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We've been committing ourselves to a study of the book of Colossians so that we might know further what it means to be fully satisfied in our Savior, knowing that Jesus is enough. Today we're going to be taking everything that we've talked about over the course of this week, summarizing it in five points that we may become better worshipers of God when we understand the.
Text. You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Bible. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, wwtt .com.
Here's our host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We've spent all week in Colossians.
Chapter 1, verses 9 through 14. Today is our review, going back over everything that we've talked about in the last four half-hour devotionals and summarizing everything in five concise points. I tend to talk all over the place.
Sometimes I talk pretty fast. It's pretty disorganized sometimes. When I do these devotionals, there are times when, as I'm reading, a passage of Scripture will pop into my mind that maybe I wasn't thinking about when I was doing my prep, when I was doing my study prior to turning on the microphone and recording all of this.
And then sometimes I'll rabbit trail and something will pop into my mind. Maybe I got off the original point. So the Friday review gives us an opportunity to kind of summarize everything. And so that's what we're going to be doing today.
Then I've got a question I'll be taking at the end of the program from our YouTube channel. As a matter of fact, the question that I'm answering today was taken right off of our YouTube wall. But you can send a question to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Let's open up our Bibles again, Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 14. And before going through the text here, let's come to the Lord in prayer. Our wonderful God, we thank you again for this opportunity to read your word.
What a pleasure and what a privilege it is to be able to hold the word of God in our hands. There's been a small segment of human history that has had the word of God as available to us as it is right now.
And yet how often do we neglect it? Even I, myself, though I commit myself to a daily devotional five times a week, still can have those opportunities where I'm wasting time doing other things instead of delighting in the word of God, even clicking through stuff on the Internet that's pointless and doesn't even get me anywhere.
And I don't consider myself any wiser after I've spent half an hour or an hour doing that. I could have been spending that time in God's word. If I know this to be the word of God and by your spirit, I know that conviction.
I know that conviction in my mind and in my heart that the Bible is God's word. And if I truly believe that, then I should want to spend time in it to know the words, the mind and the heart of my God, whom I worship.
So, Lord, thank you for this word. And please forgive us how often we get distracted by fleshly things. Continue to draw us back to your word that we understand according to your spirit. And it is in these things in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen. Colossians chapter one, beginning in verse nine. The apostle Paul says,. So from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We've committed ourselves to studying through the book of Colossians.
This is our second week in Colossians. Now, ultimately, what we want to be drawing out of our study is a deeper understanding that Jesus is enough. Paul wrote to the Colossians that they might know Christ as preeminent, and that's what we're going to get into next week as we cover the section that goes from verses fifteen through twenty, one of the most Christ centric sections of the entire Bible.
But even through what we've been reading last week and this week, this is still deepening our understanding of of Jesus being enough. We are fully satisfied in our savior and we long for nothing else but Christ.
So taking what we've read here in Colossians chapter one, verses nine through fourteen, summarizing five points out of this over everything that we've looked at this week, point number one is this, pray for all the saints.
Paul says right there at the beginning of this section, so from the day that we heard from the day that we heard about the gospel that was delivered to you and you believed it and followed it from the day that we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, which we read earlier in Colossians one, four and five.
From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. So everything that follows, we could take in in several different directions because he says that we pray that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
As we read that passage, we can draw from that a desire to understand what it means to be filled with the knowledge of his will, what it means to have spiritual wisdom and understanding, what it means to walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.
We can section all of that out and talk about what those things mean. And we did. But ultimately, we kept it in the context of Paul praying for the saints that that's what would happen for them, that that's the way that they would grow, that that's how God would bless them in his spirit.
And so the point that we drew from that as we talked about that on Monday and now we summarize that here today, pray for the saints, pray for all the saints who are the saints. The saints are everyone who is in Christ.
It's not a person who's been canonized. It's not a football team. It's everybody who is in Christ Jesus. They are the saints and we are to pray for one another. That instruction comes up constantly in the New Testament.
The apostle Paul said to Timothy, first Timothy two, one through four, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So there in verse one, Paul says to Timothy, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.
What is supplication? A supplication is very simply a humble request. It is asking God for something and coming to him humbly when we ask prayer. What is prayer? Well, it's talking to God and in all forms.
Then you have the word intercession. That is to act on someone else's behalf. So you are lifting up a request on behalf of someone else. Thanksgiving is pretty self-explanatory. It's just praise to God.
But the way that Paul lumps all these words together, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people. Basically, he's saying this, in whatever way that you can pray, do it.
Pray. And when you pray, don't just be praying and asking for yourself. Don't let your prayers be selfish. Pray and request for others. And especially in this case, as we see it in the context of Colossians, pray for all the saints.
Pray that they would be filled with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Pray for one another in the body of Christ that way. Pray that they would be able to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, that they would be fully pleasing to him.
Pray for one another that your church would bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God. May we, in our minds and in our hearts, be long-suffering for one another in the ways that we lift up each other in prayer.
The Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. That seems like a pretty tall order. I mean, really think about that. Pray without ceasing. I think the thing that comes to mind for us most of the time when we hear that is that we're always on our knees, looking out our window, hands folded out in front of us.
You know, the picture that you might have of Daniel praying when the guards came and arrested him for violating a king's order. And as often as he was praying, he's standing at his window and he's got his arms raised.
People know what he's doing. He is praying to his God. So maybe we think of prayer in that same way. When Paul says, pray without ceasing, that we always need to be doing that. But I think that it's qualified more contextually when you see in 2 Corinthians 10 .5, the Apostle Paul says that we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.
So basically, in our minds, we've disciplined ourselves in such a way that we're constantly submitting every thought to the Lord. And that's prayer. The ways that we think and the words that we say, everything is in constant meditation to God.
That would be prayer without ceasing. We've committed every word we speak and every thought that we think to God. So it's not like a formal prayer like you think about it, but that we have committed everything of ourselves, all of our thoughts, all of our speech, everything to God.
That is tough. It is a tall order. But I'm just kind of trying to go against that picture of always on our knees, always hands folded. And that's what it was that Paul was telling the Thessalonians to do.
It's that in every thought and every word we have submitted ourselves to Christ. And in every way that we can, may we be praying for the saints. Do you pray for people in your church? Do you pray for missionaries?
Right. Knowing what missionaries are going through around the world so that you know how to pray for them. And you struggle in your mind and in your heart, knowing that they have laid their lives down for the cause of the gospel.
You may not have been called to that, at least not yet. But in your mind and heart, you are suffering, even with other brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering around the world for the cause, the gospel of Christ.
When you know what they're going through and you pray for them in that way, pray for all the saints. Now, all of the rest of these points, as we're summarizing five points from the lesson this week, all of these points deal with talking with God somehow, because this whole section is Paul saying to the Colossians, we're asking God for this for you.
So point number one is pray for all the saints. Point number two is ask that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now, I already summarized in point one that we should ask for all of the saints that they should walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, but come to the Lord that way for yourself also.
You are asking for God, asking of God that you may walk in a manner that is worthy of him. When as a pastor, I have taught people how to pray, I will tell them, pray the Psalms and I'll teach them how to do that.
So we go to Psalm one and we read, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.
And on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Okay, that's Psalm one, six verses.
How do you pray that? So as I'm teaching a person how to pray, I'll teach them to pray like this. Lord, help me to be a man who walks not in the council of the wicked. Help me to be a man who does not stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
But God, I want my delight to be in your law and help me to meditate on your law all the time, day and night. When I'm waking, I am committed to meditating on your law so that even when I am sleeping, my mind is guarded, my heart is protected by the word of God.
God, help me to be a tree planted by streams of water rooted in you, yielding fruit in its season, and my leaf does not wither. In all that I do, I prosper to the glory of God. Lord, I know that the wicked are not so.
They're like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Lord, know my ways and my thoughts and test me according to these things so that my way will not perish.
But I know everlasting life in Christ Jesus.". I added a lot in there, but hopefully you understand a little bit about how you take a psalm and pray it to the Lord. And in this way, we ask, when we pray the scriptures, we are asking that we may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
Now, Psalm 1 in particular deals with that, but praying the scriptures, we commit ourselves to walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. Another passage of scripture that I will use to teach people how to pray is Colossians 3.
So we're going to bring this back up again when we get there later on. In Matthew 7, verses 7 -8, Jesus said, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. John 16, 23 -24, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. And when Jesus says these words in Matthew and in John, he's not saying, ask for a Ferrari and it will be given to you.
It's when we have the spirit of God and we desire to do what delights God, and we desire to bear fruit that is godly, when we ask God for that with the mind and the heart and the spirit of God, it will be granted to us because it is for God's glory and not our glory.
All right? If we are asking for something that is for our glory, the Lord doesn't actually even hear our prayer. That is explicitly stated in the scriptures. In fact, we see it said from James. This is James 4, where he writes, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So if you are asking God for things that you're going to spend on yourself, then the Lord is not going to honor that prayer.
You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. That is James 4, verse 3. So we need to have the mind and the spirit of God so that when we come to the Lord and ask, it is in that spirit, that which is glorifying and honoring to God, not selfishly desiring what we would want for ourselves.
So again, point number one, as we summarize these points, pray for all the saints. Point number two, ask that you may walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord, that which is pleasing to God and delights in him.
Point number three is this desire to bear fruit in every good work. As Paul says there in verse 10, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
You know, there's so much of that there that is similar to Psalm 1 that I just kind of have to wonder if Paul even had that Psalm in mind when he wrote that to the Colossians. We see even in that Psalm, fruit bearing.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither in all that he does, he prospers. And I did mention earlier this week as well that when Paul is talking about bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, he's also calling back to the parable of the sower, the one who receives the word of God in good soil, grows up and produces a harvest, some 30 fold, some 60, some 100.
And that bearing fruit shows that a person is firmly rooted in Christ Jesus. Jesus said in the book of John, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.
Desire to bear fruit in every good work. Point number four, thank God that he has made us qualified to do that very thing. Thank God that he has made us qualified in verse 12, giving thanks to God, the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
God has qualified us in Romans chapter eight, which we read earlier this week for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit for to set the mind on the flesh is death.
But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. That is one of the most mind-blowing passages for me, to think that the same spirit that dwells in me is the same spirit that brought Jesus Christ back from the grave.
I was a dead spirit made alive because of the transformation that happened in me by the spirit of God. And it is God who qualifies us. We are able to do things that are pleasing to God because he has made us qualified.
He is—furthermore, he's made us qualified to share in the inheritance and the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to his kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So the fifth point here is rejoice that we have been redeemed, where Paul says that God has delivered us from the domain of darkness. Anytime we talk about deliverance in the New Testament, this goes back to the Israelites being called out of Egypt.
They were delivered from slavery. And likewise, we have been delivered from slavery to sin. We were slaves to sin, as it talks about in Titus 3. We were following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air that is at work at the sons of disobedience, which we read about in Ephesians 2.
But in Christ Jesus, we've been delivered from slavery. We've been delivered from the domain of darkness into his heavenly kingdom with the saints in light because of the work of the Son, Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Rejoice. So all five of these points having to do with prayer. Pray for all the saints. That's point number one. Point number two, ask that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Point number three, desire to bear fruit in every good work.
Ask God that he would help you bear fruit in every good work. Point number four, thank God that he has made us qualified to do that work. And point number five, rejoice that we have been redeemed. Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you again for these words and help it to grow us further in our understanding that Jesus is enough and we are fully satisfied in our Savior who indeed has given us everything that we need for life.
We pray that you grow these things in us all the more in Jesus' name. Amen. First Corinthians 6 .9 says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will get to heaven.
Many critics claim that passages like this one in 1 Timothy 1 .10 which label homosexuality as sin are poorly translated. They say the Greek word that appears there, arsenokoite, isn't actually a word at all.
In fact, there is no Greek word for homosexual. But in understanding the text, it becomes evident that by inventing the word arsenokoite, the apostle Paul is calling to attention commands from Leviticus which condemn a man, arseno, from lying with, koite, another man, arseno, as one would lay with a woman.
In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the words arseno and koite lay next to one another. No pun intended. So arsenokoite is the joining of two words to make one new one. The Bible strictly forbids homoerotic behavior.
Yet a number of churches have come forward to approve such practices believing that it's unloving not to. But do not be deceived, Christian. To encourage someone in sin that the Bible says will keep them from eternal life is not loving.
You should know the Bible also says that those who approve of such behaviors are just as guilty as those who practice them. James 5 .19 says, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, he will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
We all once lived out the passions of the flesh, but we're washed when we repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we understand the text. As mentioned earlier, our comment today comes from Timothy, who wrote on our YouTube wall.
And he said, I recently enjoyed your video. Does the Bible say homosexuality? Arsenokoite is sin, but I wanted to point something out that you may find interesting at the very least how I've come to understand it.
The term kingdom of God or in other translations, kingdom of heaven does not actually refer to heaven itself as seen in Luke 17, 20 through 21. Jesus states for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
Similarly, in Matthew 3, 2, Jesus states, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Through my studies, following a sermon series from my pastor on this topic, I think that the kingdom of heaven refers to the legacy and instructions Jesus left behind, such as love God, love others, and go and make disciples.
Just something to throw out there. Well, thank you for your comment, Timothy. And you're on to something. It is true that we have the kingdom of God on earth, but we are also talking about the kingdom of God, eternal in heaven.
It's both. It's actually both. So we, as Christians carry a little bit of the kingdom with us, as we'll read further on continuing this study in Colossians and chapter three, it says, if you've 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 now as those who will inherit the kingdom of God, we carry a piece of the kingdom with us. Listen to how Paul goes on to talk about the kingdom of God.
So in the, in the, uh, does the Bible say homosexuality is sin video? I mentioned a passage out of first Corinthians six. So here, how Paul talks about the kingdom of God later on in first Corinthians 15, as an Adam all die.
So also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order, Christ, the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. When he delivers the kingdom to God, the father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
So that kingdom being delivered to God for the eternal reign, which is heavenly. Okay. And we see in Hebrews chapter 11, after talking about the heroes of the faith, it says there that people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city.
And what are we talking about there? The heavenly kingdom, not a kingdom that is here on earth, but a kingdom that is hidden with Christ in God, in glory. Now, there is a heavenly kingdom that will be on earth because Jesus is going to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.
But it's in that way that all things are being reconciled to himself, as is talked about there in Colossians chapter one, God is working through the person and work of Jesus Christ to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
So it's both. It is a kingdom that is on earth now in the lives of every Christian who is a citizen of that kingdom, because they have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. And it is also the heavenly kingdom that will come to full reality when Christ comes back and ushers in that kingdom of peace.
Make sense, Timothy? But thank you for your comment. I think you're right on with the way that you are digesting scripture there. Let me pray for you. God, I thank you for Timothy's comment and his desire to know your word more and pray that he would continue to study the scriptures and know what it means to be hidden with Christ in God.
And I pray that for us all as we devote ourselves to your word in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. This has been When We.
Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
Join us again next week as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.