We'll read to you Colossians 4, 2-4.
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
! At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the Word
to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison,
that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.
This is God's Word to us.
It was written for His glory and for our good.
We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Now, as we've been working in Colossians through chapter 3 and into chapter 4,
we've seen Paul lay out for the Colossian believers and now for us as recipients of God's Word,
the way in which the new life will look.
Having put off the old self, having been changed in Christ,
the doctrinal word for this would be regeneration.
Those who have placed faith in Christ are now new creations.
No longer the old, now the new.
And Paul lays out this listing of exhortations for how the new life should look.
The new self shouldn't look like the old self.
It should now look differently.
And he's been working in this kind of ever-narrowing way as we go through 3 and into 4.
Chapter 3, verses 5-17 are particularly exhortations for how the new self should function in relationship with the church.
Those who also are in Christ, the Christian church.
Verses 18-4-1 for how the new self should function in the Christian household.
And then for our context regarding slaves and masters in the workplace.
And then here we find in 4-2-6, for us today 2-4,
an ever-narrowing scope for the individual.
How then is each of us as individuals meant to live?
And how should we be connecting that to the mission of God?
And so you can see how it narrows down here at the close of his letter.
Now over the next two weeks, as we look through verses 2-6,
there will be basic four activities, lifestyles of the new self.
And they are this, and we're going to cover just the first two,
maybe a bit of the fourth today as we get into verse 4.
But they are the prayer of the new self, found in verses 2-3.
The opportunity of the new self, found in the last half of verse 3.
The activity of the new self, found in verse 5.
And the speech of the new self.
You can see this in verse 4 and in verse 6.
So today let's look at the prayer of the new self.
Verse 2 through the first part of 3.
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray also for us.
And there's a simple overarching exhortation for this beginning to one and a half verses.
And that is pray.
He starts off verse 2 by saying, continue.
So, the Colossian believers are, in fact, praying.
And every believer should be given to prayer.
It is the right and proper activity of the Christian person that they should pray.
Here we find, before Paul's exhortation to pray,
Remember, the church at Colossae is not a church that was established by Paul.
It's not a church that was visited by Paul or ever was that we know of.
But he's merely writing to them to correct some doctrine.
And he finds already that there are prayers.
He says, continue steadfastly in prayer.
So, all of us who are found in Christ should be given to prayer.
The quote on the front of your bulletin this morning by Spurgeon.
I have a new quote book by Spurgeon, which is why you're going to get a lot of those in the coming months.
In case you're wondering, I also love Spurgeon.
We love the babies.
Truly.
Spurgeon said, we cannot all argue, but we can all pray.
We cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders.
We cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer.
You see, God designs His purposes, the way that God is functioning and working in the world,
to be dependent on the prayers of His people.
He designs His purposes to be dependent on the prayers of His people.
Now, our God is sovereign.
Our God can do whatever He pleases.
And He does not need us for any of His purposes in this world to be accomplished,
except that He has decided to use us to that great end.
He has decided to enact His plans in this world through the prayers of His people.
And this is because He loves us.
Without developing that entirely for you this morning,
you need to know that the invitation for the Christian to pray
is an invitation into a relationship with God
because He loves to work through the prayers of His people
that His people might experience Him,
that they might know Him.
The story we read to the children this morning,
the great tragedy of that story
is that when Adam sinned,
death was ushered into this world in a final way.
At the end of their lives, they would die.
We see that experience that all around us.
Things are degenerating.
They're falling apart.
They will die.
But the greater and higher tragedy of that
is that the wonderful union they had with God,
the ability to walk with Him
and to talk with Him was severed.
They were cast away from God.
And now we find in Christ that being redeemed,
the ability again to be in relationship with our Creator.
And the way we do that is through the reading of His Word.
He speaks to us and we pray to Him.
It should be a major activity of the Christian life to pray.
God draws us in to the things that He's doing through prayer.
And let me just say, in past experience, recent experience,
I hope that many of you enjoyed this with me,
we were able to be brought along in God's work
in the funding of the Zwimpies heading to Germany.
There's a family in our church that just recently,
a few weeks ago, headed to Germany
to work for a boarding school for missionary children there.
And they had a great deal of funding to raise,
to be able to go and to do this thing.
In fact, the school itself was very, very doubtful.
Those of you who experienced and walked through that with them,
when they actually raised the money,
there was no housing available for them
because the school didn't actually think
that they were going to be able to meet the funding goal
because it takes most families 18 to 24 months
to raise the funding necessary to come.
In this case, it only took nine.
And many of us were invested with the Zwimpies in prayer.
The only thing that Sam and I could do physically for them
was a little bit per month, right?
We devoted to give a little bit to this huge sum
to be accomplished,
but we also gave ourselves in prayer.
And what a joy it was to see God move and work
through His people, both here and beyond,
to see the Zwimpies able to go.
That we could rejoice in them with that
was a wonderful invitation from the Lord
to be in relationship with Him
and to witness His work in the world.
Now, prayer is an incredibly difficult thing.
I find that American Christians are not given
to tackling difficult tasks.
If it's easy and attainable,
we'll throw ourselves at it.
But if something is of challenge to us,
we tend to not do so.
It's very difficult to pray,
to devote ourselves to prayer.
There are things working against us
for us not to be prayers.
The world, our old selves, and Satan
do not want us praying.
God enacts His purposes,
uses the prayers of His people
to put His purposes in motion,
and everything that is said against God
does not want God's people to pray.
You have to recognize this
and oh how often we hand victory
over to these elements.
We just give it back away.
We ignore altogether that prayer
is of great importance.
John Piper once said,
when we pray,
we kneel in a hornet's nest of evil.
It stirs it up.
And for those of you
who work on this property some,
you'll know there's a huge hornet's nest
on the eve way down here,
which has not been affecting
the coming and going out that bottom door.
So we've just been trying to figure out
exactly how we're going to get it down
and deal with it.
But the other Saturday morning,
a group was up here mowing the grass.
The leadership of Parker White
was doing that,
and Parker had a little bit of spray with him,
a little bit of spray in the can.
In fact, I picked up the can
and went,
this is not going to be enough.
And he said,
let's just give it a shot.
So we put a huge ladder up
on the side of the building,
and Parker bravely climbed up there
and went,
pssh,
and quickly climbed down the ladder.
I know not all of you were there,
but just if you can picture
this scene happening,
and the nest got stirred up.
It was just enough
to really make them mad,
and they began to come out.
In some coming weeks,
maybe you can be up here
when we actually take care of the whole thing
with finality, right?
But prayer is powerful.
It is effective, right?
God wants his people praying
so that he can accomplish things
through his people,
and I wonder so often
if things aren't happening
in our church
and in churches around us
because God's people don't pray, right?
He's just asking.
He's just saying,
come into this relationship with me.
I have such wonderful things
I want to do,
and I want you to be part of it, right?
The invitation is there
for us to pray,
and it should be a major part
of the life of every Christian.
But not just to pray,
as the overarching exhortation
here in the text.
So certainly pray, right?
You walk away one thing, right?
If you're a believer,
if you're found in Christ,
pray.
Put an exclamation mark on it
in your notes.
Pray.
But there are some ways
in which we're meant to pray.
Firstly, we're to pray persistently.
He says, continue steadfastly in prayer.
Steadfastly means with devotion.
Some of your translations may say that.
The Greek word,
most rightly rendered,
means with courageous persistence.
Persistence.
Which is why this point is to pray persistently,
with courageous persistence.
We're elsewhere instructed to pray at all times.
You'll find that in the parallel text
in Ephesians 6, 18.
1 Thessalonians 5, 17,
Paul says to pray without ceasing.
This doesn't mean that we go away someplace
to a quiet hilltop,
and we never stop praying,
that we become monastic,
and we don't engage in the world,
but rather that we carry about us
a spirit of prayer.
We connect everything that we're doing
as we're walking through the world
to God's good purposes,
that we're constantly talking to Him.
We're constantly aware that He exists.
He does.
We're just cognizant of that.
We look through this lens
of God's activity in the world,
and as we're going through the day,
we're asking that He would bless
a particular conversation,
that He would change something for His glory.
Constantly in the spirit of prayer.
But also, we're meant to be
in particular times of prayer.
I think this is what Paul means here
when he talks about continuing steadfastly,
that there's this encouragement
to particular times of prayer,
both corporate and individual,
that we gather as God's people
together to pray,
and that we spend time
in the closet of prayer,
that we get on our knees
before the Lord
in a persistent manner.
Jesus tells two parables,
one of which is found in Luke 18,
in order to illustrate
the importance of persistent prayer.
If you will, turn to Luke 18.
This has the potential
of being a familiar parable to you.
It's the parable,
it's often called,
of the persistent widow.
Chapter 18, verse 1,
it says,
And He told them a parable
to the effect that they ought
always to pray
and not lose heart.
And I so love Luke's writing
because he so often gives us
the commentary for the text itself, right?
Why does this parable exist?
So that they ought always to pray
and not to lose heart.
And so we dive into it
with that in mind.
He said,
In a certain city there was a judge
who neither feared God
nor respected man.
He wasn't a good judge.
And there was a widow in that city
who kept coming to him and saying,
Give me justice against my adversary.
For a while he refused,
but afterward he said to himself,
Though I neither fear God
nor respect man,
yet because this widow
keeps bothering me,
I will give her justice
so that she will not beat me down
by her continual coming.
And the Lord said,
Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
And will not God give justice
to his elect
who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long over them?
I tell you,
he will give justice to them speedily.
Nevertheless,
when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?
So you see that there's this unjust judge,
doesn't fear God,
doesn't respect man,
but because he no longer wants to be annoyed,
he will do what is right.
And what Jesus is doing,
he's juxtaposing this unjust judge
against God who is just,
who does do what's right.
He's not suggesting that if we have
something we desire,
and we just pester God to death,
he'll give us what we want.
What he's saying is,
that if you ask for things that are just,
if you ask for justice,
if you seek justice in your prayer,
surely God will answer.
We are to persist in prayer.
We see another wonderful example of this
in Acts 1.
Jesus is walking now.
He's been crucified.
He's resurrected.
He's walked now for 40 days
amongst the disciples.
In Acts 1.8,
we see a command.
He says,
But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea,
and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.
And with that,
he ascends.
So this is the last thing
that is recorded
that Jesus says to them,
and then he ascends.
And can you imagine
living in that day,
being the apostles,
and not knowing what to do next?
He's given us a command.
We're meant to be witnesses
in these varying places,
these varying spheres of influence
that we have.
We're going to receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes.
What do we do?
So they go back to the upper room.
And we find them there
with a number of others,
about 120 in total,
in verse 14 of chapter 1,
doing what?
devoting themselves to prayer.
They went and they consistently,
they persisted across the span of time
where the Spirit had yet to come
in prayer.
And the Spirit comes.
And you know the story, I hope,
of Pentecost.
If not, read on in your text.
What a wonderful thing
that God works in them by the Spirit.
And thousands and thousands
come to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But they don't stop there.
They don't go,
oh, we have the Spirit now.
Now we can stop praying.
You see the activity of the early church
in chapter 2, verse 42,
still devoting themselves
to the prayers.
We never outgrow our need
of the Lord's intervention.
It is God who works.
It is God who can accomplish.
It's by His power
that things happen in this world.
So we never outgrow it.
So we are to pray persistently.
Persistently.
Secondly, we are to pray watchfully.
He says later there in verse 2,
being watchful in it.
Keeping alert in your praying.
In the most basic sense,
I think there is some understanding here
of physical alertness.
That we are to stay awake.
That we are not to get distracted.
Matthew 26, 40 and 41.
It's seen as the Garden of Gethsemane
before Jesus' arrest
and His later crucifixion.
Verse 40, it records,
And He came to the disciples
and found them sleeping.
And He said to Peter,
So could you not watch with Me one hour?
Watch and pray
that you may not enter into temptation.
The Spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
How often do we go into times of prayer
and fall asleep?
I'm guilty.
How often do we go into times of prayer
and we're so very easily distracted?
Beloved,
one wonderful subset of benefit
to gathering together with God's people to pray
is the practice of focus.
Gather with a group of people
for an hour or so
and pray together.
And I hope
you're not looking at your phone.
There's nothing distracting you
that you're engaging in what's going on
because you're not simply taking turns praying,
but you're praying together.
We as a people
are losing our ability to focus.
Two years ago
at our men's retreat,
we were off and away
at this incredibly tiny cabin
for how many of us there were.
We were packed into this little space
and we required as part of that time in the morning
that all of the men
take some time to themselves,
some time to study,
some time of prayer.
And I had gotten up extra early.
A couple of us did.
Some of the elders,
we got up extra early
and we did that time
and then we were cooking.
So we were trying to be quiet
in this little kitchen
cooking up bacon
and biscuits
and some other things that we had.
And I cannot tell you
how many times
I looked out across
a group of men
who were meant to be taking time
to study their word
and pray to God
and how many of them
were on their phones.
Put it away.
Throw it away
if you have to.
Some wonderful features
on your phone
where you can just tell it
not to bother you.
It's a fantastic thing.
So in the most basic of senses,
you need to learn
to devote yourself to prayer.
Being watchful in it.
Setting aside the distractions
and devoting yourself in it.
In the broader sense,
and I think this is what Paul
particularly means.
He's primarily aimed at saying
that believers should be aware
of the things
that they should specifically pray for.
They should be watchful.
They should be looking around
at the world around them
and aware of what it is
they ought to be praying for.
I hear so many prayers
that are so grossly general.
Catch-all prayers.
And the greater includes the lesser,
but the exhortation here
to be watchful
is to pray specifically for things.
Paul gives us an example
of a specific thing
to be prayed for.
It's very difficult
to pray persistent prayers
that are vague.
I found that to be true
in my own life.
If I'm only asking
that God would do
these huge general things.
God, work in our church
for the sake of your glory.
It's a wonderful thing to pray.
Please, Lord,
work in our church
for the sake of your glory.
But if this is all I ever pray,
it's very difficult
to persist in that.
But if I say,
God, work in our church
for the sake of your glory,
and here's the ways
that I believe
you need to work.
These are the ways
that I think you want to work.
Will you use these prayers
to do this work
in our church?
And he so often answers
those prayers specifically.
So pray persistently.
Pray watchfully.
Pray thankfully.
Thankfully.
Last part of verse 2 says,
with thanksgiving.
With thanksgiving.
Pause for a moment
just for a quick aside.
I'm told that I mispronounced
the word thankful
because I say it
the thankful
instead of thankful.
It's one of the things
that I get picked on
by my wife,
so I'm really,
my mind is self-conscious
as I'm about to say.
Thankfully
and thanksgiving
a thousand times,
so I'm just not going
to worry about it.
But pray thankfully.
I'll say it the way
I want to.
With thanksgiving.
This is the fifth time
that Paul has mentioned
thanksgiving in Colossians.
The fifth time.
It's developing here
thematically.
Those of you who have
been here have seen me.
I've talked about this
a couple of times.
You see it in chapter 1,
verse 12.
Chapter 2, verse 6.
Chapter 3, verse 15.
And in verse 16.
So for the fifth time,
he's talked about
being thankful,
the importance
of being thankful.
Why?
I believe it's because
thanksgiving has
perspective-shifting power.
It reminds us
of who our God is.
And not only just
who He is,
but who He is
to us.
We're reminded
that God is faithful
and just,
that He is loving,
that He cares about us
when we're thankful,
when we think about
all of the things
that He has accomplished
for us.
When we stop
and ponder those things
and when we approach Him,
we begin with these
hearts of thanksgiving.
Lord, You have done
so much on my behalf.
We could just
pray prayers of thanksgiving
for the rest of our lives
and never run out of things
to thank God for.
But thanksgiving helps us.
It encourages us
to turn and pray
bold prayers
before our God.
Prayers of thanksgiving
thanksgiving are fuel
for asking for
the supplication
for what God would do
in our world.
And there are some things,
specific things,
that we ought to be
thankful for.
Generally thankful for
and thankful for
in our prayers.
Five kind of
all-encompassing things.
And I'll just
thank John MacArthur
for making these,
this alliteration work.
So, they are
God's presence.
We ought to be thankful
for God's presence.
Psalm 75.1 says,
We give thanks to You,
O God.
We give thanks
for Your name
is near.
We recount
Your wondrous deeds.
We have a relationship
with God.
He is near to us
and we are near to Him.
We can, in fact,
go to Him
because of the work
of Christ.
Because Christ
intercedes for us.
When God looks at us,
He sees Jesus.
We can enter into His presence
and we can pray.
We ought to be thankful
for God's presence.
Secondly,
we should be thankful
for God's provision.
This includes
many specifics,
but generally
for God's provision.
When Paul was adrift
at sea
in the midst
of a storm,
he was thankful
for the food
that God provided
in the midst
of a scary,
horrible situation.
Acts 27.35
records,
And when he had said
these things,
he took bread
and giving thanks
to God
in the presence
of all,
he broke it
and began to eat.
Thankful for the things
that God provided
even in the midst
of a situation
that was terrifying.
Thankful for the food,
for God's provision.
Thirdly,
we are to be thankful
for God's pardon.
Romans 6.17.
Paul writes,
But thanks be to God
that you who were once
slaves of sin
have become obedient
from the heart
to the standard of teaching
to which you were committed.
We have been delivered
because of the work
of Jesus Christ.
Right?
We have placed faith
in that
and therefore
we are saved
and we are to be thankful
for God's pardon.
Fourthly,
for God's promises.
2 Corinthians 1.20.
Paul writes,
For all the promises of God
find their yes in Him.
That is why
it is through Him
that we utter our amen
to God
for His glory.
We are to be thankful
for His promises.
And beloved,
if you don't know
your Scriptures,
you don't know
His promises.
Right?
You don't have
the undergirding
and the great encouragement
of who God is to you
if you don't know
your Scripture.
Get in it.
Saturate yourself with it.
Know God's promises to you.
You can walk through
so many difficult things
in life
just simply by meditating
on that.
And what a fuel
then it becomes
to ask that God
would deliver you through
whatever it is
that you're dealing with.
Know God's promises.
Many of you who know me well
know that one of my
spiritual heroes
is a man named
George Mueller
from Bristol, England.
My father introduced me to him.
I'm so thankful
that he did.
An amazing man of faith
did so many things
for the kingdom of God.
The primary thing
that most people
know him for
is he ran
a number of orphanages.
Cared for thousands
and thousands of kids
across his lifetime.
But he saw
his primary ministry
was to show
that God was a God
that could be trusted
for his promises.
That we could place
faith in God
and that that faith
would never be disappointed
if we believed
in God's promises.
So he did some
very peculiar things
with this ministry
to the orphans.
He did many other things.
He was a pastor of a church.
Many people forget
that he did that
across his life.
He had an organization
that was a funding organization
for missionaries
all over the world.
Did some wonderful work
in that regard.
And he oriented
the way he did things
in a way
so that he could always
easily trace
the monies that came
and the other resources
that came directly
to answer prayer
from God.
I can't get into
all the particulars
of that for the sake
of time.
But a wonderful example
of this.
He saw that as his
primary ministry
to show the church
that we can believe
the promises
that God makes.
And the very best
biography written
about him
was written by a man
named A.T. Pearson
and this is from
that biography.
He wrote,
Thus,
under his great teacher
being God,
did this pupil
early in his
spiritual history
learn that supreme
lesson
that to every child
of God
the word of God
is the bread of life
and the prayer of faith
the breath of life.
That we are sustained
by these things.
Feasting on the word of God
and breathing in
and out
through prayer.
Fifthly,
we're to be thankful
for God's purpose.
Romans 8.28
Hope it's familiar to you.
And we know that
for those who love God
all things work
together for good.
For those who are called
according to his purpose.
So we're to pray
with thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving will change
the way
that you pray.
Take a quick look
at this.
When the disciples
ask Jesus
how should they pray,
he responds
like this.
This is so cool.
I think you're familiar
with this.
Matthew 6.9-13
This is Jesus' answer.
Christ, Lord,
teach us how to pray.
And he says,
Pray then like this.
Like this,
not this.
I'm going to make
that distinction for you.
There's nothing wrong
with repeating
the Lord's Prayer,
but pray then like this.
He's giving us
a pattern for prayer.
Notice the things
that I've said
that we ought to be
thankful for in that.
Our Father in Heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Presence.
Our Father.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth
as it is in Heaven.
Purpose.
Verse 11,
Give us this day
our daily bread.
Provision.
Verse 12,
And forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven
our debtors.
Pardon.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Promises.
How cool that is
that that works together
in that way
as Jesus explains to us.
So we get some further
fleshing out,
some further understanding
as we read the rest
of the Scriptures.
What is it that we're
supposed to be praying for?
What is it that we're
supposed to be thankful for?
It's all running together
in this way.
So we're to pray persistently.
We're to pray watchfully.
We're to pray thankfully.
And we're to pray
intercessory prayers.
I desperately wanted
this point to be
pray intercessory.
But it is not a word.
And I really looked.
I was really hoping
somewhere,
some source out there
would tell me it was okay
to say intercessory.
But if you care
to make up a word,
you can pray intercessory
or pray intercessory prayers.
Verse 3,
the very beginning,
says,
at the same time,
pray also for us.
So he's not negating here.
Paul's not saying that
all of your prayers
have to be for others.
Right?
Because he says,
at the same time,
so as you're praying
these prayers,
pray also for us.
So pray for yourself.
Pray for those circumstances
that you're walking through,
that you're in the midst of.
Pray for your community.
And at the same time,
pray also for us.
Intercessory prayer
or intercession
is just that.
It's praying on behalf
of someone else.
It's praying for someone else.
It's praying for a lost friend
or a family member
or a co-worker.
It's praying for other believers.
It's going to God
on their behalf.
It's expressing
kingdom-oriented desire
for them.
It's a very wonderful way
to serve others.
Please pray for me.
Number one on my list
of things you can do for me,
pray for me.
Pray for me.
Put me on the top
of your list
of things that you're praying for.
Those specific,
persistent things,
I want to be on that list.
I need your prayers.
It's a wonderful way
to serve me.
I find so often
that people's prayers
are altogether consumed
with themselves.
Experience that,
praying with people.
And they never pray
for other people.
They only pray for themselves.
giving prayer requests.
Prayer requests
are all about them.
They're never about
what's happening
in the world around them.
And it's a shame.
So many of us
are so selfish.
If you will begin
to think about others,
if you will begin
to look at the world
around you,
look at the hurts
of others,
it so draws
ours own
into perspective.
I just find that
so often,
one thing I try
to make a clear habit
of doing is praying
for the pastors
in our area
and meeting with pastors
in our area.
And the more I do that,
the more thankful
I am for this church.
You guys are great.
How many of these guys
are walking through
some challenges around us
that I don't even know?
I don't know
how I would bear up
under some of the things
that they're going through.
And so I pray
for those men.
And it's such
a wonderful reminder
that God's at work
in our congregation.
It shifts my perspective.
And I know
that those men
appreciate the prayers
that I offer up
on their behalf.
We ought to be praying
for those around us
and beyond.
Both abroad
and home.
Your bulletin,
I know it doesn't change
from week to week,
but your bulletin
reminds you of some things
that we need to be praying
for together
as a church.
The Whetstones,
the Stewards,
the Zwimpies,
you guys ever look
at any of this over here?
I hope.
I'm making a list for you.
I'm starting a list
off for you.
You should be in prayer
for those things
that are happening
around the world.
I hope you know
more and more
people who are out
and beyond
that we can be praying for.
Praying for those things
that are happening
at home.
Our community outreach groups
are a place
that should be places of prayer.
You should be investing
in one another.
You should be remembering
each other throughout the week
and praying for one another
in this way.
Praying for others
shows a maturation
in your Christian life.
You know,
when we have babies,
those of you,
especially with really young ones,
we don't really expect
a lot from them
in the form of communication.
We get a whole lot
out of them.
Some of us will teach
our kids sign language.
They could tell us
simple things like
more,
thank you,
little sign language
things that we do.
They begin to develop
their words.
We want them
to be communicating with us,
but we don't expect
a whole ton
out of them
in that regard,
but we definitely
expect them to grow
in their ability
to communicate to us.
God wants to see the same.
Last Sunday evening,
we had our welcome home dinner.
If you weren't here,
I'm sorry.
It was a lot of fun.
You should have been.
And at the very end,
we were playing a game
called Inception Duck,
Duck, Goose,
where you have
a big game of
Duck, Duck, Goose going
and the people who get tagged
have to go to the middle
and then once there's enough people,
they get a game
of Duck, Duck, Goose going,
going the opposite direction
and pretty soon you have
these multiple games
of Duck, Duck, Goose.
It's kind of maddening,
happening in the middle
of the room.
And I was so very,
very thankful
that my sons decided
they wanted to play
Cade 5, Judah 3,
sitting in this big circle,
primarily of college students.
And everyone's running around,
going insane.
And I just jumped in
on the game
because Cade hadn't been tagged yet.
I know he was kind of
sitting there itching,
ready to go.
And so I tagged him.
We ran around the circle.
He caught up to me.
I let him catch up to me
and tag me.
Okay?
So I'm out of the game
and it's Cade's turn
to go around.
And I was so proud of him.
Beaming father,
my five-year-old,
decides to tag
his little brother.
So he tagged Judah.
And off he goes
and very clearly
let him catch him.
Like he very clearly
let Judah catch up to him
and catch him
to make Judah feel good
about the game.
It was a wonderful,
wonderful thing
to experience him
giving up winning
for the sake of his
little brother.
So that's Cade.
He's five.
Then Judah goes around
and I think,
I think was it
Hannah McDonald,
I think?
Oh, you want to hear?
I don't remember
who he tagged then.
He tagged somebody.
Judah did.
Did not try to let
be kind.
He was,
but at three,
I was really proud of him.
He was full,
he was leaning into it.
He was going as fast
as he possibly could go.
And the gracious person
he tagged
let him get back around
to the other side,
which was also wonderful
to see.
But there should be
this maturation, right?
Like,
cool for Judah
to full on out and go.
Right?
Great that Cade
grew up a little bit.
Thought of someone else
in this process
of this game.
We should be growing
in our prayer process.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
wrote a wonderful book
called Life Together.
And he said this
of praying for one another.
A Christian fellowship
lives and exists
by the intercession
of its members
for one another
or it collapses.
I can no longer
condemn or hate
a brother for whom
I pray,
no matter how much
trouble he causes me.
His face that hitherto
may have been strange
and intolerable to me
is transformed
in intercession
into the countenance
of a brother
for whom Christ died.
The face
of a forgiven sinner.
So you see how
this perspective
even changes
in our life
together
in a Christian fellowship.
We need to be praying
for one another.
Turn to the Old Testament
book of Nehemiah.
I'm going to show you
an example.
A biblical prayer,
a record of prayer
that contains in it
all of these elements,
all of these things
that I've said.
Persistently,
watchfully,
thankfully,
and in an
intercessory fashion.
Nehemiah is after Ezra
before Esther.
That helps you.
If you only have
a New Testament with you,
you only have
one-third of your Bible.
Nehemiah is a Jew
living in exile.
Israel was punished
for their unfaithfulness
to God.
They were judged
by God
through a war
with Babylon.
Babylon came,
captured,
carried away.
This is now
some generations later.
Persia is now
the world power.
Power has shifted.
Persia has conquered Babylon
and Jews are now
living in exile
under Persian rule.
There have been
some Jews
that have returned
back to Israel,
but an edict
has been passed
by the current king,
King Artaxerxes,
in this state,
the son of the King
Artaxerxes.
He's passed this edict
that they cannot
rebuild Jerusalem.
Cannot rebuild Jerusalem.
But all the same,
it seems that Nehemiah
expects that those
who have gone back
would have rebuilt it anyway.
That they would have
disobeyed the command
of the king
and they would have
rebuilt Jerusalem
all the same.
Because he receives word
at the very beginning
of Nehemiah 1
that it hasn't happened yet,
that the city still lies
in shambles.
And I'll pick up
in verse 4.
Nehemiah writes,
As soon as I heard
these words,
I sat down
and wept
and mourned
for days.
Now he did so
because God's glory
in those days
was manifest.
It was seen
by how God's people
were doing.
Right?
By the wealth,
the might
of how God's people
were doing.
And so he
warns this.
Right?
Not because he cares
so much about the Israelites,
about his people,
but he cares about
God's name.
He goes on,
And I continued fasting
and praying
before the God of heaven.
Right?
You see the persistence
found in there?
He continues
fasting
and praying.
In fact,
he found out
in the month of
Chislev
and he addresses the king
you see at the beginning
of chapter 2
in the month of
Nisan.
This is roughly
four months.
Four,
four and a half months
that he
continues fasting
and praying
before the God
of heaven.
Verse 5,
And I said,
O Lord,
God of heaven,
the great and awesome God
who keeps covenant
and steadfast love
with those who love him
and keep his commandments.
You see the giving of thanks.
Right?
Like I know who you are.
I know how you interact
with your people.
He's thankful for that.
Verse 6,
Let your ear be attentive
and your eyes open
to hear the prayers
of your servant
that I now pray before you
day and night
for the people of Israel,
your servants,
confessing the sins
of the people of Israel
which we have sinned
against you.
Even I and my father's house
have sinned.
We have acted very corruptly
against you
and have not kept
the commandments,
the statutes,
and the rules
that you commanded
your servant Moses.
Do you see the intercession
on their behalf?
Praying on behalf
of the entire nation
of Israel.
Verse 8,
Remember the word
that you commanded
your servant Moses
saying,
If you are unfaithful,
I will scatter you
among the peoples.
But if you return to me
and keep my commandments
and do them,
though your outcasts
are in the uttermost
parts of heaven,
from there I will gather them
and bring them to the place
that I have chosen
to make my name dwell there.
They are your servants
and your people
whom you have redeemed
by your great power
and by your strong hand.
You see the giving of thanks
once again?
Oh Lord,
let your ear be attentive
to the prayer of your servant
and to the prayers
of your servants
who delight to fear your name
and give success
to your servant today
and grant him mercy
in the sight of this man.
He's referring to the king.
He's praying watchfully.
He knows what it is
and how it is
that he ought to pray.
And up in verse 6,
you'll see that he's doing so
day and night.
That he's physically
being watchful as well.
And the last verse,
verse 11,
ends,
Now I was cupbearer
to the king.
God had,
in his sovereignty,
placed him
to be a servant
to the king.
He drank the king's wine
to be sure that the wine
wasn't poisoned.
So he had access
to the king.
And you see in chapter 2,
the king asks him one day
what's bothering him.
You see a repetition,
a brief,
so I prayed
in chapter 2.
And then he spills it.
Ask the king to go
against this edict
that he had delivered,
which this was not a thing
that you asked a king to do.
For a king to undo
something he had done
would be to admit
his own fault
and his own failure.
So this is a major deal.
Nehemiah,
likely from
the human perspective,
stood to be killed
for the thing
that he asked the king
to do.
Falsify yourself,
is what he was saying
to the king.
Make yourself
less than you think you are.
You're not the king,
you're just a guy
who made a decision.
It was a bad decision.
This is an offense
that would have been
punishable by death.
And so he prays.
And he prays this persistent,
watchful,
thankful,
intercessory prayer.
And God gives him
great success.
He's able to return,
rebuild the wall.
Read the rest of the book.
It's one of my favorite
Old Testament stories.
So we see here
the prayer
of the new self.
We are to
pray persistently,
watchfully,
thankfully.
And we're to pray
intercessory prayers.
Secondly,
and in closing,
you see the opportunity
of the new self
in the last part
of verse 3.
That God,
pray for us,
that God may open
to us a door
for the word
to declare the mystery
of Christ
on account of which
I am in prison.
You see,
often in the New Testament
this idea of a door
equals opportunity.
An example of that
is in 1 Corinthians 16,
8 and 9.
Paul says,
but I will stay
in Ephesus
until Pentecost
for a wide door
for effective work
has opened to me
and there are many
adversaries.
So door equals opportunity.
So there's an opportunity
for the new self
which we see expressed
in Paul's life
even as he's
in prison.
And the overarching
exhortation here
is to seize
every opportunity.
You see here
that Paul is in prison.
He declares that
at the end.
We're not
100% sure
on which imprisonment
is happening.
Some commentators
will say it
with confidence
but we don't know
for a fact
that this is his
Roman imprisonment
but it likely is.
Most of the evidence
adds up to that.
So he's more than likely
in his Roman imprisonment
and he's seeing
that even this
is an opportunity.
His primary concern
is that he would be able
to declare
the mystery
of Christ.
How many of you
would ask
for others
to pray for them
found in such a situation
that they would just
be able to share
Christ
with those around them?
Seems to me
that most of us
would ask
that the church
would pray
that we be set free
from prison.
This is not where
I want to be.
This is not a situation
I want to find myself in.
Pray for that.
Pray for me
and the things
that are going on
with me.
But here Paul says
no, pray that I'll
have an opportunity
to share
the mystery
of Christ.
The mystery of Christ
as we saw earlier
in the book
is simply referring
to that which was
hidden in the Old Testament
but now is revealed
in the person and work
of Jesus Christ.
It's the gospel.
He just wants
an opportunity
to preach the gospel.
Open up this door.
Pray that God
would open it.
That I would have
opportunity
to do so.
Believers are to pray
for open doors
as it is God
who opens them.
It's God who brings
about these
divine
situations
where we are able
to preach
the good news
of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 3-7
describes Jesus
as the one
who opens
and no one
will shut
and who shuts
and no one
opens.
An example of this
is found in Acts 16
verses 9 and 10.
Luke records
that a vision appeared
to Paul in the night.
A man of Macedonia
was standing there
urging him and saying
come over to Macedonia
and help us.
And when Paul
had seen the vision
immediately we sought
to go on
into Macedonia
concluding that God
had called us
to preach the gospel
to them.
They took it
as a door
open for going
and preaching
the gospel.
If you read on
in Acts
there was a great
deal of people
turned to God
by their work there.
Paul's Roman
imprisonment
was not the end
of his ministry.
Just like wherever
you are now
is not the
preparing point
for your ministry.
If you are found
in Christ
if you are a disciple
of Jesus Christ
you are to invest
in the things
that Jesus Christ
cares about.
The redemption
of souls
the redeeming
of his church
the gathering
in of that
number.
The summation
of Paul's
Roman imprisonment
is found in Acts
28 verses 30
and 31.
Luke writes
he lived there
two whole years
at his own expense
and welcomed
all who came to him.
It was a house arrest
that he was under.
Proclaiming the kingdom
of God
and teaching
about the Lord
Jesus Christ
with all boldness
and without hindrance.
So there's this
wonderful opportunity
laid before him
and he has the eyes
to see that this
is the case.
God has brought me
by his good plan
and his good purposes
to this place
to share the gospel
to seize the opportunities
that God has placed
before me
and the same
is true
of us.
While we don't
find ourselves
in prison
UNG might feel
like a prison
it's a place
for you to serve
and to work
for the sake
of our King.
Colossians 3
1-4
This is the very
beginning of this
entire dialogue
that Paul's been
taking us to.
He says
if then you have
been raised
with Christ
if you are found
in Him
seek the things
that are above
where Christ is
seated at the
right hand of God
set your minds
on things that are
above
not on things
that are on earth
for you have died
and your life
is hidden
with Christ
in God.
And then verse 4
when Christ
who is your life
appears
then you also
will appear
with Him
in glory.
You see that the new self
is entirely reoriented.
We no longer serve
the world
we no longer serve
ourselves
but we serve Christ.
Christ
is our
life.
Paul certainly
saw this to be
the case.
Willing to go
anywhere
and always
seeking an opportunity
to share
the mystery
of Jesus Christ
and beloved
our lives
do not line up
to this
in so many
ways.
I want you
I want me
in the moments
of our days
as we walk out
into this next week
to be able to
echo
what Paul says
in Philippians 1.21
for to me
to live is Christ
and to die
is gain
because I get more
of Christ.
That we treasure
Him to the degree
that all that we do
is oriented
in that direction.
We're going to
hold verse 4
into next week
for the sake of time.
So let me
conclude with this
kind of summary statement.
As new creations
in Christ
we are given
great opportunity
to share Him
with the world.
The blessing
of getting
to carry out
His mission
in the world.
This ought to be
the great desire
of the redeemed.
To share the work
of our
Redeemer.
And as such
we should be
pressed
into prayer.
Asking,
pleading with God
that He would work
in our efforts
for the sake
of His name.
So pray
and seize
every opportunity
to experience,
proclaim,
and display
the supremacy
of Jesus Christ
in all things
to all peoples.
Let's pray together.