Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

What do you do when you are spiritually dry with feelings of listlessness and numbing guilt over the spiritual failures you perceive?

What do you do when you think that God is disappointed in you, is sickened by your presence and is angry with your lack of righteousness?

What do you do when you feel as if you’re not walking in and with Him in ways that would please Him?

What do you do when you feel your life is bearing no fruit, seeing no growth, lacking in strength, tiring without endurance, and absent of joy and delight in God?

These feelings are not uncommon amongst God’s people because the cause of depression is guilt and guilt comes from sin. Guilt for not obeying God’s word, guilt for doing what we knew was wrong, guilt for not doing what we knew was right, guilt for not living, thinking, being, doing, loving, following, walking in ways that please God.

Imagine the overwhelming guilt Adam and Eve had when they realized what they had done. Imagine how Cain felt when God said to him “why are you angry, why is your face downcast?” Imagine David’s guilt, shame and depression when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed? Imagine his guilt when God took the life of his child because of his sin. Imagine Job’s depression when he lost everything and sat with sores from the crown of his head to the base of his feet. Imagine Jeremiah’s depression when he saw the destruction of the Jews in his day. Imagine Noah’s guilt when he got drunk and sinned after God just wiped the earth because of the overwhelming presence of sin in it. Imagine Hosea’s depression as he is married to a prostitute. Imagine Peter’s guilt after he denied the Lord three times. Imagine the guilt and depression of the disciples as they abandoned Christ when He was crucified.

All of these cases show that the spiritual sight of God’s people is not always clear. Clouds come and hide the Glory of Christ from our sight. The fires of affections for God smolders as we caught in darkness.

Yet in all of this God has a perfect and holy purpose for bringing his loved ones to the brink of utter despair.

How do we fight for joy when our desires in God flounders and we struggle with little passion for His word, little effort in walking in righteousness, and little evidence of the fruit of a holy life?

Paul is going to show us as he continues his letter to this small (and in our modern standard) insignificant church at Colossae.

Paul’s prayer to God for this church should act as a standard for how we pray for one another. The primary function of the Apostle was to be committed to the Word and prayer continuously.

STUDY

Paul’s Petition to God

Colossians 1:9-12

Verse 9a- For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you

Paul receives a positive and favorable report from Ephaphras regarding the life of the Colossians. He heard of their great faith in Christ who se them free from their sin, their great love for one another as the live life together in Jesus, and their great hope they have in the God of heaven who promises a better future for them in this life and guaranteed in the one to come.

Their faith, love, and hope was pleasing to Paul because he lived for the glory of Christ and to see lives being won to Christ for His glory was the great work he was living for.

When we think of praying we usually don’t think of praying for those who are doing well. Most of our time focuses on those that are struggling, in sin, facing financial or physical difficulties and other pains of this life. Paul sees the progress of those in Colossae as a reason for his prayer. The enemy often gathers his strength to oppose those who have the most potential for expanding God’s Kingdom over his own. Paul gives the same counsel to the weak and strong.

But this kind of unceasing prayer that Paul demonstrates and also calls us to (1 Thess. 5:17), demands a radical and all consuming God-consciousness. We are to think of everything in relation to God and His glory.

We are to be so mindful of God that when we meet someone, we immediately consider where they stand with God. If we hear of something bad happening, we react by coming to God in prayer for them. If we hear of something good that has happened in the lives of those we meet and know, we respond with immediate praise to God for we know that He is glorified.

Everything Paul saw around him in this world motivated him to prayer in some way. We he thought of one of the churches it moved him into communion with God.

This kind of unceasing prayer also requires a constant people-consciousness. It’s going to be difficult to pray for people unless we’re aware of their needs. We need to know each other in this life so that we can come to God in thanks, petition and praise for all that God is doing in the lives of those we love and are loved by.

Paul’s love for God drove him to seek constant communion with Him, and his love for people drove him to unceasing prayer on their behalf.

Paul knows that only God can protect, preserve, and remove the guilt of those who are loved by God. Paul also realizes what every Christian Colossae and in our day is in need of. So he comes God and asks…

Verse 9b- and to ask that you may be filled (pleroo) with the knowledge (epignosis) of His will (thelema)

What is the first thing Paul asks of God?

Paul asks God to fill them with the knowledge of His will. I mentioned the word pleroo before because it means a kind of filling that is about to burst. Like branches filled with fruit and causes the branches to bow, like a cat that is pregnant is 1 week past her due date, like a cup is so full if it moved the contents would spill out. It is this kind of filling that Paul is asking for them.

Paul wants the Colossians and God wants you and I to be totally controlled by a knowledge of His will. The word Paul uses is not the normal usage of gnosis or knowledge. He ads to it a preposition epi which intensifies the meaning and quality of gnosis. He says he wants them to be filled with epignosis. This means that he wants them to full of a deep and thorough knowledge of God’s pleasures and desires which is what the word thelema means for His will.

If we are facing guilt, depression, anxiety, lust, anger or confusion, God’s remedy for protection and for freedom is a knowledge of Him! Ignorance is not bliss for you and I. To know God is to know His will, to know His will is know His pleasures and desires, to know His pleasures and desires is to know the purpose for our existence!

There are aspects of God’s will that are hidden to us in this life and perhaps in the life to come, but there is a treasure chest full of his pleasures and desires that He lovingly shares with us in His Word.

To be indifferent to God’s Word is to be indifferent to God’s pleasures and desire, and this means we are indifferent to God’s glory.

Having a knowledge of God’s Word control our thoughts and emotions is the key to living righteously. What controls your thoughts will control your behavior. Self-control is the result of mind-control, which is dependent upon knowledge. Knowledge of God’s Word will lead to spiritual wisdom…

Verse 9c- in all spiritual wisdom (sophia) and understanding (sunesis),

Wisdom is the ability to learn, collect, and then organize the knowledge of God’s will in all we do.

Understanding is the application of those principles in everyday life. Both sophia and sunesis are spiritual and need the Holy Spirit as their source. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that-

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

This means that without God’s Spirit living in and guiding us, we are totally unable to understand the things of God in wisdom.

This is why we spend little time behind the pulpit talking about all the things we could be doing in every daily situation. It’s not that we don’t care about those things it’s just that we see it is more important for us to teach you who God is and what He’s done and what His will is than it is to give you quick easy steps to every subject known to man in this life. If we are filled with this kind of deep knowledge of God’s pleasures and desires, we will inevitably life a godly life as we have the spirit apply these things our lives.

This is our prayer as elders of the Church, this is Paul’s prayer as an Apostle to the Colossians, this is God’s will for you and I as we read this letter.

A full knowledge of His will, with wisdom and understanding, will result in results that change who we are and what we do.

A Worthy Walk

Verse 10a- so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects,

Our walk is the pattern of our daily life and conduct. A mind controlled by knowledge, wisdom, and understanding produces a life worth of the Lord.

God has not left us to our own resources for walking the worthy walk. Christ dwells in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit reminds us and teaches us that this life is not about walking worthy of ourselves. We are not to be “true to ourselves” but to walk worthy of the Lord. Why? To please him in everything.

Pleasing God means doing what brings Him pleasure, which is doing His will. When we live to please God we find our greatest pleasure. When we live to walk worthy of God, we find our worth in this life. Our identity is in Christ, and our joy comes from glorifying Him.

We have said this so much that I’m afraid it has become too familiar to each of you. Man is most satisfied when God is most glorified. God is most glorified when man is most satisfied in Him. If you want to walk worthy of the Lord and bringing Him pleasure in everything, know Him, know His word, know His will, meditate on Him, have a God-consciousness that acts as glasses so that you can see clearly. This will please God and this will bring you your greatest and highest pleasure.

What are other results of having this full knowledge of God?

A Fruitful Life

Verse 10b- bearing fruit in every good work

Knowing God in His word produces fruit. Fruit in the bible is the by-product of righteousness.

If you want out of your depression, out of your guilt, out of your spiritual numbness. If you want the kind of joy that comes from glorifying God, bear fruit.

John 15:8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

God is glorified in us when we bear much fruit. We crush depression when we are satisfied in God. Paul wants us to bear fruit in every good work.

We can’t bear fruit if we are not joined with Christ. He is the vine we are the branches, if we are joined with Him we bear much fruit. A lack of this kind fruit in our life is a lack of knowledge and spiritual wisdom.

Healthy things grow, knowledge of God causes our seasons of drought to cease. Doing the things God desires gives us more knowledge of God because it is His desire that we know Him more.

Growth

Verse 10c- and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Increasing in the knowledge of God will increase our love for His word and increasing in His Word will increase our knowledge of Him. It doesn’t stop, we are never to come to place where we say that we shouldn’t study and learn who He is more because it will cause us to be too dry and intellectual. It is actually a demonstration of sin when we don’t want to increase in our knowledge of God. It says that we know enough about Him and don’t need to learn more.

It’s pride because it demonstrates that we think we are the standard for knowing enough about God. Am I saying everyone is a trained theologian? No. But I am saying that everyone has a theology about God. If you think your feelings or opinions about God are more important than learning His will in His word, then you are placing your opinions about God as more important than God’s declaration of Himself.

Increasing in knowledge will cause us to grow as His followers. It will also supply us with great strength.

Strength

Verse 11a- strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,

Strengthened means continuous action. God is not like a turbo who gives an initial boost of power then lets the engine do the rest. We are to continually to be strengthened with all power through His might, not our own.

The Holy Spirit works His power through us, we don’t channel or harness the Holy Spirit so that we can be powerful.

If we are feeling weakened, we need to go to God and read, meditate, consider, and apply His Word to our lives continuously.

Again, it is an all consuming God consciousness we are to have. This causes us to be confident with His strength, with His power, with His glorious might! He gets the glory, we get the joy.

Endurance

Verse 11b- for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;

Another result of spiritual knowledge is that ability to endure trials with joy.

He’s not thinking of some removed stoic, teeth-gritting endurance. Paul is thinking of the kind of strength provided by the knowledge of God’s Word which allows the believer to endure trials with joy.

Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

We come to God in prayer asking that God applies what we know with how we are to live in response to it for His glory.

This causes us to think like Habakkuk who sees ground for rejoicing and joy when everything in this world falls apart and disappoints us.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

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