Walk Worthy of the Lord - Colossians 1:9 - 14

First of all, I would say it's good to see your smiling faces. And I hope you, like myself, look forward to a blessing from the Lord today. And he has many things to teach us. We get old and we think we know everything.

Right. And then he says, you've got something else to learn. So we thank the Lord for that. How many of you love this hot weather? Just love it. What? OK, good, good. You give me the lead on. OK. When I moved to California, I came from the Midwest.

You know, the soil was black and easy to turn over and everything grew like but just corn and soybeans is all it grows back there. And I moved to Fresno, Barbara and I, and we moved to Fresno and we were there for five and a half years.

And the company I worked for, we cooled fruit. You know, the tree fruit, the melons would come in to be cooled. The grapes would come in to be cooled. And it'd be 110 and sometimes 115. And we were in Dinuba, if you know where that big city is.

And the manager say, this is great. And I'd look at him like you're out of your mind. It's 110. He says. The the hotter it is, the sweeter the fruit's going to be. And that's and that's a known fact. The hotter it is, the sweeter the fruit's going to be.

And I thought about that. And, you know, in our lives, the hotter the trials, the sweeter you're going to be. We don't like that, do we? And I just I thought as I I was looking for a verse and I was thinking of Job who was going through a trial or two.

And in Job 23, he says, I look forward, but he is not there talking about God. I'm backward and I cannot perceive him when he works on the left hand. I cannot behold him when he turns to the right hand.

I cannot see him, but he knows the way that I take when he has tested me. I shall come forth as gold. So the hotter the trials, the sweeter you should be. Thank the Lord for trials to come. None of us, I don't think, can thank the Lord in the trials.

But we do thank the Lord. This hotter the weather, the sweeter the fruit. So join with me as we open in prayer and ask the Lord's blessing on this service this morning. Our heavenly father and our God, we come before you and we do not understand your ways completely.

We do know, Lord, that you love us and because you love us, you allow us to go through hard times at time. And even now, as we go through the hot weather, we realize once again that the hotter the weather, the sweeter the fruit.

And we realize that our trials are brought back to see what we're made of and to appreciate you more and more. And Lord, and we thank you for that. We thank you, Lord, for the country that you've allowed us to live in.

We uphold our leaders before you and ask that you would guide and direct them. And you've asked us to live at peace with those around us. And we pray, Lord, that you would give us the ability to do such.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would be with Pastor Ilgen this morning as he brings your word, that he might bring the very things that we need. And we would thank you for it. And we pray in Jesus name.

Amen. Scripture reading this morning is from Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. May the Lord add his blessing and reading to his holy word.

The Prayer for Knowledge and Spiritual Understanding

Please turn to Colossians chapter one. Verses nine through 14. Colossians chapter one verses nine through 14. 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 and 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 patients and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. This is the word of God. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you that in everything we do, it is you who lets us do it. You fill us with the knowledge. You help us walk in a manner that's worthy of your son. And God, today, we pray that your spirit would be here to use your word, to break our hearts, to wound and to heal so that we may be sanctified.

To become more like your son, Jesus. In his name, we pray. Amen. Many people desire to know God's will for them. Many, however, ironically, do not go to God in his word. There are Christians who mistakenly rely on so-called prophets or prophetic words from men to make critical decisions.

Whom to marry, which job to take, which school to choose. Absent is the reliance on God and his faithfulness to make clear which path they need to take. In a way, God is treated as a magic eight ball.

Do I take the job or not? Do I go to this school or not? Missing is scripture and God centered purpose of making the decision. It is about having the instant access to the specific knowledge for my sake, for my convenience, for my best.

Today's text is about how we need to follow God's will, how and who provides for us. Because every step of the way, it is God who provides. Hence, the main point of the passage is God completely provides for us so that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord as his children.

God completely provides for us so that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord as his children. First, how do we know how to walk with the Lord? That leads to my first point. In order to walk worthy of the Lord, we are filled with his knowledge, the knowledge of his will from God.

In order to walk worthy of the Lord, we are filled with the knowledge from God. Paul starts this section of his letter with for this reason. This means we need to look back to the last section in order to find what this reason is.

And if you have a stellar memory, you'd recall that Paul gave thanks to God for the church's spiritual growth and which is the faith, their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints. The news of their growth stirred Paul's heart to continue to intercede for them.

As he says in verse nine, for this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. This marks the importance of the consistency of our prayers. Just because we see some fruit.

In our ministry and the people we pray for. Does it does not mean it is a stop sign for our prayer for them. Paul and his ministers show us that the spiritual growth of the Colossian Church fueled their prayer life.

It did not stop their prayer life. And what specifically are they praying for? Although a consistent prayer life is important for ministry, it is equally crucial to ask for the right things in ministry.

The second part of verse nine tells us that they have been asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Notice the main verb here, be filled.

This is a passive voice. The church is not the agent of the action to fill. They're not filling themselves. We don't do the filling. Rather, the church is filled with the knowledge of his will. Then you may ask who is doing the filling in scripture when there is a passive voice and the context allows for it.

The one who does the action of the passive verb is often God. Some call it the divine passive. In our context, we can totally infer that God is the actor who fills us with the knowledge of his will because it is not just any knowledge, but the knowledge of his will.

Some Bible translations have the possessive pronoun his capitalized because the pronoun refers to God. Who else could fill us with the knowledge of God's will besides God himself? The knowledge of God's will means knowing what God desires the church to be and what God desires the church to do.

It is the knowledge that helps the church to align her will with that of God's will. It helps us to focus on God's agenda and not ours. And this flies in the face of the Colossian heresy. The church does not chase some hidden wisdom outside of Christ, but God fills the church with his wisdom and knowledge.

The church does not rely on human teachers to fill them with human knowledge. The church follows God who gives the knowledge. This means we seek to know God's will for the church from God himself. How does Paul describe such knowledge?

The knowledge of God's will is in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is yet another contextual clue that God is the one who fills the church with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

The word spiritual is often connected to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. It shows us the source of both wisdom and understanding is the Holy Spirit himself. Certain translations like the NIV captures this concept well through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives.

The source of wisdom and understanding is not from the world, but from the spirit. Spirit from God himself. This is actually not a new concept for the people of God. After all, God's people were given instructions on how to follow God for thousands of years, even prior to this letter.

God never said, worship however you want. He never instructs, just follow your heart. No, God has been giving out specific instructions on his will through his spirit. And let us consider some of the Old Testament passages that show that.

When God chooses artists to build his tabernacle in the book of Exodus, and the tabernacle is a tent in which he would be present for his people. He equips them through his spirit in wisdom and understanding and knowledge, Exodus 31, 3.

And I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. God is not satisfied with just any tent. It's got to be built his way. Similarly, Joshua is described to be filled with the spirit of wisdom in Deuteronomy 34, 9, when he is commissioned to lead Israel following Moses.

When King David is dying, he blesses his son Solomon, that the Lord may give him wisdom and understanding to keep the law of the Lord in 1 Chronicles 22, 12. This shows that our God has always been faithful and gracious to provide us with the sufficient amount of information on how to live according to his will for his people.

Again, in the church age, it is still the Holy Spirit who has provided us with such information through scripture, so that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will. First, he gives us the Bible, which is sufficient to give us all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Second, he indwells in us to convict us of our sins and to discern what is godly or not, and of course, using scripture. He uses other spirit-filled brothers and sisters who are steeped in the word to counsel us.

When I was deciding to, after graduating from college, or I was nearing graduation, and it wasn't clear what to do, what I need to do, what path to follow, grad school or not, seminary or not, and I met with a very mature Christian brother, and I just told him, I don't know whether to apply here or there, or do I just get a job, any job, where?

And he just turned to Proverbs 2, and he said, Ilgen, God does tell us his will already, and it is to seek him in prayer and treasure his scripture as silver. That's his will, that's what you ought to do daily.

And then, that's when I was convicted, if I can't follow what's written in scripture daily, what business do I have knowing his specific will that he hasn't revealed to me? Now, what is the purpose for God filling us with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding?

Verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him. The purpose of God filling us with the knowledge of his will is that we may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him. Walking is a Hebrew metaphor used frequently in the Bible to signify the totality of our lives aligning with God's will for us.

Our thoughts, our words, our actions, always seek to follow God and represent Christ well. It is relational and pleasing to walk worthy of the Lord. It is not legal nor rigid. Consider Psalm 119, which contains so many of the walking metaphors.

It begins by declaring who is blessed. The first verse starts with this. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart.

This psalmist does not say, blessed are the wealthy and the comfortable. It also does not say, blessed are those who do whatever they want to do, but rather, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.

For those who walk with the Lord, they're in the state of blessedness or sheer happiness. There is this concept of happiness and blessedness in the Hebrew culture. So some translations translate it as, happy are those.

Verse 34 and 35, make that a prayer. Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

For God's people, we seek out understanding from the Lord and we ask him so that we may walk in his way because that's where our true delight is. Everything we do honors and reflects the worthiness of our King Jesus.

And when was the last time we prayed like that? When we walk worthy of the Lord, it fully pleases God. The end goal for walking worthy of the Lord is not for our benefit, although there is benefit, tremendous benefit to walking with the Lord, but for God's pleasure.

It is utterly God-centered. God's people do all things for God's sake. This prayer is heavily relevant for the church today for two reasons. First, is when the church seeks after a different source of the knowledge of God's will.

The church has pursued a different fountain, abandoning the only fountain. Rather than relying on God to fill us with such knowledge, we try to fill it ourselves. Rather than going to the Bible to find out who we are and how to live, many Christians have sought out psychological tests to define who they are and how they ought to live.

We may have taken some of these tests ourselves, such as Enneagram, 16 personalities, Myers-Briggs. Let's just start with the fact that Enneagram has a pagan origin and is often used by the occult groups, people who practice witchcraft.

The Myers-Briggs test was created by two American women, not trained in medicine or psychology, and they created it based off of Carl Jung's personality test, who was a psychologist, but he made it based off of a Sumerian pagan religion to make sense of his nightmares that he's been having.

Another pagan source. Does the Bible lack information about human personality and the state of humanity and human identity that the church must incorporate this test that come from pagan religions? Anyway, you'll answer some questions about yourselves, your preferences, your actions and desires, then they assign you to a number of, or some group of letters, and there is an explanation of who you are and what your personality is.

However, nowhere in the Bible does it say your personality is fixed, unchangeable, nor does it make it your identity. You're not INTJ or ENFJ. You are more than just a summary sheet of traits and characteristics.

If so, if you're fixed in that identity, then there is no hope for any of us. If personality is permanent, then how can God sanctify us? How can we become more like Christ? I personally heard a seminary student training to be a pastor, make an excuse for not being hospitable by claiming his personality type.

I don't remember what personality type he claimed, but one of the four letters, right? The four letter groups. And he said, oh, I'm an introvert, so I can't do that. When did serving God and his people depend on our personality type?

Why do churches employ these tests to define their congregants when Scripture clearly tells us who we are? In the end, if you're dying to know what kind of person you are, just honestly ask your spouse or your family member, and they will gladly tell you.

You just might not be glad that you asked. Second, the church has sought after the true source of knowledge of God, yet for the wrong purpose. Unfortunately, there are those who take the knowledge from God's word and misuse it for their own benefit.

They build their kingdom, their reputation, rather than walking worthy of the Lord. Rather than walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, they go astray with the knowledge from Scripture and offend God.

There are pastors and theologians who boast their years of academic achievements and pastoral experiences, and they use that to rule over God's sheep. They look down upon those who know less of the Bible than they do.

They use the knowledge to condescendingly suppress any opposition or concerns. They might say something like this. Well, have you studied the passage like I did? The focus and goal of their knowledge is to magnify themselves and not to please God.

What is worse is when they hide Scripture from the flock and keep it to themselves to distort the message so they can manipulate others. Rather than feeding the flock with God's word, they feast on the flock.

Rather than serving the flock, they fleece them. Woe to those who use God's knowledge with such a perverted purpose. At Faith Bible Church, no pastor, no elder, no teacher will respond in any sort. There is no hierarchy here.

Pastors and elders here are fallible beings. We do not believe in pastoral infallibility. Pastors and elders can be wrong in their teaching and interpretation. I can be wrong. And once realized, we have to repent.

We have to make the correction. So if you have any questions or concerns on how Scripture is taught here or interpreted, please feel free to bring it up and we will go to Scripture to figure out the truth.

Not some pad comment of how many hours spent were in Scripture. Who cares if it's wrong five hours or two hours, doesn't matter. At Faith Bible, no concern will be dismissed. Now we have set out the purpose of being filled with the knowledge of God's will.

Walking Worthy Through Fruit, Growth, and God’s Power

What does it look like to walk worthy of the Lord? We walk worthy of the Lord through God's help. We walk worthy of the Lord through God's help. Paul describes what it looks like for God's people to walk worthy of the Lord in four different ways.

First, walking worthy of the Lord shows both external and internal growth. As the latter half of verse 10 says, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. The first point is that we walk worthy of the Lord by external growth in faith, being fruitful in every good work.

Using this botanical metaphor, right, plant metaphor, Paul tells us that there is a tangible result from following God, from being filled with his knowledge. Perhaps we are sharing the gospel with others more.

That's a fruit. We're becoming more loving through our words and actions. We worry less than how we used to. We have a deeper devotion of God. Prayer is more exciting than before. We're obeying God more and we find more joy in it.

It's not a chore, it's delightful. We increase in godliness. And just as the fruit on a tree is obvious to the observer, our growth in godliness is obvious to the observers around us. And these are some of the ways we bear fruit externally through God's help.

Second, we walk worthy of the Lord through the internal growth and knowledge, increasing in the knowledge of God. This is crazy to think about because you get to know God more and more. You don't just plateau in knowing God.

If you're faithfully walking with the Lord, you desire to know him more and more and you seek him out more. Jerome once said, "'The scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come "'and drink without fear of drowning, "'and deep enough for a theologian to swim in "'without ever touching the bottom.'".

Some of the most faithful saints continue to read the Bible from cover to cover over and over again. And they still find more gems that they have previously missed. If you want to increase in the knowledge of God, open up the Bible.

After all, God reveals himself through his word. Let his spirit teach and guide you as you begin. I recommend this to every believer who wants to grow in faith. Read the Bible from cover to cover at least once a year.

If you can do more, please do so. This would require at least four chapters per day. Robert Marie Machen, a Scottish pastor, has a brilliant calendar which you can easily find online that shows you which chapters to read on which day so that in the end you end up reading the whole Bible from cover to cover.

He picks a couple from the Old Testament and he picks a couple from the New Testament so that you're fed a diverse diet. And as we begin this journey, we must approach God's word with the utmost humility.

This is not something we do to check it off the checklist. And this is not something we do just once in our lifetime. This is a continuous thing and we approach God's word in utmost humility. As one of my professors said, the aim is never to become the master of the word, but to be mastered by it.

We go to scripture to increase in the knowledge of God. Third, we walk worthy of the Lord by God's power. As verse 11 says, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy.

This verse has three power-related words. So it's strengthened, that's the main verb here, all might and his glorious power. Needless to say, Paul accentuates God's power in this verse. And again, note the passive form of the verb, strengthened.

Who's doing the strengthening? God is the one who strengthens us. With what? With a fraction of his power? With enough might? No, God strengthens us with all might. And what is the standard? According to his glorious power.

What kind of power is this, you may ask? In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter one, verses 19 through 20, he uses the similar words. Verse 19, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places?

It is nothing less than the same power that raised Christ from the dead that God the Father grants us. It's the resurrection power. Now what is the purpose of this power? For the church to be culturally relevant?

For some new church programs that would attract new believers? No, it's for endurance and patience to walk in the manner worthy of Christ. And Victor opened it up nicely. I didn't expect that. The hotter the trials, sweeter the fruit.

This power, it's for endurance and long-suffering or perseverance, patience. And it is to face any trial that will come to Christians. And when the world oppresses you because of Christ, you don't lean on your own strength.

But the very power of God that raised Christ from the dead, that's the type of power you're relying on. Without that kind of power, I don't know how we can be enduring and patient and long-suffering.

And this is starkly different from how the world uses the power to conquer and to rule. For Christians, we get the most majestic power in the universe, and it's to help us to obey God with patience and endurance.

The fourth way in which we walk worthy of the Lord is by acknowledging God for his work in us. Verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Now, some translations place joyfully or something with joy in this verse rather than the last. This is because the word order does not matter too much in Greek as it is in English. Hence, with joy or joyfully contextually makes sense to go with verse 11, right?

To endure and to be patient or to be long-suffering in verse 11 with joy or with verse 12, giving thanks to the Father with joy. It is difficult to know which is right, but again, the meaning does not change.

Wherever it goes, whether it's verse 11 or verse 12, it does not change the fact that joy is part of Christian life. And we need it desperately to walk with God. Now, going back to verse 12, we are to give thanks to the Father.

And what's the reason? He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. We praise God the Father for his initiative and action to make us his children. After all, the partakers of inheritance would signify adoption.

Strangers don't inherit from the father, but rather the children. What's the significance of the inheritance language? It is a reference, an allusion to God's past mighty act in Exodus, when God delivered his people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

When he delivered Israel, God gave them the promised land as their inheritance. For Christians, they get to experience a similar deliverance, but much more escalated. It is wretcheded up. From a greater slave master, sin and Satan, to a greater inheritance.

Our inheritance is the kingdom of God, which is here, but not fully realized yet. While Israel experienced famine, judgment, death, and exile in their inherited land, we belong to a kingdom that will never be conquered.

We belong to a kingdom which is under an already triumphant king, who is coming to make all things right. That is how secure our inheritance is. We do not have to worry about losing the inheritance as Israel did.

Now, the question is, how does God qualify us to make us partakers in the inheritance of the saints in the light? Which leads to my third point. We walk worthy of the Lord because God qualified us through his son.

We walk worthy of the Lord because God qualifies us through his son. God makes us eligible for this eternal inheritance through his son. Verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love.

This shows that no one was born eligible for the inheritance in the light. But rather, everyone needed to be rescued out of the power of darkness. The power of darkness is the realm in which Satan rules.

Yes, there is a powerful personal evil being who enslaves humans through sin. The dark domain is a realm in which we were all once enslaved by sin. Contrary to what the world says, we weren't born good.

We weren't even a little bad. We were fully immersed in Satan's kingdom. We weren't even near the gate of God's kingdom where the gatekeeper could maybe shoo us in. No, we were citizens of God's enemy's kingdom.

Our full allegiance was to the domain of darkness. God not only rescued us from this evil kingdom, but he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We weren't just left outside the gate to fend for ourselves, but God graciously moved us into his son's kingdom.

This connects back to the share in the inheritance. We're moved to a new land, the promised land reserved for God's people. We're now in Christ. That's the realm we're operating in. We're now under his reign, his lordship.

God loves us so much that he made us his people by delivering us from the enemy's territory. How did this transfer occur? It was only possible through Jesus. Verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Redemption means that there was a price to be paid in order for us to be free. In our case, in order for God to bring us out of the dominion of darkness, he had to pay a price and the price was his son.

Do you know what this means? The most precious price was paid in order for God to bring us out. The most precious price was paid for the most rebellious people. God willingly paid to save us. On the cross, Jesus faced the judgment of God that we deserved so that we would be bought from sin and death, so that we could be rescued from the domain of darkness.

Without Jesus, we would have been stuck in Satan's kingdom for all eternity. And we would have to face the judgment for all eternity. Jesus was the price for the forgiveness of our sins and redemption.

Through Jesus, we are given a new identity, citizens of his kingdom, the partakers of his inheritance, so that we may walk worthy of the Lord. And I found a very nice poem by an unknown author that illustrates this concept of redemption and salvation very well.

It's called Bought with a Price. Bought with a price, oh what a price, to us Jesus' precious blood that bought our pardon, cleansed our sin, and bought us nigh to God. To us not the blood of calves or goats that bought our pardon free, but Jesus Christ's most precious blood shed forth at Calvary.

For gold or silver would not do, redemption's price to pay, not but the precious blood of Christ could wash our sins away. No other name, no other way, for sin could err atone, so Jesus shed his precious blood which saves in his alone.

To us matchless love that moved his heart to take the sinner's place, for us to suffer on the cross to his wondrous matchless grace. Bought with a price, a costly price, the holy lamb of God, so willingly laid down his life, redeemed us by his blood.

To him who washed us in his blood, to him be glory given, who paid the ransom, cleansed our sin, and purchased us for heaven. Thou holy, spotless lamb of God, we worship and adore. Our praises and thanksgiving bring to thee forever more.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you so much that you've provided all things so that we may walk in a manner worthy of your son. And God, we thank you that you provide us with the knowledge, you provide us with the power, you provide us with a new identity in Christ alone.

And God, we thank you so much for your son's sacrifice so that he could buy us back, he could buy us to be his citizens, your children rather than the children of Satan. And God, we pray that as we go out, your scriptural truth would change our hearts, change our views, change our thoughts, change our words and actions, so that it would be clear to whom we belong.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.