[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Colossians chapter 4, starting in verse 2. We pick up today with a study on the privilege of prayer—on the ability to bring things to God and have him hear us. Verse 2 states: “Continue steadfastly in prayer” ((ESV).

       Our sentence begins with the word “Continue.” “Continue.” Paul certainly was aware, and certainly had been expecting, that the Colossian believers were faithful when it came to prayer—the practice of prayer. And so, they are instructed to “Continue steadfastly in prayer.” Coming to mind, as it probably is for many of us, is the scene of the early church at the beginning of Acts, where it says regarding the original Eleven Apostles, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14, ESV). What we are looking at is a continual, steadfast process, one in which there is devotion. It has been discussed in the past how a good mental state to be in is one of which one is in continual conversation with God. That’s because that kind of mindset can make it more difficult for us to sin. Think about it, It’s harder to sin if you are constantly keeping God in the forefront of the mind. But our verse today doesn’t necessarily mean we always have to be talking with God, every moment of the day. It simply means that we need to keep supplication to God as a priority, and not come to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter whether we pray or not, that it really doesn’t affect much.

       Now let’s read the verse in full: “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (ESV).

       We see in the second part of the verse that there is a watchfulness that is supposed to take place from us. And interestingly enough, if going through various Bible translations, trying to gain further insight wondering what this might mean, we find that the translators are kind of divided. Some seem to suggest that it is in our lives that we should be “watchful” for things of which we should pray. Makes sense. So, keeping alert as to what might need the special attention of prayer in our lives. Then some of the translations seem to place the emphasis on “watchful” as pertaining to the actual answers that come from our prayers. That is, looking for the answers to come after we have prayed. That also sounds interesting, and surely, the answers do come. Whatever approach, then, that we take as regards the word “watchful,” either way, we can benefit from both perspectives, that of being mindful of what should be prayed for, and that of expecting God to actually answer our prayers.

       One thing that has been noticed in associating with different groups of believers over the years, is that there does seem to be a general consensus that prayer is more times often left unanswered for us than it is actually answered. In other words, a lot of believers seem to have a cynical attitude when it comes to prayer. Sure, they may pray, but truth be told, they think the odds are more likely at the end of the day, or end of the year for that matter, that the prayers will go largely unanswered. And then comes on the scene the laundry list of explanations that preachers will present to us, the reasons behind it and whatnot, as to why our prayers aren’t being answered. Sometimes the finger is sadly pointed at the pray-er, which surely, at the end of the day, doesn’t help the situation all that much, does it? It can bring discouragement where really we need hope. Granted, James did say, “You do not have, because you do not ask…” and all that stuff (James 4:2, ESV). So, not to be too harsh here, because there is some truth behind it at times.

       However, what has been found to be most beneficial when it comes to prayers, and really to even living life in general, is that of the mindset that we decidedly bring to prayer. And where it all starts—where the beginning of the whole thing is—is with our likes and our dislikes, with what we want and what we don’t want. If we stop and think about it, that’s where all our requests from God begin, right? They begin with us presenting to God things that we would like to see happen, and things that we would prefer not happen. This kind of presentation of what we want from the mind is so instilled in us that we often don’t hardly notice it. It just comes forth from the inner-parts of our being. We even define ourselves at times by our likes and dislikes. And, what is being said here is not that our likes and dislikes are bad—that’s not actually where this is going. Rather, it is more our attitude when it comes to those likes and dislikes, that are we truly surrendered when it comes to what we want and what we do not want. Can we pray things to God without that strong desire within us where we feel we have to obtain whatever it is? Or, can we be free in that with what we present to God we have a loose grip?

       All kinds of examples can be brought forth at this point. When we go to prayer with God, for instance, can we say things like, “God, you know this is the person I like, the person I’d like to end up in a relationship with. However, God, I am surrendered about it. I pray that it goes in that direction, but I understand and will continue to be happy even if it doesn’t.” That’s kind of big, isn’t it? Or, take another example. Can we say, “You know, God, I really think this job I have applied for is the perfect job. The interview went well, and I thank you for helping with that. I ask that you help them to select me for the job, but, in the end, I am letting the situation go. I pray for it, but if I don’t get it, I’m still going to be okay with that outcome.” The mind ventures to think that most people don’t think like this. Most people are not surrendered with things when it comes to praying for them, and most people have expectations of God which they often feel he does not meet. There can be a sense of entitlement that rears its head, and this is especially true with the younger generations. We expect God to do this or that, and when he doesn’t do it, we put him in the doghouse.

       Thus, God gets blamed when it is perceived that he doesn’t do what we wanted him to do. Nevertheless, let’s stop for a moment and ask, is it true that God can simply do anything he wants to do? Let’s presume for a moment (because we obviously don’t think it’s true that God wanted to) that God did in fact want to answer our prayer how we prayed for it. Can God just do anything even when he wants to? The Scripture tells us, for instance, that God wants all people to be saved—to come to a knowledge of the truth, all to choose him. Does this happen, though? We know it doesn’t. So, does God himself get everything he wants then? We would have to say, “No, I don’t think so.” So, why then should we expect to get ‘everything’ we desire, or even believe that God can indeed give us everything we desire? Going back to the earlier examples, can God just ‘make’ that guy or that girl to like you? Can he simply wave his hand, which changes their mind, and cause them to begin a relationship with you? Can God just wave his hand and make the people at the company you applied at give you the job? Or, do those people have free will, and are they considering numerous factors, and factors that might end up excluding you? You see, then, the folly in all this?

       In the same way as we, in our watchfulness in prayer, do not always get everything that we want, so God himself does not always get everything that he wants. There are theological systems that will lead you to believe he does—that will argue and say confidently that he does. There are Bible teachers that will paradoxically say he does. But, if we dive deep within ourselves, we certainly cannot believe that he does. Look at the totality of the evil on the earth. We know there are other beings in this world. One of those beings, the Bible calls the god of this world. We know him as Satan, and we know that he, with those beings who work under him, work and reap great havoc on the earth. That’s why he does what he does, because he can work to accomplish things that God does not want—he can work to destroy lives, and to destroy Christian’s lives. That’s one reason we are praying in the first place. And speaking of us, we through disobedience, through not following God’s out laid out prescription of how we are supposed to live, through following our own sinful selves instead, we too, in the same fashion as Satan, can reap havoc in our lives, and in the lives of others. That also is a factor. And finally, there is the element of the world just being the world, where the earth, because it is under the curse, causes bad things to happen from the natural order of things. Sometimes random events happen that nobody brought on.

       Let’s not forget that last part of the verse, which says, “being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (ESV). So, thanksgiving. Let’s not forget thankfulness. While the conversation has been somewhat dreary at this point, though, at the same time hopefully encouraging and perhaps even enlightening, let’s not fail to remember that all of us, no matter who we are, have many things to be thankful for—an abundance of thankfulness in fact. So much we can’t even count it, and this really no matter where we find ourselves in our current lives, in whatever our life circumstances are. Of course, if we aren’t surrendered, we probably won’t see things this way. We probably won’t realize all there is that we have to be thankful for. If we are entitled, all we are thinking about is what we don’t have, and how God has greatly offended us because he hasn’t helped us with whatever it is. We may be bitter. We are stuck in our likes and dislikes, in that part of the mind that torments us. We don’t have a thankful attitude, and we not making a list of the whole host of things that we already have, the whole gamut of people, circumstances, and possessions which God has given us. It would take pages and pages to create the list, and yet, a lot of people don’t write it out. They don’t even recognize it. They are altogether stuck on getting the next thing.

       And when we do obtain what we desire, when we have asked righteously, and when God has been able to make things go our way, do we properly thank him for whatever it was? Coming to mind is the famous account of the ten lepers. Let’s turn over to Luke chapter 17, and consider that passage. Beginning in verse 11:

“On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well”” (Luke 17:11-19, ESV).

Are we with the nine, or are we the one? How do we see things? How to we perceive and thank God for the good that he does for us? Are we as the nine; are we entitled? Do we merely get what we want and go on our merry way, instantaneously getting reappointed for something else, to obtain something else, to get the next thing? Where are our hearts?

       Moving along. The first part of verse 3 in Colossians 4: “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word” (ESV).

       Paul asks for prayer. Asking for prayer. An important element of the Christian life, and one which we seem to do a good job at practicing. That’s why we shouldn’t ever be alone. This is just one verse of many verses that can be pointed to establish that fact. How can a Christian ask other Christians to pray for him or her if they are living their life independent of a group of believers? Even if you can’t find a church you completely agree with (for who truly can?), one in which you at least half agree with is better than none at all. You don’t have to agree with everything a church states in order to go there, to attend there, to fellowship with other believers. So, we can and should pray for each other—pray for the needs that we have, those which we actually present to each other.

       In this case, Paul has asked that the church in Colossae pray that God would open a door. Specifically, a door that the Gospel may be spread. That seems best how to understand what the word “word” truly represents because it is what he has been talking about in this entire letter in one way or another. Thus, opportunity to evangelize is what he requested. Notice that the prayer is that God “open to us a door.” At the moment Paul is writing this, there apparently isn’t opportunity, but he wants there to be opportunity. This is something that has to be brought before God. The implication then is that if the church doesn’t pray for this, that in not fulfilling Paul’s request he could actually be delayed, or that there could actually come no opportunity at all. Paul certainly believes that prayer affects the future in the way one wants. Otherwise, he wouldn’t ask the Colossians to pray. And we’ve already gone over the fact, early on in our study, that raising our petitions to God does produce a difference in our lives and in the lives of others, that we can genuinely sway God’s hand when it comes to things. It’s not that everything is already predetermined, or that God’s will is always done, or that what happens is automatically God’s will, as many, many will state. No, prayer can and does have an affect, and it matters whether or not we pray, and what we pray for.

       Backing up a little bit in the verse. “that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison” (ESV).

       What is this mystery of Christ that Paul wants, desires, to proclaim to others? If we recall, he discussed this in chapter 1. There he said, “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26, 27, ESV). So, the mystery is “Christ in you.” “Christ in you.” We talked about this at length in chapter 1. It’s not only the Jewish people, then, who can, do, and will have Christ live in them (through the Holy Spirit), but it also includes the Gentile peoples. Unquestionably, God prophesied this all the way back toward the beginning. In Genesis 12, we see a small glimpse into this, when God says to Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, ESV). This is merely the beginning of the whole foreshadowing. And it tell us, had Israel not rejected the Messiah, had things gone differently (for, again, God does not foreordain sin and individuals have freedom), if things had gone differently, God still would have blessed the Gentiles and included them. It shows the beautiful hand of God in the whole thing, how from the very beginnings he planned to bless everyone, to take care of everyone.

       But circumstances in the world are different from what God had planned, and from what the Apostle Paul himself even wanted, for Paul says he is “in prison” on account of the mystery. In prison? Wow, that doesn’t sound like things are going the direction they should. It’s particularly sad. Satan is reaping havoc on things, on the world, and people are choosing the wrong path. Paul and his companions are being persecuted. Nonetheless, it happened to Jesus first. He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. He should have been crowned as King. Yet he wasn’t. He was crucified instead. While God said this would happen, it wasn’t his first plan. Not at all. His first plan, going all, all the way back, was to have Adam and Eve reside in the Garden sin-free, and then populate the earth sin-free. God never wanted them to sin. Sin is never what God wants. And then, some would say God wanted to establish the earthly Kingdom for the Israelites first while Jesus was here on the earth, but then he was crucified. That certainly can be debated. But the point is that events don’t always go God’s way, as Paul was now in prison, and he asked the Colossians to pray for him to be released so that he could go around and proclaim the good news. If God wanted Paul to be in prison, then why would the Colossians pray any further. If the message would automatically be spread, then the Colossians didn’t need to pray. Even if one says they had to pray for obedience’s sake, the message still would have been spread until under mindset, if God had foreordained it. In actuality, it seems best to understand that the prayer would affect the future, and failure to pray for Paul and his companions could bring unsatisfactory consequences, and individuals might not be saved that otherwise would have been. That’s why the prayer is asked for.

       We need not forget the fact that the mystery, the message of the Gospel, can sometimes lead to imprisonment or worse. Unlikely here in the United States, but elsewhere in the world, we know that it is true. That’s what speaking the truth can do because, after all, people who are “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,” as Paul told the Ephesians, those persons often don’t want that message to advance. That’s partly due to their heavy sin, and that’s partly because the power of Satan is at work within them. Recall, Paul told the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16, ESV). Just as against the Gospel is the power of Satan, so is power that carries along the Gospel the power of God. So, it is power versus power. Opposition toward the Gospel doesn’t only come from man’s heart, it comes with Satanic and demonic activity against it.

       Finishing up the verse, “on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (ESV).

       Yet the prayer request goes further. It isn’t simply that Paul asks for prayer as pertains to actually proclaiming and spreading the good news, but it is actually also that it may be made clear, which he says, “is how I ought to speak.” This verse doesn’t seem to be brought up much as others as pertains the methodology behind proclaiming the Word of God, but really, at the end of the day, it’s a verse that can give us keen insight into what God desires as pertains to how that message is proclaimed. Think about it. God wants the delivery to be clear. A great deal of churches (again, using other verses to back up why they do what they do), have worked toward this, making the message modern and sometimes they say “relevant.” And that does seem good, that it be appealing to those in the common culture. It’s not that it should be immoral or something like that—nobody hopefully would agree with that—though some do want to water-things-down, or even change things to match the current societal persuasions. We know this and it is seen and heard about from time to time. On the other hand, the Evangelical church seems to have overall done this really well—presenting the good news clearly—and on top of that, presenting it in a light that most can understand. There are numerous ways this is accomplished. Through using modern examples and illustrations, through using modern themes, modern tie-ins, and not using language that isn’t current with our times.

       It is through making the message clear, for instance, that many churches and Bible teachers have moved away from the King James Version of the Bible, the version that was used for a real long time, both here in America and indeed beforehand. While it is a beautiful translation and very excellent for that matter, a lot of its language isn’t clear. This point was reminded for the speaker recently, when, in attending a Bible study, and having a newcomer to the faith along, a recent convert. The speaker was trying out a new Bible translation, which was a moderately updated version of the King James (for there are several new takes on it available). The speaker read the passage that we were going over, and the newcomer stated that that which had just been spoken was quite a bit different than what his Bible said. And this fact wasn’t even realized until it was pointed out in this manner. And feelings of regret arouse for reading the passage from the translation, and the leader of our group decided to re-read it in a more easier to understand translation. So, the speaker had to be reminded that day, the hard way, that the Word of God needs to be clear. While the King James Version is loved by the speaker, that’s why it isn’t used in these messages. The audience is far and wide, and the message needs to be made clear to the majority. This isn’t to say it would be wrong for a church to use the King James, if its members, say, had grown up with that and everyone understood it. But for purposes of making it clear to the majority it isn’t used here.

- Daniel Litton