Prayer and desire for the Colossians (vv. 9-12)
Prayer – the Christian’s privilege
Heavenly Father – picture of God’s “openness”
“Take it to the Lord in prayer”
· Internal – be filled (something to be done to them)
§ They must be in the place to receive
§ Filled – no room for anything else
o Knowledge of His will
§ In all wisdom (Sophia)
· Knowledge of first principles
§ Spiritual understanding (Sunesis)
· Critical knowledge
· Ability to apply first principles to any given situation
§ Understand great truths of Christianity and apply them to the mundane daily tasks of life
§ Master of theology can be a failure in life
§ What does Christianity mean in the business of living from day to day?
o Knowledge, wisdom, understanding
§ These are instrumental in Christians growth
§ They are foundational to “walking worthy”
· Hosea 4:6
· 2 Timothy 3:16-17
§ In a biblical way, you can never know too much
§ If knowledge is “just facts,” it puffs up; godly knowledge changes you
· External – walk worthy
§ Walk – consistency
§ Worthiness – determined by walk
§ Described by four participles
o Being fruitful
§ In works
· Every
· Good
§ Practical praying
§ We don’t pray to withdraw from life
§ We pray to make it through life
§ We must pray more than before we go through life
§ We must pray as we go through life
o Increasing in knowledge
· Of God
· As we bear more fruit
· Becoming more like Christ
o Strengthened
· With might
· Many times it’s not knowledge but might that we need.
· We know what to do, we lack might
· According to power
· Some say knowledge is power
· But it could be a curse
· Through prayer, we can have knowledge and power
· Unto patience and longsuffering, hupomone and makrothumia
· Often have same meaning, but have distinction when listed together
· Patience = hupomone
o Not just sitting down and bearing things
o Ability in bearing things to turn them to the glory of God
o A conquering patience
o No circumstance can defeat, no event can vanquish
o Ability to deal triumphantly with anything life brings us
· Longsuffering = makrothumia
o Patience with people
o People are:
§ Unpleasant
§ Malicious
§ Cruel
§ Unteachable
§ Foolish
§ Unlovely
o Longsuffering is:
§ Not bitter
§ Not despairing
§ Not irritated
§ Still loving
o The spirit that never loses patience with, belief in, hope for men
· With joyfulness
· Through circumstances
· Christian joy is not diminished by events or people
o Giving thanks
· Unto the Father
· The walking is second nature because of the knowledge
o Ask someone “How do you do that?”
· How do you make that? Boy, I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that. I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t even give it a thought. Let me think, What do I put in there? How much? How….It’s, you know, I just do it.” You think, “Oh, that’s a big help”
· How do you walk? It’s all second nature. Our knowledge of his will should be so internalized that we walk worthy. We are not walking by trying to check off a list functions to perform.
Christianity is not a “recipe” religion.
You Think Too Much! 