Colossians 1:9-11

Hey, good morning, this is Truth in love. We get truth in love from Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 and Paul tells us He says. But speaking the truth in love We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ.

And so that's that's our goal and that's our aim to speak truth and do it in love so that God is honored Christ is glorified and.

And.

We please him in in what we do. Good Saturday morning to you. I hope you're doing well. Thank you for joining me. I Want to make this comment this morning. I know that there are there are other people other people that there are folks who who have joined as.

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Have.

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All right.

So this morning, we're just gonna look at a few verses in Colossians. Spend some time together in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. We went through Philippians and and now we're going through Colossians together.

Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. If you have your Bible if you want to look at your phone or Whatever is comfortable for you, we just want to look at three verses this morning and.

And.

See what the Lord has to say to us through his word this morning. Let me read those verses for us. Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. 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 may 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.

Just a small recap so we can remember the context of Colossians. Colossians is a church.

That.

That Paul not only did he not start but he had never been to before so what we see is the the fruit of the gospel the the fruit of Christ and his ministry and his working the work of the Holy Spirit through Paul and through others.

Increasing at this time because We're familiar with Paul being a missionary Paul starting churches, but Paul didn't start this church and Paul had never been. Excuse me. Paul had never been to this church at Colossae but someone who had become a Christian was familiar with Paul who who Probably heard the gospel from Paul was maybe a disciple of Paul's.

I need to do more more research on Epaphras but it was a paphras who who Founded the church who was a leader in the church who was giving the message from the church at Colossae to Paul. My throat is really dry this morning.

I apologize. So that's a wonderful testimony as we as we study the book of Colossians We we reflect on What God was doing at that time.

And.

And we spoke of this last time when we started Colossians. We were we were looking at Paul's character Paul's attitude that He he was thankful he was thankful and he was he was joyful and happy. That that the fruit of the gospel was was growing and increasing.

He wasn't he wasn't jealous. It didn't hurt his pride that that other churches were popping up. He was he was thankful. He was he says. We give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is so thankful That that Christ is is working and and moving.

Even.

Even apart from him physically and so that should be you know, our attitude as well if if there's a if there's a person if there's a ministry and we we know that. Their aim is to to glorify God their their aim is to be Christ exalting and to be biblical.

And.

Their their doctrine is is on point. We should rejoice when The fruit of the gospel is increasing wherever they're at. We we don't have to be the center of attention. And in fact We may think we are a lot of times even even those of us who Those folks that have you know large churches or or large powerful ministries.

It's so tempting when you have a lot of influence it's so tempting to to think and believe that that you you are the center of things and That things can't move forward and things can't go on without your wisdom without your insight without your leadership.

But in in this case, we need to follow Paul's attitude that It's the Holy Spirit that is moving. It's the Holy Spirit that's working. It's the Holy Spirit that is glorifying pointing to Christ and working in the hearts of other men and women In all kinds of places in every place and so It keeps us To reflect on that it keeps us humble.

It keeps us having the right perspective on Life and our relationship with God and our relationship with each other and so what a what a wonderful thing to reflect on when we when we look at Colossians and we look at the character of Paul in the ministry of Paul.

So this was this was not a church that he he Founded planted or had even visited but we see that Upon hearing of the work of the Holy Spirit the the fruit of the gospel He is Thankful and and the folks that are with him are thankful for what God is doing there in Colossae Starting in verse 9.

He says for for this reason also, so.

The.

Sometimes I Explain things in such a way that when I was reading it It helped me to understand it. And so hopefully that will be the case for whoever may be listening so In in my version my translation In in verse 9, we're in Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 We have for this reason there's a comma and then there's you know a phrase within the commas.

And so what I what I did to help me understand what Paul is saying is is take out those Commas and that phrase just for a moment so I can understand what Paul is saying. So I'm going to read it Would do that and read it as if that that comma and that phrase in the middle is not there It says for for this reason.

Also, we have not ceased to pray for you. And so what is he saying there? Why does he say for this reason also and it has to do with praying for them. Well for this reason Goes back to everything that he just said that he's thankful for and what is he thankful for?

Well, they they heard and understood the grace of God in truth, and then they responded to the gospel In faith and then the fruit of the gospel working in their life was faith hope and love and That's basically a summary of what Paul was saying here.

The things that he was thankful for was that they heard and understood the gospel the truth. They responded to it and then the gospel began to bear fruit and increase in their life and he was thankful for that.

And when he says.

Also.

Paul is Telling us that he is aware That they were praying for him as well so part of the message coming from Colossae was that this is what the Holy Spirit is doing and They are also praying for you.

So Obviously obviously Paul's influence was reaching through The folks that found and Started and are building up the church at Colossae Because they knew of him and they were thankful for him. So they they gave that information to the believers there at the church at Colossae of who Paul is and and His life his his testimony.

And so whatever information they gave Which I'm sure it encompassed all that and much more. They gave this information to the the believers there at Colossae and.

So.

They began to pray for Paul and then Paul through this message Not only heard of the fruit of the gospel in their lives. But he heard that they were praying for him. And so he says also I'm praying for you.

And.

For the reasons that I'm thankful Since the day we heard of it. He said we did not cease to pray for you. So it's it's a continuing thing. Prayer is a Continuing Practice in the in the life and heart of Paul and and so it should be in Our life.

Prayer is a fruit Of a fruit of the gospel a fruit of the Holy Spirit evidence that that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives and We need to be aware of that we need to look look at our lives. And and see the fruit and See if there's fruit and see what kind of fruit my life is producing.

Is my life producing a life of prayer, you know, of course, there's so many others and and.

And.

You know, we can look at those and hopefully we can get back together with Pastor Jeff and continue to look at the fruits of the spirit. But one of those one of those fruits That the Holy Spirit is producing in our life is a life of prayer.

Prayer life that is.

That is.

You know Paul. Paul commands us to pray without ceasing. So that should be a mark of whether we are in Christ whether we are believer whether the Holy Spirit is working in us. And I and I just want to Make this caveat.

I want to say this because I.

I.

Felt this way. This is this is how this type of teaching made me feel. In years past when when I would hear sermons when I would hear pastors talk about. You know this this is a mark of a Christian. This is what this is what?

Christians should look like this is this is evidence. That should be in your life that you should see in your life it came across in in that teaching that. Those those fruits those evidences that we should see in our life.

It's something that we should drum up that in it and it become a Legalistic type thing a work-righteous type thing that you know, you're You're not doing this and you're not doing that you need to be doing this or you need to not be doing that and in it became a legalistic type teaching a Work-righteous type teaching and so it that type of teaching puts a lot of a lot of weight on your shoulders and it gives us a bad theology in our relationship with God and.

And then how we communicate, you know our testimony to other people we don't want to communicate that bad theology to other people and we don't want to live that way underneath that weight of I've got to.

You know somehow in in my own efforts. Correct, you know what I'm doing and and build myself up and and make myself righteous. But that's the way that type of teaching comes across. But in reality if we're following scripture we're following.

What.

God wants us to understand and know.

Is that.

Fruit, that's why it's called fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's because it is produced by the Holy Spirit. Um, I Think about Colossians. Yeah, we're gonna be getting to this verse really soon. Think about Colossians 1 15 and and 16.

We we use this first the other the other night when we were looking at Matthew and we're talking about the supremacy of Christ. Listen to 15 and 16 and he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created.

Both in in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rules or authorities all things were created. Have been created by him and for him 17 and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.

So we've got to think about the supremacy of Christ. There's a there was a conference that I watched recently and. And I've contacted one of the speakers and hopefully one day soon I can interview that speaker about his talk during that conference, but he was talking about the Consistency in our theology, you know all our different Theologies and if you if you're not familiar with that language, I apologize.

Let me quickly try to explain what I mean so we have a we have a theology of God and. And so what that simply means is This is what I believe the Bible teaches about who God is and then we have a theology about Jesus and that simply means this is what I believe the Bible teaches about Who Jesus is and the same thing with the Holy Spirit the same thing with the church the same thing with in times the same thing with Salvation, you know, and they have different names.

They have they have these big Fancy names like the the theology of salvation. What we believe about salvation is soteriology. Our theology of the of the church is called eschatology. No, whoa. Nobody shoot me down theology of the church is ecclesiology.

Ecclesiology and.

Then theology of in times, of course is eschatology and so they have fancy names but it just simply means what we believe the Bible says about a Certain topic and so our theology.

I.

Lost my train of thought and I do that occasionally. So our our theology needs to be consistent so if The supremacy of Christ we believe that we know that the Bible teaches that so In it needs to be true and it needs to be consistent with with our understanding of everything else.

So in in our life and the fruit that we produce or the fruit that's coming from our life When we look to see what kind of evidence What are what our life is producing? It needs to be consistent with our understanding of the supremacy of Christ that He he made all things all things are for him and made by him and In him all things are held together He's before all things and in him all things hold together And he created all things.

So when we think about the supremacy of Christ and we think about The fruit our the the good fruit the God-glorifying fruit the fruit of the Holy Spirit When we think about those things We need to think about them in such a way that they are consistent with our belief that Jesus is supreme over all things if he created all things and all things hold together Through by him and everything's for him then That's got to be true for the the fruit in our life.

Again, that's why it's called the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So when we reflect on our lives and look at our fruit evidences of of who we are and where we are We need to see that.

It's not.

If we have a fruit if we have something good in our life It's not. It's not there so that we can pat ourselves on the back. It's there so we can glorify God and Give him credit. And so if if if there's something lacking in our lives, we're looking for that evidence.

We're we're speaking a prayer this morning and We're we're looking At our lives for that evidence of a prayer life That would be consistent with with what the Bible teaches us to to have and we don't see that.

Our reaction should be I need to do better. You know, that's that's legalistic and that's putting a Works righteousness weight on our shoulders that we just can't bear and we can't carry. We need to remember why Jesus came it's because we couldn't do it we couldn't.

We have an inability to do those things. We must rely on the Holy Spirit. We must rely on Jesus to to work those things in us. So if we're looking at our lives and there's a lack of speaking specifically a prayer.

Then.

It's a.

Repentance and a Submission to the Holy Spirit that he may work that fruit and grow that fruit and increase that fruit in our life and That takes the work righteousness away from it. That takes the legalism away from it and It takes that weight off our shoulders.

And so When that fruit is then produced we can glorify God because it is him Who has worked that fruit in us? And so Paul the the Church of Colossians were praying for him and he also was praying for them.

We're in Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 Just as a reminder if you want to follow along with us If I can pray for you, just let me know. All you have to do is type me and this morning We definitely want to be praying for Families I address folks in in our community in my community earlier and there are Families in our community that lost loved ones this week.

And so we want to be praying for them we want to pray for them this morning and we want to as we as we bear the fruit of prayer in our life, we want to Pray for these families and and pray that God will Glorify himself the gospel would would go forward and Move and increase in our community.

Because it's tough this these are tough times and It's always tough to to lose someone Physically speaking Earthly speaking it's Very very difficult. So we want to pray for those families and if I can pray for you, just let me know.

Continuing in verse 9.

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. Let me interject this before we move forward. So Paul is telling them that he is praying for them also.

Then he's going to tell them what he is praying for for them on their behalf. And I think this is.

Good.

Because. It is an example of how they then can be praying for him they can be praying for each other and it's a good example of how we can be praying for each other. And Paul in his explanation of how he is praying for the folks in the church at Colossae.

He gives ten things and we're gonna you know. See and look at these ten things that he he prays for on behalf and for the folks there at the Church of Colossae. The ten things in verses 9 10 and 11 and the first thing.

The first thing that he says that he's praying for is that they they may be filled With the knowledge of his will. And I'll find it's I find it's so interesting every time that Paul speaks of his desire for For his readers to have knowledge to be filled with knowledge to grow in knowledge to increase in knowledge.

I find that so interesting in our day and time to read that because. You will hear sermons you will hear Pastors in churches in today's context that will say if if you want any of that theology if you want any of that doctrine then then you can just go on to another church and And stuff your face.

I mean, this is literally what I've heard. You can go over there and stuff your face with theology and doctrine. That's not what we do here and and on and on and on. It's that is it's so interesting that he would say that because if you're gonna preach Scripture.

If you're gonna read Scripture. You're eventually gonna read this that contradicts exactly what you just told your congregation because the Apostle Paul wants us to Grow in knowledge be filled with knowledge increase in knowledge.

Because.

This is where we get our.

Information on.

How we believe what we believe how we live we have to know so that therefore we can understand and.

Live.

You have to have knowledge and you have to study. It just it amazes me that this mindset and this concept is is in our churches, but We don't want to say to our congregation if you want theology if you want doctrine.

Just go to another church and stuff your face over there. We don't want to say that to folks. We want to say.

Here.

We will grow up in all aspects into Christ. But we will also follow Paul's example. Because as we will see in the ten things that Paul is praying for here that he does not separate knowledge from The effects or the fruit of that knowledge.

Because that you know, that's the ditch that they're in when they are proclaiming to their congregation. We don't worry about doctrine we don't worry about theology which which is a lie because Even that type of preaching comes from a belief and an understanding.

So everything is theology. And everything comes from Your understanding of who God is. But um. But Paul does not separate He that he is not in that in that ditch. Where. And this is where that mind for those pastors that say those type of things and and I've not heard it as Much here lately.

It used to be really really popular. To speak that way towards a congregation. And but and it wasn't too long ago that they did that but I don't hear it as much anymore. But the reason that they were in that ditch is.

Because.

It was it's reactionary. It was reactionary to to those and this is. This is true, I mean they saw something that was real and it and it deserves a reaction. There are folks who did fall in the other ditch who said who wanted to only be academic who only wanted to study and and Know things and grow in knowledge and not let that knowledge Produce fruit in their life.

But we don't want to fall in the other ditch like the the pastors that I'm speaking of that said well, we just want to do away with being academic and growing in knowledge altogether and.

Only.

Worry about conduct. Because that's not the example of Paul. That's far from the example of Paul.

Paul.

Keeps those two things together and he he he does that in the very next few words and so. Make sure that you are not falling in either ditch But make sure that you are holding to both. Paul wants them to be filled with with the knowledge of his will.

And this is.

He's not speaking of you know Mysteries unknown mysteries that he has not revealed to us in his word basically Paula speaking of the Will of God about our conduct in our how we live. And he says in all Spiritual and we can't take out the word spiritual there.

We have to remember that the word spiritual is there just like we were talking about the looking at the evidences in our lives and and legalism and and everything that we said about that we remember that the fruit in our life comes from a certain source and that source is the Holy Spirit and so.

That's why this word or Paul adds this word here that we cannot skip skip over. So he wants us to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual. So therefore It's from the Holy Spirit this knowledge and understanding comes from the Holy Spirit spiritual wisdom and understanding and this is um This is the way that I Have understood this to mean because wisdom and understanding.

Just on a cursory reading here Often we think they They're very closely related and they sound familiar or similar and and we think Wisdom and understanding Don't they mean the same? Why is he being redundant?

Why is he saying the same thing? But in reality.

He is.

He is showing us how to to live and Follow down the center of the road instead of falling in either one of those ditches so we don't want to be only academic and and Heady and only worry about knowledge and we don't only want to worry about conduct.

And so that's what these two words Marry and put those two things together. So wisdom is the the gaining of that knowledge. So we want to be that we want to do that. We want to rely on the Holy Spirit Trust in the Holy Spirit learn from the Holy Spirit Teaching us through his word knowledge knowledge from the Bible and then understanding is how to apply that knowledge correctly in our lives.

So we want to gain knowledge. We want to to soak it up like a sponge. But then we want to also Seek spiritual understanding to know how to Live out that knowledge correctly right and what's right and what's wrong the correct path to to follow and Just how to apply that knowledge correctly.

So Paul marries those two things and keeps us in the center of the road moving on Verse 10 so that you may walk in a manner. See he's pulling us out of that ditch of just being academic so that you may walk and of course if you're familiar with biblical language The Bible uses that that phrase often To walk and it just simply means that the conduct of your life How you live so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and and what that simply means is that The original language gives us an understanding of When it uses the word worthy of weighing the same so if in in my mind I'm thinking of a set of scales and.

And.

The.

The weightiness of Of our Of the weightiness of the Lord and our His worth and his example. We should we should be on the other side of the scales being being equal in our Desire to to follow his example, so so it's it's equally Important for us to to follow Christ to to follow his example to live in a manner that is is pleasing to him.

So it gives us an idea and understanding of weightiness and and weighing the same to to please him in all respects, so of course it has a Purpose in a meeting we want to our conduct Should be such that the goal is is God's glory.

It's it's pleasing to him. Bearing fruit in every good work. And I had to read that twice to to kind of capture what he's saying there Is not listen to the sentence bearing fruit in Every good work. So when I first read that I was like is I thought good works were fruit.

So, what does he mean if he does it It doesn't it at first reading. It doesn't sound right. I thought good works were fruits of the Holy Spirit. Because we don't produce good works on our own. So so what does that mean?

So the conduct of our life Is that is the good works that the Holy Spirit produces? The good work is the fruit of the Holy Spirit but then.

Our.

Good works our.

Fruit.

Can also bear fruit and that's where he's going here with this. He wants he wants us to walk in such a way That it's worthy of the Lord and in and in how we walk it's pleasing to him. And by doing this The the fruit that is work working in us and working out of us.

Will then also bear fruit in in other people in the lives of other people so that's another evidence that we want to see in our lives as a Christian that That the fruit that's being worked out in us is also producing fruit in in other people.

That's that's how the the Holy Spirit works. That's how the kingdom works. That's how the kingdom grows. Is that Fruit produces fruit and.

And.

Christ kingdom continues to grow and build just like a mustard seed just like leaven leavens the whole lump. But the Holy Spirit Continues to it to work through his people. And then the last part of verse 10 you you have to read that part a couple times to and kind of.

It's helpful to look at the the original language and get some help with that to to understand what he's talking about. So So we want to walk. We want to walk this certain way so that our fruit is bearing fruit.

And.

It says increasing in the knowledge of God, but that's not what it means in in the English. And I probably didn't even say that right. So when I read that in my English translation, this is what I hear and Increasing in the knowledge of God.

So he wants he wants two separate things here. But this is what I'm hearing in the English. He wants two separate things. He wants our fruit to be producing fruit, and he wants us to be increasing in the knowledge of God but in reality It's it's a continuation of Of the snowball, you know one thing builds upon another so He wants our fruit to be bearing fruit.

And if we read it. If we use different other or if we use other English words or different English words.

And.

Replace them and Put them in this sentence. It will help us to understand What Paul is trying to communicate so we're going to put We're going to add a few words in here to help us understand what Paul is trying to say.

So Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing by means of the knowledge of God so this bearing fruit and Our fruit bearing fruit has a source. And that source is the knowledge of God and that's why he started off saying I pray that you are filled with The knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

He wants us to be filled with the knowledge of God's will so that that knowledge Holy Spirit can use that knowledge To then bear fruit and then bear fruit and then bear fruit from that fruit.

So.

So he's not he's not saying two separate things here. He wants us to bear fruit and our fruit to bear fruit and then increase in knowledge. He wants us to understand that our Fruit has a source and that's the knowledge of God.

And I hope that was clear. Hope I Apologize for stumbling Over that little part there, but I hope that was made more clear. That it's not two separate things. He's telling us the source of our Fruit growing and fruit bearing and fruit reproducing and then then verse 11 Strengthen with with all power.