Introduction

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As most of you know … our family was up at CMS Summer School last week.  It’s a week-long conference about global mission.  And I cannot recommend this conference enough.  Every year our family spends the week after Christmas at a caravan park at Lake Tabourie … with 8 other families who are our close friends.  There’s about 30 kids there all our kids ages.  Following that … we spend a week up at Summer School … with 3,000 other Christians.  And every year I ask our kids whether they enjoyed hanging out with their 30 GOOD friends at the beach more … or a week-long Christian conference more.  And almost every year they say Summer School.  It is an awesome conference.

Well one of the missionary sessions I went to was talking about cross-cultural ministry.  And a missionary in Japan … a friend of ours named Kelly … told a story of when their church in Japan was starting up a Sunday School.  So Kelly told the minister ‘I have some experience in teaching Sunday School … so I’d be happy to do some training for the new teachers’.  She heard nothing back.  Six months later Kelly is talking with the minister’s wife when the topic of Sunday School comes up.  And Kelly mentions she’s taught Sunday School before.  And the minister’s wife says ‘oh … could you help out our leaders with some training?’  And Kelly says ‘sure’.  The next Sunday the minister says to her ‘my WIFE tells me you’ve offered to do some Sunday School training.  That would be GREAT thanks’.

Now to us Aussies … that’s funny.  But what Kelly realised was that in a SHAME based culture … you never speak to someone in a direct manner.  Why?  Because people in Japan don’t want to be SHAMED by you speaking your mind.  In the same way … they also don’t want to shame YOU … by saying ‘no’ to a direct offer.  So you OFFER … through a third person.  Putting your hand up to say ‘I can look after that for you’ … like we do in Australia to be helpful … is the exact opposite of being helpful in Japan.

Now I mention this because of our topic today.  Across the summer break … we’re looking at the topic of prayer.  I’ve titled the series ‘A summer of prayer’.  And what we’re doing is we’re looking at some of the Apostle Paul’s prayers.  And the MAIN purpose of this series … is to see how closely OUR prayers resemble Paul’s prayers.  OK … do our prayers as modern Western Christians more reflect the culture of the BIBLE … or Western culture?  Don Carson puts it this way in his book ‘A Call to Spiritual Reformation’.  He says:

‘If the centre of our praying is FAR removed from the centre of Paul’s praying, then even our praying may serve as a wretched testimony to the remarkable success of the process of paganization in our life and thought’.

It’s quite a turn of phrase.  What he’s saying is … like our friend Kelly in Japan … we might THINK our prayers are really helpful and godly.  But if the CENTRE of our prayer life is our shopping list … what we want God to do for US … then our prayers are a ‘wretched testimony’ to how we’re reflecting Western individualism … it’s all about ME … more than the Bible … it’s all about God.

Now my suspicion is … we’d rather our prayer life NOT be a ‘wretched testimony’.  So I’ve got 3 things to look at today with Paul’s prayer from Colossians chapter 1 … to help us avoid this.  So as your sermon outline shows … we’re going to begin with (i) What Paul is thankful for … v. 3-8.  Following this we’ll look at (ii) What Paul is asking for … v. 9-11.  We’ll then wrap up with (iii) How Paul says we’ll get it … how we can GET what Paul is asking for … which is v. 12-14.  This whole sermon is application … so get your pens ready … as we dive in and see how OUR prayers can more closely resemble the Apostle Paul’s prayers.

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What Paul is thankful for (v. 3-8)

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And our passage begins in v. 3:

Colossians 1:3 (NIV) We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

So right off the bat we have our first bit of application.  How often is thanksgiving a part of our daily prayers?  Is it never?  Sometimes?  Often?  Or always?  Friends … the degree to which our prayer life is filled with thanksgiving is the degree to which the rest of our life will be filled with joy.  I mean think about it.  If you have NOTHING to be thankful for with regards to your spouse … or your kids … or whatever family is closest to you … that makes for a pretty miserable existence.  But if we are constantly thankful for them … whether it be a particular thing they reliably do … or something new every day … the things we’re thankful for … bring joy to our life.  So application point number 1: ALWAYS thank God … when we pray for people.

Next … WHAT is Paul thankful FOR specifically?

Colossians 1:4-5 (NIV) … because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven

Faith, love and hope.  Those 3 stalwarts of the Christian life.  Now what do they mean?

‘Faith’ means to TRUST what Jesus says.  And trust is a DOING word.  Imagine I’m standing in a pool … with one of my kids when they were small standing on the side … and I said ‘jump to daddy.  Trust me … I’ll catch you’.  Now if they don’t jump … it shows they don’t really trust me … doesn’t it?  Faith means obeying God’s word EVEN when it looks dangerous or dumb to do so.

‘Love’.  In particular Paul is thankful for the love the Colossians have for God’s people … for their fellow Christians.  And love is ALSO a doing word.  In what ways are we meeting the needs and wants of our Christian brothers and sisters?

And thirdly ‘Hope’.  Hope means our focus is not on this life.  Sure we can ENJOY the blessings God bestows upon us in this life.  But a Christian doesn’t invest all their time, money and energy into what this world values … like sex, money and power … security, materials and popularity.  Seek ye first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness … and all these things will be added to you as well.

But herein lies our SECOND piece of application today.  Are we thankful for our Christian brothers and sisters here at church?  Are we thankful for the faith, love and hope of our brothers and sisters at church?  Because we have MUCH to be thankful FOR!  I hope you understand that we have a REALLY good church here.  We’re not a BIG church … and we’ve had our issues in the past.  That just makes us normal.  The thing that makes us a good church … is our people WANT to be here each Sunday.  And we WANT to be here because we love God … and we love our church members.  So may we be thankful to God for our Christian brothers and sisters here at Earlwood Anglican.  For the degree to which we are thankful for our church … is the degree to which we will experience joy AT church.

The third and final thing I want to point out about what Paul is thankful for … is the fact that he’s never met these Christians.  In v. 5 he says you’ve HEARD the message of the gospel … that is bearing fruit around the world … v. 6.  They he says:

Colossians 1:7 (NIV) You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant

Third piece of application.  If we want our prayers to closer reflect Paul’s prayers … then we need to be praying for Christians we’ve never even met.  At the back of church we have CMS Prayer diaries.  You can get Anglican Aid prayer diaries … as well as Barnabus Aid and Open Doors for the persecuted church.  Just a few ways in which we can be praying for … and thanking God for … Christians we don’t even know … like Paul did.

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What Paul is asking for (v. 9-11)

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So … Paul is very thankful for the Christians in Colossae … whom he’d never met.  He then says this:

Colossians 1:9 (NIV) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

Not only is Paul thanking God for these Christians he’s never met … he’s also praying for them.  And what does Paul ask for?  Good health?  That upcoming exam or job interview.  Because THEY’RE the kind of things Western culture tells us we should pray for … right?  That our boss will get off our back?  That our kids will be successful?  Because THEY’RE the kind of things we pray for in our Bible study groups each week … are they not?  Well let’s see how far removed they are from the centre of Paul’s prayer:

Colossians 1:9 (NIV) … We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,

What Paul wants for the Colossians … what Paul is asking for … is for them to KNOW the Lord’s will for them … to KNOW how to live a godly life.  Yet this isn’t just head knowledge.  He wants the Colossians to put that head knowledge into practice:

Colossians 1:10 (NIV) so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:

Now if you only take 1 thing away from today … this is what you take away.  If the CENTRE of our prayer life is our shopping list … is the list of things we want God to do for us … then our prayers are the exact opposite of Paul’s prayers.  Now don’t hear me wrong.  I’m not saying we’re not ALLOWED to pray for our shopping list … for help with work … or help with that difficult person.  The Lord’s Prayer includes the line ‘give us this day our daily bread’.  God WANTS us to ask him for things.  God is HONOURED when we ask him for things.  But if our ‘shopping list’ is the CENTRE of our prayer life … if that’s ALL we pray for … then we are as far from the Bible’s culture on prayer … as my friend in Japan was … when she tried to be helpful by blurting out ‘I can be helpful’.  The CENTRE of Paul’s prayers is ‘ask NOT what your God can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your God’.

Now what does this look like … to live to please the Lord?  Well Paul gives us 4 examples:

1. Bearing fruit in every good work … v. 10.  In a nutshell … do good deeds, not bad deeds.

2. Growing in the knowledge of God … v. 10.  If we want to DO good deeds … we first need to know what deeds are good and what deeds are not.

3. Thirdly we are to be ‘strengthened […] so that [we] may have great endurance and patience’ … v. 11.  A life worthy is not one that gives up halfway through the race.  Ravi Zacharias is still probably the greatest Christian apologist of the last 40 years.  His stuff on YouTube is amazing.  Yet after he died in 2020 … it came out that he was having sexual relationships with several women he wasn’t married to … and was misappropriating tens of thousands of dollars from the Ravi Zacharias foundation FOR his various affairs.  That’s the OPPOSITE of great endurance.  We please God by staying the course till the end.

4. Fourthly … ‘giving joyful thanks to the Father’ … v. 12.  Friends if we’re not THANKFUL for all the ways God blesses us … then we’re taking God’s blessings for granted … are we not … thinking we deserve them.  A life worthy of the Lord is a life that is ever thankful TO the Lord.

So here’s our next piece of application for today.  If we suspect that the centre of our prayer life might be our shopping list … if when people ask us for prayer points the FIRST thing we think of is ‘what can my God do for ME’ … then we need to SHIFT the centre of our prayers … do we not?  We need to start praying:

Colossians 1:9-10 (NIV) ‘fill [me] with the knowledge of [your] will … through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, t 10 so that [I] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please [you] in every way

And this is not a prayer we pray once … because understanding everything God tells us to do in the Bible … does not happen overnight.  Like do you remember the movie The Matrix … where they downloaded a Kung Fu program into Neo’s brain … and he wakes up and says ‘I know Kung Fu’.  Like can’t we just want up one morning and say ‘I know the lord’s will … for everything?’  Sadly ‘no’.  Being ‘filled with the knowledge of his will’ takes a lifetime of studying his word … and therefore a lifetime of prayer.  So BEFORE we get to our shopping list … our daily bread … let’s CENTRE our prayer life on:

Colossians 1:9-10 (NIV) ‘fill [me] with the knowledge of [your] will … through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, t 10 so that [I] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please [you] in every way

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How Paul says we’ll get it (v. 12-14)

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The final question … is HOW do we can make this the centre of our prayer life?  If we don’t want to be SO culturally removed from the Bible’s prayers that our prayer life is little more than a wretched testimony to Western individualism … then HOW can we make pleasing the Lord the centre of our payer life?  Well the answer is found in that famous little song from the musical Godspell.  The WAY we follow him more nearly … is to first love him more dearly.  Think of it this way.

If someone were to ask you to bring them breakfast in bed … how enthusiastic would you be about that?  The answer is … it depends on your relationship with them.  Like if it’s someone you’re indifferent to … someone you don’t really care about … you’re probably not going to be that eager … right?  Like if you WERE to cook them a stack of pancakes … with bacon and maple syrup and ice cream … hmmm … bacon and ice cream … their happiness would be coming at the EXPENSE of your happiness … right?  Like it’s a CHORE doing that for someone you don’t really care about.  But if it’s someone you LOVE … you’d be HAPPY to cook them scrambled eggs.  You’d even fire up the barby … and sizzle up some snags and baby mushrooms and cooked tomato … and of course the bacon and ice cream.  And the reason you’d be HAPPY to do that is because IF you love the person … their happiness IS your happiness.

So here’s the question.  How do we get to the point where Jesus’ happiness IS our happiness?  How do we get to the point where pleasing him is the CENTRE of our prayer life?  Well there’s a little word in v. 12 that holds the key.  And that word is … ‘qualified’.

Colossians 1:12 (NIV) … giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Now what does it mean to be ‘qualified’?  It means to be made worthy.  When John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus … he said:

Mark 1:7 (NIV) After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie

Now Jesus himself says later on that John the Baptist was the greatest person ever born up until that point in history.  So the single greatest person ever born … said he was not worthy to even untie the straps of Jesus’ sandals … the lowest of low jobs.  Like washing someone’s feet was considered a job SO low … so demeaning in the 1st century … that some Rabbis said you don’t even ask Hebrew servants to do it.  You get foreign servants to wash your feet.  Yet John said he’s not even worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal straps … let alone wash Jesus’ feet.  So imagine how unworthy you and I are … to be in Jesus’ presence.  Yet v. 12 says God has:

Colossians 1:12 (NIV) … qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

And how has he qualified us for the kingdom of light … for heaven?

Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV) For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The word ‘redemption’ there means to set free.  It means to pay a ransom … in order to free a slave … or a prisoner.  So we WERE locked up in the dominion of darkness.  But Jesus paid his own life as a ransom … a payment … to bring us into the kingdom of light.

Now it’s very important that we understand the details of how this works.  Because if we get the gospel wrong … if we don’t fully understand what Jesus did on the cross … then Jesus’ happiness will come at the EXPENSE of our happiness … OK.  So let’s get this right.

Jesus’ death does not MAKE us worthy.  If Jesus’ death MADE us worthy … there would be no need for Paul to pray that we WOULD live a life worthy … v. 10.  We already would be.  Jesus’ death means we are now CONSIDERED worthy … COUNTERED worthy … RECKONED as worthy.  They way it works is this.  When God looks at a Christian … he puts on his special ‘Jesus’ glasses.  And when he looks at a Christian through those special ‘Jesus’ glasses … he sees them as every bit as qualified for heaven as Jesus is … even though we’re NOT actually qualified for heaven.

Now WHY is this important?  It’s because IF we think Christianity is about trying really hard to be qualified … through being a good person … then Jesus’ happiness comes at the EXPENSE of our happiness.  OK … doing good deeds becomes a chore.  Obeying becomes a drudgery.  But if we understand that Jesus’ death MAKES us qualified … if we understand that our happiness came at the EXPENSE of Jesus’ happiness … then it becomes our JOY to please him.

Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before

Since we have seen this beauty, are joined to part no more.

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Conclusion

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The way we follow Jesus more nearly … is to love Jesus more dearly.  And the way we love Jesus more dearly … is to see him more clearly.  So here’s our final piece of application for today.  YES … spend time being filled with the knowledge of His will.  Like Paul … do not stop praying to be filled with the knowledge of his will … SO THAT we can live a life worthy.  But the way we do that … is to spend even MORE time … and even MORE of our prayer life … fixing our eyes on Jesus.  When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome … his longest letter … he spent 11 chapters talking about Jesus … and only 4 talking about obedience.  Why?  Because WHEN we see him more clearly … it leads us to love him more dearly.  And when we love him more dearly … it is our joy and delight to follow him more nearly.  How about I close by praying for us in this:

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Prayer

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Heavenly Father,

We continually ask you to fill us with the knowledge of your will … through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and please you in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

And the people said … Amen.