Never Ceasing Prayer for Your Church

Let's begin with some prayer.

And after you can turn in your Bibles to Colossians,

or if you're already there, that's great.

But let's pray first.

So Father, we thank you.

We thank you that you have given us a church in Cambridge, Lord.

And I do pray that you would help this church to re-engage with East Cambridge, Lord,

as they had originally been targeting, Lord.

But thank you that they can meet here, Lord, in this community center, Lord.

And that your gospel can be shared here and through this community

and as well the communities all around Cambridge and other towns, Lord, in the city.

Your gospel, Lord, is your message of love for your people.

And so I pray that that message will be clear, that they would be able to bring that.

And I pray that the word today will speak well to us

so that we will know more of your wonderful news, the gospel,

and your wonderful love for us.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you for this church.

It's such a blessing to have this church here, Lord,

and that you're continuing to grow it both numerically and spiritually.

We ask that you would make it a wonderful church that continues to just share your love

with those in the community and share your love with each other, Lord.

I pray that they would build each other up in this church.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So let's turn in our Bibles to Colossians.

And I just want to say thanks for having me here.

I mean, Jen's like, oh, this is such a privilege to have me.

I feel like, oh, I'm the one that's privileged to be here.

It's really, really good every time I get to see familiar faces and some new faces,

which is fantastic.

I love seeing how the church changes over time.

In some ways, it stays the same, too, which is wonderful.

And I love seeing how many of you serve in such different ways.

So I feel very privileged to be here.

That has nothing to do with my sermon, but I just wanted to say thank you.

Thanks for having me.

So let's stand in Colossians 1.

Let's stand as well as I read.

And I'm actually going to read from starting Colossians 1, verse 1,

Colossians 1:1

although I'm going to focus my sermon in verses 9 to 14,

so pay special attention when I get there.

But I'm going to start in verse 1 just so you get the context of what Paul is talking about here.

So Colossians 1, 1.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother,

to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ,

when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

and of the love that you have for all the saints

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of truth the gospel

which has come to you as indeed in the whole world is bearing fruit and increasing

as it also does among you since the day you heard it

and understood the grace of God in truth.

Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant,

he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

And so, from the day we heard,

we have not ceased to pray for you,

asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will

and in all spiritual wisdom and understanding

so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,

fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work

and increasing in the knowledge of God,

being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might

for all endurance and patience with joy,

giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you

to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness

and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, I have a question or a scenario for you, really,

to imagine with me.

And maybe this isn't like your life

and you'll never own a boat.

That's okay.

And you won't immediately see how it's relevant to the scripture,

but bear with me a little bit.

So, imagine this scenario.

You're getting ready for a boating trip, right?

You get together, you're fishing gear.

Maybe you don't own a boat, you know, really,

but just bear with me.

So, you get all your together,

together your fishing gear, your bait and tackle box.

You make up some sandwiches for lunch and snacks and drinks.

You know, you put them in the cooler.

Make sure you bring that.

Life vests, you get some swimming gear,

maybe some water skis, snorkels, inflatable tubes,

all that good stuff.

You know, you're going to make a real great trip out of this.

And you really map out the trip

of where you're going to depart from the dock.

And then you're going to travel for some good fishing areas

and some maybe some good water skiing.

And then maybe a scenic area for lunch.

And, you know, you bring an extra change of clothes,

some towels, got to bring the sunblock,

bug spray in case there's bugs.

And you got to get, like, the GPS device

and the fish tracker, all that, like,

high-tech stuff that I have no clue about.

But you bring all that stuff, too,

because you know you got all this stuff.

And you head out of the house,

and you travel down to the dock,

ready with all your stuff,

but you forgot to bring the boat.

You forgot the main thing.

Imagine how ridiculous that would be, right?

All that other stuff is meaningless

without the point of your trip, the boat.

And in a similar way,

all the stuff of Christianity

is meaningless without Christ and Him crucified.

Paul's concern for the church in Colossae,

and really God's concern for all churches,

is that we would remember the main thing

and keep the main thing the main thing.

That we would know and live out the core of Christianity,

Christ and Him crucified.

And so, how I would summarize this passage

is maybe not evident that I'm bringing it back

to the main thing, but bear with me again.

That's what he's talking about in verses 9 to 14,

is pray for God to give us knowledge of His will

and make us thankful for deliverance.

Pray for God to give us knowledge of His will

and make us thankful for deliverance.

It's a very simple message here.

You've probably all heard it before,

but we need reminders again and again.

So, Paul's prayer for the church in Colossae

is this prayer really for all churches.

And let me be clear here,

by church we mean the people which make up the church.

We're not the building, obviously.

And not just the leaders that make up a church.

We're talking about all who are part

of a local expression of God's people.

That's Paul's prayer includes all churches

and includes your church.

And we can face similar dangers

that this church in Colossae faced.

And we can even face false teaching at times.

We can face similar struggles.

And so we should endeavor to have

and to be what He prays for.

Paul prays for us.

Paul prays for this church.

And so we should endeavor to have

and be what He prays for.

Paul's prayer should be our prayer for our church.

It should be your prayer for your church.

It should be your prayer for other churches.

and that's my continual prayer for you.

You know, I have to admit that I don't pray as much as I'd like.

I don't know if I pray never ceasing like Paul does.

I would love to.

I want to increase my prayer

but I do commit to you

whether I'm officially a borrowed elder of yours

or just a guy on the street.

I will continue to pray for you.

You will be in my prayer.

Really, you will be.

And I pray that you will continue to grow

and that you will never lose sight of the gospel.

And I pray that you will never lose sight

of Christ's amazing and miraculous work

that he continues to do through you at this church.

And I will continue to pray for you

as long as you are a church and I am alive.

Really, I'm going to commit to that.

I want to continue to pray for you.

You're near and dear to my heart

and your work in reaching the lost in Cambridge

is near to my heart as well.

I've worked in Cambridge for almost 13 years now.

Actually, before that I worked in Cambridge too.

So I worked in Cambridge for quite a while

and the people of Cambridge are on my heart.

People in New England are on my heart.

So I'll continue to pray for you.

That's my commitment to you.

Now, I want you to also pray as a result too.

So it's worthwhile looking into how Paul prays

because I think that should model how we pray at times.

You don't necessarily have to always pray this way,

but these are good things to pray for

and to pray for your specific church

and to pray for other churches.

And so there are really two parts here to Paul's prayer.

And the first is this.

It says, know God's will so that you may walk

in a manner worthy of him.

Know God's will so that you may walk

in a manner worthy of him.

This is verses nine to 12.

And in a commentary written by Grant Osborne,

he describes the establishment of this church in Colossae.

So just a little bit of background in this church.

It was founded during the third missionary journey

in which Paul spent over two years in Ephesus,

a city nearby.

And he may have sent evangelists

into the whole province in that area

with the result that all the Jews and Greeks

who lived in the province of Asia

heard the word of the Lord.

That was Acts 19.

Now, we don't know if Paul himself

ever actually visited Colossae,

and I think probably not,

but we do know the founding pastor of the church

was Epaphras, which is mentioned as I read.

He came from Colossae.

He was converted under Paul in Ephesus

and returned to his home area with the gospel.

And nearly all the converts of Colossae

were Gentiles, not Jews.

And Epaphras, I think the really interesting part

about this, this isn't the main point of the message,

but Epaphras was really just a guy

who heard the gospel and brought it back home with them.

I think that's something for us to consider

for mission work sometimes done, you know,

by men who don't necessarily feel called

to be a pastor, and by women,

whether you have seminary training or not,

whether you've been trained,

you can bring the gospel with you.

And maybe America is not your home country.

Maybe you'll bring it back to where you came from.

Maybe U.S. is home,

but you have a desire for China or elsewhere.

Maybe you can bring the gospel there.

You don't have to be a pastor.

You don't necessarily even have to be

the stereotypical missionary,

but just somebody who works in China.

Anyway, that's a topic for another day.

The Christians in Colossae were dealing

with some false teaching.

Teaching was this kind of a proto-Gnostic philosophy.

If you're familiar with Gnosticism,

it basically said that the physical is evil

and the spiritual is good,

or that the physical is unimportant,

and the only thing that matters is the spiritual.

And so they proposed, some of them proposed,

that Jesus was not really physically God.

And they promoted the way to salvation

was a direct knowledge of God,

or direct knowledge to God.

And we don't really know how developed

the ideas of Gnosticism were at the time of this writing,

but we do know that some of the struggles

that the church in Colossae had,

they faced because of this particular heresy.

And it focused on knowledge

and delving deep into philosophies

that were really speculative at best.

And they also promoted, you know,

certain rules about eating and drinking

and various rules about religious festivals.

And all this meant that these teachers

were drawing focus away from the truth.

Salvation through Christ alone.

Paul writes this letter to reiterate

what he first taught them,

or really first taught Epaphras,

who then taught them.

Faith in Christ is the way to salvation.

It doesn't depend on our works.

It doesn't depend on our knowledge

or our wisdom or our intelligence.

It doesn't depend on what we eat or don't eat

or what we drink or don't drink,

or whether we observe certain rules

about religious festivals.

This is the truth,

that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life

physically and spiritually.

He died physically on the cross for our sins.

And he has risen from the grave physically.

He is seated on the right hand of the Father

in heaven where he intercedes for us.

So that if you have faith in him

and you repent,

he has saved you.

He has forgiven you.

He's called you brother or sister.

And the Father has called you son or daughter.

What Paul is reminding them of

is that Jesus Christ is your core.

He's reminding us of the same thing.

Jesus Christ is our center.

He's how we're saved,

but also how we continue in the faith.

He's how we're saved,

and how we continue in the faith.

There's not some higher truth

that we'll eventually get to

after you kind of get the basics of Christianity

out of the way.

Christ is the core,

and he's our life.

And we should never move beyond this.

It's particularly interesting

that Paul is praying for the Colossians

to know,

to grow in knowledge.

The false teachers were saying

something kind of similar.

That we need to grow in knowledge

to be closer to God

or attain salvation,

or to grow in knowledge

for the sake of knowledge.

But Paul's very specific

in what kind of knowledge.

What kind of knowledge

does Paul want us to have?

It says in verse 9,

9,

knowledge of God's will.

That's interesting.

Verse 9 to 10,

And so from the day that we heard,

we had not ceased to pray for you,

asking that you may be filled

with the knowledge of his will

and all spiritual wisdom

and understanding,

so as to walk in a manner

worthy of the Lord,

fully pleasing to him.

As I studied the passage,

that really,

it grabbed me.

The kind of knowledge

that we're to grow in

is not a knowledge

for the sake of knowledge.

It's not a knowledge

that puffs us up.

Hey, I'm gonna,

I'm gonna get all the knowledge

of the world.

I'm gonna get my doctorate

and be really super smart.

Not that that's bad.

But it's a knowledge

of God's will

so as to walk

in a manner

worthy of the Lord.

This is not a knowledge

for its own sake,

a knowledge that will

make us really smart.

It's a knowledge

so that we will walk

in a manner

worthy of the Lord.

Not a knowledge

of God's will

so that you'll know

like what college

you should go to

or who you should marry.

Not a knowledge

of what career

you should go into.

Not a knowledge

of when

or how many kids

you should have.

Not a knowledge

of, you know,

what stocks

or investments

you should get into.

It's a knowledge

of God's will

so that you will grow

in holiness

and sanctification.

A knowledge

that leads you

to act more

like Jesus Christ.

And this matters

a lot

because if you try

to serve God

and worship Him

without knowledge

of His will,

you'll be worshipping

a God

of your own imagination.

And many people

try to do that.

It's really

not that much different

than worshipping

a God made

of wood

or stone

or gold.

We must know

God's will

to know

who He is.

There are

really four aspects

of being filled

with the knowledge

of God's will

that Paul prays

for this church

and really is praying

for us too.

And I pray for you.

I have them

A, B, C, D here.

A is bearing fruit

in every good work.

Verse 10.

B is increasing

in the knowledge

of God.

Again, verse 10.

C is being strengthened

with all power.

And D, giving thanks

for our share

in the inheritance.

And so we'll go

through these

really briefly

but I just want

to lay out

His prayers

are really specific

in a number

of these areas.

So A,

bearing fruit

in every good work.

Verse 10.

There are many

false teachings

that this church

is facing

as I mentioned.

And there are

many worldly

philosophies

that really

assault our eyes

and our ears.

But Paul

is not praying

that our knowledge

of God's will

is to combat

these false teachings.

Not directly anyway.

He's not praying

so that we can engage

and debate well

although certainly

that can happen.

That's not His focus.

Our focus is not

to match

these philosophies

with our own philosophies.

What God wants

for us

is that we would

know His will

so that we will

bear good fruit.

Our study of Scripture

even deep

theological

study should be

practical.

It should affect us.

It should lead us

to change

in our behavior

or our thoughts

such that we

do good works.

You know,

I know too many people

and we all

can be tempted

to this

but too many people

have delved deep

into studying theology

and studying Scripture

and increasing

their knowledge of God.

You know,

studying the Hebrew

and the Greek

and all that

only to throw

it all away

either by committing

some disqualifying sin

or just walking away

from the faith

entirely

and really none of us

are too holy

or sanctified

to keep from this

happening.

This is why

we must be

vigilant

in our study

and meditation

of Scripture

that should not

just increase

our knowledge.

When you hear a sermon

it's not so that

we can just

increase your knowledge

of the Word.

I hope my sermon

is not just serving

your head knowledge

but affecting

your heart

and affecting

how you conduct

yourself.

And so

when we study

Scripture

we want to make sure

that it's producing

real fruit

in our lives

and increasing

our love

for God.

You know,

one of the things

I sometimes

get concerned

about

is

people will read

through the Bible

in a year

or half a year

or however many

like a really

accelerated pace

which is fine.

I think it's great

for you to do.

I think you should

learn about the Scripture

and it's great to read it

in a short time span.

But if you're doing that

just so that you can

know the Bible

better

rather than

knowing God

better

right

check

check what your

heart is

in that

in that endeavor.

I do want you

to know Scripture.

I want you

to memorize Scripture.

I want you

to be familiar

with it.

You should be

familiar with it.

God wants you

to be familiar

with it.

But more so

He wants you

to be familiar

with it

because

it's how we

get familiar

with God.

It's how we

become

more familiar

with God

as we know

what He said

in His Word.

If you want

to get to know

somebody

you listen

to their words.

Right?

You can't just

kind of observe

them from afar

and kind of like

oh

looks like he

likes basketball

but he played

like one time

you know

but

we have to

listen.

When we

want to get

to know somebody

listen to them

talk.

You hear about

what they like

and what they

dislike.

what they do

for work

what they do

at home

what they

believe.

It's important

for us

to know

what God

believes.

Alright

let's keep

moving.

B.

Increasing

the knowledge

of God.

It's just

what I'm

talking about.

The knowledge

of God's

will

increases

in our

knowledge

of God

Himself.

Knowing

what God

says is

good

is actually

good

and knowing

what is

evil

is actually

evil

knowing

that

studying

that

if we

accept

that as

true

we grow

in our

understanding

of God

Himself

we will

grow to

be closer

to God

Himself

we will

be more

and more

like Jesus

but if we

see in

scripture

that God

calls

something

evil

and we

resist

I'm not

sure if

that's

evil

or he

calls

something

good

and you're

like

I don't

like

that

if we

shy away

from it

if we

don't see

it as

evil

ourselves

or

we don't

see it

as

good

ourselves

and we

kind of

put a

barrier

to our

own

understanding

of God

and now

I'm not

saying that

you necessarily

need to

always

understand

everything

you know

why God

says

something

is

evil

and why

God

says

something

is

good

you don't

have to

always

understand

everything

the why

behind

everything

but we

do have

to

trust

God

that

what

he

says

is

good

is

good

and what

he

says

is

evil

is

actually

evil

I

think

a lot

of

times

when

we

are

tempted

to

sin

and we

give

in

to

that

sin

it's

because

we

don't

really

recognize

it

as

evil

we

think

oh

there's

that

good

thing

over

there

that

God

says

I'm

not

supposed

to

have

but

it

looks

really

good

I'm

going to

go

do

that

and

then

we

repent

because

we

feel

bad

afterwards

there

is

forgiveness

there's

grace

God

God

also

wants

you

to

grow

in

holiness

so

that

when

you

are

tempted

you

will

resist

and

thus

you

will

know

him

better

you

will

grow

in

holiness

C

being

strengthened

with

all

power

this

is an

interesting

one

to me

verse

11

being

strengthened

with

all

power

according

to

his

glorious

might

for

all

endurance

and

patience

with

joy

you

know

what

we

are

weak

we

have

to

admit

that

before

God

and

you

know

facing

the

difficulties

of

life

can

wear

us

down

and

I

think

that

knowing

God's

will

being

convinced

of

it

it

will

help

us

as

we

face

opposition

and

persecution

it

will

help

us

as

we

face

temptation

to

sin

and

temptation

to

compromise

our

values

to

hide

when

we

should

be

shining

our

light

before

others

to

see

so

we

get

worn

down

we

get

tired

but

know

that

continuing

in

God's

will

is

what

will

produce

in

us

the

most

joy

do

you

believe

that

do

you

believe

that

following

God

will

produce

the

most

joy

in

your

life

because

sometimes

that

thing

that

seems

really

tempting

it

seems

like

the

world

really

enjoys

that

thing

it

seems

like

that

will

produce

joy

and

I'm

missing

out

on

it

I'm

not

getting

that

joy

no

following

God's

will

it's

not

always

going

to

lead

to

happiness

and

joy

joy

feelings

but

real

lasting

joy

that's

what

it

will

produce

and

it

will

lead

you

to

live

the

best

life

that

you

can

live

and

a

life

worthy

of

our

calling

in

Christ

knowing

God's

will

will

produce

that

in

you

and

lastly

giving

thanks

for our

share

in

the

inheritance

verse

12

giving

thanks

to

the

father

who

has

qualified

you

to

share

in

the

inheritance

of

the

saints

in

light

now

remember

this

whole

clause

begins

in

verse

9

asking

that

you

may

be

filled

with

the

knowledge

of

his

will

and

all

spiritual

wisdom

and

understanding

how

does

knowing

God's

will

promote

giving

thanks

for

our

share

in

the

inheritance

if

we

know

God's

will

we

know

what

is

good

and

what

is

evil

right

we

know

that

we

have

failed

to

live

up

to

the

standard

knowing

God's

will

means

that

we

also

know

that

we

have

sinned

we

know

we

were

enemies

of

God

because

of

sin

the

world

I

think

a lot

of

the

issue

in

modern

Christianity

modern

western

civilization

probably

throughout

the

whole

world

is

the

fact

that

a lot

of

us

don't

recognize

that

we

have

sin

or

we

don't

know

what

sin

is

or

we

don't

recognize

how

serious

sin

is

but

God

is a

holy

God

he

cannot

abide

sin

at all

he

can't

be

near

sin

he

can't

be

near

sinners

sinners

getting

close

to

God

means

they

will

just

instantly

die

he

is

so

holy

so

radiant

not

only

will

it

produce

fear

in

us

but

we

literally

will

die

if

we

are

in

his

presence

that

is

the

seriousness

of

sin

even

the

smallest

of

sins

even

that

little

white

lie

that

you

told

even

that

exaggeration

that

you

had

somebody

believing

something

better

about

you

than

was

really

true

whatever

that

sin

is

and

maybe

you

have

some

major

sins

you

are

aware

of

we

can

come

before

him

repent

and

receive

forgiveness

and so

when we

get that

forgiveness

we get

to share

in the

inheritance

of the

saints

in light

all

that

Jesus

has

won

through

his

obedience

he

lived

a

perfect

life

and

he

has

won

all

the

blessings

that

God

has

and we

get to

share

in that

just

think about

that

a moment

there's

no

limit

to the

blessings

and all

the good

stuff

that

God

has

there's

no

limit

he

can

always

give us

more

of

himself

because

he

is

an

infinite

God

and

he

is

good

and

full

of

blessings

and we

don't

have to

wait

until

heaven

to

partake

of

these

blessings

God

blesses

us

now

in

Christ

with

every

spiritual

blessing

so

knowing

this

knowing

that

we

do

not

deserve

this

because

we've

not

lived

up

to

his

standard

we

have

defied

God's

will

so

we

should

be

ever

thankful

that

we

can

stand

before

him

because

we

have

a

mediator

in

Christ

Jesus

so

we

can

be

in

his

presence

we

can

receive

all

the

blessings

that

he

has

we

get

to

share

in

this

inheritance

that

should

make

us

ever

thankful

so

my

question

is

how

can

we

increase

in

all

of

these

things

just

like

Paul

prayed

for

the

Colossians

how

can

we

increase

in

these

things

we

must

pray

for

each

other

in

this

church

and

in

other

gospel

preaching

churches

we

must

pray

for

ourselves

to

grow

in

the

knowledge

of

God's

will

so

that

let's

pray

that

we

grow

in

this

knowledge

so

that

we

bear

good

fruit

so

that

we

increase

in

the

knowledge

of

God

so

that

we

are

strengthened

with

all

power

and

we

give

thanks

for

our

share

in

the

inheritance

so

not

only

must

we

pray

to

be

thankful

for

inheritance

but

also

remember

our

deliverance

they're

very closely

related

but

they're

slightly

different

and

so

bear

with

me

a

little

bit

more

as

I

take

you

through

the

second

part

of

these

verses

we're

to

take

hold

of

the

forgiveness

that

we

have

in

Christ

remember

and

take

hold

of

our

deliverance

and

forgiveness

that's

my

second

point

remember

and

take

hold

of

our

deliverance

and

forgiveness

verses

13

and

14

and

Paul

is

ending

his

prayer

how

he

began

it

so

let

me

let

me

read

in

verse

3

to

5

when

he

began

this

prayer

we

always

thank

God

the

father

of

our

Lord

Jesus

Christ

when

we

prayed

for

you

since

we

heard

of

your

faith

in

Christ

Jesus

and

the

love

that

you

have

for

all

the

saints

because

of

the

hope

laid

up

for

you

in

heaven

of

this

you

have

heard

before

in

the

word

of

the

truth

the

gospel

and

now

in

verse

13

and

14

saying

very

similar

things

he

has

delivered

us

from

the

domain

of

darkness

and

transferred

us

to

the

kingdom

of

his

beloved

son

in

whom

we

have

redemption

the

forgiveness

of

sins

we

must

remember

where

we

were

before

Christ

and

I

just

talked

a

little

bit

about

that

but

he

highlights

that

we

were

in

the

domain

of

darkness

we

were

part

of

the

kingdom

of

death

that's

that's

where

we're

citizens

of

the

dark

domain

we're

slaves

to

sin

we're

slaves

to

the

devil

really

but

we

have

been

transferred

where

have

we

gone

we

become

Christ's

kingdom

citizens

of

Christ's

kingdom

citizens

of

heaven

and

with

it

we

have

all

the

rights

granted

to

us

by

being

citizens

of

heaven

all

the

rights

that

Christ

has

won

for