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Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1–18
turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one last week on our Sunday evening service for the Lord's Supper, we considered from alienation to reconciliation in verses 21 and 22. Well, this evening we're going to consider Paul's prayer for the Colossians in the first part of chapter one with special attention given to the thankfulness expressed by the apostle for the people of God in Colossae. just one among many thanksgivings in the lives of God's people. We are to be a thankful people and that thankfulness is expressed at the throne of grace.
So, I believe that Paul sets forth a good example here of a man who is thankful and expressing that to the Lord God Most High in his prayer closet on behalf of the people in Colossae. Specifically, we'll be looking at verses 10 to 14 this evening, but I will begin reading in verse 1 and read to verse 18. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the Saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.
As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. 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 in 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 patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and 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.
He is the image of the invisible God. the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for this, your written word, and we pray for the Spirit to guide our thoughts now. We pray that you would promote in us a grateful heart, a thankful heart. We know that you are worthy to be praised, worthy to be glorified, worthy to be honored in all things, and it is fitting for your people to be thankful. We just ask now that you would guide us in this, and we pray through Christ our Lord.
Amen. Well,
Introduction
if you look back for just a moment at Romans chapter 1, in Romans chapter 1, Paul tells us something that is peculiar to the ungodly. He tells us something that describes or characterizes the people who are dead in their trespasses and sins. He says in chapter 1 of the book of Romans, verse 21, he says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
So man's problem is that he doesn't honor God, he doesn't glorify God as God, nor is he thankful. This is a mark of the unconverted with reference to our Lord God. Now, conversely, when the Lord calls us out of darkness into marvelous light, it is so that we will proclaim his praises, so that we will declare his excellencies, so that we will be a thankful people. And to that end, let us look here at the apostles prayer going back for just a moment or
Paul's Prayer: Petition and Purpose
going back rather to Colossians chapter one at verse nine. Paul tells us the occasion of his prayer. 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 in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The Apostle Paul rented a lecture hall called the School of Tyrannus, and he preached in Asia Minor for a long time in that particular venue.
Many believe that a papyrus was one who came and was converted under the preaching of the Apostle Paul. A papyrus then goes back to the Lycus Valley and one of the churches that he founds, or he plants, is this church in Colossae. Paul himself had never been there, but he had met a papyrus, and a papyrus had brought back word to him, as he says there in verse 7, as you also learn from a papyrus, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. So when Epaphras reports this to the Apostle, the Apostle adds them to his prayer list.
The Apostle adds them to his list of churches and persons that he prays for. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. He speaks of when it commenced. He speaks of its frequency.
He says we do not cease to pray for you. And then he reveals to them the content of his prayer. You want to know how the Apostle Paul prayed? Here it is.
You want to know how the Apostle Paul prayed? Look at the book of Philippians. You want to know how the Apostle Paul prayed? Look at the book of Ephesians.
The Apostle didn't parade this as a means by which people would say, what a great prayer, but rather he revealed to the people of God how he prayed on their behalf. with the particular end that they would understand those things that are important, and they would seek by the grace of God to imbibe those things. So Paul lets us in on his prayer time. Note the specific petition that's found in verse 9 at the end. And to ask that, here you go, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
That's the particular petition. That's what Paul wants for the people of Colossae. We ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Now notice as well the purpose for this petition.
The purpose for this petition, the beginning of verse 10. Notice in verse 10 that he says, I want you to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that verse 10, you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. That's the purpose for the petition. I want you to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him.
That's a good petition. That's something we ought to pray for. That's something we ought to have in view when we think of our brothers and sisters and when we bring them to the throne of grace. We ought to pray that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that they may indeed walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him.
Now, he fleshes this out. We're just honing in. Just want you to see the structure. Want you to see how the apostle is coming to prayer.
I doubt he had, you know, sort of this outline and he went to the prayer closet and he opened it up and he said point one and point two and point three. He's trying to package it that way so that you can appreciate what he is doing here. And so you'll understand the thrust and the emphasis that he brings about. So what he does in the remaining verses up to verse 14, up to and including verse 14, is he fleshes it out.
If the structure or the skeleton or the petition is this, or the purpose for the petition is that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. We might ask the question, what does that look like? Right? If I say to you, I want you to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.
Do you always know exactly what is involved in that statement? I mean, I hope you have some general ideas. I hope that you have some general inklings. I shouldn't commit murder.
I shouldn't commit adultery. I should love my fellow man. I should seek to glorify Christ in my doings and my dealings. But here's what Paul does.
He gives the purpose, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. And then he gives us four particulars, four characteristics of what this walk looks like. What does it look like to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him? Everybody with me?
Everybody here? Everybody following? Now let's look at these
Four Characteristics of a Worthy Walk
four characteristics of a worthy walk that are part of Paul's prayer on behalf of the saints in Colossae.
Fruitfulness in Good Works
The first is that they would be fruitful in good works. Notice, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work. being fruitful in every good work. Paul wants the people of God in conformity to the Lord, seeking to please the Lord, to be a fruitful people. The Bible tells us that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ, that that is not of us, but rather it is the gift of God.
And then it goes on to tell us in Ephesians 2.10 that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The very epistle of James deals with people who profess saving faith in Christ. James highlights sovereign grace. James is not teaching another approach or a different approach on to God and acceptance with James acknowledges Sovereign Grace in James 1 18 of his will.
He brought us forth by the word of truth. He highlights the fact that these people profess faith in James 2 1. Then James says, if you say you have a justifying faith, that justifying faith will issue forth in good works. Our confession makes that very clear.
We're justified by faith alone, but by a faith that doesn't remain alone. It issues forth in sanctification. This is what the apostle wants for his people, or for these people that listen to them. This is contrary to what they were by nature.
Notice in Colossians 121, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked words. You see, a people that were engaged in wicked works, who have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love, are now prayed for that they would be fruitful in good works, that they would be lively, that there would be an evident faith among them, that they would demonstrate that that faith they have in the Lord Jesus Christ is, in fact, the real deal. Now notice,
Growth in the Knowledge of God
secondly, fruitfulness and good works is the first. The second is growth and the knowledge of God. Theology. I've noticed recently, it's surfaced again on the blogs, this whole idea of practice and doctrine.
You know, throughout the history of the church and probably in your own life, you'll meet people that seem to be only engaged in doctrine. Give me doctrine. Let me read theology, to the neglect of everything else around me. Let me just read theology.
And then you have the people say, no, doctrine's not so important, but good works rather. That's what we should be doing. We should be practical. Very often people do this with me.
I might talk about doctrine, and then they hit me with how important it is to be doing practical. And I'm thinking, do I wear a sign on my head that says I try and neglect the practical? You know, it's a given. You can't have both.
It's like the soup or the salad at the restaurant. You can't have both, right? You're either really doctrinal and your mind is in the clouds and you think about superlapsarian and superlapsarianism and you ponder the implications of every jot and tittle of a doctrinal treatise. And John Gill is your go-to brother and you like to spend time reading his cause of God and truth.
You never read Doctrine, you never read John Gill, and you're out ameliorating all the bad things in this world. You're the champion of the downtrodden and poor. You are the practical Christian. Paul tells us at this restaurant, you may have both.
And not only may you, but he prays that you will. that you will be fruitful in good works, increasing in the knowledge of God. It's not a, I want this. That's what satisfies me. I want to go out and right the wrongs of the world.
I don't want that. I just want doctrine. I just want to read Robert Raymond. I don't want anybody ever to mess with me.
No. You need to read Robert Raymond, or John Gill, or Louis Burkoff. especially the Apostle Paul and Isaiah the prophet, Moses. You need to read those men so that you're fueled and enabled to go out and do good works. You see, it's not a matter of either or.
Do you want the soup or the salad? The Christian must say, I want both. I want practical. I want to seek to honor my God.
I want to seek to live as a shining light in a crooked and perverse generation. But in addition, I must hold forth the word of truth. I must understand the word of truth. I must understand the gospel.
I must realize that the sign currently on the church downtown is wrong. What's it say? Live well. Cars aren't the only thing that are recalled.
What's the implication of that? Self-righteous, works-based acceptance with God. Live well because you might be recalled. What do you have to plead before God?
Your well-living. It would be more appropriate, though probably equally cheesy, to say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, because cars aren't the only thing that I recall. You see, it's inescapable. You can't choose.
I want to be doctrinal. I want to be practical. You must be both. Right?
It is interesting. When somebody does practical things, we want to hit them with their need to read John Gill. Somebody says, I've been reading John Gill. We want to hit them with their need to go serve soup or do something practical.
Can't we give, in the judgment of charity, the thought that somebody who reads John Gill does do decent things once in a while? And conversely, somebody who does decent things once in a while does read theology? I mean, does that animal exist? I certainly hope so, because Paul at the throne of grace is praying that the people in Colossae would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.
And what that means when it is dissected, when we put it under the microscope of a worthy walk, fully pleasing to God, it involves fruit bearing, it involves practical Christianity, it involves good works, it involves doing those things that our Lord calls us to in light of Matthew chapter 5, that we may be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But it also involves theology, understanding truth, and not a stagnant position, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Paul assumes that his audience has a certain degree of knowledge. But you're not supposed to stay there.
You're not supposed to stagnate. You're not supposed to just grow moss. in your Christian life. You to say what the spirit of the psalmist greater the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who find pleasure in that study the increase in the knowledge of God, realize that theology does matter, and that it is all important, and that what we know about God and what we understand about God ought to flesh itself out in this world around us.
When we understand something of the fatherhood of God and His glory in that capacity, hopefully it works its way into Our fatherhood of our children will read passages like Hebrews chapter 12. And while the primary emphasis is upon God chasing his children for their good, we'll glean the lesson. I need to chase in my children for their good. When we read that Jesus is the head of the church and I am the head of my wife, hopefully it will imbibe or it will inculcate in me a desire to be like Christ.
You see, you must fuel Your soul with the knowledge of God most high, so that you'll be fruitful in every good work. You can't have one without the other. That's what Paul prays. So fruitfulness and good works.
Growth in the knowledge of God.
Strength for Endurance
Thirdly, strength for endurance. Strengthened with all might, verse 11, according to His glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy. It's a great statement that Paul realizes that in this world you will have tribulation. Paul understands that in this world there is opposition to the people of God.
Paul understands this, so in his prayer for these people, one of the things that characterizes this walking worthy of the Lord is this strengthening with all might according to his glorious power. Not according to your glorious power, not according to your ingenuity, not according to your accomplishment, not according to your being able to grin and bear it or to knuckle under, but it's according to the power of God. Paul goes to the source when he needs help. Paul goes to the source of all strength and power when he wants to fetch some on behalf of the people of God Most High.
Now notice, he says, strengthen with all might according to His power, a glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy. Aren't patience and longsuffering the same thing? Aren't patience and long-suffering two ways of saying the same thing? If there is a distinction or a nuance here, we might say that patience is resolute endurance under difficult circumstances.
So it defines our Godward response. We're patient under the rod of God. We're patient under those difficult circumstances. In other words, when we face trials that have come from the Lord, we don't buck under His authority.
We don't complain. We submit and we seek to learn, by God's grace, the lessons that He would have for us. Again, Hebrews 12. No discipline for the moment seems good.
When you're spanking your child, they're not saying, Thank you, Mommy. Thank you, Daddy. This is awesome. Unless they're really weird.
I haven't met one yet. Not that I've spanked a lot of kids. Only five. But I don't ever remember any of them saying, thank you, Daddy.
May I have another? Thank you, Daddy. This is so pleasant. No discipline for the moment seems good.
But what does it do? It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. We need patience. Sometimes difficulties befall the saints of Christ.
Paul does not neglect that. Paul's not living in a fantasy world. Paul is not a utopian saying, just pretend that it doesn't exist. No, I understand the difficulties.
I understand the trials of the Christian life. Paul, above all of us, could relate. And Paul says, when I'm at the throne of God, I want you to be strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience, so that you don't buck under his authority, so that you don't complain, so that you don't scream, so that you don't yell, so that you don't apostatize, so that you aren't a fair weather fan that says, as long as God is blessing me, I'm going to be in his camp. But the moment the blessings stop, I'm done.
The moment my team starts to lose, I'm on to the next team. No, Paul says, I want you to be patient and dare up under those trials. The longsuffering is patient endurance that does not retaliate against others. Patience toward God, longsuffering toward one another.
Do we have that ability or do we have that characteristic? Is that native to us to suffer long with others? Not generally. I doubt it was native to these people in Colossae.
That's why Paul at the throne of grace is praying this way. I want you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. That means being fruitful in all good works. That means increasing in the knowledge of God.
That means being patient under trying times. And it means being long-suffering to one another. Bear with one another. Forebear with one another.
Suffer long with one another. Does that typify us? Does that describe us? Are we the retaliatory ones?
Are we the ones that have to, you know, exact a pound of flesh with every little thing? Paul says that's not typical, or that's not what characterizes a church. A church ought to be a place where people are suffering along with one another. Christian homes ought to be a place where people are suffering along with one another.
That doesn't mean suffering, oh, it's terrible to live with you. Don't ever go to your wife and say, do you know how long-suffering I've been with you? That's not the point. This is what Paul prays.
And I think the with joy is attached here. He doesn't say, I just want you to be patient and long-suffering. We might be able to master that. Okay, the stoic, Spartan approach to life.
I want you to be long-suffering. I want you to be patient under God, and I want you to be long-suffering toward one another with joy. You see that? With joy!
Don't just knuckle under, but bear under it Christianly. Bear under it the way the Savior did. Bear under it the way the Apostle did. Do it joyfully.
Again, that whole idea, no discipline for the present. You're not going to be smiling and singing Dixie in the midst of the greatest turmoils and difficulties and trials. But joy ought to characterize the pattern of patient, long-suffering in the life of the Christian. So,
Thankfulness to God
fruitfulness, growth in the knowledge of God, strength for endurance, and then fourthly, thankfulness to God. Thankfulness to God. I want you to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. This is what it looks like, being fruitful in every good work. increasing in the knowledge of God's strength and with all my giving thanks to the father.
Giving thanks to the father. You know,
Being Filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5
turn for just a moment to a similar epistle, the book of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians. Today, we're discussing the development of the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement, Pentecostal movement began in the early 1900s, probably the 19 single digits in Los Angeles. Now you say, well, Pentecost was back in the New Testament. Yeah, but the Pentecostal movement, early 1900s, the Azusa Street revivals there in Los Angeles.
So whenever you want to blame something, blame it on the West Coast. So everything comes from LA. Perhaps something we can probably trace back to that, or at least give a glance to, is this idea that somehow affects the churches today, that to be filled with the Spirit means you speak in tongues. Now, for many of you that have only been in a Reformed environment, that may sound a bit odd to you, but that is a common teaching out there. that being filled with the Spirit means that you can speak in tongues, or being filled with the Spirit means that you can prophesy, or being filled with the Spirit means that you can do great things.
It's always amazed me. Being filled with the Spirit doesn't mean that you're a regular, everyday, normal guy who schleps to and fro to work, who seeks to be faithful, who seeks to honor God, Oh no, no, no, you've got to really do these great things in order to give evidence that you're filled with the Spirit. Not according to Paul. Not in Ephesians chapter 5, where Paul says, do not be drunk with wine.
Verse 18, in which is dissipation, but notice verse 18, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, he's writing to people that already have the Spirit, according to Ephesians chapter 1. The Spirit is the seal and the guarantee of our final inheritance. There is that sense, though, as Spirit-filled people, or as people possessed by the Spirit, we pray for more of His influence, more of His presence, more of His power.
We want the Spirit to guide us and direct us and to lead us and to aid us in our study of Scripture and in our approach to life. So he makes this statement, be filled with the spirit. Now he's going to flesh this out. What does it look like to be filled with the spirit?
It says speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They speak in tongues. It doesn't say prophesy. It doesn't say go to Azusa Street.
It doesn't say start the Pentecostal movement. It doesn't say float across the stage. He says speak. In a certain way, your brothers and sisters.
Notice what else singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. It looks like to be filled with the spirit. You see, this is every Christian. This isn't just the tongue speakers of the prophets.
This isn't just the gurus of the movement. This is all of us. Be filled with the Spirit. It will affect the way you speak to one another.
It will affect the way you sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. Notice verse 20. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. A mark of the Spirit of God in the life of the Christian.
Thankfulness. Thanksgiving. Not just once a year because there's a big turkey and gravy. One man is well observed turkey.
The only reason people eat turkey is it's a vehicle for gravy. Who wants to eat turkey? You smother it with gravy. It's simply an excuse to eat gravy.
Same thing with the pumpkin. Who's going to eat a pumpkin if it isn't riddled and laced with sugar and covered with whipped cream? Who would eat a pumpkin? You know, we've accepted this mindset that Thanksgiving means turkey.
Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving means celebration as a family. I'm not saying we shouldn't do those things. I am suggesting that a spirit-filled Christian doesn't have to be coerced once a year to give thanks to God.
It is the outflow of his or her life. He has the spirit and he returns praise and thanksgiving to God. So you see, the command be filled with the spirit. It's filled out or fleshed out by several part of simple same thing that Paul is doing in Colossians 1.
Here's the purpose for the petition. Here's the part of simple, which flesh this out and indicate what it means. Notice the fourth thing, submitting to one another in the fear of God. A mark of the Holy Spirit is that we submit to one another in the fear of God.
We're not insisting upon our rights, we're not demanding that everybody bows to us, but rather a mark of the Holy Spirit is that we submit to one another in the fear of God. So Paul says in Colossians 1.12, giving thanks to the Father. Again, he doesn't stop there. It's a masterful prayer, really.
If you wanted to study the structure of a prayer, this is a great one to study. Why do we give thanks to the Father? Because you guys are great. Because you men and women in Colossae are splendid.
Because you people have achieved things that no one ever thought humanly possible for a motley crew like you. No,
Reasons for Paul's Thanksgiving
we give thanks to God. You, Church and Colossae, are the vehicle to bring us to God, to thank Him. You are the means by which we get to bask in the glory and the majesty of God Most High. We thank Him because He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us. It wasn't our works. It wasn't our well-living. It wasn't our being the best we can be.
It is God who qualifies us. It is God who brings us into this inheritance. It is God who gives us the exceeding riches of His glory. It's God who is thanked.
It's God who is praised. And it's God who is thanked and praised for His activity in your lives. Not only do we thank him because he's qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light, but we praise him and we thank him because he delivered us from the power of darkness. You see, Calvinism, if I may use that moniker, fuels the heart for praise and worship.
You see, Arminianism or Pelagianism, in the final analysis, you have to thank these people for what they've done. You have to thank these people that they've qualified themselves. You have to thank these people that they themselves have delivered themselves from the power of darkness. They made up their minds.
They walked an aisle. They signed a card. They raised their hand when every eye was closed, every head was bowed. Ultimately, they were the ones that get the glory and the praise.
But not so. Paul says we praise God. We thank God. The fact that you have been delivered from the power of darkness is evident manifold grace in your lives, and we give all glory to God.
Thirdly, God has transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love. Really a beautiful flow here. It's going to get into theology in verse 15. This still technically goes with his thankfulness, but the transition is already being made from the prayer closet to the theology lesson. from the prayer closet to the white board, if you will.
He's going to teach them doctrine. He's going to instruct them concerning Christ. Christ is creator. Christ is governor.
Christ is reconciler. He's going to get into all of that. And this time in his prayer transitions into it. Here's what I thank God for.
Here's what I praise God for. When I think of those Colossians in the Lycus Valley, I don't think what a wonderful lot they are and what a wonderful thing they've done. But it draws me to God. It causes me to flow Godward.
It causes me to consider that they were dead in their trespasses and sins, and the Lord God saved them. It causes me to reflect that when I preached in that school of Tyrannus, and that man Epaphras came, perhaps just to satisfy his curiosity, and God reached out and saved him, and sent him back to the Lycus Valley, where he in turn planted churches, Paul can only stand amazed at the glory and the grace of God. It's about the Lord, brethren. That's what thankfulness is.
God has transferred us to the kingdom of the son of his love. Thirdly, plainly that kingdom, he says, which has Christ for its head and founder, which is partially developed on earth and shall be finally perfected in heaven. The imagery, one other man says, of verses 12 and 13, suggests that believers have been rescued from the gloomy domain and tyrannical rule of Satan by being transplanted as free colonists into the kingdom and peaceable sovereignty of Christ, to become citizens in the realm of light. This is what makes Paul happy.
This is what makes Paul thankful. God qualified, God delivered, God transferred, and God, fourthly, has redeemed us from the bondage of sin. Isn't that the beauty of verse 14? In whom we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
When you see redemption, think of bondage. You think of propitiation, think of wrath. Propitiation is that doctrine wherein Christ takes the wrath of God for his people. Redemption presupposes bondage.
Redemption presupposes slavery. And what Paul says is the means by which we come out of bondage is we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. I alluded to John 8 this morning. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
If the sun shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. That's what Paul prays for the people of God in Colossae. that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. This looks like fruitfulness. This looks like growth in the knowledge of God.
This looks like strengthening for endurance and for patience and long suffering. And it looks like thankfulness. Thankfulness. If it is true or typical of the non-Christian that they don't honor God as God, nor are their hearts thankful, then what should be typical of the Christian?
We honor God as God, and our hearts are thankful.
Application: Cultivating Thankfulness
Back to Ephesians for just a moment. Did you notice what Paul says we ought to thank God for? Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I submit we need the spirit for that.
It's easy to thank God for the good things, isn't it? Romans 8, 28 speaks that God works all things for the good of those who love him, to the called according to his purpose. Notice it doesn't say he works all good things. That's a spin I think you and I put on that text.
God causes everything to work for good. Therefore, the Christian ought to thank God for everything. You see why we need the Spirit? You see why we need to be filled with the Spirit?
Because this doesn't come naturally. You're not going to thank God for a tragedy or a trial or a difficulty apart from the spirit. And again, there's a sinful way to do that. Thanks, God, I lost an arm and a rack.
No, you don't do it like that. To realize that in the midst of every trial and every difficulty and every circumstance that's hard, God has his purposes. You may not know them at the time. You may not understand it right now, but you can with the hymn writer say whatever my God ordains is right.
You can sing Hymn 21, William Cooper's God Moves in a Mysterious Way, His Wonders to Perform. You can sing it in faith. You can sing it knowing that God does indeed work these things for my good. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father.
Thanksgiving shouldn't be one day a year. It should be every single day for the Christian. And if you and I are not thankful, we need to repent. In the midst of our trials, in the midst of our circumstances, in the midst of our difficulties, we need to get alone with God and thank Him.
Thank Him. Praise Him. I read something recently, and I think I put it in the category of cheesy, but it was still powerful. What if you woke up this morning and you didn't have the things you didn't thank God for yesterday?
That puts a new perspective on things. You woke up in the morning. I went through the day yesterday, I didn't thank God for my wife. She's not there.
Again, it's kind of a bizarre thought. I didn't thank God for my children? Where's my kids? I didn't thank God for food?
I didn't thank God for water? I didn't thank God for so great a salvation? Again, it breaks down. God doesn't take our salvation from us.
Do you get the point? Are we a thankful people? In the midst of difficulty, in the midst of trials, some of the best tonic for the soul is to withdraw for a time and consider the blessings in the midst of it. I am not preaching this as a guru.
You all know me better than that. I'm not here saying, this is the path to thankfulness, brethren. We need the spirit. We need prayer.
We need conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We need as elders to pray for this church in this manner. You, as the people of God, need to pray these prayers in this particular manner, not just reciting the words, but grabbing the concepts, grabbing this idea of fruitfulness. Grabbing this idea of increasing in knowledge and being strengthened with might, and also being thankful, giving thanks to God the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the like.
A brother recently reminded me, what more is there than hearing on that day, well done, good and faithful servant. Is there anything else? Really, the grand scheme of things. Is there anything more important than hearing the father say to you, well done, good and faithful servant?
No, no. I mean, I kind of like to hear nice things from my kids. That's good. You know, I like to have friendly conversations and all that.
But, you know, in the grand scheme of things, what is most important? The fact that God has qualified us for this inheritance, the fact that God has drawn us out of out of darkness in the marvelous light. The fact that he has conveyed us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. The fact that we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Those are the things brethren we ought to consider. We ought to meditate on and we ought to praise God for thankfulness. Should it be a tack on. It should be the disposition.
It should be a characteristic in the Christian's life. If you are not a Christian, believe on the Lord Jesus. That is where you learn thankfulness, because by nature you don't honor God as God, nor is your heart thankful. The place to learn is with Jesus, to come to the cross, to come to the Savior, to receive that redemption through his blood, to receive that imputed righteousness, and to come out on the other side praising, worshiping, and thanking.
That's why the Heidelberg Catechism moves in those three areas. Guilt, grace, gratitude. There's a logical progression. Guilt, where we are by nature, grace, where God brings us to, and gratitude, the response of the one who has been transferred.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your Word, and God, do create in us a thankful spirit and a genuine desire to praise and to worship and to honor you. Help us to understand the scripture, help us to understand the gospel, and may this be fuel for thankfulness on the part of your people. And do fill us with your Holy Spirit, God, so that we're thankful always, in all things, realizing that a good God is orchestrating everything for His own glory and for the well-being of His people. Go with us now, Father.
Watch over us in this coming week, we pray, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.