Colossians 1:9-10 - Discerning God's Will

Colossians as a Book About Christ

All right, so let's turn to Colossians, and I've already introduced the book before Christmas, and then we covered, I think, the first nine verses, believe it or not, all in one day.

Do you remember that?

You might wanna mark that down in your calendar. That was a remarkable event. So let me just say this to sort of give you an overview since some of you weren't here, and then we'll start up, pick it up there where we finished last time at verse nine, Colossians 1 .9 here in a second.

But basically, if you wanted to sort of sum up Colossians, you could look at it as truths that are taught about Jesus Christ in this book that we're about to study, if you just wanna look at the truths that are taught about Jesus.

The first one is it teaches that Jesus created all things, and that's found in verses 16 through 17 of Colossians chapter one. Secondly, this book teaches that Jesus is fully God, the deity of Christ.

That's taught in Colossians 1 .19 and other places. The third thing is that Jesus can make everyone, excuse me, can make every one of us complete. In fact, he does make every one of his children complete.

That's chapter one, 27 through 29. He is our hope of being all that God intended us to be. So he completes us. He make the word in the Bible, the Bible word complete in the Greek sort of means mature, complete in the sense of mature.

And the fourth thing is Jesus is the hidden treasure. You find that in chapter two, verses three and four. He is all wisdom. He is all knowledge. He is the hidden treasure, the treasure that's hidden in earthen vessels is Christ with us, the hope of glory.

The hope, any hope we have in this room of glory in our own lives is because he's in us. And any glory that happens because of us is because he worked with us together, not just us. It's always together with us or us together with him is more appropriate.

So, and so the fifth thing is that Jesus rules. That's Colossians 2 .10. He rules over creation, over the church, over all things and is seated at the right hand of God. That's Colossians 3 .1. And then the last thing I see in it is that in Jesus, our sins are forgiven, Colossians 2 .13.

So that kind of gives you an overview of the book. If you just want to look at Jesus in the book of Colossians. So let's go where we left off now, Colossians chapter one, verse nine. Now that it's time for lunch, you ready?

It's not quite time for lunch. I'm messing with you. It's not even close to time for lunch yet. All right, spiritual lunch is what we're about to have. So Colossians 1 .9, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glory.

Let me rephrase that with the proper emphasis, according to his glorious power, unto all patients and long suffering and joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us fit. It says meet, that means fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

There is a good place to stop right there. May not get to that verse 13, but I might have a couple of Sundays on what it means to be translated. Did you know you've been translated? If you're saved today, you have been translated.

So like, that's like from English to Texan. It's two totally different languages. All right, so we touched on verse nine, but we didn't really go into it. So let's start there this morning. Let's have a word of prayer.

Lord, we just thank you so much for the service already today, for being with us, for always bringing us together to spend a special time with you on the resurrection Sunday. And so we thank you so much, Lord, that you choose to meet with us, that you live in us, but you choose to meet with us corporately as a group this day of the week, every week.

And thank you that you ordained it. Thank you that you are with us. Now, Lord, we ask your Holy Spirit to teach us this amazing eternal book that he wrote for us. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so for this cause, we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, for the church at Colossae, Paul says, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Paul's Prayer for the Church at Colossae

So the first thing we see here is that Paul is praying for these converts, which he counts as his own spiritual children in the church of Colossae. It is possible that Paul never physically went to this church, by the way.

We don't know for sure, but he still calls them his spiritual children. And that is because the people that were the elders there were his spiritual children. And in fact, Ben, didn't you talk about that in Sunday school a little bit today?

If you're not able to make it so far at 10, start coming because Ben and Dave are doing an amazing job. They sort of do tag team teaching through there. And they usually do books and it's really good.

This morning was great, Ben, and you had people out on the internet, millions of people were writing in saying how good it was. I tried to answer as many of them as I can. I think I only got six of them answered.

Anyway, so he is addressing this church, but he starts out early in his message telling him, I've been praying for you. In fact, I pray for you all the time, he said. Now, since he said that to every church that he wrote to, that tells us something about Paul's prayer life.

It's a little different than, well, I'll speak for myself, ours, is that he prayed more than we do, most likely. He prayed for every church that he considered himself the spiritual father of, which is a lot of people.

Not in the thousands at that point, but certainly in the hundreds of people. And he would pray for them. Many of them, certainly the leaders, he would pray for them by name. And so he was praying for this church.

Now, it's kind of fascinating to look at what the prayer was that he asked God on their behalf. And this is something that certainly be appropriate for us to ask God when we pray for one another. But this is what he asked for.

I don't cease to pray for you and to ask desire. By the way, when you pray, you're expressing your desires to God. And that's what he means. I've told the Lord that here's my desire. Father, here's what I want.

We could have done this for Christmas, I guess, but we didn't, but we didn't get there in time. But God, this is what I want. I'm your child. This is what I want. Now, you're always allowed to pray that.

Now, do you think even a human father ever gives you everything you ask for?

Everything you want?

Because not everything you want is good for you. Sometimes a little boy, before he's old enough, will ask for a shotgun. And what he really needs is a BB gun. And you pray a lot for him. Actually, you pray for his siblings more than him.

I have had children in my family who shot one another. And they were females. I won't tell you what their names are, but their initials were Katie and Jenny. And I don't remember who shot who. I'm not gonna go there.

I'm not going there. Katie would say it was Jenny shot me, and Jenny would say Katie shot me. And Paul would say they both shot me, and they shot me all the time. But he's not here, so let's say Paul shot the two of you.

All right, so you're allowed to pray and ask what you want, right? And he prays, and he asks, my desire for you is that, number one, you be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Now, think about just that one for a minute.

Knowledge in the Greek here, we'll talk about what it means is will in a minute, but he wants them to have knowledge of his will. What does knowledge mean? In the Greek, epinosis is the Greek word. And it's kind of interesting because it's a little different color of meaning than in the English.

It's a good translation. I love the King James. It's the most accurate English Bible there is on the planet. Accurate to the original, the Greek that we have and the Hebrew and so forth. But if you wanna look at, get the colors of meaning, you gotta go to the Greek, and here's what this word means.

First of all, it means recognition, okay? So it can mean full discernment, but what's interesting to me, I mean, that's kind of what the word knowledge would mean to us in English. But in the Greek, it carries the connotation of recognition and acknowledgement.

You see the difference? It's not really different. It means all those things. So it means discernment, knowledge, knowing something, but it is connected with the concept. It's like discernment, which causes you to recognize and acknowledge something.

Does that make sense? Okay, so here's what he's praying that they will discern, have enough discernment of that they could recognize and acknowledge it, and that is the will of God. Now, the thing, the Christmas story that we finished with this morning, we've, is that, no, I'm still here.

It can't be the rapture. I'm glad you're still here. Anyway, so like there was a synagogue full of Pharisees who were the teachers of the day, right? The Bible scholars. So I'm glad you young men on the back are not in seminary.

I'd rather you be taking what you're taking, even at Navarro, than to be in seminary, because in seminary, they will suck the faith out of you. So, you know, it's best just to get access to my library, go back there and read all those books.

Nowadays, that would be better. But here's the thing. You had a room full of Bible scholars, seminarians in the synagogue the day Jesus taught on the sovereignty of God, and they wanted to throw him over the cliff after he finished his lesson.

Now, that's interesting, because guess what that tells you about these people? They were not willing to recognize and acknowledge that God is sovereign, because when you talk about God's will, you're talking about what God wants, aren't you?

Well, do you, let me ask you this question. Do you think God gets what he wants? Do you think there's ever a time he doesn't? Never? Good class, you're like, this is why I preach here. Because if I said that in any church that I can think of in this country today, they would say, well, of course stuff happens he doesn't want to happen.

Wouldn't they? I mean, frankly, if you hadn't been coming here for a while, you might be thinking that. Well, there's stuff happens he doesn't want to happen. Well, then is he God or not? I mean, if he's God and he didn't want to happen, why didn't he stop it?

So you got two choices. If that's how you think, is number one, he's not powerful enough to stop it, or number two, he doesn't have anything to do with anything anyway, he just flung it out there and he's just watching to see how it turns out, so he's not gonna stop it.

You got those two choices, and neither one of those are true. God is not either one of those two figments of people's imagination, and that's what most people worship, by the way, is a figment of their imagination that they call Jesus that they invented that is not the God of the Bible.

It's an idol. Most people in churches, I'm sad to say, what not true when I first got saved back in the 70s,.

That wasn't true.

Most people that I saw in churches knew the true Jesus Christ and worshiped him and God and worshiped God, but now it's a figment of their imagination, it's an idol that they invented because when they start talking about the God that they worship, they don't like the God that the Bible talks about.

All right, so here you had a whole group of people in the other sermon that I finished a second ago, only took three Sundays or four, including this morning, but that one, you had a whole group of Bible scholars who are not willing to acknowledge that God is sovereign.

Now, let me just explain something. It's best if you explain it to yourselves, so if I say it, you won't believe it. If you say it to yourself, you'll believe it. So let me ask you, let me get you to say it.

If God is sovereign, that means he is the ruler of all things, that means he is God, and so that he does the things that he wants to do. We call that that he does his will. How many scriptures are there in the Old and New Testament that says that God doeth that which he wants to do and that no man can turn his hand?

Do you agree that that's your God this morning? Because if it is your God, God is pleased with everything that happens in his plan, and I gotta ask you another question, if he's God, how many plans does he need to have?

Why wouldn't he have a backup? Because he doesn't screw up like we do. He doesn't make mistakes. He's not guessing at what's supposed to happen. I was guessing on the way to church this morning about a certain business idea about what I should do, I'm guessing.

I don't know.

Charlotte said the smart thing, let's pray about it. Listen, if it's God's will, then God does it. God does not do what's not his will. So when things happen in our lives that are bad, we like to say, well, God didn't bring that, but the problem with saying that is, if that's true, then God is not in control.

But you could say, like the dear brother Otis that used to sit right there on that second pew for 13 years and was taught the Bible 50 years before I met him, he would say, well, brother David, you know, I know you may think that thing that happened last week was a bad thing, and it was a mistake that either you made or someone made, but he said it wasn't, God sent it.

And he said, when it left God's hand,.

God meant it for good. And I said, thank you, brother Otis.

No, that's his voice. I said, thank you, brother Otis. That was my voice. All right, so you see, we've got to get used to the fact that God does what he wills, and then that's what happens. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute.

But my question is, are you willing to recognize that fact and to acknowledge that fact? Because if you don't, you don't have knowledge because that's what the Greek word knowledge means. He prayed that they would have recognition and acknowledgement of the fact of God's will, right?

So let's, now let's look at, let's keep going here. So it says, I'm praying for you. My desire to God for you, my prayer to God for you is that you might be filled with the recognition, discernment and acknowledgement of God's will.

Now let's talk about that just for a moment, okay? If you want to talk about God's will, there are two aspects of it that are taught in the scripture in the Bible itself. Now, we would know nothing about God if we didn't have this book, by the way.

So anybody who hates God and doesn't want anybody to know God will hate this book and will try to destroy it or destroy you from it, make you where you think it's not true or it's full of myths or whatever.

I've known at least two people in my lifetime who had higher IQs than I can dream of who became Christians because they read this book to prove it was wrong and they got saved. One was a PhD psychologist professor and the other was Sue Riddle who was one of the most brilliant women I've ever met in my life.

And she was an atheist and she picked this thing up to prove it was wrong and got saved. And her daughter, one reason she was an atheist, she had a young daughter who had a malignant brain tumor. She got mad at God and just decided he didn't exist or this wouldn't happen.

You see how we do, like if it's not what we want, either it's not God's will or God's not there because why would he let this happen if he's there? So that's how she was thinking. So she just blanked God out, said, I don't believe in him anymore.

And she got so angry that she read this whole book. She probably didn't take her long. She's really smart. She read this whole book. She got saved and that daughter was healed of brain tumor. It just went away.

I know this for a fact because she's still here. She lives in Waco, Texas. And that brain tumor came back before that mother died when the mom was in her, close to her 90s, if not 90 something or 88, something in there, Sue Riddle.

She was still on the planet, the mom. She prayed for her daughter again and she was healed a second time. And it took surgery the second time they removed it, but she survived it. And she woke up and was totally herself.

She didn't even have to recover from it. So I've known a few people who read this to prove it wrong. And anyone who would do that, that's honest, will find out that it's an impossible book.

For humans to write.

Only God could have written it. So what this book says about God's will is that there are two aspects of it. The first one, I like to call it God's revealed will. And the second one, Brother Otis used to like to call it God's secret will.

Theologians call the second one something different, but I'm not gonna mention it because I like Otis's phrase better, God's secret will. So what do you think God's revealed will is? It's this, as you read this, he will tell you what his will is for humans, for himself, for the future, for all kinds of things.

And when he reveals it, it works. One thing I like to talk about, because I was a businessman with two degrees in business before I got saved and long before I was called to preach, but I find business principles all through this book.

This is a practical book. But one thing I've always taught from the time I became in the ministry, wow, how many years ago now? Over 40 something years ago at this point. That seems impossible, I still feel 18.

Don't say you're acting like it too. No, anyway. I forgot what it was, one thing I learned.

What was it?

See, that proves I'm not 18. I'm long gone, Dave, I forgot where I was headed. That's just the Lord proving I'm not 18, but I feel 18, but anyway. So let's get back to the message because I forgot, it'll come to me in a minute.

All right, so his reveal will is the word of God. How would, let me ask you this, how do you find out his secret will? How, well, how do you find out his reveal will? You read it and he speaks to you through his word.

So somebody tell me how you could possibly find out his secret will. That's one way. So something that you thought you went through that was terrible and all of a sudden you see how it worked for good.

So one way you can find his secret will is to act on his reveal will. Well, how would you act on it? Take a step. You have to step into it. Now, I think that's where I was headed a minute ago when I forgot.

I was pointing out I was a businessman before I got saved and this is a practical book. So what I've taught forever for 40 years and then I lost it because I started talking about how old I am. But anyway, what I've taught for 40 years is that doctrine is really important.

How you pick the church you go to should be based on is their doctrine biblical or not. But secondly, what a people don't like to talk about a whole lot is called methodology. Bible methodology. And that is where God in his word tells you if this comes into your life, this circumstance,.

Here's how you do it. Here's how you handle it.

Proverbs is full of stuff like that, isn't it? The book of Proverbs. But God says, okay, if this comes in your life, here's how you handle it my way. And when you can find that, I call it biblical methodology.

There's a method in the Bible that God said do it that way. And when you find that, guess what it does?

It works.

It's a principle like gravity. It's just as sure as gravity and God flung it out there as a principle. There are many economic and financial principles in this book and where you find one, it works just like gravity.

And you know what's cool about that? Gravity works for you no matter what side of the track you grew up on, no matter whether you got money or don't, whether your parents loved you or didn't, none of that even matters.

Gravity works for everybody, doesn't it? If you don't believe, nevermind, don't try that. You can get on the roof and test it. But I mean, it works for everybody. So if you find a financial principle or an economic principle, it's in that book and you work according to that principle, it will work for you.

Now, to me, all of that is called God's revealed will. When you find, let's use that as an example, Dave, I think you might like this, an economic principle because you're an entrepreneur. So is daddy Dave, at this point in your life, you started out a manager, now you're an entrepreneur.

And you, so you see a principle that, where God says, here's how you do a thing. And the Holy Spirit says, that is what this verse means. And I'm using it in your life to show you something, Dave and Dave.

And you say, well, it is something I wanna do, right? I have a desire to do this thing. Maybe it's a business thing, whatever. It doesn't have to be business, but let's use that as an example. Secondly, I don't necessarily have all the money it takes to do it, but I think I can think of ways I could get access to enough to make that happen.

So I have the wherewithal to do it. I don't see the Bible contradicting it. In fact, it seems to be leading me towards it. And so do I have peace about it? Yeah, I prayed about it and I have a peace about it.

It's not like God is making me feel really bad. If I do this, I'd have a peace. So what's the next step? There's only one step to do, and that is step towards it. Take a step towards that thing. That's how you step into God's secret will.

In fact, let me just say this. When you take the step, you just stepped into a secret will. You're in his will because you can't not be. This whole teaching of God has a permissive will and what's the other one they call it?

We don't even know in this church because we don't use it. I learned it in seminary when I read theology books.

What is it?

You grew up in the Pentecostal, they teach it.

His permissive will.

You have the permissive will, but what's the other one?

Perfect will.

Okay, yeah, something like that.

So you got God's perfect will and you got his permissive will, that's it, thank you. So we were all taught that if we grew up in the South.

Or anywhere in the Baptist church. Perfect will.

Now see, I think that would be, see, I don't know what that is. I guess that would just be his will. And then his permissive will, and I certainly don't know what that is, but I know what they think it is.

It means, okay, God does not want you to do that. It's not his will for you to do it, but he's gonna let you do it. Now show me that in the Bible. Now I will admit, I will admit there is this. Would you agree that you can know God's will, perhaps if it's given to you in this book, revealed to you in the book, you can know thou shalt not steal.

Would you agree with that? Okay, would you agree that you can steal? Okay, so now you've stepped into his secret will because you just stole something. So did God just let you do that? Or did he ordain that you would do it so you learn something from it?

That's the question. Because if he just let you do it, what if your sin was not to steal, but to murder? What if it was to murder a baby? Or a real little baby that's still in a mom's tummy? And you decide to do that.

Did he just let you do that? And see, that's a real problem for a lot of people. They'll say, well, you explain it, Brother David. Are you saying that was God's will? You see why it's not smart to get in the ministry?

You don't want that question asked to you, do you? But I get that question asked to me. All right, so how would you answer that question? Because you're going to have to answer it next Christmas when you tell your family that God's in control and they're ready to throw you off the cliff.

How are you going to answer it? Well, what about all these abortions? Is that God's will? How are you going to answer that? Well, the first thing I would say is, well, let me ask you this. When Eve ate the fruit, was that God's will?

See, always answer a question with a question because you don't know the answer to their question. So don't answer it. Ask it with a question that they won't know, seriously. But I mean, I do know the answer to this question.

But the first question I would ask is, okay, you're asking me a hard question, right? You're trying to, are you, let me ask you this. Are you really seeking truth? Or are you trying to trick me up? And I'll stare them down until they say something.

Are you like, okay, if we're here to discover truth together, wonderful. But are you just trying to trick me?

And I'll stare them in their eyes and see,.

And I'll know if they're trying to trick me, right? And now they may say, no, no, no, I'm serious. I want to know your answer. Okay, well, if they're a little bit upset, then I still know they're trying to trick me.

So I'll say, man, that was such a great question, but I can only answer it by asking you this because I got to know what you think about this first to answer it. Do you think when Eve ate the fruit, that was God's will?

Well, what do you think they're going to say? They'll probably say, no, he told her not to eat the fruit. And I'll say, well, then why does the Bible say that Jesus Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world?

Why would he already need to be crucified in God's mind if he wasn't gonna eat, if she wasn't gonna eat the fruit? And by now they're totally so screwed up, they've forgotten their question. But the truth is not only was it God's will for her to eat it.

Now see, there's another one. That'd be real interesting for you to deal with that one if you told someone you believe that. So don't tell them you believe it until you're ready to deal with it.

Just keep it in your heart.

But the truth is it was God's will because you wouldn't have Jesus crucified before the foundation of the world if it wasn't God's will for her to eat that fruit. Because it was God's will to demonstrate his love to the entire universe through that cross.

And that cross couldn't have happened without sin. So she had to eat the fruit. But here's the great question. Did she know she had to eat it? So why did she eat it?

Why did she eat it?

Because she wanted to and God held her responsible for that and Adam as well. And that's how it works. You always have God's sovereignty, his will, and you always have man's responsibility, both true in the Bible, hand in hand, together in the Bible.

And so that's just a quick lesson on this. But my point is Paul's prayer for his children, in the faith, were that they would acknowledge that God's in control, that both his revealed will is from God and it is the truth and it is the foundation of all truth and law in the world today.

That's why an atheist has a hard time debating about moral rules because all you have to do is ask them what do you base it on if you don't believe there's a Bible or God? I mean, why is it wrong? Why don't I just kill you right now?

Because it's what I want to do and that's my truth. How about if I just do it, it'd be fun? And they won't like that, but really you just won the argument. But if this Bible's true and God wrote it, all laws that we have on the earth today come from some portion of the 10 Commandments and then other things that came out of this book, concepts.

So now we acknowledge and we completely recognize that God's revealed will is from God and that we need to follow it, right? That's his prayer for his people that they would recognize that and acknowledge this.

I mean, God said he put his word higher than his own name. So you acknowledge, my prayer for you is that you acknowledge that if you're gonna go to church here for sure, you acknowledge that and you agree with it and you understand it.

Secondly, that you acknowledge that his secret will is exactly what's going to happen in your life and he's already been there with you. It ain't changing, but he didn't tell you what it is. So you're gonna do what you wanna do every moment.

So you better get your want to in line with this book. And the only way you can do that is to read it and think about it other times than Sunday morning while I'm talking about it and Dave and Ben are talking about it.

You've got to get in it yourselves. You've got to, I mean, part of his prayer to God had to imply that you're reading and studying God's word because he wants them to acknowledge God's will. This is where they find that will, the written will is here.

And so you have to get in it. Now, once you get in it and you get your mind attuned with it like two tuning forks where if this is God's word and this is your brain and you hit this one and you just move this one over closer, it starts vibrating at the same frequency as God's word.

Now, you know his revealed will and you're more apt to not take a step if you hadn't first checked to see if it's in that Bible. And if there's anything that says don't do that, you just didn't do it.

But if there's nothing that says don't do that and even things that imply that could work because it's good Bible methodology and you have a piece about it, that's all you know. You don't know, the Bible didn't tell you which house to move into next,.

Does it?

Does it? No, but it tells you a lot of things to have wisdom in making choices like that. A lot of business principles you might look into in the scripture to choose which house. And once you got all that together,.

You just have to take a step and see if they'll take your offer.

And if they say, no, I want $15 ,000 more.

Than your offering and you don't have it,.

Then you know that's not it. God closed the door, you walk through the next door.

So this is how you walk into God's secret will. And Paul's prayer was that they would have an acknowledgement and understanding that God's in control of all of it and you're in control of none of it, but you need to line up with his will and you need to walk because what God wants to do, it's all his business and he started the world's first family business.

So even that house you're gonna buy, even that business you're gonna start, even that thing you're gonna learn in school, all of that is his plan and his business, but he loves to do all of it together with his children.

He can just do it himself. He can open the Red Sea if he chooses to, can't he? And destroy the enemies of God's people right there when he wants to by himself. But you might wanna acknowledge this, don't you think that Moses stood up with the rod of God in his hand before God did do that?

So he actually did it together with Moses because the Egyptians might've seen that, but I know the Jews saw it. They saw that man of God stand above that water that was gonna drown them or that army that was gonna slay them and probably the drowning would be the better way to go and he raised the rod of God and that ocean just departed.

It just split open and they walked through on dry ground and then it closed on the enemy, but not until Moses raised the rod of God. So he likes to do things together with us. And how can we do anything together with him if we cannot be in the word enough and in prayer enough to acknowledge that his will is what needs to happen and will happen.