Date Written: October 8, 2006
Date Preached: October 8, 2006
Where Preached: OZHBC (PM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Study in Colossians
Sermon Title: A “what” and “why” prayer for Spiritual Maturity
Sermon Text: Col 1:9-12
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience ; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
Col 1:9-12 (NASB)
Introduction:
Last week we began our journey through the book of Colossians by seeking how Paul was so excited about the fellowship at Colosse. We found out that Paul was excited about the fellowship (v.3-4), we also found out that Paul revealed the true nature of his excitement (v.5-6) and that Paul was very excited about their pastor (v.7-8)
Paul had a great reason for excitement about this church as it was growing very fast and many of the believers had come out of a pagan background and they were reaching out into the pagan world and sharing Christ.
Tonight I want us to continue our journey in Colossians and I want us to continue looking at Paul’s prayer that he wrote to the Colossian church… tonight I want us to see how Paul prays a ‘what’ and ‘why’ prayer for the believers in Colosse.
Now let me ask you a question, when you pray for someone, have you ever been stumped on just HOW you should pray for them… or just what you need to say to God about them… or just where in their lives needs God touch…
I know that so often as believers we pray NOT as we should but our prayer is more OF THIS world than of God. We pray for health and wealth and good fortune. But do we ever pray for spiritual maturity on the part of the one we are praying for!
I hope and pray that those in this church who are praying for me that you are not praying that I would be successful as your pastor, but I hope you are praying for me to submit to the will of God and surrender to His plan and purpose for my life and for the life of this church.
This is exactly what Paul was praying for in the lives of the believers in Colosse. He did NOT pray for church growth, he did not pray for protection, he did not pray for great leaders… but Paul prayed for the spiritual maturity of the fellowship… knowing that when the fellowship was mature, God’s plan was going to be fulfilled and seen in that city…
Christian maturity should be the goal of all believers, but many of us are simply NOT there and are not even progressing in our walk with Christ. I once read what Rick Warren said about Spiritual Maturity…
He said that spiritual maturity occurs when a believer is willing to "take off the bib and put on an apron." Immature children wear bibs and expect others to meet their needs. Those who put on the apron of Christianity have learned the joy of serving others. So I guess I need you to ask yourself this evening, “Which are you wearing… an apron or a bib?”
Tonight I want us to look at 3 main points that I can find from this passage and I am going to simply go verse by verse and we are going to see just what and why Paul prayed what he prayed for these believers!
Firs of all we can see that…
1. Paul divulges the importance of prayer (v.9a)
9 “…For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you…”
Now I just want to touch on this point very briefly but it does not lessen its importance in this prayer from Paul. Here Paul emphasizes that because they were so thankful and excited about their fellowship that they had begun to pray for them and their prayer was a continual prayer!
So often we tell someone we are going to pray for them and we may mention them to God once… or not even at all, but here we find that Paul shares with us that prayer is IMPORTANT to the maturity of the fellowship…
And also when we make a commitment to pray for someone we should fulfill that commitment, not just ONE time but time and time again. The interceding for others is a special privilege that we have as believers!
But not only was prayer important… we find that
2. Paul shares WHAT he is praying for (v.9b-10a)
9b “…and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10a so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…”
So often when we pray for someone we may not have a specific ‘plan’ of prayer, but it is good to come to God with specific prayer requests… NOT that God already doesn’t know what we are going to pray for… or that He cannot figure it out… but it is really for our benefit…
And I believe that when you don’t know how to pray for someone, this prayer that Paul gives to the Colossian church is a great example of prayer for any believer!
In the WHAT category, we first find Paul praying that the fellowship in Colosse be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and have understanding of that will…
He uses the word play-roo which means to be made full or to be made complete. Without Christ we are empty and hollow shells of God’s created image but in Christ we are made complete and we are filled with His presence.
Paul is speaking/teaching about growing in Christ and maturing in their faith, but here he wants to emphasize that we cannot grow in Christ with out the filling and completion of Christ in us… Discipleship cannot happen when Christ is absent…
"Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
But we can also see that Paul wanted the believers in Colosse to learn to live a life worthy of the salvation they had received… and that leads me to my 3rd point tonight in that…
3. Paul reveals WHY he is praying for these things (v.10b-12)
10a “…bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience ; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light…”
Paul’s admonition to the believers in Colosse was to live a life that was worthy of the salvation that Christ has given them. And for them to do that required one main ingredient and that was obedience.
When a believer is obedient, he is going to please God… when a believer is obedient he is going to be successful as a Christian.
Paul’s first example of obedience is that the believer is to be a fruit-bearing Christian in the kingdom… Now this does NOT mean that all those we share Christ with will come to know Christ as Savior… but it means that we ARE sharing our faith… we are planting the seed, we are watering the seed that has been planted and when God calls on us… we are there to harvest a new soul for the kingdom.
But this also means that we are bearing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives and that world sees Christ in us through how we live our life!
But Paul goes on to tell the believers in Colosse to be strengthened in their walk with Christ. When we are obedient as believers, we are constantly seeking God’s strength to get us through the day and we are NOT relying on our own power.
When we rely on our own power, we fall WAY short of what God expects of us… when we rely on our own power, we rely on our own wisdom and that lifts us up in our eyes… and pride begins to be a factor in our walk. Only when we are totally submissive and reliant upon God’s power can we be fully obedient to His will and purpose.
Paul goes on to share that as obedient believers relying on God’s power we are to be strong, steadfast and patient in our walk with Christ… understand that this is NOT something we can do on our own, but we must rely on God!
• To be strong in the Lord is to be submitted to His authority…
• To be steadfast in the Lord is to place all your faith and trust in His power and wisdom…
• To be patient in the Lord is to be willing to wait on God for His timing and His plans…
Finally we see Paul sharing with the fellowship that they were to be joyful, and give thanks to God… This may sound simplified or even a bit childish on Paul’s part… but being thankful and allowing God’s Joy to flow through our lives is vitally important to our growing in Christ!
Ingratitude, or the lack of thankfulness, reflects spiritual immaturity on the part of the believer. Infants do not always appreciate what parents do for them. They have short memories. Their concern is not what you did for me yesterday, but what are you doing for me today.
The past is meaningless and so is the future. They live for the present. Those who are mature are deeply appreciative of those who labored in the past. They recognize those who labor during the present and provide for those who will be laboring in the future. Contact, quoted in Homemade, December, 1984
Paul did not want the believers in Colosse to fade in their walk, but he wanted them to grow and mature in their faith. This is always my prayer for the believers here at OZHBC. I pray that we all grow in our faith and trust in Christ…
Conclusion:
I want you to think about this…
If I plant some zucchini seeds, I will eventually, Lord willing, get a plant that flowers. Some people batter and fry the flowers. But if the flowers are left alone, then will produce zucchinis. And inside each zucchini are many, many seeds.
So the mature Christian flowers, but also reproduces. Maturity is seen in becoming mature AND in reproducing oneself by training others, formally or informally.
Contributed by: Ed Vasicek on sermoncentral.com
