The decline of moral foundations among our young people has culminated in a one-word worldview: "whatever." As Christians, this is cause to sound the alarm!
Let us bow our heads.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for Your Word for us today. Father, when You called me to ministry, You wanted me to faithfully teach the Word, to teach Your people the truth always, to always be in prayer for them, to guide them. You assured me, that if I would commit to doing my part, that from it, You would do great and mighty things. Lord, I constantly in awe of what You continue to accomplish in and through this ministry. Thank You Father. Thank You for the multitude of lives that have been impacted all around the world because of Your Word, many have come to know salvation through Jesus Christ.
Christians have increasingly been adopting spiritual views that come from Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, and the eastern religions. And because many are Biblically illiterate, the church isn't alarmed or seemingly even aware of our downward spiral toward syncretism.
What is syncretism? It’s a belief
system that blindly combines beliefs from many different faith
perspectives. You need proof that we’re sliding toward syncretism? 44%
of adults in America contend that, the Bible, the Koran and the Book of
Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths. Only an astonishing 38% of Americans reject that idea. Among Christian kids, 63% say
that all religions pray to the same God. How's that for proof!
"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, 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; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light."
There are a number of Bible scholars, who often talk about the "Colossian heresy." It was a
belief system that combined the Bible with pagan philosophy. The result was
Christ was no longer Supreme. The system was a combination of Judaism
and paganism, however, it was masquerading as Christianity. It did not deny
Christ, however, it did dethrone Him; it gave Christ a place, yet not
supremacy.
The point of this is due to the variegated nature of the Colossian heresy, Paul could not address only one of the elements of the problem, he had to address them all at once, and he had to do it in one letter. Paul’s answer to this heretical problem is the proclamation of the supremacy of Christ. We are complete in Christ. Faith in Him rules out our need for any other powers. Nothing in the universe is outside the scope of His sovereignty.
Here in verse 9, Paul launches into a prayer, a prayer that encourages the Colossians to live a life that will cause people to want to know what the truth that they believe.
"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,"
The Apostle Paul is seeking to correct the false teaching in the Colossian church. Here’s how he does it. He starts by telling them that he sees three things in their lives: faith, hope, and love. Then he prays for them. He knows that if their lives are not powerful, then their influence on their culture – their defense of the truth – will be minimal.
I believe that we can learn from this prayer. The reason that truth is not working, is because our lives are ineffective. Why are the lives of so many Christians ineffective? They simply do not know enough!"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,"
I'd like you to underline the word "filled" in your Bibles. I believe that many Christians today are satisfied with just a little knowledge. But God wants us to be
filled with the knowledge of His will. Are you filled with the
knowledge of His will?
Every day, we are personally invited by Christ to spend time with Him, to learn how to accomplish the tasks He has given us right way. When we go to Him for knowledge and wisdom and strength, we’ll be able to step back and look at our lives from a distance and have this sense of accomplishment. One day, when we come to the end of time here on earth, we’ll be able to say, "Jesus gave me the ‘know how’ to live a well-lived life. I have fought the good fight, and the job was well-done."
In my lifetime, I have met people who have become "intoxicated" with studying the Bible. The problem is they get so head smart they become spiritually dumb. They know just enough to detour them from practical Christian living. Rather than burning
hearts of devotion to Christ, they get big heads and start creating
problems in their homes and churches. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is often quite dangerous. It typically leads to pride and self-righteousness. The knowledge we gain is supposed to take us somewhere. And, take others along with us.
However, this is not knowledge that simply fills our heads with facts, figures and information about the Bible. Here in verse 10, Paul tells us why we need to be filled with knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. "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"
The word "walk" is from the Greek word "peripatēsai," refers to a lifestyle. God is not just concerned with your spiritual life. He is concerned with your whole life! Would you be able to say that your lifestyle is worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in all respects? Is your lifestyle bear fruit? In every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God?
Now, let's look at the word "all," or "pasan" in the Greek. Is it your life's goal to please the Lord in all matters? I talk to a lot of people who are really interested in pleasing the Lord... in most things, or perhaps, some things. But I have met very few who make it their life's goal to please Him in all things.
I know many Christians who spend far more time binge watching Netflix, playing video games, eating or sleeping, camping, canoeing or fishing, then they do serving the Lord. If we're not serving the Lord, how then can we bear fruit for God and do good works to glorify Him? And what does that even look like?
We will be more patient, more kind. We will not just seek our own advancement but will strive to do to others what we would have them do to us. We will not be so irritable. We will return good for evil. We will use our discretionary time not by maximizing our fleeting comforts but by devising ways to be a blessing to the lost and suffering. We will more and more live our lives for others. We need more 'know how' to walk.
Beloved, there is no better defense of the truth in all the world, than a person whose hope in Christ is so strong that they willingly and gladly deny themselves, in order to meet the needs of others.
Paul says, "I’m not praying for you to make a million or to stockpile things that will rust and decay. I’m praying for you to prosper in your spiritual life. I’m praying that you will be the best example of what a believer in Christ should be. If we will do that, we will be defenders of the truth."
In order for truth to work, we don't only need more 'know how' and we also need more 'can do.'
We are in a war with evil. We are in a dark world that wants to suck us into its black hole. Ephesians 6:12 says that "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Nothing short of God’s power can give us strength to stand.
In verse 11, "strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously."
The Greek word used here "dunamoumenoi," or "strengthened" here refers to continuous empowerment. To 'know how' is not enough. We need on ongoing 'can do.' God seeks to gives each of us a "can do" can't be stopped. When we came to Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. He gives us the ability to do what we were never able to do before. We have a new power inside. Now, our job is to yield control to the indwelling Spirit. We’ll find ourselves living in ways that we never thought possible before. People have often said to me, "What happened to you? You’re so different now!"
We need more 'can do' to endure. So, how do you know you have God’s strength, power, and might? You have steadfastness and patience. At the end of verse 11, Paul says "for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;"
Steadfastness and patience, are two important words in the Greek. "Upomonēn" the Greek word for steadfastness, which applies specifically to problems and "makrothumian," the Greek word for patience, refers to 'longsuffering.'
As surprising as it might seem, I had to learn to be patient with a problem. Patience has never come naturally to me. When God’s power comes into your life it gives you the power to wait, to trust His with your problems.
Then he uses the word "endurance." Steadfastness applies to problems. Endurance applies to people. This is endurance with a person. God gives us the power to be patient with people. This characterizes the person who, when others hinder or hurt him, shows patience and refuses to yield to outbursts of anger. It’s the attitude that doesn’t retaliate in spite of injuries or insults. God to give us the strength to endure what we cannot change.
Psalm 29:11, teaches "The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace."
"...joyously, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light."
Knowledge without strength is useless. Strength without knowledge is aimless. But knowledge and strength with patience and endurance, in the power and perspective of God, brings success.
In Closing...
Malcolm Forbes once said that "Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs." They endure. Steadfastness and patience in the midst of pressure is what turn God's people into diamonds. When the pressures of life’s problems and the pressures of people are bearing down on us, God can give us strength to endure and turn into someone more beautiful and valuable then we can possibly imagine.
In our text today, Paul teaches us a very powerful prayer. It is not powerful because of the specific words that are used but because of the subjects of the requests that are being made. You can have complete confidence as you pray, that each and every request you make is completely within the will of God for that person. It is not powerful because it is some sort of a magical formula, but because God already desires to do these things in the lives of every person. You are only asking for what God already wants to do. It is powerful because you are praying God’s Word back to Him.
There are two things that I need to tell you about this prayer. First, this prayer will not change situations. In fact, because of what you are praying for, it may, in the short term, make those situations worse than they were to begin with. Understand, that may be what is necessary in order to accomplish what you are asking God to do. The second thing is, this prayer will only be effective as you pray it on a daily basis for a long time. Paul says in verses 9, where we find this prayer that "For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you"
Just as the ocean is faithful to send the waves to the shore, so was Paul faithful to pray this prayer for the believers in Colossae. It is not a quick fix, and you should not expect changes over night. At the same time that God is changing the person you are praying for, He will be changing you and testing you to increase your faith and your faithfulness. He will be testing you to see if you are truly totally dependent on Him, to accomplish what you can never accomplish in your own strength. The more change you want to see accomplished, the more time it will take. It takes thousands of years to turn a lump of coal into a diamond. May God change all of our lives and the lives of those around us.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen