Sermon Extras

Colossians 1:9-14 “Praying for the Priorities of the Church”

REVIEW: We are in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, last week we looked at how Paul thanked God for the salvation evidence in the Christians there. That the gospel was doing something there.

CONTEXT> This week, diving right in, we get into what the Apostle Paul prayed for this church. Remember, Paul is in prison during this time. Think about that, he doesn’t know if he is going to live or die yet… he is praying for other people. So…that tells me that the things he is praying for them are pretty important? Would you agree, the word that kept coming to mind was- Priority.

• Priority- something that you think is more important than other things and should be dealt with first.

APP> If I were to ask you, “What are your priorities?” You would probably name a few things. But there are two things that reveal what our priorities are: 1) Minutes 2) Money.

CONTEXT> Here in these verses we see where the apostle spends his minutes …. in prayer and what he prays for the church. To which I think we can draw the main thrust of the passage today:

Big Idea > The priorities in our prayers should be to know God’s will and live God’s way.

APP> So… again If i were to ask you, “What are your priorities?” I would say, look at your prayers.What you care about is what you pray about. Before we jump straight into the text, I couldn’t move past the fact that this is a prayer itself, of Pauls and jotted down a few things that could possibly help us in our prayer lives:

Practical Prayer Principles from Paul

• Find a Time “not ceased to pray”
• Find a Place
• Find Your Bible
• Find a Partner “we have not ceased to pray”
• Find a List “since we have heard of you”
• Pray!

CONTEXT> In these short verse we see the prayer of the apostle Paul as he is praying his priorities for the Church in Colossae and I

Priority #1- Knowing God’s Will. v9

• “asking that you may be filed with the knowledge of his will..” The world filled here has this idea of completion, overflowing. And Paul uses an interesting word here for knowledge, and there is a reason that he does. Paul is writing his letter from Epaphras’s report that some false teaching had crept into the church called Gnosticism. (PAUSE- Titus 2 tells me, a pastor to teach sound doctrine, Jude 3 tells me to contend for the faith)

The false teaching called Gnostistisim comes from the Greek word for knowledge γνῶσις, gnōsis and had the belief that “salvation” comes through secret knowledge.

The False Filling of Gnosticism:

• Fulfillment is found by escaping any natural order. (Body/soul)
• Fulfillment is found by looking “within.”
• Fulfillment is found in following your feelings.
• Fulfillment is found in creating your own identity.

APP> The great lie of Gnosticism is that true knowledge isn’t found in God alone. *ILL> Build a Bear Theology.

Modern Day Gnosticism:

• Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” sold over 80 million copies.
• “The Secret” 30 million copies 50 languages.
• “The Third Jesus” by Deepak Chopra
• Quanan- By September 2020 47% of Americans
• “Wokeness” when it comes to race.

APP> I know what you are saying, “Pastor Jason, why in the world does this old church debate even matter at all?

• “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say..” Genesis 3:1
• “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5

APP> Following false teaching is fatal.

APP> God’s will is that you would live God’s way as revealed in God’s Word by God’s Spirit.

Priority #2 – Living God’s way. v10

• “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…” Paul is saying that knowing God’s will leads to something, living. He is probably contrasting the false teacher’s life saying, “You can tell what they believe by the way that they live.” How do we know that we are living God’s way?

What does a worthy walk look like?

1. It’s fruitful. v10a There is change, evidence!
2. It’s worshipful v10b “increasing in knowledge”
3. It’s faithful v11 – Faithful in circumstances “endurance” faithful in relationships “patience”
4. It’s joyful v11b “with you”
5. It’s thankful. v12- Thankful for what? Thankful that he has “qualified you”, “delivered you” and “transferred you”

Big Idea > The priorities in our prayers should be to know God’s will and live God’s way.

CLOSE> I know there are a lot of people in this room which means there are a lot of needs in this room. What our passage tells us is that the primary thing we can do is we can seek God and he will answer us:

• “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3

Prayer Prompts:

• Pray for clarity where there is any confusion.
• Pray for thankfulness where there is any bitterness.
• Pray for faithfulness in any relationships or circumstances where there is fickleness.