous, and when you're out hiking,

there's those little red berries

and you're not supposed to eat them

because they make you sick, right?

You just see a plant covered in those red berries.

You say, okay, this is an evil plant.

It's producing evil fruit.

I should not eat this.

Whereas over here, you got the corrugated berries

and you're like, okay, this is a good plant

producing good fruit.

And that's what the Bible is teaching here.

Okay, throughout scripture.

So look what the Bible says in Romans 7 verse 4.

Romans 7:4

It says, wherefore my brethren,

obviously this is all metaphorical, symbolic.

He says, ye also are become dead to the law

by the body of Christ,

that you should be married to another,

even to him who is raised from the dead,

that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

So the idea is, you're married to Christ

so that you can bring forth fruit unto God.

Well, what's the fruit of marriage, right?

You get married and then you bring forth fruit.

This is talking about getting married and having children.

Okay, and obviously this is just a symbol or an analogy

where God will use the female

as a representative for the church,

like the church being the bride of Christ.

And so he's saying, you guys are married to Christ

so that you can bring forth fruit unto God.

Well, if a woman gets married so she can bring forth fruit,

married in order that she might bring forth fruit,

it's pretty obvious what the fruit we're talking about is.

We're talking about having children.

Well, guess what?

We as Christians, we bring forth spiritual children.

That's why the apostle Paul said,

I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus,

whom I have begotten in my bonds.

That's why he calls men like Timothy and Titus,

my own son in the faith,

because he's spiritually reproducing himself.

Oranges beget oranges, Christians beget Christians.

This is talking about winning someone to Christ.

That's why the apostle Paul told the Corinthians.

He said, well, you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ,

but you have not many fathers

because I've begotten you in the gospel.

And so you see that bringing forth fruit

is often a reference toward that reproduction spiritually

of Christians producing other Christians.

Look, if you would at Colossians chapter one,

even in the same chapter, you can see this idea

alluded to starting in verse number five.

It says, for the hope, which is laid up for you in heaven,

where have you heard before in the word

of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you

as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit.

So what is bringing forth fruit?

Well, he said that the word of the truth of the gospel

is bringing forth fruit, as it doth also in you,

since the day you heard of it

and knew the grace of God and truth.

And so you see that the word of God brings forth fruit

because the word of God is the seed

that actually produces that new life.

Just as you have a married couple

and you have the seed from the man

and the egg from the woman, the idea here is

that the seed is the word of God, the sower soweth the word.

And faith coming by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

The word of God produces fruit

because it generates new life in Christ

through that person who hears the gospel and gets saved.

That's why he says the word of the truth of the gospel,

which has come unto you as it is also in all the world

and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you,

since the day you heard of it

and knew the grace of God and truth.

So in order for us to be successful Christians,

we gotta know God's will.

We gotta understand God's will, right?

But we also need to bring forth some fruit.

In every good work, we need to do some work.

And one of the best works that we can do as Christians

is what the Bible calls the first works,

which is going out and preaching the gospel to every creature.

I mean, what's the first thing that Jesus said

to the disciples when he picks them to be disciples?

Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.

It's the first thing.

What's the last thing he says

when he's ascending up to heaven?

Go ye therefore and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father,

the Son and the Holy Ghost

and teaching them to observe all things,

whatsoever I've commanded you.

And lo, I'm with you always,

even unto the end of the world, amen.

And then he ascends up into heaven.

He's telling them, get people saved,

get them baptized and then teach them to observe all things,

whatsoever I've commanded you.

But what's the first step of that process

is just getting people saved.

That's the first thing.

You know, we don't, trying to get somebody baptized

or observing Christ's commands

without getting them saved first

doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

So we gotta get it in the right order.

We preach the gospel to every creature.

Then we try to get those converts baptized

and then we teach them everything.

And that's why we're going to church

on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night

not to just hear the gospel over and over again

but to learn everything that Christ has commanded us

to get the whole package of what God has for our lives.

And then if we're back in Colossians there

at the end of that verse, we see the fifth thing

which is, you know, the fourth thing was

to bring forth fruit and do the works,

to get to work for God, serving God,

preaching the gospel, doing other works for God.

But then also he says,

and increasing in the knowledge of God

is an interesting the emphasis placed upon knowledge.

You know, he already said, hey, you gotta know God's will.

We want you to understand.

But now he's saying, now increase the knowledge.

Step one was to know God's will,

but now in step five he's already telling us

you need to increase that knowledge.

And look, the more you study the Bible

you're gonna see this pop up over and over again.

How he says, you gotta get knowledge,

you gotta get knowledge, you gotta read,

you gotta learn, you gotta grow.

Read the book of Proverbs.

I mean, it's just all telling you,

get wisdom, get knowledge, get understanding,

learn, increase learning, seek out good instruction.

God wants us to learn.

We don't wanna go through life ignorant.

And I'm gonna tell you, as the Bible says,

my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

One of the biggest problems in Christianity

is a lack of knowledge of what the Bible says.

Why would people who are saved Christians

go to churches that teach all of these

just absurdly wrong things?

It's cause they don't know what the Bible even says.

So they can be easily duped, they can be deceived,

they're like children tossed to and fro

with every wind of doctrine

because they're not rooted and grounded

in the knowledge of what the Bible says.

Hey, one of the best things that you could do

for yourself as a Christian is to get in the habit

of reading the Bible every single day.

And I'm not talking about reading two verses.

You need to build a substantial Bible reading habit

where you're actually putting in some time

and doing some real reading, okay?

And people will sit down

and they'll watch a TV show for hours,

they'll watch a sports game for hours,

they'll read a magazine or a comic book

or a website or a blog for hours.

Get in the habit of doing some serious Bible reading.

And I think a good minimal standard

is to read your Bible cover to cover once a year.

That's a good just minimal baseline standard.

And it's not crazy

cause it's like 15 or 20 minutes a day.

And that's not from some super speed reader.

I consider myself, if anything,

a little bit of a slower reader

and I can easily get it done

in about 20 minutes a day, the one year plan.

So putting in 20 minutes a day,

that's actually a substantial,

you're actually getting some meat on the bone.

You're actually putting in a decent amount of reading

when you read for 20 minutes, okay?

And then that's gonna add up.

You multiply that over a year.

You've read the entire Bible, 31,000 some odd verses,

1189 chapters just by putting in 20 minutes a day.

A year from now, you could have read the Bible cover

to cover which puts you ahead of like 99% of Christians

unfortunately just getting it through it that first time.

Just finishing it the first time.

Sadly, that's true.

And so, you know, reading the Bible every year,

but you know what, there's nothing wrong

with every once in a while,

just binge reading the Bible.

You know, let's say you got that habit

and you're just reading it 15, 20 minutes a day.

But you know what, there's nothing wrong

with just picking a book that you like,

picking a portion of scripture that you like

and just sitting down

and just doing a Bible reading marathon, you know?

And why not sit down and read it for an hour,

two hours, three hours.

Obviously you're not gonna do that every single day,

but you know what, every once in a while,

if you're feeling like you have a lot of willpower

or you're feeling super interested in a certain subject

and you just really wanna read it or whatever,

hey, why don't you do some serious damage

to that Bible reading plan

and make some serious marks to that thing

and actually do some real, why?

Because God wants you to increase in knowledge.

And I think one of the biggest failures

of the previous generation

and the generation that I grew up in

was that we were constantly being told

that knowledge doesn't matter

and that we're reading the Bible

as some kind of like a spiritual thing

to motivate us and get out, you know?

And I believe that, I'm not saying

that we don't read the Bible for motivation.

I'm not saying that we don't read the Bible

for devotional kind of comfort and strength

and amen to all that.

I get it, reading the Bible is a spiritual activity

but they're constantly downplaying the learning aspect

or downplaying the knowledge aspect

and I think the problem with that is

you get this attitude, you could just kind of read one verse

and I feel something after like one verse.

So I grew up reading like one or two verses at a time

because they'd say, hey, read till you get something.

That's easy.

I just turn to proverbs and it's like,

that takes about 20 seconds.

Forget 20 minutes, 20 seconds.

I go to the pastoral epistles,

boom, I got something in 20 seconds.

Oh, just meditate on that, chew on that.

You know what?

What we need is we need the knowledge too though.

I'm for the devotional, I'm for the comfort,

I'm for the motivation, I'm for the strength,

I'm for that but you know what?

I'm also for actually reading enough

to actually know what the whole book says.

You know, treating it also as a repository

of knowledge and learning.

And by the way, I didn't say read about the Bible.

I didn't say read theology books.

I didn't say read devotional books.

I said, read the Bible.

Read it yourself.

Go straight to the source, to the fountain right here

and read the Bible.

And think of it as yes, a devotional

but also think of it as, hey, let's get some knowledge here.

Let's learn stuff.

Let's know what the Bible says.

And you know what, if you've read the Bible a lot

and you wanna get into studying the Bible,

you know what I think is a great exercise

for studying the Bible is to actually think about

what every single chapter

in the entire New Testament is about

because then you'll be able to find stuff when you need it.

So for example, you know, like let's say

we just have the book of First Corinthians.

You know, it's a good thing to be able to know

what is First Corinthians chapter one about?

What is chapter two about?

What is chapter three about?

What is chapter four about?

What is chapter five about?

At least for the New Testament, 260 chapters

to where I can name for you any of the 260 chapters

of the New Testament.

And you can just tell me either a famous verse

from that chapter or what it's vaguely about

or the context of it.

You know, obviously that's maybe a higher level

than when you're just starting out reading the Bible.

But you know what, that's a great goal to have.

And we used to do that in the preaching class.

We would actually require them to, you know,

every week they had to be able to tell us

every chapter of a certain book,

what it's about or quote a verse from it or something

or they weren't allowed to preach that week.

You know, just because I just felt like,

man, these guys don't know the Bible.

So I was kind of like forcing them

to do a little bit of study.

So I was like, okay, this, you know, next week

if you want to preach, you have to be able to tell me

what every chapter of First Corinthians is about.

16 chapters, read the book

and figure out what each chapter is about.

Even if it's just one thing,

even if it's just one verse, one idea,

tell me something accurate about that chapter or whatever.

You know, that's just an idea.

But step one is just read the thing.

Every day, substantial amount.

Hey, I think that we should increase in knowledge.

And you know what?

I'm not up here trying to keep you dumb.

I want you smart.

Why?

Because the smarter you are,

when it comes to the word of God,

the more you know the Bible,

the more you're gonna realize

that the stuff I'm preaching is right.

Because the truth fears no investigation.

Catholic church wants to keep you dumb

because if you get some smarts,

you're gonna realize how they're lying to you

every single day.

I'm not lying to you.

I'm telling you the truth.

My preaching lines up with God's word.

Therefore, I want you to read the Bible as much as possible

because it's only gonna confirm

the things that I'm telling you.

It's not gonna be like,

oh, well, I don't want them to find these verses

that contradict what they're being taught here.

No, no, read the whole thing.

Because we embrace every line of scripture here.

We love it.

We embrace it.

We believe it.

We preach it.

That's what we do.

So we wanna increase in knowledge,

but not only do we wanna increase in knowledge.

Look at verse number 11 of Colossians one.

We also want to grow in strength.

We wanna get stronger too, right?

Because we don't wanna just know more.

We also want to be stronger.

Now this does tie in with knowledge a little bit

because knowledge is power.

Look if you would at Proverbs 24.

And I'm gonna show you

that the concept of knowledge being power

is actually straight out of the Bible.

When we say knowledge is power,

that's actually paraphrasing a biblical concept.

Look if you would at Proverbs chapter 24.

Proverbs 24 · chapter mention

And let's start in verse number three.

Proverbs 24-3, through wisdom is a house-builded

and by understanding it is established

and by knowledge shall the chambers

be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

A wise man is strong.

A man of knowledge increases strength.

What's the Bible saying here?

It's saying that if you're wise, you're strong.

It's not saying that necessarily you can deadlift

a huge amount of weight or do a giant bench press.

When it says a wise man is strong,

it's saying that by being wise you are strong

because knowledge is power.

He says, yay, a man of knowledge increases strength.

So the more knowledge you get, the stronger you're getting.

Now you could take this very literally

and say, hey smart people are strong.

You know, that's probably true in a sense too

because it's kind of dumb to be sedentary

and never work out, never work physically

and become a blob because it's unhealthy

and being lazy and being foolish or also hand in hand.

But I don't think that's the primary application.

I think that could be a secondary application.

I think the primary application is just saying,

hey, by being smart you are strong

because knowledge is power.

And if you increase knowledge,

you're increasing your strength.

You're getting stronger.

Look at verse six.

Four, and here's why I believe that

because four is a conjunction.

Four by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war.

He's like, here's why a wise man is strong

because he's making war by wise counsel.

You know, even if you thought about hand to hand combat,

you know, technique is often gonna trump just brute force.

The guy with the technique can get in there

and defeat a much stronger bigger opponent.

For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war.

And in multitude of counselors, there is safety.

Wisdom is too high for a fool.

He opened it not his mouth in the gate

and then jumped down to verse 10, if you would it says,

if thou faint in the day of adversity,

thy strength is small.

So why does God want us to increase our strength

and get stronger is because he doesn't want us

to faint in the day of adversity

because the day of adversity is coming for sure

in the Christian life.

Would to God we could all just read our Bibles,

pray, go to church and go soul winning with no battles.

We just, we're just gonna just la la la la,

just read my Bible, go to church,

spend time with my family, la la la la la.

That's not the way life works.

No, as soon as you start serving God in a big way,

all of hell breaks loose and engages with you.

And that's why the Bible says,

yeah, and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution.

And so unfortunately, life is not gonna be

just a peaceful building of the kingdom of God.

No, it's gonna be a continual battle as well.

And so when that evil day comes,

when that day of adversity comes,

if we faint, it's because our strength is small.

That's why the Bible says, be strong in the Lord

and in the power of his might,

put on the whole armor of God

that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

Evil day is another word for the day of adversity.

And if you faint, it's because your strength is small.

That's why he says, be strong in the Lord

in the power of his might.

So we need to build up, yes, knowledge,

and knowledge is power,

but we also just need to build up spiritual fortitude

and just get stronger and armored up

in the armor of the Lord

so that we are able to withstand

major persecution, adversity, problems that we can handle it.

We gotta be pretty strong to handle

all of the garbage that's gonna be thrown at us

by this world when we're serving God.

So we gotta be strong.

And you know, the most important part of that armor

is the shield of faith.

You say, well, who are you to say

that that's the most important?

Well, the Bible says the most important,

it says above all, above all,

sounds like that's the most important part.

Above all, taking the shield of faith,

we're with you shall be able to quench

all the fiery darts of the wicked.

So at the end of the day,

everything that Satan throws at you,

the shield of faith will fix it.

Everything that the devil throws at you,

as long as you can keep believing the promises of God,

you can withstand, you can hang in there.

But you gotta get stronger,

you gotta know what the Bible says,

you gotta arm up in the armor of the Lord,

you gotta be strong in the Lord

and in the power of his might.

And so here's the thing,

as we read our Bibles, pray, sing hymns,

go soul winning, go to church,

we're building up our strength.

You know, we're gaining HP as it were

and getting stronger so that we will be able

to withstand those attacks of the devil in the evil day.

So get stronger.

And then the next thing in first Corinthians,

or excuse me, in Colossians chapter one,

because we're just going through this passage point by point,

what is Paul praying for the Colossians?

Because I guarantee you it's the same stuff

that God wants us to have in our lives, right?

Knowing God's will, understanding God's will,

walking worthy of the Lord, bringing forth fruit,

doing works, increasing in knowledge,

growing in strength.

But then the next thing we see in verse 11 there,

he says, strengthen with all might,

according to the glorious, excuse me,

according to his glorious power,

unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness.

So the next thing is that we need patience.

We need to get patience and long suffering.

What does that mean, patience?

Well, flip over to Romans chapter five.

Romans chapter five, what does he mean by patience?

Well, while you're turning there,

Hebrews 10, 36 says, for you have need of patience,

that after you've done the will of God,

you might receive the promise.

So part of patience is just waiting

to get the reward later for what you're doing now.

Waiting to see God work later

for what you're trusting him now, right?

Because it's not all gonna happen for you overnight.

You're not just gonna start serving God

and everything about your life is fixed overnight.

You know, you gotta be in it for a long haul.

It's measured in decades, not in years.

So you need that patience.

But look at Romans chapter five verse three.

It says, not only so, but we glory in tribulations also

knowing that tribulation worketh patience, right?

So patience also in the Bible has an idea of endurance.

So sometimes it's waiting for something,

but other times it's just endurance.

That's why it's patience and long suffering,

putting up with something for an extended period,

enduring something over an extended period.

So the Bible says here that tribulation worketh patience

because the more troubles we go through,

because trouble and tribulation are very similar words.

You can notice the T-R-B-L in common

between these two words.

It's just one is a variation of the other.

That's why the Bible will use them interchangeably,

a time of tribulation, time of trouble, okay?

And so yeah, when we go through troubles, trials,

tribulations, it works patience

because obviously there could be a progressive overload.

We go through the first trouble and we get through it,

then God hits us with something a little worse

and then we can get through that.

He hits us with something worse, we get stronger.

If we went to the gym

and lift the exact same weight every day,

we're gonna stop after a few weeks,

we're not gonna be building any more muscle.

The only way to build muscle

is you have to increase the weight,

increase the repetitions, increase the difficulty.

There must be some kind of progressive overload.

Well, a lot of times God is gonna hit us

in our Christian lives with a progressive overload

of going through increasingly difficult trials and tribulations

and those tribulations build patience.

And in this case, patience is referring more to endurance,

like patiently getting through something,

patiently enduring something.

And so the Bible is saying tribulation works patience,

patience, experience, right?

Because once we've done this a few times,

we have experience and it's not our first rodeo

and then it's easier the third time, fourth time

because we've already been there and done that.

So patience, experience, experience, hope.

The fact that we've experienced this repeatedly

gives us hope, God got me through it last time

so God's gonna get me through it this time too.

There's hope in tribulation

and hope make it not a shame.

If you're saying, look, God's not gonna let you down.

You're not gonna be ashamed.

You're not gonna be left at the altar.

You're not gonna be left holding the bag.

You're not gonna be left high and dry.

Hope make it not a shame because the love of God

is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost

which is given unto us.

So we gotta learn patience and long suffering,

meaning that we gotta go through those trials.

We gotta get strong and then we gotta go through

hard times, push through, come out the other side

and be stronger with more patience

and more long suffering, more endurance.

Okay, the next thing we see in Colossians 1 there

is that we need to find joy in the Christian life as well.

Joy, because he said in verse 11,

strengthen with all might according to his glorious power

unto all patience and long suffering

with joyfulness, right?

Because it's one thing to be able

to just push through the trials.

It's one thing to be able to endure tribulations

and have the patience and have the endurance

and just be strong in the Lord

and we got the shield of faith

and we're getting through it and we're grinding it out.

You know, it's another thing to actually enjoy it.

That's another level and what does the Bible say?

Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

What does the Bible say?

When you are persecuted and hated

and people say all manner of evil

against you falsely for my sake,

he says rejoice and leap for joy

just in case you think it's some kind of figurative speech.

He says leap for joy, right?

And whenever I hear that leap for joy,

I think of the old 80s Toyota commercial, right?

I love what you do for me Toyota, right?

And that's what I think of leaping for joy like, woo!

Now that's obviously pretty extreme

when you're being lied about, trashed, hated, persecuted,

maybe even beaten and imprisoned

and you're just like, I love what you do

for me persecution, you know, whatever.

And you just love it.

But that's what the Bible says, leap for joy.

And so, you know, the Bible's saying, you know,

we gotta find joy in the Christian life.

What did the Bible say in 2 Corinthians chapter seven,

verse four, you don't have to turn there,

but it says, great is my boldness of speech toward you.

Great is my glorying of you.

I am filled with comfort.

I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

He said, I'm exceeding joyful in tribulation.

Wow, you know, the Bible says we rejoice ever more.

Pray without ceasing in everything give thanks

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

And that rolls directly into the next and final point

in Colossians one, verse 12, we gotta give thanks unto God.

He says, giving thanks unto the Father, verse 12,

which hath made us meet to be partakers

of the inheritance of the saints in light,

who hath delivered us from the power of darkness

and that translated us into the kingdom of his dear son

in whom we have redemption through his blood,

even the forgiveness of sins.

I mean, look, we're in pretty good shape.

There's a lot to be thankful for.

We can whine about all the problems

and all the trials and tribulations,

but you know what God wants us to do is just rejoice

and be thankful for the things that are going right.

And here's the one thing we all have going for us

is that we have redemption through his blood,

even the forgiveness of sins,

no matter how screwed up things are on this earth.

Hey, at least we're saved.

At least we've been delivered from the power of darkness.

At least we've been translated into the kingdom

of his dear son.

And look, I encourage you to listen to my sermon

that I preached in Los Angeles a couple of days ago

where I preached about the devil and his angels.

And in that sermon, you know,

I talked about the fact, the biblical fact

that, you know, unsaved people

are often manipulated by the devil

and they walk according to the course of this world.

They walk according to the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Now, obviously in extreme cases,

unsaved people can even become demon possessed.

But even if they're not flat out demon possessed,

they are still fulfilling the will of Satan.

They're often manipulated by him to do strange things

and to do wicked things.

Now, isn't it a blessing?

Isn't it great that we are Christians

we've been delivered from that?

Meaning that number one,

it's impossible for us to ever be demon possessed.

Okay, because greater is he that is in us

than he is in the world.

And there's no way that Satan can come in

and possess the body of a saved Christian.

Okay, and again, I preached that in more detail

in my sermon two days ago.

But not only that, you know,

I don't even want to be a part of his plan

in any way, shape, or form.

I don't want to just be this useful idiot

for the devil, just doing things

to fulfill the will of Satan.

You know, I'm glad to be a net positive in this world

and not a net negative in this world.

And do you think about it?

You know, especially when it comes to false prophets,

imagine the damage that they're doing

to the cause of Christ.

And by the way, when I see,

even if a pastor calls himself

an independent fundamental Baptist,

when I see him just being evil

and just constantly promoting evil

and not promoting good

and just constantly doing evil

and harm to the cause of Christ

and not doing any good,

do you start to wonder which team is this guy on?

Which is endless promotion of damnable heresy.

Endless promotion of that,

which way endless attacks on actual good men of God

and people of God and churches of God,

just all trash,

no clear, godly, righteous message coming forth,

no clear salvation message

and clear preaching and clear doctrine

and clear call to arms and great.

No, no, no, it's just all confusion

and promoting lies.

And you know, it's easy to wonder what team somebody's on,

even if they call themselves

independent fundamental Baptist

or call themselves Christians

and then they're just constantly promoting trash

and teaching lies and preaching garbage.

Look, that's because unsaved people

and there are unsaved people who masquerade

as preachers of the gospel,

they privilege creep in unawares,

they bring in damnable heresies

and you know what,

it is because they are ultimately fulfilling

the will of Satan,

even if they don't want to,

even if they don't know that,

but you know, thank God that we,

as the Bible says here,

have been delivered from the power of darkness

and we've been translated

into the kingdom of his dear son.

You know, we're no longer on team darkness,

we're no longer children of wrath,

we are no longer walking according

to the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that now worketh in who?

The children of disobedience.

No, it's not us anymore.

We can't be demon possessed

because we've been translated from

the power of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son.

We don't walk after the course

of the prince of the power there

because that's the spirit that works

in the children of disobedience

talking about disobedience to the gospel.

And by the way, what does it mean to obey the gospel?

It means to believe the gospel, right?

Because the gospel is commanding you

to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and thou shalt be saved, right?

And at Ephesians chapter two

is where we get our famous verse,

for by grace are you saved through faith

and that not of yourselves,

it is the gift of God,

not of work, so Cindy mentioned both,

but right before that he goes on to explain,

hey, you know what?

We were dead in trespasses and sins

and we were just fulfilling the will of the devil.

And now that we believed in Christ, now we're saved.

And so what a blessing.

I mean, there's always something

to be thankful for, right?

So number one, what does God want for us?

Because this is what Paul is praying for the Colossians.

He's like, look, I've heard about you guys,

I've heard about your faith,

I've heard about your church,

I've heard what you guys are doing

and you know what, I'm praying for you guys

and here's what I'm praying for you.

And I guarantee you that if Paul

is praying this for the Colossians,

this is the same thing that God wants

for us as Christians too, right?

God desires this same thing

because Paul's praying in the Holy Spirit here

and he says, hey, I want you guys to know God's will.

You know, you guys need to know what is right,

what is wrong, what God even wants you to do,

what are we even here for?

What are we even doing?

Now that you're saved, okay, great, you're saved.

Now it's time for you to start doing the will of God.

Well, you can't do the will of God

if you don't know the will of God.

So he says, number one,

let's get you to know the will of God.

Number two, let's get you to understand the will of God.

That way you're not just mindlessly following rules

but that you're actually understanding,

okay, where is that in the Bible?

Where is that derived from Scripture?

Why is that rule the way it is?

I mean, look, I saw some idiot asking the other day

like, hey, where does the Bible say

that sex before marriage is wrong?

Now look, people ask this kind of a question.

This is a stupid question

because once you understand the will of God,

you realize how absurd and how bizarre and how wrong it would be

if Christians just had sex before marriage willy-nilly.

It would destroy everything about our society and our lives.

Now when I was a teenager, I didn't understand that.

When I was a teenager, I was told don't fornicate.

And you know what?

I didn't fornicate and I'll tell you why

because I was scared because they said,

hey, God killed 23,000 people in one day

because of fornication.

So I was just like, wow, this is a big sin.

I need to abstain from this

because I don't wanna deal with God's punishments.

But then every once in a while,

they would try to explain the why

and it was just like whoop right over my head

because I was too young and too stupid to understand the why.

But here's the thing, when you get older,

you understand that fornication has all kinds of grievous

unintended consequences, damaging horrible things,

that it is not worth it, it is wrong.

But let me tell you, if you don't know what I'm talking about,

then why don't you be like the teenage Stephen Anderson

who just said, well, I don't really understand

what the big deal is about fornication

but I'm not gonna do it because I'm scared.

Hey, I don't care why you don't do it,

just don't do it.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning

of understanding at least just have a fear of God

that says, hey, this is a major sin.

God says to throw people out of the church

if they're in unrepentant fornication, don't do it.

Right, that should be a starting point.

But you know what, now that I'm 45 years old,

to me, the thought of someone thinking

that it's not a sin to fornicate is absurd.

It's outrageous because there are just so many reasons.

But again, that's understanding God's will

versus just knowing God's will.

So yeah, let's know it, let's understand it,

let's walk worthy of the Lord.

Let's understand how important we are,

not because we're anything,

but because of the team that we're on.

Because of the job that we have, we're super important.

And that's why, by the way, I don't like this preaching

that says, hey, we're all expendable

and we don't matter and God's gonna do it with

or without us.

Bologna, if less people show up for soul winning,

less people get saved.

Fact, otherwise, why even show up?

And by the way, I forgot during the announcements,

there's a day trip to Flagstaff this Saturday,

and I just reminded myself.

So it's not in the bulletin, day trip,

see Brother Fidel, right, is this your brainchild?

So Brother Fidel is leading a crew to Flagstaff

this Saturday and now back to our

regularly scheduled sermon.

Walk worthy of the Lord, our job's super important.

If you don't show up, the work doesn't get done.

God doesn't just magically get it done

with or without us.

The Calvinist Presbyterian first church

of the deep freezes down the street.

Number four, we gotta bring forth fruit.

We gotta do works, right?

Get out there and win some souls to Christ,

do something for God, get some work done.

Number five, oh, let's circle back

and increase in even more knowledge, right?

We got knowledge, we got understanding.

Okay, now get more knowledge.

Keep growing in grace and in the knowledge

of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Number six, let's not just grow in knowledge,

let's grow in strength, let's get stronger.

Let's be able to endure persecution

and not faint in the evil day.

Then let's learn patience and long suffering.

And by the way, we talked about patience

and long suffering in the sense of

enduring trials and tribulations.

You know, we could also talk about

patience and long suffering with other people.

How about loving people?

Having charity for others, having love for others

is gonna allow us to put up with them.

You know, if you have a super short fuse

and your wife does the littlest thing

and it just sets you off

or your husband does the littlest thing

it just sets you off, you know what?

You need more love there

because if you love someone,

you're patient with them as they screw up, right?

If you really love someone, they're making mistakes,

they're screwing up, maybe they're rude to you,

maybe they're unkind to you,

you're gonna give a lot of grace

to those that you love, right?

And so part of patience and long suffering

is having a proper love for your neighbor as yourself.

Loving your brothers and sisters in Christ,

that's gonna also give you patience

and long suffering for others.

And then we said, number eight,

find joy in the Christian life, right?

You gotta find a way to enjoy it.

You know what I find is that when it comes to,

and again, you know, back,

sorry about the workout illustrations

for all of you sedentary people out there.

But you know, when it comes to like a workout,

people will sometimes come at me like,

oh man, this is the best workout ever.

And I'm just thinking like, man, that sounds too painful.

I don't think that sounds fun.

I'm sure it's effective, but it sounds like it's gonna hurt.

And here's what I found is that the only workout

that I'm gonna stick with is the one that I enjoy.

And you wanna know the one that works the best,

the best workout ever is the one that you actually do.

Because a workout could be the most amazing workout

and if you barely ever do it, what's the point?

Or you could have a crappy, ineffective workout,

but if you're doing it consistently,

hey, you're probably gonna burn some calories,

you're probably gonna build some muscles

just by sticking with it or whatever.

So obviously, yeah, I wanna find an effective program,

but I also wanna find one that I like.

Because if I don't like it,

probably not gonna stick with it.

Well, guess what?

That's the way a lot of things are in life.

And you know what?

It's gonna be a lot easier to stick with the Christian life

if you can find a way to like the Christian life

and enjoy the Christian life, amen?

I mean, who do you think is more likely to stay married?

I mean, look, we're all commanded to stay married.

We have to stay married no matter what,

but who do you think is more likely to stay married?

The person who's enjoying their marriage

or the person who's not enjoying their marriage?

Think about it.

And so what we should strive to do is enjoy church,

enjoy your marriage, enjoy your Bible reading,

and try to find a way to enjoy going soul winning.

And maybe for you, it's like,

I just have to go to Flagstaff

or the White Mountains every single week to enjoy it.

Okay, well then let's go.

Because you know what?

You wanna find a way to enjoy the Christian life,

find a way to enjoy serving God.

You're gonna be more likely to stick with it

than if it's just all character, all endurance,

all willpower, all, and I look,

I'm for you doing things out of duty,

willpower, endurance, grinding it out,

but isn't it easier

when you can start to actually have a good time?

You know, it's gonna make it better.

And you know what?

That's why we strive at Faithful Word Baptist Church.

You know what?

We strive to make it fun to serve God as much as we can.

You know, I try to make the sermons as entertaining as I can

without just being a bunch of fluff.

I'm trying to give you real knowledge

and real education here and real inspiration,

but at the same time I'm trying to make it entertaining

to make a spoonful of sugar, make the medicine go down.

You know, and we try to have different fun activities.

Some people are like,

well what's the point of the cruise missions trips?

Why don't you just do a standard missions trip?

Because here's the thing,

some people are gonna enjoy the cruise missions trip more

and if they're gonna enjoy it more,

they're gonna come back and do it again.

What's the point?

Well, why drive to Flagstaff?

We can go soul-winning right here.

Why drive to the White Mountains?

We can go right here.

Yeah, but some people are gonna enjoy it more

if we drive to those fun places

and do the soul-winning.

So hey, let's go!

There's nothing wrong with making it fun.

Having a good time.

You know, and here's the thing.

If you show up to church

and you have friends that you hang out with,

you're probably gonna like it more

than if you don't have any friends.

So you know what?

Try to make some friends.

How do you make friends at Faithful Word?

Well, one of the best ways to make friends

is show up to soul-winning, show up to events,

go to conferences, go to the White Mountains,

go to Flagstaff, go on these trips

because you get to know some people

or just the good old-fashioned way

of just walking around and walking up to people

and introducing yourself

and eventually you're gonna find people

that you click with.

You're not gonna click with everybody

but you just walk around, talk to people,

meet some people, eventually you're gonna hit it off

with some people and have some friends

and then you look forward to going to church

to see your friends and then when you're like,

oh, I'm kinda burned out on church,

yeah, but at least my buddy's there.

This is especially big with kids and teenagers.

You know, they're coming to see their buddies.

They're coming to see their friends.

Hey, you know what?

I don't care why they're coming.

I'm just glad that they're excited to come to church

even if it's for social reasons.

You know, there's a lot worse things out there

than getting excited about church to see your friends

and have a social life.

Find joy in the Christian life.

Find a way to make the Christian life

sustainable over the decades

to where you don't just hate your life every day.

Try to find some joy, some peace, some equilibrium

and try to find, because the trials are gonna come,

they're gonna drain your HP.

You need a little refreshment, okay?

And then lastly, give thanks unto God

because there's a lot to be thankful for.

We need to be thankful.

We need to have a gratitude attitude

as we go through life so that we can also

be more joyful and happy.

Let's bards and have a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for this great prayer

from Colossians chapter one, Lord.

I just pray this prayer for our entire church, Lord.

And even for those that are listening at home

that we would get these attributes in our lives

that we would work down this checklist

and figure out what's missing in our life,

figure out what's lacking and try to plug those holes

and fill that in so that we can serve you effectively

and serve you in the long run.

And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.