Colossians 1 - Knowing God's Will

Paul desired and even prayed that the Colossian church would know what God's will was for them. Malcam unpacks Colossians 1, looking at what God's will is for us.                                       

 If you would like to give online click here https://secure.myvanco.com/YHPM

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The wife is standing in front of a full-length mirror, taking a hard look at her body. You know, dear, when I look in the mirror, I don't see that beautiful, shapely young woman I used to be. Instead, I see an old woman with a wrinkled face, thinning hair, sagging skin, stretch marks, flabby arms, varicose veins, age spots. I look terrible compared to what I used to look like. Honey, please tell me something positive about me that would make me feel better about myself. He studied her for a long while, thinking, and then in a soft, thoughtful voice said, Well, honey, there is nothing wrong with your eyesight. Services for the husband were three days later. How many of you knew that wasn't the right thing to say to her? I think most of us did. How many of us knew that wasn't quite the thing she wanted to hear? You know, sometimes knowing what someone else wants to hear is pretty easy to determine, and other times it can be difficult. Paul, as he wrote to the Christians in Colossae, let them know what God wanted from them. He wrote, beginning here in verse 9 of Colossians chapter 1, about his prayer, that they would know and understand what God's will was for them. And then he spelled it out for them. I've had many people ask me about what God's will was for their life. I don't always know what God's will is for their life in regard to which job they should take, you know, what car should they buy, should they move from this place to that place? But I do know what God's overall will is for each and every Christian. And today as we look at this passage from Colossians chapter 1, I think it's very well spelled out for us. And I want to look at that, but first let's begin with prayer. Lord, I do thank you for your love, and I thank you for this passage, which shows us what your will is. Help us, Lord, to understand that will and put it into practice in our lives. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to begin by reading Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 9 down to verse 14. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in of the saints in light. When I study out this passage regarding the will of God, I cannot help but see the three main parts about the will of God here that Paul emphasizes. First of all, it is God's will that you would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. He wants you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Paul wrote, We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. I mean, that's the first and simplest aspect of understanding God's will, is that he wants us to walk in a manner worthy of him. So that when people see us, they will see Jesus and what God would like us to be. We are ambassadors for Christ, according to what Paul wrote back in 2 Corinthians. Remember when we were in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20, we are ambassadors. We are representatives. We need to walk in ways that represent his righteousness, his holiness, his purity in all areas of our lives. To put it another way, we need to please him, please God in all respects. Everything we do, everything we say needs to please the Lord God. Back in 1896, I don't think anybody here was alive back in 1896. We're all younger than that, praise the Lord. Charles Sheldon wrote a book, In His Steps. He proposed a very simple concept that was renewed in the 1990s, represented by four letters, W W J D. What would Jesus do? Charles Sheldon, 1896, wrote that. He caught on to the idea that God's will is that we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, that we would please him in all respects. We need to think about what we do, what we say. Is this really a good representation of Jesus Christ? Would Christ be ashamed of this action, of this statement? Is this something that is pleasing to Jesus Christ? I once heard a bachelor bragging he could marry any girl he pleased. His friend immediately replied, but he hasn't pleased any yet. That's the hard part, isn't it? What would people say about your life with Christ? What would people say? What would Christ say about your life? Have you pleased him? God's word likens our relationship with Christ as a bride and a groom relationship, a marriage. Have we pleased Christ with our lifestyle? Are we making certain that we are keeping ourselves pure and spotless, free from sin? Because God's will is that we would refrain from sin and not live in it. Excuse me. He wants us to walk in a manner worthy of Christ, pure and spotless and holy, but do we? In walking worthy of this manner, we also need to bear fruit in every good work. Christ demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit within him. He demonstrated love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentle, or faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He showed us how that faith is to lead to a moral excellence. Moral excellence leads to knowledge, knowledge to self-control, self-control to perseverance, perseverance to godliness, godliness to brotherly kindness, brotherly kindness to godly love. Hopefully you recognize some of those scriptures there. He showed how that we shouldn't be striving for a bare minimum of Christian living. But instead we need to grow and bear fruit. I grew up in the Midwest around a whole bunch of farmers, and I don't ever remember a farmer trying to plant a crop, whether it was trees or beans or corn, and just hope for the bare minimum to grow. They always wanted a huge crop. They wanted to have everything bare in abundance. And that's exactly what God wants with us. He doesn't want us to just barely produce the fruit of the Spirit, but to have an abundant harvest of fruit. Has your life produced the fruit of the Spirit? Has your life been bearing fruit in every good work? Are we striving to walk in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ? We also need to increase in the knowledge of God. At the Bible college I attended, the very first thing you do when you get there is they take all the incoming freshmen and they put them down in several different rooms and they give them a test. It's a very long test. It goes from Genesis to Revelation. And they want to know what do you know about the Bible? Well, I grew up as a preacher's kid. I went to church all the time, and I took that test, and I was going, oh, I don't know much at all about the Bible. It was a difficult question, a lot of difficult ones. And then when you got ready to graduate, four years, five years later, they asked you to take the same test, and then they would compare your freshman test to your outgoing senior test. And they were hoping to see that you have learned a lot more of the Word of God. It's nice to know that our knowledge did increase. In fact, in four years' time, when they started asking the question, who are the kings of the United Kingdom? We were able to tell them right in a row. You know, beforehand, we had no idea. You mean there's a United Kingdom? Was there a divided kingdom? Yes, there was. We didn't even know that stuff. Or, you know, they always had through in that one question, who was the left-handed judge? Remember when we went through judges? There was Ehud, who stuck that sword right into Eglon? 18-inch sword, and it completely went inside of him. He was that large of a guy. You know, they had questions like that. Didn't know them when I went into college, but I sure had to know them when I left college. Have we continued to increase in the knowledge of God? Do you know more about God and his will and his love and his plan, especially his word, than you did last month. Than you did a year ago. I think it was last week or the week before, Brother Don, when he was going out and said, Man, I've grown. I know a lot more than I did a year ago. That's what our goal is, that we've grown in a knowledge of the Word of God. And we keep on doing that. And I realize that some of us, as we age, we start forgetting many things. I find it true in my own life. But are we constantly trying to refuel our minds with new knowledge and new information? Even the information we have started to forget. God's will is that you would increase in your knowledge of Him. Are you studying to present yourself as a workman approved unto God who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth? God's will is that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. God's will is also that you would be strengthened in all power. Paul wrote here, verse 11, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. We need to be strengthened. Even though Paul wrote that we need to be strengthened with all power, he wrote further to qualify this by saying it needs to be according to his glorious might. Paul, as he wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 through 8, he wrote, In pointing out these things that the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise of the present life and also in the life to come. Our greatest goal is not to have the strongest body. Oh, that would be nice to have the strongest body humanly possible. It's not to have the greatest army in the world, but God's will is that we would be strengthened first and foremost, according to his glorious might, in godliness. He wants us to be strengthened in righteousness, in the knowledge of him so we can gain profit not just for this world, but in the world to come, in heaven for eternity. Are we looking forward to what we need to do to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power? Are we looking to see what we must be able to do to stand firm in the armor of God? Remember when we went through Ephesians chapter 6, and then Brother Jared hit again on it when we got into Philippians chapter 1. He talked about the very aspect that armor of God? Are we exercising our spiritual self, growing in the knowledge of Him and His Word, doing every good work, bearing fruit, and trying to please him in all we do? There was a preacher friend who emailed me recently with what he sees as one of the greatest problems in churches and in ministers today. He said it's pride. There are many Bible verses dealing with pride and how it leads to a downfall. And God has called us to be humble. And sometimes we need help staying humble. Remember the Apostle Paul when he was writing in 2 Corinthians and he talked about this aspect that the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh for the purpose of what? Keeping him humble. So he wouldn't be proud and arrogant in himself, but he would realize his strength came from the Lord, that he couldn't do everything. It had to come from the Lord. You know, sometimes I think maybe we need to pray for a thorn in our flesh. I don't like that idea. But sometimes I think we get so proud and arrogant about ourselves. I don't need the Lord. I don't need to put on that full armor. God, I got this handled. I got this. No, we can't. We need to be humble and trust in God. Find our strength in Him. We need to be strengthened with all power, but according to His glorious might, not ours. And this power and strength is to help us to attain all steadfastness. I find it very interesting how many times the Scripture calls us to be steadfast, to be faithful, to be faithfully enduring. We have been promised the crown of righteousness that it goes to those who have been faithful until the end. Not just to those who start the race, but those who are faithful and steadfast, who run and finish the race. This concept is preached in the Word of God from all the way back in Genesis. Remember Adam and Eve? Why didn't they get to continue to live in the Garden of Eden? Because they sinned, and you have to be faithful to the end. And so they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. It carries all the way through the scriptures. You read about, and we've talked about this even just last week, about from Joshua, all the different times that the Israelites went away from God, and God brought in a nation to oppress them, and they have to wait for a while before God would deliver them with another judge. It goes all the way through the scriptures, all the way to the book of Revelation, because it keeps talking about he who overcomes to the end. He who is faithful to the end will receive the crown of life. We need to be steadfast in our walk. You know, Jesus told a very simple parable, I've used it many times, that the parable of a sower who went out sowing all kinds of good seed, but in the midst of different soils. Remember some falling on the roadside, some falling among the thorns, some falling in the rocks, some falling on the good soil. And he talks about how that those weeds that were in the pathway, the birds ate it right away, but that the seeds that fell right there among the sea uh weeds it sprang up, but the weeds choked it out. The seed that fell among the rocky soil that sprouted up, but it didn't have good roots, and so the sun beat down on it and it died. The only seed that really produced a fruit was the seed on the good soil, produced uh thirty, sixty, hundredfold. And Jesus taught that to teach us one to be faithful in sowing the word of God, but two, that we need to be faithful to the end. Everybody had the same seed, but not all the seed produced something. Not all the seed was blessed by the man who did the harvest. And we must maintain a steadfast faith that holds true to the end where we produce fruit for the Lord God. We need to be strengthened with all power to attain steadfastness, faithful to the end. That's God's will for us. And his power is also to help us to attain patience. I know this is not a popular subject. I've preached on it many different times, even recently. But we need patience. There are certain men and women of faith who really stand out in my mind because they have shown patience. In the midst of adversity, in the midst of troubles. They're kind of like the rock of Gibraltar, ever faithful, never wavering. No matter how many waves hit it, no matter how many storms, no matter how much wind hit them, they're solid and steadfast. They're like Jesus. Remember when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples and a huge storm came up on the sea? And his disciples were panicking, they were afraid they were going to be swamped, they were going to sink, they were going to drown. What was Jesus doing? Asleep. He was sleeping through it. You mean he wasn't worried and panicked by everything? Nope. He patiently knew God's got this covered. You know, when everybody else is crying out, what shall we do? There are some people who are calm and unwavering and totally at peace. Some people might check them for a pulse and or might check their hearing to see if they're actually hearing what's going on or their eyesight. But you know, some of those people have heard, they have seen, they've comprehended what's going on, but instead of getting upset and panicking, they're more like Job. Remember what Job said? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. They have a peace, they have a patience that is absolutely amazing. And God's will is that you would be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that we will all attain steadfastness and patience no matter what. Are you learning to be patient? Have you let God strengthen you to be patient even in the midst of the storms of your life that Satan keeps throwing at you? Are you panicking or are you strengthened with God's power to be patient and endure it? God's will is for you to be strengthened with all power, even able to be patient. God's will is you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. God's will is that you would be strengthened with all power. And third, in this passage, God's will is that you would joyously give thanks to God. Did you notice how Paul joined this together with being patient? Think about that. What are the circumstances that you normally find yourself in that you find yourself needing patience? What are those circumstances? Kids. Your kids causing trouble. What? Adults. You know, it's normally when things are going wrong. When people are causing you trouble. And yet, he's talking about being having patience, and then he continues on that you would joyously give thanks to God in the midst of those times when you're having to be patient. Joyously giving thanks to God, the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light. In the midst of all of our struggles, when we find ourselves struggling to be patient, but we need to be patient, Paul is instructing us you need to give thanks to God. God deserves thanksgiving. Normally we reserve that, the giving of thanks for November. But it should not be that way. I've mentioned it recently. I'm mentioning it again today. God deserves thanksgiving each and every day because God is constantly, continually, always doing things for us, and He deserves thanks. Just today, uh I was teasing my wife, and we were talking about the fact of things getting done or not getting done. And, you know, and said, Well, well, things don't get done. Oh no, she takes care of that house. She takes care of my yard. She takes care of me. She's always doing thanks. I should be giving thanks for her every single day. And I shouldn't pick on her and things like that. You know, and God deserves thanks too. And here Paul is pointing out that we need to joyously give God thanks, not because of all the good things that are happening and going on, but even while we're having to learn to exercise steadfastness and patience in the midst of the hard and bad times, we need to joyously give thanks to God. I have to admit that there are passages in the Bible that I struggle to deal with. James chapter 1, starting in verse 2, down to verse 4. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. When I consider what? Various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith, testing of my faith, wait a minute here. It produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect results, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Those passages are not my favorite passages. I much prefer passages that are much easier to do. But God tells us in his scriptures, and his scriptures are our final answer, in the midst of hard times, when we're needing to exercise patience and endurance and steadfastness, we need to be willing to give him thanks joyously. Do we? I mean, think about it. How many of us have had any hard times recently? You struggle to pay some bill. You got troubles with family members, people getting sick, people dying. Have you do you have troubles at work or even no work? Have you had health troubles? Are there times it's hard to be patient and wait on the Lord? Those are the times he tells us to be steadfast in your faith. Those are the times he tells us to even joyously give God thanks. And yet, have we been called to do it? Yes. Have we been doing it? Will we do it? Can we see reasons to give thanks to God? You know, God gives us reasons to give him thanks. Paul wrote here in the Colossian Christians that God our Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. There was a movie that came out in 1979. It's called Scavenger Hunt. It is a slapstick kind of humor that I like. It's one of my favorite movies. It's a movie about Some guy who was a multimillionaire. He died. He made his millions by making games. Like, was it Parker, Milton Parker, or something? Something like that. Anyway, he made his millions by making games. His will included all these different people that had to do a scavenger hunt. And the winner would walk away with all of his millions. And during the movie, the possible heirs did all they could to get their items for this scavenger hunt. And in order to do that, they would do things that they probably never would have done otherwise. They steal, they do all kinds of stuff. They uh, I mean, they go out and they break laws, they lie, they have thefts, and they even go after a motorcycle gang trying to get the little raccoon tail off of his little antenna, and the motorcycle gang is chasing them, and there's an Indian who is chasing them with his bow and arrow shooting at them, and they endure an awful lot all on one day to try to collect the most things on this list for scavenger hunt to have the most points so they can win millions of dollars. I like the movie because it's funny. But it makes me often think, what are we willing to do and endure for the sake of winning the greater prize we have of eternal life in heaven? We need to be more willing to be patient and steadfast as we endure things on this earth, knowing that God has qualified us. He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has already won the scavenger hunt for us, and therefore he has qualified us, and he has delivered us from the domain of darkness to bring us into the light, and he has redeemed us from our sins and the penalty of sin to give us eternal life in heaven with him and his son Jesus. And God's will is that we would keep our eyes focused on him, focused on the things above, on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endures the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, looking above. Kind of think about a book of Colossians, you know, like looking up, you know, looking up, looking above, keep your focus on the above. Consider him. Look to Jesus and don't grow weary and don't lose heart. God's will is that we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, strengthened with all power, to be steadfast and patient so that we can joyously give thanks to God the Father as we go through hard times in our life. That's God's will for you. Will you be part of it? Will you walk in it? Will you live your life in a manner worthy of the Lord? Will you live your life for Jesus, a life that is true? Some of you probably looked at the sermon title, Knowing God's Will, and you're going like, oh good, now I get to find out everything about God's will. And you're probably very disappointed because I didn't talk about, hey, what job should you get? I didn't talk about do you need to move to a different place? I didn't talk about should you make that purchase or that purchase? Should you go to this college or that college? There's lots of decisions that we have to make every day. And a lot of people come and say, well, what's God's will on this? I think it's very interesting. God's will doesn't go into those specifics so much. It's much broader. It allows us a freedom to act within his will. Will you walk in a manner that's worthy of the Lord? Will you be strengthened with all power from him to be steadfast for him? Will you joyously give thanks for God? And as long as any of our decisions that we make don't break those things, guess what? We are in God's will. Let's pray. Lord, I do thank you for this passage and I ask, Lord, that you would help us to realize your will is a much broader will than sometimes we look for. Help us, Lord, to trust the fact that as long as we walk in you, that we are faithful to you, that we can see great things because of what you do. Lord, help us to trust you always. In Jesus' name. Amen.