We are starting a new series entitled, "Making a Difference Our World." We will be going through the book of Colossians. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Col 1.
There is is something within all of us that wants to make a difference. It not a de-sire to be a super star or famous, it is this longing that we would make a difference in the every day lives that we live.
In Colossian1 we learn the first way to make a difference in the world… that is through prayer.
You will not make a difference in your world until you pray for your world!
"You can do more than pray, after you have prayed," wrote A. J. Gordon, "but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed."
Prayer connects with God.
Martin Luther said, "To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Today we are going to look at How can we pray prayers that will really make a differ-ence.
3 ways to prayer more effectively for others!
1. PRAY more Insightfully .
We many we even want to pray more, but what do we pray about?
"...since the day we heard about you…" Colossians 1:9 (NIV)
Ep-af-RAS had gone and visited Paul in Rome and told them about the Colossians People!
Difference between gossip and prayer requests.
For example, we can say to ourselves, "Christians don’t gossip. They just share prayer requests!" Sometimes prayer requests are really prayer requests. But too often they are gossip wrapped in prayer shawls.
It was founded under the ministry of a man named Epaphras, who is introduced in the opening verses of this letter
"Bless the missionaries" prayers…
Paul prayed for People
Take time to learn about people. SMALL GROUPS!
Paul cared about people. The primary way he showed his love was praying for them!
One of Paul’s trademarks in his epistles is the assurance of his prayers on behalf of the recipients. To the Romans he remarked, "I make men-tion of you always in my prayers" (Rom. 1:9-10). To the Ephesians he wrote, "I...do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers" (Eph. 1:15-16). To his beloved Philippian church, he tells, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all" (Phil. 1:3-4).
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." Philippians 1:3 (NKJV)
see Rom. 1:9-10;Eph. 1:15-16
Action Step: DEVELOP A PRAYER JOURNAL
2. PRAY more CONSISTENTLY .
"we do not cease to pray for you." Colossians 1:9b (NIV)
"…Men always ought to pray and not lose heart." Luke 18:1 (NKJV)
Prayer is hard work!
The Example of Epaphras
"Epaphras… always laboring fervently for you in prayers…"
Colossians 4:12-13 (NKJV)
Laboring ferverntly…
Action Step: DETERMINE A TIME AND A PLACE
Seek to maintain a regular pattern of daily prayer. This may necessitate a set time and place where you lay others’ needs before the throne of grace. You may have to be somewhat flexible in your scheduling, and that is okay, just know that prayer is a disciplined work. It will require your diligent, conscientious attention. If you don’t make plans to pray, you probably won’t!
3. PRAY more SCRIPTURALLY.
a. Pray for God’s PURPOSE .-his will (vs. 9)
"…asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." Colossians 1:9 (NIV)
This is a constant question we ask - What is God’s will? Here Paul is praying that God would fill people with the knowledge of His Will.
"FILLED" v. 9
Not just a small measure
But satiated, with a full measure
It is not God’s desire that we try to "just get by with as little as necessary"
THROUGH all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Eph 5:17
Ultimately Prayer is a way of getting God’s will not our will. We pray, not to control God, but for God to control us.
Taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus in the garden before he was betrayed and crucified said ot the Fa-ther, Not my will, but your will be done.
Prayer is seeking God’s will! Every prayer is a prayer of Your WILL BE DONE!
What is God’s PURPOSE?
Now we have all asked at one time or another, what is God’s will for my life? Or, every Christian parent has prayed for God’s will to become clear to his/her children. God, what is your will about this? We need to know God’s will, and so we need, as verse 9 puts it, wisdom and insight to discern what it is when we meet it because sometimes God’s will is so clear but we are distracted by the way our culture would see things instead of the way God sees them.
A HOLY Life (vs. 10)
"For though once your heart was full of darkness, now it is full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it! ...Learn as you go along what pleases the Lord." Ephesians 5:8,10 (TLB)
A HELPFUL Life (vs. 10)
"God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." Ephesians 2:10 (NCV)
The Christian should produce fruit drawn from Christ. Present tense = the Chris-tian life is to constantly bear fruit, not simply on occasion. To be fruitful means to be productive (John 15:1-5).
"In every good work" is active goodness of any kind (Eph 2:10; Gal 5:5; Titus 1:16; 2:7,14; 3:8,15). Works are not the foundation of a right relationship to God but the outcome of that relationship. "Work" here is any kind of activity undertaken on be-half of Christ. Everything done for this reason is a mode of fruitfulness.
Prayer is partnering with God. It not giving God instructions, it is whoing up for duty.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.? 1 Peter 1:22 (NIV)
b. Pray for God’s POWER . (vs. 11)
"…being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…"
Colossians 1:11 (NIV)
That word "strengthen" means it’s continually happening. It didn’t happen once. It’s happening every day in my life.
Two powerful forces work in the world today-the power of God and the power of Satan. The power of God is infinitely greater, but we are affected by both.
Since Satan’s power is greater than that of humans, we are constantly at risk. Paul re-minds us that we struggle "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil" (Eph. 6:12). In order to stand, we are challenged to put on the whole armor of God and to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" (v. 18).
Someone put it this way… "Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infi-nite grace and power. All that God is, and ... has, is at the disposal of prayer. Prayer can do anything that God can do."
The devil dreads our prayers more than anything. A mighty prayer warrior once said, "Sa-tan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray." It’s no wonder Satan trembles. By means of prayer, the power of the omnipotent God of heaven and earth is brought against him. He doesn’t stand a chance.
People desperately need what only God can give. That’s why we need to pray more!
How do you know you are leaning on God’s Power? Two things…You have endurance and patience! Those are two very interesting words in the Greek lan-guage.
"Patience" is a word that applies specifically to problems. Being patient with problems and circumstances in my life. Have you ever had to be patient with a problem? Have you ever had to wait on something to happen? When God’s power comes into your life it gives you the power to wait, to trust through a prob-lem. The verse tells us that’s the most incredible display of God you can find.
Then He uses the word "endurance". That’s a different word that applies in a different way. That word applies to problems. Endurance applies to people. He uses a different word on purpose here. Have you ever had to be patient with a person? Who hasn’t? When God gives you the power to be patient with a per-son… Sometimes we have our own tricks, our own ways to try to do it. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about when God gives you the power to be patient with a person. That is a display of His power.
"For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again."
Proverbs 24:16 (NIV)
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)
Action Step: PRAY GOD’S WORD
When we bring God’s Word into our praying, we are bringing God’s power into our praying.
E. M. Bounds was known for his extraordinary prayer life. He once testified,
The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed, and by which things are mightily moved. God has committed Himself, His purpose, and His promise to prayer. His Word becomes the basis, the inspiration of our praying, and there are circum-stances under which by importunate prayer, we may obtain an ... enlargement of His prom-ises.
Prayer 1-Colossians 1:9 I pray that God would fill ______________________ with the knowl-edge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Prayer 2-Colossians 1:10 And I pray this in order that ____________________ may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, grow-ing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that ____________________ may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified ______________________ to share in the inheri-tance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and mar-row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)
