Our Priority Prayer

Paul discusses the importance of prayer and identifies it as a vital ministry for all Christians. He emphasizes that prayer is something each person can do, regardless of their eloquence. Paul highlights two priorities for Christians: the Word of God and praying for others. He explains that the Word of God should be the number one priority and that prayer for others should be the second priority. Paul encourages the church in Colossae to be filled with the knowledge of God's will and to walk worthy of the Lord. He stresses the importance of being God-conscious and people-conscious in prayer. Paul also emphasizes the need for knowledge and understanding of the will of God, as well as the importance of renewing the mind through the Word of God. But today, Paul starts out talking about our priority in prayer. And if you remember last week, I said the two most important things we can do is number one, be thankful for each other. Our brothers and sisters in Christ. And number two is that we should pray for each other. And so Paul is expounding upon this idea and he's telling us that prayer is a vital ministry that each and every one of us can perform. There's a lot of things in the ministry that not all of us can do. But prayer is the one thing that each and every one of us can do. Some may not be as eloquent as others, but yet every one of us can go to God on behalf of someone else. And so when we look at these priorities in our life as a Christian, what are we really supposed to do? And I think sometimes Christianity, we chase too many things at one time. And so we need to try to simplify things. And I think Paul brings it down to really, and now remember, we're talking about those that have already been saved. They are in Christ Jesus. We know that He has written this letter to the saints that are already faithful, right? They're living for Jesus Christ. In verse 2 that was there, He issues grace and peace to them. And so he says here's our two priorities. When you've already accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, priority number one is the Word of God. The Word of God has to be our number one priority. He says in 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And notice why it is profitable. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so our number one priority has to be the Word of God. We have to put it number one. And unfortunately, we see a lot of churches and a lot of ministers today that will preach an entire sermon and never open up the Word of God. And hopefully today, we're going to look at a lot of passages because I want to make the Word of God the priority. Not me. The priority is the Word of God. Number two, our second priority is the prayer for the people. We need to be praying for one another. And notice what he says there in Colossians 4. Later on, he's going to tell us that Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted you. And then notice what it says about their pastor. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers. And notice what he's praying for them. That you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. When you look at the apostles after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, left them there at Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon them, you go just a couple of chapters over and you find that the apostles had already told the church, but we will give ourselves continually to two things. Prayer and the Word of God. Prayer and the Word of God. In Colossians 1, we come to our text this morning, and Paul is reiterating the same exact thing to us. He starts in v. 9 and he says, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. And so he says, for this cause we also. What cause is so great? If you just look back and you'll remember that everything is going great. He said, man, you are doing super if you look back at v. 8 there. He had declared the Spirit to them. They had learned from Epaphras their dear fellow servant. They talked about this grace and this faith and this hope. And these were faithful Christians. These were people that were living for Jesus Christ. And if everything is going so good, then why in the world pray for them, right? You know, that's kind of opposite of what we think in our society today, right? We think, man, they're doing good and God's blessing them and their life is great, so we don't need to pray on them. We need to pray on somebody that's going through problems, going through struggles, having difficulties. But that's not what Paul talks about. You know, we tend to pray for troubled people. And what we end up doing is neglecting the people who are actually doing well and are growing and maturing in Jesus Christ. And I want you to understand that when we do that, who is Satan going to attack the most? The one that's doing and growing. The one that's maturing. The other one that is sick. The one that is unhealthy. Satan has no need to mess with. And so, Paul says things that are so great, he says things are going so wonderful in your life here at the church at Colossae, I'm going to pray even more for you. I'm going to pray more for you because Satan loves nothing more than to get in and mess things up. And so Paul says, man, I am going to pray for you. And notice he says, since the day we heard of it, heard of what? That things are going good. They are living by faith. They are experiencing. They are producing love to the world and society around them. They are looking forward with hope of that eternity that is there. He says, since we heard this, we do not cease to pray for you. And then he also says, not only do we not cease to pray for you, but it's also our desire that you might be filled. Two phrases that he mentions there. Do not cease to pray. That is God-conscious. In other words, how in the world do we continue to pray without ceasing? We have to be focused on God. We have to have God on our mind. No, you don't stay on your knees all day long and you're praying to God, but as you go through life, you are God-conscious. You are aware that God is involved in everything that's happening during that day. And so sometimes it may just be stopping just for a moment and recognizing, hey God, I see what You're doing there. Or God, I need You to work over here. Or I need You to do this. I need You to handle this situation. And so, everything that we do from the time that we get up till we go to bed, if we are praying without ceasing, what we're saying is that I'm continually focused on God. I'm God-conscious. But then he says to desire. And so that God-focus all of a sudden brings about a desire in Paul's life and this is people-conscious. We ought to be concerned about people. And so Paul sees this reference to God and these believers in reference to God, and he gives us the first point. There's two verbs that he mentions that I want us to look at this morning in this passage of Scripture. Number one is we need His desire is that the people at the church at Colossae and the people here listening to this message today, me and you, that we need to be filled with the knowledge of the will of God. You know, it is one thing to know the will of God. It is entirely something different to be filled with the knowledge of the will of God. You know what that word filled actually means? In Colossians 1.9, he says there, desire that you might be filled. What does that word filled mean? It's a Greek word that literally means filling something up to its completeness. In other words, if I had a glass here and I was going to fill it with milk, you fill it to the point to where nothing else can go into that glass. That is a glass of milk. You know, there's nothing that upsets me more than for a waitress to come by and want to fill my drink and only do it halfway, right? I want it full. I want it to the top. I want it there, complete. And that's what this word filled means. It literally means the absence of anything else. Nothing else can go into that glass. And so that's what the word filled means. It signifies something that is totally complete. And Paul says, my desire is that your knowledge of the will of God is so complete, so substantial, that there is not room for anything else that is in your life. Filled has the idea of total control being dominated and saturated with the will of God. And so what are we to be filled with? What are we to be completely saturated with? He says here, knowledge. Notice what he says in 1 Corinthians 1.5. Paul said that in everything, you all are enriched by Him in utterance and in all knowledge. You want to know how you get enriched by Jesus Christ? Number one is knowledge. You've got to know about Jesus Christ. You've got to know what Jesus Christ wants you to do. Paul's going to tell us later in Colossians 2, verse 3, that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You know why we don't have very many wise Christians today? Very many Christians that are knowledgeable to the will of God because they don't know Christ. They don't study Christ. They don't know about Christ. Again, he tells us in Colossians 3, 9, and 10 that we'll look at later. He says, why not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds? But then notice what he says in verse 10. And have put on the new man, which is what? Renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. I quote Romans 12, verse 2 all the time where Paul said, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your what? Your mind. Why? Why do our minds need to change? That we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's not just knowing the will of God, but it is proving the will of God. And with all the false teachers, with all of the false theologies in Colossae, all the false stuff going on in our society today, we need knowledge of the Word of God. We need to know what the Word of God has to say. It was funny, I was going through Genesis Thursday night in my prison class, and I just started asking them some rhetorical questions. And like for instance, did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? And we just looked at the creation of Adam and Eve. And well, everybody, yeah. Adam, does man have one less rib than women? Well, yeah, God took out a rib. He didn't take it out of every man. He only took it out of Adam, right? So we've got the same number of ribs that we're supposed to have. I told them with a belly button. It doesn't say in there, but why do we have a belly button to begin with other than biblical cord? If God created them out of the dirt of the ground, I doubt He made an umbilical cord there. But we hear all of these things, and we take them in, but we don't actually read what the Word of God says. We don't actually read what is there. And so what Paul is saying, he said my prayer, first of all, because I'm God conscious, and I know this is needed in our world, that I desire for you as people that you have this deep knowledge, this strong knowledge, full knowledge. We need a knowledge that saturates us, but also controls us. The knowledge of what? What are we supposed to have knowledge of? He says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of what? His will. His will. There is no excuse for a child of God not to know the will of God. Do you hear me? I'll repeat that one more time. There is no excuse for the child of God not to know the will of God. Because God tells us over and over in our Bible. If you remember when Jesus Christ came onto the scene in the Gospels, the will of God was at the center of His ministry. Jesus Christ said what? I come to do the Father's will. I know what God wants me to do, and I am here to obey Him, to do what He has instructed me to do. If you remember in the garden before He went to the cross of Calvary, He said not My will, but Thy will be done. He even told His disciples that His food, that His nurturing, His nutrition was to do the will of Him that sent Him. He prayed and taught His disciples to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. John said, He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. God's divine will is to dominate everything in our lives. The will of God is absolutely crucial Christian knowledge. And the knowledge that I'm talking about is directly concerned with obedience. In other words, it's not just to answer a bunch of trivia facts. It's not just to answer a bunch of questions. I love Brett to death, and he does a lot of trivia stuff. And sometimes he'll come and ask me a question about trivia. And I'm getting to where now I'm trying to turn it on him. Instead of just looking at the facts. Why is that there? What is God trying to prove through that? Because it's not about just the facts. It's about what is there for us to obey? What is there for us to get? And look at what he says in verse 10. He says that we might walk. That we might walk. See, knowledge is not just to make us smart. It's not just to make us smarter than everybody else. Knowledge is so that we can obey it. So that we can walk in the will of God. But before we get to that here in just a moment, let's go back to verse 9 because this knowledge is predicated on two things. Notice he says, "...in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Before you get to obedience in your body, before you can obey God, you have to be obedient in your mind. We just spent a while going through the book of Philippians. Remember, in Philippians, Paul was reminding the church at Philippi that we have to get our mind right. There is only Jesus Christ. This one thing I do, I press toward the prize of the hawk I call him. This one thing I do, he said I've learned that no matter what state or situation I am, I've learned to be content. Why? Because God has a plan and I am obedient to Jesus Christ, so if He wants to stone me and leave me for dead, or He wants to have me shipwrecked, or He wants to put me in prison, if He wants me to be beaten with the cat of nine tails, then I have learned to be content. Why? Because I am doing the will of God. And so notice what he says here. This knowledge goes in your mind. And when knowledge goes into your mind, you get wiser. And so this wisdom comes about and then you have spiritual understanding. But as you get this knowledge, as you get wiser, then that wisdom turns into spiritual understanding and that spiritual understanding turns into your behavior. How you act and what you do. When you look at these two words, wisdom, wisdom is taking all of the knowledge, information, and putting it into a principle that can be applied to your life. There's a lot of things that I live and a lot of things that I find in the Bible that there's not one verse that's there. But what you do is when you study the Bible, and you study a passage of Scripture, there seems to be a principle that comes to the top. It may not say, thou shalt or thou shalt not, but there is a principle that He's trying to teach us. And wisdom is being able to see that principle and then take it and apply it to our life. I teach Bible study and we always start with observation. And once you observe something, then you have to make an interpretation. And the interpretation is the wisdom part. But it's not after you interpret it, then you have to apply it. That's the application. You have to live it. You have to go and do it. And so wisdom is turning that knowledge and that information into a principle that you can then apply to your life. Spiritual understanding is then taking that principle and making it into an application. Because Jesus Christ is teaching me this, then I will do this. This is how I'm going to live. This is what I'm going to do. Because Jesus Christ says I'm to love my neighbor, if I'm going to apply that, then I've got to figure out who my neighbor is and how can I love them? What can I do for them? That's applying the Word of God. And sometimes the application is not there because you can take a Scripture and you can apply it all kinds of ways as you go through life. It's for every single one of us. And so now, our minds are filled with the knowledge of the will of God. And so now, we are finally ready to conform to that knowledge. In Romans 12, Paul summarizes this same teaching that he's teaching here in Colossians. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present what? Your body. God wants your body. If you are a child of God, He's got your spirit. But there's a battle going on for your body. Paul said, man, when I want to do good, evil is always present, right? And so, God wants your body. So present your body as what? A living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And then notice, he puts in commas there and separates this off because it is your reasonable service. This is the very bottom thing that you can do for Jesus Christ Who saved you. Is give your life to Him. Give your body to Him. Look what he says in verse 2. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed how? By the renewing of your mind. You've got to make your mind up. You know, I've seen it on Facebook a lot here lately that Sunday morning church service is not a Sunday morning decision. You have to make the decision earlier in the week that I'm going to be at church on Sunday morning. Or else it's amazing at how that ox seems to get in the dent. Something seems to pop up to get in the way. And so it's just a decision that has to be made. If you remember Joshua, he said as for me and my house, we will what? Serve the Lord. I don't know what situation's coming up and I don't know what circumstances are going to happen, but I've already made the choice that guess what? Me and my house, we're going to be where God's at. We're going to be doing what God wants us to do. And this is this mentality. It has to be in the mind, but why do we do it in the mind? Remember, we're trying to control the body. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God. Not that you may know the will of God. You already have to know it before you can change your mind and present your body. And so what you're doing is when you live in it, then you are proving that God's will. When Jesus Christ said, nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, and He got up and He marched to the cross of Calvary, and He never opened up His mouth, what was He doing? He was proving the will of God. He didn't fight for it. He didn't get on to them. He didn't rebuke them. No, He just simply did what He was supposed to do. And I believe this is the problem of the church. I believe we have too many Christians today that are sitting in the pews that do not know enough about the principles of the Word of God in order how to act. And so if you don't know something, if it's not in there, you can't apply it. And we have too many people that are wanting to just be spoon-fed a few minutes on Sunday morning, and then they don't want to come back for Sunday night. They don't want to come back Wednesday night. But they don't want to read the Bible and study at home. And so what do we have? We have a lot of Christians today that don't have any idea of the principle or the understanding of the Bible in order to apply it. And so, what Peter said, what happens? We end up with all of these babies that need to grow up, need to get off the milk and get on to the Word. And so when you are filled with knowledge, and when that knowledge is turned into a principle, and that principle is turned into something that is applicable, some very awesome results take place. And he gives five of them here in the next two verses. He lists five things that we are going to go through. And we're going to go through them very quickly this morning. I would love to just spend time with each and every one. But we're just going to go through them, and I'm going to mention them, and hopefully encourage you to get into Bible study and get into looking at how you can take these principles that I'm going to give you this morning and apply them to your everyday life. And so, we are talking about applied knowledge. Knowledge that is in action. Not just so that we know something, but so that we can live something. Verse 10 is a purpose clause. It shows the result of taking all of that knowledge and putting it into action. Taking all of the knowledge that we've gained from verse 1 all the way down through verse 9, and now we are applying it. So what does it look like? Look at number 1. He says we need to walk in the Lord. If we have applied what we know about Jesus Christ, we're going to be walking in the Lord. What does he mean by walking? He says in verse 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Walking in the Bible and here in this passage of Scripture is a picture of our daily conduct. It's our daily lifestyle. In other words, what we know about Jesus Christ, like Sister Loretta sang this morning, because of the grace of Jesus Christ, guess what? My chains are gone. My chains are gone because God has lifted me up and He has redeemed me. He has made me one of His. And so, man, because I know that, it ought to affect the way that I live. It ought to affect my daily lifestyle. And so he says here that we might walk worthy of the Lord. In verse 10, he says we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing that is there. And so the first thing we see is this worthy walk. What does it mean to be worthy? What does it mean to be worthy? How can I, a mere human being, ever walk worthy of Jesus Christ? And all of a sudden when we say that, that gives us the excuse I can never walk worthy of Jesus Christ, so what do we do? We don't even try. We just bail out, right? Ok, I stop right there and that's where about 95% of all Christians live. And since I can't achieve it, then I'm not going to even try. And so we just go about living life however we want to, and then we wonder why in the world we're never worthy of Jesus Christ. But do you realize that walking worthy of Jesus Christ, even though it is from our point of view an inconceivable task, from God's point of view it's achievable. And it's also a command. He tells us in Ephesians 4 and verse 1. You remember after three chapters of doctrine of what Jesus Christ has done for us, from choosing us, calling us, adopting us, redeeming us, as Brother Morris has been reading to us on Sunday morning, after doing all of this and going through this doctrine for three teachings, for three chapters, he then says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk how worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Now why would God command us to do something that we were incapable of doing? It's a command. And so God is not there to frustrate us. God is there to empower us to do what He wants us to do. God expects us to walk in the light where He has placed us. Remember, when we're saved, where did God place us? In Christ Jesus. And so we are in Christ Jesus, but what did He give us as our earnest and guarantee that we looked at last week? We are in Christ Jesus, but then He gives us the Holy Spirit that comes and dwells in us. And so we are in Christ with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and guess what? If we are being controlled and saturated and completely filled with the two parts of the Godhead, then guess what? We're going to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and so what are we going to do? We're going to obey Him. And we're going to do what He wants us to do. That's where we are. Now, God, when you think about it, man, God here in Colossians has set us in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ in Christ. And so because of what He has done for us, He says now, He wants us to act like it. Act like it. Just act like you are a child of God. Quit acting like you are a child of the world. And act like you are His child. In 1 John 2 and verse 6, John said it this way. He said, He that saith, He abideth in Him... Right? I'm in Christ. I'm saved. I'm a believer. I'm a Christian. Whatever word you want to use for that. He says, I abide in Him that He ought Himself also so to walk, even as who Christ walked. If you claim in Jesus Christ, you ought to be living Jesus Christ. That's what He's saying. Knowledge equals obedience. And so we take this principle from the Word of God. That's a principle. What is the principle? The principle is that if I have Christ in me, I ought to be living for Christ. And so now, let's take that principle that we've just come because of this knowledge from this verse and let's make application. How do we apply it? We start living and walking for Jesus Christ. We start right where we're at. And we start going in the direction that God wants us to go. And what's going to happen? God's going to be pleased. God's going to be pleased. Man, I want God to be pleased with me. I want God to be pleased with me. But the flip side of that, if you flip that over and look at it from the reverse side of that, you will never please God without walking worthy, without a knowledge of His will. So you see, Paul says, first of all, I've got to get God in you. I've got to get a knowledge of Jesus Christ in you. I pray that God will fill you with the knowledge of principles and applications in order that you might walk worthy. But you cannot walk worthy without the knowledge. So the knowledge comes first. And so for a Christian to say, I can live for God and never read my Bible, you're lying to yourself. Because you've got to study the Word of God to know the principles and the application for the life that you need. And if Christ is pleased with us, if our actions of walking worthy pleases God, then notice what the second thing is. He says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being what? Fruitful. Fruitful in every good work. And so out of this knowledge comes principles. That principle gives us spiritual understanding, application, in order that we might obey so when we live life, we are pleasing unto God, and if we please God, then guess what? God's going to bless our life. And we're going to bear fruit, right? The Bible teaches that principle all through the Bible of this fruitful walk. We go all the way back to the Old Testament in the very first psalms. Psalm 1. He says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the sea of the scornful, but his delight is what in the law of the Lord and in His law doth he meditate day and night. Instead of listening to everyone else, instead of listening to what everyone else is saying, folks, we need to delight in the Word of God. We need to be studying the Word of God. And we need to be meditating on it day and night. Thinking about it. What is God trying to teach me? And how can I apply it? The basic two principles of the Christian life. And then, he goes on in verse 3, and look what he says, If you do this, then you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth what is fruit in his season. If we get in the Word of God, we gain knowledge. We take that knowledge and we form principles. We take them principles and we form application. We start living it. And what happens? All of a sudden, we start bearing fruit. We start bearing fruit. Jesus mentioned it this way in John 15. He said, I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth what? Much fruit. For without Me, you can do nothing. You cannot bear fruit if you don't have some knowledge of what God wants you to do and you're not willing to do it. And that's what Paul is saying. Man, I love the way that you love God. I love what God has done for you. He said in verse 4, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which have to all the saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of truth of the Gospel? Man, things are great! But, I pray in that, man, you'll take the knowledge that you have and you'll make principles and you will apply them to your life so that you can bear fruit. Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 3, According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through what? The knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Divine power. How many of you would love to have divine power? The power of God. Remember, Paul talked about it in Philippians. Paul said in Philippians, he talks about the divine power of God. It is in you. It is there because of Jesus Christ. But how do we unleash that power? How do we tap into that power? Through knowledge. Through studying Jesus Christ and His Word. He goes on in v. 5. Austin just finished preaching about this a couple of months ago. He says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. And to virtue what? Knowledge. Knowledge. Take your faith. Take what you did to believe in Jesus Christ and you're trying to obey Him. That's virtue, right? We're trying to be virtuous. I'm trying to follow Jesus Christ. But the only way that I can do that is I've got to add knowledge to what God has already started in my life and where I've started to walk. And so again, it has to do with knowledge. And he goes on through some other things that are there, but then look at what he says in v. 8. If you want to go back, you can listen to Austin's messages as he adds these different things. But in v. 8 it says, you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Knowledge. One of the things that brings fruit here is knowledge. To know God's truth is to fertilize the soil and to produce fruit. And then look at the third thing Colossians says. If you are filled with knowledge, you're going to walk worthy. You're going to please God. You're going to be fruitful for God. And then look at what he says in the third thing. An increasing in the knowledge of God. That increasing is the idea you're going to grow in your walk. You're going to get mature. You're going to start acting like a Christian, like an adult, instead of looking and acting like a child. In Ephesians 4, verse 13, remember why God gave to the church ministers and pastors and teachers? You remember? Not so that they can fill us and so that we can win the Bible trivia. Not so that we can win some game or something. But in order that we all come to the unity of the faith, what? And the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure and stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. Now, without knowing anything about the Bible with what we've heard this morning, what do we know is the will of God? The will of God is to act like God. Right? To act like Jesus Christ. So all of us know this morning that we have to be like Jesus Christ. If Christ is in us, our bodies have to live. And so how do we do that? It comes through knowledge. It comes through continually applying that knowledge. 1 Peter 2, verse 2, he says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of what? Of the Word of God. Now, we need to get Christians hooked on the Word of God. We need to get Christians going to the Word of God that is there. And why? Why do we need to get people hooked on the Word of God? That you may grow thereby. That you may mature. That you no longer remain a child, but you grow up. Especially in these latter days, in these days of difficulty and deception and everything that's going on. Folks, we need people grounded in the Word of God. Growth is a critical emphasis in the New Testament. We are to grow to be like Jesus Christ. That is the whole key to this whole thing on knowledge. Why do I read my Bible? Because my Bible is food that nourishes my soul. It nourishes my spirit in order that my body might be conformed to what God has already made me. Are you starting to see the importance of knowledge? Are you starting to see the importance of knowledge that he stressed? He said, man, things are going good. I'm not praying for you to get well. I'm not praying for this to happen. I am praying that you get knowledge and you begin to grow to maturity and you bear fruit. And then look at the fourth thing. Verse 11, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto patience, longsuffering, and joyfulness. I think Paul wants them to have a strengthened walk. From the knowledge of God's principles. What do you mean by that? Practical knowledge. Applicable knowledge. From the knowledge of God's principles, you're going to find that you are strengthened. That you're strong. Remember what we talked about in Ephesians when He said put on the whole armor of God that you may what? Stand. Stand. Standing is the strength, right? Standing is what gives you... If you cannot have the power in your legs, the most important part, muscle in a boxer's body is his legs. If he can't stand there and take a punch, he'll never make it to the next round. And so he says the strength. Where does that strength come from? It comes from knowledge of Jesus Christ. Listen, strengthened with a little bit of power. Is that what it says? That God is going to strengthen you with a little bit of power? No, look at what it says again. According to His glorious power. Whose power? God's power. I mean, listen, I can actually be strengthened by divine power. That strengthened is a present participle. It means it has a continuous action. In other words, God has already strengthened me, but He continues to strengthen me over and over and over as I need the strength and as I study the Word of God. It doesn't mean that when you get saved, God sort of gives you all of a sudden this initial blast off and just says, man, good luck. I hope you do well in this Christianity thing. No, when God saved us, God just begins to do in your life with this sustaining power to give you the strength to go on and on. You will be continually being strengthened with, oh my, according to what kind of power? His glorious power. Do you know what glorious means? Glorious talks about the manifold, all of the different manifestations of God's character. And so everything, all of a sudden, guess what? You're going to have all of the characters of God in divine power. What's some of God's qualities? Character traits? The Bible says God is love, right? And so man, a divine, a godly love is going to start oozing out of you. God is kind. God is patient. God cannot deny Himself. He doesn't lie. You start thinking of all of these different character qualities. And all of a sudden, that's what He's talking about. All of these manifestations of God's character begins to ooze out of you. In 2 Corinthians 4.7, it says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels in our bodies. This is hidden within you if you are a child of God. The excellency of the power may be of God and not ourselves. God doesn't want our power. He wants His power. And He wants that to be seen. Remember, Paul prayed to the church at Philippi that I may know Him, and what? Know Him in His sufferings, but also know Him in the power of His resurrection. You have that power within you. Paul goes on, and listen to this. We are troubled on every side. Any of you got troubles this morning? But Paul said because I am empowered and strengthened by God and the knowledge of God and God's will in my life, I'm walking according to that. Look, he said, we're not distressed. How many Christians do we know that are distressed today because of trouble? See, there's going to be trouble. Trouble's going to happen, but we don't have to be distressed. Because listen, I've read the book. Am I all distressed about this election? No. I think it's very serious. I think we need to be praying very hard for our election. I think we need to be praying for our country because the Bible is plain. The principle is that my people which are called by my name shall pray, humble themselves, and seek my face, and I will deliver them, and we need delivering. Amen? And so it is a serious thing, but am I distressed? No, I've read the end of the book. I know the will of God. And so Paul says I'm troubled on every side, but I'm not distressed. We're perplexed. How in the world did we just in such a short time get in the shape that we're in? Are you perplexed? Are you wondering what in the world is going on? Where is this world going? Paul says, man, we're perplexed. I don't understand everything that's happening, but I'm not in despair. I'm not ready to give up, right? I'm not going to pack my bags tomorrow or the day after the election and move to another country. No, I'm not in despair. And then he said I'm persecuted. But even during my persecutions, guess what? I'm not forsaken. He says I'm cast down. I've been knocked off of my feet before, but they haven't destroyed me. It isn't the end of the fight. And then look what he says in verse 10. Always bearing about in the body. Again, we're trying to get our body to our spirit. To act like our spirit. And so bearing about in the body the what? The dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. You can only get to that point by knowing Jesus Christ. And as we study the Word of God, as we feed on the Word of God, we start to formulate principles. Charles Stanley has a principle Bible. If you want to get started, and it will help you tremendously because he just puts it in the side and it's just short principles that come right out of the Word of God. It'll teach you how to take the Word of God and make principles out of it. It's a life principle Bible. But that's what we're supposed to be doing. We don't just read the Bible so that I can check the Bible off and say, man, I read it through this year. Right? I've read it through this many times. No, we read the Bible so that we can formulate principles. And when we formulate principles, then we add application. And when we add application, God all of a sudden pumps into us this strength, this power, this energy. That's what He is promising. That we will bear fruit. Walking worthy. Being fruitful. Growing. Being strengthened. And it will all result from true spiritual understanding of the Word of God. And then lastly, it's an enduring walk. Look at what he says in v. 11. Unto you. Here's the result. Here's the end of the line. That you may have all patience and long-suffering. But not just patience and long-suffering, but you'll have them with what? Joyfulness. Joyfulness. Now are you starting to see why after going through Philippians, I'm going through Colossians? Because it just picks up everything that we've pounded. What did all the Philippians talk about? How to be joyful. How to have joy in your life. And we cannot be joyful because why? We're still praying, God give me patience. God help me to be long-suffering, right? You want to become patient? You want to become long-suffering? You want to have joy? When you've got to start reading the Bible, you've got to have a knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said in Philippians. Not that I speak in respect of wont, for I have learned... How did he learn it? He learned it through studying. He learned it through reading the Word of God. In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased. I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Circumstances don't affect me because God has a bigger plan than me. This world is not about me. My life is not about me. It is about Jesus Christ. And when we focus on Jesus Christ, and we walk worthy of Jesus Christ, and we please Him, and we bear fruit, and we are strengthened, and we are able to endure, He says all patience. Patience means deliberate endurance. I can put up with whatever's going on around me because God has a plan. God has a plan. God has a purpose. And then He says you're going to have longsuffering. That's the kind of an attitude. These two words, patience and longsuffering, are really synonyms. And if you really wanted to break them down, and I kind of teach that to Paul, why is he using synonyms? There must be a reason. If you wanted to break these two words down, one has to deal with actions, the patience, and longsuffering has to do with your attitude about the situation. See, it's hard to be patient if your attitude's not right. If you're not thinking right. But I don't know, these two are synonymous to each other. They're synonyms basically. You can use one or the other or both of them. And what he's saying is it takes both of them, patience, the action, and longsuffering, the attitude, in order to be joyful. Wouldn't you like to experience in every trial that you face, everything that happens in your life, a joyful endurance? Wouldn't that be terrific? Wouldn't that be terrific? You know, listen, Paul's praise. I just want you to know God's truth. I want you to know God's truth. He doesn't pray about their physical problems and everything. He says no, I want you to know God's truth so that when suffering comes, when persecution comes, guess what? You will know how to be content and still live according to the purpose of God. Strengthened, bearing fruit. That's the absolute. That's the bottom line is the Word of God. And once you know all of that, then your behavior comes right out next. You're going to walk worthy, exciting, unto all pleasing. You're going to be fruitful in every good work. You're going to grow. You're going to be strengthened. You're going to endure anything with joy. And I don't know about you, but that sounds like living to me. It sounds like living to me. That's what I want to have joy no matter what. I want to know that God is working in my life. How do we do that? Isn't it time that we get filled with the knowledge of His will? Find out what He wants us to do. Formulate some principles. Take them as principles and just start applying them every day as we live. What is one principle that you can take out of today and apply? Maybe tomorrow you get up and read your Bible. Maybe you don't wait until tomorrow. Maybe you start this afternoon and read your Bible. Maybe the night before you go to bed. See, that is applying the principles. We'll never get conformed to the image of Jesus Christ without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so that's where we start. And so, isn't it time? Man, I want joy. Do you want joy this morning? Do you want to have joy through circumstances and situations? As we stand and we have a verse of invitation, it only happens through the knowledge of His will. Living what we know as we sing what Him.