Pray

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4. This evening we'll be reading verses 2 through 6 of this chapter, but the text for consideration will be specifically verses 2 through 4. So that's Colossians chapter 4, and our reading begins at verse 2. Colossians chapter 4. This is the Word of God. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. So ends the reading of the Word of God this evening. Let us pray together. Lord, we come to you thankful for your holy word. And we ask that you would speak to us through it this evening, imparting to us the truth of your salvation and your will for us in our lives each day. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I found as I'm coming into my last year of seminary, I've been flying a lot more in the last couple of years than I've ever flown before. Because of various internships and pulpit supply opportunities, I find myself going to the San Diego airport more times than I would like to and more times than I ever have before. And what I find interesting, though, is even with this increased number of flights, I very seldom use the laboratory when I'm in the airplane. And I trace this back. I sort of noticed it suddenly, and I traced it back to a few years ago So we were flying to my cousin's wedding on the East Coast. And in mid-flight, the plane must have dropped a thousand feet or so. And I was, maybe I'm exaggerating, but, and I was in the laboratory when this happened. So I'd just gone into the laboratory and I'd just shut the door. And no sooner did I latch that little lock that the plane dropped to the extent that I hit my head on the ceiling. It was like I jumped as high as I could without moving at all. And so then my next thought was, I better get back to my seat and buckle in. And I opened the door to see the stewardess strapped into her seat scream at me in a panicked manner, sit down and shut the door, to which I promptly complied. And the reason I tell this story, beloved, is I can honestly say, as I sat in that laboratory with no window and hearing the normal hum of the engine sounding like an engine failing, I can honestly say that I've never prayed so hard in my life. I've never prayed with such vigor and so in earnest as I prayed that time. It's very easy to come to God when times are difficult. It's very easy to come to God in prayer when our need is so crystal clear. But it can be very difficult to pray when things seem to be going quite well. We live, by and large, in a very blessed nation. We have good jobs, good schools, good health care systems, good churches. And we often don't really think to turn to the Lord in prayer until one of those good things turns into a bad thing. but Paul says very little about any of this or any of the cries that I've mentioned. But what he does tell us is to pray. He tells us right from the beginning to pray. Devote yourselves to prayer. In Colossians 4, verses 2-4, Paul tells us fairly simply to pray. It's nothing all that earth-shattering, it's nothing that complicated, it's a fairly simple charge. But yet Paul sees the need to this church he's writing to, just as we still see the need today to hear this message, that we are to pray. And Paul then goes on to tell us how we are to pray. He tells us we are to pray to God and we are to pray for His gospel message. So first we consider that we are to pray to God. In praying to God, we are told the timing of the prayer and the theme of the prayer. He gives us the timing for when this prayer should take place. Certainly He doesn't say at 8 o'clock every morning, but what He says is it is to be continual. We are to devote ourselves to prayer. And this isn't a new concept. We hear this of the early Christians right after Christ had risen and they were waiting for a sign. When he had ascended back into heaven, in the book of Acts, the opening, in Acts 1.14, we see the Christians gathered, devoting themselves to prayer. And throughout the book of Acts, this is a constant refrain. In 2.42 and 6.4, we see this idea of being constant or being devoted to prayer. Now, we may pause a moment and ask, well, why would Paul say this? Why would he tell us that we are to be constant, devoted in our prayer? When we think about it, this makes perfect sense because of what prayer is. We're praying to God. We have the ability to speak with the Almighty in heaven. That's an amazing thing. We can bring all our praise, all our thanksgiving, all our love, all our doubt, all our fear, all our sin, everything to His feet. And when we really understand what it means to come to God in prayer, how can we expect any other charge than to be told, To devote ourselves to it. To be constant in it. It's an amazing thing. Because beloved, Satan doesn't want us to pray. Satan fears our prayers just about more than anything else we can do. A theologian once had a great quote concerning prayer where he said, The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless labor, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil. He mocks our wisdom. But he trembles when we pray. We are to devote ourselves to prayer, Not in a sense of praying seven times a day on this specific time for an hour long, reciting the same thing over and over and over again. When he speaks of devotion and constancy, it's this idea of wholeheartedness. When we come to the Lord in prayer, we are to give our whole heart to Him. We are to pray to Him. Not just offer up words flippantly, but be devoted to prayer. So we see that gives us a concept of the timing of the prayer that Paul is looking for, as Paul is telling us to have. But he goes on to give us the themes of this prayer. What is this prayer to look like? Well, it's to be watchful, and it's to be thankful. Now, we may think this term watchful is a little odd. You think thankful is very easy to see the connection. We often think of giving our thanksgiving in prayer, But watchful may seem like a somewhat odd term to use. What does Paul mean when he's telling us to be watchful? Well, in fairness, it could mean a number of things. Often this term watchful was used in being on our guard for deception, for deceivers, who would strip us of the truth. And that would certainly be apt for the people in the Colossian church. Because there were many factions trying to convince them that Christ was not supreme. That they needed to look outside of this Jesus Christ and look to other means. So, it could very well be the case that he's saying, be watchful for these deceivers. Just as we read in Acts 20 and 1 Corinthians 16, this idea for being watchful against deception. But there's another way this term is used. It can be used in a sense of being on the lookout. Praying for the Lord to return, being watchful for the day of the Lord. We see that especially in Matthew 24 and 25, where we're told that no man knows the hour, so be watchful. And we receive the parable of the ten virgins, where again this term watchful is meant to express the day of the Lord, being on the lookout for the Lord to come again. And while certainly both of these have a great warrant to be the reason and the meaning for what Paul means when he says to be watchful, I think the third reason may be more appropriate. A sense of being awake, attentive, and self-controlled is often a term used in conjunction with it. Often they're used together. They appear together in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 1 Peter 5. This idea of being attentive and self-controlled when we come to the Lord in prayer. And there's one example in the scriptures where we see this idea of attentiveness in our prayers. In a counter-example, in the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ was coming to his final hours on this earth alive before his crucifixion. And he prays and he asks the disciples, be watchful. Be attentive. Be awake. And they fall asleep time and time again. So this is a serious charge when Paul says to be watchful. We are to be attentive in our prayer. We do have the luxury that we can come to the Lord in prayer at any time, in any hour, in any way. That's one thing that can never be taken away from us. Our ability to pray can never be taken away from us. But that doesn't mean we should do it flippantly in a manner that's irreverent to God. You know, there's the very literal application of being attentive in our prayers. And I know personally sometimes the worst time to pray is right before you go to bed. You think it's the best time to pray, but when the morning comes you can't remember whether or not you said amen. It's probably not a very attentive prayer. And I'm often convicted of this with maybe I'm driving along and in our California culture we so often want to multitask and I think, well, this would be a good time to pray only to not have maybe turned the radio down low enough and wanting to hear the sports tip that just came in or the news of the latest trade. And I get cut off and that disrupts the sanctity of my prayer pretty quickly as well. And even, beloved, when we gather together and listen to the pastoral prayer. It can be a time where our minds so easily wander and young ones where our heads so easily nod. But we are called to rejoice in our prayer. We are called to be attentive because we are speaking with God. But I think when he's saying to be watchful, it has much more weight than simply being awake in the literal sense. It's being aware of the gravity of what our prayer is. The seriousness of coming to the Lord in prayer. I think so often, beloved, we've lost the art of prayer. Where our prayers can just become a sort of wish list. And moreover, we've lost the joy of prayer. Where it can become an obligation, more than a joy to do, to engage in. So we must be watchful for these things. Careful, awake, self-controlled in our prayers. But what's more, we are to be thankful. We're to be watchful and we're to be thankful, Paul tells us. And thankfulness is a much more easier connection for us to make. Because I don't know if any of you are like me, You've probably heard the acronym of ACTS, that we come to the Lord in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. So thanksgiving is a very clear way we're supposed to come to the Lord. And in fact, often, thanksgiving is referred to as prayer. You know, they broke bread and gave thanks. And that infers that it is a prayer. Throughout the New Testament, we see this, breaking the bread at the Lord's Supper. in the midst of miracles when they broke the loaves and when a leper was healed and when Lazarus was raised from the dead they gave thanks. And what that means is that they offered a prayer. Our prayers, beloved, must always be grounded in thanksgiving. But I want to be very careful in that statement. They must always be grounded in thanksgiving but in a proper thanksgiving. Our prayers are not to be grounded in the thanksgiving for what we've been given in this world and thanksgiving for how great we are and the thanksgiving for what a wonderful church community we have. That's not the grounding for our prayers. Our prayers are grounded in the thanksgiving that God our Father sent His only Son to be a payment for our sins. That is the thanksgiving that must be primary in our prayers. Constant, watchful, thanksgiving that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Never tire of that in your prayers, beloved. Never take that for granted. Never think, oh, I don't need to say that in my prayer, because I say that all the time and I know it. That is the foundation of our prayer, that Christ died. And so, in the beginning of our prayers, or in the foundation of our prayers, we should be thankful for this gift. And that leads us to our second point, that because of this gift, we may approach God. And so, because of this gift, we should pray not only to God, but for His gospel message. And what I mean by that is that Paul tells us we are to pray that his gospel message might be spread throughout all lands, to all people. What we see in this charge of Paul telling the people to pray for him is the book has come full circle. Because if you look at the beginning of Colossians, in chapter 1, verse 9, Paul says, We have not stopped praying for you. And he goes on to have a lengthy section speaking of how they are in prayer for the people of the Colossian church. How they are in constant prayer for them. Rejoicing that they have heard this gospel. Rejoicing that they who once were dead have been brought to life. And so now after spreading this joy to them and telling them the joys of praying for them, he counsels them finally towards the end of the book, now pray for us, beloved. pray for us he says pray for the group and pray for the individual first the group pray for us and what's interesting is with all the needs of the church just like this church gathered here with all the needs that we have as a body with all the needs we have as a community of faith with all these overwhelming needs that face us when we look at one another as a group picture what does Paul say when he says pray for us not that the new wing might be added on to the church but pray for us that God would open doors that doors would be open for the gospel now we could maybe take this literally thinking you know Paul's writing this in chains we find out just a few words later Maybe he's saying, you know, pray that I would be let out of here. Pray that Christians in prison would be released. But I don't think that's necessarily the case at all. Because as we see, often the gospel doors are not earthly doors. In the book of Acts, we have a picture of two prisoners, or three prisoners really, Peter and Paul and Silas. And in one case in Acts 12, the people pray and Peter escapes. And his gospel ministry goes on. God opens the door and he is allowed to escape and the gospel ministry goes on. But in another case, Acts 16, a very similar thing happens where Paul and Silas are in prison and the doors swing open and they could run free too, but they don't. They stay. And yet, even though the real physical imprisonment is not alleviated, even though they don't leave this real physical imprisonment, the Gospel message still moves forward. The warden is converted. And Paul, from his chains, is now writing this letter. So when we pray that God would open doors for the Gospel ministry, beloved, we're praying that He would open it through barriers, both literal and spiritual. any barriers, anything that would close the door. In Acts 14, 27, we see a reference to a door of faith being opened. In 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, we see mentioned a door to different peoples that we might have this gospel door opened up that we can spread the good news to any who would hear it. I think so often our temptation when we read a sentence like this, That the doors would be open to our immediate impulses to pray for China. Because certainly there is great persecution in the land of China. And the gospel is being hindered by the government. Yet in the midst of that persecution, the gospel is growing. The gospel is thriving. Don't we need to make this prayer as much for America as we do for China? That the doors for the gospel message would be open? That so many churches that have no true profession of the gospel would be corrected? And that the door for the truth that Jesus Christ has died for our sins would reign supreme? Certainly we must have a larger view of this idea that the door would be open for the gospel ministry to go forth. So they asked that the door would be open that we might proclaim. that we might proclaim Him. In Colossians 1.28, we see this, we proclaim Him. This idea of the mystery of Christ being revealed is what is driving this gospel effort. That the doors may be open, but not just that the doors might be open, but that we might also proclaim Him. Proclaim, as Paul puts it here, the mystery of Christ. And what we can take from this mystery of Christ is that it literally means either that the mystery is Christ or that we're speaking of a mystery revealed by Christ. And either interpretation of what it means is valid because of what we see earlier in Colossians. This mystery is referred to in both ways. In chapter 1 verse 26 and in chapter 2 verse 2. We pray, beloved, that the mystery of Christ may be revealed to those who would not hear and that we might have the ability to proclaim this gospel. And furthermore, even those of us who know this mystery, who know that Christ is the Son of God, who know that He died for our sins and rose again from the dead, we still pray that we may understand this mystery more and more every day. That brings me back to the point, beloved, that our prayers shouldn't just be a community wish list. There is absolutely nothing wrong with praying for the physical needs of those in our congregation. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with rejoicing with the earthly and physical joys of our congregation. But, beloved, our primary prayer, when we are giving supplication to the Lord, should be that the doors for the gospel would be open and that we all might proclaim Him and proclaim this mystery of Christ to those who have not or will not hear it. It often disheartens me in prayer groups where we ask for prayer requests and it really does just become who's sick, who's pregnant, Who lost a job? Who's interviewing for a new job? And as I said, there's nothing wrong with those cares and concerns. But they should not dominate our prayers, beloved. The door for the gospel, the prayer for us, should be the predominant aspect of our prayers. So we see that Paul tells us to pray for the group, to pray for us. He says, pray for us as the church. But then he also says, pray for me. Pray for the individual. Pray for me. And what's very interesting is that the transition from us to me is fairly seamless in the text. Which I think shows the continuity that we are not our own. We are part of a body of believers. So, when Paul is saying, pray for me, it's still really an extension of the prayer for us. Because he tells us he is in the midst of chains. Isn't that ironic? That Paul is in the midst of chains, and yet the door that he is praying would be open is the door for the gospel, not the door to his prison cell. And he prays, or he asks them to pray for him, that he would proclaim. It's the same prayer for the group, that he would proclaim the truth as he should. Pray that I may proclaim it as I should. And what's interesting there is the word we find there for the proclamation is not normally what is used for proclamation. it's sort of more akin to revelation divine revelation which once again brings us back to this idea of the mystery of Christ Paul is asking that they would pray for him that he may reveal the truth that has been given to him as I should but what's very interesting beloved is that term should can also mean bound as I am bound and I wouldn't make too much of it except a few words before he just used the word for bindings these chains, these bindings I'm in but may I proclaim this as I am bound an interesting comparison of two concepts of being bound the one is in chains and the earthly cry within us would be free me from these chains but what Paul's prayer is is that he would act in accordance to his bindings his chains to the truth his chains to the gospel his chains to Jesus Christ the chains that make him free those chains bring him life and it's very interesting, beloved that he should say pray for me because I would think if I were in the Colossian church I would read this and say Paul, we don't need to pray for you You've got everything taken care of. You're up here and we're all down here. You need to pray for us. But we don't need to pray for you. And that can still be our temptation today, beloved. Surely Pastor Voss and Pastor Donovan don't need our prayers. Surely our elders and deacons don't need our prayers. They've got it all figured out. They're the ones who need to pray for us. But what Paul is reminding us here, beloved, is that as a community, we all need to be praying for one another. Because as Paul is so eager to remind them, he is the least of the apostles. He is the chief of sinners. We all share in this corruption of sin. And we should all keep one another in prayer. Even our leaders, especially our leaders, for their struggles are often fiercest. Pray for your consistory. Pray for your pastors. Pray for me. So in the light of this, it's beautiful to look at Paul's ending in 4 verse 18. Where he says, remember my chains. It may be very possible to think of that the chains he's referring to are not the chains that we hear of in verse 3. but the binding that he refers to in verse 4. That Paul is encouraging the people of God to remember the chains to the gospel, the chains to Christ. So in the light of this news, beloved, pray. Pray often. Pray continually. Pray watchfully and thankfully. Pray to your Father and that His gospel message may spread to all people. Pray for each other, devoting yourselves to prayer daily. Do not wait for the deadly diagnosis. Do not wait for the death of a loved one. Do not wait until the plane is going down. Pray with the confidence and the joy that our Father will hear us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died in our place. Beloved, let us pray. Lord, we thank You this evening for the gift of prayer. we thank You that we can come to You for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We come to You in watchfulness, Lord, praying that You would come right soon, that it will be soon indeed that the clouds will part and You will descend, Lord. May it always be our prayer that You would come as soon as You may. Lord, we also come to you in watchfulness of deceivers. Praying that you would cleanse your church from all falsehood. That you would cleanse your church from false leaders and false teachings. That you would point us daily to the cross for our hope. And never, ever give any substitute for that hope. And it is for that hope that we thank you, Lord. that You have sent Your Son, and that He did suffer the humiliation of a cross, the humiliation of being apart from You, being forsaken. We thank You, Lord, that because of that sacrifice, our sins are forgiven. And we thank You for this good news, Lord, and ask that You would spread it to all lands. That you would rise up leaders of your churches. You would rise up faithful pastors. And we pray for this church, Lord. That you would preserve and encourage Pastor Voss and Pastor Donovan. And that you would fortify our consistory, Lord. Give them wisdom. Give them compassion. The elders and the deacons, be with them all. Strengthen them in their faith. And may they offer wise counsel and leadership to us. we pray Lord that you would be with all of us as indeed we are all messengers of your church we pray Lord that you would open doors in our own lives for us to proclaim the gospel message and we pray Lord that we would proclaim it we thank you Lord for giving us new life and let us never tire Lord of thanking you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ in whose name we pray Amen