WWUTT 086 Watchful In Prayer (Colossians 4:2-4)

There are listeners to this program from all over the world, and the way that you talk would indicate to us where you're from on the globe, right?

By your accent and your figures of speech, we would be able to tell that you're from Scotland, or you're from South Africa, or you're from Papua New Guinea.

Likewise, the way that we talk should also be an indication to the rest of this world as to the heavenly kingdom that we belong to when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We are getting into Colossians Chapter 4 this week, and this is going to go pretty quick.

Compared to the previous three chapters, Paul spends a significant portion of Colossians four with his final greetings, mentioning a bunch of names, and we're going to talk about who those people are.

So really, when you're talking about the instructions that come here in terms of sanctification, it's really in just the first six verses, and then after that, you have your final greetings.

So this week, we'll get to the portion where we'll summarize all of Colossians by reading the entire book in one swoop, and also still have our

Friday review coming up as well. Before we get into our reading today, Colossians 4, looking at verses 2 through 6, let's come to the

Lord in prayer. Our wonderful God, we thank you again for this book that we have been able to learn and know

Christ as preeminent. We are completely satisfied in our Savior in all things.

We don't need anything else but Christ. That has been our focus over the course of this study, and I pray that even when we conclude our daily study of this book, that these things continue to teach us as we go.

Hide these words upon our heart. Let them transform and renew our minds in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and it is in his name that we pray.

Amen. Colossians 4, verse 1 is really how we concluded last week with,

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you have a master in heaven. And so that's not part of our reading today.

As we get into chapter 4, we're going to start in verse 2 through verse 6. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which

I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

This is such a beautiful five verses here. As we go back to verse 2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

I'll tell you one of the things that comes to my mind when I read that, when I read verse 2, is a Twila Paris song from back in the 90s.

Maybe you know this one, Watch and Pray. Nobody knows the moment. Nobody knows the hour of the day. So she's kind of singing in the terms of Christ's return, but I still think it is the way that we should conduct ourselves in this

Christian walk all the time. Not necessarily in terms of an eschatological perspective of when is

Christ coming back, but just every single day. We don't know when the Lord is going to return. So this day, let us be watchful in prayer.

Let us watch ourselves and how we walk and how we conduct ourselves, how we are growing in holiness and sanctification, how we act and interact with those even who aren't

Christians and aren't saved. Let us be watchful in these things. Watchful in prayer.

As Paul instructed the Thessalonians, pray without ceasing. It seems like a tall order of prayer.

How do you pray without ceasing? And I think very simply that all of our thoughts, everything that we do, all of our words, all of our actions, may all of these things be pleasing to the

Lord. Let us speak as though we were speaking to please the heavens and not men.

All our speech would be a reflection of the kingdom that we belong to.

And we do not belong in a kingdom of this world. We belong in a heavenly celestial kingdom.

We are members now of that kingdom before we have even died and have joined with Christ in God, in glory.

We are members of that kingdom now, heirs with Christ, as is talked about in Romans chapter eight.

In Titus chapter three, we are fellow heirs with Christ Jesus. We get all of the stuff the king gets.

So as we are citizens of that kingdom now, let us display our citizenship in the ways that we conduct ourselves, the ways that we act, the ways that we grow.

We've read this previously in Colossians chapter three. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So let us have our minds set on heavenly things, conducting ourselves steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Let all of our thoughts, all of our speech, all of these things be as though we would conduct ourselves in prayer.

Let me challenge you this way. When you think of yourself praying, is your speech different than the way that you talk with anyone else or talk in any other kind of way or the ways that you would encourage someone else?

Do you have one way of speaking in the ways that you are in this world and you have another way of speaking when you are talking directly to God?

Now I'm sure that your immediate answer is going to be, yeah, of course, I pray one way and I speak another way in this world.

But let me ask you why. Why is your speech different in prayer than it is in the ways that you talk in the world?

All right. Isn't the instruction that we've previously read in Colossians chapter 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Isn't that what we've previously read? So wouldn't that describe the way that we pray? Therefore, isn't it also describing the ways that we should always be with our words, with our thoughts, with the ways that we encourage one another?

When you pray in a group, like I'm talking in a small group setting, okay, so you've got what, six of you joined together in a circle, maybe holding hands, lifting up prayers to God.

Haven't you ever edified someone in your prayer? I pray for my sister here. I pray that she would be encouraged by the word of God, that your word,

Lord, is filling her mind and filling her heart and that she is guided by the things that we read in your scriptures.

Help her to be enlivened by the hope that is written in your promises.

Okay? Wouldn't you pray for somebody like that in a group setting? Then don't you also speak to them that way when you are talking with them face to face?

So what difference is there in your prayer and the way that you talk with them? I'm basically getting at this.

There should be no difference. There shouldn't be a difference in the way that you talk with one another and the way that you pray.

This is convicting to me, even as I am telling you this, because I think of times that I've been short in my temper or I get snippy with somebody else.

I don't do that with God when I'm praying. I mean, I have prayed my frustrations before, but it's not necessarily directed at God.

God, you don't do this for me. That's not the way that my prayers come out before the Lord. So therefore, in the ways that we talk with one another, our words should not come out that way either.

So this is a way that our conduct, that we pray without ceasing, that our conduct, our words, our thoughts, all of these things are always glorifying to God.

We always think of the ways that we speak and the ways that we encourage one another as being a signature of the kingdom that we belong to.

We talk like members of that kingdom. Now I was born in South Carolina.

I was not born in Kansas. I've spent most of my life in Kansas, but I was born in the Southeast, had a

Southern accent for a long time. And people knew, I mean, when they talk to me, you're not from around here.

My dad, who was born in South Carolina, has never had an accent as long as I've known my dad.

So when I got into high school and when I was looking at speaking professionally, because I was in radio prior to becoming a pastor,

I asked my dad, can you teach me how to lose my accent? And he taught me how. So you'll still hear it fall in on certain words.

And if I go spend time with the family in the Southeast, which I'm going to do this coming January, I'll come back to Kansas talking just like them.

My mom still has her Georgia peach accent. So when she comes to Kansas, all of my friends, all of my congregants in my church, they know she's from Georgia.

You can tell she just has that Georgian in her voice. So you can tell when a person comes from a certain place by the way that they speak.

It's not just the accent, but it's also figures of speech or certain figures of speech that will come from different parts of the country, different parts of the world.

I had a pastor who was from Canada. I mean, there's definitely Canadian in the guy and you could tell in just his nuances and syntax and all of these other kinds of things, sayings and cliches and the colloquialisms that he would use.

They weren't from around here. They weren't from America. They were from Canada. OK. So you can tell that by a person by the way that they talk.

Likewise, when you speak, can a person tell you're not from around here?

You don't quite fit in with the rest of the pattern of this world. But the ways that you talk seem to come from another place.

And that would be the kingdom that we are so longing for. We desire not to be of this world in any way that even our speech reflects the kingdom that we're longing for, the home that we want to go to.

We are anxiously anticipating the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We need to continue steadfast in prayer, watchful in prayer. Thanksgiving needs to flow in our prayers.

When a person is sinning, the likelihood is that they are not regularly praying.

And when a person is regularly praying, then they are keeping themselves from temptation and from sin.

This has been the case with me. And I think of times when I have given into temptation and I have sinned, talking more specifically about struggles related to anger.

That's one that I think that I struggle with in my flesh fairly often. I can very easily start thinking about a person that has something against me, and then

I just sit there and vent about that person. And there's nothing that I'm going to do to reach out or lash out to that person.

I'm just sitting, thinking, anger pops into my mind. And what I need to do at that moment is, as it says in 2

Corinthians 10 5, take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. That's what I should do. But I probably like the feeling.

I kind of like being mad at this person. I don't really want to give it up. I don't really want to pray to the

Lord and ask him to take this away. And then at that point, my thought has become sin. Because I have decided that I like this better than giving it up to the

Lord. And so when I'm not regular in prayer, when I'm not steadfast in prayer, I give into temptation and I sin.

But a person who is regular in prayer and is steadfast in it won't be as open or as susceptible to give into temptation to sin.

And so if you continue steadfast in prayer, you keep a watch on yourself.

You display a full thanksgiving in all that the Lord has provided for you.

As we talked about, what was it, two weeks ago during Thanksgiving week, that all sin flows from an unthankful heart.

That's basically where it comes from. When Adam sinned, the original sin, okay, he and Eve were not satisfied with all that God had given to them.

They think they need, they needed this thing in order to be completely satisfied. And they sinned, they sinned by taking from the tree that they were told not to take from because they were ungrateful for all that they had, everything that God had given them.

I've got all of this, but this one thing. And if I just take this one thing, then

I will be satisfied. And that's sin. That's at the root of our sin, deciding that we know better than God, that God has not given me enough.

And I need this thing in order to be satisfied. This has been the theme of our whole study here in the book of Colossians, knowing that we are completely satisfied in our savior and we need nothing else except all that the

Lord Jesus Christ has given to us. He is preeminent. He is above all things.

We need nothing else in this world to be satisfied except all that Christ has given to us.

Be steadfast in prayer. Be watchful in it. Be thankful in prayer. And Paul goes on in verse three, at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which

I am in prison. Now I've said many times over the course of this study that Paul wrote this letter at the same time that he wrote his letter to the

Ephesians. So we see many similarities there. Onesimus was delivering both letters at the same time.

The letters to Ephesians, the Ephesians, Colossians, and also to Philemon. All of those letters being delivered at once.

Consider something that Paul has said in Ephesians chapter six as he is closing his thoughts to the

Ephesians. He says, pray at all times in the spirit. This is Ephesians 6, 18. Pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

And also for me, he says in verse 19, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Do you hear that? The apostle Paul asking the church in Ephesus, pray for me that I may declare the gospel boldly as I ought to speak.

This is coming from an apostle. And I remember when I was teaching through Ephesians with my congregation, I made the same appeal to my congregation.

I said, brothers and sisters in Christ, pray for me that I would declare the gospel boldly as I ought to speak.

That opportunities would be there for me to preach the gospel. Doors would open for me to do it.

And when those doors open, I walked through it with boldness and with courage. And I speak the gospel in a way that I am supposed to speak it.

I remember tears filling my eyes when I appealed to my congregation in this way.

Paul is asking that of his church brethren in Ephesus, pray for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth.

They don't come from the apostle Paul. They are given to him by the spirit boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Now, understand that this mystery has been revealed in Christ Jesus.

We're not talking about a mystery that we cannot know. We're talking about a mystery that was a mystery, but has since been revealed.

As we read in Ephesians three, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

As I have written briefly, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

That's why it's called a mystery because it was previously unknown until this, until Christ was revealed and appointed his apostles to go and preach his gospel.

This mystery, verse six, chapter three, verse six, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

To me, though I am the very least of all of the saints, this grace was given to preach to the

Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory, the mystery that we have in Christ Jesus.

Remember Colossians 2, 2 and 3, our hearts encouraged knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is

Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Our great God, we rejoice in this. Thank you for this gospel. Thank you for revealing it to us in Christ Jesus that we may grow in it and learn in it.

Keep us steadfast in prayer, watchful with thanksgiving and praying also for the saints that we may encourage one another toward boldness in declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it is in his name that we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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