(Colossians) God's Desire for You — Brian Brodersen

Colossians chapter 1 let me read you verses 3 through 11. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth as you also learn from Epaphras our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

For this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy.

As you go through the Bible there are many places where we have prayers recorded for us back in the Old Testament. There are places where we have the record of Moses praying for the people. We have the record of the prophets praying.

And as we come to the New Testament we have the Lord Jesus praying for us John chapter 17. And then throughout the epistles we have occasions where the Apostles and particularly Paul the Apostle records for us his prayers.

This prayer in Colossians is for me personally the most glorious of all of those prayers in the New Testament. For some reason this one seems to just really hit home for me now. The other ones of course are great they're glorious they are just as inspired by God.

But yet this one in particular for me just really seems to get down to the things that that I seem to be always thinking about or or dealing with in my life. The wonderful thing about these prayers in the Bible and particularly these ones here in the New Testament is that in these prayers we see what the will of God is for us because you remember the Apostles wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So this was Paul's prayer for the church in Colossae. But it's actually the prayer of the Lord for each and every one of us. In other words these things that are asked for in this prayer are the very things that God wants to do for us.

Now I know that I myself at times seem to be unable to really connect in prayer. There are times I just feel speechless I feel incapable of even expressing what needs to be expressed. It's during those times that we can turn to these prayers and we can pray them knowing that we're praying according to the will of God.

What a thing. Because it is true that there are times we don't know what to pray for. Paul even talked about that he said the Spirit helps us in our infirmities because we don't always know how to pray as we ought.

But the Spirit makes intercession for us. And so if you don't know how to pray if you come to those times where you feel like you just can't even verbalize what needs to be expressed then you can turn to these prayers in the New Testament and particularly to this one here and you can know that you're praying in the will of God.

And so Paul says to this church in Colossae he says since we've heard about all that God has been doing for you we haven't ceased to pray for you. An interesting thing that seems to be quite common is that we often pray for the unbeliever.

We often pray for ourself in the sense of petitioning God for certain needs mainly things in the material realm. But but we at times rarely pray for the church. Oh I know what it's like to pray for unbelievers.

Oh Lord I just pray that that person would come to know you. And oh God they need to be saved so desperately. And you know quite often unbelievers are on our heart and prayer. And that's good. That's completely valid.

And then of course it's good to petition the Lord for the things that we need those are those are good things. But we need to also keep in mind other Christians. Sometimes we pray for people until they become Christians and we go okay got him in that's great.

Okay now let's move on to the next person. It's fine to move on to the next person but let's not forget the one that did come to the Lord because that's when the battle begins. That's when they they need that extra amount of prayer.

The Church of Jesus Christ is in desperate need of prayer. We need to pray for one another. And if you would like to pray for me I would request that you pray this prayer for me. It's a great prayer. It really is expressing everything that that I think I need this is it.

And if I could just have this realized in my life this this is the ultimate as far as I'm concerned. But this is what we need to be doing on behalf of the body of Christ. We need to be praying this prayer and others like it for God's people.

Praying for people individually. Praying for the church collectively. Because you see it's when the church is all that it is supposed to be. That's when the world is going to be impacted the greatest by the church.

Praying for God to reach the world is an important prayer. But God has chosen to reach the world through his people. So in order for the world to be impacted by Christ the church has to be all that it's supposed to be.

And if we're not praying for one another if we're not praying for the body of Christ in general then the church is going to be far short of God's desired place for it and subsequently not as effective as the church ought to be.

So Paul understood that and he spent much of his time praying for the churches that he established and praying for those individual believers that he knew within the fellowship. And so he begins. And he says we pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

This is where it all begins. Praying that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will. The will of God is the most important issue facing each one of us today. What is God's will for your life.

Do you know that God has a plan for you. Do you realize that. Do you understand that regardless of what you might think of yourself God has great thoughts toward you and he has a great plan for you. I think that some Christians are guilty of thinking that God has a plan for everyone but them you know they can see how God could use this person.

And they oh yeah they they identify with God's choice over here. Yeah boy I could see that person being used by God. But when it comes to themselves they just think well you know it's probably not possible with me.

And sometimes we even develop them the mentality that God just uses a select few and everybody else you know it just left to kind of go through life and just hope for the best and hope it all works out.

That is not biblical thinking because the Bible makes it clear that God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives. He has a specific calling upon each of our lives. We were created as a matter of fact for this one thing to do the will of God.

We're told in Revelation chapter 4 that all things were created by God for his will. They were created. So the reason that you exist the reason that you live here on planet earth is because God placed you here.

And he placed you here with a purpose in mind. He has a will. He has a plan. He has something for you to accomplish for him. Isn't that a wonderful thing to know. I mean just to know that that life is truly meaningful.

It's not meaningless as modern philosophers want us to think. Life does have a purpose. There is design there is a designer. There is a preordained plan that God has for each and every one of us. Paul's prayer is that we might be filled with the knowledge of that will.

That we might come to know thoroughly the will of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That we would know the will of God. That we would understand how to apply ourselves to fulfill it that we would have insight from the Lord as to what he wants to do with us.

That's what Paul is praying for. And that's what we need to pray for one another. Well if you ever want to know what to pray for me just again pray this prayer. Pray this specifically. I want to know God's will.

What does God want now. There are certain general aspects of God's will that are revealed to us in the scriptures. There are certain things that God wills for all of us. He wills that all people be saved.

Now we know that that isn't necessarily going to happen. God wants it to. But we have a choice in the matter. Man has a free will. He must choose. But God does will that we believe in Jesus Christ. He believes that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

He believes that we or he wills that we put our faith in his son. And then we're told that he wills that we live a holy life. This is the will of God even your sanctification. We read in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 and then we also read in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 that it's God's will that we give thanks.

So there are certain general things that were told concerning the will of God. God wills that we believe in Jesus Christ. God wills that we live a holy life. God wills that we express thanks to him be grateful for all that he's done.

And and those are the general aspects of God's will. He wills the same thing for every one of us in that area. But then of course we're all different. And there's a specific aspect to the will of God also that needs to be discovered.

That isn't necessarily clearly revealed in the scriptures. So how do I come to know the will of God in the more specific sense. Well first of all I have to make sure I'm in the will of God generally. So I can't know God's will specifically until I first of all become a Christian.

God does not reveal his will or his purpose to those who are outside of a relationship with him. You first of all have to come into a relationship with him. That's why the person outside of Christ senses that life is meaningless.

Because for you it is to a large degree it's meaningless because you haven't entered into the purpose for which you were created. You have to put your faith in Christ come to know him in a personal way.

And then suddenly there's that sense of purpose. There's that sense of meaning to our existence. I remember before I was a Christian I think if I could sum up my my feeling about life it was futility was the way I would sum it up.

It was meaningless. It was all purposeless. Just do the same thing every day weekend week out and you know where is it all leading to what. What am I doing here. What is this all amount to. Finally well it amounted to nothing.

That was because I was outside of a relationship with God. But once we come into a relationship with God then we begin to understand there is purpose for those that are outside. There is purpose. But you got to get in to the family.

You got to become part of God's kingdom. And then God's will begins to be revealed. So in order to discover the will of God specifically I've got to come into conformity to God's will generally. So I've got to put my faith in Christ and become a Christian.

And once I become a Christian I need to determine by the grace of God to live a holy life the way God calls me to live according to his word and to live thankful for all that he's done for me. And then those details begin to be realized.

I believe that God has a specific plan for us in the smallest details of our life. I believe that God has a plan for who it is that you're supposed to spend your life with who it is that you're supposed to be married to.

I believe God has a specific person picked out for you. I believe that God has a specific profession that he wants you to function in. I believe that God has a specific location where he wants us to live.

Things like that those are all part of the specific plan of God's life. How do I begin to discover that. How do I come to realize and experience that well come to know Christ. I seek to live the way he wants me to live.

I just am in an attitude of thanksgiving and praise to him for all that he's done. And as I go about my life as I go about asking God to reveal his will more specifically he does that as I go. And so he leads me in different areas and he shows me things that he wants and and he just brings this beautiful plan together that we could never ourselves even imagine it's such a wonderful thing.

It's such a glorious thing. Living in a world that has no purpose. We as God's people have tremendous purpose. And so that's Paul's prayer in its first aspect that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Do you know the will of God. Do you know that God has a plan for your life. Do you know that he has a specific purpose for you. He has something for you to accomplish. There's not a single person in the kingdom of God without a purpose.

When we read about the gifts of the Spirit we read that God has given a measure of faith to everyone. God has given gifts to all of us. Now the gifts vary from person to person. God has one task for one and he has another task for someone else.

And not all of us have the same thing to do. But we all have something to do for the Lord. Some wonderful act of service to do for the Lord which is part of the purpose for our creation. This is part of why we're existing.

Of course the main thing is to just know him and experience him and enjoy him forever. But there is this aspect of service to him also. And so Paul is praying that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

Pray this for yourself. Pray it for one another. Pray it for those people who have just come to know the Lord. Oh Lord show him your will help him to discover your plan for their life and to get into it.

Seek the Lord in this area and he will show you. Maybe you've never even considered this for yourself. Maybe you thought. Well you know. Of course missionaries they you know they understand what the will of God is.

Or pastors or evangelist. Or you know church workers of whatever sort. But you know maybe you think about yourself. Well you know I'm just I'm just an average person. I just worked down at the car dealership cleaning up the lot.

You know what could possibly be there for me. Well God has a plan. If that's where you're supposed to be he'll keep you there and he'll use you there. If he wants you to go somewhere else he'll lead you somewhere else.

But it's just great to see it somewhere else. But it's just great to see how God works these things out. It's so wonderful. It's so glorious to be in his will. Paul went on to pray that we may walk worthy of the Lord being filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord walking worthy of the Lord.

We have been called to a very high place. We've been called to be the children of God. And because of our position our lifestyle is to be indicating the position that we hold. Whenever someone is put in a high position the standard of living or the standard for living is is raised now you don't put a high standard on as high of a standard on the average person as you do.

You know put on somebody say for instance in political office or something like that. We expect more from people like that. Hey we elected this person to office. We expect certain things from them because of the position that they hold.

The position demands a higher standard of life. So people born into the royal family you know there's a higher standard. You're you're a prince or you're a princess. And you know so there's a higher standard for you.

And so whenever the prince goes off and does something unprincely the newspapers capitalize on that right away. Oh can you believe this. You know look at Prince so and so what he's doing. Or look at princess.

What's her name. Look what. Look what's become of her. You know why all the attention why all the the negative reporting. Because this is royalty. You're supposed to be different. And so likewise we have been called to be the children of God.

We've been called to a high standard. That's why when a Christian falls the enemy capitalizes on it. You see because we're supposed to be something different. We're supposed to live on a higher level.

That's why when a minister falls into sin it's all over the newspapers. You get a plumber falling into sin. Nobody reports that. You know you get some contractor you know out committing adultery or something like that.

Or even you know some business executive. There's no write-up in the paper on that. But boy you let a minister fall into sin and look what happens. Reporters come out of the woodwork. It's all over the papers.

Why is that. Well it's because the standard is higher for us. See we're children of God and so we're to walk worthy of the Lord. We're to walk worthy of the Lord. We're to we're to walk worthy of that title.

Children of God. People are to be able to look at us and saying yeah they're different. There's something unique about them. There's something special. They're children of God. That's why they behave that way.

But isn't it so often the case that the children of God are barely distinguishable from the children of the world. There isn't a mark difference. So when someone finally says well I am a Christian people are shocked.

Oh you got to be kidding. I never would have suspected that of you. That's a failure to walk worthy of the Lord. But oh how we need to pray this for each other walking worthy of the Lord and then fully pleasing him fully pleasing him.

This word pleasing is used just this one time in the Greek New Testament. There's not another use of it in the whole New Testament. It's found in classical Greek. And it means to seek to please one person alone is kind of the the essence of the word so fully pleasing God.

In other words living to please the Lord completely. And no one else sometimes to be pleasing to the Lord is going to set us at odds with people. Paul said when he wrote to the Galatians that if he was to be pleasing men he could not be the servant of Christ.

So there are going to be times when we just are going to displease everybody else because our desire is to please the Lord. That's what Paul's praying. That we would be concerned to please the Lord above everyone else.

We wouldn't care what other people thought we wouldn't be affected by that. But pleasing God would be our goal. Lord I want to please you fully and completely regardless of what other people think about it now you know it's interesting that there are people who are Christians who do love the Lord but at times will be the ones who try to dissuade you from fully pleasing God.

Because if you fully please God it's going to impact them in a way that they're not wanting to be impacted. This happens so often with parents when their children come and say I feel like the Lord is calling me to you know move to such-and-such a place.

I feel the Lord is calling me out to the mission field or something like that. And and the parent a good godly parent will you know sometimes because of their own attachment to the child just say oh no no no.

But now we don't want to talk about the Lord has a plan. But yes you know right here here we'll get you an apartment over here and you can work out God's will. Right right over here you know right in the neighborhood we can see you know regularly and all of that.

And you know the the battle goes on. Then within the life of this personal what am I gonna do. You want to please your parents because you love them you respect them you care for them. But yet you feel this this calling that God has something else for you.

And what you really need to do is please the Lord. That needs to be all of our desire. That needs to be the desire within our homes as husbands and wives. Sometimes men and women compromise with the Lord because of their spouse.

Well you know if I do that my my husband isn't going to really like that. Or if I do this you know my wife you know she's gonna think that I've gone a little overboard with this you know Christianity thing.

And so what we end up doing is we end up living to please other people instead of pleasing the Lord Paul's prayers that we would be fully pleasing to the Lord. We please the Lord above people. Now this should really be the goal that all of us have to please the Lord.

You know there are those people who ask questions like this. Can I do this and still go to heaven. You know they're wanting to compromise with the world to some degree or whatever and but yet you know they don't want to miss the boat to heaven.

So you know they'll come and ask permission. Can I do this and still get to heaven. That is a question that none of us should ever be asking. If if I have a question whether or not I should do it is the indication is that I shouldn't do it at all.

See that's the Spirit of God giving you a check. That's the Spirit of God convicting you. That's the Spirit of God speaking you speaking to you. So if you have this sense like you know I probably shouldn't do that.

But let me go ask the pastor. You know save the gas save the phone call. Just don't do it. See because that's the Holy Spirit. That's what the Spirit does. And this should be our question not how much can I get away with in a worldly sense and still go to heaven.

But how much can I give myself fully and completely to God here on earth and please him thoroughly. That should be the question every Christian is asking. How can I fully please the Lord. And anything that we would even think for a moment would not please the Lord.

We ought not to have anything to do with it. You know we go out to the video store and we're gonna pick up something and we look at you know here's the titles and all look at that. And I wanted to see that movie.

We ask ourselves a question. Will this fully please the Lord. If I sit down and watch this is this gonna please God. Is this gonna. Is he gonna delight in this. You see if we would just live that way oh how much better our lives would be spiritually.

How much more in tune we would be with the Lord if we just sought to be fully pleasing to him all the time in every way. That's what God desires. You see this is this is what God wants. God wants us to know his will.

He wants us to walk worthy of him. He wants us to be fully pleasing him. Not just partially but yet many of us are content to partially please the Lord. Well Lord I know this isn't exactly what you want me to do.

But Lord you know I have needs and you know that. And you know we make excuses and we go ahead and do things that are not fully pleasing to the Lord. Paul's prayers that we would be fully pleasing seeking to please God above all others.

That's the implication. Being fruitful in every good work. Being fruitful in every good work. We talked about the fruit of the gospel last time. And this is something that the Lord has expressed over and over again.

He wants us to be fruitful. He wants us to bear fruit. Jesus said herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. So the Lord wants us to be a fruitful people just people who are manifesting the fruit of the spirit the love the joy the peace the kindness the gentleness the meekness.

Bearing much fruit bearing much fruit being fruitful in every good work that our lives would be like a luscious fruit tree. You know how a fruit tree can just be such a delight so refreshing. In the afternoon you go out and you walk through the garden and there you find a nice plum or a nectarine or something.

You just take it down shine it up and take a bite. Oh it's so refreshing. It's so so wonderful so delightful. That's what the Lord is wanting us to be like just like a glorious delightful ripe piece of fruit just bringing pleasure to him.

Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God increasing in the knowledge of God. Paul really kind of brings it all home in this one statement here increasing in the knowledge of God the will of God is very important.

Walking worthy of the Lord is very important. Pleasing the Lord is very important. Knowing the Lord. All these things really ought to stem from our relationship with the Lord. And I want to make a distinction here because it's possible to be very taken up with the things of God but to miss out on intimacy with the Lord which is the the number one reason for our salvation.

The Lord saved us first of all to know him and to have fellowship with him. Secondly saved us to serve him. And what happens sometimes with Christian people is that we become so engrossed in serving the Lord in discovering his will and and you know pleasing him and all that which is all perfectly legitimate and wonderful as long as we keep the Lord in the in the picture.

But sometimes people get so into the service part they they forget the Lord. Martha is a great example of that. Maybe you remember her story where she was waiting on the Lord. She was so busy serving the Lord.

Jesus was there in the living room sitting down expounding the glories of the kingdom of God. And there were some people sitting listening and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus just taking it in all that the Lord was saying just basking in that.

And Martha is out in the kitchen she's laboring away. She's doing the dishes and she's preparing dessert and you know all that's going on here and you know she's frustrated at it all because she's left to do this by herself and she comes to the Lord and she says Lord don't you care that my sister has left me with all the responsibility in the kitchen and she's sitting here and I'm in there laboring away.

And Jesus said Martha you are worried about and distracted by many things. Much serving. That was her problem said Martha. You're you're distracted by much serving and you know that can happen to us as Christian people.

It's a strange thing to think of it like that. But it's actually a fact a lot of people monitor their spiritual life by their by their service. The more service the more I must be right with God. Because look at all that I'm doing.

But you see doing is to proceed from something else. Doing is to be the result of my fellowship with the Lord. If doing is replaced my fellowship with the Lord then what I'm doing is a distraction from the main thing.

So as strange as it might be we cannot monitor our spiritual temperature. We can't evaluate our spiritual health by by activity. Activity can deceive us. Many pastors fall into this trap and think that everything is just wonderful because of all the service they do to the Lord because you know the sizes of their churches and things like that.

Oh I must be great with God everything must be right. I must be doing wonderful because man I taught that Bible study and it went so well. And look how many people came to our church this week and you know we've got this going on and that going on it's all so wonderful and glorious.

Wow you know I must be just on top of it spiritually. Not necessarily not necessarily. You see God saved us to know him intimately and personally. And that's to be the first thing. And that's what Jesus said to Martha.

He said Martha Mary has chosen the better part sitting at my feet listening to me. That's the necessary thing. These other things they have their place they have an importance but they are not to take the place of the most important thing.

And so Paul is talking about these things that are very very important. But the most important thing is increasing in the knowledge of God getting to know the Lord himself realizing that I was saved to know God and to experience him and to enjoy him forever.

So you see we have to be careful and we have to always guard ourselves lest we get so taken up with the things of God. We neglect the Lord himself. I do that quite frequently to be honest with you and I have to catch myself and go back and just Lord forgive me.

I can jump into a day of service to the Lord and not even acknowledge God's existence. I'm so busy serving God increasing in the knowledge of God just getting to know the Lord. It's wonderful to study the Bible.

It's vitally important. It's it's important to know doctrine to understand what the Bible teaches. But sometimes we fall in love with those things. We love those things more than the Lord. Oh I love reading books about theology.

Oh I love reading you know books about men and women who have served God. I love reading about prayer and all these things. But what about the Lord himself. Charles Spurgeon made a statement. I read it the other day that was quite interesting.

And he talked about the the tendency on the part of Protestants to put doctrine before the person of Christ. And he said it was a great concern to him at his time that they they were more in love with doctrine than they were with the Lord himself.

And we all have to guard ourselves especially those of you that are oriented toward Bible study and apologetics and those kinds of things all of them very wonderful. All of them have a great place in our lives.

But none of them were meant to replace our personal relationship with the Lord. That's what God is wanting to let us know. It's great to love doctrine to study it to know it to be able to communicate it.

But don't let it become the primary focus to the exclusion of the Lord. And you don't let it take a place to where. When you open your Bible that's all you can open it for is to find some new you know bent on the particular doctrine that you're interested in at this point.

Make sure when you're opening the scriptures that you're opening them first and foremost because you want to know the God who saved you the God who loves you the God who is waiting to have fellowship with you.

That's why you open the Bible first and foremost. And those other things they all proceed from that. So increasing in the knowledge of God himself and then strengthen with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy.

Strengthen with all might. We need the power of God for everything not just to do great exploits spiritually. Oh you know man we got to have a week of prayer because we've got this event coming up and oh we've got these things going on.

We better really call on the Lord for this. But you know on the day-to-day stuff we don't really think like that. Do we. We think that we can do it we can handle it. That's why we lack patience long suffering and joy.

Because we think we can handle it. We seem to think that we don't need the power of God for those things. But the Apostle knew better listen to what he said strengthen with all might according to his glorious power.

Now you would think by the way that most of us view things that he would go on to say. You know strengthen with all might according to his glorious power. So we could take the gospel around the world so we could preach to multitude so we could raise the dead and heal the sick.

And oh yes we need his strength and his power for that we certainly would. But do we realize that we need his strength and power to be patient to be long-suffering to have joy. Also we do we need his strength and power for those simple yet essential aspects of our faith.

Because without patience without long-suffering without joy my overall witness is undermined. You know who wants to listen to a grumpy Christian. You know who's gonna be attracted to you. You know when you're just a big crab you know praise the Lord.

Yeah you know. And it's just you have no patience with anyone have no long-suffering and there's no joy there. You see what happens. Is it really just undermines our overall witness. Now the two words patience and endurance or patience and long-suffering.

It's interesting because the the words are of course we have two Greek words here but the the translation patience and long-suffering. Sometimes patience is translated long-suffering sometimes long-suffering patience.

So in other words the two words mean basically the same thing. It's hard to make a distinction between the two in the Greek just like their English words that are different words but have the same meaning.

So these words have essentially the same meaning. But I think you can look at these two words and see that there there can be a distinction. Patience I think would have more to do with dealing with people.

Long-suffering might have more to do in the context here with dealing with situations circumstances that arise in our lives. And the Lord wants us to have both patience with people and long-suffering when it comes to difficult circumstances you know it's possible to be long-suffering to do well in the midst of a trial to maintain an endurance and to just you know be pressing through it and you know having a handle on it but yet at the same time be totally impatient with people.

You know I've had this experience many times when I'm repairing something around my house that one of my children broke or something like that. You know you know to me there's nothing worse than fixing something that shouldn't be broken.