This is the Christmas season, and we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s one true Son. One of the customs of Christmas is to celebrate God’s gift to us by sharing gifts with others. We talked about the greatest gift from God these past two weeks: the Gospel itself. But Paul's not done seeking gifts from God for these new believers. Neither should we think we have nothing to offer to God. What gifts can you and I give to the Lord of all creation who needs nothing from us? Let's see if Paul's prayer can give us any insights.
Notes
Col 1:9 (NIV) For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
- Not done when we believe the Gospel, just getting started
- Salvation is complete, but learning to live it out is just beginning
- Paul doesn’t stop praying for them—not one and done, but continuous need
- Need to be filled with the knowledge of God's will
- All the things God wants us to know about what He wants us doing in the world
- includes His big picture purposes
- but more importantly, His little picture things specifically for you and me
- not
- tell me exactly which person to marry
- tell me what field to study or job to do
- but
- learn what matters to God and do it
- learn God's principles for life and follow them
- you'll be able to discern who is a godly life partner
- you'll be able to discern how best to use your life for God
- “through all spiritual wisdom and understanding”
- not mystical knowledge and experience, miraculously imparted to us
- but wisdom from God,
- through His Word
- through older, wiser, more experienced Christians
- understood by the Spirit, not on our own, in the flesh (1Cor 2:6-16)
- received through obedience (John 14:21)
- Need to be filled with the knowledge of God's will
- Paul rightly prays for God to grant understanding
- It is a work of the Spirit
- But the sources of that knowledge and wisdom are at our fingertips
- If we don't read His Word, do what it says, learn from older Christians, all the prayer in the world won't help
- We seek the Lord's wisdom through study and submission
- and the Lord speaks and grants understanding
- Like a gift God wants to give us
- Not just a baby born to save the world and rule it
- Not just forgiveness and a new creation through Jesus’ death and resurrection
- But regular, new gifts given on all occasions as we seek to know Him and do His what He wants us to do
- That's it. That's Paul's prayer. But why this prayer? What’s the point?
- What comes next begins to show us God's will for our lives and the gifts we can return to Him in thanks for choosing us who believe the Gospel, making us His own children.
Col 1:10 (NIV) And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
- Why do we need to know and understand His will?
- So we can live a life worthy of Him
- And please Him in every way
- Those who believe the Lord should be eager to learn God’s will so we know how to please the Lord who saved us
- Anyone who thinks knowing God’s will and living according to it is unimportant obviously hasn’t believed the Gospel
- What does it mean to live a life worthy of the Lord?
- It means recognizing how good and holy and righteous God is, and living a life as close to His goodness, righteousness and holiness as possible.
- It means we make sure everything we do and say brings honor to God
- It means we “please Him in every way,” in everything we live for and in the way we live every day
- How do you behave in your dorm? In class? Outside the school? At home? With your friends?
- Are you the same person with classmates and friends as you are with teachers and student life leaders?
- What do you say online?
- What do you watch online?
- Do you live as fully aware that God sees everything you do, things in public, things in private, things in secret?
- Are you thinking at all times, whatever you’re doing, “How do I please and honor God in this activity, in my words?”
- Paul lists four ways we can and should be living to honor and please Him
- 1 “Bearing fruit in every good work”
- Notice, Paul writes “bearing fruit in every good work,” not just that we should do a bunch of good works
- We should do good, but for God to be pleased and honored by it, we need to know what works God considers good—so we need to know and understand His Will
- We don't define what is good—our evaluation is corrupted by our years living in sinful, worldly wisdom
- We need to read God's Word to see what His calls good, and then we need to do the things instructed
- So what things are considered good? Paul will go into greater detail in coming chapters
- But we're not just called to do good, we’re called to bear fruit in our every good work
- Can we control the outcome of our good deeds? Can we ensure that our good works produce fruit?
- To bear fruit God desires, we need to link God to our good deeds, so He can get the glory
- Every deed has an outcome, a product.
- I think this points not only to the kinds of things we're supposed to do, but also the way in which we should do them
- As you read the Bible, you find that God is not just concerned with our actions, but also with our attitudes
- Consider Paul's command to slaves in the book of Ephesians (6:5-8, NIV):
- Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
- The command is to obey their masters, but not just with simple, basic obedience
- Paul gives a bunch of qualities that should define Christian obedience: respect, fear, sincerity of heart, not just when their master is watching, but from the heart, wholeheartedly
- This is the kind of obedience we're all called to, the kind that honors God
- The fruit of our godly deeds is not always what we desire
- Consider Jesus
- Did everyone repent and believe Him every time He did a miracle or taught the Truth about God? No
- (Jn 12:47-50, NIV) “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
- Jesus spoke exactly what His Father wanted Him to speak, but the result is condemnation for those who reject His words, and eternal life for those who believe.
- If we know what the Father wants us to do, and we do it in the way the Father wants us to do it, our deeds will bear fruit, but not always the fruit we want—but exactly what fruit the Father intends
- This is a gift we can give the Father at all times: walking in obedience to His commands in the spirit and attitude He commands
- 2 “Growing in the knowledge of God”
- Strangely, Paul says he prays for the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God's will so that they may grow in the knowledge of God.
- You would think that if you know what God wants, you also know God!
- But that's not automatically true
- We've seen this before in John 15:15 (NIV):
- “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
- A servant knows what is required of him, but he doesn't necessarily understand his master’s business; he doesn't care. He just doesn't want to get in trouble
- The servant who doesn’t just listen and do what is commanded, but seeks to understand the master's goals and purposes, so he can do his work better and even anticipate what the master wants, this servant rises above the rest to become a friend of the master.
- He grows in his understanding of his master
- Some of us have learned to play the part of a good Christian when certain eyes are on us, but when those eyes are not watching, we live an entirely different way
- Those people are not truly interested in knowing and doing God's will
- They just want to keep their authorities off their backs, or trick them into giving something only they can give
- But God cannot be deceived, and such false servants will not receive the reward they really need, though they may obtain some of the things they want
- There is another principle at work here, as revealed by John 14:21 (NIV):
- “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
- When we willingly, gladly, fully submit to the Father, knowing His will and doing it they way He wants, the Father and the Son are pleased to reveal more of Themselves to us.
- Knowing His will and doing it results in greater understanding of God Himself
- God is pleased and honored when we desire not just to know what we’re supposed to do, but more than that, when we desire to know God Himself.
- The more we want to know Him, the more we want to know and do what pleases Him in the way that honors Him—that’s love for God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength
- That is such a precious gift to God that He responds with the gift of showing Himself to us!
Col 1:11 (NIV) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
- 3 “Being strengthened with all God's power so that we have great endurance and patience”
- The life that honors and pleases God is one of great endurance and patience
- You and I have an innate capacity to endure trial and remain patient
- That only glorifies us
- God is looking for endurance and patience that glorifies Him—which means it has to be beyond human ability—it has to be supernatural
- This is what Peter is talking about when he says (1 Peter 1:6-7, NIV):
- In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
- This is why John tells us (1 John 2:15-17, NIV):
- Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
- The life that pleases and honors God is the life that chooses to walk in God’s ways, even though it costs him all the pleasures of this world. Like Moses, who
- “chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (Hebrews 11:25-26, NIV)
- The world hates those who belong to Jesus and walk in His ways (John 15:18-25)
- Satan hates true followers of Christ too (1 Peter 5:8-9)
- “Seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt 6:33, NIV) means giving up worldly ambitions and provoking to anger those who refuse to believe in Jesus.
- It requires supernatural endurance and patience to walk in such a way
- Endurance in giving up the treasures and pleasures of this world
- Endurance in carrying on in the face of opposition and ridicule
- Patience to trust that the Lord will indeed reward us, and the reward will be worth it
- Even Paul says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Cor 15:19, NIV)
- Because we missed our only chance for anything good and enjoyable, hoping for something better that doesn’t exist!
- But it does exist!
- People who live by faith in God and His Gospel promise are people that God is not ashamed of. He is pleased to call them His own and to prepare a glorious, eternal city for them (Heb 11:13-16).
- It requires supernatural endurance and patience to walk in such a way
- The life that honors and pleases God cannot be lived in our strength
- We need God’s gift of His incomparable power to carry out His will
- We learn of His will; we submit ourselves to do His will; He empowers us to obey and to endure the backlash and to patiently wait for His reward
- Enduring what seems impossible to unbelievers, patiently trusting and waiting for God’s promise that seems so far off, this is a gift we should give to God not just at Christmas but all through our lives
- And He gifts to us His supernatural power to enable us endure the impossible
and joyfully (Col 1:12-14, NIV) giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints 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.
- 4 “Joyfully giving thanks to God who qualified us to share in Christ’s kingdom”
- The last gift of a God-honoring and God-pleasing life, which comes from knowing the will of God, is a heart of gratitude
- We talked a lot about this last month
- Mr. Vossler touched on this last week
- It is the Holy Spirit through Gospel that changes us, cleanses us and qualifies us to live forever in the kingdom of Christ and His Father
- Through the Gospel
- we are rescued from the kingdom of darkness, from enslavement to sin and Satan, from the promise of eternal punishment
- We are brought into the kingdom of the Son God loves, made eternal citizens, having our forgiveness and citizenship purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ
- If we really appreciate the rescue God effected through Jesus Christ, we cannot help but overflow with gratitude
- Joyful thanksgiving
- Continual thanksgiving
- Eternal thanksgiving
- It is a fitting gift to give the one who saved your life—not this short, temporary life, but your eternal existence—rescuing you from Hell to bring you into Heaven
- The last gift of a God-honoring and God-pleasing life, which comes from knowing the will of God, is a heart of gratitude
We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, at Christmas. He was born to rescue you. Not just to become an example of humility, but to walk in perfect obedience to the Father so that He would be qualified to pay the penalty for our sin and to conquer sin and death. Through His death and resurrection, by the power and authority of His righteous life, all we who believe in Him escape the just, eternal punishment we deserve and are made holy, qualified to enjoy His perfection, glory, holiness and righteousness forever and ever.
It is only right that we offer to God the rest of our days on earth, to learn His will and do it, living lives that honor and please Him. Lives that bear fruit in every good work, that grow in understanding our God, that patiently endure the trials and resist the temptations of this world, and that overflow with joy and thanksgiving for God’s rescue of us through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
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