Sermon Tone Analysis

With solemn vows of good behavior, little Stevie finally persuades his mother to let him sit with a group of friends at church.

"But remember,” mom warns, “I'm sitting 2 rows behind you, and I /will/ be keeping an eye on you."

Despite his good intentions, Steve is soon giggling and squirming with his buddies.

Finally Stevie's mom has stood all she can stand.

She walks forward, takes her son by the hand, and escorts him to the back of the sanctuary.

Halfway down the aisle, Steve turns to the congregation and cries out, "Everybody /please /pray for me!"[i]

*            */“Pray for me.”/

/            When you hear that request, somebody’s usually at the end of their rope.

They’ve tried everything they know to do, but nothing is working.

The patient is not getting any better.

The pain is not going away.

The money is not coming in.

The prodigal is not coming back.

/

/            “Pray for me.”

/

/            And often we do pray, because we’ve been told over and over that “prayer changes things.”

But somebody else says, “Prayer doesn’t change a thing.

Prayer changes people, and people change things.”

/

It is strange that, while praying, we seldom ask for change of character, but always a change in circumstance.

[ii]

/Our best praying is not just asking God to change situations, but asking God to change hearts, because whether you realize it or not, what’s going on inside you is much more important than what happens to you.

/

/That’s why the apostle Paul prayed the way he prayed.

Read his prayers in the Bible, and you discover He almost never prays for everybody to be safe, for everybody to be well, for God to smooth out all of the rough waters.

Instead Paul almost always prays for a change—that God will use whatever happens to help a person grow closer to God, to grow stronger in their faith, and to grow more thankful for what God has done.

He doesn’t pray just for peace—he prays for progress, a change for the better.

Tonight I want to look at one example of this sort of praying found in *Col.

1:9-14*.

As we do I want you to ask yourself two questions: how should you pray for change in others?

How should you pray for change in your own life?

/

*PRAYER*

 Even though Paul’s never been to the church at Colossae, he tells them he’s been praying for them ever since he heard of their faith in Christ.

He’s been praying not for their safety, but for their sanctification; not for their health but for their holiness; not for their peace but for God’s power to keep changing their life.

His prayer shows us 3 changes to pray for:

 

*I.

PRAY: WHAT YOU KNOW WILL CHANGE HOW YOU LIVE (v.

9-10).

*

*            *A grown son once sat across from his father (who was a minister) and asked /Dad, what do you know about God? /The father replied, /Mighty little, son.

But what I do know about God has changed my life!/

            /Knowing Christ changes your life.

The more you know Christ, the more your life will be changed for the better.

/This prayer for progress involves /growing in knowing/ and /enlarging your living.

/

            First Paul prays they’ll be /growing in their knowing/ in *vs.

9b*…/that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;// /Paul asks God to give the Colossian Christians a clear and complete knowledge of what He wants, (/the knowledge of His will/) along with the practical life- skills to see how what God wants should be worked out in their life (/in all wisdom/).

He prays that they see life from a spiritual perspective (/in all…spiritual understanding.)

/He asks God to show them His will, and then show them how they can live out His will in day-to-day life, all the time keeping God’s perspective on everything.

/            /Secondly, Paul prays in *vs.

10* this growing in their knowing will result in the /enlarging of their living/: */…/*/that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;/ The more they understand God’s will, the more they will live to honor Christ (/walk worthy of the Lord/), the more they will strive to please Him in everything( /fully pleasing Him/) and the more they will produce the fruit of good works---all of which comes around to help them grow closer to God /(increasing in the knowledge of God./)

The change Paul prays for here is not just in what the Colossians know, but in how they live.

/He prays what they know will change how they live.

/

            This is a good prayer to pray---for yourself or anybody else: Lord, let what I know change how I live.

What we know doesn’t always match up with how we live.

How many years have you been reading the Bible?

Most of us here have been reading the Bible ever since we could read.

We’ve heard the Bible preached and taught and hammered into our heads until we know it almost before the preacher preaches it.

But measure all that knowledge you have of the Bible with how much of what you know you’ve put into practice.

For most of us, we know what God’s will is, but sadly, *what we know hasn’t changed how we live.

*

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

- Mark Twain

Paul’s prayer is a plea for change in us, and in those we pray for: Lord let what I know about Your will from Your Word change me.

Help us keep growing in our knowing, but at the same time, Lord, please help what we know enlarge our living so we will honor you by doing what’s good and right.

That’s prayer for a positive change.

Are you bold enough to pray this prayer for others?

Are you bold enough to pray it for yourself?

But Paul also shows us we need to

*II.

PRAY: CHRIST WILL EMPOWER YOU TO ENDURE.

(v.

11)*

*            *Larry Olsen describes a man lost in the desert: “He has been out of food and water for days.

His lips are swollen, his tongue is swollen, he’s all beat up and bloody.

Some of his bones are almost peeking through his skin.

He’s been scraped and beat up by the cactus and sand and sun.

He’s blistered.

As he’s crawling over this little hill he comes across this little plant and props himself up on one bloody elbow, looks down at this plant and says, ‘You know, if things keep going like this I /might/ start to get discouraged!’”

[iii]

            A lot of us get discouraged a much sooner than this fellow.

In fact, a lot of people give up completely when things get tough.

But others seem to be able to keep going, seem to be able to endure a lot and still make progress.

What’s the difference?

/Their power source.

/A car needs gas to keep it going.

Your microwave needs electricity to heat up those meals.

People need power to keep going—especially when tough times try to pull the plug on our strength.

That’s why Paul prays in *vs.

11* for Christ’s power to enable the Colossian church to endure, no matter what happens to them.

Specifically, he prays for /power /and /perseverance.

/

/            /He prays for /power/—not their own power, but /God’s/ power.

He asks that through Christ, the power of God will flow in them and through them.

Let’s stop for a minute and consider what you know about God’s power.

God’s power is infinite.

There is /nothing /He cannot do.

The most powerful forces we know—gravity, nuclear power---is to God’s power what a slingshot is to a tomahawk missile.

Paul prays for this infinite, all powerful strength to empower people to endure.

And here’s the good part: /God can empower us with His power./

*Philippians 4:13* /I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me./

/            /Do you get the picture of this prayer?

Paul prays that God’s almighty, infinite power be channeled into and through weak, puny human beings like you and me.

And somehow God can do that all because somebody asks Him to do it.

Now what do you do with all that power?

Some preachers tell you to use God’s power to make you healthy, wealthy, and successful.

But Paul seems to think God empowers us for a different reason: /...for all patience and longsuffering with joy…/Did I read that right?

Paul prays for God’s power to make them patient, to help them suffer with joy?

Some of us need God’s power to be patient.

Waiting is not the American way.