JESUS FIRST: THE SHAPER OF PRAYERS (PART 3)
Jesus First: A Study of Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsScripture Reading: Psalm 34:1–10
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Introduction:
The way Paul and Timothy write these verses the main thought is they do not cease to pray and ask for specific requests for the believers in Colosse.
We have been calling these shapes to our prayers, like play dough molds that help shape the dough into a pizza, or a fork, or anything else. The first three shapes are:
Shape 1: God’s work should inspire prayer.
Shape 2: Prayer is diverse.
Shape 3: Prayer is spiritually focused.
The fourth shape to our prayers, and one that should color all of our prayers, is thankfulness.
Shape 4: Prayer is thankful.
Now, this is not thankfulness in general, although that should certainly shape our prayers. This thankfulness is specifically related to our salvation. This is the capstone of the “not ceas[ing] and ask[ing]” for these.
Think of this as the trunk and branches of a beautiful cherry blossom tree. The beautiful pink flowers of the cherry blossom tree are the obvious focus. You do not normally hear people say, “Wow, get a load of that bark!” “Those branches are sturdy!”
No, the beauty of the tree is displayed in the vibrant color of the flowers. However, the flowers could not exist without the trunk and the branches. In a far greater way, Paul could not be steadfast in his prayers asking for God to help the believers of Colosse without God’s saving of our souls.
In other words, our prayerful desire to “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” is so that we may know this glorious good God who saved us.
Our prayerful desire to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him,” is a right response to the Infinite condescending to the finite, enduring the humility and pain for our salvation.
Our prayerful desire to be “fruitful in every good work” is a befitting reaction to the good work of delivering our souls from eternal damnation and everlasting pain to eternal bliss in everlasting joy beholding the glory of the Triune God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Our prayerful desire to be “strengthened with all might…for all patience and longsuffering with joy” is empowered by the transfer of our souls from the domain of Satan to the glorious kingdom of His Son.
This thankfulness for salvation changes everything.
For Paul, it caused him to change his values, where all of his earthly accomplishments were considered as loss comparing to knowing Jesus, Philippians 3:7–8 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Or consider Asaph, who in the midst of a crisis of faith, realized that God was His greatest treasure. He cries out, Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”
Our fourth shape is, Shape 4: Prayer is thankful.
IV. PRAYER IS MIXED WITH THANKFULNESS- 1:12–14
IV. PRAYER IS MIXED WITH THANKFULNESS- 1:12–14
Shape 4: Prayer is thankfulness. Thankfulness specifically for the work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our redemption.
In mixing thankfulness in with our prayers, our primary focus should be the salvation of our souls. And just like we divide history by the life of Christ, our lives should also be framed in this way.
Contemplating our states before Christ and our states with Christ will provide all the reasons we need to mix every prayer with thankfulness.
A. Our States Before Christ
A. Our States Before Christ
We will consider our states before Christ by simply thinking about what we do not have without Christ.
1. We lacked the inheritance—God Himself
1. We lacked the inheritance—God Himself
There is an abundance of Old Testament wording and connection here, by the way. However, our focus is on our states before Christ.
We were enemies of God. We fought against God. We hated God, before God saved us. Listen to Paul’s description in Romans 3:10–18 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””
By the way, lest we think we are alright because we are not murdering people or living promiscuous lives, all of what Paul says in Romans can be true of a good citizen of the United States.
It can be, and is true, of many members of churches all over our country. Sin is deceptive, and one of the most destructive lies we can tell ourselves is that “I’m not that bad.”
Before Christ, we sinned and we loved it. But we were also devil worshippers, owned by the hateful master of humanity.
2. We were in bondage to Satan— “powers of darkness”
2. We were in bondage to Satan— “powers of darkness”
Not only did we sin and love it, we were also in bondage to the powers of darkness. We were slaves.
Think about that for a minute. Slaves do not have a say in what they do or where they go. Their every moment is held in the hand of their master.
I think one of the best, modern examples of slavery is one who addicted to drugs. You may have yourself, or know someone close, who has been addicted to drugs.
It is painful to watch, and you feel helpless. Many times the individual who is addicted both loves and hates the drugs. They know it is tearing their lives apart, but they cannot live without it.
It affects every aspect of their lives. They spend all day thinking about it, and all night dreaming about it. They are enslaved to it.
In a far greater, more horrific way, we were in bondage to the powers of darkness.
Our lives before Christ were truly a living nightmare, and what is insane is that we loved it!
But we have cause for thankfulness, this morning, because we are living in the year of our Lord.
B. Our States Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord)
B. Our States Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord)
We note several reasons to always be giving thanks to the Father in the midst of our prayers.
Obviously, our lives before Christ were horrific. But notice our reasons to be thankful.
1. God saved us
1. God saved us
Notice the words Paul uses,
“The Father…has qualified us”
“He has delivered us”
“He has conveyed us”
“in Whom we have redemption…the forgiveness of sins”
These are passive tense, meaning the subject is being acted upon, not doing the acting.
For example, if I were to take a ball and throw it, the ball was not responsible for its being thrown, I am.
It is a reason to be thankful, for we have given God no reason to save us and, in fact, every reason not to save us.
2. It is a triune Salvation—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
2. It is a triune Salvation—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
We will not spend much time here other than to highlight the biblical truth that our salvation is the work of the Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work to procure, apply, and give us our salvation.
Notice Paul’s trinitarian wording here.
“Giving thanks to the Father…”
“He [the Father] conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”
You may say, “Bobby, there is only one reference to the Spirit in Colossians, in 1:8.” And you would be right. However, you would draw the wrong conclusion if you think that the Spirit has no role in our salvation.
In fact, Jesus teaches quite the opposite in John 3:5–8 “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.””
It is the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63).
Our salvation is trinitarian through and through, which is why we sing praises to the Father, to the Son, and to the Spirit.
3. God blesses us
3. God blesses us
I attempted to come up with a word that would encapsulate all that Paul tells us here. God has qualified us to be partakers of the greatest inheritance—God himself.
God has delivered us from bondage to the power of darkness and into the king of the Son of His love.
We have redemption through His blood (a hint at the Passover Meal, but the way), and forgiveness of sins.
Psalm 32:1–2 “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Our fourth shape is thankfulness—specifically, thankfulness for our salvation.
Christian, are your prayers mixed with thankfulness for your salvation? Perhaps you have taken it for granted. Maybe you have lived what would be deemed a moral life.
Confess that sin and seek to weave thankfulness into all of your prayers.
Or, maybe you are not saved, and thus cannot express thankfulness for your salvation.
