Walk Worthy Series

Above All: A Study in Colossians

Colossians 1:9-14

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

04-10-2022

Prayed For

Maxine and I have been married for almost 30 years. There are very few things I know for sure in this life but one of them is that Patrick, Maxine’s stepdad, prayed for me this morning. In fact, he has prayed for me every morning for nearly thirty years. [Slide]

Every time we talk, he reminds me that he prays for me each morning, along with Micki, and many others.

What does Patrick pray for me? Actually, he prays the verses in Colossians that we are going to study today!

Review

Last week, we began our series on Colossians and focused on the first eight verses.

We learned Paul wrote the letter, with Timothy, from Rome while he was in prison in 60 AD.

Epaphras, the founder and pastor of the church in Colossae, had come to visit Paul in Rome and tell him of the dangerous false teaching that was present in their midst.

This false teaching was a mix of Jewish legalism, Gnosticism, local folk religion, and Christianity.

Instead of Paul hammering the false teachers and the heretical teaching like in Galatians, Paul takes another tactic.

He asserts the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the head of all creation and the Church.

The first eight verses comprise the introduction. As we learned last week, Paul thanks God for the Colossians themselves - for their faith hope and love. He is thankful for the Gospel that’s bearing fruit.

And he is especially thankful for Epaphras, "our dear fellow servant and a faithful minister," the pastor of the church who has brought a report to Paul concerning their "love in the Spirit." Now this leads Paul, as it does in so many of his other letters, to prayer.

Turn with me to Colossians 1:9.

Prayer

Paul’s Prayer

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives…

"For this reason" - what reason? What he had been writing about in the first eight verses! The Colossians faith, hope, and love and the powerful effect the Gospel was having on the churches.

?"Ever since we heard about you" - who is we? Remember from verse one that Timothy was with him even though he was in prison in Rome. And also remember that Paul had never personally met these believers.

“We have not stopped praying for you and asking God" - Paul knew that the power to change situations lay in prayer. Paul’s prayers for them were regular, intense, focused, and intentional.

In his letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul encourages the believers to "pray continually." (I Thes 5:17)

And James, the brother of Jesus, writes "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5:16).

What did they ask God for? "To fill you with the knowledge of His will."

The request "to be filled" means "to the top" or "controlled to the smallest detail." Have you ever been stuffed? I mean really stuffed? Several years ago, Maxine and I visited her grandmother in Louisiana for Thanksgiving. It appeared that her grandmother and aunts had cooked enough food to feed a small army. I ate until I thought I would explode.

About a half an hour after we finished eating, I waddled over to the couch to watch football. Maxine’s grandmother brought a tray in and made us sandwiches to eat while we watched the game. Was she secretly trying to kill me off? I was full!

We can not fill ourselves or expect our pastor, conferences, books, or podcasts to do it. It must be a work of God in our lives. I wonder how often we pray that people would be so full of God’s Word that they would spiritually waddle?

The word "knowledge" is an important word in the book of Colossians. Remember they are battling the heresy of the Gnostics. They had special knowledge.

You had to learn the secret handshake……the code word……and jump through their hoops……then you might join the ranks of the "special ones.”

The knowledge of what? "Of God’s will." What is God’s will for your life? Paul here is not addressing God’s will for our individual lives.

Paul prays that they would be so in tune with God and seeking Him through His Word that they would have a good understanding of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is no secret sect knowledge but knowledge available to every believer.

How do we get that knowledge? " through all spiritual wisdom and understanding" The word wisdom is "the application of truth to experience." Or, as Dr. Frank Pollard was fond of saying, "sanctified common sense." "Understanding" means discernment, the ability to solve problems.