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Well our text this morning is Colossian 1's Colossians 1 verse 9. Colossians 1 verse 9. Hopefully you have a copy of God's Word in front of you to open your Bible to Colossians 1 9. If you do not have a copy of God's Word, we have some up here on the front table. You're welcome to it. But it's good to have God's Word open in front of us as we make our way through this great book, this letter of Paul to the Colossians. And our text this morning is verse 9 of chapter 1, Colossians 1.9. And the title of our message this morning is Perpetual Prayer. Perpetual prayer. Well, let's read Colossians 1.9. For this reason also, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Again, for this reason also, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Well, may the Lord bless the reading of his word. May he use it to teach your heart and mine here this morning and every believer here in Christ. Well, 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says this: pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. In this little admonition, Paul instructs the church in Thessalonica to pray, and he instructs them to pray continuously. He instructs them to pray without conclusion. To always be in prayer, to always be praying. Well, 1 Thessalonians 5.17 is a proof text of one could say it is this power that they freely partake of in prayer. They pray without ceasing, and it is this power they partake of in prayer. And as we approach the scriptures, we point out that prayer is not a distant thing. Okay? What do we mean by that? Prayer is not this distant thing that's afar off that God makes us all jump through hoops in order to obtain. Prayer is fairly simple. In fact, it's quite simple. We simply must discipline ourselves to pray. Prayer is simply talking to God, and it's not some difficult, deep theological thing in its practice by any means. Christ himself prayed often. And he at times dismissed himself from large crowds, and he went off by himself to pray. We would understand from this, this example of prayer must be in every believer's life. Even leading up unto his death on the cross, our Lord prayed. Even the moments he was dying on the cross, he said, Lord, receive my spirit. He was praying till his final breath. Well, the Apostle Paul comes on the scene, and he does not do the opposite to say that way. He is an example of a good prayer life. He was a man of leadership. He had many believers that he was responsible for. And we say many, it's hard to fathom, hard to really pinpoint how many people he was in leadership over. He had many churches that wanted him to come and teach them, to come and speak to them. He wanted them to come and assist in their ministry. He traveled around often, and in the face of all of this, he was a man given to prayer. One could say that the Apostle Paul had more on his shoulders in leadership than you or I. He had many, many churches he was involved in. He had many people that he was responsible for, and he was yet given to prayer. Feeling the weight of his various responsibilities, he was given to prayer. Now, this is a good example for us as Christians. How much we need to be reminded to pray. And respectfully, ask yourself this. How much do you need to be reminded to pray? Right? I'll ask myself the same question. How much do I need to be reminded to pray often? Well, it's much, if you will. It's lots. If every believer is honest with themselves, there is a great need to be reminded to pray. A good prayer life is like having a good physical health. It takes work and it takes discipline. Some years ago I saw a clip from a show about very unhealthy people, and I share this illustration respectfully. The show focused on extremely overweight people. And in this clip was this young man who was extremely unhealthy. Recently I saw another video clip, years later, the same gentleman had lost some 600 pounds. He was a new person. He was healthy. He was, for all appearances' sake, a normal human who lived a regular physical life. He could move like you and I move. Well, how did this change occur? He worked at it. In fact, that's what the clip showed. He was working at it. He ate right and he did what the doctor said and he exercised and he changed his habits, and as a result, he was healthy physically. Well, a prayer life is similar. It takes effort, it takes work, it requires discipline. It requires to do what God tells you to do. It requires to do what Scripture teaches to do. Well, good habits, good discipline about prayer are the fruit, are the fruits that we seek to glean in our text before us. Verse 9. And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. The first thing we point out in our text is Paul's prayer for the Colossian church. And he says in verse 9, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. What does he mean by that? Well, since Paul has heard the report from Epaphras that there is a church in Colossae, it has brought him to not stop praying for that ecclesia. The news of the believers congregating in Colossae has yielded this, we could say, ever-present prayer life in Paul's life. He hears of the report from a Paphras, and since the day he heard of it, perhaps it was a Monday, perhaps it was a Tuesday, we're not told, but since that day, he has not ceased to pray for the church in Colossae. Now it's not that he has been praying for them and not doing anything else. What does Scripture mean by not ceasing to pray for them? Well, it's that his prayer life always included lifting up the Colossian church. It's not that if you were to ask the Apostle Paul, what are you doing today, he would say, I'm just praying for the Colossian Church all day. It's not in the sense that he would not have a regular day-to-day, but it's that his regular day-to-day prayer life included lifting up the Colossian church. This practice of Paul is similar to our everyday lives as believers. For example, when we hear of certain things that go on, in response, we offer thought. For example, your day-to-day life and mine, we hear of a blessing. Or we may hear of something negative. The rest of the day tends to have that thought of that thing in our minds all day long. If we have a blessing, we recall that in our minds all day long. Perhaps we're anticipating that. If there is a negative thing that we heard, then we tend to carry that with us all day long as well. Whatever it may be, in light of Paul, he heard that there was a church in Colossae, and he carried that knowledge with him, and every time he went to the throne room, he prayed for the believers in Colossae. And so prayer was offered, and in this manner it did not cease. He continued to pray for the Colossian Church. Matthew Henry says he heard that they were good and he prayed that they might be better. He heard that the Colossian Church was good, and therefore he prayed that they would be better. Well, this is his prayer for the Colossian Church, and it is fruit for us as believers. Do you pray for your local church? And can it be said of you that you do not cease in praying for your local church? Well, the prayer itself is a collection of petitions. The prayer itself is a collection of petitions. Since Paul heard of the believers in Colossae, it says that he has been offering petitions to God in prayer. Now, what exactly is a petition? Well, it's simply a humble request to God. In our society, many may gather and petition for the government to do a certain thing. And we may ask them to do this or that because we want them to do something different. That might be a petition in society. Well, it's similar to the believer, except God listens to the petitions of the believers. If you ask God for something in a humble, spirit-filled manner, you are petitioning for God to do something. You're asking for him to act in a certain way. And your prayers and mine as a believer ought to include such petitions. And when we do so, we come alongside the psalmist. Be gracious to me, O God. According to your loving kindness, according to your abundance of your compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. The psalmist petitions that God would cleanse him from his sinful ways. Psalm 13. How long, O Yahweh, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will you, shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? The psalmist is petitioning to God. How long is this gonna go on? How long are you gonna do this, O God, until you act? Well, these are petitions of the psalmist, and he's asking God for something. Will you do this, oh God? Well, believer, petitions, we could say supplications. Petitions, or we could say supplications, are a key ingredient to prayer. Prayer is comprised of either one of the following or all of the following: petitions, adorations, confessions, or thanksgivings. And we ought to aim in our prayers to include all of them as we pray. Our prayers ought never to be void of, at some point, all forms of these prayers, of these ingredients, if you will. In other words, our prayers should be asking, praising, thanking, and confessing. They should never be just one form of them. If all we do is praise God, that means we never ask him for anything, and he's not going to do anything if we don't ask. If all we do is confess our sins, we never thank Him for being our atonement. And if we never confess our sins to Him, well, we neglect the graces offered in His forgiveness in this area of prayer. So all of these ingredients are to be included in our prayer lives. And they are included here in Colossians 1 9, where the Apostle Paul petitions such to be so. Well, what is he petitioning? Verse 9 says this that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. In Paul's first petition, here writing to the Colossian church, he seeks that the believers there, meeting and worshiping, be filled with the knowledge of God's will. And in this, Paul shows that he knew that empty intellect offered insignificant spirituality. Every Christian would do well to know that maturity in the faith was linked and is linked to a greater understanding of God's will. The Apostle Paul shows this here. He asks, he desires that they be filled with the knowledge of God's will because he knew this lent itself to a greater maturity in the spiritual walk. Maturity in the faith begins with having a full understanding of what God wills. And what God wills to be so is what we must understand. And so it is the prayer of the apostle for the local church. Notice at the forefront of Paul's prayer for the saints in Colossae is the desire to be filled with the knowledge of God. It's not that they have a bigger building, it's not that they have more people. It's not that they have good community involvement. What's his petition? They would know more of God. And believer, you and I would do well to understand this is the petition of the Apostle Paul for the church in Colossae, but it's the petition of every single local church that we would submit our sinful hearts and our prideful ways to know more of God and rid ourselves of our prideful hearts. He prays that their knowledge would increase, they would be filled with the intellect of God's will. And it is here, I think, in this petition, that each Christian either gains or loses their growth as a Christian. It is here in this petition, I think, that the Christian either gains or loses their growth as a Christian. It said in a different way, succeeds or fails in their spiritual maturity. Because we know a Christian either succeeds or fails throughout their life. They either are stagnant or they pursue growth and grow in maturity. Now the growth is gained or lost in answering the question. And this is the question: Do I know what God wants? Do I know what God wants? If I do not know what God wants, then I do not do what He desires I do. If I do know what God wants, then I'm able to do what He desires I do. And so growth ensues with this first step. Do I know God? Do I want to know more of Him? And am I following in that knowledge? Now, knowledge is not everything in this endeavor. But it is certainly not nothing. We know God's will in order to do God's will. You cannot do what you do not know. And so hangs the balance of your piety. And so hangs the balance of your spiritual walk. Now many Christians fail in their spiritual walk because they do not know what they should be doing. Many Christians go through seasons of failure because they do not know what they should be doing. This is because they do not know God's will. We are tempted at times to think God has hidden his will beyond our reach. It is in some obscure verse that you must know Greek or Hebrew to understand. It is in the Puritans, you must pour over them to understand them. I do not disagree with doing those various things. But to know God's will, you must simply know Him in Scripture. He has made known to us what He wants. Your holiness. If only it was clearer. Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Psalm 86, we read earlier. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth. Teach me your will, O Lord, and I will follow it. Why, oh why, are we not only tempted, but do we give in to thinking God's will is hidden and obscure? It is so clear, and it is before us in his word. God's will is simply what he desires. And his followers receive his will through his counsel. And it is this understanding of God's will that also leads to what Paul says in this petition: spiritual wisdom and understanding. Notice in this petition in verse 9, spiritual wisdom and understanding are linked to what Paul wants the church in Colossae to be filled with Gnosis, Sophia, and Sunis. He wants them to be filled with knowledge, spiritual wisdom, and understanding. And Paul adds spiritual. To his description of wisdom. Notice that before us in the text. Why does Paul add spiritual to the description of wisdom? Well, he does this because there is a worldly wisdom as well as a spiritual wisdom. And worldly wisdom is not wisdom at all. God's word says in 1 Corinthians 1 20, where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? We would say, from a category sense, that there is a worldly wisdom, but God really calls it worldly foolishness. There is wisdom of the world, and that is foolishness in God's eyes. And the Christian is to be filled with God's wisdom, true wisdom, along with understanding. And this brings the Christian to live for God's glory. And these gifts are imparted by God's Spirit. So God's will is not exactly a secret. It's seen in his wisdom, it's seen in his understanding, and it's seen in his knowledge, the knowledge of him. Well, how does God do this? He does this through his word. And he does this through his spirit. Listen to the words in Exodus 31. God spoke to Moses regarding the craftsman in the time. It says this I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship. Well, what does God say here? In this specific sense, God has filled this group of people, this person with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ in Isaiah 11. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of fear. Well, on Christ, God bestowed the greatest spirit of wisdom and understanding. So one would look to Christ and say, that is the most wisdom that could be ever shown. And we know, based upon the Trinity, that all of God's counsel then is great wisdom. It is God who gives wisdom and understanding. So for Paul to petition to God to grant this to the church in Colossae is good and correct. Notice wisdom, knowledge, understanding does not come from man. Man does not bring himself to be wise any more than a drowning swimmer brings his head above water. It must be granted to him salvation from another. It must be granted to him by the giver of wisdom. God gives wisdom and he grants wisdom through his spirit and his word. Therefore, the apostle Paul says, My prayer for you is that God would give you wisdom and understanding because his doctrine and theology is alongside all of Scripture. God does this. God grants knowledge and wisdom from his spirit. God's Spirit fills his people with knowledge and understanding. Ponder for a few moments Saul's life. Saul in the Old Testament is a clear picture of this. Samuel speaks to Saul and says, This the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. 1 Samuel 10, 6. After some time, this is fulfilled, and those around Saul are surprised. They wonder who it is because now he is acting like a prophet. Well, why was he acting like a prophet? Because the spirit of God was upon him. Fast forward to later on when Saul rejects God's precepts and does what he wants to do. And it said of him, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. Well, God's spirit gives counsel, God's spirit gives wisdom. And in the Old Testament, we see this removal from Saul. We also see a new covenantal aspect of this. Joel 2 says this afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. This is a promise of the coming spirit, unlike it was in the Old Testament. And Acts 2 says this in the last days it shall be. God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Fast forward a little bit more in the book of Acts, and you see this fulfilled at the day of Pentecost. Now, as Baptists, we talk about the day of Pentecost, about once a millennium. But we see in that fulfillment, God fulfilled and sent his spirit to his people. Why? Because God does this. He gives his spirit. And in giving his spirit, he bestows knowledge and wisdom from above. Now, as we continue to journey through understanding this, we also point out that knowledge is not proprietary, nor is the knowledge of God. And this is where we must understand. Knowledge is not proprietary, nor is the knowledge of God. It might be exclusive to God's people, but it's not proprietary. What do I mean by this? Well, what stops us from knowing what we ought to know? Think of that for a moment. What stops us from knowing what we ought to know? Usually, in our worldly contexts, it's two things: time and resources. Why do I not know what I should know? I might not have the time to study it out, or I might not have the resources to be taught that certain thing. For example, we go to doctors and we value what they say because they've taken time and resources to obtain the knowledge that they have. For example, if you want a post-frame house, I could do that. Why? Because I've taken the time and resources to obtain the knowledge to do so. But I, nor a doctor, are not exclusive to the knowledge that we have, if you will, in that sense. Knowledge about such things in our world is not exclusive to certain people. It's out there, if you will. Value may be, of course, you might value one's opinion based upon the context of their time and resources. But knowledge is not just theirs. They can't only know that and be the only ones. Well, the same is said for the knowledge of God. What stops us from knowing more of God? What stops you from knowing more of God? Well, it's not me. It's not God. It's you. Right? What stops me from knowing more of God? It's me. It's ourselves. Therefore, we must assume or act the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of God is not some proprietary thing owned and operated by another in the sense that we cannot obtain it. We mustn't believe that. This esoteric Christianity is garbage. In a sense, we determine what we know because we have the free will to study and work out our own salvation in fear and trembling after God has granted us such. So if a Christian says they do not know much of God, nor do they have great wisdom of God or understanding, they must seek Him. It's not that God is a heavenly father that neglects gifts from His children like an evil human father would. It's not that. James says, You have not, why? Because you ask not. Therefore, it's my fault that I have not, because I ask not. It's your fault that you have not, because you ask not. But James also says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Who gives, by the way, James continues, to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. One day I believe, one day I don't, and I ask when I'm good, but I don't ask when I'm bad. James' admonition is clear. Knowledge is not proprietary. We mustn't be tempted to think that God does not want to bestow upon us great knowledge of his counsel. He does. For he's given you a book. We borrow from this, you know, because you try not to know more. I know because I want to know more. And I do not know because I do not try to know more. The prayer then is to be filled with the knowledge of his will. The entire truth is to seek his knowledge. And believer, do not miss that this knowledge of God that we've been speaking about and that the scriptures tell about is the most knowledge, it's the most valuable knowledge you will ever encounter. It's the most valuable knowledge, greatest wisdom, greatest understanding you can ever come across. God instructs Israel in Deuteronomy, choose wise and discerning and experienced men from tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. Notice Deuteronomy 1 does not say this. Just round up all of the fools and let them be in charge. No. What does the scripture say? Wise men of understanding, upon whom God's word was given, God's counsel was bestowed, and it was those who had good sense, not bad contentious sense, but good sense to desire and lead God's fold. When Israel was taken over by the Chaldeans, they gathered, quote, youths in whom was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, who had the ability for serving in the king's court, and he ordered them to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. Daniel 1:4. Again, it was not that they gathered up the fools, it was not that they gathered up the silly and add them serve in the king's courts. It was instead, let us get the ones with understanding and wisdom. Therefore, this knowledge of God is valuable. Knowledge itself is valuable. God's wisdom is valuable. God's wisdom is good, and we ought to seek and want to know more of it. Believer, knowledge then of God's will is incredibly valuable. With it, a Christian ensures their marriage stays strong. Knowledge of God's will ensures your marriage stays strong. Knowledge of God's will ensures you parent your children well. Knowledge of God's will means you give yourself to the ministry of Christ. You cannot do these things well without the knowledge of his will. And we fool ourselves to think we can try. A few questions to conclude. Going back to the beginning of this sermon. Do you pray? Every Christian ought to have a prayer life, and the Christian experiences both seasons of healthy and unhealthy prayer life. At times you may do well, at times you may not do well, but in all of it, be faithful. Do you pray? Do you regularly pray? Secondly, do you know God's will? Do you know God's will? Do you have the knowledge of God's will in your heart? And this answer is best gauged on a process. Are you knowing more of God's will? Or have you settled for a little bit of knowledge and to think that's sufficient? But I think it is the devil that convinces a Christian that he or she knows enough of God. It is not God that tells you as a believer you know enough of him. It is Satan. Only Satan will tell you that your knowledge of him is enough. We must continually be pursuing to know more of God and him. And it's this knowledge we are guided. Our affections are guided by this knowledge. We know more of him, we're filled with his understanding so that we can love him more and we do what he wants. We live in his grace. And in this, God's church, like it was in Colossae, is edified and strengthened, and God's church in any age is much the same. Well, that's most likely enough time looking at verse 9 here this morning. And Lord bless you for being attentive. Next week, Lord willing, we will see that that knowledge, you can glance down verse 10, we will see that that knowledge leads to practice. It leads to doing. Paul says in the very next verse, Lord willing, next week we'll look to that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual understanding and wisdom, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. That knowledge leads to action. Well, we look forward to that.