Filled and Fruitful (Colossians 1:9-14)

Colossians 1, 9 through 14.

For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you.

We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance and the light.

He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your goodness.

I thank you for your word.

And I ask, Lord, just that you would fill me with your spirit to rightfully teach your word.

You would fill the hearers who know you with your spirit to rightly discern.

That we will grow closer to you, that we would grow in you, that we would be encouraged, strengthened, equipped, and that ultimately you would be glorified through this time.

In your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

We are working our way through the book of Colossians.

We're still in a little bit of introduction time here, but I love this passage because it really is a big chunk of awesomeness.

Big chunk of awesomeness.

I was gonna have that be the sermon title, but it kind of got beeped over.

So Paul and Company, he's writing to uh the church in Colossae, and he hasn't been there.

He didn't plant this church.

It seems like the Packers did.

So he's writing the people that he did not actually plant.

And so, in a certain sense, he's covering a lot of bases.

He's covering through a lot of different things to make sure that they are growing right in that.

So we have this introduction, and we have verse 9.

For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you.

Since the day we heard what?

Well, if you look back in verse 4, we see we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the hope or the love you have for all the saints.

So, these people are followers of Jesus.

We see that they have faith in Christ, love for one another, and so as a result, since they heard this, they haven't stopped praying for them.

Um, here's a convicting thing for me.

Uh, when is the last time we have unceasingly prayed for something that wasn't directly blessing us?

That's the part where I get stuck.

It's crazy.

They're asking and praying constantly for this church they haven't ever even been to.

That's cool, and that's awesome to see what he his heart for these people.

And then we move forward here.

We are asking that you may be filled, long sentence alert, with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share the saints' inheritance and the like.

Okay.

All of that has some really cool, exciting words that we're drawn to, that we're pulled towards, depending on your wiring and temperament.

All these cool words like, ooh, this and this, and good stuff and everything, but it all is downstream from one word.

That is not a cool that is not a very exciting word.

Filled.

So, as the pre-de facto self-appointed, pre-eminent Greek scholar among us, I would like to tell you that filled means filled.

It just means filled.

So, it's not nothing fancy there.

I'm not gonna give you any secret knowledge with that, but everything is downstream from that.

So we really want to dive into and take a second before we get to the rest of the words to go, what is happening here?

What are they asking for?

He's asking that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

They are followers of Jesus already.

And yet, he's asking that they would be filled with this, not knowing if they are or not.

So this is not something that is automatically downloaded when we are followers of Jesus.

The knowledge of his will.

Paul's leading off here.

We are praying that you would be filled up with the knowledge of his will.

We see here in Romans 12, 2, don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

So there's a sort of transformation here that leads to understanding and knowing his will.

The knowledge of his will.

What does this look like?

Okay.

Here is the important thing.

In order to be filled, you need to have room.

Right?

If you're going to be filled, there needs to be something you can fill.

And you're like, yeah, duh, got that.

Move on to the cool words.

Hold on with me.

So here's my picture.

Imagine you're living in a kingdom and you are but a lowly farmer.

And some of you are like, yes, this is my moment.

That's all I wanted in life.

Sourdough starter.

And um, my wife's not in here for that.

So, anyway, yes, our sourdough starter has a name.

I'm not gonna go into that.

Okay, so with that, you are a lowly farmer in a kingdom, starving but barely scraping by.

And a new king takes over the kingdom and tells you, makes a proclamation to all of my subjects, because of the wealth of my riches, the abundance, and also because of my care for you, bring me a container, and I will fill it with flawless diamonds.

Because I am that rich, and because I care about your well-being.

And you, as that farmer, excitedly go and grab your wheelbarrow, because that's the biggest thing you got.

We're not going with the orange Hobibo bucket in the garage, we're going with the wheelbarrow.

And you grab it and you go and you bring it to the king.

And he looks at it and he goes, This is three-quarters full of dirt.

And you go, no, no, no, no.

Number one, it's soil, thank you.

Number two, this is my best soil.

I have cultivated this.

We have fertilized this, it is nitrogen rich and full of other important minerals and items.

This is life-giving soil.

And the king goes, these are diamonds.

I love that you love your soil, but that's already not life-giving for you.

This would change your entire life.

I'm still gonna fill this up, but why didn't you just empty out the wheelbarrow?

And so, why am I saying this and making such a big deal out of it?

Because this is the issue that we have.

In order to be filled, we need to be willing to be emptied.

And that looks like, in this case, for Colossae, Gentile city, with their conventions, their ways of life, the things that they are used to.

We're gonna go through that a whole lot in the book of Colossians.

But what does that look like for us?

Because these people are Christians, right?

Sometimes that looks like, because, well, pausing for a second, what are they being filled with?

The knowledge of his will.

Knowing what God desires, knowing what he wants.

So, what would we be emptying in order to allow for more of that?

Um, what we're used to?

Convention?

Our uh our background?

Because those are things we sometimes rely on in seeking the Lord's will, not even asking the Lord what his will is.

So, what are what can we empty in order to make more room for his will?

How do we empty our wheelbarrow?

What are we looking for here?

The knowledge of his will, what he desires, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Paul is asking that the Colossians here would be filled up with knowing what God desires in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Funny thing, we like to think that wisdom is something that we attain.

After a certain amount of time, you possess wisdom, and wisdom is what you have.

I would like to introduce you to our friend Solomon.

Wisest person, probably that ever lived.

I don't know about you guys, but there ain't nobody going on tour to hear my wisdom.

And that was what Solomon had: incredible wisdom.

And he did unspeakably stupid things.

Should be comforting.

He literally blew up the kingdom of Israel with his idiocy in the time of their highest wealth and peace and expansion.

So, wisdom is not something that we just get at some point in time and then we have it.

We've reached level six of the Christian experience, and therefore we have wisdom.

It's something to just need to keep coming back for.

To whom?

To God.

We see in James 1.5, this is encouraging to me.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him.

This is the point of why I'm talking so much about the word filled.

God is the one who gives it.

He wants to give it, he desires to give it, he gives it in abundance, overflowingly.

So what we have to do is to come to him and ask for it.

But we don't do that if our wheelbarrow is full of what we already think we know.

And so that's the challenge, is just the thing over.

And uh that's the encouraging thing, though, is that we have a God who desires to give that.

He has it, he has all of it, he's not lacking anything.

There's nothing that we can actually like tell God when God, you know, God is giving something, and we go, well, actually, uh nothing that we can add to what he has.

And he desires to give it.

And so, Paul is saying, we are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Spiritual understanding, the flowing together of everything coming together into knowledge.

These words, knowledge here, epignosis, wisdom, Sophia, spiritual understanding, forgot that one.

Uh, those three are throughout this book, over and over and over and over again.

That Paul is saying he desires for them to have, to know, to understand.

So he wants Colossae to come to God with their wheelbarrow so that it can be filled, because God wants to do so.

What's the result of that?

So that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.

It's a little uncomfortable here.

They're saying, look, if you have the if you know the word of God, I mean the knowledge of God, the knowledge of his will, wisdom, spiritual understanding, that's how you walk worthy of him.

That's how you please God.

And then the next question is does that mean I don't please God now?

That's kind of uncomfortable.

I mean, I just heard ten songs on Christian radio that told me that he accepted me for who I am.

So surely he's pleased with me already.

Here's my flawed analogy because I am a human and not God.

I asked permission to have this analogy.

My son.

I like him.

Right?

A lot.

I enjoy our friendship, our relationship, our camaraderie, that he has thick skin with my antics uh exhibit.

A.

And um, I am well pleased with him at all times, because he is my son, and I love him.

Same is true with my daughter and my other daughters.

Okay, but here's the point.

I am always well pleased with my son.

If he does something wrong, that doesn't go away.

I don't go, well, now I don't like you anymore.

You don't break up with your children over try things with that.

But there was a moment.

How many of you have flown through Dallas-Fort Worth Airport?

Okay.

You know the little loopy trains that get you to the terminal that go roughly 8,000 miles an hour and have three poles to hang on to?

And everyone's packed in there?

We were there in August, and it was packed.

And there's no, you get in there, and that's the best you can do, right?

And we're sitting here, we're just trying to, trying to just survive the experience with that.

And there was, on the next stop, got in an elderly gentleman who was not physically stable.

And got in and is packed.

There is no way to get to those poles.

And without any thought, hesitation, or even looking at us, my son turned to him and said, Hold on to me, I got you.

And like, I'm embarrassing you're so bad.

And at that moment in time, well please was a whole new level with my child.

Because that wasn't even prompted.

It was just something that we saw character on display.

And so, why am I telling you this?

Well, because my son's cool.

No, not at all.

Because it is possible to be well pleased at all times, and then really truly be over and abundantly well pleased in obedience, in the expression of character, and such.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are God is already well pleased with you.

He is already proud of you.

You he has taken away all of the offenses that we have committed against him.

And there is nothing except pleasure and joy.

And yet, when we know his will and we do it, there is a superabundance, I believe, of pleasure in that.

It does not subtract from what's already there.

This is the biggest, one of the biggest struggles we have as followers of Jesus.

Because either he already loves us to the fullest, and so we don't have to do a thing, and I can do whatever I want.

Or I shouldn't mess it up, or else he's gonna be mad at me.

In the middle, there is the Lord already having created a situation through confession of faith in him, which we'll get to, that he is well pleased with us.

And yet in our obedience, is as we walk worthy of him, over and abundantly well pleased.

Does that make sense?

Cool.

It's so hard because we fall into one of these, we are naturally predisposed to fall into one or the other, or maybe both of these ditches at all times.

And yet, the Lord is already, if we are followers of Jesus, pleased with us.

And yet, there is more to be had in following him, which comes from the knowledge of his will, so that we do it.

So, at the top, be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom, spiritual understanding, so that you walk worthy of him, fully pleasing to him.

What does it look like?

What does it look like to have a life fully pleasing to God?

That's a big statement.

What a slide for what we have here.

Number one, bearing fruit in every good work.

If we are filled with the knowledge of his will, and we are obeying, as a result of being fully pleasing to him, we're bearing fruit.

There are an abundance, is an abundance of parables about seeds and bearing fruit and what that looks like.

So I'm just gonna pull out one verse out of the four soil, the parable of the four soils in Luke 8.15.

The seed in the good ground.

These are the ones who having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring produce fruit.

The one that is fruitful, because there's four soils, one of them doesn't even make it into the ground.

One of them makes it into the ground and springs up but has no root, and so when the sun scorches it, it dies.

Another one, stone among thorns, and it goes up and it's bearing fruit, but the thorns choke it out, which are the cares of this world, the desire for riches and such.

And here, the seed in the good ground bears fruit by hearing, holding on to it, and enduring, and therefore bearing fruit.

How many of you have seen a tree in the season going and there is an apple?

That's crazy.

There isn't, I mean, there's no effort being done in that except just continuing to bear fruit as it is nourished, as it is watered.

So, bearing fruit and every good work.

Growing in the knowledge of God.

No matter where we are, there is the opportunity to grow in the knowledge of God.

This is not enlightenment, it is familiarity, I would say.

But what hinders our growing in the knowledge of God?

If our wheelbarrow is full of other stuff.

Just saying.

This is a big challenge.

Somebody needs to hear this.

Something to pray about.

One of the things that most hinders our fruitfulness in this season, sometimes, is a season of prior fruitfulness.

That's hard to hear.

But sometimes the thing that chokes out the now is when things were so great.

Then.

It's so weird how that works, but if we have a great spiritual season, whether that's personally, whether that's in a church setting, and then we're not in that season, we're in a different season.

The tendency is to want to try to rebuild that season in this season.

And we're not looking at the Spirit, at the Holy Spirit for guidance, we're looking at our traditions.

Now, to be clear, it's very, very possible, and sometimes likely, that when you ask the Lord what to do, it'll be exactly that.

I'm not saying there's nothing, I mean, it is fallacious to say that anything old is bad and anything new is good.

Obviously.

But having that said, sometimes our Ebenezers become altars.

And that's a challenge.

Because what do we need to do?

Be filled with the knowledge of Israel now.

And that could and this is all, okay.

I'm gonna spoil my sermon here, okay?

The whole thing is funneling down to coming to him.

Coming to the Lord, seeking the Lord.

That's all this is coming to.

So with that in mind, growing in the knowledge of him, growing, not stagnating.

He wants us to grow because he loves us.

If we're growing slowly, does that mean he's mad at us?

No.

We don't see that here.

No.

But continuing to grow.

Again, we're full of agriculture analogies today.

I grew up in a city.

I don't know what's going on with this.

But anyway, having that said, do you sit there and go out and look at your tomato plant and go, what is wrong with you?

I expected another inch.

This is clearly five eighths of an inch.

We're not mating our quota, people.

No, not in any way, shape, or form.

But growth is life.

So, number one, bearing fruit in every good work.

Number two, growing in the knowledge of God.

Number three, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience.

Strengthened with all power.

And this is where we're like, oh, I like I like this one.

This is strengthened with all power.

Okay.

Nerd moment.

Two different words here.

The strengthened with all power on our side of things is dunamis.

Capacity, ability, potential.

So that strengthened with all power is the ability and potential, right?

According to God's glorious might, that word is kratos.

That's power, that's strength.

If you young people, if that makes you think of like a bald guy with axes, congratulations, you speak Greek now.

Kratos.

Um video game reference.

So his strength.

His might.

His power.

Our capacity, our ability.

Dynamic is where that word comes from.

Which is cool.

Because what are we being strengthened with all power?

His might.

He's doing that in us.

Which is awesome.

And we go, yes, all strength, all might, I can do all things.

And we just went over that.

So that you may have endurance and patience.

Hmm.

Don't like that.

There are certain verses where I like to yell the first part and whisper the second part.

That's one of them.

So I have a couple of definitions for these two words just because they're cool.

For endurance, puppamone, steadfastness, constancy, endurance.

And this is out of Fayer's lexicon here.

In the New Testament, it is the characteristic of a man or woman who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

That is cool.

Unswerved.

Constant endurance.

And the second word, macrophia, patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, especially as shown in bearing troubles and ills.

The strength that we have that grows in us as we seek his will, as we follow him, and therefore are well pleasing to him, brings about a strength that yields fruit of endurance.

Not taking the hill, but rather bearing under the difficulty that is expectation of following Jesus.

So endurance, patience.

And then going back to those things that are life-pleasing of him.

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father.

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father.

Um kind of weird, awkward social situation would it be to walk up to somebody and said, like, okay, I'm just gonna be weird, and be like, hey, thank you for leading worship today.

Be like, I didn't do that.

What is wrong with you?

You need professional help.

When you ask somebody who didn't do something, and you say thank you to them, that's just weird.

This is etiquette class.

So, however, we ask or when we say thank you to people who actually did the thing.

We show gratitude to those who did the work.

Right?

Okay.

So, a life pleasing to God, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for endurance and patience.

Joyfully giving thanks to the Father.

Not just giving begrudging thanks to the Father, but joyful thanks to the Father.

And if we see and understand what he truly did, that shouldn't be hard.

If we see the value of that, what did he do?

Well, we have slide for that.

So, the Father has enabled us to share in the saint's inheritance in the light.

He has provided the way for us to share in the inheritance of his kids by making us one of his kids through faith in Jesus.

What did he do?

He rescued us, number two, from the domain of darkness.

And number three, he transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

So, I would like to, like, I tend to think too often that there was a struggle involved in this.

When he rescued us from the domain of darkness, there was no struggle at all.

It's not like there was a jailbreak and Satan was unaware that we are no longer in his kingdom.

There wasn't some high-tense thing where you have the music going and then you have the sirens blaring and they're trying to escape through the tunnel.

Jesus, through his death and resurrection, paying the price for our sins, walked into the kingdom of darkness, said, This is now mine, and walked out.

And there was nothing that could be done against that.

Isn't that awesome?

That is encouraging.

That's things that we joyfully give thanks for.

There was not a big, great cosmic struggle.

We'll see that later in this book.

That that was not the case.

When the price was paid, it's not like there was haggling involved either.

That there was like, well, we're all the sins paid for, I'm not sure, I'm not sure if we can do this, we have to go through accounting and make sure that all the things are gone through, all the different things.

Done.

He says, This is done.

I'm taking you, and we're going, because they put their faith in me.

So awesome.

And transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

In him we have redemption.

The forgiveness of sins.

So in Jesus, we have redemption, payment price, payment fulfilled.

The forgiveness of sins.

We see according to Scripture that we were enemies of God through our sins, through our actions, unable to pay that price.

But God loved us so much.

That he offered the price to be paid, not in ourselves, but rather in the sinless sacrifice of his son, who committed no sin himself, but paid the price for our sins.

Therefore, rendering the payment full.

And not only that, not only did he die for our sins, but he rose again, showing the newness of life that we walk in, and that the price was paid in full.

Praise the Lord for that.

Doesn't that make our accomplishments look a little puny?

I'm just saying, Jesus offered himself for redemption, the forgiveness of sins, walked into the kingdom of darkness, said, This is now mine, and transferred to the kingdom of some.

And therefore, we have the share in the saint's inheritance in the light.

This is the real power, the real wisdom at hand, the real miracle at hand here, which is super cool.

Why am I making such a big deal out of this?

Because at the beginning of this passage, it's very easy to feel a certain dissonance of like, shoot, my wheelbarrow's not full.

Now they're mad at me, and now I'm doing it wrong, and now I'm not sure what's this case and everything.

Do I have to do it right in order to bear fruit, in order to be well pleasing to God?

And everything is like, look at what all He has done.

He did all the hard work already.

So let's give a flow here.

I have a slide here.

Just to give proper understanding here.

Because of what the Father has done, therefore, we can be filled with the knowledge of his will.

If he didn't do all of that really hard good stuff that only he could do, we couldn't be filled with the knowledge of his will.

There's no way.

Because of what he did, we can be filled with the knowledge of his will.

And as a result, we can walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him.

What does that look like?

We can bear fruit, grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened to endurance, and give thanks.

All because of what the Father has done already.

If we put our faith in him as a result, we can walk worthy of him, and therefore these four things happen as a natural byproduct of that.

But there's a cool thing here.

What happens if you take this list and flip it over?

This is what we as humans want to do to try to please God, to try to be made right with him.

This is the concept of idolatry from the beginning of history.

We want to bear fruit in our own works.

We want to grow in the knowledge of God, to get to know Him.

We want to be strengthened by our own ability, and then we want to pour out our worship before Him.

All of that as a result to try to please God.

And if by our own works we can please God, then He'll fill us with the secret knowledge of His will.

And He will like us enough as the faithful to bless us.

That's the problem there is that we want to work backwards, earn it, so that He likes us enough to notice us and therefore do the things that we want Him to do.

Idolatry 101, congratulations.

Didn't know you signed up for that class today.

So and so all of those, why do I say that?

Because all of those things we're gonna see in the book of Colossians.

When he's telling them to not get caught up in philosophy and man's wisdom, that is the attempt of growing in knowledge on our own.

When he tells them, hey, stop getting bound up by legalism and works, that's our attempt to be strengthened to endurance on our own.

And when he is, uh he's also gonna tell them, hey, how about you stop sinning?

And a bunch of other things in those things, addressing man's attempt to try to earn what God has already offered.

And so many of the things in this book are gonna point to you already have everything you need.

So, with that in mind, all of that being said, what is our part in this?

As Paul is writing to this church he's never been to, and he's asking these people who already follow Jesus to grow.

To know.

Being filled there, again, grammar thing is a subjunctive.

It is not a guarantee.

That is not something that has happened, that is not something that automatically will happen.

He's praying that it would happen.

So, what does that look like?

Number one, coming to him.

Coming to him over and over and over and over again.

Step two, there is no step two, coming to him, to God.

That may involve him saying, hey, how about you uh clean out that wheelbarrow a little bit so that my rich so that the riches of my will and wisdom can fill it more?

That may involve, hey, how about you follow me into unknown and uncertainty in life, things that are not so secure.

But what it looks like is him being the center of that, not our efforts, not our abilities, just coming to him over and over and over again.

Because he wants us to.

And he's willing to give us the knowledge of his will, willing to give us wisdom, willing to pour those things out on us.

He delights to do so.

And so, having that said, what of our what are our safe guardrails in that?

Because you can go a lot of weird places with just that.

The word of God is the compass for everything we do.

If you think that the Lord is telling you something that is contrary to the word of God, the word of God is not wrong.

Sorry.

So, always surrendering to that, but also being a part of a healthy body.

Being around other followers of Jesus, dialoguing on these things, checking on these things.

Is it messy?

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Uh, this side of eternity, there is not going to be a church where the potential of getting hurt doesn't exist.

But knowing, being known, being a part of that.

And then also just having accountability, having people in your life who actually are independent of your own narrative, who can say, This looks weird.

What's going on there?

Or this looks awesome.

Keep doing that.

I noticed this about you, how the Lord bears fruit in his life because of you.

Being known is the hardest thing in this world, especially in a church context where hurt is so easily done.

But those are the guardrails for how we stay close to him, for how we are known, how we can please him, not because we have the secret knowledge and do the right things, but that I would argue in conclusion that the very act of seeking his will, of coming to him, of asking him, is what is pleasing to him.

He is the answer.

He's not the one who has the answers, he is the answer.

So, with that in mind, may we, as we continue to explore this book, continue to find ways to seek him in all things, to be willing to let go of things, to be willing to follow him in uncomfortable spots, but know that in all of those things he is good.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you that it is your power that has accomplished these things.

I thank you that it is your plan for salvation, your son that paid the price, your willingness to forgive us, that brings about our salvation, our righteousness, our inheritance in you.

That we were powerless to do so.

And yet, I thank you that you provided a way for us to put our faith in you through confession and belief in your son.

I ask, Lord, that you would continue to speak to us, that we would continue to hold tight to you in all things.

That if nothing else in our lives we would be known as someone who walked with God and sought Him in all things, never in isolation, but always seeking your will in all things.

And I thank you that you bear the fruit as a result.

It's nothing we can muster beyond obedience, reciprocating what you have called us to.

And I ask, Lord, that you would continue to heal us from the impulse to try to earn your favor that you've already given us as followers of you, and also that you would heal us from any apathy of not feeling the need to follow you into the now.

Continue to guide us and lead us.

I thank you for all these things by your name.

Amen.