Do We Pray as We Ought?

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me and turn to Colossians chapter 1 and hold your place at verse 9 the title of today's message is really a question and the question is do we pray as we ought.

Prayer is vital For believers and yet it is one of the things that is often the most neglected. Unfortunately, we know what it can do. We know what its purpose is. It increases our dependence upon God it focuses our worship it encourages our faith and Yet often It is neglected it has been said that a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.

And I think that there is some truth to that though it may seem somewhat like a sentiment or some kind of a colloquial statement. I Think there is truth to that and and I'm reminded as you know I'm preaching through the gospel of Mark on Wednesday nights and Colossians on Sunday morning and on on on A coming Wednesday night in a couple of weeks.

We're going to get to chapter 1 verse 35 and what happens in chapter 1 verse 35 of the gospel of Mark Is Jesus is being surrounded by people who need to be healed because he has demonstrated his ability to heal and do miracles.

And so people are literally sleeping outside of the house that he's in Waiting for him to wake up so that he can come out and begin to heal and so at one point he separates himself away from the crowds and goes away to pray and The disciples when they find him they say Lord everyone's looking for you.

You know, what do you do? You know you you went away from the crowd, but Christ went away for the purpose of prayer. He went away because even the Lord of Glory needed to pray. He needed to have time with the father and he needed the fellowship of prayer the blessing and the the time alone with God that comes in prayer is Again so often neglected and yet should not be.

One of my great fears. Brother Mike and I've talked about this some in our own lives. I hope he he didn't come charging the pulpit for me sharing. I don't think he will that sometimes as Calvinists there can be a Sense in which and by the way, if you don't know that we our church is Calvinistic in our beliefs.

We Sometimes there can be this this sense in which we hold so much to the sovereignty of God and so much to the to the to the determined plan of God that it can cause us to Have a weakened prayer life because we tend to start becoming somewhat fatalistic in our thinking and we have to battle against that.

We have to battle against the idea that because God has determined what he's going to do that That somehow means that my prayers aren't important or that that somehow means that my prayers aren't Affectual see what you have to understand is that Prayer is part of what God has ordained in bringing about his ends.

Prayer just like evangelism or anything else is a means to the ends by which that God has determined. We ought to pray and the Bible clearly says you have not because you ask not there are things that we don't have because we simply have not asked and Therefore our prayers do have purpose.

We are not just simply Speaking into the ether, but we are speaking to God through his Son. So, let me just say from the outset don't ever let your Calvinism become fatalism number one. And don't ever let it become a reason for you to become somehow prayerless.

Because that is a misunderstanding of our faith. It's a misunderstanding of who we are as believers in Christ. But we still deal with the question of how and What should we pray? Even the disciples had that question.

I don't know if you remember this but there was a point when the disciples were following Jesus and they literally said to Jesus Master teach us to pray. Wouldn't it be great if you just had a few moments with Christ and you could ask that question.

They did. What do you do when someone says pray for me? This has really been on my mind this week as I've been preparing this message. And the reason why I'm talking about prayers because Paul is going to show us a prayer that he makes for the Colossians.

He's actually going to write out. This is how I pray for you. And I think in this we see an example of how we can pray for one another but it got me to thinking How do we pray for one another? Brother Gary is is one of the men that I pray with on a regular basis, and I'm thankful for you.

And and he's he's very diligent to make sure I don't forget. And I'm thankful for that too. He was in the military. So he's he's got that military discipline. And so at 830 on Saturday mornings, we pray together and I'm thankful for that and and the good part of that is We get to ask each other how to pray for one another.

And we get to talk about our lives and what's going on in our lives. And what is it? We're praying for. Do you know how to pray for one another? Beloved that's what today is about. That's what this sermon is about.

How and what should we be praying? For one another. So let's stand what we'll read the text give honor to God's Word by standing and then we will begin our exposition. Beginning in verse 9. We're going to read down to verse 12 Paul says.

And So from the day we heard We have not ceased to pray for you. Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will In all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy giving Thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in Light, let's pray Father I thank you for your word.

I thank you for this Opportunity to proclaim your word. I pray that you would keep me from error as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. I pray Lord that you would help me to not do that that you would help me to stay tied to the post of the word.

And Lord I pray for every man and woman in this room that claims the name of Christ that we would come away from this message as more inclined to pray for one another and Lord for those who do not Know you Christ Lord that we would see especially in verse 12 that it is the father who qualifies us in his son to be inheritors of his Glorious blessing.

So father we pray now that you would open our eyes our minds and our hearts to what this text has to tell us in Jesus name. Amen, dr. Donald Whitney wrote a book entitled praying the Bible and in his book He has a quote and I printed the quote out so that I could read it to you today.

As I thought this was a good way to get us thinking about our prayer life he says this I maintain that people truly born-again genuine Christian people Often do not pray simply because they do not feel like it and The reason they don't like praying is that when they do pray They tend to pray the same old things about the same old things.

I Heard that when he said that and it really struck me because I do think that we can get into prayer ruts. Where even I I find this with my children. I don't know if you pray before every meal with your children.

But we do try to practice that discipline of prayer before a meal and I have learned To try to change up my prayers a little because now if I allow hope to pray or JJ to pray or one of the other kids to pray.

It's they will just quote me and I think okay, that's not bad. At least they're not quoting a heretic or something, but they're at least. They're there. They're there. They're simply treating prayer as if it were rote memorization.

And I do think that's the way many people think about prayer. I mean think about the way that even within like Roman Catholicism. There is rote prayer that is done. They have a chain of beads that they wear called the rosary and as they go down each bead each bead Represents a different prayer so they begin with the Hail Mary prayer and then they get to the our father prayer and they go back and forth between these prayers every different colored bead represents a different prayer and it's rote memorization and it simply is the the Expression of something that's been memorized.

And I'm not saying it's wrong to memorize prayer. I think memorizing prayer is fine memorizing scripture is fine. All of those things are can be good. But is that all prayer is? Is all prayer just us?

Repeating something, you know God. Thank you for this day. I hope it goes better than yesterday. Yesterday wasn't good. You know God. I hope you're doing good in heaven. Yeah, I mean, that's just another way people pray.

And again, I'm not making fun. I'm not teasing. I really am asking how do you if I asked any one of you to stand up right now and pray for the congregation? Would that be embarrassing? Maybe because some people don't like to speak publicly and that's different.

I understand in fact, there's a there's a there's a they did a study one time and they found out that The greatest fears among people number one fear among people speaking in public number two fear was death.

Which means if you have to go to a funeral you would rather be in the casket than doing eulogy. So I get it you might not want to stand up and pray but if you were just inclined to pray for one another.

Would you feel equipped? To do that thing and today is about that. And what we're going to see is we're going to see Paul talk about how he prays for the Colossians. Then we're going to see what he prays for the Colossians.

Now I must say this every passage of Scripture has a context and there is a context for this prayer. That is specific to the Colossians. So there is not always a one-to-one parallel. But what we see is principles of prayer here.

So as we're going through we're going to see specific things that he's praying for the Colossians. But those specific things can become Principles that we can apply to our own prayer life. Remember Paul is writing to a church to which he's never been.

He's writing to a church that he did not plant. It was planted by a path for us, which we learned about in our first study. And then last week I mentioned again Epaphras was the one who had likely planted the church.

He was either a pastor or a deacon in the church. Paul calls him a faithful Minister to the church at Colossae and so he is there he has ministered among them and now he has come to Paul. Paul is in prison probably imprisoned in Rome and he has visited Paul and he has shared with Paul the concerns about the church at Colossae and he's Telling about what's going on there and Paul is now writing this letter very specific for this church.

And remember last week I give thanks for you. I Give thanks for your hope. I give thanks for your love. He gives that try trifold. Thanks for the people of Colossae because he he is thankful for this church.

But remember also what I said in our introduction to Colossians is that there is also an issue within the church. There is an issue known as syncretism and what we're going to learn when we get to chapter 2 is that there is a danger from without of All of these different ideas about religion and all of these different ideas about Christ.

Seeping into the church and causing the people of Colossae to have a wrong understanding of the gospel and So Paul is writing this letter as it were like a shield for them to be on guard against these false Teachings.

He talks about the vain wisdom of the world later in chapter 2. So in his prayer he talks about them having a right knowledge of God. That's one of the first things that he prays that they would have a right knowledge of God.

Prayer Without Ceasing and Prayer for the Church

So let's look now at verse 9. He says and so From the day that we heard we have not ceased to pray for you. Now it doesn't say what they heard. But we can extrapolate based on what we read last week. And if we go back and we were to read verses 1 through 8 Paul has heard of their faith.

Paul has heard of their love. Paul has heard of their hope. These are the things that Paul has heard about them. He says so since we heard this we have not ceased to pray for you. Now I want to just mention When Paul says we have not ceased to pray.

That doesn't mean that every minute of every hour of every day of Paul's life was in prayer. Some people think that they go to 1st Thessalonians 5 17 and what does it say pray without? Ceasing and they think their whole life is to be spent in their prayer closet.

That's not what that means. And some people say well what it means is I'm just praying all the time and everywhere. I walk. I'm just praying. I'm always talking to God. Well. That's really not it either.

The idea is that we have a life that is Saturated with prayer and in all that we do and in every part of our life. We commit that to prayer. So praying without ceasing doesn't mean that we're always on our knees because if we're always on our knees.

Then we're never getting anything accomplished with our feet and our hands so we must pray and When Paul says we don't cease to pray for you. What he's saying is he's saying that when we pray we never forget you.

When we pray we never cease to pray for you. You ever had somebody oh, this is tough, maybe I'll not ask. I'll ask. You ever had somebody come up to you and say hey, I you know I asked you to pray for me a week ago and you say I forgot.

Or have you ever seen somebody walking towards you and if and don't lie you see somebody walking towards you and in your mind. You go. He asked me to pray for him. Dear Lord be with brother Jim brother.

I've been praying for you. As you forgot Paul says we don't forget to pray for you. We have not ceased to pray For you. Let me say this. We are not called to pray every moment of the day. But we are probably all in need of praying more.

Amen in fact John John Piper said this he said one of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day of Judgment that prayerlessness was not from lack of time. I'll say that again in case you missed it.

One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day. That prayerlessness was not from a lack of time. We have time we do what we want to do. We do what we want to do when Paul prayed.

Which was often The Colossians were on his mind. Why were the Colossians on his mind because the Colossians were his concern he was concerned about them. What's on your mind when you pray? The things that concern you.

Now for a moment go back and itemize your prayer list from last week. Was it mainly about others or was it mainly about you because often our concern rests on ourselves. More so than it does on others.

I Can't say amen. Say out right that's vodie, but it's the truth. We tend to pray selfishly. Paul says I have not ceased to pray not for myself, but for you and he says we he's in and in the we here I do believe he is speaking of himself and Timothy because he mentions Timothy in verse 1.

But also a path for us who we learn later in the book. He is always praying for them. So Paul says we have not ceased to pray for you. Are we concerned to pray for one another? The call of the elders is to pray for the body in fact that we see this in Acts chapter 6 when the apostles were Beginning to have to divide their time with serving of tables.

The first thing that they did was assign that job to other men. Which were the prototypes that would later become the deacons of the church and they assigned those jobs to men. And what did the Apostles say?

We cannot leave the preaching and of the word and prayer to serve tables. So people ask me what do you do for a living? By the way, because this is my primary vocation I study the scriptures and I pray and I preach.

Our elders pray that's our job. That that's the calling. Study pray and preach. That's the calling of this. It's not to be great businessmen. Well, they are. I'm not. I'll say I'm not brother Mike owns a business brother Andy's retired businessman.

But but that's not the calling you can be a great pastor not be a great businessman right. Because that's not the calling the calling is to study pray and preach and that extends out. Because we are to be the example of praying but we're not to be the only ones praying.

I hope to heaven that you pray for me. I Hope that you pray for brother Andy and brother Mike. I hope that you pray for your deacons and I hope you pray for one another. I don't remember the exact quote but I remember it well enough to give at least a cursory quotation.

When Charles Spurgeon was once asked how it was that he was able to have so much power in the pulpit as he said. My people pray for me. My people pray for me, how do we pray without ceasing for one another?

I want to give you a practical piece of before we even get to the next part. This may end up a two-part sermon because it's going a little longer than what I thought. But I'll give you a practical piece of advice this week in your email box.

There is going to get you're going to get a copy of the newest church directory. Brother Andy and and and brother Gary sort of work on that brother Gary's the chairman the Deacons brother Andy's chairman the elders and Together they sort of keep up with that list and we've got a new list.

It includes like miss Mary Howley and other people who are relatively new to the church. You're gonna get that list in your email. First thing I want you to do is check it if it's wrong send it back. Let us know.

Because it's always got something wrong because it's just the nature of it, right? It's hard to keep up with people's information, but when you get that printed out and There's your prayer list. There's your prayer list.

You know who gets prayed for more than anybody in this church by me. Adam Arzoni and Jack Bunny. Because they're at the top of the list. I Mean it really is they get the A's and the B's because I always start at the top.

I'm really sorry for you miss Jackie Ward. Now I pray for you to us sometimes. I'll start at the bottom and go up but it but that list is that that this is the people of God that he has given us to shepherd and.

And so we pull out that list and not cease to pray for you. Right and let's not cease to pray for one another. There it is. There's your prayer list. Say well, I don't know if miss I don't know if the hills have anything going on.

I don't know what to pray for them. Trust me. They got kids. They got a life. They always got stuff going on. He's nervous. Do you think I'm gonna say some nothing? Nothing going on particular, but there's always need for prayer.

Is there anybody in this room who could stand up right now and say church don't pray for me. I don't need it. No, why would we dare do such a thing? And I would say this we don't even need to be praying just for us.

But we need to consider the other churches that. We are in fellowship with that love the Lord and we need to be praying for them, too. I'm thankful. I will say this Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Shane Waters Church.

He texts me about once a month and says hey, we're praying for you. Our church is praying for your church. I'm thankful for that we ought to consider the local churches that are preaching the gospel as.

You know, we might not do things the same way and we might not we might play our music a little different. We might have a constitution that's a little bit different. But we're all preaching the same gospel and we can support those brothers in prayer and those churches in prayer.

So to pray without ceasing this is Paul he's concerned about the Colossians you think he only prayed for the Colossians. No. But when he prayed they were on his mind along with the Philippians along with Corinthians along with the Romans.

These are churches that Paul loved and he prayed for them. Would to God that we would be able to say that we have not ceased to pray for one another. Because that's what Paul was able to say about the church at Colossae now.

We're going to move on to what he prayed. This will begin to get a little bit more. I hope a little more practical. Okay. Well, we're called to pray. What do we pray? He says and so from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you.

Asking that and this is an interesting construction in the in the original language. Because what we see is we see the phrase asking Is followed by what's called a henna clause in the Greek which means in order that so asking in order that you may be.

Knowledge of God, Wisdom, and a Worthy Walk

So so that's really where the this is where the prayer Filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So as to walk in a manner worthy Lord fully pleasing to him stop right there.

Because right after that and I like in the ESV. There's actually a colon there after the word him. There's a colon because after that statement there are four Participles and those four participles actually provide us with How we are to pray for those things because the things we're praying for we're praying that that you would be filled with the knowledge Of all spiritual wisdom so that you can walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him.

How do you do that four ways bearing fruit increasing in knowledge being strengthened and giving? Thanks, that's the four participles that all build on that idea. I know that was kind of nerdy like grammar stuff but all this is this is this is how he's constructing this because what the prayer is is that you would be filled with the Knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy Lord fully pleasing to him.

That's the prayer now. How does that work out in real life? How does that look? What does that look like? It looks like this. It looks like bearing fruit with all power according or excuse me bearing fruit and good every good work increasing and the knowledge of God being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might and Then giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you that's what it looks like.

That's the that's how it breaks out. So very quickly let's let's go back to the the heart of the prayer and that is that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding the word knowledge here is Very important.

Remember what I said I said this prayer connects to all of Colossians because the concern about the Colossians was this the concern about the Colossians. Was that their knowledge had become corrupted by outside?

Intrusions. We're going to see that what they had begun being taught was that Christ is not enough you need to have Worship of angels you need to have worship on certain days. You need to eat certain foods.

You need to have these ascetic behaviors among you these are the things that are necessary for your salvation and Paul is praying that they would have epignosis. Epignosis is the Greek word. Gnosis is the word for knowledge.

Epignosis means the high or correct or proper knowledge. I Want to say this when I pray. I do pray for this. I pray that we would know God rightly. That we would know God's will correctly. There are so many That that preach and teach and have no interest in knowing God as he truly is.

But their only interest is to promote their own ideas and their own self-interest and their own programs and their own ideas. Paul says our prayer for you is that you would know God Properly. The New Living Translation says would you have a complete knowledge.

The New American Standard Bible says a real knowledge and In Philippians 1 9 Paul takes the same idea and says that you would have knowledge with discernment. Let me ask you a question do you think there's a lack of discernment in the church today and all God's children said We better.

You know why I know that there's a lack of discernment in the church today. Because the number one preacher in the world with the most following in the most money is Joel Osteen. And if that don't break you if that don't break your brain.

That he has the highest following highest amount of money and Following him are guys like Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis and Joyce Myers all of which preaching a false prosperity gospel and are followed around by the millions of People get upset with me because I say stuff on on.

On our podcast and things I had one I said something about Joyce Meyer because Joyce Meyer said she wasn't a sinner. She said I didn't stop sinning until I realized I wasn't a sinner anymore. I said what and I said something about that and somebody came out.

Oh, well, you're misquoting her. So I played the quote. Talked about it. And I pointed out the fact I said this ain't the worst thing she's ever said. This is indicative of a much bigger problem. And the indicative of the problem is that she's not qualified to be in the pulpit anyway.

And she shouldn't be preaching the gospel anyway, because she doesn't know the gospel. She preaches a false gospel of prosperity. If that offends you. Then come talk to me after because I ain't here. I'm not here to kick you in the teeth.

I'm not here to make you mad, but I will stand behind what I say. So Paul is praying that they will be filled With a right knowledge a real knowledge of the will of God. Love it. I pray you pray to that for me.

You know what? I pray every Sunday. You've heard me said if you've been here long enough you hear me say it 52 times. Well, I don't preach 52 times. You've heard me say it a lot. Every time I pray what I say Lord keep me from error.

Because I am a fallible man and I am capable of Preaching or there's one there no more thing that I fear in my life and that is to preach what is wrong. Because James chapter 3 verse 1 says not all should be teachers.

Because teachers will be judged with a stricter Judgment, I understand that and it frightens me. To preach what is wrong? So Paul says I pray That you will be filled with the knowledge of his will the right real knowledge the correct knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Now those words are important as well. The word wisdom there obviously is the application of knowledge and understanding is a in this sense somewhat of a parallel to that and the idea that you have these this knowledge and it be.

Not only in your brain but in your behavior what is the fool and Proverbs he's the one that doesn't apply God's knowledge, right? He doesn't apply God's understanding. The fool has said isn't in his own heart.

There's no God. What does the fool do? He he he doesn't fear God. And that what it says says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. It's a beginning of knowledge. But people always say well that that doesn't mean be afraid of God.

That means just to reverence God. Well slow down. Because I want to tell you this. We ought to have a healthy fear of God. I Had a healthy fear of my father growing up. And it didn't mean he didn't love me.

It didn't mean I didn't love him. But I knew that he had authority over me. That it would have been foolish for me to try to mistreat. And yet how easy are we to mistreat God? Because we don't fear him.

I never wanted to mistreat my father, but we mistreat God. Paul says I want you to be filled with the knowledge of the will of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Because because look at verse 10 so you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

See if you are not filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual Wisdom and understanding you will not walk in a worthy manner. And by the way, the word worthy there the Greek word worthy is axios.

Axios is the idea of equal to something. And here's here's how we know that because if we say something is unworthy, that means it doesn't measure up, right? It's not equal to right. We say something is worthy because it's equal to something is unworthy if it doesn't measure up and we know this.

None of us are equal to Christ. But what's the standard? Christ and how ought we to walk? We are to walk as he walked. Now you might say Oh pastor the standard is too high. Sure it is. But I don't mean just because the standard is too high doesn't mean there's not a standard and that's the point Paul is calling us to sanctified living.

By the way, if you're not familiar with that theological term There are two very important theological terms that you need to become acquainted with. The first is justification and the second is sanctification.

Justification is God declaring you righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ that is something that happens when you are born again and you are added to the family of God by adoption and you are Justified forgiven brother Andy talked about being forgiven of your sins and that is a one-time thing.

The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans having been justified by faith. We have peace with God. It's a one-time thing but if you are justified your life Will be sanctified and that is the process by which you are Conformed to the image of that one who saved you.

By the way, what are you predestined to? Predestined to be conformed to the image of His son according to Romans chapter 8, right? You are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Are you getting more like Jesus?

Nobody wants to say yes, good. We're nervous. We all know we fail right and every one of us fails and all we can ever see is our failures. Paul says I'm praying that you'll walk worthy worthy of what worthy of the Lord.

That you will walk as he walked. I mean think about 1st Peter chapter 1. If I go there with me go to 1st Peter chapter 1 and look at verse 15. In fact, let's start at verse 14 because this is a in the ESV.

It's a sentence that begins in verse 14 as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance verse 15. But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct.

Verse 16 since it is written. You shall be holy for I am holy church. What's the standard? Holiness. We don't hear that anymore. We don't want to hear that. We're called the holiness. We're not want to hear.

We don't want to hear that. We're called to a daily life of repentance. What we want to hear well God's gonna forgive you anyway. So, what does it matter. God's grace extends to all your future sins, therefore.

It doesn't matter now. I believe all of my sins are covered past present and future. That's what justification is. Every sin I have ever accomplished has happened since the cross. So if Christ's death didn't cover future sins, then all my sins are not forgiven.

But the fact that my sins past present and future are forgiven doesn't mean that that is a license for sin. What does Paul tell us in Romans chapter 6 verse 1? Shall we continue in sin so that grace can abound.

Certainly not. Can we who died to sin still what? Live in it right now. There's more literature being published than ever before. With excuses for people to live in sin. There's a book called God and the gay Christian.

What does that mean? What does it mean? Means you can continue to live in sin. What if it was called God in the God and the fornicating Christian. No, nobody. Yeah well. People would actually want that to write people would want the fornicating Christian or the murdering Christian or the lying Christian because we always want An excuse for sin, right?

We want that rather than rather than holiness. We want excuses and I'm not. I'm not here again. To beat you to death. I'm here to try to get you to understand that Paul is praying for something very specific for these people.