Praying for Growth

Transcript

Rob McFarlane 0:58

Today's sermon is on praying for spiritual growth. Let's read Colossians chapter 1, verse 9 to 14 from the New International Version. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, and being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Wow, what an amazing passage of Scripture. It starts off by encouraging us to keep praying for others and indeed for ourselves to grow spiritually. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 9, they say, For this reason, since the day that we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God. And they kept on praying for the people in the Church of Colossae. Now, if you remember, last week they gave thanks for the gospel at work in that local church in the whole world, and for those who God had used to bring the gospel to them. We were introduced to Epaphras. Now we see in Colossians chapter 4, verse 12, that Epaphras, who was one of them, who was the one who brought the gospel to them, spent much time in prayer for them. It's one thing to share the gospel with someone, it's another thing entirely to make that person into a disciple, a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. Let's read Colossians chapter 4, verse 12 about Epaphras. It says Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He's always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. He wanted that church, the people that he had invested the gospel in, to grow up in their relationship with God, to become mature Christians, to have full assurance of their faith in Christ. They continue to tell us what they were praying for, and we see three things in this prayer for the church in Colossae. And I think these three things should frame how we should pray for ourselves and pray for others in our church family, our close friends, and indeed in our own families, so that they would grow in all the will of God, be mature and fully assured. Number one, pray to know God's will. We read in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9, he says, We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. We should be praying for growth in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom regarding God's will. Now there's a difference between those three words. Knowledge is having the facts. Understanding is knowing what those facts mean, and wisdom is knowing how to take appropriate actions based on the knowledge and understanding that you have in order to get the desired results. And we need to grow not just in head knowledge or understanding but in practical living out the good news and God's will in our lives. We see that this leads to a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to God, because that's exactly what they were praying, that they would live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. We should be praying for ourselves that we would know his will, that we would understand his will for our lives in every area of our lives, and that we should have the wisdom in order to walk in it, so that our lives are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him. We should be praying for others in our lives, that they too would grow in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that the Holy Spirit wants to give them so that they can live a life pleasing to God, live according to his will, live a life worthy of the Lord. Now we know that God's will for us is revealed to us in the scriptures, and I want to encourage you to take time, spend time in God's word, grow in your relationship with Him through the Scriptures. As you gain more knowledge about Him and you understand His ways and His works, you will have wisdom in the way you deal with decisions in your life, choices in your life, and relationships in your life. So, number one, we've seen that they prayed that they would know God's will. Number two, they prayed that they would grow in their relationship with God. And we should be praying for that, that we would grow in our relationship with God, that others would grow in their relationship with God. Let's read this portion again from Colossians chapter 1, verse 10 to verse 12. It says, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, and being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father. Now I see four prayer points here that we can pray for others as we pray that they would grow in their relationship with God. First, we should pray that we are fruitful in good works. We're not saved by good works, but we're saved to do good works. And God wants us to be fruitful in good works. Secondly, we see in verse 10 that they should grow in the knowledge of God. And we should be praying that God would open our eyes, give us revelation knowledge of who He is and His plans and purposes for our lives, that our knowledge of God would grow. Ignorance is not bliss spiritually. In fact, the Bible says people perish for a lack of knowledge, and knowledge that comes through studying and reading and meditating upon scriptures, learning from others who walk with the Lord helps us grow and become effective in our relationship with God. In verse 11, we see the third prayer point to be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience. You know, the Christian life is not a hundred-meter dash, it's a long-distance endurance race. And in order to make it to the finish line, we need to be strengthened with all God's power and all God's might, so that we have the endurance and we have the patience to overcome the tests and trials of life. God wants us to run the race to win, and he wants to strengthen us with his might and with his power. And then we see the fourth prayer point in verse 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father. God wants us to be joyful, he wants us to be thankful, he wants us to be grateful. And I think it's important for us to count our blessings in life, to constantly look for God's hand in everything in our lives. And when we do, you'll be amazed at how often you'll see how much God is blessing you and how much God has entrusted you with, and you'll have a far more joyful and thankful and grateful attitude in life. So we've seen the four prayer points are number one, being fruitful in good works, number two, growing in the knowledge of God. Number three, being strengthened by his power and might so that you can endure and have patience and overcome. And then fourth, that you would be thankful and joyful and give thanks to God for his goodness and grace in our lives. So far, we've seen that in their prayer, first of all, they prayed that they would grow in their knowledge of God's will, their understanding of God's will, and walk in wisdom concerning God's will. Secondly, they prayed that they and others would grow in relationship with God, that they would grow in their relationship with God and mature and be all that God has called them to be. And number three, we see that they prayed that they would walk in their inheritance of forgiveness and freedom. Let's read Colossians chapter 1, verse 12 to 14. Now I want you to notice the past tense in these verses. It says, The Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. The Father has qualified you. Verse 13, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. He has. It's something that He accomplished 2,000 years ago on the cross. He paid the price to free us from the dominion of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of the Son, He loves, the Kingdom of God. And then verse 14 it says, In whom we have, past tense, redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Oh, may we share in the inheritance that we have been given in the kingdom of God. May we experience the forgiveness and freedom that has already been purchased for us by Jesus Christ. We should walk in an ever-increasing freedom as believers. As we know the truth, the truth sets us free. And one thing we definitely need to understand is that when we come to Jesus, he forgives us. The Bible says, as far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our sin from us. The Bible says, even though our sins were as red as scarlet, he has washed us as white as wool. We have received forgiveness when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we need to walk in that forgiveness. Don't let the enemy lie to you about something in your past, keeping you from what God has qualified you to walk into. Remember, you have been qualified by the Father to be one of his holy people and to walk in the inheritance that you have in the kingdom of God. Remember that you have been delivered, set free from the kingdom of darkness. You are now a child of God. You are forgiven and you are free. Let's live like it. So, in conclusion, let's pray for spiritual growth. God wants us to grow. We need to be thankful that we've received the gospel. We need to be thankful for those who've shared the gospel with us. But God wants us to grow on from that into Christ, into the full measure of what He has, to grow in our assurance and our maturity in Christ. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you are so good to us. Thank you that you want us to walk in your will. Your good, your pleasing, and your perfect will. And we ask you, Lord, to help us grow in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives. We thank you that you want us to grow spiritually. You want us to be fruitful in good works. You want us to live a life that pleases you. You want us to be all that you've called us to be in Christ Jesus. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have set us free, that you have given us an inheritance in the kingdom of God, and that you've set us free from the dominion of darkness. Whoever we were in the past, and whatever sins held us back, you have redeemed us and you have forgiven us. Help us to walk in the freedom and forgiveness that you've made available to us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.